Act 1837, devises of estates tail and gifts to a child or other issue of

the testator will not lapse if any issue of the legatee survive the testator. Lapsed legacies fall into and form part of the residuary estate. In the absence of any indication to the contrary a legacy becomes due on the day of the death of the testator, though for the convenience of the executor it is not payable till a year after that date; this delay does not prevent the legacy vesting on the testator's death. It frequently happens, however, that a legacy is given payable at a future date; in such a case, if the legatee dies after the testator but prior to the date when the legacy is payable it is necessary to discover whether the legacy was vested or contingent, as in the former case it becomes payable to the legatee's representative; in the latter, it lapses. In this, as in other cases, the test is the intention of the testator as expressed in the will; generally it may be said that a gift "payable" or "to be paid" at a certain fixed time confers a vested interest on the legatee, while a gift to A "at" a fixed time, e.g. twenty-one years of age, only confers on A an interest contingent on his attaining the age of twenty-one.

_Legacy Duty_ is a duty charged by the state upon personal property devolving upon the legatees or next of kin of a dead person, either by virtue of his will or upon his intestacy. The duty was first imposed in England in 1780, but the principal act dealing with the subject is the Legacy Duty Act 1796. The principal points as to the duty are these. The duty is charged on personalty only. It is payable only where the person on whose death the property passes was domiciled in the United Kingdom. The rate of duty varies from 1 to 10% according to the relationship between the testator and legatee. As between husband and wife no duty is payable. The duty is payable by the executors and deducted from the legacy unless the testator directs otherwise. Special provisions as to valuation are in force where the gift is of an annuity or is settled on various persons in succession, or the legacy is given in joint tenancy and other cases. In some cases the duty is payable by instalments which carry interest at 3%. In various cases legacies are exempt from duty--the more important are gifts to a member of the royal family, specific legacies under £20 (pecuniary legacies under £20 pay duty), legacies of books, prints, &c., given to a body corporate for preservation, not for sale, and legacies given out of an estate the principal value of which is less than £100. Further, by the Finance Act 1894, payment of the estate duty thereby created absorbs the 1% duty paid by lineal ancestors or descendants of the deceased[1] and the duty on a settled legacy, and, lastly, in the event of estate duty being paid on an estate the total value of which is under £1000, no legacy duty is payable. The legacy duty payable in Ireland is now for all practical purposes assimilated to that in Great Britain. The principal statute in that country is an act of 1814.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] The Finance Bill 1909-1910 re-imposed this duty, and extended it to husbands and wives as well as descendants and ancestors.

LE GALLIENNE, RICHARD (1866- ), English poet and critic, was born in Liverpool on the 20th of January 1866. He started life in a business office in Liverpool, but abandoned this to turn author. _My Lady's Sonnets_ appeared at Liverpool in 1887, and in 1889 he became for a short time literary secretary to Wilson Barrett. In the same year he published _Volumes in Folio_, _The Book Bills_ of Narcissus and _George Meredith: some Characteristics_ (new ed., 1900). He joined the staff of the _Star_ in 1891, and wrote for various papers over the signature of "Logroller." _English Poems_ (1892), _R. L. Stevenson and other Poems_ (1895), a paraphrase (1897) of the _Rubáiyát_ of Omar Khayyám, and _Odes from the Divan of Hafiz_ (1903), contained some light, graceful verse, but he is best known by the fantastic prose essays and sketches of _Prose Fancies_ (2 series, 1894-1896), _Sleeping Beauty and other Prose Fancies_ (1900), _The Religion of a Literary Man_ (1893), _The Quest of the Golden Girl_ (1897), _The Life Romantic_ (1901), &c. His first wife, Mildred Lee, died in 1894, and in 1897 he married Julie Norregard, subsequently taking up his residence in the United States. In 1906 he translated, from the Danish, Peter Nansen's _Love's Trilogy_.

LEGARÉ, HUGH SWINTON (1797-1843), American lawyer and statesman, was born in Charleston, South Carolina, on the 2nd of January 1797, of Huguenot and Scotch stock. Partly on account of his inability to share in the amusements of his fellows by reason of a deformity due to vaccine poisoning before he was five (the poison permanently arresting the growth and development of his legs), he was an eager student, and in 1814 he graduated at the College of South Carolina with the highest rank in his class and with a reputation throughout the state for scholarship and eloquence. He studied law for three years in South Carolina, and then spent two years abroad, studying French and Italian in Paris and jurisprudence at Edinburgh. In 1820-1822 and in 1824-1830 he was a member of the South Carolina legislature. In 1827, with Stephen Elliott (1771-1830), the naturalist, he founded the _Southern Review_, of which he was the sole editor after Elliott's death until 1834, when it was discontinued, and to which he contributed articles on law, travel, and modern and classical literature. In 1830-1832 he was attorney-general of South Carolina, and, although a State's Rights man, he strongly opposed nullification. During his term of office he appeared in a case before the United States Supreme Court, where his knowledge of civil law so strongly impressed Edward Livingston, the secretary of state, who was himself an admirer of Roman Law, that he urged Legaré to devote himself to the study of this subject with the hope that he might influence American law toward the spirit and philosophy and even the forms and processes of Roman jurisprudence. Through Livingston, Legaré was appointed American _chargé d'affaires_ at Brussels, where from 1833 to 1836 he perfected himself in civil law and in the German commentaries on civil law. In 1837-1839, as a Union Democrat, he was a member of the national House of Representatives, and there ably opposed Van Buren's financial policy in spite of the enthusiasm in South Carolina for the sub-treasury project. He supported Harrison in the presidential campaign of 1840, and when the cabinet was reconstructed by Tyler in 1841, Legaré was appointed attorney-general of the United States. On the 9th of May 1843 he was appointed secretary of state _ad interim_, after the resignation of Daniel Webster. On the 20th of June 1843 he died suddenly at Boston. His great work, the forcing into common law of the principles of civil law, was unaccomplished; but Story says "he seemed about to accomplish [it]; for his arguments before the Supreme Court were crowded with the principles of the Roman Law, wrought into the texture of the Common Law with great success." As attorney-general he argued the famous cases, the _United States_ v. _Miranda_, _Wood_ v. _the United States_, and _Jewell_ v. _Jewell_.

