Vickipedia

LEGITIM, or BAIRN’S PART, in the Scotch Law, is the legal provision which a child is entitled to out of the movable or personal estate of the deceased father. In Scotland, a father is not allowed to disinherit his children to a certain extent, the extent varying according as the wife survives or not. If a wife survive, and also children survive, the movable estate is divided into three equal parts. One is the widow’s Jus Relictæ (q. v.), another is the children’s legitim, the other third is the Dead’s Part (q. v.), which the father may bequeath by will if he pleases, but if he make no will, then it goes to the children as next of kin. If the wife is dead, then half is legitim, and the other half is dead’s part. Moreover, a father, though in his lifetime he may, without any check from his children, squander his property, still is not allowed on his deathbed to make gifts so as to lessen the fund which will supply legitim. The children’s claim to legitim may be qualified by an antenuptial contract of marriage, which provides some other provision to the children in lieu of legitim; but, as a general rule, the children’s claim cannot be defeated by anything the father can do by means of a will or what is equivalent to a will. The legitim is claimable by all the children who survive the father, but not by the issue of those children who have predeceased. It is immaterial what the age of the child may be, and whether married or not. Children claiming legitim must, however, give credit for any provision or advance made by the father out of his movable estate in his lifetime. All the children, though of different marriages, share in the legitim. In England and Ireland, there is no similar right to legitim, for the father can bequeath all his property to strangers if he please; but a similar custom once existed in the city of London, and York, now abolished by 19 and 20 Vict. c. 94.

MOIRE, the French name (formerly mohère. and supposed to be taken from the Eng. mohair, which is itself probably of Eastern origin) applied to silks figured by the peculiar process called watering. The silks for this purpose must be broad and of a good substantial make; thin and narrow pieces will not do; they are wetted, and then folded with particular care, to insure the threads of the fabric lying all in the same direction, and not crossing each other, except as in the usual way of the web and the warp. The folded pieces of silk are then submitted to an enormous pressure, generally in a hydraulic machine. By this pressure, the air is slowly expelled, and in escaping, draws the moisture into curious waved lines, which leave the permanent marking called watering. The finest kinds of watered silks are known as Moirés antiques. —The same process has been applied to woolen fabrics called Moreen, which is only an alteration of the word moire.

LIBERTY OF THE SUBJECT is a general phrase descriptive of the right of the individual subject to do all things not specially prohibited by the law, and the less restriction there is by the Jaw, the greater is the extent of the liberty enjoyed. In its widest sense, the phrase may be understood as comprising the whole of the rights allowed by law to the subject; but what is generally understood is the liberty of the person, or of rights connected with the person—such as personal liberty or freedom from slavery, the right of free speech, liberty of conscience, liberty of the press, and constitutional liberty, or the liberty to influence and take part in legislation, which may be further subdivided into the limitation of the royal prerogative, the powers and privileges of parliament, the right of applying to courts of law for redress of injuries, the right of petitioning the crown or parliament, the right of having arms for defence, the right of habeas corpus, &c. All these subjects are noticed in detail under their proper heads.

LEGION,THE THUNDERING-(Lat. Legio Fulminatrix), a legion of the Roman army which is the subject of a well-known miraculous legend. During Marcus Aurelius’s war with the Marcomanni (174A.D.),his army, according to this narrative, being shut up in a mountainous defile, was reduced to great straits by want of water; when, a body of Christian soldiers having prayed to the God of the Christians, not only was rain sent seasonably to relieve their thirst, but this rain was turned upon the enemy in the shape of a fearful thunder-shower, under cover of which the Romans attacked and utterly routed them. The legion to which these soldiers belonged was thence, according to one of the narrators, called the Thundering Legion. This legend has been the subject of much controversy; and it is certain that the last told circumstance at least is false, as the name ‘ thundering legion ‘ existed long before the date of this story. There would appear, nevertheless, to have been some foundation for the story, however it may have been embellished by the pious zeal of the Christians. The scene is represented on the column of Antonius. The event is recorded by the pagan historian Dion Cassius (lxxi. 8), who attributes it to Egyptian sorcerers; and by Capitolinus and Themistius, the latter of whom ascribes it to the prayers of Aurelius himself. It is appealed to by the nearly contemporary Tertullian, in his Apology (c. 5), and is circumstantially related by Eusebius, by Jerome, and Orosius. It may not improbably be conjectured, supposing the substantial truth of the narrative, that the fact of one of the legions being called by the name ‘ Thundering ‘ may have led to the localizing of the story, and that it may have, in consequence, been ascribed to this particular legion, which was supposed to have received its name from the circumstance.

FRIENDLY ISLANDS, as distinguished from the Fiji Islands (q- v-)> generally reckoned a part of them, are otherwise styled the TONGA group. They lie to the south-east of Fiji, and consist of three sub-groups, of which some 30 islands are inhabited, Tongatabu being the largest. The great majority are of coral formation; but some are volcanic, and there are several active volcanoes. The people are the most intelligent and skilful of the fair Polynesians, but are decreasing in numbers : once reckoned at 40,000, they do not now exceed 10,000. A treaty with Germany in 1876 granted a coaling-station; and a treaty with Great Britain was concluded in 1879. The F. 1. were discovered by Tasman in 1643, but received their collective name from Cook. Both these navigators found the soil closely and highly cultivated, and the people apparently unprovided with arms. The climate is salubrious, but humid; earthquakes and hurricanes are frequent, but the former are not destructive. Among the products of the islands are yams, sweet-potatoes, bananas, cocoa-nuts, bread-fruit, sugar-cane, the ti, hog-plum, &c.; some corn also is grown. The Flora resembles that of the Fiji group; but the native animals are very few.

The F. I. were first visited by missionaries in 1797. In 1827 the work of evangelization fell into the hands of the Wesleyan Methodists, and after a lengthened and perilous struggle with the savage paganism of the inhabitants, it was crowned with success. Almost all the islanders are now Christians; great numbers can speak English, and, in addition, have learned writing, arithmetic, and geography; while the females have been taught to sew. The various islands used to be governed by independent chiefs, but nearly the whole of them are now under the rule of one chief, called King George, who is not only a Christian, but a zealous preacher of the gospel.

CRYPTO’GRAPHY, the art of secret writing, more commonly called the art of writing in cipher (from Arabic sifr, void), has been in use from an early date in correspondence between diplomatists and others engaged in important affairs requiring secrecy. In modern times it has been the subject of learned care to Lord Bacon, the ingenious Marquis of Worcester, Dr. Wallis, Bishop Wilkins. Thicknesse, Falconer, Blair, &c. In our own history, it has at no time been in greater requisition than during the civil war, and among the politicians of the 17th century. And even now, when there is happily less need for mystery among our statesmen, the need for a perfectly undecipherable mode of secret communication has again had to be looked for, in order that information may pass by the electric telegraph without .being understood by the officials in connection with the apparatus.

One of the most simple methods of C. is to use, instead of each letter of the alphabet, a certain other letter at a regular interval in advance of it in that series. Such was a mode of secret writing used by Julius Caesar. As a variety upon this plan, the alphabet is used invertedly—s for a, y for &, x for e, and so on. Or, while the first seven letters are represented by the second seven, the next six may be represented by the last six. And many other variations may be adopted. But for all modes like these, there are modes of decipherment far from difficult. It is only necessary, in general, to bear in mind certain peculiarities of the language presumed to be used. Say it is the English. We readily remember that e is the most frequent letter; that ea and ou are the double vowels which most frequently occur; that the consonants most common at the ends of words are r, s, and t.&c. We also know how a single letter must be either the pronoun J or the article’ d; how an, at, and on, are the most common words in two letters; how the and and are the most frequent used words in three letters; &c. By taking advantage of these few obvious principles, a tolerably skilled decipherer will read almost any such piece of cryptographic writing in five minutes. The Times newspaper often gives, in its advertising columns, correspondence on delicate subjects, even assignations for elopements, written in this manner, the writers of which are of course little aware how open their secrets thus become to society.

Politicians and important personages conducting affairs of difficulty became long ago sensible of the necessity of using ciphers of greater abstruseness. The celebrated letter of Charles I. to the Earl of Glamorgan, in which he made some condemning concessions (elsewhere denied) to the Catholics of Ireland, was composed in an alphabet of 24 short strokes variously situated upon a line. Other letters by the same monarch are to appearance a mere series of numbers of two and three figures, divided by semicolons. In such cases, it was necessary that the two parties in the correspondence should have previously concerted what words each number was to represent. Bacon devised what he thought a not easily penetrable cipher, in which he employed only a and b, arranging each of these, in groups of five, in such collocations as to represent all the 24 letters.

Thus aabab ababa bdbba conveyed the word Fly. The great philosopher thought that preconcertment would here be necessary; but in reality any clever modern decipherer would have found no difficulty in reading any long letter composed in such a manner. The unfortunate Earl of Argyle, when preparing his expedition against the tyrannical government of James II., used a mode of secret writing which consisted in setting down the words at certain intervals, which he afterwards filled up with other words, making on the whole something intelligible, but indifferent. In our day, such a mode would not have been found proof against the ingenuity of those who have studied the means of decipherment. There are many other modes of secret writing, which it does not seem necessary to detail, as the art has become little more matter of curiosity. One of the ablest and amplest treatments of the subject is an article by Dr. William Blair in Rees’s Cyclopædia. See also Chambers’s Journal, No. 506 (Second Series), and Nos. 87 and 115.

LU’NATIC ASYLUM. The first hospitals for the insane of which history or tradition makes mention, were the sacred temples in Egypt. In these, it is said, the disease was mitigated by agreeable impressions received through the senses, and by a system resembling and rivaling the highest development of moral treatment now practised. Monasteries appear to have been the representative of such retreats in the medieval Christian times; but restraint and rigid asceticism characterized the management. Out of conventual establishments grew the Bethlems, or Bedlams, with which our immediate ancestors were familiar (see BEDLAM). But apart from such receptacles, the vast majority of the insane must have been neglected; in some countries, reverenced as specially God-stricken; in others, tolerated, or tormented, or laughed at, as simpletons or buffoons; in others, imprisoned as social pests, even executed as criminals. In a few spots, enjoying a reputation for sanctity, or where miraculous cures of nervous diseases were supposed to have been effected, such as Gheel and St. Suaire, communities were formed, of which lunatics, sent with a view to restoration, formed a large part, and resided in the houses of the peasants, and partook of their labor and enjoyments. Asylums, properly so called, date from the commencement of the present century; and for many years after their institution, although based upon sound and benevolent views, they resembled jails both in construction and the mode in which they were conducted, rather than hospitals. Until very recently, a model erection of this kind was conceived necessarily to consist of a vast block of building, the center of which was appropriated to the residence of the officers, the kitchen and its dependencies, the chapel, &c., from which there radiated long galleries, in which small rooms, or cells, were arranged upon one or both sides of a corridor or balcony, having at one extremity public rooms, in which the agitated or non-industrial inmates, as the case might be, spent the day, while the more tractable individuals were withdrawn to engage in some pursuit, either in workshops, clustered round the central house, or in the grounds attached, which were surrounded by high walls, or by a ha-ha. The population of such establishments, when they were appropriated to paupers, ranged from 100 to 1400 patients. These were committed to a staff composed of a medical officer, matron, and attendants, to whom were directly intrusted the management, discipline, and occupation of the insane, in accordance with regulations or prescriptions issued by the physician.

A gradual but great revolution has taken place in the views of psychologists as to the provisions and requirements for the insane during seclusion. As a result of this change, asylums, especially for the wealthy classes, are assimilated in their arrangements to ordinary dwelling-houses; while it is proposed to place the indigent in cottages in the immediate vicinity of an infirmary, where acute cases, individuals dangerous to themselves or others, or in any way untrustworthy, could be confined and actively treated, as their condition might require. In all such establishments, whether now entitled to be regarded as cottage asylums or not, the semblance and much of the reality of coercion has been abolished; the influence of religion, occupation, education, recreation; the judicious application of moral impressions; and the dominion of rational kindness and discriminating discipline, have been super-added to mere medical treatment, and substituted for brute force, terror, or cruelty.—Esquirol, Des Maladies Mentales, t. ii.; Guislain, Sur l’Alienation Mentale; Browne on Asylums, &c.; Conolly on Construction of Asylums.

FRIENDS,SOCIETY OF, the proper designation of a sect of Christians, better known as Quakers. Their founder was George Fox (q. v. for the origin of the name Quakers), born at Dray ton, in Leicestershire, in 1624, who at first followed the occupation of a shoemaker, but afterwards devoted himself to the propagation of what he regarded as a more spiritual form of Christianity that prevailed in his day. In spite of severe and cruel persecutions, the Society of F. succeeded in establishing themselves both in England and America. They have, indeed, never been numerically powerful (having at no time exceeded 200,000 members); but the purity of life which from the beginning has so honorably distinguished them as a class, has unquestionably exercised a salutary influence on the public at large; while in respect to certain great questions affecting the interests of mankind such as war and slavery, they have beyond all doubt originated opinions and tendencies which, whether sound or erroneous, are no longer confined to themselves, but have widely leavened the mind of Christendom. For an account of the more eminent representatives of the Friends, see the biographies of BARCLAY, FOX, PENN, &c.. We confine ourselves here to a brief notice of their doctrine, practice, and discipline, as it is laid down in their own publications.

Doctrine.—It is perhaps more in the spirit than in the letter of their faith that the Society of F. differ from other orthodox Christians. They themselves assert their belief in the great fundamental facts of Christianity, and even in the substantial identity of most of the doctrinal opinions which they hold with those of other evangelical denominations. The Epistle addressed by George Fox and other Friends to the governor of Barbadoes, in 1673, contains a confession of faith not differing materially from the so-called Apostles’ Creed, except that it is more copiously worded, and dwells with great diffuseness on the internal work of Christ. The Declaration of Christian Doctrine given forth on be- . half of the Society in 1693, expresses a belief in what is usually termed the Trinity, in the atonement made by Christ for sin, in the resurrection from the dead, and in the doctrine of a final and eternal judgment; and the Declaratory Minute of the early meeting in 1829 asserts the inspiration and divine authority of the Old and New Testament, the depravity of human nature consequent on the fall of Adam, and other characteristic doctrines of Christian orthodoxy, adding: ‘ Our religious Society, from its earliest establishment to the present day, has received these most important doctrines of Holy Scripture in their plain and obvious acceptation.

It is nevertheless certain that uniformity of theological opinion cannot be predicated of the Friends, any more than of other bodies of Christians. As early as 1668, William Penn and George Whitehead held a public discussion with a clergyman of the English Church, named Vincent, in which they maintained that the doctrine of a tri-personal God, as held-by that church, was not found in the Scriptures, though in what form they accepted the doctrine themselves does not appear; and some time later, Penn published a work himself, entitled the Sandy Foundation Shaken, in which, among other things, he endeavored to show that the doctrines of vicarious atonement and of imputed righteousness did not rest on any scriptural foundation. But in general, the Society of F., in the expression of their belief, have avoided the technical phraseology of other Christian churches, restricting themselves with commendable modesty to the words of Scripture itself, as far as that is possible and avoiding, in particular, the knotty points of Calvinistic divinity (see Barclay’s Catechism and Confession of Faith, published in 1678, where the answers to the questions— to avoid theological dogmatism—are taken from the Bible itself).

