had no choice but to reveal the secrets of his process, and he had the misfortune to see his factory dismantled and his stocks of raw and finished materials sold. By way of compensation for the loss of his rights, the works were handed back to him in 1800, but all his efforts to obtain money enough to restore them and resume manufacturing on a profitable scale were vain, and, worn out with disappointment, he died by his own hand at Saint-Denis on the 16th of January 1806.
Four years after his death, Michel Jean Jacques Dizê (1764–1852), who had been préparateur to Darcet at the time he examined the process and who was subsequently associated with Le Blanc in its exploitation, published in the Journal de physique a paper claiming that it was he himself who had first suggested the addition of chalk; but a committee of the French Academy, which reported fully on the question in 1856, came to the conclusion that the merit was entirely Le Blanc’s (Com. rend., 1856, p. 553).
LE BLANC, a town of central France, capital of an arrondissement, in the department of Indre, 44 m. W.S.W. of Châteauroux on the Orléans railway between Argenton and Poitiers. Pop. (1906) 4719. The Creuse divides it into a lower and an upper town. The church of St Génitour dates from the 12th, 13th and 15th centuries, and there is an old castle restored in modern times. It is the seat of a subprefect, and has a tribunal of first instance and a communal college. Wool-spinning, and the manufacture of linen goods and edge-tools are among the industries. There is trade in horses and in the agricultural and
other products of the surrounding region.
Le Blanc, which is identified with the Roman Oblincum, was in the middle ages a lordship belonging to the house of Naillac and a frontier fortress of the province of Berry.
LEBŒUF, EDMOND (1809–1888), marshal of France, was born at Paris on the 5th of November 1809, passed through the École Polytechnique and the school of Metz, and distinguished
himself as an artillery officer in Algerian warfare, becoming
colonel in 1852. He commanded the artillery of the 1st French
corps at the siege of Sebastopol, and was promoted in 1854 to
the rank of general of brigade, and in 1857 to that of general of
division. In the Italian War of 1859 he commanded the artillery,
and by his action at Solferino materially assisted in achieving
the victory. In September 1866, having in the meantime
become aide-de-camp to Napoleon III., he was despatched
to Venetia to hand over that province to Victor Emmanuel.
In 1869, on the death of Marshal Niel, General Lebœuf became
minister of war, and earned public approbation by his vigorous
reorganization of the War Office and the civil departments of the
service. In the spring of 1870 he received the marshal’s baton.
On the declaration of war with Germany Marshal Lebœuf
delivered himself in the Corps Législatif of the historic saying,
“So ready are we, that if the war lasts two years, not a gaiter
button would be found wanting.” It may be that he intended
this to mean that, given time, the reorganization of the War
Office would be perfected through experience, but the result
inevitably caused it to be regarded as a mere boast, though it
is now known that the administrative confusion on the frontier
in July 1870 was far less serious than was supposed at the time.
Lebœuf took part in the Lorraine campaign, at first as chief of
staff (major-general) of the Army of the Rhine, and afterwards,
when Bazaine became commander-in-chief, as chief of the III.
corps, which he led in the battles around Metz. He distinguished
himself, whenever engaged, by personal bravery and good
leadership. Shut up with Bazaine in Metz, on its fall he was
confined as a prisoner in Germany. On the conclusion of peace
he returned to France and gave evidence before the commission
of inquiry into the surrender of that stronghold, when he strongly
denounced Bazaine. After this he retired into private life to
the Château du Moncel near Argentan, where he died on the
7th of June 1888.
LE BON, JOSEPH (1765–1795), French politician, was born at Arras on the 29th of September 1765. He became a priest in the order of the Oratory, and professor of rhetoric at Beaune. He adopted revolutionary ideas, and became a curé of the
Constitutional Church in the department of Pas-de-Calais, where he was later elected as a député suppléant to the Convention. He became maire of Arras and administrateur of Pas-de-Calais,
and on the 2nd of July 1793 took his seat in the Convention.
