The Sun.
London, England, 1853-08-04 00:00:00

THE OMNIBUS PROPRIETORS.

minute the other day, the Court of Proprietors were sur-
prised to find that not only had the directors determined
to drink, but that they were eager to press this poisoned
chalice to their lips. They had described the bill as an
unsavoury dose, and yet, without knowing what the
amendments might be, they suggested their acceptance
of it. At this moment, he knew not in what position
the court stood.
The CHAIRMAN said he had a motion, and an amend-
ment had been moved upon it. At the same time, if the
court wished to adopt a petition to the House of Lords,
he should be prepared to assent to it.
After some conversation on this point of form, the
chairman withdrew his motion ; and the amendment of
Mr. Mackenzie consequently fell to the ground, and then
Mr. Hume's motion, that a petition be presented to the
house, became the question before the court.
Mr. LEWIN asked whether, if the petition were agreed
to, the Court of Directors would subscribe to it
'Mr. WIGRAM—The petition will bear the seal of the
company, and it will be the petition of the Court of Pro-
prietors, and not of the Court of Directors, as directors.
Sir J. HOGG vindicated himself against the charge made
by Mr. Lewin of his not having supported the interests
of the proprietors in the House of Commons, and said
that he and the other directors who were members of
Parliament had in every discussion endeavoured to main-
tain the powers both of the Court of Directors and of
the Court of Proprietors, and to preserve the existing
system unimpaired. There was one good point in the
bill. It continued the government of India in the East
India Company ; and however mutilated the Court of
Directors were by that measure, and however injured
in their constitution and in their independence, still they
had all the powers and all the privileges that appertained
to past Courts of Directors in their full extent, and un-
impaired. He wished to press this upon the Court. It
was for them to make their election between the govern-
ment
of India being continued in the East India Com-
pany according to the provisions of the bill, or of its
being vested in the Ministers of the Crown—(no, no)—
with a council of five or six. He did not mean to say
that that was his wish, but they must come to that con-
clusion, whether they liked it or not. That was the
only alternative. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. WIGRAM strongly recommended the Court of
Proprietors to take what they could get. The fact that
the government of India was continued in the East India
Company covered a multitude of sins in the other parts
of the bill.
After some further observations,
Mr. M. SMITH (a director) expressed a hope that this
discussion might not proceed further, as a groat majority
of the Court appeared ready to support the petition.
Mr. Serjeant GASELEE protested against the discussion
being put an end to on the mere dictation of the hon.
director. He was opposed to the petition, and believed
that the House of Lords would treat it with contempt.
The hon. and learned gentleman continued to address
the Court for some time amid much noise and confusion.
Some verbal alterations having been made in the peti-
tion, the question that it be adopted, and the seal of the
company affixed, was put and carried all but unani-
mously, one hand only being held up against it.
The Court then adjourned.

THE EASTERN QUESTION.

