554 IV. THE NINETEENTH CENTURY Even in country towns and places where a constabulary force was raised and paid by voluntary effort, the justice administered by it was rude. In one district, in 1838, the parish constables were under standing orders from the magis- trates to tap with their staves the pockets of all labourers or other persons found abroad after nightfall, in order that the pheasants' or partridges' eggs therein, if any, might be broken ! In conformity with the behest of the chief magis- trate of one considerable town, the constables seized all vagrants found within their jurisdiction and took them to prison to have their heads shaved, after which operation they were set at liberty and. went their ways. The superintendent of police was asked by what right he apprehended them and cut their hair. " The mayor," he replied, " who is a man of few words, says he crops them for cleanliness." In some rural districts the paid police were in the habit of dispensing alto- gether with the constitutional formality of a warrant. An officer interrogated on the subject frankly confessed the irregularity, but added, that " he chanced it." In another new borough the superintendent of police prided himself " on never waiting for a warrant. It was not his plan. It was a waste of time." " I am," he added, " for being prompt in everything. I say, ' If I can take him up with a warrant I can take him up without a warrant.' " In the year 1839, there were upwards of five hundred voluntary associations for promoting the apprehension and prosecution of felons — for performing, in fact, by individuals the first duty of a civilised government. Among the rules of some of them were rules for mutual insurance by payment of part of the loss caused by depredations. In some of the farmers' associations members were bound by their code, in case of horse-stealing, to mount and join themselves in pursuit of the thief upon an alarm given. By Acts of 1839 and 1840 Parliament enabled bodies of police to be established for a county. But the English farmer and the English ratepayer hesitated, from fear of loading the rates, to put in force the permission which the Legislature had given. It was not till seventeen years afterwards that the establishment of county police was made compulsory in all
