nation, directly interested in the depreciation
of the currency in which they were to pay their debts. The nucleus of
this class was formed by those who had purchased the church lands from
the government. Only small payments down had been required and the
remainder was to be paid in deferred installments: an indebtedness of a
multitude of people had thus been created to the amount of hundreds of
millions. This body of debtors soon saw, of course, that their interest
was to depreciate the currency in which their debts were to be paid;
and these were speedily joined by a far more influential class;--by that
class whose speculative tendencies had been stimulated by the abundance
of paper money, and who had gone largely into debt, looking for a rise
in nominal values. Soon demagogues of the viler sort in the political
clubs began to pander to it; a little later important persons in this
debtor class were to be found intriguing in the Assembly--first in its
seats and later in more conspicuous places of public trust. Before long,
the debtor class became a powerful body extending through all ranks of
society. From the stock-gambler who sat in the Assembly to the small
land speculator in the rural districts; from the sleek inventor of
_canards_ on the Paris Exchange to the lying stock-jobber in the
market town, all pressed vigorously for new issues of paper; all were
apparently able to demonstrate to the people that in new issues of paper
lay the only chance for national prosperity.

This great debtor class, relying on the multitude who could be
approached by superficial arguments, soon gained control. Strange as it
might seem to those who have not watched the same causes at work at a
previous period in France and at various times in other countries, while
every issue of paper money really made matters worse, a superstition
gained ground among the people at large that, if only _enough_ paper
money were issued and were more cunningly handled the poor would be made
rich. Henceforth, all opposition was futile. In December, 1791, a report
was made in the Legislative Assembly in favor of yet another great issue
of three hundred millions more of paper money. In regard to this report
Cambon said that more money was needed but asked, "Will you, in a moment
when stock-jobbing is carried on with such fury, give it new power by
adding so much more to the circulation?" But such high considerations
were now little regarded. Dorisy declared,