Vickipedia

INDIA’NA, one of the United States of America, organized in 1816, with a governor and legislature, extends from 37° 47′ to 41° 46′ N- lat., and from 84° 49′ to 88° 2′ W. long., having a length of 275 miles, a breadth of 135 miles, and an area of 33,809 square .miles, or 21,637,760 acres. It is bounded on the N. by Michigan

state and lake, E. by Ohio, S. by Kentucky, from which it is separated by the Ohio River, and W. by Illinois. The state is divided into 92 counties. The capital is Indianapolis, near the center, and its chief towns are Evansville, New Albany, Madison, Richmond, Terre Haute, Lafayette, Fort Wayne, and its only lake-port, Michigan City. The population in 1800 was 4875; in 1810, 24.520; in 1820, 147.178; in 1830, 343,031; in 1840, 685,866; in 1850, 988,416; in 1860, 1,350,941 (of which nearly half were immigrants from other states, and from Germany and Ireland); and in 1870, 1,680,637. The state is level, with sluggish streams and great prairies. It is chiefly drained by the Wabash River and its branches. There are 7700 square miles of coal, portions of which, on the Ohio, are cannel coal of excellent quality. The soil is of wonderful fertility, and the climate, is like that of the south of France, with colder winters, and the hills on the Ohio are covered with fine vineyards. The staple productions are wheat, maize, cattle, swine, tobacco, fruits, wine, &c. In 1869, mines of coal and iron were found, and also quarries of building-stone. There are over 4000 miles of railway, and 374 miles of a canal, uniting the Ohio River with Lake Erie. There is a state university, a normal school, numerous common schools and churches, and about 300 periodicals. Vincennes, on the Wabash, was settled by the French in 1702. Early in this century, the settlements were disturbed by Indian hostilities; the Indians were defeated in 1811 by General Harrison, and the territory was rapidly peopled.

ZU’LULAND. The country lying north-east of the colony of Natal, between its east boundary, the Tugela and Umzimyati rivers, and Delagoa Bay, is generally known under the name of Z., or the Zulu country, inhabited by tribes of Zulu Kaffirs. The great coast chain of mountains, which form in the Cape Colony the Stormbergen, and further to the north-east the Kahlamba and Drachenbergen, still continue well denned to the north-east, running parallel to the coast, but 120 miles distant from it, separating the coast region of Z. from the higher plateaux of the Transvaal, and rising to an average height of 6000 or 7000 feet. East of the Tugela River, the country spreads out into large undulating, grassy plains, but sparsely wooded; while towards the foot of the mountains the kloofs afford some excellent timber. The principal rivers are the Umvoluzi or St. Lucia River, which enters the sea about 80 miles north-east of the Natal frontier; and the Mapoota and its branches, which drain the north part of the region, and fall into Delagoa Bay. The country along the coast between the St. Lucia River and Delagoa Bay is very flat, marshy, and unhealthy. A considerable range of mountains, called the Lebombo, run from the Umvoluzi River almost in a northerly direction to beyond Delagoa Bay, about half way between the coast and the first range we have mentioned, forming a supporting buttress to a plateau of high level, similar to those so common in the Cape Colony and Natal.

This is generally a fertile region, and, as far as the coast-line, is healthy. Sugar, cotton, and other tropical products can be grown as advantageously as in the Natal colony, to which it forms, as it were, an intermediary link between the fever-regions of the east coast and the more healthy climate of Natal and the Cape Colony. The St. Lucia River marks the boundary-line beyond which, to the north-east, Europeans cannot live. Up till the outbreak of the war in 1879, no good map of the Zulu country existed, and even yet, of course, we know very little of its geology or mineral productions. None of the rivers are available for inland navigation, although a large lagoon inside the mouth of the St. Lucia River can be ascended for a few miles. The rivers which flow into Delagoa Bay from the north are sluggish streams, often with no perceptible current, and can be ascended a considerable distance. A large quantity of ivory, rhinoceros’ horns, hides, &c. are collected in this region by traders from Natal; and cattle, Indian corn, &c. thrive well in the country before the swampy region commences. The principal tribes are all of the Zulu race—the Amazulu inhabiting the region bordering on Natal; the Amahute, Amazwazi, &e. the country in the neighborhood of Delagoa Bay. The Portuguese have a very decayed fort and settlement on Delagoa Bay, garrisoned by a few mulatto soldiers, and carrying on some trade with the natives and Dutch Boers in gunpowder, muskets, calico, &c., in exchange for ivory, horns, and other native produce; and a contraband one in slaves Is also, we fear, winked at by the authorities, as captures are often made along tile coast by our cruisers.

