156] 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1792. 
CHAP, X. 
Police Bill for Westminster. New Forest Bill. Trial of Mr. Rose for inter- 
JSering inthe Westminster Election. Petition from the Scotch Burghs. So- 
ciety of Friends to the People. Debates on a Motion introduced by Mr. 
Gray, for a Parliamentary Reform. The King’s Proclamation. 
bates on the Riots at Birmingham. 
Scotland relieved. 
De- 
The Adherents to Episcopacy ix 
Mr. Fox's Motion in favour of the Unitarians re- 
jected. Debates onthe Libel Bill, in both Houses. Lord Rawdon’s Bill, 
concerning Debtors and Creditors. 
nances and Situation of India. 
EXHE disorders and misdemean- 
ors committed by those nume- 
rous individuals in the lower classes, 
whom want of sufficient employ- 
ment, or an idle disposition, lead 
into habits of dissipation, had long 
been complained of as incorrigible 
by the ordinary means in use for 
the repression of such evils. A 
variety of schemes had been pro- 
posed, and some adopted, for the 
more effectual removal of those 
‘complaints; but none had been 
found adequately efficient for the 
purposes of prevention; and pu- 
nishment alone, though it might 
deter the ill inclined, could not re- 
dress the mischief already perpe- 
trated. In order, therefore, to ob- 
viate the cause of evil, many con- 
sultations were held by magistrates, 
and other persons of experience, in 
the execution of those laws that 
regulate. the common transactions 
of society, and are framed with the 
view of maintaining ‘peace and good 
order among the inferior parts of 
the community. 
The strictest regulations were be- 
come requisite in a metropolis of 
such immense magnitude as Lon- 
don, consisting in fact of three ci- 
ties, once at a distance, but now 
conjoined by an increase of buildings 
into one city, and still daily increas- 
ing. Its prodigious population, 
Mr. Dundas’s Account of the Fi- 
Close of the Session. 
exceeding that of any European 
capital, if not that of any seat of 
empire, ancient or modern, re- 
quires, no doubt, a degree of in-— 
spection and vigilance over the mo- 
rals and conduct of its inhabitants, 
far more extensive and rigid than 
over any other city now extant. 
According to authentic accounts, 
more disorderly people are to be 
found within its precincts than 
would furnish a population equal 
to that of any other city in the 
kingdom. 
Facts of this kind, the reality of — 
which was unquestionable, natu- 
rally excited great alarm in those 
persons whom either duty or in- 
terest rendered anxious for the 
welfare and safety of the inhabit- 
ants. ‘They well knew that a mul- 
tiplicity of rules and ordinances 
had been enacted at divers periods 
and different occasions, but had 
experimentally proved unequal to 
the ends proposed, for want of suf- 
ficient powers being lodged in the 
magistracy and its agents, to dis- 
cover and suppress in a summary 
and expeditious manner, whatever 
had a visible tendency to disturb 
the public tranquillity. 
The ancient and respectable of- 
fice of justice of ,the peace, in 
former times, answered most of the 
purposes for which it had been in- 
stituted ; 
