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LEF peninsular war, in which he was wounded and taken prisoner. On his return to France he was employed in the Austrian campaign of 1809, in the Russian campaign of 1812, and displayed great courage and activity in resisting the allied armies in 1814. During the Hundred Days he was created a peer, and took part in the battles of Quatre Bras and Waterloo. On the overthrow of Napoleon Lefebvre made his escape, but was tried and condemned to death in absence. He took refuge in the United States, where he spent several years in retirement. On his return to Europe in 1822 the vessel was lost on the Irish coast, and Lefebvre was drowned.—J. T.  LEFEVRE, C., Lord Eversley. See.  LEFEVRE,, a French printer, born at Neufchateau in 1779; died 5th of January, 1858. Though bred a printer he served for a time in the navy, but returned to Paris and commenced printing books, principally classics. In the course of his commercial career he issued millions of volumes—Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, English, and French—and his editions are so much esteemed that they either keep their price or rise in value. His collection of French classics in seventy-three volumes bears a high character. The revolution of 1830 seriously injured his business, and that of 1848 ruined him. He died, however, amid his books, looking over the notes of his edition of Boileau.—P. E. D.  LE FORT,, a Russian general, born at Geneva in 1656; died at Moscow, 1st March, 1699. He was grand-admiral of the Russian empire under Peter, whom he endeavoured to enlighten, and whose ferocity he laboured to control.—P. E. D.  LEGARÉ,, eminent both as a scholar and a lawyer, was born at Charleston, South Carolina, January 2, 1797. His father having died, he was at an early age left entirely to the care of his mother, who was of Scotch descent, and from whom he derived the name of Swinton. When four years of age he was inoculated with the small-pox, the effects of which not only retarded his growth for a considerable number of years, but deprived him of the use of his limbs. At the age of fourteen he entered the university of South Carolina at Columbia, and having graduated at the head of his class, he then devoted three years to the study of law under a leading practitioner at Charleston. In 1818 he proceeded to Europe, and prosecuted his legal and classical studies at Paris and Edinburgh; and having returned to Charleston, was in 1820 elected a member of the lower house of the general assembly for two years. At the close of that period he set himself sedulously to the pursuit of his profession. In 1824 he again became a member of the legislative assembly, and some time after was made state attorney. The ability with which he argued a case before the supreme court at Washington led to his appointment as chargé d'affairs at Brussels, during which mission he found leisure to study the Dutch, German, and Romaic languages. In 1836 he returned to New York, where he was elected member of congress; and in 1841 he received the appointment of attorney-general of the United States, an office in which he greatly distinguished himself. Having in 1843, along with the president and senate, visited Boston to take part in the ceremonies at the completion of the Bunker Hill monument, he was there seized with severe illness, which proved fatal in a few days. His writings, which consist of reviews, speeches, correspondence, and journals of his European experiences, were collected by his daughter, and published at Charleston in 1846.—J. B—r.  LEGAZPI,, the conqueror of the Philippine Islands, was born at Zubarraja, about the beginning of the sixteenth century; died in May, 1572. He first went to Mexico, and in 1563 was appointed to command an expedition to explore, and probably acquire, the islands of the great sea. In 1569 he received authority to capture the Philippines, which he did in 1570, and founded the town of Manilla, where he died.  LEGENDRE,, one of the greatest of mathematicians, was born in Paris on the 18th of September, 1752, and died there on the 10th of January, 1833. He was educated at the Collége Mazarin, and studied mathematics under the Abbé Marie, whom he soon afterwards assisted in the composition of a treatise on mechanics, published in 1774. The parts written by Legendre at that early age, are regarded as models of clearness and vigorous reasoning. He was for many years professor of mathematics at the military school of Paris, and afterwards at the école normale. In 1783 he became a member of the Academy of Sciences. In 1787 he conducted, along with Cassini and Méchain, the geodetical operations for connecting the observatories of Paris and Greenwich; and on visiting London