490 The Police Report. -LNov- 
exceptions, unapt; the time which is necessary to mature any scheme of 
criminal jurisprudence had only began its course ; and the difficulties 
which beset its formation were so strongly felt, that the expression of 
them broke out even in the triumphant bombast with which its completion 
was announced.* 
The police of England differs as much in its nature as in its history 
from that of France. Its main features remain the same as they were 
when, thirteen centuries ago, it was devised by Alfred ; to whom—if to 
any monarch that ever lived—may be ascribed the epithet of a patriot 
king. Perfectly convinced of that first principle in criminal justice, that 
it is upon the efficacy of the laws by which it is regulated that the happi- 
ness of a state must depend, he so formed his schemes of jurisprudence 
that, throughout the stormy vicissitudes which the nation has since expe~= 
rienced, they have ever remained, as they still are, unimpeached and 
unchanged. ‘Their principles are as simple as they are wise and just: 
the first is the entire protection and preservation of personal liberty ; and. 
the next is the repression of crime, by means of an active police, the 
ramifications of which extend over the entire surface of the kingdom, and 
which interests the whole community in the prevention of offences and 
the detection of offenders. The changing circumstances of the times— 
the varying habits, and tastes, and necessities of mankind—the perverse 
ingenuity of the wicked, and the calamities of the weak, have rendered 
it necessary, at various periods of our history, to modify the operations 
of those principles ;—the corruptness of the agents by whom they must 
be carried into execution have compelled the legislature occasionally to 
clear away the imperfections and defects which naturally grow about 
them—but the principles have remained the same ; and the recent inves- 
tigation of the Police Committee confirms the opinion which we avow— 
that, whatever faults or deficiencies may be felt in the operation of the 
system, the true remedy for them is to be found in a recurrence to its 
original principles, and in invigorating the system, by the simple process 
of purifying it. § 
A belief that crime had increased in a monstrous proportion within a 
few years, and the deficiency of the police, which has lately become too 
apparent to be longer permitted with decency, or even safety, having 
given occasion to parliamentary discussion, a Select Committee was 
appointed to inquire into the cause of the increased number of commit- 
ments in London and Middlesex, and into the state of the Police of the 
Metropolis and the adjacent districts. The Report of that Committee 
has recently been made public, and fully justifies the expectations which 
have been formed of it. A large mass of information, the collection of 
which must have cost great pains, has been made public ; and, although 
we are compelled to differ from a few of the conclusions at which the 
Committee have arrived, and to take views in some degree at variance 
with their’s upon several of the topics to which they have directed their _ 
attention, we feel that the country is greatly indebted to the patience, 
* In the Rapport sur le Livre ler du Code d’ Instruction Criminelle, this is plainly 
avowed, although the writer has ingeniously made it the vehicle of a fulsome compliment: 
to the Emperor. After recapitulating some of the difficulties which the importance of the 
task has occasioned, he adds, “ Pour tout dire, en un mot, ce génie extraordinaire, dont 
les regards pénétrent au-dela de tous les obstacles, a hésité plus d’une fois au milieu des 
diffieultés qu’offraient nos lois criminelles.”” ; 
ss 
