Nor should the rewards be wholly confined to Officers of Justice, either _parochial or stipendiary_. The Public Good requires, that they should extend also to Watchmen and Patroles, who should have every reasonable encouragement held out to them to be honest and vigilant, by small premiums paid down immediately, for every service they may render the Public; either in detecting or apprehending persons who are guilty of felonies, or other offences against the public peace. At present, the watchmen destined to guard the lives and properties of the inhabitants residing in near _eight thousand_ streets, lanes, courts, and alleys, and about 160,000 houses, composing the whole of the Metropolis and its environs, are under the direction of no less than above seventy different Trusts; regulated by perhaps double the number of local acts of Parliament, (varying in many particulars from one another,) under which the _directors_, _guardians_, _governors_, _trustees_, or _vestries_, according to the title they assume, are authorised to act,--each attending only to their own particular _Ward_, _Parish_, _Hamlet_, _Liberty_, or _Precinct_; and varying the payment according to local circumstances, and the opulence of the particular district, from 8-1/2_d._ up to 2_s._ each night.[117] [Footnote 117: There is, in some respect, an exception to this rule, with regard _to the City and Liberty of Westminster_, and the parishes of _St. Clement Danes_,--_St. Mary le Strand_,--_The Savoy_, The united parishes of _St. Giles_ and _St. George, Bloomsbury_,--The united parishes of _St. Andrew, Holborn above the Bars_, and _St. George the Martyr_, and the liberty of _Saffron Hill_, _Hatton Garden_, and _Ely Rents_.--The Act of the 14th George III. cap. 90, contains regulations applicable to the whole of these Parishes and Liberties, fixing the _minimum_ of watchmen at 523, and patroles at 56 men, for the _whole_; but leaving the management still to the inhabitants of each respective Parish or Liberty. The same act fixes the _minimum_ of wages at 1_s._ a night, and patroles 15_d._ In the City of London, the salaries given to watchmen vary in each Ward, from 13_l._ to 18_l._ 19_l._ 20_l._ 21_l._ 7_s._ 23_l._ 8_s._ up to 26_l._ and patroles are allowed from 13_l._ to 35_l._ and 40_l._ a year.] The encouragement being, in many instances, so small, few candidates appear for such situations, who are really, in point of character and age, fit for the duty which ought to be performed; the managers have therefore no alternative but to accept of such aged, and often superannuated, men, living in their respective districts, as may offer their services; this they are frequently induced to do from motives of humanity, to assist old inhabitants who are unable to labour at any mechanical employment, or perhaps with a view to keep them out of the workhouse, and to save the expence of maintaining them.