LAURENTIUS, PAUL (1554-1624), Lutheran divine, was born on the 30th of
March 1554 at Ober Wierau, where his father, of the same names, was
pastor. From a school at Zwickau he entered (1573) the university of
Leipzig, graduating in 1577. In 1578 he became rector of the Martin
school at Halberstadt; in 1583 he was appointed town's preacher at
Plauen-im-Vogtland, and in 1586 superintendent at Oelnitz. On the 20th
of October 1595 he took his doctorate in theology at Jena, his thesis on
the _Symbolum Athanasii_ (1597), gaining him similar honours at
Wittenberg and Leipzig. He was promoted (1605) to be pastor and
superintendent at Dresden, and transferred (1616) to the superintendence
at Meissen, where he died on the 24th of February 1624. His works
consist chiefly of commentaries and expository discourses on prophetic
books of the Old Testament, parts of the Psalter, the Lord's Prayer and
the history of the Passion. In two orations he compared Luther to
Elijah. Besides theological works he was the author of a _Spicilegium
Gnomonologicum_ (1612).
The main authority is C. Schlegel, the historian of the Dresden
superintendents (1698), summarized by H. W. Rotermund, in the
additions (1810) to Jöcher, _Gelehrten-Lexicon_ (1750). (A. Go.*)
LAURIA (LURIA or LORIA) ROGER DE (d. 1305), admiral of Aragon and
Sicily, was the most prominent figure in the naval war which arose
directly from the Sicilian Vespers. Nothing is really known of his life
before he was named admiral in 1283. His father was a supporter of the
Hohenstaufen, and his mother came to Spain with Costanza, the daughter
of Manfred of Beneventum, when she married Peter, the eldest son and
heir of James the Conqueror of Aragon. According to one account Bella of
Lauria, the admiral's mother, had been the foster mother of Costanza.
Roger, who accompanied his mother, was bred at the court of Aragon and
endowed with lands in the newly conquered kingdom of Valencia. When the
misrule of Charles of Anjou's French followers had produced the famous
revolt known as the Sicilian Vespers in 1282, Roger de Lauria
accompanied King Peter III. of Aragon on the expedition which under the
cover of an attack on the Moorish kingdom of Tunis was designed to be an
attempt to obtain possession of all or at least part of the Hohenstaufen
dominions in Naples and Sicily which the king claimed by right of his
wife as the heiress of Manfred. In 1283, when the island had put itself
under the protection of Peter III. and had crowned him king, he gave the
command of his fleet to Roger de Lauria. The commission speaks of him in
the most laudatory terms, but makes no reference to previous military
services.
From this time forward till the peace of Calatabellota in 1303, Roger
de Lauria was the ever victorious leader of fleets in the service of
Aragon, both in the waters of southern Italy and on the coast of
Catalonia. In the year of his appointment he defeated a French naval
force in the service of Charles of Anjou, off Malta. The main object
before him was to repel the efforts of the Angevine party to reconquer
Sicily and then to carry the war into their dominions in Naples.
Although Roger de Lauria did incidental fighting on shore, he was as
much a naval officer as any modern admiral, and his victories were won
by good manoeuvring and by discipline. The Catalan squadron, on which
the Sicilian was moulded, was in a state of high and intelligent
efficiency. Its chiefs relied not on merely boarding, and the use of the
sword, as the French forces of Charles of Anjou did, but on the use of
the ram, and of the powerful cross-bows used by the Catalans either by
hand or, in case of the larger ones, mounted on the bulwarks, with great
skill. The conflict was in fact the equivalent on the water of the
battles between the English bowmen and the disorderly chivalry of France
in the Hundred Years' War. In 1284 Roger defeated the Angevine fleet in
the Bay of Naples, taking prisoner the heir to the kingdom, Charles of
Salerno, who remained a prisoner in the hands of the Aragonese in
Sicily, and later in Spain, for years. In 1285 he fought on the coast of
Catalonia one of the most brilliant campaigns in all naval history. The
French king Philippe le Hardi had invaded Catalonia with a large army to
which the pope gave the character of crusaders, in order to support his
cousin of Anjou in his conflict with the Aragonese. The king, Peter
III., had offended his nobles by his vigorous exercise of the royal
authority, and received little support from them, but the outrages
perpetrated by the French invaders raised the towns and country against
them. The invaders advanced slowly, taking the obstinately defended
towns one by one, and relying on the co-operation of a large number of
allies, who were stationed in squadrons along the coast, and who brought
stores and provisions from Narbonne and Aigues Mortes. They relied in
fact wholly on their fleet for their existence. A successful blow struck
at that would force them to retreat. King Peter was compelled to risk
Sicily for a time, and he recalled Roger de Lauria from Palermo to the
coast of Catalonia. The admiral reached Barcelona on the 24th of August,
and was informed of the disposition of the French. He saw that if he
could break the centre of their line of squadrons, stretched as it was
so far that its general superiority of numbers was lost in the attempt
to occupy the whole of the coast, he could then dispose of the
extremities in detail. On the night of the 9th of September he fell on
the central squadron of the French fleet near the Hormigas. The Catalan
and Sicilian squadrons doubled on the end of the enemies' line, and by a
vigorous employment of the ram, as well as by the destructive shower of
bolts from the cross-bows, which cleared the decks of the French, gained
a complete victory. The defeat of the enemy was followed, as usually in
medieval naval wars, by a wholesale massacre. Roger then made for Rosas,
and tempted out the French squadron stationed there by approaching under
French colours. In the open it was beaten in its turn. The result was
the capture of the town, and of the stores collected there by King
Philippe for the support of his army. Within a short time he was forced
to retreat amid sufferings from hunger, and the incessant attacks of the
Catalan mountaineers, by which his army was nearly annihilated. This
campaign, which was followed up by destructive attacks on the French
coast, saved Catalonia from the invaders, and completely ruined the
French naval power for the time being. No medieval admiral of any nation
displayed an equal combination of intellect and energy, and none of
modern times has surpassed it. The work had been so effectually done on
the coast of Catalonia that Roger de Lauria was able to return to
Sicily, and resume his command in the struggle of Aragonese and Angevine
to gain, or to hold, the possession of Naples.
