Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/417

 L E D L E E 399 power is to be found in the speech of Victor Hugo at the unveiling of his bust in Pere La Chaise : &quot; Louis Blanc was the apostle of the revolution of February, Lamartine the orator, and Ledru-Rollin the tribune.&quot; The Discours politiqucs ct ecrits divers of Ledru-Rolliii were published by his widow in 1879 ; his Decadence d Anglcterre was published in 1850 ; and an account of his political position is to be found in all histories of the revolution of 1848. LEDYARD, JOHN (1751-1789), traveller, was bom in Grotou, Connecticut, U.S., in 1751. After vainly attempt ing to settle down to the study of law and theology, Ledyard adopted the life of a seaman, and, finding his way to London, was engaged in 1776 as a corporal of marines by Captain Cook, for his third voyage of discovery. On his return in 1778 Ledyard had to give up to the Admiralty the copious notes he had kept, but was never theless able to publish a somewhat meagre narrative of his experiences (Hartford, U.S., 1783). He continued in the British service till 1782, when, his ship being off Long Island, he managed to escape. Ledyard returned to Europe again in 1784, his purpose being to obtain the means of fitting out an expedition to the north-west coast of America. Having failed in his attempts, he decided to reach his goal by travelling across Europe and Asia. On his arrival in Stockholm (1786) he attempted to cross to Abo in Finland on the ice ; but, meeting with open water, he turned back, walked all the way round the head of the gulf, down through Finland, and on to St Petersburg, where he arrived in March 1787 without shoes or stockings, and penniless. He made friends, however (among others Pallas), and got permission from the Government to accompany Dr Brown, a Scotch physician in the Russian service, to Siberia. Ledyard left Dr Brown at Barnaul, went on to Tomsk and Irkutsk, then visited Lake Baikal, and, reaching the Lena, sailed down to Yakutsk, where he arrived on September 18. With a Captain Billings he returned to Irkutsk, where on February 14, 1788, he was suddenly arrested, hurried across Siberia and Europe to the frontier of Poland, and ordered not to return under pain of death. On reaching London, Ledyard was befriended by Sir Joseph Banks, who engaged him on behalf of the African Association to carry on their work of exploration in Africa. His career was, however, cut short at Cairo, where he died on January 17, 1789. Ledyard was a born explorer, and, had he fallen into good hands in good time, and his energies been properly directed, would probably have done good work. As it was, no results of permanent value came of his wide and aimless wanderings. His life, with extracts from his journals, was written by Jared Sparks for the Library of American Bio graphy (1828), and is also published separately. LEE, NATHANIEL (c. 1650-1692), dramatist, was the son of Dr Lee, incumbent of Hatfield, Hertfordshire. He studied at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge. After essaying the profession of an actor with very slight success, he wrote several tragedies, the best known of which are The Rival Queens, 1677, and Theodosius, 1680. He also assisted Dryden in producing (Edipus and The Did-e of Guise. From 1684 to 1688 he was an inmate of Bedlam, and afterwards until his death he was subject to intermittent attacks of insanity. Though he wrote the Princess of Cleve in 1689, and the Massacre of Paris in 1690, he was in his later years dependent chiefly on charity. He died in London in 1692, not in 1690 as is usually stated, the register of St Clements Danes church giving the date of his burial as the 6th May. The dramas of Lee are of course written in the artificial style characteristic of the period, and they also display occasionally a tendency to wild extravagance, but they nevertheless contain many passages of true poetic tenderness and grace. LEE, RICHARD HENRY (1732-1794), an American states man and orator, born in Westmoreland county, Virginia, U.S., January 20, 1732, was one of six distinguished sons of Thomas Lee, a descendant of an old Cavalier family. After obtaining the foundation of a liberal education in England, and spending a little time in travel, he returned to Virginia in 1752, coming into possession of a fine property left him by his father, and for several years applied himself to varied studies. At the age of twenty-. five he was appointed justice of the peace, and soon after was chosen a delegate to the house of burgesses. He kept a diffident silence during two sessions, his first speech being in strong opposition to slavery, which he proposed to discourage, and eventually to abolish, by imposing a heavy tax on all further importations. In 1764 Lee had applied for a collectorship under the Stamp Act, which . afterwards roused the determined hostility of the colonies, I but on reflexion he regretted doing so, and became an outspoken promoter of the most extreme democratic ideas. In February 1766 he organized an association in West- solution against the Act. At the winter session of the burgesses in 1766, Lee, with the aid of Patrick Henry, succeeded in carrying the house upon a test question against the united aristocratic elements of the colony. In 1767 he spoke eloquently against the acts levying duties upon tea and other articles, and in 1768, in a letter to John Dickinson of Pennsylvania, he made the suggestion of a private correspondence among the friends of liberty in the different colonies. Lee is said also to have originated, in a conversation with fellow burgesses in 1773, the plan of j an inter-colonial or so-called continental congress, which j Philadelphia in 1774, Lee is said to have penned the j address to the king, and is known to have prepared that to the people of British America, together with the second address to the people of Great Britain, directed by congress in 1775, both of which are among the most effective papers of the time. On June 7, 1776, instructed by the Virginia house of burgesses, he introduced in congress the resolu tions declaring &quot; that these united colonies are, and of are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connexion between them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.&quot; Lee j was in congress in 1778-80 and 1784-85, and was one of I the first senators chosen from Virginia after the adoption of the federal constitution. Though strongly opposed to the adoption of that constitution, owing to what he regarded , as its dangerous infringements upon the independent power bringing about amendments. He became a warm upholder of Washington s administration, and his prejudices against the constitution were largely removed by its working in practice. He retired from public life in 1792, and died at Chantilly in Westmoreland county, June 19, 1794. See Memoirs, by his grandson R. H. Lee, 2 vols., 1825. LEE, ROBERT EDWARD (1807-1870), general of the Con federate States army, and one of the greatest of modern commanders, was born at Stratford, in Westmoreland county, Virginia, on January 19, 1807. His father, General Harry Lee, better known in the War of Independence as &quot; Light-Horse Harry Lee,&quot; and afterwards governor of Virginia, was the son of a cousin of the subject of last article. Robert Lee entered the military academy at West Point in 1825, and graduated in 1829, when he received a commission in the corps of engineers. When the Mexican war broke out Lee, who was then captain, served in the army under General Scott. He distinguished himself greatly throughout the campaign, and was brevetted as
 * moreland, in accordance with Patrick Henry s famous re
 * was carried into effect next year. At this first congress in
 * right ought to be, free and independent states, that they
 * of the States, he accepted the place of senator in hope of