A conference of divines summoned by Catherine de’ Medici in 1561, and attended, among others, by Peter Martyr and Beza. It was hoped that amodus vivendiwith the Huguenots might be arrived at, but the divergences between the two religions were perhaps unduly emphasized by the reformers, and the conference proved abortive, though in the following year an edict was issued permitting the Huguenots to worship outside the towns.
SeeBlanquillos.
A confederation of the coloured people of the Southern States of America, formed after the war, with the object of securing for the negroes the free exercise of their political rights.
The Committee of Public Safety was appointed by the French Convention in April, 1893, to exercise the functions of a Ministry. The first object was to drive the Girondists from power. The members of the first Comité were comparatively moderate men, but it was reorganized in July of the same year, from which time it was composed almost entirely of the extremists, and became a mere instrument in the hands of Robespierre.
The Diet which met in Poland during an interregnum only. The whole body of nobles attended, the meeting taking place on an open plain, and the members appearing armed and mounted.
Comitia Togata.
The ordinary Polish Diet of representatives of the nobles. It was summoned by the king, and the members attended unarmed.
The military system established by the English in South Africa in 1806. The country was split up into districts, each under a field cornet, whose duty it was to summon the burghers when called out for military service. The burghers were divided into three classes, according to age, and every male was liable to service from sixteen to sixty. The system was maintained by the independent Dutch States, till the close of the Boer War in 1902, but compulsory service was abolished in Cape Colony in 1834.
In feudal times the personal submission of a man to a feudal lord, by which he became his vassal, was so called.
A treaty between France and England, abolishing prohibitive duties and establishing a moderate tariff between the two countries. The Methuen Treaty between England and Portugal, which had been very prejudicial to French interests, was abrogated.
A Commission of Peers, authorized by Richard II in 1386, to inquire into abuses in the Government, and to prepare a scheme of reform.
A proclamation under the Great Seal by James I in 1604, securing Irish landowners fromall claims of the Crown, and empowering the governor, in all cases of precarious tenure, to grant indefeasible titles.
Commissions given by the English Kings to certain commissioners to impress men for military service. They were first issued under Edward I.
A committee appointed by the Long Parliament in 1641 to consider the question of religious reform.
An outbreak of the extreme revolutionary party in Paris in 1871, after the withdrawal of the Germans. Its leaders were Assi, Billioray, Blanqui, Cluseret, Paschal Grousset, Félix Pyat, and other noted extremists. They obtained complete possession of Paris, and were guilty of terrible atrocities, including the cold-blooded murder of the so-called hostages, amongst whom was the Archbishop of Paris. The city underwent a second siege at the hands of the Provisional Government, but after severe fighting the Government troops, under the Marquis de Gallifet, surmounted the last barricade, and those of the Communist leaders who failed to escape were brought to trial, and executed or transported. Many of the public buildings, including the Tuileries, were set fire to during the fighting by the “Pétroleuses.”
SeeSanta Junta.
An agreement between the Hussites and their religious opponents in 1433. This agreement afterwards formed the basis of the Treaty of Iglau.
The first French regular army, called into existence by Charles V in 1370.
A document submitted to the Government in 1450 by the insurgents under Jack Cade. It set forth the causes of the unpopularity of Suffolk, and demanded the restoration to favour of the Duke of York.
An arrangement between Sir James Perrot, Governor of Ireland, and the landowners of Connaught in 1585, by which the landowners agreed to pay a fixed ground rent, in consideration of a patent from the Crown, and relief from all other taxes and imposts. At the same time all members of the clans were released from their allegiance to their chiefs, and placed directly under the Crown.
The occupier of a small tenement who did not pay poor rates directly, but compounded with his landlord, who was responsible for the rate to the authorities. During the debates on the Reform Bill of 1867, the question of his enfranchisement was very hotly contested, and in the end the compound householder was abolished, and every name put on the rate book.
The name given to the more moderate section of the EnglishJacobites in 1692. They desired a restoration of the Stuarts, but accompanied by a general amnesty. The non-compounders, who would listen to no suggestions of moderation, were, however, more powerful at St. Germains.
A document signed in 1566 by some 2,000 nobles and gentlemen of the Netherlands, by which the signatories bound themselves to offer the most strenuous resistance to the Inquisition, while loyally supporting the sovereignty of Philip II.
An Omnibus Act passed by Congress in 1850. It provided for the admission to the Union of California as a state, and of New Mexico and Utah as territories, for the settlement of the boundaries of Texas, the return of fugitive slaves to the owners, and the suppression of the slave trade in the district of Columbia.
A manifesto by the Moderate party in the French Chamber, drawn up by Odilon Barrot in May, 1832. It denounced the Ministry for continuing the Restoration rather than the Revolution, and complained of the institution of hereditary peerages, the excessive civil list, and the extravagant expenditure on the army. With regard to foreign policy it pointed out that, through lack of firmness, the Government was abandoning Italy to Austria and Poland to Russia.
The acquittal of an accused person, in consequence of an oath taken by his kinsmen to the effect that he was innocent of the charges brought against him. This was abolished by the Assize of Clarendon in 1166.