This habit of allowing to each individual the full freedom of the Scriptures, has, of course, rendered it all the more difficult to ascertain to what extent individual minds, among the Society, may have differed in their mode of apprehending and dogmatically explaining the facts of Christianity. Their principal distinguishing doctrine is that of the ‘ Light of Christ in man,’ on which many of their outward peculiarities, as a religious body are grounded. The doctrine of the internal light is founded on the view of Christ given by St. John, who, in the first chapter of his gospel, describes Christ—the Eternal Logos—as the ‘ life ‘ and ‘ light of men,’ ‘ the true light,’ ‘ the light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world,’ &c. Barclay taught that even the heathen were illumined by this light, though they might not know—as, indeed, those who lived before Christ could not know—the historical Jesus in whom Christians believe. In their case, Christ was the light shining in darkness, though the darkness comprehended it not. The existence of ‘ natural virtue ‘ (as orthodox theologians term it) among the heathen was denied by Barclay, who regarded all such virtue as Christian in its essence, and as proceeding from the light of Christ shining through the darkness of pagan superstition. These opinions would seem to be somewhat freer than those expressed in the General Epistle of the Society published in 1836, wherein they refuse to acknowledge ‘ any principle of spiritual light, life, or holiness inherent by nature in the mind of man,’ and again assert, that they ‘ believe in no principle whatsoever of spiritual light, life, or holiness, except the influence of the Holy Spirit of God bestowed on mankind in various measures and degrees through Jesus Christ our Lord;’ but, on the other hand, in a little treatise published by the Society in 1861, it is affirmed that ‘ the Holy Spirit has always been afforded in various measures to mankind; while stress is also laid on the statement of St. Paul, that ‘ the grace of God (understood by Friends to signify the ‘ operation of the Divine Spirit’) that bringeth salvation, hath appeared to all men;’ while another exponent of their views, Mr. T. Evans of Philadelphia (see Cyclopædia of Religious Denominations, Lond., Griffin & Co., 1853), states that ‘ God hath granted to all men, of whatsoever nation or country, a day or time of visitation, during which it is possible for them to partake of the benefits of Christ’s death and be saved.

‘ For this end, he hath communicated to every man a measure of the light of his own Son, a measure of grace or the Holy Spirit, by which he invites, calls, exhorts, and strives with every man, in order to save him; which light or grace, as it is received, and not resisted, works the salvation of all, even of those who are ignorant of Adam’s fall, and of the death and sufferings of ‘Christ; both by bringing them to a sense of their own misery, and to be sharers in the sufferings of Christ inwardly; and by making them partakers of his resurrection, in becoming holy, pure and righteous, and recovered out of their sins.’ Hence it may be safely asserted that they hold a broader (or, as others would say, a more latitudinarian) view of the Spirit’s working than any other Christian church or society. In America, about the year 1827, Elias Hicks, a Friend of very remarkable powers, created a schism in the Society, by the promulgation of opinions denying the miraculous conception, divinity, and atonement of Christ, and also the authenticity and divine authority of the Holy Scriptures. About one-half the society in America adopted the views of Hicks, and are known as Hicksite Friends; their opinions, of course, are repudiated by the rest of the Society, who may be described as Orthodox Friends. The Hicksite schism thoroughly alarmed the latter, both in England and America, and a movement was begun in favor of education, of a doctrinal belief more nearly allied to that of the so-called ‘ Evangelical’ party, and of a relaxation in the formality and discipline of the Society. The leader of this movement was Joseph John Gurney, of Norwich. This new tendency, however, excited considerable opposition among some of the Friends in America; and the consequence was a division among the Orthodox Friends themselves, and the formation of a new sect, called ‘ Wilburites,’ after the name of their founder, John Wilbur, who are noted for their strictness with which they maintain the traditions and peculiarities of the Society. (See Friendly Sketches in America, by William Tallack. Lond., Bennett. 1862.) Some slight indications of theological differences have manifested themselves in England also.

2. Practice.—It is in the application of their leading doctrine of the ‘ internal light’ that the peculiarities of the Friends are most apparent. Believing that it is the Holy Spirit, or the indwelling Christ, that alone maketh wise unto salvation, illumining the mind with true and spiritual knowledge of the deep things of God, they do not consider ‘ human learning ‘ essential to a minister of the gospel, and look with distrust on the method adopted by other churches for obtaining such—viz., by formally training after a human fashion a body of youths chosen on no principle of inward fitness. They believe that the call to this work now, as of old, is ‘not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father;’ and that it is bestowed irrespectively of rank, talent, learning, or sex. Consequently, they have no theological halls, professors of divinity, or classes for ‘ students.’

Further, as fitness for the ministry is held to be a free gift of God through the Holy Spirit, so, they argue, it ought to be freely bestowed, in support of which they adduce the precept of the Saviour—’Freely ye have received, freely give;’ hence those who minister among them are not paid for their labor of love, but, on the other hand, whenever such are engaged from home in the work of the gospel, they are, in the spirit of Christian love, freely entertained, and have all their wants supplied: in short, the Friends maintain the absolutely voluntary character of religious obligations, and that Christians should do all for love, and nothing for money. It also follows from their view of a call to the work of the ministry, that women may exhort as well as men, for the ‘ spirit of Christ’ may move them as powerfully as the other sex. The prophecy of Joel as applied by Peter is cited as authority for the preaching of women : ‘ On my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my spirit, and they shall prophesy.’ They also adduce the New Testament examples of Tryphæna, Tryphosa, the beloved Persis, and other women who appear to have labored in the Gospel. Their mode of conducting public worship likewise illustrates the entireness of their dependence on the ‘ internal light.’ In other religious bodies, the minister has a set form of worship, through which he must go, whether he feels devoutly disposed or not. This seems objectionable to the Friends, who meet and remain in silence until they believe themselves moved to speak by the Holy Ghost. Their prayers and praises are, for the most part, silent and inward. They prefer to make melody in their hearts unto God, considering such to be more spiritual than the outward service of the voice.

The doctrine of the ‘internal light’ has also led the Friends to reject the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper as these are observed by other Christians. They believe the Christian baptism to be a spiritual one, and not, like the Jewish and heathen baptisms, one with water; in support of which they quote, among other passages, the words of John the Baptist himself : ‘ I baptize yon with water, but there cometh one after me who shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.’ Similarly do they regard the rite of the Eucharist: it is, say they, inward and spiritual, and consists not in any symbolic breaking of bread and drinking of wine, but in that daily communion with Christ through the Holy Spirit, and through the obedience of faith, by which the believer is nourished and strengthened. They believe that the last words of the dying Redeemer on the cross, ‘ It is finished,’ announced the entire abolition of symbolic rites; that under the new spiritual dispensation then introduced, the necessity for such, as a means of arriving at truth, ceased, and that their place has been abundantly supplied by the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, whose office it now is to lead and guide men into all truth. The true Christian supper, according to them, is set forth in the Revelations—’ Behold I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come unto him, and will sup with him and he with me.’ For the same reason—viz., that the teaching of the Spirit is inward and spiritual—the Friends ignore the religious observance of days and times, with the exception of the Sabbath, which some at least among them regard as of perpetual obligation.

The taking or administering of oaths is regarded by Friends as inconsistent with the command of Christ, ‘ swear not at all,’ and with the exhortation of the apostle James—’ Above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath : but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation.’ They have also refused to pay tithes for the maintenance of what they hold to be a hireling ministry, believing that Christ put an end to the priesthood and ceremonial usages instituted under the Mosaic dispensation, and that he substituted none in their place. In consequence, all consistant Friends have been regularly mulcted of plate, furniture, or other goods, to the value of the amount due. The recent conversion of tithe into rent-charge, however, has, in the opinion of many Friends, largely removed objections to the payment to this ecclesiastical demand. In regard to the civil magistracy, while they respect and honor it, as ordained of God, they are careful to warn the members of their Society against thoughtlessly incurring its responsibilities, involving as it does the administration of oaths, the issuing of orders and warrants in reference to ecclesiastical demands, the calling out of an armed force in cases of civil commotion, and other duties inconsistent with the peaceful principles of the Society. The Friends have likewise consistenly protested against war in all its forms; and the Society has repeatedly advised members against aiding and assisting in the conveyance of soldiers, their baggage, arms, ammunition, or military stores. They regard the profession of arms and fighting, not only as diametrically opposed to the general spirit of Christ, whose advent was sung by angels in these words : ‘ Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace, good-will towards men;’ but as positively forbidden by such precepts as—’ Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you;’ also, ‘ Resist not evil : but whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also;’ and while they acknowledge that temporary calamities may result from the adopting the principle of non-resistance, they have so strong a faith in its being essentially the dictate of divine love to the Christian heart, that they believe God, by his wise and omnipotent providence, could, and will yet make it ‘mighty to the pulling down of the strongholds of iniquity.’ The world, they believe, will by and by confess that the peacemakers are most truly the children of God. The efforts of the Society for the emancipation of the slaves are a part of modern British history. They may most certainly lay claim to having cultivated the moral sense of their fellow-countrymen in regard to this important question. As early as 1727, they commenced to ‘ censure ‘ the traffic in slaves, as a practice ‘ neither commendable nor allowed,’ and gradually warmed in their opposition, until the whole nation felt the glow, and entered with enthusiasm on the work of abolition. In respect to what may be called minor points, the Friends are also very scrupulous; they object to ‘ balls, gaming-places, horse-races, and playhouses, those nurseries of debauchery and wickedness, the burden and grief of the sober part of other societies as well as of our own.’

The Printed Epistle of the yearly meeting of 1854 contains a warning against indulging in music, especially what goes by the name of ’sacred music,’ and denounces musical exhibitions, such as oratorios, as essentially a ‘ profanation ‘—the tendency of these things being, it is alleged, ‘ to withdraw the soul from that quiet, humble, and retired frame in which prayer and praise may be truly offered with the spirit and with the understanding also.’ They object, besides, to ‘ the hurtful tendency of reading plays, romances, novels, and other pernicious books;’ and the yearly meeting of 1764 ‘ recommends to every member of our Society to discourage and suppress the same.’ A similar recommendation was issued by the Society in 1851 for the benefit of ‘ younger Friends’ in particular, who would appear to have been eating the forbidden fruit. The Printed Epistle of the yearly meeting of 1724 likewise ‘advises against imitating the vain custom of wearing or giving mourning, and all extravagant expenses about the interment of the dead,’ and this advice has been repeatedly renewed. A multitude of other minute peculiarities, which it would be tedious to note, distinguish the Friends from their fellow-Christians.

3. Discipline.—By the term discipline the Friends understand ‘ all those arrangements and regulations which are instituted for the civil and religious benefit of a Christian church.’ The necessity for such discipline soon began to make itself felt, and the result was the institution of certain meetings or assemblies. These are four in number: the first, the Preparative meetings: second, the Monthly meetings; third, the Quarterly meetings; and, fourth, the Yearly meetings. The first are usually composed of the members in any given place, in which there are generally two or more Friends of each sex, whose duty is to act as overseers of the meeting, taking cognizance of births, marriages, burials, removals, &c., the conduct of members, &c., and reporting thereon to the monthly meetings, to whom the executive department of the discipline is chiefly confided. The monthly meetings decide in cases of violation of discipline, and have the power of cutting off or disowning all who by their improper conduct, false doctrines, or other gross errors, bring reproach on the Society, although the accused have the right of appeal to the quarterly meetings, and from these again to the yearly, whose decisions are final. The monthly meetings are also empowered to approve and acknowledge ministers, as well as to appoint ‘ serious, discreet, and judicious Friends, who are not ministers, tenderly to encourage and help young ministers, and advise others, as they, in the wisdom of God, see occasion.’ They also execute a variety of other important duties. The quarterly meetings are composed of several monthly meetings, and exercise a sort of general supervision over the latter, and from whom they receive reports, and to whom they give such advice and decisions as they think right. The yearly meeting consists of select or representative members of the quarterly meetings. Its function is to consider generally the entire condition of the Society in all its aspects. It receives in writing answers to questions it has previously addressed to the subordinate meetings, deliberates upon them, and legislates accordingly. To it exclusively the legislative power belongs. Though thus constituted somewhat according to Presbyterian order, yet any member of the Society may attend and take part in the proceedings.

Women have also a special sphere of discipline allotted to them: they inspect and relieve the wants of the poor of their own sex, take cognizance of proposals for marriage, deal with female delinquents privately, and under certain restrictions may even do so officially, though in the ‘ testimony of disownment’ they have always the assistance of members of the other sex.

The Society of F., in the multitude of its regulations, has not forgotten the poor; charity in its narrower, as well as in its broader sense, has always been a beautiful feature of its members. The care of the poor was one of the earliest evidences which Christianity afforded to the Gentiles of the superiority and divine character of its principles; and it is honorable to the Society that a similar provision for those united to them in religious fellowship appears to have been one of the earliest occasions of their meetings for discipline. Nevertheless, in accordance with their ruling principle, that all Christian duty should be left for its fulfilment to the spontaneity of Christian love, and not performed under compulsion of any kind, ‘ the provision for the poor is purely voluntary ; yet their liberality is proverbial throughout Britain and America.

Their number at present amounts, it is believed, to about 120,000, of which more than 90,000 belong to the United States. See Fox’s Journal; Gurney’s History of the Quakers (1722); Gurney’s Observations on the Peculiarities of the 8- of F. (1824); Neale’s. History of the Puritans.

DARWINIAN THEORY. Before attempting- to discuss the theory of Evolution of Plants and Animals by Natural Selection, as promulgated by Darwin (q. v.), it is necessary briefly to consider first, the scope and aim of biological science; and secondly, the influence exerted upon biology by the progress of other departments of knowledge.

1. Nature of Biology.—The primary labors of the botanist and zoologist are, of course, to collect and preserve, to describe and figure the innumerable and varied forms occurring in nature; and in this task, therefore, naturalists have been occupied since the earliest times. The increase of such knowledge necessitated the attempt at orderly arrangement and intelligible cataloguing, problems solved by Linnaeus, whose Systema Naturæ first satisfactorily organized the natural history sciences.

The detailed study of internal structure, as well as of external form, commenced by Hunter and Haller, was enormously extended by Cuvier (q. v.), whose labors resulted in the conception that the multitudinous forms of animal life were all organized upon a few distinct plans, of which he defined the vertebrate, molluscan, articulate, and radiate; while Geoffrey St. Hilaire and Goethe were principally instrumental in introducing the idea of homology (seeMETAMORPHOSIS).But it is not sufficient to analyze the organism into its constituent organs, and to describe and compare these; we must inquire into their minute structure. These organs were analyzed into tissues by the Bichât, and these again into their component protoplasmic units—cells—by Schleiden and Schwann, and thus anatomy acquired the subordinate province of Histology. Finally, the mode of origin of the adult organism from the germ or egg comes to be investigated, and after thus adding to our previous knowledge that of Embryology, we are in a position to complete our summary of the structural aspects of an organism by defining its relation to its fellows—in other words, by fixing its position in the natural system of classification. These subjects of anatomy, histology, embryology, and Taxonomy or classification constitute the science of Morphology.

But an organism has yet other aspects, functional as well as structural, dynamical as well as statical; its organs have activities, and for the study of these, a new department of biology must be constituted—Physiology, which (although, by reason of the urgent needs of the practitioner and the student of medicine, as yet mainly concentrated upon the study of the functions of the human body) has a field co-extensive with that of morphology.

To the consideration of the forms and the activities of organisms, a new line of inquiry has been much more recently added, that referring to the position in time and space in which the organism occurs and the answer to this comes under a new head, that of Distribution, chronological (geological) or geographical, as the case may be.

These three great divisions of biological knowledge, morphological, physiological, and distributional, being constituted, the questions what, how, and where being approximately answered (and since the search for final causes—for the why—is outside the field of science), only one more possible inquiry remains—namely, whence these organisms, with their particular structures, functions, and positions in space and time ? In other words, how did all these phenomena arise—what is their origin or Ætiology ?

The necessity for a theory of the origin of plants and animals thus coming to be felt, only two hypotheses present themselves, since the suggestion that they may have existed in their present state from infinite time, is not only incapable of support by positive evidence, but absolutely negatived by geology. The first and historically earlier hypothesis is that of Special Creation, which assumes the sudden origin of the existing species, without reference to previously existing species, by the intervention of supernatural causes; the second is that of Evolution, and assumes the gradual origin of the existing species from pre-existing species by ordinary descent, with modification by the action of natural causes. A little reflection will show (1) that the idea of cause, although presented in different forms by the two rival hypotheses, and at different degrees of remoteness, is not excluded by one more than the other; and (2) that just as the hypothesis of the origin of solar and stellar systems from nebulæ is considered on its own merits, without confusion with any hypotheses which may subsequently arise as to the origin of the nebulas themselves, so we must separate the inquiry as to the origin of species, with which the Darwinian theory is alone concerned, from all subsequent hypotheses as to the origin or the nature of life (seeLIFE; GENERATION, SPONTANEOUS),thus keeping clear of the misunderstandings and misrepresentations with which the subject has too frequently been encumbered.

