The second Home Rule Bill, introduced by Mr. Gladstone in 1893, was to a great extent on the lines of the first bill, creating a Parliament in Dublin, with legislative powers subject to certain reservations as to peace and war, external affairs, etc. In one respect, however, it differed widely, in that the Irish Parliamentary representation at Westminster was not abolished, but merely reduced. The bill passed the Commons after lengthy and acrimonious discussion, especially in Committee, where Mr. Gladstone introduced the system of “Closure by Compartments,” but was rejected by the Lords.
A party formed in 1873, under the leadership of Isaac Butt, to agitate for the re-establishment of a separate Parliament for Ireland. His successor in the leadership of the party was Charles Stewart Parnell.
An Act passed in 1885, providing that a male under eighteen could take up twenty acres of first class, or thirty acres of second class land, and a male over eighteen, fifty or seventy-five acres respectively, free of all cost, providing he agreed to reside five years on the land, and fulfil certain requirements as to cultivation.
An Act passed in 1893, providing for free grants of 160 acres each to all males above eighteen, subject to certain conditions as to residence and improvements.
A nickname of Prince Bismarck, with reference to his attitude, as President of the Berlin Congress in 1878, on the points in dispute between Russia and Austria.
The claim made by Cromwell that England had the right to exact from all foreign ships, a salute to her flag in the narrow seas. The Dutch Admiral Van Tromp refusing the salute in 1652, he was fired upon by the English Admiral, and the action which followed led to the declaration of war in July of the same year. The Dutch afterwards conceded the claim by the Treaty of 1654.
The Hungarian Landwehr or reserve is so called. The word means “Land Defenders,” and was given to the national champions in the early days of Hungarian history.
The party of the nobles in the Netherlands in the fourteenth century. (SeeKabbeljaws.)
The popular name of the State of Indiana, U.S.A. It is probably a corruption of Husher, a Western term for a bully.
SeeMalta, Knights of.
The Princes of Moldavia and Wallachia were so called from 1789, when these countries came under the sway of Russia.
The Puritans were so styled after the Restoration in 1660. The name was originally given to Edward Underhill, a Protestant who was imprisoned in 1553 for an attack made by him on the Roman Catholics on the accession of Mary.
The sobriquet of Henry Percy (1364-1403).
An Irish agrarian society which appeared in Connemara in 1711. They took their name from their practice of houghing the cattle of obnoxious persons. The society was suppressed in 1713.
A body of standing troops raised by Knut, circ. 1030. The first standing army in England.
An Act passed in 1784, extending the authority of the revenue officers to a distance of four leagues from the coast.
A treaty between Prussia and Austria, signed in 1763, at the conclusion of the Seven Years’ War. It was a pendent to the Peace of Paris, and confirmatory of that instrument, as between the two signatory Powers.
A Company formed in 1670, under a charter granted by Charles II giving it absolute control of the watershed of Hudson’s Bay (then known as Rupertsland), in return for a small annual tribute. The Company’s territories were absorbed by the Dominion of Canada in 1869.
A treaty between France and Annam, signed in 1874, by which Annam accepted the French protectorate over her territories.
The name given to the French Protestants. It is probably derived from Hugues, a Calvinist of Geneva, though other derivations have been given. When, by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, in 1685, the exercise of their religion was denied them, many thousands of them emigrated to England, Holland, and other Protestant countries.
A secret society of negroes, discovered and suppressed in Sierra Leone in 1896. The members of the society, which had been in existence for about twenty years, practised cannibalism, and had murdered and eaten several hundred persons. The leaders were hanged.
In early Saxon times this name was given to a subdivision of the tribe which corresponded to the ancient Germanpagus(so called by Tacitus.) It seems to have consisted of a hundred heads of families, and it furnished a hundred warriors to the tribal army, and a hundred assessors to the judicial court.
The period between Napoleon’s return from Elba and his second abdication.
The name given to the series of wars between France and England which lasted from 1338 to 1449 and ended by the expulsion of the English from France, with the exception of Calais, which they held till 1558.
The thirteen Hungarian generals executed at Arad, after the War of Independence in 1849.
A rising of the Hungarian national party under Kossuth, in 1848, owing to the refusal of the Austrians to give any redress for the outrages of the Croatian troops under Jellachich in the valleys of the Theiss and the Danube. Kossuth was appointed Dictator by the Hungarian Diet, and the rising was at first successful, but in 1849 the Austrians received the assistance of a large Russian army, and in August of that year, the Magyars were forced to surrender, and their leaders left the country. General Hainau made himself notorious by his cruelties after the collapse of the armed resistance.
The extreme pro-slavery section of the New York Democrats from 1844 to 1848. They were known after the latter date as Hardshell Democrats.
A meeting of the Jacobite leaders, ostensibly for sport, summoned by the Earl of Mar, in 1715, to concert measures for the rising which took place in the autumn of that year.
