... faced was that the early police recruits had been either unsuitable and unfit, most often due to drunkenness and had soon resigned or been sacked. There was also a lack of training, which made the police's job not very successful. This had remained a problem throughout the nineteenth century. Before 1829 the officers couldn't really deal with big turbulences like riots and those were common in many parts of Britain. For example in 1780 law and order in London broke down wholly during the Gordon Riots. The rioters had broken into Newgate Jail and attacked the Bank of England. The bank was fortunately saved by the Mayor and the Grenadier Guards. In 1819, 50,000 people met at St Peter's Fields in Manchester to listen to Henry Hunt in an act of kindness to the reform of parliament. The Manchester Magistrates panicked at the sight of the crowd and ordered special ...

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