LAW, John, commonly known by the name of the Projector, was the eldest son of William Law, and was born at Edinburgh in the month of April 1671. His father followed the profession of goldsmith or banker, with so much success, that he was enabled to purchase the lands of Lauriston and Randleston, which afterwards descended to his son. The latter was educated at Edinburgh, where he is said to have made some progress in literature; but the bent of his genius having led him to study arithmetic and geometry, he attained such proficiency in these branches, as to be able to solve with facility the most intricate problems; and he likewise made himself master of algebra. The principles of public and private credit, the state of trade and of manufactures, the theory and practice of taxation, and other matters connected with political economy, also engaged his attention; and the accession of knowledge resulting from these inquiries laid the foundation of his future eminence. But he soon became noted as a man of pleasure as well as of study. Having lost his father before he had completed his fourteenth year, he was thus left at an early age without paternal control; and as the graces of a naturally handsome person were improved by the acquisition of external accomplishments, Jessamy John, or Beau Law, as he was indifferently called by his companions, addicted himself to the practice of all games of chance, skill, and dexterity, and appears to have engaged in other pursuits of a still more questionable character. In 1694, he visited London, where his wit and accomplishments procured him admission into the first circles, whilst his extravagance speedily involved him in difficulties. At this time he was noted for his propensity to deep play, and for his gallantries amongst women. By the former, he injured his fortune; in consequence of the latter, he narrowly escaped an ignominious end. An intrigue which he had with a Mrs Lawrence proved the occasion of a quarrel between him and one Mr Edward Wilson; a hostile meeting ensued, and Mr Law killed his antagonist on the spot. He was immediately apprehended, and brought to trial at the Old Bailey, on a charge of murder; and being found guilty, received sentence of death. Upon a representation of the case to the crown, however, Law obtained a pardon; but an appeal being lodged by a brother of the deceased, he was detained in the King’s Bench prison. This appeal was brought before the court of King’s Bench in Trinity-term 1694; and as the exceptions taken on the part of Law were overruled by the court, the latter, judging it prudent not to await the result, found means to escape from prison,^[1. In the London Gazette of Monday, 7th January 1G95, a reward o'f fifty pounds was offered for the apprehension of “ Captain John Law, a Scotchman, lately a prisoner in the King’s Bench for murther,” who is described as “a very tall, black, lean man, well shaped, above six foot high, large pock-holes in his face, big high nosed, speaks broad and loud.” This description, which conveys no very favourable idea of Law’s personal appearance, and differs from his real portrait, is supposed by Mr Wood to have been drawn up with a view to facilitate his escape. The prefix of “Captain,” which is otherwise a good travelling title, may also, perhaps, be explained on the same hypothesis. ] and retired to the Continent.

During his stay abroad, he acted for some time as secretary to the British resident in Holland, and occupied himself in improving his knowledge of financial operations, and particularly in making himself acquainted with the constitution and practical operation of the bank of Amsterdam. He returned to his native country in 1700, and in that year appears to have written his Proposals and Reasons for Establishing α Council of Trade, which was published at Edinburgh early in 1701. His project met with no encouragement; but the publication had the effect of making him known to some of the principal personages of the country, including the Duke of Argyll, his sons the Marquis of Lorn and Lord Archibald Campbell, the Marquis of Tweeddale, and other persons of distinction. Relying upon the support of these noblemen, he offered to the Scottish parliament, in 1705, a plan for removing the difficulties under which the kingdom then laboured from the scarcity of specie, and the stoppage of payments by the bank; and, with a view to further his object, he published another work, entitled Money and Trade considered, with a Proposal for Supplying the Nation with Money, which appeared at Edinburgh the same year. His “proposal” was, that commissioners, to be appointed by an act, under the control of parliament, should be empowered to issue notes, either in the way of loan, at ordinary interest, upon landed security, the debt, however, not to exceed half, or at the most two thirds, of the value of the land; or upon landpledges, redeemable within a certain period, to the full [7:13:148]value of the land; or, lastly, upon sale irredeemably to the amount of the price agreed upon. Paper-money, thus issued and secured, would, he conceived, be equal in value to gold and silver money of the same denomination, and might even be preferred to these metals, as not being, like them, liable to fall in value. But this scheme, though supported by the united weight of the court party, and of that called the squadrone, headed by the Duke of Argyll and the Marquis of Tweeddale, was rejected by the parliament, which resolved, “that to establish any kind of paper credit, so as to oblige it to pass, was an improper expedient for the nation.” The rejection of the plan was occasioned by an apprehension, that if it were adopted, all the estates of the kingdom would thereby be brought to a complete dependence upon the government.

