A code of British Law translated by Alfred the Great into Anglo-Saxon. It is said to have been compiled by Martia,the wife of Guithelin, great-grandson of Mulmutius, King of the Britons, in 300B.C.
The pseudonym of the author of certain pamphlets advocating Puritan doctrines, which appeared between 1588 and 1590. The suspected author, a Welshman named Penry, was brought to trial, condemned and executed.
A charter for the colonisation of Maryland, granted to Lord Baltimore by Charles I in 1629. It was similar in its provisions to the Charter of Virginia.
A revolt of the Neapolitans, under a fisherman named Tommaso Aniello, against the Spanish Viceroy in July, 1647. The revolt was completely successful, and the Viceroy was compelled to come to terms with Masaniello, whose head, however, seems to have been turned by his success, as he was guilty of the most extraordinary excesses, and was murdered by his former followers in the course of the month in which the rising took place.
The line delimiting Delaware and Maryland, drawn by Mason and Dixon in 1764-67. It is often erroneously referred to as the line between the freesoil and the slave States, but as a matter of fact both the States in question were slave-holding States.
SeeTrent Incident.
Massachusetts, Charter of.
A charter issued by Charles I in 1629, providing for the government of the colony by a governor, deputy, and eighteen assistants, to be elected annually by the freemen of the plantation. They were entrusted with both legislative and executive functions, but it was provided that no laws should be made which were not in harmony with the law of England. The charter was revoked in 1684, after a dispute on the subject of the navigation laws.
SeeAbencerrages, Amboyna, Armagnacs, Armenian, Barmecides, Blood Bath, Boston, Bulgarian, Cawnpore, Chastisement, Custer, Dragonnades, Farquharsons, French Fury, Fusillades, Glencoe, Jaffa, Lebanon, Magdeburg, Manchester, Mountain Meadow, Noyades, Privas, St. Bartholomew, St. Brice, Scullabogue, September, Sicilian Vespers, Sinope, Spanish Fury, Tenth of August, Ulster, Valtelline, Vassy, Veronese.
An impost proposed by Robert Lowe (Lord Sherbrooke), Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1871. The proposal was excessively unpopular, and was withdrawn.
April 27, 1562, when two Protestant ministers. Mallard and Faveau, were to be burnt at the stake by order of Granville, Bishop of Arras. They were rescued by the populace.
The constitution established by the Polish Diet on May 3, 1791. It abolished the electivemonarchy, and named the Royal House of Saxony as successors to Poniatowski. It abolished the Liberum Veto, and vested the legislative authority in the King, the Senate and the Chamber of Nuncios, and the executive in the King, with a council of six Ministers.
The ship that carried the first colonists of New England, the Pilgrim Fathers, to the shores of America. They were chiefly Independents from the neighbourhood of Scrooby, in Lincolnshire, who under stress of persecution determined to leave England. They went first to Holland, and then, deciding to make their home in America, finally sailed from Plymouth on September 6, 1620. They landed on the shores of Cape Cod, and named their first township Plymouth.
By a decree of May 4, 1793, the French Convention established a maximum price for food stuffs, obliging farmers to state the quantity of grain in their possession, bring it to market, and accept a price fixed by the commune in which it was offered, such price to be based on the average price ruling in the district during the four previous months. Heavy penalties were enacted for concealment of grain supplies, and for taking more than the authorised price.
A grant to the Roman Catholic College of Maynooth, in Ireland, made in the face of strong Protestant opposition by Sir Robert Peel’s Government in 1845. It was abolished in 1869, at the time of the Disestablishment of the Irish Church.
The name given ironically to the suppression of the revolt of the Geraldines in 1535, when Maynooth Castle, the seat of the Earl of Desmond, was captured, and out of thirty-seven prisoners taken, twenty-six were executed.
A pretended plot, fabricated by Dangerfield in 1679, in emulation of Titus Oates, the inventor of the Popish Plot. Dangerfield averred that a Presbyterian plot existed to depose the King, and establish a Republic. After arrest he stated that this was only a blind to conceal a plot of the Papists, documents relating to which would be found hidden in a meal tub in the house of Mrs. Cellier, a Roman Catholic. This lady was tried for high treason and acquitted. Dangerfield was condemned to be flogged from Newgate to Tyburn and back, and died under the lash.
An edict issued in 1197, with the object of securing uniformity in weights and measures throughout England. It was, however, found impossible to obtain acceptance for this reform, and the edict remained a dead letter.
A constitution in which an attempt was made to harmonise the old Cantonal system with the new Helvetic Constitution, and which was imposed upon the Swiss by Napoleon in 1803.
Members of the old ruling families of the smaller German States, who have at various times been deprived of their sovereign rights.
A treaty, signed in 870, by which Lewis the German and Charles the Bald divided the territories of their nephews, Lewis II and Charles. The former took Alsace and the Rhine Provinces, the latter Burgundy and Provence, thus finally separating Germany and France.
The decree confirming the Union of Sweden and Norway, accepted by the Norwegians in November, 1814, and defining the financial and other relations between the two kingdoms.
