A tax of a tenth on all property, imposed by Henry III for the prosecution of the Crusades.
A council summoned by Ferdinand of Spain in 1486, to which were submitted the plans of Columbus for a voyage to the West.
A treaty signed in 1782 at the close of the first Mahratta War, by which the Mahrattas agreed to pension Raghoba, and Haidar Ali surrendered all his conquests. It was further stipulated that all Europeans other than British and Portuguese should be expelled from the Mahratta States.
A nickname bestowed by the Spaniards on Thomas, Duke of Genoa, who was put forward by Marshal Prim as a candidate for the Spanish throne.
A Court of Record of the Hundred of Salford, which dates back to Anglo-Saxon times. It is one of the very few mediæval courts which were not abolished by the Judicature Act of 1873.
A code of laws promulgated by Clovis, generally called the founder of the French Monarchy, circ. 500. By the Salic Law women were forbidden to inherit land, a prohibition which was afterwards interpreted as including the right of succession to the throne. The English Kings refused to accept this interpretation, and the various attempts they made to enforce their claim to the French throne led to the prolonged conflict known as the Hundred Years War, which broke out in the reign of Edward III. Edward claimed the throne through his mother Isabella, daughter of Philip IV, all of whose sons died without male issue.
The name given to the Moorish pirates who infested the Mediterranean till well into the nineteenth century. Sallee or Sali, one of their principal ports, is on the Atlantic coast of Morocco.
A conference held at Berlin in 1889, at which Germany, Great Britain and the United States were represented. An arrangement was arrived at by which the three Powers recognized the independence of Samoa, and the right of the natives to elect their king. At the same time provision was made for a Supreme Court of Justice, under European control, and for the regulation of the trade in arms and intoxicating liquors. It was superseded in 1899 by the Samoan Treaty.
A treaty between Germany, Great Britain and the United States signed in 1899, after the suppression of the civil war between Mataafa and Malietoa. Germany obtained possession of Samoa, and the United States secured a naval port at Tutuila, in Pago Pago, while England’s rights over Tonga were recognized. Equal liberty of trading was secured to all the contracting parties.
The military, governing and literary class in Old Japan, the retainers of the Daimios. They were the highest of the four classes into which the nation was divided, and formed in fact the gentry of Japan. The army and navy of to-day are almost exclusively officered by members of the Samurai families.
A treaty between Spain and the French Directoire, signed in 1794, providing that either Power, in the case of one or the other being attacked, should provide for its ally material aid in the shape of fifteen ships of war, and a land contingent of 24,000 men. This provision, however, was not to apply to the war in which France was then engaged, excepting only in the case of England, against whom Spain, having grievances of her own, was prepared to take up arms at once.
The question as to the ownership of the island of San Juan, lying between Vancouver and the American coast, arose out of the wording of the Treaty of Ghent in 1818, by which instrument the middle of the channel between Vancouver and the mainland was fixed as the boundary. San Juan being in the middle of the channel, the question of ownership was adoubtful one, but the arbitrators, in 1872, decided in favour of the United States.
A treaty signed by Russia and Turkey, at the close of the Russo-Turkish War in 1878. By its provisions the whole of the Christian provinces of Turkey were rendered practically independent, while Bulgaria was erected into an important state with a port on the Ægean Sea. England refused to recognize this treaty, and eventually Russia agreed to submit it to a European Congress, which was held at Berlin in the autumn of the same year.
The right claimed by the Church of affording protection to criminals who took refuge in churches and other consecrated precincts. In some cases these refugees from justice were enabled to set the law at defiance for years, by keeping within these precincts. Some of the most notorious of these cities of refuge were abolished by Act of Parliament in 1697, but it was not until the reign of George I that the last of them, the Sanctuary of St. Peter’s, Westminster, ceased to exist.
A treaty signed in 1852 by which the British Government recognized the right of the emigrants beyond the Vaal to manage their own affairs, and govern themselves in accordance with their own laws. Other clauses of the Convention provided for free trade, except in arms, arbitration in any dispute that might arise in respect of the boundary over the Drakensberg, extradition, and free passage of the Vaal for all except criminals and fugitive debtors. The British Government further disclaimed the right to make treaties with native tribes north of the Vaal.
A league of the nobles of Little Poland formed in 1702 to oppose Charles XII of Sweden and support Augustus II.
A Neapolitan secret society established in Naples, with the approval of the Pope, during the first decade of the nineteenth century, to oppose the Carbonari and support the Church.
A declaration issued by Richard Cameron and other leaders of the Covenanters in 1680, proclaiming that Charles I had forfeited the crown by his breach of the Covenant.
The sobriquet of the Maréchale Lefebvre, Duchesse de Dantzic, given her on account of her free and easy manners at the Court of Napoleon. She had been a washerwoman, and afterwards followed her husband in the wars as a vivandière.
Voltaire’s name for Frederick the Great of Prussia (1740-86).
The revolutionary rabble of Paris, so called by the Royalists because they wore trousers instead of the knee-breechesaffected by the upper classes. The word means literally “without breeches.”
SeeHermandad.
A league of the Castilian cities in 1520, under Juan de Padilla and Ferdinand de Avalos, which refused to recognize the authority of Adrian Boyens, the Fleming appointed Regent by Charles V. Charles offered certain concessions, which were refused, and a civil war resulted, which ended in the total defeat of the Junta in 1521, though Toledo held out for another year. This rising is also known as the Revolt of the Communeros.
