The "black cabinet" was established in the reign of Louis XV., merely for
the purpose of prying into the scandalous gossip of the Court and the
capital. The existence of this cabinet soon became generally known to
every one. The numerous postmasters who succeeded each other, especially
in latter times, the still more numerous Post Office clerks, and that
portion of the public who are ever on the watch for what is held up as
scandalous, soon banished all the secrecy of the affair, and none but
fools were taken in by it. All who did not wish to be committed by their
correspondence chose better channels of communication than the Post; but
those who wanted to ruin an enemy or benefit a friend long continued to
avail themselves of the black cabinet, which, at first intended merely to
amuse a monarch's idle hours, soon became a medium of intrigue, dangerous
from the abuse that might be made of it.