The Oxford Magazine; For JUNE, 1771. For the OXFORD MAGAZINE. THE POLICE. NUMBER X. To the Right Honourable BRASS CROSBY, Efq; LORD-MAYOR of City of LONDON. MY LORD, HE immortal fame you have acTHE quired, as chief magiftrate of the first city in Europe, by maintaining the rights and privileges of your fellowcitizens, with that true fpirit of fortitude, which diftinguishes genuine from jalfe patriotifm, has determined the author of the Police to fix on your mayoralty as the proper æra to attempt the removal of fome abufes and mifmanagements in the adminiftration of the magisterial offices of the city of London. The weighty concerns which lately engroffed your whole attention, made it highly improper, at that feafon, to trouble you with fubjects of lefs confequence; but having given your lordship time to recover from the fatigue of an arduous, but molt honourable contention with the corrupt powers of government, no apology can be wanting to fo active and zealous a magiftrate, for turning his thoughts to minuter objects that fall within his jurifdiction, and endea vouring till further to fignalize his fhort reign, as fupreme magiftrate of the city, by reformations of abfurd errors. Thefe papers, my Lord, after a long ftruggle with pride and obstinacy in office, have at length compelled the Bow Street jufticiary, who thinks himfelf the father of the Police for the city and liberties of Weftminster, to VOL. VI. the reform his conduct in many respectsparticularly to fhut up fome notorious houfes in his neighbourhood, which were a daily and nocturnal reproach to his pretenfions of having established a well-regulated fyftem of police. We fhall now leave him to breathe a while, and maturely to reflect on the scenes of vice he ftill permits to be tranfacted within his jurifdiction, without interpofing his authority-to prevent them. The fource, my Lord, of our deplorable corruption, as a ftate, lies within the jurifdiction of Sir John Fielding-Were your lordship in his fitua tion, I make no doubt that your patriotic ardour would animate you vigorously to enforce every penal law in being, against the infamous practice of gaming, without diftinction of perfons. You cannot but lament with every virtuous man in the kingdom, the facility with which minifters now procure a majority of votes in the Houfe of Commons-yet it is madness to think of reforming this abuse, while the moft effeminate luxury, and the most profufe diffipation, demand immenfe incomes; and while one method of fupplying them is, by the gaming table, which failing-the fuccedaneum is, an application to the minifter for a place or a penfion. Many a man, my Lord, goes into Arthur's with an heart as truly honeft, and a fpirit as indeBb pendant, 194 The POLICE. pendant, as your lordship's-who, by adverfe fortune, instead of doubling a capital fum in his purse, (a circumftance neceffary for the fupport of a wanton wife, or an extravagant miftrefs-of a luxurious table-of fplendid equipages, and coftly masquerades) lofes the venture, and involves himself in a debt of honour! what follows? He awakes in the morning to a fenfe of difgrace, fhame, and poverty beneath his rank!-The call of honour is to be anfwered in the evening-or no more admiffion at Arthur's!-the minifter's Levee intervenes, and the difinterested patriot of the preceding evening, is bought over to facrifice the dearest rights of his conftituents, and to vote for the imprisonment of the guardians of the conftitution of fuch noble, generous citizens, as your lordship and Mr. Oliver. Shame on all pretenfions to a Police, while its prefident, either will not, or dare not, commit to Newgate or the Gatehoufe, the violator of the known laws of the land against exceffive gaming-even though the offender were a prince of the blood! Your lordship, I truft, will not give occafion for repeated complaints of unredreffed grievances, of a fimilar nature, within your jurifdiction. You will not let the laws fleep in your hands-nor yet countenance Dr. Garth's farcafm on Juftice-hall, in the Old-Bailey. Where little villains muft fubmit to fate, That great ones may enjoy the world in fate. I have far better hopes of your lordhip, and fhall therefore, without further ceremony, proceed to the fubjects of the prefent addrefs. 'Change-alley, my Lord, and, all the illegal tranfactions carried on in its purlieus, are fubject to your cognizance, as mayor of the city of London. Every mafter of a coffee-houfe, every waiter, is obliged to obey your fummons, and to undergo an examination upon oath, if you require it in your magiflerial capacity, in the purfuit of information for the difcovery of illegal practices. If your lordthip then would with to complete the character of a virtuous, affiduous, patriotic magistrate, and to defy the most inveterate malice of your enemies, the Courtiers, to point out a single defect, or partiality in your conduct-Dare to attack, and bring to juftice, the violators of the rights and privileges of your honeft, fober fellow-citizens, with the fame fpirit, the fame defiance of perfonal danger, as you