province except on special requisition. The taxes are collected
directly, and must meet the needs of the province, before any sum
is remitted to the Imperial Treasury. The latter has to make
deficits good. Ecclesiastical jurisdiction is exercised only over the
clergy, and all rights of asylum are abolished.
This constitution has worked well on the whole, the only serious hitches having been due to the tendency of governors-general and kaimakams to attempt to supersede the mejliss by autocratic action, and to impair the freedom of elections. The attention of the porte was called to these tendencies in 1892 and again in 1902, on the appointments of new governors. Since the last date there has been no complaint. Nothing now remains of the former French predominance in the Lebanon, except a certain influence exerted by the fact that the railway is French, and by the precedence in ecclesiastical functions still accorded by the Maronites to official representatives of France. In the Lebanon, as in N. Albania, the traditional claim of France to protect Roman Catholics in the Ottoman Empire has been greatly impaired by the non-religious character of the Republic. Like Italy, she is now regarded by Eastern Catholics with distrust as an enemy of the Holy Father.
See Druses. Also V. Cuinet, Syrie, Liban et Palestine (1896); N. Verney and G. Dambmann, Puissances étrangères en Syrie, &c. (1900); G. Young, Corps de droit ottoman, vol. i. (1905); G. E. Post, Flora of Syria, &c. (1896); M. von Oppenheim, Vom Mittelmeer, &c. (1899). (A. So.; D. G. H.)
LEBANON, a city of Saint Clair county, Illinois, U.S.A., on Silver Creek, about 24 m. E. of Saint Louis, Missouri. Pop. (1910) 1907. It is served by the Baltimore & Ohio South-Western railroad and by the East Saint Louis & Suburban Electric line. It is situated on a high tableland. Lebanon is the seat of McKendree College, founded by Methodists in 1828 and one of the oldest colleges in the Mississippi valley. It was called Lebanon Seminary until 1830, when the present name was adopted in honour of William McKendree (1757–1835), known as the “Father of Western Methodism,” a great preacher, and a bishop of the Methodist Church in 1808–1835, who had endowed the college with 480 acres of land. In 1835 the college was chartered as the “McKendreean College,” but in 1839 the present name was again adopted. There are coal mines and excellent farming lands in the vicinity of Lebanon. Among the city’s manufactures are flour, planing-mill products, malt liquors, soda and farming implements. The municipality owns and operates its electric-lighting plant. Lebanon was chartered as a city in 1874.
LEBANON, a city and the county-seat of Lebanon county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., in the fertile Lebanon Valley, about 25 m. E. by N. of Harrisburg. Pop. (1900) 17,628, of whom 618 were foreign-born, (1910 census) 19,240. It is served by the Philadelphia & Reading, the Cornwall and the Cornwall & Lebanon railways. About 5 m. S. of the city are the Cornwall (magnetite) iron mines, from which about 18,000,000 tons of iron ore were taken between 1740 and 1902, and 804,848 tons in 1906. The ore yields about 46% of iron, and contains about 2.5% of sulphur, the roasting of the ores being necessary—ore-roasting kilns are more extensively used here than in any other place in the country. The area of ore exposed is about 4000 ft. long and 400 to 800 ft. wide, and includes three hills; it has been one of the most productive magnetite deposits in the world. Limestone, brownstone and brick-clay also abound in the vicinity; and besides mines and quarries, the city has extensive manufactories of iron, steel, chains, and nuts and bolts. In 1905 its factory products were valued at $6,978,458. The municipality owns and operates its water-works.
The first settlement in the locality was made about 1730, and twenty years later a town was laid out by one of the landowners, George Steitz, and named Steitztown in his honour. About 1760 the town became known as Lebanon, and under this name it was incorporated as a borough in 1821 and chartered as a city in 1885.
LE BARGY, CHARLES GUSTAVE AUGUSTE (1858– ), French actor, was born at La Chapelle (Seine). His talent both as a comedian and a serious actor was soon made evident, and he became a member of the Comédie Française, his chief successes being in such plays as Le Duel, L’Énigme, Le Marquis de Priola, L’Autre Danger and Le Dédale. His wife, Simone le Bargy née Benda, an accomplished actress, made her début at the Gymnase in 1902, and in later years had a great success in La Rafale and other plays. In 1910 he had differences with the authorities of the Comédie Française and ceased to be a sociétaire.
