Public and Police: A Magistrate's View
| Date | 01 April 1930 |
| Author | Chartres Biron |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X3000300202 |
| Published date | 01 April 1930 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Public and Police: AMagistrate's View
By
SIR
CHARTRES BIRON
Chief
Magistrate of the Police
Courts
of
the
Metropolis
Nomore salutary Act of Parliament has ever received the
sanction of the Legislature than that by which Sir
Robert Peel established in 1829 the London Metropolitan
Police Force.
It
seems incredible to-day that only a hundred years ago
the most important city in the world had no adequate pro-
tection from crime and the mob. Its only defenders were the
watchmen, admirably described by Henry Fielding, the most
distinguished of all Bow Street magistrates, in his novel Amelia,
, who, having to guard our streets by night from thieves and
robbers, are chosen out of those poor old decrepit people who
are, from their want of bodily strength, rendered incapable of
getting a livelihood by work. These men, armed only with a
pole which some of them are scarce able to lift, are to secure
the persons and homes of His Majesty's subjects from the
attacks of young bold, stout, desperate and well armed villains.
If
the poor old fellows should
run
away from such enemies
no one, I think, can wonder, unless it be that they were able
to make their escape.' .
Such was the only body approaching a police force
available in a city of a million inhabitants. Fielding did the
best he could as a magistrate with the material he had at hand.
He organized a small band of parish constables, who by
judicious payments to informers succeeded in breaking up
some of the worst gangs of malefactors infesting London. His
successor was Sir John Fielding, his blind half-brother;
but
Justice was blind only in the literal sense, for he carried on with
admirable discretion the good work of his predecessor.
The
constables were transformed into officers attached to
164
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