The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1836-11-18 00:00:00

THE CONTEMPLATED RURAL POLICE.

A circular, containing the following list of queries, has been
issued by the commissioners appointed to inquire into the for-
mation of a rural police, and transmitted from their office to
the magistracy of England and Wales. The return of the an-
swers must be sent under cover " For the Constabulary Force
Commissioners." Where any magistrates of the petty sessions
may be desirous of answering any questions individually, those
answers should be distinguished by the initials of the magistrate
making them.
1. What is the extent and supposed population of the division
for which you act?-2. What number of acting magistrates re-
side generally within your division?-3. State as nearly as you
can the number of felonies and misdemeanours committed dur-
ing the last twelve months within your divisiod.-4. What pro-
portion of the offenders has been apprehended ?-5. Do the
constables apprehend offenders without being specially applied
to fur that purpose ?-6. To what causes do you ascribe the
failure to bring the offenders to justice, and how such failure
has been ascribable in any cases to the inefficiency of the con-
stables ?-7. Are there any, and what, peculiar facilities or in-
ducements to the commission of crime within your division?-
8. By what means, as you conceive, may they be removed ?-
9. In case of depredation, in your division, is escape with the
property easy, and is such property easily disposed of?-10. Is
there reason to believe that the depredations committed within
your division have been committed by persons who do not re-
side in it; if so, what place or direction are they supposed to
come from?-11. Are there within your division any lodging- ,
houses for tramper!, vagrants, or mendicants, of any peculiar
inducements to vagrancy or mendicancy?-12. Are these lodg-
ing-houses frequently inspected, and by what officers ?-13. Are
offenders frequently apprehended there ?-14. Are there within
your division any persons who have no visible or known means
of obtaining their livelihood honestly, and who are believed to
live by habitual depredation, or by illegal means ? Will you
state the numbers and supposed habits of such persons ?-15.
Are the beer-shops or public-houses within your division the
subject of complaint, and are they, in point of fact, ill-con-
ducted?--16. Since the year 1829, have there been any riots or
tumults within your division ; if any, describe them and their
supposed objects?-17. Since the year 1829, have there been
any firee within your division; if so, specify their natuie, and
whether they were suspected to have been wilfully caused, and
what were the effects, so far as relates to the loss of life or pro-
perty ?-18. Was any efficient assistance rendered by the con-
stables in arresting the progress of the fires, or in apprehending
the offenders ur suspected persons P-19. Since the earns period,
have there seen any malicious injuries committed on cattle, or
other property ; and if so, what number ?-20. Is there reason
to believe that offences of any description within your division
are much more frequent than any official information would
give reason to suppose ?-21. What is the number of constables
in your division, and how are they appointed?-22. From what
class of persons are they usually selected, and are they per-
mitted to provide substitutes?-°l3. What description of per-
sons usually sworn as substitutes?-24. What is usually paid
them by the principal ?-20. Have the persons serving as sub-
stitutes any other emoluments or inducements to serve the
office ?-26. Have constables or other substitutes a competent
knowledge of the law with relation to the duties of their office ?
--27. Are their connections or interests such as might tempt
them to connive at illegal practices, or cause them to be less
active than they ought to be in the performance of their duty ?
-28. Can you ascertain by examining competent persons who
have served the office of constable, what is the annual cost on
the average to the public and the individual of the services of a
constable during the
year?-29. Does any nightly patrol ap-
pear to be requisite within your division?-30. Do the high-
roads within your division require patrolling ?-31. In the case
of the commission of any offence, are there any public means
of promptly spreading information or of pursuing the offender ?
-Describe the means and specify the extent of district over
which such information can be carried, in what time, and at
what cost?-32. In case of the occurrence of any riots, or tu-
mults, what means are available for their suppression and the
apprehension of the offenders ? and do you find any difficulty in
securing the prompt attendance of a sufficient number of per-
sons to act efficiently as special constables for the protection of
your division ?-33..1n case of need, are there any, and what,
means of co-operation between your division and other divisions
in the same or different counties?-31. Are there within your
division any, and what class of persons, such as army pension-
ers or others who may be relied upon for trust-worthy service
as special constables ?-35. Is any difficulty or delay experi-
enced in the service of warrants, or the execution of processes,
or in the performance of their duties, civil and penal, by con-
stables as at present appointed within your division ? If so,
specify the difficulties and their consequences.-36. Do any
delays or obstructions arise from constables being restricted
from acting beyond their immediate district ?-37. Are there
within your division any and what number of officers paid to
keep the peace, or give their whole time to their duties as con-
stables.? If so, state what is the whole expense of maintaining
them, including their salaries and equipments, the authority
under which they are appointed, and the fund out of which they
are paid?-38. On the apprehension of any offender, to what
distance is it requisite to take him to a magistrates?-39. hn
case a prisoner is remanded for further examination, in what
place and manner is he secured ; and to what distance is it
necessary to send him to a place of legal confinement ?-40.
Ia case he is committed for trial, what is the distance of the
prison to which he must be sent, and what is the expense of his
being sent thither, including his maintenance ?-41. Is any,
and what part of the procedure before trial the subject of com-
plaint on account of trouble, delay, and expense ? If so, specify
their effect in inducing persons to withheld information or
otherwise ?-42. Supposing it desirable to appoint paid consta-
bles to give their whole time to the performance of their duties,
what other useful functions might be assigned to them ?-43.
How many
-paid constables do you consider would be requisite
in your division ?-44. Are there any voluntary associations for
the protection of property, or the prosecution of offenders, in
your division ? If so, describe them, and state their effects in
preventing crime. Is there within your division any voluntary
association for the suppression of vagrancy and mendicity ? If
so, state its effects.-46. What proportion of the expenses now
incurred by the public in the apprehension and prosecution of
offenders do you conceive might be saved by the establishment
of a more efficient preventive force ?-47. Do any, and what
additional means appear to you to be desirable in sour division
for incieasing the actual security, and the sense of security, to
persons and property ?-48. Have you any further information
to give, or suggestions to offer in furtherance of the objects of
this commission?