he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. During the revolutionary period he was one of the commissioners appointed to introduce the metrical system of measures. In 1808 he was appointed an honorary councillor of the university. His mathematical researches appeared in the Mémoires des Savans Étrangers for 1785; in the Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences, and of the Institute from 1784 till 1823; and in a series of separate treatises. In two of these he brought together in a systematic form the scattered results of those labours by which he is chiefly distinguished amongst mathematicians. One is on the "Theory of Numbers:" the latest edition, revised and augmented by the author, appeared in 1830, and it forms the standard treatise on that arduous branch of mathematics, so far as it had advanced at that time. The other is his wonderful work on "Elliptic Functions and Eulerian Integrals," in three volumes, published at different dates from 1827 to 1832, being a complete treatise on a new branch of mathematics which may be said to have been created by himself; for the little that was known upon the subject of those functions before the appearance of Legendre's first memoir upon them in 1794, consisted of detached theorems which had not been combined into a system. He was the originator of the "method of least squares" in deducing the most probable result from a number of data affected by errors of observation; and he made important advancements in the theory of the attraction of ellipsoids. A characteristic feature of his writings is the candour with which he mentions the researches of others, and especially of younger inquirers, on the same branches of knowledge, such as those of Abel and Jacobi on elliptic functions.—W. J. M. R.  LEGENDRE,, a French historian, born at Rouen in 1655. He took orders, and became canon of Notre Dame and abbot of Claire Fontaine. He wrote several works on biographical and historical subjects, some of which have been popular. Legendre died at Paris in 1733.—B. H. C. <section end="159H" /> <section begin="159I" />LEGER,, a learned protestant divine, born in Savoy in 1594, and educated at Geneva, where he exhibited a special aptitude for oriental languages. For some time he officiated as pastor in a country village; but his learning procured him an appointment as chaplain to the United Provinces' embassy to Constantinople, where he formed an acquaintance with the famous Cyril Lucar. After his return to Savoy he resumed his pastoral functions. He frequently came into collision with the popish missionaries who were sent to convert his flock, and in consequence he was compelled to take refuge at Geneva, where he became the theological and oriental professor, and died in 1661. He published the New Testament in ancient and modern Greek, and theological theses. His correspondence with Cyril Lucar has been partly published since his death.—B. H. C. <section end="159I" /> <section begin="159J" />LEGER,, son of the preceding, born at Geneva in 1655, was for many years a successful professor there; died in 1719. He is known as the author of sermons and various dissertations, among which is a curious "Oratio Academica de Valdensium situ et progressu." The sermons were translated into German in 1722.—B. H. C. <section end="159J" /> <section begin="159K" />LEGER,, the historian of the Waldenses, and the nephew of the elder Antoine Leger, was born in Savoy in 1615, and studied at Geneva. In 1643 he was appointed to succeed his uncle, who had been compelled to abandon his charge. About this time the Vaudois of the Piedmontese valleys were exposed to countless annoyances from the popish agents who had been employed to make converts. Provocation led to resistance, and the Vaudois performed prodigies of valour, but in vain; they were persecuted and slaughtered without mercy. Leger in this extremity appealed to England, and Cromwell's response to that appeal will never be forgotten. The terrific cruelties of the papal troops reached a climax in 1655, and were only discontinued through the courageous intervention of England and other protestant countries. Leger continued in France, Germany, and Holland, his heroic labours for his co-religionists. His goods were confiscated, and sentence of death was passed upon him; but he escaped, and eventually settled at Leyden, where he died in 1670. His "General History of the Evangelical Churches of the Valleys of Piedmont" appeared in 1669, and is a work of deep and harrowing interest.—B. H. C. <section end="159K" /> <section begin="159Zcontin" />LEGGE,, Lord Dartmouth, a distinguished naval officer, was born about 1647. He entered the service at the age of seventeen, and soon became so conspicuous for his <section end="159Zcontin" />