Encyclopaedia Britannica 11th Edition Cincinnatus To Cleruchy V
Chapter 2
(_Kinnamon_) and cassia, and it is alluded to by Herodotus under the name [Greek: Kinnamômon], and by other classical writers. The tree is grown at Tellicherry, in Java, the West Indies, Brazil and Egypt, but the produce of none of these places approaches in quality that grown in Ceylon. Ceylon cinnamon of fine quality is a very thin smooth bark, with a light-yellowish brown colour, a highly fragrant odour, and a peculiarly sweet, warm and pleasing aromatic taste. Its flavour is due to an aromatic oil which it contains to the extent of from 0.5 to 1%. This essential oil, as an article of commerce, is prepared by roughly pounding the bark, macerating it in sea-water, and then quickly distilling the whole. It is of a golden-yellow colour, with the peculiar odour of cinnamon and a very hot aromatic taste. It consists essentially of cinnamic aldehyde, and by the absorption of oxygen as it becomes old it darkens in colour and develops resinous compounds. Cinnamon is principally employed in cookery as a condiment and flavouring material, being largely used in the preparation of some kinds of chocolate and liqueurs. In medicine it acts like other volatile oils and has a reputation as a cure for colds. Being a much more costly spice than cassia, that comparatively harsh-flavoured substance is frequently substituted for or added to it. The two barks when whole are easily enough distinguished, and their microscopical characters are also quite distinct. When powdered bark is treated with tincture of iodine, little effect is visible in the case of pure cinnamon of good quality, but when cassia is present a deep-blue tint is produced, the intensity of the coloration depending on the proportion of the cassia.
CINNAMON-STONE, a variety of garnet, belonging to the lime-alumina type, known also as essonite or hessonite, from the Gr. [Greek: êssôn], "inferior," in allusion to its being less hard and less dense than most other garnet. It has a characteristic red colour, inclining to orange, much like that of hyacinth or jacinth. Indeed it was shown many years ago, by Sir A.H. Church, that many gems, especially engraved stones, commonly regarded as hyacinth, were really cinnamon-stone. The difference is readily detected by the specific gravity, that of hessonite being 3.64 to 3.69, whilst that of hyacinth (zircon) is about 4.6. Hessonite is rather a soft stone, its hardness being about that of quartz or 7, whilst the hardness of most garnet reaches 7.5. Cinnamon-stone comes chiefly from Ceylon, where it is found generally as pebbles, though its occurrence in its native matrix is not unknown.
CINNAMUS [KINNAMOS], JOHN, Byzantine historian, flourished in the second half of the 12th century. He was imperial secretary (probably in this case a post connected with the military administration) to Manuel I. Comnenus (1143-1180), whom he accompanied on his campaigns in Europe and Asia Minor. He appears to have outlived Andronicus I., who died in 1185. Cinnamus was the author of a history of the period 1118-1176, which thus continues the _Alexiad_ of Anna Comnena, and embraces the reigns of John II. and Manuel I., down to the unsuccessful campaign of the latter against the Turks, which ended with the disastrous battle of Myriokephalon and the rout of the Byzantine army. Cinnamus was probably an eye-witness of the events of the last ten years which he describes. The work breaks off abruptly; originally it no doubt went down to the death of Manuel, and there are indications that, even in its present form, it is an abridgment. The text is in a very corrupt state. The author's hero is Manuel; he is strongly impressed with the superiority of the East to the West, and is a determined opponent of the pretensions of the papacy. But he cannot be reproached with undue bias; he writes with the straightforwardness of a soldier, and is not ashamed on occasion to confess his ignorance. The matter is well arranged, the style (modelled on that of Xenophon) simple, and on the whole free from the usual florid bombast of the Byzantine writers.
_Editio princeps_, C. Tollius (1652); in Bonn, _Corpus Scriptorum Hist. Byz._, by A. Meineke (1836), with Du Cange's valuable notes; Migne, _Patrologia Graeca_, cxxxiii.; see also C. Neumann, _Griechische Geschichtsschreiber im 12. Jahrhundert_ (1888); H. von Kap-Herr, _Die abendländische Politik Kaiser Manuels_ (1881); C. Krumbacher, _Geschichte der byzantinischen Litteratur_ (1897).
CINNOLIN, C8H6N2, a compound isomeric with phthalazine, prepared by boiling dihydrocinnolin dissolved in benzene with freshly precipitated mercuric oxide. The solution is filtered and the hydrochloride of the base precipitated by alcoholic hydrochloric acid; the free base is obtained as an oil by adding caustic soda. It may be obtained in white silky needles, melting at 24-25° C. and containing a molecule of ether of crystallization by cooling the oil dissolved in ether. The free base melts at 39° C. It is a strong base, forming stable salts with mineral acids, and is easily soluble in water and in the ordinary organic solvents. It has a taste resembling that of chloral hydrate, and leaves a sharp irritation for some time on the tongue; it is also very poisonous (M. Busch and A. Rast, _Berichte_, 1897, 30, p. 521). Cinnolin derivatives are obtained from oxycinnolin carboxylic acid, which is formed by digesting orthophenyl propiolic acid diazo chloride with water. Oxycinnolin carboxylic acid on heating gives oxycinnolin, melting at 225°, which with phosphorus pentachloride gives chlorcinnolin. This substance is reduced by iron filings and sulphuric acid to dihydrocinnolin.
The relations of these compounds are here shown:--
C-OH C-OH CH ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ / \_C:C·COOH / \ / \\ / \ / \\ / \ / \\ | | | | C·COOH | | CH | | CH | | ---> | | | ---> | | | ---> | | | | |_ | | N | | N | | N \ / N:N·OH \ / \ // \ / \ // \ / \ // v v N v N v N
O-phenyl propiolic Oxycinnolin Oxycinnolin Cinnolin acid diazo hydroxide carboxylic acid
CINO DA PISTOIA (1270-1336), Italian poet and jurist, whose full name was GUITTONCINO DE' SINIBALDI, was born in Pistoia, of a noble family. He studied law at Bologna under Dinus Muggelanus (Dino de Rossonis: d. 1303) and Franciscus Accursius, and in 1307 is understood to have been assessor of civil causes in his native city. In that year, however, Pistoia was disturbed by the Guelph and Ghibelline feud. The Ghibellines, who had for some time been the stronger party, being worsted by the Guelphs, Cino, a prominent member of the former faction, had to quit his office and the city of his birth. Pitecchio, a stronghold on the frontiers of Lombardy, was yet in the hands of Filippo Vergiolesi, chief of the Pistoian Ghibellines; Selvaggia, his daughter, was beloved by Cino (who was probably already the husband of Margherita degli Unghi); and to Pitecchio did the lawyer-poet betake himself. It is uncertain how long he remained at the fortress; it is certain, however, that he was not with the Vergiolesi at the time of Selvaggia's death, which happened three years afterwards (1310), at the Monte della Sambuca, in the Apennines, whither the Ghibellines had been compelled to shift their camp. He visited his mistress's grave on his way to Rome, after some time spent in travel in France and elsewhere, and to this visit is owing his finest sonnet. At Rome Cino held office under Louis of Savoy, sent thither by the Ghibelline leader Henry of Luxemburg, who was crowned emperor of the Romans in 1312. In 1313, however, the emperor died, and the Ghibellines lost their last hope. Cino appears to have thrown up his party, and to have returned to Pistoia. Thereafter he devoted himself to law and letters. After filling several high judicial offices, a doctor of civil law of Bologna in his forty-fourth year, he lectured and taught from the professor's chair at the universities of Treviso, Siena, Florence and Perugia in succession; his reputation and success were great, his judicial experience enabling him to travel out of the routine of the schools. In literature he continued in some sort the tradition of Dante during the interval dividing that great poet from his successor Petrarch. The latter, besides celebrating Cino in an obituary sonnet, has coupled him and his Selvaggia with Dante and Beatrice in the fourth _capitolo_ of his _Trionfi d' Amore_.
Cino, the master of Bartolus, and of Joannes Andreae the celebrated canonist, was long famed as a jurist. His commentary on the statutes of Pistoia, written within two years, is said to have great merit; while that on the code (_Lectura Cino Pistoia super codice_, Pavia, 1483; Lyons, 1526) is considered by Savigny to exhibit more practical intelligence and more originality of thought than are found in any commentary on Roman law since the time of Accursius. As a poet he also distinguished himself greatly. He was the friend and correspondent of Dante's later years, and possibly of his earlier also, and was certainly, with Guido Cavalcanti and Durante da Maiano, one of those who replied to the famous sonnet _A ciascun' alma presa e gentil core_ of the _Vita Nuova_. In the treatise _De Vulgari Eloquio_ Dante refers to him as one of "those who have most sweetly and subtly written poems in modern Italian," but his works, printed at Rome in 1559, do not altogether justify the praise. Strained and rhetorical as many of his outcries are, however, Cino is not without moments of true passion and fine natural eloquence. Of these qualities the sonnet in memory of Selvaggia, _Io fui in sull' alto e in sul beato monte_, and the canzone to Dante, _Avegnachè di omaggio più per tempo_, are interesting examples.
The text-book for English readers is D.G. Rossetti's _Early Italian Poets_, wherein will be found not only a memoir of Cino da Pistoia, but also some admirably translated specimens of his verse--the whole wrought into significant connexion with that friendship of Cino's which is perhaps the most interesting fact about him. See also Ciampi, _Vita e poesie di messer Cino da Pistoia_ (Pisa, 1813).
CINQ-MARS, HENRI COIFFIER RUZÉ D'EFFIAT, MARQUIS DE (1620-1642), French courtier, was the second son of Antoine Coiffier Ruzé, marquis d'Effiat, marshal of France (1581-1632), and was introduced to the court of Louis XIII. by Richelieu, who had been a friend of his father and who hoped he would counteract the influence of the queen's favourite Mlle. de Hautefort. Owing to his handsome appearance and agreeable manners he soon became a favourite of the king, and was made successively master of the wardrobe and master of the horse. After distinguishing himself at the siege of Arras in 1640, Cinq-Mars wished for a high military command, but Richelieu opposed his pretensions and the favourite talked rashly about overthrowing the minister. He was probably connected with the abortive rising of the count of Soissons in 1641; however that may be, in the following year he formed a conspiracy with the duke of Bouillon and others to overthrow Richelieu. This plot was under the nominal leadership of the king's brother Gaston of Orleans. The plans of the conspirators were aided by the illness of Richelieu and his absence from the king, and at the siege of Narbonne Cinq-Mars almost induced Louis to agree to banish his minister. Richelieu, however, recovered, became acquainted with the attempt of Cinq-Mars to obtain assistance from Spain, and laid the proofs of his treason before the king, who ordered his arrest. Cinq-Mars was brought to trial, admitted his guilt, and was condemned to death. He was executed at Lyons on the 12th of September 1642. It is possible that Cinq-Mars was urged to engage in this conspiracy by his affection for Louise Marie de Gonzaga (1612-1667), afterwards queen of Poland, who was a prominent figure at the court of Louis XIII.; and this tradition forms part of the plot of Alfred de Vigny's novel _Cinq-Mars_.
See Le P. Griffet, _Histoire de Louis XIII_; A. Bazin, _Histoire de Louis XIII_ (1846); L. D'Astarac de Frontrailles, _Relations des choses particulières de la cour pendant la faveur de M. de Cinq-Mars_.
CINQUE CENTO (Italian for five hundred; short for 1500), in architecture, the style which became prevalent in Italy in the century following 1500, now usually called "16th-century work." It was the result of the revival of classic architecture known as Renaissance, but the change had commenced already a century earlier, in the works of Ghiberti and Donatello in sculpture, and of Brunelleschi and Alberti in architecture.
CINQUE PORTS, the name of an ancient jurisdiction in the south of England, which is still maintained with considerable modifications and diminished authority. As the name implies, the ports originally constituting the body were only five in number--Hastings, Romney, Hythe, Dover and Sandwich; but to these were afterwards added the "ancient towns" of Winchelsea and Rye with the same privileges, and a good many other places, both corporate and non-corporate, which, with the title of limb or member, held a subordinate position. To Hastings were attached the corporate members of Pevensey and Seaford, and the non-corporate members of Bulvarhythe, Petit Iham (Yham or Higham), Hydney, Bekesbourn, Northeye and Grenche or Grange; to Romney, Lydd, and Old Romney, Dengemarsh, Orwaldstone, and Bromehill or Promehill; to Dover, Folkestone and Faversham, and Margate, St John's, Goresend (now Birchington), Birchington Wood (now Woodchurch), St Peter's, Kingsdown and Ringwould; to Sandwich, Fordwich and Deal, and Walmer, Ramsgate, Reculver, Stonor (Estanor), Sarre (or Serre) and Brightlingsea (in Essex). To Rye was attached the corporate member of Tenterden, and to a Hythe the non-corporate member of West Hythe. The jurisdiction thus extends along the coast from Seaford in Sussex to Birchington near Margate in Kent; and it also includes a number of inland districts, at a considerable distance from the ports with which they are connected. The non-incorporated members are within the municipal jurisdiction of the ports to which they are attached; but the corporate members are as free within their own liberties as the individual ports themselves.
The incorporation of the Cinque Ports had its origin in the necessity for some means of defence along the southern seaboard of England, and in the lack of any regular navy. Up to the reign of Henry VII. they had to furnish the crown with nearly all the ships and men that were needful for the state; and for a long time after they were required to give large assistance to the permanent fleet. The oldest charter now on record is one belonging to the 6th year of Edward I.; and it refers to previous documents of the time of Edward the Confessor and William the Conqueror. In return for their services the ports enjoyed extensive privileges. From the Conquest or even earlier they had, besides various lesser rights--(1) exemption from tax and tallage; (2) soc and sac, or full cognizance of all criminal and civil cases within their liberties; (3) tol and team, or the right of receiving toll and the right of compelling the person in whose hands stolen property was found to name the person from whom he received it; (4) blodwit and fledwit, or the right to punish shedders of blood and those who were seized in an attempt to escape from justice; (5) pillory and tumbrel; (6) infangentheof and outfangentheof, or power to imprison and execute felons; (7) mundbryce (the breaking into or violation of a man's _mund_ or property in order to erect banks or dikes as a defence against the sea); (8) waives and strays, or the right to appropriate lost property or cattle not claimed within a year and a day; (9) the right to seize all flotsam, jetsam, or ligan, or, in other words, whatever of value was cast ashore by the sea; (10) the privilege of being a gild with power to impose taxes for the common weal; and (11) the right of assembling in portmote or parliament at Shepway or Shepway Cross, a few miles west of Hythe (but afterwards at Dover), the parliament being empowered to make by-laws for the Cinque Ports, to regulate the Yarmouth fishery, to hear appeals from the local courts, and to give decision in all cases of treason, sedition, illegal coining or concealment of treasure trove. The ordinary business of the ports was conducted in two courts known respectively as the court of brotherhood and the court of brotherhood and guestling,--the former being composed of the mayors of the seven principal towns and a number of jurats and freemen from each, and the latter including in addition the mayors, bailiffs and other representatives of the corporate members. The court of brotherhood was formerly called the brotheryeeld, brodall or brodhull; and the name guestling seems to owe its origin to the fact that the officials of the "members" were at first in the position of invited guests.
The highest office in connexion with the Cinque Ports is that of the lord warden, who also acts as governor of Dover Castle, and has a maritime jurisdiction (_vide infra_) as admiral of the ports. His power was formerly of great extent, but he has now practically no important duty to exercise except that of chairman of the Dover harbour board. The emoluments of the office are confined to certain insignificant admiralty droits. The patronage attached to the office consists of the right to appoint the judge of the Cinque Ports admiralty court, the registrar of the Cinque Ports and the marshal of the court; the right of appointing salvage commissioners at each Cinque Port and the appointment of a deputy to act as chairman of the Dover harbour board in the absence of the lord warden. Walmer Castle was for long the official residence of the lord warden, but has, since the resignation of Lord Curzon in 1903, ceased to be so used, and those portions of it which are of historic interest are now open to the public. George, prince of Wales (lord warden, 1903-1907), was the first lord warden of royal blood since the office was held by George, prince of Denmark, consort of Queen Anne.
_Admiralty Jurisdiction._--The court of admiralty for the Cinque Ports exercises a co-ordinate but not exclusive admiralty jurisdiction over persons and things found within the territory of the Cinque Ports. The limits of its jurisdiction were declared at an inquisition taken at the court of admiralty, held by the seaside at Dover in 1682, to extend from Shore Beacon in Essex to Redcliff, near Seaford, in Sussex; and with regard to salvage, they comprise all the sea between Seaford in Sussex to a point five miles off Cape Grisnez on the coast of France, and the coast of Essex. An older inquisition of 1526 is given by R.G. Marsden in his _Select Pleas of the Court of Admiralty_, II. xxx. The court is an ancient one. The judge sits as the official and commissary of the lord warden, just as the judge of the high court of admiralty sat as the official and commissary of the lord high admiral. And, as the office of lord warden is more ancient than the office of lord high admiral (_The Lord Warden_ v. _King in his office of Admiralty_, 1831, 2 Hagg. Admy. Rep. 438), it is probable that the Cinque Ports court is the more ancient of the two.
The jurisdiction of the court has been, except in one matter of mere antiquarian curiosity, unaffected by statute. It exercises only, therefore, such jurisdiction as the high court of admiralty exercised, apart from restraining statutes of 1389 and 1391 and enabling statutes of 1840 and 1861. Cases of collision have been tried in it (the "Vivid," 1 _Asp. Maritime Law Cases_, 601). But salvage cases (the "Clarisse," _Swabey_, 129; the "Marie," _Law. Rep. 7 P.D._ 203) are the principal cases now tried. It has no prize jurisdiction. The one case in which jurisdiction has been given to it by statute is to enforce forfeitures under the statute of 1538.
Dr (afterwards the Right Hon. Robert Joseph) Phillimore succeeded his father as judge of the court from 1855 to 1875, being succeeded by Mr Arthur Cohen, K.C. As Sir R. Phillimore was also the last judge of the high court of admiralty, from 1867 (the date of his appointment to the high court) to 1875, the two offices were, probably for the first time in history, held by the same person. Dr Phillimore's patent had a grant of the "place or office of judge official and commissary of the court of admiralty of the Cinque Ports, and their members and appurtenances, and to be assistant to my lieutenant of Dover castle in all such affairs and business concerning the said court of admiralty wherein yourself and assistance shall be requisite and necessary." Of old the court sat sometimes at Sandwich, sometimes at other ports. But the regular place for the sitting of the court has for a long time been, and still is, the aisle of St James's church, Dover. For convenience the judge often sits at the royal courts of justice. The office of marshal in the high court is represented in this court by a serjeant, who also bears a silver oar. There is a registrar, as in the high court. The appeal is to the king in council, and is heard by the judicial committee of the privy council. The court can hear appeals from the Cinque Ports salvage commissioners, such appeals being final (Cinque Ports Act 1821). Actions may be transferred to it, and appeals made to it, from the county courts in all cases, arising within the jurisdiction of the Cinque Ports as defined by that act. At the solemn installation of the lord warden the judge as the next principal officer installs him.
The Cinque Ports from the earliest times claimed to be exempt from the jurisdiction of the admiral of England. Their early charters do not, like those of Bristol and other seaports, express this exemption in terms. It seems to have been derived from the general words of the charters which preserve their liberties and privileges.
The lord warden's claim to prize was raised in, but not finally decided by, the high court of admiralty in the "Ooster Ems," 1 _C. Rob._ 284, 1783.
See S. Jeake, _Charters of the Cinque Ports_ (1728); Boys, _Sandwich and Cinque Ports_; Knocker, _Grand Court of Shepway_ (1862); M, Burrows, _Cinque Ports_ (1895); F.M. Hueffer, _Cinque Ports_ (1900); _Indices of the Great White and Black Books of the Cinque Ports_ (1905).
CINTRA, a town of central Portugal, in the district of Lisbon, formerly included in the province of Estramadura; 17 m. W.N.W. of Lisbon by the Lisbon-Caçem-Cintra railway, and 6 m. N. by E. of Cape da Roca, the westernmost promontory of the European mainland. Pop. (1900) 5914. Cintra is magnificently situated on the northern slope of the Serra da Cintra, a rugged mountain mass, largely overgrown with pines, eucalyptus, cork and other forest trees, above which the principal summits rise in a succession of bare and jagged grey peaks; the highest being Cruz Alta (1772 ft.), marked by an ancient stone cross, and commanding a wonderful view southward over Lisbon and the Tagus estuary, and north-westward over the Atlantic and the plateau of Mafra. Few European towns possess equal advantages of position and climate; and every educated Portuguese is familiar with the verses in which the beauty of Cintra is celebrated by Byron in _Childe Harold_ (1812), and by Camoens in the national epic _Os Lusiadas_ (1572). One of the highest points of the Serra is surmounted by the Palacio da Pena, a fantastic imitation of a medieval fortress, built on the site of a Hieronymite convent by the prince consort Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg (d. 1885); while an adjacent part of the range is occupied by the Castello des Mouros, an extensive Moorish fortification, containing a small ruined mosque and a very curious set of ancient cisterns. The lower slopes of the Serra are covered with the gardens and villas of the wealthier inhabitants of Lisbon, who migrate hither in spring and stay until late autumn.
In the town itself the most conspicuous building is a 14th-15th-century royal palace, partly Moorish, partly debased Gothic in style, and remarkable for the two immense conical chimneys which rise like towers in the midst. The 18th-century Palacio de Seteaes, built in the French style then popular in Portugal, is said to derive its name ("Seven _Ahs_") from a sevenfold echo; here, on the 22nd of August 1808, was signed the convention of Cintra, by which the British and Portuguese allowed the French army to evacuate the kingdom without molestation. Beside the road which leads for 3½ m. W. to the village of Collares, celebrated for its wine, is the Penha Verde, an interesting country house and chapel, founded by João de Castro (1500-1548), fourth viceroy of the Indies. De Castro also founded the convent of Santa Cruz, better known as the Convento de Cortiça or Cork convent, which stands at the western extremity of the Serra, and owes its name to the cork panels which formerly lined its walls. Beyond the Penha Verde, on the Collares road, are the palace and park of Montserrate. The palace was originally built by William Beckford, the novelist and traveller (1761-1844), and was purchased in 1856 by Sir Francis Cook, an Englishman who afterwards obtained the Portuguese title viscount of Montserrate. The palace, which contains a valuable library, is built of pure white stone, in Moorish style; its walls are elaborately sculptured. The park, with its tropical luxuriance of vegetation and its variety of lake, forest and mountain scenery, is by far the finest example of landscape gardening in the Iberian Peninsula, and probably among the finest in the world. Its high-lying lawns, which overlook the Atlantic, are as perfect as any in England, and there is one ravine containing a whole wood of giant tree-ferns from New Zealand. Other rare plants have been systematically collected and brought to Montserrate from all parts of the world by Sir Francis Cook, and afterwards by his successor, Sir Frederick Cook, the second viscount. The Praia das Maçãs, or "beach of apples," in the centre of a rich fruit-bearing valley, is a favourite sea-bathing station, connected with Cintra by an extension of the electric tramway which runs through the town.
CIPHER, or CYPHER (from Arab, _[.s]ifr_, void), the symbol 0, nought, or zero; and so a name for symbolic or secret writing (see CRYPTOGRAPHY), or even for shorthand (q.v.), and also in elementary education for doing simple sums ("ciphering").
CIPPUS (Lat. for a "post" or "stake"), in architecture, a low pedestal, either round or rectangular, set up by the Romans for various purposes such as military or mile stones, boundary posts, &c. The inscriptions on some in the British Museum show that they were occasionally funeral memorials.
CIPRIANI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA (1727-1785), Italian painter and engraver, Pistoiese by descent, was born in Florence in 1727. His first lessons were given him by an Englishman, Ignatius Heckford or Hugford, and under his second master, Antonio Domenico Gabbiani, he became a very clever draughtsman. He was in Rome from 1750 to 1753, where he became acquainted with Sir William Chambers, the architect, and Joseph Wilton, the sculptor, whom he accompanied to England in August 1755. He had already painted two pictures for the abbey of San Michele in Pelago, Pistoia, which had brought him reputation, and on his arrival in England he was patronized by Lord Tilney, the duke of Richmond and other noblemen. His acquaintance with Sir William Chambers no doubt helped him on, for when Chambers designed the Albany in London for Lord Holland, Cipriani painted a ceiling for him. He also painted part of a ceiling in Buckingham Palace, and a room with poetical subjects at Standlynch in Wiltshire. Some of his best and most permanent work was, however, done at Somerset House, built by his friend Chambers, upon which he lavished infinite pains. He not only prepared the decorations for the interior of the north block, but, says Joseph Baretti in his _Guide through the Royal Academy_ (1780), "the whole of the carvings in the various fronts of Somerset Place--excepting Bacon's bronze figures--were carved from finished drawings made by Cipriani." These designs include the five masks forming the keystones to the arches on the courtyard side of the vestibule, and the two above the doors leading into the wings of the north block, all of which are believed to have been carved by Nollekens. The grotesque groups flanking the main doorways on three sides of the quadrangle and the central doorway on the terrace appear also to have been designed by Cipriani. The apartments in Sir William Chambers's stately palace that were assigned to the Royal Academy, into which it moved in 1780, owed much to Cipriani's graceful, if mannered, pencil. The central panel of the library ceiling was painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds, but the four compartments in the coves, representing Allegory, Fable, Nature and History, were Cipriani's. These paintings still remain at Somerset House, together with the emblematic painted ceiling, also his work, of what was once the library of the Royal Society. It was natural that Cipriani should thus devote himself to adorning the apartments of the academy, since he was an original member (1768) of that body, for which he designed the diploma so well engraved by Bartolozzi. In recognition of his services in this respect the members presented him in 1769 with a silver cup with a commemorative inscription. He was much employed by the publishers, for whom he made drawings in pen and ink, sometimes coloured. His friend Bartolozzi engraved most of them. Drawings by him are in both the British Museum and Victoria and Albert Museum. His best autograph engravings are "The Death of Cleopatra," after Benvenuto Cellini; "The Descent of the Holy Ghost," after Gabbiani; and portraits for Hollis's memoirs, 1780. He painted allegorical designs for George III.'s state coach--which is still in use--in 1782, and repaired Verrio's paintings at Windsor and Rubens's ceiling in the Banqueting House at Whitehall. If his pictures were often weak, his decorative treatment of children was usually exceedingly happy. Some of his most pleasing work was that which, directly or indirectly, he executed for the decoration of furniture. He designed many groups of nymphs and _amorini_ and medallion subjects to form the centre of Pergolesi's bands of ornament, and they were continually reproduced upon the elegant satin-wood furniture which was growing popular in his later days and by the end of the 18th century became a rage. Sometimes these designs were inlaid in marqueterie, but most frequently they were painted upon the satin-wood by other hands with delightful effect, since in the whole range of English furniture there is nothing more enchanting than really good finished satin-wood pieces. There can be little doubt that some of the beautiful furniture designed by the Adams was actually painted by Cipriani himself. He also occasionally designed handles for drawers and doors. Cipriani died at Hammersmith in 1785 and was buried at Chelsea, where Bartolozzi erected a monument to his memory. He had married an English lady, by whom he had two sons.
CIRCAR, an Indian term applied to the component parts of a _subah_ or province, each of which is administered by a deputy-governor. In English it is principally employed in the name of the NORTHERN CIRCARS, used to designate a now obsolete division of the Madras presidency, which consisted of a narrow slip of territory lying along the western side of the Bay of Bengal from 15° 40' to 20° 17' N. lat. These Northern Circars were five in number, Chicacole, Rajahmundry, Ellore, Kondapalli and Guntur, and their total area was about 30,000 sq. m.
The district corresponds in the main to the modern districts of Kistna, Godavari, Vizagapatam, Ganjam and a part of Nellore. It was first invaded by the Mahommedans in 1471; in 1541 they conquered Kondapalli, and nine years later they extended their conquests over all Guntur and the districts of Masulipatam. But the invaders appear to have acquired only an imperfect possession of the country, as it was again wrested from the Hindu princes of Orissa about the year 1571, during the reign of Ibrahim, of the Kutb Shahi dynasty of Hyderabad or Golconda. In 1687 the Circars were added, along with the empire of Hyderabad, to the extensive empire of Aurangzeb. Salabat Jang, the son of the nizam ul mulk Asaf Jah, who was indebted for his elevation to the throne to the French East India Company, granted them in return for their services the district of Kondavid or Guntur, and soon afterwards the other Circars. In 1759, by the conquest of the fortress of Masulipatam, the dominion of the maritime provinces on both sides, from the river Gundlakamma to the Chilka lake, was necessarily transferred from the French to the British. But the latter left them under the administration of the nizam, with the exception of the town and fortress of Masulipatam, which were retained by the English East India Company. In 1765 Lord Clive obtained from the Mogul emperor Shah Alam a grant of the five Circars. Hereupon the fort of Kondapalli was seized by the British, and on the 12th of November 1766 a treaty of alliance was signed with Nizam Ali by which the Company, in return for the grant of the Circars, undertook to maintain troops for the nizam's assistance. By a second treaty, signed on the 1st of March 1768, the nizam acknowledged the validity of Shah Alam's grant and resigned the Circars to the Company, receiving as a mark of friendship an annuity of £50,000. Guntur, as the personal estate of the nizam's brother Basalat Jang, was excepted during his lifetime under both treaties. He died in 1782, but it was not till 1788 that Guntur came under British administration. Finally, in 1823, the claims of the nizam over the Northern Circars were bought outright by the Company, and they became a British possession.
CIRCASSIA, a name formerly given to the north-western portion of the Caucasus, including the district between the mountain range and the Black Sea, and extending to the north of the central range as far as the river Kuban. Its physical features are described in the article on the Russian province of KUBAN, with which it approximately coincides. The present article is confined to a consideration of the ethnographical relations and characteristics of the people, their history being treated under CAUCASIA.
The Cherkesses or Circassians, who gave their name to this region, of which they were until lately the sole inhabitants, are a peculiar race, differing from the other tribes of the Caucasus in origin and language. They designate themselves by the name of Adigheb, that of Cherkesses being a term of Russian origin. By their long-continued struggles with the power of Russia, during a period of nearly forty years, they attracted the attention of the other nations of Europe in a high degree, and were at the same time an object of interest to the student of the history of civilization, from the strange mixture which their customs exhibited of chivalrous sentiment with savage customs. For this reason it may be still worth while to give a brief summary of their national characteristics and manners, though these must now be regarded as in great measure things of the past.
In the patriarchal simplicity of their manners, the mental qualities with which they were endowed, the beauty of form and regularity of feature by which they were distinguished, they surpassed most of the other tribes of the Caucasus. At the same time they were remarkable for their warlike and intrepid character, their independence, their hospitality to strangers, and that love of country which they manifested in their determined resistance to an almost overwhelming power during the period of a long and desolating war. The government under which they lived was a peculiar form of the feudal system. The free Circassians were divided into three distinct ranks, the princes or _pshi_, the nobles or _uork_ (Tatar _usden_), and the peasants or _hokotl_. Like the inhabitants of the other regions of the Caucasus, they were also divided into numerous families, tribes or clans, some of which were very powerful, and carried on war against each other with great animosity. The slaves, of whom a large proportion were prisoners of war, were generally employed in the cultivation of the soil, or in the domestic service of some of the principal chiefs.
The will of the people was acknowledged as the supreme source of authority; and every free Circassian had a right to express his opinion in those assemblies of his tribe in which the questions of peace and war, almost the only subjects which engaged their attention, were brought under deliberation. The princes and nobles, the leaders of the people in war and their rulers in peace, were only the administrators of a power which was delegated to them. As they had no written laws, the administration of justice was regulated solely by custom and tradition, and in those tribes professing Mahommedanism by the precepts of the Koran. The most aged and respected inhabitants of the various _auls_ or villages frequently sat in judgment, and their decisions were received without a murmur by the contending parties. The Circassian princes and nobles were professedly Mahommedans; but in their religious services many of the ceremonies of their former heathen and Christian worship were still preserved. A great part of the people had remained faithful to the worship of their ancient gods--Shible, the god of thunder, of war and of justice; Tleps, the god of fire; and Seosseres, the god of water and of winds. Although the Circassians are said to have possessed minds capable of the highest cultivation, the arts and sciences, with the exception of poetry and music, were completely neglected. They possessed no written language. The wisdom of their sages, the knowledge they had acquired, and the memory of their warlike deeds were preserved in verses, which were repeated from mouth to mouth and descended from father to son.
The education of the young Circassian was confined to riding, fencing, shooting, hunting, and such exercises as were calculated to strengthen his frame and prepare him for a life of active warfare. The only intellectual duty of the _atalik_ or instructor, with whom the young men lived until they had completed their education, was that of teaching them to express their thoughts shortly, quickly and appropriately. One of their marriage ceremonies was very strange. The young man who had been approved by the parents, and had paid the stipulated price in money, horses, oxen, or sheep for his bride, was expected to come with his friends fully armed, and to carry her off by force from her father's house. Every free Circassian had unlimited right over the lives of his wife and children. Although polygamy was allowed by the laws of the Koran, the custom of the country forbade it, and the Circassians were generally faithful to the marriage bond. The respect for superior age was carried to such an extent that the young brother used to rise from his seat when the elder entered an apartment, and was silent when he spoke. Like all the other inhabitants of the Caucasus, the Circassians were distinguished for two very opposite qualities--the most generous hospitality and implacable vindictiveness. Hospitality to the stranger was considered one of the most sacred duties. Whatever were his rank in life, all the members of the family rose to receive him on his entrance, and conduct him to the principal seat in the apartment. The host was considered responsible with his own life for the security of his guest, upon whom, even although his deadliest enemy, he would inflict no injury while under the protection of his roof. The chief who had received a stranger was also bound to grant him an escort of horse to conduct him in safety on his journey, and confide him to the protection of those nobles with whom he might be on friendly terms. The law of vengeance was no less binding on the Circassian. The individual who had slain any member of a family was pursued with implacable vengeance by the relatives, until his crime was expiated by death. The murderer might, indeed, secure his safety by the payment of a certain sum of money, or by carrying off from the house of his enemy a newly-born child, bringing it up as his own, and restoring it when its education was finished. In either case, the family of the slain individual might discontinue the pursuit of vengeance without any stain upon its honour. The man closely followed by his enemy, who, on reaching the dwelling of a woman, had merely touched her hand, was safe from all other pursuit so long as he remained under the protection of her roof. The opinions of the Circassians regarding theft resembled those of the ancient Spartans. The commission of the crime was not considered so disgraceful as its discovery; and the punishment of being compelled publicly to restore the stolen property to its original possessor, amid the derision of his tribe, was much dreaded by the Circassian who would glory in a successful theft. The greatest stain upon the Circassian character was the custom of selling their children, the Circassian father being always willing to part with his daughters, many of whom were bought by Turkish merchants for the harems of Eastern monarchs. But no degradation was implied in this transaction, and the young women themselves were generally willing partners in it. Herds of cattle and sheep constituted the chief riches of the inhabitants. The princes and nobles, from whom the members of the various tribes held the land which they cultivated, were the proprietors of the soil. The Circassians carried on little or no commerce, and the state of perpetual warfare in which they lived prevented them from cultivating any of the arts of peace.
CIRCE (Gr. [Greek: Kirkê]), in Greek legend, a famous sorceress, the daughter of Helios and the ocean nymph Perse. Having murdered her husband, the prince of Colchis, she was expelled by her subjects and placed by her father on the solitary island of Aeaea on the coast of Italy. She was able by means of drugs and incantations to change human beings into the forms of wolves or lions, and with these beings her palace was surrounded. Here she was found by Odysseus and his companions; the latter she changed into swine, but the hero, protected by the herb _moly_ (q.v.), which he had received from Hermes, not only forced her to restore them to their original shape, but also gained her love. For a year he relinquished himself to her endearments, and when he determined to leave, she instructed him how to sail to the land of shades which lay on the verge of the ocean stream, in order to learn his fate from the prophet Teiresias. Upon his return she also gave him directions for avoiding the dangers of the journey home (Homer, _Odyssey_, x.-xii.; Hyginus, _Fab._ 125). The Roman poets associated her with the most ancient traditions of Latium, and assigned her a home on the promontory of Circei (Virgil, _Aeneid_, vii. 10). The metamorphoses of Scylla and of Picus, king of the Ausonians, by Circe, are narrated in Ovid (_Metamorphoses_, xiv.).
_The Myth of Kirke_, by R. Brown (1883), in which Circe is explained as a moon-goddess of Babylonian origin, contains an exhaustive summary of facts, although many of the author's speculations may be proved untenable (review by H. Bradley in _Academy_, January 19, 1884); see also J.E. Harrison, _Myths of the Odyssey_ (1882); C. Seeliger in W.H. Roscher's _Lexikon der Mythologie_.
CIRCEIUS MONS (mod. _Monte Circeo_), an isolated promontory on the S.W. coast of Italy, about 80 m. S.E. of Rome. It is a ridge of limestone about 3½ m. long by 1 m. wide at the base, running from E. to W. and surrounded by the sea on all sides except the N. The land to the N. of it is 53 ft. above sea-level, while the summit of the promontory is 1775 ft. The origin of the name is uncertain: it has naturally been connected with the legend of Circe, and Victor Bérard (in _Les Phéniciens et l'Odyssée_, ii. 261 seq.) maintains in support of the identification that [Greek: Ahiaiê], the Greek name for the island of Circe, is a faithful transliteration of a Semitic name, meaning "island of the hawk," of which [Greek: nêsos Kirkês] is the translation. The difficulty has been raised, especially by geologists, that the promontory ceased to be an island at a period considerably before the time of Homer; but Procopius very truly remarked that the promontory has all the appearance of an island until one is actually upon it. Upon the E. end of the ridge of the promontory are the remains of an enceinte, forming roughly a rectangle of about 200 by 100 yds. of very fine polygonal work, on the outside, the blocks being very carefully cut and jointed and right angles being intentionally avoided. The wall stands almost entirely free, as at Arpinum--polygonal walls in Italy are as a rule embanking walls--and increases considerably in thickness as it descends. The blocks of the inner face are much less carefully worked both here and at Arpinum. It seems to have been an acropolis, and contains no traces of buildings, except for a subterranean cistern, circular, with a beehive roof of converging blocks. The modern village of S. Felice Circeo seems to occupy the site of the ancient town, the citadel of which stood on the mountain top, for its medieval walls rest upon ancient walls of Cyclopean work of less careful construction than those of the citadel, and enclosing an area of 200 by 150 yds.
Circei was founded as a Roman colony at an early date--according to some authorities in the time of Tarquinius Superbus, but more probably about 390 B.C. The existence of a previous population, however, is very likely indicated by the revolt of Circei in the middle of the 4th century B.C., so that it is doubtful whether the walls described are to be attributed to the Romans or the earlier Volscian inhabitants. At the end of the republic, however, or at latest at the beginning of the imperial period, the city of Circei was no longer at the E. end of the promontory, but on the E. shores of the Lago di Paola (a lagoon--now a considerable fishery--separated from the sea by a line of sandhills and connected with it by a channel of Roman date: Strabo speaks of it as a small harbour) one mile N. of the W. end of the promontory. Here are the remains of a Roman town, belonging to the 1st and 2nd centuries, extending over an area of some 600 by 500 yards, and consisting of fine buildings along the lagoons, including a large open _piscina_ or basin, surrounded by a double portico, while farther inland are several very large and well-preserved water-reservoirs, supplied by an aqueduct of which traces may still be seen. An inscription speaks of an amphitheatre, of which no remains are visible. The transference of the city did not, however, mean the abandonment of the E. end of the promontory, on which stand the remains of several very large villas. An inscription, indeed, cut in the rock near S. Felice, speaks of this part of the _promunturium Veneris_ (the only case of the use of this name) as belonging to the city of Circei. On the S. and N. sides of the promontory there are comparatively few buildings, while, at the W. end there is a sheer precipice to the sea. The town only acquired municipal rights after the Social War, and was a place of little importance, except as a seaside resort. For its villas Cicero compares it with Antium, and probably both Tiberius and Domitian possessed residences there. The beetroot and oysters of Circei had a certain reputation. The view from the highest summit of the promontory (which is occupied by ruins of a platform attributed with great probability to a temple of Venus or Circe) is of remarkable beauty; the whole mountain is covered with fragrant shrubs. From any point in the Pomptine Marshes or on the coast-line of Latium the Circeian promontory dominates the landscape in the most remarkable way.
See T. Ashby, "Monte Circeo," in _Mélanges de l'école française de Rome_, XXV. (1905) 157 seq. (T. As.)
CIRCLE (from the Lat. _circulus_, the diminutive of _circus_, a ring; the cognate Gr. word is [Greek: kirkos], generally used in the form [Greek: krikos]), a plane curve definable as the locus of a point which moves so that its distance from a fixed point is constant.
The form of a circle is familiar to all; and we proceed to define certain lines, points, &c., which constantly occur in studying its geometry. The fixed point in the preceding definition is termed the "centre" (C in fig. 1); the constant distance, e.g. CG, the "radius." The curve itself is sometimes termed the "circumference." Any line through the centre and terminated at both extremities by the curve, e.g. AB, is a "diameter"; any other line similarly terminated, e.g. EF, a "chord." Any line drawn from an external point to cut the circle in two points, e.g. DEF, is termed a "secant"; if it touches the circle, e.g. DG, it is a "tangent." Any portion of the circumference terminated by two points, e.g. AD (fig. 2), is termed an "arc"; and the plane figure enclosed by a chord and arc, e.g. ABD, is termed a "segment"; if the chord be a diameter, the segment is termed a "semicircle." The figure included by two radii and an arc is a "sector," e.g. ECF (fig. 2). "Concentric circles" are, as the name obviously shows, circles having the same centre; the figure enclosed by the circumferences of two concentric circles is an "annulus" (fig. 3), and of two non-concentric circles a "lune," the shaded portions in fig. 4; the clear figure is sometimes termed a "lens."
The circle was undoubtedly known to the early civilizations, its simplicity specially recommending it as an object for study. Euclid defines it (Book I. def. 15) as a "plane figure enclosed by one line, all the straight lines drawn to which from one point within the figure are equal to one another." In the succeeding three definitions the centre, diameter and the semicircle are defined, while the third postulate of the same book demands the possibility of describing a circle for every "centre" and "distance." Having employed the circle for the construction and demonstration of several propositions in Books I. and II. Euclid devotes his third book entirely to theorems and problems relating to the circle, and certain lines and angles, which he defines in introducing the propositions. The fourth book deals with the circle in its relations to inscribed and circumscribed triangles, quadrilaterals and regular polygons. Reference should be made to the article GEOMETRY: _Euclidean_, for a detailed summary of the Euclidean treatment, and the elementary properties of the circle.
_Analytical Geometry of the Circle._
Cartesian co-ordinates.
In the article GEOMETRY: _Analytical_, it is shown that the general equation to a circle in rectangular Cartesian co-ordinates is x^2+y^2+2gx+2fy+c=0, i.e. in the general equation of the second degree the co-efficients of x^2 and y^2 are equal, and of xy zero. The co-ordinates of its centre are -g/c, -f/c; and its radius is (g^2+f^2-c)^½. The equations to the chord, tangent and normal are readily derived by the ordinary methods.
Consider the two circles:--
x^2+y^2+2gx+2fy+c=0, x^2+y^2+2g'x+2f'y+c'=0.
Obviously these equations show that the curves intersect in four points, two of which lie on the intersection of the line, 2(g - g')x + 2(f - f')y + c - c' = 0, the radical axis, with the circles, and the other two where the lines x² + y² = (x + iy) (x - iy) = 0 (where i = sqrt -1) intersect the circles. The first pair of intersections may be either real or imaginary; we proceed to discuss the second pair.
The equation x² + y² = 0 denotes a pair of perpendicular imaginary lines; it follows, therefore, that circles always intersect in two imaginary points at infinity along these lines, and since the terms x² + y² occur in the equation of every circle, it is seen that all circles pass through two fixed points at infinity. The introduction of these lines and points constitutes a striking achievement in geometry, and from their association with circles they have been named the "circular lines" and "circular points." Other names for the circular lines are "circulars" or "isotropic lines." Since the equation to a circle of zero radius is x² + y² = 0, i.e. identical with the circular lines, it follows that this circle consists of a real point and the two imaginary lines; conversely, the circular lines are both a pair of lines and a circle. A further deduction from the principle of continuity follows by considering the intersections of concentric circles. The equations to such circles may be expressed in the form x² + y² = [alpha]², x² + y² = [beta]². These equations show that the circles touch where they intersect the lines x² + y² = 0, i.e. concentric circles have double contact at the circular points, the chord of contact being the line at infinity.
