Dec. 1762. Narrative of the death of M. 4. Calas, 647 perfons Telor. The capitou! was already fet, executioner in ordinary when any of their out, having been alarmed by the rumour child Pren were ere to be hanged for changing, of a murder, before the meffenger fent their religion, it recites alio that, theat from Calas's got to his houfe. He entered Protestants thus hang their cle the houfe with forty foldiers, took the fa compel then to kneel; and one of ther, Peter the fon, the mother, La interrogatories vas. Whether any Vaille, and the maid, all into cuftody, had feen Anthony Calas kneel before his and fet a guard over them: he tent for father when he trangled bin? it recites, M. de la Tour, a physician, and M. la too, that Anthony died a Roman Catho Marque and Peronet, furgeons; who ex- lic; and requires evidence of his Catholiamined the body for marks of violence, but cilin. Thele ridiculous opinions being found none except the mark of the liga- thus adopted and published by the princi ture on the neck; they found alfo the pal magiftrate of a confiderable city, the hair of the deceased done up in the ufual church of Geneva thought itself obliged to manner, perfectly fmooth, and without fend an atteftation of its abhorrence of the leaft diforder; his cloaths alto were pinions fo abominable and abfurd, and of regularly folded up, and laid upon the its aftonih nent that they fhould be fu counter, nor was his fhirt either torn or fpested of such opinions, by perions whole unbuttoned. rank and office required them to have more knowledge and better judgment. Notwithstanding thefe appearances, David thought fit to give into the opinion of the mob, and took it into his head that old Calas had fent for La Vaifie, telling him he had a fon to be hanged; that La Vaiffe had come to perform his office of executioner; and that the father and the brother had affifted him in it. The body, by order of this poor ignorant bigot, was carried to the town-houfe with the cloaths. The father and fon were thrown into a dark dungeon; and the mother, La Vaiffe, the maid, and Cafing, were imprisoned in one that ad mitted the light. The next day, what is called the verbal process was taken at the Town houfe, inftead of the fpot where the body was found, as the law directs, and was dated at Calas's houfe, to conceal the irregularity. This verbal procefs is fomewhat like our coroner's inquest witnefles are examined, and the magiftrate makes his report, which is the fame there as the verdict of the coroner's jury with us. The witnefies examined by this capitoul were the phyfician and furgeon; who proved Anthony Calas to have been fangled. The furgeon having been ordered to examine the ftomach of the deceated, depofed alfo, that the food which was found there had been taken four hours before his death. As no proof of the supposed fact could be procured, the captoul had recourte to a monitory, in which the crime was taken for granted, and all perions were required to give fuch teftimony concerning it as they were able; particularifing the points to which they were to fpeak. This monitory recites, that La Vaife was commillioned by the Proteftants to be their But before this monitory was publish ed, the mob had got a notion that Antho ny Calas was the next day to have enter ed into the confraternity of the White Penitents. The capitoul immediately adopted this opinion alfo, without the leaft examination, and ordered Antho ny's body to be buried in the middle of St Stephen's church; which was done forty priests and all the White Penitents aliifting in the funeral procellion, Four days afterwards, the White Penitents performed a folemn fervice for him in their chapel; the church was hung with white, and a tomb was raised in the middle of it, on the top of which was placed a human skeleton, holding in one hand a paper, on which was written, ABJURATION OF HERESY, and in the other a palm, the emblem of martyrdom The next day the Franciicans perform ed a fervice of the fame kind for him; and it is eafy to imagine how much the minds of the people were inflamed by this ftrarge folly of their magiftrates and prieits. The capitoul continued the profecution with unrelenting feverity; and though the grief and distraction of the family, when he firit came to the houle, were as lone fufficient to have convinced any reafon ble being that they were not the au thors of the event which they deplored, yet baving publicly attefted that they were guilty, in his mouitory, without proof, and no proof coming in, he thought fit to condemn the unhappy father, 'mo ther, brother, friend, and fervant, to the torture, and put them all into irons on the 18th of November. Cang was, en Jarged, concurred in declaring he hanged himfelf: which thole who did not help to hang him, if hanged by others, could have had no motive to do; nor could any of the prifoners have hanged him by violence without the knowledge of the reft. Two Dominicans, Father Bourges and Father Caldagues, who attended him in his laft moments, wifhed, "that their latter end might be like his ;" and de clared that they thought him not only wholly innocent of the crime laid to his charge, but an exemplary inftance of true Chriftian