pursued the meffenger of the House of Commons. If you neglect this admonition, thus publickly given, it will be faid-we are all alike! and that my Lord-Mayor knows better than to proceed against his electors, or any rich, potent citizens, capable of fupporting his prefent popularity, or of promoting his intereft on future occafions, though their conduct be ever fo obnoxious to the laws. In the caufe of virtue, my Lord, for the detection and punishment of mifdemeanours, and crimes prejudicial to the welfare and good government of a commercial city, the office of a spy, or fecret emiflary on the part of the magiftrate, is a poft of honour; you may therefore eafily find perfons of a moral character, willing to officiate for you; and it is your duty, my Lord, to employ a number of thefe, as occafional vifitants at the feveral coffee-houfes about 'Change-alley-for let me tell your lordship one great truth-Vice of every kind is as fertile in the heart of the city, as in the neighbourhood of St. James's; and has exhibited itself in a great variety of odious fhapes, fince your acceffion to the mayoralty. The lures thrown in the way of the fimple, well-meaning fhopkeeper, who is diftreffed in his circumstances, are too fpecious, too promifing to be refifted; he cannot pafs an evening in public company, without hearing of the ftrange adventures of the Alley; and of the fudden great gains arifing from the moft abfurd and illicit contracts. In hopes of furnishing cash for fome urgent demand, the deluded man repairs to the rendezvous of knavery and theft, gives a premium of forty or fifty per cent. on fo idle a fubject, as the fex of an infignificant foreignerthe condition--to receive one hundred guineas 1 guineas for every forty depofited, pro- 195 The life and furprifing adventures of the 196 The POLICE. the nature and conditions of all jobbing contracts, which are more dangerous violations of the commercial rights of your fellow-citizens, than that which you oppofed in the perfon of the messenger of the House of Com mons. Your citizens, my Lord, are made bankrupts by thefe fhameful tranfactions, in the centre of your jurifdiction-the trade of fhopkeepers is neglected, their families are brought to ruin in an inftant-while sharpers, in various characters, by a variety of ftratagems, grow rich, and fatten on the fpoils of the artless, honeft tradefman, who, with a view to relieve himfelf from fome pungent fcene of diftrefs, falls into the fnare of obdurate, avaricious knaves. You will now permit me to point out another abuse on the public, which appears to have been countenanced by the Mayors of London, and which it is hoped your lordship will remedy. The mode of adminiftring criminal juftice in this country, is juftly admired by all fenfible foreigners; and the privilege of trial by juries, is defervedly esteemed one of the most invaluable rights of Englishmen. The free access to our courts of juftice, the open manner in which our trials are carried on all reflect the higheft honour on the jurifprudence of this kingdom; but, my Lord, the mutilated publications of, what are ftiled, The whole Proceedings on the King's Commiffion of the Peace, Oyer and Terminer, and Gaol-delivery for the City of LONDON, and COUNTY of MIDDLESEX, held at JUSTICE-HALL, in the OLDBAILEY-or, what is commonly called The Seffions Paper, is a difgrace to the king, to the venerable judges, and to your lordship, as Mayor of London, under whofe fan&tion it is published. It is, my Lord-without reserve let me tell it you-no other than a paltry catch-penny, Grub ftreet performance, in form and in fubftance. To fuch a production, the loweft hackney-fcribler of paragraphs for the news papers would be ashamed to fet his nameYet the RIGHT HONOURABLE BRASS CROSBY, Efq; LORD-MAYOR OF LONDON, graces the title-page of every limfy number of this paltry compilation. And oh! fhame to be repeated! the fupreme magistrate of the capital of Great Britain, for the time being, receives one hundred pounds per annum, for patronizing unfatisfactory, low, illiterate, imperfect, and often indecent abftracts of the folemn decifions of an awful tribunal, whofe proceedings are founded in political wifdom, and form one grand line of diftinguished excellence in our happy conftitution. But, my Lord, will any fenfible foreigner, who happens to vifit this country, be confirmed in his opinion of the preference to be given to our criminal proceedings, from the perufal of thefe defpicable papers? yet it may fo happen, that he cannot attend the trials; and that curiofity may prompt him to read the only authentic account permitted to be published, of the procefs carried on at the fuit of the king against fome notorious criminal, who, during his refidence with us, has committed a remarkable felony, which has engaged the public attention, and been the fubject of converfation. It is often impoffible from thefe papers, my Lord, to trace the grounds on which the jury acquitted or condemned a culprit. Every thing that can gratify the avidity of the vulgar, for obfcene or horrid tales, is carefully