A deputation of members of Parliament and other gentle- men
waited last week on Sir George Grey, to represent the brutality occasionally displayed by the police. It is asserted that the police regularly levy "black .mail" from the street- . walkers, and any one refusing it is seized under the Act for tho prevention of "annoyance," locked up, and discharged next morning by the magistrate without a chance of redress. It was recently elicited, during some legal proceedings; that between August, 1856, and August, 1857, the policemen had carried away 9,500 women as prostitutes without proof of the charge, and without a chance of thq, sufferers, if innocent, obtaining redress. There is probably a little exaggeration in these statements, but there seems little doubt that it is in their conduct under the Act 2 and 3 Vie., cap. 47, that the police need most surveillance.
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