Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 5.djvu/312

372 of these three species of credit corresponded to the difference of circumstances in the three cases. The sudden displacement of an enormous sum raised the shares of the East India company to an enormous premium; but a rapidly established credit is exposed to an equally or still more precipitous decline; for that true credit which is founded on the solid basis of real success, must necessarily be as slow in its growth as the success itself. The assignats again could not experience such a sudden rise in value, for they represented a certain portion of land, a species of value least of all exposed in the nature of things to rapid fluctuation. In proportion, however, as the public confidence in the permanence of the administration declined, the assignats declined in value; and in proportion as they declined in value, the existing government was compelled to supply the loss of funds by increasing the issue, which again operated to depreciate its paper money. The notes of the bank of England, depending on mercantile credit or the real security of responsible funds, as well as on government security, were only slightly affected in credit by the political aspect of the times. In all the three cases, public credit was attempted to be supported by forcible measures, the injustice of which was just in proportion to the degree of suspicion which attached to that false system of credit which they were designed to support. Law fixed the value of shares in notes, and thus forced a circulation for the latter. The French revolutionary government punished the refusal of its assignats, at their nominal value, with death. In England the bank was relieved of the obligation to cash its notes at sight. Law again endeavours to drive specie altogether out of the market, and render paper the only legal tender; the revolutionists fix the maximum of all exchange; and the bank of England, whose security was less questionable, threw itself on the patriotism of the London merchants, who relieved it from its embarrassment by agreeing to accept of its notes in payment from their debtors. Thus we see, 1st, that every system of public credit ought to represent a certain real value, and not to be founded on mere anticipation of a value yet to be created; 2ndly, that it is impossible, by fixed measures, to sustain an arbitrary value; and, 3rdly, that where forced values are resorted to, they are rejected by all who are at liberty to reject them, and are followed by the ruin of those who are not in a condition to refuse them.

Law, at his last interview with the duke of Orleans, is reported to have said: "My lord, I acknowledge that I have committed great faults; I did so because I am a man, and all men are liable to err; but I declare to your royal highness that none of them proceeded from knavery, and that nothing of that kind will be found in the whole course of my conduct;" a declaration which the regent and the duke of Bourbon bore frank testimony to, at the same time that they suggested the expediency of his leaving the kingdom, for which purpose they offered to supply him with money, his whole property having been confiscated; but Mr Law, though in possession of only 800 louis d'ors, the wreck of a fortune of 10,000,000 of livres, refused to receive any assistance from other funds than his own, and on the 22nd of December, 1720, arrived at Brussels, where he was received with the greatest respect by the governor and resident nobility. Early in January, 1721, he appeared at Venice, under the name of M. du Jardin, where he is said to have had a conference with the chevalier de St George, and the famous cardinal Alberoni, minister of Spain. From Venice he travelled through Germany to Copenhagen, where he had the honour of an audience with prince Frederick. During his residence at the Danish capital he received an invitation from the British ministry to return to his native country, with which he complied, and was presented on his arrival to George I. by Sir John Norris, the admiral of the Baltic squadron. On the 28th of November he