ABSTRACT
In mankind’s communal life laws are essential to preservation of harmonious relationships. London’s growth brought with it vast tenement areas, riddled with passages and cellars in which criminals easily evaded pursuit. The law was represented by parish constables and night watchmen, often old and feeble and at no time a match for a vicious crowd. To prevent import of liquor from abroad the Government encouraged the distilling of spirits in England so that country was flooded with cheap gin. The magistrates’ hostility to the police was infinitely more serious. Although commissioners were constituted justices ex officio it was never intended that they should exercise a judicial function, the commission being granted to enable them to read the Riot Act if occasion arose. Finally, the revolutionaries saw clearly that the police force was to be a menace to their rabble-rousing activities. They feared the resolute and stalwart police who always seemed to materialize when a seditious meeting or march was arranged.
