BY an Act made in the fourteenth year of His Majesties Reign, for the reforming of Annoy­ances and Disorders in the Streets of, and places adjacent to the Cities of London and Westminster. It is enacted that there shall be but 400 Coaches to be Lett to Hire in and about the said Cities of London and Westminster, and the places compriz'd within the Weekly Bills of Mortality, (excepting Stage-Coaches:) Which said Coaches were to be Licensed by Commissioners for that purpose, nominated by His Majesty under the Great Seal of England: which said Commissioners are to take five Pounds yearly Rent, and no more; for non-payment whereof, the Coach-men are lyable to a Distress: and for want of a sufficient Distress, to suffer Imprisonment; and for any other Misdemeanors committed contrary to the said Act, are to suffer the Penalties and Forfeitures in the said Act mentioned, which are fully set forth and de­clared by the said Act. But amongst them all there is not one word of a Forfeiture of the Licenses, nor any Direction or Declaration that they shall be Licensed for a year only, and no longer; nor that the said Licenses are determinable, or vendable at the Commissioners pleasure.

But not only in point of Law, [...] likewise by an Exposition upon the said Act, they are in­tended to be for Life: for the persons first to be Licensed, are to be Ancient Hackney-Coach-men, and such Coach-men as had been Sufferers for His late Majesty, or His Majesty that now is, and the Widows of them, and lively Support and Maintenance of them; which intention of the Act would have been frustrated, and the Hackney-Coach-men absolutely ruined at the Commissioners pleasure, if Licenses were grounded upon such uncertain grounds, as the Commissioners that now are, pretend. For a Hackney-Coach-man not being able to Lett out to Hire a good Hackney-Coach, with Horses suitable to the meaning of the Act, without a great sum of Money to buy the said Coach and Horses, an [...] [...]o take a Dwelling-house for himself and Servants, together with Stables and Coach-houses; and to make Provisions of Hay and Corn for his Horses, and a Sum to lye by him for the supplying of himself with Horses in case of loss, which often happens, and for the payment of Servants Wages. But it never was the intent of the Act to put them to this Charge for a year, which had been an intent to ruine them.

Yet after all which great Expence and Charges, together with the great loss of Horses, that some have had. The Commissioners that now are, being 16 persons, did at one time take away 16 Licenses from 16 Ancient Hackney-Coach-men (as by their Summons for Appearance to 16 In­formations in the Exchequer may appear) some of which have enjoyed their Licenses ever since the first time of granting Licenses by virtue of the aforesaid Act: And all the rest of them for many years, being Licensed by former Commissioners, as persons well fit and quallified, and alwayes by the former Commissioners so thought, approved and allowed to be without the least molestation or interruption. And the [...] Commissioners, or some of them under pretence of a new method of Regulation, never before thought of, or mentioned, would have absolutely ruined and undone the said 16 Ancient Hackney-Coach-men, if some of them had not put a stop to it, by publickly declaring that they would Prosecute at Law those persons that should buy any of their Licences, they questioning not but it was their Right, and due for life by the Act.

And former Commissioners never looked upon any person once Licensed , but as Licensed for Life, notwithstanding they did yearly renew their Licenses: For the first Commissioners that ever were (being very Industrious and prudent men, and some of them well Learned in the Law) de­clared, that the only reason why they did renew their Licenses yearly, was only that they might know what Coach-men were dead; that if any License were Vacant, forthwith to fill up the Va­cancy, for the better preserving of the sum allowed by the said Act for preserving of the High-wayes and Sewers, &c. And the Names and Habitations of such persons as had Licenses might be known, in order to the said Commissioners giving in their account yearly to the Commissioners of High-wayes and Sewers; and to see what Fines and Forfeitures (if any such) were due, and likewise to prevent the trouble and Charges of Distress, &c. By not continuing those persons Licenses which did not pay, and discharge the sums required by the Act at every years end; and though that Clause then was not agreeable to the meaning of the Act; yet that Declaration of the Commissioners, and the Acting pursuant to that Declaration made the Coach-men acquiess there­in, and never were molested, But now, though those Coach-men have paid their Rent duly as long as the Commissioners would receive the same, and since tendred it, and have performed all qualifications by the Act; yet are their Licenses taken from them.

Since which Transactions aforesaid, by the negligence or indulgence of the Officers imployed by the Commissioners, and by the Licensing of new persons by the Commissioners, in the room of those they turn out, the Streets have been, and are at this time so Annoyed, so many abuses committed, and so many Coaches worked by Unlicensed persons, with ill Coaches, and poor Horses: That the Hackney-Coach-men who are lawfully Licensed, are not only blamed and im­puted to be guilty of abuses committed by persons that work unlawfully; but are also very much impoverished and disabled to pay the Rent required by the Act, and very hardly able to live and subsist, contrary to the intent of the Act, to the abuse of the Kings people, and to the Ruine of those formerly Licensed.