The Sun.
London, England, 1845-03-25 00:00:00

al111;

LONDON, TUESDAY, MARCII 2.5, 1843.

'We have no desire to disparage the services of the
Metropolitan Police force, which we believe to have
secured for the inhabitants of the capital and its ad•
joining districts a much more extensive degree of
protection for person and property than had been
attained under the best administration of that system
which it superseded. But we can neither be blind to
its occasional glaring deficiencies, nor insensiile to
the enormously-increased expense of its organisation
and service, as compared with the charge upon the
public for the former establishment. We have a
right to expect, in consideration of the somewhat
lavish scale upon which its pay and appointments
have been fixed, that all its members shall be held to
the strict discharge of their duties, and that the super-
vision of their conduct shall he conducted --ith a de-
gree of vigilance bordering even on sev.tity. The
ieterests of the public clearly demand that the discip-
line of this " force"--(as it is the custom to term it,
ssith that unwholeiome propensity for military
identification which seems to connect itself
Kith_ the management, aspect, and details of
the body in all its associations) should
be rigidly maintained ; that its efficiency throughout
every one of its districts should be beyond question ;
that its character and integrity should be above all
suspicion of collu•ion with those whose actions they
are appointed to watch, and whose depredations on
the property of individuals they are expressly en-
trusted with the duty, not only of searching out and
bringing under the cognizance of the magistracy, but
also, in all cases where prevention may be practicable,
to defeat. We are sorry to confess that the " play-
at-soldiers" business seems to be much more carefully
attended to than the actual discipline of the men.
The criminal assizes both in town and country, the
very police-courts reports, and the incidental notices
of the acts of police-constables, which are scattered
through the proceedings in various charges comic g
under magisterial cognizance, have furnished but too
many instances, during the last twelve months,
of:criminal offences, or of gross misconduct on the
part of individuals who either had been—or at the
time of such exposures still were—members of the
"New Police," to allow of our saying that we have
no misgivings as to the laxity of the discipline which
is enforced by their superior authorities. That the
military style of equitation affected by the "Mounted
Police," as they are called, is a failure sufficiently
abstird, every one who looks upon their extraordinary
figures will acknowledge. Their figures suggest the
notion of perpendiculars in blue, raised on horizontal
lines of chesnut, brown, or black, or grey. Their
faces bear an expression of divided anguish at having
to undergo, in their years of stiff and impracticable
maturity, the rack-like extension of the riding-school
manige ; and of a self enamoured complacency-with
their equestrian graces, the bow; of their cavalry
bits, bridles, and stirrups, that seems to soothe the
persoual distress and the sensation of insecure seat,
which they evidently endure both from " riding
long," and from long riding. They are too amusing
to be quarrelled with, but still we find that they are
the source of a very large item in the enormous
annual charge for this constabulary.
A Parliamentary paper which was ordered to be
printed on the 11th inst., and has, within these few
days, been issued, hes at once enlightened and as•
tonished us upon many matters touching the Metro-
politan Police. Paper, No. 114 (ft. C.), entitled
" Accounts showing the sums received and expended
for the purposes of the Metropolitan Police, Police
Superannuation Fund, and Police-courts, in
the year ended December, 1844," shows that the total
expenditure for the year on account of " Office ex-
penses," including salaries of two Commissioners and
their allowances (2,5261.), and their four clerks
(980/.) ; and salaries and elowanees in the "Res
ceiver's Department `mice," for "rent, books, priht-
ieg, and stati4ritty" (3,2651.); "Pay, clothing, and
equ''',..neiit of the police force—salaries of superintend-
enis included," (271,5020 "Horses, forage, &c.,"
(6,8390 ; that this " total," in short, was 317,5001.,
exclusive of superannuation and police-courts. Now,
however good an establishment may be, it may cost
prodigiously too much. In determining this question
—" whether the quantum of charge is excessive or
not," it is no unfair test to consider what is the quan-
tum of effective service rendered by such an establish-
ment. Making allowance for the increase of popula-
tion and pauperism, has there been such a decrease in
the number and character of the graver crimes, of the
higher misdemeanours, and of lesser offences, within
the circuit of the Metropolitan Police, and
through their exertions and vigilance since
their establishment, as to afford the public
a commensurate benefit for this immense expenditure
of the public money ? We are disposed—mournfully
recurring to the accumulating horrors of our criminal
returns, and police magistrate commitments—to
answer in the negative. Between the annual amount
of property plundered within the Metropolitan
Police District prior to the establishment of this
force, and that which has been annually plundered
since, is there any such difference, in favour of the
protection afforded to property, as to countervail the
burden of such an immensely increased cost of
establishment ? We answer, unhesitatingly, "No."
But ,we ere bound to add that we perceive, in very
recent cases, strong presumptions against the existence
both of this vigilant and strict discipline, and against
even this freedom of the reputation of the "force"
from all impeachment of negligence and collusion.
One of the frightfully numerous cases of metropolitan
murders that have written the annals of the last six
months in blood, at present, wears an aspect that
connects the police with grave liability to the former
of these impeachments. The strange affair of
Mr. Vueeieste's stolen dog, a few weeks back—its
recovery—its location with the police, in the super-
intending custody of Mr. Inspector BLACK—and its
second abstraction from the green-yard behind the Bow-
' street office, on the very premises of one of the Chief
Offices of this boasted constabulary, on the night
before the animal was to be identified by its owner—
righteously subjects, not the inspector, but some of
the subordinates, to the latter of these suspicions. It
is high time that the cl.ief authorities should be
bestirring themselves ti remove, as far as this may be
done, by a stricter management and discipline of their
constabulary in future, the prejudicial impressions to
which too many circumstances have lately given birth.