A Spanish order of religious chivalry founded in 1170, and approved by Papal Bull in 1175. Its members were vowed to obedience, community of goods and conjugal chastity, and also to perpetual war against the Mussulman.
A treaty between Chile and Bolivia, concluded in 1866, delimiting the frontier between the two States.
This kingdom came into existence in 1720, when Sardinia was ceded by Austria to the House of Savoy, in exchange for Sicily, the name being applied to the new combination of Savoy, Sardinia and Piedmont. It lasted until Victor Emmanuel became King of United Italy in 1861.
A convention, signed in 1855, by which the King of Sardinia undertook to furnish 15,000 men in aid of France and England in the Crimea, the troops to be transported by England. In return the allies guaranteed the integrity of the King’s dominions.
A league formed in 1832 by the cantons of Basle, Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Valais, and Neuchâtel to oppose Federal revision and support the Federal Pact of 1815. It was also called the Sonderbund.
An agreement arrived at in 1578 between the Protestant party and the Catholic magistrates of Amsterdam, whereby, following the example of other Dutch cities, the two religions were placed on an equal footing.
A rising of the Prince of Satsuma against the Japanese Government in 1877, at the head of the party opposed to reform. The rebellion was soon suppressed.
A codification of the French Commercial Law, issued by Louis XIV in 1673.
The Duke of Wellington was so called after the battle of Waterloo.
A conference of bishops of the Church of England, held in 1661, with the object of so amending the liturgy as to permit of the Puritan party remaining in the Church. It was, however, found impossible to arrive at any acceptable middle course.
A declaration of faith of the Congregational Churches of England, issued in 1658. It is a modification of the Westminster Confession.
The ancient name of the coast line of England, from the Wash to Shoreham.
Judicial assessors, twelve in number, chosen by the allodial landowners, who accompanied each Count to the general assemblies of the early French kings.
The bards of the ancient Norsemen were so called.
The spreading of libellous reports concerning peers, judges or great officers of the State was created an offence by a statute of 1275, which was repealed in 1887.
After the Avignon Captivity and the death of Gregory XI, the cardinals, under pressure of the Roman populace, elected as Pope in 1378 a perfectly unfit person, who took the name of Urban VI. They endeavoured to persuade him to resign, but failing, elected Robert of Geneva, who took the name of Clement VII. The schism continued, each Pope having a successor appointed at his death, till at the Council of Pisa, in 1409, both were deposed, and a Franciscan monk elected who took the name of Alexander V. As neither of the deposed Popes would give way, there were now three. Alexander was succeeded by Cossa, as John XXIII, and finally the schism was ended by the Council of Constance in 1415, where all three Popes were deposed, and Martin V, a Colonna, was elected.
An Act passed in 1714, by which all persons were forbidden to keep schools or act as tutors, who were not members of the Church of England, and duly licensed for the purpose by the bishop. It was repealed in 1719.
The severance between the Churches of the East and the West, which became final in 1054, when the legates of Pope Victor II laid the papal anathema upon the altar of St. Sophia of Constantinople.
By the Treaty of London of 1852 it was provided that the succession to the Danish throne was to be vested in Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein, but that the Duchies, one of which, Holstein, was a German Duchy, sending delegates to the German Diet, should not be incorporated in the kingdom of Denmark. The Danes, however, did not observe the compact, and before the death of Frederick VII of Denmark, in 1862, Schleswig had been made practically a part of Denmark. After the succession of Christian IX, Austria and Prussia, finding protests unavailing, entered the Duchies, and, after a shortstruggle, overwhelmed the Danish army. By the Treaty of Gastein, signed in 1865, Schleswig was allotted to Prussia and Holstein to Austria.
A profession of the Lutheran doctrine, similar to, but more forcibly worded than, the Augsburg Confession, drawn up by Luther at the request of John Frederick of Saxony.
A confederation of the Lutheran Princes of Germany, headed by the Elector of Saxony, formed in 1530 to unite the supporters of the Reformed Religion against Charles V.
The line of demarcation between British Guiana and Venezuela fixed by Sir Robert Schomburgk in his official survey of the colony in 1840. The Schomburgk Line was, with unimportant exceptions, upheld by the arbitrators in the Venezuelan arbitration award of 1899.
A proclamation of Napoleon in 1805, declaring the deposition of the Bourbons from the throne of Naples.
A treaty between France and Prussia, signed in December 1805, by which Napoleon succeeded in detaching Prussia from the coalition. Prussia entered into an offensive and defensive alliance with France, and surrendered Anspach and Neuchâtel, receiving Hanover in exchange.
SeeQueensberry Plot.
A sobriquet of James I of England and VI of Scotland.
A system of election by which every Department is divided into wards, or divisions, each returning one member to the Chamber of Deputies. It is the system at present in force in France.
A system of election in France by which all the deputies for a Department are electeden bloc. It was in force in 1848 and again in 1871, while an unsuccessful attempt to reintroduce it was made in 1881. It is also the system prevailing in Italy.
The massacre by the Irish Rebels in 1798 of nearly 200 Protestant prisoners. They were shut up in a barn, and after the defeat of the rebels at New Ross, the barn was fired and they were burnt to death, or piked as they attempted to escape.
