LBBRUN, CHARLES. 



LEDYARD, JOHN. 



The rMorch*! of Colonel Leake into the ancient ttate of Greece, 

 iU geography and topography, u compared with the modern stale, 

 prosecuted during series of years, and embodied in hi. Travel*, 

 oompriM a maa* of information of the highest value, and must con- 

 tinue to form a basis for whatever yet remains to be done towards 

 completing our knowledge of the interesting subjects which have so 

 long occupied his attention. 



LERRUN (or LE lilt UN), CHARLES, an eminent French painter, 

 was born at Paris in 1619. Hi* father was an indifferent sculptor. 

 The son, manifesting an early talent for drawing, was placed under the 

 care of Simon Vouet. He however went to finish his studies at Rome, 

 where he spent six years, during which time he diligently applied him- 

 self, under the guidance of Pou&ain, to acquire a thorough knowledge 

 of the antique, and of the works of Raf&wlle and other great marten. 

 Lebrun had a comprehensive geniu*, improved by profound study of 

 history and of the manners of different nations. Few painters were 

 better acquainted with the influence of the passions on the counte- 

 nance, as U shown in his ' Traite sur la Physionomie,' and ' Sur le 

 Caractere des Passions ;' nor has he had many superiors in invention. 

 With a lively imagination he combined great facility of execution, 

 and he aimed at the greatest correctness, especially in the costume 

 and details. His colouring, particularly in the flesh, is indifferent, 

 retaining too much of the school of Vouet; hU light and shade are 

 often not happily distributed, and his foregrounds are generally defi- 

 cient in force. His great merit obtained him the favour of Louis XIV., 

 who appointed bim his principal painter, president of the newly-erected 

 Academy of Painting and Sculpture, and director of the Gobelin manu- 

 factory, conferred on him the order of St. Michael, and frequently 

 viiited his studio while he was engaged on the battles of Alexander, 

 the best known and most admired of all his works : the engravings 

 from these well-known works give a favourable idea of his abilities, 

 and of the elevated though too artificial style of his composition and 

 design. Lebrun died at Paris in 1690, at the age of seventy-one. 



LEDOUX, CLAUDE-NICOLAS, was born at Dormans, in the 

 department of the Marne, in 1736. He quitted the college of Beuuvais 

 at the age of fifteen, and went to Paris, where he at first gained his 

 livelihood by engraving ; but an irresistible inclination led him to the 

 study of architecture, with the principles of which he made himself 

 acquainted in Blondel's 'Coura.' HU prepossessing person and 

 engaging address procured for him opportunities of displaying his 

 talents, and he knew so well how to turn them to account that 

 Madame Dubarry appointed him her architect in 1771. It was for 

 her that he erected the elegant pavilion De Louveciennea, and the 

 Chateau de St. Vrin, near Arpajon. His high favour in that quarter 

 not only established his 'celebrity with the public, but immediately 

 procured for him numerous commissions, both in the capital and the 

 provinces. In Paris he built an hotel for Count d'Halleville ; in the 

 Rue Michel le Comte, that of the Prince de Montmorency ; and, 

 beside* several others, the Hotel Tbelusson, remarkable for the vast 

 bridge-like gateway towards the street. One of the best of his pro- 

 vincial buildings was the Chateau de Benonville, near Caen. But it 

 was the Barrieres of Paris that afforded him an opportunity of aban- 

 doning himself to his fancy; and considering the period of their 

 erection, they certainly display considerable originality, though much 

 of that is questionable in taste ; and they have for the most part the 

 appearance of being merely first ideas and sketches, carried at once 

 into execution without having been revised and matured. The game 

 remark applies to the large folio volume he published, consisting of a 

 treatise on architecture, illustrated by designs, which, though they 

 display much originality, are not a little extravagant. He died of a 

 paralytic attack, on the 19th of November 1806, at the age of seventy. 



LEDKU-ROLL1N, PHILIPPE, Minister de I'lntcVieur during the 

 Lomartine government of France in 1848, was born at Mans in 1807, 

 or, according to other accounts, at Paris in 1808. His family name 

 was Ledru ; that of Rolliu was added after having been called to the 

 bar. Young Ledru had the advantage of a sound education, after 

 which he studied for the law, was received as an advocate in 1632, 

 just before the riots of that year, and in 1833 published a spirited 

 memorial, in which he condemned as illegal and unconstitutional the 

 state of siege in which Paris was then placed. Vehement in language 

 and rather imperious in tone, this first pamphlet placed him in the 

 front rank of the ultra-liberal party, to which be has ever since 

 adhered with undeviating consistency. He had inherited a consider- 

 able private fortune, which probably gave him as much weight with 

 his party as his patriotic sentiments and his unquestionable talents 

 u a pleader. 



In 1834 a serious insurrection burst out nearly at the same time in 

 the capital of France, at Lyon, and other chief cities. In Paris it was 

 attended with much daughter, chiefly in the Rue Transnonain. 

