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POLICE ESTABLISHMENTS

OF THE

METROPOLIS.

Our intention at first was to bring also under this head an account of salaries in courts of justice, and the number and emoluments of persons connected with the administration of law; but, on reflecting upon the immense swarm of attorneys, conveyancers, notaries, lawyers, judges, and chancellors, with which the country is impoverished and distracted, we determined to treat of these classes separately;-besides, the subjects themselves do naturally suggest this division: the object of police is the prevention and detection of crime, and the object of the administration of law is its punishment.

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In treating this and every other subject, the reader must bear in mind that our chief object is to expose the numbers and emoluments of persons whose interests are, more or less, identified with the continuance of the boroughsystem.

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For greater perspicuity in this article, we shall give an account of the Police in the following order:-First, a general account of these establishments. Secondly, their emoluments. Thirdly, a statement of their total expense to the public. Fourthly, their patronage. Lastly, their abuses.

POLICE-OFFICES.-In the metropolis there are nine different police-esta blishments, namely, Bow-street, Marlborough-street, Hatton-garden, Worship-street, Whitechapel, Shadwell, Queen-square, Union-Hall, and the Thames-police. These offices have no communication or connexion with each other; each acting independently in its own jurisdiction, unless particular circumstances require a general co-operation. Three justices preside in each office, with a suitable establishment of clerks, constables, office-keepers, door-keepers, messengers, gaolers, &c. The magistrates attend the office in rotation, one each day; the hours they ought to attend are from ten in the morning to three in the afternoon, and then again at seven in the evening: some part of the establishment, however, is always in attendance both night and day, to be ready in case of emergency. The general object of the

Police Establishments of the Metropolis.

establishments is the preservation of the peace-the prevention of crimes—the apprehension of offenders and their examination and committal to prison. The office in Bow-street is considered the principal, both in magnitude, the experience and ability of its magistrates, and the activity and address of its officers. This establishment consists at present of the three magistrates, three clerks, eight police-officers, 100 patroles, one office-keeper, messenger, and house-keeper, two door-keepers, two gaolers, an assistant-messenger and the editor of the Hue and Cry Gazette.

EMOLUMENTS.-The following is a statement of the salaries of the principal officers on the Bow-street establishment :Chief Magistrate, (Sir N. Conant)

For attending the home-office
For superintending the horse-patrole

The two other magistrates, £ 600 each

Chief clerk....

£600

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* Second ditto

Third ditto....

Police officers, per week

Patrole, per night.

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Conductor of the patrole, ditto...

Editor of the Hue and Cry Gazette.

Surgeon

5 0

60 0 0

140 0

In the police, as in almost every other establishment under government, the salaries of the different officers form a very small portion of their total emoluments. Many of the clerks are solicitors; their duties, perhaps, are discharged by an assistant, or distributed among the other clerks, while they are discharging the functions of some other situation. Some of the clerks practise as solicitors, on their own account, in the office; and, in some instances, act as solicitors both for plaintiff and defendant. Mr. Stafford, chief clerk at Bow-street, is clerk of indictments on the home-circuit, and of the Middlesex Sessions, and is generally absent eight weeks in the year. In the exaction of fees the public appear to be left, in a great measure, at their mercy. At Hatton-Garden, extra fees are charged in some cases for informations, and for the drawing of affidavits; and if a landlord applies for the restoration of his house, he is charged four guineas, two of which are pocketed by the clerk. *

*Third Report of the Police of the Metropolis, p. 149. Nearly the whole of this account is taken from the evidence of the parties themselves, as published in the Police-Reports.

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Police Establishments of the Metropolis.