He maintained his reputation and was uniformly successful in his battles
at sea, but they were not always fought for the defence of Sicily. The
death of Peter III. in 1286 and of his eldest son Alphonso in the
following year caused a division among the members of the house of
Aragon. The new king, James, would have given up Sicily to the Angevine
line with which he made peace and alliance, but his younger brother
Fadrique accepted the crown offered him by the Sicilians, and fought for
his own hand against both the Angevines and his senior. King James tried
to force him to submission without success. Roger de Lauria adhered for
a time to Fadrique, but his arrogant temper made him an intolerable
supporter, and he appears, moreover, to have thought that he was bound
to obey the king of Aragon. His large estates in Valencia gave him a
strong reason for not offending that sovereign. He therefore left
Fadrique, who confiscated his estates in Sicily and put one of his
nephews to death as a traitor. For this Roger de Lauria took a ferocious
revenge in two successive victories at sea over the Sicilians. When the
war, which had become a ravening of wild beasts, was at last ended by
the peace of Calatabellota, Roger de Lauria retired to Valencia, where
he died on the 2nd of January 1305, and was buried, by his express
orders, in the church of Santas Creus, a now deserted monastery of the
Cistercians, at the feet of his old master Peter III. In his ferocity,
and his combination of loyalty to his feudal lord with utter want of
scruple to all other men, Roger belonged to his age. As a captain he was
far above his contemporaries and his successors for many generations.
Signor Amari's _Guerra del Vespro Siciliano_ gives a general picture
of these wars, but the portrait of Roger de Lauria must be sought in
the _Chronicle_ of the Catalan Ramon de Muntaner who knew him and was
formed in his school. There is a very fair and well "documented"
account of the masterly campaign of 1285 in Charles de la Roncière's
_Histoire de la marine française_, i. 189-217. (D. H.)
LAURIA, or LORIA, a city of Basilicata, Italy, in the province of
Potenza, situated near the borders of Calabria, 7½ m. by road S. of
Lagonegro. Pop. (1901) 10,470. It is a walled town on the steep side of
a hill with another portion in the plain below, 1821 ft. above
sea-level. The castle was the birthplace of Ruggiero di Loria, the great
Italian admiral of the 13th century. It was destroyed by the French
under Masséna in 1806.
LAURIER, SIR WILFRID (1841- ), Canadian statesman, was born on the
20th of November 1841, at St Lin in the province of Quebec. The child of
French Roman Catholic parents, he attended the elementary school of his
native parish and for eight or nine months was a pupil of the Protestant
elementary school at New Glasgow in order to learn English; his
association with the Presbyterian family with whom he lived during this
period had a permanent influence on his mind. At twelve years of age he
entered L'Assomption college, and was there for seven years. The
college, like all the secondary schools in Quebec then available for
Roman Catholics, was under direct ecclesiastical control. On leaving it
he entered a law office at Montreal and took the law course at McGill
University. At graduation he delivered the valedictory address for his
class. This, like so many of his later utterances, closed with an appeal
for sympathy and union between the French and English races as the
secret of the future of Canada. He began to practise law in Montreal,
but owing to ill-health soon removed to Athabaska, where he opened a law
office and undertook also to edit _Le Défricheur_, a newspaper then on
the eve of collapse. At Athabaska, the seat of one of the superior
courts of Quebec, the population of the district was fairly divided
between French- and English-speaking people, and Laurier's career was
undoubtedly influenced by his constant association with English-speaking
people and his intimate acquaintance with their views and aspirations.
While at Montreal he had joined the Institut Canadien, a literary and
scientific society which, owing to its liberal discussions and the fact
that certain books upon its shelves were on the _Index expurgatorius_,
was finally condemned by the Roman Catholic authorities. _Le Défricheur_
was an organ of extreme French sentiment, opposed to confederation, and
also under ecclesiastical censure. One of its few surviving copies
contains an article by Laurier opposing confederation as a scheme
designed in the interest of the English colonies in North America, and
certain to prove the tomb of the French race and the ruin of Lower
Canada. The Liberals of Quebec under the leadership of Sir Antoine
Dorion were hostile to confederation, or at least to the terms of union
agreed upon at the Quebec conference, and Laurier in editorials and
speeches maintained the position of Dorion and his allies. He was
elected to the Quebec legislature in 1871, and his first speech in the
provincial assembly excited great interest, on account of its literary
qualities and the attractive manner and logical method of the speaker.
He was not less successful in the Dominion House of Commons, to which he
was elected in 1874. During his first two years in the federal
parliament his chief speeches were made in defence of Riel and the
French halfbreeds who were concerned in the Red River rebellion, and on
fiscal questions. Sir John Macdonald, then in opposition, had committed
his party to a protectionist policy, and Laurier, notwithstanding that
the Liberal party stood for a low tariff, avowed himself to be "a
moderate protectionist." He declared that if he were in Great Britain he
would be a free trader, but that free trade or protection must be
applied according to the necessities of a country, and that which
protection necessarily involved taxation it was the price a young and
vigorous nation must pay for its development. But the Liberal
government, to which Laurier was admitted as minister of inland revenue
in 1877, made only a slight increase in duties, raising the general
tariff from 15% to 17½%; and against the political judgment of Alexander
Mackenzie, Sir Richard Cartwright, George Brown, Laurier and other of
the more influential leaders of the party, it adhered to a low tariff
platform. In the bye-election which followed Laurier's admission to the
cabinet he was defeated--the only personal defeat he ever sustained; but
a few weeks later he was returned for Quebec East, a constituency which
he held thenceforth by enormous majorities. In 1878 his party went out
of office and Sir John Macdonald entered upon a long term of power, with
protection as the chief feature of his policy, to which was afterwards
added the construction of the Canadian Pacific railway.
After the defeat of the Mackenzie government, Laurier sat in Parliament
as the leader of the Quebec Liberals and first lieutenant to the Hon.
Edward Blake, who succeeded Mackenzie in the leadership of the party. He
was associated with Blake in his sustained opposition to high tariff,
and to the Conservative plan for the construction of the Canadian
Pacific railway, and was a conspicuous figure in the long struggle
between Sir John Macdonald and the leaders of the Liberal party to
settle the territorial limits of the province of Ontario and the
legislative rights of the provinces under the constitution. He was
forced also to maintain a long conflict with the ultramontane element of
the Roman Catholic church in Quebec, which for many years had a close
working alliance with the Conservative politicians of the province and
even employed spiritual coercion in order to detach votes from the
Liberal party. Notwithstanding that Quebec was almost solidly Roman
Catholic the Rouges sternly resisted clerical pressure; they appealed to
the courts and had certain elections voided on the ground of undue
clerical influence, and at length persuaded the pope to send out a
delegate to Canada, through whose inquiry into the circumstances the
abuses were checked and the zeal of the ultramontanes restrained.
In 1887, upon the resignation of Blake on the ground of ill-health,
Laurier became leader of the Liberal party, although he and many of the
more influential men in the party doubted the wisdom of the proceeding.
