The War lears, 1793-1815 85English radicalism and reinvigorated conservatism. Events in France encour-
aged 'the propagation of a more articulate conservative ideology ... a con-
servative ideology of considerable appeal, endurance and intellectual
power'.^3 The appeal of this conservatism included its insistence that the
primary function of the state was the protection of property through the
rule of law and the maintenance of order.^4 Most of England's radicals did
not dispute this. The desire of Whigs and working-class Radicals for a more
representative political order did not usually translate into a wish for funda-
mental economic or social reform.^5 Even Radicals defined theft as a crime.
However the old dilemma of how to balance liberty and order was tilted by
the extent to which Thries and some Whigs were now willing to sacrifice
traditional liberties for the sake of order. Ironically, conservatives opened
themselves to the charge of being innovators while Foxite Whigs could claim
to be defenders of tradition.
After the failure of the 1785 Police Bill, the government's first successful
change in London's policing was the passage of the 1792 Middlesex Justices
Act.^6 The government had funded professional magistrates and constables at
Bow Street for some time and county magistrates had been holding regular
hours at 'rotation offices' since the 1760s. Using more professional magis-
trates had been suggested to the Home Office as early as 1782.^7 The 1792 Act
established seven Police Offices, each staffed by three stipendiary magistrates
and six constables.^8 Conservatives approved this extension of central govern-
ment authority because of the apparently unprecedented high crime rates
and low magisterial performance in Middlesex. Although there is no direct
evidence linking the Middlesex Justices Act to the government's campaign
against English radicals and reformers, the coincidence in timing cannot be
ignored. Fears about events in France and the spread of domestic radicalism
must have worked to the government's advantage. Nicholas Rogers has noted
in his study of the vagrancy laws: 'The initiatives of the 1790s revealed a
greater confidence in the capacities for regulation and reform than hitherto.'^9
Opponents of the act positioned themselves as the defenders of traditional
English liberties and protectors of the people from abusive government
power. In defending traditional local law enforcement, Charles James Fox
and Sir Francis Burdett made common cause with a Wilkite reform heritage
that emphasized individual liberty, public accountability, and consent.^10
Whig and Radical concern for traditional liberties and local institutions
also fit with the idea that reform should return England's constitution to
what it had been before the 'Norman yoke' of centralized monarchy enslaved
freeborn Englishmen.^11 ·
The Middlesex Justices Act of 1792 marks a significant movement toward
centralization and professionalization of law enforcement forces under direct
government control. Along with the office in Bow Street, there were now
Police Offices in Queen Square, Hatton Garden, Shadwell, Whitechapel,