and so Pole remained in England. Broken down as much by | the blow as by ill-health the cardinal died at Lambeth on the 17th of November 1558, twelve hours after Mary's death and under the unmerited disgrace of the papacy in defence of which he had spent his life. He was buried at Canterbury near the spot where the shrine of St Thomas Becket once stood.

Pole.

The chief sources for Pole's biography are his life written in Italian by his secretary Beccatelli, which was translated into Latin by Andrew Dudith as Vita Poli cardinalis (Venice, 1563), and his letters (Epistolae Reginaldi Poli) edited by Girolamo Quirini and published in 5 volumes (Brescia, 1744-1757), a new edition of which is in preparation at Rome with additions from the Vatican Archives. See also the State Papers (foreign and domestic) of Henry VIII., Edward VI. and Mary; the Spanish and Venetian State Papers; vol. i. of A. Theiner's Acta genuina S.S. Oecumenici Caecilii tridentini (1874); the Compendio dei processi del santo uffizio di Roma da Paolo III. a Paolo IV. (Società romana di storia patria, Archivio, iii. 261 seq.); T. Phillipp's History of the Life of R. Pole (Oxford, 1764-1767); Athanasius Zimmermann, S.J., Kardinal Pole sein Leben und seine Schriften (Regensburg, 1893); Martin Haiiie, Life of Reginald Pole (1910); and F. G. Lee, Reginald (E. TN.) POLE, RICHARD DE LA (d. 1525), pretender to the English crown, was the fifth son of John de la Pole (1442-1491), 2nd duke of Suffolk, and Elizabeth, second daughter of Richard, duke of York and sister of Edward IV. His eldest brother John de la Pole, earl of Lincoln (c. 1464-1487), is said to have been named heir to the throne by his uncle Richard III., who gave him a pension and the reversion of the estates of Lady Margaret Beaufort. On the accession of Henry VII., however, Lincoln took the oath of allegiance, but in 1487 he joined the rebellion of Lambert Simnel, and was killed at the battle of Stoke. The second brother Edmund (c. 1472-1513), succeeded his father while still in his minority. His estates suffered under the attainder of his brother, and he was compelled to pay large sums to Henry VII. for the recovery of part of the forfeited lands, and also to exchange his title of duke for that of earl. In 1501 he sought the German King Maximilian in Tirol, and received from him a promise of substantial assistance in case of an attempt on the English crown. In consequence of these treasonable proceedings Henry seized his brother William de la Pole, with four other Yorkist noblemen. Two of them, Sir James Tyrell and Sir John Wyndham, were executed, William de la Pole was imprisoned and Suffolk outlawed. Then in July 1502 Henry concluded a treaty with Maximilian by which the king bound himself not to countenance English rebels. Presently Suffolk fell into the hands of Philip, king of Castile, who imprisoned him at Namur, and in 1506 surrendered him to Henry VII. on condition that his life was spared. He remained a prisoner until 1513, when he was beheaded at the time his brother Richard took up arms with the French king. Richard de la Pole joined Edmund abroad in 1504, and remained at Aix as surety for his elder brother's debts. The creditors threatened to surrender him to Henry VII., but, more fortunate than his brother, he found a safe refuge at Buda with King Ladislas VI. of Hungary. He was excepted from the general pardon proclaimed at the accession of Henry VIII., and when Louis XII. went to war with England in 1512 he recognized Pole's pretensions to the English crown, and gave him a command in the French army. In 1513, after the execution of Edmund, he assumed the title of earl of Suffolk. In 1514 he was given 12,000 German mercenaries ostensibly for the defence of Brittany, but really for an invasion of England. These he led to St Malo, but the conclusion of peace with England prevented their embarcation. Pole was required to leave France, and he established himself at Metz, in Lorraine, and built a palace at La Haute Pierre, near St Simphorien. He had numerous interviews with Francis I., and in 1523 he was permitted, in concert with John Stewart, duke of Albany, the Scottish regent, to arrange an invasion of England, which was never carried out. He was with Francis I. at Pavia and was killed on the field on the 24th of February 1525.

