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LACEDAEMON

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Originally appearing in Volume V16, Page 49 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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LACEDAEMON , in See also:

historical times an alternative name of See also:LACONIA (q.v.). See also:Homer uses only the former, and in some passages seems to denote by it the Achaean citadel, the Therapnae of later times, in contrast to the See also:lower See also:town See also:Sparta (G. See also:Gilbert, Studien zur altspartanischen Geschichte, See also:Gottingen, 1872, p. 34 See also:foil.). It is described by the epithets KOIXI7 (hollow) and Ici7rdueuua (spacious or hollow), and is probably connected etymologically with X&KKOS, See also:locus, any hollow See also:place. Lacedaemon is now the name of a See also:separate See also:department, which had in 1907 a See also:population of 87,106. See also:LAC$PEDE, See also:BERNARD GERMAIN $TIENNE DE LA VILLE, See also:COMTE DE (1756–1825), See also:French naturalist, was See also:born at See also:Agen in See also:Guienne on the 26th of See also:December 1756. His See also:education was carefully conducted by his See also:father, and the See also:early perusal of See also:Buffon's Natural See also:History awakened his See also:interest in that See also:branch of study, which absorbed his See also:chief See also:attention. His leisure he devoted to See also:music, in which, besides becoming a See also:good performer on the piano and See also:organ, he acquired considerable mastery of See also:composition, two of his operas (which were never published) See also:meeting with the high approval of See also:Gluck; in 1781–1785 he also brought out in two volumes his Poetique de la musique. Mean-See also:time he wrote two See also:treaties, Essai sur l'electricite (1781) and Physique generale et particuliere (1782–1784), which gained him the friendship of Buffon, who in 1785 appointed him sub-demonstrator in the Jardin du Roi, and proposed to him to become the continuator of his Histoire naturelle. This continuation was published under the titles Histoire See also:des quadrupedes ovipares el des serpents (2 vols., 1788–1789) and Histoire naturelle des See also:reptiles (1789). After the Revolution Lacepede became a member of the legislative See also:assembly, but during the Reign of Terror he See also:left See also:Paris, his See also:life having become endangered by his disapproval of the massacres.

When the Jardin du Roi was reorganized as the Jardin des Plantes, Lacepede was appointed to the See also:

chair allocated to the study of reptiles and fishes. In 1798 he published the first See also:volume of Histoire naturelle des poissons, the fifth volume appearing in 1803; and in 1804 Etudes d'histoire re- See also:choir, terminating in an See also:apse with radiating See also:chapel, contains the See also:fine See also:tomb and statue of See also:Clement VI., carved stalls and some admirable Flemish tapestries of the early 16th See also:century. There is a ruined See also:cloister on the See also:south See also:side. The See also:church, which See also:dates from the 14th century, was built at the expense of See also:Pope Clement VI., and belonged to a powerful See also:Benedictine See also:abbey founded in 1043. There are spacious monastic buildings of the 18th century. The abbey was formerly defended by fortifications, the chief survival of which is a lofty rectangular keep to the south of the choir. See also:Trade in See also:timber and the making of See also:lace chiefly occupy the inhabitants of the town. LA CHALOTAIS, See also:LOUIS RENE DE CARADEUC DE (17o1-1785), French jurist, was born at See also:Rennes, on the 6th of See also:March 1701. He was for 6o years procureur See also:general at the See also:parliament of See also:Brittany. He was an ardent opponent of the See also:Jesuits; See also:drew up in 1761 for the parliament a memoir on the constitutions of the See also:Order, which did much to secure its suppression in See also:France; and in 1763 published a remarkable " See also:Essay on See also:National Education," in which he proposed a See also:programme of scientific studies as a substitute for those taught by the Jesuits. The same See also:year began the conflict between the Estates of Brittany and the See also:governor of the See also:province, the duc d'See also:Aiguillon (q.v.). The Estates refused to See also:vote the extraordinary imposts demanded by the governor in the name of the See also:king.

La Chalotais was the See also:

personal enemy of d'Aiguillon, who had served him an See also:ill turn with the king, and when the parliament of Brittany sided with the Estates, he took the See also:lead in its opposition. The parliament forbade by decrees the See also:levy of imposts to which the Estates had not consented. The king annulling these decrees, all the members of the parliament but twelve resigned (See also:October 1764 to May 1765). The See also:government considered La Chalotais one of the authors of this affair. At this time the secretary of See also:state who administered the affairs of the province, Louis Philypeaux, duc de la Vrilliere, comte de See also:Saint-Florentin (1705-1777), received two See also:anonymous and abusive letters. La Chalotais was suspected of having written them, and three experts in See also:handwriting declared that they were by him. The government therefore arrested him, his son and four other members of the parliament. The See also:arrest made a See also:great sensation. There was much talk of " despotism." See also:Voltaire stated that the procureur general, in his See also:prison of Saint Malo, was reduced, for lack of See also:ink, to write his See also:defence with a toothpick dipped in See also:vinegar—which was apparently pure See also:legend; but public See also:opinion all over France was strongly aroused against the government. On the 16th of See also:November 1765 a See also:commission of See also:judges was named to take See also:charge of the trial. La Chalotais maintained that the trial was illegal; being procureur general he claimed the right to be judged by the parliament of Rennes, or failing this by the parliament of See also:Bordeaux, according to the See also:custom of the province. The judges did not dare to pronounce a condemnation on the See also:evidence of experts in handwriting, and at the end of a year, things remained where they were at the first.

