MEMOIRS 
 
 OF THE LIFE OF 
 
 JOHN LAW OF LAURISTON, 
 
 INCLUDING 
 
 A DETAILED ACCOUNT OF THE RISE, PBOGRESS, 
 AND TERMINATION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 MISSISIPPI SYSTEM. 
 
 MAGNIS EXCIDIT AUSIS. 
 
 BY JOHN PHILIP WOOD, Esg. 
 
 EDINBURGH: 
 
 PRINTED FOR ADAM BLACK, NORTH BRIDGE, 
 AND LONGMAN AND CO. LONDON. 
 
 M.DCCC.XXIV. 
 
< ! 
 
 V 
 
LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 JOHN LAW OF LAURISTON. 
 
 JOHN LAW of LAURISTON, Comptroller Ge- 
 neral of the Finances of France, one of the 
 most remarkable characters of modern times, 
 was born in the capital of Scotland in April 
 1671, his baptism being thus entered in the 
 Registers of Edinburgh on the 21st of that 
 month, " William Law, goldsmith, and Jean 
 Campbell, a son named John. Witnesses, 
 Mr. John Law, John Law, goldsmith, Archi- 
 bald Hislop, bookbinder, Heugh Campbell, 
 John Melvill, and John Murray, merchants." 
 
2 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 His father, William Law, according to 
 communications made by an agent of the fa- 
 mily, was great-grandson of James Law, Arch- 
 bishop of Glasgow from 1615 to 1632, and se- 
 cond son of James Law of Brunton in Fife, by 
 Margaret, daughter of Sir John Preston of 
 Prestonhall, Baronet. He followed the pro- 
 fession of a goldsmith in Edinburgh, a busi- 
 ness, at that time, partaking more of the na- 
 ture of a banker's than of that to which the 
 name is now restricted, with such success as 
 enabled him to purchase the lands of Lauris- 
 ton and Randleston. This property, extend- 
 ing to upwards of 180 Scotish acres, stretching 
 along the south shore of the Firth of Forth, 
 in the parish of Cramond and county of Edin- 
 burgh, was acquired by him from Margaret 
 Dalgliesh, only child and heiress of Robert 
 Dalgliesh of Lauriston, relict of Lewis Craig 
 of Riccartoun, with consent of Thomas Craig 
 of Riccartoun, her eldest son, by disposition 
 dated 14th June, 1683. In that disposition, 
 the right to these lands is taken to William 
 Law and Jean Campbell, his wife, and the 
 longest liver of the two in liferent, and to John 
 Law, their eldest son, in fee ; and a charter 
 under the great seal to that effect was granted 
 
OF LAURISTON. 3 
 
 20th July, 1683.* It appears that William 
 Law did not long survive this purchase, as on 
 the 25th of September, 1684, John Law was 
 served heir of William Law, goldsmith, bur- 
 gess of Edinburgh, his father, f Jean Camp- 
 bell, his wife, descended from one of the nu- 
 merous branches of the ducal house of Argyll, 
 survived him many years, and by her prudent 
 management, preserved the estate of Lauriston 
 to the family. 
 
 John Law of Lauriston, their eldest surviv- 
 ing son, was educated at Edinburgh, and made 
 a competent progress in literature. The bent 
 of his inclination, however, prompting him to 
 apply, in a particular manner, to the studies 
 of arithmetic and geometry, he made himself 
 so complete a master of these branches as to 
 be able to resolve with the utmost facility the 
 most intricate problems in them ; and it was 
 remarked that none more perfectly understood 
 the complex science of algebra. He likewise 
 bestowed much time and labour to acquire a 
 deep insight into the principles of public and 
 private credit ; the state of trade and manu- 
 
 Mag, Sig, Ixix. 58. t Inq. Ret. xxxix. 502. 
 
4 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 factures ; the theory and practice of taxation ; 
 and, in short, of all circumstances respecting 
 political economy in general. The accession 
 of knowledge, resulting from these inquiries, 
 laid the foundation of his future eminence.* 
 
 He lost his father before he had completed 
 his 14th year, experiencing the disadvantages 
 of emancipation from paternal control at an 
 early age. The graces of a naturally hand- 
 some person were carefully improved by 
 the acquisition of external accomplishments. 
 For these, indeed, he became so remarkable, 
 as to be known among his companions by the 
 name of Jessamy John ; and he was commonly 
 distinguished by the appellation of Beau Law. 
 He addicted himself to the practice of all 
 games of chance, skill, and dexterity, and, was 
 noted as a capital player at tennis, an exercise 
 much in vogue in Scotland towards the close 
 of the seventeenth century, f 
 
 * Histoire du Systeme des Finances, i. 68. Me- 
 moires de Pollnitz, ii. 245. 
 
 t Information from the late Sir David Dalrymple, 
 Lord Hailes. Transactions of the Society of Antiqua- 
 ries of Scotland, i. 503. 
 
OF LAURISTON. 5 
 
 The usual result of neglecting honest and 
 lawful pursuits, and wasting time and talents 
 in idleness, gambling, and dissipation, follow- 
 ed. Mr. Law went to London, and involved 
 himself so deeply, that he found it necessary 
 to dispose of the fee of Lauriston, which, as 
 already stated, was vested in him. This he 
 conveyed to his mother, Jean Campbell, by 
 disposition dated at London 6th February, 
 1692. Mrs. Law undertook the payment of 
 his debts, advanced money to him, and by her 
 industry and good management, relieved the 
 estate of Lauriston of every burden; after 
 which, she executed entails to continue that 
 property in the family. 
 
 In London, Mr. Law's superior personal 
 beauty, ready wit, and engaging manners, aid- 
 ed by his propensity to deep play, procured 
 him admittance into some of the first circles. 
 He had the reputation of being extremely for- 
 tunate in affairs of gallantry. One of these 
 was attended with disastrous consequences. 
 A Mrs. Lawrence was the occasion of a quar- 
 rel between him and Mr. Edward Wilson, 
 fifth son of Thomas Wilson of Keythorpe, in 
 the county of Leicester, which led to a hostile 
 meeting betwixt the parties in Bloomsbury 
 
6 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 Square, 9th April, 1694, when Mr. Wilson 
 was killed on the spot. 
 
 Mr. Law was immediately apprehended, 
 and was brought to trial before the King and 
 Queen's Commissioners, who sat at the Justice 
 Hall in the Old Bailey, on the 18th, 19th, and 
 20th of April, 1694. In the proceedings pub- 
 lished by authority, the statement is thus given : 
 John Law, of St. Giles's in the Fields, gentle- 
 man, was arraigned upon an indictment for 
 murder, for killing Edward Wilson, gentle- 
 man, commonly called Beau Wilson, a person 
 who, by the common report of fame, kept a 
 coach and six horses maintained his family 
 in great splendour and grandeur, being full of 
 money, no one complaining of his being their 
 debtor, yet from whence he had the effects 
 which caused him to appear in so great an 
 equipage, is hard to be determined. The 
 matter of fact was this, some difference 
 happened to arise between Mr. Law and the 
 deceased concerning a Mrs. Lawrence, who 
 was acquainted with Mr. Law ; upon which, 
 on the 9th of April instant, they met in 
 Bloomsbury Square, and there fought a duel, 
 in which Mr. Wilson was killed. It was 
 made appear also that they had met several 
 
OF LAURISTON. 7 
 
 times before, but had not opportunity to fight ; 
 besides, there were several letters sent by Mr. 
 Law, or given to Mr. Wilson by him, which 
 letters were full of invectives and cautions to 
 Mr. Wilson to beware, for there was a design 
 of evil against him ; and there were two letters 
 sent by Mr. Wilson, one to Mr. Law and the 
 other to Mrs. Lawrence. Mr. Wilson's man, 
 Smith, swore that Mr. Law came to his mas- 
 ter's house, a little before the fatal meeting, 
 and drank a pint of sack in the parlour ; after 
 which, he heard his master say that he was 
 much surprised with something that Mr. Law 
 had told him. Captain Wightman, a person 
 of good information, gave an account of the 
 whole matter. He said that he was a familiar 
 friend of Mr. Wilson, -was with him and Mr. 
 Law at the Fountain Tavern in the Strand, 
 and after they had stayed a little while there 
 Mr. Law went away. After this, Mr. Wilson 
 and Captain Wightman took coach and were 
 driven towards Bloomsbury, where Mr. Wil- 
 son stepped out of the coach into the square, 
 where Mr. Law met him; and before they 
 came together Mr. Wilson drew his sword 
 and stood upon his guard. Upon which, Mr. 
 Law immediately drew his sword ; and they 
 
8 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 both passed together, making but one pass, 
 by which Mr. Wilson received a mortal wound 
 in the upper part of the stomach, of the depth 
 of two inches, of which he instantly died. 
 The letters read in court were full of aggrava- 
 tions on both parts, without any name sub- 
 scribed to them. There were other witnesses 
 that saw the duel fought, who all agreed in 
 their depositions that they drew their swords, 
 and passed at each other, and presently Mr, 
 Wilson was killed. This was the sum of the 
 evidence for the Crown. 
 
 Mr. Law, in his defence, declared that Mr. 
 Wilson and he had been together several times 
 before the duel was fought, and no quarrel ever 
 took place between them till they met at the 
 Fountain Tavern, which was occasioned about 
 the letters; and that his meeting with Mr. 
 Wilson in Bloomsbury was merely an acci- 
 dental thing, Mr. Wilson drawing his sword 
 upon him first, by which he was forced to 
 stand in his own defence : that the misfor- 
 tune did arise only from a sudden heat of pas- 
 sion, and not from any malice prepense. The 
 Court acquainted the Jury, that if they found 
 Mr. Law and Mr. Wilson did make an agree-, 
 ment to fight, though Mr. Wilson drew first; 
 
OF LAURISTON. 9 
 
 that Mr. Law killed him, he was, by the 
 construction of the law, guilty of murder; 
 for if two men suddenly quarrel, and one kill 
 the other, this would be but manslaughter; 
 but this case seems to be otherwise, for 
 there was a continual quarrel carried on be- 
 twixt them for some time before ; therefore, 
 must be accounted a malicious quarrel, and a 
 design of murder in the person that killed the 
 other. The trial lasted long, and the prisoner 
 had persons of good quality who gave a fair 
 account of his life in general, and that he was 
 not given to quarrelling, nor a person of ill 
 behaviour. The Jury having considered of a 
 verdict very seriously, found that Mr. Law 
 was guilty of murder, and sentence of death 
 was passed on him, 20th April, 1694.* 
 
 * Nichols's History and Antiquities of the County 
 of Leicester, iii. 487, where it is stated that Mr. Ed- 
 ward Wilson was the wonder of the age he lived in, as, 
 from the moderate fortune of a country gentleman's 
 younger son, he was on a sudden exalted to a very high 
 pitch. For gay dress, splendid equipage, and vast ex- 
 pense, he exceeded all the Court. How he was sup- 
 ported, few, very few indeed, truly knew ; and those 
 who have undertaken to account for it, have done it only 
 from the darkness and uncertainty of conjecture. 
 
10 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 On a representation of the case to the crown 
 Mr. Law obtained a pardon, but an appeal 
 being lodged by a brother of the deceased, he 
 was detained in the King's Bench Prison. 
 This appeal was brought before the Court of 
 King's Bench in Trinity Term, 1694; several 
 exceptions were taken on the part of Mr. Law, 
 which were overruled.* While this was de- 
 pending, Mr. Law found means to make his 
 escape from confinement ; on which occasion 
 the following advertisement was published in 
 the London Gazette of Monday, 7th January, 
 1695 : " Captain f John Lawe, a Scotchman, 
 lately a prisoner in the King's Bench for 
 murther, aged 26, a very tall, black, lean man, 
 well shaped, above six foot high, large pock- 
 holes in his face, big high nosed, speaks broad 
 and loud, made his escape from the said pri- 
 son. Whoever secures him, so as he may be 
 delivered at the said prison, shall have fifty 
 pounds paid immediately by the Marshall of 
 
 * See Salkeld's Reports, i. 59, voce Appeal. 
 
 t It does not appear that he had the honour of bear- 
 ing any military commission. Captain is a good travel- 
 ling title, and it is said that he served some time as an 
 officer of the Walloon Guards in Spain. 
 
OF LAURISTON. 11 
 
 the King's Bench.'* This advertisement prov- 
 ed ineffectual, Mr. Law getting clear off, and 
 it was probably at this time that he first visit- 
 ed the continent. The description, indeed, 
 conveying no favourable idea of his personal 
 appearance, and differing from his real por- 
 trait, seems to have been drawn up with a 
 view to facilitate his escape, which, it is re- 
 ported, was effected by the proper application 
 of money ; and it is to be observed that he was 
 then in the 24th, not the 26th year of his age. 
 Mr. Law appears to have made good use of 
 the period of his exile, improving his know- 
 ledge of finance by observing the various 
 modes of conducting the banking establish- 
 ments, managing the public revenues, and the 
 state of trade and manufactures in the differ- 
 ent countries that he passed through ; parti- 
 cularly by making himself as much as possible 
 acquainted, upon the spot, with the operations 
 of the mysterious bank of Amsterdam, which, 
 it is stated, he was the better enabled to do, 
 from officiating for some time as secretary to 
 the British resident in Holland. He return- 
 ed to his native country towards the close of 
 the seventeenth century ; the introduction to 
 his " Proposals and Reasons for constituting 
 
12 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 a Council of Trade/' being dated at Edin- 
 burgh, 31st December, 1700; and the work 
 was published there early in the ensuing year. 
 In this work he submits to the public a plan 
 for reviving, encouraging, and promoting the 
 trade and manufactures of the kingdom then, 
 in consequence of various unfortunate circum- 
 stances, particularly the miscarriage of the 
 Darien expedition, at a very low ebb by con- 
 stituting, by act of Parliament, a Council of 
 Trade, in whom should be vested the whole of 
 the king's revenues, the bishops lands and 
 rents, all charitable endowments and appro- 
 priations, one-tenth of all grain raised, and 
 malt made in the kingdom, one-twentieth of 
 all sums sued for at law, one-fortieth of all 
 successions, legacies, and sales, and several 
 other articles. This great income he propos- 
 ed to employ, after .deduction of a fixed an- 
 nual sum for his Majesty's use, and for the 
 salaries of the members of the council, in pro- 
 moting, by all manner of ways, the trade, fish- 
 eries, and manufactures of Scotland, building 
 workhouses, and purchasing all means and 
 materials for employing, relieving, and main- 
 taining the poor, buying up, and keeping at a 
 regular rate, the various productions and 
 
OF LAURISTON. 13 
 
 manufactures of the kingdom, making and 
 maintaining highways, bridges, and harbours, 
 and in other beneficial purposes. He also 
 proposes that the council should be empower- 
 ed to dispense with prejudicial monopolies, 
 regulate the weights and measures, punish 
 fraudulent bankrupts, liberate honest debtors 
 who have made a fair surrender of their ef- 
 fects, and seize upon all beggars and vaga- 
 bonds; ^and it is further submitted, that all 
 duties upon exports, and upon such imports 
 as are proper to be meliorated or manufactur- 
 ed in the kingdom, should be taken off, one 
 per cent only excepted, but that the duties on 
 all other imports should be doubled. 
 
 From the exertions of a Council vested with 
 such powers, and possessing revenues so am- 
 ple, Mr. Law entertained the most sanguine 
 expectations of a speedy recovery of the trade 
 and manufactures of Scotland, from the de- 
 pressed state in which, at that time, they 
 were; but the project did not appear in the 
 same light to the supreme judicature of the 
 kingdom, during the reign of King William; 
 and, consequently, met with no encourage- 
 ment* 
 
14 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 This publication had, however, the effect of 
 introducing Mr. Law to the notice of several 
 of the principal personages of this country; 
 and he soon became intimate with the first 
 Duke of Argyll, his sons the Marquis of 
 Lorn and Lord Archibald Campbell, the 
 Marquis of Tweeddale, and other noblemen. 
 Relying on their powerful support, he, in 
 1705, offered to Parliament a plan for remov- 
 ing the difficulties Scotland then lay under, 
 from the great scarcity of specie, and the stop- 
 page of payments of the bank; preparatory to 
 and explanatory of which, he published an- 
 other work, entitled " Money and Trade 
 Considered, with a proposal for supplying the 
 nation with money," printed at Edinburgh the 
 same year. 
 
 After preliminary observations tending to 
 show the insufficiency of gold and silver to 
 serve as money, from their increasing in 
 quantity as the demand lessens, and the super- 
 iority of land as a foundation for money, being 
 capable of improvement as the demand in- 
 creases, and the quantity remaining always 
 the same, he therein proposes that commis- 
 sioners, to be appointed by, and to act under 
 the control of Parliament, should have pow- 
 
OF LAURISTON. 15 
 
 er to issue notes, and to give them out in any 
 of these three modes. 1st, In the way of loan, 
 at ordinary interest, upon landed security, the 
 debt not to exceed half or two-thirds of the 
 value of the land; 2dly, To give out the full 
 price of land in notes, and to enter into the 
 possession thereof by wadset, redeemable with- 
 in a certain period; and 3dly, To give out in 
 notes the full price of land upon sale irredeem- 
 ably. Thus, all the notes being firmly secur- 
 ed on landed property, he asserts that they 
 will not only be equal in value to gold and 
 silver money of the same denomination, but 
 also be preferred to these metals, as not being 
 liable to fall in value like them. 
 
 This scheme, although supported by the 
 united weight of the court party, and of that 
 called the Squadrone, (a few monied men ex- 
 cepted,) beaded by the Duke of Argyll, and 
 the Marquis of Tweeddale, was rejected by 
 Parliament, the House passing a resolution, 
 " that to establish any kind of paper credit, 
 so as to oblige it to pass, was an improper ex- 
 pedient for the nation." The rejection of 
 this plan was occasioned by an apprehension 
 that if it took effect, all the estates in the king- 
 2 
 
16 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 dom would thereby be brought to a complete 
 dependence upon the government. * 
 
 Mr. Law now resolved to abandon his 
 native country, and try his fortune abroad.f 
 He resided some time at Brussels, where he 
 became noted for extraordinary success at 
 play, to which his skill in calculation did not 
 a little contribute. In two excursions he 
 made to Paris, his good fortune became still 
 more conspicuous; Pharaoh was his favour- 
 ite, and at this game he was accustomed to 
 play at the Hotel de Gesvres, Rue des Poulies, 
 at the houses of Poisson, Rue Dauphine, and 
 of Duclos, a famous comedian, which were 
 his ordinary haunts, although his company 
 was greatly sought after by persons of the 
 first rank. It is said that he seldom carried 
 with him less than 100,000 livres in gold, every 
 time he went to these places, where the play 
 
 * Lockhart of Carnwath's Memoirs, 144, 145. 
 
 t It is said that Mr. Law was employed in settling 
 the proportion of the equivalent to be paid by England 
 to Scotland, on account of the union of the two king- 
 doms. The authority for this assertion is however 
 questionable, and it appears that he was at Genoa so 
 early as 1708. 
 
OF LAURISTON. 17 
 
 at last became so deep, that Mr. Law, finding 
 it was with difficulty his hands could contain 
 the sums to be collected from and distributed 
 among the gamesters at the end of every deal, 
 was obliged to provide himself with counters, 
 rated at 18 louis each, in order to facilitate 
 his operations. 
 
 Visiting the principal cities of Italy, he con- 
 tinued his speculations, playing at all sorts of 
 games, betting, and engaging in the public 
 funds and banks, with his usual success, par- 
 ticularly at Rome in time of the carnival, at 
 Venice and Genoa, insomuch that in 1714 he 
 was worth upwards of l 10,000 sterling. * It 
 is said that his good fortune at play giving 
 umbrage to some people at Paris, who could 
 not bear to see a foreigner so successful, they 
 
 * Mr. Law, in his memorial to the Due de Bourbon, 
 of" 15th October, 1724, to be afterwards noticed, says 
 he brought with him into France in 1714, 1,000,000 
 livres, at 28 livres to the marc. It would appear that 
 he had improved his circumstances previously to going 
 abroad, as, among the burdens on the estate of Pit- 
 reavie, in Fife, sold in 1711 by the Earl of Rosebery to 
 Sir Robert Blackwood, was an annuity of 1455 Scots 
 to John Law of Lauriston. 
 
}g LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 found means to have him represented in the 
 light of a state enemy, to M. d'Argenson, 
 Lieutenant-General of the Police, who sent 
 orders to Mr. Law to leave Paris within 
 twenty-four hours; and that he found himself 
 in a similar predicament at Genoa and Turin. 
 After leaving the latter city, he passed some 
 time in travelling through Germany and Hun- 
 gary, in his accustomed style of play and ex- 
 pense.* 
 
 Much as Mr. Law was addicted to gambling, 
 he did not, however, suffer that passion to 
 gain a complete ascendency over his mind. 
 Conscious of his abilities, and sensible of the 
 depth of his knowledge in the art of finance, 
 he ardently longed for an opportunity of bring- 
 ing both into action. Accordingly, on his 
 first visit to Paris, he found means to procure 
 an introduction to the Due de Chartres, after- 
 wards Due d' Orleans, and Regent of France, 
 with whom, as also with Chamillard, the then 
 Comptroller-General, he held several confer- 
 ences concerning the possibility of reducing 
 the national debt. On Mr. Law's coming to 
 
 * Hist. Syst. i. 70, 71. Oeuvres de J. Law, 430. 
 
OF LAURISTON. 19 
 
 Paris for the second time, the Abbe Thesul 
 recommended him to Desmarets, successor to 
 Chamillard in the office of Comptroller-Gen- 
 eral, to whom he communicated a plan for 
 remedying the disorders of the finances, but 
 this it was not thought proper to adopt. It 
 is stated, that this plan being laid by Desmar- 
 ets before Louis XIV. the bigotry of that 
 monarch led him, instead of inquiring into 
 the merits of the project, to ask whether the 
 proposer was a catholic; and, on being an- 
 swered in the negative, to say that he would 
 have nothing to do with a heretic.* 
 
 During these various rambles, Mr. Law, by 
 means of his graceful figure and insinuating 
 manners, was everywhere well received by per- 
 sons of the highest quality, sovereign princes 
 themselves taking pleasure in his company and 
 conversation. At Florence he became very 
 intimate with the Prince de Vendome, at that 
 time Grand Prior of France, who did not 
 scruple to ask the loan of a very considerable 
 
 * Meraoires de la Minorite de Louis XV. par Mas- 
 sillon, 99. Fragmens des Lettres Originates de Ma- 
 dame Charlotte Elizabeth de Baviere, Veuve de Mon- 
 sieur, frere unique de Louis XIV. ii. 271. 
 
20 ^IFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 sum, which Mr. Law lent him with the best 
 grace in the world. Becoming acquainted at 
 Neufchatel, with the Prince of Conti, he im- 
 parted some of his financial projects to his 
 Highness, who thought so favourably of them 
 as to write on the subject to the Duke of Bur- 
 gundy, grandson of Louis XIV. To Victor 
 Amadeus, King of Sardinia, by whom he was 
 particularly noticed, Mr. Law communicated 
 a scheme of the same nature as that which 
 was afterwards proposed to the Due d' Orleans; 
 but that monarch declined putting it in prac- 
 tice, saying that his dominions were too small 
 for the execution of so great a design; at the 
 same time mentioning that France was the 
 proper theatre for its performance. Tf I know 
 the disposition of the people of that kingdom, 
 added he, I am sure they will relish your 
 schemes; and, therefore, I would advise you 
 to go thither. * 
 
 Adopting this sound advice, Mr. Law visit- 
 ed Paris for the third time in 1714, not long 
 before Louis XIV. gave way to fate, bringing 
 with him the whole of his acquisitions during 
 
 Massillon, 100. Pollnitz, ii. 237. 
 
OF LAURISTON. 21 
 
 / 
 
 his various rambles and adventures, and fixing 
 
 his residence in the Place Vendome, or de 
 Louis le Grand. After the demise of that 
 monarch, his old friend the Due d' Orleans 
 assuming the government of the kingdom, as 
 Regent during the minority of Louis XV. 
 Mr. Law renewed his acquaintance with that 
 prince, who being fond of men of spirit, viv- 
 acity and wit, could not fail of being highly 
 delighted with that enterprising foreigner, as 
 he not only possessed these qualities in an em- 
 inent degree, but was, besides, of a disposition 
 not less addicted to pleasure and dissipation 
 than his own. Mr. Law consequently rose 
 to no small degree of favour and intimacy 
 with his Royal Highness, who soon finding 
 the extent of his capacity,^ and the fertility of 
 his resources, admitted him into all his private 
 parties, and nominated him one of the Coun- 
 sellors of State. Availing himself of that in- 
 timacy, Mr. Law took care not to neglect 
 every opportunity in his power to draw the 
 attention of the Regent to the state of the 
 French finances, at that time in a situation 
 accounted desperate by all who pretended to 
 skill in these affairs, the long and expensive 
 wars of Louis XIV. having superinduced an 
 
22 lFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 enormous weight of debt upon the nation, 
 which groaned under the intolerable load of 
 taxes imposed for payment of the interest. 
 All industry was thus checked; trade in a 
 manner annihilated; manufactures, commerce, 
 and navigation had almost ceased; the mer- 
 chant and the trader were reduced to beggary, 
 and the artificer was compelled, for want of 
 employment, to leave the kingdom. In short, 
 such was the state of affairs, that it had been 
 debated in council, and proposed to the Re- 
 gent, to expunge at once the debts of the state 
 by a national bankruptcy. This proposal he 
 nobly rejected, preferring to it the more equit- 
 able method of establishing a commission or 
 Visa, to inquire into the claims of the state 
 creditors. By this commission the national 
 debt was at last put into a kind of order, and 
 the amount reduced to somewhat more than 
 2000 millions of livres, which, at 28 livres to the 
 marc of standard silver, (two pounds sterling,) 
 the then denomination of the specie in France, 
 made above 142 millions sterling. Of this 
 sum, 1750 millions of livres were established 
 upon particular funds, at the rate of four per 
 cent; and for the remaining 250 millions, the 
 creditors obtained billets d'etat, as they were 
 
OF LAURISTON. 23 
 
 called, bearing also an interest of four per 
 cent; making altogether 80 millions of interest 
 per annum, which, from the distressed situa- 
 tion of the kingdom, was very irregularly 
 paid; and after doing that, there hardly re- 
 mained, out of an ill-collected revenue, a sum 
 sufficient to defray the necessary expense of 
 the civil government.* 
 
 This calamitous situation of affairs, which 
 would have daunted a man of less spirit and 
 enterprise, had no other effect than to render 
 Mr. Law more eager to provide some remedy 
 for these evils. The most efficacious mode he 
 judged to be the establishment of a well-re- 
 gulated paper credit; but as this matter was, 
 little understood, if not altogether unknown, 
 in France, he thought proper, in order to pave 
 the way for its introduction, to translate into 
 French his publication on Money and Trade, 
 and to explain its principles in a series of let- 
 ters, addressed to the Due d' Orleans, and in 
 two memorials presented to that prince. In 
 these he strongly inculcates his favourite 
 
 * Duclos, i. 354. Stewart's Inquiry into the Princi- 
 ples of Political Economy, ii. 236. 
 
24 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 maxim, that the power and prosperity of a 
 state increases in proportion to the quantity 
 of money circulating therein; and after as- 
 serting that even the richest nations have not 
 specie sufficient to afford full employment to 
 all their inhabitants, and to carry their trade 
 to the height of which it is capable, he launch- 
 es out into encomiums on the advantages of 
 paper credit for supplying that defect. In 
 support of this proposition, he instances the 
 vast benefits accruing to England and to Hol- 
 land, from the banks of London and Amster- 
 dam; and adduces a variety of arguments to 
 show that the setting up of an establishment 
 of a similar nature, but upon an improved 
 plan, in Paris, would be attended with the like 
 good effects to France. * 
 
 Hoping that by these arguments the Regent 
 was convinced of the utility and necessity of 
 such an establishment, Mr. Law proposed to 
 set up a bank, secured upon landed property 
 unalienably engaged, and upon the whole 
 royal revenues, to be administered in the 
 king's name, but subject to the control of 
 
 Oeuvres de J. Law, passim. 
 
OF LAURISTON. 25 
 
 -tjp^ 
 
 Commissioners appointed by the States Gen- 
 eral of the kingdom; blending in this scheme 
 the two plans for establishing a Council of 
 Trade in Scotland, and supplying that nation 
 with money, formerly mentioned. This ap- 
 plication was, however, ineffectual at that 
 time, as we learn from the preamble of his 
 Majesty's letters patent of 2d May, 1716, 
 where it is said, that " Mr. Law having some 
 time since proposed a scheme for erecting a 
 bank, which should consist of our own money, 
 and be administered in our name, and under 
 our authority, the project was examined in our 
 Council of Finances, where several bankers, 
 merchants, and deputies from our trading cities 
 being convened, and required to give their 
 advice, they were unanimous in the opinion, 
 that nothing could be more advantageous to 
 our kingdom, which, through its situation and 
 fertility, added to the industry of its inhabit- 
 ants, stood in need of nothing more than a 
 solid credit, for acquiring the most extensive 
 and flourishing commerce. They thought, 
 however, that the present conjuncture was not 
 favourable for the undertaking ; and this rea- 
 c 
 
26 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 son, added to some particular clauses of the 
 project, determined us to refuse it." * 
 
 Not discouraged by this repulse, Mr. Law 
 requested permission to set up a private bank 
 in his house, in the Place de Louis le Grand, 
 to be composed entirely of funds furnished by 
 himself and by those who chose to engage in the 
 undertaking, proposing, by means thereof, to 
 increase the circulation of money ; put a -stop 
 to the progress of usury ; facilitate the ex- 
 change between Paris and the Provinces ; 
 augment the consumption of manufactures ; 
 and enable the people the more easily to pay 
 the heavy taxes to which they were subjected. 
 This bank was accordingly established by let- 
 ters patent, bearing date the 2d and 20th of 
 May, 1716, containing the following regula- 
 tions. 
 
 The stock of the bank to consist of 1200 
 actions, or shares, of 1000 crowns, or 5000 
 livres each, the denomination being then fix- 
 ed by law at forty livres the marc, conse- 
 
 * Memoires de la Regence de S. A. R. Mgr. le Due 
 d'Orleans, i. 133. 
 
OF LAURISTON. 27 
 
 quently, each share was worth 250, and the 
 whole stock 300,000 sterling. All persons 
 whatsoever to be at liberty to subscribe for as 
 many shares as they pleased, and it was de- 
 clared that the bank securities belonging to, 
 as well as the money lodged in it by, foreign- 
 ers, should not be subject to any confiscation 
 or attachment whatsoever, even in case of war 
 with the nations to which the proprietors re- 
 spectively belonged. All questions to be de- 
 termined by plurality of votes, those possess- 
 ing from five to ten to have one vote ; from ten 
 to fifteen shares to have two votes, and so on 
 in proportion ; but those who had less than 
 five shares were to be excluded from any voice 
 in the management. The accounts to be bal- 
 anced twice a-year, viz. from the 15th to the 
 20th of June, and from the 15th to the 20th 
 of January. Two general courts to be held 
 yearly, in which, the state of the company's 
 affairs should be discussed, and the dividends 
 settled. The treasurer never to have more 
 than 200,000 crowns, nor any of the cashiers 
 more than 20,000 in hand at a time ; and they 
 were besides obliged to find sufficient security 
 for their intromissions. The notes to be sign- 
 ed by the director, and by one of the proprie- 
 
28 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 tors, and to be revised by an inspector ap- 
 pointed by the Regent. The bank not to un- 
 dertake any sort of commerce whatever, nor 
 to charge itself with the execution of any com- 
 missions ; the notes to be all payable at sight, 
 and no money allowed to be borrowed by the 
 bank on any pretext whatever. Various re- 
 gulations were added of less importance, and 
 too long to be enumerated in this place. 
 
 This association, of which, Mr. Law and 
 his brother William, then settled at London, 
 were the principal partners, assumed the firm 
 of the General Bank of Law and Company, 
 and set out under very favourable auspices, it 
 being known that they enjoyed the protection 
 of the Regent, and a high idea of their soli- 
 dity being raised by the discourse Mr. Law 
 unceasingly held in public, that a banker me- 
 rited the punishment of death if he issued 
 notes or bills of exchange without having their 
 effective value in his repositories. But what 
 most attracted the public confidence was, the 
 security their notes provided against the ar- 
 bitrary practice of varying the standard of the 
 coin at the will of the monarch ; an unjusti- 
 fiable measure, frequently put in execution by 
 the French government, to the infinite preju- 
 
OF LAURISTON. 29 
 
 dice of debtors and creditors, particularly at 
 the general coinages in 1709 and 1716, by the 
 former of which the king gained 23 T V per cent, 
 and by the latter 20 per cent, upon the whole 
 specie of the kingdom. The terms in which 
 the notes of the General Bank were couched, 
 viz. " The bank promises to pay to the bearer, 
 
 at sight, the sum of crowns, in coin of 
 
 the weight and standard of this clay," (of the 
 date of each note) " value received^" effectual- 
 ly guarded against this contingency. Let us 
 state, by way of example, that if one who had 
 paid in, and taken out a bank note for, 1000 
 livres or 25 marcs, on the 2d of June 1716, 
 when the standard of the specie was settled 
 by law at 40 livres the marc, wanted to ex- 
 change it at an after period, when the stand- 
 ard was fixed at 50 livres the marc, he would, 
 on presenting his note, receive 25 marcs, or 
 1250 livres. The bank was, in like manner, 
 secured from suffering if the reverse took 
 place. On this account, as well as from the 
 quickness and punctuality of the payments, 
 and the orders given to the officers of the re- 
 venue in all parts in the kingdom to receive the 
 paper, without discount, in payment of taxes, 
 
30 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 the notes of the General Bank in a short time 
 rose to great repute, and were by many prefer- 
 red to specie, insomuch that they soon came 
 to pass current for one per cent more than the 
 coin itself. The most beneficial effects were 
 thereby produced on the industry and trade 
 of the nation, the taxes and royal revenues be- 
 ing, by means of the notes, remitted to the 
 capital at little expense, and without draining 
 the provinces of specie. Foreigners, who had 
 hitherto been very cautious of dealing with 
 the French, now began to interest themselves 
 deeply in this new Bank ; so that the balance 
 of exchange with England and Holland soon 
 rose to the rate of 4 and 5 per cent in favour 
 of Paris. This bank subsisted in high credit, 
 to the no small profit of the proprietors,* till 
 the close of the year 1718, when the Due 
 d'Orleans, observing the uncommon advan- 
 tages resulting from that establishment, re- 
 
 * At a general meeting of the proprietors, held in 
 presence of the Regent, 20th December 1717, it was 
 determined to order a dividend of 7^ per cent for six 
 months, which is at the rate of 15 per cent per annum, 
 
OF LAURISTON. 31 
 
 solved to take it into his Majesty's hands, as 
 at first proposed. * 
 
 This resolution, it may well be supposed, 
 could not be relished by Mr. Law and his as- 
 sociates ; but whatever were their sentiments, 
 they knew the inutility of opposition to the 
 will of the Regent. They, however, endea- 
 voured to obtain permission to continue the 
 General Bank, at the same time the Royal 
 Bank should be set on foot. This request 
 was refused; and the public were informed, 
 by act of council, bearing date 4th December, 
 1718, that the king had taken Mr. Law's 
 bank into his own hands, under the name of 
 the Royal Bank ; that his Majesty had reim- 
 bursed the former proprietors their shares, 
 and had become answerable for the outstand- 
 ing notes issued by them, amounting to fifty- 
 nine millions of livres. It was also declared, 
 that no notes should, for the future, be fabri- 
 cated, except in virtue of public acts of the 
 
 * Stewart, ii. 250. Hist. Syst. i. 79. Reflexions Po- 
 litiques sur les Finances et le Commerce, (par M. du 
 Tot,) ii. 109. Examen du livre intitule Reflexions Po- 
 litiques sur les Finances et le Commerce, (par M. du 
 Verney,) i. 299. 
 
