“The Abbé told me, that if some people prevailed, measures would be changed; that Torcy of late took the ascendant very much; and that the Regent discovered a great partiality towards him; and that, if it continued a little longer, he, the Abbé, would lay down. I am sure Law is in this thing, for he will be for removing everything that does not absolutely depend on him, and that can, in any manner, stand in his way to hinder him to be first minister. Law’s heart has been set upon that from the beginning; and we stand too directly in the way of his ambitious views, for France to imagine that a good understanding can subsist long between the nations, if he comes to govern absolutely.”
On 9th September, Lord Stair returns to the question of the displacement of Dubois, and seeks to impress the government with what he conceives to be the gravity of the situation. “I told you, in my former letter, what the Abbé Dubois said to me upon the subject of Torcy’s taking the ascendant over him in the Regent’s favour, and of the close connection he, the Abbé, apprehended was between Torcy and Law. He has since confirmed the same thing to me in several conversations; and seemed to be in very great concern, and to have thoughts of laying down, which I advised him not to do. The Abbé likewise told me that there were many things which were hid from him; and that he apprehended there was some change of measures.
“I come now to take notice of another thing to you, which in my opinion is very much to be minded; and that is the spirit, behaviour and discourse of the man whom, from henceforth, you must look upon as the first minister, and that is Mr. Law. He, in all his discourse, pretends that he will set France higher than ever she was before, and put her in a condition to give the law to all Europe; that he can ruin the trade and credit of England and Holland whenever he pleases; that he can break our Bank whenever he has a mind, and our East India Company. He said publicly the other day at his own table, when Lord Londonderry was present, that there was but one great kingdom in Europe, and one great town; and that was France and Paris. He told Pitt that he would bring down our East India stock, and entered into articles with him to sell him at twelve months hence a hundred thousand pounds of stock at eleven per cent. under the present current price.
“You may imagine what we have to apprehend from a man of this temper, who makes no scruple to declare such views, and who will have all the power and all the credit at his court.”
Later in the same month he says, “I hope our good friends in the North will make our affairs in Parliament easy. We must in that case exert ourselves to do something decisive towards the payment of the public debts, if we do not intend to submit ourselves to the condition in which Mr. Law pretends to put all Europe. He says, il rendra la France si grande que toutes les nations de l’Europe, enverront des Ambassadeurs à Paris, et le roy n’enverra que des couriers.”
From opposition on the ground of policy alone to personal differences was an easy stage. Law, conscious of his own power, had been hitherto somewhat indifferent to the efforts of Lord Stair to weaken his direction of the foreign policy of France. A rumour, however, which gained circulation towards the end of the year determined him to rid the French court of a man who he thought was moved not less by personal enmity than by the interests of the country he represented. Two circumstances had happened of an alarming nature which threatened the safety of the Bank and the value of Mississippi stock. A run had been made upon the Bank, and an attack upon the market had been organised with a view to depreciating the price of shares. These disturbing events had been attributed to Lord Stair, and Law at once informed the Regent to whom the matter was of great concern. Lord Stair was innocent of the charge, and naturally sought an interview with the Regent in order to disabuse his mind. The result was satisfactory so far as the assurances of the Regent went, but displayed the latter’s duplicity since he was throughout unquestionably on the side of Law. Stair’s letter descriptive of the interview was dated 11th December. “Several days ago I was informed on very good authority, that Mr. Law told the Duke of Orleans that it was I who had latterly been the cause of the attack on the Bank. I thereupon resolved to clear myself with him, and I turned the conversation in such a way that he mentioned he had been told that I had been the cause of the attack. I said to him, ‘My Lord, I understand that Mr. Law has had a talk with you, and I am very pleased to have the opportunity of proving to you that he is absolutely false in all his statements. It is true that the subjects of the King, my master, have considerable wealth in this country, which it would have been very easy for me to have used to the prejudice of the Bank. But if it is true that neither I nor any other subject of the King had taken billets in order to have them changed at the Bank; if we have not placed shares on the market in order to depreciate them; if it is true that I have had no communication with those who have run on the Bank, you ought to be convinced that Mr. Law’s talk is not only false but is the most atrocious calumny and the most unworthy; a calumny which does not tend only to deceive you on my account, a trustworthy servant at all times, through gratitude and through affection; but which tends to embroil you with my master, the King, who is your best friend and ally; for I know that Mr. Law stated at the same time that what I did in this respect I did by order of my court.
