department was intrusted to him; but his opinions were too liberal to satisfy men who made his jambe illegitime a matter of reproach to him, and, in 1821, he was obliged to surrender it to the Villèle ministry.-2. Charles César Fay, count de, brother of the preceding, born 1758, was a member of the estate of nobles in 1789, and among the first to join the third estate, when it declared itself the national assembly. He advocated constitutional doctrines, and served under Lafayette, whose captivity he shared. In 1801, he was a member of the corps législatif; in 1806, of the senate; and, after the restoration (1814), was created a peer of France. Having sat in the chamber of peers during the hundred days, he lost the peerage, on the second restoration, but received it again in 1819. His eldest son has been ambassador to Constantinople, Würtemberg, London, &c.; his second son, Rodolphe, has been distinguished in the military service; and his third, who married the eldest daughter of Lafayette, has also served, and has received the cross of St. Louis.

LATREILLE, Peter Andrew, a very distinguished and active naturalist, was born in 1762, at Brives, department Corrèze. From early youth, he devoted himself to the study of natural history, and is, at present, professor of zoology at the museum of natural history at Paris, member of the academy, of the legion of honor, &c. Of his works on natural history, the most important are Précis des Charactères génériques des Insectes (Brives, 1797); Histoire nat. des Salamandres de France (with engravings, Brives, 1800); Histoire nat. des Singes, faisant Partie de celle de Quadrupedes de Buffon (2 volumes, Brives, 1801); Essai sur l'Histoire des Fourmis, &c. (with engravings, Brives, 1802); Histoire nat. des Reptiles, faisant Partie du Buffon de M. Castel (4 volumes, Brives, 1802); Genera Crustaceorum et Insectorum (with 18 colored engravings, 4 volumes, Brives, 1806-1809); Considérations gén. sur l'Ordre naturel des Animaux, composant les Classes des Crustacées, des Arachnides et des Insectes (Brives, 1810); Mémoires sur divers Sujets de l'Hist. nat. des Insectes, de Géographie ancienne et de Chronologie (Brives, 1819); Familles naturelles du Régne Animal (Brives, 1825.) Latreille is also one of the most active contributors to the Nouv. Dictionnaire d'Histoire nat., to the Annales du Muséum d'Hist. nat., and other works.

LATROBITE; a mineral named for reyerend C. I. Latrobe. It is found massive and crystallized; but the crystals not well

It is found at Amitok island, near the coast of Labrador, and is accompanied by mica and carbonate of lime.

LATTAIGNANT, Gabriel Charles, abbé de, a poet, the memory of whose songs has not yet perished in France, and who rendered himself known by the popular opera Fanchon, was born in Paris, towards the end of the seventeenth century. He was canon at Rheims, and counsellor of the parliament of Paris, but united great gayety with his serious occupations. After having taken part in all the pleasures of life, he retired to a monastery, and died 1779. His poems were published in 4 volumes, 12mo., which were followed, after his death, by his songs and writings not before printed.

LATUDE, Henri Mazers de, born in 1724, at Montagnac, in Languedoc, was imprisoned, when 20 years old, in the Bastile, in the reign of Louis XV, because, in order to gain the favor of Mad. de Pompadour, he had persuaded her that an attempt was to be made on her life, by a box containing the most subtle poison. The box actually arrived, but contained nothing but ashes, sent by Latude himself. His repeated attempts to escape rendered his confinement more rigorous, and he remained in prison 35 years. He was delivered from his confinement in 1779. He then wrote his memoirs, which became a formidable weapon in the hands of the revolutionary party. The national assembly decreed him a pension, which was afterwards, however, withdrawn. The heirs of Amelot and Mad. de Pampadour were sentenced to make him indemnification. He died in 1804, 80 years old..

