8th of December, in order that he might be free to act as “mediator between his erring peoples and the states whose tranquillity they threatened.” The cynical use he made of his “freedom” to repudiate obligations solemnly contracted is described elsewhere (see Naples, History). The result of this action was the Neapolitan declaration of war and the occupation of Naples by Austria, with the sanction of the congress. This was preceded, on the 10th of March, by the revolt of the garrison of Alessandria and the military revolution in Piedmont, which in its turn was suppressed, as a result of negotiations at Laibach, by Austrian troops. It was at Laibach, too, that, on the 19th of March, the emperor Alexander received the news of Ypsilanti’s invasion of the Danubian principalities, which heralded the outbreak of the War of Greek Independence, and from Laibach Capo d’Istria addressed to the Greek leader the tsar’s repudiation of his action.
The conference closed on the 12th of May, on which date Russia, Austria and Prussia issued a declaration (Hertslet, No. 108) “to proclaim to the world the principles which guided them” in coming “to the assistance of subdued peoples,” a declaration which once more affirmed the principles of the Troppau Protocol. In this lay the European significance of the Laibach conference, of which the activities had been mainly confined to Italy. The issue of the declaration without the signatures of the representatives of Great Britain and France proclaimed the disunion of the alliance, within which—to use Lord Stewart’s words—there existed “a triple understanding which bound the parties to carry forward their own views in spite of any difference of opinion between them and the two great constitutional governments.”
No separate history of the congress exists, but innumerable references are to be found in general histories and in memoirs, correspondence, &c., of the time. See Sir E. Hertslet, Map of Europe (London, 1875); Castlereagh, Correspondence; Metternich, Memoirs; N. Bianchi, Storia documentata della diplomazia Europea in Italia (8 vols., Turin, 1865–1872); Gentz’s correspondence (see Gentz, F. von). Valuable unpublished correspondence is preserved at the Record Office in the volumes marked F. O., Austria, Lord Stewart, January to February 1821, and March to September 1821. (W. A. P.)
LAIDLAW, WILLIAM (1780–1845), friend and amanuensis
of Sir Walter Scott, was born at Blackhouse, Selkirkshire, on
the 19th of November 1780, the son of a sheep farmer. After
an elementary education in Peebles he returned to work upon
his father’s farm. James Hogg, the shepherd poet, who was
employed at Blackhouse for some years, became Laidlaw’s
friend and appreciative critic. Together they assisted Scott
by supplying material for his Border Minstrelsy, and Laidlaw,
after two failures as a farmer in Midlothian and Peebleshire,
became Scott’s steward at Abbotsford. He also acted as Scott’s
amanuensis at different times, taking down a large part of The
Bride of Lammermoor, The Legend of Montrose and Ivanhoe
from the author’s dictation. He died at Contin near Dingwall,
Ross-shire, on the 18th of May 1845. Of his poetry, little is
known except Lucy’s Flittin’ in Hogg’s Forest Minstrel.
LAING, ALEXANDER GORDON (1793–1826), Scottish
explorer, the first European to reach Timbuktu, was born at
Edinburgh on the 27th of December 1793. He was educated
by his father, William Laing, a private teacher of classics, and
at Edinburgh University. In 1811 he went to Barbados as
clerk to his maternal uncle Colonel (afterwards General) Gabriel
Gordon. Through General Sir George Beckwith, governor of
Barbados, he obtained an ensigncy in the York Light Infantry.