A treaty signed in 1593, between Queen Elizabeth and Henri IV of France, providing for an offensive and defensive alliance against Philip II of Spain.
A statute of Edward I, passed in 1283, giving protection to foreign merchants settled in England.
An Act passed in 1887, inflicting penalties for the use of false trade descriptions, and enacting that, in all cases of imported goods, when any question is likely to arise as to the country of origin, the same shall be clearly marked on the goods.
A guild of merchants established in Brabant in 1296. They received special trading privileges in England from Henry VII, and in 1564 were given a charter of incorporation by Elizabeth.
SeePlimsoll’s Act.
A charter granted by Edward I in 1303, to foreign merchants trading in England, which at the same time imposed import and export duties on wool and other commodities passing through their hands.
SeeWonderful Parliament.
A sobriquet of Charles II of England.
In Spanish America persons of mixed European and Indian blood are so called.
A system of land tenure in France, prior to the Revolution, by which the tenant was supplied by the landlord with stock and farming implements, and the produce of the land, after payment of taxes, was divided equally between them. Farmers holding land on this tenure were called métayers.
A treaty between England and Portugal, signed in 1703, whereby the latter was induced to join the Grand Alliance. It contained only two clauses, one admitting English woollen goods into Portugal, the other providing that Portuguese wines imported into England shouldonly pay one-third of the duty levied on French wines. This treaty was abrogated on the signing of a commercial treaty between England and France in 1786.
China is so called by the Chinese, who believe it to be the centre of the inhabited world.
A nickname of Henri III of France (1574-1589).
The name by which the hereditary sovereign of Japan was known to Europeans, in the early days of intercourse with that country. From the time of the Shôgun Iyeyasu, in the early part of the seventeenth century, the functions of the “Mikado” as a temporal ruler were usurped by the Shôguns, or Commanders-in-Chief, though he was always recognized as thede jurehead of the State. Since the revolution, however, he has resumed his rightful position as Emperor of Japan. The title is now in disuse, the Emperor being known as the Tenno.
A decree issued by Napoleon in 1807, as a reply to the Orders in Council, declaring that every vessel, of whatever nationality, sailing to or from a British port or colony, had forfeited her neutrality, and was a lawful prize.
An Act of the Scottish Parliament, passed in 1662, forbidding any minister who had failed to comply with the provisions of the Episcopal Ordination Act to reside within five miles of a royal borough, or within twenty of his own parish.
A compromise, introduced by Bismarck in the Reichstag, between an annual vote for military purposes, and a vote for an indefinite period. It fixes the military establishment and the requisite supplies for a period of seven years.
A petition presented to James I by certain Puritan clergymen of the Church of England, said to have numbered a thousand, asking to be relieved from the celebration of certain ceremonies to which they were conscientiously opposed. The petition was rejected.
An Act passed in 1692, authorising the raising of one million sterling by means of tontine annuities, in aid of the expenses of the French War. This is the first instance of the English Government raising money by means of annuities.
The ministry of the Tiers Parti in France, under the Duc de Bassano, in 1834. It held office for three days only.
A ministry under Lord Grenville, with Fox as Foreign Secretary, formed on the death of Pitt in 1806. It is so called because it was not formed exclusively from Grenville’s supporters, but was an attempt to bring together the best men ofvarious political shades. Thus Earl Spencer and Mr. Windham, who had been members of Pitt’s first administration, held office in it.
These were closed to the free coinage of silver in 1893, and the value of the rupee for exchange purposes fixed at 1s. 4d.
A militia of 12,000 men enrolled during the American Civil War by the State of Massachusetts. They bound themselves to be ready for service at a moment’s notice.
The Russian village commune, holding and tilling land in common. The land is divided into plots, of which a certain number are allotted to each family, in proportion to its size. These plots are farmed by the family in common, and they pay into the coffers of the Mir a certain fixed sum, retaining the rest for the general use of the family. The Mir is responsible to the Government for the payment of the taxes of the community, which are in the nature of a poll-tax on the adult males. The division of the land is periodically revised, to meet changes in the circumstances of the different families. The affairs of the Mir are controlled by the village Elder, or Selski Starosta, who is elected by the heads of families.
A sobriquet of Danton, the French revolutionary leader.
Christina, Queen of Sweden (1632-1654), was so called.
SeeAmiens.
SeeLewes.
A wild scheme, not unlike the South Sea Bubble, propounded by John Law in Paris in 1718. A company was formed, which was permitted to establish a Bank of Issue, the shares of which were offered to the national creditors in exchange for their stock. The company was also granted a monopoly of the trade with Canada and the Mississippi. The usual inflation of values followed, and subsequently the inevitable collapse, which almost amounted to national bankruptcy. It is also called “Law’s Bubble.”
An agreement between the slavery and anti-slavery parties of the United States in 1821, arising out of the admission of Missouri to the Union as a free-labour State. It was determined that slavery should only be lawful south of 36° 30´ north latitude. This arrangement was maintained until 1854, when it was violated by the admission of Kansas and Nebraska as territories, with the right to decide the slavery question for themselves.
