pected of smuggling by some official in the employ of
the farmers-general; the officer asked for a lettre de
cachet, which was promptly granted, and by virtue of
this Monnerat was confined in the prison of Bicêtre
with barbarous rigor. For three months he was kept
in a dark cell, fastened by a chain weighing fifty
pounds attached to his neck; he was then transferred
to another cell, where his condition was little better;
there he remained for seventeen months, and might
have stayed for a lifetime, if some friends had not
interfered in his behalf. During all this time he had
no trial, nor were formal charges made against him,
and when he was liberated he showed without trouble
that the over-zealous official had mistaken him for
some one else. The lettre de cachet had been in-
tended for a man called La Feuillade, and it had been
Monnerat's ill fortune to be mistaken for him, and to
be confined for almost two years before he had an
opportunity to expose the error. He now claimed
redress from the society of farmers-general, and his
demands were certainly moderate; all that he asked
was money enough to cure him of the scurvy con-
tracted in the filthy dungeons in which he had been
confined. They refused to pay anything, and he
brought suit for damages before the Court of Aides.

There could hardly have been a case which the gov-
ernment might more properly have left to the courts
for their decision; the injustice had been gross, and
the defendants were quite able to protect themselves
from any excessive demands. But the influence of
the farmers-general was boundless; they were rich,
corrupt, and unscrupulous, and at their request, the
proceeding in February, 1770, was ordered to be
transferred to the royal council, which amounted to

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