LONDON (CHURCHES, &C.) 



527 



Bridge Ward Without. It is subject to the jurisdic- 

 tion of the lord mayor. It returns two members to 

 parliament. The military force supplied by London 

 comprises two regiments of militia, amounting to 

 2200 men, whom the city is authorised to raise by 

 ballot ; the officers being appointed by the commis- 

 sioners of the king's lieutenancy for the city of Lon- 

 don, according to a parliamentary act in 1794. The 

 year 1829 witnessed the almost entire remodelling of 

 the ancient system of police and nightly watch. 

 These latter guardians of the public were heretofore 

 appointed by the several wards in the city district, 

 and by the parochial authorities in other parts of the 

 metropolis. But a recent act of parliament estab- 

 lished a body of metropolitan police, divisioned and 

 disciplined somewhat like the gens d'armerie of 

 France, and subjected to the control of a board, con- 

 sisting of three commissioners, who superintend and 

 are responsible for all acts of their inferiors. The 

 metropolis being subdivided into sections, each has a 

 station or watch-house, and a company of police, 

 consisting of one superintendent, four inspectors, 

 sixteen sergeants, and 144 police constables. They 

 are dressed in a blue semi-military uniform, and are 

 on duty at all hours, night and day. This new 

 police commenced its duties, in several of the 

 parishes of Westminster, on September 29, 1829. 

 But the city retains its special establishments, 

 under the control of its own magistracy. It 

 comprises marshalmen, day and night patrols, con- 

 stables, watchmen, and streetkeepers, altogether 

 amounting to 800 or 900 men, appointed by the 

 several wards. The principal city police offices are 

 at the Mansion-house and Guildhall, where aldermen 

 preside in rotation. In the districts not within the 

 city jurisdiction, there are eight different offices, 

 presided over by twenty-seven magistrates, usually 

 selected from among the barristers. There are also 

 one hundred foot-patrols, and, in winter, fifty-four 

 horse-patrols, the former continually, the latter only 

 by night, protecting the streets and environs of the 

 metropolis. Independent of these is the Thames 

 police, established in 1798, for the protection of 

 persons and property connected with the shipping, 

 from Vauxhall bridge to Woolwich. The chief 

 office is at Wapping, and the importance of such an 

 establishment may be estimated, by considering that 

 there are upwards of 13,000 vessels of various sizes 

 engaged on this river, annually discharging and 

 receiving more than 3,000,000 packages of goods of 

 every description. The chief prison for criminals 

 is Newgate in the Old Bailey. It is the common 

 gaol for London and Middlesex. The number of its 

 inmates varies from 900 to 350. The Compter is 

 situated in Giltspur street, close to Newgate, and 

 destined for the reception of vagrants and persons 

 committed previous to examination, or as a house of 

 correction for the confinement of persons sentenced 

 to hard labour or imprisonment. Clerkemvell pri- 

 son in Spafields, receives prisoners of every descrip- 

 tion, for the county of Middlesex. Its average num- 

 ber of inmates is about 200. The Fleet prison, in 

 what was lately Fleet market, is a receptacle for 

 debtors and persons guilty of what is technically 

 called contempt of the court of chancery. It is in- 

 tended to remove this nuisance, and to build a sub- 

 stitute in St George's fields, in the Borough. The 

 prison usually contains 250 indwellers, and keeps 

 ward of about sixty out-patients, i. e. prisoners pri- 

 vileged to live within the rules. The King's Bench 

 prison is a spacious gaol for debtors and minor 

 criminals. It has about 200 separate apartments. 

 The other prisons of note are in Southwark, viz. 

 Horsemonger lane or the Surrey county gaol, appro- 

 priated to felons and debtors ; the Borough Comp- 



ter, for various classes of offenders ; the New 

 Bridewell, erected in 1829, near Bethlehem hospital, 

 as a house of correction, in which the prisoners are 

 chiefly employed at the tread-mill ; and the Marshal- 

 sea prison in Blackmail street, for persons committed 

 by the Marshalsea court. The principal houses of 

 correction are the Bridewell hospital, Cold Bath 

 fields, and the penitentiary at Milbank. 



Churches, Charities, Societies, fyc. The ecclesias- 

 tical division of London comprises ninety-seven 

 parishes within the walls, seventeen without, ten in 

 Westminster, besides twenty-nine out-parishes in 

 Middlesex and Surrey. It contains one cathedral 

 (St Paul's), one collegiate church (Westminster 

 abbey), 130 parish churches, and seventy Episcopal 

 chapels ; nearly 200 places of worship belonging to 

 Protestant Dissenters ; eighteen churches or chapels 

 of foreign Protestants, viz. one Armenian, one Dan- 

 ish, two Dutch, five French, seven German, one 

 Swiss, and one Swedish ; six meeting-houses of the 

 Friends (or Quakers) ; ten British Roman Catholic 

 chapels ; five ditto for foreigners of that persuasion, 

 viz. one Bavarian, one French, one German, one 

 Sardinian, one Spanish ; and six Jewish synagogues, 

 one of which is for Portuguese, and another for Ger- 

 man Jews. (Westminster abbey and St Paul's cathe- 

 dral are described in separate articles.) London 

 owes not merely its magnificent cathedral, but fifty- 

 three other churches, to Sir Christopher Wren. The 

 multiplication of churches has nearly kept pace 

 with the rapid extension of the metropolis. The 

 commissioners, appointed for the purpose, are gradu- 

 ally removing the stigma upon an opulent church 

 establishment, that religious accommodation was 

 unprovided for the poor. Many of the churches 

 possess much architectural beauty. There are, in 

 London, forty-five free schools, endowed in perpe- 

 tuity, for educating and maintaining nearly 4000 

 children, seventeen for pauper or deserted children, 

 and about 240 parish schools, in which clothing and 

 education are supplied to about 12,000 children. The 

 chief public endowments, of the first description, are, 

 St Paul's school, Christ's hospital,Westminster school, 

 Merchant Tailors' school, and the Charter house. 

 St Paul's school, founded in 1509, bestows a classical 

 education upon 153 pupils. Christ's hospital, found- 

 ed by Edward VI., in 1547, can accommodate about 

 1100 children of both sexes, who are clothed, boarded, 

 and educated for seven years. Some of the boys are 

 prepared for the university, most of them for com- 

 merce. Westminster school,founded in 1560 by queen 

 Elizabeth, receives a large number of pupils of high 

 rank and respectability. Merchant Tailors' school, 

 founded by the company of merchant tailors in 1561, 

 educates about 300 pupils at a very low rate of pay- 

 ment. The company nominate to forty-six fellow- 

 ships in St John's college, Oxford. The Charter 

 house endowed in 1611, supports and educates 

 scholars for the university (where they receive a 

 liberal annuity), or for commerce, besides instruct- 

 ing about 150 other pupils. Many other charitable 

 institutions for education are supported by voluntary 

 contribution, as are, also, the parochial schools, which 

 usually provide clothing and elementary instruction 

 for the poor children of the respective parishes. The 

 children of these schools are annually assembled in 

 the vast area of St Paul's on the first Thursdf-y in 

 June. The central national school, with its forty 

 subsidiary schools in London, educates there about 

 20,000 children. The British and foreign school 

 society, at its central and subsidiary schools, of which 

 there are, in London, forty-three, educates about 

 12,000 children. The Sunday schools, taught by about 

 5000 gratuitous teachers, instruct between 60,000 and 

 70,000 children. The foundling hospital is capable of 



