Royal Insh Constabulary

By SERGEANT J. H. McCLINTON

First Head of B. C. Police Supplied by Royal Irish Constabulary—lIrish Police

Force Goes Back to 1787—First Trained Force Formed in 1822—Frequent Battles

with Fenians Cost the Police Hundreds of Killed and Wounded Members in the
Force’s Century of Service Before Being Disbanded.

Practically all the Empire’s Territorial
Police Forces have been modelled along
the lines of the R. I. C.—and here Sergeant
_ McClinton gives us a very able outline of
the establishment and growth of Erin's
famous constabulary, which, by the way,
has a direct link with the B.C. Police.
—Editor.

ACED WITH an ever rising tide of law-
-ssness which baffled the best efforts of the
ld Bow Street patrols, Sir Robert Peel,
fome Secretary of England, struggled in
re early days of the nineteenth century to
stablish an organized police force for the
‘ity of London.

Hostility of the English people to a cen-
alized police force had legitimate birth.
‘he inquisitions of the French gendarmerie,
rmed under Louis XIV and later the ex-
>sses of the military police regime in Eng-
nd under the Cromwellian major-generals
ad shown that a large police force under
entral authority could become a menace to
vil liberty. So strong was this feeling that
select committee of the House of Com-
ions, appointed in 1822 to consider the
olicing of England, reported “it is difficult
» reconcile an effective system of police
ith that perfect freedom of action and
<emption from interference which are
ne great privileges and blessings of this
ountry .. . the curtailment of such advan-
uges would be too great a sacrifice for im-
rovements in police.”

INTRODUCING THE “PEELERS”

But Sir Robert triumphed. In 1829, an
ct for the establishment of police in the
.etropolis was passed, and the task of form-
ig the new body was resolutely taken in
and by Peel himself. Care had to be taken
1 selecting men, particularly those destined
or the higher ranks, since there was still a
rge body of public opinion opposed to the
olice idea. The future of law enforcement
1 England depended upon the new officers
roving that the prevention and detection
f crime was not inconsistent with liberty
nd freedom from interference for the law-
biding citizen. After long consideration,
ir Robert decided upon Richard Mayne,
n eminent lawyer, and Colonel Charles
.owan, an officer of the Irish Constabulary,
s joint heads of the new force. The task
suld not have been placed in better hands.

UMMER EDITION

To the energy and tact displayed by the
first commissioners must be attributed the
success of the London Metropolitan Police
from its inception.

In 1853 a similar problem faced James
Douglas, governor of the two Crown Colo-
nies of Vancouver Island and British Co-
lumbia. Increasing population was proving
the volunteer system of law enforcement in
both colonies inadequate. Influx of gold seek-
ers to the Fraser river diggings, some with
itching trigger fingers; attacks on whites by
Indians indignant at the looming loss of their

An “Old Barny,” the first Irish Police, 1787.

—Courtesy Belfast Newsletter.

cherished hunting grounds, pointed to the
necessity for organized police effort. At first
the governor considered using the Royal
Engineers as police, but the Secretary of
State for the Colonies in London was wiser.
The new colony would gain in confidence
by forming its own police force from local
residents. The Colonial Office would aid,
however, by sending an experienced police
officer to organize and command the new
formation. So at Fort Langley, on November

19th, 1858, Chartres Brew, First Class Sub-
inspector of the Irish Constabulary from
County Cork, after an adventurous journey
from Ireland, was sworn in by Chief Justice
Matthew Baillie Begbie as Chief Inspector
of the British Columbia Police, the first
territorial police force in Canada.

Under Brew the work of organization
went rapidly forward. Many difficulties ex-
isted, only to be surmounted by this intrepid
individual, and the force which kept the
peace in British Columbia from 1858 to
1924, when it was reorganized and uni-
formed under Colonel J. H. McMullin, car-
ried the stamp of his personality and genius.
Few in numbers and armed for the most part
only with batons and handcuffs, without
uniform to give authority and prestige, these
truly pioneer police patrolled the 300,000
square miles of the province by horse, foot,
boat and sleigh in such an unobtrusive way
that visitors were often moved to record the
apparent absence of police in the area. Crimi-
nal statistics for these years are their only
written history.

THE First PoLicE FORCE OF THE EMPIRE

Thus the Royal Irish Constabulary, itself
the first organized police force in the Empire,
became the parent of similar forces at such
widely separated points as London and Bri-
tish Columbia. Interesting is the story of
the beginnings of the Irish force, since here
there were no experienced police officers to
guide and no blue prints to follow. It was
developed by “trial and error.”

Until the middle of the 18th century no
attempt seems to have been made to establish
any police force in Ireland. As in England,
Justices of the Peace in rural areas enrolled
special constables as need arose. In the towns
watchmen patrolled the narrow streets at
night armed with quarterstaff, obligingly
carrying a lantern so that those loitering
with felonious intent might be apprised of
their coming. In 1787 the Lord Lieutenant,
a functionary roughly corresponding to our
Governor-General, was authorized to ap-
point a chief constable to each barony, while
county grand juries were given power to
enroll sixteen sub-constables to each chief.
Members of grand juries being large tax
payers and costs of the sub-constables falling
directly upon county taxes, appointments
were made only in certain counties. This
position was not materially altered until
1792, when, spurred by increasing crime,

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