But  what  must  be  the  reader's  astonishment,  per-
haps his  indignation,  if  he  should  find  that  this  great
financier  has  fallen  into  the  most  unaccountable  of  all
errors,  no  less  an  error  than  that  of  mistaking  the
identical  sums  borrowed  hy  France  upon  interest,  for
supplies  raised  within  the  year !  Can  it  be  conceived
that  any  man,  only  entered  into  the  first  rudiments
of  finance,  should  make  so  egregious  a  blunder ;
should  write  it,  should  print  it ;  should  carry  it  to  a
second  edition;  should  take  it  not  collaterally  and
incidentally,  but  lay  it  down  as  the  corner-stone  of
his  whole  system,  in  such  an  important  point  as  the
comparative  states  of  France  and  England  ?  But  it
will  be  said,  that  it  was  his  misfortune  to  be  ill-in-
formed. Not  at  all.  A  man  of  any  loose  general
knowledge,  and  of  the  most  ordinary  sagacity,  never


328  OBSERVATIONS   ON   A   LATE   PUBLICATION

could  have  been  misinformed  in  so  gross  a  manner ;
because  he  would  have  immediately  rejected  so  wild
and  extravagant  an  account.
The  fact  is  this :  the  credit  of  France,  bad  as  it
might  have  been,  did  enable  her  (not  to  raise  within
the  year)  but  to  borrow  the  very  sums  the  author
mentions  ;  that  is  to  say,  1,106,916,261  livres,  mak-
ing, in  the  author's  computation,  50,314,378Z.  The
credit  of  France  was  low  ;  but  it  was  not  annihilated.
She  did  not  derive,  as  our  author  chooses  to  assert,
any  advantages  from  the  debility  of  her  credit.  Its
consequence  was  the  natural  one :  she  borrowed ;
but  she  borrowed  upon  bad  terms,  indeed  on  the
most  exorbitant  usury.