LAUD, William, archbishop of Canterbury, in the reign of Charles I, born in 1573, received his education at St. John's college, Oxford, of which he became a fellow in 1593. He took priest's orders in 1601, and, the following year, preached a divinity lecture, in which he maintained the perpetual visibility of the church of Rome until the reformation, which doctrine being disapproved by doctor Abbot, master of University college, the foundation of that animosity was laid, which ever after subsisted between them. In 1608, he was made chaplain to Neile, bishop of

Rochester, who gave him the rectory of Cuckstone, in Kent; and he soon after preached his first sermon before James I. In 1611, he became president of his college, and one of the king's chaplains, and, in 1617, accompanied James I to Scotland, to aid him in his attempt to bring the church of Scotland to a uniformity with that of England. In 1620, he was installed a prebend of Westminster, and, the next year, nominated to the see of St, David's. About this time, James took upon himself to interdict the introduction into the pulpit of the doctrines of predestination, election, the irresistibility of free grace, or of any matter relative to the powers, prerogatives and sovereignty of foreign princes. These measures being attributed to the counsels of bishop Laud, the Calvinistic or Puritanic party were much incensed at his conduct. On the accession of Charles I, Laud's influence, by the countenance of Buckingham, became very great; and he was ordered to farnish the king with a list of all the divines in the kingdom, against whose names he marked O. or P., to signify Orthodox or Puritan. In 1626, he was translated to the see of Bath and Wells, and, in 1628, to that of London. On the sequestration of archbishop Abbot, in consequence of having accidentally shot a game-keeper, Laud was appointed one of the commissioners for exercising the archiepiscopal jurisdiction; and, being a zealous supporter of the hated administration of Buckingham, became in the highest degree unpopular. On the assassination of that favorite by Felton, bishop Laud, suspecting that some members of parliament might be privy to the deed, prevailed on the king to send to the judges for their opinion, "whether, by law, Felton might not be racked ?" Bishop Laud was also the most active member of the high commission court, the arbitrary and severe proceedings of which were so justly odious to the nation. In 1630, he was elected chancellor of the university of Oxford, to which he was a great benefactor, and which he enriched with an invaluable collection of manuscripts, in a great number of languages, ancient, modern and Oriental. In 1633, he attended Charles into Scotland, who went there to be crowned; and, on his return, he was promoted to the see of Canterbury, become vacant by the death of archbishop Abbot, On the same day, an agent from the court of Rome came to him privately, and offered him a cardinal's hat a fact which shows how strongly he was suspected of

a predilection for the church of Rome. He, however, declined the proposal, feeling, as he expresses himself in his diary, "That something dwelt within him which would not suffer that, till Rome were other than it is." In 1634, he commenced a metropolitan visitation, in which the rigor of his proceedings, to produce conformity, was exceedingly unpopular. In 1635, he was appointed one of the commissioners of the treasury, in which situation he remained a year. The prosecution of Prynne, Burton and Bastwick, for libel, took place in 1632, the odium of which, and the severe sentences that followed, rested principally upon him. In 1637, he procured a decree of the starchamber, limiting the number of printers, and forbidding the printing of any book not licensed by the bishop of London or archbishop of Canterbury, for the time being, or by the chancellor and vice-chancellor of the universities. Catalogues of all books from abroad were also to be furnished to the same authorities; and so arbitrary was the conduct of Charles's ministers, at this period, that numbers, both of clergy and laity, sought to quit the country. A proclamation was issued to restrain them, unless certificated to be conformable to the discipline of the church. After a lapse of 12 years, a parliament was convened in April, 1640; the commons commenced by appointing committees of religion and grievances, on which it was suddenly dissolved, after sitting only three weeks. All sorts of means were then put in force to raise supplies, by loan, benevolence, shipmoney, &c., those who refused payment being fined and imprisoned by the starchamber or council-table. A clerical convocation was also authorized by the king, to sit, independent of the parliament. This body, besides granting subsidies, prepared a collection of constitutions and canons ecclesiastical, which, being approved by the privy council, was made public, and gave such general disgust to the moderate of all parties, and produced so great a number of petitions to the privy council, that Charles was obliged to suspend them. On the calling of the long parliament, the new canons were summarily disposed of, as subversive, both of the rights of parliament, and of the liberties and property of the subject, and the long gathering storm immediately burst over the head of the archbishop. The next day, articles presented against him by the Scottish commissioners were read in the house of lords, which when referred to the commons, a motion was put and carried, that

