Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Contemporary Letters On The French Revolution.
Who will be able to judge betAveen the true and false assignments of 40 , 000 different banks 1 and if their acceptation is confirmed to the municipalities to which they belong , they will either fall into discredit or make disappear the small quantity of specie which yet circulates in the provinces .
If one general bank or bureau for the issue of these assignments is established at Paris , will the provinces give their specie against paper , Avhose payment or value so many circumstances may affect ? It is possible the inhabitants of Paris
may choose to change one paper money for another . The rich may choose to acquire property , however disadvantageous the acquisition . But Avhat is to become of those who shall be possessed of these assignments to an amount that Avill not allow them to
make purchases in land or Jioicsesl They must either be content to sell them below their real value , ancl in proportion as the arts of stock-jobbers may make them rise or fall ; or , if their Avants do not induce them to part Avith them , will they continue to
keep them till they are reimbursed in the space of fifteen years ? But as the prime ( if given ) ancl interests of these assignments much exceed the revenues of the lands exposed to sale , a considerable sum must be deducted from this capital for the payment of them . AVho is to assure the holders of small sums in
assignments that the lands thus sold will produce the sums expected , and that these sums will , during a space of fifteen years , be invariably applied to the liquidation of their demands ? If the public confidence does not prefer the neAV paper to the oldwill there not
, exist a double monopoly—that of " billets de la Caisse , " as Avell as that of money ? Supposing that they succeed in realizing paper for 400 millions , the deficit of the present year , even with this succour , will not be completedancl those funds Avhich
, Avere to have paid part of the national debt are for eA'er alienated . Excuse the impertinent obseiwations , ancl still more impertinent calculations , of a young financier . It appears ridiculous to alienate funds
Avithout knoAving the demands to Avhich those funds are liable . It is , however determined that the following will be the appointments of the dignitaries of the Church : —
Livres per Annum , Cardinals ... ... 75 , 000 Archbishops ... 40 , 000 Bishops ... ... 30 , 000 The position of Neckar is every moment more critical . His enemies are busy with the people . Some of the districts have alread y
resolved to denounce him to the Assembly , Avith his friend Mons . Lambert , and they talk loudly that his departure must not be suffered ' till he has given publicly an account of his conduct ancl of the finances of the country . Barnave has openly proposed the recall of Calomie , and you may be assured that he stands a fair chance of
becoming the Minister of this kingdom . The hatred against him is diminished , his talents are universally acknowledged , and his Avant of integrity not so generally alloAved .
As in England his abilitios are not universally knoAvn , perhaps you Avill not bo displeased with two accounts given of him by tAvo violent Neckarians , and , of course , his enemies —the one , M . Plache , a chief administrator of the laisse ; the other , one of the first merchants in France . The first
Avent to read to him a memoire on the Caisse ; the second a memoire against the Compaguie des Incles , and both of their meinoires filled with intricate calculations . They found him Avriting some paper of importance . He desired M . Plache to read his memoire . He still continued his
business . He called in a secretary : gaA'e him orders . At last M . Plache saicl , " Monsigneur , it is impossible you should understand me . " Calonne ansAvered , "I Avill prove to you the contrary , " ancl repeated verbatim the three last phrases of his
memoire . He then returned to hisAvriting ; and when M . Plache had finished , hevesumeel his memoire from beginning to end , pointed out the faults , or apparent faults , of calculations , and the pour ancl contre of every proposition . The second is a repetition of
the same story . If these accounts Avere vague , and the hearsays or assertions of his friends , I should have my doubts of their truth . But Valadier , v , 'hose veracity is well knoAvn , and whose enmity to the man is equally notorioushas declared to
, me upon his honour that both these gentlemen , Avith Avhom he is particularly intimate , have themselves given him these accounts of one Avhom they hate . I doubt no longer . There is a sect in this country—not a reli gious , but a financial one . They are
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Contemporary Letters On The French Revolution.
Who will be able to judge betAveen the true and false assignments of 40 , 000 different banks 1 and if their acceptation is confirmed to the municipalities to which they belong , they will either fall into discredit or make disappear the small quantity of specie which yet circulates in the provinces .
If one general bank or bureau for the issue of these assignments is established at Paris , will the provinces give their specie against paper , Avhose payment or value so many circumstances may affect ? It is possible the inhabitants of Paris
may choose to change one paper money for another . The rich may choose to acquire property , however disadvantageous the acquisition . But Avhat is to become of those who shall be possessed of these assignments to an amount that Avill not allow them to
make purchases in land or Jioicsesl They must either be content to sell them below their real value , ancl in proportion as the arts of stock-jobbers may make them rise or fall ; or , if their Avants do not induce them to part Avith them , will they continue to
keep them till they are reimbursed in the space of fifteen years ? But as the prime ( if given ) ancl interests of these assignments much exceed the revenues of the lands exposed to sale , a considerable sum must be deducted from this capital for the payment of them . AVho is to assure the holders of small sums in
assignments that the lands thus sold will produce the sums expected , and that these sums will , during a space of fifteen years , be invariably applied to the liquidation of their demands ? If the public confidence does not prefer the neAV paper to the oldwill there not
, exist a double monopoly—that of " billets de la Caisse , " as Avell as that of money ? Supposing that they succeed in realizing paper for 400 millions , the deficit of the present year , even with this succour , will not be completedancl those funds Avhich
, Avere to have paid part of the national debt are for eA'er alienated . Excuse the impertinent obseiwations , ancl still more impertinent calculations , of a young financier . It appears ridiculous to alienate funds
Avithout knoAving the demands to Avhich those funds are liable . It is , however determined that the following will be the appointments of the dignitaries of the Church : —
Livres per Annum , Cardinals ... ... 75 , 000 Archbishops ... 40 , 000 Bishops ... ... 30 , 000 The position of Neckar is every moment more critical . His enemies are busy with the people . Some of the districts have alread y
resolved to denounce him to the Assembly , Avith his friend Mons . Lambert , and they talk loudly that his departure must not be suffered ' till he has given publicly an account of his conduct ancl of the finances of the country . Barnave has openly proposed the recall of Calomie , and you may be assured that he stands a fair chance of
becoming the Minister of this kingdom . The hatred against him is diminished , his talents are universally acknowledged , and his Avant of integrity not so generally alloAved .
As in England his abilitios are not universally knoAvn , perhaps you Avill not bo displeased with two accounts given of him by tAvo violent Neckarians , and , of course , his enemies —the one , M . Plache , a chief administrator of the laisse ; the other , one of the first merchants in France . The first
Avent to read to him a memoire on the Caisse ; the second a memoire against the Compaguie des Incles , and both of their meinoires filled with intricate calculations . They found him Avriting some paper of importance . He desired M . Plache to read his memoire . He still continued his
business . He called in a secretary : gaA'e him orders . At last M . Plache saicl , " Monsigneur , it is impossible you should understand me . " Calonne ansAvered , "I Avill prove to you the contrary , " ancl repeated verbatim the three last phrases of his
memoire . He then returned to hisAvriting ; and when M . Plache had finished , hevesumeel his memoire from beginning to end , pointed out the faults , or apparent faults , of calculations , and the pour ancl contre of every proposition . The second is a repetition of
the same story . If these accounts Avere vague , and the hearsays or assertions of his friends , I should have my doubts of their truth . But Valadier , v , 'hose veracity is well knoAvn , and whose enmity to the man is equally notorioushas declared to
, me upon his honour that both these gentlemen , Avith Avhom he is particularly intimate , have themselves given him these accounts of one Avhom they hate . I doubt no longer . There is a sect in this country—not a reli gious , but a financial one . They are