(Front the Times.)
It is evident, from the tone assumed by the Gov ern
ment on Tuesday evening in both Houses of Parliament,
and more especially by Lord Clarendon in the House
of Lords, that as we approach the final crisis of this
Eastern negotiation the confidence of her Majesty's
Ministers in its successful termination does not increase.
On the contrary, the conduct of the Russian authorities
in the Principalities can only be regarded as a fresh
proof of the indifference of the Imperial Government to
the rights established by treaty in those provinces ; and
a Power which appropriates the revenue of a foreign
territory, professedly held as a temporary deposit,
and in time of peace, is obnoxious to the charge of
actual spoliation. Vhat can be expected of the
forbearance or justice of a State which has
advanced thus far, and with such entire recklessness, on
the old track of aggression and rapine ? Or what confi-
dence can be placed in the assurances of Russia, when
every fresh incident that comes to our knowledge affords
increased evidence of the avidity with which she fastens
on her prey ? It was a question whether the honour and
the public interests of Europe required that the decisive
resistance to Russia should be made when her armies
crossed the Pruth, or whether room should still be left
for further negotiation. The Cabinets of Western
Europe decided, we think wisely, in favour of the latter
and more temperate of these courses. The result
has been that we have obtained, to a much higher de-
gree than we had before, the concurrence and assistance
of the German States, and that all the world has
seen the earnest and undeniable anxiety of the
British and French Cabinets to avoid hostilities thus
wantonly provoked. But beyond this it is impossible
to go, for in the present state of affairs in the East it is
certain that if Turkey were compelled to yield an abject
submission to the demands made upon her, she would
be convulsed by internal agitation even more fatal to
her existence than the attack of a foreign enemy, and
Russia would cease to be the aggressor only to become
the protector of her victim. The nature of the case and
the state of public feeling in the East determine, there-
fore, the extent to which concessions can be carried.
Beyond a certain point they would become more
dangerous than war itself ; but, short of that point,
there is no great reason to suppose that they will in-
duce the Emperor Nicholas to lower his demands, to
withdraw his armies, and to lend himself in good faith
to the pacific termination of this dispute.
Some of our contemporaries, and most of the con ti-
nental journals, have been misled by the importance
attached to the negotiations going on at Constantinople,
and to the intelligence brought from Turkey by the Ca-
radoc and the Chaptal. In reality, nothing has been
done at Constantinople, and we are not surprised at it ;
but, as we stated on Tuesday, the true seat of the nego-
tiations is Vienna—where Austria takes the leading
part in the conference. But here, again, our contempo-
raries are misinformed when they state that the ultima-
tum of the conference was despatched on the 24th or
26th of July to St. Petersburg, and that the Emperor's
answer may be known here on the 10th of August. The
last proposals of the conference were not despatched from
Vienna till Sunday or perhaps even Monday last, and they
were sent to Constantinople before they would reach St.
Petersburg. If a direct answer is received from both
Courts at Vienna with the least possible delay, the in-
terval would be about a fortnight ' • but if, as is probable,
a communication has to be made from Constantinople to
St. Petersburg, the delay may be even longer. In the
meantime, the demand of the British Government for
explanations as to the extraordinary and oppressive con-
duct of the Russians in the Principalities will arrive at
St. Petersburgh almost as soon as the proposition from
Vienna, and will convince the Emperor that the time is
past when the mask in which he has hitherto shrouded
his policy can still be worn. We have a right to insist
on knowing upon what pretext these provinces, with
which we have most extensive commercial relations, are
thus virtually incorporated in theMussian empire.
The internal measures of the Russian Cabinet are all
of a warlike character. On the 20th of July a ukase
was published raising a levy of seven men per 1,000 on
the population of the eastern half of the Empire, which
is supposed to amount to 23 millions. At the same time
the arrears of men (three per 1,000) who had been ex-
cused on the last levy are called up, so that in some dis-
tricts the conscription will amount to 1 per cent. Some
pressure has begun to be felt for money to support these
enormous military preparations, and the Executive Go-
vernment applied to the Minister of Finance for permis-
sion to use a portion of the gold reserve deposited in the
fortresses of the Crown. But this gold is the basis of
the Russian paper currency, and the Minister of Finance
raised strong objections, which were not for the pre-
sent overruled, to the appropriation of any part of
this fund. The Emperor then applied to the Sacred
Synod for a loan of 60 million roubles. That holy
body expressed heir readiness to obey at all risks the
Imperial commands, but alleged that they were the
depositories of the property of the Church for the
most sacred purposes, and held their purse-strings
closed with ecclesiastical tenacity. Thus far these
facts undoubtedly indicate the financial weakness of
the Russian Government ; but, on the other hand,
it must be remembered that if war were declared,
especially if it assumed the cry of religious supremacy,
not only would these efforts be made, but far greater
sacrifices would probably be obtained from the enthu-
siasm of the people. Nothing, meanwhile, is neglected
which can influence the ambition and national pride of
the Russians, and even the language of public docu-
ments is passionate and arrogant in the extreme—at
present, however, we are told, without much effect upon
the people, who do not believe their church to be in
any danger at all.
But the more the Emperor Nicholas assumes this tone
in his own dominions, the more does he lower and con-
tract his influence on foreign States. All his attempts
to impose his policy on the Courts of Vienna and Berlin
have failed ; and even at the min or Courts the intrigues
of the Russian diplomatists have not been more suc-
cessful. Of these the most ni port is Denmark, be-
cause she commands the entrancelpo of the Baltic, and
of
undoubtedly owes a debt
raetttude to Russia for
her support throughout the 7t
Schleswig-Holstein
war. But the independence late
Denmark is even
more closely connected with her relations to the
Western maritime Powers, and no state is more
interested in the maintenance of strict neutrality, in the
event of hostilities. We discredit, therefore, the asser-
tion that the Russian government has succeeded in es-
tablishing its hold upon the Court of Copenhagen, and
the statement that the Danish government have pro-
ceeded, under Russian influence, to abrogate or impair
the constitution of 1849, is wholly inaccurate. The
Danish government have caused a bill or draught
project to be published, containing some modifica-
tions of the constitution now in force ; but this bill
is to be submitted to the discussion and vote of the
Chambers when they re-assemble, and it has not
been promulgated by Royal authority. To Den-
mark, as well as to all the adjacent parts of Europe, tibe
present crisis is of vital importance ; for, though t nts
quarrel commenced upon the Bosphorus, the solution i
may receive will determine whether or not Russia is tino.
make the rights of foreign States subordinhat Pretensions
terests or her ambition ; and, since suc
have been manifested, the peace and indepeideneeoftheef
world can only be preserved by the firm
adherencei
all other Powers to the measures rossibiiity
the authority of law, and to set bounds to the p

