THE LONDON DETECTIVES.

(Chicago Tribune) A little grimy archway on the left hand side as you walk from Trafalgarsquare towards the Abbey on the Btreet that gorernß England is the entrance to Scotland Yard. Against the pillars loan evermore two or three indifferently dressed men whose function it is to eye the passing public suspiciously. If the gaudy Horse Guards somewhat further dawn Whitehall remind you of gay right bowers, these gentlemen will recall the humble necessary seven or eight spots of the game of government. .They are the English detectives of whom everybody has heard so nlnch in recent years. Tho specimens on view are not striking. They look well-fed and comfortable, bnt they are hardly the sort of men that a student of Wilbie Collins or Gaboriau would expect. Their failures in crimes whioh rise above larceny, burglary, and vnlgar murder are more easily understood when the system and the men are studied. Like everything in the neighborhood of Westminster, Scotland yard haa its traditions reaching back to the days of the Plantagenets ; but from a royal residence and a king's prison it has come now to be the local habitation and the Dame of the eeoret Beryico of the English crown. There is a criminal mußeam to be seen here, with mementoes of thieves and murderers of high and low degree ; an ordinary police station, and last of ail the offices of the " Criminal Investigation Department." A group of dingy old houses surrounds the court yard, all of them built on different levels and in different times, with modern passages ' cat through. So that the sightseer is always going up or down two or three steps, or losing himself in blind hallways that lead nowhere, or coming unexpectedly back to where he started from. The stone stairway leading to t&) upper offices has been channelled in tt» centre by a flood of four centuries of passing shoes, bo that it ia worn away almost to an inclined plane instead of a flight of staccato stepa. Over everything, in everything, and through everything there are grime and gloom. The little windows are smoky ; fog lies in the courtyard: and even the diffused daylight by which ..the Londoner distinguishes night 'from day is more vaporous and unsatisfactory here than elsewhere. The visitor is shown the lions most politely. Whatever other criticism may apply, it is certain that the London polioe, from highest to lowest, are courteous and helpful to the stranger within their gates. They, take all manner of trouble to exhibit and to explain everything, from the infernal machine with which the Kelson monument was to have been blown up to the organisation of the polioe force and the general workings of the British Constitution. THE SECRET SEEVICE. Up to 1877 the London Detective Police was a close corporation, irresponsible and independent, managed entirely from within. In that year occurred the " great deteotive soandal," in which three members of the force were proved beyond all doubt to be in regular partnership with an organised gang of swindlers. The if&ual remedy for all the ills that civilisation is helc to was applied— a royal commission, namely—and the present system is the outcome of the work done then by Mr Howard Vincent. Plain clothes men were first put on the force ia 1843. Thsy were formerly attached to each station. Now they are under the central control. There are 400 in Bummer time and 700 in winter, the ranks being filled from the uniformed force. Still, these do not make the body which is usually referred to as Scotland Yard.' These are a chosen corps of about eigkty men, of whom each has the rank of inspector — about equivalent to » lieutenant of Chicago police. They form a division by themselves oalled the " CO." and are under the immediate command of the Assistant' Commissioner of Police of the Home Office. Their general duty is confined to the metropolitan area, but they are constantly at work on investigations for jtoe Government and for foreign governments. About twenty of the men are employed on political matters solely, and of these, ten have made a speciality of Irish affairs, both in Ireland and America. The political detectives have thebest of it. They are entrusted with the spending of the secret service moneys, and much of it of course ig expended without vouchers or accounts. Sometimes they receive handsome presents from foreign Governnments. One London detective was given £2000 in 1886 for information. furnished to the Buaslan Minister, which is said to have saved the Czar's life. The secret service fund is a large one. Indeed it is as large aB the Home Office may at any time demand. Id the years 1881, 1882, 1883, 1884, 1885, when aynamite activity was at its worst, bilk for " information " teaching £5000 were on several occasions paid, according to the statements of the officers themselves. Smaller sams, from £100 to £600, are paid out freely to smaller informer's. "rraHiiNG the devil with fieb." " It is a case of fighting the devil with fire," said Deteotive H. Dutton, one of the Scotland Yard men now stationed in Dublin, to a reporter in that city last winter. "We must get this information, and there is only one way to get it — and that is to buy it. As long as these Irish secret societies keep up their work there is danger to life and property, and the money paid out is only so much insurance, which the Government can well afford to give for comparative security." " Isn't it rather expensive ? " "No. The amounts paid out ate grossly exaggerated. I could buy any information I wanted about Dublin for a £20 note. That is a heap of money in a poor country and amongst a poor people. You see, to do anything among these Fenians and dynamiters they must take a lot of men into theseoret. Now, if twenty men know a thing, there ara two or more of them flho will be willing to sell It. Of course, we get swindled tight along ; but I'd sooner be swindled ten times than miss one important 1 disclosure. There never are big sums paid out except in exceptional cases. A£s note will go a long way. Of course, if iwe have to uncover a man and put him fon the' witness stand, then we have to send him away somewhere and take care of him afterwards — that is only fair. If we didn't we would find it hard ever to get onj man to go into the box. ■ Even that is not much. A couple of hundred pounds is ample. I believe a man could keep his finger on the pulse of Irish conspiracy here in Dublin and not spend £3000 in Ma natural life." THE MEN AKD THB WOEK. The pay of the Scotland Yard men proper averages £23, or abaut llodol, a month— a large salary for London, where 6s a day are considered fair wages, and expert clerks and salostnen are said to make £10 a month. Besides the salary there is always a liberal travelling allowance, and all expenses incurred in the lino of duty ate paid without question. Vouchers are seldom Hiked for, nor even itemised accounts. Sometimes these expense bills are heavy, especially when there are ocean voyages to be made. The ordinary travelling expenditure is about £2 a day. As the secret service is .largely politi- , cal, one. function of Scotland Yard is the foreign porreaijondence, which is carried on' invariably in the language of the country to or 'from which the- letters are directed. As England's relations cover the wh»le world this part of the work la exowtogly 'iuterestiflg, Poly.,

glot translators who know every tengne under the sun arc constantly « work taming 'Russian, Hindustani, Persian, and Chinese into police Ensluh, and vice versa There ara also employed expert cryptologists, who mo supposed to be able to unravel the blindest, of oiphers; ana it is a fact that the aid ot the English experts has been more than once oalled in by both Russia and Germany In this work. The cipher used by Scot. land Yard itself is the old movable keyword, the key generally being the name of the place to which the message is sent. IN AMEEICA.. Most of the English detective work in America is done through the Pinkertons, but there are always three or four Scotland Yard men in the country watohing the dynamite societies and looking after their Irish friends in different parts of the country. These men are chosen ! with great oare, and hava privileges Bnd pay beyond their fellows. One of them, who was stationed in New York last year, is said to have been paid 5000dol« a year and expenses. How thoroughly the preventive work in America has been done is proved by the fact that not one dynamite outrage was planned or executed without information more or leas full being cabled beforehand to Scotland Yard. In some oases shadows have accompanied the dynauiitards from the quay in New York to the gaol door in iingland, as was the case with Dr. Gallagher. Throngh the same agency explosives and infernal machines have been found in spite of the moat ingenious concealment; and, indeed, no nearly omniscient has Scotland Yard been thai 1 many Irishmen believe that the deteo- ! tives themselves have provided their own work and furnished their own dynamite.