a correct measure of the crime that really
exists in the country; that a police force is now more generally
established, and is incomparably more vigilant than heretofore; that
crimes are classified in a different way from what they formerly were;
and that though the figures do not err, yet the results to which they
point are not the real ones. There is some truth in these observations.
It is true that a police force is more extensively established, and is
more efficient than it formerly was;--it is true that crimes are now
differently classified, and enter different columns, and appear in
different returns from what they formerly did;--it is true that there
are specialties in the case;--but it is not true that those specialties
tend to make the returns of crime appear greater than the reality; on
the contrary, they all tend the other way. They show that the returns as
now constructed, and the police force as it at present exists, do not by
any means exhibit the growth of crime in its true colours; that it is in
reality _incomparably greater_ than these returns or this agency has
brought to light; and that, great as the evil appears from an
examination of the Parliamentary returns, it is in truth far more
colossal and alarming.

How is a police force established in any part of Great Britain? If we
except the metropolis, where the vast concourse from all parts of the
empire unavoidably forced upon government, fourteen years ago, the
establishment of a central police, since found to be attended with such
admirable effects, it is every where set on foot by the _voluntary act_
of the inhabitants, or a certain portion of them, in a peculiar manner
cognizant of the necessity which exists for such an addition to the
means of public defence. In boroughs, it is generally the magistrates,
elected by a suffrage little superior to household suffrage, who
introduce such a measure. In counties, it can only be proposed by the
justices of peace in England, or commissioners of supply in
Scotland--both of which bodies are thoroughly imbued with, and fairly
represent, the general voice of the community. In all cases, whether in
the metropolis or in the provinces, a police imposes _an immediate and
heavy burden on all householders_. In London L40,000 a-year is given by
government to aid in the support of the police; but the whole remainder
of the cost, amounting to four times as much, falls on the ratepayers.
In the provinces the whole cos