Ligurian Republic, a name given by Bonaparte to the republic of Genoa, founded in 1797.


Li Hung Chang, an eminent and enlightened Chinese statesman; is favourable to European culture and intercourse with Europe; was sent as a special envoy to the Czar's coronation in 1896, and afterwards visited other countries in Europe, including our own, and the States and Canada; b. 1823.


Lilburne, John, a victim of the Star-Chamber in the time of Charles I., and exposed on the pillory as well as fined and imprisoned; joined the Parliamentary ranks and fought for the Commonwealth, but as an Independent indulged in violent harangues against Cromwell, and was committed to the Tower, but on his release turned Quaker (1618-1657).


Lilith or Lilis, the name of Adam's first wife, whom, according to Jewish tradition, he had before Eve, and who bore him in that wedlock the whole progeny of aërial, aquatic, and terrestrial devils, and who, it seems, still wanders about the world bewitching men to like issue and slaying little children not protected by amulets against her.


Lille (161), chief town in the department of Nord, in the extreme N. of France, 60 m. inland from Calais, an ancient and at present very strong fortress, is in a fertile district; the town, rebuilt in modern times, has a Catholic university, a medical school, library, and art gallery, and thriving industries, linen, cotton, tobacco, sugar, and many others.


Lilliput, a country inhabited by a very diminutive race of men not larger in size than a man's finger, visited by Gulliver in his travels.


Lillo, George, English dramatist, born in London, by trade a jeweller; wrote seven comedies, of which "The Fatal Curiosity" and "George Barnwell" are the best and the best appreciated (1693-1739).


Lilly, William, an English astrologer, born in Leicestershire, who made gain by his fortune-telling during the Commonwealth period especially, but got into trouble afterwards as a presumed mischief-maker (1602-1681).


Lima (200), capital of Peru, 6 m. inland from Callao, its port, a picturesque but somewhat shabby city, 700 ft. above the sea-level, regularly built, with many plazas; has a cathedral and 70 churches; trade is in the hands of foreigners, mostly Germans, and industries are unimportant; it was founded by Pizarro, and his bones lie buried in the cathedral.


Limburg, in the basin of the Meuse, formerly a duchy, was after various fortunes divided in 1839 into Belgian Limburg (225), on the W. of the river, capital Hasselt (13), and Dutch Limburg (262), on the E., capital Maestricht (33); partly moorland and partly arable, it has coal, iron, sugar, and tobacco industries.


Limbus or Limbo, according to Catholic theologians a region on the confines of Hades tenanted, the limbus patrum, by the souls of good men who died before Christ's advent, and the limbus infantium, by the souls of unbaptized infants, both of whom await there the resurrection morn to join the ransomed in heaven.


Limelight, a bright light caused by making a stream of two gases, oxygen and nitrogen, play in a state of ignition on a piece of compact quicklime.


Limerick (159), Irish county on the S. of the Shannon estuary, between Tipperary and Kerry, watered by the Mulcai, Maigue, and Deel; hilly in the S., is mostly fertile, and under corn and green crops; cattle are reared and dairy products exported; some woollens and paper manufactured. There are many antiquities. Limerick (37), the county town, on the Shannon, is the fourth Irish seaport, and manufactures a little lace.


Limited Liability, liability on the part of the shareholders of a joint-stock company limited by the amount of their shares.


Limoges (68), chief town in the dep. of Haute-Vienne, on the Vienne River, 250 m. S. of Paris; has a Gothic cathedral; is one of the chief manufacturing towns of France. Its porcelain and woollen cloths are widely famed; it has a large transit trade; it gives name to a fine kind of surface enamel, which was brought to perfection there.


Lincoln (44), capital of Lincolnshire, on the Witham, 130 m. N. of London; is a very old and quaint city, with one of the finest cathedrals in England, and many historic buildings. Its annual spring horse-fair is among the largest in the world. It manufactures agricultural instruments, and trades in flour. Its stands on the Oolitic Ridge, and commands a wide view of the Trent Valley.