See _The Writings of Hugh Swinton Legaré_ (2 vols., Charleston, S.C., 1846), edited by his sister, Mrs Mary Bullen, who contributed a biographical sketch; and two articles by B. J. Ramage in _The Sewanee Review_, vol. x. (New York, 1902).

LEGAS, one of the Shangalla group of tribes, regarded as among the purest types of the Galla race. They occupy the upper Yabus valley, S.W. Abyssinia, near the Sudan frontier. The Legas are physically distinct from the Negro Shangalla. They are of very light complexion, tall and thin, with narrow hollow-cheeked faces, small heads and high foreheads. The chiefs' families are of more mixed blood, with perceptible Negro strain. The Legas are estimated to number upwards of a hundred thousand, of whom some 20,000 are warriors. They are, however, a peaceful race, kind to their women and slaves, and energetic agriculturists. Formerly independent, they came about 1900 under the sway of Abyssinia. The Legas are pagans, but Mahommedanism has gained many converts among them.

LEGATE, BARTHOLOMEW (c. 1575-1612), English fanatic, was born in Essex and became a dealer in cloth. About the beginning of the 17th century he became a preacher among a sect called the "Seekers," and appears to have held unorthodox opinions about the divinity of Jesus Christ. Together with his brother Thomas he was put in prison for heresy in 1611. Thomas died in Newgate gaol, London, but Bartholomew's imprisonment was not a rigorous one. James I. argued with him, and on several occasions he was brought before the Consistory Court of London, but without any definite result. Eventually, after having threatened to bring an action for wrongful imprisonment, Legate was tried before a full Consistory Court in February 1612, was found guilty of heresy, and was delivered to the secular authorities for punishment. Refusing to retract his opinions he was burned to death at Smithfield on the 18th of March 1612. Legate was the last person burned in London for his religious opinions, and Edward Wightman, who was burned at Lichfield in April 1612, was the last to suffer in this way in England.

See T. Fuller, _Church History of Britain_ (1655); and S. R. Gardiner, _History of England_, vol. ii. (London, 1904).

LEGATE (Lat. _legatus_, past part. of _legare_, to send as deputy), a title now generally confined to the highest class of diplomatic representatives of the pope, though still occasionally used, in its original Latin sense, of any ambassador or diplomatic agent. According to the _Nova Compilatio Decretalium_ of Gregory IX., under the title "De officio legati" the canon law recognizes two sorts of legate, the _legatus natus_ and the _legatus datus_ or _missus_. The _legatus datus_ (_missus_) may be either (1) _delegatus_, or (2) _nuncius apostolicus_, or (3) _legatus a latere_ (_lateralis, collateralis_). The rights of the _legatus natus_, which included concurrent jurisdiction with that of all the bishops within his province, have been much curtailed since the 16th century; they were altogether suspended in presence of the higher claims of a _legatus a latere_, and the title is now almost quite honorary. It was attached to the see of Canterbury till the Reformation and it still attaches to the sees of Seville, Toledo, Aries, Reims, Lyons, Gran, Prague, Gnesen-Posen, Cologne, Salzburg, among others. The commission of the _legatus delegatus_ (generally a member of the local clergy) is of a limited nature, and relates only to some definite piece of work. The _nuncius apostolicus_ (who has the privilege of red apparel, a white horse and golden spurs) possesses ordinary jurisdiction within the province to which he has been sent, but his powers otherwise are restricted by the terms of his mandate. The _legatus a latere_ (almost invariably a cardinal, though the power can be conferred on other prelates) is in the fullest sense the plenipotentiary representative of the pope, and possesses the high prerogative implied in the words of Gregory VII., "nostra vice quae corrigenda sunt corrigat, quae statuend constituat." He has the power of suspending all the bishops in his province, and no judicial cases are reserved from his judgment. Without special mandate, however, he cannot depose bishops or unite or separate bishoprics. At present _legati a latere_ are not sent by the holy see, but diplomatic relations, where they exist, are maintained by means of nuncios, internuncios and other agents.

