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Show f nd on the & tants, tern was pronmimwt existi"g svs-day svs-day there we- tl c.omPle'- On that vateS-rtoVa?of 9 s4 gMUt' aud 8'593 C.013 an o stft TP-trolW miles, with 8 80s vn ' , fnng 687 8lua arrests fn, ,1, ' 0 "llBb'tants, and the consist th "metropolitan police force specters 1 4. 8,,Pen'lents, 838 in- msmym System of the Largest Oity in the ' World-The "Liberty of the Subject." jE orFIOEE TO 400 PEOPLE. ilt Growth of the System From Constan-tine Constan-tine the Great to Victoria The Eiots of 1780. OXDOX. is tho largest city in tho world." So much every one knows, for even those who cannot can-not . read have heard statements of the fact Usiueo childhood. But apparently every one does not know that milon is also the greatest city of tho 'orid in many other respects, containing m H-calth, learning und fashion, more ,rerty and intemperance, more great li-ffies, li-ffies, churches and museums, and last, ntnot least interesting, more odd people, nicasts from other lands, "cranks," re-miers re-miers and political exiles than any other tr. And not the least interesting fact is it these -enormous masses are kept in rfer by a police force that is probably the lallest, iu proportion, of any city in the orld. ibout 14,000 regular policemen to about S,000 people is one way of stating it, but Pstatemeut needs some qualification, as iere are never so many in thu line of duty once, and on tho other hand there are my private and special watchmen. In ,t important point tho "crook" has an amense advantage in London, and indeed j over Great Britain. "The liberty of t he ibject" is there respected to a degree that ould be surprising in America and ought perfectly ridiculous in i'rance or mnany. It is an admitted fact that pick-Tckets pick-Tckets and sneak thieves by the thousaud re well and personally known to the poet, po-et, talk familiarly with them and walk at them with impunity as long as they re not caught in the act. Again and again a the city chief declared that "a mob of jjOO rascals might gather in Trafalgar narevith theavowed intention of sacking jckingham palace," and the police could ilystaud around till the attack began, some ludicrous results follow, and his-!ij his-!ij records a few episodes of unparalleled nrror und havoc. When Lord Georgo ordon's "Protestant army" of 00,000 be-in be-in its march on Parliament house tho jiice did not feel free to interfere; when ieir leaders addressed them, with an ex-irtation ex-irtation to burn the Catholic churches, o arrests were made, and when the mis-Lief mis-Lief actually began the police were power-t& power-t& For six days the great city was at k mercy of the wildest mob of modern nips. The prisons were broken open. All professional criminals joined theorig-al theorig-al rioters, and hundreds of shops anil rollings were plundered. At one time tirty-six great fires were blazing in the ity. Then troops began to pour in from i! the garrison towns and the riot wan at down by the killing and wounding of bout five hundred people. In "Barnaby lidge" Dickens has given an account at ice graphic and accurate of this affair of une 5-8, 1780.. THE LONDON BLACK MARIA. The increase of force has hardlv kept pace with the increase of population. American police officials who visit thers find matter for amazement and amusement in some features of the city government Charles Dickens speaks of the sympathy the lower classes of British feelfor a drunk man; Americans think the sympathy extends ex-tends to all classes, for a drunk man ii never arrested unless his conduct becomes utterly unendurable. Similarly tho worst possible class of women ply their trade unchecked; un-checked; they are not interfered with as long rs they molest no one else. "Liberty of the subject" again. On the other hand, however, when the Londou police do go for a man they mean business and are no respecters of persons. Exhief of Police George W. Walling, of New York, reports that on a certain great day in London a titled captain in the Coldstream Cold-stream guards tried to ride through a line formed by tho police. When resisted he struck the officer with his whip. He was promptly arrested, and though his friends pleaded that he was intoxicated aud offered any required sum for his release he was convicted and sentenced to a term of imprisonment. im-prisonment. His noble relatives then appealed ap-pealed to the q ueon, but i n vain. She made answer that the higher the rank the better the man should know the law and his duty, and the noble captain had to serve his term. Slacaulay:s history of England gives amusing instances of the absurd length to which respect for precedents and personal liberty has been carried. Savoy and White-friars White-friars were two London districts in which no one could be arrested for debt or misdemeanor. mis-demeanor. The natural result was that the