They were required to detain and give
information to the nearest guardhouse of any soldier or seaman who should
be found straggling after the taptoo had been beat. They were to use
their utmost endeavours to trace out offenders on receiving accounts of
any depredation; and in addition to their night duty, they were directed
to take cognizance of such convicts as gamed, or sold or bartered their
slops or provisions, and report them for punishment. A return of all
occurrences during the night was to be made to the judge-advocate; and
the military were required to furnish the watch with any assistance they
might be in need of, beyond what the civil power could give them. They
were provided each with a short staff, to distinguish them during the
night, and to denote their office in the colony; and were instructed not
to receive any stipulated encouragement or reward from any individual for
the conviction of offenders, but to expect that negligence or misconduct
in the execution of their trust would be punished with the utmost rigour.
It was to have been wished, that a watch established for the preservation
of public and private property had been formed of free people, and that
necessity had not compelled us, in selecting the first members of our
little police, to appoint them from a body of men in whose eyes, it could
not be denied, the property of individuals had never before been sacred.
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