The history of the office of papal legate is closely involved with that of the papacy itself. If it were proved that papal legates exercised the prerogatives of the primacy in the early councils, it would be one of the strongest points for the Roman Catholic view of the papal history. Thus it is claimed that Hosius of Cordova presided over the council of Nicaea (325) in the name of the pope. But the claim rests on slender evidence, since the first source in which Hosius is referred to as representative of the pope is Gelasius of Cyzicus in the Propontis, who wrote toward the end of the 5th century. It is even open to dispute whether Hosius was president at Nicaea, and though he certainly presided over the council of Sardica in 343, it was probably as representative of the emperors Constans and Constantius, who had summoned the council. Pope Julius I. was represented at Sardica by two presbyters. Yet the fifth canon, which provides for appeal by a bishop to Rome, sanctions the use of embassies _a latere_. If the appellant wishes the pope to send priests from his own household, the pope shall be free to do so, and to furnish them with full authority from himself ("ut de latere suo presbyteros mittat ... habentes ejus auctoritatem a quo destinati sunt"). The decrees of Sardica, an obscure council, were later confused with those of Nicaea and thus gained weight. In the synod of Ephesus in 431, Pope Celestine I. instructed his representatives to conduct themselves not as disputants but as judges, and Cyril of Alexandria presided not only in his own name but in that of the pope (and of the bishop of Jerusalem). Instances of delegation of the papal authority in various degrees become numerous in the 5th century, especially during the pontificate of Leo I. Thus Leo writes in 444 (_Ep._ 6) to Anastasius of Thessalonica, appointing him his vicar for the province of Illyria; the same arrangement, he informs us, had been made by Pope Siricius in favour of Anysius, the predecessor of Anastasius. Similar vicarial or legatine powers had been conferred in 418 by Zosimus upon Patroclus, bishop of Arles. In 449 Leo was represented at the "Robber Synod," from which his legates hardly escaped with life; at Chalcedon, in 451, they were treated with singular honour, though the imperial commissioners presided. Again, in 453 the same pope writes to the empress Pulcheria, naming Julianus of Cos as his representative in the defence of the interests of orthodoxy and ecclesiastical discipline at Constantinople (_Ep._ 112); the instructions to Julianus are given in _Ep._ 113 ("hanc specialem curam vice mea functus assumas"). The designation of Anastasius as vicar apostolic over Illyria may be said to mark the beginning of the custom of conferring, _ex officio_, the title of _legatus_ upon the holders of important sees, who ultimately came to be known as _legati nati_, with the rank of primate; the appointment of Julianus at Constantinople gradually developed into the long permanent office of _apocrisiarius_ or _responsalis_. Another sort of delegation is exemplified in Leo's letter to the African bishops (_Ep._ 12), in which he sends Potentius, with instructions to inquire in his name, and to report ("vicem curae nostrae fratri et consacerdoti nostro Potentio delegantes qui de episcopis, quorum culpabilis ferebatur electio, quid veritas haberet inquireret, nobisque omnia fideliter indicaret"). Passing on to the time of Gregory the Great, we find him sending two representatives to Gaul in 599, to suppress simony, and one to Spain in 603. Augustine of Canterbury is sometimes spoken of as legate, but it does not appear that in his case this title was used in any strictly technical sense, although the archbishop of Canterbury afterwards attained the permanent dignity of a _legatus natus_. Boniface, the apostle of Germany, was in like manner constituted, according to Hincmar (_Ep._ 30), a legate of the apostolic see by Popes Gregory II. and Gregory III. According to Hefele (_Conc._ iv. 239), Rodoald of Porto and Zecharias of Anagni, who were sent by Pope Nicolas to Constantinople in 860, were the first actually called _legati a latere_. The policy of Gregory VII. naturally led to a great development of the legatine as distinguished from the ordinary episcopal function. From the creation of the medieval papal monarchy until the close of the middle ages, the papal legate played a most important rôle in national as well as church history. The further definition of his powers proceeded throughout the 12th and 13th centuries. From the 16th century legates a latere give way almost entirely to nuncios (q.v.).

See P. Hinschius, _Kirchenrecht_, i. 498 ff.; G. Phillips, _Kirchenrecht_, vol. vi. 680 ff.

LEGATION (Lat. _legatio_, a sending or mission), a diplomatic mission of the second rank. The term is also applied to the building in which the minister resides and to the area round it covered by his diplomatic immunities. See DIPLOMACY.

LEGEND (through the French from the med. Lat. _legenda_, things to be read, from _legere_, to read), in its primary meaning the history or life-story of a saint, and so applied to portions of Scripture and selections from the lives of the saints as read at divine service. The statute of 3 and 4 Edward VI. dealing with the abolition of certain books and images (1549), cap. 10, sect. 1, says that "all bookes ... called processionalles, manuelles, _legends_ ... shall be ... abolished." The "Golden Legend," or _Aurea Legenda_, was the name given to a book containing lives of the saints and descriptions of festivals, written by Jacobus de Voragine, archbishop of Genoa, in the 13th century. From the original application of the word to stories of the saints containing wonders and miracles, the word came to be applied to a story handed down without any foundation in history, but popularly believed to be true. "Legend" is also used of a writing, inscription, or motto on coins or medals, and in connexion with coats of arms, shields, monuments, &c.

LEGENDRE, ADRIEN MARIE (1752-1833), French mathematician, was born at Paris (or, according to some accounts, at Toulouse) in 1752. He was brought up at Paris, where he completed his studies at the _Collège Mazarin_. His first published writings consist of articles forming part of the _Traité de mécanique_ (1774) of the Abbé Marie, who was his professor; Legendre's name, however, is not mentioned. Soon afterwards he was appointed professor of mathematics in the _École Militaire_ at Paris, and he was afterwards professor in the _École Normale_. In 1782 he received the prize from the Berlin Academy for his "Dissertation sur la question de balistique," a memoir relating to the paths of projectiles in resisting media. He also, about this time, wrote his "Recherches sur la figure des planètes," published in the _Mémoires_ of the French Academy, of which he was elected a member in succession to J. le Rond d'Alembert in 1783. He was also appointed a commissioner for connecting geodetically Paris and Greenwich, his colleagues being P. F. A. Méchain and C. F. Cassini de Thury; General William Roy conducted the operations on behalf of England. The French observations were published in 1792 (_Exposé des opérations faites en France in 1787 pour la jonction des observatoires de Paris et de Greenwich_). During the Revolution, he was one of the three members of the council established to introduce the decimal system, and he was also a member of the commission appointed to determine the length of the metre, for which purpose the calculations, &c., connected with the arc of the meridian from Barcelona to Dunkirk were revised. He was also associated with G. C. F. M. Prony (1755-1839) in the formation of the great French tables of logarithms of numbers, sines, and tangents, and natural sines, called the _Tables du Cadastre_, in which the quadrant was divided centesimally; these tables have never been published (see LOGARITHMS). He was examiner in the _École Polytechnique_, but held few important state offices. He died at Paris on the 10th of January 1833, and the discourse at his grave was pronounced by S. D. Poisson. The last of the three supplements to his _Traité des fonctions elliptiques_ was published in 1832, and Poisson in his funeral oration remarked: "M. Legendre a eu cela de commun avec la plupart des géomètres qui l'ont précédé, que ses travaux n'ont fini qu'avec sa vie. Le dernier volume de nos mémoires renferme encore un mémoire de lui, sur une question difficile de la théorie des nombres; et peu de temps avant la maladie qui l'a conduit au tombeau, il se procura les observations les plus récentes des comètes à courtes périodes, dont il allait se servir pour appliquer et perfectionner ses méthodes."

