The Shadow of Great Britain

Chapter 1529: Chapter 259: The Association of the Just in Paris

The last two months I spent in Paris were unbearable. I was literally under the open surveillance of the French government, my correspondence shamelessly opened and delayed by a day. Wherever I went, there was always an annoying person following me from a distance, signaling at street corners to pass me off to another person.

Let’s not forget, this was a period of rampant police lawlessness. Ignorant conservatives, Algerian revolutionaries of the Lamartine faction were all aiding the cunning rascals surrounding Louis Bonaparte, to establish a large network of spies and agents across the entire land of France for the new empire of Napoleon’s family, allowing the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Elysee Palace to use telegraphs to track down and eliminate all active forces across the nation at any time.

The little police secretary Louis Bonaparte, who once served at Scotland Yard, skillfully utilized all the means at his disposal against all opposition parties. On December 2nd, the police formally became the symbol of state power. Nowhere else, not even in Austria and Russia, has there ever been a political police like the one in France since the time of the National Assembly.

This situation was brought about not only by Louis Bonaparte’s adept use and peculiar reverence for the police, but also by the French people’s special longing for the police, among other reasons. The spies in Paris under Louis Bonaparte’s rule had nothing in common with British police. In Britain, the police were surrounded by many hostile factors, the eyes from Fleet Street, social opinion, police committee and Parliament constantly constraining its actions. Thus, Scotland Yard often appeared weak, forced to rely on its own zeal to maneuver in a limited space.

However, in France, it was precisely the opposite. The police organization in France was the most popular institution, no matter what government seized power, the police would be its ready-made tool; a part of the populace would use what should be restrained and not encouraged—their madness and enthusiasm—to assist it, using privately all the terrible means that the police could not use.

How can one escape from the shopkeepers, custodians, tailors, laundresses, butchers, brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law? Especially in Paris, where people do not live alone as they do in London; they can be said to live in coral reefs or beehives, with shared staircases, shared courtyards, and mutual custodians.

Condorcet escaped the notice of Jacobin police, luckily reaching a village near the border, exhausted, he entered a tavern, sat by the fire to warm his hands, and ordered a roast chicken. The landlady was a kind-hearted old lady, a great patriot; she thought, ”He’s covered in dust, must have traveled far; he wants to eat chicken, must have money; his hands are very white, must be nobility.”

Thus, she stewed the chicken on the stove and went into another pub where a few patriots sat: one citizen was Musius Skewola, a hooch vendor; another was Brutus, and another was Timoleon, a tailoring master. This occasion was exactly what they were hoping for, and so, ten minutes later, one of the most clever activists of the French Revolution was sent to prison, handed over to the police of liberty, equality, and fraternity!

During the Directorate and imperial periods, Napoleon reinforced this system, cultivating a batch of spies and agents from his generals. The executioner of Lyon, Fouche, developed an entire theory, organization, and science of secret police: it operated both through and independently of police chiefs, that is, through dissolute women and not-so-dissolute landladies, through servants and coachmen, through doctors and barbers, etc., to execute police tasks.

Napoleon fell, but this system remained unchanged, not only the organization but the people within remained intact. Fouche submitted to the Bourbon Dynasty, the power of spies was not weakened; on the contrary, it was supplemented by priests and monks. During the July Monarchy under Louis-Philippe, bribery and corruption became the spiritual support of the government, and half of the petty citizens successfully entered the police system.

In the February Republic period, three or four genuine secret police were formed along with some semi-public secret police. Among them were Riderley Lorand’s police and Cosidier’s police, Marast’s police and the Provisional Government’s police, the Order Party’s police and the Anti-Order Party’s police, and also Bonaparte’s police and the Orleans Party’s police.

Currently, the cunning Louis Bonaparte government, leveraging the policing battle experience learned from Britain, grasped this point well. The once penniless little police secretary was well-acquainted with how the police department should operate in a hostile environment, and early failed uprising experiences cultivated his patience and cautious nature, thus he took advantage of this favorable situation to recruit informers from various parties.

Louis Bonaparte’s new government represented both revolution and reaction, both war and peace. Thus, 1789 and the Catholic Church, remnants of the Bourbon Dynasty and the 4.5% of people, Jesuit Faloux, Socialist Proudhon, Monarchist Larochejaquelein, and a large number of people who had gained favor from Louis-Philippe were all serving Louis Bonaparte’s new government. Naturally, people from all parties and all political colors converged and entered the Tuileries Palace.