Every Spanish harbor on the Gulf of Mexico had been closed against his vessels, and every Frenchman in Louisiana was not only hostile to his interests, but was aiding and assisting to foment difficulties in the colony. Crozat's retrocession, therefore, of Louisiana to the crown, in 1717, was the result of necessity, as well as choice.

A new theatre, however, was about to open, new actors to appear, and new objects to be attained. Military glory, the pride of Louis XIV., more conspicuous during his reign than any, or perhaps every other object, was now dethroned, and the altar of Plutus erected by acclamation, amid dreams of avarice, on its ruins.

The misfortunes of La Salle, the ill success of Ibberville and Crozat, were still remembered, and the bones of deceased emigrants who had sought the Mississippi as their homes, still whitened its valley; yet visions of untold wealth existing somewhere on its tributary waters, were again revived; and mines of silver and gold, plantations of indefinite extent and surpassing beauty, towns and cities, commerce and the arts, again invoked to replenish an exhausted treasury, and preserve, if possible, a sinking empire. Hence the Mississippi scheme, above referred to.

The State of Illinois having once been a part of its domain, having also participated in its bounty, and experienced its reverses, and some portions of its territory being at present held under titles from a company, of which the celebrated John Law was the projector and finisher, a short notice of his singular career, and of the famous Mississippi scheme, which rose and fell with its author, cannot be obtrusive.

History, we are told, is the prophet of events; the present generation, therefore, may derive perhaps some profit, as well as pleasure, from its perusal; and should we in the course of our narrative,

"Give you here a little book,

For you to look upon,

That you may see your father's face

When he is dead and gone;"

the donation, we hope, being kindly intended, will be kindly received. John Law, who, during his life, and for several years thereafter, strewed the paths of princes and their subjects, sometimes with flowers and sometimes with thorns; was born at Edinburgh, in Scotland, of humble but respectable parents, in 1671. His early career was one of interest-not to be imitated, but to be shunned; and though common at the present day, much instruction, both salutary and useful, may be gathered from its recital.

At the age of fourteen he was received into his father's counting-house, in Edinburgh, as a clerk, and for about three years labored assiduously at his desk. His father's occupation was that of a goldsmith and banker. By his death, in 1688, a considerable fortune descended to this his only son, who, at the early age of seventeen, sallied forth without rudder or compass, into a wide, tumultuous, and deceitful world.

Young, vain, good looking, tolerably rich, and. unrestrained, he proceeded to London, where he frequented the most fashionable gaminghouses, and pursuing on all occasions a certain plan, based on abstruse calculations, he won considerable money. Gamblers envied his luck, looked on with wonder, and imitated his example.

In gallantry he was equally fortunate, and ladies of exalted rank smiled graciously upon the handsome Scotchman.

Success, however, soon paved the way for reverses, and as the love of play increased in violence, it diminished in prudence. Great losses could only be repaired by greater ventures, and notwithstanding his long experience, at the close of an unlucky day, he lost everything he had. Goods, chattels, credit, money, and character, even the patrimony now his by a father's bounty.

His gallantry, at the same time, led him into serious difficulty, and a love affair, a slight flirtation with a Miss Villars, afterward the Countess of Orkney, exposed him to the resentment of a Mr. Wilson, by whom he was challenged to fight a duel. He accepted the challenge, killed his antagonist on the spot, was arrested the same day, and soon thereafter was indicted for murder, tried, found guilty, and sentenced to be hanged. This sentence was afterward commuted for a fine, upon the ground that the offence amounted only to manslaughter. An appeal was entered by a brother of the deceased, and the prisoner detained in jail, from whence, by means yet unexplained, he escaped, and fled to the Continent. The sheriffs were afterward prosecuted, Law was advertised in the Gazette, and a reward offered for his arrest. The advertisement being a caricature, in part, was published, as many supposed, to aid his escape. He was there described as Captain John Law, a Scotchman, twenty-six years old; very tall, black, and lean, well shaped, about six feet high, with large pock-holes in his face, big nose, and speaking broad and loud."

