The Statesman.
London, England, 1809-11-22 00:00:00

TO THE POLICE MAGISTRATES 111

BOIKSTREET.

Gitirrrce Ev, —lt was settled by Act of Perlis.
went, in 11U2, when the Police Offices were esta-
blished, in order to better secure our persons and
our property, and to increase the influence of the
(frown, that two Magistrates should attend from
,eleven till three is the forenoon, and from five till
!eight in the evesiisg ; but as all Use public prints
state your office to be kept open after hours, mid
ea you are stated to be iu Bow-street sometimes
even at midnight, it may not be improper to in.
quire, by whom you are reinutterate.l for this
Nara labour Y—yoet surely cannot be paid by the
Secretary of State of the Hume Department fur
this task work, because he cannot justify to Par.
1 liameut the expenditure of the public money for
such purposes, having the oceans of putting a stop
instantly to the impudent bravadoes of Actors and
Boskeepers, daring the town to combat—neither
can it be supposed, that you submit to receive
daily or weekly wages from such gentry as James
Brandon, John Kemble, or Thomas Harris. In
I Fielding's days, our Westminster Justices were
all said to be venal, and they acme, to be sure, a
dirty set of vagabonds, living by the warrantsthey
granted ; but as this scandal does not belong to
the present times, and it would be too much to
expect, even from men of your exalted virtues, a
sacrifice of comfort, six nights in the week, at the
I hazard of your invaluable health, do you not feel
it due, if not to the dignity of your official cha-
racters, ‘rhich, perhaps, you leave in charge at the
office, at least to your reputation, as Gentlemen,
to es plain to the Public your motives for this pain-
ful attendance, night after night till midnight, fur
the solitary purpose of taking large bail from one
I description of peace-brmtkers,aud small, very small
I indeed, from smother. No Secretary of State would
venture to receive a contingent bill with such items
in it, nor yon to offer it ; as little can you
be supposed to receive reward from the Theatre,
and the owners of Private Boxes, because that
would arraign the impartiality of even-handed
justice, and fit you as the partners of Messrs.
Kemble and Harris. As a friend to the Bench,
and thoroughly persuaded that the Police Magi,_
trates are not a venal, penttyless, and utooitiri.
pled bet of vagabonds, as in the days of Old
Fielding, I wish the Public to be fully Informed,
ohy you should keep your shop open after ail the
other shops in your line of business ars shut, and
especially as you arc commanded by law to leave
off work at eight. It has been said by some,
that it NIA to accommodate the Public, many of
whom would lie tat the watch-house but fur this
voluntary kindness of your worships. Others
have assigned reasons not quite so philanthropic,
and the very reverse of patriotic, for what they
call great offic:ousuess. And as the honour of
Magistrate, like that of a virtuous woman, ought
not to be even suspected, I have told you what
passes in the world on your subject, that you may
inform us from what food you ;re remunerated
fur working after 'soars, since it is impossible
you can receive wages front John Kembl,., James
Brandon, or Thwras Harris ; and it is Nulls
impossible that any Secretary of State would take
upon himself to pay you fur taking are of then
property with the public money.
1 am, Gentlemen,

ON E OF THE PEOPLE

To the EDITOR of TIIE snirenum

SIR,

Portsmouth, Not. CO, MOP.

The Navy, to which I am mulched, no less by
a conviction of its value to the country, thtu by
duty and hallo, ()eel notch to your firmness and
justice, in exposing the ignorance of those to
whom its honour is confided. That Lord Mid.
grave at the head of the Admiralty, and Mr
Croker at the tail of it—the one a profesaional
Soldier, and the other a professional lateyer,
should both occupy offices for which they are ie.
sompetent, is natural enough, because they
belong to a faction in want of fund and rai.
ment—their being so placed has nothing in it to
surprise us, although it has very much in it to ef-
fetid us. But the Flag Officers at that Huard,
these adjuncts, else shou4 feel fur the chars'.
ter of the Navy, ou.ght surely to have known that
my poor old messmate, Charles Cobb, whose fisg
they skirted in Jubilee joy, died six months since,
' fast-bound in is strait waistcoat, and that a
Lieutenant has been made a Commander, who has
beeu confined 36 years in a nia I...souse ; all this
proves extreme iguurance, and what is nurse, ex-
treme slovenlier,. But, Sir, this is not all—l find
among the list of Gentlemen promoted to be Ad-
mirals, au Officer who his never b..en at sea,
since he was made Post in 1790, and eho, at the
time of his promotion, was oue of the Commis-
sioners of the Navy. The Lords of the Admi-
ralty appear to have been as ignorant of these
circumstances as they were of the death and im-
becility of the other Officers, whom they pro-
muted, for it has been ats invariable rule to pa►s
over those who have-116! Mired during the ear,
or who hold lucrative civil employments, as in the
cafe of Captain Thomis Hamilton, now Rear-
Admiral Hamilton, who hiving a very excellent
understanding of his own, far superior to any at
the present Board, keeps his situation at Somer-
set House an entire secret from their Lordships,
and holds, for the first time recorded in Breath
history, and, no doubt, unknown to them, the
♦atluable appointment of Commissioner, with the
snug tim of Rear-Admiral in the bargain, which,
of course, under the present circumstances, is
neither snore nor less than a very comfortable sine-
cure to him. I will not ask Lord Malgrave, our
the Qui Tuns Secretary, to explain this fresh in-
sult offered to the Navy, but I call on `ir
Richard Bickerton, and his colleague and hruther
fish tit that Board, Admiral Damen, to inform
us why they should have shewn so little respect to
a service (whose honour it is their duty to
ser►e), by having permitted so great an insult to be
offered to it, and even to have sanctioned that in-
suit by their names
I am, Sir,
a A BRITISH TAR, AND A FIRM FR11:149
IV DM DRITfSII NA% Y.