ABSTRACT
The Spanish dramatist Ventura de la Vega, who visited London in 1853, was struck by the absence of soldiers in the capital's streets. The ordinary policeman's wages were low, though regular, for a twelve-hour day or night, risking limb and perhaps life in London's roughest areas. Detective Inspector Haynes persuaded the railway officials at London Bridge he had no power of compulsion to allow him to search the trunks that Maria had left to be collected. Each detective was an expert at pursuing a different kind of crime, from housebreaking to selling stolen goods, and from safebreaking to juvenile delinquency. Each deferred to the others superior knowledge and experience. Hanging criminals at Newgate or, in the case of the Manning's, at Horsemonger Lane Gaol in Southwark, avoided the scandal and disorder of the long ride in the tumbrel through the main streets of central London, Holborn and Oxford Street, before arrival at Tyburn.
