whole, were edited (partly from the remains of A. Huber) by C.
Brockelmann (Leiden, 1892); cf. A. von Kremer, Über die Gedichte
des Lebyd (Vienna, 1881). Stories of Labīd are contained in the
Kitābul-Aghāni, xiv. 93 ff. and xv. 137 ff.
(G. W. T.)
LABIENUS, the name of a Roman family, said (without
authority) to belong to the gens Atia. The most important
member was Titus Labienus. In 63 B.C., at Caesar’s instigation,
he prosecuted Gaius Rabirius (q.v.) for treason; in the same
year, as tribune of the plebs, he carried a plebiscite which indirectly
secured for Caesar the dignity of pontifex maximus
(Dio Cassius xxxvii. 37). He served as a legatus throughout
Caesar’s Gallic campaigns and took Caesar’s place whenever he
went to Rome. His chief exploits in Gaul were the defeat of
the Treviri under Indutiomarus in 54, his expedition against
Lutetia (Paris) in 52, and his victory over Camulogenus and the
Aedui in the same year. On the outbreak of the civil war,
however, he was one of the first to desert Caesar, probably owing
to an overweening sense of his own importance, not adequately
recognized by Caesar. He was rapturously welcomed on the
Pompeian side; but he brought no great strength with him,
and his ill fortune under Pompey was as marked as his success
had been under Caesar. From the defeat at Pharsalus, to which
he had contributed by affecting to despise his late comrades,
he fled to Corcyra, and thence to Africa. There he was able by
mere force of numbers to inflict a slight check upon Caesar at
Ruspina in 46. After the defeat at Thapsus he joined the younger
Pompey in Spain, and was killed at Munda (March 17th, 45).
LABLACHE, LUIGI (1794–1858), Franco-Italian singer, was
born at Naples on the 6th of December 1794, the son of a merchant
of Marseilles who had married an Irish lady. In 1806 he entered
the Conservatorio della Pieta de Turchini, where he studied
music under Gentili and singing under Valesi, besides learning
to play the violin and violoncello. As a boy he had a beautiful
alto voice, and by the age of twenty he had developed a magnificent
bass with a compass of two octaves from E♭ below to
E♭ above the bass stave. After making his first appearance
at Naples he went to Milan in 1817, and subsequently travelled
to Turin, Venice and Vienna. His first appearances in London
and Paris in 1830 led to annual engagements in both the English
and French capitals. His reception at St Petersburg a few years
later was no less enthusiastic. In England he took part in many
provincial musical festivals, and was engaged by Queen Victoria
to teach her singing. On the operatic stage he was equally
successful in comic or tragic parts, and with his wonderfully
powerful voice he could express either humour or pathos. Among
his friends were Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti and Mercadante.
He was one of the thirty-two torch-bearers chosen to surround
the coffin at Beethoven’s funeral in 1827. He died at Naples
on the 23rd of January 1858 and was buried at Maison Lafitte,
Paris. Lablache’s Leporello in Don Giovanni was perhaps his
most famous impersonation; among his principal other rôles
were Dandini in Cenerentola (Rossini), Assur in Semiramide
(Rossini), Geronimo in La Gazza Ladra (Rossini), Henry VIII.
in Anna Bolena (Donizetti), the Doge in Marino Faliero
(Donizetti), the title-rôle in Don Pasquale (Donizetti), Geronimo
in Il Matrimonio Segreto (Cimarosa), Gritzenko in L’Étoile du
Nord (Meyerbeer), Caliban in The Tempest (Halévy).
LABOR DAY, in the United States, a legal holiday in nearly
all of the states and Territories, where the first Monday in
September is observed by parades and meetings of labour
organizations. In 1882 the Knights of Labor paraded in New
York City on this day; in 1884 another parade was held, and it
was decided that this day should be set apart for this purpose.
In 1887 Colorado made the first Monday in September a legal
holiday; and in 1909 Labor Day was observed as a holiday
throughout the United States, except in Arizona and North
Dakota; in Louisiana it is a holiday only in New Orleans
(Orleans parish), and in Maryland, Wyoming and New Mexico
it is not established as a holiday by statute, but in each may
be proclaimed as such in any year by the governor.
