kept in continual variation, fometimes diminishing, fometimes increafing it, by a multitude of decrees, which contradified themselves, as well in their detail, as in the caufes exprefied in their preambles. And this delirium of the legiflation produced the defired effett, for it fo effectually overturned every principle, fo darkened the understanding, and fo changed all the notions of things, that the people, not knowing what to adhere to, gave way to the impulfes of the gc vernment. It was in the height of this general anxiety, that the Regent completed the abufe of his authority by a monitrous violence, which will undoubtedly place him among the principal tyrants who have been moft expert in political tortures. The frenzy was carried fo far, that a decree of Council was iffued, forbid ing every person, and even every community, either fecular or religious, to keep by them more than 500 livres in fpecie. The motive adduced for this barbarity, was a fuppofition, that there were twelve hundred millions + of fpecie in the kingdom, in ftagnation, from the avidity of perfons who, having made great fortunes, accumulated and hearded up without intermiffion. The punishment was not death, as Law would have had it, but, befide a heavy fine, the fums found were confifcated: informers were encouraged by being promifed a third of the confifcation, and the most odious refearches were authorifed, by injoining the feveral officers of justice to fearch wherever the Directors of the Bank fhould require them. At length, the ufe of money was fill more restrained, by forbidding that any payment should be made, above a hundred livres I, except in paper. :- It must be acknowledged, however, that the Duke of Orleans was not cruel; his intention was to frighten, rather than to torment. In order to fucceed the better, the farce was played, according to his orders, by fome trufly perfons, who were to let themfelves be furprifed in delinquency against the decree. They were proceeded against, imprisoned, and rewarded in fecret for their connivance. These examples did indeed intimidate. The Dupes, for fo they were called at the palace, where the graveft matters are treated with bons mots, haftened to obey; all the money in depofit with the notaries, in trufts, or in other public places, was converted into paper. The courtiers, ever flaves to the will of their mafter, gave way to that of their Sovereign without murmuring; and thofe who were not well with the Regent, dreading his refentment, conformed to it alío. The Chancellor Pontchartrain, who was then retired from public employment, fent 57.000 louis d'or to the Bank, valued them at 72 livres ¶ each. This capture diverted as much his R. H. as the conduct of another magiftrate must have chagrined him. The Prefident Lambert de Vernon went to the Duke or Orleans, and told him that he came to name a man to him who had 500,000 livres § in gold. His R. H. ftarted back with furprife and horror, crying out with his ufual ftrength of expreffion: Oh! Mr. Prefident, what a r -y fort of a trade have you taken upon you there? The Prefident replied; Sir, I do nothing more than obey the law, and it is that which you indirectly treat with such an appellation. As for the rest, your R. H. need not be alarmed, and may do me more juftice: it is myfelf I come to inform against, in the hope of having the liberty to keep at least a part of this fum, which I prefer to all the bills of the Bank. The more noble and firm conduct of the First President of the Chamber of Accounts will certainly be much more admired. He answered to those who came to fearch him: "I declare to you, that I have 500,000 livres in gold; they are for the fervice of the King, and "I have no account to give of them but to his Majesty, when he shall "be of age." Nevertheless, thefe vexations and this tyranny would not have produced the defired effect, if a vent had not been found for this paper, with which France was deluged, by converting it into another of a more fpecious nature; this was, the hares in the Western Company, the profits of which were to increafe daily, by the affiftances that were given to it. This Company had acquired in 1718 the charter and the effeas of the Senegal Company, together with their Negro trade; the charter of the Chinefe and Eaft India Companies were afterwards annexed to it, and all the territories, iflands, forts, magazines, dwellings, ammunition, and fhips, that had belonged to the Eaft-India Company, were transferred to it. It had been appointed and entitled the India Company. The revenues of the tobacco had been farmed out to it: the King had ceded to it the profits upon the coin; the leafe of the Farmers-general had been annulled in its favour, and the offices of Receivers-general of the finance had been fuppreffed. In a word, at the last meeting †, the Company had been fhewn a mass of 120 millions of profit, allotting 40 per cent. as the dividend of each fhare for the following year. Then it was that no fcruple was made of difcovering that the origin