430 



LING- -LINLITHGO\V. 



dee, and were taken from machines in actual prepa- 

 ration by him. 



For an account of t lie formation of linen cloth, see 

 Weaving. 



1.1 Ml ; a species of marine fish, belonging to the 

 great genus gad us. It is from three to four feet in 

 length, and somewhat like the pike in shape. This 

 fish abounds on the coasts of Great Britain, where 

 it has long formed an important branch of trade. It 

 Is in perfection from the beginning of February to 

 May; in June, the spawning season commences. 

 When in season, its liver abounds with an oil of 

 excellent quality and flavour ; but when it becomes 

 out of season, this organ assumes a red colour, and 

 contains but little oil. This oil is procured by sub- 

 jecting the liver to a slow fire, otherwise a very 

 small quantity is obtained. According to the Eng- 

 lish law, such of these fish as are cured for expor- 

 tation, must measure twenty-six inches from the 

 shoulder to the tail ; otherwise they are not entitled 

 to the bounty granted for the encouragement of this 

 trade. There is another species of ling, the eel-pout 

 (G. lota), which is from one to two feet long, of a 

 yellow colour, variegated with brown. This is the 

 only species of the genus which is found in fresh 

 water. It abounds in the lake of Geneva. It is 

 amazingly prolific, 128,000 ova having been counted 

 in a single female. It is much esteemed as an 

 article of food, and its liver, which is very volumin- 

 ous, is highly prized by epicures. 



LINGAM ; the symbol of the creating and pro- 

 ducing power, sacred among the Indians and Egyp- 

 tians. See Indian Mythology. 



LINGUA FRANCA ; a corrupt Italian, mixed 

 with other words, the dialect spoken between the 

 inhabitants of the coast of North Africa and the 

 Levant and the Europeans. It is, in fact, the Creole 

 of the Mediterranean, and is extremely useful for a 

 traveller in those countries. It is easily learned by one 

 who knows Italian, and still more easily understood. 



LINGUA GERAL ; a corrupted Portuguese, 

 spoken on the coast of Senegambia. 



LINGUET, SIMON NICHOLAS HENRY ; a French 

 historical and political writer, was born in 1736, at 

 1! hcin is. where his father, who had been professor at 

 the college of Beauvais, was living in a kind of 

 exile, having been banished by a lettre de cachet, on 

 account of his participation in the Jansenistic con- 

 troversy. This circumstance was the origin of Lin- 

 guet's saying " that he was born under the auspices 

 of a lettre de cachet. " Having studied law at Paris, 

 in the same college where his father had been pro- 

 fessor, and having obtained the three first prizes of 

 the university in 1751, he attracted the notice of the 

 duke of Deux-Ponts, who was at that time in Paris, 

 whom he accompanied on a journey to Poland. Lin- 

 guet soon returned to his own country, and, on the 

 breaking out of the war between France and Portu- 

 gal, went to Spain as secretary to the prince of 

 Beauvau. He there made himself acquainted with 

 the Spanish language and literature, and, during his 

 stay at Madrid, ne published translations of some of 

 the works of Calderon and Lope de Vega. His first 

 historical attempt, Histoire du Siecle d'Alexandre, 

 which was dedicated to the king Stanislaus Lesczin- 

 ski, was published immediately after his return to 

 Paris. His brilliant oratorical powers, and his 

 thorough acquaintance with the law, gave him a 

 great reputation at the bar, but, at the same time, 

 his severe remarks and bold ideas created him many 

 enemies. His controversy with D'Alembert, who 

 at that time had almost the entire control of the aca- 

 demy, prevented him from becoming a member of 

 that body. His fame as an author and lawyer, how- 

 ever, increased, and several cases conducted with 



great ability, such as that of the duke d'AiguilJcn 

 against the government, and the criminal cause o? 

 the count d<: Morangies, on which he wrote an excel- 

 lent treatise, raised him to high consideration, but at 

 the same time excited the jealousy of his colleagues, 

 whom he incensed to such a degree, by some of his 

 diatribes, that they formed a sort of conspiracy 

 a;iinst him, binding themselves not to plead with 

 him. Even the parliament became engaged in these 

 disputes, and Linguet, whose replies and remarks 

 increased in bitterness, was struck from the list of 

 parliamentary advocates. As a political writer, he 

 succeeded no better. His Journal politique, com- 

 menced in 1777, offended the prime minister Maure- 

 pas, and was suppressed. Linguet, thinking his 

 personal freedom endangered, went to Switzerland, 

 Holland, and England. He afterwards resided at 

 Brussels, until M. de Vergennes procured him per- 

 mission to return to France ; but, his adversaries 

 finding some new cause of complaint, he was thrown 

 into the Bastile by means of a lettre de cachet, where 

 he remained above two years, and was then banished 

 to Rethel for a short time (1782). He went again to 

 London, and there published a work against arbitrary 

 power, to which he had fallen a sacrifice, but which 

 he had himself defended in an earlier work, Theorie 

 des Lois. He afterwards continued his Annales 

 politiques at Brussels, and flattered, with so much 

 address, the emperor Joseph II., who had been 

 pleased with his memoir on the navigation of the 

 Scheldt, that the emperor gave him 1000 ducats, 

 with letters of nobility. But having taken the part 

 of Van der Noot and of the Brabant insurgents, lie 

 was ordered by Joseph to leave the Netherlands. 

 In 1791, he again appeared in Paris, and pleaded 

 for the negroes in St Domingo at the bar of the con- 

 vention. At a later period, he became an object of 

 suspicion to the terrorists, and his attempt to escape 

 having failed, he was arrested, June 27, 1794, and 

 condemned to death by the revolutionary tribunal, 

 for having, according to the sentence, flattered the 

 despots of Vienna and London. His writings on 

 law are numerous. Of Linguet's works on history, 

 politics, political economy, and the fine arts, we 

 mention only his Histoire des Revolutions de I'Em- 

 pire Romain, from Augustus to Constantine; Fana- 

 tisme des Philosophes ; Theatre Espagnol ; Lettres 

 sur la Theorie des Lois ; Memoires pour le Due 

 d'Aiguillon et le Comte Morangies ; De plus nenreux 

 Gouvernement ; Memoires sur la Bastile ; and parti- 

 cularly his Annales politiques, civiles, et litteraires, 

 du 18 Siecle, which contain much important matter 

 for the political and literary history of the times. 



LINLITHGOW, an ancient royal burgh of Scot- 

 land, the capital of Linlithgowshire, is situated six 

 teen miles west from Edinburgh, and thirty-one 

 north-east from Glasgow. The town consists of a 

 single street, half a mile in length, and broad and 

 convenient, except that part immediately to the west 

 of the cross. Many old houses have, of late years, 

 been replaced by handsome new buildings. At the 

 north side of the town is the site of the royal palace, 

 a large quadrangular building, with towers at tht 

 corners, and a court in the interior, on the eastern 

 side of which was a large hall, for the sessions of the 

 Scottish parliament. This monument of regal mag- 

 nificence is now in ruins, having been burned by the 

 English dragoons in 1746, on their advance to the 

 battle of Falkirk. Among the public structures are 

 the town-house and prison, with a clock-tower, built 

 in 1668 ; and a conduit or fountain, handsomely 

 rebuilt in 1807. The chief manufactures here are 

 those of tanned leather and shoes, both on an exten- 

 sive scale ; in the vicinity are large distilleries. 



In the reign of David I., there was a royal castle 



