Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/129

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LAMBERT LAMBERT, Johann Heinrk-h, a German phi- losopher, born in Mtihlhausen, Alsace, Aug. 29, 1728, died in Berlin, Sept. 25, 1777. He was the son of a poor tailor, and was chiefly self- educated. He was at first a copying clerk, afterward secretary to the editor of a news- paper at Basel. In 1748 he went to Coire in Switzerland, and became private tutor in the family of Count Peter de Salis, then president of the confederation. In 1756-'8 he visited Holland, France, and Italy with his pupils. In 1759 he removed to Augsburg, but, having been appointed to determine the boundaries between the country of the Grisons and the Milanese, he returned to Coire in 1761, and so- journed there till 1763. In 1764 he went to Berlin, and was made a member of the royal academy of sciences ; in 1770 he was appointed superior councillor of the board of works ; and in 1774 was intrusted with the superintendence of the " Astronomical Almanac." He was re- garded as the most analytical writer on scien- tific subjects of his day. The measurement of the intensity of light was first reduced to a science in his PJiotometria (Augsburg, 1760), and the theory of refraction was developed in Les proprietes remarquables de la route de la lumiere par les airs (the Hague, 1759; Ger. translation, Berlin, 1773). Among his other works are : Die freie Perspective (Zurich, 1759); Kosmologische Brief e uber die Einrich- tung des Weltbaues (Augsburg, 1761); Insig- niores Orbitcs Cometarum Proprietates (1761); Neues Organon (Leipsic, 1764) ; Beitrage zum Gebrauch der Maihematik (Berlin, 1765-'72) ; and Anlage zur ArchiteJctonik (Riga, 1771). His correspondence with Kant appears in the minor miscellaneous works of the latter. LAMBERT, John, an English general, born in Kirkby-Malhamdale, in the West riding of Yorkshire, Sept. 7, 1619, died in the island of Guernsey in 1692. He was educated for the bar, but at the outbreak of the civil war en- tered the parliamentary army as a captain un- der Fairfax, and at the battle of Worcester, Sept. 3, 1651, was a major general. He was instrumental in procuring the recognition of Cromwell as protector, and was a member of the first parliament called by him. But upon the assumption by Cromwell in 1657 of sov- ereign power, and his inauguration with the solemnities applicable to monarchs, he refused to take the required oath of allegiance and re- tired from public life. After the death of Cromwell he associated himself with the gen- eral council of officers of the army, and aided in deposing Richard Cromwell, even ventur- ing, on the credit of his military reputation, to aspire to the position of protector. As ~a leader of the fifth monarchy men and extreme republicans, he was prominent in procuring the return in May, 1659, of the remnant of the long parliament called the "rump;" and upon the rising of the royalists in Chester in August of the same year he promptly marched thither and defeated them. This success excited the LAMBESSA 123 jealousy of parliament, and on a flimsy pretext Lambert with other officers was cashiered; whereupon with a body of soldiers he dis- persed the members, Oct. 13, and a committee of safety appointed by the army, of which Lambert was the controlling spirit, began to exercise the functions of government. His position at this time was so important that it was considered not unlikely, in the event of his own schemes of sovereignty proving im- practicable, that he might make terms with Charles II. ; and some of the adherents of the latter went so far as to recommend him to se- cure the services of Lambert by marrying his daughter. Meanwhile Monk commenced his march from Scotland for the purpose of re- storing parliament. Lambert at the head of 7,000 men started to oppose him; but his troops deserted in great numbers, and in Jan- uary, 1660, he was seized by order of parlia- ment, which had reassembled during his ab- sence, and committed to the tower. Monk's design to restore the monarchy being now manifest, the hopes of the republicans began again to centre in Lambert, who, escaping from the tower in April, put himself at the head of a body of troops in Warwickshire. His men again deserted him, and he was re- captured by Col. Ingoldsby and conveyed to the tower. Having been excepted from the bill of indemnity after the restoration, he was tried in 1662 in the court of king's bench with Sir Harry Vane, and convicted, but was re- prieved at the bar and banished to Guernsey, where he devoted the rest of his life to botany and flower painting. He is said to have died a Roman Catholic. LAMBESSA, or Lambese, a French penal colony of Algeria, in the province and 55 m. S. by W. of the city of Constantine, founded in 1848-'50 ; pop. of the town about 400, of whom half are Europeans. A French commander resides in the place, and is supported by a body of officers and soldiers. Lambessa contains a church, a hospital, a post office, and various other public buildings, the principal of which is the prison, built at a cost of $350,000. The prisoners are permitted to work at their former trades ; half of the proceeds of their labor is given to them at once, and the remainder when they are set free. The neighboring country is well adapted for agriculture and fruit growing, but is not yet much cultivated. Lambessa occupies the site of the ancient Lambese or Lambaasa, which was one of the most important cities in the in- terior of Numidia, belonging to the Massylii. Under the Romans an entire legion was sta- tioned here, and among its interesting ruins are the remains of an amphitheatre, a temple of ^Esculapius, a triumphal arch, and other buildings, enclosed by a wall in which 40 gates have been traced, 15 of them still in a good state of preservation. Statues of Jupiter, ^Esculapius, and Hygiea, and busts of' Roman emperors and empresses have been found, be- sides a number of tombs and inscriptions. The