of this Company was in common with that of the Bank, by blending together thefe two monftrous productions of the fame father; of that fame Mr. Law, who had just been appointed Comptroller-general of Finance. He had first renounced his religion, at the perfuafion of l'Abbé Tencin; a circumftance which gave occafion to the following epigram: Tencin, a curfe on thy feraphic zeal, Which, by perfuafion, hath contriv'd the means This jeft, which was but too true, did not prevent the general frenzy of brokerage from rifing to fuch a pitch, that at the time of the union of the two Companies, the India Company had produced * Near twenty one thousand pounds. This meeting was held on the 30th of December, 1719. Five millions fterling. Foin de ton zele féraphique, Malheureux Abbé de Tencin; fix hundred thousand fhares, amounting to 1,677,500,000 livres of original capital, the gaming in which raifed the prices fo exceffively high, that the mais of them is confidered by an able calculator †, as reprefenting as much as fix thoufand millions in fpeculation. In thefe times of crifis, there are always people dexterous enough to profit by the folly of others, and thefe are the perfons who contribute wonderfully to excite the general emulation. Little attention is paid to the numbers that are ruined, and at whofe expence thefe prodigious fortunes are made; or we attribute their loffes to themselves, to foolihaels, ignorance, or mifconduct. Law's profits: being at the head of the Bank, that is, depofitary of We fhall fay nothing of all the money in the kingdom, he was capable of enriching himfelf by the fhortest and fureit method. bought, of the Count d'Evreux, the county of Tancaville, in NorAt his first fetting out, he had mandy, for 800 oco livres §. He had offered the Prince of Carignan 1,400,000 livres | for the Hotel de Soiffons; to the Marchioness de Beuvron, 100,000 livres ** for her ettate at Lillebonne; and to the Duke of Sully, 1,700,000 livres †† for his Mafquifate of Rolny. The height of impudence was, that he wanted to afcribe the rapidity of this enormous opulence to the goodness of his fyftem; and the height of ftupidity is, that people thould believe, and attempt to imitate him. The Regent endeavoured to confirm the truth of this by immenfe liberalities, which he afcribed to the fame caufe. lion I to the Hotel-Dieu, as much to the Hofpital-general, and as He gave one milmuch to the Foundings. He emplosed 1,500 000 livres to pay the debts of feveral prifoners: the Marquis of Noce, the Count de la Mothe, and the Count de Role, received each a gratification of 100,000 livres in thares. its effect, and rettored one hundred fold to the Bank. A ftroke of politics, which had not lefs Among the Princes of the blood, the Duke of Bourbon profited the most fortunately by the thales that Law had given them for their fupport. That Prince bought up all the land he could find fuitable to him he caufed Chantilly to be rebuilt with royal magnificence; he established a menagerie there, which was incomparably better flocked than the King's: he imported from England, at one time, 150 race-horles, each of which, at the rate money was then at in France, colt from 15 to 1800 livres . the Regent, who was paffionately fond of his daughter, the Duchefs At lali, to pay his court to * Near feventy millions ferling. M. Necker, in his Aufwer to l'Abbé Morellet, in 1767, concerning the Abbé's Memorial against the India Company. Two hundred and fifty millions tterling. S Between thirty and torty thousand pounds. Between fifty-eight and fifty-nine thousand pounds. ** Near twenty-one thousand pounds. + Between feventy and eighty thousand pounds. 11 Above forty thousand pounds. 55 Sixty-two thoufand five hundred pounds. Above four thousand pounds. From fixty to eighty pounds on an average. of of Berry, he gave that Princefs, who was eager after pleafure, a fuperb feftival, which lafled four or five days, and coft an immenfe fum of money. Amongst the individuals, it feems as if chance had been particularly favourable to obfcure perfons. A certain widow of Namur, named Caumont, was much the topic of converfation, who had fupplied the army with tents and other merchandife of the fame kind. By fome lucky revolutions of fortune, he got into her hands to the amount of 70 millions of Bank Bills. The Memoirs of the Regency make mention of a hump-backed man †, who acquired in the courfe of a few days 150,000 livres I, for having lent his hump by way of a writing defk for the brokers. Footmen were frequently obferved in their matters carriages, who had been feen behind them the day before. These fame Memoirs fpeak of a perfon, whofe change of condition was fo rapid, that he was going to refume his former post, if he had not been apprized of the mittake; of another, who, having had a quarrel in his carriage, and being obliged to get out of it to fight, cried out, Gentlemen of the livery, come to my affiftance! and of a third, who having ordered an equipage for himself, and being afkeď what arms he