want of success that had attended their claims.  It was impossible to bring any charge against him on the score of deficiency of talent or of indiscreet conduct; his personal habits were watched—­it was ascertained that he engaged in financial speculations.  An imputation could easily be founded on this circumstance.  Peculation was accordingly laid to his charge.

This was touching the most tender ground, for the First Consul held nothing in greater abhorrence than unlawful gains.  A solitary voice, however, would have failed in an attempt to defame the character of a man for whom he had so long felt esteem and affection; other voices, therefore, were brought to bear against him.  Whether the accusations were well founded or otherwise, it is beyond a doubt that all means were resorted to for bringing them to the knowledge of the First Consul.

The most effectual course that suggested itself was the opening a correspondence either with the accused party direct, or with those with whom it was felt indispensable to bring him into contact; this correspondence was carried on in a mysterious manner, and related to the financial operations that had formed the grounds of a charge against him.—­Thus it is that, on more than one occasion, the very channels intended for conveying truth to the knowledge of a sovereign have been made available to the purpose of communicating false intelligence to him.  To give an instance.

Under the reign of Louis XV., and even under the Regency, the Post Office was organized into a system of minute inspection, which did not indeed extend to every letter, but was exercised over all such as afforded grounds for suspicion.  They were opened, and, when it was not deemed safe to suppress them, copies were taken, and they were returned to their proper channel without the least delay.  Any individual denouncing another may, by the help of such an establishment, give great weight to his denunciation.  It is sufficient for his purpose that he should throw into the Post Office any letter so worded as to confirm the impression which it is his object to convey.  The worthiest man may thus be committed by a letter which he has never read, or the purport of which is wholly unintelligible to him.

I am speaking from personal experience.  It once happened that a letter addressed to myself, relating to an alleged fact which had never occurred, was opened.  A copy of the letter so opened was also forwarded to me, as it concerned the duties which I had to perform at that time; but I was already in possession of the original, transmitted through the ordinary channel.  Summoned to reply to the questions to which such productions had given rise, I took that opportunity of pointing out the danger that would accrue from placing a blind reliance upon intelligence derived from so hazardous a source.  Accordingly, little importance was afterwards attached to this means