From this period, till the 1st of George the First, the attention of the Legislature does not seem to have been directed to this object; when by the statute, 1st Geo. I. stat. 2. cap. 25, the principal Officers or Commissioners of the Navy were authorized to issue warrants to search for Public Property stolen or embezzled, and to punish the Offenders by fine or imprisonment.
A succeeding Act, (9 Geo. I. cap. 8.) empowered the Judges to mitigate the fine of £.200 imposed on persons having in their possession public stores, and to punish the offenders corporally, by causing them to be publicly whipped, or kept at hard labour for six months in the House of Correction; which certainly was a great improvement.
By the Act 17 Geo. II. c. 40. jurisdiction was given to the Judges of Assize, and the General Quarter Sessions, to try the Offenders, and punish them by a fine not exceeding £.200, imprisonment for three months, and other corporal punishment.
The Laws on this subject were further amended by the 9th of his present Majesty, cap. 35; by which the Treasurer, Comptroller, Surveyor, Clerk of the Acts, or any Commissioner of the Navy, are empowered to act as Justices, in causing Offenders to be apprehended and prosecuted. These powers were given with a view to establish a greater degree of energy in detections; but experience has shewn that the purpose has not been answered.
The last Act which relates to the protection of the Public Stores, was made the 12th year of his present Majesty's reign (cap. 24.) and related solely to burning ships, warehouses, and naval, military, or victualing stores, in any of the dominions of the Crown; which offence is made felony without Benefit of Clergy.
A very superficial view of the above Laws will demonstrate their insufficiency to the object of Prevention. And even if they were complete, the task imposed on the public officers, who are on every occasion to act as Justices, has proved from experience to be a measure ill calculated to attain the object in view, namely, the detection of offenders; otherwise the evil would not have increased.—Other remedies must therefore be applied. It is not, however, by any single act of the Legislature, that the enormous frauds and depredations in the Navy and Victualing Departments of his Majesty's service, which the Commissioners and chief Officers, under whose management they are placed, are so anxious to suppress,[74] can be remedied: This important object must be obtained by a combination of various salutary measures, calculated to afford collateral aid to specific Legislative Regulations, and to secure their effectual execution, by means which are now to be explained under their respective heads.—
I. A General Police System.
By the Establishment of a Central Board of Police, on the Plan strongly recommended by the Select Committee of the House of Commons on Finance, in their 28th Report, ordered to be printed in June 1798:—It is there proposed to bring under regulations by licences, all those classes of dealers in old and second-hand ships' stores—old iron and other metals, and several other dangerous and suspicious trades, the uncontrolled exercise of which, by persons of loose conduct, is known to contribute to the concealment and multiplication of crimes.—Infinite embarrassments would, through this collateral medium, be placed in the way of those particular Dealers, who reside in the vicinity of the Dock-yards, and who, by a variety of criminal devices, while they are instrumental in doing much mischief, have been able, in many instances, to elude Justice, and to carry on their nefarious practices with impunity.
A Board of Police so organized, by means of Licences and subordinate Officers, as to keep the conduct of these classes of delinquents in view who, by giving facilities to the embezzlers and stealers of naval and other stores, are the chief sources from whence the evil springs; and with power to refuse Licences to those who are known to have been guilty of criminal conduct; would operate very powerfully in limiting these classes of dealers to the honest part of their trade, by which infinite mischief would be prevented.