There is scarcely any enormity so monstrous that it cannot find a defender. Even _lettres de cachet_ have not been without an apologist; and, to make the wonder the greater, an English apologist. Let us listen to his plea. “Perhaps (says he) it was the abuse of the _lettres de cachet_, rather than their institution, that merited the execration in which they were held; for however extraordinary it may seem, they were not unfrequently used to serve the purposes of humanity. There are many instances of persons, who, on account of private disputes, or affairs of state, would have been exposed to public punishment, that were shut up by a _lettre de cachet_, until the danger was past, or the matter accommodated or forgotten. It may undoubtedly be objected, that keeping a person from justice is itself a crime against the public; but in forming a judgment upon this subject, we ought to take into consideration the prejudices entertained in the country where this authority was employed. It should be remembered that, by an old and barbarous practice, the disgrace attending a capital punishment, inflicted by the laws, was reflected upon all the family of the criminal; and that in many instances it required a public act of the supreme power to wipe off the stain, and again enable them to serve their country. In as far, therefore, as the _lettres de cachet_ counteracted the effects of these prejudices, they were useful; _but though they were signed by the king, from the idea that it was proper to have them ready for cases of emergency, ministers, and governors of provinces, &c., were generally furnished with them in blank, to be filled up at their discretions; and the friends and favourites of those ministers sometimes obtained them from them, as is proved by the case of M. de Fratteaux, and in many other instances_.”[2] This is, indeed, carrying to a ridiculous extent the determination to find “a soul of good in things evil!” Perhaps it would not be uncharitable to put a harsher construction on such language. Public justice is to be defrauded, thousands are to be plunged into misery, personal safety is to be hourly jeoparded, crime committed by the rich and powerful is to escape with all but complete impunity, and the motives which most influence individuals to bridle their unruly passions are to be weakened, merely “to counteract the effects of a prejudice” on a few ancient families! Never was an infinitely small benefit bought at a more extravagant price.