Star.
London, England, 1817-09-16 00:00:00

tion with him upon this subject. The Recorder wits
shewn the evidence which was given by his clerk, and
denied being acquainted with any part of the transac-
tion which is there detailed ; he had, however, heard,
that the Under Sheriff claimed a fee as well as his
own Clerk, yet he gives him a larger salary than his
predecessors ever del, without having any considera-
tion whatever to his obtaining gratuities or fees, or
emoluments of any sort. Your Committee wish ge-
nerally to observe, that this practice of taking pound-
age money on these rewards, or deducting, under
any pretence, any portion of them, in the nature of
fees and gratuities, is highly irregular. The Acts of
Parliament are positive upon this subject; and though
it is but fit that the money for the stamps should be
deducted from the portion of the reward which is
paid, and that it prompt payment is demanded, the
person who advances the tnoney may have a claim
to ere discount ; yet they cannot but think the de-'
teriaed is esurbit iia, And the %slink practice liable toi
gre t abase. With respect to the distribution itself,
no fixed rule seems to exist ; and, front evidence
whet: has been submitted to your Committee, they
have reason to believe, and while in some cases a
rnuch larger sum than the exertions of the claimant
can wart ant, is proportioned to them, in others great
partially is sliewn, and services, however important,
are suffered to go unrewarded.
" There is another species of reward which your
Committee would equally. wish to do away with,
namely, dim whieit is technically called a Tyburn
Ticket, which is an exemption trom the service of
parish offices, in the parish where the felony was
committed, and v:lucb, by the lUth and I Ith %Yd.
liens 111. chap. 23e is to be given to the apprehender
and taker of the filen on his or her conviction. This
mode of remuneration has ail the bad consequences
of the perhAnientary rewards by money, as the ticket
is generally sold, tallying in its price from Wl2 or
atl4 to re3o or iff4o, according to the parish in which
the exemption is to arise; and. indeed, it may be,
considered in 'some respects as worse, it having all
°the of of a money reward without its name. Your
Committee think it lit, that the officers of the police
should a sufficient salary, ample enough to keep
them abase the temptation of corruption ; and if the
rewards be abolished, some arrangement to that et-
feet.shuuld take place.—That portion of the reward
which it is now the custom to pay for the expenses of
the trial to the prosecutor, 'night be continued, and
a reasonable allowance made for loss of time to the
.witnesses. But your Committee consider the payment
of rewards for the discovery and apprehension of cri.
tnivale to be perfectly, unnecessary ; and they think
the evidence of Dlr. Shelton, the Clerk of the Ar-
raigns, decisive urn this (legation, who,, from long
practice in the Courts of Law, is so fully capablu of
estimating correctly the difficulties attending on cri-
minal prosecutions. He says, speaking of highway
robberies, should conceive there could be nu more
difficulty in discovering and apprehending a person
charged with highway robbery, where a reward is
given, then there would be in the discovery and ap.
pieliensiest of Gauntlets guilty of crimes for *hid
Vitte IY 1 o rewatd.'
" Your Committee remark, that there is no evi-
dence to prove that any difficulties are fouad in the
prueccution of larcenies, or that there is any tuned-,
lingtiess in the injured to seek legal redress. The
oul) impediments that are to be mrt with upon the
general subject of legal presecutions, are of two ,
kinds :—I st, Tee expenses of the prosecution ; 2dly,
The severity ot the laws, which often deter men from
pursuing the offender to conviction ; so that if the
parties prosecuting were assisted in their expenses by
an Aliowance, and the witnesses remunerated for loss
of time, the public justice of the country would be
so more intetrupted than under the present practice.-
" As an illustration of this system of assigning re-
wards for the apprehension of offenders, your Com-
mittee refer to the practice which, un the evidence of
Mr. Darnley, the beadle of St. Andrew's Parish,
Hatton-garden, and Ely-tents Division, takes place
in respect of the ton shillings which are paid on the
apprehension of a vagrant. This witness stated that
he had often seen, when poor people cArrit to the Po.
lice-office at Hatton-garden to solicit a pass, that the
Officers will give them a penny or two-pence, and
tten brink them in and swear that they founJ therm,
begging, when in fact they never begged At Ail.
The Officers are accustomed to swear that they have
Sties% the man, who is thus a petitioner for a pass,
begging in the street. who is sett for seven days to
the House of Correction, when the Officers get [Us.
for their trouble ; in other cases, perhaps the men
committed is an Irishman or Scotchman, and they
moot pass hitis ; he is often met with again when
iffisebarged from prison, again .committed, and lOs.
mace more obtained. He was asked it be had ever
complained to the Magistrates of this practice his
answer was, that he thought it wrong, but he never
complained much. A question was put to him,
whether any of the vagrants ever remonstrated
against the fraud which had been practised on them ?
and his reply was, that he once WAS in the Office
what an individual laid a complaint, and that the
Magistrates mires no answer at all; the Officers of
the Police were very iadignant at
,ltis interterence, and
threatened him with turning him out of the Office.
It is les opinion, front long experience, that Police
Officers would rather apprehend beggars than thieves;
and he says that the practice is so general, that there
is an expression which describes it, and it is called
if getting an easy lOs.'
The Committee, after giving extracts from the
evidence which they have received in confirmation of
their opinions, proceeded to observe —n that facts.
have recently come before the public that prove the
existence of conspiracies have been formed by

• Police officer and others, in order to induce people
to commit crimes for the Purpose of sweating away
their lives, and obtaining the teward on their convic-
tion. The different Magistrates who have been exe.
ithined on this subject, have denied. all belief that this
crime has been often committed; but your Commit-
tee wish to observe, that where the temptation is so
inteog as that which the rewud offers, to the cupi-
dity of Police officers, as well as to that of all other
been before proved, is no
men, the ohne not having
evidence.of its non-existence; and they feel them- ,
selves furtive); obliged to remark, that the First Re-
port of the Police Committee. in 1816, had hardly
been issoqd ifoll3 the Press, containing as it did the
praises
of fhe Magistrates of their own officers, es
well sii-tt* posiire denial of its being possible they
a