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

Charlies to Bobbies 159

Metropolitan Police Act stated that the function of the new force would be

'preventing Robberies and other Felonies'.^71 For local authorities and resi-

dents, fining offensive stage coach and omnibus drivers, moving on fruit

sellers and vagrants, and arresting drunks were important parts of policing

as well.^72 And the Metropolitan Police gradually took on those tasks.

'llial and error, a sharing of ideas and practical suggestions, the interaction

between theory and practice were all part and parcel of the early years of the

Metropolitan Police as well, as it had been for the night watch. It was a

process that Sir Robert Peel and the Police Commissioners consciously

fostered in their patient efforts to respond to legitimate complaints and

concerns. Peel, for example, met with a delegation from St Luke, Old Street,

to hear complaints about the cost and inefficiency of his new force. The

delegation reported to the vestry that they had 'been received with respect

and had been listened to with attention by Mr Peel'. Peel could not lower

their police rate but he assured them that their complaints about increased

robberies would be looked into and

that everything that could be done to give the Parish satisfaction by

improving the System of Police should be done and that he would direct

the Commissioners of Police to confer with the 'D:ustees on the Subject,

and that any Suggestions which the 'D:ustees could make for improving the

Watch and for giving additional Security to Inhabitants should be attended

to.^73

This kind of public relations work did a great deal to ease the transition from
the night watch to the new police.
The Commissioners were active in their own defence as well. In 1834, a
pamphlet appeared entitled The Metropolitan Police: Its Expenses Examined;
Its Efficiency Questioned; and Several Objections Discussed. The author was
an anonymous 'Vestryman of St Anne's, Limehouse'. Of its 92 pages, how-
ever, 21 relate to the speech given by the author in support of the new police
at a vestry meeting on 30 April 1834. The other 71 pages are copies of
correspondence from the Commissioners of Police, the Commissioner's
orders to the force, and letters sent to the Commissioners praising the police
as a whole or the actions of individual policemen. The author must have had
the cooperation of the Commissioners to produce such documents. In his
introduction, the author defended them: 'The Commissioners attempted to
influence the judgment of the writer only by answers to his inquiries, and
furnishing him with such documents as he required.'^74 He also admits,
however, that the Commissioners 'are anxious to conciliate public
favour .. .'.^75 While it is not surprising that the Commissioners used propa-
ganda, it is significant that they chose for their spokesman a vestryman. When
the Commissioners sent a copy to Peel, Rowan wrote: 'We take the liberty of