Camps formed in the Transvaal and Orange River Colony, during the Boer War, for the reception of women and children who could not be protected in their own homes in the disturbed parts of the two colonies. Charges were made of gross mismanagement of these camps, but a commission appointed to investigate pronounced that the complaints were absurd, and that everything had been done for the refugees that the circumstances permitted.
An assembly of the Cardinals summoned for the purpose of electing a Pope. The regulations governing the Conclave were issued by Gregory X in 1275.
An argument drawn up by the Puritans of Salem, Massachusetts, in 1629, and circulated among the Puritans of England, setting forth the desirability of strengthening the Colony of Salem.
An agreement entered into in 1801 between Napoleon and the Pope, providing for the re-establishment of Roman Catholicism, which had been proscribed during the Revolution,as the religion of the majority of the French nation. It was agreed, among other provisions, that bishops were to be nominated by the State, but instituted by the Pope. The nomination of parish priests was vested in the bishops, the State having a right of veto. The State undertook to see that adequate stipends were provided for the clergy, to replace the ancient revenues which had been confiscated during the Revolution.
An agreement between Francis I of France and Leo X, by which the King obtained the right of nominating archbishops, bishops and mitred abbots, the inferior clergy being appointed by the bishops as before. In return for this, Francis granted the Pope annates and the right to levy a yearly tribute.
An agreement between Francis Joseph of Austria and Pius IX, by which the control of public education was entrusted to the priesthood, and all offences against canon law were sent for trial before ecclesiastical courts. This concordat was abrogated in 1870.
SeeAschaffenburg, Bec, German, Worms.
Soldiers of fortune who hired themselves out to the various petty states of Italy, during the wars of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
A federation of Irish Catholics formed in 1642, at the commencement of the Great Rebellion. They formed a provisional government, consisting of a general assembly, with two houses, and appointed a judicial body for each county under their control, with an appeal to a supreme council of twenty-four persons.
The independent republic formed, under the presidency of Jefferson Davis, by the states which seceded from the Union prior to the American Civil War of 1860.
An enactment of the Polish Diet, granting to all sects liberty of conscience and equal rights and privileges. This is the first instance of the establishment of complete religious toleration.
An agreement entered into in 1643, by Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Haven, and later joined by Plymouth, uniting the four communities under the title of the United Colonies of New England.
During the Spanish domination, the Supreme Court of Central America. It was established in 1542.
The confirmation by Edward I in 1297 of Magna Charta and the Charter of Forests, to which was added an article known as “De Tallagio non Concedendo,” sometimes referred to as a separate statute, and denying the right of the king to levy Tallages without the consent of Parliament.
A treaty between Louis XI and his nobles, signed in 1465, putting an end to the Guerre du Bien Public. Louis ceded the Duchy of Normandy to his brother, the Duc de Berri, to be held as a fief of France, and made certain concessions to the Duc de Bretagne, the Comte de Charolais, and others.
The invitation sent by the Crown to a cathedral chapter to elect a certain person as bishop of the diocese.
A conference of the Powers held at Berlin in 1884-5. It declared for freedom of commerce in the basin and mouths of the Congo, and along the coast from Gaboon to Angola, and appointed an international commission to regulate the navigation of the Congo and the Niger. It recognised the neutrality of the Congo Free State, decreed the abolition of slave gangs and slave markets, and all monopolies, and insisted that foreigners should enjoy equal rights with the subjects of the sovereign state.
The leaders of the reforming party in Scotland, who issued the First Covenant in 1557, took this title.
The Parliament of the United States, consisting of two Chambers, a House of Representatives, and a Senate. The former consists of a certain number of members from each state, elected by direct popular vote. The number of representatives of each state is in proportion to the population, as shown in the decennial census. The Senate is composed of two members from each state, irrespective of population, elected by the respective state legislatures. One third of the Senate retires annually.
SeeAix-la-Chapelle, Arras, Berlin, Brussels, Carlsbad, Châtillon, Congo, General, Hague, Heilbronn, Kilkenny, Laibach, Troppau, Vienna, Verona.
This name came into use to designate the Tory party about 1837. It was first employed by John Wilson Croker, in an article in theQuarterly Review.
A secret society, established in Naples, with the Papal authorization, during the first decade of the nineteenth century, to oppose the Carbonari and support the Church.
A tribunal established in Geneva by Calvin in 1541, to deal with offences against religion and morals. Its rule was terribly severe, all amusements being proscribed and all criticism of the Calvinist doctrine being sternly repressed. In five years the Consistorium imprisoned over 800 persons, and put to death fifty-eight.
An assembly of the Cardinals, in the presence of the Pope; summoned for the transaction of business.
A code of maritime law,said to have been compiled, from Roman and Rhodian laws, by the trading communities of Barcelona about the middle of the thirteenth century. Other authorities attribute it to the Venetians or the Pisans.
SeeAlexander, Amboise, Ankarstrôm. Army, Assassination, Atterbury, Babington, Biron, Booth, Bridal of Norwich, Burr, Bye, Catherine, Cato Street, Cinq Mars, Craigmillar, Despard, Dutch, Emmett, Falieri, Fieschi, Gowrie, Gunpowder, Hunting of Braemar, Incident, Jerviswood, Malet, Meal Tub, Orsini, Overton, Pablen, Pazzi, Pichegru, Popish, Porcari, Strelitzi, Ridolfi, Rye House, Queensberry, Throgmorton, Tiepoli, Venner, Vowel, Waller.
