Total 5 This last catalogue requires no comment, whether its number be attended to, or the nature of the crimes, as being chiefly such as could not have been prevented by any attention on the part of the Police.

Again, where offenders, afraid of the vigilance of the watchmen, have attempted their depredations beyond the bounds of Police, the advantages of the system have been no less experienced by the almost instantaneous apprehension of the delinquents. Witness the cases of Black and M'Donald for murder near to Beachwood; Kelly and O'Neal now under sentence of death for robbery committed in East Lothian and near to Braid; Pennycook and Knight, indicted, but not yet tried, for robbery, committed near to Portobello. Besides many other cases where the crimes have

been perpetrated in more distant counties, and to which the culprits have been conveyed for trial.

It must be satisfactory to the Commissioners, thus to know, that the good effects of the system have not been confined to the metropolis, but have been in some degree productive of benefit to the country at large.

On the other hand, the Committee are given to understand, that no crime of any material consequence has passed without detection.

With respect again to the lower description of offences, the Committee are happy to observe, from an abstract of the proceedings in the Police Court, that a material reduction in their number appears to be taking place. They have further to congratulate the Commissioners on the removal of one of the greatest evils with which the public was ever harassed, namely that of common begging. From a knowledge that every real object of charity has now the necessary means of subsistence secured by the Society lately instituted for the suppression of begging, the Police officers no longer feel any scruples in apprehending, or the Magistrates in punishing, any person found begging in our streets; and the whole tribe of beggars, with which this city was so lately infested, has now disappeared. Whilst the attention of the Police officers to this department is certainly of importance, the Commissioners must be aware, that it is to the institution of the Society now alluded to, and to the meritorious exertions of the individuals who take an active charge in its concerns, that the valuable improvement in this branch of Police is to be attributed.

The committee are persuaded that the public opinion, as to the effects which have resulted from the police establishment, is in conformity to what has been now stated; and that all would be loud in praise of the system was it not for,

4th, The Expence of this Department. In considering this subject, and particularly in comparing it with the expence of the former establishment, a very great, and it is believed, often a wilful error is committed by holding the assessment as applicable to the police or watching department alone; whereas it comprehends also the expences of the lighting and cleaning within the bounds of police. During the subsistence of the former police

act, there was a distinct set of commissioners, and a separate assessment for each of those departments, and these three assessments were collected separately; whereas, at present, the whole of these are united in one charge. It will be seen from the last year's abstract of expenditure, that the ordinary expence of the watching de

pro

partment amounted to £.7642 1 1 That of the Cleaning to 3326 10 0 That of the Lighting to 7054 11 2 As the expence of the higher officers, and of the other extra charges, fall justly to be equally divided betwixt the three departments, the above may be considered as a fair portion of their respective expenditure. Thus it is apparent, that the expence of lighting alone has nearly equalled that of watching, and that, on no principle whatever, can it be considered, that one half of the sum levied is applied to this last department, which is, of all others the most important, and which in general is charged with swallowing up the

whole.

New Regulations respecting the Order of the Bath.

Whitehall, January 2. 1815. WHEREAS his Royal Highness the Prince Regent, acting in the name and on the behalf of his Majesty, sovereign of the most honourable order of the Bath, is desirous of commemorating the auspicious termina

tion of the long and arduous contests in which this empire has been engaged, and of marking in an especial manner his gracious sense of the valour, perseverance, and devotion, manifested by the afficers of his Majesty's forces by sea and land:-And whereas his Royal Highness has thought it fit, by virtue of the royal prerogative, and of the powers reserved to the sovereign in the statutes of the said most honourable military order of the Bath, to advance the splendour and extend the limits of the said order, to the end that those officers who have had the opportunities of signalizing themselves by eminent services during the late war, may share in the honours of the said order, and that their names may be delivered down to remote posterity, accompanied by the marks of distinction which they have so nobly earned, The Prince Regent, therefore, acting in the name and on the behalf of his Majesty, hath been graciously pleased to ordain as follows:

1st, The most honourable military order of the Bath shall from this time forward be composed of three classes, differing in their ranks and degrees of dignity.

2d, The first class of the said order shall consist of knights grand crosses: which designation shall be substituted henceforward for that of knights companions; and from the date hereof the present knights companions and extra knights of the said order shall, in all acts, proceedings, and pleadings, be styled Knights Grand Crosses of the most honourable military order of the Bath.

3d, The number of the knights grand crosses shall not, at any time, or upon any account whatever, exceed seventy-two; whereof there may be a number not exceeding twelve so nominated and appointed, in consideration of eminent services rendered to the State by British subjects in civil and diplomatic employments.

