indefatigable activity-and a clear, methodical, and capacious intellect. No man, too, so fully understood the religious bearings of these inquiries, and had so well seized the whole subject of Asiatic antiquities in its connexion with the Bible."

The rapid increase of the Anglo-Saxon race, during the last two centuries, its wide diffusion over the globe, and its superiority over every race with which it has come in contact, are remarkable facts, howsoever we view them, This will not be done by wise and thoughtful men, in a vain-glorious or boastful spirit; but with a thoughtful and reverential consideration of the plans of providence which it indicates, and of the great duties and responsibilities which it involves. It has recently been stated with regard to the Anglo-Saxon race, that while in 1620,—the year in which the Mayflower landed the first Pilgrims in New England,-it numbered only about six millions, and was almost exclusively confined to our own island, it now numbers sixty millions of human beings, planted on all the islands and continents of the earth, and apparently destined at no distant period to absorb or supplant all the barbarous and nomade races on the continents of Asia, Africa, and America, and the vast newer world recently found in the southern ocean. The enterprise of the race multiplies with its expansion. Commerce goes on apace, carrying the wealth and industry of the Old World into the remotest and least known regions of the earth; and it is estimated that if no sudden and unthought of revolution abruptly arrest this remarkable expansion of the race sprung exclusively from the united kingdom of Great Britain, the Anglo-Saxon race will number eight hundred millions of

human beings in less than a century and a half from the present time.

CHAPTER VI.

FINANCIAL SKILL.

Gold, source of mighty blessings, mightier crimes!
The stateman's power; the soldier's potent arms;
The merchant's tools; the noble's rank and state;
Prime element of true philanthropy;

Of deeds of greatness to the wise and good,
Of covetousness, misery, and crime.

It is not alone to the tradesman or the banker, that financial accuracy, and a skilful command of all the details of money transactions are needed. These are branches of knowledge which no wise man will despise. They are valuable to the politician, to the man of fortune, to the manufacturer, the farmer, and even to the humble cottar. They involve, indeed, an essential element of success in life. Every man ought to cultivate the habit of accurate and systematic reckoning in all pecuniary transactions. If they pertain to his own estates, business, or money transactions, it is a duty to himself and his family, on which their most important interests may be ultimately found to depend; and in so far as it involves the concerns or ultimate interests of others, it is a duty which no man can honestly dispense with.

Among the great political changes of modern history,

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some of the most remarkable results have largely depended on the influence of skilful or unskilful financiers. M. Necker, a banker, was at the helm of affairs in France on the eve of its great revolution, and some of the earlier steps which led to that crisis were the results of vast financial schemes carried on on erroneous principles, or without a sufficiently strict regard to sterling integrity of purpose. In politics indeed, as in commerce, and indeed in all human transactions, honesty ever proves to be the best policy; and no nation ever yet traced its downfal to the integrity of its rulers or the self-sacrificing virtue of its people.

Among the remarkable men who have played a prominent part among the financiers in modern European history, few have exercised a more important influence than John Law of Lauriston, comptroller-general of the finances of France, under the regency of Orleans. To him, indeed, we owe to a very great extent the modern system of a representative currency, which, under later judicious restraints has proved so important an element in commer cial enterprise. John Law was born at Edinburgh in 1671. Though connected by both parents with old Scottish families, the fortune which he inherited had been acquired by his father in the exercise of his profession as a goldsmith in the Scottish capital. Unfortunately, however, his early death left his son, at the age of fourteen, exposed to the temptations of a wealthy minor, while it deprived him of the lessons in prudence and pratical foresight which would have proved of so great value to him in after life. To this early loss of his father the misfortunes of his later life, and the failure of his most prominent schemes may be

ascribed. He became skilled in games of dexterity and hazard, wasted his fine natural talents on frivolous pursuits, and at length escaped to the continent after a fatal duel, which had nearly exposed him to an ignominious death on the scaffold.

By this event, Law was suddenly separated from the bad companions whom his wealth and personal accomplishments had drawn around him. "He was at this critical period," says one of his biographers, “in his twentysixth year. His dissipation had not destroyed the tone of his mind, nor enfeebled those peculiar powers which had so early devoloped themselves in him. He visited France, then under the brilliant administration of Colbert, where his inquires were particularly directed to the state of the public finances, and the mode of conducting banking establishments. From France he proceeded to Holland, where the mercantile system of those wealthy republicans, who had succeeded the merchant princes of Venice in conducting the commerce of Europe, presented to his mind a vast and most interesting subject of investigation. Amsterdam was at this period the most important commercial city in Europe, and possessed a celebrated banking establishment, on the credit of which her citizens had been enabled to baffle the efforts of Louis XIV. to enslave the liberties of their country; a treasury, whose coffers seemed inexhaustible, and the whole system of which was an enigma to the political economists of other countries. Law, with the view of penetrating into the secret springs and mechanism of this wonderful establishment, took up his residence for some time at Amsterdam, where he ostensibly officiated as secretary to the British resident."

He returned to Scotland when about thirty years of age, where he was immediately forcibly struck with the great contrast which his native country presented to those commercial states which he had visited, and he immediately conceived the design of creating the necessary capital by means of a banking system and representative paper issue. He set forth his views in two successive works on "Money and Trade," the one published in 1700, and the other in 1705. But his banking and credit system was not destined to obtain its first trial in his native country. One important and influential party did indeed favour his scheme, but the majority of the Scottish parliament passed the resolution that "To establish any kind of paper-credit, so as to oblige it to pass; were an improper expedient for the nation." Law accordingly resolved to offer his system for the adoption of some of the continental powers.

It is remarkable, indeed, how slow the best financiers of the age were found to appreciate the suggestions of Law, since promissory notes, royal billets, and similar forms of substitute for a metallic currency had been frequently resorted to in war, and other emergencies. At the period of Law's return to Paris, the credit of the French government was sunk so low, that its monetary notes and engagements of every description were being exchanged at a sacrifice of from seventy to eighty per cent. "In this extremity, the expedient of a national bankruptcy was proposed, and rejected by the regent, who also refused to give a forced circulation to the royal billets, but appointed a commission to inquire into the claims of the state-creditors. The commission executed its duties with great ability; but after reducing the national debt to its lowest possible form, and