A HISTORY OF POLICE IN ENGLAND BY Captain W. L. MELVILLE LEE M.A. Oxon. "Qu'on examine la cause de tous les reláchemens, on verra qu'elle vient de l'impunité des crimes et non pas de la modération des peines."--"L'Esprit des Lois-Bk. VI.," cap. xxii. METHUEN & CO. 36 ESSEX STREET W.C. LONDON 1901 DEDICATED BY PERMISSION TO The Right Hon. LORD ALVERSTONE, G.C.M.G. LORD CHIEF JUSTICE OF ENGLAND CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. Anglo-Saxon and Norman Police 1 II. Watch and Ward 21 III. Justice and Constable 43 IV. Forest Police and Police in the Fifteenth Century 60 V. Commercial Police and Police under the Tudors 82 VI. Ecclesiastical Police and Police under James I. 99 VII. Military Police and Police under Charles II. 124 VIII. Bow Street Police and Magisterial Reform 155 IX. Parochial Police of the Eighteenth Century 176 X. Police at the Dawn of the Nineteenth Century 196 XI. Pioneer Reformers 217 XII. "The New Police" 228 XIII. Public Opposition to the "New Police" 245 XIV. Police Reform in Boroughs 262 XV. Police Reform in Counties 279 XVI. Co-operative Police and the Suppression of Riots 309 XVII. Police Statistics and Penology 335 XVIII. Detective Police and the Right of Public Meeting 366 XIX. Conclusion 390 PREFACE A title of convenient length, but one which shall exactly fit the subject-matter in hand, is a desideratum that seldom lies within an author's reach. The title selected for this book is open to the objection that, though consisting of as many as six words, it is, however, not quite explicit. The sense in which the word "police" is used is explained in the Introductory Chapter, but it here remains to be said that "England" must be taken to include the Principality of Wales, and, incidentally, that by the employment of the indefinite article an indication of the non-pretentious character of the work is intended.