most

the discretionary powers of the different parochial Authorities, and, with the scrupulous minuteness, prescribes the exact manner in which the various descriptions of persons employed must discharge their duties, and defines the smallest number which each Parish is to employ, and the lowest amount of wages to be paid. It details the manner in which misconduct and neglect is to be punished, and meritorious exertions rewarded. It is observable, that both these Statutes refer to the ancient Statute of Watch and Ward, the 13th Edward 1, and recognize the principle, that the protection of every District is a compulsory duty incumbent on the inhabitants; and therefore, an express clause is inserted in each of these Acts, to discharge from this duty such Inhabitants as shall contribute to the Rate for defraying the expence of such Watch and Ward. Other Parishes or Hamlets are governed by particular Acts of Parliament, authorizing the raising of Rates for Watching and Lighting, and, vesting powers in certain Commissioners or Ves. tries for carrying these purposes into effect; but in many cases, the execution of the Law is extremely defective, and in some cases the power of raising Money is inadequate; in others the full amount is not levied; the mode of Watching generally bad, and the men employed, both in number and ability, wholly inefficient for the purpose.

In other Parishes there is no Legislative provision, and upon the whole, no uniform system prevails; and neither the Magistracy, or the Government, have at present any connection whatever with the state of the Watch, and no controul or superintendence over it.

It would appear that this Statute of the 14 Geo. 3, c. 90, has been very little known, or very loosely examined and considered, for many of the Witnesses whom we have examined, and many of the projects which have been submitted | to our consideration suggest, as valuable improvements, the very principles, and very details, which are enforced by substantive enactment in this very Statute.

Your Committee feel that much would be done by merely extending the provisions of the 14 Geo. 3, to the adjacent Parishes in and near the Metropolis, which should be particularly described, provided it were duly executed; but they are convinced that it may receive very beneficial amendments, for the details of

which they would refer to the Appendix, stating here only, that, in many instances, it may be absolutely necessary to give powers for levying a higher Rate than is now allowed, in order to defray the expence arising from an increase of the numbers or wages of the persons employed in different capacities in the Nightly Watch; Your Committee being strongly impressed with the opinion of the expediency, if not necessity, of relieving the Watch once at least in the night.

But the main improvement of this Law would consist in creating a superintending Power, to whose discretion should be entrusted the dismissal of the persons appointed by the Parochial Authorities in cases of misconduct, negligence or inability, and to whom it should belong to enforce generally, if necessary, the due execution of this Act; for, with all the other proposed amendments, it cannot escape observation, that the system would still remain imperfect, and very inferior in efficacy to that which subsists within the City of London (properly so called); there still would remain that want of unity, that want of dependence of parts on each other, that want of a general superintendence and controul, without which every system of government must be imperfect.

Your Committee, considering with this view whether there are any public Bodies or individuals already known to the laws, and vested with judicial and administrative powers, and on whom might conveniently be imposed the duty of connecting in | some degree the scattered Parochial Authorities, have naturally found their attention directed to the several Boards of Magistracy which have been created by the 32 Geo. 3, c. 53.

This Act, reciting that a regular attendance of fit Magistrates at certain known places, and at stated hours, was much wanted, establishes seven Boards of Magistracy in various parts of the Metropolis.

These Boards of Magistracy have in common parlance obtained the name of Police Offices, although neither by the provisions of this Act, nor by the nature of their duties as Justices of the Peace, have they any superintendence whatever in matters of preventive and parochial Police, or any necessary knowledge of the principles on which the several independent unconnected Parishes act, or of the details by which the Peace and good Order of the Metropolis are endeavoured | and report in the morning to the office

to be maintained; nor have they any means of obtaining this knowledge, except incidentally, in consequence of persons being brought before them charged with disorderly conduct, or suspected of having committed crimes. They merely constitute the first stage in the administration of Criminal Jurisprudence. It would seem to be extraordinary, that in such a Metropolis as London, there should be no Office in which information is collected, from which intelligence can be obtained as to the state of the Police. The Secretary of State for the Home Department has not, necessarily, any knowledge on this subject, nor has he the means of obtaining any such knowledge, except with reference to crimes committed, or of dis- | turbances which have arisen, or of the number of informations or committals which have taken place during any given period.

to which they are attached, as to the vigilance, good conduct, and fitness of the Constables, Beadles, Patroles, and Watchmen, on duty during the night.

It is also proposed that it should be the duty of the High Constable within the several divisions, occasionally to make similar visitations and Reports, and with this view, it might perhaps be advisable to attach to them a certain number of Assistants, who might be stipendiary officers, to be paid out of the County Rate, or out of some Rate to be levied within each respective division to which they belong.

