POLICE (COUNTIES AND BOROUGHS) BILL. (Hansard, 13 June 1856)

§ LORD PANMURE

, in rising to move the second reading of this Bill (in the absence from illness of the Lord President of the Council), stated that the subject was one in which he had formerly taken a great deal of interest. When the original Bill was introduced, in 1839, it had been his duty, as Under Secretary of State for the Home Department, to pay a considerable amount of attention to the question, and he had himself introduced the Bill of 1840; so that he was not altogether without some knowledge of the bearings of the case. The adoption of the Acts of 1839 and 1840 was entirely optional and permissive. He believed that they were now in operation over about one-half of the area and among one-half the population of England and Wales. In 1399 the other half of the kingdom the old system of parish constables still prevailed. It might have been supposed that after a lapse of sixteen or seventeen years the more improved system of police provided for by those Acts would have been more generally adopted; but, although that had not been the case, he believed that it was admitted that wherever it had been applied the most beneficial effects had resulted, and that in no part of the country where it had been once adopted had it ever been abandoned. In the year 1853 the whole subject was referred to a Committee of the House of Commons. That Committee went with great care into an examination of all the facts connected with the administration of the rural police, and the Members unanimously concurred in coming to a Resolution to this effect: that the appointment of district constables under the Rural Police Act had failed to provide such a general and uniform constabulary force as was essential for the prevention of crime throughout the country; but that wherever the system had been adopted it had succeeded beyond expectation. The Committee then agreed to the following declaratory Resolution:— That it is, in the opinion of this Committee, most desirable that legislative measures should be introduced without delay by Her Majesty's Government, rendering the adoption of an efficient police force on an uniform principle imperative throughout Great Britain. It was for the purpose of carrying into effect this Resolution that the present Bill had been submitted to Parliament. It differed from the measure of 1840 mainly in this respect, that whereas the Act of 1840 had been permissive, this Bill was to be compulsory; and when their Lordships considered the changes which had taken place in the matter of punishments in this country, more especially with reference to the ticket-of-leave system, which cast a large class of the criminal population upon the community, he thought they would admit that it was clearly a matter of national importance that there should be established throughout the length and breadth of the country such a system of police as should afford an efficient protection to life and property. The Bill which he had the honour to propose did not in any way interfere with the management of the police by the local authorities in counties and boroughs. It had been introduced in the other House of Parliament, 1400 and he was happy to think, from the manner in which it had been received there, that it was by no means regarded as a political or party measure. It had been carried by the immense majority of 153 votes; and in the same lobby might have been seen both the Secretary of State for the Home Department, under the present Government, and the right hon. Gentleman who had so well administered the duties of that office under the noble Earl opposite. All parties, therefore, with some singular exceptions, seemed to be agreed that the time had come when the adoption of the Rural Constabulary Act should be made compulsory and universal. The details of the Bill, he thought, might be more usefully considered in Committee. He did not anticipate that any of their Lordships would object to the second reading. He did not pretend that the Bill would establish a perfect system—but it was a great improvement upon that which at present existed, and by leading to the more speedy detection of crime, would extend to all classes that protection for life and property which it was the duty of every well-regulated Government to provide. The noble Lord moved that the Bill be now read a second time.