Problems of the Future and Essays

by Samuel Laing

This book was originally published prior to 1923, and represents a reproduction of an important historical work, maintaining the same format as the original work. While some publishers have opted to apply OCR (optical character recognition) technology to the process, we believe this leads to sub-optimal results (frequent typographical errors, strange characters and confusing formatting) and does not adequately preserve the historical character of the original artifact. We believe this work is culturally important in its original archival form. While we strive to adequately clean and digitally enhance the original work, there are occasionally instances where imperfections such as blurred or missing pages, poor pictures or errant marks may have been introduced due to either the quality of the original work or the scanning process itself. Despite these occasional imperfections, we have brought it back into print as part of our ongoing global book preservation commitment, providing customers with access to the best possible historical reprints. We appreciate your understanding of these occasional imperfections, and sincerely hope you enjoy seeing the book in a format as close as possible to that intended by the original publisher.

476 pages, Paperback

Published August 31, 2012

About the author

Samuel Laing (1780 - 1868) was a Scottish travel writer. He travelled in Scandinavia and northern Germany and published descriptions of these countries. Laing was the first translator of Heimskringla by Snorri Sturluson.

He unsuccessfully contested the Orkney and Shetland parliamentary constituency in 1832 against incumbent MP George Traill. Held after the passage of the Great Reform Act, this was the first election in which Shetlanders had the right to vote. Laing had won an early majority of votes counted in Orkney and was initially celebrated as the victor, however the delayed arrival of votes from Shetland produced a majority of 11 for Traill. The loss of Laing's majority provoked a riot in Kirkwall, leading to one fatality. Laing's subsequent attempt to lodge a legal challenge to his defeat was also unsuccessful.

Laing's son, also named Samuel Laing, was a railway administrator and important writer on religion and science, and a Liberal member of parliament. Laing's older brother, Malcolm Laing, was a notable historian. The merchant Gilbert Laing Meason was his older brother as well.