FIRST COLUMN.

occupiers of the premises abutting thereon. The magistrates are to direct what is to be done in cases of dispute among occupiers in respect to this service.

408. SERVANTS acting dishonestly, mischievously, or committing any offence of lust on their master's premises or in his family, or absenting themselves without leave from his service, or being insolent or drunken therein, may be discharged without previous warning, although previous warning may have been part of the conditions of their hiring.

409. MASTERS not allowing their servants good and sufficient meat, drink, and lodging, or leading dishonest or infamous lives, may be left by their servants, although previous warning may not have been given.

410. DRUNKEN MEN, who create a disturbance or annoyance in any place, may be taken into custody by any one, and put into a watchhouse until sober, and be then produced before a magistrate, and subjected to the penalties of police. If men by continued drunkenness neglect work which they have undertaken to do, or disable themselves from paying a debt which they have contracted, or reduce themselves or some part of their families to require parochial relief, they subject themselves to the penalties of police.

411. IDLE MEN, who do not possess the means of supporting themselves without labor, and who refuse to work, or neglect work given to them, and thereby reduce themselves or some part of their families to require parochial relief, are subject to the penalties of police.

SECOND COL.

412. BEGGARS are persons who solicit alms of individuals Solitary impt. by words, looks, gestures, or importunate offers of goods of trifling value for sale.

1 week.

Solitary impt. 2 weeks.

413. If the begging be accompanied with interruption of way, with following the passenger, with reproaches, or other annoyance or rudeness. 414. If by an exposure of disease or infirmity, whether real Solitary impt. or assumed, which creates alarm or uneasiness to spectators. 2 weeks. 415. If the beggar be accompanied Loss of paternal rights in the parent, as reby a child, with the consent of its gards such child; and the civil authorities may send such child to a distant place, change parent, or if a child beg at the comits name, and separate as far as they are able, mand or with the concurrence of its all future knowledge between the child and parent. parent.

FIRST COLUMN.

416. If persons beg in company, unless as husband and wife, parents and young children, a blind man and his guide. 417. If beggars enter a house, or inclosure belonging thereto, without leave.

418. If habitual beggars.

419. VAGABONDS are persons who have no settled or avowed residence, and who neither gain a livelihood by the habitual exercise of labor, trade, or profession, nor have any legitimate and visible means of supporting themselves without industry.

420. A person charged with being a vagabond not being able to give any feasible account of his means of livelihood, and of whose honesty a reasonable suspicion exists, as being found in a crowded place, or loitering about any person or place apparently with a dishonest intention. 421. A vagabond or beggar taken masked or disguised, in any manner to conceal his identity.

Solitary impt. 1 week on ist

conviction, & 1 week addi

tional on every subsequent

conviction.

Solitary impt.

4 to 12 weeks.

Solitary impt. 4 to 12 weeks, and forfeiture of the property.

422. A vagabond or beggar found in possession of property exceeding in value 51. and who shall not satisfactorily show how he came by the same. 423. A vagabond Similar penalties to other vagabonds or beggars, or conveyance or beggar being a beyond the limits of the country, subject upon return to transportation for life. foreigner.

424. A vagabond or beggar may be examined by a magistrate as to his means of livelihood, and upon his failing to show that he possesses legal means, he may be put in solitary confinement for not exceeding seven days, and be then passed to his parish.

425. A CONVICTED THIEF being found in a crowded place which he might easily have avoided, or loitering about any person or place without any good excuse, and in a manner calculated to excite reasonable suspicion of his having a dishonest intention, or in any liquor shop or inn.

Solitary impt.

4 to 12 weeks.

426. Any vagabond, or beggar, or convicted thief, being Solitary impt. taken with arms or instruments for house-breaking in his 4 to 12 weeks. possession.

427 Part, not exceeding one half of a fine imposed upon an infraction of the regulations of police, may be given to the informer thereof, in cases where the magistrate trying the case shall recommend the same, and his recommenda tion shall be approved at the next general sessions.

POLICE CORPS.

