284 



POLICE 



maintained order and kept watch within their 

 various limits ; gradually separate watchmen, very 

 inadequately paid, were introduced ; but the 

 inefficiency with which watch and ward duties 

 were performed, and the impunity with which 

 crimes were committed, were conspicuous, and in 

 no place more so than in the metropolis itself. 

 During the 18th century spasmodic attempts were 

 made to improve the administration in London, 

 both as regards prevention and detection of 

 crime. Horse patrols were introduced ; a detective 

 staff was organised ; but the whole system was 

 fragmentary and disjointed, and the results attained 

 under it were pre-eminently unsatisfactory. The 

 decrepitude of the old ' Charlies,' as the watchmen 

 were called, and their inability to afford protection 

 to the inhabitant* of London, were proverbial : and 

 as to Edinburgh we may read in the pages of the 

 ll.urt of Midlothian Sir Walter Scott's description 

 of ' that black banditti,' the ' City Guard,' who were 

 in his days the ' alternate terror and derision of the 

 petulant brood of the High School,' and objects of 

 scorn to the citizens generally. At last in 1829 

 Sir Robert Peel constituted the Metropolitan 

 Police, abolishing local police administration in the 

 metropolis outside of the narrow limits of the City 

 of London itself, and placing the control of the 

 new force in the hands of the Secretary of State. 

 Counties and boroughs followed suit in remodelling 

 their police on the administrative principles adopted 

 save with reference to local control by Sir 

 Robert Peel in 1829, and since then the present 

 system of police administration throughout the 

 country has been developed on the lines of the 

 original statute, 10 Geo. IV. chap. 44, amplified 

 by 2 and 3 Viet. chap. 47. 'The new guardians of 

 the peace in the metropolis, retaining the compara- 

 tively ancient name of constable, were called 

 jiolice-constables, and were in a sense a develop- 

 ment of the tithing man of old ; but they resembled 

 him even less than a member for a metropolitan 

 liorough resembles the burgesses who appeared 

 In-fore the chief -justices at Westminster with a 

 statement of accounts in the reign of .lohn. Vet 

 the stages of growth are sufficiently well marked 

 from the responsibility of the tithing to the respon- 

 sibility of its head, from the functions of the lir.nl 

 borough or tithing-man to the functions of the con- 

 stable, from the election of a constable to the 

 election of a plurality of constables, and finally from 

 a plurality of constables, deputy constables, and 

 watchmen, under parochial or other local authority, 

 to a plurality of constables under the central 

 authority of a Secretary of State ' ( Pike's History of 

 Crime in England, i i. 460 ). 



In 1897 the police force in England and Wales 

 had a total strength of 42, 140 officers and men ; in 

 Scotland, 4707 ; Ireland, 1-2,900. In 1891 the num- 

 bers were 37,957, 4194, and 13,977 in the three 

 kingdoms respectively; the total cost being about 

 5,500,000 a year. The proportion of police engaged 

 in ordinary duties, with reference (a) to population 

 and (6) to 10,000 of rateable value in the following 

 cities and large towns, is as follows : 



City of Ixmdon... 60.000 

 l.iv.-r|.l ........ 800,000 



laK"W ......... 691.000 



Ilirminuhmin ...... 460000 



M:i'-lienter ....... 380,000 



L-.-l. ............ 862.000 



Shi-fllcM .......... 322.000 



K.lM.l..nxh ........ 266,000 



NcwcMtle ........ 180,000 



Dun'lee ........... 180,000 



Dublin ........... 380,000 



800 

 ION 

 1000 

 .',60 

 870 

 421 

 380 

 408 

 266 

 18 

 1106 



.83 

 ,688 

 ,408 

 ,814 

 . 434 

 ,834 

 .80S 

 .646 

 .823 

 . 908 

 . 207 



2-10 

 3'20 

 8'lfl 

 S'10 

 S-flO 

 341 

 'SS 

 f-56 

 2-07 

 2-60 

 10-60 



The above figures show that in determining the 

 number of the police the authorities of each city 



and town have taken into consideration the vary- 

 ing needs and circumstances of each place, rather 

 than to have aimed at subordinating thru i.-,|ui,,- 

 incuts to a theoretical proportion of police to popu 

 liition. 



The police force throughout the country is in nil 

 respecto a civil body. In the metropolis ami ir. 

 the larger towns it is of course necessary that the 

 const allies should be more or less drilled, to enable 

 them when called on to act together in bodies, but 

 the force is in its essence, constitution, and per- 

 formance of duty, civil and non-military. In 

 exigencies the military forces of the crown can IK- 

 called out by magistrates to supplement the police 

 in the maintenance of law and order, but, thanks 

 to the law abiding character of the jM-opU-, such 

 occasions are of rare occurrence. The only branch 

 of the force of which the constitution is more mili- 

 tary than civil is the Uoyal Irish Constabulary, 

 which will be noticed further on. 



The control of the various police forces through- 

 out the country reste with local authorities : the 

 only exception to the rule being the Metropolitan 

 Police, who remain. a> they were originally designed 

 to be by Sir Itohcrt I'ec-1, under the authority of 

 Her Majesty's Secretary of State for the Home. 

 Department. On the continent of Europe the 

 police forces still remain under the direct control 

 of the state, and to a greater or less extent are 

 frequently used for political purposes, as well as 

 in the conservation of the public peace. In the 

 United States (see below) the principle of local 

 control is general, but in many of the larger cities- 

 police appointments are not altogether unconnected 

 with services rendered to local politicians. 



Metropolitan Police. The total strength of the 

 Metro|K)litan Police in 1898 exceeded 15,000 officers 

 and men, costing more than 1J million sterling per 

 annum. The Metropolitan Police District (exclu- 

 sive of the City of London, which has a separate 

 police force), as established by 2 and .'i Viet. chap. 

 47, extends over a radius of 15 miles from Charing 

 Cross, and embraces a radius of about 700 sq. m. 

 The population of the district may be estimated at 

 not less than 5J millions ; its acreage is about 

 441,000 acres; and the length of beats covered in 

 the various streets, squares, and roads amounts 

 to 8200 miles. Under 23 and 24 Viet. chap. i:v.. 

 Metropolitan Police are also employed in Her 

 Majesty s dockyards and in the principal stations 

 of the \Var Department. The cost of police per 

 inhabitant is about 4s. 8Jd. Since 1868 the cost 

 of the force has been limited to the proceeds of a 

 ltd. rate on the rental a-scssed in the Metropolitan 

 Police district, of which 4d., till 1889 contributed 

 by the Treasury, is now paid bv the county councils, 

 out of the Exchequer Contribution Account, ami 

 5d. by the- parishes. In 1890 an annual sum of 

 150,000 was allotted out of the proceeds of the 

 Local Taxation Act, to defray part of the expenses 

 of police su|icrannnalion, so that the amount now 

 available for police purposes in the metropolis may 

 lie put down as the total proceeds of the 9d. rate 

 under the original statute, plus 150,000. 



That the police of the mctro|M>lis is a costly Imdv 

 is apparent. Not only is the population which 

 the force is called on to protect enormous, but it 

 is also exceptionally congested in many localities. 

 The locomotion of such enormous masses of people 

 develops difficulties in dealing with tralhc 1111 

 known elsewhere. The annual charge for build- 

 ings, rents, and taxes is, anil must ), higher than 

 in other cities of less magnitude. The necessity for 

 providing a higher organisation to cope not merely 

 with an exceptionally numerous and skilful class 

 of criminals, but to secure the safety of the largest 

 iKxty of citizens in the world while engaged in 

 their lawful occupations, creates sources of expense 



