communication to the Home Office. The long working hours and endless ramifications of the Dynamite Plot had pretty much worn Williamson out, and he had to take sick leave. Monro put forward the name of MacNaghten, an old friend of his from Bengal, to the Home Office, suggesting that he should assist with Williamsonâs work under the title of Assistant Chief Constable. The Home Office agreed but Warren âblocked the appointment with a mean little whispering campaign.â 15 As for Monro, he was summarily removed from the room that the Assistant Commissioner had always occupied at Scotland Yard (âone of the best in the collection of dog-holes in which the Metropolitan Police have their headquartersâ) 16 and sent to work alongside Section D at Whitehall Place. This inevitably marginalised the work of the section, besides causing offence to the man on whom rank had so obviously been pulled. âThe department itself, established in another street, was looked upon somewhat as⦠a rival rather than a branch of the same business.â 17
There were mutinous rumblings throughout the Metropolitan Police generally. Since taking over from Henderson, Warren had expected a militaristic style. Not only did he fail to understand that policemen needed to use their own initiative, but he could not grasp that detectives, to an even greater extent, must be relied upon to take decisions without referring upwards. As the Pall Mall Gazette pointed out, âthe effect of this was felt throughout the entire forceâ.
The essential difference between a soldier and a constable is that the former is seldom or never used out of formation, while the latter is seldom or never in formation. That is to say, the soldier is an integral part of a machine, the efficiency of which presupposes the absolute and mechanical obedience of all its parts. The constable, on the contrary, is called upon at all hours to exercise his own judgment, to solve knotty practical questions of law and of fact, to compose disputes, to dispense rough-and-ready justice, and in short to act as an independent unit. For every policeman is the bishop of his beat, with jurisdiction almost like that of a magistrate. If he winks he can suspend the operation of the law. If he pleases he can convert the law into a weapon of oppression. The soldier is never left alone. He never acts on his own initiative. He is always under the eye of his officer, and his supreme quality is unhesitating and unqualified obedience. The constable is always left alone. He is constantly acting on his own initiative, and his supreme duty is the habitual exercise of self-reliance and common sense. Hence militarism is fatal to the force. But with Sir Charles Warren militarism is supreme. 18
By mid-August of 1888 Monro had had enough. He resigned, with dignity, in a brief note to Mr Matthews. Sir Charles Warren said nothing to Monroâs men and âsinister rumoursâ, according to Anderson, were circulating about who would take over on 31 August. Robert Anderson was made Assistant Commissioner but âfor some occult reasonâ, as Anderson put it in his memoir, âthe matter was kept secret, and I was enjoined not to make my appointment known. I had been in the habit of frequenting Mr Monroâs room as we were working together on political crime matters; but when I did so now, and Sir Charles Warren took advantage of my visit to come over to see me, it was at once inferred that he was spying on me because I was Mr Monroâs friend.â 19
Anderson, laden with added responsibility for the âordinaryâ CID work on the very day in August when the Jack the Ripper murders began in Whitechapel, was floundering. He was not the sort of man who could withstand Warren at the best of times and with Monro gone, no one else was, either.
The Commissioner had introduced a crowd of yes-men, all of them former soldiers, who saw it as their job to issue orders to the
There were mutinous rumblings throughout the Metropolitan Police generally. Since taking over from Henderson, Warren had expected a militaristic style. Not only did he fail to understand that policemen needed to use their own initiative, but he could not grasp that detectives, to an even greater extent, must be relied upon to take decisions without referring upwards. As the Pall Mall Gazette pointed out, âthe effect of this was felt throughout the entire forceâ.
The essential difference between a soldier and a constable is that the former is seldom or never used out of formation, while the latter is seldom or never in formation. That is to say, the soldier is an integral part of a machine, the efficiency of which presupposes the absolute and mechanical obedience of all its parts. The constable, on the contrary, is called upon at all hours to exercise his own judgment, to solve knotty practical questions of law and of fact, to compose disputes, to dispense rough-and-ready justice, and in short to act as an independent unit. For every policeman is the bishop of his beat, with jurisdiction almost like that of a magistrate. If he winks he can suspend the operation of the law. If he pleases he can convert the law into a weapon of oppression. The soldier is never left alone. He never acts on his own initiative. He is always under the eye of his officer, and his supreme quality is unhesitating and unqualified obedience. The constable is always left alone. He is constantly acting on his own initiative, and his supreme duty is the habitual exercise of self-reliance and common sense. Hence militarism is fatal to the force. But with Sir Charles Warren militarism is supreme. 18
By mid-August of 1888 Monro had had enough. He resigned, with dignity, in a brief note to Mr Matthews. Sir Charles Warren said nothing to Monroâs men and âsinister rumoursâ, according to Anderson, were circulating about who would take over on 31 August. Robert Anderson was made Assistant Commissioner but âfor some occult reasonâ, as Anderson put it in his memoir, âthe matter was kept secret, and I was enjoined not to make my appointment known. I had been in the habit of frequenting Mr Monroâs room as we were working together on political crime matters; but when I did so now, and Sir Charles Warren took advantage of my visit to come over to see me, it was at once inferred that he was spying on me because I was Mr Monroâs friend.â 19
Anderson, laden with added responsibility for the âordinaryâ CID work on the very day in August when the Jack the Ripper murders began in Whitechapel, was floundering. He was not the sort of man who could withstand Warren at the best of times and with Monro gone, no one else was, either.
The Commissioner had introduced a crowd of yes-men, all of them former soldiers, who saw it as their job to issue orders to the
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