Note 161 — CHAP. XVII.

The Select Committee of the House of Commons on Finance, in their 28th Report (already repeatedly quoted), appear to be very strongly impressed with the necessity of Police Magistrates, and a Concurrent Jurisdiction for the City of London.—They express themselves in the following words: "It is further to be stated, that a considerable defect is felt in the Police of the Metropolis, from the limited jurisdiction of the present Magistrates in every part of it, and from the want of an Institution similar to that of the Police Offices to be established in the City of London, as was originally intended and proposed: that the delay which necessarily takes place in obtaining the sanction of the local Magistracy in either case, to the warrants of those presiding in other districts, operates in all cases to the advantage of offenders against the Laws, and to the obstruction of Public Justice: add to which, that the numerous and important avocations, both public and private, of the truly respectable Magistracy of the City, is too often inconsistent with that constant and unremitting attention which the due preservation of the Police of the Metropolis requires. That it would be unfortunate indeed if any local jealousy founded upon no just grounds, though entertained by honourable minds, should continue to deprive even the Inhabitants of the City itself, as well as those of the rest of the Metropolis, of that security which a more permanent attendance, and a perfect intercommunity of Jurisdiction in Criminal matters between the Magistrates of every part of the Metropolis, and of the five adjoining Counties, could not fail to produce."—See p. 13, 28th Report, 26th of June, 1798.