The Sun.
London, England, 1853-04-14 00:00:00

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[PRICE SD.

HACKNEY CARRIAGES.

(Front the M or2zing Chronicle.)
On Tuesday night, Mr. Fitzroy gave notice of a
Bill for the better regulation of Hackney Carriages
in the metropolis. The evils, however, connected
with the ordinary and cheaper carriages plying for
hire in and about cities, are not confined to Lon-
don. Wherever the thing is, its abuse co-exists.
Fiacre, cabriolet, droschsky, vigilante—or what-
ever else it may be called—it invariably brings
with it, in every city of the world, oaths, swindling,
abase, extortion, violence, fraud, injustice, and
llisntrganbgee so
most of the other evils of Pandora's box. hat is
true of the cab is, to a considerable extent, true of
the omnibus ; and the law of rapine which rules
over terrestial locomotion governs the river no less
subject cial
rthbaennomtheennnro?adsivtebayd.
shouldWh travelling Why thisv e
to this fate ? Why should the wayfaring man, on
sea or on shore, in street or in harbour, be reck-
oned a legitimate prey to cabmen, boatmen, and
porters,
.as caravans are to the Bedouins ? How
comes it that our highly civilised state of society
has not yet, in this matter, emerged from barba-
rism ? And how is it that this social vice
espe-
cially infests travelling ? • What is the subtle con-
nexion between hiring the means of transit and
being, ex necessitate rei, robbedY,What is - there which
makes, a journey and cheatin inseparable ? . How
is it that society resigns its ; •almost without a
stitggle, to the caprice and t nny of that com-
pound of beer and. blasphemy, extortion and
- •
obscenity--the true British cabman.
___

We are e well aware that this is no new thing.
Long before the Spectator's time, the slang and
swinling of the rider were notorious. We do not
deny that the Cadiz and Neapolitan boatman, or
the Venetian gondoliers, will outswindle and out-
swear their brethren at Dover or Gravesend. But
the antiquarian inveteracy or the oecumenical ex-
tent of a nuisance ought to be a reason for resist-
ance rather than for patience. It is not so, how-
ever, in England. All that is needed to conse-
crate an abuse among us is its largeness—its daily
occurrence—its universal impact. We are despe-
rately active about securing the purity of articles
that are consumed by one person in a million ' • but
to pestiferous air and poisoned water, we, in Lon-
don at least, submit with very inarticulate mur-
murs. A nation is convulsed if a foreign ecclesi-
astic calls himself Bishop of this place, or Arch-
bishop of that ; but the millions who inhabit this
great city passively permit their health to be in-
jured, and their property to be destroyed, to the
value of thousands of pounds per day, only because
it is nobody's business to enforce the Smoke Con-
suming Act.

So it is with cabs. Everybody is a rider in cabs,
and everybody feels that the cab driver is the na-
tural enemy of the whole human race. He is a
sort of Fate. Nobody hires a cab but with the
certainty of being cheated. The evil haunts every
family, and infests the daily necessities of life.
Wherever we ride—to church or theatre, to .wed-
ding or funeral, to a meeting of creditors or to a
ball—one dark pall of misery, one grim anticipa-
tion of robbery, hangs over the journey. London
streets are as Finchley-common and as Hounslow-
heath—Stand and deliver is the rule of the road.
The moment the door is shut on the pensive travel-
ler, he begins settling whether he shall play the fool
or the hero—whether he shall sacrifice his money or
his peace. His only choice lies between being
swindled and savagely abused. Sometimes, as in
the case of women, the hirers gets both bullied awl
cheated. And all this, we must say, is mainly our
own fault. Vicious customs, and our own criminal
weakness, have made the cab driver the savage and
robber that he is. Such has ever been the history
of a social evil, until it got to be so monstrous that
society avenged itself by a revolution. Fees to ser-
vants grew into a tax, and into so monstrous a one
' that either society itself or the nuisance had to be
abated—either vails or visiting must cease.
It is with cabs as it was with the extinct tyranny
of flunkies. The evil has reached its zenith. A
necessary of London life is turned into a curse. All
the middle classes are interested in Mr. Fitzroy's
proposition and it will be our own fault if we sub-
mit any longer to the continuance of the Lab nuis-
ance. When, some twenty or five-and-twenty
years ago, cabs became the regular form of hackney
carriages, their fares were apportioned to their cost.
Now that every other necessary of life has fallen
more than one-fourth in value, there is no reason
why • cabs should maintain charges which wereample enough a quarter of a century ago. Six-
pence a mile in 1853 is more than eightpenco a mile
was in 1830, considering the difference in the price
of horse-flesh, hOrse-keep, and carriages. Nor
must the active competition of the omnibuses be
forgotten in settling a new tariff for ha ckney-car-
riage hire. Free trade must penetrate into the
cabowner's yard, as well as into the farmer's. We
see no cause why the undue profits which we deny
to the grower of corn, the breeder of horses, and
the carriage builder, should be intercepted from the
public savings in order to increase the consumption
of beer, 'backey, and blackguardism at the public-
house adjoining the cab-stand. For we must not
forget that the cab nuisance is an offence against
public morality, as well as an engine of grinding
extortion.