He was the first French Canadian to lead a federal party in Canada since
confederation. Apart from the natural fear that he would arouse
prejudice in the English-speaking provinces, the second Riel rebellion
was then still fresh in the public mind, and the fierce nationalist
agitation which Riel's execution had excited in Quebec had hardly
subsided. Laurier could hardly have come to the leadership at a more
inopportune moment, and probably he would not have accepted the office
at all if he had not believed that Blake could be persuaded to resume
the leadership when his health was restored. But from the first he won
great popularity even in the English-speaking provinces, and showed
unusual capacity for leadership. His party was beaten in the first
general election held after he became leader (1891), but even with its
policy of unrestricted reciprocity with the United States, and with Sir
John Macdonald still at the head of the Conservative party, it was
beaten by only a small majority. Five years later, with unrestricted
reciprocity relegated to the background, and with a platform which
demanded tariff revision so adjusted as not to endanger established
interests, and which opposed the federal measure designed to restore in
Manitoba the separate or Roman Catholic schools which the provincial
government had abolished, Laurier carried the country, and in July 1896
he was called by Lord Aberdeen, then governor-general, to form a
government.
He was the first French-Canadian to occupy the office of premier; and
his personal supremacy was shown by his long continuance in power.
During the years from 1896 to 1910, he came to hold a position within
the British Empire which was in its way unique, and in this period he
had seen Canadian prosperity advance progressively by leaps and bounds.
The chief features of his administration were the fiscal preference of
33(1/3)% in favour of goods imported into Canada from Great Britain, the
despatch of Canadian contingents to South Africa during the Boer war,
the contract with the Grand Trunk railway for the construction of a
second transcontinental road from ocean to ocean, the assumption by
Canada of the imperial fortresses at Halifax and Esquimault, the
appointment of a federal railway commission with power to regulate
freight charges, express rates and telephone rates, and the relations
between competing companies, the reduction of the postal rate to Great
Britain from 5 cents to 2 cents and of the domestic rate from 3 cents to
2 cents, a substantial contribution to the Pacific cable, a practical
and courageous policy of settlement and development in the Western
territories, the division of the North-West territories into the
provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan and the enactment of the
legislation necessary to give them provincial status, and finally
(1910), a tariff arrangement with the United States, which, if not all
that Canada might claim in the way of reciprocity, showed how entirely
the course of events had changed the balance of commercial interests in
North America.
Laurier made his first visit to Great Britain on the occasion of Queen
Victoria's diamond jubilee (1897), when he received the grand cross of
the Bath; he then secured the denunciation of the Belgian and German
treaties and thus obtained for the colonies the right to make
preferential trade arrangements with the mother country. His personality
made a powerful impression in Great Britain and also in France, which he
visited before his return to Canada. His strong facial resemblance both
to Lord Beaconsfield and to Sir John Macdonald marked him out in the
public eye, and he captured attention by his charm of manner, fine
command of scholarly English and genuine eloquence. Some of his speeches
in Great Britain, coming as they did from a French-Canadian, and
revealing delicate appreciation of British sentiment and thorough
comprehension of the genius of British institutions, excited great
interest and enthusiasm, while one or two impassioned speeches in the
Canadian parliament during the Boer war profoundly influenced opinion in
Canada and had a pronounced effect throughout the empire.
A skilful party-leader, Laurier kept from the first not only the
affection of his political friends but the respect of his opponents;
while enforcing the orderly conduct of public business, he was careful
as first minister to maintain the dignity of parliament. In office he
proved more of an opportunist than his career in opposition would have
indicated, but his political courage and personal integrity remained
beyond suspicion. His jealousy for the political autonomy of Canada was
noticeable in his attitude at the Colonial conference held at the time
of King Edward's coronation, and marked all his diplomatic dealings with
the mother country. But he strove for sympathetic relations between
Canadian and imperial authorities, and favoured general legislative and
fiscal co-operation between the two countries. He strove also for good
relations between the two races in Canada, and between Canada and the
United States. Although he was classed in Canada as a Liberal, his
tendencies would in England have been considered strongly conservative;
an individualist rather than a collectivist, he opposed the intrusion
of the state into the sphere of private enterprise, and showed no
sympathy with the movement for state operation of railways, telegraphs
and telephones, or with any kindred proposal looking to the extension of
the obligations of the central government.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--J. S. Willison, _Sir Wilfrid Laurier and the Liberal
Party; a Political History_ (Toronto, 1903); L. O. David, _Laurier et
son temps_ (Montreal, 1905); see also Henri Moreau, _Sir Wilfrid
Laurier, Premier Ministre du Canada_ (Paris, 1902); and the collection
of Laurier's speeches from 1871 to 1890, compiled by Ulric Barthe
(Quebec, 1890). (J. S. W.)
LAURISTON, JACQUES ALEXANDRE BERNARD LAW, MARQUIS DE (1768-1828), French
soldier and diplomatist, was the son of Jacques François Law de
Lauriston (1724-1785), a general officer in the French army, and was
born at Pondicherry on the 1st of February 1768. He obtained his first
commission about 1786, served with the artillery and on the staff in the
earlier Revolutionary campaigns, and became brigadier of artillery in
1795. Resigning in 1796, he was brought back into the service in 1800 as
aide-de-camp to Napoleon, with whom as a cadet Lauriston had been on
friendly terms. In the years immediately preceding the first empire
Lauriston was successively director of the Le Fère artillery school and
special envoy to Denmark, and he was selected to convey to England the
ratification of the peace of Amiens (1802). In 1805, having risen to the
rank of general of division, he took part in the war against Austria. He
occupied Venice and Ragusa in 1806, was made governor-general of Venice
in 1807, took part in the Erfurt negotiations of 1808, was made a count,
served with the emperor in Spain in 1808-1809 and held commands under
the viceroy Eugène Beauharnais in the Italian campaign and the advance
to Vienna in the same year. At the battle of Wagram he commanded the
guard artillery in the famous "artillery preparation" which decided the
battle. In 1811 he was made ambassador to Russia; in 1812 he held a
command in the _Grande Armée_ and won distinction by his firmness in
covering the retreat from Moscow. He commanded the V. army corps at
Lützen and Bautzen and the V. and XI. in the autumn campaign, falling
into the hands of the enemy in the disastrous retreat from Leipzig. He
was held a prisoner of war until the fall of the empire, and then joined
Louis XVIII., to whom he remained faithful in the Hundred Days. His
reward was a seat in the house of peers and a command in the royal
guard. In 1817 he was created marquis and in 1823 marshal of France.
During the Spanish War he commanded the corps which besieged and took
Pamplona. He died at Paris on the 12th of June 1828.
LAURIUM ([Greek: Laurion], mod. ERGASTIRI), a mining town in Attica,
Greece, famous for the silver mines which were one of the chief sources
of revenue of the Athenian state, and were employed for coinage. After
the battle of Marathon, Themistocles persuaded the Athenians to devote
the revenue derived from the mines to shipbuilding, and thus laid the
foundation of the Athenian naval power, and made possible the victory of
Salamis. The mines, which were the property of the state, were usually
farmed out for a certain fixed sum and a percentage on the working;
slave labour was exclusively employed. Towards the end of the 5th
century the output was diminished, partly owing to the Spartan
occupation of Decelea. But the mines continued to be worked, though
Strabo records that in his time the tailings were being worked over, and
Pausanias speaks of the mines as a thing of the past. The ancient
workings, consisting of shafts and galleries for excavating the ore, and
pans and other arrangements for extracting the metal, may still be seen.
