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of America, and showed that this trade could not be- | du Dédroit de la Sonde et de la Rade de Batavia." come important until ships should go to the north-He has also published "Vocabularies of the Lanwest coast of America by passing out of the Baltic guages of Several Nations of Eastern Asia and the round Cape Horn or the Cape of Good Hope. But, North Coast of America;" Contributions to the if Russia would take part in the direct trade with Hydrography of the Great Oceans ;" and a" Recueil China and India, he saw that she must obtain sea- des Mémoires Hydrographiques pour servir d'Explimen acquainted with the Indian ocean. cation à l'Atlas de l'Océan Pacifique." Krusenstern's arrangement for securing the magnetic needle against the influence of cannon, and other iron substances, by enclosing the compass in metallic plates, was introduced by the Russians in 1825.

Krusenstern had collected the necessary information on this subject in the war of 1793, when he served in the English fleet. Count Woronzoff, the Russian ambassador at the English court, now procured for him an opportunity to go to India on KUH, EPHRAIM MOSES, was born in 1731 of board a British vessel bound to China. He remained Jewish parents, and showed early an uncommon at Canton during 1798 and 1799, and there acquired strength of memory, vivacity of mind, and a restless a knowledge of the advantages which would accrue desire of knowledge. His father, a rich trader, intendto the Russian possessions on the American coast ed at first to educate him in Jewish learning; and from the direct transportation of furs to this place. when the result by no means answered his expectaAs soon as Count Romanzoff, the minister, and tions, he desired to make him a merchant. He allowed Mordwinoff, the admiral, directed the mind of Alex-him to receive instruction in the French, Italian, and ander to Krusenstern's proposal, he took up the English languages, by which means he attained a subject, and entrusted this active seaman with the knowledge of modern literature and poetry. After his charge of making a closer examination of the north-father's death he went to Berlin as first clerk in the west coast of America, according to the instructions counting-house of his uncle. Here his talents gained drawn up by Count Von Romanzoff, then minister of him the friendship of Mendelssohn, Ramler, Lessing, commerce, afterwards chancellor of the empire. and other learned men, by intercourse with whom A secondary object was ultimately combined with his poetical talent began to be developed. He posthe same, namely, to renew the commercial con- sessed considerable property besides a good salary, nexions of Russia with Japan at Nangasacki, which, but his easy good-nature, which made him often the since Laxman's voyage to Japan, had been broken prey of the fraudulent, united with an extravagant up. Two ships were entrusted to him, the Nadeshda love of books, in a few years exhausted his means. and the Neva. He gave the command of the Neva He left Berlin, travelled through Holland, France, to Lieutenant-captain Lisanskoy. October 5, 1803, Italy, Switzerland, and Germany, and became, at he left the road of Falmouth; and, November 26, last, dependent on his family. These circumstances the Russian flag waved, for the first time, on the produced in him a fixed melancholy which at length other side of the equator. increased to insanity, from which he was restored only by the activity of a skilful physician. In his lucid intervals he produced the best of his poems. In 1785 he was deprived of strength and speech by apoplexy, in which state he died in 1790.

Krusenstern discovered the Orloff Islands, and gave much information respecting the New Marquesas, or Washington's Islands, especially Nookahiva and the Straits of Sangaar. He added particularly to the geography of Australia, of the coast of the islands of Japan and those in the Chinese sea. But the island lying east of Japan, which the Spaniards were said to have discovered in 1610, Krusenstern was as unsuccessful in finding as Bries and Lapeyrouse before him. On the other hand, he carefully examined the western coast of the island of Jedso, the straits of Lapeyrouse, and the coasts of the island of Saghalien. Krusenstern's desire to reestablish commercial connexions with Japan failed of being gratified, and the chamberlain, Von Resanoff, who had been appointed ambassador thither, was not received. The result of this voyage will become truly important, in a commercial view, if the proposed improvements in the management of the Russian colonies on the Aleutian Islands and the north-west coast, to the abuses in which Krusenstern's attention was directed, are carried into effect.

