at Bruges on the 5th of April 1822, and educated there and at the
Collège Stanislas in Paris, a celebrated establishment in the hands of
the Oratorians. He continued his studies at the Catholic university of
Louvain and afterwards at Ghent, where he came under the influence of
François Huet, the philosopher and Christian Socialist. In 1844 he won a
prize with an essay on the language and literature of Provence. In 1847
he published _L'Histoire des rois francs_, and in 1861 a French version
of the _Nibelungen_, but though he never lost his interest in literature
and history, his most important work was in the domain of economics. He
was one of a group of young lawyers, doctors and critics, all old pupils
of Huet, who met once a week to discuss social and economic questions,
and was thus led to publish his views on these subjects. In 1859 some
articles by him in the _Revue des deux mondes_ laid the foundation of
his reputation as an economist. In 1864 he was elected to the chair of
political economy at the state university of Liége. Here he wrote his
most important works: _La Russie et l'Autriche depuis Sadowa_ (1870),
_Essai sur les formes de gouvernement dans les sociétés modernes_
(1872), _Des Causes actuelles de guerre en Europe et de l'arbitrage_ and
_De la propriété et de ses formes primitives_ (1874), dedicated to the
memory of John Stuart Mill and François Huet. He died at Doyon, near
Liége, on the 3rd of January 1892. Laveleye's name is particularly
connected with bimetallism and primitive property, and he took a special
interest in the revival and preservation of small nationalities. But his
activity included the whole realm of political science, political
economy, monetary questions, international law, foreign and Belgian
politics, questions of education, religion and morality, travel and
literature. He had the art of popularizing even the most technical
subjects, owing to the clearness of his view and his firm grasp of the
matter in hand. He was especially attracted to England, where he thought
he saw many of his ideals of social, political and religious progress
realized. He was a frequent contributor to the English newspapers and
leading reviews. The most widely circulated of his works was a pamphlet
on _Le Parti clérical en Belgique_, of which 2,000,000 copies were
circulated in ten languages.
LAVENDER, botanically _Lavandula_, a genus of the natural order Labiatae
distinguished by an ovate tubular calyx, a two-lipped corolla, of which
the upper lip has two and the lower three lobes, and four stamens bent
downwards.
The plant to which the name of lavender is commonly applied, _Lavandula
vera_, is a native of the mountainous districts of the countries
bordering on the western half of the Mediterranean, extending from the
eastern coast of Spain to Calabria and northern Africa, growing in some
places at a height of 4500 ft. above the sea-level, and preferring stony
declivities in open sunny situations. It is cultivated in the open air
as far north as Norway and Livonia. Lavender forms an evergreen
under-shrub about 2 ft. high, with greyish-green hoary linear leaves,
rolled under at the edges when young; the branches are erect and give a
bushy appearance to the plant. The flowers are borne on a terminal spike
at the summit of a long naked stalk, the spike being composed of 6-10
dense clusters in the axils of small, brownish, rhomboidal, tapering,
opposite bracts, the clusters being more widely separated towards the
base of the spike. The calyx is tubular, contracted towards the mouth,
marked with 13 ribs and 5-toothed, the posterior tooth being the
largest. The corolla is of a pale violet colour, but darker on its inner
surface, tubular, two-lipped, the upper lip with two and the lower with
three lobes. Both corolla and calyx are covered with stellate hairs,
amongst which are imbedded shining oil glands to which the fragrance of
the plant is due. The leaves and flowers of lavender are said to have
been used by the ancients to perfume their baths; hence the Med. Lat.
name _Lavandula_ or _Lavendula_ is supposed to have been derived from
_lavare_, to wash. This derivation is considered doubtful and a
connexion has been suggested with Lat. _livere_, to be of a bluish, pale
or livid colour.
Although _L. Stoechas_ was well known to the ancients, no allusion
unquestionably referring to _L. vera_ has been found in the writings of
classical authors, the earliest mention of the latter plant being in the
12th century by the abbess Hildegard, who lived near Bingen on the
Rhine. Under the name of _llafant_ or _llafantly_ it was known to the
Welsh physicians as a medicine in the 13th century. The dried flowers
have long been used in England, the United States and other countries
for perfuming linen, and the characteristic cry of "Lavender! sweet
lavender!" was still to be heard in London streets at the beginning of
the 20th century. In England lavender is cultivated chiefly for the
distillation of its essential oil, of which it yields on an average 1½%
when freed from the stalks, but in the south of Europe the flowers form
an object of trade, being exported to the Barbary states, Turkey and
America.
In Great Britain lavender is grown in the parishes of Mitcham,
Carshalton and Beddington in Surrey, and in Hertfordshire in the
parish of Hitchin. The most suitable soil seems to be a sandy loam
with a calcareous substratum, and the most favourable position a sunny
slope in localities elevated above the level of fogs, where the plant
is not in danger of early frost and is freely exposed to air and
light. At Hitchin lavender is said to have been grown as early as
1568, but as a commercial speculation its cultivation dates back only
to 1823. The plants at present in cultivation do not produce seed, and
the propagation is always made by slips or by dividing the roots. The
latter plan has only been followed since 1860, when a large number of
lavender plants were killed by a severe frost. Since that date the
plants have been subject to the attack of a fungus, in consequence of
which the price of the oil has been considerably enhanced.
The flowers are collected in the beginning of August, and taken direct
to the still. The yield of oil depends in great measure upon the
weather. After a wet and dull June and July the yield is sometimes
only half as much as when the weather has been bright and sunshiny.
From 12 to 30 lb. of oil per acre is the average amount obtained. The
oil contained in the stem has a more rank odour and is less volatile
than that of the flowers; consequently the portion that distils over
after the first hour and a half is collected separately.
[Illustration: Lavender (_Lavandula vera_).
1. Flower, side view.
2. Flower, front view.
3. Calyx opened and spread flat.
4. Corolla opened and spread flat.
5. Pistil.]
The finest oil is obtained by the distillation of the flowers, without
the stalks, but the labour spent upon this adds about 10s. per lb. to
the expense of the oil, and the same end is practically attained by
fractional distillation. The oil mellows by keeping three years, after
which it deteriorates unless mixed with alcohol; it is also improved
by redistillation. Oil of lavender is distilled from the wild plants
in Piedmont and the South of France, especially in the villages about
Mont Ventoux near Avignon, and in those some leagues west of
Montpellier. The best French oil realizes scarcely one-sixth of the
price of the English oil. Cheaper varieties are made by distilling the
entire plant.
Oil of lavender is a mobile liquid having a specific gravity from 0.85
to 0.89. Its chief constituents are linalool acetate, which also
occurs in oil of bergamot, and linalool, C10H17OH, an alcohol derived
by oxidation from myrcene, C10H16, which is one of the terpenes. The
dose is ½-3 minims. The British pharmacopeia contains a spiritus
lavandulae, dose 5-20 minims: and a compound tincture, dose ½-1
drachm. This is contained in liquor arsenicalis, and its
characteristic odour may thus be of great practical importance,
medico-legally and otherwise. The pharmacology of oil of lavender is
simply that of an exceptionally pleasant and mild volatile oil. It is
largely used as a carminative and as a colouring and flavouring agent.
