422 



LEOPOLD, PAUL F. E. 



LIBERIA. 



herents of Herbart, and the National party of 

 the Czechs, were opposed to him, and in 1865 

 succeeded in leaving him without any academ- 

 ic hearers. He now turned his. attention to 

 the public at large, and for two years delivered 

 popular lectures, which were very largely at- 

 tended. In 1868 the first Philosophical Con- 

 gress met in Prague, chiefly through his exer- 

 tions. A second Congress in 1869 was held 

 at Frankfort-on-the-Main. In 1871 he sub- 

 stituted for the Philosophical Congress the 

 General Educational Union (Allgemeiner Er- 

 ziehungsverein), by means of which he united 

 the two schools of Froebel and Krause. 



LEOPOLD, PAUL FKIEDRICH EMIL, Prince 

 of Lippe, was born September 1, 1821 ; died 

 December 8, 1875. He succeeded his father 

 as Prince of Lippe in 1851, and in 1852 married 

 Princess Elizabeth, daughter of Prince Albert 

 of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt. Having had some 

 trouble with the Diet, he restored in 1853 the 

 illiberal and unpopular Constitution of 1836. 

 The Diet complained to the Federal Diet, 

 but without success. The changes made by 

 Oheimb, the president of the cabinet, in church 

 and school matters, caused general dissatisfac- 

 tion throughout the country. When in 1863 

 the Emperor of Austria convoked the Diet of 

 Princes (Fiirstentag), Prince Leopold did not 

 attend. In 1866 he added his forces to those 

 of Prussia, and joined the North-German Con- 

 federation. As he died without issue, he was 

 succeeded by his brother, Prince Woldemar, 

 who married in 1858 Princess Sophia, daughter 

 of Margrave William of Baden. 



LESPES, NAPOLEON, a French author, born 

 at Bouchain, June 18, 1805 ; died April 23, 

 1875. From 1832 to 1840 he served in the 

 army. He then turned his attention to liter- 

 ature, and, under the nom de plume of Leo 

 Lepsel, he published a number of sensational 

 novels in the Audience. In 1862 he was one 

 of the founders of and principal contributors 

 to the Petit Journal, which he left in 1869 for 

 the Petit Moniteur. Among his best known 

 works are : " Histoires roses et noires " (1842), 

 "Histoire republicaine et' illustre de la RSvo- 

 lution de Fevrier, 1848 " (1848), " Paris dans 

 un Fauteuil " (1854), " Les VeillSesde la Saint- 

 Sylvestre" (1863), and " Promenades de Paris " 

 (1867). 



LEVY, MICHEL, a French publisher, born 

 December 20, 1821; died May 4, 1875. He 

 founded in 1836 the publishing-house of "Mi- 

 chel Levy Freres," taking his elder broth- 

 er Caiman as his partner. The house rose 

 rapidly, and at present occupies one of the 

 foremost places among European publishing- 

 houses. During their rapid rise, the brothers 

 paid particular attention to theatrical pieces, 

 and their " Bibliotheque dramatique " and 

 "Theatre contemporain illustre" are among 

 the finest collections of dramas and plays in 

 the world. They published the following pe- 

 riodicals : L* Entr'acte, since 1858, Journal 

 du Dimanche, L'Univers illustre, Le Journal 



du Jeudi, and Les Bons Romans. Their publi- 

 cations comprise the works of the leading 

 French authors of the present century in every 

 field of literature. The works of Guizot, Vic- 

 tor Hugo, Lamartine, Ernest Renan, Dumas, 

 father and son, Ge.orge Sand, Eugene Scribe, 

 Octave Feuillet, and many others, are among 

 those that have been published by this firm. 



LIBERIA, a republic of Western Africa. 

 The settlement of Liberia was founded in 1822 

 by liberated slaves from the United States, 

 under the auspices of the American Coloniza- 

 tion Society, and on July 26, 1847, was pro- 

 claimed a free and independent state. It was 

 first acknowledged by England, afterward by 

 France, Belgium, Prussia, Brazil, Denmark, 

 and Portugal, and in 1861 by the United States. 

 The Constitution of the republic is on the model 

 of that of the United States. The executive 

 power is vested in a President and Vice-Presi- 

 dent, the legislative in a Congress, consisting 

 of the Senate and the House of Representatives, 

 and the judicial in the Supreme Court. The 

 President in 1875 was J. J. Roberts, elected in 

 1874 for two years, and the Vice-President A. 

 W. Gardner. The cabinet consists of a Secr.e- 

 tary of State, J. E. Moore ; a Secretary of the 

 Treasury, H. W. Dennis ; and an Attorney-Gen- 

 eral, W. M. Davis. The Senate consists of eight 

 members, each county sending two. The House 

 of Representatives has thirteen members. The 

 Senate is presided over by the Vice-President ; 

 the Speaker of the House in 1875 was D. F. 

 Wilson. The Supreme Court consists of a Chief- 

 Justice and four Associate Judges. The Chief- 

 Justice in 1875 was O. L. Parsons, appointed 

 in 1868. The republic has concluded com- 

 mercial treaties with the United States, Great 

 Britain, Germany, France, Belgium, Denmark, 

 Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and Norway, 

 Portugal, Austro-Hungary, and Hayti. The 

 following countries were in 1875 represented 

 in Liberia by consuls and diplomatic agents: 

 United States, Germany, Hayti, and the Neth- 

 erlands. The area in 1875 was estimated at 

 9,500 square miles, and the population at 718,- 

 000, of which about 700,000 were uncivilized 

 negroes, while only about 18,000 were civilized. 

 Monrovia, the capital, has an estimated popula- 

 tion of 13,000. The finances in 1872 and 1873 

 were as follows : 



In August, 1871, the republic laid the foun- 

 dation of a public debt by contracting a loan 

 with England for $500,000 at 7 per cent, in- 



