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Thefe three noble defenders of the laws and of innocence, made the widow a prefent of all the profits arifing from the publication of these pieces; which filled not only Paris but all Europe with pity for this unfortunate woman, and every one cried aloud for juftice to be done her. In a word, the public paffed fentence on this affair, long before it was determined by the council.

The foft infection made its way even to the cabinet, notwithstanding the continual round of business, which often excludes pity, and the conftant habitude of beholding miferable objects, which too frequently fteels the heart of the ftatefman against the cries of diftrefs. The daughters were reftored to their difconfolate mother, and all three in deep mourning,

* It is neceflary for the English reader to underftand, that in Paris it is customary for the great lawyers or counfellors employed in any remarkable cafe, to publifh their pleadings on each fide. On this occafion however, our author obferves, "That these publications were pirated in feveral "towns, by which Mrs. Calas loft the advantage "that was intended her by this act of "rofity."

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and bathed in tears, drew a fympathetic flood from the eyes of their judges before whom they proftrated themselves in thankful acknowledgements.

Nevertheless, this family had ftill fome ene-. mies to encounter; for it is to be confidered, that this was an affair of religion. Several perfons, whom in France we call devots, declared publicly, that it was much better to suffer an old calvinift, though innocent, to be broken alive upon the wheel, than to expose eight counsellors of Languedoc to the mortification of being obliged to own, that they had been mistaken: nay, these people made use of this very expreffion; "That there were more magiftrates than Calas's :" by which it should feem they inferred, that the Calas family ought to be facrificed to the honour of the magiftracy. Alas! they never reflected, that the

* Dévot, or as we call it in English devotee, comes from the Latin word devotus. The devati of antient Rome were fuch perfons who devoted themfelves to death for the fafety or good of the republic; as the Curtii and Decii.

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honour of a judge, like that of another man, confists in making reparation for the faults he may have committed.

In France no one believes that the pope, even when affifted by his cardinals, is infallible: ought they then to have believed that eight judges of Toulouse were fo? Every fenfible and difinterested perfon did without fcruple declare, that the decree of the court of juftice of Toulouse, would be looked upon as void by all Europe, even though particular confiderations might prevent it from being declared fo by the

council.

Such was the ftate of this surprising affair, when it occafioned certain impartial, but fenfible persons, to form the defign of laying before the public a few reflections upon toleration, indulgence, and commiferation, which the abbé. Houteville in his bombastic and declamatory work, which is falfe in all the facts, calls a monfrous doctrine, but which reafon calls the portion

of human nature.

Either the judges of Toulouse, carried away by popular enthufiafm, caufed the innocent mafter of a family to be put to a painful and igno

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minious death, a thing which is without example; or this master of a family and his wife murdered their eldeft fon, with the affiftance of another fon and a friend, which is altogether out of nature. In either cafe, the most holy of all religions has been perverted to the production of an enormous crime. It is therefore the intereft of mankind to examine how far charity or cruelty is confiftent with true religion.

CHAP.

CHAP. II.

Confequences of the Execution of JOHN CALAS.

F the order of White Penitentiaries had been

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the cause of the punishment of an innocent perfon, and of the utter ruin and difperfion of a whole family, and of branding them with that ignominy which is annexed to those who fuffer, when it ought properly to fall only upon those who pass an unjust sentence; if the frantic hurry of these penitentiaries in celebrating as a faint, one whom they ought to have treated as a felf murderer, brought a virtuous, an innocent fellow citizen to the fcaffold; furely, this fatal mistake ought to make them true penitents for the reft of their lives; and both them and the judges ought to have their eyes continually filled with tears, without wearing a white cloak, or a mask on their face to hide thofe tears. We have a proper refpect for all religious orders; they are edifying; but will all the good they have ever been able to do the ftate, compenfate for the fhocking difafter of which they had been the caufe? Their inftitution feems to have been the work of that

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