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of the law, who not seldom mingle in their debaucheries, in order that they may know their haunts, and more easily lay hold of them upon occasion. Houses of resort for these desperate characters, familiarly known by the name of Flash-houses, exist in many parts of the metropolis; one of them, it would appear, in the immediate vicinity of the chief establishment of the police. There thieves and thief-catchers sit together in peaceful fellowship, nor does the apprehension of one boon companion by another, appear to affect in any way the general festivity of their assembly.

The vice of drinking, in which so many other vices find their origin, and in which all vices find their support, seems indeed to have increased in an alarming degree, and with the vice, the vicious accommodations have of necessity kept pace. Houses such as we have above described, are, although with many exceptions, closed in general at the legal hours. Their frequenters then retreat to other haunts, -to coffee-houses, a new species, which are open during the whole night; and to houses which call them selves ale-houses, but where little of any ale is sold; and gin-houses, which are open before the light. Those who cannot find or afford such accommodations, repose under open sheds and on bulks; in Covent Garden, in particular, where every night men and women, and boys and girls, to the number of many hundreds, sleep together in the open air, a scene of vice and tumult more atrocious than any thing exhibited even by the Lazzaroni of Naples. The younger part of this rabble have, however, houses for themselves alone, and meetings known by the name of cock-and-hen clubs, the systematic and deliberate inspectors and managers of which should be visited with other punishments than the refusal of a licence. With regard to

the women of the town in London, it is not necessary to say much. It is lamentable, but it is true, that they are by far nore offensive in their profigacy, more daringly abandoned in their external behaviour, than those of any other capital in Europe. There may, no doubt, be other reasons for this; but one great reason is certain, that they are more addicted to the vice of drinking.

These, and the more terrible enormities resulting from them, can scarcely be supposed to exist in such excess without some fault either in the law itself, or in its administration, or in both. Without attempting at any regular classification, the chief defects which seem to have been noticed by the persons who gave evidence before the committee, may be comprised under these heads. 1. There is great need in London of some presiding and directing board of police. The police of the metropolis is at present parcelled out among several distinct offices, which have no system of communica tion with each other. A monthly return is indeed made by each office to the Secretary of State; and when occasion calls for it, information is undoubtedly asked by the magistrates of one office, and given by those of another, and vice versa. But there can be no question, however unwilling some of the magistrates themselves may have been, and may now be, to acknowledge it, that the influence of one supreme board of police would not only tend to render the communication both with regard to offences and offenders, more frequent, regular, and complete, but would make the responsibility to be felt more entirely, and lend to the whole system of preventa. tive, as well as reprobatory measures, a degree of vigour which it does not at present possess. Allusion has frequently been made in parliament to the excellence of the old system of police

in Paris, and the allusion has as often been met by the simple reply, that that system was indeed a very powerful and efficient one, but that it was the system of an arbitrary, not of a free government. The reply is excellent in so far. The horrors of that espionage which formed an essential part of the French system, are so repugnant to every feeling of Englishmen, that no attempt to establish them among us could be endured for a moment. But even without taking this espionage into account, the unity of purpose and power of the French police was certainly another great cause of its success; and upon what rational principle we should despise, in this instance alone, the old maxim which maintains that it is prudent to be taught even by an enemy; and scruple to borrow the unity of the foreign system, only because we detest its espionage; we profess ourselves incapable of discover ing.

One great and obvious improvement which would result from the es tablishment of some higher board of police, would be the check which it would infallibly give to any of those slight and venial, in general, but in the end not insignificant errors, into which the local interests of particular magistrates may lead them, with regard to the licensing of public-houses. It appears indeed, from every part of the evidence before the committee, that no set of men can, in the general, be more deserving of honour than the magistrates of London and its vicinity. In one particular district, however, there seems to be no possibility of doubting that very considerable im proprieties have occurred in respect to this very important part of the duty of magistrates. It is at least certain, that an enormous proportion of the public houses in that district were entirely in

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the hands of one company of brewers; that these brewers, to all appearance, exercised no small sway in the procuring or preventing of licences for particular houses; and that this sway, if it did exist, could only have been ob. tained through some undue and unworthy compliance on the part of the licensing bench. The only persons who could possess accurate information on this head, were likely to be anxious for its concealment, but the universal credence of the vicinity must not be allowed to go for nothing. The evil consequences to which these species of malversation must tend, are so obvious, that is needless to explain them. They would, in all likelihood, be rendered quite impossible, were the business of licensing conducted in a more open way, and under the inspection of superiors.

2. The manner in which the officers of the police establishments are paid

for their exertions in the detection of offenders, is extremely hurtful both to the cause of justice and to the interest of the officers themselves. In the course of the investigation instituted by the committee, it was proved that the more respectable officers condemn the mode of their payment on both of these grounds. When any one apprehends, or leads to the apprehension of a

criminal, upon the conviction of that criminal there is a statutory reward, in which he has a share. The evidence of the officer is received by the jury with some tincture of suspicion, because the prisoner's council, if he have any, never fails to press upon their notice the personal interest which the officer has in procuring the conviction. Some unfortunate circumstances have come to light since the period of this investigation, which prove too well that the bad effects of the system are carried at times to a still more alarm

* That of Whitechapel.

