The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1883-12-01
VOL. XIX.-NO. 9.

most solemn stipulations, and as beginning
of bankruptcy, reduced the value of the
bank notes to one-half, and cut down the
shares 10000, 10000 and over, for which
they had been selling in the market, to
5000 livres. The effect of this edict was
instantaneous and overwhelming. Atonce
all confidence was lost in the bank notes
general CONSERVATION prevailed There
was rush on the bank for payment, and
one can easily form conception of the
fury, despair and distress of the people
when he is told there was paper in circula-
ton amounting to nearly 1900 millions of
livres. The whole of it was suddenly re-
duced to nothing. Throughout France
there was but one howl of malediction, and
guards had to be given to Law, who had
become an object of popular adherence,
Even the life of the Regent himself was
put in jeopardy, and it became necessary to
station troops in different parts of Paris,
and tumulta and disorderreignede everywhere
With regard to Louisiana, there had
been also great change in the public cs-
innate of her merits. She was no longer
described as the land of PROMISE but as a
terrestrial representation of Pandemonium
The country was nothing but vile COM
pound of marshes, lagoons, swamps, endless
prairies, inextricable and gloomy forests,
peopled with every monster of the world
The Mississippi rolled onward a muddy and
thick substance, which hardly deserved the
name of water 1t is easy to conceive the
startling effects produced on the minds of
the people, already in great CONSERVATION,
by the representations, which the enemies
of Law took care to scatter far and wide
Thus the tide of emigration which was
pouring onward stopped, and the prospect
of establishing a powerful colony in Loui-
siana, for which the Mississippi Company
had been chartered, was, as it were. nipped
in the bud.
However, the company having contracted
to transport thither, within fixed period,
certain number of emigrants, found itself
under the necessity, in order to comply
with the terms of its charter, to have re-
course to the most iniquitous and unlawful
means When emigration ceased to be
voluntary it was necessary that it should be
forced. Thus violence was resorted to, and
throughout France agents were despatched
to kidnap all vagrants, beggars, gipsies, OF
people of like description. The power
given by the government to these agents
of the company was abused in the most
shameful and infamous manner. 1t is in
credible what number of respectable and
well to do people of both sexes were put,
through bribery, in the hands of these
satellites of an arbitrary government, to
crafty private malice and the darl pas
sions or interested views of men in power.
A purse of gold slipped into the hand, and
whisper in the ear, went great way to
get rid of obnoxious persons, and many a
fearful tale of revenge, of hatred, or of GU
pidity, might be told of persons who were
unexpectedly seized and carried away to
the banks of the Mississippi before their
voices could be heard when crying for JUS
tice or protection
Guarded by merciless soldiery, they,
on their way to the seaports, crowded the
public roads of France like droves of cattle,
and as they were hardly furnished with
means of subsistence or with clothing by
their heartless conductors, who speculated
on the food and other supplies with which
they were bound to provide their prisoners,
they died in large numbers, and their
corpses rotting above ground, struck with
terror the inhabitants of the districts
through which the woe-begone caravan had
passed,
Law was considered as the author of all
these cruelties and misfortunes, and he be-
came still more odious to the people The
Parliament of Paris thought that the time
had come at last to pounce upon Law; and
to crafty their long cherished resentment
he was summoned to appear in person be-
fore that high tribunal TO answer for his
violation of the laws of the kingdom. On
his refusal or neglect to do SO, the Parlia-
ment ordered him arrested, and had deter
mined, on his being brought to the place
where they sat, to close their doors; and in
order to prevent the expected interference
of the Regent, their intention was to try
summarily the hated foreigner and to hang
him in their court yard. Thus, if the Re-
gent, as it was anticipated, sent troops to
batter down the gates of the parliament
house to save his favorite, they would ar
rive too late, and would find nothing but
gallows and his corpse dangling at the end
of rope. Aware of this plan, law left
his residence and fed to the Regents
palace, where he felt himself secure against
the pursuit of his enemies.
The Regent gave to Law the assurance
of his protection and vouched for his life,
but this was all he could do He had to.
bend to the force of public opinion, which
menaced even his own person. 1t was ev-
ident that Law could no longer stay in
France, and the Regent provided him, ON
resigning the Office of Comptroller-General,
with the means of escaping out of the king
dom. On the 22nd of December, 1920,
Law arrived at Brussels, where he waited
for some time in the hope and expectation
of being recalled The Mississippi-nOw
called the India Company-to which Law
had stood sponsor or godfather, turned
against him and made allegation that his
accounts had not been faithfully kept and
rendered, had proceeded to seize all his
property, and thereby deprived him OF all
means of subsistence. He did not, how
ever, lose the favor of the Regent, who APP
pointed him minister of France at the court
of Bavaria, where he resided until the death
of the Regent.
Afterwards Law retired to Venice, where
he liyid in obscurity and where he died on
the 21st of March, 1929, in state of indi-
gence, aged fifty-eight years. He had lost
his wife and only son, and there remained
with him to solace his last moments bat
one faithful heart, his daughter.
The fall of Law and the crisis which
preceded and followed it, caused the shares
of the Mississippi or India Company to be-
come almost worthless, and the directors
became alarmed for their personal safety
from the storm of general indignation
which assailed them on every side. In
September, 1920, the Regent intrusted the
affairs of the company to three commits
sioners.
The disturbed state of the colony of
Louisiana, occasioned by the massacre of
the whites by the Matches Indians and the
war which followed, induced the company,
on the 23d of january, 1871, to offer to
return into the hands of the King the
charter which they found too onerous for
tbam After investigation. and on the