A money payment exacted from knights in lieu of personal service. The first instance of it occurs in the reign of Henry II. It enabled the king to hire mercenaries for his foreign wars, and to dispense with the services of his barons, and came to be regarded as a regular source of revenue. The right of the sovereign to exact it, however, was greatly restricted by Magna Charta. It was also known as escuage.
English privateers in the early days of Elizabeth, who preyed on French commerce in the Channel, sailing under letters of marque granted by Condé and the Huguenots. When the differences between the Huguenots and Catholics were adjusted and the letters of marque withdrawn, they joined the Dutch “Beggars of the Sea” in their raids upon the Spaniards.
A small band of Royalists formed as a secret committee to manage the affairs of the party in 1657. One of their number, Willis, was in the pay of Cromwell, who was thereby enabled to counteract their numerous plots for his destruction.
The declaration issued by South Carolina in 1860 dissolving its union with the United States. The other Southern States followed with similar declarations.
A sobriquet of Charles V, Emperor of Germany (1519-58).
Henry Clay, the American statesman (1777-1852), was so called.
A document published in theTimesof July 25, 1870, purporting to be the text of a treaty between France and Prussia, containing the following provisions: the recognition by France of Prussia’s acquisitions in the war with Austria; an undertaking by Prussia to use her influence with Holland to secure Luxemburg for France, and to aid France if she found it necessary to undertake the conquest of Belgium, providing a force if required to resist any foreign interference; an undertaking by France not to oppose Prussia’s designs for the unification of Germany. Whether this treaty was ever signed or not, there is little doubt that proposals of this nature were made to Bismarck by Benedetti, Napoleon’s minister at Berlin.
October 5, 1794, on which day the troops of the Convention, under Buonaparte, routed the National Guard of the “Sections” of Paris and established the rule of the Directoire, thus marking the end of the Revolution.
SeeAlbigenses, Alumbrados, Anabaptists, Arminians, Arya Somaj, Assassins, Bianchi, Brahmo Somaj, Brownists, Calixtines, Cameronians, Doppers, Dukhobors, Erastians, Fifth Monarchy Men, Flagellants, Hussites, Iconoclasts, Illuminati, Independents, Jansenists, Karmathians, Latitudinarians, Levellers, Lollards, Molokani, Moravians, Mormons, Old Catholics, Quakers, Quietists, Senussi, Shakers, Shiah, Sikhs, Socinians, Skoptsi, Stundists, Sunni, Taborites, Utraquists, Wahabis, Waldenses.
By a treaty concluded in 1803, in the promotion of which Napoleon took a prominent part, the ecclesiastical States of Germany, three of which, the Sees of Mayence, Treves and Cologne, were Electors to theImperial crown, were secularized and distributed among the other German States.
A Bill brought forward at the instance of Charles II in 1679, to provide for the succession of James, who was a declared Roman Catholic. The Bill provided that while a Catholic prince was on the throne the right of appointing to livings should be withdrawn from him, and that the appointment of all judges, councillors, lords lieutenant and officers of the fleet should be in the hands of the two Houses of Parliament. This Bill was not considered sufficiently stringent.
An Act passed by the Scottish Parliament in 1703, declaring that the successor of Queen Anne in Scotland should not be the same as in England, unless free commercial intercourse were secured between the two countries.
A name bestowed on Napoleon III after his surrender, with the army of Macmahon, at Sédan in September, 1870.
A resolution of the Parliament, passed at the instance of Cromwell, by which the members of both Houses were made ineligible for commands in the army. Its object was to get rid of some of the Parliamentary generals, such as Manchester, Essex and Waller, in as delicate a way as possible. The resolution was at first rejected by the Lords, but was afterwards passed.
The village elder or elected head of a Russian mir, or village community.
Margaret of Denmark (1387) was so called. Voltaire also gave this title to Catherine of Russia (1729-96).
A military ordinance promulgated in 1393 by the eight federated cantons of Switzerland, together with Soleure, making provision for the repression of private war, brigandage and pillage.
A Mohammedan religious fraternity founded at Fez by Mohammed-es-Senussi about 1830. It has spread all over Northern Africa, and is a powerful factor in uniting African Mohammedanism.
A convention between France and Italy, signed in 1864, by which Louis Napoleon agreed gradually to withdraw the French troops from Rome, Victor Emmanuel undertaking not to violate the Pope’s territory.
A series of laws restricting the liberty of the Press, passed in France in 1835.
The massacre, after a mock trial, of the priests, officials and other Royalists confined in the prisons of Paris between the 2nd and 6th of September, 1792. About 1,000 prisoners are known to have perished. The men engaged in the massacre wereafterwards called the Septembriseurs.
A section of the democratic party of Portugal, during the reign of Queen Maria, who in September, 1836, demanded the abrogation of the Charter of 1826 and a return to the democratic form of government established by the Constitution of 1824. A compromise between them and the supporters of the Charter was effected in 1852.
An Act passed in 1716, prolonging the term of the then existing Parliament from three to seven years. It was intended as a temporary measure, but has never been repealed, and is the Act under which Parliaments are now held.
