﻿SOS 



LEXINGTON. 



LIBERIA. 



606 



dred is bounded S. by the sestuariea of the Colne and the Blackwater ; 

 the adjoining hundreds on the west are Thurstable, Witham, and 

 Hinckford : the two hundreds comprise 43 parishes with an area of 

 89,345 acres, and a population in 1851 of 28,768. Lexden and Wins- 

 tree Poor-Law Union contains 35 parishes with an area of 73,492 

 acres, and a population in 1851 of 21,485. The village of Lexden, 

 which gives name to the hundred, is pleasantly situated on the main 

 road about 2 miles W. from Colchester. From remains which have 

 been found in the neighbourhood, it has been supposed that Lexden 

 occupies the site of an outpost of the Roman station Camelodunum. 

 Some extensive earth-works are traceable on Lexden Heath, and to 

 the west of the village is an excavation, supposed to have been an 

 amphitheatre. 



LEXINGTON. [Massachusetts.] 



LEYBURN, North Riding of Yorkshire, a small market-town and 

 the seat of a Poor-Law Union in the parish of Wensley, is situated in 

 64° 18' N. lat., 1° 50' W. long., distant 46 miles N.W. from York, and 

 235 miles N.N.W. from London. The population of the township of 

 Ley bum in 1851 was 800. The living of Wensley is a rectory in the 

 mrchdeaconry of Richmond and diocese of Ripon. Leybum Poor-Law 

 Union contains 41 townships and chapelries, with an area of 91,570 

 acres and a population in 1851 of 9942. Leybum is pleasantly situ- 

 ated in the midst of picturesque scenery. The houses are chiefly 

 anxtnged in the form of an oblong square, in the centre of which the 

 market is held. There are a small episcopal chapel, places of worship 

 for Wesleyau Methodists and Independents, an elesiant chapel for 

 Roman Catholics, a school supported by the Roman Catholics, and a 

 savings bank. A county court is held. The market-day is Friday. Fairs 

 are held on the second Friday in February, May, October, and December. 

 In the neighbourhood are lead and coal-mines and limestone quarries. 

 Remains of Bolton and Middleham castles, and of the abbeys of Jer- 

 vaux and Coverham are in the vicinity. Leybum Shawl, a romantic 

 road along the edge of a ridge of rocks commanding extensive views 

 of picturesque scenery, is the scene of a popular annual tea festival. 



LEYDEN, a city of the kingdom of the Dutch province of South 

 Holland, is situated in 52" 9' 30' N. lat., 4° 29' 13" E. long.; 10 

 miles by railway N.N.E. from the Hague, on a branch of the Rhine, 

 and has about 40,000 inhabitants. The town stands in a level part of 

 the country, and is traversed by many broad canals, bordered with 

 trees, which, intersecting each other, divide the town into fifty small 

 islands, connected together by 145 bridges, some of which are of wood. 

 It is surrounded with a rampart, partly covered with turf and partly 

 faced with brick, on which are fine shady walks ; and outside there is 

 « deep and broad moat, with eight bridges leading to as many gates. 

 The city is well built, and the principal streets are broad and well 

 paved. That in which the town-ball is situated extends nearly across 

 the city from east to west ; it is almost two miles in length, and is 

 reckoned one of the handsomest streets in Europe. The houses are 

 mostly of brick, with the gable-ends to the streets. Among the 

 public buildings the most worthy of notice are the town-hall, a magni- 

 ficent edifice, containing a valuable collection of paintings ; St. Peter's 

 church, the finest of the seventeen in the city, a large and handsome 

 gothic building, which contains the sarcophagus of Boerhaave and 

 other monuments. An ancient castle or fort, ascribed by tradition to 

 the Romans, is in the middle of the city, and, rising above the highest 

 houses, commands an extensive prospect of the town and the sur- 

 rounding country. Tho handsome new Roman Catholic church, the 

 custom-house, and hospitals likewise deserve notice. The manufac- 

 tures of linen and woollens were formerly celebrated, and the chief 

 source of wealth to the inhabitants, but they have greatly declined. 

 It is however still the chief seat of the woollen manufactures and of 

 the wool trade of Holland, and has an annual wool fair, which is much 

 frequented. There are likewise extensive manufactures of soap and 

 indigo, tanneries famous for their shamoy leather and parchmeut, 

 salt-works, &a Printing, especially of classical works, was formerly 

 a great branch of trade. The most remarkable event in the history 

 of Leyden is its successful resistance to the Spaniards in 1573. The 

 University, which was founded in 1575, has a library of 60,000 volumes 

 and 14,000 manuscripts, a valuable botanical garden, an observatory, 

 a museum rich in Egyptian and Etruscan antiquities, a cabinet of 

 natural history, kc, £c. Orotius, Descartes, Fielding, and Goldsmith 

 studied at Leyden. There are likewise many fine private Ubraries 

 and museums, and various learned societies. In 1655, 4000 of the 

 inhabitants were carried off by the plague ; and in 1807 a boat, with 

 40,000 lb«. of gunpowder on board, blew up, and destroyed a large 

 portion of the finest part of the city : sevoid hundred penions lust 

 their lives on that occasion. 

 LEYT. [Philippihe Ihlaxds.] 

 LEYTON. [Essex.] 

 LEYTONSTONE. [Easjcx.] 

 LftZARDIEU. [CfrfES-DU-NoBD.] 

 LEZIONAN. [AOD«.] 

 L'HASSA. [Tibet.] 

 LIBANU3. [Stbia.] 



LIBAU. [COUBLAND.] 



