nts of the public as to the
reckless driving of certain drivers of public vehicles, the
Commissioner of Police gives notice that every case of conviction
for dangerous and reckless driving will entail serious
consequences, and the renewal of the drivers' licences may be
imperilled.

"Repeated convictions for exceeding the speed limit by drivers of
public vehicles will be considered to constitute evidence of
reckless driving."

Such hints bring home to drivers a remembrance that their livelihood
depends upon their good conduct. They never know when they may be under
surveillance, and they know that every time they transgress it is
entered in the records, which are scrutinised when an application comes
for a renewal of licence. Nearly 200 licences were cancelled or recalled
in 1913.

There is a Committee of Appeal at Scotland Yard, to which most cases of
this kind are referred, so that no man is deprived of his licence
without a fair hearing and reasonable cause. This committee heard no
fewer than 1,648 cases during 1913.

Some of us may recall painful memories of the early days of taxicabs,
when taximeters were not altogether above suspicion, and deft
manipulation with a hatpin or some other jugglery was possible, by which
fares and cab-owners were defrauded.

Those days have passed. A taximeter when it has once been sealed by
Scotland Yard is now a sternly conscientious instrument, with a regard
for the truth that might shame George Washington. There is a separate
register of taximeters kept cross-indexed to cabs, so that the number of
the latter is all that is necessary to reveal the record of a particular
taximeter.

Eight different kinds of badges are issued, varying in colour. Thus an
officer can tell at a glance who holds a conductor's licence, who has a
horse-cab licence and who a taxi-cab licence. In a few cases composite
badges are allowed, by which a man may act either as driver or
conductor, or as driver of a horse or motor vehicle.

All men of the department are police officers, but they are something
more. They are living directories of London and its suburbs from Colney
Heath, Herts, to Todworth Heath, Surrey, from Lark Hall, Essex, to
Staines Moor, Middlesex; they are skilful engineers; they have a keen
eye for the defects and qualities of a horse; they can drive a horse or
a motor car, they know the conditions of traffic in Piccadilly Circus or
in the de