Its adulteration with alcohol may be detected by chloride of calcium
dissolving in it and forming a separate layer of liquid at the bottom
of the vessel. Glycerine acts in the same way. If it contain
turpentine it will not dissolve in three volumes of alcohol, in which
quantity the pure oil is perfectly soluble.
Lavender flowers were formerly considered good for "all disorders of
the head and nerves"; a spirit prepared with them was known under the
name of palsy drops.
Lavender water consists of a solution of the volatile oil in spirit
of wine with the addition of the essences of musk, rose, bergamot and
ambergris, but is very rarely prepared by distillation of the flowers
with spirit.
In the climate of New York lavender is scarcely hardy, but in the
vicinity of Philadelphia considerable quantities are grown for the
market. In American gardens sweet basil (_Ocimum basilicum_) is
frequently called lavender.
_Lavandula Spica_, a species which differs from _L. vera_ chiefly in
its smaller size, more crowded leaves and linear bracts, is also used
for the distillation of an essential oil, which is known in England as
oil of spike and in France under the name of _essence d'aspic_. It is
used in painting on porcelain and in veterinary medicine. The oil as
met with in commerce is less fragrant than that of _L. vera_--probably
because the whole plant is distilled, for the flowers of the two
species are scarcely distinguishable in fragrance. _L. Spica_ does not
extend so far north, nor ascend the mountains beyond 2000 ft. It
cannot be cultivated in Britain except in sheltered situations. A
nearly allied species, _L. lanata_, a native of Spain, with broader
leaves, is also very fragrant, but does not appear to be distilled for
oil.
_Lavandula Stoechas_, a species extending from the Canaries to Asia
Minor, is distinguished from the above plants by its blackish purple
flowers, and shortly stalked spikes crowned by conspicuous purplish
sterile bracts. The flowers were official in the London pharmacopoeia
as late as 1746. They are still used by the Arabs as an expectorant
and antispasmodic. The Stoechades (now called the isles of Hyères near
Toulon) owed their name to the abundance of the plant growing there.
Other species of lavender are known, some of which extend as far east
as to India. A few which differ from the above in having divided
leaves, as _L. dentata_, _L. abrotanoides_, _L. multifolia_, _L.
pinnata_ and _L. viridis_, have been cultivated in greenhouses, &c.,
in England.
Sea lavender is a name applied in England to several species of
_Statice_, a genus of littoral plants belonging to the order _Plumba
gineae_. Lavender cotton is a species of the genus _Santolina_, small,
yellow-flowered, evergreen undershrubs of the Composite order.
LAVERDY, CLÉMENT CHARLES FRANÇOIS DE (1723-1793), French statesman, was
a member of the parlement of Paris when the case against the Jesuits
came before that body in August 1761. He demanded the suppression of the
order and thus acquired popularity. Louis XV. named him
controller-general of the finances in December 1763, but the burden was
great and Laverdy knew nothing of finance. Three months after his
nomination he forbade anything of any kind whatever to be printed
concerning his administration, thus refusing advice as well as censure.
He used all sorts of expedients, sometimes dishonest, to replenish the
treasury, and was even accused of having himself profited from the
commerce in wheat. A court intrigue led to his sudden dismissal on the
1st of October 1768. Henceforward he lived in retirement until, during
the Revolution, he was involved in the charges against the financiers of
the old régime. The Revolutionary tribunal condemned him to death, and
he was guillotined on the 24th of November 1793.
See A. Jobez, _La France sous Louis XV_ (1869).
LAVERNA, an old Italian divinity, originally one of the spirits of the
underworld. A cup found in an Etruscan tomb bears the inscription
"Lavernai Pocolom," and in a fragment of Septimius Serenus Laverna is
expressly mentioned in connexion with the _di inferi_. By an easy
transition, she came to be regarded as the protectress of thieves, whose
operations were associated with darkness. She had an altar on the
Aventine hill, near the gate called after her Lavernalis, and a grove on
the Via Salaria. Her aid was invoked by thieves to enable them to carry
out their plans successfully without forfeiting their reputation for
piety and honesty (Horace, _Ep._ i. 16, 60). Many explanations have been
given of the name: (1) from _latere_ (Schol. on Horace, who gives
_laternio_ as another form of _lavernio_ or robber); (2) from _lavare_
(Acron on Horace, according to whom thieves were called _lavatores_,
perhaps referring to bath thieves); (3) from _levare_ (cf.
shop-lifters). Modern etymologists connect it with _lu-crum_, and
explain it as meaning the goddess of gain.
LAVERY, JOHN (1857- ), British painter, was born in Belfast, and
received his art training in Glasgow, London and Paris. He was elected
associate of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1892 and academician in 1896,
having won a considerable reputation as a painter of portraits and
figure subjects, and as a facile and vigorous executant. He became also
vice-president of the International Society of sculptors, painters and
gravers. Many of his paintings have been acquired for public
collections, and he is represented in the National Galleries at
Brussels, Berlin and Edinburgh, in the Carnegie Institute at Pittsburg,
the Philadelphia Gallery, the New South Wales Gallery, the Modern
Gallery, Venice, the Pinakothek, Munich, the Glasgow Corporation
Gallery, and the Luxembourg.
LAVIGERIE, CHARLES MARTIAL ALLEMAND (1825-1892), French divine, cardinal
archbishop of Carthage and Algiers and primate of Africa, was born at
Bayonne on the 31st of October 1825, and was educated at St Sulpice,
Paris. He was ordained priest in 1849, and was professor of
ecclesiastical history at the Sorbonne from 1854 to 1856. In 1856 he
accepted the direction of the schools of the East, and was thus for the
first time brought into contact with the Mahommedan world. "C'est là,"
he wrote, "que j'ai connu enfin ma vocation." Activity in missionary
work, especially in alleviating the distresses of the victims of the
Druses, soon brought him prominently into notice; he was made a
chevalier of the Legion of Honour, and in October 1861, shortly after
his return to Europe, was appointed French auditor at Rome. Two years
later he was raised to the see of Nancy, where he remained for four
years, during which the diocese became one of the best administered in
France. While bishop of Nancy he met Marshal MacMahon, then
governor-general of Algeria, who in 1866 offered him the see of Algiers,
just raised to an archbishopric. Lavigerie landed in Africa on the 11th
of May 1868, when the great famine was already making itself felt, and
he began in November to collect the orphans into villages. This action,
however, did not meet with the approval of MacMahon, who feared that the
Arabs would resent it as an infraction of the religious peace, and
thought that the Mahommedan church, being a state institution in
Algeria, ought to be protected from proselytism; so it was intimated to
the prelate that his sole duty was to minister to the colonists.
