appointed were 3000 in number, who, when sworn in, enjoyed all
the powers of the old constables under the common law, for preserving
the peace, preventing robberies and other felonies, and
apprehending offenders. The subdivision of the district into divisions,
on much the same lines as now existing, was at once made
for administrative convenience, and a proportion of officers was
allotted to each in the various grades then first constituted and
still preserved, comprising in ascending order, constables, sergeants,
inspectors and superintendents. Some time later the grade of
district superintendent was created, held by gentlemen of superior
status and intelligence, to each of whom the control of a large section
of the whole force, embracing a wide area, was entrusted. This
grade has since been merged in that of chief constable, of whom
there are four exercising powers of disciplinary supervision in the
metropolitan districts, and a fifth who is assistant in the branch
of criminal investigation. The supreme authority is vested in
the home secretary, but the immediate command and control
is exercised by the chief commissioner, with three assistants, replacing
the two commissioners provided for in 1829.
After various parliamentary reports and some legislation by way of extension, an important act was passed in 1839 reciting that the system of police established had been found very inefficient and might be yet further improved (Metropolitan Police Act 1839). The metropolitan police district was extended to 15 m. from Charing Cross. The whole of the river Thames (which, in its course through London, so far as related to police matters, had been mana ed under distinct acts) was brought within it, and the collateral but not exclusive powers of the metropolitan police were extended to the royal palaces and 10 m. round, and to the counties adjacent to the district. Various snmmary powers for dealing with street and other offences were conferred When the police was pnt on a more complete footing and the area enlarged, provision was made for the more effectual administration of justice by the magistrates of the metropolis (Metropolitan Police Courts Act 1839). The changes that occurred in magisterial functions are scarcely less remarkable than the transition froin the parish constable to the organized police. The misdirected activity of the civil magistrate in the 17th century is illustrated by the familiar literature of Butler, Bunyan and others. The zeal of that age was succeeded by apathetic reaction, and it became necessary in the metropolis to secure the services of paid Justices. At the beginning of the 19th century, outside of the city of London (where magisterial duties were, as now, performed by the lord mayor and aldermen), there were various public offices besides the Bow Street and Thames police offices where magistrates attended. To the Bow Street office was subse uently attached the “ horse patrol ”; each of the police offices had a fixed number of constables attached to it, and the Thames police had an establishment of constables and surveyors. The horse patrol was in 1836, as previously intended, placed under the new police. It became desirable that the horse patrol and constables allotted to the several police offices not interfered with by the Act of 1828 should be incorporated with the metropolitan police force. This was effected, and thus magisterial functions were completely separated from the duties of the executive police; for although the Jurisdiction of the two justices, afterwards called commissioners, as magistrates extended to ordinary duties (except at courts of general or quarter sessions), from the first they took no part in the examination or committal for trial of persons charged with offences. No prisoners were brought before them. Their functions were in practice confined to the discipline of the force and the prevention and detection of offences, their action limited to having persons arrested or summoned to be dealt with by the ordinary magistrates, whose courts were not interfered with.
The aim and object of the police force remain the same as when first created, but its functions have been varied and extended in scope and intention. To secure obedience to the law is a first and principal duty; to deal with breaches of the rules made by authority, to detect, pursue and arrest offenders. Next comes the preservation of order, the protection of all reputable people, and the maintenance of public peace by checking riot and disturbance or noisy demonstration, by enforcing the observance of the thousand and one regulations laid down for the general good. The police have become the ministers of a social despotism resolute in its watchful care and control of the whole community, well-meaning and paternal, although when carried to extreme length the tendency is to diminish self-reliance and independence in the individual, The police are necessarily in closing relation with the state; they are the direct representatives of the supreme government, the servants of the Crown and legislature, In England every constable when he joins the force makes a declaration and swears that he will serve the sovereign loyally and diligently, and so acquires the rights and privileges of a peace officer of and for the Crown. The state employs police solely in the interests of the public welfare. No sort of espionage is attempted, no effort made to penetrate privacy, no claim to pry into the secret actions of law-abiding persons is or would be tolerated; the agents of authority must -not seek information by underhand or unworthy means. In other countries the police system has been worked more arbitrarily, it has been used to check free speech, to interfere with the right of public meetings, and condemn the expression of opinion hostile to or critical of the ruling powers. An all-powerful police, minntely organized, has in some foreign states grown into a terrible engine of oppression and made daily life nearly intolerable. In England the people are free to assemble as they please, to march in procession through the streets, to gather in open spaces, to listen to the harangues, often forcibly expressed, of mob orators, provided always that no obstruction is caused or that no disorder or breach of the peace is threatened.