of aggro:

lA.—The General Hewett, Gatenby, has
AIISTRAL
arrived from New South Wales, whence she sailed the
25th of March, with 29,336 ounceswh of. gold, valued at
117,300/. The Mary Bannatyne, ich sailed on the
Bth of April, brings 440 ounces. The Surinam is also
reported having left Sydney the.2Bth of February, but
it appears she has no gold on freight.

(Front the Morning Chronicle.)
It is now the turn of the Omnibus Proprietors to get
up a " movement ;" and next week we suppose we
shall have indignant dustmen agitating for the restora-
tion of their bells, and reduced watermen petitioning for
the abolition of twopenny steamers. Nor will the great
apple-stall interest, nor the brethren of the crossing,
long abstain from carrying their grievances into the
lobby of the House of Commons. The elder sweeps
will doubtless call for a repeal of that iniquitous law
which robbed them of their younger allies ; and, finally,
the professional rogues and vagabonds of the metropolis
will meet to consider the present depressed state of
their line of business, and to petition Parliament for a

restoration of the balance of power which was so se:

riously deranged, five-and-twenty years ago by the
substitution of overpowering Rowans and Maynes in

the place of the more manageable Charlies. The ephe-
meral glory of bursting forth suddenly into a full blaze
of type is undoubtedly very gratifying to our stable
worthies, even though they may not feel themselves
quite at home in interpreting the columns in which their
eloquence and wisdom are embalmed ; but, alas ! the
public are always craving for novelty, and two or three
days have sufficed to satiate them of Jarviesm. The

joke of yesterday becomes the nuisance of to-day ; and
the fellow who is simply ridiculous to-day will be an
intolerable bore to-morrow. If, therefore, the omni-
bus interest, or the cab interest, or any other in-

