they made fo much noife, that the was obliged to comply by order of her mother-in-law. Thus have I been kiffed in public, as was Alain Chartier, by the Princess Margaret of Scotland; but he was afleep, and I was wide awake"

Soon after we fee him again taking a journey to the King of Pruffia, who was always inviting him to Berlin, but could never prevail on him to quit his old friends for any confiderable time. In this journey he performed a fingular service to the king his mafter, as we fee by the letters which paffed between him and Mr. Amelot, the minister of fate. But thefe particulars come not within our prefent defign. We view him only in his literary character.

In the year 1-49, after the death of the illuftrious Marchionefs of Chatellet, whom Mr. Voltaire had attended to the court of Stanislaus, the King of Pruffia gave him an invitation to come and live with him. It was not til towards the end of the month of Auguft, 1750, after having for fix months combated the opinions of all his friends, who frongly diffuaded him from going, that we find him refolved to quit France, and attach himfelf to his Pruffian Majefty, for the reft of his life. He could not withftand the letter which the King of Pruffia wrote to him the 23d of Auguft, from the apartments deftined for his future gueft in the palace of Berlin: a letter which has been often printed and is univerfally known.

After this letter, the King of Pruffia afked the confent of the King of France, by his minifter at that court, which was readily

granted. Our author was prefented at Berlin with the order of merit, the key of Chamberlain, and a perfion of twenty thousand livres. However, he did not give up his houfe at Paris, and by the accounts of Mr. Delaleu, the Notary, we find that Mr. de Voltaire was at an expence of thirty thoufand livres a year there. He was attached to the King of Pruffia by the most refpectful regard, as well as by. their conformity of taste. He has a hundred times faid, that Monarch was as agreeable in company, as he was formidable at the head of an army; and that he had never more pleafing evening parties at Paris, than those to which that prince would have conftantly admitted him. His regard for the King of Pruffia rofe to a degree of enthu fiafm. His apartments were under the King's, and he never quitted them but to go to fupper. The king compofed works in philofophy, hiflory, and poetry, in the upper apartments, while his favourite cultivated the fame arts and the fame talents in the lower. They communicated their works to one another. The Pruffian Monarch wrote his memoirs of the houfe of Brandenburgh at Potzdam; and the French author having carried his materials with him, wrote his age of Louis XIV. at the fame place. Thus did his days glide along in tranquillity, enlivened by fuch agreeable employments.

It must be owned, that nothing could be more agreeable than this kind of life, or any thing do more honour to philofophy and the belles lettres. This happiness would have been more lafling, and would not have given place to a fill greater happiness, if it had not

been

been for a difpute on a fubje&t in mixed mathematics, which arcie between Maupertuis, who likewife lived at that time with the King of Pruffia, and Koenig, librarian to the Princefs of Orange, at the Hague. This difpute was a continuation of that which for a long time had divided the mathemati. cians about the living and dead forces. It cannot be denied but that a little quackery gets into this fabject, as well as into theology and medicine. It was a moft trifling question at belt, for let them entangle it as much as they will, they must always return to the plain laws of motion. The team pers of the difputants were foured, and Maupertuis, who ruled the academy at Berlin, procured a condemnation of Koenig's opinion in the year 1752, on the authority of a letter of the late Leibnitz, without being able to produce the original of that letter, which however had been feen by Mr. Wolf. He went ftill farther, -he wrote to the Princess of Orange, to beg her to difmifs Koenig from his employment of Librarian; and reprefented him to the King of Pruffia, as a man who had been wanting in the refpect due to his majesty. Voltaire, who had paffed two whole years at Cirey with Koenig, during which he had contracted an intimacy, thought it was his duty openly to efpoufe the caufe of his friend.

The quarrel became violent, and the study of philofophy degenerated into faction and cabal. Maupertuis was at fome pains to have it reported at court, that one day, while General Manftein happened to be in the apartments of Mr. de Voltaire, who was then

tranflating into French, The ... moirs of Ruffia, compofed by that officer; the king, in his ufual manner, fent a copy of verses to be examined, when Voltaire faid to Manftein, Let us leave off for the prefent, my friend; you fee the king has fent me his dirty linen to wash, I will wash your's another time. A fingle word is fometimes fufficient to ruin a man at court; Maupertuis imputed fuch a word to Voltaire, and fucceeded.