Lavigerie, however, continued his self-imposed task, refused the
archbishopric of Lyons, which was offered to him by the emperor, and won
his point. Contact with the natives during the famine caused Lavigerie
to entertain exaggerated hopes for their general conversion, and his
enthusiasm was such that he offered to resign his archbishopric in order
to devote himself entirely to the missions. Pius IX. refused this, but
granted him a coadjutor, and placed the whole of equatorial Africa under
his charge. In 1870 Lavigerie warmly supported papal infallibility. In
1871 he was twice a candidate for the National Assembly, but was
defeated. In 1874 he founded the Sahara and Sudan mission, and sent
missionaries to Tunis, Tripoli, East Africa and the Congo. The order of
African missionaries thus founded, for which Lavigerie himself drew up
the rule, has since become famous as the _Pères Blancs_. From 1881 to
1884 his activity in Tunisia so raised the prestige of France that it
drew from Gambetta the celebrated declaration, _L'Anticléricalisme n'est
pas un article d'exportation_, and led to the exemption of Algeria from
the application of the decrees concerning the religious orders. On the
27th of March 1882 the dignity of cardinal was conferred upon Lavigerie,
but the great object of his ambition was to restore the see of St
Cyprian; and in that also he was successful, for by a bull of 10th
November 1884 the metropolitan see of Carthage was re-erected, and
Lavigerie received the pallium on the 25th of January 1885. The later
years of his life were spent in ardent anti-slavery propaganda, and his
eloquence moved large audiences in London, as well as in Paris, Brussels
and other parts of the continent. He hoped, by organizing a fraternity
of armed laymen as pioneers, to restore fertility to the Sahara; but
this community did not succeed, and was dissolved before his death. In
1890 Lavigerie appeared in the new character of a politician, and
arranged with Pope Leo XIII. to make an attempt to reconcile the church
with the republic. He invited the officers of the Mediterranean squadron
to lunch at Algiers, and, practically renouncing his monarchical
sympathies, to which he clung as long as the comte de Chambord was
alive, expressed his support of the republic. and emphasized it by
having the Marseillaise played by a band of his _Pères Blancs_. The
further steps in this evolution emanated from the pope, and Lavigerie,
whose health now began to fail, receded comparatively into the
background. He died at Algiers on the 26th of November 1892.
(G. F. B.)
LA VILLEMARQUÉ, THÉODORE CLAUDE HENRI, VICOMTE HERSART DE (1815-1895),
French philologist and man of letters, was born at Keransker, near
Quimperlé, on the 6th of July 1815. He was descended from an old Breton
family, which counted among its members a Hersart who had followed Saint
Louis to the Crusade, and another who was a companion in arms of Du
Guesclin. La Villemarqué devoted himself to the elucidation of the
monuments of Breton literature. Introduced in 1851 by Jacob Grimm as
correspondent to the Academy of Berlin, he became in 1858 a member of
the Academy of Inscriptions. His works include: _Contes populaires des
anciens Bretons_ (1842), to which was prefixed an essay on the origin of
the romances of the Round Table; _Essai sur l'histoire de la langue
bretonne_ (1837); _Poèmes des bardes bretons du sixième siècle_ (1850);
_La Légende celtique en Irelande, en Cambrie et en Bretagne_ (1859). The
popular Breton songs published by him in 1839 as _Barzaz Breiz_ were
considerably retouched. La Villemarqué's work has been superseded by the
work of later scholars, but he has the merit of having done much to
arouse popular interest in his subject. He died at Keransker on the 8th
of December 1895.
On the subject of the doubtful authenticity of Barzaz Breiz, see
Luzel's Preface to his _Chansons populaires de la Basse-Bretagne_,
and, for a list of works on the subject, the _Revue Celtique_ (vol.
v.).
LAVINIUM, an ancient town of Latium, on the so-called Via Lavinatis (see
LAURENTINA, VIA), 19 m. S. of Rome, the modern PRATICA, situated 300 ft.
above sea-level and 2½ m. N.E. from the sea-coast. Its foundation is
attributed to Aeneas (whereas Laurentum was the primitive city of King
Latinus), who named it after his wife Lavinia. It is rarely mentioned in
Roman history and often confused with Lanuvium or Lanivium in the text
both of authors and of inscriptions. The custom by which the consuls and
praetors or dictators sacrificed on the Alban Mount and at Lavinium to
the Penates and to Vesta, before they entered upon office or departed
for their province, seems to have been one of great antiquity. There is
no trace of its having continued into imperial times, but the cults of
Lavinium were kept up, largely by the imperial appointment of honorary
non-resident citizens to hold the priesthoods. The citizens of Lavinium
were known under the empire as Laurentes Lavinates, and the place itself
at a late period as Laurolavinium. It was deserted or forgotten not long
after the time of Theodosius.
Lavinium was preceded by a more ancient town, LAURENTUM, the city of
Latinus (Verg. _Aen._ viii.); of this the site is uncertain, but it is
probably to be sought at the modern Tor Paterno, close to the sea-coast
and 5 m. N. by W. of Lavinium. Here the name of Laurentum is preserved
by the modern name Pantan di Lauro. Even in ancient times it was famous
for its groves of bay-trees (_laurus_) from which its name was perhaps
derived, and which in imperial times gave the villas of its territory a
name for salubrity, so that both Vitellius and Commodus resorted there.
The exact date of the abandonment of the town itself and the
incorporation of its territory with that of Lavinium is uncertain, but
it may be placed in the latter part of the republic. Under the empire a
portion of it must have been imperial domain and forest. We hear of an
imperial, procurator in charge of the elephants at Laurentum; and the
imperial villa may perhaps be identified with the extensive ruins at Tor
Paterno itself. The remains of numerous other villas lie along the
ancient coast-line (which was half a mile inland of the modern, being
now marked by a row of sand-hills, and was followed by the Via
Severiana), both north-west and south-east of Tor Paterno: they extended
as a fact in an almost unbroken line along the low sandy coast--now
entirely deserted and largely occupied by the low scrub which serves as
cover for the wild boars of the king of Italy's preserves--from the
mouth of the Tiber to Antium, and thence again to Astura; but there are
no traces of any buildings previous to the imperial period. In one of
these villas, excavated by the king of Italy in 1906, was found a fine
replica of the famous discobolus of Myron. The plan of the building is
interesting, as it diverges entirely from the normal type and adapts
itself to the site. Some way to the N.W. was situated the village of
Vicus Augustanus Laurentium, taking its name probably from Augustus
himself, and probably identical with the village mentioned by Pliny the
younger as separated by only one villa from his own. This village was
brought to light by excavation in 1874, and its forum and curia are
still visible. The remains of the villa of Pliny, too, were excavated in
1713 and in 1802-1819, and it is noteworthy that the place bears the
name Villa di Pino (sic) on the staff map; how old the name is, is
uncertain. It is impossible without further excavation to reconcile the
remains--mainly of substructions--with the elaborate description of his
villa given by Pliny (cf. H. Winnefeld in _Jahrbuch des Instituts_,
1891, 200 seq.).