inferted; and every queftion and answer given at large. But the information which the gentleman, the fcholar, the student in the law, the judicious foreigner, or the fenfible traveller, would wish to derive from the publication of the proceedings of a tribunal of justice, is not to be met with in this licenfed pamphlet. The charge against the culprit is not regularly opened; the ftate of the evidence is neither connected or arranged in any kind of order, not fo much as adhering to that in which it was delivered to the court-the chain of reafoning of the counsel, the points of law, the learning, precifion, and candour of the judge, in fumming up the evidence to the jury-the pertinent remarks occafionally made by the jurymen, with a number of other circumftances, which tend to fhew the equity, found judgement, and humanity, fo remarkable remarkable in the proceedings of our courts of justice, are not to be found in the Seffions-papers-but if you with to know those particulars, concerning a murder or a rape, which the court would have been glad not to have heard, if ftrict juftice had not required it-thefe you will find minutely recorded-for the fale of this mockery of all trials, depends on the immodeft part of the neceffary examinations, in cafes of rapes, and on the horrid fcenery of murders-Your lordship need only enquire of the publisher, what fuccefs attended the publication of number 4. part 2. of the fourth feffion of your mayoralty, held in April laft. It contains the trial of Richard Hewett and Benjamin Johnfon, for the murder of Sarah Orbell. As luft was the provocative to this murder, it must be confidered as one of the tials admirably calculated for the ufe of fervant-maids, footmen, carmen, dreymen, low mechanics, and 'prentice boys-With this trial, therefore, the compiler opens number 4, and he clofes it with that of Jofeph Dowling and Mary Cove, for committing a rape on the body of Sarah Sharpe-a few uninteresting trials are placed between these two, to fill up; and you will find that there were more fold of this number, than of any other in your mayoralty, before or fince. As to the trials for petty-larceny, and other thefts, it is certain the publication of them is very pernicious; for it only ferves to convey informa tion to the lower claffes of people, the Tyburn mobs, with what tools and implements they can break open houses; how they can difpofe of the plundered effects, and what artifices are made ufe of to elude difcovery, and to evade juftice---the reading of the acquittal of a few notorious footpads, and of women of the town, who have robbed idle young fellows, is an encouragement to abandoned people; and most commonly the reafon does not appear, in these mutilated abstracts, why the prifoner was acquitted. It is therefore to be wifhed, my Lord, that these publications were fuppreffed, or that the material, interefting, curious trials alone, in which points of law, and delicate, doubtful evidence occurred, 197 which made it a very nice point to determine, fhould be printed in a volume half yearly, carefully revised by fome man of letters, and having the fanction of authenticity from your lordfhip and the recorder, who in fact ought to be the editor. Instead of one hundred pounds, the Lord-Mayor for the time being, might receive five for the two volumes to be published in the courfe of his mayoralty. But unless fome method is taken to preserve an idea of the dignity of the court in thefe publications, you must be fenfible they cannot answer any good purpose to civil fociety. Will the trial of Hewett, as it is printed, give us any information as to the motive of applying to the crown for mercy, or a refpite? It was reported, that it arose from circumftances in the ftate of the evidence---this by no means appears on reading the trial--Mary Smith, indeed, contradicts herfelf in a material part of her evidence, but it is not to be inferred from thence, that the really contradicted herself at the bar, as little errors of this fort in the celebrated Seffions Papers are very frequent. The crofs examination, in this trial, could not poffibly have hap. pened as it is printed---the alternate queftions to Smith and Martin, have no kind of relation to each other---and appear in the most unintelligible light, as placed by the compiler of the Seffions Paper; nor can it well be accounted for, that no furgeon was examined in the courfe of this trial--the more fingular, as Hewett, at his exccution, denied the murder. With respect to the trial of Jofeph Dorling, which takes up no less than eight pages of this curious number--it would puzzle the fagacity of Solomon, were he to return from the dead, to difcover any ground, in the Seffions Paper, for his acquittal; but we cannot doubt the jury clearly found him not guilty---Let me therefore ask your lordship, if it would not have been more edifying and decent to have given the arguments of the counsel, or the charge of the judge to the jury, by which we might have learned on what point the acquittal turned, than to have defcribed every indecent circum ftance |