The Dutch emigrant Boers, who very much required a port on the sea-board of South-east Africa, would long since have seized on Delagoa Bay, if it were not from a wholesome dread of the very unhealthy climate, which appears to affect those stalwart sons of the highlands of South-east Africa more even than it does Europeans or North Americans.

VICTORIA I., Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, daughter and only child of Edward, Duke of Kent, 4th son of George III., was born at Kensington Palace, May 24, 1819. Her mother, Victoria Mary Louisa, was 4th daughter of Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and sister of Leopold, late king of the Belgians. Her first husband, the Prince of Leiningen, died in 1814; and on the 11th July 1818. she married, at Kew, the Duke of Kent. The duke died January 23, 1820, leaving his widow in charge of an infant daughter only eight months old, who had been baptized with the names of Alexandria Victoria.

The Duchess of Kent fulfilled the important duties which devolved upon her with more than maternal solicitude, and with admirable care and prudence. The infant princess, as she grew up, was taught to seek health by exercise and temperance, to acquire fearlessness even from her amusements, such as riding and sailing, and to practise a wise economy united to a discriminating charity. After a few years, the Duchess of Northumberland was associated with her mother in her nurture and education. The Princess V. became accomplished in music, drawing, and the continental languages; and acquired a knowledge of some of the sciences, particularly botany. Her father having belonged to the Whigs, her political education was naturally derived from the members of that party; and to Viscount Melbourne (q. v.); belongs the credit of having thoroughly instructed her in the principles of the British constitution. She ascended the throne of the United Kingdom 011 the demise of her uncle, William IV. (q. v.), June 20, 1837; her uncle, the Duke of Cumberland, becoming king of Hanover, in virtue of the law which excludes females from that throne. By this event, the connection which had lasted for 123 years between the crowns of England and Hanover was terminated. Victoria was proclaimed June, 1837, and crowned at Westminster, June 28,1838. She found on her accession Viscount Melbourne at the head of the government; and during his premiership, and with the cordial assent of her subjects, the young queen was married at St. James’s Palace (February 10, 1840) to Prince Albert (q. v.), Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and second son of the then reigning duke.

Her Majesty has had issue—four sons and five daughters; the Princess Royal, Victoria, born November 21. 1840, married. Jan. 35, 1858, to Frederick William, now Crown Prince of Prussia, and Prince Imperial of Germany; Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, heir-apparent to the throne of the United Kingdom, born Nov. 9, 1841, married, March 10, 1863, Princess Alexandra, eldest daughter of Christian IX., king of Denmark; Princess Alice, born April 25, 1843, married, in 1862, Prince Frederick William of Hesse (died Dec. 14, 1878); Prince Alfred, born August 6. 1844. created Duke of Edinburgh 1866, married, Jan. 23, 1874, Marie, only daughter of the Emperor of Russia; Princess Helena, born May 25, 1840, married in 1866 to Prince Christian of Denmark; Princess Louisa, born March 18, 1848, married in 1871 to the Marquis of Lorne; Prince Arthur, born May 1, 1850, created Duke of Connaught 1874, married in 1879 Princess Louise Marguerite of Prussia; Prince Leopold, born April 7, 1853, was created Duke of Albany in 1881, and married to Princess Helena of Waldeck in 1882; Princess Beatrice, born April 14,’1857.

