The National Register.
London, England, 1816-09-16 00:00:00

Ilk •
j*-4

No. 449.—V0L. I X.

roLITWAL DisQUisiTioN.

REPORT of the POLICE: of Me METROPOLIS.

THE pages of the newspapers for the last week, and
the minds of their readers, have been occupied with the
printed Report of the Police of the Metropolis.
In truth a more interesting volume was never pub-
lished ; it puts us la possession of facts, substantiated by
the best evidence, which come home to the bosoms of
persons of every rank and station ; it conies home to our
very doors; and we seem to be individually interested in
the important disclosures made. That these disclosures
raust lead to legislative discussion and interference, there
can be no doubt ;—the evils they pourtray, and the de-
fbets they exhibit, arc of too great magnitude to be
passed over in silence; it will become the imperative
duty of Parliament, at its meeting, to investigate the
subject in all its bearings, and to find out a remedy for
the mischiefs complained of, either by a radical reform
and new modelling of' the police establishment, or by
such a judicious amendment in. the faulty parts of its
structure, as shall redeem it in the eyes of the country
from the stigma and opprobrium under which it now
justly labours. We allude particularly to the two lead-
ing grievances which have been lately so fully developed
in the evidence before the Committee, that of the effect
produced by Parliamentary Rewards, and the present •
mode of Licensing Public-houses. If any further testi-
muny were wanting to establish the faulty system of the
former, it has been amply supplied by what has tran-
spired on the examination of the late conspirators. It
cannot, indeed, be denied that legislative rewards have
the effect of exciting vigilltn2e on the part of officers
when the reward is considerable ; but since human
nature is frail and fallible, the temptation to strain
every nerve to obtain conviction is sometimes (as has
recently been found to be the case) the parent of the
blackest crimes, even amounting to a conspiracy to swear
-away the life of a fellow creature. This system of blood-
money, as it is called, renders the evidence of officers,
who have a direct interest in the evidence they give, al-
ways suspicious to the jury, and has been even justly
objected to as militating against one of the first prin-
ciples in our system of jurisprudence—lt has, indeed,
lately disclosed (as in the ease of Vaughan and others)
such monstrous iniquity as must in future bring the tes-
timony of witnesses so circumstanced into discredit. The

most sensible and judicious magistri. tes have lamented that
no fund has hitherto been raised, or power given to grant
rewards to officers performing meritorious services, If
Magistrates had a power, to a certain extent, to reward
officers who were vigilant and successful in detecting and
apprehending offenders, and to murk those who were not
attentive to their duty, by depriving them of such pecu-
niary benefits; it would prevent altogether the necesity
of the evil complained of ; and the odious name of Mood-
Aonell, and the still met,: odious stigma attached to it,
might be removed altogether. As long as the nature of
man is what it is, officers will be naturally more anxious
to obtain conviction when they are to gain a great ad-
vantage by it, than whun the advantage is less, or there
is: none at all. This. therefore. i:: an unanswerable ar-
gument against the pc sent system of p irliamentary re-
wards. But we have only room to glance at this part of
the Report. The next most important point in it, is
that relating to the Licensing of Public-houses ; and we
sincerely hope, that the present system will be totally
ehan:*ed. It is in evidence before the Committee, that
the greatest abuses exist in the licensing public houses:
instead of the character of the applicants being person-
ally enquired into by the licensing Magistrates, the
Avhole affair is in too many instances made a compleat
parish job, and a race is often rt:n between the owner
of the house to he licensed, and the fiirnishing Brewer.
Nothing can be more diTraceful than the evidence given
on this subject • the signatures of the churchwardens
and overseers, as required by the act, are made meet