The establishment of those people who are obliged to keep watch in the
streets of cities during the night, belongs to the oldest regulations
of police. Such watchmen are mentioned in the Song of Solomon, and
they occur also in the book of Psalms. Athens and other cities of
Greece had at least sentinels posted in various parts; and some of the
_thesmothetæ_ were obliged to visit them from time to time, in order to
keep them to their duty[456]. At Rome there were _triumviri nocturni_,
_cohortes vigilum_, &c.
The object of all these institutions seems to have been rather the
prevention of fires than the guarding against nocturnal alarms or
danger; though in the course of time attention was paid to these also.
When Augustus wished to strengthen the night-watch, for the purpose of
suppressing nocturnal commotions, he used as a pretext the apprehension
of fires only. The regulations respecting these watchmen, and the
discipline to which they were subjected, were almost the same as those
for night-sentinels in camps during the time of war; but it does not
appear that the night-watchmen in cities were obliged to prove their
presence and vigilance by singing, calling out, or by any other means.
Signals were made by the patroles alone, with bells, when the watchmen
wished to say anything to each other. Singing by sentinels in time of
war was customary, at least among some nations; but in all probability
that practice was not common in the time of peace[457].
Calling out the hours seems to have been first practised after the
erection of city gates, and, in my opinion, to have taken its rise
in Germany; though indeed it must be allowed that such a regulation
would have been very useful in ancient Rome, where there were no
clocks, and where people had nothing in their houses to announce the
hours in the night-time. During the day people could know the hours
after water-clocks had been constructed at the public expense, and
placed in open buildings erected in various parts of the city. The
case seems to have been the same in Greece; and rich families kept
particular servants both male and female, whose business it was to
announce to their masters and mistresses certain periods of the day, as
pointed out by the city clocks. These servants consisted principally
of boys and young girls, the latter being destined to attend on the
ladies. It appears, however, that in the course of time water-clocks
were kept also in the palaces of the great: at any rate Trimalchio,
the celebrated voluptuary mentioned in Petronius, had one in his
dining-room, and a servant stationed near it to proclaim the progress
of the hours, that his master might know how much of his lifetime was
spent; for he did not wish to lose a single moment without enjoying
pleasure.
I have not read everything that has been written by others on the
division of time among the ancients; but after the researches I
have made, I must confess that I do not know whether the hours were
announced in the night-time to those who wished and had occasion to
know them. There were then no clocks which struck the hours, as has
been already said; and as water-clocks were both scarce and expensive,
they could not be procured by labouring people, to whom it was of most
importance to be acquainted with the progress of time[458]. It would
therefore have been a useful and necessary regulation to have caused
the watchmen in the streets to proclaim the hours, which they could
have known from the public water-clocks, by blowing a horn, or by
calling out.
It appears, however, that people must have been soon led to such an
institution, because the above methods had been long practised in
war. The periods for mounting guard were determined by water-clocks;
at each watch a horn was blown, and every one could by this signal
know the hour of the night[459]; but I have met with no proof that
these regulations were established in cities during the time of
peace, though many modern writers have not hesitated to refer to
the night-watch in cities what alludes only to nocturnal guards in
the time of war. On the contrary, I am still more strongly inclined
to think that ancient Rome was entirely destitute of such a police
establishment. The bells borne by the night watchmen were used only
by the patroles, as we are expressly told, or to give signals upon
extraordinary occasions, such as that of a fire, or when any violence
had been committed. Cicero, comparing the life of a civil with that of
a military officer, says, “The former is awaked by the crowing of the
cock, and the latter by the sound of the trumpet.” The former therefore
had no other means of knowing the hours of the night but by attending
to the noise made by that animal[460]. An ancient poet says that the
cock is the trumpeter which awakens people in the time of peace[461].
The ancients indeed understood much better than the vulgar at present,
who are already too much accustomed to clocks, how to determine the
periods of the night by observing the stars; but here I am speaking of
capital cities, and in these people are not very fond of quitting their
beds to look at the stars, which are not always to be seen.
Without entering into further researches respecting watchmen among
the ancient Greeks and Romans, I shall prove, by such testimonies as
I am acquainted with, that the police establishment of which I speak
is more modern in our cities than one might suppose. But I must except
Paris; for it appears that night-watching was established there, as
at Rome, in the commencement of its monarchy. De la Mare[462] quotes
the ordinances on this subject of Clothaire II., in the year 595,
of Charlemagne, and of the following periods. At first the citizens
were obliged to keep watch in turns, under the command of a _miles
gueti_, who was called also _chevalier_. The French writers remark on
this circumstance, that the term _guet_, which occurs in the oldest
ordinances, was formed from the German words _wache_, _wacht_, the
guard, or watch; and in like manner several other ancient German
military terms, such as _bivouac_, _landsquenet_, &c.[463] have been
retained in the French language. In the course of time, when general
tranquillity prevailed, a custom was gradually introduced of avoiding
the duty of watching by paying a certain sum of money, until at length
permanent _compagnies de guet_ were established in Paris, Lyons,
Orleans, and afterwards in other cities.