patience, fortitude, and charity. larged, upon proof that he was not in Calas's houfe till after Anthony was dead. From thefe dreadful proceedings the fufferers appealed to the parliament; which immediately took cognisance of the affair, annulled the fentence of the capitoul as irregular, and continued the prefecution. Poor Calas, however, an old man of When the trial came on, the hang- fixty-eight, was condemned to this dreadman, who had been carried to Calas's ful punishment alone. He fuffered the houfe, and fhewn the folding doors and torture with great conftancy, and was the bar, depofed, that it was impoffible led to execution in a frame of mind which Anthony fhould hang himfelf, as was pre-excited the admiration of all that faw him. tended. Another witness fwore that they looked through the key-hole of Calas's door into a dark room, where they faw men ruming haftily to and fro. A third fwore, that his wife had told him, that a woman, named Mandril, had told her, that a certain woman unknown had declared fhe heard the cries of Mark Anthony Calas at the farther end of the city. Upon fuch evidence as this, the majority of the parliament were of opinion, that the father and mother ordered La Vaiffe to hang their fon, and that ano ther fon, and a maid fervant who was a good Catholic, had affifted him to do it. One La Borde prefided at the trial, who had zealously efpoufed the popular prejudices; and thought it was manifeft to demonftration, that the prisoners were either all innocent, or all guilty, he voted that the father thould first suffer the torture ordinary and extraordinary, to difcover his accomplices, and be then broken alive upou the wheel, to receive the last stroke when he had lain two hours, and then to be burnt to afhes. In this opinion he had the concurrence of fix others; three were for the torture alone; two were of opinion that they fhould endeavour to afcertain upon the fpot whether Anthony could hang himfelf or not; and one voted to acquit the prifoner. After Jong debates, the majority was for the torture and the wheel; and probably condemned the father by way of experiwment, whether he was guilty or not, hoping he would, in his agony, confefs the crime, and accufe the other prifoners; whofe fate, therefore, they fufpended. It is, however, certain, that if they had had evidence against the father that would ave juftified the fentence they pronound against him, that very evidence would ave juftified the fame fentence against the eft; and that if they could not justly condemn the reft, they could not jufly condemn him; for they were all in the houfe together when Anthony died, all One figle fhriek, and that not very violent, elcaped him when he received the frit ftroke; after that he uttered no complaint. Being at length placed on the wheel, to wait for the moment which was to end his life and his mifery together, he expreffed himself with an humble hope of an happy immortality, and a compaffionate regard for the judges who had condemned him. When he faw the executioner preparing to give him the last ftroke, he made a fresh declaration of his innocence to Father Bourges. But while. the words were yet in his mouth, the capitoul, the author of this catastrophe, and who came upon the scaffold merely to gratify his defire of being a witnefs of his punifliment and death, ran up to him,' and bawled out, "Wretch! there are the faggots which are to reduce your body to alhes; fpeak the truth." Mr Calas made no reply, but turned his head a little afide, and that moment the executioner did his office. Though the teftimony of a dying man had thus acquitted the rest of the prifoners, vet the judges, that they might act with a uniform abfurdity through the whole affair, banifhed Peter Calas for life, and acquitted the reft. The widow and the other fufferers are feeking fuch redrefs from the King as can now be had, to whom the fentence of the judges was not fent for confirmation, as it ought to have been. The judges have thought fit to fupprefs the trial; the widow petitions that it may be ordered to be laid before the parlia ment of Paris for a revifion. A PROCEEDINGS in the SESSION of PARLIAMENT 1761-2, continued. [588.] THis general account of our public debts I thought it neceffary to give upon the prefent occafion, in order to prevent people's imagining that they are larger than they are, and allo in order to thew how foon they may be paid off, if we con tinue in peace as long as we probably nay, by putting a glorious end to the prefent war, and with fuch moderation as may prevent any jealoufy of our power and ambition, which we certainly ought to avoid, because it might produce a general confederacy against us. Whether we have at prefent an opportunity for doing fo, I fhall not take upon me to determine; but if we have, and do embrace it, I may venture to prophefy, that foon after the peace is concluded, all our public funds will rife confiderably above par, especially the laft fubfcription; for the proprietors of that fund, who fubfcribed for no more than 400 1. and who are fill, and whilst they continue pofleffed of their irredeemable annuities, are to have 51. per cent. for nineteen years to come, 41. per