adilly, and
in 1792 the streets are said on good authority to have been unsafe by
night. With the exception of a few Bow street officers and some mounted
patrols, the only police in London were parish constables and the
watchmen, many of them old and decrepit. The magistracy of Middlesex had
largely fallen into the hands of men described by Burke as "the scum of
the earth," who used their office as a means of getting gain, and
frightful abuses were common.[179] In 1792 parliament established
stipendiary magistrates appointed by the crown for the London police
courts, and a few police officers were attached to each court. This
important reform would have been more effective if a larger number of
police had been placed under the orders of the new magistrates, for
after that date the police of London and its immediate neighbourhood
consisted of not more than 2,044 watchmen and patrols and 1,000
constables and other officers, of whom only 147 received pay and gave
their whole time to police work.[180]

The general belief that the trade of Great Britain would be ruined by
the loss of the American colonies was not justified. Between 1783 and
1800 her foreign trade and manufactures were developed at an
extraordinary rate. The official value of English exports in 1760 was
L14,694,970, and of imports L9,832,802; in 1783, of exports L13,896,415,
and of imports L11,651,281; in 1800 the exports of Great Britain were
officially valued at L34,381,617, and the imports at L28,257,781.[181]
Her foreign trade, which provided her with an extended market, was
maintained through her naval supremacy. Before 1780 the war with the
colonies had little effect on her trade; the declaration of the armed
neutrality decreased its profits by increasing risks and raising the
rate of insurance, but does not appear to have inflicted special injury
on any particular branch of it. The American shipping was destroyed and
Dutch commerce suffered severely. At the end of the war England was far
stronger by sea than she was before it began; her manufactures,
specially of iron and cotton, began to develop rapidly, and she kept the
American trade. During the revolutionary war the French believed that
they could reduce England to impotence by ruining her commerce. They
failed to understand the consequences of her power at sea and the
firmness of the foundation on which her wealth rested. The ports of
France and her allies were blockaded; England may be said to ha