The changes of administration in this reign maybe traced in the articles GREAT BRITAIN, MELBOURNE, PEEL, RUSSELL, derby, aberdeen, palmerston, gladstone, disraeli. The legislative measures of greatest importance were the establishment (1840) of the penny-postage (see post-office); the Amendment of the Poor Laws (q. v.) in Scotland (1845) and Ireland (1847); the Abolition (1846) of the Corn Laws (q. v.), and (1849) of the Navigation Laws,(q. v.); the Irish Encumbered Estates Act, (see TITLE, &c.); the transfer (1858) of the Indian possessions from the East India Company to the crown (see india); the admission (1858) of Jews into the House of Commons; the Reform Act of 1867; Disestablishment of the Irish Church (1869); the Irish Land Acts (1870 and 1881); the Abolition of Purchase in the Army (1871); the Elementary Education Act for England (1870), and the Scotch Education Act (1872). See NATIONAL EDUCATION. Other events which will signalize this period of British history were the formation of the Free Church (q. v.) of Scotland (1843); the discovery of the North-west Passage (q. v.) by Sir Robert M’Clure (1850); the Exhibitions (q. v.) of 1851 and 1862; the discovery of gold in Australia (q. v.) and in British Columbia; the war (1854—1856) with Russia (q. v.)iii defence of Turkey (q. v.), in which the siege of Sebastopol was the chief item; the Indian Mutiny in 1857 (see india); the Volunteer (q. v.) movement (1859); the establishment (1866) of telegraphic communication with America (see TELEGRAPH); the Abyssinian War, 1867(see theodore); the formation of the Dominion of Canada, 1867; the wars with Ashantees (1873), Zulus (1879), and Afghans (1878-80), the rising in the Transvaal; the agitations in connection with the Fenian Society (q. v.), Home Rule (q. v.), and the Land League; the passing of the Land Act (1881); and the war in Egypt (1882).

In 1848, the only disturbance in Britain was a Chartist demonstration (see chartism); while, during V.’s reign, France (q. v.) has been successively a constitutional monarchy, a republic, an empire, and again a republic. The great civil war in the United States of America (q. v.) has resulted in the extinction of slavery; the formation of the kingdom of Italy (q. v.) has been completed by the acquisition of Venetia and Rome; the unification of Germany, begun by the formation of the North German Confederation, as the result of the war between Prussia and Austria in 1866. has been consummated by the events of the Franco-Prussian War (1870—1871); and the ever formidable ‘ Eastern Question,’ raised again in 1876 by the insurrection in Herzegovina led in 1877 to war between Russia and Turkey, and to sweeping changes in the Balkan Peninsula (see turkey).

In 1876, ‘ Empress of India’ was added to the royal titles of Queen V. The premature death of the Prince-Consort (see albert) on December 14, 1861, caused the Queen to seclude herself for several years from public life. Queen V. has published two volumes—The Early Days of His Royal Highness the Prince-Consort; and Leaves from the Journal of Our Life in the Highlands (1869).

‘In Queen Victoria,’ according to Macaulay, ‘her subjects have found a wiser, gentler, happier Elizabeth.’ No former monarch has so thoroughly comprehended the great truth, that the powers of the crown are held in trust for the people, and are the means, and not the end of government. This enlightened policy has entitled her to the glorious distinction of having been the most constitutional monarch this country has ever seen. Not less important and beneficial has been the example set by her Majesty and her late Consort in the practice of every domestic virtue. Their stainless lives, their unobtrusive piety, and their careful education of the royal children, have borne rich fruit in the stability of the throne, and have obtained for the royal family of England the respect and admiration of the civilized world. See Theodore Martin’s Life of the Prince Consort (vols. i.-iv. 1873-79).

The progress made by the nation in the various elements of civilization, especially in that of material prosperity, has been unparalleled (see great britain); and perhaps during no reign has a greater measure of political contentment been enjoyed.

ZU’LU, or AMAZULU, is the name of that portion of the Kaffir race who inhabit Natal and the region north-east of it, until they gradually merge into the mere negro of the east coast, north of the Zambesi. The Kaffir organization appears to hold an intermediate place between that of the negro and a higher type; and as we go south and west, from the swamps and malaria of Delagoa Bay and Sofala to the more healthy and bracing regions of Natal and Independent Kaffraria, the Kaffir features appear, as it were, to grow more refined—the mouth protrudes less, the lips are less thick, and the nose assimilates more to that of the European, although the distinguishing type of woolly hair may still continue.

