to its investment with that degree of authority without which it cannot now be beneficial to the public.

In thus considering this subject as connected with the metropolis, the defects of our police have been in a great degree attributable to the feeling of the people; it was formerly in very low estimation, a consideration in itself of sufficient influence to deter men of higher endowments and qualifications from devoting themselves to it; and this cause has I apprehend operated upon every part of its composition. The practices too of former years had a strong tendency to confirm this feeling; if, therefore, there be any degree of it yet remaining, it becomes the interest of the Legislature, the Government, and the people, instantly to remove it; because the power and influence of the laws are best supported and preserved by the dignity and character of those who execute them.

I have been drawn to a greater length than I intended in these preliminary observations, from the conviction that the subject has yet occupied but a small share of the public attention; and that, however many may have witnessed and felt the inefficacy of our existing police, few have considered the means of its effectual improvement; and of those, some may yet hesitate at their adoption, from the unfounded constitutional objections which have been raised against them. It is these objections which make the right understanding of the subject so imperatively necessary, inasmuch as if they be not completely removed, the evils of which we now complain, great as they are, will be infinitely greater by continuance. With this conviction, I proceed to the view of those means by which I conceive that alteration will be practicable and efficient.

The principle of our present police establishment is, perhaps, as little objectionable as any that can be devised for the regulation of the metropolis. The division of the town into districts, over which distinct offices, with their establishments, maintain their several jurisdictions, seems to present the most likely means of affording to each its adequate protection. Magistrates and officers might, with efficient means, have thereby the opportunity of becoming acquainted with the character of the inhabitancy under their protection, and of ascertaining and discovering the persons and the pursuits of those whom it is their peculiar province to watch and control. In this respect, (so far as authorities differently circumstanced could be assimilated,) the capital might have much of the ad

vantage of our provincial magistracy, if facilities proportioned to its exigencies were afforded to the magistrates acting in London, so as to give them a constant and pervading view of the districts committed to their charge. If, therefore, the operation of police has hitherto disappointed public expectation, the failure is neither attributable to the Government, nor to those who have its administration or execution in their hands. This failure has arisen in addition to the causes before mentioned, from the insufficiency of power and of means in every department, and from the disproportionate strength between those who administer, and those who violate the laws.

It is hopeless then to expect an efficient police, unless the Legislature will impart to it that influence and those large means which will give the necessary impulse, direction, and force, to all its executive branches. With these means, I think that no one who has rightly considered the subject, and witnessed the practical illustration of effective police in its most arduous struggles with a criminal population, can doubt the issue of a contest betwen the law and its violation.

Experiment is the only test by which we can try a question of this sort, and answer the scepticism of those who imagine because difficulties have not given way to the means hitherto adopted against them, that all further attempts must necessarily be visionary and abortive. But such, unfortunately, is the conviction of many who thence infer that preventive police is impracticable.

Notwithstanding such opposers, I maintain, that if police can be made effective in one part of the town, it may be so in another; and that if it has been tried successfully in a place where the obstacles were most formidable, its success may à fortiori, be reasonably expected, with less means, and greater ease, where such difficulties do not exist; and further, that if it be so in one or more districts, it may be universally obtained throughout the whole metropolis, by the application and extension of the means which have in those places proved successful.

A striking exemplification of this principle has fallen within my own observation and practice. In the parish of Spitalfields there had existed for a long time, the most open and daring defiance of all law and its authorities that ever was exhibited in the metropolis;-it was not the hidden retreat of criminals, whence they emerged by night, to commit unseen depredations or outrage, from which they might reasonably hope to escape; but there was in this parish actually

a community of thieves, and of the most profligate characters, of all ages and descriptions, who, in the face of day, dared with impunity the approaches of any force that the police could collect against them. There was also in the parish a point of nightly concentration, whither these persons resorted, and where, under the pretence of a bear-bait, they concerted their manifold operations, and from which they departed in pursuit of them; which spot too, from the exhibition of a ferocious sport, attracted numbers of idle and thoughtless spectators, many of whom, doubtless, soon became the victims of curiosity and of subsequent corruption. This place was under ground, peculiarly suited to resist all hostile approaches from the police; and the numbers assembled were generally so great, as to make it impossible to invade them with the ordinary police force, but at the risk of probable destruction. These nuisances and crying enormities had existed for years: representation after representation had been made to the magistrates; they had the will, but not the power to remove them. At last, the evil rose to such a height, and made the residence in and passage through the district so alarming, that the inhabitants themselves determined to try the effect of an internal police, to enlist themselves in the public service, and to add their strength to the limited force of the regular establishment. Through the activity, zeal and spirit of some of the principal inhabitants of the parish, one hundred and eight special constables were sworn in, and set to work in earnest, taking all the duty of regularly-established patroles. When this force was duly organized, and effectually set in motion, it was resolved to attack the main holds of these formidable gangs; this celebrated bear-bait was accordingly visited under a privy search-warrant, by the united strength of the regular and parochial force; a scene took place something like the memorable Cato-Street attack. The senior officer at Worship-Street, with a few others, effected their entrance, while the bear-bait with all its clamor was going on; that aged and valuable officer (without arms) told the assemblage his errand; symptoms of resistance ensued, but he informed them it was in vain; that above a hundred constables surrounded the premises, and that they could not escape; an attempt was then made to extinguish the lights, but the same officer taking a dark lantern from his pocket, turned the light upon them, and told them that there was light enough in their pockets, to see them all; this, with an unsuccessful effort of some to escape through a little outlet, closed the scene. The officer then very quietly apprized them, that his object was only to appre