Lincoln, Abraham, sixteenth President of the United States, born near Hodgensville, Kentucky; spent his boyhood there and in the Indiana forests, and picked up some education in the backwoods schools; passed some years in rough work; he was clerk in a store at New Salem, Illinois; became village postmaster and deputy county surveyor, and began to study law; from 1834 to 1842 he led the Whigs in the State legislature, and in 1846 entered Congress; he prospered as a lawyer, and almost left politics; but the opening of the slavery question in 1854 recalled him, and in a series of public debates with Stephen Douglas established his reputation as debater and abolitionist; unsuccessful in his candidature for the Senate, he was nominated by the Republicans for the Presidency, and elected 1860; his election was the signal for the secession of the Southern States; Lincoln refused to recognise the secession, accepted the war, and prosecuted it with energy; on New Year's day, 1863, he proclaimed the emancipation of the negroes, and was re-elected President in 1864, but shortly after his second inauguration was assassinated; he was a man of high character, straightforward, steadfast, and sympathetic (1809-1865).


Lincoln's Inn. See Inns of Court.


Lincolnshire (473), maritime county in the E. of England, between the Humber and the Wash, next to Yorkshire in size, consists of upland country in the W., chalk downs in the E., and fens in the S., but these well reclaimed and cultivated. It is watered by the Trent, Witham, and Welland, and crossed by numerous canals. Iron abounds in the W.; sheep, cattle, and horses are raised. Grimsby is a shipping and fishing centre. Sir Isaac Newton and Lord Tennyson were born in the county, which has many historic associations.


Lincrusta Walton, a plastic material invented by Walton, capable of being moulded into raised patterns for decorating walls, &c.


Lind, Jenny (Madame Otto Goldschmidt), the Swedish nightingale, born at Stockholm; giving evidence of her power of song in childhood, she was put under a master at nine; too soon put to practise in public, her voice at twelve showed signs of contracting, but after four years recovered its full power, when, appearing as Alice in "Robert le Diable," the effect was electric; henceforth her fame was established, and followed her over the world; in 1844 she made a round of the chief cities of Germany; made her first appearance in London in 1847, and visited New York in 1851, where she married, and then left the stage for good, to appear only now and again at intervals for some charitable object; she was plain looking, and a woman of great simplicity both in manners and ways of thinking (1821-1882).


Lindley, John, distinguished botanist, born near Norwich; wrote extensively on botany according to the natural system of classification, and did much to popularise the study; was professor of the science in London University (1799-1865).


Lindsay, name of a Scottish family of Norman extraction, and that first figures in Scottish history in the reign of David I.


Lindsay or Lyndsay, Sir David, of the Mount, Scottish poet, born at the Mount, near Cupar, Fife, at the grammar-school of which he was educated, as afterwards at St. Andrews University; was usher to James V. from his childhood, and knighted by him after he came of age; did diplomatic work in England, France, the Netherlands, and Denmark; is famous as the author of, among others, three poems, the "Satire of the Three Estates," "Dialogues between Experience and a Courtier," and the "History of Squire Meldrum," of which the first is the most worthy of note, and is divided into five parts, the main body of it a play of an allegorical kind instinct with conventional satire; without being a partisan of the Reformation, his works, from the satire in them being directed against the Church, contributed very materially to its reception in Scotland approximately (1490-1555).


Linga, a symbol in the phallus worship of the East of the male or generative power in nature. This worship prevails among the Hindu sect of the Givas or Sivas, and the symbol takes the form of the pistil of a flower, or an erect cylindrical stone.


Lingard, John, historian, born at Winchester, the son of a carpenter; besides a work on the "Antiquity of the Anglo-Saxon Church," wrote a "History of England from the Roman Invasion to the Reign of William III.," the first written that shows anything like scholarly accuracy, and fairly impartial, though the author's religious views as a Roman Catholic, it is alleged, distort the facts a little (1771-1851).


Lingua Franca, a jargon composed of a mixture of languages used in trade intercourse.


Linlithgow (4), the county town of Linlithgowshire, 16 m. W. of Edinburgh, on the S. shore of a loch of the name, with a palace, the birthplace of James V.; the county (52) lying on the S. shore of the Forth, and rich in minerals.


Linnæus, or more properly Linné, Karl von, great Swedish naturalist, specially in the department of botany, a branch to the study of which he was devoted from his earliest years; he was the founder of the system of the classification of plants which bears his name, and which is determined by the number and disposition of the reproductive organs, but which is now superseded by the natural system of Jussieu; he was professor at Upsala, and his works on his favourite subject were numerous, and extended far and wide his reputation as a naturalist (1707-1778).


Linnell, John, English painter, painted portraits at first, but in the end landscapes, of which last "The Windmill" and a wood scene are in the National Gallery; he was a friend and an admirer of William Blake (1807-1882).


