William Laurence Brown, a Scottish theologian, born at Utrecht, Holland, where his father was pastor, Jan. 7,1755, died May 11,1830. His father returned to Scotland in 1757, and he was sent to the grammar school and university of St. Andrews, but afterward removed to the university of Utrecht, where he combined with the study of divinity that of civil law. In 1778 he became pastor of the English church in that city. Between 1783 and 1793 he took several prizes offered for public competition by different learned bodies in Holland, producing among others a disputation in Latin on the "Origin of Evil," and one on the "Natural Equality of Man," which was printed in Edinburgh in 1793. He was also made professor and then regent of the university of Utrecht. In 1795, upon the approach of the French armies, he fled to England, where he was warmly received, and was made principal of Marischal college, Aberdeen, Scotland. At the first competition for the Burnet prize, his essay on the " Existence of a Supreme Creator" obtained the first place (Aberdeen, 1816). He afterward wrote " A Comparative View of Christianity and of the other Forms of Eeligion which have existed and still exist in the World, particularly with regard to their Moral Tendency " (Edinburgh, 1826).