peeler

card 1 of 10 · context meaning

What does 'Peelers' mean in this sentence?

The rest, on the contrary, the rather congratulated themselves on having parted with such suspicious company; -- and the little tailor had scarcely time to enunciate his advice, "to be chatting and walking on, as if they weren't thinking of or minding them at all," — when the sergeant of the party coolly took his little self by the collar, while the remaining Peelers, surrounding the others, made them severally captives.