Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/435

 L E G L E I 417 ultimately to supplant. It was at Leghorn that Urban V. and Gregory XI. landed on their return from Avignon. When in 1405 the king of France sold Pisa to the Florentines he kept possession of Leghorn ; but he afterwards (1407) sold it for 26,000 ducats to the Genoese, and from the Genoese the Florentines purchased it in 1421. In 1496 the city showed its devotion to its new masters by a successful defence against Maximilian and his allies. With the rise of the Medici came a rapid increase of prosperity; Cosmo, Francis, and Ferdinand erected fortifications and harbour works, warehouses and churches, with equal liberality, and the last especially gave a stimulus to trade by inviting &quot;men of the East and the West, Spanish and Portuguese, Greeks, Germans, Italians, Hebrews, Turks, Moors, Armenians, Persians, and others,&quot; to settle and traffic in the city. Declared free and neutral in 1691, Leghorn was permanently invested with these privileges by the Quadruple Alliance in 1718 ; but in 1796 Napoleon seized all the hostile vessels in its port. It ceased to be a free city by law of 1867. LEGION&quot; OF HONOUR, ORDER or THE. This order of merit was instituted by Napoleon in 1802, all previously existing French military or religious orders those of St Michael, the Holy Ghost, St Louis, and Military Merit, as well as the united orders of St Lazarus and Our Lady of Mount Carmel having been abolished at the Revolution. All soldiers on whom sabres of honour had been already conferred were forthwith declared to be members, and all citizens of sufficient merit were declared to be eligible for admission, whatever their birth, rank, religion, or social position might be. At their reception they were required to swear upon their honour to employ all just, reasonable, and lawful means for the service of the republic, the main tenance of its territory, the support of the government, the law, and the public property, and to withstand every effort towards the restoration of the feudal system and its various accompaniments in short, to co-operate as much as in them lay for the assertion of the principles of freedom and equality. The grand master was Napoleon himself ; under him were 105 grand officers, 300 commanders, 450 officers, and 3665 chevaliers. To the members of the various classes yearly allowances, ranging from 5000 francs in the case of a grand officer to 200 in that of a chevalier, were assigned. Some unimportant modifications in details were made when the empire was introduced. Between 1805 and 1814 about 48,000 nominations were made, 1400 only being in favour of civilians. Shortly after the acces sion of Louis XVIII. considerable changes took place. The old military and religious orders were restored, and that of the Legion of Honour reduced to the last place ; tlie king was of course its grand master ; the membership was divided into five grades, 80 grand crosses, 160 grand officers, 400 commanders, 2000 officers, and an indetermi nate number of chevaliers. These fixed numbers were to be exclusive of members of the royal family, princes of the blood, and foreigners. Admission (the reward of at least twenty- five years of distinguished service) in ordinary cases was to be made to the grade of chevalier only ; and only chevaliers of more than four years standing, officers of two years standing, and commanders of three years were to be eligible for promotion. The admissions were in every case to be made on parade in the case of military persons, and at a public sitting of a court of first instance in the case of civilians. The terms of the oath required were, of course, somewhat modified, and the arrangements about yearly allowances could not be continued. After the revolution of July, the &quot; Ordre royal de la legion d honneur &quot; again resumed the unique place and special character which had belonged to it under Bonaparte in 1802. But its constitu tion was again remodelled in 1852 ; the numbers of grand crosses, grand officers, commanders, and officers was fixed respectively at 80, 200, 1000, and 2000, the number of chevaliers being still left vague, while the system of annual allowances was restored. Since 1870 the maximum number of chevaliers has been fixed at 25,000, the remaining four classes having 70, 200, 1000, and 4000 assigned to them respectively. In each grade three-fifths must be military persons, the rest civilians. The yearly pension of a military chevalier is 250 francs, of an officer 500, of a commander 1000, of a grand officer 2000, and of a grand cross 3000. The order may be conferred upon foreigners, but these do not count. It has occa sionally been conferred upon women (e.g., Rosa Bonheur). In connexion with the order there is an army medal, which may be distributed to the number of 40,000, and which entitles the bearer to a pension of 100 francs. On January 1, 1874, the military members of the legion, in point of fact, numbered 39,793, drawing 12,718,050 francs annually; and there were 51,460 holders of military medals, drawing 5,146,000 francs, besides not less than 15,000 civil members drawing no pension. By economy in making new appointments, these numbers have subse quently been reduced. Since 1805 there has existed an institution for the education of daughters, sisters, and nieces of members of the legion; in 1809 the numbers were fixed at 600, the place being the &quot; Maison d education de Saint Denis.&quot; The arrangements have subsequently been considerably extended. The decoration under the first empire consisted of a white enamelled five-rayed star, bearing the portrait of Napoleon, and a wreath of oak and laurel, with the words &quot; Napoleon, empereur des Frangais &quot; ; on the reverse was the French eagle grasping a thunderbolt, and the legend &quot; Honneur et patrie.&quot; The ribband was of watered scarlet silk. At present the obverse of the star bears the effigy of the republic and the words &quot; Republique Franeaise,&quot; the reverse two tricolor flags with the original legend. LEH, or LE. See LADAK. LEIAH, a town in Dera Isniciil Khan district, Punjab, India, is situated near the east bank of the Indus, in 30 57 30&quot; N. lat, 70 58 20&quot; E. long. The population in 1868 was 17,033 (13,151 Mohammedans, 3726 Hindus, 30 Sikhs, and 126 &quot;others&quot;). There is a considerable trade in local produce as well as through traffic between the districts of upper India and the countries to the west. LEIBNITZ, or LEIBNIZ, GOTTFRIED WILHELM (1646- 1716), almost equally distinguished as philosopher, mathe matician, and man of affairs, was born on the 21st June (o.s.) 1646, at Leipsic, where his father was professor of moral philosophy. The name Leibniz, Leibnitz, or Lubeniecz was originally Slavonic, but his family was German, and for three generations his ancestors had been in the employment of the Saxon Government. Young Leibnitz was sent to the Nicolai school at Leipsic, but, from the time of his fathers death, which took place when he was only six years old. seems to have been for the most part his own teacher. From his father he had acquired a love of historical study that bore remarkable fruit in after life. The German books at his command were soon all read through, and with the help of two Latin books which fell in his way the Thesaurus Chronologicus of Calvisius and an illustrated edition of Livy he learned Latin for himself at the age of eight. By the advice of a neighbouring gentleman his father s library was now thrown open to him with the permission &quot;Tolle, lege.&quot; At this his joy knew no bounds. &quot; For,&quot; he says, &quot; I burned to get sight of the ancients, most of them known to me only by name, Cicero and Seneca, Pliny, Herodotus, Xenophon, Plato, and the historical writers, and many church fathers, Latin and Greek.&quot; Thus before he was twelve he could read Latin easily and had begun Greek ; and his facility in writing Latin verses made his instructors fear that he would be seduced by poetry from more serious pursuits. Nect he took with avidity to the study of logic, attempting already to reform its doctrines, and reading the scholastics and some of the Protestant theologians with such zeal that his XIV.