THE RAILWAY SYSTEM. Railways are constructed by private companies under a certain special control of the State. This control is exercised in two ways: (1) The number of railways is restricted, and it is determined in given cases whether a railway shall be made or not. On it being proposed to make a railway through a certain district, the persons who wish to form themselves into a company for the purpose, propose that a Bill shall be presented in the House of Commons, in order to carry out their ends. The House, therefore (after being satisfied that certain rules of the House called "standing orders" have been complied with) refer the Bill to a Select Committee of the House, who sit from day to day to examine witnesses as to the need and desirability of the railway, and to hear persons who oppose the railway on different grounds, such as there being other railways in the same district, the small number of passengers or quantity of goods likely to require the use of the railway, or the injury it would cause to property lying in the direction it would run in. The Committee, after thus hearing both sides, decide whether they shall recommend the passing of the Bill or not. If they recommend it should pass, it generally is passed. The nature and effect of the Bill is to form the persons asking for it into a "Joint Stock Company," capable of holding property, making contracts, and suing or being sued at law; to give the Company power to buy the necessary land, even against the will of the owners; and to enable them to borrow money up to a certain amount from persons ready to lend money, on condition either of having a fixed rate of interest ("debentures"), or a proportion of interest according to the success of the undertaking ("shares"). (2) The control exercised by the State also has reference to the acts of Companies while the railway is being worked; as with respect to the amount of payment by passengers for travelling, and the conduct of inquiries as to the cause of accidents, in which inquiries a State-inspector always takes part. This latter department belongs especially to the "Board of Trade." It is a matter of some controversy in this country whether it is expedient that the railways should all belong as they do to private companies, no more controlled by the State than in the above respects-or whether it would be better, as is the case in most other European countries, for the railways to belong to the State, and be either managed by State officials or be leased out to private companies to be managed by them. It is said, in favour of the existing system of management by private companies, that the stimulus of profit and the concern that persons always have in matters that directly affect themselves, as well as the fact of free competition, produces a better system of management than Government could supply, and that if the railways were in the hands of Government the officials charged with the management would be badly appointed, or chosen in view of the private interest of the superior Government officials choosing them. On the other hand, in favour of Government assuming the ownership, and, possibly, the direct management of the Railways, it is urged that the Post-office and the Telegraphic system has been better and more cheaply managed since they were taken out of private hands; that the Government alone could afford to make travelling immensely cheaper, as it need not seek to make profit, and would not expend so much money in making the railways or in making more railways than are wanted. In all the Railway Acts passed after a certain date, Government has reserved the power of buying up the lines if at any time it should wish to do so. POLICE. a In early times the duty of keeping the peace and preventing wrong-doing was held to lie equally upon all the inhabitants of the country; but, as all could not be constantly on the watch, the inhabitants of each Parish elected one man as Parish Constable, to preside over the affairs of the Parish; and four others were to be under his authority. When he "raised the hue-and-cry" everybody was bound to help to catch the offender within the bounds of that Parish, and the duty was passed on to the neighbouring parishes. But as time passed, and the country became more thickly populated, fresh arrangements were made, gradually superseding this popular election of constables, and tending to lay the responsibility of keeping order upon paid officials. The strongest traces left of the old doctrine that everybody was bound to help to keep order exist in the swearing in of Special Constables (see later on), and in the still existing institution of Parish Constables in many parts of the country. These are entitled to no payment-though the Vestry may vote them payment and they are liable to a penalty if they refuse to serve or to find a substitute, unless they come within the class of exempted persons. The persons exempted from service as constables are(1) all members of either House of Parliament, (2) all lawyers, (3) clergy and ministers, (4) schoolmasters, (5) doctors, (6) persons employed in the civil service, (7) officers of the army and navy and officers and men serving in the yeomanry. The persons disqualified for serving as constables are all who have been convicted of any infamous crime; all dealers in excisable liquors or in beer (retail), all licensed victuallers, and all gamekeepers. The powers of constables are divisible into (1) the execution of the criminal law, and (2) the fulfilling of duties under other portions of the law. I. They are to arrest (1) "disorderly persons," as defined by an Act of Parliament; (2) persons whom they see