In South America, under Spanish rule, the bodily service to which every Indian from fifteen to fifty was liable. Those upon whom the lot fell had to work for six months in the mines, and such were the conditions of servitude that barely a fifth survived the ordeal. It is estimated that over eight millions perished from this cause in Peru alone.
A riot at Mitchelstown, co. Cork, at a Land League meeting in August, 1887. The Government reporter and his police escort endeavoured to force their way through the crowd to the platform, which the crowd resented. The police lost their heads and fired on the people. “Remember Mitchelstown” was for some time afterwards the watchword of the Land-leaguers.
The name given to the Liberal Imperialist party in the first Reichstag of the German Empire.
The Constitution of Carolina, prepared by John Locke in 1670. It was the only constitution in America providing for an hereditary nobility, and recognizing different classes of citizens. It was in some respects feudal in its character, as the small cultivator wasadscriptus glebæ, and had no franchise. North Carolina objected to the model, rose in revolt, and formed itself into a separate colony.
A sobriquet of the Comte de Mirabeau (1749-1801).
A name given to Catherine II of Russia (1762-1796), referring to her vicious and cruel character.
A treaty signed in 1512 between Bogdan, Voivode of Moldavia, and Selim I, Sultan of Turkey, by which Bogdan recognized the suzerainty of Turkey, and agreed to pay tribute.
The followers of Molina, the Spanish Jesuit, who was the principal antagonist of the Jansenists and Port Royal.
In Turkey, the name given to the principal judges, who, the law being more ecclesiastical than civil, exercise functions of almost a priestly character. In less civilized Moslem communities, as in Arabia, and among the Afridis and Afghans, the mollahs are priests or holy men.
An agrarian society formed in Ireland in 1843, to resist distraint for rent. They took their name, originally “Maguires,” from Cornelius Maguire, a leader in the Irish Rebellion of 1641, the word Molly being afterwards added because they usually dressed in women’s clothes when engaged in their raids.
An Irish secret society, which terrorized the mining districts of Pennsylvania from 1867 to 1877. Its object was, apparently, to control the State and municipal politics. In the latter year, owing to informers, its leaders were discovered and convicted, and the society broken up.
A Russian sect who model their institutions on the early Apostolic Church, as depicted in the New Testament. Theyare strong upholders of the right of private judgment, allowing considerable latitude to individual opinion within the fold.
SeeBenedictines, Carmelites, Carthusians, Dominicans, Franciscans, Jesuits, Theatins.
A treaty between France and Austria, signed in 1626, after the French invasion of the Valtelline. It provided for a return in the Grisons and Valtelline to thestatus quobefore 1617. Only Catholicism was to be tolerated in the valley. The Valtelline was to have the right of electing her own magistrates, subject to the veto of the Grisons, and was to pay the Grisons an annual tribute. The forts in the Valtelline and Chiavenna were to be razed.
A conference held at Brussels in 1892, to discuss the question of a bimetallic standard. Great diversity of opinion was shown by the delegates, and the conference dissolved without making any recommendations.
A statement of policy in the message to Congress of President Monroe in 1825, to the effect that the United States could not regard with indifference any further territorial expansion on the part of European Powers on the American Continent. The occasion for the pronouncement was the suspected intention of the Holy Alliance to interfere on behalf of Spain in her struggle with her revolted colonies. Various interpretations have been given to this doctrine, some, like that of Mr. Olney, going much further than President Monroe’s words warrant, but it is now generally held to mean that the United States will consider her interests involved, if any European Power seeks territorial aggrandisement in any part of America, or interferes with the internal affairs of any American State.
A nickname of Louis XVI, referring to the power given him by the Constitution of 1791 to veto the acts of the Legislative Assembly. Marie Antoinette was known as Madame Véto, as it was believed that it was largely her influence which induced the King to exercise his right.
A Spanish order of religious chivalry, established in 1317. They succeeded the Templars in Aragon.
A treaty between Louis XIII and the Huguenots, after their last appearance in arms in 1622. The King undertook to observe the Edict of Nantes, and gave the Huguenots two towns. La Rochelle and Montauban, as places of safety.
A club composed of friends of the Duc d’Orléans (Philippe Egalité), which was formed about 1789. Its object was to supplant the reigning dynasty by the Orleans branch. Among its prominent members were Mirabeau, Siéyès and Sillery.
In 1884 the Transvaal Boersattacked Montsioa, a Bechuana chief under British protection, and forced him to make a treaty with them, in defiance of the London Convention. In the following year a force under Sir Charles Warren occupied the disturbed territory, which was brought under the British administration, and the Boers were forced to withdraw.
The extreme reactionaries of the Pelucones, or Conservative party, in Chile in 1850. They took their name from President Montt, and his Secretary of State, Varas.
An agrarian secret society, similar in its constitution and methods to the Whiteboys, which was guilty of numerous outrages in Ireland in 1881.
