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Embellished with COPPER-PLATES, Satirical, Political, and
Scientifical, from ORIGINAL DESIGNS.

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Printed for the AUTHORS, and fold by S. BLADON, at No. 28, and
J. CooTE, at No. 16, in Pater - nofter - row, London; Meff.
FLETCHER and HODGSON, at Cambridge; Mr. SMITH, at Dublin;
and Mr. ETHERINGTON, at York.

M DCC LXIX.

English

Blackwell

9-8-25
12031

The Oxford Magazine;

For JULY 1769.

SIR,

The

POLICE.

Adared to Sir JN F G.

T is not in the leaft furprising, that

lebrated predeceffor, to veft the office of chief civil magiftrate for the city and liberties of Westminster, and indeed of the county of Middlesex, in the family of the F- -gs as an hereditary eftate, should have met with the defired fuccefs. The great abilities of the firft juftice Fg procured him the esteem and confidence of his fuperiors, and attracted the veneration of the populace: he knew how to avail himfelf of the public prepoffeffion in his favour; and by dint of a general correfpondence and connection with the printers of news-papers, pawnbrokers, keepers of brothels, and a fet of infamous wretches called thieftakers, he acquired the reputation of a moft active magiftrate, and almoft wholly engroffed the very profitable bufinefs of the Middlefex juftices of the peace. At length, when infirmities bore him down, and he could no longer attend the fatiguing duties of his important ftation, having firft laid an extenfive foundation for his fucceffor, he kindly transformed the Regifter-office keeper into a juftice of the peace; and configning over to you all the implements of office, which were neceflary for carrying on the scheme of fupremacy, and for fupporting the credit of the jufticiary feat in Bowftreet, he refigned, and retired with a confiderable reputation.

But it is matter of just astonishment, that without any of thofe extraordinary talents, which recommended your predeceffor to the notice of the Great, you have been able to carry the point of maintaining a fuperiority over your brethren in the commiffion of the peace to a much greater length than he ever aimed at; and that you have prefumed to infult the whole nation, and every other department intrusted with the prefervation of the peace and good order of this great metropolis, by giving to your little office in Bowstreet, the very respectable and comprehenfive title of THE POLICE. As not only foreigners, but many of his Majefty's liege fubjects, may be deceived by your pompous difplay of this felferected title, to which you have fometimes added, that you had the fanction and fupport of the miniftry; and that falfe conclufions may be drawn, fuch as the imagining that there is an eftablifhed, well-regulated Police in this great city, of which you are the head; and that the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor of London, the Court of Aldermen, and many private juftices. of the peace, are mere cyphers. It fhall be the bufinefs of the clays under the title of THE POLICE to demonftrate, that we have very few regula tions for the internal polity of our capital cities which deferve that fignificant denomination; and that fuch is our deficiency in this refpect, compaA 2

ritively

ritively with our neighbours on the continent of Europe, that all the tranfactions of our whole body of magiftracy put together, for preferving the peace, and for eftablishing decency, order, and public decorum, fall short of the idea of a complete Police.

For be it remembered, that it is the duty of the Police, not only to prevent as far as poffible the commiffion of crimes, which are violations of the eftablished laws of civil fociety, and to bring offenders to justice, but to remove all annoyances, all nuifances, every thing that infringes on decency and decorum, every thing that is fhocking to humanity, or affronting to modefty, every thing that may endanger the health of the inhabitants, or fubject them to fatal accidents; and that the barely keeping the peace, in the limited fenfe to which it is ufually confined, forins but a fmall part of the neceffary cares of a good officer of the Police. Shall I render this more familiar to your worship, by informing you, that it ought to be an object of as much concern to the Police to prevent the throwing a peafcod or an orangepeel in the way of a porter bending beneath a heavy burthen, who may thereby break a limb, and become useless to fociety, and to his family, as to fend a man and horfe, upon the firft information given at the Bow-ftreet Office, in pursuit of a highwayman: this may be fufficient to explain my meaning, as in future effays the feveral enormities which daily pass unnoticed, under the very eye of our famous Bow-ftreet Police, fhall be pointed out, and the reafons why they are not corrected fhall be fully explained.

Occafional hints for the improvement of our Police fhall be given with all due deference and fubmiffion to Sir J-n, and his brethren in the commiffion of the peace, founded on a course of obfervations made during a refidence at fundry periods in almost all the principle cit es of Europe, particularly in thofe from which we import every folly and every foible, while we fcornfully reject, proud of our own fuperior wifdom, every wholefome regulation for the welfare and convenience of polished focieties.

