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60
placed under the charge of the Metropolitan Board of Works,
will give some slight idea of the difficulties which must have
been experienced before the introduction of the system of numbering
houses, and of the benefit which resulted from the
substitution of a number in a street for a sign which might
have many a counterpart in the same district,
When St. James's was constituted a parish, the offices of
constable and watchmen were honorary but compulsory, and
it was not until the year 1719 that even substituted service
was accepted. In the following year the payment of watchmen
was made a charge on the watching rate. The old Saxon
practice, as modified by the Normans, of holding the hundred
responsible for all delinquencies committed within its limits,
was still in vogue, but the growth of population and increase
of wealth gradually led to the creation of a new state of
affairs. So conservative, however, are the English nation,
that it was not until the year 1829 that the foundation was
laid of the present Metropolitan Police Force. The "new
police," as the constables were called for many years after
their re-organization, or "bobbies" and “peelers" as they
were more familiarly known, after Sir Robert Peel, the
author of the Act of Parliament which created the new body,
have passed through the usual stages of ridicule, and now
present probably as fine and efficient a body of men for the
maintenance of public order as any city in the world possesses.
As a matter of information, it may be stated that the cost of
the Metropolitan Police Force for the year 1883 amounted to
£1,313,981 19s. 7d., of which £639,751 7s. 4d. was defrayed
from the rates, £515,233 from the imperial taxation of the
country, £137,968 3s. l0d. was received for the protection
of public buildings and tor other special services, and the
remainder was derived from other sources. The strength of
the force at the close of 1883 (the latest year for which the
Commissioners Report has been issued) was 25