KUTUSOFF, GOLENISCHTSCHEFF KUTUSOFF, PRINCE SMOLENSKY, a celebrated Russian field-marshal, who was born in 1745, and entered the army in 1759. He stormed the fortress of Shumla, and at a later period contributed greatly to the subjugation of the rebel Pugatscheff. In 1788 he was present at the siege of Oczakow, having been appointed governor-general of the Crimea the year before. After the storming of Ismail under Suwaroff, he was advanced to the rank of lieutenant-general, and in the negotiations with Turkey, which took place shortly after, he gained the fame of an able diplomatist. In 1793 he was appointed ambassador at Constantinople, and in the subsequent Polish war we find him in the Russian army under Suwaroff. He was particularly conspicuous during the memorable day of Praga. After the restoration of peace, Kutusoff was first appointed commander-in-chief of Finland; Paul afterwards named him governor-general of Lithuania. He resided several years at Wilna, and endeavoured to retrieve by study the deficiencies of his early education. For a short time he filled the situation of ambassador to Berlin, but soon returned to Wilna to his governor-generalship. After this he was appointed chief of the corps of cadets, and in 1801 governor-general of St. Petersburg.

Krusenstern's official report concerning Captain Golownin's voyage for the examination of the Kurile Islands, contains the latest proofs of the odium which the Russians have brought upon themselves in Eastern Asia. Krusenstern's voyage, therefore, is interwoven, in more than one respect, with the history of the Russian empire. Of his literary labours, which have particularly enriched nautical geography, specimens are contained in the “Universal Geographical Ephe- In 1805, when he was at the age of sixty, the emmerides;" among others, the essay concerning Mal-peror Alexander gave him the chief command of the dona's supposed discovery of a north-west passage first Russian corps against the French. He led it in the year 1588, and his "Mémoire sur une Carte towards the Inn, but did not arrive there until after

KYAU, FREDERIC-LABARRE, JOHN.

the capitulation of Ulm, upon which he united him- that in it Pope gave to some of his best productions self with the small Austrian corps of General Kien- their form and finish.

LABAT, JEAN--LABORDE, ALEXANDER.

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tribunal sentenced the young man to have his tongue | publication of a part of his works, and where he died cut out, his right hand cut off, and to be burnt alive. on the 6th of January, 1738. His "Voyage aux Iles A decree of the parliament of Paris, of June 1776, de l'Amérique," of which several editions have appassed by a small majority, commuted the sentence into peared, and which has been translated into several decapitation before burning. This decree was executed languages, contains an account of the natural history, on the 1st of July. Labarre, hardly nineteen years old, particularly of some of the smaller and less frequented was carried to the place of execution in a cart, with the islands; of their productions; the origin, customs, words impious, blasphemer, sacrilegious, abominable, religion, and governments of the inhabitants, as well and execrable, written on his breast. Voltaire exerted as the chief political events which occurred during himself as zealously against this infamous act as he the author's residence there. He also published "A had against the execution of Calas. Under the name Description of the Countries on the Senegal, and of M. de Casen, advocate of the royal council, he between Cape Blanco and Sierra Leone," "Travels published "A Relation of the Death of the Chevalier in Spain and Italy," and a translation of Cavazzi's De Labarre." "A Dominican," he says, "was ap- work on Western Ethiopia. In addition to which pointed to attend him as confessor, a friend of his he edited several important works. aunt, the abbess, with whom he had often supped in the convent. This good man wept, and the chevalier comforted him. Dinner was brought to them, but the Dominican was unable to eat. 'Let us take a little food,' said the chevalier to him, 'you will need strength to support the spectacle which I am going to exhibit.' He ascended the scaffold with calmness, without complaints, without anger, and without ostentation, merely saying to the monk who assisted him, 'I did not think that a young nobleman could be put to death for such a trifle.'

