e turn also to Marbois, on this subject, and trust we shall be excused
for giving so much of our time to it, by the interest the people of the
United States now have in it. We have had our own experience of the
fatal consequences of such schemes; let us also listen to the experience
of others, which points to the distress and ruin that attend such
experiments. Speaking of Law's great scheme of finance, this wise and
venerable statesman says--"A foreigner of an eccentric mind, though a
skilful calculator, had engaged the regent in operations the most
disastrous to the finances of the state. John Law, after having
persuaded credulous people that paper money might advantageously take
the place of specie, drew from this false principle the most extravagant
consequences. They were adopted by ignorance and cupidity." This writer,
with the experience of more than half a century in public affairs,
adds--"These chimeras, called by the name of system, do not differ much
from the schemes that are brought forward in the present age, under the
name of credit."

Speaking of the paper money created for Louisiana, M. Marbois tells us--

"The expenses resulting from want of order had no limits: in no
condition to provide for them, the heads of the government had
recourse to paper money, the desperate resource of financiers
without capacity. The following remarks on this subject are
from a despatch of M. Rouille, minister of marine.

"'The disorder, which has for some time prevailed in the
finances and trade of Louisiana, principally arises from
pouring into the province treasury orders and other kinds of
paper money; all of which soon fell into discredit, and
occasioned a depreciation of the currency, which has been the
more injurious to the colony and its trade, as the prices of
all things, and particularly of manual labour, have increased
in proportion to the fall in the treasury notes.'

"It was on the 30th of November, 1744, that this minister thus
expressed himself with regard to the chimerical systems of
credit, which have never been more in vogue than in our time."

We pass over the sixth chapter of our book, without any particular
notice of its contents. It is occupied with miscellaneous transactions
in other provinces; with Indian wars; the abdication of James II., and
the accession of William and Mary to the throne of England; which, in
pursua