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MONTHLY RETROSPECT of PUBLIG AFFAIRS;
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NOTICES.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Mja . QrLCHRi « T has ifi the Press , " The Intellectual Patrimony , or a Father ' s Instructions . "
Monthly Retrospect Of Publig Affairs;
MONTHLY RETROSPECT of PUBLIG AFFAIRS ;
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OR , The Christian s Survey of the Political World .
ESPIONAGE is a term become unhappily familiar to the English ear . It is derived from the French , among * whom the system , . which it expresses , ba . d been brought to the utmost pitch of perfection , if
perfection can be applied to a speeies-of villainy , exceeding- in atrocity any fhat has ever been practised amongst mankind . It means the science , art , or profession of employing spies over the conduct of every individual , so that ail his motions and actions and
thoughts al any time may be discoverable . It does not , as is imagined , require any great skill in the conductors of tjie machine . A eold depraved heart is sufficient for the prime mover , who finds or makes agents suited to his purpose . A few large volumes fill up his study , and at his desk he can refer with ease to every name that may be brought under his cognizance .
A slight instance xnay shew the nature of this system . An English gentleman , not long ago , was travelling in France , and had a letter of recommendation to- the chief officer of police at Paris . When he arrived there , he called upon this gentleman , and on being admit ted found him with a lar ^ e book before him . After the
visual compliments his letter was produced : but without opening it the officer entered into conversation witU him on fyis journey from Calais , and on the places at which he had stopped out of the usual route . " But why do you call yourself IVXonjsieur , " said the police officer , " when your usual style is Captain ? " The gentleman explained th , e
circumstance——that as he was only a Captain of lYJilitia , he 4 id nojt tbink it necessary to keep that title in JFranee . Here is your card , however , said the . Frenchman , producing one from bis great hook : and the Englishman , with some difficulty , rememhe th
bered , that ut a po ^ t tQw n b # d found is card in bis |> ocket , aa , d Am * gT it into t ) ie fire-place as of no use . You Jbtfui better ^ eep your ti tle , s ^ juj the Ffceu ^ Jirnan \ and * $ * M EnglUfrfft ? , ? wished % o ; go to jthe soji tfc of France , frp fagged fa ?* pa ^ port , » Mk r ewiitaftiw h ta * «! & simtyei to the
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police officer , that as he wished to see several places out of the common road , he hoped that circumstance would be attended to . To this , after a passport had been drawn out , the reply was , " Sir , with this you may go over all France , and it matters not where you go , for every place wbere you change horses , or where you stop will be noted in my book in the same manner
as your preceding route . ' * The Captain then read a full account of himself with the circumstance of his being styled Monsieur instead of Captain . lie pursued his route a few days after with the ful ] conviction , that what the police officer had predicted would be verified , and without any great difficulty : for the post-boy tfyat drove him carried the same letter from the
last stage which had been regularly given to the other post-boys , &o that when the traveller cauie % -j a place where he intended to stay , this letter was sent to the police at Paris , containing the remarks of the postofficers , and a consequent detail of his route , whijeh was duly entered in tlue great book . The espionage system is carried on with ,
comparatively speaking , very little rxpen * e . The inferior agents are postmasters , post-boys , servants , laquais de place , a ^ ad espions or a set of spies , whose business it is to be on the lookout , and to bring to their superiors a detail of what they Jhave observed in the course of each c | ay . These latter wretches frequeut the
coffee-houses and places of resort , note the conversation , mark the persons , and some are particularly employed in watching the motions of thnse individuals , who on any account labour un < Jer suspicion . Wlien a traveller arrives at Paris , he generally takes a taquais de place . This man is
alrm > bt qtlvtays under the pay of the police , and consequently th / ere is Httle difficulty of knowing through his means tfye conduct of the master . Through Ijiin the person of fris master is made jknown M > the espions , ^ nd in less than a day it becomes familiar lo tfee # n , so that he cannot move in any Mit ^ f \ he town wijftout \ u * ^ ctiojns baing
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State ef Public Ajfadrs . 44 &
Notices.
NOTICES .
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Thb Thirty-first Annual Meeting of the Trustees of Manchester College ^ York , will be he ! 4 &t Cross Street Chapel Rooms , Manchester , on Friday * August 1 st , 1817 .
The JFriends of the College will softerwards dine together as usual , at tfre Bridgewater Arms , Manchester , when the Rev . Jobii Yates , of Liverpool , is expected to preside . Secretaries . THO 8 . H . ROBINSON , J . G . ROBBRRpS , Manchester , July 12 tk , 1817 .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1817, page 445, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2466/page/69/
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