MISS COSTELLO'S LIFE AND TIMES OF JACQUES CCEUR JACQUES CCEUR

was one of the most remarkable merchant-nobles of the middle ages, or indeed of any time, if reliance can be placed upon the somewhat hazy accounts of him that are recorded. His birth, parent- age, and early life, are unknown. Some accounts say his father was a goldsmith, others a fur-merchant, of Bourges; where Jacques, it is sup- posed, was born, at the latter end of the fourteenth century. It is al- leged that the future royal banker or minister of finance was a mercer in a small way at the beginning of his career, and that he became rich by learning the art of transmuting metals; "but that's a fable." During Charles the Seventh's distress whilst "king off Bourges," (1422-29,) Jacques Cceur was so far distinguished for wealth and liberality that he supplied the King with meals and money; though his dinner was not al- ways of the most regal kind—a present of "two fowls and a loin of mutton" being recorded as a supply. During this period, Jacques Ccenr Was appointed Master of the Mint at Bourges, and in more prosperous times at Paris; he also obtained some grants of mines. In 1433 he is mentioned by a pilgrim traveller, Bertrandon de la Brocquiere, as being in Damascus ; and his public greatness had not then reached its zenith, because the traveller speaks of him as one "who has since acted a great part in France, and was argentier to the King." How or by what means he founded his mercantile business and acquired his immense wealth, seems unknown ; but he was ennobled in 1440; and during the next decade acted as an envoy on several occasions became a sort of President of the States of Languedoc ; and advanced Charles two hundred thousand crowns when be undertook the expulsion of the English from Normandy, which was virtually accomplished in 1449. But when, on Charles the Seventh's triumphant entrance into Rouen, the argentier rode side by side with Dunois, wearing the same dress and caparisons, he had touched the highest point of all his greatness ; and henceforth his decline began. How much of his mis- fortunes is chargeable upon the envy of courts and the ingratitude of royalty—how much upon noble debtors, eager to discharge their debts by destroying their creditor, or a needy government itching for confisca- tion—and how much upon the real demerits of Jacques—it is difficult to say. His wealth, as reported, was most enormous: independently of his loans or gifts to the Crown and to private persons, and of his floating capital in trade, "no less than forty estates called him master, that of St. Fargeau alone containing more than twenty-two parishes." His ex- penditure was on the largest and most princely scale; and his family were highly advanced in church and state. That all this could have been acquired by the legitimate profits of his business and his offices, seems im- probable. He was doubtless ready to take advantage of the distresses con- sequent upon the English wars, and purchase property on good terms; which, though legal enough, could not be agreeable to its late owners : his ambition, and his ruffling it as an equal with great lords, was equally distasteful to the nobility : be is said to have had enemies amongst the mercantile body, especially the merchants of Italy, whose trade he had in a measure directed to France; and his great success alone would breed envy and odium. For some little time he was able to resist the arts of his enemies ; but in 1451 the King gave way ; Jacques Coeur was ar- rested, and his property seized. Of a variety of offences with which he was charged, the following are the most Specific. "The said Jacques Cceur was found charged, that, since the year 1429, he. being compagnon de. la ferme of our Seance at Bourges, caused to be coined crowns at a low price' such as crowns at seventy-six, eighty, and eighty-nine crowns the mark, and fourteen and fifteen carats, when he ought to have coined crowns of seventy to the mark, and eighteen carets, according to our royal ordi- nances; and by this means that be made a profit of from twenty to thirty crowns in the mark, when there should on4 have been two; thus defrauding and robbing us and the public treasure of our kingdom, and by so doing committing the crime of forgery.

"Again, that he was guilty of a similar offence in the year 1430. "Again, he is accused of having ceased a great quantity of armour to be trans- ported to the said Sameens and misbelievers, in order that his psople and his genies should be well treated, and be allowed to go free without paying the duties

for their trade in the spices of Alexandria which the Soldan exacts. And, worse than all, to have bribed the said Soldan by presenting him with harness in our name, although he had neither charge nor commission from us to do so; and the common report is, that the Saracens, in consequence of being provided with the said quantity of armour, gained a battle over the Christians; by which means blame has been thrown on us for having suffered such an act, those persons who blame us considering that we were cognizant of that of which we were ignorant

"Also, Jacques Ccear is accused of having sent great quantities of copper to the Saracens; and to have caused ingots of the same to be made in our kingdom, and to have adulterated our money, and caused to be made current base coin, after having sold to the Saracens and miscreants large quantities of white money so adulterated, without licence from us; thus enriching our enemies and impove- rishing us.