A council summoned by John XXIII, at the instance of the Emperor Sigismund in 1415. It was concerned with the Hussite heresy, and John Huss, who attended under a safe-conduct, was declared a heretic and, notwithstanding the safe-conduct, burnt at the stake. The council further dealt with the schism, deposing two popes, and electing Martin V.
A treaty, signed at Constance in 1183, between Frederick Barbarossa and the Italian cities, after the successful revolt of the Lombard League. It provided for the re-establishment of self-government in the cities, including the right of electing their magistrates, subject to certain unimportant reservations of the Imperial prerogative.
A conference of the Great Powers, summoned in 1876, with the object of preventing war between Russia and Turkey. The terms agreed upon by the Powers were, however, rejected by the Porte, and war followed.
A council of the Church, held at Constantinople in 754, under the auspices of Leo the Iconoclast. It proscribed the use of images and religious pictures in worship. The decrees of this council were anathematised by the Synod of Rome in 769, and reversed by the Council of Nicæa in 787. It is not regarded by the Church as an Oecumenical Council.
An Oecumenical Council, held in 869, which declared that no Metropolitan could enter upon his functions until he had received the pallium from the Pope. This decision practically placed the nomination of the higher church dignitaries in the Pope’s hands.
The Constitution drawn up by the Spanish Cortes which met at Cadiz in 1810. Ferdinand VII, on his restoration in 1814, refused to subscribe to the instrument, and continued to govern the country on absolute principles, but a militarypronunciamientoforced him finally to give way and agree to its conditions in 1820.
SeeBody of Liberties, Canada, Eadgar, Estatuto Real, Federal Pact, May, Mediation, Model, Nine Articles, Waldemariana.
A recital of the ancient customs of England, defining the relations between the Church and the Crown, drawn up by order of Henry II, and accepted, after much opposition, by Thomas á Becket on behalf of the Church. It made the criminous clerk subject to the civil jurisdiction, provided that questions relating to land claimed by the Crown should be submitted to a jury, constituted the King the final court of appeal, and limited the power of the bishops. By these and other provisions, the supremacy of the Crown was assured. The constitutions were promulgated at the Council of Clarendon in 1164.
The committee of three members of the Council of State of the Netherlands, during the regency of Margaret of Parma, 1559 to 1567. The three were Viglius, Barlaymont, and the Bishop of Arras.
A system established by Napoleon, in 1806, by the Berlin Decree. In this instrument he declared the whole of the British Isles to be in a state of blockade, and forbade any correspondence with them on the part of the countries dependent on him. He further declared all Englishmen found in any country occupied by French troops to be prisoners of war, and ordered all English merchandise and all private property of English subjects wherever found to be confiscated. So impracticable was it to carry out this system that, within the year, Napoleon found it necessary to purchase English cloth to clothe his own troops.
The Gomarists, the opponents of the Arminians in the Netherlands, were so called from their having presented to the States-General a counter-remonstrance, protesting against the five articles set out in the remonstrance of the Arminians in 1610.
The chief point at issue in the Employers’ Liability Bill of 1893. The difference of opinion between the two Houses on this point wrecked the bill.SeeEmployers’ Liability.
An Act passed in 1664, rendering illegal any meeting for religious purposes which was attended by more than five persons beyond the family, unless held in accordance with Church of England practice.
Open air meetings for public worship held by the dispossessed Scotch ministers, after the establishment of the Episcopal Church in Scotland at the Restoration. They were declared illegal, were then permitted by Indulgence, and finally again made illegal, and suppressed whenever possible.
Two Parliaments are knownby this title, being irregular assemblies, as not having been summoned by Royal Writ—(1) The Parliament which restored the Crown to Charles II in 1660. (2) The Parliament which offered the throne to William and Mary in 1689.
An Act passed by the Irish Parliament in 1793. It forbade the holding of meetings for the purpose of petitioning the King or Parliament, and also the election of delegates to attend such meetings.
An Act passed by the Victorian Legislature in 1852, forbidding the immigration into the colony of any but free men, thus shutting out ticket-of-leave men from the penal settlements. The Queen at first refused her assent, but the bill was passed a second time and became law.
SeeCabal, American.
The first Co-operative Society was started in 1844 by twenty-eight Rochdale weavers. They began their operations with a capital of £28 only, and in sixteen years the Society was worth over £120,000.
A name given by the Federals, during the American Civil War, to the Peace Party in the Northern States. The copperhead is a peculiarly venomous snake, as deadly as the rattlesnake and more dangerous, because not provided with the warning rattle.
A nickname of Henry VIII. derived from the silver coinage of his reign, which was made of an alloy containing a quantity of copper.
A tenure by service, as opposed to freehold or leasehold. In most cases the service has long since been commuted for a small annual payment. In the event of a copyholder dying intestate and without issue, the copyhold reverts to the Lord of the Manor.