Nor are these the only means by which it is proposed to furnish the Boards of Magistrates with information respecting the state of the Metropolis as to its Police, and as to the manner in which the parochial Authorities execute the powers entrusted to them; but it is further re

Your Committee are therefore persuad-commended, that the excellent provisions

ed, that the greatest advantages would arise from making use of these Boards of Magistracy, even if it were for no other purpose, than as constituting centres to which information might habitually and constantly be communicated, and daily Reports made from the several Parishes situated within the District, which, for the sake of mutual convenience, is considered as assigned to each of these seven Police Offices.

By means of this system of daily Report, detailing the number and description of the persons employed on the Watch during the preceding night, and the occurrences which may have taken place while they were so on duty, the Magisstrates would be informed as to the manner in which the proposed Act of Parliament had been complied with; and also of the state of order, or disorder, which might prevail in the various Parishes with in their district.

But Your Committee further propose as a means of superintendence and controul, and for the purpose of verifying in some degree the correctness of such Reports, and of ascertaining the fitness as well as good conduct of the persons so employed, that it should be the duty of some of the principal Officers attached to the several Boards of Magistracy (generally known by the name of Police Officers) to go rounds according to some rotation, to be settled during the night, and to visit the several Watch-houses within their district,

of the Statute of 14 Geo. 3, c. 90, should be extended.

This is the Statute which Your Committee have before alluded to as applicable to the City and Liberties of Westminster, and certain other Parishes therein named, and which, after having prescribed the general outline of the manner in which Watch is to be kept, directs that the several parochial Authorities shall meet, and make more detailed rules and regulations for the instruction and guidance of the Constables, Beadles, Patroles, and Watchmen.

These detailed Instructions are directed to be written or printed, and delivered to each of such persons respectively.

Your Committee would further propose, that copies of such Rules and Regulations should also be transmitted to the Police Office of the district for their information, that the principal Officers attached to each Office may, in their nightly visitations, be able to judge, whether such Regulations are properly complied with. Copies also of these Regulations should, in some convenient manner, be affixed to the walls in each Watch-house.

By means such as these, the several Boards of Magistrates would acquire such a degree of knowledge, as would enable them to give instructions to their principal Officers for their conduct during their visitations, and would enable them further to exercise, with correctness, the power which should be given them, of

Having thus collected at each respective Police Office a great mass of information, as to the principles and details by which the good order and security of their district is endeavoured to be maintained, and having thus called into activity the attention of a great number of persons as to matters of preventive Police, and introduced that system of superintendence and controul which may keep alive and continue the activity and vigilance which has thus been excited, it would still appear that the system would be imperfect unless this information, thus collected at each of the seven respective Boards of Magistracy, was accumulated at some one central point, in order that there may be the means of comparing the occurrences and transactions and circumstances of the various parts of the Town, and of forming estimates from the comparison of such facts, of the probable means for the effectual prevention of crimes, or for the detection, pursuit, apprehension, and conviction of criminals.

With this view, Your Committee advert to the Police Office which has been established at Wapping, called The Thames Police Office, for the detection of felonies, &c. committed on the River Thames. The Magistrates of this Office have also a jurisdiction co-extensive with the other Magistrates.

Your Committee are fully convinced of the beneficial effects which have been derived from this Establishment; the increased protection which has been afforded to every species of property on the River, furnishes the strongest proof of its utility. But it is stated to your Committee, that the Funds of this Office are at present inadequate for such an increased Establishment as would be necessary to guard the valuable property on the various wharfs and line of River from London Bridge to Battersea; added to which, at certain periods of the tide, the communication between the parts of the River above and below London Bridge is so interrupted, that during several hours the

It should seem, that the Office at Bow-upper part of the River is consequently

street, which is wholly unconnected with either of the seven Offices, might form the proper centre, to which this various information should be transmitted.

It would probably be necessary, considering the great pressure of business which devolves on that Office, to attach to it some fit person, whose immediate duty it should be to compare and digest such information, for the purpose of being communicated to that Board of Magistrates, and also to the Secretary of State of the Home Department.

Your Committee have dwelt the longer on this branch of the subject, as they deeply feel the necessity of introducing some system which may give unity and connection to the scattered parts of which the Metropolis consists; and which may, by introducing more means of superintendence, and more means of knowledge, secure a due execution of the Laws, and above all things, may secure that active vigilance and precaution which may lessen the number of Criminals by rendering it difficult to commit crimes.

Although Your Committee consider this part of the subject to be of pre-eminent importance, and as some of the witnesses have said, to be all in all, yet there

open to great depredation. It is therefore recommended that an additional number of boats should be provided, locally applicable to that part of the River above the Bridge.

