The Sun.
London, England, 1867-02-07 00:00:00

Cab Fares in the Metropolis.

Last evening a meeting of the Society of Arts
took place at the rooms, John-street, Adelphi —Sir
Richard Mayne, chief commissioner of the metro-
politan police, in the chair. The subject brought
under discussion was introduced by Mr. Henry
Cole, C. 8., " On the existing legislation in reference
to the cab fares in the metropolis, and their effect
in rendering the vehicles inferior to those provided
in other European capitals and the large municipal
towns of this country."
Mr. COLE commenced by observing that his ob-
ject on the present occasion was not to interfere
with the law in regard to cabs and their manage-
ment, but to bring forward the question as to the
fares. He considered that the law which stated that
a cab must go a certain distance for 6d. was a very
great mistake, and against the experience and prac-
tice of almost every other town in Europe. He ad-
nated that it was necessary there should -be some
system of supervision, but he had arrived at this
conviction, that on the whole we have in London
the meanest cabs in the world. He did not intend
to say they were the worst, or that they were very
bad indeed, bat that they were an extremely low
average. If they could by any magic wand summon
up an exhibition of cabs from the principal cities of
Europe and marshal them in Trafalgar-square, he
believed they would be found (with the exception of
the hansom cabs) to be very low indeed in the scale
of quality. He rested the case he was endeavouring
to establish upon evidence such as the following :
In the 10th report of the Commissioners of Inland
Revenue, published only three days ago, it was stated
that it must be admitted that our four-wheeled cabs
are a disgrace to the metropolis of a great empire—
that the custom of needy men setting up cabs for
themselves was increasing, while the number of pro-
prietors was diminishing. This must be regarded as
a very significant fact, showing that there was
something rotten in the present state of affairs. The
next witness to whose evidence he would allude was
their excellent chairman, Sir R. Mayne. That gen-
tleman had stated as his opinion in good Saxon lan-
guage that our cabs were bad, that the fares
tw o b were
too low, and that he did not think there ought
any sixpenny fare at all. Now, he (Mr. Cole) was
not prepared to go so far as that, for he thought
that there was no objection to a sixpenny fare (pro-
vided the public determined upon that amount) but
he could not conceive why that sum more than any
other should be fixed as the maximum charge for a
mile. The control and supervision to which cabs
ww
ae were e
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drawnfficient ,
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was stated by the greatest modernrienkoevteylist,
vehicleswere
only kept on their legs by the
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whole, unfavourable to them. The hansom cabs
were certainly quicker, but they were extremely
tight-fitting—(laughter)—and there was always
great difficulty in getting into them. The springs
were weak, and passengers were in danger of having
their noses shaved off when the windows were let
down in wet weather. (Laughter.) The cabs were
a great deal better in Birmingham, Liverpool, Edin-
burgh, I'aris, Vienna, Lyons, Munich, Brussels, &c.
Mr. Cole then proceeded to advance a variety of de-
tails to show that the system adopted in the places
ho had mentioned was far preferable to that pur-
sued in London, and might be carried out with con-
siderable advantage iu this metropolis. Amongst
other authorities who had expressed an opinion on
the subject, Mr. John Bright had stated that the
defective cab system had arisen from the want of a
proper municipal government in London ; - and his
(Mr. Cole's) own conviction was that it was highly
desirable that the Legislature should cease to meddle
in such petty matters as this, and resolve to leave
the trade as free as possible. He agreed in the ad-
visability of a cabdriver being compelled to take out
a license, and being subjected to a • certain kind of
supervision ; but he himself was the best judge as
to what he might sell his article for. Ile thought
the council of this society might reasonably urge
upon theereyerument the desirability of looking iute

relieving at the rate of ls. and a loaf per head per
week. Firms were in many places entirely extin-
guished. "To let," stared people in the face over
works which used to give employment to consider-
able numbers of people, and one of the deputation
said he could take the committee for three miles along
the river side where scarcely anything was being
done in shipbuilding or in any of the dependent
trades.

The Rev. Mr. ROWSELL, a member of the Mansion-
house Committee, said he had seen people sinking
in their rooms in visits he had made to those districts,
and yet would not go -out to seek relief from the
parish. Often they had only one garment left. On.
these visits he never saw so many naked children,
and poor women pointed to the duplicates for articles
of clothing and furniture which they had been com-
pelled to pledge, and to the one garment in which
they stood. He attributed the reluctance among
many working men to receive parish relief to the con-
sideration that it would not only tend to break down
their self-respect, but to disqualify them from taking
advantage of benefits connected with their trade and
friendly societies.

Mr. SAMUEL MORLEY remarked that from the
Local Relief Committee and the parish together a man
with his wife and five children, living in Poplar and
Litnehouse, would receive 10s. 6d. a week. It was
not, he slid, a question with the Mansion-house
Committee to ease the poor-rates, but to save life.
He contended that the Poor Law ought to give
enough to save life, and that if it did not it was
infamous.

In the Tower-hill district about £650 had been
expended by a local committee in relieving 12,645
individuals from grants made chiefly by the Man-
sion-house Committee, and the relief now entirely
in kind, and given at the houses of the poor people.
The distress was reported by Mr. John Young,
jun., the chairman of the local committee, to be
lessening.

---A few days ago a very pressing application was
made to the committee for a grant by a deputa-
tion from St. George's-in-the-East, headed by the
Rev. Mr. MlGill, a clergyman there. They repre-
sented a population of 44,000 in that parish,
nearly all of whom, except a few shopkeepers, are
of the labouring classes, and about half of them
are out of work or in a state of destitution. The
distress is attributed to a general slackness of trade;
to the results of the late visitation of cholera; and the
recent severe weather. The people out of work are
mostly sugar refiners and labourers. The poor-rates
last year were 4s. 5d., and were now equal to ss. 4d.
in the pound. The total local rates this quarter were
2s. in the pound. The number of persons receiving
outdoor relief for the week ending the 19th of
January was 8,576, as compared with 2,215 in the
corresponding week of last year ; and the total sum
paid to them in relief was £282 7s. 3d., or about
Bd. a head, as compared with £lO9 7s. 4d. in the
corresponding week of the previous year. The local
committee, of which Mr. M'Gill is chairman, had
set on foot seven soup kitchens during the present
distress for the relief of the famishing people, and
were supplying 768 quarts of soup daily, 768 loaves
of bread, and 900 relief tickets for grocery, bread,
and coals, at a daily cost of /50.
The committee made the deputation a grant of
£3OO.

Yesterday the committee made the following
grants:—To Poplar, Limehouse, and Bromley,
£1,920 ; to the Ratcliffe Soup Kitchen, £5O ; St.
Philip's, Stepney, £5O ;to the district of Tower-
hill, £3OO ; Mile-end New-town, £lOO ; and St
Thomas, Stepney, £loo—making in all £1,600.
The Rev. Mr. Rowsell stated incidentally that
the Bishop of London's Committee, of which he is
a member, had up to that time distributed between
£5,000 and £6,000 in relief through the paTochial
organisation, and the relief was given at the people s
houses.
The Committee at their rising adjourned to
Friday. •

PREPARED FORA STorat.—A few nights ago Mr.
Bodkins, who had been out taking his glass and
on going home Into borrowed an umbrella, and when his
nife's tongue was loosened ho sat up in bed and suddenly
spread out the parachute. "Wy hat are going to do with
that thing?" said sbe. " Why, my dear, I expected a very
severe storm to-night, and so I came prepared." In less
than five minutes Mrs. Bodkins was fast asleep.—Americali
raper.