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Title: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 4 - "Finland" to "Fleury, Andre"
Author: Various
Language: English
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*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 4 - "Finland" to "Fleury, Andre"" ***
Transcriber's notes:
(1) Numbers following letters (without space) like C2 were originally
printed in subscript. Letter subscripts are preceded by an
underscore, like C_n.
(2) Characters following a carat (^) were printed in superscript.
(3) Side-notes were relocated to function as titles of their respective
paragraphs.
(4) Macrons and breves above letters and dots below letters were not
inserted.
(5) [root] stands for the root symbol; [alpha], [beta], etc. for greek
letters.
(6) The following typographical errors have been corrected:
ARTICLE FINLAND: "... but does not reach the Arctic Ocean, and 13
m. from the Varanger-fjord it turns southwards." 'Arctic' amended
from 'Artic'.
ARTICLE FISCHART, JOHANN: "Sie haben Nasen und riechen's nit."
'und' amended from 'vnd'.
ARTICLE FISHER, JOHN: "The constancy of Fisher, while driving Henry
to a fury that knew no bounds, won the admiration of the whole
Christian world, where he had been long known as one of the most
learned and pious bishops of the time." 'Christian' amended from
'Christain'.
ARTICLE FISHKILL LANDING: "... in which the New York Provincial
Congress met in August and September 1776." 'Provincial' amended
from 'Provinical'.
ARTICLE FITZGERALD, EDWARD: "... until 1873 in the town of
Woodbridge; and then until his death at his own house hard by,
called Little Grange." 'called' amended from 'ealled'.
ARTICLE FLAMBARD, RANULF: "He profited largely by the tyranny of
Rufus, farming for the king a large proportion of the
ecclesiastical preferments which were illegally kept vacant, and
obtaining for himself the wealthy see of Durham (1099)."
'illegally' amended from 'illegaly'.
ARTICLE FLAMBARD, RANULF: "A bishop, however, was an inconvenient
prisoner, and Flambard soon succeeded in effecting his escape from
the Tower of London." 'succeeded' amended from 'succeded'.
ARTICLE FLAME: "... if the outer tube be slid up again, it detaches
the outer cone and carries it upward." 'be' amended from 'he'.
ARTICLE FLAME: "It is least ambiguous when used in reference to
flames where the combining gases are mixed in theoretical
proportions before issuing from the burner." 'is' amended from
'it'.
ARTICLE FLEURY, ANDRÉ HERCULE DE: "During the seventeen years of
his orderly government the country found time to recuperate its
forces after the exhaustion caused by the extravagances of Louis
XIV. and of the regent, and the general prosperity rapidly
increased." 'rapidly' amended from 'rapidy'.
ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA
A DICTIONARY OF ARTS, SCIENCES, LITERATURE
AND GENERAL INFORMATION
ELEVENTH EDITION
VOLUME X, SLICE IV
Finland to Fleury, André
ARTICLES IN THIS SLICE:
FINLAND FITZWILLIAM, WILLIAM FITZWILLIAM
FINLAY, GEORGE FIUME
FINN MAC COOL FIVES
FINNO-UGRIAN FIX, THÉODORE
FINSBURY FIXTURES
FINSTERWALDE FIZEAU, ARMAND HIPPOLYTE LOUIS
FIORENZO DI LORENZO FJORD
FIORENZUOLA D'ARDA FLACCUS
FIORILLO, JOHANN DOMINICUS FLACH, GEOFROI JACQUES
FIR FLACIUS, MATTHIAS
FIRDOUSI FLACOURT, ÉTIENNE DE
FIRE FLAG
FIRE AND FIRE EXTINCTION FLAGELLANTS
FIREBACK FLAGELLATA
FIRE BRAT FLAGEOLET
FIREBRICK FLAGSHIP
FIREFLY FLAHAUT DE LA BILLARDERIE, JOSEPH
FIRE-IRONS FLAIL
FIRENZUOLA, AGNOLO FLAMBARD, RANULF
FIRESHIP FLAMBOROUGH HEAD
FIRE-WALKING FLAMBOYANT STYLE
FIREWORKS FLAME
FIRM FLAMEL, NICOLAS
FIRMAMENT FLAMEN
FIRMAN FLAMINGO
FIRMICUS, MATERNUS JULIUS FLAMINIA, VIA
FIRMINY FLAMININUS, TITUS QUINCTIUS
FIRST-FOOT FLAMINIUS, GAIUS
FIRST OF JUNE FLAMSTEED, JOHN
FIRTH, CHARLES HARDING FLANDERS
FIRTH, MARK FLANDRIN, JEAN HIPPOLYTE
FIRUZABAD FLANNEL
FIRUZKUH FLANNELETTE
FISCHART, JOHANN FLASK
FISCHER, EMIL FLAT
FISCHER, ERNST BERTHOLD FLATBUSH
FISH, HAMILTON FLAT-FISH
FISH FLATHEADS
FISHER, ALVAN FLAUBERT, GUSTAVE
FISHER, GEORGE PARK FLAVEL, JOHN
FISHER, JOHN FLAVIAN I.
FISHER, JOHN ARBUTHNOT FISHER FLAVIAN II.
FISHERIES FLAVIAN
FISHERY FLAVIGNY
FISHGUARD FLAVIN
FISHKILL LANDING FLAX
FISK, JAMES FLAXMAN, JOHN
FISK, WILBUR FLEA
FISKE, JOHN FLÈCHE
FISKE, MINNIE MADDERN FLÉCHIER, ESPRIT
FISTULA FLECKEISEN, CARL WILHELM ALFRED
FIT FLECKNOE, RICHARD
FITCH, JOHN FLEET
FITCH, SIR JOSHUA GIRLING FLEET PRISON
FITCH, RALPH FLEETWOOD, CHARLES
FITCHBURG FLEETWOOD, WILLIAM
FITTIG, RUDOLF FLEETWOOD
FITTON, MARY FLEGEL, EDWARD ROBERT
FITTON, WILLIAM HENRY FLEISCHER, HEINRICH LEBERECHT
FITZBALL, EDWARD FLEMING, PAUL
FITZGERALD FLEMING, RICHARD
FITZGERALD, EDWARD FLEMING, SIR SANDFORD
FITZGERALD, LORD EDWARD FLEMING, SIR THOMAS
FITZGERALD, RAYMOND FLEMISH LITERATURE
FITZGERALD, LORD THOMAS FLENSBURG
FITZHERBERT, SIR ANTHONY FLERS
FITZHERBERT, THOMAS FLETA
FITZ NEAL, RICHARD FLETCHER, ALICE CUNNINGHAM
FITZ-OSBERN, ROGER FLETCHER, ANDREW
FITZ-OSBERN, WILLIAM FLETCHER, GILES (English author)
FITZ OSBERT, WILLIAM FLETCHER, GILES (English poet)
FITZ PETER, GEOFFREY FLETCHER, JOHN WILLIAM
FITZROY, ROBERT FLETCHER, PHINEAS
FITZROY FLEURANGES, ROBERT (III.) DE LA MARCK
FITZ STEPHEN, ROBERT FLEUR-DE-LIS
FITZ STEPHEN, WILLIAM FLEURUS
FITZ THEDMAR, ARNOLD FLEURY
FITZWALTER, ROBERT FLEURY, ANDRÉ HERCULE DE
FITZWILLIAM, SIR WILLIAM
FINLAND (Finnish, _Suomi_ or _Suomenmaa_), a grand-duchy governed
subject to its own constitution by the emperor of Russia as grand-duke
of Finland. It is situated between the gulfs of Bothnia and Finland, and
includes, moreover, a large territory in Lapland. It touches at its
south-eastern extremity the government of St Petersburg, includes the
northern half of Lake Ladoga, and is separated from the Russian
governments of Arkhangelsk and Olonets by a sinuous line which follows,
roughly speaking, the water-parting between the rivers flowing into the
Baltic Sea and the White Sea. In the north of the Gulf of Bothnia it is
separated from Sweden and Norway by a broken line which takes the course
of the valley of the Torneå river up to its sources, thus falling only
21 m. short of reaching the head of Norwegian Lyngen-fjord; then it runs
south-east and north-east down the Tana and Pasis-joki, but does not
reach the Arctic Ocean, and 13 m. from the Varanger-fjord it turns
southwards. Finland includes in the south-west the Åland
archipelago--its frontier approaching within 8 m. from the Swedish
coast--as well as the islands of the Gulf of Finland, Hogland, Tytärs,
&c. Its utmost limits are: 59° 48'--70° 6' N., and 19° 2'--32° 50' E.
The area of Finland, in square miles, is as follows (_Altas de Finlande,
1899_):--
+----------------+----------+---------+---------+-------+--------+
| Government. |Continent.| Islands | Islands | Lakes.| Total. |
| | |in Lakes.| in Seas.| | |
+----------------+----------+---------+---------+-------+--------+
| Nyland | 4,062 | 24 | 210 | 286 | 4,582 |
| Åbo-Björneborg | 7,594 | 8 | 1331 | 400 | 9,333 |
| Tavastehus | 6,837 | 97 | .. | 1,400 | 8,334 |
| Viborg | 11,630 | 362 | 130 | 4,502 | 16,624 |
| St Michel | 5,652 | 1018 | .. | 2,149 | 8,819 |
| Kuopio | 13,160 | 643 | .. | 2,696 | 16,499 |
| Vasa | 14,527 | 62 | 203 | 1,313 | 16,105 |
| Uleåborg | 60,348 | 171 | 94 | 3,344 | 63,957 |
+----------------+----------+---------+---------+-------+--------+
| Total | 123,810 | 2385 | 1968 |16,090 |144,253 |
+----------------+----------+---------+---------+-------+--------+
_Orography._--A line drawn from the head of the Gulf of Bothnia to the
eastern coast of Lake Ladoga divides Finland into two distinct parts,
the lake region and the nearly uninhabited hilly tracts belonging to
the Kjölen mountains, to the plateau of the Kola peninsula, and to the
slopes of the plateau which separates Finland proper from the White
Sea. At the head-waters of the Torneå, Finland penetrates as a narrow
strip into the heart of the highlands of Kjölen (the Keel), where the
Haldefjäll (Lappish, Halditjokko) reaches 4115 ft. above the sea, and
is surrounded by other _fjälls_, or flat-topped summits, of from 3300
to 3750 ft. of altitude. Extensive plateaus (1500-1750 ft.), into
which Lake Enare, or Inari, and the valleys of its tributaries are
deeply sunk, and which take the character of a mountain region in the
Saariselkä (highest summit, 2360 ft.), occupy the remainder of
Lapland. Along the eastern border the dreary plateaus of Olonets reach
on Finnish territory altitudes of from 700 to 1000 ft. Quite different
is the character of the pentagonal space comprised between the Gulfs
of Bothnia and Finland, Lake Ladoga, and the above-mentioned line
traced through the lakes Uleå and Piellis. The meridional ridges which
formerly used to be traced here along the main water-partings do not
exist in reality, and the country appears on the hypsometrical map in
the _Atlas de Finlande_ as a plateau of 350 ft. of average altitude,
covered with countless lakes, lying at altitudes of from 250 to 300
ft. The three main lake-basins of Näsi-järvi, Päjäne and Saima are
separated by low and flat hills only; but one sees distinctly
appearing on the map a line of flat elevations running south-west to
north-east along the north-west border of the lake regions from
Lauhanvuori to Kajana, and reaching from 650 to 825 ft. of altitude. A
regular gentle slope leads from these hills to the Gulf of Bothnia
(Osterbotten), forming vast prairie tracts in its lower parts.
A notable feature of Finland are the _åsar_ or narrow ridges of
morainic deposits, more or less reassorted on their surfaces. Some of
them are relics of the longitudinal moraines of the ice-sheet, and
they run north-west to south-east, parallel to the striation of the
rocks and to the countless parallel troughs excavated by the ice in
the hard rocks in the same direction; while the Lojo ås, which runs
from Hangöudd to Vesi-järvi, and is continued farther east under the
name of Salpauselliä, parallel to the shore of the Gulf of Finland,
are remainders of the frontal moraines, formed at a period when the
ice-sheet remained for some time stationary during its retreat. As a
rule these forest-clothed _åsar_ rise from 30 to 60 and occasionally
120 ft. above the level of the surrounding country, largely adding to
the already great picturesqueness of the lake region; railways are
traced in preference along them.
_Lakes and Rivers._--A labyrinth of lakes, covering 11% of the
aggregate territory, and connected by short and rapid streams
(_fjården_), covers the surface of South Finland, offering great
facilities for internal navigation, while the connecting streams
supply an enormous amount of motive-power. The chief lakes are: Lake
Ladoga, of which the northern half belongs to Finland; Saima (three
and a half times larger than Lake Leman), whose outlet, the Vuoksen,
flows into Lake Ladoga, forming the mighty Imatra rapids, while the
lake itself is connected by means of a sluiced canal with the Gulf of
Finland; the basins of Pyhä-selkä, Ori-vesi and Piellis-järvi; Päjäne,
surrounded by hundreds of smaller lakes, and the waters of which are
discharged into the lower gulf through the Kymmene river; Näsi-järvi
and Pyhä-järvi, whose outflow is the Kumo-elf, flowing into the Gulf
of Bothnia; Uleå-träsk, discharged by the Uleå into the same gulf; and
Enare, belonging to the basin of the Arctic Ocean. Two large rivers,
Kemi and Torneå, enter the head of the Gulf of Bothnia, while the Uleå
is now navigable throughout, owing to improvements in its channel.
_Geology._--Cambrian, Silurian, Devonian and Carboniferous deposits
are found on the coasts of the Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga, and
also along the coasts of the Arctic Ocean (probably Devonian), and in
the Kjölen. Eruptive rocks of Palaeozoic age are met with in the Kola
peninsula (nepheline-syenites) and at Kuusamo (syenite). The remainder
of Finland is built up of the oldest known crystalline rocks belonging
to the Archaeozoic or Algonkian period. The most ancient of these seem
to be the granites of East Finland. The denudation and destruction of
the granites gave rise to the _Ladoga schists_ and various deposits of
the same period, which were subsequently strongly folded. Then the
country came once more under the sea, and the debris of the previous
formations, mixed with fragments from the volcanoes then situated in
West Finland, formed the so-called _Bothnian series_. New masses of
granites protruded next from underneath, and the Bothnian deposits
underwent foldings in their turn, while denudation was again at work
on a grand scale. A new series of _Jatulian deposits_ was formed and a
new system of foldings followed; but these were the last in this part
of the globe. The _Jotnian series_, which were formed next, remain
still undisturbed. It is to this series that the well-known Rapakivi
granite of Åland, Nystad and Viborg belongs. No marine deposits
younger than those just mentioned--all belonging to a pre-Cambrian
epoch--are found in the central portion of Finland; and the greater
part of the country has probably been dry land since Palaeozoic times.
The whole of Finland is covered with Glacial and post-Glacial
deposits. The former of these, representing the bottom-moraine of the
ice-sheet, are covered with Glacial and post-Glacial clays (partly of
lacustrine and partly of marine origin) only in the peripheral
coast-region--or in separate areas in the interior depressions. Some
Finnish geologists--Sederholm for one--consider it probable that
during the Glacial period an Arctic sea (_Yoldia_ sea) covered all
southern Finland and also Scania (Skåne) in Sweden, thus connecting
the Atlantic Ocean with the Baltic and the White Sea by a broad
channel; but no fossils from that sea have been found anywhere in
Finland. Conclusive proofs, however, of a later submergence under a
post-Glacial Littorina sea (containing shells now living in the
Baltic) are found up to 150 ft. along the Gulf of Finland, and up to
260, or perhaps 330 ft., in Osterbotten. Traces of a large inner
post-Glacial lake, similar to Lake Agassiz of North America, have been
discovered. The country is still continuing to rise, but at an unequal
rate; of nearly 3.3 ft. in a century in the Gulf of Bothnia (Kvarken),
from 1.4 to 2 ft. in the south, and nearly zero in the Baltic
provinces.
_Climate._--Owing to the prevalence of moist west and south-west winds
the climate of Finland is less severe than it is farther east in
corresponding latitudes. The country lies thus between the annual
isotherms of 41° and 28° Fahr., which run in a W.N.W.-E.S.E.
direction. In January the average monthly temperature varies from 9°
Fahr. about Lake Enare to 30° along the south coast; while in July the
difference between the monthly averages is only eight degrees, being
53° in the north and 61° in the south-east. Everywhere, and especially
in the interior, the winter lasts very long, and early frosts (June
12-14 in 1892) often destroy the crops. The amount of rain and snow is
from 25½ in. along the south coast to 13.8 in. in the interior of
southern Finland.
_Flora_, _Forests_, _Fauna_.--The flora of Finland has been most
minutely explored, especially in the south, and the Finnish botanists
were enabled to divide the country into twenty-eight different
provinces, giving the numbers of phanerogam species for each province.
These numbers vary from 318 to 400 species in Lapland, from 508 to 651
in Karelia, and attain 752 species for Finland proper; while the total
for all Finland attains 1132 species. Alpine plants are not met with
in Finland proper, but are represented by from 32 to 64 species in the
Kola peninsula. The chief forest trees of Finland are the Scotch fir
(_Pinus sylvestris_, L.), the fir (_Picea excelsa_, Link.); two
species of birch (_B. verrucosa_, Ehrh., and _B. odorata_, Bechst.),
as well as the birch-bush (_B. nana_); two species of _Alnus_
(_glutinosa_ and _incana_); the oak (_Q. pedunculata_, Ehrh.), which
grows only on the south coast; the poplar (_Populus tremula_); and the
Siberian larch, introduced in culture in the 18th century. Over
6,000,000 trees are cut every year to be floated to thirty large
saw-mills, and about 1,000,000 to be transformed into paper pulp. The
total export of timber was valued in 1897 at 82,160,000 marks. It is
estimated, however, that the domestic use of wood (especially for
fuel) represents nearly five times as many cubic feet as the wood used
for export in different shapes. The total area under forests is
estimated at 63,050,000 acres, of which 34,662,000 acres belong to the
state. The fauna has been explored in great detail both as regards the
vertebrates and the invertebrates, and specialists will find the
necessary bibliographical indications in _Travaux géographiques en
Finlande_, published for the London Geographical Congress of 1895.
_Population._--The population of Finland, which was 429,912 in 1751,
832,659 in 1800, 1,636,915 in 1850, and 2,520,437 in 1895, was
2,712,562 in 1904, of whom 1,370,480 were women and 1,342,082 men. Of
these only 341,602 lived in towns, the remainder in the country
districts. The distribution of population in various provinces was as
follows:--
+-----------------+------------+--------------+
| 1904. | Population.| Density per |
| | |sq. kilometre.|
+-----------------+------------+--------------+
| Åbo-Björneborg | 447,098 | 20.3 |
| Kuopio | 313,951 | 8.9 |
| Nyland | 297,813 | 29.3 |
| St Michel | 189,360 | 11.1 |
| Tavastehus | 301,272 | 17.7 |
| Uleåborg | 280,899 | 1.9 |
| Viborg | 421,610 | 14.6 |
| Vasa | 460,460 | 12.5 |
+-----------------+------------+--------------+
| Total | 2,712,562 | 8.6 |
+-----------------+------------+--------------+
The number of births in 1904 was 90,253 and the deaths 50,227, showing
an excess of births over deaths of 40,026. Emigration was estimated at
about three thousand every year before 1898, but it largely increased
then owing to Russian encroachments on Finnish autonomy. In 1899 the
emigrants numbered 12,357; 10,642 in 1900; 12,659 in 1901; and 10,952
in 1904.
The bulk of the population are Finns (2,352,990 in 1904) and Swedes
(349,733). Of Russians there were only 5939, chiefly in the provinces
of Viborg and Nyland. Both Finns and Swedes belong to the Lutheran
faith, there being only 46,466 members of the Greek Orthodox Church
and 755 Roman Catholics.
The leading cities of Finland are: Helsingfors, capital of the
grand-duchy and of the province (_län_) of Nyland, principal seaport
(111,654 inhabitants); Åbo, capital of the Åbo-Björneborg province and
ancient capital of Finland (42,639); Tammerfors, the leading
manufacturing town of the grand-duchy (40,261); Viborg, chief town of
province of same name, important seaport (34,672); Uleåborg, capital
of province (17,737); Vasa, or Nikolaistad, capital of Vasa län
(18,028); Björneborg (16,053); Kuopio, capital of province (13,519);
and Tavastehus, capital of province of the same name (5545).
_Industries._--Agriculture gives occupation to the large majority of
the population, but of late the increase of manufactures has been
marked. Dairy-farming is also on the increase, and the foreign exports
of butter rose from 1930 cwt. in 1900 to 3130 cwt. in 1905. Measures
have been taken since 1892 for the improvement of agriculture, and the
state keeps twenty-six agronomists and instructors for that purpose.
There are two high schools, one experimental station, twenty-two
middle schools and forty-eight lower schools of agriculture, besides
ten horticultural schools. Agricultural societies exist in each
province.
Fishing is an important item of income. The value of exports of fish,
&c., was £140,000 in 1904, but fish was also imported to the value of
£61,300. The manufacturing industries (wood-products, metallurgy,
machinery, textiles, paper and leather) are of modern development, but
the aggregate production approaches one and a half millions sterling
in value.
Some gold is obtained in Lapland on the Ivalajoki, but the output,
which amounted in 1871 to 56,692 grammes, had fallen in 1904 to 1951
grammes. There is also a small output of silver, copper and iron. The
last is obtained partly from mines, but chiefly from the lakes. In
1904 22,050 tons of cast iron were obtained. The textile industries
are making rapid progress, and their produce, notwithstanding the high
duties, is exported to Russia. The fabrication of paper out of wood is
also rapidly growing. As to the timber trade, there are upwards of 500
saw-mills, employing 21,000 men, and with an output valued at over
£3,000,000 annually.
_Communications._--The roads, attaining an aggregate length of 27,500
m., are kept as a rule in very good order. The first railway was
opened in 1862, and the next, from Helsingfors to St Petersburg, in
1870 (cost only £4520 per mile). Railways of a lighter type began to
be built since 1877, and now Finland has about 2100 m. of railway,
mostly belonging to the state. The gross income from the state
railways is 26,607,622, and the net income 4,684,856 marks. Finland
has an extensive and well-kept system of canals, of which the sluiced
canal connecting Lake Saima with the Gulf of Finland is the chief one.
It permits ships navigating the Baltic to penetrate 270 m. inland, and
is passed every year by from 4980 to 5200 vessels. Considerable works
have also been made to connect the different lakes and lake-basins
for inland navigation, a sum of £1,000,000 having been spent for that
purpose.
The telegraphs chiefly belong to Russia. Telephones have an enormous
extension both in the towns and between the different towns of
southern Finland; the cost of the yearly subscription varies from 40
to 60 marks,[1] and is only 10 marks in the smaller towns.
