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his improvement in manners and in knowledge of the world chiefly to the fact, that, as was his "fate through life," he fell in "with clever but unpopular connexions." Shortly after leaving the university he served as an officer in Wolfe's regiment during the Seven Years' War, and so distinguished himself at Minden and Kloster-Kampen that he was raised to the rank of colonel and appointed aide-de-camp to the king. Being thus brought into near communication with Lord Bute, he was in 1761 employed by that nobleman to negotiate for the support of Charles Fox. For a few months in the same year he sat in the House of Commons as member of Wycombe, until he succeeded his father as earl of Shelburne in the Irish peerage, and Baron Wycombe in the peerage of Great Britain. Though he declined to take office under Bute he undertook negotiations to induce Fox to gain the consent of the Commons to the peace of 1763. Fox affirmed that he had been duped by the terms offered, and, although Shelburne always asserted that he had acted in thorough good faith, Bute spoke of the affair as a "pious fraud." Shelburne joined the Grenville ministry in 1763 as president of the Board of Trade, but, failing in his efforts to replace Pitt in the cabinet, he in a few months resigned office. Having moreover on account of his support of Pitt on the question of Wilke's expulsion from the House of Commons incurred the serious displeasure of the king, he retired for a time to his estate. After Pitt's return to power in 1766 he became secretary of state, but during Pitt's illness his conciliatory policy towards America was completely thwarted by his colleagues and the king, and in 1768 he was dismissed from office. In 1782 he consented to take office under the marquis of Rockingham on condition that the king would agree to recognize the United States, and on the death of Lord Rockingham in the same year, he became premier; but the secession of Fox and his sup porters led to the famous coalition of Fox with North, which caused his resignation in the following February, his fall being perhaps hastened by his proposed plans for the reform of the public service. He had also in contemplation a bill to promote free commercial intercourse between England and the United States. When Pitt acceded to office in 1784, Shelburne, instead of receiving a place in the cabinet, was created marquis of Lansdowne. Though giving a general support to the policy of Pitt, he from this time ceased to take an active part in public affairs. He died May 7, 1805.
During his lifetime the marquis of Lansdowne was blamed for insincerity and duplicity, but the accusations came chiefly from those who were dissatisfied with his preference of principles to party, and it is beyond doubt that, if he had had a more unscrupulous regard to his personal ambition, his career as a statesman would have had more outward success. His autobiography indicates that he was cynical in his estimates of character, but no statesman of his time possessed more enlightened political views, while his friendship with those of his contemporaries eminent in science and literature must be allowed considerable weight in qualifying our estimate of the moral defects with which he has been credited. See Fitzmaurice, Life of William, Earl of Shelburne, 3 vols., London, 1875-76.
LANSING, a city in Ingham county, Michigan, U.S., and capital of the State, is situated at the confluence of the Grand and Cedar rivers, 85 miles W.N.W. of Detroit. In 1847, when it was made the seat of government, forests covered the site. The city has broad streets, arranged in the regular rectangular system; and seven iron and three wooden bridges connect the parts of the city, which lies on both sides of the rivers above mentioned. Lansing is the seat of the State reform school, the school for the blind, and the State agricultural college. The last-named, opened in 1857, received 240,000 acres granted by Congress for the endowment of a college of agriculture and the mechanical arts; and its income is derived from the interest of the price of part of the land, and from an annual grant from the State legislature. In 1880-81 it had a faculty of 23 members and 221 students. A graded system of public schools and a State library of 40,000 volumes are among the other educational resources of the city. Its most conspicuous building is the new State capitol, erected at a cost of one and a half million dollars. The leading manufacture is of agricultural implements; but there are extensive manufactories of carriages, waggons, wheelbarrows, and steam-engines, and four large flouring-mills. Good water-power is afforded by the Grand river, and four lines of railway offer ample shipping facilities. The city was incorporated in 1859, and in 1880 had a population of 8317.
LANSINGBURGH, a village in Rensselaer county, New York, U.S., is situated on the east bank of the Hudson, close to Troy, and nearly opposite Waterford, to which a bridge extends. The village was organized in 1774. Its staple product is brushes, known all over the States; but oil-cloth and crackers are also made. The population in 1880 was 7437.
LANTARA, Simon Mathurin (1729-1778), French landscape painter, was born at Oncy, 24th March 1729. His father was a weaver, and he himself began life as a herdboy; but, having attracted the notice of M. Gille de Reumont, a son of his master, he was taken by him to Paris, and placed under a painter at Versailles. Endowed with great facility and real talent, his powers found ready recognition; he might have amassed fortune and earned distinction, but he could not divest himself of the habits acquired in early childhood. He found the constraint of a regular life and the society of educated people unbearably tiresome; he painted to please himself, and as long as the proceeds of the last sale lasted lived careless of the future in the company of obscure workmen with whom he had made friends. Rich amateurs more than once attracted him to their houses, only to find that in ease and high living Lantara could produce nothing. Fatal sickness came upon him when in extreme indigence; he entered the hospital of La Charité – in which he had previously been the object of the kindliest cares – on the morning of 22d December 1778, and six hours after he was dead. His works, now much prized, are not numerous; the Louvre has one landscape, Morning, signed and dated 1761. As he was not a member of the Academy, his pictures were not admitted to its exhibitions, and notices of his works by his contemporaries are rare. Bernard, Joseph Vernet, and others are said to have added figures to his landscapes and sea-pieces. Engravings after Lantara will be found in the works of Lebas, Piquenot, Duret, Mouchy, and others. In 1809 a comedy called Lantara, or the Painter in the Pothouse, was brought out at the Vaudeville with great success.
See E. Bellier de la Chavignerie, Recherches sur le peintre Lantara, Paris, 1852.
LANTERN-FLY, a name applied to certain insects belonging to the Homopterous division of the order Hemiptera, which may be broadly placed in the genus Fulgora, although this is now subdivided into many genera. They are mostly large insects, and gaily coloured, remarkable for the forehead being produced into the semblance of a snout or muzzle (often upturned at the tip), the so-called "lantern." This snout is hollow, and is merely an inflated production of the head. Much interest, as well as mystery, has surrounded these insects, originating in a statement by Madame Merian in her work on the insects of Surinam (Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium, &c.), of which the first edition appears to have been published in 1705,
