Page:A biographical dictionary of modern rationalists.djvu/242

 LABOUCHEEE

LAFAYETTE

was a member of the Academy and an Officer of the Legion of Honour. D. Jan. 13, 1888.

LABOUCHERE, Henry Du Pr6, journa list. B. Nov. 9, 1831. Ed. Eton and Cambridge (Trinity College). Labouchere, who was of French extraction, entered the diplomatic service in 1854, and was, succes sively, attacb.6 and secretary at Washing ton, Munich, Stockholm, Frankfort, St. Petersburg, and Dresden. He retired in 1864, and entered Parliament in 1865. In 1868 he took up journalism, and in 1876 established Truth. He was first elected M.P. for Northampton in 1880, and he gave loyal and fearless support to Brad- laugh. Labouchere was himself &quot; as com pletely non-religious as a man could be,&quot; and, on the principles of Hume and Kant, with which he was familiar, &quot; a strict Agnostic &quot; (Life of H. Labouchere, by A. L. Thorold, 1913, p. ix). His last word was characteristic. A spirit lamp was upset in his chamber as he lay dying, and Labouchere muttered : &quot; Flames ? Not yet.&quot; D. Jan. 15, 1912.

LACAITA, Sir James Philip, LL.D.,

K.C.M.G., Anglo-Italian statesman. B. Oct. 4, 1813. Ed. Naples University. He graduated in law, and was in 1836 .admitted to the Neapolitan Bar. Adopting liberal ideas, he made friends with the English and Americans at Naples, and he was appointed legal adviser to the British Legation. The Kevolutionaries of 1848 appointed him secretary to the Neapolitan Legation at London, but they failed, and the reactionaries cancelled the appoint ment. It was mainly from Lacaita that Gladstone in 1850 got the information about the clerical-royalist horrors which he afterwards published in a Letter to Lord Aberdeen. Lacaita was imprisoned for a few days on that account. When the Letter was published (1852) he had to fly from Naples, and he settled in England, where he was naturalized in 1855. From 1853 to 1856 he was professor of Italian 411

at Queen s College, and he wrote most of the Italian articles in the eighth edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica. In 1856 he accompanied Lord Minto to Italy, and in 1857 he became private secretary to Lord Lansdowne. The title was conferred on him chiefly for taking part in Mr. Gladstone s mission to the Ionian Islands in 1858. He returned to Naples after the expulsion of the Bourbons and the chastening of the clergy, and was elected to the Italian Parliament. Lacaita was a Knight of the Brazilian order of the Eose, and a Knight Commander of the orders of SS. Maurice and Lazarus and the Corona d Italia. D. Jan. 4, 1895.

LACEPEDE, Bernard Germain Etienne de la Yille, Comte de, French naturalist. B. Dec. 26, 1756. Equally friendly with Gluck and Buffon, Voltaire and D Alembert, Lacepede s attention was at first divided between music and science. He wrote operas and symphonies, as well as scientific works. The latter alone succeeded, and Buffon got him a place in the King s Cabinet, which enabled him to devote himself to natural history. He accepted the Eevolution, and represented Paris in the Legislative Assembly, though he protested against the increasing bru talities. Later he was professor of natural history at the museum, member of the Institut, and President of the Senate (1801). Napoleon made him Grand Chan cellor of the Legion of Honour (1803) and Minister of State (1809). He was stripped of his dignities at the Eestoration, and, though he was again admitted to the House of Peers, he never changed his Deistic opinions. D. Oct. 6, 1825.

LAFAYETTE, Marie Jean Paul Roch Yves Gilbert Marie, Marquis de, French soldier. B. Sep. 6, 1757. Ed. privately. Sharing the widespread enthusiasm for the American rebellion, he in 1777 crossed the ocean and became a general in the Ameri can army. Eeturning to France in 1781, he helped the spread of liberal principles, 412