THE PoTTICII!S.—We regret to learn that there is not the
slightest probability of the differences between the manufactu-
rers and their w•orkpeople being adjusted. On the contrary,
there exists a most determined spirit on both sides; the one
will not yield, the other will not retract. The turn-out is now
become almost general, and nothing but complete victory will
satisfy either the masters or their wo►kpeople. It is lamentable
to contemplate the privations that must ensue to thousands,
thus directly or indirectly deprived of the ordinary means of
subsistence, and at this season of the year most especially.—
illaccile,field Courier.

Zbt Eiberpool et4tanbarb.

FRIDAY MORNING, NOVEMBER 18,1836.

FRANciz.—The conflicting information received from
this country respecting the organization of the late plot
—its resources—who are, and who may be, implicated in
it; and how far it evinces the instability of the present
government, leaves us every thing to conjecture. One
paper says that all which is asked of Napoleon is self-
expatriation, whilst another declares that judicial investi-
gations are daily going on, as if law and not mercy was
intended. We think that they evince great political short-
sightedness, who mistake the imposing mildness of the
government for gentle forbearance. It is a bait that may
lure the rebel from his obscurity, and enable the hand of
justice to reach the delinquent that would otherwise
escape. We are assured, that all things are not right in
France. Another Fieschi has been seized, named Emile
Chaperon ; and in his lodgings was found " an infernal
machine," constructed for the same purpose as that lately
levelled at the King. If " one swallow does not make a
summer," yet, when we see them quickly succeeding
each other, we know that genial season is at hand. Let
the proverb admit of a moral and political application.

TURKEY.—The uncomprorni sing firmness of the British
government, which demanded the dismissal of the Reis
Effendi of the Grand Porte, for his violation of the law
of nations, in the case of Mr. Churchill, has, we think,
stopped short of that full retribution we had a right to
expect. The honour of tile British Ambassador is fully
recognized, but the rights of a British subject are still
infringed. We think, if there was policy to demand such
a visitation upon the guilty agent, there was a louder
voice pleading for recompense to him who had suffered
wrong. But, it appears from statements made by a resi-
dent at Constantinople, that the latter was frustrated, if
ever attempted, by the machinations of Russia.

SPAlN.—There are few authenticated documents from
this country, and we cannot attach great confidence to
" private intelligence "—men may tell what they see, or
repeat what they hear; but, what a man sees is little,
and what he hears is doubtful, and neither are worth the
record of a public journal. For information of this kind
we must refer our readers to our extracts from the press.

From private information, we learn, that a project is
in gestation for the establishment of a Joint Stock Bank-
ing Society in London, the parties to which are required
to be holders of £2,000 shares, and those shares not
transferrable at the absolute will of the holder, but sub-
ject to the sanction of a committee, as to the eligibility of
the transferree. The express object of this company is
to unite men of real capital and character together, and
to obviate what they complain of as a commercial evil,
the "deposit system," which occasions the stagnation of
many millions, (at least ag regards the mercantile in•
terest) in order to secure a facility in negotiating paper.
Whether such a fettered investment will readily be made.
and whether personal responsibility will be found an ade-
quate guarantee in such transactions, we do not feel our-
selves called upon to determine. But it does seem to us,
that beside the pecuniary security offered under the pre-
sent system to the bank proprietors, the deposits are also
a source, and a chief source, of their profits. A company
of merchants thus united, who look for no gain from
banking, may, perhaps, be willing to dispense with these
profits. The project will, probably, soon be before the
public, and bankers will feel a deep interest in its issue.

