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LA1NG LAMARCK. 



with gold ; about fifty paces behind them came the 

 heir to the throne, Kurruck Singh, on an elephant, 

 dressed in plain white muslin, followed at a short 

 distance by the whole court in the same dress 

 without any kind of arms, and mounted on ele- 

 phants. On arriving at the Delhi gate, the pro- 

 cession received a salute of eleven cartridges per 

 gun from captain Ford's, Elli Bukh's, Emamsha's, 

 and Sooltan Mamood's artillery (amounting to about 

 twenty six pieces), and proceeded through a street, 

 formed of a squadron of the body guard, captain 

 Ford's, and Mr Steinbach's two battalions of in- 

 fantry, at a slow pace ; and receiving the salute of 

 those two regiments, turned towards Hamb (a 

 favourite barrah durry of the Maha Rajah about 

 six miles from Lahore,) being the first march. 



A few days before the Maha Rajah died, he gave 

 away to fuckeers, gold and silver ho wdahs, elephants, 

 horses, saddles, and bridles of the most costly arti- 

 cles covered with jewels and precious stones of all 

 kinds and descriptions, gold and silver plates, pre- 

 cious stones, shawls, cows, buffaloes, hard cash, in 

 gold and silver, &c. amounting, people say, to a 

 crore of rupees. The Maha Rajah, from the day 

 of his illness to that of his death, must have given 

 away to fuckeers, brahmins, &c. nearly three crores 

 of rupees, including what he sent to Gaya Gaya 

 and Juggernaut. Runjeet Singh left the celebrated 

 diamond, called the " Khah-i-noor," or Mountain 

 of Light, which has so long been coveted by all 

 the princes of India, as a legacy to be worn by the 

 chief idol of Juggernaut. 



LAING, WILLIAM, an eminent bibliographer, 

 was born at Edinburgh, 20th of July, 1764, and at 

 the usual age was sent to the grammar High school 

 of Canongate. Having fixed on the profession of 

 a printer, he served an apprenticeship for six years, 

 but abandoned this employment, as his eyesight was 

 somewhat delicate ; and a favourable opportunity 

 presenting itself, he commenced business on his 

 own account, as a bookseller in the Canongate, in 

 1785. A few years afterwards he removed from 

 his first situation lower down the street to Ches- 

 sel's Buildings, where he remained till 1803, when 

 he removed to the South Bridge ; having, from 

 the year 1786, continued to issue an almost annual 

 succession of catalogues. Modest and unassuming 

 in his manners, and in the general tone of his tem- 

 per, Mr Laing's knowledge in his profession was 

 uncommonly accurate and extensive. Few sur- 

 passed him in an acquaintance with the history of 

 particular editions of the works of the celebrated 

 authors of antiquity. He knew which were scarce, 

 arid was well informed of the price that was put 

 upon them, not merely in this country, but like- 

 wise on the continent. At a very critical period, 

 in 1793, he first visited Paris, with the design 

 chiefly of extending his knowledge of that parti- 

 cular department of business, in which he had now 

 become eminent ; for when any scarce or valuable 

 work was wanted, his shop was known as the place 

 where it was most likely to be found. After the 

 peace of Amiens, and on several successive occa- 

 sions, he visited France and Holland for a similar 

 purpose. At a still earlier period, being informed 

 that his majesty Christian VII. king of Denmark, 

 had been advised to dispose of the numerous dupli- 

 cates which were in the royal library at Copen- 

 hagen, he resolved to undertake a voyage to Den- 

 mark. This he accordingly did in 1799, chiefly at 

 the instigation of Niebuhr, the distinguished inves- 

 tigator of Roman History, who was then a student 



in the university of Edinburgh. After remaining 

 some time at Copenhagen, he concluded an arrange- 

 ment with the right hon. privy councillor Dr Mol- 

 denhawer, the king's librarian, which proved satis- 

 factory to both parties. During the war, when 

 there was hardly any communication with the con- 

 tinent, Mr Laing commenced the publication of the 

 Greek Historians. Nothing of the kind had ever 

 been attempted in Edinburgh, or even in Scotland, 

 excepting by the Foulis', the celebrated printers at 

 Glasgow. In 1804, he published, in six volumes 

 small 8yo., the works of Thucydides in Greek, ac- 

 companied with a Latin translation. Its title is, 

 " Thucydides Grjece et Latine. Accedunt Indices, 

 ex Editione Wassii et Dukeri." In 1806 appeared 

 in small 8vo., in seven volumes, " Herodotus 

 Grace et Latine. Accedunt Annotationes selectae, 

 necnon Index Latinus, ex Editionibus Wesselingii 

 et Reizii." Xenophon was next published 

 " Xenophontis quae exstant Opera, Graece et La- 

 tine, ex Editionibus Schneideri et Zeunii. Acce- 

 dit Index Latinus." This appeared in 1811, in 

 ten volumes, of the same size and type with the 

 editions of Thucydides and Herodotus. Much of 

 Mr Laing's time was latterly devoted to the Com- 

 mercial Bank of Scotland ; an institution which 

 has proved of essential benefit to mercantile busi- 

 ness in that country, of which he had been one of 

 the original promoters, and for some years one of 

 the ordinary directors. He died on the 10th April, 

 1832, leaving a widow and family. 



LAMARCK, (a.) The chevalier de Lamarck 

 died on the 18th Dec. 1829, in the eighty-fifth year 

 of his age. The work on which Lamarck's fame 

 is principally founded, and which has conferred a 

 most important service on zoology, is his Histoire 

 Naturelle des Animaux sans Vertebres. From the 

 time of its appearance, this work has ever been re- 

 garded as one of the highest authority, and has 

 formed the principal regulator of most departments 

 of this extensive race of animals. The work ex- 

 tends to seven octavo volumes, and is entitled 

 " Natural History of invertebrate Animals, present- 

 ing the general and particular Characters of these 

 Animals, their Distribution, Classes, Families, 

 Genera, and the principal Species referable there- 

 to." The first volume is entirely occupied with an 

 introduction, the object of which is to determine 

 the essential characters of an animal, its distinction 

 from vegetables and other natural bodies, and to 

 explain the fundamental principles of zoology. 

 This introduction may be regarded as furnishing a 

 synoptical view of all the author's peculiar opinions 

 on the origin and development of living beings, 

 which are illustrated more in detail in separate 

 works. The first five volumes are written entirely 

 by Lamarck, but he was assisted in the part re- 

 lating to insects by M. Latreille. A portion of 

 the sixth volume and the whole of the seventh, 

 were drawn up by his daughter from his notes and 

 papers, his want of sight preventing him from un- 

 dertaking that labour himself; and that part of tlie 

 sixth, which relates to the inytilaces, malliaces, 

 pectinides, and ostraces, is written by M. Valencien- 

 nes. The first part was published in 1815, and the 

 other parts appeared at intervals up to 1822, when 

 the whole was completed. Besides aluminous and 

 comprehensive account of the general history of 

 the different groups and genera, the principal species 

 are cited and briefly characterized, with their 

 synonymes, reference to figures, and localities. 

 The enumeration of species sometimes includes all 



