fonous qualities of lead and other minerals. Its caufe and effects are thus described in Sir J. Sinclair's Stat. Acc. of Scotland; "Spring water, there, is perhaps as fine as any in the world; but the water below the fmelting mills is the most dangerous. The lead (ore) before smelting is broke very small, and washed from the extraneous matter. It contains frequently arfenic, fulphur, zinc, &c. which poifon the water in which it is washed. Fowls of any kind will not live many days at Lead-hills. They pick up arfenical particles with their food, which foon kills them. Horfes, cows, dogs, and cats, are liable to the Lead-Brah. A cat, when feized with that dif. temper, Iprings like lightning through every corner of the houfe, falls into convulfions, and foon dies. A dog falls into ftrong convulfions alfo, but fometimes recovers. A cow grows perfectly mad in an inftant, and must be immediately killed. Fortunately this diftemper does not afflict the human fpecies." Vol. xxi. p. 98, 99.

(1.)* LEADEN. adj. [leaden, Saxon.] 1. Made of lead.

This tiger-footed rage, when it fhall find The harm of unskann'd swiftness, will, too late, Tie leaden pounds to's heels.

Shak.

Shak.

O murth❜rous Лlumber! Lay't thou the leaden mace upon my boy, That plays thee musick? -A leaden bullet fhot from one of these guns against a stone wall, the space of 24 paces from it, will be beaten into a thin plate. Wilkins. 2. Heavy; unwilling; motionlefs.

If he be leaden, icy, cold, unwilling, Be thou fo too.

3. Heavy; dull.—

Shak.

I'll ftrive with troubled thoughts to take a nap; Left leaden flumber poise me down to-morrow, Shak. (2.) LEADEN, in geography, a river of Gloucefterfhire, which runs into the Severn.

(1.) * LEADER. n. f. [from lead.] 1. One that leads or conducts. 2. Captain; commander.I'll draw the form and model of our battle, Limit each leader to his several charge, And part in just proportion our small strength. Shak. -I have given him for a leader and commander to the people. Ifaiah lv. 4.-Those escaped by flight, not without a sharp jeft against their leaders, affirming, that, as they had followed them into the field, fo it was good reason they should follow them out. Hayward.

When our Lycians fee
Our brave examples, they admiring fay,
Behold our gallant leaders.

Denham. The brave leader of the Lycian crew. Dryden. 3. One who goes first.-Nay, keep your way, little gallant; you were wont to be a follower, now you are a leader. Shak. 4. One at the head of any party or faction: as, the deteftable Wharton was the leader of the whigs.-The understandings of a senate are enslaved by three or four leaders, fet to get or keep employments. Swift.

(2.) LEADER, or LEADER WATER, a river of Scotland, in Berwickshire, which rifes in the Lammer-muir hills, and falls into the Tweed, 3 miles E. of Melrofe. It formerly abounded with falmon

and trouts, but fince the improvement of the adjacent grounds by lime became general, they are not near fo numerous, owing to the rains washing down that mineral into the river.

(1.) LEADHILLS, mountains of Scotland, in the county of Lanark, and diftrict of Єlydefdale, abounding with the most famous and ancient lead mines in the kingdom, the lead ores having been first discovered in 1513.

(2.) LEADHILLS, a village on the top of one of the above mountains, upon a level with Tintock (N° 1.), or rather in a hollow near its fummit, by fome faid to be the highest human habitation in Great Britain. Here, however, refide many hundreds of miners with their families. Thefe miners, though in a great measure excluded from fociety by their fituation, yet not only find means to procure a comfortable fubfiftence, but also pay more attention to the cultivation of the mind than many of their countrymen fituated feemingly in more favourable circumstances for the attainment of knowledge. They are very intelligent, and have a circulating library for the instruction and amusement of their little community. They labour in the mines only 6 hours in the 24; so that they have a good deal of spare time. They are employed by two companies, who have agents, overfeers, &c. at Leadhills, as well as at London. Amidst these mountains particles of gold have fometimes been found washed down by the rains and ftreams of water; but this defert tract is chiefly valuable for producing metals of inferior worth. "Nothing (fays Mr Pennant) can equal the gloomy appearance of the country round. Neither tree, nor fhrub, nor verdure, nor picturesque rock, appear to amuse the eye. The fpectator muft plunge into the bowels of thefe mountains for entertainment." The veins of lead lie moftly N. and S. and their thickness, which feldom exceeds 40 feet, varies greatly in different parts. Some have been found filled with ore within two fathoms of the furface; others fink to the depth of 90 fathoms. The earl of Hopeton, the proprietor, has in his poffeffion a folid mafs of lead-ore from these mines, weighing five tons. He has alfo a piece of native gold that weighs two ounces, which was found here. The lead is all fent to Leith, where it has the privilege of being exported free of duty. The total produce, in 1785, was 10,080 bars of lead: In 1790, it was near 18,000 bars. The fcanty pafture afforded by this barren region feeds fome fheep and cattle; but thofe in the neighbourhood of the mines fometimes perish by drinking of the water in which the lead ore has been wafhed. LEAD-BRASH. The population of this village, in 1791, was 970. It has a good fchool, and lies 15 miles S. of Lanark.