he had been guilty of high treason. The celebrated Denzil Holles was immediately sent to the house of lords, to impeach him in the name of all the commons of England, and he was delivered into the custody of the black rod. Feb. 26, 1641, 14 articles of impeachment were brought up from the commons, and he was committed to the Tower. Soon after his commitment, the house of commons ordered him, jointly with those who had passed sentence against Prynne, Bastwick and Burton, to make them satisfaction for the damages which they had sustained by their sentence and imprisonment. He was also fined £20,000 for his proceedings in the imposition of the canons, and was otherwise treated with extreme severity. He remained in prison three years before he was brought to trial, which at length, on the production of 10 additional articles, took place March 12, 1643–44, and lasted 20 days. Many of the charges against him were insignificant and poorly supported; but it appeared that he was guilty of many arbitrary, illegal and cruel actions, His own defence was acute and able; and his argument-that he could not be justly made responsible for the actions of the whole council-if not absolutely a_legal, was a strong moral defence. The lords were still more staggered by his counsel showing that, if even guilty of these acts, they amounted not to high treason. A case was made for the judges, who very much questioned if they were so, and the peers deferred giving judgment. On this delay, the house of commons passed a bill of attainder, Jan. 4, 1644-45, in a thin house, in which the archbishop was declared guilty of high treason, and condemned to suffer deathas unjustifiable a step, in a constitutional point of view, as any of which he was accused. To stop this attainder, he produced the king's pardon, under the great seal; but it was overruled by both houses, and all he could obtain by petitioning, was to have his sentence altered from hanging to beheading. He accordingly met his death with great firmness, Jan. 10, 1644-45, on a scaffold erected on Towerhill, in the 72d year of his age. His warmest admirers admit his extreme rashness, and little is left which can be fairly pleaded for his severity and violence, except the probability that he acted on principles which he deemed correct. Much praise has been bestowed upon his piety, but his diary shows it to have been mingled with much puerility and superstition; his dreams being regularly recorded, as

well as the hopes and fears which they excited. Speaking of his learning and morals, Hume observes, "that he was virtuous, if severity of manners alone, and abstinence from pleasure, could deserve that name. He was learned, if polemical knowledge could entitle him to that praise." Among his works are sermons; Annotations upon the Life and Death of King James; his Diary, edited by Whar ton; the Second Volume of the Remains of Archbishop Laud, written by himself; Officium Quotidianum, or a Manual of private Devotion; and a Summary of Devotion.

LAUDER, William, a literary impostor, who attempted to prove Milton a plagiary, was a native of Scotland. In 1747, he published, in the Gentleman's Magazine, an Essay on Milton's Use and Imitation of the Moderns, the object of which was to prove that Milton had made free with the works of certain Latin poets of modern date, in the composition of his Paradise Lost. Mr. Douglas, afterwards bishop of Salisbury, in a letter, entitled Milton vindicated from the Charge of Plagiarism, showed that the passages which had been cited by Lauder, from Massenius, Staphorstius, Taubmannus, and others, had been interpolated by Lauder himself, from Hogg's Latin translation of the Paradise Lost. He subsequently acknowledged his fault, assigning the motives which prompted it. (See Nichol's Literary Anecdotes.)

LAUDERDALE, James Maitland, earl of, was born in 1759, studied in Glasgow, was, by family interest (being then lord Maitland), brought into parliament for the Scotch boroughs of Lauder, Jedburg, &c., and immediately joined the opposition, with whom he acted till the death of his father, in 1789. On succeeding to the title of Lauderdale, he was chosen one of the 16 peers of Scotland. He opposed the Russian armament, condemned the measures taken against Tippoo Saib, and, when the revolution in France broke out, hailed it as a most fortunate event. He was a witness of the dreadful massacres which took place in September, 1792, and allied himself with the Brissotines, or moderate republicans. With Brissot, their leader, he contracted a warm friendship. On his return, he opposed the war with France, and the other measures of the Pitt administration. Having lost his seat as one of the 16 peers of Scotland, he attempted to get into the house of commons by a surrender of his peerage, which he thought was allowable by the Scottish law, that, by that means, he might become a

