Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/360

344 p L P O L persons stirring up sedition. The duty of the gendarmerie, who constitute the horse and foot police, is generally to maintain internal order and peace. In Brussels as elsewhere the burgo master is the head, but for executive purposes there is a chief commissary (subject, however, to the orders of the burgomaster), with assistant commissaries and commissaries of divisions and other officers, and central and other bureaus, with a body of agents (police constables) in each. There are two main classes of police functions recognized by law, the administrative and the judicial police, the former engaged in the daily maintenance of peace and order and so preventing offences, the latter in the investigation of crime and tracing offenders ; but the duties are necessarily performed to a great extent by the same agents. The two other functions of the judicial police are, however, limited to the same classes of officers, and they perform the same duties as in Paris, the law in practice there being expressly adopted in Brussels. In Brussels the police force numbers, according to the latest re port, 485 of all ranks. For the population (162,489), this gives 1 to every 335 persons. Strictly speaking there is no detective branch so called, but the special and judicial officers are employed in de tection as the necessity arises. The pay and establishment charges are defrayed by local taxation. The annual pay of a constable is 1500 francs. While this article is going through the press the idea is put for ward, in consequence of political disturbances, to place the police of the larger Belgian towns under the control of Government instead of that of the respective municipalities as at present, and establish a sort of prefecture of police in Brussels. The attempt, if made, will probably meet with opposition from local authorities. Switzer- In Switzerland, which is sometimes classed with Belgium as land. among the least policed states of Europe, the laws of the cantons vary. In some respects they are stricter than in Belgium or even in France. Thus a pcnnis de sejour is sometimes required where none is in practice necessary in Paris or Brussels. Italy. In Italy there is in every province a prefect at the head of the police. See ITALY. Nether- The police in the Netherlands, as regards the sources from which lands. its powers are derived, is divided into the state police and the com munal police, the former forming part of the general executive government, and the latter, although regulated by the executive, enforcing general and local police legislation. Regulations for the state police are framed by the minister of justice. For the purposes of the state police the country is divided into five districts, with a director of police at the head of each district responsible for the control and government of the state police within it, and to see that the laws and ordinances for the safety and quietness of the state, the security of persons and property, and the equality of all before the law are carried out. The duty specially includes the supervision of strangers and their admission into and departure from the country, and extends even to the enforcement of shooting and fishing licences. In each district there is an officer of justice who directs the prosecu tion of criminal offences. At the head of the communal police stand the burgomasters, and under them police commissaries entrusted with the observance of police regulations, whose appointment and removal rest with the crown, but they are paid by the commune. The whole of the com munal police are bound to assist the state police ; and, on the other hand, the latter assist the police, especially in the country districts. The duties of the officer of justice may be carried out by the com missary of police, who for the time being is an assistant officer of justice. In large communes the police force is divided into several grades. Besides commissaries, of whom one is chief, there are a chief inspector, classes of inspectors, and brigadiers ; but the arrangements differ in almost every municipality. The total strength of the police is 6000 ; at The Hague there is supposed to be one constable to 1000 inhabitants. Only in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and The Hague are there special depart ments of detective police. Police salaries vary in different com munes. The highest are at The Hague, and range from 600 florins for a third-class constable to 1800 florins for a chief inspector. The cost of the state police and the expenses incurred in prosecu tions for crime are defrayed by the state. The expenses of the communal police are paid out of local rates on houses and land. Russia. An official Russian document specially obtained for this article affords the following scanty particulars regarding the police in European Russia. At the head of a police district there is a police master, who has subordinate officers on his staff. A number of constables are appointed, depending on the population. Large towns are sub divided into districts with inspectors and assistants, smaller towns with an assistant inspector. In villages police duties are executed by the inhabitants elected for that purpose, constituting "hundreds" or tenths" according to the number of inhabitants. There is a control over the villages by the police of the district, and the governor general has a controlling power over all, including the police master. Besides the ordinary police there are police brigades in large towns with duties of a special kind, as attending parades and fetes. Each member of the brigade has five hundred inhabit ants to look after or control. In the capitals there is a secret police having a staff in St Petersburg of a chief and his assistant, four clerks, and twenty inspectors, and in Moscow of a chief, two clerks, and twelve inspectors. The principal active duties of the Russian police comprise the enforcement of police laws and the suppression of nuisances, disturbances, and crime. The details of these duties are laid down in a special Act, which is subdivided into different statutes, taken from the criminal code. The provincial towns are governed by a special law, passed in 1876, as supplementary to the already existing law. The towns provide the funds for the maintenance of the police. Laws of 1853 regulated the lodgings and necessaries for the whole police staff according to their rank ; but a change has been introduced since 1873, and many officers receive payment in the place of lodg ings. Police pay varies from 200 roubles upwards. In closing this article, it is well to observe that the dis tinction between the exercise of judicial power and police functions should be always borne in mind. " The func tions of justice and those of the police must be apt in many points to run into one another, especially as the business would be very badly managed if the same persons whose more particular duty it is to act as officers of the police were not upon occasion to act in the capacity of officers of justice. The idea, however, of the two func tions may still be kept distinct " (Bentham). The employ ment of police powers in the ante-judiciary part of criminal process, which previously to the establishment of a police force in England was thought to require an apology as founded on convenience and utility rather than on prin ciple, has become a necessity, The necessity for a police force as part of any system of orderly government is exemplified by its recent introduc tion into Egypt. Amid differences of opinion on every subject, and even on the administration of the force and its duties, the abstract propriety of a police force is apparently beyond dispute. In every country the difficult question, apart from any as to the extent of interference with the freedom of individual action, arises in actual police administration Quis custodiet ipsos custodes ? By whatever name the head of a police force is known, whether as commissioner, chief constable, superintendent, or otherwise, the efficient performance of his duty involves inquiry, and judgment upon that inquiry. The character and efficiency of his force must largely depend upon the insight as well as vigour brought to bear upon the indi vidual members of that force. In relation to the public generally a perfect police code must be full of restraints, with coextensive powers of inquiry, even in matters that do not involve punishment. The extent to which these restraints and powers are applied greatly depends on time and place. Precautions which are necessary, Bentham observes, at certain periods of danger and trouble, ought not to be continued in a period of quietness, and care should be taken not to shock the national spirit. One nation would not endure what is borne by another. (j. E. D.) POLIGNAC, an ancient French family, which had its seat in the Cevennes near Puy-en-Velay (Haute-Loire). Cardinal MELCHIOR BE POLIGNAC (1GG1-1742) was a younger son of Armand XVI., marquis de Polignac, and at an early age achieved distinction as a diplomatist. In 1695 he was sent as ambassador to Poland, where he con trived to bring about the election of the prince of Conti as successor to John Sobieski(lG97). The subsequent failure of this intrigue led to his temporary disgrace, but in 1702 he was restored to favour, and in 1712 he was sent as the plenipotentiary of Louis XIV. to the congress of Utrecht. During the regency he became involved in the Cellamare plot, and was relegated to Flanders for three years. From

1725 to 1732 he acted for France at the Vatican. In