riod to which they refer, that is now before the public; and if the sketch which they present of the growing debts and burdens of the country be such as to teach her an impressive lesson of prudence and economy, it is no less calculated, by the display of her

great wealth and resources, to silence those shallow persons who are so forward to announce to the world, that a failure of pecuniary means might have compelled England to submit her fortunes to the insolence of her enemies.

THE feelings of the people of England were, about the beginning of this year, wound up to the highest pitch of amazement and horror, by the perpetration of barbarities hitherto unparalleled in the annals of the country. Crimes of deep atrocity, of wanton and savage cruelty, have been of rare occurrence in this island; and although offences against property have increased in full proportion to the growing wealth and luxury of the people, it is to the honour of the national character, that crimes of aggravated baseness and enormity have been little known amongst us. In some foreign countries, excesses of all kinds are so frequent, that they excite neither indignation nor horror; they are enumerated among the ordinary occurrences of the day, and quickly sink into oblivion. When such acts are perpetrated in this country, one general movement of detestation pervades the public mind; the whole powers of the magistracy are put in the most vigorous operation; the attention of the legislature is instantly roused, and the land resounds with shouts of indignation and vengeance.

The solitary malignity of a wretch whose name will in future be classed

VOL. V. PART I.

with those of the monsters who have outraged and astounded humanity, had exterminated two whole families of innocent and unoffending beings, with circumstances of matchless cruelty.The metropolis was in a ferment; alarm and distraction pervaded all corners of it; every one dreaded, lest himself and all who were dear to him, might become the next victims of a malignity, which seemed to transcend all limits, and to defy all calculation. The nature and extent of the conspiracy were, for some time, unknown; and as no one could think that a single bloodthirsty monster could have required so much to satiate him, the existence of an extensive and formidable combination was very generally believed. In the alarm of the moment, many causeless arrests took place, and many innocent persons were exposed to a painful and disgraceful scrutiny. The real crimi nal, however, was at last secured; yet owing to a degree of negligence which must for ever reflect discredit on those to whose care he was entrusted, he was suffered to elude by suicide the vengeance of the law. Conjectures, formed in the moment of alarm and dismay, were contradicted, to the surprise and relief of all; the ruffian, who

G

had already disappointed the justice of the country, was ascertained to have been the solitary actor in the late atrocious scenes, and people seemed to have learned, for the first time, the extent which human ferocity was capable of reaching.

Some great fault, it was supposed, must be chargeable on a system of police, which exposed the inhabitants of London to such dangers, and as the first suggestions of fear are always extravagant, many persons would have been willing to have surrendered their liberties, with the view of securing protection to their persons. A cry was raised for the establishment of a preventative armed police; but the madness of such a proposal could not long escape observation.

A preventative armed police can be nothing but a military police, and to subject the metropolis, as well as all the more considerable cities in the kingdom, to the government of soldiers, would have been, in fact, to surrender the liberties of the country. Those who appeared to believe that the soldiers might easily have been retained in subordination to the civil power, must have known little of the character of an army. It can never be safe to tell a body of men, who are naturally desirous of pre-eminence, that the tranquillity of the state cannot be preserved without their aid, nor is it possible, after such a declaration, to enforce respect to the civil power, which thus declares itself incompetent to the exercise of its most important functions. But besides being more dangerous, a military police must be always less effective than a well-ordered civil police; close and patient attention to the discovery and prevention of crimes constitutes the most valuable quality of all establishments of this kind; a quality which can never be expected in soldiers, whose mode of life tends to encourage in them habits

of a kind so opposite. The absurdity of this plan, in short, which was the mere offspring of a momentary alarm, soon became apparent, even to those who had originally proposed it, and the project of a military police was speedily abandoned.

The defects, however, in many parts of the actual establishment could not escape observation.-It was not till the year 1774, that parliament interfered with the police of the metropolis, by passing an act, which applied only to fifteen of the most populous parishes. Each parish had, in former times, provided the means for its own protection; but by the act referred to, directors and trustees were appointed, under whose controul, the watch, the patrole, and the beadles, were placed. The immense increase of the metropolis, however, since the act was passed, had gone far to destroy its efficacy; and various abuses had crept in, by which some of the most important provisions of the statute were disregarded. The act had, in particular, provided, that none but able-bodied men should be appointed to guard the streets at night, a provision which had been notoriously evaded for a number of years. It was the opinion of government, however, that the laws already in existence, if properly enforced, would, with some slight alterations and amendments, be found quite sufficient for the preservation of the public peace; but before recommending any measure to parliament, it was the wish of ministers that due enquiry should be made into all the circumstances by a committee of the House of Commons.

