tion. But it was another Scotchman, the | had his hotel; and his levées were crowded son of an Edinburgh goldsmith, who day after day by nobles and ladies of the proved the grand magician of speculative highest quality. The heads of the great finance. Undoubtedly William Law en hereditary houses of France had become joyed opportunities which must be the the courtiers of the parvenu, and jostled envy of his ambitious modern imitators. each other in their obsequious servility. The materials his constructive genius Nor, although rank and position had their went to work upon were a lavish, embar- advantages in the way of securing preferrassed, and almost arbitrary court; a ence in applications, was there any jealous needy aristocracy that had pledged their exclusiveness of classes. Anybody who expectations beyond reasonable hope or had scraped together a handful of livres even possibility of redemption; and a could buy some scrap of the scrip in the trading class whose narrow notions of open market. The purchase effected, the growing rich had been hitherto limited to gain was sure, for the inflated scrip was drudgery and economy. He appealed going up like a balloon. The Prince of alike to the shrewd, the half-educated, and Conti took advantage of the convenient the ignorant. The magnificent faith he situation of his hotel, and a Bourbon. professed in the boundless resources of prince was seen hiring out booths in his credit made ready converts among states- gardens to vociferous stockbrokers at men who had ideas without information, fancy ground-rents; while a hunchback is and were only too eager to be dazzled by said to have done even a more ingenious golden illusions. Adventurer, gambler, stroke of business, by offering his hump and enthusiast as he was, Law might have as a writing-desk to the mobs in the Rue been a sound though daring financier had Quincampoix. Nor was it only French he been gifted with greater discretion or treasury paper that was offered for sale. self-control. We may understand how In the Mississippi project, which was difficult it must have been, even for men affiliated to the credit schemes, Law anof judgment unguided by experience, to ticipated the idea of recent projectors who draw the line between the practical and have palmed American silver-mines on the fantastic in his programme, and to sanguine English investors. He had to resist the seductive sophistry of his elo- deal with a public who were even more quence when it was apparently backed up ignorant of geography, if not more confidby tangible results. The prudent duke of ing. And so, on the faith of golden inSavoy listened, was tempted, and reluc- gots, falsely guaranteed as genuine by tantly held back. He had no objection to being displayed at the Bank of France, a offer to the specious arguments of the league of swamp or forest in Louisiana, projector, except that "he was not rich poisoned by fever and overrun by savages, enough to ruin himself." The more reck- came to sell readily for three thousand less regent Orleans could "plunge" with livres. Considering the novelty of the the Scottish projector with greater confi- whole idea, which based a lucrative jointdence. If he had not capital, he had what stock enterprise, with shares duly num seemed to represent it, in his power of bered, allotted, and registered, on the wild issuing those peremptory decrees that dreams of such a delusive,El Dorado as created a spurious currency and opened had lured so many English adventurers to the State a fictitious credit. Had the to their ruin, it is difficult not to admire regent contented himself with moderate the magnificence of the swindle. The profits, his authority, with Law's ingenious inevitable day of reckoning came, when, audacity, might have made an excellent owing to the ingratitude of the great nothing of a temporary partnership. But it bles, whose avarice outstripped his libwas not in the nature of the brilliant erality, the enchanter's wand was to lose spendthrift to draw the stakes and realize, its virtue prematurely. A run for money so long as fortune befriended him. Be on the bank, originating in the malice of sides, excitable and impoverished Paris the Prince de Conti, precipitated panic had fairly lost its head; and it was easier and universal ruin; while Law, who was to set such a ball rolling than to arrest it. with difficulty protected from the rabble, Then were witnessed such scenes of finan- disappeared ignominiously from the scene cial excitement as the world has never of his triumphs. We have dwelt at some seen before or since. There was a rush length on his career, because he was unto the Bank of France, to exchange gold doubtedly the greatest and most original and silver for empty promises. There of "city men; "although we must confess was a crush of escutcheoned carriages in that his dying poor, after all, leaves an the Rue Quincampoix, where the magician indelible stain on his reputation. It would

