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LEBBUN LE CLEAK 283 the royal printing establishment. For some time he was a member of the chamber of peers under Louis Philippe, and in 1853 became a member of the imperial senate. His complete works (5 vols., 1844-'63) include a number of dramas, of which his Marie Stuart is based upon Schiller's tragedy of. that name. LEBRl'X, Ponce Denis Ecouchard, a French poet, born in Paris, Aug. 11, 1729, died there, Aug. 31, 1807". He was brought up in the fam- ily of the prince de Conti, and as early as his 12th year he began to write verses. His early life was not fortunate, his wife, a beautiful woman, celebrated in many of his poems under the name of "Fanny," having procured a legal separation after a stormy union of 14 years, j and his little property having been dissipated | by the insolvency of the prince de Guemenee. I He avenged himself on his enemies by stinging ' epigrams and passionate lyrics. Upon the ap- pointment of Calonne as comptroller general of finance, he received a pension of 2,000 li- vres, and his muse was energetically employed in celebrating the virtues of the king; and after the downfall of the monarchy he sang the praises of the republic. He subsequently ingratiated himself with the first consul, and received a pension of 6,000 francs. LECCE. I. A S. E. province of Italy, for- merly called Terra d'Otranto, and forming part of the division of Apulia, though in anti- quity it formed the separate division of Cala- bria or Messapia; area, 3,293 sq. m. ; pop. in 1872, 493,594, including about 40,000 Arnauts and Greeks. It is traversed in its entire length from N. W. to S. E. by the Apennines. Among the more important coast rivers are the Lieto and the Galeso. . The climate is mild, but the province often suffers from great drought. Among the chief products are corn, cotton, tobacco, wine, and olives. It is divided into the districts of Brindisi, Gallipoli, Lecce, and Taranto. II. A city, capital of the prov- ince, at the foot of the Apennines, 21 m. S. S. E. of Brindisi; pop. in 1872, 23,247. It is the seat of a bishop, of a prefect, and a tribu- nal of primary jurisdiction, and has a lyceum, a castle, and manufactories of tobacco and cotton. The Lecce oil, the best kind of table oil, constitutes . an important article of trade. During the middle ages Lecce was a county of the Normans; and in 1189 Count Tancred of Lecce became king of Sicily. LECH (anc. Licus), a river of Germany, a tributary of the Danube, rising from Lake Formanin in Vorarlberg, Austria, at a height of 6,000 ft., E. of the Rothe Wand mountain (9,000 ft. high). Entering Tyrol, it flows for about 50 m. in an E. N. E. course, along a nar- row and sombre valley, to Reute, and thence in a winding course toward the north, between famous ridges and lakes of the Algau Alps, to Ftissen, above which it enters Bavaria. Near the boundary it forms a cataract and the finest rapids in Germany. It then flows N., on the confines of Upper Bavaria and Swabia, passing Schongau, Landsberg, Augsburg, and Lech- hausen, and terminating its course of about 180 m. near a ruined castle in the vicinity of Lechsend. Its principal affluents are the Vils and the Wertach. Owing to the torrent-like velocity of the Lech it is not suitable for navi- gation.- The plain of Lechfeld, between the Lech and the Wertach, extending from Lands- berg to Augsburg, was the scene of a memora- ble victory achieved by the emperor Otho I. over the Hungarians, Aug. 10, 955. In oppo- sing the passage of the Lech, near Eain, by Gus- tavus Adolphus, Tilly was mortally wounded, April 5, 1632. LECHEVALIER, Jean Baptiste, a French ar- chasologist, born near Coutances, in Normandy, July 1, 1752, died in Paris, July 2, 1836. He was secretary of legation under Count de Choiseul- Gouffier at Constantinople, and his associate (1785-' 6) in exploring the Troad. In 1805 he became director of the library of Ste. Gene- vieve in Paris. While in England he lived for several years in the house of Sir Francis Bur- dett, and in Edinburgh he delivered a lecture on Troy before the royal society, which was published in English by A. Dalzel (London, 1791). His Voyage de la Troade (3d and en- larged ed., 3 vols. Paris, 1802), gave rise to much controversy ; and his Ulysse-Homer (Pa- ris, 1829), published under the nom de plume of Constant Koliades, in which he endeavored to show that Ulysses was the author of the Ho- meric poems, was regarded as absurd. His other writings include Voyage de la Propon- tide et du Pont Euxin (2 vols., Paris, 1800). LECRY, William Edward Hartpole, a British author, born near Dublin, March 26, 1838. He graduated at Trinity college in that city in 1859, taking the degree of M. A. four years later, and from this time devoted himself to political and philosophical literature. His first important work, " The Leaders of Public Opin- ion in Ireland," was published anonymously in 1861, and attracted immediate attention. It was republished under his own name in 1871-'2. In 1865 he published the earlier of the two works which have chiefly contributed to his reputation, " History of the Rise and Influence of the Spirit of Rationalism in Europe" (2 vols., London; 4th ed., 1870). This was fol- lowed by his " History of European Morals from Augustus to Charlemagne " (2 vols., Lon- don, 1869). The last named work especially has been widely read, and a German transla- tion of it appeared in 1871. LE CLEAR, Thomas, an American painter, born in Owego, IS. Y., March 11, 1818. In 1839 he opened a studio in New York, where his picture " The Reprimand " was purchased by the art union. In 1844 he removed to Buffalo, where he remained painting portraits till 1860, when he established himself in New York. Among his most successful portraits are' those of Daniel S. Dickinson, Millard Fill- more, T. B. Thorpe, the artists Gifford, McEn- tee, and Hubbard, and Edwin Booth as Hamlet.