Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1853-06-23
The Secret Police of Europe.

An open, recognized department of the State,
o'e'seel0g everything, examining everything,
mlnutIng everything, its powers of control are
Tremendous; relay Of telegraphs, it reports
from The most distant parts Of an empire the ap-
proaches Of danger, and, then. again, battal-
ION OF cohorts, it rushes to the scene with i'm
petuous velocity. to extiuguish the least symp-
tom OF trouble. But there is secret wing of
'he service, the dread bands Of the Espionage,
unknown to the public, and unknown to
themselves, which imparts mysterious uniqul.y
and teniold effectiveness to lts power. There
Is fine passage in Gibbon, quoted by De
Quincy, inhls Cesars, in which, describing the
reach as well as the intensity of the Roman
Imperial power,he speaks Of the impossibility of
an offending subject escaping punishment. If
nc fled 70 tt:saesdarneass parsued i,,,n there
1t tracked him over the pathless waters of the
sea, and in the heart Of popuons cities, often the
most secure and lonely of hiding places, its eyes
penetrated his concealment. or its hand snatched
him. from the throDg. Thus all parts of the
earth became to him only SO many wards of an
immense PRISON.
The secret police of Europe achieves simi.
lar abhorent universally Its forces, composed
OF some of the highest dignitaries, as we'll as
the most wretched creatures of every class and
caing-women of rank, and walters in the
cafes, the clerks in shops, the domestics about
your table, and even the lowest frequenters of
the gambling houses and brothels, lurk every
where. to waylay, to pervert, and to accuse
Your property, your freedom, your life itself
hangs on their reporte, and long years after the
circumstances on which some temporary sus-
plclon may have grown, the records of the se-
cluded consistorv-ths modern Vehm-Gercht
will rise up against you, like book of judg.
ment, and belray you to awful penalties. Your
trial will be secret as the accusat ion is, and
your fate will only be known to the sweet young
family who miss you from the 6reside, and the
cherished friends that shall feel the warm greet.
ings Of your hand no more. Scarcely prison
house in Europe, from the watery dungeons Of
Naples to the cold solitudes of Siberia, thai
does not hear the sighs of victims who have
fitted away,in this silent manner, as if they had
exhaled, or been carried bodily from sunshine
to the sunless land"
As an example of how this espionage is car.
ried on, we were told, last winter, in Paris, tina,
lady of fashionable society, who proposed te
give ball, applied to the police for the usua
patrol which attends on such occasions, 10 pre-.
serve order, and regulate the arrival and depart.
ure of carriages. The officer demanded six
blank invitations, as a condition preliminary
which the lady, of course, refused. "WiIl you
allow ae, ,then,to look atthe list Of your guests ??
ASKED ira man Of the law, and Si,an the laay's
agent showed il 10 him, he replied, with smile,
Never mind about the blanks, there are already
ten of our friends among the number of the in
vited.' Thus the creatures of the State man
age to be at all public assemblies, as well ps in
almost every sscret society. Where they can
not go themselves, the terror of them does, so
that distrust and suspicion is often nslnuated
into the most friendly intercourse. "Proiound
silence or hypocritical subservice is the only
safety" "says MIR. Stiles, our former charge a,
Vienna. "rhe very name of police" says
another American, who lived long abroad, "r
a word of terror, and the apprehension whicI
1t causes is equally felt by the rich an poor. l
Is IN every ones mouth; and the stranger is N
less annoyed by its inqusitlveness regarding
himself, than he is surprised at ,he lamb-l k
submissiveness and fear which it universally in
spires."- Putnams Magazine.