It is apprehended that advice to the magiftracy of the city and liberties of Weftminster, and of the county of Middlefex, could not poffibly be introduced with greater propriety than at the prefent juncture, when the freeholders of the county of Middlesex, and the worthy livery of the city of London, have made it a capital article of the public grievances in their petitions to the King-That the civil magiftracy has been made contemptible by the appointment of improper and incapable perfons.-The author of thefe effays is no ftranger to the perfons and characters of this newly inlifted corps in the minifterial regiment of court spies and informers; and in dus course of time will delineate them in proper colours. One squeaking, powdered, perfumed coxcomb, he particularly wishes to reform, who never entered into a felect fociety, or body of men, without a view to his own private intereft: this man he would wish to convert to a patriotic magiftrate, by much the fame kind of process as edulcorating train oil; and he hopes he shall receive from fome patriotic fociety a recompence fufficient to lay the foundation of his future fortune, and to put him in the road of becoming a Middlesex justice, instead of a poor author, if he fhould accomplish this miraculous operation.

He hopes alfo to convince your worfhip, that every man having his peculiar province affigned him by Providence and the laws of fociety, it is the duty of each individual, but more particularly fo of a magiftrate, to confine himself affiduoufly to the duties of his ftation, and not to launch out into a variety of capricious idle projects, when his time would be much better employed in acquiring a greater degree of kill and perfection in the vocation to which it has pleafed God to call him. On this principle he thinks Sir Jn might employ his leifure hours in examining the equity, expediency, and public utility of the regulations eftablifhed in the department of the Police in foreign countries, or in reviewing the laws, ftatutes, and cuftoms of his own, in order to procure the revival and enforcement of fome that are obfolete,

The Police.

folete, and the repeal of others, which time and change of manners have rendered useless. Leaving the idle parade of prefiding at public charitable inftitutions to fuch as Lord H-d or his grace of G―n, who, after a course of many years wallowing in obfcenity, gluttony and riot, may fix a name, and think to immortalize their memory on the entablatures of hofpitals, by taking this hackneyed penitential road to heaven.

If to check the fpur to induftry, if to weaken the ftrong tie of parental affection, and the pleafing anxiety of providing for an infant offspring, if to loofen the matrimonial band, by facilitating the means of enjoying idlenefs and indolence be politic, then all thefe inftitutions are equally fo; otherwise, on a ftrict fcrutiny, it is to be feared many of them will be found to be detrimental to the true intereft of a commercial state, an obftruction to the establishment of a true Police, and an expence which might be converted into a better channel. The regular difcuffion of a maxim apparently fo unpopular fhall follow in due order, upon fome future occafion; in the mean time it is to be hoped you will leave to the marine fociety, the care of cloathing and fending to fea fuch friendless boys as they fhall think objects of their patriotic fcheme. And that you will not by fresh advertifments and fubfcriptions unneceffarily increafe the public expences, and drain the country of plough-boys, Shepherds, and cow-herds, nor the town of boys for tradefinen's fhops, and other domeftic employments. What your popularity gains on this fubject, it more than lofes on another. Muft it not give umbrage to every lover of his country, to obferve the amafing increase of impiety, profligacy, and debauchery extending their baleful influence to all ranks throughout the kingdom, but more particularly in the city and liberties of Westminster, scarce a day paffing without intelligence of fome fkilful manoeuvre of dignified gamblers ftripping young heirs of their fortunes, and reducing men of family and

abilities to poverty, to ruin, and mifery, and totally incapacitating them for the fervice of their country in the rank of life which their birth and finished education might have entitled them to have filled honourably-Of the most fhameful breaches of hofpitality and violations of private trust and confidence.-Of men fo infamous as to repay the obligations of friendfhip, by the worst of robberies, the feduction of the wives and daughters of their most intimate acquaintance, and often of their greatest benefactors. Of fuch a libidinous difpofition circulating amongst our women as must render them objects of detestation and abhorence both at home and abroad, and muft in the end defeat the grand object of every civilized fociety, population. And all this notwithstanding, the Lieutenant de Police, is conftantly giving his friendly admonition in the front of the Public Advertiser, the fale of which he promotes for his own intereft, being a proprietor, that few robberies will efcape detection, efpecially if all perfons robbed make use of that paper to advertise their loffes in.

Were half the pains taken to fupprefs gambling, to enforce the execution of the laws against all trans greffors, in all times, and at all places, however highly diftinguished by rank or title; and had the Lieutenant de Police, the spirit to vifit A-r's Charlotte Hy's, and fome other polite places of private resort for the practice of public vices, and to infift, that the makers of the laws fhould be the first on whom they fhould be obligatory and binding,that are beftowed on promoting the fuccefs of the Public Advertiser by informations, and advertisements of petty larcenies, Sir J-n might be enabled to acquaint the public-that ferv robberies, very few adulteries, and only a very small number of fashionable, honourable, or political murders, will be committed.

But this cannot be expected, if the civil magiftrate is penfioned by bawds, pimps, whores, vintners, and gam blers, and under this confideration grants his countenance, or private con

nivance,

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