LIBERIA, Republic of, occupies a considerable extent of the West 

 Coast of Africa. Liberia was originally confiiied to the tract of country 

 lying west of the Qraia Coast, of which the town of Monrovia on Cape 



Mesurado is the centre ; but the republic, though its limits are not 

 accurately defined, now, we believe, claims the entire coast (including 

 the whole of the Grain Coast) from the Cavally River east of Cape 

 Palmas, 4° 20' N. lat, 7° 30' W. long., to the Sherboro River, opposite 

 Sherboro Island, 7" 23' N. lat., 12° 31' W. long., bordering on the 

 colony of Sierra Leone ; a length of about 450 miles, with a breadth 

 at present ranging from 20 to 50 miles, but the settlers are gradually 

 extending farther into the interior. The area may be about 17,000 

 square miles. We find some difficulty in stating the population. In a 

 semi-official statement published in 1848 by the American Colonisation 

 Society, in which the extent of the territory is made nearly as wide 

 as that given above, the population is said to consist of 4200 colonists 

 (including 700 in Maryland-in-Liberia) and "from 10,000 to 15,000 

 natives;" while in some popular works recently published in this 

 country we find the colonists variously estimated at from 6000 to 

 10,000, and the natives at 250,000 to above 300,000. This no doubt 

 is a great exaggeration ; and we think the population, including the 

 additions by immigration and extension of territory, cannot exceed 

 7000 colonists and 50,000 natives ; perhaps the native tribes in the 

 interior with whom the Liberians have entered into treaty may 

 number 150,000 to 200,000, but they are not inhabitants of Liberia. 



Liberia owes its origin to the efforts of the American Colonisation 

 Society, founded in 1816, for the colonisation of the free coloured 

 people of the United States. The first settlement was made ou 

 Sherboro Island, off the coast of West Africa, opposite the present 

 western boundary of Liberia ; but several of the settlers having died, 

 and the others experienced much suffering, the settlement was aban- 

 doned, and the settlers removed to Sierra Leone. A second party was 

 however sent out, who established themselves, early in 1822, on the 

 site of the present town of Monrovia, on Cape Mesurado, 6° 19' N. lat., 

 10° 46' W. long. At first the settlers encountered many difficulties, 

 owing to the unfriendly disposition of the native tribes ; but after a 

 time, as they increased in numbers and were more abundsmtly pro- 

 vided with fire-arms and some pieces of artillery, they were able not 

 only to keep the natives in check, but to act on the offensive, and to 

 drive them into the interior, or subject them to their authority. In 

 about a dozen years the colony had become sufficiently numerous and 

 energetic to seek the privileges of self-government. In 1839 a con- 

 stitution was framed and a governor appointed by the Colonisation 

 Society to carry out its provisions. The new constitution appears to 

 have worked very well in home matters, but difficulties occurred in 

 enforcing the laws on foreign traders ; and the English government, 

 which had displaye<l the friendliest feeling and rendered important 

 assistance to the infant community, announced that it could not 

 recognise the right of tho Liberian authorities — the colony being 

 neither an independent state nor an acknowledged dependency of the 

 United States — to impose duties on goods imported into the country 

 by British subjects. The Liberian council forwarded a resolution to 

 the Colonisation Society, importing that the existence of the colony 

 was dependent on its possession of complete political jurisdiction ; and 

 the Society replied by a resolution admitting that the time had come 

 for the " commonwealth of Liberia to take into their own hands the 

 whole work of self-government, including the management of all their 

 foreign relations." Accordingly, the question was put to the vote of 

 the people whether the settlement should declare itself an independent 

 state, and carried in the affirmative. A convention was then appointed 

 to draw up a constitution, and on the 24th of August, 1S47, the flag 

 of the ' Independent Republic of Liberia ' was hoisted with much 

 ceremony. The chief events in the history of the settlement have 

 been the numerous encounters with the natives, and since its inde- 

 pendence the visits of the president to England and America with a 

 view to the arranging of certain treaties. The republic was recognised 

 by England as an independent state soon after its declaration of inde- 

 pendence, and has since been recognised by France, Prussia, Brazil, 

 and some other powers, but not by the United States. 



The coast of Liberia has a general direction north-west and south- 

 east, and is broken by several inlets and coves, of which those formed 

 by Cape Mount, Cape Mesurado, and Bassa Cove are of much value 

 as harbours. 'The greater part of the coast is low and sandy, or 

 marshy ; but about Cape Mesurado and Cape Motmt (which is 1060 

 feet above the sea) the shore is couaiderably elevated. Between those 

 points however there is a low continuous beach of light brown sand, 

 backed by an unbroken tract of forest. Towards the south-eastern 

 extremity the coast is in many parts bold and rocky, the cliffd in 

 many places being from 40 to 60 feet above the sea, with large 

 irregular blocks of granite on the beach, over which the sea breaks 

 heavily, and many rocks lie a short distance off the shore; but 

 between the higher parts everywhere occur long stretches of low 

 sandy beach, in many places bordered by sand-banks : so that nearly 

 all along the coast it is necessary for the mariner to keep a sharp 

 look-out. 



From the coast the land rises for the most part gradually towards 

 the interior. About 20 or 30 miles from the shore is a succession of 

 hills covered, like a large part of the lower country, with forests, 

 rising farther inland into mountain ridges, and divided by wide and 

 fertile valleys. The rivers are numerous, and some of them are good- 

 sized streams ; but all have their mouths obstructed, and soma 

 entirely closed, by sand-bars ; and, owing to the prevalence of rapids, 



