distress, how different were the measures taken to repair the evil;
but in France, unfortunately, the remedy was left to the authors of
the mischief. The arbitrary will of the Regent, which endeavoured to
extricate the country, only plunged it deeper into the mire. All
payments were ordered to be made in paper, and between the 1st of
February and the end of May, notes were fabricated to the amount of
upwards of 1500 millions of livres, or 60,000,000 pounds sterling. But
the alarm once sounded, no art could make the people feel the
slightest confidence in paper which was not exchangeable into metal.
M. Lambert, the President of the Parliament of Paris, told the Regent
to his face that he would rather have a hundred thousand livres in
gold or silver than five millions in the notes of his bank. When such
was the general feeling, the superabundant issues of paper but
increased the evil, by rendering still more enormous the disparity
between the amount of specie and notes in circulation. Coin, which it
was the object of the Regent to depreciate, rose in value on every
fresh attempt to diminish it. In February, it was judged advisable
that the Royal Bank should be incorporated with the Company of the
Indies. An edict to that effect was published and registered by the
Parliament. The state remained the guarantee for the notes of the
bank, and no more were to be issued without an order in council. All
the profits of the bank, since the time it had been taken out of Law's
hands and made a national institution, were given over by the Regent
to the Company of the Indies. This measure had the effect of raising
for a short time the value of the Louisiana and other shares of the
company, but it failed in placing public credit on any permanent
basis.

A council of state was held in the beginning of May, at which Law,
D'Argenson (his colleague in the administration of the finances), and