Old Bailey (III): British Library

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In chronological order.

(1) Crime and Punishment [in the era of Georgians, see table of contents to the left of text]. British Library, undated.
www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/g ... eandpunishment.html

Note:
(a) British Library
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Library
(was originally a department of the British Museum; became legally separate in 1973, and by 1997 had moved into its new purpose-built building at St Pancras, London)
(b) highwayman (n): "a thief who robs travelers on a road”
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/highwayman

(c) “When street robber Jack Sheppard was hanged in 1724 after making four escapes from prison, 200,000 people attended his execution. When the celebrated eighteenth-century highwayman John Rann was let off for a theft in 1774, he was mobbed by a crowd of adoring admirers as he left court in London.”
(i) Jack Sheppard
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Sheppard
(1702-1724)
(ii) John Rann
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rann
(1750-1774; hanged)

(d) “In 1751 London magistrate Henry Fielding founded the Bow Street Runners, who for the first time provided a permanent body of armed men to carry out investigations and arrests.”

Bow Street Runners
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bow_Street_Runners
(have been called London's first professional police force; 1749-1839; They worked out of Fielding's office and court at No 4 Bow Street, and did not patrol but served writs and arrested offenders on the authority of the magistrates)
(e) "many magistrates were easily corrupted. In London, Horace Walpole believed that ‘the greatest criminals of this town are the officers of justice.'"

In British history, there were two aristocrats of the same name and title. It is the first one that gave the quotation.

Horace Walpole
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horace_Walpole
(Horatio Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford; 1717 – 1797; son of the first Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole; "His father was created Earl of Orford in 1742. Horace's elder brother, the 2nd Earl of Orford (c.1701–1751), passed the title on to his son, the 3rd Earl of Orford (1730–1791). When the 3rd Earl died unmarried, Horace Walpole became the 4th Earl of Orford, and the title died with him [who was childless] in 1797)
(f) “For more serious crimes such as rape or murder, cases were referred to Crown courts, who sat at quarterly assizes in large towns or at the Old Bailey in London.”

assize (n; Middle English assise, from Anglo-French, session, legal action, ultimately from Latin assidēre to sit beside, assist in the office of a judge, from ad- + sedēre to sit — more at SIT):
“the former periodical sessions of the superior courts in English counties for trial of civil and criminal cases —usually used in plural”
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/assize

(g) “Until 1783 London executions took place at Tyburn eight times a year”
(i) Tyburn
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyburn
(a village; It [village] took its name from the Tyburn Brook, a tributary of the River Westbourne. The name Tyburn, from Teo Bourne meaning 'boundary stream')
(ii) Where “y” is pronounced same as “eye.”

(h) "Other criminals convicted of lesser crimes were fined, branded on the hand by a hot iron, or shamed in front of the general public: by being whipped ‘at the cart’s tail’, for example, or being set in the pillory and pelted with rotten eggs and vegetables."

In the Cart: "in trouble * * * From the practice of taking prisoners for punishment or to their execution in carts. * * * Carts were used for punishment in less final ways than hanging - in a practise called being whipped at the cart's tail (or arse)”
The Phrase Finder, undated.
www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/200500.html

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(2) Crime [in Victorians]. British Library, undated.
www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/v ... rimepunishment.html

Note:
(a) “At last, in 1829, the Metropolitan Police force was established, with their headquarters in Scotland Yard, just off Whitehall,.[sic]  Their uniform made them look more like park‐keepers than soldiers - they walked their beats in top hats and blue swallow‐tailed coats, armed only with truncheons. * * * The Metropolitan Police Act of 1839 gave them wide powers. Small boys could be arrested for bowling hoops or knocking on doors”
(i) Immediately followed is a pictorial that says, “Satirical cartoon about the Metropolitan Police Act, 1839,” depicting they in top hats and swallow‐tailed coats.
(ii) For “bowling hoop,” see hoop rolling
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoop_rolling
(In English the sport is known by several names, hoop and stick, bowling hoops)
(iii) Police uniforms and equipment in the United Kingdom
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_uniforms_and_equipment_in_the_United_Kingdom

Quote:

“The Metropolitan Police officers were unarmed to clearly distinguish them from military enforcers, which had been the system of policing seen before the 1820s. Their uniform was also styled in blue, rather than the military red.

“From 1829, to [1863], Metropolitan Police officers wore blue swallow tail coats with high collars to counter garroting. This was worn with white trousers in summer, and a cane-reinforced top hat * * * In 1863, the Metropolitan Police replaced the tailcoat with a tunic, still high-collared, and the top hat with the custodian helmet


(b) “several of the foreign detectives who had crossed the Channel to watch for suspected foreign criminals went to watch for them on English race courses, instead”
(i) watch (vi) :to be expectant :  WAIT <watch for the signal>”
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/watch
(ii) The repeated “watch for’s” mean the same.
(iii) The second use of “watch for” is sarcastic.

(c) “In the previous century [eighteenth century, that is] Jeremy Bentham had dreamt up a novel idea for an innovative prison design: a ‘Panopticon’, built in a star shape with radiating wings, so that daylight and fresh air reached every cell and, more importantly, the warders could oversee every wing from a central core. They were certainly an improvement on the old medieval prisons. Bentham’s first creation, Millbank, had been built in 1821.”
(i) Jeremy Bentham
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Bentham
(1748-1832)
(ii) Millbank
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millbank
(an area in the City of Westminster; located by the River Thames; The area derives its name from a mill house belonging to nearby Westminster Abbey)

(d) “The main receiving territory [to accept exiles] was Australia: an average of 460 convicts were sent there each year, but some were sent to Gibraltar, or fever‐ridden Bermuda.”

ridden (adj): “harassed, oppressed, or obsessed by —usually used in combination <guilt-ridden> <debt-ridden>”
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ridden
(e) “In 1853 the colonies refused to accept England's convicts any longer * * * There was a shortage of prison accommodation. Long term prisoners were transferred to provincial prisons, or to the dreaded Hulks – decommissioned warships anchored in the mud off Woolwich.”

Woolwich
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woolwich
(located in the Royal Borough of Greenwich [of London]; section 1.1 Toponymy)

(f)
(i) A legend says, “Victorian broadside about a transportation, c1800 - 1853."

broadside (printing)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadside_(printing)
(Historically, broadsides were posters * * * or simply advertisements)
(ii) A poster whose legend reads, “The Trial and Sentence of Dr Barnard, c1800-1860.”  The verdict was “guilty” and the sentence, “transported for life.”

transport (vt): “to send to a penal colony overseas"
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/transport

(g) A sectional heading is “The hulks,” which is the plural form of “hulk.”

hulk (ship)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hulk_%28ship%29

(h) “Executions were still public. Thomas Cook ran excursion trains to promising executions.

Thomas Cook
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Cook
(1808-1892; founded the travel agency; 1841 saw “the first privately chartered excursion train to be advertised to the general public, Cook himself acknowledging that there had been previous, unadvertised, private excursion trains”)