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happening in fact is that Bucket has combined the unobtrusive attitude required of an
officer with the duty of a detective, that is to arrest George.
4c Bucket, the detective
Bucket was in fact a detective officer. We saw how he introduced himself as an
Inspector of the Detective. That he was as such employed by the M.P., we can assume
from his words to Snagsby in the discussion about finding Jo, "Since our people have moved
this boy on" and, "I promise you as a man, that you shall see the boy sent away all right.
Don't you be afraid of hurting him..." I wondered at first if Bucket could have said that
his people moved this boy on. Moving people on was one of the duties of the beadle. As
long as he could move homeless people on, he could prevent them from enjoying the bene
fits of the Poor Law. If a person managed to stay in one parish for one year he could
claim an allowance provided by this centuries old Law. On the other hand, the M.P. was
entitled only, according to part 7 of the Act of 1829 to 'apprehend all loose, idle and
disorderly persons and all persons loitering and not giving a satisfactory account of
themselves, and to deliver any person so apprehended into the custody of the constable...."
Apprehending and delivering a person is not the same thing as moving people on, and both
treatments served different laws.
On the other hand, William Cartwright, Chairman of Brackley Poor Law Union,
wrote in his function a letter in 1835 to the commissioners of the Metropolitan Police,
asking them to recommend two police officers, to be appointed as Poor Law relieving
officers. "Two men were appointed in this capacity and moved permanently to
Northamptonshire". (Steedman, p.57) The constable we meet on p.238 of Bleak Housereplies
to Mr Snagsby that he has to move this boy on, "My instructions are that this boy is to
move on". The Metropolitan Police might have been charged with the execution of the
Poor Law or the avoiding of the application as well. According to footnote 4 on p.238,
the police constables were empowered to require loiterers to "move on". As its source,
this footnote mentions Household Words (September 6, 1851, p.569).
Bucket a Detective in London? Until 1839, the only detectives known as such were
the Bow Street Runners. In "339 this institution merged by Act into the M.P. force.
The first time the existence of detectives of the M.P. was mentioned, was in a
petition by Robert Cousins in December 1841 Cousins was to be promoted to sergeant
of the Detective department. The first time a newspaper mentions detectives is on the
8th of November 1844. From a court report it was apparent that neither The Reserve nor
the Detective department existed in October 1840 (Rumbelow, p. 174). So the Detective
branch of the "Reserve" must have been formed during the first months of 1841. The
Reserve originally had as its task to observe and report on the behavior of the rest of
the M.P. force; out of this group the Detective department grew.
According to Solmes, the Home Secretary, Sir James Graham, directed in 1842 that
a "small body of police officers should be charged with the special duty of criminal
