416 



LECH LEDYARD. 



dispute with the parliaments. Being nominated 

 deputy to the states-general (17S9), he occupied him- 

 self, during the se.-sion with aflairsof police, finance, 

 uiul domestic administration. When the question of 

 the diurch property was discussed, lie iniiiiituiiied that 

 it would bean act of injustice to divest the ecclesiastical 

 of their possessions, though he admitted that 

 some reform was necessary and expedient. In Aug. 

 1790, he voted for the preservation of the French 

 academy, and, in Sept., he appeared at the tribune, 

 to deliver an opinion against the emission ofassignats, 

 but he could not procure a hearing. In 1795, he 

 was elected to the council of elders, and Iwcame 

 secretary to that body in Jan., 1790, and president in 

 the Feb. following. In Nov., 1799, he approved of 

 the new system of government, anil was appointed 

 third consul in Dec. In 1803, the third class of the 

 institute, of which he had continued to be a member 

 from its first formation, chose him their president, 

 lie was nominated arch-treasurer of the empire in 



1804, and, in 1805, governor general of Liguria, and 

 created duke of. Placentia. On the retreat of Louis 

 Bonaparte from the throneof Holland, Napoleon con- 

 fided to M. Lebrun, under the title of governor-gen- 

 eral, the administration of that country, from which 

 the events of 1813 obliged him to retire. On his 

 return to France, he signed the constitution that 

 recalled the house of Bourbon to the throne, and was 

 sent to Caen in the quality of commissioner extraor- 

 dinary. On the 4th of June following, he was 

 created a peer of France by the king, and, in the 

 beginning of July, was appointed president of the first 

 bureau of the chamber of peers. After the return of 

 Napoleon, he accepted the peerage from him, and 

 likewise the place of grand-master of the university. 

 By this proceeding M. Lebrun rendered himself 

 incapable of sitting in the new chamber of peers, 

 formed in Aug. 1815. In the early part of his life, 

 he published, in prose, a translation of Tasso's Jer- 

 usalem, more remarkable for its elegance than its 

 fidelity. A new edition of this work appeared in 



1805, with an account of the life of Tasso, by Suard 

 (two vols. 8vo). He also made a prose translation of 

 Homer's Iliad (three vols., 8vo), which has frequently 

 been reprinted. He died in 1824. 



LECH; a river rising in the Vorarlberg, and 

 emptying into the Danube. It gives its name to the 

 Lechfeld, a plain in Bavaria rendered famous by the 

 defeat of the Huns (q. v.), by Otho I. in 955. 



LECTOR (reader), in the early church ; a servant 

 of the church, whose business it was to read parts of 

 the Bible, and other writings of a religious character, 

 to the people. They were consecrated by prayers 

 and ceremonies for this office, and, when their office 

 became extinct, the consecration still remained ; so 

 that the lectorship now forms one of the inferior 

 orders. Lectors are mentioned by Justin Martyr, 

 in the second century, and appear to have been pro- 

 per officers of the church in the third century. In 

 Germany, a teacher of modern languages in a univer- 

 sity is called lector, if he is not a professor. 



LED A, according to some authors, the daughter of 

 Thestius, a king or ^Etolia, according to others, of 

 Glaucus and Laophonte, or Leucippe, was the wife of 

 the Spartan king Tyndarus. In order to enjoy her, 

 Jupiter changed himself into a swan, or, as some 

 say, into a goose, in which form he is represented 

 with her in a picture from Herculaneum. By him 

 she had Pollux and Helen, and by Tyndarus Castor. 

 According to other authors, Jupiter first changed her 

 into a goose, and afterwards himself into a swan, 

 which was the reason why Leda brought forth an 

 Horn which Pollux and Helen sprang. Other 

 traditions say that Jupiter changed himself into a swan, 

 and caused Venus to pursue him in the form of an 



when he took refuge in Leda's bosom. Dur- 

 ing a d< ep sleep, which fell upon her at this moment, 

 he gratified his desire. Others relate that Nemesis 

 chained herself into a goose to escape the pursuit of 

 Jupiter. She then brought forth an egg, which he 

 caused to be carried by Mercury to Leda, who care- 

 fully preserved it until Helen was produced there- 

 from. Again it is said that Leda brought forth two 

 eggs, one by Jupiter, and another by Tyndarus. 

 From the former sprang Pollux and Helen ; from the 

 latter, Castor and Clytemnestra. Of these different 

 accounts, that has obtained the preference, which 

 makes Leda, after having had communication with 

 Jupiter in the form of a swan, to have given birth to 

 Castor, ami Pollux (Dioscuri). 



LEDGER. LINES; those lines, in music, which 

 are added above or beneath the five composing the 

 stave, for the reception of such notes as are too high 

 or too low to be placed upon or within it. 



LEDYARD, JOHN, a celebrated traveller, was 

 born atGroton, in Connecticut, in 1751. He lost his 

 father at an early age, and his mother was left with 

 but scanty means for the education of four children. 

 To her he was indebted for counsels that made an 

 indelible and most salutary impression on his heart. 

 At the age of nineteen, he went to Dartmouth college, 

 in order to qualify himself to become a missionary 

 among the Indians. At the college, he acquired 

 knowledge with ease, manifested more indocility 

 than diligence, and had not been there quite four 

 months when he suddenly disappeared without the 

 knowledge of any one. He is understood to have 

 wandered to the borders of Canada, and among the 

 Six Nations, with whose language and manners he 

 formed an acquaintance, which was afterwards of 

 much service to him in his intercourse with savages 

 in various parts of the globe. Nearly four months 

 elapsed before he returned to his college, and, soon 

 after, in consequence of some reproof for breach of 

 discipline, he resolved to escape altogether. On the 

 margin of the Connecticut river, he felled a large tree, 

 and fashioned its trunk into a canoe, in which he 

 proceeded down the river to Hartford, a distance of 

 140 miles, much of his course lying through a wilder- 

 ness, and, in several places, being obstructed by 

 dangerous falls. Ledyard then applied himself to 

 the study of divinity, but, failing in obtaining a license 

 to preach, he turned sailor. His first voyage was to 

 Gibraltar, where, being struck with a military parade, 

 he enlisted, " thinking the profession of a soldier well 

 suited to a man of honour and enterprise.'' The 

 British commanding officer released his new recruit, 

 who, at the expiration of a year, went back to New 

 London, but soon afterwards embarked for England, 

 in the hope of obtaining assistance from some wealthy 

 relations there. After working his passage, as a 

 sailor, to Plymouth, he remained destitute of means, 

 and reached London by begging on the road. 

 He presented himself at the house of a Ledyard, 

 as an American cousin, but was so coolly received, 

 that his dreams vanished, and his pride prevented him 

 from ever renewing the attempt. Captain Cook was 

 then preparing for his third and last voyage round 

 the world. The idea of accompanying him struck 

 Ledyard with so much force, that he at once enlisted 

 in the British marine service, and soon contrived to 

 gain an introduction to captain Cook. " His manly 

 form," in the words of Mr Sparks, " mild, but animated 

 and expressive eye, perfect self-possession, a bold- 

 ness not obtrusive, but showing a consciousness of 

 his proper dignity, an independent spirit, and a glow 

 of enthusiasm giving life to his conversation and his 

 whole deportment these were trails which could not 

 escape so discriminating an eye as that of Cook. 

 They formed a rare combination, peculiarly suited 





