[1] _Oeuvres_, i. 15.
[2] _Méc. An._, Advertisement to 1st ed.
[3] E. Dühring, _Kritische Gesch. der Mechanik_, 220, 367; Lagrange,
_Méc. An._ i. 166-172, 3rd ed.
[4] Notice by J. Delambre, _Oeuvres de Lagrange_, i. p. xlii.
[5] _Oeuvres_, iii. 441.
[6] _Théorie des fonctions_, p. 6.
[7] H. Suter, _Geschichte der math. Wiss._ ii. 222-223.
[8] _Oeuvres_, vi. 771.
[9] _Oeuvres_, v. 211 seq.
[10] Grant, _History of Physical Astronomy_, p. 117.
LAGRANGE-CHANCEL [CHANCEL], FRANÇOIS JOSEPH (1677-1758), French
dramatist and satirist, was born at Périgueux on the 1st of January
1677. He was an extremely precocious boy, and at Bordeaux, where he was
educated, he produced a play when he was nine years old. Five years
later his mother took him to Paris, where he found a patron in the
princesse de Conti, to whom he dedicated his tragedy of _Jugurtha_ or,
as it was called later, _Adherbal_ (1694). Racine had given him advice
and was present at the first performance, although he had long lived in
complete retirement. Other plays followed: _Oreste et Pylade_ (1697),
_Méléagre_ (1699), _Amasis_ (1701), and _Ino et Mélicerte_ (1715).
Lagrange hardly realized the high hopes raised by his precocity,
although his only serious rival on the tragic stage was Campistron, but
he obtained high favour at court, becoming _maître d'hôtel_ to the
duchess of Orleans. This prosperity ended with the publication in 1720
of his _Philippiques_, odes accusing the regent, Philip, duke of
Orleans, of the most odious crimes. He might have escaped the
consequences of this libel but for the bitter enmity of a former patron,
the duc de La Force. Lagrange found sanctuary at Avignon, but was
enticed beyond the boundary of the papal jurisdiction, when he was
arrested and sent as a prisoner to the isles of Sainte Marguerite. He
contrived, however, to escape to Sardinia and thence to Spain and
Holland, where he produced his fourth and fifth _Philippiques_. On the
death of the Regent he was able to return to France. He was part author
of a _Histoire de Périgord_ left unfinished, and made a further
contribution to history, or perhaps, more exactly, to romance, in a
letter to Élie Fréron on the identity of the Man with the Iron Mask.
Lagrange's family life was embittered by a long lawsuit against his son.
He died at Périgueux at the end of December 1758.
He had collected his own works (5 vols., 1758) some months before his
death. His most famous work, the _Philippiques_, was edited by M. de
Lescure in 1858, and a sixth philippic by M. Diancourt in 1886.
LA GRANJA, or SAN ILDEFONSO, a summer palace of the kings of Spain; on
the south-eastern border of the province of Segovia, and on the western
slopes of the Sierra de Guadarrama, 7 m. by road S.E. of the city of
Segovia. The royal estate is 3905 ft. above sea-level. The scenery of
this region, especially in the gorge of the river Lozoya, with its
granite rocks, its dense forest of pines, firs and birches, and its
red-tiled farms, more nearly resembles the highlands of northern Europe
than any other part of Spain. La Granja has an almost alpine climate,
with a clear, cool atmosphere and abundant sunshine. Above the palace
rise the wooded summits of the Guadarrama, culminating in the peak of
Peñalara (7891 ft.); in front of it the wide plains of Segovia extend
northwards. The village of San Ildefonso, the oldest part of the estate,
was founded in 1450 by Henry IV., who built a hunting lodge and chapel
here. In 1477 the chapel was presented by Ferdinand and Isabella to the
monks of the Parral, a neighbouring Hieronymite monastery. The original
_granja_ (i.e. grange or farm), established by the monks, was purchased
in 1719 by Philip V., after the destruction of his summer palace at
Valsain, the ancient _Vallis Sapinorum_, 2 m. S. Philip determined to
convert the estate into a second Versailles. The palace was built
between 1721 and 1723. Its façade is fronted by a colonnade in which the
pillars reach to the roof. The state apartments contain some valuable
18th-century furniture, but the famous collection of sculptures was
removed to Madrid in 1836, and is preserved there in the Museo del
Prado. At La Granja it is represented by facsimiles in plaster. The
collegiate church adjoining the palace dates from 1724, and contains the
tombs of Philip V. and his consort Isabella Farnese. An artificial lake
called El Mar, 4095 ft. above sea-level, irrigates the gardens, which
are imitated from those of Versailles, and supplies water for the
fountains. These, despite the antiquated and sometimes tasteless style
of their ornamentation, are probably the finest in the world; it is
noteworthy that, owing to the high level of the lake, no pumps or other
mechanism are needed to supply pressure. There are twenty-six fountains
besides lakes and waterfalls. Among the most remarkable are the group of
"Perseus, Andromeda and the Sea-Monster," which sends up a jet of water
110 ft. high, the "Fame," which reaches 125 ft., and the very elaborate
"Baths of Diana." It is of the last that Philip V. is said to have
remarked, "It has cost me three millions and amused me three minutes."
Most of the fountains were made by order of Queen Isabella in 1727,
during the king's absence. The glass factory of San Ildefonso was
founded by Charles III.
It was in La Granja that Philip V. resigned the crown to his son in
January 1724, to resume it after his son's death seven months later;
that the treaties of 1777, 1778, 1796 and 1800 were signed (see SPAIN:
_History_); that Ferdinand VII. summoned Don Carlos to the throne in
1832, but was induced to alter the succession in favour of his own
infant daughter Isabella, thus involving Spain in civil war; and that
in 1836 a military revolt compelled the Queen-regent Christina to
restore the constitution of 1812.
LAGRENÉE, LOUIS JEAN FRANÇOIS (1724-1805), French painter, was a pupil
of Carle Vanloo. Born at Paris on the 30th of December 1724, in 1755 he
became a member of the Royal Academy, presenting as his diploma picture
the "Rape of Deianira" (Louvre). He visited St Petersburg at the call of
the empress Elizabeth, and on his return was named in 1781 director of
the French Academy at Rome; he there painted the "Indian Widow," one of
his best-known works. In 1804 Napoleon conferred on him the cross of the
legion of honour, and on the 19th of June 1805 he died in the Louvre, of
which he was honorary keeper.
LA GUAIRA, or LA GUAYRA (sometimes LAGUAIRA, &c.), a town and port of
Venezuela, in the Federal district, 23 m. by rail and 6½ m. in a direct
line N. of Caracas. Pop. (1904, estimate) 14,000. It is situated between
a precipitous mountain side and a broad, semicircular indentation of the
coast line which forms the roadstead of the port. The anchorage was long
considered one of the most dangerous on the Caribbean coast, and landing
was attended with much danger. The harbour has been improved by the
construction of a concrete breakwater running out from the eastern shore
line 2044 ft., built up from an extreme depth of 46 ft. or from an
average depth of 29½ ft., and rising 19½ ft. above sea-level. This
encloses an area of 76½ acres, having an average depth of nearly 28 ft.
The harbour is further improved by 1870 ft. of concrete quays and 1397
ft. of retaining sea-wall, with several piers (three covered) projecting
into deep water. These works were executed by a British company, known
as the La Guaira Harbour Corporation, Ltd., and were completed in 1891
at a cost of about one million sterling. The concession is for 99 years
and the additional charges which the company is authorized to impose are
necessarily heavy. These improvements and the restrictions placed upon
the direct trade between West Indian ports and the Orinoco have greatly
increased the foreign trade of La Guaira, which in 1903 was 52% of that
of the four _puertos habilitados_ of the republic. The shipping entries
of that year numbered 217, of which 203 entered with general cargo and
14 with coal exclusively. The exports included 152,625 bags coffee,
114,947 bags cacao and 152,891 hides. For 1905-1906 the imports at La
Guaira were valued officially at £767,365 and the exports at £663,708.