See

* LEADING. participial adj. Principal; chie£; capital.-In organized bodies, which are propa gated by feed, the fhape is the leading quality, and moft characteristical part, that determines the fpecies. Locke.-Mistakes arife from the influence of private perfons, upon great numbers, styled leading men and parties. Swift.

LEADING-STRINGS. n. f. [lead and ftring.] Strings by which children, when they learn to walk, are held from falling.→ Sound

Sound may serve such, ere they to sense are grown

Like leading-frings, 'till they can walk alone. Dryden. -Was he ever able to walk without leading Arings, or swim without bladders, without being difcovered by his hobbling and his finking? Swift. LEADMAN. n. f. [lead and man.] One who begins or leads a dance.

Such a light and mettled dance

Saw you never,

Spenfer.

Swift. 3. One fide of a double door. The two leaves of the one door were folding. 1 Kings. 4. Any thing foliated, or thinly beaten.-Eleven ounces two pence fterling ought to be of fo pure filver, as is called leaf filver, and then the melter muft add of other weight feventeen pence halfpenny farthing. Camden.-Leaf gold, that flies in the air as light as down, is as truly gold as that in an ingot. Digby on Bodies.

(2.) LEAF (1, def. 1.) is defined by Miller, "a part of a plant extended into length and breadth in fuch a manner as to have one fide diftinguishable from the other." Linnæus defines leaves" the organs of motion, or muscles of the plant." The leaves are not merely ornamental to plants; they serve very useful purposes, and make part of the organs of vegetation. Moft of plants, efpecially trees, are furnished with leaves; in mushrooms, and shrubby horfe-tail, they are totally wanting. Ludwig defines leaves to be fi brous and cellular processes of the plant, which are of various figures, but generally extended into a plain, membranaceous or skinny fubftance. They are of a deeper green than the foot-ftalks on which they ftand, and are formed by the expanfjon of the veffels of the ftalk, among which, in feveral leaves, the proper veffels are diftinguished. by the particular tafte, colour, and smell of the liquors contained within them. By the expanfion of the veffels of the ftalk, are produced

feveral ramifications or branches, which eroffing each other mutually, form a kind of net; the methes or interstices of which are filled up with a tender cellular subftance, called the pulp, pith, or parenchyma. This pulpy fubftance is fre quently consumed by infects, whilft the membranous net remaining untouched exhibits the genuine fkeleton of the leaf. The net is covered externally with an epidermis or scarf-skin, which appears to be a continuation of the fearf skin of the ftalk, and perhaps of that of the ftem. M. De Sauffure, a judicious naturalift, has attempted to prove, that this fcarf-fkin, like that of the petals, is a true bark, composed itself of an epidermis and cortical net; these parts feem to be the organs of -perspiration, which ferve to diffipate the fuperfluous juices. The cortical net is furnished, principally on the furface of the leaf, with a great number of fuckers or absorbent vessels, deftined to imbibe the humidity of the air. The upper furface, turned towards heaven, ferves as a defence to the ower, which looks downward; and this difpofition is fo effential to the vegetable economy, that if a branch is overturned in such a man. ner as to deftroy the natural direction of the leaves, they will, of themselves, in a very short time, refume their former pofition; and that as often as the branch is thus overturned. Leaves, then, are useful and neceffary organs; trees perifh when totally diverted of them. In general, plants stript of any of their leaves, cannot shoot vigorously: witness thofe who have undergone the depredations of infects; witnefs, likewife, the very common practice of ftripping off fome of the leaves from plants, when we would fufpend their growth, or diminish the number of their fhoots. This method is fometimes obferved with corn and the efculent graffes; and in cold years is practised on fruit-trees and vines, to render the fruit riper and better coloured: but in this case it is proper to wait till the fruits have acquired their full bulk, as the leaves contribute greatly to their growth, but hinder, when too numerous, that exquifite rectifying of the juices, which is fo neceffary to render them delicious and palatable. When vegetation ceases, the organs of perspiration and inspiration become fuperfluous. Plants, therefore, are not always adorned with leaves; they produce new ones every year; and every year the greater part are totally divefted of them, and remain naked during the winter. See PLANT.