In various systems of triangular co-ordinates the equations to circles specially related to the triangle of reference assume comparatively simple forms; consequently they provide elegant algebraical demonstrations of properties concerning a triangle and the circles intimately associated with its geometry. In this article the equations to the more important circles--the circumscribed, inscribed, escribed, self-conjugate--will be given; reference should be made to the article TRIANGLE for the consideration of other circles (nine-point, Brocard, Lemoine, &c.); while in the article GEOMETRY: _Analytical_, the principles of the different systems are discussed.
Trilinear co-ordinates.
The equation to the circumcircle assumes the simple form a[beta][gamma] + b[gamma][alpha] + c[alpha][beta] = 0, the centre being cos A, cos B, cos C. The inscribed circle is cos ½A sqrt([alpha]) cos ½B sqrt([beta]) + cos ½C sqrt([gamma]) = 0, with centre [alpha] = [beta] = [gamma]; while the escribed circle opposite the angle A is cos ½A sqrt(-[alpha]) + sin ½B sqrt([beta]) + sin ½C sqrt([gamma]) = 0, with centre -[alpha] = [beta] = [gamma]. The self-conjugate circle is [alpha]² sin 2A + [beta]² sin 2B + [gamma]² sin 2C = 0, or the equivalent form a cos A [alpha]² + b cos B [beta]² + c cos C [gamma]² = 0, the centre being sec A, sec B, sec C.
The general equation to the circle in trilinear co-ordinates is readily deduced from the fact that the circle is the only curve which intersects the line infinity in the circular points. Consider the equation
a[beta][gamma] + b[gamma][alpha] + C[alpha][beta] + (l[alpha] + m[beta] + n[gamma]) (a[alpha] + b[beta] + c[gamma]) = 0 (1).
This obviously represents a conic intersecting the circle a[beta][gamma] + b[gamma][alpha] + c[alpha][beta] = 0 in points on the common chords l[alpha] + m[beta] + n[gamma] = 0, a[alpha] + b[beta] + c[gamma] = 0. The line l[alpha] + m[beta] + n[gamma] is the radical axis, and since a[alpha] + b[beta] + c[gamma] = 0 is the line infinity, it is obvious that equation (1) represents a conic passing through the circular points, i.e. a circle. If we compare (1) with the general equation of the second degree u[alpha]² + v[beta]² + w[gamma]² + 2u'[beta][gamma] + 2v'[gamma][alpha] + 2w'[alpha][beta] = 0, it is readily seen that for this equation to represent a circle we must have
-kabc = vc² + wb² - 2u'bc = wa² + uc² - 2v'ca = ub² + va² - 2w'ab.
Areal co-ordinates.
The corresponding equations in areal co-ordinates are readily derived by substituting x/a, y/b, z/c for [alpha], [beta], [gamma] respectively in the trilinear equations. The circumcircle is thus seen to be a²yz + b²zx + c²xy = 0, with centre sin 2A, sin 2B, sin 2C; the inscribed circle is sqrt(x cot ½A) + sqrt(y cot ½B) + sqrt(z cot ½C) = 0, with centre sin A, sin B, sin C; the escribed circle opposite the angle A is sqrt(-x cot ½A) + sqrt(y tan ½B) + sqrt(z tan ½C)=0, with centre - sin A, sin B, sin C; and the self-conjugate circle is x² cot A + y² cot B + z² cot C = 0, with centre tan A, tan B, tan C. Since in areal co-ordinates the line infinity is represented by the equation x + y + z = 0 it is seen that every circle is of the form a²yz + b²zx + c²xy + (lx + my + nz)(x + y + z) = 0. Comparing this equation with ux² + vy² + wz² + 2u'yz + 2v'zx + 2w'xy = 0, we obtain as the condition for the general equation of the second degree to represent a circle:--
(v + w - 2u')/a² = (w + u - 2v')/b² = (u + v - 2w')/c².
Tangential co-ordinates.
In tangential (p, q, r) co-ordinates the inscribed circle has for its equation (s - a)qr + (s - b)rp + (s - c)pq = 0, s being equal to ½(a + b + c); an alternative form is qr cot ½A + rp cot ½B + pq cot ½C = 0; the centre is ap + bq + cr = 0, or p sin A + q sin B + r sin C = 0. The escribed circle opposite the angle A is -sqr + (s - c)rp + (s - b)pq = 0 or -qr cot ½A + rp tan ½B + pq tan ½C = 0, with centre -ap + bq + cr = 0. The circumcircle is a sqrt(p) + b sqrt(q) + c sqrt(r) = 0, the centre being p sin 2A + q sin 2B + r sin 2C = 0. The general equation to a circle in this system of co-ordinates is deduced as follows: If [rho] be the radius and lp + mq + nr = 0 the centre, we have [rho] = (lp1 + mq1 + nr1)/(l + m + n), in which p1, q1, r1 is a line distant [rho] from the point lp + mq + nr = 0. Making this equation homogeneous by the relation [Sigma]a²(p - q) (p - r) = 4[Delta]² (see GEOMETRY: _Analytical_), which is generally written {ap, bq, cr}² = 4[Delta]², we obtain {ap, bq, cr}²[rho]² = 4[Delta]²{(lp + mq + nr)/(l + m + n)}², the accents being dropped, and p, q, r regarded as current co-ordinates. This equation, which may be more conveniently written {ap, bq, cr}² = ([lambda]p + [mu]q + [nu]r)², obviously represents a circle, the centre being [lambda]p + [mu]q + [nu]r = 0, and radius 2[Delta]/([lambda] + [mu] + [nu]). If we make [lambda] = [mu] = [nu] = 0, [rho] is infinite, and we obtain {ap, bq, cr}² = 0 as the equation to the circular points.
_Systems of Circles._
_Centres and Circle of Similitude._--The "centres of similitude" of two circles may be defined as the intersections of the common tangents to the two circles, the direct common tangents giving rise to the "external centre," the transverse tangents to the "internal centre." It may be readily shown that the external and internal centres are the points where the line joining the centres of the two circles is divided externally and internally in the ratio of their radii.
The circle on the line joining the internal and external centres of similitude as diameter is named the "circle of similitude." It may be shown to be the locus of the vertex of the triangle which has for its base the distance between the centres of the circles and the ratio of the remaining sides equal to the ratio of the radii of the two circles.
With a system of three circles it is readily seen that there are six centres of similitude, viz. two for each pair of circles, and it may be shown that these lie three by three on four lines, named the "axes of similitude." The collinear centres are the three sets of one external and two internal centres, and the three external centres.
_Coaxal Circles._--A system of circles is coaxal when the locus of points from which tangents to the circles are equal is a straight line. Consider the case of two circles, and in the first place suppose them to intersect in two real points A and B. Then by Euclid iii. 36 it is seen that the line joining the points A and B is the locus of the intersection of equal tangents, for if P be any point on AB and PC and PD the tangents to the circles, then PA·PB = PC² = PD², and therefore PC = PD. Furthermore it is seen that AB is perpendicular to the line joining the centres, and divides it in the ratio of the squares of the radii. The line AB is termed the "radical axis." A system coaxal with the two given circles is readily constructed by describing circles through the common points on the radical axis and any third point; the minimum circle of the system is obviously that which has the common chord of intersection for diameter, the maximum is the radical axis--considered as a circle of infinite radius. In the case of two non-intersecting circles it may be shown that the radical axis has the same metrical relations to the line of centres.
There are several methods of constructing the radical axis in this case. One of the simplest is: Let P and P' (fig. 5) be the points of contact of a common tangent; drop perpendiculars PL, P'L', from P and P' to OO', the line joining the centres, then the radical axis bisects LL' (at X) and is perpendicular to OO'. To prove this let AB, AB¹ be the tangents from any point on the line AX. Then by Euc. i. 47, AB² = AO² - OB² = AX² + OX² + OP²; and OX² = OD² - DX² = OP² + PD² - DX². Therefore AB² = AX² - DX² + PD². Similarly AB'² = AX² - DX² + DP'². Since PD = PD', it follows that AB = AB'.
To construct circles coaxal with the two given circles, draw the tangent, say XR, from X, the point where the radical axis intersects the line of centres, to one of the given circles, and with centre X and radius XR describe a circle. Then circles having the intersections of tangents to this circle and the line of centres for centres, and the lengths of the tangents as radii, are members of the coaxal system.
In the case of non-intersecting circles, it is seen that the minimum circles of the coaxal system are a pair of points I and I', where the orthogonal circle to the system intersects the line of centres; these points are named the "limiting points." In the case of a coaxal system having real points of intersection the limiting points are imaginary. Analytically, the Cartesian equation to a coaxal system can be written in the form x² + y² + 2ax ± k² = 0, where a varies from member to member, while k is a constant. The radical axis is x = 0, and it may be shown that the length of the tangent from a point (0, h) is h² ± k², i.e. it is independent of a, and therefore of any particular member of the system. The circles intersect in real or imaginary points according to the lower or upper sign of k², and the limiting points are real for the upper sign and imaginary for the lower sign. The fundamental properties of coaxal systems may be summarized:--
1. The centres of circles forming a coaxal system are collinear;
2. A coaxal system having real points of intersection has imaginary limiting points;
3. A coaxal system having imaginary points of intersection has real limiting points;
4. Every circle through the limiting points cuts all circles of the system orthogonally;
5. The limiting points are inverse points for every circle of the system.
The theory of centres of similitude and coaxal circles affords elegant demonstrations of the famous problem: To describe a circle to touch three given circles. This problem, also termed the "Apollonian problem," was demonstrated with the aid of conic sections by Apollonius in his book on _Contacts_ or _Tangencies_; geometrical solutions involving the conic sections were also given by Adrianus Romanus, Vieta, Newton and others. The earliest analytical solution appears to have been given by the princess Elizabeth, a pupil of Descartes and daughter of Frederick V. John Casey, professor of mathematics at the Catholic university of Dublin, has given elementary demonstrations founded on the theory of similitude and coaxal circles which are reproduced in his _Sequel to Euclid_; an analytical solution by Gergonne is given in Salmon's _Conic Sections_. Here we may notice that there are eight circles which solve the problem.
_Mensuration of the Circle._
All exact relations pertaining to the mensuration of the circle involve the ratio of the circumference to the diameter. This ratio, invariably denoted by [pi], is constant for all circles, but it does not admit of exact arithmetical expression, being of the nature of an incommensurable number. Very early in the history of geometry it was known that the circumference and area of a circle of radius r could be expressed in the forms 2[pi]r and [pi]r². The exact geometrical evaluation of the second quantity, viz. [pi]r², which, in reality, is equivalent to determining a square equal in area to a circle, engaged the attention of mathematicians for many centuries. The history of these attempts, together with modern contributions to our knowledge of the value and nature of the number [pi], is given below (_Squaring of the Circle_).
The following table gives the values of this constant and several expiessions involving it:--
+--------------+-----------+-----------+ | | Number. | Logarithm.| +--------------+-----------+-----------+ | [pi] | 3.1415927 | 0.4971499 | | 2 [pi] | 6.2831858 | 0.7981799 | | 4 [pi] |12.5663706 | 1.0992099 | | (1/2) [pi] | 1.5707963 | 0.1961199 | | (1/3) [pi] | 1.0471976 | 0.0200286 | | (1/4) [pi] | 0.7853982 | 1.8950899 | | (1/6) [pi] | 0.5235988 | 1.7189986 | | (1/8) [pi] | 0.3926991 | 1.5940599 | | (1/12) [pi] | 0.2617994 | 1.4179686 | | (4/3) [pi] | 4.1887902 | 0.6220886 | | | | | | [pi] | | | | ------ | 0.0174533 | 2.2418774 | | 180 | | | | | | | | 1 | | | | ------ | 0.3183099 | 1.5028501 | | [pi] | | | | | | | | 4 | | | | ------ | 1.2732395 | 0.1049101 | | [pi] | | | | | | | | 1 | | | | ------ | 0.0795775 | 2.9097901 | | 4 [pi] | | | | | | | | 180 | | | | ------ |57.2957795 | 1.7581226 | | [pi] | | | | | | | | [pi]² | 9.8696044 | 0.9942997 | | | | | | 1 | | | | -------- | 0.0168869 | 2.2275490 | | 6 [pi]² | | | | | | | | _____ | | | | \/ [pi] | 1.7724539 | 0.2485750 | | | | | | _____ | | | | \³/ [pi] | 1.4645919 | 0.1657166 | | | | | | | | | | 1 | | | | -------- | | | | _____ | 0.5641896 | 1.7514251 | | \/ [pi] | | | | | | | | 2 | | | | -------- | | | | _____ | 1.1283792 | 0.0524551 | | \/ [pi] | | | | | | | | 1 | | | | ---------- | | | | _____ | 0.2820948 | 1.4503951 | | 2 \/ [pi] | | | | | | | | _____ | | | | / 6 | | | | \³/ ---- | 1.2407010 | 0.0936671 | | V [pi] | | | | | | | | ______ | | | | / 3 | | | | \³/ ------- | 0.6203505 | 1.7926371 | | V 4 [pi] | | | | | | | | log e [pi] | 1.1447299 | 0.0587030 | +--------------+-----------+-----------+
Useful fractional approximations are 22/7 and 355/113.
A synopsis of the leading formula connected with the circle will now be given.
1. _Circle._--Data: radius = a. Circumference = 2[pi]a. Area = [pi]a².
2. _Arc_ and _Sector_.--Data: radius = a; [theta] = circular measure of angle subtended at centre by arc; c = chord of arc; c2 = chord of semi-arc; c4 = chord of quarter-arc.
Exact formulae are:--Arc = a[theta], where [theta] may be given directly, or indirectly by the relation c = 2a sin ½[theta]. Area of sector = ½a²[theta] = ½ radius × arc.
Approximate formulae are:--Arc = (1/3)(8c2 - c) (Huygen's formula); arc = (1/45)(c - 40c2 + 256c4).
3. _Segment._--Data: a, [theta], c, c2, as in (2); h = height of segment, i.e. distance of mid-point of arc from chord.
Exact formulae are:--Area = ½a²([theta] - sin [theta]) = ½a²[theta] -¼c² cot ½[theta] = ½a² - ½c sqrt(a² - ¼c²). If h be given, we can use c² + 4h² = 8ah, 2h = c tan ¼[theta] to determine [theta].
Approximate formulae are:--Area = (1/15)(6c + 8c2)h; = (2/3) sqrt(c² + (8/5)h²)·h; = (1/15)(7c + 3[alpha])h, [alpha] being the true length of the arc.
From these results the mensuration of any figure bounded by circular arcs and straight lines can be determined, e.g. the area of a _lune_ or _meniscus_ is expressible as the difference or sum of two segments, and the circumference as the sum of two arcs. (C. E.*)
_Squaring of the Circle._
The problem of finding a square equal in area to a given circle, like all problems, may be increased in difficulty by the imposition of restrictions; consequently under the designation there may be embraced quite a variety of geometrical problems. It has to be noted, however, that, when the "squaring" of the circle is especially spoken of, it is almost always tacitly assumed that the restrictions are those of the Euclidean geometry.
Since the area of a circle equals that of the rectilineal triangle whose base has the same length as the circumference and whose altitude equals the radius (Archimedes, [Greek: Kyklou metrêsis], prop. 1), it follows that, if a straight line could be drawn equal in length to the circumference, the required square could be found by an ordinary Euclidean construction; also, it is evident that, conversely, if a square equal in area to the circle could be obtained it would be possible to draw a straight line equal to the circumference. Rectification and quadrature of the circle have thus been, since the time of Archimedes at least, practically identical problems. Again, since the circumferences of circles are proportional to their diameters--a proposition assumed to be true from the dawn almost of practical geometry--the rectification of the circle is seen to be transformable into finding the ratio of the circumference to the diameter. This correlative numerical problem and the two purely geometrical problems are inseparably connected historically.
Probably the earliest value for the ratio was 3. It was so among the Jews (1 Kings vii. 23, 26), the Babylonians (Oppert, _Journ. asiatique_, August 1872, October 1874), the Chinese (Biot, _Journ. asiatique_, June 1841), and probably also the Greeks. Among the ancient Egyptians, as would appear from a calculation in the Rhind papyrus, the number (4/3)^4, i.e. 3.1605, was at one time in use.[1] The first attempts to solve the purely geometrical problem appear to have been made by the Greeks (Anaxagoras, &c.)[2], one of whom, Hippocrates, doubtless raised hopes of a solution by his quadrature of the so-called _meniscoi_ or _lune_.[3]
[The Greeks were in possession of several relations pertaining to the quadrature of the lune. The following are among the more interesting. In fig. 6, ABC is an isosceles triangle right angled at C, ADB is the semicircle described on AB as diameter, AEB the circular arc described with centre C and radius CA = CB. It is easily shown that the areas of the lune ADBEA and the triangle ABC are equal. In fig. 7, ABC is any triangle right angled at C, semicircles are described on the three sides, thus forming two lunes AFCDA and CGBEC. The sum of the areas of these lunes equals the area of the triangle ABC.]
As for Euclid, it is sufficient to recall the facts that the original author of prop. 8 of book iv. had strict proof of the ratio being <4, and the author of prop. 15 of the ratio being >3, and to direct attention to the importance of book x. on incommensurables and props. 2 and 16 of book xii., viz. that "circles are to one another as the squares on their diameters" and that "in the greater of two concentric circles a regular 2n-gon can be inscribed which shall not meet the circumference of the less," however nearly equal the circles may be.
With Archimedes (287-212 B.C.) a notable advance was made. Taking the circumference as intermediate between the perimeters of the inscribed and the circumscribed regular n-gons, he showed that, the radius of the circle being given and the perimeter of some particular circumscribed regular polygon obtainable, the perimeter of the circumscribed regular polygon of double the number of sides could be calculated; that the like was true of the inscribed polygons; and that consequently a means was thus afforded of approximating to the circumference of the circle. As a matter of fact, he started with a semi-side AB of a circumscribed regular hexagon meeting the circle in B (see fig. 8), joined A and B with O the centre, bisected the angle AOB by OD, so that BD became the semi-side of a circumscribed regular 12-gon; then as AB:BO:OA::1: sqrt(3):2 he sought an approximation to sqrt(3) and found that AB:BO > 153:265. Next he applied his theorem[4] BO + OA:AB::OB:BD to calculate BD; from this in turn he calculated the semi-sides of the circumscribed regular 24-gon, 48-gon and 96-gon, and so finally established for the circumscribed regular 96-gon that perimeter:diameter < (3-1/7):1. In a quite analogous manner he proved for the inscribed regular 96-gon that perimeter:diameter > 3-(10/71):1. The conclusion from these therefore was that the ratio of circumference to diameter is < 3-1/7 and > 3-(10/71). This is a most notable piece of work; the immature condition of arithmetic at the time was the only real obstacle preventing the evaluation of the ratio to any degree of accuracy whatever.[5]
No advance of any importance was made upon the achievement of Archimedes until after the revival of learning. His immediate successors may have used his method to attain a greater degree of accuracy, but there is very little evidence pointing in this direction. Ptolemy (fl. 127-151), in the _Great Syntaxis_, gives 3.141552 as the ratio[6]; and the Hindus (c. A.D. 500), who were very probably indebted to the Greeks, used 62832/20000, that is, the now familiar 3.1416.[7]
It was not until the 15th century that attention in Europe began to be once more directed to the subject, and after the resuscitation a considerable length of time elapsed before any progress was made. The first advance in accuracy was due to a certain Adrian, son of Anthony, a native of Metz (1527), and father of the better-known Adrian Metius of Alkmaar. In refutation of Duchesne(Van der Eycke), he showed that the ratio was < 3-(17/120) and > 3-(15/106), and thence made the exceedingly lucky step of taking a mean between the two by the quite unjustifiable process of halving the sum of the two numerators for a new numerator and halving the sum of the two denominators for a new denominator, thus arriving at the now well-known approximation 3-(16/113) or 355/113, which, being equal to 3.1415929..., is correct to the sixth fractional place.[8]
The next to advance the calculation was Francisco Vieta. By finding the perimeter of the inscribed and that of the circumscribed regular polygon of 393216 (i.e. 6 X 2^16) sides, he proved that the ratio was > 3.1415926535 and < 3.1415926537, so that its value became known (in 1579) correctly to 10 fractional places. The theorem for angle-bisection which Vieta used was not that of Archimedes, but that which would now appear in the form 1 - cos [theta] = 2 sin² ½[theta]. With Vieta, by reason of the advance in arithmetic, the style of treatment becomes more strictly trigonometrical; indeed, the _Universales Inspectiones_, in which the calculation occurs, would now be called plane and spherical trigonometry, and the accompanying _Canon mathematicus_ a table of sines, tangents and secants.[9] Further, in comparing the labours of Archimedes and Vieta, the effect of increased power of symbolical expression is very noticeable. Archimedes's process of unending cycles of arithmetical operations could at best have been expressed in his time by a "rule" in words; in the 16th century it could be condensed into a "formula." Accordingly, we find in Vieta a formula for the ratio of diameter to circumference, viz. the interminate product[10]--
___________________ __________ / ___________ ___ / ___ / / ___ ½ \/ ½ · \/ ½ + ½\/ ½ · \/ ½ + ½ \/ ½ + ½ \/ ½ ...
From this point onwards, therefore, no knowledge whatever of geometry was necessary in any one who aspired to determine the ratio to any required degree of accuracy; the problem being reduced to an arithmetical computation. Thus in connexion with the subject a genus of workers became possible who may be styled "[pi]-computers or circle-squarers"--a name which, if it connotes anything uncomplimentary, does so because of the almost entirely fruitless character of their labours. Passing over Adriaan van Roomen (Adrianus Romanus) of Louvain, who published the value of the ratio correct to 15 places in his _Idea mathematica_ (1593),[11] we come to the notable computer Ludolph van Ceulen (d. 1610), a native of Germany, long resident in Holland. His book, _Van den Circkel_ (Delft, 1596), gave the ratio correct to 20 places, but he continued his calculations as long as he lived, and his best result was published on his tombstone in St Peter's church, Leiden. The inscription, which is not known to be now in existence,[12] is in part as follows:--
... Qui in vita sua multo labore circumferentiae circuli proximam rationem ad diametrum invenit sequentem--
quando diameter est 1 tum circuli circumferentia plus est
quam 314159265358979323846264338327950288 1OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
et minus quam 314159265358979323846264338327950289 1OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO ...
This gives the ratio correct to 35 places. Van Ceulen's process was essentially identical with that of Vieta. Its numerous root extractions amply justify a stronger expression than "multo labore," especially in an epitaph. In Germany the "Ludolphische Zahl" (Ludolph's number) is still a common name for the ratio.[13]
Up to this point the credit of most that had been done may be set down to Archimedes. A new departure, however, was made by Willebrord Snell of Leiden in his _Cyclometria_, published in 1621. His achievement was a closely approximate geometrical solution of the problem of rectification (see fig. 9): ACB being a semicircle whose centre is O, and AC the arc to be rectified, he produced AB to D, making BD equal to the radius, joined DC, and produced it to meet the tangent at A in E; and then his assertion (not established by him) was that AE was nearly equal to the arc AC, the error being in defect. For the purposes of the calculator a solution erring in excess was also required, and this Snell gave by slightly varying the former construction. Instead of producing AB (see fig. 10) so that BD was equal to r, he produced it only so far that, when the extremity D' was joined with C, the part D'F outside the circle was equal to r; in other words, by a non-Euclidean construction he trisected the angle AOC, for it is readily seen that, since FD' = FO = OC, the angle FOB = (1/3)AOC.[14] This couplet of constructions is as important from the calculator's point of view as it is interesting geometrically. To compare it on this score with the fundamental proposition of Archimedes, the latter must be put into a form similar to Snell's. AMC being an arc of a circle (see fig. 11) whose centre is O, AC its chord, and HK the tangent drawn at the middle point of the arc and bounded by OA, OC produced, then, according to Archimedes, AMC < HK, but > AC. In modern trigonometrical notation the propositions to be compared stand as follows:--
2 tan ½[theta] > [theta] > 2sin ½ [theta] (Archimedes);
3 sin [theta] tan (1/3)[theta] + 2sin (1/3)[theta] > [theta] > --------------- (Snell). 2 + cos [theta]
It is readily shown that the latter gives the best approximation to [theta]; but, while the former requires for its application a knowledge of the trigonometrical ratios of only one angle (in other words, the ratios of the sides of only one right-angled triangle), the latter requires the same for two angles, [theta] and (1/3)[theta]. Grienberger, using Snell's method, calculated the ratio correct to 39 fractional places.[15] C. Huygens, in his _De Circuli Magnitudine Inventa_, 1654, proved the propositions of Snell, giving at the same time a number of other interesting theorems, for example, two inequalities which may be written as follows[16]--
4chd [theta] + sin [theta] 1 chd [theta] + --------------------------- · --- (chd [theta] - sin [theta]) > 2chd [theta] + 3sin [theta] 3
1 [theta] > chd [theta] + --- (chd [theta] - sin [theta]). 3 [Illustration: FIG. 11.]
As might be expected, a fresh view of the matter was taken by René Descartes. The problem he set himself was the exact converse of that of Archimedes. A given straight line being viewed as equal in length to the circumference of a circle, he sought to find the diameter of the circle. His construction is as follows (see fig. 12). Take AB equal to one-fourth of the given line; on AB describe a square ABCD; join AC; in AC produced find, by a known process, a point C1 such that, when C1B1 is drawn perpendicular to AB produced and C1D1 perpendicular to BC produced, the rectangle BC1 will be equal to ¼ABCD; by the same process find a point C2 such that the rectangle B1C2 will be equal to ¼BC1; and so on _ad infinitum_. The diameter sought is the straight line from A to the limiting position of the series of B's, say the straight line AB[oo]. As in the case of the process of Archimedes, we may direct our attention either to the infinite series of geometrical operations or to the corresponding infinite series of arithmetical operations. Denoting the number of units in AB by ¼c, we can express BB1, B1B2, ... in terms of ¼c, and the identity AB[oo] = AB + BB1 + B1B2 + ... gives us at once an expression for the diameter in terms of the circumference by means of an infinite series.[17] The proof of the correctness of the construction is seen to be involved in the following theorem, which serves likewise to throw new light on the subject:--AB being any straight line whatever, and the above construction being made, then AB is the diameter of the circle circumscribed by the square ABCD (self-evident), AB1 is the diameter of the circle circumscribed by the regular 8-gon having the same perimeter as the square, AB2 is the diameter of the circle circumscribed by the regular 16-gon having the same perimeter as the square, and so on. Essentially, therefore, Descartes's process is that known later as the process of _isoperimeters_, and often attributed wholly to Schwab.[18]
In 1655 appeared the _Arithmetica Infinitorum_ of John Wallis, where numerous problems of quadrature are dealt with, the curves being now represented in Cartesian co-ordinates, and algebra playing an important part. In a very curious manner, by viewing the circle y = (1 - x²)^½ as a member of the series of curves y = (1 - x²)¹, y = (1 - x²)², &c., he was led to the proposition that four times the reciprocal of the ratio of the circumference to the diameter, i.e. 4/[pi], is equal to the infinite product
3 · 3 · 5 · 5 · 7 · 7 · 9 ... -----------------------------; 2 · 4 · 4 · 6 · 6 · 8 · 8 ...
and, the result having been communicated to Lord Brounker, the latter discovered the equally curious equivalent continued fraction
1² 3² 5² 7² 1 + --- --- --- --- ... 2 + 2 + 2 + 2
The work of Wallis had evidently an important influence on the next notable personality in the history of the subject, James Gregory, who lived during the period when the higher algebraic analysis was coming into power, and whose genius helped materially to develop it. He had, however, in a certain sense one eye fixed on the past and the other towards the future. His first contribution[19] was a variation of the method of Archimedes. The latter, as we know, calculated the perimeters of successive polygons, passing from one polygon to another of double the number of sides; in a similar manner Gregory calculated the areas. The general theorems which enabled him to do this, after a start had been made, are
_____ A2n = \/AnA'n (Snell's _Cyclom._),
2 An A'n 2 A'n A2n A'2n = ---------- or ----------- (Gregory), An + A'2n A'n + A2n
where An, A'n are the areas of the inscribed and the circumscribed regular n-gons respectively. He also gave approximate rectifications of circular arcs after the manner of Huygens; and, what is very notable, he made an ingenious and, according to J.E. Montucla, successful attempt to show that quadrature of the circle by a Euclidean construction was impossible.[20] Besides all this, however, and far beyond it in importance, was his use of infinite series. This merit he shares with his contemporaries N. Mercator, Sir I. Newton and G.W. Leibnitz, and the exact dates of discovery are a little uncertain. As far as the circle-squaring functions are concerned, it would seem that Gregory was the first (in 1670) to make known the series for the arc in terms of the tangent, the series for the tangent in terms of the arc, and the secant in terms of the arc; and in 1669 Newton showed to Isaac Barrow a little treatise in manuscript containing the series for the arc in terms of the sine, for the sine in terms of the arc, and for the cosine in terms of the arc. These discoveries formed an epoch in the history of mathematics generally, and had, of course, a marked influence on after investigations regarding circle-quadrature. Even among the mere computers the series
[theta] = tan - (1/3) tan^3 [theta] + (1/5) tan^5 [theta] - ...,
specially known as Gregory's series, has ever since been a necessity of their calling.
The calculator's work having now become easier and more mechanical, calculation went on apace. In 1699 Abraham Sharp, on the suggestion of Edmund Halley, took Gregory's series, and, putting tan [theta] = (1/3) sqrt(3), found the ratio equal to
__ / 1 1 1 \ \/12 ( 1 - ----- + ------ - ------ + ... ), \ 3 · 3 5 · 3² 7 · 3³ /
from which he calculated it correct to 71 fractional places.[21] About the same time John Machin calculated it correct to 100 places, and, what was of more importance, gave for the ratio the rapidly converging expression
16 / 1 1 1 \ -- ( ---- + ----- - ----- + ... ) - 5 \ 3·5² 5·5^4 7·5^6 /
4 / 1 1 \ --- ( 1 - ------ + ------- - ... ), 239 \ 3.239² 5.239^4 /
which long remained without explanation.[22] Fautet de Lagny, still using tan 30°, advanced to the 127th place.[23]
Leonhard Euler took up the subject several times during his life, effecting mainly improvements in the theory of the various series.[24] With him, apparently, began the usage of denoting by [pi] the ratio of the circumference to the diameter.[25]
The most important publication, however, on the subject in the 18th century was a paper by J.H. Lambert,[26] read before the Berlin Academy in 1761, in which he demonstrated the irrationality of [pi]. The general test of irrationality which he established is that, if
a1 a2 a2 -- -- -- ... b1 ± b2 ± b3 ±
be an interminate continued fraction, a1, a2, ..., b1, b2 ... be integers, a1/b1, a2/b2, ... be proper fractions, and the value of every one of the interminate continued fractions
a1 a2 -- , -- , ... be < 1, b1 ± ... b2 ± ...
then the given continued fraction represents an irrational quantity. If this be applied to the right-hand side of the identity
m m m² m² tan --- = --- ---- ---- ... n n - 3n - 5n
it follows that the tangent of every arc commensurable with the radius is irrational, so that, as a particular case, an arc of 45°, having its tangent rational, must be incommensurable with the radius; that is to say, [pi]/4 is an incommensurable number.[27]
This incontestable result had no effect, apparently, in repressing the [pi]-computers. G. von Vega in 1789, using series like Machin's, viz. Gregory's series and the identities
[pi]/4 = 5tan^{-1} (1/7) + 2tan^{-1} (3/79) (Euler, 1779), [pi]/4 = tan^{-1} (1/7) + 2tan^{-1} ( 1/3) (Hutton, 1776),
neither of which was nearly so advantageous as several found by Charles Hutton, calculated [pi] correct to 136 places.[28] This achievement was anticipated or outdone by an unknown calculator, whose manuscript was seen in the Radcliffe library, Oxford, by Baron von Zach towards the end of the century, and contained the ratio correct to 152 places. More astonishing still have been the deeds of the [pi]-computers of the 19th century. A condensed record compiled by J.W.L. Glaisher (_Messenger of Math._ ii. 122) is as follows:--
+-----+------------+-----------------+--------------------------------------------+ | | |No. of fr. digits| | |Date.| Computer. +--------+--------+ Place of Publication. | | | | calcd. |correct.| | +-----+------------+--------+--------+--------------------------------------------+ |1842 | Rutherford | 208 | 152 | _Trans. Roy. Soc._ (London, 1841), p. 283. | |1844 | Dase | 205 | 200 | _Crelle's Journ._. xxvii. 198. | |1847 | Clausen | 250 | 248 | _Astron. Nachr._ xxv. col. 207. | |1853 | Shanks | 318 | 318 | _Proc. Roy. Soc._ (London, 1853), 273. | |1853 | Rutherford | 440 | 440 | Ibid. | |1853 | Shanks | 530 | .. | Ibid. | |1853 | Shanks | 607 | .. | W. Shanks, _Rectification of the Circle_ | | | | | | (London, 1853). | |1853 | Richter | 333 | 330 | _Grunert's Archiv_, xxi. 119. | |1854 | Richter | 400 | 330 | Ibid. xxii. 473. | |1854 | Richter | 400 | 400 | Ibid. xxiii. 476. | |1854 | Richter | 500 | 500 | Ibid. xxv. 472. | |1873 | Shanks | 707 | .. | _Proc. Roy. Soc._ (London), xxi. | +-----+------------+--------+--------+--------------------------------------------+
By these computers Machin's identity, or identities analogous to it, e.g.
[pi]/4 = tan^{-1} (1/2) + tan^{-1} 1/5 + tan^{-1} 1/8 (Dase, 1844), [pi]/4 = 4tan^{-1} (1/5) - tan^{-1} 1/70 + tan^{-1} 1/99 (Rutherford),
and Gregory's series were employed.[29]
A much less wise class than the [pi]-computers of modern times are the pseudo-circle-squarers, or circle-squarers technically so called, that is to say, persons who, having obtained by illegitimate means a Euclidean construction for the quadrature or a finitely expressible value for [pi], insist on using faulty reasoning and defective mathematics to establish their assertions. Such persons have flourished at all times in the history of mathematics; but the interest attaching to them is more psychological than mathematical.[30]
It is of recent years that the most important advances in the theory of circle-quadrature have been made. In 1873 Charles Hermite proved that the base [eta] of the Napierian logarithms cannot be a root of a rational algebraical equation of any degree.[31] To prove the same proposition regarding [pi] is to prove that a Euclidean construction for circle-quadrature is impossible. For in such a construction every point of the figure is obtained by the intersection of two straight lines, a straight line and a circle, or two circles; and as this implies that, when a unit of length is introduced, numbers employed, and the problem transformed into one of algebraic geometry, the equations to be solved can only be of the first or second degree, it follows that the equation to which we must be finally led is a rational equation of even degree. Hermite[32] did not succeed in his attempt on [pi]; but in 1882 F. Lindemann, following exactly in Hermite's steps, accomplished the desired result.[33] (See also TRIGONOMETRY.)
REFERENCES.--Besides the various writings mentioned, see for the history of the subject F. Rudio, _Geschichte des Problems von der Quadratur des Zirkels_ (1892); M. Cantor, _Geschichte der Mathematik_ (1894-1901); Montucla, _Hist. des. math._ (6 vols., Paris, 1758, 2nd ed. 1799-1802); Murhard, _Bibliotheca Mathematica_, ii. 106-123 (Leipzig, 1798); Reuss, _Repertorium Comment._ vii. 42-44 (Göttingen, 1808). For a few approximate geometrical solutions, see Leybourn's _Math. Repository_, vi. 151-154; _Grunert's Archiv_, xii. 98, xlix. 3; _Nieuw Archief v. Wisk._ iv. 200-204. For experimental determinations of [pi], dependent on the theory of probability, see _Mess. of Math._ ii. 113, 119; _Casopis pro pïstováni math. a fys._ x. 272-275; _Analyst_, ix. 176. (T. MU.)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Eisenlohr, _Ein math. Handbuch d. alten Ägypter, übers. u. erklärt_ (Leipzig, 1877); Rodet, _Bull. de la Soc. Math. de France_, vi. pp. 139-149.
[2] H. Hankel, _Zur Gesch. d. Math. im Alterthum_, &c., chap, v (Leipzig, 1874); M. Cantor, _Vorlesungen über Gesch. d. Math._ i. (Leipzig, 1880); Tannery, _Mém. de la Soc._, &c., _à Bordeaux_; Allman, in _Hermathena_.
[3] Tannery. _Bull. des sc. math._ [2], x. pp. 213-226.
[4] In modern trigonometrical notation, 1 + sec [theta]:tan [theta]::1:tan ½[theta].
[5] Tannery, "Sur la mesure du cercle d'Archimède," in _Mém.... Bordeaux_[2], iv. pp. 313-339; Menge, _Des Archimedes Kreismessung_ (Coblenz, 1874).
[6] De Morgan, in _Penny Cyclop_, xix. p. 186.
[7] Kern, _Aryabhattíyam_ (Leiden, 1874), trans. by Rodet (Paris,1879).
[8] De Morgan, art. "Quadrature of the Circle," in _English Cyclop._; Glaisher, _Mess. of Math._ ii. pp. 119-128, iii. pp. 27-46; de Haan, _Nieuw Archief v. Wisk._ i. pp. 70-86, 206-211.
[9] Vieta, _Opera math._ (Leiden, 1646); Marie, _Hist. des sciences math._ iii. 27 seq. (Paris, 1884).
[10] Klügel, _Math. Wörterb._ ii. 606, 607.
[11] Kästner, _Gesch. d. Math._ i. (Göttingen, 1796-1800).
[12] But see _Les Délices de Leide_ (Leiden, 1712); or de Haan, _Mess. of Math._ iii. 24-26.
[13] For minute and lengthy details regarding the quadrature of the circle in the Low Countries, see de Haan, "Bouwstoffen voor de geschiedenis, &c.," in _Versl. en Mededeel. der K. Akad. van Wetensch._ ix., x., xi., xii. (Amsterdam); also his "Notice sur quelques quadrateurs, &c.," in _Bull. di bibliogr. e di storia delle sci. mat. e fis._ vii. 99-144.
[14] It is thus manifest that by his first construction Snell gave an approximate solution of two great problems of antiquity.
[15] _Elementa trigonometrica_ (Rome, 1630); Glaisher, _Messenger of Math._ iii. 35 seq.
[16] See Kiessling's edition of the _De Circ. Magn. Inv._ (Flensburg, 1869); or Pirie's tract on _Geometrical Methods of Approx. to the Value of [pi]_ (London, 1877).
[17] See Euler, "Annotationes in locum quendam Cartesii," in _Nov. Comm. Acad. Petrop._ viii.
[18] Gergonne, _Annales de math._ vi.
[19] See _Vera Circuli et Hyperbolae Quadratura_ (Padua, 1667); and the _Appendicula_ to the same in his _Exercitationes geometricae_ (London, 1668).
[20] _Penny Cyclop._ xix. 187.
[21] See Sherwin's _Math. Tables_ (London, 1705), p. 59.
[22] See W. Jones, _Synopsis Palmariorum Matheseos_ (London, 1706); Maseres, _Scriptores Logarithmici_ (London, 1791-1796), iii. 159 seq.; Hutton, _Tracts_, i. 266.
[23] See _Hist. de l'Acad._ (Paris, 1719); 7 appears instead of 8 in the 113th place.
[24] _Comment. Acad. Petrop._ ix., xi.; _Nov. Comm. Ac. Pet._ xvi.; _Nova Acta Acad. Pet._ xi.
[25] _Introd. in Analysin Infin._ (Lausanne, 1748), chap. viii.
[26] _Mém. sur quelques propriétés remarquables des quantités transcendantes, circulaires, et logarithmiques._
[27] See Legendre, _Eléments de géométrie_ (Paris, 1794), note iv.; Schlömilch, _Handbuch d. algeb. Analysis_ (Jena, 1851), chap. xiii.
[28] _Nova Acta Petrop._ ix. 41; _Thesaurus Logarithm. Completus_, 633.
[29] On the calculations made before Shanks, see Lehmann, "Beitrag zur Berechnung der Zahl [pi]," in _Grunert's Archiv_, xxi. 121-174.
[30] See Montucla, _Hist. des rech. sur la quad. du cercle_ (Paris, 1754, 2nd ed. 1831); de Morgan, _Budget of Paradoxes_ (London, 1872).
[31] "Sur la fonction exponentielle," _Comples rendus_ (Paris), lxxvii. 18, 74, 226, 285.
[32] See _Crelle's Journal_, lxxvi. 342.
[33] See "Über die Zahl [pi]," in _Math. Ann._ xx. 213.
CIRCLEVILLE, a city and the county-seat of Pickaway county, Ohio, U.S.A., about 26 m. S. by E. of Columbus, on the Scioto river and the Ohio Canal. Pop. (1890) 6556; (1900) 6991 (551 negroes); (1910) 6744. It is served by the Cincinnati & Muskingum Valley (Pennsylvania lines) and the Norfolk & Western railways, and by the Scioto Valley electric line. Circleville is situated in a farming region, and its leading industries are the manufacture of straw boards and agricultural implements, and the canning of sweet corn and other produce. The city occupies the site of prehistoric earth-works, from one of which, built in the form of a circle, it derived its name. Circleville, first settled about 1806, was chosen as the county-seat in 1810. The court-house was built in the form of an octagon at the centre of the circle, and circular streets were laid out around it; but this arrangement proved to be inconvenient, the court-house was destroyed by fire in 1841, and at present no trace of the ancient landmarks remains. Circleville was incorporated as a village in 1814, and was chartered as a city in 1853.
CIRCUIT (Lat. _circuitus_, from _circum_, round, and _ire_, to go), the act of moving round; so circumference, or anything encircling or encircled. The word is particularly known as a law term, signifying the periodical progress of a legal tribunal for the purpose of carrying out the administration of the law in the several provinces of a country. It has long been applied to the journey or progress which the judges have been in the habit of making through the several counties of England, to hold courts and administer justice, where recourse could not be had to the king's court at Westminster (see ASSIZE).
In England, by sec. 23 of the Judicature Act 1875, power was conferred on the crown, by order in council, to make regulations respecting circuits, including the discontinuance of any circuit, and the formation of any new circuit, and the appointment of the place at which assizes are to be held on any circuit. Under this power an order of council, dated the 5th of February 1876, was made, whereby the circuit system was remodelled. A new circuit, called the North-Eastern circuit, was created, consisting of Newcastle and Durham taken out of the old Northern circuit, and York and Leeds taken out of the Midland circuit. Oakham, Leicester and Northampton, which had belonged to the Norfolk circuit, were added to the Midland. The Norfolk circuit and the Home circuit were abolished and a new South-Eastern circuit was created, consisting of Huntingdon, Cambridge, Ipswich, Norwich, Chelmsford, Hertford and Lewes, taken partly out of the old Norfolk circuit and partly out of the Home circuit. The counties of Kent and Surrey were left out of the circuit system, the assizes for these counties being held by the judges remaining in London. Subsequently Maidstone and Guildford were united under the revived name of the Home circuit for the purpose of the summer and winter assizes, and the assizes in these towns were held by one of the judges of the Western circuit, who, after disposing of the business there, rejoined his colleague in Exeter. In 1899 this arrangement was abolished, and Maidstone and Guildford were added to the South-Eastern circuit. Other minor changes in the assize towns were made, which it is unnecessary to particularize. Birmingham first became a circuit town in the year 1884, and the work there became, by arrangement, the joint property of the Midland and Oxford circuits. There are alternative assize towns in the following counties, viz.:--On the Western circuit, Salisbury and Devizes for Wiltshire, and Wells and Taunton for Somerset; on the South-Eastern, Ipswich and Bury St Edmunds for Suffolk; on the North Wales circuit, Welshpool and Newtown for Montgomery; and on the South Wales circuit, Cardiff and Swansea for Glamorgan.
According to the arrangements in force in 1909 there are four assizes in each year. There are two principal assizes, viz. the winter assizes, beginning in January, and the summer assizes, beginning at the end of May. At these two assizes criminal and civil business is disposed of in all the circuits. There are two other assizes, viz. the autumn assizes and the Easter assizes. The autumn assizes are regulated by acts of 1876 and 1877 (Winter Assizes Acts 1876 and 1877), and orders of council made under the former act. They are held for the whole of England and Wales, but for the purpose of these assizes the work is to a large extent "grouped," so that not every county has a separate assize. For example, on the South-Eastern circuit Huntingdon is grouped with Cambridge; on the Midland, Rutland is grouped with Lincoln; on the Northern, Westmorland is grouped with Cumberland; and the North Wales and South Wales circuits are united, and no assizes are held at some of the smaller towns. At these assizes criminal business only is taken, except at Manchester, Liverpool, Swansea, Birmingham and Leeds. The Easter assizes are held in April and May on two circuits only, viz. at Manchester and Liverpool on the Northern and at Leeds on the North-Eastern. Both civil and criminal business is taken at Manchester and Liverpool, but criminal business only at Leeds.