 Ledru-Rollin made this event the subject of a new pamphlet, which 

 was written in that style of declamation and apostrophe so well calcu- 

 lated among an easily excited people to extend the popularity of 

 public men. Shortly afterwards be married an Irish lady, who is 

 supposed to have brought him a considerable fortune. During a 

 course of sixteen yean' practice (1832 to 1848) few advocates were so 

 often retained at the French bar to defend political prisoners. In the 

 'affaire (juenesset* (September 13th, 1841), having been retained as 

 counsel by M. Dupaty, editor of the 'Journal du Peuple,' accused as 



an abettor in the abortive attempt at insurrection, his long and ani- 

 mated appeal was much admired. If. Gamier-Page*, the elder, one of 

 the mobt popular deputies, having died (June 23rd, 1841), the name 

 of Ledru-Rollin occurred to the majority of the constituency as his 

 successor : be was elected shortly after, and took his seat among the 

 member* of the extreme left. In the Chamber of Deputies he became 

 the constant advocate of the extension of the franchise the whole 

 number of voters for parliamentary representation in Franco scarcely 

 amounting to a quarter of a million in a population of 33,000,000. 

 Independent of his orations in the Chamber, and of his attendance 

 and pleadings in the law court*, ho contributed many articles to the 

 ' KcTonnc ' newspaper, and to the 'Journal du Palais,' both of which 

 partly belonged to him. 



During the year 1847, the agitation for electoral reform increased 

 every month ; a great change was felt to be approaching, and Ledru- 

 Rollin was aeen everywhere as one of the principal agitators. In the 

 summer and autumn of that year a series of political dinners were 

 given, under the name of Banquets, in the Urge towns, all of which 

 he attended, and over many of which he presided. At the famou* 

 Banquet de Lille, when many of the leaders of his party shrank from 

 the danger, he took the chair, and denounced with the most bitter 

 invectives the conduct of Guizot and his government It was on this 

 occasion that the king's health was omitted among the toasts of 

 the day. 



The revolution of February 1848 brought Ledru-Rollin into his 

 most prominent position. On the 24th of that mouth he took a 

 leading part in the movement, indignantly repudiated the proposal of 

 a regency, and then suggested and carried the motion of an appeal to 

 the people. When the Chambre des Depute 1 * was invaded by the 

 multitude, only his voice and that of Lamartine were listened to. lie 

 afterwards led the way to the Hotel-de-VUle, assisted to construct the 

 Provisional Govermeut, and received the portfolio of Minister of the 

 Interior, with a commission to republicanise France. It was then he 

 began to organise his corps of itinerant commissioners, who overran 

 the departments, and filled the republic with dismay. Assuming the 

 position of Donton, and really possessing some of the powers of that 

 great agitator, he let loose a second time upon the people of France 

 all the wildest theories of 1789. Finally, as a natural consequence of 

 so much excitement, came the sanguinary insurrection of June, which 

 was suppressed by Cavaignac, but not before it had dissolved the 

 government of Lamartine, after an unquiet rule of four months. 

 Ledru-Rollin immediately took his place in the ranks of the Socialists 

 and Communists ; and, supported by these sects, he was elected by 

 several departments as their representative to the Legislative Assembly. 

 He was one of the candidates for the presidency ; and on the 10th of 

 December 1848 he obtained 371,431 votes, whilst Louis-Napoleon 

 Bonaparte numbered 5,534,520, Cavaignac 1,448,302, and Lamartine 

 17,914 only. During the month of May 1849 his invectives against 

 the government of Louis-Napoleon became so frequent and so bitter 

 that most men expected a new movement On the 13th of June 1849 

 an attempt was made to provoke the people of Paris to an insurrection, 

 and Ledru-Rollin, in order to escape being apprehended, fled, and 

 sought refuge in England. He has since resided in this country. 

 In 1850 he published his 'Decline of England,' a work containing 

 severe censures upon that country, not dictated by a candid spirit or 

 grateful feelings. 



LEDYAKD, JOHN, a remarkable person in the history of geo- 

 graphical discovery, was born at Groton in Connecticut, and educated 

 at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire. Having lost his father, and 

 being apparently friendless, he had not the means, if he had the 

 wish, to follow up his studies. Some years he spent among tho 

 Indians, a good school of preparation for his future toils. Ho worked 

 his passage from New York to London in 1771 as a common sailor; 

 and in 1776 sailed with Captain Cook, on his third voyage, in quality 

 of corporal of marines, and was with him when he was murdered ; and 

 some years later wrote an interesting account of this voyage. Whilo 

 thus engaged he conceived the bold scheme of traversing the unknown 

 regions of America, from the neighbourhood of Nootka Sound to the 

 eastern coast; and so earnest was he, that being frustrated in his 

 design of reaching the western shore of America by sea, he set out 

 from England towards the end of 178(3, with ten guineas in his 

 pocket, hoping to reach Kamtchatkn, and thence effect a passage to 

 America. According to Tucker's ' Life of Jefferson,' this scheme was 

 suggested to Lodyard by Mr. Jefferson, then tho American miuisti r 

 at Paris, who assisted him with money. He traversed Denmark and 

 Sweden, passed round the head of the Uulf of Bothnia, after an 

 unsuccessful attempt to cross it on the ico, and reached St. Peters- 

 burg in March 1787, without money, shoes, or stockings, having gone 

 this immense distance on foot in an arctic winter. At St. Petersburg 

 he obtained notice, money to the amount of twenty guineas, and 

 permission to accompany a convoy of stores to Yakutsk in Siberia. 

 But for some unexplained reason he wa* arrested there in January 

 1788, by the order of the Empress Catharine, while waiting for tho 

 pring, and conveyed to the frontier of Poland, with a hint that he 

 would be hanged if he re-entered Russia. He found his way back to 

 England, after suffering great hardship. Still bis adventurous spirit 

 was unbroken ; and, almost without resting, he eagerly closed with 

 the proposal of the Association for promoting the discovery of the 



