Metropolitan Police

The Metropolitan Police is represented chiefly through Fix, its detective in pursuit of Phileas Fogg. The institution’s role in the story turns on a mismatch between a transnational chase and the limits of a warrant: Fix can follow Fogg across continents, but must wait until he reaches English soil to arrest him.

Representation Through Fix

Jean Passepartout identifies Fix as an agent of the Metropolitan Police who has been following Phileas Fogg around the world because Fogg is accused of robbing the Bank of England. Passepartout considers the accusation absurd and initially treats the detective’s pursuit as an error that can be laughed over once the party returns to London. His account establishes the police presence in the journey while also showing how little its purpose is understood by Fogg’s traveling companion.

The novel presents the organization through Fix’s conduct rather than through a description of its structure or ordinary operations. Its reach is conveyed by a single detective who continues the pursuit across an international route; its authority, however, depends on securing a warrant that can be used where the suspect is found.

Warrant and Jurisdiction

When Fix reaches Yokohama, he goes to the English consulate and at last finds the warrant. It had followed him from Bombay and arrived aboard the Carnatic, the steamer on which he had been expected to travel. By then, Phileas Fogg has left English territory, so the warrant cannot be used there. Fix recognizes that he must procure Fogg’s extradition, and decides instead to continue following him, expecting the warrant to become effective in England.

This delay gives the pursuit its legal and dramatic tension. Fix has reached his target, but the document that authorizes an arrest has arrived too late to be useful in Yokohama. The Metropolitan Police’s pursuit therefore advances across borders without immediately producing an arrest; the decisive condition is Fogg’s return to the jurisdiction in which the warrant can be acted upon.

Arrest and Duty

Fix eventually arrests Phileas Fogg on English soil. The narration states that he does so because it is his duty, whether Fogg is guilty or not. The arrest makes the detective’s institutional obligation plain, even as the accusation against Fogg remains mistaken: the procedure reaches its intended point, but it does not establish the suspect’s guilt.

The Metropolitan Police thus functions as both the source of the pursuit and the force behind the story’s late reversal. Its warrant turns Fix’s long chase into an arrest at the moment of Fogg’s return, briefly interrupting the journey’s apparent conclusion. The episode emphasizes the difference between the machinery of law and the truth of the accusation: Fix carries out his assigned duty, while the innocent traveler bears its immediate consequences.