Records of Patrick Colquhoun, police magistrate, comprising letter to Henry Dundas, Home Secretary, relating to a salary dispute, 1793; letter to Richard Ford, magistrate, relating to apprehension of a criminal, 1797; letter to William Wickham, Under-secretary of State for the Home Department, relating to the river police, 1798; letter regarding the Wapping riots, 1798; letters relating to expenditure, 1799.
Also autobiographical notes giving an account of 'family and public services', including a detailed chronological account of his public services, beginning with his early career in Glasgow, where he was Chief Magistrate. He accepted the position of a police magistrate in London "not so much on account of the salary which was small; but from a strong impression on his mind that by great attention to the duty he had undertaken to perform he would be able after a time to suggest measures for the improvement of a System(?), than which nothing could be worse." His various activities have included regulating public houses, and establishing the river police office, soup kitchens and a public school in Westminster. He has published treatises on these and other subjects which have been read widely, and many of his suggestions have been implemented. In many connections he has been styled a "public benefactor".
This document appears to have been composed with a view to publication. In 1818 Colquhoun's son-in-law contributed to the European Magazine "an exhaustive account of his useful and disinterested labours," (Dictionary of National Biography, Vol IV, p.860), and it is possible that this was written for that article. However, as the account of his services ends at 1814 (although he was a police magistrate until 1818), and the watermark is 1814, the earlier date seems the more probable.
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