Impressed with a deep sense of the utility of investigating the nature of the Police System, the Select Committee of the House of Commons on Finance turned their attention to this, among many other important objects in the Session of the year 1798; and, after a laborious investigation which occupied several months, (during which period the Author of this Treatise underwent several examinations),[168] they made their _final Report_--in which, after stating it as their opinion, "that the general tendency of our oeconomical arrangements upon this subject is ill calculated to meet the accumulating burdens, which are the infallible result of so much error in our System of Police"--they recommended it to Parliament to reduce or consolidate "the two offices of Hawkers and Pedlars, and Hackney Coaches, into a Board of Police Revenue, under the direction of a competent number of Commissioners, with such Salaries as should bid fair to engage talents adequate to the situation, and as should be sufficient to command the whole exertion of those talents.--That the Receiver of the Police offices, should be the Receiver-General of the funds proposed to be collected by this Board.--That the superintendence of aliens should form a part of its business.--That the fees and penalties received at the several offices of Police, together with the Licence-duties and penalties, if any, which shall be in the collection of this consolidated Board, shall make one common fund, out of which all salaries and expences of the several offices of Police should be defrayed, as well as all those of the Consolidated Board, and that all payments whatever should be made by the Receiver, under the sanction of this Board, subject to the approbation of the Lords Commissioners of his Majesty's Treasury.--That the accounts of the Receiver should be audited and signed by the Board before being delivered to the Treasury, or the office for auditing accounts.--That the balances in the hands of the Receiver, after retaining what may be sufficient for current expences, should be paid into the Exchequer at frequent and fixed periods.--That Magistrates of Police should be impowered to distribute small rewards to Constables or others, for meritorious services, to be paid by the Revenue, after receiving the sanction of the Board: And further, that the Board should have power to make Bye-laws, for the regulation of such Minor Objects of Police as relate to the objects of their superintendence, and to the control of all Coaches, Chairs, Carts, Barrows, and the conduct of all Coachmen, Chairmen, Carters, &c. and the removal and prevention of annoyances, and the correction of all offences against the cleanliness, the quiet, and the free passage of the Streets of the Metropolis, similar to the powers now possessed by the Commissioners of Hackney Coaches, and subject in like manner to the approbation of the Superior Judges in the Courts in Westminster-Hall."--The Committee further recommend that