POST. OFFICE ESPIONAGE.
Tams is something extremely repulsive to English feelings in the idea of the national Pot-office being perverted into a staff of Government spies. The monopoly of carrying letters is cheerfully conceded to Government on account of the more perfect arrange- Ments for speedy- and Safe conveyance and delivery which its great resources enable it to make. But when Government abuses this trust to ferret Out the private thoughts and _communications of in- dividuals—when it breaks the seals of letters Which confidence in its honour has caused to be intrusted to its agents—the dirty curiosity of Paul Pry is combined with the tyranny of Diostraus, who constructed his prison so that he might overhear the confi- dential talk of all whom he had in suspicion. This is the degrading character assumed by the Ministers who give orders for such a breach of faith ; but the aspect of the mischief becomes more se- rious when we take into account the unscrupulous scoundrels whom they make by putting men upon such employment. The man who has once violated the secrecy of a private letter contracts a moral taint that never can be obliterated. The Minister who obliges him to commit such a villany can have no security that his rascality is to stop there. The spy as often sells his employer as the party he is employed to watch : the officer who earns his salary by opening other people's letters may not limit his operations to the letters he is ordered to open, but may easily be tempted to add to his salary by selling information to creditors or rivals in business. There is a contagious pollution in the practice, to the influence of which no limits can be assigned beforehand. With what face can petty rogues be punished for taking a sovereign out of a letter, by the very men who steal from a man's letter secrets on which his life may depend? It is alleged that the practice, however reprehensible, is some- times necessary. We do not deny that the delicacies of conven-
tional honour, which are so beneficial in private life, cannot always be observed in state affairs; but there is a puny affectation of Ma- chiavelism in some minds which seems to think statesmanship consists in outraging the sentiments that adorn domestic society. A good deal of this is observable in the latitude of phrase with which Post-office treachery has been defended.
Granting that there may be extreme cases in which necessity will palliate the shabbiness of opening private letters intrusted for de- livery, at least regard for the moral sense of society—for the mu- tual confidence which sweetens life—ought to have suggested something like an approximate definition of that necessity. It is bad enough to be obliged to concede to a Minister the right of prying under any circumstances into confidential communications, without imposing any restriction upon him beyond his own sense of what is fair and proper. The danger of such a concession is obvious; its necessity less apparent. It may be doubted whether much essential information has ever been obtained by Post-office espionage. All men have a
wonderful instinct for scenting out such practices, especially plot- ters. Other means of conveyance are resorted to; or the letters
are addressed to third parties, who are induced to receive them by false representations. That a letter is addressed to a suspicious character, is almost a certain indication of its containing nothing that can endanger him. If, as is said to be the case in some Con- tinental states, all letters are to be systematically opened and read, it may be possible to gain information ; though even in that case, the excess of precaution, by creating suspieion, will defeat its own object. But examinations restricted to the letters of one or two individuals, and for a limited time, are not likely to furnish much
matter for enlightenment. Useful information, it it true, has been obtained in time of war by stopping and examining the enemy's mails; and perhaps in times of turbulence and confusion—of civil war, or a state of society bordering on civil war—an analogous ad- vantage may be gained by the practice.
These considerations appear to suggest a practical rule for the guidance of Ministers, with a view to the maintenance of public confidence on the one hand and the " salus populi supreme lex"
on the other. The practice of opening private letters at the Post- office for the information of Government can only be defended, or
palliated, on the plea that it is necessary for the preservation of the public peace. The peace endangered must be that of the country of which the government presumes to take such a liberty : no govern:- ment has a right to interfere between other governments and their subjects. And the necessity must be obvious, extreme, and urgent. In short, it is only when plots and conspiracies or political riots and insurrections are rife, that there can be a shadow of reason for calling upon the citizens to tolerate the examination of private letters by the public authorities. And the only posaible guarantee
against the abuse of the practice will be found in its eq6 being per- mitted or defined by law, but left to the option of the Minister to resort to in extreme cases ; it being understood that recourse to such a measure imposes upon him the necessity of securing him-
self against the consequences by applying for and obtaining a bill of indemnity. This Post-office espionage is a practice of such questionable utility and character, that the law ought not to war7 rant it : it ought only to be resorted to in the last extremity—an ir- regular act which the Minister must justify to Parliament at his own hazard, from the particular circumstances of the case. It is more important to obtain security for the future than to criticize the past. But, tried by the obvious principles upon which the above suggestions rest, the recent opening of letters at the Post-office does appear to be utterly indefensible. There is no- thing in the present state of the public temper to afford the shadow
of an excuse for it. It will not be affirmed that Mr. MAZZ1NI WAS
suspected of plotting with the Chartists or Repealers to disturb the peace of this country. The opening of his letters can only have been meant to appease the agonies of a Foreign Government, which sees conspiracy in the establishment of schools for little Italian hurdygurdy-grinders and venders of plaster casts. Even though the Home Secretary felt no shame in playing the spy for a fo- reign despot, he ought at least to have had sufficient self-respect not to condescend so far in compliance with idle and unnecessary alarms.
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