30 NOVEMBER 1867, Page 2

The Times and Telegraph alike demand a large increase to

the Metropolitan Police, which now numbers only 7,000 men, scat- tered over 700 square miles of thickly populated ground. Not more than half of these men can be on duty at once ; there are whole districts where it is necessary to send policemen in pairs, and a proportion are always in hospital or under treatment. The number should be raised to 10,000, and at least 1,000 armed and employed as a night patrol to support the regular staff. The diffi- culty is to find the money, London being already heavily taxed, but it must be got over somehow. Would a metage tax on salt, like the one on corn, be oppressive, or must we double the shilling on wine ?