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ously ignores the arm which is civilly held out for his accommodation — either of those benighted persons is classed by the cabman in the category of the clumsy , the dull , or the sourtempered , and furnishes his quota towards cultivating that patience and even temper which the conductor can only derive from correcting , the follies of half his fellow-creatures by the follies of the other half , himself remaining superior on that elevated foot-board , which stands on one
side ot the daily path ruled by himself . The cabman , for all his coats , is a man ; and he will respond to the usual test of tickling and so forth , at least as much as Shyiock . Now this class of our fellow creatures has recently been taken in hand by the police , who undertake to regulate it with a truly Austrian degree of the paternal . The omnibus-driver must not get down from his seat ; the cab-driver must sit , and must not smoke . However cold , however wearied with tedium , however stiffened with a moveless posture in a winter day , neither of these two men must relax his limbs by a little action . The " party of order , " represented by Colonel Mayne , chief commissioner , has so resolved .
Now , this unimportant class of our fellow creatures really contributes to the State in no small proportion . Before an omnibus can traverse the streets it must have paid three guineas for its plates , besides three halfpence a mile of duty for every step it goes . The cabman ' s "plates cost him five pounds , and he pays ten shillings a week duty . Economists will say that the
" consumer" pays for this , and in a very loose sense the case may be made out ; but you will as soon show that the consumer eats the omnibus , as that really he pays for its taxes any more than any one of us pays our neighbour's taxes . The object of the omnibus speculator is , to get the largest amount of revenue out of his passengers , and he must do it by supplying the largest amount of service at the most moderate rate . It
is true that the cost of the taxes mar be at the first an element in determining him to enter into the project or not . But since the rate of fare which he fixes , from a penny to sixpence , can in no degree be determined by the relative proportion of tax charged to each passenger , w e must perceive that the tax really does not reach the passenger . The threepenny rate is determined by " the higgling" of the market , and it would be impossible
to determine any proportion of the threepence which the passenger pays towards the plates or the duty . But even if it were so , still the industry of the omnibus owners and their servants contributes to the taxes of the State a considerable amount in proportion to their means , and therefore they merit at least some personal consideration as to what may-be the rules enforced for public order .
It is rather remarkable , that while the police commissioners are thus coercing tlie cabman , they also drive a peculiar species of trade amongst that class . It is one of the most singular instances of a forced market that we know . Every cabman , oninibus-i : onduetor , and driver , is obliged to wear his badge in a conspicuous position on his person ; in order to exhibit it thus , a belt is worn , and this belt has become an article of trade with Iho commissioners ; a cabman must buy his bcltof the commissioners , and the prico per belt for a conductor ' s badge is tenponee---the price of the
ciibmaii's we do not know . Probably if the conductor wcro to buy bin belt in open market , ho could procure it for fourpence ; but tenpenoe i 3 the official charge . The commissioners also publish a little volume of rules and regulations ; this volume hiiH recently been amended , and every driver must possess a copy ; we lmve no doubt that any publisher would issue thin little document at I lie priceof threepence or foui'penoe , —the commissioners charge ) sixpence for it . 11 . will bo
observed , thai , what with belts and publications , theeoimnisBionerH convert Uie Hiibjug ; a . Led cabmen and conductors into profitable customers . Hut that is not all ; the hint regulations urn as fallacious JiH if they had been issued by a speculative trading firm , for they donol , eontain ' i , h (> mien which at present press ho severely upon I he cab and omnibus community . The cabman is forced to pay sixpence for a book that does not guide him through the Hevere Ihwh to which his badge hub * ponded by tho tonpenny belt subjects him .
When tyrannical lawn arc attempted , they are very apt . to provoke a revolt , which may ho of throe kinds—passive and collateral , passive and direct , or aggressive . The Cab and Onmibuti
men might breed a riot in the streets , in which case the police would probably have the better of it , though the process might tend to put the raw lobsters into hot water , and , we have no doubt , would redden them considerably . The direct and passive is the way to which the men in London have resorted ; that is-to say , being told not to smoke or get off their boxes , in practice they have got off their boxes and smoked . Possibly , Colonel Mayne's gendarmes may prove as hot in the prevention of smoking as the gendarmes of Austria in Milan are in the
encouragement of smoking ; for it is a curious fact , that while Scotland-yard adopts the policy of James the First , and puts down the weed , Austria and Radetzky adopt the policy of Charles Lamb , and resist teetotalism in tobacco . Should the policeman attempt new means of enforcement , possibly the cabmen and omnibus drivers of London may imitate the example of their brethren in Liverpool , and may withdraw all the cabs and omnibuses from London , for a few days . Imagine the City without its omnibuses : the Lord Mayor
without his state coach in ordinaiy ; the director of bank-association or company without any conductor ' s fingers to rap as he gets out ! Imagine an M . P . at midnight , with no cab in sight ! But there is a large amount of the London population dependent upon cab and omnibus for locomotion , which certainly has had no share , direct or indirect , in encouraging this Austrian procedure : to them the penalty would be severe , but they might remember , that they must thank Scotlandyard for it . consider
The public at large , indeed , may a question yet broader and more important . If Commissioner Mayne succeeds in teaching cabmen how to live with so . paternal a minuteness , it is possible that the same zeal for direction may extend to other classes of society . The English people is showing a remarkable patience under every species of centralized authority . With all his faults , a cabman is an Englishman , and he is by no means one of the tamest of Englishmen ; if , therefore , a commissioner can teach a cabman how to live ; can teach him " what to eat , drink , and avoid ; " can teach him how to stand or how to
