(Edmund), D.D., bishop of Carlisle, was born in the parish of Cartmel in Lancashire, in the year 1703. His father, who was a clergyman, held a small chapel in that neighbourhood; but the family had been situated at Alkham, in the county of Westmorland. He was educated for some time at Cartmel school, afterwards at the free grammar-school at Kendal; from which he went, very well instructed in the learning of grammar schools, to St John's college in Cambridge.

Soon after taking his first degree, he was elected fellow of Christ-college in that university. During his residence in which college, he became known to the public by a Translation of Archbishop King's Essay upon the Origin of Evil, with copious notes; in which many metaphysical subjects, curious and interesting in their own nature, are treated of with great ingenuity, learning, and novelty. To this work was prefixed, under the name of a Preliminary Dissertation, a very valuable piece, written by the reverend Mr Gay of Sidney college. Our bishop always spoke of this gentleman in terms of the greatest respect. In the Bible and in the writings of Mr Locke, no man, he used to say, was so well versed.

He also, whilst at Christ-college, undertook and went through a very laborious part in preparing for the press an edition of Stephens's Thesaurus. His acquaintance, during this his first residence in the university, was principally with Dr Waterland, the learned master of Magdalen college; Dr Jortin, a name known to every scholar; and Dr Taylor, the editor of Demosthenes.

In the year 1737 he was presented by the university to the living of Graystock in the county of Cumberland, a rectory of about 300 l. a-year. The advowson of this benefice belonged to the family of Howards of Graystock, but devolved to the university, for this turn, by virtue of an act of parliament, which transfers to these two bodies the nomination to such benefices as appertain, at the time of the vacancy, to the patronage of a Roman catholic. The right, however, of the university was contested; and it was not till after a law-suit of two years continuance that Mr Law was settled in his living. Soon after this, he married Mary the daughter of John Christian, Esq.; of Unerigg, in the county of Cumberland; a lady whose character is remembered with tenderness and esteem by all who knew her.

In 1743, he was promoted by Sir George Fleming, bishop of Carlisle, to the archdeaconry of that diocese; and in 1746 went from Graystock to reside at Salkeld, a pleasant village upon the banks of the river Eden, the rectory of which is annexed to the archdeaconry. Mr Law was not one of those who lose and forget themselves in the country. During his residence at Salkeld, he published Considerations on the Theory of Religion; to which were subjoined, Reflections on the Life and Character of Christ; and an Appendix concerning the use of the words Soul and Spirit in holy scripture, and the state of the dead there described.

Dr Keene held at this time, with the bishopric of Chester, the mastership of Peterhouse in Cambridge. Desiring to leave the university, he procured Dr Law to be elected to succeed him in that station. This took place in the year 1756; in which year Dr Law resigned his archdeaconry in favour of Mr Eyre, a brother-in-law of Dr Keene. Two years before this, he had proceeded to his degree of Doctor in Divinity; in his public exercise for which, he defended the doctrine of what is usually called the "sleep of the soul."

About the year 1760, he was appointed head librarian of the university; a situation which, as it procured an easy and quick access to books, was peculiarly agreeable to his taste and habits. Some time after this, he was also appointed caiusitical professor. In the year 1762, he suffered an irreparable loss by the death of his lady; a loss in itself every way afflicting, and rendered more so by the situation of his family, which then consisted of eleven children, many of them very young. Some years afterwards, he received several preferments, which were rather honourable expressions of regard from his friends than of much advantage to his fortune.

By Dr Cornwallis, then bishop of Lichfield, afterwards archbishop of Canterbury, who had been his pupil at Christ-college, he was appointed to the archdeaconry of Staffordshire, and to a prebend in the church of Lichfield. By his old acquaintance Dr Green, bishop of Lincoln, he was made a prebendary of that church. But in the year 1767, by the intervention of the duke of Newcastle, to whose interest, in the memorable contest for the high-stewardship of the university, he had adhered in opposition to some temptations, he obtained a stall in the church of Durham. The year after this, the duke of Grafton, who had a short time before been elected chancellor of the university, recommended the matter of Peterhouse to his majesty for the bishopric of Carlisle. This recommendation was made not only without solicitation on his part or that of his friends, but without his knowledge, until the duke's intention in his favour was signified to him by the archbishop.

