WINCHESTER, MARCH 12, 

     The rate payers of the borough of Petersfield and the adjoining parishes have lately met and passed resolutions condemning the establishment of the Rural Police, and agreeing to petition the magistrates at the next General Quarter Sessions, that the force for that division of the county be disbanded, by reason of its being found inadequate to the intentions for which it was organised. We apprehend from the communications which we have received from different parts of the county that this example will soon, in all probability, be very generally followed. It cannot be denied that, in the rural districts, the force has failed to afford protection from the scantiness of its numbers, and that the expence of the establishment falls most heavily on the parishes, in many of which a policeman is rarely, if ever, seen. We are of opinion that if the magistrates, at the ensuing quarter sessions, were to appoint a committee, consisting of one or two magistrates in each division of the county, to collect evidence as to the working of the system, and the results flowing from it, it would be discovered that the force was of little utility, and that the expence it occasioned is not warranted by any advantage derived from it.

(See also these pages:—
19-Oct-1839
19-Oct-1839
23-Nov-1839
20-Jan-1840
7-May-1840
1-Mar-1841
8-Jan-1842
14-Feb-1842)