LEA, HENRY CHARLES (1825-1909), American historian, was born at Philadelphia on the 19th of September 1825. His father was a publisher, whom in 1843 he joined in business, and he retained his connexion with the firm till 1880. Weak health, however, caused him from early days to devote himself to research, mainly on church history in the later middle ages, and his literary reputation rests on the important books he produced on this subject. These are: _Superstition and Force_ (Philadelphia, 1866, new ed. 1892); _Historical Sketch of Sacerdotal Celibacy_ (Philadelphia, 1867); _History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages_ (New York, 1888); _Chapters from the religious history of Spain connected with the Inquisition_ (Philadelphia, 1890); _History of auricular Confession and Indulgences in the Latin Church_ (3 vols., London, 1896); _The Moriscos of Spain_ (Philadelphia, 1901), and _History of the Inquisition of Spain_ (4 vols., New York and London, 1906-1907). He also edited a _Formulary of the Papal Penitentiary in the 13th century_ (Philadelphia, 1892), and in 1908 was published his _Inquisition in the Spanish Dependencies_. As an authority on the Inquisition he stood in the highest rank of modern historians, and distinctions were conferred on him by the universities of Harvard, Princeton, Pennsylvania, Giessen and Moscow. He died at Philadelphia on the 24th of October 1909.
LEAD (pronounced _leed_), a city of Lawrence county, South Dakota, U.S.A., situated in the Black Hills, at an altitude of about 5300 ft., 3 m. S.W. of Deadwood. Pop. (1890) 2581, (1900) 6210, of whom 2145 were foreign-born, (1905) 8217, (1910) 8392. In 1905 it was second in population among the cities of the state. It is served by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, the Chicago & North-Western, and the Chicago, Milwaukee & St Paul railways. Lead has a hospital, the Hearst Free Library and the Hearst Free Kindergarten, and is the see of a Roman Catholic bishopric. It is the centre of the mining interests of the Black Hills, and the Homestake Gold Mine here contains perhaps the largest and most easily worked mass of low-grade ore and one of the largest mining plants (1000 stamps) in the world; it has also three cyanide mills. From 1878 to 1906 the value of the gold taken from this mine amounted to about $58,000,000, and the net value of the product of 1906 alone was approximately $5,313,516. For two months in the spring of 1907 the mine was rendered idle by a fire (March 25), which was so severe that it was necessary to flood the entire mine. Mining tools and gold jewelry are manufactured. The first settlement was made here by mining prospectors in July 1876. Lead was chartered as a city in 1890 and became a city of the first class in 1904.