Prior to the emancipation of the serfs by Alexander II. in 1861, the Russian peasants were serfs, either of the State, or of a great landowner. The State serfs were practically free, with the exception that they could not change their domicile, but they were permitted, on payment of a small fee, to leave their villages, subject to the due payment of their share of the village taxes. The serfs of the nobles were more like slaves. Some of them were taken as house servants, others remained in the villages and rendered certain services to the lord in return for the land which he surrendered to the village commune. The house serfs were practically chattels, and were not infrequently sold.
A treaty signed in 1792 at the close of the third Mysore War, by which Tippu Sahib surrendered Dindigul, Baramahal and Malabar, and agreed to pay a war indemnity of three crores of rupees to the British and thirty lacs to the Mahratta States.
A measure passed in Venice in 1298 providing that no citizens should be eligible for election to the Grand Council except the families of senators then in office. The Government was thus established on purely aristocratic lines.
A treaty signed in 1375 between Mourad I, Sultan of Turkey, and Lazar, Despot of Servia, by which Servia acknowledged the suzerainty of Turkey and agreed to pay an annual tribute.
An Act passed in 1882, introduced by Lord Cairns, removing many of the restrictions and difficulties existing in dealing with entailed estates.
An Act passed by Cromwell, providing for the banishment of all the officers of the Catholic army in Ireland, who, with their followers, withdrew to the Continent, to the number of some 30,000; the confiscation of a portion of the property of the remaining Royalists, and the distribution of their lands among the English adventurers. It further confined the Catholics to the right bank of the Shannon.
An Act passed after the Restoration, by which, and a supplementary Act passed in 1665, restitution was made to the dispossessed Royalist officers and some others, partly out of lands which had not been alienated by Cromwell, and partly out of land surrendered, to the extent of one-third of their estates, by the adventurers. The majority of the claims for compensation were disregarded, with the result that by far the larger part of Ireland remained in Protestant hands. This Act was repealed by the Irish Parliament summoned by James II in 1689.
The Act settling the succession after the death of Queen Anne upon the Electress Sophia of Hanover and her descendants. It provided for various limitations of the royal prerogative; among its provisions being that the sovereign should be a member of the Church of England; that Great Britain should not be called upon to defend any territories not being British territory, without the consent of Parliament; that the sovereign should not quit the realm; that no person born out of the realm should be capable of holding office under the Crown, and that no person holding office or enjoying a pension should sit in the House of Commons.
A law passed in 1662, providing that a labourer not born in the parish or resident therein for forty days, might be removed to the parish of his birth or former residence, on complaint of the overseers that he was likely to become chargeable to the rates. The object was that each parish should be compelled to support its own paupers, under the Poor Law of Elizabeth.
An Act passed in 1858, transferring to the Government of the Queen all the territories hitherto governed by the East India Company.
A petition signed by the Archbishop of Canterbury and six bishops against the Declaration of Indulgence of James II in 1687. The bishops were brought before the Council and ordered to find bail, and on refusing were committed to the Tower.
The Siebenkonkordat, a league of the liberal Cantons, Lucerne, Zurich, Berne, Soleure, St. Gall, Aargau and Thurgau, formed in 1832, with the object of protecting the constitutions of these Cantons and promoting Federal reforms.
A series of battles fought during the Peninsular Campaign of the American Civil War, from June 25 to July 1, 1862, between the Federals under McClellan and the Confederates under Lee. McClellan was driven back to the James River.
Masaniello was so called after his brief rule in Naples in 1647.
The dignitaries next in importance to the king in mediæval Scotland. In the time of Alexander I they formed the Council of the Kingdom, and they claimed the right of appointing the king.
The seven men chosen in 1639 by the Puritan colonists of New Haven to organize the Government of the colony. The most prominent among them were Eaton and Davenport.
A document published in 1871, purporting to be an agreement between certain prominent Conservatives and the delegates of the Council of Skilled Workmen, on the subject of social reform. As the “points” included a statutory eight hours’ day, free places of amusement and full local self-government in all towns and villages, it is not surprising that the document was repudiated by most of those who were said to have signed it, including Lords Salisbury, Lorne and Carnarvon.
The war between Prussia and Austria in 1866 is so called.
The war maintained by Frederick the Great, with some aid, chiefly naval and financial, from England, against the combined forces of France, Russia, Austria, Sweden and Saxony. It lasted from 1756 to 1763, but early in 1762 Frederick succeeded in detaching Russia from the allies and received her aid till the end of the struggle.
A treaty signed in 1729 by England, Spain and France, and subsequently Holland, thus detaching Spain from the Austrian alliance concluded by the Treaty of Vienna of 1725. Spain revoked all the concessions made to Austria under that instrument, again confirmed the Asiento, and in return received the support of the other signatories to the succession of Don Carlos to the Duchies of Tuscany and Parma.
A sect founded in England about 1757 by a body of seceders from the Quakers, under Ann Lee, known as Mother Ann. They emigrated to America in 1772, where they are found chiefly in New York State.
A rising in Massachusetts in 1786, headed by an ex-officer named Daniel Shays, in opposition to a decision of Congress to apportion the National Debt of the United States among the various States of the Union. The rising was quickly suppressed by the militia, and the ring leaders arrested.
The Hundred Court, when occupied with the View of Frank pledge, was known by this name.
The famous march of General Sherman during the American Civil War from Atlanta to Savannah, a distance of 300 miles, which he accomplished in about a month, reaching Savannah in December, 1864.
