made to execute the wairants of magistrates; as can be proved by incontestible evidence. It is greatly to be feared, that too much success attended these corrupt and fraudulent proceedings, in violation and defiance of the laws of the kingdom. Colquhoun.

MAGISTRATES, THEIR NUMBER, DUTY, &c. Twenty-six magistrates, forming that respectable body, comprehending the lord mayor and aldermen, sit in rotation every forenoon, at the mansion-house and at Guildhall, and take cognizance of all matters of police within the ancient jurisdiction of the city of London; while twenty-six established magistrates, appointed for every other part of the metropolis, including the river police, having particular offices, or courts of justice, assigned them, at convenient distances in Westminster, Middlesex, and Surry, sit every day, Sunday excepted, both in the morning and evening, for the purpose of executing all the multifarious duties connected with the office of a justice of the peace, which unavoidably occur in large societies.

The marine police magistrates, on account of the extent of the establishment and the number of river officers under their controul, never leave the office from the time that business commences in the morning until a late hour in the evening.

This institution of established justices, except with regard to the three magistrates at Bow Street and the justices at the marine police office, was suggested to the legislature in consequence of the pressure felt by the public from the want of some regular and properly-constituted tribunals for the -distribution of justice, where the system should be uniform, and where the purity of the magistrates

and

and their regular attendance might insure to the people the adjustment of their differences at the least possible expence, and the assistance of gratuitous advice in every difficulty; as well as official aid in all cases within the sphere of the magistrates in their respective districts.

The duty of these established magistrates, in conjunction with other justices of the peace, who find it convenient to give their assistance, extends also to several important judicial proceedings; where, in a great variety of instances, they are empowered and required to hear and determine in a summary way; particularly in cases relative to the customs, excise, and stamps; the game laws; hawkers and pedlars; pawnbrokers; friendly societies; highways; hackney coaches, carts, and other carriages; quakers and others refusing to pay tythes, appeals of defaulters in parochial rates; misdemeanours committed by persons unlawfully pawning property not their own; bakers for short weight, &c.; journeymen leaving their services in different trades; labourers not complying with their agreements; disorderly apprentices; alehouse keepers keeping disorderly houses; nuisances by different acts of parliament; acts of vagrancy by fraudulent lottery insurers; fortune-tellers; or persons of evil fame found in avenues to public places, with an intent to rob; as well as a multitude of other offences, in which justices have power to proceed to conviction and punishment, either by fine or imprisonment.

The duty of the magistrates also extends to a vast number of other objects; such as licensing publichouses, and establishing rules and orders for publicans; watching over the conduct of publicans; swearing in, charging, and instructing, parochial constables

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constables and head boroughs from year to year, with regard to their duty; issuing warrants for privy searches; and in considering the cases of persons charged with being disorderly persons, or rogues and vagabonds, liable to be punished under the act of the 17th of George II, cap. 5, and subsequent acts of parliament; in making orders to parish officers, beadles, and constables, in a variety of cases; in parish removals; in billeting soldiers; in considering the cases of poor persons applying for assistance or admission to workhouses; in granting certificates and orders to the wives of persons serving in the militia, and also in attesting recruits for the army; in attending the general and quarter sessions of the peace, and in visiting the workhouses, bridewells, and prisons.

The magistrates at the marine police confine their attention almost wholly to the cognizance of offences either committed on the river or connected with maritime affairs and his majesty's stores in the public arsenals.

In addition to these various duties, many criminal cases occur in the course of a year which are examined for the purpose, if necessary, of being sent to superior tribunals for trial; such as charges of treason, murder, coining and uttering base money; arson, manslaughter, forgery, burglary, larceny, sedition, felonies of various descriptions, conspiracies, frauds, riots, assaults, and misdemeanors of different kinds: all which unavoidably impose upon every official magistrate a weight of business requiring great exertion and an unremitting attention to the public interest in the due execution of this very important trust.

When the police system was first established, in the year 1792, the public mind became impressed

with an idea that the chief, if not the only, object of the institution was, to prevent robberies, burglaries, and other atrocious offences; and that the suppression of those crimes which bore hardest upon society and were most dreaded by the public at large, was to be the result. These expectations shewed that neither the powers nor authorities granted by the act of parliament, nor the other duties imposed upon the magistracy of the police, were understood. For this statute, useful as it certainly is, in a very high degree, in many other respects, does not contain even a single regulation applicable to the prevention of crimes, except that which relates to the apprehension of suspected characters, found in the avenues to public places, with intent to commit felony, who are liable to be punished as rogues and vagabonds; and even this provision does not extend to the city of London.

Colquhoun.

The greater the number of those who constitute the tribunal, the less is the danger of corruption; because the attempt will be more difficult and the power and temptation of each individual will be proportionably less. If the sovereign, by pomp and the austerity of edicts, and by refusing to hear the complaints of the oppressed, accustom his subjects to respect the magistrates more than the laws, the magistrates will gain indeed, but it will be at the expence of public and private security. Beccaria. See LAWS, &c.

MAIL-ROBBERS.

These are daring offenders who stop mail coaches and plunder both travellers and the bag. By means of accomplices, who frequent the different inns, &c

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they

they learn which of the travellers has most cash ; and consequently he becomes the principal mark. About the year 1785, a gentleman travelling from Liverpool to London was informed by a genteel person at supper that there were several highwaymen on the road, and therefore he advised him to conceal his money, showing at the same time that he had sewed up his in a part of his coat. The gentleman, having thanked him for his advice, said he would put his into his boot. The coach having been stopped, and the money of the different passengers demanded, this gentleman gave a trifle, saying it was all he had; but the highwayman replied, "No, Sir; there is more in your boot." Since every mail-coach has now a guard, the number of these depredators has been considerably diminished. We shall here subjoin an account of three malefactors who suffered for this offence, and were afterwards hung in chains.

JOSEPH GUYANT was a native of Essex, descended from honest but poor parents, who gave him as good an education as consisted with their circumst nces, and then bound him apprentice to a smith, with whom he served his time with fidelity, after which he laboured as a journeyman in his own profession.

Quitting the county of Essex, he repaired to Edmonton, near London, where he married, and commenced business on his own account. For a considerable time he was as successful in trade as could reasonably be expected, but at length sustained a loss to which he attributed all his future misfortunes.

Guyant, having been out receiving money from several people who employed him, was stopped on his return to his own house by two footpads, who

robbed