The city stands on sloping ground stretching along the circular coast
line with a varying width of 130 to 330 ft. and having the appearance of
an amphitheatre. The port improvements added 18 acres of reclaimed land
to La Guaira's area, and the removal of old shore batteries likewise
increased its available breadth. In this narrow space is built the town,
composed in great part of small, roughly-made cabins, and narrow,
badly-paved streets, but with good business houses on its principal
street. From the mountain side, reddish-brown in colour and bare of
vegetation, the solar heat is reflected with tremendous force, the mean
annual temperature being 84° F. The seaside towns of Maiquetia, 2 m. W.
and Macuto, 3 m. E., which have better climatic and sanitary conditions
and are connected by a narrow-gauge railway, are the residences of many
of the wealthier merchants of La Guaira.
La Guaira was founded in 1588, was sacked by filibusters under Amias
Preston in 1595, and by the French under Grammont in 1680, was destroyed
by the great earthquake of the 26th of March 1812, and suffered severely
in the war for independence. In 1903, pending the settlement of claims
of Great Britain, Germany and Italy against Venezuela, La Guaira was
blockaded by a British-German-Italian fleet.
LA GUÉRONNIÈRE, LOUIS ÉTIENNE ARTHUR DUBREUIL HÉLION, VICOMTE DE
(1816-1875), French politician, was the scion of a noble Poitevin
family. Although by birth and education attached to Legitimist
principles, he became closely associated with Lamartine, to whose organ,
_Le Bien Public_, he was a principal contributor. After the stoppage of
this paper he wrote for _La Presse_, and in 1850 edited _Le Pays_. A
character sketch of Louis Napoleon in this journal caused differences
with Lamartine, and La Guéronnière became more and more closely
identified with the policy of the prince president. Under the Empire he
was a member of the council of state (1853), senator (1861), ambassador
at Brussels (1868), and at Constantinople (1870), and grand officer of
the legion of honour (1866). He died in Paris on the 23rd of December
1875. Besides his _Études et portraits politiques contemporains_ (1856)
his most important works are those on the foreign policy of the Empire:
_La France, Rome et Italie_ (1851), _L'Abandon de Rome_ (1862), _De la
politique intérieure et extérieure de la France_ (1862).
His elder brother, ALFRED DUBREUIL HÉLION, Comte de La Guéronnière
(1810-1884), who remained faithful to the Legitimist party, was also a
well-known writer and journalist. He was consistent in his opposition to
the July Monarchy and the Empire, but in a series of books on the crisis
of 1870-1871 showed a more favourable attitude to the Republic.
LAGUERRE, JEAN HENRI GEORGES (1858- ), French lawyer and politician, was
born in Paris on the 24th of June 1858. Called to the bar in 1879, he
distinguished himself by brilliant pleadings in favour of socialist and
anarchist leaders, defending Prince Kropotkine at Lyons in 1883, Louise
Michel in the same year; and in 1886, with A. Millerand as colleague he
defended Ernest Roche and Duc Quercy, the instigators of the Decazeville
strike. His strictures on the _procureur de la République_ on this
occasion being declared libellous he was suspended for six months and in
1890 he again incurred suspension for an attack on the attorney-general,
Quesnay de Beaurepaire. He also pleaded in the greatest criminal cases
of his time, though from 1893 onwards exclusively in the provinces, his
exclusion from the Parisian bar having been secured on the pretext of
his connexion with _La Presse_. He entered the Chamber of Deputies for
Apt in 1883 as a representative of the extreme revisionist programme,
and was one of the leaders of the Boulangist agitation. He had formerly
written for Georges Clemenceau's organ _La Justice_, but when Clemenceau
refused to impose any shibboleth on the radical party he became director
of _La Presse_. He rallied to the republican party in May 1801, some
months before General Boulanger's suicide. He was not re-elected to the
Chamber in 1893. Laguerre was an excellent lecturer on the revolutionary
period of French history, concerning which he had collected many
valuable and rare documents. He interested himself in the fate of the
"Little Dauphin" (Louis XVII.), whose supposed remains, buried at Ste
Marguerite, he proved to be those of a boy of fourteen.
LAGUNA, or LA LAGUNA, an episcopal city and formerly the capital of the
island of Teneriffe, in the Spanish archipelago of the Canary Islands.
Pop. (1900) 13,074. Laguna is 4 m. N. by W. of Santa Cruz, in a plain
1800 ft. above sea-level, surrounded by mountains. Snow is unknown here,
and the mean annual temperature exceeds 63° F.; but the rainfall is very
heavy, and in winter the plain is sometimes flooded. The humidity of the
atmosphere, combined with the warm climate and rich volcanic soil,
renders the district exceptionally fertile; wheat, wine and tobacco,
oranges and other fruits, are produced in abundance. Laguna is the
favourite summer residence of the wealthier inhabitants of Santa Cruz.
Besides the cathedral, the city contains several picturesque convents,
now secularized, a fine modern town hall, hospitals, a large public
library and some ancient palaces of the Spanish nobility. Even the
modern buildings have often an appearance of antiquity, owing to the
decay caused by damp, and the luxuriant growth of climbing plants.
LA HARPE, JEAN FRANÇOIS DE (1739-1803), French critic, was born in Paris
of poor parents on the 20th of November 1739. His father, who signed
himself Delharpe, was a descendant of a noble family originally of Vaud.
Left an orphan at the age of nine, La Harpe was taken care of for six
months by the sisters of charity, and his education was provided for by
a scholarship at the Collège d'Harcourt. When nineteen he was imprisoned
for some months on the charge of having written a satire against his
protectors at the college. La Harpe always denied his guilt, but this
culminating misfortune of an early life spent entirely in the position
of a dependent had possibly something to do with the bitterness he
evinced in later life. In 1763 his tragedy of _Warwick_ was played
before the court. This, his first play, was perhaps the best he ever
wrote. The many authors whom he afterwards offended were always able to
observe that the critic's own plays did not reach the standard of
excellence he set up. _Timoléon_ (1764), _Pharamond_ (1765) and _Gustave
Wasa_ (1766) were failures. _Mélanie_ was a better play, but was never
represented. The success of _Warwick_ led to a correspondence with
Voltaire, who conceived a high opinion of La Harpe, even allowing him to
correct his verses. In 1764 La Harpe married the daughter of a coffee
house keeper. This marriage, which proved very unhappy and was
dissolved, did not improve his position. They were very poor, and for
some time were guests of Voltaire at Ferney. When, after Voltaire's
death, La Harpe in his praise of the philosopher ventured on some
reasonable, but rather ill-timed, criticism of individual works, he was
accused of treachery to one who had been his constant friend. In 1768 he
returned from Ferney to Paris, where he began to write for the
_Mercure_. He was a born fighter and had small mercy on the authors
whose work he handled. But he was himself violently attacked, and
suffered under many epigrams, especially those of Lebrun-Pindare. No
more striking proof of the general hostility can be given than his
reception (1776) at the Academy, which Sainte-Beuve calls his
"execution." Marmontel, who received him, used the occasion to eulogize
La Harpe's predecessor, Charles Pierre Colardeau, especially for his
pacific, modest and indulgent disposition. The speech was punctuated by
the applause of the audience, who chose to regard it as a series of
sarcasms on the new member. Eventually La Harpe was compelled to resign
from the _Mercure_, which he had edited from 1770. On the stage he
produced _Les Barmécides_ (1778), _Philoctète_, _Jeanne de Naples_
(1781), _Les Brames_ (1783), _Coriolan_ (1784), _Virginie_ (1786). In
1786 he began a course of literature at the newly-established Lycée. In
these lectures, published as the _Cours de littérature ancienne et
moderne_, La Harpe is at his best, for he found a standpoint more or
less independent of contemporary polemics. He is said to be inexact in
dealing with the ancients, and he had only a superficial knowledge of
the middle ages, but he is excellent in his analysis of 17th-century
writers. Sainte-Beuve found in him the best critic of the French school
of tragedy, which reached its perfection in Racine. La Harpe was a
disciple of the "_philosophes_"; he supported the extreme party through
the excesses of 1792 and 1793. In 1793 he edited the _Mercure de France_
which adhered blindly to the revolutionary leaders. But in April 1794 he
was nevertheless seized as a "suspect." In prison he underwent a
spiritual crisis which he described in convincing language, and he
emerged an ardent Catholic and a reactionist in politics. When he
resumed his chair at the Lycée, he attacked his former friends in
politics and literature. He was imprudent enough to begin the
publication (1801-1807) of his _Correspondance littéraire_ (1774-1791)
with the grand-duke, afterwards the emperor Paul of Russia. In these
letters he surpassed the brutalities of the _Mercure_. He contracted a
second marriage, which was dissolved after a few weeks by his wife. He
died on the 11th of February 1803 in Paris, leaving in his will an
incongruous exhortation to his fellow countrymen to maintain peace and
concord. Among his posthumous works was a _Prophétie de Cazotte_ which
Sainte-Beuve pronounces his best work. It is a sombre description of a
dinner-party of notables long before the Revolution, when Jacques
Cazotte is made to prophesy the frightful fates awaiting the various
individuals of the company.
