kept at every house, which were commonly used for vaulting over the canals
As a sport, pole-vaulting made its appearance in Germany in the first part of the 19th century, when it was added to the gymnastic exercises of the Turner by Johann C. F. Guts-Muths and Frederich L. Jahn. In Great Britain it was first commonly practised at the Caledonian games. It is now an event in the athletic championships of nearly all nations. Although strength and good physical condition are essential to efficiency in pole-vaulting, skill is a much more important element. Broad-jumping with the pole, though the original form of the sport, has never found its way 1nto organized athletics, the high jump being the only form recognized. The object is to clear a bar or lath supported upon two uprights without knocking it down. The pole, of hickory or some other tough wood, is from 13 to 15 ft. long and 134 in. thick at the middle, tapering to 114 in. at the ends, the lower of which is truncated to prevent sinking into the earth and shod with a single spike to avoid slipping. A hole in which to place the end of the pole is often dug beneath the bar. In holding the pole the height of the cross-bar is first ascertained, and the right hand placed, with an under grip, about 6 in. above this point, the left hand, with an over-grip, being from 14 to 30 in. below the right. The vaulter then runs towards the bar at full speed, plants the spiked end of the pole in the ground about 18 in. in front of the bar and springs into the air, grasping the pole firmly as he rises. As he nears the bar he throws his legs forward, and, pushing with shoulders and arms, clears it, letting the pole fall backwards. In Great Britain the vaulter is allowed to climb the pole when it is at the perpendicular. Tom Ray, of Ulverston in Lancashire, who was champion of the world in 1887, was able to gain several feet in this manner. In the United States climbing is not allowed. Among the best British vaulters, using the climbing privilege, have been Tom Ray, E. L. Stones, R. Watson and R. D. Dickinson; Dickinson having cleared 11 ft. 9 in. at Kidderminster in 1891. The record pole-vault is 12 ft. 612 in., made by W. Dray of Yale in 1907.
POLICE (Fr. police, government, civil administration, a police force, Gr. πολιτεία, constitution, condition of a state,
πόλις, city, state), a term used of the enforcement of law and order in a state or community, of the department concerned with that part of the civil administration, and of the body or force which has to carry it into execution. The word was adopted in English in the 18th century and was disliked as a symbol of foreign oppression. The first official use appears, according to the New English Dictionary, in the appointment of
“Commissioners of Police” for Scotland in 1714. A police
system has been devised for the purpose of preventing evils
and providing benefits. In its first meaning it protects and
defends society from the dissidents, those who decline to be
bound by the general standard of conduct accepted by the
larger number of the law-abiding, and in this sense it is chiefly
concerned with the prevention and pursuit of crime. It has
a second and more extensive meaning as applied to the regulation
of public order and enforcing good government.
United Kingdom.—The establishment of a systematic police force was of slow growth in England, and came into effect long after its creation abroad. A French king, Charles V., is said to have been the first to invent a police, “ to increase the happiness and security of his people." it developed into an engine of horrible oppression, and as such was repugnant to the feelings of a free people. Yet as far back as the 13th century a statute. known as that of “ Watch and Ward,” was passed in the 13th year of Edward 1. (1285), aimed at the maintenance of peace in the city of London. Two centuries later (1585) an act was passed for the better government of the city and borough of Westminster, and this act was re-enacted with extended powers in 1737 and soon succeeded by another (1777) with wider and stricter provisions The state of London at that date, and indeed of the whole country at large, was deplorable. Crime was rampant, highwayrnen terrorized the roads, footpads infested the streets, burglaries were of constant occurrence, river thieves on the Thames committed depredations wholesale. The watchmen appointed by parishes were useless, inadequate, inefficient and untrustworthy, acting often as accessories in aiding and abetting crime. Year after year the shortcoinings and defects were emphasized and some better means of protection were constantly advocated. At the commencement of the 19th century it was computed that there was one criminal to every twenty-two of the population. The efforts made at repression were pitifully unequal. In the district of Kensington, covering 15 sq. m., the protection afforded was dependent on three constables and three head boroughs. In the parish of Tottenham nineteen attempts at burglary were made in six weeks, and sixteen were entirely successful. In Spitalfields gangs of thieves stood at the street corners and openly rifled all who came near. In other parishes there was no police whatever, no defence, no protection afforded to the community but the voluntary exertions of individuals and “the honesty of the thieves.” In those days victims cf robberies constantly compounded with felonies and paid blackmail to thieves, promising not to prosecute on the restitution of a portion of the stolen property. The crying need for reform and the introduction of a proper police was admitted by the government in 1829, when Sir Robert Peel laid the foundation of a better system. Much opposition was offered to the scheme, which was denounced as an insidious attempt to enslave the people by arbitrary and tyrannical methods. The police were to be employed, it was said, as the instruments of a new despotism, the enlisted members of a new standing army, under the centralized authority, riding roughshod over the peaceable citizens. But the guardians of order, under the judicious guidance of such sensible chiefs as Colonel Rowan and Sir Henry Maine, soon lived down the hostility first exhibited, and although one serious and lamentable collision occurred between the mob and the police in 1833, it was agreed tuo years later that the unfavourable impression at one time existing against the new police was rapidly diminishing, and that it had fully answered the purpose for which it was formed. Crime had already diminished; it was calculated that the annual losses inflicted on the public by the depredations of the dangerous classes had appreciably fallen and a larger number of convictions had been secured.
The formation of the metropolitan police was in due course followed by the extension of the principle to the provinces. Borough constabulary forces were established by the Municipal Corporation Act (1835), which entrusted their administration to the mayor and a watch committee, and this act was revised in 1882, when the general powers of this authority were defined, Acts of 1839 and 1840 permitted the formation by the justices of a paid county police force. Action in this case was optional, but after an interval of fifteen years the Police Act ot 1856 made the rule compulsory, it being found that an efficient police force throughout England and Wales was necessary for the more effectual prevention and detection of crime, the suppression of vagrancy and the maintenance of good order. Local acts had already endowed Scotland with a police system, and in 1857, and again in 1862, counties were formed into police districts, and the police of towns and populous places was generally regulated. Ireland has two police forces; the Dublin metropolitan police originated in 1808, and in 1829 the provisions of Sir Robert Peel's act for London were embodied in the Police Law for Ireland.
The extent to which the metropolitan police has developed will best be realized by contrasting its numbers on first creation and the nature of the duties and functions that then appertained to it. The first act (the Metropolitan Police Act 1829) applied to the metropolis, exclusive of the city of London, and constituted a police area having a radius of 12 m. from Charing Cross. Two justices of the peace were appointed, presently named commissioners of police, to administer the act under the immediate direction of the secretary of state for the home department. The first police office was located in Whitehall in Scotland Yard, from which it was removed in the autumn of 1890 to the new and imposing edifice on the Embankment, in which all branches are now concentrated, known as New Scotland Yard. The first constables