It will be convenient, in giving an account of his writings, to consider them under the different subjects which are especially associated with his name.

_Elliptic Functions._--This is the subject with which Legendre's name will always be most closely connected, and his researches upon it extend over a period of more than forty years. His first published writings upon the subject consist of two papers in the _Mémoires de l'Académie Française_ for 1786 upon elliptic arcs. In 1792 he presented to the Academy a memoir on elliptic transcendents. The contents of these memoirs are included in the first volume of his _Exercices de calcul intégral_ (1811). The third volume (1816) contains the very elaborate and now well-known tables of the elliptic integrals which were calculated by Legendre himself, with an account of the mode of their construction. In 1827 appeared the _Traité des fonctions elliptiques_ (2 vols., the first dated 1825, the second 1826), a great part of the first volume agrees very closely with the contents of the _Exercices_; the tables, &c., are given in the second volume. Three supplements, relating to the researches of N. H. Abel and C. G. J. Jacobi, were published in 1828-1832, and form a third volume. Legendre had pursued the subject which would now be called elliptic integrals alone from 1786 to 1827, the results of his labours having been almost entirely neglected by his contemporaries, but his work had scarcely appeared in 1827 when the discoveries which were independently made by the two young and as yet unknown mathematicians Abel and Jacobi placed the subject on a new basis, and revolutionized it completely. The readiness with which Legendre, who was then seventy-six years of age, welcomed these important researches, that quite overshadowed his own, and included them in successive supplements to his work, does the highest honour to him (see FUNCTION).

_Eulerian Integrals and Integral Calculus._--The _Exercices de calcul intégral_ consist of three volumes, a great portion of the first and the whole of the third being devoted to elliptic functions. The remainder of the first volume relates to the Eulerian integrals and to quadratures. The second volume (1817) relates to the Eulerian integrals, and to various integrals and series, developments, mechanical problems, &c., connected with the integral calculus; this volume contains also a numerical table of the values of the gamma function. The latter portion of the second volume of the _Traité des fonctions elliptiques_ (1826) is also devoted to the Eulerian integrals, the table being reproduced. Legendre's researches connected with the "gamma function" are of importance, and are well known; the subject was also treated by K. F. Gauss in his memoir _Disquisitiones generales circa series infinitas_ (1816), but in a very different manner. The results given in the second volume of the _Exercices_ are of too miscellaneous a character to admit of being briefly described. In 1788 Legendre published a memoir on double integrals, and in 1809 one on definite integrals.

_Theory of Numbers._--Legendre's _Théorie des nombres_ and Gauss's _Disquisitiones arithmeticae_ (1801) are still standard works upon this subject. The first edition of the former appeared in 1798 under the title _Essai sur la théorie des nombres_; there was a second edition in 1808; a first supplement was published in 1816, and a second in 1825. The third edition, under the title _Théorie des nombres_, appeared in 1830 in two volumes. The fourth edition appeared in 1900. To Legendre is due the theorem known as the law of quadratic reciprocity, the most important general result in the science of numbers which has been discovered since the time of P. de Fermat, and which was called by Gauss the "gem of arithmetic." It was first given by Legendre in the _Mémoires_ of the Academy for 1785, but the demonstration that accompanied it was incomplete. The symbol (a/p) which is known as Legendre's symbol, and denotes the positive or negative unit which is the remainder when a^[½p(-1)] is divided by a prime number p, does not appear in this memoir, but was first used in the _Essai sur la théorie des nombres_. Legendre's formula x: (log x - 1.08366) for the approximate number of forms inferior to a given number x was first given by him also in this work (2nd ed., p. 394) (see NUMBER).

_Attractions of Ellipsoids._--Legendre was the author of four important memoirs on this subject. In the first of these, entitled "Recherches sur l'attraction des sphéroides homogènes," published in the _Mémoires_ of the Academy for 1785, but communicated to it at an earlier period, Legendre introduces the celebrated expressions which, though frequently called Laplace's coefficients, are more correctly named after Legendre. The definition of the coefficients is that if (1 - 2h cos [phi] + h²)^(-½) be expanded in ascending powers of h, and if the general term be denoted by P_n h^n, then P_n is of the Legendrian coefficient of the nth order. In this memoir also the function which is now called the potential was, at the suggestion of Laplace, first introduced. Legendre shows that Maclaurin's theorem with respect to confocal ellipsoids is true for any position of the external point when the ellipsoids are solids of revolution. Of this memoir Isaac Todhunter writes: "We may affirm that no single memoir in the history of our subject can rival this in interest and importance. During forty years the resources of analysis, even in the hands of d'Alembert, Lagrange and Laplace, had not carried the theory of the attraction of ellipsoids beyond the point which the geometry of Maclaurin had reached. The introduction of the coefficients now called Laplace's, and their application, commence a new era in mathematical physics." Legendre's second memoir was communicated to the _Académie_ in 1784, and relates to the conditions of equilibrium of a mass of rotating fluid in the form of a figure of revolution which does not deviate much from a sphere. The third memoir relates to Laplace's theorem respecting confocal ellipsoids. Of the fourth memoir Todhunter writes: "It occupies an important position in the history of our subject. The most striking addition which is here made to previous researches consists in the treatment of a planet supposed entirely fluid; the general equation for the form of a stratum is given for the first time and discussed. For the first time we have a correct and convenient expression for Laplace's nth coefficient." (See Todhunter's _History of the Mathematical Theories of Attraction and the Figure of the Earth_ (1873), the twentieth, twenty-second, twenty-fourth, and twenty-fifth chapters of which contain a full and complete account of Legendre's four memoirs. See also SPHERICAL HARMONICS.)