Among his works not already mentioned are:--_Commentaire sur Racine_
(1795-1796), published in 1807; _Commentaire sur le théâtre de
Voltaire_ of earlier date (published posthumously in 1814), and an
epic poem _La Religion_ (1814). His _Cours de littérature_ has been
often reprinted. To the edition of 1825-1826 is prefixed a notice by
Pierre Daunou. See also Sainte-Beuve, _Causeries du lundi_, vol. v.;
G. Peignot, _Recherches historiques, bibliographiques et littéraires
... sur La Harpe_ (1820).
LAHIRE, LAURENT DE (1606-1656), French painter, was born at Paris on the
27th of February 1606. He became a pupil of Lallemand, studied the works
of Primaticcio at Fontainebleau, but never visited Italy, and belongs
wholly to that transition period which preceded the school of Simon
Vouet. His picture of Nicolas V. opening the crypt in which he discovers
the corpse of St Francis of Assisi standing (Louvre) was executed in
1630 for the Capuchins of the Marais; it shows a gravity and sobriety of
character which marked Lahire's best work, and seems not to have been
without influence on Le Sueur. The Louvre contains eight other works,
and paintings by Lahire are in the museums of Strasburg, Rouen and Le
Mans. His drawings, of which the British Museum possesses a fine
example, "Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple," are treated as
seriously as his paintings, and sometimes show simplicity and dignity of
effect. The example of the Capuchins, for whom he executed several other
works in Paris, Rouen and Fécamp, was followed by the goldsmiths'
company, for whom he produced in 1635 "St Peter healing the Sick"
(Louvre) and the "Conversion of St Paul" in 1637. In 1646, with eleven
other artists, he founded the French Royal Academy of Painting and
Sculpture. Richelieu called Lahire to the Palais Royal; Chancellor
Séguier, Tallemant de Réaux and many others entrusted him with important
works of decoration; for the Gobelins he designed a series of large
compositions. Lahire painted also a great number of portraits, and in
1654 united in one work for the town-hall of Paris those of the
principal dignitaries of the municipality. He died on the 28th of
December 1656.
LAHN, a river of Germany, a right-bank tributary of the Rhine. Its
source is on the Jagdberg, a summit of the Rothaar Mountains, in the
cellar of a house (Lahnhof), at an elevation of 1975 ft. It flows at
first eastward and then southward to Giessen, then turns south-westward
and with a winding course reaches the Rhine between the towns of
Oberlahnstein and Niederlahnstein. Its valley, the lower part of which
divides the Taunus hills from the Westerwald, is often very narrow and
picturesque; among the towns and sites of interest on its banks are
Marburg and Giessen with their universities, Wetzlar with its cathedral,
Runkel with its castle, Limburg with its cathedral, the castles of
Schaumburg, Balduinstein, Laurenburg, Langenau, Burgstein and Nassau,
and the well-known health resort of Ems. The Lahn is about 135 m. long;
it is navigable from its mouth to Giessen, and is partly canalized. A
railway follows the valley practically throughout. In 1796 there were
here several encounters between the French under General Jourdan and the
troops of the archduke Johan, which resulted in the retreat of the
French across the Rhine.
LAHNDA (properly _Lahnda_ or _Lahinda_, western, or _Lahnde-di boli_,
the language of the West), an Indo-Aryan language spoken in the western
Punjab. In 1901 the number of speakers was 3,337,917. Its eastern
boundary is very indefinite as the language gradually merges into the
Panjabi immediately to the east, but it is conventionally taken as the
river Chenab from the Kashmir frontier to the town of Ramnagar, and
thence as a straight line to the south-west corner of the district of
Montgomery. Lahnda is also spoken in the north of the state of
Bahawalpur and of the province of Sind, in which latter locality it is
known as Siraiki. Its western boundary is, roughly speaking, the river
Indus, across which the language of the Afghan population is Pashto
(Pushtu), while the Hindu settlers still speak Lahnda. In the Derajat,
however, Lahnda is the principal language of all classes in the plains
west of the river.
Lahnda is also known as Western Panjabi and as Jatki, or the language of
the Jats, who form the bulk of the population whose mother-tongue it is.
In the Derajat it is called Hindko or the language of Hindus. In 1819
the Serampur missionaries published a Lahnda version of the New
Testament. They called the language Uchchi, from the important town of
Uch near the confluence of the Jhelam and the Chenab. This name is
commonly met with in old writings. It has numerous dialects, which fall
into two main groups, a northern and a southern, the speakers of which
are separated by the Salt Range. The principal varieties of the northern
group are Hindki (the same in meaning as Hindko) and Pothwari. In the
southern group the most important are Khetrani, Multani, and the dialect
of Shahpur. The language possesses no literature.
Lahnda belongs to the north-western group of the outer band of
Indo-Aryan languages (q.v.), the other members being Kashmiri (q.v.)
and Sindhi, with both of which it is closely connected. See SINDHI;
also HINDOSTANI. (G. A. Gr.)
LA HOGUE, BATTLE OF, the name now given to a series of encounters which
took place from the 19th to the 23rd (O.S.) of May 1692, between an
allied British and Dutch fleet and a French force, on the northern and
eastern sides of the Cotentin in Normandy. A body of French troops, and
a number of Jacobite exiles, had been collected in the Cotentin. The
government of Louis XIV. prepared a naval armament to cover their
passage across the Channel. This force was to have been composed of the
French ships at Brest commanded by the count of Tourville, and of a
squadron which was to have joined him from Toulon. But the Toulon ships
were scattered by a gale, and the combination was not effected. The
count of Tourville, who had put to sea to meet them, had with him only
45 or 47 ships of the line. Yet when the reinforcement failed to join
him, he steered up Channel to meet the allies, who were known to be in
strength. On the 15th of May the British fleet of 63 sail of the line,
under command of Edward Russell, afterwards earl of Orford, was joined
at St Helens by the Dutch squadron of 36 sail under Admiral van
Allemonde. The apparent rashness of the French admiral in seeking an
encounter with very superior numbers is explained by the existence of a
general belief that many British captains were discontented, and would
pass over from the service of the government established by the
Revolution of 1688 to their exiled king, James II. It is said that
Tourville had orders from Louis XIV. to attack in any case, but the
story is of doubtful authority. The British government, aware of the
Jacobite intrigues in its fleet, and of the prevalence of discontent,
took the bold course of appealing to the loyalty and patriotism of its
officers. At a meeting of the flag-officers on board the "Britannia,"
Russell's flag-ship, on the 15th of May, they protested their loyalty,
and the whole allied fleet put to sea on the 18th. On the 19th of May,
when Cape Barfleur, the north-eastern point of the Cotentin, was 21 m.
S.W. of them, they sighted Tourville, who was then 20 m. to the north of
Cape La Hague, the north-western extremity of the peninsula, which must
not be confounded with La Houque, or La Hogue, the place at which the
fighting ended. The allies were formed in a line from S.S.W. to N.N.E.
heading towards the English coast, the Dutch forming the White or van
division, while the Red or centre division under Russell, and the Blue
or rear under Sir John Ashby, were wholly composed of British ships. The
wind was from the S.W. and the weather hazy. Tourville bore down and
attacked about mid-day, directing his main assault on the centre of the
allies, but telling off some ships to watch the van and rear of his
enemy. As this first encounter took place off Cape Barfleur, the battle
was formerly often called by the name. On the centre, where Tourville
was directly opposed to Russell, the fighting was severe. The British
flag-ship the "Britannia" (100), and the French, the "Soleil Royal"
(100), were both completely crippled. After several hours of conflict,
the French admiral, seeing himself outnumbered, and that the allies
could outflank him and pass through the necessarily wide intervals in
his extended line, drew off without the loss of a ship. The wind now
fell and the haze became a fog. Till the 23rd, the two fleets remained
off the north coast of the Cotentin, drifting west with the ebb tide or
east with the flood, save when they anchored. During the night of the
19th/20th some British ships became entangled, in the fog, with the
French, and drifted through them on the tide, with loss. On the 23rd
both fleets were near La Hague. About half the French, under
D'Amfreville, rounded the cape, and fled to St Malo through the
dangerous passage known as the Race of Alderney (le Ras Blanchard). The
others were unable to get round the cape before the flood tide set in,
and were carried to the eastward. Tourville now transferred his own
flag, and left his captains free to save themselves as they best could.
