LAKE, VISCOUNT. 



LALANDE, JOSEPH-JEROME. 



771 



his touch light and firm ; his draperies too are well cast, broad, 

 simple, and in natural folds. When he introduces architecture iuto 

 hie backgrounds it seems to have been designed after Greek or Roman 

 models. He also acquired considerable reputation by his etchings. 

 H had the misfortune to become blind several years before his death, 

 but iu this state he was surrounded by artists and lovers of painting, 

 to whom he was fond of communicating instruction. The celebrated 

 treatise on the art of painting which goes by his name was not 

 actually written by him, but compiled from his observations during 

 his blindne.-s, and published by a society of artists after his death, 

 which happened in the year 1711, iu the seventy-first year of hU age. 



LAKE, GERARD, FIRST VISCOUNT LAKE, the second son of an ancient 

 family, was born on the 27th of July 1744. Having entered the army 

 at the early age of fourteen, he made his first campaigns in the Seven 

 Years' War. He served afterwards in the American War, in Holland 

 with the Duke of York in 1793, and having attained with credit to 

 the rank of general, was appointed to the chief command in Ireland 

 during the rebellion of 1797-98. 



In 1800 he was sent as commander-in-chief to India, during the 

 Marquis of Wellesley's government. On the breaking out of war with 

 Scindiah in 1803, General Wellesley being charged with the conduct 

 of affairs in the Deccan, Lake himself took the field in the north of 

 Hindustan. On the 28th of August he crossed the north-western 

 frontier of Oude into the Mogul territory, and after taking by storm 

 the strong fort of Alighur, arrived within six miles of Delhi on the 

 llth of September. The Mabrattas, in superior force, offered battle 

 in defence of the city, and Lake led his troops at once to the attack. 

 The enemy's position was strong, and a repulse seemed likely to ensue, 

 when Lake, by a well-conducted feiut of retreat, lured the Mahr.ittas 

 from their intieuchments, and then resuming the offen-ive won the 

 day by a brilliant and deei.-ive charje. He catered Delhi the next day, 

 and the Mogul emperor, Shah Allum, the nominal sovereign of India, 

 old and blind, who had been but a puppet in the hands of the Mali- 

 rattas, gladly passed into the mure decent and secure guardianship of 

 the British government. Lake next marched upon Agra, which was 

 taken after a stout resistance. A fresh descent of the Mahrattas 

 recalled him towards Delhi; and on the 1st of November he won 

 another well-fought but decisive battle near the village of Loswaree. 

 By this series of successes the whole of Scindiah's possessions north 

 of the Chumbul River fell into his Lands, and iu reward General Lake 

 wag raised to the peerage (September 1st, 1304), by the title of Baron 

 Lake of Delia and Laswaree, und Astou-Clinton iu Bucks. 



In 1804-6 Lord Lake again took the field in the same part of India 

 against Holkar. In these campaigns he was lens uniformly and 

 brilliantly successful : still he had reduced Holkar's power to a low 

 state when the arrival of the Marquis Cornwall!* as governor-general 

 substituted a peaceful policy for that system of conquest which Lord 

 WellesUy had so energetically pursued. Lord Lake returned to 

 England in September 1807, and was immediately created a viscount 

 (October 31st). He died on th 20th of February 1808. 



LALANDE, JuSEl'H -JEROME LE VEAHCAIS DE, was born 

 at Bourg, in the department of Ain, on the llth of Julj 1732. His 

 parent* were Pierre lo Francais and Marie Moncbinet, of whom he 

 wa* the only son. By their inordinate indulgence and extreme solici- 

 tude in anticipating all his wishes, he soon contracted habits of 

 impatience and an irritability of temper, which iu after years he 

 frequently found himself unable to control. Surrounded by Jesuits, 

 and nurtured by his mother in the strict observance of devotional 

 ceremonies, we are told that at the age of ten years it was not unusual 

 for him, being disguised as a priest, to deliver a sermon of his own 

 composition, to a select society, who requested as a favour to be 

 present at the declamations of so precocious an orator. As his 

 reason however began to be developed, he gradually detached hiinsell 

 from those occupations, notwithstanding the applause which his 

 auditors were ever ready to bestow, and he as eager to receive ; for 

 while yet a child he evinced an unusual love of adulation. Many 

 anecdotes are told in proof of the early acuteness of hia perception 

 and the strong desire which he manifested to comprehend the relation 

 which one event bore to another. 



When about thirteen or fourteen years old he was sent to a college 

 at Lyon, where for a time he appears to have derived equal pleasure 

 from the study of poetry and eloquence, and from attending the 

 l*eture of the several professors on natural and metaphysical philo- 

 sophy. Upon the occurrence of the great eclipse of 174ti, of which 

 with the assistance of his tutor, Le Pure Beraud, he made a telescopic 

 observation, he took great interest iu the explanation given to him ot 

 that phenomenon, and thunc -forward showed a more decided partiality 

 for the mathematical sciences. But it was the perusal of Foutenelle's 

 Kutretiens sur la 1'iuralite des Monies,' wl.ich, more than any other 

 circumstance, influenced I. is choice of a profession by familiarising 

 him with the sublime speculation* of astronomers, and uouri.iliiiiL, 

 that love of distinction which charact rUed the whole of his career 

 "It ii with pleasure," lays Lxlautle himself, in hia preface to an 

 edition of that amusing book, which he afterwards edited, " that I 

 acknowledge my obligation to it for that devouring activity which its 

 perusal first excited at the age of sixteen, and which I have since 

 retained ; from that time there appeared to me nothing comparable to 

 the Acidemy of Sciences, and I desired ardently to see it long before 



imagined there was a possibility of my ever becoming one of its 



members." In order that he might devote himself more exclusively 



o the pursuit of the mathematics, he requested permission of his 



jarents to become a Jesuit; but they now entertained views of a 



nore ambitious and worldly nature, and, instead of yielding to his 



equest, held out the prospect of obtaining for him a lucrative 



appointment in the law, if he would consent to adopt that pro- 



ession. 