Linoleum, a floorcloth, being a composition of cork and linseed oil with chloride of silver.


Linotype, a contrivance for setting and casting words or lines for printing.


Linz (47), the capital of the crownland of Upper Austria, on the right bank of the Danube; a busy commercial place, a great railway centre, and the seat of the manufacture of woollen goods, linen, tobacco, &c.; is also of great strategical importance in time of war.


Lion, The, the king of animals, was the symbol of power, courage, and virtue, and in Christian art of the resurrection; is in general, as Mr. Fairholt remarks, "a royal symbol, and in emblem of dominion, command, magnanimity, vigilance, and strength; representing when couchant sovereignty, when rampant magnanimity, when passant resolution, when guardant prudence, when saliant valour, when sciant counsel, and when regardant circumspection."


Lip`ari Islands (22), a group of islands of volcanic origin, 12 in number, off the N. coast of Sicily, in two of which, Vulcano and Stromboli, the volcanic force is still active, the latter emitting clouds of steam at intervals of five minutes.


Lippe (128), an old N. German principality, the principal towns of which are Detmold, Lemgo, and Horn.


Lippi, Filippino, Italian painter, son of the succeeding; is presumed to have been a pupil of Botticelli's (q. v.); his earliest known work is the "Vision of St. Bernard" in Florence, and he executed various works in Bologna, Genoa, and Rome; painted frescoes and altar-pieces, and scenes in the lives of St. Peter and St. Paul (1460-1504).


Lippi, Fra Filippo, Italian painter, born at Florence; left an orphan, was brought up in a monastery, where his talent for art was developed and encouraged; went to Ancona, was carried off by pirates, but procured his release by his skill in drawing, and returning to Italy practised his art in Florence and elsewhere, till one day he eloped with a novice in a nunnery who sat to him for a Madonna, by whom he became the father of a son no less famous than himself; he prosecuted his art amid poverty with zeal and success to the last; distinguished by Ruskin (Fors xxiv. 4) as the only monk who ever did good painter's work; he had Botticelli for a pupil (1412-1469).


Lipsius, Justus, an erudite Belgian scholar, with fast and loose religious principles; was the author of numerous learned works (1547-1579).


Lipsius, Richard Adelbert, distinguished German theologian, born in Gera; professor in succession at Vienna, Kiel, and Jena; wrote on dogmatics, the philosophy of religion, and New Testament criticism (1830-1892).


Lisbon (301), the capital of Portugal, a magnificent town, built on the N. bank of the Tagus, 9 m. from its mouth, extends along the banks of the river 9 m. and inland 5 m.; it boasts of an array of fine buildings and squares, a number of literary and scientific institutions, and a spacious harbour; is remarkable for a marble aqueduct which brings water more than 10 m. across the valley of Alcantara; the manufactures include tobacco, soap, wool, and chemicals, and the exports wine, oil, and fruits; it suffered from an earthquake of great violence in 1755, by which the greater part of the city was destroyed, and from 30,000 to 40,000 of the inhabitants were killed.


Lister, Joseph, Lord, eminent surgeon, born at Upton, Essex; the founder of modern antiseptic surgery, and is as such reckoned among the world's greatest benefactors; was President of the British Association in 1896, and is surgeon-extraordinary to the Queen; b. 1827.


Liston, John, an English actor of low comedy, and long famous on the London stage, to which he was introduced by Charles Kemble; d. 1846.


Liston, Robert, a celebrated surgeon, born in Linlithgowshire; studied in Edinburgh and London; was distinguished as an operator; was professor of Clinical Surgery in University College, London, and author of "Elements of Surgery" and "Practical Surgery" (1794-1847).


Liszt, Abbé Franz, famous pianist, a Hungarian by birth; born with a genius for music, his first efforts at composition were not successful, and it was not till he heard what Paganini made of the violin that he thought what might be made of the piano, and that he devoted himself to the culture of piano music, with the result that he not only became the first pianist himself, but produced a set of compositions that had the effect of raising the art to the highest pitch of perfection; he was a zealous Catholic, and took holy orders, but this did not damp his ardour or weaken his power as a musician; he spent the greater part of his life at Weimar, but he practised his art far and wide, and his last visit to England in 1886, the year on which he died, created quite a flutter in musical circles (1811-1886).


Litany, a form of supplication in connection with some impending calamity in which the prayer of the priest or officiating clergyman is responded to by the congregation.