First in order, therefore, the arguments for and against the theory of the origin of species by special creation demands our examination, of course on scientific grounds alone. From the nature of the case no positive arguments are, or can be presented; and consequently, from the naturalist’s point of view, it is urged that not only is no evidence forthcoming, but that the hypothesis fails to explain the existing facts, much less to act as an instrument of research; while on philosophical grounds, it is objected that besides being in no respect a scientific hypothesis, but one which necessarily excludes all scientific hypotheses, it stands discredited a priori as the last survivor of a series of once universally diffused pre-scientific beliefs in the irregular and arbitrary occurrence of phenomena, and so is destitute of support from analogy; that it neither satisfies the intellectual wants, nor meets the moral difficulties of the explanation of nature; and worst of all, that it is a purely verbal hypothesis, incapable of any definite representation in thought—in short, inconceivable.

Passing to the second theory, we find it strongly urged in the first place, that not only is much evidence forthcoming, but that it does plausibly explain the known facts, and is even serviceable in the search for new ones; that it belongs to that class of explanations in terms of the natural order of things which have now superseded the system of catastrophic and supernatural hypotheses in every other field of knowledge; that it is capable of clear representation in thought; and that it satisfies not merely the intellectual wants, but meets the moral difficulties. For a full development of this most general form of the discussion, the reader may consult Spencer’s Principles of Biology, vol. i.

1. Influence on Biology of Progress in other Sciences.—The enormous progress of every department of knowledge during the past few generations has not lain merely, as is too commonly supposed, in ever-increasing minuteness of specialization upon ever-multiplying details, but has rather consisted in the concentration of innumerable previously unrelated phenomena into few groups, and of these again into fewer; through the construction of far-reaching hypotheses, which, if surviving and satisfying scrutiny and criticism, observation and experiment, have passed through stages of .possibility and likelihood, to that of overwhelming or practically infinite (more rarely absolute) probability, and are then termed generalizations, or more figuratively, laws. A rich harvest of such general conceptions has been garnered by astronomy, and such successive labors as those of Copernicus, Kepler, and Newton, in widening our knowledge of the universe, have widened not a little, the theoretic range and grasp of the scientific intellect. And it is important to bear in mind, first, that each of these advances consisted, as every such advance must do, in the substitution of a verified scientific hypothesis for a provisional, though “•hue-honored explanation, in terms of the mysterious and supernatural; and, secondly, that a theory of the evolution of solar and stellar systems (see NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS)is largely maintained by modern astronomers.

In chemistry, such conceptions as those of molecular constitution, and of the indestructibility of matter, of the similarity in composition of our planet with sun and stars, and of the intimate relation between inorganic and organic compounds, are highly instructive; while the actually observed genesis of many species of minerals by the action of natural causes, and the frequent transmutation of one species into another, when some definite change takes place in the surrounding conditions, are not without interest. Moreover, to the theory of the conservation of energy (seeFORCE)unifying as it has done, not only all the physical sciences, but these with physiology, a far vaster influence upon biology is due.

But the most important of all influences whatever on the organic sciences has come from geology. The discovery that our earth dates from an almost incalculably remote antiquity, together with the establishment as the fundamental axiom of the science that the present is the key to the past, and consequently that the present phenomena of the earth’s crust do not result from catastrophe .and deluge, still less from special creation, but are the product of a slow and progressive evolution (by natural causes still in operation) from a widely different previously existing state of things, furnish the evolutionist with the most primary of his data. To the establishment of this new theory of geologic evolution, revolutionary yet uniformitarian, of which the theory of organic evolution is but the complement and corollary, it is interesting to note that after Hutton and Lyell, perhaps no move important service has been rendered by any geological works than by the series (Geological Observations, 1844; Coral Beefs, 1842; Earthworms, 1881; and the essay on the Imperfection of the Geological Record, summarized below), which we owe to Darwin.

Nor is it only the preliminary sciences which have influenced biologists, and have aided them in their inquiries as to the origin of their set of phenomena. The human and social sciences— psychology and philology, anthropology and history, have all contributed their ætiological example and results, so that it might almost be debated whether the biological evolutionist has not been more indebted to all the other sciences for his theory, than they to him for theirs.

Origin of the Idea of Evolution in Biology.—No doubt largely influenced by such as existed of the scientific conceptions outlined above, as well as by the Cartesian doctrine, that the universe is a mechanism, and is therefore to be explained on mechanical principles, the evolutionary hypothesis made its first distinct appearance in the work of De Maillet (Telliamed, written 1735, published 1758), and was expounded in more or less varying form by more than thirty writers before Darwin, among whom the most notable were Erasmus Darwin, Goethe, Lamarck, and Geoffroy St. Hilaire.

Their hypotheses, although based on masses of biological evidence drawn from homologies and rudimentary organs, from classification and development, from geological and geographical distribution, and so on. never succeeded in gaining general acceptance among naturalists—a failure largely attributable to established prejudice, aided as it \vas by the authority of Cuvier. Yet, while rendering it extremely probable that modification had occurred, they all came short, as Darwin has pointed out, in one most important particular, that of showing how the modification of one species from another could take place, ‘ so as to acquire that perfection of structure and co-adaptation which justly excites our admiration;’ since the hypotheses of the potency of external conditions, of habit, or of the volition of the organism itself, alike successively broke down.

Darwin, in his turn, struck especially by the distributional phenomena he witnessed during his ‘ Naturalists’ Voyage,’ devoted himself to the solution of the problem of the origin of species, specially concentrating himself upon this weakest point of the preceding theories. After twenty-one years’ continuous work, he was compelled, on receiving a paper by Mr. A. R. Wallace (then exploring the Malay Archipelago), in which views identical with his own were expressed, to proceed to the publication of his results, first in brief outline (Journ. Linn. Soc., 1858), and the following year in that fuller abstract, ‘ The Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection,’ which may now be briefly summarised, in so far as further compression of such ‘ intellectual pemmican ‘ is possible. For details and explanations, the reader must consult the original work (sixth edition, 1875).

Outline of the ‘ Origin of Species.’—In order to gain insight, then, into the means of modification, Darwin commences with a study of the variation of plants and animals under domestication (later expanded into a separate work; second edition. 1876).

Variation and Heredity.—While all plants and animals exhibit some degree of variation, this is greatest among domesticated species, owing to their new and less uniform conditions of life. These may act directly on the whole organization, or on separate parts, and the variation, though rarely, is sometimes definite, as when size increases with quantity of food, or color changes with its quality; or the conditions may act indirectly by influencing the reproductive system, which is peculiarly sensitive. Changed habits produce an inherited effect, e. g., the leg-bones of the common duck weigh proportionally more, and its wing-bones less, than in the wild variety, because it flies less and walks more. So, too, tame mammals acquire drooping ears, since these are rarely pricked in alarm. One variation is usually correlated with others, thus long-beaked pigeons have small feet, and conversely. All variations tend to be inherited. The popular belief that domestic races revert to the aboriginal stock is unsupported by facts.

Save that domestic varieties are less uniform than wild species, often differ more widely in some single part, and are fertile when crossed, there is no well-marked distinction between these and so-called true species. If, therefore, such varieties as of the dog can be shown to be descended from a single wild species, there necessarily arises great doubt as to immutability of closely allied natural species, such as the foxes. While the many breeds of clog appear to have arisen from several wild species, and those of cattle also from two or three, fowls, ducks, rabbits, &c., all certainly arise from a single ancestral species. The case of pigeons is of peculiar importance, since pouter, carrier, fan tail, and tumbler differ so thoroughly, externally and internally, that any ornithologist would be compelled to assign to them, not merely specific but generic distinctness, if he had discovered them in the wild state. There is at least as much difficulty in believing that such breeds can have proceeded from a common ancestor, as in the case of any group of birds in nature; and every breeder of these and other domestic animals has been firmly convinced of their descent from distinct species.

Yet these are proven to arise from the common rock-dove (Columba lima) (see COLUMBIDÆ;),and thus those who admit the unity of domestic races should be cautious in deriding the unity of wild ones.

Domestic races all exhibit adaptations to man’s use or fancy, rather than their own good. The key to this is man’s power of selection; nature gives successive variations, man accumulates them, so making for himself useful breeds, and often (e.g., sheep, cattle, roses, dahlias) profoundly modifying their character even in a single lifetime; so that in all characters to which he attends, they may differ more than the distinct species of the same genera. Again more even than conscious, that unconscious selection which results from every one trying to possess and breed the best animals, is important. Two flocks of Leicester sheep, equally kept pure, appeared of quite different varieties after fifty years. Such slowly accumulated change explains why we know so little of the origin of domestic races; and its absence in regions inhabited by Uncivilized man, explains why these yield no plants worth immediate culture. Human selection is facilitated by the keeping of large numbers, since variations will be more frequent, and by preventing crosses; some species vary, however, more than ethers.

Variation under Nature.—All like organisms in nature present individual differences, more considerable than is usually supposed; no two blades of grass are alike, and far more marked differences often occur, several castes or varieties sometimes existing in the same sex. Between these castes, and much more frequently between forms which systematic botanists and zoologists rank as true species, perfectly intermediate forms may occur. No agreement about the definition of species (the amount of difference necessary to give any two forms specific rank), has ever been come to; thus, in the British flora alone, there are nearly two hundred disputed forms, and individual opinion is in these cases the only criterion. As long as a genus is imperfectly known, and its species founded upon few specimens, they appear clearly limited. But with better knowledge, intermediate forms flow in, and doubts as to specific limits augment. The terms species and variety are thus arbitrarily given to sets of individuals more or less closely resembling each other. SeeVARIETY, SPECIES, GENUS.

Individual differences are thus of the highest importance, as the first steps towards the slightest varieties worth recording, these towards more distinct and permanent varieties, and these again towards sub-species, and these to species; though extinction may often stop the progress.

The species which present most varieties are those which have the greatest geographical range, or the widest diffusion in their own territory, or possess the greater number of individuals; and in the larger genera of each country the species vary more frequently than in the smaller genera; and in many respects the species of large genera present a strong analogy with varieties, which analogy is alone intelligible on the view that they once existed as such.

Struggle for Existence.—All organic beings tend to increase with extreme rapidity, so that if not destroyed, the earth would soon be covered by the progeny of a single pair. This is evidenced not merely by calculation, but by actual observation of the extraordinary rapidity with which plants and animals have spread, when introduced into new and favorable circumstances.

Since organisms then are reproducing themselves so rapidly, and since all their offspring cannot escape their enemies, get food and live, much less leave progeny in turn—since, in other words, the doctrine of Malthus applies to animals and plants with manifold force (for these can have no artificial increase of food, and no prudential restraints on marriage)—there must in every case be a struggle for existence, either of one individual with another of the same species, or with the individuals of distinct species, or with the physical conditions of life; often, indeed, with all these at once, and that more or less intensely throughout the whole of life.

The checks to increase are most obscure, and vary in each case. In all cases the amount of food, of course, gives the extreme limit. The youngest organisms generally suffer most; seedlings, for instance, are destroyed in vast numbers, thus, even in a patch of ground purposely dug and cleared, where no choking from other plants could take place, 295 out of 357 seedling-weeds were destroyed, chiefly by slugs and insects. So, too, the stock of game on an estate depends chiefly upon the destruction of vermin. Climate, however, is highly important, and periodic seasons of extreme cold and drought seem the most effective of all checks—a severe winter sometimes destroying four-fifths or more of the birds of a locality. Epidemics, too, may occur, especially where numbers have inordinately increased. On the other hand, a large stock of individuals of the same species is essential for its preservation.

The complex relations of all animals and plants to each other require illustration. The plantation of part of a heath with Scotch fir leads to the profound alteration of its flora and fauna, while the growth of these firs again is wholly dependent upon the exclusion of cattle. Many flowers depend for fertilization on the visit of a special insect, e.g., red clover on humble-bees. But bees are destroyed by field-mice, and consequently protected by cats; hence, not only no bees, no clover, but also the more cats, the more clover! The struggle for life is most severe between individuals and varieties of the same species, and between the species of the same genus, since these tend to fill the same place in the economy of nature; hence we see the brown rat supplanting the black, and the hive-bee supplanting its Australian congener. The structure of every being is related to that of the others with which it competes, or from which it seeks to escape, or on which it preys; as is alike evident in the structure of the tiger, and of the parasite which clings to his hair. So, too. the albumen of a seed is chiefly useful in favoring the young plant’s struggle for light and air against the adult plants around.

Natural Selection.—But how will the struggle for existence act with regard to variation? Can the principle of selection, so potent in the hands of man, apply under nature? Most efficiently so. Let us bear in mind (1) the constant occurrence of variation; (2) the infinite complexity of the relations in which organisms stand to each other, and to the physical conditions of life; and consequently (3) what infinitely varied diversities of structure might be useful to each being under changing conditions of life. Can it then be thought improbable, seeing that variations useful to man have undoubtedly occurred, that other variations useful in some way to each being in the great and complex battle of life, should also occur in the course of many generations? And if such do occur, can we doubt (remembering that many more individuals are born, than can possibly survive) that individuals having any advantage, however slight, would have the best chance of surviving and procreating their kind, while injurious variations would be destroyed ? This preservation of favorable variations, and destruction of injurious ones, is termed Natural Selection, or less figuratively, the Survival of the Fittest.

Taking the case of a country undergoing a change of climate, the proportional number of its inhabitants would change, some species probably also becoming extinct—and these changes would in many ways affect the survivors. A further disturbance would come from the immigration of new forms; or if that were prevented, we should have places in the economy of nature which might be better filled up. Any slight favorable modification of the old species would tend to be preserved, and we have seen that changed conditions increase variability.

Nor are such changes, often though they have occurred, necessary in order to leave places for natural selection to fill by improving some of the varying forms. No country can be named where the native inhabitants are perfectly adapted to their conditions and competitors, for as some foreigners have taken firm possession in every country, we may safely conclude that the natives might have been modified with advantage to resist them.

And when human selection has produced such great results, why may not natural? The former act» only for man’s own good, on mere external and visible characters, and irregularly throughout a short period; the latter acts for the good of the being itself, on the whole machinery of its life, and incessantly throughout almost infinite time. (It is important here to remember that the objection to this agency on the ground of its presumed insignificance, is identical with that so long and unsuccessfully employed against Lyell’s explanation of the origin of the physical features of the globe by summing up the existing natural changes.)

Natural selection thus leads to the improvement of each creature in relation to its organic and inorganic conditions of life, and consequently in most cases to what must be regarded as an advance in organization. Nevertheless, low and simple forms will long endure, if well fitted for their simple conditions.

Natural selection may modify the egg, seed, or young, as easily as the adult, and these modifications may effect through correlation the structure of the latter, and conversely.

Besides Natural, we have to consider Sexual Selection, i.e., not merely do individuals struggle for existence, but the males struggle for the females, and the most vigorous thus tend to leave most progeny. Special weapons, offensive and defensive, like the cock’s spurs, the stag’s horns, or the lion’s mane, are used in this struggle, and the most useful variations are thus those which are transmitted. Again, just as man can in a short time give beauty to his domestic birds, so there is no good reason to doubt that female birds in thousands of generations, by selecting, as they are observed to do, the most melodious or beautiful males might produce a marked effect, and many sexual differences are thus explained.

The theory of natural selection may be applied in special cases, e. g. (1) to explain the evolution of swift greyhound-like varieties of wolves; (2) the origin and excretion of nectar in flowers, its use to insects, and their action in transferring pollen from flower to flower, and its advantage in intercrossing; and the resultant modification and adaptation of flower and insect to each other by the preservation of advantageous variations.

The circumstances favorable to the production of new forms through natural selection are also reviewed. These are chiefly, great variability; large numbers of individuals; the complex effects of intercrossing; isolation in small areas, yet also extension over continental ones, especially if these oscillate in level; and considerable lapse of time. Rare species are shown to be in process of extinction. The divergence of character in domestic breeds, largely due to the fact that ‘ fanciers do not, and will not, admire a medium standard, but like extremes,’ applies throughout nature, from the circumstance that the more diversified the descendants from any one species become in structure, constitution, and habits, by so much will they be better enabled to seize on many and widely diversified places in nature, and so to increase In numbers. Thus, taking a carnivorous animal, which has reached the average numbers which its territory will support, it is

•evident that it can succeed in increasing only by its varying descendants seizing places hitherto occupied by other animals, thus changing their food or habitat. This must hold equally of all species, and is separately demonstrated for plants. The greatest amount of life can be supported by great diversification of structure; hence in small areas where competition is severe, the inhabitants are extremely varied.

