Before the Bobbies. The Night Watch and Police Reform in Metropolitan London, 1720-1830

(^110) Before the Bobbies
Sidmouth wrote in the wake of Peterloo: 'the power of the Law must be
strengthened and suited to the Danger -If it be not, the Doom of the Nation
will be a Military Government or Anarchy.'^36 The law was strengthened
when Parliament later that session passed the infamous Six Acts. Military
drilling and training in the use of arms was made illegal and magistrates
could search for and seize arms without a warrant. The penalties for sediti-
ous libel were increased as were the stamp duties in an effort to limit the
circulation of radical publications. The Seditious Meetings Act forbade all
public meetings of more than fifty people with the exceptions of county
meetings called by a Lord-Lieutenant or a Sheriff and meetings of parish
residents.^37
Peterloo was the most convincing evidence to date of the unreliability and
inefficiency of volunteers as peace keepers. During the war, a considerable
spectrum of social classes and political opinions could be subsumed under
the banners of patriotic loyalty, in volunteer corps and the militia service.3^8
After 1815, however, the 'enemy' was not the French but reform. Volunteers
like the Manchester Yeomanry thus appeared to be defending the status quo
and the interests of the party in power. Peterloo confirmed for Whigs and
Radicals that the use of loyal volunteers for policing purposes was in-
appropriate. Even more importantly, however, Peterloo convinced many
conservative Tories that the time had come to find alternative ways to
maintain public order.
Sidmouth conceded to George Canning in December 1819 that volunteers
were no longer the solution to disorder. He wrote: 'I concur entirely in the
Duke of Portland's opinion that "the Disease is far beyond the reach of
Special Constables .... " '^39 Using the military for routine maintenance of
public order, however, was not a viable, long-term option because of the
constitutional questions and the expense. There were also fears that radical-
ism had made inroads into the army. Wellington wrote in 1820 to Lord
Liverpool:
... we and the public have reason to doubt in the fidelity of the troops, the
only security we have, not only against revolution but for the property and
life of every individual in the country who has anything to lose .... In my
opinion the Government ought, without the loss of a moment's time, to
adopt measures to form either a police in London or military corps, which
should be of a different description from the regular military force, or
both.40
Thus a significant sector of opinion in the Thry government was increasingly
convinced that the institutions of law enforcement needed reform.
However, being convinced of the need for change and being able to carry
it out did not always coincide. A major constraint on the government was
fmance. The wars with France lasted longer and cost more than any previous