[Footnote 157: See Tract on Public Houses, by the Author of this Treatise.] [Footnote 158: The Magistrates at the Marine Police confine their attention almost wholly to the cognizance of offences, either committed on the River, or connected with Maritime Affairs, and his Majesty's Stores in the Public Arsenals.] In addition to these various duties, many criminal cases occur in the course of a year, which are examined for the purpose, if necessary, of being sent to superior tribunals for trials:--such as charges of _Treason, Murder, Coining, and uttering Base Money, Arson, Manslaughter, Forgery, Burglary, Larceny, Sedition, Felonies of various descriptions, Conspiracies, Frauds, Riots, Assaults, and Misdemeanors of different kinds_:--all which unavoidably impose upon every official Magistrate, a weight of business requiring great exertion, and an unremitting attention to the Public Interest, in the due execution of this very important Trust. When the Police System was first established in the year 1792, the public mind became impressed with an idea that the chief, if not the only, object of the institution was to prevent _Robberies_, _Burglaries_, and other _atrocious Offences_; and that the suppression of those crimes, which bore hardest upon Society, and were most dreaded by the Public at large, was to be the result. These expectations shewed, that neither the powers nor authorities granted by the Act of Parliament, nor the other duties imposed upon the Magistracy of the Police, were understood. For this Statute (useful as it certainly is in a very high degree in many other respects,) does not contain even a single regulation applicable to the prevention of crimes; except that which relates to the apprehension of suspected characters, found in the avenues to public places, with intent to commit felony; who are liable to be punished as rogues and vagabonds,--and even this provision does not extend to the city of London. But this is not all--an establishment has been created, without the most necessary of all engines to give vigour and effect to the exertions of the Magistrates; namely, a pecuniary Fund to defray the expences of detecting criminals, and of rewarding those who bring informations useful to Public Justice. The expence of each Public Office being restricted to _two thousand pounds_ a year, and the establishment in _salaries_, _rents_, _taxes_, and other _contingencies_ exhausting that sum, nothing remains for one of the most necessary purposes of the Institution--the _Prevention_ and the _Suppression of Crimes_.[159]