The probable effects of the action of Natural Selection, through divergence of character and extinction, on the descendants of a common ancestor are then discussed in detail with an illustrative diagram. This takes the form of a genealogical tree—’ the great tree of life, which fills with its dead and broken branches the crust of the earth, and covers the surface with its ever-branching and beautiful ramifications.’

Laws of Variation.—(These can only be very briefly treated.) Of the cause of most variations we are still ignorant, but the same laws appear to have acted in producing the lesser differences between varieties of the same species, arid the greater differences between species of the same genus. Changed conditions sometimes induce definite and permanent effects : habit, use, and disuse are potent in their effects. Specific characters are more variable than generic, and varietal than either. Rudimentary organs and secondary sexual characters are highly variable. Species closely related, of similar constitution and similarly influenced, present analogous variations, and frequently exhibit characters which can only be explained as reversions to those of their ancient progenitors; e.g., zebra-like stripes on horses, or wood-pigeon’s markings on fan tails, tumblers, &c.

Difficulties and Objections.—In four chapters all the miscellaneous objections raised against the theory between 1859, and the appearance of the latest edition, are successfully stated, weighed, discussed, and met, as well as the much more serious difficulties pointed out by Darwin himself. These latter are,

(1) the definiteness of species and the rarity of transitional forms;

(2) the enormous degree of modification in habits and structure which the theory assumes, and the power of Natural Selection to produce on the one hand an organ of such trifling importance as the tail of a giraffe, and on the other, an organ so wonderful as the eye; (3) the acquirement and modification by Natural Selection of such marvelous instincts as those of the bee; (4) the sterility of crossed species, and the fertility of crossed varieties. For these discussions, however, the reader must consult the original work.

Imperfection of the Geological Record.—On the doctrine of the extermination of an enormous number of intermediate varieties, the links between existing and remote ancestral forms—why is not every geological formation charged with such links ? Why does not every collection of fossils afford plain evidence of the gradation and mutation of the forms of life ? Geology, assuredly, does not reveal any such finely graduated organic chain, and this is one of the most obvious and plausible objections to the theory. The explanation lies in the extreme—the almost incredible—imperfection of the geological record. Only a small portion of the globe has been geologically explored with care, only certain classes of beings have been fossilized, and the number, both of specimens and species yet discovered, is absolutely as nothing compared with the number which must have passed away during even a single formation.

The Malay Archipelago is about the size of Europe, and, therefore, equals in area the formations best known to us; its present condition represents that of Europe, while its strata were being deposited; its fauna and flora are among the richest on the globe, yet, even if all the species were to be collected which ever lived there, how imperfectly would they represent the natural history of the world! Only few of these are preserved at all, and most of these in an imperfect manner; moreover, subsidence being almost necessary for the accumulation of rich deposits, great intervals of time must have elapsed between successive formations, so that, during periods of elevation, when variation would be most frequent, the record is least perfect. Moreover, single formations have not been continuously deposited; the duration of specific forms probably exceeds that of each formation; migrations have largely taken place; widely ranging species are most variable, and oftenest give rise to new species; varieties have been at first local; and finally, it is probable that periods of modification are short as

compared with periods of permanence. Hence we cannot find interminable varieties, and any linking variety between two forms is, of course, ranked as a distinct species, for the whole chain cannot be permanently restored. Thus the geological record is a history of the world indeed, but one imperfectly kept, and written in a changing dialect; of this history we possess the last volume only, relating to two or three countries. Of this volume, only here and there a short chapter has been preserved, and of each page only here and there a few lines.

Geological Succession of Organic Beings (Distribution in Time).— The preceding difficulties excepted, the facts of palæontology agree admirably with the theory. New species come in slowly and successively; they change in different rates and degrees; old forms pass through rarity to extinction, and never reappear; dominant forms spread and vary, their descendants displacing the inferior groups, so that after long intervals of time the productions of the world appear to have changed simultaneously. The most ancient forms differ most widely from those now living, yet frequently present characters intermediate between groups now widely divergent, and they resemble to a remarkable extent the embryos of the more recent and more highly specialized animals belonging to the same classes. These laws, and above all, the important law of the succession of the same types within the same areas during the later geological periods, and most notably between the Tertiary period and the present time (e.g., fossil and recent marsupials in Australia, and edentates in South America), cease to be mysterious, and become at once intelligible on the principle of inheritance, and on that alone.

[Since the publication of the Origin of Species (1859), palæontological research has been constantly furnishing the most triumphant verification of these views. The imperfection of the geological record was so far from over-estimated, that Huxley (Science and Culture, 1880), in comparing our present knowledge of the mammalian Tertiary fauna with that of 1859, states that the results of the investigations of Gaudry, Marsh, and Filhol, are ‘ as if zoologists were to become acquainted with a country hitherto unknown, as rich in novel forms of life as Brazil or South Africa once were to Europeans.’

Gaudry found the intermediate stages by which civets passed into hyænas; Filhol disinterred still more remote ancestral carnivores; while Marsh obtained a complete series of forms intermediate between that, in some respects, most anomalous of mammals, the horse, and the simplest five-toed ungulates (seeMAMMALIA).Again, the belief of Darwin that the distinctness of birds from all other vertebrates was to be accounted for by the extinction of a long line of progenitors connecting them with reptiles, was in 1859 a mere assumption; but in 1862, the long-tailed and intensely reptilian bird Archæopteryx (q. v.) was discovered, while in 1875 the researches of Marsh brought to light certain cretaceous birds, one (Hesperornis} with teeth set in a groove, the other (Ichthyornis) with teeth in sockets, and with bi-concave vertebras. Besides these reptilian birds, bird-like reptiles have similarly been forthcoming, and the hypothesis of Darwin is thus admirably verified. Considerable light, too, has been thrown on the pedigree of crocodiles; ammonites, trilobites, and other invertebrates have been arranged in series, while important collateral evidence is also furnished by ‘persistent types’ such as Ceratodus, Beryx, Nautilus, Lingula, &c., which have survived—we must assume by ordinary generation—almost completely unchanged since remote geological periods. On such grounds, therefore, Huxley asserts (op. cit.) that ‘on the evidence of palæontology, the evolution of many existing forms of animal life from their predecessors is no longer an hypothesis, but an historical fact; it is only the nature of the physiological factors which is still open to discussion.’]

Geographical Distribution.—Neither the similarity nor the dissimilarity of the inhabitants of various regions, whether of land or sea, can be accounted for by differences in climate, or other physical conditions, but are related, in the most striking degree, to the absence or presence of barriers to migration between those regions. Within the same area there exists the most marked affinity among the species, though these differ from point to point. Species appear to have arisen in separate definite centers, the few apparent exceptions being accounted for by migration and dispersal, followed by climatal and geographical changes. But for a summary of our knowledge of the existing mode of distribution of organic life, and of the way in which that distribution has been effected, as well as of the very important bearing of these facts upon the theory of evolution, which they may be said indeed, more than any other class of facts, to have suggested, se^ the articleGEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION.

Morphological Arguments.—The physiological and distributional lines of argument being summarized, those furnished by morphology, although not less numerous and highly important, can only be very briefly outlined. These are mainly four, and are derived from (a) Classification, (5) Homologies, (c) Embryology, (d) Rudimentary Organs. (a) Classification,—Naturalists arrange the species, genera, and families in each class, on what is called the Natural System. But what is meant by this system ? Is it, after all, merely an artificial scheme for enunciating general propositions, and of placing together the forms most like each other—or does it, as many believe, reveal the plan of creation ? The grand fact of classification is, that organic beings, throughout all time, are arranged in groups subordinated under other groups, individuals under varieties, and these again under species; species under genera; those under sub-families, families, and orders; and all under a few fraud classes. The nature of all these relationships—the rules followed and the difficulties met by naturalists in their classifications—the high value set upon constant and prevalent structures, whether these be of great or little use, or, as with rudimentary organs, of none at all; the wide opposition in value between such misleading resemblances of adaptation, as for instance the fish-like form of whales, and such characters of true affinity as are afforded by the structure of their circulatory or respiratory system—all these receive a simple and natural explanation on the view of the common descent of allied forms with modification through variation and natural selection; while it is to be noted that no other explanation has ever even been attempted. The element of descent, too, is already used in linking all the sexes, ages, forms, and varieties of the same species, widely though these (e. g., Cirripedes, &c.) may differ from each other in structure : and we have only to extend it to understand the meaning and origin of the Natural System.

(5) Homology.—The members of the same class, independently of their habits of life, resemble each other in their general plan of organization; thus, the hand of man, the digging-paw of the mole, the leg of the horse, the paddle of the porpoise, and the wing of the bat, are all constructed on the same pattern, bone corresponding to bone, and similarly with the hind limb. Again, the mouths of insects are of innumerable varieties of form and use —witness the long spiral trunk of a moth, and the great jaws of a beetle—yet these are formed by modifications of an upper lip, mandibles, and two pairs of maxillæ. And so it is with the limbs of crustaceans, or the flowers of plants; in fact, with the organs of every class of beings.

This conformity to type is ‘ powerfully suggestive of true relation ship, of inheritance from a common ancestor;’ it admits, in short, as no one indeed denies, of a simple explanation in terms of the evolutionary theory, and thus strengthens that theory not a little. It has been attempted to explain this unity of plan in two other ways—first, by assuming it due to utility, which is negatived by the facts, since organs of identical use (e. g., the wings of a bird and those of a butterfly) very frequently do not conform to the same type at all; secondly, by attributing it to a unity of design, which, however, (a) instead of being always maintained, as it should be, on the theory, is not unfrequently quite lost in highly specialized forms; and which, even if it always existed, (&) would directly suggest the unity of descent, the design thus serving only to mislead “the anatomist.

Serial Homology, too, has to be accounted for—that unity of type which is found on comparing the different parts and organs in the same individual, so that the wonderfully complex and varied jaws and legs of a lobster; or the widely different leaves—sepals, petals, stamens, and pistils of a flower, are all found to be modifications of a simple limb, and a simple leaf-organ respectively. Not only are such metamorphoses apparent on comparison, but they can be actually observed to occur during the development of each individual; is then the term metamorphosis to have a more metaphorical meaning when applied to the species, or has it not actually arisen in past time, through the natural selection and transmission of advantageous variations ?

(c) Development.—It has been already indicated that the serially homologous parts in the same individual are alike during an early embryonic period, as also are the homologous organs in animals which, like bat, horse, and porpoise, may be widely differentiated in adult life. So closely, too, do the embryos of the most distinct species belonging to the same class resemble each other, that even Von Baer was unable to distinguish whether two unlabelled specimens were lizards, birds, or mammals. This law of embryonic resemblance holds very widely, e.g., young crustaceans. The embryo often retains within the egg or womb, structures which are of no service to it, either at that or at a later period of life, like the transitory gill-arches of birds or mammals; while on the other hand, larvas which, like those of insects, have to provide for their own wants, undergo complete secondary adaptation to the surrounding conditions. The process of development goes from the general to the special, thus there is generally an advance in organization. In peculiar conditions, however, degeneration may occur. All these facts are readily explained on the principle of successive slight variations not necessarily or generally supervening very early in life, and being inherited at a corresponding period; and it is thus in the highest degree probable that most embryonic stages show us more or less completely the progenitor

of the group in its adult state; and embryology thus rises greatly in interest (see DEVELOPMENT OF THE EMBRYO).

(d) Rudimentary Organs.—Rudimentary, atrophied, and aborted organs, bearing the plain stamp of inutility, are so extremely common that it is impossible to name a higher animal in which none occurs. The mammas of male mammals, the hind-legs of boas, the wings of many birds, or the teeth of fœtal whales, and the upper incisors of unborn calves, are familiar instances. Such organs are intelligible on the evolutionary theory, and on that theory alone.

Recapitulation and Conclusion.—After tersely summing up the preceding mass of evidence, Darwin concludes by pointing out (a) that the theory of evolution by natural selection is no more inimical to religion than that of gravitation, to which the same objection was strongly raised; (5) its revolutionary influence on the study of all departments of natural history; (c) on psychology (q. v.); (d) on the origin of man and his history (seeDESCENT OF MAN);(e} on our theories of future progress.

Envoy.—‘ It is interesting to contemplate a tangled bank clothed with many plants of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects flitting about, and with worms crawling through the damp earth, and to reflect that these elaborately constructed forms, so different from each other, and dependent on each other in so complex a manner, have all been produced by laws acting around us. These laws, taken in the largest sense, being Growth with Reproduction; Inheritance, which is almost implied by reproduction; Variability from the indirect and direct action of the conditions of life, and from use and disuse; a Ratio of Increase so high as to lead to a Struggle for Life, and as a consequence to Natural Selection, entailing Divergence of Character and the Extinction of less improved forms. Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator Into a few forms, or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.’

FRIENDLY SOCIETIES. The uncertainties of human life and health, and the effects of these on the well-being of those who are dependent for their subsistence on human labor, are too manifest not to have arrested the attention of men in all ages, and to have taxed their ingenuity to guard against them. It is probable, therefore, that traces of some sort of institution, corresponding more or less closely to the friendly societies of modern Europe, might be found wherever mankind have not depended for their means of living on the spontaneous products of the soil. At all events, they had their prototypes in the cases, boxes, and chests, or kists—as they were called in Scotland and Germany—of the guilds and corporations of medieval Europe; which were funds not only for maintaining the dignity and ministering to the conviviality of the members, but for providing for the aged and the sick. Mr. Turner finds them in Anglo-Saxon England, and, like the other institutions connected with municipal life, they probably formed part of the legacy of the Romans to the Teutonic conquerors of Europe. Friendly societies are a form of mutual insurance, and, like all insurances, they depend on the principle of substituting the certainty which attends the fortunes of large numbers of men for the uncertainty which belongs to the fortune of each. Their main objects are the securing, in virtue of a small periodical payment during health and vigor, of a weekly sum during sickness, a sum to cover funeral expenses at death, and sometimes of a pension after a certain age.

In some respects, therefore, joining a friendly society is better than becoming a depositor in a savings-bank. Sickness may come before the savings are considerable; or, if considerable, they may be melted away by a long-continued sickness; but after the first weekly payment is made to a friendly society, the member is secure of succor, at least for a time, and he has, perhaps, other advantages. It is possible, on the other hand, that a difficulty may be experienced, in certain circumstances, in keeping up the weekly or other periodical payments required, and in this case, in most societies, he altogether forfeits the expected benefits.

It is to be regretted that, of this excellent class of institutions, many are founded upon erroneous principles, or rather upon no principles at all; and it often happens, therefore, that those who trust to them are disappointed, the funds falling short before all claims are satisfied. This was at one time not to be wondered at, as no proper calculations for friendly societies existed; but such is no longer the case, sound calculations being now attainable. The most important observations on the average amount of sickness incident to human life are those made by the Highland Society, Mr. Charles Ansell, Mr. Finlaison on behalf of the government, Mr. F. G. P. Neison, and the Manchester Unity of Odd-fellows. The first two were formed on data too limited to be of much value; those of the government were rendered practically worthless by an arbitrary definition of sickness, which made them uncertain for youth and maturity, and deprived them of all authority in reference to old age. The calculations of Mr. Neison and the Odd-fellows are based on by far the greatest number of cases, and though investigated by the former in relation to the five years ending 1840, and by the latter in relation to a period precisely twenty years later, they corroborate each other almost completely. We give the estimate arrived at by Mr. Neison of ‘ sickness experienced in weeks in passing through different periods of life :’ 20 to 30, 8-7; 30 to 40, 9′9; 40 to 50, 14-8; 50 to 60, 27-1; 60 to 65, 26-6; 65 to 70, 50-7; 70 to 75, 84-9; 75 to 80, 120-5.

One great mistake in the formation of friendly societies is to assume that each member should pay an equal sum, whatever his age may be. This is unjust to the younger members, who are less likely to become burdensome to the funds than the middle-aged; and, indeed, there is a rising scale of probability of sickness throughout all the years of a man’s life. It is, however, well to remember that as sickness varies more considerably than mortality with the salubrity of the localities inhabited and the occupations of the members, no absolute reliance can be placed on published averages. All of them, however, agree in this, that increase of years is attended by increased liability to sickness. Now, a rightly constituted friendly society is bound to take this circumstance into account. To admit all ages at an equal payment, is clearly making the younger members pay for the elder.

