a writer--from whom I have taken
these figures, I regret I cannot find out his name, that I might quote
it--"the analysed charges and statistics show that by a
properly-conducted competition by adequate capital for the whole
field--for which, in my view, the chief police or local administrative
authorities ought, as servants of the public, to be made
responsible--service equal to the present might be obtained at 3d. or 4d.
per mile; or at the present legal fare of 6d. per mile, a service
approaching in condition to that of private carriages, might be insured
out of the waste which now occurs."

A pleasant way of getting along is that of getting in a Hansom, and
bidding the driver drive on. A great improvement, undoubtedly, on the
old Hackney coach, or on that first species of cab--consisting of a gig
with a very dangerous hood--on one side of which sat the driver, while on
the other was suspended yourself. Now as you dash merrily along, with a
civil driver, a luxurious equipage, and not a bad sort of horse, little
do you think that you may be driving far further than you intended, to a
dangerous illness and an early grave.

A terrible danger threatens all who live in London, or who visit it, by
means of a custom--which ought not to be tolerated for an instant--of
carrying sick persons in cabs to hospitals. No doubt the increase of
smallpox in the metropolis may be referred to this source. Put a case of
smallpox into a comfortable cab for an hour, then send the vehicle into
the streets; first a merchant sits in it for a quarter of an hour, then a
traveller from the railway gets his chance of catching the disease, and
so on for the next week or two. When it takes, the victims have had no
warning of their impending danger, and wonder where they got it. They in
their turn become new centres of disease, and for the next few weeks they
infect the air they breathe, the houses they inhabit, the clothing sent
to the laundress, and everybody and everything which comes within their
influence, and it is impossible to say where the infection ceases. The
following arrangements would easily, cheaply, and effectually do away
with the evil:--1. Make it penal to let or to hire a public vehicle for
the conveyance of any person affected with contagious disease. 2. Every
institution for the reception of contagious disease should undertake to
fetch the patient on receipt of a medical certificate as to the nature of
the case.

Do n