The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-11-22 00:00:00

BOW STREET POLICE COURT.
(From the Doily New.)

The proposal for removieg the B metreet Police-
office to Castle street, Leiceeter-equare, which is now
aweatieg the sanction of Parliameut, given an echlj Sr
to one's sense of the fitness of things. The name re-
mark could net be made of any ce her police-office in
Lend' -n. Bow-street ie not only the chief of the me-
trepolitan offices; but by right of seniority, of old
associations, at d of its formal exceptional position
and power., it is in • certain Dense the representa-
tive of our whole system of police magistracy. We
shall hardly be able to recogobe the police reports
when the familiar heading " Bow-str, et" disappears
from then'. The subjeet is not of a nature to inspire
much seutiment ; yet one cannot help regretting the
lose of anether link connecting the London of to day
with the Landon of the past—the London of beak
and mortar with the Lou ion t f books and of twig-
accumulated human interests. Tie Bow street Police-
rffiee is certainly not one of those things whieh we Cr,
tee int St die Dosed to cheri,h ; bit th.s an importaut
lee-item in history of the We' rop,liA. It can boast
stout a century and a quarter of judicial life ; durieg
which time it has been a name ot terror to succedeve
generations of rnffians =dee il-doers. Bow-street, which
was originally built in 16t7, was for a long while •
fashionable thoroughfare, reeorteet unto by gentry for
"lodgings," as Strype recoida ; but about 1725 it fell
into bad odour, and thenceforth seems to have been
given up to eeilibiness, Sohemianism, and a certain
haggard look of having Peen bet ter daye. The building
of Covent Garden Theatre in 1732 gave the street de
theatrical character; anti the ettablaihment of the
Police-offi e in 1749 br3ught into it an element of vice
sad wretchedness of which the memory will rem du
long after the fact Remit has ti parted. If one might
fancifully c innect the leading streets of London with
various- mood, or conditions of the mind, one en,III I
say that liowettreet sairgests nothing so moch as
the jaded condition of • roue after an overnight's
debauch. The taverns, familiar with late hours, and
the shops for the sale of theatrical costumes,
with their tinsel splendours tiering coarsely in the day-
light, repreeent the lingering yet vapid flavour of out-
worn excitement; the police-office, and the titration on
the other side of the road, are no unfitting emblems of
awakening and repentance. The gathering outside
the doors of those dingy buildings. especially when a
great Celle is on, presents a study of human nature
such aa Hogarth might have reproduced in many a
moralising picture. Sinister-looking men, weedy and
disreputable youths, and women who are sometimes
distressed and mu:Betimes f 1 mating and impudent,
crowd the psvementa on both sides of the way, and
etraggie out into the road at the police-van rattles up.
Until the Police Bill of 1792, which established the
offices at Queen square, Great Marlbortinghwtreet,
Hatton garden, Worihipastreet, Lambeth-street, Shad-
well, and Union-street, the Bow-street office was the
only one where the magistrate was paid. The conse-
quence of this state of things was a degree of corrup-
tion, of oppressiov of illegality, and of ineffisiency for
all purposes of protection and of just pnnisnm-nt, such
as the present age can scarcely conceive or credit. The
ea
-called magistrates were retired, or m- re Pro-
bably braken-down, tradesmen, who made their
prafit out of bribes and extortionate charges.
They went by the name of "trading justices,"
awl their adminiatra ion of the law was
a mere affair of bargaining. Fielding, the novelist,
who eat at Bow-street about the middle of last
century, hints that hie predeceesor at that office eu-
etched himself by questionable gales. At that time,
even the Bow s reit magietrate had no settled salary,
but depended entirely in bee. Sir John Fielding, the
half-brother of the novelist, who succeeded to the
office and held it many years, eajayed a small sti pend ;
but he stems in the main to have derived his re ennera-
tion (rem iretgular sources. It is from the writina of
Henry Fieldiire that we derive our most vivid ideas
of the trading justices" of old times. He has
painted one f these official rogues in the novel
of "Amelia," under tne designation of Jonathan
Thrasher, 1.1-q. 'lids worthy wee well pleased to hob-
ma nob with the conatablett, and was w- uderfully
tender-hearted to all who conl4 pay their way. In the
preface to his "Voyage to Lisbon," Fielding enters
into a few details of hie own experience' at Flaw-street.