Other changes were made, with a view to preventing the complete interruption of the London sittings in the common law division by the absence of the judges on circuit. The assizes were so arranged as to commence on different dates in the various circuits. For example, the summer assizes begin in the South-Eastern and Western circuits on the 29th of May; in the Northern circuit on the 28th of June; in the Midland and Oxford circuits on the 16th of June; in the North-Eastern circuit on the 6th of July; in the North Wales circuit on the 7th of July; and in the South Wales circuit on the 11th of July. Again, there has been a continuous development of what may be called the single-judge system. In the early days of the new order the members of the court of appeal and the judges of the chancery division shared the circuit work with the judges in the common law division. This did not prove to be a satisfactory arrangement. The assize work was not familiar and was uncongenial to the chancery judges, who had but little training or experience to fit them for it. Arrears increased in chancery, and the appeal court was shorn of much of its strength for a considerable part of the year. The practice was discontinued in or about the year 1884. The appeal and chancery judges were relieved of the duty of going on circuit, and an arrangement was made by the treasury for making an allowance for expenses of circuit to the common law judges, on whom the whole work of the assizes was thrown. In order to cope with the assize work, and at the same time keep the common law sittings going in London, an experiment, which had been previously tried by Lord Cairns and Lord Cross (then home secretary) and discontinued, was revived. Instead of two judges going together to each assize town, it was arranged that one judge should go by himself to certain selected places--practically, it may be said, to all except the more important provincial centres. The only places to which two judges now go are Exeter, Winchester, Bristol, Manchester, Liverpool, Nottingham, Stafford, Birmingham, Newcastle, Durham, York, Leeds, Chester, and Cardiff or Swansea.
It could scarcely be said that, even with the amendments introduced under orders in council, the circuit system was altogether satisfactory or that the last word had been pronounced on the subject. In the first report of the Judicature Commission, dated March 25th, 1869, p. 17 (_Parl. Papers_, 1868-1869), the majority report that "the necessity for holding assizes in every county without regard to the extent of the business to be transacted in such county leads, in our judgment, to a great waste of judicial strength and a great loss of time in going from one circuit town to another, and causes much unnecessary cost and inconvenience to those whose attendance is necessary or customary at the assizes." And in their second report, dated July 3rd, 1872 (_Parl. Papers_, 1872, vol. xx.), they dwell upon the advisability of grouping or a discontinuance of holding assizes "in several counties, for example, Rutland and Westmorland, where it is manifestly an idle waste of time and money to have assizes." It is thought that the grouping of counties which has been effected for the autumn assizes might be carried still further and applied to all the assizes; and that the system of holding the assizes alternately in one of two towns within a county might be extended to two towns in adjoining counties, for example, Gloucester and Worcester. The facility of railway communication renders this reform comparatively easy, and reforms in this direction have been approved by the judges, but ancient custom and local patriotism, interests, or susceptibility bar the way. The Assizes and Quarter Sessions Act 1908 contributed something to reform by dispensing with the obligation to hold assizes at a fixed date if there is no business to be transacted. Nor can it be said that the single-judge system has been altogether a success. When there is only one judge for both civil and criminal work, he properly takes the criminal business first. He can fix only approximately the time when he can hope to be free for the civil business. If the calendar is exceptionally heavy or one or more of the criminal cases prove to be unexpectedly long (as may easily happen), the civil business necessarily gets squeezed into the short residue of the allotted time. Suitors and their solicitors and witnesses are kept waiting for days, and after all perhaps it proves to be impossible for the judge to take the case, and a "remanet" is the result. It is the opinion of persons of experience that the result has undoubtedly been to drive to London much of the civil business which properly belongs to the provinces, and ought to be tried there, and thus at once to increase the burden on the judges and jurymen in London, and to increase the costs of the trial of the actions sent there. Some persons advocate the continuous sittings of the high court in certain centres, such as Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Newcastle, Birmingham and Bristol, or (in fact) a decentralization of the judicial system. There is already an excellent court for chancery cases for Lancashire in the county palatine court, presided over by the vice-chancellor, and with a local bar which has produced many men of great ability and even eminence. The Durham chancery court is also capable of development. Another suggestion has been made for continuous circuits throughout the legal year, so that a certain number of the judges, according to a rota, should be continuously in the provinces while the remaining judges did the London business. The value of this suggestion would depend on an estimate of the number of cases which might thus be tried in the country in relief of the London list. This estimate it would be difficult to make. The opinion has also been expressed that it is essential in any changes that may be made to retain the occasional administration by judges of the high court of criminal jurisdiction, both in populous centres and in remote places. It promotes a belief in the importance and dignity of justice and the care to be given to all matters affecting a citizen's life, liberty or character. It also does something, by the example set by judges in country districts, to check any tendency to undue severity of sentences in offences against property.
Counsel are not expected to practise on a circuit other than that to which they have attached themselves, unless they receive a special retainer. They are then said to "go special," and the fee in such a case is one hundred guineas for a king's counsel, and fifty guineas for a junior. It is customary to employ one member of the circuit on the side on which the counsel comes special. Certain rules have been drawn up by the Bar Committee for regulating the practice as to retainers on circuit. (1) A special retainer must be given for a particular assize (a circuit retainer will not, however, make it compulsory upon counsel retained to go the circuit, but will give the right to counsel's services should he attend the assize and the case be entered for trial); (2) if the venue is changed to another place on the same circuit, a fresh retainer is not required; (3) if the action is not tried at the assize for which the retainer is given, the retainer must be renewed for every subsequent assize until the action is disposed of, unless a brief has been delivered; (4) a retainer may be given for a future assize, without a retainer for an intervening assize, unless notice of trial is given for such intervening assize. There are also various regulations enforced by the discipline of the circuit bar mess.
In the United States the English circuit system still exists in some states, as in Massachusetts, where the judges sit in succession in the various counties of the state. The term _circuit courts_ applies distinctively in America to a certain class of inferior federal courts of the United States, exercising jurisdiction, concurrently with the state courts, in certain matters where the United States is a party to the litigation, or in cases of crime against the United States. The circuit courts act in nine judicial circuits, divided as follows: _1st circuit_, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island; _2nd circuit_, Connecticut, New York, Vermont; _3rd circuit_, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania; _4th circuit_, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia; _5th circuit_, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas; _6th circuit_, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee; _7th circuit_, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin; _8th circuit_, Arkansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming; _9th circuit_, Alaska, Arizona, California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and Hawaii. A circuit court of appeals is made up of three judges of the circuit court, the judges of the district courts of the circuit, and the judge of the Supreme Court allotted to the circuit.
In Scotland the judges of the supreme criminal court, or high court of justiciary, form also three separate circuit courts, consisting of two judges each; and the country, with the exception of the Lothians, is divided into corresponding districts, called the Northern, Western and Southern circuits. On the Northern circuit, courts are held at Inverness, Perth, Dundee and Aberdeen; on the Western, at Glasgow, Stirling and Inveraray; and on the Southern, at Dumfries, Jedburgh and Ayr.
Ireland is divided into the North-East and the North-West circuits, and those of Leinster, Connaught and Munster.
CIRCULAR NOTE, a documentary request by a bank to its foreign correspondents to pay a specified sum of money to a named person. The person in whose favour a circular note is issued is furnished with a letter (containing the signature of an official of the bank and the person named) called a letter of indication, which is usually referred to in the circular note, and must be produced on presentation of the note. Circular notes are generally issued against a payment of cash to the amount of the notes, but the notes need not necessarily be cashed, but may be returned to the banker in exchange for the amount for which they were originally issued. A forged signature on a circular note conveys no right, and as it is the duty of the payer to see that payment is made to the proper person, he cannot recover the amount of a forged note from the banker who issued the note. (See also LETTER OF CREDIT.)
CIRCULUS IN PROBANDO (Lat. for "circle in proving"), in logic, a phrase used to describe a form of argument in which the very fact which one seeks to demonstrate is used as a premise, i.e. as part of the evidence on which the conclusion is based. This argument is one form of the fallacy known as _petitio principii_, "begging the question." It is most common in lengthy arguments, the complicated character of which enables the speaker to make his hearers forget the data from which he began. (See FALLACY.)
CIRCUMCISION (Lat. _circum_, round, and _caedere_, to cut), the cutting off of the foreskin. This surgical operation, which is commonly prescribed for purely medical reasons, is also an initiation or religious ceremony among Jews and Mahommedans, and is a widespread institution in many Semitic races. It remains, with Jews, a necessary preliminary to the admission of proselytes, except in some Reformed communities. The origin of the rite among the Jews is in Genesis (xvii.) placed in the age of Abraham, and at all events it must have been very ancient, for flint stones were used in the operation (Exodus iv. 25; Joshua v. 2). The narrative in Joshua implies that the custom was introduced by him, not that it had merely been in abeyance in the Wilderness. At Gilgal he "rolled away the reproach of the Egyptians" by circumcising the people. This obviously means that whereas the Egyptians practised circumcision the Jews in the land of the Pharaohs did not, and hence were regarded with contempt. It was an old theory (Herodotus ii. 36) that circumcision originated in Egypt; at all events it was practised in that country in ancient times (Ebers, _Egypten und die Bücher Mosis_, i. 278-284), and the same is true at the present day. But it is not generally thought probable that the Hebrews derived the rite directly from the Egyptians. As Driver puts it (_Genesis_, p. 190): "It is possible that, as Dillmann and Nowack suppose, the peoples of N. Africa and Asia who practised the rite adopted it from the Egyptians, but it appears in so many parts of the world that it must at any rate in these cases have originated independently." In another biblical narrative (Exodus iv. 25) Moses is subject to the divine anger because he had not made himself "a bridegroom of blood," that is, had not been circumcised before his marriage.
The rite of circumcision was practised by all the inhabitants of Palestine with the exception of the Philistines. It was an ancient custom among the Arabs, being presupposed in the Koran. The only important Semitic peoples who most probably did not follow the rite were the Babylonians and Assyrians (Sayce, _Babyl. and Assyrians_, p. 47). Modern investigations have brought to light many instances of the prevalence of circumcision in various parts of the world. These facts are collected by Andrée and Ploss, and go to prove that the rite is not only spread through the Mahommedan world (Turks, Persians, Arabs, &c.), but also is practised by the Christian Abyssinians and the Copts, as well as in central Australia and in America. In central Australia (Spencer and Gillen, pp. 212-386) circumcision with a stone knife must be undergone by every youth before he is reckoned a full member of the tribe or is permitted to enter on the married state. In other parts, too (e.g. Loango), no uncircumcised man may marry. Circumcision was known to the Aztecs (Bancroft, _Native Races_, vol. iii.), and is still practised by the Caribs of the Orinoco and the Tacunas of the Amazon. The method and period of the operation vary in important particulars. Among the Jews it is performed in infancy, when the male child is eight days old. The child is named at the same time, and the ceremony is elaborate. The child is carried in to the godfather (_sandek_, a hebraized form of the Gr. [Greek: sunteknos], "godfather," post-class.), who places the child on a cushion, which he holds on his knees throughout the ceremony. The operator (_mohel_) uses a steel knife, and pronounces various benedictions before and after the rite is performed (see S. Singer, _Authorized Daily Prayer Book_, pp. 304-307; an excellent account of the domestic festivities and spiritual joys associated with the ceremony among medieval and modern Jews may be read in S. Schechter's _Studies in Judaism_, first series, pp. 351 seq.). Some tribes in South America and elsewhere are said to perform the rite on the eighth day, like the Jews. The Mazequas do it between the first and second months. Among the Bedouins the rite is performed on children of three years, amid dances and the selection of brides (Doughty, _Arabia Deserta_, i. 340); among the Somalis the age is seven (Reinisch, _Somalisprache_, p. 110). But for the most part the tribes who perform the rite carry it out at the age of puberty. Many facts bearing on this point are given by B. Stade in _Zeitschrift für die alttest. Wissenschaft_, vi. (1886) pp. 132 seq.
The significance of the rite of circumcision has been much disputed. Some see in it a tribal badge. If this be the true origin of circumcision, it must go back to the time when men went about naked. Mutilations (tattooing, removal of teeth and so forth) were tribal marks, being partly sacrifices and partly means of recognition (see MUTILATION). Such initiatory rites were often frightful ordeals, in which the neophyte's courage was severely tested (Robertson Smith, _Religion of the Semites_, p. 310). Some regard circumcision as a substitute for far more serious rites, including even human sacrifice. Utilitarian explanations have also been suggested. Sir R. Burton (_Memoirs Anthrop. Soc._ i. 318) held that it was introduced to promote fertility, and the claims of cleanliness have been put forward (following Philo's example, see ed. Mangey, ii. 210). Most probably, however, circumcision (which in many tribes is performed on both sexes) was connected with marriage, and was a preparation for connubium. It was in Robertson Smith's words "originally a preliminary to marriage, and so a ceremony of introduction to the full prerogative of manhood," the transference to infancy among the Jews being a later change. On this view, the decisive Biblical reference would be the Exodus passage (iv. 25), in which Moses is represented as being in danger of his life because he had neglected the proper preliminary to marriage. In Genesis, on the other hand, circumcision is an external sign of God's covenant with Israel, and later Judaism now regards it in this symbolical sense. Barton (_Semitic Origins_, p. 100) declares that "the circumstances under which it is performed in Arabia point to the origin of circumcision as a sacrifice to the goddess of fertility, by which the child was placed under her protection and its reproductive powers consecrated to her service." But Barton admits that initiation to the connubium was the primitive origin of the rite.
As regards the non-ritual use of male circumcision, it may be added that in recent years the medical profession has been responsible for its considerable extension among other than Jewish children, the operation being recommended not merely in cases of malformation, but generally for reasons of health.
AUTHORITIES.--On the present diffusion of circumcision see H. Ploss, _Das Kind im Brauch und Sitte der Völker_, i. 342 seq., and his researches in _Deutsches Archiv für Geschichte der Medizin_, viii. 312-344; Andrée, "Die Beschneidung" in _Archiv für Anthropologie_, xiii. 76; and Spencer and Gillen, _Tribes of Central Australia_. The articles in the _Encyclopaedia Biblica_ and _Dictionary of the Bible_ contain useful bibliographies as well as historical accounts of the rite and its ceremonies, especially as concerns the Jews. The _Jewish Encyclopedia_ in particular gives an extensive list of books on the Jewish customs connected with circumcision, and the various articles in that work are full of valuable information (vol. iv. pp. 92-102). On the rite among the Arabs, see Wellhausen, _Reste arabischen Heidentums_, 154. (I. A.)
CIRCUMVALLATION, LINES OF (from Lat. _circum_, round, and _vallum_, a rampart), in fortification, a continuous circle of entrenchments surrounding a besieged place. "Lines of Contravallation" were similar works by which the besieger protected himself against the attack of a relieving army from any quarter. These continuous lines of circumvallation and contravallation were used only in the days of small armies and small fortresses, and both terms are now obsolete.
CIRCUS (Lat. _circus_, Gr. [Greek: kirkos] or [Greek: krikos], a ring or circle; probably "circus" and "ring" are of the same origin), a space, in the strict sense circular, but sometimes oval or even oblong, intended for the exhibition of races and athletic contests generally. The circus differs from the theatre inasmuch as the performance takes place in a central circular space, not on a stage at one end of the building.
1. _In Roman antiquities_ the circus was a building for the exhibition of horse and chariot races and other amusements. It consisted of tiers of seats running parallel with the sides of the course, and forming a crescent round one of the ends. The other end was straight and at right angles to the course, so that the plan of the whole had nearly the form of an ellipse cut in half at its vertical axis. Along the transverse axis ran a fence (_spina_) separating the return course from the starting one. The straight end had no seats, but was occupied by the stalls (_carceres_) where the chariots and horses were held in readiness. This end constituted also the front of the building with the main entrance. At each end of the course were three conical pillars (_metae_) to mark its limits.
The oldest building of this kind in Rome was the _Circus Maximus_, in the valley between the Palatine and Aventine hills, where, before the erection of any permanent structure, races appear to have been held beside the altar of the god Consus. The first building is assigned to Tarquin the younger, but for a long time little seems to have been done to complete its accommodation, since it is not till 329 B.C. that we hear of stalls being erected for the chariots and horses. It was not in fact till under the empire that the circus became a conspicuous public resort. Caesar enlarged it to some extent, and also made a canal 10 ft. broad between the lowest tier of seats (_podium_) and the course as a precaution for the spectators' safety when exhibitions of fighting with wild beasts, such as were afterwards confined to the amphitheatre, took place. When these exhibitions were removed, and the canal (_euripus_) was no longer necessary, Nero had it filled up. Augustus is said to have placed an obelisk on the _spina_ between the _metae_, and to have built a new _pulvinar_, or imperial box; but if this is taken in connexion with the fact that the circus had been partially destroyed by fire in 31 B.C., it may be supposed that besides this he had restored it altogether. Only the lower tiers of seats were of stone, the others being of wood, and this, from the liability to fire, may account for the frequent restorations to which the circus was subject; it would also explain the falling of the seats by which a crowd of people were killed in the time of Antoninus Pius. In the reign of Claudius, apparently after a fire, the _carceres_ of stone (tufa) were replaced by marble, and the _metae_ of wood by gilt bronze. Under Domitian, again, after a fire, the circus was rebuilt and the carceres increased to 12 instead of 8 as before. The work was finished by Trajan. See further for seating capacity, &c., ROME: _Archaeology_, § "Places of Amusement."
The circus was the only public spectacle at which men and women were not separated. The lower seats were reserved for persons of rank; there were also various state boxes, e.g. for the giver of the games and his friends (called _cubicula_ or _suggestus_). The principal object of attraction apart from the racing must have been the _spina_ or low wall which ran down the middle of the course, with its obelisks, images and ornamental shrines. On it also were seven figures of dolphins and seven oval objects, one of which was taken down at every round made in a race, so that spectators might see readily how the contest proceeded. The chariot race consisted of seven rounds of the course. The chariots started abreast, but in an oblique line, so that the outer chariot might be compensated for the wider circle it had to make at the other end. Such a race was called a _missus_, and as many as 24 of these would take place in a day. The competitors wore different colours, originally white and red (_albata_ and _russata_), to which green (_prasina_) and blue (_veneta_) were added. Domitian introduced two more colours, gold and purple (_purpureus et auratus pannus_), which probably fell into disuse after his death. To provide the horses and large staff of attendants it was necessary to apply to rich capitalists and owners of studs, and from this there grew up in time four select companies (_factiones_) of circus purveyors, which were identified with the four colours, and with which those who organized the races had to contract for the proper supply of horses and men. The drivers (_aurigae, agitatores_), who were mostly slaves, were sometimes held in high repute for their skill, although their calling was regarded with contempt. The horses most valued were those of Sicily, Spain and Cappadocia, and great care was taken in training them. Chariots with two horses (_bigae_) or four (_quadrigae_) were most common, but sometimes also they had three (_trigae_), and exceptionally more than four horses. Occasionally there was combined with the chariots a race of riders (_desultores_), each rider having two horses and leaping from one to the other during the race. At certain of the races the proceedings were opened by a _pompa_ or procession in which images of the gods and of the imperial family deified were conveyed in cars drawn by horses, mules or elephants, attended by the colleges of priests, and led by the presiding magistrate (in some cases by the emperor himself) seated in a chariot in the dress and with the insignia of a triumphator. The procession passed from the capitol along the forum, and on to the circus, where it was received by the people standing and clapping their hands. The presiding magistrate gave the signal for the races by throwing a white flag (_mappa_) on to the course.
Next in importance to the Circus Maximus in Rome was the _Circus Flaminius_, erected 221 B.C., in the censorship of C. Flaminius, from whom it may have taken its name; or the name may have been derived from Prata Flaminia, where it was situated, and where also were held plebeian meetings. The only games that are positively known to have been celebrated in this circus were the _Ludi Taurii_ and _Plebeii_. There is no mention of it after the 1st century. Its ruins were identified in the 16th century at S. Catarina dei Funari and the Palazzo Mattei.
A third circus in Rome was erected by Caligula in the gardens of Agrippina, and was known as the _Circus Neronis_, from the notoriety which it obtained through the Circensian pleasures of Nero. A fourth was constructed by Maxentius outside the Porta Appia near the tomb of Caecilia Metella, where its ruins are still, and now afford the only instance from which an idea of the ancient circi in Rome can be obtained. It was traced to Caracalla, till the discovery of an inscription in 1825 showed it to be the work of Maxentius. Old topographers speak of six circi, but two of these appear to be imaginary, the Circus Florae and the Circus Sallustii.
Circus races were held in connexion with the following public festivals, and generally on the last day of the festival, if it extended over more than one day:--(1) The _Consualia_, August 21st, December 15th; (2) _Equirria_, February 27th, March 14th; (3) _Ludi Romani_, September 4th-19th; (4) _Ludi Plebeii_, November 4th-17th; (5) _Cerialia_, April 12th-19th; (6) _Ludi Apollinares_, July 6th-13th; (7) _Ludi Megalenses_, April 4th-10th; (8) _Floralia_, April 28th-May 3rd.
In addition to Smith's _Dictionary of Antiquities_ (3rd ed., 1890), see articles in Daremberg and Saglio's _Dictionnaire des antiquités_, Pauly-Wissowa's _Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft_, iii. 2 (1899), and Marquardt, _Römische Staatsverwaltung_, iii. (2nd ed., 1885), p. 504. For existing remains see works quoted under ROME: _Archaeology_.
2. _The Modern Circus._--The "circus" in modern times is a form of popular entertainment which has little in common with the institution of classical Rome. It is frequently nomadic in character, the place of the permanent building known to the ancients as the circus being taken by a tent, which is carried from place to place and set up temporarily on any site procurable at country fairs or in provincial towns, and in which spectacular performances are given by a troupe employed by the proprietor. The centre of the tent forms an arena arranged as a horse-ring, strewn with tan or other soft substance, where the performances take place, the seats of the spectators being arranged in ascending tiers around the central space as in the Roman circus. The traditional type of exhibition in the modern travelling circus consists of feats of horsemanship, such as leaping through hoops from the back of a galloping horse, standing with one foot on each of two horses galloping side by side, turning somersaults from a springboard over a number of horses standing close together, or accomplishing acrobatic tricks on horseback. These performances, by male and female riders, are varied by the introduction of horses trained to perform tricks, and by drolleries on the part of the clown, whose place in the circus is as firmly established by tradition as in the pantomime.
The popularity of the circus in England may be traced to that kept by Philip Astley (d. 1814) in London at the end of the 18th century. Astley was followed by Ducrow, whose feats of horsemanship had much to do with establishing the traditions of the circus, which were perpetuated by Hengler's and Sanger's celebrated shows in a later generation. In America a circus-actor named Ricketts is said to have performed before George Washington in 1780, and in the first half of the 19th century the establishments of Purdy, Welch & Co., and of van Amburgh gave a wide popularity to the circus in the United States. All former circus-proprietors were, however, far surpassed in enterprise and resource by P.T. Barnum (q.v.), whose claim to be the possessor of "the greatest show on earth" was no exaggeration. The influence of Barnum, however, brought about a considerable change in the character of the modern circus. In arenas too large for speech to be easily audible, the traditional comic dialogue of the clown assumed a less prominent place than formerly, while the vastly increased wealth of stage properties relegated to the background the old-fashioned equestrian feats, which were replaced by more ambitious acrobatic performances, and by exhibitions of skill, strength and daring, requiring the employment of immense numbers of performers and often of complicated and expensive machinery. These tendencies are, as is natural, most marked in shows given in permanent buildings in large cities, such as the London Hippodrome, which was built as a combination of the circus, the menagerie and the variety theatre, where wild animals such as lions and elephants from time to time appeared in the ring, and where convulsions of nature such as floods, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions have been produced with an extraordinary wealth of realistic display. At the Hippodrome in Paris--unlike its London namesake, a circus of the true classical type in which the arena is entirely surrounded by the seats of the spectators--chariot races after the Roman model were held in the latter part of the 19th century, at which prizes of considerable value were given by the management.
CIRENCESTER (traditionally pronounced _Ciceter_), a market town in the Cirencester parliamentary division of Gloucestershire, England, on the river Churn, a tributary of the Thames, 93 m. W.N.W. of London. Pop. of urban district (1901) 7536. It is served by a branch of the Great Western railway, and there is also a station on the Midland and South-Western Junction railway. This is an ancient and prosperous market town of picturesque old houses clustering round a fine parish church, with a high embattled tower, and a remarkable south porch with parvise. The church is mainly Perpendicular, and among its numerous chapels that of St Catherine has a beautiful roof of fan-tracery in stone dated 1508. Of the abbey founded in 1117 by Henry I. there remain a Norman gateway and a few capitals. There are two good museums containing mosaics, inscriptions, carved and sculptured stones, and many smaller remains, for the town was the Roman _Corinium_ or _Durocornovium Dobunorum_. Little trace of Corinium, however, can be seen _in situ_, except the amphitheatre and some indications of the walls. To the west of the town is Cirencester House, the seat of Earl Bathurst. The first Lord Bathurst (1684-1775) devoted himself to beautifying the fine demesne of Oakley Park, which he planted and adorned with remarkable artificial ruins. This nobleman, who became baron in 1711 and earl in 1772, was a patron of art and literature no less than a statesman; and Pope, a frequent visitor here, was allowed to design the building known as Pope's Seat, in the park, commanding a splendid prospect of woods and avenues. Swift was another appreciative visitor. The house contains portraits by Lawrence, Gainsborough, Romney, Lely, Reynolds, Hoppner, Kneller and many others. A mile west of the town is the Royal Agricultural College, incorporated by charter in 1845. Its buildings include a chapel, a dining hall, a library, a lecture theatre, laboratories, classrooms, private studies and dormitories for the students, apartments for resident professors, and servants' offices; also a museum containing a collection of anatomical and pathological preparations, and mineralogical, botanical and geological specimens. The college farm comprises 500 acres, 450 of which are arable; and on it are the well-appointed farm-buildings and the veterinary hospital. Besides agriculture, the course of instruction at the college includes chemistry, natural and mechanical philosophy, natural history, mensuration, surveying and drawing, and other subjects of practical importance to the farmer, proficiency in which is tested by means of sessional examinations. The industries of Cirencester comprise various branches of agriculture. It has connexion by a branch canal with the Thames and Severn canal.
Corinium was a flourishing Romano-British town, at first perhaps a cavalry post, but afterwards, for the greater part of the Roman period, purely a civilian city. At Chedworth, 7 m. N.E., is one of the most noteworthy Roman villas in England. Cirencester (_Cirneceaster_, _Cyrenceaster_, _Cyringceaster_) is described in Domesday as ancient demesne of the crown. The manor was granted by William I. to William Fitzosbern; on reverting to the crown it was given in 1189, with the township, to the Augustinian abbey founded here by Henry I. The struggle of the townsmen to prove that Cirencester was a borough probably began in the same year, when they were amerced for a false presentment. Four inquisitions during the 13th century supported the abbot's claims, yet in 1343 the townsmen declared in a chancery bill of complaint that Cirencester was a borough distinct from the manor, belonging to the king but usurped by the abbot, who since 1308 had abated their court of provostry. Accordingly they produced a copy of a forged charter from Henry I. to the town; the court ignored this and the abbot obtained a new charter and a writ of _supersedeas_. For their success against the earls of Kent and Salisbury Henry IV. in 1403 gave the townsmen a gild merchant, although two inquisitions reiterated the abbot's rights. These were confirmed in 1408-1409 and 1413; in 1418 the charter was annulled, and in 1477 parliament declared that Cirencester was not corporate. After several unsuccessful attempts to re-establish the gild merchant, the government in 1592 was vested in the bailiff of the lord of the manor. Cirencester became a parliamentary borough in 1572, returning two members, but was deprived of representation in 1885. Besides the "new market" of Domesday Book the abbots obtained charters in 1215 and 1253 for fairs during the octaves of All Saints and St Thomas the Martyr. The wool trade gave these great importance; in 1341 there were ten wool merchants in Cirencester, and Leland speaks of the abbots' cloth-mill, while Camden calls it the greatest market for wool in England.
See _Transactions_ of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, vols. ii., ix., xviii.
CIRILLO, DOMENICO (1739-1799), Italian physician and patriot, was born at Grumo in the kingdom of Naples. Appointed while yet a young man to a botanical professorship, Cirillo went some years afterwards to England, where he was elected fellow of the Royal Society, and to France. On his return to Naples he was appointed successively to the chairs of practical and theoretical medicine. He wrote voluminously and well on scientific subjects and secured an extensive medical practice. On the French occupation of Naples and the proclamation of the Parthenopean republic (1799), Cirillo, after at first refusing to take part in the new government, consented to be chosen a representative of the people and became a member of the legislative commission, of which he was eventually elected president. On the abandonment of the republic by the French (June 1799), Cardinal Ruffo and the army of King Ferdinand IV. returned to Naples, and the Republicans withdrew, ill-armed and inadequately provisioned, to the forts. After a short siege they surrendered on honourable terms, life and liberty being guaranteed them by the signatures of Ruffo, of Foote, and of Micheroux. But the arrival of Nelson changed the complexion of affairs, and he refused to ratify the capitulation. Secure under the British flag, Ferdinand and his wife, Caroline of Austria, showed themselves eager for revenge, and Cirillo was involved with the other republicans in the vengeance of the royal family. He asked Lady Hamilton (wife of the British minister to Naples) to intercede on his behalf, but Nelson wrote in reference to the petition: "Domenico Cirillo, who had been the king's physician, might have been saved, but that he chose to play the fool and lie, denying that he had ever made any speeches against the government, and saying that he only took care of the poor in the hospitals" (_Nelson and the Neapolitan Jacobins_, Navy Records Society, 1903). He was condemned and hanged on the 29th of October 1799. Cirillo, whose favourite study was botany, and who was recognized as an entomologist by Linnaeus, left many books, in Latin and Italian, all of them treating of medical and scientific subjects, and all of little value now. Exception must, however, be made in favour of the _Virtù morali dell' Asino_, a pleasant philosophical pamphlet remarkable for its double charm of sense and style. He introduced many medical innovations into Naples, particularly inoculation for smallpox.
See C. Giglioli, _Naples in 1799_ (London, 1903); L. Conforti, _Napoli nel 1799_ (Naples, 1889); C. Tivaroni, _L' Italia durante il dominio francese_, vol. ii. pp. 179-204. Also under NAPLES; NELSON and FERDINAND IV. OF NAPLES.
CIRQUE (Lat. _circus_, ring), a French word used in physical geography to denote a semicircular crater-like amphitheatre at the head of a valley, or in the side of a glaciated mountain. The valley cirque is characteristic of calcareous districts. In the Chiltern Hills especially, and generally along the chalk escarpments, a flat-bottomed valley with an intermittent stream winds into the hill and ends suddenly in a cirque. There is an excellent example at Ivinghoe, Buckinghamshire, where it appears as though an enormous flat-bottomed scoop had been driven into the hillside and dragged outwards to the plain. In all cases it is found that the valley floor consists of hard or impervious rock above which lies a permeable or soluble stratum of considerable thickness. In the case of the chalk hills the upper strata are very porous, and the descending water with atmospheric and humous acids in solution has great solvent power. During the winter this upper layer becomes saturated and some of the water drains away along joints in the escarpment. An underground stream is thus developed carrying away a great deal of material in solution, and in consequence the ground above slowly collapses over the stream, while the cirque at the head, where the stream issues, gradually works backward and may pass completely through the hills, leaving a gap of which another drainage system may take possession. In the limestone country of the Cotteswold Hills, many small intermittent tributary streams are headed by cirques, and some of the longer dry valleys have springs issuing from beneath their lower ends, the dry valleys being collapsed areas above underground streams not yet revealed. In this case the pervious limestone is underlain by beds of impervious clay. There are many of these in the Jura Mountains. The Cirque de St Sulpice is a fine example where the impervious bed is a marly clay.
The origin of the glacial cirque is entirely different and is said by W.D. Johnson (_Journal of Geology_, xii. No. 7, 1904) to be due to basal sapping and erosion under the _bergschrund_ of the glacier. In this he is supported by G.K. Gilbert in the same journal, who produces some remarkable examples from the Sierra Nevada in California, where the mountain fragments have been left behind "like a sheet of dough upon a board after the biscuit tin has done its work"; so that above the head of the glaciers "the rock detail is rugged and splintered but its general effect is that of a great symmetrical arc." Descending one of the bergschrunds of Mt. Lyell to a depth of 150 ft., Johnson found a rock floor cumbered with ice and blocks of rock and the rock face a literally vertical cliff "much riven, its fracture planes outlining sharp angular masses in all stages of displacement and dislodgment." Judging from these facts, he interprets the deep valleys with cirques at their head in formerly glaciated regions where at the head there is a "reversed grade" of slope, as due to ice-erosion at valley-heads where scour is impossible at the sides of the mountain but strongest under the glacier head where the ice is deepest. The opponents of ice-erosion nevertheless recognize the very frequent occurrence of glacial cirques often containing small lakes such as that under Cader Idris in Wales, or at the head of Little Timber Creek, Montana, and numerous examples in Alpine districts.
CIRTA (mod. _Constantine_, q.v.), an ancient city of Numidia, in Africa, in the country of the Massyli. It was regarded by the Romans as the strongest position in Numidia, and was made by them the converging point of all their great military roads in that country. By the early emperors it was allowed to fall into decay, but was afterwards restored by Constantine, from whom it took its modern name.
CISSEY, ERNEST LOUIS OCTAVE COURTOT DE (1810-1882), French general, was born at Paris on the 23rd of September 1810, and after passing through St Cyr, entered the army in 1832, becoming captain in 1839. He saw active service in Algeria, and became _chef d'escadron_ in 1849 and lieutenant-colonel in 1850. He took part as a colonel in the Crimean War, and after the battle of Inkerman received the rank of general of brigade. In 1863 he was promoted general of division. When the Franco-German War broke out in 1870, de Cissey was given a divisional command in the Army of the Rhine, and he was included in the surrender of Bazaine's army at Metz. He was released from captivity only at the end of the war, and on his return was at once appointed by the Versailles government to a command in the army engaged in the suppression of the Commune, a task in the execution of which he displayed great rigour. From July 1871 de Cissey sat as a deputy, and he had already become minister of war. He occupied this post several times during the critical period of the reorganization of the French army. In 1880, whilst holding the command of the XI. corps at Nantes, he was accused of having relations with a certain Baroness Kaula, who was said to be a spy in the pay of Germany, and he was in consequence relieved from duty. An inquiry subsequently held resulted in de Cissey's favour (1881). He died on the 15th of June 1882 at Paris.
CISSOID (from the Gr. [Greek: kissos], ivy, and [Greek: eidos], form), a curve invented by the Greek mathematician Diocles about 180 B.C., for the purpose of constructing two mean proportionals between two given lines, and in order to solve the problem of duplicating the cube. It was further investigated by John Wallis, Christiaan Huygens (who determined the length of any arc in 1657), and Pierre de Fermat (who evaluated the area between the curve and its asymptote in 1661). It is constructed in the following manner. Let APB be a semicircle, BT the tangent at B, and APT a line cutting the circle in P and BT at T; take a point Q on AT so that AQ always equals PT; then the locus of Q is the cissoid. Sir Isaac Newton devised the following mechanical construction. Take a rod LMN bent at right angles at M, such that MN = AB; let the leg LM always pass through a fixed point O on AB produced such that OA = CA, where C is the middle point of AB, and cause N to travel along the line perpendicular to AB at C; then the midpoint of MN traces the cissoid. The curve is symmetrical about the axis of x, and consists of two infinite branches asymptotic to the line BT and forming a cusp at the origin. The cartesian equation, when A is the origin and AB = 2a, is y²(2a - x) = x³; the polar equation is r = 2a sin [theta] tan [theta]. The cissoid is the first positive pedal of the parabola y² + 8ax = 0 for the vertex, and the inverse of the parabola y² = 8ax, the vertex being the centre of inversion, and the semi-latus rectum the constant of inversion. The area between the curve and its asymptote is 3[pi]a², i.e. three times the area of the generating circle.
The term cissoid has been given in modern times to curves generated in similar manner from other figures than the circle, and the form described above is distinguished as the cissoid of Diocles.
A _cissoid angle_ is the angle included between the concave sides of two intersecting curves; the convex sides include the _sistroid angle_.
See John Wallis, _Collected Works_, vol. i.; T.H. Eagles, _Plane Curves_ (1885).
CIS-SUTLEJ STATES, the southern portion of the Punjab, India. The name, now obsolete, came into use in 1809, when the Sikh chiefs south of the Sutlej passed under British protection, and was generally applied to the country south of the Sutlej and north of the Delhi territory, bounded on the E. by the Himalayas, and on the W. by Sirsa district. Before 1846 the greater part of this territory was independent, the chiefs being subject merely to control from a political officer stationed at Umballa, and styled the agent of the governor-general for the Cis-Sutlej states. After the first Sikh War the full administration of the territory became vested in this officer. In 1849 occurred the annexation of the Punjab, when the Cis-Sutlej states commissionership, comprising the districts of Umballa, Ferozepore, Ludhiana, Thanesar and Simla, was incorporated with the new province. The name continued to be applied to this division until 1862, when, owing to Ferozepore having been transferred to the Lahore, and a part of Thanesar to the Delhi division, it ceased to be appropriate. Since then, the tract remaining has been known as the Umballa division. Patiala, Jind and Nabha were appointed a separate political agency in 1901. Excluding Bahawalpur, for which there is no political agent, and Chamba, the other states are grouped under the commissioners of Jullunder and Delhi, and the superintendent of the Simla hill states.
CIST (Gr. [Greek: kistê], Lat. _cista_, a box; cf. Ger. _Kiste_, Welsh _kistvaen_, stone-coffin, and also the other Eng. form "chest"), in Greek archaeology, a wicker-work receptacle used in the Eleusinian and other mysteries to carry the sacred vessels; also, in the archaeology of prehistoric man, a coffin formed of flat stones placed edgeways with another flat stone for a cover. The word is also used for a sepulchral chamber cut in the rock (see COFFIN).
"Cistern," the common term for a water-tank, is a derivation of the same word (Lat. _cisterna_; cf. "cave" and "cavern").
CISTERCIANS, otherwise GREY or WHITE MONKS (from the colour of the habit, over which is worn a black scapular or apron). In 1098 St Robert, born of a noble family in Champagne, at first a Benedictine monk, and then abbot of certain hermits settled at Molesme near Châtillon, being dissatisfied with the manner of life and observance there, migrated with twenty of the monks to a swampy place called Cîteaux in the diocese of Châlons, not far from Dijon. Count Odo of Burgundy here built them a monastery, and they began to live a life of strict observance according to the letter of St Benedict's rule. In the following year Robert was compelled by papal authority to return to Molesme, and Alberic succeeded him as abbot of Cîteaux and held the office till his death in 1109, when the Englishman St Stephen Harding became abbot, until 1134. For some years the new institute seemed little likely to prosper; few novices came, and in the first years of Stephen's abbacy it seemed doomed to failure. In 1112, however, St Bernard and thirty others offered themselves to the monastery, and a rapid and wonderful development at once set in. The next three years witnessed the foundation of the four great "daughter-houses of Cîteaux"--La Ferté, Pontigny, Clairvaux and Morimond. At Stephen's death there were over 30 Cistercian houses; at Bernard's (1154) over 280; and by the end of the century over 500; and the Cistercian influence in the Church more than kept pace with this material expansion, so that St Bernard saw one of his monks ascend the papal chair as Eugenius III.
The keynote of Cistercian life was a return to a literal observance of St Benedict's rule--how literal may be seen from the controversy between St Bernard and Peter the Venerable, abbot of Cluny (see Maitland, _Dark Ages_, § xxii.). The Cistercians rejected alike all mitigations and all developments, and tried to reproduce the life exactly as it had been in St Benedict's time, indeed in various points they went beyond it in austerity. The most striking feature in the reform was the return to manual labour, and especially to field-work, which became a special characteristic of Cistercian life. In order to make time for this work they cut away the accretions to the divine office which had been steadily growing during three centuries, and in Cluny and the other Black Monk monasteries had come to exceed greatly in length the regular canonical office: one only of these accretions did they retain, the daily recitation of the Office of the Dead (Edm. Bishop, _Origin of the Primer_, Early English Text Society, original series, 109, p. xxx.).
It was as agriculturists and horse and cattle breeders that, after the first blush of their success and before a century had passed, the Cistercians exercised their chief influence on the progress of civilization in the later middle ages: they were the great farmers of those days, and many of the improvements in the various farming operations were introduced and propagated by them; it is from this point of view that the importance of their extension in northern Europe is to be estimated. The Cistercians at the beginning renounced all sources of income arising from benefices, tithes, tolls and rents, and depended for their income wholly on the land. This developed an organized system for selling their farm produce, cattle and horses, and notably contributed to the commercial progress of the countries of western Europe. Thus by the middle of the 13th century the export of wool by the English Cistercians had become a feature in the commerce of the country. Farming operations on so extensive a scale could not be carried out by the monks alone, whose choir and religious duties took up a considerable portion of their time; and so from the beginning the system of lay brothers was introduced on a large scale. The lay brothers were recruited from the peasantry and were simple uneducated men, whose function consisted in carrying out the various field-works and plying all sorts of useful trades; they formed a body of men who lived alongside of the choir monks, but separate from them, not taking part in the canonical office, but having their own fixed round of prayer and religious exercises. A lay brother was never ordained, and never held any office of superiority. It was by this system of lay brothers that the Cistercians were able to play their distinctive part in the progress of European civilization. But it often happened that the number of lay brothers became excessive and out of proportion to the resources of the monasteries, there being sometimes as many as 200, or even 300, in a single abbey. On the other hand, at any rate in some countries, the system of lay brothers in course of time worked itself out; thus in England by the close of the 14th century it had shrunk to relatively small proportions, and in the 15th century the régime of the English Cistercian houses tended to approximate more and more to that of the Black Monks.
The Cistercian polity calls for special mention. Its lines were adumbrated by Alberic, but it received its final form at a meeting of the abbots in the time of Stephen Harding, when was drawn up the _Carta Caritatis_ (Migne, _Patrol. Lat._ clxvi. 1377), a document which arranged the relations between the various houses of the Cistercian order, and exercised a great influence also upon the future course of western monachism. From one point of view, it may be regarded as a compromise between the primitive Benedictine system, whereby each abbey was autonomous and isolated, and the complete centralization of Cluny, whereby the abbot of Cluny was the only true superior in the body. Cîteaux, on the one hand, maintained the independent organic life of the houses--each abbey had its own abbot, elected by its own monks; its own community, belonging to itself and not to the order in general; its own property and finances administered by itself, without interference from outside. On the other hand, all the abbeys were subjected to the general chapter, which met yearly at Cîteaux, and consisted of the abbots only; the abbot of Cîteaux was the president of the chapter and of the order, and the visitor of each and every house, with a predominant influence and the power of enforcing everywhere exact conformity to Cîteaux in all details of the exterior life--observance, chant, customs. The principle was that Cîteaux should always be the model to which all the other houses had to conform. In case of any divergence of view at the chapter, the side taken by the abbot of Cîteaux was always to prevail (see F.A. Gasquet, _Sketch of Monastic Constitutional History_, pp. xxxv-xxxviii, prefixed to English trans, of Montalembert's _Monks of the West_, ed. 1895).
By the end of the 12th century the Cistercian houses numbered 500; in the 13th a hundred more were added; and in the 15th, when the order attained its greatest extension, there were close on 750 houses: the larger figures sometimes given are now recognized as apocryphal. Nearly half of the houses had been founded, directly or indirectly, from Clairvaux, so great was St Bernard's influence and prestige: indeed he has come almost to be regarded as the founder of the Cistercians, who have often been called Bernardines. The order was spread all over western Europe,--chiefly in France, but also in Germany, England, Scotland, Ireland, Sweden, Poland, Hungary, Italy and Sicily, Spain and Portugal,--where some of the houses, as Alcobaça, were of almost incredible magnificence. In England the first foundation was Furness (1127), and many of the most beautiful monastic buildings of the country, beautiful in themselves and beautiful in their sites, were Cistercian,--as Tintern, Rievaulx, Byland, Fountains. A hundred were established in England in the next hundred years, and then only one more up to the Dissolution (for list, see table and map in F.A. Gasquet's _English Monastic Life_, or _Catholic Dictionary_, art. "Cistercians").
