Cabinet noir (
FrenchFrench is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...
for "
black roomWhile a black room or black chamber is often now used to refer to any place or organisation dedicated to code-breaking, its more exact meaning is a secret room in a post office, and, later and by extension, a telecommunications center used by state officials to conduct clandestine interception and...
") was the name given in
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
to the office where the letters of suspected persons were opened and read by public officials before being forwarded to their destination. However, this had to be done with some sophistication, as it was considered undesirable that the subjects of the practice know about it, and "that the black chamber not interrupt the smooth running of the postal service." This practice had been in vogue since the establishment of posts, and was frequently used by the ministers of
Louis XIIILouis XIII reigned as King of France and Navarre from 1610 to 1643.-Early life, 1601—1610:Born at the Château de Fontainebleau, Louis XIII was the eldest child of Henry IV of France and Marie de' Medici . As son of the king, he was a Fils de France, and as the eldest son, the Dauphin...
and
Louis XIVLouis XIV , popularly known as the Sun King , was King of France and of Navarre His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days, and is the longest documented reign of any European monarch.Louis began personally governing France after the death...
; but it was not until the reign of
Louis XVLouis XV ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1 September 1715 until his death on 10 May 1774...
that a separate office for this purpose was created.
Cabinet noir (
FrenchFrench is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...
for "
black roomWhile a black room or black chamber is often now used to refer to any place or organisation dedicated to code-breaking, its more exact meaning is a secret room in a post office, and, later and by extension, a telecommunications center used by state officials to conduct clandestine interception and...
") was the name given in
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
to the office where the letters of suspected persons were opened and read by public officials before being forwarded to their destination. However, this had to be done with some sophistication, as it was considered undesirable that the subjects of the practice know about it, and "that the black chamber not interrupt the smooth running of the postal service." This practice had been in vogue since the establishment of posts, and was frequently used by the ministers of
Louis XIIILouis XIII reigned as King of France and Navarre from 1610 to 1643.-Early life, 1601—1610:Born at the Château de Fontainebleau, Louis XIII was the eldest child of Henry IV of France and Marie de' Medici . As son of the king, he was a Fils de France, and as the eldest son, the Dauphin...
and
Louis XIVLouis XIV , popularly known as the Sun King , was King of France and of Navarre His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days, and is the longest documented reign of any European monarch.Louis began personally governing France after the death...
; but it was not until the reign of
Louis XVLouis XV ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1 September 1715 until his death on 10 May 1774...
that a separate office for this purpose was created. This was called the
cabinet du secret des postes, or more popularly the
cabinet noir. Although declaimed against at the time of the
French RevolutionThe French Revolution was a period of political and social upheaval and radical change in the history of France, during which the French governmental structure, previously an absolute monarchy with feudal privileges for the aristocracy and Catholic clergy, underwent radical change to forms based...
, it was used both by the revolutionary leaders and by Napoleon.
Foreign cabinet noir
It was also employed by the
Dutch RepublicThe Republic of the Seven United Netherlands was a European republic between 1581 and 1795, in about the same location as the modern Kingdom of the Netherlands,...
.
In 1911 the
Encyclopædia BritannicaThe Encyclopædia Britannica is a general English-language encyclopaedia published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., a privately held company. The articles in the Britannica are aimed at educated adult readers, and written by a staff of about 100 full-time editors and more than...
took the view that the
cabinet noir had disappeared, but that the right to open letters in cases of emergency still appeared to be retained by the French government; and a similar right was occasionally exercised in
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
under the direction of a
Secretary of StateIn the United Kingdom, a Secretary of State is a Cabinet Minister in charge of a Government Department ....
. In England this power was frequently employed during the 18th century and was confirmed by the Post Office Act 1837; its most notorious use being, perhaps, the opening of
MazziniGiuseppe Mazzini , the "Soul of Italy," was an Italian patriot, philosopher, Freemason and politician. His efforts helped bring about the modern Italian state in place of the several separate states, many dominated by foreign powers, that existed until the 19th century...
's letters in 1844.
Such
postal censorshipPostal censorship is the inspection or examination of mail, most often by governments, that can include opening, reading or marking of covers, postcards, parcels or other postal packets...
became common during
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
. Governments claimed that the
total warTotal war is a conflict of unlimited scope in which a belligerent engages in a mobilization of all available resources at their disposal, whether human, industrial, agricultural, military, natural, technological, or otherwise, in order to entirely destroy or render beyond use their rival's capacity...
which was waged required such censorship to preserve the civilian population's
moraleMorale, also known as esprit de corps when discussing the morale of a group, is an intangible term used for the capacity of people to maintain belief in an institution or a goal, or even in oneself and others...
from heart-breaking news up from the front. Whatever the justification, this meant that not a single letter sent from a soldier to his family escaped previous reading by a government official, destroying any notion of
privacyPrivacy is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively...
or of
secrecy of correspondenceThe secrecy of correspondence , or literally translated as secrecy of letters, is a fundamental legal principle enshrined in the constitutions of several European countries. It guarantees that the content of sealed letters is never revealed and letters in transit are not opened by government...
. Post censorship was retained during the
interwar periodThe interwar period is understood, within recent Western culture, to be the period between the end of the First World War and the beginning of the Second World War. This is also called the period between the wars or interbellum....
and afterwards, but without being done on such a massive scale.
The opening of international mail outgoing and incoming from the United States by U.S. Customs under a "2002 trade act," occurs under the
border search exceptionThe border search exception is a doctrine of United States criminal law that exempts searches of travelers and their property from the Fourth Amendment warrant requirement....
to the Fourth Amendment. There has been some criticism of this practice (including allegations that it adds to the expense of conducting the Postal Service and can thus have an impact on postage rates), of which the USPS apparently informed Congress about the potential problems before passage of the legislation. However, this criticism may be tempered by the fact that the act prohibits agents searching for contraband from reading mail incidentally included in the package or envelope including it, or allowing others to read it. The
Intelligence Authorization ActThe United States Central Intelligence Agency’s Intelligence Authorization Act was implemented in order to enforce an article of the Constitution which has not been followed since Washington’s presidency...
of 2004 has also been characterised as unconstitutionally permitting the opening of domestic mail.
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