He left the "Soleil Royal," and sent her with two others to Cherbourg,
where they were destroyed by Sir Ralph Delaval. The others now ran round
Cape Barfleur, and sought refuge on the east side of the Cotentin at the
anchorage of La Houque, called by the English La Hogue, where the troops
destined for the invasion were encamped. Here 13 of them were burnt by
Sir George Rooke, in the presence of the French generals and of the
exiled king James II. From the name of the place where the last blow was
struck, the battle has come to be known by the name of La Hogue.
Sufficient accounts of the battle may be found in Lediard's _Naval
History_ (London, 1735), and for the French side in Tronde's
_Batailles navales de la France_ (Paris, 1867). The escape of
D'Amfreville's squadron is the subject of Browning's poem "Hervé
Riel." (D. H.)
LAHORE, an ancient city of British India, the capital of the Punjab,
which gives its name to a district and division. It lies in 31° 35' N.
and 74° 20' E. near the left bank of the River Ravi, 1706 ft. above the
sea, and 1252 m. by rail from Calcutta. It is thus in about the same
latitude as Cairo, but owing to its inland position is considerably
hotter than that city, being one of the hottest places in India in the
summer time. In the cold season the climate is pleasantly cool and
bright. The native city is walled, about 1¼ m. in length W. to E. and
about ¾ m. in breadth N. to S. Its site has been occupied from early
times, and much of it stands high above the level of the surrounding
country, raised on the remains of a succession of former habitations.
Some old buildings, which have been preserved, stand now below the
present surface of the ground. This is well seen in the mosque now
called Masjid Niwin (or sunken) built in 1560, the mosque of Mullah
Rahmat, 7 ft. below, and the Shivali, a very old Hindu temple, about 12
ft. below the surrounding ground. Hindu tradition traces the origin of
Lahore to Loh or Lava, son of Rama, the hero of the _Ramayana_. The
absence of mention of Lahore by Alexander's historians, and the fact
that coins of the Graeco-Bactrian kings are not found among the ruins,
lead to the belief that it was not a place of any importance during the
earliest period of Indian history. On the other hand, Hsüan Tsang, the
Chinese Buddhist, notices the city in his _Itinerary_ (A.D. 630); and it
seems probable, therefore, that Lahore first rose into prominence
between the 1st and 7th centuries A.D. Governed originally by a family
of Chauhan Rajputs, a branch of the house of Ajmere, Lahore fell
successively under the dominion of the Ghazni and Ghori sultans, who
made it the capital of their Indian conquests, and adorned it with
numerous buildings, almost all now in ruins. But it was under the Mogul
empire that Lahore reached its greatest size and magnificence. The
reigns of Humayun, Akbar, Jahangir, Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb form the
golden period in the annals and architecture of the city. Akbar enlarged
and repaired the fort, and surrounded the town with a wall, portions of
which remain, built into the modern work of Ranjit Singh. Lahore formed
the capital of the Sikh empire of that monarch. At the end of the second
Sikh War, with the rest of the Punjab, it came under the British
dominion.
The architecture of Lahore cannot compare with that of Delhi. Jahangir
in 1622-1627 erected the Khwabgah or "sleeping-place," a fine palace
much defaced by the Sikhs but to some extent restored in modern times;
the Moti Masjid or "pearl mosque" in the fort, used by Ranjit Singh and
afterwards by the British as a treasure-house; and also the tomb of
Anarkali, used formerly as the station church and now as a library. Shah
Jahan erected a palace and other buildings near the Khwabgah, including
the beautiful pavilion called the Naulakha from its cost of nine lakhs,
which was inlaid with precious stones. The mosque of Wazir Khan (1634)
provides the finest example of _kashi_ or encaustic tile work.
Aurangzeb's Jama Masjid, or "great mosque," is a huge bare building,
stiff in design, and lacking the detailed ornament typical of buildings
at Delhi. The buildings of Ranjit Singh, especially his mausoleum, are
common and meretricious in style. He was, moreover, responsible for much
of the despoiling of the earlier buildings. The streets of the native
city are narrow and tortuous, and are best seen from the back of an
elephant. Two of the chief features of Lahore lie outside its walls at
Shahdara and Shalamar Gardens respectively. Shahdara, which contains the
tomb of the emperor Jahangir, lies across the Ravi some 6 m. N. of the
city. It consists of a splendid marble cenotaph surrounded by a grove of
trees and gardens. The Shalamar Gardens, which were laid out in A.D.
1637 by Shah Jahan, lie 6 m. E. of the city. They are somewhat neglected
except on festive occasions, when the fountains are playing and the
trees are lit up by lamps at night.
The modern city of Lahore, which contained a population of 202,964 in
1901, may be divided into four parts: the native city, already
described; the civil station or European quarter, known as Donald Town;
the Anarkali bazaar, a suburb S. of the city wall; and the cantonment,
formerly called Mian Mir. The main street of the civil station is a
portion of the grand trunk road from Calcutta to Peshawar, locally known
as the Mall. The chief modern buildings along this road, west to east,
are the Lahore museum, containing a fine collection of Graeco-Buddhist
sculptures, found by General Cunningham in the Yusufzai country, and
arranged by Mr Lockwood Kipling, a former curator of the museum; the
cathedral, begun by Bishop French, in Early English style, and
consecrated in 1887; the Lawrence Gardens and Montgomery Halls,
surrounded by a garden that forms the chief meeting-place of Europeans
in the afternoon; and opposite this government house, the official
residence of the lieutenant-governor of the Punjab; next to this is the
Punjab club for military men and civilians. Three miles beyond is the
Lahore cantonment, where the garrison is stationed, except a company of
British infantry, which occupies the fort. It is the headquarters of the
3rd division of the northern army. Lahore is an important junction on
the North-Western railway system, but has little local trade or
manufacture. The chief industries are silk goods, gold and silver lace,
metal work and carpets which are made in the Lahore gaol. There are also
cotton mills, flour mills, an ice-factory, and several factories for
mineral waters, oils, soap, leather goods, &c. Lahore is an important
educational centre. Here are the Punjab University with five colleges,
medical and law colleges, a central training college, the Aitchison
Chiefs' College for the sons of native noblemen, and a number of other
high schools and technical and special schools.
The DISTRICT OF LAHORE has an area of 3704 sq. m., and its population in
1901 was 1,162,109, consisting chiefly of Punjabi Mahommedans with a
large admixture of Hindus and Sikhs. In the north-west the district
includes a large part of the barren Rechna Doab, while south of the Ravi
is a desolate alluvial tract, liable to floods. The Manjha plateau,
however, between the Ravi and the Beas, has been rendered fertile by the
Bari Doab canal. The principal crops are wheat, pulse, millets, maize,
oil-seeds and cotton. There are numerous factories for ginning and
pressing cotton. Irrigation is provided by the main line of the Bari
Doab canal and its branches, and by inundation-cuts from the Sutlej. The
district is crossed in several directions by lines of the North-Western
railway. Lahore, Kasur, Chunian and Raiwind are the chief trade centres.
The DIVISION OF LAHORE extends along the right bank of the Sutlej from
the Himalayas to Multan. It comprises the six districts of Sialkot,
Gujranwala, Montgomery, Lahore, Amritsar and Gurdaspur. Total area,
17,154 sq. m.; pop. (1901) 5,598,463. The commissioner for the division
also exercises political control over the hill slate of Chamba. The
common language of the rural population and of artisans is Punjabi;
while Urdu or Hindustani is spoken by the educated classes. So far from
the seaboard, the range between extremes of winter and summer
temperature in the sub-tropics is great. The mean temperature in the
shade in June is about 92° F., in January about 50°. In midsummer the
thermometer sometimes rises to 115° in the shade, and remains on some
occasions as high as 105° throughout the night. In winter the morning
temperature is sometimes as low as 20°. The rainfall is uncertain,
ranging from 8 in. to 25, with an average of 15 in. The country as a
whole is parched and arid, and greatly dependent on irrigation.