hend the characters described in his warrant, and that the rest might peaceably depart. He then desired them all to file off slowly and gradually, and the officers selected the more notorious, who were carried to the office; the bear-ward was committed to the House of Correction, as a rogue and vagabond; the common thieves were holden to bail; the bear-bait ceased, the place was shut up, and the rendezvous destroyed. Another public annoyance, of much longer standing, was in a short time, by means of this new police, removed. There was a particular part of the parish whither thieves and infamous characters of all sorts resorted in mid-day, and where gaming, transfer of plunder, and every sort of iniquity was continually practised. It had been sought in vain even to mitigate this nuisance; but, by the more effectual means which a large police afforded, and the apprehension which it excited, this place was also completely cleared; and thus the parish was freed from these two sources of annoyance and danger to which it had so long been exposed. The streets, too, were brought to a state of security, from the vigilance and perambulation of a constant nightly Patrole. The neighbouring parish was, about the same time, infested by the practice of bull-baits, and the consequent accumulation which they brought of the desperate characters of the town. With the aid of a numerous internal force, raised by the same spirit, and created upon the same principles as the former, that parish also, with equally laudable efforts, completely removed those brutal scenes, and restored peace and security to its inhabitants. Such, then, was the influence of a mere temporary incidental police to meet extreme emergencies; and here was no legislation, nothing but what every body can understand, may be done any where, and which requires nothing but an adequate force to do every where.

I am nevertheless aware that it would be too much to expect the devotion of time which is called for, and the personal hazards to which such public-spirited persons must be exposed, in the gratuitous discharge of services like those which I have mentioned; it must, therefore, devolve upon the regular establishment, to afford the security which, in these instances, private individuals procured for themselves.

If, in answer to these illustrations, the familiar argument be used, that it amounts to nothing more than expulsion from one parish, and a pressure upon another, I would say to each

'I am informed, that this parish continues still in a state of quiet and security, from the mere effect of this accidental police.

in succession, (applying myself to the established police,) "Do thou likewise;" and so, wherever it might be necessary, to the very bounds of the metropolis.

In an adequate permanent police, therefore, the arrangement of our offices should form the objects of primary attention, that from them may spring all the energies of the system, which, in its detail, is to give security to the metropolis. With this view, each office should be the depository of all information which may tend to the good order and regulation of its district, and should daily have under its view all circumstances and characters connected with that object. In every office there should be a register of all houses which are the receptacles of known thieves, and of such discoverable persons as have no visible means of honest subsistence. This information would afford to the magistrates that local knowledge and insight into the character of the district, which is one of the most useful properties of magisterial jurisdiction; it would give them a view which their own eye cannot command, and make offenders their object, rather then offences their daily business; it would also bring the principle of preventive police into immediate action, by forcing upon the officers, inspection, vigilance, and daily communication, and render flight the only security for those who were subjected to such incessant observation. Here is, at once, an extent of police, upon which the great question of improvement may ultimately depend; but, if improvement be necessary, it will be impossible to avoid the full developement of the means by which it may be attained.

In every district, then, there should be a superintending police commensurate with the character, neighbourhood, and extent of its population, and with the facilities and temptations which they produce for the commission of crime. This force being duly apportioned, each office should give to it such a daily distribution as to cover every part of the inhabitancy demanding protection. There is nothing new in this principle; the Bow-street and Thames Police Establishments are founded upon it; and if the former has fallen short of its intended operation, the failure is attributable to insufficiency of strength, not to any error in the principle of its formation; and I trust that the instance which I have heretofore adduced will confirm this opinion. But to revert to the distribution of our police; it will not be enough that officers be directed to pervade with their different divisions the districts committed to their protection, but they must pervade, and be known to pervade them; the force so regulated should, therefore, make a daily