nd Yard. Its men are engaged in business pure and
simple, not in making shrewd detective deductions. The lime-light which
occasionally bursts upon them distorts their ways and their duties.
Really, they have little love for the dramatic. Newspaper notoriety is
not sought, and men cannot "work the Press," as in times gone by, to
attain a fictitious reputation.

It is through well-chosen lieutenants that Sir Edward Henry works. There
are four Assistant-Commissioners upon each of whom special work
devolves. Sir Frederick Wodehouse, for instance, is the "Administrative
Assistant-Commissioner." He deals with all matters relating to
discipline, promotion, and routine so far as the uniformed force is
concerned.

The Criminal Investigation Department is under Mr. Basil Thompson, a
comparatively young man who came from the Prison Commission to succeed
Sir Melville Macnaghten, and who has successfully experimented with some
new ideas to make the path of the criminal more difficult. Mr. Frank
Elliott, who was formerly at the Home Office, holds sway over the Public
Carriage Office; and the Hon. F. T. Bigham, a barrister--and a son of
Lord Mersey, who gained his experience as a Chief Constable of the
Criminal Investigation Department--deals with and investigates the
innumerable complaints and enquiries that would occur even in a police
force manned by archangels. Mr. Bigham is also the Central Authority
under the terms of the international agreement for the suppression of
the white slave traffic.

There are six Chief Constables, mostly ex-military officers. One of
these assists in the administration of the Criminal Investigation
Department, the remainder control districts of four or five adjoining
divisions. To adopt a military simile, they may be compared to
major-generals in command of brigades, with each division representing a
battalion, and the superintendents, colonels.

Only once in the whole history of the Metropolitan Police has a man
risen from the ranks to the post of Chief Constable, though many, like
Mr. Gentle at Brighton, and Mr. Williams at Cardiff, have become the
heads of important provincial forces. The post of superintendent in
London is at least equivalent in its responsibilities to the average
chief-constableship of the provinces. There are metropolitan section
sergeants who have as many men under their control as some chief
constables of small boroughs.

The unit of the Metropolitan Police is a division