Bring thus
aggregated together, one realizes that there are a great many more
offences than the public generally takes note of. Most of these
advertisements were in pen and ink, with minute lists of the articles
stolen; but the more important were in print; and there, too, I saw the
printed advertisement of our own robbery, not for public circulation, but
to be handed about privately, among police-officers and pawnbrokers. A
rogue has a very poor chance in England, the police being so numerous,
and their system so well organized.
In a corner of the police-office stood a contrivance for precisely
measuring the heights of prisoners; and I took occasion to measure
J-----, and found him four feet seven inches and a half high. A set of
rules for the self-government of police-officers was nailed on the door,
between twenty and thirty in number, and composing a system of
constabulary ethics. The rules would be good for men in almost any walk
of life; and I rather think the police-officers conform to them with
tolerable strictness. They appear to be subordinated to one another on
the military plan. The ordinary constable does not sit down in the
presence of his inspector, and this latter seems to be half a gentleman;
at least, such is the bearing of our Southport inspector, who wears a
handsome uniform of green and silver, and salutes the principal
inhabitants, when meeting them in the street, with an air of something
like equality.
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