For about three years he traversed the Continent, devoting his mornings to the study of finance and the principles of trade, and his evenings to the gaming-house, and returned to Edinburgh in 1700, where he issued proposals for establishing a council of trade-they excited, however, but little attention. He afterward published the project of a land-bank-a sandbank, as it was called by the wits of the day, which would wreck the vessel of state. He proposed that its notes should in no event exceed the value of the entire lands of the kingdom; that the holder of its bills should receive legal interest upon his notes, with a right to enter upon and take possession of the lands pledged for their payment, at a certain time and upon certain conditions. This project excited for a time considerable discussion in the Scottish Parliament, had numerous friends in that body, and was ultimately rejected, on the ground that to establish any kind of paper credit and make it current by law, would subject the whole country to the mercy of brokers, and was, therefore, inexpedient to the nation. Having failed in every project he attempted in Scotland, and his efforts to procure a pardon for the murder of Wilson, having proved abortive, he

withdrew to the Continent to resume his occupation as a gambler, and to become the friend and the companion of princes. For fourteen years he roamed about Flanders, Holland, Germany, Hungary, Italy and France, supporting himself by successful play. During that period he studied the European character, became acquainted with the trade and resources of those nations through which he wandered, and was daily more and more convinced, that no country could prosper without a paper currency. At every gambling-house of note, in almost every capital in Europe, he was known and appreciated as a man better skilled in the doctrines of chance than any other. Having been expelled first from France, and afterward from Genoa, by the magistrates, who thought him a dangerous visitor, he repaired to Paris, where he became obnoxious to the police, and was ordered to quit the capital. He had made, however, the acquaintance of the gay Duke of Orleans, who promised to become his patron. Louis XIV. then occupied the throne. Law proposed his scheme of finance to the comptroller of the public funds, who was asked by the king if the projector was a Catholic, and being answered in the negative, Louis XIV. declined his services.

His scheme was next proposed to the reigning Duke of Savoy, who at once told the projector that his dominions were too limited for the execution of so great a project, and that he was too poor a potentate to be ruined. That he had no doubt, however, but the French people, if he knew anything of their character, would be delighted with a plan so new and so plausible, and advised him to go to France.

Louis XIV. being now in his grave, and an infant on the throne, the Duke of Orleans, a friend and patron of Law, assumed the reigns of government, as Regent of France, and a tide of glory at that time setting in, he mounted the topmost wave, and advanced speedily to fortune.

Louis of France, surnamed by courtiers, by flatterers, and by some historians, The Great, was, in truth, the very meanest of kings. He was scarcely entombed, before public hatred, suppressed for years, like a flaming volcano burst forth upon his memory. He was cursed as a tyrant, a bigot, and a plunderer; his statues were pelted and disfigured; his effigies were torn down; the glory of his arms was forgotten; and nothing was remembered but his reverses. His extravagance was condemned, his selfishness reproved, and his cruelty and oppression were themes of every tongue. The elegance of his person, the suavity of his manner, and his patronage of learned men, were, it is true, applauded; but when accomplishments like these are the only recommendations of a prince, (and that Louis had others will not be pretended,) where, it may well be asked, are his pretensions to public gratitude, or to enduring fame? Eclipsed, however, in the career of profligacy, by his successor, his name and character, from that circumstance, were saved for the time being from infamy.

After defraying the expenses of government, about nine millions of livres were all that remained to pay the interest of a debt, originally three

thousand millions, now reduced, by arbitrary reductions, to a little more than two, the interest of which, at four per cent., exceeded eighty millions per annum. The national securities, therefore, it will readily be seen, were of uncertain value; the national finances in the utmost disorder, and France itself on the brink of ruin.

