By the Act 17 Geo. II. c. 40. jurisdiction was given to the Judges of a.s.size, and the General Quarter Sessions, to try the Offenders, and punish them by a fine not exceeding .200, imprisonment for three months, and other corporal punishment.

The Laws on this subject were further amended by the 9th of his present Majesty, cap. 35; by which the _Treasurer, Comptroller, Surveyor, Clerk of the Acts_, or any Commissioner of the Navy, are empowered to act as Justices, in causing Offenders to be apprehended and prosecuted. These powers were given with a view to establish a greater degree of energy in detections; but experience has shewn that the purpose has not been answered.

The last Act which relates to the protection of the Public Stores, was made the 12th year of his present Majesty's reign (cap. 24.) and related solely to burning ships, warehouses, and naval, military, or victualing stores, in any of the dominions of the Crown; which offence is made felony without Benefit of Clergy.

A very superficial view of the above Laws will demonstrate their insufficiency to the object of _Prevention_. And even if they were complete, the task imposed on the public officers, who are on every occasion to act as Justices, has proved from experience to be a measure ill calculated to attain the object in view, namely, the detection of offenders; otherwise the evil would not have increased.--Other _remedies_ must therefore be applied. It is not, however, by any single act of the Legislature, that the enormous frauds and depredations in the Navy and Victualing Departments of his Majesty's service, which the Commissioners and chief Officers, under whose management they are placed, are so anxious to suppress,[74] can be remedied: This important object must be obtained by a combination of various salutary measures, calculated to afford collateral aid to specific Legislative Regulations, and to secure their effectual execution, by means which are now to be explained under their respective heads.--

[Footnote 74: Much to the honour of the present Commissioners, both of the Navy and Victualing, a most laudable zeal has been manifested to suppress the frauds, embezzlements and pillage, which have so long afflicted these departments of the public service. The following copy of a letter from the Solicitor to the Navy Board to the Author of this Work, is a strong proof, not only of the sense they entertain of the evils which are felt to exist, but of the necessity of a speedy and effectual remedy being applied.--

"_Norfolk Street, 19 May, 1799._

"SIR,

"THE Commissioners of the Navy having an intention of applying to Parliament, to extend and amend the Laws, for preventing the embezzlement and stealing of his Majesty's Naval Stores; and having directed me, in preparing the intended Bill, to attend to the suggestions and recommendations on the subject, in your excellent and valuable publication, I shall consider myself much obliged to you, as I am sure the Commissioners will, if you will, at your leisure, have the goodness to furnish me with any hints on the subject, which may have occurred to you, since the publication of your Treatise, and which you think may be worthy the attention of the Legislature.

"I am, Sir, with respect,

"Your most obedient humble Servant,

"CHA. BICKNELL.

"_P. Colquhoun, Esq._."]

I. A GENERAL POLICE SYSTEM.

By the Establishment of a Central Board of Police, on the Plan strongly recommended by the Select Committee of the House of Commons on Finance, in their 28th Report, ordered to be printed in June 1798:--It is there proposed to bring under regulations by licences, all those cla.s.ses of dealers in _old and second-hand ships'

stores--old iron and other metals_, and several other dangerous and suspicious trades, the uncontrolled exercise of which, by persons of loose conduct, is known to contribute to the concealment and multiplication of crimes.--Infinite embarra.s.sments would, through this collateral medium, be placed in the way of those particular Dealers, who reside in the vicinity of the Dock-yards, and who, by a variety of criminal devices, while they are instrumental in doing much mischief, have been able, in many instances, to elude Justice, and to carry on their nefarious practices with impunity.

A Board of Police so organized, by means of Licences and subordinate Officers, as to keep the conduct of these cla.s.ses of delinquents in view who, by giving facilities to the embezzlers and stealers of naval and other stores, are the chief sources from whence the evil springs; and with power to refuse Licences to those who are known to have been guilty of criminal conduct; would operate very powerfully in limiting these cla.s.ses of dealers to the honest part of their trade, by which infinite mischief would be prevented.

II. A LOCAL POLICE FOR THE DOCK-YARDS.

Salutary as the Central Board, recommended by the Select Committee on Finance, must certainly be in controlling and checking the Naval plunder, in common with the general delinquency of the whole country, it would seem indispensably necessary, under circ.u.mstances where the moving property is so extensive, and where there exists so many resources and temptations leading to the commission of crimes, to fix on some one person the responsibility of carrying the Laws into effect, and of controlling and overawing the various cla.s.ses of Delinquents, whose attention is directed to the Dock-yards, as a means of obtaining plunder: That for this purpose, one able and intelligent Magistrate should preside in a Police Office, to be established by Law, at or near the Dock-yards, at _Chatham_, _Portsmouth_, and _Plymouth_, with an establishment consisting of _one Clerk, two House and four Boat Constables_, with _two Police Boats_ attached to each Office. One Magistrate would be sufficient at each Office, as a.s.sistance from the neighbouring Justices could always be procured in case of sickness, or absence, or where any judicial proceeding would require two Magistrates.