sit ; can regulate his cigar and his beer , a fortiori , more pliaot classes of the English people may be brought equally under the direct keeping of the central Executive ; and we must all await a daily way-bill of the " whole duty of man" from the Home Office . When we have been brought to learn our place in that respect , then England will be quite ripe for annexation to the continental system ; and we say it is an ingenious device , to begin that experiment on the cab driver . Fiat experimentum : anybody may ill-treat a cabman , for he lias no friends . n
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HUDDERSFIEL 1 ) ELECTION : A WORKING MAN'S M . P . The importance which tho working classes arc acquiring , commercially and socially , as well as politically , only contributes an additional reason why they should take every step they can to secure a representation for themselves in I ' arliaincnt . There is no part of the country in which the value of tho working man , as such , has not risen . And it is not only the money payment which marks him out an being more important than he was : his employer in now obliged to address him in a di Here tit stylo ; it is found that lie haH a will which must be consulted ; and in a short time , should matters proceed as they now do , the opinion of the working man will ho sought on most subjects that interest the community . Now , therefore , is the time at which tho working man can use this influence to obtain a gradual increase of his political power ; and the stationing of an intelligent Member in Parliament , oven though lio bo no more than tho honorary representative of the working classes , will bo a great
gain . Wo are far from behoving that any successive ndviinco towards a popular franchise precludes any further advance . Tbo statement that the middle classes obtained their franchise by the Reform Bill , and that they opposed its extension to ( lie working classes , is only a half truth . It i . s not true that tho whole of tbo middle classes lend Mieir influence to that refusal ; on the contrary , wo believe that ninny of them are with tho working classes . Hut oven if it wero trim , the fact should be ascribed , not so much to tho corrupting principles of an exclusive political power , which ia a very vague influence , hut to the
character of the middle class ; which so far as it is exclusively commercial , is proportionately selfish : besides , the middle classes are always inclined to take their colour from the politics of the time ; and with the rising value of the working classes , an increased number of the middle classes may be expected to side with an extended franchise . Moreover , every enlargement of the franchise renders the exception more glaring . For these reasons and others , we hold that every inch gained is so much towards the establishment of a franchise for the whole nation .
The speech of Sir George Grey at Alnwick , in which he recognises the claims of the unenfranchised men who appeared as his supporters , is in itself an important admission . Still more frank and complete is the declaration of Lord Goderich at Huddersfield : — " I cannot believe that this dense meeting is composed of men any one of whom is unfit for the suffrage . " That is the test to which we have always challenged those who are for an exclusive franchise . Let any Englishman of ordinary intelligence stand forth , and let any of those exclusive suffragists point him out bodily , and dare to say that he is unfit for the
franchise . Let the exclusive suffragists assemble a great body of their countrymen before them , and then point with their finger to this man , to that , and to another , and so on . to the whole number of those whom they would pronounce to be unfit to vote for Members of Parliament . If they dare not accept that test , theyeithergiveupthe question . , or convict themselves of a craven spirit , which falters in making good the details ol its own conclusion . Lord Goderich is not a man to do so ; he evidently recognises the fact of a man ' s being an Englishman as a sufficient claim for the franchise .
But that is not the whole of Lord Goderich s claim upon the working-man ; nor is his speech his only voucher , although his principles , as he declared them at Huddersfield , are free-trade , extended suffrage , much fairer distribution of electoral districts , ballot , absolute freedom of religious opinion , public education , economy in public expenditure , and attention in the legislature to the wants of the great masses of men . Still his speech is not his whole or truest voucher , though there is much in these professions , and even in the manner of the speech itself . The man who can use expressions so distinct and so frank , who can " look forward to the day when the elevation of
the people shall form them into one great and united democracy , " appeals to a vast alliance . Language like this must tell strongly in his favour , although the word democracy has been adopted by Lord John Russell . But it has , we believe , been adopted by the late Premier after it was accepted by the noble candidate for Huddersfield . Although Lord John Russell is a much older man , and a much older Member of Parliament , he is a younger adherent of tho English , democracy than Lord Goderich . Lord Goderich was known for his painstaking attention to tho wants of the working-classes before the word democracy became fashionable on Whig lips .
Nor did he first put forth these hjgh Liberal sentiments at great public meetings : it is well known that he has been studying the subject with an independent mind , neither rash nor prejudiced , in the quiet of his closet first , and then in actual intercourse with tho working man , of other countries as well as his own . JSow , we say that if such h man—thus discreet , although still feeling tho fervours of youth—thus steadfast
in his opinions , although anticipating the latest conversion of tho most experienced statesmanacting thus frankly towards his fellow-countrymen , out of season , as well as in propitious times —be seated in Parliament , tho working classes of tliifl country , tho true . Liberals of this country , will have established a new hold upon the Legislature , and will have made a decided step towards realizing measures that they havo most at heart . Wo believe that Lord Goderieh will bo a faithful
Member for tho electors , a generous Member also I ' or the non-electors , and an honour to tho constituency in whose name ho sits . That he will not bo a Mombor for tire working man alone , adds to his value , not subtracts from it . With an enlarged view of the possibilities of the time , ho has shown a power of combining a deference for generally established opinions with a recognition of newly perceived trutliH , and such a man cannot give an exclusive service . Once elected , we are sure ho will not be the Member for any class , nor for any sect , nor for any titere
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326 THE LEADEK [ Satubpa * ^
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 2, 1853, page 326, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1980/page/14/
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