monarch. Powerful as he had been while living, his will was totally disregarded after his death, and his body was borne to the tomb amid the unconcealed joy of the people. If any one wishes to know what a barbarism the institution of monarchy is, let him study the reign and character of Louis XIV., without, however, attaching the slightest importance to his tranquil and pious death. I recommend this study especially to those who have been reading lately the glorification of monarchy contained in Mr. Carlyle's Life of Frederick II., King of Prussia.

29

JOHN LAW.

JOHN LAW, born in 1671, the son of an Edinburgh goldsmith, made, perhaps, as much noise and stir in this world as any man that ever lived in it. His father, dying when the boy was fourteen, left him an independent fortune, into possession of which he came when he was twenty-one. He was a young man of extraordinary beauty, grace, and agility. Manly exercises had nobly developed his frame, his mind had been nurtured in the best schools of his country, and his manners formed in the higher circles of Edinburgh. Handsome, accomplished, and rich, his knowledge was more showy than sound, and his morals were French rather than Scotch.

A goldsmith, in old times, was also a money-changer and broker. Young Law was early accustomed to hear money questions discussed among his father's friends, and was observed to take an interest in such subjects unusual in a youth. He could talk very fluently about the currency; and when, soon after coming of age, he was living a gay life in London, the subject universally talked of was the scheme of establishing the institution now known as the Bank of England. From these causes, as well as from the original bent of his mind, the favorite theme of thought and conversation with him was finance. Nevertheless, he knew little about the matter. He was a quick, cool calculator, much better fitted to shine at the card-table than in the treasury of a nation.

While living the life of a man of fashion in London he killed a gentleman in a duel, for which he was tried as a murderer and sentenced to death. He was pardoned by the king, and went upon the continent. Roaming about among the capitals of Europe, extravagant and licentious, he soon wasted his fortune, and

resorted to gambling to repair it. High play was then the reigning pleasure of society in every country in Europe. Louis XIV. was not displeased when he heard that the Portuguese Ambassador had won eighteen hundred thousand francs of his niece in a single night. High play, he thought, became a princess of the royal house of France, and he was willing Europe should know on what a scale of grandeur gambling was done at his court. John Law, cool, adroit, calculating, found the careless nobles of the time an easy prey. A stout footman preceded him to the houses of his antagonists, carrying two heavy bags of gold, and the servant usually had a heavier load to carry home than the one he brought. In the course of a few years, besides living like a prince, he could produce in ready money a sum equal in our currency to a million dollars. Indeed, such was his success, that he was suspected of cheating, and, at last, few ventured to play with him.

Tired of this wandering existence, he returned to Scotland, where he renewed his former studies in finance, upon which he published a treatise, entitled "Considerations upon Money and Commerce." Paper money was his favorite branch of financial science. He proposed the establishment of a Bank of Scotland, the credit of which should be founded upon the landed estates of its stockholders, which estates should be pledged to the redemption of its notes. His idea was, that since money is of no value in itself, but only a representative of value, paper money is as good as gold, -provided you can only make people think 80. The canny Scotch people, however, did not fancy the scheme, and Law resumed his vagabond life.

Toward the close of the reign of Louis XIV. he came to Paris, where he won such enormous sums at the game then called "pharao," that the lieutenant of police ordered him to leave the city, alleging for a reason that he "understood the game he had introduced too well." He obeyed the order, but not before he had made an ineffaceable impression upon the mind of the Duc d'Orleans, nephew of the old king, and about to be regent of the kingdom. Law's brilliant and shallow talk upon finance, aided by the graceful wickedness of his life, captivated the ignorant, rash, and dissolute prince. The Duc

d'Orleans was not in favor with the king, and he could not save Law from expulsion; but he retained the conviction that if there was a man in the world who understood the science of money, that man was John Law.

The extravagant old king died in 1715, leaving the finances of the kingdom in inconceivable disorder,-a thousand times worse than the finances of the United States at the close of the revolutionary war. An anecdote of the last year of Louis XIV. will show to what miserable expedients the king's ministers were reduced.

The king wished to give one more of his great festivals at Versailles, and ordered his minister of finance to provide the money,-four millions of francs. The treasury was empty, and the credit of the government was gone. A royal bond of one hundred francs was worth thirty-five francs. One day, when the minister was pacing his ante-chamber, considering how he should raise the sum required, he perceived, through an open door, two of his servants looking over the papers on his desk. An idea darted into his mind. He drew up the scheme of a grand lottery, which he pretended was designed to pay off a certain description of bonds. This scheme, half written out, he left upon his desk, and remained absent for a considerable time. His two lackeys were, as he supposed, employed by stockjobbers to discover the intentions of the government with regard to the issue and redemption of its bonds. They did their work, and at once the bonds began to rise in price, and went up in a few days from thirty-five to eighty-five. When they had reached the price last named and were in active demand, the minister issued and slipped upon the market new bonds enough to furnish him with the needful four millions of francs. The trick was soon discovered, and the bonds dropped to twenty-eight. The last loan negotiated by Louis XIV. was effected at the rate of four hundred for one hundred, the government binding itself to pay four hundred francs for every one hundred received. Such were some of the evils arising from having a pompous old fool at the head of a great nation.

When the king died, there was not merely an immense public debt, but that debt was in a condition of perfect chaos. Louis

XIV. had raised money in every conceivable way, and on all conceivable terms. He had sold annuities for one life, for two lives, for three lives, and in perpetuity. He had issued every kind of bond and promissory note which the ingenuity of his minister could devise, or the reluctance of lenders demand. There had been a very large annual deficit for fifteen successive years, which had been made up by selling offices and borrowing money. When the regent took the reins of power, he found, 1. An almost incalculable debt; 2. Eight hundred millions of francs then due; 3. An empty treasury. Almost every one in Paris, from princes to lackeys, who had any property at all, held the royal paper, then worth one-fourth its apparent value.

What was to be done? They tried the wildest expedients. The coin was adulterated; new bonds, similar to those we call preferred," were issued; men, enriched by speculating upon the necessities of the government, were squeezed until they gave up their millions. If a man was very rich, and not a nobleman, it was enough; the Bastile, the pillory, and confiscation extracted from him the wherewith to supply the regent's drunken orgies, the extravagance of his mistresses, and the pay of his troops. Servants accused their masters of possessing a secret hoard, and were rewarded for their perfidy with one-half of it. Rich men, trying to escape from the kingdom with their property, were hunted down and brought back to prison and to ruin. Once they seized fourteen kegs of gold coin, hidden in fourteen pipes of wine, just as the wagons were crossing the line into Holland. One great capitalist escaped from the kingdom disguised as a hay-peddler, with his money hidden in his hay. The whole number of persons arrested on the charge of having more money than they wanted, was six thousand; the number condemned and fined was four thousand four hundred and ten, and the amount of money wrung from them was four hundred millions of francs.

In the midst of the consternation caused by this system of plunder, John Law, then aged forty-five years, appeared upon the scene, and soon renewed his intercourse with the regent. He told that ignorant and profligate prince that such violent measures could but aggravate the distress of the kingdom, and