POLICE 



POLIGNAC 



bers of the local councils in their magisterial 

 capacity. For the city of London there is one 

 police-court held at the Man-inn House, and pre- 

 sided over hy the Lord Mayor or one of the alder- 

 men. In the Mi*tro]Hilitan Police District there 

 are fourteen police -courts, the chief of which is 

 held at Bow Street hy the chief-magistrate, 

 a i-ted by two magistrates. To each of the other 

 Metropolitan police-courts two stipendiary magis- 

 trates are attached. In Scotland sheriff-courts. 

 both in towns and counties, dispose of a large 

 numlx'r of criminal cases remitted to them. The 

 nuinl>erof criminal offenders convicted in 1890-98 

 was bet ween 9000 and 8000 a year in England and 

 \Valcs, Itetween 1900 and 1700 a year in Scotland, 

 and between l.W and ll"Kl in Ireland. 



{'niiice. In France the police are divided into 

 two great branches ( 1 ) The Pol iff Jmliciaire, 

 whose business is to discover offenders, gather 

 evidence against them, and hand them over to 

 the proper tribunal (see FRANCE, Vol. IV. p. 776) ; 

 (2) the Police Administrative, whose functions 

 correspond more closely to those of the English 

 police forces in maintaining order. They have, 

 however (as police gtncrale and police municipak), 

 wider (towers and more varied duties, having to 

 superintend public meetings, inspect public frxxl- 

 supplies, administer the laws as to the publication 

 of printed matter, the watching of foreigners, the 

 examination of passports, and regulate the sale of 

 firearms. There is a special department of police 

 politique. The armed police, with military organi- 

 sation, on foot or mounted, known as gendarmerie 

 (21,000 men ), together with gardes forestiers (8000) 

 and gardes chamjiftret (31,000), the commissaires 

 lie police (1100), and the agents de police (14,000), 

 belong to the judicial police. The nearest equiva- 

 lents to English constables are the gurdiens de la 

 p<i<-t, formerly called sergents de ville, of whom 

 Paris has some 6000. The Service de Surete is the 

 detective department. 



United States. In the United States, where 

 each state and each city has its own separate 

 administration, the police system closely resembles 

 that of England. The organisation of a uniformed 

 municipal police is comparatively recent, even in 

 the large cities ; in New York it was not substi- 

 tuted for the inefficient night-watch until 1845. 

 The police organisation of that city may be taken 

 as representative of the American system generally. 

 The department of police of the city of New York 

 consists of a 'board of police,' comprising commis- 

 sioners appointed by the mayor, and the ' police 

 force' and officers appointed by the board. The 

 city ( with an area of about 42 square miles before 

 the year 1897, and 359 square miles since) is 

 divided into inspection districts, which are sub- 

 divided into precinct*. At the head of the force is a 

 superintendent, under whom there are inspectors, a 

 cajitain over each precinct, sergeants, roundsmen 

 (visiting officers), patrolmen (the bodv of the 

 force), and doormen at the stations. There are 

 also about a score of police surgeons. The general 

 administration of the force is vested in the lioard 

 of police, who make appointments, transfers, Ac.. 

 hear charges against memlxjrs of the force, and 

 make rules and regulations for the discipline of the 

 department. The orders, however, must not con- 

 flict with the constitution of the Union or of the 

 state. The superintendent is the chief executive 

 cillicer, and is appointed by the board, to whom he 

 makes written quarterly reports ; and he receives 

 similar quarterly repot ts in writing from each of 

 the inspectors. The captains report every morning 

 to the central ollice. The roundsmen must >ce 

 that the patrolmen are properly performing their 

 duty, and the sergeants again are responsible for 

 both roundsmen and patrolmen. Besides the 



general force, there are several 'squads' organised 

 for special duties. These include the 'sanitary 

 police company,' whose members inspect building* 

 premises, employments, ventilation, sceiage. &c. 

 which are supposed to lie dangerous to life or detri- 

 mental to health, report nuisances, and seize food 

 unlit for consumption : officers of this company 

 also act as school-hoard officers, and others, quali- 

 fied as engineers, insi>cct steamboats and stationary 

 steam-boilers used for motive power in the city. 

