certain extent, an ungracious necessity of social order. Modern detectives, especially in this country, only too often fail to follow up a great crime as the interests of the common safety demand; but that the detective system has become, as it were, a science in its way is a fact pregnant with many suggestions. The French police have long been famous for their skill in hunting down real or supposed offenders against the law, and to our Continental neighbours must be accorded the ambiguous distinction of having inaugurated as a professed art the work of the detective. The organization of the system may be said to date from the year 1810, and is due mainly to Vidocq, a galley slave, who offered to act as a spy upon his comrades, gain their confidence, and then betray them to the authorities.

Some robbers having been arrested by his means, he was set at liberty on condition that he should act as denouncer, and supply the Prefecture with a settled minimum of criminals, under penalty of being sent back to the galleys; and as he had a salary of four pounds a-month, and a premium for each arrest, it may be imagined that he took care that the number should not fall short.

One of his first victims was a leatherdresser. The poor tradesman had once given him shelter. As a return for his kindness and hospitality, Vidocq laid an information against him, and charged him as a coiner. Upon the evidence which Vidocq, in however villainous a manner, managed to bring together against his old friend, the leather-seller, together with one of his friends, a surgeon, was condemned and executed.

This French Jonathan Wild has given, in an autobiography of himself, which enjoys in its own line an almost European reputation, a lengthened and minute account of the endless shifts and stratagems resorted to by himself in the work of detection, for which he was so peculiarly fitted.

His favourite scheme was to mix himself up with thieves and criminals as one of themselves. Vidocq was anxious to arrest a well-known chief of the thieving order, named Gueuvive. This man had for his trusty coadjutor a certain Joubert, into whose good graces Vidocq managed to work himself.

"We conversed together for some time," says the famous detective in his autobiography, "and before we fell asleep, Joubert

overwhelmed me with questions. His object was to sift out my present mode of existence, what papers I had about me, &c. His curiosity appeared insatiable; and in order to satisfy it, I contrived, either by a positive falsehood or an equivocation, to lead him to suppose me a brother thief. At last, as if he had guessed my meaning, he exclaimed—

"Come, do not beat about the bush any longer. I see how it is. I know you are a prig.'

"I feigned not to understand the words; he repeated them; and I, affecting to take offence, assured him that he was greatly mistaken, and that if he indulged in similar jokes I should be compelled to withdraw from his company. Joubert was silenced, and nothing further was said till the next day at ten o'clock, when Gueuvive came to awaken us.

"It was agreed that we should go and dine at La Glacière. On the road, Gueuvive took me aside, and said—

"Hark ye! I see you are a good fellow, and I am willing to do you a good service if I can. Do not be so reserved, then, but tell me who and what you are.'

"Some hint I had purposely thrown out having induced him to believe that I had escaped from the Bagne at Toulon, he recommended me to observe a cautious prudence with my companions.

"For though they are the best creatures living,' said he, 'yet they are fond of chattering.'

"Oh,' replied I, 'I shall keep a sharp look-out, I promise you; besides, Paris will never do for me. I must be off. There are too many sneaking informers about for me to be safe in it.""

This last sentence is exceedingly rich, but the continuation is equally suggestive.

"That's true,' added he; but if you can keep Vidocq from guessing at your business, you are safe enough with me, who can smell those beggars as easily as a crow scents powder.'

"Well,' said I, 'I cannot boast of so much penetration; yet I think, too, that from the frequent description I have heard of this Vidocq, his features are so well engraved in my recollection, that I should pretty soon recognize him if I came unexpectedly in his way.'

"God bless you!' cried he, 'it is easy to perceive you are a stranger to the vagabond.

Just imagine, now, that he is never to be seen twice in the same dress; that he is in the morning, perhaps, just such another looking person; well, the next hour so altered that his own brother could not recognize him; and by the evening, I defy any man to remember ever having seen him before."" And, proceeds the poor thief, with charming confidence

666

Only yesterday, I met him disguised in a manner that would have deceived any eye but mine; but he must be a deep hand if he gets over me. I know these sneaks at the first glance, and if my friends were as knowing as myself, his business would have been done long ago.'

"Nonsense,' cried I, 'everybody says the same thing of him; and yet, you see, there is no getting rid of him.'

""You are right,' replied he; but to prove that I can act as well as talk, if you will lend me a helping hand, this very evening we will waylay him at his door, and I warrant we'll settle the job so as to keep him from giving any of us further uneasi

The helping hand was lent; but of course no Vidocq issued from the house. As a salve to his disappointment, Gueuvive next invited his new ally to join in a projected plan.