If I am not mistaken, the establishment of single watchmen, who go
through the streets and call out the hours, is peculiar to Germany,
and was copied only in modern times by our neighbours. The antiquity
of it however I will not venture to determine[464]. At Berlin, the
elector John George appointed watchmen in the year 1588[465]; but
in 1677 there were none in that capital, and the city officers were
obliged to call out the hours[466]. Montagne, during his travels in
1580, thought the calling out of the night-watch in the German cities a
very singular custom. “The watchmen,” says he, “went about the houses
in the night-time, not so much on account of thieves as on account of
fires and other alarms. When the clocks struck, the one was obliged
to call out aloud to the other, and to ask what it was o’clock, and
then to wish him a good night[467].” This circumstance he remarks also
when speaking of Inspruck. Mabillon likewise, who made a literary
tour through Germany, describes calling out the hours as a practice
altogether peculiar to that country.
The horn of our watchmen seems to be the _buccina_ of the ancients,
which, as we know, was at first an ox’s horn, though it was afterwards
made of metal[468]. Rattles, which are most proper for cities, as
horns are for villages, seem to be of later invention[469]. The common
form, “Hear, my masters, and let me tell you,” is very old. I am not
the only person to whom this question has occurred, why it should not
rather be, “Ye people, or citizens.” The chancellor von Ludwig deduces
it from the Romans, who, as he says, were more liberal with the word
Master, like our neighbours with Messieurs, than the old Germans; but
the Roman watchmen did not call out, nor yet do the French at present.
If I may be allowed a conjecture on so trifling an object, I should say
that the city servants or beadles were the first persons appointed to
call out the hours, as was the case at Berlin. These therefore called
out to their masters, and “Our masters” is still the usual appellation
given to the magistrates in old cities, particularly in the central
and southern portions of Germany, and in Switzerland. At Göttingen the
ancient form was abolished in the year 1791, and the watchmen call out
now, “The clock has struck ten, it is ten o’clock.”
Watchmen who were stationed on steeples by day as well as by night,
and who, every time the clock struck, were obliged to give a proof of
their vigilance by blowing a horn, seem to have been first established
on a permanent footing in Germany, and perhaps before watchmen in the
streets. In England there are none of these watchmen; and in general
they are very rare beyond the boundaries of Germany. That watchmen were
posted on the tops of towers, in the earliest ages, to look out for the
approach of an enemy, is well known. In the times of feudal dissension,
when one chief, if he called in any assistance, could often do a great
deal of hurt to a large city, either by plundering and burning the
suburbs and neighbouring villages, or by driving away the cattle of the
citizens, and attacking single travellers, such precaution was more
necessary than at present. The nobility therefore kept in their strong
castles watchmen, stationed on towers; and this practice prevailed
in other countries besides Ireland and Burgundy[470]. It appears by
the laws of Wales, that a watchman with a horn was kept in the king’s
palace[471]. The German princes had in their castles, at any rate in
the sixteenth century, tower-watchmen, who were obliged to blow a horn
every morning and evening.
At first, the citizens themselves were obliged to keep watch in turns
on the church-steeples, as well as at the town-gates; as may be seen
in a police ordinance of the city of Einbeck[472], in the year 1573.
It was the duty of these watchmen, especially where there were no town
clocks, to announce certain periods, such as those of opening and
shutting the city-gates. The idea of giving orders to these watchmen to
attend not only to danger from the enemy but from fire also, and, after
the introduction of public clocks, to prove their vigilance by making a
signal with their horn, must have naturally occurred; and the utility
of this regulation was so important, that watchmen on steeples were
retained, even when cities, by the prevalence of peace, had no occasion
to be apprehensive of hostile incursions.
After this period persons were appointed for the particular purpose
of watching; and small apartments were constructed for them in the
steeples. At first they were allowed to have their wives with them;
but this was sometimes prohibited, because a profanation of the church
was apprehended. In most, if not in all cities, the town-piper, or
as we say at present, town-musician, was appointed steeple-watchman;
and lodgings were assigned to him in the steeple; but in the course of
time, as these were too high and too inconvenient, a house was given
him near the church, and he was allowed to send one of his servants
or domestics to keep watch in his stead. This is the case still at
Göttingen. The city musician was called formerly the _Hausmann_,
which name is still retained here as well as at the Hartz, in Halle,
and several other places; and the steeple in which he used to
dwell and keep watch was called the _Hausmann’s Thurm_[473]. These
establishments, however, were not general; and were not everywhere
formed at a period equally early, as will be shown by the proofs which
I shall here adduce.