Isabel, daughter of Philip the Fair, and Queen of Edward II of England, was so called.
The chief of the Ulema of Constantinople.
One of the two great Mohammedan sects. It rejects the Sunni, or body of tradition, accepting the Koran only.
A treaty, closing the Chino-Japanese War, signed April 10, 1895. China agreed to cede to Japan Formosa, the Pescadores and the Liao-Tung Peninsula, including Port Arthur, and to pay an indemnity of 200 million taels. However, Russia, France and Germany intervened and forced Japan to surrender the Liao-Tung peninsula, receiving as compensation an additional 30 million taels.
The ancient and also the State religion of Japan. It is in its origin a form of ancestor and hero worship, but has been much corrupted by the interweaving of many of the grosser Buddhistic superstitions.
A tax imposed by Charles I in 1634, first on the maritime counties, but later on the whole kingdom, ostensibly to protect the country from the incursions of the Algerine pirates and from Dutch aggression, but in reality to provide himself with funds without having recourse to Parliament. It was in resisting the payment of this tax that Hampden first became prominent. The House of Commons declared it illegal in 1641, and at the same time impeached the six judges who had pronounced in favour of the right of the Crown to impose it.
Thede factoruler of Japan prior to the Revolution of 1868. The title signifies Commander-in-Chief, and his relations with the Tenno or Mikado, the legitimate sovereign of Japan, were analogous to those of the Maire du Palais and the Merovingian Rois Fainéants. The title of Tycoon or Great Prince was assumed by the Shôgun to impress the Western nations with his dignity when diplomatic relations were first opened with Japan. The title of Shôgun was first borne by Minamoto-no-Yoritomo in 1192.
A Parliament summoned by Charles I in 1640 in the hope of obtaining supplies to meet the threatened renewal of hostilities with Scotland. The Parliament met on April 13, but finding it more intent on the redress of grievances than on the grant of supplies, Charles dissolved it on May 5 following.
The name given to the Ministry formed by William Pulteney, Earl of Bath, in February, 1746. It held office for two days only.
A rising in Sicily in 1282, when the adherents of Don Pedro of Aragon, a claimant to the Sicilian throne, annihilated the French garrison of his rival Charles of Anjou. The first outbreak took place at Palermo, and the insurrection spread rapidly through the island tillnot a Frenchman was left alive in Sicily.
A phrase commonly applied to the Turkish Empire. It was first used in its present form by Nicholas I of Russia in 1854, but Montesquieu (1689-1755) in theLettres Persanesspeaks of the Ottoman Empire as “Ce corps malade” (This sickly body).
SeeSeven Cantons.
The famous code of laws compiled by Alfonso (surnamed the Wise), of Leon and Castille (1252-82). The code became the basis of the law of Spain.
The name given to the head of the Whiteboys, an Irish Secret Society in Munster in 1761.
The sobriquet of William I, Prince of Orange (1533-84).
An outbreak of the Spitalfields weavers in 1765 owing to their disappointment at the rejection of a Bill prohibiting the importation of foreign silks. They were, after serious rioting, quieted by the promise that the Bill would be reintroduced.
A nickname of William IV.
An Act of Congress, passed in 1890, by which the Treasury is obliged to purchase four and a half million ounces of silver monthly at market price, such price not to exceed 371¼ grains of silver per dollar.
A religious sect in Northern India, founded in the sixteenth century by Babu Nának. They profess a reformed form of Hinduism, rejecting caste and various Brahminical superstitions. Under Govind Rai, towards the end of the seventeenth century, they formed a strong military organization, which reached its zenith under Ranjit Singh early in the nineteenth century. Their power was finally crushed by the British in 1851.
A treaty between Great Britain and China, signed in 1890, by which China recognized the British rights in Sikkim.
A proclamation issued by Lord Auckland in 1838 setting out the British policy with regard to Afghanistan. It declared that Dost Mahomed and his brother had shown themselves unfriendly to England by supporting the Persian designs on Herat and by attacking Ranjit Singh. That in consequence the British Government had decided to support the claim of Shah Sujah-ul-Mulk to the throne of Afghanistan and maintain him thereon by force if necessary.
A controversy in the Irish Parliament, which arose in 1782 immediately after the establishment of Grattan’s Parliament. A party headed by Flood held that the abnegation by England of her former legislative control was not sufficient, as she might at any time re-enact theobnoxious controlling laws. He held that England should expressly renounce all controlling rights. Grattan held that the repeal of these enactments was sufficient, and carried Parliament with him, but the masses continued to hold the opposite opinion.
The title of the Mahratta rulers of Gwalior.
The destruction of a Turkish squadron by the Russian fleet at Sinope in 1853. It seems clear that no quarter was given, and it is said that of the crews of nine Turkish men-of-war only 400 survived, almost all of whom were wounded.
A treaty between the British and Daulat Rao Sindhia of Gwalior, signed in 1803 at the close of the second Mahratta War. Sindhia ceded to the British all his territory between the Jumna and the Ganges, all north of Jeypur, Jodhpur and Gohad, and all between Adjanta Ghât and the Godaveri, together with the town and district of Ahmednaggar.
