In 1601 sympathisers with the watermen succeeded in getting a Bill passed in the House of Commons "to restrain the excessive and superfluous use of coaches." It was thrown out by the House of Lords, though in 1614 the Commons, in turn, refused to pass a "Bill against outrageous coaches." In 1622 the Water Poet published a work, "An Errant Thief," etc., in which he dealt at length with the great injury that was being done to the watermen by the coaches, saying, among other things:-- "Carroches, coaches, jades and Flanders mares, Do rob us of our shares, our wares, our fares; Against the ground we stand and knock our heeles, Whilst all our profit runs away on wheeles. And whosoever but observes and notes The great increase of coaches and of boates, Shall find their number more than e'er they were By halfe and more, within these thirty yeare; Then watermen at sea had service still, And those that stay'd at home had worke at will; Then upstart hel-cart coaches were to seek, A man could scarce see twenty in a weeke; But now I think a man may dayly see More than the wherrys on the Thames can be." In the following year he published another work, "The World Runnes on Wheeles," in which he dealt further with the woes of the watermen. But the coaches continued to increase alike in number and in public favour, and the position of the watermen became still worse in 1625, when the already numerous private carriages were supplemented in London by hackney carriages let out for hire, though these did not, at first, exceed twenty in number, while they had to be hired direct from the stables of their owners. In 1633 it was found that the river traffic was being prejudiced more and more by the greater use of vehicles in the streets. Whether or not in sympathy with the watermen, the Star Chamber issued an Order which said:-- "As to a complaint of the stoppage of the streets by the carriages of persons frequenting the play-house of the {60}Blackfriars, their lordships, remembering that there is an easy passage by water unto that play-house, without troubling the streets, and that it is much more fit and reasonable that those which go thither should go by water, or else on foot, do order all coaches to leave as soon as they have set down, and not return till the play is over, nor return further than the west end of Saint Paul's Church Yard, or Fleet conduit; coachmen disobeying these orders to be committed to Newgate or Ludgate."