No establishment would be necessary for the Dock-yards, and Public a.r.s.enal, at Deptford and Woolwich, as the great civil force, and the number of boats attached to the Marine Police Office at Wapping, when strengthened, extended, and improved in the manner which is proposed, would be competent to carry into effect the Laws now in being, and such as may hereafter be enacted, for the prevention and detection of offences in every part of the River Thames, from London Bridge to the Hope Point.

The Magistrate proposed to be established at Chatham, could occasionally administer justice at Sheerness, while the Boat Officers belonging to the Inst.i.tution, might be employed advantageously in traversing the River Medway, and in keeping a watchful eye on the various Receivers of stolen goods, who reside in the vicinity of that River, between the two Dock-yards.

At Portsmouth and Plymouth there would be regular employment for the respective Magistrates, and the Boat and other Officers on these establishments.

These three Inst.i.tutions may be conducted at an expence not exceeding one thousand pounds a year each, viz:--

. _s._ _d._ To the responsible resident Magistrate 300 0 0 To his Clerk 100 0 0 To the Constables, 6 in number, 50_l._ each 300 0 0 To House Rent, Coal, Candles, Stationary, tear and wear of Boats, and Rewards for meritorious Services 300 0 0 ------------- Total 1000 0 0

Towards defraying this expence, the fees which would be received, and the penalties inflicted for minor offences, under the Legislative regulations hereafter to be proposed, would go a certain length in reducing the expences of the three Police Inst.i.tutions. But considering the advantages likely to result from those Establishments, were the expence to be incurred even _fifty times_ the amount of what is estimated, it would in all probability be much more than compensated by the savings to the Public, which will result from the preservation of the Public property, independent of the advantages which must arise from an improvement in the morals of a numerous cla.s.s of delinquents, who have long been in a course of criminal turpitude.

A Police System thus organized under the direction of a Magistrate in each situation, whose attention would be solely confined _to this one object_, could not fail to be productive of the greatest good, especially when aided by officers, well selected and encouraged to be _vigilant_ and _pure_ in their conduct, from the advantages they would derive from a moiety of the pecuniary penalties, when offenders were convicted, in addition to their salaries, thereby rendering their situations comfortable and desirable, and fortifying them against seduction and connivance with Receivers and Thieves, as too often has been discovered to take place, with respect to parochial Constables resident near the Dock-yards, by which Public Justice has been frequently defeated. The terror which such a System would excite, and the extensive evils a Boat Police are likely to prevent, can only be conceived by those who have witnessed the effect of the Marine Police on the River Thames.

But still apposite Legislative regulations will be necessary to give full effect to this design, and the following heads are suggested as likely to be productive of infinite public advantage, when pa.s.sed into a Law.

III. LEGISLATIVE REGULATIONS PROPOSED IN AID OF THE GENERAL AND LOCAL POLICE SYSTEM.

1st. That persons having possession of _New Naval Stores_; or _Naval Stores not more than one-third worn_, with the King's mark thereon, shall be deemed guilty of receiving goods, knowing them to have been stolen, and on conviction may be transported for 14 years; with power, however, to the Court to reduce it to seven years, or to impose a fine, or punish the offender corporally at its discretion.

2d. Defacing the King's Mark, on any of his Majesty's Stores, to be deemed felony, and punished by transportation for 7 or 14 years.

3d. The powers and provisions of the Act of 2 Geo. 3. cap.

28. _commonly called, The b.u.mboat Act_; and also, the general powers and provisions of the Thames Police Act, when it shall pa.s.s into a Law, to be extended to all his Majesty's Dock-yards, and to the Rivers and Creeks leading thereto, within the distance of 20 miles.

4th. In all cases where the Crown or its Agents shall decline to prosecute persons, in whose possession the King's Stores shall be found, any one Justice before whom the offender is carried, may proceed as for an offence under the _b.u.mboat Act_, or the _Thames Police Act_ (by which maritime offences are to be more minutely explained) and if the party shall not give an account to the satisfaction of the Justice, how the said goods came into his possession, to be convicted of a misdemeanor, and subject to a fine of 40_s._ or such other minor punishment as these Acts direct.