The mines are still worked at the present day by French and Greek
companies, but mainly for lead, manganese and cadmium. The population of
the modern town was 10,007 in 1907.
See E. Ardaillon, "Les Mines du Laurion dans l'antiquité," No. lxxvii.
of the _Bibliothèque des écoles françaises d'Athènes et de Rome_.
LAURIUM, a village of Houghton county, Michigan, U.S.A., near the centre
of Keweenaw peninsula, the northern extremity of the state. Pop. (1890)
1159; (1900) 5643, of whom 2286 were foreign-born; (1904) 7653; (1910)
8537. It is served by the Mineral Range and the Mohawk and Copper Range
railways. It is in one of the most productive copper districts in the
United States, and copper mining is its chief industry. Immediately W.
of Laurium is the famous Calumet and Hecla mine. The village was
formerly named Calumet, and was incorporated under that name in 1889,
but in 1895 its name was changed by the legislature to Laurium, in
allusion to the mineral wealth of Laurium in Greece. The name Calumet is
now applied to the post office in the village of Red Jacket
(incorporated 1875; pop. 1900, 4668; 1904, 3784; 1910, 4211), W. of the
Calumet and Hecla mine; and Laurium, the mining property and Red Jacket
are all in the township of Calumet (pop. 1904, state census, 28,587).
LAURUSTINUS, in botany, the popular name of a common hardy evergreen
garden shrub known botanically as _Viburnum Tinus_, with rather
dark-green ovate leaves in pairs and flat-topped clusters (or corymbs)
of white flowers, which are rose-coloured before expansion, and appear
very early in the year. It is a native of the Mediterranean region, and
was in cultivation in Britain at the end of the 16th century. _Viburnum_
belongs to the natural order Caprifoliaceae and includes the common
wayfaring tree (_V. Lantana_) and the guelder rose (_V. Opulus_).
LAURVIK, LARVIK or LAURVIG, a seaport of Norway, in Jarlsberg and
Laurvik _amt_ (county), at the head of a short fjord near the mouth of
the Laagen river, 98 m. S.S.W. of Christiania by the Skien railway. Pop.
(1900) 10,664. It has various industries, including saw and planing
mills, shipbuilding, glassworks and factories for wood-pulp, barrels and
potato flour; and an active trade in exporting timber, ice, wood-pulp
and granite, chiefly to Great Britain, and in importing from the same
country coal and salt. The port has a depth of 18 to 24 ft. beside the
quays. Four miles south is Fredriksvaern, formerly a station of the
Norwegian fleet and the seat of a naval academy. Laurviks Bad is a
favourite spa, with mineral and sulphur springs and mud-baths.
LAUSANNE, the capital of the Swiss canton of Vaud. It is the junction of
the railway lines from Geneva, from Brieg and the Simplon, from Fribourg
and Bern, and from Vallorbe (for Paris). A funicular railway connects
the upper town with the central railway station and with Ouchy, the port
of Lausanne on the lake of Geneva. Lausanne takes its name from the Flon
stream flowing through it, which was formerly called Laus (water). The
older or upper portion of the town is built on the crest and slopes of
five hillocks and in the hollows between them, all forming part of the
Jorat range. It has a picturesque appearance from the surface of the
lake, above which the cathedral rises some 500 ft., while from the town
there is a fine view across the lake towards the mountains of Savoy and
of the Valais. The quaint characteristics of the hilly site of the old
town have largely been destroyed by modern improvements, which began in
1836 and were not quite completed in 1910. The Grand Pont, designed by
the cantonal engineer, Adrien Pichard (1790-1841), was built 1839-1844,
while the Barre tunnel was pierced 1851-1855 and the bridge of Chauderon
was built in 1905. The valleys and lower portions of the town were
gradually filled up so as to form a series of squares, of which those of
Riponne and of St François are the finest, the latter now being the real
centre of the town. The railways were built between 1856 and 1862, while
the opening of the Simplon tunnel (1906) greatly increased the
commercial importance of Lausanne, which is now on the great
international highway from Paris to Milan. From 1896 onwards a
well-planned set of tramways within the town was constructed. The town
is still rapidly extending, especially towards the south and west. Since
the days of Gibbon (resident here for three periods, 1753-1758,
1763-1764 and 1783-1793), whose praises of the town have been often
repeated, Lausanne has become a favourite place of residence for
foreigners (including many English), who are especially attracted by the
excellent establishments for secondary and higher education. Hence in
1900 there were 9501 foreign residents (of whom 628 were British
subjects) out of a total population of 46,732 inhabitants; in 1905 it
was reckoned that these numbers had risen respectively to 10,625, 818
and 53,577. In 1709 it is said that the inhabitants numbered but 7432
and 9965 in 1803, while the numbers were 20,515 in 1860 and 33,340 in
1888. Of the population in 1900 the great majority was French-speaking
(only 6627 German-speaking and 3146 Italian-speaking) and Protestant
(9364 Romanists and 473 Jews).
The principal building is the cathedral church (now Protestant) of Notre
Dame, which with the castle occupies the highest position. It is the
finest medieval ecclesiastical building in Switzerland. Earlier
buildings were more or less completely destroyed by fire, but the
present edifice was consecrated in 1275 by Pope Gregory X. in the
presence of the emperor Rudolf of Habsburg. It was sacked after the
Bernese conquest (1536) and the introduction of Protestantism, but many
ancient tapestries and other precious objects are still preserved in the
Historical Museum at Bern. The church was well restored at great cost
from 1873 onwards, as it is the great pride of the citizens. Close by is
the castle, built in the early 15th century by the bishops, later the
residence of the Bernese bailiffs and now the seat of the various
branches of the administration of the canton of Vaud. Near both is the
splendid Palais de Rumine (on the Place de la Riponne), opened in 1906
and now housing the university as well as the cantonal library, the
cantonal picture gallery (or Musée Arlaud, founded 1841) and the
cantonal collections of archaeology, natural history, &c. The university
was raised to that rank in 1890, but, as an academy, dates from 1537.
