- 18 -
was the case on the continent (Jones, p. 117). The Act was enforced and had as a task, "by
means of able, sworn-in men, to preserve the peace and to prevent robberies".
In 1829 the M.P.A. covered roughly 12 miles around Charing Cross; in 1839 this
area was extended to 15 miles. Several of the places mentioned in Bleak House are also
mentioned as former parishes or as extra parochial places in this Act. Holborn and Gray's
Inn are examples of those places, mentioned in the Act as well as in Bleak House. We
may thus assume that Bucket operated under the auspices of the M.P.A.
The immediate result of the installation of a better organized police force was,
from the viewpoint of prevention, a success. Six months after its enactment the Duke of
Wellington congratulated Peel. Peel, now the first commissioner of the Metropolitan Police
in London, answered:
I am very glad indeed to hear that you think well of the Police.
It has given me from first to last more trouble than anything I ever
undertook I want to teach people that liberty does not consist
in having your house robbed by organized gangs of thieves and in
leaving the principal streets of London in the nightly possession of
drunken women and vagabonds (Melville, p.243).
The M.P.A. wound up the existing police-like forces such as the parish-watches,
the Bow Street Foot Patrol, the Dismounted Horse Patrol and the Day Patrol (Tobias, p.78).
As we can see in Bleak Housethe parish-watches, the so-called beadles, did not lose all
their functions at once. Bleak House took place roughly 20 years after the M.P.A. was in
effect, yet we still see a beadle at work. Together with a milkman the beadle tries to
drag a little boy whose head was stuck between railings back into freedom. We see the
beadle running around, running errands for the Coroner. But, the complete abolition of
the beadle is to be expected. In chapter XI, "Our Dear brother", we read that the beadle
is generally to be understood to be a ridiculous institution, considered by the policeman
on duty in that chapter as "an imbecile civilian and, "as something that must be
borne with until Government shall abolish him".
In order to organize the police, Peel appointed two joint commissioners, Colonel
Charles Rowan, "a soldier of distinction who had already gained some experience with the
Royal Irish Constabulary and Richard Mayne, an eminent lawyer" (Melville, p.234). Suggested
is that Rowan developed the idea of patrol and practical organization and that Mayne wrote
the standing instructions (Tobias, p.79).
Among the practical things that had to be resolved were the wearing - or not~
of a uniform and the carrying -- or not -- of a weapon. Chosen was a "quiet' uniform
which emphasized the civilian character of the newly created force. A funny detail is given
by Tobias about the top hat belonging to the new policeman's outfit. This head cover had
originally two functions. It had to cover the head and was to be used as a stepladder in
case one had to peep over a little bit too high a wall. This top hat "was a tall 'chimney
pot' of great weight, with a shining leather top, and having a leather support down each
side". It lost the latter ladder function in 1868 (Solmes, p.130).
