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. An event, however, shortly occurred, which almost resulted in an ignominious termination to Law’s career, but, as it happened, he succeeded in escaping its consequences although it necessitated his departure from the country. As an exponent of masculine fashions, he had a rival in one Edward Wilson, a younger son of a Leicestershire landlord. Their rivalry, as may be judged, did not conduce to friendly relations, and ill-concealed feelings of hatred existed between the two. This Wilson had been an ensign in Flanders, but having resigned his commission--from what cause it is not known, whether it was that his daintiness rebelled against the roughness of soldiery or that his courage was not equal to its dangers--he found his way to London, and there was a source of the greatest mystery to his friends and associates. Possessed of little or no patrimony, he yet maintained a magnificent establishment with an army of servants, and drove a coach and six. His lavish entertainments, and his social splendour, were the envy of the wealthiest. With unlimited credit, he nevertheless incurred no debts but were speedily paid, and on his death left no estate or evidence of the source of his abundant means.