STATE PAPERS. 



361 



of assigning rewards for tlie ap- 

 prehension of offenders, your com- 

 mittee refer to tli» practice which, 

 on the evidence of ?tlr. Barniey, 

 tlie beadle of St. Andrew's parish, 

 Hatton-gaiden, and Ely-ients di- 

 vision, takes place in respect of 

 the lOs. which are paid on the ap- 

 prehension of a vagrant. This 

 witness stated, that lie had often 

 seen, when poor people came to 

 the police-office at Hitton-garden 

 to solicit a pass, that the officers 

 will ii,ive them Id or 2rf. and then 

 bring tliem in and swear that they 

 fonnd them begging, when in 

 fact they never begged at all. The 

 officeis are accustomed to swear 

 that tliey have tal^en the man who 

 is thus a petitioner for a pass, 

 begging in the stieet, who is sent 

 for seven days to the house of cor- 

 rection, when the officers gel \0s. 

 for tlieir trouble : in other cases, 

 j)erhaps the man conmutted is an 

 Irishman or Scotcimiau, and they 

 cannot pass him ; he is often met 

 with again when discharged from 

 prison, again committed, and lOs. 

 more obtained. He was asked if 

 he had ever complained to the 

 mngisLrates of this practice ; his 

 answer was, that he thought it 

 wrong, but he never complained 

 mucli. A question was put to 

 liiin, whether any of the vagrants 

 ever lemonstiated against the 

 fraud which had been jn-actised on 

 them ? and his reply was, that he 

 once was in the office when an 

 individual laid a complaint, and 

 that tlie magistrates made no 

 answer at all ; tiie officers of the 

 police were very indignant at his 

 interfeience, and thieatened him 

 with turning him out of the office. 

 It was his opinion, from long ex- 

 perience, that police officers woukj 



rather apprehend beggars than 

 thieves j and he says that the 

 practice is so general, tliat there is 

 an expression which describes it, 

 and it is Called " getting an easy 

 ten shillings." 



The opinion of the police-officers 

 themselves on this sulyect is of 

 no small in)[)ortance, and your 

 committee refer to the remarks 

 which some of the most intelli- 

 gent of them have made in strong 

 and forcible hmguage, and which 

 present a true picture of the daix- 

 ger and evil of this system. 



John Townshend, one of the 

 officers of Bow- street, who has 

 lield that situation for .34 years, 

 says, " I have with every attention 

 that man could bestow, watched 

 the conduct of various persons 

 wlio have given evidence against 

 their fellow creatures fo!' life and 

 death, not only at the Old Bailey, 

 but on the circuits ; I consider 

 officers as dangerous creatures, 

 who liave it frequently in their 

 power (no qru'stion about it) to 

 turn the scale, when the beam is 

 level, to the other side : he swears 

 against the wretched man at tho 

 bar ; and wliy ? because that thing 

 — nature says, profit — is in the 

 scale ; and melancholy to relate, 

 but 1 cannot help being perfectly 

 satislied, that has been the means 

 of convicting many and, many a 

 man. I have always been of opi- 

 nion, that an officer is a dangerous 

 subject to the community." 



John Lavender, of the Queen? 

 squan' office, remarks upon ihese 

 reward-i, " That it is a subject 

 which he always declines, if he 

 can, as no officer can go into the 

 box as a witness with any comfort 

 to himself." 



John \ ickery, of Bow-street, 



says. 