almost appear as if he had succeeded in | famous mercantile firms; while we know, deluding himself a sure indication of of course, that no big joint-stock company weakness. He left his realized capital has a chance of success without the counbehind him in France, having actually tenance of the aristocracy. But above locked away a great part of it in landed all, there are moneyed houses of colossal property. Had he lived in our days, he means and connections, which form in would have taken the obvious precaution themselves a select financial aristocracy, of insuring against misfortune in the with such an influence as no mere landed Dutch and English funds - if, after con- magnate could ever boast. It is true that sultation with the most eminent Parisian we can point to many a great nobleman jurists, he had deemed it unsafe to make or prelate in history who for the time has magnificent settlements on his wife. made himself practically omnipotent either. by commanding gifts as a statesman or by his obsequiousness as a court favorite. But his influence, great as it may have

did not put an end to it in his lifetime. While such an ascendancy as that of the Rothschilds, for example — we make no apologies for mentioning by name a family which has asserted an absolutely unique position is extended over all the world without exception, and seems as solidly established as anything can be in the precarious conditions of mortal existence.

Speculation was a novelty in Law's time, and great fortunes made in trade or commerce were far from common. No doubt there were cases where some En-been, has died with him, if circumstances glish merchant showed abilities and energy that carried him out of the beaten track, and many another great house beside that of the De la Poles had been built up upon dealings in the warehouse or over the counter. But it is singular that trade had fallen out of favor with our higher classes since the Wars of the Roses and the reigns of the Yorkish princes, when members of the aristocracy The rise and progress of the Rothsand dignified churchmen, buying and sell- childs is certainly the most remarkable ing by accredited agents, had regular chapter in the personal romance of busibusiness relations with French and Flem-ness. The old Judengasse of Frankfort, ings. Business had come to be held in though it has always teemed with shrewd contempt; the grandson of the trader, and scheming brains, never sent forth a who had possibly been ennobled, lived more quick-witted lad than the progeni among the landed gentry, ignoring his tor of the line of mighty millionaires. mercantile origin; and the gentry, who Beginning as an errand-boy, we believe, might be envious, as they were certainly and raising himself steadily, he made contemptuous, professed to hold money-many losses as well as profits in his time; making in any shape as ignoble. They but he was never known to miss an opwould draw no nice distinctions between the petty tradesman who lived over the shop, and the merchant who traded to the Levant or the Indies with his argosies floating upon every sea. So that even success in trade became a social disability. | The wealthy son of the great Turkey house longed to cast his City slough, and shine in the circles his business closed to him. But as his money was the surest card he had to play, where his father had been frugal he was apt to turn spendthrift; or else he bought a high-born wife, with the paternal gold, and made a fresh start in life on the strength of his noble connections. Now we have changed all that, though the process has been a gradual one. The old social barriers have been breached in so many places, that they may be said to be practically broken down. The younger sons of dukes and marquises get a respectable living out of cottons and sugars; peers of good descent, who may be Cabinet ministers as well, are sleeping or active partners in

portunity. He possessed dash, prudence, and extraordinary calculating powers in an almost perfectly balanced combination. The pet of fortune, he never presumed on her favors; and the troubled times in which his lot was cast, marvellously served his extraordinary sagacity. Europe was convulsed from one end to the other, and the funds everywhere were rising and falling with the changing fortunes of successive campaigns. Rumor, with its innumerable tongues, was mingling truth with falsehood in almost inextricable confusion, and making the wildest forecasts of probabilities. At first Rothschild felt his way cautiously with an extraordinary tact. With constant practice his tact developed into a genius which seized the occasions for its exercise when less prudent men stood besitating, and so missed the golden chance. As his speculations turned steadily to gains, he played his game with increasing assurance, by securing exclusive and early information. When once a man can make