The final overthrow of the Moorish power in Spain was accomplished by the capture of Granada in 1492, under Ferdinand and Isabella. The terms of capitulation provided that the Moors, while remaining under Spanish dominion, should preserve their own laws, language and religion, with the right to hold property free of molestation. The non-Christian Moors were, however, expelled from Spain by Philip III in 1610.
An outbreak of negroes in Jamaica in 1865, which was promptly suppressed, and is only noteworthy as leading to the long controversy with regard to the action of Governor Eyre, whose repressive measures led to his recall. Several attempts were made to bring him to trial, but the case never got beyond the Grand Jury, who always declined to find a true bill.
A Protestant sect, having its origin in the Hussites, which was very numerous in Bohemia and Moravia in the sixteenth century. In 1627 they were expelled from these countries, and, later, settled in Saxony.
A letter purporting to be written by Garfield, on the eve of the Presidential Election in the United States in 1880, to a large employer of labour named Morey. It advocated free admission of Chinese labour, and it was hoped by the Democrats would seriously injure the Republican cause on the Pacific Slope. It was of course a forgery.
A sect founded by Joseph Smith, the son of a Vermont farmer, in 1830, at Fayette, New York State. The Mormons moved westward and, after several years’ wanderings, settled on the Great Salt Lake in 1847, under Brigham Young. Their advocacy of polygamy was for a long time a bar to the admission of Utah to the Union, but the enforcement of the Edmunds Act of 1882 led to the formal abandonment of polygamy as a tenet by the Mormons in 1890, and Utah was admitted a State in 1896.
A statute passed in 1279, to put a stop to the growing practice of giving landed property to the Church, and receivingit back as tenants, thus evading feudal obligations. To prevent land thus passing into a dead hand (mortuum manum), all such alienations were forbidden, except with the King’s consent.
The scheme devised by Morton, the Minister of Henry VII, to increase the revenues of the State. He exacted contributions from those who lived well on the plea that they were obviously rich, and from those who lived plainly on the ground that their economy had made them wealthy.
The name given to an old-fashioned section of the Democratic party in the United States, most numerous in Ohio. The word is derived from the popular name for the snapping turtle, which is so called from the growth of a species of aquatic moss on its shell.
A body charged with the administration of the Russian National Church. Its members are appointed and removed by the Czar, and its head, the Procurator, is practically an autocrat in all matters of Church discipline. It has however no jurisdiction over matters of dogma.
The leader of the Shakers in Sussex, at the end of the eighteenth century. Her name was Ann Lee.
The State of Virginia is so called, as having furnished no less than six Presidents of the United States.
A name given to the State of Virginia, either as the oldest colony, or as having had five States, namely, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and West Virginia, formed out of her original territories.
The Russian peasant.
An edict issued in 1566 by the Chancellor, de l’Hôpital, after a conference of Notables representing both the Huguenot and the Catholic parties. It dealt with the reform of judicial procedure.
The Jacobins, or ultra-revolutionary party in the Convention during the French Revolution. Its leaders were Danton and Robespierre. The Mountain came to an end with the fall of Robespierre and his followers on the 9th Thermidor (July 28, 1794). It was so called because its members occupied the upper tiers of seats in the Convention.
The massacre by Indians, under Mormon leadership, of a party of 140 emigrants, who were crossing Utah on their way to California in 1857. The Mormons had been for some time in difficulties with the United States Government, and Federal troops were in the neighbourhood of Salt Lake City, but no hostilities had taken place. The leader of the band, J. D. Lee, a Mormon Bishop, was executed for the crime on the actual site of the massacre in 1877.
A name given to the Cameronians.
A section of the Republican party in the United States who, in 1884, supported Cleveland, the Democratic candidate for President, owing to his advocacy of Civil Service Reform. The word is also applied to those who for various reasons decline to attach themselves definitely to either of the great political parties.
A code of laws said to have been drawn up by Mulmutius, King of the Britons, circ. 400 B.C. They were translated by Alfred the Great, and remained the basis of English law until the Conquest.
Among the Franks the protection afforded by the King or a feudal lord to an ecclesiastic or other person not being an ordinary vassal.
An Act passed in 1835, dealing with 178 municipalities. In the majority of these the election to municipal offices had been entirely in the hands of the freemen, often a very small minority of the inhabitants. The Act instituted an electoral qualification of three years’ residence, and the payment of poor and borough rates. It also established town councils, and provided for an independent audit.
The second line of reserve, or militia, of the Turkish army.
This Act was passed for the first time in 1689, for one year only, and has since that time been passed annually. It gives disciplinary powers to the officers of the army and navy, apart from the ordinary process of law, and neither service could be maintained without it.
A secret association of thechefs d’ateliers, or middlemen, of the Lyons weavers, which ordered a strike of workmen in April, 1834. The strike resulted in a rising, which was promptly suppressed, and the leaders were prosecuted under the Associations Law.
A controversy which arose over an allegation of the Roman Catholics, in 1599, that Archbishop Parker’s consecration, forty years previously, had taken place in the most informal manner at the Nag’s Head Tavern, in Cheapside. The statement was proved to be entirely devoid of foundation.