Literature, defined by Carlyle "as an 'apocalypse of nature,' a revealing of the 'open secret,' a 'continuous revelation' of the God-like in the terrestrial and common, which ever endures there, and is brought out now in this dialect, now in that, with various degrees of clearness ... there being touches of it (i. e. the God-like) in the dark stormful indignation of a Byron, nay, in the withered mockery of a French sceptic, his mockery of the false, a love and worship of the true ... how much more in the sphere harmony of a Shakespeare, the cathedral music of a Milton; something of it too in those humble, genuine, lark-notes of a Burns, skylark starting from the humble furrow far overhead into the blue depths, and singing to us so genuinely there."


Lithuania, formerly a grand-duchy occupying portions of the valleys of the Dwina, Niemen, Dnieper, and Bug; for centuries connected with Poland; passed to Russia in 1814. The Lithuanians are a distinct race of the Indo-European stock, fair and handsome, with a language of their own, and a literature rich in folk-lore and songs. Of a strong religious temperament, they embraced Christianity late (13th century), and still retain many pagan superstitions; formerly serfs, they are now a humble peasantry engaged in agriculture, cattle-breeding, and bee-keeping.


Litmus, a colouring matter obtained from certain lichens; extensively used in chemical experiments to detect acids, for instance.


Little Corporal, a name given to Bonaparte after the battle of Lodi from his small stature, he being only 5 ft. 2 in.


Little Englanders, those politicians who hold that English statesmen should concern themselves with England only and its internal affairs.


Littleton, Sir Thomas, English jurist of the 15th century; was recorder of Coventry in 1450, judge of Common Pleas 1466, and knighted in 1475; his work on "Tenures" was the first attempt to classify the law of land rights, and was the basis of the famous "Coke upon Littleton"; d. 1481.


Littré, a celebrated French scholar, physician, philologist, and philosopher, born in Paris; wrote on medical subjects, and translated Hippocrates; was of the Positivist school in philosophy, and owes his fame chiefly to his "Dictionnaire de la Langue Française," published in 1863-72, and on which he spent forty years' labour (1801-1881).


Liturgy is sometimes used as including any form of public worship, but more strictly it denotes the form for the observance of the Eucharist. As development from the simple form of their institution in the primitive Church liturgies assumed various forms, and only by degrees certain marked types began to prevail: viz., the Roman, ascribed to St. Peter, in Latin, and prevailing in the Roman Catholic Church all over the world; the Ephesian, ascribed to St. John, in corrupt Latin, included the old Scottish and Irish forms, heard now only in a few places in Spain; the Jerusalem, ascribed to St. James, in Greek, the form of the Greek Church and in translation of the Armenians; the Babylonian, ascribed to St. Thomas, in Syriac, used still by the Nestorians and Christians of St. Thomas; and the Alexandrian, ascribed to St. Mark, in a Græco-Coptic jargon, in use among the Copts; these all contain certain common elements, but differ in order and in subsidiary parts; the Anglican liturgy is adapted from the Roman; other Protestant liturgies or forms of service are mostly of modern date and compiled from Scripture sources.


Liva, an Italian coin worth 9½ d., and the monetary unit in the country.


Liverpool (585), the third city and first seaport of Great Britain, in Lancashire, on the Mersey, 3 m. from the sea, formerly the chief seat of the slave interest in Britain; owed its present prosperity to the impulse of the cotton trade at the end of the 18th century; progressing rapidly it has now docks stretching six miles along the Mersey, which receive a sixth of the tonnage that visits British ports; through it passes a third of our foreign trade, including enormous imports of wheat and cotton and exports of cotton goods; it possesses shipbuilding and engineering works, iron-foundries, flour, tobacco, and chemical factories; the public buildings, town hall, exchange, colleges, and observatory are fine edifices; it was the native place of W. E. Gladstone.


Liverpool, Earl of, Robert Jenkinson, English statesman, educated at Oxford; entered Parliament 1791, and as Foreign Secretary negotiated the peace of Amiens in 1802; becoming Lord Hawkesbury in 1803, he became Home Secretary under Pitt, and succeeding to the earldom in 1808; was War Secretary under Perceval in 1800, Premier from 1812 to 1827; he liberalised the tariff and maintained a sound finance, uniting and holding together the Tory party at a critical period (1770-1828).


Liverymen, name given to members of the several guilds or corporations of London and freemen of the city, so called as entitled to wear the livery belonging to their respective companies; they possess certain privileges of a civic character.


