near Edinburgh. On the death of the elder Law, bequeathing Lauriston to his only son, the latter was a youth of fourteen, and had already perhaps been led, through his father's business, to gain some insight into banking. He was well educated at Edinburgh. His peculiar genius first developed itself in a fondness for and skill in games of chance. If he was successful, he was extravagant, and when he attained his majority his affairs were much embarrassed. "Beau Law," as the young prodigal was called, now proceeded to London. His manners and dexterity at play seem to have procured him admission into society; but his metropolitan career was not of long duration. A quarrel with a brother roué was followed by a duel, in which his antagonist fell. Law was tried for murder at the Old Bailey, and sentence of death recorded against him on the 20th April, 1694. He was pardoned, but ordered to be detained in the king's bench, from which he contrived to escape and made his way to Paris. There he studied the financial and banking systems of France, as afterwards those of Holland at Amsterdam, where he is said to have been for some time secretary to the British resident. With his head full of projects, he returned to Scotland about 1700, and immediately began to broach schemes for the improvement of his native country, based on a centralization of industry, and an increase of the circulating medium. His "Proposals and reasons for constituting a Council of Trade," was published in Glasgow in 1701, and followed by another pamphlet, "Money and Trade considered, with a proposal for supplying the nation with money." In this treatise was developed Law's fundamental error, which lay in identifying the prosperity of a nation with the amount of its circulating medium. He proposed—and his proposal has often since been resuscitated—the establishment of a bank issuing notes on the security of land, and he enforced the superiority of paper over coin as a circulating medium. Some influential Scottish noblemen supported him, but his scheme was rejected by the parliament; and Law once more proceeded to the continent, to seek abroad the encouragement denied him at home. During the first years of this second visit to the continent, he insinuated himself into the good graces of the young duke of Orleans, and is said to have amassed £100,000 by successful play. On the death of Louis XIV., leaving France exhausted by the war of succession and on the brink of national bankruptcy. Law reappeared in Paris, and proposed to his former intimate the duke of Orleans, now regent, a series of schemes for the restoration of French finance. At first, however, his success was limited to procuring the sanction of the government to his establishment of a private bank of circulation with his own funds, and those of some associates. With a capital of £300,000, this bank was established by letters patent in May, 1716. It was allowed to issue notes payable at sight, in specie of the same weight and fineness as that of the date of its establishment; and as the value of the currency of France, from debasement and other causes, was subject to constant fluctuations. Law's notes rose to a premium, and his bank was rapidly prosperous. But Law was not content with this success; a few months after the establishment of his private bank, he began to broach his famous Mississippi scheme. His private bank was to be converted into a state bank, which was to allure shareholders, by tailing from them in payment of shares and at par, their scrip of the public debt of France, then very much depreciated. With the bank was to be connected the Mississippi company, with rights of sovereignty over recently acquired Louisiana, the mineral and other wealth of which was painted in glowing terms. Law succeeded in procuring the conversion of his bank and the establishment of his company, to which new and enormous privileges were added. The monopoly of tobacco, the fanning of the revenue, were committed to the new institution, with which were amalgamated all the companies trading to the East, and something like a monopoly of the commerce of both hemispheres was in its hands. The notes of the bank were a legal tender, and investors were enticed by the gigantic programme of the company. The French public took the fever of speculation. Everybody rushed forward to purchase shares. Towards the close of 1719 the Mississippi stock had risen to 1200 per cent., and in the spring of the following year to 2000 per cent, of its original value. Enormous fortunes were made, and persons of the lowest class became millionaires in a few days. While the frenzy lasted, Law was on the pinnacle of popularity, courted and caressed by the highest personages of church and state. One honour only was wanting to him, the controllership of the finances, really the most important office in the administration of France. It was objected that he was a protestant, but he yielded to argument and became a Roman catholic. In the January of 1720, the Scotch adventurer was appointed controller-general of the finances of the most powerful of European countries. Law's culmination was soon followed by his fall. The notes of the new bank were not as in the former instance, made payable in specie of the same weight and fineness as of the date of their issue; the country was flooded with paper money; and specie rapidly disappeared. Prices rose enormously. Moreover, Law had enemies in the councils of the regent, Dubois among them. At their instigation, and in the May of 1720, a decree was issued, reducing the value of the Mississippi shares four-ninths, and of the notes one-half. Riots and a general social paralysis were the result. In vain, after a temporary reinstatement of Law in the favour of the regent, were all sorts of devices resorted to. The decree was revoked, and an attempt was even made to prohibit payments in specie, except for small sums. The bubble had burst, and public confidence in the Mississippi scheme was gone for ever. Law bent before the storm and withdrew to Brussels, with a few hundred Louis d'ors, the wreck of his colossal fortune. After a short residence on the continent he returned to England, where he was presented to George I., and lionized in the metropolis. With the death of the regent, his official pension was stopped, and he was harassed by the demands of creditors in France. In 1725 he left England and took up his residence at Venice, where he died in indigent circumstances on the 21st of March, 1729. Apart from his reckless speculations. Law had a knowledge of banking, and an appreciation of its utility, rare in his day. His private character was indifferent. In the description of him issued after his escape from the king's bench, he is pourtrayed as "a black lean man, about six feet high, large pock-holes in his face, big high nose, speech broad and loud." The best account of his career is contained in the Memoir by Mr. John Philip Wood, published at Edinburgh in 1824.—F. E.
LAW, William, A.M., a native of King's Cliffe, Northamptonshire, where his father, Thomas Law, was a grocer, was born in 1686. It is thought that he went to school at Oakham, or at Uppingham; and it is certain that in 1705 he became a student of Emanuel college, Cambridge, where he became a fellow and took his degree of M.A. Soon after the accession of George I. he refused to take the oaths and subscribe the declaration, in consequence of which he had to vacate his fellowship in 1716, and took his place among the nonjurors. Law found a patron in the father of Edward Gibbon the historian, to whom he was appointed tutor. This selection is ascribed not only to his piety and ability, but to his political principles. When the Bangorian controversy broke out, in consequence of Hoadly's attack upon the nonjurors, Law assumed the defensive in three letters which have been celebrated both for their argumentative excellence and their style. The reply of Law is considered as perhaps the most powerful vindication ever published of the opinions and practices of the nonjuring clergy, and raised its author greatly in the estimation of candid and thoughtful persons. In 1721 he published his "Remarks on the Parable of the Bees," which is well known to collectors, but little read. In 1726 he brought out a work on "The Unlawfulness of Stage Entertainments," which some have regarded as the production of an amiable enthusiast, but others as an able argument against public dramatic exhibitions. The same year he issued his "Treatise on Christian Perfection," a work which contains passages of real beauty, and is pervaded by an admirable spirit of piety, the effect of which, however, is not a little impaired by a grievous prolixity. In 1727 Law founded an almshouse for two aged women, and a school for clothing and educating fourteen poor girls. His most celebrated work, the "Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life," appeared in 1729, and has been pronounced by Dr. Johnson "the finest piece of hortatory theology in our language." If this high praise has not been endorsed in our day, it is to be remembered that the work is still read and admired. Nothing like it had been then produced, and it at once became exceedingly popular, and has been very useful. After leaving Mr. Gibbon's house at Putney, Law, along with a Mrs. Hutcheson, entered into a curious project of Miss Gibbon's to retire altogether from the world. These ladies together had an income of about £3000, and it was determined that all which remained of this after paying household expenses should be devoted to acts of charity.