terest that has any fearful grievance to 111;1e public,
will take our advice, they will lose no time in letting
us know what they want. Another week may be too
late. The world will turn in disgust from the pro-
found thoughts of Jones and the burning words of Smith ;
and then, painful as it will be to ourselves, we shall have
no alternative but to reject the reports of their doings,
or, at all events, to accept them only as advertisements.
And now let us see what these omnibus gentlemen are
grumbling about, and what is the cause of their new-
born sympathy for their rivals. Although the " back-
fare " clause of the Cab Act was the only grievance of
which the owners and drivers of the vehicles in question
could honestly complain, it was obvious, at the outset,
that it was not the true cause of their dissatisfaction.
Nor were they insuperably averse to the sixpenny fare,
coupled as it was with extra sixpences for extra persons
and extra time. But they could not stomach the pro-
visions which secured an easy and expeditious remedy
for their extortions. " Call the fare sixpence, if you like,"
they said in their hearts ; "abolish back-fare, if you please ;
make, in short, what laws and regulations you fancy; but
don't be so shabby as to give our customers the means of
' pulling us up,' if we endeavour to mitigate the excess-
ive rigour of your code." Here was the pinch of their
case. The former tariff allowed them only Bd. per mile ;
but lives there the man who can boast of having insulted
one of their community with the tender of such an un-
English fare ? Parliament had spoken of eight pennies
and four pennies ; but had not the cab-drivers, by the
judicious use of their tongues and fists, immutably gra-
duated the scale in shillings and sixpences ? And if they
succeeded in imposing this modification of the Act on
grown-up and sturdy men, at what point did their ra-
pacity cease when they had to deal with an infirm old
woman, or a young mother burdened with a brace of
over-fatigued children, or a helpless stranger stranded.
at Billingsgate, with half-a-dozen outlandish trunks and
boxes ? The cabmen of London, it was notorious,
had taken the law into theirown hands • and.
they had succeeded in doing this simply because
the Legislature had provided no efficacious means
of preventing them. The unlucky traveller
who dif-
fered in opinion from his driver preferred a little impo-
sition to the glorious uncertainties and less glorious
delays of the law. The man of business found it aless
evil to pay a rogue an extra shilling than to waste two
or three days in summoning and prosecuting him, and
in measuring distances pro bono public° ; while, to un-
protected females and helpless foreigners, the dread tri-
bunals of British justice were more terrible than all the
oaths, outrages, and overcharges of the hackney ruffians.
But how could this systematised extortion con-
tinue when tables of fares were to be hung up at
every stand, when distances were to be measured
and recorded beforehand, when the number of the
driver's badge was to be delivered to the customer
at starting as a security for civility and honesty,
and when any complaint might be instantly and
finally redressed by the nearest magistrate ? The
palmy days of the trade were gone for ever, unless some
device could be discovered for rendering such regula-
tions inoperative. That device, however, has now been
found, in the shape of a right of appeal from magisterial
decisions. Such is the demand of the cab-owners,
echoed by the omnibus proprietors at their meeting of
last Monday ; and, as will be seen from the Parliamen-
tary notice-paper, Lord Dudley Stuart has undertaken
to advocate this claim of the combined interests. " The
appeal, the whole appeal, and nothing but the appeal,
is the demand of these bold Britons ; and the omni-
bus people illustrate the necessity for it by the hard
case—which will doubtless rank next to the great
Phillips case in the causes celebre,s of Cabbery—of no less
a personage than the veritable proprietor of an omnibus
being sent to prison for a month, for pushing off his new
cushions the feet of some Yankeely-disposed traveller,
who had refused to comply with a request to remove
them. What records of human injustice and wicked-
ness would be so harrowing as the Newgate Calendar,
edited by the inmates of that respectable establish-
merit We own that we give but imperfect credit to
Cranbourne Hotel reports of cab and 'bus decisions.
The lion tells us, in Lafontaine's fable, that he would
probably have had—

