ked upon the 9-1/2 per cent. interest they had to pay on the advances
received as a premium for warehousing and insurance. They knew that
nothing could be more secure than the fire and burglar proof receptacles
of the Mont-de-Piete, and that, come what might, the State would be
responsible for the value of the articles deposited.

This run ceased when the investment was an accomplished fact, but, as a
matter of course, the financial resources had been put to a severe test,
and, at the time my informant spoke to me, they had dwindled from nearly
eight millions of francs, at which they were computed in the beginning
of August, to about three-quarters of a million. The order of the mayor
of Paris, intended to prevent this, had come too late. The decree of
1863, limiting the maximum of a loan to ten thousand francs at the chief
office, and to five hundred francs at any of the auxiliary ones, had
been suspended in favour of a decision that, during the investment, no
loan should exceed fifty francs.[88] From the 19th of September to the
end of October, the cessation from _all_ labour, and, consequently, the
non-receipt of wages throughout the capital, had to be faced in the
acceptance of thousands of pledges, consisting of household goods,
apparel, etc.; but, curiously enough, workmen's tools and implements
formed but a small proportion of these. At present, the whole of the
business was at a standstill; there was no redemption of pledges, and
few were offered.[89]

[Footnote 88: A similar measure had been decided upon in 1814,
under analogous circumstances, but the maximum was twenty
francs instead of fifty francs.--EDITOR.]

[Footnote 89: A curious feature in connection with the pledging
of tools and implements may be recorded here. At the
termination of the siege, a committee in London transmitted
20,000 francs (L800) for the express purpose of redeeming
these. The Paris committee entrusted with the task, while
grateful for the solicitude shown, rightly considered that it
would not _go_ very far, considering that, at the time, the
Mont-de-Piete held a total of 1,708,549 articles, representing
loans to the amount of 37,502,743 francs. The authorities took
particular pains to publish the receipt of the 20,000 francs,
and the purposes thereof. Within a given time, they returned
6,430 francs