Page:Imperialdictiona03eadi Brandeis Vol3a.pdf/149

LAW * LAWRENCE,, Baron of the Punjaub and Grately, younger brother of the preceding, and like him a distinguished Anglo-Indian official, was born at Richmond in Yorkshire in 1811. He entered Haileybury in 1827 to be educated for the Indian civil service, and highly distinguished himself at college, carrying off the law medal, the history prize, and three prizes for proficiency in oriental languages. Co-operating subsequently with his brother in the settlement of the Punjaub, he was made in 1857 a civil K C.B. for his services. The outbreak of the Indian mutiny found him at the head of the administration of the Punjaub as chief-commissioner of the province, and agent to the governor-general for the northwestern frontier of Hindostan. He had just reached Rawal Pindee when the telegraph wires flashed the intelligence of the success of the mutiny at Delhi. Soon his telegraphic communication with Calcutta was interrupted, and the chief-commissioner of the Punjaub was compelled to act on his own sole responsibility, and undirected by the instructions of the governor-general. He, however, took his measures with promptitude, energy, and originality. A movable column was formed to march upon any point in the Punjaub where mutiny might show itself. Suspected Hindostanee regiments were moved to the frontier, and replaced by local irregular corps, withdrawn from it. Mutinies at Peshawur and Lahore were promptly crushed, and signal retribution taken. Every disposable man and gun of the European force were sent off to assist in the recapture sf Delhi. A new Sikh army of sixty thousand men was created in a few months, for this purpose. Thus the British rule in Hindostan was preserved by troops levied in the most recently-conquered of our provinces. For these signal achievements the "saviour of Ind a," as he has been called, was created a baronet, received the civil G.C.B., with a grant of a pension of £2000 a year, to commence when he retires from the service. He has also received the thanks of parliament, and the freedom of some of the principal cities of the empire, London, Glasgow, &c. On the reconstruction of the home government of India he was appointed a member of the new Indian council, in 1859 a privy councillor, and in 1863 governor-general. Returning home in 1869, he was created a peer by the title of Baron Lawrence of the Punjaub and of Grately. He married in 1831 the daughter of the late Rev. Richard Hamilton.—F. E.  LAWRENCE,, an English physician, was born in Westminster in 1711. Having entered Trinity college, Oxford, he took his degree of M.D., became reader in anatomy in that university, and gave lectures also in London. In 1750 he ceased to lecture, and devoted himself exclusively to his practice, which became very considerable. In 1744 he was chosen fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in London; read successively the lectures there, which were much admired for the purity and elegance of their Latin; and in 1767 was elected president. His health failing, he was induced by his family to retire from practice and from London. He accordingly removed to Canterbury, where he died in 1783.—W. B—d.  LAWRENCE,, P.R.A., was born at Bristol, May 4, 1769. His father was landlord of the Black Bear inn at Devizes, and he commenced his career by drawing chalk likenesses of his father's customers. So precocious was his ability, that at the early age of ten he set up as a portrait-painter in crayons at Oxford, and shortly afterwards took a house at Bath, and at once established a good business. His success was extraordinary, and he became after a few years dissatisfied with crayons and adopted oil-painting instead; yet he was still only a boy of seventeen. One of these early chalk drawings is now in the National portrait gallery in London—the head of the accomplished Elizabeth Carter, a Greek and Italian scholar, and one of the contributors to the Rambler. In 1787 Lawrence settled in London, and had the good sense to enter himself as a student in the Royal Academy, though some academicians had not the business that this comparative beginner in his profession already enjoyed. In 1791 he had so far distinguished himself as a portrait-painter, that though still under the legal age of twenty-four years, he was elected an associate of the Academy, and in the following year succeeded Sir Joshua Reynolds as painter to the king. He was now the head of his profession at an age at which other painters have generally been labouring in the toils of studentship. He painted the portrait of George III. and Queen Charlotte, which Lord Macartney took with him on his embassy to China in 1792. In 1795 he was elected a royal academician, and