le.

The Metropolitan Police is the only force in England which is
independent of local control. The Commissioner--often wrongly described
as the Chief Commissioner--is appointed by the Crown on the
recommendation of the Home Secretary, and has wide, almost autocratic
powers. It is an Imperial force which has duties apart from the care of
London. It has divisions at the great dockyards; it is the adviser and
helper of multifarious smaller zones in case of difficulty. It has
charge of the river from Dartford Creek to Teddington, and its confines
extend far beyond the boundaries of the London County Council.

In one year its printing and stationery bill alone amounts to over
L10,000; its postage, telegrams, and telephone charges to another
L13,000. Its gross cost is nearly three millions a year. That is the
insurance paid for the keeping of the peace. What do we get for it?

We have taught the world that a body of police can be none the less
efficient although their hands are clean; that honesty is not
necessarily a synonym for stupidity; that law and order can be enforced
without brutality. There are no _agents provocateur_ in the London
police, and the grafter has little opportunity to exercise his talent.

In one year 17,910 indictable offences were committed within the
boundaries of the Metropolitan Police district. For these 14,525 people
were proceeded against, and as some of them were probably responsible
for two or more of the offences the margin of those who escaped is very
low. There were 178,495 minor offenders, all of whom were dealt with.

The machinery of Scotland Yard misses little. How many crimes have been
prevented by the knowledge of swift and almost inevitable punishment it
is impossible to say, but they have been many.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] This was before the War.

CHAPTER III.

THE REAL DETECTIVE.

Through a little back door, up a stone flight of stairs, into a broad
corridor one passes to the offices where are quartered the heads of the
most important branch of Scotland Yard--the Criminal Investigation
Department, with its wide-reaching organisation stretching beyond the
confines of London over the whole world.

It is its business to keep its fingers on the pulse of crime, to watch
vigilantly the comings and goings of thousands of men and women, and to
bring to justice all those whose acts have made them a menace to
society.

No department of Scotland Yard has been more written aro