o allude
to the mortality of emperors than to talk lightly to children of the
death of their parents. A gentleman in the suite of an English
ambassador inquired, after having been conducted over the imperial
palace at St. Petersburgh, which of the rooms he had seen was that in
which the Emperor Paul was killed. No answer was returned to his
question, nor to his repetition of it. He imprudently persisted till
some reply was necessary. His guide whispered, with white lips, "Paul
was not killed. Emperors do not die; they transpire out of life."

Such are some of the relations of the people to authority which will
strike the observation of the traveller in the most civilized of foreign
countries. These will be further illustrated by the smallest
circumstances which meet his eye that can in any way indicate what are
the functions of the police, and where it has most or least authority.
The Emperor Paul issued an ukase about shoestrings, which it was highly
penal to disobey. His son has lately ordained the precise measurement of
whiskers, and cut of the hair behind, to be observed by the officers of
the army. In some regions, all men go armed: in others, it is penal to
wear arms: in others, people may do as they please. In some countries,
there are costumes of classes enforced by law: in others, by opinion:
while fashion is the only dictator in a third. In some societies
citizens must obtain leave from the authorities to move from place to
place: in others, strangers alone are plagued with passports: in
others, there is perfect freedom of locomotion for all.--In his
observation of the workings of authority, as embodied in a police, his
own experience of restraint or liberty will afford him ample material
for thought, and ground of inference.

Such restraint as exists derives its character chiefly from its origin.
It makes a wide difference whether the police are the creatures of a
despotic sovereign who treats his subjects as property; or whether they
are the agents of a representative government, appointed by responsible
rulers for the public good; or whether they are the servants of a
self-governing people, chosen by those among whom their work lies. It
makes a wide difference whether they are in the secret pay of an
irresponsible individual, or appointed by command of a parliament, or
elected by a concourse of citizens. In any case, their existence and
their function testify to the absence or presence of a general idea of