Livingstone, David, African traveller and missionary, born in Blantyre, Lanarkshire; began life as a mill-worker, studied medicine and theology at Glasgow, and was sent out to Africa by the London Missionary Society in 1840, landed at Port Natal, and addressed himself to missionary work; moving north, he arrived at Lake Ngami in 1849, and ascending the Zambesi in 1853 arrived at Loanda next year; later on he explored the course of the Zambesi and its tributaries, discovered Lake Nyassa, and set himself to discover the sources of the Nile, but this expedition proved too much for him, and he died exhausted; his body was embalmed, brought home to England, and buried in Westminster Abbey (1815-1873).


Livius, Titus (Livy), illustrious Roman historian, born at Patavium (Padua); appears to have settled early in Rome and spent the most of his life there; his reputation rests on his "History of Rome from the Foundation of the City to the Death of Drusus," it consisted of 142 chapters, but of these only 30 remain entire and 5 in fragments, bequeathing to posterity his account of the early history of the city and of the wars with Hannibal (59-17 B.C.).


Livonia (1,260), Russian Baltic province on the Gulf of Riga; is flat and marshy, and only moderately fertile; produces rye, barley, and potatoes; its chief industries are distilling, brewing, and iron-founding, and fishing; four-fifths of the population are Letts and Esthonians, only 5 per cent. are Russian; the original Finnic Livonians are almost extinct; capital Riga (180).


Livraison, part of a serial issued from time to time.


Llandudno (6), a fashionable watering-place at the foot of Great Ormes Head, Carnarvon, frequented by people from Yorkshire and Lancashire.


Llanelly (32), a manufacturing seaport in Carmarthenshire for shipping coal, iron, and copper.


Llanos, vast level plains twice the size of Great Britain in the N. of South America, in the basin of the Orinoco, covered in great part with tall grass and stocked in the rainy season with herds of cattle; during the dry season they are a desert.


Llorente, Juan Antonio, Spanish historian, is the author of several works, but his celebrity is mainly due to his "History of the Spanish Inquisition," of which in 1789 he became the secretary (1760-1823).


Lloyd's, a part of the Royal Exchange, London, appropriated to the use of underwriters and for marine intelligence, frequented by those interested in merchant shipping; so called from Lloyd's Coffee-house, formerly the head-quarters of the class.


Load-line, line painted on the outside of a vessel to mark the extreme of immersion in loading her with a cargo.


Loadstone or Lodestone, an iron ore remarkable for its magnetic quality or power of attracting iron; it derived its name from its use as a leading stone in the compass to mariners.


Lobby, The, hall connected with a legislative assembly to which the public have access.


Local Option, licence granted to the inhabitants of a district to extinguish or reduce the sale of intoxicants in their midst.


Lochaber, a Highland district in the S. of Inverness-shire.


Lochaber Axe, an axe with a broad blade and a long handle formerly in use among the Highlanders as a weapon.


Lochiel, a Highland chief, Sir Evan Cameron his name, head of the Cameron clan, who held out against William III.'s rule in the Highlands, but ultimately took the oath of allegiance; d. 1719.


Lochinvar, hero of a ballad in Scott's "Marmion," who carries off his sweetheart just as she is about to be sacrificed in marriage to another whom she loathes.


Lochleven, Scottish lake in Kinross-shire overshadowed by Benarty and the West Lomond, is 23 m. NW. of Edinburgh; in a castle on one of its islands Mary Stuart was imprisoned 1567-68; it is now famous for its trout.


Locke, John, English philosopher, the father of modern materialism and empiricism, born in Wrington, Somerset; studied medicine, but did not practise it, and gave himself up to a literary life, much of it spent in the family of the celebrated Earl of Shaftesbury, both at home with it and abroad; his great work is his "Essay on the Human Understanding" in 1690, which was preceded by "Letters on Toleration," published before the expulsion of James II., and followed by the "Treatise on Government" the same year, and "Thoughts on Education" in 1693; his "Essay" was written to show that all our ideas were derived from experience, that is, through the senses and reflection on what they reveal, and that there are no innate ideas; "Locke," says Prof. Saintsbury, "is eminently" (that is, before all his contemporaries) "of such stuff as dreams are not made of"—is wholly a prosaic practical man and Englishman (1632-1704).