If we can credit an Arabian author, whose Travels were published by
Renaudot, the Chinese were accustomed, so early as the ninth century,
to have watchmen posted on towers, who announced the hours of the
day as well as of the night, by striking or beating upon a suspended
board. Marco Paulo, who, in the thirteenth century, travelled through
Tartary and China, confirms this account; at least in regard to a city
which he calls Quinsai, though he says that signals were given only
in cases of fire and disturbance. Such boards are used in China even
at present[474]; and in Petersburg the watchmen who are stationed
at single houses or in certain parts of the city, are accustomed to
announce the hours by beating on a suspended plate of iron. Such
boards are still used by the Christians in the Levant to assemble
people to divine service, either because they dare not ring bells or
are unable to purchase them. The former is related by Tournefort of
the inhabitants of the Grecian islands, and the latter by Chardin of
the Mingrelians. The like means were employed in monasteries, at the
earliest periods, to give notice of the hours of prayer, and to awaken
the monks[475]. Mahomet, who in his form of worship borrowed many
things from the Christians of Syria and Arabia, adopted the same method
of assembling the people to prayers; but when he remarked that it
appeared to his followers to savour too much of Christianity, he again
introduced the practice of calling out.
The steeple-watchmen in Germany are often mentioned in the fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries. In the year 1351, when the council of Erfurt
renewed that police ordinance which was called the _Zuchtbrief_, letter
of discipline, because it kept the people in proper subjection, it
was ordered, besides other regulations in regard to fire, that two
watchmen should be posted on every steeple. A watchman of this kind was
appointed at Merseburg and Leisnig so early as the year 1400. In the
beginning of the seventeenth century the town-piper of Leisnig lived
still in apartments in the steeple. In the year 1563, a church-steeple
was erected in that place, and an apartment built in it for a permanent
watchman, who was obliged to announce the hours every time the clock
struck.
In the fifteenth century the city of Ulm kept permanent watchmen in
many of the steeples. In the year 1452 a bell was suspended in the
tower of the cathedral of Frankfort-on-the-Maine, which was to be
rung in times of feudal alarm, and all the watchmen on the steeples
were then to blow their horns and hoist their banners. In the year
1476, a room for the watchman was constructed in the steeple of the
church of St. Nicholas. In the year 1509, watchmen were kept both on
the watch-towers and steeples, who gave notice by firing a musket
when strangers approached. The watchman on the tower of the cathedral
immediately announced, by blowing a trumpet, whether the strangers
were on foot or on horseback; and at the same time hung out a red flag
towards the quarter in which he observed them advancing. The same
watchman was obliged, likewise, to blow his horn on an alarm of fire;
and that these people might be vigilant day and night, both in winter
and summer, the council supplied them with fur-cloaks, seven of which,
in the above-mentioned year, were purchased for ten florins and a half.
In the year 1496, the large clock was put up in the steeple of
Oettingen, and a person appointed to keep watch on it[476]. In 1580,
Montagne was much surprised to find on the steeple at Constance a man
who kept watch there continually; and who, on no account, was permitted
to come down from his station.
[One of the greatest improvements of modern times, in this country,
is the establishment of that highly efficient body, the new police.
The first introduction of the police was made by the magistrates of
Cheshire in 1829, under an authority from parliament (Act 10 Geo. IV.
c. 97). The first metropolitan establishment was also made in 1829.
Before this time the total old force of the metropolitan watchmen
consisted of 797 parochial day officers, 2785 night-watch, and upward
of 100 private watchmen; including the Bow-street day and night patrol,
there were about 4000 men employed in the district stretching from
Brentford Bridge on the west to the river Lea on the east, and from
Highgate on the north to Streatham on the south, excluding the city
of London. The act of parliament creating the new police force (10
Geo. IV. c. 44) placed the control of the whole body in the hands of
two commissioners, who devote their whole time to their duties. The
total number of the metropolitan police in January 1840 consisted of
3486 men. These are arranged in divisions, each of which is employed
in a distinct district. The metropolis is divided into “beats” and
is watched day and night. Since August 1839, the horse-patrol,
consisting of seventy-one mounted men, who are employed within a
distance of several miles around London, has been incorporated with
the metropolitan police. The Thames police consists of twenty-one
surveyors, each of whom has charge of three men and a boat when on
duty. The establishment is under the immediate direction of the
magistrates of the Thames police-office.
The police affairs of the city of London are still under its own
management. In 1833, the number of persons employed in the several
wards of the city was,--ordinary watchmen, 500; superintending
watchmen, 65; patrolling watchmen, 91; beadles, 54; total, 710. There
are about 400 men doing duty in the city at midnight. In addition to
the paid watchmen, about 400 ward-constables are appointed. The expense
of the day-police, consisting of about 120 men, amounts to about £9000
a year, and is defrayed by the corporation: and the sum levied on the
wards for the support of the night-watch averages about £42,000 per
annum.
The police of the metropolis and the district within fifteen miles
of Charing Cross (exclusive of the city) is regulated by the acts 10
Geo. IV. c. 44, and 2 and 3 Vict. c. 47. In nearly all the boroughs
constituted under the Municipal Reform Act, a paid police force has
been established on the same footing as the metropolitan police.]