160 Before the Bobbies
sending you a little Pamphlet which has just appeared in favour of the
Police ..•. We have no doubt what ever that the result would be similar in
every parish ... if any Vestryman would take the matter up in a similar
manner.'^76 It was important to the Commissioners that local leaders be
seen to support them. This mattered because many of the most visible and
vocal opponents of the new police were also vestrymen.
The Commissioners kept a close eye on meetings and other activities of
those who opposed the new police. They collected copies of broadsides
announcing meetings and reports about what occurred at these meetings
and who the leaders of the opposition were?^7 In a letter to Under-Secretary
Phillips in 1830, Rowan characterized opposition meetings as 'very small
... in comparison with the numbers which might have attended' and the
people who spoke at them as 'notoriously disaffected or turbulent charac-
ters'. He assured Phillips the Commissioners had received information that
many residents were favourably disposed towards the Metropolitan Police,
petitions were dropped 'as untenable', and 'Parochial Authorities express
themselves perfectly satisfied with the new system both with respect to
expense and efficiency'. Rowan ended this letter by insisting 'that however
desirous they are of adopting any useful suggestions from whatever quarter it
may come, they have not hitherto received any which have not fallen con-
siderably short of the system previously established'?^8 Yet the Commis-
sioners did make changes in the way in which their officers and men
carried out their duties, responding to suggestions, complaints, and advice
from local authorities and residents. So while the Commissioners may have
wanted to emphasize the difference between their force and the watch at
times, the realities of street policing and the expectations of the various
interest groups in the community enhanced the continuity between the old
and new.
Like the watch, the Metropolitan Police were viewed first as a force for
preventing property crime, not riot control. The Select Committee on the
Police of the Metropolis was appointed in 1834 to investigate whether
the Metropolitan Police were effective. This committee included many of
the same men who had been on the 1828 Select Committee, including Sir
Robert Peel. The Committee concluded that the new police were indeed a
worthwhile body. Their evidence did not come from descriptions of how the
police had handled the disorder surrounding the passage of the Reform Bill
but from statistics about burglary. The Committee's Report announced: 'The
object then, long sought, viz. an efficient and systematic establishment of
Police, has been practically attained; and there is abundant evidence to show
that the result has been, a more adequate protection of property, and the
successful commencement of a methodized system of Police, first for the
prevention, and secondly for the detection of crime.'^79