158] 
which, in the hands of injudicious 
and violent men, might be con- 
verted to the most arbitrary pur- 
poses: it was pointed chiefly to 
the poorer sorts, who had not, 
however oppressed, the means of 
procuring redress. Its aim was to 
hunt after people, merely suspected 
to live by knavery and depreda- 
tion; it was founded on the un- 
justifiable principle of punishing 
men, not for their actual offences, 
but for those which they might 
propose to commit: it was, in fact, 
a law made by the rich against the 
poor: it added a double severity to 
a statute, already too severe; that 
against vagrants, which was well 
known to be occasionally an instru- 
ment of extreme oppression. As 
to the appeal which persons ag- 
grieved might make to the quarter 
sessions, it was an insult offered by 
the powerful to the wretched. 
Could the ill treatment, could the 
sufferings these had endured, be 
annulled by a quarter sessions? - It 
was alleged, that the apprehender 
of a suspected knave was compelled 
to make oath, that the party anpre- 
hended was justly suspected. But 
was this a justification for harsh 
usage ?—-— Another aggravation, 
equally barbarous and unconsti- 
tutional, was, that a magistrate, 
without the intervention of a jury, 
might condemn to punishment a 
man whom a jury would have ac- 
quitted. 
Resting on these premises, was 
it equitable to invest individuals, 
appointed.and paid by the ministry, 
and under its immediate influence, 
with such an extensive authority > 
Was it not taking such a step to 
arbitrary power over the commu- 
nity,, as was evidently incompatible 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1792. 
with the system of government 
established in this country ? 
Those, on the other hand, who 
argued for the necessity of this bill, 
grounded it on the visible and 
long-complained-of defects of the 
police in so large and populous a 
capital; which, from that circum- 
stance, required the most rigid 
watchfulness over that immense 
number of its inhabitants whose 
means of living were fluctuating and 
uncertain, and who, from their 
wants, and no less from their ill con- 
duct, rose in the morning from their 
places of rest without any fixed 
prospect of provision for the day. 
The severest police was required to 
ceunteract the manifold evils that 
were hourly threatened to the come 
munity, by conniving at the danger 
in which it stood, from. the enor-: 
mous numbers and iniquitous dis- 
positions of mankind under such 
trying circumstances. 
The appointment of justices 
was the constitutional right of the 
crown. The principal intent of 
the bill was to place such per- 
sons in the commission of the 
peace as might enable government 
to answer for their conduct, by 
making them responsible to its i 
mediate authority: this was ie 
readiest method of supplying the: 
public with upright magistrates :— 
they could have no pretext for ex- 
acting money, while they were paid 
regularly for their trouble; and no 
inducement to act oppressively, 
while they stood in fear of instant 
deprivation for any proved mis- 
conduct. The labour attending the 
office of justice in the metropolis, 
was in the mean time so heavy, 
that persons of opulence could not: 
be prevailed upon to undertake it. 
Was. 