(3.) LEAF, in clocks and watches, an appellation given to the notches of their pinions. (4.) LEAF, CREEPING, in zoology. See MAN TIS.

(5.) LEAF GOLD, or GOLD LEAF (§ 1, def. 4.) fine gold beaten into plates of extreme thinness, for the purpofe of gilding, &c. The preparation of gold leaf, according to Dr Lewis, is as follows: " The gold is melted in a black lead crucible, with fome borax, in a wind furnace, called by the workmen a quind hole: as foon as it appears in perfect fufion, it is poured out into an iron ingot mould, fix or eight inches long, and three quar ters of an inch wide, previously greafed and heated, fo as to make the tallow run and smoke, but not to take flame. The bar of gold is made red hot, to burn off the unctuous matter, and forged

on

on an anvil into a long plate, which is further extended, by being paffed repeatedly between polished steel rollers, till it becomes a ribbon as thin as paper. Formerly the whole of this extenfion was procured by means of the hammer, and fome of the French workmen are still faid to follow the fame practice: but the flatting mill both abridges the operation, and renders the plate of more uniform thickness. The ribbon is divided by compaffes, and cut with fheers into equal pieces, which confequently are of equal weights: thefe are forged on an anvil till they are an inch fquare; and after wards well nealed, to remove the rigidity which the metal has contracted in the hammering and flatting. Two ounces of gold, or 960 grains, the quantity which the workmen ufually melt at a time, make 150 of thefe fquares, when each of them weighs fix grains and two-fifths; and as 902 grains of gold make a cubic inch, the thicknefs of the fquare plates is about the 766th part of an inch. In order to the further extenfion of these pieces into fine leaves, it is neceffary to interpofe fome fmooth body between them and the hammer, for foftening its blow, and defending them from the rudeness of its immediate action; as also to place between every two of the pieces fome proper intermedium, which, while it prevents their uniting together, or injuring, one another, may suffer them freely to extend. Both thefe ends are anfwered by certain animal membranes. The goldheaters use three kinds of membranes; for the outfide cover, common parchment made of theep fkin; for interlaying with the gold, firft, the fmootheft and clofeft vellum, made of calf-fkin; and afterwards the much finer fkins of ox-gut, tript off from the large ftraight gut flit open, cu. riously prepared on purpofe for this ufe, and hence called gold-beater's fkin. The preparation of thefe laft is a diftinct bufinefs, practifed by only two or three perfons in the kingdom, fome of the particulars of which I have not fatisfactorily learned. The general process is said to confift, in applying one upon another, by the fmooth fides, in a moift ftate, in which they readily cohere and unite infeparably; ftretching them on a frame, and carefully fcraping off the fat and rough matter, fo as to leave only the fine exterior membrane of the gut; beating them between double leaves of paper, to force out what unctuofity may remain in them; moistening them once or twice with an infufion of warm fpices; and laftly, drying and preffing them. It is faid, that fome calcined gypfum or plafter of Paris is rubbed with a hare's foot both on the vellum and the ox-gut skins, which fill up fuch minute holes as may happen in them, and prevents the gold-leaf from fticking, as it would do to the fimple animal membrane. It is obfervable, that, notwithftanding the vaft extent to which the gold is beat. en between these skins, and the great tenuity of the fkins themselves, yet they fuftain continual repetitions of the process for feverai months, without extending or growing thinner. Our work mea find, that, after 70 or 80 repetitions, the skins, though they contract no flaw, will no longer permit the gold to extend between them; but that they may be again rendered fit for use by impregnating them with the virtue which they have VOL. XIII. PART I.