Mr Law now resolved to abandon his native country, and to try his fortune abroad. He resided some time at Brussels, where he became noted for extraordinary success at play; and in two excursions which he made to Paris, his good fortune at the gaming-table became still more conspicuous. Having visited the principal cities of Italy, he continued the same career, playing at all sorts of games, and betting and speculating in the public funds and banks, with uninterrupted success; insomuch that, in theyear 1714, he was worth upwards of L.l 10,000 sterling. During these rambles, Law, having the advantage of a graceful figure and an insinuating address, was everywhere well received by persons of the highest quality. At Florence he became acquainted with the Duke de Vendôme, whom he had the honour to oblige with the loan of a considerable sum of money. At Neufchâtel he obtained access to the Prince of Conti, to whom he imparted some of his financial projects. During a short residence at Turin, he communicated to Victor Amadeus, king of Sardinia, a scheme for aggrandising his territories, of the same nature as that which he afterwards proposed to the Duke of Orleans; but the prudent monarch declined embarking in so perilous an adventure, observing to the projector, that his dominions were too small for the execution of so great a design, and that France was the proper theatre for such speculations. “If I know the disposition of the people of that country,” added Victor Amadeus, “I am sure they will relish your schemes; and therefore I would advise you to go thither without delay.”

Law took the advice which was thus given him, and re-, turned to Paris, where he arrived in 1714, not long before the death of Louis XIV. He was more favourably received than on the occasions of his former visits, when he appears to have been regarded as a mere adventurer; and soon gained the confidence of the Duke of Orleans to such a degree, that he was not only admitted to the convivial parties of the regent, but even nominated one of his counsellors of state. At this time the French finances were in the greatest disorder, indeed in a situation accounted desperate; the nation was burthened with an immense load of debt, contracted during the expensive wars of Louis XIV.; and the people groaned under the intolerable pressure of the taxes which had been imposed for payment of the interest. All industry was thus checked, and trade in a manner annihilated; manufactures, commerce, and navigation, had almost ceased; the merchant and the trader were reduced to beggary, and the artificer was compelled, for want of employment, to leave the kingdom. In a word, the state of affairs was such, that it had been debated in council, and actually proposed to apply a spunge to the debt, and to seek relief by means of a national bankruptcy. The proposal, however, was rejected by the regent, and a commission appointed to inquire into the claims of the state creditors, and endeavour to introduce some degree of order into the public finances. At this calamitous crisis, when the surplus of the public revenue, after payment of the interest of the debt, was found insufficient to defray the necessary expenses of the civil government, Law came forward with his favourite nostrum or panacea, and proposed to liquidate the debt, by establishing a bank for issuing notes secured upon landed property, and on the unalienable impledgement of all the royal revenues. The project seems to have been approved of, but as the conjuncture was thought unfavourable for risking so bold an experiment, his application proved ineffectual. Nothing discouraged, Law requested and obtained permission to establish a private bank, to consist entirely of funds advanced by himself, and others who chose to embark in the undertaking. The letters-patent, which are dated the 2d and 20th of May 1716, specify the principles upon which the bank had been established, as well as the regulations according to which it was to be conducted. The scheme promised success, and, in fact, the General Bank of Law and Company had acquired great credit, when, in December 1718, it was dissolved by an arrêt of the regent, who, observing the advantages resulting from the establishment, resolved to take it into the hands of government; a resolution which could not be very agreeable to the founder and his associates in the enterprise. Law, however, was named director-general of the Royal Bank, in which his own had merged; and branches were established at Lyons, Rochelle, Tours, Orleans, and Amiens.

Law now began to develope the stupendous project he had long meditated, and which afterwards became so well known to all Europe, under the name of the Mississippi System. This scheme was nothing less than the vesting of the whole privileges, effects, and possessions of all the foreign trading companies, the great farms, the mint, the general receipt of the king’s revenues, and the management and property of the bank, in one great company, who, having thus in their hands all the trade, taxes, and royal revenues, might be enabled to multiply the notes of the bank to any extent they pleased, doubling or even tripling at will the circulating medium of the kingdom, and, by the immensity of their funds, possessed of a power to carry the foreign trade and the improvement of the colonies to a height altogether unattainable by other means. This monstrous and impracticable monopoly was approved of by the regent, and by letters-patent a commercial company was established, under the name of the Company of the West; to which was at the same time granted the whole province of Louisiana, a country watered throughout its whole extent by the Mississippi, from which the project accordingly took its name. The scheme was well calculated to entrap the unwary and to seduce the speculative. Of this company 200,000 actions or shares were issued, at 500 livres each, and the subscriptions were made payable in a depreciated paper-currency, called billets d’etat, which, however, in the subscriptions, was taken at its full value. This could not fail to operate as a tempting bait to the holders of these billets or notes to lay them out in the purchase of shares, especially since the depreciation amounted to between sixty and seventy per cent. The company thus became creditors of the king to the extent of a hundred millions of livres, the interest of which sum was fixed at the rate of four per cent.

