LEBOEUF, EDMOND (1809-1888), marshal of France, was born at Paris on Nov. 5, 1809, passed through the t cole Polytechnique and the school of Metz. He served in Algeria, in the Crimean War, and in the Italian war of 1859, when his action at Solferino materially assisted in achieving the victory. In Sep tember 1866, having in the meantime become aide-de-camp to Napoleon III., he was despatched to Venetia to hand over that province to Victor Emmanuel. In 1869 Leboeuf became minister of war, and reorganized the War Office and the civil departments of the service. In the spring of 1870 he received the marshal's baton. On the declaration of war with Germany Leboeuf deliv ered himself in the Corps Legislatif of the historic saying, "So ready are we, that if the war lasts two years, not a gaiter button would be found wanting." Leboeuf took part in the Lorraine cam paign, at first as chief of staff (major-general) of the Army of the Rhine, and afterwards, when Bazaine became commander-in chief, as chief of the III. corps, which he led in the battles around Metz. Shut up with Bazaine in Metz, on its fall he was a prisoner in Germany. On the conclusion of peace he returned
to France and gave evidence before the commission of inquiry into the surrender of Metz, when he strongly denounced Bazaine. He died at the Château du Moncel near Argentan on June 7, 1888. LE BON, JOSEPH (1765-1795), French politician, born at Arras on Sept. 29, 1765, was cure of a constitutional church in the Pas-de-Calais, and was elected to the Convention on July 2, 1793. His severities against counter-revolutionaries during his missions (1793-94) to the departments of Somme and Pas-de-Calais led to his arrest on July 1o, 1795, on a charge of abuse of power. He was tried before the Somme tribunal, and executed at Amiens on Oct. 1o, 1795. Whatever his offences may have been, he saved Cambrai from falling into the hands of the Austrians, and his condemnation was probably mainly due to political enmities.
His son, Emile le Bon, published a Histoire de Joseph le Bon et des tribunaux revolutionnaires d'Arras et de Cambrai (2nd ed., 2 vols., Arras, 1864).