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LAN
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LAN

LANDEN, John, an English mathematician, was born at Peakirk in Northamptonshire on the 23rd of January, 1719, and died at Milton, near Peterborough, on the 15th of January, 1790. He was bred to business, and from 1762 till a short time before his death was land-agent to Earl Fitzwilliam. He occupied his leisure in mathematical researches of a high order, distinguished especially by great originality of method. Some of them appeared in separate works, and some in the Philosophical Transactions from 1754 to 1785. In his principal separate work, called the "Residual Analysis," was set forth a peculiar method of demonstrating the principles of the differential calculus. One of his geometrical discoveries was the theorem that the difference between two given elliptic arcs is equal to a certain hyperbolic arc, a proposition of great importance in the theory of elliptic functions.—W. J. M. R.

LANDER, Richard, an enterprising African discoverer, was born at Truro in Cornwall, of humble parentage, on the 8th of February, 1804. Of his early life he has prefixed an interesting sketch to his "Record of Captain Clapperton's last expedition to Africa." From a child he was of a roving disposition, fond of listening to stories of distant countries, and bent on leading a wandering life. His inclination was soon gratified. At the age of eleven he accompanied a mercantile gentleman to the West Indies, and until he was twenty, was, as attendant in the service of various noblemen and gentlemen, travelling through the Cape colony, among other distant regions. After the return of Clapperton and Denham in 1825 from Africa, Lander heard of the intention of the British government to send out another expedition, with Clapperton at its head. Accordingly he waited upon Clapperton, and by his entreaties persuaded the latter to engage him as a confidential servant. An account of this expedition has been given in a previous memoir.—(See Clapperton, Hugh.) The only European companion of Clapperton by his death-bed in a solitary hut in Saccatoo, Lander made his way alone to Badagry on the west coast, and reached Portsmouth the 30th of April, 1828. Repairing in ill-health to Truro, he was unable to elaborate Clapperton's journals, which he had brought with him, and they were first published in their rough, original form. Subsequently Lander compiled from them and from his own information the "Record" already referred to, and published in 1830. Lander was now commissioned by the government to return to Africa, taking the same route as Clapperton; and to trace the Niger to its termination, whatever that might be—whether Lake Tschad or the Atlantic. Accompanied by his brother John, he left Portsmouth in January, 1830, and landed at Badagry in March. Making their way to Boussa, the locality of Mungo Park's death, they ascended the Niger to Yaoori, the extreme point in a northern direction reached by the expedition. Returning to Boussa on the 20th of September, they embarked in canoes to trace the course of the Niger, not knowing whither it might lead them. At Kirree they were plundered and nearly killed. Further south at Eboe they were imprisoned, and with much difficulty reached a Liverpool trading vessel in the First Brass River or river Nun, an effluent of the Niger; descending which they achieved the great discovery that the mysterious river discharged itself into the Bight of Benin. On the 1st of December they were landed on Fernando Po, and they reached London in the June of 1831, to receive general congratulations on their safety and success. Richard Lander was lionized, and presented with the prize of fifty guineas placed by the king at the disposal of the Royal Geographical Society. Portions of the journals of the two brothers had been lost at Kirree, but fortunately from the remains of both a complete narrative could be compiled. The late John Murray gave them the large sum of a thousand guineas for their papers, which were arranged for the press by Lieutenant Beecher, and published in 1832 in the Family Library as the "Journal of an Expedition to explore the course and termination of the Niger, by Richard and John Lander." In 1832 the Liverpool merchants formed a company for sending out a new expedition to ascend the Niger and establish commercial relations with the native tribes of Central Africa. Richard Lander, still restless and adventurous, willingly accepted the invitation to take the direction of the expedition, and with two small steamers sailed from Milford Haven on the 25th of July, 1832. In this expedition Lander ascended the river Tschadda as high as a hundred and fifty miles from its junction with the Niger, but was twice forced to return to Fernando Po. In the course of a third attempt he and his companions were attacked in canoes by the people of one of the Brass River chiefs, and though he reached Fernando Po alive, mortification of his wounds set in, and he died there on the 6th of February, 1834. Richard Lander was short in stature, but of great muscular strength and a constitution of iron. He was a man of cheerful disposition, and of manners at once pleasing and unobtrusive. Of his final expedition a narrative was published in 1835 by two of its survivors, Macgregor Laird and R. A. K. Oldfield.—F. E.

