They sold consols at Law’s bank, and were paid in his bills, with which they bought shares.  The bills of the bank were of course redeemable in gold and silver; but for a time nobody wanted gold and silver, so great was the credit of the bank.  Moreover, the bank itself was guaranteed by the shares of the Company, which were worth at one period twelve times their original value.  John Law, of course, was regarded as a national benefactor.  His financiering had saved a nation; and who had ever before heard of a nation being saved by stock-jobbing?  All sorts of homage and honors were showered upon so great a man.  His house was thronged with dukes and peers; he became controller-general of the finances, and virtually prime-minister.  He was elected a member of the French Academy; his fame extended far and wide, for he was a beneficent deity that had made everybody rich and no one poor.  Surely the golden age had come.  Paris was crowded with strangers from all parts of the world, who came to see a man whose wisdom surpassed that of Solomon, and who made silver and gold to be as stones in the streets.  As everybody had grown rich, twelve hundred new coaches were set up; nothing was seen but new furniture and costly apparel, nothing was felt but universal exhilaration.  So great was the delusion, that the stock of the Mississippi Company reached the almost fabulous amount of three thousand six hundred millions,—­nearly twice the amount of the national debt.  But as Law’s bank, where all these transactions were made, revealed none of its transactions, the public were in ignorance of the bills issued and stock created.

At last, the Prince of Conti,—­one of the most powerful of the nobles, and a prince of the blood-royal, who had received enormous amounts in bills as the price of his protection,—­annoyed to find that his ever-increasing demands were finally resisted, presented his notes at the bank, and of course obtained gold and silver; then other nobles did the same, and then foreign merchants, until the bank was drained.  Then came the panic, then the fall of stocks, then general ruin, then universal despondency and rage.  The bubble had burst!  Four hundred thousand families, who thought themselves rich, and who had been comfortable, were hopelessly ruined; but the State had got rid of half the national debt, and for a time was clear of embarrassment.  The people, however, had been defrauded and deceived by Government, and they rendered in return their secret curses.  The foundations of a throne are only secured by the affections of a people; if these are destroyed, one great element of regal power is lost.