a large proportion of N. W. Guatemala, Chia- | called Moplays. Their dwellings are of stone, pas, and perhaps Tabasco, along the banks of thatched. The Laccadives were discovered by the river of their own name and of the Usu- Vasco da Gama in 1499. masinta, seems at present to be confined to the fastnesses of the Chiche mountains. Little is known, however, of the precise limits of their country, as it is comprised in an extensive region hitherto unexplored, extending from lat. 16° to 17° N., and from lon. 90° to 93° W., according to M. Morelet, who visited the region, and describes it in Voyage dans l'Amérique Centrale (Paris, 1869). The Lacandones, now intermingled with the once indomitable Choles and Manches, were formerly aggressive and cruel, and not only successfully resisted the Spanish arms, but by their frequent incursions materially retarded the prosperity of the surrounding European colonies. They are now shy and timid in their limited intercourse with the Spanish population, and even with the civilized aboriginal tribes, to whom they occasionally bring tobacco and sarsaparilla in exchange for manufactured goods and rude instruments of agriculture or warfare. They speak a dialect of the language of the Mayas of Yucatan, in all likelihood the parent stock from which their separation was coeval with and determined by the same causes as that of the Itzaes. (See ITZAES.) Although now subject to the laws of the republic of Guatemala, they preserve the habits and religion of their forefathers, and their territory remains in its primitive condition. There is no reason for believing that they possess large cities and towns, with great temples glistening like silver in the sun, such as the cura of Quiché affirmed to Mr. Stephens that he had seen with his own eyes from the tops of the mountains of Quezaltenango. LACCADIVE ISLES (Sanskrit, lakke, hundred thousand, and dive, island), a group of small islands in the Indian ocean, consisting of 20 clusters, 100 m. off the Malabar coast, between lat. 10° and 12° 40′ N., and lon. 72° and 74° E.; area, 744 sq. m.; pop. 6,800. They are dependencies of British India. The principal are Underoot, Cabarita Akhalu, Kalpeni, Kaltair, Cheltac, Kerdmut, Ameni, Corrittee, and Minicoy. They are all of coral formation. The largest is but 7 m. long, and many of them are barren uninhabited rocks. From the dangerous reefs around them they are seldom visited by navigators, and during the S. W. monsoon all intercourse with the mainland is cut off. The harbor most frequently called at for supplies is Kan-Rattea, lat. 10° 34' N., lon. 72° 56′ E. The islands are not fertile, excepting in cocoa palms, the fruit of which forms the principal food of the inhabitants, and its fibre or coir one of the chief articles of commerce. The other products are rice, in small quantities, sweet potatoes, plantains, and betel nuts. Cows are the only quadrupeds on the islands, and they are few and of small size. The sea abounds in fish and turtles. The natives are an inoffensive race, of Arabian origin, who profess a kind of Mohammedanism, and are LACE, a fabric of threads of cotton, linen, flax, silk, gold, or silver, interwoven to form a delicate plain or ornamental network. According to some authorities, lace was in use among the Egyptians and the Greeks and Romans. Mrs. Palliser and others suppose the articles referred to as lace in the Old Testament, and other early works, to have been elaborate needlework or embroidery, and that lace was not made until a later period. The invention of lace is claimed both by Italy and Flanders. While it is difficult to determine in which country the manufacture had its origin, it appears that lace was made in both as early as the 15th century. Italian lace is supposed to be referred to in an account dated 1469, and preserved in the municipal archives of Ferrara, while bone and bobbin lace are unmistakably mentioned in a document dated 1493. At a very early period the laces of Venice, Milan, and Genoa were the best known in the commercial world. The "Venice point" lace, wonderful for delicate texture and elaborate design, became specially famous. In England it was highly prized and in general use in the reign of Elizabeth, and it found its way into France about the same period. Toward the latter part of the 18th century the manufacture began to decline, and it has since become extinct. Flemish pictures of the 15th century represent persons adorned with lace, and a Belgian writer asserts that lace cornettes or caps were worn in that country as early as the 14th century. The invention of pillow lace has been claimed for Barbara Uttmann, who in 1561, having obtained aid from Flanders, began to make laces of various patterns at Annaberg, Saxony; but it is asserted by other authorities that she only introduced the manufacture into Germany at that date, as contemporaneous paintings bear evidence to