ed Castor and Clytemnestra, of mortal nature, being begotten by Tyndareus, and Pollux and Helen, who were children of Jupiter and immortal. There are many versions of this fable of Leda and the swan, some reversing the origin of the children, and others reducing their number; also of the subsequent history of Leda. 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 identity between Leda and Leto or Latona.

LEDEBOUR, KARL FRIEDRICH VON, a German botanist and traveller, born in Stralsund, July 8, 1785, died in Munich, July 4, 1851. He was graduated at Stockholm as doctor of philosophy at an early age, and appointed in 1805 teacher and director of the botanic garden at Greifswalde. In 1811 he became professor of natural history at the university of Dorpat, in Russia. In 1826 he explored the Altai mountains, and the result of his investigations is embodied in his Reise durch das Altaigebirge und die Dsongarische Kirgisensteppe (2 vols., Berlin, 1829-30), and in his important botanical work, 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 Rossica (3 vols., Stuttgart, 1842-'51), as the greatest scientific achievement of his life. He resided successively in Odessa and Heidelberg, and in Munich from 1843 to the time of his death. LEDRU-ROLLIN, ALEXANDRE AUGUSTE, a French jurist and politician, born in Paris, Feb. 2,1808. The son of a wealthy physician, he received a liberal education, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1830. A paper on martial law, which had been proclaimed at Paris by the government in consequence of the republican insurrection of 1832, gave evidence of his ability as a lawyer. Two years later, his Mémoire sur les événements de la rue Transnonain produced a deep sensation, and thenceforth he was employed as counsel by most of the opposition journals and republican conspirators who were prosecuted under Louis Philippe. In the numerous trials in which he thus became engaged, he gained a certain amount of popularity by his boldness and a fervid though not always classical eloquence. In 1837 he assumed the editorship of the Journal du Palais, a law periodical of high standing; he reprinted the volumes previously published (27 vols. 8vo., 1791-1837), and continued it for 10 years. He also superintended the publication of a work entitled Jurisprudence Française, ou Répertoire du Journal du Palais (8 vols. 4to., 1843-'8), and added to it a remarkable introduction. In 1844-'6 appeared his Jurisprudence administrative en matière contentieuse de 1789 à 1831 (9 vols. 8vo). About the same time he was the

chief editor of the daily law newspaper, Le droit. In 1838 he bought the place of attorney at the court of cassation, but disposed of it in 1846 in order to devote more time to politics. In 1841 he had been elected deputy by the department of Sarthe, by a nearly unanimous vote, to succeed Etienne Garnier-Pagès, who had just died. He made a bold confession of his republican creed, which was hailed with enthusiasm by his constituency, but caused him to be prosecuted by the government; he was sentenced to 4 months' imprisonment and a fine of 3,000 francs; on a new trial, however, he was acquitted. He spoke often in the chamber of deputies, but exerted little influence upon the members. Nor did he find hearty support among the opposition press; he consequently established, under the editorship of Flocon, a journal of his own, La réforme, which advocated not only political but social reforms. In 1845 he issued a socialist manifesto, which secured him a considerable party in the lower ranks of society, while it estranged from him the middle classes. His uncompromising support of the doctrine of universal suffrage displeased also the monarchical opposition party, headed by Odilon-Barrot and others. He took a leading part in all the republican demonstrations in the provinces during the year 1847; he was the orator of the political banquets at Lille, Châlons-sur-Saône, and Dijon; and when the revolution, for which his violent attacks upon the government had contributed to pave the way, broke out, he became for a short time its acknowledged leader; it was he who chiefly prevented the regency of the duchess of Orleans from being accepted by the chamber of deputies, and secured the powerful help of Lamartine. On the organization of the provisional government, he was elected by acclamation one of its members. His position was extremely embarrassing; he was associated with men whose principles were entirely discordant, some entertaining moderate opinions, others on the contrary anxious to bring about a radical change in the social system. Unwilling to go as far as these socialistic revolutionists, he gradually lost his popularity among the lower classes, while he became more than ever the bugbear of the bourgeoisie. Their distrust was deepened into hatred when, as minister of the interior, he issued revolutionary circulars and sent special commissioners to various parts of France to further the democratic organization of the departments. He was held responsible also for the publication of the Bulletins de la république, which were supposed at the time to be from the pen of George Sand. Nevertheless he evinced great personal zeal and courage in maintaining tranquillity in Paris; his timely precautions defeated the insurrectionary attempt of April 16; he protected the Presse and Emile de Girardin against a mob, and reconciled the democrats of Paris to the return of the army to the capital. But his efforts to prevent an open rupture between the opposing parties nearly lost him his seat at the ensuing elections, and

