Читать книгу John Law of Lauriston. Financier and Statesman, Founder of the Bank of France, Originator of the Mississippi Scheme, Etc онлайн

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Added to his undoubted intellectual abilities, Law possessed an engaging manner, a generous disposition, and a handsome personal appearance. By his fastidiousness in dress, he gained a degree of notoriety amongst his fellows, and was known amongst the ladies of his acquaintance by the appellation of Beau Law, whilst the gentlemen of the city conferred upon him the nickname of Jessamy John.

When twenty-one years of age, Law, with the feeling of independence due to the competency with which he had been provided by his father, desired to find a wider field for the proper display of his various accomplishments, and accordingly found his way to London, whence he made frequent visits to Tunbridge Wells, Bath, and other popular places of pleasure of the day. There he mixed with the highest social and political circles, to which his talents obtained him ready access, but in a society where gambling, hard drinking, and general dissipation were marks of distinction, Law’s popularity made serious inroads in a very short time upon his pecuniary position. An accumulation of debts necessitated a re-arrangement of the fee of Lauriston in order to provide for their payment. This he conveyed to his mother in consideration of her advancing the requisite sum, and whatever other money he required for immediate and legitimate purposes. The burden thus imposed upon the estate, however, was not to be allowed to remain. By severe economy his mother was able within a comparatively short period to remove it, and to secure the estate free of encumbrance in entailed succession to her family.