See Letters and Papers Illustrative of the Reigns of Richard III. and Henry VII., edited by J. Gairdner (2 vols.," Rolls Series," 24, 1861);

Calendar of Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII.; and Sir William Dugdale, The Baronage of England (London, 1675).

POLE, WILLIAM (1814-1900), English engineer, was born at Birmingham on the 22nd of April 1814. He was a man of many accomplishments. Having spent his earlier years in various engineering occupations in England, he went out to India in 1844 as professor of engineering at Elphinstone College, Bombay, where he had to first organize the course of instruction for native students, but his health obliged him to return to England in 1848. For the next ten years he worked in London under James Simpson and J. M. Rendel, and the high reputation he achieved as a scientific engineer gained his appointment in 1859 to the chair of civil engineering in University College, London. He obtained a considerable amount of official work from the government. He served on the committees which considered the application of armour to ships and fortifications (1861-1864), and the comparative advantages of Whitworth and Armstrong guns (1863-1865). He was secretary to the Royal Commission on Railways (1865-1867), the duke of Richmond's Commission on London Water (1867-1869), also taking part in the subsequent proceedings for establishing a constant supply, the Royal Commission on the Disposal of London Sewage (1882-1884), and the departmental committee on the science museums at South Kensington in 1885. In 1871 he was employed by the War Office to report on the Martini-Henry rifle, and in the same year was appointed consulting engineer in London to the Japanese government, a position through which he exercised considerable influence on the development of the Japanese railway system. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1861, in reMusic cognition of some investigations on colour-blindness. was also one of his chief interests. At the age of twenty-two he was appointed organist of St Mark's, North Audley Street, in open competition, the next selected candidate being Dr E. J. Hopkins (1818-1901), who subsequently was for fifty years organist of the Temple Church. He took the degree of Bachelor of Music at Oxford in 1860, proceeding to his doctor's degree in 1867, and in 1879 published his Philosophy of Music. He was largely concerned in the institution of musical degrees by the University of London in 1877, and for many years acted as one of the examiners. His mathematical tastes found congenial occupation in the study of whist, and as an exponent of the scientific principles of that game he was even earlier in the field than " Cavendish." His literary work included treatises on the steam-engine and on iron construction, biographical studies of famous engineers, including Robert Stephenson and I. K. Brunel, Sir William Fairbairn and Sir W. Siemens, several books on musical subjects and on whist, and many papers for reviews and scientific periodicals. He died on the 30th of December 1900. His son, William Pole (1852- ), became known as an actor and writer under the stage-name of William Poel, more especially for his studies in Shakespearian drama and his work in connexion with the Elizabethan Stage Society.

POLF (1) (O. Eng. pál, cf. Ger. Pfahl, Du. paal, from Lat. palus, stake), a tapering cylindrical post or stake of some considerable length, used as a support in scaffolding, for telegraph or telephone wires, hops, &c., and as a means for taking jumps (see POLE-VAULTING), and also as a single shaft for a vehicle drawn by two or more horses. As a measure of length a "pole," also called "rod" or perch," is equal to 5 yds. (16} ft.), as a measure of area it is equal to 30 sq. yds. (2) (Lat. polus, adapted from Gr. Tóλos, pivot, axis), one or other of the extremities of the axis of the earth; the "celestial pole" is one or other of the points in the heavens to which the earth's axis points; in the northern hemisphere this point is near the star Ursae minoris, better known as the Pole-star or Polaris (see URSA MAJOR). For the regions lying about the north and south poles of the earth see POLAR REGIONS.

In mathematics the word pole has several meanings. In spherical trigonometry the pole" of a circle on a sphere is the point where the diameter of the sphere perpendicular to the plane of the circle intersects the sphere. In crystallography (q.v.) the " pole" of

