These regulations require no comment, they speak for themselves: but in view of the intense and unreasoning hostility direct against the police both by press and public, not only in 1830, but also on more recent occasions, it is fortunate that this evidence of the conciliatory spirit in which the reforms were introduced, should be on record. It is hardly necessary to add that the high standard set up by the first Justices of the Metropolitan Force has never been departed from by the successive Commissioners of Police, from that day until now. The immediate result of the institution of an effective police force, whose main object was prevention, was precisely that which was to be expected: convictions for crimes of violence decreased, because evil-disposed persons knew that they could no longer commit them with impunity, and convictions for minor offences increased, because the vigilance of the new policemen brought to their proper punishment many a petty depredator who had easily hoodwinked his familiar friend, the old parish officer. Under the date of November 3rd, 1829, or little more than four months after the passing of the Act, the Duke of Wellington was able to write to Peel--"I congratulate you on the entire success of the Police in London, it is impossible to see anything more respectable than they are"--and Peel to answer "I am very glad indeed to hear that you think well of the Police. It has given me from first to last more trouble than anything I ever undertook. But the men are gaining a knowledge of their duties so rapidly, that I am very sanguine of the ultimate result. I want to teach people that liberty does not consist in having your house robbed by organised gangs of thieves, and in leaving the principal streets of London in the nightly possession of drunken women and vagabonds."[184] Nothing has yet been said about the expense of the new establishment. At what cost to the ratepayers was this increased security obtained?