LA HOZ Y MOTA, JUAN CLAUDIO DE (1630?-1710?), Spanish dramatist, was
born in Madrid. He became a knight of Santiago in 1653, and soon
afterwards succeeded his father as _regidor_ of Burgos. In 1665 he was
nominated to an important post at the Treasury, and in his later years
acted as official censor of the Madrid theatres. On the 13th of August
1709 he signed his play entitled _Josef, salvador de Egipto_, and is
presumed to have died in the following year. Hoz is not remarkable for
originality of conception, but his recasts of plays by earlier writers
are distinguished by an adroitness which accounts for the esteem in
which he was held by his contemporaries. _El Montañés Juan Pascal_ and
_El castigo de la miseria_, reprinted in the _Biblioteca de Autores
Españoles_, give a just idea of his adaptable talent.
LAHR, a town in the grand-duchy of Baden, on the Schutter, about 9 m. S.
of Offenburg, and on the railway Dinglingen-Lahr. Pop. (1900) 13,577.
One of the busiest towns in Baden, it carries on manufactures of tobacco
and cigars, woollen goods, chicory, leather, pasteboard, hats and
numerous other articles, has considerable trade in wine, while among its
other industries are printing and lithography. Lahr first appears as a
town in 1278, and after several vicissitudes it passed wholly to Baden
in 1803.
See Stein, _Geschichte und Beschreibung der Stadt Lahr_ (Lahr, 1827);
and Sütterlin, _Lahr und seine Umgebung_ (Lahr, 1904).
LAIBACH (Slovenian, _Ljubljana_), capital of the Austrian duchy of
Carniola, 237 m. S.S.W. of Vienna by rail. Pop. (1900) 36,547, mostly
Slovene. It is situated on the Laibach, near its influx into the Save,
and consists of the town proper and eight suburbs. Laibach is an
episcopal see, and possesses a cathedral in the Italian style, several
beautiful churches, a town hall in Renaissance style and a castle, built
in the 15th century, on the Schlossberg, an eminence which commands the
town. Laibach is the principal centre of the national Slovenian
movement, and it contains a Slovene theatre and several societies for
the promotion of science and literature in the native tongue. The
Slovenian language is in general official use, and the municipal
administration is purely Slovenian. The industries include manufactures
of pottery, bricks, oil, linen and woollen cloth, fire-hose and paper.
Laibach is supposed to occupy the site of the ancient Emona or Aemona,
founded by the emperor Augustus in 34 B.C. It was besieged by Alaric
in 400, and in 451 it was desolated by the Huns. In 900 Laibach
suffered much from the Magyars, who were, however, defeated there in
914. In the 12th century the town passed into the hands of the dukes
of Carinthia; in 1270 it was taken by Ottocar of Bohemia; and in 1277
it came under the Habsburgs. In the early part of the 15th century the
town was several times besieged by the Turks. The bishopric was
founded in 1461. On the 17th of March 1797 and again on the 3rd of
June 1809 Laibach was taken by the French, and from 1809 to 1813 it
became the seat of their general government of the Illyrian provinces.
From 1816 to 1849 Laibach was the capital of the kingdom of Illyria.
The town is also historically known from the congress of Laibach,
which assembled here in 1821 (see below). Laibach suffered severely on
the 14th of April 1895 from an earthquake.
_Congress or Conference of Laibach._--Before the break-up of the
conference of Troppau (q.v.), it had been decided to adjourn it till the
following January, and to invite the attendance of the king of Naples,
Laibach being chosen as the place of meeting. Castlereagh, in the name
of Great Britain, had cordially approved this invitation, as "implying
negotiation" and therefore as a retreat from the position taken up in
the Troppau Protocol. Before leaving Troppau, however, the three
autocratic powers, Russia, Austria and Prussia, had issued, on the 8th
of December 1820, a circular letter, in which they reiterated the
principles of the Protocol, i.e. the right and duty of the powers
responsible for the peace of Europe to intervene to suppress any
revolutionary movement by which they might conceive that peace to be
endangered (Hertslet, No. 105). Against this view Castlereagh once more
protested in a circular despatch of the 19th of January 1821, in which
he clearly differentiated between the objectionable general principles
advanced by the three powers, and the particular case of the unrest in
Italy, the immediate concern not of Europe at large, but of Austria and
of any other Italian powers which might consider themselves endangered
(Hertslet, No. 107).
The conference opened on the 26th of January 1821, and its constitution
emphasized the divergences revealed in the above circulars. The emperors
of Russia and Austria were present in person, and with them were Counts
Nesselrode and Capo d'Istria, Metternich and Baron Vincent; Prussia and
France were represented by plenipotentiaries. But Great Britain, on the
ground that she had no immediate interest in the Italian question, was
represented only by Lord Stewart, the ambassador at Vienna, who was not
armed with full powers, his mission being to watch the proceedings and
to see that nothing was done beyond or in violation of the treaties. Of
the Italian princes, Ferdinand of Naples and the duke of Modena came in
person; the rest were represented by plenipotentiaries.
It was soon clear that a more or less open breach between Great Britain
and the other powers was inevitable, Metternich was anxious to secure an
apparent unanimity of the powers to back the Austrian intervention in
Naples, and every device was used to entrap the English representative
into subscribing a formula which would have seemed to commit Great
Britain to the principles of the other allies. When these devices
failed, attempts were made unsuccessfully to exclude Lord Stewart from
the conferences on the ground of defective powers. Finally he was forced
to an open protest, which he caused to be inscribed on the journals, but
the action of Capo d'Istria in reading to the assembled Italian
ministers, who were by no means reconciled to the large claims implied
in the Austrian intervention, a declaration in which as the result of
the "intimate union established by solemn acts between all the European
powers" the Russian emperor offered to the allies "the aid of his arms,
should new revolutions threaten new dangers," an attempt to revive that
idea of a "universal union" based on the Holy Alliance (q.v.) against
which Great Britain had consistently protested.
The objections of Great Britain were, however, not so much to an
Austrian intervention in Naples as to the far-reaching principles by
which it was sought to justify it. King Ferdinand had been invited to
Laibach, according to the circular of the 8th of December, in order
that he might be free to act as "mediator between his erring peoples and
the states whose tranquillity they threatened." The cynical use he made
of his "freedom" to repudiate obligations solemnly contracted is
described elsewhere (see NAPLES, _History_). The result of this action
was the Neapolitan declaration of war and the occupation of Naples by
Austria, with the sanction of the congress. This was preceded, on the
10th of March, by the revolt of the garrison of Alessandria and the
military revolution in Piedmont, which in its turn was suppressed, as a
result of negotiations at Laibach, by Austrian troops. It was at
Laibach, too, that, on the 19th of March, the emperor Alexander received
the news of Ypsilanti's invasion of the Danubian principalities, which
heralded the outbreak of the War of Greek Independence, and from Laibach
Capo d'Istria addressed to the Greek leader the tsar's repudiation of
his action.
The conference closed on the 12th of May, on which date Russia, Austria
and Prussia issued a declaration (Hertslet, No. 108) "to proclaim to the
world the principles which guided them" in coming "to the assistance of
subdued peoples," a declaration which once more affirmed the principles
of the Troppau Protocol. In this lay the European significance of the
Laibach conference, of which the activities had been mainly confined to
Italy. The issue of the declaration without the signatures of the
representatives of Great Britain and France proclaimed the disunion of
the alliance, within which--to use Lord Stewart's words--there existed
"a triple understanding which bound the parties to carry forward their
own views in spite of any difference of opinion between them and the two
great constitutional governments."
No separate history of the congress exists, but innumerable references
are to be found in general histories and in memoirs, correspondence,
&c., of the time. See Sir E. Hertslet, _Map of Europe_ (London, 1875);
Castlereagh, _Correspondence_; Metternich, _Memoirs_; N. Bianchi,
_Storia documentata della diplomazia Europea in Italia_ (8 vols.,
Turin, 1865-1872); Gentz's correspondence (see GENTZ, F. VON).
Valuable unpublished correspondence is preserved at the Record Office
in the volumes marked F. O., Austria, Lord Stewart, January to
February 1821, and March to September 1821. (W. A. P.)