" A predecessor of mine," he writes. "used to boast
that he merle £1.,000 a year in his offic- ; hitt how he
did this (4 he did it) in to me a secret. His clerk, now
mine, told me I had more bueinees then he had ever
known triere : tans ewe I had as much as any man
mold do."
The celebrated Bow-street runner, John Towneend,
whose personal knowledge of the Office went back to
about 1760, fu t ciehed some very iestruetive information
as to the working of the MI system, when giving
evidence, in 1816, before a Committee of the House
of Conamone a; piloted to inqiiire into the etate
of the metropolitan police. " The plan," said
Townsend, "used to be to issue out warrants and
take up all the poor devils in the streets, and then
there was the bailing them 2.. 4d., which the mag-
istretes hod; and taking up a hundred girls
that would wake, at 21 41, £ll 13s- 4.1. They sent
none to jail, f r the hailing then was so much better."
Townsend was vtry emphatically of opinion that the
state of London, aeregards safety, morale, manners, and
the pure administeration of justice, was immensely
better than it had been in his earlier days. Yet it was
io that very year, 1816, that a police-officer named
Vaughan acid seven others were Lurid guilty. of
inducing pentium to commit burglaries, that they might
get the money for their conviction; and Townsend
frankly confessed to the Committee of the Honse
of Cammons that such things were frequent, and that
offizers were "dangerous creatures.' Nevertheless,
there seems to be no doubt that the Bow-street runners
were, on the whole, a very medial, clever, and spit ited
body of men. They were the Detective Police of those
times, and appear to have discharged their duties with
greater efficiency than their successors. The red
waistcoat of the " runner " wee • terror to the whole
ruffianiem of the metropolis; and Bow-street was
the piece where everyone went to give information
if his house had been broken into, or him-
self robbed on the highway. "I have come
to Bow-street in the morning," said Townsend,
referring to the latter years of the Last century, "said,
while I have been leaning over the desk, hod three or
four people come in and Bay, '3l was robbed by two
highwaymen in inch& place t—l wee robbed by a single
highway man in such • place.' "People travel now
safely by means of the horse-patrol that Sir Richard
Ford planned. Where are these highway robberies
now? Townsend was one of the beet of the
Bow-street pollee officers. He was a well-known
London "character" for many years. His red
waistcoat, formal wig, and large-brimmed hat
came to be regarded as the very symbols
of law and order. Duchesses smiled on him
Irons their carriages at the opera or the rout, and
looked to his awful presentee or protection against
thieves. or to his sagacity for the recovery of their
jewels if they went astray. The Bow-street runner
will always remain • prominent figure in the social
life of • former age; and Susithere, the gallant fellow
who was lOW In altiothig thi await ofThhatewood,

.
khe

erne of the Cato-street conspirator% may almost Is
lad to hon. • ul•c• in t
the house in Bowstreet, occupied first by Henry
Fielding and then by Sir John, was destroyed n the
riots of 1780. It stood where the present Polioeothce
is, and was the scene of many noteworthy events in
the records of crime. Both the Fielding@ oiti mw.h
towards improving the adminitration of justice in the
metropolis, and Bow-etiest wee the cradle of the
system of police magistracy now existing. In its own
grim way klss a name and reputation ; and it will
take a century before dinet ran steed on the
like footing, and appeal to the same net honours.

THE APPROACHING MARRIAGE OF
THE DUKE OF EDINBURGH.
Referrtna to the eparaachlog e.ent, in whilh pa two are.t
tattoos ar• in diciply interatcd, The Tiersaa Itots the follow
lag leader :
It is annonnceil that the Dean of Weettninster has
been selected by Her M :sty to perform the Protestant
pert of the ceremony at the marriage of the Duke of
E linb agh and thei Grand Duchess Marie of Russia.
this annouiveinent will be vary favourably received.