ing extreme; that for the sake of the statutory reward, not only rash and overstrained evidence has been given, but dark plots have been laid, and men actually seduced into guilt by those who should, by their office, be the ministers of justice. This statutory reward goes by the expressive name of blood-money; its nominal amount is 40%., but only part of it ever actually comes into the pocket of the officer. To it, in cases of burglary, there is added the farther reward of an exemption from parochial duties in the parish where the offender has been seized. The ticket which confers this privilege is sold by the officer to some inhabitant of the parish, and it goes by the name of a Tyburn ticket. Its value varies, of course, according to the situation of the particular parish. The officers themselves are agreed that the whole of this system is wrong; that it would be much better for them to receive the reward of exertion for exertion alone, from the magistrates, their own superiors, who have no concern with the conviction or non-conviction of the of fender. It is, besides, very possible, that an officer may exhibit more praiseworthy diligence and activity in an unsuccessful than in a successful pursuit ; and in all cases where the thing can be ascertained, the reward should follow the merit, not the luck of the individual.

3. Great inconvenience arises from the mode in which constables are appointed and directed in the metropolis. There are two distinct classes of this description of officers,-police constables and parish constables; the former appointed by the police magistrates, and under their orders; the others quite independent of them, and in general very unwilling to exert themselves in furtherance of their wishes. It appears that an obvious improvement would be to have all the constables placed under the superin

tendance of a single head, and furnished with some inducements sufficient to make them more readily encounter the dangers, and resist the temptations to which the nature of their office must very frequently expose them. In re gard to the police constables, it is evident, that the paltry pittance which they receive must leave them, unless endued with a very high sense of honour, at the mercy of any criminal who can, at the moment of his danger, command a sufficient bribe. It was also suggested, that as great delays often occur in consequence of the necessity which compels a constable to have a new warrant when he passes his bounds, there might be great propriety in appointing a certain number of offcers constables for England

4.The character of the night watchmen in the metropolis is another point which calls loudly for correction.These men are, in most parts of the metropolis, persons ill qualified for the duties which they should perform ; and, in all cases, their pay is so inconsiderable, that they are grievously exposed to the temptation of being bribed by those who have an interest in their silence.

5. The mode of prosecution, according to the existing laws of England, produces much and most serious inconvenience. The burden of prosecution (which, including the time and trouble it involves, is no slight burden) falls upon the person whose informa. tion induces the magistrate to commit the accused for trial. In many countries, as here in Scotland, this duty is discharged by a great public officer, the conviction of public offenders being considered, and that justly, as an object of public interest. In England, and more particularly in London, many a criminal escapes, because the person who has it in his power to deliver him up to justice, would rather throw an offender loose upon society than sus

tain the personal inconvenience of being his prosecutor. This is a defect which admits, unlike most of the others, of a simple and easy remedy.

6. The prisons of the metropolis, crowded indiscriminately with young and old, accused and convicted of fenders, operate as hot-beds of vice, rather than schools of solitary reflection and repentance. The obvious expediency of providing more abundant and more distinct accommodations for the vicious and heterogeneous inmates of these places of confinement, has long been felt, and improvements of very considerable importance have actually been commenced in many instances. As the state of prisons, however, has since become the subject of the labours

of a separate committee, we shall at present be satisfied with this slight notice. The governor ofthe principal prison in London, sensible to the defects of his own establishment, and accustomed to observe, in every shape, the progress of depravity, suggested to the committee certain remedies, which, in his opinion, might with advantage be adopted. Some of these proposals have already been carried into effect. The first and most important of the whole, however, is not among the number, viz." An establishment for the safe and separate custody of persons before trial, who are committed on suspicion, so that they may not be injured by associating with experienced offend. ers."

* See Mr Henry Newman's evidence.

CHAPTER VI.

Committee and Debates on the Purchase of the Elgin Marbles.-Vote of a Monument in Memory of the Battle of Trafalgar.

Ar an early period of this session, a petition was presented to the House of Commous from the Earl of Elgin, praying that a sum of money might be granted to him to remunerate him for the expense at which he had collected a large and valuable set of ancient marbles in Greece, which antiques he was desirous should thus be transferred from his own possession to that of the nation. The Chancellor of the Exchequer brought this petition of his lordship before the House, and observed very properly, that a committee ought to be appointed to investigate into the nature and true value of Lord Elgin's collection; and notwithstanding the outcry raised by certain members against at all entering upon such a subject in the then condition of the public finances, the Chancellor's motion was carried by a large majority.

During the months of the spring, this committee pursued their labours in endeavouring to ascertain by examination of proper witnesses, first, the circumstances under which Lord Elgin had obtained his marbles, and secondly, the value of them as specimens of art.

VOL. IX. PART 1.

With regard to the latter point, all the distinguished artists of the kingdom were unanimous in expressing their opinion, that the Elgin marbles formed in reality the finest of all existing collections of ancient sculpture-an opinion which had already, indeed, become widely diffused, in consequence of the well-known judgment pronounced by Canova and published by West. Mr Payne Knight held the statues in great contempt; but notwithstanding the acknowledged eminence of this gentleman as an antiquarian and a virtuoso, the members of the committee had no difficulty in preferring the decision of practical sculptors and painters of the first celebrity to his. On the termination of their enquiries the committee brought up their report, and Mr Bankes (who had taken a lead in the investigation, and whose qualifications for doing so are too well known to require any notice here), proposed to the House that 35,000l. should be offered to Lord Elgin, and the marbles placed in the British Museum, as a great and national treasure, equal in value to any similar treasure possessed by any

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