The Sun.
London, England, 1840-05-14 00:00:00

POLICE AND LIFE PROTECTI°

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN
SIR--I have read in your Journal of this iccrri
imurder
c
ng a leading article on the subject of the (3'
Lord William Russell, from h I learnthat
some of your Contemporaries (fo;YI see no
paper
;ti
The Sun) find fault with the New Police for na
being so expert in the capture of murderers r the
e
old Bow-street officers. Now, as one of the °
this
force I am not ashamed to admit that the charge
is
well-founded ; and if you will kindly allow an
letter to appear in your columns, think
i e
prove to the satisfaction of the public, that T have
no reason to be so.
e
In the first place, Sir, the whole system of Polic
duty is changed. In the days of the CbarieV'
and the Bow-street runners, young thieves were
b.
hardly ever taken up for picking pockets and row
bing tills, as is now invariably the case. If an
%,
watchman discovered a youngster in the act °`
stracting a snuff box or a purse without the ,
privity
of the owner, he took the offender aside, shared t:ut,
booty by way of hush-money and procured ad '
tancc to the associates of his hopeful charge.
will
this means he obtained an acquaintance wi
the whole gang, and, consequently, when the
robbery or a murder was committed, for,
detection of the perpetrators of which a lame
reward was offered, he could at once p0u,11,0,
upon the guilty wretch or wretches, and hand
or them over to the gallows. The public, vs,
so
course, knowing nothing about the matter, were
tonished, and consoled themselves with propagative
such maxims as " murder will out," blood c
not be concealed," and an hundred others to t
same effect. Now, under the new, and as I °cf
tend, greatly improved system, a murder or robber
is never nursed in this way. The pickpocket 'l)s
he shoplifter is seized, as soon as known t°,
guilty ; nor do the Police force, as a body, °°s.
any communication with notoriously bad character
except in the simple execution of their duty
Hence, if life is supposed not to be so secure,
cause in a few instances murderers have not been (l.'s
covered, it will not be disputed that property
thousand times safer than it was twenty years ag it
But life, &fter all, is not less secure now than
ever was, as any one may convince himself, for
compariug the criminal statistics of En lard' rs
the last ten years, with any equal number of Vo ow
since the reign of George the Third- „se
Sir, write sensibly and practically upon t"-
he
t
questions, and I put it to you whether it tol
more for the public good that crimes be pre,venu
than that they be fostered into robberies and
ders, to display police vigilance in providing gu,ks
fruit for the gallows, or freightage for the h
If we do not always pounce upon great crinunex,
we are eminently successful in discovering and fore
tirpating those nests of villany which beret: re
were the schools of atrocious offenders. 11. hler; aco
robbers and murderers no doubt, sod will —.vs,
o
long as there are men, in desperate circumstance
ready to dare the worst by one deed to relieve therin
selves ; but robbery and murder are no lcilge,rPo sti
fessions for which bribes can obtain ilillw"",J„
the hands of the humblest officers of justice'
I am Sir, &c.,
AN INSPECTOR OF POLICE.
London, Monday, March U, 1840.

FAMILY VAULT OF THE BEDFORD
MlLY.—Chenies Church is of considerable antiquity, at:
built in the early English Gothic style of architecture.
°
s
chafe] which adjoins was built in 1566, by Anne, CountesEao
Iledford, according to the will of her deceased Lord, John
of Bedford. In the vault underneath are sixty coffins, e°°a►",,.
ing the ashes of the illustrious dead. There are some magni-
ficent ficent effigies in the chapel. At the further end, on ent
from the church, there are superb tombs, the drapery oalr,Le,.l
figures being coloured, of Lord John Russell, first E.
Bedford, who died in the second year of Queen Mary. a
zabeth, his wife ; Lord Francis, the second Earl,
no the i-1585 ; and Anne, Countess of Warwick, who died in the first
.
year of James 1. On either side-are those of Lady Francis Doan,
cider, daughter of William Earl of Bath, by Elizabeth RusselL
daughter of Francis, second Eatl; Lady Frances Chandos, wife
of Giles Binge Lord Cliandos and Baron Sudeley, datig
ter of Edward Earl of Lincoln, and mother of Katherine C6u9r
tess of Belford, who died in 1623. On the opposite side is the
tomb of Lord Francis Russell, eldest son of Lord William Pl 5
s,?11, and his wife, with two smaller figures of their omensdau,
Ladies Frances and Elizabeth. On the same side, just n
d.
tering frnn the church, is a white marble monument, eiecte
by John Duke of Bedford in 1769, to the memory of Wriothe
Icy Duke of Bedford, who died in 1711, and Elisabeth his wif .
e,
who died in 1724. It is a splendid piece of sculpture by alois
There is also a costly monument to the memory of the first,.
Duke of Bedford and his Duchess, with medallion profiles Of
their nine children in addition to thc figures of the .Duke
an
Duchess (life size) in white marble. The roof is of pannelle
d
oak, on -hich the escutcheons of the family are richly em
r la-
zoned. The armorial bearings of different members of th°
family adorn the rude Gothic windows.
It is stated that Earl Spencer obtains the sple":
did accession to his already large income of upwards of 3,C001.
per annum, from estates in the neighbourhood of BewtrYi
which he has come into possession of by the recent decease °
his Lordship's mother-in-law, Mrs. Acklom, of Cheltenharn•