the wasted capital. Sometimes it is in the form of a piteous appeal
that the driver or the competitor has been out all day and has not before
had "one single blessed fare." And yet the legal charge for the
frequently wretched service of the man, horse, and vehicle is, when taken
by the hour, nearly double, and by the mile, nearly treble--when only two
horses per diem are used--its actual prime cost, which is, when driving
at little more than six miles an hour, 2d. or 3d. per mile, and when
waiting, 1s. 4d. per hour. But there is now a cry from the cab
proprietors that this charge of double the prime cost does not pay, as it
probably does not under such a ruinous system, and an appeal is proposed
to parliament for an augmentation of the fares, but such augmentations,
under this principle of competition within the field, would only
aggravate the evil, for it would lead to an increased number of
competitors, and instead of there being a competition of three to do the
work of two, there would be a competition of two or more to do the work
of one--that is, a greater waste of capital to be paid for by some one.
Since the reduction of the fares in 1852, the number of cabs in the
metropolis, instead of being reduced, has been increased from 3297 to
4507 in 1857.

The criminal returns afford melancholy indications of their moral
condition to those conversant with penal statistics. Thus, in the police
returns we find, under the head of "Coach and cabmen"--but it is stated
by the police to be chiefly of cabmen--a very heavy list of offences. In
the year 1854 it was 682; in the year before that, 777. The recurring
crimes are thus denoted:

Apprehensions for 1853. 1854.
Offenses against the Hackney Carriage Act 369 335
Simple larcenies 29 36
Other larcenies 10 12
Common assaults 54 42
,, on the police 24 11
Cruelty to animals 57 27
Disorderly characters 15 21
Drunk and disorderly characters 66 62
Drunkenness 82 73
Furious driving 24 18

In respect to this service of cabs, says