The year 1720 was a momentous one in the history of the Mississippi Scheme. Its commencement was full of promise from many points of view. It witnessed the realisation of Law’s ambition to gather into his hands the reins of government in practically every department of the administration. It witnessed also the zenith of prosperity for all those gigantic schemes and undertakings which were to make France the great centre of trade and finance for the world. But the promise for the future which these circumstances seemed to contain was only of few months’ duration. Yet these few months saw Law the most striking and commanding figure of his time throughout Europe. We have already seen the position to which he had attained in the internal affairs of France itself; how the government of that country was practically under his control; and how by sheer energy and force of character he had extended his influence over every class of society. His fame however reached far beyond the confines of France. He was regarded as an international force by other nations. Not only was his system copied by other countries, but he was bent on following a line of foreign policy for France which threatened the political and industrial prospects of these countries, and caused them great alarm, temporary no doubt, probably foolish, but real while it lasted. Law’s designs were chiefly directed against the power of England. The English government recognised this, and considered Law a person to be conciliated. Their attitude towards him was peculiarly weak, and led to the recall of the minister at the French court, the Earl of Stair. That minister on his arrival in Paris in 1715 had called upon Law, not only as a friend, but because he adjudged him even then as a man of great importance. Their friendship however was of short duration. It rapidly degenerated into merely formal intercourse, and then into active hostility. The latter stage was reached in 1719, when we find Lord Stair intriguing against Law in his attempt to displace Dubois, foreign minister of France, by Torcy, who would have been a more pliable instrument for the carrying out of his designs. Lord Stair’s letters to Mr. Secretary Craggs at this time are full of interest, and show the nature of the hostility between himself and Law, and the progress of their quarrel. On August 30th, 1719, he writes--“In a long conversation I had with the Abbé (Dubois) to-night, he seems apprehensive that Torcy gains ground, and that there may be a close connection betwixt Law and Torcy, with views to turn the Abbé out. I am afraid this apprehension of the Abbé is not without ground; but, however that may be, I am persuaded we shall quickly see this court take airs which will not be easy to bear; and I am not a little apprehensive that we shall very quickly see them come into measures that we shall have no reason to like. If this should be true, we must not, in my poor opinion, seem to