LEGATE 



3371 



LEGHORN 



not legal tender; nor is any commemorative 

 coin, such as the issue of the Columbian Ex- 

 position, nor any foreign coin. The silver 

 coins of the United States, the half dollars, 

 quarters and dimes, are legal tender for sums 

 not exceeding ten dollars. The minor coins, 

 the five-, three- and two-cent pieces and all 

 pennies may be tendered legally for all 

 amounts not exceeding twenty-five cents. How- 

 ever, it should be stated that the two-cent and 

 three-cent pieces are no longer coined. See 

 MONEY. 



Canadian Legal Tender. Under the Domin- 

 ion Currency Act a legal tender may be made 

 in copper coins up to twenty-five cents, and in 

 Canadian silver coins to the value of ten dol- 

 lars. Dominion notes and gold coins are legal 

 tender to any amount. The British sovereign 

 is legal tender for four dollars, eighty-six and 

 two-thirds cents, and standard American gold 

 coins are legal tender for their face value. 

 During the War of the Nations notes of all 

 chartered banks were made legal tender for 

 any amount. 



Tender, in law, a formal offer to pay a 

 debt, or to perform an obligation, which may 

 be either in money or specific articles. A 

 tender of payment does not cancel the debt, 

 for the debtor is still liable for the payment, 

 but it bars all claim to subsequent damages 

 and puts a stop to all interest and costs after 

 the date of tender. The tender must also be 

 unconditional, and if paid in money must be 

 in currency or coin known as legal tender; if 

 delivery of property is tendered it must con- 

 form to the contract. 



LEGATE, leg 'ale, from the Latin Icgatus, 

 meaning appointed, is a title now confined to 

 the highest diplomatic representatives of the 

 Pope. The Papal legates were at first merely 

 delegates to different divisions of the Church. 

 Sometimes they possessed very high powers, 

 and with the spread of the temporal power of 

 the Pope they began to figure in national af- 

 fairs. Legates are now of three grades; in the 

 first are the Pope's special representatives 

 (legate a latere):, in the second, permanent rep- 

 resentatives at foreign capitals (see NUNCIO) ; 

 in the third, certain archbishops. The dignity 

 of legate a latere is restricted to cardinals. 



LEGEND, lej'end, in modern usage the 

 term applied to an improbable or traditional 

 narrative handed down from the past. The 

 words legend and myth are sometimes used 

 interchangeably, but strictly speaking the myth 

 deals with supernatural beings, the legend with 



mortals. The former, too, is usually spread 

 over a wide area, while the latter is apt to be 

 local in character. Legendary tales are inter- 

 woven with the early history of all peoples. 

 The first seven kings of Rome, for instance, 

 about whom numerous traditions cluster, are 

 known in history as the legendary kings. The 

 Swiss people treasure the legend of William 

 Tell (see TELL, WILLIAM), who typifies the 

 spirit of resistance against a foreign oppressor. 

 Among the well-known legends of literature is 

 Chaucer's unfinished poem, A Legend oj Good 

 Women; Washington Irving has used the word 

 in the title of one of his most picturesque 

 stories, The Legend oj Sleepy Hollow, based 

 on the tradition of the Headless Horseman. 



Originally the term was applied to narratives 

 connected with religious belief or worship, such 

 as the Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine, 

 a Dominican monk of the thirteenth century. 



LEGENDRE, lezhahN'dr', ADRIEN MARIE 

 (1752-1833), a French mathematician who de- 

 serves credit for his connection with the estab- 

 lishment of the metric system of weights and 

 measures. He was born in Toulouse, but it 

 was in Paris that he gained distinction. He 

 occupied the chair of mathematics at the mili- 

 tary school; in 1783 he became a member of 

 the Academy of Sciences, and in 1785 was ap- 

 pointed to the Bureau of Longitudes. He con- 

 tributed extensively to the theory Of attraction, 

 and was the inventor of the rule of the "least 

 square of errors," explaining a popular mathe- 

 matical device. His Elements oj Geometry is 

 \vell known in France; in a translated form it 

 passed through many editions, and was once 

 a textbook in American schools and colleges. 



LEGERDEMAIN, lej er de mane ' , a word 

 meaning sleight-of-hand, as used in the per- 

 formance of conjuring tricks. See CONJURING. 



LEG 'HORN, in many respects the least 

 Italian of all Italian cities, ranks next to Genoa 

 and Naples as the busiest seaport in the king- 

 dom. It is the capital of Leghorn, the smallest 

 province of Italy, and is situated on the Medi- 

 terranean, about sixty-two miles west of Flor- 

 ence. Leghorn hats, made from the straw of 

 wheat growing in the vicinity, and the beauti- 

 ful coral ornaments which all people admire, 

 are exported from here, as well as marble, olive 

 oil, boracic acid, silk and wine; the exports 

 average 1,500,000 annually. Shipbuilding, too, 

 is an important industry. Leghorn is a very 

 modern city and is well built. Its northwest- 

 ern portion is intersected by numerous canals, 

 which gave it the name of the "New Venice." 