Another great error in the constitution of benefit societies is in making them for a year only. These yearly societies are to be found in almost every colliery in the north of England, and are popular among the less intelligent of the people. The objects are generally a fund for sickness and funeral expenses, a deposit fund, and sometimes a loan bank.

Towards the first, there is perhaps a weekly payment of twopence or threepence, together with the interest arising from the loan of money to the members. Towards the deposit fund there is a payment ranging generally from sixpence to two shillings, the accumulations being received back when the society closes. The money deposited is employed in making loans to such of the members as desire such accommodation, within the amount of their several entire deposits for the year, one penny per pound per month being charged by way of interest. The surplus, if any, of the twopences and interest, after sick and funeral money, books, and other necessaries are paid, is divided amongst those members who maybe clear of the books at the close of the society. In some instances, only three-fourths of the funds are divided, and the members commence another year with the balance, but this only happens when they are all in good health. Nothing of the kind would occur if one or more of the number were likely to suffer move than the ordinary rate of sickness. Then the healthy members join other societies, and leave the sick to take care of themselves. In any case they are so left at the end of the year, as no society will receive them. Yearly societies are, indeed, in every point of view a most objectionable class of institutions, to which working-people would never resort except through ignorance.

A well-constituted friendly society involves, in the first place, the principle of payments appropriate to particular ages, as no other plan can be considered equitable. It stands forth before the working-classes as a permanent institution, like the life-assurance societies of the middle and upper classes, and necessarily requires its members to consider the connection they form with it as an enduring one, because its grand aim is expressly to make provision, at one period of life, for contingencies which may arise at another—for youth, in short, to endow old age. By a yearly society, a man is left at last no better than he was at first, as far as that society is concerned; but the proper friendly society con-templates his enjoying a comfortable and independent old age, from the results of his own well-bestowed earnings.

It is essential to the character of a proper benefit society that individuals be not admitted indiscriminately. To take a person in bad health, or of broken constitution, is unjust to those members who are healthy, because he is obviously more likely to be a speedy burden upon the funds. Here, as in life-assurance societies, it is necessary to admit members only upon their showing that they are of sound constitution and in good health. And it may be well to grant no benefits until after the member has been a year in the society. By these means, men are induced to enter when they are hale and well, instead of postponing the step until they have a pressing need for assistance, when their endeavor to get into a benefit society becomes little else than a fraud.

Under the sanction of government, tables have been formed by Mr. John Tidd Pratt, late registrar of friendly societies in England, and by Dr. Farr, the actuary of the English registrar-general. The former, together with useful instructions in the book-keeping of friendly societies, are embodied in the reports by Mr. Pratt, printed by order of the House of Commons for the years 1856— 1857; and the latter, together with a masterly essay on the mathematical treatment of the subject, are contained in the twelfth report of the registrar-general.

On the imperative necessity of acting on correct tables for such a purpose, it would be superfluous to dwell; and the necessity of identifying the rates of any society with such responsible authority is the more apparent, as we are told by Mr. Pratt that ‘ although the registrar certifies to the legality of the rules of a friendly society, it does not follow as a necessary consequence that the constitution of the society is based on good principles, or that the rates of payment are sufficient in amount to guarantee the promised benefits and allowances.’ In fact, there are large numbers of insolvent societies whose rules have been certified in the most regular manner. It cannot be too much insisted upon that the registrar’s certificate is absolutely worthless as a guarantee of safety.

We have an idea of a benefit society in its simplest form, if we suppose a hundred men, of 35 years of age, to associate, and make such a payment at first as may be sure to afford each man that shall fall sick during the ensuing year one shilling a day during the term of his sickness. Taking, for the sake of illustration, Mr. Nelson’s Tables, we find that, amongst such a body of men, there will be nearly 100 weeks of illness in the course of the year. This, multiplied by 7, gives the whole sum required, £35 or even seven shillings each, which, less by a small sum for interest, will accordingly be the entry-money of each man. A society of individuals of different ages, each paying the sum which would in like manner be found proper to his age, would be quite as sound in principle as on the above simple scheme. It is only a step further to equalize each man’s annual payments over the whole period during which he undertakes to be a paying member.

A point for consideration, however, is the rate at which the funds of the societies may be improved. In many cases, it is best to rest content with depositing the money in the funds or the savings-banks, in which case they are sure to obtain for it interest at a rate of not less than £3, Os. 10d, per cent, per annum, or twopence per cent, per day. Some of these societies have sums invested with the Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt, at threepence and twopence-half-penny per cent, per day. Many of them invest with local building societies, some in corporation debentures, and in many other ways which afford a better rate of interest with safety; and the tendency to abandon the old routine of merely savings-bank deposit seems rapidly and generally growing.

By the act 27 and 28 Vict. c. 43, government gave to the working-classes an opportunity of effecting small life-insurances, or of purchasing immediate or deferred monthly allowances or annuities, in a manner absolutely free from risk, as the credit of the nation itself is pledged to meet the obligation purchased by the subscriptions or payments of the contributor. A great number of people have availed themselves of the new facilities, but it is probable that very many more would have done so had the scale begun at a lower and been continued to a higher point. At present, no life can be insured for less than £20, or more than £100.

Now, many people are willing enough to insure for as much as will cover their funeral expenses, say for £10, who would not be disposed to make further provision for their families. This class, and it is not a small one, is practically excluded from the benefit of the government system, and it would be well, in future legislation, to reduce the minimum to at least half its present amount. At the same time, the maximum might be safely increased to £200 without interfering with the legitimate business of life-assurance companies.

These government insurances are effected through the agency of the Post-office. A list of offices authorized to act may be obtained at any post-office, and at the places so authorized all necessary information and forms of proposal may be had. There also, when filled up, the forms of proposal may be delivered. The premiums charged vary with the age, but not with the sex, of the person to be insured, and the mode in which they are to be paid. For example, the life of a man or woman in his or her 30th year may be insured for £100 :

Smaller sums may be insured by proportionate payments, but no one payment must be less than two shillings.

If after five years’ payments the insurer desires, or is compelled by circumstances, to discontinue his insurance, a portion of the premiums, not being less than one-third, will be returned to him.

The sums charged for the purchase of immediate annuities vary with the age and sex of the person on whose life the annuity is to depend. Thus a man aged 65 can purchase an immediate annuity of £10, payable half-yearly, for £88, 18s. 4d.; a woman of the same age can purchase a like annuity for £103, 16s. 8d. A man aged 70 can purchase an immediate annuity of £10, payable half-yearly, for £73, 3s. 4.d.; a woman of the same age can purchase a like annuity for £84, 19s. 2d.

The sums charged for the purchase of deferred annuities, or deferred monthly allowances, also vary with the age and sex of the annuitant, with the number of years which are to pass before the commencement of the annuity, and with the conditions of the contract as to the mode of purchase, mode of payment, and return or non-return of purchase-money.

When no part of the purchase-money is to be returned, a man aged 80 may purchase a deferred annuity of £10, to commence on his reaching the age of 60, and to be payable half-yearly, either by an immediate payment of £24, 3s. 4d., or by an annual payment, until he reaches the age of 60, of £1, 8s- 4d. A woman of like age may purchase a like annuity by an immediate payment of £32, 8s. 4d., or an annual payment up to 60 of £1 17s. 6d. ; and 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 until he reaches that age of 8s. per month; and a woman aged 30 may, by a like payment, purchase a deferred allowance of £1,16s. Id., also to commence at 60.

Purchasers of annuities are permitted to elect whether the purchase-money shall be returned to their representatives in case of death before reaching the stipulated age, or to themselves in case of desiring for any reason to withdraw from the arrangement; but for this privilege, they must pay a higher price. Thus, instead of the £24, 3s. 4d. referred to above, the purchaser at 30 of a £10 annuity, to commence at 60, would have to pay £40, 9s. 2d., and so in proportion. No annuity can exceed £50 per annum, or £4, 3s. 4d. per month, except in the case of husband arid wife, who may each be insured or purchase an annuity to the full amount allowed by the act.

After many fruitless attempts at legislation, an act (38 and 39 Vict. c. 60) was passed in 1875 to consolidate and amend the law relating to friendly societies. It deals with (1) all societies which provide for the relief of members or their relatives during sickness, infirmity, old age, or widowhood, or for orphans during minority; for small insurances on occasions of birth or death; for maintenance of members in distress, or when on travel in search of employment; for endowment of members or their nominees; and for insurance of tools or other working implements up to fifteen pounds value. It is, however, provided that no society assuring annuities exceeding £50 per annum, or gross sums exceeding £200, shall be registered under the act, and that no sum exceeding £6 altogether shall be insured or paid on the death of a child under five years of age, and no sum exceeding £10 on the death of a child under ten years. It also deals with (2) cattle insurance societies, to whatever amount the insurances extend ; (3) benevolent societies; (4) working-men’s clubs; and (5), with certain limitations, specially authorized societies, for any purpose to which, in the judgment of the Treasury, the act ought to extend. The act establishes a central office, with chief registrar and assistants, whose functions are to examine and certify rules, to prepare and circulate model forms of accounts, balance sheets and valuations; to collect and publish statistics of life and sickness, and other matters applicable to the business of friendly societies; and to construct and publish tables for the payment of sums of money at death, in sickness, old age, or other calculable contingencies. These tables, though intended for the guidance of societies, are not to be compulsory, but no society granting annuities can be registered under the act unless its tables are certified by an actuary approved by the Treasury. All societies are to have registered offices, must appoint trustees, provide for efficient audit, and furnish classified returns of receipt and expenditure annually to the registrar. Friendly societies must also, once in every five years, make a return of the sickness and mortality of their members, and prepare a valuation, either by their own valuer or the registrar, of their assets and liabilities. The nominee of a member may be paid a sum not exceeding £50 on the death of the nominator, and societies are empowered to pay a like amount to the representatives of a deceased member, without letters of administration. Minors may be members, but they are not permitted to hold office.

Societies may invest moneys in the post-office or other savings-banks, in the public funds, with the Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt, in the purchase of lands or the erection of buildings for their own use, and in other securities directed by their rules. Under certain circumstances, and with special guarantees, loans may be made to members on personal security. Officers are to provide sureties and render accounts, and provision is made for arbitration or summary legal jurisdiction in cases of dispute, as also for amalgamation or dissolution. The act bears abundant evidence of the care bestowed upon it in its elaborate arrangements for registration, and other precautions for the safety and success of the societies to which it relates.

FAST AND LOOSE’ is the name of a cheating game, also called Priding at the Belt, which appears to have been much practised by the gypsies in the time of Shakspeare. The following is a _r description : ‘ A leathern belt is made up into a number of intricate folds, and placed edgewise upon a table. One of the folds is made to resemble the middle of a girdle, so that whoever shall thrust a skewer into it would think he held it fast to the table; whereas, when he has so done, the person with whom he plays may take hold of both ends, and draw it away.’ The game is still practised at fairs, races, and similar meetings under the name of Prick the Garter ; the original phrase, ‘ Fast and loose,’ however, is now used to designate the conduct of those numerous slippery characters whose code of ethics does not forbid them to say one thing and do another.

FENCING may be described, for a general definition, as the art of defending one’s own body or assailing another person’s in fair fight by the aid of a side-weapon—i.e., by a sword, rapier, or bayonet. Technically, fencing is usually limited to the second of these; and works on the art touch only on attack and defence with the foil in pastime, and the rapier in actual personal combat. The present opportunity will, however, be taken to introduce the elements of single combat with foil, sword, and bayonet. The objection formerly existed that instruction in fencing encouraged a propensity to duelling; but as that absurdest of absurd customs has entirely ceased—at least in Britain—to demand its annual victims, no such objection now holds. Fencing may therefore be safely learned and taught as an elegant and manly accomplishment, developing gracefulness and activity, while it imparts suppleness to the limbs, strength to the muscles, and quickness to the eye.

This regards fencing with the foils (the rapier has disappeared with the duels which employed it); but instruction in fencing with the sword and bayonet, while conferring the same advantages, has in addition the recommendation of helping to fit the student for taking an active part in any general national defence that political circumstances might render necessary. The Foil (q. v.) is a circular or polygonal bar of pliable and very highly tempered steel, mounted as any other sword, and blunted at the point by a ‘ button,’ to prevent danger in its use. From its nature, the foil can only be employed in thrusting, and, being edgeless, it can be handled without liability to cutting wounds. The length of the blade should be proportioned to the height of the person using it, —31 inches being the medium length for men, and 38 inches from hilt to point the maximum allowable. As a protection against accidental thrusts, the face is generally guarded by a wire-mask. The two portions of the blade are known as the ‘ forte’ and the ‘ feeble;’ the first extending from the hilt to the center, and the other from the center to the point.

In drawing, advance the right foot slightly to the front, take the scabbard with the left hand, raise the right elbow as high as the shoulder, seize the hilt with right hand, nails turned inward, and having drawn the foil, pass it with vivacity over the head in a semicircle, and bring it down to the guard (of which presently) with its point towards the adversary, not higher than his face, nor lower than his lowest rib. Simultaneously with the weapon being brought into position, the left hand with fingers extended should be raised to a level with the head, as a counterpoise in the various motions to ensue. In establishing the position of guard, the right foot must be advanced 24 inches before the left, the heels in a straight line, and each knee slightly bent, to impart elasticity to the movements, but not too much, lest the firmness of the position be diminished.

In fencing, there are three openings or entrances—the inside, comprising the whole breast from shoulder to shoulder; outside, attackable by all the thrusts made above the wrist on the outside of the sword; and the low parts, embracing from the armpits to the hips. For reaching and guarding these entrances, there are five positions of the wrist—prime, seconde, tierce, carte (quarte), and quinte. The most important, and those to commence with, are carte and tierce, from which are derived the subordinate positions of carte over the arm, low carte, and flanconnade or octave.

To engage is to cross swords with your adversary, pressing against his with sufficient force to prevent any manœuvre taking you unawares. To disengage is to slip the point of your sword briskly under his blade, and to raise it again on the other side, pressing in a direction opposite to that of the previous case.

The guard in each position is a passive obstruction to the opposing thrust; the parade is an active obstruction, in which the guard is first assumed, and the blade then pressed outward or inward by a turn of the wrist against the adversary’s sword, so that when thrust at your body it shall be diverted from its aim, and held off. The parade may therefore be regarded as a mere extension of the guard. If the parade were called the ‘parry,’ it would convey its meaning more readily to English ears. Another, and perhaps more appropriate name for thrust, is the ‘ lunge,’ or ‘longe,’ as the thrust is almost always accompanied by a lunge forward of the right foot, to give at once greater force and longer command to the blow.

The following are directions for the principal guards and thrusts, which may also be seen depicted roughly in the sketches below.

Carte,Guard.—Turn wrist with nails upwards; hand on a line with lower part of breast; arm somewhat bent, and elbow inclined a little to the outside; point of foil elevated at an angle of about 15°, and directed at upper part of adversary’s breast.

Thrust.—Being at the guard in carte, straighten the arm, raise the wrist above the head, drop the foil’s point to a line with the adversary’s breast, throw first the wrist, and then the whole body, forward by a lunge with the right foot of two feet from the ‘guard,’ the left foot remaining firm. The left hand should be dropped during the lunge to a level with the thigh, and to a position distant about a foot from the body; it will then afford a good counterpoise to the sword-arm. During the whole action, the body must be perfectly upright. When performed briskly, it appears that the point and foot are advanced simultaneously, but in fact the point has, or should have, priority, in order that the instantly following lunge may drive it home. Most of these observations concerning thrust in carte apply equally to all other thrusts.

Carte over the armis a variety of this thrust. The sword is driven outside the adversary’s blade, from the carte position, but in the tierce line.

Low Carte.—Engage adversary’s blade in carte, then drop point under his wrist, in a line to his elbow, and thrust at his flank, the body being considerably bent.

Flanconnade or Octave.—Engage adversary’s blade in carte, and bind it with yours, then carry your point behind his wrist and under his elbow : without quitting his blade, plunge your point to his flank.

Tierce,Guard—As in carte, the nails and wrist being somewhat more downward, and the arm stretched a little outward, to cover the outside.

