The Sun.
London, England, 1856-04-26 00:00:00

pipes burst. There was no telegraph between Esher and
Woking, but eventually an engine was obtained from
Kingston, which conveyed it to Woking, and shunted it,
thus allowing the other trains to pass. The fourth was
the six o'clock train, a spcial train, conveying the ps-
sengers who were provided with tickets for the Govern-
ment ships. Two trains conveyed 2,300 persons with
tickets for the Government ships, and at seven o'clock the
Loris and Commons started to Southampton followed by
a train conveying the directors, and at 8.45 the Royal train
started. It must be remembered that the company had
solicited none of the enormous additional traffic on the

line ; they had held out no inducement of cheap fares to en-
tice the multitude, and crowd their trains beyond the capa-
city of their locomotive power, and if, under the enormous
pressure of the circumstances an accident had occurred, to
which railways were at all times liable, and which had
impeded' the passage of the trains, he did not think the
company could be severely blamed, if it could be shown
that they used all reasonable precautions to prevent acci-
dent, and that they did so he thought was proved by the
circumstance that they had at least conveyed every one
safely over their line. But ho denied that the company
were responsible for much of the inconvenience and delay,
for the directors, who reached Southampton after the
houses had been enabled to see the review, and had proper
arrangements for taking bon. members off to their vessels
been made they would h•+ve done the same. The incon-
venience resulting to the House of Peers, on their return,
was attributable to the confusion, in the midst of which it
was stated in 'mistake that their lordships were in their
carriages, and the train left without them.

The- Afarquis of GRANBY thought that the railwsy
company were not entirely to blame for the delay which
took place.

Mr: HAMILTON hoped that the result of the discussion
would be, that the railway system of the country would
be placed under proper regulations.
Mr. HUTCHINS was sorry that the house should have
suffered inconvenience by any fault of the South-Western
Railway Company, but thought a great deal of virtuous
indignation had been thrown away by hon. members oppo-
site, for they were entirely innocent of the delay of an
hour and a half on the quay, which was really the reason
why the house missed the principal portion of the spectacle.
He complained, also, that more tickets were issue.l by the
Adwir lty than the company were aware of • but at all
events the train conveying the directors was behind that of
the Houses of Parliament all the way, and yet they arrived
in time and returned to London by twelve o'clock. The
special train was ready for the houses at the appointed
time, but they came not, being delayed by the accident to
the boat. In consequence of this much confusion was
caused. and when at length they came the superintendent
himself told hire that the House of Peers were behind and
the train went off. The 'superintendent at the time fully
believed that they were ; of course, there was no other
special twin, and they were consequently obliged to travel
by one of the ordinary trains. He did not think that all
tee blame could be j ustly attributed to the South-Western
Railway Company; &nee of it must fall upon the Admi-
ralty itself.
The subject then dropped.
POLICE (COUNTIES AND BOROUGHS) BILL.