A revolutionary club in Paris, in the early days of the French Revolution, composed mainly of the partisans of Danton. It took its name from an old monastery of the Cordelier order, where its meetings were held.
An Act establishing a prohibitive duty on foreign corn while the price of English wheat stood at 63s. per quarter or under, and fixing the duty at 3s. 6d. per quarter with the price between 63s. and 66s., and at 6d. per quarter with the price above 66s.
An Act prohibiting the importation of foreign corn, until the price of English wheat stood at 80s. per quarter.
An Act reaffirming the principle of the sliding scale of duties on imported grain, as in the Corn Law of 1804.
An Act passed by Sir RobertPeel’s Government in 1846, reducing immediately the tax on foreign grain, and providing for its ultimate abolition, with the exception of a registration duty amounting to 1s. per quarter. This Act was mainly the result of the efforts of the Anti-Corn Law League.
Cornwall was created a Duchy by Edward III, and its revenues were assigned to the maintenance of his eldest son, the Prince of Wales. Since that period the eldest son of the Sovereign has borne the title of Duke of Cornwall, and enjoyed the revenues of the Duchy. Alterations in the internal administration were made by Acts passed in 1863 and 1893.
The ancient Scottish Coronation Stone of Scone was brought to England by Edward I, after his defeat of Balliol at Dunbar in 1296, and is now in Westminster Abbey.
The great Duke of Marlborough was so called by his soldiers.
An Act passed in 1661, compelling all holders of office in corporations to swear to their belief in the doctrine of Passive Obedience, to receive the sacrament according to the rites of the English Church, and to renounce the Covenant. This Act was not repealed until 1828.
A nickname of the great Napoleon.
The Spanish Parliament is so called.
A compromise proposed by Count Corti, Italian Ambassador to the Porte in 1880, to meet the difficulties raised by Turkey in carrying out the provisions of the Berlin Treaty, relative to Montenegro. He proposed that Turkey should retain Gussinje and Plava, ceding instead Kutschi-Kraina and Podgoritza.
Enforced labour on the roads and other public works, exacted from the French peasant before the Revolution. The same system prevailed in Egypt prior to the English occupation.
The inhabitants of the debateable land between the Russian frontier and the Crim Tartars. The most important of these communities were those of the Dnieper and the Don. They retained a certain degree of independence until the reign of Catherine II of Russia. The soldiers of the military cordon established by the Russians and Poles along their southern frontiers were also known as Cossacks.
Bands of mercenaries in the French service during the twelfth century.
The name given to the distress in Lancashire in 1862, in consequence of the cessation of cotton shipments from America during the Civil War, by which thousands of operatives were thrown out of employment. Large sums were received by subscriptions in aid, and in August of that year the Relief Act was passed, by which loans were granted to the guardians to enable them to establish relief works.
A council of forty-one members, in whom Parliament vested the executive power, on the proclamation of the Commonwealth in 1649. They were appointed for one year.
SeeAncients, Anziani, Aulic, Blood, Castle, Clarendon, Consulta, Colonies, Federal, Fifteen, Five Hundred, Hlutdaw, Indies, Kilkenny, Magnum, North, Policy, Reason, Sixteen, Ten, Thirty-six.
SeeBari, Basle, Clermont, Constance, Constantinople, Dort, Lateran, Lyons, Nicæa, Œcumenical, Pisa, Trent, Vatican, Vienne.
A political party, formed about 1673, under the leadership of Lords Russell and Cavendish. They were in full sympathy with the demands of the Dissenters for toleration, and made it their special business to keep a watch on the religious and political designs of the Court. They afterwards became known as Whigs.
A county possessing certain Royal privileges, created originally for defence of the frontier against the Welsh, the Scotch and the French. They were Chester, Lancaster, Durham, Kent, Shropshire, Pembrokeshire, and Hexhamshire. Only the three first named retained any of their privileges beyond the sixteenth century.
A term applied to any overthrow of free institutions by military intervention, but used especially to denote the bold stroke of Louis Napoleon, who by a display of military force in the Paris streets in December, 1851, and the imprisonment of the Republican members of the Chamber, succeeded in getting himself proclaimed Consul, and, later, Emperor.
An ancient feudal court in Jersey, having jurisdiction over all disputed questions as to landed property.
Assemblies of the Barons, called, on the great festivals of the year, by the early kings of France and England.
A court of the old Norman Manor, summoned to settle all questions arising out of the cultivation of the demesne land of the Manor.
A baronial court in feudal times held to decide questions arising out of the tenure of land by villeins.
Under Henry I the Hundred Court was so called, when it sat for the purpose of trying criminal cases under the presidency of the Sheriff.
SeeLongjumeau.
SeeAudiencias, Augmentations, Aulic, Austrägal, College of Justice, Chambre, Confines, Consistorium, Curia Regis, Four Burghs, Great Session, Haute Cour, Heemraden, High Commission, Jews, Manor, Parlement, Piés Poudrées, Reichskammergericht, Requests, Salford, Star Chamber, Tribunal, Tynwald, Vehmgericht, Wales.