 Tim detective force is also a separate 'squad ;' and 

 others are the mounted squad for duty near Central 

 Park, the mounted patrol for rural precincts, the 

 harlKiur police, the 'ordinance squad' (for enforcing 

 city ordinances), the I'.roadway squad (for aiding 

 pede-trians in crossing during the day), special 

 service squad.-, and others. On the lioard of police 

 falls the duty of seeing that the street* are kept 

 clean, and a bureau of street cleaning is appointed 

 by the lioard to supervise this department. Another 

 duty imposed upon the New York police relates to 

 elections: all elections within the city are held 

 under their direction ; election officers are appointed 

 by the board, to whom the returns are transmitted. 

 In 1897 the police force of New York was 3500 men, 

 and of Hrooklyn 12,000 ; and since the creation of 

 '(Jreater New York' in that year, the numlier of 

 police has been proportionately increased 



Australasian Colonies. In New South Wales 

 the number of the police force is 1900 ; in Victoria, 

 about as man v ; in South Australia, 500 ; in Queens- 

 land, 900 ; in Western Australia, 500 ; in Tasmania, 

 270 ; in New Zealand, 530. 



See PRISONS, JUSTICE OF THE PEACE ; F. W. Maitland, 

 Justice and Pol ice ( 1882) ; Tiedemann, Police Poicer in 

 the United State* ( 1887 ) ; G. W. Hale, Police and Pruon 

 Cyclopedia (1894). 



Politniao. an ancient French family, which 

 claims to derive its name from a castle the ancient 

 .\inilliiiiiifiiiii in the department of Haute Loire, 

 and which since the 9th century possessed the dis- 

 trict of Velav. Among its most famous members 

 was Cardinal Melchior de Polignac (1661-1742), 

 who was employed in diplomatic missions in 

 Poland and at Rome, and received a cardinal's 

 hat after acting as plenipotentiary of I.ouis XIV. 

 at the peace of Utrecht (1712). From 1725 till 

 1732 he was French minister at the court of 

 Home, and he was appointed Archbishop of 

 Audi. Polignac succeeded Itossuet at the French 

 Academy in 1704, and left unfinished the Atiti- 

 Lin-rctius (1745), a poem intended for a refutation 

 of Lucretius. 



Some other members of the Polignac family are- 

 more notorious than noteworthy. In the reign of 

 Louis XVI. lolanthe- .Marline Cabridle de 1'olas- 

 tion, Duchesse de Polignac (Ixirn 1749; died at 

 Vienna, 9th Decemlxjr 1793), and her husband, 

 Jules, Due de Polignac (died at St Peters- 

 burg, 1817), grand-nephew of the cardinal, v, 

 among the worst, but unhappily most favoured. 

 advisers of Marie Antoinette. They obtained 

 vast, sums of the public money from their royal 

 master and mistress, and were largely res|xmsible 

 for the shameful extravagance of the court. The 

 Polignacs knew how they were hated, and were 

 the first of the noblesse to emigrate. From the 

 Empress Catharine of Russia the duke received an 

 estate in the Ukraine, and did not return to France 

 at the Restoration. His son, AUGUSTK JULES 

 AKMAND MARIE, PRINCE DK POLIONAC, was born 

 at Versailles, 14th May 1780. On the Restoration 

 he returned to France ; became intimate with the 

 Comte d'Artois, afterwards Charles X. ; from his 

 devotion to the policy of Home received from the 

 pope in 1820 the title of Prince; was appointed 

 ambassador at the English court in Wl'.\; and 

 finally, in 1829, became head of the last Bourbon 



