When men began to congregate in communities, laws for the good government and protection of the whole number became a necessity, and this led to the creation of police. The word itself is derived from [Greek: polis] ("city"), a collection of people within a certain area: a community working regularly together for mutual advantage and defence. The work of defence was internal as well as external, for since the world began there have been dissidents and outlaws, those who declined to accept the standard of conduct deemed generally binding, and so set law at defiance. Hence the organisation of some force taking its mandate from the many to compel good conduct in the few; some special institution whose functions are to watch over the common weal, and act for the public both in preventing evil and preparing or securing good. From this the police deduces its claim to such interference with every citizen as is necessary to maintain order and ensure obedience to the law. It is easy to see that by excessive development the police system may become too paternal, and that under the great despotisms it may be and often is a potent engine for the enslavement of a people. [Illustration: CLOCK AT THE PALAIS DE JUSTICE, PARIS, PRESENTED BY CHARLES V. IN 1370.] These ideas, perfect enough in the abstract, are contained in the definitions of police as found in dictionaries and the best authorities. The Imperial Dictionary calls it "a judicial and executive system in a national jurisprudence which is specially concerned with the quiet and good order of society; the means instituted by a government or community to maintain public order, liberty, property, and individual security." Littré defines _police_ as "the ordered system established in any city or state, which controls all that affects the comfort and safety of the inhabitants." "Police," says a modern writer, "is that section of public authority charged to protect persons and things against every attack, every evil which can be prevented or lessened by human prudence." Again: "To maintain public order, protect property and personal liberty, to watch over public manners and the public health: such are the principal functions of the police." Although we English people were slow to adopt any police system on a large or uniform scale, the principle has ever been accepted by our legists. Jeremy Bentham considered police necessary as a measure of precaution, to prevent crimes and calamities as well as to correct and cure them. Blackstone in his Commentaries says: "By public police and economy I mean the due regulation and domestic order of the kingdom, whereby the individuals of the State, like members of a well-governed family, are bound to conform their general behaviour to the rules of propriety, good neighbourhood, and good manners; to be decent, industrious, and inoffensive in their respective stations." [Illustration: THE BASTILLE. (_From an old Print._)]