By his will he left it in the hands of trustees, making
arrangements for a perpetual succession, as the purposes of the trust
were not to be all accomplished for a period of several centuries. The
money was to be divided into five portions, each of 100 livres, and so
to be put out at compound interest.
The first portion was to be withdrawn at the end of a century: it
would then amount to 13,000 livres, or about L.550. It is scarcely
worth while mentioning the purposes to which this trifle was to be
applied, but for the credit of M. Ricard it may be mentioned that they
were all unexceptionable. In two centuries the second sum would be
released, amounting to 1,700,000 livres. At the end of the third
century, the third instalment was to be released, when it would
consist of 226,000,000 livres. The destination of these magnificent
sums was also unexceptionable--it was for national education, the
erecting of public libraries, and the like. The instalment to be
released at the end of the fourth century would amount to about
30,000,000,000 livres: it was to be employed partly in the building of
100 towns, each containing 150,000 inhabitants, in the most agreeable
parts of France.
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