A treaty between Austria, Prussia, and Turkey, signed in 1791, by which Leopold of Austria surrendered all his conquests, in consequence of the mediation of Prussia and England. By a separate convention the Porte agreed to cede to Austria Old Orsova and a small district in Croatia.
A treaty between Austria and the Porte, signed in 1607. The Porte abandoned the tribute hitherto paid by Austria, recognized the Austrian Sovereign as Emperor, instead of only King of Vienna, as the Turks had hitherto styled him, and agreed that the future diplomatic intercourse should be carried on on a footing of equality between the two nations. This treaty may be said to mark the turning point in the fortunes of the Ottoman Empire.
A series of enactments passed in the autumn session of 1819 to strengthen the law against sedition, in view of the numerous risings of the past few years. They were as follows: (1) An Act to prevent delay in the administration of justice; (2) an Act to prevent the training of persons in the use of arms; (3) an Act for the prevention of blasphemy and seditious libel; (4) an Act authorizing Justices of the Peace to seize and retain arms; (5) an Act subjecting certain publications to the newspaper stamp duty; and (6) an Act to prevent seditious assemblies.
An Act passed in 1539, at the instance of the Anti-Reformers headed by Norfolk, by which the acceptance of six cardinal articles of the Catholic faith was made obligatory under heavy penalties. It was repealed by an Act passed in 1547, on the accession of Edward VI.
By a decree of the Diet of Augsburg in 1500, Germany was divided into six circles—Bavaria,Franconia, The Rhine, Saxony, Suabia and Westphalia.
A league formed in 1346 by the German towns of Bautzen, Görlitz, Kamenz, Lauban, Löbau and Zittau for mutual protection against the marauding barons.
A series of edicts of a liberal character issued by Turgot, the minister of Louis XVI in 1776. They provided for the suppression of (1) the Caisse de Poissy; (2) duties on grain in the markets; (3) harbour dues; (4) statutes of apprenticeship and incorporation; (5) the corvée, and for (6) the diminution of market dues. They met with much opposition, and were not registered without recourse to a Lit de Justice, while they eventually led to Turgot’s downfall.
The five tribes of North American Indians known as the Five Nations admitted into their confederacy, in 1715, the Tuscaroras, and were afterwards known as the Six Nations.
The O.P. riots were so called, as being caused by the decision of the managers of Covent Garden Theatre to raise the prices by sixpence.
A society formed about 1584 by the more violent partisans of the League. It was so called because its proceedings were directed by a committee of sixteen, each of whom took a district of Paris under his special charge.
A council provided by the will of Henry VIII, to act as regents until Edward VI came of age. They were also called the Executors.
SeeIskander Beg.
Bands of American marauders who infested the east bank of the Hudson during the American War of Independence.
The name given to a fund raised by the Fenians about 1880, for the purpose of procuring the commission of dynamite outrages in England.
A Russian sect of schismatics, who practise self-mutilation. They interpret the Scriptures literally, and act on the injunction: “If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out.”
The Servian National Assembly.
An insurrection of burghers in the Graaf-Reinet district of Cape Colony in 1815, arising out of an attempt to bring a certain Jan Bezuidenhoot to justice for ill-treating a Kaffir. He and his relations and neighbours rose against the Government, but were overpowered, after a short resistance, at Slachter’s Nek. Bezuidenhoot fled, but was killed by his pursuers a few days later. Six of the leaders were condemned to death, but at the execution four of the ropes broke. Notwithstanding the remonstrances of the spectators, who considered this to be a Divine intimation of their innocence, the sentence was duly carried out. This execution is still looked upon by the Dutch as one of the crimes of the British Government.
The third Dynasty of the Mohammedan Kings of India, founded by Kutb-ud-Din, the favourite slave of Mohammed of Ghor, who ruled as Mohammed’s viceroy from 1186 to 1206, and on his master’s death, without issue, ascended the throne. The dynasty lasted till 1288.
The trade in slaves was made a felony by an Act passed in 1807. The Act abolishing slavery in the British Dominions, known as the Emancipation Act, was not passed till 1833.
SeeAbolitionists, Anti-Slavery, Compromise Act, Dred Scott, Emancipation, Freesoilers. Fugitive, Harper’s Ferry, Kansas, Missouri Compromise, Squatter Sovereignty, Underground Railroad, Wilmot Proviso.
A band of educated Muscovites who led the reaction against the indiscriminate adoption of Western ideas, and the abandonment of ancient Russian customs. They were especially active about the period of the emancipation of the serfs in 1861, when the village communal system was threatened by the reforming party.
A system of graduated duties on imported corn, based upon the prices ruling for home-grown wheat, first adopted in the Corn Law of 1804.
A treaty between the Orange Free State and Moshesh, paramount chief of the Basutos, signed in 1855. It was designed to prevent friction between the Basutos and the farmers living along their borders, but Moshesh clearly had no intention of observing its provisions, and took no trouble to enforce them on his subjects.
A nickname given by the Viennese to Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden (1611-32).
A sobriquet of Christina, Queen of Sweden (1633-54).
The Bulgarian National Assembly.
SeeAlumbrados, Barn-burners, Boxers, Burschenschaft, Camorra, Carbonari, Clan-na-Gael, Consistoriali, Danites, Fenians, Gran Reunion, Great Triad, Hintchak, Human Leopards, Illuminati, Invincibles, Ku Klux, Lautaro, Levellers, Mafia, Molly Maguires, Moonlighters, Mutualists. Nihilists, Oakboys, Omladina, Orangemen, Patrons of Husbandry, Philike Hetairia, Ribbonism, Right, Rock, Saisons, Sanfedisti.