Louis XV. then decided on a See also:

sovereign See also:act, and brought the affair before his See also:council, which without further formality decided to send the accused into See also:exile. That expedient but increased the popular agitation; philosophes, members of the parliament, patriot Bretons and Jansenists all declared that La Chalotais was the victim of the personal hatred of the duc d'Aiguillon and of the Jesuits. The government at last gave way, and consented to recall the members of the parliament of Brittany who had resigned. This parliament, when it met again, after the formal See also:accusation of the duc d'Aiguillon, demanded the recall of La Chalotais. This was accorded in 1775, and La Chalotais was allowed to transmit his See also:office to his son. In this affair public opinion showed itself stronger than the See also:absolutism of the king. The opposition to the royal See also:power gained largely through it, and it may be regarded as one of the preludes to the revolution of 1789. La Chalotais, who was personally a violent, haughty and unsympathetic See also:character, died at Rennes on the 12th of See also:July 1785. See, besides the Comptes-Rendus des Constitutions des Jesuites and the Essai d'education nationale, the Memoires de la Chalotais (3 vols., 1766-1767). Two See also:works containing detailed See also:bibliographies are See also:Marion, La Bretagne et le duc d'Aiguillon (Paris, 1893), and B. Pocquet, Le Duc d'Aiguillon et La Chalotais (Paris, 1901). See also a controversy between these two authors in the Bulletin critique for 1902.

LA CHARIT$, a town of central France in the department of See also:

Nievre, on the right See also:bank of the See also:Loire, 17 m N.N.W. of See also:Nevers on the Paris-See also:Lyon-Mediterranee railway. Pop. (1906) 3990. La Charite possesses the remains of a fine Romanesque See also:basilica, the church of Sainte-Croix, dating from the iith and early 12th centuries. The See also:plan consists of a See also:nave, rebuilt at the end of the 17th century, See also:transept and choir with See also:ambulatory and side chapels. Surmounting the transept is an octagonal See also:tower of one See also:story, and a square Romanesque tower of much beauty flanks the See also:main portal. There are ruins of the ramparts, which date from the 14th century. The manufacture of See also:hosiery, boots and shoes, files and See also:iron goods, See also:lime and See also:cement and woollen and other fabrics are among the See also:industries; trade is chiefly in See also:wood and iron. La Charite owes its celebrity to its priory, which was founded in the 8th century and reorganized as a dependency of the abbey of See also:Cluny in 1052. It became the See also:parent of many priories and monasteries, some of them in See also:England and See also:Italy. The See also:possession of the town was hotly contested during the See also:wars of See also:religion of the 16th century, at the end of which its fortifications were dismantled. LA CHAUSSEE, See also:PIERRE See also:CLAUDE NIVELLE DE (1692-1754), French dramatist, was born in Paris in 1692.

In 1731 he published an Epitre a Clio, a didactic poem in defence of Leriget de la Faye in his dispute with See also:

Antoine Houdart de la Motte, who had maintained that See also:verse was useless in tragedy. La Chaussee was See also:forty years old before he produced his first See also:play, La Fausse Antipathie (1734). His second play, Le Prejuge a la mode (1735) turns on the fear of incurring ridicule See also:felt by a See also:man in love with his own wife, a See also:prejudice dispelled in France, according to La Harpe, by La Chaussee's See also:comedy. L'Ecole des antis (1737) followed, and, after an unsuccessful See also:attempt at tragedy in Maximinien, he returned to comedy in Melanide (1741). In Melanide the type known as comedie larmoyante is fully See also:developed. Comedy was no longer to provoke See also:laughter, but tears. The innovation consisted in destroying the See also:sharp distinction then existing between tragedy and comedy in French literature. Indications of this See also:change had been already offered in the See also:work of See also:Marivaux, and La Chaussee's plays led naturally to the domestic See also:drama of See also:Diderot and of See also:Sedaine. The new method found See also:bitter enemies. See also:Alexis See also:Piron nicknames the author " le See also:Reverend Pere Chaussee," and ridiculed him in one of his most famous epigrams. Voltaire maintained that the comedie larmoyante was a See also:proof of the inability of the author to produce either of the recognized kinds of drama, though he himself produced a play of similar character in L'Enf See also:ant prodigue. The hostility of the critics did not prevent the public from See also:shed-ding tears nightly over the sorrows of La Chaussee's heroine.

L'Ecole des See also:

meres (1744) and La Gouvernante (1747) See also:form, with those already mentioned, the best of his work. The strict moral aims pursued by La Chaussee in his plays seem hardly consistent with his private preferences. He frequented the same See also:gay society as did the comte de See also:Caylus and contributed to the Recueils de See also:ces messieurs. La Chaussee died on the 14th of May 1754. See also:Villemain said of his See also:style that he wrote prosaic verses with purity, while Voltaire, usually an adverse critic of his work, said he was " un des premiers apres ceux qui ont du genie." For the comedic larmoyante see G. Lanson, Nivelle de la Chaussee et la comedie larmoyante (1887).

End of Article: LACEDAEMON

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