A Court of Common Council was held on Wednesday, to
discuss the report of the Committee upon Alderman Wood's bill for establish- ing a day and night Police in the city of London. The Committee had struck out a clause which gave the Magistrates a complete power over the Police. That power is now given to a committee of the Court of Aldermen and Common Council. Alderman Wood moved that the report should be approved of. The opposition to the bill had been very slight, and the meetings which were got up to oppose it were all ex parte. The saving which would be effected was 11,312/. per an- num. He ridiculed the idea that the numbers of the -Police would be disproportioned to the population of the city.
The population of the City was 123,656, and the numberof its Police was 400. The population of the district of Covent Garden was 61,618, and the Police 166; that of Westminster 51;618, and the Police 168; that of Holborn 7:3,000, while the Police reached 168. Now this comparison proved, that while the Metropolitan Police supplied 220 men to every 100,000, the City Po- lice gave no less titan 320.
He urged the necessity of passing the present bill, in order to pre- vent the interference of Government with the domestic management of the City. Mr. Peacock seconded the motion.
Mr. Legg opposed it, on the ground that the present system worked admirably,—that burglaries, street robberies, and all sorts of depreda- tions, had decreased in the City in a most remarkable degree. He in- sisted upon the necessity of having a Day Police of young men, but a Night Police of men of forty or fifty years of age, whose passions had cooled.
Mr. Deputy Hicks also considered the present bill unnecessary. He read a return of the number of persons apprehended by the New Police
in i the county, and the manner in which the charges were disposed of; he maintained, that many of them were frivolous and vexatious. The number of burglaries and robberies in the City, which escaped detec- tion, were far less than the number in the county. Mr. Charles Pearson approved of the measure for consolidating the Day and Night Police, but did not like all Mr. Wood's fantastical ar- rangements. The bill would sanction extravagant expenditure. Nine- pence in the pound would defray the expense of a Police body of 500 men ; and yet a shilling in the pound was asked to pay the charges of 400 men. He wished to make several amendments to the bill, some of whose provisions he thought were good.
The discussion was adjourned to Friday; when, after a debate of some length, between Mr. Richard Taylor, Mr. Williams, and Mr. Stacey, the previous question, moved by Mr. Legg, was put and carried by a considerable majority. So the bill was lost.
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