Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/115

 10 s. vii. FEB. 2, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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least so far as London is concerned. The Metropolitan Police Courts Act, 1839 (2 & 3 Viet. c. 71) which, together with the Metropolitan Police Act of the same year, reorganized the police and magistracy of the metropolis enacts in section 1 that

"the several police courts now established under the names of the public office in Bow Street and the police offices in the parishes of [enumerating them] shall be continued."

In the remainder of the Act and in later Acts " police court " is regularly used.

F. W. READ.

I should like to point out that I gave a quotation for " police court " at 10 S. vi. 433 from The Liverpool Journal of 1 Feb., 1834. A. H. ABKLE.

The following reference to statutes may be useful. No doubt in each case the expres- sion used in a statute for the first time was in more or less common use a few years before. I cannot find any Act establishing the Bow Street Office, nor can I beat MB. ABKLE' s date of 1834 for " police court," which DB. MUBBAY does not seem to have noticed. It will be seen that " police office " appears about 1800, " police constables " about 1821, " police magistrates " about 1825, and " police men " about 1829 ; while " police court " does not seem to appear in a statute until 1839. When did " police " itself appear ?

1792. 32 Geo. III. c. 53 provides for the establishment of seven " publick offices " in or near the parishes of St. Margaret, West- minster ; St. James, Westminster ; St. James, Clerkenwell ; St. Leonard, Shore- ditch ; St. Mary, Whitechapel ; St. Paul, Shadwell ; and St. Margaret's Hill, South- wark. Henceforth no fees to be taken, except at them, by any justice. This proviso was not to extend to "a certain Publick Office within the Liberty of West- minster known as The Publick Office in Bow Street."

1800. 39 & 40 Geo. III. c. 87 established " the Thames Police Office," a public office " of the nature of the several offices com- monly called Police Offices," instituted under the Act of 1792. Constables are not yet called policemen, but " Thames Police Surveyors " were appointed.

1802. 42 Geo. III. c. 76 refers to " the Thames Police Justices."

1808. 48 Geo. III. c. 140 established the " Police District of Dublin Metropolis," with a " Chief Magistrate of the Police " and " a Head Office of the Police," with six public offices.

1811. 51 Geo. III. c. 119 refers to "the Chief Magistrate of the Public Office in Bow Street " and his officers and " patrole."

1813. 53 Geo. HI. c. 72, whereby a sti- pendiary magistrate for Manchester and Salford was appointed, refers to the ad- ministration of " the police."

1814. 54 Geo. III. c. 131, which appointed superintending magistrates in Ireland, &c., speaks of the insufficiency of " the -ordinary police."

1821. In 1 & 2 Geo. IV. c. 118 the seven public offices established in 1792 are so called in the margin of the Act, but are called " police offices " in the text. A police office at St. Marylebone is substituted for that at Shadwell. The Bow Street Public Office is still so called. Thames " police constables " are mentioned.

1824. 5 Geo. IV. c. 102 refers to " con- stables and peace officers."

1825. 6 Geo. IV. c. 21 mentions in the margin " police magistrates."

1829. 10 Geo. IV. c. 44 established a new " police office " for the metropolis, with a " metropolitan police district," a " police force," and a " police rate" and " police men" are now referred to.

10 Geo. IV. c. 45 placed the horse and foot patrol of the public office at Bow Street under the new police office.

1836. 6 Will. IV. c. 13 consolidated the laws of the " constabulary force" in Ireland.

1839. 2 & 3 Viet. c. 47 speaks of magis- trates sitting at any " police court " in the Metropolitan Police District. Persons in custody were to be taken to the nearest " station house " by the constables whilst the police courts are shut.

2 & 3 Viet. c. 71 deals with " the several police courts now established under the names of the public office in Bow Street and the police offices " elsewhere. R. S. B.

According to Grant's ' Sketches in London,' published, as states the B.M. Catalogue, in 1838,

" it is at least a century since the Bow Street Police Office was originally established for the purpose of administering justice. Until 1702, however, it was on a very different footing from what it has been since. Previous to that time, it was not established by Act of Parliament, but was simply an office used by the county magistrates." Pp. 193-4.

In the same year that he died, 1754, Henry Fielding, the Bow Street magistrate and novelist, in his ' Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon,' notes that a predecessor of his " used to boast that he made one thousand pounds a year in his office " (Cunningham's ' London,' s.v. Bow Street), so that it was at