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OUR CABMEN in 1855
This article was taken from
The
Home and Foreign Record of the Free Church of Scotland
Volume 5 - August 1854 - July 1855
I first learned about Cabmen while reading a
short biography of George McRobert which
started me on a hunt to find out more.
In all periods of her history, the Church of
Scotland has been distinguished for her popular sympathies. She exists
for the people. She recognises the people as an intrinsic part of
herself. For the people her great battles have been fought. For die
people her sacrifices of status and emolument have been made. For the
people her blood has been freely poured out; and when she ceases to care
for them—to defend their rights and privileges—to make their wrongs her
wrongs, she loses her hereditary feelings, and falls from her hereditary
renown; and whatever she may be in point of legal standing or of outward
title, she has ceased to be the popularly-organised Institute which Knox
founded, and is no longer the church of the people of Scotland.
The Free Church has evinced, since the eventful era of the Disruption,
no diminution of her ancient sympathies, no cooling of her former love.
For whom but for the people of Scotland was the great struggle of the
ten years? and for whom but for the people was the great sacrifice of
the Disruption? Had the ministers sought only power for themselves, they
would have been saved both the struggle and the sacrifice. True, the
struggle was for the crown rights of Christ; but when translated into
fact, these just meant the rights and privileges of the people. And
since the Disruption, the Free Church has laboured to gather under her
wing the outcast and heathen masses of our land, for whose souls no man
cared. She has discovered herself to be the mother, by displaying the
yearnings of a mother’s heart. Were our rulers to sit in judgment, like
the wise king of old, on the question which is the true mother, or to
whom should the outcast be committed to be gathered in, instructed, and
cared for, they could have little difficulty in coming to the old
verdict, as regards the disestablished Church of Scotland, “Give her the
child, for she is the mother thereof.”
A new and important movement has just arisen; and we rejoice to see that
our Church, through several of her leading ministers, has been the first
to extend a helping hand to it. The cabmen have resolved to discontinue
their Sabbath traffic; and have appealed to the Christian public for
support in their movement. We deprecate that this movement should ever
come to have the aspect of a mere party movement. Let all Churches and
all Christian men hasten to its relief. We feel assured they will do so.
It is a movement which combines in one two sacred causes—the cause of
Humanity and the cause of the Sabbath.
It is the cause of humanity. We scarce can name a class who have endured
more unmitigated, ceaseless, never-ending drudgery and toil than our
cabmen. We scarce know a class who have been more unsparingly shorn and
robbed of every intellectual and spiritual opportunity and enjoyment.
Every rag of privilege has been tom from them. “A remonstrance and
appeal ” was published in 1850 by the carnage and cab-drivers of
Glasgow, which gives us a glimpse into the slavery of their condition.
They state that their average time on watch and work, from Monday
morning to Saturday night, is seventeen hours a-day: that on Sabbath
they are on the stand from nine in the morning till nine at night. “The
consequence of this practice,” say they, “is in many respects
deplorable, and is felt by many of us to be an infliction of a most
grievous and humiliating kind. There are many of us who subscribe our
names to this paper who have not had an opportunity of being in a place
of worship during the last four, five, six, and seven years; although,
with but few exceptions, we have been regularly once, twice, or three
times attending, with our cattle and machines, at some or other of the
church doors, every Sabbath, during the whole of these respective
periods; and further, we can prove, that, but for the attendance we have
to give at these church doors, we would not be employed on the Sabbath
at all! it would not pay!" This may be taken as a fair picture of the
condition of their brethren in Edinburgh, and in all towns where cabs
are employed. Could anything be more deplorable? Their toil has nothing
intellectual about it, nothing to excite their faculties; but very much
to weary, to deaden, to degrade, and to drive to unlawful stimulants.
And how ceaselessly and hopelessly is that avocation prosecuted. They
are chained to their stand in the summer’s heat and the winter’s cold.
They hear the Sabbath-bell; but they cannot join in the Sabbath song.
That day, whose blessed footsteps are to others the sound of liberty and
rest, only calls them to labour. They are banished from the sanctuary;
they are banished from their own homes,—from their wives and
families,—banished from the usual opportunities of intellectual and
spiritual improvement. If the rest of the seventh day be necessary to
the sound bodily and mental state of man—and we need not remind our
readers of the unanswerable demonstration of Professor Miller on this
head—surely that rest is needed most of all by those who endure such
protracted, continuous, and depressing drudgery on the six days.
But in the second place, this is especially the cause of the Sabbath. We
are sure every friend of that blessed institution will rejoice to mark
this advancement in the appreciation of its value —that even our cabmen
have come to see that this day has obligations which they are bound to
respect, privileges which they should seek to enjoy, and a rest which
they need. Our cabmen seek to recover their Sabbath. On the ground of
equity they are entitled to this. All other professions and trades rest
on that day,—our merchants, our artizans, all are free—our cabmen alone
are compelled to carry on their usual avocations. Though the Divine law
were silent on the subject, equity would condemn this invidious
exception. Society may require, on the Sabbath, the use of cabs in cases
of "necessity and mercy" and the law of God allows this; but society
does not require, and the law of God does not allow, that cabmen, as a
class, should ply their avocations on that day. It no more requires
this, than It requires that bankers, merchants, and artizans should
prosecute their usual avocations on that day. Society might find it
convenient to have all trades and professions going on on that day as on
others; but in obedience to the Decalogue, and for the blessings of the
Sabbath, it submits to inconvenience (if so it can be called), and
closes all trades, exempting only cabmen, from this beneficent
arrangement. Now in doing so, it acts with manifest unfairness and
injustice. In perfect equity, it ought to require all trades to work on
that day, or require none.
