The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-01-15 00:00:00

THE POLICE AND THE PUBLICANS.

SECURITY for Life and Property, and the
certainty of freedom from the outrageous assaults
of daring, ferocious, and ill-bred characters, are
the first of duties which either a national or
municipal government is called upon to discharge.
It requires no argument to prove a proposition
so self-evident. Were it otherwise, one could
conceive, but few would be able to describe the
condition in which society at large would be
placed. An efficient and faithful police force is
not only a valuable, but an indispensable adjunct
to all well regulated communities. And if we
carefully consider and properly estimate the
specific object for which such a force is organised,
and the various complicated and delicate offices
which they are called upon to perform, no one
will deny that too much care can be taken in the
selection of those who compose our police force,
nor in the compilation and promulgation of the
rules and regulations which are framed for the
conduct and guidance of the police constable.
We have recently been under the painful neces-
sity of animadverting upon the mode in which
" discipline " was said to be enforced in the
Liverpool police, and we had also to' comment
upon the objectionable manner in which MAJOR
GREIG has been in the habit of treating re-
spectable parties who deemed it their duty to
complain against the severe and tyrannical
conduct of certain constables in the force. But
it appears that there is another class of griev-
ances connected with that body, of which the
public justly, and, at the same time, loudly
complain. Our readers will recollect that a few
days ago a respectable female, who keeps a
public house in Trowbridge Street, Mrs. ANN
BRADSHAW, laid a complaint against an ill-
tempered and dastardly coward, ROBERT JONES,
for assaulting her in her own house, on the night
of the 31st ult. The history of the case, in
brief, in this:—.JoNEs was at the house of Mrs.
BRADSHAW on the evening in question, when he
behaved in a most reprehensible and violent
manner, and ultimately committed the assault,
with which he was charged, upon Mrs. BRAD-
SHAW. In order to obtain protection, and get
rid of the accused, she sent for a police officer.
He came; but, inasmuch as he did not witness
any breach of the peace, or see the alleged
assault, not only did he decline to interfere but
would not enter the house. The police are the
servants of the public, and no portion of that
public are so heavily taxed as are the parties
who keep spirit vaults; nay, more, unlike most
other callings, they are obliged to pay an un-
usual tribute for exercising the trade and pro-
fession of a licensed victualler. Hence it is
that they, of all other portions of the commu-
nity, should be thoroughly protected, and
guarded against the intrusions, and the unlawful
designs, of bad and malicious characters. The
presiding magistrate, Mr. WILLIAM BROWN,
M.P., convicted JONES, and sent him to gaol for
two months, in default of paying a fine of £2, and
costs. In the course of the investigation Mr.
BnowN expressed his surprise at the policeman's
statement, that he was not permitted, according
to the " standing orders" of the force, to enter a
public house, unless he witnessed the assault.
Well, indeed, might the worthy magistrate
exclaim that "it was most disgraceful to find a
respectable woman who was five years in busi-
ness, thus treated, and in the presence of a
policeman, who refuses to interfere to prevent the
outrage, He could not help saying it was truly
disgraceful." In the course of the inquiry, Mr.
Superintendent CLOUGH stated that the order in
question was issued by Major GREIG. Now,
from the avowal thus made, one of two things is
inevitable, either Major GREIG has the power of
issuing whatever regulations he pleases, irrespec-
tive of any controlling authority, for the guidance
of his semi-military force, or else the Watch
Committee permit him to "regulate " his men
as he pleases, and, therefore, blink at the mons-
trous absurdities of the head of the police force.
In either case we emphatically tell them they are
wrong; aye, egwegiously wrong; that no man,
were he even less influenced by self conceit, and
a disposition to " lord it over " those under his
command than Major GREIG is, should have the
opportunity and power to concoct and issue
" regulations," one of which has been charac-
terised by a magistrate on the bench, and a
" Commoner of England " nothing more nor less
than a public disgrace. We put it to the
Watch Committee, for we cannot believe that
the regulation in question is in force without
their knowledge and sanction, to suppose the
case of Mrs. BRADSHAW their own, and to allow
us to ask how they would feel had any one of
their families been treated as she was. Mr.
TOBIN, who seems to be a peculiarly warm advo-
cate of the Major's, could not restrain an out-
burst of sanctimonious wrath,—and he would
denounce in terms as eloquent, but with much
more indignation, the conduct of any scoundrel
who would dare to treat Mrs. TOBIN as was Mrs.
BRADSHAW,—than he did in his memorable
defence of the Head Constable on Wednesday
se'nnight. Mr. BRANCKER could not and would
not be silent ; and Mr. Alderman HOLME,
a fluent, but a cutting speaker when he
likes, would not fail to sermonize upon the
iniquity, the brutality, and the cowardice of any
miscreant who would dare to enact a scene at
Holmestead similar to the one which took place
in Trowbridge-street on the 31st ult. Yea, even
Mr. W. P. JEFFREYS, an assiduous member of
the Watch Committee, a gentleman who says
but little in the Council Chamber, although
he thinks much, would find vent for his agitated
feelings, and designate the regulation which
prevented a policeman from doing his duty in
such a case as a monstrous piece of official mis-
management and a direct incentive to crime.
Whether the police are prevented entering public-
houses in the manner alluded to, by and with
the sanction of the Watch Committee, it matters
not. We tell both the Watch Committee and
Major GREIG, that their regulation is not only
absurd but contrary to law. A case precisely
similar to that of Mrs. BRADSHAW, was heard at
the Middlesex Sessions on Tuesday last, when
the Assistant Judge said, " that in law the police
were bound to enter a public-house and remove
or take into custody any person who had in
point of fact committed an assault, and who