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LEFT LEAQTJE OF NATIONS 438 LEAR showed their sympathy with him in his battle for the League. Certainly the Senate was in no more pliant mood than hitherto. The President returned to Washington a sick man, and for a time in the fall was unable to take any further part in the controversy. The Senate dur- ing October abandoned its effort to amend the Covenant and the opposition centered its efforts on securing the adoption of reservations which should be as effective. These reservations, numbering fourteen and covering the main objections of the opposition to the League, were drawn up by the Foreign Relations Committee and were brought to a vote in the Senate on Nov. 19, 1919, and were defeated by a vote of 55 to 39, the Democrats and the "Irreconcilables" alike voting for their rejection, the first because the reserva- tions as President Wilson had announced completely nullified the League, and the second group because they were opposed to ratification under any conditions. A vote was then taken on unconditional ratification which was defeated by a vote of 53 to 38, whereas an affirmative vote of two-thirds of the entire body was re- quired to obtain a ratification. Even after this first rejection of the League negotiations continued to attempt to se- cure ratification. More sweeping reser- vations than the previous fourteen were agreed upon in order to secure the votes of the "Irreconcilables" if possible. The resolution of ratification with these fifteen i-eservations was brought to a vote on March 19, 1920, and received 57 votes in its favor to 37 against, thus lacking the necessary two-thirds by seven votes. The Senate, immediately thereafter passed a resolution notifying the President that they refused their consent to the Treaty and the League. While the United States thus rejected the League, other nations at the same time were announcing their acceptance of it. By the first of January, 1920, Japan and Italy had ratified, thus com- pleting the list of all the great powers on the allied side. Among the neutrals Spain, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile and Persia had responded favorably to the invitation given to join the League. By the terms of the Covenant the time for the League's first meeting had arrived, accordingly President Wilson issued a call for the session to be held in Paris on Jan. 16, 1920. This honor was accorded to the President of the United States be- cause of his efforts for the League and in spite of the fact that his country had not ratified. On the 16th of January the League held its first meeting, there be- ing present nine representatives of the different nations: Leon Bourgeois for France, Lord Curzon for Great Britain, Ambassador Matsui for Japan, M. da Conha for Brazil, Premier Venizelos for Greece, Ambassador de Leon for Spain, M. Hymans for Belgium, and Signor Ferrari for Italy. Sir Eric Drum- mond, the Secretary of the League, was also present. Most of the business which was before the body had been al- ready transacted by the Supreme Coun- cil, so that corr.paratively few of the enormous tasks that were to be handled by the League were actually before it. Practically all the real business trans- acted was to name the English, Jap- anese, and Belgian members of the Sarre Basin Commission and to designate Lon- don as the next meeting place. This, in general, was the rule during the succeed- ing months. The real tasks and impor- tant decisions were handled by the Su- preme Council of the Allies and only a perfunctory amount of business tran- sacted by the League of Nations Council. Many thought more power and impor- tance would be assigned to this latter body if the fall elections in the United States should return a Senate more fav- orable to the League. The Republicans, however, made an issue out of their op- position to the Covenant, and the great Republican victory eliminated any possi- bility of a ratification of the League Covenant. The League held its second session in Geneva in November and December, 1920. LEAMINGTON, a health resort of Warwickshire, England. It is wholly of modern growth, having become important only since the rediscovery of its mineral waters in 1784. ■" LEAR, EDWARD, an English author; born in London, England, May 12, 1812. In 1835 studied painting, and later was sent by the Earl of Derby to Italy and Greece, where he painted many land- scapes in Albania, Athos, the Morea, and the islands of the ^gean. He exhibited at the Royal Academy 1850-1873. His later years were spent in Italy. Lear made himself better known by his illus- trated books of travels than by his paint- ings. Of these the most important were his "Sketches of Rome and its Environs" (1842) ; "Illustrated Excursions in Italy" (1846) ; "Journal in Greece and Albania" (1851); "Journal of a Landscape Painter in Calabria" (1852) ; "In Cor- sica" (1869). The "Book of Nonsense" (1861). "More Nonsense Rhymes" foL lowed in 1871, "Nonsense, Songs, Stories," and "Botany" in 1870, "Laugh- able Lvrics" in 1876. He died in San Remo, Italy, Jan. 30, 1888.