_Geodesy._--Besides the work upon the geodetical operations connecting Paris and Greenwich, of which Legendre was one of the authors, he published in the _Mémoires de l'Académie_ for 1787 two papers on trigonometrical operations depending upon the figure of the earth, containing many theorems relating to this subject. The best known of these, which is called Legendre's theorem, is usually given in treatises on spherical trigonometry; by means of it a small spherical triangle may be treated as a plane triangle, certain corrections being applied to the angles. Legendre was also the author of a memoir upon triangles drawn upon a spheroid. Legendre's theorem is a fundamental one in geodesy, and his contributions to the subject are of the greatest importance.

_Method of Least Squares._--In 1806 appeared Legendre's _Nouvelles Méthodes pour la détermination des orbites des comètes_, which is memorable as containing the first published suggestion of the method of least squares (see PROBABILITY). In the preface Legendre remarks: "La méthode qui me paroît la plus simple et la plus générale consiste à rendre minimum la somme des quarrés des erreurs, ... et que j'appelle méthode des moindres quarrés"; and in an appendix in which the application of the method is explained his words are: "De tous les principes qu'on peut proposer pour cet objet, je pense qu'il n'en est pas de plus général, de plus exact, ni d'une application plus facile que celui dont nous avons fait usage dans les recherches précédentes, et qui consiste à rendre minimum la somme des quarrés des erreurs." The method was proposed by Legendre only as a convenient process for treating observations, without reference to the theory of probability. It had, however, been applied by Gauss as early as 1795, and the method was fully explained, and the law of facility for the first time given by him in 1809. Laplace also justified the method by means of the principles of the theory of probability; and this led Legendre to republish the part of his _Nouvelles Méthodes_ which related to it in the _Mémoires de l'Académie_ for 1810. Thus, although the method of least squares was first formally proposed by Legendre, the theory and algorithm and mathematical foundation of the process are due to Gauss and Laplace. Legendre published two supplements to his _Nouvelles Méthodes_ in 1806 and 1820.

_The Elements of Geometry._--Legendre's name is most widely known on account of his _Eléments de géométrie_, the most successful of the numerous attempts that have been made to supersede Euclid as a text-book on geometry. It first appeared in 1794, and went through very many editions, and has been translated into almost all languages. An English translation, by Sir David Brewster, from the eleventh French edition, was published in 1823, and is well known in England. The earlier editions did not contain the trigonometry. In one of the notes Legendre gives a proof of the irrationality of [pi]. This had been first proved by J. H. Lambert in the Berlin _Memoirs_ for 1768. Legendre's proof is similar in principle to Lambert's, but much simpler. On account of the objections urged against the treatment of parallels in this work, Legendre was induced to publish in 1803 his _Nouvelle Théorie des parallèles_. His _Géométrie_ gave rise in England also to a lengthened discussion on the difficult question of the treatment of the theory of parallels.

It will thus be seen that Legendre's works have placed him in the very foremost rank in the widely distinct subjects of elliptic functions, theory of numbers, attractions, and geodesy, and have given him a conspicuous position in connexion with the integral calculus and other branches of mathematics. He published a memoir on the integration of partial differential equations and a few others which have not been noticed above, but they relate to subjects with which his name is not especially associated. A good account of the principal works of Legendre is given in the _Bibliothèque universelle de Genève_ for 1833, pp. 45-82.

See Élie de Beaumont, "Memoir de Legendre," translated by C. A. Alexander, _Smithsonian Report_ (1874). (J. W. L. G.)

LEGENDRE, LOUIS (1752-1797), French revolutionist, was born at Versailles on the 22nd of May 1752. When the Revolution broke out, he kept a butcher's shop in Paris, in the rue des Boucheries St Germain. He was an ardent supporter of the ideas of the Revolution, a member of the Jacobin Club, and one of the founders of the club of the Cordeliers. In spite of the incorrectness of his diction, he was gifted with a genuine eloquence, and well knew how to carry the populace with him. He was a prominent actor in the taking of the Bastille (14th of July 1789), in the massacre of the Champ de Mars (July 1791), and in the attack on the Tuileries (10th of August 1792). Deputy from Paris to the Convention, he voted for the death of Louis XVI., and was sent on mission to Lyons (27th of February 1793) before the revolt of that town, and was on mission from August to October 1793 in Seine-Inférieure. He was a member of the _Comité de Sûreté Générale_, and contributed to the downfall of the Girondists. When Danton was arrested, Legendre at first defended him, but was soon cowed and withdrew his defence. After the fall of Robespierre, Legendre took part in the reactionary movement, undertook the closing of the Jacobin Club, was elected president of the Convention, and helped to bring about the impeachment of J. B. Carrier, the perpetrator of the _noyades_ of Nantes. He was subsequently elected a member of the Council of Ancients, and died on the 13th of December 1797.

See F. A. Aulard, _Les Orateurs de la Législative et de la Convention_ (2nd ed., Paris, 1906, 2 vols.); "Correspondance de Legendre" in the _Révolution française_ (vol. xl., 1901).

LEGERDEMAIN (Fr. _léger-de-main_, i.e. light or sleight of hand), the name given specifically to that form of conjuring in which the performer relies on dexterity of manipulation rather than on mechanical apparatus. See CONJURING.

