The Sun.
London, England, 1831-08-23 00:00:00

HACKNEY-COACHES.

The Bill for consolidating and amending the laws
relating to hackney-coaches, and the registering and
numbering of waggons, carts, and drays, used in the
metropolis, now before Parliament, has some very
useful provisions, from which an improvement of
the present state of the law may be anticipated.—
Among the new regulations we find that on each
hackney-coach
the
numb er ofthe persons the names of tiie
required to convey, are to be painted. The drivers
and the watermen, who attend at the places where
hackney-coaches stand or ply, are to be licensed, and
thPer°dPrirsi•eetr ° Ma'y and
also d
to wear on the breast numbered badges, by which
they may be individually identified. The clause
respecting back fare will put an end to the unrea-
sonable demands on setting down in .11‘Adarnized
roads, as the payment is not made to depend on
being " off the stones," but on a fixed distance.—
That distance we, however, think might have been
extended. It is commensurate with what is called,
according to the Bill, the limits of the metropolis,
and these limits are defined to be the circumference
of a circle, the radius of which is of the length of
hree miles from the General Post-office. Now we
apprehend that this circle, especially to the west-
ward, will pass through places which are usually
considered parts of the metropolis, where there are
abundance of standings for hackney-coaches, and
where the chance of such coaches being hired long
after eight in the evening, when the demand far
back fare begins, is not less than in many standing
nearer the centre. Besides there is another circle
in the Bill, that within which the plying for hire con-
stitutes any carriage a hackney-coach, and the radius
of which is five miles from the General Post-office.
Disputes may arise from the confounding of these
two distances. By the clause respecting licences, it
seems to be the wish of the framers of the Bill that
no hackney-coach proprietor should hold less than
three licences. We do not perceive any good
policy in such a regulation. It will be a check on
individual industry, for a poor man might hope to
become the owner of one coach, who never will look
forward to obtaining, in the first instance, three.—
The public would be better served by the proprietor
and the driver being the same person, and this can
only be the case with the holder of a single licence.
No agreement with the driver of a hackney-coach to
pay more than the legal fare is to be binding, but a
driver who agrees for less must abide by his bar-
gain. The propriety of this arrangement cannot be
questioned. The driver is not likely to be imposed
upon, and will not engage for less than his fare,
except when he has an advantage in so doing. In
general, the clauses for securing the responsibility
of drivers, watermen, and others, and all the regula-
tions which form what may be called the police of
the Bill, are judicious and well calculated to pre-
serve order among the troublesome persons for whose
government they are intended. With regard to
the financial part, the fares fixed by the Bill are
perhaps as moderate as the rate of taxation imposed
and the chances of employment will admit.—
The price of a licence for each coach is .5/. and the
holder of it is obliged to pay to the Stamp-office
10s. weekly. To render the use of vehicles of
public convenience cheap would be a most desirable
object; and if the state of the revenue does not
admit of a sufficient reduction of the duty, might
not a compensation be found by transferring the
burden to carriages kept for pomp and ostentation
by the rich ? But the intended alteration of the law,
by which, according to the declaration of Lord Al-
therp, stage-coaches are to be allowed to take pas-
sengers from one part of the metropolis to another,
will probably remove all cause of complaint on this
score. We shall then have long coaches going in
every direction. If this should somewhat lessen
the number of hackney-coaches, it will improve the
condition of those that remain. The hackney-coach
may thus become, in certain degree, an object of
luxury, and be chiefly resorted to by those whose
fastidiousness will not permit them to take a seat in
an omnibus. In that case the price of the fares
might be raised, for it is right that pride should par.
The scale of fares for hackney-coaches proceeds on
the principle of giving for any distance within a
mile Is., and for every other half mile, or any frac-
tional part of half a mile, Cd. If hired by time, Is.
for half an hour, Is. 6d. for three-quarters of an
hour, 2s. for one hour. But the progressional in-
crease is not regular. For one hour and 20 minutes,
the fare is 35.; for one hour and 40 minutes, 45.;
for two hours, ss. ; three hours, Ss. ; four hours, 11s.
Any further time in the proportion of 6d. for every
15 minutes. For cabriolets, or one-horse coaches,
two thirds of these rates. It is already known,
that it is intended to remove the jurisdiction from
the Commissioners of Hackney-coaches to the Stem p-
office. The Bill also recapitulates all the Acts of
Parliament relative to hackney-coaches, repeals
them, and consolidates all the provisions which are
retained with the new regulations into one Act. We
should be glad to see this example followed in every
subject of legislation.

INTERESTING NEW TRAVELS, jUSt published
by Messrs. COLBUAN and BENTLEY, New Burlington-
stroet.-1. Sir Arthur Brookes' Travels in Spain and
Morocco, two vols. Bvo. with plates. " Many of the
most unfrequented and interesting parts of Spain and Mo-
rocco are for the first time rendered familiar to the English
reader in this work."—Morning Post. 2. Major Kep-
pcl's Journey across the Bakan, two vols. Bvo., with
‘plates. "An animated picture of the present military
condition of Russia and Turkey."—Sun. 3. Mrs. Colonel
Elwood's Journey Overland to India, two vols. Bvo.
with plates. " She delights us in all her descriptions."
—Monthly Review. 4. Captain Kotzebue's New
Voyage round the World, two vols. post Svo. with
plates. " Few things in literature are more fascinating
than accounts of voyages of discovery; and none of these,
not even Captain Cook's, is superior in variety of scene
and incident to the recently-published volumes of Captains
l'ioT4it au E. "-31orn ing Post.

Some idea of the extent of Norfolk farms
may be formed when it is known that one occupier in the
western district this year expended upwards of 1,100/. for
manure (brought many miles), notwithstanding the
immense quantity made at home, and the put number of
mlieep annually folded ou the grounds. On another farm
48 acres are consumed in paths and fences across the lands.

An extraordinary instance of longevity lately
occurred in the island of Jamaica, in the person of
JosErtl Root, a black, belonging to Mosaics HALL'S
estate, who died at the advanced age of 146 years,
Ile remembered the Duke of ALBEMARLE, who ELM,
ceeded to the government of that island in 1697. His
daughter, GRACE MARTIN, an inhabitant of Spanish
Town, and upwards of S 5 years of age, says be had a
complete set of new teeth about 25 years ago, which re-
mained sound to the day of his death. His hair had
turned quite grey ; he retained his sight and memory well,
and had all his senses perfect, except that of smelling. He
was inclined during the last 27 years of his life to corpu-
lence; never sick but once, and all the physic he ever took
his life was one dose of nut oil. He had 2G children
by different women. His appetite was always good, and,
a few days previous to his death he walked a distance of
four miles. His dissolution was gradual, and unattended
by pain.

ABOLITION OF QUARANTINE IN RUSSIA.
—The Russian Government has done away with all qua-
rantine. The reason assigned for this is, that the whole
empire being infected, nothing remains to be gained by the
estrictions, which were in other respects inconvenient and
imperfectly fulfilled. It is stated in the official order,
that travellers will be delayed but a very short time; any
who may he ill of the cholera on board vessels, or boats,
will he sent to the hospitals, and the conveyances suffered
,o proemcl after having been fumigated. It is curiatas
that, although this announcement, which implies quaran_
tine to be useless or unnecessary, is contained in a decree
of the Emperor, a double sanitary cordon is neverthOess
kept up round the court at Peterhoff,—Neelical Gazett,.