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That the industry of Scotland languished for want of money to

employ it, was the opinion of the famous Mr Law. By establishing

a bank of a particular kind, which he seems to have imagined

might issue paper to the amount of the whole value of all the

lands in the country, he proposed to remedy this want of money.

The parliament of Scotland, when he first proposed his project,

did not think proper to adopt it. It was afterwards adopted, with

some variations, by the Duke of Orleans, at that time regent of

France. The idea of the possibility of multiplying paper money to

almost any extent was the real foundation of what is called the

Mississippi scheme, the most extravagant project, both of banking

and stock-jobbing, that perhaps the world ever saw.