It was about this very time that Maupertuis publifhed his very frange Philofophical, Letters, in which he propofed to build a Latin city; to fail in quet of difcoveries directly under the pole; to perforate the earth to the center;

to go to the Streights of Magel. lan, and diffect the brains of a Patagonian, in order to investigate the nature of the foul;to cover the bodies of the fick with pitch, to prevent the danger of perfpiration; and, above all, not to pay the physician.

Mr. de Voltaire heightened thefe philofophic ideas with all the raillery which fo fine an opportunity prefented, and, unfortunately, the learned all over Europe were amufed with the ridicule. Maupertuis was careful to join his own caufe to the caufe of the king; and this piece of ridicule was looked upon as a failure in refpe&t to his majelly. Our author in the most refpe&ful manner returned the key of Chamberlain, and the crofs of his order to the king, with the following vertes.

"Je les reçus avec tendreffe;
"Je vous les rend avec doulgur,
"Comme un amant jaloux, dans fa
"muvafe humeur,
"Rend le portrait de fa Maitreife."
D 3

The

The king fent back the key and ribbon. Cur author then fet out to pay a visit to her highness the Duchefs of Gotha, who continued to honour him with her friendship while he lived. It was for her that he wrote The Annals of the Empire, about a year after; a work which was entirely new modelled in his Effay upon the History of the Genius and Manners of Nations.

While he remained at Gotha, Maupertuis employed all his batteries against our traveller, which he was made fenfible of, when he came to meet his niece, Madame Denis, at Francfort on the Mayne.

On the first of June, an honeft German, who neither loved the French nor their verfes, came, and in bad French, demanded the works in poefry of the king his mafter, Our traveller replied, that the works in poehy were with the rest of his property at Leipfic. The German informed him, that he was ordered to Francfort, and must not depart till these works arrived. Mr. de Voltaire gave him the key of Chamberlain, and the cross of the order, and promifed to refore what he had demanded; upon which the meffenger wrote the following billet *.

The prifoner wrote at the bottom of the note, Good for the work of poefby, of the king, your mafter.

But when the verses arrived, it was pretended there were some bills of exchange expected, which did not arrive. The travellers were detained fifteen days at the fign of the Goat, on account of these pretended bills; and at last were not permitted to depart without paying a confiderable ranfom.— Thefe are details which never come to the ears of kings.

This adventure was very foon forgotten by both parties, and with great propriety. The king fent back his verfes to his old admirer, and foon after a confiderable number of new ones. It was a love quarrel;-the bickerings of a court foon die away; but a laudable raling paffion will long continue.

Soon after his departure from Berlin, he purchafed the Seignory of Ferney in the Pays de Gex, about a league from Geneva. It was here, that he undertook the defence of the celebrated family of Calas; and it was not long before he had a fecond opportunity of vindicating the innocence of another condemn. ed family of the name of Sirven. It is fomewhat remarkable, that in the year 1774, he had the third time a fingular opportunity of employing that fame zeal, which he had the good fortune to difplay in the fatal catastrophe of the families of Calas and Sirven. As this ftory is not fo generally known as the former, we fhall give it the reader in the author's own words.

He

He was informed that there was young French gentleman of modeft merit, and fingular good fenfe in the King of Pruffia's army, at Wefel. This young gentleman was only a volunteer, and had been condemned at Abbeville, with the Chevalier de la Barre, to fuffer the punishment of parricides, for not kneeling in time of rain before a proceffion of Capuchins, who had paffed about fifty or fixty paces from them.

To this accufation was added that of having fung a rakih fong of a hundred years old, and repeating Piron's Ode to Priapus. This Ode of Piron's was a lewd flight of a young man, and looked upon as fuch a venial trefpafs, that the King of France, Louis XV. hearing that the author was poor, gave him a penfion out of his privy purfe. Thus he who compofed the piece was rewarded by a good king, while they who repeated it, were condemned to fuffer the most dreadful punishment, by fome inhuman monsters of a village.