the existence of the art in Flanders more than half a century before. The lace manufacture of the Netherlands increased with remarkable rapidity, and in the 16th century was a source of great wealth to the country. The article produced was of great beauty; the old Flemish laces, the Brussels point and the Mechlin, rivalled the best of the Italian. Every country of northern Europe, France (excepting Alençon), Germany, and England learned the art of lace making from Flanders. Prior to 1665 this industry seems to have been of little importance in France. The lace made was of coarse and inferior quality, and was in little demand compared with the artistic productions of Italy and Flanders, for which enormous sums were annually spent. Nor did the prohibitions against these foreign luxuries develop the native manufacture. In 1666 the manufacture of lace was established at Alençon by Colbert, who had secured from Venice 30 women skilled in the art. Through the aid of Louis XIV. a great demand was created for this lace, which became known as the point de France and afterward as the point d'Alençon. But its high price limited its use to the rich, who now bought this instead of the Venetian laces. After the success of this enterprise, lace fabrics were established in various parts of France, and the number of lace-workers increased with great rapidity. At the beginning of the 18th century the annual production of lace in France was estimated at 8,000,000 francs. The celebrity of Spanish point lace in early times was scarcely less than that of the Flemish or Italian; but the manufacture has declined. Little is known concerning the origin of the manufacture of lace in Great Britain; but as the importation of this article was prohibited in 1483, it is presumed that the manufacture existed at that time. In 1640 lace making was a flourishing industry in Buckinghamshire, and in the 17th and 18th centuries it extended over a larger area than at present.Lace consists of two parts, the ground and the flower pattern, or "gimp." In some cases, however, the design is not worked upon a ground, but the different parts are connected with threads. The flower or other ornamental pattern may be made together with the ground, as in Valenciennes or Mechlin, or separately, and then worked in or sewn on (appliqué). Lace made by hand is divided into point and pillow. The former, termed needle point, point à l'aiguille, &c., is made with the needle on a parchment pattern. Point is also applied to lace produced by a particular stitch. Pillow lace is so termed from the pillow or cushion which for more than three centuries has been used in making lace. On this pillow is fixed a stiff piece of parchment, upon which the pattern is marked by means of small holes pricked in it, through which pins are stuck into the cushion. The threads for the lace are wound upon bobbins-formerly bones, whence the term bone lace. By the twisting and crossing of these threads around the pins, the ground of the lace is made; while the pattern or figure is formed by interweaving a thread thicker than that forming the groundwork, according to the design indicated on the parchment. The designs are prepared by persons who devote themselves to this branch, while their execution is intrusted generally to women. Sometimes as many as 12 of these are employed upon the same design or figure, each having a different portion to produce. Guipure is a term so extensively applied to lace that it is difficult to limit its meaning. It is, however, a lace without ground, the designs being joined by "brides," or large coarse stitches. The names of the different varieties of lace have been derived from the places where the manufacture originated or has been carried on with the greatest success. The most noted products are now those of Belgium, France, and England. In Belgium 150,000 women are said to be employed in lace making, the ma jority of whom work at home. Throughout the country there are nearly 900 lace schools, many of which are in the convents. One of the most important centres of this industry is Brussels. The thread used, which is made at Hal and Rebecq-Rognon, of flax grown in Brabant, is of extraordinary fineness. The finest quality is spun in dark underground rooms, to avoid the dry air, which causes the thread to break, and to secure the best light, which is done by admitting a single beam and directing it upon the work. It is the fineness of the thread, as well as the delicacy of the workmanship, which has given to the best Brussels lace such celebrity and rendered it so costly. It is often sold at $1,200 a pound, and has been mentioned as high as $2,500. In the old Brussels lace the design was worked in with the ground. The appliqué lace is now extensively produced, the designs being made on the pillow and afterward attached to the ground with the needle. Mechlin lace, which has been made at