In or about the year 1777, our bishop gave to the public a handsome edition, in three volumes quarto, of the Works of Mr Locke, with a Life of the Author, and a Preface. Mr Locke's writings and character have been in the highest esteem, and seems to have drawn from them many of his own principles: He was a disciple of that school. About the same time he published a tract, which engaged some attention in the controversy concerning subscription; and he published new editions of his two principal works, with considerable additions, and some alterations.

Dr Law held the see of Carlisle almost 19 years; during which time he twice only omitted spending the summer months in his diocese at the bishop's residence at Rose Castle; a situation with which he was much pleased, not only on account of the natural beauty of the place, but because it restored him to the country, in which he had spent the best part of his life. In the year 1787 he paid this visit in a state of great weakness and exhaustion; and died at Rose about a month after his arrival there, on the 14th day of August, and in the 84th year of his age.

The life of the bishop of Carlisle was a life of incessant reading and thought, almost entirely directed to metaphysical and religious inquiries. Besides the works already mentioned, he published, in 1734 or 1735, a very ingenious Inquiry into the Ideas of Space, Time, &c., in which he combats the opinions of Dr Clarke. and his adherents on these subjects; but the tenet by which his name and writings are principally distinguished, is "that Jesus Christ, at his second coming, will, by an act of his power, restore to life and consciousness the dead of the human species, who, by their own nature, and without this interpolation, would remain in the state of insensibility to which the death brought upon mankind by the sin of Adam had reduced them." He interpreted literally that saying of St Paul, 1 Cor. xv. 21, "As by man came death, so by man came also the resurrection of the dead." This opinion had no other effect upon his own mind than to increase his reverence for Christianity, and for its divine Founder. He retained it, as he did his other speculative opinions, without laying, as many are wont to do, an extravagant stress upon their importance, and without pretending to more certainty than the subject allowed of. No man formed his own conclusions with more freedom, or treated those of others with greater candour and equity. He never quarrelled with any person for differing from him, or considered that difference as a sufficient reason for questioning any man's sincerity, or judging meanly of his understanding. He was zealously attached to religious liberty, because he thought that it leads to truth; yet from his heart he loved peace. But he did not perceive any repugnancy in these two things. There was nothing in his elevation to his bishopric which he spoke of with more pleasure, than its being a proof that decent freedom of inquiry was not discouraged.

He was a man of great softness of manners, and of the mildest and most tranquil disposition. His voice was never raised above its ordinary pitch. His countenance seemed never to have been ruffled; it preserved the same kind and composed aspect, truly indicating the calmness and benignity of his temper. He had an utter dislike of large and mixed companies. Next to his books, his chief satisfaction was in the serious conversation of a literary companion, or in the company of a few friends. In this sort of society he would open his mind with great unrestrainedness, and with a peculiar turn and sprightliness of expression. His person was low, but well formed; his complexion fair and delicate. Except occasional interruptions by the gout, he had for the greatest part of his life enjoyed good health; and when not confined by that distemper, was full of motion and activity. About nine years before his death, he was greatly enfeebled by a severe attack of the gout in his stomach; and a short time after that, lost the use of one of his legs. Notwithstanding his fondness for exercise, he resigned himself to this change, not only without complaint, but without any sensible diminution of his cheerfulness and good-humour. His fault (for we are not writing a panegyric) was the general fault of retired and studious characters, too great a degree of inaction and facility in his public station. The modesty, or rather bashfulness of his nature, together with an extreme unwillingness to give pain, rendered him sometimes less firm and efficient in the administration of authority than was requisite. But it is the condition of human morality. There is an opposition between some virtues which seldom permits them to subsist together in perfection.

The bishop was interred with due solemnity in his cathedral church, in which a handsome monument is erected to his memory, bearing the following inscription:

Columnae hujus sepultus est ad pedem Edmundus Law, S.T.P. per xix fere annos hujuscce ecclesiae Episcopus. In evangelica veritate exquirenda, et vindicanda, ad extremum utique senectutem, operam navavit indefessam. Quo autem studio et affectu veritatem, codem et libertatem Christianam coluit; Religionem simplicem et incorruptam, nisi falsa libertate, stare non posse arbitratus. Obiit Aug. xiv. MDCCLXXXVII. Ætat. LXXXIV.