Lockhart, John Gibson, man of letters, born in Cambusnethan; bred for the Scottish bar and practised at it; contributed to Blackwood, wrote in collaboration with John Wilson "Peter's Letters to his Kinsfolk"; married Sophia Scott, Sir Walter's daughter, in 1820, lived a good deal near Abbotsford, wrote some four novels and "Spanish Ballads," became editor of the Quarterly in 1825, and began in 1837 his "Life of Scott," a great work, and his greatest; died at Abbotsford, health broken and in much sorrow; his "Life" has been interestingly written by Andrew Lang (1794-1854).


Lockout, the exclusion of workmen from a factory by the employer to bring them to terms which they decline to accept.


Lockyer, Sir Joseph Norman, astronomer, born at Rugby; became clerk in the War Office in 1857, was secretary to the Royal Commission on Scientific Instruction in 1870, and was transferred to the Science and Art Department in 1875; he directed Government eclipse expeditions to Sicily, India, Egypt, and the West Indies; in 1860 he became F.R.S., received the Society's Rumford medal in 1874, next year was appointed corresponding Member of the Institute of France and received the Janssen medal in 1891; he was knighted in 1897; he made important discoveries in spectrum analysis, and has written several astronomical works; b. 1836.


Loco-focos, the name, which denotes lucifer-matches, given to an ultra-democratic or radical party in the United States because at a meeting when on one occasion the lights were extinguished the matches which they carried were drawn and the lamps lit again.


Locri, a people of ancient Greece of two distinct tribes occupying different districts of the country.


Lodi (18), a town in Lombardy, 18 m. SE. of Milan, on the Adda, famous for a signal victory of Bonaparte over the Austrians in 1796 in the face of a tremendous fire.


Loewe, Gottfried, German composer; composed oratorios, operas, and pianoforte pieces; sang and played in London in 1847 (1796-1869).


Lofoden Islands (20), a rugged mountainous chain on the NW. Norwegian coast within the Arctic circle, with winters rendered mild by the Gulf Stream, afford pasturage for sheep; the waters between them and the mainland are a rich cod-fishing ground, visited by thousands of boats between January and March.


Logan, John, a Scotch poet, born at Soutra; was for a time minister in South Leith church, but was obliged to resign; was the author of a lyric, "The Braes of Yarrow" and certain of the Scotch paraphrases (1748-1788). See Bruce, Michael.


Logarithm, the exponent of the power to which a fixed number, called the base, must be raised to produce a certain given number.


Logic, the science of correct thinking or of the laws which regulate thought, called also dialectics; or in the Hegelian system "the scientific exposition and development of those notions or categories which underlie all things and all being."


Logic Spectacles, Carlyle's name for eyes that can only discern the external relations of things, but not the inner nature of them.


Logos, an expression in St. John's gospel translated the Word (in chap. i.) to denote the manifestation of God, or God as manifested, defined in theology as the second person of the Deity, and viewed as intermediary between God as Father and God as Spirit.


Log-rolling, mutual praise by authors of each other's work.


Lohengrin, hero of a German 13th-century poem; son of Parzival, and a Knight of the Grail; carried by a swan to Brabant he delivered and married the Princess Elsa; subsequently returning from war against the Saracens, she asked him of his origin; he told her, and was at once carried back again by the swan. Wagner adapted the story in his opera "Lohengrin."


Loire, the largest river in France, 630 m., rises in the Cévennes, flows northwards to Orleans and westward to the Bay of Biscay, through a very fertile valley which it often inundates. It is navigable for 550 m., but its lower waters are obstructed by islands and shoals; it is connected by canals with the Seine, Saône, and Brest Harbour.


Loki, in the Norse mythology, a primitive spirit of evil who mingles with the Norse gods, distinguished for his cunning and ensnaring ways, whose devices are only evil in appearance, and are overruled for good.


Lollards, originally a religious community established at Antwerp in 1300, devoted to the care of the sick and burial of the dead, and as persecuted by the Church, regarded as heretics. Their name became a synonym for heretic, and was hence applied to the followers of Wycliffe in England and certain sectaries in Ayrshire.


Lombard, Peter, a famous schoolman, born in Lombardy in the 12th century, of poor parents; was a disciple of Abelard; taught theology at, and became Bishop of, Paris; was styled the Master of Sentences, as author of a compilation of sentences from Augustine and other Church Fathers on points of Christian doctrine, and long used as a manual in scholastic disputations.


