The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-02-27 00:00:00

orders of the Home Office, and to act on the
instructions received from magistrates and police
authorities in the remotest districts of the three
kingdoms. And, considering the amount of crime
committed, the wonder is that so few offenders
escape. But then there is the handling of money,
and the distribution of patronage to be gained, by
the Government transferring to the Home Office

the control of the entire police force of the realm
And there is yet another end to be attained, which
the London Times discloses in a few words :—" If
" the police forces are to be local in their origin,
we do not see why they should not be under a
" central authority, that would make their
" movements more economical, more harmonious,
" and more effective. Our regiments are named
" after certain counties ; we might as well confine
" their functions to their respective shires, as
" limit the powers and duties of the police to the
" boundaries of their respective boroughs." Now,
we deny entirely that the police force should be
moved about as regiments are, or that such a
system would work more economically, harmoni-
ously, or effectively, than the present.
A police force should be purely local, or else
how is it to become acquainted with the seats of
crime, and the persons of thieves, and other bad
characters ? Keep it moving about, and just as it
would become effective, we should have it sent
away to some place, where it would be wholly
useless for the detection of offenders, for fully one
or two months. If the object of such a change be
to secure the concentration of a large body of
policemen on any given direction, it implies the
apprehensiori of tumults, where the military
should be called in, and life and property not left
to the defence of constables armed only with
staves. Not being a military force, they do not
lie under the imputation of having " neglected the

" means of pursuing POMPEY." For all police
purposes the present system is found to be perfect
wherever discipline and becoming vigilance are
enforced. All attempts at the prevention of crime
by such means have signally failed, and will ever
prove abortive. The utmost we can do is to
secure detection; and this, we believe, is now
reduced to the greatest certainty. What need is
there, then, for altering or tampering with this
branch of the civil service? If we are to have a
perfect gendarmerie, and to become all at once as
much French, or rather BONAPARTIST, as possible,
then, indeed, centralisation may be advisable, in
order that the Government may take upon itself
the risks and responsibility of institutions so
un-English and unconstitutional.
Crime dates from a far deeper source than that
which can be reached by the staff or the bayonet.
It is a social scourge inherent in our neglected
condition ; and its increase or diminution may be
traced from a climax of prosperity to the close of
a period of national prostration, with as much ease
and accuracy as the rise and fall of consols.
Compare the crime of the present day, both in the
upper and lower walks of society, with that of any
seasons of industrial and commercial activity, and
the most sceptical will be amazed at the result.
Reformatories are required to bring the neglected
youth of the nation into proper training to obtain
an honest livelihood; but when they are launched
into society with a trade at their finger ends, they
go forth to share the fate of the honest artisan,
whose independent existence by his toil is any-
thing but certain. Our whole social system is
based upon false and dangerous principles, and
nothing short of a despotism can sustain it intact;
and it may bo we have already arrived at the
advent of that tyranny, which a blind adherence
to senseless political dogmas has brought about
through all time. The hurried grappling together
by our rulers, first of this source of patronage, and
that means of bestowing emoluments upon its
partisans and favourites, are sure indications of a
coming struggle, by which alone they can hope to
uphold a system, to which may be attributed nine•

tenths of the people's misery, should its evil
workings be discovered, and its further continuance
be determinedly opposed.

In such a crisis, however, we must mainly rely
on the moderation of the Crown, and the Constitu-
tional spirit which actuates both branches of the
Legislature. The House of Peers may, at the last

moment, be found exercising its high function—
standing once more on the side of the Throne and
the people, and protecting both against the designs
of a Ministry who have made, within ono month of
the session of 1856, no less than two direct and
gigantic attacks on the rights of self-government.
The sole political object of these ministerial move-
ments must have been, to get into the Executive's
hands an inordinate amount of patronage with which
to coerce the SOVEREIGN and both branches of the
Legislature. The ostensible objects of Sir GEORGE
GREY'S Police Bill, and Mr. LowE's attempted
interference with the rights of municipal property,
may appear reasonable enough to the uninitiated ;
but the historical reader, and educated poli-
tician, can see by analogy the point to which
we would be drifting by tamely surrendering those
Constitutional privileges we have contended for
and enjoyed for centuries. There is nothing in
our normal state which purely English and enlight-
ened legislation cannot remove or correct, without
demolishing the landmarks of our civil liberties
and local independence. Whatever may be wrong
in our police system can be set right without cen-
tralisation. The growth of crime can be arrested
by moral means if Parliament think proper to
resort to them; and those concessions, shipping
and trade may require for their further develope-
ment, may be carried out without trampling on the
rights of property, and laying aside the equitable
principle so long acted upon by the legislature, of
granting compensation to those likely to be injured
by changes made to promote the national weal.
In resisting any departure from the beaten track
of Constitutional Government, we cannot be saying
too much when we repeat that the people of the
North look to the moderation of the Crown, and
the lofty national spirit which still lingers in the
Peers of the Realm, for deliverance from politicians
who can boast of no hereditary fame, and some
who can only point to a season of painful pro-
bation at the Antipodes. If Lord DERBY be a true
Englishman, and Mr. DISRAELI an unswerving
political Christian, there is a gap opening before
them which they may yet fill, with great credit to
themselves and universal acclamation, as adminis-
trative morality is at a premium, caused by an
alarming scarcity.

Ecc LE4TASTICA PREFERMENTS.-The following clergymen
have just been appointed to curacies in this district :—The
Rev. A. T. Attwood, of Brasenose, Oxford, co Halsall
near Ormskirk ; the Rev. T. H. Pain, of Brasenose, Oxford,'
to St. Thomas's, Liverpool ; the Rev. E. G)les, of St.
John's, Cambridge, to St. Barnabas, Liverpool ; the Rey.
W. E. Newton, of Caius, Cambridge, to St. Bride's, Liver-
pool ; the Rev. 11. Pizou, of Pembroke, Cambrid e, to
Halton ; the Rev. J. Whiteside, of St. Catherine Nall
Cambridge, to Rainhill ; the Rev. W J. Friel, of Trinity'
Dublin, to St. Stephen's, Liverpool ; the Rev. W. II:
Harke, of Trinity, Dublin, to St. Mary's, Liverpool ; the
Rev. C• Hughes, of Trinity, Dublin, to Wootton ; the
Rev. R. Armstrong, of St. Bee's, to Bollinr;ton ; the
Rev. J. E. Davies, of St. I3e.e's, to Hale ; the Rev. C. P.
M.`Carthy, of St. Aidan's, to St. Mary's, Birkenhead ; the
Rev. N. Postance, of St. Aidan's, to St. James's, Liverpool;
the Rev. S. G. Cochrane, of Trinity, Dublin, to St. Stephen's,
Liverpool ; the Rev. W. H. Denny, to the parish church of
Liverpool.