The site of the ancient Lavinium, no less than 300 ft. above sea-level
and 2½ m. inland, is far healthier than the low-lying Laurentum, where,
except in the immediate vicinity of the coast, malaria must have been a
dreadful scourge. It possesses considerable natural strength, and
consists of a small hill, the original acropolis, occupied by the modern
castle and the village surrounding it, and a larger one, now given over
to cultivation, where the city stood. On the former there are now no
traces of antiquity, but on the latter are scanty remains of the city
walls, in small blocks of the grey-green tufa (_cappellaccio_) which is
used in the earliest buildings of Rome, and traces of the streets. The
necropolis, too, has been discovered, but not systematically excavated;
but objects of the first Iron age, including a sword of Aegean type
(thus confirming the tradition), have been found; also remains of a
building with Doric columns of an archaistic type, remains of later
buildings in brick, and inscriptions, some of them of considerable
interest.
See R. Lanciani in _Monumenti dei Lincei_, xiii. (1903), 133 seq.;
xvi. (1906), 241 seq. (T. As.)
LAVISSE, ERNEST (1842- ), French historian, was born at
Nouvion-en-Thiérache, Aisne, on the 17th of December 1842. In 1865 he
obtained a fellowship in history, and in 1875 became a doctor of
letters; he was appointed _maître de conférence_ (1876) at the école
normale supérieure, succeeding Fustel de Coulanges, and then professor
of modern history at the Sorbonne (1888), in the place of Henri Wallon.
He was an eloquent professor and very fond of young people, and played
an important part in the revival of higher studies in France after 1871.
His knowledge of pedagogy was displayed in his public lectures and his
addresses, in his private lessons, where he taught a small number of
pupils the historical method, and in his books, where he wrote _ad
probandum_ at least as much as _ad narrandum_: class-books, collections
of articles, intermingled with personal reminiscences (_Questions
d'enseignement national_, 1885; _Études et étudiants_, 1890; _À propos
de nos écoles_, 1895), rough historical sketches (_Vue générale de
l'histoire politique de l'Europe_, 1890), &c. Even his works of
learning, written without a trace of pedantry, are remarkable for their
lucidity and vividness.
After the Franco-Prussian War Lavisse studied the development of Prussia
and wrote _Étude sur l'une des origines de la monarchie prussienne, ou
la Marche de Brandebourg sous la dynastie ascanienne_, which was his
thesis for his doctor's degree in 1875, and _Études sur l'histoire de la
Prusse_ (1879). In connexion with his study of the Holy Roman Empire,
and the cause of its decline, he wrote a number of articles which were
published in the _Revue des Deux Mondes_; and he wrote _Trois empereurs
d'Allemagne_ (1888), _La Jeunesse du grand Frédéric_ (1891) and
_Frédéric II. avant son avènement_ (1893) when studying the modern
German empire and the grounds for its strength. With his friend Alfred
Rambaud he conceived the plan of _L'Histoire générale du IV^e siècle
jusqu'à nos jours_, to which, however, he contributed nothing. He edited
the _Histoire de France depuis les origines jusqu'à la Révolution_
(1901- ), in which he carefully revised the work of his numerous
assistants, reserving the greatest part of the reign of Louis XIV. for
himself. This section occupies the whole of volume vii. It is a
remarkable piece of work, and the sketch of absolute government in
France during this period has never before been traced with an equal
amount of insight and brilliance. Lavisse was admitted to the Académie
Française on the death of Admiral Jurien de la Gravière in 1892, and
after the death of James Darmesteter became editor of the _Revue de
Paris_. He is, however, chiefly a master of pedagogy. When the école
normale was joined to the university of Paris, Lavisse was appointed
director of the new organization, which he had helped more than any one
to bring about.
LAVOISIER, ANTOINE LAURENT (1743-1794), French chemist, was born in
Paris on the 26th of August 1743. His father, an _avocat au parlement_,
gave him an excellent education at the collège Mazarin, and encouraged
his taste for natural science; and he studied mathematics and astronomy
with N. L. de Lacaille, chemistry with the elder Rouelle and botany with
Bernard de Jussieu. In 1766 he received a gold medal from the Academy of
Sciences for an essay on the best means of lighting a large town; and
among his early work were papers on the analysis of gypsum, on thunder,
on the aurora and on congelation, and a refutation of the prevalent
belief that water by repeated distillation is converted into earth. He
also assisted J. E. Guettard (1715-1786) in preparing his mineralogical
atlas of France. In 1768, recognized as a man who had both the ability
and the means for a scientific career, he was nominated _adjoint
chimiste_ to the Academy, and in that capacity made numerous reports on
the most diverse subjects, from the theory of colours to water-supply
and from invalid chairs to mesmerism and the divining rod. The same year
he obtained the position of _adjoint_ to Baudon, one of the
farmers-general of the revenue, subsequently becoming a full titular
member of the body. This was the first of a series of posts in which his
administrative abilities found full scope. Appointed _régisseur des
poudres_ in 1775, he not only abolished the vexatious search for
saltpetre in the cellars of private houses, but increased the production
of the salt and improved the manufacture of gunpowder. In 1785 he was
nominated to the committee on agriculture, and as its secretary drew up
reports and instructions on the cultivation of various crops, and
promulgated schemes for the establishment of experimental agricultural
stations, the distribution of agricultural implements and the adjustment
of rights of pasturage. Seven years before he had started a model farm
at Fréchine, where he demonstrated the advantages of scientific methods
of cultivation and of the introduction of good breeds of cattle and
sheep. Chosen a member of the provincial assembly of Orleans in 1787, he
busied himself with plans for the improvement of the social and economic
conditions of the community by means of savings banks, insurance
societies, canals, workhouses, &c.; and he showed the sincerity of his
philanthropical work by advancing money out of his own pocket, without
interest, to the towns of Blois and Romorantin, for the purchase of
barley during the famine of 1788. Attached in this same year to the
_caisse d'escompte_, he presented the report of its operations to the
national assembly in 1789, and as commissary of the treasury in 1791 he
established a system of accounts of unexampled punctuality. He was also
asked by the national assembly to draw up a new scheme of taxation in
connexion with which he produced a report _De la richesse territoriale
de la France_, and he was further associated with committees on hygiene,
coinage, the casting of cannon, &c., and was secretary and treasurer of
the commission appointed in 1790 to secure uniformity of weights and
measures.
In 1791, when Lavoisier was in the middle of all this official activity,
the suppression of the farmers-general marked the beginning of troubles
which brought about his death. His membership of that body was alone
sufficient to make him an object of suspicion; his administration at the
_régie des poudres_ was attacked; and Marat accused him in the _Ami du
Peuple_ of putting Paris in prison and of stopping the circulation of
air in the city by the _mur d'octroi_ erected at his suggestion in 1787.