For a hundred years, till the first quarter of the 13th century, the Cistercians supplanted Cluny as the most powerful order and the chief religious influence in western Europe. But then in turn their influence began to wane, chiefly, no doubt, because of the rise of the mendicant orders, who ministered more directly to the needs and ideas of the new age. But some of the reasons of Cistercian decline were internal. In the first place, there was the permanent difficulty of maintaining in its first fervour a body embracing hundreds of monasteries and thousands of monks, spread all over Europe; and as the Cistercian very _raison d'être_ consisted in its being a "reform," a return to primitive monachism, with its field-work and severe simplicity, any failures to live up to the ideal proposed worked more disastrously among Cistercians than among mere Benedictines, who were intended to live a life of self-denial, but not of great austerity. Relaxations were gradually introduced in regard to diet and to simplicity of life, and also in regard to the sources of income, rents and tolls being admitted and benefices incorporated, as was done among the Benedictines; the farming operations tended to produce a commercial spirit; wealth and splendour invaded many of the monasteries, and the choir monks abandoned field-work.
The later history of the Cistercians is largely one of attempted revivals and reforms. The general chapter for long battled bravely against the invasion of relaxations and abuses. In 1335 Benedict XII., himself a Cistercian, promulgated a series of regulations to restore the primitive spirit of the order, and in the 15th century various popes endeavoured to promote reforms. All these efforts at a reform of the great body of the order proved unavailing; but local reforms, producing various semi-independent offshoots and congregations, were successfully carried out in many parts in the course of the 15th and 16th centuries. In the 17th another great effort at a general reform was made, promoted by the pope and the king of France; the general chapter elected Richelieu (commendatory) abbot of Cîteaux, thinking he would protect them from the threatened reform. In this they were disappointed, for he threw himself wholly on the side of reform. So great, however, was the resistance, and so serious the disturbances that ensued, that the attempt to reform Cîteaux itself and the general body of the houses had again to be abandoned, and only local projects of reform could be carried out. In 1598 had arisen the reformed congregation of the Feuillants, which spread widely in France and Italy, in the latter country under the name of "Improved Bernardines." The French congregation of Sept-Fontaines (1654) also deserves mention. In 1663 de Rancé reformed La Trappe (see TRAPPISTS).
The Reformation, the ecclesiastical policy of Joseph II., the French Revolution, and the revolutions of the 19th century, almost wholly destroyed the Cistercians; but some survived, and since the beginning of the last half of the 19th century there has been a considerable recovery. They are at present divided into three bodies: (1) the Common Observance, with about 30 monasteries and 800 choir monks, the large majority being in Austria-Hungary; they represent the main body of the order and follow a mitigated rule of life; they do not carry on field-work, but have large secondary schools, and are in manner of life little different from fairly observant Benedictine Black monks; of late years, however, signs are not wanting of a tendency towards a return to older ideas; (2) the Middle Observance, embracing some dozen monasteries and about 150 choir monks; (3) the Strict Observance, or Trappists (q.v.), with nearly 60 monasteries, about 1600 choir monks and 2000 lay brothers.
In all there are about 100 Cistercian monasteries and about 4700 monks, including lay brothers. There have always been a large number of Cistercian nuns; the first nunnery was founded at Tart in the diocese of Langres, 1125; at the period of their widest extension there are said to have been 900 nunneries, and the communities were very large. The nuns were devoted to contemplation and also did field-work. In Spain and France certain Cistercian abbesses had extraordinary privileges. Numerous reforms took place among the nuns. The best known of all Cistercian convents was probably Port-Royal (q.v.), reformed by Angélique Arnaud, and associated with the story of the Jansenist controversy. After all the troubles of the 19th century there still exist 100 Cistercian nunneries with 3000 nuns, choir and lay; of these, 15 nunneries with 900 nuns are Trappist.
Accounts of the beginnings of the Cistercians and of the primitive life and spirit will be found in the lives of St Bernard, the best whereof is that of Abbé E. Vacandard (1895); also in the Life of St Stephen Harding, in the _English Saints_. See also Henry Collins (one of the Oxford Movement, who became a Cistercian), _Spirit and Mission of the Cistercian Order_ (1866). The facts are related in Helyot, _Hist. des ordres religieux_ (1792), v. cc. 33-46, vi cc. 1, 2. Useful sketches, with references to the literature, are supplied in Herzog, _Realencyklopädie_ (ed. 3), art. "Cistercienser"; Wetzer und Welte, _Kirchenlexikon_ (ed. 2), art. "Cistercienserorden"; Max Heimbucher, _Orden und Kongregationen_ (1896), i. §§ 33, 34. Prof. Brewer's discriminating, yet on the whole sympathetic, Preface to vol. iv. of the Works of Giraldus Cambrensis (Rolls Series of _Chronicles and Memorials_) is very instructive. Denis Murphy's _Triumphalia Monasterii S. Crucis_ (1891) contains a general sketch, with a particular account of the Irish Cistercians. (E. C. B.)
CITATION (Lat. _citare_, to cite), in law, a summons to appear, more particularly applied in England to process in the probate and divorce division of the high court. In the ecclesiastical courts, citation was a method of commencing a probate suit, answering to a writ of summons at common law, and it is now in English probate practice an instrument issuing from the principal probate registry, chiefly used when a person, having the superior right to take a grant, delays or declines to do so, and another having an inferior right desires to obtain a grant; the party having the prior right is cited to appear and either to renounce the grant or show cause why it should not be decreed to the citator. In divorce practice, when a petitioner has filed his petition and affidavit, he extracts a citation, i.e. a command drawn in the name of the sovereign and signed by one of the registrars of the court, calling upon the alleged offender to appear and make answer to the petition. In Scots law, citation is used in the sense of a writ of summons. The word in its more general literary sense means the act of quoting, or the referring to an authority in support of an argument.
CÎTEAUX, a village of eastern France, in the department of Côte d'Or, 16 m. S.S.E. of Dijon by road. It is celebrated for the great abbey founded by Robert, abbot of Molesme, in 1098, which became the headquarters of the Cistercian order. The buildings which remain date chiefly from the 18th century and are of little interest. The church, destroyed in 1792, used to contain the tombs of the earlier dukes of Burgundy.
CITHAERON, now called from its pine forests Elatea, a famous mountain range (4626 ft.) in the south of Boeotia, separating that state from Megaris and Attica. It was famous in Greek mythology, and is frequently mentioned by the great poets, especially by Sophocles. It was on Cithaeron that Aetaeon was changed into a stag, that Pentheus was torn to pieces by the Bacchantes whose orgies he had been watching, and that the infant Oedipus was exposed. This mountain, too, was the scene of the mystic rites of Dionysus, and the festival of the Daedala in honour of Hera. The carriage-road from Athens to Thebes crosses the range by a picturesque defile (the pass of Dryoscephalae, "Oak-heads"), which was at one time guarded on the Attic side by a strong fortress, the ruins of which are known as Ghyphto-kastro ("Gipsy Castle"). Plataea is situated on the north slope of the mountain, and the strategy of the battle of 479 B.C. was considerably affected by the fact that it was necessary for the Greeks to keep their communications open by the passes (see PLATAEA). The best known of these is that of Dryoscephalae, which must then, as now, have been the direct route from Athens to Thebes. Two other passes, farther to the west, were crossed by the roads from Plataea to Athens and to Megara respectively. (E. GR.)
CITHARA (Assyrian _chetarah_; Gr. [Greek: kithara]; Lat. _cithara_; perhaps Heb. _kinura, kinnor_), one of the most ancient stringed instruments, traced back to 1700 B.C. among the Semitic races, in Egypt, Assyria, Asia Minor, Greece and the Roman empire, whence the use of it spread over Europe. The main feature of the Greek _kithara_, its shallow sound-chest, being the most important part of it, is also that in which developments are most noticeable; its contour varied considerably during the many musical ages, but the characteristic in respect of which it fore-shadowed the precursors of the violin family, and by which they were distinguished from other contemporary stringed instruments of the middle ages, was preserved throughout in all European descendants bearing derived names. This characteristic box sound-chest (fig. 1) consisted of two resonating tables, either flat or delicately arched, connected by ribs or sides of equal width. The cithara may be regarded as an attempt by a more skilful craftsman or race to improve upon the lyre (q.v.), while retaining some of its features. The construction of the cithara can fortunately be accurately studied from two actual specimens found in Egypt and preserved in the museums of Berlin and Leiden. The Leiden cithara (fig. 2), which forms part of the d'Anastasy Collection in the Museum of Antiquities, is in a very good state of preservation. The sound-chest, in the form of an irregular square (17 cm. X 17 cm.), is hollowed out of a solid block of wood from the base, which is open; the little bar, seen through the open base and measuring 2½ cm. (1 in.), is also of the same piece of wood. The arms, one short and one long, are solid and are fixed to the body by means of wooden pins; they are glued as well for greater strength. W. Pleyte, through whose courtesy the sketch was revised and corrected, states that there are no indications on the instrument of any kind of bridge or attachment for strings except the little half-hoop of iron wire which passes through the base from back to front. To this the strings were probably attached, and the little bar performed the double duty of sound-post and support for strengthening the tail-piece and enabling it to resist the tension of the strings. The oblique transverse bar, rendered necessary by the increasing length of the strings, was characteristic of the Egyptian cithara,[1] whereas the Asiatic and Greek instruments were generally constructed with horizontal bars resting on arms of equal length, the pitch of the strings being varied by thickness and tension, instead of by length. (For the Berlin cithara see LYRE.)
The number of strings with which the cithara was strung varied from 4 to 19 or 20 at different times; they were added less for the purpose of increasing the compass in the modern sense than to enable the performer to play in the different modes of the Greek musical system. Terpander is credited with having increased the number of strings to seven; Euclid, quoting him as his authority, states that "loving no more the tetrachordal chant, we will sing aloud new hymns to a seven-toned phorminx."
What has been said of the scale of the lyre applies also to the cithara, and need therefore not be repeated here. The strings were vibrated by means of the fingers or plectrum ([Greek: plêktron], from [Greek: plêssein], to strike; Lat. _plectrum_, from _plango_, I strike). Twanging with the fingers for strings of gut, hemp or silk was undoubtedly the more artistic method, since the player was able to command various shades of expression which are impossible with a rigid plectrum.[2] Loudness of accent and great brilliancy of tone, however, can only be obtained by the use of the plectrum.
Quotations from the classics abound to show what was the practice of the Greeks and Romans in this respect. The plectrum was held in the right hand, with elbow outstretched and palm bent inwards, and the strings were plucked with the straightened fingers of the left hand.[3] Both methods were used with intention according to the dictates of art for the sake of the variation in tone colour obtainable thereby.[4]
The strings of the cithara were either knotted round the transverse tuning bar itself (_zugon_) or to rings threaded over the bar, which enabled the performer to increase or decrease the tension by shifting the knots or rings; or else they were wound round pegs,[5] knobs[6] or pins[7] fixed to the zugon. The other end of the strings was secured to a tail-piece after passing over a flat bridge, or the two were combined in the curious high box tail-piece which acted as a bridge. Plutarch[8] states that this contrivance was added to the cithara in the days of Cepion, pupil of Terpander. These boxes were hinged in order to allow the lid to be opened for the purpose of securing the strings to some contrivance concealed therein. It is a curious fact that no sculptured cithara provided with this box tail-piece is represented with strings, and in many cases there could never have been any, for the hand and arm[9] are visible across the space that would be filled by the strings, which are always carved in a solid block.
Like the lyre the cithara was made in many sizes, conditioned by the pitch and the use to which the instrument was to be put. These instruments may have been distinguished by different names; the _pectis_, for instance, is declared by Sappho (22nd fragment) to have been small and shrill; the _phorminx_, on the other hand, seems to have been identical with the cithara.[10]
The Greek _kithara_ was the instrument of the professional singer or citharoedus ([Greek: kitharôdos]) and of the instrumentalist or citharista ([Greek: kitharistês]), and thus served the double purpose of (1) accompanying the voice--a use placed by the Greeks far above mere instrumental music--in epic recitations and rhapsodies, in odes and lyric songs; and (2) of accompanying the dance; it was also used for playing solos at the national games, at receptions and banquets and at trials of skill. The costume of the citharoedus and citharista was rich and recognized as being distinctive; it varied but little throughout the ages, as may be deduced from a comparison of representations of the citharoedus on a coin and on a Greek vase of the best period (fig. 4). The costume consisted of a _palla_ or long tunic with sleeves embroidered with gold and girt high above the waist, falling in graceful folds to the feet. This _palla_ must not be confounded with the mantle of the same name worn by women. Over one shoulder, or hanging down the back, was the purple _chlamys_ or cloak, and on his brow a golden wreath of laurels. All the citharoedi bear instruments of the type here described as the cithara, and never one of the lyre type. The records of the citharoedi extend over more than thirteen centuries and fall into two natural divisions: (1) The mythological period, approximately from the 13th century B.C. to the first Olympiad, 776 B.C.; and (2) the historical period to the days of Ptolemy, A.D. 161. One of the very few authentic Greek odes extant is a Pythian ode by Pindar, in which the phorminx of Apollo is mentioned; the solo is followed by a chorus of citharoedi. The scope of the solemn games and processions, called _Panathenaea_, held every four years in honour of the goddess Athena, which originally consisted principally of athletic sports and horse and chariot races, was extended under Peisistratus (c. 540 B.C.), and the celebration made to include contests of singers and instrumentalists, recitations of portions of the _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_, such as are represented on the frieze of the Parthenon (in the Elgin Room at the British Museum) and later on friezes by Pheidias. It was at the same period that the first contests for solo-playing on the cithara ([Greek: kitharistus]) and for solo _aulos_-playing were instituted at the 8th Pythian Games.[11] One of the principal items at these contests for aulos and cithara was the _Nomos Pythikos_, descriptive of the victory of Apollo over the python and of the defeat of the monster.[12]
The Pythian Games survived the classic Greek period and were continued under Roman sway until about A.D. 394. Not only were these games held at Delphi, but smaller contests, called Pythia, modelled on the great Pythian, were instituted in various provinces of the empire, and more especially in Asia Minor. The games lasted for several days, the first being devoted to music. To the games at Delphi came musicians from all parts of the civilized world; and the Spaniards, at the beginning of our era, had attained to such a marvellous proficiency in playing the cithara, an instrument which they had learnt to know from the Phoenician colonists before the conquest by the Romans, that some of their citharoedi easily carried off the honours at the musical contests. The consul Metellus was so charmed with the music of the Spanish competitors that he sent some to Rome for the festivals, where the impression created was so great that the Spanish citharoedi obtained a permanent footing in Rome. Aulus Gellius (_Noct. Att._) describes an incident at a banquet which corroborates this statement.
The degeneration of music as an art among the Romans, and its gradual degradation by association with the sensual amusements of corrupt Rome, nearly brought about its extinction at the end of the 4th century, when the condemnation of the Church closed the theatres, and the great national games came to an end. Instrumental music was banished from civil life and from religious rites, and thenceforth the slender threads which connect the musical instruments of Greeks and Romans with those of the middle ages must be sought among the unconverted barbarians of northern and western Europe, who kept alive the traditions taught them by conquerors and colonists; but as civilization was in its infancy with them the instruments sent out from their workshops must have been crude and primitive. Asia, the cradle of the cithara, also became its foster-mother; it was among the Greeks of Asia Minor that the several steps in the transition from cithara into guitar[13] (q.v.) took place.
The first of these steps produced the rotta (q.v.), by the construction of body, arms and transverse bar in one piece. The Semitic races used the rotta at a very remote period (1700 B.C.), as we know from a fresco at Beni-Hasan, dating from the reign of Senwosri II., which depicts a procession of strangers bringing tribute; among them is a bearded musician of Semitic type bearing a rotta which he holds horizontally in front of him in the Assyrian manner, and quite unlike the Greeks, who always played the lyre and cithara in an upright position. A unique specimen of this rectangular rotta was found in an Alamannic tomb of the 5th or 6th century at Oberflacht in the Black Forest. The instrument was clasped in the arms of an armed knight; it is now preserved in the Völker Museum in Berlin. This old German rotta is an exact counterpart of instruments pictured in illuminated MSS. of the 8th century, and is derived from the cithara with rectangular body, while from the cithara with a body having the curve of the lower half of the violin was produced a rotta with the outline of the body of the guitar. Both types were common in Europe until the 14th century, some played with a bow, others twanged by the fingers, and bearing indifferently both names, cithara and rotta. The addition of a finger-board, stretching like a short neck from body to transverse bar, leaving on each side of the finger-board space for the hand to pass through in order to stop the strings, produced the crwth or crowd (q.v.), and brought about the reduction in the number of the strings to three or four. The conversion of the rotta into the guitar (q.v.) was an easy transition effected by the addition of a long neck to a body derived from the oval rotta. When the bow was applied the result was the guitar or troubadour fiddle. At first the instrument called _cithara_ in the Latin versions of the Psalms was glossed _citran, citre_ in Anglo-Saxon, but in the 11th century the same instrument was rendered _hearpan_, and in French and English _harpe_ or _harp_, and our modern versions have retained this translation. The _cittern_ (q.v.), a later descendant of the cithara, although preserving the characteristic features of the cithara, the shallow sound-chest with ribs, adopted the pear-shaped outline of the Eastern instruments of the lute tribe. (K.S.)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] A drawing of an Egyptian cithara, similar to the Leiden specimen, may be seen in Champollion, _Monuments de l'Égypte et de la Nubie_, ii. pl. 175.
[2] See Plutarch, _Apophthegm. Lacon._
[3] Philostratus the Elder, _Imagines_, No. 10, "Amphion," and Philostratus the Younger, _Imagines_, No. 7, "Orpheus," p. 403.
[4] Tibullus, _Eleg._ iii. 4. 39.
[5] _Le Antichità de Ercolano_, vol. iii. p. 5.
[6] _Idem_, vol. iv. p. 201.
[7] Thomas Hope, _Costumes of the Ancients_, vol. ii. p. 193; also Edward Buhle, _Die musikalischen Instrumente in den Miniaturen des frühen Mittelalters_ (Leipzig, 1903), frontispiece.
[8] See _De Musica_, ch. vi.
[9] See Visconti, _Museo Clementino_, pl. 22, Erato's cithara, and in the same work that of Apollo Citharoedus (fig. 3 above).
[10] See _Od._ i. 153, 155; _Il._ xviii. 569-570. In Homer the form is always [Greek: kitharis].
[11] See Pausanias x. 7, § 4 et seq.
[12] For a description of the _Nomos Pythikos_ in its relation to Greek music see Kathleen Schlesinger, "Researches into the Origin of the Organs of the Ancients," _Intern. Mus. Ges._ Sbd. ii. (1901), 2, p. 177, and Strabo ix. p. 421.
[13] For a discussion of this question see Kathleen Schlesinger, _The Instruments of the Orchestra_, part ii., and especially chapters on the cithara in transition during the middle ages, and the question of the origin of the Utrecht Psalter, in which the evolution of the cithara is traced at some length.
CITIUM (Gr. [Greek: Kition]), the principal Phoenician city in Cyprus, situated at the north end of modern Larnaca, on the bay of the same name on the S.E. coast of the island. Converging currents from E. and W. meet and pass seawards off Cape Kiti a few miles south, and greatly facilitated ancient trade. To S. and W. the site is protected by lagoons, the salt from which was one of the sources of its prosperity. The earliest remains near the site go back to the Mycenaean age (c. 1400-1100 B.C.) and seem to mark an Aegean colony.[1] but in historic times Citium is the chief centre of Phoenician influence in Cyprus. That this was still a recent settlement in the 7th century is suggested by an allusion in a list of the allies of Assur-bani-pal of Assyria in 668 B.C. to a King Damasu of Kartihadasti (Phoenician for "New-town"), where Citium would be expected. A Phoenician dedication to "Baal of Lebanon" found here, and dated also to the 7th century, suggests that Citium may have belonged to Tyre. The biblical name Kittim, derived from Citium, is in fact used quite generally for Cyprus as a whole;[2] later also for Greeks and Romans in general.[3] The discovery here of an official monument of Sargon II. suggests that Citium was the administrative centre of Cyprus during the Assyrian protectorate (700-668 B.C.).[4] During the Greek revolts of 500, 386 foll. and 352 B.C., Citium led the side loyal to Persia and was besieged by an Athenian force in 449 B.C.; its extensive necropolis proves that it remained a considerable city even after the Greek cause triumphed with Alexander. But like other cities of Cyprus, it suffered repeatedly from earthquake, and in medieval times when its harbour became silted the population moved to Larnaca, on the open roadstead, farther south. Harbour and citadel have now quite disappeared, the latter having been used to fill up the former shortly after the British occupation; some gain to health resulted, but an irreparable loss to science. Traces remain of the circuit wall, and of a sanctuary with copious terra-cotta offerings; the large necropolis yields constant loot to illicit excavation.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--W.H. Engel, _Kypros_ (Berlin, 1841), (classical allusions); J.L. Myres, _Journ. Hellenic Studies_, xvii. 147 ff. (excavations); _Cyprus Museum Catalogue_ (Oxford, 1899), p. 5-6; 153-155; Index (Antiquities); G.F. Hill, _Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins of Cyprus_ (London, 1904), (Coins). (J.L.M.)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Cf. the name Kathian in a Ramessid list of cities of Cyprus, Oberhummer, _Die Insel Cypern_ (Munich, 1903), p. 4.
[2] Gen. x. 4; Num. xxiv. 24; Is. xxiii. 1, 12; Jer. ii. 10; Ezek. xxvii. 6.
[3] Dan. xi. 30; I Macc. i. 1; viii. 5.
[4] Schrader, "Die Sargonstele des Berliner Museums," in _Abh. d. k. Preuss. Akad. Wiss._ (1881); _Zur Geogr. d. assyr. Reiches_ (Berlin, 1890), pp. 337-344.
CITIZEN (a form corrupted in Eng., apparently by analogy with "denizen," from O. Fr. _citeain_, mod. Fr. _citoyen_), etymologically the inhabitant of a city, _cité_ or _civitas_ (see CITY), and in England the term still used primarily of persons possessing civic rights in a borough; thus used also of a townsman as opposed to a countryman. The more extended use of the word, however, corresponding to _civitas_, gives "citizen" the meaning of one who is a constituent member of a state in international relations and as such has full national rights and owes a certain allegiance (q.v.) as opposed to an "alien"; in republican countries the term is then commonly employed as the equivalent of "subject" in monarchies of feudal origin. For the rules governing the obtaining of citizenship in this latter sense in the United States and elsewhere see NATURALIZATION.
CITOLE, also spelled SYTOLE, CYTHOLE, GYTOLLE, &c. (probably a Fr. diminutive form of _cithara_, and not from Lat. _cista_, a box), an obsolete musical instrument of which the exact form is uncertain. It is frequently mentioned by poetical writers of the 13th to the 15th centuries, and is found in Wycliffe's Bible (1360) in 2 Samuel vi. 5, "Harpis and sitols and tympane." The Authorized Version has "psaltiries," and the Vulgate "lyrae." It has been supposed to be another name for the psaltery (q.v.), a box-shaped instrument often seen in the illuminated missals of the middle ages.
CITRIC ACID, _Acidum citricum_, or OXYTRICARBALLYLIC ACID, C3H4(OH) (CO·OH)3, a tetrahydroxytribasic acid, first obtained in the solid state by Karl Wilhelm Scheele, in 1784, from the juice of lemons. It is present also in oranges, citrons, currants, gooseberries and many other fruits, and in several bulbs and tubers. It is made on a large scale from lime or lemon juice, and also by the fermentation of glucose under the influence of _Citromycetes pfefferianus, C. glaber_ and other ferments. Lemon juice is fermented for some time to free it from mucilage, then boiled and filtered, and neutralized with powdered chalk and a little milk of lime; the precipitate of calcium citrate so obtained is decomposed with dilute sulphuric acid, the solution filtered, evaporated to remove calcium sulphate and concentrated, preferably in vacuum pans. The acid is thus obtained in colourless rhombic prisms of the composition C6H8O7 + H2O. Crystals of a different form are deposited from a strong boiling solution of the acid. About 20 gallons of lemon juice should yield about 10 lb of crystallized citric acid. The acid may also be prepared from the juice of unripe gooseberries. Calcium citrate must be manufactured with care to avoid an excess of chalk or lime, which would precipitate constituents of the juice that cause the fermentation of the citrate and the production of calcium acetate and butyrate.
The synthesis of citric acid was accomplished by L.E. Grimaux and P. Adam in 1881. Glycerin when treated with hydrochloric acid gives propenyl dichlorhydrin, which may be oxidized to s-dichloracetone. This compound combines with hydrocyanic acid to form a nitrile which hydrolyses to dichlor-hydroxy iso-butyric acid. Potassium cyanide reacts with this acid to form the corresponding dinitrile, which is converted by hydrochloric acid into citric acid. This series of operations proves the constitution of the acid. A. Haller and C.A. Held synthesized the acid from ethyl chlor-acetoacetate (from chlorine and acetoacetic ester) by heating with potassium cyanide and saponifying the resulting nitrile. The acetone dicarboxylic acid, CO(CH2CO2H)2, so obtained combines with hydrocyanic acid, and this product yields citric acid on hydrolysis.
Citric acid has an agreeable sour taste. It is soluble in ¾ths of its weight of cold, and in half its weight of boiling water, and dissolves in alcohol, but not in ether. At 150°C. it melts, and on the continued application of heat boils, giving off its water of crystallization. At 175° C. it is resolved into water and aconitic acid, C6H6O6, a substance found in _Equisetum fluviatile_, monks-hood and other plants. A higher temperature decomposes this body into carbon dioxide and itaconic acid, C5H6C4, which, again, by the expulsion of a molecule of water, yields citraconic anhydride, C5H4O3. Citric acid digested at a temperature below 40°C. with concentrated sulphuric acid gives off carbon monoxide and forms acetone dicarboxylic acid. With fused potash it forms potassium oxalate and acetate. It is a strong acid, and dissolved in water decomposes carbonates and attacks iron and zinc.
The citrates are a numerous class of salts, the most soluble of which are those of the alkaline metals; the citrates of the alkaline earth metals are insoluble. Citric acid, being tribasic, forms either acid monometallic, acid dimetallic or neutral trimetallic salts; thus, mono-, di- and tri-potassium and sodium citrates are known. On warming citric acid with an excess of lime-water a precipitate of calcium citrate is obtained which is redissolved as the liquid cools.
The impurities occasionally present in commercial citric acid are salts of potassium and sodium, traces of iron, lead and copper derived from the vessels used for its evaporation and crystallization, and free sulphuric, tartaric and even oxalic acid. Tartaric acid, which is sometimes present in large quantities as an adulterant in commercial citric acid, may be detected in the presence of the latter, by the production of a precipitate of acid potassium tartrate when potassium acetate is added to a cold solution. Another mode of separating the two acids is to convert them into calcium salts, which are then treated with a perfectly neutral solution of cupric chloride, soluble cupric citrate and calcium chloride being formed, while cupric tartrate remains undissolved. Citric acid is also distinguished from tartaric acid by the fact that an ammonia solution of silver tartrate produces a brilliant silver mirror when boiled, whereas silver citrate is reduced only after prolonged ebullition.
Citric acid is used in calico printing, also in the preparation of effervescing draughts, as a refrigerant and sialogogue, and occasionally as an antiscorbutic, instead of fresh lemon juice. In the form of lime juice it has long been known as an antidote for scurvy. Several of the citrates are much employed as medicines, the most important being the scale preparations of iron. Of these iron and ammonium citrate is much used as a haematinic, and as it has hardly any tendency to cause gastric irritation or constipation it can be taken when the ordinary forms of iron are inadmissible. Iron and quinine citrate is used as a bitter stomachic and tonic. In the blood citrates are oxidized into carbonates; they therefore act as _remote alkalis_, increasing the alkalinity of the blood and thereby the general rate of chemical change within the body (see ACETIC ACID).
CITRON, a species of _Citrus_ (_C. medica_), belonging to the tribe _Aurantieae_, of the botanical natural order Rutaceae; the same genus furnishes also the orange, lime and shaddock. The citron is a small evergreen tree or shrub growing to a height of about 10 ft.; it has irregular straggling spiny branches, large pale-green broadly oblong, slightly serrate leaves and generally unisexual flowers purplish without and white within. The large fruit is ovate or oblong, protuberant at the tip, and from 5 to 6 in. long, with a rough, furrowed, adherent rind, the inner portion of which is thick, white and fleshy, the outer, thin, greenish-yellow and very fragrant. The pulp is sub-acid and edible, and the seeds are bitter. There are many varieties of the fruit, some of them of great weight and size. The Madras citron has the form of an oblate sphere; and in the "fingered citron" of China the lobes are separated into finger-like divisions formed by separation of the constituent carpels, as occurs sometimes in the orange.
The citron-tree thrives in the open air in China, Persia, the West Indies, Madeira, Sicily, Corsica, and the warmer parts of Spain and Italy; and in conservatories it is often to be seen in more northerly regions. Sir Joseph Hooker (_Flora of British India_, i. 514) regards it as a native of the valleys at the foot of the Himalaya, and of the Khasia hills and the Western Ghauts; Dr Bonavia, however, considers it to have originated in Cochin China or China, and to have been introduced into India, whence it spread to Media and Persia. It was described by Theophrastus as growing in Media, three centuries before Christ, and was early known to the ancients, and the fruit was held in great esteem by them; but they seem to have been acquainted with no other member of the _Aurantieae_, the introduction of oranges and lemons into the countries of the Mediterranean being due to the Arabs, between the 10th and 15th centuries. Josephus tells us that "the law of the Jews required that at the feast of tabernacles every one should have branches of palm-tree and citron-tree" (_Antiq._ xiii. 13. 5); and the Hebrew word _tappuach_, rendered "apples" and "apple-tree" in Cant. ii. 3, 5, Prov. xxv. 11, &c., probably signifies the citron-tree and its fruit. Oribasius in the 4th century describes the fruit, accurately distinguishing the three parts of it. About the 3rd century the tree was introduced into Italy; and, as Gallesio informs us, it was much grown at Salerno in the 11th century. In China citrons are placed in apartments to make them fragrant. The rind of the citron yields two perfumes, _oil of cedra_ and _oil of citron_, isomeric with oil of turpentine; and when candied it is much esteemed as a dessert and in confectionery. The lemon (q.v.) is now generally regarded as a subspecies _Limonum_ of _Citrus medica_.
Oribasii Sardiani, _Collectorum Medicinalium Libri XVII._ i. 64 (_De citrio_); Gallesio, _Traité du citrus_ (1811); Darwin, _Animals and Plants under Domestication_, i. 334-336 (1868); Brandis, _Forest Flora of North-West and Central India_, p. 51 (1874); E. Bonavia, _The Cultivated Oranges and Lemons, &c., of India and Ceylon_ (1890).
CITTADELLA, a town of Venetia, Italy, in the province of Padua, 20 m. N.W. by rail from the town of Padua; 160 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1901) town, 3616; commune, 9686. The town was founded in 1220 by the Paduans to counterbalance the fortification of Castelfranco, 8 m. to the E., in 1218 by the Trevisans, and retains its well-preserved medieval walls, surrounded by a wet ditch. It was always a fortress of importance, and in modern times is a centre for the agricultural produce of the district, being the junction of the lines from Padua to Bassano and from Vicenza to Treviso.
CITTÀ DELLA PIEVE, a town and episcopal see of Umbria, Italy, in the province of Perugia, situated 1666 ft. above the sea, 3 m. N.E. of its station on the railway between Chiusi and Orvieto. Pop. (1901) 8381. Etruscan tombs have been found in the neighbourhood, but it is not certain that the present town stands on an ancient site. It was the birthplace of the painter Pietro Vannucci (Perugino), and possesses several of his works, but none of the first rank.
CITTÀ DI CASTELLO, a town and episcopal see of Umbria, Italy, in the province of Perugia, 38 m. E. of Arezzo by rail (18 m. direct), situated on the left bank of the Tiber, 945 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1901) of town, 6096; of commune, 26,885. It occupies, as inscriptions show, the site of the ancient _Tifernum Tiberinum_, near which Pliny had a villa (_Epist._ v. 6; cf. H. Winnefeld in _Jahrbuch des deutschen archäologischen Instituts_, vi. Berlin, 1891, 203), but no remains exist above ground. The town was devastated by Totila, but seems to have recovered. We find it under the name of _Castrum Felicitatis_ at the end of the 8th century. The bishopric dates from the 7th century. The town went through various political vicissitudes in the middle ages, being subject now to the emperor, now to the Church, until in 1468 it came under the Vitelli: but when they died out it returned to the allegiance of the Church. It is built in the form of a rectangle and surrounded by walls of 1518. It contains fine buildings of the Renaissance, especially the palaces of the Vitelli, and the cathedral, originally Romanesque. The 12th-century altar front of the latter in silver is fine. The Palazzo Comunale is of the 14th century. Some of Raphael's earliest works were painted for churches in this town, but none of them remains there. There is, however, a small collection of pictures.
See Magherini Graziani, _L'Arte a Città di Castello_ (1897).
CITTÀ VECCHIA, or CITTÀ NOTABILE, a fortified city of Malta, 7 m. W. of Valletta, with which it is connected by railway. Pop. (1901) 7515. It lies on high, sharply rising ground which affords a view of a large part of the island. It is the seat of a bishop, and contains an ornate cathedral, overthrown by an earthquake in 1693, but rebuilt, which is said by an acceptable tradition to occupy the site of the house of the governor Publius, who welcomed the apostle Paul. It contains some rich stalls of the 15th century and other objects of interest. In the rock beneath the city there are some remarkable catacombs in part of pre-Christian origin, but containing evidence of early Christian burial; and a grotto, reputed to have given shelter to the apostle, is pointed out below the church of San Paolo. Remains of Roman buildings have been excavated in the town. About 2 m. E. of the town is the residence of the English governor, known as the palace of S. Antonio; and at a like distance to the south is the ancient palace of the grand masters of the order of St John, with an extensive public garden called Il Boschetto. Città Vecchia was called Civitas Melita by the Romans and oldest writers, Medina (i.e. the city) by the Saracens, Notabile (_locale notabile, et insigne coronae regiae_, as it is called in a charter by Alphonso, 1428) under the Sicilian rule, and Città Vecchia (old city) by the knights. It was the capital of the island till its supersession by Valletta in 1570. (See also MALTA.)
CITTERN (also CITHERN, CITHRON, CYTHREN, CITHAREN, &c.; Fr. _citre, cistre, cithre, guitare allemande_ or _anglaise_; Ger. _Cither_, Zither (_mit Hals_, with neck); Ital. _cetera, cetra_), a medieval stringed instrument with a neck terminating in a grotesque and twanged by fingers or plectrum. The popularity of the cittern was at its height in England and Germany during the 16th and 17th centuries. The cittern consisted of a pear-shaped body similar to that of the lute but with a flat back and sound-board joined by ribs. The neck was provided with a fretted finger-board; the head was curved and surmounted by a grotesque head of a woman or of an animal.[1] The strings were of wire in pairs of unisons, known as courses, usually four in number in England. A peculiarity of the cittern lay in the tuning of the courses, the third course known as bass being lower than the fourth styled tenor.
According to Vincentio Galilei (the father of the great astronomer) England was the birthplace of the cittern.[2] Several lesson books for this popular instrument were published during the 17th century in England. A very rare book (of which the British Museum does not possess a copy), _The Cittharn Schoole_, written by Anthony Holborne in 1597, is mentioned in Sir P. Leycester's manuscript commonplace book[3] dated 1656, "For the little Instrument called a _Psittyrne_ Anthony Holborne and Tho. Robinson were most famous of any before them and have both of them set out a booke of Lessons for this Instrument. Holborne has composed a Basse-parte for the Viole to play unto the Psittyrne with those Lessons set out in his booke. These lived about Anno Domini 1600." Thomas Robinson's _New Citharen Lessons with perfect tunings for the same from Foure course of strings to Fourteene course_, &c. (printed London, 1609, by William Barley), contains illustrations of both kinds of instruments. The fourteen-course cittern was also known in England as _Bijuga_; the seven courses in pairs were stretched over the finger-board, and the seven single strings, fastened to the grotesque head, were stretched as in the lyre _à vide_ alongside the neck; all the strings rested on the one flat bridge near the tail-piece. Robinson gives instructions for learning to play the cittern and for reading the tablature. John Playford's _Musick's Delight on the Cithren_ (London, 1666) also contains illustrations of the instrument as well as of the viol da Gamba and Pochette; he claims to have revived the instrument and restored it to what it was in the reign of Queen Mary.
The cittern probably owed its popularity at this time to the ease with which it might be mastered and used to accompany the voice; it was one of four instruments generally found in barbers' shops, the others being the gittern, the lute and the virginals. The customers while waiting took down the instrument from its peg and played a merry tune to pass the time.[4] We read that when Konstantijn Huygens came over to England and was received by James I. at Bagshot, he played to the king on the cittern (cithara), and that his performance was duly appreciated and applauded. He tells us that, although he learnt to play the barbiton in a few weeks with skill, he had lessons from a master for two years on the cittern.[5] On the occasion of a third visit he witnessed the performance of some fine musicians and was astonished to hear a lady, mother of twelve, singing in divine fashion, accompanying herself on the cittern; one of these artists he calls Lanivius, the British Orpheus, whose performance was really enchanting.
Michael Praetorius[6] gives various tunings for the cittern as well as an illustration (sounded an octave higher than the notation).
During the 18th century the cittern, citra or English guitar, had twelve wire strings in six pairs of unisons tuned thus:
The introduction of the Spanish guitar, which at once leapt into favour, gradually displaced the English variety. The Spanish guitar had gut strings twanged by the fingers. The last development of the cittern before its disappearance was the addition of keys. The keyed cithara[7] was first made by Claus & Co. of London in 1783. The keys, six in number, were placed on the left of the sound-board, and on being depressed they acted on hammers inside the sound-chest, which rising through the rose sound-hole struck the strings. Sometimes the keys were placed in a little box right over the strings, the hammers striking from above. M.J.B. Vuillaume of Paris possessed an Italian cetera (not keyed) by Antoine Stradivarius,[8] 1700 (now in the Museum of the Conservatoire, Paris), with twelve strings tuned in pairs of unisons to E, D, G, B, C, A, which was exhibited in London in 1871.
The cittern of the 16th century was the result of certain transitions which took place during the evolution of the violin from the Greek kithara (see CITHARA).
_Genealogical Table of the Cittern._
Assyrian Ketharah Persian Rebab ____________|_____________ : | | : Persian and Arabic Greek Kithara Arab Rebab Kithara | : | | : Moorish Guitra, Roman Cithara European Rebec Cuitra or Guitarra or Fidicula : | : Cithara in transition or Rotta : ___________________________|________________________: | | | Cithara in transition Guitarra Latina _Cittern_ or Guitar or Vihuela de Mano | | Spanish Guitar Ghittern
The cittern has retained the following characteristics of the archetype. (1) The derivation of the name, which after the introduction of the bow was used to characterize various instruments whose strings were twanged by fingers or plectrum, such as the harp and the rotta (both known as _cithara_), the citola and the zither. In an interlinear Latin and Anglo-Saxon version of the Psalms, dated A.D. 700 (Brit. Mus., Vesp. A. 1), _cithara_ is translated _citran_, from which it is not difficult to trace the English _cithron, citteran, cittarn_, of the 16th century. (2) The construction of the sound-chest with flat back and sound-board connected by ribs. The pear-shaped outline was possibly borrowed from the Eastern instruments, both bowed as the rebab and twanged as the lute, so common all over Europe during the middle ages, or more probably derived from the _kithara_ of the Greeks of Asia Minor, which had the corners rounded. These early steps in the transition from the _cithara_ may be seen in the miniatures of the Utrecht Psalter,[9] a unique and much-copied Carolingian MS. executed at Reims (9th century), the illustrations of which were undoubtedly adapted from an earlier psalter from the Christian East. The instruments which remained true to the prototype in outline as well as in construction and in the derivation of the name were the ghittern and the guitar, so often confused with the cittern. It is evident that the kinship of cittern and guitar was formerly recognized, for during the 18th century, as stated above, the cittern was known as the English guitar to distinguish it from the Spanish guitar. The grotesque head, popularly considered the characteristic feature of the cittern, was probably added in the 12th century at a time when this style of decoration was very noticeable in other musical instruments, such as the cornet or _Zinck_, the _Platerspiel_, the chaunter of the bagpipe, &c. The cittern of the middle ages was also to be found in oval shape. From the 13th century representations of the pear-shaped instrument abound in miniatures and carvings.[10]
A very clearly drawn cittern of the 14th century occurs in a MS. treatise on astronomy (Sloane MS. 3983, Brit. Mus.) translated from the Persian of Albumazar into Latin by Georgius Zothari Zopari Fenduli, priest and philosopher, with a prologue and numerous illustrations by his own hand; the cittern is here called _giga_ in an inscription at the side of the drawing.
References to the cittern are plentiful in the literature of the 16th and 17th centuries. Robert Fludd[11] describes it thus: "Cistrona quae quatuor tantum chordas duplicatas habet easque cupreas et ferreas de quibus aliquid dicemus quo loco." Others are given in the _New English Dictionary_, "Cittern," and in Godefroy's _Dict. de l'anc. langue franç. du IXe au XVe siècle_. (K. S.)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] See Shakespeare, _Love's Labour's Lost_, act v. sc. 2, where Boyet compares the countenance of Holofernes to a cittern head; John Forde, _Lovers' Melancholy_ (1629), act ii. sc. 1, "Barbers shall wear thee on their citterns."
[2] _Dialogo della musica_ (Florence, 1581), p. 147.
[3] The musical extracts from the commonplace book were prepared by Dr Rimbault for the Early English Text Society. Holborne's work is mentioned in his _Bibliotheca Madrigaliana_. The descriptive list of the musical instruments in use in England during Leycester's lifetime (about 1656) has been extracted and published by Dr F.J. Furnivall, in _Captain Cox, his Ballads and Books, or Robert Laneham's Letter_ (1575), (London, 1871), pp. 65-68.
[4] See Knight's _London_, i. 142.
[5] See _De Vita propria sermonum inter liberos libri duo_ (Haarlem, 1817) and E. van der Straeten, _La Musique aux Pays-Bas_, ii. 348-35O.
[6] _Syntagma Musicum_ (1618). See also M. Mersenne, _Harmonie universelle_ (Paris, 1636), livre ii. prop. xv., who gives different accordances.
[7] See Carl Engel, _Catalogue_ of the Exhibition of Ancient Musical Instruments (London, 1872), Nos. 289 and 290.
[8] See note above. Illustration in A.J. Hipkins, _Musical Instruments; Historic, Rare and Unique_ (Edinburgh, 1888).
[9] For a résumé of the question of the origin of this famous psalter, and an inquiry into its bearing on the history of musical instruments with illustrations and facsimile reproductions, see Kathleen Schlesinger, _The Instruments of the Orchestra_, part ii. "The Precursors of the Violin Family," pp. 127-166 (London, 1908-1909).
[10] An oval cittern and a ghittern, side by side, occur in the beautiful 13th-century Spanish MS. known as _Cantigas de Santa Maria_ in the Escorial. For a fine facsimile in colours see marquis de Valmar, _Real. Acad. Esq._, publ. by L. Aguado (Madrid, 1889). Reproductions in black and white in Juan F. Riaño, _Critical and Bibliog. Notes on Early Spanish Music_ (London, 1887). See also K. Schlesinger, op. cit. fig. 167, p. 223, also boat-shaped citterns, figs. 155 and 156, p. 197. Cittern with woman's head, 15th century, on one of six bas-reliefs on the under parts of the seats of the choir of the Priory church, Great Malvern, reproduced in J. Carter's _Ancient Sculptures_, &c., vol. ii. pl. following p. 12. Another without a head, ibid. pl. following p. 16, from a brass monumental plate in St Margaret's, King's Lynn.
[11] _Historia utriusque Cosmi_ (Oppenheim, ed. 1617) i. 226.
CITY (through Fr. _cité_, from Lat. _civitas_). In the United Kingdom, strictly speaking, "city" is an honorary title, officially applied to those towns which, in virtue of some preeminence (e.g. as episcopal sees, or great industrial centres), have by traditional usage or royal charter acquired the right to the designation. In the United Kingdom the official style of "city" does not necessarily involve the possession of municipal power greater than those of the ordinary boroughs, nor indeed the possession of a corporation at all (e.g. Ely). In the United States and the British colonies, on the other hand, the official application of the term "city" depends on the kind and extent of the municipal privileges possessed by the corporations, and charters are given raising towns to the rank of cities. Both in France and England the word is used to distinguish the older and central nucleus of some of the large towns, e.g. the _Cité_ in Paris, and the "square mile" under the jurisdiction of the lord mayor which is the "City of London."
