upon this, Law formed a scheme for establishing a great commercial company: all the privileges possessions and effects of the foreign trading companies were to be transferred to it; the revenue of the crown was to be vested in it; the royal bank was to be attached to it; the whole province of Louisiana was to be granted to it; the name of "The Company of the West," was to be given it; and Law was to govern it. The Regent acquiesced in the plan, established the company, and conferred on it all that Law solicited. From the river Mississippi, on which the province of Louisiana lies, the profect obtained the appellation of "The Mississippi "scheme." By subsequent patents, the Regent granted to the company the right of exclusive trade to China, and every part of the East Indies: this gave it the name of "The Company of the "Indies."

It was held out to the public that these enormous possessions and power would enable the company to achieve speculations in commerce, which would rapidly bring the whole wealth of the world into its hands, and entitle the shareholders to dividends, far exceeding the greatest gains of the most successful adventurer in those or former times. The company actually announced a dividend of two hundred per cent. The delusion became general, and rose to such a height that, in September 1721, the price of shares was more than sixty times that for which

they had originally sold, and the bank lent money, on the slightest security at two per cent. The delusion continued till the 21st of the following May. During this period, the public creditors were paid with bank notes, and the former securities given them by the king were withdrawn and annulled. But on that memorable day, an arrêt royal revealed the true nature of the bubble: the paper fabric was instantaneously blown away, and on the following day,—the 22nd of May,—a man might have starved, with paper for one hundred millions in his pocket.

The general result was, that an immense number of individuals were ruined, and the greatest part of them reduced to the most abject poverty; but the state was a gainer. The interest of the national debt, when the scheme was first adopted, amounted to eighty millions of French livres ;-it was reduced by the paper operations to fifty-seven millions: the twentythree millions, which made the difference, was the gain of the state.

Sir James Stuart, in his " Enquiry into the "Wealth of Nations," offers some ingenious arguments to prove that there are not sufficient grounds to impute deliberate villainy either to the Regent or to Law; that the scheme, as it was planned by the latter, was not substantially defective, and that its failure was owing to the unwise councils, by which the plans of Law were overruled.

Near to the time of which we have been speaking, England, unfortunately, had its bubbles; but not to the same extent as that, by which France had suffered. A curious account of these, and of the fall of the South Sea stock and subscriptions, is given by Mr. Anderson in the third volume of his "History of Trade and Com"merce."—It is to be hoped that posterity will receive a similar chapter on the Foreign Loans now in the market.

XXIX.

LETTER ON ANCIENT AND MODERN MUSIC.

DURING his foreign education, the Reminiscent acquired some notion of the theory of music, and received some instruction in the practice of the harpsichord. At the house of lord Sandwich, his early introduction to which he has mentioned, music was the order of the day. From these circumstances, and in consequence of his having, as he believes, a natural taste for it, the few absolutely idle hours, with which he has to reproach himself, have been given to this pleasing science; they have increased his knowledge of it, and he has obtained some acquaintance of its history. Mr. Salomon paid him the great compliment of saying, that "he was among the seven best listeners to music he had known." To Salomon's own performance he certainly always listened with delight. He had, however, abandoned music altogether, when an accidental circumstance recalled his thoughts to it, and occasioned his committing to paper, during a long vacation, "A letter to a lady on ancient " and modern music:" it was printed in a magazine of a limited circulation, and in the collection noticed in the article of this present publication.

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The principal object of this letter was to banish florid song from catholic chapels, and to restore in them, the venerable Gregorian chant. The

only legitimate object of the performance of music in churches, is to promote devotion: that music only should therefore be performed, which is at once simple and solemn, which all can feel, and in which most can join. It should be confined to simple melody, the congregation should be taught to sing it in exact unison, and with subdued voices; the accompaniment should be full and chaste, and never overwhelm the voice. A service thus performed, will excite the finest feelings of piety, promote devotion, and, in time, equally satisfy the scientific and the unlearned. Thousands quitted France to sing the psalms of Marot; would any have quitted it to hear the psalms, though exquisitely beautiful, of Marcello. If the evangelical sects gain so much upon the establishment, is it not owing, in some measure, to the superior attraction of their music, and that a part in it is allowed to every one who will bear a part in it?

Pope John the twenty-second, inveighs, in one of his decretals*, against the musical vagaries, introduced in his time, into the service of the church, the minute divisions of the notes, the repetitions of the words, and the singing of different words in the different parts of the harmony. He prescribed that the notes should never be shorter than the breve, that they should be sung slowly, that counterpart, or music in parts, should never be used, except on great festivals;

* Extravag. Com. 1. iii. art. 1, de Vitâ et Honestate Cler.