The guinea a week paid to the officers is only their retaining fee; their chief emoluments are derived from other sources. Three of them, Townsend, Sayer, and Vickery, have £200 each for attending the Regent while in town and at Brighton. Any of them have a guinea a day when they attend at the Bank, the Custom-house, and Excise and Stamp offices; and the same allowance per night, for attending the Opera or the Theatres. They receive considerable sums from private individuals employing them in town or country; and not unfrequently a handsome gratuity from the libertine sons of the higher orders for shielding them from the consequence of their brawls in gaming-houses, brothels, and other licentious places. On the apprehension of a burglar, they receive what is technically termed a

Tyburn Ticket;" it exempts the holder from parochial duties; it is assignable, and is generally sold for about £30 to some person who wishes to be exempt from the laborious and unpleasant duties of constable. The last source of emolument we shall mention is the parliamentary rewards, or blood money, on the conviction of criminals. The sums derived from this source, as is well known, are not only in proportion to the turpitude of offenders, but also to the turpitude of the officer.

The horse-patrole receive 28s. a week, and their conductor, Mr. Day, keeper of the criminal registers, in the home-office, £100 per annum. TOTAL EXPENSE OF THE POLICE OFFICES. Of the nine police offices, seven were established, in 1792, by act of parliament. They were all brought under the view of the House, in the 28th Report of Finance, which was ordered to be printed in 1798. From that Report it appearsThat the annual average of the total expense of the seven police offices, taken from the time of their institution in August 1792, to the end of 1797, a period of nearly 5 years, amounted to,

£18,281 16 6

The total expenses of the same offices, (which do not include the office in Bow-street, nor the Thames-police,) amounted,

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By the 9th section of the 54th Geo. III. it is enacted, That the whole charges of the seven offices shall not exceed the annual sum of £24,000, over and above the necessary disbursements, for hiring and repairing the

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Police Establishments of the Metropolis.

houses and building wherein the said seven offices shall be held. But what is most remarkable, is the enormous increase, in a few years, in the annual expenditure, namely, from £18,000 to £24,000 per annum, being onefourth of the total expense.

The cost of each of the different establishments was, according to the return in 1814, 1815, 1816, and 1817, as follows:

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From these sums must be subtracted the receipt of money arising from fees appropriated to the public service, and which, in the different policeoffices, not including Bow-street, amounted,

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Hence we have the net sum paid out of the public treasury—

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The most remarkable item in this statement is the prodigious expense of the Bow-street establishment, which has nearly doubled in the space of twenty From the 28th report of the Finance Committee, already mentioned, it appears

years.

That the expense of this office, in the year 1797, including

remuneration to magistrates, in lieu of fees, and perquisites for

special services, as well as for the patrole, amounted only to £7901 7 9

.

The items of expenditure at Bow-street, in the year ending 5th January, 1818, were as follow:

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After this full exposition of police expenditure, we shall only make one remark, namely, that the expenditure in this department, as in almost every other under government, has been gradually increasing, while the ability of the people to support it has been gradually decreasing.

PATRONAGE. The act of 1792 made a very considerable addition to the patronage of the crown. The appointment to nearly all offices in the police is vested in the secretary of state for the home department. He appoints the magistrates and chief clerk; and the other officers appointed by the magistrates, with the exception of the two door-keepers, two gaolers, and an assistant messenger, are subject to his approbation. So eager is lord Sidmouth to thrust a portion of his creatures into the police-many of whom perhaps have occupied situations in the espionage corps-that he lately nominated to some of the subaltern offices contrary to law. According to the 54 Geo. III. cap. 37, constables and other officers are to be appointed by the magistrates, subject to the approbation of the secretary of state. Notwithstanding this law, the pious secretary, in 1815, without waiting for the nomination of the magistrates, appointed four constables in the public office, Worship-street. Of the four persons thus nominated by him, one declined his appointment; another, an abandoned character, who hired himself out as a fraudulent bail, and who was imprisoned in the King's Bench, and not being able to perform his duty, he was turned out of the office; the remaining two were confirmed in their situations, in defiance of the remonstrance of the magistrates.

POLICE ABUSES.-The nature and general organization of the police of the metropolis is very little known; there are very few works which treat on the subject. With the exception of Mr. Colquhoun's two works, and the parliamentary reports, there is no source whence information can be obtained on this subject. The jurisdiction of the offices we have been describing is confined principally to the suburbs, and does not extend into the city of London, properly so called. Both in London and the city of Westminster there are separate establishments for the maintenance of the peace, and of which establishments it will be necessary to give a short account, before we

*Third Report of Police, p. 22.

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