The followers of John Huss, a professor of the University of Prague, who had imbibed the Wycliffite doctrines. Though excommunicated by Pope Alexander V in 1412, he continued to disseminate these doctrines,and was consequently summoned to the Council of Constance in 1414, where, though under the Emperor’s safe-conduct, he was thrown into prison, and subsequently burnt at the stake. His principal disciple, Jerome of Prague, suffered the same fate in 1416, but his followers, under John Zisca, rose in revolt against the Church, to the number of 40,000. They destroyed some five hundred convents, and defeated the Emperor Sigismund, but were broken up into sections in 1424, following upon Zisca’s death. They still, however, remained in insurrection until 1436, when the revolt was ended by the treaty of Iglau.
A riot which broke out in 1866, after the defeat of the Russell Ministry over the Reform Bill of that year. A meeting had been summoned by the Reform League, to meet in Hyde Park, but the Government prohibited the meeting, and closed the park gates, whereupon the mob pulled down the railings. Little other damage, however, was done, and the riot was easily quelled.
SeeIllicit Diamond Buying.
This name was first given to the followers of Leo III, Emperor of the East, who in 726 interdicted the worship of images. The opposition of a considerable section of his subjects did not deter him from carrying his principles into effect, and what is known as the Iconoclast War was the result. The same title is applied to the more militant Huguenots in France in 1560 and 1561, who, wherever they obtained the upper hand, ruthlessly destroyed the statues which adorned the churches and monasteries, and also to a section of the Puritans during the English Civil War.
A treaty between the Hussites and the Emperor Sigismund, signed in 1436, putting an end to the Hussite War. It was based upon the Compactata of Prague, and secured to the Hussites the free exercise of their religion on the lines of that document.
A bill introduced in the Legislative Council of India by Mr. Ilbert in 1883 “to amend the criminal jurisdiction over British subjects.” It largely extended the jurisdiction of native magistrates in the trial of Europeans, and was most bitterly criticised by the Anglo-Indian community, especially by planters and others living in remote districts.
An illegal trade in diamonds carried on by certain speculators in Kimberley, who purchased from the employés of the Diamond companies rough diamonds which they had secreted in the process of washing. It was largely checked by the Diamond Trade Act of 1882. This illicit trade is generally known as I.D.B.
A famous sect of German mystics, founded at Ingolstadt by Adam Weisshaupt in 1776. It undertook a crusade againstJesuitism and Church domination generally, but did not hold aloof from politics, its higher initiates being professed Republicans. It was suppressed by the Elector of Bavaria in 1785.
A bill passed in 1901 by the Federal Parliament of Australia in response to the outcry for a “White Australia.” It prohibits the immigration of all coloured labour, including the South Sea Islanders, or Kanakas. This restriction has caused much concern in Northern Queensland, where the climate is not suitable for white labour, and its enforcement will destroy the sugar and other industries and render the country almost valueless.
A treaty signed in 1866 after the Basuto War of 1865-66 between the Orange Free State and Molapo, the son of Moshesh. Molapo surrendered to the Free State the greater part of his country, and became a vassal of the State. He further bound himself to render no assistance to any other Basuto chief who might rise against the Free State.
SeeReichskammergericht.
An Act passed in 1885 to facilitate the federation of the Australasian Colonies. (SeeFederal Council.)
The party who supported the Regent, Anne of Austria, during the minority of Louis XIV. They strongly opposed Mazarin’s policy, but the cardinal succeeded in embroiling them with the queen, thanks to feminine intrigues, and their leaders were imprisoned or banished.
Illegal additions to the authorized customs duties, levied by James I without the consent of Parliament. They were among the grievances detailed in the Petition of Grievances in 1610.
A Bull issued at intervals during the Middle Ages, and annually on Holy Thursday from 1627 to 1770. It was a summary of the offences against the Church and the priesthood, and of the ecclesiastical censures pronounced against them. The sovereigns of Europe regarded this Bull as an infringement of their rights, and it was in consequence of their continued protests that Clement XIV ceased to promulgate it.
A Bull of Urban VII, issued in 1642, condemning the “Augustinus” of Jansen as heretical.
The ruling family of the ancient Peruvians up to the conquest of Peru by Pizarro in 1531. They claimed to be descended from the Sun-God.
A plot, discovered during the visit of Charles I to Scotland in 1641, to kill or kidnap Argyle and Hamilton. The king was suspected of being privy to it, though he strenuously denied it.
The name given by his followers to Robespierre.
An Act passed at the Restoration in 1660, granting a free pardon to those who had been in arms against the king, with the exception of the Regicides and Sir Harry Vane and General Lambert, and settling in favour ofbonâ fideholders all claims to land acquired during the Commonwealth.
SeeDeclaration.
A sect of extreme Puritans, originally identified with the Brownists. They afterwards became a political party, holding more advanced views than the Presbyterians, who represented a conservative form of republicanism, and ultimately, under the leadership of Cromwell and with the aid of the army, which was mainly officered by them, they became the predominant party in the state.
The list of books the perusal of which is forbidden to devout Catholics. The first index was drawn up by Paul IV in 1555 to prevent the diffusion of heretical opinions through the writings of the Reformers.
An Act passed in 1784 by which all political power was taken from the East India Company and vested in a Board of Control nominated by the Government. The Company retained all its patronage, excepting the appointment of Commander-in-Chief and some other high posts, and their commercial rights under their Charter were not interfered with.
