COLQUHOUN, PATRICK, a statist mid political economist, was born at Dumbarton, on the 14th of March 1745. He appearst to have in his youth struggled with difficulties, which prevented his receiving a liberal education. At an early period of life—apparently when ho was little more than sixteen years old—he endeavoured to push his fortune iu the colony of Virginia. Iu 1760 he returned to Scotland and settled in Glasgow, where he subsequently became instrumental in the establishment of a coffee-house or news-room, the Exchange, the Chamber of Commerce, and various other public institutions. He afterwards visited the continent, with the view of making his country men acquainted with the species of textile fabrics which would give our manufactures the best chances of success in the contioental mar kets; and the subsequent rise and progress of our muslin trade are said to have becu produced by his exertions on that occasion. In 1789 ho settled in London, where he soon afterwards directed his attention to the important question, whether the various police sys tems of the metropolis were as efficient as they might be made towards tho accomplishment of their legitimate end—the suppression of crime. He was one of the three stipendiary justices of peace appolnted in 1792. In 1796 he published his welbknown work, A Treatise on the Police of the Metropolis, explaining the various crimes and misdemeanours which at present are felt as a pressure on the community, and suggesting remedies.' In a letter to Lord Col
cheater, in 1709, Bentham states that 7500 copies of this work had then been sold. Although changes both in the police regulations and the state of society have superseded the information contained in this work, it is still frequently referred to, and its statistical data, and views of the proper principles of police regulations, had much influence in the furtherance of that reform of the metropolitan police which took place so many years after the book was published. In 1800 he drew, with the assistance of Bentham, of whom he was a valued friend, the Thames Police Act (40 Geo. III. c. 87), a measure now understood to have been suggested by Mr. Harriot. In the same year he published, 'A Treatise on the Commerce and Police of the River Thames; containing an Historical View of the Trade of the Port of London; and suggesting means of preventing the depredations thereon, by a legislative system of River Police.' Mr. Colquhoun was a great promoter of the system of charity-schools, holding the opinion, which is every day obtaining additional adherents, that the education of the people is the main protection of society from those social evils which penal legislation can but partially cure when they have broken out. He died on the 25th of April 1820.