Let the mind only contemplate this proud view of the Commerce of a Single River, unparalleled in point of extent and magnitude in the whole world; where 13,444 ships and vessels discharge and receive in the course of a year above three _Millions of Packages_, many of which contain very valuable articles of merchandize, greatly exposed to depredations, not only from the criminal habits of many of the aquatic labourers and others who are employed, but from the temptations to plunder, arising from the confusion unavoidable in a crowded port, and the facilities afforded in the disposal of stolen property.--It will then be easily conceived, that the plunder must have been excessive, especially where from its analogy to smuggling, at least in the conceptions of those who were implicated; and from its gradual increase, the culprits seldom were restrained by a sense of the moral turpitude of the offence; and where for want of a _Marine Police_ applicable to the object, no means existed whereby offenders could be detected on the River.[54] [Footnote 54: While every thing connected with the present state of Europe, and the whole Commercial world, appears favourable for the accomplishment of the aggrandisement of the port of London, by the establishment of Docks (already in part adopted by the Legislature) and by a general Warehousing System, there is no opinion more erroneous and delusive than that which supposes that arrangements of this kind will supersede the necessity of a Police for the protection of the trade, and for the preservation of the public peace within these extensive repositories. In what manner are from two to three thousand labourers, who must be frequently employed at the same time within these Docks, (and those too of a class that have been accustomed to plunder, and are not restrained by any sense of the turpitude of the action) to be over-awed and controlled, if no Police shall be conceived necessary? The risk would be immense to commercial property; and pillage, in spite of the gates, and every precaution which could be taken, would probably be as extensive as it has been from the Warehouses, or from his Majesty's Dock Yards, where the want of an appropriate Police has been the cause of many abuses. Police as recently exemplified, is quite a new science in political oeconomy, not yet perfectly understood; it operates as a restraint of the most powerful kind upon all delinquents who would be restrained by nothing else. To the system of vigilance which pervades the criminal actions of labourers upon the River, joined to the imminent danger of detection, is to be attributed the general success of the Marine Police, in preventing depredations.