1

general remarks or dubious analogies; but that it rests on the only firm basis of philosophical conclusions, on Experiment. The number of persons whom I know to be at this time living on the diet is at least twenty-five; and of these I have to state, that their health is so good that they have no occasion for the use of medicine, and that, without an exception, their indispositions, where they happen at all, are so trifling as scarcely to deserve the name; although they have not yet relinquished meat, fish, and common water, long enough to derive all the advantages which may be thence expected. These persons are of various ages and constitutions; some of them previously in good health, some otherwise; yet with them all the result has been uniform, that is (for I wish to be perfectly moderate and entirely borne out in my assertions) No ill effects have in any instance been felt from the adoption of this regimen. As to what immediately concerns those of the abovementioned number who are under my own roof, I hope such particulars as I shall briefly state will not be uninteresting to the public, who, had I been capable of doing justice to the subject I have in hand, would ere now have been as zealous as the writer himself.

I came two years ago into the house which I now occupy, and in the winter; not without a warning from some of my friends as to the danger of beginning to inhabit it at that season, as it had never before been tenanted. During the first year of my residence here, viz. 1809, the only charge for medicine in my apothecary's bill for seven persons, including the nurse' of my children who, from her own conviction, adopted the diet, was sixpence; and for the year 1810, not a penny, the apothecary's bill being, word for word, as follows:

This person's complaint was a species of acute asthma. The affection of the trachea resembled a little the croup, and it was always attended with a hollow cough of an alarming tone. She has entirely got rid of her disorder..

TO BE CONTINUED.

ON

THE PRESENT

STATE OF THE POLICE

OF

THE METROPOLIS.

BY GEORGE B. MAINWARING, Esq.

Preventive justice is upon every principle of reason, of humanity, and of sound policy, preferable in all respects, to punishing justice.

BLACKSTONE.

SECOND EDITION.

Printed exclusively for the Pamphleteer.

LONDON:

OBSERVATIONS,

&c.

THE frequent outrages and depredations which have recently been committed in the metropolis, and the alarm and consequent dissatisfaction which have been thereby excited, will, I hope, justify the attempt to call the attention of the public to the moral and political evils of our present police system, and induce the Government and the Legislature to make it the object of their early and most serious consideration.

To those who have been long observing the progress of criminal association in this town, our present state cannot be a matter of surprise; but it is in the very nature of police to attract but little observation till the want of it be felt; and few consider the damage or injury which is sustained by others, till they are themselves the sufferers, and the notoriety and general prevalence of crime awaken all to the apprehension that they may be its next victims; when they begin to look to the causes whence this state of things has proceeded, and to exclaim against a system under which so much mischief prevails.

To this state of society, and of public feeling, we are now arrived. It is, however, in moments of strong excitement, that a judicious consideration of its causes is most essential; and there are few properties more valuable in those who direct our affairs, than to discriminate between the transient mischief arising from the accidental occurrences of society, and those permanent evils which proceed from latent and

deep-rooted sources; in short, to distinguish between the errors and the vices of mankind; between that which time will generally abate, and that which requires a more active agency to extirpate. Perhaps, there is no subject in which this principle should be more strictly preserved than in that of police regulation and enactment.

These observations are the more necessary, because there is such a decided and well-founded attachment to old systems in this country, that it must be a strong necessity indeed, which will produce the desire, or encourage the attempt to alter them. But the necessity is not now so much the question, as the practicability of improvement; and the difficulty will be to satisfy those, in whom the failure of former systems of police, has created a distrust and jealousy of all attempts to introduce beneficial alteration. Of this difficulty I am fully sensible, and it is the importance of the subject alone, which could embolden me to an undertaking in which the highest attainments and best powers would not be unworthily engaged.

It will be sufficient, for the purpose of the present inquiry, to direct our attention to the existing state of the Metropolis; to the sources from which it has proceeded, and to the consequences which it is bringing upon us. Inasmuch as police being mere local regulation, the society upon which it is to operate, need alone constitute the object of its attention.

The most superficial observer of the external and visible appearances of this town, must soon be convinced, that there is a large mass of unproductive population living upon it, without occupation or ostensible means of subsistence; and, it is notorious, that hundreds and thousands go forth from day to day trusting alone to charity or rapine; and differing little from the barbarous hordes which traverse an uncivilized land, except that with us the milder influences of benevolence contribute to the unprovided wants of some; but, with a great part, the principle of action is the same; the life is predatory, it is equally a war against society, and the object is alike to gratify desire by stratagem or force. This, too, in the midst of a wealthy, highly civilized and refined city, the capital of a country blessed with the best Constitution upon earth; a Constitution, whose laws have been said to provide a remedy for every wrong. It would seem then, that there must be disorder somewhere; some acquired and misunderstood disease, the sources of which have hitherto eluded discovery. But I fear that we know the disease too well, and many of us are fully sensible of the causes which have been long working to bring it to its present height; and the aggravation of the

mischief is, that we find it to have taken such deep root, that no permanent relief can be expected without exploring the very elements of our national system; an attempt so fearful that the best intentioned politicians would rather bear with the ills which we have, and apply temporary palliatives in the hope that some self-renovating power will operate, than attack those parts of our institutions which have been the causes and consequences of our wealth and greatness, but which have at last become to numbers, the sources of their suffering and depravity.

It will be obvious, that I allude to our finance and poor laws; these, however, would lead to a larger range of observation than belongs to the present inquiry, but their operation so forces itself into every subject connected with political economy, that it is impossible not to feel their pressure whenever the view of any part of the people, whose interests have been affected by them, fall under our consideration. I know their power, and the obstacles and grounds of argument which they present against attempting to create any corrective system of police, without the removal of the causes which render such a system necessary. But, in urging the necessity of a change in our police system, and in endeavouring to show the means by which it may be safely and constitutionally effected, I entertain a sanguine hope, that the very operation of a better system will so change the manners and habits of the people, upon whom it is to act, as to drive them to the pursuits of industry; or if, under existing circumstances, the means of industry be not open to them, that it will show such a deranged and disordered state of society, as finally and irresistibly to impel the Legislature to resort to some decisive and effectual measures, which shall deliver the country from the dreadful alternative of knowing, that it has a large portion of its inhabitants who must either live by plunder, or die from starvation.

Unsatisfactory as these reflections must be, it would be unworthy of a faithful advocate of the public interests, to shrink from the investigation of truth, especially when such investigation affords the most likely means of averting the evils which it brings to our view. Whatever the Legislature or the Government may do, the effects of the present state of things must necessarily be felt for a considerable time. The chasm which has taken place in society, and the separation which has existed between the employers and employed from the want of labor, and other co-operating causes, have begotten such insurmountable idleness, and idleness has been so extensively followed by crime, that habits have been acquir