his game upon certainties, his gains are cumulations in the family, and making only to be measured by his credit. And the firm a close corporation; while no the daring speculator's reputation for one of them seems to have been tempted probity kept pace with his financial suc- by the possession of unlimited means to cesses. Never did a life better point the fritter away his time and talents in dissimoral that honesty is the best policy, than pation. Nor are their habits of steady that of the original Rothschild. When application in any way surprising; for, half the princes of Europe were running setting aside their natural business aptifor their lives, to borrow Mr. Bright's tudes, the interest of such a connection kindly observation on the troubles of the as theirs must be almost inconceivable. Irish landlords, more than one of these Not only are they colossal financiers, but potentates, like the prince of Hesse, in- necessarily cosmopolitan politicians on trusted the shrewd Hebrew with the treas- the grandest scale. Before now they ures they had to abandon. Though there have put their veto on a European war were no legal means of "checking his by closing their strong-boxes to an emintromissions," he accounted for every- peror's application. If funds are indisthing to the uttermost farthing. No doubt pensable to the regeneration of a strughe was richly paid by commission, as he gling country, and to the pleasant underdeserved to be; but his best reward was standing of the powers who are concerned in the character for integrity which has in its fortunes, it is the Rothschilds who been bequeathed to his representatives are appealed to for the necessary advance. and successors. Yet though Rothschild When once an appeal of the kind is made, was scrupulously upright in his dealings, they are very much masters of the delihe is said to have been formidable to re- cate situation. Should they decline for morselessness. He went ordinarily on any reason, when the refusal is published the principle of "Live and let live; "nor minor capitalists are shy of entertaining was the leviathan known to have done proposals which are already prejudiced in any injury to the smaller fish who did not the opinion of the public. Should they wantonly interfere with him. But no as- accept, their very name launches the loan piring rival ever directed an attack on handsomely. So it is in a lesser degree him without having bitter cause to repent with mines, railways, land-schemes, or it. Tales are told of the fatal though anything else; for unlimited credit is an legitimate traps laid by the long-headed irresistible force, and money must necesold man as he stood under his favorite sarily breed money. So when the active pillar. For a brief season the course of members of the firm go on progresses the stock markets would seem to have abroad, they are feted by princes of the turned against him, and the securities it bluest blood, in defiance of antiquated was his interest to "bull" would be hand- State ceremonial; while they drop into ed over to the mercies of the "bears." dinner in an off-hand way with the presiThe turn of the markets was only delu dents and past ministers of brand-new sive: when his adversaries were fairly republics. We may conceive the delicate involved at a considerable temporary sac- flattery paid to the omnipotent financier rifice, the many strings he pulled would by the host who is meditating on future mysteriously tighten, and the exulting loans for the schemes that are associated gang of enemies would be "cornered and crushed.

Bon chien chasse de race; and it is remarkable how the heirs of the family have taken after their founder. Their Jewish blood may have had something to do with it, and the pride of a position absolutely unique. Baron James, who died the other day in middle age, was one of the rare exceptions. He loved the arts for their own sakes, in place of simply patronizing them as one of the duties attaching to a millionaire's position. But even in Baron James the hereditary instincts came out so far that he attended assiduously to the business he never cared about. The Rothschilds, till lately, have married among themselves, keeping their vast ac

with his dearest ambitions. Nor is it merely on such a magnificent scale that the Rothschilds carry on their lucrative business. The avowed establishments of the great firm are the head-centres of innumerable ramifications. From Hamburg to the Havanna, from San Francisco to the Spice Islands, we understand there are leading local firms which in reality are anonymously affiliated to the Rothschilds, and which, being on the spot and thoroughly conversant with the local trade, are on the outlook to avail themselves of profitable openings.

