108 Before the BobbiesThe government had been using domestic spies and informers since the
1790s but that was not generally known until 1817-18.2^6 Domestic spies,
like informers and centralized ~olice forces, were something found in
'despotic countries', not England.^7 Public outcry was loud and widespread.
For Bennett's Committee on the Police of the Metropolis to equate centra-
lized policing with spying is indicative of how suspect an idea centralization
was and why many were reluctant to hand more power to an administration
seen as untrustworthy.^28
For many in the administration, the combined fears of rising crime and
radicalism overcame loyalties to the old amateur system. The government
hoped to rely on loyal volunteers to control the crowds and suppress what
they saw as imminent revolution. But where this tactic had worked during
the war, when the enemy was Napoleon, it was woefully inadequate when the
'enemy' was parliamentary reform.
Lord Sidmouth, Home Secretary from 1812 to 1822, came to office with a
strong belief in the Thry position on law enforcement - the best defenders of
lives and property were the unpaid magistrates and constables, the volunteer
defence associations. This not only suited the conservatism of the Liverpool
government, volunteer forces cost the government little. The military were
always to be the last resort. However, the cumulative effect of the post-war
disorders was crucial in convincing him and others, like the Duke of
Wellington and Robert Peel, that professional policing was less dangerous
than unreliable volunteers. Law enforcement was best served when the
central government took an active role and did not rely solely on local
authorities, given the unreliability of some local officials.
There were two problems for the government - the reluctance of house-
holders to serve without some compensation for their time and trouble and
the politically divisive nature of the issues behind post-war disorders. In
March 1815, at the time of the Com Law debates, Sidmouth asked several
vestries in London to assist the government by swearing in special constables.
In StJames, Piccadilly, the names of 250 residents were chosen from the lists
of ratepayers. Given its location, Piccadilly undoubtedly had a stake in seeing
that order was maintained around Parliament. The vestry also requested that
Lord Bathhurst gather up the remnants of the StJames Loyal Volunteer
Association and it sent two vestrymen, Robert Johnson and John Willock,
both magistrates, to inform Sidmouth what steps the parish had taken and to
ask if any money was available for reimbursing the special constables. Sid-
mouth responded that there would be no funds from the Home Office for
special constables, 'as Mercenaries his Lordship thought were not the proper
Persons to be entrusted with authority or to have the care of the lives and
properties of His Majesty's Subjects'.2^9
Even in Piccadilly, in the middle of the Com Law riots, householders were
not eager to act 'in aid of the civil authorities'. Hugh Hammersley, MP and