In common usage, however, the word implies no more than a somewhat vague idea of size and dignity, and is loosely applied to any large centre of population. Thus while, technically, the City of London is quite small, London is yet properly described as the largest city in the world. In the United States this use of the word is still more loose, and any town, whether technically a city or not, is usually so designated, with little regard to its actual size or importance.
It is clear from the above that the word "city" is incapable of any very clear and inclusive definition, and the attempt to show that historically it possesses a meaning that clearly differentiates it from "town" or "borough" has led to some controversy. As the translation of the Greek [Greek: polis] or Latin _civitas_ it involves the ancient conception of the state or "city-state," i.e. of the state as not too large to prevent its government through the body of the citizens assembled in the _agora_, and is applied not to the place but to the whole body politic. From this conception both the word and its dignified connotation are without doubt historically derived. On the occupation of Gaul the Gallic states and tribes were called _civitates_ by the Romans, and subsequently the name was confined to the chief towns of the various administrative districts. These were also the seats of the bishops. It is thus affirmed that in France from the 5th to the 15th century the name _civitas_ or _cité_ was confined to such towns as were episcopal sees, and Du Cange (_Gloss._ s.v. _civitas_) defines that word as _urbs episcopalis_, and states that other towns were termed _castra_ or _oppida_. How far any such distinction can be sharply drawn may be doubted. With regard to England no definite line can be drawn between those towns to which the name _civitas_ or _cité_ is given in medieval documents and those called _burgi_ or boroughs (see J.H. Round, _Feudal England_, p. 338; F.W. Maitland, _Domesday Book and After_, p. 183). It was, however, maintained by Coke and Blackstone that a city is a town incorporate which is or has been the see of a bishop. It is true, indeed, that the actual sees in England all have a formal right to the title; the boroughs erected into episcopal sees by Henry VIII. thereby became "cities"; but towns such as Thetford, Sherborne and Dorchester are never so designated, though they are regularly incorporated and were once episcopal sees. On the other hand, it has only been since the latter part of the 19th century that the official style of "city" has, in the United Kingdom, been conferred by royal authority on certain important towns which were not episcopal sees, Birmingham in 1889 being the first to be so distinguished. It is interesting to note that London, besides 27 boroughs, now contains two cities, one (the City of London) outside, the other (the City of Westminster) included in the administrative county.
For the history of the origin and development of modern city government see BOROUGH and COMMUNE: _Medieval_.
CIUDAD BOLÍVAR, an inland city and river port of Venezuela, capital of the state of Bolívar, on the right bank of the Orinoco river, 240 m. above its mouth. Pop. (1891) 11,686. It stands upon a small hill about 187 ft. above sea-level, and faces the river where it narrows to a width of less than half a mile. The city is largely built upon the hillside. It is the seat of the bishopric of Guayana (founded in 1790), and is the commercial centre of the great Orinoco basin. Among its noteworthy edifices are the cathedral, federal college, theatre, masonic temple, market, custom-house, and hospital. The mean temperature is 83°. The city has a public water-supply, a tramway line, telephone service, subfluvial cable communication with Soledad near the mouth of the Orinoco, where connexion is made with the national land lines, and regular steamship communication with the lower and upper Orinoco. Previous to the revolution of 1901-3 Ciudad Bolívar ranked fourth among the Venezuelan custom-houses, but the restrictions placed upon transit trade through West Indian ports have made her a dependency of the La Guaira custom-house to a large extent. The principal exports from this region include cattle, horses, mules, tobacco, cacáo, rubber, tonka beans, bitters, hides, timber and many valuable forest products. The town was founded by Mendoza in 1764 as San Tomás de la Nueva Guayana, but its location at this particular point on the river gave to it the popular name of _Angostura_, the Spanish term for "narrows." This name was used until 1849, when that of the Venezuelan liberator was bestowed upon it. Ciudad Bolívar played an important part in the struggle for independence and was for a time the headquarters of the revolution. The town suffered severely in the struggle for its possession, and the political disorders which followed greatly retarded its growth.
CIUDAD DE CURA, an inland town of the state of Aragua, Venezuela, 55 m. S.W. of Carácas, near the Lago de Valencia. Pop. (1891) 12,198. The town stands in a broad, fertile valley, between the sources of streams running southward to the Guárico river and northward to the lake, with an elevation above sea-level of 1598 ft. Traffic between Puerto Cabello and the Guárico plains has passed through this town since early colonial times, and has made it an important commercial centre, from which hides, cheese, coffee, cacao and beans are sent down to the coast for export; it bears a high reputation in Venezuela for commercial enterprise. Ciudad de Cura was founded in 1730, and suffered severely in the war of independence.
CIUDAD JUAREZ, formerly EL PASO DEL NORTE, a northern frontier town of Mexico, in the state of Chihuahua, 1223 m. by rail N.N.W. of Mexico City. Pop. (1895) 6917. Ciudad Juarez stands 3800 ft. above sea-level on the right bank of the Rio Grande del Norte, opposite the city of El Paso, Texas, with which it is connected by two bridges. It is the northern terminus of the Mexican Central railway, and has a large and increasing transit trade with the United States, having a custom-house and a United States consulate. It is also a military post with a small garrison. The town has a straggling picturesque appearance, a considerable part of the habitations being small adobe or brick cabins. In the fertile neighbouring district cattle are raised, and wheat, Indian corn, fruit and grapes are grown, wine and brandy being made. The town was founded in 1681-1682; its present importance is due entirely to the railway. It was the headquarters of President Juarez in 1865, and was renamed in 1885 because of its devotion to his cause.
CIUDAD PORFIRIO DIAZ, formerly PIEDRAS NEGRAS, a northern frontier town of Mexico in the state of Coahuila, 1008 m. N. by W. from Mexico City, on the Rio Grande del Norte, 720 ft. above sea-level, opposite the town of Eagle Pass, Texas. Pop. (1900, estimate) 5000. An international bridge connects the two towns, and the Mexican International railway has its northern terminus in Mexico at this point. The town has an important transfer trade with the United States, and is the centre of a fertile district devoted to agriculture and stock-raising. Coal is found in the vicinity. The Mexican government maintains a custom-house and military post here. The town was founded in 1849.
CIUDAD REAL, a province of central Spain, formed in 1833 of districts taken from New Castile, and bounded on the N. by Toledo, E. by Albacete, S. by Jaen and Cordova and W. by Badajoz. Pop. (1900) 321,580; area, 7620 sq. m. The surface of Ciudad Real consists chiefly of a level or slightly undulating plain, with low hills in the north-east and south-west; but along the south-western frontier the Sierra de Alcudia rises in two parallel ridges on either side of the river Alcudia, and is continued in the Sierra Madrona on the east. The river Guadiana drains almost the entire province, which it traverses from east to west; only the southernmost districts being watered by tributaries of the Guadalquivir. Numerous smaller streams flow into the Guadiana, which itself divides near Herencia into two branches,--the northern known as the Giguela, the southern as the Zancara. The eastern division of Ciudad Real forms part of the region known as La Mancha, a flat, thinly-peopled plain, clothed with meagre vegetation which is often ravaged by locusts. La Mancha (q.v.) is sometimes regarded as coextensive with the whole province. Severe drought is common here, although some of the rivers, such as the Jabalon and Azuer, issue fully formed from the chalky soil, and from their very sources give an abundant supply of water to the numerous mills. Towards the west, where the land is higher, there are considerable tracts of forest.
The climate is oppressively hot in summer, and in winter the plains are exposed to violent and bitterly cold winds; while the cultivation of grain, the vine and the olive is further impeded by the want of proper irrigation, and the general barrenness of the soil. Large flocks of sheep and goats find pasture in the plains; and the swine which are kept in the oak and beech forests furnish bacon and hams of excellent quality. Coal is mined chiefly at Puertollano, lead in various districts, mercury at Almadén. There are no great manufacturing towns. The roads are insufficient and ill-kept, especially in the north-east where they form the sole means of communication; and neither the Guadiana nor its tributaries are navigable. The main railway from Madrid to Lisbon passes through the capital, Ciudad Real, and through Puertollano; farther east, the Madrid-Lináres line passes through Manzanares and Valdepeñas. Branch railways also connect the capital with Manzanares, and Valdepeñas with the neighbouring town of La Calzada.
The principal towns, Alcázar de San Juan (11,499), Almadén (7375), Almodóvar del Campo (12,525), Ciudad Real (15,255), Manzanares (11,229) and Valdepeñas (21,015), are described in separate articles. Almagro (7974) and Daimiel (11,825), in the district of La Mancha known as the Campo de Calatrava, belonged in the later middle ages to the knightly Order of Calatrava, which was founded in 1158 to keep the Moors in check. Almagro was long almost exclusively inhabited by monks and knights, and contains several interesting churches and monasteries, besides the castle of the knights, now used as barracks. Almagro is further celebrated for its lace, Daimiel for its medicinal salts. Tomelloso (13,929) is one of the chief market towns of La Mancha. Education is very backward, largely owing to the extreme poverty which has frequently brought the inhabitants to the verge of famine. (See also CASTILE.)
CIUDAD REAL, the capital formerly of La Mancha, and since 1833 of the province described above; 107 m. S. of Madrid, on the Madrid-Badajoz-Lisbon and Ciudad Real-Manzanares railways. Pop. (1900) 15,255. Ciudad Real lies in the midst of a wide plain, watered on the north by the river Guadiana, and on the south by its tributary the Jabalon. Apart from the remnants of its 13th-century fortifications, and one Gothic church of immense size, built without aisles, the town contains little of interest; its public buildings--town-hall, barracks, churches, hospital and schools--being in no way distinguished above those of other provincial capitals. There are no important local manufactures, and the trade of the town consists chiefly in the weekly sales of agricultrural produce and live-stock. Ciudad Real was founded by Alphonso X. of Castile (1252-1284), and fortified by him as a check upon the Moorish power. Its original name of _Villarreal_ was changed to _Ciudad Real_ by John VI. in 1420. During the Peninsular War a Spanish force was defeated here by the French, on the 27th of March 1809.
CIUDAD RODRIGO, a town of western Spain, in the province of Salamanca, situated 8 m. E. of the Portuguese frontier, on the right bank of the river Agueda, and the railway from Salamanca to Coimbra in Portugal. Pop. (1900) 8930. Ciudad Rodrigo is an episcopal see, and was for many centuries an important frontier fortress. Its cathedral dates from 1190, but was restored in the 15th century. The remnants of a Roman aqueduct, the foundations of a bridge across the Agueda, and other remains, seem to show that Ciudad Rodrigo occupies the site of a Roman settlement. It was founded in the 12th century by Count Rodrigo Gonzalez, from whom its name is derived. During the Peninsular War, it was captured by the French under Marshal Ney, in 1810; but on the 19th of January 1812 it was retaken by the British under Viscount Wellington, who, for this exploit, was created earl of Wellington, duke of Ciudad Rodrigo, and marquess of Torres Vedras, in Portugal.
CIVERCHIO, VINCENZO, an early 16th-century Italian painter, born at Crema. There are altar-pieces by him at Brescia, and at Crema the altar-piece at the duomo (1509). His "Birth of Christ" is in the Brera, Milan; and at Lovere are other of his works dating from 1539 and 1540.
CIVET, or properly CIVET-CAT, the designation of the more typical representatives of the mammalian family _Viverridae_ (see CARNIVORA). Civets are characterized by the possession of a deep pouch in the neighbourhood of the genital organs, into which the substance known as civet is poured from the glands by which it is secreted. This fatty substance is at first semifluid and yellow, but afterwards acquires the consistency of pomade and becomes darker. It has a strong musky odour, exceedingly disagreeable to those unaccustomed to it, but "when properly diluted and combined with other scents it produces a very pleasing effect, and possesses a much more floral fragrance than musk, indeed it would be impossible to imitate some flowers without it." The African civet (_Viverra civetta_) is from 2 to 3 ft. in length, exclusive of the tail, which is half the length of the body, and stands from 10 to 12 in. high. It is covered with long hair, longest on the middle line of the back, where it is capable of being raised or depressed at will, of a dark-grey colour, with numerous transverse black bands and spots. In habits it is chiefly nocturnal, and by preference carnivorous, feeding on birds and the smaller quadrupeds, in pursuit of which it climbs trees, but it is said also to eat fruits, roots and other vegetable matters. In a state of captivity the civet is never completely tamed, and only kept for the sake of its perfume, which is obtained in largest quantity from the male, especially when in good condition and subjected to irritation, being scraped from the pouch with a small spoon usually twice a week. The zibeth (_Viverra zibetha_) is a widely distributed species extending from Arabia to Malabar, and throughout several of the larger islands of the Indian Archipelago. It is smaller than the true civet, and wants the dorsal crest. In the wild state it does great damage among poultry, and frequently makes off with the young of swine and sheep. When hunted it makes a determined resistance, and emits a scent so strong as even to sicken the dogs, who nevertheless are exceedingly fond of the sport, and cannot be got to pursue any other game while the stench of the zibeth is in their nostrils. In confinement, it becomes comparatively tame, and yields civet in considerable quantity. In preparing this for the market it is usually spread out on the leaves of the pepper plant in order to free it from the hairs that have become detached from the pouch. On the Malabar coast this species is replaced by _V. civettina_. The small Indian civet or rasse (_Viverricula malaccensis_) ranges from Madagascar through India to China, the Malay Peninsula, and the islands of the Archipelago. It is almost 3 ft. long including the tail, and prettily marked with dark longitudinal stripes, and spots which have a distinctly linear arrangement. The perfume, which is extracted in the same way as in the two preceding species, is highly valued and much used by the Javanese. Although this animal is said to be an expert climber it usually inhabits holes in the ground. It is frequently kept in captivity in the East, and becomes tame. Fossil remains of extinct civets are found in the Miocene strata of Europe.
CIVIDALE DEL FRIULI (anc. _Forum Iulii_), a town of Venetia, Italy, in the province of Udine, 10 m. E. by N. by rail from the town of Udine; 453 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1001) town, 4143; commune, 9061. It is situated on the river Natisone, which forms a picturesque ravine here. It contains some interesting relics of the art of the 8th century. The cathedral of the 15th century contains an octagonal marble canopy with sculptures in relief, with a font below it belonging to the 8th century, but altered later. The high altar has a fine silver altar front of 1185. The museum contains various Roman and Lombard antiquities, and valuable MSS. and works of art in gold, silver and ivory formerly belonging to the cathedral chapter. The small church of S. Maria in Valle belongs to the 8th century, and contains fine decorations in stucco which probably belong to the 11th or 12th century. The fine 15th-century Ponte del Diavolo leads to the church of S. Martino, which contains an altar of the 8th century with reliefs executed by order of the Lombard king Ratchis. At Cividale were born Paulus Diaconus, the historian of the Lombards in the time of Charlemagne, and the actress Adelaide Ristori (1822-1906).
The Roman town (a _municipium_) of Forum Iulii was founded either by Julius Caesar or by Augustus, no doubt at the same time as the construction of the Via Iulia Augusta, which passed through Utina (Udine) on its way north. After the decay of Aquileia and Iulium Carnicum (Zuglio) it became the chief town of the district of Friuli and gave its name to it. The patriarchs of Aquileia resided here from 773 to 1031, when they returned to Aquileia, and finally in 1238 removed to Udine. This last change of residence was the origin of the antagonism between Cividale and Udine, which was only terminated by their surrender to Venice in 1419 and 1420 respectively.
CIVILIS, CLAUDIUS, or more correctly, JULIUS, leader of the Batavian revolt against Rome (A.D. 69-70). He was twice imprisoned on a charge of rebellion, and narrowly escaped execution. During the disturbances that followed the death of Nero, he took up arms under pretence of siding with Vespasian and induced the inhabitants of his native country to rebel. The Batavians, who had rendered valuable aid under the early emperors, had been well treated in order to attach them to the cause of Rome. They were exempt from tribute, but were obliged to supply a large number of men for the army, and the burden of conscription and the oppressions of provincial governors were important incentives to revolt. The Batavians were immediately joined by several neighbouring German tribes, the most important of whom were the Frisians. The Roman garrisons near the Rhine were driven out, and twenty-four ships captured. Two legions under Mummius Lupercus were defeated at Castra Vetera (near the modern Xanten) and surrounded. Eight cohorts of Batavian veterans joined their countrymen, and the troops sent by Vespasian to the relief of Vetera threw in their lot with them. The result of these accessions to the forces of Civilis was a rising in Gaul. Hordeonius Flaccus was murdered by his troops (70), and the whole of the Roman forces were induced by two commanders of the Gallic auxiliaries--Julius Classicus and Julius Tutor--to revolt from Rome and join Civilis. The whole of Gaul thus practically declared itself independent, and the foundation of a new kingdom of Gaul was contemplated. The prophetess Velleda predicted the complete success of Civilis and the fall of the Roman Empire. But disputes broke out amongst the different tribes and rendered co-operation impossible; Vespasian, having successfully ended the civil war, called upon Civilis to lay down his arms, and on his refusal resolved to take strong measures for the suppression of the revolt. The arrival of Petillius Cerialis with a strong force awed the Gauls and mutinous troops into submission; Civilis was defeated at Augusta Treverorum (Trier, Trèves) and Vetera, and forced to withdraw to the island of the Batavians. He finally came to an agreement with Cerialis whereby his countrymen obtained certain advantages, and resumed amicable relations with Rome. From this time Civilis disappears from history.
The chief authority for the history of the insurrection is Tacitus, _Historiae_, iv., v., whose account breaks off at the beginning of Civilis's speech to Cerialis; see also Josephus, _Bellum Judaicum_, vii. 4. There is a monograph by E. Meyer, _Der Freiheitskrieg der Bataver unter Civilis_ (1856); see also Merivale, _Hist. of the Romans under the Empire_, ch. 58; H. Schiller, _Geschichte der römischen Kaiserzeit_, bk. ii. ch. 2, § 54 (1883).
CIVILIZATION. The word "civilization" is an obvious derivative of the Lat. _civis_, a citizen, and _civilis_, pertaining to a citizen. Etymologically speaking, then, it would be putting no undue strain upon the word to interpret it as having to do with the entire period of human progress since mankind attained sufficient intelligence and social unity to develop a system of government. But in practice "civilization" is usually interpreted in a somewhat narrower sense, as having application solely to the most recent and comparatively brief period of time that has elapsed since the most highly developed races of men have used systems of writing. This restricted usage is probably explicable, in part at least, by the fact that the word, though distinctly modern in origin, is nevertheless older than the interpretation of social evolution that now finds universal acceptance. Only very recently has it come to be understood that primitive societies vastly antedating the historical period had attained relatively high stages of development and fixity, socially and politically. Now that this is understood, however, nothing but an arbitrary and highly inconvenient restriction of meanings can prevent us from speaking of the citizens of these early societies as having attained certain stages of civilization. It will be convenient, then, in outlining the successive stages of human progress here, to include under the comprehensive term "civilization" those long earlier periods of "savagery" and "barbarism" as well as the more recent period of higher development to which the word "civilization" is sometimes restricted.
Savagery and barbarism.
Adequate proof that civilization as we now know it is the result of a long, slow process of evolution was put forward not long after the middle of the 19th century by the students of palaeontology and of prehistoric archaeology. A recognition of the fact that primitive man used implements of chipped flint, of polished stone, and of the softer metals for successive ages, before he attained a degree of technical skill and knowledge that would enable him to smelt iron, led the Danish archaeologists to classify the stages of human progress under these captions: the Rough Stone Age; the Age of Polished Stone; the Age of Bronze; and the Age of Iron. These terms acquired almost universal recognition, and they retain popularity as affording a very broad outline of the story of human progress. It is obviously desirable, however, to fill in the outlines of the story more in detail. To some extent it has been possible to do so, largely through the efforts of ethnologists who have studied the social conditions of existing races of savages. A recognition of the principle that, broadly speaking, progress has everywhere been achieved along the same lines and through the same sequence of changes, makes it possible to interpret the past history of the civilized races of to-day in the light of the present-day conditions of other races that are still existing under social and political conditions of a more primitive type. Such races as the Maoris and the American Indians have furnished invaluable information to the student of social evolution; and the knowledge thus gained has been extended and fortified by the ever-expanding researches of the palaeontologist and archaeologist.
Thus it has become possible to present with some confidence a picture showing the successive stages of human development during the long dark period when our prehistoric ancestor was advancing along the toilsome and tortuous but on the whole always uprising path from lowest savagery to the stage of relative enlightenment at which we find him at the so-called "dawnings of history." That he was for long ages a savage before he attained sufficient culture to be termed, in modern phraseology, a barbarian, admits of no question. Equally little in doubt is it that other long ages of barbarism preceded the final ascent to civilization. The precise period of time covered by these successive "Ages" is of course only conjectural; but something like one hundred thousand years may perhaps be taken as a safe minimal estimate. At the beginning of this long period, the most advanced race of men must be thought of as a promiscuous company of pre-troglodytic mammals, at least partially arboreal in habit, living on uncooked fruits and vegetables, and possessed of no arts and crafts whatever--nor even of the knowledge of the rudest implement. At the end of the period, there emerges into the more or less clear light of history a large-brained being, living in houses of elaborate construction, supplying himself with divers luxuries through the aid of a multitude of elaborate handicrafts, associated with his fellows under the sway of highly organized governments, and satisfying aesthetic needs through the practice of pictorial and literary arts of a high order. How was this amazing transformation brought about?
Crucial developments.
If an answer can be found to that query, we shall have a clue to all human progress, not only during the prehistoric but also during the historic periods; for we may well believe that recent progress has not departed from the scheme of development impressed on humanity during that long apprenticeship. Ethnologists believe that an answer can be found. They believe that the metamorphosis from beast-like savage to cultured civilian may be proximally explained (certain potentialities and attributes of the species being taken for granted) as the result of accumulated changes that found their initial impulses in a half-dozen or so of practical inventions. Stated thus, the explanation seems absurdly simple. Confessedly it supplies only a proximal, not a final, analysis of the forces impelling mankind along the pathway of progress. But it has the merit of tangibility; it presents certain highly important facts of human history vividly: and it furnishes a definite and fairly satisfactory basis for marking successive stages of incipient civilization.
In outlining the story of primitive man's advancement, upon such a basis, we may follow the scheme of one of the most philosophical of ethnologists, Lewis H. Morgan, who made a provisional analysis of the prehistoric period that still remains among the most satisfactory attempts in this direction. Morgan divides the entire epoch of man's progress from bestiality to civilization into six successive periods, which he names respectively the Older, Middle and Later periods of Savagery, and the Older, Middle and Later periods of Barbarism.
Speech.
The first of these periods, when mankind was in the lower status of savagery, comprises the epoch when articulate speech was being developed. Our ancestors of this epoch inhabited a necessarily restricted tropical territory, and subsisted upon raw nuts and fruits. They had no knowledge of the uses of fire. All existing races of men had advanced beyond this condition before the opening of the historical period.
Fire.
The Middle Period of Savagery began with a knowledge of the uses of fire. This wonderful discovery enabled the developing race to extend its habitat almost indefinitely, and to include flesh, and in particular fish, in its regular dietary. Man could now leave the forests, and wander along the shores and rivers, migrating to climates less enervating than those to which he had previously been confined. Doubtless he became an expert fisher, but he was as yet poorly equipped for hunting, being provided, probably, with no weapon more formidable than a crude hatchet and a roughly fashioned spear. The primitive races of Australia and Polynesia had not advanced beyond this middle status of savagery when they were discovered a few generations ago. It is obvious, then, that in dealing with the further progress of nascent civilization we have to do with certain favoured portions of the race, which sought out new territories and developed new capacities while many tribes of their quondam peers remained static and hence by comparison seemed to retrograde.
Bow and arrow.
The next great epochal discovery, in virtue of which a portion of the race advanced to the Upper Status of Savagery, was that of the bow and arrow,--a truly wonderful implement. The possessor of this device could bring down the fleetest animal and could defend himself against the most predatory. He could provide himself not only with food but with materials for clothing and for tent-making, and thus could migrate at will back from the seas and large rivers, and far into inhospitable but invigorating temperate and sub-Arctic regions. The meat diet, now for the first time freely available, probably contributed, along with the stimulating climate, to increase the physical vigour and courage of this highest savage, thus urging him along the paths of progress. Nevertheless many tribes came thus far and no further, as witness the Athapascans of the Hudson's Bay Territory and the Indians of the valley of the Columbia.
Pottery.
We now come to the marvellous discovery that enabled our ancestor to make such advances upon the social conditions of his forbears as to entitle him, in the estimate of his remote descendants, to be considered as putting savagery behind him and as entering upon the Lower Status of Barbarism. The discovery in question had to do with the practice of the art of making pottery (see CERAMICS). Hitherto man had been possessed of no permanent utensils that could withstand the action of fire. He could not readily boil water except by some such cumbersome method as the dropping of heated stones into a wooden or skin receptacle. The effect upon his dietary of having at hand earthen vessels in which meat and herbs could be boiled over a fire must have been momentous. Various meats and many vegetables become highly palatable when boiled that are almost or quite inedible when merely roasted before a fire. Bones, sinews and even hides may be made to give up a modicum of nutriment in this way; and doubtless barbaric man, before whom starvation always loomed threateningly, found the crude pot an almost perennial refuge. And of course its use as a cooking utensil was only one of many ways in which the newly discovered mechanism exerted a civilizing influence.
Domestic animals.
The next great progressive movement, which carried man into the Middle Status of Barbarism, is associated with the domestication of animals in the Eastern hemisphere, and with the use of irrigation in cultivating the soil and of adobe bricks and stone in architecture in the Western hemisphere. The dog was probably the first animal to be domesticated, but the sheep, the ox, the camel and the horse were doubtless added in relatively rapid succession, so soon as the idea that captive animals could be of service had been clearly conceived. Man now became a herdsman, no longer dependent for food upon the precarious chase of wild animals. Milk, procurable at all seasons, made a highly important addition to his dietary. With the aid of camel and horse he could traverse wide areas hitherto impassable, and come in contact with distant peoples. Thus commerce came to play an extended rôle in the dissemination of both commodities and ideas. In particular the nascent civilization of the Mediterranean region fell heir to numerous products of farther Asia,--gums, spices, oils, and most important of all, the cereals. The cultivation of the latter gave the finishing touch to a comprehensive and varied diet, while emphasizing the value of a fixed abode. For the first time it now became possible for large numbers of people to form localized communities. A natural consequence was the elaboration of political systems, which, however, proceeded along lines already suggested by the experience of earlier epochs. All this tended to establish and emphasize the idea of nationality, based primarily on blood-relationship; and at the same time to develop within the community itself the idea of property,--that is to say, of valuable or desirable commodities which have come into the possession of an individual through his enterprise or labour, and which should therefore be subject to his voluntary disposal. At an earlier stage of development, all property had been of communal, not of individual, ownership. It appears, then, that our mid-period barbarian had attained--if the verbal contradiction be permitted--a relatively high stage of civilization.
Iron.
There remained, however, one master craft of which he had no conception. This was the art of smelting iron. When, ultimately, his descendants learned the wonderful secrets of that art, they rose in consequence to the Upper Status of Barbarism. This culminating practical invention, it will be observed, is the first of the great discoveries with which we have to do that was not primarily concerned with the question of man's food supply. Iron, to be sure, has abundant uses in the same connexion, but its most direct and obvious utilities have to do with weapons of war and with implements calculated to promote such arts of peace as house-building, road-making and the construction of vehicles. Wood and stone could now be fashioned as never before. Houses could be built and cities walled with unexampled facility; to say nothing of the making of a multitude of minor implements and utensils hitherto quite unknown, or at best rare and costly. Nor must we overlook the aesthetic influence of edged implements, with which wood and stone could readily be sculptured when placed in the hands of a race that had long been accustomed to scratch the semblance of living forms on bone or ivory and to fashion crude images of clay. In a word, man, the "tool-making animal," was now for the first time provided with tools worthy of his wonderful hands and yet more wonderful brain.
Thus through the application of one revolutionary invention after another, the most advanced races of men had arrived, after long ages of effort, at a relatively high stage of development. A very wide range of experiences had enabled man to evolve a complex body politic, based on a fairly secure social basis, and his brain had correspondingly developed into a relatively efficient and stable organ of thought. But as yet he had devised no means of communicating freely with other people at a distance except through the medium of verbal messages; nor had he any method by which he could transmit his experiences to posterity more securely than by fugitive and fallible oral traditions. A vague symbolization of his achievements was preserved from generation to generation in myth-tale and epic, but he knew not how to make permanent record of his history. Until he could devise a means to make such record, he must remain, in the estimate of his descendants, a barbarian, though he might be admitted to have become a highly organized and even in a broad sense a cultured being.
Writing.
At length, however, this last barrier was broken. Some race or races devised a method of symbolizing events and ultimately of making even abstruse ideas tangible by means of graphic signs. In other words, a system of writing was developed. Man thus achieved a virtual conquest over time as he had earlier conquered space. He could now transmit the record of his deeds and his thoughts to remote posterity. Thus he stood at the portals of what later generations would term secure history. He had graduated out of barbarism, and become in the narrower sense of the word a civilized being. Henceforth, his knowledge, his poetical dreamings, his moral aspirations might be recorded in such form as to be read not merely by his contemporaries but by successive generations of remote posterity. The inspiring character of such a message is obvious. The validity of making this great culminating intellectual achievement the test of "civilized" existence need not be denied. But we should ill comprehend the character of the message which the earlier generations of civilized beings transmit to us from the period which we term the "dawning of history" did we not bear constantly in mind the long series of progressive stages of "savagery" and "barbarism" that of necessity preceded the final stage of "civilization" proper. The achievements of those earlier stages afforded the secure foundation for the progress of the future. A multitude of minor arts, in addition to the important ones just outlined, had been developed; and for a long time civilized man was to make no other epochal addition to the list of accomplishments that came to him as a heritage from his barbaric progenitor. Indeed, even to this day the list of such additions is not a long one, nor, judged in the relative scale, so important as might at first thought be supposed. Whoever considers the subject carefully must admit the force of Morgan's suggestion that man's achievements as a barbarian, considered in their relation to the sum of human progress, "transcend, in relative importance, all his subsequent works."
Without insisting on this comparison, however, let us ask what discoveries and inventions man has made within the historical period that may fairly be ranked with the half-dozen great epochal achievements that have been put forward as furnishing the keys to all the progress of the prehistoric periods. In other words, let us sketch the history of progress during the ten thousand years or so that have elapsed since man learned the art of writing, adapting our sketch to the same scale which we have already applied to the unnumbered millenniums of the prehistoric period. The view of world-history thus outlined will be a very different one from what might be expected by the student of national history; but it will present the essentials of the progress of civilization in a suggestive light.
Civilization proper.
Without pretending to fix an exact date,--which the historical records do not at present permit,--we may assume that the most advanced race of men elaborated a system of writing not less than six thousand years before the beginning of the Christian era. Holding to the terminology already suggested for the earlier periods, we may speak of man's position during the ensuing generations as that of the First or Lowest Status of civilization. If we review the history of this period we shall find that it extends unbroken over a stretch of at least four or five thousand years. During the early part of this period such localized civilizations as those of the Egyptians, the Sumerians, the Babylonians and the Hittites rose, grew strong and passed beyond their meridian. This suggests that we must now admit the word "civilization" to yet another definition, within its larger meaning: we must speak of "_a_ civilization," as that of Egypt, of Babylonia, of Assyria, and we must understand thereby a localized phase of society bearing the same relation to civilization as a whole that a wave bears to the ocean or a tree to the forest. Such other localized civilizations as those of Phoenicia, Carthage, Greece, Rome, Byzantium, the Sassanids, in due course waxed and waned, leaving a tremendous imprint on national history, but creating only minor and transitory ripples in the great ocean of civilization. Progress in the elaboration of the details of earlier methods and inventions took place as a matter of course. Some nation, probably the Phoenicians, gave a new impetus to the art of writing by developing a phonetic alphabet; but this achievement, remarkable as it was in itself, added nothing fundamental to human capacity. Literatures had previously flourished through the use of hieroglyphic and syllabic symbols; and the Babylonian syllabics continued in vogue throughout western Asia for a long time after the Phoenician alphabet had demonstrated its intrinsic superiority.
Similarly the art of Egyptian and Assyrian and Greek was but the elaboration and perfection of methods that barbaric man had practised away back in the days when he was a cave-dweller. The weapons of warfare of Greek and Roman were the spear and the bow and arrow that their ancestors had used in the period of savagery, aided by sword and helmet dating from the upper period of barbarism. Greek and Roman government at their best were founded upon the system of _gentes_ that barbaric man had profoundly studied,--as witness, for example, the federal system of the barbaric Iroquois Indians existing in America before the coming of Columbus. And if the Greeks had better literature, the Romans better roads and larger cities, than their predecessors, these are but matters of detailed development, the like of which had marked the progress of the more important arts and the introduction of less important ancillary ones in each antecedent period. The axe of steel is no new implement, but a mere perfecting of the axe of chipped flint. The _Iliad_ represents the perfecting of an art that unnumbered generations of barbarians practised before their camp-fires.
Great inventions of the middle ages.
Thus for six or seven thousand years after man achieved civilization there was rhythmic progress in many lines, but there came no great epochal invention to usher in a new ethnic period. Then, towards the close of what historians of to-day are accustomed to call the middle ages, there appeared in rapid sequence three or four inventions and a great scientific discovery that, taken together, were destined to change the entire aspect of European civilization. The inventions were gunpowder, the mariner's compass, paper and the printing-press, three of which appear to have been brought into Europe by the Moors, whether or not they originated in the remote East. The scientific discovery which must be coupled with these inventions was the Copernican demonstration that the sun and not the earth is the centre of our planetary system. The generations of men that found themselves (1) confronted with the revolutionary conception of the universe given by the Copernican theory; (2) supplied with the new means of warfare provided by gunpowder; (3) equipped with an undreamed-of guide across the waters of the earth; and (4) enabled to promulgate knowledge with unexampled speed and cheapness through the aid of paper and printing-press--such generations of men might well be said to have entered upon a new ethnic period. The transition in their mode of thought and in their methods of practical life was as great as can be supposed to have resulted, in an early generation, from the introduction of iron, or in a yet earlier from the invention of the bow and arrow. So the Europeans of about the 15th century of the Christian era may be said to have entered upon the Second or Middle Status of civilization.
Steam machinery.
The new period was destined to be a brief one. It had compassed only about four hundred years when, towards the close of the 18th century, James Watt gave to the world the perfected steam-engine. Almost contemporaneously Arkwright and Hargreaves developed revolutionary processes of spinning and weaving by machinery. Meantime James Hutton and William Smith and their successors on the one hand, and Erasmus Darwin, François Lamarck, and (a half-century later) Charles Darwin on the other, turned men's ideas topsy-turvy by demonstrating that the world as the abiding-place of animals and man is enormously old, and that man himself instead of deteriorating from a single perfect pair six thousand years removed, has ascended from bestiality through a slow process of evolution extending over hundreds of centuries. The revolution in practical life and in the mental life of our race that followed these inventions and this new presentation of truth probably exceeded in suddenness and in its far-reaching effects the metamorphosis effected at any previous transition from one ethnic period to another. The men of the 19th century, living now in the period that may be termed the Upper Status of civilization, saw such changes effected in the practical affairs of their everyday lives as had not been wrought before during the entire historical period. Their fathers had travelled in vehicles drawn by horses, quite as their remoter ancestors had done since the time of higher barbarism. It may be doubted whether there existed in the world in the year 1800 a postal service that could compare in speed and efficiency with the express service of the Romans of the time of Caesar; far less was there a telegraph service that could compare with that of the ancient Persians. Nor was there a ship sailing the seas that a Phoenician trireme might not have overhauled. But now within the lifetime of a single man the world was covered with a network of steel rails on which locomotives drew gigantic vehicles, laden with passengers at an hourly speed almost equalling Caesar's best journey of a day; over the land and under the seas were stretched wires along which messages coursed from continent to continent literally with the speed of lightning; and the waters of the earth were made to teem with gigantic craft propelled without sail or oar at a speed which the Phoenician captain of three thousand years ago and the English captain of the 18th century would alike have held incredible.
Social and political organization.
There is no need to give further details here of the industrial revolutions that have been achieved in this newest period of civilization, since in their broader outlines at least they are familiar to every one. Nor need we dwell upon the revolution in thought whereby man has for the first time been given a clear inkling as to his origin and destiny. It suffices to point out that such periods of fermentation of ideas as this suggests have probably always been concomitant with those outbursts of creative genius that gave the world the practical inventions upon which human progress has been conditioned. The same attitude of receptivity to new ideas is pre-requisite to one form of discovery as to the other. Nor, it may be added, can either form of idea become effective for the progress of civilization except in proportion as a large body of any given generation are prepared to receive it. Doubtless here and there a dreamer played with fire, in a literal sense, for generations before the utility of fire as a practical aid to human progress came to be recognized in practice. And--to seek an illustration at the other end of the scale--we know that the advanced thinkers of Greece and Rome believed in the antiquity of the earth and in the evolution of man two thousand years before the coming of Darwin. We have but partly solved the mysteries of the progress of civilization, then, when we have pointed out that each tangible stage of progress owed its initiative to a new invention or discovery of science. To go to the root of the matter we must needs explain how it came about that a given generation of men was in mental mood to receive the new invention or discovery.
The pursuit of this question would carry us farther into the realm of communal and racial psychology--to say nothing of the realm of conjecture--than comports with the purpose of this article. It must suffice to point out that alertness of mind--that all mentality--is, in the last analysis, a reaction to the influences of the environment. It follows that man may subject himself to new influences and thus give his mind a new stimulus by changing his habitat. A fundamental secret of progress is revealed in this fact. Man probably never would have evolved from savagery had he remained in the Tropics where he doubtless originated. But successive scientific inventions enabled him, as has been suggested, to migrate to distant latitudes, and thus more or less involuntarily to become the recipient of new creative and progressive impulses. After migrations in many directions had resulted in the development of divers races, each with certain capacities and acquirements due to its unique environment, there was opportunity for the application of the principle of environmental stimulus in an indirect way, through the mingling and physical intermixture of one race with another. Each of the great localized civilizations of antiquity appears to have owed its prominence in part at least--perhaps very largely--to such intermingling of two or more races. Each of these civilizations began to decay so soon as the nation had remained for a considerable number of generations in its localized environment, and had practically ceased to receive accretions from distant races at approximately the same stage of development. There is a suggestive lesson for present-day civilization in that thought-compelling fact. Further evidence of the application of the principle of environmental stimulus, operating through changed habitat and racial intermixture, is furnished by the virility of the colonial peoples of our own day. The receptiveness to new ideas and the rapidity of material progress of Americans, South Africans and Australians are proverbial. No one doubts, probably, that one or another of these countries will give a new stimulus to the progress of civilization, through the promulgation of some great epochal discovery, in the not distant future. Again, the value of racial intermingling is shown yet nearer home in the long-continued vitality of the British nation, which is explicable, in some measure at least, by the fact that the Celtic element held aloof from the Anglo-Saxon element century after century sufficiently to maintain racial integrity, yet mingled sufficiently to give and receive the fresh stimulus of "new blood." It is interesting in this connexion to examine the map of Great Britain with reference to the birthplaces of the men named above as being the originators of the inventions and discoveries that made the close of the 18th century memorable as ushering in a new ethnic era. It may be added that these names suggest yet another element in the causation of progress: the fact, namely, that, however necessary racial receptivity may be to the dynamitic upheaval of a new ethnic era, it is after all _individual_ genius that applies its detonating spark.
Nine periods of progress.
Without further elaboration of this aspect of the subject it may be useful to recapitulate the analysis of the evolution of civilization above given, prior to characterizing it from another standpoint. It appears that the entire period of human progress up to the present may be divided into nine periods which, if of necessity more or less arbitrary, yet are not without certain warrant of logic. They may be defined as follows: (1) The Lower Period of Savagery, terminating with the discovery and application of the uses of fire. (2) The Middle Period of Savagery, terminating with the invention of the bow and arrow. (3) The Upper Period of Savagery, terminating with the invention of pottery. (4) The Lower Period of Barbarism, terminating with the domestication of animals. (5) The Middle Period of Barbarism, terminating with the discovery of the process of smelting iron ore. (6) The Upper Period of Barbarism, terminating with the development of a system of writing meeting the requirements of literary composition. (7) The First Period of Civilization (proper) terminating with the introduction of gunpowder. (8) The Second Period of Civilization, terminating with the invention of a practical steam-engine. (9) The Upper Period of Civilization, which is still in progress, but which, as will be suggested in a moment, is probably nearing its termination.
It requires but a glance at the characteristics of these successive epochs to show the ever-increasing complexity of the inventions that delimit them and of the conditions of life that they connote. Were we to attempt to characterize in a few phrases the entire story of achievement thus outlined, we might say that during the three stages of Savagery man was attempting to make himself master of the geographical climates. His unconscious ideal was, to gain a foothold and the means of subsistence in every zone. During the three periods of Barbarism the ideal of conquest was extended to the beasts of the field, the vegetable world, and the mineral contents of the earth's crust. During the three periods of Civilization proper the ideal of conquest has become still more intellectual and subtle, being now extended to such abstractions as an analysis of speech-sounds, and to such intangibles as expanding gases and still more elusive electric currents: in other words, to the forces of nature, no less than to tangible substances. Hand in hand with this growing complexity of man's relations with the external world has gone a like increase of complexity in the social and political organizations that characterize man's relations with his fellowmen. In savagery the family expanded into the tribe; in barbarism the tribe developed into the nation. The epoch of civilization proper is aptly named, because it has been a time in which citizenship, in the narrower national significance, has probably been developed to its apogee. Throughout this period, in every land, the highest virtue has been considered to be patriotism,--by which must be understood an instinctive willingness on the part of every individual to defend even with his life the interests of the nation into which he chances to be born, regardless of whether the national cause in which he struggles be in any given case good or bad, right or wrong. The communal judgment of this epoch pronounces any man a traitor who will not uphold his own nation even in a wrong cause--and the word "traitor" marks the utmost brand of ignominy.
Nationality and cosmopolitanism.
But while the idea of nationality has thus been accentuated, there has been a never-ending struggle within the bounds of the nation itself to adjust the relations of one citizen to another. The ideas that might makes right, that the strong man must dominate the weak, that leadership in the community properly belongs to the man who is physically most competent to lead--these ideas were a perfectly natural, and indeed an inevitable, outgrowth of the conditions under which man fought his way up through savagery and barbarism. Man in the first period of civilization inherited these ideas, along with the conditions of society that were their concomitants. So throughout the periods when the oriental civilizations of Egypt and Babylonia and Assyria and Persia were dominant, a despotic form of government was accepted as the natural order of things. It does not appear that any other form was even considered as a practicality. A despot might indeed be overthrown, but only to make way for the coronation of another despot. A little later the Greeks and Romans modified the conception of a heaven-sent individual monarch; but they went no further than to substitute a heaven-favoured community, with specially favoured groups (_Patricii_) within the community. With this, national egoism reached its climax; for each people regarded its own citizens as the only exemplars of civilization, openly branding all the rest of the world as "barbarians," fit subjects for the exaction of tribute or for the imposition of the bonds of actual slavery. During the middle ages there was a reaction towards individualism as opposed to nationalism: but the entire system of feudalism, with its clearly recognized conditions of over-lordship and of vassaldom, gave expression, no less clearly than oriental despotism and classical "democracy" had done, to the idea of individual inequality; of divergence of moral and legal status based on natural inheritance. Thus this idea, a reminiscence of barbarism, maintained its dominance throughout the first period of civilization.
But gunpowder, marking the transition to the second period of civilization, came as a great levelling influence. With its aid the weakest peasant might prove more than a match for the most powerful knight. Before its assaults the castle of the lord ceased to be an impregnable fortress. And while gunpowder thus levelled down the power of the mighty, the printing-press levelled up the intelligence, and hence the power and influence of the lowly. Meantime the mariner's compass opened up new territories beyond the seas, and in due course men of lowly origin were seen to attain to wealth and power through commercial pursuits, thus tending to break in upon the established social order. In the colonial territories themselves all men were subjected more or less to the same perils and dependent upon their own efforts. Success and prominence in the community came not as a birthright, but as the result of demonstrated fitness. The great lesson that the interests of all members of a community are, in the last analysis, mutual could be more clearly distinguished in these small colonies than in larger and older bodies politic. Through various channels, therefore, in the successive generations of this middle period of civilization, the idea gained ground that intelligence and moral worth, rather than physical prowess, should be the test of greatness; that it is incumbent on the strong in the interests of the body politic to protect the weak; and that, in the long run, the best interests of the community are conserved if all its members, without exception, are given moral equality before the law. This idea of equal rights and privileges for all members of the community--for each individual "the greatest amount of liberty consistent with a like liberty of every other individual"--first found expression as a philosophical doctrine towards the close of the 18th century; at which time also tentative efforts were made to put it into practice. It may be said therefore to represent the culminating sociological doctrine of the middle period of civilization,--the ideal towards which all the influences of the period had tended to impel the race.