An annual congress of natives of India, with some few Europeans, whose object is to promote the extension to India of Western political institutions, such as representative government. The first congress met at Allahabad in 1888, and was attended by a few Mohammedans, but it has now fallen almost entirely into the hands of the Bengali Babus.
The name given to Bartolomeo de las Casas (1474-1566), the Spanish ecclesiastic who devoted his life to the amelioration of the condition of the South American Indians.
St. Francis Xavier, the famous Jesuit missionary to India in the sixteenth century is so called.
A supreme court for American affairs, established in Spain by Ferdinand in 1511 and reorganized by Charles V in 1524. The council promulgated all the laws relating to the government of the colonies and appointed to all colonial offices under the Crown.
A measure of toleration granted to the Scottish Presbyterians in 1669, by which their ministers were permitted to preach in vacant parishes and received some pecuniary aid from the Government. This measure, however, did nothing to reconcile the more bigoted members of the Church, who continued their resistance to all State control. The Indulgence was soon withdrawn.
SeeDeclaration.
Forms of absolution granted by Leo X, which were openly sold by his agents, the proceeds of the sale being devoted to the completion of St. Peter’s at Rome. It was the sale of these by Tetzel in 1517, in the dominions of the Elector of Saxony, which called forth Luther’s vehement protest, and was the beginning of the Reformation in Germany.
The Bull of Pius IX, issued in 1854, by which the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin was proclaimed as an article of the Catholic faith.
The old aristocratic families of Virginia, who were expected, during the War of Independence, to show British sympathies, but earned the name of “Inexorable” by their staunch adherence to the national cause.
A title assumed by the Pope Pelagius (578-590).
The title of the eldest son of the Spanish Sovereign.
A body of irregular troops, composed of desperadoes of all nations, organized by Bover on the side of the Royalists during the revolt of the Spanish American Colonies in 1814.
Under the Swiss Constitution, the right of the people to initiate proposals for the enactment, repeal or amendment of a law. Fifty thousand signatures are required to make the demand operative.
A tribunal to inquire into and suppress heresy, established by Innocent III at the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215. It was introduced into Germany in 1231, but abolished in 1234, and never again restored. In Italy it was successful in stamping out heresy, but it is in Spain that its tyranny was most notorious, an auto-de-fé having been held in that country as late as 1826. Its administration was entrusted to the Dominican Order.
A document issued by Cromwell in 1653 by which he took the title of Protector. He was to be assisted by a Council of State of fifteen members, and a new Parliament was to be elected, to number 400, with a £200 qualification both for members and electors. No Parliament was to be dissolved unless it had sat for five months, and Parliaments were to be triennial.
An Act passed by the Irish Parliament in 1796 empowering the Government to declare any county to be in a state of insurrection, whereupon the officials had the right to search for arms and to imprison persons found abroad between sunset and sunrise.
An outbreak of the women of Paris on October 5, 1789. They broke into the armoury of the Hôtel de Ville, and, having armed themselves, marched to Versailles, to demand speech of the king. The result of the rising was the return of the king to Paris, which took place on the following day.
The Bull of Gregory XIII, issued in 1582, ordaining the use of the new calendar throughout Christendom.
The proclamation issued by Innocent III in 1208 against John and the realm of England. It forbade all services of the Church, except Baptism and Supreme Unction, and only permitted the burial of the dead in unconsecrated ground. In the following year the Interdict was followed by the excommunication of John.
A modification of the Interim of Ratisbon, issued by Charles V in December, 1548, and accepted by Melancthon on behalf of the Lutherans.
A system of doctrine issued by Charles V in May, 1548, as an attempt to reconcile the differences dividing the religious world. While retaining all the salient doctrines of Catholicism, it permitted certain modifications in practice and ritual calculated to conciliate the Protestants. It did not, however, succeed in pleasing either party.
One of the laws of the Irish Penal Code, which provided that a man who married a Catholic should be regarded as a Papist and subject to all their disabilities, while a woman so marrying should be dead to the law.
An international commission formed at the Brussels Conference in 1876, with the object of exploring Central Africa. It resulted in the formation of the Congo Free State in 1885.
An association of working men, founded in London in 1864, the original statutes of the society being drawn up by the German Socialist leader Marx. It was intended as a centre of combination for all workmen’s societies and unions of every nation, but disclaimed any desire to interfere with them individually. In 1872 a split occurred in the society between the Marxists and the followers of the Anarchist Bakunin, and the International soon after ceased to exist as an organization.
The extreme revolutionary party in the southern towns of Spain in 1873.
The name given by the Spaniards to the great Spanish and Portuguese fleet dispatched by Philip II for the conquest of England in 1588. After being harried by the English ships under Howard of Effingham, Drake, Frobisher and others, it was finally dispersed by violent storms in the North Sea, and out of 130 ships only 53 returned to Spain.
An Irish secret society, with headquarters in America, which became notorious in 1882 as having provided the assassins of Lord Frederick Cavendish and Mr. Burke. Those immediately concerned in the murder werebrought to justice, but the heads of the society, including Tynan, the famous No. 1, were never made amenable.
