she could not commit the financial mistakes and crimes from which
France had suffered under John Law, the Regent Duke of Orleans and
Cardinal Dubois.

Oratory prevailed over science and experience. In April, 1790, came
the final decree to issue four hundred millions of _livres_ in paper
money, based upon confiscated property of the Church for its security.
The deliberations on this first decree and on the bill carrying it
into effect were most interesting; prominent in the debate being
Necker, Du Pont de Nemours, Maury, Cazalès, Petion, Bailly and many
others hardly inferior. The discussions were certainly very able; no
person can read them at length in the "Moniteur," nor even in the
summaries of the parliamentary history, without feeling that various
modern historians have done wretched injustice to those men who were
then endeavoring to stand between France and ruin.

This sum--four hundred millions, so vast in those days, was issued in
_assignats_, which were notes secured by a pledge of productive real
estate and bearing interest to the holder at three per cent. No
irredeemable currency has ever claimed a more scientific and practical
guarantee for its goodness and for its proper action on public
finances. On the one hand, it had what the world recognized as a most
practical security,--a mortgage an productive real estate of vastly
greater value than the issue. On the other hand, as the notes bore
interest, there seemed cogent reason for their being withdrawn from
circulation whenever they became redundant.[7]

As speedily as possible the notes were put into circulation. Unlike
those issued in John Law's time, they were engraved in the best style
of the art. To stimulate loyalty, the portrait of the king was placed