IN 



LKISEWITZ LELAND. 



r, to construct a fool-bridge in the gnrdens of 

 R*ichenoach ; but it was not sufficient for the mass 

 which crowded over it. The greater part perished 

 ill the waten of the Plrissv or the Elster, in which 

 Poniatowsky foinui a noble death. The rest fell by 

 the hands of their pursuers. Macdonald escaped. 

 By degrees tin- n-i>umce slackened ; the Baden 

 troops were unable to hold the interior of the 

 .ml the allied inonarchs entered at the head 

 r soldiers. The loss of the French in prison- 

 ..e>l, and wounded, has been rated at (K),000 

 men. Among them, 3000 officers, 300 pieces of 

 (iinnoii, and an immense quantity of baggage, &c., 

 ti-11 into the hands of the allies. The battle of 

 l.eipsi,- is said to have cost the victors 45,000 

 men (vis. 8000 Austrians, 21,740 Russians, 14,950 

 Prussians, and 300 Swedes.) With Napoleon's 

 defeat at Leipsic was connected a series of conse- 

 iMiences of immense historical importance. See the 

 articles Saxony, and Russian- German /Far. 



l.KISEWITZ, JOHN ANTHONY ; a German writer, 

 wliose tragedy Julius of Tarentum (1776) is esteemed 

 by the Germans one of their best productions, and is 

 still performed. Leisewitz was born 1752, at Han- 

 over, and, at the university, was a friend of Voss, 

 Holty, Burger. He died in 1806, at Brunswick. 

 1 1 e burnt the manuscript of his history of the thirty 

 years' war. His works appeared at Vienna, in 1816. 



LEISTENWEIN. See Franconian /fines. 



LE1TH ; a town of Scotland, in the county of 

 Edinburgh, formerly called Inverleith, is situated on 

 the bunks of the water of Leith, at its confluence 

 with the firth of Forth, about a mile and a half 

 north- east of Edinburgh, and constitutes the port or 

 liarbour of that city. It is divided into two districts, 

 called South and North Leith, communicating by two 

 draw- bridges across the harbour. The town is mostly 

 situated on the south side of the river, and, witli the 

 exception of the modern and improved streets, is 

 irregularly built, with narrow streets and lanes, and 

 the houses mostly old-fashioned and inconvenient. In 

 1800, a magnificent suite of wet docks was planned, 

 and two of these beautiful basins are now opened for 

 shipping. These docks, comprehending nearly eight 

 acres, together with tliree graving docks, have cost 

 about 285,000. Fortifications were erected by 

 Oliver Cromwell in North Leith, called the citadel, 

 for the purpose of defending the harbour, which 

 were afterwards demolished. There is a martello 

 tower about a quarter of a mile from the pier. About 

 1783 a battery of nine guns was erected to the west 

 of the site of the citadel, in consequence of an alarm 

 from the American privateer officer, Paul Jones, who 

 appeared before the town with three armed ships 

 only, and threatened to destroy all the vessels in the 

 road and harbour. The battery has been since en- 

 larged, forming a kind of fort, garrisoned by the royal 

 artillery. Leith carries on an extensive trade with 

 the Baltic, and other places in Europe, such as 

 Holland, France, Spain, Portugal, and the Mediter- 

 ranean ; also with the West Indies and America ; 

 besides a great coasting trade to the different parts 

 of England and Scotland. A trade has also com- 

 menced with New South Wales, with which distant 

 colony a regular intercourse is maintained. The 

 Greenland fishery is also prosecuted with great acti- 

 vity. Vessels of very great burden cannot enter 

 Uie port of Leith, the depth of water in the harbour 

 at spring tides being but sixteen feet, and only nine 

 feet at neap tides ; but the roads, about a mile from 

 the mouth of the harbour, aflbrd excellent anchoring 

 ground for ships of any size. The number of ships 

 which entered this port and paid duties in 1824, was 

 J2 British and 146 foreign; and the number of 

 vessels belonging to the port in 1829 was 2G3, the 



collective burden of which amounted to 2G,3C2 tons. 

