Chapter 16

“The finest time in the life of the Syrian peasant consists of the first seven days after his wedding, in which he and his young wife play the part of king (melik) and queen (melika), both being so treated and served by their village and the invited communities of the neighbourhood. The majority of the greater village weddings fall in the month of March, the finest of the Syrian year. The winter rains being over, and the sun still refreshing, not oppressive as in the following months, the weddings are celebrated in the open air on the village threshing-floor, which at this time of the year is with few exceptions a flowery mead. ... We pass over the wedding-day itself with its displays, the sword-dance of the bride, and the great feast. On the morrow, bridegroom and bride awake as king and queen. Already before sunrise they receive the leader of the bridesmen, as their vizier, and the bridesmen themselves; the latter thereupon fetch the threshing-board and bring it to the threshing-floor, singing a rousing song of battle or love, generally both. There it is erected as a throne, and after the royal couple have taken their seats and the necessary formalities are gone through, a great dance in honour of the young couple begins; the accompanying song is concerned only with themselves, its principal element being the inevitablewasf,i.e.a description of the physical perfections of both and their ornaments. The eulogy of the queen is more moderate, and praises her visible, rather than veiled, charms; this is due to the fact that she is to-day a married woman, and that thewasfsung on the previous day during her sword-dance has left nothing to desire. Thiswasfis the weak element in Syrian wedding-songs according to our taste; its comparisons are to us frequently too clumsy and reveal the stereotyped pattern. It is the same with the little collection of charming wedding-songs and fragments of them which has been received into the canon of the Old Testament under the name of Canticles; thewasf(iv.—vii.) is considerably below the rest in poetical value. With this dance begin the sports, lasting seven days, begun in the morning on the first, shortly before midday on the other days, and continuing far into the night by the light of the fires that are kindled; on the last day alone all is over by sunset. During the whole week both royalties are in marriage attire, must do no work and have no cares; they have only to look down from themerteba(throne) on the sports carried on before them, in which they themselves take but a moderate part; the queen, however, occasionally gives a short dance to attract attention to her bridal attire.”6

For the general application of these and the related customs to the interpretation of the book, reference should be made to Budde’sCommentary, which recognizes fourwasfs, viz. iv. 1-7 (describing the bride from head to breasts), v. 10-16 (the bridegroom), vi. 4-7 (similar to and partly repeating iv. 1-7), and vii. 1-9, belonging to the sword-dance of the bride, her physical charms being sung from feet to head (cf. vii. 1; “Why look ye on the Shulamite as (on) a dance of camps?”i.e.a war-dance). This dance receives its name from the fact that she dances it with a sword in her hand in the firelight on the evening of her wedding-day, and amid a circle of men and women, whilst such awasfas this is sung by the leader of the choir. The passage relating to the litter of Solomon (iii. 6-11)—an old difficulty with the dramatizers—relates to the erection of the throne on the threshing-floor.7The terms “Solomon” and “the Shulamite” are explained as figurative references to the famous king, and to Abishag the Shulamite, “fairest among women,” on the lines of the use of “king” and “queen” noted above. Other songs of Canticles are referred by Budde to the seven days of festivities. It need hardly be said that difficulties still remain in the analysis of this book of wedding-songs; whilst Budde detects 23 songs, besides fragments, Siegfried divides the book into 10.8Such differences are to be expected in the case of a collection of songs, some admittedly in dialogue form, all concerned with the common theme of the love of man and woman, and without any external indication of the transition from one song to the next.

Further, we must ask whether the task has been complicated by any editorial rearrangement or interpolation; the collector of these songs has certainly not reproduced them in the order of their use at Syrian weddings. Can we trace any principle, or even any dominant thought in this arrangement? In this connexion we touch the reason for the reluctance of some scholars to accept the above interpretation, viz. the alleged marks ofliterary unity which the book contains (e.g.Driver,loc. cit.). These are (1) general similarity of treatment, seen in the use of imagery (the bride as a garden, iv. 12; vi. 2, 3), the frequent references to nature and to particular places, and the recurrence of descriptions of male and female beauty; (2) references to “Solomon” or “the king,” to “the Shulamite” and to “the daughters of Jerusalem” (from which, indeed, the dramatic theory has found its chief inspiration); (3) indications that the same person is speaking in different places (cf. the two dreams of a woman, and the vineyard references, i. 6; viii. 12); (4) repetitions of words and phrases especially of the refrains, “disturb not love” (ii. 7; iii. 5; viii. 4), and “until the day break” (ii. 17; iv. 6). But of these (1) is no more than should be expected, since the songs all relate to the same subject, and spring from a common world of life and thought of the same group of people; (2) finds at least a partial parallel and explanation in the use of “king” and “queen” noted above; whilst (3) and (4) alone seem to require something more than the work of a mere collector of the songs. It is, of course, true that, in recurrent ceremonies, the same thought inevitably tends to find expression in the same words. But this hardly meets the case of the refrains, whilst the reference to the vineyard at beginning and end does suggest some literary connexion. It is to be noted that the three refrains “disturb not love” severally follow passages relating to the consummation of the sexual relation, whilst the two refrains “until the day break” appear to form an invitation and an answer in the same connexion, whilst the “Omnia vincit Amor” passage in the last chapter forms a natural climax (cf. Haupt’s translation). So far, then, as this somewhat scanty evidence goes, it may point to some one hand which has given its semblance of unity to the book by underlining the joy of consummated love—to which the vineyard and garden figures throughout allude—and by so arranging the collection that the descriptions of this joy find their climax in viii. 6-7.9

