The Sun.
London, England, 1851-09-02 00:00:00

(stientiota '7' ttn

t-z*C."
LONDON, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1851

It was with feelings of indignation, but not of sur-
prise, that we read the report of the proceedings
which took place on Saturday at the Police .court in
Birmingham, in the case of the Austrian female spy,
who called herself the Baroness Vox BECK. This bad
woman, whose real name was RAcIDULA, and who had
acted in her native country, Austria, as servant to a
spy of the lowest class, had, it appears, been engaged
by the Austrian Government to act as a spy in this
country ; and she accordingly, having obtained a
suitable outfit, assumed the title of Baroness Vox
BECK, and introduced herself as a Hungarian refugee
lady of noble family to several English families,
more particularly in the provinces, where she was
not likely to be known, and then plied her base and
infamous calling, transmitting regularly any infor-
mation she might pick up, or any falsehoods she
might invent, to the Austrian Minister here, who,
no doubt, forwarded without delay to his perfidious
master the fruits of her deliberate treachery. It
was through the means of such miscreants as this
Baroness DE BECK, that the murderers of BAT..
TIIYANY, the Red, Emperor and his Ministers, were ap-
prised of the fact that Madlle. ANNA ZER had, on the
solicitation of the
.stewards of the concert, given here
for the benefit of the starving Hungarian refugees,
consented to sing at that concert, for which consent
(for she was unable actually to appear) she was, im-
mediately on her return to Vienna, visited by the
authorities and prohibited from appearing on the
boards of the opera of Vienna for twelve months. We
are, however, not surprised at the revelations which
have taken place in the case of this woman. Austria,
in common with the other members of the Ab-
solutist and anti-Protestant conspiracy, bas
long since had a regularly organized body
of spies, lay and clerical, acting in all parts of
the United Kingdom and in various disguises. Now
the spy appears as the professor of some foreign uni-
versity, attentively engaged in scientific researches,
anon he is a worthy friar engaged in ministrations of
charity, freely communicating with the Roman
Catholic dignitaries and clergy, and transmitting the
information he obtains by these means to the
Austrian Chancery, where it is compared
with the information transmitted by the clergy
themselves to Rome. At times, as in this case
of the Baroness VON BECK, the spy assumes
the character of a refugee noble, Hungarian or Ita-
lian, as the case may be; occasionally too, an Eng-
lishman is found base enough to accept this vile ser-
vice, and he very frequently appears in the character
of an ultra-Chartist or Socialist, a writer of outra-
geously abusive tracts and pamphlets against the
policy of the English Government ; and, occasionally,
also, be adopts the more insidions plan of
praising the policy, but attributing its adoption to
such motives as cannot but rouse the feelings of other
Powers against England. This spy system as it at
present exists was thus extensively organized as far
hack as May, 1848, when the refugee reactionary
Princes and Ministers were in the habit of meeting in
secret conclave at Richmond, and there organized the
great scheme of reaction, which is not yet fully deve-
loped, and from that time it has been in full operation.
We have on some few occasions endeavoured to attract
public attention to this subject; but the whole sys-
tem seems to the mind of an Englishman so abhor-
rent, that sinless he has lived for some time on the
Continent, and become from experience acquainted
with the existence and modus operandi of the haute
police, he may be well excused should he refuse at
first to give credence to the statements that were
made to him. The revelations which took place,
however, at the police-office at Birmingham in this
case of the Baroness DE BECK must be sufficient
to convince the most incredulous that the haute polce
of Absolutism and Obscurantism has acquired in
these dominions a development which would fully
authorise a demand for a Parliamentary inquiry
into the subject ; and we trust that Lord DUDLEY
STUART will not suffer a week to elapse after the
meeting of Parliament without bringing forward a
motion for inquiry In the meantime, before
Parliament assembles, we call upon the Govern-
ment and the Commissioners of Police to dis-
avow at once, if they can, the very grave
imputations cast upon them by M. CHARLES DE
SODEN, in his letter to Madame PULSKY, which was
read in the course of the proceedings at Birmingham.
In this letter M. CHARLES DE SODEN says :
"In reply to the inquiry contained in your kind note,
I beg to inform you that the person styling herself
Baroness de Beck' is the same who, accompanied by
Dr. Heineman, offered personally her services as a spy
and informer to the reccutly established foreign branch
of the English policy force. This I know from good
authority, and I know likewise that for a fortnight or
three weeks she has obtained for such services the sum
of 5/. Ins. Bd. per wcek. It is also no secret to me that
the sci-disant baroness introduced herself to the Com-
missioners of Police by forwarding a letter written from
Dr. Heineman, and containing an enclosure which con-
sisted of some articles and regulations adopted by an
association of German Communists in London."

What is the meaning of the phrase " recently
established foreign branch of the English police
force ?" When was it organized, by whose orders,
and what arc its duties ? We bad hoped that an
ignorance of our language had caused M. CHARLES
DE SODEN to adopt an ambiguous expression, and
that what he hat] really meant to say was, a foreign
haute police Acting in this country, but we are sorry

It is rumoured that Captain Houston Stewart will
leave the Admiralty and take up the vacant appointment of
Admiral Superintendent of Devonport Dockyard, and that
Rear-Admiral Sir James Stirling will go to the Admiralty;
also that Rear-Admiral Berkeley will leave the Admiralty,
and succeed Rear-Admiral Prescott in the superintendence
of this dockyard.—Piymouth Times.
TUE AUSTRIAN SPY CASE.—The inquest on the
body of the deceased Austrian spy, Racidula, alias the Ba-
roness von Beck, was held at Birmingham yesterday before
Dr. Birt Davies. The deceased, according to the medical
testimony, had long suffered from aneurism and the verdict
of the jury was, " Died by the visitation of God,"