Parade.—Move arm, from the guard, obliquely downward to the right about six inches, and oppose the inside of the adversary’s blade.

Thrust.—From the guard, turn wrist with nails downward, the same height as in carte, the inside of the arm in a line with .the right temple; then thrust and lunge as in carte.

Seconde,Parade.—Nails and wrist downward, hand opposed outward, and blade, pointing low, should form an angle of about 45° with the ground.

Thrust—The same as tierce, but delivered under the adversary’s wrist and elbow, to a point between his right armpit and right breast: the body to be more bent than in carte or tierce.

Prime,Parade.—In using prime to parry the thrust in seconde, pass your point over the adversary’s blade, lower it to the waist, keeping your wrist as high as your mouth, nails downward, elbow

bent, and body held back as far as possible. The left foot should also be drawn backward a few inches, to remove the body further from the hostile point. Thrust—An extension movement from the parade.

Quinte,Parade.—Wrist in high carte, sword-point low, and oppose adversary from the forte of the outside edge of your blade.

Thrust.—Make a feint on the half-circle parade, with the wrist in carte; disengage your point over the adversary’s blade, and thrust directly at his flank.

Half-circle,Parade—One of the principal defensive parades; straighten arm, keep wrist in line with shoulder, nails up: by quick

motion of wrist sweep point from right to left in a circle covering your body from head to knee, until the adversary’s blade is found and opposition established.

The parades parry thrusts as follows :

Carte,with wrist low, parries low carte and seconde; with wrist raised, all the thrusts over the point on the inside of the sword and the flanconnade.

Tierceparries high carte; with raised wrist, parries tierce.

Secondeparries all lower thrusts, both inside and outside.

Half-circleparries carte, high carte, tierce, and seconde.

Primeparries carte, low carte, and seconde.

Quinteparries seconde and flanconnade.

In all parades or parries, care must be taken that in covering the side attacked, the parade is not so wide as to expose the other side to the enemy. A steady countenance, showing no disquietude at any attempt he may make, is, above all, necessary in parades.

Every parade has its return, which should be made with vivacity and decision. A thrust can be returned when the adversary thrusts, or when, baffled in his attack, he is recovering to his guard. In the first case, no lunge is necessary, the return being made from the wrist: this return requires great skill and quickness, since the adversary should receive the thrust before, by finishing his own, he has touched your body.

Ordinary Returns.—After carte parry, return in carte; after tierce, return in tierce; after parrying high carte, return seconde; after parrying seconde, return in quinte; after parade in prime, return seconde or low carte.

Feints,of which there are many varieties, consist in threatening an attack on one side of the sword, and then executing it on the other. The best parade against a feint is that of the half-circle, which will be sure to find the adversary’s point.

Advance and Retreatare motions of attack or withdrawal, per-formed by advancing the right, or withdrawing the left foot suddenly about 18 inches, and instantly following it with the other foot. As the adversary advances, you must retreat, unless prepared to receive him at the sword-point.

Salute.—The salute is a courteous opening of the fencing, and consists in gracefully taking off the hat, while, with the foils, your adversary and yourself measure your respective distances.

Appelsor beats with the right foot, beats on the adversary’s blade, and glissades or glidings of one sword along the other, are motions intended to confuse the enemy, and give openings for thrusts.

Voltes, demi-voltes,and disarming, were manœuvres formerly taught with care, but they are now quite discarded in the academies of England and France, as useless and undesirable.

In Spain and Italy considerable differences of practice from that in France and England prevail. The left hand is used as an auxiliary in parrying, and in Italy is aided by a dagger, or sometimes a cloak. The Spaniard, though trusting to his sword and left hand only, has his blade five feet long, with sharp edges; his guard is nearly straight, and one of his favorite attacks is by a cut (not thrust) at the head.

In an article limited in length as this must necessarily be, it is impossible to give more than the merest outline of the various motions; but, of course, in actual practice, there are endless variations of the different modes of attack and defence, which will be severally adopted according to the skill and option of the fencer. There is no finer indoor exercise than fencing, as the muscles in every limb are developed and strengthened by it. The great requirements for success are a steady eye and hand, a quick purpose as quickly executed, and, perhaps above all, perfect equanimity of temper.

THE SWORD EXERCISE differs from fencing with the foil; in that, the weapon employed has one cutting edge as well as a point, and is therefore intended to cut and thrust. The sword is the arm of all officers in the army and navy, of many non-commissioned officers, and constitutes the sole mode of attack and defence for the officers of the British volunteers. A certain degree of proficiency in its use is therefore always serviceable. In practice, the usual substitute is ? stout, straight stick, called a ‘ single-stick,’ having a basket-handle to protect the knuckles.

The position of the combatant is the same as that assumed in fencing with the foil; the lunge is similar, as are also the ‘ advance’ and ‘retreat,’ and other minor points. According to the instructions of drill-masters, there are seven cuts, with seven corresponding guards, and three thrusts. The theoretical directions of all these are shown on the accompanying diagram, which represents a target placed opposite a pupil, so that he may see the motions he is expected to perform displayed before him. The center of the target is supposed to be in a line with the center of his breast.

The cuts proceed from the circumference towards the center along the thick lines. Nos 1, 3, and 5 are inside cuts, and attack the left cheek, left side, and inside of the right leg respectively; 2, 4, and 6 are outside cuts, attacking the enemy’s right cheek, right side, and right leg on the outside. No. 7 is a vertical cut, aimed at the head.

The dotted lines show the position of the sword in the several guards by which the cuts are opposed. The sword-handles illustrate the situation of the right hand with reference to the center of the body.

The points or thrusts are shown by the black circles. That towards No. 1 should be directed with the wrist and edge of the sword upwards to the right; towards 2, with the edge upwards to the left; and in the 3d point, with the wrist rising to the center, and the edge upwards to the right.

The’ parry ‘ is an additional defensive movement, and consists in bringing the wrist nearly to the right shoulder; whence, as center, a circular sweep of the sword is made from left to right.

A considerable latitude is allowable in regard to the cuts, as to the part of the adversary’s body at which they are directed, provided the general inclination of the blow be observed; similarly, the cut may at times be parried by a guard other than that intended specially for it, according to the discretion of the fencer.

In engaging, or joining swords, with the enemy, press the blades but lightly together, so that the hand and wrist may be readily susceptible of any motion. In making the guards, care must always be taken to receive, if possible, the feeble of the enemy’s blade on the forte of your own, so as to offer the greater opposition. It should also be borne in mind that, in all cuts at the leg, when at proper distance, the shifting of your own leg, and delivering a cut at the same moment, becomes the most effectual and advantageous defence, particularly if you happen to be taller than your adversary, as you will then probably be out of his reach, while he is within yours.

In contending with bayonet or pike, the most effectual guard is the 5th. which, if well timed, enables the swordsman to seize the musket or pike with his left hand, and then make the 6th cut at his opponent’s neck. In an encounter with the rapier, the best cuts are Nos. 3 and 4, as they attack the enemy’s arm, which must be advanced within reach before he can touch your body, and also constitute a defence against his thrust. If the enemy—no matter how armed—be on horseback, the dismounted swordsman (provided he have proper nerve and agility) has decidedly the advantage. Endeavor to place yourself on his left, where he has less power of defending himself or his horse, and cannot reach to so great a distance as on his right: an attack on the horse will probably render it ungovernable, and it becomes easy then to avoid the rider’s blows, while he himself may be attacked with impunity in almost any direction.

BAYONET EXERCISE.—If the sword exercise be of use to volunteer officers, there are thirty times as many volunteers themselves

to whom a proper command of the bayonet is indispensable. In close-quarter engagements, there is no weapon more formidable : from its length and weight, the thrust of the bayonet gives a terrible wound, and its force is such that there is great difficulty in parrying the attack. Like other small-arms, it is most serviceable when handled on scientific principles; and the art of using it to advantage is so simple as to be very easily acquired, while the exercise, from the weight of the rifle, admirably aids in developing the muscles of all parts of the body.

Of course, the bayonet is always fixed at the end of the musket, when it becomes virtually a pike. The position of the feet in the bayonet exercise remains always the same relatively, and absolutely until advance or retreat be effected. The right foot is thrown back 24 inches, and the weight of the body thrown upon it. The heels are kept in a line with each other, both knees bent and well apart; the right knee directly over the foot, the left easy and flexible, pointing to the front. In this position of the

body, all the defensive motions of the bayonet are made. In ‘ guard,’ the bayonet is brought nearly to a horizontal direction, level with the waist, and pointing towards the breast of an advancing enemy. Similarly, to ‘ guard,’ the positions ‘ low,'’ high,’ and ‘ second point’ are assumed, the bayonet pointing as shown by the dotted lines in fig. 7, The butt of the rifle is always kept well to the right side, the hand behind the trigger-guard, and the whole body in attitude to offer great resistance. In ‘low,’ the barrel is turned downwards; but in all the other defensive motions it is held upwards. The position of the arms is in each case that which would naturally be taken in placing the bayonet and musket in the required direction.

The offensive position of the body acquired by the extension of the right, leg, and bending forward of the left without moving the feet. The butt of the rifle is at the same time pressed firmly to the shoulder. This position is called ‘point,’ and constitutes an extension of the weapon in a direction parallel with either of those previously taken. As there were four ‘guards,’ so there are four points, which are shown in fig. 8. The barrel is in each case upward, and the motions for each are similar, except in pointing from ‘3d point,’ when the rifle, seized by the right hand round the small of the butt, is thrust straight up above the head to the full extent of the arm, the left hand falling along the thigh, and the legs being straightened so as to form an isosceles triangle.

‘Shorten arms’ is a useful motion, both as a defence arid as a preparation for a strong attack. It consists in carrying the butt back to the full extent of the arm, while the barrel (downwards) rests upon the thick part of the left arm. The body is thrown upon the right leg, and the left straightened. This powerful position is seen in the annexed cut.

In all the guards and points, and also ’shorten arms,’ the bayonet may be turned directly to the front, to the right, or to the

left, as circumstances may suggest. In contending with a swordsman, the action of changing from right to left, when at the ‘ high ‘ or ‘ low,’ is sufficient defence against the ordinary cuts of the latter.

Among the treatises consulted for this article have been the works on fencing by Angelo and Roland, as well as the shorter instructions issued by the military authorities.

DIVORCE AND MATRIMO’NIAL COURT. An Act of Parliament of 1857, with amending acts, changed the law of England on the subject of divorce. By the first of these acts, the jurisdiction in divorce causes is transferred from the ecclesiastical courts to a new court constituted for the purpose, which, since the Judicature Act (1873), is included in the Probate, Divorce, and Admiralty Division of the High Court of Justice. It is provided that either spouse may obtain a divorce on the ground of adultery; but in case the wife is petitioner, the adultery must be accompanied by cruelty or desertion. By 23 and 24 Vict. c. 144, the power to pronounce a decree of divorce, which was at first reposed in the whole court, is given to the judge who hears the cause; but in this case the decree so pronounced is a decree nisi, and cannot become final for at least six months. After decree of divorce, the offending party is free to marry again even with the paramour. But it is enacted, 20 and 21 Vict. c. 85, sect. 57—58, that no clergyman shall be compelled to solemnize the marriage of any person who has been divorced. He must, however, allow another clergyman, if willing to do so, to perform the marriage. A party applying for a divorce will not be allowed to obtain judgment, should it appear that he or she has been guilty of recrimination by committing the same offence, or that there is collusion between the parties in order to procure the divorce. Parties also who have condoned the offence —that is, who after it has been discovered have consented again to live as husband and wife—will not be allowed to obtain a divorce.

In order to guard against fraud by parties conniving to procure a divorce, power is given to the Queen’s proctor, by 23 and 24 Vic. c. 144, to interpose, in case he have reasonable ground to suspect collusion or recrimination, in order to oppose a petition for divorce. By these acts, parties are also entitled to obtain a judicial separation on the ground of adultery, cruelty, or desertion. Judicial separation is declared to be in place of a separation a mensá et thoro. A married woman, having obtained decree of judicial separation, is declared to be in all respects as a feme solo in regard to any property that she has or may acquire. Even before obtaining a separation, a woman deserted by her husband may obtain from the court a protection for any property which she may acquire by her own industry.

From the conflict of laws in various countries on the subject of divorce, questions have frequently arisen as to the competency of a sentence of divorce by a tribunal having power according to the lex loci to pronounce such sentence, to annul a marriage contracted in a country where such divorce is not allowed. It appears now to be the generally received opinion, that wherever parties are domiciled they will be allowed to avail themselves of the laws of this domicile. But the courts will not recognize a transient visit to a foreign country as sufficient ground to sustain a divorce. On the subject of this article, see Paterson’s Compendium of English and Scotch Law, Eraser’s Personal and Domestic Relations and Swabey On the Divorce and Matrimonial Act.

DIVO’RCE, is defined by a Scottish writer to be ‘ the disruption, by the act of the law, of the conjugal tie, made by a competent court on due cause shown.’—Fraser, Pers. and Domestic Relations, i. 645. This definition correctly expresses the law of divorce as it now stands in the United Kingdom. There are some differences of detail in the working of the law in England and Scotland, which will be noticed below.

The desire to obtain a release from the matrimonial bond has existed at all times and under all legal systems. In heathen nations, this release was often granted on the slightest grounds. Even among the Romans, marriage was regarded as little more than a conventional union, to be observed so long only as it suited the mutual convenience of the spouses. Christian nations, on the other hand, adopting as the basis of their systems the Scriptural law, as declared Matt. xix. 9, Mark x. 9—11, Luke xvi. 18, and 1st Cor. vii. 10, 11, are agreed in considering marriage as a sacred tie, not to be dissolved except on the ground of unfaithfulness to the marriage vow. Even this limited ground for dissolution of marriage is denied by a large portion of the Christian world. By the civil law, as it existed for some centuries after Christianity, a greater laxity was allowed in regard to divorce. The Emperor Constantine was the first to prohibit dissolution of marriage by simple consent of the parties. This practice was again revived under the Emperors Theodosius and Valentinian; and though those emperors subsequently rescinded this edict, yet the rule as to the grounds on which marriage might be dissolved continued to fluctuate.

By the canon law, marriage was regarded as a sacrament; and though marriages contracted in disobedience to certain rules might be declared null ab initio, a marriage validly contracted would not be dissolved except by papal dispensation. But the rule of the canon law was not uniformly adopted by the states of Europe, and it was not till the famous Council of Trent issued a decree, in its 24th session, in 1562, declaring marriage indissoluble even after the adultery of one or both of the parties, that a uniform rule on the subject was established. But before this decree was issued, the reformation had made progress throughout Europe, and thus a change again took place in regard to the law of divorce. It should be observed, that though by the canon law divorce a vinculo matrimonii was unattainable, parties might obtain a separation a mensá et thoro. The nature of this remedy will be explained below.

Roman Catholic countries adopted the principle laid down by the Council of Trent, and this rule continues to be in force in most countries which are in the Roman Catholic communion. But by the Code Civile of France, divorce is allowable on the ground of adultery and certain other causes. Countries which adopted the reformed religion, have varied greatly in the rules established in regard to the question of divorce. In Holland, divorce is permitted on the ground of adultery and desertion. In America, the practice varies in different states. ‘ In several of them no divorce Is granted but by special act of the legislature, according to the English practice; and in others, the legislature itself is restricted from granting them, but it may confer the power on courts of justice. So strict and scrupulous has been the policy of South Carolina, that until recently there was no means of obtaining a divorce of any kind, either by sentence of a court of justice or by act of the legislature. In all other states, divorce a vinculo may be granted by courts of justice for adultery. In New York, the jurisdiction of the courts as to absolute divorce for causes subsequent to marriage is confined to the single cause of adultery; but in most of the other states, in addition to adultery, intolerable ill-usage or wilful desertion, or unheard-of absence, or habitual drunkenness, or some of them, will authorize a decree for divorce a vinculo under different modifications and restrictions.’—Kent, Comm. iv. 105. In England, previous to the passing of the late Divorce and Matrimonial Act, marriage was by the common law indissoluble. It was, indeed, competent to obtain a declaration of nullity of marriage on the ground of relationship, previous marriage of one of the parties, mental or physical incapacity, or coercion. But the judgment so obtained was not a decree of divorce, but a declaration that the marriage tie between the parties had never really been contracted. A wife may now obtain a divorce on the ground of the husband’s incestuous adultery; or of his bigamy with adultery; or of rape; or of sodomy; or of adultery coupled with gross cruelty; or of adultery coupled with desertion without reasonable excuse for two years.