If cabowners could be taught common sense, they
would see that it is their interest to prevent the
overcharges and savagery of their representatives,
the drivers. Cabs, if clean, and driven by men
who are neither extortioners nor reprobates, might
double their earnings. As it is, people are often
driven to a sweltering omnibus or a fatiguing walk,
in sheer despair of receiving civility or honesty in
cabs. And the unprotected middle-rank women—
all ladies, in fact, below the rank of " carriage
folks"--are driven to choose between staying at
home and a ruinous " clarence for the day." The
remedies, we maintain, are, if not easy, at least at-
tainable ;_ but we must begin with ascertaining the
causes of the unpopularity of cabs. These are,
first, the eightpenny fares, and next, the system of
sub-letting. From the days of revenue-farming to
those of Irish encumbered landlordism, middlemen
have been a curse to the public. The fares may be
easily settled ; but the sub-letting can only be kept
in check by a most resolute co-operation on the
part of the public, together with new and strin-
gent regulations against extortion. We aro per-
fectly aware that solitary attempts to remedy
the evil have failed—the drivers have combined
alike against the sixpenny cabs and against the me-
chanical devices for measuring distances. judg-
ing from our own experience, we should say that
the most available reform would be to cheapen and
facilitate complaints against the drivers. Who can
afford the time, the temper, and the strength re-
quisite to complete a successful complaint against
a cabman, in face of the misery and delay
inseparable from a visit to a police-court? But
why not try cheap and summary justice ? An es-
pecial court for offences against the Hackney Car-
riage Act, with the power of levying higher penal-
ties than those at present imposed, may be worth
thinking of. Again, let there be a remedy against
the owner as well as against the driver. An
owner whose drivers arc " unfortunate" enough
to be frequently " had up " might be made per-
sonally responsible ; and his license as well as the
driver's, might be suspended.
As prevention, however, is better than cure,
we should do well to provide facilities for ob-
viatingt extortion which either do not.l tlepresieihne
exist, or are only very partially available.
differently arranged from any
and
deswmiliigctt
Commissioners might publish tavbilues
moot*:
wflaiirceisl
would be of great local utility,nt
find .a large public sale. These tables would
find
separate series,
d• For example
distances from every authorised stan
so that there might be one marking
the Charing-cross or the Farrinnces in every direc-
tion register at least 500 dia
,gdon -street series
of tl
the
; and thus, as is found in the case railway
stations, a groat approximation to ascertaining
A hirer
distance travelled would be secured. And this re
minds us of the secret cause of the disinclination of
the public to vindicate their own rights.
feels pretty confident that he is cheated ; but, being
really ignorant of the distance—say between Dal-
ston-lane and Bloomsbury-square—he generally
pays double, simply because he cannot extemporise
anything better than the merest guess at the real
fare. And then his doubts prevent him from tak-
ing out a summons. Why should there not be an
office especially dedicated to inquiries, where, for
the fee of a penny, the victim may ascertain the
legal fare ? • In a very short time, almost every conceivable distance could be registered within
threepence ; and with a court specifically consti-
tuted for adjudicatingon cab offences,
one-
tenth of the present difficulty
and decided at the cost of
and acomplaint
might be presentedannoyance.
Anyhow, it is the plain duty of the Legislature to
interfere. Means of cheap, „speedy, and decently
comfortable locomotion are as necessary to the ac-
tive, economical, and sanitary working of our social
system, as is a fair supply of water and "gas. The
State charges itself with the duty of compelling at-
tention to public morality and safety. ; and mora-
lity, comfort, business, and health are alike inter-
fered with by the present condition of the hackney-
carriage trade. The existing law has failed, and it

RAILWAY TRAFFIC RETURNS.