By a treaty between Great Britain and Greece, signed in 1864, these islands were ceded to Greece.
A new department established in Ireland in 1897, independent of the Castle and the Irish Office. Its first president was Mr. Horace Plunket.
The Charter granted to the Irish settlers by Henry III on his accession. It was practically a recital of the clauses of Magna Charta, with such variations as were rendered necessary by the different conditions.
An Act passed in 1833 abolishing the Church fees, which were paid by all, whether Churchmen, Catholics or Dissenters, and reducing the number of Irish bishops from twenty-two to twelve.
An Act for the disestablishment and partial disendowment of the Irish Church was passed by Mr. Gladstone’s Government in 1869. The Irish bishops lost their seats in the House of Lords, the Irish Ecclesiastical Courts were abolished, and the union between the English and Irish Churches dissolved. The future government of the Irish Church was entrusted to a synod elected by the clergy and laity. Of the Church property, valued at about sixteen millions, seven millions were used to compensate incumbents and to replace the Maynooth Grant and the Regium Donum.
An Act passed by Mr. Gladstone’s Government giving for the first time a legal status to the Ulster custom and extending it to all tenancies in Ireland. The Act provided for compensation for disturbance and compensation for improvements in the event of the landlord determining a tenancy, and enacted that improvements should be deemed to be the tenant’s, the onus of proof to the contrary being thrown upon the landlord.
This Act, passed in 1881, introduced the principle of judicial interference between landlord and tenant. It permitted the sale of tenant right and allowed the tenant to apply to the Court to fix a judicial rent, such rent to hold good for fifteen years. It made certain alterations, in the tenant’s favour, in the law relating to compensation for improvements. It further established a Land Commission with power (1) to advance money to tenants for the purchase of their holdings, and (2) under certain conditions to purchase whole estates from the landlords.
An Act known as Lord Ashbourne’s Act, giving additional facilities for the purchase by tenants of their holdings. An advance of £5,000,000 was made to the Land Commissioners for this purpose, while the terms to purchasers were more generous than those of the Bill of 1881. The purchase money was to beadvanced at 4 per cent., and be repayable in forty-nine years, while the surplus of the Disestablished Church funds was to be used as a guarantee to the State against loss.
An Act amending and consolidating the previous Land Acts and dealing specially with the case of “Town Parks.” It introduced no new principle, and though the Nationalists tried to secure the valuation of these holdings at prairie value, the Government carried in the main their plan for an equitable division between landlord and tenant of any increase of value due to situation.
A conference held in Dublin in January, 1903, known also as the Dunraven Conference, between representatives of the Irish Landlords and the tenants, under the presidency of Lord Dunraven. The conference issued a unanimous report recommending the abolition of dual ownership by means of a comprehensive scheme of land purchase. They proposed that the landlords should be bought out at a price based on their present income from rent, and that the tenants should purchase at from 15 per cent. to 25 per cent. less, the balance being found by the State, which would also advance the purchase money, to be repaid by instalments.
An association formed in Dublin in 1882, after the suppression of the Land League, to unite all sections of Irish Nationalists.
A society formed by twelve of the City Companies of London to colonize lands in Ulster forfeited from O’Neill and O’Donnell. They were granted a charter by James I in 1613, which was suspended in 1637 but restored in 1670.
SeeFriends of Ireland.
A sobriquet of Prince Bismarck.
A secret closet in the bedchamber of Louis XVI. Its existence was revealed by Gamain, the king’s locksmith, who had constructed it, and it was searched immediately by order of the National Convention, when certain compromising documents were found.
A Prussian decoration conferred for bravery in the field. It was established in 1813.
The royal crown of Lombardy, said to have been forged from a nail of the true cross. It was first used in 591 at the coronation of Agilulf, King of the Lombards, and is now the royal crown of Italy.
The sobriquet of the great Duke of Wellington.
Nicholas I of Russia (1825-55) was so called.
The sobriquet of Götz von Berlichingen, the leader in the German Peasants’ War of 1525. His right hand, which he had lost in battle, was replaced by an artificial hand made of iron.
A mysterious personage whose face was always covered with an iron mask, who was confined in the Bastille and other State prisons in France during the reign of Louis XIV. Many theories have been advanced as to his identity. It has been contended that he was an elder brother, a twin brother, and a natural son of the king, Count Matthioli, minister of the Duke of Mantua, and M. de Marchiel, the head of a wide-spread conspiracy against Louis XIV, while many other solutions of the problem have been put forward.
The nickname of Frederick II, Elector of Brandenburg (1688-1713).
The oath of office established by the United States Congress in 1867 at the conclusion of the Civil War. It was designed to prevent the assumption of office by any possible enemy of the Union.
The nickname of Edmund, King of the English in 1016.
Cromwell’s Regiment of Horse was so called.
The sobriquet of George Castriot, the Albanian patriot (1414-67). Iskander is Alexander.
A Spanish order of knighthood, instituted in 1815, to reward those Spanish-Americans who remained faithful to the Crown during the Wars of Independence.
Ireland was so called in the Middle Ages.