Whatever conclusion, however, may be reached as to the presentarrangementof Canticles, the recognition of wedding-songs as forming its nucleus marks an important stage in the interpretation of the book; even Rothstein (1902), whilst attempting to resuscitate a dramatic theory, “recognizes... the possibility that older wedding-songs (as, for instance, thewasfs) are worked up in the Song of Songs” (Hastings’D.B.p. 594b). The drama he endeavours to construct might, indeed, be called “The Tokens of Virginity,” since he makes it culminate in the procedure of Deut. xxii. 13 f., which still forms part of the Syrian ceremonies. But his reconstruction is open to the same objection as all similar attempts, in that the vital moments of the dramatic action have to be supplied from without. Thus between v. 1 and v. 2, the baffled king is supposed to have disappeared, and to have been replaced by the happy lover; between viii. 7 and viii. 8, we are required to imagine “the bridal night and its mysteries”; whilst between viii. 9 and viii. 10, we must suppose the evidence that the bride has been found a virgin is exhibited. He also attempts, with considerable ingenuity, to trace the legend involved in the supposed drama to the fact that Abishag remained a virgin in regard to David (I Kings i. 4) whilst nothing is said of her marriage to Solomon.10

On the view accepted above, Canticles describes in a number of separate poems the central passion of human life, and is wholly without didactic tendencies. Of its earliest history as a book we have no information. It is already included in the Hebrew canon (though its right to be there is disputed) when the first explicit mention of the book occurs. We have no evidence, therefore, of the theory of interpretation prevalent at the time of its incorporation with the other books of the canon. It seems, however, fair to infer that it would hardly have found acceptance but for a Solomonic theory of authorship and a “religious” theory of meaning. The problem raised by its present place in the canon occurs in relation to mistaken Jewish theories about other books also; it suggests, at least, that divine inspiration may belong to the life of a people rather than to the letter of their literature. Of that life Canticles portrays a central element—the passion of love—in striking imagery and graceful language, however far its oriental standard of taste differs from that of the modern West.

From the nature of the book, it is impossible to assign a precise date for its origin; the wedding-songs of which it chiefly consists must belong to the folklore of more than one century. The only evidence we possess as to date is drawn from the character of the Hebrew in which the book is written, which shows frequent points of contact with new Hebrew.11On this ground, we may suppose the present form of the work to date from the Greek period,i.e.after 332b.c.This is the date accepted by most recent writers,e.g.Kautzsch, Cheyne, Budde, Rothstein, Jacob, Haupt. This late date finds some confirmation in the fact that Canticles belongs to the third and latest part of the Old Testament canon, and that its canonicity was still in dispute at the end of the 1st centurya.d.The evidence offered for a north Israelite origin, on the ground of linguistic parallels and topographical familiarity (Driver,loc. cit.), does not seem very convincing; Haupt, however, places the compilation of the book in the neighbourhood of Damascus.

Literature.—Most of the older books of importance are named above; Ginsburg,The Song of Songs(1857), gives much information as to the history of the exegesis of Canticles; Diestel’s article, “Hohes Lied,” in Schenkel’sBibel Lexikon(1871), reviews well the history of interpretation prior to Wetstein; cf. also Riedel,Die Auslegung des Hohenliedes in der jüdischen Gemeinde und der griechischen Kirche(1898). The most important commentary is that by Budde, in Marti’sKurzer Hand-Commentar(Die fünf Megilloth) (1898), where references to the literature of the 19th century are given. To his list add Siegfried, “Prediger und Hoheslied,” in Nowack’sHandkommentar(1898); Cheyne’s article “Canticles,” in theEncyclopaedia Biblica(1899); Dalman,Palästinischer Diwan(1901), parallels to the songs; Rothstein’s article, “Song of Songs,” in Hastings’Dictionary of the Bible(1902); G. Jacob,Das Hohelied auf Grund arabischer und anderer Parallelen von neuem Untersucht(1902); A. Harper,The Song of Songs(1902); Haupt, “The Book of Canticles,” inThe American Journal of Semitic Languages(July 1902); Scholz,Kommentar über das Hohelied und Psalm 45(1904) (written from the Roman Catholic dogmatic standpoint of allegorical interpretation, with a vigorous criticism of other positions). No commentator in English, except Haupt, in the article named above, has yet worked on the lines of the above anthology theory. Haupt gives valuable notes, with a translation and rearrangement of the separate songs.

(W. R. S.; H. W. R.*)

