30 Before the Bobbies
this time ... '.^1 Even though post-war crime waves were expected, the level of
anxiety, as expressed in pamphlets, newspapers, and letters, was noticeably
higher in this period. Nicholas Rogers notes that contemporaries 'were
disturbed by the ubiquitous and audacious character of street and highway
robbery, its accompanying violence, the impunity with which casually formed
gangs were allowed to operate, and the threat it posed to the security of
property and the maintenance of social order'.^2 In speeches given in 1750,
1751, and 1753, the King called Parliament's attention to rising crime rates.
In 1751, he said: 'I cannot conclude without recommending to you in the
most earnest Manner, to consider seriously of some effectual Provisions to
suppress those audacious Crimes of Robbery and Violence, which are now
become so frequent, especially about this great Capital ... .'^3 The end of the
Seven Years' War in 1763 brought another short-term upswing in the crim-
inal indictments, primarily for property crime.^4 In 1 n2, the Annual Register
commented:
It is worthy of observation, that during the two last years of the last war,
viz. 1759, 1760, the number of criminals condemned at the Old Bailey
amounted to 29 only, and the days of the judges attendance to 46; but that
during the two last years of peace, viz. 1770, 1771, the number of criminals
condemned have amounted to 151 and the days of the judges attendance
to 99.^5
This crime wave can, in part, be explained by several factors. First, three
things combined in mid-century to make life especially difficult for the
labouring poor of London - the discharge of thousands of soldiers and
sailors after each war into an already crowded labour market, a rising
population, and dearth that Jed to high food prices, especially in 1766--68
and 1772-74.^6 Next, harder to quantify, is the role of the press. Peter King, in
a study of Colchester, and Nicholas Rogers have both argued persuasively
that the way in which newspapers reported crimes and the extent to which
they focused on criminal and policing activity could have had significant
impact on the public perception of crime as a problem. Rogers points out
that the Whitehall Evening Press focused its attention on more violent crime
and those instances where the wealthy were victims, thus creating an image
of criminality that seemed to be consciously directed at the propertied elite.^7
King notes that, with the absence of war news, the papers in Colchester
chose to fill their columns with accounts of crime of an increasingly sensa-
tional nature.^8 Thus, some of the belief in rising crime could be accounted
for by the growing numbers of newspapers, with more and more sensational
stories focused on such 'depredations.'
The extent to which crowds also helped to make criminal justice an issue
of public concern has been debated. John Wilkes emerged in the 1760s as a
symbol of opposition and a leader in Radical politics and proved to be very