“Now, if Mr. Law cannot prove to you that one of these three points is true, since I boldly submit to you that all three are false, he ought to be considered by you as a calumniator who desires to deceive in things of great importance. But it is not merely of recent date that I know the good intentions of Mr. Law for his country, and the designs he has to set the King at variance with you. It is only eight days since Mr. Law publicly threatened, in presence of several subjects of the King, my master, to write a book for the purpose of convincing the world that Great Britain could not possibly pay her debts. Such are the ordinary and public discourses of Mr. Law. You can judge what effect that can produce when a man who pretends to be your first minister delivers such discourses. I have known it for a long time, but I have refrained from saying anything to you because I was persuaded that Great Britain would not think the same; and because I regarded these discourses as the effects of the foolish vanity and inebriation of Mr. Law whose head I have noticed for some time, has been turned.’ I then told the Duke of Orleans many discourses of a similar nature. The Duke listened with surprise. At last he said to me, ‘My Lord, they are truly the discourses of a fool.’ I replied, ‘I say nothing to you that I would not say in Mr. Law’s presence, and that I could not prove; you can now judge if it would have been astonishing if I had really acted in the way Mr. Law led you to believe I had done, but I am guided by the respect I have always had for your interests.’
“The Duke of Orleans told me finally that he was quite satisfied with what I had just told him; that he had always looked on me as his friend, and that he had difficulty in believing that I wished to prejudice his operations. That is substantially all that passed between the Duke and myself on the subject of Mr. Law. You can make the necessary reflections. There is no need of comment.”
Stair’s following letter communicates an apparent determination of the Regent to exclude Law from any influence on the relations of France with England, but also indicates his hesitation to place too much reliance upon the Regent’s assurances. “The Regent,” he writes, “so strongly perceived the dangers into which Law would precipitate him, that some days ago he repeatedly spoke very strongly to me of the vanity, presumption, and insolence of this man. He said he knew Law to be a man whose head had been turned by excessive vanity and ambition; that nothing could satisfy him except to be absolute master; that he had so great conceit of his own abilities and so great contempt for the talents of other men that he was impracticable with every one; that he had tried to make him work with the cleverest men in France, and that he could not agree with them for two consecutive days, always being impatient at the slightest obstacle or contradiction. He told me that he had rated Law soundly for his insolent discourses which alarmed everyone in such a way that he had reason to believe that Law would contain himself; but that he saw clearly no bridle could hold him. ‘But,’ said the Regent, ‘believe me, I shall arrange matters so that there will be no risk of Law embroiling me with the King nor separating me from my allies. He is necessary to me in my financial affairs, but he will not be listened to in political matters, and I shall be on my guard against his mischievous designs.’ I should like to believe that the Regent said what he thinks, and that he really thought it at the moment he spoke to me; but, with all that, a great treasurer, such as Law, is first minister wherever he chances to be in office; and if Law’s system is established we are equally lost sooner or later. Further, believe me, we ought to be aware of this nation; we can never, with safety, count on their friendship, inasmuch as you could be a dangerous enemy to them, and can bring home to them the great injury we could cause them if they disagreed with us. On this account their friendship will be assured; but we shall miscalculate every time we depend on them in time of need. You will have received a messenger from the Abbé Dubois, who would inform you that I told him last Thursday that I would ask to be recalled. It is not from pique; but I see by the course things are taking that I shall no longer be able to render any service to the King at this court.”