Law, who had now advanced high in the regent’s favour, was of course named director-general of the Company of the West, and thus intrusted with the development of his own stupendous project. Louisiana having been represented as a region abounding in gold and silver, and possessing a fertile soil capable of the highest cultivation, the actions or shares were bought up with the greatest avidity; and such was the rage for speculation, that the unimproved parts of the colony were actually sold for 30,000 livres the square league. In pursuance of the scheme, the farm of tobacco was made over to the company at an advance of rent exceeding two millions of livres. Soon afterwards [7:13:149]they acquired the charter and effects of the Senegal Company; and this was succeeded by a still more important acquisition, namely, the exclusive privilege of trading to the East Indies, China, and the South Seas, together with all the possessions and effects of the China and India companies, now dissolved, upon the condition of liquidating all just claims against them. Upon this occasion, the Company of the West assumed the title of Company of the Indies; and 50,000 new shares were ordered to be constituted, at 550 livres each, payable in coin. The price of actions quickly rose to 1000 livres each. On the 25th of July 1719, the mint was made over to this company for a consideration of fifty millions of livres, to be paid to the king within fifteen months; on the 27th of August following, the regent took out of the hands of the farmers-gen er al, and made over to them, the great farms, for which they agreed to pay an advance of rent of three millions and a half of livres; and, on the 31st of the same month, they also obtained the general receipt or collection of the other branches of the king’s revenue. Having acquired all these grants, and thus concentrated in themselves not only the whole foreign trade and possessions of France, but also the collection and management of the royal revenues, they promised an annual dividend of 200 livres on every share; the price of actions instantly rose in the market to 5000 livres; and the public ran with such eagerness upon the last creation of stock, that nearly double the requisite sum was subscribed, whilst the greatest interest was exerted, and every stratagem put in practice, to secure places in that subscription. The frenzy now became general. A rage for the acquisition of shares in the India Company seized and infatuated all ranks in the kingdom. Clergy and laity, peers and plebeians, princes and peasants, statesmen and magistrates, nay, even ladies, all, in short, who either had or could procure money for the purpose, turned stockjobbers, outbidding each other with such avidity, that in November 1719, the price of shares rose to above 10,000 livres, or (when the depreciation of the billets cľ état is taken into account) more than sixty times the sum they originally sold for. Nothing was talked of but actions; every place eehoed with Mississippi and Quinquempoix.^[2. The street where the stockjobbing was at first carried on. ] All classes appeared to have but one object, one pursuit. Mechanics laid aside their work, tradesmen forsook their shops, and persons of all grades neglected their professions or employments, to embark in this new occupation; whilst even the few who observed some degree of moderation, showed by their conduct how little concern they took in affairs foreign to the Mississippi scheme.^[3. The unexampled rise in the price of actions enabled obscure and humble individuals to acquire at once princely fortunes; and many amusing anecdotes are told of persons thus suddenly raised to affluence. A footman having realised a large sum, provided himself with a carriage; but the first day it drew up at his door, obeying the instinctive habit of his calling, he, instead of stepping into the vehicle, mounted up to his old station behind it. Another of the same fraternity, who had obeyed the like familiar impulse, endeavoured adroitly to cover his mistake by pretending that he got up merely to see if there was room at the back for two or three more lacqueys, whom be was resolved to hire instantly. Law’s coachman had made so great a fortune that he asked a dismission from the service of his master, which was granted, on condition of his procuring another as good as himself. Cook-maids and waiting-women appeared at the opera bedizzened with jewels and finery; many who had not a dozen livres in the world suddenly “tumbled from a garret into a carriage and the son of a baker at Toulouse, being desirous of having a superb service of plate, purchased the contents of a goldsmith’s shop for 40<),000 livres, and sent them home to his wife, with orders to set them out properly for supper. In a word, property underwent a new and most grotesque distribution. ] The delirium had reached its culminating point.