The Academy, of which as treasurer at the time he was a conspicuous
member, was regarded by the convention with no friendly eyes as being
tainted with "incivism," and in the spring of 1792 A. F. Fourcroy
endeavoured to persuade it to purge itself of suspected members. The
attempt was unsuccessful, but in August of the same year Lavoisier had
to leave his house and laboratory at the Arsenal, and in November the
Academy was forbidden until further orders to fill up the vacancies in
its numbers. Next year, on the 1st of August, the convention passed a
decree for the uniformity of weights and measures, and requested the
Academy to take measures for carrying it out, but a week later Fourcroy
persuaded the same convention to suppress the Academy together with
other literary societies _patentées et dotées_ by the nation. In
November it ordered the arrest of the ex-farmers-general, and on the
advice of the committee of public instruction, of which Guyton de
Morveau and Fourcroy were members, the names of Lavoisier and others
were struck off from the commission of weights and measures. The fate of
the ex-farmers-general was sealed on the 2nd of May 1794, when, on the
proposal of Antoine Dupin, one of their former officials, the convention
sent them for trial by the Revolutionary tribunal. Within a week
Lavoisier and 27 others were condemned to death. A petition in his
favour addressed to Coffinhal, the president of the tribunal, is said to
have been met with the reply _La République n'a pas besoin de savants_,
and on the 8th of the month Lavoisier and his companions were
guillotined at the Place de la Révolution. He died fourth, and was
preceded by his colleague Jacques Paulze, whose daughter he had married
in 1771. "_Il ne leur a fallu_," Lagrange remarked, "_qu'un moment pour
faire tomber cette tête, et cent années peut-être ne suffiront pas pour
en reproduire une semblable_."
Lavoisier's name is indissolubly associated with the overthrow of the
phlogistic doctrine that had dominated the development of chemistry for
over a century, and with the establishment of the foundations upon which
the modern science reposes. "He discovered," says Justus von Liebig
(_Letters on Chemistry_, No. 3), "no new body, no new property, no
natural phenomenon previously unknown; but all the facts established by
him were the necessary consequences of the labours of those who preceded
him. His merit, his immortal glory, consists in this--that he infused
into the body of the science a new spirit; but all the members of that
body were already in existence, and rightly joined together." Realizing
that the total weight of all the products of a chemical reaction must be
exactly equal to the total weight of the reacting substances, he made
the balance the _ultima ratio_ of the laboratory, and he was able to
draw correct inferences from his weighings because, unlike many of the
phlogistonists, he looked upon heat as imponderable. It was by weighing
that in 1770 he proved that water is not converted into earth by
distillation, for he showed that the total weight of a sealed glass
vessel and the water it contained remained constant, however long the
water was boiled, but that the glass vessel lost weight to an extent
equal to the weight of earth produced, his inference being that the
earth came from the glass, not from the water. On the 1st of November
1772 he deposited with the Academy a sealed note which stated that
sulphur and phosphorus when burnt increased in weight because they
absorbed "air," while the metallic lead formed from litharge by
reduction with charcoal weighed less than the original litharge because
it had lost "air." The exact nature of the airs concerned in the
processes he did not explain until after the preparation of
"dephlogisticated air" (oxygen) by Priestley in 1774. Then, perceiving
that in combustion and the calcination of metals only a portion of a
given volume of common air was used up, he concluded that Priestley's
new air, _air éminemment pur_, was what was absorbed by burning
phosphorus, &c., "non-vital air," azote, or nitrogen remaining behind.
The gas given off in the reduction of metallic calces by charcoal he at
first supposed to be merely that contained in the calx, but he soon came
to understand that it was a product formed by the union of the charcoal
with the "dephlogisticated air" in the calx. In a memoir presented to
the Academy in 1777, but not published till 1782, he assigned to
dephlogisticated air the name oxygen, or "acid-producer," on the
supposition that all acids were formed by its union with a simple,
usually non-metallic, body; and having verified this notion for
phosphorus, sulphur, charcoal, &c., and even extended it to the
vegetable acids, he naturally asked himself what was formed by the
combustion of "inflammable air" (hydrogen). This problem he had attacked
in 1774, and in subsequent years he made various attempts to discover
the acid which, under the influence of his oxygen theory, he expected
would be formed. It was not till the 25th of June 1783 that in
conjunction with Laplace he announced to the Academy that water was the
product formed by the combination of hydrogen and oxygen, but by that
time he had been anticipated by Cavendish, to whose prior work, however,
as to that of several other investigators in other matters, it is to be
regretted that he did not render due acknowledgment. But a knowledge of
the composition of water enabled him to storm the last defences of the
phlogistonists. Hydrogen they held to be the phlogiston of metals, and
they supported this view by pointing out that it was liberated when
metals were dissolved in acids. Considerations of weight had long
prevented Lavoisier from accepting this doctrine, but he was now able to
explain the process fully, showing that the hydrogen evolved did not
come from the metal itself, but was one product of the decomposition of
the water of the dilute acid, the other product, oxygen, combining with
the metal to form an oxide which in turn united with the acid. A little
later this same knowledge led him to the beginnings of quantitative
organic analysis. Knowing that the water produced by the combustion of
alcohol was not pre-existent in that substance but was formed by the
combination of its hydrogen with the oxygen of the air, he burnt alcohol
and other combustible organic substances, such as wax and oil, in a
known volume of oxygen, and, from the weight of the water and carbon
dioxide produced and his knowledge of their composition, was able to
calculate the amounts of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen present in the
substance.
Up to about this time Lavoisier's work, mainly quantitative in
character, had appealed most strongly to physicists, but it now began to
win conviction from chemists also. C. L. Berthollet, L. B. Guyton de
Morveau and A. F. Fourcroy, his collaborators in the reformed system of
chemical terminology set forth in 1787 in the _Méthode de nomenclature
chimique_, were among the earliest French converts, and they were
followed by M. H. Klaproth and the German Academy, and by most English
chemists except Cavendish, who rather suspended his judgment, and
Priestley, who stubbornly clung to the opposite view. Indeed, though the
partisans of phlogiston did not surrender without a struggle, the
history of science scarcely presents a second instance of a change so
fundamental accomplished with such ease. The spread of Lavoisier's
doctrines was greatly facilitated by the defined and logical form in
which he presented them in his _Traité élémentaire de chimie_ (_présenté
dans un ordre nouveau et d'après les découvertes modernes_) (1789). The
list of simple substances contained in the first volume of this work
includes light and caloric with oxygen, azote and hydrogen. Under the
head of "oxidable or acidifiable" substances, the combination of which
with oxygen yielded acids, were placed sulphur, phosphorus, carbon, and
the muriatic, fluoric and boracic radicals. The metals, which by
combination with oxygen became oxides, were antimony, silver, arsenic,
bismuth, cobalt, copper, tin, iron, manganese, mercury, molybdenum,
nickel, gold, platinum, lead, tungsten and zinc; and the "simple earthy
salifiable substances" were lime, baryta, magnesia, alumina and silica.
The simple nature of the alkalies Lavoisier considered so doubtful that
he did not class them as elements, which he conceived as substances
which could not be further decomposed by any known process of
analysis--_les molécules simples et indivisibles qui composent les
corps_. The union of any two of the elements gave rise to binary
compounds, such as oxides, acids, sulphides, &c. A substance containing
three elements was a binary compound of the second order; thus salts,
the most important compounds of this class, were formed by the union of
acids and oxides, iron sulphate, for instance, being a compound of iron
oxide with sulphuric acid.