It has also been represented, that the great and increasing population in the neighbourhood of Greenwich requires another Police Office on that side of the River. Your Committee are informed, that it is now in the contemplation of government to remove the Thames Police Office to the Surrey side for that purpose: this might then be made the Office for an eighth division, comprehending Greenwich, and the other surrounding Parishes.

It has also been represented to Your Committee, that the most notorious Pickpockets and other reputed Thieves are permitted to frequent the public avenues of the Town with impunity, notwithstanding the provisions of 32 Geo. 3, made for the purpose of their apppehension: but the Law, as it now stands, does not authorize the Officer to apprehend them, unless, first, they are seen in some public avenue; secondly, unless they are reputed thieves; and thirdly, unless they are on the spot with the intent to commit a felony : this Upon the whole of which matter the Committee came to the following Resolu❘tions; viz.

Resolved, 1. That it appears to this Committee, that since the 29th day of September last, 104 houses within the Cities of London, Westminster, and the parts adjacent, have been broke open, and plate, jewels, and other goods stolen therefrom, to the amount of 4,2411.; that the said evil hath increased very much of late years, and is likely still to increase, unless some effectual provision is made to prevent it.

reduce the revenue of wine licences; if confined to the Bills of Mortality, it would, in his opinion, diminish it no more than 4001 per annum; but if extended to Portsmouth, Plymouth, Chatham, and other Dockyards, it may lessen it 200l. more. He added, that he thinks it more necessary to correct the evil in those parts, as it has a direct tendency, to corrupt and destroy the very vitals of the Constitution, the lives of the useful seamen, who, by means of these houses, become the objects of plunder as long as they have any money, and are induced to become robbers when they have none. And he informed the Committee, that there is another great evil, which is the cause of these disorders, namely, the immense number of common prostitutes, who mostly from necessity infest the streets of the City and Liberty of Westminster and parts adjacent, attended by common soldiers, and other bullies, to protect them from the Civil Power; these prostitutes, when they have secured the unwary customers, lead them to some of the aforesaid taverns, from whence they seldom escape without being robbed. The cause of this evil, as he apprehends, is the great difficulty, as the Law now stands, to punish those offenders, they being, as common prostitutes, scarce, if at all, within the description of any Statute now in being; and, he added, that this subjects Watchmen, Roundhouse-keepers, constables, and even the Magistrates themselves, to prosecutions from low Attornies. That the remedy, in his opinion, should be to declare that persons walking or plying in the said streets for lewd purposes, after the Watch is set; standing at the doors, or appearing 4. That it is the opinion of this Comat the windows of such taverns in an inde-mittee, that the Beadles in many Parishes

cent manner for lewd purposes, shall be considered as Vagrants, and punished as such. That as to the circumstance of street beggars, it never came to his knowledge that they are under contribution to the Beadles.

Mr. Rainsforth, the High Constable, being called, delivered in a paper called the State of Watch in Westminster, which paper is hereunto annexed, and said, That all the Watchmen being assembled at Guildhall, on Saturday the 24th of March, to see the House-breakers, they appeared to him in general very infirm, and unfit to execute that office. Then

Mr. Thomas Heath, a Burgess of the Duchy of Lancaster, being examined, said, that both the Constables and Watch within the said Duchy are very insufficient and defective.

2. That it is the opinion of this Committee, that to put a stop to the said evil, the number of Constables in the City and Liberty of Westminster, St. Martin's le Grand, and such parts of the Duchy of Lancaster as are within the said Liberty, should be increased; and that all persons, being householders within the same, other than the Members of both Houses of Parliament, acting Justices of the Peace, and certain other Officers and persons, should be made liable to serve as Constables, or pay a penalty for refusing to serve the said office; and that a new mode of appointing and discharging them should be adopted.

3. That it is the opinion of this Committee, that the number of Watchmen in the said places should be increased; more able persons appointed; their pay augmented; another method adopted for appointing them; that their beats or districts should be less extensive; their duty be made general, and that they should be put under one general direction.

are not at present of sufficient service; that they should for the future be employed under another name, and under some general direction as Regulators of the Watchmen, and to take up Vagrants and other disorderly persons in their respective Wards; and that their number should be increased.

5. That it is the opinion of this Committee, that the duty of Constables and Watchmen, and of Beadles under another name, should be regulated with proper encouragements for doing their duty, and penalties for their neglect of it.

6. That it is the opinion of this Committee, that the receiving Stolen Goods, particularly Gold and Silver Plate and Jewels, should be made more penal; and the Receivers of them, particularly of those