e regent, and the skill of Law; it was impossible, on
these and other accounts, but that gold and silver should be at last
preferred to paper notes, of whatever description or promise. These
were inevitable consequences. Hence the failure of the scheme of Law,
and the ruin of all who embarked in it, owing to a change in public
opinion as to the probable success of the scheme, and, secondly, the
over-issue of money.

By this great folly, four hundred thousand families were ruined, or
greatly reduced; but the government got rid of about eight hundred
millions of debts. The sufferings of the people, with such a
government, did not, however, create great solicitude; the same old
course of folly and extravagance was pursued by the court.

Nor was there a change for the better when Louis XV. attained his
majority. His vices and follies exceeded all that had ever been
displayed before. The support of his mistresses alone was enough to
embarrass the nation. Their waste and extravagance almost exceeded
belief. Who has not heard of the disgraceful and disgusting iniquities
of Pompadour and Du Barry?

The regency of the Duke of Orleans occupied the first eight years of
the reign of Louis XV. The prime minister of the regent was Dubois, at
first his tutor, and afterwards Archbishop of Cambray. He was rewarded
with a cardinal's hat for the service he rendered to the Jesuits in
their quarrel with the Jansenists, but was a man of unprincipled
character; a fit minister to a prince who pretended to be too
intellectual to worship God, and who copied Henry IV. only in his
licentiousness.

The first minister of Louis XV., after he assumed himself the reins of
government, was the Duke of Bourbon, lineal heir of the house of
Conde, and first prince of the blood. But he was a man of no
character, and his short administration was signalized by no important
event.

[Sidenote: Administration of Cardinal Fleury.]

Cardinal Fleury succeeded the Duke of Bourbon as prime minister. He
had been preceptor of the king, and was superior to all the intrigues
of the court; a man of great timidity, but also a man of great
probity, gentleness, and benignity. Fortunately, he was intrusted with
power at a period of great domestic tranquillity, and his
administration was, like that of Walpole, pacific. He projected,
however, no schemes of useful reform, and made no improvements in laws
or finance. But he ruled despotically, and with good intentions, fro