A. D. 1798. 457 



At this time the trade of the port of London was more extenfive than 

 it ever was before ; and the whole value of the floating property, in- 

 cluding the veflels of every defcription as well as the cargoes, lying in 

 the courfe of the year expofed to the pillage of an organized army of 

 plunderers, is calculated to be not lefs than jCj 0,0 ^2, g^g. The Weft- 

 India produce was now not only greater in quantity, but alfo its nom- 

 inal value was increafed by the advance in the price, which rendered 

 the acquifition of it more defirable to the plunderers, and the lofs of it 

 more fevere upon the proprietors. Nor are they the only fufferers : 

 the revenue fufFers by the want of the duty on the embezzled goods ; 

 and the owners and commanders of the veflels which carry the cargoes, 

 and the merchants, to whom they are configned, are alfo fufFerers in 

 the defalcations of their freights, primages, and commiflions *. 



After the Weft-India planters and merchants had tried every expedient, 

 and expended large funis of money in rewards and profecutions, without 

 any appearance of diminiftiing the evil, Mr. Colquhoun, a magiftrate 

 diftinguiftied by his attention to the police of the metropolis, fuggefted to 

 them a fyftem of marine police applicable to the peculiar circumftances 

 of the trade of the River Thames, ' mild in its operations^ effeBive in its 

 ' refults, having ju/lice and humanity for its bafts^ and the general fecurity 

 ' ofthejlate and individuals for its ultimate objc^.'' The plan, after being 

 approved by fucceflive committees and general meetings of the Weft- 

 India merchants and planters, was fubmitted to the executive govern- 

 ment, v/ho gave it their fandion, and determined that the public 

 fhould defray fome branches of the propofed expenfe, which altogether 

 is very trifling. 



On the 2^ of July 1798 the operations of the Marine police commenc- 

 ed at an office at Wapping new flairs, a fltuation centrical to the trade 

 of the port. The eftablifliment confifts of 



i) a judicial department, wherein the magiftrates take cognifance of 

 all offences in veflels and upon the river or its banks ; 

 2) a marine police, or preventive, department, to which are attached. 

 62 perfons in the capacities of cafhier, furveyors, watermen, and 



guards 



3) a department of lumpers for the purpofe of difcharging vefTels 

 under the controul of the marine police, as a further means of pre- 



* Among many other inftances of excetllve liable to be cut open by the knife of any vagrant 

 depredation, Mr. Colquhoun mentions one of the thief lounging about the wharf, afford but a poor 

 enormous quantity of JiJ'ly tuj-.t of fugar, three proteftion to coffee. Well-India woods, conlift- 

 tuhole puncheons of rum, bcfides 300 gallons pump- ing of innumerable pieces, are generally ftoltn, in 

 ed out of dillerent caflcs, and a large quantity of every ftage of their long and tedious progrcfs, to 

 coffee, which were proved to have been plundered a prodigious extent, whereof I myfelf could pro- 

 out of one Jarrl^a fhip in March 1794, the lofs duce an inftance, far beyond the ufual limits of 

 of all which was thrown upon the underwriters, wood plunder, which would make fome people. 

 Rum is a very defirable article, and it is alfo who pretend to be very much above being capable 

 peculiarly liable to depredation. Caiivafs bsgs, of fuch bafenefs, look very black. 



Vol. IV. 3 M 