1An argument for the allegorical interpretation has been often drawn from Mahommedan mysticism—from the poems of Hafiz, and the songs still sung by dervishes. See Jones,Poëseos Asiaticae Com.pt. in. cap. 9; Rosenmüller’s remarks on Lowth’sPraelectio, xxxi., and Lane’sModern Egyptians, ch. xxiv. But there is no true analogy between the Old Testament and the pantheistic mysticism of Islam, and there is every reason to believe that, where the allegory takes a form really analogous to Canticles, the original sense of these songs was purely erotic.2Repeated recently by Scholz,Kommentar, pp. iii. and iv.3The chief passages of Jewish writings referring to this dispute are MishnaJadaim, iii. 5 and TosiftaSanhedrin, xii. For other passages see Grätz’sCommentary, p. 115, and in control of his criticism the introduction to the commentary of Delitzsch.4The text of the Targum in the Polyglots and in Buxtorf’s Rabbinic Bible is not complete. The complete text is given in the Venice editions, and in Lagarde’sHagiographa Chaldaice(Lipsiae, 1873). The Polyglots add a Latin version. A German version is given by Riedel in his very useful book,Die Auslegung des Hohenliedes(1898), which also reviews the interpretation of Canticles by Hippolytus, Origen and later Greek writers.5Ewald and others make this song a distinct scene in the action of the poem, supposing that the author here exhibits the honourable form of espousal by which Solomon thought to vanquish the scruples of the damsel. This view, however, seems to introduce a complication foreign to the plan of the book.6Wetstein,Zeitschrift f. Ethn., 1873, pp. 270-302; quoted and condensed by Budde as above inComm. p. xvii.; for a fuller reproduction of Wetstein in English see Harper,The Song of Songs, pp. 74-76.7For the connexion of the threshing-floor with marriage through the idea of sexual fertility, we may compare many primitive ideas and customs, such as those described by Frazer (The Golden Bough, ii. p. 181 f., 186).8Castelli (Il Cantico dei Cantici, 1892) has written a very attractive little book on Canticles (quite apart from the Wetstein development) regarded as “a poem formed by a number of dialogues mutually related by a certain succession”; they require for their understanding nothing but some indication of the speaker at each transition (such as we find in codex A of the Septuagint).9On the erotic meaning of many of the figures employed see the notes of Haupt inThe American Journal of Semitic Languages(July 1902); also G. Jacob,Das Hohelied(1902), who rightly protests against the limitation in theComm. of Budde and Siegfried (p. 10) of all the songs to the marriage relation. Haupt thinks that the songs were not originally composed for weddings, though used there (p. 207,op. cit.). Diestel had pointed out, in another connexion (B.L.125), that nothing is said in the book of the blessing of children, the chief end ofmarriagefrom a Hebrew standpoint.10Rothstein’s criticism of Budde turns chiefly on the latter’s admission of redactional elements, introducing “movement and action,” and may be summed up in the statement that “Budde himself by the characteristics he assigns to the redactor points the way again past his own hypothesis to the dramatical view of the Song” (loc cit.594b). A. Harper, “The Song of Songs” (Cambridge Bible) also criticizes Budde at length in favour of the conventional dramatical theory (Appendix).11E.g.the late form of the relative pronoun used throughout except in title; foreign words, Persian and Greek; Aramaic words and usages (details in theComm. or inE.B.693).

2Repeated recently by Scholz,Kommentar, pp. iii. and iv.

3The chief passages of Jewish writings referring to this dispute are MishnaJadaim, iii. 5 and TosiftaSanhedrin, xii. For other passages see Grätz’sCommentary, p. 115, and in control of his criticism the introduction to the commentary of Delitzsch.

4The text of the Targum in the Polyglots and in Buxtorf’s Rabbinic Bible is not complete. The complete text is given in the Venice editions, and in Lagarde’sHagiographa Chaldaice(Lipsiae, 1873). The Polyglots add a Latin version. A German version is given by Riedel in his very useful book,Die Auslegung des Hohenliedes(1898), which also reviews the interpretation of Canticles by Hippolytus, Origen and later Greek writers.

5Ewald and others make this song a distinct scene in the action of the poem, supposing that the author here exhibits the honourable form of espousal by which Solomon thought to vanquish the scruples of the damsel. This view, however, seems to introduce a complication foreign to the plan of the book.

6Wetstein,Zeitschrift f. Ethn., 1873, pp. 270-302; quoted and condensed by Budde as above inComm. p. xvii.; for a fuller reproduction of Wetstein in English see Harper,The Song of Songs, pp. 74-76.

7For the connexion of the threshing-floor with marriage through the idea of sexual fertility, we may compare many primitive ideas and customs, such as those described by Frazer (The Golden Bough, ii. p. 181 f., 186).

8Castelli (Il Cantico dei Cantici, 1892) has written a very attractive little book on Canticles (quite apart from the Wetstein development) regarded as “a poem formed by a number of dialogues mutually related by a certain succession”; they require for their understanding nothing but some indication of the speaker at each transition (such as we find in codex A of the Septuagint).

9On the erotic meaning of many of the figures employed see the notes of Haupt inThe American Journal of Semitic Languages(July 1902); also G. Jacob,Das Hohelied(1902), who rightly protests against the limitation in theComm. of Budde and Siegfried (p. 10) of all the songs to the marriage relation. Haupt thinks that the songs were not originally composed for weddings, though used there (p. 207,op. cit.). Diestel had pointed out, in another connexion (B.L.125), that nothing is said in the book of the blessing of children, the chief end ofmarriagefrom a Hebrew standpoint.

10Rothstein’s criticism of Budde turns chiefly on the latter’s admission of redactional elements, introducing “movement and action,” and may be summed up in the statement that “Budde himself by the characteristics he assigns to the redactor points the way again past his own hypothesis to the dramatical view of the Song” (loc cit.594b). A. Harper, “The Song of Songs” (Cambridge Bible) also criticizes Budde at length in favour of the conventional dramatical theory (Appendix).

11E.g.the late form of the relative pronoun used throughout except in title; foreign words, Persian and Greek; Aramaic words and usages (details in theComm. or inE.B.693).

CANTILEVER(a word of doubtful origin, probably derived from “lever,” in its ordinary meaning, and “cant,” an angle or edge, or else from modern Lat.quanta libra, of what weight), a building term for a stone, iron or wooden bracket, considerably greater in length than depth, used to support a gallery, &c.; and for a system of bridge-building (seeBridges).

