A Hundred Years Ago
TIIE SPECTATOR, APRIL 18TH, 1829.
NEWS Or THE WF.R17..
On Wednesday, Mr. Peel introduced a new Police Bill for the Metropolis ; and made an elaborate exhibition of the statistics of crime, and the deplorable faults of that system of police under which London and its environs have become one vast school and theatre for thieves.
Various Committees have inquired into this subject ; but as most of them originated in the excitement of some extraordinary crime, their labours ended nearly where they began—the excitement passed away, and the subject itself was forgotten. At last, however, the evil has grown to an extent which demands the immediate and peremptory interference of the Legislature. Among the causes of the increase of crime (which, though Mr. Peel laid much to the account of the police, he did not pretend to trace accurately in detail), the celebrated march of intellect was enumerated—the progress of refinement, and the improvement in all those mechanical arts by which the perpetration of crimes is assisted.
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