It has been said that our cabmen are not prepared to make a good use of
the Sabbath. If so, that is their sin, and will not justify us in
committing another sin. Do cabmen at present make a good use of the
Sabbath? And are we justified, because they may possibly abuse the
Sabbath in one way, in compelling them to abuse it in another? Does a
man's right to a privilege depend upon the use he makes of it? There are
many who abuse health, property, and liberty; would we therefore be
justified in robbing them of these rights? Are cabmen the only parties
who make an improper use of the Sabbath, and are we prepared to take
away the Sabbath from all by whom it is abused? Besides, has not a
practical refutation been given of this argument in the large attendance
of cabmen on worship since they desisted from Sabbath labour?
The cabmen are entitled to the Sabbath on the ground of the Divine law.
As we are here arguing with Christian men, the matter is plain. All
agree in recognising a broad line, drawn by a Divine finger, above which
the claims of our cabmen cannot rise, and below which they dare [20th of
last month. For other facts illustrating the severe character of the
week-day labour of our cabmen, see report of that meeting]. not fall—no
work, except in cases of necessity and mercy. The rule of the cabman
must be no work, and he must be the judge of the exceptional cases,
because he is responsible in the doing of that work. On this rule
society acts as regards all other professions. I may feel it to be a
real work of44 necessity and mercy” to have a writing executed on the
Sabbath, or to have an article of merchandise, or a piece of work done
on the Sabbath; but my rights only extend to making a statement of my
case, that the other party may judge of it. I have no power to compel
him to do the service I require, even though I feel justified in
requiring it; for if I claim a power to compel the shopkeeper to open
his shop, or the artizan to ply his tools for me, I take away his
responsibility; and what I may do, another is entitled to do, all men
may do— and what, in that case, becomes of his Sabbath? And as regards
those exceptional cases, invalids for instance, that may require the use
of a conveyance on Sabbath, their right extends only to a statement of
their case. The cabman must judge whether the case justifies working on
the Sabbath; for if you claim the power of compelling him, you destroy
his responsibility, and take away his Sabbath. As regards invalids, we
think all reasonable men will allow that it is only in certain
circumstances that it is a work of necessity and mercy that they should
be carried to church at the cost of preventing another gojng to church.
Much will depend upon the length of their invalidity; much upon its
extent, whether they are unable to walk the same distance on a week-day:
in short, on a variety of circumstances, of which the parties only can
be the judge. But all Christian men will agree, that to keep up a
regular and stated system of Sabbath labonr to meet these few
exceptionable cases, is utterly indefensible. Here, with men admitting
the fourth commandment, there can be no argument.
We make our appeal in behalf of this movement. We make our appeal to tw
o parties, because there are two parties on whom mainly its success will
depend. The first are the cabmen themselves. Much will depend on the
union, perseverance, and sobriety with which they prosecute a movement
which we rejoice they have originated. We say to them, Your claims are
just; they are irresistible: they are irresistible on the grounds of
equity and of the Divine law, and if temperately, yet firmly pressed,
they must succeed. The Sabbath is yours : you may voluntarily surrender
it, or lose it by your own indifference ; but in this land no man dare
take it from you. We appeal, in the second place, to professing
Christians. The Glasgow “Remonstrance and Appeal,” quoted above,
distinctly sets forth that it is you who keep up the Sabbath cab
traffic. "But for the attendance toe have to give at these church doors
say they, we would not he employed on the Sabbath at a"—it would not pay
If it was so before the shutting up of the public houses on the Sabbath,
much more must it be so now, when, as all admit, Sabbath
pleasure-driving has much diminished. On you, then, rests the fearful
responsibility of this Sabbath traffic. We shall grant that yours is
indeed a case of 11 necessity and mercy.” What then? You say it is the
duty of this class of men to provide for it. We deny that it is their
duty; it is your own. I have no right to require of others, especially
to require of a class, that they provide for cases of necessity and
mercy that may. happen to me ; I must provide for them myself. I may ask
the help of others when they do occur, and very probably I shall not a9k
in vain; but if I require them to provide for these, I shift on them a
burden I ought to bear myself.
But may not a case of “necessity and mercy” be such absolutely, but not
relatively f It comes in many cases to be a question of which is the
greater “necessity and mercy,”—whether I, who have leisure, books,
religious society, it may be, and who wa3 at church possibly a few
Sabbaths ago,—or this man who has not been at church for years, who has
neither books nor society suitable to the Sabbath, and who, in addition
to the slavery of the six days, has to endure that of the seventh also.
u Necessity and mercy !” Who is it, we ask, who has the best right to
use that plea? Besides, it is not one man who is kept from church; but a
system involving, in Edinburgh alone, some three hundred men, with their
families, amounting in all to not less than fifteen hundred souls, which
is kept up by our using a cab on Sabbath. Is there no room for
self-denial here? That man must have a very clear, and a very strong
case, who should insist that his spiritual interests shall be attended
to in preference to those of all these other individuals. We may thirst
for ordinances, as did David for the water of the well of Bethlehem, and
the draught may be to us, as was that other to David, sweet and
refreshing; but it is impossible to forget, as we drink, that this water
has been brought us at the peril of the blood of souls. |