32 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 king and council ; and by a subsequent edict? 
 his Majesty engaged that the notes should 
 never be subjected to such diminutions as 
 might be made on the specie, but that they 
 should always be paid in full. Of this Royal 
 Bank Mr. Law was named director-general, 
 and branches were fixed at Lyons, Rochelle, 
 Tours, Orleans, and Amiens.* 
 
 Thus the bank, being placed in the king's 
 hands, departed from the principles of private 
 and mercantile credit, upon which Mr. Law 
 had originally fixed it, and proceeded upon 
 those of public credit, which, in an absolute 
 monarchy, as France then was, is no other 
 than that of the Sovereign, and consequently 
 cannot be depended upon. To add to the 
 evil, the tenor of the notes was changed, and 
 ran thus : " The bank promises to pay the 
 bearer, at sight, livres in silver coin, va- 
 lue received." By this alteration the money 
 in the notes could not but keep pace with that 
 in the coin, both being equally affected with 
 every arbitrary variation made upon the latter. 
 Mr. Law did all he could to prevent this alte- 
 ration : it however took place, and the credit 
 
 * Examen, i. 226. 
 
OF LAURISTON. 33 
 
 of the notes of the Royal Bank became as good 
 as that of the General Bank notes, although 
 the crowns in the latter contained a fixed and 
 positive value, while the livres in the former 
 could, at any time, be reduced, at the plea- 
 sure of the Monarch, the debtor in them, 
 to the value of halfpence. Of these notes, 
 there were to the amount of 1000 millions of 
 livres fabricated betwixt the 5th January and 
 29th December 1719. In February 1720, the 
 Royal Bank was incorporated with the Com- 
 pany of the Indies ; and from that incorpora- 
 tion, to the 1st of May following, there were 
 no less than 1,696,400,000 livres more fabri- 
 cated in notes, making altogether a total of 
 2,696,400,000 livres in paper money, of which 
 vast sum 2,235,083,590 livres were in circula- 
 tion on the 29th of May 1720, when the bank 
 stopped payment, as will be hereafter men- 
 tioned.* 
 
 After the establishment of the General 
 Bank, Mr. Law began to lay open the plan of 
 
 * Stewart, ii. 240. The notes were of four denomi- 
 nations, viz. of 10,000, 1000, 100, and 10 livres, none 
 being issued for any other sums. The number of each 
 sort was as follows : 
 
34 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 that great and stupendous project he had 
 long meditated, known by the name of The 
 Missisippi System, which, for a while, turn- 
 ed the heads of the French, and attracted the 
 attention of all Europe. The scheme was no 
 less than the vesting of the whole privileges, 
 effects, and possessions of all the foreign trad- 
 ing companies, the great farms, the mint, the 
 general receipt of the king's revenues, and the 
 management and property of the bank, in one 
 great company, who thus having in their hands 
 all the trade, taxes, and royal revenues, might 
 be enabled to multiply the notes of the bank 
 to any extent they pleased, doubling, or even 
 trebling at will the circulating cash of the 
 kingdom, and, by the immensity of their funds. 
 
 113,400 of 10,000 livres each - 1,134,000,0'00 
 
 1,223,200 of 1000 - 1,223,200,000 
 
 2,992,000 of 100 299,200,000 
 
 4,000,000 of 10 40,000,000 
 
 2,696,400,000 
 
 By edict of 19th September, 1720, notes of 50 livres 
 each, to the extent of 50,000,000 livres, were directed 
 to be made, in order to facilitate the changing of the 
 large notes into small ones. 
 
OF LAURISTON. 3& 
 
 possessed of a power to carry the foreign 
 trade, and the culture of the colonies, to a 
 height altogether impracticable by any other 
 means. The outlines of this plan being laid 
 before the Regent, met, it would seem, with 
 the approbation of that prince, as measures 
 were taken for the establishment of the pro- 
 posed company,* and directions issued for 
 making the requisite grants to enable them to 
 commence their operations. 
 
 Accordingly, by letters patent dated in 
 August 1717, a commercial company was 
 erected, under the name of the Company of 
 the West, to whom was granted the whole 
 province of Louisiana, a country watered 
 throughout its whole extent by the great river 
 Missisippi; from which last circumstance, its 
 subsequent operations came, by way of dis- 
 tinction, to be included under the general 
 name of THE MISSISIPPI SYSTEM. Of this 
 company 200,000 actions, or shares, were is- 
 sued, rated at 500 livres each, and the sub- 
 scription for them was ordered to be paid in 
 billets (fetat. These papers were at that time 
 in such discredit, by reason of the bad pay- 
 ment of their interest, that 500 livres nominal 
 
36 L IFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 value in them would not have yielded in the 
 market more than 150 or 160 livres ; but in 
 the subscription they were taken at their full 
 value; which could not fail to operate as a 
 very tempting bait to the holders to lay them 
 out in the purchase of shares. The company 
 thus became creditors to the king in the sum 
 of 100 millions of livres, the annualrent of 
 which was fixed at the rent of 4 per cent ; the 
 first year's interest to be employed for com- 
 mercial purposes, and the annualrents of the 
 following years to be allotted for paying re- 
 gularly the dividend, at the rate of twenty 
 livres per annum each share, exclusive of their 
 proportion of the profits of the trade.* 
 
 Of this Company of the West, Mr. Law, 
 (who had now advanced so high in the Re- 
 gent's favour, that the whole ministerial power 
 was reckoned to be divided among him, the 
 Abbe du Bois, minister for foreign affairs, 
 and M. d'Argenson, keeper of the seals,) was 
 named director general. The actions were 
 
 * Examen, i. 21 1 . Stewart, ii. 235. 
 
OF LAURISTON. 37 
 
 eagerly sought after, Louisiana having been 
 represented as a region abounding in gold 
 and silver, of a fertile soil, capable of every 
 sort of cultivation. Such was the rage for 
 speculation that the unimproved parts of that 
 country were sold for 30,000 livres the square 
 league, at which rate, many purchased to the 
 extent of 600,000 livres; vigorous prepara- 
 tions were made for fitting out vessels to 
 transport thither labourers and workmen of 
 every kind ; and the demand for billets d'etat, 
 in order to purchase shares, occasioned the 
 former to rise to their full nominal value.* 
 
 The farmers general of the national revenues 
 now taking the alarm, the four brothers Paris, 
 principal managers of that powerful body, 
 acting under the patronage of M. d' Argenson, 
 who had become jealous of Mr. Law's credit 
 with the Regent, formed a project to establish 
 an association to advance large sums secured 
 on the farms and the other branches of the 
 public revenue. This project, which was an 
 awkward imitation of Mr. Law's system, and 
 
 * Memoires du Marechal Due de Richelieu, iii. 
 2 
 
38 Li OF JOHN LAW 
 
 on account of its opposition thereto called the 
 Anti-Systeme, came to nothing; and on the 
 4th of September 1718, the farm of Tobacco 
 was made over to the Company of the West, 
 who agreed to pay 2,020,000 livres additional 
 rent to the king. On the 15th of December 
 following, they acquired the charter and ef- 
 fects of the Senegal Company; but by far the 
 most important grant was that made in May 
 1719, when an edict was published, transfer- 
 ring to them the exclusive privilege of trading 
 to the East Indies, China, and the South Seas, 
 together with all the possessions and effects 
 belonging to the China and India Companies, 
 on condition of paying the lawful debts of 
 these companies now dissolved. The Com- 
 pany of the West assumed, on this occasion, 
 the title of the Company of the Indies; 50,000 
 new shares were ordered to be constituted, 
 rated at 550 livres each, payable in coin, to be 
 employed partly in satisfying the creditors of 
 the 'bid companies, and partly in building 
 vessels, and in other preparations for carrying 
 on the trade. The price of actions quickly 
 rose to 1000 livres, the hopes of the public 
 being raised by the favourable prospects of 
 
OF LAURISTON. 39 
 
 possessing a very lucrative branch of "com- 
 merce.* 
 
 On the 25th of July 1719, the mint was 
 made over to the Company of the Indies, for 
 a consideration of 50 millions of livres, to be 
 paid to the king within fifteen months; and 
 50,000 new shares, rated at 1000 livres each, 
 were directed to be issued, in order to raise 
 that sum. On the 27th of August following, 
 the Regent took the great farms out of the 
 hands of the farmers general, and made over 
 the lease to the Company of the Indies, on 
 their agreeing to pay 3,500,000 livres addition- 
 al rent for them; thus relieving the people 
 from the exactions of that powerful body, un- 
 der whose management the taxes became quite 
 intolerable, not so much from their own weight, 
 as the oppressive mode of levying them. On 
 the 31st of the same month, the company ob- 
 tained the general receipt of other branches of 
 the king's revenue. When they had acquired 
 all these grants, and had thus concentred in 
 themselves the whole foreign trade and pos- 
 sessions of France, and the collection and man- 
 
 Hist. Syst. i. 1 10. Examen, i. 241. Stewart, ii. 254. 
 
40 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 agement of all the royal revenues of that king- 
 dom, they promised an annual dividend of 
 200 livres on every share; the consequence of 
 which was, that the price of actions instantly 
 rose in the market to 5000 livres, the public 
 ran upon the last creation of 50,000 with 
 such eagerness, that nearly double the requisite 
 sum was subscribed for, and the greatest in- 
 terest was exerted, and every stratagem put 
 in practice, to secure places in that subscrip- 
 tion. The names of the stockholders were 
 not declared for some weeks, and during that 
 interval, according to Lord Stair, Mr. Law's 
 door was kept shut, while the first quality in 
 France appeared on foot in hundreds, before 
 his house in the Place Vendome.* 
 
 The company now came under an obliga- 
 tion to lend the king, in order that he might 
 pay off his creditors, the sum of 1500 millions 
 of livres, at the rate of 3 per cent per annum, 
 and to this rate the interest of the 100 millions 
 formerly lent to his Majesty, (in billets d'etat 
 on the first fabrication of actions, at 4 per 
 
 * Examen, ii. 245. Lord Stair's Letters., in the Hard- 
 wicke Collection of State Papers, ii. 597. 
 
OF LAURISTON. 41 
 
 cent,) was also reduced; the king consequent- 
 ly had to pay them, in all, 48 millions a-year. 
 To raise this sum of 1500 millions, there were, 
 in the months of September and October 1719, 
 300,000 new actions created, the subscription 
 for which was fixed at 5000 livres each. The 
 actions were thus brought to their full num- 
 ber of 600,000, (for it is unnecessary to take 
 any notice of 24,000 more fabricated on the 
 4th of October 1719, by the private orders of 
 the Regent, but afterwards suppressed,) and 
 to answer the dividends upon these the com- 
 pany had, according to some, the following 
 annual revenue, viz. 
 
 Livres. 
 Interest paid by the king to the 
 
 company . . . 48,000,000 
 
 Profits upon the great farms 15,000,000 
 
 Ditto upon the mint . . 4,000,000 
 Ditto upon the farm of tobacco 2,000,000 
 Ditto upon the general receipt of 
 
 . taxes .... 1,500,000 
 
 Ditto upon their trade . 10,000,000 
 
 making a total of 80,500,000 livres, open to 
 be improved by the extension of their com- \ 
 merce abroad, and by a good administration 
 at home. Other writers on the subject, how- 
 
42 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 ever, computed the annual revenue of this 
 great company at no less than 131 millions, 
 viz. 48 millions interest from the king, 39 mil- 
 lions profits upon the farms, the mint, and the 
 receipt of taxes, and 44 millions profits upon 
 their trade; in which case they could well af- 
 ford a dividend of even more than 200 livres 
 on every share.* 
 
 The cupidity which these prospects of im- 
 mense profit in some measure, but principally 
 the prodigious fortunes acquired by the origi- 
 nal proprietors, excited among all ranks, was 
 such as no nation had ever before witnessed. 
 A universal infatuation for the acquisition of 
 shares in the India Company now seemed to 
 occupy the whole kingdom, from the lowest 
 of the people up to magistrates, prelates, and 
 princes.f This infatuation, of which, at the 
 
 * Stewart, ii. 257. Re'fl. Politiq. i. 271. 
 t The following extract from a commission of the 
 office of Comptroller General of the finances by Mr. 
 John Law, a satirical piece, will illustrate what is stat- 
 ed above of the infatuation of all ranks to engage in 
 the Missisippi. 
 
 Les plaisans viremens, 
 Et continuels changemens 
 
OF LAURISTON. 43 
 
 present day, we can scarcely form a concep- 
 tion, increased in proportion to the difficulty 
 of succeeding in that view; for the whole 
 300,000 actions of the last fabrication, being, 
 by a particular agreement, kept up in order to 
 
 Que Ton a vu dans le Royaume 
 De Quinquempoix et de Vendome, 
 Et Principaute de Soissons, 
 Ou Tachat et le dividend 
 Causoient un rumeur si grande, 
 Qu'on ne vit jamais tant de rats 
 Obseder gens de tous etats; 
 Mari, femme, garcon, et fille, 
 Laquais, servantes, la famille 
 En un mot, sans rien excepter, 
 Venit jouer et blanqueter. 
 La de tous pais et provinces, 
 Marchands, magistrats, artisans, 
 Prelats, guerriers, et courtisans, 
 Dues et pairs, meme des princes, 
 Non du pais, mais bien forains, 
 Accouroient comme des essaims, 
 Malgre vent, grele, pluye, et crotte, 
 Pour y jouer a la marotte, 
 En beaux et bons deniers comptans, 
 Centre les voleurs calotines, 
 Dont la France et terres voisines 
 Se pourront souvenir long terns. 
 
 Memoires de Pollnitz, ii. 241. 
 
44 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 be sold to the Regent, who had also got pos- 
 session of 100,000 of these formerly issued, no 
 more than 200,000 remained in the hands of 
 the public, and only a part thereof, quite in- 
 adequate to the demand, was now brought to 
 market. The frenzy prevailed so far, that the 
 whole nation, clergy and laity, peers and 
 plebeians, statesmen, princes, nay, even ladies, 
 who had or could procure money for that 
 purpose, turned stockjobbers, outbidding each 
 other with such avidity, that in November 
 1719, the price of shares rose, after some 
 fluctuations, to above 10,000 livres each; more 
 than sixty times the sum they originally sold 
 for, when the discredit of the billets d'etat is 
 taken into the account.* 
 
 So much indeed were the people interested 
 in this business, that nothing was talked of 
 but actions, and every place echoed with Mis- 
 sisippi and Quinquempoix.f All classes ap- 
 peared to have but one object, the acquisition 
 of shares of the India Company; mechanics 
 laid by their work, tradesmen forsook their 
 
 * Siecle de Louis XV. par Voltaire, iii. 11. 
 t The street where the stockjobbing was at first car- 
 ried on. 
 
OF LAURISTON. 45 
 
 shops, all degrees entirely neglected their pro- 
 fession and employments, to embark in this 
 new occupation; and the few that did not pro- 
 ceed to that extreme, conducted themselves in 
 a manner calculated to manifest the little con- 
 cern they took in affairs foreign to the Mis- 
 sisippi. One of this last description, M. 
 Chirac, principal physician to the Regent, on 
 his way to visit a female patient, having been 
 informed that the price of actions was falling, 
 was so affected by that piece of news that he 
 could think of nothing else; and, accordingly, 
 while holding the lady's pulse, kept exclaim- 
 ing, O good God, it falls, it falls. The in- 
 valid, naturally alarmed, began to ring the 
 bell with all her force, crying out that she was 
 a dead woman, and had almost expired with 
 apprehension, till the doctor assured her that 
 her pulse was in a very good state, but that 
 his mind ran so much upon actions, that he 
 came to utter the expressions that terrified 
 her, in reference to the fall of their value. 
 That learning herself could not shield her 
 votaries from the infection, appears from the 
 following circumstance. M. de la Mothe and 
 the Abbe Terrasson, two of the ablest schol- 
 ars in France, conversing together on the mad- 
 
46 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 ness of the Missisippi adventurers, congratu- 
 lated themselves on their superiority over all 
 weaknesses of that nature; and indulged them- 
 selves in ridiculing the folly of the votaries of 
 the fickle goddess. But it so happened that 
 they met, not long afterwards, face to face in 
 the Rue Quinquempoix; at first they endeav- 
 oured to avoid each other, but finding that 
 impracticable, put the best look possible on 
 the matter, rallied each other, and separated 
 in order to make the most advantageous bar- 
 gains they could. The courtiers, according 
 to their usual custom of following implicitly 
 the royal example, engaged so deeply in this 
 business, that it was said only five persons of 
 that description, (the Marechals de Villeroi 
 and de Villars, the Dues de St. Simon and de 
 la Rochefoucault, and the Chancellor,) had 
 kept free from the contagion. The Marechal 
 Due de Richelieu relates, that those who did 
 not embark in the Missisippi were looked up- 
 on as no better than cowards or fools.* 
 
 * Fragm. ii. 273. Duclos, Memoires Secretes sur 
 les Regnes de Louis XIV. et de Louis XV, ii. 114. 
 Richelieu, iii. 25. Pollnitz, ii. 240. 
 
OF LAURISTON. 47 
 
 The negociations for the sale and purchase 
 of actions were, at first, carried on in the Rue 
 Quinquempoix, to the no small emolument of 
 the occupiers of houses in that street, lodgings 
 letting at so high a rate, that a house rented 
 at 800 livres a-year, yielded from 6000 to 
 16,000 livres a-month, and even single apart- 
 ments were let at the rate of a pistole a-day. 
 A cobler, who wrought in a stall formed of 
 planks set up against the garden wall of M. 
 Tourton the banker, bethought himself of 
 furnishing his little shop with a few chairs for 
 the accommodation of the ladies that came 
 out of curiosity to see the crowd; by which, 
 and by supplying the brokers with pens and 
 paper, he earned no less than 200 livres a-day. 
 At length, it becoming impossible for all to 
 procure even that humble accommodation, 
 most of the stockjobbers transacted their busi- 
 ness in the open air. So great was the con- 
 course, that all the avenues leading into the 
 Rue Quinquempoix were quite choked up 
 by break of day, and the crowd still continued 
 to increase till the evening bell was rung, 
 when they were obliged to be driven away by 
 
48 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 force.* It was, therefore, proposed to remove 
 the business to a more commodious situation, 
 and the execution of this measure was acceler- 
 ated by the murder and robbery of a rich 
 stockjobber, committed on the 22d of March 
 1720, by a young Flemish nobleman, Count 
 Horn, and two associates, who, under pre- 
 tence of bargaining for actions, conducted the 
 unfortunate man to a tavern in the Rue de 
 Venise, and there dispatched him with a poign- 
 ard. The Count, who was only 22 years of 
 age, being taken the same day, was condemn- 
 ed to be broken alive on the wheel; and this 
 sentence was accordingly inflicted in the Place 
 de Greve on the 26th of March, notwith- 
 standing he was allied to several sovereign 
 houses, and related to the Due d'Orleans 
 himself. The greatest interest was made to 
 
 * The Memoirs of the Regency (vol. iL 331.) notice 
 a hump-backed man, who in the course of a few days 
 acquired 150,000 livres by letting out his hump as a 
 writing desk to the brokers in the Rue Quinquempoix. 
 A plan of Paris being about this time laid before Louis 
 XV. then only ten years of age, the young Monarch 
 found fault with it, because that street was not distin- 
 guished from the others by gilding. 
 
NIVER8ITY J 
 OF LAURISTON 49 
 
 save his life; but all solicitations on that head 
 were unavailing, Mr. Law convincing the 
 Regent of the absolute necessity of making a 
 severe example of that criminal, at a time 
 when many carried their whole fortunes in 
 their pockets.* 
 
 The very day that this murder was com- 
 mitted, the council issued an edict, expressly 
 prohibiting all persons, of what degree so- 
 ever, from assembling in the Rue Quinquem- 
 poix, for the purpose of selling or buying 
 stock, and forbidding the keeping of offices 
 for their reception in that street. For some 
 time afterwards, the stockjobbers and brokers 
 were left to meet where they could; but in the 
 month of June, the paper traffic was transfer- 
 red to the Place Vendome. The superb 
 hotels of which that magnificent square (or 
 rather octogon) consisted, not being calculat- 
 ed for the establishment of offices for trans- 
 acting business, a number of tents were, for 
 that purpose, pitched in the area. Of these, 
 some served for the accommodation of the 
 
 * Memoires de la Regence, ii. 331, 392. Duclos, ii. 
 96. Hist. Syst. iii. 119134, 182, 194-. 
 
50 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 stockjobbers, others were destined for places 
 of refreshment, and a third set was occupied 
 by gamesters playing at quadrille, and draw- 
 ing lotteries of jewels. All the world flocked 
 to this spot, ladies of the highest quality de- 
 lighted to walk there in the evening, and the 
 concourse was so great, that the famous Fair 
 of Beaucaire appeared a desert in comparison. 
 The excessive noise so prodigious a resort 
 could not fail to occasion, was productive of 
 so much disturbance, that the Chancellor com- 
 plained he was thereby prevented from at- 
 tending to the causes in the Chancery in the 
 Place Vendome. Mr. Law thereupon agreed 
 with the Prince of Carignan for the purchase 
 of the Hotel de Soissons, at the enormous 
 price, as is said, of 1,400,000 livres, and in the 
 gardens belonging to that edifice, above 600 
 pavilions, each rated at 500 livres a-month, 
 were disposed in regular order, beautifully 
 interspersed with trees and fountains. To 
 oblige the brokers to make use of them, an 
 ordinance was issued, prohibiting, under se- 
 vere penalties, any bargain for stock to be 
 concluded, except in one of these pavilions, 
 and the business was accordingly carried on 
 there till the 8th of November 1720, when all 
 
OF LAURISTON. 51 
 
 persons were finally forbidden to assemble for 
 the purpose of stockjobbing in any place what- 
 ever.* 
 
 The unexampled rise of the price of actions 
 afforded an opportunity to several obscure 
 and low individuals to acquire at once prince- 
 ly fortunes; and these rapid revolutions could 
 not fail to be productive of many laughable 
 occurrences, such as the following: A foot- 
 man had gained so much that he provided 
 himself with a fine carriage; but the first day 
 it came to the door, he, instead of stepping 
 into the vehicle, mounted up to his old station 
 behind. Another, in a similar predicament, 
 brought himself well off by pretending he got 
 up only to see if there was room on the back 
 for two or three more lacqueys, whom he was 
 resolved to hire instantly. Mr. Law's coach- 
 man had made so great a fortune, that he ask- 
 ed a dismission from his service, which was 
 readily granted, on condition of procuring 
 another as good as himself. The man there- 
 upon brought two coachmen, told his master 
 they were both excellent drivers, and desired 
 
 * Hist. Syst. iii. 168, iv. 5, 72. vi. 69. Duclos, ii. 115. 
 
52 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 him to make choice of one, at the same time 
 saying that he would take the other for his 
 own carriage. One night at the opera, a 
 Mademoiselle de Begond observing a lady 
 enter, magnificently dressed, and covered with 
 diamonds, jogged her mother, and said, I am 
 much mistaken if this fine lady is not Mary 
 our cook. The report spread through the 
 theatre till it came to the ears of the lady, who, 
 coming up to Madame de Begond, said, " I 
 am indeed Mary your cook, I have gained 
 large sums in the Rue Quinquempoix, I love 
 fine clothes and fine jewels, and am accord- 
 ingly dressed in them. I have paid for every 
 thing, am in debt to nobody, and pray what has 
 any person in this place to say to this?" At 
 another time, some persons of quality beholding 
 a gorgeous figure alight from a most splendid 
 equipage, and inquiring what great lady that 
 was, one of her lacqueys answered, " A wo- 
 man who has tumbled from a garret into a 
 carriage." One of these upstarts, finding him- 
 self enriched beyond his utmost expectations, 
 hastened to a coachmaker's, and ordered a 
 berlin to be made in the finest taste, lined 
 with the richest crimson velvet and gold fringe, 
 and went away after leaving 4000 livres as 
 
OF LAURISTON. 53 
 
 earnest. The coachmaker running after him 
 to inquire what arms were to be put on the 
 carriage, was answered, " Oh, the finest, the 
 finest by all means." A quondam footman, 
 sitting in a newly acquired carriage, having 
 his way impeded by another belonging to an 
 officer, their servants quarrelled, and the for- 
 mer having made use of some improper ex- 
 pressions, the officer obliged him to alight; 
 and putting his hand to his sword, the other 
 took to his heels, crying out, Brethren of the 
 livery, come to my assistance. But, perhaps, 
 the drollest circumstance that occurred, was 
 what happened to one Brignaud, (son of a 
 baker at Thoulouse,) who being desirous of 
 having a superb service of plate, purchased 
 the whole articles exposed for sale in the shop 
 of a goldsmith for 400,000 livres, and sent 
 them home to his wife, with orders to set them 
 out properly for supper, to which he had in- 
 vited many persons of distinction. The lady, 
 not understanding the business, arranged the 
 plate according to her fancy, and without re- 
 gard to their real use; so that when supper 
 was announced, the guests could not forbear 
 from indulging in peals of laughter to see the 
 soup served up in a bason for receiving the 
 
54 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 offerings at church, the sugar in a censer, and 
 chalices holding the place of salt-sellers, while 
 most of the other articles were more suited to 
 a toilet than a sideboard.* 
 
 * Mem, Reg. ii. 328330. Hist. Syst. iii. 72. 
 
 It may perhaps require some explanation how so many 
 low persons should acquire large fortunes from nothing, 
 in so short a time ; hut independent of the rise in the 
 price of actions, various indeed were the ways of doing 
 so during the Missisippi contagion. Some, either un- 
 ahle or unwilling to go to the Rue Quinquempoix to 
 dispose of their shares, trusted them to others, who re- 
 ceived orders to sell for a certain sum. On their arrival, 
 they commonly found the price risen, and without 
 scruple put the difference into their own pockets. A 
 gentleman falling sick sent his servant to dispose of 250 
 shares, for 8000 livres each; and he sold them at the 
 rate of 10,000 livres, making a profit of 500,000 livres, 
 which he appropriated to himself, and by other lucky 
 adventures increased that sum to upwards of 2 millions. 
 A person deputed to sell 200 shares for another, kept 
 himself concealed for some days, during which time 
 their price rose so high that he cleared near a million of 
 livres of profit, giving back to his employer, who had 
 been hunting him in vain, only the market rate of the 
 day on which he was sent to dispose of the actions. 
 One De Josier, trusted with the like number of shares, 
 to sell for 550 livres each, disappeared, but coming back 
 when the system was at its height, profited immensely 
 
OF LAURISTON. 55 
 
 Mr. Law now blazed a meteor of unequal- 
 led splendour, having arrived at a pitch of pow- 
 er and consequence, (summa adfastigia rerum,J 
 that required a strength of intellect almost 
 supernatural to be able to support undazzled. 
 He saw himself perpetually followed by, and 
 his levee constantly crowded with, Princes, 
 Dukes, and Peers, Marshals and Prelates, 
 who all humbled themselves before his shrine 
 with the utmost submission, while he treated 
 them at times in a style of consummate haugh- 
 tiness. Of this, Archibald, Duke of Argyle, 
 used to relate a remarkable instance. His 
 Grace, then Earl of Hay, going to wait upon 
 Mr. Law by appointment, found the anticham- 
 
 by disposing of them at a price greatly advanced. It is 
 likewise to be observed, that several fluctuations in the 
 price of actions happened even in the same day, inso- 
 much that it was not unusual for a stockjobber, by sell- 
 ing with one hand and buying with the other, to come 
 out of the Rue Quinquempoix in the evening, with the 
 same number of shares he had carried with him in the 
 morning, and 200,000 livres of profit. Gambling also 
 was carried to such a height, that it was common for one 
 to lose or win above a million in a day. Hist. Syst. ii. 
 166. 
 
56 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 bers filled with many of the highest quality in 
 France; but being, by special orders, admit- 
 ted into his private apartments, beheld the 
 great man writing what, from the number and 
 rank of those left to wait his leisure, he natur- 
 ally concluded to be dispatches of the utmost 
 consequence. Upon mentioning these surmi- 
 ses to his old friend, it was with no small sur- 
 prise his Lordship learned that he was only 
 writing to his gardener at Lauriston to plant 
 cabbages on a particular spot. After this 
 important epistle was concluded, he desired 
 the Earl to play a party at piquet, and they 
 accordingly sat down to that game, at which 
 they continued for a good while, till at length 
 the great man thought proper to give orders 
 for the admission of his humble supplicants.* 
 
 * Notwithstanding this well-authenticated anecdote, 
 it appears from the Memoires de Pollnitz, and Madame's 
 Letters, that Mr. Law was by no means puffed up with 
 the adulation lavishly bestowed on him; but that in 
 general he behaved in an extremely polite and civil 
 manner to every body. He was particularly attentive 
 to such of his countrymen as were properly recommend- 
 ed to him. Dr. Alexander Monro of Auchinbowie. 
 Professor of Anatomy in the University of Edinburgh, 
 
OF LAURISTON. 57 
 
 The Baron de Pollnitz observes, in his me- 
 moirs, that he has seen Dukes and Peers of 
 France waiting in Mr. Law's antichambers 
 like the meanest subjects, and that at last 
 there was no getting near him without feeing 
 the Swiss porters for entrance at the gate, the 
 lacqueys for admittance into the antichamber, 
 and the valets for the privilege of access to 
 his presence chamber or closet. The audiences 
 too were very short, and the people were 
 quickly dismissed with very little merchandise 
 for a great deal of money.* 
 
 visiting Paris at this period, waited upon Mr. Law, to 
 whom he had letters of introduction. His reception 
 from that minister was highly flattering; and he was 
 accustomed to say, that the Comptroller General was 
 one of the easiest, most affable, and best behaved men 
 he had ever seen, and bestowed so much time and at- 
 tention on him as was perfectly astonishing, when the 
 number, the variety, and the importance of the pursuits 
 in which he was then engaged, were considered. 
 (Communicated by the late Mrs. Philp, wife of James 
 Philp of Greenlaw, Judge of Admiralty in Scotland, 
 daughter of Dr. Monro.) 
 * Duclos, ii. 72. Pollnitz, ii. 244. 
 
58 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 Those were now reckoned supremely blest, 
 who could obtain one word or one smile from 
 that sole dispenser of the favours of fortune; 
 and nothing could afford a disinterested spec- 
 tator more amusement than to observe the 
 people running in crowds, pressing each other 
 to death, only to be seen by Mr. Law or his 
 son, as if one of their glances had the power 
 to enrich those upon whom it happened to 
 fall. The former was so much plagued with 
 suitors for actions, that he could hardly get 
 a moment of rest either by day or night, 
 every kind of statagem being put in practice, 
 and no money spared, to procure admission 
 into his presence, even at the most unseason- 
 able hours. Of all his solicitors, the most im- 
 portunate were the ladies, who pestered him 
 incessantly. Madame, the Regent's mother, 
 in one of her letters, asserts that " Si Laws 
 vouloit, les femmes Fra^oises lui baiseroient 
 la derriere," all ideas of decency and delicacy 
 being completely absorbed by the more potent 
 power of avarice ; and she gives the following 
 very striking instance of the truth of her as- 
 sertion : " Un jour qu'il donnoit audience a 
 des dames, il voulut se retirer, ayant un si 
 grand besoin de pisser qu'il n'y tenoit plus. 
 
OF LAURISTON. 59 
 
 Ces dames lui retinrent, il leur enfin fit confi- 
 dence du besoin qui le pressoit. Oh, si ce 
 n'est que cela, dirent elles, cela ne fait rien ; 
 pissez toujours, et ecoutez nous. Et elles res- 
 terent avec lui pendant tout le terns !" * Ac- 
 cording to the Marechal Due de Richelieu, 
 " Law jouissoit alors a Paris du respect de 
 tous les ordres de Petat, les Duchesses lui bai- 
 soient les mains, et les Princes lui rendoient 
 frequemment des visites. Presse un jour d'au- 
 dience par un grand concours de personnes 
 qui avoient a lui parler, et voulant se retirer 
 pour des besoins urgens, les dames lui dirent, 
 Monseigneur, si vous n'avez d'autre besoin 
 que celui de pisser, ne vous en allez pas, pis- 
 sez ici, et ecoutez nous. Law sans s'etonner 
 usa, de la permission, et pissa en pleine assem- 
 blee." f 
 
 Madame relates other instances of the impor- 
 tunity of her sex. One Madame de Bouchu 
 had strained every nerve to be admitted 
 to a dinner at Madame de Simiani's, where 
 Mr. Law was to be present ; but all her en- 
 deavours were ineffectual, it being known he 
 
 * Fragm. ii. 274. f Richelieu, iii. 374. 
 
