The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-11-25
ROMANTIC HISTORY
OF FAMOUS COURT
Henry Fielding, Novelist, Once
Bow Street Magistrate
He MADE GREAT RECORD
Streets of London in the Early Days
Were Given Over to Disorder
and Crime Reigned Supreme.
Tragic Story.
He MADE GREAT RECORD

From the London Daily Mail.
Why is the name of Bow street more
familiar than that of any other police
court?
The real answer is that for more than
a century and half it has been asso-
ciated with the investigation, detection,
and prevention of crime in fashion en-
tirely its own.
1t may be comparatively prosaic today,
but nothing can rob 1t of the halo that
it's past history has created The Bow
street magistrate has always been prom
inent for sagacity, experience, energy;
while the Bow street runner deserves a
whole volume to do him the scantiest
justice.
A hundred and fifty years ago the pre-
siding magistrate at Bow street was no
less a parsonage than Henry Fielding,
the novelist. 1t is to his experiences
there that we owe his 'History of Jona-
than Wild. the Great" No doubt his
prominence as an author overshadows his
work as police magistrate, but for pa
thetic devotion to duty nothing can equal
his record of service.
What the Bow street magistrate had
to do at that time was to deal as best
he could with the terrible problem of
crime in London and the neighborhood,
to examine" criminals much after the
fashion of a modern 'chief of police
In France, and to discharge the ordinary
magisterial duties. At times 1t fell to
his lot to lead personally a force of con-
stables against some desperate gang Of
criminals.
A Genuine Hero.
No words can paint the disorders of
the London streets at the tine-they
were a plague spot and horror Field
ing was a hopeless invalid during the
time most of his best work was done.
Worn out by disease, dying by inches,
no tribute of admiration is tool great
for the heroism of a man who grappled
with his tremendous task with results
that were almost miraculous, consider
ing its difficulty. a5As{
, Better known as a magistrate was his
half brother and successor, Sir John
Fielding, the blind justice" Readers of
"Barnaby Ridge" will remember him
as the magistrate who, at Mr.. Haredale's
request, committed Rudge, the murderer,
to Newgate Fills holiness during the
Gordon riots stand In vivid contrast with
the cowardioe of thesl lord mayor. Crime
f1ourished in the eighteenth century, and
some of its greatest criminals were ex-
amined by Sir John.
Sarah Metyard and her daughter are
even now familiar by name to many,
though their crime may be forgotten.
These women who lived IN Burton street,
took parish apprentices and treated them
with revolving cruelty. At last one
wretched girl tried to escape, driven to
despair by her misery. Beaten, starved,
and finally bound in such way that
she could neither sit down nor even stand
in a proper attitude, her brutal mistress
left her to a lingering death by way of
warning to her fellow apprentices.
Bow street rings the changes rapidly
upon all the human passions. 1t is moth
ing IL not dramatic Here Is romance
which stirred all London at the time:
A young officer named Hackman fell
madly in love with Miss Reay, singer,
who was about double his own age. He
proposed to her, but she contemptuously
rejected him on the ground that she
would never marry a soldier. The in
fatuated young man left the army, took
orders, and was presented with a living
in Norfolk. Meanwhile, Miss Reay had
fallen under the malign influence of Lord
Sandwich, a notorious profigate, and,
maddened by his jealousy. HaclSman shot
her as she left the Covent Garden the
atre one night. The wretched man made
an unsuccessful attempt upon his own
life but recovered, and was executed for
his crime.