St. Mary's beacon., 1862-01-23

Russian mission is understood to have nnct
with some unexpected opposition from the
radical faction in the Senate. Ii is cp-
posed BY some of those who are the most
strenuous advocates Of the peculiar views
he has recently expressed. The nomiIaa-
tion has not yet been confirmed.
LETTER OPENING IN .AUSTRIA..
Arropos Of the discussion on the law
for the protection Of the privacy Of letters,
the Vienna Press gives the following par
ticulars respecting the organization of the
Austrian BLACK Cabinet: = Originally
letters were to he opened only in those
special cases Which the cyrhcr cabinet in
the Foreign Office notified to the proper
'.lodgis,s." after permission granted to that
effect. What are 'lodgists 2" the reader
may ask. They arc suhordinates in the
postal service, independent of their suPc-
riors, and placed, even without the later
suspccting it, in the most important post
Offices, by the Minister for Foreign AT
fairs, expressly for the purpose of open
ing suspected letters. They take a spe-
cial oath before the President Of the cy-
phcr cabinet, and receive extra pay out of
the secret service money. The place to
which one or more Of these functionarics
are attached is called hodge," and the
whole of the lovely institution-a new and
improved edition Of the Black Cabinet rs
it was in Bach's time-is copied from the
French pattern. In Bach's time the for
cign and home ministries and the police
long coutrndcd for the command over this
interesting lodge service. If We arc not
mistaken, the ministry of police was the
victor in the contest; more recently. how
ever, the lodge has again become ONO ct
the attributes Of the Foreign-office. Of
all the lodges, that of Vienna is, for OBJ
vious reasons. the most important and bas-
lest of ull 4; but these Of Verona AMI Ven
ice also do good stroke of work. and thc
names Of the lodgists in the crawn lands
that enjoy their services are only known
, to the respective governors and directors
Of police The business Of the lodgist is
this he is to opcn letters directed to GER
I tain addresses which are indicated to him,
or the letters of certain persons without
regard tu.he address. and he il either to
copy those letters or deliver the originals
to the governor. The opening Of letters
without leaving trace Of the operation re-
quircs not only very special implements,
bu, also very skillful hand
The operation can only he performed IN
the po.t-ofiice, and it must be done in
such manner that it shall be quite
unknown to the other employees, that the
delivery of the letters to the persons ad-
dressed shall suffer no delay. and that
they shall not be able TO detect any to-
ken of the letters having been opened.
When a governor wants to know the
contents Of letter not previously de-
nounccd, he applies by telegraph to the
cypher cabinet in Vienna; and the latter,
with the assent of the higher powers, scnds
him the requisite authority. 1t is not he
wondered ut ii The conduct Of this sort
of business is a good deal marked with
caprice. and if badly-opencd letters are
destroyed instead Of being sent to their
addresses sealed with the official seal 1t
often happens that post director, or
even the ministry to which the postal
service belongs, has no conception Of the
nature Of the lodges and the functions
rics who offer sacrifices in the form Of
opened letters to the secret all-knowing-
hess of the Government 1t has even
happened TO func,ionaries D: this class to
be dismissed for purl'ining letters. be-
Cause they We're prevented by The special
oath they had taken from clearing them
selves OF the charge. They do not lose
their bread for all that. Care has always
been taken that these priasts of the state
mysteries shall have handsome allow
ance for life cut Of The secret service
money. The well-kuown prohibition
against the scaling IF letters with letters
marks. which make the opening SO
difficult. may have been issued, upon
financial. but simply upon l"gist'c grounds.