A treaty between Great Britain and China, signed in 1842, at the close of the Opium War. By its terms England secured Hong Kong in perpetuity, and Shanghai and other ports were opened to foreign trade.
A sobriquet of Louis Philippe, whose peaceful reign of eighteen years was a marked contrast tothe constant wars of the Napoleonic era.
A republic founded by emigrant burghers from Cape Colony in 1838. It stretched from the Drakensberg to the sea, and from the Tugela to the Umzimvubu river, while Zululand, under Panda, was tributary to it. The British Government never recognized the republic, and in 1842 steps were taken to obtain possession of the country, in which a regular colonial government was established in 1845.
A phrase first applied to England by Samuel Adams, the American politician, in 1776. It is generally attributed to Napoleon, but was probably taken by him from a translation of the speech in which it occurs.
An association formed on the discovery of the Assassination Plot in 1696, at the suggestion of Sir Rowland Gwyn. The signatories declared their loyalty to the King, and bound themselves to take vengeance on all who might attempt his life.
The origin of the National Debt was a loan raised by Montague, afterwards Lord Halifax, in 1693. The lenders were life-annuitants, and as each died his annuity was divided among the survivors till only seven remained; after which, on the death of each of the seven, his portion was absorbed by the Government.
An urban militia raised in Paris in 1789 by Flesselles, Prévôt des Marchands. It took a leading part in the destruction of the Bastille.
A body of volunteers raised by Napper Tandy in Ireland in 1792. They were promptly suppressed by the Government.
A force recruited from surrendered Boers, for service as scouts with the British Army, during the latter stages of the Boer War of 1899-1902.
An association formed in 1859, the declared object of which was to substitute for the Confederation the German constitution of 1848, under the hegemony of Prussia, and to the complete exclusion of Austria. Its founder was Baron Benigsen of Hanover.
The Battle of Leipsic, fought on October 16, 17 and 18, 1813, is so called. Five nations—France, Prussia, Russia, Austria and Sweden, were engaged.
The contributions in kind exacted for the support of the royal household among the Franks.
An Act of Congress passed in 1870, which, while authorizing the naturalization of the African negro, declined to admit to the citizenship Indians and Chinese.
A claim was brought beforethe French courts in 1874 by the son of a clock-maker of Delft, named Naundorff. The claimant, who called himself Adalbert de Bourbon, demanded to be recognized as the grandson of Louis XVI, on the ground that his father, Naundorff, was in reality the Dauphin, who had been imprisoned in the Temple, and of whose escape he told a marvellous story. The courts dismissed his claim.
An Act passed in 1651, under the Commonwealth, prohibiting the importation of goods into England except in British ships, or in ships belonging to the country of origin of the goods. The Act was renewed in 1672, and, with the modifications then introduced, continued in force till the Treaty of Ghent in 1814, when the English Government agreed to suspend its operation so far as concerned vessels of the United States.
A verse of the Psalms, read by condemned criminals who claimed “benefit of clergy,” as a test of their clerkship. It was so called because those who succeeded in reading it in clerkly fashion were handed over to the ecclesiastical authorities, and saved their necks.
The title of the King of Abyssinia or Ethiopia.
An edict issued by Henri III in 1785, withdrawing all the privileges accorded to the Huguenots by previous edicts, and giving them six months to conform to the Roman Catholic Church or to leave the realm.
A treaty signed in 1815, at the end of the Ghoorka war, between the British and Nepaul. By its provisions Nepaul relinquished all rights over the Hill Rajahs west of the Kali river, ceded the major portion of the Terai, restored the territory conquered from the Rajah of Sikkim, and agreed to receive a British resident at Khatmandu.
SeeBianchi.
A treaty between Russia and China signed in 1689, and notable as being the first convention between China and a European Power. This treaty put a stop for nearly 150 years to Russia’s eastward expansion in Siberia.
Leopold I, King of the Belgians (1831-1865) was so called.
July 27, 1794, the day on which the Decree of Accusation was launched against Robespierre, Couthon, St. Just and the other extremists of the Revolution, thus putting an end to the Reign of Terror.
A system of granting to foreign merchants the privilege of trading with English ports in return for a subsidy. This system was introduced by Edward I in 1303, and is the origin of Customs Duties.
A change of programme on the part of a section of the Democratic party in the United States in 1871. They admitted that all, including negroes, were entitled to equal rights and full citizenship, but demanded a universal amnesty for the Southerners, condemned protective duties as levied solely in the interests of the Northern manufacturers, and strongly protested against the Force Bill of 1870.
A union of the four New England Colonies, Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, New Haven, and Connecticut, formed in 1643 for mutual protection against the Dutch and the Indians.
The name given in England to the revival of learning in the West, the first manifestation of which was the Italian Renaissance.
The name given to the Parliamentary Army as reformed by the Self-denying Ordinance of 1645.
