378 LEYEEETT LEVERRIER "Roland Cashel" (1849); "The Daltons" (1852); "TheDodd Family Abroad " (1854) ; "Maurice Tiernay " (1855) ; "Sir Jasper Ca- rew" (1855); "Con Cregan, the Irish Gil Bias "(1857); "Glencore and his Fortunes" (1857) ; " The Martins of Oro' Martin " (1859) ; " Davenport Dunn " (1859) ; " Gerald Fitzger- ald " (1860); "One of Them" (1861); "A Day's Ride" (1861); "Barrington" (1862); "Luttrell of Arran" (1865); "Sir Brooke Fossbrooke" (1867); "The Bramleighs of Bishop's Folly" (1868); "That Boy of Nor- cott's" (1869); "Paul Gosslett's Confessions" (1870); "A Rent in the Cloud" (1870); and
- ' Lord Kilgobbin " (1872). He was the author
also of a number of shorter stories and of sev- eral unacknowledged works. LEVERETT, Frederick PerciYal, an American scholar, born in Portsmouth, N". H., Sept. 11, 1803, died in Boston, Oct. 6, 1836. He was a descendant of Sir John Leverett, one of the governors of the colony of Massachusetts. He graduated at Harvard college in 1821, and was appointed the same year an usher in the public Latin school of Boston, of which he became successively sub-master and principal? and af- terward opened a private classical school. He published editions of Caesar's " Commenta- ries," Juvenal, and the Viri Romm, to be used as text books in schools, and also a "New Latin Tutor." His principal work was his "Lexicon of the Latin Language, compiled from the Lexicons of Facciolati and Forcellini, Scheller, Lunemann, and Freund" (Boston, 1837), of which the last sheet went to press on the morning of his death. LEVERETT, Sir John, colonial governor of Massachusetts, born in England in 1616, died in Boston, Marc"h 16, 1679. At the age of 17 he emigrated to America with his father, and settled in Boston. He returned to England in 1644, took part in the struggle between the parliament and the king, and as commander of a company of foot soldiers gained military distinction and the friendship of Cromwell. He resided some years at the court of the pro- tector, as agent of Massachusetts. On his re- turn to America he held successively some of the most important civil and military offices in the gift of the colony, and finally in 1673 was elected governor. His administration is important in colonial history as the era of the war with King Philip, which Gov. Leverett's skill and energy were instrumental in conduct- ing to a fortunate issue. In 1676 he was knighted by Charles II. in acknowledgment of his services to the New England colonies du- ring this contest. He died in office. JOHN, his grandson, born in Boston, Aug. 25, 1662, was an eminent lawyer and judge, speaker of the legislature, member of the royal society, and president of Harvard college from 1708 until his death, May 3, 1724. LEYERRIER, Urbain Jean Joseph, a French astronomer, born in St. L6, March 11, 1811. He studied successively at the college of St. L6, at Caen, and at the college of Louis le Grand in Paris, and graduated at the polytech- nic school. He then obtained a place in the to- bacco bureau, and as his new occupation re- quired some knowledge of chemistry, he pur- sued that science at leisure, and published in 1837 two memoirs on the combinations of phos- phorus with hydrogen and oxygen. He devo- ted himself, however, principally to mathe- matics, and soon obtained a minor appointment in the polytechnic school. From this time he studied continually the highest problems in speculative astronomy, investigating especial- ly the irregularities manifested in the course of the heavenly bodies. Two memoirs on this subject, supporting the observations of Lagrange, and asserting that the masses of the planets Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus were sufficient to insure the stability of the solar system, were submitted in 1839 to the acad- emy of sciences. These and some other wri- tings attracted the friendship of Arago, who induced him to study closely the orbit of Mer- cury and its perturbations. In 1844 he pre- sented to the academy a theory of the periodi- cal comet of 1770, and a paper on that of 1843. These contributions to science obtained for him admission to the academy of sciences, to the astronomical section of which he was elected, Jan. 19, 1846. The success which had at- tended his calculations of the course of Mer- cury induced him to revise the still more im- perfect tables of Uranus. His studies on this subject convinced him that the movements of this planet could not be explained by the at- traction of any known bodies, and he accord- ingly sought further for the cause of its per- turbations. Finally, on June 1, 1846, he in- dicated to the academy of sciences within 10 the place where a new planet might be seen on Jan. 1, 1847. This was in fact done by the German astronomer Galle, who discovered it, however, Sept. 23, 1846. Leverrier had made an error, but only of 2. The sensation ex- cited by this discovery was immense, and Le- verrier received abundant honor. The king of Denmark sent him the order of the Danebrog ; most of the academies of Europe inscribed his name on their lists ; Salvandy, the minister of public instruction in France, had his bust erected in public with great ceremony ; Arago declared that the new planet should be called Leverrier ; a chair of mathematical astronomy was created for him in the faculty of sciences ; the royal society of England sent him the Cop- ley gold medal, and the grand duke of Tuscany a splendidly bound copy of the works of Gali- leo. It is true that the planet only bore for a time the name of Leverrier, that of Neptune being subsequently given to it, but even this honor could hardly have added much to the renown of one whose name is so closely iden- tified with it. The priority of discovery was however contested in favor of a distinguished young English geometrician at St. John's col- lege, Cambridge, Mr. Adams, who had arrived
