LAMARTINE, ALPHONSE MARIE DE, a French author, politician, and poet, born in Macon; his poetic effusions procured for him admission into the French Academy, and in 1834 he entered the Chamber of Deputies; his ability as a poet, and the independent attitude he maintained in the Chamber, gained for him a popularity which his action in 1848 contributed to increase, but it suffered eclipse from the moment he allied himself with Ledru-Rollin; after serving in the Provisional Government of 1848 he stood candidate for the Presidency, but was defeated, and on the occasion of the coup d’etat, he retired into private life; he published in 1819 “Meditations Poetiques,” in 1847 the “Histoire de Girondins,” besides other works, including “Voyage en Orient”; he was “of the second order of poets,” says Professor Saintsbury, “sweet but not strong, elegant but not full;... a sentimentalist and a landscape painter” (1790-1869).

LAMB, CHARLES, essayist and critic, born in London, and educated at Christ’s Hospital, where he had Coleridge for school-fellow; was for 35 years a clerk in the East India Company’s office, on his retirement from which he was allowed a pension of L450; it was as a poet he made his first appearance in literature, but it was as an essayist he attained distinction, and chiefly by his “Essays of Elia” he is best known and will be longest remembered; he was the friend of Wordsworth, Southey, and others of his illustrious contemporaries, and is famous for his witty remarks, to which his stammering tongue imparted a special zest; he was never married; his affection for his sister Mary, for whom he composed his “Tales from Shakespeare,” is well known, and how in her weakness from insanity he tenderly nursed her (1775-1834).

LAMBALLE, PRINCESSE DE, a young widow, the devoted friend of Marie Antoinette, born at Turin; was for her devotion to the queen one of the victims of the September massacres and brutally outraged; “she was beautiful, she was good, she had known no happiness” (1748-1792).

LAMBERT, JOHANN HEINRICH, German philosopher and mathematician; was the successor and rival of Leibnitz in both regards, and was patronised by Frederick the Great (1619-1728).

LAMBERT, JOHN, one of Cromwell’s officers in the civil war, born in Yorkshire; served in the successive engagements during the war from that of Marston Moor onwards, and assisted at the installation of Cromwell as Protector, but declined to take the oath of allegiance afterwards; on the death of the Protector essayed with other officers to govern the country, an attempt which was defeated by Monk, and for which he was imprisoned, tried, and banished (1619-1683).

LAMBETH (275), part of the SW. quarter of London, and a parliamentary borough in Surrey returning four members; abounds in manufactories, contains St. Thomas’s Hospital and Lambeth Palace, the official residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury, with a magnificent library and important historic portrait-gallery.