30 JULY 1853, Page 11

RIIMANITY, CABMANITT, AND EQ17ITY.

London, 25th July 1853.

Stu—Humanity, represented by Honourable House, is of opinion that it has a right to.dietate the price of cabman's work.

Whereupon Cabmanity shouts out, " Free-trade !"

" Won't do !" says Honourable House "you'll raise prices o' rainy nights and late debates."

And haven't I a good right ? " retorts Cabmanity. " ' Buy in the cheap- est market—sell in the dearest.' Isn't that p'litical 'conomy ? If there comes a Russian war, won't the swell 'merchant princes' buy up all the tal- low and raise the prices to what they please ? Why don't you regulate the price of candles, as you used to do the price of bread ? "

"It did not answer, my good friend, and was abandoned."

" And you'll find it won't answer to regulate the price of cabs." "Why not ? " "Because your Honourable House don't know how to regulate prices fairly. You say sixpence a mile is fair. Now that all depends on the price o' oats and hay, and rent o' stables, and sort o' cabs, and two-legged tine and four-legged uns.' " " What is that last item about two and four legs ? "

"Why, don't ye know that ? Pretty legislation and no deters! A two- legged un is a horse as we runs in a four-wheeler, and we can get him for a five-pun note ; but for a Hansom we want a four-legged un, and he'll run ye up to a twenty-pun note. We must have six pints of support not to come down ; and if we have only two to the cab, in reason we must have four to the horse. Now how can Honourable House regulate all that up and down, with choppings and changes, and wet and dry weather? Why shouldn't I charge more on a wet night, to pay for dryin' my clothes and an extra glass, and perhaps a doctor's bill, to cure a cold and sweeten my voice ? You say we cut up rough. How should we be very smooth, out all weathers? Then, again, you often talk of supply and demand. You let anybody supply that likes ; and won't that regulate the price well enough? Why don't. ye regulate the price o"busses?—they're rising and lowering all day long, with a price-bill with two sides to it, sometimes sixpence, sometimes a penny ; and when a big general is to be berried, they make ye stump up a whole shilling. Honourable House doesn't ride in 'busses, so don't care about them."

"So then, friend Cabby, you think there should be a free trade in cabs— as many as choose and a free competition in prices ?" "In course I do, just the same as the shops in Regent Street, without any licensing."

"There are certain reasons against it, my friend. First, the shopkeepers pay rent, and do their business on their own premises. If people set up stalls or shops in the streets, it is a matter of sufferance. Now you may keep as many cabs as you like on your own premises ; but if you come to do busi- ness with them in the streets, the owners of the streets must be consulted. The streets are made for the use of the owners and the general public, and not for you in particular. You would not be admitted to the streets at all except by consent of the owners, and therefore there are two sides to the bargain ; and the street-owners might if they chose consider you a nuisance, of more and than prat, and not admit you there at all, any more than advertising-vans. The omnibus people do sometimes take upon themselves to consider the streets their own, and stop traffic and ruin obnoxious rivals by waiting upon them' ; and so the Police interfered, and invented badges so as to follow up offenders and take away licences from such as were un- fitted by nature to deal with humanity in the form of passengers: the result of which has been, that omnibus drivers and conductors are becoming as efficient a body for their vocation as the Police for keeping order."

"And are not we cabmen just as 'ficient as the 'busmen ?" "Not by a long way. The omnibus men are obliged to keep a fixed price for their fares for a given time, and at any rate treat all their customers alike; but you are apt to regard each customer as a separate speculation, and regulate your charges by their sex, or fears, or ignorance. Therefore the street-owners, or the Honourable House representing them, reason thus- ' Cabs are useful, but unless they can be regulated, we should prefer to do without them. Cabs would be very convenient for thieves, like town-carts; so the owners' names must be on them, and the driver must show a licence and a badge to find him by if he misbehaves. Now, if we give you the use of the streets to do business in, we have a right to stipulate our terms ; and you may take them or leave them at your pleasure.'" "It's all very fine talking, Mr. Honourable House, but you'ld be worse off without we, than we without you. We let you see it for one night. How would you like it for a month ?" "Not at all ! and that satisfactory evidence that you are as arbitrary in your way as anybody else, will keep us at work amending the law till we can hit the point of the maximum advantage to the public." " Without caring at all about the poor cabmen ?" "The cabmen are a part of the public, and the public cannot well improve their own position by an injustice to a part of themselves." "If they choose to fix the fares and fix them too low, they'll drive the cabs out of business."