60 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 did not choose to see her. She then bethought 
 herself of ordering her coach to be driven be- 
 fore the house at dinner time, and directed 
 the coachmen and lacqueys to give the alarm 
 of fire, which made all the guests rise from 
 table and run into the street. On Mr. Law's 
 appearance, she jumped out of her carriage to 
 accost him, but he took to his heels the mo- 
 ment he beheld her face.* 
 
 Another lady, more adventurous, gave or- 
 ders to her coachman to overturn her car- 
 riage whenever he came near Mr. Law. She, 
 however, was the first that perceived him, 
 whereupon she roared out, " Overturn the 
 carriage now, you rascal, overturn the car- 
 riage." The man did so accordingly ; and 
 Mr. Law courteously coming to her assist- 
 ance, the lady confessed that she had given 
 such orders, in hopes thereby to have a chance 
 of procuring the honour of speaking to him, 
 an honour to which she could not otherwise 
 have presumed to aspire, f 
 
 An old lady was so particularly eager and 
 importunate in discourse with Mr. Law, that 
 
 * Fragm. ii. 275. f Ibid. ii. 27G. 
 
OF LAURISTON. 61 
 
 not attending sufficiently to her expressions, 
 in place of saying, " Faites moi un conces- 
 sion," she addressed him in these words, " Ah 
 Monsieur, faites moi, je vous en prie, une con- 
 ception." He could not refrain from laugh- 
 ing at this droll slip of the tongue, and repli- 
 ed, " Vous venez trop tard, il n'y a pas moyen 
 a present."* 
 
 Mr. Law's family and connexions partici- 
 pated of this universal adulation and court- 
 ship. The Regent wanting a Duchess to 
 perform a particular piece of etiquette, that 
 of conducting his daughter, the Princess of 
 Modena, to Genoa, somebody told him, if he 
 wished to make a selection, to send to Lady 
 Catherine Law's, and he would be sure of 
 finding all the Duchesses in the kingdom 
 there ; although the insolence of that lady was 
 so great, that she was accustomed to say there 
 was not a more tiresome animal in the world 
 than a Duchess. Her son had the high 
 honour of being named to dance with the 
 young king, Louis XV. in a most superb b*jl- 
 let, directed by the Marechal de Villeroi. 
 
 * Fragm, ii. 278. 
 
62 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 Miss Law, though then extremely young, was 
 asked in marriage by several of the first fami- 
 lies in Europe, particularly by the prince of 
 Tarente ; and having issued cards of invita- 
 tion for a ball, every person who pretended 
 to any distinction thought it incumbent upon 
 them to attend it. The Nuncio, coming 
 among the first, paid his compliments to the 
 young queen of the assembly by kissing her ; 
 which was, even at that time, reckoned an ex- 
 traordinary mark of condescension in the re- 
 presentative of the Pontiff.* 
 
 The rage for speculating in the French 
 funds was not confined to that kingdom, se- 
 veral persons of the first consequence in Bri- 
 tain engaging therein. The following letter, 
 from the Earl of Hay to Mrs. Howard, after- 
 terwards Countess of Suffolk, dated Paris, 
 September, 1719, affords striking examples 
 of the stockjobbing infatuation which at this 
 period had seized all ranks and both sexes in 
 England and France. " Notwithstanding the 
 politeness of this place, I have no other way 
 to answer the beginning of your letter but by 
 
 * Duclos, ii. 73. Hist. Syst. ii. 19. Fragm. ii. 271. 
 
OF LAURISTON. 63 
 
 a flat contradiction ; 4 troublesome, imperti- 
 nent, new favours,' as to me, is impossible, 
 and even as to others, I have too good an opi- 
 nion of mankind, that those who have least 
 merit, I believe, would think themselves hap- 
 py in receiving your commands. To show 
 you, in two words, how the thanks you men- 
 tion are owing on my side, consider that you 
 might have had the friendship of many con- 
 siderable men by being my enemy, and I 
 could only have received the precarious nau- 
 seous professions of one silly woman by not 
 being your friend. I have laid out the money 
 you bid me. It is very difficult in a letter to 
 give you an idea of the funds of this country ; 
 but in fact every body has made estates that 
 have been concerned in them for four or five 
 months. As a little instance of this, cousin 
 Jack * has got, I believe, near 10,000, and 
 has lost the half of that sum by a timorous 
 silly bargain he made ; for my part, I came 
 after all was in a manner over, and as I never 
 
 * Probably .Colonel John Campbell of Mamore, after- 
 wards fourth Duke of Argyle, the husband of Mary 
 Bellenden. 
 
64 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 meddle with these matters, I do nothing but 
 buy books and gimcracks.* It is true it is 
 now very late, and yet, by what I am inform- 
 ed by him who knows all, and does all, I am 
 of opinion that whatever sum you remit here 
 may be turned to great profit. The stocks 
 are now at 950, and if no accidents happen of 
 mortality, it is probable they will be 1500 in 
 a short time. The money I laid out for you 
 was 5000 livres, as a subscriber to the fifty 
 millions of stock lately added, of which the 
 tenth part only is paid down, so that 5000 is 
 the first payment of 50,000 livres. The sub- 
 scription was full, but Mr. Law was so kind 
 as allow it me ; some of the subscribers have 
 already sold their subscriptions for 230, that 
 is their own money back again, and 130 per 
 cent profit. Whatever you think fit to do, 
 you may bid Middleton remit to me so many 
 livres, I shall acknowledge the receipt of them 
 and do the best I can. You will think that 
 the levity of this country has turned my head 
 
 * We shall see presently that this assertion is contra- 
 dicted in this very letter. Lord I lay was deep in the 
 Missisippi Scheme. 
 
OF LAURISTON. 65 
 
 when I tell you your Master * might, within 
 these few months, have made himself richer 
 than his father. As late as I came, I can tell 
 you, in secret, that I am pretty well."f 
 
 The situation of France, in November 1719, 
 is thus described by a contemporary writer : 
 " The bank notes were just so much real va- 
 lue which credit and confidence had created 
 in favour of the state. Upon their appear- 
 ance, plenty immediately displayed herself 
 through all the towns and all the country ; she 
 relieved our citizens and labourers from the 
 oppression of debts which indigence had oblig- 
 ed them to contract ; she enabled the king to 
 liberate himself from great part of his debts, 
 and to make over to his subjects more than 
 fifty-two millions of livres of taxes which had 
 been imposed in the years preceding 1719; 
 and more than thirty-five millions of other 
 duties extinguished during the Regency. This 
 plenty sunk the rate of interest, crushed the 
 
 * The Prince of Wales, afterwards King George II. 
 A subsequent letter from the Earl of Hay, dated 16th 
 January, 1720, leads one to believe that this hint was 
 not thrown away. 
 
 t Suffolk Letters, p. 4245. 
 
66 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 usurer, carried the value of lands to 80 and 
 100 years purchase, raised up stately edifices 
 both in town and country, repaired the old 
 houses which were falling to ruin, improved 
 the soil, gave an additional relish to every 
 fruit produced by the earth. Plenty recalled 
 those citizens whom misery had forced to seek 
 their livelihood abroad. In a word, riches 
 flowed in from every quarter; gold, silver, pre- 
 cious stones, ornaments of every kind which 
 contribute to luxury and magnificence, came 
 to us from every country in Europe. Whe- 
 ther these prodigies or marvellous effects were 
 produced by art, by confidence, by fear, or by 
 whim if you please, one must agree, that that 
 art, that confidence, that fear, or that whim, 
 had operated all these realities, which the an- 
 cient administration never could have produc- 
 ed. Thus far the System had produced no- 
 thing but good; every thing was commendable 
 and worthy of admiration." * 
 
 Such, according to an eye-witness, were the 
 advantages resulting to the French, from the 
 establishment of public credit among them. 
 
 1 Re'fl. Politiq. ii. 330. 
 
OF LAURISTON. 67 
 
 Money now circulated in the utmost profu- 
 sion, all ranks of people indulged themselves 
 in every species of luxury, and the prices of 
 commodities rose excessively. * Strangers of 
 every nation flocked in great numbers to Paris 
 to speculate in the stocks, insomuch that it 
 was computed there were no less than 305,000 
 foreigners in that capital in November 1719, 
 the consequence of which was a prodigious in- 
 flux of wealth into the kingdom. The very 
 granaries and magazines were filled with in- 
 habitants ; and so great was the crowd of equi- 
 pages set up, that it was scarcely possible to 
 
 * The ell or cloth of fifteen livres sold for fifty livres, 
 and a pound of coffee rose from fifty sols to eighteen 
 livres. Artificers who used to work for fifteen sols, now 
 would not take less than three livres a-day. By an ac- 
 count taken from the books of the silversmiths of Paris, 
 it appeared, that in the course of three months they had 
 made no less than 120,000 dozens of plates, besides 
 dishes answerable ; reckoning each dozen at 60, the 
 total value of them alone comes to 7,200,000. Such 
 was the prodigality of some of the stockjobbers, that an 
 instance occurred where one of them gave 200 livres for 
 a single wood-hen for his dinner ; and green pease at 
 100 pistoles the pint have been served up at some 
 tables. 
 
68 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 pass through any street without the utmost 
 difficulty, and even danger of hurting or kill- 
 ing some of the numerous passengers. Fine 
 clothes were so much sought after, that the 
 shops in Paris were completely stripped of all 
 the velvet and cloth of gold exposed for sale. 
 On this account, several remarked, that the 
 winter season of this year exhibited more 
 splendour and brilliancy than the finest sum- 
 mer ever seen before.* 
 
 When this apparently flourishing posture of 
 affairs was contrasted with the lamentable situa- 
 tion in which France was plunged at the death 
 of Louis XIV, it is no wonder that Mr. Law, 
 who was considered as the author of all that 
 prosperity, should be reckoned, as it were, the 
 saviour of the kingdom. He was perfectly 
 idolized by the people, who looked on him as 
 no way inferior to the King and the Regent, 
 the mob being accustomed to cry out, when- 
 ever he appeared in public, Long live Mr. Law. 
 The popular veneration was still further 
 increased by his making, along with his son 
 and daughter, a public profession of the Ro- 
 
 * Hist. Syst. ii. 105, Richelieu, iii. 37. 
 
OF LAURISTON. 69 
 
 man Catholic religion, which was done with 
 great pomp in the church of the Recollets 
 at Melun, in December 1719.* In order to 
 manifest his zeal and sincerity, he communi- 
 cated, and made the bread offering, at St. 
 Roch, his parish church, on Christmas day ; 
 and was constituted Honorary Church War- 
 den thereof, in room of the Due de Noailles, 
 on which occasion he made a present of 
 500,000 livres to complete the building of 
 that edifice. At this season his liberality to 
 the distressed was boundless ; he distributed 
 another sum of 500,000 livres among the 
 English at St. Germain en Laye, whose pen- 
 sions had been suppressed ; and having, some 
 time afterwards, ordered several vessels to be 
 freighted with the finest fish that could be 
 procured, for supplying the inhabitants of 
 Paris during lent, it so happened, that owing 
 to a long continuance of contrary winds, the 
 first ship did not arrive till Easter Eve. He 
 thereupon distributed gratuitously the whole 
 
 * Lady Catherine Law refused to abjure the religion 
 in which she was brought up, and was much distressed 
 at this conduct of her husband and children. Fragm. 
 ii. 281. 
 
70 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 cargo of the fleet among the mendicant friars 
 and other poor communities. He likewise 
 bestowed vast sums in alms, and contributed 
 largely to hospitals and other charitable foun- 
 dations, besides making many very valuable 
 presents to individuals.* 
 
 The only obstacle to his advancement being 
 removed by his conversion, Mr. Law was, on 
 the 5th of January 1720, declared Comptrol- 
 ler General of the Finances of France. Thus 
 the admiring world beheld an obscure fo- 
 reigner, by the mere force of extraordinary 
 genius and abilities, rise in the course of a few 
 months from a private condition to the high 
 station of Prime Minister of the politest na- 
 tion in Europe, which he governed for some 
 time with almost absolute power. It must be 
 mentioned, to his honour, that he voluntarily 
 gave up the whole perquisites as well as the 
 salary annexed to his office ; and he was so 
 little addicted to luxury and extravagance, as 
 to take care that the most regular order and 
 strictest propriety should be observed in the 
 management of his household, while, at the 
 
 Mem. Reg. ii. 369. 
 
OF LAURISTON. 71 
 
 same time, his dress was remarked for its 
 plainness and simplicity. All ranks now vied 
 with each other in paying court to the new 
 Premier ; the Academy of Sciences elected him 
 one of their honorary members, 2d December 
 1719 ;* and the followers of the muses spared 
 no pains in culling the choicest flowers of the 
 gardens of Parnassus to form wreaths for 
 adorning his temples, some specimens of 
 which are subjoined. 
 
 ILLUSTRISSIMO NOBILISSIMOQUE D. D. LAW, 
 INCOMPARABILIS INGENII VIRO, 
 
 EPIGRAM MA. 
 
 Pallas inexhaustae praecellens lumine mentis 
 Concilio in superum talia dicta dedit ; 
 
 Insuetum tentemus opus, junctique creemus 
 Mortalem, ingenii qui sit imago mei. 
 
 Sese operi accingunt superi, tandemque crearunt 
 Mortalem optatum, Lawius ille fuit. 
 
 * After the downfall of the System, the king having 
 declared Mr. Law's election into the Royal Academy 
 void, because his letters of naturalization had not at 
 that time been registered, the Academy, on the 13th 
 August 1721, elected Cardinal Fleury honorary mem- 
 ber in his room. 
 
72 L IFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 DE QUODAM LUDI GENERE APUD MICISSIPIPPOS. 
 
 Luserunt luduntque etiam civesque, ducesque, 
 
 Et plebs, externis turbaque missa plagis ; 
 Nemo perdiderat ; ditat se quisque ; Deorum 
 
 Talem quis ludum finxit, Apollo refer. 
 Consultus, mora nulla fuit, respondit Apollo, 
 
 Mortalis finxit, non Deus illud opus. 
 At cunctos inter mortales fingere ludum 
 
 Talem quis poterat ? Lawius unus erat. 
 
 EIDEM ILLUSTRISSIMO NOBILISSIMO VIRO, 
 PHILOSOPHORUM PRINCIPI. 
 
 Inventa fecere Sophi sibi nomen ab arte ; 
 
 Hactenus at solum re sine nomen erat. 
 Nummos mille modis augendi Lawius artem 
 
 Invenit, haec veros ars facit una Sophos. 
 
 Gbtulit P. St. John, Poeta Regius. 
 
 INSCRIPTION ON AN ENGRAVED PORTRAIT OF 
 MR. LAW. 
 
 Principe sub recto Gallorum sccptra tenente, 
 Publica nunc recte Quaestor hie aera regit : 
 
 Aeraque tractandi summa perfectus in arte 
 
 Et Regem et populum divitem utrumque facit. \ 
 
 At this period a report was spread that Mr. 
 Law was to be raised to the peerage, by the 
 title of Due de Tancarville, and that the office 
 
OF LAURISTON. 73 
 
 of Grand Treasurer was to be revived, and con- 
 ferred upon him ; his native city of Edinburgh, 
 proud of having produced so great a man, 
 transmitted to him the freedom thereof in a 
 gold box of the value of 300 sterling ; * and 
 he negociated with Lord Londonderry for the 
 purchase of Pitt's famous diamond, long the 
 brightest jewel in the French crown. f The 
 editor of the Letters from Henrietta, Countess 
 of Suffolk, says, that the Earl of Hay publish- 
 ed in December 1719, a treatise formerly 
 written by Mr. Law, with an encomiastic pre- 
 face from the pen of his Lordship, and this 
 motto from Cicero, " O terrain illam beatam 
 qui hunc virum exceperit ; hanc ingratam si 
 ejecerit, miseram si amiserit." A wonder- 
 ful example of adulation and infatuation ! 
 
 * In the diploma, which is dated at Edinburgh, 5th 
 August, 1719, he is styled the Right Hon. John Law, 
 Lord and Earl of Tancarville, Director General of the 
 Royal Bank and India Company of the kingdom of 
 France. 
 
 t Mem. Reg. ii. 358. Fragra. ii. 292. Richelieu, iii. 
 27. Duclos, ii. 134. 
 
 E 
 
74 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 There was printed at the Hague, in 1720, 
 " Considerations sur le Commerce et sur Par- 
 gent, par M. Law, Controleur General des Fi- 
 nances, traduites de PAnglois," embellished 
 with a portrait thus inscribed, " M. Jean Law, 
 Counseiller du Roi en tous ses Gonseils, Con- 
 troleur General des Finances, 1720. 
 
 Sous Pauguste et sage regence 
 
 D'un Prince aimant la bonne foy, 
 Law consomme dans Tart de re*gir les finances, 
 
 Trouve Tart d'enrichir les sujets et le Roi." 
 
 A British nobleman who then visited Paris, 
 said, in a public advertisement, that Mr. Law 
 appeared a Minister far above all the past age 
 had known, the present could conceive, or the 
 future could believe ; that he had established 
 public credit in a country that was become a 
 proverb for the breach of it ; and that he had 
 shown the French people that Louis XIV. 
 was not able, with his unlimited authority, to 
 take more away from, than he had restored 
 to, them.* 
 
 * Salmon's Chronology, ii. 101. 
 
OF LAURISTON. 75 
 
 From the following letter of the Earl of 
 Hay to Mrs. Howard, dated Paris, 16th Ja- 
 nuary, 1720, it would appear that the Prince 
 of Wales, afterwards King George II. had 
 some concern in the Missisippi transactions, 
 and did not disdain to pay court to Mr. Law. 
 " Since my Lord Belhaven* has been here, I 
 have so much taken it for granted that he will 
 have informed his acquaintances of your fami- 
 ly of the Paris news, that I thought it idle to 
 repeat it; however, for scribbling sake, I 
 trouble you with this. 
 
 " It would be very difficult for me to give 
 you any tolerable account of the Missisippi, 
 since I was the last time in France, without 
 writing a pamphlet. Every post I receive 
 from England new terrors concerning it, and, 
 
 * John, third Lord Belhaven, one of the gentlemen 
 of the bed chamber to George, Prince of Wales, ap- 
 pointed governor of Barbadoes in April 1721, but pe- 
 rished by shipwreck on the Stag Rocks, near the Lizard 
 Point, 17th November, same year. There seems rea- 
 son to believe, from some of Lord Hay's expressions, 
 that Lord Belhaven's visit to Paris related to some con- 
 cern of his royal master with Mr. Law and the French 
 funds. 
 
76 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 what is really very diverting, some are ex- 
 tremely apprehensive of my losing the money 
 I have got, who, to my certain knowledge, 
 are very much mortified at my getting it. I 
 am not insensible of distant dangers which 
 may attend the funds here, and I wish our 
 own were absolutely free from them ; but for 
 the objections which have come from even 
 considerable people in England, they prove 
 more that they have learned their own busi- 
 ness by rote, than that they have any true no- 
 tions of the principles of these matters. I 
 know a pretty extraordinary instance of some- 
 thing of this kind, if I could venture to tell ; 
 but thus far I may venture to say, that either 
 Mr. Law knows nothing, or some who carry 
 their heads very high in England know less 
 than people imagine. 
 
 " I wish I had known of a certain compli- 
 ment paid to Mr. Law by order,* before he 
 
 * It would seem that Lord Hay was desired to intro- 
 duce Lord Belhaven to Mr. Law> as a private friend, 
 while Mr. Law was apprised from some other quarter, 
 by order, that Lord Belhaven was employed by the 
 Prince. The whole affair is sufficiently mysterious, 
 
OF LAURISTON. 77 
 
 told it me himself; for I may say to you, in 
 confidence, without vanity, and without im- 
 pertinence, that it would have been nothing 
 the worse. It has obliged me to enter into a 
 long, disagreeable, and unhappy detail, in or- 
 der to explain the mystery of endeavouring to 
 make a friend of mine well with him, and yet 
 concealing his errand from him ; as soon as I 
 had justified myself, I proceeded to do my 
 duty to my superiors, and that perhaps more 
 than would have been prudent, (in, at least, 
 a volunteer,) if I had not entire confidence in 
 the person I spoke to, and were not master of 
 too much philosophy, and too much money, 
 not to be afraid of doing what I think right. 
 I have often heard of my being opiniatre, but 
 I had always this comfort, that if I had any 
 honesty, a little of the other was often very 
 necessary in this world. 
 
 " Your money matters go on very well, 
 though the actions are fallen from 1900 to 
 1750; yet the meaning of it is nothing else 
 but people selling their actions in order to 
 
 but there can be little doubt that it relates to some 
 transactions between the Prince and Mr. Law. 
 
78 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 buy the new primes, (as they are called,) 
 which are a sort of subscription at 2200, 1000 
 livres down, and 10,000 six months hence. 
 The government here will find it so much 
 their interest to prevent any persons losing 
 by accepting their offer, that I am of opinion 
 there will be something to be got this way. 
 I do from time to time inform my Lord Bel* 
 haven of any thing that occurs to me for his 
 service; and I Relieve he will say that I have 
 been useful to him. I shall leave this place 
 in a few days. I am, Madam, your slave."* 
 During these important transactions, and 
 for some years preceding, the place of Ambas- 
 sador from England to the Court of Paris was 
 filled by the Earl of Stair, a nobleman as 
 much distinguished for courage and conduct 
 in the field, as for ability in the cabinet. Se- 
 veral of his letters to Mr. Craggs, one of the 
 Secretaries of State, are published in theHard- 
 wicke Collection of State Papers ; and the fol- 
 lowing extracts from them will show in what 
 a formidable light his Lordship viewed the 
 power and abilities of his countryman, with 
 
 * Suffolk Letters, p. 4548. 
 
OF LAURISTON. 79 
 
 whom, it appears, he was on very indifferent 
 terms. 
 
 " Supposing I had talents, and that I were 
 fitter to serve you at this court than ano- 
 ther, you will be obliged to change your mi- 
 nister. You may depend on it, this court, 
 with their fortune, will change their measures ; 
 and they will desire to have a man here that 
 they may be either able to gain or impose up- 
 on. You must henceforth look upon Law as 
 the first minister, whose daily discourse is, that 
 he will raise France to a greater height than 
 ever she was, upon the ruin of England and 
 Holland. You may easily imagine I shall not 
 be a minister for his purpose. He is very 
 much displeased with me already, because I 
 did not flatter his vanity by putting into Mis- 
 sisippi. I did not think it became the King's 
 ambassador to give countenance to such a 
 thing, or an example to others to withdraw 
 their effects from England to put them into 
 the stocks here, which would have been rea- 
 dily followed by many. I have been in the 
 wrong to myself to the value of thirty or forty 
 thousand pounds, which I might very easily 
 have gained if I had put myself, as others did, 
 
80 L IFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 into Mr. Law's hands ; but I thought it my 
 duty, considering my station, not to do so. 
 
 " He" (the Abbe du Bois) " told me, that if 
 some people prevailed, measures would be 
 changed ; that Torcy took the ascendant very 
 much, and that the Regent discovered a great 
 partiality towards him ; and that, if it conti- 
 nued a little longer, he, the Abbe, would lay 
 down. I am sure Law is in this thing, for he 
 will be for removing every thing that does not 
 absolutely depend upon him, and that can in 
 any manner stand in his way to be first minis- 
 ter. Law's heart has been set upon that from 
 the beginning ; and we stand too directly in 
 the way of his ambitious views for France, to 
 imagine that a good understanding can sub- 
 sist long between the nations, if he comes to 
 govern absolutely. * 
 
 " They tell the Regent that he has now o- 
 vercome all his difficulties ; that France is now 
 greater, and in a more flourishing condition 
 than ever she was ; and that to make his court 
 to the nation, he has nothing to do now but 
 to enter into the ancient maxims and political 
 
 * 1st September 1719. 
 
OF LAURISTON. 81 
 
 views of the crown, and to make all Europe 
 depend on France, or to crush those that stand 
 in the way. 
 
 " I come now to take notice of another thing 
 to you, which, in my opinion, is very much to 
 be minded, and that is the spirit, behaviour, 
 and discourse of the man whom, from hence- 
 forth, you must look upon as the first minis- 
 ter, and that is Mr. Law. He in all his dis- 
 course pretends he will set France much 
 higher than ever she was before, and put her 
 in a condition to give the law to all Europe ; 
 that he can ruin the trade and credit of Eng- 
 land and Holland whenever he pleases ; that 
 he can break our bank whenever he has a 
 mind ; and our East India Company.* He 
 said publicly the other day at his own table, 
 when Lord Londonderry was present, that 
 there was but one great kingdom in Europe, 
 and one great town, and that was France and 
 Paris. He told Pitt that he would bring 
 down our East India stock, and entered into 
 articles with him to sell him, at twelve months 
 
 * The reader will observe the similarity between these 
 expressions, and the boastings of Bonaparte in the ple- 
 nitude of his power. 
 
82 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 hence, 100,000 of stock at eleven per cent 
 under the current price. You may imagine 
 what we have to apprehend from a man of this 
 temper, who makes no scruple to declare such 
 views, and who will have all the power and all 
 the credit at this court."* 
 
 " II y a quelques jours qu'on m'avertit, de 
 tres bonne part, que M. Law avoit dit a M. 
 le Due d' Orleans que c'etoit moi qui avois ete 
 cause de 1'attaque qu'on avoit faite en dernier 
 lieu sur la banque. Sur cet avis je pris la re- 
 solution de m'eclaircir sur ce fait avec M. le 
 Due d' Orleans, et je tournois la conversation 
 de maniere que S. A. R. me dit qu'on 1'avoit 
 dit que j'etois cause de 1'attaque sur la banque. 
 Je lui dis, Monseigneur, je Sais que M. Law 
 vous a tenu tel discours, et je suis bien aise 
 d'avoir 1'occasion de prouver a V. A. R. qu'il 
 est absolument faux dans toutes ses circon* 
 stances. II est tres vrai que les sujets du Roi 
 mon maitre ont un tres grand poids d'argent 
 dans ce pays ici, qu'il m'auroit ete fort aise de 
 faire porter contre la banque. Mais, s'il est 
 vrai, qui ni moi, ni aucun sujet du Roi ait 
 
 9th September 1719. 
 
OF LAURISTON. 83 
 
 porte des billets pouretre changez a la banque; 
 si nous n'avons pas porte les actions sur la 
 place, pour les faire baisser ; s'il est vrai que je 
 n'ai eu nulle communication avec ceux qui ont 
 couru sur la banque, V. A. R. doit etre con- 
 vaincue que le discours de M. Law est non 
 seulement faux, mais que c'est la calomnie du 
 monde la plus atroce, et la plus indigne ; la- 
 quelle ne tend pas seulement a tromper V. A. 
 R. sur mon chapitre, qui suis son serviteur af- 
 fide de tout temps, par reconnoissance et par 
 affection ; mais qui tend a brouiller V. A. R. 
 avec le Roi mon maitre, qui est votre meilleur 
 ami, et votre meilleur allie ; car je Sais que 
 M. Law a dit, au meme temps, que ce que je 
 faisois a cet egard, je la faisois par ordre de 
 ma cour. 
 
 " Or, Monseigneur, si M. Law ne peut 
 prouver a V. A. R. qu'il y a un de ces trois 
 faits vrai, comme j'avance hardiment a V. A. 
 R. qu'ils sont faux touts trois, il doit passer 
 dans 1'esprit de V. A. R. pour un calom- 
 niateur, qui a dessein de la tromper dans 
 des choses de la derniere consequence. Mais, 
 ce n'est pas d'aujourdhui que je S9ais les 
 bonnes intentions de M. Law pour sa patrie, 
 et les desseins qu'il a de mettre le Roi mal 
 
84? LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 avec V. A. R. II n'y a que huit jours que 
 M. Law nous a menace publiquement, en 
 presence de plusieurs sujets du Roi mon mai- 
 tre, d'ecrire un livre pour convaincre toute la 
 terre que Grande Bretagne etoit dans Fimpos- 
 sibilite de payer ses dettes. Tels sont les dis- 
 cours ordinaires et publiques de M. Law. 
 V. A. R. peut juger quel effet cela peut pro- 
 duire, quand un homme qui pretend etre votre 
 premier ministre tient des tels discours. II 
 y a long temps que je le scai, mais je n'en ai 
 rien dit a V. A. R. parceque j'etois persuade 
 qu'elle ne pensoit pas de meme ; et parceque 
 je regardois ces discours comme les effets de 
 la sotte vanite et de Pyvresse de M. Law, dont, 
 depuis quelque temps, je lui voyois la tete tour- 
 nee. Ensuite je contai a M. le Due d' Or- 
 leans beaucoup d'autres discours de cette 
 meme nature. M. le Due a ecoute tout ce 
 discours avec des convulsions dans son visage. 
 A la fin, il me dit, Mylord, voila veritable- 
 ment les discours d'un fou. Je lui dis, Mon- 
 seigneur, je ne dis rien a V. A. R. que je ne 
 disse en presence de M. Law, et que je ne 
 prouve ; apres cela V. A. R. peut juger s'il 
 auroit ete etonnant si j'avois veritablement 
 agi de la maniere que M. Law a fait accroire 
 a V, A. R. que j'avois agi, mais je me suis gou- 
 
OF LAURISTON. 85 
 
 verne par les egards que j'ai toujours eu pour 
 les interets de V. A. R. 
 
 " M. le Due d'Orleans me dit a la fin, qu'il 
 etoit tres aise de ce que je venois de lui dire ; 
 qu'il m'avoit toujours regarde comme son ami, 
 et qu'il avoit eu de la peine a croire que 
 j'eusse voulu nuire a ses operations. Voila 
 a peu pres ce que s'est passe entre M. le Due 
 d'Orleans et moi sur le chapitre de M. Law. 
 Vous y ferez les reflexions necessaires. Cela 
 n'a pas besoin de commentaire." : 
 
 " Le Regent s'appercoit si bien des dan- 
 gers ou Law le precipite, qu'il m'a dit depuis 
 quelques jours, a plusieurs reprises, les choses 
 du monde les plus fortes contre la vanite, la 
 presomption, et 1'insolence de cet homme. 
 II m'a dit, qu'il le connoissoit pour un homme 
 a qui la vanite et 1'ambition demesuree avoit 
 tournee la tete ; que rien ne pouvoit le satis- 
 faire que d'etre le maitre absolu ; qu'il avoit 
 une telle presomption de ses propres talens, et 
 un tel mepris pour touts les autres hommes, 
 qu'il etoit impracticable avec tout autre 
 homme ; qu'il avoit essaye de le faire travail- 
 
 11 Decembre 1719. 
 
86 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 ler avec tout ce qu'il y a d'habilles gens en 
 France, et qu'il n'avoit pu s'accommoder deux 
 jours de suite, avec qui ce soit, etant impa- 
 tient de tout espece de contrariete ou contra- 
 diction. II m'a dit qu'il lui avoit lavee la tete 
 de ses discours insolens qui alarmoient tout le 
 monde, de maniere qu'il avoit lieu de croire 
 que Law se seroit contenu ; mais qu'il voyoit 
 bien que nul frein le pouvoit retenir. Mais, 
 dit le Regent, croyez moi que j'y mettrai si 
 bien ordre qu'il ne sera pas capable de me 
 brouiller avec le Roi, ni de me deviser de mes 
 alliez. II faut que je m'en serve dans mes fi- 
 nances ; mais il ne, sera ecoute dans les affaires 
 politiques, et je serai en garde contre les mau- 
 vais desseins qu'il peut avoir. 
 
 " Je veux bien croire que le Regent dit ce 
 qu'il pense, et qu'il le pensoit veritablement 
 dans le moment qu'il m'a parle ; mais, avec 
 tout cela, un grand tresorier tel que Law est 
 premier ministre par tout ou il se trouve en 
 place ; et si le systeme de Law s'etablit, nous 
 sommes egalement perdus, un an plus tot, 
 un an plus tard. Et de plus, croyez moi, 
 nous devons connoitre cette nation ici ; nous 
 ne pouvons jamais, avec raison, compter sur 
 leur amitie, que tant que vous serez en etat de 
 
OF LAURISTON. 87 
 
 leur etre un ennemi dangereux, et de leur 
 faire envisager des grands maux que nous 
 pourrions leur faire si elle rompoit avec vous. 
 Sur ce pied la, leur amitie sera asseuree; 
 mais nous nous mecompterons toutes les fois 
 que nous nous fions sur eux en cas de besoin. 
 
 " Vous auriez reeu un courier de M. 1' Ab- 
 be Dubois, par lequel il vous aura dit, que je 
 lui ai dit, jeudi dernier, que je demanderois 
 d'etre rapelle. Ce n'est pas par picque ; mais 
 je prevois, par le train que les affaires pren- 
 nent, je ne serai plus en etat de pouvoir rendre 
 aucun service au Roi dans cette cour." * 
 
 These endeavours of Lord Stair to render 
 the Regent dissatisfied with a minister who, 
 whatever were his designs against Britain, 
 served his prince with fidelity, recoiled on the 
 ambassador's head. The British ministry be- 
 ginning to entertain the most serious appre- 
 hensions of danger from the power and abili- 
 ties of the comptroller general, and dreading 
 that Lord Stair's measures would have no 
 other effect than to irritate him the more a- 
 gainst England, determined to sacrifice that 
 
 * 7 Janvier 1720. 
 
