coin made of materials brought from foreign countries.” Before the close of the year, fresh issues were made to the extent of 900,000,000 livres; and on 21st December, silver and gold suffered further restriction as tender, the former being limited to ten livres and the latter to three hundred. The purpose of this was to force a paper currency, and as far as possible discourage the use of specie. By reducing to so low a limit the tender of gold and silver, a demand was created for the notes of the Bank, and very shortly the Bank had attracted to itself a large proportion of the coinage then in currency. People “ran there in crowds, conjuring and imploring the clerks to receive their specie, and thinking themselves happy when they succeeded. Upon which, a merry fellow wittily called out to those who were the most forward; ‘Don’t be afraid, gentlemen, that your money should remain on your hands; it shall all be taken from you.’” The effect was to a large extent as the Regent had wished. Paper circulated with the greatest freedom, and the highly speculative mood in which the people indulged was productive of an appearance of peculiarly false prosperity. Money as represented in notes became exceedingly abundant because of the manner in which it was distributed. Everyone spent with a lavish hand, regardless of the possibility of Law’s schemes receiving a sudden and unexpected check, thus bringing about a dislocation of the supply of money. Luxuries became necessaries, and domestic life displayed the grossest degrees of unbridled extravagance. To supply the great demand for rich cloths, costly furniture, and all the various luxuries which only find a ready market when prosperity spreads over a whole community, new industries arose throughout the country, and labour not only became scarce but was able to command in some cases four times its previous value. A taste arose too for works of art, and the best of the continent was sent into France where fabulous prices were obtained with a readiness proportionate to the ease with which the fortunes of the investors were made. Duhautchamp, in his History of the Scheme, gives several instances of this extravagance on the part of the _nouveaux riches_. Of one he says that, “He carried his magnificence so far, that most of the deeds related of him appear fabulous. His hotel in Paris, his gardens, his furniture, his equipage, the number of his servants of all degrees and professions, equalled those of the greatest princes. A certain jeweller declares that he supplied him with more than three millions worth of precious stones, without reckoning the beautiful diamond of the Count de Nocé, for which he paid 500,000 livres, and a girdle buckle which a Jew sold him for the same sum. With regard to his furniture, being a connoisseur of good taste, he had selected the whole so well, that, to form an idea of the magnificence of his apartments, we must have recourse to descriptions which are used of fairy palaces.