The Sun.
London, England, 1841-11-19 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

MACKAY'S MEMOIRS OF EXTRAOI?Db
NARY POPULAR DELUSIONS. 2 VOL
Bentley, London, 1841.
Lord Byron's well-known remark that "Tr,

is strange, stranger than Fiction," was never more
forcibly illustrated than in the instances of the
Mississippi Scheme, and the South Sea Bubble
—two Wild, unprecedented projects, that turned
the heads of
_France and England about the
commencement of the last century. In the pre-
sent volumes Mr. Mackay has given an interest-
ing account of these romantic schemes; and from
his details, aided by our own recollection of the
numerous memoirs of the period, we shall pro-
ceed to state a few curious particulars respecting
them. And first of the Mississippi humbug and
its projector;- John Law, of Lauriston. This
shrewd adventurer was born at. Edinburgh in
1671. His father was a rich goldsmith and
banker, and his son for three years laboured in
the countincr-house, where he acquired a good.
insight into business. At the age of seventeen,
however, on the death of the elder Law, he with-
drew entirely from the desk ; and fancying him-
self handsome, though he was so scarre and
seamed with the small-pox that his face resem-
bled a cauliflower, and being besides of a restless,
enterprising, mercurial turn of mind, and inordi-
nately fond of female society, he determined on
quitting Scotland and pushing his fortunes in
London. As he was well endowed in point of
pocket, he found no difficulty in procuring the
means of enjoyment. He gamed; flirted with
the women ; fought a duel in which he killed his
antagonist; was found guilty of manslaughter,
fined, aniLdetained in the King's Bench, from
which he contrived 'to make his escape to the
Continent—as poor as Job, for his fortune had
been all lost in gambling. After travelling for
three years, he settled himself at Amsterdam,
where he devoted his mornings to finance, and
his nights to play. Thus accomplished as a •
worldly adventurer, he quitted Holland, and
continued to vagabondise for years, support-
ing himself chiefly by gaming. At length,
he decided on taking up his permanent re-
sidence at Paris, and trying there his skill in
play and speculation. At this period the Duke
of Orleans ruled as Regent, during the minority
of that scamp of scamps, Louis the Fifteenth.
Mr. Mackay, cursorily alluding to the Duke—
whose character, by the bye, considering the con-
spicuous part he played in the MisSissippi scheme,
should not have been disposed of iu a sentence—
tells 113 that he possessed " wit and amiability."
"Wit" he may have had, for this was common
enough among the French aristocracy of the pe-
riod ; but of " amiability" he had not an atom.
Capricious ; tyrannical ; physically brave, but
morally .a coward; hating all State business as
the Devil hates holy water; a heartless sensual-
ist; and as selfish as Louis the Fourteenth, with-
out any of his redeeming qualities;--who can
recognise in such a character, the germs of any-
thing like "amiability?" Smollett states•that he
" was endowed with shining talents for empire ;"
but when we look for proofs of the historian's
assertion, they are not to be found. In a word,
the Duke was just the reckless, greedy, unscru-

