formly with feelings and with looks, such as are ascribed by the Greek poets, to those who emerged from the cave of Trophonius. The apartment wherein passports, protections, &c. are applied for, registered and distributed, is of vast extent. The desks of the numerous functionaries who are constantly employed in it, and among whom the labour of the office is most minutely divided, are placed in regular order along the walls. These are lined above with shelves, and drawers ticketted in conformity to the nature of the business transacted at the desk. Upon some of them, for instance, you read such labels as the following, "Surveillance des etrangers,"" surveillance des suspects,"-" surveillance des emigrés rentrés," rapports des officiers de paix," &c.* These mementos of the work of despotism, hurrying the fancy at once into a labyrinth of horrors, crowding it with images of pity and dismaythe demoniacal physiognomy of the ministers of perfidy and cruelty, whom you are forced to accost in succession,-the various and revolting aspect of the crowd in waiting to receive in rotation an illusory safeguard, but a real badge of slavery,-uniformly proved too much for the strength of my feelings, as they must, for those of every man imbued with the generous sympathies, or jealous of the dignity of our nature. They put the mind upon its knees, according to the emphatical expression of the Italian poet;-they make us ashamed of our moral temperament, and discontented with our being;-they almost reconcile us to the theory of Rousseau, concerning the superiority of the savage over the civilized state. With me they were more persuasive than all the eloquent pictures of this gloomy sophist, or the ingenious reasonings of Mr. Burke, in his pretended vindication of Natural Society. It is here, at the Prefecture of police,-that an apology might be found, if any were necessary, for an enthusiastic admiration of, or at least, a marked partiality towards England, whose domestic condition presents so cheering, and elevating a contrast. There is no American with an honest heart, or any dignity of sentiment, who has had a personal opportunity of studying the relations of the people of England in this respect, with each other and with their government, and comparing them with the ferocious and treacherous war constantly waged, both politically and socially, in France, that must not cling with fond enthusiasm and heartfelt pride, to the superior character, and the righteous cause of the land of his progenitors.

Supervision of strangers; supervision of suspected persons; supervision of emigrants, &c.

The Prefecture of the police at Paris is separated into eight principal divisions, besides the departments of the secretarygeneral, of the treasurer, of the recorder, &c. Each of these divisions has its superintendant, and is again distinguished into a number of bureaux or offices, which have also their respective heads, or chefs as they are intitled. The functions of all the several branches of the establishment are most accurately defined and limited, and the forms of proceeding so distinctly prescribed and so well, understood, that there can be no clashing, embarrassment, or mistake. The secretary. general, for instance, has within his province, "the opening of the despatches, the general correspondence, the secret expenses, the general statement of the operations and events of each day, as they affect the public safety; the translation of pieces written in foreign languages, the regulation of miscellaneous matters, the bulletins of the gendarmerie, the recording of the informations lodged," &c. There is attached to his depart ment what is called the police du personnel, or personal police, whose chief is charged with "a general supervision," and with "the secret affairs." This bureau is constantly open night and day.

The first grand division of the Prefecture embraces within its jurisdiction," the affairs of urgency, orders for arrests, the emigrants, seditious meetings, conscripts, deserters, the press, public amusements and exhibitions of every description, private societies and convivial meetings, gaming tables, houses of debauch, public women," &c. This division is always open, and has constantly engaged in its separate service, twenty-four officers of peace, as they are intitled, each of whom is at the head of a brigade of agents. No individual other than a soldier, within the department of the Seine, can keep or employ fire arms, without a written authority from this division. The permits to this effect are subject to the stamp duties, and are never delivered but to persons, who can produce a certificate of character from the commissary of police of the arrondissement to which they belong, as well as two witnesses to vouch for their morality.

My limits will not allow me to specify the attributes of all the branches of the Prefecture of Paris. From what I have just cited in relation to the first division, you will be enabled to form some judgment of the rest. The offices of the other cities and towns of the empire are organized upon the same plan, and maintain an uninterrupted correspondence with that of the metropolis. They are but the wheels of the great machine. The gendarmerie in every part of the country, is always at their disposition. The guard, as it is denominated, of the

city of Paris, consisting of 2154 infantry and 150 horsemen, is likewise subject to the orders of the Prefecture. Each day an analysis is made for the use of the Prefect, of all the despatches, bulletins, &c. received at the establishment. He holds a weekly council, composed of the secretary-general, and of the heads of the several divisions, who lay before him the transactions of the interval, and deliberate concerning the objects of the institution.

Besides the Prefecture of police for the department of the Seine, of which we have hitherto been speaking, there is a general Ministry for the whole empire. "The higher police of the state," which watches in a more elevated sphere over the concerns of all parts of the imperial dominions, and shares in the management of the foreign relations of intrigue and corruption, is vested in a Minister, and three counsellors of state, who hold daily, an official conference with him, and receive his instructions;-in a secretary-general, and in six commissary-generals stationed in different quarters of the empire. As to what regards the jurisdiction of the higher police, the empire is divided into three great sections, each of which is specially superintended by one of the counsellors above mentioned. The minister enjoys the right of nominating the commissary-generals to his imperial majesty, and has them under his immediate direction.