An Act passed in 1671 declaring nose-slitting or other mutilation of the person to be a felony. It was passed in consequence of a dastardly attack upon Sir James Coventry, a Member of Parliament, who, having incurred the enmity of the Court party by some comments in the House on Charles the Second’sliaisonwith Nell Gwynne, was waylaid on his way home by Sir Thomas Sandys and some of the King’s friends, who dragged him from his coach and slit his nose to the bone.
Bands of British marauders who infested the banks of the Hudson River during the American War of Independence. The name is now applied to the cattlemen on the ranches in the Far West.
A clause inserted in the Education Act of 1870, embodying an amendment moved by Mr. Cowper-Temple. It provides that unsectarian Bible teaching shall be given during school hours in all rate-aided schools under the School Boards.
The right of an Irish chieftain to quarter his soldiery on the tenants. It was forbidden by the Statute of Kilkenny in 1307, and was finally stopped in 1603. It was called by the Irish “Bonaght.”
The name given to Faneuil Hall, Boston, which was the place of meeting of the American patriots during the period of the Revolution.
An agreement entered into in 1566, at the instigation of Bothwell, by Argyle, Huntly, Maitland and Sir James Balfour, with the object of compassing the death of Darnley.
A Frenchman is so called, probably from the fleur-de-lys of the old French standard, which bears a faint resemblance to a toad (crapaud).
The State of Louisiana is so called because of the large number of its inhabitants who are descendants of the original French and Spanish settlers.
In Spanish America this term is applied to all persons of pure European descent, born in South America. Those with an admixture of Indian blood are known as Mestizos. The word Creole was also applied in Louisiana to those of pure French descent who were born in the Colony.
A convention between the Porte and the Powers, signed in September, 1896. It provided for the appointment of a Christian Governor, and for the summoning of an Assembly within six months. Two-thirds of the official appointments were to be held by Christians and one third by Mohammedans. The Cretan Government was to retain one half of the Customs duties, the other half being taken by the Sultan, in lieu of the old tribute.
An Act empowering the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland to suspend jury trial in disturbed districts, and to send agrarian cases for trial by a commission of three judges, with an appeal to the Court of Criminal Cases Reserved. Power of search was given to the police in proclaimed districts, and, further, power to arrest and remove strangers thought dangerous to public safety.
An Act to repress the lawlessness of the Irish Land League. It gave power to the Lord Lieutenant to proclaim the affected districts, and to suppress seditious gatherings and unlawful associations. It also provided for change of venue, in cases where a fair trial could not be relied upon under ordinary conditions.
A name given to the Roundheads during the Civil War. The Irish rebels of 1798 were also called by this name.
A treaty signed at Vienna in 1700, between the Emperor Leopold I, and Frederick, Elector of Brandenburg, by which Leopold recognized Frederick as King of Prussia. Frederick undertook to place 10,000 men in the field for the service of the empire, if required, to support Austria in the German Diet, and to vote, as Elector, for Leopold’s son, Joseph, and his successors as occupants of the Imperial throne.
In 1212, some 90,000 children, mostly from Germany, inspired by the crusading spirit of the times, left their homes for the Holy Land. Many who embarked at Marseilles were carried to Alexandria and there sold as slaves. Others got no further than Genoa, where they were enslaved by the Genoese.
A Bull of Pope Paul IV, issued in 1559, declaring all Protestant Princes incapable of reigning, and giving Catholics the right to levy on their possessions.
An agreement signed by John Graham, Earl of Montrose, and his associates, prior to their invasion of England in August, 1640, by which they bound themselves to oppose any dictatorship vested in the hands of subjects.
SeeJedburgh Justice.
The famous enactment of William the Conqueror, ordering all persons in the country districts to be in their houses, with all lights extinguished, byeight o’clock in winter and sunset in summer. It was presumably designed to prevent secret meetings and conspiracies directed against the King, of which there were many, owing to his unpopularity with the Saxon element of the population.
A court of law established by William the Conqueror as the Final Court of Appeal of the realm. At its head was the Justiciary, as the King’s representative. It was re-organised in the reign of Henry I, when the Exchequer Court was established by Roger of Salisbury, the Barons of the Curia Regis sitting as Barons of the Exchequer for financial purposes. It was again reconstituted by Henry II, who limited its numbers to five, and by Magna Charta, when it was divided into three courts, those of the Exchequer, the Common Pleas, and the King’s Bench. It thus took the form which lasted, with minor modifications, until the Judicature Acts of 1873-5.
The nickname of Henry II of England, from his wearing the short cloak of Anjou instead of the longer mantle worn by his predecessors.
The destruction by a body of Sioux Indians of the whole of General Custer’s force, on the Little Big Horn, Montana, in 1876.
The keeper of the rolls of the County Sessions. The office is generally held by the Lord Lieutenant of the County.
A treaty between Great Britain and Turkey, signed in 1788, whereby the Sultan recognized the occupation and administration of Cyprus by Great Britain, with the following provisos: that a Mussulman religious tribunal should be established; that all surplus revenue should be paid to him; that the Porte should retain the right to sell or lease lands belonging to the Crown, and that Cyprus should be restored to the Porte in the event of Russia restoring Kars.
The name given in India to brigandage or highway robbery. It was very prevalent in Burmah after the annexation.
