LESLIE, or LESLEY, JOHN (1527-1596). —Historian, studied at Aberdeen and Paris, at the former of which he became, in 1562, Prof. of Canon Law. He was a Privy Councillor 1565, and Bishop of Ross 1566, and was the confidential friend of Queen Mary, who made him her ambassador to Queen Elizabeth. He was thrown into the Tower for his share in promoting a marriage between Mary and the Duke of Norfolk, whence being released on condition of leaving England, he went first to Paris and then to Rome, where he busied himself on behalf of his mistress. He became Vicar-General of the diocese of Rouen in 1579, and d. at the monastery of Guirtenburg near Brussels. While in England he wrote in Scots vernacular his History of Scotland from the death of James I. (where Boece left off) to his own time. At Rouen he rewrote and expanded it in Latin (1575), from which it was re-translated into Scots by James Dalrymple in 1596.
L'ESTRANGE, SIR ROGER (1616-1704). —Journalist and pamphleteer, youngest s. of a Norfolk baronet, was probably at Camb., and in 1638 took arms for the King. Six years later he was captured, imprisoned in Newgate, and condemned to death. He, however, escaped, endeavoured to make a rising in Kent, and had to flee to Holland, where he was employed in the service of Charles II. On receiving a pardon from Cromwell he returned to England in 1653. In view of the Restoration he was active in writing on behalf of monarchy, and in 1663 pub. Considerations and Proposals in order to Regulating of the Press, for which he was appointed Surveyor of Printing-Presses and Licenser of the Press, and received a grant of the sole privilege of printing public news. His first newspaper, The Intelligencer, appeared in the same year, and was followed by The News and the City Mercury, or Advertisements concerning Trade. Thereafter his life was spent in ed. newspapers and writing political pamphlets in support of the Court and against the Whigs and Dissenters. In 1685 he was knighted. His controversies repeatedly got him into trouble, and after the Revolution he lost his appointments, and was more than once imprisoned. In addition to his political writings he translated Æsop's Fables, Seneca's Morals, and Cicero's Offices. His Æsop contains much from other authors, including himself. In his writings he was lively and vigorous but coarse and abusive.
LEVER, CHARLES JAMES (1806-1872). —Novelist, b. at Dublin, and ed. at Trinity Coll. there. He studied medicine at Göttingen, and practised at various places in Ireland. In 1837 he contributed to the Dublin University Magazine his first novel, Harry Lorrequer, and the immediate and wide acceptance which it found decided him to devote himself to literature. He accordingly followed it with Charles O'Malley (1840), his most popular book. After this scarcely a year passed without an addition to the list of his light-hearted, breezy, rollicking stories, among which may be mentioned Jack Hinton (1842), Tom Burke of Ours, Arthur O'Leary, and The Dodd Family Abroad. The O'Donoghue and The Knight of Gwynne (1847) are more in the nature of historical romances. In 1864 he contributed to Blackwood's Magazine a series of miscellaneous papers, Cornelius O'Dowd on Men, Women, and Things in General. L.'s life was largely spent abroad. After practising his profession in Brussels 1840-42 he returned to Dublin to ed. the Dublin University Magazine, which he did until 1845, after which he went to Italy, settled at Florence, and thereafter was British Consul successively at Spezzia and Trieste, at the latter of which he d. He continued to produce novels up to the end of his life. Among the later ones are Sir Brooke Fosbrooke, The Bramleighs of Bishop's Folly, and Lord Kilgobbin (1872).
LEWES, GEORGE HENRY (1817-1878). —Philosopher and miscellaneous writer, b. in London, and ed. at Greenwich, and in Jersey and Brittany. His early life was varied; he tried law, commerce, and medicine successively, and was then for two years in Germany, on returning from which he tried the London stage, and eventually settled down to journalism, writing for the Morning Chronicle, for the Penny Encyclopædia, and various periodicals. Thereafter he ed. the Leader (1851-54), and the Fortnightly Review (which he founded) (1865-66). His articles deal with an extraordinary variety of subjects—criticism, the drama, biography, and science, both physical and mental. His chief works are The History of Philosophy from Thales to Comte, Comte's Philosophy of the Sciences (1853), The Psychology of Common Life (1859), Studies in Animal Life (1862), Problems of Life and Mind (1873-79). L. was an exceptionally able dramatic critic, and in this department he produced Actors and the Art of Acting (1875), and a book on the Spanish Drama. By far his greatest work, however, is his Life and Works of Goethe (1855), which remains the standard English work on the subject, and which by the end of the century had, in its German translation, passed into 16 ed. He also wrote two novels, Ranthorpe (1847), and Rose, Blanche, and Violet (1848), neither of which attained any success. In his writings he is frequently brilliant and original; but his education and training, whether in philosophy or biology, were not sufficiently thorough to give him a place as a master in either. L.'s life was in its latter section influenced by his irregular connection with Miss Evans ("George Eliot"), with whom he lived for the last 24 years of it, in close intellectual sympathy. To his appreciation and encouragement were largely due her taking up prose fiction.
LEWIS, SIR GEORGE CORNEWALL (1806-1863). —Scholar and statesman, s. of Sir Thomas F.L., a Radnorshire baronet, was ed. at Eton and Oxf. He studied law, was called to the Bar in 1831, and entered Parliament in 1847, where his intellect and character soon gained him great influence. After serving on various important commissions and holding minor offices, he became Chancellor of the Exchequer 1855-58, Home Sec. 1859-61, and War Sec. 1861-63. His official labours did not prevent his entering into profound and laborious studies, chiefly in regard to Roman history, and the state of knowledge among the ancients. In his Inquiry into the Credibility of Ancient Roman History (1855), he combated the methods and results of Niebuhr. Other works are On the Use and Abuse of Political Terms, Authority in Matters of Opinion, The Astronomy of the Ancients, and a Dialogue on the best Form of Government. The somewhat sceptical turn of his mind led him to sift evidence minutely, and the labour involved in his wide range of severe study and his public duties no doubt shortened his valuable life.