Mechlin, Antwerp, Lierre, and Turnhout, formerly had a wide celebrity; but the manufacture has long been on the decline, though it appears to have partially revived. This has been called the prettiest of laces. It is fine and transparent, and is best adapted to summer use, being most effective when worn over color. It is made in one piece on the pillow, with various fancy stitches introduced. Its distinguishing feature is the flat thread which forms the flower, and gives to this lace the character of embroidery; it is hence sometimes called broderie de Malines. The most important branch of the pillow-lace trade in Belgium is the manufacture of Valenciennes, which, having become extinct in its native city, has attained great prosperity in Flanders. This lace is now chiefly made at Ypres, Bruges, Courtrai, Menin, Ghent, and Alost. The productions of Ypres are of the finest quality and most elaborate workmanship. Valenciennes lace is made upon the pillow, the same kind of thread being used for the pattern and the ground. It is remarkable for the beauty of its ground, richness of design, and evenness of tissue. It is said that more Valenciennes lace is used than any other kind; but the productions of this century are not equal in quality to those of the last. Grammont, Enghien, and Binche are also important centres of the lace industry. The last few years have witnessed a marked development of the manufacture throughout Belgium, and now white and black point and pillow lace is made in every province of the kingdom.—It is estimated that there are 500,000 lace makers in Europe, of whom nearly one half are employed in France. Almost all of the latter work at home. Of the French laces, the most noted is the point d'Alençon, which has had a wide celebrity for more than two centuries, and has been styled the queen of lace. It is made entirely by hand with a fine needle upon a parchment pattern, in small pieces which are afterward united by invisible seams. The firm- | is made to some extent in Ireland, of which ness and solidity of the texture are remark- the Limerick is the best known, and in Scotable. Horsehair is often introduced along the land; also in most of the countries on the edge to give firmness. Although the work- continent.-Machine-made Lace. Nearly every manship of this lace has always been of great kind of lace is now made by machinery, and such beauty, the designs in the older specimens were excellence is attained that it is often difficult seldom copied from nature. This circumstance even for a practised eye to distinguish between gave a marked advantage to the laces of Brus- the two kinds. According to Mrs. Palliser, sels, which represented flowers and other nat- however, "the most finished productions of ural designs with a high degree of accuracy. the frame never possess the touch, the finish, The defect, however, has disappeared in the or the beauty of the laces made by hand." point d'Alençon of recent manufacture; at the While the invention of this machinery has Paris exposition of 1867 were specimens con- brought lace within the means of a large numtaining admirable copies of natural flowers in- ber who were formerly unable to buy it, the termixed with grasses and ferns. Owing to demand for the finer products of the pillow its elaborate construction, this lace is seldom and the needle has not been diminished. The seen in large pieces. A dress made of point manufacture of lace by machinery is carried on d'Alençon, the production of Bayeux, consist- chiefly in England and France, the great cening of two flounces and trimmings, was ex- tre of this industry in the former country hibited at the exposition of 1867, the price of being Nottingham, and in the latter Calais. which was 85,000 francs. It required 40 wo- The first attempts to apply machinery to the men seven years to complete it. Lace made at work were made in 1758 by a stocking weaver Chantilly formerly held a high rank, but the of Nottingham, and his machine, which was manufacture has greatly declined; but Chan- called a pin machine, making single press point tilly lace is produced at Bayeux and other net in imitation of Brussels ground, is said to places. Bayeux and Caen are important cen- be still in use in France for making the variety tres of the lace industry, and are specially known as tulle. The stocking weavers of noted for black laces. The productions of Nottingham invented other machines, the first Lille and Arras are well known, though that for bobbinet in 1799; and though they were of the former place is greatly diminished. The all inferior, they made lace more cheaply Lille lace is noted for the beauty of its ground, than by the old methods, and caused Notting"the finest, lightest, most transparent, and best ham to become the centre of the trade. But made of all grounds." The work is simple, the first really successful machine for bobbiconsisting of the ground