Florence, after his death, by a legal process, assumed the name of Frank Leslie, and has since conducted the business of the publishing-house. She is the author of “From Gotham to the Golden Gate” (New York, 1877).
LESLIE, James, Canadian senator, b. in Kair,
Kincardineshire, Scotland, in 1786 ; d. in Montreal,
Canada, in 1873. His father, Capt. James Leslie,
was assistant quartermaster in Wolfe's army at
the taking of Quebec. The son was educated at
Aberdeen, Scotland, and was for many years a mer-
chant in Montreal. He served with the Montreal
volunteers during the war of 1812, and remained
attached to the service till 1862, when he retired
with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. Mr. Leslie
represented Montreal in the Lower Canada assem-
bly from 1824 until the union of the provinces,
and Vercheres from 1844 till 1848, when he was
called to the legislative council, of which he was
president from March till September, 1848. He
was provincial secretary from that date until 1851,
and from 1867 till his death sat in the senate.
LESLIE, Preston Hopkins, lawyer, b. in Clin-
ton county, Ky., 8 March, 1819. He received a
limited education in country schools, and worked
as a common laborer for several years until he ob-
tained a clerkship in a store and finally in the
county office. He then studied law under Samuel
B. Maxey, and began practice in 1842. About
1854 he removed to Glasgow, where he has since
resided. He was elected to the representative as-
sembly in 1844 and in 1850, and to the state senate
in 1867, of which body he was elected speaker in
1869 and acting lieutenant-governor. On the elec-
tion of Gov. John W. Stevenson to the U. S. senate
in the next year, he succeeded as governor, and in
1871, as the nominee of the Democratic party, he
was elected to the office for the term of four years.
After his retirement he was elected and served six
years as judge of the Glasgow circuit district.
LESQUEREUX, Leo, paleontologist, b. in
Fleurier, Switzerland, 18 Nov., 1806. He was des-
tined for the church by his mother, but, on enter-
ing the academy of Neuchatel, met Arnold Guyot,
and together they became devoted to natural sci-
ence. After completing his course at the academy
in 1827, he went to Eisenach for the purpose of per-
fecting himself in the German language prepara-
tory to entering the University of Berlin, and sup-
ported himself by teaching French. From 1829
till 1834 he was principal of the college at Chaux
de Fonds, but, becoming deaf, he was obliged to
give up this place. He then worked at engrav-
ing, and also made watch-springs until 1848.
Meanwhile he had begun the study of mosses and
of fossil botany, becoming interested also in the
subject of peat, its production, and possible repro-
duction. His knowledge of this subject led to his
engagement by the government of Neuchatel to
examine the peat-bogs of that canton, and later,
under the patronage of the king of Prussia, he
explored the peat-bogs of northern Europe. His
researches gained for him in 1844 a gold medal.
which was awarded by the government of Neu-
chatel for the best popular treatise on the forma-
tion of peat. In 1848 he came to the United
States, and at first made his home in Cambridge,
where he assisted Louis Agassiz for a time, but
soon removed to Columbus, Ohio, where he has
since lived. There he became first associated
with William S. Sullivant in the study of Ameri-
can bryologv. Together they published " Musci
Americani Exsiccati" (1856;" 2d ed.. 1865). and
subsequently he assisted Mr. Sullivant in the ex-
amination of the mosses that had been collected
by Capt. Charles Wilkes on the South Pacific ex-
ploring expedition and by Lieut. Amiel W. Whip-
ple on the Pacific railroad exploration, and finally
in his "Icones Muscorum (Cambridge, 1864).
His own most valuable researches, beginning in
1850, were studies of the coal-formations of Ohio,
Pennsylvania, Illinois, Kentucky, and Arkansas,
on which he contributed memoirs to the reports of the state surveys. His investigations on
the coal flora of Pennsylvania are of special value.
He prepared a " Catalogue of the Fossil Plants
which have been named or described from the
Coal-Measures of North America" for the reports
of Henry D. Rogers in 1858, and in 1884 furnished
" The Coal Flora ' ? (3 vols, of text, with an atlas)
for the second geological survey of Pennsylvania,
which is regarded as the most important work on
carboniferous plants that has thus far appeared in
the United States. Since 1868 parts of the mate-
rial in fossil botany have been referred to him by
the various national surveys in the field, and he
has contributed to their reports the results of his
investigations. He is a member of more than
twenty scientific societies in the United States and
Europe, and in 1864 was the first member that was
elected to the National academy of sciences. The
titles of his publications are more than fifty in
number, and include twelve important volumes on
the natural history of the United States, besides
which he has published " Letters written on Ger-
many " (Neuchatel. 1846) and " Letters written on
America" (1847-'55). He has also published, with
Thomas P. James, " Manual of the Mosses of North
America" (Boston, 1884).
LESSEPS, Ferdinand Marie, Viscount de, French diplomat, b. in Versailles, 11 Nov., 1805. He received his early education in Paris, but finished it with his father, a consular agent, and lived with him in Philadelphia in 1819-'22, where he acquired, as he said, at a dinner given to him in that city in 1880, the qualities of pluck and tenacity. He was consular agent at Lisbon in 1825-'7. when
he received an appointment in the division of commerce. In 1828 he was attached to the consulate at Tunis, and three years later became vice-consul at Alexandria and consul at Cairo, where he remained till 1838. when he was sent to Rotterdam, afterward to Malaga and to Barcelona. After the
downfall of Louis Philippe he was appointed minister to Spain and afterward to Rome. After 1850 he devoted his energy to the opening of the Suez canal, the idea of which he had conceived during his sojourn in Egypt. While on a visit in Egypt in 1854 he disclosed the project to Said
Pacha, who invited him to draw up a memorial on the subject, which was done, with full details. Said Pacha issued a firman sanctioning the enterprise in 1854, granted a letter of concession in January, 1856. and took a large number of shares, and after many difficulties Lesseps formed a company in Paris in 1858. Work on the canal was begun in the spring of 1859. A canal for steamboats of
light draught was opened on 15 Aug., 1865. Its bed was enlarged so that schooners could pass through in March, 1867. and the completed canal was formally opened amid festivities at Port Said on 17 Nov.," 1869. Lesseps directed his attention to the Sahara desert, proposing to flood a portion of it, and afterward presented a plan for a railway through Asia. Since 1873 he has concentrated his
energy on the Panama canal. In 1874 the project was vigorously advocated in the French financial press, and at the meeting of the congress of the geographical sciences, held in Paris in 1875, Lesseps formally proposed to cut a canal across the