pulous man to-be made a tool of by tiny clever
financial experimentalist, and to go the whole
hog with him in any scheme that promised their
mutual benefit, no matter at what cost to France.
When Law first made his bow at the Duke's
levee, the finances of the country were—as Mr.
Mackay truly observes—" in a state of the ut-
most disorder." The corruption and extrava-
gance of the preceding reign were now telling.
with ruinous effect on all classes. The national
debt was of an amount almost incredible,
when the value of money at that time
is considered. The currency was depreciated
one-fifth. The right arm of commerce -was
palsied. A cloud of . tax-collectors, like
locusts, overspread the country. And what was
the system of policy pursued by the Regent in
this alarming crisis ? He had none. In vain one
Minister recommended the declaration of a
national bankruptcy, and another, the assem-
bling of the States-General; he listened to all,
but pinned his faith upon none. . France might
be delivered up to the wildest anarchy, and even
blotted out from the map of Europe, provided the
young and witty Marquise du Duffant, then a
mere girl, scarcely seventeen years old, did not
look coldly on his love ! But Law now appeared
on the public stage, and henceforth, for a season,
all was to be changed. He soon contrived to in-
gratiate himself with the Regent, and to exercise
that quiet, despotic mastery which a strong mind
rarely fails to exercise over a weak one. His in-
fluence was first shown in the 'permission which
he gained from the Government to establish a
bank, under the name of Law and Company, the
notes of which should be received in payment of
the taxes. So adroitly did he manage this con-
cern that, in the course of a year, his notes rose
to fifteen per cent., and so widely was his credit
extended, that branch-banks were forthed in
Many of the principal towns and cities of France.
Law's prospects were now hourly brightening.
lle was on the high, broad road to fortune, mid
was not the man to stop while aught of ambi-
tion's career remained to be run. - Strike while
the iron is hot, seems to have been his motto ;
and strike, God knows, he did, and this with a
force that stunned France, and resounded through
Europe! Shortly after the formation of his
bank, the beneficial effect of which was soon
felt, be proposed to the Regent—we quote our
author's words—" to establish a company which
should have the exclusive privilege of trading to
the Mississippi, and the province of Louisiana on
its western shore. The region was supposed to
abound in the precious metals, and the corn-
pany supported by the profits of their exclusive
commerce, were to be the sole farmers of the
taxes, and sole coiners of money." Delighted
with the success of Law's Bank, the Regent
assented without hesitation to this new proposal,
and letters patent were issued, incorporating the
Company, in the year 1717. And now began
that rage for speculation which brought France
to the vergo of ruin. Despite the opposition of
Parliament the applications for shares in the
Mississippi scheme increased daily; additional'
privileges were bestowed on -the Company ; and
Law promised a yearly dividend of two hundred
livres upon each share of five hundred ! From
this moment the game was in his own hands—
the ball at his feet. • People of all classes, and of
all- professions, the young and , the old, the
rich and the poor, speculated in the rise and fall
of the Mississippi bonds. The high-born dame
quitted her boudoir—the secluded scholar his
closet—the merchant *his counting-house—the
Minister the Council-board—the actor the
green-room—and the artist his studio—to go
and buy shares of the jobbers in the Rue de
Quincampoix. From the remotest provinces
sanguine speculators flocked by thousands to
take part in the one grand scheme of the day.
So astonishing, indeed, was the infatuation, that
the price of shares sometimes rose ten or twenty
per cent. in the course of a few hours ! The con-
sequences may be imagined. Men's social posi-
tions were changed in an instant, as if by magic.
The Lazarus of yesterday was the Dives of to-
day. The tradesman, who rose in the morning
comparatively poor, -by a lucky investment, be-
came before nightfal rich beyond the wildest
dreams of bis ambition. All that can be con-
ceived of the' romantic and the marvellous, of
the desperate and theiinfatuated, was realized in
Paris at this period. The barriers between the
patrician and the plebeian classeS were thrown
down. Pride offered itself up a willing,'" sacrifice,
at the shrine of-avarice.. France, in short, was
mad ,stark, staring mad, and society fairly
turned topsy-turvy. And Law, the arch' con-
juror, whose power had worked all these won-.

ders, where was he ? 'What was the extent of
his authority during this season of phrenzy ?
Mr. Mackay shall inform us :
During this time, Law, the new Piutus, had become
all at once the most important personage of the
State. The ante-chambers of the Regent were forsaken
by the courtiers. Peers, judges, and bishops thronged
to the Hotel de Soissons ; officers of the army and
navy, ladies of title and fashion, and every one to whom
hereditary rank or public employ gave a claim to prece-
dence, were to be found N 4 ailing in his ante-chambers
!o beg for a portion of his • India stock. Law was so
pestered that he was unable to see one-tenth part of the
applicants, and every manoeuvre that ingenuity could
suggest was employed to 'gain access to him. Peers,
whose dignity. would have been outraged if the Regent
had made them wait half an hour for an interview,
were content to wait six hours for the chance of seeing
Monsieur Law. Enormous fees were paid to his ser-
vants, if they would merely announce their names. Ladies
of rank employed the blandishments of their smiles for the
same object ; but many of them came day after day for
a fortnight before they could obtain an audience. When
Law accepted an invitation, lie was sometimes so sur-
rounded by ladies, all asking to have their names
put down in his lists as shareholders in the new stock,
that, in spite of his well-known and habitual gallantry,
he was obliged to tear hiniself away par force. The
most ludicrous stratagems were employed to have an
opportunity of speaking to him, One lady, who had
striven in vain during several days, gave up in despair
all attempts to see him at his own house, but ordered her
coachman to keep a strict watch whenever she was Out
in her carriage, and if he saw Mr. Law coming, to drive
against a post, and upset her. The coachman promised
obedience, and for three days the lady was driven inces-
santly through the Own, praying inwardly for the op-
portunity to be overturned. At last she espied Mr.
Law, and, pulling the string, called out to the coachman,
"Upset us now l for God's sake, upset us now I" The
coachman drove against a post, the lady screamed, the
coach was overturned, and Law, who had seen the acci-
dent, hastened to the spot to render assistance. The cun-
ning dame was led into the Hotel de Svissons, where she