"And, to secure the end he had in view, JacquesCceur, by his authority having power in his hands, caused a false seal with a fleur-de-lis to be made and used by his people, factors, and servants, falsifying and counterfeiting our mark; from whence great dishonour has fallen on our subjects: for the Saracens who had bought the said money, supposing it to be according to law, and afterwards find- ing it light, have commonly, and in the presence of many foreign merchants, accused the French of being cheats. "Also, that, against our laws and ordinances, the said Jacques Cceur trans- ported great quantities of money, as well gold as silver, to Avignon and elsewhere out of the kingdom, when, as having been our Master of the Mint, he could not but be acquainted with our laws on this subject "The said Jacques Cceur is also charged with the following: in 1443, his galley called Saint Denis being at Alexandria, and having for its captain Miche-

let Teinturier, a young child of fourteen or fifteen years of age, a Christian, being in the land of Prester John, detained captive by a Saracen, did on board the said galley throw himself on his knees before the said captain crying, Pater nester! Ave Maria!' and proclaiming that he wished to be a captain, Christian, and that for that cause he had fled from the house of his master the Saracen; and that the said Michelet caused him to be brought in the galley as far as our town of Mont- pellier; where the said child remained for more than two months with certain of

the townspeople and merchants, and also with Master Pierre du Moulin, then Archbishop of Toulouse, serving him as his groom; during which time the said

child acted as a Christian, going to church, hearing mass like others, and allowed

his liberty, without any impediment such as slaves are accustomed to. Neverthe- less, the said Jacques Coeur, coming to Montpellier, summoned the said Teintu-

rier before him, and received him very ill, saying many injurious things to him,

and reprimanding him severely for having brought the said slave from Alexandria and robbed his master of him, in consequence of which his gallies might in future suffer; and that Teinturier excused himself, and related to the said Jacques Cur how the case stood, showing that there was little danger to his vessels, for that the Saracen would rather have fifty ducats than the said child: neverthe less, Jacques Ccenr paid no attention to these representations, but insisted that the child should be restored to his master. declaring that if any harm came to

any of his vessels through this act he would the said Michelet and his father

also. And he sent also for Isaac Teinturier the father, and repeated the same threat to him, swearing to destroy him, body and goods, if he did not immediately repair what had been done. Upon which the said child was seized upon by the orders of Jacques Creur, and for more than two months imprisoned in the prisons of the bailly of our said town of Montpellier, until the gullies of Jacques Comr were ready to transport him back to the country of the Saracens; where he was delivered to his master, and has since renounced the Christian religion. The said Jacques (Jour having thus committed great and enormous crimes, those of lese majesty, public force, private imprisonment, transportation without privilege, and others. * * S • "Also, for turning to his own profit certain farms and fairs in Languedoc in- stead of rendering an account to us for the profits of the same; at the same lime deceiving those who were companions with him in the said lands, and obtaining money for them as if for our profit and advantage, to the amount of nine thou- sand five hundred and fifty lines. "Also, without our knowledge, having taxed our said subjects of Languedoc, and committed great exactions by means sometimes of bribes and sometimes by gifts, so that our people and country were reduced to destitution. "Also, that having thus deceived us and obtained large quantities of our re venues, the said Jacques Cceur has affected to supply us with loans of his own money, in truth drawn from our own funds; and that we have been forced to enter into engagements to pay the said loans by new burdens on our own revenues," &c.

The exporting of money was only the violation of a rule impossible for merchants to comply with ; the Sultan's suit of armour, there is no doubt, was sent with the sanction of the King; the defence touch- ing the slave boy was conclusive to reason, whatever it might be to the opinion of the age; the answer to the charges of provincial extortion seems to have been sufficient ; but we trace no reply to the accusation of tampering with the currency, or of supplying the Infidels with arms. Right or wrong, however, the condemnation of the wealthy criminal was predetermined : he was condemned to death, and his property forfeited. But the King spared his life; and the capital which was abroad appears to have been retained by the factors of Jacques for their master. After a short time, he escaped from a free custody, and arrived at Rome ; where the Pope received him with much consideration, and the wrecks of his fortune still left him a wealthy man. He died, it is sup- posed, about the year 14.56; but the place and the exact year are both uncertain.

The mere biography of Jacques Cseur might have been comprised in a pamphlet : Miss Costello has expanded it to a volume of more than four hundred pages. The only mode by which this could be properly done, was by embodying the life of the merchant and financier with the com- mercial and financial history of the period, at least in relation to France and the East. This Miss Costello is incapable of doing : what she has done is as bad as bad can be. A more extraordinary specimen of book-stuffing we never encountered; it surpasses even her "Memoirs of Eminent Englishwomen," which we thought had reached the tie plus ultra. Things and persons that have no other relation to Jacques Cceur than their being contemporary with him are pressed into the service; and because somebody thinks he died in the naval ser- vice of the Pope, when an effort was made to check the Ottoman power after the capture of Constantinople, the denouement is suspended to gave a long account of an abortive effort to get up a crusade against Mahomet the Second. Even—but criticism is thrown away. Amidst all the bad bookmaking of the age, Jacques (Jour the French Argonaut ill, we

think, the worst.