Louis-René de Caradeuc de La Chalotais

The next year, he published his Essay on National Education (Essai d'Éducation Nationale), which was extravagantly praised by Voltaire, in which he proposed a scientific programme of study to replace that previously offered by the Jesuits.

La Chalotais was the personal enemy of d'Aiguillon, who had served him an ill turn with the king, and when the parlement of Brittany sided with the Estates, he took the lead in its opposition.

Voltaire stated that the procureur general, in his prison of Saint Malo, was reduced, for lack of ink, to write his defence with a toothpick dipped in vinegar.

The judges did not dare to pronounce a condemnation on the evidence of experts in handwriting, and at the end of a year, things remained where they were at the first.

[1] Louis's expedient only increased the popular agitation; philosophes, members of the parliament, Breton patriots and Jansenists all declared that La Chalotais was the victim of the personal hatred of the duc d'Aiguillon and of the Jesuits.

This parliament, when it met again, after the formal accusation of the duc d'Aiguillon, demanded the recall of La Chalotais.