The Virginia Gazette

Extract of a Letter from Paris, September 28.

"The following is a Copy of the Remonstrance which the Court of Aids of Paris received from, concerning the Detention of the Magistrates of the Parliament of Brittany.

"Sire, the Consternation is universal throughout your Kingdom; Reclamation must also be universal on the Parts of your Courts. Your Court of Aids is more nearly connected with your Parliament of Brittany, which is a Court of Aids, than with most of the other Parliaments; but that Bond is not necessary to authorize a Step which its Duty dictates. Your Courts have the Advantage of being heard by your Majesty. They would be culpable if they did not avail themselves of that Right, at a Time when the Spirit of Revenge, and the Spirit of Despotism, are leagued together against the Magistracy.

Your Parliament of Brittany has been called to the Foot of your Throne. Two eminent Members of that Parliament have made their Appearance before your Majesty, only to be torn, as it were, from your Presence; and of their Fate we know Nothing. We cannot find out by what Imputation that Court could have been represented to your Majesty in so odious a Light, but we must needs observe to you that the Blows which have been struck at the Magistracy fall equally on every Order of the State. It is well Known in your Kingdom that your Parliament of Brittany is, at this Time, the Depository of the Wishes of the whole Province. The Noblesse have the same Sentiments as the Magistrates; and these Sentiments are also those of the Merchant, the Husbandman, and the Mechanick. It is necessary that your Majesty should know this; and if any personal Animosity can have influenced the Resolutions that have prevailed in your Council, you must not, Sire, be ignorant that it is a whole Province that is sacrificed to that Animosity. And it is very industriously proclaimed that the Crime of one of the two Magistrates is his having executed the Orders of his Company, and that this Example is made merely to terrify those who shall in future take upon themselves Commissions of a similar Nature. Your Majesty has then been made to believe that it is by Terror you must reign over your Ministers of the Law. Vouchsafe, Sire, to reflect that Fear is the Property of mean Souls; and consider out of what Class of Men you must choose those whom you shall give for Judges to your Subjects."