of the blood, who had been mixed up, in the Mississippi, and who had used all their authority to escape from it without loss, re-established it upon what they called the Great Western Company, which with the same juggles and exclusive trade with the Indies, is completing the annihilation of the trade of the realm, sacrificed to the enormous interest of a small number of private individuals, whose hatred and vengeance the government has not dared to draw upon itself by attacking their delicate privileges.

Several violent executions, and confiscations of considerable sums found in the houses searched, took place.  A certain Adine, employed at the bank, had 10,000 crowns confiscated, was fined 10,000 francs, and lost his appointment.  Many people hid their money with so much secrecy, that, dying without being able to say where they had put it, these little treasures remained buried and lost to the heirs.

In the midst of the embarrassments of the finances, and in spite of them, M. le Duc d’Orleans continued his prodigal gifts.  He attached pensions of 6000 livres and 4000 livres to the grades of lieutenant-general and camp-marshal.  He gave a pension of 20,000 livres to old Montauban; one of 6000 livres to M. de Montauban (younger brother of the Prince de Guemene); and one of 6000 livres to the Duchesse de Brissac.  To several other people he gave pensions of 4000 livres; to eight or ten others, 3000 or 2000 livres.  I obtained one of 8000 livres for Madame Marechal de Lorges; and one of 6000 livres was given to the Marechal de Chamilly, whose affairs were much deranged by the Mississippi.  M. de Soubise and the Marquis Noailles had each upwards of 200,000 livres.  Even Saint-Genies, just out of the Bastille, and banished to Beauvais, had a pension of 1000.  Everybody in truth wanted an augmentation of income, on account of the extreme high price to which the commonest, almost necessary things had risen, and even all other things; which, although at last diminshed by degrees, remain to this day much dearer than they were before the Mississippi.

The pensions being given away, M. le Duc d’Orleans began to think how he could reduce the public expenditure.  Persuaded by those in whose financial knowledge he had most confidence, he resolved to reduce to two per cent. the interest upon all the funds.  This much relieved those who paid, but terribly cut down the income of those who received, that is to say, the creditors of the state, who had lent their money at five per cent., according to the loan—­and, public faith and usage, and who had hitherto peacefully enjoyed that interest.  M. le Duc d’Orleans assembled at the Palais Royal several financiers of different rank, and resolved with them to pass this edict.  It made much stir among the Parliament men, who refused to register it.  But M. le Duc d’Orleans would not change his determination, and maintained his decree in spite of them.