ity, and after three
years' agitation procured a new trial before a special court of fifty
masters of requests, of whom Turgot was one, on the 9th of March 1765,
with the result that Calas was pronounced absolutely innocent of the
crime he suffered for, and his family was awarded a compensation of
36,000 livres. The king received them at court, and all France
rejoiced in their rehabilitation except their own townsfolk in
Toulouse. On the 10th of April 1765--a month after the verdict--Abbe
Colbert writes Hume: "The people here would surprise you with their
fanaticism. In spite of all that has happened, they every man believe
Calas to be guilty, and it is no use speaking to them on the
subject."[153]

Smith makes use of the incident to illustrate the proposition that
while unmerited praise gives no satisfaction except to the frivolous,
unmerited reproach inflicts the keenest suffering even on men of
exceptional endurance, because the injustice destroys the sweetness
of the praise, but enormously embitters the sting of the condemnation.
"The unfortunate Calas," he writes--"a man of much more than ordinary
constancy (broken upon the wheel and burnt at Tholouse for the
supposed murder of his own son, of which he was perfectly
innocent)--seemed with his last breath to deprecate not so much the
cruelty of the punishment, as the disgrace which the imputation must
bring upon his memory. After he had been broke, and when just going to
be thrown into the fire, the monk who attended the execution exhorted
him to confess the crime for which he had been condemned. 'My father,'
said Calas, 'can you bring yourself to believe that I was guilty?'"

FOOTNOTES:

[140] _Hume Correspondence_, R.S.E. Library.

[141] Ibid.

[142] Lord Beauchamp was the eldest son of the English Ambassador, the
Earl of Hertford, and Dr. Trail, or properly Traill, was the
Ambassador's chaplain, who was made Bishop of Down and Connor soon
afterwards, when Lord Hertford became Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland.

[143] _Hume Correspondence_, R.S.E. Library.

[144] Burton's _Letters of Eminent Persons to David Hume_, p. 37.

[145] _Wealth of Nations_, Book II. chap. iii.

[146] _Wealth of Nations_, Book I. chap. xi.

[147] The Duke's servant.

[148] _Hume Correspondence_, R.S.E. Library.

[149] _Hume Correspondence_, R.S.E. Library.

[150] Stephen's _Life of Horne Tooke_, i. 75.

[151] Samuel Rogers told this to his friend the Rev. John Mitford. See
Ad