88 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 able and accomplished nobleman to their 
 fears. They accused him of preferring to the 
 public good and the king's service, his own 
 humour and resentment; and of attempting 
 to embroil England with France, in order to 
 gratify his private pique against Mr. Law, to 
 whom they now thought it necessary to make 
 all sorts of advances ; and, for this purpose, 
 dispatched no less a person than Earl Stan- 
 hope, one of the Secretaries of State, to Paris. 
 Lord Stair wrote to Mr. Craggs, " I shall 
 readily agree with you, that if his Lordship" 
 (Stanhope) " has gained Mr. Law, and made 
 him lay aside his ill will and ill designs against 
 his country, he did very right to make all 
 sorts of advances to him; to give his son a 
 regiment; to engage to bring Lord Banbury* 
 
 * Charles, fourth Earl of Banbury, whose sister, La- 
 dy Catherine Knollys, was the wife of Mr. Law, and 
 whose eldest son and heir- apparent, William Viscount 
 Wallingford, married Miss Law. The editor of the 
 Hardwicke State Papers says in a note, that { e his son," 
 to whom a regiment was promised, was " Lord Wal- 
 lingford, who married Law's daughter." But this mar- 
 riage did not take place till 1734, after Mr. Law's death. 
 In 1720, Mr. Law's son was only seventeen years of age, 
 
OF LAURISTON. 89 
 
 into the House of Lords ; to sacrifice the 
 King's ambassador to him. If I had thought Mr. 
 Law to be gained, I should very readily have 
 advised to do all these very things, and a great 
 
 while Lord Wallingford was thirty years old, and an 
 officer in the British service, which renders it more pro- 
 bable he was the person intended. " To bring Lord 
 Banbury into the House of Lords," requires a particu- 
 lar explanation. Sir William Knollys, K. G. grandson 
 of Lady Mary Boleyn, sister of Queen Anne Boleyn, 
 the mother of Queen Elizabeth, was created, 13th May 
 1603, Baron Knollys of Greys; 7th November 1616, 
 Viscount of Wallingford ; and 18th August 1626, Earl 
 of Banbury, to him and the heirs male of his body. He 
 died 25th May 1632, in the eighty-eighth year of his 
 age, leaving, by his second wife, Lady Elizabeth How- 
 ard, daughter of Thomas, first Earl of Suffolk, two sons, 
 Edward, born 10th April 1627, and Nicholas, born 3d 
 January 1630-1. Edward, the eldest, second Earl of 
 Banbury, was killed in a sudden quarrel on the road- 
 way betwixt Calais and Gravelines, a minor and un- 
 married. His brother Nicholas, third Earl of Banbury, 
 sat as a peer in the Convention Parliament 1660, which 
 assembled without writ ; a question arose as to his title, 
 but it was not further proceeded in. He was not sum- 
 moned to the next Parliament 1661, on account of 
 doubts of his legitimacy, the Earl of Banbury being so 
 far advanced in life when the two sons were born of his 
 countess. He presented to the King a petition for a 
 
90 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 deal more. But if his Lordship has not gain- 
 ed Mr. Law, I am afraid we shall not find our 
 account in Lord Stanhope's supporting him, 
 when he was ready to fall; in making him 
 
 writ of summons, which was referred to the House of 
 Lords. Witnesses were examined before the Commit- 
 tee of Privileges, who, in July 1661, reported that Ni- 
 cholas, Earl of Banhury, is a legitimate person, being, 
 in the eye of the law, the son of William, Earl of Ban- 
 bury, and that the house should therefore advise the 
 King to send him a writ to come to Parliament. But 
 none was sent; and he and his successors stood in 
 the awkward predicament of having a patent for the ti- 
 tle, but of being without the writ which would enable 
 them to sit in Parliament, or to be considered as peers. 
 Thus, in commissions of the peace and army, and in 
 other formal proceedings, they were styled Earls of Ban- 
 bury, and were rated to the capitation tax as such, but 
 were liable to be sued in the ordinary form as common- 
 ers. Nicholas, third Earl of Banbury, died 14th March 
 1673-4; he was twice married, first to Lady Isabella 
 Blount, eldest daughter of Mountjoy Earl of Newport, by 
 whom he had one daughter ; secondly to Anne, daugh- 
 ter of William Lord Sherard, by whom he had several 
 children, particularly Charles, fourth Earl of Banbury ; 
 Lady Anne Maria, married first to Major Walter Lit- 
 tleton, second son of Sir Edward Littleton of Pillaton 
 Hall, in Staffordshire, baronet, secondly to Captain 
 Philip Lawson, sixth son of Sir John Lawson of Brough 
 
OF LAURISTON. 91 
 
 first minister ; and in destroying the personal 
 credit I had with the Regent, and recalling me 
 from this court, where my long stay should 
 have enabled me to be better able to judge of 
 
 in Yorkshire, baronet, both of whom were killed in 
 duels, thirdly to Colonel Harvey ; and Lady Catherine, 
 married to Mr. Law. Charles, fourth Earl of Banbu- 
 ry, born 3d June 1662, had the misfortune of being en- 
 gaged in a duel with swords, with his brother-in-law 
 Philip Lawson, who received a mortal wound in his 
 side, and died on the spot, 6th December 1692. An 
 indictment for murder being, on this occasion, found 
 against the Earl of Banbury by the name of Charles 
 Knoll ys, Esq. he petitioned the House of Lords, 14th 
 December 1692, to be tried as a peer ; but the House re- 
 solved, by a small majority, 17th January 1692-3, that 
 he had not any right to the title of Earl of Banbury. 
 The indictment was removed by certiorari into the 
 Court of King's Bench, where the defendant being ar- 
 raigned in Trinity Term 169*, he pleaded in abatement 
 of the indictment misnomer, namely, that he is Earl of 
 Banbury, producing the letters patent to the first earl, 
 and setting forth the descents to himself. The Attor- 
 ney General replied, that the defendant had petitioned 
 the House of Lords to be tried on this indictment by 
 his peers, and that thereupon the House disallowed his 
 peerage, and dismissed the petition. To this replica- 
 tion the defendant demurred, and the Attorney Gene- 
 ral joined in demurrer. Lord Chief- Justice Holt and 
 
92 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 their design, and of their ways of working, 
 than a stranger of greater capacity could pro- 
 bably be. A little time will shew who has 
 judged rightest. I do most heartily wish, for 
 
 the other judges held the plea good, being of opinion 
 that the defendant had a title to his honour by legal 
 conveyance ; that the House of Lords could no more 
 deprive one of a peerage than they could confer that 
 dignity ; that the letters-patent produced by the de- 
 fendant could not be cancelled without a scire facias ; 
 and that the legitimacy of his father could not now be 
 questioned. Judgment went for defendant, the indict- 
 ment was abated, and he remained untried. The House 
 of Lords being offended at this decision, called Lord 
 Chief- Justice Holt and Justice Eyre to the bar in Fe- 
 bruary 1697, and interrogated them as to the reasons 
 thereof; no other answer was received from these 
 great judges than that their judgment, if erroneous, 
 was open to be corrected only by the forms of law, 
 namely, by writ of error. But no such writ was 
 brought, and the judgment of the Court of King's 
 Bench remained unreversed. The promise to Mr. Law 
 to bring Lord Banbury into the House of Lords was not 
 fulfilled, no writ of summons being issued. He died 
 28th August 1740, and his successors still retained the 
 designation of Earls of Banbury. Thomas Woods 
 Knollys, seventh Earl of Banbury, dying at Winches- 
 ter 13th May 1793, was succeeded by his only son, 
 William, eighth Earl of Banbury. His Lordship was 
 
OF LAURISTON. 93 
 
 the good of my country, that I may be found 
 to have formed a wrong judgment ; but I own 
 to you, I have seen nothing yet to make me 
 change my opinion, but, on the contrary, new 
 
 an officer in the third regiment of Foot Guards for thir- 
 ty-six years, rising gradually from the station of ensign 
 in 1778, to that of first major of the regiment, which 
 he held when he quitted it in 181*, having then 
 the rank of lieutenant-general in the army. In his 
 commissions he was designed Viscount Wallingford, 
 and, after his father's death, Earl of Banhury. In 1806 
 he presented " to the King's most excellent Majesty, the 
 humhle petition of William Earl of Banbury," entering 
 into a detail of all former proceedings, and concluding 
 thus : ". Your Majesty's petitioner, conceiving that he 
 has made out such a statement as is sufficient to shew 
 that he is the true and lawful heir of the said dignity 
 of Earl of Banbury, so granted to his ancestor, and that 
 he cannot legally divest himself thereof, or write or call 
 himself by any other name or title, respectfully im- 
 plores that justice and protection to which none of your 
 Majesty's subjects ever appealed in vain, and humbly 
 prays that your Majesty will be pleased to grant him a 
 writ of summons to your Parliament as Earl of Ban- 
 bury, or to take such other steps as to your Majesty's 
 great wisdom shall seem meet, for the purpose of 
 producing a full investigation and final determination 
 of his case." This petition was, 22d May 1806, re- 
 ferred to the Attorney General, and afterwards, 5th 
 
94 LIFE OF JOHN 
 
 things every day to confirm me, that Mr. 
 Law's designs, and the views of this court, 
 are just what I represented them to be. You 
 do me great wrong if you say that I advised 
 to break with the Regent if he did not agree 
 to part with Mr. Law. You will find no such 
 thing in my letters. You will find there that 
 I thought it was useful to shake Mr. Law's 
 credit with his master, to make his master jea- 
 lous of Mr. Law's ambition, and apprehen- 
 sive of the dangers his presumption might 
 lead him into ; and that I thought it was fit 
 
 February 1808, referred, with the Attorney General's 
 opinion, to the House of Lords, by whom it was resolv- 
 ed and adjudged, 15th March 1813, that the petitioner 
 is not entitled to the title, dignity, and honour of Earl 
 of Banbury. A strong protest, however, drawn up by 
 Lord Erskine, signed by his Lordship, the Royal Dukes 
 of Kent, Sussex, and Gloucester, the Marquis of Hast- 
 ings, Earl Nelson, Lords Ponsonby, Dundas, Ashbur- 
 ton, and Hood, was entered on the journals against this 
 resolution* The Earl of Banbury consequen tly drop- 
 ped that title, is now designed William Knollys, and 
 ranks as general in the army from 12th August 1819. 
 [^Journals of the House of Lords ; State Trials ; Dug- 
 dale, ii. 412 ; Salkeld, ii. 509 ; Dormant and Extinct 
 Baronage of England, by T. C. Banks, iii. 
 
OF LAURISTON. 95 
 
 to stand in his way as much as it was possi- 
 ble, to hinder him to gain an absolute power 
 over the Regent's mind, and to obstruct his 
 becoming first minister. I thought it was fit 
 to make Mr. Law lose temper, and to make 
 him act in passion and rage. I had not suc- 
 ceeded in these views when Lord Stanhope 
 arrived, and thought fit to demolish me and 
 all my works at once. 
 
 " You will find, besides, in my letters, that 
 I advised with more warmth than possibly 
 became a man of so little weight as I am, to 
 think of speedy ways to put the payment of 
 the public debts into a method, as the only 
 sure way to avert the dangers which I took 
 to be imminent, and the only way to procure 
 a good understanding between our court and 
 that of France. 
 
 " But you do me greater wrong when you 
 say, that the representations I made of the 
 dangers we were in, proceeded only from my 
 resentment against particular persons. These 
 are cruel insinuations to be made to one's 
 master and their country." " As to Mr. Law 
 I have no ill-will to him but as I take him to 
 be a dangerous enemy to my country. I am 
 1 
 
96 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 afraid time will but too plainly shew that I 
 have judged right in that matter. 
 
 " As to my revocation ; if it was possible 
 that I should have a mind to stay in this coun- 
 try, you have made it impracticable. You 
 have taken all effectual ways to be thought of 
 to destroy the personal credit I had with the 
 Regent. You have made it plain to him that 
 I have no credit with the King ; that is to say, 
 with his ministers. Lord Stanhope has de- 
 clared to Mr. Law that I shall be recalled, 
 so that is no longer a question ; you are un- 
 der the necessity of sending another minister 
 to this court." * 
 
 " I will agree with you that the King was 
 in the right not to put things upon that issue 
 with the Regent, that he would have peace and 
 friendship with him if he would sacrifice Law, 
 but war with him if he would not. Now, I 
 must beg pardon to say two things ; first, 
 that I never did put things upon that issue ; 
 and, in the next place, that there was no need 
 of putting things upon that issue. 
 
 14th February 1720. 
 
OF LAURISTON. 97 
 
 " You will find in my letters that I repre- 
 sented to the Duke of Orleans that Law, by 
 his vanity and presumption, was leading him 
 into great dangers and inconveniences both 
 at home and abroad ; that Law, by going too 
 fast, and by taking arbitrary measures, was in 
 a way to ruin his highness's credit with the 
 nation, and to overturn the whole system of 
 the finances; and that, at the same time, Law 
 was, by his discourse and his conduct, doing 
 every thing that lay in his power to destroy 
 the good understanding between the King and 
 the Regent, and between the Regent and the 
 rest of his allies ; and I bade the Regent be- 
 ware how he trusted the reins of his chariot 
 to that Phaeton Law, because he would over- 
 turn it. The answer the Regent made me to 
 these representations was, that he knew vani- 
 ty and ambition had turned his head, but that 
 he, the Regent, would take care to keep a hand 
 over him, and to contain him within bounds 
 in the management of the finances ; that he 
 should have nothing to say in public affairs ; 
 that if he presumed to meddle, the Regent 
 would not listen to him ; and that I might be 
 well assured that it should not be in his power 
 
98 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 to create an ill understanding betwixt him and 
 the King. 
 
 " I believe nobody can fairly say that there 
 is any thing in these representations which 
 imported that the King would quarrel with 
 the Regent if he did not lay Law aside. Nor 
 can they say that there is any thing in the 
 Regent's answer which imports that he took 
 what I said in that sense. On this foot things 
 stood. I spoke very freely to the Regent what 
 I had to say on the subject of Mr. Law, and 
 his royal highness received what I said in a 
 very friendly manner. 
 
 " When Lord Stanhope arrived, he thought 
 fit to acknowledge Mr. Law as first minister, 
 and to consider him as a much greater man 
 than Cardinal Richelieu or Cardinal Maza- 
 rine had been; to tell the Regent that the King 
 was very well satisfied with Mr. Law, and did 
 not in any manner complain of him; that 
 what I had said was entirely out of my own 
 head, and without, and even contrary to, or- 
 ders; and that, for so doing, I should be re- 
 called. Since that time Mr. Law has acted 
 as first minister; and I have had no intercourse 
 with the Regent but in formal audiences, to 
 
* 
 
 OF LAURISTON. 99 
 
 deliver such messages as I received from 
 court, and to receive short and formal an- 
 swers. In what manner Mr. Law has acted 
 as first minister I may save the trouble of 
 telling you; you have seen and felt it." 
 
 " My dear Craggs, take my word for it Mr. 
 Law's plan is formed to destroy the King and 
 his government, and our nation, and he will 
 certainly bring his master into it ; nor is there 
 any other way to divert him from that design 
 but by shewing his master that it is dange- 
 rous for him to attack us. There is nothing 
 but an appearance of strength and firmness 
 on our side, or the miscarriage of Law's sys- 
 tem on this side, can save us from a war with 
 France; and no personal credit that anybody 
 may flatter themselves they have with the 
 Duke of Orleans, will signify any thing to di- 
 vert it. Your letter about Gibraltar is very 
 well writ, and it was very right to write it ; 
 but I will give you my word for it, it will 
 have no manner of weight here if Law's sys- 
 tem takes place. If they can bully the mi- 
 nistry, or make a party in England, we must 
 part with Gibraltar ; and when we have part- 
 ed with it, we shall be every way as little se- 
 
p 
 
 100 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 cure of peace as we are at present, and, on 
 many accounts, less able to support a war." * 
 
 " I am glad you do not apprehend that Mr. 
 Law is in a condition to do us any great hurt, 
 by what he gets by the rise of our South Sea 
 stock. Though 1 know that Law will brag, 
 yet I own to you I did apprehend that he had 
 gained considerably, and that he might be 
 able to do us a good deal of mischief by with- 
 drawing a very great sum himself, and by 
 tempting other foreigners to follow his exam- 
 ple. I suppose you know that the great sums 
 Mr. Law pretends to have in our stocks were 
 bought in Holland. 
 
 " It seems to me to be a dangerous thing 
 in such a country as ours, where things are 
 so very uncertain and fluctuating, to have fo- 
 reigners masters of such vast sums of money 
 as they must needs have at present, by the 
 rise of our stocks. That is a terrible handle 
 to hurt us by, in the hands of such a man as 
 Law." 
 
 * 12th March 1720. 
 
* 
 
 OF LAURISTON. 101 
 
 " I am afraid pur people in England, think 
 too neglectfully of <jMta Law/ si s'jherjitfs.' I 
 own to you, that as this kingdom is disposed, 
 there is great odds to be laid that it will mis- 
 carry ; but it is not impossible, far from it, 
 that it may hold long enough to do us a good 
 deal of mischief. Another thing, I dare be 
 bold to say, it cannot succeed without undo- 
 ing us ; and if Mr. Law can compass our ruin, 
 I think he is in a fair way to carry through 
 his project in France. I know Mr. Law him- 
 self thinks so too ; and that being the case, 
 we may be very sure he will do us all the mis- 
 chief in his power. You cannot think that 
 power is small, considering the absolute au- 
 thority he has acquired over the Regent. That 
 being so, you will agree with me that we can- 
 not be too attentive to discover, prevent, and 
 defeat the designs he may form against us. 
 His designs are no trifling ones ; they strike 
 at the root."* 
 
 " I see plainly that I shall not be able to 
 see the King in England. It is a great while 
 since Mr. Law told his friends here that I 
 
 30th April 1720. 
 
* 
 102 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 should not be allowed to have the honour of 
 seeiug the K'-ng; : It is pretty hard to digest, 
 I own, if, after serving the King very faithful- 
 ly, very zealously, and with some success, I 
 should have the mortification not so much as 
 to have my master's good countenance."* 
 
 The Earl of Stair returned to England im- 
 mediately afterwards, when his successor, Sir 
 Robert Sutton, arrived in Paris; and was not 
 employed in any civil or military capacity for 
 upwards of twenty years. During that time he 
 resided at Newliston, living in a very frugal 
 manner, having put his estate into the hands 
 of trustees, in order to pay off the debts con- 
 tracted during this embassy, one of the most 
 splendid and magnificent ever known, as go- 
 vernment refused to discharge them. The 
 Comptroller General thus beheld these at- 
 tempts to shake his power serve no other pur- 
 pose than to establish it the more firmly, and 
 triumphed over one of the ablest and most de- 
 serving ministers Britain ever sent abroad.f 
 
 * 12th June 1720. 
 
 t Douglas's Peerage, ii. 530, 
 
OF LAURISTON. 103 
 
 At this high pinnacle, idolized by the 
 French, dreaded by the other European 
 states, and courted by the kingdom that had 
 passed sentence of death upon him, we will 
 leave Mr. Law for a while, and go on with the 
 history of the System. 
 
 The credit of the Bank and of the India 
 Company had arrived at its acme in Novem- 
 ber 1719, shares of the latter selling for more 
 than 10,000 livres each ; and such was the 
 abundance of money in the former, that the 
 directors agreed to lend any sum on proper 
 security, at an annual interest of only two per 
 cent. To increase the good humour and con- 
 fidence of the public, when the annualrent of 
 the loan of 100 millions from the company to 
 the King was reduced one per cent, by which 
 his Majesty made a saving of one million of 
 livres a-year, the Regent, at the request of 
 that body, abolished the taxes on oil, tallow, 
 and paper, amounting to 1,063,000 livres an- 
 nually, and he moreover remitted arrears of 
 duties due to the King, to the extent of 
 52,178,546 livres. The Company likewise, 
 of their own accord, suppressed the tax of 
 twenty-four deniers in the livre on fish, part 
 of the general farms assigned to them, a tax 
 
104 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 that used to produce 200,000 livres a-year; 
 actions that could not fail to be very accept- 
 able to the people, who became more than 
 ever enamoured of the System,* 
 
 In the midst of this general delirium, how- 
 ever, a constant drain of specie from the bank 
 was observable. This was occasioned by the 
 conduct of several of the original proprietors 
 of the India Company, who, astonished at 
 their exorbitant gains, could think of nothing 
 but converting their shares into gold and sil- 
 ver, which they either hoarded up, or remit- 
 ted abroad ; insomuch that it was computed 
 no less than 500 millions of livres, the pro- 
 perty of persons of that description, had been 
 sent out of France, f This circumstance, uni- 
 
 * Examen, i. 315. Hist. Syst. ii. 5. 
 
 t Vernesobre de Laurieu, a Prussian of mean origin, 
 whom Mr. Law had patronised, and appointed one of 
 the cashiers of the royal bank, having found means to 
 remit near forty millions of livres to England, Hol- 
 land, and Germany, disappeared at once, to the no small 
 consternation of the India Company. Returning to his 
 native country, his prodigious wealth occasioned him, 
 although no better than an infamous robber, to be re- 
 ceived with open arms by persons of the highest distinc- 
 tion in Prussia, where he was advanced to the first 
 
OF LAURISTON. 105 
 
 ted to the prodigious quantity of gold and 
 silver made into plate for the rich Missisip- 
 pians, was the cause that there scarcely re- 
 mained in the kingdom a sufficiency of specie 
 for ordinary circulation. With the view of 
 averting the danger with which these prac- 
 tices threatened the system, and also of guard- 
 ing against a run upon the bank, which it was 
 natural to apprehend would infallibly take 
 place when the state creditors were paid off, 
 as it was now proposed to discharge their de- 
 mands, several edicts were issued during the 
 months of January, February, and March, 
 
 places in the financial department, and honoured with 
 the order of the Black Eagle. One M. le Cevennois 
 having gained several millions by the first operations of 
 the system, carried them into England, where he in- 
 creased his wealth by speculating in the South Sea 
 funds. Bourdon and La Richardiere, two famous 
 stockjobbers, remitted hundreds of thousands of louis 
 d'or to England, along with a great quantity of dia* 
 monds, and several cargoes of brandy, a commodity that 
 they had engrossed. One Vermalet having gained more 
 than a million of livres, converted them into specie, and 
 carried the whole to Holland, in a cart loaded with hay 
 and straw, driven by himself. [[Hist. Syst. i, 175, 187, 
 ii. 4,6, iv. 38, 
 
106 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 1720. By these, payments in specie were re- 
 stricted to small sums, (so low as 100 livres 
 
 , ...:-,-: * X 
 
 in gold, and 10 livres in silver;) the standard 
 of the coin was kept in a continual state of 
 fluctuation ; bank notes were declared to re- 
 main always invariable, and even to be cur- 
 rent at five (and in some cases ten) per cent 
 above the specie ; all rents, taxes, and cus- 
 toms were ordered to be paid in notes ; and 
 plate was prohibited to be made without the 
 royal licence. These, and other similar edicts 
 now published, served the double purpose of 
 increasing the profits of the mint to the In- 
 dia Company, and throwing gold and silver 
 out of circulation ; so that it would appear 
 Mr. Law now began to entertain the idea of 
 abolishing the use of specie altogether, espe- 
 cially since permission was given to every 
 one to export coin and the metals of which it 
 was made. But what crowned all was the fa- 
 mous edict of the 27th February 1720, pro- 
 hibiting individuals, and secular or religious 
 communities, (some privileged officers except- 
 ed,) from having in their possession more 
 than 500 livres in specie, under pain of a hea- 
 vy fine, and confiscation of the sums found ; 
 an edict which could not fail to produce the 
 
OF LAURISTON. 107 
 
 most disagreeable consequences upon the 
 peace of families, rendering the nearest rela- 
 tions suspicious of each other, and parents ap- 
 prehensive of their children turning inform- 
 ers. Several were convicted of, and punish- 
 ed for, contravening this edict, among others, 
 a director of the India Company ; but it had 
 in the main so much effect, as to occasion the 
 people to run in crowds to the bank, to ex- 
 change their specie for paper, and to think 
 themselves happy when this was accomplish- 
 ed. The eagerness manifested to get near 
 the tellers for that purpose induced one to 
 say to some of these importunate persons, 
 " Do not be afraid, gentlemen, that your 
 money will be suffered to remain on your 
 hands ; I will engage that all shall be taken 
 from you." It was said that above 300 mil- 
 lions of livres were paid in coin into the bank 
 betwixt the 27th February and 1st April 
 1720 ; a great sum, but yet little more than 
 one-fifth of the computed specie of the king- 
 dom ; for several individuals, who could not 
 be persuaded that paper was of equal value 
 with gold and silver, hoarded up, without inter- 
 mission, all these precious metals they could 
 procure, notwithstanding the penalties de- 
 
108 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 nounced by the before-mentioned edict, which 
 was followed by another of the 1 1th of March, 
 forbidding any payment whatever to be made 
 in specie.* 
 
 On the 23d of February 1720, the royal 
 bank was incorporated with the Company of 
 the Indies, the King remaining guarantee of 
 the bank notes, of which none were, after that 
 date, to be fabricated, except in virtue of 
 edicts of council. His Majesty moreover gave 
 up to the company all the profits made by the 
 bank since he had taken it into his hands in 
 December 1718 ; and the public entertaining 
 the idea that these profits were immense, this 
 contributed to raise higher than ever the re- 
 putation of the India company's opulence. 
 For some time previous and subsequent to 
 this incorporation, the fabrication of bank 
 notes went on at so great a rate, that upwards 
 of 2000 millions were struck off between the 
 29th December 1719 and 1st May 1720; and 
 during this period, it appears that a final con- 
 clusion was put to the reimbursement of the 
 
 * Stewart, ii. 265. Examen, i. 319, 344?. Mem. Reg. 
 ii. 300. 
 
OF LAURISTON. 109 
 
 national creditors by these notes, in conse- 
 quence whereof the government securities 
 granted to them were withdrawn and can- 
 celled.* 
 
 The respectable author of the Inquiry into 
 the Principles of Political Economy supposes 
 that it now was the intention of the Regent to 
 dispose of as many of the shares he already 
 possessed, and of those which the company 
 were bound to sell to his Royal Highness, 
 (he asserts, at the rate of 5000 livres each,) as 
 would retire the amount of the national debt 
 already discharged, and then to destroy the 
 bank notes so withdrawn. The whole pub- 
 lic debts of France would consequently be 
 converted into shares of the India company, 
 who would have become responsible to the re- 
 spective proprietors for the dividend on the 
 shares thus disposed of, and to the Regent 
 for that on those which might have remained 
 in his possession. If we suppose the price 
 of shares during so great an operation not 
 to fall below 10,000 livres each, the a- 
 mount of the whole national debt could 
 
 * Examen, i. 340. 
 
HO LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 be withdrawn by the sale of 200,000 shares. 
 In that case the Regent would still have 
 200,000 shares left in his hands ; and the di- 
 vidend on these, at 200 livres each, amount- 
 ing to forty millions, being deducted from the 
 forty-eight millions payable annually by the 
 King as the interest of the loan from the com- 
 pany, leaves a remainder of eight millions, 
 all that his Majesty would have to pay, in- 
 stead of eighty millions as at first. This sum 
 of eight millions might even have been altoge- 
 ther extinguished, if either the price of shares 
 or the quantum of dividend had increased, or 
 the rate of interest been sunk to a degree suffi- 
 cient to answer that purpose.* 
 
 The assertion that the company were bound 
 to sell the Regent 300,000 actions, at 5000 
 livres each, seems to be unfounded, no such 
 agreement appearing among the edicts of 
 council.f It must be allowed, however, that 
 
 * Stewart, ii. 267. 
 
 + It appears that in June 1720, the Company were in 
 possession of 300,000 actions ; and that the Regent had 
 100,000 shares belonging to him. When the Bank was 
 incorporated with the Company of the Indies, it was 
 agreed by them to purchase these 100,000 shares at the 
 
OF LAURISTON. Ill 
 
 the above-mentioned plan was both probable 
 and practicable ; since by selling the shares of 
 the company, and destroying the paper re- 
 ceived for them, no notes except such as had 
 been issued for value by the bank would have 
 remained in circulation. The bank conse- 
 quently having it in their power to answer all 
 demands, their credit must have been com- 
 pletely established and confirmed. Whether 
 the Regent entertained any such design is, 
 however, merely conjectural ; ibr the time 
 now approached with hasty strides, when the 
 public credit of France, high as it had been 
 raised, was at once to give way, involve many 
 in widely extended ruin, and crush its author, 
 who merited a better fate. The following 
 steps led to this strange and unexpected event. 
 The envy that generally is the attendant on 
 persons raised to high offices of state, Mr. Law 
 could not fail to have the misfortune of expe- 
 riencing ; and, in his case, it was heightened to 
 a very inveterate degree, from the circum- 
 
 rate of 9000 livres each, payable by instalments ; an 
 agreement the subsequent calamities prevented from be- 
 ing completed. Examen, i. 343.]] 
 
LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 stance of his being a foreigner. He was hat- 
 ed by almost all the ministry, and obnoxious 
 to the old retainers of the court. Cardinal 
 Du Bois in particular, formerly the Regent's 
 tutor, a man not to be equalled in wickedness 
 and profligacy, could not, without pain, ob- 
 serve his wonted influence over the mind of 
 his old pupil quite destroyed by the superior 
 attractions of the Comptroller General, who, 
 he had reason to suspect, was determined to 
 have him exiled from court. This made him 
 attempt all methods to injure Mr. Law in the 
 opinion of the Regent, in which he was joined 
 by several of his colleagues ; while, at the 
 same time, the great men of the court, en- 
 riched beyond their utmost hopes, slackened 
 in their zeal for, and turned cool towards the 
 interests of, the prime minister. The far- 
 mers general, irritated by the loss they sus- 
 tained by taking the great farms into their 
 hands, combined against Mr. Law; and the 
 parliament of Paris, who reckoned that gen- 
 tleman their most bitter enemy, leagued them- 
 selves with these rich and powerful financiers. 
 The united efforts of such a number of anta- 
 gonists appear to have made a deep impres- 
 sion on the Regent, from the following pas- 
 
OF LAURISTON. 113 
 
 sages in a letter of Lord Stair, dated 12th 
 March 1720 : " You may depend upon it, 
 that Law is mightily shaken in his master's 
 good opinion, who, within these few days past, 
 has used him most cruelly to his face, and 
 calling him all the names that can be thought 
 of, knave and madman, &c. He told him 
 he did not know what hindered him to send 
 him to the Bastile, and that there was never 
 one sent thither deserved it half so well. This 
 scene happened in the presence of Le Blanc, 
 (the Secretary at War.) The Duke of Or- 
 leans was upon the close stool when Law 
 came in. The Duke was in such a passion 
 that he ran to Law with his breeches about 
 his heels, and made him the compliment above 
 mentioned."* It however appears by other 
 
 * From the conclusion of this letter we learn, that the 
 cares of his station, the pressure of business, or the adu- 
 lation so lavishly bestowed on him, or perhaps all these 
 causes combined, had begun to affect the minister's 
 brain. <( Law's head is so heated, that he does not 
 sleep at nights, and has formal fits of frenzy. He gets 
 out of bed almost every night, and runs stark staring 
 mad about the room, making a terrible noise, some- 
 times singing and dancing; at other times swearing, 
 
LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 letters from his Lordship, of a later date, that 
 Mr. Law soon regained a great share of the 
 Regent's confidence, though his Highness 
 could not erase from his mind the impression 
 he had received from the reiterated unfavour- 
 able reports made by his enemies. But an 
 opportunity soon afterwards occurred, and 
 was eagerly embraced by them, of engaging 
 the Duke in a scheme which completely ruin- 
 ed the great designs of the Comptroller Ge- 
 neral, by putting an end to his plans of public 
 credit and national affluence.* 
 
 It has been before mentioned, that at the 
 first of May 1720, bank notes had been fa- 
 
 staring, and stamping, quite out of himself. Some 
 nights ago, his wife, who had come into the room upon 
 the noise he made, was forced to ring the bell for peo- 
 ple to come to her assistance. The officer of Law's 
 guard was the first that came, and found Law in his 
 shirt, who had set two chairs in the middle of the room, 
 and was dancing round them, quite out of his wits. 
 This scene the officer of the guard told Le Blanc, from 
 whom it came to me by a very sure conveyance. 1 ' 
 Hardwicke State Papers.]] 
 
 * Massillon, 147. Richelieu, iii. 45, 
 
OF LAURISTON. 115 
 
 bricated to the amount of above 2600 millions 
 of livres. The specie in the kingdom was es- 
 timated at the rate of sixty-five livres to the 
 marc, at 1300 millions. Cardinal Du Bois, 
 M. d'Argenson, and others of the ministry, 
 now represented to the Regent that it was be- 
 come absolutely necessary to form an equal 
 proportion betwixt the notes and the coin, by 
 either raising the denomination of the latter 
 to 130 livres the marc, by which the 1300 
 millions of specie would have been augment- 
 ed to 2600 millions of specie ; or reducing 
 the value of the notes one half, that is, to ] 300 
 millions. This extraordinary point was de- 
 bated in council ; some of the members, among 
 whom was the Comptroller General, contend- 
 ed strenuously for letting matters stand as 
 they were; or if it was judged necessary to 
 adopt one of the alternatives, they proposed 
 to raise the denomination of the specie, a mea- 
 sure that had frequently been practised be- 
 fore. The majority of the council, however, 
 who bore no good will to Mr. Law, favour- 
 ing the proposition for lowering the value of 
 the paper, it was at last, after a profound de- 
 
116 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 liberation, determined to issue an edict for 
 that purpose.* 
 
 Accordingly, on the 21st of May 1720, an 
 edict was published, stating, that the King 
 having judged that the general interests of his 
 subjects required that the price, or nominal 
 value of the India company's actions, and of 
 bank notes, should be lessened, for maintain- 
 ing a just proportion between them and the 
 coin and other commodities of the kingdom ; 
 his Majesty ordered that the shares of the 
 company should be reduced, beginning from 
 the day of the publication of the present edict, 
 to 8000 livres ; on the 1st of July to 7500 li- 
 vres; on the 1st of August to 7000 livres; 
 and so on by 500 livres a-monthtill the 1st of 
 December, when they were to remain fixed at 
 5000 livres. That the bank notes should al- 
 so be reduced, so as they should be received 
 in payments from that date at the following 
 rates; viz. those of 10,000 livres for 8000 li- 
 vres, those of 1000 livres for 800, of 100 for 
 80, and of 10 for 8. That on the 1st of July 
 these notes should be further reduced, those 
 
 Stewart, ii. 268. 
 