In addition to his purely chemical work, Lavoisier, mostly in
conjunction with Laplace, devoted considerable attention to physical
problems, especially those connected with heat. The two carried out some
of the earliest thermochemical investigations, devised apparatus for
measuring linear and cubical expansions, and employed a modification of
Joseph Black's ice calorimeter in a series of determinations of specific
heats. Regarding heat (_matière de feu_ or _fluide igné_) as a peculiar
kind of imponderable matter, Lavoisier held that the three states of
aggregation--solid, liquid and gas--were modes of matter, each depending
on the amount of _matière de feu_ with which the ponderable substances
concerned were interpenetrated and combined; and this view enabled him
correctly to anticipate that gases would be reduced to liquids and
solids by the influence of cold and pressure. He also worked at
fermentation, respiration and animal heat, looking upon the processes
concerned as essentially chemical in nature. A paper discovered many
years after his death showed that he had anticipated later thinkers in
explaining the cyclical process of animal and vegetable life, for he
pointed out that plants derive their food from the air, from water, and
in general from the mineral kingdom, and animals in turn feed on plants
or on other animals fed by plants, while the materials thus taken up by
plants and animals are restored to the mineral kingdom by the
breaking-down processes of fermentation, putrefaction and combustion.
A complete edition of the writings of Lavoisier, _Oeuvres de
Lavoisier, publiées par les soins du ministre de l'instruction
publique_, was issued at Paris in six volumes from 1864-1893. This
publication comprises his _Opuscules physiques et chimiques_ (1774),
many memoirs from the Academy volumes, and numerous letters, notes and
reports relating to the various matters on which he was engaged. At
the time of his death he was preparing an edition of his collected
works, and the portions ready for the press were published in two
volumes as _Mémoires de chimie_ in 1805 by his widow (in that year
married to Count Rumford), who had drawn and engraved the plates in
his _Traité élémentaire de chimie_ (1789).
Sec E. Grimaux, _Lavoisier 1743-1794, d'après sa correspondance, ses
manuscripts_, &c. (1888), which gives a list of his works; P. E. M.
Berthelot, _La Révolution chimique: Lavoisier_ (1890), which contains
an analysis of and extracts from his laboratory notebooks.
LA VOISIN. CATHERINE MONVOISIN, known as "La Voisin" (d. 1680), French
sorceress, whose maiden name was Catherine Deshayes, was one of the
chief personages in the famous _affaire des poisons_, which disgraced
the reign of Louis XIV. Her husband, Monvoisin, was an unsuccessful
jeweller, and she practised chiromancy and face-reading to retrieve
their fortunes. She gradually added the practice of witchcraft, in which
she had the help of a renegade priest, Étienne Guibourg, whose part was
the celebration of the "black mass," an abominable parody in which the
host was compounded of the blood of a little child mixed with horrible
ingredients. She practised medicine, especially midwifery, procured
abortion and provided love powders and poisons. Her chief accomplice was
one of her lovers, the magician Lesage, whose real name was Adam
Coeuret. The great ladies of Paris flocked to La Voisin, who accumulated
enormous wealth. Among her clients were Olympe Mancini, comtesse de
Soissons, who sought the death of the king's mistress, Louise de la
Vallière; Mme de Montespan, Mme de Gramont (_la belle_ Hamilton) and
others. The bones of toads, the teeth of moles, cantharides, iron
filings, human blood and human dust were among the ingredients of the
love powders concocted by La Voisin. Her knowledge of poisons was not
apparently so thorough as that of less well-known sorcerers, or it would
be difficult to account for La Vallière's immunity. The art of poisoning
had become a regular science. The death of Henrietta, duchess of
Orleans, was attributed, falsely it is true, to poison, and the crimes
of Marie Madeleine de Brinvilliers (executed in 1676) and her
accomplices were still fresh in the public mind. In April 1679 a
commission appointed to inquire into the subject and to prosecute the
offenders met for the first time. Its proceedings, including some
suppressed in the official records, are preserved in the notes of one of
the official _rapporteurs_, Gabriel Nicolas de la Reynie. The revelation
of the treacherous intention of Mme de Montespan to poison Louis XIV.
and of other crimes, planned by personages who could not be attacked
without scandal which touched the throne, caused Louis XIV. to close the
_chambre ardente_, as the court was called, on the 1st of October 1680.
It was reopened on the 19th of May 1681 and sat until the 21st of July
1682. Many of the culprits escaped through private influence. Among
these were Marie Anne Mancini, duchesse de Bouillon, who had sought to
get rid of her husband in order to marry the duke of Vendôme, though
Louis XIV. banished her to Nérac. Mme de Montespan was not openly
disgraced, because the preservation of Louis's own dignity was
essential, and some hundred prisoners, among them the infamous Guibourg
and Lesage, escaped the scaffold through the suppression of evidence
insisted on by Louis XIV. and Louvois. Some of these were imprisoned in
various fortresses, with instructions from Louvois to the respective
commandants to flog them if they sought to impart what they knew. Some
innocent persons were imprisoned for life because they had knowledge of
the facts. La Voisin herself was executed at an early stage of the
proceedings, on the 20th of February 1680, after a perfunctory
application of torture. The authorities had every reason to avoid
further revelations. Thirty-five other prisoners were executed; five
were sent to the galleys and twenty-three were banished. Their crimes
had furnished one of the most extraordinary trials known to history.
See F. Ravaisson, _Archives de la Bastille_, vols. iv.-vii.
(1870-1874); the notes of La Reynie, preserved in the Bibliothèque
Nationale; F. Funck-Brentano, _Le Drame des poisons_ (1899); A.
Masson, _La Sorcellerie et la science des poisons au XVII^e siècle_
(1904). Sardou made the affair a background for his _Affaire des
poisons_ (1907). There is a portrait of La Voisin by Antoine Coypel,
which has been often reproduced.
LAW, JOHN (1671-1729), Scots economist, best known as the originator of
the "Mississippi scheme," was born at Edinburgh in April 1671. His
father, a goldsmith and banker, bought shortly before his death, which
took place in his son's youth, the lands of Lauriston near Edinburgh.
John lived at home till he was twenty, and then went to London. He had
already studied mathematics, and the theory of commerce and political
economy, with much interest; but he was known rather as fop than
scholar. In London he gambled, drank and flirted till in April 1694 a
love intrigue resulted in a duel with Beau Wilson in Bloomsbury Square.