No one cou'd be found better suited for the duty. The
occarion wit, of course, be one of more than common
publicity and importance. The magnificence of Rue:Fran
ceremonial and the enthusiastic loyalty of the Russian
people are Mika proverbial, and both will find in the
approaching marriage a fitting opportunity for their
diaplay. The union of an English Prince with a
daughter of the Imperial Family of Russia will be
welcomed by all with more than ordinary satisfac-
tion. The relations of the countries which they
respectively redresent have been in some degree un-
settled, and their policy, already different, has
threatened of late an amount of antagonism whi th
could not easily be smoothed away. We ought
not, under these circumstances, to underrate the
possible Importance of the Marriage which is
to be eoletnnized in January, anti we may be quite
sure that it is in no danger of being untierrsted
by the ißnsaimin, To suppose, indeed, that national
friendship can be euaured by inch a eonnexion
would be alourd ; but it would he even more absurd
to deny that the qiiestion of future war or peso,
must often depend upon the temper with whieh
disputed points are approached. Anything which
teed, to promote iitiotual trust and good feeling
between England and Russia will do much to
remove the seeds of irritation by which war can be
brought about, and to induce both parties to approach
matters under debate in the kind of spirit which will
lacrosse the probability that they can be amicably
settled. The Marriage itself may, therefore, be can.
sidereal as a national affair, end as at least an addi-
tional weight thrown into the scales on the side of
future concord. The result it favours he at least an
irapottant to Rumis as to ourselves. The comae of
her ligament civiltzation would be affected as tmfavonr.
ably by a great war as would our own older and more
I complex interests. Certainly, the Russian nation will
I be quick enough to discern the probable influence of
the impending union, and will be as ready as oureelves
to welcome it. The ceremony, impreeeive in itself
from the pomp and splendour with which in Russia
such events are always marked, will be rendered
doubly interesting by the peculiarly paternal relation
between the Russian nation and their reigning
Dynasty. It is important at such a time that Eng-
land should be well represented, and that her part
in the ndatter should be well discharged. It may
seem of little comequence by whom and how the English
Marriage Service is read. The reading will certainly
bra smell part of the great !spectacle of the day, but it
will be a very large part of England's share in the
whole performance. We are glad that Dean Stanley
has been selected to represent England in this. Darn
Stan ey is at once conversant with Courts and an
earnest Churchman, well used to greatceremoniMs and
wed qualified to play his part in them with effect. He
is aim well known as one of the meet tolerant of
men. The few theological differences between the
Russian Church and our own hove been considered by
clergy of another temper and habit of mind as demand.
leg imperatively the widest separation. By Dean
Stanley they are scarcely regarded as difference.
at all, certainly not as leading necessarily to any perii-us
estrangement or as couetituting any proper subject for
• deadly quarreL His good feeling to the bride's
country and religion has already been manifested. Ha
has devoted much attention to the history of the Rog-
gen Church, has dwelt with interest upon various
points in her past annals, and has declared his hearty
sympathy with the idea she repreaeute, and his anxious
trust that her future progrees may t e firm, anti lin:oral,
ant pccitic. The author of the well-known Lectures
on the Easters. Church is, for many reasons, the most
he. man who could b, appointed to do England's matt
In j.eulia; the Duke of Edinburgh and his youthful
RileSidll bride.
A trip to St. Petersburg in January is, at first sight,
far fron. an attractive pr,spect. Toe visitor must ex-
pect a long succeasein of frost and snow, and a general
temperature very far below anything that bee been
known in our milder and more favoured climate. Teat
the thermometer, graduated on our scale, should mark
at St. Petersburg twenty-two degrees below zero is by
no means an uncommon winter occurrence, Ms
gourdu very formidable either for traveller or resident,
but it will probably be found a much leas matter than
it appears. The truth is that in mare tern Iterate coun-
tries men are in general very little careful about the
weather, and they subutit with few precautions to the
occasional annoyances it may itiflict. Something
less than the extremes of boat and cold may be dia.
agreeable, bet will not e intolerable, 11113 need not,
thereto..., be very anziousiy warded off. Id:lonian
cold, like Indian heat, is too severe to be thus lightly
treated, and the consequence is that, just SS a summer
at Calcutta is tempered by • thonsand appliances of
which we know nothing in England, so too in • winter
at St. Petersburg the temperature is artificially rallied,
and the human body guarded from the cold with a
degree of care to which we are wholly strangers. We
have not the same neal and do not observe the same
jealous precaution, and probably, therefore, suffer
more from both heat and cold, then our fellow.conntry-
men in India and Rue.ia. The intense cold of
Resale it, of course, an obstace to MSS, pleasnres,
and may, under certain circumetanees of aggravation,
keep everybody under shelter, and tender all open.
