Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 32.djvu/240

Law  as a precursor of modern state-socialism, and most of them agree that 'The System,' however ruinous to individuals, gave a great impetus to the industry and enterprise of France, exhausted as it had been by Louis XIV's wars. According to Voltaire (Siècle de Louis Quinze), who was an eye-witness of its collapse, 'a system altogether chimerical produced a commerce that was genuine and revivified the East India Company, founded by the great Colbert, and ruined by war. In short, if many private fortunes were destroyed, the nation became more opulent and more commercial.'

A volume entitled 'Œuvres de J. Law' was published at Paris in 1790. It comprises a French translation of his 'Money and Trade considered,' memorials and letters on banks and banking addressed by Law to the regent Orleans, and a vindication of himself, written in London in 1724, addressed to the Duc de Bourbon, prime minister of France after the regent's death. All of these are in French, and were reprinted, with some additions, in Daire's 'Économistes-Financiers du XVIIIe Siècle,' 1843.

There were several portraits taken of Law, most of which were engraved. That in the National Portrait Gallery, by the well-known French portrait-painter Alexis S. Belle, represents Law with a closely shaven face, small dark-grey eyes, pale yellow eyebrows, and a fair complexion (, Catalogue of the Pictures, &c., in the National Portrait Gallery, 1888; cf. London Gazette, 3 and 7 Jan. 1694–5).

[The chief authority for Law's general biography is the Life (1824) by John Philip Wood, the editor of Douglas's Peerage of Scotland. Many traits and anecdotes of him are given by the French memoir-writers of his time, especially Saint-Simon. There are full accounts of 'The System' by older writers—Fourbonnais in his Vue générale du système de M. Law at the end of his Recherches et Considérations sur les Finances en France (1758), and Duhautchamps in his Histoire du Système des Finances pendant les années 1719 et 1720 (1739). A lucid, lively, and critical history of 'The System' is contained in the article 'Law' contributed by Thiers to the Revue Progressive (1826), and reprinted in the Dictionnaire de la Conversation. Both ample and accurate is the Historical Study of Law's System, by Andrew McFarland Davis (Boston, U.S., 1887), reprinted from an American periodical, the Quarterly Journal of Economics. All information, however, that either the student or the general reader can require on Law and his career is to be found in Levasseur's Recherches sur Law (1854), a work elaborate, succinct, and impartial. The anecdotal element is supplied in Cochut's volume, Law, son Système et son Epoque (1853), and there is an entertaining chapter on Law in vol. i. of Dr. Charles Mackay's Extraordinary Popular Delusions. A valuable essay on 'John Law of Lauriston' is included in Mr. J. Shield Nicholson's Treatise on Money and Essays on Present Monetary Problems (1888). Among French histories Lemontey's Histoire de la Régence contains remarks on Law, in writing which the author had before him materials since lost. Henri Martin is solid and trustworthy on Law, and Michelet vivid and a little rhapsodical. Louis Blanc, in his very interesting account of Law, in vol. i. of his Histoire de la Révolution Française, lays great stress on Law's popular sympathies, and represents him admiringly as aiming at the establishment of a new social system for which the France of his time was not ripe. Some only of the letters of Lord Stair from Paris to ministers in London, which contain references to Law, are printed in John Murray Graham's Annals and Correspondence of the Viscount and the first and second Earls of Stair (1675); the rest are in the Hardwicke State Papers. By Voltaire, St.-Simon, the Duc de Noailles, and other French contemporaries Law was commonly called Lass—the French equivalent of Laws, a common colloquial form of the name; see Athenæum, December 1889; cf. Addit. MS. 5145, f. 95; Hist. MSS. Comm. 5th Rep. i. App. p. 384; 'La prononciation du nom de Jean Law le Financier,' Paris, 1891, forms the subject of an interesting essay by M. Alexandre Beljame.]  LAW, JOHN (1745–1810), bishop of Elphin, born in 1745, was eldest son of Edmund Law [q. v.], bishop of Carlisle, and brother of Edward Law, first lord Ellenborough [q. v.], and of George Henry Law [q. v.], bishop of Bath and Wells. John was educated at Charterhouse, and proceeding to Christ's College, Cambridge, graduated B.A. 1766, M.A. 1769, and D.D. 1782. He subsequently became a fellow of his college and took holy orders. He was appointed prebendary of Carlisle in 1773, and archdeacon there in 1777. Five years later, in April, he went to Ireland as chaplain to William Henry Cavendish Bentinck, third duke of Portland, lord-lieutenant. Within a few months (August) he was appointed to the see of Clonfert, was translated to that of Killala in 1787, and to that of Elphin in 1795. Dr. William Paley, his successor in the archdeaconry, accompanied him to Ireland and preached his consecration sermon, which has been printed (, Fasti, v. 294). Law died in Dublin 18 March 1810, and was interred in the vaults of Trinity College Chapel. He married Anne, widow of John Thomlinson of Carlisle, and of Blencogo Hall, Cumberland, but had no issue. Law published two sermons: 1. Preached in Christ Church, Dublin, before the Incorporated Society, 1796. 2. Preached in St. Paul's Cathedral, London, 