retained by the French government; and a similar right is
occasionally exercised in England under the direction of a secretary of
state, and, indeed, in all civilized countries. In England this power was
frequently employed during the 18th century and was confirmed by the Post
Office Act of 1837; its most notorious use being, perhaps, the opening of
Mazzini's letters in 1844.

CABLE, GEORGE WASHINGTON (1844- ) American author, was born in New Orleans,
Louisiana, on the 12th of October 1844. At the age of fourteen he entered a
mercantile establishment as a clerk; joined the Confederate army (4th
Mississippi Cavalry) at the age of nineteen; at the close of the war
engaged in civil engineering, and in newspaper work in New Orleans; and
first became known in literature by sketches and stories of old
French-American life in that city. These were first published in
_Scribner's Monthly_, and were collected in book form in 1879, under the
title of _Old Creole Days_. The characteristics of the series--of which the
novelette _Madame Delphine_ (1881) is virtually a part--are neatness of
touch, sympathetic accuracy of description of people and places, and a
constant combination of gentle pathos with quiet humour. These shorter
tales were followed by the novels _The Grandissimes_ (1880), _Dr Sevier_
(1883) and _Bonaventure_ (1888), of which the first dealt with Creole life
in Louisiana a hundred years ago, while the second was related to the
period of the Civil War of 1861-65. _Dr Sevier_, on the whole, is to be
accounted Cable's masterpiece, its character of Narcisse combining nearly
all the qualities which have given him his place in American literature as
an artist and a social chronicler. In this, as in nearly all of his
stories, he makes much use of the soft French-English dialect of Louisiana.
He does not confine himself to New Orleans, laying many of his scenes, as
in the short story _Belles Demoiselles Plantation_, in the marshy lowlands
towards the mouth of the Mississippi. Cable was the leader in the
noteworthy literary movement which has influenced nearly all southern
writers since the war of 1861--a movement of which the chief importance lay
in the determination to portray local scenes, characters and historical
episodes with accuracy instead of merely imaginative romanticism, and to
interest readers by fidelity and sympathy in the portrayal of things well
known to the authors. Other writings by Cable have dealt with vario