Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/528

This page needs to be proofread.

L'ISLET LIST town ; and the Spanish armada sailed hence in 1588. The most memorable event in the his- tory of the city is the great earthquake of Nov. 1, 1755, hy which about 40,000 persons lost their lives, and most of the city was de- stroyed. (See EARTHQUAKE, vol. vi., p. 360.) It has never fully recovered from this calamity, of which traces still remain in the desolated as- pect of many vacant building sites. The city was occupied by the French in November, 1807, but delivered by the English in 1808, and protected by the duke of Wellington against the attacks of the enemy by the erection in 1809-'10 of formidable fortifications, extending from the Atlantic eastward to Torres Vedras (hence called the lines of Torres Vedras), and thence southeastward to Alhandra on the Ta- gus. On the occasion of the revolt of the troops against Dom Miguel, Aug. 21, 1831, some 300 persons lost their lives. The town was seized by Dom Pedro in July, 1833. L'ISLET, a S. county of Quebec, Canada, bounded S. E. by Maine and N. W. by the St. Lawrence; area, 793 sq. m. ; pop. in 1871, 13,- 517, of whom 13,375 were of French origin or descent. It is traversed by the Grand Trunk railway. Capital, St. Jean Port Joli. LISIEiJX (anc. Noviomagus), a city of Nor- mandy, France, in the department of Calva- dos, 25 m. E. of Caen; pop. in 1866, 12,617. It is situated in a fine valley, watered by the small streams Orbec and Touques. The principal street, traversed by the highway from Caen to fivreux, is spacious and hand- some ; the rest of the town is composed of narrow and tortuous streets, and most of the houses are of wood and present a wretched appearance. The finest edifice is the cathe- dral, a Gothic building of the 12th century. The episcopal palace is a fine building with beautiful gardens. Most of the manufac- tures of the arrondissement of Lisieux, chiefly linen, woollen, cotton, ribbons, &c., are sold here, and there is also a brisk commerce in grain, fruits, cider, hemp, flax, cattle, and the other produce of the country. Lisieux was anciently the capital of the Lexovii. It was pillaged by the Normans in 877, burned by the Bretons in 1130, taken by Philip Augustus in 1203, by the English in 1417, and by Henry IV. in 1590. It became early the see of a bishop, but the diocese was abolished in 1801. LISLE. I. Ouillanme de, a French geogra- pher, born in Paris, Feb. 28, 1675, died Jan. 25, 1726. He was the son of Claude de Lisle, a geographer and historian of some note, and at the age of nine had constructed several charts of ancient history. He wholly recon- structed the system of geography current in Europe in 1700, by the publication of maps of the world, and of Europe, Asia, and Africa, in which he corrected many of the errors that had been copied with little alteration into all the works on geography since the time of Ptolemy. He also constructed a celestial and terrestrial globe. He was admitted to the academy of sciences in 1702, and was after- ward appointed tutor in geography to Louis XV., who created for him in 1718 the title of "first geographer to the king," with a pen- sion of 1,200 livres. De Lisle drew up sev- eral maps for the use of his royal pupil, and the whole number made by him is said to amount to 134. In 1724 he published a cor- rected edition of his map of the world. He contributed several memoirs to the Recueil de Vacademie des sciences. II. Joseph Nicolas, a French astronomer, brother of the preceding, born in Paris, April 4, 1688, died there, Sept. 11, 1768. He first brought himself into notice in 1706 by an essay on an eclipse of the sun. In 1714 he was chosen a member of the French academy, and in 1724 visited England, where he was elected a fellow of the royal society. On the invitation of Catharine I. in 1726, he went to St. Petersburg, where he had charge of the observatory till 1747, when ill health obliged him to return to France. While in Russia he had made a collection of objects illustrative of geography and astronomy, which on his return was purchased by Louis XV., and De Lisle charged with the care of it. He also became a professor in the royal college of France. LISSA (Polish Leszno), a town of Prussia, in the province and 42 m. S. S. W. of the city of Posen; pop. in 1871, 10,635, of whom more than one third were Jews. It has four churches, a synagogue, a normal school, a gymnasium, and a large number of manufac- tories. It was originally a family estate of the counts Leszczynski, with whom in the 16th century the persecuted Bohemian Brethren found a refuge. At the time of the thirty years' war Lissa was the chief seat of the Bohemian Brethren, who had here their most famous school, a seminary, and their archives. LISSA, an Austrian island in the Adriatic sea, belonging to Dalmatia, 22 m. S. W. of Spalato ; area, 38 sq. m. ; pop. about 7,000. It has a strongly fortified war port. Tl^e Aus- trian admiral Tegetthoff obtained here, July 20, 1866, a great naval victory over the Ital- ians under Admiral Persano. LIST, Friedrich, a German political econo- mist, born in Reutlingen, Aug. 6, 1789, died by his own hand in Kuf stein, Nov. 30, 1846. He studied political economy, was for two years professor of this and kindred sciences at Tu- bingen, and officiated as agent of the German commercial union from 1819 to 1821, when he was elected to the Wiirtemberg chamber of deputies ; but having attacked the government in a petition, he was prevented from taking his seat, and sentenced? to ten months' imprison- ment. After fruitless attempts to obtain par- don, and after several years' exile, he was even- tually imprisoned in the fortress of Asperg, after which he emigrated to the United States, and settled in Pennsylvania. His " Outlines of a new System of Political Economy " was pub- lished in Philadelphia in 1827. He became an extensive holder of land, which he made avail-