The National Register.
London, England, 1815-02-19 00:00:00

TAE:

No. 373

AY, F

POLITICAL nrsQuisnymv.

STATE OF THE FRENCH POLICE UNDER BUONA-

PA RTE.

Every Government that creates-or maintains a Supreme
Tribunal of Inquisition under the name of Police General,
that sanctions censure, and fetters the course of opinions,
unblushingly tells its subjects, i• we do not acknowledge the

most fundamental laws ; we intend to be unjust ; we will
dispose of your wealth, your arms, and your blood as we
please; we will not leave you the right of complaining, the
power of remonstrating ; we consider you as slaves, whose
life and death depend on our pleasure." When a Govern-
ment places the most sacred rights of a nation in the bands
cf a Minister of Police, or in other words an Inquisitor, and
the latter causes individual freedom and security to be pro-
,tected by a set cf personae: the most infamous order*, that
Government intends to tread under foot all the laws both of
society and of nature.
Although there existed under tuotsaparte a Supreme 'hi-
bunat of Police, the individuals who felt into the hands of
Fouche were in some measure better treated than those who
were brought before the other tribunals established at Paris
and in the Department 4. When the Minister was himself
the Judge, he employed as his chief agents the most re-
spectable persons, and compared the nature of the charge
with the means and the quality of the accused. When the
charge was preferred before the other tribunals, the Minister
forbore to interfere, lest be should be denounced to Napo-

Leon, from whOni there would hart been no escape.
It frequently happened under Douche, when individuals
inf ail classes had been accused by. ,his subaltern satellites,
that he caused them to be br.otight before him, told them in
what they had erred, made them feel their imprudence and
the risk: which they bad run, and set them at liberty, gaining
at once their gratitude and their esteem. • •

Foucle. was the only Minister,, :for whom Buonaparte ever
preserved a degree of reSpeci misted with fear, because . .
individual and official operations were totally indeperident
of the party of Maret and the military, his greatest enethies.
The second time Pouctte was called upon to resign the Ott,

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• Our Iting, Constitabn, ant* Lain.

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PUBLISHED AT NO. 11, NtWCASTLE-STREET, grIiAND.

BRVAR, 1.9, 1815.

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'folio of the Police to General Savary, who Was far from pos-
sessing his . talents, Napoleon directed him to give up the
ecret register of the office ; that is to say, the re-gister whirit
contained all the secret orders issued by Buonaparte and the
Miniver himself against the unfortunate victims of despotism
(the Book of Mystery), Fouche replied that considering the
register would be of no use to a new Minister, and was his
own private journal, he had burnt it. Buonaparte,
and Savary remained convinced that the register still existed,
And.that Fouche wished to preserVe it for his ovn justifier.-
tiom They could not succeed in recovering it frlrn him,
and this was one of the reasons which induced the Deipot to
remove him not only from Paris, hut out of 'France, whilst
at the same time be never dared to undertake any *thing.
against bins.

Be,fore the Amitotic*, Foioeisr Melt leffilittliZriT374/10;
but he rushed headlong into the witi'rlpool of parties. .71-. e
Aristocrats considered him as a Jacobin, and a Maratist:
society will acknowledge in him a man of great talents, a kind
father, a good husband, and ; who, uti‘ter
Battiaparte, Was guilty of less injustice than seemed compa-
tible with his office. Should' the Ministery of General. P'•-
lice he retained in France, it would be desirable that Foti).e
should be replaced at its head, because be is the only rnivi
capable of containing a people disposed for twenty-five
to shake off the yoke of ever;y9otrertonent. .•
But the etvi-
grants, Who are 'not only unable to.enle the nation, but to , rpc,-
vern themselves, declaim against tcinche arid
who are the only two individuals eclual.to.the task of m:,-
naging the interests of Louis XVIII. tOiliithissii, and the
nation.
The Prefecterte of
Potise it duties. In the fi.,st
place, it carried into effect the arrests orderteor approved :It'
by the Minister. These were usually made. at the dash of
day. A peace officer. 'atieticlird by the ntagistrate of safety
and the commissary of the Attarter..besides four or six armed
satellites, entered the hooie of the accused. Forms, hok
ever, varied according to eircowtanccs. . Every paper was
seized and sealed in presence of)he accused, who was led
bz
foot, or its a hackney coach, 0) the Prefecture. If he iv:A:
not a military man he was taken to the prison called Petit
Martin, where was the Office of the Inspector-Gcnetat
Veer& If the Minister ordered the accessed to undergo ea
lititilnation,. it took place within tke twenty-four hours
a certain Bertrand, a very stink man. The leticti