r, as he termed it, told them, as they were so
fond of teaching religious and moral duties, a suitable situation had
been provided for them in Cayenne, where the negroes stood sadly in need
of their early arrival, for which reason they would all set out on that
very morning for Rochefort. When Gouron asked what was to become of his
property, furniture, etc., he was told that his house was intended by
Government for a preparatory school, and would, with its contents, be
purchased, and the amount paid him in lands in Cayenne. It is not
necessary to say that this example of Imperial justice had the desired
effect on all other refractory private schoolmasters.

The parents of Gouron's pupils were, with a severe reprimand, informed
where their sons had been placed, and where they would be educated in a
manner agreeable to the Emperor, who recommended them not to remove them,
without a previous notice to the police. A hatter, of the name of
Maille, however, ordered his son home, because he had been sent to a
dearer school than the former. In his turn he was carried before the
police, and, after a short examination of a quarter of an hour, was
permitted, with his wife and two children, to join their friend Gouron at
Rochefort, and to settle with him at Cayenne, where lands would also be
given him for his property, in France. These particulars were related to
me by a neighbour whose son had, for two years previous to this, been
under Gouron's care, but who was now among those placed out by our
Government. The boy's present master, he said, was a man of a
notoriously bad and immoral character; but he was intimidated, and weak
enough to remain contented, preferring, no doubt, his personal safety to
the future happiness of his child. In your country, you little
comprehend what a valuable instrument terror has been in the hands of our
rulers since the Revolution, and how often fear has been mistaken abroad
for affection and content.

All these minutiae and petty vexations, but great oppressions, of petty
tyrants, you may easily guess, take up a great deal of time, and that,
therefore, a Minister of Police, though the most powerful, is also the
most occupied of his colleagues. So he certainly is, but, last year, a
new organization of this Ministry was regulated by Bonaparte; and Fouche
was allowed, as assistants, four Counsellors of State, and an
augmentation of sixty-four police commissaries. The French Empire was
then di