The great hereditary nobles of Japan. The principal Daimios, such as the Princes of Satsuma, Choshiu, Kaga, and some others, were almost in the position of independent sovereigns, though they owed a nominal allegiance to the Emperor, and in some cases to the Shôgun. The word, strictly Dai-miyo, signifies “Great Name.”
The sovereign pontiff or spiritual ruler of Thibet. He is supposed to be always a reincarnation of a previous holder of the office. The actual government is carried on by the Des-ri, or king.
Sir Christopher Hatton, Chancellor of Queen Elizabeth, was so called. The Queen first saw him at a masque, where her attention was attracted by his graceful dancing.
A nickname of Joachim Murat, King of Naples.
A tax imposed for the first time by Æthelred the Unready, for the purpose of buying off the Danish invaders, in 994. It became a permanent tax till the reign of Henry II, who replaced it by “Scutage.”
The country ceded to the Danes by the Treaty of Wedmore, in 878.
A Mormon secret society, founded in 1838, for the protection of the Mormons from the “Gentiles.” It contained organized companies, called “Destruction Companies,” whose business it was to burn and destroy “Gentile” property, nominally by way of reprisals, and there is little doubt that these bands did not stop short of assassination. They were probably concerned in the Mountain Meadow Massacre.
A Danish order of knighthood, founded by Waldemar II in 1219, and reconstituted by Christian V in 1693.
An international commission appointed in 1856, when the navigation of the Danube was thrown open to all nations. It was originally appointed for two years only, but has from time to time been continued, the last extension being for twenty-one years from 1883. Its jurisdiction extends from the mouths of the Danube to the Iron Gate.
A treaty signed in London in 1841, after the conclusion of the Syrian War, by England, France, Russia, Prussia, Austria and Turkey. It confirmed the agreement arrived at by the Convention of London of the previous year, depriving Mehemet Ali of all his Asiatic possessions, but securing him the Government of Egypt. It also provided that the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles should be closed to all ships of war, excepting small vessels under a special firman. This provision was confirmed by the Treaty of Paris of 1856. The Treaty of the Dardanelles is also known as the Treaty of London.
A scheme promoted by a Scotchman named Paterson, in the reign of William III, to secure the trade with the Far East by utilising a route across the Isthmus of Darien. A company was formed, and obtained a charter from the Scottish Parliament, granting a monopoly for thirty-one years of the trade with Asia, Africa, and America, and the right to introduce all goods from those regions free of duty, excepting sugar and tobacco. In 1698, 1,200 colonists started for Darien, but were at onceopposed by the Spanish colonists, and though a further expedition was dispatched in the following year, the whole enterprise failed ignominiously. The scheme had from the first been opposed in England, and was the cause of much bad blood between the two countries, and of a heavy pecuniary loss to Scotland.
The title of the first-born heir-male to the French throne.
A Statute of Henry VII, passed in 1485, enacting that no person could be convicted of high treason for services rendered to the King who was actually on the throne.
The charge of the Light Cavalry Brigade at Balaclava, on September 20, 1854, is so called.
A district on the English and Scottish borders, claimed by both countries, and inhabited by the Grahams, who were generally on the English side in war time, though they raided both sides of the border impartially in time of peace. The district lay between the waters of the Esk and the Sark. Under James I the whole Graham Clan was removed to Ulster.
The extreme section of the Spanish revolutionists in 1821. They may be said to correspond to the Frenchsans-culottes. The word means the “shirtless ones.”
A meeting of about 200 students and young people, on the Nekvsi Prospekt in St. Petersburg, in 1876, at which cheers were raised for the exiles in Siberia, The police interfered, and arrested some thirty, but there seems to have been little resistance, and the affair, though supposed to have been part of a more important movement, was probably much exaggerated by the authorities.
Napoleon III was so called because December was the month of his election to the Presidency, of theCoup d’Etat, and of his taking the title of Emperor.
An outbreak in St. Petersburg in December, 1825, on the accession of Nicholas I, fomented by a revolutionary society known as the Society of the North. The rightful heir to the throne was Constantine, the elder brother of Nicholas, but he had waived his rights. The revolutionists, however, made use of the question of succession to excite the mob, their real object being the overthrow of the dynasty. The rising was easily suppressed, and the ringleaders convicted and hanged. The conspirators were afterwards known as the Dekabrists.
A Bull of Leo X, issued in January, 1521, calling upon the German Princes to uphold the Papal authority by condemning Luther unheard.
An arbitrary income-tax of ten per cent. levied on all Royalists by Cromwell’s Major-Generals, in 1655.
The Manifesto issued by the second Congress in America, on July 4, 1776, declaring the colonies independent. It was only carried in Congress by a majority of one.
This instrument, promulgated in 1822, proclaimed the separation of Brazil from the Crown of Portugal. The colony was erected into a constitutional monarchy, Pedro, the second son of John VI of Portugal, being proclaimed Emperor.
A proclamation by Charles II, suspending all penal laws against Dissenters. Parliament, however, held that while the King had the power of pardon in individual cases, he had no constitutional right to suspend general enactments. The King was consequently forced to withdraw the Declaration.