The Z. Kaffir is a far more amiable savage than his brother the Amakosa of the Cape frontier districts. He is less warlike and predatory, more industrious, and far more willing to act in the capacity of a farm-laborer or domestic servant. In language, customs, habits, &c., although certain tribal and local differences occur, yet they may be called common to all the nation, as a Z. Kaffir has no difficulty in understanding a native of British Kaffraria; and his views of a future state, purchase of wives, &c., are pretty similar. The Z. is by nature social, light of heart, and cheerful; his affections are gentle, steady, and enduring; his passions are, however, strong, and called out when in a state of war. He is comparatively chaste; crimes which stain European or Eastern civilization are unknown to him. He is hospitable and honest, yet greedy and stingy; he is kind to his own family, yet cruel to dumb animals; and whatever the better nature of his impulses may be, yet when his great chief commands war, he is converted into a demon. He is proud, and very easily can distinguish between an English gentleman and the loafing tribe with which too many of our colonies are afflicted. The writer of this article, by the exercise of a little kindness and firmness, has experienced the most utter devotion from individuals of the Kaffir race generally. Their reasoning powers are good, and with an improved education, a Z. rationalist might not disgrace a chair in the Sorbonne. It is from the Z. country, however, that those terrible tyrants who so long devastated South-eastern Africa, the chiefs Chaka, Dingaan, Moselikatze, &c. issued. The training of their subjects to a peculiar mode of warfare spread desolation and havoc for many years amongst the Betjuana and other tribes of the interior, until eventually these mighty chiefs with their thousands of followers, fighting, like Homer’s heroes, hand to hand, armed with stabbing assagais and shields of ox-hide, the colors of which distinguished the different regiments they were formed into, melted way with broken power into comparative insignificance before the terrible rifles of a few hundred emigrant Dutch Boers, who, in their turn, gave way to the energetic action of the British authorities (see natal). The Zulus, although they have very often serious intestine wars amongst themselves, have generally lived on friendly terms with the Natal colonists. That their warlike qualities have not decayed was sufficiently shown in the war that broke out in 1879 between England and Ketchwayo (Cetewayo), the Zulu king. Within a week or two after the British forces crossed the Natal frontier, the Zulus inflicted a severe blow on the invaders by surrounding a camp at Isandhlwana and annihilating the defenders. They repulsed several attacks on their strongholds; but after the British had received reinforcements, were defeated at Ginghilovo, and completely broken by Lord Chelmsford at Ulundi on the 3d July. The king was captured shortly afterwards, and deported to Cape Town.

The Zulu country was divided amongst twelve chiefs (having four British residents). But in 1883, Ketchwayo was reinstated in the central portion of his kingdom, under certain restrictions, with an English resident. The north-east part of his former domains is under a chief independent of the Zulu king; and on the south, adjoining the Natal border, another strip of territory is reserved for the chiefs unwilling to come again under Ketchwayo’s authority (one of whom, John Dunn, is of English blood).

A number of missionary societies of the Wesleyan, American, Norwegian, and Episcopal churches labor amongst these tribes. Considerable interest was some time ago provoked with regard to Bishop Colenso’s peculiar views for evangelizing these heathens; and Colenso’s Zulu was for a while almost as famous as Macaulay’s New Zealander.

The Amafengu tribe, now settled along the Cape frontier, are a broken tribe of Zulus, driven far to the south-west by Chaka or Dingaan. then reduced to slavery by the Amakosa Kaffirs, and freed by Sir B. Durban in the Kaffir war of 1834—1835. The principal Z. tribes are the Amazulu, the Amahute, Amazwazi, and Amatabele. The last emigrated far northwards to the mountains which separate the basins of the Limpopo and Zambesi.

POST-OFFICE INSURANCE is a valuable addition to the many useful services which our postal establishments has been enabled to render within the last few years. Book-post, sample-post, money-orders, and postal savings-banks, all additions to the original letter-post, and newspaper-post, have been found to work so satisfactorily, that the legislature has been encouraged to intrust to the same organization a new system of insuring lives and granting annuities—specially intended to foster provident habits among persons whose savings can be but small.