Mr Law now blazed a meteor of unequalled splendour. He possessed the ear of the Duke of Orleans; he was almost adored by the people, ever ready to worship at the shrine of the idol of the hour; and he was surrounded by princes, dukes, peers, marshals, and prelates, who all courted his friendship, and even seemed ambitious of bis patronage. Nobles were content to wait in his antechambers, like the meanest subjects; and ladies of the highest quality employed every artifice, sometimes at the risk of their necks, to attract his passing notice.^[4. The regent’s mother asserts, in one of her letters, that “si Laws le vouloit, les femmes Françoises lui baiseroient la derrière;” a strong expression, certainly, but one which shows that all ideas of delicacy, or even decency, were absorbed by the cupidity and avarice which had taken possession of the public mind. ] The property which he acquired was immense. He purchased no less than fourteen estates with titles annexed to them, and amongst these the marquisate of Rosny, which had belonged to the illustrious Sully, the friend and minister of Henry IV. About this period, too, a free pardon for the murder of Mr Wilson was conveyed to him from England; and Edinburgh, proud of having produced so great a personage, transmitted to him the freedom of the city in a gold box. By his abjuration of the Protestant religion, the only obstacle which stood in the way of bis advancement to the highest offices in the state was soon afterwards removed; and, on the oth of January 1720, he was appointed comptroller-general of the finances. A few days previous to this, the Aeademy of Sciences had elected him one of its honorary members; and the flattering incense of poetry was offered up at the same shrine with the homage of an infatuated people. Thus the astonished world beheld an obscure foreigner, of doubtful reputation and questionable character, rise in a few months from a private condition to the high station of prime minister of France, and govern for a time, with almost absolute power, one of the greatest and most enlightened nations of Europe. It might well be said of him, Tollitur in altum ut casu graviore cadat.

But after having raised himself to such an unexampled eminence, Law at length fell a sacrifiée to the intrigues of the other ministers, who, partly from envy, and partly from apprehension, combined with ignorance, undermined the insecure fabric he had reared, and thus precipitated its fall. The credit of the bank and of the India Company had attained its height in November 1719, when shares of the latter sold for more than 10,000 livres each, and money was so abundant in the former that the directors agreed to lend any sum upon proper security at two per cent. But amidst the general delirium, there were symptoms which evidently betokened an approaching revulsion. The most alarming of these was a constant drain of specie from the bank, either for the purpose of being hoarded or sent abroad. Astonished at their exorbitant gains, the original proprietors of the company thought only of converting their shares into gold, and realizing the fortunes which they had so suddenly acquired; and it was computed that not less than 500 millions of livres, the property of persons of this description, had been sent out of France. To avert the danger which thus threatened the system, several edicts were issued early in 1720, by which payments in specie were restricted to small sums, and the standard of the coin was kept in continual fluctuation, whilst bank-notes were declared to remain invariable, and rents, taxes, and customs, were made payable in notes. But what crowned all, was the edict of the 27th February 1720, prohibiting individuals, as well as secular or religious communities, from having in their possession more than 500 livres in specie, under the penalty of a [7:13:150]fine, and confiscation of all sums found exceeding that amount; a measure which could scarcely fail to sow distrust in the bosom of families, and to excite alarm in the public mind. Still the delusion prevailed. On the 23d of February, a few days before the publication of this edict, the Royal Bank had been incorporated with the company, and the king not only remained guarantee of the banknotes, but gave up to the company all the profits made by the bank since December 1718, when the government had taken it into its own hands. Meanwhile, the manufacture of notes proceeded with so much activity, that, by the 1st of May 1720, paper-money had been fabricated to the amount of more than 2600 millions of livres, or nearly L.l 10,000,000 sterling; whilst the specie in the kingdom was estimated at only 1300 millions of livres, or about L.52,000,000 sterling. In this state of matters, Cardinal Dubois and M. d’Argenson represented to the regent that it had become necessary to equalize the proportion between the notes and the coin, either by reducing the value of the one to the extent of a half, or by doubling that of the other.