For money must go on gathering like the avalanche, which accumulates more rapidly the longer it rolls. The undertakings of a house of European reputa

tion may be measured by its energy or faults and follies, they must already have
ambition rather than by its actual re- wiped out a heavy instalment of their
sources. Everybody is ready and eager moral liabilities. We can hardly conceive
to deal with it, knowing that its co-opera- a more wearing life than that of a man of
tion in any rational speculation almost naturally honorable nature who, has been
suffices to insure success. When we are clinging desperately to a slippery ledge
tiding through times of financial agita- with the abyss of dishonor yawning be-
tion, it has reserves to meet any conceiv- neath him. While making efforts as des-
able strain. The vessel is not only well perate as discreditable to avert the evil
found, but strongly manned and ably day, he fully realizes the fate that awaits his
commanded; and when the storm has confiding business connections, and his
swept over and the air has cleared, it tormenting conscience refuses to be si-
profits by the shipwrecks of its weaker lenced. In the fear that any show of
rivals. We remember how the Count of retrenchment will irretrievably shatter his
Monte Christo, in Dumas's famous money credit, he resigns himself to lead the life of
romance, expressed his views to Danglars a swindler. The dinners at which he en-
the banker as to fortunes of various tertains his victims, his equipages, the
classes. So there are houses of the sec- expensive education and allowances that
ond and third rank, of the highest respec- are suited to his children's imaginary
tability or something more, that work prospects, are all become parts of a
smoothly along in the old grooves, and shameful system of imposture. He dare
transact an extensive business on the not take the wife of his bosom into his
hereditary traditions. In these there is confidence, though she begins to be
very little romance, though their profits troubled by ominous forebodings as she
fluctuate with the conditions of trade. listens to his mutterings in restless
As partners die or withdraw, they be- dreams, and marks him in the gloomy
queath their interest to their representa- moments of reaction that follow his
tives; and the reversion to a share may ghastly attempts at joviality. The suffer-
be a more reliable asset than the prospec-ings he has endured and the sacrifices he
tive succession to a large landed property has submitted to, show the importance
nowadays. Occasionally, nevertheless, he attached to maintaining his position;
there is a disagreeable surprise and a yet it is almost a relief when the crash
dramatic catastrophe. People rub their comes, and he breathes more freely when
eyes one fine morning over a paragraph in the mask has been dropped. The worst
the City articles, announcing the stoppage of it is and he has been lamenting it
that spreads dismay among confiding when too late that he has cast his char-
creditors. The books have been placed acter after his fortune. But in a worldly
in the hands of a distinguished firm of point of view, unless he has been driven
accountants whose names have sinister into overt criminality, it is likely that he
associations with many similar disasters, comes off better than he deserves. For
and the stereotyped assurance is ex creditors in the City, under circumstances
pressed that the liquidation will prove of the kind, show themselves strangely
favorable. The hope carries little conso- lenient and forgiving, partly, perhaps,
lation for the initiated. Now that the because they have a sympathetic sense of
mine has been sprung, they understand the temptations to which their defaulting
all the melancholy story by intuition, and comrade has succumbed, but chiefly be-
are as much surprised as disgusted at cause they have no idea of throwing good
their blindness. There are almost invari- money after bad by wasting valuable time
ably reasons for such a crash, which it in vindicating public morality. They
ought to have been almost impossible to write off the loss, and all is said, except-
keep secret. Large sums had been paid ing by some irrepressible outsider with
out on the death or retirement of mon- limited means, who, unluckily for himself,
eyed partners, and the business had been happens to be beggared.
unduly drained; or it had passed into the
hands of men of a younger generation,
too enterprising to walk in the ways of
their fathers. The gentlemen who have
gone
into the "Gazette" are no doubt to
be blamed, and possibly they may have
come to grief under aggravated circum-
stances; yet even then it is difficult not
to pity them. If sufferings can atone for