In the middle of January, 1720, Lord Stanhope intimated the recall of Lord Stair to the French minister, and a few days afterwards it was known throughout Paris. The manner of his recall was by no means courteous, but Lord Stair received the news with apparently unruffled temper, and expressed no regret in dimitting office since he recognised the difficulty and the delicacy of the position in which he had placed himself. Notwithstanding, however, the manner of his discharge—a discharge which was virtually a disgrace—he declared that it would not alter his unchangeable devotion to the service of his King and country. So serious a view did the English government take of the probable consequences of Stair’s efforts to circumvent Law that they deemed it necessary to send Lord Stanhope himself to Paris in order to conciliate Law and to disclaim any animosity on the part of England towards him. Such a step showed at once a callous indifference to the feelings of Lord Stair, and greatly gratified Law, who seemingly occupied the proud position of being able to bring England to the humiliating necessity of asking his pardon for the hostility to him of her minister. Stanhope also promised to give Law’s son a regiment, and to secure that a writ of summons should be issued calling Lord Banbury, his brother-in-law, to the House of Lords, a question as to his title having arisen which had hitherto denied him this privilege. Lord Stair refers to this step by his government in a letter dated 14th February, 1720. “As to Lord Stanhope, I have ever had a very great value and esteem for him; and I have upon all occasions endeavoured to give him the sincerest proofs of my friendship and faithful attachment to him; and I dare say it, with great truth, that I have not given him the least reason to complain of me personally. I am sorry if I have not been able to deserve his esteem, but I am sure I have deserved his friendship, at least his good-will. What has happened lately, I own to you, has piqued me very much, especially the manner of doing it; but I reckon that has proceeded from his views as a minister, in which I think he has been very much mistaken. I shall readily agree with you that if his lordship has gained Mr. Law, and made him lay aside his ill-will and ill-designs against his country, he did very right to make all sorts of advances to him, to give his son a regiment, to engage to bring Lord Banbury into the House of Lords, to sacrifice the King’s ambassador to him. If I had thought Mr. Law to be gained, I should very readily have advised to do all these very things and a great deal more. But if his lordship has not gained Mr. Law I am afraid we shall not find our account in Lord Stanhope’s supporting, when he is ready to fall, in making him first minister, and in destroying the personal credit I had with the Regent, and recalling me from this court, when my long stay should have enabled me to be better able to judge of their designs and of their ways of working than a stranger of greater capacity could probably be. A little time will show who has judged right. I do most heartily wish, for the good of my country, that I may be found to have framed a wrong judgment; but I own to you I have seen nothing yet to make me change my opinion, but on the contrary, new things every day do confirm me that Mr. Law’s designs and the views of this court are just what I represented them to be. You do me great wrong if you say that I advised to break with the Regent if he did not agree to part with Mr. Law. You will find no such thing in any of my letters. You will find then, that I thought it was useful to endeavour to shake Mr. Law’s credit with his master, to make his master jealous of Mr. Law’s ambition, and apprehensive of the dangers his presumption might lead him into; and that I thought it was fit to stand in his way, as much as it was possible, to hinder him to gain an absolute power over the Regent’s mind, and to obstruct his becoming first minister. I thought it was fit to make Mr. Law lose his temper and to make him act in passion and rage. I had not succeeded in all these views when Lord Stanhope arrived and thought fit to demolish me and all my works at once. As to Mr. Law, I have no ill-will to him, but as I take him to be a dangerous enemy to my country, I am afraid time will but too plainly show that I have judged right in this matter. As to my revocation, if it was possible I should have a mind to stay in this country, you have made it impracticable. You have taken all effectual ways that could be thought of to destroy the personal credit I had with the Regent. You have made it plain to him that I have no credit with the King, that is to say with his ministers. Lord Stanhope has declared to Mr. Law that I shall be recalled, so that is no longer a question. You are under the necessity of sending another minister to this court.”