vely
by M. d'Argenson, and he became the sole object of hatred. The
Parliament, making common cause with the public, thought it a good
opportunity to take up arms. It did not perceive, in its blind hatred of
the "System," that it was going to render a service to its author, and
that to declare itself against the reduction of the bank-notes was to
maintain that the values created by Law had a solid foundation. It
assembled on May 27th to demand a revocation of the decree of the 21st.
At the very moment when it was deliberating, the Regent sent one of his
officers to prohibit all discussion, announcing the revocation of the
decree.

The Regent had the weakness to yield to the public clamor. Had the
decree been bad, its revocation would have been worse. To declare that
the shares and notes were still worth what they purported to be availed
nothing, for no one believed it, and their credit was not restored by
it. A legal falsehood was reaffirmed, and, without rendering any service
to those who were already ruined, the ruin of those who were obliged to
receive the notes at their nominal value was insured. The decree of May
21st, wise if it had been sustained, became disastrous as soon as it was
revoked. Its only effect was to hasten the general discredit, without
the essential advantage of reestablishing a real, legal value.

We have just said that the bank was not obliged to pay notes of over one
hundred francs. It paid them slowly, and employed all imaginable
artifices to avoid the payment of them. Nevertheless, its coffers were
almost exhausted, and it was necessary to authorize it to confine its
disbursements to the payment of notes of ten francs only. The people
rushed to the bank in crowds to realize their notes of ten francs,
fearing that these would soon share the fate of those of one hundred.
The pressure was so great that three persons were suffocated. The
indignant mob, ready for any excess, already menaced the house of Law.
He fled to the Palais Royal to seek an asylum near the Regent. The mob
followed him, carrying the bodies of the three who had been suffocated.
The carriage which had just conveyed him was broken to pieces, and it
was feared that even the residence of the Regent would not be respected.

The gates of the court of the Palais Royal had been closed; the Duke of
Orleans, with great presence of mind, ordered them to be opened. The
crowd rushed into the court and suddenly stopped upon the steps of t