A History of Police in England

by W. L. Melville Lee

He suggested that the landowners and occupiers of high-class residential property near London should combine to form societies for the apprehension of burglars and other depredators. Each society was to select a treasurer to collect an annual subscription of two guineas a-piece from the members. When a robbery was committed, the injured party was to immediately despatch a mounted messenger to the magistrate at Bow Street, warning on his way all the turnpike keepers, advising them as to the property stolen, and of any other particulars of importance. The magistrate was then to be empowered to draw on the funds of the society in the hands of the treasurer, for any expenses that might be incurred in the course of the pursuit and subsequent prosecution of the criminal.

This pamphlet was followed by a second called "An account of the origin and effects of a Police, set on foot in 1753 by the Duke of Newcastle, on a plan suggested by the late Henry Fielding."[149]

The publications of the brothers Fielding were to some extent instrumental in directing the public conscience towards a consideration of the state of the criminal law, which, year by year, had tended to increase in severity, without thereby effecting any diminution in the tale of offenders. "Extreme justice is an extreme injury," wrote Sir Thomas More, but abstract ideas of justice were little entertained in the days of the Georges; Tyburn and transportation were the only recognised remedies for the more serious breaches of the law, and men were slow to realise that it is better to make the commission of crime difficult than to punish it with indiscriminate severity. But from this time onwards arose a genuine wish for some change, a desire to repress crime as humanely as possible; a half-formed idea found partial expression that perhaps, after all, the pain suffered by the culprit ought not to exceed the benefit conferred on the community by the punishment exacted; henceforward the Statute Book was not disgraced by fresh barbarities, and in course of years the old ones were gradually eliminated. In 1783 the procession to Tyburn was discontinued, and the use of the drop to accelerate death by hanging, introduced; the pillory was abolished in 1816 for all offences except perjury; whipping in public was done away with the following year, and transportation finally ceased in 1867.

Instead of legislating on the lines suggested by Fielding, whose scheme of police was proving practical and successful, the government preferred to revert to the methods of Queen Elizabeth,[150] and in 1755 was responsible for an Act[151] that was nothing but an attempt to revivify the Westminster Statute of 1584, the only new feature being the appointment of a committee called "The Jury of Annoyances," a body designed to see that the pavements were kept in repair, and to prevent obstructions and encroachments thereon; this addition, it was supposed, brought the Act up to modern requirements. The number of constables to be yearly appointed for the City and Liberty of Westminster was fixed at eighty, furnished proportionally by the different parishes; any man who had already served, personally or by deputy, was not to be again chosen until seven years had elapsed since he last held office.

Two years later another Act,[152] to explain and amend the foregoing, followed, by which a regular chain of responsibility was created; the petty constable had to obey the High Constable; and he, again, had to observe the lawful commands of the Dean or High Steward, who still remained the paramount police authority in the district.

In 1772, the House of Commons appointed a Committee to inquire into the burglaries that had recently become so frequent in London and Westminster, one hundred and four houses having been broken into between Michaelmas 1769 and March 1770. This committee was the first of a long series authorised by Parliament with the idea of improving the police; every few years a new committee was appointed, and each in turn recorded a wearisome tale of resolutions without finding a remedy or indeed arriving at any satisfactory solution. One and all reported that the existing watch was deficient, a fact long patent to everybody without the assistance of select committee-men; they deplored the want of uniformity and co-operation in wards and parishes, and recorded the shortcomings of beadles, constables, and watchmen; but whilst suggesting various minor reforms, they failed to see that no real progress was possible until a clean sweep had been made of the old system and its abuses.

The principal witnesses examined before this first committee were Sir John Fielding of Bow Street and Mr F. Rainsforth, the High Constable of Westminster; the former spoke as to the position of the magistracy and the state of the liquor traffic; the latter confined his remarks to the inefficiency of the peace-officers. The following extracts from Mr Rainsforth's diary for the 23rd of March 1770, which he read to the committee, shew us the kind of thing that used to go on.

"Saint Margaret's—Three quarters past eleven: constable came after I was there: Houseman and Beadle on duty: 41 watchmen, with St John's United, at 8½d. per night, with one guinea at Christmas, and one guinea at Lady Day, and great coats as a present: their beats large: was obliged to take a soldier into custody for being out of his quarters, and very insolent, with several more soldiers in the street at 12 o'clock: called out 'Watch,' but could get no assistance from them.

"St Clements' Danes—Past 3: no constable on duty: found a watchman there at a great distance from his beat: from thence went to the night-cellar facing Arundel Street in the Strand, which is in the Duchy, and there found 4 of St Clements' watchmen drinking. St Mary-le-Strand no attendance, having only two constables, which only attend every other night, 3 watchmen, Duchy included, at one shilling each. A very disorderly cellar near the new church for selling saloop, etc., to very loose and suspected persons: St Clements' watchmen 32 at one shilling."

After hearing much evidence of this description, the committee passed thirteen resolutions, none of which, however, were of a very vigorous character. They recommended an increase in the number of watchmen, higher pay and a better method of appointing them; they suggested that the name "beadle" should no longer be used, that ballad-singers should be suppressed, and that steps should be taken to put a stop to the custom of granting wine and spirit licences indiscriminately to all who applied for them, adding by way of a conclusion to the whole matter, that the Roundhouses, as the constables' lockups were called, should not be used for the sale of intoxicants, and should be large enough to accommodate the prisoners arrested by the watch; it having frequently been found necessary to release disturbers of the peace and other minor offenders to make room for more serious cases!