LA BOURBOULE, a watering-place of central France, in
the department of Puy-de-Dôme, 412 m. W. by N. of Mont-Dore
by road. Pop. (1906) 1401. La Bourboule is situated on the
right bank of the Dordogne at a height of 2790 ft. Its waters,
of which arsenic is the characteristic constituent, are used in
cases of diseases of the skin and respiratory organs, rheumatism,
neuralgia, &c. Though known to the Romans they were not
in much repute till towards the end of the 19th century. The
town has three thermal establishments and a casino.
LABOUR CHURCH, THE, an organization intended to give
expression to the religion of the labour movement. This
religion is not theological—it leaves theological questions to
private individual conviction—but “seeks the realization of
universal well-being by the establishment of Socialism—a
commonwealth founded upon justice and love.” It asserts that
“improvement of social conditions and the development of
personal character are both essential to emancipation from
social and moral bondage, and to that end insists upon the duty
of studying the economic and moral forces of society.” The
first Labour Church was founded at Manchester (England)
in October 1891 by a Unitarian minister, John Trevor. This
has disappeared, but vigorous successors have been established
not only in the neighbourhood, but in Bradford, Birmingham,
Nottingham, London, Wolverhampton and other centres of
industry, about 30 in all, with a membership of 3000. Many
branches of the Independent Labour Party and the Social
Democratic Federation also hold Sunday gatherings for adults
and children, using the Labour Church hymn-book and a similar
form of service, the reading being chosen from Dr Stanton Coit’s
Message of Man. There are special forms for child-naming,
marriages and burials. The separate churches are federated
in a Labour Church Union, which holds an annual conference
and business meeting in March. At the conference of 1909,
held in Ashton-under-Lyne, the name “Labour Church” was
changed to “Socialist Church.”
LA BOURDONNAIS, BERTRAND FRANÇOIS, Count Mahé
de (1699–1753), French naval commander, was born at Saint
Malo on the 11th of February 1699. He went to sea when a
boy, and in 1718 entered the service of the French India Company
as a lieutenant. In 1724 he was promoted captain, and displayed
such bravery in the capture of Mahé of the Malabar coast that
the name of the town was added to his own. For two years
he was in the service of the Portuguese viceroy of Goa, but in
1735 he returned to French service as governor of the Île de
France and the Île de Bourbon. His five years’ administration
of the islands was vigorous and successful. A visit to France
in 1740 was interrupted by the outbreak of hostilities with Great
Britain, and La Bourdonnais was put at the head of a fleet in
Indian waters. He saved Mahé, relieved General Dupleix at
Pondicherry, defeated Lord Peyton, and in 1746 participated
in the siege of Madras. He quarrelled with Dupleix over the
conduct of affairs in India, and his anger was increased on his
return to the Île de France at finding a successor to himself
installed there by his rival. He set sail on a Dutch vessel to
present his case at court, and was captured by the British,
but allowed to return to France on parole. Instead of securing
a settlement of his quarrel with Dupleix, he was arrested (1748)
on a charge of gubernatorial peculation and maladministration,
and secretly imprisoned for over two years in the Bastille.
He was tried in 1751 and acquitted, but his health was
broken by the imprisonment and by chagrin at the loss of
his property. To the last he made unjust accusations against
Dupleix. He died at Paris on the 10th of November 1753.
The French government gave his widow a pension of 2400
livres.
La Bourdonnais wrote Traité de la mâture des vaisseaux (Paris 1723), and left valuable memoirs which were published by his grandson, a celebrated chess player, Count L. C. Mahé de la Bourdonnais (1795–1840) (latest edition, Paris, 1890). His quarrel with Dupleix has given rise to much debate; for a long while the fault was generally laid to the arrogance and jealousy of Dupleix, but W. Cartwright and Colonel Malleson have pointed out that La Bourdonnais was proud, suspicious and over-ambitious.