Among its former teachers may be mentioned Theodore Beza, Conrad Gesner,
J. P. de Crousaz, Charles Monnard, Alexandre Vinet, Eugène Rambert,
Juste Olivier and several members of the Secretan family. On the
Montbenon heights to the south-west of the cathedral group is the
federal palace of justice, the seat (since 1886) of the federal court of
justice, which, erected by the federal constitution of 29th May 1874,
was fixed at Lausanne by a federal resolution of 26th June 1874. The
house, La Grotte, which Gibbon inhabited 1783-1793, and on the terrace
of which he completed (1787) his famous history, was demolished in 1896
to make room for the new post office that stands on the Place St
François. The asylum for the blind was mainly founded (1845) by the
generosity of W. Haldimand, an Englishman of Swiss descent. The first
book printed in Lausanne was the missal of the cathedral church (1493),
while the _Gazette de Lausanne_ (founded 1798) took that name in 1804.
Lausanne has been the birthplace of many distinguished men, such as
Benjamin Constant, the Secretans, Vinet and Rambert. It is the seat of
many benevolent, scientific and literary societies and establishments.
The original town (mentioned in the Antonine Itinerary) was on the shore
of the lake, near Vidy, south-west of the present city. It was burnt in
the 4th century by the Alamanni. Some of the inhabitants took refuge in
the hills above and there founded a new town, which acquired more
importance when Bishop Marius about 590 chose it as his see city
(perhaps transferring it from Avenches). Here rose the cathedral church,
the bishop's palace, &c. Across the Flon was a Burgundian settlement,
later known as the Bourg, while to the west was a third colony around
the church of St Laurent. These three elements joined together to form
the present city. The bishops obtained little by little great temporal
powers (the diocese extended to the left bank of the Aar) and riches,
becoming in 1125 princes of the empire, while their chapter was
recruited only from the noblest families. But in 1368 the bishop was
forced to recognize various liberties and customs that had been
gradually won by the citizens, the _Plaid Général_ of that year showing
that there was already some kind of municipal government, save for the
_cité_, which was not united with the _ville inférieure_ or the other
four _quartiers_ (Bourg, St Laurent, La Palud and Le Pont) in 1481. In
1525 the city made an alliance with Bern and Fribourg. But in 1536 the
territory of the bishop (as well as the Savoyard barony of Vaud) was
forcibly conquered by the Bernese, who at once introduced Protestantism.
The Bernese occupation lasted till 1798, though in 1723 an attempt was
made to put an end to it by Major Davel, who lost his life in
consequence. In 1798 Lausanne became a simple prefecture of the canton
Léman of the Helvetic republic. But in 1803, on the creation of the
canton of Vaud by the Act of Mediation, it became its capital. The
bishop of Lausanne resided after 1663 at Fribourg, while from 1821
onwards he added "and of Geneva" to his title.
Besides the general works dealing with the canton of Vaud (q.v.), the
following books refer specially to Lausanne: A. Bernus, _L'Imprimerie
à Lausanne et à Morges jusqu'à la fin du 16^(ième) siècle_ (Lausanne,
1904); M. Besson, _Récherches sur les origines des évêchés de Genève,
Lausanne, Sion_ (Fribourg, 1906); A. Bonnard, "Lausanne au 18^(ième)
siècle," in the work entitled _Chez nos aïeux_ (Lausanne, 1902); E.
Dupraz, _La Cathédrale de Lausanne ... étude historique_ (Lausanne,
1906); E. Gibbon, _Autobiography and Letters_ (3 vols., 1896); F.
Gingins and F. Forel, _Documents concernant l'ancien évêché de
Lausanne_, 2 parts (Lausanne, 1846-1847); J. H. Lewis and F. Gribble,
_Lausanne_ (1909); E. van Muyden and others, _Lausanne à travers les
âges_ (Lausanne, 1906); Meredith Read, _Historic Studies in Vaud,
Berne and Savoy_ (2 vols., 1897); M. Schmitt, _Mémoires hist. sur le
diocèse de Lausanne_ (2 vols., Fribourg, 1859); J. Stammler
(afterwards bishop of Lausanne), _Le Trésor de la cathédrale de
Lausanne_ (Lausanne, 1902; trans. of a German book of 1894).
(W. A. B. C.)
LAUTREC, ODET DE FOIX, VICOMTE DE (1488-1528), French soldier. The
branch of the viscounts of Lautrec originated with Pierre, the grandson
of Archambaud de Grailly, captal de Buch, who came into possession of
the county of Foix in 1401. Odet de Foix and his two brothers, the
seigneur de Lescun and the seigneur de l'Esparre or Asparros, served
Francis I. as captains; and the influence of their sister, Françoise de
Châteaubriant, who became the king' mistress, gained them high offices.
In 1515 Lautrec took part in the campaign of Marignano. In 1516 he
received the government of the Milanese, and by his severity made the
French domination insupportable. In 1521 he succeeded in defending the
duchy against the Spanish army, but in 1522 he was completely defeated
at the battle of the Bicocca, and was forced to evacuate the Milanese.
The mutiny of his Swiss troops had compelled him, against his wish, to
engage in the battle. Created marshal of France, he received again, in
1527, the command of the army of Italy, occupied the Milanese, and was
then sent to undertake the conquest of the kingdom of Naples. The
defection of Andrea Doria and the plague which broke out in the French
camp brought on a fresh disaster. Lautrec himself caught the infection,
and died on the 15th of August 1528. He had the reputation of a gallant
and able soldier, but this reputation scarcely seems to be justified by
the facts; though he was always badly used by fortune.
There is abundant MS. correspondence in the Bibliothèque Nationale,
Paris. See the Works of Brantôme (Coll. Société d'Histoire de France,
vol. iii., 1867); _Memoirs_ of Martin du Bellay (Coll. Michaud and
Poujoulat, vol. v., 1838).
LAUZUN, ANTONIN NOMPAR DE CAUMONT, MARQUIS DE PUYGUILHEM, DUC DE
(1632-1723), French courtier and soldier, was the son of Gabriel, comte
de Lauzun, and his wife Charlotte, daughter of the duc de La Force. He
was brought up with the children of his kinsman, the maréchal de
Gramont, of whom the comte de Guiche became the lover of Henrietta of
England, duchess of Orleans, while Catherine Charlotte, afterwards
princess of Monaco, was the object of the one passion of Lauzun's life.
He entered the army, and served under Turenne, also his kinsman, and in
1655 succeeded his father as commander of the _cent gentilshommes de la
maison du roi_. Puyguilhem (or Péguilin, as contemporaries simplified
his name) rapidly rose in Louis XIV.'s favour, became colonel of the
royal regiment of dragoons, and was gazetted _maréchal de camp_. He and
Mme de Monaco belonged to the coterie of the young duchess of Orleans.
His rough wit and skill in practical jokes pleased Louis XIV., but his
jealousy and violence were the causes of his undoing. He prevented a
meeting between Louis XIV. and Mme de Monaco, and it was jealousy in
this matter, rather than hostility to Louise de la Vallière, which led
him to promote Mme de Montespan's intrigues with the king. He asked this
lady to secure for him the post of grand-master of the artillery, and on
Louis's refusal to give him the appointment he turned his back on the
king, broke his sword, and swore that never again would he serve a
monarch who had broken his word. The result was a short sojourn in the
Bastille, but he soon returned to his functions of court buffoon.