The Madrid mail of the 17th had not arrived at,
Paris on Sunday. .

Two of the Paris papers contain articles on free
trade, evidently written in reference to the extensive
changes proposed by Sir ROBERT PEEL, af id we
regret to find that little disposition is shown 14 them
to follow the example. The Commerce, whir ch is re-
garded as the organ cf the manufacturing-and com-
mercial classes, admits the evils of prohibitions, but
cannot consent to any important modifictti ons. The
prohibition system, it says, would isolate :France and
put an end to commerce. Free trade,, lhowever, is
inadmissible in the present state of Eurc ,pe, which is
regulated now not from choice, but torme uted for ages,
by a mass of laws more or less restrictive, and ur,d. er
the protection of which so many vast int nest.) save
sprung up. The Constitutionnel takes near ly thus;ase
view. England, it says, has adopted A sysberi
different from that of nearly all other mama,
She has reduced the taxes on foreign pros' Luce, gaspe.
cially on those articles which are necess'
:ty fOl-.• the
encouragement of industry, and the state of ;ber menu-
factures and the wants of commerce, jp
Airy these in-
novatiens, but England alone can a?'
step, and France, Belgium, Rusr• ti. take such
-ora
4a, are
.dat anti

DUTCH FUNDS.—Aurritanam, 'MANCH 21.
Money. Bills.
Actual Debt, 213 per Cent• 64 34 65
Ditto, 3 per Cent • ... ••••• • • • • • 7834 7934
Ditto, 4 per Cent.— .. ••••..—• • • • • • 99% 180
Ditto, 5 per Cent... .... •••••• • • • • • •
1 Ainort Syndic, 4% per Cent. .. 99% 1004
Ditto, 3% per Cent..
Commercial Company, 4% per Cent • . 15013 1514
—Dutch Papers, March 22.
HA.MBURGII BORIIENHALLE, 3faacu 18.
Bills.
Austrian 5 per Cents .... .. ...... 11434
Bank Shares • ....................... 1670
Anglo-Russian Loan . .......... Money.
. 114%
Russian 5 per Cent., Iliunb. Certificate. 106 105%
Ditto Ist series 1n5cripti0n.......... • . • 10534
Ditto, /lope and C0.,3d and 4th series..
993(
Ditto, in Ccrt1f1cate..................
99%
New 4 per Cent., Hope and Co. ...... 92% 92%
Ditto Stleglite •• • ................... 92 34 92
Spanish New 5 per Cent . ......... 2234 224
Ditto 3 per Cent
A.nglo-Portuguese Loan, 2% per Cent • •
Dutch Actual Debt, 2% per Cent.. •• • •
Ditto 3 per Cent. •.•••••.• • • • • • • • -- _
Polish New 4 per Cent. Loan, 1844. •• • 8734
Anglo-Danish Loan, 3 pa Cent
87%
National Bank Shares• •.•••••.. • • • • • • —.—
Exchange on. London.
Hambargh, 31arch 11 .... • • ... •• • • 13 11%
Ditto Two months ......
Christiana, March 1,3 M••• • • • • • 468
Stockholm, Fob. 21, 75 D ......
—Hambargh Borsenhalle, Mards.• 18.
AUSTRIAN FUNDS.—VIENNA, Mutat 14.
5 per Cent. Metathque5.................. 112%
4 per Cent. ditto-....... .....
......
...... 3021/8
3 per Cent. ditto. .
Ditto, 1839 .... . ..
Bank Shares • .....• 1640
Esterhazy's Loan ........
.-„. RAILWAYS.
The Northern, or Ferdinand ..... ....• .. 191
Gloggnits •• • .. . .
Milan ..... •••.. • • ....i
..A.Ugemela• Zeitung,sl34q,blr.