Law killed his antagonist, and was condemned to death. His life was
spared, but he was detained in prison. He found means to escape to
Holland, then the greatest commercial country in Europe. Here he
observed with close attention the practical working of banking and
financial business, and conceived the first ideas of his celebrated
"system." After a few years spent in foreign travel, he returned to
Scotland, then exhausted and enraged by the failure of the Darien
expedition (1695-1701). He propounded plans for the relief of his
country in a work[1] entitled _Money and Trade Considered, with a
Proposal for supplying the Nation with Money_ (1705). This attracted
some notice, but had no practical effect, and Law again betook himself
to travel. He visited Brussels, Paris, Vienna, Genoa, Rome, making large
sums by gambling and speculation, and spending them lavishly. He was in
Paris in 1708, and made some proposals to the government as to their
financial difficulties, but Louis XIV. declined to treat with a
"Huguenot," and d'Argenson, chief of the police, had Law expelled as a
suspicious character. He had, however, become intimately acquainted
with the duke of Orleans, and when in 1715 that prince became regent,
Law at once returned to Paris.
The extravagant expenditure of the late monarch had plunged the kingdom
into apparently inextricable financial confusion. The debt was 3000
million livres, the estimated annual expenditure, exclusive of interest
payments, 148 million livres, and the income about the same. The
advisability of declaring a national bankruptcy was seriously discussed,
and though this plan was rejected, measures hardly less violent were
carried. By a _visa_, or examination of the state liabilities by a
committee with full powers of quashing claims, the debt was reduced
nearly a half, the coin in circulation was ordered to be called in and
reissued at the rate of 120 for 100--a measure by which foreign coiners
profited greatly, and a chamber of justice was established to punish
speculators, to whom the difficulties of the state were ascribed. These
measures had so little success that the _billets d'état_ which were
issued as part security for the new debt at once sank 75% below their
nominal value. At this crisis Law unfolded a vast scheme to the
perplexed regent. A royal bank was to manage the trade and currency of
the kingdom, to collect the taxes, and to free the country from debt.
The council of finance, then under the duc de Noailles, opposed the
plan, but the regent allowed Law to take some tentative steps. By an
edict of 2nd May 1716, a private institution called _La Banque
générale_, and managed by Law, was founded. The capital was 6 million
livres, divided into 1200 shares of 5000 livres, payable in four
instalments, one-fourth in cash, three-fourths in _billets d'état_. It
was to perform the ordinary functions of a bank, and had power to issue
notes payable at sight in the weight and value of the money mentioned at
day of issue. The bank was a great and immediate success. By providing
for the absorption of part of the state paper it raised the credit of
the government. The notes were a most desirable medium of exchange, for
they had the element of fixity of value, which, owing to the arbitrary
mint decrees of the government, was wanting in the coin of the realm.
They proved the most convenient instruments of remittance between the
capital and the provinces, and they thus developed the industries of the
latter. The rate of interest, previously enormous and uncertain, fell
first to 6 and then to 4%; and when another decree (10th April 1717)
ordered collectors of taxes to receive notes as payments, and to change
them for coin at request, the bank so rose in favour that it soon had a
note-issue of 60 million livres. Law now gained the full confidence of
the regent, and was allowed to proceed with the development of the
"system."
The trade of the region about the Mississippi had been granted to a
speculator named Crozat. He found the undertaking too large, and was
glad to give it up. By a decree of August 1717 Law was allowed to
establish the _Compagnie de la Louisiane ou d'Occident_, and to endow it
with privileges practically amounting to sovereignty over the most
fertile region of North America. The capital was 100 million livres
divided into 200,000 shares of 500 livres. The payments were to be
one-fourth in coin and three-fourths in _billets d'état_. On these last
the government was to pay 3 million livres interest yearly to the
company. As the state paper was depreciated the shares fell much below
par. The rapid rise of Law had made him many enemies, and they took
advantage of this to attack the system. D'Argenson, now head of the
council of finance, with the brothers Paris of Grenoble, famous tax
farmers of the day, formed what was called the "anti-system." The
farming of the taxes was let to them, under an assumed name, for 48½
million livres yearly. A company was formed, the exact counterpart of
the Mississippi company. The capital was the same, divided in the same
manner, but the payments were to be entirely in money. The returns from
the public revenue were sure; those from the Mississippi scheme were
not. Hence the shares of the latter were for some time out of favour.
Law proceeded unmoved with the development of his plans. On the 4th of
December 1718 the bank became a government institution under the name of
_La Banque royale_. Law was director, and the king guaranteed the notes.
The shareholders were repaid in coin, and, to widen the influence of
the new institution, the transport of money between towns where it had
branches was forbidden. The paper-issue now reached 110 millions. Law
had such confidence in the success of his plans that he agreed to take
over shares in the Mississippi company at par at a near date. The shares
began rapidly to rise. The next move was to unite the companies _Des
Indes Orientales_ and _De Chine_, founded in 1664 and 1713 respectively,
but now dwindled away to a shadow, to his company. The united
association, _La Compagnie des Indes_, had a practical monopoly of the
foreign trade of France. These proceedings necessitated the creation of
new capital to the nominal amount of 25 million livres. The payment was
spread over 20 months. Every holder of four original shares (_mères_)
could purchase one of the new shares (_filles_) at a premium of 50
livres. All these 500-livre shares rapidly rose to 750, or 50% above
par. Law now turned his attention to obtaining additional powers within
France itself. On the 25th of July 1719 an edict was issued granting the
company for nine years the management of the mint and the coin-issue.
For this privilege the company paid 5 million livres, and the money was
raised by a new issue of shares of the nominal value of 500 livres, but
with a premium of other 500. The list was only open for twenty days, and
it was necessary to present four _mères_ and one _fille_ in order to
obtain one of the new shares (_petites filles_). At the same time two
dividends per annum of 6% each were promised. Again there was an attempt
to ruin the bank by the commonplace expedient of making a run on it for
coin; but the conspirators had to meet absolute power managed with
fearlessness and skill. An edict appeared reducing, at a given date, the
value of money, and those who had withdrawn coin from the bank hastened
again to exchange it for the more stable notes. Public confidence in Law
was increased, and he was enabled rapidly to proceed with the completion
of the system. A decree of 27th August 1719 deprived the rival company
of the farming of the revenue, and gave it to the _Compagnie des Indes_
for nine years in return for an annual payment of 52 million livres.
Thus at one blow the "anti-system" was crushed. One thing yet remained;
Law proposed to take over the national debt, and manage it on terms
advantageous to the state. The mode of transfer was this. The debt was
over 1500 million livres. Notes were to be issued to that amount, and
with these the state creditors must be paid in a certain order. Shares
were to be issued at intervals corresponding to the payments, and it was
expected that the notes would be used in buying them. The government was
to pay 3% for the loan. It had formerly been bound to pay 80 millions,
it would now pay under 50, a clear gain of over 30. As the shares of the
company were almost the only medium for investment, the transfer would
be surely effected. The creditors would now look to the government
payments and the commercial gains of the company for their annual
returns. Indeed the creditors were often not able to procure the shares,
for each succeeding issue was immediately seized upon, though the
500-livre share was now issued at a premium of 4500 livres. After the
third issue, on the 2nd of October, the shares immediately resold at
8000 livres in the Rue Quincampoix, then used as a bourse. They went on
rapidly rising as new privileges were still granted to the company. Law
had now more than regal power. The exiled Stuarts paid him court; the
proudest aristocracy in Europe humbled themselves before him; and his
liberality made him the idol of the populace. After, as a necessary
preliminary, becoming a Catholic, he was made controller-general of the
finances in place of d'Argenson. Finally, in February 1720, the bank was
in name as well as in reality united to the company.