commoner, and be returned to the house of commons. He became a citizen of London, and was made free of the needlemakers' company; but, standing for sheriff, he did not meet with support from the livery, and he then contented himself with writing his sentiments and publishing them. He published several pamphlets on finance, India affairs, and paper currency, among the principal of which is an Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of public Wealth (1804), which has reached three editions. When the Whigs came into administration, in 1806, lord Lauderdale was created a baron of Great Britain, and received a seat in the privy, council, and the custody of the great seal of Scotland. When his friends went out of office, he retired with them. His lordship then attached himself to the interests of the princess Charlotte of Wales. Lord Lauderdale is a man of talents, and of intrepid character, but of great impetuosity of temper.

LAUDON. (See Loudon.)

LAUENBURG, or. SAXE-LAUENburg; a Danish duchy, belonging to the German confederacy. It formerly belonged to Hanover, passed with that country, in 1803, under French government, was restored, in 1813, to its former state; in 1816, was ceded to Prussia. The Prussian government afterwards gave it up to Denmark. (See Kiel, Peace of.) It contains, at present, 400 square miles, with 32,000 inhabitants, is situated on the right bank of the Elbe, and is surrounded by the territories of Hamburg, Lübeck, Hanover, Mecklenburg and Holstein. Grazing and tillage, together with the transit trade, are the sources of its wealth. It exports much wood for fuel and building. The toll on the Elbe, paid in the city of Lauenburg, is said to amount to 50,000 Danish dollars annually. According to the constitution, confirmed by the king, 22 landholders and the three cities have each one vote in the diet. The free peasants in 111 villages are not represented Ratzeburg, the capital, is situated in a lake.

sure to the air (even a very short time), it be comes opaque, tender, and eventually falls into a white powder; specific gravity, 2.2. Before the blow-pipe, it intumesces, and fuses with difficulty into a colorless glass. It is composed of silex 48.50, alumine 22.70, lime 12.10, and water 16.00. It was first noticed in the lead-mines of Huelgoet, lining the cavities of veins. It has since been found in trap in Ireland and Faroe, Transylvania, Nova Scotia, and in the U. States, near New Haven, Connecticut.

LAUNCH. (See Boat.)
LAUNCHING. (See Ship.)

LAURA Petrarch's mistress. It was long erroneously supposed that this lady, who has been celebrated in the sweetest strains of poetry, was only an allegorical person, or a descendant of the houses of Chabaud and Sade, who remained single, and lived at. Vaucluse, where the poet had an opportunity of becoming acquainted with her. According to the investigations of the abbé Sade, Mémoires pour la Vie de François Pétrarque (Amsterdam, 1764-67, 3 vols., 4to.); of Tiraboschi, in his History of Italian Literature; G. Baldelli, Del Petrarca (Florence, 1797, 4to.); of the abbé Arnavon, Pétrarque à Vau cluse, and Retour de la Fontaine de Vaucluse (Paris, 1803, and Avignon, 1805); of Guerin, Description de la Fontaine de l'auchuse (Avignon, 1804, 12mo.); and, lastly, of Ginguené, in his Histoire littéraire d'Italie (2d vol.), Laura was descended from the old Provençal family of Noves, which has now been extinct 300 years, and was the daughter of the chevalier Audibert Noves, who lived in Avignon. She was born at the village of Noves, or in Avignon, in 1307 or 1308, and, after the death of her father, who left her, his oldest daughter, a large fortune, she mar ried (1325) the young Hugh de Sade, of a distinguished family in Avignon. Laura was one of the most beautiful women of the city, which, being at that time the residence of the pope, attracted many stran gers. Among them was the young Petrarch (q. v.), whose ancestors had been banished from Tuscany, during the quarrels of the Guelphs and Ghibelines. It was on the 6th of April, 1327, on Monday of the passion-week, at 6 o'clock in the morning, that Petrarch, then 23 years old, first saw, as he himself says, the beautiful Laura, in the church of the nuns of St. Clara; and, from that moment, he was seized with a passion as violent as it was lasting. His vain efforts to lead her from the path of duty, and his ineffectual at

