police, and, after a short examination of a quarter of an hour, was
permitted, with his wife and two children, to join their friend Gouron at
Rochefort, and to settle with him at Cayenne, where lands would also be
given him for his property, in France. These particulars were related to
me by a neighbour whose son had, for two years previous to this, been
under Gouron's care, but who was now among those placed out by our
Government. The boy's present master, he said, was a man of a
notoriously bad and immoral character; but he was intimidated, and weak
enough to remain contented, preferring, no doubt, his personal safety to
the future happiness of his child. In your country, you little
comprehend what a valuable instrument terror has been in the hands of our
rulers since the Revolution, and how often fear has been mistaken abroad
for affection and content.

All these minutiae and petty vexations, but great oppressions, of petty
tyrants, you may easily guess, take up a great deal of time, and that,
therefore, a Minister of Police, though the most powerful, is also the
most occupied of his colleagues. So he certainly is, but, last year, a
new organization of this Ministry was regulated by Bonaparte; and Fouche
was allowed, as assistants, four Counsellors of State, and an
augmentation of sixty-four police commissaries. The French Empire was
then divided into four arrondissements, with regard to the general
police, not including Paris and its vicinity, inspected by a prefect of
police under the Minister. Of the first of these arrondissements, the
Counsellor of State, Real, is a kind of Deputy Minister; the Counsellor
of State, Miot, is the same of the second; the Counsellor of State, Pelet
de la Lozere, of the third; and the Counsellor of State, Dauchy, of the
fourth. The secret police agents, formerly called spies, were also
considerably increased.