 Leith has extensive rope-works, class- works, and vari- 

 ous oilier manufactories. Ship-building is carried on 

 to a considerable extent ; and there is a large distil- 

 lery in the neighbourhood. Population in 1841: North 

 Leith parish, 8492 ; South Leith parish, 19,776. 



LEKAIN, HENRY Loi'is; a French tragic actor, 

 was born at Paris, in 1728. It was the intention of 

 his father, a goldsmith, to bring him up in the same 

 avocation, in which the boy made such progress, that 

 his work was in request even in his sixteenth year. 

 He enjoyed, at the same time, the benefit of instruc- 

 tion in the college de Mazarin, where the scholars 

 performed a dramatic piece at the close of the aca- 

 demic year. The means of Lekain were inadequate 

 to the expense required of the performers, and he 

 therefore undertook the office of prompter. He 

 rarely hod occasion to make use of the book, so 

 deeply were the plays impressed on his memory, as 

 soon as he had heard them a few times. His greatest 

 recreation consisted in attending the French theatre 

 on Sundays. Social amusement having acquired new 

 life in Paris, after the peace in 1748, several private 

 theatres were formed, and Lekain joined with a num- 

 ber of young persons in establishing one, which soon 

 surpassed all the others. Lekain was distinguished 

 for his acting, and Arnaud Baculard's comedy Le 

 Mauvais Riche was first performed by this company. 

 Voltaire, Arnaud's patron, was present at the repre- 

 sentation, and invited Lekain, who played the part 

 of the lover, to his house. The young actor was 

 embarrassed before this celebrated man, who encou- 

 raged him with the words, " Heaven be thanked, 1 

 have at last found a person who has moved and 

 touched me, even when reciting bad verses." Voltaire 

 advised him, however, not to become an actor, and, 

 in order to induce him not to abandon the trade of 

 his father, ofiered to advance him 10,000 francs, in 

 order to place him in a more convenient situation. 

 Lekain hesitated, but his propensity for the stage 

 predominated. When Voltaire perceived that the 

 resolution of the young man was invincible, he ofiered 

 to spare him at least the expense of apprenticeship, 

 and to build him a theatre in his own house, where 

 Lekain could play with his young friends. Lekain 

 row lived with Voltaire, whose two nieces played 

 with him, and the poet himself sometimes undertook a 

 part. The most distinguished men aspired to the 

 honour of attending these performances. The part 

 of Cicero, in the Rome Preserved, was here seen 

 represented by Voltaire, with an energy and truth, ot 

 which tradition still preserves the memory, and, 

 inspired by such a model, Lekain shone in the cha- 

 racter of Titus. During the six months which he 

 spent in the society of Voltaire, his dramatic skill 

 was vastly improved, and, in his Memoires de H. 

 Lekain, published by his son (Paris, 1801 ; new 

 edition. Precedes de Reflexions sur cet Acteur et sur 

 I' Art tAcatral, par Talma, Paris, 1825), he says that, 

 at that time, he studied most profoundly the princi- 

 ples of his art. Before departing for Berlin in 1750, 

 Voltaire obtained for his protege permission to appear 

 on the theatre Francaise. One of his most splendid 

 parts was Mahomet, in Voltaire's play of the same 

 name. Voltaire called him the only truly tragic actor. 

 His last performance, in the character of Vendome, 

 in Voltaire's Adelaide, was admired above all, and 

 the exertions which he made, on this occasion, were 

 the prime cause of his speedy death, in 1778. An 

 inflammatory fever brought him to the grave in a few 

 days. On the day of his death, Voltaire returned to 

 Paris, after an absence of thirty years, and the first 

 news which he learned was the distressing informa- 

 tion of the death of his protege. 



LELAND, JOHN; an English antiquary, born iu 