CANTILUPE, THOMAS DE(c.1218-1282), English saint and prelate, was a son of William de Cantilupe, the 2nd baron (d. 1251), one of King John’s ministers, and a nephew of Walter de Cantilupe, bishop of Worcester. He was educated at Paris and Orleans, afterwards becoming a teacher of canon law at Oxford and chancellor of the university in 1262. During the Barons’ War Thomas favoured Simon de Montfort and the baronial party. He represented the barons before St Louis of Franceat Amiens in 1264; he was made chancellor of England in February 1265, but was deprived of this office after Montfort’s death at Evesham, and lived out of England for some time. Returning to England, he was again chancellor of Oxford University, lectured on theology, and held several ecclesiastical appointments. In 1274 he attended the second council of Lyons, and in 1275 he was appointed bishop of Hereford. Cantilupe was now a trusted adviser of Edward I.; he attended the royal councils, and even when differing from the king did not forfeit his favour. The archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Kilwardby, was also his friend; but after Kilwardby’s death in 1279 a series of disputes arose between the bishop and the new archbishop, John Peckham, and this was probably the cause which drove Cantilupe to visit Italy. He died at Orvieto, on the 25th of August 1282, and he was canonized in 1330. Cantilupe appears to have been an exemplary bishop both in spiritual and secular affairs. His charities were large and his private life blameless; he was constantly visiting his diocese, correcting offenders and discharging other episcopal duties; and he compelled neighbouring landholders to restore estates which rightly belonged to the see of Hereford. In 1905 the Cantilupe Society was founded to publish the episcopal registers of Hereford, of which Cantilupe’s is the first in existence.

See theAda Sanctorum, Boll., 1st October; and theRegister of Thomas de Cantilupe, with introduction by W.W. Capes (1906).

CANTILUPE, WALTER DE(d.1265), bishop of Worcester, came of a family which had risen by devoted service to the crown. His father and his elder brother are named by Roger of Wendover among the “evil counsellors” of John, apparently for no better reason than that they were consistently loyal to an unpopular master. Walter at first followed in his father’s footsteps, entering the service of the Exchequer and acting as an itinerant justice in the early years of Henry III. But he also took minor orders, and, in 1236, although not yet a deacon, received the see of Worcester. As bishop, he identified himself with the party of ecclesiastical reform, which was then led by Edmund Rich and Robert Grosseteste. Like his leaders he was sorely divided between his theoretical belief in the papacy as a divine institution and his instinctive condemnation of the policy which Gregory IX. and Innocent IV. pursued in their dealings with the English church. At first a court favourite, the bishop came at length to the belief that the evils of the time arose from the unprincipled alliance of crown and papacy. He raised his voice against papal demands for money, and after the death of Grosseteste (1253) was the chief spokesman of the nationalist clergy. At the parliament of Oxford (1258) he was elected by the popular party as one of their representatives on the committee of twenty-four which undertook to reform the administration; from that time till the outbreak of civil war he was a man of mark in the councils of the baronial party. During the war he sided with Montfort and, through his nephew, Thomas, who was then chancellor of Oxford, brought over the university to the popular side. He was present at Lewes and blessed the Montfortians before they joined battle with the army of the king; he entertained Simon de Montfort on the night before the final rout of Evesham. During Simon’s dictatorship, the bishop appeared only as a mediating influence; in the triumvirate of “Electors” who controlled the administration, the clergy were represented by the bishop of Chichester. Walter de Cantilupe died in the year after Evesham (1266). He was respected by all parties, and, though far inferior in versatility and force of will to Grosseteste, fully merits the admiration which his moral character inspired. He is one of the few constitutionalists of his day whom it is impossible to accuse of interested motives.

See theChronica Maioraof Matthew Paris (“Rolls” series, ed. Luard); theChronicon de Bellis(ed. Halliwell, Camden Society); and theAnnales Monastici(“Rolls” series, ed. Luard); also T.F. Tout in thePolitical History of England, vol. iii. (1905).

CANTO(from the Lat.cantus, a song), one of the divisions of a long poem, a convenient division when poetry was more usually sung by the minstrel to his own accompaniment than read. In music, thecanto, in a concerted piece, is that part to which the air is given. In modern music this is nearly always the soprano. The old masters, however, more frequently allotted it to the tenor.Canto fermo, orcantus firmus, is that part of the melody which remains true to the original motive, while the other parts vary with the counterpoint; also in Church music the simple straightforward melody of the old chants as opposed tocanto figurato, which is full of embellishments of a florid character (seePlain Song).

CANTON, JOHN(1718-1772), English natural philosopher, was born at Stroud, Gloucestershire, on the 31st of July 1718. At the age of nineteen, he was articled for five years as clerk to the master of a school in Spital Square, London, with whom at the end of that time he entered into partnership. In 1750 he read a paper before the Royal Society on a method of making artificial magnets, which procured him election as a fellow of the society and the award of the Copley medal. He was the first in England to verify Benjamin Franklin’s hypothesis of the identity of lightning and electricity, and he made several important electrical discoveries. In 1762 and 1764 he published experiments in refutation of the decision of the Florentine Academy, at that time generally accepted, that water is incompressible; and in 1768 he described the preparation, by calcining oyster-shell with sulphur, of the phosphorescent material known as Canton’s phosphorus. His investigations were carried on without any intermission of his work as a schoolmaster. He died in London on the 22nd of March 1772.