A sect founded by LæliusSocinus in 1560, which numbered many adherents in Poland. Their doctrines were similar to those of the modern Unitarians. In 1658 they were proscribed by the Diet of Warsaw, and the sect gradually faded out of existence.
The anti-slavery section of the Democratic party in New York from 1848 to 1854.
The earliest existing French edict. It had reference to the preservation of the public peace, and required the consent of the great feudal lords, who swore to obey it.
In Saxon times, freemen who owed suit to the Lord’s court, or Sok.
The Battle of Inkerman is so called, as having been for the most part a series of detached combats, in which regiments were broken up and officers separated from their men, owing to the dense fog that prevailed.
An agreement between Scotland and the Long Parliament in 1643, by which the former undertook to join forces with the Parliament against Charles I, on condition that the Oath of the Covenant was taken by the English.
A phrase used to express the consistency of the Southern States of America in their support of the Democratic Party. It appears to have been first applied during the presidential campaign of 1876. In 1896 the Solid South showed signs of breaking up, four Southern States being carried by the Republicans.
A system of taxation in France in the seventeenth century, by which a peasant was held responsible for the taxes of his neighbours, though he might himself have paid all that was due from him.
A sobriquet of Louis IX of France (1226-70).
The title given by the Parliamentarians to Charles II, after the execution of his father. Charles I, was styled the Last Man, as implying that he was the last who would sit on the English throne.
SeeSarnen, League of.
A society of Americans, pledged to work for liberty in the American colonies, which was founded in New York in 1765. It derived its name from a phrase used by Isaac Barré, in a speech in the House of Commons during the debate on the Stamp Bill in 1765. The last achievement of the Society was the convening of the Continental Congress in 1774.
A rising of the Sonthal hillmen in India in 1855, due to dislike of the procedure of the courts of justice in enforcing the claims of Bengali moneylenders. They raided theEuropean stations, and were not subdued without considerable difficulty.
A tax payable to Denmark by all foreign ships entering or quitting the Baltic. It was abolished in 1857.
A scheme professedly for trading to the Pacific, originally launched in 1711. In 1720 Sir John Blount, one of the directors, negotiated an arrangement with the Government, by which the Company took over the National Debt, amounting to some sixteen millions, the Government paying a lower rate of interest than they had been paying to the annuitants. The Company then persuaded the holders of Government Annuities to exchange them for shares in the Company. The plan was fairly successful, but led to a wild inflation in the value of the shares, and in the subsequent collapse thousands were ruined.
A treaty of alliance between England and Holland, signed in 1625, pledging the contracting parties to support each other against Spain, so long as she occupied any part of the Palatinate. England, however, reserved to herself the right to claim compensation from Holland for the massacre of Amboyna.
The name given to the sack of Antwerp by the Spaniards under Sancho d’Avila, in 1576. It is estimated that over 7,000 of the inhabitants perished.
Properly the mainland between the mouth of the Orinoco and the Isthmus of Panama, but often improperly employed to denote the Caribbean Sea.
The question of the marriage of Isabella, the young Queen of Spain, nearly led to a rupture between England and Spain in 1846. Louis Philippe proposed as her husband the Duke of Cadiz, believing that such marriage would prove unfruitful. At the same time the Queen’s sister, the Infanta, was to be married to the Duc de Montpensier, with the object of eventually placing the Crown of Spain on the head of a French Prince. Palmerston proposed that the second marriage should be postponed until the Queen had issue, to which the King feigned assent, but meanwhile he and his minister, Guizot, worked on the Queen Regent to consent to the marriages taking place at once, and they were duly solemnized, causing great indignation in England.
A war arising out of the bequest of the Spanish Crown to Philip, Duke of Anjou, in 1700, by Charles II of Spain, who had left no direct heir. The Grand Alliance of England, Holland and the Empire was promptly formed to oppose this, while Louis XIV supported his grandson. Marlborough’s campaign in Flanders, and the overrunning of Spain by the Archduke Charles followed, but in 1713 Philip was recognized by the Allies as King of Spain, and the war ended.
A circular issued by the United States Treasury in 1836, directing collectors of revenue to accept nothing but coin in payment of customs and other dues. It caused the bankruptcy of many well-known American business houses.
The name given to a proclamation issued in 1795 by the magistrates of Buckinghamshire and some other counties, fixing the amount of outdoor relief to be afforded according to the price of wheat and the number of children in the family. The practical result in the agricultural districts was the substitution of relief for wages.
A diet of the German Empire, held in 1529, which repealed the Act of Toleration passed at the previous Diet. The Lutheran Party, headed by the Elector of Saxony, the Margrave of Brandenburg and the Landgrave of Hesse, signed a protest against the action of the Diet, whence the reforming party became known as Protestants.
This name is given to two battles: (1) The Battle of Courtrai, when the Flemings defeated the French, July 11, 1302. It is said that 7,000 gilt spurs were picked up on the field of battle; (2) the Battle of Guinegate, where Henry VIII defeated the French, August 18, 1513. The name is derived from the headlong flight of the French cavalry.