LEGGE, afterwards BILSON-LEGGE, HENRY (1708-1764), English statesman, fourth son of William Legge, 1st earl of Dartmouth (1672-1750), was born on the 29th of May 1708. Educated at Christ Church, Oxford, he became private secretary to Sir Robert Walpole, and in 1739 was appointed secretary of Ireland by the lord-lieutenant, the 3rd duke of Devonshire; being chosen member of parliament for the borough of East Looe in 1740, and for Orford, Suffolk, at the general election in the succeeding year. Legge only shared temporarily in the downfall of Walpole, and became in quick succession surveyor-general of woods and forests, a lord of the admiralty, and a lord of the treasury. In 1748 he was sent as envoy extraordinary to Frederick the Great, and although his conduct in Berlin was sharply censured by George II., he became treasurer of the navy soon after his return to England. In April 1754 he joined the ministry of the duke of Newcastle as chancellor of the exchequer, the king consenting to this appointment although refusing to hold any intercourse with the minister; but Legge shared the elder Pitt's dislike of the policy of paying subsidies to the landgrave of Hesse, and was dismissed from office in November 1755. Twelve months later he returned to his post at the exchequer in the administration of Pitt and the 4th duke of Devonshire, retaining office until April 1757 when he shared both the dismissal and the ensuing popularity of Pitt. When in conjunction with the duke of Newcastle Pitt returned to power in the following July, Legge became chancellor of the exchequer for the third time. He imposed new taxes upon houses and windows, and he appears to have lost to some extent the friendship of Pitt, while the king refused to make him a peer. In 1759 he obtained the sinecure position of surveyor of the petty customs and subsidies in the port of London, and having in consequence to resign his seat in parliament he was chosen one of the members for Hampshire, a proceeding which greatly incensed the earl of Bute, who desired this seat for one of his friends. Having thus incurred Bute's displeasure Legge was again dismissed from the exchequer in March 1761, but he continued to take part in parliamentary debates until his death at Tunbridge Wells on the 23rd of August 1764. Legge appears to have been a capable financier, but the position of chancellor of the exchequer was not at that time a cabinet office. He took the additional name of Bilson on succeeding to the estates of a relative, Thomas Bettersworth Bilson, in 1754. Pitt called Legge, "the child, and deservedly the favourite child, of the Whigs." Horace Walpole said he was "of a creeping, underhand nature, and aspired to the lion's place by the manoeuvre of the mole," but afterwards he spoke in high terms of his talents. Legge married Mary, daughter and heiress of Edward, 4th and last Baron Stawel (d. 1755). This lady, who in 1760 was created Baroness Stawel of Somerton, bore him an only child, Henry Stawel Bilson-Legge (1757-1820), who became Baron Stawel on his mother's death in 1780. When Stawel died without sons his title became extinct. His only daughter, Mary (d. 1864), married John Dutton, 2nd Baron Sherborne.

See John Butier, bishop of Hereford, _Some Account of the Character of the late Rt. Hon. H. Bilson-Legge_ (1765); Horace Walpole, _Memoirs of the Reign of George II._ (London, 1847); and _Memoirs of the Reign of George III._, edited by G. F. R. Barker (London, 1894); W. E. H. Lecky, _History of England_, vol. ii. (London, 1892); and the memoirs and collections of correspondence of the time.

LEGGE, JAMES (1815-1897), British Chinese scholar, was born at Huntly, Aberdeenshire, in 1815, and educated at King's College, Aberdeen. After studying at the Highbury Theological College, London, he went in 1839 as a missionary to the Chinese, but, as China was not yet open to Europeans, he remained at Malacca three years, in charge of the Anglo-Chinese College there. The College was subsequently moved to Hong-Kong, where Legge lived for thirty years. Impressed with the necessity of missionaries being able to comprehend the ideas and culture of the Chinese, he began in 1841 a translation in many volumes of the Chinese classics, a monumental task admirably executed and completed a few years before his death. In 1870 he was made an LL.D. of Aberdeen and in 1884 of Edinburgh University. In 1875 several gentlemen connected with the China trade suggested to the university of Oxford a Chair of Chinese Language and Literature to be occupied by Dr Legge. The university responded liberally, Corpus Christi College contributed the emoluments of a fellowship, and the chair was constituted in 1876. In addition to his other work Legge wrote _The Life and Teaching of Confucius_ (1867); _The Life and Teaching of Mencius_ (1875); _The Religions of China_ (1880); and other books on Chinese literature and religion. He died at Oxford on the 29th of November 1897.

