One of them, given in the Mémoires de la Régence, was to the following effect:-"Sir and Madam,-This is to give you notice that a St. Bartholomew Day will be enacted again on Saturday and Sunday, if affairs do not alter. You are desired not to stir out, nor you, nor your servants. God preserve you from the flames! Give notice to your neighbors. Dated, Saturday, May 25th, 1720." The immense number of spies with which the city was infested rendered the people mistrustful of one another, and beyond some trifling disturbances made in the evening by an insignificant group, which was soon dispersed, the peace of the capital was not compromised. The value of shares in the Louisiana, or Mississippi stock, had fallen very rapidly, and few indeed were found to believe the tales that had once been told of the immense wealth of that region. A last effort was therefore tried to restore the public confidence in the Mississippi project. For this purpose, a general conscription of all the poor wretches in Paris was made by order of government. Upward of six thousand of the very refuse of the population were impressed, as if in time of war, were provided with clothes and tools to be embarked for New Orleans, to work in the gold mines alleged to abound there. They were paraded day after day through the streets with their pikes and shovels, and then sent off in small detachments to the out-ports to be shipped for America. Two-thirds of them never reached their destination, but dispersed themselves over the country, sold their tools for what they could get, and returned to their old course of life. In less than three weeks afterward, one-half of them were to be found again in Paris. The maneuver, however, caused a trifling advance in Mississippi stock. Many persons of superabundant gullibility believed that operations had begun in earnest in the new Golconda, and that gold and silver ingots would again be found in France. seen with a louis d'or in their possession. | and Every epithet that popular hatred could suggest was showered on the regent and the unhappy Law. Coin, to any amount above five hundred livres, was an illegal tender, and nobody would take paper if he could help it. No one knew to-day what his notes would be worth to-morrow. Seditious writings were posted up against the walls, and were sent, in hand-bills, to the houses of the most conspicuous people. "Lucifer's New Row-Barge" exhibits Law in a barge, with a host of emblematic figures representing the Mississippi follies. In a constitutional monarchy some surer means would have been found for the restoration of public credit. In England, at a subsequent period, when a similar delusion had brought on similar distress, GOLD-DIGGERS PARADING THE STREETS. how different were the measures taken to repair the evil! but in France, unfortunately, the remedy was left to the authors of the mischief. The arbitrary will of the regent, which endeavored to extricate the country, only plunged it deeper into the mire. All payments were ordered to be made in paper, and between the 1st of February and the end of May notes were fabricated to the amount of upward of fifteen hundred millions of livres, or sixty inillions of pounds sterling. But the alarm once sounded, no art could make the people feel the slightest confidence in paper which was not exchangeable into metal. M. Lambert, the president of the parliament of Paris, told the regent to his face that he would rather have a hundred thousand livres in gold or silver than five millions in the notes of his bank. When such was the general feeling, the superabundant issues of paper but increased, the evil, by rendering still more enormous the disparity between the amount of specie and notes in circulation. Coin, which it was the object of the regent to depreciate, rose in value on every fresh attempt to diminish it. In February, it was judged advisable that the Royal Bank should be incorporated with the Company of the Indies. An edict to that effect was published and registered by the parliament. The state remained the guaranty for the notes of the bank, and no more were to be issued without an order in council. All the profits of the bank, since the time it had VOL. II No. 5.-DD other shares of the company, but it failed in placing public credit on any permanent basis. A council of state was held in the beginning of May, at which Law, D'Argenson, (his colleague in the administration of the finances,) and all the ministers, were present. It was then computed that the total amount of notes in circulation was two thousand six hundred millions of livres, while the coin in the country was not quite equal to half that amount. It was evident to the majority of the council that some plan must be adopted to equalize the currency. Some proposed that the notes should be reduced to the value of the specie; while others proposed that the nomínal value of the specie should be raised till it was on an equality with the paper. Law is said to have opposed both of these projects; but failing in suggesting any other, it was agreed that the notes should be depreciated one-half. On the 21st of May an edict was accordingly issued, by which it was decreed that the shares of the Company of the Indies, and the notes of the bank, should gradually diminish in value, till at the end of a year they should only pass current for one-half of their nominal worth. The parliament refused to register the edict, the greatest outcry was excited, and the state of the country became so alarming, that, as the only means of preserving tranquillity, the council of the regency was obliged to stultify its own proceedings, by publishing within seven days another edict, restoring the notes to their original value. On the same day (the 27th of May) the bank stopped payment in specie. Law what assistance he could, contrary to the advice of his friends, who did not approve that he should accept any recall to office of which Law was the bearer. On his arrival in Paris, five counsellors of the parliament were admitted to confer with the Commissary of Finance; and on the 1st of June an order was published abolishing the law which made it criminal to amass coin to the amount of more than five hundred livres. Every one was permitted to have as much specie as he pleased. In order that the bank-notes might be withdrawn, twenty-five millions of new notes were created, on the security of the revenues of the city of Paris, at two-and-a-half per cent. The bank-notes withdrawn were publicly burned in front of the Hôtel de and D'Argenson were both dismissed from the ministry. The weak, vacillating, and cowardly regent, threw the blame of all the mischief upon Law, who upon presenting himself at the Palais Royal was refused admittance. At nightfall, however, he was sent for, and admitted into the palace by a secret door, when the regent endeavored to console him, and made all manner of excuses for the severity with which in public he had been compelled to treat him. So capricious was his conduct, that, two days afterward, he took him publicly to the opera, where he sat in the royal box alongside of the regent, who treated him with marked consideration in face of all the people. But such was the hatred against Law that the experiment had well-nigh