LAIDLAW, WILLIAM (1780-1845), friend and amanuensis of Sir Walter Scott,
was born at Blackhouse, Selkirkshire, on the 19th of November 1780, the
son of a sheep farmer. After an elementary education in Peebles he
returned to work upon his father's farm. James Hogg, the shepherd poet,
who was employed at Blackhouse for some years, became Laidlaw's friend
and appreciative critic. Together they assisted Scott by supplying
material for his _Border Minstrelsy_, and Laidlaw, after two failures as
a farmer in Midlothian and Peebleshire, became Scott's steward at
Abbotsford. He also acted as Scott's amanuensis at different times,
taking down a large part of _The Bride of Lammermoor_, _The Legend of
Montrose_ and _Ivanhoe_ from the author's dictation. He died at Contin
near Dingwall, Ross-shire, on the 18th of May 1845. Of his poetry,
little is known except _Lucy's Flittin'_ in Hogg's _Forest Minstrel_.
LAING, ALEXANDER GORDON (1793-1826), Scottish explorer, the first
European to reach Timbuktu, was born at Edinburgh on the 27th of
December 1793. He was educated by his father, William Laing, a private
teacher of classics, and at Edinburgh University. In 1811 he went to
Barbados as clerk to his maternal uncle Colonel (afterwards General)
Gabriel Gordon. Through General Sir George Beckwith, governor of
Barbados, he obtained an ensigncy in the York Light Infantry. He was
employed in the West Indies, and in 1822 was promoted to a company in
the Royal African Corps. In that year, while with his regiment at Sierra
Leone, he was sent by the governor, Sir Charles MacCarthy, to the
Mandingo country, with the double object of opening up commerce and
endeavouring to abolish the slave trade in that region. Later in the
same year Laing visited Falaba, the capital of the Sulima country, and
ascertained the source of the Rokell. He endeavoured to reach the source
of the Niger, but was stopped by the natives. He was, however, enabled
to fix it with approximate accuracy. He took an active part in the
Ashanti War of 1823-24, and was sent home with the despatches
containing the news of the death in action of Sir Charles MacCarthy.
Henry, 3rd Earl Bathurst, then secretary for the colonies, instructed
Captain Laing to undertake a journey, via Tripoli and Timbuktu, to
further elucidate the hydrography of the Niger basin. Laing left England
in February 1825, and at Tripoli on the 14th of July following he
married Emma Warrington, daughter of the British consul. Two days later,
leaving his bride behind, he started to cross the Sahara, being
accompanied by a sheikh who was subsequently accused of planning his
murder. Ghadames was reached, by an indirect route, in October 1825, and
in December Laing was in the Tuat territory, where he was well received
by the Tuareg. On the 10th of January 1826 he left Tuat, and made for
Timbuktu across the desert of Tanezroft. Letters from him written in May
and July following told of sufferings from fever and the plundering of
his caravan by Tuareg, Laing being wounded in twenty-four places in the
fighting. Another letter dated from Timbuktu on the 21st of September
announced his arrival in that city on the preceding 18th of August, and
the insecurity of his position owing to the hostility of the Fula
chieftain Bello, then ruling the city. He added that he intended leaving
Timbuktu in three days' time. No further news was received from the
traveller. From native information it was ascertained that he left
Timbuktu on the day he had planned and was murdered on the night of the
26th of September 1826. His papers were never recovered, though it is
believed that they were secretly brought to Tripoli in 1828. In 1903 the
French government placed a tablet bearing the name of the explorer and
the date of his visit on the house occupied by him during his
thirty-eight days' stay in Timbuktu.
While in England in 1824 Laing prepared a narrative of his earlier
journeys, which was published in 1825 and entitled _Travels in the
Timannee, Kooranko and Soolima Countries, in Western Africa_.
LAING, DAVID (1793-1878), Scottish antiquary, the son of William Laing,
a bookseller in Edinburgh, was born in that city on the 20th of April
1793. Educated at the Canongate Grammar School, when fourteen he was
apprenticed to his father. Shortly after the death of the latter in
1837, Laing was elected to the librarianship of the Signet Library,
which post he retained till his death. Apart from an extraordinary
general bibliographical knowledge, Laing was best known as a lifelong
student of the literary and artistic history of Scotland. He published
no original volumes, but contented himself with editing the works of
others. Of these, the chief are--_Dunbar's Works_ (2 vols., 1834), with
a supplement added in 1865; _Robert Baillie's Letters and Journals_ (3
vols., 1841-1842); _John Knox's Works_ (6 vols., 1846-1864); _Poems and
Fables of Robert Henryson_ (1865); _Andrew of Wyntoun's Orygynale
Cronykil of Scotland_ (3 vols., 1872-1879); _Sir David Lyndsay's
Poetical Works_ (3 vols., 1879). Laing was for more than fifty years a
member of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, and he contributed
upwards of a hundred separate papers to their _Proceedings_. He was also
for more than forty years secretary to the Bannatyne Club, many of the
publications of which were edited by him. He was struck with paralysis
in 1878 while in the Signet Library, and it is related that, on
recovering consciousness, he looked about and asked if a proof of
Wyntoun had been sent from the printers. He died a few days afterwards,
on the 18th of October, in his eighty-sixth year. His library was sold
by auction, and realized £16,137. To the university of Edinburgh he
bequeathed his collection of MSS.
See the Biographical Memoir prefixed to _Select Remains of Ancient,
Popular and Romance Poetry of Scotland_, edited by John Small
(Edinburgh, 1885); also T. G. Stevenson, _Notices of David Laing with
List of his Publications, &c._ (privately printed 1878).
LAING, MALCOLM (1762-1818), Scottish historian, son of Robert Laing, and
elder brother of Samuel Laing the elder, was born on his paternal estate
on the Mainland of Orkney. Having studied at the grammar school of
Kirkwall and at Edinburgh University, he was called to the Scotch bar in
1785, but devoted his time mainly to historical studies. In 1793 he
completed the sixth and last volume of Robert Henry's _History of Great
Britain_, the portion which he wrote being in its strongly liberal tone
at variance with the preceding part of the work; and in 1802 he
published his _History of Scotland from the Union of the Crowns to the
Union of the Kingdoms_, a work showing considerable research. Attached
to the _History_ was a dissertation on the Gowrie conspiracy, and
another on the supposed authenticity of Ossian's poems. In another
dissertation, prefixed to a second and corrected edition of the
_History_ published in 1804, Laing endeavoured to prove that Mary, queen
of Scots, wrote the Casket Letters, and was partly responsible for the
murder of Lord Darnley. In the same year he edited the _Life and
Historie of King James VI._, and in 1805 brought out in two volumes an
edition of Ossian's poems. Laing, who was a friend of Charles James Fox,
was member of parliament for Orkney and Shetland from 1807 to 1812. He
died on the 6th of November 1818.
LAING, SAMUEL (1810-1897), British author and railway administrator, was
born at Edinburgh on the 12th of December 1810. He was the nephew of
Malcolm Laing, the historian of Scotland; and his father, Samuel Laing
(1780-1868), was also a well-known author, whose books on Norway and
Sweden attracted much attention. Samuel Laing the younger entered St
John's College, Cambridge, in 1827, and after graduating as second
wrangler and Smith's prizeman, was elected a fellow, and remained at
Cambridge temporarily as a coach. He was called to the bar in 1837, and
became private secretary to Mr Labouchere (afterwards Lord Taunton), the
president of the Board of Trade. In 1842 he was made secretary to the
railway department, and retained this post till 1847. He had by then
become an authority on railway working, and had been a member of the
Dalhousie Railway Commission; it was at his suggestion that the
"parliamentary" rate of a penny a mile was instituted. In 1848 he was
appointed chairman and managing director of the London, Brighton & South
Coast Railway, and his business faculty showed itself in the largely
increased prosperity of the line. He also became chairman (1852) of the
Crystal Palace Company, but retired from both posts in 1855. In 1852 he
entered parliament as a Liberal for Wick, and after losing his seat in
1857, was re-elected in 1859, in which year he was appointed financial
secretary to the Treasury; in 1860 he was made finance minister in
India. On returning from India, he was re-elected to parliament for Wick
in 1865. He was defeated in 1868, but in 1873 he was returned for Orkney
and Shetland, and retained his seat till 1885. Meanwhile he had been
reappointed chairman of the Brighton line in 1867, and continued in that
post till 1894, being generally recognized as an admirable
administrator. He was also chairman of the Railway Debenture Trust and
the Railway Share Trust. In later life he became well known as an
author, his _Modern Science and Modern Thought_ (1885), _Problems of the
Future_ (1889) and _Human Origins_ (1892) being widely read, not only by
reason of the writer's influential position, experience of affairs and
clear style, but also through their popular and at the same time
well-informed treatment of the scientific problems of the day. Laing
died at Sydenham on the 6th of August 1897.
