discharged from the Army and Navy on the return of Peace.Policy and humanity require that an adequate remedy should be provided for such a contingency.Qui non vetat peccare cum possit, jubet. Where the powers of a State are not employed to avert apparent and threatened evils, a tacit assent is given to the commission of crimes. On the contrary, where means are used to check the progress of turpitude and vice, and to compel obedience to the Laws, the comfort of Society is promoted, and the privileges of innocence are secured.

If in the accomplishment of the design which has been recommended by the highest authority, these objects shall be gradually attained--If it shall ope rate in preventing acts of violence and fraud from being committed upon the peaceful subject; while means are discovered through the medium of a welli regulated Police, whereby the unfortunate, and even the idle and the dissolute, may possess a resource for subsistence by honest industry, without having any pretended plea of necessity for resorting to Crimes great, indeed, would be the benefits which would result to the Public. This would be at once the triumph of both reason and humanity.

The first step is, to attend to the Morals and the Habits of the rising Generation; to adapt the Laws more particularly to the manners of the People, by minutely examining the state of Society, so as to lead the inferior orders, as it were, insensibly into better Habits, by gentle restraints upon those propensities 002

which

564 PROPOSED SYSTEM OF CRIMINAL POLICE.

which terminate in Idleness and Debauchery ;-to remove temptations, in their nature productive of evil, and to establish incitements to good and useful pursuits.,

Among a variety of other functions which would devolve on the proposed Commissioners, perhaps one might be to, offer suggestions to the Executive Government, with respect to such useful Regulations as might arise from the extensive knowledge which they must necessarily acquire as to the condition and pursuits of the labouring People; and hence would result one of the greatest means of preventing Crimes, and improving the Condition of human Life.

But while it is acknowledged to be a vain hope to reduce the tumultuous passions of Men to absolute regularity, so as to render the Commission of offences impracticable; it is equally clear (and it is even proved by the State of Society, where Public Morals have been more effectually guarded), that it is pos. sible to diminish the Evil very considerably..

By the establishment of a well-conducted Board of Police, a confident hope is entertained that this purpose is attainable; and in this view (although it is to take nothing from, the present Resources of the State), it is a blessing to the Nation, which could scarce be too dearly purchased at, any price.

1

CHAP.

MUNICIPAL POLICE OF THE METROPOLIS. 565

CHAP. XIX.

The unparalleled Extent and Opulence of the Metropolis manifested in the number of streets, lanes, alleys, courts, and squares, estimated at above 8000; containing above 4000 Churches and Places for religious Worship,―more than 400 Seminaries of Education;-several Institutions for promoting Religion and Morality;-11 Societies for promoting Learning, and the useful and the fine Arts-ab great number of charitable Asylums for the indigent and forlorn-Hospitals and Dispensaries for the lame, sick, and diseased; and above 1700 Institutions of various other kinds for Charitable and Humane Purposes.-A detail of the Courts of Law, and other Establishments connected with the distribution of Justice.--The public Prisons in the metropolis.-A view of the number of Persons employed in the different departments of the Law, estimated in all at about, 7000.-Suggestions for improcing the civil Jurisprudence in the Metropolis, so far as relates to the recovery of small Debts.-The Evils arising from the present System, exemplified in the multiplicity of actions for trivial sums in the course of a year; the enormous expence, and the ill effects of the severity of the punishment in such cases; debasing the mind, and proving the destruction of many families, in their morals; and injuring the State. The necessity of an Alteration of the SysQ03

tem,

tem, farther enforced by the propriety of relieving the supreme Judges from a weight of labour unreasonable in the cast increase of business, which the extensive and growing intercourse of Commerce occa sions.-The same Observations extended to the great Officers of State; and the necessity and utility of 4 division of labour, in proportion to the increase of public duty, explained; as a means of preventing inconveniences.A view of the Municipal Regulations which have been established in the Metropolis for the accommodation aud convenience of the inhabitants; grounded on various acts of the Legislature, passed at different periods, during the last and the present century.-Each district of the Metropolis, a separate Municipality; where the power of assessing the inhabitants, for the purposes of pacing, watch: ing, lighting, cleansing, and removing nuisances, iş placed in the hands of Trustees, under a great number of local acts of Parliament. These regulations mostly founded on Laws made in the last and in the present Reign. The principal public acts detailed, viz:-The General Act of the 2d William and Mary, cap. 8, for paving the Metropolis;-the 10th Geo. II. cap. 22, for watching the City of London; 11th Geo. III. cap. 29, for removing signs, and establishing a complete System of Municipal Police.The Acts relative to Westminster and Southwark for similar purpose-The Statutes relative to Common Sewers detailed; their origin, and the great advantages resulting from them.-The Laws relative

to

to Hackney Coaches and Chairs-also to Carts and other Carriages.-The Acts relative to Watermen on the Thames.—The Law for restraining bullockhunting. And finally, the Regulations by the 14th Geo. III. cap. 78, relative to the Mode of building Houses, and the Rules laid down for extinguishing Fires. Concluding Observations, on the advantages which would result to the Metropolis at large from these numerous Acts of Parliament being rendered uniform, and conformable to the excellent Regulations established for the City of London.-The advantages of simplifying the System.-The burden upon the Inhabitants equal to one million a year for the ev pence of Municipal Police.-Suggestions for improving the System and reducing this expence.-Concluding Reflections.-The present epoch, more than any other, presses for arrangements calculated to amend the Morals of the People, by improving the Laws of the Country.

IT

T cannot fail to prove an interesting inquiry, not only to the inhabitants of the Metropolis, but also to Strangers, by what means that department of its œconomy and government, which may be denominated Municipal Police, is regulated; so as to convey the comforts, and procure the various accommodations and conveniences which, with some few exceptions, are felt to exist in every part of the Capital and its environs.

004

When