178 SPANISH LOANS. 



We arrive now at the first famous coup de main of the celebrated 

 house of Ardoin, Hubard, and Co., Parisian bankers, until then un- 

 known in the character of capitalists. And here we may observe, 

 that with the class of traders known as bankers, the public mind in 

 this country associates, and justly, the possession of great and almost 

 boundless riches. But the caste is of a different and vastly lower 

 grade in Paris ; scarcely is the distinction between a Brahmin and a 

 Paria, in the East, more widely marked than that between a banker 

 of London and a banquier de Paris*. There are, undoubtedly, 

 banking-houses to be found in that capital of high standing and un- 

 doubted wealth, such as the Delesserts, the Periers, the Rothschilds, 

 but, with the exception of the last, even these are more known, 

 and professionally should rather be classified, as sugar refiners, ma- 

 nufacturers, or merchants, than as dealers and exchangers of money 

 exclusively : in the same manner as many country bankers of Eng- 

 land are brewers, proprietors of iron-works, &c. Of the house of 

 Ardoine, Hubard, and Co., we have no desire to speak disrespect- 

 fully; it was doubtless respectable in its standing, but, we appre- 

 hend, without any legitimate pretensions to loan millions, or hundreds 

 of thousands, or even tens of thousands. With this firm, then, the 

 third Cortes Loan, or that of Conversion, as it was termed, was 

 negociated. Two objects were contemplated in this operation; the 

 first was to relieve the pressing necessities of the government with a 

 sum of money ; the second to convert into new stocks the two loans 

 we have noticed, and those of the loans contracted in Holland in the 

 reign of Carlos IV. a piece of hocus pocus for juggling the nation 

 by sleight of hand out of some millions of real value, in return for 

 persuading foreign creditors that the panel sellado (official stamped 

 paper) of the Cortes was intrinsically of greater value than the papel 

 sellado of the same Cortes when one year younger, and than that of 

 Carlos IV. That branch of the double game, under favour of 

 which the state was to touch some hard cash, was thus managed. 

 140,000,000 of reales were wanted, in order" to obtain which 



* The Morning Advertiser, an old established morning paper of the metro- 

 polis, of very considerable circulation, being the property of that numerous 

 body the licensed victuallers in the course of some articles on the Spanish 

 loans, written in a commendable spirit of impartiality, to which we take this 

 occasion to confess our obligation for much valuable information, relates an 

 amusing anecdote on this head. We ought not to omit mentioning that this 

 paper has recently been enlarged, and greatly improved, so as to take rank 

 with the first of its contemporaries. 



Speaking of Bankers a la mode de Paris, it says : " An Englishman in 

 Paris replied to an advertisement in the Petites Affiches, offering an apartement 

 meuble on very moderate terms; the proprietor of which, on their meeting, 

 represented that he was in very pressing need, and would, therefore, take 

 700 francs (28Z.) for what little miserable furniture he had ; he was setting 

 out for Bourdeaux, and must conclude on the instant, as he could not make 

 the voyage for want of the money. Our countryman casually observed that 

 he presumed he was a wine-merchant (from the city he was about to visit), 

 to which the Frenchman answered, with customary vivacity " Non, Mon- 

 sieur, je svis banquier.' ' No, Sir>J am a banker.' " 



