444 KNOWLTON, MILES J. 



LEDEU-EOLLIN, ALEXANDEE A. 



aspirations for a better life. For four or five 

 years past his health had failed, and he had 

 resided on his farm near Kockford, 111. Some 

 of his sermons have been published, and are 

 admirable specimens of earnest appeals and 

 inexorable logic. 



KNOWLTON, Eev. MILES JUSTIN, D. D., a 

 Baptist clergyman, missionary, Orientalist, and 

 author, born in West Wardsboro', Vt., Februa- 

 ry, 8, 1825, died in Ningpo, China, September 

 10, 1874. He was educated in Madison Univer- 

 sity and Hamilton Theological Seminary, N. Y., 

 graduating from the latter in 1853, and having 

 been ordained in his native town in October, 

 sailed as a missionary with his wife, for Ningpo, 

 China, December 10, 1853. He entered upon 

 his work with great zeal, acquired the difficult 

 language in a very short time, and so thor- 

 oughly mastered its literature and philosophy, 

 that some time before his death an eminent 

 native Chinese scholar said to Bishop Eussell, 

 " Teacher Knowlton is regarded by us all as 

 the Confucius of the West." With all his 

 cares, preaching several times a week, trans- 

 lating books and tracts, managing the mission 



church, and teaching a theological class, it is 

 not surprising that his health gave way ; in 

 1862 he was obliged to return to the United 

 States for rest and restoration. In about 

 eighteen months he returned to his work with 

 a constitution still vigorous and capable of 

 great endurance, but in addition to his other 

 duties he undertook the preparation of a work 

 on China which he believed to be needed, and 

 for the preparation of which he was eminently 

 qualified. This great labor was performed in 

 the rare intervals of leisure (much of it taken 

 from the hours which should have been de- 

 voted to rest) which his other engrossing duties 

 permitted, but it is a work of extensive and 

 profound research, and will remain as a stand- 

 ard authority on the customs, habits, manners, 

 religion, and literature of the Chinese. It was 

 published by the American Baptist Publication 

 Society. His excessive labors had weakened 

 his constitution so much that, when he had an 

 attack of dysentery, about September 1st, he 

 succumbed to it almost immediately. He re- 

 ceived the degree of D. D. from Madison Uni- 

 versity in 1871. 



L 



LAIED, JOHN, M. P., a English ship-builder 

 and Conservative member of Parliament for 

 Birkenhead, most widely known, both in Eu- 

 rope and America, as the builder of the Ala- 

 bama, and other Confederate privateers ; born 

 in Greenock, Scotland, in 1805 ; died in Birk- 

 enhead, after a long illness, October 29, 1874. 

 He was a son of the late William Laird, was 

 educated at the Eoyal Institution, Liverpool, 

 and in 1829, at the age of twenty-four, com- 

 menced the business of iron-stiip-building and 

 engineering, which in time grew into the great 

 house of John Laird, Sons & Co. He retired 

 from active participation in the business of this 

 house in October, 1861. He was for forty 

 years and more an active promoter of the 

 docks and all other public works and improve- 

 ments at Birkenhead ; was for many years 

 chairman of the Birkenhead Improvement 

 Commissioners, and one of the Government 

 Trustees of the Mersey Docks and Harbor 

 Board. He was a deputy-lieutenant and a ma- 

 gistrate for Cheshire, and was first elected to 

 Parliament in December, 1861. In politics he 

 was a Liberal Conservative, and was decidedly 

 opposed to the disestablishment of the Irish 

 Church, as leading to the disestablishment of the 

 English Church. He was, however, in favor of 

 great reforms in the former, and the extension 

 of its usefulness. He was also in favor of ex- 

 tending education among all classes, and of the 

 exercise of economy in the naval expenditures. 

 During 'our late civil war he made himself con- 

 spicuous in Parliament by his advocacy of the 

 Confederate cause, and his incessant attacks 

 on the United States Federal Government. 



His firm built the Alabama, the Florida, the 

 Shenandoah, and several other privateers, and 

 numerous blockade-runners for the Confeder- 

 ates, and, after the Geneva arbitration, when 

 it was found that $15,500,000 had been award- 

 ed to the United States for damages caused by 

 these privateers, Mr. Laird became exceedingly 

 unpopular in Great Britain. "His memory" 

 (said one of the London papers) " will be long 

 kept green in the budget, and he has an en- 

 during monument in the taxation of his coun- 

 trymen." 



LANMAN, Eear- Admiral JOSEPH, U. S. N., 

 a brave and highly-esteemed naval officer, forty- 

 nine years in the service; born in Norwich, 

 Conn., July 18, 1810 ; died in that city, March 

 13, 1874. He was appointed midshipman from 

 Connecticut, January 1, 1825 ; was commis- 

 sioned lieutenant in March, 1835 ; commander, 

 September, 1855 ; captain, 1861 ; commodore, 

 August 29, 1862 ; and rear-admiral in 1869. He 

 commanded the frigate Minnesota in the North- 

 Atlantic blockading squadron in 1864-'65, 

 was in command of the second division of Por- 

 ter's squadron at the two attacks on Fort Fisher, 

 and was admiral of the South-Atlantic Squad- 

 ron on the coast of Brazil, from 1869 to 1871, 

 and on his return in May, 1872, received leave 

 of absence, and, his health failing, retired to 

 Norwich, where he remained till his death. 

 His genial manners won for him the cordial 

 respect of all his associates and acquaintances. 



LEDEU - EOLLIN, ALEXANDBE AUGXJSTE, 

 originally only LEDETT, a French statesman, 

 cabinet minister, politician, and reformer, born 

 in Paris, February 2, 1807; died in that city, 



