Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1904-02-18
Continued from last week,
CHAPTER v.
BY EMERSON IIoUGH
toopyrisht, lsoa. By Emerson Houch.,

CHAPTER v.
DIVERS ENVIRONMENTS OF JOHN
Law.
And when shall send these gar
ments to your lordship?" asked tho
haberdasher, with whom Law was hav-
ing speech on the morning following
the first night in London.
1.-TWO weeks from to-day" said Law,
lin the afternoon, and not later than
four O'Clock. i shall have need for
Them
Sir, said he, 81 should be glad to
please not only a friend of Sir Arthur
| Pembroke, but also gentleman of
such parts as yourself. hesitate to
| promise
..But you must promise said John
Law
Well, then, l do promise! will
have this apparel at your place on the
| day which you name Ills most extra
ordinary, but the order shall be exc
cuted.'' III
Law but half heard him, for he was
already turning toward the door, where
he becl1oned again for his waiting
| chair. a
ITO the Offices of the Bank of En-
gland he directed. And forthwith he
was again jogging through the crowded
! streets of London.
The offices of the Bank of England,
| to which this young adventurer now
SO nonchalantly directed his course,
were then not housed in any such state
ly edifice as that which now covers
| the heart of the financial world, nor
did the location of the young and
! struggling institution, in by-street Of
| the great city, tend to give dignity to
a concern which still lacked -impor
| lance and assuredness. Thither, then,
might have gone almost any young
traveller who needed letter Of credit
cashed, or a bill changed after the
fashion Of the passing goldsmiths
Yet it was not as mere transient
! customer OF a money-changer that
young Law now sought the Bank of
England, nor was it as a commercial
house that the bank then commanded
attention. That bank, young as it was,
had already become pillar of the
throne of England William, distracI-
ed by wars abroad and factions at
home, found his demands for funds
ever in excess of the supply More
than that, the people of England dis
covered themselves in possession of a
currency fuctuating, mutilated ana
unstable, so that no man knew what
was his actual fortune. The shrewd
young fnancier, Montague, chancellor
of the exchequer, who either by wis
dom or good fortune had sanctioned
the founding of the Bank of England,
was at this very time addressing him
self to the question Of a recoinage Of
the specie of the realm of England
He needed help, he demanded ideas;
nor was he too particular whence he
obtained either the one or the other
John Law was in London on no such
blind quest as he had himself declared
He was here by the invitation, secret
yet none the less obligatory, of Monta-
que, controller Of the financial policy
of England. And he was to meet, here
upon this fair morning, none less than
my Lord Somers, keeper of the seals;
none less than Sir Isaac Newton, the
greatest mathematician of his time;
none less than John Locke, the most
learned philosopher Of the day. Strong
company this, for young and unknown
man, yet in the belief of Montague,
himself young man and gambler
by instinct, not too strong for this
young Scotchman who had startled the
parliament of his own land by some
of the most remarkable theories of
finance which had ever been proposed
in any country or to any government.
/ AS Law had himself arrogantly an
nounced, he was indeed a philosopher
and mathematician, young as he was;
and these things Montague was him
self keen enough to know.
1t promised, then, to be a strange
and interesting council, this which was
to meet to-day at the Bank of England
to adjust the value of England's coin
age; two philosophers, one pompous
trimmer and two gamblers; the young
er and more daring Of whom was now
calmly threading the streets of Lon
@don on his way to a meeting which
might mean much to him. 4.
All those at the board looked with
some intentness at the figure Of the
young man from the North, who came
as the guest Of Montague. With small
Formally, the latter rose and advanced
to meet Law with an eager grasp Of
the hand. He made him known to the