This extraordinary point was debated in council, where it was opposed by some of the members, amongst whom was the comptroller-general, who strenuously contended for letting matters remain as they were; but the majority being in favour of the proposition for lowering the value of the paper, it was decided accordingly; and, on the 21st of May 1720, an edict was issued, which, contrary to all sound policy, and even to the most solemn stipulations, reduced the value of the company’s bank-notes one half, and fixed their actions or shares at 5000 livres. By this unjustifiable and fatal step, the whole paper fabric was destroyed in an instant, the notes lost all credit, and next day a man might have starved with 100 millions of paper money in his pocket. The consternation with which all ranks were seized was soon converted into rage, and it became necessary to station troops in different parts of the capital, to prevent the consequences to be apprehended from the fury and despair of the populace. Disorder and confusion reigned everywhere; seditious and inflammatory libels were posted up and distributed; and the life of the regent himself was threatened.^[5. Even in this season of calamity, the French exemplified the indestructible gaiety of their national character, by sporting with their own misfortunes in jests and epigrams. The following hebdomadal record is, perhaps, unique amongst jeux d ’ esprits. Lundi j’achetai des actions; Mardi je gagnai des millions; Mercredi j’arrangeai mon ménage; Jeudi je pris un équipage; Vendredi je m’en fus au bal; Et Samedi à l’hôpital. The Abbé, afterwards Cardinal, de Tencin, having had the principal share in Mr Law’s conversion, a service for which he was rewarded by the bishopric of Grenoble, is thus addressed by a malicious epigrammatist :— Foin de ton zèle séraphique, Malheureux Abbé de Tencin! Depuis que Laws est Catholique, Tout le royaume est Capuςin. ] Some conception may be formed of the distress of the people, when it is considered that at the time when the bank thus stopped payment, and the value of paper money instantly sunk to zero, not less than 2,235,085,590 livres, or upwards of L.90,000,000 sterling in notes, were in circulation. Law was of course peculiarly obnoxious to popular odium, which he endeavoured in vain to allay by resigning into the hands of the regent his office of comptroller-general, on the 29th of May; but, though several times exposed to imminent danger, from the vengeance both of the parliament and the people, he remained in France until towards the close of the year 1720, when he withdrew to Brussels; and soon afterwards his whole property was confiscated, and his brother William sent to the Bastile.

Law arrived at Brussels on the 22d of December 1720, and, after waiting there for some time, in the vain expectation of being recalled to France, set out for Venice, which he reached early in January 1721; he then visited other places on the Continent, and, in October, arrived in England, for the ostensible purpose of pleading the king’s pardon. He was at first well received, and visited by persons of distinction; but when it was discovered that the fallen financier was in a state almost bordering upon destitution, his friends began to fall off, and, of those who had known or perhaps courted him in his day of power, he could find none good-natured enough to lend him a thousand pounds. In a letter addressed to Mrs Howard, afterwards Countess of Suffolk, he calls that lady his “only friend an avowal which affords a striking instance of the instability of fortune, power, and friendship. After residing some years in England, this extraordinary man returned once more to the Continent, and closed his chequered career at Venice, where, on the 21st of March 1729, he died in a state but little removed from indigence, in the fifty-eighth year of his age. Soon after his death appeared the following epitaph, the point of which reminds us of the bitter jests which appeared upon the occasion of his fall

Ci gît cet Ecossois célèbre,,

Ce calculateur sans égal,

Qui, par les règles de l’algèbre, A mis la France à l’hôpital.

We do not think that any great difference of opinion can now be entertained respecting the real character of Law’s project; and indeed it seems to be generally agreed that, even if it had not been violently interrupted by the edict of the regent, it was too insecure in its principles to have proved permanent. The favourite maxim inculcated by Law, and upon which his whole fabric of the Mississippi system was reared; namely, that the power and prosperity of a nation increase in proportion to the quantity of money circulating therein, and that, as the richest nations have not specie sufficient to afford full employment to their inhabitants, this defect may be supplied by paper credit; involves a dangerous fallacy, even in the most restricted view that can be taken of its application, inasmuch as it implies that paper money may be issued with advantage to an almost unlimited extent, upon general security; and that its credit, or, in other words, its value, may thus be maintained without its being rendered convertible at pleasure into cash. But all experience has proved that this is absolutely impossible. When paper is in excess, in comparison with the total amount of gold and silver currency, it necessarily becomes depreciated; the prices of commodities experience a corresponding rise; the nominal value of the precious metals is increased in proportion to the amount of the depreciation, of which this increase is the only measure, and they disappear from circulation. All existing contracts and obligations are disturbed; debtors benefited at the expense of creditors; a spirit of reckless speculation and adventure is thus engendered; and, after a time, the crisis of revulsion and ruin arrives. Whenever the quantity of money in circulation is too great in propor-tlon[7:13:151] to the total amount of commodities to be circulated by it, depreciation is the necessary consequence, or, in other words, a proportional rise in the price of commodities. Money has no creative power, as Law seems all along to have imagined, and can never be in excess without endangering “the power and prosperity” of the nation where this is the case. His whole system, therefore, was built upon a sandy foundation, and, even if it had received no rude or sudden shock, would have fallen to pieces from its own insecurity and instability. At the same time, there is much truth in an observation of Mr Burke, in his Reflections on the French Revolution, “It is not true,” says he, “that Law built solely on a speculation concerning the Mississippi; he added the East India trade, he added the African trade, he added the farms of all the farmed revenue of France; all these unquestionably could not support the structure which the public enthusiasm, not he, chose to build on these bases.” He laid the best foundation that he could, perhaps the best which, in the circumstances, it was possible to lay; but the nation went suddenly mad, an event which he could scarcely have foreseen; the company was hurried onwards by the general frenzy; and when the delirium had reached its height, the regent was advised to issue the fatal edict, which levelled the whole fabric with the dust.

