[119] Watch-houses are now placed at convenient distances all over the Metropolis; where a parochial constable attends, in rotation, every night, to receive disorderly and criminal persons, and to carry them before a Magistrate next morning.—In each watch-house also (in case of fire) the names of the turn-cocks, and the places where engines are kept, are to be found. This circumstance is mentioned for the information of strangers unacquainted with the Police of the Metropolis; to whom it is recommended, in case of fire, or any accident or disturbance requiring the assistance of the Civil Power, to apply immediately to the Officer of the night, at the nearest watch-house, or to the watchmen on the beat.

[120] Beadles are, in many instances, employed at present as local superintendants of the watch, within their respective Parishes.

[121] The Select Committee of the House of Commons, in their 28th Report, 1798, on Finance, have strongly recommended a Concurrent Jurisdiction; and also, that two Police Offices should be established in London, upon the plan of the others, with Magistrates to be appointed by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen.

[122] It is true, that by the Acts of 25th Geo. II. cap. 36, and 18th Geo. III. cap. 13, the expences of the prosecutors and witnesses are to be paid; and also (if the parties shall appear to be in poor circumstances) a reasonable allowance made for trouble and loss of time; but this is connected with the regulations of the Justices, confirmed by one of the Judges of Assize, which vary according to local circumstances, and it is also necessary to plead poverty in order to be remunerated for loss of time: but as the poor seldom suffer by thieves, these Acts appear to have had little effect in encouraging prosecutors to come forward; and it is believed few applications are made excepting in cases of real poverty.—In the County of Middlesex there is an exception; where witnesses are directed to be paid by the Overseers of the Poor of the Parish, where the person was apprehended; but this mode of payment is seldom if ever adopted.—The fund, however, which the Legislature has thus provided, if œconomically and judiciously applied by a Public Prosecutor, would remove many difficulties, without any material addition to the county rates.

[123] The propriety of this suggestion is sanctioned by the recommendation of the Finance Committee of the House of Commons in their 27th and 28th Report; and forms part of that System of general controul and arrangement for the prevention of crimes, stated more at large in a subsequent Chapter.

[124] Considerable inconvenience arises (and, indeed, great hardship, where prisoners are innocent) from the length of time which must elapse, where offences have been committed in Southwark, before they can be brought to trial; either for inferior or more atrocious crimes. In the former case, prisoners must remain till the Quarter Sessions, (there being no intermediate General Sessions of the Peace) and in the latter case till the Assizes, held only twice a year; this occasions a confinement, previous to trial, lengthened out, in some instances, to three, four, five, and even nearly to six months.

[125] Notwithstanding the severity of the Law, the composition of felonies and misdemeanors is carried to a much greater height than it is almost possible to believe; and various artifices are resorted to, to elude the penalties.—An instance occurred in August 1792; where a Jew was ordered to take his trial for a rape, committed on a married woman.—The offence appeared, on examination, to be extremely aggravated.—The Grand Jury however did not find a bill; which was thought a very singular circumstance, as the proof had been so clear before the Magistrate. The reasons were afterwards sufficiently explained; which show, what corrupt practices, artifices, and frauds will be used to defeat the ends of justice:—In consequence of a previous undertaking between the Jew and the husband of the woman who had been so grossly abused, a sum of £.20 was left in the hands of a publican, which the prosecutor was to receive if the bill was not found. In this confidence the woman gave a different evidence from that which she had given before the Magistrate. The Jew, however, cheated both the husband and the wife; for he no sooner discovered that he was safe, than he demanded the money of the publican and laughed at the prosecutor.

[126] In criminal cases, a defective indictment is not aided by the verdict of a Jury, as defective pleadings are in civil cases. Indeed wherever life is concerned, great strictness has been at all times observed. That able and humane Judge, Sir Matthew Hale, complained above a century ago,[A] "That this strictness has grown to be a blemish and inconvenience in the law and the administration thereof; for that more offenders escape by the over-easy ear given to exceptions in indictments, than by their own innocence: and many times gross murders, burglaries, robberies, and other heinous and crying offences remain unpunished, by those unseemly niceties; to the reproach of the Law, to the shame of the Government, to the encouragement of villainy, and to the dishonour of God."[B]

[127] 1 Edward VI. cap. 12: 21 Jac. I. cap. 6: 3 and 4 William and Mary, cap. 9: 4 and 5 William and Mary, cap. 24.