"I agreed to join the party," says Vidocq, "but declared that I neither could nor would venture out in the night without first going home for the necessary papers which would save me in case of our scheme failing, and our getting into the hands of the police." The rest may be easily imagined. The robbery takes place. The burglars are at home seated round a lamp to examine and divide their booty, when suddenly a loud knocking is heard at the door.

"Constantin then, by a sign commanding silence, said

"""Tis the police, I am sure of it.' "Amidst the confusion occasioned by these words, and the increased knocking at the gate, I contrived unobserved to crawl under a bed, where I had scarcely concealed myself when the door was burst open, and a swarm of inspectors and other officers of the police entered the room."

Stories such as these, with which the autobiography of Vidocq abounds, prove him to have had all the cunning and duplicity necessary for success as a first-class detective; but, while we cannot sympathize with

crime, we are not forced to admire the dubious qualities of head and heart almost indispensable as the attributes of the informer. Yet even Vidocq, the father of the detective system, has had his apologists.

Eugene François Vidocq-as his biographers love to call him-was a native of Arras, and was born in July, 1775, in a house adjoining that in which Robespierre was born. His father kept a baker's shop in the lowest street in the town, and in this continental St. Giles's the youthful Vidocq had full play for all the bad qualities which seem to have been inherent-or, at least, very readily implanted-in him.

We find him, as a mere child, robbing first the till at a neighbouring fencing-room, and next his father's-his elder brother having been previously sent about his business for similar weaknesses. Antecedents such as these could only lead to one sort of career. He fled the paternal roof, and joined a band of the most reckless vagabonds to be found in any civilized country. He was everything by turns, and nothing long. In prison and out again, with the most certain regularity; until, being treated to a longer spell of "durance vile" than was to his taste, he assumed the role of the penitent. He was disgusted with crime and criminals, and henceforth his life should be devoted to the noble mission of benefiting society by unearthing the vermin that preyed upon its good things. Under the weight of these convictions, he offered his services to the police as an agent —or, as we should say in England, common informer; and we have seen how admirably he went to work in his new vocation.

But the remarkable part is the refreshing air of injured self-innocence with which he relates his own exploits.

His success was so great that he was made, in 1810, chief of the Police de Sureté, under Delavau and Franchet. He had under him a dozen agents of his own stamp, the number being afterwards increased to twentyone. Vidocq had, moreover, secret funds at his disposal, for which he was not required to account.

In 1827, he retired with a fortune; but his active mind still wanted some employment. He built, therefore, a paper manufactory at St. Mandé, about two leagues from Paris; and here, it is said, he employed as his workpeople a number of ex-convicts

-on the pious but economical principle of giving work to people who might find their

"From the moment that Vidocq resumed his duties, the judges were continually annoyed by the objections of the prisoners to the evidence of the detectives, and such recriminations produced the worst effects upon the spectators. In fact, the depositions of the agents called as witnesses were constantly interrupted by the prisoners, who accused them of being their old comrades at the hulks, or even accomplices in the robbery to which they bore witness. In spite of these recriminations and this scandal, however, matters went on the same way, until extraneous circumstances put an end to this police system, which was universally disapproved. The revolution of 1830 produced freedom of the press, and the newspapers freely made use of it by inserting caricatures in which Vidocq was represented side by side with an august personage. Insulted by these odious comparisons, for which the official position of the ex-convict furnished a pretext, the Minister of the Interior ordered the Prefect of Police to dissolve the detective brigade, and recompose it, on an entirely new basis, of men bearing an irreproachable character.

"This took place on November 15, 1832, and the head-quarters of the new force were established at No. 5, Rue de Jerusalem.

M.

"The new detective brigade consisted of one chief, one principal inspector, four sergeants, twenty inspectors, and five clerks; forming a total of thirty-one members. Allard was appointed head of the department, and myself principal inspector; and I was ordered to pick up agents among the sergens de ville, and other persons unconnected with the service. This measure was healthy; but at the same time an evil result might be apprehended. Vidocq's agents, suddenly deprived of their means of livelihood, might return to their first mode of life—namely, robbery; and these half-converted men must be prevented at any price from relapsing into crime. It was, therefore,

decided that they should be retained as indicators"-(in plain English, police spies)— "have a room in town at which to meet, and receive-in addition to a salary of fifty francs a-month-a reward for every arrest effected through their exertions. Only fourteen accepted this offer."

As a rider to this brief sketch of Vidocq's exploits as a detective, we append the following from M. Canler's book, to show the manner in which the detective system, thus so skilfully organized by Vidocq, was afterwards turned to later purposes.

