Morning herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1837-1840, 1840-04-01

vaults, and compel the most extrayagant expansions
Of its paper circulation. The vital principle OF a
bank security in the regularity Of its ope rations
and the mrne date onvertibiiity Of its paper into
coin and what confidence could be reposed in
insttvton, its paper promises when the sovereign
could at any moment centupe those promises in the
market, and seize upon al the money in the bunk
The compulsory measures used, likewise, to 10 ce
bank es into currency, against the judgment Of
the public, was fatal to the system for credit
must be free and uncontrolled the common air
The Regent was the evil spirit Of the system, that
forced Law on to an expansion of his paper cnr-
rency far b yond what he had dreamed Of
He il was that in manner compo He'd the unlucky
protector to devise ali kinds of collateral CO mpanes
and monoPel es, by which TO raise funds to meet the
constantly and enormously increasing emissions Of
shares and notes. Law was but like poor conjuror
in the hands Of potent spirit that he has evoked
and that rbses him to 90 ON, desperately and ruin.
oasy, with his uraions. He oniy thought at the
outset TO raise the wind, but the Regent compelled
him te raise the wlirlwind
The Investigation OF the affairs OF the Company by
the council, resulted in nothing beneficial to the pub
lie. The princes and mobiles who had enriched them
selves by all kinds of jnggses and extortions escaped
unpunshed, and retained the greater par. of their
spOs. Many OF the suddenly rich who had risen
from obscariy to giddy height Of imaginary pros.
perty and had lged in ali kinds of vulgar and
ridiculous excuses, awoke as out of a dream, in
their original poverty, now made more CALLING and
humiliating by their transient ell walton.
The weight ithe evil, however, fell on more va
liable classes Of society honest trade smen and
pursuits OF industry to the specious chances Of spe
culaton. Thousands OF merItorious families, also,
once opuient, had been reduced to indigence by
too great confidence in government. There
general arrangement in the finances, That long ex-
erted a Daneful influence the national p!Ospe-
rty but the most disastrous effects of the system
were upon the morals and manners OF the nation.
The faith of engagements, the sanctty Of promises
in affairs Of business, were at an end. Every exPe
dient to grasp present profit or to evade present
Difficulty, was tolerated. While such deplorable
laxy of prn pie gene rated in the busy classes
the chivairy of France had soed their pennons
and honour and glory long the idols of the Gallo
nobility had been tumbled the eartn and tiampled
the dirt Of the stock-market.
As to Law, the originator OF the system, he ap.
pears eventually to have profted but little by his
schemes. He was a quack, says Voltaire, to
whom the state given to be cured ,bnt who poi
soned il with his drugs, and who poisoned himself
The Effects which he lett behind in France, sold
at low price, and the proceeds dissipated His
linded estates were confscated He carried away
with him barely enough to maintain himself his WIFE
and daughter with decency. The chief reliqae of
his immense fortune was great diamond. which
was often obliged to pawn. He was in England in
l72l, and was presented 10 George tho First He
retained shortly afterwards to the continent; shift
ing about from place to place, ard died in Venice in
1929 His wife and daueh',r, aeeus tened TO live
with the projigaty Of princesses could not conform
to their altered fortunes, but dissipaed the scanty
means left to them, and sank into abect poverty Il
saw his wife, says Voitaire, at BruxeIes, as mrch
humil'ated as she had been naughty and triumphant
al Paris An elder br Their Of Law remained in
France, and was protected by the Duche of Bour-
bon His descendants have acquitted themselves
honorably, in various public employmeBts; and one
Of them the Marquis Lsu iston, some time Lieusn.
ant General and Peer of France.