[128] Blackstone.

[129] The benefit of Clergy originated in injustice and inhumanity, and can only be palliated by the rude state of society, when so disgraceful a privilege was legalized and interwoven in the criminal code.—It partakes of the nature of a compromise with villainy.—It perplexes the system of criminal jurisprudence; and since its sting is taken away it would be an improvement to discontinue it totally.

[130] It is said that exile was first introduced as a punishment by the Legislature in the 39th year of Queen Elizabeth, when a statute (39 Eliz. c. 4.) enacted that such rogues as were dangerous to the inferior people should be banished the realm, Barr. Ant. Stat. 269: and that the first statute in which the word Transportation is used is the 18th of Charles II. c. 3. which gives power to Judges at their discretion either to execute or transport to America for life the Moss-Troopers of Cumberland and Northumberland; a law which was made perpetual by the Act 31 Geo. II. c. 42. 2 Woodd. 498.

[131] The unwillingness which it must be expected a Jury would have to convict a man capitally for this offence, might be adduced among many other instances, to show to what extent public justice is defeated, merely from the severity of the laws, and the want of a Scale of punishments proportioned to the offences.

[132] All endeavours towards the prevention of crimes will ever be attended with unconquerable difficulty, until some general House of Industry can be established in the Metropolis: where persons discharged for petty offences, as well as strangers and others out of work, may have an opportunity of finding, at least a temporary employment, sufficient to maintain them. An Institution of this sort would be a work of great charity and humanity; and it is earnestly to be hoped, that the view of the subject given in this Work may induce the Legislature to form a Police Establishment, calculated to promote such a multitude of good and useful objects;[C] more especially as with proper management it would very soon pay itself.

[133] In the year 1795, 1894 prisoners were tried at the Old Bailey, and the different Assizes in the Country, exclusive of a much greater number at the General and Quarter Sessions of the Peace, in the different Counties. These trials in the Superior Courts of Judicature, produced the following results:—

[134] The acquittals will generally be found to attach mostly to small offences which are punishable with death: where Juries do not consider the crime deserving so severe a punishment, the delinquent receives no punishment at all. If all were convicted who were really guilty of these small offences, the number of victims to the severity of the Law would be greatly increased.

[135] As punishments became more mild, clemency and pardons became less necessary.—Clemency is a virtue that ought to shine in the code, and not in the private judgment.—The Prince in pardoning gives up the Public Security in favour of an individual; and by the exercise of this species of benevolence proclaims a public act of impunity.—Let the Executors of the Laws be inexorable; but let the Legislature be tender, indulgent and humane.

Beccaria, cap. 46.

[136] It is not here meant to say there have not been some instances, and even one of a recent date, where an innocent man may be convicted; but they are certainly very rare, and when discovered, the Royal mercy, of course, relieves the unfortunate person.

[137] That able and excellent Magistrate, the late Henry Fielding, Esq. (to whose zeal and exertions in the exercise of the duties of a Justice of the Peace, in the Metropolis, the Public were under infinite obligations)—manifested, half a century ago, how much he was impressed with the injuries arising from frequent pardons.—Those who will contemplate the character and conduct of this valuable man, as well as that of his brother, the late Sir John Fielding, will sincerely lament that their excellent ideas, and accurate and extensive knowledge upon every subject connected with the Police of the Metropolis, and of the means of preventing crimes, were not rendered more useful to the Public. It is to be hoped, however, that it is not yet too late, since the state of Society, and the progress and increase of crimes, call loudly for the establishment of a responsible preventive System.

[138] By the Acts 4 George I. c. 11, and 6 George I. c. 23, the persons contracting for the transportation of convicts to the Colonies, or their assigns, had an interest in the service of each, for seven or fourteen years, according to the term of transportation.

[139] For some years previous to the commencement of the American War, the adjudged services of convicts became so valuable in Maryland, that contracts were made to convey them without any expence whatsoever to Government, who had formerly allowed 5l. a head; for the reasons already assigned, they generally were more adroit, and had better abilities than those who voluntarily engaged themselves to go to America.

[140] 16 George III. cap. 43, sect. 1st, 3d, and 11th.