CANTON(more correctlyKwang-chow Fu), a large and populous commercial city of China, in the province of Kwangtung, situated on the eastern bank of the Pearl river, which at Canton is somewhat broader than the Thames at London Bridge, and is navigable 300 m. into the interior. The Pearl river has an additional course of 80 m. to the sea, the first part of which lies through a rich alluvial plain. Beyond this rises a range of hills terminating in abrupt escarpments along the course of the river. The bold shore thus formed compresses the stream at this point into a narrow pass, to which the Chinese have given the name of Hu-mun, or Tiger’s Gate. This the Portuguese translated into Boca Tigre, whence the designation of “the Bogue,” by which it is commonly known among Europeans. When viewed from the hills on the north, Canton appears to be little more than an expanse of reddish roofs relieved by a few large trees,—two pagodas shooting up within the walls, and a five-storeyed tower near the northern gate, being the most conspicuous objects. These hills rise 1200 ft. above the river. Little or no vegetation is seen on them; and their acclivities, covered for miles with graves and tombs, serve as the necropolis of this vast city. Three or four forts are built on the points nearest the northern walls. Facing the city on the opposite side of the river is the suburb and island of Honan. The part of Canton enclosed by walls is about 6 m. in circumference, and has a partition wall, running east and west, and dividing the city into two unequal parts. The northern and larger division is called the old, and the southern the new city. Including the suburbs, the city has a circuit of nearly 10 m. The houses stretch along the river for 4 m., and the banks are almost entirely concealed by boats and rafts. The walls of the city are of brick, on a foundation of sandstone and granite, are 20 ft. thick, and rise to an average height of 25 ft. On the north side the wall rises to include a hill which it there meets with, and on the other three sides the city is surrounded by a ditch, which is filled by the rising tide, when, for a time, the revolting mass of filth that lies in its bed is concealed from view. There are twelve outer gates—four of which are in the partition wall, and two water gates, through which boats pass from east to west across the new city. The gates are all shut at night, and in the daytime a guard is stationed at them to preserve order. The streets, amounting in all to upwards of 600, are long, straight, and very narrow. They are mostly paved and are not as dirty as those of some of the other cities in the empire; in fact, considering the habits of the people and the inattention of the government to these matters, Canton may be said to be a well-governed and comparatively cleanly city. The houses are in general small, seldom consisting of more than two storeys, theground floor serving as a shop, and the rest of the house, with the court behind, being used as a warehouse. Here are to be found the productions of every quarter of the globe; and the merchants are in general attentive, civil, expert men of business, and generally assiduous.

The temples and public buildings of Canton are numerous, but none of them presents features worthy of special remark. There are two pagodas near the west gate of the old city, and 124 temples, pavilions, halls and other religious edifices within the city. One of the pagodas called theKwangtah, or Plain Pagoda, is a Mahommedan mosque, which was erected by the Arabian voyagers who were in the habit of visiting Canton about ten centuries ago. It rises in an angular tapering tower to the height of 160 ft. The other is an octagonal pagoda of nine storeys, 170 ft. in height, and was first erected more than thirteen centuries ago. A Buddhist temple at Honan, opposite the foreign factories, and named in ChineseHai-ch‘wang-sze, or the Temple of the Ocean Banner, is one of the largest in Canton. Its grounds, which cover about seven acres, are surrounded by a wall, and are divided into courts, gardens and a burial-ground, where are deposited the ashes of priests, whose bodies are burned. There are about 175 priests connected with this establishment. Besides theHai-ch‘wang-szethe most noteworthy temples in and about the city are those of the Five Hundred Gods and of Longevity, both in the western suburbs; the Tatar City Temple and the Temple of the Five Genii. The number of priests and nuns in Canton is not exactly known, but they probably exceed 2000, nine-tenths of whom are Buddhists. The temples are gloomy-looking edifices. The areas in front of them are usually occupied by hucksters, beggars and idlers, who are occasionally driven off to make room for the mat-sheds in which the theatrical performances got up by the wealthy inhabitants are acted. The principal hall, where the idol sits enshrined, is lighted only in front, and the inner apartments are inhabited by a class of men almost as senseless as the idols they serve.

The residences of the high officers of government are all within the walls of the old city. The residence of the governor-general used to be in the south-west corner of the new city, but it was utterly destroyed by the bombardment in 1856. The site remained desolate until 1860, when it was taken possession of by the French authorities, who erected a Roman Catholic cathedral upon it. The residence of the commander-in-chief is in the old city, and is said to be one of the best houses in Canton. There are four prisons in the city, all large edifices. For the space of 4 or 5 m. opposite Canton boats and vessels are ranged parallel to each other in such close order as to resemble a floating city; and these marine dwellings are occupied by numerous families, who reside almost constantly on the water. In the middle of the river lie the Chinese junks, some of them of from 600 to 1000 tons burden, which trade to the north and to the Strait Settlements. The various gilds and associations among the people and the merchants from other provinces have public halls each for its own particular use. The number of these buildings is not less than 150. Canton was long the only seat of British trade with China, and was no doubt fixed upon by the Chinese government for the European trade, as being the most distant from the capital Peking.

Formerly only a limited number of merchants, called thehongor security merchants, were allowed to trade with foreigners. They were commonly men of large property and were famed for integrity in their transactions. All foreign cargoes passed through the hands of these merchants, and by them also the return cargoes were furnished. They became security for the payment of customs duties, and it was criminal for any other merchant to engage in the trade with foreigners.