(See Oeuvres de Law, passim; Histoire du Systeme des Finances, tom. i.; Pollnitz, Mémoires; Massillon, Mémoires de la Minorite de Louis X V. ; Mémoires de la Régence de Μ. le Duc d' Orleans, tom. i.; Richelieu, Mémoires, tom. iii.; Voltaire, Siècle de Louis XV. ; Chalmers’s Biog. Diet. art. Law ; Wood, Life of John Law of Lauriston, Edinburgh, 1824.) (a.) Law, Edmund, bishop of Carlisle, was born in the parish of Cartmel, in Lancashire, in the year 1703. His father, who was a clergyman, held a small chapel in that neighbourhood; but the family had been situated at Askham, in the county of Westmoreland. He was educated for some time at Cartmel school, and afterwards at the free grammar-school of Kendal, from which he went, well instructed in the learning of grammar-schools, to St John’s College in Cambridge.

Soon after taking his first degree, he was elected fellow of Christ College in that university. During his residence in this college, he became known to the public by a translation of Archbishop King’s Essay on the Origin of Evil, with copious notes; in which many metaphysical subjects, curious and interesting in their Own nature, are treated of with ingenuity, learning, and novelty. To this work was prefixed, under the name of a preliminary dissertation, a very valuable piece, written by the Reverend Mr Gay of Sidney College. He also, whilst at Christ College, undertook and went through a laborious task, in preparing for the press an edition of Stephens’s Thesaurus. His acquaintance, during this his first residence in the university, was principally with Dr Waterland, the learned master of Magdalen College; Dr Jortin, a name known to every scholar; and Dr Taylor, the editor of the Demosthenes.

In the year 1737 he was presented by the university to the living of Graystock in the county of Cumberland, a rectory of about L.300 a year. The advowson of this benefice belonged to the family of the Howards of Graystock, but devolved to the university, for this turn, by virtue of an act of parliament, which transferred to these two bodies the nomination to such benefices as appertained, at the time of the vacancy, to the patronage of a Roman Catholic. The right, however, of the university was contested; and it was not until after a law-suit of two years’ continuance that Mr Law was settled in his living. Soon after this, he married a daughter of Mr John Christian of Unerigg, in the county of Cumberland.

In 1743, he was promoted by Sir George Fleming, bishop of Carlisle, to the archdeaconry of that diocese; and in 1746 he went from Graystock to reside at Salkeld, a pleasant village upon the banks of the river Eden, the rectory of which is annexed to the archdeaconry. Mr Law was not one of those who lose and forget themselves in the country. During his residence at Salkeld, he published Considerations on the Theory of Religion; to which were subjoined, Reflections on the Life and Character of Christ, and an appendix concerning the use of the words Soul and Spirit in Holy Scripture, and the state of the Dead there described.

At this time Dr Keene held, with the bishopric of Chester, the mastership of Peterhouse in Cambridge. Desiring to leave the university, he caused Dr Law to be elected to succeed him in that station. This took place in the year 1756, in which Dr Law resigned his archdeaconry in favour of Mr Eyre, a brother-in-law of Dr Keene. Two years before this, he had taken his degree of doctor of divinity, in his public exercise for which, he defended the doctrine of what is usually called the “sleep of the soul.”

About the year 1760, he was appointed principal librarian of the university; a situation which, as it procured him an easy access to books, was peculiarly agreeable to his taste and habits. Some time after this, he was also appointed casuistical professor. In the year 1762, he suffered an irreparable loss by the death of his lady. Some years afterwards, he received several preferments, which were rather honourable expressions of regard from his friends, than of much advantage to his fortune.

