Charlies to Bobbies 155Parliament in July 1831 and a delegation from the parish delivered another
to Home Secretary Lord Melbourne in December 1832. In the latter, the
vestry declared: 'a Force such as this must be incompatible with the Uberty
of the Subject. It differs from a Military Force only in Name ... .'^40 Thus
Hackney's consistent opposition to the new police contrasts with the steady
support of the police in St Giles and Bloomsbury and the changing views of
the St Marylebone vestry.
Even in Hackney, however, the initial transfer of power from local author-
ities to the Commissioners of Police went smoothly. The Paving Commis-
sioners for the East Division of Southwark tried a last dodge by claiming that
they were 'within the Jurisdiction of the City of London and entitled to all its
privileges ... the provisions of the [Metropolitan Police Act] ... cannot be
extended to and put in force within the said Division'. Peel's response was
unequivocal: the parishes policed by the Paving Commissioners were listed
by name in the act and thus 'subject to all the Provisions of that Act'.^41
Watchhouses became police stations. Parishes paid off their watchmen and
auctioned off their equipment.^42 The issue of cost was not disposed of as
easily as the watchmen's coats.
Once the new police were installed in a parish, the Commissioners were
authorized to levy a police rate on each parish, collected with the poor rate.
The police rate was not to exceed eight pence in the pound on the rack rent,
based on county rate assessments. Overseers of the poor were responsible
for collecting rates and paying the assessed amount to the Police Receiver
within 40 days of receiving the Commissioner's warrant.^43 To the Commons,
Peel had asserted, 'he was confident that it [the police rate] would be much
less than the present watch-rates'.^44 When the first warrants for the police
rate went out in October 1829, many parishes were shocked by the amounts
demanded. St Marylebone had spent, on average, £9000 annually for its
policing in the 1820s.^45 When the new police took over, the parish was
rated at over £11 700 for the first six months of its operation. The vestry
clerk's letter to Robert Peel is worth quoting at length because it explains the
dilemma for local authorities, even those who approved of the new police:
By direction of the vestry of St Marylebone I beg to inform you that the
Police Commissioners have applied to them for the sum of £11,700. The
Sum which would have been expended on the Old Watch between the
present time and Christmas would have been rather more than £2000, and
therefore the Police Commissioners require £9500 more than would other-
wise have been wanted in that time. The Rates of St. Marylebone have
hitherto been made only once a year and the money collected weekly in
about equal Sums, being little more than is wanted for the Current
Expenditure. It would therefore be exceedingly inconvenient to the Parish
to pay the Sum of £11,700 at once. They have applied to the Police