_Commerce._--The foreign trade of Finland increases steadily, and
reached in 1904 the following values:--
+---------+------------+----------------+-------------+
| | From or to | From or to | Totals. |
| | Russia. |other Countries.| |
+---------+------------+----------------+-------------+
| Imports | £4,036,000 | £6,488,000 | £10,524,000 |
| Exports | 2,332,000 | 6,292,000 | 8,624,000 |
+---------+------------+----------------+-------------+
The chief trade of Finland is with Russia, and next with Great
Britain, Germany, Denmark, France and Sweden. The main imports are:
cereals and flour (to an annual value exceeding £3,000,000), metals,
machinery, textile materials and textile products. The chief articles
of export are: timber and wood articles (£5,250,000), paper and paper
pulp, some tissues, metallic goods, leather, &c. The chief ports are
Helsingfors, Åbo, Viborg, Hangö and Vasa.
_Education._--Great strides have been made since 1866, when a new
education law was passed. Rudimentary teaching in reading,
occasionally writing, and the first principles of Lutheran faith are
given in the maternal house, or in "maternal schools," or by
ambulatory schools under the control of the clergy, who make the
necessary examination in the houses of every parish. All education
above that level is in the hands of the educational department and
school boards elected in each parish, each rural parish being bound
(since 1898) to be divided into a proper number of school districts
and to have a school in each of them, the state contributing to these
expenses 800 marks a year for each male and 600 marks for each female
teacher, or 25% of the total cost in urban communes. Secondary
education, formerly instituted on two separate lines, classical and
scientific, has been reformed so as to give more prominence to
scientific education, even in the classical (linguistic) lyceums or
gymnasia. For higher education there is the university of Helsingfors
(formerly the Åbo Academy), which in 1906 had 1921 students (328
women) and 141 professors and docents. Besides the Helsingfors
polytechnic there are a number of higher and lower technical,
commercial and navigation schools. Finland has several scientific
societies enjoying a world-wide reputation, as the Finnish Scientific
Society, the Society for the Flora and Fauna of Finland, several
medical societies, two societies of literature, the Finno-Ugrian
Society, the Historical and Archaeological Societies, one juridical,
one technical and two geographical societies. All of these, as also
the Finnish Geological Survey, the Forestry Administration, &c., issue
publications well known to the scientific world. The numerous local
branches of the Friends of the Folk-School and the Society for Popular
Education display great activity, the former by aiding the smaller
communes in establishing schools, and the latter in publishing popular
works, starting their own schools as well as free libraries (in nearly
every commune), and organizing lectures for the people. The university
students take a lively part in this work.
_Government and Administration._--From the time of its union with Russia
at the Diet of Borgå in 1809 till the events of 1899 (see _History_)
Finland was practically a separate state, the emperor of Russia as
grand-duke governing by means of a nominated senate and a diet elected
on a very narrow franchise, and meeting at distant and irregular
intervals. This diet was on the old Swedish model, consisting of
representatives of the four estates--nobility, clergy, burghers and
peasants--sitting and voting in separate "Houses." The government of the
country was practically carried on by the senate, which communicated
with St Petersburg through a Finnish secretary attached to the Russian
government. War and foreign affairs were entirely in the hands of
Russia, and a Russian governor had his residence in Helsingfors. The
senate also controlled the administration of the law. The constitutional
conflict of 1899-1905 brought about something like a revolution in
Finland. For some years the country was subject to a practically
arbitrary form of government, but the disasters of the Russo-Japanese
War and the growing anarchy in Russia resulted in 1905 in a complete and
peaceful victory for the defenders of the Finnish constitution. As a
Finnish writer puts it: "just as the calamities which had befallen
Finland came from Russia, so was her deliverance to come from Russia."
The _status quo ante_ was restored, the diet met in extraordinary
session, and proceeded to the entire recasting of the Finnish
government. Freedom of the press was voted, and the diet next proceeded
to reform its own constitution. Far-reaching changes were voted. The
new diet, instead of being composed of four estates sitting separately,
consists of a single chamber of 200 members elected directly by
universal suffrage, women being eligible. By the new constitution the
grand-duchy was to be divided into not less than twelve and not more
than eighteen constituencies, electing members in proportion to
population. A scheme of "proportional representation," the votes being
counted in accordance with the system invented by G.M. d'Hondt, a
Belgian, was also adopted. The executive was to consist of a
minister-secretary of state and of the members of the senate, who were
entitled to attend and address the diet and who might be the subject of
interpellations. The members of the senate were made responsible to the
diet as well as to the emperor-grand-duke for their acts. The diet has
power to consider and decide upon measures proposed by the government.
After a measure has been approved by the diet it is the duty of the
senate to report upon it to the sovereign. But the senate is not obliged
to accept the decision of the majority of the diet, nor, apparently, is
the sovereign bound to accept the advice of the senate. The first
elections, April 1907, resulted in the election to the diet of about 40%
representatives of the Social Democratic party, and nineteen women
members. The budget of Finland in 1905 was £4,273,970 of "ordinary"
revenue. The "ordinary" expenditure was £3,595,300. The public debt
amounted at the end of 1905 to £5,611,170.
_History._--It was probably at the end of the 7th or the beginning of
the 8th century that the Finns took possession of what is now Finland,
though it was only when Christianity was introduced, about 1157, that
they were brought into contact with civilized Europe. They probably
found the Lapps in possession of the country. The early Finlanders do
not seem to have had any governmental organization, but to have lived in
separate communities and villages independent of each other. Their
mythology consisted in the deification of the forces of nature, as
"Ukko," the god of the air, "Tapio," god of the forests, "Ahti," the god
of water, &c. These early Finlanders seem to have been both brave and
troublesome to their neighbours, and their repeated attacks on the coast
of Sweden drew the attention of the kings of that country. King Eric IX.
(St Eric), accompanied by the bishop of Upsala, Henry (an Englishman, it
is said), and at the head of a considerable army, invaded the country in
1157, when the people were conquered and baptized. King Eric left Bishop
Henry with his priests and some soldiers behind to confirm the conquest
and complete the conversion. After a time he was killed, canonized, and
as St Henry became the patron saint of Finland. As Sweden had to attend
to her own affairs, Finland was gradually reverting to independence and
paganism, when in 1209 another bishop and missionary, Thomas (also an
Englishman), arrived and recommenced the work of St Henry. Bishop Thomas
nearly succeeded in detaching Finland from Sweden, and forming it into a
province subject only to the pope. The famous Birger Jarl undertook a
crusade in Finland in 1249, compelling the Tavastians, one of the
subdivisions of the Finlanders proper, to accept Christianity, and
building a castle at Tavestehus. It was Torkel Knutson who conquered and
connected the Karelian Finlanders in 1293, and built the strong castle
of Viborg. Almost continuous wars between Russia and Sweden were the
result of the conquest of Finland by the latter. In 1323 it was settled
that the river Rajajoki should be the boundary between Russia and the
Swedish province. After the final conquest of the country by the Swedes,
they spread among the Finlanders their civilization, gave them laws,
accorded them the same civil rights as belonged to themselves, and
introduced agriculture and other beneficial arts. The Reformed religion
was introduced into Finland by Gustavus Vasa about 1528, and King John
III. raised the country to the dignity of a grand-duchy. It continued to
suffer, sometimes deplorably, in most of the wars waged by Sweden,
especially with Russia and Denmark. His predecessor having created an
order of nobility,--counts, barons and nobles, Gustavus Adolphus in the
beginning of the 17th century established the diet of Finland, composed
of the four orders of the nobility, clergy, burghers and peasants.
Gustavus and his successor did much for Finland by founding schools and
gymnasia, building churches, encouraging learning and introducing
printing. During the reign of Charles XI. (1692-1696) the country
suffered terribly from famine and pestilence; in the diocese of Åbo
alone 60,000 persons died in less than nine months. Finland has been
visited at different periods since by these scourges; so late as 1848
whole villages were starved during a dreadful famine. Peter the Great
cast an envious eye on Finland and tried to wrest it from Sweden; in
1710 he managed to obtain possession of the towns of Kexholm and
Villmanstrand; and by 1716 all the country was in his power. Meantime
the sufferings of the people had been great; thousands perished in the
wars of Charles XII. By the peace of Nystad in 1721 the province of
Viborg, the eastern division of Finland, was finally ceded to Russia.
But the country had been laid very low by war, pestilence and famine,
though it recovered itself with wonderful rapidity. In 1741 the Swedes
made an effort to recover the ceded province, but through wretched
management suffered disaster, and were compelled to capitulate in August
1742, ceding by the peace of Åbo, next year, the towns of Villmanstrand
and Fredrikshamn. Nothing remarkable seems to have occurred till 1788,
under Gustavus III., who began to reign in 1771, and who confirmed to
Finland those "fundamental laws" which they have succeeded in
maintaining against kings and tsars for over two centuries. The country
was divided into six governments, a second superior court of justice was
founded at Vasa, many new towns were built, commerce flourished, and
science and art were encouraged. Latin disappeared as the academic
language, and Swedish was adopted. In 1788 war again broke out between
Sweden and Russia, and was carried on for two years without much glory
or gain to either party, the main aim of Gustavus being to recover the
lost Finnish province. In 1808, under Gustavus IV., peace was again
broken between the two countries, and the war ended by the cession in
1809 of the whole of Finland and the Åland Islands to Russia. Finland,
however, did not enter Russia as a conquered province, but, thanks to
the bravery of her people after they had been abandoned by an
incompetent monarch and treacherous generals, and not less to the wisdom
and generosity of the emperor Alexander I. of Russia, she maintained her
free constitution and fundamental laws, and became a semi-independent
grand-duchy with the emperor as grand-duke. The estates were summoned to
a free diet at Borgå and accepted Alexander as grand-duke of Finland, he
on his part solemnly recognizing the Finnish constitution and
undertaking to preserve the religion, laws and liberties of the country.
A senate was created and a governor-general named. The province of
Viborg was reunited to Finland in 1811, and Åbo remained the capital of
the country till 1821, when the civil and military authorities were
removed to Helsingfors, and the university in 1827. The diet, which had
not met for 56 years, was convoked by Alexander II. at Helsingfors in
1863. Under Alexander II. Finland was on the whole prosperous and
progressive, and his statue in the great square in front of the
cathedral and the senate house in Helsingfors testifies to the regard in
which his memory is cherished by his Finnish subjects. Unfortunately his
successor soon fell under the influence of the reactionary party which
had begun to assert itself in Russia even before the assassination of
Alexander II. One of Alexander III.'s first acts was to confirm "the
constitution which was granted to the grand-duchy of Finland by His
Majesty the emperor Alexander Pavlovich of most glorious memory, and
developed with the consent of the estates of Finland by our dearly
beloved father of blessed memory the emperor Alexander Nicolaievich."
But the Slavophil movement, with its motto, "one law, one church, one
tongue," acquired great influence in official circles, and its aim was,
in defiance of the pledges of successive tsars, to subject Finland to
Orthodoxy and autocracy. It is unnecessary to follow in detail the seven
years' struggle between the Russian bureaucracy and the defenders of the
Finnish constitution. Politics in Finland were complicated by the
rivalry between the Swedish party, which had hitherto been dominant in
Finland, and the Finnish "nationalist" party which, during the latter
half of the 19th century, had been determinedly asserting itself
linguistically and politically. With some exceptions, however, the whole
country united in defence of its constitution; "Fennoman" and
"Svecoman," recognizing that their common liberties were at stake,
suspended their feud for a season. With the accession of Nicholas II.
(see RUSSIA) the constitutional conflict became acute, and the "February
manifesto" (February 15th, 1899) virtually abrogated the legislative
power of the Finnish diet. A new military law, practically amalgamating
the Finnish with the Russian forces, followed in July 1901; Russian
officials and the Russian language were forced on Finland wherever
possible, and in April 1903 the Russian governor, General Bobrikov, was
invested with practically dictatorial powers. The country was flooded
with spies, and a special Russian police force was created, the expenses
being charged to the Finnish treasury. The Russian system was now in
full swing; domiciliary visits, illegal arrests and banishments, and the
suppression of newspapers, were the order of the day. To all this the
people of Finland opposed a dogged and determined resistance, which
culminated in November 1905 in a "national strike." The strike was
universal, all classes joining in the movement, and it spread to all the
industrial centres and even to the rural districts. The railway,
steamship, telephone and postal services were practically suspended.
Helsingfors was without tramcars, cabs, gas and electricity; no shops
except provision shops were open; public departments, schools and
restaurants were closed. After six days the unconstitutional
government--already much shaken by events in Russia and
Manchuria--capitulated. In an imperial manifesto dated the 7th of
November 1905 the demands of Finland were granted, and the _status quo
ante_ 1899 was restored.
But the reform did not rest here. The old Finnish constitution, although
precious to those whose only protection it was, was an antiquated and
not very efficient instrument of government. Popular feeling had been
excited by the political conflict, advanced tendencies had declared
themselves, and when the new diet met it proceeded as explained above to
remodel the constitution, on the basis of universal suffrage, with
freedom of the press, speech, meeting and association.
In 1908-10 friction with Russia was again renewed. The Imperial
government insisted that the decision in all Finnish questions affecting
the Empire must rest with them; and a renewed attempt was made to
curtail the powers of the Finnish Diet.
_Ethnology._--The term Finn has a wider application than Finland, being,
with its adjective Finnic or Finno-Ugric (q.v.) or Ugro-Finnic, the
collective name of the westernmost branch of the Ural-Altaic family,
dispersed throughout Finland, Lapland, the Baltic provinces (Esthonia,
Livonia, Curland), parts of Russia proper (south of Lake Onega), both
banks of middle Volga, Perm, Vologda, West Siberia (between the Ural
Mountains and the Yenissei) and Hungary.
Originally nomads (hunters and fishers), all the Finnic people except
the Lapps and Ostyaks have long yielded to the influence of
civilization, and now everywhere lead settled lives as herdsmen,
agriculturists, traders, &c. Physically the Finns (here to be
distinguished from the Swedish-speaking population, who retain their
Scandinavian qualities) are a strong, hardy race, of low stature, with
almost round head, low forehead, flat features, prominent cheek bones,
eyes mostly grey and oblique (inclining inwards), short and flat nose,
protruding mouth, thick lips, neck very full and strong, so that the
occiput seems flat and almost in a straight line with the nape; beard
weak and sparse, hair no doubt originally black, but, owing to mixture
with other races, now brown, red and even fair; complexion also somewhat
brown. The Finns are morally upright, hospitable, faithful and
submissive, with a keen sense of personal freedom and independence, but
also somewhat stolid, revengeful and indolent. Many of these physical
and moral characteristics they have in common with the so-called
"Mongolian" race, to which they are no doubt ethnically, if not also
linguistically, related.
Considerable researches have been accomplished since about 1850 in the
ethnology and archaeology of Finland, on a scale which has no parallel
in any other country. The study of the prehistoric population of
Finland--Neolithic (no Palaeolithic finds have yet been made)--of the
Age of Bronze and the Iron Age has been carried on with great zeal. At
the same time the folklore, Finnish and partly Swedish, has been worked
out with wonderful completeness (see _L'Oeuvre demi-séculaire de la
Société de Littérature finnoise et le mouvement national finnois_, by Dr
E.G. Palmén, Helsingfors, 1882, and K. Krohn's report to the London
Folklore Congress of 1891). The work that was begun by Porthan, Z.
Topelius, and especially E. Lönnrot (1802-1884), for collecting the
popular poetry of the Finns, was continued by Castrén (1813-1852),
Europaeus (1820-1884), and V. Porkka (1854-1889), who extended their
researches to the Finns settled in other parts of the Russian empire,
and collected a considerable number of variants of the _Kalewala_ and
other popular poetry and songs. In order to study the different eastern
kinsfolk of the Finns, Sjögren (1792-1855) extended his journeys to
North Russia, and Castrén to West and East Siberia (_Nordische Reisen
und Forschungen_), and collected the materials which permitted himself
and Schiefner to publish grammatical works relative to the Finnish,
Lappish, Zyrian, Tcheremiss, Ostiak, Samoyede, Tungus, Buryat, Karagas,
Yenisei-Ostiak and Kott languages. Ahlqvist (1826-1889), and a phalanx
of linguists, continued their work among the Vogules, the Mordves and
the Obi-Ugrians. And finally, the researches of Aspelin (_Foundations of
Finno-Ugrian Archaeology_, in Finnish, and _Atlas of Antiquities_) led
the Finnish ethnologists to direct more and more their attention to the
basin of the Yenisei and the Upper Selenga. A series of expeditions (of
Aspelin, Snellman and Heikel) were consequently directed to those
regions, especially since the discovery by Yadrintseff of the remarkable
Orkhon inscriptions (see TURKS, p. 473), which finally enabled the
Danish linguist, V. Thomsen, to decipher these inscriptions, and to
discover that they belonged to the Turkish Iron Age. (See _Inscriptions
de l'Iénissei recueillies et publiées par la Société Finl.
d'Archéologie_, 1889, and _Inscriptions de l'Orkhon_, 1892.)
AUTHORITIES.--The general history of Finland is fully treated by Yrjö
Koskinen (1869-1873) and M.G. Schybergson (1887-1889). Both works have
been translated into German. The constitutional conflict gave rise to
a host of books and pamphlets in various languages. Mechelin,
Danielson and Hermanson were the leading writers on the Finnish side,
and M. Ordin on the Russian. Most of the political documents have been
published and translated. A finely illustrated book, _Finland in the
Nineteenth Century_, by various Finnish writers, gives an excellent
account of the country; also Reuter's _Finlandia_, a very complete
work with an exhaustive bibliography. The constitutional question was
fully discussed in English in _Finland and the Tsars_, by J.R. Fisher
(2nd ed., 1900). _The Atlas de Finlande_, published in 1899 by the
Geographical Society of Finland, is a remarkably well executed and
complete work. _The Statistical Annual for Finland--Statistisk Arsbok
för Finland_--published annually by the Central Statistical Bureau in
Helsingfors, gives the necessary figures.
(P. A. K.; J. S. K.; J. R. F.*)
_Finnish Literature._
The earliest writer in the Finnish vernacular was Michael Agricola
(1506-1557), who published an _A B C Book_ in 1544, and, as bishop of
Åbo, a number of religious and educational works. A version of the New
Testament in Finnish was printed by Agricola in 1548, and some books of
the Old Testament in 1552. A complete Finnish Bible was published at
Stockholm in 1642. The dominion of the Swedes was very unfavourable to
the development of anything like a Finnish literature, the poets of
Finland preferring to write in Swedish and so secure a wider audience.
It was not until, in 1835, the national epos of Finland, the _Kalewala_
(q.v.), was introduced to readers by the exertions of Elias Lönnrot
(q.v.), that the Finnish language was used for literary composition.
Lönnrot also collected and edited the works of the peasant-poets P.
Korhonen (1775-1840) and Pentti Lyytinen, with an anthology containing
the improvisations of eighteen other rustic bards. During the last
quarter of the 19th century there was an ever-increasing literary
activity in Finland, and it took the form less and less of the
publication of Swedish works, but more and more that of examples of the
aboriginal vernacular. At the present time, in spite of the political
troubles, books in almost every branch of research are found in the
language, mainly translations or adaptations. We meet with, during the
present century, a considerable number of names of poets and dramatists,
no doubt very minor, as also painters, sculptors and musical composers.
At the Paris International Exhibition of 1878 several native Finnish
painters and sculptors exhibited works which would do credit to any
country; and both in the fine and applied arts Finland occupied a
position thoroughly creditable. An important contribution to a history
of Finnish literature is Krohn's _Suomenkielinen runollisuns
ruotsinvallan aikana_ (1862). Finland is wonderfully rich in periodicals
of all kinds, the publications of the Finnish Societies of Literature
and of Sciences and other learned bodies being specially valuable. A
great work in the revival of an interest in the Finnish language was
done by the _Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura_ (the Finnish Literary
Society), which from the year 1841 has published a valuable annual,
_Suomi_. The Finnish Literary Society has also published a new edition
of the works of the father of Finnish history, Henry Gabriel Porthan
(died 1804). A valuable handbook of Finnish history was published at
Helsingfors in 1869-1873, by Yrjö Koskinen, and has been translated into
both Swedish and German. The author was a Swede, Georg Forsman, the
above form being a Finnish translation. Other works on Finnish history
and some important works in Finnish geography have also appeared. In
language we have Lönnrot's great Finnish-Swedish dictionary, published
by the Finnish Literary Society. Dr Otto Donner's _Comparative
Dictionary of the Finno-Ugric Languages_ (Helsingfors and Leipzig) is in
German. In imaginative literature Finland has produced several important
writers of the vernacular. Alexis Stenwall ("Kiwi") (1834-1872), the son
of a village tailor, was the best poet of his time; he wrote popular
dramas and an historical romance, _The Seven Brothers_ (1870). Among
recent playwrights Mrs Minna Canth (1844-1897) has been the most
successful. Other dramatists are E.F. Johnsson (1844-1895), P. Cajander
(b. 1846), who translated Shakespeare into Finnish, and Karl Bergbom (b.
1843). Among lyric poets are J.H. Erkko (b. 1849), Arwi Jännes (b. 1848)
and Yrjö Weijola (b. 1875). The earliest novelist of Finland, Pietari
Päivärinta (b. 1827), was the son of a labourer; he is the author of a
grimly realistic story, _His Life_. Many of the popular Finnish authors
of our day are peasants. Kauppis Heikki was a wagoner; Alkio Filander a
farmer; Heikki Maviläinen a smith; Juhana Kokko (Kyösti) a gamekeeper.
The most gifted of the writers of Finland, however, is certainly Juhani
Aho (b. 1861), the son of a country clergyman. His earliest writings
were studies of modern life, very realistically treated. Aho then went
to reside in France, where he made a close study of the methods of the
leading French novelists of the newer school. About the year 1893 he
began to publish short stories, some of which, such as _Enris_, _The
Fortress of Matthias_, _The Old Man of Korpela_ and _Finland's Flag_,
are delicate works of art, while they reveal to a very interesting
degree the temper and ambitions of the contemporary Finnish population.
It has been well said that in the writings of Juhani Aho can be traced
all the idiosyncrasies which have formed the curious and pathetic
history of Finland in recent years. A village priest, Juho Reijonen (b.
1857), in tales of somewhat artless form, has depicted the hardships
which poverty too often entails upon the Finn in his country life.
Tolstoy has found an imitator in Arwid Järnefelt (b. 1861). Santeri
Ingman (b. 1866) somewhat naïvely, but not without skill, has followed
in the steps of Aho. It would be an error to exaggerate either the force
or the originality of these early developments of a national Finnish
literature, which, moreover, are mostly brief and unambitious in
character. But they are eminently sincere, and they have the great merit
of illustrating the local aspects of landscape and temperament and
manners.