The office, or the "department" as it is styled, of the minister of the general police, is, in the manner of the Prefecture, distributed into "a secretariat," a registry, and five leading divisions. To the secretariat belongs "the reception, the recording, and transmission of the despatches,' the reports and correspondence relative to the passports of strangers seeking to enter France; matters of a general and urgent nature," &c. A particular "bureau" for the management of the theatre, the press, and of bookselling, directed by four inquisitors, is connected with the secretariat. To the "first division" are appropriated the matters of which his excellency the Minister, reserves to himself the exclusive cognisance. To the second, those which relate to the general security of the state; the discovery of machinations tending to disturb it; the interior police of the state prisons, &c.

At the period of my residence in Paris, Fouché, so notorious in the revolutionary annals, was minister of the general police, and Dubois a man of more moderate, and respectable character, Prefect of police for the department of the Seine. Between these two, considerable jealousy was said to exist, the latter being the declared favourite of the Emperor, and al

though inferior to the other in power and dignity, in some respects absolute within his particular jurisdiction. There was, however, another authority of the same kind, to a certain extent, independent of either, the private police of Bonaparte, consisting of some few of his most confidential servants, who communicated directly with him on the occurrences of the day, and were instructed to look narrowly into the movements of the Minister and the Prefect. This species of counter-police suited the prying and suspicious temper of the common tyrant, and was thought to be a necessary policy, to protect him from hostile machinations on any side. It was important to balance and keep in check establishments, scarcely less formidable to the safety of the sovereign, if turned against him, than useful to his power, while devoted to his service. The three inquisitions which I have mentioned, were so circumstanced, that each must have constantly felt as applied to itself, the truth of the well known line,-originally written, however, of a very different species of dominion,

Omne sub regno graviore regnum.

You will better understand the spirit of this system of counteraction, from an incident which I shall proceed to relate, and for the authenticity of which I can fully vouch. Alphonse Beauchamp, at the time a clerk in the department of the general police, and a person of great literary ability, undertook to write a history of the war of La Vendée. After visiting every part of that province in search of materials, he applied to Fouché, for permission to inspect the archives of the police, in relation to his subject. This permission was readily granted by the minister, who knowing Beauchamp to have been an ardent republican during the revolution, concluded that he would not fail to exhibit, in the most favourable point of view, the character of the Convention, as far as it is affected by the horrible conflict, which he had undertaken to relate. I should remark to you, by the way, that Fouché, from the part which he took in the proceedings of that body, was understood to be anxious for its exculpation, and that Beauchamp depended, for his livelihood, upon the profits of his employment in the police office.

The inference which the minister drew from these circumstances, was not justified by the event. Beauchamp more tenacious of his reputation as an historian, than studious of the interests of his family, chose to write an impartial narrative, in a strain by no means fitted to please a "Conventionalist."

Fouché and the leading officers of his department, who entertained the same views, were, however, so sure of the author, that they did not think it necessary, to inquire particularly into the tenor of his book, before it was published. Lacretelle, junr. one of the board of censors, to whom the manuscript was submitted, and who was himself an enemy of the Convention, suffered it to pass without alteration of any kind. Public attention was strongly attracted to the work, as soon as it appeared in print, and the Minister of police was not long without obtaining information, of the strain in which it was written. His disappointment and rage were excessive, as well as those of Real, whom I have mentioned in a preceding page, and who, having been a distinguished member of the jacobin club, was also interested in the reputation of the Convention. As Beauchamp belonged to a bureau under the immediate superintendence of the latter, he was first summoned before him, and commanded to remodel his book, or prepare to lose his station. The historian steadily refused either to retract his opinions, or to soften his colouring, and, after he had had an interview with the minister himself, wherein the same orders were given, and the same obstinacy displayed, was stripped of his place, and menaced with further vengeance.

Some short time after, a virulent critique on the history, appeared in the Publiciste, a paper at the devotion of the general police. Beauchamp, although he knew it to have been written at the instigation of Real and Fouché, framed, nevertheless, a sharp reply, for which he demanded a place in the same gazette. This request was refused of course, the editor of the Publiciste, stating very candidly the reason why it was impossible for him to assent. Beauchamp then took his defence to Fiévée, the editor of the Journal de L'Empire, who inserted it without hesitation in his paper. You should now be informed, in explanation of the boldness of the historian, and of the conduct of Fiévée, that the latter was particularly in the interest of Dubois, and one of the private police of Bonaparte, who had been heard to express his decided satisfaction at the purport of Beauchamp's work, and who was known to favour

Real was then one of the counsellors of state, attached to the ministry of the general police. He had been the first public accuser, or attorney ge neral, of the famous criminal court, of the 10th of August, 1792, and indefatigably active in urging the preparations of the republicans for the war of La Vendée. Although Fouché has been disgraced, Real has preserved his influence, and even triumphed over Dubois, who has experienced the same fate as Fouché. The latter, in anticipation of this event, is said to have uttered the following bon mot: "Real doit avoir un estomac d'autruche; il mangera Dubois."