Page:Men of the Time, eleventh edition.djvu/691

 674

LASKEE— LATHAM.

succession to the Marquis of Lome, who was to retire in Oct. of that year, on the completion of the period for which he was appointed. His lordship is a magistrate for Wiltshire, and also for the county of Kerry. He married, in 1869, Lady Maud Evelyn Hamilton, yoimgest daughter of the first Dnke of Abercom.

LASKEB, EnuABD, was. born Oct. 14, 1829, at Jaroczyn, in the province of Posen, Prussian Poland, of parents who were strictly ortho- dox Jews. He attended the Gym- nasium of Breslau, where he studied mathematics and law. On the completion of his studies he went to Berlin, and there was appointed Auscultator (lawyer's assistant) in the district of the Eammergericht. Having subsequently passed his second State examination, he went abroad, and stayed in foreign countries, principally England, i6r three years, to study the laws of Great Britain j but he returned to Berlin in 1856, and became Assessor to the Stadtgericht in 1858. He now passed his novitiate as a poli- tician by writing political articles, especially in the Deutschen Jaht' hUcher; and in March, 1865, he became a candidate for the fourth Berlin electoral district, and was elected a Deputy to the Prussian Diet. There was not at that period any German Parliament — ^not even that of the North German Con- federation, which only came into existence in 1867. The time of Perr Lasker's entry into the Prus- sian Diet was a very exciting one in the home politics of Prussia. The conflict which was waged be- tween the German Prog^ressist party (Fortschritts-Partei) and the Gov- ernment may be said to have reached its height at that period. Herr Lasker joined that faction, which had then obtained the Parlia- mentary majority, refused voting the budget, and opposed most energetically the carrying out of the army organisation. "Hie oppo-

sition was futile, for if not com- pleted, the scheme was then already carried practically into effect. The struggle between the Government and the majority of the popular representatives was brought to a close in the following year (1866) by Prussia declaring war against Austria. From that moment the aapect of affairs was entirely changed. The Prussians were ori- ginally opposed to a war with Austria, but when once the stenggle had commenoed they sided with the 6k>vemment. Tms led also to a complete change in the Parlia- mentary situation, and Herr Tiaaker was one of those who, separating themselves from the Progressist party, formed with the members of the Old Liberal party (formerly ihe Yincke faction), that which has ever since been known as the Na- tional Liberal party, which though the strongest in numbers in we German Beichstag, has never re- presented by itself a majority. Of this party Herr Lasker is one of the most prominent leaders. As a member of the North German Parliament, and later as a member of the Parliament of the German Empire, to which he was re-elected in Aug. 1878, Herr Lasker has taken a most decided part in the reorgan- isation and unification of G^ermany. LATHAM, BoBBBT Gordon, M.D., F.B.S., born at Billings borough, in linoolnshire, in 1812, was educated at Eton, and pro- ceeded to King's College, Cam- bridge, where he g^raduated B Jl. in 1882, being duly elected Fellow. He afterwards studied medicine, and became assistant physician to Middlesex Hospital, where he lec- tured on Forensic Medicine and Materia Medica. His name, how- ever, is best known to the world by his ethnological researches, and his writings on that subject and on philology. His first works were " Norway and the Norwegians," a translation from the Swedish of Tegner's "Frithiof Saga" and