OF LAURISTON. 117 
 
 of 10,000 livres to 7500 livres, and so on at 
 the rate of 500 livres a-month, the lesser notes 
 being reduced in the like proportion, till the 
 1st of December, when it was declared that 
 the bank notes should remain fixed, those of 
 10,000 livres at 5000 livres, those of 1000 at 
 500, those of 100 at 50, and those of 10 at 5 
 livres.* 
 
 That this unjustifiable and fatal step was ta- 
 ken in opposition to the advice of the Comp- 
 troller General, is asserted upon the authori- 
 ty of his nephew, M. Law de Lauriston, who 
 says, " On se decida, malgre Favis de M, 
 Law, et sur son rapport cependant, puisqu'il 
 etoit Controleur General des Finances, mais 
 peu ecoute, de lancer Tarret," &c. Indeed, 
 it seems hardly credible, that one so intimate- 
 ly conversant in the principles of public cre- 
 dit as Mr. Law was, could approve of a pro- 
 ceeding diametrically opposite to them. Se- 
 veral, who cannot be supposed to be biassed 
 by sinister motives, unite in declaring that the 
 Comptroller General had no hand in the 
 
 * Hist. Syst. iii. 149. Recherches et Considerations 
 sur les Finances de France, vi. 336. 
 
118 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 framing of that fatal edict, which they allege 
 was the work of M. d'Argenson. The au- 
 thor of the History of the System says, in di- 
 rect terms, that Mr. Law strongly opposed 
 the issuing of the edict, contending, that the 
 least symptom of reduction would for ever put 
 an end to all confidence and credit ; and some 
 go so far as to maintain, on the authority of 
 a letter from a duke and peer of France to an 
 English nobleman, that the other European 
 States, entertaining serious apprehensions 
 that, in the event of the system's being at- 
 tended with success, the consequent increase 
 of the power and wealth of France would 
 prove prejudicial to their interests, the mini- 
 sters of the Quadruple Alliance concerted the 
 mode of occasioning the miscarriage of that 
 project, and suggested it to the enemies of 
 Mr. Law.* 
 
 Be the cause as it may, the edict was pub- 
 lished ; and the consequences of this infrac- 
 
 * Hist. Syst. ii. 196, iii. 146. Examen, i. 360. Re'fl. 
 Polit. i. 235. Le secret du systeme de M. Law devoile, 
 en deux lettres ecrites par un Due et Pair de France, a 
 un Milord Anglois. La Haye, 1721. 
 
 1 
 
OF LAURISTON. 119 
 
 tion of the royal engagement, which solemnly 
 promised, that whatever alterations should 
 take place on the coin, the bank notes should 
 always remain invariable, and be paid in full, 
 were such as might have been expected. From 
 that moment 
 
 Omiria fatis 
 I# pejus ruere, ac retro sublapsa referri, 
 
 the whole paper fabric fell to the ground, the 
 notes lost all credit, none would meddle with 
 them ; and the avenues of the bank being 
 blocked up by soldiers, there was no possi- 
 bility of getting near the tellers, so that the , 
 day following, May 22, any one might have 
 starved with 100 millions of paper money in 
 his pocket.* 
 
 The consternation with which all ranks 
 were struck on the publication of this fatal 
 edict being quickly converted into rage, it be- 
 came necessary to station a number of troops 
 in different quarters of Paris, to bridle the fu- 
 ry of the mob, from whose outrageous dispo- 
 sition a second tragedy of St. Bartholomew 
 
 * Stewart, ii. 268. 
 
120 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 was dreaded. Disorder and confusion reign- 
 ed everywhere ; seditious and inflammatory 
 libels were posted up and distributed ; and 
 the life of the Regent himself was threatened. 
 But that Prince, among whose failings want 
 of courage certainly never could be reckoned, 
 disregarding these menaces, continued to give 
 public audience every day in the Palais 
 Royal.* 
 
 * In this season of calamity, the French, with their 
 characteristic levity, could not refrain from sporting 
 with their own misfortunes in epigrams and other jeux 
 d'esprit. The following are selected from an infinity of 
 productions of that nature, published at that time. 
 Lundi j'achetai des actions ; 
 Mardi je gagnai des millions ; 
 Mercredi j'arrangeai mon menage ; 
 Jeudi je pris un equipage ; 
 Vendredi je m'en fus au bal ; 
 Et Samedi a 1'Hopital. 
 
 To the Abbe (afterwards Cardinal) de Tencin, who 
 had the principal hand in Mr. Law's conversion, for 
 1 which he was rewarded with the Bishopric of Grenoble. 
 Foin de ton zele seraphique, 
 
 Malheureux Abbe de Tencin ! 
 Depuis que Laws est cath clique, 
 Tout le royaume est capucin. 
 
OF LAURISTON. 121 
 
 In this emergency, the parliament of Paris 
 called an extraordinary meeting to deliberate 
 upon the situation of affairs ; and the result 
 of this meeting was sending a deputation, 
 composed of their principal members, to the 
 Regent, to demand the revocation of the edict 
 of the 21st of May. Upon their representa- 
 tion, this was accordingly done by another 
 edict, dated May 27, establishing the paper 
 at its former denomination. But all confi- 
 dence being now gone, this edict had no other 
 effect than to increase the mischief, by throw- 
 ing again into the channel of commerce notes 
 universally discredited, with which knavish 
 persons paid and ruined their lawful credi- 
 tors.* To render matters worse, payment 
 was the same day stopped at the bank, com-, 
 missaries being sent to seal up the reposito- 
 ries, and to examine the account books. This 
 was done under pretext of inquiring into frauds 
 alleged to have been committed by the clerks, 
 
 * The President de Novion having, some months 
 preceding, sold an estate to Mr. Law for 400,000 livres 
 in gold, and having reserved a right of redemption with- 
 in a stated period, his son, availing himself of that 
 clause, at this juncture repaid the purchaser with notes. 
 G 
 
122 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 but in reality to prevent the specie from be- 
 ing paid away in exchange for notes ; and 
 this procedure did not fail to increase the dis- 
 order and confusion of affairs.* 
 
 The distress of the people may easily be 
 conceived to have been extreme, when it is 
 considered, that at the time the bank thus 
 . stopped payment, no less than 2,235,085,590 
 livres of notes were in circulation.f It now 
 became necessary to issue an edict, permit- 
 ting all persons to have in their possession 
 whatever sums in specie they thought proper, 
 and a quantity of silver was sent to the com- 
 missaries of each section of Paris, to give in 
 change for small notes to those who had the 
 most pressing occasion for supply. On the 
 >10th of June, the bank was opened for the 
 ** payment of notes of 10 livres ; on the llth it 
 was announced that the notes of 100 livres 
 
 * Richelieu, iii. 28. Hist. Syst. ii. 91, iii. 159. Stew- 
 art, ii. 270. Mem. Reg. iii. 4. 
 
 t The total amount of notes fabricated by this time 
 was, as has been before stated, 2,696,400,000 livres, 
 and of them 461,316,410 livres remained on the 27th 
 May in the bank, which was also possessed of 336,011,050 
 livres in specie. Stewart, ii. 271. 
 
OF LAURISTON. 123 
 
 were to be changed there into small notes, 
 only one to be brought by each person com- 
 ing for that purpose ; and the 12th and 13th 
 were appointed for the payments of notes of 
 10 livres. This being the only place where 
 specie could be procured, it is no wonder that 
 the confluence of people there should be im- 
 mense ; and, accordingly, scarcely a day pass- 
 ed without some being suffocated or crushed 
 to death in the crowd. On the 9th of July, 
 an enormous throng of people assembled at 
 the entrance of the bank on the side of the 
 Mazarin Gardens. The guards took care 
 that a very small number should be admitted; 
 and the gate being immediately shut, those on 
 the outside began to be very clamorous, and 
 to throw stones at the door and into the gar- 
 dens, which was returned from within; and 
 one of the soldiers firing his piece through 
 the key hole, killed a coachman, and wound- 
 ed a citizen in the shoulder. At last the gate 
 was opened ; but the guards being ranged in 
 the inside with fixed bayonets, few chose to 
 venture within their reach, and those who did 
 so paid dear for their temerity, several being 
 wounded, and one run through the body. 
 The 17th of July being appointed for the pay- 
 
124 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 ment of notes of 100 livres, so extraordinary 
 a concourse assembled, and their struggles 
 were such, that it is said no less than twenty 
 persons were suffocated. This occasioned a 
 dreadful ferment among the Parisians, which 
 was quelled with great difficulty by the pru- 
 dent conduct of M. le Blanc, Secretary at^ 
 War.* 
 
 It may well be supposed that the notes 
 would be retired but very slowly in this man- 
 ner ; therefore, in order to give vent to the 
 deluge of paper that overwhelmed the nation, 
 twenty-five millions of perpetual annuities, at 
 the rate of forty years purchase, and four mil- 
 lions of annuities on lives, at twenty-five years 
 purchase, were constituted in June 1720. In 
 July following, books of accounts current and 
 transfers, to the extent of 600 millions, were 
 opened at the bank, and in August, eight mil- 
 lions more of perpetual annuities, at the rate 
 of fifty years purchase, were issued. By these 
 methods, it was expected that upwards of 
 2000 millions of notes would be retired, and 
 
 * Examen, ii. 25. Richelieu, iii. 220. Duclos, ii. 3. 
 Mem. Reg. iii. 7. Stewart, ii. 270. 
 
OF LAURISTON. 125 
 
 the notes so retired were directed to be 
 burnt ; but notwithstanding the eager desire 
 of the people to get rid of their paper mo- 
 ney, the unfavourable nature of the terms 
 made several hesitate. It was therefore found 
 necessary, on the 15th of August, to publish 
 an edict, declaring that the notes of 10,000 
 and 1000 livres should have no currency, ex- 
 cept for the purchase of annuities and bank 
 accounts, or for the supplemental payments 
 directed to be made on the actions ; and by a 
 subsequent edict, all payments whatever in 
 notes were prohibited after the 1st of Novem- 
 ber 1720. The consequence was, that many 
 having neglected the opportunities of funding 
 their bank notes within the limited time, in 
 hopes they would again recover their credit, 
 or that better terms might be obtained, great 
 sums of these notes were irreparably lost, re- 
 maining useless at this day in the possession 
 of individuals.* 
 
 * Stewart, ii. 271. A remarkable proof of this occur- 
 red 6th September 1790, shortly after the Constituent 
 Assembly of France had issued assignats, which, it is 
 almost unnecessary to mention, were notes secured on 
 
126 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 With regard to the shares of tne India 
 company, it was, by edict of the 3d of June 
 1720, ordered that the 100,000 shares belong- 
 ing to the King, and 300,000 that were in 
 the company's hands, should be committed to 
 the flames, and that 200,000 new shares should 
 be made, and given to those individuals who 
 brought back their old shares, they either 
 making a supplemental payment of 3000 li- 
 vres on each, or getting two new shares in re- 
 turn for every three they brought back. The 
 dividend on each share was fixed at 360 li- 
 vres, and the privileges of the company were, 
 at the same time, increased and extended ; it 
 being stated that their affairs were in a flou- 
 rishing situation, their books kept in exact 
 order, the produce of the farms augmented. 
 
 landed property belonging to the public. A person was 
 observed in the gardens of the Thuilleries, with a crowd 
 about him, examining some papers. These papers turn- 
 ed out to be a parcel of Law's bank notes, amounting 
 to upwards of 100,000 livres, which, it was imagined, 
 had been given him by some royalist to distribute to 
 the multitude, in order to prejudice them against the 
 assignats. This the man denied, affirming that they 
 had been in his possession several years. 
 
OF LAUIUSTON. 127 
 
 and that 105 ships with valuable cargoes, not 
 reckoning a number of brigantines and fri- 
 gates, had sailed, or were on the point of sail- 
 ing, to their settlements. Soon afterwards, 
 50,000 new shares were ordered to be made, 
 making in all 250,000 shares ; and on the 
 24th October 1720, an edict appeared, direc- 
 ting a list of all the original proprietors of 
 shares of the India company to be made out. 
 Such as still possessed the full number for 
 which they had subscribed, were ordered to 
 bring them back, to remain in deposite with the 
 company ; and those who had sold either the 
 whole or part of their shares, were required 
 to complete the number originally belonging 
 to them, by purchasing from the company the 
 shares in which they were deficient, at the 
 rate of 13,500 livres each.* 
 
 This edict could not fail to occasion a con- 
 siderable degree of alarm among the old 
 stockjobbers, many of whom prepared imme- 
 diately to leave France ; so that it was found 
 necessary, on the 29th of October, to prohi- 
 bit, under pain of death, any person from de~ 
 
 * Mem, Reg. Hi. 58. 
 
128 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 parting out of the kingdom without express 
 permission from the Regent. Several were 
 arrested on the frontiers, in Franche Comte, 
 and in the vicinity of Calais, having large 
 sums in their possession ; and the houses of 
 some of the original proprietors being search- 
 ed, many discoveries were made. In one 
 lodging 20,000 louis d'or in specie were found 
 concealed ; and jewels to the value of two mil- 
 lions having been discovered in the house of 
 M. du Pin, secretary to the King, he was 
 sent to the Bastile, notwithstanding his pro- 
 testations that it ought not to be imputed as a 
 crime to have become rich by the methods es- 
 tablished by the Court. The Regent, Mr. 
 Law, and many of the most considerable pro- 
 prietors of shares, did not omit paying ready 
 obedience to the edict, depositing all the ac- 
 tions belonging to them in the office appoint- 
 ed for that purpose ; and even, of their own 
 accord, giving up to the company a large pro- 
 portion of what each possessed. Soon after- 
 wards the great farms, the management and 
 profits of the mint, and the administration of 
 the whole royal revenues, were taken out of 
 
OF LAOftlSTON. 129 
 
 the hands of the India company, who thus 
 became reduced to a mere trading body.* 
 
 These various operations concluded, the 
 total amount of the public debts was found 
 to extend, at the first of January 1721, to 
 2,289,762,849 livres, besides 125,024. shares 
 of the India company, valued by the proprie- 
 tors at 899,638,855 livres, making altogether 
 the vast sum of 3,189,401,705 livres. The 
 interest of the former, at 2 and 2^ per cent for 
 perpetual annuities, and 4 per cent for annui- 
 ties on lives, amounted to 54,579,735 livres, 
 while the dividend on the latter, at the rate of 
 360 livres each share, came to the sum of 
 45,008,640 livres, extending in whole to 
 99,588,375 livres of annualrents.f 
 
 The ministry finding it impossible for the 
 nation to sustain, for any length of time, so 
 heavy a charge, resolved to establish a Com- 
 mission or Visa, to take an account of the 
 claims of the state creditors ; and this was ac- 
 cordingly done, by edict of council dated 26th 
 January 1721. By this edict all persons of that 
 
 * Mem. Reg. iii. 66, 70. 
 t Examen, ii. 143. 
 
130 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 description were directed to transmit to the Vi- 
 sa two papers, one titled Bordereau, containing 
 their name, quality, and place of residence, to- 
 gether with the date, number, and amount of 
 their claims on government. In the second pa- 
 per, or declaration, were to be stated the titles 
 by which they possessed, and the sums respec- 
 tively paid for these effects. The commission- 
 ers were directed to arrange into five classes 
 the proprietors of government securities, and 
 of shares of the India company. The first 
 four classes were composed of those who had 
 acquired them by the money paid by the King 
 when he discharged the old creditors of the 
 state, by the sale of heritable and moveable 
 property, and by the disposal of merchandise 
 or other effects, respectively ; while the fifth 
 and last class comprehended all who could 
 give no fair or satisfactory account of the ori- 
 gin of their acquisitions. Deductions at dif- 
 ferent rates, proportioned to the favourable 
 or unfavourable circumstances attending the 
 claims of the various public creditors, were 
 ordered to be made from the demands of the 
 first four classes, provided they amounted to 
 more than 500 livres ; for all claimants whose 
 demands did not exceed that sum, (no less 
 
OF LAURISTON. 131 
 
 than 251,590 in number,) were directed to be 
 paid in full. The property belonging to the 
 fifth class was, by the edict, ordered to be to- 
 tally annihilated, whatever the amount might 
 be; and this clause occasioned many shares 
 of the India company to fall so low, that ac- 
 tions which had cost 13,500 livres were now v 
 sold for a single louis d'or.* 
 
 The Visa appointed to settle this compli- 
 cated and difficult liquidation consisted of fif- 
 ty boards, composed of Masters of Requests 
 and Counsellors of the Great Council, who 
 employed under them no less than 800 clerks; 
 and in order to assist the commissioners in 
 their operations, copies of all contracts for the 
 transfer of property, entered into before nota- 
 ries, betwixt 1st July 1719 and 31st Decem- 
 ber 1720, were directed to be made out. The 
 effects carried to the Visa, by 511,009 indi- 
 viduals, amounted, as stated by the proprie- 
 tors, to 2,222,597,491 livres in contracts for 
 annuities on lives, perpetual annuities, &c. 
 and this sum the commissioners reduced to 
 
 * JExamen, ii. 168. Mem. Reg. iii. 133. Hist. Syst. 
 iv. 68. Histoire de France par Fantin, i. 345. 
 
132 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 1,676,5015831 livres, the interest of which 
 may be computed at forty-eight millions a- 
 year, partly consisting in life annuities, and, 
 therefore, continually diminishing. The shares 
 of the India company were in like manner re- 
 duced from 125,024, with a dividend of 360 
 livres per annum apiece, to only 55,316, (af- 
 terwards increased to 56,000,) each having a 
 dividend of 100 livres the first, and 150 li- 
 vres every subsequent year, exclusive of their 
 proportion of the profits of the trade. Thus, 
 in consequence of these arbitrary proceedings, 
 the annual interest payable by the King was 
 diminished to about fifty-six millions of livres, 
 by which his Majesty was a gainer of upwards 
 of forty millions a-year, and many of the pub- 
 lic creditors were reduced to the utmost mi- 
 sery and distress.* 
 
 * Examen, ii. passim. Mem. Reg. iii. 307. The ex- 
 pense of the Visa, paid by Government, in pursuance of 
 an edict of council, amounted to 9,045,874 livres, 11s. 
 9d. The Sieur de Talhouet, Master of Requests, the 
 Abbe Clement, and the Sieurs Daude and Gailly, four 
 persons employed in this business, being convicted of 
 stealing 946 shares of the India company, were con- 
 demned to suffer death ; but the sentence of the first 
 
OF LAURISTON. 133 
 
 Such were the consequences of the fatal 
 edict of the 21st of May, a piece of folly hard- ! 
 ly to be equalled in the annals of any nation, 
 and not easy to be accounted for on any other 
 supposition, than as a contrivance of the 
 French ministry to free themselves from a 
 
 two was commuted to perpetual imprisonment, and the 
 last two were sent to the galleys for life. 
 
 According to Sir James Stewart, the national debt 
 amounted, at the conclusion of the System, to 
 1,999,072,540 livres. But he only reckons as such the 
 ] 00 millions due from the King to the India company, 
 and the balance of notes issued by the bank, after de- 
 duction of the paper and specie remaining therein, with- 
 out taking any notice of the shares of the company in 
 the hands of the public. In stating the proceedings 
 and result of the Visa, M. du Verney, who, although 
 strongly prejudiced against Mr. Law, explains the whole 
 operations of the System so fully and clearly, and with 
 so much order and distinctness, in his <f Examen du 
 livre intitule Reflexions Politiques sur les Finances et 
 le Commerce," as to give very high ideas of his talents 
 and knowledge of the subject, is followed. It is, how- 
 ever, not a little remarkable, that he takes no notice of 
 the specie remaining in the bank when it stopped pay- 
 ment, extending, according to Sir James Stewart,, to 
 336 millions of livres ; nor does it clearly appear hew 
 this large sum was brought to account. 
 
134 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 formidable rival, to accomplish which object 
 they did not hesitate to bring the kingdom to 
 the brink of destruction. But it is by no 
 means so easy to account for the Regent's giv- 
 ing his consent to a decree that, besides be- 
 ing a breach of public faith, was an experi- 
 ment full of danger, by which neither himself 
 nor any other could possibly be benefited. 
 Had no such step been taken, and his High- 
 ness allowed the System to go on in the way 
 supposed to have been at first intended, it is 
 not unreasonable to imagine that, infatuated 
 as the people were to acquire shares of the 
 India company, the sums paid to the national 
 creditors would have been retired with the sale 
 of less than 200,000, consequently the public 
 would then have had about 400,000 shares in 
 their hands. The company could, in this 
 case, easily have made good their engage- 
 ment to pay a dividend of 200 livres on each 
 of these shares, as we have seen that, on a 
 very moderate computation, they enjoyed an 
 annual revenue of above eighty millions, ad- 
 ministered by themselves, and capable of great 
 increase. By destroying the notes so retired, 
 none would have remained in circulation ex- 
 cept such as had been issued for value by 
 
OF LAURISTON. 135 
 
 the bank, which could thus have answer- 
 ed all demands made upon it. The com- 
 pany being thereby relieved from every ap- 
 prehension of suffering by a run upon them, 
 would have had leisure to direct their atten- 
 tion to the improvement, by all possible means, 
 of the home revenue, the culture of the colo- 
 nies, and the extension of their commerce. In 
 this case, what might not have been expected 
 from the exertions of a body of men, possess- 
 ed of almost unlimited credit, whose funds 
 were immense, who had in their hands the 
 whole foreign trade and possessions, and all 
 the public revenues of the kingdom, and who, 
 moreover, enjoyed the declared protection of 
 government, and the implicit confidence of the 
 people ? 
 
 The opinion that the System was a mon- 
 strous and impracticable monopoly appears to 
 have been taken up without sufficient grounds. 
 All preceding attempts to establish a flou- 
 rishing trade to the Indies had failed of suc- 
 cess, from deficiency of funds in the parties 
 concerned, so that it was far from being an 
 improper step to endeavour to settle the com- 
 merce to these places on a solid and extensive 
 basis, the more especially as the exclusive pri- 
 
136 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 yilege of trading thereto was granted to the 
 company only for a limited period. With 
 regard to taking the great farms out of the 
 hands of the farmers general, it is apprehend- 
 ed that the propriety of that transfer will not 
 be disputed, when the enormous profits made 
 by those extravagant and luxurious finan- 
 ciers, and their unwarrantable exactions, are 
 considered ; while, on the other hand, the su- 
 perior advantage of assuming these farms in- 
 to the hands of a company, in which no per- 
 son that could command a moderate sum was 
 excluded from holding a share, is evident. By 
 consolidating into one channel every branch 
 of the public revenue, all unnecessary charges 
 of collection and management were avoided, 
 and, consequently, the taxes must be levied, 
 and their amounts remitted, at the cheapest 
 rate possible. At least it must be acknow- 
 ledged that the idea \*s truly great; and Mr. 
 Law's being able to carry matters to the length 
 he did will appear astonishing indeed, when 
 we consider what reception would in this coun- 
 try await a similar attempt to unite the Pub- 
 lic Revenues, the Mint, the Banks, the East 
 India and other privileged companies, into the 
 hands of one great association. The very low 
 
OF LAURISTON. 137 
 
 price at which the shares of the India Com- 
 pany were originally fixed must, however, be 
 allowed to have been a capital error, though 
 perhaps in some measure necessary, to raise 
 the billets d'etat from the discredit into which 
 they had fallen. 
 
 Ruinous as the immediate consequences of 
 the downfal of the System were to several 
 individuals, it may, notwithstanding, be said 
 that this project was, upon the whole, rather 
 beneficial than hurtful to France, as the king- 
 dom presently turned more industrious and 
 commercial, the people in general having be- 
 come better informed with respect to the prin- 
 ciples of trade and manufactures. The In- 
 dia Company still subsisting, in a short time 
 equalled, and long continued to rival, those 
 of London and Amsterdam ; while different 
 branches of manufacture which had been es- 
 tablished by Mr. Law, remained in a flourish- 
 ing state. It is true that many of the old 
 national creditors were completely ruined by 
 the Missisippi, or at least suffered cruelly in 
 their circumstances ; and that several persons 
 had the fate of being raised at once from the 
 depths of poverty to the possession of almost 
 boundless wealth, an elevation that could not 
 
138 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 fail to superinduce extreme luxury and pro- 
 fligacy, at the same time that numbers were 
 thereby led to neglect their business, and to 
 entertain vain imaginations of making for- 
 tunes in the stocks. Some instances of these 
 freaks of fortune have been already adduced, 
 to which we may add, that Madame de la 
 Chaumont, * a physician's widow, who dealt 
 in millinery at Namur, gained, as some say, 
 to the extent of sixty millions of livres ; the 
 
 * Madame de la Chaumont having been detected in 
 illicit practices against the revenue, was drawn out of 
 the scrape by the exertions of one of the contractors for 
 supplying the French army with provisions. This ac- 
 ceptable piece of service led her to support their interest 
 with so much warmth, that she soon found herself en- 
 gaged for them in the sum of 1,400,000 Jivres, advanced 
 by herself, and borrowed from her relations and neigh- 
 bours. Coming to Paris to solicit payment, she was 
 forced to accept of that sum in billets (Tetat 3 although 
 they were then at sixty per cent discount. Unwilling 
 to return to Namur with less than would satisfy her 
 creditors, and resolving to risk every thing to accom- 
 plish that object, she laid out the whole in the purchase 
 of shares of the India Company immediately on its in- 
 stitution, which happened just at that period, and con- 
 sequently became enriched beyond her utmost expecta- 
 tions. Hist. Syst. ii. 94. 
 
OF LAURISTON. 139 
 
 Sieur Andre made as much ; one M. de Ver- 
 rue acquired twenty-eight millions ; Fargez, 
 once a common soldier in the garrison at 
 Maubeuge, made a fortune of twenty mil- 
 lions ; and Messrs, le Blanc and de la Faye 
 eighteen millions of livres each, in the Missis- 
 ippi.* 
 
 On the other hand, however, it may be 
 mentioned that several representatives of the 
 most ancient and illustrious families in the 
 kingdom were, by means of the profits they 
 made during the continuance of the System, 
 restored to their pristine glory and splendour. 
 Of this last description the Due de Bourbonf 
 was by far the most successful ; and with his 
 gains purchased a vast extent of landed pro- 
 perty, rebuilt Chantilly with regal magnifi- 
 
 * Hist. Syst. ii. 122. Massillon, 1O7. Mem. Reg. 
 iii. 115. 
 
 t The Due de Bourbon one day vaunting of the num- 
 ber of actions of the India Company belonging to him, 
 Turmenies, the Royal Treasurer, his familiar friend, 
 took the liberty of saying, " My Lord, two actions per- 
 formed by your brave ancestor were worth them all ;" 
 alluding to the gallant behaviour of the Prince of Conde 
 in two engagements. Duclos, ii. 115. 
 
140 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 cence, established a menagerie there incom- 
 parably better stocked than that belonging to 
 his Majesty, and at one time imported from 
 England, at a prodigious expense, no less 
 than 150 of the best racehorses he could pro- 
 cure. The Due de la Force also was exceed- 
 ingly fortunate ; but having made purchases 
 of immense quantities of goods and merchan- 
 dises, such as spiceries, porcelain, &c. a long 
 and curious process was instituted, to deter- 
 mine whether he had not thus virtually be- 
 come a merchant, and consequently forfeited 
 the right to his peerage.* The Prince of Deux 
 
 * A circumstantial account of this process may be 
 seen in the Memoires de la Regence, iii. 82 105, His- 
 toire de France par Fantin, i. 323 333, Histoire du 
 Systeme, iv. 102, in which last is a satirical print, re- 
 presenting the duke in the character of a porter, loaded 
 with a prodigious burden of all kinds of merchandise, 
 and this punning inscription, Admirez la Force. A ge- 
 nealogical history of that nobleman's family is inserted 
 in the Dictionnaire de Moreri, under the word Force ; 
 and in the perusal of that article one cannot but remark 
 the uncommon longevity of several individuals thereof. 
 James Nompar de Caumont, Due de la Force, Peer and 
 Marshal of France, died in 1652, in the ninety-seventh 
 year of his age, leaving two sons, Armand Nompar de 
 
OF LAURISTON. 141 
 
 Fonts, the Dues de Guiche, d'Antin, de 
 Louvigni, d'Etrees, and the Prince de Ro- 
 han, were eminently favoured by fortune ; and 
 with these may be classed Joseph Gage, bro- 
 ther of the first Viscount Gage. This gen- 
 tleman (styled by the French writers Mon- 
 sieur Guaiche,) profited so prodigiously, that 
 he offered three millions sterling to Augustus 
 King of Poland to resign that crown in his 
 favour ; and on the refusal of that Monarch 
 to accede to these terms, entered into a nego- 
 ciation for the purchase of the sovereignty of 
 the island of Sardinia; but the treaty did not 
 take effect.* 
 
 Caumont, Due de la Force, Peer and Marshal of 
 France, who died 16th December 1675, aged ninety-five, 
 without surviving issue ; and Henry Nompar de Cau- 
 mont, Due dela Force, who died in January 1678, aged 
 ninety-five. This last-mentioned nobleman had several 
 children, of whom Jaqueline died 10th May 1702, aged 
 ninety-one, Armand died 16th May 1701, aged eighty- 
 six, and Charlotte died in the eighty-second year of her 
 age. 
 
 * Hyst. Syst. i. 33. Voltaire, iii. 12. Lodge's Peer- 
 age of Ireland, v. 220. Pope touches upon Mr. Gage's 
 
142 L *FE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 The System having attracted the attention 
 of all Europe, imitations thereof were quickly 
 attempted by other nations, particularly by 
 Holland and England, among which the fa- 
 mous South Sea Bubble made the most conspi- 
 cuous figure ; but the comparison betwixt this 
 and the Missisippi will not hold throughout, 
 the former having been from the beginning an 
 iniquitous design to enrich a few at the ex- 
 pense of the multitude, by raising the stock 
 through underhand measures, and suffering 
 it to fall again when that end was answered. 
 Mr. Law's System, on the contrary, appears 
 to have been founded on a real intention to ex- 
 tend the commerce and improve the credit of 
 the kingdom ; the price of its stock rose in 
 consequence of an infatuation that could 
 scarcely have been foreseen, and it was over- 
 turned by an unexampled instance of folly, 
 by which none could have been benefited, and 
 many were ruined. 
 
 offer in his Epistle to Lord Bathurst on the use of 
 riches, 
 
 The crown of Poland, venal twice an age, 
 To just three millions stinted modest Gage. 
 
OF LAURISTON. 143 
 
 Having thus brought to a final conclusion 
 the history of this great affair, which, with 
 more point than truth, Voltaire styles " that 
 astonishing game of chance, played by an un- 
 known foreigner against a whole nation," it 
 is now time to return to its author, Mr. Law. 
 Appearing in the responsible situation of 
 Comptroller General of the Finances, on the 
 publication of the fatal edict of the 2 1st May 
 1720, he could not fail to experience the prin- 
 cipal share of the popular indignation, and 
 indeed all the former idolatry of the Parisians 
 for him was now converted into detestation 
 and abhorrence. To appease them in some 
 measure, he, on the 29th of May, went to the 
 Palais Royal to resign his office of Comptrol- 
 ler into the hands of the Regent ; and his 
 Highness appointed two companies of the 
 Swiss Guards, commanded by M. de Buzenval, 
 to attend his motions, on the pretext of hin- 
 dering him from leaving the kingdom, but in 
 reality to protect him the more effectually 
 from the fury of the populace. Thus all at- 
 tempts on his life being guarded against, the 
 people were constrained to give vent to their 
 indignation only in satirical prints and in lam- 
 poons, in which Jils ain de Satan, parpaillot, 
 
144 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 and the like names were unsparingly bestow- 
 ed on him. The Due de Bourbon thereupon 
 judged it advisable to remove Lady Cathe- 
 rine Law and her family to his seat of St. 
 Maur, fearing further outrages from the tu- 
 multuous disposition of the Parisians, render- 
 ed frantic by their losses and their poverty 
 to such a degree, as to occasion many to lay 
 violent hands upon themselves.* 
 
 Nothing remarkable happened to Mr. Law 
 till the 17th July, when the unfortunate affair 
 at the Bank, where many were crushed to 
 death in the crowd, excited such a ferment 
 among the people, that they repaired in vast 
 numbers to the Palais Royal, filling all the 
 courts of that building, and bringing along 
 with them three of the bodies of those who 
 had lost their lives on this occasion. Mr. 
 Law was just going to step into his carriage, 
 after having had an audience of the Regent, 
 but at the alarm returned into the Palais, and 
 lay in the Marchioness de Nancre's apart- 
 ments, where he remained till the 25th July. 
 As his coach was driving off, the coachman 
 - 
 
 * Fragm. ii. 289. Mem. Reg. iii. 6. 
 
 1 
 
OF LAURISTON. 
 
 had the imprudence to say, they were a par- 
 cel of blackguards that deserved to be hang- 
 ed. This enraged the people so much that 
 they broke the carriage in pieces, the driver 
 hardly escaping with life, while several of the 
 mob were much hurt in the tumult. They 
 now began to be clamorous for Mr. Law to 
 be delivered up to them, but were appeased 
 by the prudent conduct of M. le Blanc, Se- 
 cretary at War, who, coming out to the gate, 
 harangued the multitude in a firm tone, and 
 calling some of the most forward, desired them 
 to carry the dead bodies to the church of St. 
 Eustache, promising a good reward for that 
 service. He then engaged to lay the com- 
 plaints of the people before the Regent; but 
 told them that before this could be done it was 
 necessary they should disperse ; which advice 
 the mob, finding their leaders gone, and ob- 
 serving a strong party of troops ready to fall 
 upon them, thought proper to follow with- 
 out doing further mischief. The first Presi- 
 dent of the parliament of Paris happening on 
 that day to step out of the assembly, was at the 
 door informed of the disaster that had befal- 
 len Mr. Law's carriage ; a circumstance that 
 gave him so much joy, as to occasion his scam- 
 
146 MFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 pering back into the court in a manner unbe- 
 coming the dignity of his station, crying out, 
 
 Messieurs, Messieurs, bonne nouvelle, 
 Le carrosse de Laws est en cannelle. 
 