LABE, LOUISA.-This lady is best known by the name of la belle cordière; she was born at Lyons in 1526 or 1527. Her father had her instructed in music, in several languages, and also in riding and military exercises. This excited in her a desire to enter the army, and in 1543 she served at the siege of Perpignan, under the assumed name of Captain Loys. The French being obliged to abandon the siege of Perpignan, Louisa renounced the military service, and devoted herself to literature and poetry. She married a rich rope-maker, Ennemond Perrin, by which means she acquired an opportunity to follow freely her bent for literature. With many agreeable accomplishments, she combined a knowledge of the Greek, Latin, Spanish, and Italian, and in consequence her house became the resort of men of learning, rank, and wit. She excited the admiration of the poets, but at the same time the envy of the ladies of Lyons. Some contemporary writers have praised her for her virtue, while others have accused her of licentiousness; but her generosity, her taste for learning, and her acquirements, so extraordinary for the times, effaced this stain in the eyes of most of her contemporaries. The tribute which contemporary authors pay her, and the circumstance that the street in Lyons where her house was situated was named after her, prove how much she was esteemed. Her principal works are, "Epistle to Clemence de Bourges," and "The Dispute between Love and Folly," a work full of interest and originality.

LABAT, JEAN BAPTISTE, a learned Dominican missionary and traveller, who was born at Paris in 1663, and took the vows at the age of nineteen. He afterwards taught mathematics and philosophy at Nancy, where, at the same time, he performed the duties of a preacher. In 1693 he returned to Paris, to the Dominican convent in the street St. Honoré, and on a letter arriving shortly after from the superior of the Dominicans in the French Antilles, in which this ecclesiastic urged his brethren in Europe to come to his aid, an infectious disease having carried off many of the members of the order, Labat determined to carry into execution the plan he had long entertained of becoming a missionary. As the superiors of the order expected great benefit from his services in France, it was with difficulty that he succeeded in carrying his intention into effect. He embarked, with several brethren of the order, at Rochelle in 1693, landed at Martinique in 1694, and immediately undertook the care of the parish of Macouba, LABORDE, ALEXANDER LOUIS JOSEPH, which he superintended for two years, after which COUNT DE, a celebrated traveller, who was born he was sent to Guadaloupe for the purpose of build-in 1774 at Paris, and entered the Austrian service, ing a mill on an estate belonging to the order. His mathematical knowledge recommended him to the governor there, whom he accompanied during a tour through the island, to assist him in selecting the points best adapted for works of defence. On his return to Martinique, Labat found his cure occupied by another, and he received the office of procureurgénéral of the mission, in which an opportunity was afforded him of displaying the whole extent of his useful activity at the same time that he served the government by his mathematical knowledge.

where, in consequence of a letter from his father to Joseph II., who entertained great esteem for his father, and had expressed the wish to see one of his sons in his service, he was appointed lieutenant in the regiment Wenzel-Colloredo, and was afterwards removed to the light-horse regiment Kinsky as captain. Laborde would willingly have served his country in the French revolutionary war, but his name was on the list of emigrants. At that time. while lying wounded at Heidelberg, he made the acquaintance of General Oudinot (who had been taken prisoner by the regiment Kinsky) and others of his countrymen. This strengthened him in his resolu tion. As soon as the peace of Campo-Formio was concluded, he left the Austrian service, and obtained the erasure of his name from the list of emigrants. On his return to France he devoted himself to science, made a journey to England, Holland, Italy, and Spain, and, on his return, published his splendid work, Voyage Pittoresque et Historique de l'Espagne;" his "Itinéraire de l'Espagne;" his "Description of

During several voyages in the service of the mission he visited all the Antilles, and, on the attack of Guadaloupe by the English in 1703, he rendered his countrymen important services as an engineer. In 1705 he was sent to Europe on business of the order, and, landing at Cadiz, he embraced the opportunity to survey, geometrically and scientifically, the environs and the whole coast of Andalusia as far as Gibraltar. He likewise went to Italy, and finally returned" to Paris in 1716, where he occupied himself with the

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LACEPEDE, BERNARD-LA CLOS, PIERRE.

the Collection of Greek Vases belonging to Count the provincial of his order when Louis, on the death Lamberg;" his "Voyage Pittoresque en Autriche;" of his former confessor, Father Ferrier, appointed and the commencement of his work on the monuments of France in chronological order.