He was employed in the West Indies, and in 1822 was promoted
to a company in the Royal African Corps. In that year, while
with his regiment at Sierra Leone, he was sent by the governor,
Sir Charles MacCarthy, to the Mandingo country, with the double
object of opening up commerce and endeavouring to abolish the
slave trade in that region. Later in the same year Laing visited
Falaba, the capital of the Sulima country, and ascertained the
source of the Rokell. He endeavoured to reach the source of
the Niger, but was stopped by the natives. He was, however,
enabled to fix it with approximate accuracy. He took an active
part in the Ashanti War of 1823–24, and was sent home with the
despatches containing the news of the death in action of Sir
Charles MacCarthy. Henry, 3rd Earl Bathurst, then secretary
for the colonies, instructed Captain Laing to undertake a journey,
via Tripoli and Timbuktu, to further elucidate the hydrography
of the Niger basin. Laing left England in February 1825, and at
Tripoli on the 14th of July following he married Emma Warrington,
daughter of the British consul. Two days later, leaving his
bride behind, he started to cross the Sahara, being accompanied
by a sheikh who was subsequently accused of planning his
murder. Ghadames was reached, by an indirect route, in
October 1825, and in December Laing was in the Tuat territory,
where he was well received by the Tuareg. On the 10th of
January 1826 he left Tuat, and made for Timbuktu across the
desert of Tanezroft. Letters from him written in May and
July following told of sufferings from fever and the plundering
of his caravan by Tuareg, Laing being wounded in twenty-four
places in the fighting. Another letter dated from Timbuktu
on the 21st of September announced his arrival in that city on
the preceding 18th of August, and the insecurity of his position
owing to the hostility of the Fula chieftain Bello, then ruling
the city. He added that he intended leaving Timbuktu in
three days’ time. No further news was received from the
traveller. From native information it was ascertained that he
left Timbuktu on the day he had planned and was murdered
on the night of the 26th of September 1826. His papers were
never recovered, though it is believed that they were secretly
brought to Tripoli in 1828. In 1903 the French government
placed a tablet bearing the name of the explorer and the date of
his visit on the house occupied by him during his thirty-eight
days’ stay in Timbuktu.
While in England in 1824 Laing prepared a narrative of his earlier journeys, which was published in 1825 and entitled Travels in the Timannee, Kooranko and Soolima Countries, in Western Africa.
LAING, DAVID (1793–1878), Scottish antiquary, the son of William Laing, a bookseller in Edinburgh, was born in that city on the 20th of April 1793. Educated at the Canongate Grammar
School, when fourteen he was apprenticed to his father. Shortly
after the death of the latter in 1837, Laing was elected to the
librarianship of the Signet Library, which post he retained till
his death. Apart from an extraordinary general bibliographical
knowledge, Laing was best known as a lifelong student of the
literary and artistic history of Scotland. He published no
original volumes, but contented himself with editing the works
of others. Of these, the chief are—Dunbar’s Works (2 vols.,
1834), with a supplement added in 1865; Robert Baillie’s
Letters and Journals (3 vols., 1841–1842); John Knox’s Works
(6 vols., 1846–1864); Poems and Fables of Robert Henryson
(1865); Andrew of Wyntoun’s Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland
(3 vols., 1872–1879); Sir David Lyndsay’s Poetical Works
(3 vols., 1879). Laing was for more than fifty years a member
of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, and he contributed
upwards of a hundred separate papers to their Proceedings.
He was also for more than forty years secretary to the Bannatyne
Club, many of the publications of which were edited by him.
He was struck with paralysis in 1878 while in the Signet Library,
and it is related that, on recovering consciousness, he looked
about and asked if a proof of Wyntoun had been sent from the
printers. He died a few days afterwards, on the 18th of October,
in his eighty-sixth year. His library was sold by auction, and
realized £16,137. To the university of Edinburgh he bequeathed
his collection of MSS.
See the Biographical Memoir prefixed to Select Remains of Ancient, Popular and Romance Poetry of Scotland, edited by John Small (Edinburgh, 1885); also T. G. Stevenson, Notices of David Laing with List of his Publications, &c. (privately printed 1878).
LAING, MALCOLM (1762–1818), Scottish historian, son of Robert Laing, and elder brother of Samuel Laing the elder, was born on his paternal estate on the Mainland of Orkney. Having studied at the grammar school of Kirkwall and at Edinburgh University, he was called to the Scotch bar in 1785, but devoted his time mainly to historical studies. In 1793 he completed the sixth and last volume of Robert Henry’s History of Great Britain, the portion which he wrote being in its strongly
