The Sun.
London, England, 1826-02-22 00:00:00

THE POLICE.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
Slit—ln your paper of Monday last there was
a sensible article on the Burglaries, Robberies,
and Depredations in the environs of the Metro.
polisond on the inefficency of our Police Establish-
ment. The consequences you treated with a
masterly hand, but the causes you left in a state
of uncertenty. That our Police Establishment
is inefficiently directed cannot be controverted--
for the present Premier appears to think it io-
susceptible of improvement, or quietly leav-
ing it precisely as he found it on his coming
into the extensive powers he now exercises.-7
There are certainly many able and, upright Ma-
gistrates, and many very active and intelligent
officers, attached to our Police Establishment;
nevertheless, there is a palpable want of a
system, which may vary in its operations as the
exigencies of particular occurrences shall occur.
We must all be sensible that Magistrates are not
selected- only for talent and capacity for the
office. -Other motives weigh in every such ap-
pointment ; pliancy and prompt submission to
the ruling powers, &c. are essential qualifications,
and it thus not unfrequently happens that igno-,
ranee and incapacity fill the seat that demands
talent, sagacity, and energetic activity. It may
be taken as a truism, that in all ill managed es-
tablshments, the most efficient servants are not in
the number of those who are best paid. Ex-
ceptions there may be, but I fully agree with
your remarks on the inadequacy of payment to our
police ; were thesums ignorantly squandered upea
pot-house orators, and time-serving incendiaries,
appropriated to the reward of merit, our streets
would be soon thined of the gangs which fear-
lessly, anti even in open day, infest them; re-
wards could be distributed by a Magistrate of
ordinary sagacity, possessing due knowledge of
the world, subject to the approval of the quarter-
ly Grand Juries. Were that fair and liberal en"
couragement given to our Agents, of Police, which
render them independent of every consideration
but their duty to the public, their exel tie"
would be called forth, that would not fail break-
ing up the organized gangs of coach plunderers,
street robbers, and nefarious gangs, so long the
terror of this metropolis. Thus will agents,
with the whole tribe of receivers and liege'
ciators, be dragged forth to public
and even, if escaping punishment, %rout(' be-
come harmless by their notoriety ; what id
is
more curious than for the pick pocket to hold
up' in derision the handkerchief of which he
has plundered you; but then stolen property
can be produced on certain terms, from a watc4
to a diamond necklace. A sample of this nerarr
ous system came within my own knowledge in
the year 18'24 : a Mr. Marks having lost a vales•
ble gold watch and seals, applied by my advice
to an active officer, who interested himself ac"'
Lively, ascertained that ti deposit of fifteen 90°`
reigns to one of the miscreants would procure a
middleman, and restitution. The deposit wag
made, and in a very few days, the officer
handed me a paper parcel, in which the watch,,
and seals were safely depOsited. Mr. A-131.,'5
made the officer a liberal present, which he well"ei
served. Another officer of great experience told
getme ah es
hki
ienwg abovehones t l
ysofoorot
hteh ileays
vweh o notice,t '
,
li
years, it'
h
e,w
onith oneoutof some
them.
speci
hands
in one of the most populous, and, as w
most
possiblecivilized
remedy
yc cities Id
_e are to
re o
d
Officers be sent to Paris, to take lessons from
French Police, than persevere in a systemf „ r
lice so bad and inefficient, that neither ners°" °i
property are at present secure from °arab"
depredation in Loudon.
PEACH,
our Magistrates "1.,
tiinlertilleetworld. the._,.

P.S.—Since the commencement of this mi)ii.ltin';
there has been 6,0001. worth of silver stolen
contaili
the Stroud water coach. Three bags
300 sovereigns each, from a Hertfordshire oolte
Ferrle;
A parcel containing 1,000 bank-notes near
bridge, and 1,700 sovereigns from no Fixet
coach, with many others of less note.

The tragedy of " Babingion," already
n
n the
to the literary world, has been brought upo.. - i
stage with complete success, by Mr.Nicoorisos,
Manager of the Theatre Royal, Newcastle-upoll
Tyne. Our Correspondent says, that some °
the scenes of this play, in the hands of a MAC-
READY, a KEMRLE, or a KEAN, would proball3,
rank amongst the most striking of modern g'li•
1
bition. It is written in the style of the Flioa•
bethan age, and, like Fazio, abounds with Po:
sages of a highly poetical cast, at the same dr
that the diction is perhaps more forcible and troll
.
dramatic. Should Dabington also, like Faztq
find its Iva, into the Green Room of either;
our great fheatres, we have little, doubt Of I
being brought forward) and with similar success•
know.

Yesterday, the bay of Mr. Ley,
7 BIRTHS.
tabic
of the House of Commons, of two sons. , Awsof Lie"
On the 17th inst., in Upper narleY-street, the taw
tenant-Colonel Buller Elphinstone, of a daughter.
the First Clerk at the

.MARRIED. :lager
At Cheltenham, on the 16th inst., Christopher Ail $
Esq., of Babrath,
Nicholson, Ann
daujlhter of the late George Lenox Conynglop, Psq"
Spring-hill, Derry.
county of Meath, too 0

DIED. • John
On Friday, at his seat, lielham-hall, Nottinghamsittri,e! sot-
Manners Sutton, Esq., in the 74th year of his age. •"'`,cart•
t etsym: ?rel.:way:a ;ft: ,hiuti
ehasnriendnda
Commons. , gll Year'
dmore,
lelyd,co:earer:atbrgotEuhaetreiirt,sloyluhnuircist.pEie:th...„seip,.
neA:rhcfboiistlllistbort liiitsisee..
George Baldwin, Die •
f ' Ma'esty'S Olin.- .
.., many years his 3
nerd in. l'..ypr. e't
On Saturday, at Allington-house, Lincolnshire, in 6.1.- late
`Lady e y, relict
At Wi ifetnhieKirDeeniobtwy, at,ognizart
Bart.,
.: ,103ftinllielinnstltobn:aht
Denton-hail
very ofa:
co
age, Sarah, relict of the late Thomas Jukes,: Esq. house
On Saturday morning last, Mrs. E. Ircmonger,
in at 11e*
Upper Grosvenor-street. ' '
____........•°-.....

an
Printed d Published for the PILOPRIETOIIB, up
ne.
OFFICE, No. 112, Strand, by J. B. CAKSTAIP`'