254 Biographical Account of [Aprit, 
misled. But when we see the same sort of suspicion and abuse 
directed against the best known and most justly celebrated charae- 
ters of the age, we cannot but lament the prejudices which had 
taken possession of an understanding in other matters so acute and 
penetrating. 
Among the men engaged in public affairs, of whom Europe 
boasted during the last century, there was perhaps none of a higher 
character than Turgot, who, to the abilities of a statesman added 
the views of a philosopher ; was a man singularly patriotic and 
disinterested, distinguished by the virtues both of public and private 
life, and having, indeed, no fault but that of being too good for 
the times in which he lived. Yet Mr. Robison has charged this 
upright and humane minister with an exercise of power, which 
would argue the most extreme depravity. He states,* that there 
existed in Paris a’combination under the direction of the Wits and 
Philosophers, who used to meet at the house of Baron D’Holbach, 
having for its object the dissection of the brains of living children, 
purchased from poor parents, in order to discover the principle of 
vitality. The police, he adds, interposed to put a stop to these 
bloody experiments, but the authors of them were protected by the 
eredit of ‘Turgot. 
. All this is asserted on the authority, it should seem, of some 
anonymous German publication, I will not enter on the refutation 
of a calumny with the fabrication of which: Mr. Robison is not 
chargeable, though culpable without doubt, for having allowed his 
writings to become the vehicle of it. ‘Truth and justice require 
this acknowledgment; and, in making it, I think that I am dis- 
charging a duty both to Mr. Robison and myself. It is a duty to 
Mr. Robison, in as much as a concession made by a friend is 
better than one extorted by an adversary; it is a duty to myself, 
because 1 should feel that I was doing wrong, were I even by 
silence to acquiesce in a representation which 1 believed to be so 
ill-founded and unjust. 
The Proofs of the Conspiracy, notwithstanding these imperfec- 
tions, or perhaps on account of them, were extremely popular, 
and carried the name of the author into places where his high 
attainments in science had never gained admission for it. In the 
course of two years the book underwent no less than four editions, 
{t is a strong proof of the effect on the minds of men produced by 
the French Revolution, and of the degree in which ‘it engrossed 
their thoughts, that the history of a few obscure enthusiasts in 
Bavaria or. Wirtemberg, when it became associated with that 
Revolution, was read in Britain with so much avidity and attention. 
The defects of the evidence were concealed by the prejudices 
and apprehensions which were then so general. The people of 
this country were disposed to believe every thing unfavourable to 
the French nation, but particularly to the philosophers. All 
* Proofs of a Conspiracy, &c, 4th Edit. Note, p. 584. 