A republic formed in 1884 in what was later the Vryheid district of the Transvaal, the territory having been given by Dinizulu to certain Boers in return for their help in his war with Usibepu. Lucas Meyer was elected president, but the republic was short-lived, being absorbed by the South African Republic in 1887.
A nickname given to the Constitution of the United States shortly after its promulgation.
The name given to the Gregorian Calendar, introduced into England by the Calendar Act of 1752.
A township started in 1890, under the Plan of Campaign, with the object of bringing to terms the owner of the land on which the town of Tipperary stands. The scheme was a complete fiasco, and collapsed in 1891.
This form of trade unionism had its rise about 1884. It differs from the old unionism in that it is frankly Socialistic in its tendencies, and demands State interference between workmen and employers, whereas the old demanded only to be left alone and to be allowed the right of combination for the advancement of the interests of the workers.
By an Act passed in 1876, during the premiership of Sir Julius Vogel, the nine provinces of New Zealand were united, with one Parliament sitting at Wellington. The nine provincial Parliaments were abolished, their administrative functions being entrusted to road boards in the country districts and municipalities in the towns.
The platform of the Liberal party at the general electionof 1892, based on resolutions passed at the meeting of the National Liberal Federation at Newcastle in October, 1891. The “planks” of the platform were Abolition of the House of Lords, Home Rule, Disestablishment of the Church in Wales, Taxation of Ground Values, and One Man One Vote.
SeeFrench Shore.
The final attempt of the Parliament to come to terms with the King in 1648. Negotiations were opened at Newport, but the King contested every demand of the Parliament, and the Independents, supported by the Army, lost patience, and confined the King in Hurst Castle.
An Œcumenical Council held during the reign of the Empress Irene, at which the decrees of the Council of Constantinople with regard to image-worship were reversed.
A decree of the Sultan Ahmed I in 1604, granting the Venetians certain trading and navigating facilities in the Ottoman dominions.
A sobriquet of the Great Napoleon.
The Russian revolutionary society, an important section of which is in favour of physical force. Their position is perhaps best explained by the manifesto issued after the assassination of the Czar Alexander II in 1881, in which they declare their object to be the amelioration of the condition of the peasantry, and the introduction of more civilized methods of government. They go on to say that Russia demands a new system, and that, their peaceful efforts having only met with repression, they have been driven to adopt violent means to gain their ends.
A treaty signed in 1678, following the five years’ war of Louis XIV against Holland and Spain. Louis obtained Franche-Comté and sixteen fortresses in the Spanish Netherlands.
An edict issued in 1629, shortly after the fall of La Rochelle, which, while confirming the religious freedom granted to the Huguenots by the Edict of Nantes, deprived them of their special political status, and thus broke up the Huguenot League.
A constitution drawn up at Winburg in 1837 by the emigrant burghers who had settled between the Orange and the Vaal rivers after the Great Trek. A Volksraad was elected, and the burghers bound themselves to observe the old Roman-Dutch law, except when inconsistent with the articles of the constitution.
The Irish rebellion under Lord Edward Fitzgerald and Wolfe Tone in 1798. The rebellion had been carefully planned for some years before the outbreak, and, the sympathies of the French having been enlisted, a landing by Hoche was attempted at Bantry Bay. This was unsuccessful, and a little later Humbert, who landed at Killala, was forced to surrender to Lord Cornwallis. Horrible outrages were perpetrated by the rebels, and the consequent reprisals gave a most bloodthirsty character to the whole affair. The rebels were finally defeated at Vinegar Hill, which put an end to all organized resistance, though there were a few isolated risings from time to time. Wolfe Tone was captured and condemned to death, but escaped the scaffold by suicide. Fitzgerald was killed a few days before the outbreak, resisting the military who were about to arrest him.
This title was given to nine members of the Privy Council of William III, namely, the Duke of Devonshire, the Earls of Nottingham, Dorset, Monmouth, Orford, Pembroke and Marlborough, Lord Caermarthen, and Sir John Lowther.
The regular infantry of the Turkish Army.
An agitation against the action of the Pope in creating Cardinal Wiseman Archbishop of Westminster in 1851. To appease the Protestant party the Government brought in the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill.
The rising of Rhenish knights under Franz von Sickingen in 1522. They were bitterly hostile to the Suabian League and to the new institutions, such as the Reichskammergericht. The rising was suppressed in the following year.
“The blood-red wedding” was the name given afterwards to the marriage between the Protestant Henry of Navarre and the Catholic Marguerite de Valois in May 1572, only three months before the massacre of the Huguenots on the eve of St. Bartholomew.
The night of June 20, 1520, when the Spaniards under Cortes were attacked by the Mexicans as they were evacuating Mexico, and suffered very heavy losses.
The code of laws promulgated by Louis XIV in 1685 to be enforced in the West Indian colonies of France. It had special reference to the treatment of negroes, whether slaves or freedmen.
The district south of the Basuto country, now known as Griqualand East, was so called in 1860. It was settled in 1861 by the migration of Adam Kok and his tribe of Griquas from the country they had previously occupied between the Orange and the Riet Rivers.