Unredeemed Italy consists of those provinces and islands not included in the Kingdom of Italy which are racially or linguistically Italian. They are the Austrian provinces of Southern Tyrol, Görz, Trieste, Istria and Dalmatia, the Swiss Canton of Ticino, the British island of Malta and the French island of Corsica. The Irredentists are a party whose aims are similar to those of the Pan-Slavists and Pan-Germans, and who desire to see these provinces, especially those belonging to Austria, added to the kingdom.
The work of Victor Emmanuel and his minister Cavour, aided by Garibaldi and his volunteers. The Treaty of Zurich in 1859 left Victor Emmanuel in possession of the whole of Northern Italy excepting the Venetian states east of the Mincio. The central states, Parma, Modena, etc., applied to be united to the kingdom in 1860, while in the same year the South revolted against Francis II of Naples, and with the aid of Garibaldi the Bourbons were expelled, Victor Emmanuel being crownedKing of Italy in 1861. The Venetian provinces were added to the kingdom by the Treaty of Prague in 1866, and in 1870, France withdrawing her support of the Pope, the King entered Rome and completed the emancipation of Italy.
The supporters of the House of Stuart after their expulsion from Great Britain.
The peasant rising in France in 1358 is so called from Jacques Bonhomme, the familiar name for a peasant. The revolt was most sanguinary, the peasants burning over 200 châteaux, and murdering indiscriminately all who refused to join them. Equally cruel reprisals followed the suppression of the insurrection.
The massacre by Napoleon in 1799 of the Turkish garrison of Jaffa, who had surrendered as prisoners of war.
A bill suspending the constitution of Jamaica, brought in by the Melbourne Ministry in 1839, in consequence of the House of Assembly refusing to put in force an Act for the better regulation of prisons in that island. The bill only passed the House of Commons by a majority of five, and Lord Melbourne resigned.
An invasion of the Transvaal by the forces of the British South Africa Company in January, 1896. Jameson acted on an undated letter, signed by certain members of the Johannesburg Reform Committee, summoning him to the aid of the Uitlanders. His raid, however, was ill-timed, the Johannesburgers being unable to give him the assistance he counted on, and he was defeated by the hastily summoned Boer commandos. Cecil Rhodes was a party to the scheme, which was designed to overthrow the corrupt Boer Government. The Boers made the raid an excuse for increasing their armaments.
A military force established about the middle of the fourteenth century by Amurath I, Sultan of Turkey. They were recruited from Christian youths captured in war, who were brought up in the Mohammedan faith and trained to arms.
A sect or schism of Catholics, founded in France in the seventeenth century, who strongly opposed the doctrinal and ethical teachings of the Jesuits. Their doctrines were based on theAugustinusof Cornelius Jansen, Bishop of Yprès, published after his death, which took place in 1638. Its adherents included such men as Arnauld and Pascal. Jansenism was finally declared heretical by the Bull Unigenitus in 1653.
An edict issued by Charles IX of France in January, 1562, setting forth the terms of pacification between the Huguenotsand the Catholics as arrived at by a conference between the leaders of the two parties.
In the early Norse times the Jarl was a dignity conferred by the king upon chiefs of conspicuous ability as leaders in war. The title was not hereditary.
A treaty signed in 1792 by Catherine II of Russia and the Sultan Selim III after a war rendered memorable by the successes of Potemkin and Suwarrow. Turkey surrendered Oszakov, and the Dniester was fixed as the boundary line between the two empires.
The name given to the treaty between Great Britain and the United States in 1794, which provided for the surrender to the latter of the British military forts in the North-East and settled certain boundary and financial questions pending between the signatories.
The prompt measures taken by the Earl of Dunbar in the reign of James I and VI to punish border raiders at Jedburgh and other Scottish towns gave rise to this phrase. Raiders were hanged always, and tried if circumstances permitted. “Cupar Justice” and “Burlaw” have the same meaning.
A holy war of Mohammedans against Christians is so called.
One of the many stories of the ill-treatment by the Spanish Guardia Costa of British subjects in the employment of the South Sea Company. These stories were utilized by the war party in Parliament to force the Government into war with Spain in 1738. War was in fact declared the following year.
A religious order founded in 1534 by Ignatius Loyola, a Spaniard, and sanctioned by Paul III in 1540. They have always endeavoured to lead and control public opinion, and to that end have taken an active part in education and in political intrigue, as well as in missionary work. The order was suppressed by Papal Bull in 1773, but revived in 1814.
The manipulation of electoral divisions in such a way as to give an undue advantage to one political party. The word is said to be rightly Gerrymandering, and to be derived from Elbridge Gerry, Governor of Massachusetts in 1812, who was the originator of the idea.
A plot entered into by certain Scottish Presbyterian gentlemen, under the leadership of Lord Melville, the Earl of Tarras and Baillie of Jerviswood, to prevent the Duke of York succeeding to the throne on the death of Charles II. The plot was discovered owing to the failure of the Rye House Plot, and though Melville and other leaders made good their escape, Baillie was seized and executed in 1634.
The famous session of the Tennis Court, on June 22, 1789,when the Deputies of the National Assembly, excluded from their regular place of meeting, took an oath that they would not separate, but would continue to meet when and where they could until they had promulgated the new constitution.
