Metropolitan Police Act Of 1829 Analysis

The Metropolitan Police Act of 1829 (MPA) held major significance with all aspects of life; it was to be an act for, ‘improving the police in and near the Metropolis’. As it was the first centralised police force within Britain there was major significance for all walks of life. In the words of A.N. Wilson, the Metropolitan police had ‘two principal tasks, to protect property (and life), and to curb liberty.’ Furthermore, it ultimately led to the implementation of the second Metropolitan Police Act of 1839 which holds the key to the foundations of the modern British police force that we know today, thus representing the extreme significance that it held. [114]
By far the most significant short-term factor that arose from the Metropolitan
This is reinforced with the affirmation that it was ‘an infringement on English social and political factors’ . Not only does the poster focus on the abolition of the new police, but it also calls for a ‘police system in the hands of the PEOPLE’. The capitalisation of ‘PEOPLE’ depicts this image that the police were not people, but ‘Bobbies’, or ‘Peelers’ – a separate entity; this attributing to the concept that there was a rather significant, negative outlook on the MPA within society. In effect they were enemies of the state and this is illustrated through the poster: A.N. Wilson further reiterates the concepts put forth by the illustration, stating that the MPA were ‘comparable gendarmeries’. The gendarmeries being a force of French police who were paid for their work; much of society saw this as a step toward the French and due to the very recent war between the British and French in 1815 there is a cause to state that there would have been public dismay
Therefore, society wanted the ‘PEOPLE’ in charge and not some new system, separate from them. Within Source 2, Sir Robert Peel recognised this and wrote in a private letter, to his wife, about how he, ‘did laugh… at one [caricature]… in which I am represented stripping one of the watchmen of his great coat’ . Peel writes as if this was a part of his everyday meanderings. The concept that these caricatures were easy to come by across the country implies that there was major short-term significance within the time period because papers that were readily accessible to the working-class men were illustrated with pictures denoting to the MPA. This, along with the poster [Source 1] causes a stronger parity with the concept that the MPA was of major significance within the contemporary society and makes both of the sources more credible. Given Source 2s provenance, being in a private collection of letters, there is cause to state that on surface level it could be perceived as truthful, however there are limitations to the letters because there is not a transparent answer to how