Meanwhile, the duchess of Montpensier (La Grande Mademoiselle) had
fallen in love with the little man, whose ugliness seems to have
exercised a certain fascination over many women. He naturally encouraged
one of the greatest heiresses in Europe, and the wedding was fixed for
the 20th of December 1670, when on the 18th Louis sent for his cousin
and forbade the marriage. Mme de Montespan had never forgiven his fury
when she failed to procure the grand-mastership of the artillery, and
now, with Louvois, secured his arrest. He was removed in November 1671
from the Bastille to Pignerol, where excessive precautions were taken to
ensure his safety. He was eventually allowed free intercourse with
Fouquet, but before that time he managed to find a way through the
chimney into Fouquet's room, and on another occasion succeeded in
reaching the courtyard in safety. Another fellow-prisoner, from
communication with whom he was supposed to be rigorously excluded, was
Eustache Dauger (see IRON MASK).
It was now intimated to Mademoiselle that Lauzun's restoration to
liberty depended on her immediate settlement of the principality of
Dombes, the county of Eu and the duchy of Aumale--three properties
assigned by her to Lauzun--on the little duc de Maine, eldest son of
Louis XIV. and Mme de Montespan. She gave way, but Lauzun, even after
ten years of imprisonment, refused to sign the documents, when he was
brought to Bourbon for the purpose. A short term of imprisonment at
Chalon-sur-Sâone made him change his mind, but when he was set free
Louis XIV. was still set against the marriage, which is supposed to have
taken place secretly (see MONTPENSIER). Married or not, Lauzun was
openly courting Fouquet's daughter, whom he had seen at Pignerol. He was
to be restored to his place at court, and to marry Mlle Fouquet, who,
however, became Mme d'Uzès in 1683. In 1685 Lauzun went to England to
seek his fortune under James II., whom he had served as duke of York in
Flanders. He rapidly gained great influence at the English court. In
1688 he was again in England, and arranged the flight of Mary of Modena
and the infant prince, whom he accompanied to Calais, where he received
strict instructions from Louis to bring them "on any pretext" to
Vincennes. In the late autumn of 1689 he was put in command of the
expedition fitted out at Brest for service in Ireland, and he sailed in
the following year. Lauzun was honest, a quality not too common in James
II.'s officials in Ireland, but had no experience of the field, and he
blindly followed Richard Talbot, earl of Tyrconnel. After the battle of
the Boyne they fled to Limerick, and thence to the west, leaving Patrick
Sarsfield to show a brave front. In September they sailed for France,
and on their arrival at Versailles Lauzun found that his failure had
destroyed any prospect of a return of Louis XIV.'s favour. Mademoiselle
died in 1693, and two years later Lauzun married Geneviève de Durfort, a
child of fourteen, daughter of the maréchal de Lorges. Mary of Modena,
through whose interest Lauzun secured his dukedom, retained her faith in
him, and it was he who in 1715, more than a quarter of a century after
the flight from Whitehall, brought her the news of the disaster of
Sheriffmuir. Lauzun died on the 19th of November 1723. The duchy fell to
his nephew, Armand de Gontaut, comte de Biron.
See the letters of Mme de Sévigné, the memoirs of Saint-Simon, who was
Lauzun's wife's brother-in-law; also J. Lair, _Nicolas Fouquet_, vol.
ii. (1890); Martin Hailes, _Mary of Modena_ (1905), and M. F. Sandars,
_Lauzun, Courtier and Adventurer_ (1908).
LAVA, an Italian word (from Lat. _lavare_, to wash) applied to the
liquid products of volcanic activity. Streams of rain-water, formed by
condensation of exhaled steam often mingled with volcanic ashes so as to
produce mud, are known as _lava d'acqua_, whilst the streams of molten
matter are called _lava di fuoco_. The term lava is applied by
geologists to all matter of volcanic origin, which is, or has been, in a
molten state. The magma, or molten lava in the interior of the earth,
may be regarded as a mutual solution of various mineral silicates,
charged with highly-heated vapour, sometimes to the extent of
super-saturation. According to the proportion of silica, the lava is
distinguished as "acid" or "basic." The basic lavas are usually darker
and denser than lavas of acid type, and when fused they tend to flow to
great distances, and may thus form far-spreading sheets, whilst the acid
lavas, being more viscous, rapidly consolidate after extrusion. The lava
is emitted from the volcanic vent at a high temperature, but on exposure
to the air it rapidly consolidates superficially, forming a crust which
in many cases is soon broken up by the continued flow of the subjacent
liquid lava, so that the surface becomes rugged with clinkers. J. D.
Dana introduced the term "aa" for this rough kind of lava-stream, whilst
he applied the term "pahoehoe" to those flows which have a smooth
surface, or are simply wrinkled and ropy; these terms being used in this
sense in Hawaii, in relation to the local lavas. The different kinds of
lava are more fully described in the article VOLCANO.
LAVABO (Lat. "I will wash"; the Fr. equivalent is lavoir), in
ecclesiastical usage, the term for the washing of the priests' hands, at
the celebration of the Mass, at the offertory. The words of Psalm xxvi.
6, _Lavabo inter innocentes manus meas_, are said during the rite. The
word is also used for the basin employed in the ritual washing, and also
for the lavatories, generally erected in the cloisters of monasteries.
Those at Gloucester, Norwich and Lincoln are best known. A very curious
example at Fontenay, surrounding a pillar, is given by Viollet-le-Duc.
In general the lavabo is a sort of trough; in some places it has an
almery for towels, &c.
LAVAGNA, a seaport of Liguria, Italy, in the province of Genoa, from
which it is 25½ m. S.E. by rail. Pop. (1901) 7005. It has a small
shipbuilding trade, and exports great quantities of slate (_lavagna_,
taking its name from the town). It also has a large cotton-mill. It was
the seat of the Fieschi family, independent counts, who, at the end of
the 12th century, were obliged to recognize the supremacy of Genoa.
Sinibaldo Fieschi became Pope Innocent IV. (1243-1254), and Hadrian V.
(1276) was also a Fieschi.
LAVAL, ANDRÉ DE, SEIGNEUR DE LOHÉAC (c. 1408-1485), French soldier. In
1423 he served in the French army against England, and in 1428 was taken
prisoner by John Talbot, 1st earl of Shrewsbury, after the capitulation
of Laval, which he was defending. After paying his ransom he was present
with Joan of Arc at the siege of Orleans, at the battle of Patay, and at
the coronation of Charles VII. He was made admiral of France in 1437 and
marshal in 1439. He served Charles VII. faithfully in all his wars, even
against the dauphin (1456), and when the latter became king as Louis
XI., Laval was dismissed from the marshal's office. After the War of the
Public Weal he was restored to favour, and recovered the marshal's
bâton, the king also granting him the offices of lieutenant-general to
the government of Paris and governor of Picardy, and conferring upon him
the collar of the order of St Michael. In 1472 Laval was successful in
resisting the attacks of Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy, on
Beauvais.
