90 Before the Bobbiesof reformed prisons, public prosecutors, surveillance of lodging houses, as
well as forces of men to patrol the streets.^42 But Colquhoun also envisioned a
'Municipal Police' and a 'Pauper Police' that would have regulated paving,
education, charities, sewers, buildings, and poor relief.^43 Colquhoun under-
stood 'police' to include 'those other Functions which relate to Internal
Regulations for the well ordering and comfort of Civil Society' as well as
the prevention and detection of crime.^44 This was more akin to Dr Johnson's
definition of police as 'regulation and government' or Jonas Hanway's under-
standing of ~olice as 'good regulations for the economy and preservation of
the people'.^5
Colquhoun's suggested reforms reflect a range of inspiration: Sir John
Fielding's criminal information network, Jeremy Bentham's penal reforms
and Jonas Hanway's poor law reforms.^46 Colquhoun had little to say, though,
about the night watch. He had some familiar criticisms - constables were
unreliable and corrupt, watchmen and patrols were unfit, and police author-
ity too disjointed across London. What Colquhoun suggested in order to
address these problems, with one exception, was already being done. He
argued:
it would seem only to be necessary to lay down apposite legislative rules,
with respect to age or ability, character, wages, rewards for useful service, and
general superintendence, in order to establish that species of additional
security which would operate as a more effectual means of preventing
crimes within the Metropolis.^47
As we have seen, parishes like St Marylebone and St James, Piccadilly,
grappled with these long before Patrick Colquhoun published his work. By
the tum of the century, some parochial reforms had even gone further than
Colquhoun's suggestions to improve the surveillance capability of the watch,
with the use of double shifts and rotating beats.
The exception was 'general superintendence'. Colquhoun, a good
Benthamite, advocated centralized policing. He acknowledged the benefit
of having knowledgeable local men on the streets:
So far as this goes, it ought not to be disturbed. But it is also necessary to
consider the Metropolis as a great Whole, and to combine the organs of
Police which at present exist, in such a manner, by a general superintend-
ence, as to give equal encouragement, and to instil one principle of
universal energy into all its parts.^48Colquhoun proposed creation of a Central Board of Police to supervise and
coordinate the night watch. High Constables would become paid officers of
the Police Board and oversee petty constables and the night watch. The
system of stipendiary magistrates should extend to the City of London (with
the consent of the Lord Mayor and Aldermen). Colquhoun did not address