Laing

(Samuel), politician and writer, b. Edinburgh 1812, the son of S. Laing of Orkney. Educated at Cambridge, where he took his degree ’32; called to the bar ’42; became secretary of the railway department of the Board of Trade; returned as Liberal M.P. for Kirkwall ’52; helped repeal duty on advertisements in newspapers. In ’60 he became finance minister for India. His Modern Science and Modern Thought , ’85, is a plain exposition of the incompatibility of the old and new view of the universe. In the Modern Zoroastrian , ’87, he gives the philosophy of polarity, in which, however, he was anticipated by Mr. Crozier, who in turn was anticipated by Emerson. In ’88 he entered into a friendly correspondence with Mr. Gladstone on the subject of Agnosticism his portion of which has been published.