In a dense population, and among a commercial people

whose changes of abode, employment, and condition, are incessant, offenders against the laws find opportunities of disguise and concealment which they do not possess in a simple and fixed state of society. A more vigorous Police then becomes necessary. In this, however, great care must be observed that while hunting down the bad the good be not injured, nor more expense to the public incurred than is necessary. By some the French police is thought to be excellent, as it certainly is very effective; but the inroads on private confidence and security made by the espionage system, and the impediments to social and commercial intercourse, caused by the passport system, compose too high a price for the advantages gained. In the other arrangements of the French police, however, there is much to applaud. The exact distribution of the police force, the regularity of the patrole, the vigilance with which proportionate detachments of the police show themselves wherever there is a large assembly of people, the civility with which the gens d'armes inforce good order, and the alacrity with which offenders are sought out by the police, free of expense to sufferers, are points well deserving of attention and imitation. With us the manner in which hordes of thieves are suffered to prowl about the metropolis and its neighbourhood, and rob and mal-treat passengers when a crowd is assembled, is a disgrace to our police system. Yet while these things are going on, officers in abundance are loitering about the police offices, in waiting for hire. Protection is reserved for individuals who will individually pay for it. For instance: the author deemed it necessary to have the attendance of a police officer at a meeting of a charitable nature. He applied to a sub-officer at Bow Street, and offered him a guinea to attend. He was told that it was contrary to etiquette for the sub to accept the job; one of the heads must be applied to. This was done: his charge was two guineas; but as he had become too rich a man to act manually, he like his superiors must have a deputy or assistant, and one guinea was to be paid to him: so that three guineas was the sum paid to the police officer for about three hours morning attendance, to scare off the pickpockets.

It is now proposed to remedy the defects of our police system by adding to the extent and emoluments of the establishments. Beaucoup d'argent is to cure every thing: but it is submitted, that unless the principles of our police bé mended, neither the extension of the number and pay of

police-men, nor the endowing them with inquisitorial powers, will add to the public security.

One of the objects of this essay is brevity. A lengthened disquisition upon police, therefore, will not be held; but the following propositions are submitted without further preface:

There ought to be a corps of police-men for the metropolis and its vicinity divisible into sections of eight men each, every section to be under the superintendence of an inspector.

The town and its suburbs ought to be divided into as many police divisions, with defined limits, as there are police offices.

The sections should be distributed in the different divisions, in proportion to the wants of each; leaving always a considerable reserve at the central or head office, to assist any division that may stand in need of it upon an emergency, and to yield detachments for fairs, fights, races, and other popular meetings at a distance. The police-men to be occasionally changed in their divisions.

There should be a day patrole, from 9 in the morning till 9 in the evening.

One half of the police-men in each division should be on patrole at a time in pairs, every two men having their assigned walk; the other half should remain at or near the police office, to be forthcoming for any special service. If an occasion should be anticipated in any division for a force beyond its own party, the officer thereof should send to the head office for aid. When any general excitement in the metropolis should call for a greater force than the regular police affords, extra men should be employed for the occasion.

The inspector of each section should make it his business to inform himself of the haunts of all the bad and suspicious characters in his division, and, as far as he is able, ascertain their connexions in guilt, and particularly of all receivers. Upon the expectation of a crowd or other occasion likely to encourage thieves or disorderly persons to assemble in any part of his division, he ought to provide some additional men for the occasion, without waiting for the application of any individuals for protection. He ought to go through his division at least once a day, in order to see that his men are on their walks. He ought to notice such as are absent; to minute the same in a book; also their excuses, and to examine into the truth of their excuses;

to attend to complaints of their conduct, and to report to the magistrates such complaints as appear to be well founded. If an inspector be negligent he should be reduced to the station of an ordinary police-man, or be discharged altogether.

Police-men ought to wear a hat-band of a peculiar form, that they may be known and appealed to by sufferers from, or observers of depredators or offenders, a mark which they may easily remove when they have occasion to divest themselves of their distinguishing dress. They ought to move constantly about their walks in pairs, or one within call of another, during their prescribed hours; they ought to notice and watch the movements of all bad characters, to make up to all crowds, and if people are quarrelling or fighting, to separate them, or take them before a magistrate if refractory; to warn persons from committing any breach of the regulations of police, or other slight offence, who appear about to commit any such offence, or who have committed a slight offence through ignorance or thoughtlessness; to apply for summonses of other offenders against regulations of police, whose abodes are known, and to take into custody offenders whose fixed abode is unknown to them. They are to clear the streets, and liquor shops, and inns, of all persons who are drunk, of all beggars, vagabonds,convicted cheats or thieves, and common prostitutes, and take them before a magistrate, also to enter other victualling houses, and in like manner take into custody such bad characters as may have been harboured therein beyond the space of one hour. They are also to seek for information of private houses, which are resorted to by dishonest persons, and to notice the parties who enter and quit the same, and make a report thereon to their inspector. They are to follow the lawful directions of their inspectors, and of all magistrates in authority over them. They are not to ask for or accept any reward from any one for discharging their duty beyond their stated pay and their share of penalties; nor are they to accept of any reward, bribe, or treat to forego their duty, or from persons who ought to be the objects of complaint.

It is conceived that the recent addition made to the police-men of the metropolis affords a numerical force sufficient to do the police business of the metropolis properly; but something more is necessary to be done before that force can be effective. The police-men ought to be subject to the immediate authority of the police magisVOL. XIX. Pam. NO. XXXVII.

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