AUTHORITIES.--E.G. Palmén, _L'Oeuvre demi-séculaire de la Suomalaisen
Kirjallisuuden Seura_, 1831-81 (Helsingfors, 1882); J. Krohn,
_Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden waiheet_ (Helsingfors, 1897); F.W.
Pipping, _Förteckning öfver böcker på finska språket_ (Helsingfors,
1856-1857); E. Brausewetter, _Finland im Bilde seiner Dichtung und
seiner Dichter_ (Berlin, 1899); C.J. Billson, _Popular Poetry of the
Finns_ (London, 1900); V. Vasenius, _Öfversigt af Finlands
Litteraturhistoria för skolor_ (Helsingfors, 1893). For writers using
the Swedish language, see SWEDEN: _Literature_. (E. G.)
FOOTNOTE:
[1] The Finnish mark, _markka_, of 100 _penni_, equals about 9½ d.
FINLAY, GEORGE (1799-1875), British historian, was born of Scottish
parents at Faversham, Kent, on the 21st of December 1799. He studied for
the law in Glasgow, and about 1821 went to Göttingen. He had already
begun to feel a deep interest in the Greek struggle for independence,
and in 1823 he resolved to visit the country. In November he arrived in
Cephalonia, where he was kindly received by Lord Byron. Shortly
afterwards he landed at Pyrgos, and during the next fourteen months he
improved his knowledge of the language, history and antiquities of the
country. Though he formed an unfavourable opinion of the Greek leaders,
both civil and military, he by no means lost his enthusiasm for their
cause. A severe attack of fever, however, combined with other
circumstances, induced him to spend the winter of 1824-1825 and the
spring of 1825 in Rome, Naples and Sicily. He then returned to Scotland,
and, after spending a summer at Castle Toward, Argyllshire, went to
Edinburgh, where he passed his examination in civil law at the
university, with a view to being called to the Scottish bar. His
enthusiasm, however, carried him back to Greece, where he resided almost
uninterruptedly till his death. He took part in the unsuccessful
operations of Lord Cochrane and Sir Richard Church for the relief of
Athens in 1827. When independence had been secured in 1829 he bought a
landed estate in Attica, but all his efforts for the introduction of a
better system of agriculture ended in failure, and he devoted himself to
the literary work which occupied the rest of his life. His first
publications were _The Hellenic Kingdom and the Greek Nation_ (1836);
_Essai sur les principes de banque appliqués à l'état actuel de la
Grèce_ (Athens, 1836); and _Remarks on the Topography of Oropia and
Diacria, with a map_ (Athens, 1838). The first instalment of his great
historical work appeared in 1844 (2nd ed., 1857) under the title _Greece
under the Romans; a Historical View of the Condition of the Greek Nation
from the time of its Conquest by the Romans until the Extinction of the
Roman Empire in the East_. Meanwhile he had been qualifying himself
still further by travel as well as by reading; he undertook several
tours to various quarters of the Levant; and as the result of one of
them he published a volume _On the Site of the Holy Sepulchre; with a
plan of Jerusalem_ (1847). _The History of the Byzantine and Greek
Empires from 716-1453_ was completed in 1854. It was speedily followed
by the _History of Greece under the Ottoman and Venetian Domination_
(1856), and by the _History of the Greek Revolution_ (1861). In weak
health, and conscious of failing energy, he spent his last years in
revising his history. From 1864 to 1870 he was also correspondent of
_The Times_ newspaper, his letters to which attracted considerable
attention, and, appearing in the Greek newspapers, exercised a distinct
influence on Greek politics. He was a member of several learned
societies; and in 1854 he received from the university of Edinburgh the
honorary degree of LL.D. He died at Athens on the 26th of January 1875.
A new edition of his _History_, edited by the Rev. H.F. Tozer, was
issued by the Oxford Clarendon press in 1877. It includes a brief but
extremely interesting fragment of an autobiography of the author, almost
the only authority for his life.
As an historian, Finlay had the merit of entering upon a field of
research that had been neglected by English writers, Gibbon alone being
a partial exception. As a student, he was laborious; as a scholar he was
accurate; as a thinker, he was both acute and profound; and in all that
he wrote he was unswerving in his loyalty to the principles of
constitutional government and to the cause of liberty and justice.
FINN MAC COOL (in Irish FIND MAC CUMAILL), the central figure of the
later heroic cycle of Ireland, commonly called Ossianic or Fenian. In
Scotland Find usually goes by the name of Fingal. This appears to be due
to a misunderstanding of the title assumed by the Lord of the Isles, Rí
Fionnghall, i.e. king of the Norse. Find's father, Cumall mac Trénmóir,
was uncle to Conn Cétchathach, High King of Ireland, who died in A.D.
157. Cumall carried off Murna Munchaem, the daughter of a Druid named
Tadg mac Nuadat, and this led to the battle of Cnucha, in which Cumall
was slain by Goll mac Morna (A.D. 174). Find was born after his father's
death and was at first called Demni. He is leader of the _fiann_ or
_féinne_ (English "Fenians"), a kind of militia or standing army which
was drawn from all quarters of Ireland. His father had held the same
office before him, but after his death it passed to his enemy Goll mac
Morna, who retained it until Find came to man's estate. Find usually
resided at Almu (Allen) in Co. Kildare, where he was surrounded by some
of the contingents of the fiann, the rest being scattered throughout
Ireland to ward off enemies, particularly those coming from over the
sea. In times of invasion Find collected his forces, overcame the foe,
and pursued him to Scotland or Lochlann (Scandinavia) as the case might
be. When not engaged in war the fiann gave themselves up to the chase or
love-adventures. We are informed in great detail as to the conditions of
admission to this privileged band, which were at once singular and
exacting. The foremost heroes in Find's train were his son Ossian, his
grandson Oscar, Cailte mac Ronain, and Diarmait O'Duibne, whose
elopement with Find's destined bride Grainne, daughter of the High-King
Cormac mac Airt (A.D. 227-266), forms the subject of a celebrated story.
These, like Find, were all of the Ua Baisgne branch, with which was
allied the Ua Morna, with whom they were generally at variance. The
latter hailed from Connaught, chief among them being Goll and Conan. By
the annalists Find is represented as having met with death by treachery
either in 252 or 283. Under Coirpre Lifeochair, successor to Cormac mac
Airt, the power of the fiann became intolerable. The monarch accordingly
took up arms against them and utterly crushed them at the battle of
Gabra (A.D. 283). Very few survived the defeat, but the story makes
Ossian and Cailte live on until after the arrival of St Patrick in 432.
It is incredible that such a band as the fiann should have existed in
the 2nd and 3rd centuries. A number of sagas older in date than the
Ossianic stories have been preserved, which deal with events happening
in the reigns of Art son of Conn (166-196), Lugaid mac Con (196-227),
and Cormac mac Airt (227-266), but none of these in their oldest shape
contain any allusion whatsoever to Find and his warriors. In the history
of the Boroma, contained in the book of Leinster, Find is merely a
Leinster chieftain who assists Bressal the king of Leinster against
Coirpre Lifeochair. It can be shown that Find was originally a figure in
Leinster-Munster tradition previous to the Viking age, but we have no
documentary evidence concerning him at this time. He seems primarily to
have been regarded as a poet and magician. Later he appears to have been
transformed into a petty chief, and Zimmer even tried to show that his
personality was developed in Leinster and Munster local tradition out of
stories clustering round the figure of the Viking leader Ketill Hviti
(Caittil Find), who was slain in 857. By the year 1000 Find was
certainly connected in the minds of the people with the reign of Cormac
mac Airt, but the process is obscure. Recently John MacNeill has pointed
out that in the oldest genealogies Find is always connected with the Ui
Tairrsigh of Failge (Offaley, a district comprising the present county
of Kildare and parts of King's and Queen's counties). The Ui Tairrsigh
were undoubtedly of Firbolg origin, and MacNeill would account in this
manner for the slow acceptance of the stories by the conquering
Milesians. Whilst the Ulster epic was fashionable at court, the subject
races clung to the Fenian cycle. For the last 800 years Find has been
the national hero of the Gaelic-speaking populations of Ireland, the
Scottish Highlands and the Isle of Man. See also CELT (subsection _Irish
Literature_).
AUTHORITIES.--A. Nutt, _Ossian and the Ossianic Literature_ (London,
1899); H. Zimmer, "Keltische Beiträge iii.," _Zeitschrift für
deutsches Altertum_ (1891), vol. xxxv. pp. 1-172; L.C. Stern, "Die
Ossianischen Heldenlieder," _Zeitschrift für vergleichende
Litteraturgeschichte_ (1895; trans, by J.L. Robertson in _Transactions
of the Gaelic Society of Inverness_, 1897-1898, vol. xxii. pp.
257-325); J. MacNeill, _Duanaire Finn_ (London, 1908). (E. C. Q.)
FINNO-UGRIAN, or Finno-Ugric, the designation of a division of the
Ural-Altaic family of languages and their speakers. The first part is
the name given by their neighbours, though not used by themselves, to
the inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic. It is probably the
same word as the Fenni of Tacitus and [Greek: Phinnoi] of Ptolemy,
though it is not certain that those races were Finns in the modern
sense. It possibly means people of the fens or marshes, and corresponds
to the native word _Suomi_, which appears to be derived from _suo_, a
marsh. Finn and Finnish are used not only of the inhabitants of Finland
but also in a more extended sense of similar tribes found in Russia and
sometimes called Baltic Finns and Volga Finns. In this sense the
Esthonian tribes (Baltic), the Laps, the Cheremis and Mordvins (Volga),
and the Permian tribes are all Finns. The name is not, however, extended
to the Ostiaks, Voguls and Magyars, who, though allied, form a separate
subdivision called Ugrian, a name derived from Yura or Ugra, the country
on either side of the Ural Mountains, and first used by Castrén in a
scientific sense.
The name Finno-Ugric is primarily linguistic and must not be pressed as
indicating a community of physical features and customs. But making
allowance for the change of language by some tribes, the Finno-Ugrians
form, with the striking exception of the Hungarians, a moderately
homogeneous whole. They are nomads, but, unlike the Turks, Mongols and
Manchus, have hardly ever shown themselves warlike and have no power of
political organization. Those of them who have not come under European
influence live under the simplest form of patriarchal government, and
states, kings or even great chiefs are almost unknown among them.
Their headquarters are in Russia. From the Baltic to south Siberia
extends a vast plain broken only by the Urals. Large parts of it are
still wooded, and the proportion of forest land and marsh was no doubt
much greater formerly. The Finno-Ugric tribes seem to shun the open
steppes but are widely spread in the wooded country, especially on the
banks of lakes and rivers. Their want of political influence renders
them obscure, but they form a considerable element in the population of
the northern, middle and eastern provinces of Russia, but are not found
much to the south of Moscow (except in the east) or in the west (except
in the Baltic provinces). The difference of temperament between the
Great Russians and the purer Slavs such as the Little Russians is partly
due to an infusion of Finnish blood.
Physically the Finno-Ugric races are as a rule solidly built and, though
there is considerable variation in height and the cephalic index, are
mostly of small or medium stature, somewhat squat, and brachy- or
mesocephalic. As a rule the skin is greyish or olive coloured, the eyes
grey or blue, the hair light, the beard scanty. Most of them seem
deficient in energy and liveliness, both mental and physical; they are
slow, heavy, conservative, somewhat suspicious and vindictive, inclined
to be taciturn and melancholy. On the other hand they are patient,
persevering, industrious, faithful and honest. When their natural
mistrust of strangers is overcome they are kindly and hospitable.
I. _Tribes and Nations._--The Ugrian subdivision, which seems to be in
many respects the more primitive, consists of three peoples standing on
very different levels of civilization, the Ostiaks and Voguls and the
Hungarians.
Ostiaks.
Voguls.
The _Ostiaks_ (Ostyaks or Ostjaks) are a tribe of nomadic fishermen and
hunters inhabiting at present the government of Tobolsk and the banks of
the Obi. They formerly extended into the government of Perm on the
European side of the Ural Mountains. The so-called Ostiaks of the
Yenisei appear to be a different race and not to belong to the
Finno-Ugrian group. The Ostiaks are still partially pagan and worship
the River Obi. Allied to them are the _Voguls_, a similar nomadic tribe
found on both sides of the Urals, and formerly extending at least as far
as the government of Vologda. The languages of the Ostiaks and Voguls
are allied, though not mere dialects of one another, and form a small
group separated from the languages of the Finns both Western and
Eastern. For further details of these and other tribes see under the
separate headings.
Magyars or Hungarians.
According to the legend, Nimrod had two sons, Hunyor and Magyor. They
married daughters of the prince of the Alans and became the ancestors of
the two kindred nations, Huns and Magyars or Hungarians. This story
corresponds with what can be ascertained scientifically about the origin
of these peoples. It is probable that the Huns and Magyars were allied
tribes of mixed descent comprising both Turkish and Finno-Ugrian
elements. The language is indisputably Finno-Ugrian, but the name
Hungarian seems to lead back to the form Un-ugur, and to suggest Turkish
connexions which are confirmed by the warlike habits of the Huns and
Magyars. The same name possibly occurs in the form Hiung-nu as far east
as the frontiers of China, but recent authorities are of opinion that
the tribes from whom the present Hungarians are descended were formed
originally in the Terek-Kuban country to the north of the Caucasus,
where a mixture of Turkish and Ugrian blood took place, a Ugrian
language but Turkish mode of life predominating. They were also
influenced by Iranians and the various tribes of the Caucasus. Both Huns
and Magyars moved westwards, but the Huns invaded Europe in the 5th
century and made no permanent settlement in spite of the devastation
they caused, whereas the Magyars remained for some centuries near the
banks of the Don. According to tradition they were compelled to leave a
country called Lebedia under the pressure of nomadic tribes, and moved
westward under the leadership of seven dukes. They conquered Hungary in
the years 884-895, and the first king of their new dominions was called
Árpád. For the chequered and often tragic history of the country see
HUNGARY. The Magyars were converted to Christianity in the 11th century
and adhered to the Roman not the Eastern Church. They have in all
probability entirely lost their ancient physique, but have retained
their language, and traces of their older life may be seen in their
fondness for horses and flocks.
Permians and Syryenians.
The following are the principal Finnish peoples. The _Permians_ and
_Syryenians_ may be treated as one tribe. The latter name is very
variously spelt as Syrjenian, Sirianian, Zyrjenian, Zirian, &c. They
both call themselves Komi and speak a mutually intelligible language,
allied to Votiak. The name Bjarmisch is sometimes applied to this
sub-group. Both Permians and Syryenians are found chiefly in the
governments of Perm, Vologda and Archangel, but there are a few
Syryenians on the Siberian side of the Urals. The Syryenian headquarters
are at the town of Ishma on the Pechora, whereas the name Permian is
more correctly restricted to the inhabitants of the right bank of the
upper Kama. Both probably extended much farther to the west in former
times. The Syryenians are said to be more intelligent and active than
most Finnish tribes and to make considerable journeys for trading
purposes. They are possibly a mixed race.
Votiaks.
The _Votiaks_ are a tribe of about a quarter of a million persons
dwelling chiefly in the south-eastern part of the government of Viatka.
Their language indicates that they have borrowed a good deal from the
Tatars and Chuvashes, and they seem to have little individuality, being
described as weak both mentally and physically. They call themselves
Ud-murt or Urt-murt. About the 16th century some of them migrated,
doubtless under the pressure of Russian advance, into the government of
Ufa and, the country being more fertile, are said to have improved in
physique.
Cheremissians.
The _Cheremissians_, or Tcheremissians or Cheremis, who call themselves
Mari, inhabit the banks of the Volga, chiefly in the neighbourhood of
Kazan. Those inhabiting the right bank of the Volga are physically
stronger and are known as Hill Cheremiss. The evidence of place names
makes it probable that their present position is the result of their
being driven northwards by the Mordvins and then southwards by the
Russians. There is some discrepancy between their language and their
physical characteristics. The former shows affinities to both Mordvinian
and the Permian group, but their crania are said to be mainly
dolichocephalic, and it has been suggested that they are connected with
the neolithic dolichocephalic population of Lake Ladoga. They are gentle
and honest, but neither active nor intelligent.
Mordvinians.
The _Mordvinians_, also called Mordvá, Mordvins and Mordvs, are
scattered over the provinces near the middle Volga, especially Nizhniy
Novgorod, Kazan, Penza, Tambov, Simbirsk, Ufa and even Orenburg. Though
not continuous, their settlements are considerable both in extent and
population. They are the most important of the Eastern Finns, and their
traditions speak of a capital and of a king who fought with the Tatars.
They are mentioned as Mordens as early as the 6th century, but do not
now use the name, calling themselves after one of their two divisions,
Moksha or Erza. Their country is still covered with forest to a large
extent. Their language is on the one side allied to Cheremissian. On the
other it shows a nearer approach to Finnish (Suomi) than the other
Eastern languages of the family, but it has also constructions peculiar
to itself.
Lapps.
The _Lapps_ are found in Norway, Sweden and Finland. They call
themselves Sabme, but are called Finns by the Norwegians. They are the
shortest and most brachycephalic race in Europe. The majority are nomads
who live by pasturing reindeer, and are known as Mountain Lapps, but
others have become more or less settled and live by hunting or fishing.
From ancient times the Lapps have had a great reputation among the Finns
and other neighbouring nations for skill in sorcery.
Esthonians.
The _Esthonians_ are the peasantry of the Russian province Esthonia and
the neighbouring districts. They were serfs until 1817 when they were
liberated, but their condition remained unsatisfactory and led to a
serious rebellion in 1859. They are practically a branch of the Finns,
and are hardly separable from the other Finnish tribes inhabiting the
Baltic provinces. The name Est or Ehst, by which they are known to
foreigners, appears to be the same as the Aestii of Tacitus, and to have
properly belonged to quite a different tribe. They call themselves Ma
mes, or country people, and their land Rahwama or Wiroma (cf. Finnish,
Virolaiset, Esthonians.) Though not superior to other tribes in general
intelligence, they have become more civilized owing to their more
intimate connexion with the Russian and German population around them.
Livonians.
_Livs_, _Livlanders_ or _Livonians_ is the name given to the old
Finnish-speaking population of west Livland or Livonia and north
Kurland. We hear of them as a warlike and predatory pagan tribe in the
middle ages, and it is possible that they were a mixed Letto-Finnish
race from the beginning. In modern times they have become almost
completely absorbed by Letts, and their language is only spoken in a few
places on the coast of Kurland. It has indeed been disputed if it still
exists. It is known as Livish or Livonian and is allied to Esthonian.
Votes.
The _Votes_ (not to be confounded with the Votiaks), also called
southern Chudes and Vatjalaiset, apparently represent the original
inhabitants of Ingria, the district round St Petersburg, but have
decreased before the advance of the Russians and also of Karelians from
the north. They are heard of in the 11th century, but now occupy only
about thirty parishes in north-west Ingria.
Vepsas.
The _Vepsas_ or _Vepses_, also called Northern Chudes, are another tribe
allied to the Esthonians, but are more numerous than the Votes. They are
found in the district of Tikhvinsk and other parts of the government of
Old Novgorod, and apparently extended farther east into the government
of Vologda in former times. Linguistically both the Votes and Vepsas are
closely related to the Esthonians.
Finns.
The _Finns_ proper or Suomi, as they call themselves, are the most
important and civilized division of the group. They inhabit at present
the grand duchy of Finland and the adjacent governments, especially
Olonetz, Tver and St Petersburg. Formerly a tribe of them called
Kainulaiset was also found in Sweden, whence the Swedes call the Finns
Qven. At present there are two principal subdivisions of Finns, the
Tavastlanders or Hämäläiset, who occupy the southern and western parts
of the grand duchy, and the Karelians or Karjalaiset found in the east
and north, as far as Lake Onega and towards the White Sea.
The former, and generally speaking, all the inhabitants of the grand
duchy have undergone a strong Swedish influence. There is a considerable
admixture of Swedish blood; the language is full of Swedish words;
Christianity is universal; and the upper classes and townspeople are
mainly Swedish in their habits and speech, though of late a persistent
attempt has been made to Russify the country. The Finns have much the
same mental and moral characteristics as the other allied tribes, but
have reached a far higher intellectual and literary stage. Several
collections of their popular and mythological poetry have been made, the
most celebrated of which is the _Kalewala_, compiled by Lönnrot about
1835, and there is a copious modern literature. The study of the
national languages and antiquities is prosecuted in Helsingfors and
other towns with much energy: several learned societies have been formed
and considerable results published, partly in Finnish. It is clear that
this scientific activity, though animated by a patriotic Finnish spirit,
owes much to Swedish training in the past. Besides the literary language
there are several dialects, the most important of which is that of
Savolaks.
Karelians.
The _Karelians_ are not usually regarded as separate from the Finns,
though they are a distinct tribe as much as the Vepsas and Votes. Living
farther east they have come less under Swedish and more under Russian
influence than the inhabitants of West Finland; but, since many of the
districts which they inhabit are out of the way and neglected, this
influence has not been strong, so that they have adopted less of
European civilization, and in places preserved their own customs more
than the Westerners. They are of a slighter and better proportioned
build than the Finns, more enterprising, lively and friendly, but less
persevering and tenacious. They number about 260,000, of whom about
63,000 live in Olonetz and 195,000 in Tver and Novgorod, but in the
southern districts are less distinguished from the Russian population.
They belong to the Russian Church, whereas the Finns of the grand duchy
are Protestants. There also appear to be authentic traces of a Karelian
population in Kaluga, Yaroslavl, Vladimir, Vologda and Tambov. It was
among them that the _Kalewala_ was collected, chiefly in East Finland
and Olonetz.
Samoyedes.
There is some difference of opinion as to whether the _Samoyedes_ should
be included among the Finno-Ugrian tribes or be given the rank of a
separate division equivalent to Finno-Ugrian and Turkish. The linguistic
question is discussed below. The Samoyedes are a nomad tribe who wander
with their reindeer over the treeless plains which border on the White
and Kara seas on either side of the Urals. In culture and habits they
resemble the Finno-Ugrian tribes, and there seems to be no adequate
reason for separating them.
Other inclusions.
Various other peoples have been referred to the Finno-Ugrian group, but
some doubt must remain as to the propriety of the classification, either
because they are now extinct, or because they are suspected of having
changed their language.
The original Bulgarians, who had their home on the Volga before they
invaded the country which now bears their name, were probably a tribe
similar to the Magyars, though all record of their language is lost. It
has been disputed whether the Khazars, who in the middle ages occupied
parts of south Russia and the shores of the Caspian, were Finno-Ugrians
or Turks, and there is the same doubt about the Avars and Pechenegs,
which without linguistic evidence remains insoluble. Nor is the
difference ethnographically important. The formation of hordes of
warlike bodies, half tribes, half armies, composed of different races,
was a characteristic of Central Asia, and it was probably often a matter
of chance what language was adopted as the common speech.