The house went into committee on this bill.
Mr. HENLEY moved on clause 1 of the original bill to
leave out all after "county," line 2, and insert, "under
any existing act or acts of Parliament, the justices of such
county, at the general or quarter sessions holden next after
the passing of this act, or at any adjournment thereof, shall
appoint a suffirsient number of fit men, who shall be sworn
in before some justice of the peace ha,vingjui isdiction within
the county, to act as constables for preserving the peace,
and preventing robberies anti other felonies, andapprehend-
ing offenders against the peace; and the men so sworn, and
also all constables appointed, or to be hereafter appointed,
under the provisions of the act of the fifth and sixth years
of the reign of his late Majesty King William IV., tu
provide fur the rsguletion of municipal corporations in
England and. Wales, or under the provisions of any
other act authorising the appointment of constables in any
county, or town, or district, shall, not only within such
• county, but also within every county anti borough in Eug-
laud and Wales, have all such powers and privileges, and
be liable to all such duties and responsibilities, as any con-
stable duly appointed now has or hereafter may hay
within his coastablewick, by virtue of the common law of
this realm ,or of any statute made or to be waste, anti shall
obey all such lawful commands as they may from time to
time receive from any of the justices of the peace having
jurisdiction within any county, or borough, or town, or
district iu which they shell act as constables, for conducting
themselves in the execution of their office: Provided al-
ways, That it shall be lawful for the justices of the peace
of any county in general or
...quarter sessions assembled, if
they shall be of opinion that a distinction ought to be made
in the number of constables appointed to keep the peace in
• ifferent parts of the county, to divide the same into dis-
tricts, as shall appear to them most convenient, and to de-
clare the number of constables which ought to bo appointed
for each district, and from time to time to alter the extent
of each such district, and the number of constables to be
'appointed for the same; and the expenses of the police for
each such county or district shall be defrayed by each such
county or district in the manner provided by the existing
acts, and so much of the said acts, or any of them, as con-
fers the appointment of police constables on the chief or
superintendent constable shall be, and the same is hereby
repealed." He said that the system, which had been called
that of rural police, was not wholly satisfactory to the
country, and it was remarkable that it should have been
' introduced at a time when crime was on the decrease, He
should take the liberty of calling the attention of the house
to certain statistics which had been furnished relating to the
counties of Surrey and Hampshire, as ith respect to the
working of this particular law in this country. These were
the .only.countiee witterespect to which he could fiu d any
returns dealing with this subject. The former had been fur-
nished by the chief constable of the county (Surrey) ; the
letter from the evidence taken before the police committee.
C ipt. Harris, the chief constanle of Surrey, had now moved
to the metropolitan-police, anti he had no doubt that h-
was an able and trustworthy witness. It appeared from
the return lately made before the Transportation Commit-
tee that the number of persons committed for tri d. in 1854
was 29,000, and in etss, 26,274. The charaAer of the crime
had also changed for the better. It was marvellous, but it
certainly appeared to be the fact, that in places where there
were the most policethere were the most offences committed,
and the fewer number of detections. Capt. Harris, in his
evidence before the Police Committee, said that, taking the
town of Gosport, and comparing it with the metropolis, it
appeared that, in 18)1, in Loudon, there was one policeman
to 457 inhabitants, while in Gosport there was one police.
man to every 3,381 of the inhabitants. Now, let them see
what were the convictions in London ? With one policeman
to every 457 of the inhabitants, not more than one offender
in four was brought to justice. In Gosport, with one 'po-
liceman to every 3,381 of the people, one was convicted on
the average in every 2; ; in Hampshire it appeared that
312 sheep were stolen in s'x years ending in 1852 ; and fur
the offence of sheep-stealing; in that period, 45 persons
were sent to trial; and how many of that number did the
house think were convicted ? Nine were acquitted ; and
.for these 312 sheep stolen, 36 persons only were brought to
-justice. He would now refer to the statistics which had
been furnished by Mr. Hastings, the chief constable of
Surrey. If they were correct, the moral state of that
county was equal to its sanitorial condition. Mr. Hastings
stated that the rural population, omitting the metropolitan
part of the county of Surrey, might be taken at 111,000.
That was what might be called a nice manageable popula-
tion. Mr. Hastings divided the suspected portions of that
population into three clw,ses. The first comprised that
class who lived wholly by violatingtho law, including pros-
titutes. The second class comprised those who followed
some occupation, but were known to have c unraitted
offences ; and the third comprised those who were
the associates of thieves and other suspected per-
sons. In the first class there were 26 females who lived
by prostitution; in the second class nine, and one in the
third class ; making 36 altogether. There were 525 males
who came under the same category. The number of persons
in the county who were given into custody in 1851, were
681 for all offences, and o these 246 were discharged at
once by the magistrates. In 1805, 947 were taken into cus-
tody, arid of these 310 were at once discharged by the ma-
gistrates. _Re found that, in 1851, 44 persons were :sum-
maHly convicted by the magistrates, 98 were committed
for trial, and 64 only convicted. He came to matters of a
closer nature. In the return before him he found that in
1855, 322_ persons were apprehended in Surrey for indict-
able offences, but of these 99 were discharged by the ma-
gistrates. The criminal tables showed that 36 persons were
guilty of housebreaking, 1 of robbery; of sheep, horse, and
cattle stealing, 21 ; and of breaking into hen-roosts, 47.
Of these persons, net one of the 36 guilty of housebreaking
was apprehended, and consequently there was not a single
person tried or convicted. Was that a satisfactory piece of
evidence to induce other counties to follow the example of
Surrey? He next carne to the case of robbery. There was
one robbery fur which nobody was apprehended. There
were 21 offences of sheep, horse, and cattle stealing, and
the number of persons apprehended was 7. Of these the
magistrates discharged 4, and the 3 sent for trial were ac-
quitted, so that, in fact, not a single person was brought
to justice for these grave offences. Of the 47 "fowl" of-
fences—there were only 6 -parties apprehended ; the ma-
gistretes discharged 3, and 3 were sent for trial and con-
victed. So out of this array of 105 offences, all that were
brought to justice were 3 persons for zolehing hen; roosts:
Such was the working of the police system in the county
of. Surrey He could well understand that in
crowded neighbourhoods it might be advisable to have
patrols, but if, in neighbourhoods where the popula-
tion was thin, the people relied upon a force of
this kind, and took no trouble themselves to bring
offenders to justice, the thieves knuwiug where
the police were stationed, had every opportunity of avoid-
ing them, and comurittiog offences undisturbed. He im-
plored the Government to let the counties set up such
police force as they thought best. He was sorry to have
troubled the committee, and without further remark put
his amendment.
Sir G. GREY opposed the amendment.