loft, and that even holes in them may be repaired by the, dexterous application of fresh pieces of fkin: a microscopical examination of fome sking that had been long ufed plainly fhowed these repairs. The method of reftoring their virtue is faid, in the Encyclopedie, to be, by interlaying them with leaves of paper moistened with vinegar whitewine, beating them for a whole day, and after wards rubbing them over as at firft with plafter of Paris. The gold is faid to extend between them more eafily, after they have been used a little, than when they are new. The beating of the gold is performed on a smooth block of black marble, weighing from 200 to 600 pounds, the heavier the better; about nine inches fquare on the upper furface, and fometimes lefs, fitted into the middle of a wooden frame, about two feet fquare, fo as that the furface of the marble and the frame form one continuous plane. Three of the fides are furnished with a high ledge; and the front, which is open, has a leather flap fattened to it, which the gold-beater takes before him as an apron, for preferving the fragments of gold that fall off. Three hammers are employed, all of them with two round and fomewhat convex faces, though commonly the workman uses only one of the faces: the firft, called the cutch-bam mer, is about 4 inches in diameter, and weighs 15 or 16lb. and fometimes 20, though few workmen can manage those of this laft fize;.the 2d, called the fhodering-hammer, weighs about 12lb. and is about the fame diameter: the 3d, called the gold-hammer, or finishing hammer, weighs 10 or 1lb. and is nearly of the fame width. The French ufe 4 hammers, differing both in fize and fhape from thofe of our workmen; they have only one face, being in figure truncated cones, The firft has very little convexity, is near 5 inches in diameter, and weighs 14 or 15 lb. the 2d is more convex than the firft, about an inch narrower, and scarcely half its weight: the third, ftill more convex, is only about two inches wide, and 4 or 5lb. in weight: the 4th or finishing hammer is near as heavy as the firft, but narrower by an inch, and the moft convex of all. As thefe hammers differ fo remarkably from ours, I thought proper to infert them, leaving the workmen to judge what advantage one fet may have above the other. A hundred and fifty of the pieces of gold are interlaid with leaves of vellum, 3 or 3 inches fquare, one vellum leaf being placed between every two of the pieces, and about 20 more of the vellum leaves on the outfides; over thefe is drawn a parchment cafe, open at both ends, and over this another in a contrary direction, fo that the affemblage of gold and vellum leaves is kept tight and clofe on all fides. The whole is beaten with the heaviest hammer, and every now and then turned upfide down, till the gold is ftretched to the extent of the vellum; the cafe being from time to time opened for difcovering how the extenfion goes on, and the packet, at times, bent and rolled as it were between the hands, for procuring fufficient freedom to the goid, or, as the workmen fay, to make the gold work. The pieces, taken out from between the vellum leaves, are cut in four with a steel knife; and the 600 divifions, hence refulting, are interlaid, in the fame N

manner,

manner, with pieces of the ox-gut fkins five inches fquare. The beating being repeated with a lighter hammer till the golden plates have again acquired the extent of the fkins, they are a fecond time divided in four: the inftrument ufed for this divifion is a piece of cane cut to an edge, the leaves being now fo light, that the moisture of the air or breath condenting on a metalline knife would occafion them to tick to it. Thefe laf divifions being fo numerous, that the fkins neceffary for interpofing between them would make the packet too thick to be beaten at once, they are parted into three parcels, which are beaten feparately, with the fmalleft hammer, till they are ftretched, for the 3d time, to the fize of the kins: they are now found to be reduced to the greatest thinnefs they will admit of; and indeed many of them, before this period, break or fail. The French workmen, according to the minute detail of this procefs given in the Encyclopedie, re peat the divifion and the beating once more; but as the fquares of gold, taken for the first operation, have four times the area of those used among us, the number of leaves from an equal area is the fame in both methods, viz. 16 from a fquare inch. In the beating, however fimple the procefs appears to be, a good deal of addrefs is requifite, for applying the hammers fo as to extend the metal uniformly from the middle to the fides: one improper blow is apt not only to break the gold leaves, but to cut the fkins. After the laft beating, the leaves are taken up by the end of a cane inftrument, and, being blown flat on a leather cushion, are cut to a fize, one by one, with a fquare frame of cane made of a proper fharpness, or with a frame of wood edged with cane: they are then fitted into books of 25 leaves each, the paper of which is well fmoothed, and rubbed with red bole to prevent their ticking to it. The French, for fizing the leaves, use only the cane knife; cutting them first straight on one fide, fitting them into the book by the ftraight fide, and then pairing off the fuperfluous parts of the gold about the edges of the book. The fize of the French gold leaves is fomewhat lefs than from 3 inches to 34 fquare; that of ours, from 3 inches to 3. The procefs of gold-beating is confiderably influenced by the weather. In wet weather, the fkins grow fomewhat damp, and in this ftate make the extenfion of the gold more tedious: the French are faid to dry and prefs them at every time of ufing; with care not to overdry them, which would render them unfit for farther fervice. Our workmen complain more of frost, which appears to affect the metalline leaves them. felves in froft, a gold leaf cannot easily be blown flat, but breaks, wrinkles; or runs together. Gold leaf ought to be prepared from the finest gold; as the admixture of other metals, though in too small a proportion to fenfibly affect the colour of the leaf, would difpofe it to lofe of its beauty in the air. And indeed there is little temptation to the workmen to ufe any other; the greater hardness of alloyed gold occafioning as much to be loft in point of time and labour, and in the greater number of leaves that break, as can be gained by any quantity of alloy that would not be at once difcoverable by the eye. All metals