Dr Cornwallis, then bishop of Litchfield, afterwards archbishop of Canterbury, who had been his pupil at Christ College, appointed him to the archdeaconry of Staffordshire, and to a prebend in the church of Litchfield. Dr Green, bishop of Lincoln, his old acquaintance, made him a prebendary of that church. In the year 1767, he obtained a stall in the cathedral church of Durham, by the intervention of the Duke of Newcastle, to whose interest, in the memorable contest for the high stewardship of the university, he had adhered, in opposition to some strong temptations. The year after this, the Duke of Grafton, who had a short time before been elected chancellor of the university, recommended the master of Peterhouse to his majesty for the bishopric of Carlisle. This recommendation was made not only without solicitation on his part or on that of his friends, but without his knowledge, until the duke’s intention in his favour was signified to him by the archbishop.

About the year 1777, Bishop Law gave to the public a handsome edition, in three volumes quarto, of the works of Mr Locke, with a Life of the Author, and a Preface. Mr Locke’s writings and character he held in the highest esteem, and seems to have drawn from them many of his own principles. He was a disciple of that school. About the same time he published a tract, which attracted some attention, on the controversy concerning subscription; and he published new editions of his two principal works, with considerable additions, and some alterations.

Dr Law held the sec of Carlisle for nearly nineteen years, during which time he twice only omitted spending the summer months in his diocese at the bishop’s residence at Rose Castle; a situation with which he was much pleased, not only on account of the natural beauty of the place, but because it restored him to the country in which he had spent the best part of his life. In the year 1787, he paid this visit in a state of great weakness and exhaustion, and died at Rose Castle about a month after his arrival there, on the 14th of August, being then in the eighty-fourth year of his age.

The life of the Bishop of Carlisle was a life of incessant reading and thought, almost entirely directed to metaphysical and religious inquiries. Besides the works already mentioned, he published, in 1734 or 1735, a very ingenious Inquiry into the Ideas of Space and Time, in which he [7:13:152]combats the opinions of Dr Clarke and his adherents on these subjects; but the tenet by which his name and writings are principally distinguished is, “that Jesus Christ, at his second coming, will, by an act of his power, restore to life and consciousness the dead of the human species, who, by their own nature, and without this interposition, would remain in the state of insensibility to which the death brought upon mankind by the sin of Adam had reduced them.” He interpreted literally that saying of St Paul ( 1 Cor. XV. 21), “As by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.” This opinion had no other effect upon his own mind than to increase his reverence for Christianity, and for its divine founder. He retained it, as he did his other speculative opinions, without laying, as many are wont to do, an extravagant stress upon their importance, and without pretending to more certainty than the subject admitted of. No man formed his own conclusions with more freedom, or treated those of others with greater candour and equity. He never quarrelled with any person for differing from him, or considered that difference as a sufficient reason for questioning any man’s sincerity, or judging meanly of his understanding. He was zealously attached to religious liberty, because he thought that it leads to truth; yet from his heart he loved peace. There was nothing in his elevation to his bishopric which he spoke of with more pleasure, than its being a proof that decent freedom of inquiry was not discouraged.

He was a man of great softness of manners, and of the mildest and most tranquil disposition. His voice was never raised above its ordinary pitch. His countenance seemed never to have been ruffled; it preserved the same kind and composed aspect, truly indicating the calmness and benignity of his temper. He had an utter dislike of large and promiscuous companies. Next to his books, his chief satisfaction was in the serious conversation of a literary companion, or in the company of a few friends. In this sort of society he opened his mind without reserve, and with a peculiar turn and sprightliness of expression. His person was low, but well formed ,∙ and his complexion fair and delicate. Except occasional interruptions by the gout, he had for the greater part of his life enjoyed good health; and, when not confined by that distemper, he was full of motion and activity. About nine years before his death, he was greatly enfeebled by a severe attack of the gout in his stomach, and, a short time afterwards, lost the use of one of his legs. Notwithstanding his fondness of exercise, he resigned himself to this change, not only without complaint, but without any sensible diminution of his cheerfulness and good humour. His fault was the general fault of retired and studious characters, too great a degree of inaction and facility in his public station. The modesty, or rather bashfulness, of his nature, together with an extreme unwillingness to give pain, rendered him sometimes less firm and efficient in the administration of authority than was requisite. But this is the condition of human frailty. There is an opposition between some virtues which seldom permits them to subsist together in perfection.