LEGHORN (Ital. _Livorno_, Fr. _Livourne_), a city of Tuscany, Italy, chief town of the province of the same name, which consists of the commune of Leghorn and the islands of Elba and Gorgona. The town is the seat of a bishopric and of a large naval academy--the only one in Italy--and the third largest commercial port in the kingdom, situated on the west coast, 12 m. S.W. of Pisa by rail, 10 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1901) 78,308 (town), 96,528 (commune). It is built along the seashore upon a healthy and fertile tract of land, which forms, as it were, an oasis in a zone of Maremma. Behind is a range of hills, the most conspicuous of which, the Monte Nero, is crowned by a frequented pilgrimage church and also by villas and hotels, to which a funicular railway runs. The town itself is almost entirely modern. The 16th-century Fortezza Vecchia, guarding the harbour, is picturesque, and there is a good bronze statue of the grand duke Ferdinand I. by Pietro Tacca (1577-1640), a pupil of Giovanni da Bologna. The lofty Torre del Marzocco, erected in 1423 by the Florentines, is fine. The façade of the cathedral was designed by Inigo Jones. The old Protestant cemetery contains the tombs of Tobias Smollett (d. 1771) and Francis Horner (d. 1817). There is also a large synagogue founded in 1581. The exchange, the chamber of commerce and the clearing-house (one of the oldest in the world, dating from 1764) are united under one roof in the Palazzo del Commercio, opened in 1907. Several improvements have been carried out in the city and port, and the place is developing rapidly as an industrial centre. The naval academy, formerly established partly at Naples and partly at Genoa, has been transferred to Leghorn. Some of the navigable canals which connected the harbour with the interior of the city have been either modified or filled up. Several streets have been widened, and a road along the shore has been transformed into a fine and shady promenade. Leghorn is the principal sea-bathing resort in this part of Italy, the season lasting from the end of June to the end of August. A spa for the use of the Acque della Salute has been constructed. Leghorn is on the main line from Pisa to Rome; another line runs to Colle Salvetti. A considerable number of important steamship lines call here. The new rectilinear mole, sanctioned in 1881, has been built out into the sea for a distance of 600 yds. from the old Vegliaia lighthouse, and the docking basin has been lengthened to 490 ft. Inside the breakwater the depth varies from 10 to 26 ft. The total trade of the port increased from £3,853,593 in 1897 to £5,675,285 in 1905 and £7,009,758 in 1906 (the large increase being mainly due to a rise of over £1,000,000 in imports--mainly of coal, building materials and machinery), the average ratio of imports to exports being as three to two. The imports consist principally of machinery, coal, grain, dried fish, tobacco and hides, and the exports of hemp, hides, olive oil, soap, coral, candied fruit, wine, straw hats, boracic acid, mercury, and marble and alabaster. In 1885 the total number of vessels that entered the port was 4281 of 1,434,000 tons; of these, 1251 of 750,000 tons were foreign; 688,000 tons of merchandise were loaded and unloaded. In 1906, after considerable fluctuations during the interval, the total number that entered was 4623 vessels of 2,372,551 tons; of these, 935 of 1,002,119 tons were foreign; British ships representing about half this tonnage. In 1906 the total imports and exports amounted to 1,470,000 tons including coasting trade. A great obstacle to the development of the port is the absence of modern mechanical appliances for loading and unloading vessels, and of quay space and dock accommodation. The older shipyards have been considerably extended, and shipbuilding is actively carried on, especially by the Orlando yard which builds large ships for the Italian navy, while new industries--namely, glass-making and copper and brass-founding, electric power works, a cement factory, porcelain factories, flour-mills, oil-mills, a cotton yarn spinning factory, electric plant works, a ship-breaking yard, a motor-boat yard, &c.--have been established. Other important firms, Tuscan wine-growers, oil-growers, timber traders, colour manufacturers, &c., have their head offices and stores at Leghorn, with a view to export. The former British "factory" here was of great importance for the trade with the Levant, but was closed in 1825. The two villages of Ardenza and Antignano, which form part of the commune, have acquired considerable importance, the former in part for sea-bathing.

The earliest mention of Leghorn occurs in a document of 891, relating to the first church here; in 1017 it is called a castle. In the 13th century the Pisans tried to attract a population to the spot, but it was not till the 14th that Leghorn became a rival of Porto Pisano at the mouth of the Arno, which it was destined ultimately to supplant. It was at Leghorn that Urban V. and Gregory XI. landed on their return from Avignon. When in 1405 the king of France sold Pisa to the Florentines he kept possession of Leghorn; but he afterwards (1407) sold it for 26,000 ducats to the Genoese, and from the Genoese the Florentines purchased it in 1421. In 1496 the city showed its devotion to its new masters by a successful defence against Maximilian and his allies, but it was still a small place; in 1551 there were only 749 inhabitants. With the rise of the Medici came a rapid increase of prosperity; Cosmo, Francis and Ferdinand erected fortifications and harbour works, warehouses and churches, with equal liberality, and the last especially gave a stimulus to trade by inviting "men of the East and the West, Spanish and Portuguese, Greeks, Germans, Italians, Hebrews, Turks, Moors, Armenians, Persians and others," to settle and traffic in the city, as it became in 1606. Declared free and neutral in 1691, Leghorn was permanently invested with these privileges by the Quadruple Alliance in 1718; but in 1796 Napoleon seized all the hostile vessels in its port. It ceased to be a free city by the law of 1867. (T. As.)

LEGION (Lat. _legio_), in early Rome, the levy of citizens marching out _en masse_ to war, like the citizen-army of any other primitive state. As Rome came to need more than one army at once and warfare grew more complex, _legio_ came to denote a unit of 4000-6000 heavy infantry (including, however, at first some light infantry and at various times a handful of cavalry) who were by political status Roman citizens and were distinct from the "allies," _auxilia_, and other troops of the second class. The legionaries were regarded as the best and most characteristic Roman soldiers, the most trustworthy and truly Roman; they enjoyed better pay and conditions of service than the "auxiliaries." In A.D. 14 (death of Augustus) there were 25 such legions: later, the number was slightly increased; finally about A.D. 290 Diocletian reduced the size and greatly increased the number of the legions. Throughout, the dominant features of the legions were heavy infantry and Roman citizenship. They lost their importance when the Barbarian invasions altered the character of ancient warfare and made cavalry a more important arm than infantry, in the late 3rd and 4th centuries A.D. In the middle ages the word "legion" seems not to have been used as a technical term. In modern times it has been employed for organizations of an unusual or exceptional character, such as a corps of foreign volunteers or mercenaries. See further ROMAN ARMY. (F. J. H.)

The term legion has been used to designate regiments or corps of all arms in modern times, perhaps the earliest example of this being the Provincial Legions formed in France by Francis I. (see INFANTRY). Napoleon, in accordance with this precedent, employed the word to designate the second-line formations which he maintained in France and which supplied the Grande Armée with drafts. The term "Foreign Legion" is often used for irregular volunteer corps of foreign sympathizers raised by states at war, often by smaller states fighting for independence. Unlike most foreign legions the "British Legion" which, raised in Great Britain and commanded by Sir de Lacy Evans (q.v.), fought in the Carlist wars, was a regularly enlisted and paid force. The term "foreign legion" is colloquially but incorrectly applied to-day to the _Régiments étrangers_ in the French service, which are composed of adventurous spirits of all nationalities and have been employed in many arduous colonial campaigns.