It will be observed, however, that this ideal of individual equality within the body politic in no direct wise influences the status of the body politic itself as the centre of a localized civilization that may be regarded as in a sense antagonistic to all other similarly localized civilizations. If there were any such influence, it would rather operate in the direction of accentuating the patriotism of the member of a democratical community, as against that of the subject of a despot, through the sense of personal responsibility developed in the former. The developments of the middle period of civilization cannot be considered, therefore, to have tended to decrease the spirit of nationality, with its concomitant penalty of what is sometimes called provincialism. The history of this entire period, as commonly presented, is largely made up of the records of international rivalries and jealousies, perennially culminating in bitterly contested wars. It was only towards the close of the epoch that the desirability of free commercial intercourse among nations began to find expression as a philosophical creed through the efforts of Quesnay and his followers; and the doctrine that both parties to an international commercial transaction are gainers thereby found its first clear expression in the year 1776 in the pages of Condillac and of Adam Smith.
But the discoveries that ushered in the third period of civilization were destined to work powerfully from the outset for the breaking down of international barriers, though, of course, their effects would not be at once manifest. Thus the substitution of steam power for water power, besides giving a tremendous impetus to manufacturing in general, mapped out new industrial centres in regions that nature had supplied with coal but not always with other raw materials. To note a single result, England became the manufacturing centre of the world, drawing its raw materials from every corner of the globe; but in so doing it ceased to be self-supporting as regards the production of food-supplies. While growing in national wealth, as a result of the new inventions, England has therefore lost immeasurably in national self-sufficiency and independence; having become in large measure dependent upon other countries both for the raw materials without which her industries must perish and for the foods to maintain the very life of her people.
What is true of England in this regard is of course true in greater or less measure of all other countries. Everywhere, thanks to the new mechanisms that increase industrial efficiency, there has been an increasing tendency to specialization; and since the manufacturer must often find his raw materials in one part of the world and his markets in another, this implies an ever-increasing intercommunication and interdependence between the nations. This spirit is obviously fostered by the new means of transportation by locomotive and steamship, and by the electric communication that enables the Londoner, for example, to transact business in New York or in Tokio with scarcely an hour's delay; and that puts every one in touch at to-day's breakfast table with the happenings of the entire world. Thanks to the new mechanisms, national isolation is no longer possible; globe-trotting has become a habit with thousands of individuals of many nations; and Orient and Occident, representing civilizations that for thousands of years were almost absolutely severed and mutually oblivious of each other, have been brought again into close touch for mutual education and betterment. The Western mind has learned with amazement that the aforetime _Terra Incognita_ of the far East has nurtured a gigantic civilization having ideals in many ways far different from our own. The Eastern mind has proved itself capable, in self-defence, of absorbing the essential practicalities of Western civilization within a single generation. Some of the most important problems of world-civilization of the immediate future hinge upon the mutual relations of these two long-severed communities, branched at some early stage of progress to opposite hemispheres of the globe, but now brought by the new mechanisms into daily and even hourly communication.
Modern humanism.
While the new conditions of the industrial world have thus tended to develop a new national outlook, there has come about, as a result of the scientific discoveries already referred to, a no less significant broadening of the mental and spiritual horizons. Here also the trend is away from the narrowly egoistic and towards the cosmopolitan view. About the middle of the 19th century Dr Pritchard declared that many people debated whether it might not be permissible for the Australian settlers to shoot the natives as food for their dogs; some of the disputants arguing that savages were without the pale of human brotherhood. To-day the thesis that all mankind are one brotherhood needs no defence. The most primitive of existing aborigines are regarded merely as brethren who, through some defect or neglect of opportunity, have lagged behind in the race. Similarly the defective and criminal classes that make up so significant a part of the population of even our highest present-day civilizations, are no longer regarded with anger or contempt, as beings who are suffering just punishment for wilful transgressions, but are considered as pitiful victims of hereditary and environmental influences that they could neither choose nor control. Insanity is no longer thought of as demoniac possession, but as the most lamentable of diseases.
The changed attitude towards savage races and defective classes affords tangible illustrations of a fundamental transformation of point of view which doubtless represents the most important result of the operation of new scientific knowledge in the course of the 19th century. It is a transformation that is only partially effected as yet, to be sure; but it is rapidly making headway, and when fully achieved it will represent, probably, the most radical metamorphosis of mental view that has taken place in the entire course of the historical period. The essence of the new view is this: to recognize the universality and the invariability of natural law; stated otherwise, to understand that the word "supernatural" involves a contradiction of terms and has in fact no meaning. Whoever has grasped the full import of this truth is privileged to sweep mental horizons wider by far than ever opened to the view of any thinker of an earlier epoch. He is privileged to forecast, as the sure heritage of the future, a civilization freed from the last ghost of superstition--an Age of Reason in which mankind shall at last find refuge from the hosts of occult and invisible powers, the fearsome galaxies of deities and demons, which have haunted him thus far at every stage of his long journey through savagery, barbarism and civilization. Doubtless here and there a thinker, even in the barbaric eras, may have realized that these ghosts that so influenced the everyday lives of his fellows were but children of the imagination. But the certainty that such is the case could not have come with the force of demonstration even to the most clear-sighted thinker until 19th-century science had investigated with penetrating vision the realm of molecule and atom; had revealed the awe-inspiring principle of the conservation of energy; and had offered a comprehensible explanation of the evolution of one form of life from another, from monad to man, that did not presuppose the intervention of powers more "supernatural" than those that operate about us everywhere to-day.
The stupendous import of these new truths could not, of course, make itself evident to the generality of mankind in a single generation, when opposed to superstitions of a thousand generations' standing. But the new knowledge has made its way more expeditiously than could have been anticipated; and its effects are seen on every side, even where its agency is scarcely recognized. As a single illustration, we may note the familiar observation that the entire complexion of orthodox teaching of religion has been more altered in the past fifty years than in two thousand years before. This of course is not entirely due to the influence of physical and biological science; no effect has a unique cause, in the complex sociological scheme. Archaeology, comparative philology and textual criticism have also contributed their share; and the comparative study of religions has further tended to broaden the outlook and to make for universality, as opposed to insularity, of view. It is coming to be more and more widely recognized that all theologies are but the reflex of the more or less faulty knowledge of the times in which they originate, that the true and abiding purpose of religion should be the practical betterment of humanity--the advancement of civilization in the best sense of the word; and that this end may perhaps be best subserved by different systems of theology, adapted to the varied genius of different times and divers races. Wherefore there is not the same enthusiastic desire to-day that found expression a generation ago, to impose upon the cultured millions of the East a religion that seems to them alien to their manner of thought, unsuited to their needs and less distinctly ethical in teaching than their own religions.
Such are but a few of the illustrations that might be cited from many fields to suggest that the mind of our generation is becoming receptive to a changed point of view that augurs the coming of a new ethnic era. If one may be permitted to enter very tentatively the field of prophecy, it seems not unlikely that the great revolutionary invention which will close the third period of civilization and usher in a new era is already being evolved. It seems not over-hazardous to predict that the air-ship, in one form or another, is destined to be the mechanism that will give the new impetus to human civilization; that the next era will have as one of its practical ideals the conquest of the air; and that this conquest will become a factor in the final emergence of humanity from the insularity of nationalism to the broad view of cosmopolitanism, towards which, as we have seen, the tendencies of the present era are verging. That the gap to be covered is a vastly wide one no one need be reminded who recalls that the civilized nations of Europe, together with America and Japan, are at present accustomed to spend more than three hundred million pounds each year merely that they may keep armaments in readiness to fly at one another's throats should occasion arise. Formidable as these armaments now seem, however, the developments of the not very distant future will probably make them quite obsolete; and sooner or later, as science develops yet more deadly implements of destruction, the time must come when communal intelligence will rebel at the suicidal folly of the international attitude that characterized, for example, the opening decade of the 20th century. At some time, after the first period of cosmopolitanism shall be ushered in as a tenth ethnic period, it will come to be recognized that there is a word fraught with fuller meanings even than the word patriotism. That word is humanitarianism. The enlightened generation that realizes the full implications of that word will doubtless marvel that their ancestors of the third period of civilization should have risen up as nations and slaughtered one another by thousands to settle a dispute about a geographical boundary. Such a procedure will appear to have been quite as barbarous as the cannibalistic practices of their yet more remote ancestors, and distinctly less rational, since cannibalism might sometimes save its practiser from starvation, whereas warfare of the civilized type was a purely destructive agency.
Equally obvious must it appear to the cosmopolite of some generation of the future that quality rather than mere numbers must determine the efficiency of any given community. Race suicide will then cease to be a bugbear; and it will no longer be considered rational to keep up the census at the cost of propagating low orders of intelligence, to feed the ranks of paupers, defectives and criminals. On the contrary it will be thought fitting that man should become the conscious arbiter of his own racial destiny to the extent of applying whatever laws of heredity he knows or may acquire in the interests of his own species, as he has long applied them in the case of domesticated animals. The survival and procreation of the unfit will then cease to be a menace to the progress of civilization. It does not follow that all men will be brought to a dead level of equality of body and mind, nor that individual competition will cease; but the average physical mental status of the race will be raised immeasurably through the virtual elimination of that vast company of defectives which to-day constitutes so threatening an obstacle to racial progress. There are millions of men in Europe and America to-day whose whole mental equipment--despite the fact that they have been taught to read and write--is far more closely akin to the average of the Upper Period of Barbarism than to the highest standards of their own time; and these undeveloped or atavistic persons have on the average more offspring than are produced by the more highly cultured and intelligent among their contemporaries. "Race suicide" is thereby prevented, but the progress of civilization is no less surely handicapped. We may well believe that the cosmopolite of the future, aided by science, will find rational means to remedy this strange illogicality. In so doing he will exercise a more consciously purposeful function, and perhaps a more directly potent influence, in determining the line of human progress than he has hitherto attempted to assume, notwithstanding the almost infinitely varied character of the experiments through which he has worked his way from savagery to civilization.
Ethical evolution.
All these considerations tend to define yet more clearly the ultimate goal towards which the progressive civilization of past and present appears to be trending. The contemplation of this goal brings into view the outlines of a vastly suggestive evolutionary cycle. For it appears that the social condition of cosmopolite man, so far as the present-day view can predict it, will represent a state of things, magnified to world-dimensions, that was curiously adumbrated by the social system of the earliest savage. At the very beginning of the journey through savagery, mankind, we may well believe, consisted of a limited tribe, representing no great range or variety of capacity, and an almost absolute identity of interests. Thanks to this community of interests,--which was fortified by the recognition of blood-relationship among all members of the tribe,--a principle which we now define as "the greatest ultimate good to the greatest number" found practical, even if unwitting, recognition; and therein lay the germs of all the moral development of the future. But obvious identity of interests could be recognized only so long as the tribe remained very small. So soon as its numbers became large, patent diversities of interest, based on individual selfishness, must appear, to obscure the larger harmony. And as savage man migrated hither and thither, occupying new regions and thus developing new tribes and ultimately a diversity of "races," all idea of community of interests, as between race and race, must have been absolutely banished. It was the obvious and patent fact that each race was more or less at rivalry, in disharmony, with all the others. In the hard struggle for subsistence, the expansion of one race meant the downfall of another. So far as any principle of "greatest good" remained in evidence, it applied solely to the members of one's own community, or even to one's particular phratry or gens.
Barbaric man, thanks to his conquest of animal and vegetable nature, was able to extend the size of the unified community, and hence to develop through diverse and intricate channels the application of the principle of "greatest good" out of which the idea of right and wrong was elaborated. But quite as little as the savage did he think of extending the application of the principle beyond the bounds of his own race. The laws with which he gave expression to his ethical conceptions applied, of necessity, to his own people alone. The gods with which his imagination peopled the world were local in habitat, devoted to the interests of his race only, and at enmity with the gods of rival peoples. As between nation and nation, the only principle of ethics that ever occurred to him was that might makes right. Civilized man for a long time advanced but slowly upon this view of international morality. No Egyptian or Babylonian or Hebrew or Greek or Roman ever hesitated to attack a weaker nation on the ground that it would be wrong to do so. And few indeed are the instances in which even a modern nation has judged an international question on any other basis than that of self-interest. It was not till towards the close of the 19th century that an International Peace Conference gave tangible witness that the idea of fellowship of nations was finding recognition; and in the same recent period history has recorded the first instance of a powerful nation vanquishing a weaker one without attempting to exact at least an "indemnifying" tribute.
But the citizen of the future, if the auguries of the present prove true, will be able to apply principles of right and wrong without reference to national boundaries. He will understand that the interests of the entire human family are, in the last analysis, common interests. The census through which he attempts to estimate "the greatest good of the greatest number" must include, not his own nation merely, but the remotest member of the human race. On this universal basis must be founded that absolute standard of ethics which will determine the relations of cosmopolite man with his fellows. When this ideal is attained, mankind will again represent a single family, as it did in the day when our primeval ancestors first entered on the pathway of progress; but it will be a family whose habitat has been extended from the narrow glade of some tropical forest to the utmost habitable confines of the globe. Each member of this family will be permitted to enjoy the greatest amount of liberty consistent with the like liberty of every other member; but the interests of the few will everywhere be recognized as subservient to the interests of the many, and such recognition of mutual interests will establish the practical criterion for the interpretation of international affairs.
Progress and efficiency.
But such an extension of the altruistic principle by no means presupposes the elimination of egoistic impulses--of individualism. On the contrary, we must suppose that man at the highest stages of culture will be, even as was the savage, a seeker after the greatest attainable degree of comfort for the least necessary expenditure of energy. The pursuit of this ideal has been from first to last the ultimate impelling force in nature urging man forward. The only change has been a change in the interpretation of the ideal, an altered estimate as to what manner of things are most worth the purchase-price of toil and self-denial. That the things most worth the having cannot, generally speaking, be secured without such toil and self-denial, is a lesson that began to be inculcated while man was a savage, and that has never ceased to be reiterated generation after generation. It is the final test of progressive civilization that a given effort shall produce a larger and larger modicum of average individual comfort. That is why the great inventions that have increased man's efficiency as a worker have been the necessary prerequisites to racial progress. Stated otherwise, that is why the industrial factor is everywhere the most powerful factor in civilization; and why the economic interpretation is the most searching interpretation of history at its every stage. It is the basal fact that progress implies increased average working efficiency--a growing ratio between average effort and average achievement--that gives sure warrant for such a prognostication as has just been attempted concerning the future industrial unification of our race. The efforts of civilized man provide him, on the average, with a marvellous range of comforts, as contrasted with those that rewarded the most strenuous efforts of savage or barbarian, to whom present-day necessaries would have been undreamed-of luxuries. But the ideal ratio between effort and result has by no means been achieved; nor will it have been until the inventive brain of man has provided a civilization in which a far higher percentage of citizens will find the life-vocations to which they are best adapted by nature, and in which, therefore, the efforts of the average worker may be directed with such vigour, enthusiasm and interest as can alone make for true efficiency; a civilization adjusted to such an economic balance that the average man may live in reasonable comfort without heart-breaking strain, and yet accumulate a sufficient surplus to ensure ease and serenity for his declining days. Such, seemingly, should be the normal goal of progressive civilization. Doubtless mankind in advancing towards that goal will institute many changes that could by no possibility be foretold, but (to summarize the views just presented) it seems a safe augury from present-day conditions and tendencies that the important lines of progress will include (1) the organic betterment of the race through wise application of the laws of heredity; (2) the lessening of international jealousies and the consequent minimizing of the drain upon communal resources that attends a military régime; and (3) an ever-increasing movement towards the industrial and economic unification of the world. (H. S. WI.)
AUTHORITIES.--A list of works dealing with the savage and barbarous periods of human development will be found appended to the article ANTHROPOLOGY. Special reference may here be made to E.B. Tylor's _Early History of Mankind_ (1865), _Primitive Culture_ (1871) and _Anthropology_ (1881); Lord Avebury's _Prehistoric Times_ (new edition, 1900) and _Origin of Civilization_ (new edition, 1902); A.H. Keane's _Man Past and Present_ (1899); and Lewis H. Morgan's _Ancient Society_ (1877). The earliest attempt at writing a history of civilization which has any value for the 20th-century reader was F. Guizot's in 1828-1830, a handy English translation by William Hazlitt being included in Bohn's Standard Library under the title of _The History of Civilization_. The earlier lectures, delivered at the Old Sorbonne, deal with the general progress of European civilization, whilst the greater part of the work is an account of the growth of civilization in France. Guizot's attitude is somewhat antiquated, but this book still has usefulness as a storehouse of facts. T.H. Buckle's famous work, _The History of Civilization in England_ (1857-1861), though only a gigantic unfinished introduction to the author's proposed enterprise, holds an important place in historical literature on account of the new method which it introduced, and has given birth to a considerable number of valuable books on similar lines, such as Lecky's _History of European Morals_ (1869) and _Rise and Influence of Rationalism in Europe_ (1865). J.W. Draper's _History of the Intellectual Development of Europe_ (1861) undertook, from the American stand-point, "the labour of arranging the evidence offered by the intellectual history of Europe in accordance with physiological principles, so as to illustrate the orderly progress of civilization." Its objective treatment and wealth of learning still give it great value to the student. Since the third quarter of the 19th century it may be said that all serious historical work has been more or less a history of civilization as displayed in all countries and ages, and a bibliography of the works bearing on the subject would be coextensive with the catalogue of a complete historical library. Special mention, however, may be made of such important and suggestive works as C.H. Pearson's _National Life and Character_ (1893); Benjamin Kidd's _Social Evolution_ (1894) and _Principles of Western Civilization_ (1902); Edward Eggleston's _Transit of Civilization_ (1901); C. Seignobos's _Histoire de la civilisation_ (1887); C. Faulmann's _Illustrirte Culturgeschichte_ (1881); G. Ducoudray's _Histoire de la civilisation_ (1886); J. von Hellwald's _Kulturgeschichte_ (1896); J. Lippert's _Kulturgeschichte der Menschheit_ (1886); O. Henne-am-Rhyn's _Die Kultur der Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft_ (1890); G. Kurth's _Origines de la civilisation moderne_ (1886), &c. The vast collection of modern works on sociology, from Herbert Spencer onwards, should also be consulted; see bibliography attached to the article SOCIOLOGY. The historical method on which practically all the articles of the present edition of the _Ency. Brit._ are planned, makes the whole work itself in essentials the most comprehensive history of civilization in existence.
CIVIL LAW, a phrase which, with its Latin equivalent _jus civile_, has been used in a great variety of meanings. _Jus civile_ was sometimes used to distinguish that portion of the Roman law which was the proper or ancient law of the city or state of Rome from the _jus gentium_, or the law common to all the nations comprising the Roman world, which was incorporated with the former through the agency of the praetorian edicts. This historical distinction remained as a permanent principle of division in the body of the Roman law. One of the first propositions of the Institutes of Justinian is the following:--"Jus autem civile vel gentium ita dividitur. Omnes populi qui legibus et moribus reguntur partim suo proprio, partim communi omnium hominum jure utuntur; nam quod quisque populus ipsi sibi jus constituit, id ipsius civitatis proprium est, vocaturque jus civile quasi jus proprium ipsius civitatis. Quod vero naturalis ratio inter omnes homines constituit, id apud omnes peraeque custoditur, vocaturque jus gentium quasi quo jure omnes gentes utuntur." The _jus gentium_ of this passage is elsewhere identified with _jus naturale_, so that the distinction comes to be one between civil law and natural or divine law. The municipal or private law of a state is sometimes described as civil law in distinction to public or international law. Again, the municipal law of a state may be divided into civil law and criminal law. The phrase, however, is applied _par excellence_ to the system of law created by the genius of the Roman people, and handed down by them to the nations of the modern world (see ROMAN LAW). The civil law in this sense would be distinguished from the local or national law of modern states. The civil law in this sense is further to be distinguished from that adaptation of its principles to ecclesiastical purposes which is known as the canon law (q.v.).
CIVIL LIST,
History
the English term for the account in which are contained all the expenses immediately applicable to the support of the British sovereign's household and the honour and dignity of the crown. An annual sum is settled by the British parliament at the beginning of the reign on the sovereign, and is charged on the consolidated fund. But it is only from the reign of William IV. that the sum thus voted has been restricted solely to the personal expenses of the crown. Before his accession many charges properly belonging to the ordinary expenses of government had been placed on the civil list. The history of the civil list dates from the reign of William and Mary. Before the Revolution no distinction had been made between the expenses of government in time of peace and the expenses relating to the personal dignity and support of the sovereign. The ordinary revenues derived from the hereditary revenues of the crown, and from certain taxes voted for life to the king at the beginning of each reign, were supposed to provide for the support of the sovereign's dignity and the civil government, as well as for the public defence in time of peace. Any saving made by the king in the expenditure touching the government of the country or its defence would go to swell his privy purse. But with the Revolution a step forward was made towards the establishment of the principle that the expenses relating to the support of the crown should be separated from the ordinary expenses of the state. The evils of the old system under which no appropriation was made of the ordinary revenue granted to the crown for life had been made manifest in the reigns of Charles II. and James II.; it was their control of these large revenues that made them so independent of parliament. Moreover, while the civil government and the defences suffered, the king could use these revenues as he liked. The parliament of William and Mary fixed the revenue of the crown in time of peace at £1,200,000 per annum; of this sum about £700,000 was appropriated towards the "civil list." But from this the sovereign was to defray the expenses of the civil service and the payment of pensions, as well as the cost of the support of the royal household and his own personal expenses. It was from this that the term "civil list" arose, to distinguish it from the statement of military and naval charges. The revenue voted to meet the civil list consisted of the hereditary revenues of the crown and a part of the excise duties. Certain changes and additions were made in the sources of revenue thus appropriated between the reign of William and Mary and the accession of George III., when a different system was adopted. Generally speaking, however, the sources of revenue remained as settled at the Revolution.
Anne, George I. and George II.
George III.
Anne had the same civil list, estimated to produce an annual income of £700,000. During her reign a debt of £1,200,000 was incurred. This debt was paid by parliament and charged on the civil list itself. George I. enjoyed the same revenue by parliamentary grant, in addition to an annual sum of £120,000 on the aggregate fund. A debt of £1,000,000 was incurred, and discharged by parliament in the same manner as Anne's debt had been. To George II. a civil list of £800,000 as a minimum was granted, parliament undertaking to make up any deficiency if the sources of income appropriated to its service fell short of that sum. Thus in 1746 a debt of £456,000 was paid by parliament on the civil list. On the accession of George III. a change was made in the system of the civil list. Hitherto the sources of revenue appropriated to the service of the civil list had been settled on the crown. If these revenues exceeded the sum they were computed to produce annually, the surplus went to the king. George III., however, surrendered the life-interest in the hereditary revenues and the excise duties hitherto voted to defray the civil list expenditure, and any claim to a surplus for a fixed amount. The king still retained other large sources of revenue which were not included in the civil list, and were free from the control of parliament. The revenues from which the civil list had been defrayed were henceforward to be carried into, and made part of, the aggregate fund. In their place a fixed civil list was granted--at first of £723,000 per annum, to be increased to £800,000 on the falling in of certain annuities to members of the royal family. From this £800,000 the king's household and the honour and dignity of the crown were to be supported, as well as the civil service offices, pensions and other charges still laid on the list.
Indebtedness of civil list.
During the reign of George III. the civil list played an important part in the history of the struggle on the part of the king to establish the royal ascendancy. From the revenue appropriated to its service came a large portion of the money employed by the king in creating places and pensions for his supporters in parliament, and, under the colour of the royal bounty, bribery was practised on a large scale. No limit was set to the amount applicable to the pensions charged on the civil list, so long as the sum granted could meet the demand; and there was no principle on which the grant was regulated. Secret pensions at the king's pleasure were paid out of it, and in every way the independence of parliament was menaced; and though the more legitimate expenses of the royal household were diminished by the king's penurious style of living, and though many charges not directly connected with the king's personal expenditure were removed, the amount was constantly exceeded, and applications were made from time to time to parliament to pay off debts incurred; and thus opportunity was given for criticism. In 1769 a debt of £513,511 was paid off in arrears; and in spite of the demand for accounts and for an inquiry into the cause of the debt, the ministry succeeded in securing this vote without granting such information. All attempts to investigate the civil list were successfully resisted, though Lord Chatham went so far as to declare himself convinced that the funds were expended in corrupting members of parliament. Again, in 1777, an application was made to parliament to pay off £618,340 of debts; and in view of the growing discontent Lord North no longer dared to withhold accounts. Yet, in spite of strong opposition and free criticism, not only was the amount voted, but also a further £100,000 per annum, thus raising the civil list to an annual sum of £900,000.
In 1779, at a time when the expenditure of the country and the national debt had been enormously increased by the American War, the general dissatisfaction found voice in parliament, and the abuses of the civil list were specially singled out for attack. Many petitions were presented to the House of Commons praying for its reduction, and a motion was made in the House of Lords in the same sense, though it was rejected. In 1780 Burke brought forward his scheme of economic reform, but his name was already associated with the growing desire to remedy the evils of the civil list by the publication in 1769 of his pamphlet on "The Causes of the Present Discontent." In this scheme Burke freely animadverts on the profusion and abuse of the civil list, criticizing the useless and obsolete offices and the offices performed by deputy. In every department he discovers jobbery, waste and peculation. His proposal was that the many offices should be reduced and consolidated, that the pension list should be brought down to a fixed sum of £60,000 per annum, and that pensions should be conferred only to reward merit or fulfil real public charity. All pensions were to be paid at the exchequer. He proposed also that the civil list should be divided into classes, an arrangement which later was carried into effect. In 1780 Burke succeeded in bringing in his Establishment Bill; but though at first it met with considerable support, and was even read a second time, Lord North's government defeated it in committee. The next year the bill was again introduced into the House of Commons, and Pitt made his first speech in its favour. The bill was, however, lost on the second reading.
Civil List Act 1782.
In 1782 the Rockingham ministry, pledged to economic reform, came into power; and the Civil List Act 1782 was introduced and carried with the express object of limiting the patronage and influence of ministers, or, in other words, the ascendancy of the crown over parliament. Not only did the act effect the abolition of a number of useless offices, but it also imposed restraints on the issue of secret service money, and made provision for a more effectual supervision of the royal expenditure. As to the pension list, the annual amount was to be limited to £95,000; no pension to any one person was to exceed £1200, and all pensions were to be paid at the exchequer, thus putting a stop to the secret pensions payable during pleasure. Moreover, pensions were only to be bestowed in the way of royal bounty for persons in distress or as a reward for merit. Another very important change was made by this act: the civil list was divided into classes, and a fixed amount was to be appropriated to each class. The following were the classes:--
1. Pensions and allowances of the royal family. 2. Payment of salaries of lord chancellor, speaker and judges. 3. Salaries of ministers to foreign courts resident at the same. 4. Approved bills of tradesmen, artificers and labourers for any article supplied and work done for His Majesty's service. 5. Menial servants of the household. 6. Pension list. 7. Salaries of all other places payable out of the civil list revenues. 8. Salaries and pensions of treasurer or commissioners of the treasury and of the chancellor of the exchequer.
Yet debt was still the condition of the civil list down to the end of the reign, in spite of the reforms established by the Rockingham ministry, and notwithstanding the removal from the list of many charges unconnected with the king's personal expenses. The debts discharged by parliament between 1782, the date of the passing of the Civil List Act, and the end of George III.'s reign, amounted to £2,300,000. In all, during his reign £3,398,061 of debt owing by the civil list was paid off.
With the regency the civil list was increased by £70,000 per annum, and a special grant of £100,000 was settled on the prince regent. In 1816 the annual amount was settled at £1,083,727, including the establishment of the king, now insane; though the civil list was relieved from some annuities payable to the royal family. Nevertheless, the fund still continued charged with such civil expenses as the salaries of judges, ambassadors and officers of state, and with pensions granted for public services. Other reforms were made as regards the definition of the several classes of expenditure, while the expenses of the royal household were henceforth to be audited by a treasury official--the auditor of the civil list. On the accession of George IV. the civil list, freed from the expenses of the late king, was settled at £845,727. On William IV. coming to the throne a sum of £510,000 per annum was fixed for the service of the civil list. The king at the same time surrendered all the sources of revenue enjoyed by his predecessors, apart from the civil list, represented by the hereditary revenues of Scotland--the Irish civil list, the droits of the crown and admiralty, the 4½% duties, the West India duties, and other casual revenues hitherto vested in the crown, and independent of parliament. The revenues of the duchy of Lancaster were still retained by the crown. In return for this surrender and the diminished sum voted, the civil list was relieved from all the charges relating rather to the civil government than to the support of the dignity of the crown and the royal household. The future expenditure was divided into five classes, and a fixed annual sum was appropriated to each class. The pension list was reduced to £75,000. The king resisted an attempt on the part of the select committee to reduce the salaries of the officers of state on the grounds that this touched his prerogative, and the ministry of Earl Grey yielded to his remonstrance.
Queen Victoria's civil list.
The civil list of Queen Victoria was settled on the same principles as that of William IV. A considerable reduction was made in the aggregate annual sum voted, from £510,000 to £385,000, and the pension list was separated from the ordinary civil list. The civil list proper was divided into the following five classes, with a fixed sum appropriated to each:--
Privy purse £60,000 Salaries of household 131,260 Expenses of household 172,500 Royal bounty, &c. 13,200 Unappropriated 8,040
In addition the queen might, on the advice of her ministers, grant pensions up to £1200 per annum, in accordance with a resolution of the House of Commons of February 18th, 1834, "to such persons as have just claims on the royal beneficence or who, by their personal services to the crown, by the performance of duties to the public, or by their useful discoveries in science and attainments in literature and art, have merited the gracious consideration of the sovereign and the gratitude of their country." The service of these pensions increased the annual sum devoted to support the dignity of the crown and the expenses of the household to about £409,000. The list of pensions must be laid before parliament within thirty days of 20th June. Thus the civil list was reduced in amount, and relieved from the very charges which gave it its name as distinct from the statement of military and naval charges. It now really only dealt with the support of the dignity and honour of the crown and the royal household. The arrangement was most successful, and during the last three reigns there was no application to parliament for the discharge of debts incurred on the civil list.
Civil List Act 1901.
The death of Queen Victoria rendered it necessary that a renewed provision should be made for the civil list; and King Edward VII., following former precedents, placed unreservedly at the disposal of parliament his hereditary revenues. A select committee of the House of Commons was appointed to consider the provisions of the civil list for the crown, and to report also on the question of grants for the honourable support and maintenance of Her Majesty the Queen and the members of the royal family. The committee in their conclusions were guided to a considerable extent by the actual civil list expenditure during the last ten years of the last reign, and made certain recommendations which, without undue interference with the sovereign's personal arrangements, tended towards increased efficiency and economy in the support of the sovereign's household and the honour and dignity of the crown. On their report was based the Civil List Act 1901, which established the new civil list. The system that the hereditary revenues should as before be paid into the exchequer and be part of the consolidated fund was maintained. The amount payable for the civil list was increased from £385,000 to £470,000. In the application of this sum the number of classes of expenditure to which separate amounts were to be appropriated was increased from five to six. The following was the new arrangement of classes:--1st class, Their Majesties' privy purse, £110,000; 2nd class, salaries of His Majesty's household and retired allowances, £125,800; 3rd class, expenses of His Majesty's household, £193,000; 4th class, works (the interior repair and decoration of Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle), £20,000; 5th class, royal bounty, alms and special services, £13,200; 6th class, unappropriated, £8000. The system relating to civil list pensions, established by the Civil List Act 1837, continued to apply, but the pensions were not regarded as chargeable on the sum paid for the civil list. The committee also advised that the mastership of the Buckhounds should not be continued; and the king, on the advice of his ministers, agreed to accept their recommendation. The maintenance of the royal hunt thus ceased to be a charge on the civil list. The annuities of £20,000 to the prince of Wales, of £10,000 to the princess of Wales, and of £18,000 to His Majesty's three daughters, were not included in the civil list, though they were conferred by the same act. Other grants made by special acts of parliament to members of the royal family were also excluded from it; these were £6000 to the princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein, £6000 to the princess Louise (duchess of Argyll), £25,000 to the duke of Connaught, £6000 to the duchess of Albany, £6000 to the princess Beatrice (Henry of Battenberg), and £3000 to the duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.
Figures in other countries.
It may be interesting to compare with the British civil list the corresponding figures in other countries. These are as follows, the figures being those, for convenience, of 1905. Spain, £280,000, exclusive of allowances to members of the royal family; Portugal, £97,333, in addition to £1333 to the queen-consort--total grant to the royal family, £116,700; Italy, £602,000, from which was deducted £16,000 for the children of the deceased Prince Amedeo, duke of Aosta, £16,000 to Prince Tommaso, duke of Genoa, and £40,000 to Queen Margherita; Belgium, £140,000; Netherlands, £50,000, with, in addition, £4000 for the maintenance of the royal palaces; Germany, £770,500 (_Krondotations Rente_), the sovereign also possessing large private property (_Kronfideikommiss und Schatullgüter_), the revenue from which contributed to the expenditure of the court and the members of the royal family; Denmark, £55,500, in addition to £6600 to the heir-apparent; Norway, £38,888; Sweden, £72,700; Greece, £52,000, which included £4000 each from Great Britain, France and Russia; Austria-Hungary, £941,666, made up of £387,500 as emperor of Austria out of the revenues of Austria, and £554,166 as king of Hungary out of the revenues of Hungary; Japan, £300,000; Rumania, £47,000, in addition to revenues from certain crown lands; Servia, £48,000; Bulgaria, £40,000, besides £30,000 for maintenance of palaces, &c.; Montenegro, £8300; Russia had no civil list, the sovereign having all the revenue from the crown domains (actual amount unknown, but supposed to amount to over £4,000,000); the president of the French Republic had a salary of £24,000 a year, with a further £24,000 for expenses; and the president of the United States had a salary of $50,000 (from 1909, $75,000).
CIVIL SERVICE, the generic name given to the aggregate of all the public servants, or paid civil administrators and clerks, of a state. It is the machinery by which the executive, through the various administrations, carries on the central government of the country.
_British Empire._--The appointments to the civil service until the year 1855 were made by nomination, with an examination not sufficient to form an intellectual or even a physical test. It was only after much consideration and almost years of discussion that the nomination system was abandoned. Various commissions reported on the civil service, and orders in council were issued. Finally in 1855 a qualifying examination of a stringent character was instituted, and in 1870 the principle of open competition was adopted as a general rule. On the report of the Playfair Commission (1876), an order in council was issued dividing the civil service into an upper and lower division. The order in council directed that a lower division should be constituted, and men and boy clerks holding permanent positions replaced the temporary assistants and writers. The "temporary" assistant was not found to be advantageous to the service. In December 1886 a new class of assistant clerks was formed to replace the men copyists. In 1887 the Ridley Commission reported on the civil service establishment. In 1890 two orders in council were issued based on the reports of the Ridley Commission, which sat from 1886 to 1890. The first order constituted what is now known as the second division of the civil service. The second order in council concerned the officers of the 1st class; and provision was made for the possible promotion of the second division clerks to the first division after eight years' service.
The whole system is under the administration of the civil service commissioners, and power is given to them, with the approval of the treasury, to prescribe the subjects of examination, limits of age, &c. The age is fixed for compulsory retirement at sixty-five. In exceptional cases a prolongation of five years is within the powers of the civil service commissioners. The examination for 1st class clerkships is held concurrently with that of the civil service of India and Eastern cadetships in the colonial service. Candidates can compete for all three or for two. In addition to the intellectual test the candidate must fulfil the conditions of age (22 to 24), must present recommendations as to character, and pass a medical examination. This examination approximates closely to the university type of education. Indeed, there is little chance of success except for candidates who have had a successful university career, and frequently, in addition, special preparation by a private teacher. The subjects include the language and literature of England, France, Germany, Italy, ancient Greece and Rome, Sanskrit and Arabic, mathematics (pure and applied), natural science (chemistry, physics, zoology, &c.), history (English, Greek, Roman and general modern), political economy and economic history, mental and moral philosophy, Roman and English law and political science. The candidate is obliged to reach a certain standard of knowledge in each subject before any marks at all are allowed him. This rule was made to prevent success by mere cramming, and to ensure competent knowledge on the basis of real study.
The maximum scale of the salaries of clerks of Class I. is as follows:--3rd class, £200 a year, increasing by £20 a year to £500; 2nd class, £600, increasing by £25 a year to £800; 1st class, £850, increasing by £50 a year to £1000. Their pensions are fixed by the Superannuation Act 1859, 22 Vict. c. 26:--
"To any person who shall have served ten years and upwards, and under eleven years, an annual allowance of ten-sixtieths of the annual salary and emoluments of his office:
"For eleven years and under twelve years, an annual allowance of eleven-sixtieths of such salary and emoluments:
"And in like manner a further addition to the annual allowance of one-sixtieth in respect of each additional year of such service, until the completion of a period of service of forty years, when the annual allowance of forty-sixtieths may be granted; and no additions shall be made in respect of any service beyond forty years."
The "ordinary annual holidays allowed to officers" (1st class) "shall not exceed thirty-six week-days during each of their first ten years of service and forty-eight week-days thereafter." Order in Council, 15th August 1890.
"Within that maximum heads of departments have now, as they have hitherto had, an absolute discretion in fixing the annual leave."
Sick leave can be granted on full salary for not more than six months, on half-salary for another six months.
The scale of salary for 2nd division clerks begins at £70 a year, increasing by £5 to £100; then £100 a year, increasing by £7, 10s. to £190; and then £190 a year, increasing by £10 to £250. The highest is £300 to £500. Advancement in the 2nd division to the higher ranks depends on merit, not seniority. The ordinary annual holiday of the 2nd division clerks is 14 working days for the first five years, and 21 working days afterwards. They can be allowed sick leave for six months on full pay and six months on half-pay. The subjects of their examination are: (1) handwriting and orthography, including copying MS.; (2) arithmetic; (3) English composition; (4) précis, including indexing and digest of returns; (5) book-keeping and shorthand writing; (6) geography and English history; (7) Latin; (8) French; (9) German; (10) elementary mathematics; (11) inorganic chemistry with elements of physics. Not more than four of the subjects (4) to (11) can be taken. The candidate must be between the ages of 17 and 20. A certain number of the places in the 2nd division were reserved for the candidates from the boy clerks appointed under the old system. The competition is severe, only about one out of every ten candidates being successful. Candidates are allowed a choice of departments subject to the exigencies of the services.
There is also a class of boy copyists who are almost entirely employed in London, a few in Dublin and Edinburgh, and, very seldom, in some provincial towns. The subjects of their examination are: _Obligatory_--handwriting and orthography, arithmetic and English composition. _Optional_--(any two of the following): (1) copying MS.; (2) geography; (3) English history; (4) translation from one of the following languages--Latin, French or German; (5) Euclid, bk. i. and ii., and algebra, up to and including simple equations; (6) rudiments of chemistry and physics. Candidates must be between the ages of 15 and 18. They have no claims to superannuation or compensation allowance. Boy copyists are not retained after the age of 20.
Candidates for the civil service of India take the same examination as for 1st class clerkships. Candidates successful in the examination must subsequently spend one year in England. They receive for that year £150 if they elect to live at one of the universities or colleges approved by the secretary of state for India. They are submitted to a final examination in the following subjects--Indian Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure, the principal vernacular language of the province to which they are assigned, the Indian Evidence Act (these three subjects are compulsory), either Hindu and Mahommedan Law, or Sanskrit, Arabic or Persian, Burmese (for Burma only). A candidate may not take Arabic or Sanskrit both in the first examination and in the final. They must also pass a thorough examination in riding. On reaching India their salary begins at 400 rupees a month. They may take, as leave, one-fourth of the time on active service in periods strictly limited by regulation. After 25 years' service (of which 21 must be active service) they can retire on a pension of £1000 a year. The unit of administration is the district. At the head of the district is an executive officer called either collector-magistrate or deputy-commissioner. In most provinces he is responsible to the commissioner, who corresponds directly with the provincial government. The Indian civilian after four years' probation in both branches of the service is called upon to elect whether he will enter the revenue or judicial department, and this choice as a rule is held to be final for his future work.
Candidates for the Indian Forest Service have to pass a competitive examination, one of the compulsory subjects being German or French. They have also to pass a severe medical examination, especially in their powers of vision and hearing. They must be between the ages of 18 and 22. Successful candidates are required to pass a three years' course, with a final examination, seven terms of the course at an approved school of forestry, the rest of the time receiving practical instruction in continental European forests. On reaching India they start as assistant conservators at 380 rupees a month. The highest salary, that of inspector-general of forests, in the Indian Forest Service is 2650 rupees a month.
The Indian Police Service is entered by a competitive examination of very much the same kind as for the forest service, except that special subjects such as German and botany are not included. The candidates are limited in age to 19 and 21. They must pass a riding examination. A free passage out is given them. They are allotted as probationers, their wishes being consulted as far as possible as to their province. A probationer receives 300 rupees a month. A district superintendent can rise to 1200 rupees a month, while there are a few posts with a salary of 3000 rupees a month in the police service. The leave and pension in both these departments follow the general rules for Indian services.
The civil service also includes student interpreterships for China, Japan and Siam, and for the Ottoman dominions, Persia, Greece and Morocco. Both these classes of student interpreters are selected by open competition. Their object is to supply the consular service in the above-named countries with persons having a thorough knowledge of the language of the country in which they serve.
In the first case, China, Japan, &c., they learn their language in the country itself, receiving £200 as probationers. Then they become assistants in a consulate. The highest post is that of consul-general. In the case of student interpreters for the Ottoman dominions, Persia, Greece and Morocco, the successful candidates learn their languages at Oxford. Turkish is taught gratuitously, but they pay the usual fees for other languages. At Oxford they receive £200 a year for two years. On leaving Oxford they become assistants under the embassy at Constantinople, the legations at Teheran, Athens or Morocco, or at one of H.B.M. consulates. As assistants they receive £300 a year. The consuls, the highest post to which they can reach, receive in the Levant from £500 to £1600 a year. The civil services of Ceylon, Hong-Kong, the Straits Settlements, and the Malay Peninsula are supplied by the Eastern cadetships. The limits of age for the examination are 18 and 24. The cadets are required to learn the native language of the colony or dependency to which they are assigned. In the case of the Straits Settlements and Malay cadets they may have to learn Chinese or Tamil, as well as the native language. The salaries are: passed cadets, 3500 rupees per annum, gradually increasing until first-class officers receive from 12,000 to 18,000 rupees per annum. They are allowed three months' vacation on full pay in two years, and leave of absence on half-pay after six years' service, or before that if urgently needed. They can retire for ill-health after ten years with fifteen-sixtieths of their annual salary. Otherwise they can add one-sixtieth of their annual salary to their pension for every additional year's service up to thirty-five years' service.
In spite of the general rule of open competition, there are still a few departments where the system of _nomination_ obtains, accompanied by a severe test of knowledge, either active or implied. Such are the foreign office, British Museum, and board of education.
The employment of women in the civil service has been principally developed in the post office. Women are employed in the post office as female clerks, counter clerks, telegraphists, returners, sorters and post-mistresses all over the United Kingdom. The board of agriculture, the customs and the India office employ women. The department of agriculture, the board of education generally, the local government board, all to a certain extent employ women, whilst in the home office there are an increasing number of women inspectors of workshops and factories.
In 1881 the postmaster-general took a decided step in favour of female employment, and with the consent of the treasury instituted female clerkships. Female clerks do not come in contact with the public. Their duties are purely clerical, and entirely in the accountant-general's department at the savings bank. Their leave is one month per annum; their pension is on the ordinary civil service scale. The examination is competitive; the subjects are handwriting and spelling, arithmetic, English composition, geography, English history, French or German. Candidates must be between the ages of 18 and 20. Whether unmarried or widows they must resign on marriage. The class of girl clerks take the same subjects in a competitive examination. They must be between the ages of 16 and 18; they serve only in the Savings Bank department. If competent they can pass on later to female clerkships. The salaries of the female clerkships range from £200 to £500 in the higher grade, £55 to £190 in the 2nd class, whilst girl clerks are paid from £35 to £40, with the chance of advancement to higher posts.
The "spoils system".
