whatever tended to discredit the memory of the Convention. Both Dubois and Fiévée rejoiced in the opportunity of mortifying Fouché and his colleagues, where it could be done with impunity. Beauchamp suffered no further molestation, and has since been indebted for his subsistence to the exercise of his pen. His history passed through several editions, in a short period of time.

Fouché, afterwards created duke of Otranto, was retained no longer in his ministry, than the interests of the throne imperiously required. The part which he took in the revolution, the republican sentiments which he was said still to cherish, the firmness of his temper, his thorough knowledge of the weaknesses of the new government, and the fearful extent of his power, derived from his extraordinary aptitude itself for the station he had so long filled, all contributed to render him particularly obnoxious to Bonaparte, and to prepare the disgrace and exile to which he was at last condemned. These were in the shape of a reward for his services, by his mission to Rome as governor of that capital. You may recollect the hypocritical letter addressed to him on the occasion, by his Imperial "benefactor," and published in the Moniteur together with the reply of " the duke of Otranto." Napoleon, after expressing the sense which he entertains of his services, beseeches God to take him into his holy keeping, and the cidevant Abbé in his answer, does not fail to testify the bitter regret he experiences, in losing at once both "the felicity and the wisdom which he had daily imbibed" from the discourse of his Majesty. Fouché was recalled before he reached his destination, and now resides as a private individual, at a chateau some leagues distant from Paris. Were he disposed to serve Bonaparte with fidelity, he would, of all agents, be the fittest to counteract the spirit of intrigue which characterizes the Italians, and from which, if I am rightly informed concerning their dispositions towards their new masters, the French government has every thing to apprehend.

The comparative tranquillity with which the Imperial government was established, was due in great part to the exertions of Fouché. Bonaparte owes him the most signal obligations; obligations more important and more numerous indeed, than those conferred by any other of his civil auxiliaries in the establishment of his throne. With Fouché's history, you are, I suppose, well acquainted. His character is one of some elevation, and at the same time, of great suppleness. He is distinguished by what his countrymen call, un esprit liant,-by an easy elocution, by perfect self-command, and by the most acute

discernment. No man is so profoundly versed in the secret history of the revolution, and so well acquainted with the characters of his day. Were I authorized to prescribe to him a mode of expiation, for the large share which he took in that bloody tragedy, it would be the publication of a body of memoirs and reflections, such as his opportunities would enable him to furnish. Fouché, although of a reserved, is by no means of a gloomy temper. There is nothing about him of that rigidity, or rather ferocity, which one would naturally expect to find, in the manners of a butcher of the Jacobin school, and the head of a system of cruelty and iniquity, to which nothing human can be even remotely compared. Like many others of his revolutionary coadjutors, who at one time seemed to riot in blood and devastation, he wears a gentle, serene aspect, and can practice the most winning urbanity.

I have been struck with a similar trait in several of his countrymen, eminent for the phrenzy of their cannibalism, at certain periods of the revolution. This entire contrariety between the external and the internal man,-this incomprehensible association of the manners of the courtier, with the dispositions of a fiend, is perhaps, peculiar to his nation, and not, I must confess, of a tendency to diminish the disgust with which her late history has inspired me. One of the mildest men I have ever encountered was Cochon; one of the most pleasant Santhonax! Would not this serve to prove,-if the French did not possess a nature, as they have shown by their revolution, altogether anomalous, that the poet was no infallible moralist,-who said,

Not sharp revenge, nor hell itself can find
A fiercer torment than a guilty mind,

Which day and night doth dreadfully accuse
Condemns the wretch, but still the charge renews.*

Among the most remarkable features in the organization of the French police, is the registry which is kept, of all the transactions, in which it is any way concerned, as well as of the information or documents communicated to it respecting individuals either in France or elsewhere. Nothing, however minute, that has fallen regularly under the notice, of any one of the offices in any part of the empire, or of the establishments in foreign countries, is suffered to descend into obli

The vigorous English version by Creech, of a part of the celebrated lines of Juvenal, Cur tamen tu hos evasisse putes, &c.

vion. All passes into the department of the "Archives," which appertains essentially to the constitution, even of the village "bureaus." Thus is there treasured up an immense ma gazine not only of events, but of characters, which forms both an inexhaustible armory, and a complete code of instruction, for this portentous tribunal. At one glance you will perceive, the ascendency which it must possess, by means of such a body of records, over a nation circumstanced as France has been during the last twenty years. You cannot fail at the same time to observe the important aids, which it must derive from the same source, in the prosecution of that warfare on foreign countries, which I have described, in the first part of this letter. As in the Depôt de la Guerre, there are lodged the most accurate, and minute statements respecting the geographical face, and physico-military resources of every foreign country, so in the "Archives" of the police, is there accumulated a vast mass of intelligence with respect to their moral and intellectual strength;-a correct outline of the history, faculties, and principles of all the individuals who, during a long series of years, have been conspicuous in their annals or active in their councils. Under this point of view, every day augments the means of the colossal power of which I am speaking, and increases the chances of success for the further extension of French despotism, as far as it co-operates in the promotion of that object.

