Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/161

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

LANSING 155 created marquis of Lansdowne. Lord Shel- burne was considered one of the most liberal and accomplished statesmen of his time, and probably carried out more fully than any of his contemporaries the principles inculcated by the elder Pitt. II. Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, third marquis of, second son of the preceding, born July 2, 1T80, died Jan. 31, 1863. He was educated at Westminster, Edinburgh, and Trinity college, Cambridge, where he gradua- ted in 1801. Upon coming of age, being then known as Lord Henry Petty, he entered parlia- ment for the borough of Calne, succeeded to the representation of Cambridge university on the death of Mr. Pitt, and under Grenville and Fox (1806-"T) was chancellor of the ex- chequer. He supported the leading measures of the liberal party, but retired with his col- leagues in 1807 ; and succeeding to his title two years later, on the demise of his brother, he became one of the whig leaders in the house of lords. He was an ear- nest advocate of Cath- olic emancipation and the abolition of slavery, and was one of the first to urge the necessity of parliamentary reform and free trade. After 20 years' exclusion from a participation in the administration of public affairs, he was in 1827 home secretary both un- der Canning and in the short-lived cabinet of Viscount Goderich ; was president of the council in Earl Grey's ministry from November, 1830, till November, 1834, and in Melbourne's from April, 1835, till Septem- ber, 1841. He accepted the same office again un- der Lord John Russell's administration in July, 1846, and held it till February, 1852. Upon the formation of the Aberdeen cabinet in the succeeding December he accepted a seat in the cabinet without office, which he occupied till February, 1858, when he retired from public life. LANSING, a city and the capital of Michigan, in Ingham co., on Grand river, here spanned by an iron and two wooden bridges, 85 m. N. w. of Detroit ; lat. 42 46' 28" N., Ion. 84 32' 40" W. ; pop. in 1850, 1,229; in 1860, 3,074; in 1870, 6,241; in 1874, 7,442. It is regularly laid out, with wide streets crossing each other at right angles and lighted with gas. The state house is a large, plain frame building, mostly erected in 1849 ; a three-story brick structure, for the temporary accommodation of some of the state officers, was built in 1871. A new state house, to be completed in 1877, at a cost of $1,200,000, is in course of construction. This edifice is to be of iron and stone, in the Palladian style of architecture, four stories high, with basement, 345 ft. in length, not including the porticos, and 191 ft. deep. The state reform school occupies a farm of 139 acres in the E. part of the city, and has about 200 inmates. It has four brick buildings, the central one being 48 ft. long, 56 ft. deep, and four stories high, with two wings extending north and south, each 95 ft. long, 33 ft. deep, and three stories high, and a third extending east, 83 ft. long, 30 ft. deep, and three stories high. The state agricultural col- lege occupies a farm of 676 acres, 3 m. E. of the city limits. The buildings, four in number, stand upon a slight eminence amid forest trees ; the grounds immediately around have been handsomely laid out. It was chartered in New State Capitol at Lansing, Michigan. 1855, and subsequently received the congres- sional land grant to the state for an agricul- tural college. The number of students in 1873 was 143. The odd fellows' institute, for the care and education of orphans of the or- der, in the N. W. extremity of the city, was organized in 1871. It occupies a tract of 45 acres and a brick building (since enlarged) for- merly used as a female college, and has a library of 1,500 volumes. At the mouth of Cedar river in the southern portion of the city is an artesian well, yielding mineral water of medici- nal properties. Lansing is well supplied with railroads, four lines centring here, viz. : the Jackson, Lansing, and Saginaw; Detroit, Lan- sing, and Lake Michigan ; Peninsular ; and Lake Shore and Michigan Southern. It is sur- rounded by a fertile country, abounding in timber and coal, and has an important and in-