At the present day the Bashkirs, Meshchers and Tepters, who speak Tatar
languages, are thought to be Finnish in origin, as are also the
Chuvashes, whose language is Tatar strongly modified by Finnish
influence. The little known Soyots of the head-waters of the Yenisei are
also said to be Finno-Ugrians.
The name Chude appears to be properly applied to the Vepsas and Votes
but is extended by popular usage in Russia to all Finno-Ugrian tribes,
and to all extinct tribes of whatever race who have left tombs,
monuments or relics of mining operations in European Russia or Siberia.
Some Russian archaeologists use it specifically of the Permian group.
But its extension is so vague that it is better to discard it as a
scientific term.
II. _Languages._--The Finno-Ugric languages are generally considered as
a division of the Ural-Altaic group, which consists of four families:
Turkish, Mongol, Manchu and Finno-Ugric, including Samoyede unless it is
reckoned separately as a fifth. The chief character of the group is that
agglutination, or the addition of suffixes, is the only method of
word-formation, prefixes and significant change of vowels being unknown,
as is also gender. This suggests an affinity with many other languages,
such as the ancient Accadian or Sumerian, and Japanese. A connexion
between the Finno-Ugric and Dravidian languages has also been suggested.
On the other hand, the more highly developed agglutinative languages,
such as Finnish, approach the inflected Aryan type, so that the Aryan
languages may have been developed from an ancestor not unlike the
Ural-Altaic group.
The Finno-Ugrian languages are distinguished from the other divisions of
the Ural-Altaic group both in grammar and vocabulary. Compared with
Mongol and Manchu they have a much greater wealth of forms, both in
declension and conjugation; the suffixes form one word with the root and
are not wholly or partially detachable postpositions; the pronominal
element is freely represented in the suffixes added to both verbs and
nouns. These features are also found in the Turkish languages, but
Finno-Ugrian has a much greater variety of cases denoting position or
motion, and the union of the case termination with the noun is more
complete; in some languages the object can be incorporated in the verb,
which does not occur in Turkish, but the negative is rarely
(Cheremissian) thus incorporated after the Turkish fashion (e.g.
_yazmak_, "to write"; _yazmamak_, "not to write"), and in some languages
takes pronominal suffixes (Finnish _en tule_, _et tule_, _eivät tule_,
"I, you, they do not come"). Vowel-harmony is completely observed in
Finnish and Magyar, but in the other languages is imperfectly developed,
or has been lost under Russian influence. Relative pronouns and
particles exist and are fully developed in some languages. The tendency
to form compounds, which is not characteristic of Turkish, is very
marked in Finnish and Hungarian, and is said also to be found in
Samoyede, Cheremissian and Syryenian. The original order in the sentence
seems to be that the governing word follows the word governed, but there
are many exceptions to this, particularly in Hungarian where the
arrangement is very free.
In vocabulary the pronouns agree fairly well with those of Turkish,
Mongol and Manchu, but there is little resemblance between the numbers.
Many of the languages contain numerous Tatar and Turkish loan-words, but
with this exception the resemblance of vocabulary is not striking and
indicates an ancient separation. But the similarity in the process of
word-building and of the elements used, even if they have not the same
sense, as well as analogies in the general construction of sentences and
in some details (e.g. the use of the infinitive or verbal substantive),
seem to justify the hypothesis of an original relationship with the
Turkish languages, which in their turn have connexions with the other
groups.
Samoyede is classed by some as a separate group and by some among the
Finno-Ugrian languages, but it at any rate displays a far closer
resemblance to them in both grammar and vocabulary than do any of the
Turkish languages. The numerals are different, but the personal and
interrogative pronouns and many common words (e.g. _joha_, "river,"
Finn. _joki_; _sava_, "good," Finn, _hywä_; _kole_, "fish," Finn,
_kala_) show a considerable resemblance. The inflection of nouns is
very like that found in Finno-Ugrian but that of the verb differs, verb
and noun being imperfectly differentiated. In detail, however, the
verbal suffixes show analogies to those of Finno-Ugrian. Vowel-harmony
and weakening of consonants occur as in Finnish.
Excluding Samoyede, the Finno-Ugrian languages may be divided into two
sections: (1) Ugrian, comprising Ostiak, Vogul and Magyar; and (2)
Finnish. The Permian languages (Syryenian, Permian and Votiak) form a
distinct group within this latter section, and the remainder may be
divided into the Volga group (Cheremissian and Mordvinian) and the West
Finnish (Lappish, Esthonian and Finnish proper).
The Ugrian languages appear to have separated from the Finnish branch
before the systems of declension or conjugation were developed. Their
case suffixes seem to be later formations, though we find, _t_, _tl_ or
_k_ for the plural and traces of _l_ as a local suffix. Ostiak and
Vogul, like Samoyede, have a dual. Moods and tenses are less numerous
but the number of verbal forms is increased by those in which the
pronominal object is incorporated. Hungarian has naturally advanced
enormously beyond the stage reached by Ostiak and Vogul, and shows marks
of strong European influence, but also retains primitive features.
Vowel-harmony is observed (_várok_, "I await," but _verek_, "I strike").
The verb has two sets of terminations, according as it is transitive or
intransitive, and the pronominal object is sometimes incorporated. Alone
among Finno-Ugrian languages it has developed an article, and the
adjective is inflected when used as a predicate though not as an
attribute (_Jó emberek_, "good men," but _Az emberek jók_, "the men are
good"). There is great freedom in the order of words and, as in Finnish,
a tendency to form long compounds.
The Finnish languages are not divided from the Ugrian by any striking
differences, but show greater resemblances to one another in details.
None of them have a dual and only Mordvinian an objective conjugation.
The case system is elaborate and generally comprises twelve or fifteen
forms. The negative conjugation is peculiar; there are negative
adjectives ending in _tem_ or _tom_ and abessive cases (e.g. Finnish
_syyttä_, without a cause, _tiedotta_, without knowledge).
Permian, Syryenian and Votiak exhibit this common development less fully
than the more western languages. They are less completely inflected than
the Finnish languages and more thoroughly agglutinative in the strict
sense. In vocabulary, e.g. the numerals, they show resemblances to the
Ugrian division. Syryenian has older literary remains than any
Finno-Ugrian language except Hungarian. In the latter part of the 14th
century Russian missionaries composed in it various manuals and
translations, using a special alphabet for the purpose.
Unlike the Finnish and Esthonian branch, the languages of the Volga
Finns (Mordvinian and Cheremissian) have been influenced by Russian and
Tatar rather than by Scandinavian, and hence show apparent differences.
But Mordvinian has points of detailed resemblance to Finnish which seem
to point to a comparatively late separation, e.g. the use of _kemen_ for
ten, _-nza_ as the possessive suffix of the third personal pronoun, the
regular formation of the imperfect with _i_, the infinitive with _ma_,
and the participle with _f_ (Finnish _va_). On the other hand it has
many peculiarities. It retains an objective conjugation like the Ugrian
languages, and has developed two forms of declension, the definite and
indefinite.
Cheremissian has affinities to both the Permian languages and
Mordvinian. It resembles Syryenian in its case terminations and also in
marking the plural by interposing a distinct syllable (Syry. _yas_,
Cher. _vlya_) between the singular and the case suffixes. Most of the
numerals are like Syryenian but _kändekhsye_, _indekhsye_, for eight and
nine, recall Finnish forms (_kahdeksan_, _yhdeksän_), as do also the
pronouns.
The connexion between the various West Finnish languages is more obvious
than between those already discussed. Lappish (or Lapponic) forms a link
between them and Mordvinian. Its pronouns are remarkably like the
Mordvinian equivalents, but the general system of declension and
conjugation, both positive and negative, is much as in Finnish.
Superficially, however, the resemblance is somewhat obscured by the
difference in phonetics, for Lappish has an extraordinary fondness for
diphthongs and also an unusually ample provision of consonants.
The affinity of Esthonian (together with Votish, Vepsish and Livish) to
Finnish is obvious not only to the philologist but to the casual
learner. In a few cases it shows older forms than Finnish, but on the
whole is less primitive and has assumed under foreign influence the
features of a European language even more thoroughly. The vowel-harmony
is found only in the Dorpat dialect and there imperfectly, the
pronominal affixes are not used, and the negative has become an
unvarying particle, though in Vepsish and Votish it takes suffixes as in
Finnish. On the other hand, the laws for the change of consonants, the
general system of phonetics, the declension, the pronouns and the
positive conjugation of the verb all closely resemble Finnish. Esthonian
has two chief dialects, those of Reval and Dorpat, and a certain amount
of literary culture, the best-known work being the national epic or
_Kalewi-poeg_.
Finnish proper is divided into two chief dialects, the Karelian or
Eastern, and the Tavastland or Western. The spoken language of the
Karelians is corrupt and mixed with Russian, but the _Kalewala_ and
their other old songs are written in a pure Finnish dialect, which has
come to be accepted as the ordinary language of poetry throughout modern
Finland, just as the Homeric dialect was used by the Greeks for epic
poetry. It is more archaic than the Tavastland dialect and preserves
many old forms which have been lost elsewhere, but its utterance is
softer and it sometimes rejects consonants which are retained in
ordinary speech, e.g. _saa'a, kosen_ for _saada, kosken_.
The affinity of Finnish to the more eastern languages of the group is
clear, but it has been profoundly influenced by Scandinavian and in its
present form consists of non-Aryan material recast in an Aryan and
European mould. Not only are some of the simplest words borrowed from
Scandinavian, but the grammar has been radically modified. Un-Aryan
peculiarities have been rejected, though perhaps less than in Esthonian.
The various forms of nouns and verbs are not merely roots with a string
of obvious suffixes attached, but the termination forms a whole with the
root as in Greek and Latin inflections; the adjective is declined and
compared and agrees with its substantive; compound tenses are formed
with the aid of the auxiliary verb, and there is a full supply of
relative pronouns and particles.
Finnish and Hungarian together with Turkish are interesting examples of
non-Aryan languages trying to participate, by both translation and
imitation, in the literary life of Europe, but it may be doubted if the
experiment is successful. The sense of effort is felt less in Hungarian
than in the other languages; though they are admirable instruments for
terse conversation or popular poetry, there appears to be some
deep-seated difference in the force of the verb and the structure of
phrases which renders them clumsy and complicated when they attempt to
express sentences of the type common in European literature.
III. _Civilization and Religion._--The Finno-Ugric tribes have not been
equally progressive; some, such as the Finns and Magyars, have adopted,
at least in towns, the ordinary civilization of Europe; others are
agriculturists; others still nomadic. The wilder tribes, such as the
Ostiaks, Voguls and Lapps, mostly consist of one section which is
nomadic and another which is settling down. The following notes apply to
traces of ancient conditions which survive sporadically but are nowhere
universal. Few except the Hungarians have shown themselves warlike,
though we read of conflicts with the Russians in the middle ages as they
advanced among this older population. But most Finno-Ugrians are astute
and persevering hunters, and the Ostiaks still shoot game with a bow.
The tribes are divided into numerous small clans which are exogamous.
Marriage by capture is said to survive among the Cheremiss, who are
still polygamous in some districts, but purchase of the bride is the
more general form. Women are treated as servants and often excluded
from pagan religious ceremonies. The most primitive form of house
consists of poles inclined towards one another and covered with skins or
sods, so as to form a circular screen round a fire; winter houses are
partly underground. Long snow-shoes are used in winter and boats are
largely employed in summer. The Finns in particular are very good
seamen. The Ostiaks and Samoyedes still cast tin ornaments in wooden
moulds. The variation of the higher numerals in the different languages,
which are sometimes obvious loan words, shows that the original system
did not extend beyond seven, and the aptitude for calculating and
trading is not great. Several thousands of the Ostiaks, Voguls and
Cheremiss are still unbaptized, and much paganism lingers among the
nominal Christians, and in poetry such as the _Kalewala_. The deities
are chiefly nature spirits and the importance of the several gods varies
as the tribes are hunters, fishermen, &c. Sun or sky worship is found
among the Samoyedes and _Jumala_, the Finnish word for god, seems
originally to mean sky. The Ostiaks worship a water-spirit of the river
Obi and also a thunder-god. We hear of a forest-god among the Finns,
Lapps and Cheremiss. There are also clan gods worshipped by each clan
with special ceremonies. Traces of ancestor-worship are also found. The
Samoyedes and Ostiaks are said to sacrifice to ghosts, and the Ostiaks
to make images of the more important dead, which are tended and
honoured, as if alive, for some years. Images are found in the tombs and
barrows of most tribes, and the Samoyedes, Ostiaks and Voguls still use
idols, generally of wood. Animal sacrifices are offered, and the lips of
the idol sometimes smeared with blood. Quaint combinations of
Christianity and paganism occur; thus the Cheremiss are said to
sacrifice to the Virgin Mary. The idea that disease is due to possession
by an evil spirit, and can be both caused and cured by spells, seems to
prevail among all tribes, and in general extraordinary power is supposed
to reside in incantations and magical formulae. This belief is
conspicuous in the _Kalewala_, and almost every tribe has its own
collection of prayers, healing charms and spells to be used on the most
varied occasions. A knowledge of these formulae is possessed by wizards
(Finnish noita) corresponding to the Shamans of the Altaic peoples. They
are exorcists and also mediums who can ascertain the will of the gods; a
magic drum plays a great part in their invocations, and their office is
generally hereditary. The non-Buddhist elements of Chinese and Japanese
religion present the same features as are found among the
Finno-Ugrians--nature-worship, ancestor-worship and exorcism--but in a
much more elaborate and developed form.
IV. _History._--Most of the Finno-Ugrian tribes have no history or
written records, and little in the way of traditions of their past. In
their later period the Hungarians and Finns enter to some extent the
course of ordinary European history. For the earlier period we have no
positive information, but the labours of investigators, especially in
Finland, have collected a great number of archaeological and
philological data from which an account of the ancient wanderings of
these tribes may be constructed. Barrows containing skulls and ornaments
may mark the advance of a special form of culture, and language may be
of assistance; if we find, for instance, a language with loan words of
an archaic type, we may conclude that it was in contact with the other
language from which it borrowed at the time when such forms were
current. But clearly all such deductions contain a large element of
theory, and the following sketch is given with all reserve.
The Finno-Ugrian tribes originally lived together east of the Urals and
spoke a common language. It is not certain if they were all of the same
physical type, for the association of different races speaking one
language is common in central Asia. They were hunters and fishermen, not
agriculturists. At an unknown period the Finns, still undivided, moved
into Europe and perhaps settled on the Volga and Oka. They had perhaps
arrived there before 1500 B.C., learned some rudiments of agriculture,
and developed their system of numbers up to ten. They were still in the
neolithic stage. About 600 B.C. they came in contact with an Iranian
people, from whom they learned the use of metals, and borrowed numerals
for a hundred (Finnish _sata_, Ostiak _sat_, Magyar _szaz_; cf. Zend
_sata_) and a thousand (Magyar _ezer_; cf. _hazanra_ and _hazar_).
Magyar and some other languages also borrowed a word for ten (_tíz_, cf.
_das_). This Iranian race may perhaps have been the Scythians, who are
believed by many authorities to have been Iranians and to be represented
by the Osetians of the Caucasus. There was probably a trade route up the
Volga in the 4th century B.C. About that time the Western Finns must
have broken away from the Mordvinians and wandered north-westwards. At a
period not much later than the Christian era, they must have come in
contact with Letto-Lithuanian peoples in the Baltic provinces, and also
with Scandinavians. Whether they came in contact with the latter first
in the Baltic provinces or in Finland itself is disputed, as there may
have been Scandinavians in the Baltic provinces. But the distribution of
tombs and barrows seems to indicate that they entered Finland not from
the east through Karelia but from the Baltic provinces by sea to
Satakunta and the south-east coast, whence they extended eastwards. From
both Lithuanians and Scandinavians they borrowed an enormous quantity of
culture-words and probably the ideas and materials they indicate. Thus
the Finnish words for gold, king and everything concerned with
government are of Scandinavian origin. Their migration to Finland was
probably complete about A.D. 800. Meanwhile the Slav tribes known later
as Russians were coming up from the south and pressed the Finns
northwards, overwhelming but not annihilating them in the country
between St Petersburg and Moscow. The same movement tended to drive the
Eastern Finns and Ugrians backwards towards the east. The Finns know the
Russians by the name of _Venäjä_, or Wends, and as this name is not used
by Slavs themselves but by Scandinavians and Teutons, it seems clear
that they arrived among the Finns as greater strangers than the
Scandinavians and known by a foreign name. Christianity was perhaps
first preached to the Finns as early as A.D. 1000, but there was a long
political and religious struggle with the Swedes. At the end of the 13th
century Finland was definitely converted and annexed to Sweden,
remaining a dependency of that country until 1809, when it was ceded to
Russia.
The Ugrians and Eastern Finns took no part in the westward movement and
did not fall under western influences but came into contact with Tatar
tribes and were more or less Tatarized. In some cases this took the form
of the adoption of a Tatar language, in others (Mordvin, Cheremis and
Votiak) a large number of Tatar words were borrowed. We also know that
there were considerable settlements of these tribes, perhaps amounting
to states, on the Volga and in south-eastern Russia. Such was Great
Bulgaria, which continued until destroyed by the Mongols in 1238. The
pressure of tribes farther east acting on these settlements dislodged
sections of them from time to time and created the series of invasions
which devastated the East Roman empire from the 5th century onwards. But
we do not know what were the languages spoken by the Huns, Bulgarians,
Pechenegs and Avars, so that we cannot say whether they were Turks,
Finns or Ugrians, nor does it follow that a horde speaking a Ugrian
language were necessarily Ugrians by race. An inspection of the
performances of the various tribes, as far as we can distinguish them,
suggests that the Turks or Tatars were the warlike element. The names
Hun and Hungarian may possibly be the same as Hiung-nu, but we cannot
assume that this tribe passed across Asia unchanged in language and
physique. The Hungarians entered on their present phase at the end of
the 9th century of this era, when they crossed the Carpathians and
conquered the old Pannonia and Dacia. For half a century or so before
this invasion they are said to have inhabited Atelkuzu, probably a
district between the Dnieper and the Danube. The isolated groups of
Hungarians now found in Transylvania and called Szeklers are considered
the purest descendants of the invading Magyars. Those who settled in the
plains of Hungary probably mingled there with remnants of Huns, Avars
and earlier invaders, and also with subsequent invaders, such as
Pechenegs and Kumans.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Among the older writers may be mentioned Strahlenberg
(_Das nord- und östliche Theil von Europa und Asia_, 1730), Johann
Gottlieb Georgi (_Description de toutes les nations de l'empire de la
Russie_, French tr., St Petersburg, 1777); but especially the various
works of Matthias A. Castrén (1852-1853) and W. Schott (1858). Modern
scientific knowledge of the Finno-Ugrians and their languages was
founded by these two authors. Among newer works some of the most
important separate publications are: J.R. Aspelin, _Antiquités du nord
finno-ougrien_ (1877-1884); J. Abercromby, _Pre- and Proto-historic
Finns_ (1898); and A. Hackmann, _Die ältere Eisenzeit in Finnland_
(1905).
The recent literature on the origin, customs, antiquities and
languages of these races is voluminous, but is contained chiefly not
in separate books but in special learned periodicals. Of these there
are several: _Journal de la Société Finno-ougrienne_ (Helsingfors)
(_Suomalais-Ugrilaisen Seuran Aikakauskirja_); _Finnisch-Ugrische
Forschungen_ (Helsingfors and Leipzig); _Mitteilungen der
archäologischen, historischen und ethnographischen Gesellschaft der
Kais. Universität zu Kasan; Keleti Szemle or Revue orientale pour les
études ouralo-altaïques_ (Budapest). In all of these will be found
numerous valuable articles by such authors as Ahlqvist, Halévy,
Heikel, Krohn, Muncácsi, Paasonen, Setälä, Smurnow, Thomsen and
Vambéry.
The titles of grammars and dictionaries will be found under the
headings of the different languages. For general linguistic questions
may be consulted the works of Castrén, Schott and Otto Donner, also
such parts of the following as treat of Finno-Ugric languages: Byrne,
_Principles of the Structure of Language_, vol. i. (1892); Friedrich
Müller, _Grundriss der Sprachwissenschaft II._, Band ii., Abth. 1882;
Steinthal and Misleli, _Abriss der Sprachwissenschaft_ (1893).
(C. El.)
FINSBURY, a central metropolitan borough of London, England, bounded N.
by Islington, E. by Shoreditch, S. by the city of London and W. by
Holborn and St Pancras. Pop. (1901) 101,463. The principal thoroughfares
are Pentonville Road, from King's Cross east to the Angel, Islington,
continuing E. and S. in City Road and S. again to the City in Moorgate
Street; Clerkenwell Road and Old Street, crossing the centre from W. to
E., King's Cross Road running S.E. into Farringdon Road, and so to the
City; St John Street and Road and Goswell Road (the residence of
Dickens' Pickwick) running S. from the Angel towards the City; and
Rosebery Avenue running S.W. from St John Street into Holborn. The
commercial character of the City extends into the southern part of the
borough; the residential houses are mostly those of artisans. Local
industries include working in precious metals, watch-making, printing
and paper-making.
An early form of the name is Vynesbury, but the derivation is not known.
The place was supposed by some to take name from an extensive fen, a
part of which, commonly known as Moorfields (cf. Moorgate Street), was
drained in the 16th century and subsequently laid out as public grounds.
It was a frequent resort of Pepys, who mentions its houses of
entertainment and the wrestling and other pastimes carried on, also that
it furnished a refuge for many of those whose houses were destroyed in
the fire of London in 1666. Bookstalls and other booths were numerous at
a somewhat later date. The borough includes the parish of Clerkenwell
(q.v.), a locality of considerable historic interest, including the
former priory of St John, Clerkenwell, of which the gateway and other
traces remain. Among several other sites and buildings of historical
interest the Charterhouse (q.v.) west of Aldersgate Street, stands
first, originally a Carthusian monastery, subsequently a hospital and a
school out of which grew the famous public school at Godalming. Bunhill
Fields, City Road, was used by the Dissenters as a burial-place from the
middle of the 17th century until 1832. Among eminent persons interred
here are John Bunyan, Daniel Defoe, Susanna, mother of John and Charles
Wesley, and George Fox, founder of the Society of Friends. A
neighbouring chapel is intimately associated with the Wesleys, and the
house of John Wesley is opened as a museum bearing his name. Many
victims of the plague were buried in a pit neighbouring to these fields,
near the junction of Goswell Road and Old Street. To the south of the
fields lies the Artillery Ground, the training ground of the Honourable
Artillery Company, so occupied since 1641, with barracks and armoury.
Sadler's Wells theatre, Rosebery Avenue, dating as a place of
entertainment from 1683, preserves the name of a fashionable medicinal
spring, music room and theatre, the last most notable in its connexion
with the names of Joseph Grimaldi the clown and Samuel Phelps. Other
institutions are the technical college, Leonard Street, and St Mark's,
St Luke's and the Royal chest hospitals. At Mount Pleasant is the
parcels department of the general post office, and at Clerkenwell Green
the sessions house for the county of London (north side of the Thames).