The gilded youth, or young men of Paris, who endeavoured to bring about the counter-revolution after the fall of Robespierre in 1794.
A series of Acts passed during the reign of Queen Victoria by which the disabilities under which the Jews laboured were gradually removed. In 1845 they were admitted to office in municipalities; in 1846 they were placed on the same footing as Protestant Dissenters in respect of their schools, while by the alteration in the form of the Parliamentary oath in 1858 they were enabled to sit in Parliament.
A special court established by Richard I in 1194 to hear cases in which Jews were concerned and to supervise their contributions to the revenue.
The war party in England during the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-78 were so called by their political opponents. The name arose from a music-hall song, sung by “The Great Macdermott,” the chorus of which began “We don’t want to fight, but by Jingo if we do.” The term “Jingoism” is now applied to aggressive Imperialism.
The ultra-nationalist party in Japan in the early days of the new régime. They were strongly opposed to the invasion of Western ideas. The name signifies “Expel the Barbarians.”
The sobriquet of Sir John Howard, an adherent of Richard III.
The East India Company was so called.
A secret treaty between the Guises and Philip II of Spain in 1584, providing that the Cardinal de Bourbon should succeed Henri III, and that no heretic should ascend the throne or hold office in France. Philip undertook to advance 50,000 crowns monthly for the purposes of the League, to be repaid on the accession of the Cardinal.
The ancient charter of Brabant, granted by Wenceslas of Luxemburg in the latter part of the fourteenth century. It provided that no one should be prosecuted except before the ordinary courts of law; that no foreigner should hold office in the State; that no alteration should be made in the status of the Church without the consent of the Estates, and that any breach of the Constitution by the prince should absolve his subjects from their allegiance. The charter was abrogated by Joseph II in 1789.
By these Acts a Supreme Court of Justice was created, in place of the various courts inexistence dealing with various branches of the law. These Courts were made branches of the High Court of Justice. In the same way the various appeal courts were brought into one general Court of Appeal. Certain provincial jurisdictions were abolished, such as the Courts of Pleas of the Palatine counties of Lancaster and Durham. Probate, Divorce and Admiralty were united in one division by the latter of the two Acts.
The anti-Jewish campaign, started in Berlin in 1880. See Anti-semitism.
The reign of Louis Philippe (1830-48) is so called, as having been inaugurated by the Revolution of July.
Two laws passed in July, 1883, modifying certain of the severer provisions of the Falk Laws.
The revolution of 1830, which overthrew the Government of Charles X and established Louis Philippe on the throne, is so called.
A treaty signed on July 15, 1840, by Great Britain, Russia, Austria and Prussia, dictating terms to Mehemet Ali, Pasha of Egypt, which terms he was given ten days to accept. He was to retain the Pashalic of Egypt for himself and his descendants, and Acre for life, withdrawing from the rest of Syria and the Holy Land. This treaty was confirmed in 1841 by the Treaty of the Dardanelles.
The younger members of the aristocratic Conservative party in Prussia with whom Bismarck acted at the beginning of his political life.
A series of letters issued anonymously from 1769 onwards, attacking the King and the Grafton Ministry with extraordinary vigour, and full of literary merit. The authorship of these letters remains a mystery, but they are generally attributed to Sir Philip Francis.
In Spain, an assembly of persons, whether legally summoned or self-constituted, exercising legislative or administrative functions. The Junta of 1808, which represented those portions of Spain not under the rule of Joseph Buonaparte, is one of the best known.
A Junta formed in Spain in 1824, under Saez, to carry out to the full the principles of absolutism and ecclesiastical domination. For some time the Junta practically ruled Spain.
The chiefs of the Whig party, and leaders of the Ministry formed in 1696. They were Somers, Russell, Halifax and Wharton.
The name given to the Sons of Liberty by the Royalist party in America in 1765.
Committees of the trade guilds in France, appointed to supervise the operations of themembers of the guild, with special reference to the granting of apprenticeships and the payment of the necessary fees thereupon. The regulations of these guilds were often exceedingly oppressive.
The origin of the system is probably to be found in the Assize of Clarendon in 1166, by which it was enacted that twelve men should be appointed from each hundred to present criminals for trial by ordeal. They were sworn to determine the value of the charge, and could commit or release the accused. By Magna Charta, the right of every Englishman to be tried by his peers is expressly stipulated.
The local law of Magdeburg, a free city of Germany. It was composed partly of Saxon custom and partly of ancient local usages, and was adopted in many of the Slav countries.
A charter issued by Canning’s Government in 1828 providing for the reorganization of the judicial system in Cape Colony, and regulating other matters connected with the Government. It abolished the Heemraden, and instituted courts in which all the pleadings were to be in English. It was superseded in 1834 by an amended charter, whereby, among other changes, ignorance of English was no longer to be held a bar to jury service.
Under the Norman kings this functionary was the President of the Curia Regis and the king’s representative and regent during his absence from the realm.
A codification of the Roman law, carried out by Tribonianus by order of Justinian in 529.
