The Southern herald., 1886-05-22
IN SCOTLAND YARD.
An Account Of the Great London
Police Institution.

A great English institution has lately
been on tria1-the police system itself.
The commission, headed by "our own
general" which has been sitting upon
the conduct of the civil authorities in
the matter of the recent riots, has de-
cided that the measures for the pres
ervatiOn of the peace in London are
really very good, but might be much
better, you know. As consequence
the chief commissioner, Sir Edmund
Henderson, has resigned, and the Gov
eminent is looking out for an eligible
man to take his place. The position
is girt with much power and RESPONSE
bility. He has command of over eleven
thousand men, and has an area of
nearly seven hundred square miles un-
der his control. His yearly salary is
ten thousand five hundred dollars.
In London there are two distinct
bodies of police-that of the city prop.
er, in the pay and under the manage.
ment of the municipality, and that Of
the metropolis, which Is at the disposal
of the Crown, The former is about
nine hundred strong, and has no juris-
diction outside the Lord Mayors terri
tory, an area of about one square mile,
the wealthiest in the world.
The gentleman overtaken in his cups
IN the city is affably conveyed to a
heated room and detained until he
sobers, then he Is dismissed with an
admonition and cup of coffee; in the
metropolis he is hauled off to the lock-
up, flung into cell for the night and
brought before justice In the morn
ing to be fined or imprisoned. The
explanation of this Is that the Lord
Mayor and his merry men on the one
hand wish their domain to present q
clean record, while on the other hand
the constables in the metropolis are
promoted according to their zeal. Zeal
means the arrest Of offenders.
There are two blots on the police or.
ganization of London, although Albert
Wolff, of the Paris Figaro, pronounced
it the most perfect existing. Promo
ton goes by seniority and by favor,
That is one. There are not enough
mounted men. That is the other.
Where there are squadrons in cont.
mental cities, there are twOs and threes
here. Nothing is equal to the quiet
persistent influence Of massive charger:
in appeasing mob tumult. Apart from
this frank public army of constables,
who pace to and fro in German spiked
helmets, and are all Of pattern, there
are the detectives or plain clothes Off
GERS.
They can boast of having the mean.
sst set of officers of any branch of hel
Majesty's servants. On this site was
that public house where the tired boy
Dickens entered long ago and loftily
asked the landlady to draw him Z
glass of her very best ale. She stopped
and kissed the sick lad, to his intense
humiliation, and called out her hus.
band from the parlor to look at him
There are tayerns here still, one inside
the yard which the dynamiters re
hgiously tried to blow up, and one a
the side of the entrance gate, which Il
much frequented by constables off duty
for beer and bread and cheese, and BY
the amateur detectives, the grasping
sordid-looking satellites of the private
inquiry agencies, on the lookout fol
stray jobs.
From Scotland Yard is directed thu
entire mechanism of the great machine
for the prevention, repression and dis
covery of crime. There in q low, dingy
series of old houses ara congregateC
the various bureaus Of the depart
ment, the telegraph and printing off
ces, the dressing-rooms, where the Sc
cret Investigators disguise themselves
the consulting-rooms, the paymaster'l
and surveyors Offices, the ''greer
yard" where the lost property Of tn,
public is kept till claimed, and tbs
.black museum" where the articles
found on prisoners are put aside fol
them until their release. This lattel
is to the curious stranger the most in
teresting place in the congeries o
gloomy edifices, but admission ther'
is not easily obtained. Previous t.
1869 the property Of the felon was for
feited to the Exchequer, but since tina
year It has beep held over for hin
during penal servitudc, and is restOret
ct bis lIbsFatIOp Il hp can prove that i