LE BEAU, CHARLES (1701–1778), French historical writer, was born at Paris on the 15th of October 1701, and was educated at the Collège de Sainte-Barbe and the Collège du Plessis; at the latter he remained as a teacher until he obtained the chair of rhetoric in the Collège des Grassins. In 1748 he was admitted a member of the Academy of Inscriptions, and in 1752 he was nominated professor of eloquence in the Collège de France. From 1755 he held the office of perpetual secretary to the Academy of Inscriptions, in which capacity he edited fifteen volumes (from the 25th to the 39th inclusive) of the Histoire of that institution. He died at Paris on the 13th of March 1778.
The only work with which the name of Le Beau continues to be associated is his Histoire du Bas-Empire, en commençant à Constantin le Grand, in 22 vols. 12mo (Paris, 1756–1779), being a continuation of C. Rollin’s Histoire Romaine and J. B. L. Crevier’s Histoire des empereurs. Its usefulness arises entirely from the fact of its being a faithful résumé of the Byzantine historians, for Le Beau had no originality or artistic power of his own. Five volumes were added by H. P. Ameilhon (1781–1811), which brought the work down to the fall of Constantinople. A later edition, under the care of M. de Saint-Martin and afterwards of Brosset, has had the benefit of careful revision throughout, and has received considerable additions from Oriental sources.
See his “Éloge” in vol. xlii. of the Histoire de l’Académie des Inscriptions (1786), pp. 190-207.
LEBEAU, JOSEPH (1794–1865), Belgian statesman, was born at Huy on the 3rd of January 1794. He received his early education from an uncle who was parish priest of Hannut, and became a clerk. By dint of economy he raised money to study law at Liége, and was called to the bar in 1819. At Liége he formed a fast friendship with Charles Rogier and Paul Devaux, in conjunction with whom he founded at Liége in 1824 the Mathieu Laensbergh, afterwards Le politique, a journal which helped to unite the Catholic party with the Liberals in their opposition to the ministry, without manifesting any open disaffection to the Dutch government. Lebeau had not contemplated the separation of Holland and Belgium, but his hand was forced by the revolution. He was sent by his native district to the National Congress, and became minister of foreign affairs in March 1831 during the interim regency of Surlet de Chokier. By proposing the election of Leopold of Saxe-Coburg as king of the Belgians he secured a benevolent attitude on the part of Great Britain, but the restoration to Holland of part of the duchies of Limburg and Luxemburg provoked a heated opposition to the treaty of London, and Lebeau was accused of treachery to Belgian interests. He resigned the direction of foreign affairs on the accession of King Leopold, but in the next year became minister of justice. He was elected deputy for Brussels in 1833, and retained his seat until 1848. Differences with the king led to his retirement in 1834. He was subsequently governor of the province of Namur (1838), ambassador to the Frankfort diet (1839), and in 1840 he formed a short-lived Liberal ministry. From this time he held no office of state, though he continued his energetic support of liberal and anti-clerical measures. He died at Huy on the 19th of March 1865.
Lebeau published La Belgique depuis 1847 (Brussels, 4 vols., 1852), Lettres aux électeurs belges (8 vols., Brussels, 1853–1856). His Souvenirs personnels et correspondance diplomatique 1824–1841 (Brussels, 1883) were edited by A. Fréson. See an article by A. Fréson in the Biographie nationale de Belgique; and T. Juste, Joseph Lebeau (Brussels, 1865).
LEBEL, JEAN (d. 1370), Belgian chronicler, was born near
the end of the 13th century. His father, Gilles le Beal des
Changes, was an alderman of Liége. Jean entered the church
and became a canon of the cathedral church, but he and his
brother Henri followed Jean de Beaumont to England in 1327,
and took part in the border warfare against the Scots. His will
is dated 1369, and his epitaph gives the date of his death as 1370.
Nothing more is known of his life, but Jacques de Hemricourt,
author of the Miroir des nobles de Hesbaye, has left a eulogy of
his character, and a description of the magnificence of his attire,
his retinue and his hospitality. Hemricourt asserts that he was
eighty years old or more when he died. For a long time Jean
Lebel (or le Bel) was only known as a chronicler through a
reference by Froissart, who quotes him in the prologue of his
first book as one of his authorities. A fragment of his work,