he owed his return to the constituent assembly solely to his name being associated with those of more popular members of the provisional government. On the formation of the executive commission by the assembly, he was the last on the list, and received but 458 votes out of about 800, and even this through the influence of Lamartine. The insurrection of May 15 increased the distrust of all parties toward him. He aided in defeating the object of the insurgents; but when Louis Blanc and Caussidière were accused before the assembly, he courageously defended them. When, in consequence of the insurrection of June 24, the executive power devolved on Gen. Cavaignac, Ledru-Rollin breathed more freely; and resuming his seat in the assembly, he neglected no opportunity of vindicating his own conduct and opinions, and in the parliamentary struggle that followed displayed more than his wonted eloquence, winning the suffrages of even his bitterest opponents. His speeches against the state of siege, his explanations of the insurrection of June, and his protest against the sending of a French army to Italy were particularly admired as efforts of oratory. In the presidential election of Dec. 1848, he presented himself as the democratic candidate, but received only 370,119 votes, while Louis Napoleon Bonaparte obtained more than 5,000,000, and Cavaignac nearly 1,500,000. The standing he held in the assembly, his denunciations of the reactionary tendencies of the majority and the government, and his eloquent appeals in behalf of a truly republican system, somewhat revived his popularity during the first part of 1849. To strengthen this returning favor he assisted at banquets in Le Mans, Châteauroux, and Moulins, where his democratic addresses were hailed with unbounded enthusiasm. A brutal attack upon his person which took place in the last of the above named cities, and of which he himself gave an account in the assembly, also had the effect of gaining him much sympathy; and in the elections for the legislative assembly he was chosen by 5 departments at once, Seine, Allier, Var, Saône-et-Loire, and Hérault, while 7 others gave him a very heavy vote. This encouraged him to a still more hearty opposition to the government, and especially to present himself as the defender of the Roman republic, which had been crushed by the arms of France. On June 11 he concluded his protest against the French expedition in these words: "The constitution is violated; we will defend it by every possible means, and if need be by the force of arms;" and at the same time moved the impeachment of the president and his cabinet. On June 13 he attempted an insurrectionary demonstration; at the head of a few deputies, some artillerymen of the national guard under Guinard, and a few hundred citizens, he went to the conservatoire des arts et métiers; but here, before they had time to take any decisive measures, the insurgents were surrounded by troops. Some of them escaped through an upper window. Ledru-Rollin, after

remaining concealed for about 8 weeks in the neighborhood of Paris, escaped to Belgium, and then repaired to England, whence he directed a solemn protest against the decree summoning him before the high court of justice. He was sentenced by default to transportation for life. Since that period he has resided in England, where he supports himself partly by the remnants of his property and partly by his pen. Beside a pamphlet, Le 13 juin, 1848, an apology for his conduct on that day, he has published De la décadence de l'Angleterre (2 vols. 8vo., Paris, 1850), and La loi Anglaise (2 vols. 8vo.). He has also been one of the principal contributors to La voix d'un proscrit. He associated himself for awhile with Kossuth, Mazzini, Ruge, and other leading revolutionists, in the hope of concentrating the efforts of the European democracy. In 1857 he was accused, in connection with Mazzini, of a plot against the life of Napoleon III., and was a second time sentenced to transportation. He has refused to avail himself of the last amnesty proclaimed by the emperor of the French.