Lombards, a German people, settled at the beginning of our era about the lower Elbe. In the 5th century we find them in Moravia, and a century later established, a powerful people, between the Adriatic and the Danube. They invaded Italy in 568, and in three years had mastered the North, but abandoning their Arian faith they gradually became Italianised, and after the overthrow of their dynasty by Charlemagne in 774 they became merged in the Italians. From the 13th century Italian merchants, known as Lombards, from Lucca, Florence, Venice, and Genoa, traded under much odium, largely in England as wool-dealers and bankers, whence the name Lombard Street.


Lombardy (3,982), an inland territory of Northern Italy between the Alps and the Po, Piedmont, and Venetia. In the N. are Alpine mountains and valleys rich in pasturage; in the S. a very fertile, well irrigated plain, which produces cereals, rice, and sub-tropical plants. The culture of the silkworm is extensive; there are textile and hardware manufactures. The chief towns are Milan, Pavia, and Corno. Austrian in 1713, Napoleon made it part of the kingdom of Italy in 1805; it was restored to Austria in 1815, and finally again to Italy in 1859.


Lomond, Loch, an irregularly-shaped lake in Dumbarton and Stirling shires, 22 m. long and of varying breadth; contains a number of small wooded islands; on the eastern shore rises Ben Lomond to the height of 3192 ft.


London (5,633), on the Thames, 50 m. from the sea, the capital of the British Empire, is the most populous and wealthiest city in the world. An important place in Roman times, it was the cap. of the East Saxons, and has been the metropolis of England since the Norman Conquest; it possesses, therefore, innumerable historic buildings and associations. Often devastated by plague and fire, its progress has never been stayed; its population has more than quadrupled itself this century, and more than doubled since 1850. The City of London proper occupies one square mile in the centre, is wholly a commercial part, and is governed by an annually elected mayor and aldermen; is the seat of a bishopric, with St. Paul's for cathedral. The City of Westminster is also a bishopric under a high steward and high bailiff, chosen by the dean and chapter. These two cities, with twenty-five boroughs under local officers, constitute the metropolis, and since 1888 the county of the city of London, and send 59 members to Parliament. Streets in the older parts are narrow, but newer districts are well built; the level ground and density of building detracts from the effect of innumerable magnificent edifices. Buckingham, Kensington, and St. James's are royal residences; the Houses of Parliament are the biggest Gothic building in the world; St. Paul's, built by Sir Christopher Wren, contains the remains of Nelson and Wellington, Reynolds, Turner, and Wren himself. Westminster, consecrated 1269, is the burial-place of England's greatest poets and statesmen, and of many kings; the Royal Courts of Justice in the Strand were opened in 1882. London has a University (an examining body), 700 colleges and endowed schools, among which Westminster, Christ's Hospital, and the Charterhouse are famous, many medical hospitals, and schools and charitable institutions of all kinds. London is the centre of the English literary and artistic world, and of scientific interest and research; here are the largest publishing houses, the chief libraries and art-galleries, and museums; the British Museum and Library, the National Galleries, &c., and magnificent botanical and zoological gardens. London is also a grand emporium of commerce, and the banking centre of the world. It has nine principal docks; its shipping trade is unrivalled, 55,000 vessels enter and clear annually; it pays more than half the custom duties of the kingdom, and handles more than a quarter of the total exports; its warehouse trade is second only to that of Manchester; it manufactures everything, chiefly watches, jewellery, leather goods, cycles, pianos, and glass. The control of traffic, the lighting, and water-supply of so large a city are causing yearly more serious problems.


London (30), the cap. of Middlesex county, Ontario, near the S. end of the peninsula, in the middle of a fertile district, and a rising place.


Londonderry (152), maritime county in Ulster, washed by Lough Foyle and the Atlantic, surrounded by Donegal in the W., Tyrone in the S., and Antrim in the W., and watered by the Foyle, Roe, and Bann Rivers, somewhat hilly towards the S., is largely under pasture; the cultivated parts grow oats, potatoes, and flax; granted to the Corporation and Guilds of London in 1609, a large part of the land is still owned by them. The county town, Londonderry (33), manufactures linen shirts, whisky, and iron goods, and does a considerable shipping trade. Its siege by the troops of James II. in 1689 is memorable.


Long, George, a distinguished classical scholar, born in Lancashire; became professor of Greek in London University; edited several useful works, among others the "Penny Cyclopædia," on which he spent 11 years of his life (1800-1870).