A district lying between Kansas, New Mexico, Texas, and the Indian territory, which now forms part of the territory of Oklahoma.
The same name is given to a strip of land in dispute between the States of Delaware and Pennsylvania.
Barebone’s Parliament is sometimes known by this name.
SeeCompounders.
The clergymen, between three and four hundred in number, who refused to take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy on the accession of William III in 1689.
The doctrine that it was a deadly sin to oppose the will of the King as being sovereign by Divine right. This tenet was preached by the Anglican clergy in the times of the Stuarts. It was also called the “Doctrine of Passive Obedience.”
The name usually given to the mutinies in the fleet at the Nore and Spithead, which broke out in 1797. The discontent, due to real grievances, first showed itself at Spithead, where Lord Howe, who was in command, succeeded by his tact in arranging matters satisfactorily, and nothing very serious occurred. At the Nore the mutiny assumed a political character, the men demanding a revision of the Articles of War and other impossible concessions. Their demands being refused the mutineers seized the fleet, but gradually yielded, and finally Parker, the ringleader, was arrested and hanged, with four or five others.
SeeBaiser de Lamourette.
A council established by Henry VIII in 1536, after the Insurrection of the North, to deal with questions arising out of that event. In the reign of Charles I it was reorganized by Wentworth on the lines of the Star Chamber, and it was finally abolished by Act of Parliament in 1641.
A Russian secret society. (SeeDecember Rising.)
A confederation of twenty-two States north of the Maine, formed in 1867, after the signing of the Treaty of Prague, under the perpetual presidency of Prussia. Two assemblies were formed, one, the Reichstag, being representative of the people, the other, the Bundesrath, being composed of delegates from the Governments of the twenty-two States.
A treaty between England and Scotland, signed in 1328, by which Robert Bruce was acknowledged as King of Scotland, and the independence of Scotland was recognized, Edward III renouncing his suzerainty. Bruce agreed to pay compensation for damage in the North of England, and to reinstate the Scottish lords who had been dispossessed on account of their supporting Edward.
A treaty signed between Æthelred and the Northmen in868, by which Mercia was saved from their depredations.
The Vendean refugees who had fled to Nantes in 1793 were, by order of Carrier, crowded into boats, which were towed out into the middle of the river and sunk. This wholesale murder is known as “The Noyades.”
A code of laws designed to ameliorate the condition of the Indians in the Spanish Colonies, promulgated at Madrid in 1543. They were largely due to the efforts of Las Casas.
The supporters of State Rights in the Southern States were thus called, from the action of South Carolina, in 1832, in declaring unconstitutional and “nullifying” an Act of Congress imposing import duties on textile fabrics.
The famous number of theNorth Briton, which appeared on April 23, 1763, and attacked the King’s Speech at the close of the previous session. It led to the expulsion of John Wilkes from the House of Commons.
Elizabeth Barton, a woman of humble birth, who claimed to have the gift of prophecy, and formed a rallying point for the discontented Catholics after the divorce of Catherine by Henry VIII. She was in correspondence with Catherine and with the Emperor, and although no treasonable practices could be proved against her, she was an undoubted danger to the State. She was arrested and executed in 1534.
A name given derisively to the State of Connecticut in allusion to their supposed large trade in wooden nutmegs.
A treaty between Russia and Sweden, signed in 1721, at the conclusion of the prolonged war which had been commenced in 1700. Peter the Great secured for Russia the provinces, of Livonia, Esthonia, Ingria, Carelia, and part of Finland.
A series of riots which disturbed London in 1809, owing to Kemble having raised the prices at Covent Garden Theatre. The mob demanded the “old prices.” Clifford, a barrister, was charged with inciting to riot by appearing in the theatre with the letters “O.P.” in his hat, but was acquitted, whereupon Kemble gave way.
An agrarian society in Ulster in 1763. It was formed to protest against the action of the Grand Juries, who had decided upon the construction of certain roads which the peasantry maintained were to be made solely in the interests of the great landowners.
A formula drawn up after Gunpowder Plot in 1606, whichasserted the supremacy of the Sovereign in ecclesiastical matters, and denied the power of the Pope to relieve his subjects from their allegiance, or to depose him.
The oath of allegiance taken by Charles and Louis, the sons of Louis le Débonnaire, to their brother Lothair, the Emperor, after the battle of Fontenay in 841.
The chief of the Westphalian Vehmgericht, as representative of the Emperor. The post was usually filled by the Archbishop of Cologne.
A proclamation under the Great Seal in 1603, by which James I promised a complete amnesty to all those who had taken part in the rebellions in Ireland during the reign of his predecessor.
A bill introduced into Parliament in 1703 to render illegal the practice of nonconformists receiving the sacrament according to the rites of the Church of England, in order to qualify for municipal office, and then returning to their own form of worship. The bill entailed heavy penalties on all those who held office under these conditions. The bill failed to pass, was reintroduced in the following session, and was again thrown out, while a further attempt to pass it in 1704 was defeated by the Lords. It at last became law in 1711.
