Police Establishments of the Metropolis. can discuss with advantage the abuses, defects, and influence of the present system of police. And, first, of the CITY OF LONDON.-According to the evidence of the late city marshal, Mr. Holdsworth, thieves, pickpockets, and depredators of every description, have been nearly expelled from the City by the vigilance of the magistrates and police. Whenever any of the light-fingered gentry venture into the City, it is with great fear and trembling; and if ever they attempt any thing professionally, it is a great chance, unless they use great despatch, but they will be discovered by some member of the police. "Soames (says Mr. Holdsworth) just came through Temple-bar to take a peep in the City, and just beyond the Temple-gate he picked a pocket, and was returning with the pocket-book he had taken, when he was seized; one of our patrole saw him do it, and immediately took him by the collar, and found the gentleman whose pocket he saw picked; the case was as plain and clear as possible." The establishment by which these great things here boasted of have been accomplished, consists of the lord mayor; the 25 aldermen, who preside in their respective wards; the two marshals, constables, patroles, beadles, &c. The salaries and emoluments of some of the stipendiary offices, as far as they can be obtained, are as follow: Upper marshal Of this sum, £100 is received as a gratuity from the court of aldermen, and £40 from the commissioners of the lottery, for taking care of the wheel. £600 0 0 Besides this sum, the patroles receive extra pay for any particular service, or when they are employed by private individuals. 550 0 0 1120 0 0 1 10 6 In the City of Westminster the police is the least effective of any part of the capital. The lord high steward, who appoints the court of burgesses, is the principal officer. Next to the lord high steward and his deputy is the high bailiff and his deputy. These, with the high constable, who has under his control 80 constables, appointed by the court of burgesses, constitute the whole civil power of Westminster; a place which contains 14,000 householders, and 200,000 inhabitants. No emolument is attached to the office of lord high steward, nor to the court of burgesses, who are chosen from among the principal house-holders. The dean and chapter have the disposal of all offices. The regular sum given for the office of high bailiff, to which considerable emoluments are attached, is £2000. Police Establishments of the Metropolis. We have now given a short account of the three great branches of Police; namely, the nine public offices, the police establishments of the city of London and the city of Westminster. In the first of these branches, the appointment to all offices of consequence is in the crown; in the second, in the corporation of the city of London; and in the third, in the dean and chapter of Westminster. · We have also given a statement of the salaries and emoluments of the stipendiary officers, as far as they can be obtained. To complete this part of our subject, we shall insert a statement of the total number of persons reguJarly attached to the Police. 1st. City of London.-City marshals Marshals' men Beadles Parochial constables, including principals, sub stitutes, and 32 extra officers 2d. City of Westminster.—Lord high steward and his deputy High bailiff and his deputy 85 3d. Middlesex Parishes.-Holborn division, high constable and petty 4th. Tower Liberty.-High constable and constables Clerks 218 Police officers, at Hatton Garden 10, at the other offices 8 each Patrole, 87 men, and 13 conductors To which add beadles, watchmen, and patroles Add also justices of the peace in Westminster, who have 74 100 63 291 2044 the spot Total civil force in the metropolis 150* 3384 * In that part of the metropolis situate in the county of Middlesex, there are about 800 justices, including the princes of the royal family, many of the nobility, great officers of state, and members of parliament. Police Establishments of the Metropolis. Of this number about 2422 are stipendiary situations, the rest are parochial offices, the duties of which are discharged without any ostensible emolument. ABUSES, DEFECTS, AND INFLUENCE, OF THE POLICE SYSTEM OF THE METROPOLIS. COLQUHOUN says, that foreigners who visit the metropolis and contemplate the nature and organization of our police establishments, concur in one general remark, namely, "That we have some shadow of police for apprehending delinquents after crimes are actually committed, but none for the purpose of preventing them.”—This is exactly the case. The public is put to an enormous expense; an immense number of individuals are employed; and the object of both is merely to apprehend offenders-neither to remove nor investigate the cause of their delinquency. That such a system is defective is undeniable. Besides crimes which originate in natural depravity, there are a far greater number which proceed from the want of education, from indigence, and other unavoidable causes. Now the object of an enlightened and liberal system of police would be not so much to punish such crimes, but to root out the causes of their perpetration. Punishment, in one point of view, is injurous rather than beneficial to the community: it degrades the individual; his character, which formed perhaps his most valuable inheritance, and the chief means of obta ning a livelihood, is impaired: deprived of that, and having less to lose, he is rendered careless about the commission of future depredations. Thousands of offenders have been necessitated to continue a course of guilt, from being thus deprived of any other means of subsistence. Judges, in passing sentence, generally expatiate on the advantages of an honest and virtuous course of life, but they generally forget that the sentence they are pronouncing is one great obstacle to the culprit following their advice: the