In 1853, an act of parliament made an improvement in the then existing state of insurance law, by facilitating the purchase of government annuities through the medium of the savings-banks; and in 1864. another statute gave a great extension to those portions of the system which had been found to work well, effecting at the same time alterations in those which had exhibited certain defects during eleven years’ working. Great facilities are introduced by this act for securing annuities by small payments. Not only may the National Debt Commissioner’s employ the trustees of savings-banks to receive and pay the moneys, at a certain rate of remuneration; but the Postmaster-general joins in the arrangement, acting as a medium between the public on the one hand and the commissioners on the other. Ample tables and regulations have been printed, for the guidance of the Commissioners, the Postmaster-general, and the local postmasters throughout the kingdom. On the completion of these tables and regulations in 1865. the practical working of the system began. The tables of the premiums to be charged for life-insurances, for immediate annuities, for deferred annuities, and for deferred monthly allowances, are sold by Messrs. Eyre and Spottiswoode, the government printers, for 5 1/2 d. (the cost of the paper and printing); but similar tables are kept for inspection at the local post-offices without charge.

In regard to insurance, distinct from annuities, persons of either sex may insure through the medium of the post-office. The limited ages are from 16 to 60, and the limited sums from £20 to £100. In order to afford every possible facility in the payment of the premium, minute calculations have been made of the exact sum to be paid at each instalment, by yearly, quarterly, monthly, or fortnightly payments, and terminable or not at a particular age. In order that there may be some limit to the labor thus placed on the postal authorities, no periodical instalment is made smaller than two shillings. No one life can be insured for less than £20 in the whole; but when a life has been insured for £20, further insurances maybe effected on the same life from time to time, until the whole sum for which it is insured amounts to £100. The following is a tabulated example of nine different modes of paying the premium on one particular insurance, to suit the convenience of the insurer. A man in his 30th year may insure £100 to his survivors at his death :

If an insurer who has duly paid all instalments for five years, should desire, or be compelled by circumstances to withdraw from the engagement, a portion of the past premiums will be repaid to him—never less than one-third of the total amount.

In regard to immediate annuities, persons of either sex may purchase annuities of not more than £50, and for lives from 10 years old and upwards. The premiums necessarily vary with sex, age, and amount. Thus, a man aged 65 can purchase an immediate annuity of £10, paid half-yearly, for £88, 18s. 4d.; whereas, a woman of the same age would have to pay £103, 16s. 8d. Two or more small annuities may be purchased for the same life, provided the total amount does not exceed £50. Any two persons may purchase an annuity on their joint lives, with or without continuance of the annuity to the survivor.

Deferred annuities form another element in the scheme. These annuities are very varied iu kind, and the amount of premium depends on a great number of conditions—ainount of annuity; age and sex of the person; length of term for which the annuity is deferred (that is, the number of years which are to pass before the commencement of the annuity); mode in which the premium is to be paid; and the condition whether or not there is to be any return of purchase-money under certain contingencies. As examples, take the following : A man aged 30 may purchase a deferred annuity of £10. to commence on his reaching the age of 60, and due half-yearly, for one immediate payment of £21, 3s. 4d., or an annual payment of £1, 8s. 4d.; in the case of a woman, the immediate or total payment would be £32, 8s. 4d., and the annual payment £1, 17s. 6d. If the person on whose life the annuity is to depend should die before the annuity itself commences, all the premiums paid up to that date may be returned to his or her representatives provided a contract to this effect is made in the first instance. The premiums are necessarily higher for such a contract. The four sums just mentioned, where past premiums are not returnable, would be raised respectively to £40, 9s. 2d., £2, 0s. 10d., £47. 0s. 10d., and £2, 7s. 6d., with the returnable clause included.