air existence impursible. Ia general, however, its
severity is pretty effectually guarded against with the
aid of carefully-fitted stoves in eal houses and in all
conveyantee mike, and by an amount of wrapping up
which wonl I be unpleemint and ridiculous if it were
less riniential for tolerable comfort. The diffimlty,
therefore, of the weather, both in travelling and within
doors, is not likely to be very serious to the various
English guests from whom Russia is now preparing;
and, when once this has been overcome, the traveller's
enterprise will be very amply recompensed. St. Peter,
burg, with its wPe streets, its gold-plated domes, and its
numerous churches and pnblic buildings, is, in some
ways, one of the finest cities of the world. Though not
central in its position, it has been made the centre of a
vast and wid ely-exten dal commerce by sea and land, and
it will seldom be more filled and seldom seen to greater
advantage than on the occasion of the approaching
marriage. The whole population for miles round will
be assembled in honour of the Royal couple, and will
add to the external magnificence o the spectacle the
better and more unpurchweible gift of a nation's loyalty
and love. We need not waste our pity on the partible
sufferings of English courtiers in the discharge of their
appointed task. Si. Petersburg is at any time well
worth a visit, and there will be • few seasons for any
of us at which such a visit would be better timed than
next January.
By Dean Istanley, certainly, it is not likely that the
occasion will be wasted. He will carry with him much
that will enable him to improve the chance, and to
profit by all he sees. He will bring a mind well
stored with the facts of pad history, an appreciation
of the picturesque in detail, and a practised power of
cornmeal :siting his impressions to others. He will
bring, above all, a broad human sympathy with his
fellow men that will be a better key than mere learn-
ing to many of the perplexing puzzles which foreign
countries can seldom fail to present. The ques-
tions with which he most loves to deal are not often
without a real and abiding value, and whatever he may
write is sure to be at least interesting anti trustworthy.
He hex written well already about Rued.: and toe
Russian Church. We cannot doubt tnat, with such
new oppertunitiee as he will find as an eye-witness, he
will give us some,Liug better still as the most laming
record of his visit.

MR. BRIGHT ON "FREE LAND."
(From the Economist.)
Toe short letter of Novem'ier 7, from Mr. Bright
to Mr. U. W. Sander. describing what he means by
free land, is a most valuable mntribution to political
literature. It allows the country wito some precision
the limits within which moderate land reformsmintend
toe infirm themselves, and it shows also the cotfustin
of mind in vietch the shiest of them 561 remain upon
the aubject. Mr. Bright states distinctly that he de.
circa to aboliah the law of primogeniture, in which we
may an well once for all agree with him. The law is of
exceedingly little importance except to Peers, who must
on its abolition take a little inure care sibt.ut their trusts,
and about the education of their aildren In thriftiness,
but to the majority of landowners -it has little or no
meaning. The father, if he wishes to hold his land to-
gether, roust put it In the hands of truatees instead of
relying on the general law, and the only effect of the
801 will he a slight increase of hastiness fs r convey-
ancers. This grand result accmiplished, Mr. Bright
wiahrs farther—first, to "limit the system of entails
and settlement., so that life interests may he for the
most part got rid of, and • real ownership substituted
for them ;" and, secondly, "that it snail be as easy to
buy or sell land as to buy or sell • ship, or at least LI
easy as in Australia and the Slated of the Union."
Those, however, are two entirely distinct propositions,
and we should like to know to which of them Mr. Brieht
inclines. If to the second, then we are heartily with him,
for he would simply abolish the distinction between
realty and personalty, a measure we have repeatedly
recommended But that abolition would in no way affect
the question of settlements. A mail can sill& ship in five
minutes, but he can also put her in trust so that she
could not bs sold during a lie or jives in being and 21
years afterwards. He is extremely unlikely to do it,
because the restriction would be unprofitable ; but he
can do it if he likes, and in the case of land he pro-
bably would like. Consequently, the only way in
which land would become more free would be that
the buyer would have, on the expiration el the trust,
a lees troublesome and easier title. There would be no
more land in the market, nor would there be tiny
reason for its becoming cheapsr' or any new provoca-
tion to sell it In smell parcels. Toe first proixim l to
' rid of life interlude would, no doubt, put land in
,e market; but only at the price of going much
farther than the present law of personalty goes,
and that in a most injurious direction. Is Mr.
