LAW (John), of Edinburgh, the famous projector, who raised himself to the dignity of comptroller-general of the finances of France, upon the strength of a scheme for establishing a bank, an East-India and a Mississippi company, with the profits of which, the national debt of France was to be paid off. He first offered his plan to Victor Amadeus, king of Sardinia; who told him, "he was not powerful enough to ruin himself." The French ministry accepted it in 1710. In 1716 he opened a bank in his own name, under the protection of the duke of Orleans, regent of France: most of the people of property of every rank in France, seduced by the prospect of immense gains, subscribed for shares in the bank and the companies. In 1718, Law's was declared a royal bank, and the shares rose to more than 20 times the original value; so that, in 1719, they were worth more than 80 times the amount of all the current specie in the kingdom. But the following year, this great fabric of false credit fell to the ground, and almost overthrew the French government, ruining some thousands of families; and it is remarkable, that the same desperate game was played by the South-sea directors in England, in the same fatal year, 1720. Law being exiled as soon as the credit of his projects began to fail, retired to Venice, where he died in 1729.