After a short interval parliament will again be assem-
bled, and it will be well for the country if its delibera-
tions, when assembled, be directed and confined to
questions of national import. For a very considerable
time the public mind seems to have lost sight of those
great and paramount objects which are of positive inter-
est to its welfare, and to have entered, with almost
inexplicable zeal and fatal enthusiasm, into angry con-
tentions respecting points of mere speculation, which,
however exciting in the pursuit, like most other game,
is worthless in the acquisition. For some years the
country has rung to dissonance with the vague cry of
reform. They who felt evil of any kind abandoned every
other hope of alleviation but that which was to be af-
forded by reform. Was a man embarrassed in trade,
reform was to supply custom and bring back prosperity;
—did the artisan find his labour of less value than for-
merly, or his employment less regular than heretofore,
it all arose from the want of reform ;—and the merchant,
who saw his vessels losing winds and tides without a
freight, or freights without profit—reform was the charm
to add wings to commerce, and to restore all to activity
again. In tine, reform was that wished-for panacea
which was expected to remove every cause of complaint,
and to bring about a political millenturn. when nothing
could be refused that was asked ; and hope could not
riot in expectations too extravagant for gratification.
The sun of reform has risen upon us—has reached its
meridian—paned the tropic of effulgence, and seems
likely, as long as it continues to shine, to shine with a
purer and 'milder equinoctial light. And what bene-
ficial change has it effected ? What exotic principle
transplanted from the soil of revolutionary France has it
caused to germinate, to grow, to fructify among ua ?- A

Nov. 18, 1836.