Although it is in the same parallel of latitude as Calcutta, the climate of Canton is much cooler, and is considered superior to that of most places situated between the tropics. The extreme range of the thermometer is from 38° to 100° F., though these extremes are rarely reached. In ordinary years the winter minimum is about 42° and the maximum in summer 96°. The hot season is considered to last from May to October; during the rest of the year the weather is cool. In shallow vessels ice sometimes forms at Canton; but so rarely is snow seen that when in February 1835 a fall to the depth of 2 in. occurred, the citizens hardly knew its proper name. Most of the rain falls during May and June, but the amount is nothing in comparison with that which falls during a rainy season in Calcutta. July, August and September are the regular monsoon months, the wind coming from the south-west with frequent showers, which allay the heat. In the succeeding months the northerly winds begin, with some interruptions at first, but from October to January the temperature is agreeable, the sky clear and the air invigorating. Few large cities are more generally healthy than Canton, and epidemics rarely prevail there.

Provisions and refreshments of all sorts are abundant, and in general are excellent in quality and moderate in price. It is a singular fact that the Chinese make no use of milk, either in its natural state or in the form of butter or cheese. Among the delicacies of a Chinese market are to be seen horse-flesh, dogs, cats, hawks, owls and edible birds’-nests. The business between foreigners and natives at Canton is generally transacted in a jargon known as “pidgin English,” the Chinese being extremely ready in acquiring a sufficient smattering of English words to render themselves intelligible.

The intercourse between China and Europe by the way of the Cape of Good Hope began in 1517, when Emanuel, king of Portugal, sent an ambassador, accompanied by a fleet of eight ships, to Peking, on which occasion the sanction of the emperor to establish a trade at Canton was obtained. It was in 1596, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, that the English first attempted to open an intercourse with China, but ineffectually, for the two ships which were despatched on this mission were lost on the outward voyage, and it was not till about 1634 that English ships visited Canton. Unfortunately at this time a misunderstanding having occurred with the Chinese authorities owing to the treachery of the Portuguese, a rupture and a battle took place, and it was with difficulty that peace was again restored. In 1673 China was again visited by an English ship which was subsequently refused admission into Japan, and in 1677 a factory was established at Amoy. But during an irruption of the Tatars three years later this building was destroyed, and it was not till 1685 that the emperor permitted any trade with Europeans at that port. Upon the union of the two East India Companies in London, an imperial edict was issued, restricting the foreign commerce to the port of Canton.

Tea was first imported into England about the year 1667, and in 1689 a customs duty of 5s. per ℔ was for the first time imposed. From this date to 1834 the East India Company held a monopolv of the trade at Canton, and during this period the prosperity of the port increased and multiplied, notwithstanding the obstructions which were constantly thrown in the way of the “barbarians” by the Chinese government. The termination of the Company’s monopoly brought no alteration in the conduct of the native authorities, whose oppressions became before long so unbearable that in 1839 war was declared on the part of Great Britain. In 1841, while the forces under Sir Hugh (afterwards Lord) Gough were preparing to capture Canton, Captain Elliott entered into negotiations with the Chinese, and consented to receive a pecuniary ransom in lieu of occupying the city. Meanwhile the war was carried on in central China, and finally resulted in the conclusion of the Nanking treaty in August 1842, under the terms of which four additional ports, viz. Shanghai, Ningpo, Fu-chow and Amoy, were thrown open to foreign trade, and foreigners were granted permission to enter the city of Canton, from which they had hitherto been excluded. This latter provision of the treaty, however, the Chinese refused to carry out; and after endless disputes about this and other improper acts of the Chinese government, war was again declared in 1856, the immediate cause of which was an insult offered to the British flag by the capture of certain Chinese on board the “Arrow,” a small craft trading under English colours. The outbreak of hostilities was followed by the pillage and destruction of the foreign “factories” in December 1856 by a Chinese mob,and twelve months later Canton was taken by assault by a force under Sir Charles Straubenzee, which had been sent out from England for the purpose. From this time until October 1861 the city was occupied by an English and French garrison, and the administration of affairs was entrusted to an allied commission, consisting of two English officers and one French officer, acting under the English general. Since the withdrawal of this garrison, the city of Canton has been freely open to foreigners of all nationalities, and the English consul has his residence in the Yamun formerly occupied by the allied commissioners, within the city walls.

On the conclusion of peace it became necessary to provide a foreign settlement for the merchants whose “factories” had been destroyed, and after some consultation it was determined to fill in and appropriate as the British settlement an extensive mud flat lying to the westward of the old factory site, and known as Sha-mien or “The Sand Flats.” This site having been leased, it was converted into an artificial island by building a massive embankment of granite in an irregular oval form. Between the northern face of the site and the Chinese suburb a canal of 100 ft. in width was constructed, thus forming an island of about 2850 ft. in length and 950 ft. in greatest breadth. The expense of making this settlement was 325,000 Mexican dollars, four-fifths of which were defrayed by the British government and one-fifth by the French government. The British portion of the new settlement was laid out in eighty-two lots; and so bright appeared the prospect of trade at the time of their sale that 9000 dollars and upwards was paid in more than one instance for a lot with a river frontage, measuring 12,645 sq. ft. The depression in trade, however, which soon followed acted as a bar to building, and it was not until the British consulate was erected in 1865 that the merchants began to occupy the settlement in any numbers. The British consulate occupies six lots, with an area of 75,870 sq. ft. in the centre of the site, overlooking the river, and is enclosed with a substantial wall. A ground-rent of 15,000 cash (about £3) permow(a third of an acre) is annually paid by the owners of lots to the Chinese government.