would have put upon it, anfwered, the finest. It was in the treet called Quincampoix that the negociation of the shares was carried on, there being yet no exchange. Fortunate were those who had houses in this fireet! A room was let as high as ten livres per day. But the great crowd had no occafion for a dwelling there. By break of day the paffage of this narrow fireet was choaked up with gamefters: whofe madness continued increafing the whole day. In the evening a bell was rung, and they were ob. liged to be driven away by force. There was at the time a caricature print engraved, which, under a grofs, but juft allegory, gives a very natural picture of the ravages occafioned by this epidemical frenzy. It is till preferved by the connoiffeurs as a precious modu~ ment of history. It is entitled, Atrue portrait of the Lord Quincampoix. Accordingly we fee, in the centre of the print, the reprefentation of that Lord's head, with this device, Aut Cæfar, aut nihil. Over it is placed a crown of peacock's feathers and titles, which is offered to him by Folly, with this other infcription, I am the laughing-flock of the wife and the foolish. Under the portrait a kettle is feen fmoking, which a devil is heating with paper. A broker is throwing by handfuls into the cauldron his gold and filver, which, melting, produces nothing but new paper. A figure of Despair, placed behind this unfortunate man, feems waiting to lay hold of him at the conclufion of this operation. Near three millions fterling. The fame thing happened to a certain M. de Nanthia, who was not deformed, bet ufed to lend his back for a writing desk. This is a fact well known in the family of M. Amelot, at prefent minifter, whofe Welch uncle this M. de Nanthia was. It is from the family itfelf that we have the anecdote. Six thousand two hundred and fifty pounds. • Such Such was the fituation of almost the whole kingdom of France, where the contagion had quickly fpread from one to another, in fuch a manner, as to affect perfons of the best understandings: this is evidently proved by the anecdote of De la Mothe, and of the Abbé Terraffon. Thefe two wife men (for the first, though a poet, was fill more a philofopher) fo famous for their exquifite fenfe, for their logical accuracy, and for the depth of their reafoning, were converfing one evening upon the folly of the day, and laughing at it. Some time after, they met face to face in the Quincampoix ftreet. Being at first ashamed, they were defirous of avoiding each other: but at length, having nothing to reproach themfelves with, they agreed, that a man ought never to fwear against his doing any one thing; and that there was no fort of extravagance of which man wes not capable; after which they each went their way to make the best bargain they could for themselves. The most dreadful event of this infernal freet, was the melancholy catastrophe of Count Hoorn. This young Flemish nobleman, only twenty-two or twenty-three years of age, excited by the demon of cupidity, was urged on to murder a merchant, whom he drew into a public houfe, in order to rob him of his pocket-book. It was in open day he was foon taken up, and broken alive upon the wheel, though allied to feveral fovereign houses, and related even to the Regent himself. That Prince, who knew the rigorous duties of jultice, would not fuffer himself to be moved by this confideration. He anfwered in energetic terms, When I have got bad blood, I have it let out *. The balance between this paper and the fpecie of France being once deftroyed, by the too great profufion of the former, which fome perfons eftimate as high as fix thoufand millions †, not only the funds of the Company became infufficient to keep up to enormous a credit, but the fum likewife exceeded, by more than two-thirds, the whole fpecie and mass of gold and filver that might then be in the kingdom. In vain were all forts of fratagems devifed to fupport this Bank, so far as even to publish a declaration forbidding all the King's fubjects, or foreigners refiding in the kingdom, all communities and other bodies, to keep, after the first of May, any fpecie and materials of gold, and after the firit of December, any ipecie or materials in filver, upon pain of confifcation and fine: the officers of the mint were likewife forbidden to coin any; but nothing fucceeded: the people laughed at an abfurd legiflation, which was contradicting itfelf from morning to night, which made a crime of the most neceffary economical virtues, and which loft itfelf in the labyrinth of its own regulations, that have filled twelve volumes in quarto. The vertigo was diffipating, and people were beginning to realize as fast as It is added, that the nearest relations of Count Hoorn, having folicited that the nature of his punishment might at least be changed, that the infamy of it might not fall upon them, the Regent replied, It will not be bis punishment, but the crime which brought him to it, that will difhonour your family. Two hundred and nfty millions fterling. po fible |