a face is the intersection of a line perpendicular to the face with

In

the sphere of projection. The term is also applied to a point | trained, like ferrets, for rabbit-catching. The polecat is very from which lines radiate, as, for instance, the origin in a system of tenacious of life and will bear many severe wounds before polar co-ordinates, or the common point of a pencil of rays. the geometry of conic sections the "pole of a line, termed the succumbing; it is also said to receive with impunity the bite polar" of the point, is the intersection of the tangents (either of the adder. Its fetid smell has become proverbial. To this real or imaginary) at the points where the line meets the conic it is indebted for its generic name Putorius (derived, as are also (see GEOMETRY: 8 Projective). The "magnetic poles" of the the low Lat. putacius, Fr. putois, and Ital. puzzola, from earth are the points on the earth's surface where the dipping needle is vertical (see TERRESTRIAL MAGNETISM); and the poles" of puteo), as well as the designation foumart (i.e. foul marten) a magnet are the points of the magnet where the magnetic intensity and its other English names, fitchet, fitchew. Attempts to is greatest. In electricity, the term is applied to the elements account for the first syllable of the word polecat rest entirely on of a galvanic battery (q.v.), or to the terminals of a frictional conjecture.

POLECAT, the common name given to any member of the Musteline genus Putorius (see CARNIVORA). The polecats form a small group confined to the northern hemisphere, of which the best known and most widely distributed is the common polecat of Europe (P. foetidus or P. putorius). This animal, at least so far as its disposition, size and proportions are concerned, is well known in its domesticated condition as the ferret, which is but a tamed albino variety of the true polecat. The colour of the latter, however, instead of the familiar yellowish-white of the ferret, is of a dark brown tint above and black below, the face being variegated with dark brown and white markings. Its skull is rough, strongly ridged, and altogether of a far more powerful type than those of the stoats, weasels or martens; the skull of the female is very much smaller and lighter than that of the male. The fur is long, coarse, and of comparatively small value, and changes its colour very little, if at all, at the different seasons of the year. odmomix

The Common Polecat.

The Siberian polecat (Putorius 'eversmanni) is very like the European in size, colour and proportions, but with head and back both nearly or quite white, and skull more heavily built and sharply constricted behind the orbits, at least in fully adult individuals. It inhabits the greater part of south-western Siberia, extending from Tibet into the steppes of south-eastern European Russia.

The black-footed or American polecat (Putorius nigripes) is a native of the central plateau of the United States, and extends southwards into Texas. It is often called the prairiedog hunter, as it is nearly always found in the warrens of that animal. The fur is cream-yellow, the legs are brown, and the feet and tail-tip black.

The mottled polecat (Putorius sarmaticus), a species occurring in southern Russia and south-western Asia, and extending from eastern Poland to Afghanistan, differs from other polecats both by its smaller size and its remarkable coloration, the whole of the upper-parts being marbled with large irregular reddish spots on a white ground, while the under-side, limbs and tail are deep shining black. Its habits appear to be much like those of the common polecat. (R. L.*)

POLENTA, DA, the name of a castle in Romagna, from which came the noble and ancient Italian family of Da Polenta. The founder of the house is said to have been Guido, surnamed l'Antico or the Elder, who wielded great authority in Ravenna in the 13th century. His grandson Guido Novello upheld the power of the house and was also capitano del popolo at Bologna; he was overthrown in 1322 and died the following year. His Batino chief claim to renown lies in the fact that in 1321 he gave hospitality to the poet Dante, who immortalized the tragic history of Guido's daughter Francesca, unhappily married to Malatesta, lord of Rimini, in an episode of the Inferno. Guido's kinsman Ostasio I. was lord of Cervia and Ravenna from 1322 to 1329, and, after being recognized as a vassal of the Holy See, again became independent and went over to the house of Este, whom he served faithfully in their struggles with the Church until his death in 1346. His son Bernardino, who succeeded him as lord of Ravenna in 1346, was deposed in 1347 by his brothers, Pandolfo and Lamberto II., but was reinstated a few months later and ruled until his death in 1359; he was famous for his profligacy and cruelty. His son Guido III. ruled more mildly and died in 1390. Then followed Ostasio II. (d. 1396), Obizzo (d. 1431), Pietro (d. 1404), Aldobrandino (d. 1406), all sons of Guido III. Ostasio III. (or V.), son of Obizzo, was at first allied with the Venetians; later he went over to the Milanese, and, although he again joined the Venetians, the latter never forgave his intrigue with their enemies, and in 1441 they deprived him of his dominions. He died in a monastery in 1447.