4th, The said knights grand crosses

shall

shall be subject to the same rules and ordinances, and have, hold, and enjoy, all and singular, the rights, privileges, immunities, and advantages, which the knights companions of the said order have hitherto held and enjoyed.

5th, It shall be lawful for all the present knights grand crosses, from and after the date hereof, to wear, upon the left side of their upper vest. ment, the star or ensign of the said order, although such knight grand cross may not have been installed; and henceforward the said star or ensign shall be worn by each and every knight grand cross, immediately after his being so nominated and appointed.

6th, In order to distinguish more particularly those officers of his Majesty's forces, by sea and land, upon whom the first class of the said order hath already been, or may hereafter be conferred in consideration of especial military services, such officers shall henceforth bear upon the ensign or star, and likewise upon the badge of the order the addition of a wreath of laurel encircling the motto, and is suing from an escrol inscribed Ich Dien.'

This distinction being of a military nature, it is not to be borne by the knights of the first class, upon whom the order shall have been, or may hereafter be, conferred for civil services.

7th, The dignity of a knight grand cross of the most honourable military order of the Bath, shall henceforth upon no account be conferred upon any officer in his Majesty's service, who shall not have attained the rank of major-general in the army, or rearadmiral in the navy, except as to the twelve knights grand crosses who be nominated and appointed for civil services.

may

8th,. His Royal Highness the Prince Regent, acting in the name and on the behalf of his majesty, is pleased to declare and constitute, those whose names are undermentioned, to be the knights grand crosses, composing the

Leith

59. Lieutenant-general the right honourable Thomas Maitland 69, Lieutenant-general William Henry Clinton

Civil Knights Grand Crosses.

1. Sir Robert Gunning

2. The Earl of Malmesbury

3. Lord Henly

4. Lord Whitworth

5. Sir Joseph Bankes, Bart 6. Right Hon. Sir A. Paget 7. Sir Philip Francis 8. Sir George H. Barlow 9. Viscount Strangford Feb. 1815.

1

and gentry in England have Scotch head gardeners; while the numbers of an inferior class to be found in every county south of the Tweed is quite surprising. It would not be easy to assign all the causes which have tended to produce the fame and the numbers of Scotch gardeners; but some of them may be pointed

out.

It may be remarked, that in Scotland, owing chiefly to the national establishment of parochial schools, education in general has long been more widely diffused among the common people than in most other countries of Europe. It thus happened, that the ordinary labourers in gardening were almost universally initiated in reading, writing, and accounting, to which was occasionally added some knowledge of geometry, and landmeasuring. It may here be mentioned, as a striking and very honourable trait in the character of the Scotch master gardeners of the last age, that it was a common practice among them, to spend a part of the evening in instructing their apprentices in different branches of education, particularly arithmetic, mensuration, drawing of plans, and botany, or the discrimination and nomenclature of plants. Even at this day, there are still in some places to be found the remains of this praiseworthy practice. A turn for reading and study was thus created among young operative gardeners; and to this their rise in life might, in most instances, be ascribed. Besides, in former times in this country, there was a very close connexion between gardening and the medical

taste for reading was perhaps never more prevalent than at this day. Nor do they entirely neglect geometry, though it must be admitted that this kind of knowledge is on the decline among the fraternity. It is not now nearly so necessary as formerly, to the professional gardener, ground being no longer planned into regular mathematical figures, and topiary work being altogether exploded.

In Scotland, the head gardeners, in many instances, also act as land-stewards, or grieves; and the whole forest plantations of the country are under their direction. They are thus ren. dered persons of some consideration, their office involving no slight responsibility.

Scotch gardeners possess yet another advantage. They are a hardy race, accustomed to labour, and able to undergo great fatigue, often while subsisting on fare, which would not only be thought homely, but scanty, in England. The great bulk of gardeners can neither fill their stations with advantage or satisfaction to their employers, nor with credit to themselves, without unremitting personal exertion; and in this virtue, Scotch gardeners very generally excel.

Many Scotch gardeners, as before remarked, possess very considerable knowledge in botany; and where proprietors have a taste for that science, collections of plants are kept, that would do honour to a public botanic garden. For general collections, the Duke of Buccleuch's garden at Dalkeith; the Earl of Eglintoun's, at Eglintoun Castle; Lord Montgom ery's, at Coilsfield; the Duke of Montrose's, at Buchanan; Mr Campbell of Shawfield's, 'at Woodhali; Lord Torphichen's, at Calder-House; Mr Nisbet's, at Dirleton; Baron Hepburn's, at Smeaton; Gen Wemys's, at Wemyss Castle; Mr Fersguson's, at Raith; Lord Duncan's, at Lundie; the Honourable W. Maule's, at

Brechin