cent. from the end of that term to the end of the year 1860, and 3 1. per cent. afterwards, until the money they advanced for these redeemable annuities be repaid by parliament: nay, even though every fhilling they advanced for this purpofe fhould be repaid before the year 1800, yet they are to enjoy their irredeemable annuity until the end of the year 1860; and therefore we may fuppofe, that the laft fubfcription, or fcript, as it is called in the alley, would never have fold under par, if numbers of people had not fubfcribed for much larger fums than they were able by any means to advance. Before I leave this fubject, I must obviate an objection that may perhaps be made, against my fuppofing, that the ta xes provided for, and appropriated to the paying off yearly the growing intereft of our public debts, are all fufficient for the purposes for which they were intended. it may perhaps be faid, that from the refolutions of the committee of fupply, which we every year fee in the votes, for replacing to the finking fund the like fum paid out of the faine, to make good the deficiency of fome one tax or another, it ought rather to be fuppofed, that few, if any, of our taxes are found to be fufficient for the purpose for which they were intended. To this I anfwer, that a new tax may be fully fufficient, and yet the VOL. XXIV. produce of it may not come time enough into the exchequer to pay the intereft of! the debt charged upon it, regularly as it becomes due; for it is often fome years after, before the produce of a tax be wholly brought into the exchequer; of which we have a remarkable inftance with regard to the tax called hearth-money, which occafioned fuch murmurings amongst the people in the reign of Charles II. though the tax upon houfes and windows, which is now a much heavier tax, has been, ever fince it was firit impofed in 1695, fitbmitted to without any popular outcry : fuch is the difference between names and things, and fo much eafier is it to conti nue, or augment a tax, than to impofe it at firft for ever. This tax upon hearths was, by way of a fugar plum for the people, repealed prefently after the revo lution; with a provifo, however, that the repeal fhould not hinder the levying all arrears that were then, or that fhould become due at Ladyday 1689: and accordingly, in the accounts of money received at the exchequer during that reign, we find hearth-money, &c. ftated as an article in every year of it; which is a proof that fome of the arrears of that tax were coming into the exchequer yearly, during the whole, or till very near the end of K. William's reign: fo fond are collectors and receivers of keeping the public money in their hands, and fuch indulgence has always been fhewn to them, by thofe whofe duty it is to compel its being regularly brought into the exchequer; for that this tax upon hearths was duly levied upon the people we must fuppofe, becaufe by an exprefs claufe in the act 169 Ch. II. chap. 3. no occupier of any houfe could be charged, diftrained, or molefted for it, after the expiration of two years next after it had become due. From hence, as well as from the nature of things, we muft fuppofe, that though a tax be in itself fufficient at laft to aufwer the end for which it was impofed, yet the produce of it actually brought into the receipt of the exchequer, may not, for two or three years after it is firit impofed, be found to be fufficient to pay the intereft of the debt charged upon it. And of this we had laft feflion a remark. able inftance, with regard to the perpetual tax upon malt, which began to take place Feb. 8. 1760, and was charged upon all malt then in the poffeffion of any 4Q maltster, feller or retailer of malt, brew- the 5th of July 1761, and 5th of July From hence we may fee, that we are not from any replacing refolution to conclude, that the produce of a tax is not fufficient for fatisfying all the incumbrances with which it ftands charged. When a new or additional tax is impofed, and the finking fund is made a collateral fecurity for any new debt, and when the produce of the principal fecurity brought in to the exchequer is at any term of payment found to be infufficient, our minifters may, and, for the fake of public credit, they ought to take money from the finking fund for the making good that payment: but in every fuch cafe it is provided, that the money fo taken from the finking fund fhall, from time to time, be replaced out of the first of the fupplies to be afterwards granted by parliament. This brings the deficiency every year before parliament; and if it fhould appear, that the produce of the principal fecurity has for feveral years been found to be deficient, it is the duty of every member to move for an account of the produce of that tax from its first establishinent, and of all the arrears then ftanding out; from which account if it fhould appear that the tax is really infufficient for the purpose for which it was intended, he ought to move for fome additional fund, in order to prevent its being neceffary to apply the finking fund to any other ufe than that for which it is defigned, and to which it ought to be as often as poffible religiously applied, to wit, that of paying