HISTORY OF EUROPE. [45 



the ancient monarchy, and that the 

 chaos in which the finances of the 

 country were involved, had thrice 

 swallowed up the social edifice. 

 By what magic spring therefore 

 could government hope to prosper, 

 in the eyes of which property was 

 nothing, and which absorbed to 

 itself all the revenues both from 

 land and industry, by palsying them 

 by requisitions, maximums, and 

 forced loans ? In order to break- 

 asunder this compact of violence 

 and misery, such events were ne- 

 cessary as had taken place on the 

 ninth and tenth of November, by 

 which the nation had quickened 

 into new life and activity by l)old 

 and profound conceptions. Of the 

 sum total above-mentioned, he pro- 

 posed that one hundred and fifty 

 millions of livres should be raised 

 upon territorial inscriptions, of one 

 thousand livres each, wliich were 

 to have for pledge or mortgage a 

 far greater sum, to be derived f'roui 

 the sale of national domains. Other 

 means would be resorted to for 

 ensuring an interest of six per cent 

 on those inscriptions until the 

 capital should be repaid, which 

 should be on the twenty-third of 

 September, anno y. Or, after 

 that period, it would be at the 

 option of the bearer of such inscrip- 

 tions to place out their capital at a 

 permanent interest of five per cent. 

 or to have it paid in annuities 

 within the period of twenty years. 

 It was accordingly resolved, and 

 afterwards carried into a law, by the 

 assent of tlie commission of elders, 

 and tiic consuls, tliat on tlie twenty- 

 second of December, there should 

 he raised a sum of one liundred 

 and fifty millions of livres on ter- 

 ril(»rial inscrii)tions, to lje made 

 good out of the Ijulk of the national 

 jtroperty, comprized in a statement 



annexed to the present law. These 

 inscriptions to be shared out in notes 

 of one thousand livres each, pay- 

 able to bearer; or in tenths, of notes 

 of one hundred livres, also payable 

 to bearer. Paym.ent for these notes 

 to be made, two-fifths in specie, 

 and the other three-fifths in exche- 

 quer-bills of the year 5, 6, and 7; 

 in bonds of arrears, one-fourth in 

 specie, of the years 4th, 5th, and 

 6'th ; and in bonds of requisition 

 made out since the twenty-first of 

 March, caino 7- To each note of 

 one thousand livres there was an- 

 nexed a partial interest amounting 

 to sixty livres, payable in the pro- 

 portion of thirty livres half yearly. 

 During the years 8 and 9, there 

 were to be distributed by lotteiy, 

 fifty thousand prizes of six per cent 

 annually, in the proportion of one 

 for three notes, or of a third of the 

 sum total of the one hundred and 

 fifty thousand notes. The bills to 

 whose lots the prizes should fall 

 were to enjoy the benefit of them 

 during the whole of the year in 

 which the drawing took place. 



Independently of these prizes, 

 there was attached to each drav/ing 

 for each twenty-fifth premium, the 

 sum of five hundred livres; for each 

 prize filling up the number of two 

 hundred, the sum of five hundred 

 livres ; and for the first and last prize 

 that .should turn up at each drawing, 

 the sum of five hundred thousand 

 livres. The drawings to take place 

 in the proportion of twelve thousand 

 five hundred every half year, until 

 the whole of the one hundred 

 and fifty thousand notes should 

 be delivered out, the drawing of 

 the prizes was to take place every 

 six months, in proportion to the 

 number of notes delivered out in 

 the course of the preceding half 

 year. 