He was sent as a representative on missions into the departments
of the Somme and Pas-de-Calais, where he showed great severity
in dealing with offences against revolutionaries (8th Brumaire,
year II. to 22nd Messidor, year II.; i.e. 29th October 1793 to
10th July 1794). In consequence, during the reaction which
followed the 9th Thermidor (27th July 1794) he was arrested
on the 22nd Messidor, year III. (10th July 1795). He was tried
before the criminal tribunal of the Somme, condemned to death
for abuse of his power during his mission, and executed at
Amiens on the 24th Vendémiaire in the year IV. (10th October
1795). Whatever Le Bon’s offences, his condemnation was to a
great extent due to the violent attacks of one of his political
enemies, Armand Guffroy; and it is only just to remember that
it was owing to his courage that Cambrai was saved from falling
into the hands of the Austrians.
His son, Émile le Bon, published a Histoire de Joseph le Bon et des tribunaux révolutionnaires d’Arras et de Cambrai (2nd ed., 2 vols., Arras, 1864).
LEBRIJA, or Lebrixa, a town of southern Spain, in the
province of Seville, near the left bank of the Guadalquivir,
and on the eastern edge of the marshes known as Las Marismas.
Pop. (1900) 10,997. Lebrija is 44 m. S. by W. of Seville, on the
Seville-Cadiz railway. Its chief buildings are a ruined Moorish
castle and the parish church, an imposing structure in a variety
of styles—Moorish, Gothic, Romanesque—dating from the 14th
century to the 16th, and containing some early specimens of the
carving of Alonso Cano (1601–1667). There are manufactures of
bricks, tiles and earthenware, for which clay is found in the
neighbourhood; and some trade in grain, wine and oil.
Lebrija is the Nabrissa or Nebrissa, surnamed Veneria, of the Romans; by Silius Italicus (iii. 393), who connects it with the worship of Dionysus, the name is derived from the Greek νεβρίς (a “fawn-skin,” associated with Dionysiac ritual). Nebrishah was a strong and populous place during the period of Moorish domination (from 711); it was taken by St Ferdinand in 1249, but again lost, and became finally subject to the Castilian crown only under Alphonso the Wise in 1264. It was the birthplace of Elio Antonio de Lebrija or Nebrija (1444–1522), better known as Nebrissensis, one of the most important leaders in the revival of learning in Spain, the tutor of Queen Isabella, and a collaborator with Cardinal Jimenes in the preparation of the Complutensian Polyglot (see Alcala de Henares).
LE BRUN, CHARLES (1619–1690), French painter, was born at Paris on the 24th of February 1619, and attracted the notice of Chancellor Séguier, who placed him at the age of eleven in the studio of Vouet. At fifteen he received commissions from Cardinal Richelieu, in the execution of which he displayed an ability which obtained the generous commendations of Poussin, in whose company Le Brun started for Rome in 1642. In Rome he remained four years in the receipt of a pension due to the liberality of the chancellor. On his return to Paris Le Brun found numerous patrons, of whom Superintendent Fouquet was the most important. Employed at Vaux le Vicomte, Le Brun ingratiated himself with Mazarin, then secretly pitting Colbert against Fouquet. Colbert also promptly recognized Le Brun’s powers of organization, and attached him to his interests. Together they founded the Academy of Painting and Sculpture (1648), and the Academy of France at Rome (1666), and gave a new development to the industrial arts. In 1660 they established the Gobelins, which at first was a great school for the manufacture, not of tapestries only, but of every class of furniture required in the royal palaces. Commanding the industrial arts through the Gobelins—of which he was director—and the whole artist world through the Academy—in which he successively held every post—Le Brun imprinted his own character on all that was produced in France during his lifetime, and gave a direction to the national tendencies which endured after his death. The nature of his emphatic and pompous talent was in harmony with the taste of the king, who, full of admiration at the decorations designed by Le Brun for his triumphal entry into Paris (1660), commissioned him to execute