tempts to conquer a hopeless passion, plainly show that his love was by no means Platonic. He acknowledges, however, that he never received the smallest favor from her, and bestows the highest praise on her virtue. Laura certainly felt flattered by the devotion of the young poet, and was polite and kind towards him, as long as she saw nothing in his attentions to alarm her; but treated him with severity whenever he endeavored to express the warmth of his passion. For more than 20 years, Petrarch sang the object of his love, and endeavored to excite a reciprocal passion, or to conquer his own. During this long period, by alter nate severity and kindness, Laura succeeded in retaining him a captive to her charms, without ever suffering the least stain on her honor. She never saw the poet in her own house, because the manners of the time, as well as the jealousy of her husband, forbade it. After her marriage, she always lived at Avignon, in the house of her father-in-law, situated on the Rhone, below the papal palace; and it was from the summit of the rock, on which the palace was built, that Petrarch delighted to gaze on her, as she walked in her garden. In the same year (1334), that Petrarch went to Vaucluse, to recover his peace of mind in this lovely solitude, Laura was attacked by an epidemic disease, which made great ravages; but she recovered, and was dearer than ever to the poet. In 1339, the painter Simon of Sienna, who had been called to Avignon to adorn the papal palace, painted Laura's picture, and gave it to the poet, who repaid him with two sonnets. Whether Laura consented to have her portrait taken for Petrarch, or whether he only obtained a copy, or whether the image of the beautiful lady was so deeply stamped on the mind of the painter, that he could afterwards paint her from recollection, cannot now be ascertained; but it is certain, that he afterwards introduced Laura into several pictures, as, for instance, those on the ceiling of the cathedral at Avignon. When Petrarch returned to Avignon, after having been crowned with laurel at the capitol, Laura, whether flattered by his fame, or touched by the constancy of a lover whom long absence had rendered more dear to her, received him kindly. Petrarch saw her more frequently, and his visits to Vaucluse became less frequent and long. His poems, which were spread over all Europe, made the beauty of his mistress very celebrated, and all strangers, who came to Avignon, wished to see Laura. 38

VOL. VII.

Charles of Luxemburg, afterwards the emperor Charles IV, saw her at a ball which was given him, and, beckoning to the other ladies to make way, he approached her, and kissed her on the forehead and eyes. But the repeated fatigues of maternity, and the domestic trouble which she suffered from the ill humor of her husband, and the bad conduct of her eldest daughter, made at length such a change in her appearance, that those who saw her for the first time were disappointed. A pestilence which arose in the East, and spread desolation over Europe for three years, at length reached Avignon, in 1348, and, on the 6th April, at 6 o'clock in the morning, the hour which Petrarch has designated, in his mournful recollections, as that of the birth of his love, Laura fell a victim to this disease, and was buried on the same day, in the church of the convent of the Minorites. In 1533, some antiquaries obtained permission to open Laura's grave. They found a parchment enclosed in a leaden box, on which was written a sonnet, bearing Petrarch's signature. It was not, however, written in the spirit of that celebrated poet, but appeared to be the work of a friend. They also found a medal, bearing a female figure, with the inscription M. L. M. J. (perhaps, Madonna Laura Morta Jace). Francis I, who visited Avignon the same year, sought out Laura's grave, wrote an epitaph on her, and ordered a monument to be erected to her; but it was never done. The box and the medal were purchased (1730), of the under sacristan, by some Englishmen; but the sonnet was lost, when the castle, belonging to the family of Sade, was destroyed, in 1791. The tomb itself was overturned, together with the church, during the revolution. The prefect of Vaucluse (1804) caused the tomb-stone, which had been given to the family of Sade, to be placed in the old cathedral of Avignon. The abbé Costaing has endeavored to prove, without any sufficient grounds, that Petrarch's Laura was descended from the family of Baux, and was the daughter of Adhemar de Baux. (See his La Muse de Pétrarque dans les Collines de Vaucluse, Paris and Avignon, 1819.) (See the article Petrarch.)

LAUREL (laurus); a genus of plants consisting of trees or shrubs, mostly aromatic, and often remarkable for the beauty of their foliage. The leaves are simple, generally alternate, and the flowers small and inconspicuous. It is one of the few genera belonging to the Linnæan class