LEDYARD, JOHN, an American traveller, born in Groton, Conn., in 1751, died in Cairo, Egypt, Jan. 17, 1789. He lost his father in early childhood, and after an ineffectual attempt to pursue the study of the law, at his mother's request he entered Dartmouth college in 1772, with a view of fitting himself for missionary duty among the Indians. The restraints of this mode of life proving irksome, he absented himself at one time from college for several months, during which he visited the Indians of the Six Nations; and finally, abandoning the idea of becoming a missionary, he embarked on the Connecticut river in a canoe of his own fashioning, and floated down to Hartford. After a brief experience as a theological student, impelled by a restless spirit of adventure, he shipped at New London as a common sailor in a vessel bound for the Mediterranean, and at Gibraltar enlisted in a British regiment, but was discharged at the request of his captain. Returning to New London at the end of a year, he embarked soon after at New York for England, and arrived in London just as Capt. Cook was about to sail on his 3d and last voyage around the world. The nature of the expedition aroused Ledyard's enthusiasm for travel, and having procured an introduction to Cook, he so favorably impressed the great navigator that he took him into the service, and promoted him to be a corporal of marines. Of this voyage he kept a private journal, which in accordance with a general order of the government was taken from him on the return of the expedition to England. Subsequently he wrote out from recollection, assisted by a brief sketch issued under the sanction of the admiralty, an account of the expedi tion, which was published in Hartford in 1783. During the two years succeeding his return to England he remained in the British naval service, but steadily refused to take arms against his native country. In Dec. 1782, being in a

British man-of-war off Long island, he found means to escape, and revisited his friends after an absence of 8 years. Having spent many months in fruitless endeavors to fit out an expedition to the N. W. coast, which he was the first of his countrymen to propose, he embarked for Europe in June, 1784, in the hope of finding there the means of carrying his project into effect. He remained for some months at L'Orient, in France, where flattering hopes of receiving command of a ship destined for an exploring expedition were held out to him; but upon the failure of the negotiations he repaired in the spring of 1785 to Paris. He was kindly received by Jefferson, then minister to France from the United States, Lafayette, and others, and found in Paul Jones a ready cooperator in his plans of maritime exploration. Various circumstances prevented the consummation of their project, and after wasting many months in unavailing efforts to overcome obstacles, Ledyard determined to carry out his original design by a journey through northern Europe and Asia, and across Behring's straits to the western hemisphere. An application to Catharine II. of Russia for permission to pass through her dominions, which was preferred through Mr. Jefferson, having remained 5 months unanswered, he went to London, where, through the influence of Sir James Hall, he was offered a free passage in a ship just equipped to sail for the Pacific ocean. He actually embarked in her, but was not out of sight of land before the vessel was brought back by order of government, and the voyage broken up. Undiscouraged by these disappointments, and supplied with a small sum of money by Sir Joseph Banks and others, he departed on his long overland journey in the latter part of 1786. Arriving at Stockholm, he attempted to cross the gulf of Bothnia on the ice to Abo in Finland, but was met by open water in the middle. He immediately altered his course, and in the dead of winter walked around the whole coast of the gulf, arriving in St. Petersburg in the latter part of March without money, shoes, or stockings. This journey of upward of 1,400 miles was accomplished in less than 7 weeks. After a delay of several weeks he procured his passport from the empress, and received permission to accompany Dr. Brown, a Scotchman in the Russian service, as far as Barnaul in southern Siberia, a distance of about 3,000 miles. Here he parted with his companion, and proceeded to Irkootsk, whence he sailed in a small boat 1,400 miles down the river Lena to Yakootsk. Permission to proceed to Okhotsk on the sea of that name being refused, on the ground that the season was too far advanced, it being then the latter part of September, he accompanied a Capt. Billings, in the Russian service, back to Irkootsk, where on Feb. 24, 1788, he was arrested by order of the empress. Accompanied by two guards, he was conducted with all speed to the frontiers of Poland, and there dismissed, with an intimation that he would be hanged if he reentered Russia. The

