to the Regent upon his character; so that they believe the Regent is only withheld by shame from sacrificing him to the resentment of the nation. Law, on the other hand, says, that if they will give him but a little time, he will set everything to rights; that he will raise the credit of the stocks; turn the course of the exchange; sink the stocks in England, and put everything in that country into such disorder that it shall plainly appear that he can do everything in that country he pleases. In order to that, he has prevailed with Croisset, André, and several other people, who had very great sums in our stocks, to withdraw their money and to remit the greater part of it back into France; with the rest, he proposes to turn the course of the exchange and to carry on his other designs. He proposes further, in order to alter the course of the exchange, to lower the value of the specie in France, till the crown is brought down by degrees to three livres; and this _arret_ is to come out in a few days.” Law’s object was to a large extent gained so far as it aimed at replenishing the reserves of coin at the Bank. During the month of March no less than 300,000,000 livres were deposited, a sum undoubtedly large but still short of being an adequate security against the enormous mass of paper afloat, which has been estimated at 2,600,000,000 livres. These deposits were at the same time maintained in full strength by the operation of the decree of 27th February, which relieved the Bank of the necessity of repaying at any time more than 500 livres in specie. Success however limited as it was, was only secured at considerable cost to Law’s reputation. The domiciliary visits which were made use of for detecting hoarded coin created widespread and bitter resentment. A feeling of deep distrust, of insecurity, and of fear crept through the community. The reward for information was so great that sons betrayed their parents, brothers their sisters, servants their masters. Friend betrayed friend, and enemies had an effective instrument of revenge. “Never before had sovereign power been so violently exercised, never had it attacked in such a manner the temporal interests of the community. Therefore was it by a prodigy, rather than by any effort or act of the government, that these terribly new ordinances failed to produce the saddest and most complete revolutions; but there was not even talk of them; and although there were so many millions of people, either absolutely ruined or dying of hunger, and of the direst want, without means to procure their daily subsistence, nothing more than complaints and groans was heard.”