THE GREAT NORTHERN RAlLWAY.—Traffic return for
the week ending 'April 3, 1853 (283 miles) £14,425 10 0
Corresponding week last year (2414 miles)• 11,258 14 4

LANCASHIRE AND YORKSHIRE RAILWAY.---Traffic re-
turn for the week ending April 10, 1853.. .. £18,220 14 4
Corresponding week last year 17,405 17 10
CHESTER AND HOLYHEAD RAlLWAY.—Traffic return for
railway and steam-boats for the week ending
April 10, 1853 £3,202 12 6
Corresponding week last year 2,586 17 7

Increase in 1853 £sls 14 11
CORK AND BANDON RAlLWAY.—Traffic return for the
week ending April 9, 1853 £235 6 9
Corresponding week last year 172 3 5

THE BUTTER TRADE AT CORK. On Monday the
butter market opened at the Cork Weigh Hou.ie, after
the usual annual vacation, and at a figure highly en-
couraging to dairy farmers. Cant, 110 s., first quality ;
currency, 101 s. for ditto. In addition to this high price
iwhich e may bd
se soe
ft don
de
awl
er
s at
ini s . pi
tehrerl Itihs e roar are
en
io,sotnodeko
na
market.

(From the Times.)
Among the causes of the Reformation in this
country, none was more powerful than the indig-
nation of a high-spirited nation at the practice of
what were termed Appeals to Rome, which in-
voked the jurisdiction of a foreign Court to decide
questions of sacred and vital interest to the welfare
of a free and independent community. Among the
blessings of the Reformation none is to this day
more earnestly cherished than the proud conscious-
ness that we are in spiritual as well as in temporal
concerns a self-governed people, and, that our insti-
tutions in Church and State recognise no authority
which is alien to the British nation. But though
mere than three centuries have elapsed since the
Statute of Appeals of Henry VIII. released us for
ever from that bondage into which the people of
England will fall no more, yet to this hour we may
see on the other side of the Channel this power
asserted, this jurisdiction exercised, these man-
dates obeyed, to an extent which is absolutely
incredible among a people like that of France.
We revert to the subject because it-illustrates in a
very striking manner the constant policy of Rome
whenever it finds a country plunged in such a state
of torpor as to offer no resistance to its claims, and
the Apostolical Letter of the Pope, addressed to the
Cardinals and other prelates of France, is certainly
an extraordinary example of what the nation- may
be led under certain circumstances to endure.
The controversy which led to this interposition
of the authority of the See of Rome was kindled by
the intemperate zeal of the writers in a Roman Ca-
tholic periodical called l' Univers. These gentlemen,
who were for the most part laymen, assumed in the
name of the highest Ultramontane doctrines a spe-
cies of censorship
over the bishops and clergy of ►
France. They attacked the moderate party in that
Church with extreme virulence on all occasions, they •!
professed absolute intolerance, and boldly claimed un-
mitigated domination. On the fertile subject of edu-
cation, confined, of course, to sacerdotal hands, they
supportedthe proposition of a certain Abbe Gaume,
who has entered the lists against all classical studies,
maintaining that the early Greek and Latin Fathers
were the best authorities that could befollowed in
the study of antiquity. The influence acquired by this
paper is such that it attacked and supplanted the
authority of the bishops in their dioceses ; and
the Archbishop of Paris at last resolved to try his
strength against it by prohibiting his clergy and
their flocks from contributing to or reading a Jour-
nal of a character so hostile to his own influence.
From this decision M. Louis Veuillot, the principel
editor, appealed in person to Rome. In less than
a month he obtained all he wanted, for it was not
difficult to convince the Pope that the expressions
complained of by the French prelates were, in fact,
marks of homage to his own superior authority,
and, accordingly, the Letter Apostolical, which we
publish elsewhere, has appeared in M. Veuillot's
favour. The Archbishop of Paris at once confesses
himself entirely vanquished, and withdraws the in-
terdict he had placed on these publications in his
diocese ; and the editor of the Univers, who is a
sort of Mr. Lucas in his way, triumphs in the
name of the Church over the metropolitan, and in
the name of the Vatican over Notre Dame.
The Pope commences this singular effusion by
an elaborate panegyric on the French clergy, and
lie may boast, with some reason, that it is long
since any branch of the Romish Church has been
more absolute in its pretensions at home, or more
entirely subject to the arbitrary will of Rome. He
congratulates the clergy of France on the restora-
tion of their provincial councils, on the introduc-
tion of the Romish liturgy in several dioceses
where it had never been used, and especially on
the signal devotion to Mother Church of "our
very dear son in Jesus Christ, Napoleon, Emperor
