except that the names of the magistrates are changed for modern republican appellations; and certainly to have attempted any alterations of magnitude in a system which so effectually provided for the security of the public, by protecting the peaceful, and coercing the criminal, would have been dangerously presumptuous. The watchmen of the night are not, as in London, decrepid infirm old men, but stout vigorous fellows, who constantly walk two together, the more readily to apprehend offenders, or to report any negligence in each other's conduct, or breach of trust. These men are armed with a sword, and a stick like a constable's staff with a hook at the end of it. They are, however, severely prohibited, unless in cases of obstinate and dangerous resistance, to use their swords, and I conjecture it seldom happens that their staffs are not found sufficient weapons of terror and offence. They also carry with them a wooden clapper, with which they make a fearful noise during the whole of the night, to shew that they are attentive to their duty; and if any disturbance
