Bibliography
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Another point of criticism can be read in the reassurance of Bucket to Snagsby
that the latter should not be afraid that Jo will be hurt. No, Jo will be paid for his trouble
and sent away. It might be that Dickens is here referring to the circumstances people meet,
when locked up in policestations. Solmes (p. 151) describes those as follows, The police
stations of that period (referring to the year 1855, but there is no reason to assume that
in the period which is covered by Bleak House conditions will have been much better)
were very different from those of to-day, and arrested persons were often herded together
under conditions which would not be tolerated now. Vine Street was perhaps one of the
worst, and the heat of a summer night added to the unnecessary suffering caused by
confinement in stifling cells, one of which was underground and had formerly been part
of the old parish watch-house". A Royal Commission which was appointed to investigate
those complaints against the police wrote in its general conclusion that certain
officers had been guilty of unnecessary violence we have deemded it our duty to
report misconduct on the part of various members of the police A last point of
criticism can be read in Dickens descriptions of the conditions of the streets of certain
neighborhoods. Mentioned is Tom all-alone's:
A black dilapidated street where the rains fall in ruined
shelters, a villainous street, undrained, unventilated, deep in black
mud and corrupt water - though the streets are dry elsewhere, reeking
with smells and sighs, heaps of ruins
One other example, the place where Lady Dedlock looks at the grave of her dead
lover, is "a corner of a hideous archway with deadly stains."
Nowadays, we would blame the city's Sanitation Department for the conditions mentioned.
Back in the time of Bleak House, Dickens gives the impression he blames the Police for
them. The impression I had became stronger when reading a part of an article Dickens
wrote in Household Words in 1852, "On duty with Inspector Field".
"CLEAR THE STREET, HALF A THOUSAND OF YOU". With 'half a thousand' he means
half a thousand constables.
1. Dickens, Charles. Bleak House. W.W. Norton Company Inc. New York, 1977.
2. Jones, David. Crime, protest, community and police in nineteenth-century Britain.
Routlegde Kegan Paul. London, Boston and Henley, 1982.
3. Melville Lee, Captain W.L. A History of Police in England. Methuen Co. 36 Essex
Street W.C. London, 1901.
4. Tobias, J.J. Crime and Police in England 1700-1900. Gill and Macmillan Ltd.
15/17 Eden Ouai, Dublin, 1979.
5. Solmes, Alwyn. The English Policeman, 1871-1935. George Allen Unwin Ltd,
Museum Street, London, 1935.