-- le dessus,
Si mes confreres savaient peindre.
And it is not improbable that the "unjust judge " may
have his own version of the cushion case.
What is this appeal wanted for ? Are the metropo-
litan magistrates so ignorant of law that they cannot
put a sound construction upon an Act of Parliament
which even a cabman can understand ? Or are they so
inexperienced in the art of sifting truth from falsehood
that they cannot be trusted to pronounce a con-
clusive judgment upon questions of disputed distances
and alleged misconduct ? If any tribunal can be
competent to deal with such subjects, it is the
police court. The men who preside there have had
a legal education ; and, as practising barristers, they
have acquired in Westminster-hall and on circuit some
knowledge of human nature, and a rapid insight into
human roguery. And to whom are we to appeal ?
To the Quarter Sessions ? To the quiet country gen-
tlemen of Middlesex and Surrey, who meet occasionally
in petty sessions to impose a ss. fine on the village
drunkard, or to send a pilfering tramp to the tread-
mill, and who muster at rarer intervals, but in more
formidable numbers, round Sergeant Adams or Mr.
Puckle, to help them to transfer the metropolitan
thieves from our gaols to houses of correction, peniten-
tiaries, and hulks ? Or shall the appeal be to the Supe-
rior Courts of Common Law, and thence, of course, to
the House of Lords ? Shall we invite the "plain" Camp-
bell, or the acute Jervis, or the grave Pollock to mea-
sure the distance between the Spotted Dog and the
Bell and Horns, or between Petticoat-lane, and
Smithfield Market. Shall we bring the profound
learning of' a Parkc and the vigorous intellect of
a Manic to bear upon the momentous questions which
daily arise in deciding the legal character of the peculiar
words and gestures of the gentlemen of the whip ? Is
this the modest proposal of Lord D. Stuart's clients 1
It matters not—any appeal is utterly out of the ques-
tion. If Parliament were disposed to grant it, we
would suggest the simpler course of repealing alto-
gether every act which in the slightest degree controls
the conduct of our street-drivers. What the public has
so long demanded, and at last obtained, is effectual pro-
protection from pillage and insult ; but an appeal will
not only restore, but aggravate tenfold, those very de•
fects which made the former law a dead letter. If the
delay, trouble, and expense of summoning and prose-
cuting deterred men smarting under the sense of wrong
tfri
coen:
whatbring
redressil]impudentg will they
hoerye extortionate tiiiialio;:a.neteaemxcpste,cirnelisnntdsr
whiche s toj jus-
tice,
apdoisseatiliceantijotnoltihieodweltlttabylzv,
antpaytrebla
fare—how submissively willhebow to any jeers, practical
jokes, or even rough pokes_ and pushes—in reference
to being detained for a week at the Guildford Quarter
Sessions. It is needless to add that the drivers and
owners of our public carriages will of course have an
ample common purse defraying the expenses of those
rare appeals which chivalry or infatuation will leave for

The clause which Lord D. Stuart proposes to intro-
duce into the Hackney Carriage Bill would be the Magna,
Charta of ruffianism, and we trust that neither the Go-
vernment nor the house will consent to it. We are not
surprised that the omnibus-men petition for it, and make
common cause upon it with the cabdrivers. Like their
brethren, they chafe and fret, poorfellows, at the shackles
which fetter them down to decency in language and be-
haviour, and they naturally pray for any enactment which
will relax the magistrate's hold over them. But in this
hold the public see their only safety—they are resolved
to have prompt punishment for misconduct--cheep•
expeditious, and accessible justice in every clisr!tle
Let the omnibus gentlemen, therefore, keep clut?":
We advise them not to attract too large a share of P
.?"
attention, lest some inconvenient questions rheseprecoting
themselves should arise. Let them look to t
p 11 these
wn
fares, tongues, and conduct. If they
within the limits of moderation, they
haul soon come.
hy.eee -neathing to
fear—but, if not, their day of reckoning w

FlBSesterday morning, at half-
past,frWhthite.DESTßUCTlVE
policeman
on
duty was going his
3 o'clock, as the
aH seea d 8 n iToakvee rii sis u ill T 8
back part of theh Rodneyoccupation of Mr. R. Elliott, licensed
rounds, he discovered,ds
chapel road, in.t e t
victualler.
and sent for the engines. In the meantime it
• tualler. Without a moments delay he aroused the
inmates,
ascertained that the skittle-ground was on fire, and
lw>easforaesetehe engines arrived the destructive element had
communicated to the billiard-room and kitchen. Water
was obtained in abundance from the East London Com-
pany's main, and the engines got into admirable play.
The fire was, after much labour, subdued. The damage
is considerable—viz., skittle-ground, billiard-room,
kitchen, and contents destroyed, and part of the roof
off. The building was insured in the Sun, and the con-
tents in the Monarch Office.
SUPPOSED SUICIDE OF A FEMALE.—Yesterday morning
the body of a female was found floating in the river
Thames, near the Limehouse-cut, which, on being brought
ashore, was found to be quite dead. The unfortunate
female appears to be thirty years of age, and about five
feet three or four inches high, and of middling stature.
The dress consisted of a chocolate-coloured gown, black
stuff petticoat, alpaca side-lace boots, black stockings,
and a green plaid shawl. The body was removed to the
Moor's Arms public-house, Bromley, where it is awaiting
the coroner's inquest.