A proclamation by James II, issued on his sole authority, annulling all religious tests, and all penal enactments against Dissenters, which he ordered to be read in the churches. This led to the famous Protest of the Seven Bishops.
A declaration by the Convention, accompanying the offer of the Crown to William of Orange in 1689. It declared that the dispensing power was non-existent, that the sovereign could only raise money by the aid of Parliament, and that no army could be maintained in time of peace. It further asserted the right of petition, of freedom of debate in Parliament, of free choice of representatives, and of pure administration, and the necessity of frequent Parliaments. The declaration was accepted by William, and afterwards embodied in the Bill of Right.
A manifesto issued by the General Congress in America, in 1774, maintaining the rights of American colonists as Englishmen, and demanding the repeal of the Boston Port Act and other obnoxious legislation.
A collection of Decretals, or Papal Edicts, purporting to have been issued by very early Popes, which was produced in the ninth century. These Decretals were designed to support the claim of the Bishops of Rome to supreme authority in the Church.
The title granted to Henry VIII by Leo X in 1521, in recognition of his book “The Assertion of the Seven Sacraments,” written in opposition to the Lutheran doctrine. This title has been borne by all the English Sovereigns since Henry VIII.
The name assumed by the agrarian bands formed by the Catholic farmers of Ulster fordefence against the Peep o’ Day Boys, in 1782.
A joint military scheme for the defence of the country, drawn up by the Federated States of Switzerland, in 1647.
A name given by the Parisians to Marie Antoinette, circ. 1786, the constant deficits in the French Budget being attributed to her extravagance.
The name given to the conspirators concerned in the December rising in St. Petersburg in 1825.
A body of 120 members, chosen half by the Austrian and half by the Hungarian Legislature, which controls all questions affecting the common interests of the dual monarchy. To this body the Ministers of War, Foreign Affairs, and Finance are responsible. To have the force of law, its enactments require the confirmation of both Parliaments.
The Bull issued by Pope Alexander VI in 1493, defining the respective colonial spheres of Spain and Portugal. A line was drawn north and south, 100 leagues west of the Azores. All extra-European countries east of this line were granted to Portugal, and all west of it to Spain. On this Bull Spain based her claim to the whole of the American Continent.
The lands belonging to the Crown were so called in the early days of English History.
A pretender to the Russian throne, who appeared in Poland, and obtained the support of the Jesuits in 1591. He claimed to be the Demetrius Ivanovitch who was supposed to have been murdered by the usurper Boris. After the death of Boris, the Pretender, aided by the Poles, entered Moscow, and ascended the throne, but the Muscovites soon discovered the fraud and put him to death.
SeeRepublicans.
A treaty between the British and the Rajah of Berar, at the close of the second Mahratta War in 1803. The Rajah surrendered Katak and Balasore, and all his territory west of the Wardha, and assented to the conditions of the Treaty of Bassein.
A Bull of Pope Paul III, dated in 1535, and issued in the following year, excommunicating and deposing Henry VIII. It was the Pope’s reply to the Act of Supremacy and the execution of Fisher and Sir Thomas More.
A Bull issued by Pius V, declaring Queen Elizabeth to have forfeited her right to the throne, and freeing her subjects from their allegiance.
A name given to a section of the Tory party in 1835, which followed Lord Stanley, afterwards Earl of Derby.
A conspiracy, headed byColonel Despard, a retired army officer, who had become imbued with the principles of the French Revolution, to assassinate George III, 1802. His accomplices were almost all men of the labouring classes. The conspirators were seized, and Despard and some others hanged.
The king or political ruler of Thibet, to whom the functions of government are handed over by the Dalai Lama.
Napoleon I was so-called, owing to his firm belief in his lucky star.
A Parliament summoned by Henry VI at Coventry in 1459. It passed a Bill of Attainder against the Yorkist leaders.
The wall which in ancient times separated England from Scotland.
An ancient local custom in certain fiefs of Brabant, whereby, upon the death of one parent the fief passed to the children.
The name given to an affray in 1795, at Diamond, a village near Armagh, between the Defenders and the Peep o’ Day Boys, in which the latter were victorious.
A scandal of the Court of Louis XVI, in 1785, to which the unpopularity of Marie Antoinette was largely due. Mme. Lamothe, the mistress of the Cardinal de Rohan, gave the Cardinal an order, purporting to be signed by the Queen, for a diamond necklace, which the Cardinal ordered from the Court jeweller, giving bills for payment by instalments. Madame Lamothe, by means of another forged document, obtained possession of the necklace, and turned it to her own uses. The Cardinal being unable to meet the first bill when it became due, the jeweller applied to the Queen. The matter came to the ears of the King, who ordered an inquiry, and Mme. Lamothe was arrested and convicted, and the Cardinal disgraced. Nothing was proved against the Queen, but the public remained convinced that she was in some way mixed up in the affair.
The State of Delaware, U.S.A., is so called.
An Act passed by the Cape Parliament in 1882, to suppress illicit diamond buying, or I.D.B. This Act made it criminal to possess an uncut diamond without being able to account for its lawful possession. It also gave the police large powers of search, including the right to open suspicious parcels in the post. The administration of this Act was the cause of the Kimberley Riots.