and the pattern net (so named from the threads crossing the marked by a thick thread. The lace of Bailleul warp being supplied from bobbins) was that of is strong and cheap, and is extensively used for Heathcoat, invented in 1809, and suggested by trimming; much of it is sent to America and the machinery employed in making fishing India. The lace manufacture of Auvergne, of nets. The principle of the invention was in which Le Puy is the centre, is considered the the use of fixed parallel warp threads, round most ancient and extensive in France; the es- which the bobbin threads were worked as the timated number of women employed is about weft of the fabric, one set going obliquely 130,000. Nearly every kind of lace is pro- across from right to left and the second set duced here.-In England the manufacture of obliquely across from left to right. Heathcoat lace is carried on chiefly in the counties of was compelled by the opposition his machine Buckingham, Devon, and Bedford. The work excited to remove from Nottingham to Devonis mostly done by women and girls at home. shire, and it was not until the expiration of The best known of the English hand-made his patent in 1823 that the machine was introlaces is the Honiton, so called from the town duced in the former place. In the machine of this name in Devonshire, where it was first the warp threads, to the number of 700 to made. The high rank held by Honiton lace in 1,200 in a yard of width, are stretched from a recent years is attributed to the fact that Queen roller, which extends the whole length of the Victoria, commiserating the condition of the thread beam, and the weft threads are wound lace-workers of Devonshire, and wishing to each upon a bobbin formed of two thin brass bring their manufactures into notice, ordered disks riveted together, leaving a narrow space her wedding dress, which cost £1,000, to be between them for the thread. Each bobbin made of this material. Her example was fol- holds about 100 yards of thread, and there lowed by two of her daughters and the prin- are as many as 1,200 of them to a machine. cess of Wales, and Honiton lace has continued The arrangement and movement of these in to be fashionable and expensive. In making the machine can be understood only by careit, the designs, which often consist of simple ful inspection and study of the machine itself. sprigs, are formed separately and then attached The pieces of bobbinet measure from 20 to 30 to the ground. The Honiton guipure has an yards each; the width is variable. The naroriginal character almost unique, and is said to rowest strips, even the narrow quillings used surpass in richness and perfection any lace of for cap borders, are made on the same mathe same kind made in Belgium. British point chine, many breadths together, which are temis an imitation lace made near London. Lace porarily united by threads that are finally VOL. X.-6 drawn out. There are special machines called warp machines, of great variety, for making the sorts of lace known as warp lace; and there are others called point net for making this quality. A Jacquard apparatus is attached to some of the machines for working in the thick thread of gimp for the ornamental figures. Where the thread passes from one figure to another, it is clipped off by children, who use the scissors for this purpose with great dexterity. The patterns at many of the factories are worked in by hand. The government school of design established at Nottingham has served to educate many skilful designers, who prepare the patterns upon wood or stone as for engraving or printing, those parts intended to leave a mark being in relief. The block, being moistened with some colored pigment, is repeatedly impressed upon the net, until the pattern is transferred to the whole surface designed for it; and the figure is then worked with the needle, the web being extended horizontally in a frame. Before being embroidered the net is carefully examined, and the defective parts are skilfully repaired by a class of workwomen called lace menders. It is also singed by drawing it rapidly over the flame of gas lights. Bleaching and dyeing are final processes, preceding those belonging to calendering. "The labor of washing lace is almost an art; and only the most skilful are engaged in it. After washing, lace is spread out to dry on a cushioned table, and pins of a peculiar sort are run through each hole to prevent it from shrinking. When very fine, or the pattern intricate, an entire day will be spent upon one yard of lace." By means of the application of machinery to lace making, the price of the fabric has been wonderfully reduced; so that a rack of lace, equal to 240 meshes in the length, which in the early part of the present century cost to manufacture 38. 6d., now costs not more than one penny; and a 24-rack piece, 5 quarters broad, formerly worth £17, is now sold for 78.