committing a breach of the peace; (3) persons who are charged with a breach of the peace; (4) persons whom they reasonably suspect to be guilty of the graver crime of felony; without a warrant from a Justice of the Peace. They are to arrest any person on the warrant of a Justice of the Peace. [A warrant is a document, signed by a Justice of the Peace, authorising the arrest of the person named in it.] For the purpose of executing a warrant or of arresting on suspicion of felony they are authorised to break open doors, and even to kill the felon if he cannot be otherwise taken. "If the constable or his assistants be killed in attempting such arrest, it is murder in all concerned." Persons refusing to help a constable in making an arrest or in keeping order are punishable. A constable cannot be sued for anything he does in execution of a Justice's warrant; and not, after six months have elapsed, for anything he does during the performance of his duty. II.-A large number of duties have been laid upon the Police by different Acts of Parliament, among which are the following:(1) to take care that houses for the sale of liquors are shut at the legal hours; (2) to report, with a view to shut up houses used for purposes of prostitution; (3) similarly to report gambling houses; (4) to keep order in the London streets where there is a F great concourse of vehicles, and generally to assist in regulating the traffic of London streets; (5) to keep order in the streets of towns on the occasion of processions or great public ceremonials; (6) to interfere in case of fights or riots in the streets. Special Constables have, during their time of office, exactly the same powers, duties, and privileges as ordinary constables, unless it is otherwise expressly stated when they are appointed. In all the large centres of population a certain number of constables, chosen for their superior ability and education, are set apart for the purposes of tracking suspected persons, and endeavouring to find the unknown perpetrators of crimes. They are dressed in plain clothes (not uniform), are more highly paid, and are named Detectives. There is manifest an increasing tendency in England at the present day, at the bidding of medical or other scientific specialists, to commit practically irresponsible functions to the Police. The danger of this is that the immediate sufferers from possible abuses belong to the more obscure and empoverished classes of society, who have very few opportunities of stating their grievances, and are almost impotent to obtain redress against all those commoner forms of abuse to which public attention has not been accidentally attracted. The direct consequences of government by police are habits of spying, incessant interference with all the details of domestic and social life, and inordinate temptations presented to the police themselves to favouritism or even to corruption of the vilest kinds. The more indirect consequence is the formation of a cowardly and cringing spirit, fearful not of doing wrong, but of being detected in doing wrong, the standard of right action being fixed, not by the Law or the Lawgiver, but by the caprice of the nearest policeman. The securities against abuses lie, partly, in the necessity of satisfying a Magistrate before a warrant can be obtained even for provisional examination of an accused person; and, partly, in the legal penalties to which a corrupt or malicious policeman is liable. But the mere suspicion of a policeman is, for most offences, held to be in itself a sufficient reason for putting a suspected person on his or her defence; and yet for some offences, the very necessity of making such a defence is instant degradation and ruin. And, furthermore, it is to be noted that all Justices of the Peace are appointed by the Execu tive, so that, unless some glaring scandal arises, they are independent of popular control. No Jury is needed for the classes of offences now being considered; and in the prosecution of some of these classes of offences, -as those arising out of the Game Laws, the Magistrates who administer the law have, most frequently, an obvious and direct personal interest in a conviction being obtained. The only available remedy is found to lie in attention being called in the House of Commons to such grosser perversions of justice as from time to time occur, and in the active interference of the Executive being thus invoked. But this remedy is only open while Parliament is sitting, and is, at the best, signally precarious and narrow in its operation. The whole Police Forces of the Country may be distributed into the following classes : I. Borough Constables. II. County Constables. III. Metropolitan Police Constables. IV. Constables for the City of London. V. Parish Constables. VI. Special Constables. I. The Borough Constables are in the proportion of one to 800 of population of Boroughs. II. The County Constables are in the proportion of one to 1,348 of the population of Counties, exclusive of Boroughs. III. The Metropolitan Police are in the proportion (deducting 614 who are employed in the Dockyards) of one for every 420 of the population of the Metropolitan Police District. IV. Constables for the City of London are in the proportion of one to 349 of population during the day in the City. (N.B.-So large a proportion of this day population of the City sleep beyond its bounds that the proportion of the City Police to the population in the night is one to 106.) The cost of maintaining the forces in the year ending September, 1871, was, I. Borough Police ... ... ... II. County Constabulary III. Metropolitan Police £537,728 769,945 64,629 £2,243,227 |