Mr Ryder, the secretary of state for the home department, accordingly moved for the appointment of a committee to examine into the state of the

nightly watch of the metropolis and the parishes adjacent. It was stated on this occasion, that although no system of police, however vigorous, could

have prevented the late atrocities, it was the opinion of government that these shocking occurrences afforded of themselves sufficient ground for enquiry. All intention of resorting to a military police was anxiously disclaimed, not only on account of the danger with which such a measure would be attended to the liberties of the country, but on account of its inefficacy to secure even those objects for which some timid persons might be willing to surrender their rights. It was remarked, that even in countries where the preservation of the peace is committed to the care of an armed police, furnished with all the powers of the most vigorous despotism, atrocities such as those which had thrown this country into a state of consternation, were frequently committed.-It was a melancholy fact, however, that, making all due allowance for the exaggerations which at this time prevailed, offences, though not of the deepest enormity, had been multiplied beyond the experience of former years; and it was this circumstance which imperiously called upon parliament to institute the proposed enquiry. The most prominent defects in the police establishment arose out of the improper appointment of weak and disabled persons for the nightly watch, many of whom, it was generally known, had procured their nominations to prevent them from becoming burdens upon the parish. It appeared that an improvement in the state of the watch had, in one instance at least, been attended with the most signal benefit. The parish of Christ Church, Spitalfields, which had formerly exhibited a scene of riot, uproar, and crime, had, by a parochial exertion tending to improve the nightly watch, become of late almost proverbial for its good or der and regularity. But, at all events, a more proper course could not in such

a case be followed than the appointment of a committee composed of gentlemen possessing local knowledge, and vested with powers to collect all the information which could be brought together on the subject.

Sir Samuel Romilly, who is sometimes accused of being more partial to a fine theory, than to an obvious and practical remedy for an existing grievance, complained much of the narrow view of the subject which had been taken by government, and proposed that an enquiry should be instituted, not only into the state of the nightly watch, but into the causes of the alarming increase of felonies and crimes. He remarked, that there had been a great and alarming increase of late years in the trials for felonies of various kinds; a circumstance which was the more surprising, that in other countries, one advantage, at least, derived from a state of war, had always been a diminution in the number of crimes. He imputed this singular phenomenon partly to the frequency of capital pu nishments, but chiefly to the circumstance of promiscuous imprisonment; the youngest and the oldest felons are often confined together, and when discharged, no means of gaining a livelihood are provided for them. He thought that the late unusual discharge of convicts from the hulks had greatly increased the number of crimes; and that the evil had been greatly aggravated by many radical defects in the system of police. He disapproved of the rewards given to police officers for the detection of crimes of a certain magnitude, which gave them an interest to encourage the growth of offences, till they had attained that pitch when it might be convenient for the officers to put them down. Rewards ought not, in general, to be given to police officers; but, if given at all, should be confined to accessaries after the fact,

by means of whom useful discoveries might sometimes be made. He impu ted the great increase of crimes, and the corruption of public morals, to the mischievous effects of the lottery, which was encouraged by government for the paltry revenue which it afford. ed. He censured the familiarities said to exist betwixt the police officers and their prey; and stated, that the officers were accustomed to go into places open for the reception and entertainment of common thieves and other abandoned characters, much. in the same way as a gentleman would go to that part of his manor where he expected to start game.-Mr Smith, who concurred with Sir Samuel Romilly, moyed an amendment, to extend the power of the committee to an enquiry into the state of the police as well as of the nightly watch. Mr Perceval replied to these speakers; but declined entering the wide field of speculation which they had opened. He insisted that the proposed remedy, if a good one in itself, should not be disregard ed, because other plans might also be attended with advantage, and maintained, that, as the evil was pressing, it would be very absurd were the legislature to wander for the present in to an extensive and embarrassing enquiry, such as that which had been proposed by the preceding speakers. He ridiculed the notion of refusing immediate protection to the metropolis, because the surrounding country might afterwards suffer from the depredations of the expelled criminals; and wisely thought that the prospect of a future and contingent evil could afford no ground for refusing to correct one, which, in fact, had already grown to an enormous magnitude, and which the legislature had the power of at least alleviating. He protested against encumbering the present enquiry with the business of a commit

tee of penitentiary houses, and with the grave and difficult question as to the expediency of granting rewards as a part of the police system. He remarked, that the supposed familiarity betwixt the officers and delinquents (which was at all events not new, since it been a subject of common-place conversation for a century past) could not have been the immediate causes of the late unprecedented outrages; and expressed some doubt, whether a refined expedient of Sir Samuel Romilly to enable police officers to take up persons, not for the crimes which they had actually committed, but on suspicion of others which they might possibly commit, could well be carried into effect.-Lord Cochrane ascribed the late atrocities to the pension list; and Sir Francis Burdett, who concurred in opinion with him, thought that no adequate remedy could be provided for evils so great, except by the abolition of sinecures, and by a recurrence to the old and wholesome laws of Edward the First.-Mr Sheridan ridiculed the proposal to enquire into the state of the nightly watch, as totally inadequate to the object in view; he maintained, that the act already conferred all the powers which were necessary to make the watch efficient, and professed to discover in the proposition of Mr Ryder, a most alarming attempt to break in upon the charter of the city of London. He censured the conduct of the magistrates during the late enquiry; they had been foolish enough, he said, to countenance all the prejudices of the mob against Irishmen; they had shewn themselves so deficient in prudence, as to seize upon every one who had a torn coat and dirty shirt to justify suspicion.

The alarm of the country was great, the exigency was pressing, and the desire of government to provide a remedy was at least sincere; while the reme