the all-powerful,
especially the princes and princesses of the blood, who had been mixed
up, in the Mississippi, and who had used all their authority to escape
from it without loss, re-established it upon what they called the Great
Western Company, which with the same juggles and exclusive trade with the
Indies, is completing the annihilation of the trade of the realm,
sacrificed to the enormous interest of a small number of private
individuals, whose hatred and vengeance the government has not dared to
draw upon itself by attacking their delicate privileges.

Several violent executions, and confiscations of considerable sums found
in the houses searched, took place. A certain Adine, employed at the
bank, had 10,000 crowns confiscated, was fined 10,000 francs, and lost
his appointment. Many people hid their money with so much secrecy, that,
dying without being able to say where they had put it, these little
treasures remained buried and lost to the heirs.

In the midst of the embarrassments of the finances, and in spite of them,
M. le Duc d'Orleans continued his prodigal gifts. He attached pensions
of 6000 livres and 4000 livres to the grades of lieutenant-general and
camp-marshal. He gave a pension of 20,000 livres to old Montauban; one
of 6000 livres to M. de Montauban (younger brother of the Prince de
Guemene); and one of 6000 livres to the Duchesse de Brissac. To several
other people he gave pensions of 4000 livres; to eight or ten others,
3000 or 2000 livres. I obtained one of 8000 livres for Madame Marechal
de Lorges; and one of 6000 livres was given to the Marechal de Chamilly,
whose affairs were much deranged by the Mississippi. M. de Soubise and
the Marquis Noailles had each upwards of 200,000 livres. Even Saint-
Genies, just out of the Bastille, and banished to Beauvais, had a pension
of 1000. Everybody in truth wanted an augmentation of income, on account
of the extreme high price to which the commonest, almost necessary things
had risen, and even all other things; which, although at last diminshed
by degrees, remain to this day much dearer than they were before the
Mississippi.

The pensions being given away, M. le Duc d'Orleans began to think how he
could reduce the public expenditure. Persuaded by those in whose
financial knowledge he had most confidence, he resolved to reduce to two
per cent. the interest upon all the funds. This much relieved those who
paid, but terribly cut down the income