plant of gigantic stature was promised ; but England is
not yet a Libanus of infidelity and misgovernment suf-
ficiently fertile to sustain the cedar of rebellion. Per-
haps among those who have most zealously promoted
innovation under the guise and habit of reform, there
are some who have been prompted by the best intentions;
as infidelity itself has had partisans that were sincere.
But the disease of the country was not understood by its
political physicians ; and hence they have been applying
remedies that have only occasioned violent exacerbations,
but no relief—have added to the fever of discontent
without quieting one symptom of the disorder. To the
bloated carcass of dropsied radicalism they have freely
ministered potations, in order to abate its raging thirst;
under which treatment the disease has become more ag-
gravated, and now presents any thing but a favourable
prognosis, except it be committed to time and rest
under the kind care of conservatism. Look at the
writhings of Sir John Campbell and Mr. Gisborne—two
desperate paroxysms which, like physical diseases pre.
ceding dissolution, were marked by extreme fatuity of
mind. Surely reform has had a trial beyond the Appro-
bation of prudence, and in the meantime the main guess
tions of public policy have been forgotten. What has
been done respecting our commerce ;—our complicated
international compact with other countries ? What re-
gard has been paid to the policy pursued, and now
pursuing, by Russia ? What of our opening and ex-
panding views in Turkey ? What even with regard to
France—a country capable of being seen from our shores,
though neglected in our councils ? All, all are lost, or
absorbed in the party cry of reform! The tnetchant,
whose eye should range over the whole habitable world—
who should study the peculiar wants of all nations—be
conversant with the manufactures and prod4ctions of
every section of the earth—intimately acquainted with
the manners of all people—with the fiscal laws and com-
mercial customs of every island and every port into which
his vessel can enter—now runs from shop to shop to im-
portune a vote for a town councillor, or, quitting his
counting-house and his ledger, runs to make a speech at
a municipal committee, where, after all, like the Ghost
in Hamlet, " he speaks, but says nothing ;" or, perhaps,
instead of corresponding with the four quarters of the
globe, he pens a " motion" about the scite of a spot to
receive the gatherings of a scavenger. We do not wish
to throw constitutional questions into the back ground,
nor to narrow the exercise of legitimate rights. But we
do not want to see the political picture daubed all over
with reform, and then be told that all good policy lies
concealed beneath it; as the painter, desired to represent
the destruction of Pharoah and his host, covered the
canvas red, and added that the Egyptians were all buried
under it. We do most ardently desire that this enlight-
ened town may speedily return from its political aberra-
tions, and assume that high mercantile and intelligent
character it once sustained—a town whose " habitans
sont les plus fameux marchanda qu it y ait dans l'nni-
vera," in which " tons les eitoyens s'appliquent au corn-
melee, et leurs grandes richesses ne les degoutent jamais
du travail necessaire pour les augmenter ;" and would
that we could add with truth that high and honourable
commendation given to the citizens of Tyre—" Nous
n'y voicons point comme dans les villes de la Grece-
des homilies orsif et curieux qui vont chercher des
nouvelles." Though we differ, politically, even upon
fundamental questions, from many of the most respecta-
ble members of our town, and in this point we re-
cede from each like similar poles of the magnet, yet,
in the more delicate and personal questions of social and
commercial interest, we hope to resemble those poles
which ever seek each other, and adhere together by a
law of nature, never to be broken by the clamour or the
zeal of party. We, therefore, call upon the intelligence
of Liverpool, and, if our voice should be heard further,
we call upon every one connected with the prosperity of
trade (using that term in its most comprehensive accepta-
tion) to unite their energies to promote the common in-
terests of commercial Britain. And, no longer to imitate
the madman, who first set his house on tire, and then
rushed into tire midst of the flames, not to secure his.
parchments or his plate, but to save some fantastic article
of furniture that decorated his rooms. Let a vigilant
eye be cast on the proceedings of Russia. Whilst we
are tearing out the very entrails of England with civil.
discord, she is coolly prosecuting the means of national',
aggrandisement. She watches the moments of our po-
litical slumbers, and, craftily, adds to her " tariff" the
expressive word " prohibited " against articles of British
manufacture—and when we wake, after the disturbed
dream of reform, not refreshed but exhausted, we find.
that we have been neglecting our best interests—that
we have been pursuing a political phantom at home, un-
til we have lost onr commercial influence abroad. There
is nothing of which we can complain in this policy of
Russia. She is guided by that principle which govern&
the world—self-interest—and if we are negligent of our
own, " the fault is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that
we are underlings." There seems to be, at this moment,
an extraordinary comprehensiveness of view in the coun-
cils of this northern aspirant. She evinces that pene-
trating sagacity which accompanies the exercise of " a
large discourse, looking before ; " and by well-arranged
provisions and accurately calculated anticipations, lays
the foundation of her future greatness; whilst every day
adds consummation to some part of her plan. Turkey
is just without her grasp. The Russian eagle has more
than once opened her talons to seize the prey—but the fit
season is not arrived. She will first, either plume her-
self with a stronger pinion, or cut off the supply of some
nourishment from her victim, before she ventures to
pounce upon it. On all this we look in unimpassioned
unconcernedness. What medical men affirm of physical
disease, seems equally true of mental excitement—two
violent actions cannot simultaneously exist in the body
—and we are labouring under the paroxysm of reform—
we behold these designs of Russia with as much indiffer-
ence as if there were no involution of our interests in
them. " What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba ? " is
the language of silent commercial Britain. We, we are
occupied about questions, which demonstration itself can
prove (and, if spared, we will shortly undertake the de-
monstration) to be incapable, however solved, to me-
liorate, in any sensible degree, the condition of England
—aye, even if all that is asked by the maddest reformer,
and that ten times multiplied, were granted to him. It is
a most unhappy circumstance, as repugnant to common
sense, as it is opposed to just principle, that political zeal
should be converted into a kind of leaven to throw the
whole of the social, the commercial, and the political
mass of society into a destructive fermentation, which, if
continued, threatens to evolve a spirit that will prove the
cause of the common ruin of all. It has already greatly
paralyzed the energies of our country—converted the ex-
change and rialtos of our land into arense of civil discord,.
We know, experimentally, what were the first accompani-
ments of this pernicious rage for reform, for we have
heard the note of expectation sounding at its highest
pitch, whilst the bill proclaiming the fate of England was
in its progress through Parliament. We hare seen con-
gregated multitudes waiting with anxiety the arrival of
the mail, as if to hear the announcement of renewed
" saturnia regni;" golden days, unknown to toil ; and
plenty, ample as their wants, about to return—whilst
one, with stronger lungs than his fellows, has climbed the
lamp-post, at night, to proclaim the latest piece of intel-
ligence. We have seen the insolence of unbridled hopes,
and the reckless profligacy of anticipated independence,
which flattering, delusive reform inspired. And we have
seen, too, this restless multitude " embrace the cloud"
—have observed the violence of political intoxication
succeeded by sober reason—and the same men, who were
mad before the birth of reform, become gradually more
calm, when they beheld the first movements of that "
nron-
strum horrendum," the distorted changling of their dis-
turbed imagination. We now, happily, see, in the just
words of a correct and elegant writer, "what a change
in public feeling have supervened in five short years..
Then it was almost rashness to avow conservative princi-
ples • now we are surprised when we meet a man of edu.
cation who disputes them. Then, and forfime-
imme
rnorial, young men were almost universally liberal;
they are zealously conservative. Theis tire Churci seeme
d
at the mercy of her enemies; now they tremble to attack
her. Then the Church in Ireland, upon which,
God, we must chiefly rely to extirpate popery, was

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