The polecat ranges over the greater part of Europe, reaching northwards into southern Sweden and in Russia to the region of the White Sea. It does not occur in the extreme south, but is common everywhere throughout central Europe. In the Alps it ranges far above the tree-line during the summer, but retreats in winter to lower ground. It is confined to the northern counties of England and Scotland, where it is becoming very rare, owing to persecutions from game-keepers, and in Ireland it appears to be extinct. In fine weather it lives either in the open air, in holes, fox-earths, rabbit-warrens, under rocks or in wood-stacks; while in winter it seeks the protection of deserted buildings, barns or stables. During the day it sleeps in its hiding place, sallying forth at night to plunder dovecots and hen-houses. It climbs but little, and shows far less activity than the marten. It feeds ordinarily on small mammals, such as rabbits, hamsters, rats and mice, on such birds as it can catch, especially poultry and pigeons, and also on snakes, lizards, frogs, fish and eggs. Its prey is devoured only in its lair; but, even though it can carry away but a single victim, it commonly kills everything that comes in its way, often destroying all the inhabitants of a hen-house in order to gratify its passion for slaughter. The pairing time is towards the end of the winter, and the young, from three to eight in number, are born in April or May, after a period of gestation of about two months. The young, if taken early, may be easily

POLE-VAULTING, the art of springing over an obstacle with the aid of a pole or staff. It is probable that an exercise of the kind was a feature of Greek gymnastics, but with this exception there is no record of its ancient practice as a sport. As a practical means of passing over such natural obstacles as canals and brooks it has been made use of in many parts of the world, for instance in the marshy provinces along the North Sea and the great level of the fens of Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, Lincolnshire and Norfolk. The artificial draining of these marshes brought into existence a network of open drains or canals intersecting each other at right angles. In order to cross these dryshod, and at the same time avoid tedious roundabout journeys over the bridges, a stack of jumping poles was

kept at every house, which were commonly used for vaulting | roads, footpads infested the streets, burglaries were of constant over the canais.

occurrence, river thieves on the Thames committed depredations wholesale. The watchmen appointed by parishes were useless, inadequate, inefficient and untrustworthy, acting cften as accessories in aiding and abetting crime. Year after year the shortcomings and defects were emphasized and some better means of protection were constantly advocated. At the com

one criminal to every twenty-two of the population. The efforts made at repression were pitifully unequal. In the district of Kensington, covering 15 sq. m., the protection afforded was dependent on three constables and three headboroughs. In the parish of Tottenham nineteen attempts at burglary were made in six weeks, and sixteen were entirely successful. In Spitalfields gangs of thieves stood at the street corners and openly rifled all who came near. In other parishes there was no police whatever, no defence, no protection afforded to the community but the voluntary exertions of individuals and "the honesty of the thieves.' In those days victims cf robberies constantly compounded with felonies and paid blackmail to thieves, promising not to prosecute on the restitution of a portion of the stolen property.

As a sport, pole-vaulting made its appearance in Germany in the first part of the 19th century, when it was added to the gymnastic exercises of the Turner by Johann C. F. GutsMuths and Frederich L. Jahn. In Great Britain it was first commonly practised at the Caledonian games. It is now an event in the athletic championships of nearly all nations. Al-mencement of the 19th century it was computed that there was though strength and good physical condition are essential to efficiency in pole-vaulting, skill is a much more important element. Broad-jumping with the pole, though the original form of the sport, has never found its way into organized athletics, the high jump being the only form recognized. The object is to clear a bar or lath supported upon two uprights without knocking it down. The pole, of hickory or some other tough wood, is from 13 to 15 ft. long and 1 in. thick at the middle, tapering to 1 in. at the ends, the lower of which is truncated to prevent sinking into the earth and shod with a single spike to avoid slipping. A hole in which to place the end of the pole is often dug beneath the bar. In holding the pole the height of the cross-bar is first ascertained, and the right hand placed, with an undergrip, about 6 in. above this point, the left hand, with an over-grip, being from 14 to 30 in. below the right. The vaulter then runs towards the bar at full speed, plants the spiked end of the pole in the ground about 18 in. in front of the bar and springs into the air, grasping the pole firmly as he rises. As he nears the bar he throws his legs forward, and, pushing with shoulders and arms, clears it, letting the pole fall backwards. In Great Britain the vaulter is allowed to climb the pole when it is at the perpendicular. Tom Ray, of Ulverston in Lancashire, who was champion of the world in 1887, was able to gain several feet in this manner. In the United States climbing is not allowed. Among the best British vaulters, using the climbing privilege, have been Tom Ray, E. L. Stones, R. Watson and R. D. Dickinson; Dickinson having cleared 11 ft. 9 in. at Kidderminster in 1891. The record pole-vault is 12 ft. 6 in., made by W. Dray of Yale in 1907.