The supreme judge in the kingdom of Aragon. He was appointed by the Cortes, and was the final interpreter of the laws, even the king being obliged to consult him in doubtful cases. He was the ultimate court of appeal in all cases, and had himself the right to initiate prosecutions.
The code of law presented to a Danish National Assembly by Waldemar II (Seir) of Denmark, and confirmed in 1241. This remained the law of the whole of Denmark till the reign of Christian V (1670-1699).
The party of the towns, in the Netherlands, in the fourteenth century. The word signifies “Codfish-jaws,” and the opposing party, that of the nobles, was known as the “Hooks.”
The German nickname for Napoleon.
A document issued by Charles V curtailing the privileges of the city of Ghent.
In the early eighties attention was attracted to the methods of the “Blackbirders,” or shipsengaged in supplying Kanaka labourers for the Queensland sugar plantations. The captain of theHopefulwas brought to trial for kidnapping, and the disclosures in the case caused the Government to appoint a commission in 1884 to investigate the whole question. It was found that kidnapping was much more general than was thought, and in all the instances which were brought to light the natives were returned to their islands, and the planters compensated for the loss of their services.
An Act of Congress passed in 1854 by which Kansas and Nebraska were admitted to the Union as territories. This Act was a breach of the Missouri Compromise, as it left it to each of the new territories to settle the question of slavery within its borders.
Among the Norsemen the holders of Odal or freehold land were so called.
A Moslem sect, taking their name from Karmath, a disciple of Babek, whose leading tenets were the indifference of all human actions and the non-existence of private property. The Karmathians first appeared in 890, and it is said that a hundred battles were fought before they were exterminated. They were at one time in possession of Mecca.
The award, in 1871, of Mr. R. W. Keate, Lieutenant-Governor of Natal, on the territorial questions pending between the South African Republic and various native chiefs, amongst others Waterboer, Mankoroane, and Montsiwa. It practically endorsed the native claims, and is specially important as having enabled Great Britain at a later date to annex Bechuanaland, thus opening a way to the centre of the continent, and rendering possible the colonization of Rhodesia.
A proclamation of Henry III in 1267, after the final overthrow of Simon de Montfort, wherein the king reaffirmed Magna Charta and restored to their lands those of the barons who had been dispossessed, on payment of a solatium to the then holders.
A famous gang of bushrangers which infested the north-eastern part of New South Wales from 1878 to 1880. Towards the end of the latter year they were hunted down by the police. In the fight which followed the whole gang were killed except their leader, Ned Kelly, who was captured and hanged.
A petition from the Grand Jury of Kent, presented to Parliament in 1701, praying the House to abstain from the prosecution of personal vengeance and to give its attention to the needs of the country.
A series of resolutions passed by the Kentucky Legislature in 1798, declaring the Alien and Sedition Laws unconstitutional, and asserting the doctrine of State Rights.
A clause introduced into the Education Act of 1902, on the motion of Colonel Kenyon-Slaney. It provides that in all voluntary schools taken over by the new education authority the religious teaching shall be in accordance with the provisions of the trust deed, and be under the control of the managers. The object of the clause is to prevent a clergyman of extreme views forcing upon a school a form of doctrinal instruction contrary to the generally received teaching of the Church of England.
Mercenary troops, partly Irish and partly Scotch, maintained by the petty Irish chieftains, and employed in their inter-tribal wars up to the time of Elizabeth. They were also known as “Gallowglasses.”
A rising of the peasantry against the landed gentry, led by Ket, a tanner, in 1549. He collected some 16,000 followers in a camp near Norwich, and established a tribunal, on which he sat, with the Mayor of Norwich, to try obnoxious gentlemen. The rebellion was suppressed by the Earl of Warwick, and Ket and other leaders hanged.
The Lower House of the Isle of Man legislature.
A name given to the State of Pennsylvania, as being the central State of the thirteen originally forming the Union.
The Sikh Commonwealth in the Punjaub was known by this name.
The head of a household in the Russian Mir or village community. Before the emancipation of the serfs in 1861 the family generally owned all property in common, those who went to work in the towns sending a proportion of their wages to the common stock. The Khozain was the administrator of the general fund.
A treaty between Sweden and Denmark signed in 1814, after the expulsion of the Danes from Holstein by Bernadotte. Denmark surrendered Norway to the Crown of Sweden, reserving, however, Greenland, Iceland and the Faroë Islands, which had been considered appanages of the Norwegian Crown.
A convention of the prelates, nobles and commons of Ireland held in 1338. It presented a petition of grievances to Edward III, complaining of the neglect by his lieutenants of the fortified places, whereby they suffered from the raids of the Irish; of the corruption prevailing amongst the royal officers; of their absenteeism, and of the misrepresentation which the petitioners had suffered at their hands.
A council of twenty-four members formed in 1642 to organize the Irish Catholics in support of the royal cause during the Civil War.
A statute passed in 1367 by which the English colonists in Ireland were forbidden under penalty of high treason to intermarry with the Irish, to present an Irishman to a Church living, or to offer hospitality to an Irish bard or minstrel.
A synod of the Irish bishops and other Church dignitaries, held in 1642 at the commencement of the Great Rebellion, to form a provisional government. It established the Council of Kilkenny.
