LETTRE

Fr. In French law. A letter. It is used, like our English "letter," for a formal instrument giving authority. -Lettre& d~ cachet. Letters i ued and signed by the kings of France, and countersigned by a secretary of state, authorizing the imprisonment of a person. It is said that they were devised by P~re Joseph, under the administration of Richelieu. They were at first made use of occasionally as a means of delaying the course of justice; but during the reign of Louis XIV. they were obtained by any person of sufficient influence with the king or bis ministers. Under them, persons were imprisoned for life or,qir a long period on the most frivolous pretexts, for the ~ratification of private pique o.r revenge, and without any I'e!lSO~ be\n,g a igned [s. 719]