The strength of the metropolitan police in 1908 was 18,167, comprising 32 superintendents, 572 inspectors, 2378 sergeants and 15,185 constables. At the head is a commissioner, appointed by the home oihce; he is assisted by four assistant commissioners, one of whom was appointed under the Police Act 1909, in accordance with the recommendation of the Royal Commission on the Metropolitan Police 1906, his duty especially being to deal with complaints made by the public against the police. The metropolitan police are divided into 21 dwisions, to which letters of the alphabet are assigned for purposes of distinction. There is in a dition the Thames division, recruited mostly from sailors, charged with the patrol of the river and the guardianship of the shipping. To the metro litan police also are assigned the control and guardianship ofpghe various naval dockyards and arsenals. The city of London has its own distinct police organization under a commissioner and assistant commissioner, and its functions extend over an area of 67? statute acres containing two courts of {ustice, those of the Gui dhall and Mansion House, where the ord mayor and the aldermen are the magistrates. Although the area is comparatively small the rateable value is enormous. The force comprises 2 superintendents, 48 inspectors, 86 sergeants aind 865 constables; also some 60 constables on private service uty
The total olice force of England and Wales in 1908 was 30,376, almost equail divided between counties and boroughs; that of Scotland numbered 5575. In Ireland the Royal Irish Constabulary are a semi-military force, numbering over 10,500; they police the whole of Ireland, except the city of Dublin, which is under the Dublin metropolitan police, a particularly fine body. The most active and by no means the least efficient branch of the modern English police is that especially devoted to criminal investigation or the detection of crime. The detective is the direct descendant of the old “ Bow Street runners” or “Robin Redbreasts "-so styled from their scarlet waistcoats-officers in attendance upon the old-fashioned police offices and dispatched by the sitting magistrates to follow up any very serious crime in the interests of the public or at the urgent request of private persons. The “ runners' had disappeared when the police organization introduced by Sir Robert Peel came into force in 1829, and at first no part of the new force was especially attributed to the detection of crime. They were much missed, but fifteen years elapsed before Sir James Graham (then home secretary) decided to allot a few constables in plain clothes for that purpose as a tentative measure. The first “detectives” appointed numbered only a dozen, three inspectors and nine sergeants, to whom, however, six constables were shortly added as “ auxiliaries, ” but the number was gradually enlarged as the manifest uses of the system became more and more obvious.
OTHER CoUNTR1i:s.-British India is divided into police districts, the general arrangements of the system of the regular police, which dates from the disappearance of the East India Comgany, resembling in most respects those of the English police, but iffering in details in the different presidencies. All are in uniform, trained to the use of firearms and drilled. and may be called upon to perform military duties. The superior officers are nearly all Europeans and many of them are military officers. The rest are natives, in Bombay chiefly Mahommedans. The organization of the police was not dealt with by the criminal code which came into force in 1883, but the code is full of provisions tending to make the force efficient. By that code as well as by the former code the police have a legal sanction for doing what by practice they do in England; they take evidence for their own information and guidance in the investigation of cases and are clothed with the power to compel the attendance of witnesses and question them. The smallness of the number of European magistrates, and other circumstances, make the police more important and relatively far more powerful in India than in England (Stephen). The difficulties in the way of ascertaining the truth and investigating false statements and
