406 



LAW OF NATURE LAWRENCE. 



sive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines 

 imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflict- 

 ed j" so that, while the present republican constitu- 

 tions of government exist in America, there can be no 

 such thing as a dictatorship, or a law of exception. 



In France, there was no occasion fur laws of excep- 

 tion before 1790 ; the lettres de cachet (q. v.) answer- 

 ed all purposes. The parliaments, if they opposed 

 the royal mandates, and prevented their publication, 

 which consisted in entering them in the register of 

 parliament, were at last brought to obedience by a 

 royal session, or lit de Justice, or by exile to some 

 obscure place : or, if their resistance was obstinate, 

 they were dissolved, as in the last years of Louis XV. 

 But after the struggle for legal order, from want of 

 moderation on both sides, had degenerated into a 

 furious conflict of parties, the laws of exception were 

 often really necessary, though often used merely as 

 instruments of faction. We do not here refer to ille- 

 gal, though perhaps necessary, measures (coups d 1 

 etat) adopted in extraordinary cases, such as the dis- 

 solution of the legislative body on the 18th Fructi- 

 dor, 1797, the abolition of the tribunate, 1807, &c. 

 But the suspension of the constitution (even the de- 

 mocratical) by the committee of public safety, in 

 1793, and the rendering the revolutionary tribunal 

 permanent, were genuine laws of exception. The 

 regular administration of the laws was promised by 

 every new government, but, down to the revolution 

 of 1830, the promise was not fulfilled. The liberty 

 of the press was repeatedly restrained, and the regu- 

 lar course of justice perverted by special tribunals. 

 One of the most remarkable laws of exception was 

 that of March 3, 1810, respecting the state-prisoners, 

 by which the ancient lettres de cachet were again in- 

 troduced hi almost full force. It was required, in- 

 deed, that a warrant of the minister of justice, and a 

 mandate of the privy council, should precede impri- 

 sonment, which was to continue no longer than a 

 year; but a regulation, like the habeas corpus act in 

 Britain, was wanting to enforce the performance of 

 these conditions. Under the reign of Louis XVIII., 

 also, numerous laws of exception were enacted, al- 

 though the charter (art. 8th) declared, " The French 

 have the right of publishing and printing their opin- 

 ions, provided they conform to the laws against the 

 abuses of the press." By repeated laws of exception, 

 the censorship was extended not only over the poli- 

 tical, but often even over the literary Journals. The 

 assassination of the duke of Berry, in particular, was 

 made the pretence for restricting the liberty of the 

 press, for investing the ministers with authority to 

 confine persons suspected of crimes, or of criminal 

 designs against the king, the state, and the royal 

 family, without a judicial process. These laws were 

 to continue to the end of the session of 1820. The 

 law concerning the censorship was renewed in the 

 session of 1820, and till three months after the com- 

 mencement of the session of 1821; but the law relat- 

 ing to the imprisonment of suspected persons was 

 tacitly abolished. The last laws of exception in 

 France were the famous ordinances of July, 1830, 

 which resulted in the overthrow and expulsion of the 

 Bourbons. 



LAW OF NATURE, and OF NATIONS. See 

 National Law, and Natural Law. 



LAW, JOHN ; a celebrated financial projector, 

 was the son of a goldsmith of Edinburgh, in which 

 city he was born in 1681. He was bred to no pro- 

 fession, but became versed in accounts and was em- 

 ployed in those of the revenue. For the purpose of 

 remedying the deficiency of a circulating medium, 

 he projected the establishment of a bank, with pa- 

 per issues, to the amount of the value of all the lands 

 in the kingdom ; but this scheme was rejected. In 



consequence of a duel, he fled from his country, and 

 visited Venice and Genoa, from which cities he was 

 banished, as a designing adventurer; but, at length, 

 secured the patronage of the regent duke of Orleans, 

 and established his bank in 1716, by royal authority. 

 It was at first composed of 1200 shares of 3000 livres 

 each, which soon bore a premium. This bank be- 

 came the office for all public receipts, and there was 

 annexed to it a Mississippi company, which had grants 

 of land in Louisiana, and was expected to realize 

 immense sums by planting and commerce. 1718, it 

 was declared a royal bank, and the shares rose to 

 twenty times their original value. In 1720, Law 

 was made comptroller-general of the finances ; but 

 the shares sank in value as rapidly as they had risen. 

 He was obliged to resign his post, sifter he had held 

 it only five months, and to retire, first to a seat in the 

 country, and then, for personal safety, to quit the 

 kingdom. He carried with him a small portion only 

 of the vast fortune he at one time possessed, and lived 

 afterwards in great obscurity. After visiting Bri- 

 tain, Holland, Germany, and other countries, he 

 finally settled at Venice, where he died in 1729, still 

 occupied in vast schemes, and fully convinced of the 

 solidity of his system, the failure of which he attri- 

 buted entirely to enmity and panic. Various opin- 

 ions have been entertained of the merit of his project; 

 and by some it has been thought to have, possessed 

 feasibility, had it been carried more moderately into 

 practice. 



LAW, WILLIAM ; a divine of the church of Eng- 

 land, born at Kingclifte, in Northamptonshire, in 1686, 

 educated at Emanuel College, Cambridge, where he 

 was elected fellow. On the accession of George 1., 

 refusing to take the oaths, he vacated his fellowship, 

 and left the university. He then officiated as a curate 

 in London, and as tutor to Edward Gibbon, father 

 of the historian. Mrs Hester Gibbon, aunt of the 

 same eminent individual, and Mrs Elizabeth Hutchin- 

 son, formed a joint establishment, of which lie be- 

 came a member, at his native village of Kingcliffe, 

 where he died in 1761. The Writings of Mr Law, 

 although in many respects excellent, partake of a 

 gloominess and severity, tinged with a mysticism and 

 enthusiasm, that the study of the writings of Jacob 

 Bohme did not fail to increase. The Serious Call to 

 a Devout and Holy Life, is deemed both by doctor 

 Johnson and Mr Gibbon, one of the most powerful 

 works of devotion in the English language, as is also 

 his Practical Treatise on Christianity, which abounds 

 with satire, spirit, and knowledge of life. He also 

 wrote some other works, and published translations 

 of his favourite Bohme. (See his Life, by Tighe, and 

 Gibbon's Memoirs of himself.) 



LAWRENCE, Sir THOMAS, a distinguished Eng- 

 lish portrait painter, was born at Bristol, in 1769. 

 Flis father was an inn-keeper, and the artist very 

 early exhibited proofs of his talent for the art : he is 

 said to have sketched portraits very successfully in 

 his fifth year. At the age of six, he was sent to 

 school, where he remained two years ; and this, with 

 the exception of a few lessons subsequently, in Latin 

 and French, constituted his whole education. His 

 father would not even permit him to be instructed 

 in drawing, declaring that his genius would be cramp- 

 ed by the restraint of rules. Young Lawrence, how- 

 ever, had access to the galleries of some of the 

 neighbouring gentry, in which he employed himself 

 in copying historical and other pieces. In 1782, his 

 father removed to Bath, where his son was much 

 employed in taking portraits in crayon ; and, having 

 made a copy of the Transfiguration, by Raphael, the 

 society of arts bestowed on him their silver palette, in 

 consequence of its merits. During six years, he was 

 the sole support of his father and a large family. In 