LANDI, Gasparo, Cavaliere, a distinguished Italian painter, was born in 1756 at Piacenza, and studied in the academy of that city; at Parma, where he carried off the prize of the Academy for a painting of Tobias; and at Rome, under Battoni. Having established himself in this last city, he was patronized by Pope Pio VI., and during the French occupation received several important commissions from that government. He was made professor, and in 1817 secretary, in the Academy of St. Luke. His pictures are from ancient history and mythology, the scriptures, and the legends of the church. His most admired painting is a large altar-piece, "Christ bearing his Cross," painted in 1810 for the council of his native city, to be placed in the church of the dominicans. Landi had great facility in composition, and was a pleasing colourist. Altogether he is one of the best of the recent eclectic painters of Italy.—J. T—e.

LANDINO, Cristoforo, a great promoter of ancient literature and learning in Italy in the fifteenth century, was born at Florence in 1434, and died at Prato Vecchio in 1504. His principal works are—"Disputationum Camaldulensium libri iv.;" "Dialogi de nobilitate animæ;" "Formulario di lettere volgari;" translations of the natural history of Pliny, and of the Sforziade of Simonetta; and commentaries on Virgil, Horace, and Dante, the last of which is still held in estimation.—E. A. R.

LANDO or LANDUS, Pope, is supposed to have occupied the papal see on the death of Anastasius III. in 913. He is called a Roman by Platina, who says he is so little known and his life is so obscure, that some have omitted his name from the list of popes. Some say he was the father of John XI.; and he is believed to have been the creature of Theodora, whose favourite, John, he had ordained archbishop of Ravenna. This John succeeded him after a pontificate of six months.—B. H. C.

LANDOLPHE, Jean François, was born at Auxonne in 1747. During the long wars with England he obtained letters of marque, and after some fortunate cruises as a privateer, entered the navy. He subsequently founded a commercial establishment on the coast of Benin, which was destroyed by the English. After many misfortunes, he took possession of an island in the Gulf of Guinea, and caused considerable annoyance to our trade. In 1823 memoirs of his interesting and adventurous life were published, and in 1825 he died.—W. J. P.

LANDON, Charles Paul, French painter and writer on art, was born in 1760 at Nonant, department De l'Orne. He was a pupil of Regnault, and having carried off the grand prize at the Academy, spent five years at Rome. On his return to Paris he exhibited several pictures at the Salon; and later he was appointed painter to the Duc De Berri. His pictures found admirers, and two of them—"Dædalus and Icarus," and "Paul and Virginia"—were placed in the Luxemburg; but he gradually turned from painting pictures to describing them, a task for which his appointment to the keepership of the gallery of the Louvre provided unusual facilities. He wrote various papers in the art periodicals of the day; several memoirs of artists in the Biographie Universelle; the descriptions to views of the buildings, &c., of Paris, London, Greece, &c.; a Historical Portrait Gallery of Celebrated Men, in 5 vols.; and "Nouvelles des Arts," 3 vols. 8vo, with plates, 1802-1803. But he will be longest remembered by his publications of the chief works of ancient and modern art in a series of many hundred outlines which have been of incalculable value to the student. They are entitled "Annales du Musée et de l'École Moderne des Beaux-Arts," in 33 vols. 8vo, 1801-1808; and "Vies et Œuvres des Peintres les plus célèbres de toutes Écoles," 25 vols. 8vo, 1803. The faulty arrangement of these works is, however, a great drawback from their usefulness; and Landon perceiving this, had commenced the reissue of the "Annales du Musée" on a more systematic plan, but only lived to publish ten volumes. The continuation is by M. F. Pillet. M. Landon died at Paris, March 6, 1826.—J. T—e.

LANDON, Lætitia Elizabeth (Mrs. Maclean), was born in Hans Place, Chelsea, on the 14th August, 1802, her father