 The parliament having at this meeting re- 
 fused to register an edict of the King's coun- 
 cil confirming the commercial privileges of the 
 India Company, and having behaved in a re- 
 fractory manner on former occasions, it was 
 determined to send the members into exile, 
 in order to get quit of the embarrassments 
 their opposition gave rise to. Accordingly, 
 a corps of mousquetaires, supported by a 
 detachment of no less than 4000 soldiers, 
 were, on the 21st July 1720, sent to conduct 
 the whole members of the parliament of Paris 
 to Pontoise, where they remained in exile till 
 the middle of December following.* 
 
 * Fragm. iL 185. Duelos, ii. 11G. Richelieu, iii. 
 225. 
 
 The opposition of the parliament to the System was. 
 it is said, owing to a proposal made by Mr. Law to the 
 Regent, of repaying in bank notes the sums paid by the 
 members of that court for their places, which were in 
 future to be filled by persons holding commission* 
 
OF LAURISTON. 147 
 
 On the 27th of August following, Mr. Law 
 was, by the King in Council, appointed Di- 
 rector General of the Bank and of the India 
 Company, and Judge Reporter of the Affairs 
 of the Committee of Council established by 
 edict of the same date. He now took up his 
 constant residence in the Palais Royal, where 
 he had assigned to him the apartments for- 
 merly occupied by the Marquis d'Etampes, 
 the repairs of which cost the Regent 20,000 
 crowns. Still, however, the Parisians were 
 so much enraged against him, that their ran- 
 cour burst out on every occasion ; and his ve- 
 ry name was sufficient to excite tumults, as 
 appears from a circumstance that about this 
 
 revocable at pleasure. This proposal having been di- 
 vulged, the parliament were so much irritated, as to 
 resolve to send a party to seize Mr. Law, bring him be- 
 fore them, try him on the spot, sentence him to death, 
 and put that sentence into immediate execution in the 
 court of the Palais Royal. So little, however, did ran- 
 cour take place in Mr. Law's disposition, that he ever 
 after said they were the best patriots he knew, for choos- 
 ing rather to forfeit their patrimony and to go into exile, 
 than to register an edict they thought hurtful to their 
 country, and inimical to the general principles of liber- 
 ty. Duclos, i. 375, ii. 39. Richelieu, iii. 41. 
 
148 LIFE OF JOHN LA\V 
 
 time occurred. One M. de Boursel passing 
 in his carriage along the Rue St. Antoine, 
 had his way impeded by a hackney coach- 
 man, whom his servants fell upon, and he got 
 out to assist them. The man cunningly cried 
 out, " There is Mr. Law who is going to mur- 
 der me ; fall upon and kill him ;" a crowd in- 
 stantly assembled, and with sticks and stones 
 pursued De Bourse! into the Jesuits churchy 
 as far as the altar ; near which observing a 
 little door open, he escaped through it, bar- 
 ring it behind him, to the interior of the con- 
 vent, but his equipage fell a sacrifice to the 
 fury of the mob.* 
 
 From this and several other instances, Mr- 
 Law could not but observe how strongly the 
 current of popular indignation ran against 
 him; and as the month of December ap- 
 proached, his situation became still more dan- 
 gerous and alarming. The plague, which 
 then raged at Marseilles, at the same time 
 that it increased the discredit of the paper r 
 and the confusion of affairs, augmented the 
 
 * Fragm. ii. 290. Examen, i. 334. Mem. Reg. iiL 
 36. 
 
OF LAURISTON. 149 
 
 number of his enemies, all the evils befalling 
 the kingdom being absurdly attributed to him. 
 The parliament of Paris, whose rancour a- 
 gainst him was confirmed and heightened by 
 exile, were to be recalled in a few days, and 
 he could expect no mercy if once they got 
 him into their clutches ; so that he now began 
 to entertain the most serious apprehensions 
 for his personal safety, more especially as the 
 Regent had positively refused to permit him 
 to leave the kingdom. He however solicited 
 a license to retire to one of his country seats, 
 in hopes that matters might thus be more 
 speedily composed ; and this request being 
 granted, he resigned all his offices. At his 
 last interview with the Due d* Orleans, it is 
 reported that Mr. Law said, " My Lord, I 
 acknowledge that I have committed great 
 faults ; I did so because I am but a man, and 
 all men are liable to err; but I declare to your 
 R. H. that none of them proceeded from 
 knavery, and that nothing of that kind will 
 be found in the whole course of my conduct." 
 The Regent assured him of his regard and 
 protection ; and with these friendly assurances 
 Mr. Law quitted Paris, " so late his happy 
 seat," and the theatre of his glory, but now 
 
150 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 the scene of his disgrace, on the 10th Decem- 
 ber 1720, retiring to Guermande, a fine house 
 belonging to him, six leagues from that capi- 
 tal. Two or three days after he had left Pa- 
 ris, the Due de Bourbon wrote him a kind 
 letter, mentioning that the Regent had order- 
 ed passports, permitting him to leave the king- 
 dom, to be expedited, and offering to supply 
 him with any sum he required to defray his 
 travelling expenses. This last offer Mr. Law 
 resolved to decline, as a few days preceding 
 his departure from Paris, one of his clerks 
 had brought him 800 louis d'or, received at 
 the mint, in payment of a note for that sum, 
 payable in coin, found among the papers be- 
 longing to him, in the possession of the trea- 
 surer of the bank ; a most acceptable and well- 
 timed supply, as he had not then ten pistoles 
 in specie.* 
 
 Immediately on receiving this letter, Mr. 
 Law made preparations for his journey ; and 
 the next day Messrs, de Lassay and de la 
 Faye arrived at Guermande with the pass- 
 ports, and a large sum of money in gold from 
 
 * Fragm. ii. 296. Oeuvres de Law, 425. 
 
OF LAURISTON. 151 
 
 the Due de Bourbon, which Mr. Law, for the 
 reason already stated, declined receiving. The 
 duke also sent with them his favourite Ma- 
 dame de Prie's postchaise, the servants at- 
 tending it having dark coloured surtouts over 
 their liveries, in order to prevent discovery. 
 In this carriage Mr. Law and his son set for- 
 ward to Brussels, attended by four equerries 
 and six horse guards belonging to the duke, 
 having relays provided at every stage. The 
 governor of Valenciennes, (M. d'Argenson, 
 intendant of Maubeuge,) recognising the fu- 
 gitive, stopped him, on account of the pass- 
 port bearing a fictitious name. He thereupon 
 produced another passport in his true name ; 
 this augmented the perplexity of the gover- 
 nor, who, however, insisted on detaining Mr. 
 Law ; but the ex-minister producing a letter 
 from the Regent to the Due de Bourbon, co- 
 vering these different passports, and granting 
 permission to himself to quit the kingdom, 
 was allowed to proceed on his journey to 
 Brussels. From thence he sent back Madame 
 de Prie's carriage, with a very polite letter of 
 thanks, inclosing a diamond of great value. 
 Lady Catherine Law remaining at Paris un- 
 der the protection of the Due de Vendome, 
 
152 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 did not leave France till she had discharged 
 all the debts owing by her husband to trades- 
 men and the like, among which was one of 
 10,000 livres to a rotisseur.* 
 
 When the Council of State met on the 16th 
 of December, a warm altercation ensued be- 
 tween the Regent and the Due de Bourbon, 
 on the subject of Mr. Law's departure from 
 France. The duke said that Mr. Law had al- 
 ways acted in exact conformity to the orders 
 of the Regent, otherwise he would not have 
 granted permission for him to quit the king- 
 dom. The Regent accused the duke of giv- 
 ing Mr. Law the passports ; that is true, an- 
 swered the other, but then it was you that sent 
 them to me ; I never asked for them, but you 
 directed me to carry them to him. You wish- 
 ed to have him out of France. I am willing to 
 explain the whole affair to the King and Coun- 
 cil. I never advised that Mr. Law should 
 leave the kingdom, but I opposed the sending 
 of him to the Bastile, and delivering him up 
 to the parliament. We could not have said 
 
 * Hist. Syst. iv. 85. Duclos, ii. 134. Richelieu, ii. 
 134. 
 
OF LAURISTON. 153 
 
 or done any thing against him which would 
 not have recoiled upon our own heads. You 
 gave me the passports without my asking for 
 them, and charged me to carry them to him, 
 consequently none can attribute to me his de- 
 parture from France. But, at least, said the 
 Regent, did I send your carriage or your 
 guards to escort him ? You were then much 
 more interested in his safety than myself; I 
 permitted him to leave the kingdom, merely 
 because I was apprehensive that his presence 
 would impede the cure of the disorders affect- 
 ing the state, and obstruct the new regulations 
 adopted by government.* 
 
 Very opposite opinions were entertained as 
 to the effects the departure of Mr. Law would 
 produce. Some complained that the nation 
 was thereby deprived of the assistance of the 
 only person capable of unravelling the entan- 
 gled thread of affairs, reckoning that all was 
 lost, and looking upon the retreat of Mr. Law 
 as a proof that no more good was expected ; 
 while others, on the contrary, rejoiced that the 
 kingdom was no longer given up to the pro- 
 
 Richelieu, iii. 193. Duclos, ii. 134. 
 
154 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 jects of a rapacious foreigner, which, they 
 thought, would in time have occasioned its 
 total ruin. The basest calumnies were spread 
 to irritate the people against the ex-minister ; 
 it being commonly reported that several car- 
 riages loaded with specie had preceded him to 
 Brussels, in order to enable him to conclude 
 a purchase of some of the provinces of % the 
 Low Countries. It was also positively affirm- 
 ed that he had lodged twenty millions ster- 
 ling in the bank of England, and large sums 
 in those of Amsterdam, Rome, and Venice, 
 reports that had not the smallest foundation 
 in truth.* 
 
 It appears that soon afterwards the whole 
 of Mr. Law's property, and that of his brother 
 William, Director General of the India Com- 
 pany, (who was imprisoned in the Bastile,) 
 were seized upon and confiscated. Even a 
 government annuity of 200,000 livres on the 
 lives of Mr. and Lady Catherine Law and 
 their children, for which five millions of livres 
 had been paid, was annulled; although in the 
 edict upon which the annuities had been con- 
 
 * Mem. Reg. iii. 73, 74. 
 
OF LAURISTON. 155 
 
 stituted, there was a particular clause, by 
 which the King engaged they should never be 
 liable to be seized upon or attached for any 
 cause whatsoever, even on his Majesty's ac- 
 count. This was done under pretext that the 
 two brothers were owing twenty millions of 
 livres to the India Company ; the falsehood 
 of this assertion was, however, manifested in 
 a memorial sent to the Due de Bourbon some 
 time afterwards, proving that so far from be- 
 ing debtors thereto, the balance was some mil- 
 lions in their favour. Notwithstanding this 
 fact was clearly established, they found all 
 endeavours to procure restitution of their pro- 
 perty unavailing, no part thereof being ever 
 restored to them; a proceeding irreconcilable 
 with justice and common honesty, and which 
 can be accounted for only by referring to the 
 despotic nature of the French government. 
 In consequence, the Comptroller General be- 
 held himself, by the ignorance, obstinacy, and 
 injustice of others, brought down from the 
 height of power and wealth, to a compara- 
 tively indigent and abject situation; exhibit- 
 ing a sad, but not uncommon, example of the 
 insecurity of property, in a state where the 
 will of the executive is paramount to la\y. 
 
156 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 The losses sustained, and the distresses en- 
 dured by many individuals, in consequence of 
 the failure of the Missisippi System, and the 
 distracted situation of affairs for a long period 
 subsequent thereto, also contributed, in a 
 great degree, to irritate the minds of the peo- 
 ple against Mr. Law. However innocent he 
 might have been of having had any hand in 
 advising that fatal edict, it was enough for the 
 parties injured that he was the author of the 
 System ; and the ministry were careful not to 
 discourage these sentiments, in hopes of di- 
 verting the storm from their own heads. 
 These prejudices, propagated from father to 
 son, are the occasion that even at present 
 numbers hold the name of Law in abhorrence, 
 and do not fail to seize every opportunity to 
 vent their spite against that great 'minister, 
 whom they look upon as the cause of the ca- 
 lamities their families endured. A remark- 
 able instance of this disposition occurred when 
 Burke's Reflections upon the Revolution were 
 translated into French. The latter part of the 
 following passage in that work, " It is not 
 true that Law built solely on a speculation 
 concerning the Missisippi ; he added the East 
 India trade, he added the African trade, he 
 
OF LAURISTON. 157 
 
 added the farms of all the farmed revenue of 
 France ; all these unquestionably could not 
 support the structure which the public enthu- 
 siasm, not he, chose to build upon these bases," 
 was rendered, " Toutes ces choses reunis 
 n'etoient certainement pas capables de sup- 
 porter la structure enorme que Penthousiasme 
 du public, et luy^ proposerent d'elever sur ces 
 bases ;" a complete perversion of the sense, 
 which could not have arisen from ignorance, 
 the translator (M. Suleau, who fell a sacrifice 
 to the fury of the mob at Paris, on the 10th 
 of August 1792,) being skilled in both lan- 
 guages. The Revolution, however, by pro- 
 moting a spirit of free inquiry, in some mea- 
 sure removed the erroneous notions entertain- 
 ed of the System, to which the Constituent 
 Assembly of France gave a kind of indirect 
 approbation, when they established assignats, 
 these notes being founded on principles simi- 
 lar to those proposed in the first plan for the 
 restoration of credit, transmitted by Mr. Law 
 to the Regent. 
 
 To the circumstance already stated, as well 
 as to the liberty generally taken with the un- 
 fortunate, it is perhaps in a great measure ow- 
 ing, that several of the French writers who 
 
158 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 have had occasion to treat of the history of 
 these times, have used the freedom of grossly 
 calumniating the reputation of this great man, 
 stigmatizing him as an unprincipled knave, 
 and attributing the downfal of the System to 
 his machinations. The absurdity of this last 
 accusation is evident ; and with respect to the 
 charge of knavery, a very strong proof of the 
 uprightness of his intentions arises from the 
 circumstance of vesting his whole acquisitions 
 in landed property in France, not remitting any 
 part thereof to foreign countries,* which could 
 have been done with the utmost facility, and 
 obliging his immediate connexions, particu- 
 larly his brother William, and his confiden- 
 tial secretary Robert Neilson,f to follow the 
 
 * Mr. Law sent over orders to his agent in Scotland 
 to purchase for him the estate of Errol in Perthshire ; 
 but as he did not remit the purchase money, the bar- 
 gain was never completed. 
 
 t This Robert Neilson, (son of William Neilson, 
 provost of Edinburgh in 1719.,) was bred a merchant in 
 that city, but going abroad, became private secretary to 
 Mr. Law, and one of the principal proprietors of the 
 India Company of France. By the rapid rise of their 
 stock, he was at one time estimated to be worth 
 
OF LAURISTON. 159 
 
 same honourable line of conduct. The a- 
 niount of Mr. Law's fortune at the conclusion 
 of the System will afford another refutation of 
 the charge ; the following enumeration of his 
 purchases in France being stated on the au- 
 thority of his nephew, M. Law de Lauriston : 
 
 Le Marquisat d'Effiat (en Auvergne) 800,000 liv. 
 
 La Terre de la Riviere . , . 900,000 
 
 Le Marquisat de Toucy . . . ICO^OOO 
 
 La Terre de la March e . . . 120,000 
 
 La Terre de Roissy . . . 650,000 
 
 La Terre d'Orcher . . . . 400,000 
 
 150,000, and, at this period, commissioned a friend in 
 Scotland to purchase for him the greatest landed estate 
 on sale in that kingdom. But having heen prohibited 
 from remitting any part of his property out of France, 
 lie found himself involved in the ruin of his patron, and 
 reduced to beggary. Instead of abandoning himself to 
 despair, as many in a similar predicament would have 
 done, he travelled into Holland, and there attended to 
 the art of bleaching linen. Returning to his native 
 country a master of that art, he settled at Roslin, where 
 he set on foot the first bleachfield established in Scot- 
 land. At this place he resided many years, assiduous- 
 ly attending to his business, and maintaining a most 
 respectable character, after having firmly sustained a 
 change of fortune that the strongest luud could scarcely 
 have been able to stand unmoved. 
 
100 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 Terre et Bois de Brean . . . 160,000 lir. 
 
 Marquisats de Charleville et Bacqueville 330,000 
 
 La Terre de Berville . . . 200,000 
 
 La Terre de Fontaine Rome . . 130,000 
 
 La Terre de Serville . . . 110,000 
 
 La Terre d'Yville .... 200,000 
 
 La Terre de Gerponville . . 220,000 
 
 Xa Terre de Tancarville (en Normandie) 320,000 
 
 La Terre de Guermande . \ . 160,000 
 Hotel Mazarin, et Emplacemens Rue Vi- 
 
 vienne 1,200,000 
 
 Emplacemens Rue de Varenne . . 110,000 
 
 Emplacemens de la Place Louis le Grand 250,000 
 
 Partie du fief de la Grange Bateliere 150,000 
 Marais ou Chantiers du Fauxbourg St. Ho- 
 
 nore 160,000 
 
 Maisons, surtout dans Paris . . 700,000 
 
 Les Domains de Bourget . . 90,000 
 Quelques petites terres, comme Valan^ay, St. 
 
 Suplice, &c. .... 350,000 
 
 7,870,000 
 
 Besides the above, it is said that he acquired 
 Lislebonne from the Marchioness de Beuve- 
 ron, at the price of 500,000 livres, as also 
 Little Rambouillet for 180,000 livres, made 
 offer of 1,700,000 livres to the Due de Sully 
 for the Marquisate of Rosny, purchased the 
 valuable library of the Abbe Bignon at the 
 price of 180,000 livres, and bought, for ] 50,000 
 livres, the place of Secretaire du Roy, for the 
 
OF LAURISTON. 161 
 
 sake of the privileges of nobility attached to 
 that office. But the making of these purchases 
 was reckoned a piece of policy necessary for 
 the support of his own credit, and of that of the 
 India Company; and so strict a connexion sub- 
 sisted between these, that it was remarked on 
 disposing of part of his landed property, people 
 began to' speak in very dubious terms of his cir- 
 cumstances, and the price of shares suffered a 
 depression. It will also be observed that the 
 aggregate amount of his purchases did not ex- 
 ceed ten millions of livres, a very moderate 
 sum compared with the acquisitions made by 
 several of the adventurers in the Missisippi, 
 Some having realized upwards of twenty mi! 
 lions from nothing ; while Mr. Law, the con- 
 triver of that project, who brought with him 
 into France above L. 110,000 sterling, who 
 was at the head of affairs, in the secret of eve- 
 ry operation, and disposed of all things at bis 
 pleasure, did not make half that sum. His 
 profits can easily be accounted for, when we 
 consider the large share he had in that lucra- 
 tive concern the General Bank, and the rise 
 in the price of actions of the India Company, 
 although it would appear that he disposed of 
 very few of the shares he possessed therein. 
 
162 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 as, when he left Paris, he had on their books 
 no less than 4992 actions, which could easily 
 have been sold, when the System was at its 
 height, for upwards of two millions sterling.* 
 It may, besides, be asked what profit Mr. 
 Law could have possibly made by the decree 
 of reduction, since he was then in possession 
 of as many, if not a greater number of bank 
 
 * It would seem that Mr. Law originally possessed 
 10,500 shares of the India Company. Of these he vo- 
 luntarily gave up 2000 to the Company in October 
 1720; 3000 were deposited in security of a debt of 1 * 
 9 6,000 sterling due from him to the Earl of London- 
 derry, Governor Harrison, and other gentlemen ; and 
 300 were assigned for the liquidation of an unjust claim 
 against him to be hereafter noticed. 
 
 The deficiency of eight shares of the remaining 5000 
 appears to have been owing to the following circum- 
 stance. Soon after his elevation to the office of Comp- 
 troller General he made his appearance in the Rue 
 Quinquempoix ; during the confusion occasioned by the 
 crowd pressing to see him, and crying out Five le Hoi et 
 Monsieur Law, a lady had her pocket picked of near 
 100,000 livres in notes. On being informed thereof, 
 Mr. Law generously presented her with shares to the 
 amount of what she had lost. Mem. Reg. iii. 66. Hist. 
 Syst. iii. 8. 
 
OF LAURISTON. 163 
 
 notes and actions as any individual in the 
 kingdom. If to these considerations we add 
 the active part he took to prevent the altera- 
 tion in the style of the notes, and recollect 
 that the whole operations of the System were 
 conducted publicly, the fabrication of bank 
 notes, the creation of shares, and every grant 
 and alienation made to the India Company 
 being done in virtue of public edicts, it ap- 
 pears nothing better than heaping cruelty up- 
 on injustice to asperse the character of Mr. 
 Law. The injustice of this conduct is aggra- 
 vated by its ingratitude, since, if he had not 
 been overruled by the Regent and his coun- 
 sellors, and if the operations of the System 
 had been conducted agreeably to his advice, 
 France was in a fair way of becoming one of 
 the richest and most flourishing states in Eu- 
 rope. Whatever love he might once have 
 felt for his native country, he had completely 
 transferred his affections to France ; of which, 
 when he was prime minister, his constant dis- 
 course was, that he would raise the nation so 
 high that every kingdom in the world should 
 send ambassadors to Paris, while his most 
 
164 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 Christian Majesty would only dispatch cou- 
 riers to the other courts in return.* 
 
 Mr. Law arrived at Brussels in the morn- 
 ing of the 22d December 1720, passing under 
 the name of M. du Jardin ; but as soon as it 
 was known who he really was. General Wran- 
 gel the governor, the Marquis de Pancallier, 
 and several of the principal persons in that 
 city, went to pay their respects to him. He 
 waited on the Marquis de Prie the same af- 
 ternoon at five o'clock, and afterwards accom- 
 panied Madame de Pancallier to the theatre, 
 where a vast concourse of people were assem- 
 bled to behold so extraordinary a character. 
 Next day, the 23d, the Marquis de Prie 
 returning Mr. Law's visit in great state, 
 brought him home in his coach to a most 
 sumptuous entertainment, at which were pre- 
 sent several persons of the highest quality. 
 That evening Mr. Law went again to the play, 
 and, after it was over, supped with the Mar- 
 quis d'Esquillache. On the 24th he dined a 
 second time with the Marquis de Prie, to 
 whom having notified his intention of leaving 
 
 * Lord Stair's Letter of 23d September 1719. 
 
OF LAURISTON. Ifo 
 
 Brussels the same evening, that nobleman or- 
 dered passports to be got ready ; and Mr. 
 Law accordingly set out at nine at night, ac- 
 companied by his son.* 
 
 He came to Venice early in January 1721, 
 still passing under the name of M. du Jardin, 
 arid continued in that city two months, par- 
 taking of all the pleasures the Carnival afford- 
 ed, and living on terms of intimacy with the 
 Imperial and French ambassadors. The fa- 
 mous Cardinal Alberoni, the Spanish minis- 
 ter, coming there in February, had an inter- 
 view with Mr. Law ; and it was reported that 
 the Chevalier de St. George also arrived in- 
 cognito, and had a conference with these mi- 
 nisters in the Capuchin monastery. Whe- 
 ther this last particular was true or not, can- 
 not now be certainly known; only it seems 
 that at this period the Chevalier was not seen 
 publicly at Rome for several days, and when 
 he appeared again he looked so well, that little 
 credit was given to the report that had been 
 circulated of his indisposition. In the mean 
 time, the most extraordinary stories were told 
 
 * Historical Register, ad aim. 1721. 
 
LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 of Mr. Law, tending to impress people with 
 an idea of his being possessed of immense 
 wealth. It was said that 160,000 pistoles 
 had been lodged on his account in the bank 
 of the Holy Ghost at Rome, by some persons 
 unknown ; that he had offered a vast sum to 
 be admitted into the order of Venetian nobi- 
 lity ; and that his son was to be married to a 
 daughter of the Due de Cesarini, who had a 
 fortune of 100,000 crowns ; and that he had 
 drawn bills of exchange to the extent of 
 250,000 pistoles.* 
 
 While such reports were spread, Mr. Law 
 found himself under the necessity, in order to 
 secure himself against the claims of pretend- 
 ed creditors, of having his name enrolled in 
 the list of Roman citizens, it being one of the 
 privileges of that body to be exempted from 
 arrests and prosecutions for debt, at the suit 
 of any other than a fellow burgher. Hav- 
 ing taken this necessary precaution, he left 
 Venice, on the 15th of March, for Ferrara, 
 on his way to Rome ; but receiving intelli- 
 gence that some of his creditors had assigned 
 
 * Historical Register, ad ann. 1721. 
 
OF LAURISTON. 167 
 
 their debts to a Roman citizen, who had con- 
 certed measures to have him arrested imme- 
 diately on his arrival, he judged it advisable 
 to return to Venice. After some stay there, 
 he travelled through Bohemia and Germany 
 to Hanover, where he had the honour of an 
 audience of Prince Frederick, and then pro- 
 ceeded to Copenhagen. During his residence 
 at this place, having received an invitation 
 from the British ministry to return to his na- 
 tive country, he embarked on board the Bal- 
 tic squadron, commanded by Sir John Norris, 
 being accommodated in that admiral's own 
 ship. Landing at the Nore, 20th October 
 1721, he proceeded to London, was present- 
 ed to King George I. by Sir John, and took a 
 house in Conduit Street, where he was daily 
 visited by numbers of persons of the first 
 quality and distinction.* 
 
 The favourable manner in which Mr. Law 
 was received, occasioned no small umbrage 
 to the anti-ministerial party, and was judged of 
 importance sufficient to occupy the attention 
 of Parliament. For when the House of Lord:* 
 
 * Historical Register, ad ann. 1721. 
 
168 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 met on the 26th October, Earl Coningsby re- 
 presented to that august assembly how dange- 
 rous it might be, on several accounts, to enter- 
 tain and countenance such a man as Mr. Law, 
 and desired that a day might be appointed for 
 taking this matter into consideration. Their 
 Lordships having appointed the 9th Novem- 
 ber for the discussion of this business, Earl 
 Coningsby on that day resumed his argument, 
 saying, that, for his part, he could not but en- 
 tertain great jealousy of a person who had 
 done so much mischief in a neighbouring- 
 kingdom, and who, being so immensely rich 
 as he was reported to be, might do a great 
 deal more hurt here, by tampering with ma- 
 ny who were grown desperate by being in- 
 volved in the calamity occasioned by the fa- 
 tal imitation of his pernicious projects ; that 
 this person was the more dangerous, in that 
 he had renounced, not only his natural affec- 
 tion to his cc/untry, and his allegiance to his 
 lawful sovereign, by being naturalized in 
 France, and openly countenancing the Pre- 
 tender's friends ; but, which was worst of all, 
 and weighed most with him, that he had also 
 renounced his God by turning Roman Catho- 
 lic; concluding, that their Lordships ought 
 
OF LAURISTON. 169 
 
 to inquire whether Sir John Norris had or- 
 ders to bring him over. To this last part of 
 the earl's speech. Lord Carteret answered in 
 substance, that Mr. Law had, many years 
 ago, the misfortune to kill a gentleman in a 
 duel ; but that, having received the benefit of 
 the King's clemency, and the appeal lodged 
 by the relations of the deceased being taken 
 off*,* he was come over to plead his Majesty's 
 most gracious pardon; that there was no 
 law to keep an Englishman out of his own 
 country; and as Mr. Law was a subject of 
 Great Britain, it was not even in the King's 
 power to hinder him from coming home if he 
 thought fit. To this Lord Trevor replied, 
 that Mr, Law was indeed a subject of Great 
 Britain, and, therefore, as such, had an un- 
 doubted right to come into the kingdom ; but 
 that the circumstance of a person of his cha- 
 racter being brought on board of an English 
 admiral, and at this juncture, might deserve 
 
 * " Having found means to pacify the surviving re- 
 lations of Mr. Wilson, by the payment, it is said, of no 
 less than 100,000." Nichols's Leicestershire, iii. 487. 
 The magnitude of the sum renders the accuracy of the 
 anecdote doubtful. 
 
 I 
 
170 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 the consideration of the House. Earl Cow- 
 per spoke much to the same effect; but the 
 matter was suffered to drop ; and Mr. Law, 
 on the 28th of November following, pleaded, 
 at the bar of the King's Bench, his Majesty's 
 pardon for the murder of Mr. Edward Wilson 
 in 1694, being attended, on this occasion, by 
 the Duke of Argyll, the Earl of Hay, and se- 
 veral other friends. * 
 
 Among the letters to and from the Coun- 
 tess of Suffolk, is one from Mr. Law to her, 
 then Mrs. Howard, dated Tuesday, of this te- 
 nor : " Can you not prevail on the Duke to 
 help me something more than the half year ? 
 or is there nobody that could have good na- 
 ture enough to lend me one thousand pounds ? 
 I beg that, if nothing of this can be done, that 
 it may only be betwixt us two, as I take you as 
 my great friend ; and I am very well assured of 
 it by the honour I had done me yesterday at 
 court by the King. I had another letter yes- 
 terday from France, with the same thing over 
 again. Excuse this, dear madam, and only 
 put yourself in my place* and know, at the 
 
 Parliamentary Register. 
 
OF LAURISTON. 171 
 
 same time, that you are the only friend I have. 
 Yours, &c. LAW."* 
 
 The editor of these letters observes there- 
 on, " This melancholy avowal that Mrs. How- 
 ard was his only friend, affords a striking in- 
 stance of the instability of fortune, power, 
 and friendship. This letter was probably 
 written in the winter of 1721. The following 
 passage will describe what the writer had been 
 in the beginning of 1720. Our projector had 
 arrived at an unexampled pitch of wealth and 
 power. He possessed the ear of the Regent, 
 he was almost adored by the people, and was 
 constantly surrounded by princes, dukes, and 
 prelates, who courted his friendship, and seem- 
 ed ambitious of his patronage. Such was the 
 immensity of his wealth, that he bought no 
 less th$,n fourteen estates with titles annexed 
 to them ; among which was the Marquisate 
 
 * The Countess of Suffolk was nearly connected with 
 Lady Catherine Law, whose grandmother, Elizabeth. 
 Countess of Banbury, was sister of Theophilus Earl of 
 Suffolk, grandfather of her husband, Charles Earl of 
 Suffolk. " The Duke" was probably John Duke of 
 Argyll, head of the Campbells, Mr. Law's maternal an- 
 cestors. 
 
172 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 of Rosny, which had belonged to the great 
 . Duke of Sully, the friend and minister of 
 Henry IV. Yet within two years he could 
 find no one good natured enough to lend him 
 1000, and had no friend but Mrs. Howard, 
 who was probably not three months acquaint- 
 ed with him. 
 
 " In 1721 he arrived in England, where he 
 was at first treated with much distinction, 
 and, it would seem from this letter, had some 
 kind of pension or allowance." * 
 
 After this, Mr. Law continued to reside 
 some years in England. He had received in- 
 telligence of the confiscation of his whole pro- 
 perty in France ; but being conscious of the 
 rectitude of his conduct in the management 
 of the finances, and that the balance would, 
 upon examination, be found considerably in 
 his favour, he had good reason to flatter him- 
 self with the hopes of recovering a large sum, 
 especially as the Regent always professed a 
 more than ordinary regard for him, and con- 
 tinued punctually to remit his official salary 
 of 20,000 livres per annum. He carried on a 
 
 * Suffolk Letters, i. 87. 
 
OF LAURISTON. 173 
 
 constant correspondence with that Prince, 
 who at last came to acknowledge, that he had 
 no doubt but the System would have succeed- 
 ed, if unexpected events had not obliged him 
 to deviate from the plan originally laid down. 
 His Royal Highness manifested his approba- 
 tion of Mr. Law's conduct, confessed that he 
 still stood in need of his instructions, request- 
 ed his opinion upon the then state of affairs, 
 and concluded with saying, that his only de- 
 pendence for bringing France to its true va- 
 lue was upon his abilities and knowledge. 
 Under these impressions, the Regent had se- 
 veral consultations with the council upon the 
 propriety of recalling Mr. Law, which he had 
 set his heart on doing.* 
 
 In these proceedings the British ministry 
 took no small interest. Sir Robert Walpole 
 wrote to Sir Luke Schaub : Whitehall, 10th 
 April 1723. " Your letter of the 22d instant, 
 N. S. is just come to hand, and I am very 
 glad that the conduct of his Majesty's minis- 
 ters at Hanover meets so much with the ap- 
 probation of the Duke of Orleans. This good 
 
 Massillon, 199. 
 
174 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 correspondence is above all things to be cul- 
 tivated; and I have always read with plea- 
 sure the several accounts you have sent me 
 of the good disposition of the Duke of Or- 
 leans. It would be a great misfortune if his 
 uncertain temper should expose him to the 
 influence and directions of persons less well 
 affected to the King's interest than the pre- 
 sent ministers of France give us great reason 
 to hope they are; and I know not what is 
 certainly to be determined with that view in 
 regard to Mr. Law. If the Duke of Orleans 
 is disposed to recal him, as Mr. Law's friends 
 here are very sanguine in hoping, it is not our 
 business to obstruct it. But it is not easy to 
 j udge what is most to be wished for in this 
 case, unless we know the competition, and up- 
 on whom the favour and confidence of the 
 Duke of Orleans might probably fall. If Mr. 
 Law does not return, there can be no doubt 
 but that the power might fall into worse 
 hands ; and if any who are neither English- 
 men by birth or affection should prevail, we 
 should have a less chance than by admitting 
 one who has sundry ties to wish well to his 
 native country. But, perhaps, Mr. Law's 
 being thought agreeable or acceptable in Eng- 
 
*^$8/Ti 
 
 y 
 
 OF LAfc^ISTON. / 175 
 
 land would not at all forward his return to 
 France; for nothing but his being thought 
 not only an able but a good Frenchman can 
 secure his being recalled." 
 
 Sir Robert Walpole thus expresses himself 
 in a letter to Lord Townshend : Whitehall, 
 October 12, 1723. " I have seen Mr. Law se- 
 veral times since I had your directions how 
 to behave to him, and have shewn him all rea- 
 sonable civilities ; and I am sure I have so 
 ordered my brother's journey to Paris with 
 him, that he thinks Horace goes with his ad- 
 vice, and has not the least suspicion of any 
 such thing being ordered from Hanover. He 
 was very pressing with me that Horace should 
 go that way, and thought it would be of great 
 use and satisfaction to the Duke of Orleans 
 to talk with one so nearly related." * 
 
 It does not appear whether Mr. Law then 
 went to Paris. The Regent died suddenly, 
 2d December 1723, which was a fatal blow 
 
 * Coxe's Life of Sir Robert Walpole, ii. 252, 274. 
 " Horace" was Sir Robert's brother Horatio, first Lord 
 Walpole of Wolterton. 
 
