50 
LEA 
L E A 
L E A 
lead. The amalgam is white and brilliant, | 
and when the quantity of lead is sufficient, | 
assumes a Solid form. It is capable of crvs- j 
tailizing. Tue crystals are composed of one j 
part of lead and one and a half ol mercury. i 
5. Copper and iead may be easily com- | 
bined by fusion. When the lead exceeds, ! 
the alios - is of a grey colour, and ductile 
while cold, but brittle when hot. It is em- 
ployed sometimes for the purpose of making 
printer’s types for very large cnaracters. 
6. It was former! v supposed that lead does 
not combine with iron; but the experiments 
of Guyton Movveau have proved, that when 
the two metals are melted together, two dis- 
tinct alloys are formed. .At the bottom is 
found a button of lead containing a little iron ; 
above is the iron combined with a small por- 
tion of lead. 
7. Lead and tin may be combined in any 
proportion by fusion. This alloy is harder, 
and possesses much more tenacity, than tin. 
Muschenbroeck informs us that these quali- 
ties are a maximum when the alloy is com- 
posed of three parts of tin and one of lead. 
What is called in this country ley pewter is 
often scarcely any thing else than this alloy. 
Tin foil too almost always is a compound of 
tin and lead. This alloy, in the proportion 
of two parts of lead and one of tin, is more 
soluble than either of the metals separately. 
It is accordingly used by plumbers as a 
solder. 
The affinities of lead and of its oxides are 
as follow : 
Lead. 
Oxide of Lead. 
Gold, 
Sulphuric acid. 
Silver, 
Sac lactic. 
Copper, 
Oxalic, 
Mercury, 
Arsenic, 
Bismuth, 
Tartaric, 
Tin, 
Muriatic, 
Antimony, 
Platinum, 
Phosphoric, 
Sulphurous, 
Arsenic, 
Suberic, 
Zinc, 
Nitric, 
Nickel, 
Fluoric, 
Iron, 
Citric, 
Sulphur. 
Lactic, 
Acetic, 
Boracic, 
Prussic, 
Carbonic. 
Lead, ores of. 
Ores of lead occur in great 
abundance in almost every part of the world. 
They are generally in veins ; sometimes in 
siliceous rocks, sometimes in calcareous 
rocks. 
The following table exhibits a view of the 
different states in which this mineral lias 
hitherto been observed. 
I. Sulphurets. 
1. Galena, 
2. Blue lead ore, 
3. Black ore of lead. 
II. Oxides. 
1. Earthy ore of lead, 
2. Arseniated protox- 
ide. 
3. Arseniated perox- 
ide. 
III. Salts. 
1. Carbonat, 
2. Muriocarbonat, 
3. Sulphat, 
4. Phosphat, 
5. Molybdat, 
6. Arseniat? 
7. Arseniophosphat? 
8. Chromat. 
Of these the first species is by far the most 
common. From it indeed almost the whole 
of the lead of commerce is extracted. 
LEAF. See Botany. 
.Leaf-gold. See Aurum, Gold, Gild- i 
IMG, &C. 
Leaf. See Architecture. * 
Leaf, in clocks, and watches, an appel- 
lation given to the notches ot their pinions. 
See Clockwork. 
LEAGUE i a measure of length, contain- 
ing more or less geometrical paces, accord- 
i u g 'to the diherent usages and customs ol 
countries. A league at sea, where it is 
chiefly used by us, being a land-measure 
mostly peculiar to the French and Germans, 
contains three thousand geometrical paces, 
or three English miles. The French league 
sometimes contains the same measure, and 
in some parts of France it consists of three 
thousand five hundred paces: the mean or 
common league consists of two thousand four 
hundred paces, and the -little league of two 
thousand. The Spanish leagues are larger 
than the French, seventeen Spanish leagues 
making a degree, or twenty French leagues, 
or sixty-nine and a half English statute 
miles. r idie Dutch and German leagues 
contain each four -geographical miles. The 
Persian leagues are pretty near of the same 
extent with the Spanish; that is, they are 
ecpial to four Italian miles, which is pretty 
near to what Herodotus calls the length ol 
the Persian parasang, which contained thirty 
stadia, eight of which, according to Strabo, 
make a mile. 
LEAK, among seamen, is a hole in the 
ship through which the water comes in. To 
spring a leak is said of a ship that begins to 
leak; to stop a leak, is to till it with a plug 
wrapt in oakum and well tarred ; or put- 
ting in a tarpaulin clout, to keep the water 
out ; or nailing a piece of sheet-lead upon 
the place. 
