the earth; over dreams, actuality; over castles in the air, the dirt of cottages; over pictures, the living shapes of misery; over the study of ancient justice, the daily prevailing injustice; over the freedom of the ancient Greeks, the loss of their own. That the scholar knew all the islands of Australia, but not his fatherland; and had numbered the hairs in a camel's tail before he knew an oak-tree from a beech. That the philosophers shrouded themselves in a dark phraseology, and by artful combinations rivalled each other in wonderful mysteries, and made inexplicable enigmas out of originally simple ideas; till the whole world began to despise such useless abstractions and fantasticalities; and turned to physical realities, of benefit to the whole community-manufactures, trade, steam-engines, and railroads." But these are only the least mischiefs of this gagging system, and this only one form of it. Let us see another. CHAPTER V. THE POLICE SYSTEM. THE government, having set a watch, and a turnkey over the press, next set others over all strivings of thought in daily life. The standing army-a power ostensibly for the terror of enemies without, but actually still more for the numerous host of enemies within, for to the conscious tyrant every free subject is an enemy,-had in no country acquired a more formidable growth and influence than in Germany. The total amount of the army in the Confederate States is not less than a million and a half. This is an awful power, to turn against any uneasy spirits, any restless movements under the iron hand of arbitrary rule. But this was not enough, and a second army was called into being,—an army of policemen. These men were also ostensibly organized to preserve order in the streets, but more truly to keep down the spirits of the freeminded. They were not armed with the terrors of cannon and musket, except that detachment of them called gens-d'armes, but merely with a sword, and the more awe-inspiring power-pen and paper. They were, however, an army, and nothing less, an army of domestic control. Their watchhouse was not merely a place for a lazy sentinel or two to parade before, or where the military band, at stated hours might assemble and beat off a fine martial tune; but it became a watchhouse indeed-a den of many silent sub-dens,-where there was a strange, mysterious, sleepy-seeming rustle of papers, but where, in reality, all eyes were wide awake, and were sent abroad into every nook and retirement of the whole community. The people soon found that the police bureau was a genuine geometric spider's web, which extends its filmy lines in such ingenious radiations, and in circle beyond circle, that there was not one of them whom these lines did not at some one point touch. Whether they were at home or abroad, stationary or journeying, sleeping or waking, in company or alone, the police knew what they were doing almost better, and indeed often better, than themselves. They were like so many birds with strings to their legs, allowed to hop about occasionally in the sunshine, but never to escape. They might get under bushes, or amongst the green leaves up in the tree, or on the house-tops; but still the string was on the leg, and gave them every now and then a good admonitory twinge. If they travelled, it was only to drag the string after them in the shape of a passport; if they went into their closet, the policeman could follow them on a score of pretexts. This states' inquisition penetrated to the fireside, and into the whole domestic life of every man. There was a list of every man made out, and his character attached to it, for private uses. No journeyman could travel to the nearest city without a passport, and without his Wanderbook. Every maid-servant must have a book containing the testimonies of her behaviour from her mistress, and it must be deposited there. If a man wanted to marry, he must first have permission of the police; and a grave fellow, in a collarless coat, and with a sword by his side, would march off to his beloved, demand an account of all her worldly goods, having first done so by the man himself; and if he found that the proposed bride had not a prescribed sum, would endow her with a certain portion of her lover's. If, however, the lover had not a definite amount of worldly goods, in many states, he could not be allowed to take her as wife at all. This is most strictly carried out in Bavaria; and the consequence is that people take the liberty of living together without marrying, and the population returns shew a strange exhibition of illegitimate children, often exceeding the number of the legitimates. Nay, you could no longer marry, be born, or be buried, without a police regulation. Are you dead, then comes the policeman and the policedoctor to see that you are really dead; and if so you shall have a coffin according to the due formula of the police, and shall be buried on the third day. There is a prescribed coffin, and a prescribed size, for every age and station. If a person happen not to be of the right size, he or she can at his own extra expense have a coffin of a proper size, but it must be put into the legally prescribed coffin. Friends of ours had an infant of a few days old which died. They began to give orders for the coffin and the funeral, but were told that they could not interfere in that—that was all regulated by the state. Notice was given of the fact, and the public doctor came and made his inspection, taking his police-prescribed fee. Then came the legal manager of the whole business of the funeral, with his police directions, by which it was found that all funerals were divided into five classes, out of which the persons concerned might chose the class to which it should belong, and all the rest the Manager of Funerals ordered. The parents found that they could not order a coffin themselves, that, as well as every thing else, was already prescribed, and could be made only by the authorized joiner, and that there was in fact a legal coffin magazine. The coffin came, but it was much too large; it was answered that it was according to the regulations, for all children under six years there was but one size; but you could have one made by the public coffin-maker of the size you required, which, like every thing else, would be charged at a fixed price, and would be put inside of the regularly appointed one! In fact every thing of this kind is so exactly and completely laid down, each particular with its |