72 Before the Bobbies
unemployment, the Poor Laws, prison reform, corruption among magis-
trates, as well as suggesting reforms in street policing. He described his
work as a 'noble plan of police, for the prevention of great crimes, by the
due correction of little ones'.^93 Sir William Blizard, a well-known surgeon
authored a pamphlet in 1785, Desultory Reflections on Police, which criticized
corrupt magistrates and constables, overcrowded prisons, the Poor Law, and
the lack of morals and manners.^94 Edward Sayer wanted to combine the
functions of the Court of Burgesses and the Westminster bench of justices to
provide a more hierarchical and respectable criminal justice system.^95
Reformers argued for more numerous and vigilant forces of constables,
patrols, and ·watchmen.^96 The unknown author of Outlines for a Plan for
Patroling offered the most detailed proposal, suggesting the creation of a new
force of men to patrol metropolitan streets. A key part of this plan was to
make the job of patrol strictly disciplined but well-paid, with benefits such as
sick pay and old age pension:
when Reward is annexed to a faithful discharge of Duty, and Punishment
is the immediate Consequence of ill Conduct; when Provision is made for
Infirmities or old Age, and trifling Honours or Immunities, which cost
nothing, are bestowed on the most deserving Members of so necessary an
Institution; Ambition to obtain some Rank in Society, will insure to the
Public all the Benefits of an honest Emulation.^97The author also wanted to see more severe penalties for anyone, 'of any
Rank', who insulted or assaulted a patrol, 'to give a little additional Con-
sequence to this useful Body of Men'.^98
The Outlines of a Plan also suggested a variation in the use of two shifts
of men. The author urged the use of double the number of men, so that
half could watch one night, half the next. He explained: 'The incessant
Fatigue of Watching every Night, must inevitably be productive of a Languor
little Compatible with the vigilant Exertion to be expected from a useful
Guard.'^99 The men would be supervised by constables and Sergeants,
wear uniforms, and carry cutlasses and carbines. Each parish in the City
would be divided into districts that the men could patrol completely in
one hour.^100 Most of these suggestions were not original. However,
more parishes took seriously the need to increase the certainty with which
crime would be prevented or observed and criminals thus arrested, as
reformers urged.
First, many speculative reformers increasingly saw the problems of crime
and its prevention in London as regional, calling for greater centralization of
police authority. Hanway urged the government to hire 20 magistrates to act
for greater London, four chief magistrates, each assisted by four subor-
dinates and any amateur JPs who wished to sit.^101 London's crime problem
was thus increasingly seen as a metropolitan rather than parochial problem.