-Full information on this subject is given in the "History of Lace," by Mrs. Bury Palliser (London, 1865; 2d ed., 1869). See also the "History of Machine-wrought Hosiery and Lace Manufacture,' by W. Felkin (London, 1867). LACE-BARK TREE (lagetta lintearia), a tree 25 to 30 ft. high, which is found in the island of Jamaica in the most inaccessible rocky places. It belongs to the family thymelacea, which includes the daphnes, our leatherwood or wicopy (dirca), and other plants noted for the great tenacity and sometimes poisonous quality of their inner bark. In lagetta (from the insular name lagetto) the inner bark consists of numerous layers, composed of fibres which interlace in all directions, so that when it is stretched transversely a layer of it has much the appearance of lace. Persons who visit Jamaica nearly always bring away a piece of this vegetable lace as one of the curious products of the island; and it is said to be still in use there for articles of apparel. In the days of slavery in the island the lace-bark furnished thongs for the taskmaster's whips. LACEDEMON. See LACONIA, and SPARTA. LACÉPÈDE, Bernard Germain Étienne de La Ville, count de, a French naturalist, born in Agen, Dec. 26, 1756, died at his country seat near St. Denis, Oct. 6, 1825. He early evinced a taste for natural philosophy and musical composition, and going to Paris when 20 years old, was welcomed by Buffon and by the composer Gluck. He gave to music the time not devoted to natural philosophy, composed several operas, and in 1785 published his Poétique de la musique (2 vols. 8vo), in which Gluck's principles are expounded. He had previously written an Essai sur l'électricité naturelle et artificielle (2 vols. 8vo, 1781), and Physique générale et particulière (2 vols. 12mo, 1782–4), which, although not well received by men of science, had such merits of style that Buffon engaged him as an assistant in continuing his "Natural History," and appointed him keeper and assistant demonstrator at the museum. His Histoire des quadrupèdes ovipares et des serpents (2 vols. 4to, 1788-'9) and Histoire naturelle des reptiles (4to, 1789) have been frequently reprinted as sequels to Buffon's work. He favored the revolution, received several offices of trust, and was elected in 1791 to the legislative assembly, over which he presided toward the end of the same year. On the massacres of September, he so energetically expostulated with Danton that his friends removed him from Paris, and persuaded him to resign his office at the museum. He did not return till after the 9th Thermidor. Being regarded as the legitimate heir of Buffon, he took his seat among the original members of the institute on its foundation, and was appointed to the newly created professorship of herpetology in the jardin des plantes. His Histoire naturelle des poissons (6 vols. 4to and 11 vols. 12mo, 1798-1803) and Histoire des cétacés (4to and 2 vols. 12mo, 1804) display great descriptive talent. On the organization of the consular government, he was made a member of the senate, in 1801 president of that body, in 1803 grand chancellor of the legion of honor, and soon afterward minister of state. As president of the senate he presented in 1809 the report upon the divorce of Napoleon and Josephine. He submitted to the Bourbons on their first return, joined Napoleon during the hundred days, and, though coldly treated on the second restoration, reëntered the chamber of peers in 1819. He died of smallpox. Besides the works mentioned, he was the author of several papers printed in the Mémoires of the institute, and, jointly with George Cuvier and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, of La ménagerie du muséum national d'histoire naturelle (1801), a descriptive history of the animals in the jardin des plantes. He devoted the last months of his life to correcting the notes of the Histoire générale, physique et civile de l'Europe, depuis les dernières années du 5 siècle jusque vers le milieu du 18, which appeared after his death (18 vols. 8vo, 1826), and attracted very little attention. To this must be added two other posthumous works: Histoire naturelle de l'homme (8vo, 1827), and Les áges de la nature et l'histoire de l'espèce humaine (2 vols. 8vo, 1830). Under the title of Euvres de M. le comte de Lacépède, his discourses and natural histories of cetaceous and oviparous animals, snakes, and fishes were collected in 11 vols. 8vo, 1826, and reprinted in 1831-23, 1836, 1840, and in 3 vols. 8vo, 1862. LA CERDA, the name of an ancient Spanish family, which traced its origin to Fernando, the eldest son of Alfonso X. of Castile, called La Cerda, or the horse's mane, from a large tuft of hair which grew upon his shoulders. In 1269, at the age of 15, this prince married Blanche, daughter of St. Louis of France. Fernando died in 1275, leaving two sons, Alfonso and Fernando, heirs to the crown. But Sancho, second