The Sha-mien settlement possesses many advantages. It is close to the western suburb of Canton, where reside all the wholesale dealers as well as the principal merchants and brokers; it faces the broad channel known as the Macao Passage, up which the cool breezes in summer are wafted almost uninterruptedly, and the river opposite to it affords a safe and commodious anchorage for steamers up to 1000 tons burden. Steamers only are allowed to come up to Canton, sailing vessels being restricted to the anchorage at Whampoa. There is daily communication by steamer with Hong-Kong, and with the Portuguese colony of Macao which lies near the mouth of the river. Inland communication by steam is now open by the west river route to the cities of Wuchow and Nanking. The opening of these inland towns to foreign trade, which has been effected, cannot but add considerably to the volume of Canton traffic. The native population is variously estimated at from 1,500,000 to 2,000,000, the former being probably nearer the truth. The foreign residents number about 400. Canton is the headquarters of the provincial government of Kwangtung and Kwangsi, generally termed the two Kwang, at the head of which is a governor-general or viceroy, an office which next to that of Nanking is the most important in the empire. It possesses a mint built in 1889 by the then viceroy Chang Chih-tung, and equipped with a very complete plant supplied from England. It turns out silver subsidiary coinage and copper cash. Contracts have been entered into to connect Canton by railway with Hong-Kong (Kowlun), and by a grand trunk line with Hankow on the Yangtsze. It is connected by telegraph with all parts. The value of the trade of Canton for the year 1904 was £13,749,582, £7,555,090 of which represented imports and £6,194,490 exports.

(R. K. D.)

CANTON,a city of Fulton county, Illinois, U.S.A., in the W. part of the state, 12 m. N. of the Illinois river, and 28 m. S.W. of Peoria. Pop. (1890) 5604; (1900) 6564 (424 foreign-born); (1910) 10,453. Canton is served by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, the Toledo, Peoria & Western, and the Illinois Central Electric Interurban railways. About 1 m. from the centre of the city are the Canton Chautauqua grounds. The city has a public library. Canton is situated in a rich agricultural region, for which it is a supply point, and there are large coal-mines in the vicinity. Among the manufactures are agricultural implements (particularly ploughs), machine-shop and foundry products (particularly mining-cars and equipment), flour, cigars, cigar-boxes, brooms, and bricks and tile. The municipal water-works are supplied from a deep artesian well. Canton was laid out in 1825; it was incorporated as a town in 1837 and as a village in 1849, and was chartered as a city in 1854.

CANTON,a village and the county-seat of St Lawrence county, New York, U.S.A., 17 m. S.E. of Ogdensburg, on the Grasse river. Pop. (1890) 2580; (1900) 2757; (1905) 3083; (1910) 2701. The village is served by the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburg division of the New York Central & Hudson River railway. Canton is the seat of St Lawrence University (co-educational; chartered in 1856; at first Universalist, afterwards unsectarian), having a college of letters and science, which developed from an academy, opened in 1859; a theological school (Universalist), opened in 1858; a law school, established in 1869, discontinued in 1872 and re-established in Brooklyn, New York, in 1903 as the Brooklyn Law School of St Lawrence University; and a state school of agriculture, established in 1906 by the state legislature and opened in 1907. In 1907-1908 the university had 52 instructors, 168 students in the college of letters and science, 14 students in the theological school, 287 in the law school and 13 in the agricultural school. The Clinton Liberal Institute (Universalist, 1832), which was removed in 1879 from Clinton to Fort Plain, New York, was established in Canton in 1901. The Grasse river furnishes water-power, and the village has saw-, planing- and flour-mills, and plant for the building of small boats and launches. The village corporation owns a fine water-supply system. Canton was first settled in 1800 by Daniel Harrington of Connecticut and was incorporated in 1845. It was for many years the home of Silas Wright, who was buried here.

CANTON,a city and the county-seat of Stark county, Ohio, U.S.A., on Nimisillen Creek, 60 m. S. by E. of Cleveland. Pop. (1890) 26,189; (1900) 30,667, of whom 4018 were foreign-born; and (1910) 50,217. It is served by the Pennsylvania, the Baltimore & Ohio, and the Wheeling & Lake Erie railways, and is connected by an interurban electric system with all the important cities and towns within a radius of 50 m. It lies at an elevation of about 1030 ft. above sea-level, in a wheat-growing region, in which bituminous coal, limestone, and brick and potter’s clay abound. Meyer’s Lake in the vicinity is a summer attraction. The principal buildings are the post-office, court-house, city hall, an auditorium with a seating capacity of 5000, a Masonic building, an Oddfellows’ temple, a Y.M.C.A. building and several handsome churches. On Monument Hill, in West Lawn Cemetery, in a park of 26 acres—a site which President McKinley had suggested for a monument to the soldiers and sailors of Stark county—there is a beautiful monument to the memory of McKinley, who lived in Canton. This memorial is built principally of Milford (Mass.) granite, with a bronze statue of the president, and with sarcophagi containing the bodies of the president and Mrs McKinley, and has a total height, from the first step of the approaches to its top, of 163 ft. 6 in., the mausoleum itself being 98 ft. 6 in. high and 78 ft. 9 in. in diameter; it was dedicated on the 30th of September 1907, when an address was delivered by President Roosevelt. Another monument commemorates the American soldiers of the Spanish-American War. Among the city’s manufactures are agricultural implements, iron bridges and other structural iron work, watches and watch-cases, steel, engines, safes, locks, cutlery, hardware, wagons, carriages, paving-bricks, furniture, dental and surgical chairs, paint and varnish, clay-working machinery and saw-mill machinery. The value of the factory product in 1905 was $10,591,143, being 10.6% more than the product value of 1900. Canton was laid out as a town in 1805, became the county-seatin 1808, was incorporated as a village in 1822 and in 1854 was chartered as a city.

