The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-08-02 00:00:00

THE LONDON CAB STRIKE.

London is rubbing its eyes at the first striking result
of the administrative ability of "all the talents." Cabs,
we were told, were to be cheap ; it has ended in there
being no cabs at all. We trust the same result may not
come to pass with other things that we were to have had
cheap, especially with bread. No cabs, after a few days
of cheap cabs, may be endured. No bread, after a few
years of cheap bread, would be more serious. But we
will not indulge in ominous anticipations. " Sufficient
unto the day is the evil thereof."' Only let our senators
condescend to learn a lesson which they have long stood
in need of—the leasson, we mean, that there are limits to
the " omnipotence of Parliament." It is the cant and
the conceit of this alleged " omnipotence," that has done
all this mischief,—aye, and a great deal besides.
Meanwhile the mischief is done, and the question is,
how can it be undone ? Cabby has withdrawn to the
right side of his stable-yard gutter, and from behind it
bids us as insolent defiance every whit as the Czar on the
wrong side of the Pruth. Cabby says he will have no-
thing to say to her Majesty's government, until he has
a formal assurance given him, that his privileges ab
antique shall be restored ; so says the Czar. They are
both of one mind. They take the government of " all the
talents" to be a bevy of poltroons. Even of Palmerston
they are not afraid, seeing they company he is in. Cher
Aberdeen, all the world knows, is " a cock that won't
fight," so every sparrow-hawk and every cock-sparrow
gets or takes leave to make game of the poultry yard in
which he should rule, but only crows.—John
The cab proprietors of London, suddenly, on Wed-
nesday last, withdrew their cabs, amounting to between
four and five thousand, from the stands and streets, on
" strike." The whole affair seems to have been so
secretly organized, that nothing was known of the with-
drawal being intended to be so general that morning,
when the streets and various railway termini were found
to be deserted. For several days there had been a feeling
amongst the cabmen to avoid going near the principal
West-end stands, such as Old Palace-yard, Parliament-
street, St. James's-street, Sic., so as to punish, as they
said, the framers of the new cab law ; and on several
occasions, when the House of Commons had broken up,
and the rain had been falling heavily at the time, not a
cab was to be found in the vicinity, and the members had
to trudge through the wet. But on Wednesday morning
it fell suddenly upon every one, and the sun rose on a
city without cabs. The first to feel the inconvenience
was the traveller by early trains—into and out of London
—who found himself three or four miles from everywhere,
with a leather trunk, a hat hox, a carpet. bag, fishing-rod,
umbrella, and waterproof coat to carry. As the day
progressed, the desire for cabs became more urgent—
people found themselves at a full stop without knowing
why. There was no " going to my bankers," or " call
in the city," or " take a cab to the railway." The rail-
ways suffered the greatest possible inconvenience. At
every station piles of luggage waiting conveyance, and
mobs of jeering bystanders advising the calling of a cab
that would not come, confronted the impatient traveller.
Even the aristocracy did not escape the common fate.
Unless met by their "own carriage" they were compelled
to trudge it on foot for long distances, and several in-
stances of ladies of high degree in a state of comparative
exhaustion were observed. Train after train, too, brought
an accumulation of luggage, and each hour added to the
harrassing of impatient passengers from all parts of the
country, so that fine as the day was the inconvenience was
exce-sive. Since then the whole of London has had to
go afoot, and the omnibuses, whose fares have been ad-
vanced, and the private flies, hired from the livery stables,
doing nothing towards supplying the deficiency. In two
or three instances, where drivers did not join the combi-
nation, and plied for hire, their cabs were overturned and
the reins cut. The grievance, as appears from Mr.
Fitzroy's reply to a question in the House, is not so much
the reduction to sixpence a mile, but the absence of any
remedy, under the new act, against a long fare to some
country spot, whence no back fare can be expected. But
the charge of 6d. per mile end the great and arbitrary
power given to magistrates in punishing drivers, is also
complained of. At a meeting of cab proprietors, Parlia-
ment, especially the Manchester men, were abused for
passing the act, which, they said, they had given a fair trial
to during the last fortnight, and could not work under, and
after considerable discussion, a series of resolutions, em-
bodying a higher rate of fares generally, making them
double when further than four miles, and a power of ap-
peal against police court decisions, were adopted as amend-
ments to the act. The strike continued until Saturday
morning, when, owing to some concessions on the part of
Mr. Fitzroy, the cabs resumed their stations.