Many persons in humble life would prefer that the annuities due to them should come more frequently than half-yearly. To suit this class, a system of deferred monthly allowances is established. A man aged 30 may purchase a deferred allowance of £2, 7s. 3d. per month, to commence when he reaches the age of 60, by a payment of 8s. per month, until he reaches that age; the same monthly payment by a woman would realize a monthly allowance of £1, 16s. 7d. If the returnable clause (above noticed) is included in the contract, the man’s monthly allowance would be £1, 14s. 2d., and the woman’s £1, 9s. 4d., for the like payment of 8s. per month. In regard to married couples, a husband and wife may each be insured to the full amount of £100, and may each purchase an annuity of £50, or a monthly allowance of £4, 3s. 4d.

Persons whose lives are insured, or to whom annuities are granted, through the post-office, have direct government security for the payment of the money at the proper time; and this is one of the many valuable features of the system. It is not necessary here to describe the exact routine of proceedings for making an insurance or purchasing an annuity; the postmasters whose post-offices have been raised to the rank of insurance offices, are fully instructed in the matter, and will give all requisite information to applicants- We may add, that the British Postal Guide, an authorized publication, issued quarterly at 6d., gives a considerable list of tables of premiums payable at various ages for various kinds of insurance and annuity.

INDI’CTION, a period or cycle of fifteen years, the origin of which is involved in obscurity. Connecting the original meaning of the word, viz., ‘the imposition of a tax,’ with its signification in chronology, several writers have propounded theories explanatory of its origin, none of which, however, are supported by a tittle of evidence. It began to be used in reckoning time, chiefly by ecclesiastical historians, during the life of Athanasius; it was afterwards adopted by the popes, who still continue to use it, and through whose influence it came to be so generally employed during the middle ages, that the dates of charters and public deeds of this era are expressed in indictions as well as in years of the Christian era. The time from which reckoning by indictions commenced is, according to some, the 15th September 312; according to the Greeks of the Lower Empire, 1st September 312; but when this method was adopted by the popes, it was ordered to be reckoned as commencing 1st January 313. The latter, which is now alone used, is called the Papal Indiction. If we reckon backwards to the commencement of the Christian era, it will be seen that 1 a.d. does not correspond to the 1st, but to the fourth year of an indiction—hence if to any given year of the Christian era 3 be added, and the sum divided by 15, the remainder will give the position of that year in an indiction—e. g., 1880 A.D. was the 8th year of an indiction.

POST-OFFICE, offences against. Owing to the conspicuous part which the post-office plays in modern civilization, a small code of laws belongs to it, the substance of which is as follows: Every person employed by the post-office who steals a post-letter, is guilty of felony; and if it contain money or a valuable chattel, the punishment is increased. So whenever letters are stolen by strangers out of the custody of the post-office or its officers. The moment a letter is put into the post-office or delivered to the postmaster, the protection of the statutes commences. Many nice questions have, however, arisen as to the application of the rule to special circumstances, and as to what constitutes an employment by the post-office. Whoever steals, secretes, or destroys printed papers or newspapers sent by post, commits a misdemeanor. So if a letter-carrier delay the delivery wilfully; or if an official messenger disclose or intercept a telegraphic message, or violate the rules on that point. Receivers of letters improperly taken or stolen from the post-office, are guilty of felony. By the 1st Vict. c. 33, s. 2, any person conveying otherwise than by post a letter not exempted from the exclusive privilege of the post-master-general, incurs a penalty of £5 for every letter. This exclusive privilege of carrying letters extends to letters only, and not to printed books or newspapers. There are also exceptions to the general rule, that letters can only be sent by the post-office. Thus, one may send a letter by a private Mend, and not by the post-office. So letters sent by messenger on purpose on the private affairs of the sender or receiver, commissions and legal writs, merchants’ letters sent by vessels or along with goods, are excepted. But no person is authorized to collect and send these excepted letters, though in the legal manner described, for this is doing the work of the post-office. Moreover, there are certain persons expressly prohibited from carrying letters even gratuitously, as common carriers, except the letters relate to goods in their carts or wagons; owners, masters, or commanders of ships, except such letters relate to goods on board; and passengers on board ships. Statutes and rules made thereunder secure the monopoly to the postmaster-general of sending telegraphic messages, and telegrams are put nearly on the footing of letters.