reason for this summary expulsion of Ledyard from the Russian dominions has never been satisfactorily explained. Mr. Sparks, in his "Life of John Ledyard” (Sparks's “American Biography," second series), conjectures that the Russian American company, then recently formed, and whose factories and forts were building in Irkootsk, their head-quarters, were apprehensive that he might publish facts in relation to their manner of trading with the natives which would prove to the disadvantage of the company; hence an order for his arrest as a spy was procured, and he was hurried out of the country. Ledyard found his way back to London in the spring, to use his own words, "disappointed, ragged, and penniless, but with a whole heart," and was cordially received by Sir Joseph Banks and others who had befriended him. Undaunted by previous adversities, he eagerly accepted an offer made to him by the association for promoting the discovery of the inland parts of Africa, to undertake an expedition into the interior of that continent; and when asked how soon he would be ready to set out, replied: "To-morrow morning." He departed from England in the latter part of June, intending to cross the African continent in a westerly direction from Sennaar, and had proceeded as far as Cairo, when he was attacked by a bilious disorder which put an end to his life. His death was considered a great loss to the society under whose auspices he had embarked, and who from the tenor of his first despatches from Egypt, and from his previous labors, had been impressed with his fitness for the part of a geographical pioneer. For capacity of endurance, resolution, and physical vigor, he was one of the most remarkable of modern travellers; and had he possessed means equal to his zeal, his name would doubtless have been associated with important discoveries, as it now is with wonderful and romantic but unprofitable adventures. Many extracts from his journals and his private correspondence with Jefferson and others are given in Sparks's memoir.-WILLIAM, an American revolutionary soldier, a relative of the preceding, born in Groton, Conn., about 1750, killed at the capture of Fort Griswold, Sept. 7, 1781. He held the commission of colonel in the militia of Connecticut, and during the marauding expedition of Arnold along the coast of that state in Sept. 1781, he was in command of Forts Trumbull and Griswold, which protected New London. Throwing himself into the latter work with 157 militia hastily collected, he refused a demand for its surrender, and resisted for nearly an hour the attack of a British force numbering 800 men, led by Lieut. Col. Eyre, who received a mortal wound in the onset. His successor, Major Montgomery, having been killed while mounting the parapet, the command devolved upon Major Bromfield, a tory, who effected an entrance into the fort after nearly 200 of his men had been disabled, including 48 killed, the Americans having lost about a dozen killed. To Bromfield's inquiry: "Who com

mands this garrison ?" Ledyard replied: "I did, sir, but you do now," at the same time handing him his sword. Bromfield immediately plunged it through the body of Ledyard to the hilt, killing him upon the spot. A massacre of the Americans ensued, which was not stopped until more than 100 of them were killed and wounded. A monument has been erected near the spot to commemorate this event.

LEE, in nautical language, a place sheltered from the wind, or the side of any thing opposite to that against which the wind blows. Thus to be "under the lee of the land" is to be protected by a bluff or an elevated coast from the force of the wind blowing seaward; but a "lee shore" is a shore on the lee side of a vessel, and on which therefore it is liable to be driven by a storm. "To leeward" is the direction toward which the wind blows; its opposite is "to windward." Leeway is the deviation of a ship's course from the course in which she is steered, when by the action of wind or current she is driven sideways as well as forward; it may therefore be defined as the angle between the line of the ship's keel and the line which she actually describes through the water.