5th. That all Marine Police Constables (whether the _Thames Police_, the _Medway Police_, or the _Police Offices_ at Portsmouth and Plymouth) shall have power to board all hoys and craft in the service of his Majesty, while employed in conveying stores, or in returning after such stores are delivered, for the purpose of searching the same; and in all cases, where stores are found which appear to have been abstracted from the cargo, or otherwise unlawfully obtained, to seize and convey the same, with the offender or offenders, (without prejudice to the service) before a Justice; and in case the Solicitor for the Crown, (on due notice given, shall decline to prosecute for the major offence) the parties in whose custody the stores were found, not giving a satisfactory account of obtaining the same, shall be convicted of a misdemeanor, and punished by fine or imprisonment.

6th. The act of having _jiggers or small pumps, or bladders with or without nozzles, or casks for drawing off liquor in hoys or craft; of throwing goods over board when pursued to elude detection; of fabricating false bills of parcels, to cover suspected goods, and defeat the ends of Justice; of having goods in possession, suspected to be King's stores, and not giving a good account of the same_; of refusing to a.s.sist Marine Police Constables in the execution of their duty; of obstructing the said Officers; of damaging Police Boats, to be punished as misdemeanors, under the authority of the said b.u.mboat Act, and the proposed Thames Police Act; namely, by fine or imprisonment.

7th. _Boats, craft, carts, carriages_, or _horses_, &c. from which stolen or embezzled King's stores shall be seized, to be forfeited, and disposed of as directed by the said Marine Police Bill.

8th. In all cases where, in seizing stores, articles not having the King's mark shall be found intermixed with stores having such mark, the party in whose possession they are found shall be obliged to give an account, to the satisfaction of the Justice, by what means he obtained the unmarked stores, otherwise the same to be forfeited, and sent to his Majesty's Repositories.

9th. Power to be granted to the Commissioners of the Navy, or any one Justice, to issue warrants, on proper information upon oath to Peace Officers, to search for King's stores, _without any proof of such stores being actually stolen, taken_, or _carried away_. The power of the Commissioners in this case to extend to all Counties in England.

10th. The Laws relating to falsifying, erasing, or fabricating _doc.u.ments, vouchers, books, accounts_, or _writings_, of any kind, with an intent to defraud his Majesty, to be revised and amended, so as to apply more pointedly to offences of this nature.

11th. Persons in his Majesty's service in any of the Dock-yards or Public a.r.s.enals, having King's stores in their possession, to the amount of 5_l._ value, and not being authorised to keep such stores, to be conclusive evidence of embezzlement, and to be punished by transportation.

12th. As an encouragement to excite vigilance in Officers of Justice, it is humbly proposed, that the Commissioners of his Majesty's _Navy, Victualing, and other Departments_, should be authorised, and required by Law, to pay the following rewards for the conviction of offenders, on the certificate of Judges and Magistrates, before whom such convictions took place--

40_l._ on Conviction for any Capital Offence.

20_l._ on Conviction for Felony, punished--Transportation, Fine or Imprisonment, or Whipping, before a Superior Court.

10_l._ for Misdemeanors, by Indictment before the Quarter or General Sessions of the Peace.

2_l._ for Convictions before Justices for Minor Offences.

From such _Legislative Regulations_ infinite would be the advantages which might reasonably be expected, when by the establishment of a Naval Police System, their due and proper execution would be rendered certain; and also, in all cases, where the evidence against offenders, although perfectly conclusive as to the fact, may be deficient in some points of legal nicety, by putting the _onus probandi_ on the offender, and treating it as a minor offence: the ends of Public Justice will, in a great measure, be answered by inflicting some punishment on the offender, and however inferior it may be to what he deserves, it will still have an excellent effect, since it is not so much by severe punishments, as by the certainty of _some punishment_ being inflicted, and the obloquy of a conviction when offences are committed, that Delinquents of this cla.s.s are deterred from the commission of crimes.

Having thus traced the outlines of such remedies, for the protection of his Majesty's _Naval_, _Victualing_, Ordnance and other stores, as certainly require Legislative Regulations; it remains now to consider, what other measures may appear necessary, within the limits of the authority with which the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty are invested, for the purpose of rendering the Preventive System complete.

Those which have occurred to the Author of this Work will be cla.s.sed under the following Heads:

IV. _Regulations respecting the Sale of Old Stores._

V. _The Abolition of the Perquisite of Chips._

VI. _The Abolition of Fees and Perquisites of every description; to be recompensed by a liberal increase of Salaries._