LANCE LAND. 



363 



cellent ships are built at Lancaster, and it is celebrated 

 for its cabinet work. The manufactures consist of 

 cordage, sail-cloth, some cotton and worsted yarn, 

 and candles. The town receives a considerable 

 influx of company at the assizes held twice a year; 

 also at the elections for knights of the shire, and at 

 the annual races; and here are held the quarter 

 sessions, with some other local courts of inferior 

 Jurisdiction. The parish of Lancaster is extensive, 

 and contains several remote townships entirely isolat- 

 ed and disjoined from the body of the parish : popula- 

 tion of parish in 1841, was 24,149. 



LANCE; a weapon consisting of a long shaft, 

 with a sharp point, much used, particularly before 

 the invention of fire arms. It was common among 

 the Greeks and Romans. The Macedonian phalanx 

 was armed with it, and it was the chief weapon of 

 the Roman infantry. The javelin, or pilum, was but 

 secondary. The lance is found among almost all 

 uncivilized tribes: it was the chief weapon in the 

 middle ages, and is now considered one of the most 

 effective arms of cavalry. The lance of the knight, 

 in the middle ages, was of a peculiar form. Near 

 the lower end, it was very thick, with a deep open- 

 ing, in which the arm was placed when the lance was 

 put in rest, preparatory to a charge. Immediately in 

 front of the opening, the lance was from one to one 

 and a half feet in diameter, and sloped off towards 

 the upper end, whicli was from one half to three- 

 fourths of an inch in diameter. From this weapon 

 the small bands, of which the cavalry of the middle 

 ages consisted, took their name. A lance denoted 

 a man at arms (horseman completely armed) with 

 four or five attendants. Among the French, in the 

 fifteenth century, these attendants consisted of three 

 archers, one coutillier (so named from the long, broad 

 dirk in his belt), and one page or valet. The intro- 

 duction of fire-arms gradually led to the disuse of the 

 lance in the West of Europe, though it continued 

 among the Turks, Albanians, Tartars, Cossacks, 

 Poles, and Russians, and other Sclavonic tribes, 

 among whom it was borne by light-armed cavalry, 

 on fleet horses. Frederic the Great, seeing the ad- 

 vantageous use made of this weapon by the Poles, 

 gave it to a portion of his cavalry, and afterwards 

 formed an entire regiment of lancers. The Austri- 

 ans followed, and soon established three regiments of 

 Uhlans, as they were termed. After the partition of 

 Poland, many Poles entered the French service, and 

 a body of Polish lancers was established. The war 

 with Russia, in which the efficiency of the lance in 

 the hands of the Cossacks, particularly in 1812, was 

 strikingly manifested, brought this weapon into still 

 more repute, and the Prussians formed three regi- 

 ments of Uhlans. The French lancers were formed 

 in 1813, to'cope with the Cossacks. Almost all the 

 armies of Europe now have regiments of lancers. 

 To use the lance with effect, however, requires much 

 practice. The lances now in use, among the Euro- 

 pean cavalry, have a shaft of ash or beech wood, 

 eight, twelve, or even sixteen feet long, with a steel 

 point, eight or ten inches long, and, to prevent this 

 being hewn off, the shaft is guarded by two strips of 

 iron, one and a half to two feet long, below which 

 an iron ball is sometimes placed to prevent the lance 

 point from penetrating too far. The other end has 

 an iron cap, to prevent its splitting. The point has 

 a small flag, intended, by its waving, to frighten the 

 horses of the enemy. When not in use, the lance is 

 carried in a leathern shoe, by the right stirrup, de- 

 pendent by a leathern thong on the right arm. In 

 use, it is carried under the right arm. This weapon 

 requires a practised horseman. See Pike. 



LANCELOT OF THE LAKE ; the name of one 

 of the paladins celebrated in the traditions and fa- 



bles relating to king Arthur (q. v.), or the Round 

 Table. According to tradition, Lancelot was the 

 son of Ban, king of Brucic, and, after his father's 

 death, was educated by the fairy Viviana (the Lady 

 of the Lake). The youth having given proofs of 

 great valour, she took him to Cramalat, to the court 

 of king Arthur, and requested him to make him one 

 of his knights, and to admit him to the number of 

 the heroes of the Round Table. Arthur, with his 

 sword (ctcalibor), dubbed him knight, and Lancelot 

 subsequently distinguished himself by his extraordi- 

 nary deeds and great heroism amongst all the pala- 

 dins of the Round Table. His love for Genevra, the 

 beautiful wife of Arthur, and his disregard of Mor- 

 gana, a fairy, and the sister of Arthur, placed the 

 knight in the most dangerous and marvellous situa- 

 tions, from which, however, he always extricated 

 himself by his valour and the assistance of the Lady 

 of the Lake. He finally succeeded to the throne of 

 his ancestors, after having defeated king Claudas, the 

 murderer of his father, but was slain by Mordrec, the 

 nephew and murderer of Arthur, whom Lancelot 

 wished to punish. In his last moments, Viviana ap- 

 peared to him, and, with a gentle kiss, took the last 

 breath from the lips of the dying hero, who was the 

 sole survivor of the knights of the Round Table. 

 His remains were taken to his castle, and there de- 

 posited near those of the beautiful Genevra. This 

 tradition has been variously handled by poets. 



LANCEROTTA ; one of the Canary islands. See 

 Canaries. 



LAND, PROPERTY IN. The relations of land- 

 ed property are among the most complicated and 

 most important in civil society. They lie at the 

 foundation of almost all the relations and institutions 

 of the state. On their right direction depend the 

 strength and vigour of the commonwealth. They 

 mark the transitions from one step of refinement to 

 another (hunting and fishing, raising of cattle, agri- 

 culture conducted by slaves and bondmen, or by free- 

 men, with or without a right in the soil). These 

 relations express the ancient hostility between vari- 

 ous classes of people, between hunters, herdsmen, 

 and husbandmen, between city and village, &c. 

 Nevertheless, hardly any subject of law and politics 

 has been investigated with so little profoundness. 

 In no one has prejudice gained such an ascendency, 

 and resulted in such important consequences. Al- 

 most all modern constitutions have taken landed pro- 

 perty for the basis of their most important institutions, 

 and given the owners of land a power over the other 

 members of society, the consequences of which are 

 apparent. Distinguished writers have even gone so 

 far as to call owners of land the only true citizens 

 the nation, properly so called ; and all others who 

 chance to have no immediate share in the soil of the 

 state where they reside, are styled by them mere 

 strangers tenants at will a homeless rabble, de- 

 pendent on the good pleasure of their landlords a 

 class of people, who, in affairs of common interest, 

 are scarcely permitted to hear, and never to speak; 

 whose duty is obedience to their natural masters, the 

 proprietors of the land. But, if these relations are 

 carefully examined, this view is found to be connect- 

 ed with palpable errors. 



1. It is wrong to suppose that the banding toge- 

 ther of men in a state is connected inseparably with 

 the appropriation of landed property, and that this 

 constitutes the distinction between wandering hordes 

 and civil society. Even nomadic nations have some 

 general idea of the exclusive right of their descend- 

 ants to the lands which they have been in the habit 

 of periodically occupying, and where they have found 

 support for themselves and their cattle. They 

 esteem it an attack upon their essential rights, for 