Bright really prepared to legislate so that • man may
pawn his 'Byer teapot but cannot pawn his five-acre
plot, for that would be the direct effect of the suggestion
we suppose him to make If there must always be a
freeholder or land, then land cannot be mortgaged; for
If the mortgagee is owner he may sell it Ilherated from
its obligations, while if the mortgagor is owner he may
, sell it and then fail, a chanoe which would deprive sr
' of • great proportion of its transferable sat
moderate mortgage could not be placed upon'
estate without a risk of the sale of the whole,
landlords have constantly given the ',canna'
lives to avert. The position of the beneficb

igwoil4bs ac Iywcc ta ii th'

trust were tkosols, fort distrbgall car be sun Pima
on them. So it could upon land? Certainly, but then
Mr. Bright's object, which is power of sale vp=
always in somebody, would nut be azzican
eny more than it is DOW in the case of Cones&
So •Irolute a power se he ouggesee would either
luake robberies' of land incessant, or would newel
the appoirtment of • State trustee guaranteed
by Parliament, Mr. Bright speaks of Australian
and American laws, but we do not understand any of
them to put land in any other poitition than State
bonds and it is only bermes custom dieoonreges
" tying up" that land is in those countries constantly
in the Inerket. lt " owner. " can, we imagine, pledge
it, er hand it over to trustees for • term, jest as eaeily
SO they could State bonds. That they can do en more
sexily and cheaply than in England is only due to the
existence of resi-tration and other laws which have
been coat .ntle reel,ted in England, partly in the
interest of the legal profession, but chiefly from the
deeire that some one valuable subject of ownership
ehould be bee ond the possibility of theft. That is
not in itself an unreasonable whh, though we agree
with Mr. Bright that it hae bt en gratified in a clumsy
aya, d to SD DI 1.8,4 Dab', cCitt t. Be wishes that
no "legal encouragement ithotild be given to the for-
mation of great elit at: a and great farme, and that the
natural forcee of accumulation and diepeesion shall
have fair play, so they have with regard to shim tze.;"
and no doubt this lathe chief object of all honest land
reformere like himself. But why does he think "free
land" will discourage the accumulation of large estates?
On the contrary, it will encourage it very much. The
attractiveness ot land in this country is very great,
and will remain great, even should political power
wholly pass away from lindlords. Land is the only
possession wtich confers direct and visible social
power, much pleasant and interesting occupation, and
distinct rights to interfere with the conduct and ways
of all who live around your own house ; in feet, it
is the only possession which gives direct power,
and power in proportion to quantity, and it
will, therefore, always he songht by the great
capitalist Even the Rothechilds, for example, hold
very large eetatee, not only in England, tut in France,
whore Me. Bright's system is earth d feirly out.
No one can compete with the capitalist in the price
he case offer, and the effect of freeing land, therefore,
wilt bet,, induce him to buy it in very large quantities,
larger than he at present attempts. There are two
buyers at least in the oarket now, who are compelled
by the present erten' to diffuse their porches... over
the whole of Great Britain, but who under Mr. Bright's
system would buy in solid blocks, offering prime which
would be irreabitible, because swih men, and rich men
only, are crzelees about return au money. They want
either to found families or to enjoy much personal
power, and regard the cash secumulatione of years as
nothing compared with theseobjects. And, as Mr. Bright
knows, they are right. It in well worth the while of a
man with three millions to throw away one to disregard
all thought of interest from it—in order to obtain the
social priority secured by the possession of a million's
worth of laud, that is, of a grand block of visible wealth,
which, i it rotary. nothing in cash, returns much in
dignity, and can at any time be realiz-d as readily es
a bank-note. Unless Me. Bright intends to go much
blither than he appears to dream of - namely, either
to make land an insecure investment or to compel its
division at death, free' land will in a centruy make
all England the prouerty of a few hundred families,
while the few millionaries of Scotland could, by •
mere determination not to bid against each other,
buy up the retire country. The first result of these
large accumulations would be large farms; for If
nolitical power separates itself from the land, the great
farmers will give lowter rent, and be indefi.,itely more
pleselant to rule. The social itfluence of • man who
can more or lees affect the fortunes of half the agri-
cultural capitalists on his own side of his county would
be greeter, and not lees, than that of the man who in
Providence to a crowd of minute tenants. It is at
leaet as sweet to influence those near your own stand-
ing as those no far below that yen scarcely see them,
and rocial influence will remain attractive after political
remer is gone. We cannot, therefore, but think that
Mr. Bright has scarcely thought out his subject.