POLICE (Fr. police, government, civil administration, a police force, Gr. rodireia, constitution, condition of a state, Tóls, city, state), a term used of the enforcement of law and order in a state or community, of the department concerned with that part of the civil administration, and of the body or force which has to carry it into execution. The word was adopted in English in the 18th century and was disliked as a symbol of foreign oppression. The first official use appears, according to the New English Dictionary, in the appointment of "Commissioners of Police" for Scotland in 1714. A police system has been devised for the purpose of preventing evils and providing benefits. In its first meaning it protects and defends society from the dissidents, those who decline to be bound by the general standard of conduct accepted by the larger number of the law-abiding, and in this sense it is chiefly concerned with the prevention and pursuit of crime. It has a second and more extensive meaning as applied to the regulation of public order and enforcing good government.

United Kingdom.-The establishment of a systematic police force was of slow growth in England, and came into effect long after its creation abroad. A French king, Charles V., is said to have been the first to invent a police, "to increase the happiness and security of his people." It developed into an engine of horrible oppression, and as such was repugnant to the feelings of a free people. Yet as far back as the 13th century a statute, known as that of "Watch and Ward," was passed in the 13th year of Edward I. (1285), aimed at the maintenance of peace in the city of London. Two centuries later (1585) an act was passed for the better government of the city and borough of Westminster, and this act was re-enacted with extended powers in 1737 and soon succeeded by another (1777) with wider and stricter provisions. The state of London at that date, and indeed of the whole country at large, was deplorable. Crime was rampant, highwaymen terrorized the

The crying need for reform and the introduction of a proper police was admitted by the government in 1829, when Sir Robert Peel laid the foundation of a better system. Much opposition was offered to the scheme, which was denounced as an insidious attempt to enslave the people by arbitrary and tyrannical methods. The police were to be employed, it was said, as the instruments of a new despotism, the enlisted members of a new standing army, under the centralized authority, riding roughshod over the peaceable citizens. But the guardians of order, under the judicious guidance of such sensible chiefs as Colonel Rowan and Sir Henry Maine, soon lived down the hostility first exhibited, and although one serious and lamentable collision occurred between the mob and the police in 1833, it was agreed two years later that the unfavourable impression at one time existing against the new police was rapidly diminishing, and that it had fully answered the purpose for which it was formed. Crime had already diminished; it was calculated that the annual losses inflicted on the public by the depredations of the dangerous classes had appreciably fallen and a larger number of convictions had been secured.

The formation of the metropolitan police was in due course followed by the extension of the principle to the provinces. Borough constabulary forces were established by the Municipal Corporation Act (1835), which entrusted their administration to the mayor and a watch committee, and this act was revised in 1882, when the general powers of this authority were defined Acts of 1839 and 1840 permitted the formation by the justices of a paid county police force. Action in this case was optional, but after an interval of fifteen years the Police Act of 1856 made the rule compulsory, it being found that an efficient police force throughout England and Wales was necessary for the more effectual prevention and detection of crime, the suppression of vagrancy and the maintenance of good order. Local acts had already endowed Scotland with a police system, and in 1857, and again in 1862, counties were formed into police districts, and the police of towns and populous places was generally regulated. Ireland has two police forces; the Dublin metropolitan police originated in 1808, and in 1829 the provisions of Sir Robert Peel's act for London were embodied in the Police Law for Ireland.

