§ COLONEL BERESFORDsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, If it has come to his knowledge that some burglaries have taken place within the Metropolitan District at the residences of the American 728 Minister, of Lady Napier, of Lord George Cavendish, and of Mrs. Cohen of Park Lane, and that the offenders have not been brought to justice; and if any allowance be made to the Chief Commissioner of Police for house rent; and, if so, the amount of it, and if such allowance be made conditionally upon the Chief Commissioner residing within a limited distance from Scotland Yard; and what that distance is; and is the condition in that respect complied with?
MR. BRUCE, in reply, said, he was obliged to the hon. and gallant Gentleman for affording him the opportunity of answering the Question, in order that he might remove a good deal of exaggerated misapprehension prevailing in the metropolis on the subject. He would first of all say that the hon. and gallant Gentleman had brought together cases which had happened at widely different periods. The burglary at Mrs. Cohen's took place upwards of twelve months ago. On that occasion three persons were apprehended on suspicion, but they were not identified. Much valuable property, however, was found upon them, which was now in the possession of the police, and one of them had since been sentenced to penal servitude. In the case of the robbery at the house of the American Minister, one person was apprehended, but he was not identified, and no arrests had been made in the other cases mentioned in the Question. The cases, from the social distinction of some of the sufferers, had attracted a good deal of attention, and caused considerable misapprehension as to the prevalence of crime in the metropolis. Last year two gangs, similar to that which had committed these robberies, were successfully hunted down. One of them consisted of seven very skilful burglars, and one notorious receiver. They were all seized, and were now suffering sentences of penal servitude of from twenty years downwards. Nearly every member of the other gang had also been convicted, and was now suffering punishment. The authors of the present crimes were very well known to the police, and he had no doubt they would soon suffer the fate of their predecessors. He was anxious to take that opportunity, with the permission of the House, to explain what had been done in reference to that class of crime. In July last, a large additional force of detectives, 729 consisting of twenty sergeants and 160 ordinary detectives, was added to the force, and they were apportioned among the different divisions of the metropolis. In order that the House might judge of the effect of this increase of the force, he would compare the effect of that addition in the detection of crime during the last six months of 1868 as compared with the last six months of 1869, excluding minor crimes. In the six months ending 1868 there were 7,273 cases reported to the police. The number of persons apprehended was 1,511, and the number convicted 1,087. He might add that the great disproportion between the number of crimes and the number of apprehensions arose mainly from the cases of petty larceny, which were extremely hard to be discovered. In those six months there were 4,675 cases of petty larceny, for which only 575 persons were arrested. During the six months ending 1869 the number of eases had diminished to 6,633, while the number of persons apprehended had increased to 1,589, of whom 1,170 were convicted. From the reports of the superintendents in the districts where burglaries had been committed, it would appear that there had been a great improvement; that, in some districts, such offences had ceased altogether; in others the gangs had been dispersed by the force, and as they obtained greater knowledge of the haunts of the offenders there would be a diminution of the crime. There was reason to hope that the diminution during the last three months had been still greater in proportion than in the preceding half year. With respect to the second Question—the connection of which with the first he did not clearly see—he had to say that an allowance was made to Sir Richard Mayne and to the present First Commissioner of £300 a year for a house. It was not made conditionally on his residing within any given distance; but, of course, his residence was subject to the approval of the Secretary of State. Colonel Henderson lived at Wandsworth, and if any inconvenience had arisen from his residing there, it would have been his (Mr. Bruce's) duty to have insisted on a change of residence. He had the telegraph wires communicating into his house, and he could work them himself, and could reach Scotland Yard in half an hour after he was summoned. 730 He must say that a more hard-worked and a more hard-working officer did not exist in the public service than the Chief Commissioner.