M. Canler joined the force shortly after the assassination of the Duc de Berry, when political agitation was at its height-the society called the "Congregation" employing every effort to induce Louis XVIII. to revoke the Charter, and re-establish an absolute Government. This society worked, it seems, by means of that branch of the police called "provocative agents," whose office it was to lead the unwary to commit themselves to words and acts which might be construed into treason. Nor did their zeal end there. They fabricated evidence without scruple, when convenient, as the following instance, cited by M. Canler, shows. He remarks that such a system could only excite the evil passions of certain agents, for there was but one way of attracting the notice of the superior officers-discovering a conspiracy or a plot; or if, after any lengthened search, nothing were discovered, cleverly forming some infamous machination, inculpating in some pretended plot an honest father of a family, who had never dreamed of conspiring, and denouncing him to the police. It was on this latter method that one B-, a peace-officer attached to M. Delavau, decided. This man was endowed with remarkable energy. As cunning as he was enterprising, he managed to profit by everything; and as he was devoured by an inordinate ambition, he sought every opportunity to prove his value. One morning he sent for an agent of the name of D. —, a tailor by trade, and exGarde Royal, who wore the decoration of the Legion of Honour.

"My good fellow," he said to him, so soon as they were alone, "they say at the Prefecture that we are doing nothing. It is true that for some time past no important operation has been effected, and so it is indispensable that we should restore ourselves in the opinion of the authorities, by proving

what we are capable of. I thought of you, for I knew your skill and intelligence; and I am persuaded that if I entrust the affair to you, you will bring it to a successful end." Here D grinned, and made a polite bow.

"To-morrow morning," the head officer continued, "you will go to some wholesale dealer in the Rue St. Denis-being careful to select one well known for his liberal opinions and order several dozen pairs of tricolour braces. This can easily be passed off as a charming little conspiracy, for instead of receiving the braces, we will simply have them seized."

Provided with these instructions, Dstrolled about the Rue St. Denis with his hands in his pockets, seeking, among all the names above the shop fronts, the one which he had better select. The next morning he called upon M. Burth, a manufacturer of braces, who, as he was informed, was a Liberal.

"I am, sir," he said to him, "shipping agent to several American republics, which all require, just at present, tricolour braces." "I sincerely regret," the tradesman replied, "that I cannot supply you. I do not sell tricolour braces, and cannot and dare not take any such order. I have braces here of all sorts and sizes; if they suit you, I shall be happy to make a bargain with you."

D—— declined, and went with hang-dog look to inform his superior officer of his ill

success.

"My good fellow," the latter said, impatiently, "I really feel sorry for you; for I entrusted you with a superb affair, and you have spoiled it. Well, you must get out of the scrape as best you can; for I spoke about the matter this very morning, and it must succeed, no matter how."

D promised to carry the splendid affair out, and for this purpose returned to Burth.

"I have reflected, sir," he said to him; "and as it is impossible for you to execute my order, I shall probably find the same difficulties elsewhere. I have therefore made up my mind to do the best I can with the braces which you have to sell."

Then he selected and bought several dozen pairs of perfectly white braces, which all bore the manufacturer's trade mark. After which he went home, and spent the rest of the night in edging these braces with

blue and red ribbon, and they thus became tricolour.

The next morning he went to M. B——'s office with the braces. A warrant was issued, and M. Burth's shop and house were searched. This search, of course, led to no discovery; but for all that the tradesman was arrested, and released a few days afterwards for want of evidence. Some time later, M. Burth went to the Théâtre Français, where, to his surprise, he saw the braces purchaser talking with one of the officials; and D—- on seeing him, in his turn disappeared. The tradesman, who had a secret grudge against the man who had tricked him, and nearly got him into an awkward scrape, inquired who he was, and ascertained that he was DD—, the police agent. The next day he sent in a complaint, and the public prosecutor commenced an inquiry, which led to no result, as it could not be expected that a police agent would be convicted. In order to satisfy public opinion, which was aroused by this trick, the infamy of which the papers described in the fullest manner, D—— was officially discharged, but a short time later restored; and M. Burth was again cheated, for while he was congratulating himself on having punished the scoundrelly provoker, the ex-tailor did not even lose a single day's pay.

Such unpleasant revelations as these, with which M. Canler's book abounded, were naturally distasteful to the late Emperor's Government, and the "Autobiography" was soon suppressed; but the proofs remain that the detective system is as dangerous to the common safety when used by an arbitrary Government as a mere political engine, as it is valuable when restricted, as in this country, to its proper purpose-namely, that of detecting offenders against the obvious laws of all civilized society.

Before leaving M. Canler's book, we may remark that his revelations are often as discreditable to Republican government as to more despotic Imperialism. There are some curious statements, for instance, with regard to the Revolution of 1848. The following will show the modus operandi pursued in buying a democrat:

"Ledru Rollin, the Minister of the Interior, who trembled at Blanqui, expressed to M. Carlier, at that time head of the police to the Ministry of the Interior, his regret that Caussidière had not effected his arrest.

"If you are anxious about it,' said M.