Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/92

86 LACROIX the same time Le Publiciste, became imperial censor in 1810, successor of Esmenard in the academy in 1811, and professor of history in the faculty of letters in 1812, where for 36 years his course was numerously attended. He was among the first to rally around the Bourbons in 1814, and in 1822 he received letters of nobility from Louis XVIII. When in 1827 Peyronnet proposed a law restricting the press, Lacretelle delivered before the acad- emy an eloquent harangue against it, which led that body to address the king in opposition to it. For this speech he lost his office of royal censor, which he had held since 1814. He retired to Macon in 1848. His historical works, nine in number, comprise the period from the commencement of the religious wars to the accession of Louis Philippe, but most fully that of the first revolution. Most of them are the first that were written on the period of which they treat, and the judgments are often those of a contemporary partisan. III. Henri de, a French author, son of the pre- ceding, born in Paris in 1816. He has pub- lished a number of works, includin^Zes cloches (poems, 1841), Dona Carmen (1844), Valence de Simian (1845), Nocturnes (1846), Gontes de la meridienne (1859), Les noces de Pierrette (1859), Les nuits sans etoiles (1861), Le colonel Jean (1865), and Sous la hache (1872). The last, a philosophical romance, is a plea for the abolition of the death penalty. In 1871 he was elected to represent Saone-et-Loire in the national assembly. LACROIX. I. Paul, a French novelist and historical and philological writer, born in Pa- ris, Feb. 27, 1806. Under the pseudonyme of Le bibliophile Jacob, he wrote a number of his- torical tales and novels, in which he displayed much curious erudition. In 1834-'5 he pub- lished Histoire du 16* siecle en France, d'apres les originaux manuscrits et imprimes (4 vols. 8vo). He then produced in rapid succession an extragrdinary number of novels, transla- tions, and historical, philological, bibliographi- cal, and polemical works. He has also been the editor of or a contributor to many periodicals. Since 1854 he has edited the Revue universelle des Arts, published simultaneously at Paris and at Brussels. He was appointed in 1855 keeper of the arsenal library, and is a member of his- torical committees connected with the ministry of public instruction. Among his later works are: Dissertations UUiographiques(l&)', Un moUlwr historigue des XVII* et XV IIP sie- cles (1865); L* Histoire de la me et du regne de Nicolas I 67 ", empereur de Russie (4 vols., 1864-'8) ; Arts au moyen dge et d Vepoque de la Renaissance (1868 ; translated and illustra- ted, London, 1873 ; supplement, 1870) ; Mceurs, usages et costumes au moyen dge et a Vepoque de la Renaissance, with 440 plates (1871) ; and La me militaire et la me religieuse au moyen dge (1872). His wife, APOLLINE BIFFE, who was once an actress under the name of Pauline Derf euille, gained some reputation as a novelist. LA CROSSE Among her works are Fleur de serre et fleur des champs (1854:), Falcone (1856), and Madame Berihe (1857). II. Jules* a French poet and novelist, brother of the preceding, born in Paris, May 7, 1809. In 1830 he published a translation of Shakespeare's "Macbeth," which was highly praised by literary critics. He sub- sequently applied himself to novel writing, in which line of composition he is more remarka- ble for bitterness of sentiment, satirical power, and intricacy of plot, than morality and chaste- ness of style. His five-act tragedy, Le testa- ment de Cesar, was performed with success in 1849, at the Theatre Francais. In his Valeria (1851), another five-act play, written in con- junction with Auguste Maquet, Rachel filled two different parts. His literal version of Sophocles's (Edipus Rex was performed with marked success, Sept. 18, 1858, and obtained in 1862 from the French academy the grand prize of 10,000 francs. In 1868 his Le roi Lear, in five acts, in verse from Shakespeare, was successfully presented at the Od6on. LACROIX, Paul Joseph Eugene, a French archi- tect, born in Paris, March 19, 1814, died there in February, 1873. He was a foster brother of Napoleon III., studied in Paris and in Italy, was employed in restoring the town hall of St. Quentin, and as architect of the lyse~e (1852) he designed the enlargement of this palace and also that of the Tuileries. He designed the tomb of Pope Adrian V. at Viterbo, a monu- ment to Ney, and many other works. LACROIX, Sylvestre Francois, a French mathe- matician, born in Paris in 1765, died there, May 25, 1843. He belonged to a poor family, but by his own exertions acquired an education, and became such a proficient in mathematics, that when scarcely 17 he was appointed pro- fessor in the marine school at Rochefort. In 1786 he went to Paris, and in 1787 became a professor in the military school. While he. occupied this chair, the academy of sciences awarded him a prize of 6,000 livres for a trea- tise on maritime insurance. He held professor- ships consecutively in the artillery school, the normal school, the polytechnic school, the Sorbonne, and the college de France. He was among the original members of the institute. In 1796 he began the publication of his ele- mentary Cours de mathematiques, comprising arithmetic, algebra (English translation, Cam- bridge, Mass., 1818), geometry, and trigonome- try, which was for years the best text book of its kind. Among his works are Traite du calcul differentiel et integral (2 vols. 4to, 1797), and treatises on mathematical and physical geography and the teaching of mathematics. LA CROSSE, a S. W. county of Wisconsin, separated from Minnesota by the Mississippi river, bounded N. W. by Black river, and drained by the La Crosse ; area, 450 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 20,297. The surface is undula- ting and generally well timbered, and the soil is fertile. The chief productions in 1870 were 581,485 bushels of wheat, 21,789 of rye, 192,503