I shall now conclude with some statements of sundry evils connected
with the cab business, under the old and also under the new system, and
shall then offer suggestions for their rectification.
One cab proprietor, after expressing his opinion that the new police
arrangements for the regulation of the trade would be a decided
improvement, suggested it would be an excellent plan to make policemen
of the watermen; for then, he said, the cabmen thieves would be
reluctant to approach the ranks. He also gave me the following
statement of what he considered would be greater improvements. “I
think,” he said, “it would do well for those in the cab-trade if
licenses were made 10_l._ instead of 5_l._, with a regulation that
5_l._ should be returned to any one on bringing his plates in previous
to leaving the trade, and so not wanting his license any longer.
This would, I believe, be a check to any illegal transfer, as men
wouldn’t be so ready to hand over their plates to other parties when
they disposed of their cabs, if they were sure of 5_l._ in a regular
and legal way. I would also,” he said, “reduce the duty from 10_s._
a-week to 5_s._, and that would allow cabs to ply for 6_d._ a-mile.
As everything is cheaper, I wonder people don’t want cheaper cabs.
’Busses don’t at all answer the purpose; for if it’s a wet day, almost
every one has to walk some way to his ’bus, and some way to the house
he’s going to. Sunday visitors particularly; and they like the wet
least of all. Now, if cabs ran at 6_d._, they could take a man and his
wife and two children, and more, two miles for 1_s._, or four miles
for 2_s._, about what the ’busses would charge four persons for those
distances: and the persons could go from door to door as cheap; or, if
not quite so cheap, they’d save it in not having their clothes spoiled
by the weather, and go far more comfortably than in a ’bus full of wet
people and dripping umbrellas. I know most cabmen don’t like to hear
of this plan; and why? Because, by the present system they reckon upon
getting a shilling a mile; and they almost always do get it for an
8_d._ fare, and for longer distances oft enough. But it wouldn’t be so
easy to overcharge when there’s a fixed coin a-mile for the fare. It
would be one, two, three, four, five, or as many sixpences as miles.
Now it’s 1_s._ 4_d._ for two miles, and that’s 1_s._ 6_d._--1_s._ 8_d._
for over two miles, and that means 2_s._--of course cabmen don’t carry
change unless for an even sum; 2_s._ 4_d._ for over three miles and a
half, and that’s 2_s._ 6_d._ if not 3_s._, and so on. The odd coppers
make cabmen like the present way.”
I now give a statement concerning “foul plates” and informers. It may,
however, be necessary to state first, that every cab proprietor must be
licensed, at a cost to him of 5_l._, and that he must affix a plate,
with his number, &c., to his cab, to show that he is duly licensed:
while every driver and waterman is licensed at a cost to each of 5_s._
a-year, and is bound to wear a metal ticket showing his number. The
law then provides, that in case of _unavoidable necessity_, which must
be proved to the satisfaction of the magistrate, a proprietor may be
allowed to employ an unlicensed person for twenty-four hours; with this
exception, every unlicensed person acting as driver, and every licensed
person lending his license, or permitting any other person to use or
wear his ticket, is to be fined 5_l._ The same provision applies to any
proprietor “lending his license,” but with a penalty of 10_l._ I now
give the statement:--
“You see, sir, if a man wants to dispose of his cab, why he must
dispose of it as a cab. Well, if it ain’t answered for him, he’ll get
somebody or other willing to try it on. And the new hand will say,
‘I’ll give you so much, and work your plates for you;’ and so he does
when a bargain’s made. Well, this thing’s gone on till there’s 1000 or
1200 ‘foul plates’ in the trade; and then government says, ‘What a lot
of foul plates! There must be a check to this.’ And a nice check they
found. Mister ---- (continued my informant, laying a peculiar emphasis
on the mister), the informer, was set to work, and he soon ferreted
out the foul plates, and there was a few summonses about them at first;
but it’s managed different now. Suppose I had a foul plate in my place
here, though in course I wouldn’t, but suppose I had, Mister ---- would
drop in some day and look about him, and say little or nothing, but
it’s known what he’s up to. In a day or two comes Mister ---- No. 2,
he’s Mister ---- No. 1’s friend; and he’ll look about and say, ‘Oh,
Mister ----, I see you’ve got so-and-so--it’s a foul plate. I’ll call
on you for 2_s._ in a day or two.’ He calls sure enough; and he calls
for the same money, perhaps, every three months. Some pays him 5_s._
a-year regular; and if he only gets that on 1000 plates, he makes a
good living of it--only 250_l._ a-year, 5_l._ a-week, that’s all. In
course Mister ---- No. 1 has nothing to do with Mister ---- No. 2,
not he: it’s always Mister ---- No. 2 what’s paid, and never Mister
---- No. 1. But if Mister ---- No. 2 ain’t paid, then Mister ---- No.
1 looks in, and lets you know there may be a hearing about the foul
plate; and so he goes on.”