The first care of the regent, was to remedy this evil; and a council was therefore called. The Duke De St Simon, advised the regent to convoke the States General, and declare a national bankruptcy. Others represented the expedient as dishonest and ruinous, and this desperate remedy was, for a time, postponed. The one, however, finally adopted, though it promised fair, aggravated the evil. A recoinage was ordered, and the whole currency of the kingdom was depreciated one fifth in its value. A chamber of justice was next instituted to inquire into the malversations of the loan contractors and farmers of the revenue. Extrav agant joy at once seized the nation, and fear and alarm were depicted on the countenances of every office-holder. The officers charged, met with no sympathy. The Bastile shortly was filled. The country prisons teemed with guilty and suspected persons, and royal edicts were issued to prevent innkeepers and postmasters from furnishing horses for their escape. Some were condemned to the galleys, and the least guilty to fine and imprisonment; and one, a Mr. Bernard, to death, although he had offered six millions of livres to be allowed to escape. Courtiers and courtiers' wives, however, pocketed the spoils, and the country was poor and distressed as ever. Out of one hundred millions of livres thus collected, eighty millions only were applied to the public debt.

In the midst of this financial confusion, John Law presented himself at court, and was cordially received. He insisted, that all the evils which had befallen France were owing, not to the improvidence, extravagance, or the malversation of those who had been, or were then in power, but to an insufficient currency. That the specie of France, unaided by paper money, was inadequate to its wants, and cited England and Holland as examples. He thereupon proposed to set up a bank, which should have the management of the royal revenues, and issue notes on that and landed security. That it should be administered in the king's name, and be subject to the control of commissioners, to be appointed by the States General.

On the 5th of May, 1716, a royal edict was published, by which Law and his brother were authorized to establish a bank, with a capital of six millions of livres, the notes of which should be received in the payment of taxes. They were issued, payable at sight, and in the coin current at the time they were issued. This last was a master stroke of policy, and immediately rendered his notes more valuable than the precious metals. The capital consisted of one-fourth specie, and three-fourths state securities. The stock was, of course, immediately subscribed. A thousand livres of silver might be worth their nominal value one day, and one-fifth less the next; but a note of Law's bank retained its original

value. Law, in the meantime, publicly declared, that a banker deserved death, who made issues without means for their redemption. The consequence was, that his notes shortly commanded a premium of "fifteen per cent.," while the notes issued by Government, as security for debts contracted by the extravagance of Louis XIV., were at seventy-eight and a half per cent. discount.

The contrast was so great, that Law's credit rapidly extended itself, and branches of his bank were at the same time established in Lyons, Rochelle, Tours, Amiens, and Orleans. The regent became astonished at its success; and paper money, which could thus aid metallic currency, it was thought could supersede it altogether. On this fundamental error, both the regent and the French people, simultaneously acted.

Law, whose influence was now irresistible, next proposed his famous Mississippi scheme. This became afterward a connecting link between his history and ours, and rendered his name immortal.

Letters patent were issued in 1717, to establish a trading company to the Mississippi, known at first as the Western company, to be divided into two hundred thousand shares, of five hundred livres each. Its capital to be composed of state securities at par; a hundred millions of the most depreciated stocks were thus absorbed, and the Government became indebted to a company, of its own creation, instead of individuals, for that amount. Through the bank previously established by Law, the interest in this portion of the public debt was punctually paid, in consequence whereof, an immediate rise in its value took place, from a depreciation of seventy-eight and a half per cent. to par. The person, therefore, who had purchased a hundred livres of state debts, which he could have done at any time for twenty-one and a half livres, and invested it in stocks of the Western company, was now enabled to realize in cash, one hundred livres for his investment. Large fortunes were thus speedily acquired. Although the union of the bank with the risks and responsibilities of a commercial company, was ominous of its future destiny; the interest of its capital for one year, having been paid-not from its profits, for none had yet accrued, but from other sources, all of them fictitious-public credit was apparently restored, as if by a miracle. Hope is the parent of joy. Humanity abounds in hope. Men acting in masses, frequently with, and sometimes without cause, anticipate the approach of better times. How far these anticipations were realized in the case now under review, will appear in the sequel.

Crozat having resigned the commerce of Louisiana, it was transferred immediately to the Western company, and the valley of the Mississippi inflamed at once the public mind. The whole of France saw, in prospect, its future glory, and beheld the opulence of coming ages already in their grasp.

On the 25th of August, 1717, eight hundred emigrants arrived in three vessels, and cast anchor near Dauphin Island, instead of ascending the Mississippi. They there disembarked; some perished for want of