s able to secure every _livre_ of her paper money by a virtual
mortgage on a landed domain vastly greater in value than the entire
issue; that, with men like Bailly, Mirabeau and Necker at her head, she
could not commit the financial mistakes and crimes from which France had
suffered under John Law, the Regent Duke of Orleans and Cardinal Dubois.

Oratory prevailed over science and experience. In April, 1790, came the
final decree to issue four hundred millions of _livres_ in paper money,
based upon confiscated property of the Church for its security. The
deliberations on this first decree and on the bill carrying it into
effect were most interesting; prominent in the debate being Necker, Du
Pont de Nemours, Maury, Cazales, Petion, Bailly and many others hardly
inferior. The discussions were certainly very able; no person can read
them at length in the "Moniteur," nor even in the summaries of the
parliamentary history, without feeling that various modern historians
have done wretched injustice to those men who were then endeavoring to
stand between France and ruin.

This sum--four hundred millions, so vast in those days, was issued in
_assignats_, which were notes secured by a pledge of productive
real estate and bearing interest to the holder at three per cent. No
irredeemable currency has ever claimed a more scientific and practical
guarantee for its goodness and for its proper action on public finances.
On the one hand, it had what the world recognized as a most practical
security,--a mortgage an productive real estate of vastly greater value
than the issue. On the other hand, as the notes bore interest, there
seemed cogent reason for their being withdrawn from circulation whenever
they became redundant. [7]

As speedily as possible the notes were put into circulation. Unlike
those issued in John Law's time, they were engraved in the best style
of the art. To stimulate loyalty, the portrait of the king was placed
in the center; to arouse public spirit, patriotic legends and emblems
surrounded it; to stimulate public cupidity, the amount of interest
which the note would yield each day to the holder was printed in the
margin; and the whole was duly garnished with stamps and signatures to
show that it was carefully registered and controlled. [8]

To crown its work the National Assembly, to explain the advantages
of this new currency, issued an address to the French people. In this
address it spoke of the nation as "d