He was elected a member of the institute, and Napoleon entrusted him with important business as counsellor of state. He likewise accompanied the emperor to Spain and Austria. In 1814 Laborde commanded a division of the national guard of Paris, and concluded, together with Tourton, in the name of Marshal Moncey, the capitulation with the Russians. After the restoration he made a second journey through England, and, on his return, published the first book in France on the system of mutual instruction.

Lachaise his successor. This appointment occasioned surprise, because, on the one hand, the disputes between the parties of Jansenists, Molinists, &c., divided the court of Louis XIV., already infected by the example of the king, with a sickly kind of devotion, as also the capital, which fluctuated, in imitation of the court, between licentiousness and bigotry; and, on the other hand, no Jesuit, since Father Cotton, had been chosen to this important situation. The new confessor was soon involved in a web of court intrigues. Mme. de Montespan and Mme. de Maintenon, who headed the Jansenists and Jesuits, stood opposed to each other, and Louis, moved by sensuality and superLACEPEDE, BERNARD GERMAIN ETI- stition, wavered like a reed between these parties. ENNE, COUNT DELAVILLE SUR ILLON DE. Nevertheless, Lachaise maintained his ground, al-This distinguished naturalist was born at Agen in though he was equally obnoxious to Mme. de Mon1756, and was from his youth passionately attached tespan and Mme. de Maintenon, who frequently to natural history and music; he consequently aban- expressed their dislike to him in bitter sarcasms. On doned the military profession, for which he was des- every occasion--at the celebrated declaration of the tined, and devoted himself to the study of natural French clergy respecting the liberties of the Gallican history. His teachers and friends, Buffon and Dau-church, at the revocation of the edict of Nantes, on benton, procured him the important situation of occasion of the disputes of the Quietists, at the markeeper of the collections belonging to the department riage of Mme. de Maintenon with the king in 1686, of natural history in the jardin des plantes. At the and similar important events of the time-Father Labreaking out of the revolution, he was elected a chaise, in consequence of his office, was more or less member of the legislative assembly, and belonged to forced to play a part; and, although he reflected well the moderate party. To withdraw from the storms on every step he took, he constantly received the of the period of terrorism, he resigned his situation, severest reproaches from both parties. The most inand retired to his country-seat at Leuville. He again telligent men, however, never judged unfavourably made his appearance under the directory, and was of his private character and his conduct; and St. appointed one of the first members of the institution. Simon, who was no friend to the Jesuits, as well as Napoleon made Lacépède a member of the conser- Voltaire, in his account of the age of Louis XIV., vative senate, and conferred on him the dignity of De Boza, Spon, and others, acknowledge that the grand chancellor of the legion of honour. Lacépède confessor of the vainest monarch, and the mediator became one of the most zealous adherents of the em- between the most exasperated parties, knew how to peror, and during the ten years of the imperial reign conduct himself under all circumstances with adfew public celebrations occurred at which he did not dress, coolness, and sagacity; and that, although a appear as an orator. His benevolence and his inat-zealous Jesuit, he never allowed himself to be drawn tention to his own affairs involved him in debt; Na- into violent measures against his opponents. poleon, therefore, gave him a salary of 40,000 francs. That Louis formally married Mme. Maintenon, After the first restoration Lacépède lost his situation Voltaire attributes principally to the counsels of Laof grand chancellor of the legion of honour, but was chaise; but that this marriage remained secret, and raised to the peerage by the king. During the hun- was not publicly acknowledged, according to the dred days the emperor appointed him grand master desire of that ambitious woman, may likewise be atof the university, but he declined this office and tributed to Lachaise, who, on this account, had condevoted himself solely to the sciences. In 1817 he stantly to endure her hatred. Lachaise, maintaining published a new edition of Buffon's works, and an- his ground in the favour of his monarch till his end, nounced, at the same time, that, at the desire of his and acting as his counsellor, even when age and deceased friend Lagrange, he intended to publish his weakness had almost converted him into a living "Theory on the Formation of Comets." He like- skeleton. He died in January, 1709, at the age of wise published a continuation of the work on the eighty-five. He left philosophical, theological, and "Cetacea," commenced by his great predecessors. archæological works. His taste for the study of His "History of Fishes" is considered his principal numismatics, and the great share which he had in work. The complete collection of his works, in which the improvement of this branch of science in France, are included two small novels, which appeared anony- are well known. Louis XIV. had a country-house mously, and the opera "Omphale," is voluminous. built for him at the end of the present Boulevard He died on the 6th of October, 1825, at his country-neufs, which at that time, owing to its situation on seat near St. Denis, of the small-pox.

