roi.i 



POLITICAL ECONOMY. 



lOt 



many out*. The following extract* from the Y ear-Books of the 

 Exchequer are instance* of this : " 16 Edward I. .Sussex : murder and 

 robbery townahip of Tyndon amerced, because it happened by day, 

 and they did not take the offender." "6 Edward II., Kent: man- 

 slaughter (upon a Hidden quarrel) committed in the highway of 

 \Vrothatn three bystander* amerced because they were present when 

 the afuremid Robert killed the aforesaid John, and did not take him." 

 And in the reign of Elizabeth the popular vigilance which this system 

 had created leads a writer of that day to remark that " every English- 

 man is a serjeont to take the thief, and who showeth negligence therein 

 do not only incur evil opinion thereof, but hardly shall escape punish- 

 ment" Thus, -when the Anglo-Saxon system of mutual protection 

 had fallen to decay, the spirit of vigilance which characterised it was 

 in some measure replaced by the greater energy and activity of the 

 supreme executive. In process of time, however, great social and 

 political, and, it may be added, physical changes have rendered both 

 systems equally incapable of effecting the objects for which they were 

 intended. 



In the year 1829, the late Sir Robert Peel, after having consolidated 

 the Criminal Law of England, instituted in the metropolis the new 

 police force, which more than any other external means lias con- 

 solidated peace and protected life and property, to the undoing uf 

 invective such as met its introduction, and to the disappointment of 

 all the alarm that was excited by it for the liberty of the subject. 

 This was effected by the 10 Oeo. IV., c. 44 ; and that Act was followed 

 by the 2 ft 3 Viet c. 47, making further improvements in the force, 

 extending the metropolitan police district to a radius of fifteen miles 

 from Charing Cross, and giving police- jurisdiction over the river 

 Thames, and the quays and docks existing thereon. The city of 

 London, that had been exempted from the operation of these statutes, 

 was by the 2 & 3 Yict c. xciv., provided with n similar force under a 

 special commissioner, entirely under the control of the city authorities. 

 And other cities and boroughs from this time forward successively 

 acquired by private Act of Parliament the necessary powers to enable 

 them to institute and maintain police on the model of the metropolitan 

 force. By the 5 * 6 Viet c. 109 ; 7 & 8 Viet c. 52, and 18 ft 14 

 \ "k-t. c. 20, petty constables for preserving the peace in parishes or 

 townships ?"intjining their own poor, and in extra-parochial places, 

 are to be chosen annually by the justices of the peace for the district 

 or division, from a list made by the overseers, comprising every able- 

 bodied man between 25 and 55 years resident in the parish, and rated 

 to the poor rate or county rate, or holding at the yearly rent of 41., 

 subject, however, to sundry exceptions expressly mentioned in the Act. 

 This was a resuscitation of the ancient constabulary for the protection 

 of life and property, and maintenance of the queen's peace, in places 

 and districtB not incorporated, the inhabitants themselves, in the true 

 spirit of old English institutions, being thereby mutually engaged under 

 oath, without remuneration, to the performance of this important 

 public duty. 



The 2 & 3 Viet c. 93, and the 3 ft 4 Viet. c. 83, had in [the 

 meantime provided for the appointment of county constabulary, 

 clothed, paid and accoutred, and formed in accordance with rules 

 prescribed by the Secretary of State for the Home Department. But 

 as these Acts left the initiative in the discretion of the county magis- 

 trates, very many of the English and Welsh counties continued to be 

 without protection, save such as was afforded by the parish constable, 

 until the 19 ft 20 Viet c. 69 (20 Viet. c. 2) made it compulsory on 

 the magistrates of every county where no police hod yet been con- 

 stituted, to proceed therein forthwith. Powers for the consolidation 

 of independent bodies of police already existing, or for the joint 

 appointment and superintendence of police for adjoining districts and 

 boroughs, were given by the same statute, and provision was made for 

 imposing one-fourth of the expense of the force, whenever it was 

 efficient, on the Consolidated Fund. Similar provision had already been 

 made by the 3 ft 4 W. IV., c. 89, for advancing a sum of 60,0001. a 

 year out of the Consolidated Fund towards defraying the expense of 

 the metropolitan police. In this way the whole of the country, by 

 successive steps, and in virtue of a series of statutes, beginning with 

 the Act of ,8ir Robert Peel in the tenth year of George IV., has at 

 length been placed under the protection of a well-devised anil very 

 efficient system of police, whose surveillance of the country is continued 

 throughout the whole of the four-aud-twenty hours. In Scotland the 

 larger towns have many of them separate police statutes, placing the 

 management and control of the system in the hands of elected com- 

 mumoners; but the 3 ft 4 Win. IV. c. 46, a general police Act, the 

 provisions of which, or a portion of them, might have been adopted by 

 any royal burgh, burgh cf regality, or burgh of barony, at a meeting 

 of a specified number of ten-pound householders, has been adopted in 

 everal place*. That Act was amended by the 10 ft 11 Viet c. 39, and 

 further by the 18 ft 14 Viet. c. 33, and, thus amended, is still in full 

 force and oiration. The 20 ft 21 Viet. c. 72, however, has since been 

 passed for improving the police system of Scotland, and providing 

 facilities for the establishment of |>olice where none at the time existed. 