of the French, by whose care the Church enjoys
entire peace, tranquillity, and real protection."
Whatever may be the value of this devout protec-
tion, we may judge of the peace and tranquillity of
the Church in France by the fact that this very
mandate has been called forth by a dispute
of uncommon violence, and that the imme-
diate consequence of it is not merely to
condemn but to humiliate the Archbishop of
Paris in the exercise of his legitimate
pastoral authority. The protecting care of Louis
Napoleon would have been far more effectually dis
played towards the Church if his Government had
refused, according to the undoubted maxims of the
French law, to allow such a brief to have any vali-
dity or authority in the Empire, and had deter-
mined to repudiate the claims of the Papacy to in-
terfere in a question of national and ecclesiastical
policy. For the Pope's letter does not stop here.
It proceeds to lay down express directions for the
guidance of the clergy on the great question of edu-
cation, and it so far adopts the propositions of M.
Gaume that it recommends the study of " the ex-
cellent works of the holy Fathers and of the most
celebrated heathen writers, after they have been care-
fully expurgated." But thel principal object of the
letter is to recommend to the especial predilection of
the French bishops those identical writers who have
devoted their lives to the defence of the rights of
the holy See, the same being the very men whom
several of these bishops had just condemned. "Fi-
delity to the holy See, and most perfect obedience
to all that it teaches, establishes, and decrees," is
the one quality which includes all the other Chris-
tian virtues, and it is not wonderful if, tried by
such a test, M. Veuillot and his colleagues far out-
weigh the testimony of prelates who have not yet
wholly forgotten what is due to the episcopate and
the Church of their country.
Pius IX. is a revolutionary Pontiff. His reign
will be remembered hereafter as that of a Pope in
whom the idea of established legal rights and tra-
ditions never weighed for an instant against the
impulses of his own arbitrary authority ; for no
Pope was ever so deficient in the first quality of
the Roman See—its surpassing caution. But
whether lie lets loose Cicerovacchio and the mob of
Rome, or affects to abolish by a decree the ancient
hierarchy of the Church of England, or treats the
prelates of France as if they were the mere
creatures of his power, Pius IX. manifests the
same utter unconsciousness of the elements he has
to deal with. Within the last few days it is said
that he has definitively refused to crown Louis
Napoleon, though even if that act had depended
on his own will he would probably have performed
it, with an utter disregard of the rights attached
to the French Crown and the violated liberties of
the nation. But he follows up this refusal, which
is in itself not very flattering to a Ruler
whose army is at this moment in possession
of the Papal dominions, by a manifesto such as no
previous Government of France has endured. It
asserts in the most absolute terms the entire inde-
pendence of the Church in France on the unlimited
authority of Rome. It purposely limits every
allusion to the laws and liberties of that Church,
and to the treaty which binds it to the State. It
condemns in terms a book recently published in
defence of the Gallic= doctrines based on the
common law of the nation ; and it lavishes a.dui a,-
lation on the Government on the ground that it has
sacrificed the independence of the Church. These
Ultramontane opinions, these arrogant pretensions
of a foreign and irresponsible Court, are no es-
sential part of the Roman Catholic religion. On
the contrary, they have -been successfnllfy
tirlet-
sisted by the most illustrious members of
Church, and they have not been.
.a.sser obyio
wisest of its Pontiffs. This spiritua.l despotism,d.
which threatens to enfold the world in me iaTval
obscurity, and to realise that idea o_f. one uniform
tyranny over the mind of man which even the
Middle Ages did not achieve, may accord for a time
and subjection
p
with the strange political apathy
into which the greatest nations of Europe have
fallen. But the Church of Rome never committed
a snore signal error than that of allying itself to
such Powers as these ; and even in the present
state of the world, when every other form of
oppo-
sition is'suspended,
we are much mistaken if the
ancient rights of the Galilean. Church will be sacri-
ficed and abandoned without a defender. Exoriare
aliquis ! Even the present French Govermnent
can scarcely think that it is interested in abetting
the subversion of the only party in the Church
upon which it can rely on national grounds ; and
the publication of such a mandate is in itself a vio-
lation of the right hitherto exercised by the State
to sanction and control all the communications
addressed by the See of Rome to its subjects.