LEE, the name of counties in 4 of the United States. I. A S. W. co. of Va., bordering on Tenn. and Ky., and traversed by Powell's river; area, 512 sq. m.; pop. in 1850, 10,267, of whom 787 were slaves. Powell's mountain lies on its E. boundary and Cumberland mountain on the N. W., and it contains iron ore, limestone, and saltpetre. The soil in the valleys is very fertile. The productions in 1850 were 485,725 bushels of Indian corn, 20,243 of wheat, 107,030 of oats, and 5,131 lbs. of tobacco. There were 54 grist mills, 14 saw mills, 7 tanneries, 2 iron forges, 25 churches, and 550 pupils attending public schools. Capital, Jonesville. II. A S. W. co. of Ga., bounded E. by Flint river; area, 600 sq. m.; pop. in 1859, 6,679, of whom 4,587 were slaves. It has a nearly level surface, wooded with pine, oak, and hickory, and a fertile soil. The productions in 1850 were 297,614 bushels of Indian corn, 21,210 of oats, 71,993 of sweet potatoes, 10,010 lbs. of rice, and 9,342 bales of cotton. There were 5 grist mills, 4 saw mills, 9 churches, and 137 pupils attending public schools. The south-western Georgia railroad passes through the county. Capital, Starkville. III. A N. co. of Ill., drained by Rock and Green rivers and Bureau creek; area, 720 sq. m.; pop. in 1855, 11,681. The surface is chiefly an undulating prairie diversified by tracts of woodland. The soil is very fertile. The productions in 1850 were 232,010 bushels of Indian corn, 97,538 of wheat, 99,562 of oats, 8,661 tons of hay, and 12,125 lbs. of wool. There were 3 grist mills, 6 saw mills, 6 churches, and 1,518 pupils attending public schools. The Illinois central and Fulton and Iowa railroads meet at Dixon, the capital. IV. A S. E. co. of Iowa, bounded N. E. by Skunk river, S. E. by the Mississippi, separating it from Illinois, and S. W. by the Des Moines, which divides it from Mis

souri; area, 476 sq. m.; pop. in 1859, 31,242. Coal and limestone are abundant. The surface is diversified by woods and undulating prairies, and the soil is extremely and uniformly fertile. The productions in 1859 were 50,171 bushels of wheat, 803,680 of Indian corn, 8,200 of oats, 52,819 of potatoes, 23,081 tons of hay, 291,569 lbs. of butter, 111,376 of cheese, and 29,349 of wool. The Keokuk, Fort Des Moines, and Minnesota, and the Keokuk, Mount Pleasant, and Muscatine railroads pass through the coun ty. Capitals, Keokuk and Fort Madison.

LEE, the name of a family of Virginia, several of whose members hold a prominent position in the history of the American revolution. The Lees were an old cavalier family of distinction in England. Richard Lee emigrated to Virginia in the reign of Charles I., bringing with him a numerous household, and settled in the county of Northumberland, between the Rappahannock and Potomac rivers, a region known then and now by the name of the "Northern Neck." This gentleman, the first of a long line of eminent men of his name in Virginia, was a devoted adherent of the Stuarts, and, in conjunction with the royal governor Sir William Berkeley, placed the colony in that attitude of resistance to Cromwell which caused the protector to send a fleet for its reduction under the commonwealth. The party of Lee and Berkeley displayed such determination, however, that the commander of the squadron was compelled to ratify a treaty with the rebellious colony, which was styled an "independent dominion." It is said that Richard Lee soon afterward hired a ship, and visited Charles II. in Flanders, offering to erect his standard in Virginia if assured of adequate support. The plan was not then carried out, but it has been stated that on the death of Cromwell, Charles II., by the exertions of Lee and Berkeley, was proclaimed in Virginia “king of England, France, Scotland, Ireland, and Virginia," nearly two years before his triumphal entry into London. The king exhibited his gratitude for this espousal of his cause, it is also said, by ordering the arms of Virginia to be quartered on those of Great Britain, with the motto: En dat Virginia quartam. Richard, the son of Richard Lee, was a member of the council; and Thomas, third son of the second Richard, succeeded his father, and became president. He died at the moment when his commission of governor of the colony had just been made out. He had married Hannah, daughter of Col. Philip Ludwell, an associate in the council; and from this union sprung 5 sons who rose to distinction, of whom the following are the principal. I. RICHARD HENRY, an American statesman, born at Stratford, Westmoreland co., Va., Jan. 20, 1732, died at Chantilly in the same county, June 19, 1794. After a course of private tuition at Stratford, he was sent to Wakefield academy, Yorkshire, England, where he became a proficient in Latin and Greek, and laid the foundation of that extensive knowl