A supposed agreement between Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Parnell (then a prisoner in Kilmainham Gaol), negotiated by Mr. O’Shea in 1882, by which Parnell undertook, if released, to use all his influence in the suppression of agrarian crime. Both parties stoutly denied the existence of any compact, but the matter gave rise to stormy debates in the House of Commons, and many wild stories were current as to the terms of the agreement.
A series of disturbances in 1884 due to the opposition of the employés in the diamond mines at Kimberley to the Search Act, passed in 1882 with the object of checking illicit diamond buying.
A sobriquet of James V of Scotland.
The name given to a rising of the Wampanoags, an Indian tribe, in 1675, with the object of exterminating the white settlers in New England. The war lasted over a year, with much destruction of property, but finally the Indians were defeated and their leader, Philip, shot.
The name given to the secret advisers of George III in his attempts to restore the royal prerogative to its old position in the State. They were mainly Tories, though drawn from both parties, and their leader was the Earl of Bute.
A book of the ritual of the Church of England, issued in 1545 by the authority of Henry VIII, and containing the Services for the Hours. It is the basis of all subsequent prymers, including those of Edward VI and Elizabeth.
The sobriquet of Neville, Earl of Warwick (1428-71), the most prominent figure in the Wars of the Roses.
The nickname of William Armstrong, the famous border raider. He was the hero of a celebrated rescue at the hands of the Lord of Buccleugh in 1596, having been captured by the English and confined in Carlisle Castle.
The troopers of Colonel Kirke, who was in command at Bridgwater after the suppression of Monmouth’s rebellion. Their barbarous treatment of their prisoners and of suspected adherents of Monmouth hardly fellbehind the judicial cruelties of Jeffreys. Their name was ironically derived from the Lamb, their regimental badge.
A club formed by certain prominent Whig politicians in 1793 to promote the principles of the French Revolution. Walpole, Steele and Addison were among its members.
The name given by their political opponents to the unofficial advisers of Andrew Jackson, President of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Among them were Amos Kendall, Isaac Hill and F. P. Blair.
SeeAlcantara, Alexander, Annunziata, Bath, Black Eagle, Calatrava, Dannebrog, Elephant, Garter, Golden Fleece, Holy Sepulchre, Hospitallers, Iron Cross, Isabella, Legion of Honour, Livonian, Malta, Montesa, Our Lady, Rhodes, St. Andrew, St. Esprit, St. Hubert, St. Lazare, St. Patrick, Santiago, Templars, Teutonic, Thistle.
The extent of land the holding of which qualified for knighthood in feudal times. The amount is uncertain, but it is thought to have been an annual value of twenty pounds.
A society for the protection of workmen, founded in 1869 at Philadelphia by Uriah S. Stevens. It has become one of the most powerful labour organizations of the world, and claims a membership of 200,000.
The representatives of the counties in the early Parliaments. They were elected in the Shire Courts, which all the freeholders of the county were entitled to attend.
A political party formed in America in 1855. Their essential tenet was the necessity of keeping the Government in the hands of genuine Americans, and with this object they proposed a twenty-one years’ residence as a qualification for naturalization. The party was short-lived, scarcely surviving the presidential election of 1856.
The Royal Law, a new Danish Constitution promulgated in 1660, proclaiming an hereditary instead of an elective monarchy. The administration was confided to certain bureaux whose members were appointed by the king.
The modern National party in Hungary. They take their name from the famous patriot of the War of Independence of 1848, and his son, who is one of the leaders of the existing party.
The party of the Cross, under whose influence Frederick William IV of Prussia lay during the latter years of his reign. Their policy included a closer union with Russia and Austria, and a tacit resistance to the more liberal ideas of Western Europe.
The second or military caste among the Hindoos.
An organization formed in the Southern States, after the American Civil War, to coerce the coloured people and their sympathisers and prevent them recording their votes. It became so powerful that a stringent Act, known as the Ku Klux Act, was passed by Congress in 1871, inflicting heavy penalties on all convicted of belonging to this and similar associations.
A treaty between Russia and China, negotiated in 1880 after the suppression of the Mohammedan revolt in Western China, during which the Russians had held and administered Kuldja. It provided for the retention by Russia of the most valuable part of Kuldja, including the Tekes Valley and the passes into Kashgaria and Yarkand. It further stipulated that Russia should enjoy the use of an overland route to Hankow for Russian merchants, and the free navigation of the Sungari River, which practically opened the whole of Manchuria to Russian trade. Chang How, who had negotiated this treaty, was disgraced, and China refused to ratify it. In 1881, however, a second treaty was concluded, and eventually ratified, by which Russia retroceded the whole of Kuldja, the other stipulations of the treaty of 1880 remaining practically unaltered.
The crusade in Germany against the Pope and the Ultramontanes, who were looked upon as the foes of civil as well as religious liberty. After the issue of the Vatican Decree on Papal Infallibility many of the bishops attempted to force the dogma upon university professors and others holding State appointments, and their high-handed interference in this and other ways led to the enacting of the Falk Laws. The conflict lasted over ten years.