A few days before the outbreak at the Palais Royal, the Regent on the advice of Law had drawn up an edict, conferring in perpetuity upon the Company the whole commercial rights and privileges of the kingdom on condition that it liquidated within a year 600,000,000 livres of bank notes by monthly instalments of 50,000,000 livres each. The operation of this edict would have had the effect of re-establishing the Company as a sound commercial undertaking and of removing from circulation the unsecured paper issue afloat, but this would only have been possible at the cost of ruining the whole community of private traders or at least of placing them at the mercy of the Company which might exercise their proposed privileges in an arbitrary and despotic manner. On the 16th of July the draft-edict was submitted for approval to the Council of the Regency, and this body agreed to send it for registration to the Parliament. The following day accordingly it was deliberated upon by that assembly, who refused to give it effect, 148 members going so far as to support a proposal that it should be returned to the Regent without acknowledgment or reply. [Illustration: CARDINAL DUBOIS.] This unexpected check to the plans of the Regent and of Law produced the greatest consternation at court. They feared that the people would by the refusal infer the sympathy of Parliament with their position and might be encouraged to break out into revolt, although the refusal had not proceeded from motives so high and disinterested, but from feelings of opposition to Law and to every proposal he might suggest that would tend to rehabilitate confidence in the Company. The Regent, with Law, Dubois, and Le Blanc, then resolved in secret council upon the banishment of Parliament to Blois. The musketeers with four thousand soldiers were immediately put in readiness to accompany the refractory assembly on its journey on the following day. The musketeers were to surround the resident of the First President, and the soldiers were to take possession of the Grand Chamber early in the morning, and orders were to be conveyed to all the members that they were to betake themselves to their place of exile within 48 hours. At the last minute, however, D’Aguessau prevailed upon the Regent to send the members to Pontoise, a place within easy reach of Paris, instead of to Blois where it was hoped they would have sooner submitted to his wishes by reason of the many discomforts and inconveniences they would undergo owing to its greater distance from the capital. The members, accordingly, proceeded on 21st July to Pontoise in a body without demur, determined to maintain their authority and equally determined to enjoy the term of their exile. The change of place of exile and all the circumstances connected with it converted what was intended as a punishment into proceedings of a highly ridiculous character. In order to assist those who might require money for their journey, the Regent