render gold harder and more difficult of extenfion: even filver, which in this respect seems to alter its quality lefs than any other metal, produces with gold a mixture fenfibly harder than either of them feparately, and this hardness is in no art more felt than in gold-beating. The French are faid to prepare the green gold leaf from a compofition of one part copper and two of filver, with 80 of gold. But this is probably a mistake for fuch an admixture gives no greenness to gold: and I have been informed by our workmen, that this kind of leaf is made from the fame fine gold as the higheft gold coloured fort, the greenish hue being only a fuperficial teint induced upon the gold in fome part of the process: this greenish leaf is little otherwife used than for the gilding of cer tain books. But though the gold-beater cannot advantageously diminish the quantity of gold in the leaf by the admixture of any other fubftance with the gold, yet means have been contrived, for fome particular purposes, of faving the precious metal, by producing a kind of leaf called party_gold, whofe bafis is filver," and which has only a fuper ficial coat of gold upon one fide: a thick leaf of filver and a thinner one of gold, 'laid flat on one another, heated and preffed together, unite and cohere; and being then beaten into fine leaves, as in the foregoing process, the gold, though its quantity is only about one fourth of that of the fiver, continues everywhere to cover it, the extenfion of the Cormer keeping pace with that of the latter.

(6.) LEAF INSECT. See CIMEX, No 2. (7.) LEAF, WALKING. See MANTIS.

* To LEAF. v. n. [from the noun.] To bring leaves; to bear leaves. -Moft trees fall off the leaves at autumn; and if not kept back by cold, would lenf about the folftice. Broan.

*LEAFLESS. adj. [from leaf.] Naked of leaves, -Bare honestly, without some other adornment, being looked on as a leaflefs tree, nobody will 'ake himself to its fhelter. Government of the Tongue

Where doves in flocks, the leafless trees o'erfhade.

Pope. *LEAFY. adj. [from leaf.] Full of leaves.The frauds of men were ever so, Since fummer was firft leafy.

Dim darkness, and this leafy labyrinth.

Shak.

Milton.

O'er barren mountains, o'er the flow'ry
plain,

The leafy foreft, and the liquid main,
Extends thy uncontroul'd and boundless reign.
Dryden.

Her leafy arms with fuch extent were spread, That hofts of birds, that wing the liquid air, Perch'd in the boughs. Dryden.

So when fome fwelt'ring travellers retire To leafy thades, near the cool funless verge Of Paraba, Brafilian ftream; her tail A grifly hydra fuddenly fhoots forth. Phillips. (1..) LEAGUE. n. f. [lieue, French.] 1. A league; leuca, Lat. from lech, Welch; a ftone that was used to be erected at the end of every league. Comden. 2. A measure of length, containing three miles.

Ere the fhips could meet by twice five leagues. We were encount'red by a mighty rock. Shak

Ev'n Italy, though many a league remote, In diftant echoes anfwer'd.

Addifon. (i.) A LEAGUE (§ i. def. i.) contains more or fewer geometrical paces, according to the different ufages and customs of countries. A league at fea, where it is chiefly used by us, being a landmeasure mostly peculiar to the French and Germans, contains 3000 geometrical paces, or 3 Englifh miles. The French league fometimes contains the fame measure, and in fome parts of France it confifts of 3500 paces: the mean or common league confifts of 2400 paces, and the little league of 2000. The Spanish leagues are longer than the French, 17 Spanish leagues making a degree, or 20 French leagues, or 69 English ftatute miles. The Dutch and German leagues contain each 4 geographical miles. The Perfian leagues are pretty near of the fame extent with the Spanish; that is, they are equal to 4 Ita. lian-miles; which is pretty near to what Herodotus calls the length of the Persian parafang, which contained 30 ftadia, 8 whereof, according to Strabo, make a mile. The word comes from leuca, or leuga, an ancient Gaulish word for an itinerary measure, and retained in that fenfe by the Romans. Some derive the word leuca from xxas, white; as the Gauls, in imitation of the Romans, marked the diftances in their roads with white ftones.