Three judges of Abbeville conducted the profecution, and the fentence was as follows: That the Chevalier de la Barre, and his young friend (of whom we have been fpeaking) fhould be put to the torture ordinary and extraordinary, their hands be cut off, their tongues torn out with pincers, and their bodies burnt alive.

Of three judges who gave this fentence, two of them were abfolutely incompetent. One of them for being the declared enemy of the young people's parents; the other, because having formerly got himself admitted counsellor, he had fince purchafed and exercised the

business of attorney in Abbeville : his principal employment was that of a dealer in bullocks and hogs;

he had been condemned by the confuls of Abbeville, and the court of Aides had afterwards declared him incapable of holding any municipal employment in the kingdom.

The third judge, intimidated by the two others, had the weakness to fubfcribe to their fentence, which was followed by the most poignant and fruitless remorse.

To the furprife and aftonishment of all Europe, that ftill fhudders with horror at the deed, the Chevalier de la Barre was executed : his friend was outlawed, having been in a foreign country before the beginning of the profecution.

This fentence fo execrable, and at the fame time fo abfurd,_which is an eternal difgrace to France, was much more to be condemned than that by which the innocent Calas was broke upon the wheel; for the judges of Calas were guilty of no other fault than that of deceiving themselves, while the crime of the Abbeville judges, was their being monsters of cruelty with their eyes open. They condemned two youths to fuffer as cruel a death as Ravaillac and Damiens, for a levity which only deferved a week's imprifonment. It may be faid, that fince the maffacre of St. Bartholomew nothing fo dreadful has happened. It is melancholy to relate fuch an inftance of brutal ferocity as is not to be met with among the most favage people, but truth obliges us to it.

Mr. de Voltaire having been informed that the other young perfon, a victim of the moft deteftable D 4 fanati

fanaticifin that ever polluted the earth, was in one of the King of Pruffia's regiments; he acquainted that Monarch of it, who immedi. ately had the generofity to make him an officer. The King of Pruffia enquired particularly about the young gentleman; he found that he had learnt the art of drawing and defign without the help of a mafter; that he was prudent, fenfible, and virtuous; and that the whole of his conduct gave the lie to his pretended judges of Abbeville. The king called him near his perfon, gave him a company, appointed him engineer, and honoured him with a pension, and thus by his benevolence wiped away the crimes committed by folly and barbarity. He wrote in the moft affecting terms to Mr. de Voltaire, to acquaint him with what he had done for this truly valuable and unfortunate young foldier. We have all been witnefes of this horrid affair, fo dishonourable for France, and to noble for a royal philofopher. This great example will inform mankind, but will it

appointed him a rapporteur, or a legal informer to the court of all the parliamentary tranfactions. In this place he ferved his employers effectually, yet, at the fame time, caufed the remonftrances of parlia ment to be liberally diftributed both at Paris and abroad. Honeft M. d'Invau, the then comptroller-general of the finances, was difpleased with his conduct; but the chan cellor took the Abbé's part; Mr. d'Invau was, in fpite of the Duke of Choifeul's endeavours, difmif. fed, and fucceeded in his place by M. Terrai himself. The new comptroller now began his adminiftration with ftopping the payment of the crown debts, and diverting the revenues of the Caisse d'Amortiffement, or finking fund, to other purpofes; with impoling the fame taxes which under M. d'Invau's adminiftration he had zealously oppofed. His depredations on the public, induced the Duke de Choifeul to attempt his removal; but M. Terrai prevailed by gaining over the men in power. by increating their penfions, and by foothing the farmers-general; but chiefly by humouring the king's inclination for building, and indulging the rapaciouínels of the family of the royal miftrefs: without any regard to the interests of the kingdom, to the juftice or injuftice of his expedients, or the fate of the fubjects and fervants of the crown. He ruined the Eaft India Company, whom he had formerly ferved as fyndic; he forced her to pay her debts to government in reasy money, and, in return, to accept payment of the king's debts to her in paper of very fmail value. Thus he contrived not only to difcharge the twenty millions

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