This same Mister ---- No. 1, I am informed by another cab proprietor,
is employed by the Excise to see after the duty, which has to be paid
every month. Should the proprietor be behind with the 10_s._ a-week,
the informer is furnished with a warrant for the month’s money; and
this he requires a fee of from 10_s._ to 1_l._ (according to the
circumstances of the proprietor), to hold over for a short time. It
is difficult to estimate how many fees are obtained in this way every
month; but I am assured that they must amount to something considerable
in the course of the year.
It is proper that I should add that my informants in this and other
matters refer to the systems with which they had been long familiar.
The new regulations when I was engaged in this inquiry, had been
so recently in force, that the cab proprietors said they could not
yet judge of their effect; but it was believed that they would be
beneficial. An experienced man complained to me that the clashing of
the magistrates’ decisions, especially when the police were mixed up
with the complaints against cabmen, was an evil. My informant also
pointed out a clause in the 2d and 3d Victoria, cap. 71, enacting that
magistrates should meet once a quarter, each furnishing a report of his
proceedings as respects the “Act for regulating the Police Courts in
the Metropolis.” Such a meeting, and a comparison of the reports, might
tend to a uniformity in decisions; but the clause, I am told, is a dead
letter, no such meeting taking place. Another cab proprietor said it
would be a great improvement if an authorised officer of the police, or
a government officer, had the fixing of plates on carriages, together
with the inspection and superintendence of them afterwards. These
plates, it was further suggested to me, should be metallic seals, and
easily perceptible inside or out. Some of the cab proprietors complain
of the stands in Oxford-street (the best in all London, they say),
being removed to out-of-the-way places.
Among the matters I heard complained of, that of privileged cabs was
much dwelt upon. These are the cabs which are privileged to stand
within a railway terminus, waiting to be hired on the arrival of
the trains. For this privilege 2_s._ a-week is paid by the cabmen
to some of the railway companies, and as much as 5_s._ a-week to
others. The cabmen complain of this as a monopoly established to their
disadvantage, and with no benefit to the public, but merely to the
railway companies; for there are cab-stands adjacent to all the railway
stations, at which the public would be supplied with conveyances in the
ordinary way. The horses in the cabs at the railway stations are, I am
informed, amongst the hardest-worked of any in London; the following
case being put to me:--“Suppose a man takes a fare of four persons
and heavy luggage from the Great Western Terminus to Mile End, which
is near upon seven miles, he must then hurry back again all the way,
because he plies only at the railway. Now, if he didn’t, he would go
to the nighest cab-stand, and his horse would be far sooner relieved.
Then, perhaps, he gets another fare to Finsbury, and must hurry back
again; and then another below Brompton; and he may live at Whitechapel,
and have to go home after all; so that his poor horse gets ‘bashed’ to
bits.”
Another cab proprietor furnished me with the following statement
in writing of his personal experience and observation concerning
the working of the 23d clause in the Hackney Carriage Act, or that
concerning the signing before alluded to. “A master is in want of
drivers. A, B, and C apply. The only questions asked are, ‘Are you a
driver? Where is your license? Well! here, sign this paper; my money
is so much.’ In very few large establishments is more caution used
as to real character of the driver than this; the effect of which
is, that a man with a really good character has no better claim to
employment than one of the worst. Then, as to the feeling of a man
who has placed himself under such a contract. ‘I must get my money,’
he says, ‘I will do anything to obtain it; and as a gaol hangs over
my head, what matters about my breaking the law?’ and so every unfair
trick is resorted to: and the means used are ‘gagging,’ that is to say,
driving about and loitering in the thoroughfares for jobs. It is known
that some men very seldom put on the ranks at all. Some masters have
told their drivers not to go on the stand, as they well know that the
money is not to be obtained by what is termed ‘ranking it.’ Now, the
effect of this is, that the thoroughfares are troubled with empty cabs.
It has also this effect: it causes great cruelty and overdriving to
the horses; and drivers under such circumstances frequently agree to
go for very much less than the fare, and then, as they term it, take
it out by insulting and bullying their customers. It may be said that
the law in force is sufficient to counteract this; but it may not be
known that a great many protection-clubs exist, by contributions from
cabmen, and which clubs are, in fact, premiums for breaking the law;
for by them a man is borne harmless of the consequences of being fined.
Now, these clubs exist sometimes at public-houses, but in many cases in
the proprietors’ yards, the proprietors themselves being treasurers,
and so becoming agents to induce their servants to infringe the law,
for the purpose of obtaining for themselves a large return. The moral
consequence of all this is, that men being dealt with and made to
suffer as criminals, that is to say, being sent to gaol to experience
the same treatment, save indignity, as convicted felons, and all this
for what they after all believe to be a debt, a simple contract between
man and man; the consequence, I repeat, is, that the driver having
served his time, as it is called, in prison, returns to the trade a
degraded character and a far worse man. Be it observed, also, that the
fact of a driver having been imprisoned is no barrier to his being
employed again if he will but sign--that’s the test.”