LAVAL, a town of north-western France, capital of the department of
Mayenne, on the Mayenne river, 188 m. W.S.W. of Paris by rail. Pop.
(1906) 24,874. On the right bank of the river stands the old feudal
city, with its ancient castle and its irregularly built houses whose
slate roofs and pointed gables peep from the groves of trees which
clothe the hill. On the left bank the regularly built new town extends
far into the plain. The river, here 80 yds. broad, is crossed by the
handsome railway viaduct, a beautiful stone bridge called Pont Neuf, and
the Pont Vieux with three pointed arches, built in the 16th century.
There is communication by steamer as far as Angers. Laval may justly
claim to be one of the loveliest of French towns. Its most curious and
interesting monument is the sombre old castle of the counts (now a
prison) with a donjon of the 12th century, the roof of which presents a
fine example of the timberwork superseded afterwards by stone
machicolation. The "new castle," dating partly from the Renaissance,
serves as court-house. Laval possesses several churches of different
periods: in that of the Trinity, which serves as the cathedral, the
transept and nave are of the 12th century while the choir is of the
16th; St Vénérand (15th century) has good stained glass; Notre-Dame des
Cordeliers, which dates from the end of the 14th century or the
beginning of the 15th, has some fine marble altars. Half-a-mile below
the Pont Vieux is the beautiful 12th-century church of Avenières, with
an ornamental spire of 1534. The finest remaining relic of the ancient
fortifications is the Beucheresse gate near the cathedral. The narrow
streets around the castle are bordered by many old houses of the 15th
and 16th century, chief among which is that known as the "Maison du
Grand Veneur." There are an art-museum, a museum of natural history and
archaeology and a library. The town is embellished by fine promenades,
at the entrance of one of which, facing the mairie, stands the statue of
the celebrated surgeon Ambroise Paré (1517-1590). Laval is the seat of a
prefect, a bishopric created in 1855, and a court of assizes, and has
tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a chamber of commerce, a
board of trade-arbitrators, training colleges, an ecclesiastical
seminary and a lycée for boys. The principal industry of the town is the
cloth manufacture, introduced from Flanders in the 14th century. The
production of fabrics of linen, of cotton or of mixtures of both,
occupies some 10,000 hands in the town and suburbs. Among the numerous
other industries are metal-founding, flour-milling, tanning, dyeing, the
making of boots and shoes, and the sawing of the marble quarried in the
vicinity. There is trade in grain.
Laval is not known to have existed before the 9th century. It was taken
by John Talbot, earl of Shrewsbury, in 1428, changed hands several times
during the wars of the League, and played an important part at the end
of the 18th century in the war of La Vendée.
SEIGNEURS AND COUNTS OF LAVAL. The castle of Laval was founded at the
beginning of the 11th century by a lord of the name of Guy, and remained
in the possession of his male descendants until the 13th century. In
1218 the lordship passed to the house of Montmorency by the marriage of
Emma, daughter of Guy VI. of Laval, to Mathieu de Montmorency, the hero
of the battle of Bouvines. Of this union was born Guy VII. seigneur of
Laval, the ancestor of the second house of Laval. Anne of Laval (d.
1466), the heiress of the second family, married John de Montfort, who
took the name of Guy (XIII.) of Laval. At Charles VII.'s coronation
(1429) Guy XIV., who was afterwards son-in-law of John V., duke of
Brittany, and father-in-law of King René of Anjou, was created count of
Laval, and the countship remained in the possession of Guy's male
descendants until 1547. After the Montforts, the countship of Laval
passed by inheritance to the families of Rieux and Sainte Maure, to the
Colignys, and finally to the La Trémoilles, who held it until the
Revolution.
See Bertrand de Broussillon, _La Maison de Laval_ (3 vols.,
1895-1900).
LA VALLIÈRE, LOUISE FRANÇOISE DE (1644-1710), mistress of Louis XIV.,
was born at Tours on the 6th of August 1644, the daughter of an officer,
Laurent de la Baume le Blanc, who took the name of La Vallière from a
small property near Amboise. Laurent de la Vallière died in 1651; his
widow, who soon married again, joined the court of Gaston d'Orléans at
Blois. Louise was brought up with the younger princesses, the
step-sisters of La Grande Mademoiselle. After Gaston's death his widow
moved with her daughters to the palace of the Luxembourg in Paris, and
with them went Louise, who was now a girl of sixteen. Through the
influence of a distant kinswoman, Mme de Choisy, she was named maid of
honour to Henrietta of England, who was about her own age and had just
married Philip of Orleans, the king's brother. Henrietta joined the
court at Fontainebleau, and was soon on the friendliest terms with her
brother-in-law, so friendly indeed that there was some scandal, to avoid
which it was determined that Louis should pay marked attentions
elsewhere. The person selected was Madame's maid of honour, Louise. She
had been only two months in Fontainebleau before she became the king's
mistress. The affair, begun on Louis's part as a blind, immediately
developed into real passion on both sides. It was Louis's first serious
attachment, and Louise was an innocent, religious-minded girl, who
brought neither coquetry nor self-interest to their relation, which was
sedulously concealed. Nicolas Fouquet's curiosity in the matter was one
of the causes of his disgrace. In February 1662 there was a storm when
Louise refused to tell her lover the relations between Madame
(Henrietta) and the comte de Guiche. She fled to an obscure convent at
Chaillot, where Louis rapidly followed her. Her enemies, chief of whom
was Olympe Mancini, comtesse de Soissons, Mazarin's niece, sought her
downfall by bringing her liaison to the ears of Queen Maria Theresa. She
was presently removed from the service of Madame, and established in a
small building in the Palais Royal, where in December 1663 she gave
birth to a son Charles, who was given in charge to two faithful servants
of Colbert. Concealment was practically abandoned after her return to
court, and within a week of Anne of Austria's death in January 1666, La
Vallière appeared at mass side by side with Maria Theresa. But her
favour was already waning. She had given birth to a second child in
January 1665, but both children were dead before the autumn of 1666. A
daughter born at Vincennes in October 1666, who received the name of
Marie Anne and was known as Mlle de Blois, was publicly recognized by
Louis as his daughter in letters-patent making the mother a duchess in
May 1667 and conferring on her the estate of Vaujours. In October of
that year she bore a son, but by this time her place in Louis's
affections was definitely usurped by Athénaïs de Montespan (q.v.), who
had long been plotting against her. She was compelled to remain at court
as the king's official mistress, and even to share Mme de Montespan's
apartments at the Tuileries. She made an attempt at escape in 1671, when
she fled to the convent of Ste Marie de Chaillot, only to be compelled
to return. In 1674 she was finally permitted to enter the Carmelite
convent in the Rue d'Enfer. She took the final vows a year later, when
Bossuet pronounced the allocution.