edge of the classics which afterward added so much to the effect of his oratory. Leaving school at about the age of 18, he made a tour through England, visited London, and returned in his 20th year to Virginia. His father had died two years before, and the young man found himself in possession of a competent estate. He resisted, however, every temptation to indolence, and applied himself with ardor to study in the diverse departments of law, politics, theology, science, history, and belles-lettres, He became fond of poetry and pored over Homer, Virgil, and Milton, but above all, the plays of Shakespeare, of which he was passionately fond. He passed his time thus at Stratford until his 23d year, when Braddock came to Virginia, on his ill-fated expedition against Fort Duquesne. The youths of the colony were filled with military ardor, and Lee raised a company of volunteers in Westmoreland, was chosen cap tain, and marched to Alexandria, where he of fered his services to Braddock. The general however declined them with an ill-concealed expression of contempt for "provincials," whose services it had been well for him to have accepted, and Lee was compelled to march home again. In his 25th year he was appointed a justice of the peace, an office at that time of great responsibility and importance, from the extensive jurisdiction possessed by the county courts both in law and equity. The commission of so young a man was a strong evidence of public respect. That he did not disappoint the good opinion of his talents is shown by the fact that a number of his brother magistrates petitioned the governor and council that Mr. Lee's commission might be antedated in such a manner as to give him legal precedence, and enable him to act as president of the court. He was soon after chosen a member of the house of burgesses from Westmoreland, and took his seat in that body for one or two sessions, but he did not speak. This diffidence finally wore away in some measure, and he made a brief but striking speech strongly opposing the institution of slavery, and advocating the imposition of a tax so heavy as to amount to a prohibition of further importations. The brevity of this speech, its balanced style, and the timidity with which it is said to have been delivered, seem to show that it was previously written out, and indicate the painful diffidence with which the afterward celebrated parliamentary leader commenced his career. The time was however near at hand when the oppressions of the home government were to spur all classes of men into activity. The act declaratory of the right to tax the colonies passed the British parliament in 1764, and this was followed in the next year by the stamp act. Lee took in the former year an unhappy, almost a fatal step, the effects of which clung to him in a measure throughout life, and dimmed the light of his greatest public services. In a thoughtless moment, and at the instiga tion of a friend, he wrote to England making application for the post of collector under the

proposed stamp act. That this step was the mere result of hasty and momentary impulse is abundantly proved by the whole tenor of his subsequent career. He soon found an opportunity to explain all. The small tory party, exasperated by the energy with which he opposed the government, denounced him as a popular demagogue, bent only on revenging his disappointment in procuring the collectorship. The people of his county treated this accusation with contempt; but to satisfy the inhabitants of the colony at large, who did not know him, he published in the "Virginia Gazette" a statement of the facts. He had written to England by the advice of a friend, who no more than himself, "nor perhaps a single person in this country, had at that time reflected the least on the nature and tendency of such an act." Reflection had opened his eyes, and he had soon determined to exert every faculty he possessed in opposition to the measure. There can be no doubt of Lee's sincerity in this statement. The application would seem to have been simply the impulsive act of an ambitious young man, at a period when it was regarded as an honor to hold office under government. The immediate and active steps which he took against the authority of parliament appear to be conclusive of his real sentiments. He joined heart and hand with the opponents of the proposed tax; and when a special committee was appointed by the burgesses to draught an address to the king, a memorial to the lords, and a remonstrance to the commons against taxation without representation, Lee was placed upon the committee, and deputed by his associates to prepare two of the three papers. His literary and political acquirements well fitted him for the task, and the papers proved genuine and eloquent utterances of the spirit of resistance. From this moment Lee's career was an unbroken series of services to the cause of liberty. He was absent from Williamsburg when Patrick Henry introduced, in the ensuing year, 1765, his celebrated resolutions against the stamp act; but he warmly concurred in them, and originated an association in Westmoreland in accordance with their spirit. The articles of this association, which were written by Lee, and are still preserved in his own handwriting, go beyond Henry's resolutions, and indicate in a very striking manner the advance of public opinion from May, 1765, to Feb. 1766. Roused by the attempt to reduce the people to "abject and detestable slavery" by destroying the constitution, "we who have subscribed this paper," it is declared, "have associated, and do bind ourselves to each other, to God, and our country, by the firmest ties which religion and virtue can frame, to stand by, and with ourselves and fortunes to support, maintain, and defend each other in the observation and execution of these following articles." It is then declared that a trial by peers, and no taxation without representation, are fundamental portions of the constitution. If any one oppose