CANTON(borrowed from the Ital.cantone, a corner or angle), a word used for certain divisions of some European countries. In France, the canton, which is a subdivision of the arrondissement, is a territorial, rather than an administrative, unit. The canton, of which there are 2908, generally comprises, on an average, about twelve communes, though very large communes are sometimes divided into several cantons. It is the seat of a justice of the peace, and returns a member to theconseil d’arrondissement(seeFrance). In Switzerland, canton is the name given to each of the twenty-two states comprising the Swiss confederation (seeSwitzerland).

In heraldry, a “canton” is a corner or square division on a shield, occupying the upper corner (usually the dexter). It is in area two-thirds of the quarter (seeHeraldry).

CANTONMENT(Fr.cantonnement, fromcantonner, to quarter; Ger.OrtsunterkunftorQuartier). When troops are distributed in small parties amongst the houses of a town or village, they are said to be in cantonments, which are also called quarters or billets. Formerly this method of providing soldiers with shelter was rarely employed on active service, though the normal method in “winter quarters,” or at seasons when active military operations were not in progress. In the field, armies lived as a rule in camp (q.v.), and when the provision of canvas shelter was impossible in bivouac. At the present time, however, it is unusual, in Europe at any rate, for troops on active service to hamper themselves with the enormous trains of tent wagons that would be required, and cantonments or bivouacs, or a combination of the two have therefore taken the place, in modern warfare, of the old long rectilinear lines of tents that marked the resting-place and generally, too, the order of battle of an 18th-century army. The greater part of an army operating in Europe at the present day is accommodated in widespread cantonments, an army corps occupying the villages and farms found within an area of 4 m. by 5 or 6. This allowance of space has been ascertained by experience to be sufficient, not only for comfort, but also for subsistence for one day, provided that the density of the ordinary civil population is not less than 200 persons to the square mile. Under modern conditions there is little danger from such a dissemination of the forces, as each fraction of each army corps is within less than two hours’ march of its concentration post. If the troops halt for several days, of course they require either a more densely populated country from which to requisition supplies, or a wider area of cantonments. The difficulty of controlling the troops, when scattered in private houses in parties of six or seven, is the principal objection to this system of cantonments. But since Napoleon introduced the “war of masses” the only alternative to cantoning the troops is bivouacking, which if prolonged for several nights is more injurious to the well-being of the troops than the slight relaxation of discipline necessitated by the cantonment system, when the latter is well arranged and policed. The troops nearest the enemy, however, which have to be maintained in a state of constant readiness for battle, cannot as a rule afford the time either for dispersing into quarters or for rallying on an alarm, and in western Europe at any rate they are required to bivouac. In India, the term “cantonment” means more generally a military station or standing camp. The troops live, not in private houses, but in barracks, huts, forts or occasionally camps. The large cantonments are situated in the neighbourhood of the North-Western frontier, of the large cities and of the capitals of important native states. Under Lord Kitchener’s redistribution of the Indian army in 1903, the chief cantonments are Rawalpindi, Quetta, Peshawar, Kohat, Bannu, Nowshera, Sialkot, Mian Mir, Umballa, Muttra, Ferozepore, Meerut, Lucknow, Mhow, Jubbulpore, Bolarum, Poona, Secunderabad and Bangalore.

CANTÙ, CESARE(1804-1895), Italian historian, was born at Brivio in Lombardy and began his career as a teacher. His first literary essay (1828) was a romantic poem entitledAlgiso, o la Lega Lombarda(new ed., Milan, 1876), and in the following year he produced aStoria di Comoin two volumes (Como, 1829). The death of his father then left him in charge of a large family, and he worked very hard both as a teacher and a writer to provide for them. His prodigious literary activity led to his falling under the suspicions of the Austrian police, and he was mixed up in a political trial and arrested in 1833. While in prison writing materials were denied him, but he managed to write on rags with a tooth-pick and candle smoke, and thus composed the novelMargherita Pusterla(Milan, 1838). On his release a year later, as he was interdicted from teaching, literature became his only resource. In 1836 the Turinese publisher, Giuseppe Pomba, commissioned him to write a universal history, which his vast reading enabled him to do. In six years the work was completed in seventy-two volumes, and immediately achieved a general popularity; the publisher made a fortune out of it, and Cantù’s royalties amounted, it is said, to 300,000 lire (£12.000). Just before the revolution of 1848, being warned that he would be arrested, he fled to Turin, but after the “Five Days” he returned to Milan and edited a paper calledLa Guardia Nazionale. Between 1849 and 1850 he published hisStoria degli Italiani(Turin, 1855) and many other works. In 1857 the archduke Maximilian tried to conciliate the Milanese by the promise of a constitution, and Cantù was one of the few Liberals who accepted the olive branch, and went about in company with the archduke. This act was regarded as treason and caused Cantù much annoyance in after years. He continued his literary activity after the formation of the Italian kingdom, producing volume after volume until his death. For a short time he was member of the Italian parliament; he founded the Lombard historical society, and was appointed superintendent of the Lombard archives. He died in March 1895. His views are coloured by strong religious and political prejudice, and by a moralizing tendency, and his historical work has little critical value and is for the most part pure book-making, although he collected a vast amount of material which has been of use to other writers. In dealing with modern Italian history he is reactionary and often wilfully inaccurate. Besides the above-mentioned works he wroteGli Eretici in Italia(Milan, 1873);Cronistoria dell’ Indipendenza italiana(Naples, 1872-1877);II Conciliatore e i Carbonari(Milan, 1878), &c.

Back to Index Next