Under the pretext of acceding to their wishes ho removed to Paris, 

 where he commenced the study of jurisprudence; but his first visit to 

 ihe observatory decided his vocation, for he immediately determined 

 ipon attending the course of astronomy at the College of France. 

 )elille, who had recently returned from Russia, was then professor of 

 stronomy to that institution ; but he was old, and his long absence 

 iad occasioned him to be almost forgotten by the public, so that hii 

 ectures were very thinly attended. This latter circumstance enabled 

 lim to proportion his lessons to the progress of Lalande, whose rapid 

 advances gave him the greatest satisfaction. They soon became 

 mutually attached to each other, and Lalande was iu the habit of 

 "requenting the house of his tutor, where his mathematical difficulties 

 could be more readily removed, and where he could gain experience in 

 astronomical observation. About the same time he likewise attended 

 the lectures of Lemounier, whose reputation as an astronomer was 

 lerhaps greater than that of Delille; and as both were fully competent 

 a appreciate the ability of Lalaude, there arose between these pro- 

 easors a sort of emulation as to which should contribute most to h;s 

 'uture eminent e. But notwithstanding the ardour with which 

 Lalande applied himself to his favourite science, the study of the 

 ~.aw was not altogether neglected. At the age of eighteen he receive. 1 

 'rom the judicial authorities of Paris the title of Advocate, soon after 

 which he received instructions from his parents to return to Bourg, 

 where they were anxious that he should practise his profession for 

 some yeirs. A fortuitous circumstance induced them to abandon the 

 lans which they had formed for the promotion of his welfare and 

 Happiness. 



Lacaille, who was at that time about to take his departure for the 

 Cape of Good Hope, with a view to the more exact determination of 

 the moon's parallax, had called upon the astronomers of Europe to 

 Forward the object of his voyage by making observations at their 

 respective observatories, similar to those which he contemplated 

 making himself at the Cape. The favourable position of Berlin, which 

 lias nearly the same longitude, while it differs in latitude by nearly 

 the fourth part of the earth's entire circumference, suggested to 

 Lemonnier the peculiar advantages which would accrue from obser- 

 vations made at the observatory of that city. But it so happened 

 that there were no instruments of any value at that observatory, and 

 no person of ability had been appointed to its superintendauce. 

 Lemonnier instantly offered the use of his own instruments, and at 

 his recommendation the academy confided to Lalaude the respon- 

 sibility of making the necessary observations. When Maupertuix 

 presented Lalaude to Frederick, the latter, as might bo expected, 

 expressed his surprise at receiving so young an astronomer for 

 Lalande had not then completed his nineteenth year, but after many 

 flattering expressions he gave orders that everything should be done 

 which could tend to the attainment of the object in view. Here, 

 during the latter part of the year 1751, and tlu early part of 1752, 

 Lalande passed most of his nights in the observatory ; his mornings, 

 in studying the mathematics under Euler; and his evenings, iu the 

 society of Maupertuis, Voltaire, D'Argens, aud La llatria. After 

 completing his observations, the substance of which he communicated 

 in a memoir to the Academy of Berlin, he returned to Paris, where 

 the Royal Academy expressed their unqualified approbation of his 

 conduct, aud immediately elected him a member of their society. 

 From his election till within a few years of bis death, he contributed 

 regularly to the Transactions of the Academy, and from this time hia 

 popularity as an astronomer may be dated. 



The expected return of Halley's comet had led Clairaut to investi- 

 gate the amount of the perturbations to which it would be subject. 

 Lalaude, with the assistance of Madame Lepaute, supplied him with 

 all the numerical computations of which he had ne- j d ; and when the 

 appearance of the comet had realised their predictions, he wrote its 

 history, which appeared in 1759, appended to a translation of Halle}'* 

 planetary tables. In 1760 he was appointed editor of the 'Con- 

 naissances des Temps," in which he introduced many important altera- 

 tions, and gave to it the form which it has since retained. In 176"- 

 he succeeded Delille as professor of astronomy to the College of 

 France, and continued to discharge the duties of his office with zeal 

 and assiduity for more than forty years. From among his pupils he 

 was in the habit of selecting those who manifested peculiar attach- 

 ment to astronomical science, aud thesx be would invite to his tiouse, 

 where he perfected them iu the calculations necessary for applying 

 their theoretical knowledge to objects of utility. His residence was 

 in fact a school wherein many of his pupils not only received a 

 scientific education, but likewise board, lodging, and other necessaries, 

 and from whence they afterwards removed either to conduct some 

 observatory, to fill an astronomical lectureship, or as professors of 

 navigation and nautical astronomy ou board the vessels of the 

 government, 