son of Alfonso X., claimed the succession, and caused himself to be proclaimed in his father's lifetime. Yolande, the wife of Alfonso, fled from Castile with her grandchildren, to find a protector for them in her brother Don Pedro, king of Aragon, or in their uncle Philip the Bold of France. These kings resolved that the young princes should remain prisoners in Aragon, and Yolande returned to Castile alone. Blanche, the mother of the princes, wandered through France and Aragon, vainly exclaiming against the injustice of this decision. Alfonso X. died in 1284, and in his will made Alfonso and Fernando de la Cerda his heirs, and even in their default excluded from the throne that son by whom the latter years of his life had been embittered. So sweeping a disinheritance was of little force, and caused slight hesitation between the unfortunate children and Sancho, already in possession of the throne, whose victories over the Moors had just given him the surnames of the Strong and the Valiant. At length, when it became the interest of the king of Aragon to embarrass the king of Castile, he set the princes of La Cerda at liberty. They were proclaimed at Badajoz and Talavera; but being unable to maintain themselves in Castile, they passed into France in the reign of Philip the Fair. They received from him but slight assistance, and their military operations were unfortunate. Sancho had died and had been succeeded by his own son. The kings of Portugal and Aragon, being invited to act as mediators between the ruling and the proscribed branches of the family, gave a decisive sentence in favor of the former, stipulating only that three cities should be ceded to Alfonso to aid him in maintaining the dignity of his birth. Alfonso, deserted by all his defenders, accepted the terms, and received the surname of the Disinherited. He died in 1325, leaving two sons. One of these, Carlos de la Cerda, known also as Charles of Spain, was appointed by King John in 1350 constable of France. But the French court was soon disturbed by a rivalry between Charles of Spain and Charles the Bad, king of Navarre; and in 1354, while on a visit to his young wife in the castle of L'Aigle in Normandy, the former was poniarded by assassins in the pay of the king of Navarre. In 1425 the house of La Cerda became extinct, but it is still represented in the female line by the dukes of Medina-Cœli. LA CHAISE (or Lachaise) D'AIX, François de, a French Jesuit, confessor of Louis XIV., born at the château of Aix, in Forez, Aug. 25, 1624, died Jan. 20, 1709. He taught philosophy and theology with brilliant success at Lyons, was afterward rector at Grenoble and provincial of his order at Lyons, and in 1675 succeeded Ferrier as confessor of the king. He maintained his position amid the difficulties between Mme. de Montespan and the queen, Mme. de Montespan and Mme. de Maintenon, the Jesuits and the Jansenists, Bossuet and Fénelon, and the courts of Rome and of France. He promoted the revocation of the edict of Nantes (1685), but exerted a conciliatory influence with respect to Fénelon, Quesnel, and the Jansenists. Louis XIV. built for him a country seat on an estate called Mont Louis, which belonged to the Jesuits, the gardens of which are now transformed into the cemetery named Père Lachaise. (See CEMETERY.) The LACHES (law Fr. lachesse, idleness). The law shows no favor to either tardy or negligent suitors. Vigilantibus non dormientibus jura subveniunt (the laws assist those who are vigilant, not those who sleep upon their rights). In this spirit are framed statutes of limitation. (See LIMITATION, STATUTES OF.) So, too, in respect to the production of evidence: testimony discovered after a trial may be heard by the court, if material to the case; but if, by the exercise of a proper diligence, the evidence might have been offered at the trial, its nonproduction is attributed to the party's neglect or laches, and from the consequence of that the court will not willingly relieve him. The word laches remains familiar in the law of negotiable paper. The same principles of diligence and laches are found in equity practice. negligence of a party in bringing suit or doing some other act required of him in order to become entitled to redress is laches, which the court of equity will discountenance. In the language of Baron Alderson: "Nothing will call the court's jurisdiction into exercise but conscience, good faith, and reasonable diligence. When these fail, the court will remain passive." For example, one who claims specific performance of an agreement must show that he has been in no default in the premises, but that he has taken all proper measures to secure performance; for if he has been guilty of laches his bill for relief will be dismissed. But, nullum tempus occurrit regi, lapse of time does not bar the rights of the crown; in other words, no laches can be imputed to the sover |