Pavia, Captain-General of Madrid, who by apronunciamientoin 1869, obtained the supreme power, which he at once handed over to Marshal Serrano.
December 16, 1838, on whichday the Transvaal Commandos completely routed the Zulu chief Dingaan, thus avenging the massacre of the Boer farmers in the early part of the same year.
The Government established in France after the fall of Robespierre, in July, 1794. The power was vested in five directors, assisted by a Council of five hundred, and a Council of two hundred and fifty members known as the Council of Ancients. It lasted until 1799, when the Consulate was established by theCoup d’Etatof November 9 (18th Brumaire).
One of the Irish Penal Laws, passed in 1695, under which all Papists were ordered to surrender their arms, under penalty of a heavy fine for the first offence, and of imprisonment for life for the second.
An Act passed in 1825, forbidding the carrying of arms by the Highland clansmen.
The Treaty of Câteau Cambrésis in 1559, whereby Henri renounced his Italian claims, was so called by the French.
The two publications embodying the constitution and procedure of the Church of Scotland. The first was drawn up by John Knox, and four other ministers, in 1560. The second, a revised version of the first, was drawn up by Andrew Melville, and sanctioned by the General Assembly in 1578.
Certain persons in Ireland, circ. 1616, who made it their business to investigate some of the older titles to land. In the event of their discovering any flaw in the titles, such lands were confiscated, the informer receiving a percentage of the value.
The Barons who continued the Barons’ War after the Battle of Evesham were so called because a decree of forfeiture had been issued against all the supporters of Simon de Montfort.
This was carried out by an Act passed in 1536, supplemented in 1539 by a further Act, vesting all monastic property in the Crown.
The doctrine of the inalienable right of the next in succession to ascend the throne by virtue of inheritance, apart from any considerations of fitness or Parliamentary sanction. It reached its apogee in the Stuart times, and was discarded with the adoption of William III as King of Great Britain and Ireland.
TheCoup d’Etatof November 9, 1799, when Napoleon overthrew the Directoire, and had himself appointed First Consul.
TheCoup d’Etatof September 4, 1797, whereby the Royalist plot in which certainmembers of the Directoire and the Councils were implicated, was frustrated.
A popular name for the Southern States of America in the slavery days.
The name given to the philosophic Liberals in France, in the reign of Louis XVIII.
A register of the holders of land compiled by Commissioners appointed by William the Conqueror.
An order of mendicant friars, known as the Preaching Friars, and in England as the Black Friars, founded by St. Dominic and recognized by Pope Honorius III in 1216. To this Order was entrusted the conduct of the Inquisition.
The Bull of Clement XIV, issued in 1773, suppressing the Jesuits.
A British subject, a Jew of Gibraltar, whose house at Athens was burnt by a mob in 1847. The difficulty and delay in obtaining compensation led to Lord Palmerston sending a fleet to the Piraeus. Greece appealed to France and Russia, and a European war was for some time within measurable distance.
A gift of Charlemagne to Pope Adrian I, in 774. It is uncertain of what the donation consisted, though it included a confirmation of the “Donation of Pepin.” It was declared by the Popes, however, to have been a gift of the whole of the Italian peninsula, and by some even to have been a renewal of the fabled “Donation of Constantine.”
A legendary gift to the Pope of the imperial sovereignty over Italy and the whole of the Western Empire. This document is included amongst the False Decretals.
The gift of Pepin, the first king of the Carlovingian dynasty, to the See of Rome, in 755, of Ravenna and the surrounding country, which he had recently conquered from the Lombards. This donation may be said to be the foundation of the temporal power of the Popes, which lasted until 1870.
A series of disturbances at Donauwörth, a free Protestant town in Suabia, in 1606, due to the Catholic minority insisting on holding religious processions through the streets of the town. The Aulic Council, supported by the Emperor, placed Donauwörth under the ban of the Empire, and eventually made it a Catholic town, within the jurisdiction of Bavaria. The action of the Aulic Council in this case resulted in the formation of the Protestant League in 1608.
The charter of the City of New York, granted in 1686 byThomas Dongan, Governor of New York under James II.
A Statute of Edward the First’s reign, which provided that if an estate were given to a man and his children, he had only a life interest in it, and in the event of his dying without issue, the estate reverted to the donor. Prior to this statute, it was sufficient that a child was born to him, when the estate became his absolute property, and could be alienated at will. This statute, in fact, established the system of entails.
A codification of the Anglo-Saxon laws and customs, made by Alfred the Great (871-901).
The members of the Separatist Reformed Church in the Transvaal and Orange Free State. It was established by Mr. Postma in the Transvaal, in 1859, and is now a very influential body. Its tenets are not unlike those of the Scottish Covenanters.
An insurrection in Rhode Island, headed by Thomas W. Dorr, in 1841, having for its object the extension of the suffrage, which remained as originally instituted by the Charter of Charles II in 1663. He seized the State Arsenal, but was overpowered, and later was arrested and sentenced to imprisonment for life. He was afterwards pardoned. His movement, however, resulted in the adoption, in 1842, of a constitution to supersede the Charter of 1663.