Mr. Lowe on Thursday addressed to the Fishmongers' Company a
humorous but disagreeable speech in defence of the Police. He reminded his audience that London was a country rather- than a town, and that a Continental ruler would think it ilr garrisoned without 200,000 men, whereas we had only 8,000. So- efficient had been their services, that while in 1831, with 1,500,000, people, there were 72,000 arrests for different offences, last year, with 4,000,000, there were only 78,000. London was a great sea-port and a great manufacturing town, and it could not be kept in the order it was kept in if the police were not in the main good men, and had not in the main secured the confidence of the public. If they expected to get accom- plished lawyers, finished gentlemen, and experts in medical dia- gnosis for 25s. a week, why "he wished they might get them.'' Much of this is true, and some injustice has been recently done- the Police ; but how does that meet the popular charge, namely,. that the truthfulness of the police has diminished? The charge may be entirely erroneous, but Mr. Lowe does not meet it,— rather he encourages the policeman to believe that he cannot be efficient because he has only 25s. a week. All we have pleaded for is for more office's, not more men,—officers who shall be specially selected for intelligence and temper, who shall be thoroughly well paid, and whose posts shall be objects of ambi- tion to the whole force.
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