LACHAISE, FRANCOIS D'AIX DE.-This talented member of the catholic church was born in the chateau d'Aix, in August 1624. The family D'Aix de Lachaise was one of the most respectable in France, and a grand uncle of François de Lachaise, Father Cotton, had been confessor of Henry IV. In the Jesuit college at Rohan, which had been founded by one of his ancestors, Lachaise commenced his course of studies, and finished it at Lyons. He was

a hill, received the name of Mont-Louis. Its extensive garden now forms the cemetry of Père Lachaise, the largest in Paris, and many splendid monuments now adorn the place where, formerly, the courtiers of Louis XIV. used to meet to pay their respects to the confessor of their absolute master.

LACLOS, PIERRE FRANCOIS CHODERLOS DE.—This well-known French writer was the author of the licentious romance "Les Liaisons Dangereuses," which first appeared in 1782. He was

tum in 1803.

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born at Amiens in 1741, and, before the revolution, coming subject, in consequence of a new law, to the was a French officer of artillery and secretary to the inspection of the censor of the press, was given up, duke of Orleans. Laclos was considered, when he and the "Minerve Française," which appeared irrewas young, as one of the most talented and agree- gularly, took its place. Lacretelle, in conjunction able, and, in a moral point of view, as one of the with Aignan, had the direction of this literary and most dangerous men. His enemies have maintained political journal. The "Minerve Française" obtained that he has drawn his own character in that of the so decided an influence upon public opinion, that viscount de Valmont in his romance. Others cele- this was also subjected, by a new ordinance, to the brate the simplicity, honesty, and good nature of his censorship, after eight volumes had been published, character, at least in the latter part of his life. He upon which it was immediately discontinued. Lawas one of the leaders of the Orleans faction as it cretelle, who was now a bookseller, hazarded a conwas called. Being implicated in the political affairs tinuation of it in the form of small pamphlets; but of the duke of Orleans, he followed him to London. he was subjected to a prosecution, in which he deAfter the return of the king from Varennes, Laclos fended himself with great energy and ability. He endeavoured, by means of the Jacobin club, to effect was condemned, however, to imprisonment; but the foundation of a republic, as he conceived that Louis XVIII. remitted the sentence on account of this step would lead eventually to the elevation of his age and infirmities, and the general esteem in the house of Orleans to the French throne. At the which he was held. From that time till his death, breaking out of the war Laclos was transferred as which took place in September 1824, Lacretelle eman assistant to the old Luckner, and after the fall of ployed himself upon a collection of his works. He the house of Orleans he disappeared from the stage. was the author of many logical, metaphysical, and It is difficult to explain how Robespierre came to ethical articles in the "Encyclopédie Méthodique." spare a man who was one of the firmest adherents of His scattered essays and treatises appeared in 1802, this proscribed house; and thus the report origi- under the title of "Euvres Diverses," in five volumes, nated, that Laclos prepared the speeches of the to which, in 1817, he subjoined "Fragmens Politribune of the people. He, however, returned to the tiques et Littéraires," and, in 1822, "Œuvres," and military profession, and was advanced to the office "Portraits et Tableaux," in two volumes. His theaof inspector-general of artillery. He died at Taren-trical romance, "Malherbe, ou le Fils Naturel," is an excellent dramatic poem. His "Soirées avec GuilLACRETELLE, the name of two brothers, well-laume Lamoignon de Malesherbes," and his "Etudes known as authors, but entirely opposed to each other sur la Révolution Française," are also highly esin principles.