Lawrence, James (b. Oct. 1, 1781, Burlington, N.J., U.S.—killed in action June 1, 1813, in a sea battle off Boston, Mass.) U.S. naval officer. He served under Stephen Decatur in the Tripolitan War. In the War of 1812 he commanded the USS Hornet in the capture of the British Peacock. Shortly thereafter he was promoted to captain of the USS Chesapeake. In 1813 he accepted a challenge from the British Shannon to a sea fight off the coast of Boston. The Chesapeake was defeated in less than an hour, and Lawrence was mortally wounded. His last words, “Don’t give up the ship,” came to express one of the U.S. Navy’s most cherished traditions.
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Lawrence ► Le Brun I 1085
Lawrence, John (Laird Mair) later Baron Lawrence (of the Punjab and of Grately) (b. March 4, 1811, Richmond, Yorkshire, Eng.—d. June 27, 1879, London) British viceroy and governor-general of India (1864-69). He worked in Delhi as an assistant judge, magistrate, and tax collector. After the First Sikh War (1845-46) he was made com¬ missioner of the newly annexed district of Jullundur, where he subdued the hill chiefs, established courts and police posts, and curbed female infanticide and suttee. On the Punjab board of administration he abolished internal duties, introduced a uniform currency, and encouraged road and canal construction. As viceroy and governor-general from 1864, he pro¬ moted increased educational opportunities for Indians but resisted their appointment to high civil-service posts. He avoided entanglements in the affairs of Arabia, the Persian Gulf, and Afghanistan.
Lawrence, Saint or Saint Laurence (d. 258, Rome; feast day August 10) Roman martyr. He was one of seven deacons in Rome dur¬ ing the papacy of Sixtus II. When the pope was executed during the per¬ secution of Christians under Valerian, the authorities asked Lawrence to surrender the churches’ treasures to the state, and he responded by dis¬ tributing the money to the poor, for which he was condemned to death. His fearless behavior at his execution was responsible for many conver¬ sions; according to one legend, he was roasted to death on a gridiron, remarking to his torturers, “I am cooked on that side; turn me over, and eat.”
Lawrence, T(homas) E(dward) byname Lawrence of Arabia
(b. Aug. 15, 1888, Tremadoc, Caernarvonshire, Wales—d. May 19, 1935, Clouds Hill, Dorset, Eng.) British scholar, military strategist, and author. He studied at Oxford, submitting a thesis on Crusader castles. He learned Arabic on an archaeological expedition (1911-14). During World War I (1914-18) he conceived the plan of supporting Arab rebellion against the Ottoman Empire as a way of undermining Germany’s eastern ally, and he led Arab forces in a guerrilla campaign behind the lines, tying up many Ottoman troops. In 1917 his forces had their first major victory, captur¬ ing the port town of Al-'Aqabah. He was captured later that year, but he escaped. His troops reached Damascus in 1918, but Arab factionalism and Anglo-French decisions to divide the area into British- and French- controlled mandates prevented the Arabs from forming a unified nation despite their victory. Lawrence retired, declining royal decorations. Under the name Ross, and later Shaw, he enlisted in the Royal Air Force (and briefly the Royal Tank Corps). He finished his autobiography. The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, in 1926. He was eventually posted to India; his expe¬ riences provided grist for his semifictional The Mint. He died in a motor¬ cycle accident three months after his discharge.
laws, conflict of Opposition or contradiction in the applicable laws of different states or jurisdictions regarding the rights of the parties in a case. Rules have been created to help determine which set of laws is applicable in a given case, which judicial system is most appropriate for trying the case, and the extent to which other jurisdictions are expected to honour or enforce the outcome of the trial.
lawyer or attorney Person trained and licensed to prepare, manage, and either prosecute or defend a court action as an agent for another and who also gives advice on legal matters that may or may not require court action. Legal practice varies from country to country. In Britain, for example, lawyers are divided into barristers and soucitors. In the U.S. attorneys often specialize in limited areas of the law (e.g., criminal law, divorce, or probate). In France the most important type of legal profes¬ sional is the avocat, roughly comparable to the English barrister. In Ger¬ many the chief distinction is between lawyers and notaries.
laxative Substance that promotes defecation. These include irritants (stimulants) such as cascara sagrada and castor oil, bulk formers such as bran and psyllium, saline laxatives such as Epsom salts or milk of mag¬ nesia, glycerin, lubricants such as mineral oil and some vegetable oils, and stool softeners. A high-fibre diet is more important than laxatives in correcting simple intestinal constipation.
Laxness Vlaks-nes\, Halldor orig. Halldor Kiljan Gudjonsson
(b. April 23, 1902, Reykjavik, Ice.—d. Feb. 8, 1998, near Reykjavik) Ice¬ landic novelist. He converted to Roman Catholicism while traveling in Europe as a young man but later dissociated himself from Christianity and turned to socialism, an ideology reflected in his novels from the 1930s and ’40s. Works exploring the social issues of Iceland include Salka Valka (1936), which deals with the plight of working people in a fishing village; Independent People (1935), the story of an impoverished farmer’s
struggle for economic independence; and the nationalist trilogy Iceland’s Bell (1943-46). His later works were more lyrical and introspective. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1955.
Layamon Vla-o-msnN or Lawamon Vlo-msnV (fl. 12th century) Middle English poet. A priest who lived in Worcestershire, he is the author of the romance-chronicle the Brut (c. 1200), the outstanding product of the 12th-century English literary revival and the first work in English to treat the Arthurian legend. His source was Wace’s Roman de Brut. In some 16,000 long alliterative lines, the Brut tells of Britain from the time of the landing of Brutus, great-grandson of the Trojan Aeneas, to the final Saxon victory over the Britons in 689.
layering or layerage Method of propagation in which plants are induced to regenerate missing parts from parts that are still attached to the parent plant. It occurs naturally for drooping black raspberry or forsythia stems, whose trailing tips root where they come in contact with the soil. They then send up new shoots from the newly rooted portion of the plant. For soil layering, lower stems are bent to the ground and covered with moist soil of good quality. For air layering, a branch is deeply slit and the wound is covered with a ball of earth or moss and kept moist until roots develop; the branch is then severed and transplanted. Layering was prac¬ ticed by the ancient Egyptians and Greeks. See also cutting.
Lazarus In the New Testament, two apparently different people. In the Gospel According to Luke, he was the poor man in the parable of Dives and Lazarus, and in the Middle Ages he was honoured as the patron of lepers. In the Gospel According to John, Lazarus was the man whom Jesus raised from the dead. When Jesus visited Bethany, near Jerusalem, Laz¬ arus’s sister Mary lamented that if only Jesus had been there four days earlier, surely he could have prevented her brother from dying. Jesus went to the cave where Lazarus was entombed and commanded him to “come forth,” and he did. The miracle, in the Gospel account, inspired some Jews to accept Jesus as the Messiah, and others reported it to Jewish leaders.
Lazarus, Emma (b. July 22, 1849, New York, N.Y., U.S.—d. Nov. 19, 1887, New York) U.S. writer. She was born into a cultured Jewish fam¬ ily and learned languages and the classics at an early age. Her first book (1867) caught the attention of Ralph Waldo Emerson, with whom she cor¬ responded thereafter. She wrote a prose romance and translated Heinrich Heine’s poems and ballads. She took up the defense of persecuted Jews c. 1881 and began working for the relief of new immigrants to the U.S. The famous closing lines to her poem “The New Colossus” (1883) were inscribed on the base of the Statue of Liberty (see Statue of Liberty National Monument), dedicated in 1886.