The extent to which the metropolitan police has developed will best be realized by contrasting its numbers on first creation and the nature of the duties and functions that then appertained to it. The first act (the Metropolitan Police Act 1829) applied to the metropolis, exclusive of the city of London, and constituted a police area having a radius of 12 m. from Charing Cross. Two justices of the peace were appointed, presently named commissioners of police, to administer the act under the immediate direction of the secretary of state for the home department. The first police office was located in Whitehall in Scotland Yard, from which it was removed in the autumn of 1890 to the new and imposing edifice on the Embankment, in which all branches are now concentrated, known as New Scotland Yard. The first constabies

appointed. were 3000 in number, who, when sworn in, enjoyed all | The state employs police solely in the interests of the public. the powers of the old constables under the common law, for pre- welfare. No sort of espionage is attempted, no effort made to serving the peace, preventing robberies and other felonies, and apprehending offenders. The subdivision of the district into divi- penetrate privacy; no claim to pry into the secret actions of sions, on much the same lines as now existing, was at once made law-abiding persons is or would be tolerated; the agents of for administrative convenience, and a proportion of officers was authority must not seek information by underhand or unworthy allotted to each in the various grades then first constituted and means. In other countries the police system has been worked still preserved, comprising in ascending order, constables, sergeants, inspectors and superintendents. Some time later the grade of more arbitrarily; it has been used to check free speech, to interdistrict superintendent was created, held by gentlemen of superior fere with the right of public meetings, and condemn the expresstatus and intelligence, to each of whom the control of a large section sion of opinion hostile to or critical of the ruling powers. An of the whole force, embracing a wide area, was entrusted. This grade has since been merged in that of chief constable, of whom all-powerful police, minutely organized, has in some foreign there are four exercising powers of disciplinary supervision in the states grown into a terrible engine of oppression and made daily metropolitan districts, and a fifth who is assistant in the branch life nearly intolerable. In England the people are free to of criminal investigation. The supreme authority is vested in assemble as they please, to march in procession through the the home secretary, but the immediate command and control streets, to gather in open spaces, to listen to the harangues, is exercised by the chief commissioner, with three assistants, replacing the two commissioners provided for in 1829. often forcibly expressed, of mob orators, provided always that no obstruction is caused or that no disorder or breach of the peace is threatened.

After various parliamentary reports and some legislation by way of extension, an important act was passed in 1839 reciting that the system of police established had been found very inefficient and might be yet further improved (Metropolitan Police Act 1839). The metropolitan police district was extended to 15 m. from Charing Cross. The whole of the river Thames (which, in its course through London, so far as related to police matters, had been managed under distinct acts) was brought within it, and the collateral but not exclusive powers of the metropolitan police were extended to the royal palaces and 10 m. round, and to the counties adjacent to the district. Various summary powers for dealing with street and other offences were conferred. When the police was put on a more complete footing and the area enlarged, provision was made for the more effectual administration of justice by the magistrates of the metropolis (Metropolitan Police Courts Act 1839). The changes that occurred in magisterial functions are scarcely less remarkable than the transition from the parish constable to the organized police. The misdirected activity of the civil magistrate in the 17th century is illustrated by the familiar literature of Butler, Bunyan and others. The zeal of that age was succeeded by apathetic reaction, and it became necessary in the metropolis to secure the services of paid justices. At the beginning of the 19th century, outside of the city of London (where magisterial duties were, as now, performed by the lord mayor and aldermen), there were various public offices besides the Bow Street and Thames police offices where magistrates attended. To the Bow Street office was subsequently attached the "horse patrol"; each of the police offices had a fixed number of constables attached to it, and the Thames police had an establishment of constables and surveyors. The horse patrol was in 1836, as previously intended, placed under the new police. It became desirable that the horse patrol and constables allotted to the several police offices not interfered with by the Act of 1828 should be incorporated with the metropolitan police force. This was effected, and thus magisterial functions were completely separated from the duties of the executive police; for although the jurisdiction of the two justices, afterwards called commissioners, as magistrates extended to ordinary duties (except at courts of general or quarter sessions), from the first they took no part in the examination or committal for trial of persons charged with offences. No prisoners were brought before them. Their functions were in practice confined to the discipline of the force and the prevention and detection of offences, their action limited to having persons arrested or summoned to be dealt with by the ordinary magistrates, whose courts were not interfered with.