off and difcharging yearly a part of the principal of the national debt. Therefore, as this is the duty of every member, I be. lieve, that the finking fund would not fuffer by any of the confolidating acts lately pafled in parliament; and confequently I may with reafon fuppofe, that the taxes provided for, and appropriated to the Dec.1762. Proceedings in the feffion of parliament 1761-2. the paying off yearly the growing intereft of our public debts, are all fufficient for the purposes for which they were intended; but I muft fay, that I fhould be glad to fee my fuppofition confirmed by an authentic account of the clear and neat produce of the finking fund as it stands at this prefent time; because I hope it would be an encouragement for our continuing to proceed with vigour in the profecution of the prefent war, until we have procured fuch a lafting tranquillity, as may give us time to extricate ourselves from the prefent load of national debt, and to abolifh many of thofe taxes which now lie fo heavy upon our trade, upon our navigation, and upon our manufactures. I now proceed to the other bills which had the good fortune to be pafled into laws, And the first I fhall take notice of was a bill to repeal fo much of an act 1° Geo. III. for the relief of infolvent debtors [xxiii. 130.], as related to creditors com pelling prifoners charged in execution to deliver up their eftates, and to fuch prifoners being thereupon difcharged. It was ordered, nem. con. Nov. 17. which was but the fourth day of the houfe's fitting to do any bufinefs, that leave fhould be given to bring in this bill, and a committee was appointed to prepare it. It was prefented on the 19th; and after having been read a first and fecond time, was gone through in a committee on the 23d. On the report, next morning, it was luggefted, that fheriffs and gaolers might be profecuted for the efcape of fuch pritoners as they had difcharged by order of the juftices in their quarter-feffions; and there upon the bill was recommitted. This committee, to which the houfe immediately refolved itself, was impowered to receive a claufe to indemnify fheriffs and gaolers who had, by order of the juftices in their quarter feffions, difcharged fuch debtors as had been compelled by their creditors to deliver up their eftates, by virtue of the faid act; and a claufe having been added for this purpole, the report was received on the 25th, the amendments made agreed to, and thefe words were added to the title, viz. and alfo to indemnify the riffs and gaolers for difchar ging prifoners, in obedience to the orders of justices made at any court of feffion. After which the bill was ingroff ed, read a third time, paffed, and fent to the Lords. By whom this laft claufe was thrown out, as not being at all neclary for without doubt all prifoners 651 duly difcharged by the act whilst it remained in force, were legally difcharged; confequently no fheriff or gaoler had any occafion for an indemnification upon that account. With this and fome other amendments the bill was returned to the Commons Dec. 4. when the amendments were agreed to, and the fame day the bill received the royal affent. [xxiii. 664.] The act in the preamble fets forth, That by the faid act 1° Geo. III, any creditor of any prifoner, committed, or who fhould be committed, and charged in execution, was impowered to compel fuch prifoner to deliver up his estate and effects in order to his being discharged; and that great inconveniency had arisen from fuch power being given to credi tors; therefore it enacted, That_after Nov. 19. 1761, this part of the act fhould be repealed to all intents and purposes whatfoever: but with a provifo, that this repeal fhould not extend to pardon, indemnify, or difcharge, any offences against the said act. Humanum eft errare, is a common and a true faying; but feldom holds true, except when we allow ourselves to be hurried by the violence of fome pallion, with out confulting our reason, or duly confidering the confequences of what we are about to refolve on. In the preceding year, we were hurried by our compattion to extend the compulsive claufe, with refpect to prifoners for debt, to futurity, without fubjecting thofe that might be thereby intitled to a difcharge, to any great inconvenience or expence; and by our refentment against the fraudulent ule that was made of this extension, and that might then have been foreseen, we were this year hurried into an abfolute repeal of that claufe; fo that every man who now finds himself in danger of being arrefted by any impatient creditor, will refolve, as was generally the cafe before, neither to pay that creditor, nor any one elfe, but to go to prison as full-handed as he can, in order to live there at his eafe, upon the effects which he has fecreted and withdrawn from his creditors, until the next act of infolvency intitles him to a general difcharge, upon the furrender of the little that he may then have left. Thus we moved from one extreme to the other, and thus, I may prophely, we fhall always do, until we contrive and eftablish fome proper and effectual method for diftinguishing between infolvents who become to by their own idleness or extra4Q 2 vagance |