LA LINEA, or La Linea de la Concepcion, a town of Spain, in the province of Cadiz, between Gibraltar and San Roque. Pop. (1900) 31,802. La Linea, which derives its name from the line or boundary dividing Spanish territory from the district of Gibraltar, is a town of comparatively modern date and was formerly looked upon as a suburb of San Roque. It is now a distinct frontier post and headquarters of the Spanish commandant of the lines of Gibraltar. The fortifications erected here in the 16th century were dismantled by the British in 1810, to prevent the landing of French invaders, and all the existing buildings are modern. They include barracks, casinos, a theatre and a bull-ring, much frequented by the inhabitants and garrison of Gibraltar. La Linea has some trade in cereals, fruit and vegetables; it is the residence of large numbers of labourers employed in Gibraltar.
LALITPUR, a town of British India, in Jhansi district, United Provinces. Pop. (1901) 11,560. It has a station on the Great Indian Peninsula railway, and a large trade in oil-seeds, hides and ghi. It contains several beautiful Hindu and Jain temples. It was formerly the headquarters of a district of the same name, which was incorporated with that of Jhansi in 1891. The Bundela chiefs of Lalitpur were among those who most eagerly joined the Mutiny, and it was only after a severe struggle that the district was pacified.
LALLY, THOMAS ARTHUR, Comte de, Baron de Tollendal (1702-1766), French general, was born at Romans, Dauphiné, in January 1702, being the son of Sir Gerard O’Lally, an Irish Jacobite who married a French lady of noble family, from whom the son inherited his titles. Entering the French army in 1721 he served in the war of 1734 against Austria; he was present at Dettingen (1743), and commanded the regiment de Lally in the famous Irish brigade at Fontenoy (May 1745). He was made a brigadier on the field by Louis XV. He had previously been mixed up in several Jacobite plots, and in 1745 accompanied Charles Edward to Scotland, serving as aide-de-camp at the battle of Falkirk (January 1746). Escaping to France, he served with Marshal Saxe in the Low Countries, and at the capture of Maestricht (1748) was made a maréchal de camp. When war broke out with England in 1756 Lally was given the command of a French expedition to India. He reached Pondicherry in April 1758, and at the outset met with some trifling military success. He was a man of courage and a capable general; but his pride and ferocity made him disliked by his officers and hated by his soldiers, while he regarded the natives as slaves, despised their assistance, and trampled on their traditions of caste. In consequence everything went wrong with him. He was unsuccessful in an attack on Tanjore, and had to retire from the siege of Madras (1758) owing to the timely arrival of the British fleet. He was defeated by Sir Eyre Coote at Wandiwash (1760), and besieged in Pondicherry and forced to capitulate (1761). He was sent as a prisoner of war to England. While in London, he heard that he was accused in France of treachery, and insisted, against advice, on returning on parole to stand his trial. He was kept prisoner for nearly two years before the trial began; then, after many painful delays, he was sentenced to death (May 6, 1766), and three days later beheaded. Louis XV. tried to throw the responsibility for what was undoubtedly a judicial murder on his ministers and the public, but his policy needed a scapegoat, and he was probably well content not to exercise his authority to save an almost friendless foreigner.
See G. B. Malleson, The Career of Count Lally (1865); “Z’s” (the marquis de Lally-Tollendal) article in the Biographie Michaud; and Voltaire’s Œuvres complètes. The legal documents are preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale.
LALLY-TOLLENDAL, TROPHIME GÉRARD, Marquis de (1751-1830), was born at Paris on the 5th of March 1751. He was the legitimized son of the comte de Lally and only discovered the secret of his birth on the day of his father’s execution, when he resolved to devote himself to clearing his father’s memory. He was supported by Voltaire, and in 1778 succeeded in persuading Louis XVI. to annul the decree which had sentenced the comte de Lally; but the parlement of Rouen, to which the case was referred back, in 1784 again decided in favour of Lally’s guilt. The case was retried by other courts, but Lally’s innocence was never fully admitted by the French judges. In 1779 Lally-Tollendal bought the office of Grand bailli of Étampes, and in 1789 was a deputy to the states-general for the noblesse of Paris. He played some part in the early stages of the Revolution, but was too conservative to be in sympathy with all even of its earlier developments. He threw himself into opposition to the “tyranny” of Mirabeau, and condemned the epidemic of renunciation which in the session of the 4th of August 1789 destroyed the traditional institutions of France. Later in the year he emigrated to England. During the trial of Louis XVI. by the National Convention (1793) he offered to defend the king, but was not allowed to return to France. He did not return till the time of the Consulate. Louis XVIII. created him a peer of France, and in 1816 he became a member of the French Academy. From that time until his death, on the 11th of March 1830, he devoted himself to philanthropic work, especially identifying himself with prison reform.
See his Plaidoyer pour Louis XVI. (London, 1793); Lally-Tollendal was also in part responsible for the Mémoires, attributed to Joseph Weber, concerning Marie Antoinette (1804); he further edited the article on his father in the Biographie Michaud; see also Arnault, Discours prononcé aux funérailles de M. le marquis de Lally-Tollendal le 13 mars 1830 (Paris); Gauthier de Brecy, Nécrologie de M. le marquis de Lally-Tollendal (Paris, undated); Voltaire, Œuvres complètes (Paris, 1889), in which see the analytical table of contents, vol. ii.