But frequently of late years, under circumstances very similar, the circle of outsiders has been indefinitely enlarged; and the transfer of a well-known business to the promoters of a joint-stock company, seems to us to be always prima facie suspicious; so far suspicious, at least, that a prudent investor should always make searching inquiry before

luding to, suddenly comes to the ground with a crash that shakes everything in the neighborhood. So the panic is in full swing, and the Stock Exchange in frenzied agitation.

applying for shares. There are many | were no object, and the City kept calm, cases where the business and good-will things might work round. But similar have proved worth the purchase money, operations are being carried on simultaas reference to the share-lists will show. neously in innumerable qnarters; overBut at best, as the sellers best know their confidence has engendered a rotten state value, they cannot possibly be worth of trade; and the City is on the eve of more; and if the prospectus holds out ex- one of its periodical panics. It must be pectations of high profits, that only proves remembered, too, that the tendency to that the concern is essentially speculative. such panics is far greater than formerly. One can merely buy into it, as you pur- Now, with the general diffusion of specchase the shares of a flourishing bank ulation, London is but one of many specwhere, though original holders may be ulative centres; and causes operating in drawing twenty per cent. or more, at cur- Paris, Berlin, or New York, communicate rent prices the returns may represent themselves directly in English enterprise. about a quarter of that. We take it, then, Confidence is shaken; money is called to be a simple axiom, and no want of in; doubtful paper is subjected to the charity to assume, that those who turn a most searching scrutiny, and can only be private concern into a public one have negotiated on ruinous terms. Ugly ru made a good bargain for themselves. mors circulate freely, and respectable They have estimated at a fancy price reputations are whispered away. Trifling "potentialities of growing rich beyond failures are succeeded by others of growthe dreams of avarice," and probably ing consequence, till some conspicuous have exacted a handsome consideration establishment like that we have been al for hazardous liabilities that began to make them uneasy. They may be honestly sanguine, though anxious. They "show their good faith," as the prospectus intimates, by consenting to accept a portion of the price in paid-up shares, and by giving their invaluable assistance to the board in the capacity of managing directors. Schemes of the sort are not the less dangerous that the public is likely to be seduced by well-sounding names and plausible figures. Perhaps the company has been floated in a time of general confidence, when money is plentiful and speculation buoyant. As it receives an influx of capital, it has a fresh accession of business. For a year or two it pays wonderful dividends, and the shares go on mounting in proportion. The great annual meetings are scenes of general congratulation; and any inquisitive shareholder who asks inconvenient questions is civilly sneered down or summarily silenced. Anything that tends to depreciate the market value of the shares revolts the best feelings of the assembly. The hands of the managing directors are strengthened by cordial votes of confi. dence, and they are encouraged to increase the stakes and go on extending their operations. But times grow bad, and money tightens. The high-pressure income can only be maintained by doing business that becomes more and more risky, while engagements are renewed on onerous terms. But the dividends must be kept up by hook or crook; for any sharp drop in the shares means the collapse of indispensable credit. If time

The most disastrous of all panics happened fifteen years ago, when Overend, Gurney & Co. closed their doors. Nor have we even now recovered altogether from its consequences, though it may be feared that its lessons have been in great measure forgotten. No one who witnessed it will be likely to forget the aspect of the City on that memorable black Monday. Men were slow to realize the extent of the disaster; but when once it had come home to them, they lost faith in everything. "Overend's," or the "shop at the corner," as it was familiarly called, had been a typical house. It had been built up carefully by cautious Quakers; the names of its successive partners had been synonymous with philanthropy and probity as much as with substance and safe trading. When it had been transformed into a limited company, its shares had been taken up by shrewd capitalists, and its transactions were known to be more extensive than ever. Few people suspected that, before it changed hands, the character of the management had also been changing. Experience and prudence, or the reverse, make all the difference in bill discounting, between handsome returns and desperate risks. And it is a golden rule in money-dealing as in cobbling, that a man should stick to his last and not meddle with promiscuous irons. Thanks to neglecting some ele