It would seem to be a great improvement in the Police, if Magistrates in Petty Sessions had a power finally to determine on offences denominated Assaults—Subject, however, to an appeal to the Quarter Sessions.—It would even be an act of humanity to the labouring people, who are often imprisoned from the time of the charge till the Sessions, when a confinement of a shorter duration might atone for the offence.—It would likewise save much trouble and expences to the parties, and the time and attention of Courts and Juries would not be wasted by matters extremely frivolous; but by which a certain expence is incurred, and a loss of valuable time to the parties, who are not seldom both in the wrong.
Perjury.
This shocking offence, particularly prevalent among the inferior ranks in Society, is to be attributed in no small degree to the want of proper solemnity and previous explanation on the administration of oaths.—Nothing can exceed the unimpressive and careless manner which is in practice in calling upon witnesses to make this solemn appeal to the Supreme Being.—It would seem highly necessary that all oaths should be administered in the most impressive manner by the Judge, and that a form should be devised, calculated in the greatest possible degree, to impress upon the mind of the party a high sense of the obligation he or she has come under to speak the truth.
On the whole, it may be asserted that nothing could tend to improve the Police of the Country and the Metropolis more than a general revision of the Laws respecting Misdemeanors, and particularly the Act of the 17 Geo. II. cap. 5. and subsequent Acts respecting vagrants, and rogues and vagabonds; so as to assimilate them in a greater degree to the present state of Society, and to render their execution more certain and beneficial to the Community.
Prevention of the Coinage of Base Money.
In the [7th Chapter] of this Work, the various modes in practice, by which the Public is defrauded by the coining, fabricating, and colouring of Base Money are fully developed, and specific Remedies proposed from page [195] to [210], to which the Reader is referred.
A confident hope is entertained, that those Remedies will speedily be brought under the consideration of Parliament, in the form of a Bill.—If this should be passed into a Law, and accompanied by a new Coinage of Silver, and aided by the energy of an appropriate Police, little doubt can be entertained of the measure being effectual in securing the Public against the enormous evil of Counterfeit Coin.
Prevention of Pillage and Plunder on the River Thames.
The [8th Chapter] of this Treatise displays not only the immense importance of controlling the evil habits of aquatic labourers and others on the River Thames and in the Warehouses adjacent; but also the advantages to be expected from a general Police System; reasoning on the extensive success which has attended the partial experiment on the same principle of vigilance applied to this object.
The extensive benefits which are known and acknowledged to have been derived from the Marine Police (even under all the disadvantages of a Crippled System and Deficient Powers) joined to a review of the state of the River before and since this important measure was adopted, afford the best proof that can be adduced of its utility; and also of the indispensable necessity, not only of immediately perfecting a System, by which the Commerce and Revenue of the Port of London have been in so great a degree secured; but also of extending the same beneficial designs, wherever the state of things require a similar antidote.