Lord LOVAlNkdenied that it was true that there was
more crime committed in those counties where there wore
police than in others where there were none".
After a few- words from Mr. B. DENISOS and Mr. BEN-
TINCK,

Mr.'BAINES said the public opinion of Lancashire was
in favour of the force It had been sdd that the Govern-
ment had the intention of substituting a borough for a
county police, but he (Mr. Baines) had no knowledge of
any such intention on the part of the Government. The
simple question was, whether they should introduce into
the rest of the counties of England that system which,
from the experience of some,l6 or 17 years, had been tested
in some of the counties, and had Well found to be highly
satisfactory. (Sear, hear.)

Mr. EVELV-N said the right hon. gentleman the mem-
ber for Oxford,hire hat told the house that the comity of
Surrey was distinguished for the morality of its inhabi-
tants and for the salubrity of Its air ; and if he understood
the right hon. member aright, the Falai r ty of the county
of Set rey had always existed as at present, but its im-
proved moral ty he dated from the year 1831. The noble
lord, moreover, had said that before that year neither life
nor property was safe in the county of Surrey. Now, he
(Mr. Evelyn) himself had lived for many years in that
county, and he was totally ignorant of that danger t,.
which the noble lord had alluded. A very unfair ace had
been made of the circumstance of the burg ary that took
.plsee
_in the year 1840. Upon that lamentable occasion
a clergyman was murdered in his bed at the dead of
night. (Hear, hear.) B tt this was a mist ridicul-rts
instance to bring forward.- The dreadful event in Rup r -
street' might as well be cited t o arguefl:Aen,
hear.)favouof
-ng tho metropolitan police,
Iu the
rasa of every burglary. it was quite an accidental matter
'whether it was accompanied by murder or not. (Hear )
gvery burglar was morally a murdeter. In the case of the
.F.timley murder, the man who committed the crime wits
rnot the most guilty of the three, but the man who did not
fire the shot set the other. two on. The facts brought on by
the right hon. member for Oxfordshire could not establish
the fact that crimes bad not been committed since the est •
blishment of rural police. On the contrary, it was rather
a question of the intensity, than the quantity, of the crimes
committed. It had been stated that the magistrates in
Surrey were greatly in favour of the new system. Ho (Mr.
Evelyn) would candidly state to the house that he believed
the majority of the house were favourable tv it, and if Any

140NDokT Printed and Published by KURD° YOUNG ;
of No. 112, Strand, Printer, at 271 e Snn. of e, N 112,
istrane, m the Precinct of 'the Savoy, in the countEof
buil/nes, Saturday, April 26,1866,