Sedan chairs did not prove to be formidable rivals to the hackney-coaches, but they added considerably to the congestion of the streets. For this congestion the hackney-coaches were blamed, and on January 19, 1635, a proclamation was made “to restrain the multitude and promiscuous use of coaches about London and Westminster.” The proclamation was to the effect that “hackney-coaches were not only a great disturbance to his Majesty, his dearest consort the Queen, the nobility and others of place and degree in their passage through the streets; but the streets themselves were so pestered and the pavements so broken up, that the common passage is thereby hindered and made dangerous; and the prices of hay, provender, etc., thereby made exceeding dear. Wherefore we expressly command and forbid that no hackney-coaches or hired carriages be used or suffered in London, Westminster, or the suburbs thereof, except they be to travel at least three miles out of the same. And also that no person shall go in a coach to the said streets except the owner of the coach shall constantly keep up four able horses for our service when required.” This proclamation was either withdrawn or ignored, for in the following year there were many hackney-coaches plying for hire in London and Westminster, and the rivalry between hackney-coachmen and sedan-chairmen was humorously depicted in a pamphlet entitled, “Coach and Sedan pleasantly disputing for place and precedence.” In 1654, Parliament limited the number of hackney-coaches in London and Westminster to three hundred, with two horses apiece. It was also ordained that the government and regulation of hackney-coaches should be in the hands of the Court of Aldermen, and for the expense of regulating them, a tax of twenty shillings a year was placed on every vehicle. A few months after the Restoration hackney-coaches were forbidden, by a proclamation dated October 18, 1660, to ply for hire in the streets. But that this edict was evaded we have the authority of the delightful Samuel Pepys. Writing under the date of November 7 he states:-- “Notwithstanding that this was the first day of the king’s proclamation against hackney coaches coming into the streets to stand to be hired, yet I got one to carry me home.” In 1661 they numbered four hundred. They were small, narrow vehicles, drawn by two horses, on one of which sat the driver, wearing spurs and carrying a short whip. It was found, however, that they were very destructive to the paving-stones, and a tax of £5 a year was therefore placed on all hackney-coaches, the money thus obtained being expended on the repairing and cleansing of the roads.