The strength of the metropolitan police in 1908 was 18,167, comprising 32 superintendents, 572 inspectors, 2378 sergeants and 15,185 constables. At the head is a commissioner, appointed by the home office; he is assisted by four assistant commissioners, one of whom was appointed under the Police Act 1909, in accordance with the recommendation of the Royal Commission on the Metropolitan Police 1906, his duty especially being to deal with complaints made by the public against the police. The metropolitan police are divided into 21 divisions, to which letters of the There is in alphabet are assigned for purposes of distinction. addition the Thames division, recruited mostly from sailors, charged with the patrol of the river and the guardianship of the shipping. To the metropolitan police also are assigned the control and guardianship of the various naval dockyards and arsenals.

The city of London has its own distinct police organization under a commissioner and assistant commissioner, and its functions extend over an area of 673 statute acres containing two courts of justice, those of the Guildhall and Mansion House, where the lord mayor and the aldermen are the magistrates. Although the area is comparatively small the rateable value is enormous. force comprises 2 superintendents, 48 inspectors, 86 sergeants and 865 constables; also some 60 constables on private service duty.

The

The total police force of England and Wales in 1908 was 30,376, almost equally divided between counties and boroughs; that of Scotland numbered 5575. In Ireland the Royal Irish Constabulary are a semi-military force, numbering over 10,500; they police the whole of Ireland, except the city of Dublin, which is under the Dublin metropolitan police, a particularly fine body.

44

The detective is the

The most active and by no means the least efficient branch of the modern English police is that especially devoted to criminal investigation or the detection of crime. or "Robin direct descendant of the old "Bow Street runners Redbreasts "-so styled from their scariet waistcoats-officers in attendance upon the old-fashioned police offices and despatched by the sitting magistrates to follow up any very serious crime in the interests of the public or at the urgent request of private persons. The runners had disappeared when the police organization introduced by Sir Robert Peel came into force in 1829, and at first no part of the new force was especially attributed to the detection of crime. They were much missed, but fifteen years elapsed before Sir James Graham (then home secretary) decided to allot a few constables in plain clothes for that purpose as a tentative measure. The first "detectives" appointed numbered only a dozen, three inspectors and nine sergeants, to whom, however, six constables were shortly added as auxiliaries," but the number was gradually enlarged as the manifest uses of the system became more and more obvious.

OTHER COUNTRIES.-British India is divided into police districts, the general arrangements of the system of the regular police, which dates from the disappearance of the East India Company, resembling in most respects those of the English police, but differ

The aim and object of the police force remain the same as when first created, but its functions have been varied and extended in scope and intention. To secure obedience to the law is a first and principal duty; to deal with breaches of the rules made by authority, to detect, pursue and arrest offenders. Next comes the preservation of order, the protection of all reputable people, and the maintenance of public peace by checking riot and disturbance or noisy demonstration, by enforcing in details in the different presidencies. All are in uniform, ing the observance of the thousand and one regulations laid down for the general good. The police have become the ministers of a social despotism resolute in its watchful care and control of the whole community, well-meaning and paternal, although when carried to extreme length the tendency is to diminish self-reliance and independence in the individual. The police are necessarily in close relation with the state; they are the direct representatives of the supreme government, the servants of the Crown and legislature. In England every constable when he joins the force makes a declaration and swears that he will serve the sovereign loyally and diligently, and so acquires the rights and privileges of a peace officer of and for the Crown.

trained to the use of firearms and drilled, and may be called upon to perform military duties. The superior officers are nearly all Europeans and many of them are military officers. The rest are natives, in Bombay chiefly Mahommedans. The organization of the police was not dealt with by the criminal code which came into force in 1883, but the code is full of provisions tending to make the have a legal sanction for doing what by practice they do in England; force efficient. By that code as well as by the former code the police they take evidence for their own information and guidance in the investigation of cases and are clothed with the power to compel the attendance of witnesses and question them. The smallness of the number of European magistrates, and other circumstances, make the police more important and relatively far more powerful in India than in England (Stephen). The difficulties in the way of ascertaining the truth and investigating false statements and