chaff, the basket is full, a man seizes it, and
empties it into a huge square trough before him;
from another shoot, another basket is filled with
bruised oats: these he empties into the trough
on the top of the chaff; he pauses for one minute;
and a whistle, forming the top of a pipe,
descending into the basement story is heard, that
signals "All right and ready." He turns a
handle, and presto! the floor of the trough turns
into tumbling waves of metal, which toss the
oats and the chaff hither and thither, mix them
up, and finally drop them, a heterogeneous mass
of horse-food, into sacks waiting their arrival
below. Three of these sacks are sent away
daily as food for each stud of ten horses; seven
large provender vans are, throughout the whole
of the day, conveying sacks to the different
district establishments; twenty-six men are
engaged at this depôt, each from six A.M. to six
P.M.; and the whole affair works without a hitch.

I have treated of the horse-service, the coach-
building service, and the foraging service of the
company. I may in conclusion come to its
human service, the drivers and conductors.

Each man, before entering on his duties, is
required to obtain from the Chief Commissioner
of the Metropolitan Police, a license to act. To
obtain this, he must give reference to three
respectable householders, and deposit five shillings
for the expenses attendant on the necessary
inquiries and issue of the license. If the references
be satisfactory, a license, in printed form,
describing the name, address, and general appearance
of the holder, is granted, and with it the
metal badge to be worn when on duty. These
licenses are renewable on the first of June in
each year, and as the magistrates endorse
on the paper every conviction or reprimand, the
renewal of the license is necessarily dependent
on the possessor showing a clean bill of health.
If the driver have no serious blot on his
character, and can prove to the satisfaction of the
superintendent that he is competent for the
management of horses, he is generally at once
accepted; but the conductor's character must
stand a greater test. He is virtually the
representative of the company on the omnibus, and to
him is confided a large amount of discretionary
power, such as the refusal to carry intoxicated
people, or such persons as by dress, demeanour,
&c., may be "fairly objectional to the
passengers." He is constituted the arbitrator
among "brawling passengers," and has, indeed,
a very stringent code of rules laid down for his
guidance one of which is, that he is to
"abstain from any approach to familiarity," which—
as in case of a pretty maid-servant with a not
unnatural susceptibility to approach—is, I take
it, soul-harrowing and impossible to be carried
out. As regards the collection of money, each
conductor is provided with a printed form of
"journey ticket," on which, at the end of every
journey, he is required to render an account
at some office on the route, of the number
of passengers carried, and amount of moneys
received. At the end of the day he makes a
summary, on another form, of the whole of
his journey-tickets, and next morning he pays
over, to the clerk in the office, the money he has
received during the previous day, deducting his
own wages and those of the driver, and any tolls
he may have paid. Every driver receives six
shillings a day, every conductor four shillings,
out of which the driver has to provide his whip
and apron, and the conductor the lamp and oil
for the interior of the omnibus. Both classes of
men are daily servants, liable to discharge at a
day's warning, but either can rest occasionally
by employing an "odd man," of whom there are
several at each district establishment, ready to
do "odd" work, from which they are promoted
to regular employment.

The receipts of the company are very large,
averaging between eleven and twelve thousand
pounds a week (in one week of the Exhibition
year they were above seventeen thousand
pounds), and I asked one of the chief officers if
he thought they were much pillaged? He told
me he had not the least doubt that, by
ductors alone, they were robbed to the extent
of twenty-five thousand pounds a year; and a
practical superintendent of large experience, on
my repeating this to him, declared that he
believed that sum did not represent the half of their
losses from the same source. I asked whether
no check could be devised, and was told none—at
least, none so efficient as to be worthy of the
name. Indicators of all kinds have been
suggested, but every indicator was at the mercy of
the conductor, who could clog it with wood,
and so allow three or more persons to enter or
depart, while the indicator only recorded the
entrance or exit of one; and unless some such
turntable as the turn-table in use at Waterloo-bridge
could be applied (for which there is obviously
no space in an omnibus), check was impossible.
The sole approach to such check lay in the
services rendered by a class of persons technically
known as "bookers," who were, in fact, spies,
travelling in the omnibus, and yielding to the
company an account of every passenger, the
length of his ride, and the amount of his fare.
But it was only in extreme cases, where the
conductor was incautious beyond measure, that
such evidence could be efficient against him.
These "bookers" are of all classes, men, women,
and children, all acting under one head, to whom
they are responsible, and who alone is
recognised by the company. The best of them is a
woman, who, it is boasted, can travel from
Islington to Chelsea, and give an exact, account
of every passenger, where he got in, where he
got out, what he was like, and the fare he paid.

I think I have now enumerated most of the
prominent features of our omnibus system.
When I have casually mentioned to friends the
work on which I was engaged, I have been
requested to bring forward this grievance and
that. Brownsmith, weighing fifteen stone, wants
only five persons allowed on one seat; little
Iklass, standing four feet six in height, wants
easier method of access to the roof. But my
intention was description, not criticism, and,
even if it were, I doubt whether I should be