proved fatal to him. The mob assailed his carriage with stones just as he was entering his own door; and if the coachman had not made a sudden jerk into the court-yard, and the domestics closed the gate immediately, he would, in all probability, have been dragged out and torn to pieces. On the following day his wife and daughter were also assailed by the mob, as they were returning in their carriage from the races. When the regent was informed of these occurrences, he sent Law a strong detachment of Swiss guards, who were stationed night and day in the court of his residence. The public indignation at last increased so much, that Law, finding his own house, even with this guard, insecure, took refuge in the Palais Royal, in the apartments of the regent. The Chancellor, D'Aguesseau, who had been dismissed in 1718 for his opposition to the projects of Law, was now recalled to aid in the restoration of credit. The regent acknowledged too late, that he had treated with unjustifiable harshness and mistrust one of the ablest, and perhaps the sole honest public man of that corrupt period. He had retired ever since his disgrace to his country-house at Fresnes, where, in the midst of severe but delightful philosophic studies, he had forgotten the intrigues of an unworthy court. Law himself, and the Chevalier de Conflans, a gentleman of the regent's household, were dispatched in a post-chaise with orders to bring the ex-chancellor to Paris along with them. D'Aguesseau consented to render • Duclos, Mémoires Secrets de la Régence. These measures were productive of considerable advantage. All the population of Paris hastened to the bank to get coin for their small notes; and silver becoming scarce, they were paid in copper. Very few complained that this was too heavy, although poor fellows might be continually seen toiling and sweating along the streets, laden with more than they could comfortably carry, in the shape of change for fifty livres. The crowds around the bank were so great, that hardly a day passed that some one was not pressed to death. On the 9th of July, the multitude was so dense and clamorous that the guards stationed at the entrance of the Mazarin Gardens closed the gate and refused to admit any The crowd became incensed, and flung stones through the railings upon the more. soldiers. The latter, incensed in their turn, threatened to fire upon the people. At that instant one of them was hit by a stone, and, taking up his piece, he fired into the crowd. One man fell dead immediately, and another was severely wounded. It was every instant expected that a general attack would have been commenced upon the bank; but the gates of the Mazarin Gardens being opened to the crowd, who saw a whole troop of soldiers, with their bayonets fixed ready to receive them, they contented themselves by giving vent to their indignation in groans and hisses. privileges which could be granted, to enable it to fulfill its engagements, would be productive of the best results. With this end in view, it was proposed that the exclusive privilege of all maritime commerce should be secured to it, and an edict to that effect was published. But it was unfortunately forgotten that by such a measure all the merchants of the country would be ruined. The idea of such an immense privilege was generally scouted by the nation, and petition on petition was presented to the parliament that they would refuse to register the decree. They refused accordingly, and the regent, remarking that they did nothing but fan the flame of sedition, exiled them to Blois. At the intercession of D'Aguesseau, the place of banishment was changed to Pontoise, and thither accordingly the councilors repaired, determined to set the regent at defiance. They made every arrangement for render possible. The president gave the most Eight days afterward the concourse of people was so tremendous that fifteen persons were squeezed to death at the doors of the bank. The people were so indignant that they took three of the bodies on stretchers before them, and proceeded, to the number of seven or eight thousand, to the gardens of the Palais Royal, that they might showing their temporary exile as agreeable as the regent the misfortunes that he and Law had brought upon the country. Law's coachman, who was sitting at the box of his master's carriage, in the court-yard of the palace, happened to have more zeal than discretion, and, not liking that the mob should abuse his master, he said, loud enough to be overheard by several persons, that they were all blackguards, and deserved to be hanged. The mob immediately set upon him, and thinking that Law was in the carriage, broke it in pieces. The imprudent coachman narrowly escaped with his life. No further mischief was done; a body of troops making their appearance, the crowd quietly dispersed, after an assurance had been given by the regent that the three bodies they had brought to show him should be decently buried at his own expense. The parliament was sitting at the time of this uproar, and the president took upon himself to go out and see what was the matter. On his return he informed the councilors that Law's carriage had been broken by the mob. All the members rose simultaneously, and expressed their joy by a loud shout, while one man, more zealous in his hatred than the rest, exclaimed, " And Law himself, is he torn to pieces?" Much, undoubtedly, depended on the credit of the Company of the Indies, which was answerable for so great a sum to the nation. It was therefore suggested in the council of the ministry, that any AN EXAMPLE FOR REASONERS. Rev. Sidney Smith, in a letter on Sir James Macintosh, says :-" He had a method of putting things so mildly and interrogatively, that he always procured the readiest reception of his opinions. Addicted to reasoning in the company of able men, he had two valuable habits which are rarely met with in great reasoners; he never broke in upon his opponent, and always avoided strong and vehement assertions. His reasoning commonly carried conviction; for he was cautious in his positions, accurate in his declarations, and aimed only at truth. The ingenious side was commonly taken by some one else; the interests of truth were protected on all occasions, and under all circumstances, in the most simple, yet the most ingenious manner, by Macintosh." Na cold winter's evening, in the month woman, with apparently a large bundle un ants of Châtel-Censoir, a village of ancient Burgundy, had nearly all retired to rest, a violent knock was given at the door of a lonely cottage on the banks of the Yonne. "Who is there?" inquired a soft gentle voice from the interior. "Open the door quickly! Make haste, I implore you!" cried the person without, in a voice tremulous with emotion. "Push the door and come in," replied the person within; and instantly a country Surprised at seeing only a boy of about eight years old sitting beside an empty fireplace, with a resin candle burning on the hearth, she inquired if he were alone. "Yes," replied the child, sorrowfully. "My father, mother, and six of my brothers and sisters are all dead; and there is no one left but my eldest brother Marcel, and myself." "I was directed to this cottage as the residence of a boatman." |