_United States._--Civil service reform, like other great administrative reforms, began in America in the latter half of the 19th century. Personal and partisan government, with all the entailed evils of the patronage system, culminated in Great Britain during the reign of George III., and was one of the efficient causes of the American revolution. Trevelyan characterizes the use of patronage to influence legislation, and the giving of colonial positions as sinecures to the privileged classes and personal favourites of the administration, by saying, "It was a system which, as its one achievement of the first order, brought about the American War, and made England sick, once and for all, of the very name of personal government." It was natural that the founders of the new government in America, after breaking away from the mother-country, should strive to avoid the evils which had in a measure brought about the revolution. Their intention that the administrative officers of the government should hold office during good behaviour is manifest, and was given thorough and practical effect by every administration during the first forty years of the life of the government. The constitution fixed no term of office in the executive branch of the government except those of president and vice-president; and Madison, the expounder of the constitution, held that the wanton removal of a meritorious officer was an impeachable offence. Not until nine years after the passage of the Four Years' Tenure of Office Act in 1820 was there any material departure from this traditional policy of the government. This act (suggested by an appointing officer who wished to use the power it gave in order to secure his own nomination for the presidency, and passed without debate and apparently without any adequate conception of its full effect) opened the doors of the service to all the evils of the "spoils system." The foremost statesmen of the time were not slow to perceive the baleful possibilities of this legislation, Jefferson,[1] Webster, Clay, Calhoun, Benton and many others being recorded as condemning and deploring it in the strongest terms. The transition to the "spoils system" was not, however, immediate, and for the next nine years the practice of reappointing all meritorious officers was practically universal; but in 1829 this practice ceased, and the act of 1820 lent the sanction of law to the system of proscriptions which followed, which was a practical application of the theory that "to the victor belong the spoils of the enemy." In 1836 the provisions of this law, which had at first been confined mainly to officers connected with the collection of revenue, were extended to include also all postmasters receiving a compensation of $1000 per annum or more. It rapidly became the practice to regard all these four years' tenure offices as agencies not so much for the transaction of the public business as for the advancement of political ends. The revenue service from being used for political purposes merely came to be used for corrupt purposes as well, with the result that in one administration frauds were practised upon the government to the extent of $75,000,000. The corrupting influences permeated the whole body politic. Political retainers were selected for appointment not on account of their ability to do certain work but because they were followers of certain politicians; these "public servants" acknowledged no obligation except to those politicians, and their public duties, if not entirely disregarded, were negligently and inefficiently performed. Thus grew a saturnalia of spoils and corruption which culminated in the assassination of a president.
Law of 1883.
Acute conditions, not theories, give rise to reforms. In the congressional election of November 1882, following the assassination of President Garfield as an incident in the operation of the spoils system, the voice of the people commanding reform was unmistakable. Congress assembled in December 1882, and during the same month a bill looking to the improvement of the civil service, which had been pending in the Senate for nearly two years, was finally taken up and considered by that body. In the debate upon this bill its advocates declared that it would "vastly improve the whole civil service of the country," which they characterized as being at that time "inefficient, expensive and extravagant, and in many instances corrupt."[2] This bill passed the Senate on the 27th of December 1882, and the House on the 4th of January 1883, and was signed by the president on the 16th of January 1883, coming into full operation on the 16th of July 1883. It is now the national civil service law. The fundamental principles of this law are:--(1) selection by competitive examination for all appointments to the "classified service," with a period of probationary service before absolute appointment; (2) apportionment among the states and territories, according to population, of all appointments in the departmental service at Washington; (3) freedom of all the employees of the government from any necessity to contribute to political campaign funds or to render political services. For putting these principles into effect the Civil Service Commission was created, and penalties were imposed for the solicitation or collection from government employees of contributions for political purposes, and for the use of official positions in coercing political action. The commission, in addition to its regular duties of aiding in the preparation of civil service rules, of regulating and holding examinations, and certifying the results thereof for use in making appointments, and of keeping records of all changes in the service, was given authority to investigate and report upon any violations of the act or rules. The "classified" service to which the act applies has grown, by the action of successive presidents in progressively including various branches of tne service within it, from 13,924 positions in 1883 to some 80,000 (in round numbers) in 1900, constituting about 40% of the entire civil service of the government and including practically all positions above the grade of mere labourer or workman to which appointment is _not_ made directly by the president with the consent of the Senate.[3] A very large class to which the act is expressly applicable, and which has been partly brought within its provisions by executive action, is that of fourth-class postmasters, of whom there are between 70,000 and 80,000 (about 15,000 classified in 1909).
In order to provide registers of eligibles for the various grades of positions in the classified service, the United States Civil Service Commission holds annually throughout the country about 300 different kinds of examinations. In the work of preparing these examinations and of marking the papers of competitors in them the commission is authorized by law to avail itself, in addition to its own corps of trained men, of the services of the scientific and other experts in the various executive departments. In the work of holding the examinations it is aided by about 1300 local boards of examiners, which are its local representatives throughout the country and are located at the principal post offices, custom houses and other government offices, being composed of three or more Federal employees in those offices. About 50,000 persons annually compete in these examinations, and about 10,000 of those who are successful receive appointments through regular certification. Persons thus appointed, however, must serve six months "on probation" before their appointment can be made absolute. At the end of this probation, if his service has not been satisfactory, the appointee is simply dropped; and the fact that less than 1% of those appointed prove thus deficient on trial is high testimony to the practical nature of the examinations held by the commission, and to their aptness for securing persons qualified for all classes of positions.
The effects of the Civil Service Act within the scope of its actual operation have amply justified the hopes and promises of its advocates. After its passage, absentee holders of lucrative appointments were required to report for duty or to sever their connexion with the service. Improved methods were adopted in the departments, and superfluous and useless work was no longer devised in order to provide a show of employment and a _locus standi_ for the parasites upon the public service. Individual clerks were required, and by reason of the new conditions were enabled, to do more and better work; and this, coupled with the increase in efficiency in the service on account of new blood coming in through the examinations, made possible an actual decrease in the force required in many offices, notwithstanding the natural growth in the amount of work to be done.[4] Experience proves that the desire to create new and unnecessary positions was in direct proportion to the power to control them, for where the act has taken away this power of control the desire had disappeared naturally. There is no longer any desire on the part of heads of departments to increase the number or salaries of classified positions which would fall by law within the civil service rules and be subject to competitive examinations. Thus the promises of improvement and economy in the service have been fulfilled.
The chief drawback to the full success of the act within its intended scope of operation has been the withholding of certain positions in the service from the application of the vital principle of competition. The Civil Service Act contemplated no exceptions, within the limits to which it was made applicable, to the general principle of competition upon merit for entrance to the service. In framing the first civil service rules, however, in 1883, the president, yielding to the pressure of the heads of some of the departments, and against the urgent protest of the Civil Service Commission, excepted from the requirement of examination large numbers of positions in the higher grades of the service, chiefly fiduciary and administrative positions such as cashiers, chief clerks and chiefs of division. These positions being thus continued under the absolute control of the appointing officer, the effect of their exception from examination was to retain just that much of the old or "spoils" system within the nominal jurisdiction of the new or "merit" system. Even more: under the old system, while appointments from the outside had been made regardless of fitness, still those appointments had been made in the lower grades, the higher positions being filled by promotion within the service, usually of the most competent, but under the new system with its exceptions, while appointments to the lower grades were filled on the basis of merit, the pressure for spoils at each change of administration forced inexperienced, political or personal favourites in at the top. This blocked promotions and demoralized the service. Thus, while the general effect of the act was to limit very greatly the number of vicious appointments, at the same time the effect of these exceptions was to confine them to the upper grades, where the demoralizing effect of each upon the service would be a maximum. By constant efforts the Civil Service Commission succeeded in having position after position withdrawn from this excepted class, until by the action of the president, on the 6th of May 1896, it was finally reduced almost to a minimum. By subsequent presidential action, however, on the 29th of May 1899, the excepted class was again greatly extended.[5]
A further obstacle to the complete success of the merit system, and one which prevents the carrying forward of the reform to the extent to which it has been carried in Great Britain, is inherent in the Civil Service Act itself. All postmasters who receive compensation of $1000 or more per annum, and all collectors of customs and collectors of internal revenue, are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate, and are therefore, by express provision of the act, not "required to be classified." The universal practice of treating these offices as political agencies instead of as administrative business offices is therefore not limited by the act. Such officers are active in political work throughout the country, and their official position adds greatly to their power to affect the political prospects of the leaders in their districts. Accordingly the Senate, from being, as originally intended, merely a confirming body as to these officers, has become in a large measure, actually if not formally, a nominating body, and holds with tenacity to the power thus acquired by the individual senators. Thorough civil service reform requires that these positions also, and all those of fourth-class postmasters (partly classified by order of 1st Dec. 1908), be made subject to the merit system, for in them is the real remaining stronghold of the spoils system. Even though all their subordinates be appointed through examination, it will be impossible to carry the reform to ultimate and complete success so long as the officers in charge are appointed mainly for political reasons and are changed with every change of administration.
The purpose of the act to protect the individual employees in the service from the rapacity of the "political barons" has been measurably, if not completely, successful. The power given the Civil Service Commission, to investigate and report upon violations of the law, has been used to bring to light such abuses as the levying of political contributions, and to set the machinery of the law in motion against them. While comparatively few actual prosecutions have been brought about, and although the penalties imposed by the act for this offence have been but seldom inflicted, still the publicity given to all such cases by the commission's investigations has had a wholesome deterrent effect. Before the passage of the act, positions were as a general rule held upon a well-understood lease-tenure, the political contributions for them being as securely and as certainly collected as any rent. Now, however, it can be said that these forced contributions have almost entirely disappeared. The efforts which are still made to collect political funds from government employees in evasion of the law are limited in the main to persuasion to make "voluntary" contributions, and it has been possible so to limit and obstruct these efforts that their practical effect upon the character of the service is now very small.
State examination.
The same evils that the Federal Civil Service Act was designed to remedy exist to a large degree in many of the state governments, and are especially aggravated in the administration of the local governments of some of the larger cities. The chief, if not the only, test of fitness for office in many cases has been party loyalty, honesty and capacity being seldom more than secondary considerations. The result has been the fostering of dishonesty and extravagance, which have brought weakness and gross corruption into the administration of the local governments. In consequence of this there has been a constantly growing tendency, among the more intelligent class of citizens, to demand that honest business methods be applied to local public service, and that appointments be made on the basis of intelligence and capacity, rather than of party allegiance. The movement for the reform of the civil service of cities is going hand in hand with the movement for general municipal reform, those reformers regarding the merit system of appointments as not merely the necessary and only safe bulwark to preserve the results of their labours, but also as the most efficient means for bringing about other reforms. Hence civil service reform is given a leading position in all programmes for the reform of state and municipal governments. This has undoubtedly been due, in the first instance, at least, to the success which attended the application of the merit system to the Federal service, municipal and state legislation following in the wake of the national civil service law. In New York an act similar to the Federal Civil Service Act was passed on the 4th of May 1883, and in 1894 the principles of the merit system were introduced by an amendment into the state constitution, and made applicable to cities and villages as well. In Massachusetts an act was passed on the 3rd of June 1884 which in its general features was based upon the Federal act and the New York act. Similar laws were passed in Illinois and Wisconsin in 1895, and in New Jersey in 1908; the laws provide for the adoption of the merit system in state and municipal government. In New Orleans, La., and in Seattle, Wash., the merit system was introduced by an amendment to the city charter in 1896. The same result was accomplished by New Haven, Conn., in 1897, and by San Francisco, Cal., in 1899. In still other cities the principles of the merit system have been enacted into law, in some cases applying to the entire service and in others to only a part of it.
The application of the merit system to state and municipal governments has proved successful wherever it has been given a fair trial.[6] As experience has fostered public confidence in the system, and at the same time shown those features of the law which are most vulnerable, and the best means for fortifying them, numerous and important improvements upon the pioneer act applying to the Federal service have been introduced in the more recent legislation. This is particularly true of the acts now in force in New York (passed in 1899) and in Chicago. The power of the commission to enforce these acts is materially greater than the power possessed by the Federal commission. In making investigations they are not confined to taking the testimony of voluntary witnesses, but may administer oaths, and compel testimony and the production of books and papers where necessary; and in taking action they are not confined to the making of a report of the findings in their investigations, but may themselves, in many cases, take final judicial action. Further than this, the payment of salaries is made dependent upon the certificate of the commission that the appointments of the recipients were made in accordance with the civil service law and rules. Thus these commissions have absolute power to prevent irregular or illegal appointments by refractory appointing officers. Their powers being so much greater than those of the national commission, their action can be much more drastic in most cases, and they can go more directly to the heart of an existing abuse, and apply more quickly and effectually the needed remedy.
Upon the termination of the Spanish-American War, the necessity for the extension of the principles of the merit system to the new territories, the responsibility for whose government the results of this war had thrown upon the United States, was realized. By the acts providing for civil government in Porto Rico (April 12th, 1900) and Hawaii (April 30th, 1900), the provisions of the Civil Service Act and Rules were applied to those islands. Under this legislation the classification applies to all positions which are analogous to positions in the Federal service, those which correspond to positions in the municipal and state governments being considered as local in character, and not included in the classification.
On the 19th of September 1900 the United States Philippine Commission passed an act "for the establishment and maintenance of an efficient and honest civil service in the Philippine Islands." This act, in its general features, is based upon the national civil service law, but includes also a number of the stronger points to be found in the state and municipal law mentioned above. Among these are the power given the civil service board to administer oaths, summon witnesses, and require the production of official records; and the power to stop payment of salaries to persons illegally appointed. Promotions are determined by competitive examinations, and are made throughout the service, as there are no excepted positions. A just right of preference in local appointments is given to natives. The president of the Philippine commission in introducing this bill said: "The purpose of the United States government ... in these islands is to secure for the Filipino people as honest and as efficient a government as may be possible.... It is the hope of the commission to make it possible for one entering the lowest ranks to reach the highest, under a tenure based solely upon merit." Judging by past experience it is believed that this law is well adapted to accomplish the purpose above stated.
For fuller information upon the details of the present workings of the merit system in the Federal service, recourse should be had to the publications of the U.S. Civil Service Commission, which are to be found in the public libraries in all the principal cities in the United States, or which may be had free of charge upon application to the commission. The _Manual of Examinations_, published semi-annually, gives full information as to the character of the examinations held by the commission, together with the schedule of dates and places for the holding of those examinations. The _Annual Reports_ of the commission contain full statistics of the results of its work, together with comprehensive statements as to the difficulties encountered in enforcing the law, and the means used to overcome them. In the _Fifteenth Report_, pp. 443-485, will be found a very valuable historical compilation from original sources, upon the "practice of the presidents in appointments and removals in the executive civil service, from 1789 to 1883." In the same report, pp. 511-517, is a somewhat comprehensive bibliography of "civil service" in periodical literature in the 19th century, brought down to the end of 1898. See also C.R. Fish, _The Civil Service and the Patronage_ (New York, 1905).
In most European countries the civil service is recruited on much the same lines as in the United Kingdom and the United States, that is, either by examination or by nomination or by both. In some cases the examination is purely competitive, in other cases, as in France, holders of university degrees get special privileges, such as being put at the head of the list, or going up a certain number of places; or, as in Germany, many departmental posts are filled by nomination, combined with the results of general examinations, either at school or university. In the publications of the United States Department of Labour and Commerce for 1904-1905 will be found brief details of the systems adopted by the various foreign countries for appointing their civil service employees.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] See letter to Monroe, November 29th, 1820, Jefferson's _Writings_, vii. 190. A quotation from this letter is given at p. 454 of the _Fifteenth Report of the U.S. Civil Service Commission_.
[2] See _Senate Report No. 576_, 47th Congress, 1st session; also _U.S. Civil Service Commission's Third Report_, p. 16 et seq., _Tenth Report_, pp. 136, 137, and _Fifteenth Report_, pp. 483, 484.
[3] The progressive classification of the executive civil service, showing the growth of the merit system, is discussed, with statistics, in the _U.S. Civil Service Commission's Sixteenth Report_, pp. 129-137. A revision of this discussion, with important additions, appears in the _Seventeenth Report_.
[4] For details justifying these statements, see _U.S. Civil Service Commission's Fourteenth Report_, pp. 12-14.
[5] For the scope of these exceptions, see Civil Service Rule VI., at p. 57 of the _U.S. Civil Service Commission's Fifteenth and Sixteenth Reports_. A statement of the number of positions actually affected by this action of the president appears in the _Seventeenth Report_.
[6] In the _U.S. Civil Service Commission's Fifteenth Report_, pp. 489-502, the "growth of the civil service reform in states and cities" is historically treated, briefly, but with some thoroughness.
CIVITA CASTELLANA (anc. _Falerii_, q.v.), a town and episcopal see of the province of Rome, 45 m. by rail from the city of Rome (the station is 5 m. N.E. of the town). Population (1901) 5265. The cathedral of S. Maria possesses a fine portico, erected in 1210 by Laurentius Romanus, his son Jacobus and his grandson Cosmas, in the cosmatesque style, with ancient columns and mosaic decorations: the interior was modernized in the 18th century, but has some fragments of cosmatesque ornamentation. The citadel was erected by Pope Alexander VI. from the designs of Antonio da Sangallo the elder, and enlarged by Julius II. and Leo X. The lofty bridge by which the town is approached belongs to the 18th century. Mount Soracte lies about 6 m. to the south-east.
CIVITA VECCHIA, a seaport town and episcopal see of Italy, in the province of Rome, 50 m. N.W. by rail and 35 m. direct from the city of Rome. Pop. (1871) 8143; (1901) 17,589. It is the ancient _Centum Cellae_, founded by Trajan. Interesting descriptions of it are given by Pliny the Younger (_Epist._ vi. 31) and Rutilius Namat. i. 237. The modern harbour works rest on the ancient foundations, and near it the cemetery of detachments of the _Classes Misenensis_ and _Ravennas_ has been found (_Corp. Inscr. Lat._ vol. xi., Berlin, 1888, pp. 3520 seq.). Remains of an aqueduct and other Roman buildings are preserved; the imperial family had a villa here. Procopius mentions it in the 6th century as a strong and populous place, but it was destroyed in 813 by the Saracens. Leo IV. erected a new city for the inhabitants on the site where they had taken refuge, about 8 m. N.N.E. of Civita Vecchia towards the hills, near La Farnesina, where its ruins may still be seen; the city walls and some of the streets and buildings may be traced, and an inscription (which must have stood over one of the city gates) recording its foundation has been discovered. It continued to exist under the name Cencelle as a feudal castle until the 15th century. In the meantime, however, the inhabitants returned to the old town by the shore in 889 and rebuilt it, giving it the name Civitas Vetus, the modern Civita Vecchia (see O. Marucchi in _Nuovo Bullettino di archeologia cristiana_, vi., 1900, p. 195 seq.). In 1508 Pope Julius II. began the construction of the castle from the designs of Bramante, Michelangelo being responsible for the addition of the central tower. It is considered by Burckhardt the finest building of its kind. Pius IV. added a convict prison. The arsenal was built by Alexander VII. and designed by Bernini. Civita Vecchia was the chief port of the Papal State and has still a considerable trade. There are cement factories in the town, and calcium carbide is an important article of export. The principal imports are coal, cattle for the home markets, and fire-bricks from the United Kingdom. Three miles N.E. were the _Aquae Tauri_, warm springs, now known as _Bagni della Ferrata_: considerable remains of the Roman baths are still preserved. About 1 m. W. of these are other hot springs, those of the _Ficoncella_, also known in Roman times.
CLACKMANNAN, the county town of Clackmannanshire, Scotland. Pop. 1505. It lies near the north bank of the Forth, 2 m. E. of Alloa, with two stations on the North British railway. Among the public buildings are the parish church, the tower of which, standing on a commanding eminence, is a conspicuous landmark. Clackmannan Tower is now a picturesque ruin, but at one time played an important part in Scottish history, and was the seat of a lineal descendant of the Bruce family after the failure of the male line. The old market cross still exists, and close to it stands the stone that gives the town its name (Gaelic, _clach_, stone; Manann, the name of the district). A large spinning-mill and coalpits lend a modern touch in singular contrast with the quaint, old-world aspect of the place. About 1 m. to the S.E. is Kennet House, the seat of Lord Balfour of Burleigh, another member of the Bruce family.
CLACKMANNANSHIRE, the smallest county in Scotland, bounded S.W. by the Forth, W. by Stirlingshire, N.N.E. and N.W. by Perthshire, and E. by Fifeshire. It has an area of 35,160 acres, or about 55 sq. m. An elevated ridge starting on the west, runs through the middle of the county, widening gradually till it reaches the eastern boundary, and skirting the alluvial or carse lands in the valleys of the Forth and Devon. Still farther to the N. the Ochil hills form a picturesque feature in the landscape, having their generally verdant surface broken by bold projecting rocks and deeply indented ravines. The principal summits are within the limits of the shire, among them Ben Cleuch (2363 ft.), King's Seat (2111 ft.), Whitewisp (2110 ft.), the Law (above Tillicoultry, 2094 ft.) and Blairdenon (2072 ft.), on the northern slope, in which the river Devon takes its rise. The rivers of importance are the Devon and the Black or South Devon. The former, noted in the upper parts for its romantic scenery and its excellent trout-fishing, runs through the county near the base of the Ochils, and falls into the Forth at the village of Cambus, after a winding course of 33 m., although as the crow flies its source is only 5 1/4 m. distant. The Black Devon, rising in the Cleish Hills, flows westwards in a direction nearly parallel to that of the Devon, and falls into the Forth near Clackmannan. It supplies motive power to numbers of mills and collieries; and its whole course is over coal strata. The Forth is navigable as far as it forms the boundary of the county, and ships of 500 tons burden run up as far as Alloa. The only lake is Gartmorn, 1 m. long by about 1/3 of a mile broad, which has been dammed in order to furnish water to Alloa and power to mills. The Ochils are noted for the number of their glens. Though these are mostly small, they are well wooded and picturesque, and those at Menstrie, Alva, Tillicoultry and Dollar are particularly beautiful.
_Geology._--This county is divided geologically into two areas, the boundary line skirting the southern margin of the Ochils and running westwards from a point north of Dollar by Alva in the direction of Airthrev in Stirlingshire. The northern portion forms part of the volcanic range of the Ochils which belongs to the Old Red Sandstone period, and consists of a great succession of lavas--basalts and andesites--with intercalations of tuff and agglomerate. As the rocks dip gently towards the north and form the highest ground in the county they must reach a great thickness. They are pierced by small intrusive masses of diorite, north of Tillicoultry House. The well-marked feature running E. and W. along the southern base of the Ochils indicates a line of fault or dislocation which abruptly truncates the Lower Old Red volcanic rocks and brings down an important development of Carboniferous strata occupying the southern part of the county. These belong mainly to the Coal-measures and comprise a number of valuable coal-seams which have been extensively worked. The Clackmannan field is the northern continuation of the great Lanarkshire basin which extends northwards by Slamannan, Falkirk and the Carron Ironworks to Alloa. Along the eastern margin between Cairnmuir and Brucefield the underlying Millstone Grit, consisting mainly of false-bedded sandstones, comes to the surface. Close to the river Devon south of Dollar the Vicars Bridge Limestone, which there marks the top of the Carboniferous Limestone series, rises from beneath the Millstone Grit. The structure of the Clackmannan field is interesting. The strata are arranged in synclinal form, the highest seams being found near the Devon ironworks, and they are traversed by a series of parallel east and west faults each with a downthrow to the south, whereby the coals are repeated and the field extended. During mining operations evidence has been obtained of the existence of a buried river-channel, filled with boulder clay and stratified deposits along the course of the Devon, which extends below the present sea-level and points to greater elevation of the land in pre-glacial time. An excellent example of a dolerite dyke trending slightly north of west occurs in the north part of the county where it traverses the volcanic rocks of Lower Old Red Sandstone age.
_Industries._--The soil is generally productive and well cultivated, though the greater part of the elevated range which is interposed between the carse lands on the Forth and the vale of Devon at the base of the Ochils on the north consists of inferior soils, often lying upon an impervious clay. Oats are the chief crop, but wheat and barley are profitably grown. Sheep-farming is successfully pursued, the Ochils affording excellent pasturage, and cattle, pigs and horses are also raised. There is a small tract of moorland in the east, called the Forest, bounded on its northern margin by the Black Devon. Iron-ore (haematite), copper, silver, lead, cobalt and arsenic have all been discovered in small quantity in the Ochils, between Alva and Dollar. Ironstone--found either in beds, or in oblate balls embedded in slaty clay, and yielded from 25 to 30% of iron--is mined for the Devon iron-works, near Clackmannan. Coal has been mined for a long period. The strata which compose the field are varieties of sandstone, shale, fire-clay and argillaceous ironstone. There is a heavy continuous output of coal at the mines at Sauchie, Fishcross, Coalsnaughton, Devonside, Clackmannan and other pits. The spinning-mills at Alloa, Tillicoultry and Alva are always busy, Alloa yarns and fingering being widely famous. The distilleries at Glenochil and Carsebridge and the breweries in Alloa and Cambus do a large export business. The minor trades include glass-blowing, pottery, coopering, tanning, iron-founding, electrical apparatus making, ship-building and paper-making.
The north British railway serves the whole county, while the Caledonian has access to Alloa.
_Population and Government._--The population was 33,140 in 1891 and 32,029 in 1901, when 170 persons spoke Gaelic and English and one person Gaelic only. The county unites with Kinross-shire in returning one member to parliament. Clackmannan (pop. 1505) is the county town, but Alloa (14,458), Alva (4624), and Tillicoultry (3338) take precedence in population and trade. Menstrie (pop. 898) near Alloa has a large furniture factory and the great distillery of Glenochil. To the north-east of Alloa is the thriving mining village of Sauchie. Clackmannan forms a sheriffdom with Stirling and Dumbarton shires, and a sheriff-substitute sits at Alloa. Most of the schools in the shire are under school-board control, but there are a few voluntary schools, besides an exceptionally well-equipped technical school in Alloa and a well-known academy at Dollar.
See James Wallace, _The Sheriffdom of Clackmannan: a Sketch of its History_ (Edinburgh, 1890); D. Beveridge, _Between the Ochils and the Forth_ (Edinburgh, 1888); John Crawford, _Memorials of Alloa_ (1885); William Gibson, _Reminiscences of Dollar, Tillicoultry_,
CLACTON-ON-SEA, a watering-place in the Harwich parliamentary division of Essex, England; 71 m. E.N.E. from London by a branch from Colchester of the Great Eastern railway; served also by steamers from London in the summer months. Pop. of urban district (1901) 7456. Clay cliffs of slight altitude rise from the sandy beach and face south-eastward. In the neighbourhood, however, marshes fringe the shore. The church of Great Clacton, at the village 1½ m. inland, is Norman and later, and of considerable interest. Clacton is provided with a pier, promenade and marine parade; and is the seat of various convalescent and other homes.
CLADEL, LÉON (1835-1892), French novelist, was born at Montauban (Tarn-et-Garonne) on the 13th of March 1835. The son of an artisan, he studied law at Toulouse and became a solicitor's clerk in Paris. He made a reputation in a limited circle by his first book, _Les Martyrs ridicules_ (1862), a novel for which Charles Baudelaire, whose literary disciple Cladel was, wrote a preface. He then returned to his native district of Quercy, where he produced a series of pictures of peasant life in _Eral le dompteur_ (1865), _Le Nommé Qouael_ (1868) and other volumes. Returning to Paris he published the two novels which are generally acknowledged as his best work, _Le Bouscassié_ (1869) and _La Fête votive de Saint Bartholomée Porte-glaive_ (1872). _Une Maudite_ (1876) was judged dangerous to the public morals and cost its author a month's imprisonment. Other works by Cladel are _Les Va-nu-pieds_ (1873), a volume of short stories; _N'a qu'un oeil_ (1882), _Urbains et ruraux_ (1884), _Gueux de marque_ (1887), and the posthumous _Juive errante_ (1897). He died at Sèvres on the 20th of July 1892.
See _La Vie de Léon Cladel_ (Paris, 1905), by his daughter Judith Cladel, containing also an article on Cladel by Edmond Picard, a complete list of his works, and of the critical articles on his work.
CLAFLIN, HORACE BRIGHAM (1811-1885), American merchant, was born in Milford, Massachusetts, on the 18th of December 1811. He was educated at Milford Academy, became a clerk in his father's store in Milford, and in 1831, with his brother Aaron and his brother-in-law Samuel Daniels, succeeded to his father's business. In 1832 the firm opened a branch store in Worcester, Mass., and in 1833 Horace B. Claflin and Daniels secured the sole control of this establishment and restricted their dealing to dry goods. In 1843 Claflin removed to New York City and became a member of the firm of Bulkley & Claflin, wholesale dry goods merchants. In 1851 and in 1864 the firm was reorganized, being designated in these respective years as Claflin, Mellin & Company and H.B. Claflin & Company. Under Claflin's management the business increased so rapidly that the sales for a time after 1865 probably exceeded those of any other mercantile house in the world. Though the firm was temporarily embarrassed at the beginning of the Civil War, on account of its large business interests in the South, and during the financial panic of 1873, the promptness with which Mr Claflin met these crises and paid every dollar of his liabilities greatly increased his reputation for business ability and integrity. He died at Fordham, New York, on the 14th of November 1885.
CLAIRAULT (or CLAIRAUT), ALEXIS CLAUDE (1713-1765), French mathematician, was born on the 13th or 7th of May 1713, at Paris, where his father was a teacher of mathematics. Under his father's tuition he made such rapid progress in mathematical studies that in his thirteenth year he read before the French Academy an account of the properties of four curves which he had then discovered. When only sixteen he finished a treatise, _Recherches sur les courbes à double courbure_, which, on its publication in 1731, procured his admission into the Academy of Sciences, although even then he was below the legal age. In 1736, together with Pierre Louis Maupertuis, he took part in the expedition to Lapland, which was undertaken for the purpose of estimating a degree of the meridian, and on his return he published his treatise _Théorie de la figure de la terre_ (1743). In this work he promulgated the theorem, known as "Clairault's theorem," which connects the gravity at points on the surface of a rotating ellipsoid with the compression and the centrifugal force at the equator (see EARTH, FIGURE OF THE). He obtained an ingenious approximate solution of the problem of the three bodies; in 1750 he gained the prize of the St Petersburg Academy for his essay _Théorie de la lune_; and in 1759 he calculated the perihelion of Halley's comet. He also detected singular solutions in differential equations of the first order, and of the second and higher degrees. Clairault died at Paris, on the 17th of May 1765.
CLAIRON, LA (1723-1803), French actress, whose real name was CLAIRE JOSEPH HIPPOLYTE LERIS, was born at Condé sur l'Escaut, Hainaut, on the 25th of January 1723, the natural daughter of any army sergeant. In 1736 she made her first stage appearance at the Comédie Italienne, in a small part in Marivaux's _Île des esclaves_. After several years in the provinces she returned to Paris. Her life, meanwhile, had been decidedly irregular, even if not to the degree indicated by the libellous pamphlet _Histoire de la demoiselle Cronel, dite Frétillon, actrice de la Comédie de Rouen, écrite par elle-même_ (The Hague, 1746), or to be inferred from the disingenuousness of her own _Mémoires d'Hippolyte Clairon_ (1798); and she had great difficulty in obtaining an order to make her _début_ at the Comédie Française. Succeeding, however, at last, she had the courage to select the title-rôle of _Phèdre_ (1743), and she obtained a veritable triumph. During her twenty-two years at this theatre, dividing the honours with her rival Mlle Dumesnil, she filled many of the classical rôles of tragedy, and created a great number of parts in the plays of Voltaire, Marmontel, Saurin, de Belloy and others. She retired in 1766, and trained pupils for the stage, among them Mlle Raucourt. Goldsmith called Mlle Clairon "the most perfect female figure I have ever seen on any stage" (_The Bee_, 2nd No.); and Garrick, while recognizing her unwillingness or inability to make use of the inspiration of the instant, admitted that "she has everything that art and a good understanding with great natural spirit can give her."
CLAIRVAUX, a village of north-eastern France, in the department of Aube, 40 m. E.S.E. of Troyes on the Eastern railway to Belfort. Clairvaux (_Clara Vallis_) is situated in the valley of the Aube on the eastern border of the Forest of Clairvaux. Its celebrity is due to the abbey founded in 1115 by St Bernard, which became the centre of the Cistercian order. The buildings (see ABBEY) belong for the most part to the 18th century, but there is a large storehouse which dates from the 12th century. The abbey, suppressed at the Revolution, now serves as a prison, containing on an average 800 inmates, who are employed in agricultural and industrial occupations. Clairvaux has iron-works of some importance.
CLAIRVOYANCE (Fr. for "clear-seeing"), a technical term in psychical research, properly equivalent to lucidity, a supernormal power of obtaining knowledge in which no part is played by (_a_) the ordinary processes of sense-perception or (_b_) supernormal communication with other intelligences, incarnate, or discarnate. The word is also used, sometimes qualified by the word _telepathic_, to mean the power of gaining supernormal knowledge from the mind of another (see TELEPATHY). It is further commonly used by spiritualists to mean the power of seeing spirit forms, or, more vaguely, of discovering facts by some supernormal means.
_Lucidity._--Few experiments have been made to test the existence of this faculty. If communications from discarnate minds are regarded as possible, there are no means of distinguishing facts obtained in this way from facts obtained by independent clairvoyance. In practice no evidence has been obtained pointing to the possession by a discarnate spirit of knowledge not possessed by any living person (see MEDIUM). As explanation of the few successful experiments in independent clairvoyance we have the choice of three explanations: (1) lucidity; (2) telepathy from living persons; (3) hyperaesthesia. The second possibility was overlooked in Richet's diagram experiments; it cannot be assumed that a picture put into an envelope and not consciously recalled has been in reality forgotten. Similarly the clairvoyant diagnosis of diseases may depend on knowledge gained telepathically from the patient, who may be subliminally aware of diseased states of the body. The most elaborate experiments are by Prof. Richet with a hypnotized subject who succeeded in naming twelve cards out of sixty-eight. But no precautions were taken against hyperaesthesia further than enclosing the card in a second envelope. There is a power possessed by a certain number of people, of naming a card drawn by them or held in the hand face downwards, so that there is no normal knowledge of its suit and number. Few thorough trials have been made; but it seems to point to some kind of hyperaesthesia rather than to clairvoyance; in the Richet experiments even if the envelopes excluded hyperaesthesia of touch on the part of the medium, there may have been subliminal knowledge on Prof. Richet's part of the card which he put in the envelope. The experience known as the _déjà vu_ has sometimes been explained as due to clairvoyance.
_Telepathic Clairvoyance._--For a discussion of this see TELEPATHY and CRYSTAL-GAZING. It may be noted here that some curious relation seems to exist between apparently telepathic acquisition of knowledge and the arrival of a letter, newspaper, &c, from which the same knowledge could be directly gained. We are confronted with a similar problem in attempting an explanation of the power of mediums to state correctly facts relating to objects placed in their hands. Of a somewhat different character is retrocognition (_q.v._), where the knowledge in many cases, if telepathic, must be derived from a discarnate mind.
Clairvoyance, as a term of spiritualism, with its correlative _clairaudience_, is the name given to the power of seeing and hearing discarnate spirits of dead relatives and others, with whom the living are said to be surrounded. More vaguely it includes the power of gaining knowledge, either through the spirit world or by means of psychometry (i.e. the supernormal acquisition of knowledge about owners of objects, writers of letters, &c). Some evidence for these latter powers has been accumulated by the Society for Psychical Research, but in many cases the piecing together of normally acquired knowledge, together with shrewd guessing, suffices to explain the facts, especially where the investigator has had no special training for his task.
See Richet, _Experimentelle Studien_ (1891); also in _Proc. S.P.R._ vi. 66. For a criticism see N.W. Thomas, _Thought Transference_, pp. 44-48. For Clairvoyance in general see F.W.H. Myers, _Human Personality_, and in _Proc. S.P.R._ xi. 334 et seq. For a criticism of the evidence see Mrs Sidgwick in _Proc. S.P.R._ vii. 30, 356. (N. W. T.)
CLAMECY, a town of central France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Nièvre, at the confluence of the Yonne and Beuvron and on the Canal du Nivernais, 46 m. N.N.E. of Nevers on the Paris-Lyon railway. Pop. (1906) 4455. Its principal building is the church of St Martin, which dates chiefly from the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries. The tower and façade are of the 16th century. The chevet, which is surrounded by an aisle, is rectangular--a feature found in few French churches. Of the old castle of the counts of Nevers, vaulted cellars alone remain. A church in the suburb of Bethlehem, dating from the 12th and 13th centuries, now serves as part of an hotel. The public institutions include the sub-prefecture, tribunals of first instance and of commerce and a communal college. Among the industrial establishments are saw-mills, fulling-mills and flour-mills, tanneries and manufactories of boots and shoes and chemicals; and there is considerable trade in wine and cattle and in wood and charcoal, which is conveyed principally to Paris, by way of the Yonne.
In the early middle ages Clamecy belonged to the abbey of St Julian at Auxerre; in the 11th century it passed to the counts of Nevers, one of whom, Hervé, enfranchised the inhabitants in 1213. After the capture of Jerusalem by Saladin in 1188, Clamecy became the seat of the bishops of Bethlehem, who till the Revolution resided in the hospital of Panthenor, bequeathed by William IV., count of Nevers. On the _coup d'état_ of 1851 an insurrection broke out in the town, and was repressed by the new authorities with great severity.
CLAN (Gaelic _clann_, O. Ir. _cland_, connected with Lat. _planta_, shoot or scion, the ancient Gaelic or Goidelic substituting k for p), a group of people united by common blood, and usually settled in a common habitat. The clan system existed in Ireland and the Highlands of Scotland from early times. In its strictest sense the system was peculiar to those countries, but, in its wider meaning of a group of kinsmen forming a self-governing community, the system as represented by the village community has been shown by Sir H. Maine and others to have existed at one time or another in all lands.
Before the use of surnames and elaborate written genealogies, a tribe in its definite sense was called in Celtic a _tuath_, a word of wide affinities, from a root _tu_, to grow, to multiply, existing in all European languages. When the tribal system began to be broken up by conquest and by the rise of towns and of territorial government, the use of a common surname furnished a new bond for keeping up a connexion between kindred. The head of a tribe or smaller group of kindred selected some ancestor and called himself his _Ua_, grandson, or as it has been anglicized _O', e.g. Ua Conchobair_ (O' Conor), _Ua Suilleabhain_ (O'Sullivan). All his kindred adopted the same name, the chief using no fore-name however. The usual mode of distinguishing a person before the introduction of surnames was to name his father and grandfather, e.g. Owen, son of Donal, son of Dermot. This naturally led some to form their surnames with _Mac_, son, instead of _Ua_, grandson, e.g. _MacCarthaigh_, son of _Carthach_ (MacCarthy), _MacRuaidhri_, son of Rory (Macrory). Both methods have been followed in Ireland, but in Scotland _Mac_ came to be exclusively used. The adoption of such genealogical surnames fostered the notion that all who bore the same surname were kinsmen, and hence the genealogical term _clann_, which properly means the descendants of some progenitor, gradually became synonymous with _tuath_, tribe. Like all purely genealogical terms, _clann_ may be used in the limited sense of a particular tribe governed by a chief, or in that of many tribes claiming descent from a common ancestor. In the latter sense it was synonymous with _síl, siol_, seed e.g. _Siol Alpine_, a great clan which included the smaller clans of the Macgregors, Grants, Mackinnons, Macnabs, Macphies, Macquarries and Macaulays.
The clan system in the most archaic form of which we have any definite information can be best studied in the Irish _tuath_, or tribe.[1] This consisted of two classes: (1) tribesmen, and (2) a miscellaneous class of slaves, criminals, strangers and their descendants. The first class included tribesmen by blood in the male line, including all illegitimate children acknowledged by their fathers, and tribesmen by adoption or sons of tribeswomen by strangers, foster-sons, men who had done some signal service to the tribe, and lastly the descendants of the second class after a certain number of generations. Each _tuath_ had a chief called a _ríg_, king, a word cognate with the Gaulish _ríg-s_ or _rix_, the Latin _reg-s_ or _rex_, and the Old Norse _rik-ir_. The tribesmen formed a number of communities, each of which, like the tribe itself, consisted of a head, _ceann fine_, his kinsmen, slaves and other retainers. This was the _fine_, or sept. Each of these occupied a certain part of the tribe-land, the arable part being cultivated under a system of co-tillage, the pasture land co-grazed according to certain customs, and the wood, bog and mountains forming the marchland of the sept being the unrestricted common land of the sept. The sept was in fact a village community.
What the sept was to the tribe, the homestead was to the sept. The head of a homestead was an _aire_, a representative freeman capable of acting as a witness, compurgator and bail. These were very important functions, especially when it is borne in mind that the tribal homestead was the home of many of the kinsfolk of the head of the family as well as of his own children. The descent of property being according to a gavel-kind custom, it constantly happened that when an _aire_ died the share of his property which each member of his immediate family was entitled to receive was not sufficient to qualify him to be an _aire_. In this case the family did not divide the inheritance, but remained together as "a joint and undivided family," one of the members being elected chief of the family or household, and in this capacity enjoyed the rights and privileges of an _aire_. Sir H.S. Maine directed attention to this kind of family as an important feature of the early institutions of all Indo-European nations. Beside the "joint and undivided family," there was another kind of family which we might call "the joint family." This was a partnership composed of three or four members of a sept whose individual wealth was not sufficient to qualify each of them to be an _aire_, but whose joint wealth qualified one of the co-partners as head of the joint family to be one.
So long as there was abundance of land each family grazed its cattle upon the tribe-land without restriction; unequal increase of wealth and growth of population naturally led to its limitation, each head of a homestead being entitled to graze an amount of stock in proportion to his wealth, the size of his homestead, and his acquired position. The arable land was no doubt applotted annually at first; gradually, however, some of the richer families of the tribe succeeded in evading this exchange of allotments and converting part of the common land into an estate in sevralty. Septs were at first colonies of the tribe which settled on the march-land; afterwards the conversion of part of the common land into an estate in sevralty enabled the family that acquired it to become the parent of a new sept. The same process might, however, take place within a sept without dividing it; in other words, several members of the sept might hold part of the land of the sept as separate estate. The possession of land in sevralty introduced an important distinction into the tribal system--it created an aristocracy. An _aire_ whose family held the same land for three generations was called a _flaith_, or lord, of which rank there were several grades according to their wealth in land and chattels. The _aires_ whose wealth consisted in cattle only were called _bó-aires_, or cow-_aires_, of whom there were also several grades, depending on their wealth in stock. When a _bó-aire_ had twice the wealth of the lowest class of _flaith_ he might enclose part of the land adjoining his house as a lawn; this was the first step towards his becoming a _flaith_. The relations which subsisted between the _flaiths_ and the _bó-aires_ formed the most curious part of the Celtic tribal system, and throw a flood of light on the origin of the feudal system. Every tribesman without exception owed _ceilsinne_ to the _ríg_, or chief, that is, he was bound to become his _ceile_, or vassal. This consisted in paying the _ríg_ a tribute in kind, for which the _ceile_ was entitled to receive a proportionate amount of stock without having to give any bond for their return, giving him service, e.g. in building his _dun_, or stronghold, reaping his harvest, keeping his roads clean and in repair, killing wolves, and especially service in the field, and doing him homage three times while seated every time he made his return of tribute. Paying the "_calpe_" to the Highland chiefs represented this kind of vassalage, a _colpdach_ or heifer being in many cases the amount of food-rent paid by a free or _saer ceile_. A tribesman might, however, if he pleased, pay a higher rent on receiving more stock together with certain other chattels for which no rent was chargeable. In this case he entered into a contract, and was therefore a bond or _daer ceile_. No one need have accepted stock on these terms, nor could he do so without the consent of his sept, and he might free himself at any time from his obligation by returning what he had received, and the rent due thereon.
What every one was bound to do to his _ríg_, or chief, he might do voluntarily to the _flaith_ of his sept, to any _flaith_ of the tribe, or even to one of another tribe. He might also become a bond _ceile_. In either case he might renounce his ceileship by returning a greater or lesser amount of stock than what he had received according to the circumstances under which he terminated his vassalage. In cases of disputed succession to the chiefship of a tribe the rival claimants were always anxious to get as many as possible to become their vassals. Hence the anxiety of minor chieftains, in later times in the Highlands of Scotland, to induce the clansmen to pay the "_calpe_" where there happened to be a doubt as to who was entitled to be chief.