Adjacent to Rosebery Avenue are reservoirs of the New River Head. The
municipal borough coincides with the east and central divisions of the
parliamentary borough of Finsbury, each returning one member. The
borough council consists of a mayor, 9 aldermen and 54 councillors.
Area, 589.1 acres.
FINSTERWALDE, a town of Germany, in the kingdom of Prussia, on the
Schackebach, a tributary of the Little Elster, 28 m. W.S.W. of Cottbus
by rail. Pop. (1905) 10,726. The town has a Gothic church (1581), a
château, schools, cloth and cigar factories, iron-foundries, flour and
saw mills and factories for machine building. The town, which is first
mentioned in 1288, came into the possession of electoral Saxony in 1635
and of Prussia in 1815.
FIORENZO DI LORENZO (c. 1440-1522), Italian painter, of the Umbrian
school, lived and worked at Perugia, where most of his authentic works
are still preserved in the Pinacoteca. There is probably no other
Italian master of importance of whose life and work so little is known.
In fact the whole edifice that modern scientific criticism has built
around his name is based on a single signed and dated picture (1487) in
the Pinacoteca of Perugia--a niche with lunette, two wings and
predella--and on the documentary evidence that he was decemvir of that
city in 1472, in which year he entered into a contract to paint an
altarpiece for Santa Maria Nuova--the pentatych of the "Madonna and
Saints" now in the Pinacoteca. Of his birth and death and pupilage
nothing is known, and Vasari does not even mention Fiorenzo's name,
though he probably refers to him when he says that Cristofano,
Perugino's father, sent his son to be the shop drudge of a painter in
Perugia, "who was not particularly distinguished in his calling, but
held the art in great veneration and highly honoured the men who
excelled therein." Certain it is that the early works both of Perugino
and of Pinturicchio show certain mannerisms which point towards
Fiorenzo's influence, if not to his direct teaching. The list of some
fifty pictures which modern critics have ascribed to Fiorenzo includes
works of such widely varied character that one can hardly be surprised
to find great divergence of opinion as regards the masters under whom
Fiorenzo is supposed to have studied. Pisanello, Verrocchio, Benozzo
Gozzoli, Antonio Pollaiuolo, Benedetto Bonfigli, Mantegna, Squarcione,
Filippo Lippi, Signorelli and Ghirlandajo have all been credited with
this distinguished pupil, who was the most typical Umbrian painter that
stands between the primitives and Perugino; but the probability is that
he studied under Bonfigli and was indirectly influenced by Gozzoli.
Fiorenzo's authentic works are remarkable for their sense of space and
for the expression of that peculiar clear, soft atmosphere which is so
marked a feature in the work of Perugino. But Fiorenzo has an intensity
of feeling and a power of expressing character which are far removed
from the somewhat affected grace of Perugino. Of the forty-five pictures
bearing Fiorenzo's name in the Pinacoteca of Perugia, the eight charming
St Bernardino panels are so different from his well-authenticated works,
so Florentine in conception and movement, that the Perugian's authorship
is very questionable. On the other hand the beautiful "Nativity," the
"Adoration of the Magi," and the "Adoration of the Shepherds" in the
same gallery, may be accepted as the work of his hand, as also the
fresco of SS. Romano and Rocco at the church of S. Francesco at Deruta.
The London National Gallery, the Berlin and the Frankfort museums
contain each a "Madonna and Child" ascribed to the master, but the
attribution is in each case open to doubt.
See Jean Carlyle Graham, _The Problem of Fiorenzo di Lorenzo_
(Perugia, 1903); Edward Hutton, _The Cities of Umbria_ (London).
(P. G. K.)
FIORENZUOLA D'ARDA, a town of Emilia, Italy, in the province of
Piacenza, from which it is 14 m. S.E. by rail, 270 ft. above sea-level.
Pop. (1901) 7792. It is traversed by the Via Aemilia, and has a
picturesque piazza with an old tower in the centre. The Palazzo Grossi
also is a fine building. Alseno lies 4 m. to the S.E., and near it is
the Cistercian abbey of Chiaravalle della Colomba, with a fine Gothic
church and a large and beautiful cloister (in brick and Verona marble),
of the 12th-14th century.
FIORILLO, JOHANN DOMINICUS (1748-1821), German painter and historian of
art, was born at Hamburg on the 13th of October 1748. He received his
first instructions in art at an academy of painting at Bayreuth; and in
1761, to continue his studies, he went first to Rome, and next to
Bologna, where he distinguished himself sufficiently to attain in 1769
admission to the academy. Returning soon after to Germany, he obtained
the appointment of historical painter to the court of Brunswick. In 1781
he removed to Göttingen, occupied himself as a drawing-master, and was
named in 1784 keeper of the collection of prints at the university
library. He was appointed professor extraordinary in the philosophical
faculty in 1799, and ordinary professor in 1813. During this period he
had made himself known as a writer by the publication of his _Geschichte
der zeichnenden Künste_, in 5 vols. (1798-1808). This was followed in
1815 to 1820 by the _Geschichte der zeichnenden Künste in Deutschland
und den vereinigten Niederlanden_, in 4 vols. These works, though not
attaining to any high mark of literary excellence, are esteemed for the
information collected in them, especially on the subject of art in the
later middle ages. Fiorillo practised his art almost till his death, but
has left no memorable masterpiece. The most noticeable of his painting
is perhaps the "Surrender of Briseis." He died at Göttingen on the 10th
of September 1821.
FIR, the Scandinavian name originally given to the Scotch pine (_Pinus
sylvestris_), but at present not infrequently employed as a general term
for the whole of the true conifers (_Abielineae_); in a more exact
sense, it has been transferred to the "spruce" and "silver firs," the
genera _Picea_ and _Abies_ of most modern botanists.
The firs are distinguished from the pines and larches by having their
needle-like leaves placed singly on the shoots, instead of growing in
clusters from a sheath on a dwarf branch. Their cones are composed of
thin, rounded, closely imbricated scales, each with a more or less
conspicuous bract springing from the base. The trees have usually a
straight trunk, and a tendency to a conical or pyramidal growth,
throwing out each year a more or less regular whorl of branches from the
foot of the leading shoot, while the buds of the lateral boughs extend
horizontally.
In the spruce firs (_Picea_), the cones are pendent when mature and
their scales persistent; the leaves are arranged all round the shoots,
though the lower ones are sometimes directed laterally. In the genus
_Abies_, the silver firs, the cones are erect, and their scales drop off
when the seed ripens; the leaves spread in distinct rows on each side of
the shoot.
The most important of the firs, in an economic sense, is the Norway
spruce (_Picea excelsa_), so well known in British plantations, though
rarely attaining there the gigantic height and grandeur of form it often
displays in its native woods. Under favourable conditions of growth it
is a lofty tree, with a nearly straight, tapering trunk, throwing out in
somewhat irregular whorls its widespreading branches, densely clothed
with dark, clear green foliage. The boughs and their side-branches, as
they increase in length, have a tendency to droop, the lower tier, even
in large trees, often sweeping the ground--a habit that, with the jagged
sprays, and broad, shadowy, wave-like foliage-masses, gives a peculiarly
graceful and picturesque aspect to the Norway spruce. The slender,
sharp, slightly curved leaves are scattered thickly around the shoots;
the upper one pressed towards the stem, and the lower directed sideways,
so as to give a somewhat flattened appearance to the individual sprays.
The elongated cylindrical cones grow chiefly at the ends of the upper
branches; they are purplish at first, but become afterwards green, and
eventually light brown; their scales are slightly toothed at the
extremity; they ripen in the autumn, but seldom discharge their seeds
until the following spring.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Norway Spruce (_Picea excelsa_). Male Flowers.
A, branch bearing male cones, reduced; B, single male cone, enlarged; C,
single stamen, enlarged.]
The tree is very widely distributed, growing abundantly on most of the
mountain ranges of northern and central Europe; while in Asia it occurs
at least as far east as the Lena, and in latitude extends from the
Altaic ranges to beyond the Arctic circle. On the Swiss Alps it is one
of the most prevalent and striking of the forest trees, its dark
evergreen foliage often standing out in strong contrast to the snowy
ridges and glaciers beyond. In the lower districts of Sweden it is the
predominant tree in most of the great forests that spread over so large
a portion of that country. In Norway it constitutes a considerable part
of the dense woods of the southern dales, flourishing, according to
Franz Christian Schübeler, on the mountain slopes up to an altitude of
from 2800 to 3100 ft., and clothing the shores of some of the fjords to
the water's edge; in the higher regions it is generally mingled with the
pine. Less abundant on the western side of the fjelds, it again forms
woods in Nordland, extending in the neighbourhood of the coast nearly to
the 67th parallel; but it is, in that arctic climate, rarely met with at
a greater elevation than 800 ft. above the sea, though in Swedish
Lapland it is found on the slope of the Sulitelma as high as 1200 ft.,
its upper limit being everywhere lower than that of the pine. In all the
Scandinavian countries it is known as the _Gran_ or _Grann_. Great
tracts of low country along the southern shores of the Baltic and in
northern Russia are covered with forests of spruce. It everywhere shows
a preference for a moist but well-drained soil, and never attains its
full stature or luxuriance of growth upon arid ground, whether on plain
or mountain--a peculiarity that should be remembered by the planter. In
a favourable soil and open situation it becomes the tallest and one of
the stateliest of European trees, rising sometimes to a height of from
150 to 170 ft., the trunk attaining a diameter of from 5 to 6 ft. at the
base. But when it grows in dense woods, where the lower branches decay
and drop off early, only a small head of foliage remaining at the
tapering summit, its stem, though frequently of great height, is rarely
more than 1½ or 2 ft. in thickness. Its growth is rapid, the straight
leading shoot, in the vigorous period of the tree, often extending 2½ or
even 3 ft. in a single season. In its native habitats it is said to
endure for several centuries; but in those countries from which the
commercial supply of its timber is chiefly drawn, it attains perfection
in from 70 to 90 years, according to soil and situation.
[Illustration: PLATE I.
SILVER FIR (_Abies pectinata_).
A, Cone and foliage.
SPRUCE FIR (_Picea excelsa_).
B, Cone and foliage.
HEMLOCK SPRUCE (_Tsuga canadensis_)
C, Cone, seed and foliage.
DOUGLAS FIR (_Pseudo-tsuga Douglasii_).
D, Cone, seed and foliage.
_Photos by Henry Irving_.]
[Illustration: PLATE II.
CYPRESS (_Cupressus sempervirens_).
A, Cone and branchlets.
JUNIPER (_Juniperus communis_).
B, Fruit and foliage.
ARAUCARIA (_A. imbricata_, Chile pine or monkey-puzzle).
C, Seed-bearing cone and a single scale with seed.
YEW (_Taxus baccata_).
D, Seed and foliage.
Photos by Henry Irving.]
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--Norway Spruce (_Picea excelsa_). Cones; scale
with seeds. A, Branch bearing (a) young female cones, (b) ripe cones,
reduced. B, Ripe cone scale with seeds, enlarged.]
In the most prevalent variety of the Norway spruce the wood is white,
apt to be very knotty when the tree has grown in an open place, but, as
produced in the close northern forests, often of fine and even grain.
Immense quantities are imported into Britain from Norway, Sweden and
Prussia, under the names of "white Norway," "Christiania" and "Danzig
deal." The larger trees are sawn up into planks and battens, much used
for the purposes of the builder, especially for flooring, joists and
rafters. Where not exposed to the weather the wood is probably as
lasting as that of the pine, but, not being so resinous, appears less
adapted for out-door uses. Great quantities are sent from Sweden in a
manufactured state, in the form of door and window-frames and
ready-prepared flooring, and much of the cheap "white deal" furniture is
made of this wood. The younger and smaller trees are remarkably durable,
especially when the bark is allowed to remain on them; and most of the
poles imported into Britain for scaffolding, ladders, mining-timber and
similar uses are furnished by this fir. Small masts and spars are often
made of it, and are said to be lighter than those of pine. The best
poles are obtained in Norway from small, slender, drawn-up trees,
growing under the shade of the larger ones in the thick woods, these
being freer from knots, and tougher from their slower growth. A variety
of the spruce, abounding in some parts of Norway, produces a red
heartwood, not easy to distinguish from that of the Norway pine (Scotch
fir), and imported with it into England as "red deal" or "pine." This
kind is sometimes seen in plantations, where it may be recognized by its
shorter, darker leaves and longer cones. The smaller branches and the
waste portion of the trunks, left in cutting up the timber, are exported
as fire-wood, or used for splitting into matches. The wood of the spruce
is also employed in the manufacture of wood-pulp for paper.
The resinous products of the Norway spruce, though yielded by the tree
in less abundance than those furnished by the pine, are of considerable
economic value. In Scandinavia a thick turpentine oozes from cracks or
fissures in the bark, forming by its congelation a fine yellow resin,
known commercially as "spruce rosin," or "frankincense"; it is also
procured artificially by cutting off the ends of the lower branches,
when it slowly exudes from the extremities. In Switzerland and parts of
Germany, where it is collected in some quantity for commerce, a long
strip of bark is cut out of the tree near the root; the resin that
slowly accumulates during the summer is scraped out in the latter part
of the season, and the slit enlarged slightly the following spring to
ensure a continuance of the supply. The process is repeated every
alternate year, until the tree no longer yields the resin in abundance,
which under favourable circumstances it will do for twenty years or
more. The quantity obtained from each fir is very variable, depending on
the vigour of the tree, and greatly lessens after it has been subjected
to the operation for some years. Eventually the tree is destroyed, and
the wood rendered worthless for timber, and of little value even for
fuel. From the product so obtained most of the better sort of "Burgundy
pitch" of the druggists is prepared. By the peasantry of its native
countries the Norway spruce is applied to innumerable purposes of daily
life. The bark and young cones afford a tanning material, inferior
indeed to oak-bark, and hardly equal to that of the larch, but of value
in countries where substances more rich in tannin are not abundant. In
Norway the sprays, like those of the juniper, are scattered over the
floors of churches and the sitting-rooms of dwelling-houses, as a
fragrant and healthful substitute for carpet or matting. The young
shoots are also given to oxen in the long winters of those northern
latitudes, when other green fodder is hard to obtain. In times of
scarcity the Norse peasant-farmer uses the sweetish inner bark, beaten
in a mortar and ground in his primitive mill with oats or barley, to eke
out a scanty supply of meal, the mixture yielding a tolerably palatable
though somewhat resinous substitute for his ordinary _flad-brod_. A
decoction of the buds in milk or whey is a common household remedy for
scurvy; and the young shoots or green cones form an essential ingredient
in the spruce-beer drank with a similar object, or as an occasional
beverage. The well-known "Danzig-spruce" is prepared by adding a
decoction of the buds or cones to the wort or saccharine liquor before
fermentation. Similar preparations are in use wherever the spruce fir
abounds. The wood is burned for fuel, its heat-giving power being
reckoned in Germany about one-fourth less than that of beech. From the
widespreading roots string and ropes are manufactured in Lapland and
Bothnia: the longer ones which run near the surface are selected, split
through, and then boiled for some hours in a ley of wood-ashes and salt,
which, dissolving out the resin, loosens the fibres and renders them
easily separable, and ready for twisting into cordage. Light portable
boats are sometimes made of very thin boards of fir, sewn together with
cord thus manufactured from the roots of the tree.
The Norway spruce seems to have been the "Picea" of Pliny, but is
evidently often confused by the Latin writers with their "Abies," the
_Abies pectinata_ of modern botanists. From an equally loose application
of the word "fir" by our older herbalists, it is difficult to decide
upon the date of introduction of this tree into Britain; but it was
commonly planted for ornamental purposes in the beginning of the 17th
century. In places suited to its growth it seems to flourish nearly as
well as in the woods of Norway or Switzerland; but as it needs for its
successful cultivation as a timber tree soils that might be turned to
agricultural account, it is not so well adapted for economic planting in
Britain as the Scotch fir or larch, which come to perfection in more
bleak and elevated regions, and on comparatively barren ground, though
it may perhaps be grown to advantage on some moist hill-sides and
mountain hollows. Its great value to the English forester is as a
"nurse" for other trees, for which its dense leafage and tapering form
render it admirably fitted, as it protects, without overshading, the
young saplings, and yields saleable stakes and small poles when cut out.
For hop-poles it is not so well adapted as the larch. As a picturesque
tree, for park and ornamental plantation, it is among the best of the
conifers, its colour and form contrasting yet harmonizing with the olive
green and rounded outline of oaks and beeches, or with the red trunk and
glaucous foliage of the pine. When young its spreading boughs form good
cover for game. The fresh branches, with their thick mat of foliage, are
useful to the gardener for sheltering wall-fruit in the spring. In a
good soil and position the tree sometimes attains an enormous size: one
in Studley Park, Yorkshire, attained nearly 140 ft. in height, and the
trunk more than 6 ft. in thickness near the ground. The spruce bears the
smoke of great cities better than most of the _Abietineae_; but in
suburban localities after a certain age it soon loses its healthy
appearance, and is apt to be affected with blight (_Eriosoma_), though
not so much as the Scotch fir and most of the pines.
The black spruce (_Picea nigra_) is a tree of more formal growth than
the preceding. The branches grow at a more acute angle and in more
regular whorls than those of the Norway spruce; and, though the lower
ones become bent to a horizontal position, they do not droop, so that
the tree has a much less elegant appearance. The leaves, which grow very
thickly all round the stem, are short, nearly quadrangular, and of a
dark greyish-green. The cones, produced in great abundance, are short
and oval in shape, the scales with rugged indented edges; they are deep
purple when young, but become brown as they ripen. The tree also occurs
in the New England states and extends over nearly the whole of British
North America, its northern limit occurring at about 67° N. lat., often
forming a large part of the dense forests, mostly in the swampy
districts. A variety with lighter foliage and reddish bark is common in
Newfoundland and some districts on the mainland adjacent. The trees
usually grow very close together, the slender trunks rising to a great
height bare of branches; but they do not attain the size of the Norway
spruce, being seldom taller than 60 or 70 ft., with a diameter of 1½ or
2 ft. at the base. This species prefers a peaty soil, and often grows
luxuriantly in very moist situations. The wood is strong, light and very
elastic, forming an excellent material for small masts and spars, for
which purpose the trunks are used in America, and exported largely to
England. The sawn timber is inferior to that of _P. excelsa_, besides
being of a smaller size. In the countries in which it abounds, the
log-houses of the settlers are often built of the long straight trunks.
The spruce-beer of America is generally made from the young shoots of
this tree. The small twigs, tied in bundles, are boiled for some time in
water with broken biscuit or roasted grain; the resulting decoction is
then poured into a cask with molasses or maple sugar and a little yeast,
and left to ferment. It is often made by the settlers and fishermen of
the St Lawrence region, being esteemed as a preventive of scurvy. The
American "essence of spruce," occasionally used in England for making
spruce-beer, is obtained by boiling the shoots and buds and
concentrating the decoction. The resinous products of the tree are of no
great value. It was introduced into Britain at the end of the 17th
century.
The white spruce (_Picea alba_), sometimes met with in English
plantations, is a tree of lighter growth than the black spruce, the
branches being more widely apart; the foliage is of a light glaucous
green; the small light-brown cones are more slender and tapering than in
_P. nigra_, and the scales have even edges. It is of comparatively small
size, but is of some importance in the wilds of the Canadian dominion,
where it is found to the northern limit of tree-vegetation growing up to
at least 69°; the slender trunks yield the only useful timber of some of
the more desolate northern regions. In the woods of Canada it occurs
frequently mingled with the black spruce and other trees. The fibrous
tough roots, softened by soaking in water, and split, are used by the
Indians and voyageurs to sew together the birch-bark covering of their
canoes; and a resin that exudes from the bark is employed to varnish
over the seams. It was introduced to Great Britain at the end of the
17th century and was formerly more extensively planted than at present.
The hemlock spruce (_Tsuga canadensis_) is a large tree, abounding in
most of the north-eastern parts of America up to Labrador; in lower
Canada, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia it is often the prevailing tree.
The short leaves are flat, those above pressed close to the stem, and
the others forming two rows; they are of a rather light green tint
above, whitish beneath. The cones are very small, ovate and pointed. The
large branches droop, like those of the Norway spruce, but the sprays
are much lighter and more slender, rendering the tree one of the most
elegant of the conifers, especially when young. When old, the branches,
broken and bent down by the winter snows, give it a ragged but very
picturesque aspect. The trunk is frequently 3 ft. thick near the base.
The hemlock prefers rather dry and elevated situations, often forming
woods on the declivities of mountains. The timber is very much twisted
in grain, and liable to warp and split, but is used for making
plasterers' laths and for fencing; "shingles" for roofing are sometimes
made of it. The bark, split off in May or June, forms one of the most
valuable tanning substances in Canada. The sprays are sometimes used
for making spruce-beer and essence of spruce. It was introduced into
Great Britain in about the year 1736.
The Douglas spruce (_Pseudo-tsuga Douglasii_), one of the finest
conifers, often rises to a height of 200 ft. and sometimes considerably
more, while the gigantic trunk frequently measures 8 or 10 ft. across.
The yew-like leaves spread laterally, and are of a deep green tint; the
cones are furnished with tridentate bracts that project far beyond the
scales. It forms extensive forests in Vancouver Island, British Columbia
and Oregon, whence the timber is exported, being highly prized for its
strength, durability and even grain, though very heavy; it is of a deep
yellow colour, abounding in resin, which oozes from the thick bark. It
was introduced into Britain soon after its rediscovery by David Douglas
in 1827, and has been widely planted, but does not flourish well where
exposed to high winds or in too shallow soil.