criminal, at first a voluntary offender, is subsequently rendered so from neccessity. The evidence of Townsend, the police-officer, in the case of the celebrated Barrington, is strikingly illustrative of this point: Police Establishments of the Metropolis. “I agree (says he) with George Barrington, whom I brought from Newcastle; and however great Lord Chief Baron Eyre's speech was to him, after he had answered him, it came to this climax: Now,' says he, Townsend, you heard what the Chief Baron said to me; a fine flowery speech, was it not? But he did not answer the question I put to him.' Now, how could he? Now all the Chief Baron said to him, after he was acquitted, giving him advice, this word was every thing; says he, My lord, I have paid great attention to what you have been stating to me after my acquittal; I return my sincere thanks to the jury for their goodness. But your lordship says, you lament very much that a man of my abilities does not turn my abilities to a better use. Now, my lord, I have only this reply to make, I am ready to go into any service to work for my, living, if your lordship will but find me a master.' Why, what was the reply to that? Gaoler, take the prisoner away.' Why, who would employ him? that was the point. It is really farcical with me, sometimes, when I have heard magistrates say, Young man, really, I am very sorry for you; you are much to be pitied; you should turn your talents to a better account, and you should really leave off this bad course of life.' Yes, that is better said than done; for where is there any body to take these wretches? I will take upon myself to say, that I have known this to be a clear case, which they have said to me- Sir, we do not thieve from disposition, but we thieve because we cannot get employment; our character is damned, and nobody will hire us.' And so it is, there is no question about it. Then again, upon the other hand, there are cases where men might do and will not."-Police Report, July 1816. p. 143. It is considered a great hardship to be ironed or imprisoned before trial, but the injustice is infinitely greater, when the penalty of the law has been suffered, and an offender is starving from the infamy it has attached to his character. Both cases are unjust, but in the former the punishment only lasts for a few months, at the most; but, perhaps, in the latter, it sticks to the unfortunate individual through life. This is the case with thousands every year, who return from transportation, whose term of imprisonment is expired, or perhaps who have only been confined under the bare suspicion of criminality. This, then, is one defect in our police; it affords to an offender no opportunity to regain his station in society, after the law, in attempting to reform him, has rendered reformation impossible. The other defect noticed under this head, is, the police not preventing crimes originating in indigence and other unavoidable causes. Notwithstanding the cumbersome and expensive nature of the present system, it is vastly inadequate to the protection of the inhabitants, and they are exposed to the most shameless imposition and depredations. We have seen that the number of peace-officers is 3384; and that the cost of the police-offices is more than £50,000 per annum; yet notwithstanding, if the statements of Mr. Colquhoun, the chief magistrate of Queen-square, be any where near the truth, immorality and crime prevail to an incredible extent. He estimates the annual value of the depredations committed in the metropolis and its vicinity, in ONE YEAR, at £2,000,000. The particular heads of this immense sum, which he says are drawn from the best information, are as follow: The fields near London are dreadfully plundered, especially on a Sunday. On that day, few gardens within five miles escape a visit from the marauders; and the farmers' fields are plundered every day of fruit, roots, cabbages, pulse, and corn to an immense amount. The ears of wheat are cut from the sheaves and carried off in the most daring manner, in open day, in various ways, but mostly in bags containing about half a bushel each. It has been estimated that 20,000 bushels of all the various sorts are thus carried away every Sunday morning; and 10,000 more during the other six days of the week; or one million and a half bushels a year, which, if valued at so small a sum às sixpence each, would amount to £37,000. The occupiers of land around London, lose annually in this manner to the amount of more than 20s. an acre. † The frauds and felonies committed in the course of a year in respect to horses are still more incredible. Of thirty thousand of these useful animals, said to be flayed and boiled annually in the metropolis, at the seventeen licensed houses, about one-fourth are brought there alive, supposed chiefly to be stolen horses. When one reads this history of pillage and robbery, by a police magistrate, supposing it only tolerably correct, one would imagine there is no police in existence; or rather that it were instituted more for the protection of thieves and vagabonds than the honest and industrious part of the community. But the frauds and impositions practised on the public in respect of provisions, and connived at by a venal or inefficient police, are still more abominable. Without mentioning coffee, tea, bread, and other commodities, notoriously adulterated, let us take the single article of milk, which forms a necessary and wholesome beverage for all ages and conditions. The number of milch cows kept for supplying the metropolis with this † It is calculated that the depredations committed on the landed interest probably amounts to 4s. an acre per annum, on all the cultivated lands in England; or to eight millions of pounds sterling per annum; and including the injuries done by game and vermin, it is supposed that the farmer's property suffers to the amount of 10s. an acre, or nearly twenty millions annually. |