[141] An enormous expence has been incurred in building Penitentiary-Houses in various Counties, and many philanthropic individuals have exerted their best endeavours to carry this Act into execution; but it is to be lamented, that crimes have been by no means diminished. The fact is, that the System is erroneous—Responsibility is no where established.—No uniformity of System prevails, and no general superintendance or center point exists.—Like the Poor Laws, the only part of the Act which is rigidly carried into execution is raising a fund, which, without imputing blame to Magistrates (for the error is in the System), has increased the expence of this branch of the Police of the Country very far beyond what could have been conceived—and it now becomes a heavy burden upon many of the Counties.—The reform began at the wrong end.—The same expence applied in establishing a System of Preventive Police, ought to render numerous penitentiary houses in a great measure unnecessary.

[142]

[143] A malignant fever, at one period, carried off a vast number, in spite of every effort to prevent it.

[144] See page 98 of this volume, for an Account of the Convicts enlarged the preceding eight years,

[145] This expence, by an account laid before the House of Commons, for one Year, ending the 15th Feb. 1792, appears to be—

[146] See 28th Report of Finance Committee, page 17.

[147] See the Examination of the Author before the Select Committee of the House of Commons.

[148] Norfolk Island is a small fertile spot, containing about 14,000 acres of land, situated about 1200 miles distant from Sydney Cove in New South Wales, where the seat of Government is fixed.

[149] In 21 months after the arrival of the first Convicts in May 1788, there were 77 deaths and 87 births in the whole Settlement.

[150] An account of the Live Stock in the possession of, and Land in cultivation by, Government, and the Officers civil and military, 1st September 1796, extracted from page 123, of the above Report of the Select Committee on Finance.

The above 1700 acres were unemployed in 1796, on account of the want of public labourers, and the many buildings required—about 4-5th parts of the 1172 acres were sown with wheat—much timber cut, but not burnt off, on the 2547 acres belonging to the settlers.

[151]

[152] All these articles taken into the account, the originally-intended Penitentiary Houses on the late Mr. Blackburne's plan, would not have cost so little as £.200 per man:—for 1000 Prisoners, £.200,000: exclusive of the whole annual expence of maintenance, &c. to an unliquidated amount.

[153] At the close of the Session in June 1798, the House of Commons voted 36000l. to Mr. Bentham, toward the expence of carrying his plan into execution. See the Appropriation Act, 39 Geo. III. c. 114.

[154] The following are the names of the Aldermen at present in the Magistracy of the City; arranged according to their Seniority.

[155] The following are the Public Offices in the Metropolis; (exclusive of the City of London;) and the respective Magistrates who preside, and the Clerks who officiate at each.

[156] The Marine Police Magistrates, on account of the extent of the Establishment, and the number of River Officers under their Control, never leave the Office from the time that business commences in the morning until a late hour in the evening.

[157] See Tract on Public Houses, by the Author of this Treatise.

[158] The Magistrates at the Marine Police confine their attention almost wholly to the cognizance of offences, either committed on the River, or connected with Maritime Affairs, and his Majesty's Stores in the Public Arsenals.

[159] It is by no means to be understood, that this deficiency arose from any want of real attention or public spirit on the part of the respectable individuals who framed and promoted this act. It was perhaps as much as could reasonably be expected at the time, until the public mind could be more fully informed. It was by the operation of this act, that a correct view of the improvements necessary to complete the System, were to be obtained. This first step was, therefore, of great importance; and it is but justice to state, that to the Authors of this Act the Public will be indebted for every subsequent arrangement, which may be adopted for perfecting the Police of the Metropolis.

[160] The Author having had occasion to represent to a late Chief Magistrate, of great talents and respectability, the enormous evil arising from base coin:—He very judiciously observed, that to do any good in protecting the Public against this species of offence, it would require the mind of a Magistrate to be given up to that object alone. This pointed and accurate remark is sufficient to elucidate, in an eminent degree, the necessity of Magistrates with salaries, in all large Communities.

