Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 31.djvu/412

 proached with inconsistency by J. S. Mill, who had founded part of his argument in favour of that mode of land tenure upon Laing's ‘Residence in Norway’ (see, Political Economy, 6th ed. book II. chap. vi. § 3, and chap. vii. § 5 note). The same tendency towards conservatism is equally marked in the work on ‘Denmark and the Duchies.’ For the rest of his life Laing resided principally in Edinburgh, where he died at the house of his daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth Baxter, on 23 April 1868. He was buried in the Dean cemetery.

Laing married, in March 1809, Agnes, daughter of Captain Francis Kelly of Kelly, Devonshire. By her, who died in November 1812, he had issue the daughter above mentioned and a son, Samuel, formerly M.P. for Orkney, both of whom still live. 

LAING, WILLIAM (1764–1832), bookseller, born in Edinburgh on 20 July 1764, was educated at the grammar school in the Canongate. Leaving school in 1779 he was apprenticed to a printer, but left that employment in consequence of defective eyesight, and set up in 1785 as a bookseller in the Canongate. He subsequently removed lower down the street to Chessel's Buildings, where he remained until 1803, when he removed to South Bridge. From 1786 he began to issue annual catalogues, and his reputation as a collector of and authority on best editions and valuable books generally, both English and foreign, steadily increased. That as a collector he was not only indefatigable, but also intrepid, is shown by his visit to revolutionary Paris in 1793. Learning in 1799 that Christian VII of Denmark had been advised to dispose of the numerous duplicates in the Royal Library at Copenhagen, and being instigated by Niebuhr the historian, then a student at Edinburgh University, Laing promptly journeyed to Denmark and negotiated the purchase of the duplicates from the king's librarian, Dr. Moldenhawer. He made a rapid tour in search of book rarities in France and Holland during the breathing space afforded by the peace of Amiens. When the war recommenced he devoted his attention to the production in Edinburgh of a worthy edition of the Greek classics. He commenced this attempt in 1804 by the publication of ‘Thucydides, Græce et Latine; accedunt indices: ex editione Wassii et Dukeri,’ in 6 vols. sm. 8vo. This was followed by editions of Herodotus and Xenophon, to which Laing contemplated adding the works of Plato and Demosthenes, but was prevented by the difficulty of procuring competent editors. Towards the close of his life Laing, who had acquired considerable wealth, and whose shop had become a ‘veritable Herculaneum of the treasures of past ages,’ became one of the original directors of the Commercial Bank of Scotland. He died at his house, Ramsay Lodge, Lauriston, Edinburgh, on 10 April 1832, leaving a widow and nine children. His second son, David Laing the antiquary (1793–1878), is separately noticed. 

LAIRD, JOHN (1805–1874), shipbuilder, eldest son of William Laird, shipbuilder, of Birkenhead, and brother of Macgregor Laird [q. v.], was born at Greenock in 1805. At an early age he was associated with his father in the firm of William Laird & Son, of which he was for some years the managing partner. He was one of the earliest to turn his attention to the use of iron for the construction of ships, and in 1829 built a lighter of sixty tons for use on the Irish lakes and canals, the first, or one of the first, iron vessels ever constructed. In 1833 the style of the firm was changed to John Laird; he built the Lady Lansdowne, an iron paddle-wheel steamer, for the City of Dublin Steam Packet Co.; she was sent from Liverpool in pieces, and was put together on Loch Derg. In 1834 he built the John Randolph, paddle steamer, for Savannah, U.S.; this also was sent out in pieces, and was the first iron vessel ever seen in American waters. Among other vessels built by him were the steamers in which Francis Rawdon Chesney [q. v.] explored the Euphrates in 1836; a steamer built to the order of Mehemet Ali in 1837 for the navigation of the Nile; transports for use on the Indus and Sutlej; the Nemesis, for the East India Company, the first iron vessel carrying guns [see ]; and the famous Birkenhead. In 1861 Laird retired from the business, which has since been carried on by his sons, under the style of Laird Brothers, and in the same year was elected the first M.P. for Birkenhead, then newly formed into a parliamentary borough, which he continued to represent, in the con-