STATE PAPERS. 



621 



doubtful correspondents wrifetohim 

 r?rt Swisserlaiid, Strasburff, Kehl, 

 Oticnburg, and Munich. He has su- 

 balterns in these cities, to take es- 

 pecial care of his correspondence. 

 lie makes use of forged passports, of 

 fictitious names, of sympathetic ink. 

 These are the modes ol comm\mica- 

 tion through which he transmits his 

 ideas, projects, aiul rewards : and, 

 by these means, he is informed of 

 tlie schemes planned by his orders 

 for raising insurrections, in the first 

 place, in four departments ; for 

 raising an army, increasing the num- 

 ber of the dlsailected, and over- 

 throwing the consular government. 

 . — These efforts and promises are too 

 mad, and the vile miserable methods 

 employed are too disprojjortioned 

 to the ditficuities of the cnterprize, 

 to give any uneasiness as to their 

 success. Lint it is not with regard 

 to what may occasion fear, nor 

 with a view of punishing^ that the 

 operations of tliat interior arrange- 

 ment, called the police, ads; its 

 principal object is, not alone to pre- 

 vent crime- a.s that of the exterior is 

 to coufme ambition, but to remove 

 even the very occasion of vice and 

 weakness. — In those countries that 

 are the best governed, there are al- 

 Mays to be fonnd certain persons 

 who sufl'er themselves to be K-d astray 

 by a sort of innate inconstancy. In 

 tiie best regulated commonwealths 

 there are to be fonnd perverse and 

 weak men. It has always been con- 

 sidered Ity my predecessors as a du- 

 ty to watch over sech persons, not 

 in the vain hope of rendering them 

 good, but to stop the developement 

 of their vices ; and as, on this head, 

 all civilized nations have the same 

 interests to watch over, and the 

 same duty to fiiKil, it Iia.s always 

 been a received maxim, that no go- 

 vcrnmcKit should suder a standard to 



1 



be created, around which hirelintfs 

 of every country or profession might 

 gather, for the purpose of planning 

 a general disorganization, and mucji 

 less should they permit an infamous 

 school for bribery, and recruiting, 

 to the prejudice at once of the fide- 

 lity, constancy, affections, and con- 

 science of the citizens. — Mr. Drake 

 had an agency at Paris ; but other 

 ministers, the instruments ofdiscord, 

 and exciters of mischief, like him, 

 may also have agencies. Mr. Drake, 

 in his correspondence, unmasks all 

 those that exist in France, by the 

 very measures he takes to deny that 



he knows any thing of them. - 



" I repeat, that I have no knowledge 

 of the existence of any other society 

 besides yours. But I repeat io you, 

 (he observes in several places) that 

 if there does, I do not doubt but 

 that your friends will take the neces- 

 sary measures, not only not to embar- 

 rass one another, but to be mutually 

 serviceable to each other.'' In fine, 

 he adds, (Munich, Dec. 9, 1803) 

 with a brutal fury, and worthy of 

 the part he plays — " It is of very 

 little consequence by whom the 

 beast is brought to the ground, it is 

 sufficient that you are all ready to 

 join in the chace." — Pursuantto this 

 system, on the first breaking out of 

 the conspiracy, that now employs 

 the hand of justice, he writes: '■'•Xi 

 you sec any means of extricating any 

 of Georges' associates, do not fail 

 to make use of them;" and as his 

 evil geniusis never discouraged, even 

 in his disgrace, Mr. Drake will not 

 have his friends give themselves up 

 for lost in this unexpected reverse of 



fortune. " I earnestly request 



you," he writes (Munich, "'25th Feb. 

 1804,) " to print and distribute a 

 short address to the army, inmiedi- 

 ately (both to the oHicers and sol- 

 diers.) The main point is to gain 



parfisuns 