Of the _Abies_ group, the silver fir (_A. pectinata_), may be taken as
the type,--a lofty tree, rivalling the Norway spruce in size, with large
spreading horizontal boughs curving upward toward the extremities. The
flat leaves are arranged in two regular, distinct rows; they are deep
green above, but beneath have two broad white lines, which, as the
foliage in large trees has a tendency to curl upwards, give it a silvery
appearance from below. The large cones stand erect on the branches, are
cylindrical in shape, and have long bracts, the curved points of which
project beyond the scales. When the tree is young the bark is of a
silvery grey, but gets rough with age. This tree appears to have been
the true "Abies" of the Latin writers--the "pulcherrima abies" of
Virgil. From early historic times it has been held in high estimation in
the south of Europe, being used by the Romans for masts and all purposes
for which timber of great length was required. It is abundant in most of
the mountain ranges of southern and central Europe, but is not found in
the northern parts of that continent. In Asia it occurs on the Caucasus
and Ural, and in some parts of the Altaic chain. Extensive woods of this
fir exist on the southern Alps, where the tree grows up to nearly 4000
ft.; in the Rhine countries it forms great part of the extensive forest
of the Hochwald, and occurs in the Black Forest and in the Vosges; it is
plentiful likewise on the Pyrenees and Apennines. The wood is inferior
to that of _Picea excelsa_, but, being soft and easily worked, is
largely employed in the countries to which it is indigenous for all the
purposes of carpentry. Articles of furniture are frequently made of it,
and it is in great esteem for carving and for the construction of
stringed instruments. Deficient in resin, the wood is more perishable
than that of the spruce fir when exposed to the air, though it is said
to stand well under water. The bark contains a large amount of a fine,
highly-resinous turpentine, which collects in tumours on the trunk
during the heat of summer. In the Alps and Vosges this resinous
semi-fluid is collected by climbing the trees and pressing out the
contents of the natural receptacles of the bark into horn or tin vessels
held beneath them. After purification by straining, it is sold as
"Strasburg turpentine," much used in the preparation of some of the
finer varnishes. Burgundy pitch is also prepared from it by a similar
process as that from _Picea excelsa_. A fine oil of turpentine is
distilled from the crude material; the residue forms a coarse resin.
Introduced into Britain at the beginning of the 17th century, the silver
fir has become common there as a planted tree, though, like the Norway
spruce, it rarely comes up from seed scattered naturally. There are many
fine trees in Scotland; one near Roseneath, figured by Strutt in his
_Sylva Britannica_, then measured more than 22 ft. round the trunk. In
the more southern parts of the island it often reaches a height of 90
ft., and specimens exist considerably above that size; but the young
shoots are apt to be injured in severe winters, and the tree on light
soils is also hurt by long droughts, so that it usually presents a
ragged appearance; though, in the distance, the lofty top and horizontal
boughs sometimes stand out in most picturesque relief above the rounded
summits of the neighbouring trees. The silver fir flourishes in a deep
loamy soil, and will grow even upon stiff clay, when well drained--a
situation in which few conifers will succeed. On such lands, where
otherwise desirable, it may sometimes be planted with profit. The cones
do not ripen till the second year.
The silver fir of Canada (_A. balsamea_), a small tree resembling the
last species in foliage, furnishes the "Canada balsam"; it abounds in
Quebec and the adjacent provinces.
Numerous other firs are common in gardens and shrubberies, and some
furnish valuable products in their native countries; but they are not
yet of sufficient economic or general interest to demand mention here.
For further information see Veitch's _Manual of Coniferae_ (2nd ed.,
1900).
FIRDOUSI, FIRDAUSI or FIRDUSI, Persian poet. Abu 'l Kasim Mansur (or
Hasan), who took the _nom de plume_ of Firdousi, author of the epic poem
the _Shahnama_, or "Book of Kings," a complete history of Persia in
nearly 60,000 verses, was born at Shadab, a suburb of Tus, about the
year 329 of the Hegira (941 A.D.), or earlier. His father belonged to
the class of _Dihkans_ (the old native country families and landed
proprietors of Persia, who had preserved their influence and status
under the Arab rule), and possessed an estate in the neighbourhood of
Tus (in Khorasan). Firdousi's own education eminently qualified him for
the gigantic task which he subsequently undertook, for he was profoundly
versed in the Arabic language and literature and had also studied deeply
the Pahlavi or Old Persian, and was conversant with the ancient
historical records which existed in that tongue.
The _Shahnama_ of Firdousi (see also PERSIA: _Literature_) is perhaps
the only example of a poem produced by a single author which at once
took its place as the national epic of the people. The nature of the
work, the materials from which it was composed, and the circumstances
under which it was written are, however, in themselves exceptional, and
necessarily tended to this result. The grandeur and antiquity of the
empire and the vicissitudes through which it passed, their long series
of wars and the magnificent monuments erected by their ancient
sovereigns, could not fail to leave numerous traces in the memory of so
imaginative a people as the Persians. As early as the 5th century of the
Christian era we find mention made of these historical traditions in the
work of an Armenian author, Moses of Chorene (according to others, he
lived in the 7th or 8th century). During the reign of Chosroes I.
(Anushirvan) the contemporary of Mahomet, and by order of that monarch,
an attempt had been made to collect, from various parts of the kingdom,
all the popular tales and legends relating to the ancient kings, and the
results were deposited in the royal library. During the last years of
the Sassanid dynasty the work was resumed, the former collection being
revised and greatly added to by the Dihkan Danishwer, assisted by
several learned mobeds. His work was entitled the _Khoda'inama_, which
in the old dialect also meant the "Book of Kings." On the Arab invasion
this work was in great danger of perishing at the hands of the
iconoclastic caliph Omar and his generals, but it was fortunately
preserved; and we find it in the 2nd century of the Hegira being
paraphrased in Arabic by Abdallah ibn el Mokaffa, a learned Persian who
had embraced Islam. Other Guebres occupied themselves privately with the
collection of these traditions; and, when a prince of Persian origin,
Yakub ibn Laith, founder of the Saffarid dynasty, succeeded in throwing
off his allegiance to the caliphate, he at once set about continuing the
work of his illustrious predecessors. His "Book of Kings" was completed
in the year 260 of the Hegira, and was freely circulated in Khorasan and
Irak. Yakub's family did not continue long in power; but the Samanid
princes who succeeded applied themselves zealously to the same work, and
Prince Nuh II., who came to the throne in 365 A.H. (A.D. 976), entrusted
it to the court poet Dakiki, a Guebre by religion. Dakiki's labours were
brought to a sudden stop by his own assassination, and the fall of the
Samanian house happened not long after, and their kingdom passed into
the hands of the Ghaznevids. Mahmud ibn Sabuktagin, the second of the
dynasty (998-1030), continued to make himself still more independent of
the caliphate than his predecessors, and, though a warrior and a
fanatical Moslem, extended a generous patronage to Persian literature
and learning, and even developed it at the expense of the Arabic
institutions. The task of continuing and completing the collection of
the ancient historical traditions of the empire especially attracted
him. With the assistance of neighbouring princes and of many of the
influential Dihkans, Mahmud collected a vast amount of materials for the
work, and after having searched in vain for a man of sufficient learning
and ability to edit them faithfully, and having entrusted various
episodes for versification to the numerous poets whom he had gathered
round him, he at length made choice of Firdousi. Firdousi had been
always strongly attracted by the ancient Pahlavi records, and had begun
at an early age to turn them into Persian epic verse. On hearing of the
death of the poet Dakiki, he conceived the ambitious design of himself
carrying out the work which the latter had only just commenced; and,
although he had not then any introduction to the court, he contrived,
thanks to one of his friends, Mahommed Lashkari, to procure a copy of
the Dihkan Danishwer's collection, and at the age of thirty-six
commenced his great undertaking. Abu Mansur, the governor of Tus,
patronized him and encouraged him by substantial pecuniary support. When
Mahmud succeeded to the throne, and evinced such active interest in the
work, Firdousi was naturally attracted to the court of Ghazni. At first
court jealousies and intrigues prevented Firdousi from being noticed by
the sultan; but at length one of his friends, Mahek, undertook to
present to Mahmud his poetic version of one of the well-known episodes
of the legendary history. Hearing that the poet was born at Tus, the
sultan made him explain the origin of his native town, and was much
struck with the intimate knowledge of ancient history which he
displayed. Being presented to the seven poets who were then engaged on
the projected epic, Abu 'l Kasim was admitted to their meetings, and on
one occasion improvised a verse, at Mahmud's request, in praise of his
favourite Ayaz, with such success that the sultan bestowed upon him the
name of Firdousi, saying that he had converted his assemblies into
paradise (_Firdous_). During the early days of his sojourn at court an
incident happened which contributed in no small measure to the
realization of his ambition. Three of the seven poets were drinking in a
garden when Firdousi approached, and wishing to get rid of him without
rudeness, they informed him who they were, and told him that it was
their custom to admit none to their society but such as could give proof
of poetical talent. To test his acquirements they proposed that each
should furnish an extemporary line of verse, his own to be the last, and
all four ending in the same rhyme. Firdousi accepted the challenge, and
the three poets having previously agreed upon three rhyming words to
which a fourth could not be found in the Persian language, 'Ansari
began--
"Thy beauty eclipses the light of the sun";
Farrakhi added--
"The rose with thy cheek would comparison shun";
'Asjadi continued--
"Thy glances pierce through the mailed warrior's johsun";[1]
and Firdousi, without a moment's hesitation, completed the quatrain--
"Like the lance of fierce Giv in his fight with Poshun."
The poets asked for an explanation of this allusion, and Firdousi
recited to them the battle as described in the _Shahnama_, and delighted
and astonished them with his learning and eloquence.
Mahmud now definitely selected him for the work of compiling and
versifying the ancient legends, and bestowed upon him such marks of his
favour and munificence as to elicit from the poet an enthusiastic
panegyric, which is inserted in the preface of the _Shahnama_, and forms
a curious contrast to the bitter satire which he subsequently prefixed
to the book. The sultan ordered his treasurer, Khojah Hasan Maimandi, to
pay to Firdousi a thousand gold pieces for every thousand verses; but
the poet preferred allowing the sum to accumulate till the whole was
finished, with the object of amassing sufficient capital to construct a
dike for his native town of Tus, which suffered greatly from defective
irrigation, a project which had been the chief dream of his childhood.
Owing to this resolution, and to the jealousy of Hasan Maimandi, who
often refused to advance him sufficient for the necessaries of life,
Firdousi passed the later portion of his life in great privation, though
enjoying the royal favour and widely extended fame. Amongst other
princes whose liberal presents enabled him to combat his pecuniary
difficulties, was one Rustam, son of Fakhr Addaula, the Dailamite, who
sent him a thousand gold pieces in acknowledgment of a copy of the
episode of Rustam and Isfendiar which Firdousi had sent him, and
promised him a gracious reception if he should ever come to his court.
As this prince belonged, like Firdousi, to the Shiah sect, while Mahmud
and Maimandi were Sunnites, and as he was also politically opposed to
the sultan, Hasan Maimandi did not fail to make the most of this
incident, and accused the poet of disloyalty to his sovereign and
patron, as well as of heresy. Other enemies and rivals also joined in
the attack, and for some time Firdousi's position was very precarious,
though his pre-eminent talents and obvious fitness for the work
prevented him from losing his post. To add to his troubles he had the
misfortune to lose his only son at the age of 37.
At length, after thirty-five years' work, the book was completed (1011),
and Firdousi entrusted it to Ayaz, the sultan's favourite, for
presentation to him. Mahmud ordered Hasan Maimandi to take the poet as
much gold as an elephant could carry, but the jealous treasurer
persuaded the monarch that it was too generous a reward, and that an
elephant's load of silver would be sufficient. 60,000 silver dirhems
were accordingly placed in sacks, and taken to Firdousi by Ayaz at the
sultan's command, instead of the 60,000 gold pieces, one for each verse,
which had been promised. The poet was at that moment in the bath, and
seeing the sacks, and believing that they contained the expected gold,
received them with great satisfaction, but finding only silver he
complained to Ayaz that he had not executed the sultan's order. Ayaz
related what had taken place between Mahmud and Hasan Maimandi, and
Firdousi in a rage gave 20 thousand pieces to Ayaz himself, the same
amount to the bath-keeper, and paid the rest to a beer seller for a
glass of beer (_fouka_), sending word back to the sultan that it was not
to gain money that he had taken so much trouble. On hearing this
message, Mahmud at first reproached Hasan with having caused him to
break his word, but the wily treasurer succeeded in turning his master's
anger upon Firdousi to such an extent that he threatened that on the
morrow he would "cast that Carmathian (heretic) under the feet of his
elephants." Being apprised by one of the nobles of the court of what had
taken place, Firdousi passed the night in great anxiety; but passing in
the morning by the gate that led from his own apartments into the
palace, he met the sultan in his private garden, and succeeded by humble
apologies in appeasing his wrath. He was, however, far from being
appeased himself, and determined at once upon quitting Ghazni. Returning
home he tore up the draughts of some thousands of verses which he had
composed and threw them in the fire, and repairing to the grand mosque
of Ghazni he wrote upon the walls, at the place where the sultan was in
the habit of praying, the following lines:--
"The auspicious court of Mahmud, king of Zabulistan, is like a sea.
What a sea! One cannot see its shore. If I have dived therein without
finding any pearls it is the fault of my star and not of the sea."
He then gave a sealed paper to Ayaz, begging him to hand it to the
sultan in a leisure moment after 20 days had elapsed, and set off on his
travels with no better equipment than his staff and a dervish's cloak.
At the expiration of the 20 days Ayaz gave the paper to the sultan, who
on opening it found the celebrated satire which is now always prefixed
to copies of the _Shahnama_, and which is perhaps one of the bitterest
and severest pieces of reproach ever penned. Mahmud, in a violent rage,
sent after the poet and promised a large reward for his capture, but he
was already in comparative safety. Firdousi directed his steps to
Mazandaran, and took refuge with Kabus, prince of Jorjan, who at first
received him with great favour, and promised him his continued
protection and patronage; learning, however, the circumstances under
which he had left Ghazni, he feared the resentment of so powerful a
sovereign as Mahmud, who he knew already coveted his kingdom, and
dismissed the poet with a magnificent present. Firdousi next repaired to
Bagdad, where he made the acquaintance of a merchant, who introduced him
to the vizier of the caliph, al-Qadir, by presenting an Arabic poem
which the poet had composed in his honour. The vizier gave Firdousi an
apartment near himself, and related to the caliph the manner in which he
had been treated at Ghazni. The caliph summoned him into his presence,
and was so much pleased with a poem of a thousand couplets, which
Firdousi composed in his honour, that he at once received him into
favour. The fact of his having devoted his life and talents to
chronicling the renown of fire-worshipping Persians was, however,
somewhat of a crime in the orthodox caliph's eyes; in order therefore to
recover his prestige, Firdousi composed another poem of 9000 couplets on
the theme borrowed from the Koran of the loves of Joseph and Potiphar's
wife--_Yusuf and Zuleikha_ (edited by H. Ethé, Oxford, 1902; complete
metrical translation by Schlechta-Wssehrd, Vienna, 1889). This poem,
though rare and little known, is still in existence--the Royal Asiatic
Society possessing a copy. But Mahmud had by this time heard of his
asylum at the court of the caliph, and wrote a letter menacing his liege
lord, and demanding the surrender of the poet. Firdousi, to avoid
further troubles, departed for Ahwaz, a province of the Persian Irak,
and dedicated his _Yusuf and Zuleikha_ to the governor of that district.
Thence he went to Kohistan, where the governor, Nasir Lek, was his
intimate and devoted friend, and received him with great ceremony upon
the frontier. Firdousi confided to him that he contemplated writing a
bitter exposition of his shameful treatment at the hands of the sultan
of Ghazni; but Nasir Lek, who was a personal friend of the latter,
dissuaded him from his purpose, but himself wrote and remonstrated with
Mahmud. Nasir Lek's message and the urgent representations of Firdousi's
friends had the desired effect; and Mahmud not only expressed his
intention of offering full reparation to the poet, but put his enemy
Maimandi to death. The change, however, came too late; Firdousi, now a
broken and decrepit old man, had in the meanwhile returned to Tus, and,
while wandering through the streets of his native town, heard a child
lisping a verse from his own satire in which he taunts Mahmud with his
slavish birth:--
"Had Mahmud's father been what he is now
A crown of gold had decked this aged brow;
Had Mahmud's mother been of gentle blood,
In heaps of silver knee-deep had I stood."
He was so affected by this proof of universal sympathy with his
misfortunes that he went home, fell sick and died. He was buried in a
garden, but Abu'l Kasim Jurjani, chief sheikh of Tus, refused to read
the usual prayers over his tomb, alleging that he was an infidel, and
had devoted his life to the glorification of fire-worshippers and
misbelievers. The next night, however, having dreamt that he beheld
Firdousi in paradise dressed in the sacred colour, green, and wearing an
emerald crown, he reconsidered his determination; and the poet was
henceforth held to be perfectly orthodox. He died in the year 411 of the
Hegira (1020 A.D.), aged about eighty, eleven years after the completion
of his great work. The legend goes that Mahmud had in the meanwhile
despatched the promised hundred thousand pieces of gold to Firdousi,
with a robe of honour and ample apologies for the past. But as the
camels bearing the treasure reached one of the gates of the city,
Firdousi's funeral was leaving it by another. His daughter, to whom they
brought the sultan's present, refused to receive it; but his aged sister
remembering his anxiety for the construction of the stone embankment for
the river of Tus, this work was completed in honour of the poet's
memory, and a large caravanserai built with the surplus.
Much of the traditional life, as given above, which is based upon that
prefixed to the revised edition of the poem, undertaken by order of
Baisingar Khan, grandson of Timur-i-Leng (Timur), is rejected by
modern scholars (see T. Nöldeke, "Das iranische Nationalepos," in W.
Geiger's _Grundriss der iranischen Philologie_, ii. pp. 150-158).
The _Shahnama_ is based, as we have seen, upon the ancient legends
current among the populace of Persia, and collected by the Dihkans, a
class of men who had the greatest facilities for this purpose. There
is every reason therefore to believe that Firdousi adhered faithfully
to these records of antiquity, and that the poem is a perfect
storehouse of the genuine traditions of the country.
The entire poem (which only existed in MS. up to the beginning of the
19th century) was published (1831-1868) with a French translation in a
magnificent folio edition, at the expense of the French government, by
the learned and indefatigable Julius von Mohl. The size and number of
the volumes, however, and their great expense, made them difficult of
access, and Frau von Mohl published the French translation (1876-1878)
with her illustrious husband's critical notes and introduction in a
more convenient and cheaper form. Other editions are by Turner Macan
(Calcutta, 1829), J.A. Vullers and S. Landauer (unfinished; Leiden,
1877-1883). There is an English abridgment by J. Atkinson (London,
1832; reprinted 1886, 1892); there is a verse-translation, partly
rhymed and partly unrhymed, by A.G. and E. Warner (1905 foll.), with
an introduction containing an account of Firdousi and the Shahnama;
the version by A. Rogers (1907) contains the greater part of the work.
The episode of Sohrab and Rustam is well known to English readers from
Matthew Arnold's poem. The only complete translation is Il Libro dei
Rei, by I. Pizzi (8 vols., Turin, 1886-1888), also the author of a
history of Persian poetry.
See also E.G. Browne's _Literary History of Persia_, i., ii.
(1902-1906); T. Nöldeke (as above) for a full account of the Shahnama,
editions, &c.; and H. Ethé, "Neupersische Litteratur," in the same
work. (E. H. P.; X.)
FOOTNOTE:
[1] A sort of cuirass.
FIRE (in O. Eng. _fýr_; the word is common to West German languages, cf.
Dutch _vuur_, Ger. _Feuer_; the pre-Teutonic form is seen in Sanskrit
_pu_, _pavaka_, and Gr. [Greek: pur]; the ultimate origin is usually
taken to be a root meaning to purify, cf. Lat. _purus_), the term
commonly used for the visible effect of combustion (see FLAME),
operating as a heating or lighting agency.
So general is the knowledge of fire and its uses that it is a question
whether we have any authentic instance on record of a tribe altogether
ignorant of them. A few notices indeed are to be found in the voluminous
literature of travel which would decide the question in the affirmative;
but when they are carefully investigated, their evidence is found to be
far from conclusive. The missionary Krapf was told by a slave of a tribe
in the southern part of Shoa who lived like monkeys in the bamboo
jungles, and were totally ignorant of fire; but no better authority has
been found for the statement, and the story, which seems to be current
in eastern Africa, may be nothing else than the propagation of fables
about the Pygmies whom the ancients located around the sources of the
Nile. Lieut. Charles Wilkes, commander of the United States exploring
expedition of 1838-42, says that in Fakaafo or Bowditch Island "there
was no sign of places for cooking nor any appearance of fire," and that
the natives felt evident alarm at the sparks produced by flint and steel
and the smoke emitted by those with cigars in their mouths. The presence
of the word _afi_, fire, in the Fakaafo vocabulary supplied by Hale the
ethnographer of the expedition, though it might perhaps be explained as
equivalent only to solar light and heat, undoubtedly invalidates the
supposition of Wilkes; and the Rev. George Turner, in an account of a
missionary voyage in 1859, not only repeats the word _afi_ in his list
for Fakaafo, but relates the native legend about the origin of fire, and
describes some peculiar customs connected with its use. Alvaro de
Saavedra, an old Spanish traveller, informs us that the inhabitants of
Los Jardines, an island of the Pacific, showed great fear when they saw
fire--which they did not know before. But that island has not been
identified with certainty by modern explorers. It belongs, perhaps, to
the Ladrones or Marianas Archipelago, where fire was unknown, says Padre
Gobien, "till Magellan, wroth at the pilferings of the inhabitants,
burnt one of their villages. When they saw their wooden huts ablaze,
their first thought was that fire was a beast which eats up wood. Some
of them having approached the fire too near were burnt, and the others
kept aloof, fearing to be torn or poisoned by the powerful breath of
that terrible animal." To this Freycinet objects that these Ladrone
islanders made pottery before the arrival of Europeans, that they had
words expressing the ideas of flame, fire, oven, coals, roasting and
cooking. Let us add that in their country numerous graves and ruins have
been found, which seem to be remnants of a former culture. Thus the
question remains in uncertainty: though there is nothing impossible in
the supposition of the existence of a fireless tribe, it cannot be said
that such a tribe has been discovered.
It is useless to inquire in what way man first discovered that fire was
subject to his control, and could even be called into being by
appropriate means. With the natural phenomenon and its various aspects
he must soon have become familiar. The volcano lit up the darkness of
night and sent its ashes or its lava down into the plains; the lightning
or the meteor struck the tree, and the forest was ablaze; or some less
obvious cause produced some less extensive ignition. For a time it is
possible that the grand manifestations of nature aroused no feelings
save awe and terror; but man is quite as much endowed with curiosity as
with reverence or caution, and familiarity must ere long have bred
confidence if not contempt. It is by no means necessary to suppose that
the practical discovery of fire was made only at one given spot and in
one given way; it is much more probable indeed that different tribes and
races obtained the knowledge in a variety of ways.
It has been asserted of many tribes that they would be unable to
rekindle their fires if they were allowed to die out. Travellers in
Australia and Tasmania depict the typical native woman bearing always
about with her a burning brand, which it is one of her principal duties
to protect and foster; and it has been supposed that it was only
ignorance which imposed on her the endless task. This is absurd. The
Australian methods of producing fire by the friction of two pieces of
wood are perfectly well known, and are illustrated in Howitt's _Native
Tribes of South-East Australia_, pp. 771-773. To carry a brand saves a
little trouble to the men.
