90] 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1812. 



CHAPTER III. 



Bill for a Nighlli/ Watch in London.— Debate on the Droits of 

 Admiralty.— Motion for inquiring into the Jurisdiction of the 

 Ecclesiastical Courts. 



THE horror impressed by the 

 murders comrrritted in tlie 

 metropolis at the close of the last 

 year, had occasioned many volun- 

 tary associations for improving 

 the nocturnal security of the inha- 

 bitants, which in general appeared 

 to be inadequately provided for by 

 the existing regulations of the po- 

 lice ; and government at length 

 thought it expedient to take up the 

 matter. On January 18th Mr. 

 Secretary Ryder rose in the House 

 of Commons to move for a com- 

 mittee to examine into the state of 

 the nightly watch of the metro- 

 polis. After adverting to the alarm- 

 ing fact of the late murders, and to 

 the unprecedented multiplication 

 of oflFences of a less horrid descrip- 

 tion during the last three or four 

 months, he observed, that in for- 

 mer times each parish provided for 

 its own watch, and it was not till 

 1774 that an act passed which 

 applied only to 15 of the most po- 

 pulous parishes, and which ap- 

 poi nted directors and trustees u nder 

 whose control the watch, patrole, 

 and beadles were placed. It could 

 be no wonder that this was found 

 insufficient since the vast increase 

 of the metropolis, and many in- 

 stances might likewise be men- 

 tioned in which the provisions of 

 the act were evaded or neglected. 

 If the House should agree to the 



• Corrected to 1242 



appointment of the committee, it 

 would be for that to decide whether 

 it were advisable to alter the system 

 entirely, or whether it would be 

 sufficient to enforce the present 

 act. For his own part, he rather 

 inclined to enforcing the present 

 system by adequate provisions, than 

 to establishing a new one. He con- 

 cluded with making the motion 

 above stated. 



Sir Samuel Romilly expressed 

 himself much surprised at the con- 

 fined terms of the motion. Con- 

 sidering the great alarm that had 

 been excited, he should have 

 thought that a committee appoint- 

 ed on the occasion would have found 

 it necessary to inquire not only 

 into the state of the nightly watch, 

 but into the causes of the alarming 

 increase of felonies and crimes. 

 That such an increase existed was 

 proved by the returns lying upon 

 the table, which he had moved 

 for, and which showed a regular 

 progress of crimes in London and 

 Westminster for some years past. 

 There had been committed to take 

 their trial at the Old Bailey for 

 felonies of various kinds — 

 In the year 180(5 .... 899 

 1807 .... 1017 

 1808 1110 



1809 .... 1342* 



1810 .... 1424t 

 It would surely be right to inquire 



into I 

 t Corwcted to 1207 