"If they do, the two-legg'd uns will e to the knacker's a little earlier, and the public will go without some bad cabs, and ride more in omnibuses for awhile ; and then a new set of people wilt come into the business on fair terms."

"And Honourable House fix the prices for them too "Probably there would be a better method. It would be easy to ascertain the number of cabs really required by the public, and to issue licences for no more than that number."

"Oh, I see ! have a monopoly, and let some big swells have them all amongst them, and let them out for twenty-seven shillings a day each cab, and get five or six thousand a year each, as used to be before Joseph Hume broke it down, and let everybody have a licence as liked. That 'ill do. I should like to be one o' them swells myself. That would be better than a rainy night and no cab on the stand." "What think you of allowing the cabmen to fix their own prices ? " "The best thing that could be done. They understand their business, and would fix fair living prices." "Probably; drinking and smoking included. But I mean, dividing the whole number of cabs to be licensed into lots of twenty-five, and putting them up by auction every three years giving them to those tendering at the .lowest fares for the public, and bound to keep to those fares, publicly marked on the outside and inside of the cabs, unless choosing to give up their licences." "That would go into public companies." "Very likely ; and cab-drivers would be the savants of the companies, like omnibus-drivers, with weekly certain wages, instead of gambling spe- culators with cheated customers and over-driven horses. Unlimited cabs would kill any cab company." "Well, I like a chance of luck ; and when what you say comes about, I'll cut these diggins and go a dray in Australy, and let Hon'ble House drive theirselves."

" Better go at once. You are of a speculative turn, and consequently not fit for a public servant as a cab-driver. Owning and managing cabs is one thing, driving them another. The riders in cabs do not require touters ; they call the cabs when they want them, and no customer-catching dexterity is required in the drivers : they are not shopkeepers, but servants waiting for orders."

• "Well, Mr. Honourable House, we been an' gone and dun it !" " Done what ?"

• " Why, turned out. Let the blessed public drive theyselves. Cabs is worth any money now. We aint a waitin' for orders. Who'll come too first?"

"Why, I take it, a very different set of people. You have put yourselves out of court, and forfeited your licences; and meanwhile the omnibuses benefit, and the flys." "And all along o' your interfering with prices !" " Well, even supposing we were arbitrary, you brought it on by your own general misconduct. Tyranny always reacts. And now we will begin again on a better plan, and leave the cabmen to fix their own prices." "That's summut like."

"We will take the map of London, and divide it by lines into squares or sections of half a mile each, or a little more or less to suit the streets. This map shall be printed of a convenient size to be hinged up against the roof of the cab inside, and let down at pleasure. Any distance within one square shall be a certain price ; out of one square into another, an additional price ; and so on for every additional square. This will save all disputes about distance, as the passenger can instantly refer to the plan." " Werry good—that 'ill square up the disputes about mileage : but how about the price ?" "There will be about 180 squares. Take three or any requisite number of cabs to a square, say 550; divide them into 22 lots of 25 each, and put them up to auction for the lowest bid per square, subject to conditions of inspection and security, and for a specific term, independently of the new railway cabs." "S'pose some bid for lots at lower rates than others—you'd have different prices on the stand."

"Well, then, the lowest would get most customers, and the others would have the right to lower their prices, like the railways. No one would object to that. Or they might set up what you would call a more swell' kind of cab."

" Oh! this istne of your artful dodges to throw it all into the hands of swell capitalists. How can I find tin to keep twenty-five cabs, and a lot o' two and four legged sins ?" "You must get a capitalist to be security for you, or be content only to be a driver."

" Thankee for nothink ! That's an easy way of shoving us out." "Suppose you and twenty-four others were to join together with a cab each, and be mutual security : don't you think that might do ? You could certainly work as cheap as the capitalists in that way, and need not tender at too low prices. You might be a company yourselves ; buy your oats and hay, and rent your stables together." Yes, and I 'spose the cleverest fellow would contrive to get all the cabs his own at last, and keep the others for drivers ! " " Probably : some are best at buying and selling, and some at driving. Perhaps you might come to be top man, and find it better than 'going a dray in Australy.' Your name might stand highest in the streets for a tip- top turn-out of twenty-five cabs and horses all of one colour." "That would be worth having!" "Yes, better than unlimited licence to fasten four old boards on four old wheels and nail some old rags in the box and call it a cab, for the privilege of two hours' daily fare and ten hours' daily seat on the stand all weathers, smoking a broken tobacco-pipe by way of dinner."