The husband may obtain a divorce on the ground of the wife’s adultery. But neither party can obtain a divorce on the ground of mere desertion alone, however long continued. The court may order the husband to pay a divorced wife a certain sum for her maintenance during their joint lives. A decree of divorce does not come into full force until six months after it is pronounced. The bars to a divorce are condonation, connivance, or collusion. When divorced, the parties are at liberty to marry with third parties. When the divorce is on the ground of adultery, both parties may be examined as witnesses, 32 and 33 Vict. c. 68.

In Scotland, divorce may be obtained on the ground of adultery or wilful desertion. Immediately after the reformation, the courts in Scotland recognized the right of either spouse to obtain a divorce on the ground of adultery. And in the year 1573, a statute was passed declaring that, in case either husband or wife should desert without due cause for four years, the injured party might raise an action of adherence, and, in case redress was not obtained, a decree of divorce might be pronounced. In Scotland, it is not permitted that a marriage should take place between the offending parties. The effect of a decree of divorce on the pecuniary interests of the parties, is to cause the offender to forfeit all benefit which might accrue to him or her from the marriage. Separation a mensá et thoro may also be obtained in Scotland on the ground of ill-usage, and perhaps desertion (q. v.). Condonation and collusion, but not recrimination, are, in Scotland, a bar to obtaining a dissolution of marriage on the ground of adultery.

KING- (Saxon Cyning; Sanscrit, Ganaka, father, from the root Gan, to beget: ‘ what the husband was in his house, the lord, the strong protector, the king was among his people ‘—Max Müller), the person vested with supreme power in a state. According to feudal usages, the king was the source from which all command, honor, and authority flowed; and he delegated to his followers the power by which they exercised subordinate rule in certain districts. The kingdom was divided into separate baronies, in each of which a baron ruled, lord both of the lands, which he held under the obligation of rendering military service to the king, and in many cases also of the people, who were vassals of the soil, and his liege subjects. In modern times, the kingly power often represents only a limited measure of sovereignty, various constitutional checks being in operation in different countries to control the royal prerogative. The king may succeed to the throne by descent or inheritance, or he may be elected by the suffrages of the nation, or by the suffrages of some body of persons selected out of the nation, as was the case in Poland. Even when the kingly power is hereditary, some form is gone through on the accession of a new king, to signify a recognition by the people of his right, and a claim that he should pledge himself to perform certain duties, accompanied by a religious ceremony, in which anointing with oil and placing a crown on his head are included as acts. By the anointing, a certain sacredness is supposed to be thrown round the royal person, while the coronation symbolizes his supremacy. There is now no very clearly-marked distinction between a king and an Emperor (q. v.). A queen-regnant, or princess who has inherited the sovereign power in countries where female succession to the throne is recognized, possesses all the political rights of a king.

In England, it is said that the king never dies, which means, that lie succeeds to the throne immediately on the death of his predecessor, without the necessity of previous recognition on the part of the people. He makes oath at his coronation to govern according to law, to cause justice to be administered, and to maintain the Protestant Church. He is the source from which all hereditary titles are derived, and he nominates judges and other officers of state, officers of the army and navy, governors of colonies, bishops and deans. He must concur in every legislative enactment, and sends embassies, makes treaties, and even enters into wars, without consulting parliament. The royal person is sacred, and the king cannot be called to account for any of his acts; but he can only act politically by his ministers, who are not protected by the same irresponsibility. A further control on the royal prerogative is excised by the continual necessity of applying to parliament for supplies of money, which practically renders it necessary to obtain the sanction of that body to every important public measure.

The Crown (q. v.) now in use as the emblem of sovereignty differs considerably in form in different countries of modern Europe; but in all cases it is distinguished from the coronets of the nobility in being closed above. The royal crown of Great Britain, here represented, is described under article CROWN”. The helmet placed by the sovereign over his arms is of burnished gold, open-faced, and with bars. For the arms of the sovereign, see GREAT BRITAIN.

MEMORY, DISEASES OF. Memory, or the power of reproducing mental impressions, is impaired by age, wounds, or injuries to the head or nervous system, fevers, intemperance, and various physical conditions. It is perhaps affected in all kinds of mental derangement, but is in a most signal manner obliterated or enfeebled in Dementia. There are, however, examples of recollection surviving all other faculties, and preserving a clear and extensive notion of long and complicated series of events amid the general darkness and ruin of mind. Incoherence owes some of its features to defective or irregular memory. Cases of so marvelous an exaltation and extension of this capacity, as where a whole parliamentary debate could be recalled, suggest the suspicion of unhealthy action. There appear, however, to be special affections of the faculty. It may be suspended while the intelligence remains intact. Periods of personal or general history may elude the grasp, and even that continuity of impressions which goes far to constitute the feeling of personal identity, is broken Up, and a duality or multiplicity of experiences may appear to be conjoined. The converse of this may happen, and knowledge that had completely faded away may, under excitement or cerebral disease, return. There are, besides, states in which this power is partially affected, as in the instances where the numbers 5 and 7 were lost, and where a highly educated man could not retain any conception of the letter F; secondly, where, it appears perverted, recalling images inappropriately, and in an erroneous sequence of order or time, and different from what are desired; and thirdly, where, while the written or printed signs of ideas can be used, the oral or articulate signs are utterly forgotten. All these deviations from health appear to depend upon changes generally of an apoplectic nature in the anterior lobes of the brain.—Crichton on Mental Derangement; Teuchtersleben, Medical Psychology; Ribot, Les Maladies de la Memoire (1881).

MEMORY. This is one name for the great and distinctive fact of mind, namely, the power of retaining impressions made through the senses, and of reviving them at after-times without the originals, and by mental forces alone. The conditions of this power have been already stated (seeASSOCIATION OF IDEAS, HABIT).We shall advert here to some of the arts and devices that have been propounded from time to time, for aiding our recollection in the various kinds of knowledge.

Perhaps the commonest remark on this subject is, that memory depends on Attention, or that the more we attend to a thing, the better we remember it. This is true with reference to any special acquisition : if we direct the forces of the mind upon one point, we shall necessarily give that point the benefit of the concentration, but this does not affect memory as a whole : we merely take power from one thing to give it to another. Memory at large can be improved only by increasing the vigor and freshness of the nervous system, and by avoiding all occasions of exhaustion, undue excitement, and other causes of nervous waste. We may do this by general constitutional means, or by stimulating the brain at the expense of the other functions; this last method is, however, no economy in the end. Every man’s system has a certain fund of plastic power, which may be husbanded, but cannot be materially increased on the whole; the power being greatest in early life, and diminishing with advancing years. If it is strongly drawn upon for one class of acquisitions, we must not expect it to be of equal avail for others.

But there may be ways and means of presenting and arranging the matters of our knowledge, so as to make them retained at a smaller cost of the plastic power of the brain. These include the arts of teaching, expounding, and educating in general, and also certain more special devices commonly known as the arts of Memory, or Mnemonics. A brief account of these last may be given here.

The oldest method of artificial memory is said to have been invented by the Greek poet Simonides, who lived in the 5th c. B.C. It is named the topical, or locality memory, from the employment of known places as the medium of recollection. As given by Quintilian, it is in substance as follows : You choose a very spacious and diversely arranged place—a large house, for instance, divided into several apartments. You impress on the mind with care whatever is remarkable in it; so that the mind may run through all the parts without hesitation and delay. Then, if you have to remember a series of ideas, you place the first in the hall, the second in the parlor, and so on with the rest, going over the windows, the chambers, to the statues and several objects. Then when you wish to recall the succession, you commence going over the house in the order fixed, and in connection with each apartment you will find the idea that you attached to it. The principle of the method is, that it is more easy for the mind to associate a thought with a well-known place, than to associate the same thought with the next thought without any medium whatever. Orators are said to have used the method for remembering their speeches. The method has been extensively taught by writers on mnemonics in modern times. Probably, for temporary efforts of memory, it may be of some vise; the doubtful point always is, whether the machinery of such systems is not more cumbrous than helpful.

Much labor has been spent on mnemonic devices for assisting in the recollection of numbers, one of the hardest efforts of memory. The principal method for this purpose is to reduce the numbers to words, by assigning a letter for each of the ten ciphers. This method was reduced to system by Gregor von Feinaigle, a German monk, and was taught by him in various parts of Europe, and finally published in 1812. He made a careful choice of the letters for representing the several figures, having in view some association between the connected couple, for more easy recollection. For the figure 1, he used the letter t, as being’ a single stroke; for 2, n, as being two strokes combined; 3, m, three strokes; 4, r, which is found in the word denoting ‘ four’ in the European languages; 5, I, from the Roman numeral L, signifying fifty, or five tens; 6, d, because the written d resembles 6 reversed; 7, k, because k resembles two 7’s joined at top; in place of this figure is also used on occasion g, q, c (hard) as all belonging to the guttural class of k; 8, &, from a certain amount of similarity, also w, for the same reason, and sometimes v, or the half w; 9 h p, from similarity, and also/, both of which are united in the word puff, which proceeds from a. pipe, like a 9 figure; 0 is s, x, or z, because it resembles in its roundness a grindstone, which gives out a hissing noise like these letters. The letters of the alphabet not employed in representing figures are to be used in combination with these, but with the understanding that they have no meaning of themselves. Suppose, then, that a number is given, say 547; 5 is l,4 is r, 7 is k; which makes I, r, k; among these letters we insert an unmeaning vowel, as a, to make up an intelligible word, LaRK, which remains in the memory far more easily than the numerical form. In making up the words by the insertion of the unmeaning or dumb letters, we should also have regard to some connection with the subject that the number refers to, as, for example, in chronology. Thus, America was discovered in 1492; the letters here are t, r, p, n; they may be made into To RapiNe, because that discovery led to rapine by the first Spaniards. There is, of course, great room for ingenuity in the formation of these suggestive words. Also, a series of numbers may be joined together in some intelligible sentence, which can be easily remembered. Such combinations, however, should be formed once for all, in the case of any important series of numbers, as the dates of our sovereigns and other historical epochs. It is too much to expect pupils to construct these felicitous combinations. Feinaigle combined the topical method with the above plan in fixing a succession of numbers in the memory.

Dr. Edward Pick, a recent lecturer on mnemonics, has called attention to a peculiar mode of arranging lists of words that are to be fixed in the memory, as the exceptions to grammar rules, &c. He proposes to choose out such words as have some kind of connection with one another, and to arrange them in a series, so that each shall have a meaning in common with the next, or be contrasted with it, or be related to it by any other bond of association- Thus, he takes the French irregular verbs, which are usually arranged in the alphabetical order (which is itself, however, a mnemonic help), and puts them into the following series, where a certain connection of meaning exists between every two: as sew, sit down, move, go, go away, send, follow, run, shun, &c. In a case where two words have no mutual suggestiveness, he proposes to find out some intermediate idea that would bring about a connection. Thus, if the words were garden, hair, watchman, philosophy, he would interpolate other words; thus—garden, plant, hair of a plant—hair; hair, bonnet, watchman; watchman, wake, study—philosophy; and so on. Of course, the previous method is the one that should be aimed at, as the new words are to a certain extent a burden to the mind. Dr. Pick further suggests as a practical hint, in committing to memory, that the attention should be concentrated successively upon each two consecutive members of the series; the mind should pause upon the first and the second, until they have been made coherent; then abandoning the first, it should in the same way attend to the second and the third, the third and the fourth, &c. Of course, if every successive link is in that way made sufficiently strong, the whole chain is secure.

There are various examples of effective mnemonic combinations. The whole doctrine of the syllogism (q. v-) is contained in five lines of Latin verse; as regards amount of meaning in small compass, these lines have never been surpassed, if, indeed, they have been equalled. The versification of the rules of the Latin grammar has the same end in view, but all that is gained by this is merely the help from the association of the sounds of the verse in the ear; in comparison with a topical memory, this might be called a rhythmical memory. The well-known rule for the number of days in the different months of the year (’ Thirty days hath September, ‘ &c.) is an instance of mnemonic verse.

LIBRARIES’ ACTS. Though there is no systematic provision of libraries for public use, at the expense of the state, except the British Museum Library in London, an attempt has been made by the legislature of late years to empower districts to establish libraries, and to tax the inhabitants for that purpose. The act, 13 and 14 Vict. c. 65, passed in 1850 for England, has repealed by subsequent amended and extended acts, the last of which is 29 and 30 Vict. c. 114, in 1866. It is applicable to any burgh, district, or parish, whatever the amount of the population a meeting of the ratepayers may be obtained by the requisition of ten of their number addressed to the town-council, or other board, and the adoption of the act is decided by a simple majority of those present at the meeting. The rate to be levied in all such cases is not to exceed 1d. in the pound. All such libraries to be open to the public, free of all charge. A similar act extended the first English act to Ireland and Scotland; but by amended acts, passed in 1867 and 1871, Scotland has been on a similar footing to England for the adoption of the act.

LIBRARIES. The term library is applied indifferently to buildings, &c., destined to contain books, and to the books themselves deposited in these buildings. In the present article, it is used chiefly, if not exclusively, in the latter sense.

Passing over the ‘ libraries of clay,’ as the collection of inscribed bricks and tiles of the Assyrians and Babylonians have been aptly designated, the first library, properly so called, of which we have any knowledge, is that which, according to Diodorus Siculus, was formed by the Egyptian king Osymandyas. The existence of this establishment, with its appropriate inscription, Psyches iatreion—the storehouse of medicine for the mind—was long regarded as fabulous; but the researches of Champollion, Wilkinson, and other modern investigators, go far to prove that the account of Diodorus, thus perhaps exaggerated, is at least based upon truth. A more celebrated Egyptian library was that founded at Alexandria by Ptolemy Sorer, for an account of which see ALEXANDRIAN LIBRARY.The library of Pergamus, a formidable rival to that of Alexandria, was founded probably by Attains I., and was largely increased by the fostering care of his successors. As stated in the article just referred to, it was ultimately removed to Alexandria, being sent to Antony as a gift to Cleopatra. At the time that this transference took place; it contained, according to Plutarch, 200,000 volumes.

The first public library established at Athens is said to have been founded by Pisistratus; but the information we possess regarding this and other Grecian libraries is meagre and unsatisfactory. The earliest Roman libraries were those collected by Lucullus and by Asinius Pollio. The latter was a public library, in the fullest sense; and the former, though private property, was administered with so much liberality as to place it nearly on the same footing. Various other libraries were founded at Rome by Augustus and his successors; the most important, perhaps, being the Ulpian Library of the Emperor Trajan. The private collections of Emilius Paulus, Sulla, Lucullus (already mentioned), and Cicero, are well known to every student of the classics.

The downfall first of the Western, and subsequently of the Eastern Empire, involved the destruction or dispersion of these ancient libraries. The warlike hordes by whom these once mighty monarchies were overthrown, had neither time nor inclination for the cultivation of letters; but even in the darkest of the dark ages, the lamp of learning continued to shine, if with a feeble, yet still with a steady light. Within the sheltering walls of the monasteries, the books which had escaped destruction, the salvage, if we may so express it, of the general wreck, found a safe asylum; and not only were they carefully preserved, but so multiplied by the industry of the transcriber, as to be placed beyond all risk of loss for the future. Amongst the conventual libraries of the middle ages especially worthy of notice are those of Christ Church, and of the monastery of St. Augustine, Canterbury; of the abbeys of Fleury and Clugni, in France; of Monte Cassino, in Italy; and of St. Gall, in Switzerland. Private collectors, too, existed then as now, though, of course, their number was small. Amongst these, Richard de Bury, Bishop of Durham, holds a distinguished place.

The revival of learning in the 14th and 15th centuries, followed immediately by the invention of the art of printing, led naturally to a vast increase in the production of books, and introduced a new era in the history of public libraries. The number of these establishments which have since sprung into existence is immense, and is constantly increasing; so much so, that; a bare list of them would far exceed the limits of an article like the present. All, therefore, that we propose to do is to give a short account of the most important and interesting amongst them.

