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BIRNIE, SIR RICHARD. – This
distinguished metropolitan police magistrate, to whom London was so much
indebted in that great blessing of civilization, the "sweet security of
streets," was born at Banff, in the year 1760, and was the son of
respectable parents. As they occupied a humble rank in society, their son,
Richard, was destined to be a tradesman, and was placed apprentice to a
saddler. After having served out the usual time, he repaired to London in
quest of more profitable occupation than his own country could at that
time supply, and soon obtained a situation as journeyman in the
establishment of Macintosh & Co., saddlers and harness-makers in the
Haymarket, where he was quickly noted by his employers as an active,
industrious, and intelligent workman. This, however, promised little more
than a rise of wages, with a shop of his own as the ultimatum of
the perspective, when one of those accidents occurred which secured his
way to higher advancement, under the patronage of royalty itself. The
Prince of Wales (afterwards George IV.) having on some urgent
occasion required saddlery to a considerable amount, sent an order to
Macintosh & Co., who were saddlers to the Royal Family, requiring some one
from their warehouse to come and receive the necessary instructions. The
firm was thrown into a sore dilemma by this sudden command, as not only
the senior partner but the foreman were laid up with sickness. The most
intelligent of their workmen must be selected as a substitute, and in this
case Richard Birnie was their mark. He went, and received the behests of
his Royal Highness; and his behaviour on this occasion, as well as the
correctness with which the order was executed, so satisfied the heir to
the throne, that in his future commissions of the same kind, he always
added his desire, that the "young Scotchman" should be sent to receive
them.
This distinction was the
road to fortune, and Richard Birnie was not of a disposition to neglect
it. Of these two facts, indeed, his employers were sufficiently aware, so
that from a mere workman he became foreman, and afterwards, a partner in
the establishment. During this rise, he also bettered his condition by
matrimony, his wife, the daughter of a rich baker in Oxendon Street,
having brought to him a considerable portion in money, besides a cottage,
and some valuable land in Acton, Middlesex. After this event, he settled
himself as a householder in St. Martin’s parish, which entailed upon him a
portion of the civic duties of that district; and his intelligence and
activity at vestry and other meetings were such, that in every work of
difficulty he was certain to be selected either as agent or referee. In
this way, the offices with which he came in contact were so various, that
he often triumphantly stated he had filled them all successively, except
those of beadle and watchman. Besides these peaceful commissions, he was
ready to undertake those of a more martial and dangerous character; so
that during the stormy period which closed the Pitt administration, he
enrolled himself as a private in the Royal Westminster Volunteers, where
he soon after held the rank of captain. Nor was he an idle or mere titular
holder of office during these various gradations; on the contrary, he
seems to have brought to them all the same active, pains-taking,
benevolent spirit by which his more public life was afterwards
distinguished. This was especially the case when he served as
church-warden of the parish, to which he was appointed in 1805. In this
situation he united cordially with the vicar, Dr. Anthony Hamilton,
and with his brother churchwarden, Mr. Elam, a silversmith in the Strand,
in alleviating the poverty of the parish, and gave effectual aid in the
establishment of St. Martin’s Chapel, Pratt Street, Camden Town, and a
number of comfortable well-provided alms-houses for the decayed
parishioners of St. Martin’s. As two resident magistrates are necessary
for that district, Mr. Birnie was placed in the commission of the peace at
the request of the Duke of Northumberland.
Being thus at a sedentary
period of life surrounded with all the substantial means of comfort, and
invested with an office that brought him title and worship, the London
magistrate might have retired with credit from the scramble of
competition, and left the field open to younger men. But as yet his public
career had only commenced, and he was as ready as ever for action. Being
now a magistrate, he was anxious to qualify himself for the duties into
which he had entered, and for this purpose became a frequent attender at
the Bow Street Office, where he could study offences of every degree and
statutes for every offence— the repression of the former, and the wise,
just, discriminating application of the latter. Here, too, at length he
was wont to give effectual aid, being frequently invited to the bench in
the absence of any one of the regular magistrates. The experience he thus
acquired, and the tact he displayed, suggested a more permanent
application of his services; and, accordingly, after some time, he was
appointed police magistrate at Union Hall, and finally at the more
important office of Bow Street. This, for a considerable time, had been
the chief mark of his ambition, although at the period it promised neither
ease nor safety. One dangerous service on which he was called to act in
February, 1820, was in the apprehension of the desperate gang of Cato
Street conspirators—men who were not likely to be secured without a
sanguinary resistance. On this occasion, Mr. Birnie was placed in command
of the Bow Street constables, who were supported by a detachment of the
Coldstream Guards; he entered the stable and hay-loft where the
conspirators were in close conclave, and had his full share of the danger
that followed when the lights were extinguished, and the struggle
commenced. Soon after, the chief magistrate of Bow Street, Sir Nathaniel
Conant, having died, Mr. Birnie justly thought that his services on the
late Cato Street occasion gave him a fair claim to the vacancy; but
instead of this reasonable expectation being justified, the appointment
was bestowed upon Sir Robert Baker of Marlborough Street. This rejection
so affected Mr. Birnie, that, with tears starting from his eyes when he
heard of it, he exclaimed to the magistrate who sat beside him on the
bench, "This is the reward a man gets for risking his life in the service
of his country."
Whatever was wrong in this
affair was soon afterwards righted, and Mr. Birnie was appointed to the
coveted office in consequence of one of those political emergencies with
which the season was so rife. In August, 1821, the death of Queen Caroline
occurred, and the populace of London, who believed that she had died an
injured broken-hearted woman, were as maddened at the sight of her remains
on their way to interment as was the Roman mob at the unmantled body of
the murdered Caesar; while, to heighten the confusion, the king himself;
who should have been at hand to issue orders in such a crisis, was absent
in Ireland. In such a case, where personal responsibility was sure to
involve a great amount of risk as well as odium, the chief officials were
afraid to act, and Sir Robert Baker, on being commanded to read the Riot
Act, trembled and refused. But Birnie had no such timidity; he saw that a
crisis had arrived at which the whole mob of London might have broke loose
like a destroying tempest, and therefore he stepped forward and performed
the obnoxious duty, by which bold act the rioters were daunted, and
dispersed. The indecision of Sir Robert Baker on this occasion, from which
such perilous consequences might have occurred, was so offensive to the
ministry, that he found it necessary to resign, and Mr. Birnie was
promoted in his room. On the 17th of September (the month after the
funeral) he also received the honour of knighthood.
After this, the life of Sir
Richard Birnie, as chief magistrate of Bow Street, went on in silent
unostentatious activity to the close. In the important office which he
occupied, he was distinguished as an upright, intelligent, and zealous
justiciary, and his measures for the repression of crime and the
preservation of order, were such as to endear him to the friends of peace
and good government to the end of his career. To the last he also retained
the favour of his royal master, George IV., to whose kind attention and
patronage his rise had been chiefly owing; as well as the confidence of
the chief officers of state, who frequently consulted him in matters
connected with the general welfare of the metropolis. After such a course
of usefulness, that was crowned with the success it had merited, he died
on the 29th of April, 1832, in the seventy-second year of his
age, leaving one son and two daughters. |