The methods employed for producing fire vary considerably in detail, but
are for the most part merely modified applications of concussion or
friction. Lord Avebury has remarked that the working up of stone into
implements must have been followed sooner or later by the discovery of
fire; for in the process of chipping sparks were elicited, and in the
process of polishing heat was generated. The first or concussion method
is still familiar in the flint and steel, which has hardly passed out of
use even in the most civilized countries. Its modifications are
comparatively few and unimportant. The Alaskans and Aleutians take two
pieces of quartz, rub them well with native sulphur, strike them
together till the sulphur catches fire, and then transfer the flame to a
heap of dry grass over which a few feathers have been scattered. Instead
of two pieces of quartz the Eskimos use a piece of quartz and a piece of
iron pyrites. Mr Frederick Boyle saw fire produced by striking broken
china violently against a bamboo, and Bastian observed the same process
in Burma, and Wallace in Ternate. In Cochin China two pieces of bamboo
are considered sufficient, the silicious character of the outside layer
rendering it as good as native flint. The friction methods are more
various. One of the simplest is what E.B. Tylor calls the stick and
groove--"a blunt pointed stick being run along a groove of its own
making in a piece of wood lying on the ground." Much, of course, depends
on the quality of the woods and the expertness of the manipulator. In
Tahiti Charles Darwin saw a native produce fire in a few seconds, but
only succeeded himself after much labour. The same device was employed
in New Zealand, the Sandwich Islands, Tonga, Samoa and the Radak
Islands. Instead of rubbing the movable stick backwards and forwards
other tribes make it rotate rapidly in a round hole in the stationary
piece of wood--thus making what Tylor has happily designated a
fire-drill. This device has been observed in Australia, Kamchatka,
Sumatra and the Carolines, among the Veddahs of Ceylon, throughout a
great part of southern Africa, among the Eskimo and Indian tribes of
North America, in the West Indies, in Central America, and as far south
as the Straits of Magellan. It was also employed by the ancient
Mexicans, and Tylor gives a quaint picture of the operation from a
Mexican MS.--a man half kneeling on the ground is causing the stick to
rotate between the palms of his hands. This simple method of rotation
seems to be very generally in use; but various devices have been
resorted to for the purpose of diminishing the labour and hastening the
result. The Gaucho of the Pampas takes "an elastic stick about 18 in.
long, presses one end to his breast and the other in a hole in a piece
of wood, and then rapidly turns the curved part like a carpenter's
centre-bit." In other cases the rotation is effected by means of a cord
or thong wound round the drill and pulled alternately by this end and
that. In order to steady the drill the Eskimo and others put the upper
end in a socket of ivory or bone which they hold firmly in their mouth.
A further advance was made by the Eskimo and neighbouring tribes, who
applied the principle of the bow-drill; and the still more ingenious
pump-drill was used by the Onondaga Indians. For full descriptions of
these instruments and a rich variety of details connected with
fire-making we must refer the reader to Tylor's valuable chapter in his
_Researches_. These methods of producing fire are but rarely used in
Europe, and only in connexion with superstitious observances. We read in
Wuttke that some time ago the authorities of a Mecklenburg village
ordered a "wild fire" to be lit against a murrain amongst the cattle.
For two hours the men strove vainly to obtain a spark, but the fault was
not to be ascribed to the quality of the wood, or to the dampness of the
atmosphere, but to the stubbornness of an old lady, who, objecting to
the superstition, would not put out her night lamp; such a fire, to be
efficient, must burn alone. At last the strong-minded female was
compelled to give in; fire was obtained---but of bad quality, for it did
not stop the murrain.
It has long been known that the rays of the sun might be concentrated by
a lens or concave mirror. Aristophanes mentions the burning-lens in _The
Clouds_, and the story of Archimedes using a mirror to fire the ships at
Syracuse is familiar to every schoolboy. If Garcilasso de la Vega can be
trusted as an authority the Virgins of the Sun in Peru kindled the
sacred fire with a concave cup set in a great bracelet. In China the
burning-glass is in common use.
To the inquiry how mankind became possessed of fire, the cosmogonies,
those records of pristine speculative thought, do not give any reply
which would not be found in the relations of travellers and historians.
They say in the Tonga Islands that the god of the earthquakes is
likewise the god of fire. At Mangaïa it is told that the great Maui
went down to hell, where he surprised the secret of making fire by
rubbing two pieces of wood together. The Maoris tell the tale
differently. Maui had the fire given to him by his old blind
grandmother, Mahuika, who drew it from the nails of her hands. Wishing
to have a stronger one, he pretended that it had gone out, and so he
obtained fire from her great toe. It was so fierce that every thing
melted before the glow; even Maui and the grandmother herself were
already burning when a deluge, sent from heaven, saved the hero and
the perishing world; but before the waters extinguished all the blaze,
Mahuika shut a few sparks into some trees, and thence men draw it now.
The Maoris have also the legend that thunder is the noise of Tawhaki's
footsteps, and that lightnings flash from his armpits. At Western
Point, Victoria, the Australians say the good old man Pundyil opened
the door of the sun, whose light poured then on earth, and that
Karakorok, the good man's good daughter, seeing the earth to be full
of serpents, went everywhere destroying serpents; but before she had
killed them all, her staff snapped in two, and while it broke, a flame
burst out of it. Here the serpent-killer is a fire-bringer. In the
Persian _Shahnama_ also fire was discovered by a dragon-fighter.
Hushenk, the powerful hero, hurled at the monster a prodigious stone,
which, evaded by the snake, struck a rock and was splintered by it.
"Light shone from the dark pebble, the heart of the rock flashed out
in glory, and fire was seen for the first time in the world." The
snake escaped, but the mystery of fire had been revealed.
North American legends narrate how the great buffalo, careering
through the plains, makes sparks flit in the night, and sets the
prairie ablaze by his hoofs hitting the rocks. We meet the same idea
in the Hindu mythology, which conceives thunder to have been, among
many other things, the clatter of the solar horses on the Akmon or
hard pavement of the sky. The Dakotas claim that their ancestor
obtained fire from the sparks which a friendly panther struck with its
claws, as it scampered upon a stony hill.
Tohil, who gave the Quiches fire by shaking his sandals, was, like
the Mexican Quetzelcoatl, represented by a flint stone. Guamansuri,
the father of the Peruvians, produced the thunder and the lightning by
hurling stones with his sling. The thunderbolts are his children.
Kudai, the great god of the Altaian Tartars, disclosed "the secret of
the stone's edge and the iron's hardness." The Slavonian god of
thunder was depicted with a silex in his hand, or even protruding from
his head. The Lapp Tiermes struck with his hammer upon his own head;
the Scandinavian Thor held a mallet in one hand, a flint in the other.
Taranis, the Gaul, had upon his head a huge mace surrounded by six
little ones. Finnish poems describe how "fire, the child of the sun,
came down from heaven, where it was rocked in a tub of yellow copper,
in a large pail of gold." Ukko, the Esthonian god, sends forth
lightnings, as he strikes his stone with his steel. According to the
Kalewala, the same mighty Ukko struck his sword against his nail, and
from the nail issued the "fiery babe." He gave it to the Wind's
daughter to rock it, but the unwary maiden let it fall in the sea,
where it was swallowed by the great pike, and fire would have been
lost for ever if the child of the sun had not come to the rescue. He
dragged the great pike from the water, drew out his entrails, and
found there the heavenly spark still alive. Prometheus brought to
earth the torch he had lighted at the sun's chariot.
Human culture may be said to have begun with fire, of which the uses
increased in the same ratio as culture itself. To save the labour
expended on the initial process of procuring light, or on carrying it
about constantly, primitive men hit on the expedient of a fire which
should burn night and day in a public building. The Egyptians had one in
every temple, the Greeks, Latins and Persians in all towns and villages.
The Natchez, the Aztecs, the Mayas, the Peruvians had their "national
fires" burning upon large pyramids. Of these fires the "eternal lamps"
in the synagogues, in the Byzantine and Catholic churches, may be a
survival. The "Regia," Rome's sacred centre, supposed to be the abode of
Vesta, stood close to a fountain; it was convenient to draw from the
same spot the two great requisites, fire and water. All civil and
political interests grouped themselves around the prytaneum which was at
once a temple, a tribunal, a town-hall, and a gossiping resort: all
public business and most private affairs were transacted by the light
and in the warmth of the common fire. No wonder that its flagstones
should become sacred. Primitive communities consider as holy everything
that ensures their existence and promotes their welfare, material things
such as fire and water not less than others. Thus the prytaneum grew
into a religious institution. And if we hear a little more of fire
worship than of water worship, it is because fire, being on the whole
more difficult to obtain, was esteemed more precious. The prytaneum and
the state were convertible terms. If by chance the fire in the Roman
temple of Vesta was extinguished, all tribunals, all authority, all
public or private business had to stop immediately. The connexion
between heaven and earth had been broken, and it had to be restored in
some way or other--either by Jove sending down divine lightning on his
altars, or by the priests making a new fire by the old sacred method of
rubbing two pieces of wood together, or by catching the rays of the sun
in a concave mirror. No Greek or Roman army crossed the frontier without
carrying an altar where the fire taken from the prytaneum burned night
and day. When the Greeks sent out colonies the emigrants took with them
living coals from the altar of Hestia, and had in their new country a
fire lit as a representative of that burning in the mother country.[1]
Not before the three curiae united their fires into one could Rome
become powerful; and Athens became a shining light to the world only,
we are told, when the twelve tribes of Attica, led by Theseus, brought
each its brand to the altar of Athene Polias. All Greece confederated,
making Delphi its central hearth; and the islands congregated around
Delos, whence the new fire was fetched every year.
_Periodic Fires._--Because the sun loses its force after noon, and after
midsummer daily shortens the length of its circuit, the ancients
inferred, and primitive populations still believe, that, as time goes
on, the energies of fire must necessarily decline. Therefore men set
about renewing the fires in the temples and on the hearth on the longest
day of summer or at the beginning of the agricultural year. The ceremony
was attended with much rejoicing, banqueting and many religious rites.
Houses were thoroughly cleansed; people bathed, and underwent
lustrations and purifications; new clothes were put on; quarrels were
made up; debts were paid by the debtor or remitted by the creditor;
criminals were released by the civil authorities in imitation of the
heavenly judges, who were believed to grant on the same day a general
remission of sins. All things were made new; each man turned over a new
page in the book of his existence. Some nations, like the Etruscans in
the Old World and the Peruvians and Mexicans in the New, carried these
ideas to a high degree of development, and celebrated with magnificent
ceremonies the renewal of the _saecula_, or astronomic periods, which
might be shorter or longer than a century. Some details of the festival
among the Aztecs have been preserved. On the last night of every period
(52 years) every fire was extinguished, and men proceeded in solemn
procession to some sacred spot, where, with awe and trembling, the
priests strove to kindle a new fire by friction. It was as if they had a
vague idea that the cosmos, with its sun, moon and stars, had been wound
up like a clock for a definite period of time. And had they failed to
raise the vital spark, they would have believed that it was because the
great fire was being extinguished at the central hearth of the world.
The Stoics and many other ancient philosophers thought that the world
was doomed to final extinction by fire. The Scandinavian bards sung the
end of the world, how at last the wolf Fenrir would get loose, how the
cruel fire of Loki would destroy itself by destroying everything. The
Essenes enlarged upon this doctrine, which is also found in the
Sibylline books and appears in the Apocrypha (2 Esdras xvi. 15).
See Dupuis, _Origine de tous les cultes_ (1794); Burnout, _Science des
religions_; Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_, cap. xx. (1835); Adalbert
Kuhn. _Die Herabkunft des Feuers und des Göttertranks_ (1859);
Steinthal, _Über die ursprüngliche Form der Sage von Prometheus_
(1861); Albert Reville, "Le Mythe de Prométhée," in _Revue des deux
mondes_ (August 1862); Michel Bréal, _Hercule et Cacus_ (1863); Tylor,
_Researches into the Early History of Mankind_, ch. ix. (1865);
Bachofen, _Die Sage von Tanaquil_ (1870); Lord Avebury, _Prehistoric
Times_ (6th ed., 1900); Haug, _Religion of the Parsis_ (1878).
(E. Re.)
FOOTNOTE:
[1] Curiously enough we see the same institution obtaining among the
Damaras of South Africa, where the chiefs, who sway their people with
a sort of priestly authority, commit to their daughters the care of a
so-called eternal fire. From its hearth younger scions separating
from the parent stock take away a burning brand to their new home.
The use of a common prytaneum, of circular form, like the Roman
temple of Vesta, testified to the common origin of the North American
Assinais and Maichas. The Mobiles, the Chippewas, the Natchez, had
each a corporation of Vestals. If the Natchez let their fire die out,
they were bound to renew it from the Mobiles. The Moquis, Pueblos and
Comanches had also their perpetual fires. The Redskins discussed
important affairs of state at the "council fires," around which each
_sachem_ marched three times, turning to it all the sides of his
person. "It was a saying among our ancestors," said an Iroquois chief
in 1753, "that when the fire goes out at Onondaga"--the Delphi of the
league--"we shall no longer be a people."
FIRE AND FIRE EXTINCTION. Fire is considered in this article, primarily,
from the point of view of the protection against fire that can be
accorded by preventive measures and by the organization of fire
extinguishing establishments.
History is full of accounts of devastation caused by fires in towns and
cities of nearly every country in the civilized world. The following is
a list of notable fires of early days:--
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND
798. _London_, nearly destroyed.
982. " greater part of the city burned.
1086. " all houses and churches from the east to the west gate
burned.
1212. " greater part of the city burned.
1666. " "The Great Fire," September 2-6.
It began in a wooden house in Pudding Lane, and burned
for three days, consuming the buildings on 436 acres,
400 streets, lanes, &c., 13,200 houses, with St Paul's
church, 86 parish churches, 6 chapels, the guild-hall,
the royal exchange, the custom-house, many hospitals
and libraries, 52 companies' halls, and a vast number
of other stately edifices, together with three of the
city gates, four stone bridges, and the prisons of
Newgate, the Fleet, and the Poultry and Wood Street
Compters. The fire swept from the Tower to Temple
church, and from the N.E. gate to Holborn bridge. Six
persons were killed. The total loss of property was
estimated at the time to be £10,731,500.
1794. _London_, 630 houses destroyed at Wapping. Loss above
£1,000,000.
1834. " Houses of Parliament burned.
1861. " Tooley Street wharves, &c., burned. Loss estimated at
£2,000,000.
1873. " Alexandra palace destroyed.
1137. _York_, totally destroyed.
1184. _Glastonbury_, town and abbey burned.
1292. _Carlisle_, destroyed.
1507. _Norwich_, nearly destroyed; 718 houses burned.
1544. _Leith_, burned.
1598. _Tiverton_, 400 houses and a large number of horses burned; 33
persons killed. Loss, £150,000.
1612. " 600 houses burned. Loss over £200,000.
1731. " 300 houses burned.
1700. _Edinburgh_, "the Great Fire."
1612. _Cork_, greater part burned, and again in 1622.
1613. _Dorchester_, nearly destroyed. Loss, £200,000.
1614. _Stratford-on-Avon_, burned.
1644. _Beaminster_, burned. Again in 1684 and 1781.
1675. _Northampton_, almost totally destroyed.
1683. _Newmarket_, large part of the town burned.
1694. _Warwick_, more than half burned; rebuilt by national contribution.
1707. _Lisburn_, burned.
1727. _Gravesend_, destroyed.
1738. _Wellingborough_, 800 houses burned.
1743. _Crediton_, 450 houses destroyed.
1760. _Portsmouth_, dockyard burned. Loss, £400,000.
1770. " " " Loss, £100,000.
1802. _Liverpool_, destructive fire. Loss, £1,000,000.
1827. _Sheerness_, 50 houses and much property destroyed.
1854. _Gateshead_, 50 persons killed. Loss, £1,000,000.
1875. _Glasgow_. Great fire. Loss, £300,000.
FRANCE
59. _Lyons_, burned to ashes. Nero offers to rebuild it.
1118. _Nantes_, greater part of the city destroyed.
1137. _Dijon_, burned.
1524. _Troyes_, nearly destroyed.
1720. _Rennes_, on fire from December 22 to 29. 850 houses burned.
1784. _Brest_. Fire and explosion in dockyard. Loss, £1,000,000.
1862. _Marseilles_, destructive fire.
1871. _Paris_. Communist devastations. Property destroyed,
£32,000,000.
CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN EUROPE
64. _Rome_ burned during 8 days. 10 of the 14 wards of the city were
destroyed.
1106. _Venice_, greater part of the city was burned.
1577. " fire at the arsenal, greater part of the city ruined by
an explosion.
1299. _Weimar_, destructive fire; also in 1424 and 1618.
1379. _Memel_ was in large part destroyed, and again in 1457, 1540,
1678, 1854.
1405. _Bern_ was destroyed.
1420. _Leipzig_ lost 400 houses.
1457. _Dort_, cathedral and large part of the town burned.
1491. _Dresden_ was destroyed.
1521. _Oviedo_, large part of the city destroyed.
1543. _Komorn_ was burned.
1634. _Fürth_ was burned by Austrian Croats.
1680. _Fürth_ was again destroyed.
1686. _Landau_ was almost destroyed.
1758. _Pirna_ was burned by Prussians. 260 houses destroyed.
1762. _Munich_ lost 200 houses.
1764. _Königsberg_, public buildings, &c., burned. Loss, £600,000.
1769. " almost destroyed.
1784. _Rokitzan_ (Bohemia) was totally destroyed. Loss, £300,000.
1801. _Brody_, 1500 houses destroyed.
1859. " 1000 houses destroyed.
1803. _Posen_, large part of older portion of city burned.
1811. Forest fires in Tyrol destroyed 64 villages and hamlets.
1818. _Salzburg_ was partly destroyed.
1842. _Hamburg_. A fire raged for 100 hours, May 5-7.
During the fire the city was in a state of anarchy. 4219
buildings, including 2000 dwellings, were destroyed.
One-fifth of the population was made homeless, and 100
persons lost their lives. The total loss amounted to
£7,000,000. After the fire, contributions from all Germany
came in to help to rebuild the city.
1861. _Glarus_ (Switzerland), 500 houses burned.
NORTHERN EUROPE
1530. _Aalborg_, almost entirely destroyed.
1541. _Aarhuus_, almost entirely destroyed, and again in 1556.
1624. _Opslo_, nearly destroyed. Christiania was built on the site.
1702. _Bergen_, greater part of the town destroyed.
1728. _Copenhagen_, nearly destroyed. 1650 houses burned, 77 streets.
1794. " royal palace with contents burned.
1795. " 50 streets, 1563 houses burned.
1751. _Stockholm_, 1000 houses destroyed.
1759. " 250 houses burned. Loss, 2,000,000 crowns.
1775. _Åbo_, 200 houses and 15 mills burned.
1827. " 780 houses burned, with the university.
1790. _Carlscrona_, 1087 houses, churches, warehouses, &c., destroyed.
1802. _Gothenburg_, 178 houses burned.
1858. _Christiania_. Loss estimated at £250,000.
1865. _Carlstadt_ (Sweden), everything burned except the bishop's
residence, hospital and jail. 10 lives lost.
RUSSIA
1736. _St Petersburg_, 2000 houses burned.
1862. " great fire. Loss, £1,000,000.
1752. _Moscow_, 18,000 houses burned.
1812. " The Russians fired the city on September 14 to drive
out the army of Napoleon. The fire continued five
days. Nine-tenths of the city was destroyed. Number
of houses burned, 30,800. Loss, £30,000,000.
1753. _Archangel_, 900 houses burned.
1793. " 3000 buildings and the cathedral burned.
1786. _Tobolsk_, nearly destroyed.
1788. _Milau_, nearly destroyed.
1812. _Riga_, partly destroyed.
1834. _Tula_, destructive fire.
1848. _Orel_, large part of the town destroyed.
1850. _Cracow_, large part of the town burned.
1864. _Novgorod_, large amount of property destroyed.
TURKEY
The following fires have occurred at _Constantinople_:--
1729. A great fire destroyed 12,000 houses and 7000 people.
1745. A fire lasted five days.
1750. In January, 10,000 houses burned; in April, property destroyed
estimated from £1,000,000 to £3,000,000. Later in the year
10,000 houses were destroyed.
1751. 4000 houses were burned.
1756. 15,000 houses and 100 people destroyed. During the years 1761,
1765 and 1767 great havoc was made by fire.
1769. July 17. A fire raged for twelve hours, extending nearly 1 m.
in length. Many of the palaces, some small mosques and nearly
650 houses were destroyed.
1771. A fire lasting 15 hours consumed 2500 houses and shops.
1778. 2000 houses were burned.
1782. August 12. A fire burned three days: 10,000 houses, 50
mosques and 100 corn mills destroyed; 100 lives lost. In
February, 600 houses burned; in June, 7000 more.
1784. August 5. A fire burned for 26 hours and destroyed 10,000
houses, most of which had been rebuilt since the fires of
1782. In the same year, March 13, a fire in the suburb of
Pera destroyed two-thirds of that quarter. Loss estimated at
2,000,000 florins.
1791. Between March and July 32,000 houses are said to have been
burned, and as many in 1795.
1799. In the suburb of Pera 13,000 houses were burned and many
magnificent buildings.
1816. August 16. 12,000 houses and 3000 shops in the finest quarter
were destroyed.
1818. August 13. A fire destroyed several thousand houses.
1826. A fire destroyed 6000 houses.
1848. 500 houses and 2000 shops destroyed. Loss estimated at
£3,000,000.
1865. A great fire destroyed 2800 houses, public buildings, &c.
Over 22,000 people were left homeless.
1870. June 5. The suburb of Pera, occupied by the foreign population
and native Christians, was swept by a fire which destroyed
over 7000 buildings, many of them among the best in the city,
including the residence of the foreign legations. Loss
estimated at nearly £5,000,000.
1797. _Scutari_, the town of 3000 houses totally destroyed.
1763. _Smyrna_, 2600 houses consumed. Loss, £200,000.
1772. " 3000 dwellings burned. 3000 to 4000 shops, &c.
consumed. Loss, £4,000,000.
1796. " 4000 shops, mosques, magazines, &c., burned.
1841. " 12,000 houses were burned.
INDIA
1631. _Rajmahal_. Palace and great part of the town burned.
1799. _Manilla_, vast storehouses were burned.
1833. " 10,000 huts were burned, March 26. 30,000 people
rendered homeless, and 50 lives lost.
1803. _Madras_, more than 1000 houses burned.
1803. _Bombay_. Loss by fire of £600,000.
CHINA AND JAPAN
1822. _Canton_ was nearly destroyed by fire.
1866. _Yokohama_, two-thirds of the native town and one-sixth of the
foreign settlement destroyed.
1872. _Yeddo_. A fire occurred in April during a gale of wind,
destroying buildings covering a space of 6 sq. m.
20,000 persons were made homeless.
1873. " A fire destroyed 10,000 houses.
UNITED STATES
1679. _Boston_. All the warehouses, 80 dwellings, and the vessels in
the dockyards were consumed. Loss, £200,000.