The effect of the custom of gavel-kind was to equalize the wealth of each and leave no one wealthy enough to be chief. The "joint and undivided family" and the formation of "joint families," or gilds, was one way of obviating this result; another way was the custom of tanistry. The headship of the tribe was practically confined to the members of one family; this was also the case with the headship of a sept. Sometimes a son succeeded his father, but the rule was that the eldest and most capable member of the _geilfine_, that is, the relatives of the actual chief to the fifth degree,[2] was selected during his lifetime to be his successor--generally the eldest surviving brother or son of the preceding chief. The man selected as successor to a chief of a tribe, or chieftain of a sept, was called the tanist, and should be "the most experienced, the most noble, the most wealthy, the wisest, the most learned, the most truly popular, the most powerful to oppose, the most steadfast to sue for profits and (be sued) for losses." In addition to these qualities he should be free from personal blemishes and deformities and of fit age to lead his tribe or sept, as the case may be, to battle.[3] So far as selecting the man of the _geilfine_ who was supposed to possess all those qualities, the office of chief of a tribe or chieftain of a sept was elective, but as the _geilfine_ was represented by four persons, together with the chief or chieftain, the election was practically confined to one of the four. In order to support the dignity of the chief or chieftain a certain portion of the tribe or sept land was attached as an apanage to the office; this land, with the _duns_ or fortified residences upon it, went to the successor, but a chief's own property might be gavelled. This custom of tanistry applied at first probably to the selection of the successors of a _ríg_, but was gradually so extended that even a _bó-aire_ had a tanist.
A sept might have only one _flaith_, or lord, connected with it, or might have several. It sometimes happened, however, that a sept might be so broken and reduced as not to have even one man qualified to rank as a _flaith_. The rank of a _flaith_ depended upon the number of his _ceiles_, that is, upon his wealth. The _flaith_ of a sept, and the highest when there was more than one, was _ceann fine_, or head of the sept, or as he was usually called in Scotland, the chieftain. He was also called the _flaith geilfine_, or head of the _geilfine_, that is, the kinsmen to the fifth degree from among whom should be chosen the tanist, and who, according to the custom of gavel-kind, were the immediate heirs who received the personal property and were answerable for the liabilities of the sept. The _flaiths_ of the different septs were the vassals of the _ríg_, or chief of the tribe, and performed certain functions which were no doubt at first individual, but in time became the hereditary right of the sept. One of those was the office of _maer_, or steward of the chief's rents, &c.;[4] and another that of _aire tuisi_, leading _aire_, or _taoisech_, a word cognate with the Latin _duc-s_ or _dux_, and Anglo-Saxon here-_tog_, leader of the "here," or army. The _taoisech_ was leader of the tribe in battle; in later times the term seems to have been extended to several offices of rank. The cadet of a Highland clan was always called the _taoisech_, which has been translated captain; after the conquest of Wales the same term, _tywysaug_, was used for a ruling prince. Slavery was very common in Ireland and Scotland; in the former slaves constituted a common element in the stipends or gifts which the higher kings gave their vassal _sub-reguli_. Female slaves, who were employed in the houses of chiefs and _flaiths_ in grinding meal with the hand-mill or quern, and in other domestic work, must have been very common, for the unit or standard for estimating the wealth of a _bó-aire_, blood-fines, &c., was called a _cumhal_, the value of which was three cows, but which literally meant a female slave. The descendants of those slaves, prisoners of war, forfeited hostages, refugees from other tribes, broken tribesmen, &c., gathered round the residence of the _ríg_ and _flaiths_, or squatted upon their march-lands, forming a motley band of retainers which made a considerable element in the population, and one of the chief sources of the wealth of chiefs and _flaiths_. The other principal source of their income was the food-rent paid by _ceiles_, and especially by the _daer_ or bond _ceiles_, who were hence called _biathachs_, from _biad_, food. A _flaith_, but not a _ríg_, might, if he liked, go to the house of his _ceile_ and consume his food-rent in the house of the latter.
Under the influence of feudal ideas and the growth of the modern views as to ownership of land, the chiefs and other lords of clans claimed in modern times the right of best owing the tribe-land as _turcrec_, instead of stock, and receiving rent not for cattle and other chattels as in former times, but proportionate to the extent of land given to them. The _turcrec_-land seems to have been at first given upon the same terms as _turcrec_-stock, but gradually a system of short leases grew up; sometimes, too, it was given on mortgage. In the Highlands of Scotland _ceiles_ who received _turcrec_-land were called "taksmen." On the death of the chief or lord, his successor either bestowed the land upon the same person or gave it to some other relative. In this way in each generation new families came into possession of land, and others sank into the mass of mere tribesmen. Sometimes a "taksman" succeeded in acquiring his land in perpetuity, by gift, marriage or purchase, or even by the "strong hand." The universal prevalence of exchangeable allotments, or the rundale system, shows that down to even comparatively modern times some of the land was still recognized as the property of the tribe, and was cultivated in village communities.
The chief governed the clan by the aid of a council called the _sabaid_ (_sab_, a prop), but the chief exercised much power, especially over the miscellaneous body of non-tribesmen who lived on his own estate. This power seems to have extended to life and death. Several of the _flaiths_, perhaps, all heads of septs, also possessed somewhat extensive powers of the same kind.
The Celtic dress, at least in the middle ages, consisted of a kind of shirt reaching to a little below the knees called a _lenn_, a jacket called an _inar_, and a garment called a _brat_, consisting of a single piece of cloth. This was apparently the garb of the _aires_, who appear to have been further distinguished by the number of colours in their dress, for we are told that while a slave had clothes of one colour, a _rég tuatha_, or chief of a tribe, had five, and an _ollamh_ and a superior king six. The breeches was also known, and cloaks with a cowl or hood, which buttoned up tight in front. The _lenn_ is the modern kilt, and the _brat_ the plaid, so that the dress of the Irish and Welsh in former times was the same as that of the Scottish Highlander.
By the abolition of the heritable jurisdiction of the Highland chiefs, and the general disarmament of the clans by the acts passed in 1747 after the rebellion of 1745, the clan system was practically broken up, though its influence still lingers in the more remote districts. An act was also passed in 1747 forbidding the use of the Highland garb; but the injustice and impolicy of such a law being generally felt it was afterwards repealed. (W. K. S.)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The following account of the Irish clan-system differs in some respects from that in the article on BREHON LAWS (_q.v._); but it is retained here in view of the authority of the writer and the admitted obscurity of the whole subject. (ED. _E.B._)
[2] The explanation here given of _geilfine_ is different from that given in the introduction to the third volume of the _Ancient Laws of Ireland_, which was followed by Sir H.S. Maine in his account of it in his _Early History of Institutions_, and which the present writer believes to be erroneous.
[3] It should also be mentioned that illegitimacy was not a bar. The issue of "handfast" marriages in Scotland were eligible to be chiefs, and even sometimes claimed under feudal law.
[4] This office is of considerable importance in connexion with early Scottish history. In the Irish annals the _ríg_, or chief of a great tribe (_mor tuath_), such as of Ross, Moray, Marr, Buchan, &c., is called a _mor maer_, or great _maer_. Sometimes the same person is called king also in these annals. Thus _Findlaec_, or Finlay, son of _Ruadhri_, the father of Shakespeare's Macbeth, is called king of Moray in the _Annals of Ulster_, and _mor maer_ in the _Annals of Tighernach_. The term is never found in Scottish charters, but it occurs in the Book of the Abbey of Deir in Buchan, now in the library of the university of Cambridge. The Scotic kings and their successors obviously regarded the chiefs of the great tribes in question merely as their _maers_, while their tribesmen only knew them as kings. From these "mor-maerships," which corresponded with the ancient _mor tuatha_, came most, if not all, the ancient Scottish earldoms.
CLANRICARDE, ULICK DE BURGH (BOURKE or BURKE), 1st EARL OF (d. 1544), styled MacWilliam, and Ne-gan or Na-gCeann (i.e. "of the Heads," "having made a mount of the heads of men slain in battle which he covered up with earth"), was the son of Richard or Rickard de Burgh, lord of Clanricarde, by a daughter of Madden of Portumna, and grandson of Ulick de Burgh, lord of Clanricarde (1467-1487), the collateral heir male of the earls of Ulster. On the death of the last earl in 1333, his only child Elizabeth had married Lionel, duke of Clarence, and the earldom became merged in the crown, in consequence of which the de Burghs abjured English laws and sovereignty, and chose for their chiefs the sons of Sir William, the "Red" earl of Ulster's brother, the elder William taking the title of MacWilliam Eighter (Uachtar, i.e. Upper), and becoming the ancestor of the earls of Clanricarde, and his brother Sir Edmond that of MacWilliam Oughter (Ochtar, i.e. Lower), and founding the family of the earls of Mayo. In 1361 the duke of Clarence was sent over as lord-lieutenant to Ireland to enforce his claims as husband of the heir general, but failed, and the chiefs of the de Burghs maintained their independence of English sovereignty for several generations. Ulick de Burgh succeeded to the headship of his clan, exercised a quasi-royal authority and held vast estates in county Galway, in Connaught, including Loughry, Dunkellin, Kiltartan (Hilltaraght) and Athenry, as well as Clare and Leitrim. In March 1541, however, he wrote to Henry VIII., lamenting the degeneracy of his family, "which have been brought to Irish and disobedient rule by reason of marriage and nurseing with those Irish, sometime rebels, near adjoining to me," and placing himself and his estates in the king's hands. The same year he was present at Dublin, when the act was passed making Henry VIII. king of Ireland. In 1543, in company with other Irish chiefs, he visited the king at Greenwich, made full submission, undertook to introduce English manners and abandon Irish names, received a regrant of the greater part of his estates with the addition of other lands, was confirmed in the captainship and rule of Clanricarde, and was created on the 1st of July 1543 earl of Clanricarde and baron of Dunkellin in the peerage of Ireland, with unusual ceremony. "The making of McWilliam earl of Clanricarde made all the country during his time quiet and obedient," states Lord Chancellor Cusake in his review of the state of Ireland in 1553.[1] He did not live long, however, to enjoy his new English dignities, but died shortly after returning to Ireland about March 1544. He is called by the annalist of Loch Cé "a haughty and proud lord," who reduced many under his yoke, and by the Four Masters "the most illustrious of the English in Connaught."
Clanricarde married (1) Grany or Grace, daughter of Mulrone O'Carroll, "prince of Ely," by whom he had Richard or Rickard "the Saxon," who succeeded him as 2nd earl of Clanricarde (grandfather of the 4th earl, whose son became marquess of Clanricarde), this alliance being the only one declared valid. After parting with his first wife he married (2) Honora, sister of Ulick de Burgh, from whom he also parted. He married (3) Mary Lynch, by whom he had John, who claimed the earldom in 1568. Other sons, according to Burke's _Peerage_, were Thomas "the Athlete," shot in 1545, Redmond "of the Broom" (d. 1595), and Edmund (d. 1597).
See also _Annals of Ireland by the Four Masters_ (ed. by O. Connellan, 1846), p. 132 note, and reign of Henry VIII.; _Annals of Loch Cé (Rerum Brit. Medii Aevi Scriptores_) (54) (1871); _Hist. Mem. of the O'Briens_, by J.O. Donoghue (i860), pp 159, 519; _Ireland under the Tudors_, by R. Bagwell, vol. i.; _State Papers, Ireland, Carew MSS._ and Gairdner's _Letters and Papers of Henry VIII.; Cotton MSS._ Brit. Mus., Titus B xi. f. 388. (P.C.Y.)
FOOTNOTE:
[1] _Cal. of State Pap., Carew MSS._ 1515-1574, p. 246.
CLANRICARDE, ULICK DE BURGH (BOURKE or BURKE), MARQUESS OF (1604-1657 or 1658), son of Richard, 4th earl of Clanricarde, created in 1628 earl of St Albans, and of Frances, daughter and heir of Sir Francis Walsingham, and widow of Sir Philip Sidney and of Robert Devereux, earl of Essex, was born in 1604. He was summoned to the House of Lords as Lord Burgh in 1628, and succeeded his father as 5th earl in 1635. He sat in the Short Parliament of 1640 and attended Charles I. in the Scottish expedition. On the outbreak of the Irish rebellion Clanricarde had powerful inducements for joining the Irish--the ancient greatness and independence of his family, his devotion to the Roman Catholic Church, and strongest of all, the ungrateful treatment meted out by Charles I. and Wentworth to his father, one of Elizabeth's most stanch adherents in Ireland, whose lands were appropriated by the crown and whose death, it was popularly asserted, was hastened by the harshness of the lord-lieutenant. Nevertheless at the crisis his loyalty never wavered. Alone of the Irish Roman Catholic nobility to declare for the king, he returned to Ireland, took up his residence at Portumna, kept Galway, of which he was governor, neutral, and took measures for the defence of the county and for the relief of the Protestants, making "his house and towns a refuge, nay, even a hospital for the distressed English."[1] In 1643 he was one of the commissioners appointed by the king to confer with the Irish confederates, and urged the wisdom of a cessation of hostilities in a document which he publicly distributed. He was appointed commander of the English forces in Connaught in 1644, and in 1646 was created a marquess and a privy councillor. He supported the same year the treaty between Charles I. and the confederates, and endeavoured after its failure to persuade Preston, the general of the Irish, to agree to a peace; but the latter, being advised by Rinuccini, the papal nuncio, refused in December. Together with Ormonde, Clanricarde opposed the nuncio's policy; and the royalist inhabitants of Galway having through the latter's influence rejected the cessation of hostilities, arranged with Lord Inchiquin in 1648, he besieged the town and compelled its acquiescence. In 1649 he reduced Sligo. On Ormonde's departure in December 1650 Clanricarde was appointed deputy lord-lieutenant, but he was not trusted by the Roman Catholics, and was unable to stem the tide of the parliamentary successes. In 1651 he opposed the offer of Charles, duke of Lorraine, to supply money and aid on condition of being acknowledged "Protector" of the kingdom. In May 1652 Galway surrendered to the parliament, and in June Clanricarde signed articles with the parliamentary commissioners which allowed his departure from Ireland. In August he was excepted from pardon for life and estate, but by permits, renewed from time to time by the council, he was enabled to remain in England for the rest of his life, and in 1653 £500 a year was settled upon him by the council of state in consideration of the protection which he had given to the Protestants in Ireland at the time of the rebellion. He died at Somerhill in Kent in 1657 or 1658 and was buried at Tunbridge.
The "great earl," as he was called, supported Ormonde in his desire to unite the English royalists with the more moderate Roman Catholics on the basis of religious toleration under the authority of the sovereign, against the papal scheme advocated by Rinuccini, and in opposition to the parliamentary and Puritan policy. By the author of the _Aphorismical Discovery_, who represents the opinion of the native Irish, he is denounced as the "masterpiece of the treasonable faction," "a foe to his king, nation and religion," and by the duke of Lorraine as "a traitor and a base fellow"; but there is no reason to doubt Clarendon's opinion of him as "a person of unquestionable fidelity. . . and of the most eminent constancy to the Roman Catholic religion of any man in the three kingdoms," or the verdict of Hallam, who describes him "as perhaps the most unsullied character in the annals of Ireland."
He married Lady Anne Compton, daughter of William Compton, 1st earl of Northampton, but had issue only one daughter. On his death, accordingly, the marquessate and the English peerages became extinct, the Irish titles reverting to his cousin Richard, 6th earl, grandson of the 3rd earl of Clanricarde. Henry, the 12th earl (1742-1797), was again created a marquess in 1789, but the marquessate expired at his death without issue, the earldom going to his brother. In 1825 the 14th earl (1802-1874) was created a marquess; he was ambassador at St Petersburg, and later postmaster-general and lord privy seal, and married George Canning's daughter. His son (b. 1832), who achieved notoriety in the Irish land agitation, succeeded him as 2nd marquess.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--See the article "Burgh, Ulick de," in the _Dict. of Nat. Biography_, and authorities there given; _Hist. of the Irish Confederation_, by R. Bellings, ed. by J.T. Gilbert (1882); _Aphorismical Discovery_ (Irish Archaeological Society, 1879); _Memoirs of the Marquis of Clanricarde_ (1722, repr. 1744); _Memoirs of Ulick_, _Marquis of Clanricarde_, by John, 11th earl (1757); _Life of Ormonde_, by T. Carte (1851); S.R. Gardiner's _Hist. of the Civil War_ and of the _Commonwealth; Thomason Tracts_ (Brit. Mus.) E 371 (11), 456 (10); _Cal. of State Papers, Irish_, esp. _Introd._ 1633-1647 and _Domestic; Hist. MSS. Comm., MSS. of Marq. of Ormonde_ and _Earl of Egmont_. (P. C. Y.)
FOOTNOTE:
[1] _Hist. MSS. Comm.: MSS of Earl of Egmont_, i. 223.
CLANVOWE, SIR THOMAS, the name of an English poet first mentioned in the history of English literature by F.S. Ellis in 1896, when, in editing the text of _The Book of Cupid, God of Love, or The Cuckoo and the Nightingale_, for the Kelmscott Press, he stated that Professor Skeat had discovered that at the end of the best of the MSS. the author was called Clanvowe. In 1897 this information was confirmed and expanded by Professor Skeat in the supplementary volume of his Clarendon Press _Chaucer_ (1894-1897). The beautiful romance of _The Cuckoo and the Nightingale_ was published by Thynne in 1532, and was attributed by him, and by successive editors down to the days of Henry Bradshaw, to Chaucer. It was due to this error that for three centuries Chaucer was supposed to be identified with the manor of Woodstock, and even painted, in fanciful pictures, as lying
"Under a maple that is fair and green, Before the chamber-window of the Queen At Wodëstock, upon the greenë lea."
But this queen could only be Joan of Navarre, who arrived in 1403, three years after Chaucer's death, and it is to the spring of that year that Professor Skeat attributes the composition of the poem. Sir Thomas Clanvowe was of a Herefordshire family, settled near Wigmore. He was a prominent figure in the courts of Richard II. and Henry IV., and is said to have been a friend of Prince Hal. He was one of those who "had begun to mell of Lollardy, and drink the gall of heresy." He was one of the twenty-five knights who accompanied John Beaufort (son of John of Gaunt) to Barbary in 1390.
The date of his birth is unknown, and his name is last mentioned in 1404. The historic and literary importance of _The Cuckoo and the Nightingale_ is great. It is the work of a poet who had studied the prosody of Chaucer with more intelligent care than either Occleve or Lydgate, and who therefore forms an important link between the 14th and 15th centuries in English poetry. Clanvowe writes with a surprising delicacy and sweetness, in a five-line measure almost peculiar to himself. Professor Skeat points out a unique characteristic of Clanvowe's versification, namely, the unprecedented freedom with which he employs the suffix of the final _-e_, and rather avoids than seeks elision. _The Cuckoo and the Nightingale_ was imitated by Milton in his sonnet to the Nightingale, and was rewritten in modern English by Wordsworth. It is a poem of so much individual beauty, that we must regret the apparent loss of everything else written by a poet of such unusual talent.
See also a critical edition of the _Boke of Cupide_ by Dr Erich Vollmer (Berlin, 1898). (E. G.)
CLAPARÈDE, JEAN LOUIS RENÉ ANTOINE ÉDOUARD (1832-1870), Swiss naturalist, was born at Geneva on the 24th of April 1832. He belonged to a French family, some members of which had taken refuge in that city after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. In 1852 he began to study medicine and natural science at Berlin, where he was greatly influenced by J. Müller and C.G. Ehrenberg, the former being at that period engaged in his important researches on the Echinoderms. In 1855 he accompanied Müller to Norway, and there spent two months on a desolate reef that he might obtain satisfactory observations. The latter part of his stay at Berlin he devoted, along with J. Lachmann, to the study of the Infusoria and Rhizopods. In 1857 he obtained the degree of doctor, and in 1862 he was chosen professor of comparative anatomy at Geneva. In 1859 he visited England, and in company with W.B. Carpenter made a voyage to the Hebrides; and in 1863 he spent some months in the Bay of Biscay. On the appearance of Darwin's work on the _Origin of Species_, he adopted his theories and published a valuable series of articles on the subject in the _Revue Germanique_ (1861). During 1865 and 1866 ill-health rendered him incapable of work, and he determined to pass the winter of 1866-1867 in Naples. The change of climate produced some amelioration, and his energy was attested by two elaborate volumes on the Annelidae of the gulf. He again visited Naples with advantage in 1868; but in 1870, instead of recovering as before, he grew worse, and on the 31st of May he died at Siena on his way home. His _Recherches sur la structure des annélides sédentaires_ were published posthumously in 1873.
CLAPPERTON, HUGH (1788-1827), Scottish traveller in West-Central Africa, was born in 1788 at Annan, Dumfriesshire, where his father was a surgeon. He gained some knowledge of practical mathematics and navigation, and at thirteen was apprenticed on board a vessel which traded between Liverpool and North America. After having made several voyages across the Atlantic he was impressed for the navy, in which he soon rose to the rank of midshipman. During the Napoleonic wars he saw a good deal of active service, and at the storming of Port Louis, Mauritius, in November 1810, he was first in the breach and hauled down the French flag. In 1814 he went to Canada, was promoted to the rank of lieutenant, and to the command of a schooner on the Canadian lakes. In 1817, when the flotilla on the lakes was dismantled, he returned home on half-pay.
In 1820 Clapperton removed to Edinburgh, where he made the acquaintance of Walter Oudney, M.D., who aroused in him an interest in African travel. Lieut. G.F. Lyon, R.N., having returned from an unsuccessful attempt to reach Bornu from Tripoli, the British government determined on a second expedition to that country. Dr Oudney was appointed by Lord Bathurst, then colonial secretary, to proceed to Bornu as consul with the object of promoting trade, and Clapperton and Major Dixon Denham (q.v.) were added to the party. From Tripoli, early in 1822, they set out southward to Murzuk, and from this point Clapperton and Oudney visited the Ghat oasis. Kuka, the capital of Bornu, was reached in February 1823, and Lake Chad seen for the first time by Europeans. At Bornu the travellers were well received by the sultan; and after remaining in the country till the 14th of December they again set out for the purpose of exploring the course of the Niger. At Murmur, on the road to Kano, Oudney died (January 1824). Clapperton continued his journey alone through Kano to Sokoto, the capital of the Fula empire, where by order of Sultan Bello he was obliged to stop, though the Niger was only five days' journey to the west. Worn out with his travel he returned by way of Zaria and Katsena to Kuka, where he again met Denham. The two travellers then set out for Tripoli, reached on the 26th of January 1825. An account of the travels was published in 1826 under the title of _Narrative of Travels and Discoveries in Northern and Central Africa in the years 1822-1824_.
Immediately after his return Clapperton was raised to the rank of commander, and sent out with another expedition to Africa, the sultan Bello of Sokoto having professed his eagerness to open up trade with the west coast. Clapperton landed at Badagry in the Bight of Benin, and started overland for the Niger on the 7th of December 1825, having with him his servant Richard Lander (q.v.), Captain Pearce, R.N., and Dr Morrison, navy surgeon and naturalist. Before the month was out Pearce and Morrison were dead of fever. Clapperton continued his journey, and, passing through the Yoruba country, in January 1826 he crossed the Niger at Bussa, the spot where Mungo Park had died twenty years before. In July he arrived at Kano. Thence he went to Sokoto, intending afterwards to go to Bornu. The sultan, however, detained him, and being seized with dysentery he died near Sokoto on the 13th of April 1827.
Clapperton was the first European to make known from personal observation the semi-civilized Hausa countries, which he visited soon after the establishment of the Sokoto empire by the Fula. In 1829 appeared the _Journal of a Second Expedition into the Interior of Africa_, &c, by the late Commander Clapperton, to which was prefaced a biographical sketch of the explorer by his uncle, Lieut.-colonel S. Clapperton. Lander, who had brought back the journal of his master, also published _Records of Captain Clapperton's Last Expedition to Africa ... with the subsequent Adventures of the Author_ (2 vols., London, 1830).
CLAQUE (Fr. _claquer_, to clap the hands), an organized body of professional applauders in the French theatres. The hiring of persons to applaud dramatic performances was common in classical times, and the emperor Nero, when he acted, had his performance greeted by an encomium chanted by five thousand of his soldiers, who were called Angustals. The recollection of this gave the 16th-century French poet, Jean Daurat, an idea which has developed into the modern claque. Buying up a number of tickets for a performance of one of his plays, he distributed them gratuitously to those who promised publicly to express their approbation. It was not, however, till 1820 that a M. Sauton seriously undertook the systematization of the claque, and opened an office in Paris for the supply of _claqueurs_. By 1830 the claque had become a regular institution. The manager of a theatre sends an order for any number of _claqueurs_. These people are usually under a _chef de claque_, whose duty it is to judge where their efforts are needed and to start the demonstration of approval. This takes several forms. Thus there are _commissaires_, those who learn the piece by heart, and call the attention of their neighbours to its good points between the acts. The _rieurs_ are those who laugh loudly at the jokes. The _pleureurs_, generally women, feign tears, by holding their handkerchiefs to their eyes. The _chatouilleurs_ keep the audience in a good humour, while the _bisseurs_ simply clap their hands and cry _bis! bis!_ to secure encores.
CLARA, SAINT (1194-1253), foundress of the Franciscan nuns, was born of a knightly family in Assisi in 1194. At eighteen she was so impressed by a sermon of St Francis that she was filled with the desire to devote herself to the kind of life he was leading. She obtained an interview with him, and to test her resolution he told her to dress in penitential sackcloth and beg alms for the poor in the streets of Assisi. Clara readily did this, and Francis, satisfied as to her vocation, told her to come to the Portiuncula arrayed as a bride. The friars met her with lighted candles, and at the foot of the altar Francis shore off her hair, received her vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, and invested her with the Franciscan habit, 1212. He placed her for a couple of years in a Benedictine convent in Assisi, until the convent at St Damian's, close to the town, was ready. Her two younger sisters, and, after her father's death, her mother and many others joined her, and the Franciscan nuns spread widely and rapidly (see CLARES, POOR). The relations of friendship and sympathy between St Clara and St Francis were very close, and there can be no doubt that she was one of the truest heirs of Francis's inmost spirit. After his death Clara threw herself wholly on the side of those who opposed mitigations in the rule and manner of life, and she was one of the chief upholders of St Francis's primitive idea of poverty (see FRANCISCANS). She was the close friend of Brother Leo and the other "Companions of St Francis," and they assisted at her death. For forty years she was abbess at St Damian's, and the great endeavour of her life was that the rule of the nuns should be purged of the foreign elements that had been introduced, and should become wholly conformable to St Francis's spirit. She lived just long enough to witness the fulfilment of her great wish, a rule such as she desired being approved by the pope two days before her death on the 11th of August 1253.
The sources for her life are to be found in the Bollandist _Acta Sanctorum_ on the 11th of August, and sketches in such _Lives of the Saints_ as Alban Butler's. See also Wetzer und Welte, _Kirchen-lexicon_ (2nd ed.), art. "Clara." (E. C. B.)
CLARE, the name of a famous English family. The ancestor of this historic house, "which played," in Freeman's words, "so great a part alike in England, Wales and Ireland," was Count Godfrey, eldest of the illegitimate sons of Richard the Fearless, duke of Normandy. His son, Count Gilbert of Brionne, had two sons, Richard, lord of Bienfaite and Orbec, and Baldwin, lord of Le Sap and Meulles, both of whom accompanied the Conqueror to England. Baldwin, known as "De Meulles" or "of Exeter," received the hereditary shrievalty of Devon with great estates in the West Country, and left three sons, William, Robert and Richard, of whom the first and last were in turn sheriffs of Devon. Richard, known as "de Bienfaite," or "of Tunbridge," or "of Clare," was the founder of the house of Clare.
Richard derived his English appellation from his strongholds at Tunbridge and at Clare, at both of which his castle-mounds still remain. The latter, on the borders of Essex and Suffolk, was the head of his great "honour" which lay chiefly in the eastern counties. Appointed joint justiciar in the king's absence abroad, he took a leading part in suppressing the revolt of 1075. By his wife, Rohese, daughter of Walter Giffard, through whom great Giffard estates afterwards came to his house, he left five sons and two daughters. Roger was his heir in Normandy, Walter founded Tintern Abbey, Richard was a monk, and Robert, receiving the forfeited fief of the Baynards in the eastern counties, founded, through his son Walter, the house of FitzWalter (extinct 1432), of whom the most famous was Robert FitzWalter, the leader of the barons against King John. Of this house, spoken of by Jordan Fantosme as "Clarreaus," the Daventrys of Daventry (extinct 1380) and Fawsleys of Fawsley (extinct 1392) were cadets. One of Richard's two daughters married the famous Walter Tirel.
Gilbert, Richard's heir in England, held his castle of Tunbridge against William Rufus, but was wounded and captured. Under Henry I., who favoured the Clares, he obtained a grant of Cardigan, and carried his arms into Wales. Dying about 1115, he left four sons, of whom Gilbert, the second, inherited Chepstow, with Nether-Gwent, from his uncle, Walter, the founder of Tintern, and was created earl of Pembroke by Stephen about 1138; he was father of Richard Strongbow, earl of Pembroke (q.v.). The youngest son Baldwin fought for Stephen at the battle of Lincoln (1141) and founded the priories of Bourne and Deeping on lands acquired with his wife. The eldest son Richard, who was slain by the Welsh on his way to Cardigan in 1135 or 1136, left two sons Gilbert and Roger, of whom Gilbert was created earl of Hertfordshire by Stephen.
It was probably because he and the Clares had no interests in Hertfordshire that they were loosely and usually styled the earls of (de) Clare. Dying in 1152, Gilbert was succeeded by his brother Roger, of whom Fitz-Stephen observes that "nearly all the nobles of England were related to the earl of Clare, whose sister, the most beautiful woman in England, had long been desired by the king" (Henry II.). He was constantly fighting the Welsh for his family possessions in Wales and quarrelled with Becket over Tunbridge Castle. In 1173 or 1174 he was succeeded by his son Richard as third earl, whose marriage with Amicia, daughter and co-heir of William, earl of Gloucester, was destined to raise the fortunes of his house to their highest point. He and his son Gilbert were among the "barons of the Charter," Gilbert, who became fourth earl in 1217, obtained also, early in 1218, the earldom of Gloucester, with its great territorial "Honour," and the lordship of Glamorgan, in right of his mother; "from this time the house of Clare became the acknowledged head of the baronage." Gilbert had also inherited through his father his grandmother's "Honour of St Hilary" and a moiety of the Giffard fief; but the vast possessions of his house were still further swollen by his marriage with a daughter of William (Marshal), earl of Pembroke, through whom his son Richard succeeded in 1245 to a fifth of the Marshall lands including the Kilkenny estates in Ireland. Richard's successor, Gilbert, the "Red" earl, died in 1295, the most powerful subject in the kingdom.
On his death his earldoms seem to have been somewhat mysteriously deemed to have passed to his widow Joan, daughter of Edward I.; for her second husband, Ralph de Monthermer, was summoned to parliament in right of them from 1299 to 1306. After her death, however, in 1307, Earl Gilbert's son and namesake was summoned in 1308 as earl of Gloucester and Hertford, though only sixteen. A nephew of Edward II. and brother-in-law of Gaveston, he played a somewhat wavering part in the struggle between the king and the barons. Guardian of the realm in 1311 and regent in 1313, he fell gloriously at Bannockburn (June 24th, 1314), when only twenty-three, rushing on the enemy "like a wild boar, making his sword drunk with their blood."
The earl was the last of his mighty line, and his vast possessions in England (in over twenty counties), Wales and Ireland fell to his three sisters, of whom Elizabeth, the youngest, wife of John de Burgh, obtained the "Honour of Clare" and transmitted it to her son William de Burgh, 3rd earl of Ulster, whose daughter brought it to Lionel, son of King Edward III., who was thereupon created duke of Clarence, a title associated ever since with the royal house. The "Honour of Clare," vested in the crown, still preserves a separate existence, with a court and steward of its own.
Clare College, Cambridge, derived its name from the above Elizabeth, "Lady of Clare," who founded it as Clare Hall in 1347.
Clare County in Ireland derives its name from the family, though whether from Richard Strongbow, or from Thomas de Clare, a younger son, who had a grant of Thomond in 1276, has been deemed doubtful.
Clarenceux King of Arms, an officer of the Heralds' College, derives his style, through Clarence, from Clare.
See J.H. Round's _Geoffrey de Mandeville, Feudal England, Commune of London_, and _Peerage Studies_; also his "Family of Clare" in _Arch. Journ._ lvi., and "Origin of Armorial Bearings" in Ib. li.; Parkinson's "Clarence, the origin and bearers of the title," in _The Antiquary_, v.; Clark's "Lords of Glamorgan" in _Arch. Journ._ xxxv.; Planche's "Earls of Gloucester" in _Journ. Arch. Assoc._ xxvi.; Dugdale's _Baronage_, vol. i., and _Monasticon Anglicanum_; G.E. C[okayne]'s _Complete Peerage_. (J. H. R.)
CLARE, JOHN (1793-1864), English poet, commonly known as "the Northamptonshire Peasant Poet," the son of a farm labourer, was born at Helpstone near Peterborough, on the 13th of July 1793. At the age of seven he was taken from school to tend sheep and geese; four years later he began to work on a farm, attending in the winter evenings a school where he is said to have learnt some algebra. He then became a pot-boy in a public-house and fell in love with Mary Joyce, but her father, a prosperous farmer, forbade her to meet him. Subsequently he was gardener at Burghley Park. He enlisted in the militia, tried camp life with gipsies, and worked as a lime burner in 1817, but in the following year he was obliged to accept parish relief. Clare had bought a copy of Thomson's _Seasons_ out of his scanty earnings and had begun to write poems. In 1819 a bookseller at Stamford, named Drury, lighted on one of Clare's poems, _The Setting Sun_, written on a scrap of paper enclosing a note to his predecessor in the business. He befriended the author and introduced his poems to the notice of John Taylor, of the publishing firm of Taylor & Hussey, who issued the _Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery_ in 1820. This book was highly praised, and in the next year his _Village Minstrel and other Poems_ were published. He was greatly patronized; fame, in the shape of curious visitors, broke the tenor of his life, and the convivial habits that he had formed were indulged more freely. He had married in 1820, and an annuity of 15 guineas from Lord Exeter, in whose service he had been, was supplemented by subscription, and he became possessed of £45 annually, a sum far beyond what he had ever earned, but new wants made his income insufficient, and in 1823 he was nearly penniless. The _Shepherd's Calendar_ (1827) met with little success, which was not increased by his hawking it himself. As he worked again on the fields his health temporarily improved; but he soon became seriously ill. Lord Fitzwilliam presented him with a new cottage and a piece of ground, but Clare could not settle in his new home. Gradually his mind gave way. His last and best work, the _Rural Muse_ (1835), was noticed by "Christopher North" alone. He had for some time shown symptoms of insanity; and in July 1837 he was removed to a private asylum, and afterwards to the Northampton general lunatic asylum, where he died on the 20th of May 1864. Clare's descriptions of rural scenes show a keen and loving appreciation of nature, and his love-songs and ballads charm by their genuine feeling; but his vogue was no doubt largely due to the interest aroused by his humble position in life.
See the _Life of John Clare_, by Frederick Martin (1865); and _Life and Remains of John Clare_, by J.L. Cherry (1873), which, though not so complete, contains some of the poet's asylum verses and prose fragments.
CLARE, JOHN FITZGIBBON, 1ST EARL OF (1749-1802), lord chancellor of Ireland, was the second son of John Fitzgibbon, who had abandoned the Roman Catholic faith in order to pursue a legal career. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, where he was highly distinguished as a classical scholar, and at Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated in 1770. In 1772 he was called to the Irish bar, and quickly acquired a very lucrative practice; he also inherited his father's large fortune on the death of his elder brother. In 1778 he entered the Irish House of Commons as member for Dublin University, and at first gave a general support to the popular party led by Henry Grattan (q.v.). He was, however, from the first hostile to that part of Grattan's policy which aimed at removing the disabilities of the Roman Catholics; he endeavoured to impede the Relief Bill of 1778 by raising difficulties about its effect on the Act of Settlement. He especially distrusted the priests, and many years later explained that his life-long resistance to all concession to the Catholics was based on his "unalterable opinion" that "a conscientious Popish ecclesiastic never will become a well-attached subject to a Protestant state, and that the Popish clergy must always have a commanding influence on every member of that communion." As early as 1780 Fitzgibbon began to separate himself from the popular or national party, by opposing Grattan's declaration of the Irish parliament's right to independence. There is no reason to suppose that in this change of view he was influenced by corrupt or personal motives. His cast of mind naturally inclined to authority rather than to democratic liberty; his hostility to the Catholic claims, and his distrust of parliamentary reform as likely to endanger the connexion of Ireland with Great Britain, made him a sincere opponent of the aims which Grattan had in view. In reply, however, to a remonstrance from his constituents Fitzgibbon promised to support Grattan's policy in the future, and described the claim of Great Britain to make laws for Ireland as "a daring usurpation of the rights of a free people."
For some time longer there was no actual breach between him and Grattan. Grattan supported the appointment of Fitzgibbon as attorney-general in 1783, and in 1785 the latter highly eulogized Grattan's character and services to the country in a speech in which he condemned Flood's volunteer movement. He also opposed Flood's Reform Bill of 1784; and from this time forward he was in fact the leading spirit in the Irish government, and the stiffest opponent of all concession to popular demands. In 1784 the permanent committee of revolutionary reformers in Dublin, of whom Napper Tandy was the most conspicuous, invited the sheriffs of counties to call meetings for the election of delegates to attend a convention for the discussion of reform; and when the sheriff of the county of Dublin summoned a meeting for this purpose Fitzgibbon procured his imprisonment for contempt of court, and justified this procedure in parliament, though Lord Erskine declared it grossly illegal. In the course of the debates on Pitt's commercial propositions in 1785, which Fitzgibbon supported in masterly speeches, he referred to Curran in terms which led to a duel between the two lawyers, when Fitzgibbon was accused of a deliberation in aiming at his opponent that was contrary to etiquette. His antagonism to Curran was life-long and bitter, and after he became chancellor his hostility to the famous advocate was said to have driven the latter out of practice. In January 1787 Fitzgibbon introduced a stringent bill for repressing the Whiteboy outrages. It was supported by Grattan, who, however, procured the omission of a clause enacting that any Roman Catholic chapel near which an illegal oath had been tendered should be immediately demolished. His influence with the majority in the Irish parliament defeated Pitt's proposed reform of the tithe system in Ireland, Fitzgibbon refusing even to grant a committee to investigate the subject. On the regency question in 1789 Fitzgibbon, in opposition to Grattan, supported the doctrine of Pitt in a series of powerful speeches which proved him a great constitutional lawyer; he intimated that the choice for Ireland might in certain eventualities rest between complete separation from England and legislative union; and, while he exclaimed as to the latter alternative, "God forbid that I should ever see that day!" he admitted that separation would be the worse evil of the two.
In the same year Lord Lifford resigned the chancellorship, and Fitzgibbon was appointed in his place, being raised to the peerage as Baron Fitzgibbon. His removal to the House of Lords greatly increased his power. In the Commons, though he had exercised great influence as attorney-general, his position had been secondary; in the House of Lords and in the privy council he was little less than despotic. "He was," says Lecky, "by far the ablest Irishman who had adopted without restriction the doctrine that the Irish legislature must be maintained in a condition of permanent and unvarying subjection to the English executive." But the English ministry were now embarking on a policy of conciliation in Ireland. The Catholic Relief Bill of 1793 was forced on the Irish executive by the cabinet in London, but it passed rapidly and easily through the Irish parliament. Lord Fitzgibbon, while accepting the bill as inevitable under the circumstances that had arisen, made a most violent though exceedingly able speech against the principle of concession, which did much to destroy the conciliatory effect of the measure; and as a consequence of this act he began persistently to urge the necessity for a legislative union. From this date until the union was carried, the career of Fitzgibbon is practically the history of Ireland. True to his inveterate hostility to the popular claims, he was opposed to the appointment of Lord Fitzwilliam (q.v.) as viceroy in 1795, and was probably the chief influence in procuring his recall; and it was Fitzgibbon who first put it into the head of George III. that the king would violate his coronation oath if he consented to the admission of Catholics to parliament. When Lord Camden, Fitzwilliam's successor in the viceroyalty, arrived in Dublin on the 31st of March 1795, Fitzgibbon's carriage was violently assaulted by the mob, and he himself was wounded; and in the riots that ensued his house was also attacked. But as if to impress upon the Catholics the hopelessness of their case, the government who had made Fitzgibbon a viscount immediately after his attack on the Catholics in 1793 now bestowed on him a further mark of honour. In June 1795 he was created earl of Clare. On the eve of the rebellion he warned the government that while emancipation and reform might be the objects aimed at by the better classes, the mass of the disaffected had in view "the separation of the country from her connexion with Great Britain, and a fraternal alliance with the French Republic." Clare advocated stringent measures to prevent an outbreak; but he was neither cruel nor immoderate, and was inclined to mercy in dealing with individuals. He attempted to save Lord Edward Fitzgerald (q.v.) from his fate by giving a friendly warning to his friends, and promising to facilitate his escape from the country; and Lord Edward's aunt, Lady Louisa Conolly, who was conducted to his death-bed in prison by the chancellor in person, declared that "nothing could exceed Lord Clare's kindness." His moderation and humanity after the rebellion was extolled by Cornwallis. He threw his great influence on the side of clemency, and it was through his intervention that Oliver Bond, when sentenced to death, was reprieved; and that an arrangement was made by which Arthur O'Connor, Thomas Emmet and other state prisoners were allowed to leave the country.
In October 1798 Lord Clare, who since 1793 had been convinced of the necessity for a legislative union if the connexion between Great Britain and Ireland was to be maintained, and who was equally determined that the union must be unaccompanied by Catholic emancipation, crossed to England and successfully pressed his views on Pitt. In 1799 he induced the Irish House of Lords to throw out a bill for providing a permanent endowment of Maynooth. On the 10th of February 1800 Clare in the House of Lords moved the resolution approving the union in a long and powerful speech, in which he reviewed the history of Ireland since the Revolution, attributing the evils of recent years to the independent constitution of 1782, and speaking of Grattan in language of deep personal hatred. He was not aware of the assurance which Cornwallis had been authorized to convey to the Catholics that the union was to pave the way for emancipation, and when he heard of it after the passing of the act he bitterly complained that Pitt and Castlereagh had deceived him. After the union Clare became more violent than ever in his opposition to any policy of concession in Ireland. He died on the 28th of January 1802; his funeral in Dublin was the occasion of a riot organized "by a gang of about fourteen persons under orders of a leader." His wife, in compliance with his death-bed request, destroyed all his papers. His two sons, John (1792-1851) and Richard Hobart (1793-1864), succeeded in turn to the earldom, which became extinct on the death of the latter, whose only son, John Charles Henry, Viscount Fitzgibbon (1829-1854), was killed in the charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava.
Lord Clare was in private life an estimable and even an amiable man; many acts of generosity are related of him; the determination of his character swayed other wills to his purpose, and his courage was such as no danger, no obloquy, no public hatred or violence could disturb. Though not a great orator like Flood or Grattan, he was a skilful and ready debater, and he was by far the ablest Irish supporter of the union. He was, however, arrogant, overbearing and intolerant to the last degree. He was the first Irishman since the Revolution to hold the office of lord chancellor of Ireland. "Except where his furious personal antipathies and his ungovernable arrogance were called into action, he appears to have been," says Lecky, "an able, upright and energetic judge"; but as a politician there can be little question that Lord Clare's bitter and unceasing resistance to reasonable measures of reform did infinite mischief in the history of Ireland, by inflaming the passions of his countrymen, driving them into rebellion, and perpetuating their political and religious divisions.
See W.E.H. Lecky, _History of Ireland in the Eighteenth Century_ (5 vols., London, 1892); J.R. O'Flanagan, _The Lives of the Lord Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal in Ireland_ (2 vols., London, 1870); _Cornwallis Correspondence_, ed. by C. Ross (3 vols., London, 1859); Charles Phillips, _Recollections of Curran and some of his Contemporaries_ (London, 1822); Henry Grattan, _Memoirs of the Life and Times of the Right Honble. Henry Grattan_ (5 vols., London, 1839-1846); Lord Auckland, _Journal and Correspondence_ (4 vols., London, 1861); Charles Coote, _History of the Union of Great Britain and Ireland_ (London, 1802). (R. J. M.)
CLARE, a county in the province of Munster, Ireland, bounded N. by Galway Bay and Co. Galway, E. by Lough Derg, the river Shannon, and counties Tipperary and Limerick, S. by the estuary of the Shannon, and W. by the Atlantic Ocean. The area is 852,389 acres, or nearly 1332 sq.