The nickname given to the following of Daniel O’Connell in the House of Commons, after the passing of the Reform Bill of 1832.
A club composed of Tories and Jacobites, formed in 1710. Among its members were Bolingbroke and his followers.
A system of land tenure among the Norsemen, by which property in the land was absolute. It was probably land allotted to the warrior after conquest, to be held by him and his descendants, though according to the Gulathing’s law, it could not become Odal until it had been held for three generations. The udallers of Orkney hold under this tenure.
SeeStorthing.
The General Councils of the Church accepted by ecclesiastical authorities as genuinely Œcumenical are twenty-one in number, namely: two of Nicæa, four of Constantinople, Ephesus, Chalcedon, five Lateran Councils, two of Lyons, Vienna, Constance, Basle, Florence, Trent and the Vatican.
The name given to the antechamber in the Palace of Versailles. It was so called from two bull’s-eye windows near the ceiling.
A company of Virginian settlers who colonised the Ohio Valley under a charter from the British Government in 1749.
A nickname of President Abraham Lincoln.
A section of the Roman Catholics in Germany who, under the leadership of Dr. Döllinger, rejected the dogma of Papal Infallibility imposed by the Vatican Council in 1870.
The Conservative section of the Czech or National party in Bohemia.
A name given to the State of Virginia, as the original English Colony in America.
A sobriquet of William III of England.
Andrew Jackson, President of the United States from 1829 to 1837, was so called on account of his obstinacy of character.
The Conservative wing of the Democratic party in New York, 1824-1848.
The State of Maryland is so called with reference to the Mason and Dixon Line, which divides it from Pennsylvania.
SeeAssassins.
A nickname of Mr. W. H. Smith, leader of the House of Commons from 1887 1891.
A nickname of Oliver Cromwell.
James Edward, son of James II, was so called by the adherents of the Hanoverian succession.
General Zachary Taylor, President of the United States in 1849, was so called by his soldiers during the Mexican war.
A nickname of Charles II.
The old or Julian Calendar, superseded in England by the Gregorian in 1751, but still in use in Russia.
A code of commercial and maritime laws founded on the Consolato del Mare, issued in the reign of Louis IX of France.
An appeal to the King by the Second American Congress, 1775, expressing a desire for reconciliation, but offering no concessions. The King, however, refused to receive it, on the ground that it was issued by an unauthorized assembly.
Also called the Humiliation of Olmütz. A convention signed in 1850 between Prussia and Austria, by which the former Power renounced all her projects of union, and recognized the restoration of the old Germanic Diet, under the presidency of Austria.
An extension of the Monroe Doctrine put forward by Mr. Olney, President Cleveland’s Secretary of State, in a despatch on the Venezuela boundary question in July, 1895. He claimed that Great Britain had no right to interfere on the American Continent, and that, if force was necessary, British Guiana must rely on her own resources, without calling in aid from Great Britain. He further maintained that the United States had a right to insist upon all claims concerning questions of territory being submitted to arbitration unreservedly, and was justified in taking steps to satisfy herself that no territory had been or was being unwarrantably annexed. Lord Salisbury absolutely repudiated this doctrine, and refused in any sense to accept it as binding on Great Britain.
A secret society having its headquarters in Servia, whose object is the establishment of a Pan-Slavic confederation on a republican basis. It has from time to time caused Austria some trouble in Bohemia.
The declared English policy in China, as opposed to the policy of “Spheres of Influence.” It is defined in the Anglo-German agreement of 1900 as the free access, under equal conditions, of all nations to the ports, rivers and littorals of China.
A commission appointed in 1893 to inquire into the opium question in India. The commission reported in 1895, eight out of nine members signing the report, to the effect that the use of opium in India was strictly moderate, that native opinion made no demand for restriction, that any interference with the growing of opium in the native states would be unjustifiable, and that the Government of China was perfectly satisfied with the existing arrangements as to the opium trade. There was, therefore, in the opinion of the commissioners, absolutely no ground for legislative interference.
The war with China in 1840 is so called, because it arose out of the action of the Chinese authorities, who in their efforts to stop opium smuggling, insisted on the forfeiture of the stocks of opium in the hands of British merchants in China. It resulted in the cession to Great Britain in perpetuity of Hong Kong, and the opening of Canton, Amoy, Foochow, Ningpo and Shanghai as treaty ports.
A school, rather than a party, in French politics who, unlike the Doctrinaires, do not seek to enforce their views in season and out of season, but allow due weight to considerations of expediency. Among them may be named Gambetta and Jules Ferry.
A nickname given to Sir Robert Peel, when Chief Secretary for Ireland in 1812-18,on account of the strong anti-Catholic bias he is considered to have displayed.
A society of the Protestants of Ulster, founded in 1790, originally in opposition to the Catholic Defenders. It has remained, however, a strong and important body in the north of Ireland, firmly attached to the Union, and bitterly anti-Catholic.
A commission of twenty-one persons, to whom the Government of England was confided for a period of eighteen months (1309-1310) during the reign of Edward II. Their task was to propound a scheme for the reform of the Government.