The system was now complete; but it had already begun to decay. In
December 1719 it was at its height. The shares had then amounted to
20,000 livres, forty times their nominal price. A sort of madness
possessed the nation. Men sold their all and hastened to Paris to
speculate. The population of the capital was increased by an enormous
influx of provincials and foreigners. Trade received a vast though
unnatural impulse. Everybody seemed to be getting richer, no one poorer.
Those who could still reflect saw that this prosperity was not real.
The whole issue of shares at the extreme market-price valued 12,000
million livres. It would require 600 million annual revenue to give a 5%
dividend on this. Now, the whole income of the company as yet was hardly
sufficient to pay 5% on the original capital of 1677 million livres. The
receipts from the taxes, &c., could be precisely calculated, and it
would be many years before the commercial undertakings of the
company--with which only some trifling beginning had been made--would
yield any considerable return. People began to sell their shares, and to
buy coin, houses, land--anything that had a stable element of value in
it. There was a rapid fall in the shares, a rapid rise in all kinds of
property, and consequently a rapid depreciation of the paper money. Law
met these new tendencies by a succession of the most violent edicts. The
notes were to bear a premium over specie. Coin was only to be used in
small payments, and only a small amount was to be kept in the possession
of private parties. The use of diamonds, the fabrication of gold and
silver plate, was forbidden. A dividend of 40% on the original capital
was promised. By several ingenious but fallaciously reasoned pamphlets
Law endeavoured to restore public confidence. The shares still fell. At
last, on the 5th of March 1720, an edict appeared fixing their price at
9000 livres, and ordering the bank to buy and sell them at that price.
The fall now was transferred to the notes, of which there were soon over
2500 million livres in circulation. A large proportion of the coined
money was removed from the kingdom. Prices rose enormously. There was
everywhere distress and complete financial confusion. Law became an
object of popular hatred. He lost his court influence, and was obliged
to consent to a decree (21st May 1720) by which the notes and
consequently the shares were reduced to half their nominal value. This
created such a commotion that its promoters were forced to recall it,
but the mischief was done. What confidence could there be in the
depreciated paper after such a measure? Law was removed from his office,
and his enemies proceeded to demolish the "system." A vast number of
shares had been deposited in the bank. These were destroyed. The notes
were reconverted into government debt, but there was first a _visa_
which reduced that debt to the same size as before it was taken over by
the company. The rate of interest was lowered, and the government now
only pledged itself to pay 37 instead of 80 millions annually. Finally
the bank was abolished, and the company reduced to a mere trading
association. By November the "system" had disappeared. With these last
measures Law, it may well be believed, had nothing to do. He left France
secretly in December 1720, resumed his wandering life, and died at
Venice, poor and forgotten, on the 21st of March 1729.
Of Law's writings the most important for the comprehension of the
"system" is his _Money and Trade Considered_. In this work he says
that national power and wealth consist in numbers of people, and
magazines of home and foreign goods. These depend on trade, and that
on money, of which a greater quantity employs more people; but credit,
if the credit have a circulation, has all the beneficial effects of
money. To create and increase instruments of credit is the function of
a bank. Let such be created then, and let its notes be only given in
return for land sold or pledged. Such a currency would supply the
nation with abundance of money; and it would have many advantages,
which Law points out in detail, over silver. The bank or commission
was to be a government institution, and its profits were to be spent
in encouraging the export and manufacture of the nation. A very
evident error lies at the root of the "system." Money is not the
result but the cause of wealth, he thought. To increase it then must
be beneficial, and the best way is by a properly secured paper
currency. This is the motive force; but it is to be applied in a
particular way. Law had a profound belief in the omnipotence of
government. He saw the evils of minor monopolies, and of private
farming of taxes. He proposed to centre foreign trade and internal
finance in one huge monopoly managed by the state for the people, and
carrying on business through a plentiful supply of paper money. He did
not see that trade and commerce are best left to private enterprise,
and that such a scheme would simply result in the profits of
speculators and favourites. The "system" was never so far developed as
to exhibit its inherent faults. The madness of speculators ruined the
plan when only its foundations were laid. One part indeed might have
been saved. The bank was not necessarily bound to the company, and had
its note-issue been retrenched it might have become a permanent
institution. As Thiers points out, the edict of the 5th of March
1720, which made the shares convertible into notes, ruined the bank
without saving the company. The shares had risen to an unnatural
height, and they should have been allowed to fall to their natural
level. Perhaps Law felt this to be impossible. He had friends at court
whose interests were involved in the shares, and he had enemies eager
for his overthrow. It was necessary to succeed completely or not at
all; so Law, a gambler to the core, risked and lost everything.
Notwithstanding the faults of the "system," its author was a financial
genius of the first order. He had the errors of his time; but he
propounded many truths as to the nature of currency and banking then
unknown to his contemporaries. The marvellous skill which he displayed
in adapting the theory of the "system" to the actual condition of
things in France, and in carrying out the various financial
transactions rendered necessary by its development, is absolutely
without parallel. His profound self-confidence and belief in the truth
of his own theories were the reasons alike of his success and his
ruin. He never hesitated to employ the whole force of a despotic
government for the definite ends which he saw before him. He left
France poorer than he entered it, yet he was not perceptibly changed
by his sudden transitions of fortune. Montesquieu visited him at
Venice after his fall, and has left a description of him touched with
a certain pathos. Law, he tells us, was still the same in character,
perpetually planning and scheming, and, though in poverty, revolving
vast projects to restore himself to power, and France to commercial
prosperity.
The fullest account of the Mississippi scheme is that of Thiers, _Law
et son système des finances_ (1826, American trans. 1859). See also
Heymann, _Law und sein System_ (1853); Pierre Bonnassieux, _Les
Grandes Compagnies de commerce_ (1892); S. Alexi, _John Law und sein
System_ (1885); E. Levasseur, _Récherches historiques sur le système
de Law_ (1854); and Jobez, _Une Préface au socialisme, ou le système
de Law et la chasse aux capitalistes_ (1848). Full biographical
details are given in Wood's _Life of Law_ (Edinburgh, 1824). All Law's
later writings are to be found in Daire, _Collection des principaux
économistes_, vol. i. (1843). Other works on Law are: A. W.
Wiston-Glynn, _John Law of Lauriston_ (1908); P. A. Cachut, _The
Financier Law, his Scheme and Times_ (1856); A. Macf. Davis, _An
Historical Study of Law's System_ (Boston, 1887); A. Beljame, _La
Pronunciation du nom de Jean Law le financier_ (1891). See also E. A.
Benians in _Camb. Mod. Hist._ vi. 6 (1909). For minor notices see
Poole's _Index to Periodicals_. There is a portrait of Law by A. S.
Belle in the National Portrait Gallery, London. (F. Wa.)