Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1868-12-06

scribe him, he would unquestionably
have conveyed all his profits TO foreigr
countries, ready to follow himself wher
the inevitable collapse arrived.
The golden age Of the Mississippi
scheme lasted about eight months. Il
IS consoling to read that there was SANITY
enough left in the nation to constitute 3
formidable counter-eurrent to the grow
Tag wild expansion. The Parliament Of
Paris. to its immortal honor, refused tc
register the decrees Of the regent, pre.
dieting that so great creations Of paper
money would bring the country to bank.
ruptey, and it was again and again dis.
solved for contunscy. The Regent
with that blind folly which is repeated
by the expansionists of our own day.
argued that if i've hundred millions OF
paper had effected such wonderful re-
suits, another Eve hundred millions
would be Of still greater advantage
Law, who knew better, found his inter
ssts to lie in the same direction. In tour
months notes were fabricated to the
amount of over fifteen hundred million
livres, or three hundred million dollars.
At length the excessive issues reached 2
point at which heavy depreciation be-
came ineEitabls. The foreign specula-
tors, who had rushed to Paris like bees
to hive, began to gather up their gains,
and to convert them into gold and sill
yer, which they shipped out of the king
dom.
The bankers Of Lyons, Bordeaux, and
other large towns, began to refuse the
notes of Laws great company, when
offered in large amounts. The stock
began sensibly to feel the approaches of
a want of confdence-that fatal breath
which, sooner or later, collapsss all
bubbles, however glittering and golden.
Then came series of forced attempts to
stop the inevitable by force of law. 1t
was decrsed that no person in France
should keep more than FIVE hundred
francs in coined money, on pain Of fine
and confscatiOn. All persons were for
hidden to make payments above one
hundred francs IN anything but bank
notes. finally, royal decree abolished
the use of gold and silver, on and after
the first of August, 1920, and made pa
per the sole legal tender. To such
lengths was the government carried in
its struggle against the laws of nature.
Instead of restoring the credit of the
paper, these measures destroyed it irrev-
ocably, and drove France almost to the
verge of revolution. From the most
popular man in the kingdom, Law now
became, in few days time, the most
Odious. The animosity against him
burst forth so strongly that he was
obliged to resign his office of Superin-
tendent Of Finance, and soon after to
quit the kingdom secretly. The Parlia-
ment, in its zeal, would have brought
him to justice, and he would have been
surely hanged, but for the friendly shell
ter of the Regent, who sent him a pass
port and money to make good his re-
treat. He declined the latter, and took
with him to Brussels, out of the i'm
mense fortune he gained, only 5000
francs and a valuable diamond. He
died poor, in the year 1929, at Venice.
The catastrophe came on the 9th of
May, when the bank stopped payment
in specie. The more rapid the decline
of the paper, the greater seemed the rage
of the brokers for speculation in it.
The government now hurled futile edicts
against all who speculated in shares of
the company or government stocks. The
more it sought to demonetizs gold and
silver. the higher they rose in public
estimation. At length it was perceived
that the only way to escape the perma-
nence of the ruin was to recognize it. 1t
was ordained that the small notes should
cease to have currency after q certain
month. Bank notes were periodically
burned. 1t was allowed to be stipulated
in contracts that payments should be
made only in geld and silver. A little
later it was decreed that paper could
only be given in payment when half the
sum was paid in specie. BY degrees the
purity of the coinage was raised. BY a
consolidation of government securities,
the obligations, drawing four and FIVE
per ceut. interest were retired, and new
bond, bearing but two and a half per
cent, was issued to the holders. This
was confession of partial bankruptcy
but it was better than nothing, and, being
secure, it was far better than the wild
state of financial uncertainty which had
prevailed.
The departure Of Law being the signal
for the final end Of his scheme, its his
tory was cleverly summed up in the two
epigrams, which we're plaearded
on the walls of Paris:
"Ce cit Get Ecoesais celebre
&c calculation sans eyal,
Out, parles regles de algebre,
Amis la France a lHopitsl.'
" Belzebub bexat law;
Isw bSgat the Mississippi;
The Mississippi bGgat the scheme;
The scheme begat the paper;
The paper begat the bank;
The bank begat the note;
The note bsgal the share;
1he share begat the st ck-iobbinz:
The stock-JobblDg begaI the registration
The reg strAtion begat the account;
The account bezat the general balance
The general balance begat zero,
From which all power of begettiDg was
taken away"