Her daughter married Armand de Bourbon, prince of Conti, in 1680. The
count of Vermandois, her youngest born, died on his first campaign at
Courtrai in 1683.
La Vallière's _Réflexions sur la miséricorde de Dieu_, written after
her retreat, were printed by Lequeux in 1767, and in 1860 _Réflexions,
lettres et sermons_, by M. P. Clement (2 vols.). Some apocryphal
_Mémoires_ appeared in 1829, and the _Lettres de Mme la duchesse de la
Vallière_ (1767) are a corrupt version of her correspondence with the
maréchal de Bellefonds. Of modern works on the subject see Arsène
Houssaye, _Mlle de la Vallière et Mme de Montespan_ (1860); Jules
Lair, _Louise de la Vallière_ (3rd ed., 1902, Eng. trans., 1908); and
C. Bonnet, _Documents inédits sur Mme de la Vallière_ (1904).
LAVATER, JOHANN KASPAR (1741-1801), German poet and physiognomist, was
born at Zürich on the 15th of November 1741. He was educated at the
gymnasium of his native town, where J. J. Bodmer and J. J. Breitinger
were among his teachers. When barely one-and-twenty he greatly
distinguished himself by denouncing, in conjunction with his friend, the
painter H. Fuseli, an iniquitous magistrate, who was compelled to make
restitution of his ill-gotten gains. In 1769 Lavater took orders, and
officiated till his death as deacon or pastor in various churches in his
native city. His oratorical fervour and genuine depth of conviction gave
him great personal influence; he was extensively consulted as a casuist,
and was welcomed with demonstrative enthusiasm in his numerous journeys
through Germany. His mystical writings were also widely popular.
Scarcely a trace of this influence has remained, and Lavater's name
would be forgotten but for his work on physiognomy, _Physiognomische
Fragmente zur Beförderung der Menschenkenntnis und Menschenliebe_
(1775-1778). The fame even of this book, which found enthusiastic
admirers in France and England, as well as in Germany, rests to a great
extent upon the handsome style of publication and the accompanying
illustrations. It left, however, the study of physiognomy (q.v.), as
desultory and unscientific as it found it. As a poet, Lavater published
_Christliche Lieder_ (1776-1780) and two epics, _Jesus Messias_ (1780)
and _Joseph von Arimathia_ (1794), in the style of Klopstock. More
important and characteristic of the religious temperament of Lavater's
age are his introspective _Aussichten in die Ewigkeit_ (4 vols.,
1768-1778); _Geheimes Tagebuch von einem Beobachter seiner selbst_ (2
vols., 1772-1773) and _Pontius Pilatus, oder der Mensch in allen
Gestalten_ (4 vols., 1782-1785). From 1774 on, Goethe was intimately
acquainted with Lavater, but at a later period he became estranged from
him, somewhat abruptly accusing him of superstition and hypocrisy.
Lavater had a mystic's indifference to historical Christianity, and,
although esteemed by himself and others a champion of orthodoxy, was in
fact only an antagonist of rationalism. During the later years of his
life his influence waned, and he incurred ridicule by some exhibitions
of vanity. He redeemed himself by his patriotic conduct during the
French occupation of Switzerland, which brought about his tragical
death. On the taking of Zürich by the French in 1799, Lavater, while
endeavouring to appease the soldiery, was shot through the body by an
infuriated grenadier; he died after long sufferings borne with great
fortitude, on the 2nd of January 1801.
Lavater himself published two collections of his writings, _Vermischte
Schriften_ (2 vols., 1774-1781), and _Kleinere prosaische Schriften_
(3 vols., 1784-1785). His _Nachgelassene Schriften_ were edited by G.
Gessner (5 vols., 1801-1802); _Sämtliche Werke_ (but only poems) (6
vols., 1836-1838); _Ausgewählte Schriften_ (8 vols., 1841-1844). See
G. Gessner, _Lavaters Lebensbeschreibung_ (3 vols., 1802-1803); U.
Hegner, _Beiträge zur Kenntnis Lavaters_ (1836); F. W. Bodemann,
_Lavater nach seinem Leben, Lehren und Wirken_ (1856; 2nd ed., 1877);
F. Muncker, _J. K. Lavater_ (1883); H. Waser, _J. K. Lavater nach
Hegners Aufzeichnungen_ (1894); _J. K. Lavater, Denkschrift zum 100.
Todestag_ (1902).
LAVAUR, a town of south-western France, capital of an arrondissement in
the department of Tarn, 37 m. S.E. of Montauban by rail. Pop. (1906),
town 4069; commune 6388. Lavaur stands on the left bank of the Agout,
which is here crossed by a railway-bridge and a fine stone bridge of the
late 18th century. From 1317 till the Revolution Lavaur was the seat of
a bishopric, and there is a cathedral dating from the 13th, 14th and
15th centuries, with an octagonal bell-tower; a second smaller square
tower contains a _jaquemart_ (a statue which strikes the hours with a
hammer) of the 16th century. In the bishop's garden is the statue of
Emmanuel Augustin, marquis de Las Cases, one of the companions of
Napoleon at St Helena. The town carries on distilling and flour-milling
and the manufacture of brushes, plaster and wooden shoes. There are a
subprefecture and tribunal of first instance. Lavaur was taken in 1211
by Simon de Montfort during the wars of the Albigenses, and several
times during the religious wars of the 16th century.
LAVEDAN, HENRI LÉON ÉMILE (1859- ), French dramatist and man of letters,
was born at Orleans, the son of Hubert Léon Lavedan, a well-known
Catholic and liberal journalist. He contributed to various Parisian
papers a series of witty tales and dialogues of Parisian life, many of
which were collected in volume form. In 1891 he produced at the Théâtre
Français _Une Famille_, followed at the Vaudeville in 1894 by _Le Prince
d'Aurec_, a satire on the nobility, afterwards re-named _Les
Descendants_. Later brilliant and witty pieces were _Les Deux noblesses_
(1897), _Catherine_ (1897), _Le Nouveau jeu_ (1898), _Le Vieux marcheur_
(1899), _Le Marquis de Priola_ (1902), and _Varennes_ (1904), written in
collaboration with G. Lenôtre. He had a great success with _Le Duel_
(Comédie Française, 1905), a powerful psychological study of the
relations of two brothers. Lavedan was admitted to the French Academy in
1898.