First among the libraries of Great Britain, and second to few, if to any abroad, is that of the British Museum. For an account of this magnificent collection, see BRITISH MUSEUM. Next in rank is the Bodleian Library at Oxford, which has been already described. See BODLEYAN or BODLEIAN LIBRARY. The third and fourth places are occupied by the Public, or University, Library of Cambridge, and the Library of the Faculty of Advocates at Edinburgh, which are nearly on a par as regards extent and value. A more particular notice of the latter will be found under the heading ADVOCATES’ LIBRARY; the number of volumes which it contains a present may be stated as not less than 265,000. The Library of Trinity College, Dublin, with about 192,000 volumes, is the largest and most valuble in Ireland. These five libraries have long been, and still are, entitled by statute to a copy of every book published in the empire; the act of parliament by which the privilege is at present regulated is the 5 and 6 Vict. c. 45. Besides the above, six other libraries had been in the enjoyment of the same privilege up to the year 1836. By the act 6 and 7 Will. IV. c. 110, which was then passed, the number was reduced from eleven to five; compensation for the loss of the privilege being allowed, in the form of an annual grant of money charged on the Consolidated Fund. The amount of this grant was, in each case, determined by a computation of the average annual value of the books received during the three years immediately preceding the passing of the act. The names of the libraries referred to, with the number of volumes they at present contain, and the annual sum received in lieu of the privilege, are as folows :

The minor libraries of Great Britain are so numerous, that a mere list of their names would exceed the limits within which an article like the present must be confined. Amongst those deserving special notice are the Library of the Society of Writers to the Signet, Edinburgh, containing upwards of 70.000 volumes; the Hunterian Library, Glasgow, with about 13,000 volumes, including many choice specimens of early printing; the Chetham Library, Manchester, upwards of 18,000 volumes; Dr. Williams’s Library, Red Cross Street, London, with more than 20,000 volumes, freely open to the public; the Archiepiscopal Library at Lambeth, containing at least 27,000 volumes; Marsh’s Library, Dublin, with about”l8,000 volumes; the Library of the Dublin Royal Society; and the libraries belonging to the different colleges at Oxford and Cambridge, some of which are of considerable extent and value. The Public Libraries’ Acts have been adopted by several of the large towns in Britain—Manchester, Birmingham, and Liverpool, and Glasgow being the most important. The free libraries established in these places under the provisions of the acts just named are in a flourishing condition. Of private libraries in England, it will be sufficient to name that of Earl Spencer, at Althorp, containing upwards of 50,000 volumes, many of extreme rarity and value, and all in admirable condition.

The great national library of France, La Bibliotheque du Roi, as it used to be called, La Bibliotheque Nationale, as it is called at present, is one of the largest and most valuable collections of books and manuscripts in the world. Attempts to form a library had been made by Louis XI. and his successors with considerable success; but the appointment of De Thou to the office of chief librarian by Henry IV. may be regarded as the foundation of the establishment as it now exists. The number of printed volumes contained in it is estimated at nearly 2,500,000, and of manuscripts at about 150,000. Amongst libraries of the second class in Paris, the Arsenal Library with 300,000 volumes, the Library of Ste Genevieve with 200,000, and the Mazarine Library with 160,000, are the chief. Many excellent libraries are to be found in the provincial towns of France, particularly at Rouen, Bordeaux, and Lyon.

Italy is rich in important libraries, amongst which that of the Vatican at Rome stands pre-eminent. The number of printed volumes is only about 200,000; but in the manuscript department the number amounts to no less than 25,000, the finest collection in the world. The Casanata Library, also at Rome, is said to contain upwards of 120,000 volumes. The Ambrosian Library, at Milan, has a collection of nearly 140,000 volumes; and the Brera Library of the same city, one of about 180,000. At Florence we find the Laurentian Library, consisting almost entirely of manuscripts; and the Magliabechi Library, with about 200,000 volumes. Amongst the other libraries of Italy worthy of notice are the Royal Library at Naples, with 200,000 volumes, and that of St. Mark at Venice, with 120,000, and 10,000 manuscripts.

The principal libraries of Spain are the Biblioteca Nacional at Madrid, numbering nearly 430,00 volumes, and the Library of. the Escorial, which has been already noticed. See ESCURIAL.—Of the libraries of Portugal, no trustworthy statistics can be obtained.

The Imperial Library at Vienna, founded by the Emperor Frederick III., in the year 1440, is a noble collection of not fewer than 400,000 volumes; of which 15,000 are of the class called incunabula, or books printed before the year 1500. The Royal Library at Munich owes its origin to Albert V., Duke of Bavaria, about the middle of the 16th century-. The number of volumes is estimated at 900,000, including 13,000 incunabula, and 22.000 manuscripts. It is worthily lodged in the splendid building erected by the late king, Ludwig I., in the Ludwig Strasse. The Royal Library at Dresden is a collection of about 500,000 volumes, amongst which are included some of the scarcest specimens of early printing, amongst others the Mainz Psalter of 1457, the first book printed with a date. The foundation of the Royal Library at Berlin dates from about the year 1650. It now extends to about 700,000 volumes of printed books, and 15,000 volumes of manuscripts. Of the other libraries of Germany, it will perhaps be enough to notice that of the university of Gottingen, with upwards of 500,000 volumes; the ducal library of Wolfenbüttel with about 270,000; and the university library at Strassburg, which, though founded only in 1871, had 513,000 books and manuscripts in 1882.

In Holland, the principal library is the Royal Library at the Hague, containing about 200,000 printed volumes, of which about 1500 are good specimens of early printing, and 4000 manuscripts.

The Royal Library at Copenhagen was founded about the middle of the 16th century. Its contents are now estimated at nearly 550,000 volumes. The University Library possesses nearly 200,-000 volumes; and Classen’s Library, also in Copenhagen, about 30.000.

In Sweden, the largest library is that of the university of Upsala, consisting of nearly 200,000 volumes. One of its chief treasures is the famous manuscript of the Gothic Gospels of Ulfilas, commonly known as the Codex Argenteus. The Royal Library at Stockholm is next in size, numbering upwards of 96,000 volumes.

The library of the university of Christiania in Norway, founded in 1811, contains upwards of 200,000 volumes.

The Imperial Library of St. Petersburg was founded about the beginning of the 18th century. In the year 1795, it was largely increased by the addition of the Zaluski Library of Warsaw which was seized and carried off to St, Petersburg by Suwaroff, At present the total number of volumes is estimated at and about 35,000 manuscripts.

In the United States of America, though there are no libraries equalling those of the first rank in Europe, there are still not few of considerable magnitude and value. The oldest and one of the largest among them is that of Harvard College, Cambridge, Massachusetts, which has been in existance for more than years, and contains about 260,000 volumes. Libraries are attached to the other collegiate institutions of the country. The Astor Library, New York, named after its liberal founder, was opened in 1854 with a collection of about 80,000 volumes, since increased to upwards of 190,000. It is in the fullest sense a free public library. The Library of Congress, the only library supported by government, to which a copy of every copyright book must be sent, is naturally the largest in the States, numbering about 400,000 volumes and 130.000 pamphlets. The Smithsonian Institution at Washington embraces in its plan the formation of an extensive library. But little progress has been made in carrying out this part of the scheme. The proprietary libraries numerous, and several of them are of considerable extent; that of Philadelphia, in the foundation of which Franklin was largely concerned, numbers upwards of 120,000 volumes; and that of the Boston Athenæum, founded in 1806, has 123,000. The Boston Public Library is the second largest, and perhaps the most widely useful library in the States; it now numbers 260,000 volumes. The New York Mercantile Library possesses 200,000 volumes.

See the Transactions and Proceedings of the Library Associatioj of the United Kingdom, and its Monthly notes.

* About three-fourths of these are lodged in King’s College, and the remainder in Marischal College.

LUNACY. By the law of England, as well as of all other countries, the presumption is in favor of a man’s sanity, even though he be born deaf, dumb, and blind; and if the fact is disputed, it always lies on the party alleging it to prove it. Sometimes a person in a state supposed to be that of a lunatic makes a contract, and is sued upon it; in such a case, he may set up as a defence that he was a lunatic, and the proof will consist of his conduct and actions at and previous to the time in question. If, however, the other party did not know of the lunacy, and took no advantage, the lunatic will not be allowed to recover back moneys which have been paid by him in pursuance of his contract. Though the presumption is in favor of the sanity of a person, yet, when once insanity has existed, the presumption is reversed, and then the law presumes no lucid interval or restoration to sanity until it is proved; and it is extremely difficult to prove a lucid interval, for the law requires very clear and conclusive proof of that fact, and all the circumstances must be carefully scanned. It is difficult or impossible to define in words what is insanity or lunacy, it being a negative state, and merely an inference from the acts, conduct, and bodily condition of the person. An idiot is said to be a person who was born with a radical infirmity of mind, and whose state is one of perpetual infirmity, incapable of cure or restoration; whereas a lunatic is one who is sometimes of good and sound mind, and sometimes not; he has lucid intervals, and is assumed to be more or less capable of restoration to sanity. A person is said to be, in legal phraseology, of unsound mind, who is not an idiot, nor a lunatic, nor yet of a merely weak mind, but, by reason of a morbid condition of intellect, is as incapable of managing his affairs as if he were a lunatic. Though it is difficult to define lunacy or insanity, there are various testswhich are more or less accepted in everyday life as strong evidence. Idiocy is accompanied by a vacant look, &c., while insanity is accompanied by some frenzy or extravagant delusion. The physiology of idiocy and lunacy is a separate subject of investigation, and is part of medical jurisprudence, to which a few medical men confine their attention, and their assistance is often required by courts of law when inquiring into this state of mind, though their theories are jealously scrutinized.

As a general rule, an idiot or a lunatic is subject to civil incapacity. He cannot enter into contracts or transact general business, and what he does is a nullity. Thus he cannot make or revoke a will, or enter into marriage, or act as an executor or administrator, or become a bankrupt, or be a witness in a court of justice, or vote at elections, and such like. But, as a general rule, a lunatic is liable in damages for committing a wrong, such as a trespass, and he is liable for necessaries supplied to him, and he may be arrested for debt, and his property may be taken in such cases, as in the case of sane persons. With regard to criminal responsibilty, the law was fully considered in the case of M’Naughton, who, in 1843, shot Mr. Drummond at Charing Cross by mistake for Sir Robert Peel, and the English judges were called on by the House of Lords to state their opinion as to the right mode of putting the questions to a jury when the defence of insanity is raised. The judges said that a person laboring under an insane delusion as to one subject is liable to punishment, if at the time of committing the crime he knew he was acting contrary to law. In general cases, to establish want of responsibility, it must be proved that the party accused was laboring under such a defect of reason, from disease of mind, as not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing, or, if he did know it, that lie did not know he was doing what was wrong. Where the party is laboring under an insane delusion as to existing facts, and commits a crime in consequence thereof, it depends on the nature of the delusion whether he is excused. Thus, if he insanely believes that A intended to kill him, and he kills A, as he supposes, in self-defence, he would be exempt from punishment. But if his delusion was that A had inflicted a serious injury to his character and fortune, and he killed A in revenge for such supposed injury, then he would be liable to punishment. When a person is acquitted of crime on the ground of insanity, he is liable to be confined in prison during her Majesty’s pleasure.

So long as a person is not actually declared insane or an idiot, he has a right to manage his own affairs; and the only way, in England, in which he can be deprived of such right used to be by a writ de lunatico inquirendo, issuing out of Chancery, which authorized the empannelling of a jury to decide whether he was a lunatic or not. The custody and care of lunatics were vested in the crown; and the Lord Chancellor, as the depositary of this jurisdiction, issued the writ on petition.

The practice has now been considerably altered by various statutes, but, as a general rule, it is still the law, that, unless a person has been officially declared a lunatic, either by the verdict of a jury, or by a certificate of a master in lunacy, he is still entitled to manage his own affairs. In England and Ireland, there is no intermediate state called imbecility or weakness of mind, with which the law interferes, as there is in Scotland (seeINTERDICTION,IMBECILITY), and hence, if a weak person is imposed on, it is treated merely as a case of fraud, the weakness forming an element of such fraud; but there is no machinery for restraining the natural right, even of weak-minded persons, to do what they like with their property. As regards idiots and lunatics, the mode in which they are judicially declared to be so, is as follows : There are certain persons called masters in lunacy, whose business it is to conduct the inquiries which are necessary, and preside over the jury, and they also visit lunatics in certain cases. The commissioners of lunacy form a Board, which supervises generally the lunatic asylums and licensed houses for reception of lunatics. The incapacity of a lunatic or idiot is conclusive established by the verdict of a jury under an inquisition de lunatico inquirendo, held before a master of lunacy; or, if the case is too clear for a jury, and where the party has not mental capacity to declare his wish on the subject, by a certificate of a master in lunacy. The Lord Chancellor may direct the trial to take place before one of the common-law judges, and the evidence is to be confined to the lunatic’s conduct during the previous two years only. The costs of the trial are in the Lord Chancellor’s discretion. If the party has property, the Lord Chancellor then appoints, on petition, a committee of the estate or of the person of the lunatic, and the visitors in lunacy must visit such lunatic at least once a year, unless the lunatic is in a private house unlicensed, in which case he must be visited four times each year. The lunatic is thus kept under the immediate control of the Court of Chancery, which manages his property through the agency of the committee and of the visitors in lunacy. But as many lunatics have no property, or property of a trifling nature, it has long been found necessary to provide asylums and registered houses for the reception of lunatics, all which are more or less under control of the commissioners in lunacy. Houses kept for the reception of lunatics are either provided by the counties, and calledcounty asylums, or they are hospitals founded by charitable donors, or they are mere private houses, kept for purposes of profit t>y individuals. County asylums were first established in 1808 {seeLUNATIC ASYLUM).The justices of every county are bound to provide such an asylum, or to join with some other parties in keeping one, the expense being defrayed out of the county rates, and a committee of justices being appointed as visitors, to see that the statute is complied with.

The object of the county asylum is to receive the lunatic paupers of the county. As a general rule, it is incumbent on the parish officers of each parish to report to the neighboring justices any case of a lunatic pauper being in their parish. In some cases of a harmless description, such paupers may be kept in the workhouse; but in other cases, on the matter being reported to the justices, the latter order the paupers to be brought before them or examination, and then send them to the county asylum; the parish to which the pauper belongs—i.e., in which he is legally settled—being liable to defray the maintainance; but if the parish which is legally bound to support the pauper cannot be discovered, then the expense is to be charged to the county. If the pauper cannot be examined by the justices, the medical officer and a clergyman may sign a certificate, which is taken to be evidence of the lunacy. As to private houses, no person is allowed to receive two or more lunatics, unless such house has been previously licensed by the commissioners in lunacy, which license is only given after inspection, and a report as to its sanitary arrangements and other items of management. No person can be legally received into such licensed house without a written order from the person sending him, and the medical certificates of two physicians, surgeons, or apothecaries. The keepers of such houses are liable to visitation by the commissioners, and to render regular reports as to all particulars concerning the admission, death, removal, discharge, or escape of patients. The commissioners have power to visit at unexpected times, and to receive reports from other visitors. The commissioners may discharge persons who seem to be detained without sufficient cause.

In Scotland, the law differs in several respects from the above. Idiots and lunatics are often called fatuous and furious persons respectively; and there is an intermediate state called imbecility or weakness of mind, upon evidence of which the relations may apply to the Court of Session for Judicial Interdiction (q. v.), which has the effect of protecting the imbecile from squandering ‘his heritable property. The care and custody of lunatics and idiots belong to the Court of Session, which may appoint a curator bonis or judicial factor to take charge of the estate, and a curator or tutor dative to take charge of the lunatic’s person. A party is cognosced as a fatuous or furious person by a jury presided over by the sheriff. The recent statutory provisions concerning Scotch lunatics are contained in the statutes 20 and 21 Vict. c. 71, 31 and 22 Vict. c. 89, and 25 and 26 Vict. c. 54. There is also a Board called the Commissioners in Lunacy for Scotland, who may grant licenses for private asylums. They may also give special licenses to occupiers of houses for the reception of lunatics, not exceeding four in number, subject to rules and regulations. Counties and parishes may contract for accommodation of their lunatic paupers. Minute provisions are contained in these statutes as to the mode of treatment and visitation of lunatics. For the various kinds of mental alienation, see INSANITY.