A party under the leadership of Tweeddale in the last Scottish Parliament (1705), which attempted to hold the balance between the supporters and the opponents of union with England.
The principle of leaving the slavery question to the decision of the settlers, first applied on the admission to the Union as territories of the districts acquired from Mexico in 1848. It was afterwards extended, in defiance of the Missouri Compromise, to Kansas and Nebraska in 1854.
An Act passed in the reign of James I, by which, for the first time in England, it was made a capital offence to draw sword or dagger on a man whose sword was not drawn, if within six months he died from wounds thus received. The Act was passed to put a stop to the constant brawls between the English courtiers and James’ Scottish followers.
A section of the Republican Party in the United States, led by Senator Conkling of New York, who were opposed to President Garfield in 1881 on the question of Civil Service Reform. Guiteau, the assassin of Garfield, was a Stalwart, and gave as his reason for the crime that he could see no other way to bring about a reunion of the Republican Party.
A statute of reform forced upon Edward II by his nobles in 1309. It renewed the first Statute of Westminster, checkedthe abuses of constables and others exercising the royal authority, and repealed certain unauthorized taxes upon wool and hides.
An Act passed in 1765, for the purpose of raising revenue from the colonies. It was even more unpopular in America than the American Customs Act, and proved almost impossible to enforce. It was repealed in 1766.
The name given to the Battle of Luton Moor, between the English and the Scots in 1138. The standard displayed on this occasion was that of St. Cuthbert of Durham, which was always thought to secure victory.
The tin mines of Cornwall are so called. Their administration is in the hands of the Warden of the Stannaries, an official of the Duchy of Cornwall. The Stannaries are technically the property of the Crown, and are worked under Royal License.
A term applied to the chief products of England, and also to certain towns in Flanders where alone these commodities were permitted to be sold. These transactions were carried out under the surveillance of Government officers, and it was obligatory on the vendor to bring back a certain proportion of the proceeds of the sale in coin. Edward III, however, named nine English towns as the Staple towns, and made it a penal offence for an Englishman to carry any of the staple commodities beyond the seas.
A statute of 1353, regulating foreign trade and the privileges of the Merchant Guild.
A court established by Henry VII in 1487, to check the power of the great feudal houses by the suppression of maintenance, which, by providing them with large bodies of armed retainers, enabled the more powerful nobles to foment disturbances and insurrections. Later the Star Chamber became an instrument in the hands of the Sovereign for the suppression of free speech, and its arbitrary and corrupt decisions became notorious. It was abolished by Act of Parliament in 1641.
A name given to Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden by the German Protestants during the Thirty Years War.
The flag of the United States. It consists of thirteen stripes, being the number of the original States of the Union, and a number of stars equal to the number of States in the Union for the time being, an additional star being added for each State admitted.
An excursion of Charles II into the Highlands in 1650, with the object of escaping from the Scottish Presbyterians, of whose loyalty he was somewhat doubtful, and also of raising a force in the Highlands to supporthim, in which he was entirely unsuccessful.
An assembly of the three estates of the realm, nobles, clergy and commoners, first summoned in 1302 by Philip the Fair.
The general congress of the estates of the various provinces forming the Netherlands. Its chief business was financial, as through it alone could the Sovereign legally obtain supplies.
A political doctrine in the United States, which maintains that the Federal State is not a sovereign state, but that its acts require ratification by the individual States forming the Union, who are thus at liberty to disregard its enactments if they consider them unconstitutional. Thus South Carolina, in 1832, “nullified” an Act of Congress relating to import duties, and the doctrine was held in 1860 to justify the secession of the Southern States.
A term used to express the return after a war to the position occupied by the belligerents before the war broke out.
SeeApparel, Apprentices, Carlisle, Donis, Drogheda, Fines, Hæretico, Kilkenny, Labourers, Liveries, Mercatoribus, Præmunire, Provisors, Quia Emptores, Rhudlann, Stabbing, Stamford, Staples, Submission, Tallagio, Treason, Uses, Wales, Westminster, Wills, Winchester.
An Irish agrarian society, formed in 1772 in Down and Antrim, chiefly on the estates of the Marquis of Donegal, where there had been wholesale evictions. Very serious outrages were perpetrated, and it was found necessary to try prisoners in Dublin.
A guild of German merchants established in England in the fourteenth century. They were formed into a guild in order that they might be kept under Government supervision.
A republic in South Africa, formed by a party of Boer adventurers who had supported Massouw, a Battapin chief, against Mankoroane, in 1882. Two years later it was annexed by Great Britain, and incorporated in British Bechuanaland.
A series of treaties made by Sir Andries Stockenström with the Gaika and Fingo chiefs in 1836, after the sixth Kaffir war, by which the boundaries were fixed between British territory and the Kaffir country.
A treaty between Great Britain and Sweden, by which Sweden surrendered the Duchies of Bremen and Verden to George I, in return for a payment of one million rix-dollars.
A treaty between Great Britain, Sweden and Russia, whereby Sweden undertook to provide 30,000 men to act with the Russian troops againstNapoleon. Great Britain engaged to pay Sweden a subsidy of one million sterling annually, to cede to her Guadeloupe, receiving in return certain commercial privileges, and to accede to the convention between Sweden and Russia, relative to the cession of Norway to the former Power.