[161] The Select Committee of the House of Commons on Finance, in their 28th Report (already repeatedly quoted), appear to be very strongly impressed with the necessity of Police Magistrates, and a Concurrent Jurisdiction for the City of London.—They express themselves in the following words: "It is further to be stated, that a considerable defect is felt in the Police of the Metropolis, from the limited jurisdiction of the present Magistrates in every part of it, and from the want of an Institution similar to that of the Police Offices to be established in the City of London, as was originally intended and proposed: that the delay which necessarily takes place in obtaining the sanction of the local Magistracy in either case, to the warrants of those presiding in other districts, operates in all cases to the advantage of offenders against the Laws, and to the obstruction of Public Justice: add to which, that the numerous and important avocations, both public and private, of the truly respectable Magistracy of the City, is too often inconsistent with that constant and unremitting attention which the due preservation of the Police of the Metropolis requires. That it would be unfortunate indeed if any local jealousy founded upon no just grounds, though entertained by honourable minds, should continue to deprive even the Inhabitants of the City itself, as well as those of the rest of the Metropolis, of that security which a more permanent attendance, and a perfect intercommunity of Jurisdiction in Criminal matters between the Magistrates of every part of the Metropolis, and of the five adjoining Counties, could not fail to produce."—See p. 13, 28th Report, 26th of June, 1798.

[162] If this were the case, neither the Bank, nor the avenues to every part of Cheapside, &c.[F] would be beset with gangs of rogues and sharpers, both men and women, who support themselves principally by the resource which the vast amount of moving property, in money and portable goods, affords them, in this part of the Metropolis; where, it appears, capital offenders are rarely detected; since, at the Old Bailey, those convicted in the course of a year, from the City and County, run in the proportion of about 1-7th part for London, and 6-7th parts for Middlesex.[G]

[163] In the measures finally proposed by the Finance Committee, in the 9th Article (page 30), they recommend it to Parliament, "That two additional Offices of Police should be established in the City, consisting each of three Magistrates, to sit at the Mansion-house, and at Guildhall, for the purpose of assisting the Lord-Mayor and the Court of Aldermen: such Magistrates to be named by the Lord-Mayor and Court of Aldermen; and paid out of the General Funds arising from the proposed regulations; to sit permanently, as at the other Offices, with Commissions from the Crown, extending over the whole Metropolis, and the counties of Middlesex, Kent, Essex, and Surry."

[164] A Police Magistrate has nothing to do with the politics of the Country; and he is incapable, and unworthy of the trust reposed in him, if he permits any bias, or influence, but that which is immediately connected with a correct and chaste execution of the Laws, to take hold of his mind.—It is only by this line of conduct, that he can either render himself useful or respectable.

[165] In the month of October, 1793, a respectable Committee, representing the great body of the Manufacturers in Spitalfields, waited on His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department, with an Address of Thanks for the Establishment of the Police System; the substance of which is as follows:

"That it is the opinion of this Society, that great benefits have arisen, with regard to the security of property, from the correct and regular manner in which the judicial business has been conducted by the Magistrates of Police; in consequence of whose vigilance and attention, an effectual check has been given to a System of depredation which heretofore occasioned a loss of many thousands per annum to the Silk Manufacturers:"—And it was Resolved,—"That the Thanks of this Society are due to the Right Honourable Henry Dundas, one of His Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State; and also to Mr. Burton, and the other Members of Parliament, who proposed and supported the Police System, for the share they had in the establishment of a judicial Tribunal, which has been found to extend, to the Silk Manufacturers, many advantages in a just and proper execution of the Laws which were not heretofore experienced."

[166] Vide page 63 & seq. of this Volume.

[167] In mentioning what regards the protection of the Metropolis, with the inefficiency of the existing Civil Force in Constables, it is impossible to overlook those eminent advantages which have arisen from the excellent institutions of the Honourable Artillery Company, the Light Horse Volunteers, and the other associated Corps, who have so nobly stood forth in the hour of danger to support the deficient Police of the Country.

To these Patriotic individuals, the inhabitants of the Metropolis are under infinite obligations.

Regardless of their own ease, convenience, interest, or personal safety, the members of these public-spirited associations have ever stood forward in the hour of tumult and disorder gratuitously, and at their own expence, for the protection of their Fellow-citizens, and for the preservation of the Public peace.

The assistance they have, on every occasion, afforded the civil power, and the sacrifices of valuable time which they have made, at the risk of health, and under circumstances where they were compelled to forego that ease and comfort, which, in many instances, from their opulence and rank in life, are attached to their particular situations—it is to be hoped will never be forgotten by a grateful Public.

[168] See Appendix to the 28th Report of the Committee.

[169] It is not proposed in the Bill, now in preparation, hereafter stated, to introduce any thing respecting the City of London, unless the consent of the Lord-Mayor, Aldermen, and Common-Council, shall be previously obtained.

[170] The Trades alluded to are these following,—vide Appendix (C) 28th Report of Select Committee of the House of Commons on Finance, page 45, 46, and 47.