The Sun.
London, England, 1812-01-18 00:00:00

lieved, taking his eti!hority Undoubtedly from the . ;1,
common sources of information, that many person!
were lately lately discharged from the hulks, and bethought
that the great atrocities lately committed, might in Et",. •
pare be ascribed to that cause; someof them, it,was
-generally understood, were released in c-msequence it
of the expiration of the term of their, imerrsone , r
Meat ;.others had obtained their release by improper 'e,,
means, and :others- shed . -escaped.. - When -those
setetdhes were discharged withoet any provision,
being made for them, without any means of improve-
ment being affoeded, without even the adVaniage of
religious instru&ion, without trades, :and without
charader, they must proceed to the Verdetration of
crimes. One would think that what had- passed fur
a considerable time in this country . ought to have ,
strewn the necessity of a change of system. It W a.:
unnecessary now to enl.4ge upon risubjed of which
notice had been .already Oven, but he believed it
would he found, that the system of Pollee esta-
'Wished, tended materi Illy to inciease the cemlnis-
sion of crimes. If the House had an objeasion .
ro go into the more large inquiry, qt certainly would
be necessary to consider the state of the Police. He
objeded to the principle of giving reward: to the
Police for the detedion of offenders of a certain de--
Seription ; for,-tx heti lie COnsider-Jdthat the prevention.
of crimes
.depended on the Police alone, that they:
alone knew whatesereene were liable to suspicion, he e .
must infer, that the offering of rewards motet pro-
i duce the greatest evil, by making it their interest to
Permit crimes Of than atrocious description, for. -; -
the detection of which 'rewards were given. By _
the 4th and sth of William and Mary, and Coe 714-: .
Queen Anne, 401. was offered for 'the detection
of highway robbery. He did not wish to speak clis-.
respectfully of a useful body of men, but unless they-
acted upon refined. moral principles,- their inclination . ,
must be to permit the act to-take place, that they
might be entitled to the recompence. He was in- . .
~formed that no man had any chance of obtaining the
~:.,
property he had lost, until he offered a ree , ard for ',..
its recovery: It resembled a practice-adopted in .
some offices of giVing expedition money, which was:
', always productive of delay, for del .y must have been
_-- •
the practice 'of the office., to make it worth while
to pay the Police officers for dispatch. The mis..
chief of this was, that' when a man lost property, he
must be satisfied to lose more, in order. to quicken
' the ministers of justice. A Bill had been intro-
duced into that House 11,1 the year 1785;c ontainin4
some good provisions, and some objectionable.--
Among others, it propOsed the abolishing of rewards
altogether ; hut whether rewards ought to be abo- ',
lished altogether or nee, Police 01-ficers ought not. to
get thems r The utility of e.v rcls consisted in their
-tendency to obtain information Irene ecce,sar ies after! !
the=: feat but the Police Officers were not in this ‘,
situation when they discharged their duty. I-le un-
derstood that when persons went to-,'the PnliceOfficei •
and -described an individual by , whom they were
robbed, it was no uncommon thing to find that the l‘
Otttrers knew-him immediately; that they
knew his
name, and the houses he frequented. He sees not cer-
tain whether those circumstances were feoe, bet
they were generally believed, and he rather thought
were well 'founded. It was right -to institute inquiry, e
when they efonsidered the state of the metropokr; . .
when they considered the great expenee of. the Pee
lice, and the vote of that clay, and when, in addition
-4..-44.4.,-4..."---re-fiknet.±-40.4,--itrrevjniti rs,a, uTirul mei!,
that ads were committed, which shook the public
security; and the tranquility of private families;
when they reflected that it was due from every GO-
vernment to its subjects to guard their property and',
theii persons ; they must see the necessity of taking
an enlarged and comprehensive view. Bui his Right
Hon. Friend had said, that such_ climes as we had .
lately heard of, were frequently committed in otker -
countries. He would ask .wheres those countries
'were ? He had never heard or read of such. As 10
Paris, while he resided there, he had never heard of •
such atrocities ; nor did he know to what climate '
hist Right Hon. Friend could refer him for a solitary
comparison in this respe&. He knew 01 none where
'Crimes were committed with such insolence and
presumption as here. His Right Right Hon. Friend :
had spoken of the nightly watch, but where was 010 '
dailywatch ? Did they not hear contiruillv of rob"
bevies constantly committed in the day-time, and
where was the remedy for this ? Was it in regn'
lating the nightly watch ? If the-country was left
in this situation, the worst consetenences were to bill
apprehended. They should inquire not only into the ..
state of the watch, but into the state of the police, :
and the state of crimes. A number of causes would
be found-to concur in multiplying the number of the
last. The tolerating of improper houses, suffering-
the streets to be infested, as they sometimes were,
and among Others, he could not help lenunierating
the continuance of Lotteries. 14w-the supply of '
500,0.001. which he believed was the only produce -
of this pernicious measure, could be supposed to jus-
tify its continuance, he was unable to conjecture;
but without wishing to introduce politics into sucit a
subje& as this, he must observe, that in his opinion
it was not what , it produced, sbi,t the number of
Commissiooerships- w bids it suppotresi, that scatted
to prof rad its existence. .
Mr. W. Ssirru said, that he could not refrain
from making a few observations on the present im-
portant
subjed, although he coula not hope to add i
any weight to the ar-euments so ably urged by his
Hon. and Learned Friend. He could not help re-
gretting, however, that his Hon. and Learned Friend :.
had sat down, without proposing an amendment, fur
tiro purpose of extending Are objects to which the
Committee were' to dire& their a;tention, 'and he ••
trusted that such an amendment would yet be pro- -
posed. There were one or two circumstances which '
proved the absolute necessity of such an extension
Ofobject. In:the first place, if the House attended
to the.nature of those most horrible and barbarous
outrages Which for two months had kept the metro- - ,
polls in a perpetual akin), and more particularly the
atrocious murder of Mr. Mares famile (the authors `,. .
of which had never yet 'been discovered); it wool(
be evident, that had the nightly watch of the me-
tropolis
been Melte best possible state, those out-
rages and that mutd r could not have been prevent-
dcr. They originated in a set of villains about town
whine existence was not imputable to any deficiency
in the nightly watch. In the second place, if the
nightly watch could operate upon them, of what trae
tute•would be titan operation ? Unless spine change
doidd be produced in the disposition of those villains, .
the only effect that could try po.sibihry be occasion-,
ed would be to drive them out. of the metropolis-
into the environs. The surrouodios villages wou:d.. -+,