459
owing to the peculiar style of those writers who were
popular in his youth, and may be mentioned as a
remarkable instance of the disproportion of parti-
cular talents to general vigour of mind."1
Laing was intimately acquainted with Charles
Fox, with whom he conducted an ample correspond-
ence, the letters of which on both sides still, we
believe, exist unpublished, and would certainly form
a very interesting addition to our epistolary informa-
tion regarding great men. That eminent statesman
frequently quoted the historical works of Mr. Laing,
as containing matter which could be relied on for its
authenticity; and Laing became an active and zealous
supporter of the short administration of his friend,
during which he represented his native county in
parliament. It is said, that notwithstanding the
disadvantages of his manner, he was listened to and
much respected as a speaker; and he gave all the
assistance which so short a period admitted to the
plans of the ministry for improving the Scottish
courts of law. After his brief appearance as a legis-
lator, the state of his health prevented him from
interfering in public business. Whether from exces-
sive study and exertion, or his natural habit of body,
he suffered under a nervous disorder of excessive
severity, which committed frightful ravages on his
constitution; and it is said that he was required to
be frequently supported in an artificial position to
prevent him from fainting. He retired to his estate
in Orkney, and his health being to a certain extent
restored by a cessation from laborious intellectual
pursuits, his ever-active mind employed itself in
useful exercise within his narrow sphere of exertion:
he improved his own lands, introduced better methods
of cultivation than had been previously practised in
the district, and experimented in the breeding of
merino sheep. He died in the end of the year 1818,
having, notwithstanding the great celebrity of his
works, been so much personally forgotten by the
literary world, that it is with difficulty we have been
enabled to collect matter sufficient for an outline of
his life. He was married to Miss Carnegie, daughter
of a gentleman in Forfarshire, and sister-in-law to
Lord Gillies. His property was succeeded to by
Samuel Laing, his elder brother.2 Besides the works
we have discussed above, it may be mentioned that
he edited the Life of James VI., published in 1804.
LAING, WILLIAM. This well-known dealer in
rich and rare literary productions, whose shop was
a Herculaneum of the treasures of past ages, was
born in Edinburgh, on the 2Oth of July, 1764, After
having received his education at the grammar high-
school of the Canongate, he made choice of the trade
of a printer for his future occupation, and served to
it a six years' apprenticeship. This selection was
an unlucky one, owing to the weakness of his eyes;
and therefore, instead of following it out, he became
a bookseller, for which his apprenticeship had com-
pletely qualified him. In his case, too, it was not
the showy and ephemeral, yet money-making, books
of modern literature that constituted his stock in
trade; but the choicest British and foreign editions
of the old classical authors of every language—works
which only the learned could appreciate, in spite of
the dust and dingy vellum with which they were
covered. His shop for this species of unostenta-
tious, slow-going, and precarious traffic, was first
opened in the Canongate in 1785; afterwards he re-
moved lower down the street to Chessel's Buildings,
where he remained till 1803, at which date he re-
moved to the South Bridge, where he permanently
1 Ed. Rev. xliv. 37.        2 Ed. Annual Register, 1818, p. 250.
established his emporium. During these changes
his reputation as a collector of valuable old books
continued to increase, until it was established among
the learned over the whole island, so that his shop
became a well-known repertory for those scarce
volumes which his thriving brethren in the trade did
not possess, and probably had never even heard of.
All this, too, was the fruit of ardent disinterested
zeal and untiring diligence in his profession. From
the year 1786 he had continued to issue an almost
annual succession of catalogues. He knew all the
scarce works of antiquity, as to the best editions in
which they had been published, the places at which
they were to be found in Britain or upon the Con-
tinent, and the prices at which they were to be pur-
chased. And he was ready to communicate this
valuable information to the literary inquirers who
frequented his shop for intelligence that could not
well be obtained elsewhere. The labour of travel
was added to that of painstaking home research and
inquiry, and that too at a time when Edinburgh
booksellers and traffickers in general limited their
journeys to the coast of Fife, or even the ranges of
the Pentlands. Thus, in 1793, when the French
revolution was at the wildest, he visited Paris, for
the purpose of making himself acquainted with such
knowledge of his vocation as his own country could
not supply, and ascertaining what were the best
editions of those authors that are most in request.
It was no ordinary zeal that made him pursue such
a task amidst the roar of the Parisian pikemen and
the clank of the guillotine—more especially when
every stranger there was at least '' suspected of being
suspected." Another similar pilgrimage he made in
1799, Learning that Christian VII., King of Den-
mark, had been advised to dispose of the numerous
duplicates contained in the royal library at Copen-
hagen, and being instigated by the advice of the cele-
brated Niebuhr, at that time a student in the univer-
sity of Edinburgh, Mr. Laing repaired to the Danish
capital, and there made such arrangements upon the
sale of the duplicates with the privy-councillor, Dr.
Moldenhawer, as was satisfactory to both parties.
When the peace of Amiens had introduced a breath-
ing interval in the wars of the revolution, Mr. Laing
repeatedly visited France and Holland, still for the
purpose of extending his professional knowledge,
which he readily imparted to the scholars of his own
country. The immense amount of information he
had thus acquired, was enhanced by his kind gener-
ous temper, and modest unassuming manners.
During the war that followed the delusive peace
of Amiens, by which the whole Continent was closed
against British visitors, Mr. Laing was worthily em-
ployed in raising the literary character of his native
country in the department of printing. And for this,
indeed, he saw that there was too much need. The
distinguished brothers, the Foulis of Glasgow, had
passed away, and left no successors in their room.
In Edinburgh, so soon to assume the name of "Mo-
dern Athens," the case was still worse; for except
Ruddiman's Livy and Cunningham's Virgil, no
classical work had issued from her press worth men-
tioning. In 1804 he commenced the attempt by
publishing the works of Thucydides in six volumes,
small 8vo, under the following title, Thucydides Grace
et Latine; accedunt Indices: ex Editione Wassii et
Dtikeri. In printing this work Mr. Laing was for-
tunate in having for the superintendent of the press
the Rev. Peter Elmsley, who attained such a high
European distinction in Grecian literature. In 1806
the works of Thucydides were followed by those of
Herodotus, in seven volumes, small 8vo, under the
title of Herodotus Greece et Latine; accedunt Anno~