Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 11.djvu/841

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LANSDOWNE.
763
LANSING MAN.

tion of slavery, Catholic emancipation, and free trade, all of which he lived to see triumphant. When the Whigs, after their long exclusion from power, came into office with Earl Grey at their head, Lansdowne became Lord President of the Council, which post he held with a brief interval from November, 1830, to September, 1841. resuming it in 1846, after the fall of the Peel Ministry, and again filling it until 1852. He then formally bade farewell to office, and resigned the leadership of the House of Lords, but consented to hold a seat without office in the Aberdeen Cabinet, and again in the first Administration of Lord Palmerston. After the death of the Duke of Wellington he became the patriarch of the Upper House and the personal friend and adviser of the Queen. He had a keen regard and a cultivated taste for literature, and was a generous patron of men of letters.

LANSDOWNE, William Petty, Marquis of. See Shelburne.

LANS′FORD. A borough in Carbon County, Pa., 44 miles north of Reading; on a branch of the Central Railroad of New Jersey (Map: Pennsylvania, F 3). It has extensive coal-mining interests, being situated in the productive anthracite fields of the State. Settled in 1845, Lansford was incorporated in 1876, the charter of that year now operating to provide for a government vested in a burgess, chosen every three years, and a council, which controls appointments to the most of the important administrative offices. Population, in 1890, 4004; in 1900, 4888.

LAN′SING. The capital of the State of Michigan, in Ingham County, at the confluence of the Grand and Cedar rivers, 90 miles northwest of Detroit and 64 miles east by south of Grand Rapids; on the Chicago and Grand Trunk, the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern, the Michigan Central, and the Père Marquette railroads (Map: Michigan, J 6). The rivers are here spanned by several bridges. Lansing occupies an elevated site on a plateau rising from the water-level, and is laid out with broad and well-shaded streets. The State Capitol, built in 1872-79, at a cost of over $1,500,000, stands on an eminence in a park of twelve acres near the centre of the city. The State Library contains about 105,000 volumes. Other important buildings are the city hall, which cost $125,000 and was completed in 1897; the city hospital, high school, public library, United States Government building ($125,000), the State School for the Blind, State Industrial School for Boys, and, in the suburbs, the State Agricultural College, with a farm of about 675 acres. The city has abundant water-power from the two rivers, the Grand River having a fall of 18 feet. There are manufactures of agricultural implements, flour, stoves, machinery, gasoline engines, carriages, wagons, automobiles, trucks, wheelbarrows, artificial stone, condensed milk, beet-sugar, and knit goods. The government, under a charter of 1897, is vested in a mayor, elected for two years, a unicameral council, and administrative officials, the majority of whom are appointed by the executive, subject to the consent of the council. The clerk, treasurer, and assessors are chosen by popular election. The city owns and operates the water-works and electric-light plant. Settled in 1837, Lansing was laid out for the State capital in 1847, when a single family occupied the site. It was chartered as a city in 1859. Population, in 1890, 13,102; in 1900, 16,485.

LANSING, John (1754-1829). An American jurist, born at Albany, N. Y. He was privately educated and studied law with Robert Yates (q.v.) in his native city, and with James Duane in New York, where he was established in practice at the outbreak of the Revolution. During the war he served for some time as military secretary to Gen. Philip Schuyler. He was elected to Congress in 1784, and while retaining this office, was elected also to the lower branch of the Legislature, of which in 1786 he was chosen Speaker. In the same year he was named by the council of appointment Mayor of Albany, and succeeded John Jay as a member of the Massachusetts-New York boundary commission. In March, 1787, while still a member of Congress, he was appointed, with Yates and Hamilton, to represent New York in the Constitutional Convention, but left it with the first-named, after two months' participation, on the grounds that they had not been delegated to form a new Constitution, but only to amend the Articles of Confederation. In June, 1788, with George Clinton and Melancthon Smith (q.v.), he led the opposition to the ratification of the Constitution by New York at the Poughkeepsie convention. After serving on the New York-Vermont boundary commission, he was, in September, 1790, named a judge of the New York Supreme Court. He succeeded Yates as Chief Justice in 1798, and in 1801 succeeded Robert R. Livingston (q.v.) as Chancellor, which position he retained until 1814, when he in turn was succeeded by James Kent (q.v.). He declined the Anti-Federalist nomination for Governor of New York in 1804.

LAN′SINGBURG. A former village in Rensselaer County, N. Y., annexed to the city of Troy (q.v.) on January 1, 1901. Population, in 1900, 12,595 (Map: New York, G 3). It was founded in 1771 by Abraham J. Lansingh, who owned most of the land in the vicinity. The village was incorporated in 1790. Consult Weise, History of Rensselaer County (Troy, 1880).

LANSING MAN. The term applied to certain human bones, supposed to represent a type of primitive man. These remains, which comprise the skull and several large bones of an adult, and the jaw of a child about ten years old, were discovered during the digging of a cellar on a farm near Lansing, Kan. The bones were found beneath twenty feet of undisturbed deposits, resting on a stratum of carboniferous limestone. The skull of the man is well preserved and corresponds in type with crania of the historic Indians thereabouts. Its measurements are: Maximum length, 188 mm.; maximum breadth, 138 mm.; cranial index, 73.4.

If the deposit forming the bench is true alluvial loess, derived from glacial ice, interglacial man dwelt on the ancient Missouri River. If, on the other hand, the formation was derived from loess beds of the neighboring slopes, and coarser materials from the hillsides were spread out in the recent period by local agencies, the Lansing man lived within the few thousand years during which the present American Indians have inhabited the continent.

Vol. XI.—49.