STAOE CARRIAGE. Although the law regards differently a stage carriage and a hackney carriage, we may conveniently treat of both here. The former group comprises stage coaches and omnibuses, for the use of which passengers pay at the rate of so much per journey ; the latter group comprises hackney coaches and cabs, for which passengers pay either at so much per mile or so much per quarter of an hour. As to coaches generally, it needs simply to be observed here, that they were introduced into England about 1570, and that a long time elapsed before their use became customary among wealthy persons.
Hackney Carriages.—The derivation of the word Hackney, as applied to a class of public conveyances, has occasioned much specula tion. The suburb of hackney; the French Ilacguenie and Vague, both derived from the Latin, eguus, a horse ; and the Anglo-Saxon equivalent for "neighing" have been severally proposed as the probable origin for the name. However this may be, it is sufficiently evident that the term hackney was first applied to horses let for hire, and then, by a very natural transition, extended to coaches, and subsequently to sedan-chairs, employed in a similar way.
Hackney carriages appear to have originated in London. It was in 1625 that they began to ply in London streets, or rather at the inns, to be called for as they were wanted ; and they were at this time only twenty in number. In 1634 sedan-chairs appear, for the first time, to have entered into competition with hackney-coaches, the sole privilege being granted in that year to Sir Sanders Duncomb. In the following year an attempt was made to check the increasing annoyance occasioned by the "general and promiscuous use of coaches" by a proclamation from the king (Charles I.) that no hackney or hired coach should be used in London, Westminster, or the suburbs, unless it were engaged to travel at least three miles out of the same ; and that every hackney-coach owner should constantly maintain four able horses for the royal service when required. Finding it impossible to prevent the use of so great a convenience, a commission was issued to the master of the horse in 1637 to grant licences to fifty hackney-coach men in and about London and Westminster, and as many others as might be needful in other places in England, each coachman being allowed to keep not more than twelve horses. In 1652 the number of
hackney-coaches daily plying in the streets was limited to 200; in 1654 it was increased to 300, allowing however only 600 horses; and an increase was at different times allowed till 1771, when the number of coaches was further increased to 1000. Notwithstanding this steady increase in the use of hackney-coaches, they were long assailed as public nuisances.
The first hackney-coach stand was established in 1634, by one Captain Daily, near the May-pole in the Strand. Even so late as 1660 Charles II. issued a proclamation against hackney-coaches standing in the streets to be hired. The monopoly long enjoyed by the London hackney-coachmen produced great indifference to the increasing wants of the community ; even down to the year 1823, while that monopoly was undisturbed, hackney-coaches appear to have sunk lower and lower in the scale of efficiency.
While this was the state of things in London, a lighter kind of vehicle, drawn by one horse, called cabriolets de place, had been brought into extensive use in Paris. But it was not till 1823, and then with great difficulty, that licences were obtained for eight cabriolets to be started at fares one-third lower than those of hackney-coaches. The new vehicle was a hooded chaise, drawn by one horse, and carrying only one passenger besides the driver, who sat hi the cabriolet (or, as more commonly called for brevity, the cab), with his fare. An improved buikl was noon introduced, by which room was provided for a second passenger, and the driver was separated from the fare. .With the rapid extension of this lighter class of vehicles, numerous varieties _of construction have been introduced, in which comfortable and safe accommodation, with complete shelter from the weather and separation from the driver, is provided for two, three, or four persons. The name cab is still commonly applied"to all hackney-carriages drawn by one horse, whether on two or four wheels. During the first few years of the employment of such carriages their number was restricted to 65, while the number of coach-licences was increased to 1200 ; but in 1832 all restriction as to the number of hackney carriages was removed.