I have often indulged my fancy in tracing the consequences of the conquest of France by an English or other hostile force, with a view to the seizure, and revelation of the archives of the several police offices, throughout the empire. What a ter rible history of the turpitude of human nature would not then be divulged! What a picture afforded of the depravity of the French government! I could desire no better security against the re-establishment of the French power, than such an event, as long as any memorial of it could be preserved. Mankind must ever afterwards spontaneously unite by an instinct of self-preservation, more operative than any counteracting principle of discord, to prevent the second growth of a system, of which the experimented evils, terrible as they are, would have been found, to fall so far short of those, which were yet in store. The partial opening of the governmental records of Paris during the revolution, disclosed the fact that some of the most ardent and popular demagogues of England, Algernon Sidney and Wilkes among the number, as well as a multitude of the same class of men in the former republics of Italy, had been bribed by, and in habits of treasonable correspondence with the French monarchy. In the event which I have sup

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posed above, what precious discoveries of a similar kind might not be made, with respect to a host of more modern zealots for the rights of the people, in some countries which I need not name?

The press of foreign nations forms an object of particular attention in Paris. The principal gazettes of England, and of this country, are received and examined in the office of the police, and such parts of them translated as are deemed of importance in any respect. A summary of their political contents is often laid before the Emperor, who is said to take a lively interest in the paragraphs, which relate immediately to himself. An instance of the avidity of the French government on this subject, affecting an individual with whom you and I are well acquainted, a former French chargé d'affaires in this country,-occurred during my residence in Paris. This gentleman had taken with him to France a file of some one of our northern gazettes, containing a series of essays, under the signature, if I recollect well, of "An Observer," which developed with much sagacity, the nature and views of the French power. He showed them unsuspectingly to a person of some rank, with whom he was upon an intimate footing. This individual very soon after communicated the fact of his having such gazettes in his possession, to the department of the police. The owner immediately received a mandate to deliver them up to the minister, which was obeyed without delay. He made application, after some lapse of time, to have them restored, but was answered, that they were retained for the service of his Imperial majesty.

It is time for me to quit this disgusting theme, and to allow you some repose. I shall touch upon matters of a gayer cast in my next.

LETTER VIII.

AFTER having dwelt so long on the afflictions of the Parisians, I cannot do better, for the exhilaration of your spirits, as well as of my own, than to pass in review, some few of their favourite amusements. Even here I strike a chord sounding at intervals a harsh, and melancholy note: for I am compelled to believe, and must write accordingly, that these are, in themselves, but an indifferent solace, notwithstanding the passionate avidity with which they are sought. On a near inspec tion, I could never consider them, in spite of the brilliancy of their aspect, and of the rapture which they sometimes appear to excite, but in one or other of the two following characters; -either as the forced alternative to which the victim of despotism, in the absence of all sources of real comfort and solid happiness, rushes with feverish anxiety, to find a temporary oblivion of his wretchedness; or as the deceptive and vicious choice of degenerate and light minds, grasping laboriously at shadows, and mistaking for the prime good of life, what in reality, is but a graceful embellishment, or, perhaps, bitter poison. I should proceed with much more satisfaction, had I to describe recreations of the heart, rather than those of the imagination. In that topic there would be something truly reviving, and permanently consolatory; because we should both derive from it, the assurance, that, although military tyranny may have exhausted upon the French nation all its expedients of oppression, yet much was left behind to counterbalance its evils;

that existence under them, was not stripped of all dignity, nor entirely destitute of genuine relish. But the Parisian knows little of the purest and most vivid delights of the heart; of the sympathies of the fireside-of the endearments of close family union.

There is scarcely a resident of that city who can comprehend the satisfaction arising from domestic habits; or conceive how an evening can be agreeably spent, but in mixed society, or at the theatre. Scenical exhibitions of one kind or other, social meetings of whatever cast, and the refinements of voluptuousness, are among his diurnal and absolute wants. I presume that, notwithstanding the great multitude of objects which Paris contains, to amuse the fancy, and the universal eagerness with which they are pursued, there is no part of the world where, proportionably to the population, you find so many of that class of men,-too common indeed in every country,-whom the poet forcibly describes as,