176 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 to Mr. Law. His expectations of recovering 
 part at least of his property now became 
 fainter, his pension ceased to be remitted, 
 his embarrassments increased, prosecutions 
 were commenced against him both in France 
 and England, and he was threatened with 
 imprisonment by some of his creditors, from 
 which, however, he was relieved by two no- 
 ble lords becoming his sureties. His dis- 
 tresses are feelingly detailed in a letter to 
 the Due de Bourbon, Prime Minister of 
 France after the decease of the Regent, dated 
 at London, 25th August 1724. In it he says, 
 that " there is scarcely an example, perhaps 
 not one instance, of a stranger like him who 
 acquired, in so high a degree, the confidence 
 of the Prince, who made so large a fortune in 
 so upright a manner, and who, on leaving 
 France, reserved nothing for himself and fa- 
 mily, not even what he had brought into the 
 kingdom with him." This letter was accom- 
 panied with a memorial, stating his situation 
 previous to being employed in the finances, 
 his conduct during his administration, and his 
 condition at the date of the epistle.* 
 
 * Oeuvres de Law, 398. 
 
OF LAURISTON. 177 
 
 These papers were followed by a long me- 
 morial, dated at London, 15th October 1724 5 
 wherein Mr. Law examines at length the de- 
 mands made upon him by the India Company, 
 and proposes a mode of liquidating them. 
 The demands upon him appear to have been 
 as follows : 
 
 1. Balance of a former account, compre- 
 hending the sum of 2,521,000 livres 
 of subscriptions for shares, remitted by 
 
 the Sieur Bille to Mr. Law, to be paid liv. s. d. 
 
 in by his clerks . . . 4,072,5 14 2 3 
 
 2. Issued by edict of the 23d May 1721, 
 for the support of families brought 
 from Germany, and sent to Louisiana 
 
 by Mr. Law .... 450,000 
 
 3. Tin and lead furnished by the Compa- 
 ny to Mr. Law . . . 32,639 17 
 
 4. Paid by the Company in Genoese mo- 
 ney to M. de Chavigny . . 275,184 17 4 
 
 5. Bank notes delivered to Mr. Law, 
 29th November and 15th December 
 
 1720 7,437,342 
 
 6. Receipt of one of the clerks of the Com- 
 pany in the department of Primes * 4,500,000 
 
 7. Paid by the Company to Mr. Law's 
 correspondents . . . 3,468,694 16 
 
 20,236,375 12 7 
 
 * By Primes, or first payments, are meant sums ad- 
 vanced upon engagements to furnish shares of the In* 
 
178 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 Mr. Law readily acknowledges, that he 
 . ought to be held bound to pay the first arti- 
 cle in shares ; although he at the same time 
 observes, that in the former account therein 
 referred to, there was stated the sum of five 
 millions of livres laid out in the purchase of 
 annuities upon his own life, and the lives of 
 his wife and children, seized upon by the King, 
 as formerly noticed. The second article he 
 does not dispute, supposing the sum in ques- 
 tion to have been issued for the support of 
 some hundreds of families brought, at his own 
 expense, from Germany, in order to be sent 
 
 dia Company, at a fixed price, within a stipulated pe- 
 riod, as was commonly done by those who could not 
 readily procure actions. The traffic in Primes increas- 
 ed to such a height, that it was found necessary to 
 issue an edict, dated llth February 1720, prohibiting 
 all bargains of that sort betwixt individuals, the Com- 
 pany engaging at the same time to deliver, within a 
 stated period, shares to those who applied for them, 
 and paid down a certain proportion of the price by way 
 of advance. These, also called Primes, were, by a sub- 
 sequent edict, directed to be brought back to the Com- 
 pany, the holders getting in return one share for each 
 9000 livres of Primes so brought back. Diet, de Mo- 
 reri, au mot Actions. Hist. Syst. iii. 43. 
 
OF LAURISTON. 
 
 to Louisiana, to assist in the cultivation of 
 that province, who were waiting for embark- 
 ation at Port FOrient at the period of his dis- 
 mission. The third article he also allows, the 
 tin and lead having been provided for the ser- 
 vice of the navy, and he having charged the 
 amount among the sums advanced by him for 
 his Majesty. The money paid to M. de Cha- 
 vigny he likewise allows ; as also the fifth ar- 
 ticle, which, he says, was employed, by spe- 
 cial order of the Regent, in purchasing, at a 
 high price, actions from persons whose cases 
 appeared uncommonly favourable. As for the 
 receipt of the clerk, the subject of the sixth 
 article of the claim, he absolutely denies that 
 he is debtor to the Company on that head, 
 and asserts no demand could be more unjust 
 and ill founded, the receipt running in these 
 terms : " I grant myself to have received from 
 my Lord the Comptroller General, the sum 
 of 4,500,000 livres to account of ten millions 
 of Primes, which I have delivered to him. 
 Paris, 13th February 1720," signed by the 
 clerk. Now, this receipt does "not prove that 
 Mr. Law owed 4,500,000 livres; bearing only 
 that he had paid that sum to account of ten 
 millions; so that if he had not made a second 
 
180 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 payment, he would have been owing 5,500,000 
 livres on that score. The clerk did not pre- 
 tend to say that he had delivered the ten mil- 
 lions of Primes to Mr. Law, without obtain- 
 ing, at the same time, a receipt from him for 
 that sum ; but no such receipt was produced. 
 Mr. Law therefore says that the fact will be 
 found to be precisely this, that on paying the 
 balance of 5,500,000 livres duefromhim for the 
 Primes, he had given along with it the receipt 
 of the clerk for 4,500,000 livres. Notwith- 
 standing the injustice of thus bringing him in 
 debtor for the last-mentioned sum, upon the 
 authority of a receipt which, so far from prov- 
 ing that he was owing, bore on the face there- 
 of that he had paid it, Mr. Law readily agreed 
 that the company might, if they pleased, de- 
 duct that sum from the amount of his shares, 
 as, in owing four or five millions less to them 
 his situation would not be bettered, the pro- 
 perty in their hands belonging to him being 
 double or treble the amount of their demands, 
 and it was his wish to get back only what he 
 had brought with him into France. As to 
 the seventh and last article, he acknowledges 
 that the company was entitled to require pay- 
 ment thereof in specie from his brother Wil- 
 
OF LAURISTON. 181 
 
 liam, but asserts that the King was the real 
 debtor for the sum in question, it having been 
 employed, by orders of the Regent, in the pay- 
 ment of subsidies. 
 
 After stating that, on the evening before he 
 set out for Guermande, he had remitted to 
 Pomier de St. Leger, two millions in bank 
 accounts, worth at that time 700 per cent, or 
 fourteen millions, in order to discharge what 
 he was owing to the India Company, but that 
 Pomier had thought proper to disobey his di- 
 rections, he proposes the following mode of 
 liquidating the before-mentioned demands : 
 
 liv. s. d. 
 
 1. Bank accounts . . . 7,475,640 4 7 
 
 2. 500 shares, at 9000 livres each, to dis- 
 charge the receipt in the department 
 of Primes, converted into shares at 
 
 the rate fixed by edict of council 4,500,000 
 
 3. Effects belonging to him in possession 
 of the King and India Company, as 
 
 per particular list . . . 4,792,040 12 
 
 4. Warrants on the Royal Treasury, for 
 payment of the subsidies and other ar- 
 ticles advanced by Mr. Law for the 
 
 King's service . . 3,468,694 16 
 
 20,236,375 12 7 
 
182 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 He therefore beseeches the Due de Bourbon 
 that his Highness would be pleased to expe- 
 dite warrants from the King for the above 
 3,468,694 livres, 16s. as also for 2,159,957 li- 
 vres, 17s. 6d. owing by his Majesty on the same 
 account, proposing, with this last sum, to dis- 
 charge the demands of his foreign correspon- 
 dents. After doing so, he stated that there 
 would remain due to him 5,389,906 livres, 3s. 
 9d. in effects in the possession of the King 
 and India Company, besides 4492 actions car- 
 ried to the Visa by the Sieur Nicolas ; and he 
 left entirely to the duke to settle these claims 
 in whatever manner his Highness thought 
 proper, at the same time hinting that his wishes 
 were limited to the recovery of the money he 
 had brought with him into France in 1714, 
 amounting to 1,600,000 livres, at twenty-eight 
 livres to the marc, or somewhat more than 
 114,000 sterling.* 
 
 * At the death of Louis XIV. the standard of the sil- 
 ver coin being 28 livres to the marc, each livre was 
 worth 17^d. The standard was frequently altered du- 
 ring the Regency of the Due d'Orleans, and the subse- 
 quent administrations of Louis XV. being sometimes 
 rated at 80 livres to the marc and under, or less than 6d. 
 
OF LAURISTON. 183 
 
 In the conclusion, Mr. Law mentions that 
 he did not include in the state of his debts 
 96,000 sterling due from him to the Earl of 
 Londonderry, Governor Harrison, and others, 
 since 3000 shares of the India Company were 
 assigned for payment of that sum. He ear- 
 nestly entreated the duke to order these shares 
 to be settled in such a manner as to liquidate 
 the demands of these creditors, and to free 
 him from his engagements to them; but this 
 reasonable request met with no attention from 
 government, although the shares in question 
 were, at the period of the assignation, valued 
 at upwards of one million sterling. 
 
 Some passages selected from this memo- 
 rial paint the situation of Mr. Law and his 
 family in strong colours. " When I retired 
 to Guermande, I had no hopes that the Re- 
 gent would have permitted me to leave the 
 kingdom ; I had given over all thoughts there- 
 of, when your Highness sent to inform me of 
 his intention to accord that permission, and 
 
 each livre, a circumstance which prevented the conver- 
 sion, with precision, of the sums of French money men- 
 tioned in this work to sterling. 
 
184 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 the next day, immediately on receiving the 
 passports, I set off. Consider, my Lord, if, 
 being in the country, removed from my pa- 
 pers and books, it was in my power to put in 
 order affairs that required not only leisure, 
 but also my presence in Paris, to arrange pro- 
 perly ; and if it is not a piece of great injus- 
 tice for the India Company to wish to take 
 advantage of the condition to which I was re- 
 duced, and of the dishonest conduct of clerks, 
 in requiring from me payment of sums I do 
 not in fact owe, and which, even though I had 
 been owing, were, as I have shewn, expended 
 for their service, and payable in actions or 
 notes, of which effects belonging to me they 
 at that time had, and still have, on their books 
 to the amount of double or treble the sum 
 they demand. No, my Lord, I cannot bring 
 myself to accuse the company of so much as 
 the intention to injure me. That company 
 owes its birth to me. For them I have sacri- 
 ficed every thing, even my property and my 
 credit, being now bankrupt, not only in 
 France, but also in all other countries. For 
 them I have sacrificed the interests of my 
 children, whom I tenderly love, and who are 
 deserving of all my affection ; these children, 
 
OF LAURISTON. 185 
 
 courted by the most considerable families in 
 France, are now destitute of fortune and of 
 establishments. I had it in my power to have 
 settled my daughter in marriage in the first 
 houses of Italy, Germany, and England ; but 
 I refused all offers of that nature, thinking it 
 inconsistent with my duty to, and my affec- 
 tion for, the state in whose service I had the 
 honour to be engaged. I do not assume to 
 myself any merit from this conduct, and I 
 never so much as spoke upon the subject to 
 the Regent. But I cannot help observing, 
 that this mode of behaviour is diametrically 
 opposite to the idea my enemies wish to im- 
 press to me ; and surely all Europe ought to 
 have a good opinion of my disinterestedness, 
 and of the condition to which I am reduced, 
 since I no longer receive any proposals of 
 marriage for my children. 
 
 " My Lord, I conducted myself with a still 
 greater degree of delicacy, for I took care not 
 to have my son or my daughter married even 
 in France, although I had the most splendid 
 and advantageous offers of that kind. I did 
 not choose that any part of my protection 
 should be owing to alliances, but that it should 
 
186 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 depend solely upon the intrinsic merits of my 
 project." * 
 
 Every argument, however, that Mr. Law 
 could urge to procure restitution was of no 
 avail, the company persisting to demand pay- 
 ment in specie of the sums owing them, and 
 refusing to allow him credit for the notes and 
 actions in their hands belonging to him, while 
 government declined to account for his real 
 and personal property in France, confiscated 
 and sold by them. He was therefore con- 
 strained to renounce all hopes of favour or 
 justice from that quarter. 
 
 It does not appear how he settled his af- 
 fairs in Britain. Sir Robert Walpole, in a 
 letter to Lord Townshend, 29th July 9th 
 August 1725, says, " Mr. Law has wrote to 
 your Lordship, to desire that he may have 
 some sort of commission from his Majesty to 
 any prince or state, not to be made use of, but 
 to be kept as a protection in case of necessity. 
 
 , * The late M. Law de Lauriston, nephew of the 
 Comptroller General, transmitted to the author a com- 
 plete copy of this memorial, which has never yet ap- 
 peared in print. Some detached fragments only are 
 published in the Oeuvres de J. Law, Paris, 1790, 8vo. 
 
OF LAURISTON. 187 
 
 By what he says to me 1 really believe it may 
 be of service to him, and I promised to use 
 my interest with your Lordship for the ob- 
 taining it." * It is probable that this request, 
 thus supported by the Prime Minister, was 
 complied with ; and it appears that Mr. Law 
 finally quitted Britain the same year, 1725, 
 and fixed his residence at Venice.f The fa- 
 mous President Montesquieu happening to 
 pass through that city some time afterwards, 
 did not omit to pay his respects to so extra- 
 ordinary a person, and frequently visited Mr. 
 Law. One day the conversation chancing to 
 fall on the opposition made by the parliament 
 of Paris to the System, Montesquieu could not 
 help asking how it happened that he had not 
 endeavoured to gain over that body by bribery, 
 as, he said, Sir Robert Walpole had proceed- 
 
 * Coxe's Life of Sir Robert Walpole, ii. 473. 
 
 t It is said that when Mr. Law's funds were reduced 
 to ;1000, he publicly offered,, in one of the cities of 
 Italy, to stake the same against a shilling, that double 
 sixes would not be thrown six times running. The 
 number who adventured was so great, that Mr. Law 
 soon doubled his capital, and the magistrates found it 
 necessary to prohibit this gambling. 
 
188 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 ed with respect to the British senate. In an- 
 swer, Mr. Law desired the president to re- 
 mark the wide difference betwixt these two 
 bodies : Le senat Anglois ne fait consister la 
 liberte qu'a faire tout ce qu'il veut. Le Fran- 
 ^ois ne met la sienne qu'a faire tout ce qu'il 
 doit. Ainsi 1'interet peut engager Pun a vou- 
 loir ce qu'il ne doit pas faire, il est rare qu'il 
 porte 1'autre a faire ce qu'il ne doit pas vou- 
 loir.* 
 
 At Venice Mr. Law concluded the chequer- 
 ed course of his life, dying there in a state but 
 little removed from indigence, on the 21st of 
 March 1729, in the fifty-eighth year of his 
 age ; and he lies buried in one of the churches 
 of that city, where a monument to his memo- 
 ry is still to be seen. The following epitaph 
 appeared soon afterwards : 
 
 Ci git cet Ecossois celebre, 
 
 Ce calculateur sans egal, 
 Qui, par les regies de Palgebre, 
 
 A mis la France a 1'hopital.f 
 
 * Nouvelle Dictionnaire Historique, au mot Law. 
 t Mercure d'Avril 1729, p. 814. Nouv. Diet. Hist, 
 ubi supra. 
 
OF LAURISTON. 189 
 
 His external appearance, as has already 
 been mentioned, was uncommonly engaging, 
 very few being reckoned his equal in personal 
 graces ; and his conversation, enlivened with 
 wit, and seasoned with repartees, was no less 
 attractive. Uniting to these qualifications dis- 
 tinguished politeness, and the most agreeable 
 and insinuating manners, he hardly ever failed 
 to conciliate the regard of those who came near 
 him. * The Duchess Dowager of Orleans re- 
 lates, that considering he was a foreigner, he 
 did not speak the French language ill; and 
 her Royal Highness highly commends his po- 
 lite, yet spirited, behaviour on first coming in- 
 
 * Law etoit d'un tattle haute et bien proportionnee ; il 
 avoit Fair grand et prevenant, le visage ovale, le front 
 eleve, les yeux bien fendus, le regard doux, le nez aqui- 
 Hn, et la boucbe agreable; on peut, sans flatterie, le 
 mettre au rang des homines les mieux faits. Son esprit 
 repondoit a son exterieur. Tout cela joint a ces ma- 
 nieres douces et insinuantes, lui attiroit 1'estime et la 
 confidence de ceux qui 1'approchoient. Hist. Syst. i. 
 69. Grand, bien fait, d'un figure agreable et noble, 
 de beaucoup d'esprit, d'une politesse distinguee, avec 
 de la hauteur sans insolence. II y avoit chez lui plus 
 d'ordre et de proprete que de luxe. Duclos, ii. 134. 
 
190 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 to power, an instance of which will be found 
 in the subjoined note.* 
 
 In Bromley's Catalogue of British Portraits, 
 four engravings or designs of Mr. Law are 
 noticed ; 1. folio, engraved by PAnglois ; 2. 
 quarto, designed by Hubert; 3. quarto, en- 
 graved by Des Rochers ; and, 4. quarto, paint- 
 ed by Rigand, and engraved by F. de Schmidt. 
 In the Earl of Orford's gallery at Strawberry 
 Hill was a portrait, in crayons, of " John 
 Law, Inventor of the Missisippi Scheme, and 
 Prime Minister to the Regent Duke of Or- 
 leans, one of the best of Rosalba's works." f 
 His Lordship wrote to a friend : " Strawberry 
 Hill, 14th November 1792. I have a portrait 
 of Law, and should not object to letting a copy 
 of it be taken, but I doubt that could not be 
 
 * M. Laws a eu violent querelle avec ce fou De 
 
 (the Prince of Conti) qui vouloit lui forcer a faire une 
 chose expressement defendu par mon fils. Scavez vous 
 bien que je suis, demanda-t il a Laws ? Oui, repondit 
 celui-ci, sans cela je ne vous respecterois pas comme je 
 fais. Vous devez done m'obeir, ditPun. Je vous obei- 
 rai, dit 1'autre, quand vous serez Regent. Fragm. ii. 
 271. 
 t Orford's Works, ii. 463. 
 
OF LAURISTON. 191 
 
 done. Being in crayons by Rosalba under a 
 glass, and any shaking being very prejudicial 
 to crayons, I fixed the picture in one of the 
 niches of my gallery, under a network of carv- 
 ing, whence it cannot possibly be removed 
 without pulling the niche to pieces. The pic- 
 ture, too, being placed over the famous sta- 
 tue of the eagle, there is no getting near to 
 it, and I certainly could not venture to let a 
 ladder be set against the eagle. Indeed, as 
 there are extant at least three portraits of 
 Law, there does not seem to be another want- 
 ing. I am sorry I cannot give you a more sa- 
 tisfactory answer about Lady Wallingford. I 
 have met her at two or three places, but I did 
 not visit her, nor have I the least knowledge 
 of her husband's family, nor can I direct you 
 at all where to inquire. I did not even know 
 that there is an Earl of Banbury living." 
 
 The superiority of Mr. Law's talents is best 
 evinced by the circumstance of his raising 
 himself, by them alone, to the first place in 
 point of power and consequence, in a nation 
 accustomed to regard all foreigners, espe- 
 cially his countrymen, in a very inferior light; 
 while the Missisippi System, a project per- 
 fectly original in its nature, and interesting 
 
192 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 from the number, the variety, and the impor- 
 tance of the objects it comprehended, furnish- 
 es a strong proof of the extent of his genius, 
 the greatness of his views, and the fertility of 
 his resources in the execution of his plans. 
 
 To his moral character no compliments can 
 be paid. His uncommon personal endow- 
 ments generally insured him success in affairs 
 of gallantry, and to these unworthy pursuits 
 he devoted too much of his time. Lockhart 
 of Carnwath relates, that, even before he left 
 Scotland, he was " nicely expert in all man- 
 ner of debaucheries." It is said that he lived 
 several years in a course of adultery with an 
 English lady, whom he had persuaded to 
 elope from her husband, and to accompany 
 him in his rambles abroad ; and the Due de 
 Richelieu speaks in very plain terms of the 
 attachment the Duchess Dowager of Orleans 
 had for Mr. Law.* The excess to which he 
 
 * La Duchesse Douairiere vivoit publiquement avec 
 Law. Memoires de Richelieu, ii. 180. Law, un des 
 plus beaux hommes de son terns, se chargea de lui (la 
 mere du Regent) faire la cour et de lui plaire ; et la 
 Princesse s'en accoramoda ; car dans son vieux age elle 
 1 
 
OF LAURISTON. 193 
 
 carried the destructive vice of gambling has 
 been already noticed. 
 
 Besides the works already mentioned, 
 " Proposals and Reasons for constituting a 
 Council of Trade," and " Money and Trade 
 considered," each of which has gone through 
 two editions, Mr. Law published in France 
 some tracts upon Credit and Finance. To- 
 wards the end of 1790, there appeared at Pa- 
 ris an octavo volume, entitled, " CEuvres de 
 J. Law, Controleur General des Finances de 
 France sous le Regent." This volume, pub- 
 lished by M. Senouer, captain of engineers, 
 contains, 1st, Mr. Law's classical work, " Mo- 
 ney and Trade considered," translated into 
 French. 2rf, Two memorials on the subject 
 of banks and banking, presented by Mr. Law 
 to the Regent. 3d, Fifteen letters on the same 
 subject, addressed to that Prince. And, 4A, 
 A letter, with some extracts from a memo- 
 rial, sent to the Due de Bourbon from Lon- 
 don in 1724, formerly noticed. This book, 
 enriched by the intelligent editor with a preli- 
 minary discourse, and illustrated by valuable 
 
 avoit encore le temperament des jeunes demoiselles de 
 vingt ans. iii. 11. 
 
 K 
 
194 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 notes, is in high estimation in France, and has 
 contributed not a little to remove the erro- 
 neous opinions of the System entertained in 
 that country. 
 
 Mr. Law married Lady Catherine Knollys, 
 third daughter of Nicholas third Earl of Ban- 
 bury, by his second wife Anne, daughter of 
 William Lord Sherard. Lady Catherine, 
 who was first married to a gentleman of the 
 name of Senor, by whom it does not appear 
 she had any issue, was born 1669, and died 
 1747, according to the following pedigree, 
 communicated by the late Earl of Banbury. 
 
 Thomas Boleyn, Earl of Wiltshire and Ormond. 
 
 Lady Anne Boleyn, Lady Mary Boleyn, 
 
 married to King Henry VIII. married to William Carey. 
 
 Elizabeth, 
 
 Catherine Carey, married to 
 Queen of England. Sir Francis Knollys, K.G. 
 
 William Earl of Banbury. 
 Nicholas Earl of Banbury. 
 
 Lady Catherine Knollys, 
 born 1669,* died 1747. 
 
 * The date of Lady Catherine's birth is 1673 in ano- 
 ther part of the communications from the late Earl of 
 Banbury. 
 
OF LAURISTON. 195 
 
 By Mr. Law she had one son, John Law of 
 Lauriston, and one daughter, Mary Cathe- 
 rine, a very accomplished lady, who, during the 
 height of the Missisippi System, had the most 
 splendid and advantageous offers of marriage 
 from the first houses of England, France, 
 Germany, and Italy. She espoused, 4th July 
 1734, her first cousin, William Viscount Wal- 
 lingford, major in the first troop of Horse 
 Guards, eldest son of Charles fourth Earl of 
 Banbury, by his first wife, Margaret, daughter 
 of Edward Lister of Burwell, in Lincolnshire. 
 His Lordship, who was born in 1690, was 
 elected Member of Parliament for the bo- 
 rough of Banbury, on a vacancy 1733, re- 
 chosen at the general election 1734, and con- 
 tinued to represent that place till his death, 
 6th June 1740, aged fifty, when a patent was 
 making out to call him to the House of Peers, 
 by the style and title of Baron of Althorp, in 
 the county of Lincoln, (where he had an es- 
 tate,) which his sudden demise prevented from 
 taking effect. By his death the family sus- 
 tained an irreparable loss, particularly his 
 widow, who was at that time dangerously ill 
 of the small-pox. Leaving no issue, his half- 
 brother, the Rev. Charles Knollys, became 
 
196 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 Viscount Wallingford, and afterwards fifth 
 Earl of Banbury, on his father's decease at 
 Dunkirk, 26th August 1740, in the seventy- 
 ninth year of his age. Lady Wallingford, sur- 
 viving her husband more than half a century, 
 died at her house in Park Street, Grosvenor 
 Square, London, 14th October 1790, leaving 
 her nephew and cousin, Thomas Woods, se- 
 venth Earl of Banbury, her executor and re- 
 siduary legatee.* 
 
 John Law of Lauriston, only son of the 
 Comptroller General, did not fail, during his 
 father's prosperity, to have his full share of 
 the adulation and courtship lavishly bestowed 
 on his family. He was frequently in the com- 
 pany of the young King, Louis XV. and had 
 the honour of being named, along with some 
 noblemen of the highest quality, to take a part 
 with his Majesty in a superb ballet, planned 
 by the Marshal de Villeroi ; but he was pre- 
 vented from enjoying that honour by an at- 
 tack of the measles. His education was in- 
 trusted to Charles Chesneau, Sieur du Mar- 
 
 * Communications from the late Earl of Banbury. 
 
OF LAURISTON. 197 
 
 sais, an able, disinterested, and benevolent cha- 
 racter, whose eloge is prefixed to the seventh 
 volume of the Encyclopedic. In May 1720, 
 the Due de la Force being appointed ambas- 
 sador to London, in order to arrange several 
 matters of importance with the British minis- 
 try, Mr. Law resolved to accompany his grace, 
 and had actually taken his departure from 
 Paris with the duke's brother and other young 
 noblemen; but obstacles arising, a courier was 
 dispatched with orders for them to come back. 
 After the downfall of the System, Mr. Law 
 resided chiefly at Chantilly and St. Maur with 
 the Due de Bourbon, and in December 1720 
 accompanied his father in his retreat from 
 France and subsequent travels. He after- 
 wards settled with his mother at Utrecht and 
 Brussels, succeeded his father in 1729, and 
 died a cornet of the regiment of Nassau Fries- 
 land, of the small-pox, at Maestricht, in Fe- 
 bruary 1734, aged about thirty-one, unmar- 
 ried. After his death, the widow St. Paul of 
 Paris made a demand on Lady Catherine 
 Law of the sum of 200,000 livres, due to her 
 in consequence of a transaction during the 
 Missisippi System with young Mr. Law, then 
 only seventeen years of age. The claim be* 
 
198 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 ing resisted, a process was instituted to com- 
 pel payment, and several letters that passed 
 on the occasion between the then Duke of 
 Portland and Lady Wallingford are in the 
 archives of the Banbury family.* 
 
 John Law of Lauriston thus dying unmar- 
 ried in 1734, the succession to the estate of 
 Lauriston fell to be regulated by the settle- 
 ments executed by his grandmother, Jean 
 Campbell. By entail dated 7th April 1703, 
 Lauriston was devised to John Law, her eld- 
 est son, and the heirs male of his body, which 
 failing, to William, Robert, and Hugh Law, 
 her third, fourth, and fifth sons, and the heirs 
 male of their bodies respectively, which fail- 
 ing, to her own heirs and assignees whatso- 
 ever. By a deed dated 18th July 1707, she 
 ratified the former entail in so far as concern- 
 ed her said four sons, and the heirs male of 
 their bodies, which failing, to the heirs female 
 of John her eldest son, and failing these, she 
 ordered Lauriston to be sold, and the pur- 
 
 * Duclos, ii. 73. Fragm. ii. 271. Mem. Reg. ii. 401. 
 Communications from the late Earl of Banburv. 
 
OF LAURISTON. 199 
 
 chase money to be divided as therein directed. 
 Of course William Law, her third son, suc- 
 ceeded to the estate of Lauriston, on the ex- 
 tinction of the issue male of the Comptroller 
 General. 
 
 The subjoined notices of the family of Law 
 of Lauriston may not be uninteresting. Wil- 
 liam Law, the first of Lauriston, and his wife 
 Jean Campbell, had eleven children. 
 
 1. Agnes, born 1st February 1666, married 
 in 1685 to John Hamilton, writer to the sig- 
 net, only son of James Hamilton, minister of 
 Eagleshame, second son of James Hamilton 
 of Barncleuth, and had issue.* 
 
 2. James, born 19th December 1667, died 
 in infancy. 
 
 3. Jean, born 12th September 1669, mar- 
 ried to John Hay of Letham, M. D. grand- 
 nephew of Sir John Nisbet of Dirleton, and 
 had one daughter. 
 
 4. JOHN LAW of LAURISTON. 
 
 5. William, born 14th September 1672, 
 died an infant. 
 
 Douglas's Peerage, i. 203. 
 
200 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 6. Andrew, born 22d November 1673, a 
 goldsmith or banker in Edinburgh, who was 
 passed over in the entail. He married, 27th 
 January 1695, Bethia, daughter of John Mel- 
 ville of Murdocairney in Fife, a cadet of the 
 family of the Earls of Leven and Melville, by 
 whom he had a son Alexander, born 22d Fe- 
 bruary 1697, who died an infant, and a daugh- 
 ter Jane, married to Walter Brebner, writer 
 in Largo, and had three daughters, Lilias, 
 married to David Goodsir, Law, married to 
 John Dempster, and Bethia, married to James 
 Grundiston. After the death of their grand- 
 uncle, William Law of Lauriston, in 1752, 
 these three ladies took the legal course for get- 
 ting themselves served his nearest and legiti- 
 mate heirs portioners of entail, of the reform- 
 ed religion. This being opposed by John 
 Law of Lauriston, eldest son of William, the 
 Court of Session, in 1756, repelled the rea- 
 sons proponed against the service, and allow- 
 ed it to proceed; and this decision was, on ap- 
 peal, affirmed by the House of Lords, 7th Fe- 
 bruary 1757.* They did not, however, suc- 
 
 * Morison's Decisions, 9612. Appeal Cases. 
 
OF LAURISTON. 201 
 
 ceed in getting possession of the estate of Lau- 
 ristoiu Their descendants are heirs of line of 
 the Comptroller General. 
 
 7. William Law of Lauriston. 
 
 8. Janet, born 9th September 1677. 
 
 9. Robert, born 6th October 1678. 
 
 10. Lilias, born 19th October 1680, mar- 
 ried, first, in 1698, to James Clerk ; second- 
 ly, to James Martin. 
 
 11. Hugh, born 10th January 1682.* 
 
 William Law of Lauriston, the third sur- 
 viving son, born at Edinburgh, 24th Octo- 
 ber 1675, was settled in London, whence he 
 was called to Paris to assist in the operations 
 of the Missisippi System, was Director Gene- 
 ral of the India Company, and one of the Di- 
 rectors of the Royal Bank of France. Suc- 
 ceeding to Lauriston in 1734, he was served 
 heir of his brother John, 1st July 1747, and 
 had a charter, under the great seal, of the 
 
 * Wood's Ancient and Modern State of the Parish of 
 Cramond, 162, where it is stated that Robert and Hugh 
 died unmarried ; but no evidence has been received to 
 that effect. 
 
202 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 lands of Lauriston, on the 27th of the same 
 month, to himself in liferent, and in fee to his 
 eldest son and the heirs male of his body, with 
 other remainders. He died at Paris in 1752, 
 in the 77th year of his age, leaving by his 
 wife, Rebecca Dives, four daughters, of whom 
 one married, first, M. de la Cour, secondly, 
 M. le Comte de Bermondet 5 another married 
 M. de Boisseroles, the other two died un- 
 married ; and two sons, John Law of Laufis- 
 ton, his successor, and James Francis Law, 
 born 1724, who, after much active service in 
 India, died in 1767, in the forty-third year of 
 his age, at the Isle of France, on his voyage 
 to Pondichery, in quality of Commander-in- 
 Chief of the troops of the French East India 
 Company. He married Miss Carvalho of 
 Madras, of the Portuguese family of Pombal, 
 by whom he had one son, James Francis Law, 
 born 1758, an officer in the French army, (who 
 married, and has issue ;) and three daugh- 
 ters, the eldest married to M. de Bruno, the 
 third to Samuel Johnson, Esq. one of the 
 Council at Madras, and the second, F. Xavier 
 Charlotte, second wife of Charles Smith, Esq. 
 Governor of Madras, is mother of Culling 
 Charles Smith, Esq. married, 9th August 
 
OF LAURISTON. 203 
 
 1799, to Lady Anne Wellesley, sister of the 
 Marquis of Wellesley and Duke of Welling- 
 ton, relict of the Hon. Henry Fitzroy. 
 
 John Law of Lauriston, the eldest son, born 
 19th October 1719, after very important ser- 
 vices in a civil and military capacity in India, 
 detailed in the Ancient and Modern State of 
 the Parish of Cramond, 251 263, rose to the 
 rank of Marshal de Camp, Governor of Pon- 
 dichery, Commandant General and President 
 of Council of all the French settlements in In- 
 dia. He succeeded to the estate of Lauris- 
 ton on the death of his father in 1752, .and 
 died at Paris about 1796, having married, in 
 1755, Miss Jean Carvalho, daughter of a Por- 
 tuguese gentleman settled at Calcutta, by 
 whom he had nine children. 
 
 1. Jean, born 8th March 1757, married, in 
 1777, to the Comte de la Fare Lopez. 
 
 2. Anne, born 21st December 1761, died 
 2d December 1762. 
 
 3. John, born 31st July 1765, died 19th 
 December following. 
 
 4. John William Law de Lauriston, born 
 8th September 1766, an accomplished officer 
 
204 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 of the French navy, who embarked on board 
 the Astrolabe frigate, commanded by his 
 friend the Vicomte de 1' Angle, in the unfor- 
 tunate expedition of discovery under M. de la 
 Perouse, of which no tidings have been re- 
 ceived since the ships composing it visited Bo- 
 tany Bay in February 1788. 
 
