Such places of resort under appropriate Police regulations, might be rendered a considerable source of revenue to the State, while they added greatly to the comfort and innocent recreation of the People.—By shutting up the Gardens the People are driven to the Ale-houses, where both air and exercise, so necessary to health, are denied them, and where the same excesses often prevail, tending in a still greater degree, to the corruption of morals.
Wherever multitudes of people are collected together, as in a great Metropolis like London, amusements become indispensably necessary.—And it is no inconsiderable feature in the science of Police to encourage, protect, and controul such as tend to innocent recreation, to preserve the good humour of the Public, and to give the minds of the People a right bias.
This is only attainable through the medium of a well-regulated Police.—It is perfectly practicable to render Public Gardens as innocent and decorous as a Private Assembly: although under the present deficient System they are the greatest of all nuisances.—Decent and respectable families are compelled to deny themselves the privilege of visiting them, because no restraint is put upon indecency, and vice reigns triumphant.
It is because things are either done by halves, or nothing is done at all to secure the privileges of innocence, that the sober and harmless part of the community are compelled to forego those recreations which contributed to their comfort: while the young and thoughtless, heedless of the consequences and inexperienced as to the effect, rush into the vortex of dissipation, and unable to discriminate, become victims to the licentiousness which is suffered to prevail.
Since recreation is necessary to Civilized Society, all Public Exhibitions should be rendered subservient to the improvement of morals, and to the means of infusing into the mind a love of the Constitution, and a reverence and respect for the Laws.—How easy would it be under the guidance of an appropriate Police, to give a right bias through the medium of Public amusements to the dispositions of the People.—How superior this to the odious practice of besotting themselves in Ale-houses, hatching seditious and treasonable designs, or engaged in pursuits of the vilest profligacy, destructive to health and morals.
Even the common Ballad-singers in the streets might be rendered instruments useful under the controul of a well-regulated Police, in giving a better turn to the minds of the lowest classes of the People.—They too must be amused, and why not, if they can be amused innocently.—If through this medium they can be taught loyalty to the Sovereign, love to their Country, and obedience to the Laws, would it not be wise and politic to sanction it?
If in addition to this, moral lessons could occasionally be conveyed, shewing in language familiar to their habits, the advantages of Industry and Frugality—The pleasure of living independent of the Pawnbroker and the Publican—The disgrace and ruin attached to drunkenness and dishonesty, and the glory and happiness of a good Husband, a good Father, and an honest Man, might it not reasonably be expected, that in a religious as well as a moral point of view, advantages would be gained, while the people were both instructed and amused?
Crimes have been generated in a considerable degree both by immoral and seditious books and songs.—It is true the laws are open to punishment. The road however to justice, with respect to the former, is circuitous and difficult, while in the latter case their execution is felt to be harsh, severe, and ultimately ineffectual: hence licentious and mischievous Publications prevail, and Ballad-singers are suffered often to insult decency, and to disseminate poison in every street in the Metropolis.
Like many other evils they remain in spite of the statutes made to prevent them.—They were evils suffered centuries ago where the laws proved equally unavailing: but the state of society and manners rendered them less dangerous.
In the Machine of Government there are many component parts where responsibility attaches;—but with respect to objects of Police, it would seem at present to rest no where, and hence is explained at once, the want of energy in the execution of our laws, and why so many excellent Statutes remain a dead letter.—To live encircled by fears arising from uncontrolled excesses of the human passions, either leading to turpitude or terminating in the commission of crimes, is to live in misery.—Police is an improved state of Society, which counteracts these excesses by giving energy and effect to the law. It is like the Mechanical power applied to an useful Machine, devoid of which, it remains without motion, or action, and without benefit.