1825.) 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
POLICE OF THE METROPOLIS: 
INCLUDING LONDON, WESTMINSTER, THE 
SUBURBS, AND ALSO THE RIVER THAMES 
BELOW LONDON-BRIDGE. 
T is of great importance, that an im- 
mense capital, like that of London, 
should possess a regular police, for the 
purpose of detecting, seizing and punish- 
ing offenders, so that both persons and 
property should remain safe, and re- 
move, or be conveyed, without any 
danger, from one part of it to another. 
The City of London, which was in an- 
cient times the residence of our kings, 
appears to have been always regulated 
with great propriety; and Henry VIII., 
himself, is said to have taken his rounds 
in disguise, at night, to see that the 
proper officers did their duty. 
But, until the time of Mr. Henry 
Fielding, a man of letters, and brother 
to his more officially distinguished suc- 
cessor, Sir John, no idea of a police 
for Westminster was deemed requisite : 
but as thieves, robbers and suspicious 
persons left the city, and took refuge in 
the adjacent parts, a scheme for this 
purpose became eminently necessary. 
Accordingly, about the year 1750, he 
opened an office for this purpose, and 
appears to have been not only counte- 
nanced by Government, but supplied 
with a sum of money from the Treasury. 
On his repairing to Lisbon, for his 
health, the late Sir John Fielding, al- 
though blind, undertook the manage- 
ment of the police of Westminster, and 
was supposed to have been eminently 
‘successful in the detection of depreda- 
tors of all sorts. 
During the alarm occasioned by the 
French Revolution, it was deemed 
necessary, by Mr. Pitt’s administration, 
to extend the former plan; and to in- 
troduce considerable changes in the 
police regulations. Accordingly, Mr. 
F. Buxton, a Member for the city of 
Oxford, a King’s Counsel, and joint 
Justice of Chester, on the 16th of 
March 1792, brought in a bill, “ for 
the more effectual administration of 
the duties of Justices of the Peace, 
within the vicinity of London.” It was 
intended, at one period, to extend this 
project to the City of London; but the 
corporation stood up for its franchise, 
and afterwards contended for a peculiar, 
in opposition to the concurrent claim of 
a jurisdiction. Out of an act of parlia- 
ment, obtained on this occasion, arose 
the following seven additional public 
Police of the Metropolis. 
405 
offices, with two magistrates, clerks, 
constables, &c. to. cach :— 
Queen-square, Westminster ; 
Great Marlborough-street ; 
Hatton-garden ; 
Worship-street ; 
Lambeth-street, Whitechapel ; 
High-street, Shadwell ; 
. Union-street, Southwark ; 
And, 8. Wapping New Stairs,+—where 
an office was soon after established, for 
offences connected with the shipping and 
port of London. 
Thus, then, in addition to the two 
municipal establishments of London, 
and the old office in Bow-street, which, 
in 1793, was placed, as to fees and mode 
of expenditure, upon the same footing 
as the others, there are no fewer than 
eleven public departments, for the sup- 
pression, detection and punishment of 
offences, and also for the purpose of 
administering oaths, enforcing the militia 
and poor-laws, and punishing bakers 
convicted of selling bread short of 
weight, together with all similar misde- 
meanors. 
Much clamour was excited against 
the seven new boards, which were con- 
sidered as an innovation; and some 
sharp debates took place in Parliament. 
To obviate some objections, the idea of 
economy was held out, and it was boldly 
maintained, that the fees alone would 
be sufficient to defray the annual ex- 
pense: these were accordingly directed 
to be paid into the Exchequer. The 
experience of five years and a half, how- 
ever, proved that this was a mistaken 
notion; for, according to the Twenty- 
eighth Report of the Finance Committee 
(p. 10, and Appendix I. p. 3), it appear- 
ed, that the average annual amount of 
the fees did not exceed £2,605: so that 
an issue, to the amount of £12,006 
year, was deemed necessary from the 
Treasury; it being limited, by 32 Geo. 
III. c. 53, to an annual sum of £14,000, 
for the total expense of the offices, in- 
dependent of the salary of the Receiver. 
This issue, however, with the addition 
of the fees, making together £14,605, 
proving inadequate, the Receiver, “‘to 
alleviate the pressure of this necessity,’ 
found it necessary to retain in his hands 
the whole of the penalties, which, upon 
an average, have amounted to the annual 
sum of £1,329, I. 
TIS Sub oo 
* This was founded by an extension of 
the act of 2 Geo. III. chap. 28, for pre- 
venting robbery and plunder on the river 
Thames, commonly called the Bum-boat 
Act. 