from this time his career as a portrait-painter was unrivalled, and perhaps unprecedented. Yet for the higher qualities of his art his portraits will not bear comparison with the best works of Sir Joshua Reynolds, though Sir Joshua is reported to have said of him, in the first years of his London practice—"This young man has begun at a point of excellence where I left off." He seems to have fascinated people much in the same way that Guido Reni did in his early career. There is a certain indescribable sweetness in the execution of both; and Sir Thomas Lawrence's portraits of women and children are often very beautiful. He was so skilful a flatterer of the ladies that he never failed to give satisfaction. With men he was not so successful; his figures are generally out of drawing, the necks being often twice as long as in nature, though this deformity is somewhat disguised by the style of the costume of the time. His costumes were very seldom painted by himself; little beyond the heads, either in male or female portraits, were executed by his own hand; latterly, in some of his state or official portraits, the heads are lost in their accessories. He was knighted by the prince regent in 1815, and at the death of West in 1820 was unanimously elected to succeed him as president of the Academy. He died in London at his house in Russell Square, January 7, 1830. Sir Thomas was never married; he long paid attention to the two daughters of Mrs. Siddons, but as he had a difficulty in making a choice, the great actress would not allow him to have either. Though there are many magnificent private portraits by Sir Thomas Lawrence, to see him in his glory one must visit Windsor, where the Waterloo gallery remains a noble monument of his skill. The pictures of the Emperor Francis, of Pius VII., and of Cardinal Gonsalvi in that collection, are among the great masterpieces of the art. They were executed on the continent in 1818-19 for George IV., when prince regent. During this journey he was made a member of the Academy of St. Luke at Rome, and of many other foreign academies; and in 1825 he was created a chevalier of the legion d'honneur.—(Williams, Life and Correspondence of Sir Thomas Lawrence, 1831.)—R. N. W.  LAWSON,, a famous minister and professor of theology in connection with the Associate or Burgher Synod, was born at Boghouse, near West Linton, Peeblesshire, on the 13th March, 1749. After passing through the usual curriculum at college and hall, George Lawson was ordained at Selkirk on the 17th of April, 1771. Such was the confidence reposed in him by his brethren, that in May, 1787, he was chosen professor of theology in succession to the well-known John Brown of Haddington. In 1806 the Marischal college of Aberdeen conferred upon him the degree of doctor of divinity, the second that had been given from a Scottish university to a seceding minister. Dr. Lawson preached and taught theology in Selkirk till his death, on the 20th February, 1820. Dr. Lawson was a very remarkable man. His natural powers were great, and they had been very assiduously cultivated. His acquirements were extensive, and his erudition was really wondrous for his time and opportunities. His memory, especially of scripture, both of the English version and the original tongues, was prodigious, even after all allowance has been made for the extravagant traditions about it. His quotations from scripture and the classics were both prompt and appropriate, as the occasion served, whether for reproof or humour. His manners were of patriarchal symplicity, and his piety was characterized by a fervent solemnity. His theological pupils, not a few of whom survive, held him in great love and veneration. His published works are all of a practical character—plain, easy, and shrewd, abounding in pithy sententious remarks, which are so apt and sagacious, and at the same time so profound, that they merit the title of originality. His preaching was grave, varied, and powerful. In the course of his pastoral rounds he fell into some fits of mental absence. He was noted for a bland and dignified courtesy of manner not inconsistent with a quiet and homely style of conversation, enriched with those fruits of thought and observation which are usually termed wise sayings. His Life was published for the first time this year, 1861, by the Rev. Dr. Macfarlane—a volume of great interest, as it abounds with graphic sketches of the worthies of the past generation, and gives, in a racy style, many descriptions of customs and habits rapidly passing away. Lawson's principal works are lectures on Joseph, Ruth, Esther, and Proverbs.—J. E.  LAWSON,, an English naval officer who figured during the great civil war. He was a native of Hull, and was 