Miss Marrable is, as I have already said, a woman without weaknesses. On hearing this announcement, however, she fainted away. When, thanks to the kind attentions of the female members of the Joneses’ family, she revived, she indignantly charged those estimable people with having deliberately plotted her discomfiture; and she insisted upon at once returning to Abermaw; but the carriage (and Griffiths) had gone; so Mr Jones, senior, who grasped the situation, volunteered to drive Miss Marrable back to the Cors-y-Gedol Hotel; and by twelve o’clock, or shortly afterwards, she was again in her own room. It was then that she learned of the desertion of Lucy and Amy. I need not describe how she received the news, and how she declared that her abandoned nieces should never again behold her face; nor that, although she is a woman without weaknesses, she passed the greater part of the remainder of the night in violent hysterics. She telegraphed next day to Mr Larkspur and Mr Allerton; and repairing to the Red Cow, furiously denounced Sir Thomas Jellicoe as the basest and most heartless of men!
Three weeks afterwards, however, the edge of her anger had worn off. Lucy and Amy were married. It was foolish, but, perhaps, it was not wholly inexcusable; and thus reasoning, Miss Marrable, in the goodness of her heart, determined to gradually receive them back into her favour. But she has never wholly forgiven Lucy for suggesting the substitution of the billiard-marker for Vivian Jellicoe.
‘My dear,’ she says, when she retells the story of her drive to Harlech, ‘the wretched man was perfectly saturated with whisky, and I really don’t know what he might not have done if I hadn’t kept my eye steadily on him. But beneath my gaze he cowered, my dear, positively cowered! I never saw a savage brute so completely tamed.’
And to this day Miss Marrable believes that but for her Eye, the billiard-marker might—horrid thought!—have run away with her too.
A CURIOSITY IN JOURNALISM.
In the case of such a curiosity in official journalism as the Police Gazette, formerly known as the Hue and Cry, the public will be interested to learn a little more than the newspapers have briefly announced about the changes made in it by government authority. The paper itself, which was commenced shortly after the formation of the metropolitan police force in 1828, is not allowed to circulate beyond constabulary circles; but its efficiency of management unquestionably concerns the general community. Previous to the year 1828, the metropolis, like other centres of population, was under the care of the old parochial Watch, who, as corrupt as they were feeble, became an absolute street nuisance. Far from being a terror to evil-doers, their notorious negligence and inefficiency enabled the midnight burglar or daring footpad to pursue his criminal avocation with comparative impunity. Peel’s Act introduced a greatly improved régime; and the new police, nicknamed after their originator, were for a long time popularly known as ‘Peelers.’ The newly established force required new methods of working, and one of these was the starting of an official newspaper which, though it is perhaps the only one the public never see, has nevertheless often done them good service, and is now to be made of still more value.
It is probably known to few that there exists in connection with the Detective department at Scotland Yard a regular printing establishment, from which sheets are issued four times a day containing information as to persons ‘wanted,’ current offences, property stolen, lost, or found. A daily list of property stolen is also printed, and distributed to all licensed pawnbrokers. Particulars received from country constabulary forces are inserted in these publications, which are carefully read at parades and studied by the detectives. This, however, only applies to the metropolis; and a strong desire has long prevailed at headquarters to make that larger medium of publicity, the Police Gazette, more useful as a means of intercommunication between the whole of the two hundred and ninety police forces of the kingdom. Until the beginning of the present year, that wretched print had shown scarcely any progress or improvement since it was commenced. Its direction has hitherto been nominally in the hands of the chief clerk at Bow Street police court. In the past, much of its space has been wasted by the frequent repetition of details as to trifling cases; and no systematic arrangements were made for the widespread circulation of the paper among those for whom it is specially intended. The editorship has now been committed to Mr Howard Vincent, director of criminal investigations, who will be assisted by Chief-inspector Cutbush of the executive department at Scotland Yard. It is to the initiation of Mr Vincent that the improvements now made are chiefly due; and it may be remembered that in his presidential address to the Repression of Crime Section of the recent Social Congress at Huddersfield, that gentleman explained his intentions. The proposals he made were so favourably received, that subscriptions amounting to nearly one thousand pounds were placed at his disposal. These, however, have not been needed, as it happens that the improvements have been accompanied by an actual reduction of expense; and the Home Secretary has determined that the costs, limited within a certain moderate sum, shall still be borne entirely by the public funds.
In addition to being much better printed, the new Gazette already shows decided improvement both in the selection and arrangement of its contents. For convenient reference, particulars are not only grouped according to the usual categories of crime, but are now classified under special headings for the various districts to which cases belong. Illustrations have also been introduced as a new feature. These take the form of woodcuts from photographs of persons ‘wanted’ on various charges, or of valuable articles stolen. The first number of the Gazette contains the likeness of several criminals of whom the authorities are in pursuit. In one instance, so as to aid identification, the subject is shown not only with beard and moustache, but also as he would appear when clean shaved. Some of these faces, it is true, seem decent and commonplace enough, such as one sees almost every hour of the day in the public streets; but others, ‘an index of all villainy,’ are unmistakably those of dangerous characters whom none of us would like to meet alone in a quiet road on a dark night. But it is in the police album[1] that we can best study the variety of expression by which the human countenance can betray every shade of criminal depravity.
Meantime our business is only with the Gazette, which, among other changes, has altered its days of publication. Hitherto it has been issued three times every week; but now that the space is more carefully utilised, twice a week is found sufficient. The War Office and Admiralty have always had the privilege of inserting in its pages a list and description of deserters from the army and navy. In future, the Tuesday’s issue will be entirely devoted to these matters; and when it is known that last year the total number of deserters was only one short of six thousand, it may be inferred that the weekly list does not leave much space to spare in a small four-page paper. The Friday’s issue extends to eight pages, and is reserved exclusively for police information, with the exception of two pages now set apart by contract for advertising purposes. As far as increased circulation is concerned, arrangements have been made to send supplies of the Gazette not only to every police force in the United Kingdom, but also, through the government offices, to the guardians of the peace in the British colonies and India. From the public generally, the Gazette is withheld.
The early issues of the Gazette, especially between 1829 and 1831, bear significant testimony to the labour disturbances and political excitement which immediately preceded the passing of the great Reform Bill. Every number was then largely occupied with royal proclamations in the cause of order, and offers in Lord Melbourne’s name of government rewards for the arrest of incendiaries and disturbers of the public peace. Again we are on the eve of parliamentary reform, but without any symptoms of rioting; and the improved columns of the Hue and Cry are now left more free for ordinary police information as to the appearance and lawless doings of the ‘incorrigible’ class.