 5. James Alexander Bernard Law de Lau- 
 riston, born 1st February 1768, the represen- 
 tative in the male line of the Comptroller Ge- 
 neral, a nobleman of the highest considera- 
 tion in the French court, and a Peer of France 
 under the title of Count Lauriston. On the 
 6th June 1823 he was raised to the dignity of 
 Marshal of France, in room of the Prince of 
 Eckmuhl deceased, and appointed Comman- 
 der-in-Chief of the second corps of reserve of 
 the French army in Spain. 
 
 6. Charles Louis, born llth July 1769. 
 
 7. Joseph Charles, born 20th August 1770, 
 died unmarried. 
 
 8. Francis John William Law, born 2d 
 August 1771, a merchant in London. On the 
 21st May 1808, he was served nearest and le- 
 gitimate heir of entail and provision, of the 
 reformed religion, of his father John Law, and 
 entered into possession of the estate of Lau- 
 
OF LAURISTON. 205 
 
 riston, to the exclusion of his elder brothers, 
 who are Roman Catholics. 
 
 9. Louis George, born 6th August 1773.* 
 
 The descent of the Laws of Lauriston from 
 James Law, Archbishop of Glasgow, and the 
 Laws of Bruntoun, in Fife, is stated (p. 2.) on 
 the authority of the late Walter Scott, Esq. 
 writer to the signet, father of the most cele- 
 brated, interesting, and delightful author of 
 the present day. Mr. Scott was agent for the 
 late Marshal de Camp Law of Lauriston, and 
 communicated a distinct account of that fami- 
 ly, which, coming from an able and accurate 
 professional gentleman, may be considered as 
 authentic. A different account of the de- 
 scent of the family is given by Nisbet, in the 
 second volume of his Heraldry, Appendix, 
 p. 156, under the article, Roberton of Ear- 
 nock. " Bartholomew Roberton, on the 17th 
 October 1608, is contracted to Margaret Law, 
 daughter lawful of John Law of Waterfoot, 
 in Mearns," (a parish of Renfrewshire;) " she 
 was sister to Mr. Andrew Law, minister of 
 
 Wood's State of Craraond, 264. 
 
206 LIFE OF JOHN LAW 
 
 Neilston, grandfather to John Law, Esq. the 
 great Mr. Law, who was General Governor 
 of the Finances of France." 
 
 A MS. account of the family of Robert 
 Wodrow, author of the History of the Suffer- 
 ings of the Church of Scotland, written by 
 him about 1720, contains the following para- 
 graph : " For about seven years he," (Mr. 
 Wodrow, the author's father,) " had now a 
 safe recess at Eagleshame, from the terrible 
 barbarity of the times. It is a very retired 
 corner ; and he not only enjoyed the comfort 
 of his relations, but the advantage of the gos- 
 pel by, and conversation with, Mr. James Ha- 
 milton, indulged there to his death, about the 
 end of the year 1684, and the benefits of a 
 grammar school for his children, and those of 
 several friends who came and lodged with him 
 in his house, taught by Mr. Michael Rob, who 
 was the first Presbyterian minister ordained 
 after the liberty, at least in the west. I mind, 
 among his scholars, there was one about the 
 year 1683 or 1684, who of late has made a 
 surprising figure and blaze throughout all Eu- 
 rope, John Law, son to a goldsmith at Edin- 
 burgh, whom his father sent to Eagleshame, 
 both to be removed from the temptations of 
 
OF LAURISTON. 207 
 
 Edinburgh, and to be under the care of Mr. 
 Hamilton, who was nearly allied to him, and 
 to be under my father's inspection, who was 
 pretty nearly related to him by his mother, 
 and the Dunlops of Pulnoon Mill, one of 
 whose sisters, if I remember right, was mar- 
 ried to Mr. Law, minister of Neilstoun, grand- 
 father to this Mr. Law." [Communicated by 
 Mr. George Robertson, Bower Lodge, Irvine, 
 author of several well-known publications, who 
 compiled an account of Mr. Wodrow the his- 
 torian, still in manuscript, principally from 
 that book, which is in the possession of Miss 
 Wodrow at Saltcoats, grand-daughter of the 
 historian.] This residence of Mr. Law at 
 Eagleshame probably led to the matrimonial 
 connexion of Mr. Hamilton's only son with 
 his eldest sister, which took place in 1685.* 
 
 The arms of Law of Lauriston are thus 
 blazoned. Ermine, a bend betwixt two cocks, 
 gules. Crest, a unicorn's head proper. Mot- 
 to, Nee obscura nee ima. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 THE following translation from the Cours d'Econo- 
 mie Politique of M. Henri Storch, vol. iv. p. 130, 
 Paris, 1823, affords such a clear and succinct view 
 of the Missisippi System, that it has been judged 
 proper to subjoin it by way of Appendix ; although 
 the author does not appear to have correctly esti- 
 mated the character of Mr. Law, and represents 
 his motives and intentions in a very unfavourable 
 light. 
 
 IN the course of the eighteenth century France 
 has been twice the victim of paper money ; first, 
 under the Regency of the Duke of Orleans, by the 
 famous System of Law, and again by the assignats 
 during the Revolution. 
 
212 APPENDIX. 
 
 The history of the System of Law embraces such 
 a variety of facts,, and these facts so complicated, 
 that it is difficult to find a clue to conduct us out 
 of the labyrinth. But as it is of less importance to 
 follow the historical detail of the System, than to 
 mark its spirit and consequences, I shall confine 
 myself to the events which are important in this 
 view, passing by the others however curious in 
 themselves. 
 
 France, at the death of Louis XIV. found her- 
 self burdened with a debt of 3111 millions of livres 
 tournois, bearing an interest of eighty-six millions. 
 There was no means of meeting this debt but by 
 the excess of revenue over the ordinary expendi- 
 ture, which, in time of peace, amounted only to nine 
 millions. The Regent named a commission called 
 the Visa, which, by the most arbitrary operations, 
 reduced the debt to 2000 millions, and the interest 
 to eighty ; yet the government was just as unable 
 to discharge the reduced, as it had before been to 
 discharge the unreduced debt. 
 
 At this crisis Law, a Scotchman by birth, pre- 
 sented to the Regent a project for relieving the state 
 from this load of debt by means of credit, and with- 
 out injuring the interest of individuals. Before 
 entering on the details of this project and of its exe- 
 cution, it will be necessary to develop the principles 
 of its author respecting the nature and effects of 
 credit. This analysis will be the more useful, as the 
 
APPENDIX. 213 
 
 ideas of Law on this subject are still extensively 
 adopted in Europe. 
 
 Money^ said Law, is only the sign which repre- 
 sents riches in circulation. Gold., silver, copper, 
 leather, notes, shells, and every other material used 
 to estimate or measure real riches, are only riches 
 of confidence or opinion which form what is called 
 credit. A louis d'or, a crown, are notes, of which 
 the impress of the prince is the signature : and as 
 things are only valuable according to the purposes 
 that they serve in society, it is indifferent whether 
 a louis, a note for the same sum, or even shells, are 
 employed to represent the value of other commodi- 
 ties. 
 
 It is unnecessary to refute this sophism. Law 
 ranked in the same class metallic money,, and ficti- 
 tious or conventional money ; but there is this dif- 
 ference between them, that the one has an intrin- 
 sic value and the other not. The first is not a 
 mere sign but real wealth ; the other, on the con- 
 trary, is only a sign. Metallic money has scarcely 
 need of confidence or credit to preserve its value, 
 whilst fictitious money only exists by credit ; that is 
 to say, by the persuasion that it can at any time be 
 exchanged either for coin or other commodities. 
 Without doubt things only receive their value from 
 their usefulness ; but metallic money has a double 
 use, it may either be employed as money, or as a 
 useful and precious metal ; whereas fictitious mo- 
 ney can only be employed as counters. 
 
214 APPENDIX. 
 
 Besides, gold and silver can only be obtained by 
 long and painful labour, or at a very considera- 
 ble expense of production. The material of ficti- 
 tious money, on the contrary, scarcely requires any 
 labour, and, consequently, its quantity may be aug- 
 mented at pleasure. In fine, the value of gold and 
 silver is more invariable than that of any other 
 commodity, while that of paper fluctuates with eve- 
 ry change of popular opinion. It is not indifferent, 
 then, as Law assumes, whether one use a louis or 
 a note to represent the value of articles. Law, 
 having established for the basis of his System the 
 principle we are now examining, found himself 
 dragged into the most absurd consequences. " In 
 a country," said he, " where there exists no circu- 
 lating medium but gold and silver, its riches may be 
 greatly augmented by the introduction of paper mo- 
 ney." This consequence, true to a certain extent, 
 he admitted in an indefinite sense. Paper money 
 augments the national riches only by filling up the 
 place of the metallic currency, which is disengaged 
 from its employment as money, to serve other pur- 
 poses, or to be exchanged for other riches. Law, 
 on the contrary, imagined that the metallic curren- 
 cy, with the additional paper money, would con- 
 tinue to circulate together as money. He did not 
 perceive that there might be too much circulat- 
 ing medium in a country ; that this superabun- 
 dance causes the specie to leave it ; and that the 
 
APPENDIX. 215 
 
 paper, increased beyond the demands of circulation, 
 would sink in value. He thought that the increase 
 of the circulating medium would have no other ef- 
 fect than to lower the rate of interest, and that it 
 would be absorbed by the increase of industry ; and 
 thus the abundance of paper money appeared to 
 him only an additional source of public prosperity. 
 But the rate of interest does not in any degree de- 
 pend on the quantity of the circulating medium ; 
 and abundance of money encourages industry, in- 
 asmuch only as it is convertible into capital. 
 
 In a state, said Law, where the people are not 
 accustomed to credit, (as was the case in France at 
 the epoch of the System,) it is enough to double the 
 amount of the circulating medium, by adding to 
 the specie an equal value in notes ; credit ought 
 not to exceed the amount of specie, that notes 
 may always be convertible into cash at the plea- 
 sure of the holders. He was not aware, that 
 doubling the amount of the currency by an issue 
 of paper money will not double the value of the 
 money in the country, and that such a measure 
 would only have the effect of banishing the specie 
 from circulation. But let us suppose for a moment 
 that gold and silver should circulate along with the 
 paper, and that specie should not be depreciated, it 
 by no means follows that the notes would be al- 
 ways convertible into cash at the will of the hold- 
 ers. 
 
216 APPENDIX. 
 
 The specie into which they are to be convertible 
 is not in the possession of the prince., nor of the bank 
 that issues the notes, but of the public ; and will 
 the individual possessors of cash consent that their 
 money shall serve as a guarantee for the credit of the 
 bank, and be employed when necessary to pay its 
 notes ? Certainly not. Credit can never be found- 
 ed on such a basis. The money belonging to the 
 individuals of a nation can never be held as security 
 for the notes which a sovereign or a bank may 
 choose to issue. If this security is not to be found 
 in the treasures or resources of the prince, or in the 
 coffers of the bank, it is a mere illusion. 
 
 Such a credit, however, said Law, would be ra- 
 ther a multiplication of specie than credit ; for, ac- 
 cording to his doctrine, credit consists in the excess 
 of notes over specie, and the advantage to be obtain- 
 ed is only in this excess. The absurdity of this 
 doctrine is too palpable to require much time to ex- 
 pose it. Law considered the whole nation as one 
 grand banking company, and his reasoning was 
 nearly this : If a bank may increase the issue of its 
 notes beyond the amount of its funds in bullion, 
 without risking its solvency, a nation may do the 
 same. On these principles he proposed to establish 
 a bank, into which was to be transferred all the me- 
 tallic currency of the nation, which was to be re- 
 placed by bank notes. This project, gigantic and 
 chimerical as it was, did not appear so to Law or 
 1 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 the Regent: they believed the execution of the 
 thing possible, and they attempted it. 
 
 In 1716 Law laid the foundation of his fa- 
 mous System, by the establishment of a bank for 
 the issue of notes, for which he had obtained an 
 exclusive privilege from government. The funds of 
 this bank were raised by shares, and the notes were 
 payable at sight, in specie of the same weight and 
 fineness as the money in circulation at the period of 
 their issue. This clause alone made them be sought 
 after. Since 1689 the currency had been subject to 
 perpetual alterations : the clause in the bank notes 
 secured the holders against these arbitrary pro- 
 ceedings ; and as the bank faithfully kept its pro- 
 mise, the notes were so much preferred, that they 
 bore a premium of one per cent above metallic 
 currency. The good conduct of the bank in the 
 issue of its paper, its promptitude in fulfilling its 
 engagements, and the universal want of credit pro- 
 cured for it the greatest confidence, and disposed 
 the nation to regard its founder as a genius capable 
 of reviving the credit and commerce of France, at a 
 period when they were almost annihilated. 
 
 The following year, 1717, Law procured for his 
 bank the exclusive privilege of a commercial com- 
 pany, established under Richelieu, called, La Com- 
 pagnie a" Occident, or the West India Company, which 
 had been long in a languishing state. The bank 
 created 200,000 shares of 500 livres each, payable 
 L 
 
218 APPENDIX. 
 
 in state paper, for which the government set apart 
 a perpetual revenue of four per cent. This mea- 
 sure absorbed 100 millions of the public funds that 
 were most depreciated ; but these funds could not 
 form stock for a commercial enterprise. From the 
 irregular payment of the interest they were depre- 
 ciated to such a degree, that 500 livres of nominal 
 value in these funds could not be sold for more than 
 l60 or 170 livres ; yet the bank took them at the 
 full nominal value. This combination of the ope- 
 rations of banking with commercial speculations 
 was essentially vicious. These two kinds of busi- 
 ness are of a nature absolutely incompatible ; the. 
 chances of commerce may endanger the certainty 
 of the gains of a bank, or at least shake its cre- 
 dit. That which gives confidence in a bank issuing 
 notes, is not exclusively its stock, which is not, and 
 can never be of the same amount as its notes in cir- 
 culation ; but it is the belief that it issues its notes 
 only in exchange for good securities which will in- 
 sure their payment. When a bank issues notes for 
 commercial speculations, often disastrous, and al- 
 ways precarious, these notes have only an uncertain 
 guarantee, and its credit is just proportioned to this 
 uncertainty. 
 
 The public were not aware of the danger to which 
 the bank was exposed by the union of these two 
 undertakings. The French had no accurate ideas 
 respecting the nature and constitution of banks, and 
 
APPENDIX. 219 
 
 were, at the same time, misled by the blind confi- 
 dence which they placed in Mr. Law. A purely ac- 
 cessory circumstance tended greatly to increase this 
 confidence. The interest of the 100 millions of bil- 
 lets d'etat which the bank had acquired by the sale of 
 its shares, being more regularly paid to the bank 
 than it had formerly been paid to individuals, the 
 shares which at first had been bought for 16*0 or 
 170 livres, soon rose to par, that is, to 500 livres. 
 The advance of the billets d'etat to a rate so advan- 
 tageous to the holders, increased the value of those 
 that remained in circulation. This effect, which 
 was solely owing to the regular payment of the in- 
 terest, was attributed to the operations of Law. 
 The French, astonished at the sudden rise of their 
 depreciated paper, looked on it as a kind of miracle; 
 their delusion became boundless, and from that mo- 
 ment the most puerile confidence outran all the mys- 
 tifications of this famous political charlatan. 
 
 The Regent perceiving that bank notes were in 
 demand, and that quantities of specie were daily \ 
 carried to the bank, it was easy for Law to per- 
 suade him that it was quite possible to draw into it 
 the whole of the circulating specie of the kingdom, 
 and to replace it by the same amount of paper mo- 
 ney ; that by this means almost a half of the public 
 debt of France might be paid off, and that the cre- 
 dit of the bank would be sustained, since it would 
 
220 APPENDIX. 
 
 always be able to pay in specie what notes might be 
 returned to it. In consequence of this extravagant 
 project, the bank was administered on account of 
 the King, from the 1st of January 171 p. The Re- 
 gent reimbursed the share-holders, took the esta- 
 blishment into his own hand, and gave it the appel- 
 lation of the Royal Bank. This was only an ap- 
 parent change, for Law still continued to direct all 
 its operations. At this period the notes which it 
 had issued amounted to 59 millions. 
 
 Till now the notes had been paid at sight ; and 
 although they nattered themselves they would be 
 able to continue to pay them in the same manner, 
 even supposing the fullest extension was given to 
 what Law called credit, it was thought prudent, 
 nevertheless, to take the precaution of securing a 
 resource, in case prompt payment should become 
 impossible. For this reason the notes issued by the 
 royal bank did not promise to pay in specie of the 
 I same weight and fineness as the specie then in circu- 
 lation, but merely to pay in SILVER COIN. This 
 change, though slight in appearance, was fundamen- 
 tal. The notes previously issued stipulated for a 
 given quantity of silver, of the same fineness as that 
 which circulated at the period of their issue, under 
 the denomination of a livre. The notes that were 
 now issued stipulated only for a certain number of 
 livres, and thus opened a door for all the fluctua- 
 tions which it might please arbitrary power to oc- 
 
APPENDIX. 221 
 
 casion in the real value of the coin called a livre. This 
 was csHedJtxing the value of paper money ; but in 
 reality it was rendering it changeable, and it did 
 change most deplorably. 
 
 In getting the bank declared a royal establish- 
 ment, Law flattered himself that the public would 
 continue to carry specie to it to be exchanged 
 for notes ; but his expectations were disappointed. 
 Whether the tenour of the new notes inspired some 
 distrust, or whether, in fact, the notes already is- 
 sued were sufficient for the purposes of commerce, 
 the demand for notes ceased, and Law saw himself 
 forced to change his tactics, in order to draw coin 
 to the bank, and to promote the circulation of the 
 notes which he intended to issue to an immense 
 amount. 
 
 He concerted with the Regent another project to 
 relieve him from the national debt, the most 
 extravagant and criminal stockjobbing project that 
 has ever appeared. Two plans presented them- 
 selves to his imagination for sustaining the cre- 
 dit of the notes even under the most extensive is- 
 sues. The first consisted in insensibly transform- 
 ing bank notes into a real paper money. For this 
 purpose it was agreed to give a preference to paper 
 over specie, by declaring the value of the one fixed 
 and invariable, whilst, by perpetual alterations, they 
 were to render the other continually fluctuating and 
 uncertain ; to exact payment of taxes in bank notes; 
 
222 APPENDIX. 
 
 to introduce them by degrees into all transactions in- 
 stead of specie ; and, at last, entirely to prohibit the 
 tise of specie, when the nation should have been com- 
 pletely disgusted with it. The second method was 
 to contrive an outlet for the immense sums of paper 
 which the repayment of the state creditors would 
 throw into circulation, by offering the holders an ap- 
 parently very lucrative investment for this paper, in 
 order to prevent their coming to the bank to have 
 it exchanged for specie. With this view it was 
 agreed that Law should unite to the West India 
 Company, which was still under his direction, se- 
 veral other commercial and financial undertakings, 
 out of which he should form one colossal establish- 
 ment, and that he should divide this establishment 
 into shares, of which the amount should be equal to 
 the whole of the public debts. The Regent was to 
 buy these shares with the paper money that he was 
 to manufacture ; to borrow anew this paper in or- 
 der to pay the creditors of the state ; and then to 
 sell the shares to retire the paper money. 
 
 This plan promised more success than the first. 
 The union of a number of lucrative concerns un- 
 der the direction of one man, whose skill and ta- 
 lents inspired the greatest confidence, would natu- 
 rally encourage a very high idea of the profits of the 
 company, and make the shares be sought after. 
 The government, in appearing to desire to partake 
 of these advantages, would strengthen this idea ; 
 
APPENDIX. 223 
 
 and as the company would make no scruple to ac- 
 cept paper money from government in payment of 
 its shares, this measure would again give credit to 
 the paper money. If this project had succeeded, 
 the state would have been relieved from an immense 
 debt by means of a yearly income perpetually pay- 
 able to the company ; and its creditors, having be- 
 come shareholders of the Company, would have fol- 
 lowed its fate. Thus, the effect of the System was 
 not only to inundate the kingdom with paper mo- 
 ney, but likewise to change the creditors of the state, 
 and to transfer them to the company ; that is to say, 
 to convert capital that was secure into very hazard- 
 ous funds, and fixed revenues into what were very 
 precarious. 
 
 Having matured this plan, they set themselves 
 about putting it in execution. The East India 
 Company, also established by Richelieu, was then, 
 like that of the West, at the lowest ebb. In May 
 1719* they were incorporated together under the 
 name of the " Company of the Indies ;" 50,000 
 new shares were created at 550 livres each, payable 
 in specie, these shares only gave an obligation on 
 the Company's funds for 500 livres, the same as the 
 
 * This period was the true commencement of the system, 
 which fell to the ground on the 21st May 17*^0 ; it thus ex- 
 isted exactly one year. 
 
224 APPENDIX. 
 
 former, but the public were already so strongly im- 
 pressed with the enormous profits that the Company 
 would make that they might have been sold a great 
 deal higher. The proceeds of the sale of these 
 50,000 shares amounted to 27,500,000 livres in 
 specie ; a small portion of this was set apart to 
 build ships, and these trifling preparations raised 
 the hopes of the public so high that more shares 
 were eagerly sought after. In consequence of this, 
 50,000 more were created a month afterwards, and 
 sold at 1000 livres each. 
 
 The Government neglected no means of impress- 
 ing the nation with an idea of the great profits 
 which the Company would make. The Company had 
 undertaken, during the preceding year, to farm the 
 revenue of tobacco ; the King likewise made over 
 to it the mint for 50 millions of livres. It likewise 
 contracted for the fermes generates, and then en- 
 gaged to lend the King the immense sum of 1600 
 millions, at three per cent interest, that is to say, 
 for an annual income of 48 millions ; in fine, the 
 Company obtained the collection of all the revenues 
 of the State. It then declared to its proprietors 
 that it was in a condition to pay a dividend of 200 
 livres upon each share. The rate of interest being 
 then at 4< per cent, such a dividend was equal to 
 the interest of a capital of 5000 livres, provided 
 the dividend had been secure and permanent ; but 
 as the public had no doubt either of the amount of 
 
APPENDIX. 225 
 
 the dividend, or of its permanence, shares rose to 
 5000 livres. 
 
 The first share-holders, better informed than the 
 others in regard to the situation of the Company, 
 sought to render their fortunes secure by the sale 
 of a part of their shares, the produce of which they 
 employed in the purchase of landed property and 
 other commodities. The opulence so rapidly ac- 
 quired by these share-holders was a new cause of 
 seduction to the public ; every one hastened to buy 
 shares ; a general delirium pervaded the nation ; 
 every profession was abandoned for that of stock- 
 jobbing ; inhabitants of the provinces, strangers, 
 all hastened to Paris to enrich themselves by the 
 purchase of shares. This business, indeed, opened 
 a door to opulence ; the stockjobbers continually 
 stimulated the fluctuations in the price of shares, 
 and in skilfully profiting by these fluctuations, even 
 obscure and wretched individuals rapidly rose to the 
 most brilliant fortunes. 
 
 The shares being brought by four successive 
 creations to their complete number, that is, to 
 624,000, the King ordered that the state creditors 
 should be paid off in bank notes. Such immense 
 sums thrown all at once into circulation could not 
 easily find employment except in the purchase of 
 the Company's stock ; thus the public creditors paid 
 off found themselves in some measure constrained 
 to employ their capital in this manner. This new 
 
226 APPENDIX. 
 
 competition caused the price of shares to rise to 
 10,000 livres. 
 
 The creditors of the state were thus forced, by the 
 manoeuvres of Law, to buy shares in the Company 
 of the Indies, at the rate of 10,000 livres, if they ex- 
 pected to secure to themselves any income at all. 
 And what did they receive for their 10,000 livres ? 
 One share of capital stock valued at 500 livres ; their 
 capital was embarked in a hazardous commercial 
 enterprise ; it only entitled them to a determinate, 
 but uncertain part of the gains of a newly commen- 
 ced company, which, of course, must be precarious. 
 Supposing even that the clear revenue of the Com- 
 pany had regularly amounted to 12,480,000 livres, 
 this would only have given 20 livres of annual in- 
 terest for each share. Indeed the company had pro- 
 mised an annual dividend of 200 livres a share ; but 
 granting that the promise had been serious, and the 
 effect practicable, the result still is, that the stock- 
 holder who employed 10,000 livres to purchase one 
 share, is made to lose one half of his revenue. But 
 how was it possible that the Company could raise 
 annually 124,800,000 livres for the dividend upon 
 624,000 shares ? this charge was so utterly beyond 
 its strength, that even the apologists of the System 
 must acknowledge the absurdity of its speculations, 
 and the cruelty of its conduct towards the public 
 creditor. 
 
APPENDIX. 227 
 
 It is evident, then, that the System was only in- 
 tended to relieve the state from its debts by the ruin 
 of its creditors; the higher the shares rose, the 
 greater was the amount of public debt that each ab- 
 sorbed ; and hence it appears that the excessive 
 price to which the shares were carried entered into 
 Law's plan. But the excessively high price of the 
 shares, and the prodigious gain of the original pro- 
 prietors were, of themselves, sufficient to occasion 
 the fall of the System. It was natural that these 
 lucky speculators should consider by what means 
 they might best realise the gifts of fortune^ and this 
 was exactly what happened. The great number of 
 .shares sold by the proprietors diminished their price, 
 so that neither the company nor the Regent was 
 able to effect further sales. The bank soon felt the 
 effects of this shock : the holders of notes instant- 
 ly made a run upon it for specie for their notes. 
 
 In this crisis Law determined to employ the most 
 violent means to save his system, to replenish the 
 emptied coffers of the bank, and to give a forced 
 currency to the notes. By his advice the Govern- 
 ment affected the greatest contempt for specie 
 it permitted, and even ordered it to be sent out of 
 the kingdom it forbade the importation of gold and 
 silver coin. It farther ordered that the bank should 
 receive no more cash to be exchanged for notes 
 that all creditors should be permitted to demand 
 notes from their debtors, even in cases where these 
 
228 APPENDIX. 
 
 last were more valuable than coin that the Com- 
 pany should be held bound to pay the produce of 
 the different imposts under its charge in notes, and 
 that it should be authorised to demand payment in 
 the same notes from the tax contributors ; all judi- 
 cial offers not made in notes were declared void ; 
 small notes were introduced ; lastly, to degrade the 
 coin, and to wean the nation from the use of it, a 
 new coinage was ordered of very small pieces of lit- 
 tle value. The value of notes was legally fixed 
 at five per cent above that of specie ; and it was for- 
 bidden to offer, or receive payment in silver, of any 
 sum exceeding ten livres, or in gold of any sum ex- 
 ceeding 300 livres ; while all payments of bills of 
 exchange were to be made in notes. The fluctua- 
 tions in the value of the coin succeeded each other 
 with inconceivable rapidity; the coin designated 
 by the name of livre was at different times a 28th, 
 a 40th, a 60th, an 80th, a 120th, a 70th, and a 65th 
 part of a marc of fine silver. Law caused these fluc- 
 tuations in the specie, on purpose to fill the coffers 
 of the bank, which were as quickly emptied by the 
 more prudent of the persons enriched by his Sys- 
 tem ; he encouraged by these means the preference 
 of notes to gold and silver, with the view of entirely 
 interdicting the use of these two metals ; a decree 
 to which effect received the sanction of Government 
 on the 27th of February 1720. 
 
APPENDIX. 229 
 
 By this famous decree it was ordained that no 
 person of whatever condition,, and even no reli- 
 gious community, should keep in his or their pos- 
 session more than 500 livres in specie, under pe- 
 nalty of confiscation of all that should exceed that 
 sum, and a fine of 10,000 livres ; it was likewise for- 
 bidden, under the same penalties, to any person to 
 retain in their possession any article of gold or sil- 
 ver. The officers of justice were enjoined to visit 
 the houses, communities, privileged places, and even 
 the palaces and royal mansions ; and the King de- 
 clared that the specie or articles seized should be 
 the reward of the informers. In fine, it was prohi- 
 bited, under a penalty of 3000 livres, to pay a sum 
 of 100 livres or upwards otherwise than in bank 
 notes. 
 
 The rigour and novelty of such a law spread a- 
 larm through the whole kingdom. Many, under the 
 influence of fear, carried to the bank all the gold 
 and silver they had in their possession ; others, and 
 these the greater number, resolved at all hazards to 
 disobey. Nevertheless search was generally made 
 informers were encouraged the servant was 
 dreaded by his master brother suspected brother, 
 and parents were afraid of their own children. 
 Distrust broke the union of families every ci- 
 tizen was on his guard against another and terror 
 was redoubled by frequent condemnations. Du- 
 ring an interval of about three weeks the bank re- 
 
230 APPENDIX. 
 
 ceived nearly 44,000,000 livres ; but their coffers re- 
 sembled the cask of the Danaids, it was impossible 
 to fill them. At last the decree of the 1 1th of March 
 1720, entirely proscribed gold coin, and silver 
 crowns, leaving only the smaller pieces in circula- 
 tion. 
 
 From the 1st of January, 1719* to the 20th of 
 May, 1720, during the short space of 505 days, the 
 bank had issued notes to the immense amount of 
 2,235,000,000, which wer e employed in pay ing off the 
 public creditors. The consequences of this unheard 
 of abuse of paper money did not at first appear, be- 
 cause during the course of the year 1719> the issues 
 had been moderate ; but when, during four months 
 of 1720, they manufactured 1,925,000,000, nothing 
 could prevent their fall. Specie having entirely 
 disappeared, the paper money with which the coun- 
 try had been inundated, and which, consequently, 
 was greatly depreciated, only remained in circu- 
 lation; the price of every thing advanced daily, 
 and in an alarming progression. Government now 
 felt that too great an extension had been given to 
 what Law called credit ; it became sensible that 
 to re-establish the value of paper, it would be ne- 
 cessary to diminish its amount; but as Government 
 was neither able nor willing to repurchase the notes, 
 it satisfied itself by reducing their nominal value 
 one-half. The decree of 21st of May, which order- 
 ed this reduction, was a death-blow to the whole 
 
APPENDIX. 231 
 
 System. The public perceived at last that paper 
 property was precarious and illusory ; the next day 
 every one was anxious to get rid of it at any price.* 
 The Regent, seeing the lamentable consequences 
 of the decree, revoked it six days afterwards ; he 
 
 * As bank notes did not appear to sink in value when 
 compared with specie, the greater number of contempora- 
 ry authors imagine that their value was not affected up to 
 the 20th of May, and that it would have continued to have 
 been maintained but for the decree of the 21st, which was a 
 death-blow to their credit. This opinion, which is maintain- 
 ed by Stewart, as well as by the French authors, is evidently 
 false ; it is impossible that the circulation of a country, whose 
 money before this period was not reckoned to exceed 1,200 
 millions, could absorb 2,235 millions of paper money, conse- 
 quently this last must sink in value. The writers on the 
 System, as well as the evidence of experience, prove the truth 
 of this position ; all agree in saying that the prodigious 
 quantity of paper money had excessively advanced the price 
 of provisions, and that the nominal value of the notes was 
 only reduced with the view of diminishing these prices ; but 
 the high price of all sorts of merchandise is the result of 
 the low value of the money with which they are purchased ; 
 if the notes of the system bore a premium over specie, it was 
 only because the Government received them at this rate in 
 payment of taxes, but at bottom this preference was factitious 
 and chimerical. How was it possible to estimate the value 
 of notes by that of specie in a country where specie had 
 been prohibited, and where the bank only paid small notes 
 of ten livres ? 
 
232 APPENDIX. 
 
 advanced the nominal value of the specie, and re- 
 established that of the notes, but all his measures 
 were useless. The depreciation of the notes was 
 such, that the holders accepted from the Govern- 
 ment such proportion of state funds as they were 
 pleased to offer for them, at the rate of a 50th and 
 even a 100th part of their nominal value. The ruin 
 of the bank crushed in its fall all the individuals 
 whose interests were connected with it : besides, 
 this bankruptcy lost to the public creditors upwards 
 of 44,000,000 of annual interest, and a capital of 
 more then 844 millions and a half. 
 
 If the credit of the bank notes could not be main- 
 tained, it is evident that that of the shares of the 
 Company's stock must have sunk still more. Their 
 value had not only not been declared legally fixed, 
 nor had the King guaranteed them as he had done 
 the bank notes ; but their dividends, uncertain in 
 their very nature, depended on the success of a tot- 
 tering company, which had embarked in operations 
 too vast and too dangerous to realise great or solid 
 profits; thus the fall of the Company's stock was still 
 greater and more rapid than that of its notes. 
 
 What pen can describe the confusion and ruin 
 of France on the retreat of Law ? gold and silver 
 had been hidden or exported to foreign countries ; 
 Dutot himself acknowledges that 500 millions, at 
 65 livre.s thq mark, had been carried out of the 
 country; but when the fall of the notes, as of the 
 
APPENDIX. 233 
 
 Company's stock, had become public when 9000 
 livres in paper were given for a single mark in gold 
 
 what a vast deal more must have been exported ! 
 
 One of the inferior cashiers of the Company remitted 
 to Holland 20 millions of florins, and quitted the 
 kingdom. All credit, public as well as private, was 
 annihilated ; distrust was the greater, as every in- 
 dividual was ignorant of the state of his own for- 
 tune ; it was only known that the greater number 
 had been ruined, and it was difficult to distinguish 
 the few who had escaped the general shipwreck. 
 The price of commodities was tripled and quadru- 
 pled ; it was impossible for persons of limited in- 
 comes to subsist without encroaching on their ca- 
 pital. It was necessary to augment the pay of the 
 soldiers a sous per day. Labourers were without 
 employment, manufactures and commerce were at 
 a stand, rents, dividends, wages, and pensions, were 
 no longer paid; a small number wallowed in wealth, 
 whilst poverty overwhelmed the great mass of the 
 community. 
 
 The situation of the public finances was not less 
 deplorable, there was not a single sous in the public 
 treasury ; the King found himself without revenue, 
 all his resources having been long since drained; thus 
 although the present was horrible, the future appear- 
 ed still more alarming. Deliverance from the na- 
 tional debt was the only good that the system had 
 
234 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 accomplished, and this brought along with it the 
 ruin of the creditors and the exhaustion of the whole 
 kingdom. 
 
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