POLICE is that department of government which has for its object to secure the safety, peace, and convenience of the community. We have hero to do with this its primary object, namely, the prevention of crime and the pursuit of offenders ; but besides this the police system is subservient to other purposes, such as the suppression of mendicancy, the preservation of order in great thoroughfares, the removal of and nuisances, and the enforcing of those local and general laws which relate to the public health and comfort. [MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS.] In the Anglo-Saxon times the whole community was called upon to aid in protecting life and property ; and the spirit of this system, though the system is no longer applicable to the existing state of society, still characterises this department of our institutions. The object of the present notice will be to give some account of the former and present constitution of the police in England.
In the Anglo-Saxon period the sheriff of each county, chosen by the freeholders in the folkmote, was the chief officer responsible for the conservation of the peace; and in his half-yearly visitations to each hundred in the county, he inquired whether there was any relaxation in the efficiency of the means in use for this object. The hundred originally consisted of ten divisions, each containing ten freeholders, mutually pledged to repress delinquencies within their district. All males above the age of twelve were obliged to appear at the sheriff's visitation, to state the district to which they belonged, and to be sworn to keep the peace. One out of every ten freeholders had precedency of his companions, and the whole were bound to bring delinquents to justice within thirty days on pain of being themselves liable to penalties. The population was thinly scattered; every man was known to his neighbours ; no man could depart from his dwelling without the consent of his fellow-pledges; and the consent of the sheriff was necessary to enable a man legally to go out of his own county. No man could enter a neighbourhood without being recognised as a stranger, and probably exciting suspicion ; and this suspicion, quickened by the responsibility of the freeholders, soon caused a hue and cry if the stranger could give no good account of himself. [HUE AND CRT.] After the Conquest, the advantages of the system were recognised by several of the Norman kings, particularly by William I., aud by Henry I. in the early part of his reign. The former ordered that every ,freeman should be under pledges, and the latter that views of frank pledge should be taken in order that none might escape responsibility. Bit a great innovation was made in the Anglo-Saxon system when the sheriff, instead of being elected by the freeholders, was appointed directly by the king. Doubtless he would generally be a Norman, and therefore indisposed to meet the people in their popular courts : at all events the sheriff's " tourn," or half-yearly visitation, came in no long time to be neglected.
When, Henry I. instituted the office of justices-itinerant [CONSER VATORS OF THE PEACE 1, the functions of the sheriff became of still less importance. Byte stat. Merton, c. 10, passed 20th Henry III. (1236), freemen who owed suit to the cuunty or hundred court were allowed to appear by attorney. The stat. Marl. cc. I0 and 25 passed in the 52 Henry 111. (1268), dispensed with the attendance of the baronage and clergy at the sheriff's court unless their attendance was specially required ; and it also prohibited the justices-itinerant from amercing townships on account of persons above the age of twelve years not having been sworn in pledges for keeping the peace. By these various measures the ancient system was greatly impaired ; and the new laws which were introduced from time to time for tho purpose of repressing crime do not seem to have been very successful. In 1277, nine years
after the passing of the statute of Marlebridge, the absence of " quick and fresh pursuit " of felons is noticed as an evil which was increasing. To supply the energy and alacrity of the old system, fines and penalties were imposed by the stat. Westminster, prim. 3 Edward I., sec. a, on all who neglected to pursue offenders. The statute directs that " all generally be ready and apparelled at the commandment and summons of the sheriffs, and at the cry of the county, to pursue and arrest any felons when any need is." The statute of Winchester, I3 Edward I. (1285), endeavoured to maintain the spirit of the Anglo-Saxon laws by making the county or hundred responsible in case of a delinquent not being forthcoming, and the duty of apprehending him was cast upon all the king's subjects. This statute also regulated the office of con stable, an officer who had succeeded the Anglo-Saxon hundred or tything-man. [CoNsTentE.] The constables were directed what measures they were to take for preventing crime and keeping the peace. In every town, village, aud tything they were to set a watch according to the size of the place, every night from Ascension till Dlichaelmas, from sunset to sunrise; and the watchmen were to apprehend and examine all strangers, and on their refusal to obey the summons of the watchmen, they might levy hue and cry to take them. The gates of all walled towns were to be shut from sunset to sunrise : the highways were to be kept clear of bushes, woods, or dykes for the space of two hundred feet from hedge to hedge, so that felons might not conceal themselves. Every man was to have arms in his house for preserving the peace ; and the constables were empowered to take the view of such arms. The prevention of crime, as well as the pursuit of criminals, was also one of the primary duties of constables, and they were charged to make presentment at the assizes, sessions of the peace, or leet, of all blood-sheddings, affrays, outcries, rescues, and other offences against the peace. The justices to whom these presentments were made in the first instance, reported directly to the justices-itinerant, or at once to the king or his privy-council ; and the supreme executive made provisions accordingly. At the same time the responsibility cast upon the hundred quickened the of the inhabitants ; and this responsibility extended to individuals in many rases. The following extracts from the Year-Books of the Exchequer are instances of this " 16 Edward I., Sussex : murder and robbery—township of Tyndon amerced, because it happened by day, and they did not take the offender." " 6 Edward II., Kent : man slaughter (upon a sudden quarrel) committed in the highway of NVrotham —three bystanders amerced because they were present when the aforesaid Robert killed the aforesaid Jelin, and did net take him." And in the reigu of Elizabeth the popular vigilance which this system had created leads a writer of that day to remark that "every English man is a serjeaut to take the thief, and who showed' negligence therein do not only incur evil opinion thereof, but hardly shall escape punish ment." when the Anglo-Saxon system of mutual protection had fallen to decay, the spirit of vigilance which characterised it was In some measure replaced by the greater energy and activity of the supreme executive. In process of time, however, grad social and political, and, it may be added, physical changes have rendered both systems equally incapable of effecting the objects for which they were intended.