LAING'S [or LANG'S] NEK, a pass through the Drakensberg, South Africa,
immediately north of Majuba (q.v.), at an elevation of 5400 to 6000 ft.
It is the lowest part of a ridge which slopes from Majuba to the Buffalo
river, and before the opening of the railway in 1891 the road over the
nek was the main artery of communication between Durban and Pretoria.
The railway pierces the nek by a tunnel 2213 ft. long. When the Boers
rose in revolt in December 1880 they occupied Laing's Nek to oppose the
entry of British reinforcements into the Transvaal. On the 28th of
January 1881 a small British force endeavoured to drive the Boers from
the pass, but was forced to retire.
LAIRD, MACGREGOR (1808-1861), Scottish merchant, pioneer of British
trade on the Niger, was born at Greenock in 1808, the younger son of
William Laird, founder of the Birkenhead firm of shipbuilders of that
name. In 1831 Laird and certain Liverpool merchants formed a company for
the commercial development of the Niger regions, the lower course of the
Niger having been made known that year by Richard and John Lander. In
1832 the company despatched two small ships to the Niger, one, the
"Alburkah," a paddle-wheel steamer of 55 tons designed by Laird, being
the first iron vessel to make an ocean voyage. Macgregor Laird went with
the expedition, which was led by Richard Lander and numbered forty-eight
Europeans, of whom all but nine died from fever or, in the case of
Lander, from wounds. Laird went up the Niger to the confluence of the
Benue (then called the Shary or Tchadda), which he was the first white
man to ascend. He did not go far up the river but formed an accurate
idea as to its source and course. The expedition returned to Liverpool
in 1834, Laird and Surgeon R. A. K. Oldfield being the only surviving
officers besides Captain (then Lieut.) William Allen, R.N., who
accompanied the expedition by order of the Admiralty to survey the
river. Laird and Oldfield published in 1837 in two volumes the
_Narrative of an Expedition into the Interior of Africa by the River
Niger ... in 1832, 1833, 1834_. Commercially the expedition had been
unsuccessful, but Laird had gained experience invaluable to his
successors. He never returned to Africa but henceforth devoted himself
largely to the development of trade with West Africa and especially to
the opening up of the countries now forming the British protectorates of
Nigeria. One of his principal reasons for so doing was his belief that
this method was the best means of stopping the slave trade and raising
the social condition of the Africans. In 1854 he sent out at his own
charges, but with the support of the British government, a small
steamer, the "Pleiad," which under W. B. Baikie made so successful a
voyage that Laird induced the government to sign contracts for annual
trading trips by steamers specially built for navigation of the Niger
and Benue. Various stations were founded on the Niger, and though
government support was withdrawn after the death of Laird and Baikie,
British traders continued to frequent the river, which Laird had opened
up with little or no personal advantage. Laird's interests were not,
however, wholly African. In 1837 he was one of the promoters of a
company formed to run steamships between England and New York, and in
1838 the "Sirius," sent out by this company, was the first ship to cross
the Atlantic from Europe entirely under steam. Laird died in London on
the 9th of January 1861.
His elder brother, JOHN LAIRD (1805-1874), was one of the first to use
iron in the construction of ships; in 1829 he made an iron lighter of 60
tons which was used on canals and lakes in Ireland; in 1834 he built the
paddle steamer "John Randolph" for Savannah, U.S.A., stated to be the
first iron ship seen in America. For the East India Company he built in
1839 the first iron vessel carrying guns and he was also the designer of
the famous "Birkenhead." A Conservative in politics, he represented
Birkenhead in the House of Commons from 1861 to his death.
LAÏS, the name of two Greek courtesans, generally distinguished as
follows. (1) The elder, a native of Corinth, born _c._ 480 B.C., was
famous for her greed and hardheartedness, which gained her the nickname
of _Axine_ (the axe). Among her lovers were the philosophers Aristippus
and Diogenes, and Eubatas (or Aristoteles) of Cyrene, a famous runner.
In her old age she became a drunkard. Her grave was shown in the
Craneion near Corinth, surmounted by a lioness tearing a ram. (2) The
younger, daughter of Timandra the mistress of Alcibiades, born at
Hyccara in Sicily _c._ 420 B.C., taken to Corinth during the Sicilian
expedition. The painter Apelles, who saw her drawing water from the
fountain of Peirene, was struck by her beauty, and took her as a model.
Having followed a handsome Thessalian to his native land, she was slain
in the temple of Aphrodite by women who were jealous of her beauty. Many
anecdotes are told of a Laïs by Athenaeus, Aelian, Pausanias, and she
forms the subject of many epigrams in the Greek Anthology; but, owing to
the similarity of names, there is considerable uncertainty to whom they
refer. The name itself, like Phryne, was used as a general term for a
courtesan.
See F. Jacobs, _Vermischte Schriften_, iv. (1830).
LAISANT, CHARLES ANNE (1841- ), French politician, was born at Nantes
on the 1st of November 1841, and was educated at the École Polytechnique
as a military engineer. He defended the fort of Issy at the siege of
Paris, and served in Corsica and in Algeria in 1873. In 1876 he resigned
his commission to enter the Chamber as deputy for Nantes in the
republican interest, and in 1879 he became director of the _Petit
Parisien_. For alleged libel on General Courtot de Cissey in this paper
he was heavily fined. In the Chamber he spoke chiefly on army questions;
and was chairman of a commission appointed to consider army legislation,
resigning in 1887 on the refusal of the Chamber to sanction the
abolition of exemptions of any kind. He then became an adherent of the
revisionist policy of General Boulanger and a member of the League of
Patriots. He was elected Boulangist deputy for the 18th Parisian
arrondissement in 1889. He did not seek re-election in 1893, but devoted
himself thenceforward to mathematics, helping to make known in France
the theories of Giusto Bellavitis. He was attached to the staff of the
École Polytechnique, and in 1903-1904 was president of the French
Association for the Advancement of Science.
In addition to his political pamphlets _Pourquoi et comment je suis
Boulangiste_ (1887) and _L'Anarchie bourgeoise_ (1887), he published
mathematical works, among them _Introduction à l'étude des
quarternions_ (1881) and _Théorie et applications des équipollences_
(1887).
LAI-YANG, a city in the Chinese province of Shan-tung, in 37° N., 120°
55' E., about the middle of the eastern peninsula, on the highway
running south from Chi-fu to Kin-Kia or Ting-tsu harbour. It is
surrounded by well-kept walls of great antiquity, and its main streets
are spanned by large _pailous_ or monumental arches, some dating from
the time of the emperor Tai-ting-ti of the Yuan dynasty (1324). There
are extensive suburbs both to the north and south, and the total
population is estimated at 50,000. The so-called Ailanthus silk produced
by _Saturnia cynthia_ is woven at Lai-yang into a strong fabric; and the
manufacture of the peculiar kind of wax obtained from the la-shu or
wax-tree insect is largely carried on in the vicinity.
LAKANAL, JOSEPH (1762-1845), French politician, was born at Serres
(Ariège) on the 14th of July 1762. His name, originally Lacanal, was
altered to distinguish him from his Royalist brothers. He joined one of
the teaching congregations, and for fourteen years taught in their
schools. When elected by his native department to the Convention in 1792
he was acting as vicar to his uncle Bernard Font (1723-1800), the
constitutional bishop of Pamiers. In the Convention he held apart from
the various party sections, although he voted for the death of Louis
XVI. He rendered great service to the Revolution by his practical
knowledge of education. He became a member of the Committee of Public
Instruction early in 1793, and after carrying many useful decrees on the
preservation of national monuments, on the military schools, on the
reorganization of the Museum of Natural History and other matters, he
brought forward on the 26th of June his _Projet d'éducation nationale_
(printed at the Imprimerie Nationale), which proposed to lay the burden
or primary education on the public funds, but to leave secondary
education to private enterprise. Provision was also made for public
festivals, and a central commission was to be entrusted with educational
questions. The scheme, in the main the work of Sieyès, was refused by
the Convention, who submitted the whole question to a special commission
of six, which under the influence of Robespierre adopted a report by
Michel le Peletier de Saint Fargeau shortly before his tragic death.
