Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/292

This page needs to be proofread.

LE CREUZOT LEDRU-ROLLIN Burial in consecrated ground was refused to her remains, and Voltaire, who was counted among her lovers, wrote a poem, La mort de Mademoiselle Lecouvreur, which involved him in trouble, so that he was obliged to leave Paris. Scribe and Legouve" made the career of Adrienne Lecouvreur the theme of a play, which achieved great celebrity from the repre- sentation by Rachel of the character of the heroine, which was said to be in many respects similar to her own. LE CREUZOT, a town of France, in the de- partment of Saone-et-Loire, 11 m. S. E. of Autun; pop. in 1866, 23,872. The town and its environs contain the most extensive iron founderies, coal mines, and machine factories in France, which about 1837 were acquired by Messrs. Schneider and co. from an English company. The population was quadrupled be- tween 1846 and 1866, and more than 10,000 persons are employed in the works, which occupy over 500 acres, about 75 of which are covered by workshops. There are about 200 coke ovens and over 20 blast furnaces, besides founderies, locomotive factories, and* copper works. The principal products are locomo- tives, steamboat engines of the largest size, and vast quantities of iron, coal, rails, sheet- iron and iron ware, and instruments of almost all descriptions. A railway of about 6 m. con- veys the products to the central canal or canal of Oharolais. Great attention is paid to the comfort, medical treatment, and education of the workmen and their families, about 3,000 children attending the industrial school. The works were known at the end of the 18th cen- tury, and a large foundery of cannon and car- tridges existed here during the revolutionary wars. An extensive manufactory of crystals for chandeliers, rivalling the Bohemian and English establishments, also existed here for a long time, but has been removed to Baccarat. Le Oreuzot has attained its present importance through the enterprise of Eugene Schneider, president of the corps legislatif under the sec- ond empire, and of his elder brother. Strikes of the workmen took place in January and March, 1870, in consequence of a proposition made by the resident manager relative to the benefit fund of the establishment. The former was suppressed only after the arrival of 3,000 troops and the arrest of a few ringleaders. The latter kept Le Creuzot and other centres of industry in a state of excitement for nearly six months. LECTOURE, a town of France, in the depart- ment of Gers, on the river Gers, 46 m. W. W. of Toulouse; pop. in 1866, 6,086. It has a college and a hospital. It is the birthplace of Marshal Lannes, to whom a monument has been erected here. In ancient Gaul it was the capital of the tribe of the Lectorates. It be- came at an early time the seat of a bishopric, which was abolished in 1801. LEDA, in Greek mythology, the daughter of King Thestius or Glaucus. She was wife of Tyndareus, by whom she was at first mother of Timandra and Philonoe. Her great beauty at- tracted the love of Jupiter, and she gave birth at the same time to Castor and Clytemnestra, who were of mortal nature, being begotten by Tyndareus, and to Pollux and Helen, who were children of Jupiter and immortal. According to the most common legend, Jupiter surprised her under the form of a swan, and she brought forth two eggs, from one of which issued Helen, and from the other Castor and Pollux. There are still other versions concerning her connec- tion with Jupiter, and there are several of her subsequent history. One account states that she was after death deified as Nemesis, while another declares that Nemesis was the mother and Leda only the nurse or guardian of the eggs. Mythologists have conjectured an iden- tity between Leda and Leto or Latona. LEDEBOFR, Karl Frledrieh von, a German traveller, born in Stralsund, July 8, 1785, died in Munich, July 4, 1851. He graduated at Stockholm as doctor of philosophy at an early age, and was appointed in 1805 teacher and director of the botanic garden at Greifswald. In 1811 he became professor of natural history at the university of Dorpat in Russia. In 1826 he explored the Altai mountains, and the re- sult of his investigations is embodied in his Reise durcJi das Altaigebirge und die Dson- garische Kirgisensteppe (2 vols., Berlin, 1829- '30), and in his Flora Altaica (4 vols., Berlin, 1829-'34). In the preparation of the latter work, as well as in that of Icones Plantarum Novarum Floram Rossicam illustrantes (5 vols. fol., with 500 colored plates, Riga, 1829-'34), he was assisted by his travelling companions Meyer and Bunge. He regarded his Flora Ros- sica (3 vols., Stuttgart, 1842-'51) as his great- est scientific achievement. He resided succes- sively in Odessa and Heidelberg, and in Munich from 1843 to the time of his death. LEDRU-ROLLIN, Alexandra Augnste, a French politician, born in Paris, Feb. 2, 1808. The son of a wealthy physician, he studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1830. Soon after, in order to distinguish himself from another member of the bar of the same name, he added to his proper name Ledru that of his natural great-grandfather Rollin. A paper on martial law, which had been proclaimed at Paris by the government in consequence of the repub- lican insurrection of 1832, gave evidence of his ability as a lawyer. Two years later his Memoire sur les tenements de la rue Trans- nonain produced a deep sensation, and thence- forth he was employed as counsel by most of the opposition journals and republican con- spirators who were prosecuted under Louis Philippe. In 1837 he assumed the editorship of the Journal du Palais, a law periodical, re- printed the volumes previously published (27 vols. 8vo, 1791-1837), and continued it for ten years. He also superintended the publication of Jurisprudence fran$aise, ou Repertoire du Journal du Palais (8 vols. 4to, 1843-'8), and