He was indeed a man of remarkable powers. Although deprived of his sight, what most would deem the cardinal of the senses, Sir John nevertheless led an exemplary life. His professional achievements are, of course, well remembered. With his half-brother Henry, the late, lamented romancer and jurist, he organized and commissioned that band of worthies known ever after as the Bow Street Runners. These thief-takers have functioned as London’s constabulary and made safe even by night a city in which previously, as even one of their severest critics declared, “one was forced to travel even at noon as if one was going to battle.” As magistrate. Sir John sat daily, judging in all fairness the poor wretches who were paraded before him, giving unto each the full measure of his keen intellect, questioning witness and accused with like impartiality. Finding cause, he would of course bind over for trial. Yet such was his nature that the mere accusation of a felony was never sufficient in itself to doom a man to an ordeal before the bench at Old Bailey.