Lakanal, who was a member of the commission, now began to work for the
organization of higher education, and abandoning the principle of his
_Projet_ advocated the establishment of state-aided schools for primary,
secondary and university education. In October 1793 he was sent by the
Convention to the south-western departments and did not return to Paris
until after the revolution of Thermidor. He now became president of the
Education Committee and promptly abolished the system which had had
Robespierre's support. He drew up schemes for departmental normal
schools, for primary schools (reviving in substance the _Projet_) and
central schools. He presently acquiesced in the supersession of his own
system, but continued his educational reports after his election to the
Council of the Five Hundred. In 1799 he was sent by the Directory to
organize the defence of the four departments on the left bank of the
Rhine threatened by invasion. Under the Consulate he resumed his
professional work, and after Waterloo retired to America, where he
became president of the university of Louisiana. He returned to France
in 1834, and shortly afterwards, in spite of his advanced age, married a
second time. He died in Paris on the 14th of February 1845; his widow
survived till 1881. Lakanal was an original member of the Institute of
France. He published in 1838 an _Exposé sommaire des travaux de Joseph
Lakanal_.
His _éloge_ at the Academy of Moral and Political Science, of which he
was a member, was pronounced by the comte de Rémusat (February 16,
1845), and a _Notice historique_ by F. A. M. Mignet was read on the
2nd of May 1857. See also notices by Émile Darnaud (Paris, 1874),
"Marcus" (Paris, 1879), P. Legendre in _Hommes de la révolution_
(Paris, 1882), E. Guillon, _Lakanal et l'instruction publique_ (Paris,
1881). For details of the reports submitted by him to the government
see M. Tourneux, "Histoire de l'instruction publique, actes et
déliberations de la convention, &c." in _Bibliog. de l'hist. de Paris_
(vol. iii., 1900); also A. Robert and G. Cougny, _Dictionnaire des
parlementaires_ (vol. ii., 1890).
LAKE, GERARD LAKE, 1ST VISCOUNT (1744-1808), British general, was born
on the 27th of July 1744. He entered the foot guards in 1758, becoming
lieutenant (captain in the army) 1762, captain (lieut.-colonel) in 1776,
major 1784, and lieut.-colonel in 1792, by which time he was a general
officer in the army. He served with his regiment in Germany in 1760-1762
and with a composite battalion in the Yorktown campaign of 1781. After
this he was equerry to the prince of Wales, afterwards George IV. In
1790 he became a major-general, and in 1793 was appointed to command the
Guards Brigade in the duke of York's army in Flanders. He was in command
at the brilliant affair of Lincelles, on the 18th of August 1793, and
served on the continent (except for a short time when seriously ill)
until April 1794. He had now sold his lieut.-colonelcy in the guards,
and had become colonel of the 53rd foot and governor of Limerick. In
1797 he was promoted lieut.-general. In the following year the Irish
rebellion broke out. Lake, who was then serving in Ireland, succeeded
Sir Ralph Abercromby in command of the troops in April 1798, issued a
proclamation ordering the surrender of all arms by the civil population
of Ulster, and on the 21st of June routed the rebels at Vinegar Hill
(near Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford). He exercised great, but perhaps not
unjustified, severity towards all rebels found in arms. Lord Cornwallis
now assumed the chief command in Ireland, and in August sent Lake to
oppose the French expedition which landed at Killala Bay. On the 29th of
the same month Lake arrived at Castlebar, but only in time to witness
the disgraceful rout of the troops under General Hely-Hutchinson
(afterwards 2nd earl of Donoughmore); but he retrieved this disaster by
compelling the surrender of the French at Ballinamuck, near Cloone, on
the 8th of September. In 1799 Lake returned to England, and soon
afterwards obtained the command in chief in India. He took over his
duties at Calcutta in July 1801, and applied himself to the improvement
of the Indian army, especially in the direction of making all arms,
infantry, cavalry and artillery, more mobile and more manageable. In
1802 he was made a full general.
On the outbreak of war with the Mahratta confederacy in 1803 General
Lake took the field against Sindhia, and within two months defeated the
Mahrattas at Coel, stormed Aligahr, took Delhi and Agra, and won the
great victory of Laswari (November 1st, 1803), where the power of
Sindhia was completely broken, with the loss of thirty-one disciplined
battalions, trained and officered by Frenchmen, and 426 pieces of
ordnance. This defeat, followed a few days later by Major-General Arthur
Wellesley's victory at Argaum, compelled Sindhia to come to terms, and a
treaty with him was signed in December 1803. Operations were, however,
continued against his confederate, Holkar, who, on the 17th of November
1804, was defeated by Lake at Farrukhabad. But the fortress of Bhurtpore
held out against four assaults early in 1805, and Cornwallis, who
succeeded Wellesley as governor-general in July of that
year--superseding Lake at the same time as
commander-in-chief--determined to put an end to the war. But after the
death of Cornwallis in October of the same year, Lake pursued Holkar
into the Punjab and compelled him to surrender at Amritsar in December
1805. Wellesley in a despatch attributed much of the success of the war
to Lake's "matchless energy, ability and valour." For his services Lake
received the thanks of parliament, and was rewarded by a peerage in
September 1804. At the conclusion of the war he returned to England, and
in 1807 he was created a viscount. He represented Aylesbury in the House
of Commons from 1790 to 1802, and he also was brought into the Irish
parliament by the government as member for Armagh in 1799 to vote for
the Union. He died in London on the 20th of February 1808.
See H. Pearse, _Memoir of the Life and Services of Viscount Lake_
(London, 1908); G. B. Malleson, _Decisive Battles of India_ (1883); J.
Grant Duff, _History of the Mahrattas_ (1873); short memoir in _From
Cromwell to Wellington_, ed. Spenser Wilkinson.
LAKE. Professor Forel of Switzerland, the founder of the science of
limnology (Gr. [Greek: limnê], a lake), defines a lake (Lat. _lacus_) as
a mass of still water situated in a depression of the ground, without
direct communication with the sea. The term is sometimes applied to
widened parts of rivers, and sometimes to bodies of water which lie
along sea-coasts, even at sea-level and in direct communication with the
sea. The terms _pond_, _tarn_, _loch_ and _mere_ are applied to smaller
lakes according to size and position. Some lakes are so large that an
observer cannot see low objects situated on the opposite shore, owing to
the lake-surface assuming the general curvature of the earth's surface.
Lakes are nearly universally distributed, but are more abundant in high
than in low latitudes. They are abundant in mountainous regions,
especially in those which have been recently glaciated. They are
frequent along rivers which have low gradients and wide flats, where
they are clearly connected with the changing channel of the river. Low
lands in proximity to the sea, especially in wet climates, have numerous
lakes, as, for instance, Florida. Lakes may be either fresh or salt,
according to the nature of the climate, some being much more salt than
the sea itself. They occur in all altitudes; Lake Titicaca in South
America is 12,500 ft. above sea-level, and Yellowstone Lake in the
United States is 7741 ft. above the sea; on the other hand, the surface
of the Caspian Sea is 86 ft., the Sea of Tiberias 682 ft. and the Dead
Sea 1292 ft. below the level of the ocean.
The primary source of lake water is atmospheric precipitation, which may
reach the lakes through rain, melting ice and snow, springs, rivers and
immediate run-off from the land-surfaces. The surface of the earth, with
which we are directly in touch, is composed of lithosphere, hydrosphere
and atmosphere, and these interpenetrate. Lakes, rivers, the
water-vapour of the atmosphere and the water of hydration of the
lithosphere, must all be regarded as outlying portions of the
hydrosphere, which is chiefly made up of the great oceans. Lakes may be
compared to oceanic islands. Just as an oceanic island presents many
peculiarities in its rocks, soil, fauna and flora, due to its isolation
from the larger terrestrial masses, so does a lake present peculiarities
and an individuality in its physical, chemical and biological features,
owing to its position and separation from the waters of the great
oceans.
_Origin of Lakes._--From the geological point of view, lakes may be
arranged into three groups: (A) Rock-Basins, (B) Barrier-Basins and
(C) Organic Basins.