(II. 1.) * LEAGUE. n..ligue, French; ligo, Lat.] A confederacy; a combination either of interest or friendship.

You peers, continue this united league. Shak. We come to be informed by yourselves, What the conditions of that league muft be. Shak. -Thou shalt be in league with the ftones of the field; and the beafts of the field shall be at peace with thee. Job.-Go break thy league with Baafha, that he may depart from me. 2 Chron. xvi. 3. -It is a great error, and a narrowness of mind, to think, that nations have nothing to do one with another, except there be either an union in sovereignty, or a conjunction in pacts or leagues; there are other bands of fociety and implicit confede. rations. Bacon.

I, a private perfon, whom my country As a league breaker gave up bound, prefum'd Single rebellion, did hoftile acts. Milton, Let there be

'Twixt us and them no league nor amity. Denh. (2.) LEAGUE (§ II. 1.) denotes also an alliance between princes and ftates for their mutual aid, either in attacking fome common enemy, or in de. fending themselves. Leagues, among the Greeks, were of 3 forts: 1. Exovin, Zuvdnen, Eignon, whereby both parties were obliged to ceafe from hofti lities, without even molefting the allies of each other; 2. Exipax, whereby they engaged to have the fame friends and enemies, and to affift each other upon all occafions. All these leagues were confirmed with oaths, imprecations, and sacrifices. The victims moft generally used were a boar, ram, or goat, fometimes all three; and sometimes bulls and lambs. They cut out the teflicles of the animal, and ftood upon them while they fwore; and fome of the hair of the victim was distributed to all prefent, Then they cut the animal's

throat, which was called opia river, in Latin, ferire fadus.-This done, they repeated their oaths and imprecations, calling the gods to witness the honefty of their intentions. A libation was then made of wine, which at this time was mixed, to imply their conjunction and union; while this was pouring out, they prayed that the blood of him who fhould break the treaty might be poured out in like manner. Upon thefe occafions no part of the victim was eaten. Still further to increase the folemnity of this obligation, the league was engraven upon brafs, fixed up in places of public concourfe, and fometimes read at the folemn games. Some exchanged certain Eußox or teffera upon the occafion, and frequently fent ambaffadors, on fome apppointed day, to keep them in mind of their engagements to each other. The ceremonies of the Romans in making leagues were performed by the Feciales, See FECIALES.

(3) The LEAGUE, by way of eminence, denotes that famous one on foot in France, from 1576 to 1593. Its intent was to prevent the fucceffion of Henry IV. who was of the reformed religion, to the crown; and it ended with his abjuration of that faith. (See HENRY, N° ii.) The leaguers, or confederates, were of three kinds. The zealous leaguers aimed at the utter deftruction, not only of the Huguenots, but alfo of the miniftry. The Spanish leaguers had principally in view the tranfferring the crown of France to the king of Spain, or the infanta his daughter. The moderate leaguers aimed only at the extirpation of Calvinism, without any alteration of the government.

(4.) LEAGUE, ACHEAN. See ACHEANS, and GREECE, $7.

(5.) LEAGUE AND COVENANT, SOLEMN. See ENGLAND, 47; and SECEDERS.

(6.) The LEAGUES OF THE GRISONS, now form part of Switzerland. See GRISONS, §1; HELVETIA, and REVOLUTION.

* To LEAGUE, v. n. To unite; to confederate. -Where fraud and falfhood invade fociety, the band presently breaks, and men are put to a lofs where to league and to fasten their dependences. South.

* LEAGUED. adj. [from league.] Confederated.

And now thus leagu'd by an eternal bond, What shall retard the Britons bold designs?. Phillips. (1.) LEAGUER. . . one who makes, or is joined in a league. See LEAGUE, f 3.

(2.)* LEAGUER. n.f. [beleggren, Dutch.] Siege; investment of a town.-We will bind and hoodwink him fo, that he fhall fuppofe no other but that he is carried into the leaguer of the adverfaries, when we bring him to our own tents. Shak.

(1.) * LEAK. n.f. [leck, lece, Dutch. A breach or hole which lets in water.-There will be always evils, which no art of men can cure: breaches and leaks more than man's wit hath hands to stop. Hooker-The water rushes in, as it doth usually in the leak of a ship. Wilkins.—

Whether the fprung a leak I cannot find, Or whether the was overfet with wind. Dryden. (2.) A LEAK, at sea, is a hole in the ship, thro' which the water comes in. A fhip is faid to Spring

N 2