 A in the general Act for England, the institution of county con- 

 stabularies is by this Act compulsory on the commissioners of supply 

 for each county; provision is also made for the consolidation of 

 independent bodies of police, and for the establishment of poliee for 

 neighbouring districts and burghs jointly. The former statute, the 



2 ft 3 Viet c. 65, which left it discretionary in the commission, 

 supply to provide constables for the counties, is repealed ; and pr. 

 is made for charging one-fourth of the expense of any burgh or 

 constabulary, reported to be efficient for the year in numbers and 



discipline. .. tin- Consolidated Fund. 



I'ni.icY and POLITY. Policy is generally used to signii 

 line of conduct which the rulers of a nation adopt on particular 

 questions, especially with regard to foreign countries; and according 

 to our opinion of that particular Un of conduct, we say that it is good 

 or bad policy. Polity has a more extended sense, being synonymous 

 with tin- principles of government, and this is the sense of the Greek 

 " politeia (voXiTtla), from which it is derived. Police, in an extended 

 sense, is that branch of polity which is concerned with the internal 

 economy of the state. In a more restricted sense, it is a branch of pre- 

 ventive administration, distinct from the administration of justice, the 

 object of which, among other things, is the punishment of crimes 

 committed. 



I'OI.ICY. rjtavBRSlON.] 



1'OI.IKV ,M.] 



POLISHING. [CYTLKHV; CILDIN.;; VARXISH.] 



POLITICAL ECONOMY is the name given to a department of 

 knowledge the limits of which are not yet accurately defined. Tin- 

 word economy, applied to domestic concerns, means the art of well 

 administering the private affairs of a family, of regulating its expen- 

 diture according to its income, and providing for the wants of the 

 members of the household. By analogy, political or " public " economy 

 has been considered by many as conversant about the principles of 

 administering the wealth of a country with a view to its increase, 

 regulating the expenditure, providing for the wants of the peopi 

 endeavouring to maintain and increase their comfort*. Hut 1 iy 

 such an extensive view of the subject, most writers, and especially 

 continental writers, have considered it necessary to investigate all the 

 causes of the prosperity of nations, and have involved them* ! 

 multifarious discussions on the various forms of government and of 

 civil institutions which are supposed to affect the economical condition 

 of a people. By so doing they have encroached upon the science of 

 general politics and legislation, and have brought forward their own 

 theories of laws, ethics, and administration, with the view of showing 

 their influence on the social state. But it is evident that such a vast 

 field of inquiry must exceed the powers of any single writer, and that 

 the attempt to embrace BO many difficult and varied subjects under <>ne 

 division of knowledge, tends to confuse rather than to elu. 

 Modern writers, especially in England, have therefore limited their 

 inquiries to the principles which govern the production and accumula- 

 tion of wealth, and its distribution and consumption. "The \\e:i]tii 

 of Nations " was the title which Adam Smith gave to his work. In 

 this consists the main difference between the modern English ami the 

 Italian and French economists. The latter maintain that the political 

 economist is concerned not only with the aggregate production of 

 wealth, but with its most beneficial distribution among individuals,- not 

 only with wealth in short, but with happiness also. The modern 

 English writers, on the contrary, say that the appropriate subject of 

 the political economist is not happiness, but wealth ; that wealth is 

 confined to material objects, the produce of land and of industry ; 

 that the political economist who assumes to explain the phenomena of 

 the production of wealth ought to lay down the general principles on 

 which wealth is produced, as they are deducible from actual facts ; it 

 is the business of the statesman, the philosopher, or the politician, to 

 say what he thinks best for the general prosperity of society, after he 

 has examined the evidence of tile political economist, which is an 

 essential part of the evidence, but not the sole evidence to be attended 

 to in the conduct of a nation's affairs. But here the English econo- 

 mists also seem to be divided among themselves. Some appear (to 

 think that the principles of political economy, as the term is understood 

 l>y them, may be deduced with the certainty of mathematical demon- 

 stration, whilst others assert that there are many important | 

 sitions in political economy which require limitations and exceptions. 

 " The desire to simplify and generalise has occasioned an unwillingness 

 to acknowledge the operation of more causes than one in the production 

 of particular effects ; and if one cause would account for a considerable 

 portion of a certain class of phenomena, the whole has been ascribed to it 

 without sufficient attention to the facts which would not admit of being 

 so solved." (Malthus, ' Principles of Political Economy,' Introduction.) 

 Maltlms quotes the controversy on the bullion question as an instance 

 of this kind of error. 



We cannot enter into anything like an examination, however brief, 

 of the principles of political economy ; but shall merely state a few 

 general propositions which are universally acknowledged as true. 1. 

 Every man desires to obtain additional wealth with as little trouble to 

 himself aa possible. 2. The increase of population is limited either by 

 physical or moral evil, or by prudential motives. 3. The powers of 

 and of the other instruments which produce wealth, may be 

 indefinitely increased, by using their products as the means of further 

 production. 4. Agricultural produce is not susceptible of the same 

 unlimited increase as manufactures. The principal topics discussed by 

 political economists are : 1, the definition of wealth ; 2, of productive 

 and unproductive labour ; 3, of the nature and measures of value ; 4, 

 of the rent of land ; 6, the wages of labour ; 6, the profits of capital 