whole district became so lawless that no process could be executed there without a tile of musketeers. "A creditor who ventured vent-ured there was knocked down, stripped, tarred and feathered. He was dragged naked up and down the streets. Finally he was compelled to kneel down and curse his father and mother, after which he limped home without a rag upon him." The evil at last became unbearable; "liberty of the subject" was strained a little too far. An act of parliament abolished the local privilege, priv-ilege, a royal proclamation warned the lawless law-less to flee, aud "when on the prescribed day the officers crossed the boundaries they found those streets where a few weeks before be-fore the cry of 'A writl' would have drawn together a thousand raging bullies and vixens as quiet as the cloisters of a cathedral." cathe-dral." There are no such corners in Londou now. There are large districts given over to vice and crime, of which Whitechapel has lately attained a name of horror, but there is no place where the police hesitate to go. Slower Slow-er ht ourplv tlm anirit, of modern Drocrress transforms even the darkest parts of London, Lon-don, and thus it becomes easier for the small police force to guard the great city. "You are always safe in good company" is a London motto which is almost literally BRINGING IX A WAIF, true, and unless you interfere directly with some other person's rights you need no. fear that any "bobby" will in your case invade in-vade the "liberty of the subject. CHIEF JAMES MONRO. - IVhen the Prince of Wales visited New ork he was amazed to learn that all that ist crowd had gathered and dispersed thoat an act of violence or a serious rob-;ry. rob-;ry. They showed him this general order sued by the captain of detectives a few iys before: "Arrest all known pickpockets the streets and take them in." The mice was astonished to learn that "tho ierty of the subject," to be a pickpocket t instance, was less regarded in America un in England, and the Duke of New-ale New-ale was so exercised about it that he ale it the subject of a special paragraph his report. When the prince and prin-wsgave prin-wsgave their public reception in London femob made a "rush" and overpowered police, seven persons were killed, over badly beaten and so many robbed that 1 list was ever mado of the smaller aonnts. When the Great Eastern was 1 exhibition in England the robberies enormous; the New York police claim of the 110,000 persons who visited her ? this side not one was robbed.. "Liberty : the subject" comes high, but the Eng- think they must have it. Tho whole history of London abounds in tf'ous episodes resulting from this un-hle un-hle compromise between mob and po-and po-and perhaps the historic method is the "t to show the development and charac-?;of charac-?;of the city government. London was a n before the beginning of history, and ' Wg enough to Te mentioned by Tacit us 'A- D. 95-98. And at that early date it ed and had a vigilant police. Constan-the Constan-the Great, the first Christian emperor Rome, while a commander in Britain, 'It a wall around London, according to cwe ancient authorities, aud established wtnplete police. Under the Saxons it ?P became the capital of England, and -fir police was a volunteer body. The -izens were divided into hundreds, with "agiatrate for each, and each hundred t0 tens, the head of each ten being re-ible re-ible for the rest. But the city soon t too big ,for the volunteer system, and ' Jliatn. the Conqueror granted a complete ;arterthe first of which any copy exists. In U91 the first lord mayor was inaugu-ited, inaugu-ited, and soon after the insurrection of Tyler in 1381 the general constabulary li quite well organized; but in the police Pw the voluntary system still prevailed : a great extent. In 1665 about 60,000 peo-( peo-( third of the population) died of the and all municipal government ap-to ap-to have lapsed. The next year the at firs destroyed 13,600 houses, besides 'Jrches and other pu jiic buildings, being sixths of the city within the walls, and r that the foundations of the existing '"! system were laid. SOU the volun- Principle prevailed to some extent, or. fas it till 1753 that a complete paid independent of wunty authority, j established. And l-sro the inquirer rds evidence of that tenderness for "the 'nJ of the subject" w hich is a surprise ' l American, an absurdity to Ui Ionian, and a hopelessly insoluble lisiery to the German. . outcry was so great that the act was ;raU' repealed, but the government in-.-d the various features of the system . ' by little till 1798. As late as 1S39 there but 8,044 men on the entire metroioli-;3 metroioli-;3 wght patrol, and as old sailors and sol- and other public servants were pre-;H pre-;H one-half of these were "aged, feeble efficient," according to Sir Robert His bill, passed that year, reformed fttem. InlS there was another ' re- |