THOMAS POTTS.



LETTER: From Monsieur Lecoq, Rue Jerusalem, Paris, to Inspector
Bucket, Scotland Yard.



This correspondence appears to prove that mistakes may be made by
the most astute officers of police, and that even so manifest a
Briton as Mr. Pickwick might chance to find himself in the toils of
international conspiracy.


(Translated.) May 19, 1852.

Sir and Dear Fellow-Brother (confrere).--The so cordial
understanding between our countries ought to expand itself into a
community of the political police. But the just susceptibilities
of the Old England forbid at this moment the restoration to a
friendly Power of political offenders. In the name of the French
police of surety I venture to present to the famous officer Bucket
a prayer that he will shut his eyes, for once, on the letter, and
open his heart to the spirit of the laws.

No one needs to teach Monsieur Bucket that a foreign miscreant can
be given up, under all reserves, to the justice! A small vial of a
harmless soporific, a closed carriage, a private cabin on board a