LEAKAGE, the state of a vessel that 
leaks, or lets water, or other liquid, ooze in 
or out. See the preceding article. Leak- 
age, in commerce, is an allowance of 12 
per cent, in the customs, allowed to import- 
ers of wines for the waste and damage it is 
supposed to have received in the passage; 
an allowance of two barrels in twenty-two is 
also made to the brewers of ale and beer, by 
the excise-office. 
LEAP, in music. This word is properly 
applicable to any disjunct degree, but is 
generally used to signify a distance consisting 
of several intermediate intervals. 
Leap-year. See Bissextile. 
LEASE, a conveyance of lands, generally 
in consideration of rent or other annual re- 
compence made for life, for years, or at will, 
but always for a shorter term than the lessor 
has in the premises, otherwise it partakes 
more of the nature of an assignment. 
By the common law, all persons seized of 
an estate might grant leases for any period 
less than their interest lasted; but statutes 
have been since made, some to enlarge and 
some to restrict it. They are divided into 
enabling and restricting statutes ; by the en- 
abling stat. 32 Henry VIII. c. 28. a tenant in 
tail may make leases- to ensure for twenty- 
one years or three lives to bind his issue in 
tail, but not those in remainder or reversion. 
Husbands seized in right of their wives may 
make leases for the same period, provided 
the wife join in it. All persons seized of an 
estate of fee-simple in right of their churches, 
except parsons or vicars, may bind their suc- 
cessors under certain restrictions. 1. The 
lease must be by indenture ; 2. It must 
begin from the day of making; 3. All old 
leases must be surrendered or be within a 
v ear of expiring; 4. It must be for three 
lives or twenty-one years, not both ; 5. ft 
may be tor a shorter term, but must not ex- 
ceed twenty-one years; 6. It must be of 
lands and tenements most commonly let for 
twenty years past; 7. 'I he most usual rent 
for that time must be reserved ; 8. Such 
leases cannot be made without impeachment 
of waste. It was also specified that the lease 
must be of corporeal hereditaments, that the 
lessor might resort to them to distrain; but 
by stat. 5 Geo. III. c. 17, a lease of tithes or 
other incorporeal hereditaments may be 
granted, and the successor shall have his 
remedy by an action of debt. 
From the disabling statutes, we find that 
all colleges, cathedrals, and other ecclesi- 
astical or eleemosynary corporations, and all 
parsons and vicars, are* restrained from mak- 
ing leases unless under the following regu- 
lations : 1. They nmst not exceed 3 lives or 
21 years: 2. 'i he accustomed rent must at 
least be reserved thereon: 3. Houses in 
corporations or maiket-towns may be let for 
40 years, provided they are not the mansion- 
houses of the lessors, or have not more than 
10 acres of ground belonging to them; and 
provided the lessee agrees to keep them in 
repair, and they may be aliened in tee-simple 
for lands of equal value in recompencef 4. 
If there is an old lease which has more than 
3 years to urn, no new lease shall be made: 
5. No lease shall he made without impeach- 
ment of waste: 0. All bonds and covenants 
tending to frustrate the provisions of the sta- 
tutes of 13 and 18 Liiz. shall be void. 
Two observations seem to present them- 
selves concerning these statutes: 1. That 
they do not enable any persons to make such 
leases as they are by common law restrained 
from making; therefore, a parson or vicar, 
though lie is restrained from making longer 
leases than for 21 years or 3 lives, even with 
the consent of the patron or ordinary, yet is 
not enabled to make any lease at all,' to’ bind 
his successor without such consent. 2. 
Though leases contrary to these acts are void, 
v et they are good against the lessor during 
his life, if he is a sole corporation ; and il it is 
an aggregate corporation, as long as the head 
lives : for the act was intended for the benefit 
of the successor alone, and it is a maxim of 
law that no man shall take advantage of his 
own wrong. With regard to college leases, 
one-third of the old rent must be reserved in 
wheat or malt, reserving a quarter of wheat 
for every try. 8 d. and a quarter of malt for 
every 5s. ; or the' lessees must pay for the 
same, at the price of the market nearest the 
respective colleges on the market-day be- 
fore the rent is due. 
There are further restraining statutes which 
direct that if any beneliced clergyman is ab- 
sent from his benefice above 80 'days in the 
year, all leases and agreements made by him 
of the profits of his cure shall be void, except 
in the case of licensed pluralists ; who are al- 
lowed to demise the living to the curate, if lie 
is not absent more than 40 days in the vear. 
See 13 Eliz. c. 20. 14 Lliz. c.’j 1. ISEliz. c, 
11, and 43 Eliz. c. 9- 
All leases except such as do not exceed 