Law, William, the author of many pious works, some of which obtained great popularity, was born at King’s·; cliffe, Northamptonshire, in the year 1686. Having completed his school education, he entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge, in 1705; commenced bachelor in 1708; was elected a fellow of his college in 1711; and took his degree of master of arts in 1712. Soon after the accession of George I. being called upon to take the oaths, and sign the declaration prescribed by act of parliament, he refused, and in consequence vacated his fellowship in 1716, after which he was considered as a nonjuror. It appears that he had for some time officiated as a curate in London, but had obtained no ecclesiastical preferment. Soon after his resignation of his fellowship, he went to reside at Putney, as tutor to Edward Gibbon, father of the historian of the same name; but how long he remained in this situation has not been ascertained. In 1727, he founded at Cliffe an alms-house for the reception of two old helpless women, and a school for the instruction and clothing of fourteen girls. The money which he thus applied was, it seems, the gift of an unknown benefactor. Whilst standing at the door of a shop in London, he was accosted by a person he had never seen before, who, having inquired his name, as well as whether he was of King’s-cliffe, and received a satisfactory answer on both points, put into his hands a sealed paper, containing a bank note for a thousand pounds. There is no evidence that this money was given him in trust for purposes of charity, and he is therefore fully entitled to the merit of having appropriated it for the benefit of the poor. It appears that, some time before 1740, he was instrumental in bringing about an intimacy between Mrs Hester Gibbon, the sister of his pupil, and Mrs Elizabeth Hutcheson, the widow of a gentleman of the Middle Temple. This circumstance, trifling as it may seem, decided the direction and character of his future life. These ladies, being of congenial sentiments, formed a plan of living together in the country, secluded from the world, and of’ assuming Mr Law as their chaplain, instructor, and almoner. With this view, they ultimately settled at King’s-cliffe, in a house prepared for their reception by Mr Law, and which formed the only property that had been devised to him by his father. Here their whole income, after deducting necessary expenses, was employed in acts of beneficence to the needy and the afflicted, or in donations of larger amount to persons of a somewhat higher grade who had known better days, but whom misfortune had reduced to poverty. In this situation Law remained twenty years, and died on the 9th of April 1761, in the seventy-fifth year of his age.

Gibbon, in his Miscellaneous Works, has drawn the character of Law in the happiest manner, and for once commended a man of piety, not only without irony, but even with a feeling approaching to affection. “In our family,” says the historian, “he left the reputation of a worthy and pious man, who believed all that he professed, and practised all that he enjoined. The character of a nonjuror, which he maintained to the last, is a sufficient evidence of his principles in church and state; and the sacrifice of interest to conscience will always be respectable. His theological writings, which our domestic connexion has tempted me to peruse, preserve an imperfect sort of life, and I can pronounce with more confidence and knowledge on the merits of the author. His last compositions are darkly tinctured by the incomprehensible visions of Jacob Behmen; and his discourse on the absolute unlawfulness of stage-entertainments is sometimes quoted for a ridiculous intemperance of sentiment and language. But these sallies of religious phrensy must not extinguish the praise which is due to Mr William Law as a wit and a scholar. His argument on topics of less absurdity is specious and acute, his manner is lively, his style forcible and clear; and, had not his vigorous mind been clouded by enthusiasm, he might be ranked with the most agreeable and ingenious writers of the times. While the Bangorian controversy was a fashionable theme, he entered the lists on the subject of Christ’s kingdom, and the authority of the priesthood; against the Plain Account of the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, he resumed the combat with Bishop Hoadly, the object of Whig idolatry and/sory abhorrence; and at every weapon of attack and defence, the nonjuror, on the ground which is common to both, approves himself at least equal to the prelate. On the appearance of the Pable of the Bees, he drew his pen against the licentious doctrine that private vices are public benefits, and morality as well as religion must join in his applause[7:13:153]. Mr Law’s master-work, the Serious Call, is still read as a popular and powerful book of devotion. His precepts are rigid, but they are founded on the gospel; his satire is sharp, but it is drawn from the knowledge of human life; and many of his portraits are not unworthy of the pen of La Bruyère. If he finds a spark of piety in the reader’s mind, he will soon kindle it to a flame; and a philosopher must allow that he exposes, with equal severity and truth, the strange contradiction between the faith and practice of the Christian world.”

Mr Law’s works amount to nine volumes octavo, comprising, besides a collection of letters, sixteen distinct treatises, which, however, it is unnecessary to enumerate, seeing they are all printed together. Although Law is best known as a devotional writer, and there can be no doubt that his Serious CaU, and Christian Perfection, have proved eminently useful in leading many to think in earnest of religion, yet his merits as a controversial writer are of a very high order, and, in respect of style, wit, and argument, his letters to Bishop Hoadly are amongst the finest specimens of polemical composition to be found in our language. . (a.)