-Pierre Louis Lacretelle, the elder, or, teemed. as he was commonly called, Lacretelle ainé, was born in 1751 at Metz, where his father was an advocate. Animated by the masterly works of the advocategeneral Servan to the study of law, ethics, and literature, he went in 1778 to Paris, where he became parliamentary advocate, and, by his " Elogie de Montausier," which obtained the second prize in 1781, his "Mémoires du Comte de Saunois," a work new and unique in its kind, and the "Discours sur le Préjugé des Peines Infamantes," rendered himself worthy of a place in the institute, where he succeeded La Harpe, in conjunction with whom he edited the "Mercure," an occupation which he undertook anew in 1817 under very different circumstances, in conjunction with Jouy, Jay, Constant and others. Lacretelle embraced the principles of the revolution with the ardour of a noble mind, but without concurring in its excesses. In the legislative assembly in 1792 he was one of the leaders of the constitutional party, in opposition to the Girondists, who were in favour of republicanism. After the 10th of August Lacretelle devoted his attention wholly to literature. We find him again in public life in 1801, when he was a member of the legislative body of The historical lectures, which, as professor of hisNapoleon. Here he retained his independence in the tory, he delivered before the university of Paris, were midst of political revolutions. When the govern- among the most frequented in that city. As an hisment of Napoleon destroyed his hopes of the estab- torical writer he possessed a peculiarly brilliant diclishment of a liberty founded on the laws, he again tion, although his ideas want force and profundity. retired. His poverty, which he neither complained His "Histoire de France pendant les Guerres de Reof nor regretted, was honourable to him. The aris-ligion" is more highly esteemed than his "Histoire tocratical re-action which took place in France after de France pendant le dix-huitième Siècle." the second restoration, and was particularly memor- LACTANTIUS, LUCIUS CŒLIS FIRMIAable in the chamber of 1815, threw him into the op- NUS, a celebrated father of the Latin church, who position which the liberal party at that time began was distinguished as an orator and author. He lived to form, and in support of which they had under- for a long time at Nicomedia as a teacher of rhetoric, taken the direction of the "Mercure de France." until Constantine the Great committed to his care But this journal, which appeared on fixed days, be- the education of his eldest son, Crispus. He died.

Charles Lacretelle, the younger brother of Pierre Louis, went, when very young, to Paris at the breaking out of the revolution. He soon attracted attention by his logical acuteness, and the editorial department of the "Journal des Débats," which was established at that time, was committed to him in connexion with another individual by the name of Ducos. His second literary production was his "Précis de la Révolution," which was a continuation of the work of Rabaud St. Etienne. On the occasion of the opposition of the Parisian sections to the decree of the national convention retaining two thirds of their number in the new legislature, Charles Lacretelle composed, in the name of the sections, the caustic addresses to the convention, as well as to the electoral assemblies of France; but Bonaparte put an end to these commotions. Being, however, attached to the then existing opposition, and using his influence in its favour, he was arrested and retained prisoner for two years. In 1813 he received Esmenard's place in the national institute, and in 1816 the presidency of the French academy, or the third class of the institute.