LAFAYETTE LAGO MAGGIORE. 



347 



supporter of freedom and the rights of mankind, and, 

 at the same time, a friend of la wand order. Without 

 entering into judgment on his political doctrines, it 

 may safely be said, that history scarcely possesses a 

 name, which has passed through the ordeal of public 

 opinion, even in the darkest and most tempestuous 

 times, more pure and unsullied than his. Regnault- 

 Warin's Mcmoires sur le General Lafayette (Paris, 

 1824) contains many facts relative to his political 

 life in France. His secretary, M. Levasseur, pub- 

 lished an account of his tour in the United States 

 (Paris, 1825), which has been translated in America. 



LAFAYETTE, MARIA MAGDALENA, countess de; 

 a lady of literary celebrity, daughter of the governor 

 of Havre de Grace, Aymar de la Vergne. A care- 

 ful and classical education had given her a great love 

 for literature. In 1655, she married count Francis 

 de Lafayette, and her house now became a place of 

 meeting for the most distinguished men in her time. 

 The famous duke of Rochefoucauld was one of her 

 intimate friends. Among the learned men who sur- 

 rounded her, the most distinguished were Huet, Men- 

 age. Lafontaine and Segrais. She died 1693. Her 

 works entitle her to an honourable place among 

 French writers. The most distinguished of them are 

 Za'ide, La Princesse de Cleves, and La Princesse de 

 Montpensicr. 



LAFAYETTE MOUNTAIN. See Haystack. 



LAFFITTE, JACQUES, a banker in Paris, member 

 of the legion of honour, and, in 1816, elected to the 

 chamber of deputies, a man equally distinguished for 

 his talents, his wealth and his virtues, was born at 

 Bayonne, in 1767, and, by his own diligence and 

 merit, acquired a fortune in the banking-house of the 

 senator Perregaux. In 1805, he became the head of 

 the house, which he made one of the first houses in 

 France. In 1809, he was appointed director of the 

 bank of France, and, in 1814, president of the same 

 establishment. He discharged the duties of this 

 important office without accepting the large salary 

 connected with it. In 1809, he was made president 

 of the chamber of commerce in Paris, and, in 1813, 

 judge of the tribunal of commerce. When the credit 

 of France, in 1815, was at a very dangerous crisis, 

 Laffitte advanced 2,000,000, in ready money, by 

 which means a necessary article in the capitulation of 

 Paris was settled. It was owing to his counsels, that 

 France was enabled to support the burden of the 

 military contributions imposed on her, without injury 

 to the credit of the state. But when Laffitte joined 

 the left side in the chamber of deputies, and opposed 

 the encroachments of the infatuated absolutists, the 

 laws of exception and the clergy, he became an object 

 of hatred to the ultras, and of suspicion to the minis- 

 try. In 1819, he was deprived of the presidency of 

 the bank, which was bestowed on the duke of Gaeta, 

 with a large salary ; yet he was, in 1822, unanimously 

 re-elected to the office of regent de la banque (direc- 

 tor). His eloquent speeches in the chamber, some 

 of which were extemporaneous .proved his talentand 

 knowledge, especially in the department of finance. 

 He also spoke with energy on the occasion of the 

 disturbances in Paris in 18 19, when the young Lalle- 

 inand was shot in the street by one of the watch, and 

 old men, women, and children were trampled down 

 by the gendarmes. He was not re-elected for the 

 session of 1824. By favouring the reduction of the 

 rentes, lie appears to have lost his popularity. The 

 chamber of deputies accepted the proposal for the 

 reduction of the interest on the public securities then 

 in circulation, but the chamber of peers rejected it. 

 To prove the justice and advantages of this plan, and 

 to justify his own conduct in the project, he wrote 

 his Reflexions sitr la Redaction dn la Rente rf sur 

 I' F'fat du Crciit,R financial work of much, merit- 



The second edition was published at Paris, in 1824. 

 How great the confidence reposed in Laffitte was, the 

 following fact will serve to show. When Louis 

 XVIII. was compelled to flee, in 1815, he intrusted 

 his private property, for safe keeping, to Laffitte ; 

 three months after, Napoleon, under the same circum- 

 stances, showed him the same confidence, and, at St 

 Helena, named him his executor. As Napoleon, 

 in the hundred days, had respected the private 

 property of Louis, so Louis XVIII. respected that of 

 the emperor, and put no obstacles in the way of the 

 execution of his last will. Among the merits of 

 Laffitte, his great benevolence to the poor ought not 

 to pass unnoticed. The publishers of the Latin 

 classics, at Paris, were also assisted by him in carry- 

 ing on their useful undertaking. Laffitte was, in 

 1827, again elected to the chamber of deputies. His 

 only daughter was married, in 1828, to the prince of 

 Moskwa, eldest son of the celebrated marshal Ney. 

 He took an active part in the revolution of July, 

 1830, being one of the deputies who signed the pro- 

 test, and declared themselves deputies of France, in 

 spite of Polignac's order to annul the election. 

 Laffitte was also one of the deputies, who, during 

 the fight on July 29, went to marshal Marmont, in 

 order to put a stop to the conflict. November 3, 

 1830, he was made minister of finance and president 

 of the council, in which situation he remained until 

 March 14, 1831, when he was succeeded by M. Casi- 

 mir Perrier, belonging to the left centre. Laffitte 

 suffered immense losses in consequence of the fall of 

 stocks since the revolution of July, 1 830. 



LAFITAU, JOSEPH FRANCIS ; a French Jesuit, 

 who was a native of Bordeaux, and was employed as 

 a missionary among the savages of North America. 

 On his return to Europe, he published a work, entitled 

 Mceurs des Sauvagcs Americains comparees aux 

 Mceurs des premiers Temps (Paris, 1724, 2 volumes, 

 4to); and another on the Discoveries and Conquests 

 of the Portuguese in the New World (1733, in 2 vols., 

 4to). In the former, he maintains that the North 

 American savages are descended from the barbarians 

 who inhabited Greece at an early period. He died 

 in 1740. 



LAFITTE; a Bordeaux wine. See Bordelais 

 Wines. 



LAFONTAINE, JEAN. See Fontaine, la. 



LAFONTAINE, AUGUSTUS HENRY JULIUS, the 

 most fertile and one of the most popular novelists of 

 Germany, was born in 1756, in Brunswick. He 

 studied theology, and, in 1792, accompanied the 

 Prussian army into Champagne, in the capacity of 

 chaplain. He lives now at Halle. His novels are 

 entertaining, but not distinguished by merit of a high 

 order. Of late, he has occupied himself with jEschy- 

 lus, and published Agamemnon and the Coephort, 

 svith judicious notes (Halle, 1821 et seq., 2 vols.), in 

 which he sets forth some peculiar views respecting 

 the text of this author. 



LAGO MAGGIORE, or LAKE MAJOR, or 

 LOCARNO (anciently T'erbanvs); a large lake in 

 Italy, separating the Austrian government of Milan 

 from the Sardinian Milanese, extending from Sosto to 

 Locarno; about forty -five miles long, and sevm 

 broad. It is 636 feet above the level of the sra, 

 according to Saussure, and, in some places, 1800 feet 

 deep. It is traversed by the Ticino. Its waters, 

 which are as clear as crystal, contain various fish. 

 Its banks abound in every Alpine beauty, and are 

 adorned with a number of picturesquely situated 

 villages and towns. On all sides it is surrounded by 

 hills, planted with vineyards and plantations of chest- 

 nuts, interspersed with villas. There are several 

 islands, two of which, Isola Bella and Isola Madre, 

 called Borromean islands, are laid out in gardens 