The most famous of the corps that have borne the name of legion in modern times was the King's German Legion (see Beamish's history of the corps). The electorate of Hanover being in 1805 threatened by the French, and no effective resistance being considered possible, the British government wished to take the greater part of the Hanoverian army into its service. But the acceptance by the Hanoverian government of this offer was delayed until too late, and it was only after the French had entered the country and the army as a unit had been disbanded that the formation of the "King's German Regiment," as it was at first called, was begun in England. This enlisted not only ex-Hanoverian soldiers, but other Germans as well, as individuals. Lieut.-Colonel von der Decken and Major Colin Halkett were the officers entrusted with the formation of the new corps, which in January 1805 had become a corps of all arms with the title of King's German Legion. It then consisted of a dragoon and a hussar regiment, five batteries, two light and four line battalions and an engineer section, all these being afterwards increased. Its services included the abortive German expedition of November 1805, the expedition to Copenhagen in 1807, the minor sieges and combats in Sicily 1808-14, the Walcheren expedition of 1809, the expedition to Sweden under Sir John Moore in 1808, and the campaign of 1813 in north Germany. But its title to fame is its part in the Peninsular War, in which from first to last it was an acknowledged _corps d'élite_--its cavalry especially, whose services both on reconnaissance and in battle were of the highest value. The exploit of the two dragoon regiments of the Legion at Garcia Hernandez after the battle of Salamanca, where they charged and broke up two French infantry squares and captured some 1400 prisoners, is one of the most notable incidents in the history of the cavalry arm (see Sir E. Wood's _Achievements of Cavalry)_. A general officer of the Legion, Charles Alten (q.v.), commanded the British Light Division in the latter part of the war. It should be said that the Legion was rarely engaged as a unit. It was considered rather as a small army of the British type, most of which served abroad by regiments and battalions while a small portion and depot units were at home, the total numbers under arms being about 25,000. In 1815 the period of service of the corps had almost expired when Napoleon returned from Elba, but its members voluntarily offered to prolong their service. It lost heavily at Waterloo, in which Baring's battalion of the light infantry distinguished itself by its gallant defence of La Haye Sainte. The strength of the Legion at the time of its disbandment was 1100 officers and 23,500 men. A short-lived "King's German Legion" was raised by the British government for service in the Crimean War. Certain Hanoverian regiments of the German army to-day represent the units of the Legion and carry Peninsular battle-honours on their standards and colours.

LEGITIM, or BAIRN'S PART, in Scots law, the legal share of the movable property of a father due on his death to his children. If a father dies leaving a widow and children, the movable property is divided into three equal parts; one-third part is divided equally among all the children who survive, although they may be of different marriages (the issue of predeceased children do not share); another third goes to the widow as her _jus relictae_, and the remaining third, called "dead's part," may be disposed of by the father by will as he pleases. If the father die intestate the dead's part goes to the children as next of kin. Should the father leave no widow, one-half of the movable estate is legitim and one-half dead's part. In claiming legitim, however, credit must be given for any advance made by the father out of his movable estate during his lifetime.

LEGITIMACY, and LEGITIMATION, the status derived by individuals in consequence of being born in legal wedlock, and the means by which the same status is given to persons not so born. Under the Roman or civil law a child born before the marriage of the parents was made legitimate by their subsequent marriage. This method of legitimation was accepted by the canon law, by the legal systems of the continent of Europe, of Scotland and of some of the states of the United States. The early Germanic codes, however, did not recognize such legitimation, nor among the Anglo-Saxons had the natural-born child any rights of inheritance, or possibly any right other than that of protection, even when acknowledged by its father. The principle of the civil and canon law was at one time advocated by the clergy of England, but was summarily rejected by the barons at the parliament of Merton in 1236, when they replied _Nolumus leges Angliae mutare_.

English law takes account solely of the fact that marriage precedes the birth of the child; at whatever period the birth happens after the marriage, the offspring is prima facie legitimate. The presumption of law is always in favour of the legitimacy of the child of a married woman, and at one time it was so strong that Sir Edward Coke held that "if the husband be within the four seas, i.e. within the jurisdiction of the king of England, and the wife hath issue, no proof shall be admitted to prove the child a bastard unless the husband hath an apparent impossibility of procreation." It is now settled, however, that the presumption of legitimacy may be rebutted by evidence showing non-access on the part of the husband, or any other circumstance showing that the husband could not in the course of nature have been the father of his wife's child. If the husband had access, or the access be not clearly negatived, even though others at the same time were carrying on an illicit intercourse with the wife, a child born under such circumstances is legitimate. If the husband had access intercourse must be presumed, unless there is irresistible evidence to the contrary. Neither husband or wife will be permitted to prove the non-access directly or indirectly. Children born after a divorce _a mensa et thoro_ will, however, be presumed to be bastards unless access be proved. A child born so long after the death of a husband that he could not in the ordinary course of nature have been the father is illegitimate. The period of gestation is presumed to be _about_ nine calendar months; and if there were any circumstances from which an unusually long or short period of gestation could be inferred, special medical testimony would be required.

A marriage between persons within the prohibited degrees of affinity was before 1835 not void, but only voidable, and the ecclesiastical courts were restrained from bastardizing the issue after the death of either of the parents. Lord Lyndhurst's act (1835) declared all such existing marriages valid, but all subsequent marriages between persons within the prohibited degrees of consanguinity or affinity were made null and void and the issue illegitimate (see MARRIAGE). By the Legitimacy Declaration