1760. " A fire caused a loss estimated at £100,000.
1787. " A fire consumed 100 buildings, February 20.
1794. " 96 buildings were burned. Loss, £42,000.
1872. " Great fire, November 9-10. By this fire the richest
quarter of Boston was destroyed.
The fire commenced at the corner of Summer and Kingston
streets. The area burned over was 65 acres. 776 buildings,
comprising the largest granite and brick warehouses of the
city, filled with merchandise, were burned. The loss was about
£15,000,000. Before the end of the year 1876 the burned
district had been rebuilt more substantially than ever.
1778. _Charleston_ (S.C.). A fire caused the loss of £100,000.
1796. " 300 houses were burned.
1838. " One-half the city was burned on April 27. 1158
buildings destroyed. Loss, £600,000.
1802. _Portsmouth_ (N.H.), 102 buildings destroyed.
1813. " 397 buildings destroyed.
1820. _Savannah_, 463 buildings were burned. Loss, £800,000.
1835. _New York_. The great fire of New York began in Merchant
Street, December 16, and burned 530 buildings in
the business part of the city. 1000 mercantile
firms lost their places of business. The area
burned over was 52 acres. The loss was £3,000,000.
1845. " A fire in the business part of the city, July 20,
destroyed 300 buildings. The loss was £1,500,000.
35 persons were killed.
1845. _Pittsburg_. A large part of the city burned, April 11. 20
squares, 1100 buildings destroyed. Loss, £2,000,000.
1846. _Nantucket_ was almost destroyed.
1848. _Albany_. 600 houses burned, August 17. Area burned over 37
acres, one-third of the city. Loss, £600,000.
1849. _St Louis_. 23 steamboats at the wharves, and the whole or part
of 15 blocks of the city burned, May 17. Loss,
£600,000.
1851. " More than three-quarters of the city was burned,
May 4. 2500 buildings. Loss, £2,200,000.
1851. " 500 buildings burned. Loss, £600,000.
1850. _Philadelphia_. 400 buildings burned, July 9. 30 lives lost.
Loss, £200,000.
1865. " 50 buildings burned, February 8. 20 persons
killed. Loss, £100,000.
1851. _Washington_. Part of the Capitol and the whole of the
Congressional Library were burned.
1851. _San Francisco_. On May 4-5 a fire destroyed 2500 buildings.
A number of lives lost. More than three-fourths of the city
destroyed. Loss, upwards of £2,000,000. In June another fire
burned 500 buildings. Loss estimated at £600,000.
1857. _Chicago_. A fire destroyed over £100,000. 14 lives lost.
1859. " Property destroyed worth £100,000, Sept. 15.
1866. " Two fires on August 10 and November 18. Loss,
£100,000 each.
1871. " The greatest fire of modern times.
It began in a barn on the night of the 8th of October and
raged until the 10th. The area burned over was 2124 acres, or
3-1/3 sq. m., of the very heart of the city. 250 lives were
lost, 98,500 persons were made homeless, and 17,430 buildings
were consumed. The buildings were one-third in number and
one-half in value of the buildings of the city. Before the
end of 1875 the whole burned district had been rebuilt. The
loss was estimated at £39,000,000.
1862. _Troy_ (N.Y.) was nearly destroyed by fire.
1866. _Portland_ (Maine). Great fire on July 4. One-half of the city
was burned; 200 acres were ravaged; 50 buildings were blown
up to stop the progress of the fire. Loss, £2,000,000 to
£2,250,000.
1871. October. Forest and prairie fires in Wisconsin and Michigan.
15,000 persons were made homeless; 1000 lives lost. Loss
estimated at £600,000.
BRITISH NORTH AMERICA
1815. _Quebec_ was injured to the extent of £260,000.
1845. " 1650 houses were burned, May 28. One-third of the
population made homeless. Loss from £400,000 to
£750,000. Another fire, on June 28, consumed 1300
dwellings. 6000 persons were made homeless. 30
streets destroyed. Insurance losses, £60,770.
1866. " 2500 houses and 17 churches in French quarter burned.
1825. _New Brunswick_. A tract of 4,000,000 acres, more than 100 m. in
length, was burned over; it included many towns. 160 persons
killed, and 875 head of cattle. 590 buildings burned. Loss,
about £60,000. Towns of Newcastle, Chatham and Douglastown
destroyed.
1837. _St John_ (New Brunswick). 115 houses burned, January 13, and
nearly all the business part of the city. Loss, £1,000,000.
1877. _St. John._ Great fire on June 21. The area burned over was 200
acres. 37 streets and squares totally or in part destroyed;
10 m. of streets; 1650 dwellings. 18 lives lost. Total loss,
£2,500,000. Two-fifths of the city burned.
1846. _St John's_ (Newfoundland) was nearly destroyed, June 9. Two
whole streets burned upwards of 1 m. long. Loss estimated at
£1,000,000.
1850. _Montreal_. A fire destroyed the finest part of the city on
June 7. 200 houses were burned.
1852. " A fire on July 9 rendered 10,000 people destitute.
The space burned was 1 m. in length by ½ m. in
width, including 1200 houses. Loss, £1,000,000.
SOUTH AMERICA
1536. _Cuzco_ was nearly consumed.
1861. _Mendoza_. A great fire followed an earthquake which had
destroyed 10,000 people.
1862. _Valparaiso_ was devastated by fire.
1863. _Santiago_. Fire in the Jesuit church; 2000 persons, mostly
women and children, perished.
WEST INDIES
1752. _Pierre_ (Martinique) had 700 houses burned.
1782. _Kingston_ (Jamaica) had 80 houses burned. Loss, £500,000.
1795. _Montego Bay_ (Jamaica). Loss by fire of £400,000.
1805. _St Thomas._ 900 warehouses consumed. Loss, £6,000,000.
1808. _Spanish Town_ (Trinidad) was totally destroyed. Loss estimated
at £1,500,000.
1828. _Havana_ lost 350 houses; 2000 persons reduced to poverty.
1843. _Port Republicain_ (Haiti). Nearly one-third of the town was
burned.
Since this list was compiled, there have been further notable fires,
more particularly in North America, the great conflagrations at Chicago,
Baltimore and San Francisco being terrible examples. But speaking
generally, these conflagrations, extensive as they were, only repeated
the earlier lessons as to the necessity of combating the general
negligence of the public by attaching far greater importance to the
development of fire-preventive measures even than to the better
organization of the fire-fighting establishments.
It may be of interest to mention notable fires in the British empire,
and London in particular, during the decade 1890 to 1899:--
Port of Spain (Trinidad) March 4, 1895
New Westminster (British Columbia) Sept. 10, 1898
Toronto (Ontario) Jan. 6, 10, and
March 3, 1895
Windsor (Nova Scotia) Oct. 17, 1897
St John's (Newfoundland) July 8, 1892
London--Charterhouse Square Dec. 25, 1889
" St Mary Axe July 18, 1893
" Old Bailey and Fleet Street Nov. 15, 1893
" Tabernacle Street, Finsbury June 21, 1894
" Bermondsey Leather Market Sept. 13, 1894
" " " " May 17, 1895
" Minories Nov. 10, 1894
" South-West India Docks Feb. 8, 1895
" Charlotte and Leonard
Streets, Finsbury June 10, 1896
" Cripplegate Nov. 19, 1897
Nottingham Nov. 17, 1894
Sheffield Dec. 21, 1893
Bradford Nov. 30, 1896
Sunderland July 18, 1898
Dublin May 4, 1894
Glasgow--Anderston Quay Jan. 16, 1897
" Dunlop Street April 25, 1898
As to fires in any one specific class of building, the extraordinary
number of fires that occurred in theatres and similar places of public
entertainment up to the close of the 19th century calls for mention.
Since that time, however, there has been a considerable abatement in
this respect, owing to the adoption of successful measures of fire
prevention. A list of some 1100 fires was published by Edwin O. Sachs in
1897 (_Fires at Public Entertainments_), and the results of these fires
analysed. They involved a recorded loss of life to the extent of 9350
souls. About half of them (584) occurred in Europe, and the remainder in
other parts of the world. Since the publication of that list
extraordinary efforts have been made in all countries to reduce the risk
of fires in public entertainments. The only notable disaster that has
occurred since was that at the Iroquois Theatre at Chicago.
The annual drain in loss of life and in property through fires is far
greater than is generally realized, and although the loss of life and
property is being materially reduced from year to year, mainly by the
fire-preventive measures that are now making themselves felt, the annual
fire wastage of the world still averages quite £50,000,000 sterling. It
is extremely difficult to obtain precise data as to the fire loss,
insured and uninsured, but it may be assumed that in Great Britain the
annual average loss by fire, towards the end of the 19th century (say
1897), was about £17,000,000 sterling, and that this had been materially
reduced by 1909 to probably somewhere about £12,000,000 sterling. This
extraordinary diminution in the fire waste of Great Britain,--in spite
of the daily increasing number of houses, and the increasing amount of
property in buildings--is in the main owing to the fire-preventive
measures, which have led to a better class of new building and a great
improvement in existing structures, and further, to a greater display of
intelligence and interest in general fire precautionary measures by the
public.
Notable improvements in the fire service have been effected, more
particularly in London and in the country towns of the south of England
since 1903. The International Fire Exhibition held in 1903 at Earl's
Court, and the Fire Prevention Congress of the same year, may be said to
have revolutionized thought on the subject of fire brigade organization
and equipment in the British empire; but, for all that, the advance made
by the fire service has not been so rapid as the development of the
fire-preventive side of fire protection.
_Fire Protection._--The term "Fire Protection" is often misunderstood.
Fire-extinguishing--in other words, fire brigade work--is what the
majority understand by it, and many towns consider themselves well
protected if they can boast of an efficiently manned fire-engine
establishment. The fire brigade as such, however, has but a minor rôle
in a rational system of protection. Really well-protected towns owe
their condition in the first place to properly applied preventive
legislation, based on the practical experience and research of
architects, engineers, fire experts and insurance and municipal
officials. Fire protection is a combination of fire prevention, fire
combating and fire research.
Under the heading of "Fire Prevention" should be classed all preventive
measures, including the education of the public; and under the heading
"Fire Combating" should be classed both self-help and outside help.
Preventive measures may be the result of private initiative, but as a
rule they are defined by the local authority, and contained partly in
Building Acts, and partly in separate codes of fire-survey
regulations--supplemented, if necessary, by special rules as to the
treatment of extraordinary risks, such as the storage of petroleum, the
manufacture of explosives, and theatrical performances. The education of
the public may be simply such as can be begun informally at school and
continued by official or semi-official warnings, and a judicious
arrangement with the newspapers as to the tendency of their fire
reports.
Such forms of training have already been successfully introduced.
There are English towns where the authorities have, for instance, had
some of the meaningless fables of the old elementary school _Standard
Reader_ replaced by more instructive ones, which warn children not to
play with matches, and teach them to run for help in case of an
emergency. Instructive copy-book headings have been arranged in place
of the meaningless sentences so often used in elementary schools.
There are a number of municipalities where regular warnings are issued
every December as to the dangerous Christmas-tree. In such places
every inhabitant has at least an opportunity of learning how to throw
a bucket of water properly, and how to trip up a burning woman and
roll her up without fanning the flames. The householder is officially
informed where the nearest fire-call point is, and how long he must
expect to wait till the first engine can reach his house. If he is a
newspaper reader, he will also have ample opportunity of knowing the
resources of his town, and the local reporter's fire report will give
him much useful information based on facts or hints supplied by the
authorities.
Both self-help and outside help must be classed under the heading of
"Fire Combating." Self-help mainly deals with the protection of large
risks, such as factories, stores and public places of amusement, which
lend themselves to regulation. The requirements of the fire survey code
may allow for hydrants or sprinklers in certain risks, and also for
their regular inspection, and the means for self-help may thus be given.
These means will, however, probably not be properly employed unless some
of the employés engaged on the risk are instructed as to their purpose,
and have confidence in the apparatus at their disposal. The possibility
of proper self-help in dangerous risks may be encouraged by enforcing
regular drills for the employés, and regular inspections to test their
efficiency. There are towns where great reliance is placed on the
efforts of such amateur firemen. In some cities they even receive extra
pay and are formed into units, properly uniformed and equipped, and
retained by the fire brigade as a reserve force for emergencies.
Self-help for the shopkeeper, the lodger or the householder can scarcely
be regulated. The opportunities already mentioned for the education of
the public, if properly utilized, would assure intelligent behaviour on
the part of a large percentage of the community. There are places where,
without any regulation being attempted, and thanks entirely to the
influence referred to, most residences can boast of a hand-pump, a
bucket, and a crowbar, the proper use of which is known to most of the
household. Self-help in small risks may, however, be distinctly
encouraged by the authorities, without any irksome interference with
personal liberty, simply by the provision of street pillar-boxes, with
the necessaries of first aid, including perhaps a couple of scaling
ladders, and, further, by opportunities being given to householders to
learn how to handle them. If a street pillar-box of this kind be put in
a fire-station, and certain afternoons in the year be reserved on which
this elementary instruction will be given, and the students afterwards
shown over the fire-station or treated to a "turn-out," a considerable
number will be found to take advantage of the opportunity. No matter
whether curiosity or real interest brings them, the object in view will
be attained.
Under "outside" help should be understood what is organized, and not
simply such as is tendered by the casual passer-by or by a neighbour.
The link between self-help and outside help is the fire-call.
_The Fire-Call._--The efficiency of the fire-call depends not only on
the instrument employed and its position, but also on its conspicuous
appearance, and the indications by which its situation may be
discovered. These indications are quite as important as the instruments
themselves. The conspicuousness of the instrument alone does not
suffice. Of the official notifications given in the press, those in
regard to the position of the call-points are among the most useful. An
indication at every street corner as to the direction to take to reach
the point--or perhaps better, the conspicuous advertisement Of the
nearest call-point over every post pillar-box and inside every front
door--may enable the veriest stranger to call assistance, and minimize
the chances of time being lost in search of the instrument. It is
immaterial for the moment whether the helpers are called by bell outside
a fire-station, by a messenger from some special messenger service, by a
call through a telephone, or by an electric or automatic appliance. Any
instrument will do that ensures the call being transmitted with maximum
speed and certainty and in full accord with the requirements of the
locality.
_Outside Help._--Organized outside help may not be limited simply to the
attendance of the fire brigade. Special arrangements can be made for the
attendance of the local police force, a public or private salvage corps,
an ambulance, or, in some cases, a military guard. Then in some
instances arrangements are made for the attendance of the water and gas
companies' servants, and even officials from the public works office,
insurance surveyors, and the Press. There are places where the salvage
corps arrives on the scene almost simultaneously with the fire brigade,
and others where the police are generally on the spot in good force five
minutes after the arrival of the first engines. There are several cities
where the ambulance wagon and the steamers arrive together, and another
city where the military authorities always send a fire piquet which can
be turned out in a few minutes.
If all these helpers come together, no matter how high the rank of the
individual commanders, the senior officer of the fire brigade, even if
he holds only non-commissioned officer's rank, should have control, and
his authority be fully recognized. Unfortunately, there are not many
countries where this is the case. The efficiency of outside help depends
in the first instance on the clear definition of the duties and powers
of all concerned--on the legal foundation, in fact; then on the
organization, the theoretically as well as practically correct
executive; and, last but by no means least, on the prestige, the social
standing, the education of commanders and their ability to handle men.
Among the rank and file of the brigade, clear-headedness, pluck,
smartness and agility will be as invaluable as reckless dare-devilry;
showy acrobatism, or an unhealthy ambition for public applause, will be
dangerous.
_Research._--Under the heading "Fire Research" should be included
theoretical and experimental investigation as to materials and
construction, combined with the chronicling of practical experience in
fires, then the careful investigation and chronicling of the causes of
fires, assisted where necessary by a power for holding fire inquests in
interesting, suspicious or fatal cases. Experimental investigation as to
natural and accidental causes as distinct from criminal causes can be
included. Research in criminal cases may be assisted not only by a fire
inquest, but also by immediate formal inquiries held on the spot, by the
senior fire brigade and police officers present, or by immediate
government investigations held on the same lines as inquiries into
explosions and railway accidents.[1] As to general research work, there
are several cities which contribute substantially towards the costs of
fire tests at independent testing stations. Some towns also have special
commissions of experts who visit all big fires occurring within easy
travelling distance, take photographs and sketches, and issue reports as
to how the materials were affected. Then there are the usual statistics
as to outbreaks, their recurrence and causes, and in some places such
tables are supplemented by reports on experiments with oil lamps, their
burners and wicks, electric wiring, and the like.
_The British Fire Prevention Committee._--The British Fire Prevention
Committee is an organization founded a few days after the great
Cripplegate (London) fire in 1897, and incorporated in February 1899.
It comprises some 500 members and subscribers. The members include
civil engineers, public officials holding government appointments,
fire chiefs, insurance surveyors and architects, whilst the
subscribers in the main include the great public departments, such as
the admiralty and war office, and municipalities, such as the
important corporations of Glasgow, Liverpool and the like. Colonial
government departments and municipalities are also on the roll,
together with a certain number of colonial members. New Zealand has
formed a special section having its own local honorary secretary. The
ordinary work of the committee is carried out by a council and an
executive, and the necessary funds are provided by the subscription of
members and subscribers. The services of the members of council and
executive are given gratuitously, no out-of-pocket expenses of any
kind being refunded. Whilst the routine work deals mainly with
questions of regulations, rules and publications of general technical
interest, the tests are probably what have brought the committee into
prominence and given it an international reputation. They are not only
the recognized fire tests of Great Britain, but they rank as universal
standard tests for the whole of the civilized world, and Americans,
just as much as Danes, Germans or Austrians, pride themselves when
some product of their country has passed the official procedure of a
test by the committee. The reports of the tests, which state facts
only without giving criticisms or recommendations, are much
appreciated by all who have the control of public works or the
specification of appliances. The committee does not limit itself
solely to testing proprietary forms of construction or appliances, but
has a number of tests--quite equal to the proprietary tests--of
articles in general use. The ordinary concrete floor or the ordinary
wooden joist floor protected by asbestos boards or slag wool receives
as much attention as a patent floor; and similarly the ordinary
everyday hydrant receives equal attention with the patent hydrant, or
ordinary bucket of water with the special fire extinguisher. The door
tests of the committee, which cover some thirty different types of
doors, deal with no less than twenty ordinary wooden doors that can be
made by any ordinary builder or cabinet-maker. These so-called
non-proprietary tests are made at the expense of the general funds of
the committee, whilst for the proprietary tests the owners have to pay
about two-thirds of the expenses incurred in the form of a testing
fee. The expenses incurred in a test, of course, not only comprise the
actual testing operation of testing, but also the expense of producing
the report, which is always a very highly finished publication with
excellent blocks. The expense incurred also includes the establishment
expenses of the testing station at Regent's Park.
The British Fire Prevention Committee organized the great Fire
Exhibition and International Fire Congress of London in 1903, in both
of which it enjoyed the support and assistance of the National Fire
Brigades Union and the Association of Professional Fire Chiefs. It
from time to time despatches special commissions to the continent of
Europe, and these visits are followed by the issue of official
reports, well illustrated, presenting the appliances, rules and
methods of the countries visited, and serving as most useful reference
publications.
Taken generally, the whole of the work of the committee, both in
respect of scientific investigations and propagandism, has been most
beneficial. Fire waste has been materially reduced, regardless of the
fact of the greater fire hazards and the ever-growing amount of
property. In Great Britain alone the sum saved in fire wastage
annually is about £5,000,000. This great annual saving has been
obtained at an expenditure in research work, as far as the British
Fire Prevention Committee is concerned, of about £23,000, of which
more than half was provided by the membership in voluntary
contributions or subscriptions.
There is no similar institution anywhere in the world, although
several government laboratories occasionally undertake fire tests,
notably the Gross Lichterfelde laboratory near Berlin, and several
insurance corporations have testing plants, notably the American
Underwriters at Chicago. The efforts at research work outside Great
Britain have, however, been spasmodic and in no way compare with the
systematic series of inquiries conducted without any substantial state
aid in London.
_Distribution of Losses._--Property destroyed by fire is practically an
absolute loss. This loss may actually only affect the owner, or it may
be distributed among a number of people, who are taxed for it in the
form of a contribution to their national or local fire fund, a share in
some mutual insurance "ring," or the more usual insurance companies'
premium. In the first two cases some expenses have also to be met in
connexion with the management of the fund, "tariff" organization, or
"ring." In the last case, not only the expenses of management have to be
covered, but also the costs incurred in running the insurance enterprise
as such, and then a further amount for division amongst those who share
the risk of the venture--namely, the insurance company's shareholders.
It is well to distinguish between loss and mere expenditure. The
sinking fund of the large property owner should cover a loss with a
minimum extra expense; insurance in an extravagantly managed company
paying large dividends will cover a loss, but with an unnecessarily
large extra outlay. In every case the loss remains; and as property
may always be considered part of the community, the province or
nation, as the case may be, suffers. It is always in the interest of a
nation to minimize its national losses, no matter whether they fall on
one individual's shoulders or on many, and whether such losses are
good for certain trades or not. With a suitable system of fire
protection it is possible to bring these losses to a minimum, but this
minimum would probably only be reached by an extra expense, which
would fall heavier on the insurers' pockets in the form of municipal
rates than the higher premium for the greater risk. A practical
minimum is all that can be attempted, and that practical minimum
varies according to circumstances.
Practical protection must mean smaller annual insurance dues, and the
actual extra cost of this protection should be something less than the
saving off these dues. Then not only has the nation a smaller dead
loss, but the owner also has a smaller annual expenditure for his
combined contributions toward the losses, the management of his
insurance, and the protective measures. Where there is mutual
insurance or municipal insurance in its best sense, the losses by fire
and the costs of the protection are often booked in one account, and
the better protection up to a certain point should mean a smaller
individual annual share. Where there is company insurance the
municipal rates are increased to cover the cost of extra protection,
while a proportionate decrease is expected in the insurance premiums.
Competition and public opinion generally impose this decrease of the
insurance rates as soon as there is a greater immunity from fire.
Where the insurance companies are well managed and the shareholders
are satisfied with reasonable dividends, practical protection can be
said to find favour with all concerned, but if the protection is
arranged for and the companies do not moderate their charges
accordingly, the reverse is the case.
The position of insurance companies subscribing towards the
maintenance of a fire brigade should here be referred to, as there is
considerable misunderstanding on the subject. The argument which
municipalities or fire brigade organizations often use is to the
effect that the insurance companies derive all the profit from a good
fire service, and should contribute towards its cost. Where properly
managed companies have the business, a better fire service, however,
means a smaller premium to the ratepayer. If the ratepayer has to pay
for extra protection in the form of an increased municipal rate, or in
the form of an increased premium raised to meet the contribution
levied, this is simply juggling with figures.
_Cost._--As to the cost of a practical system of fire protection, better
and safer building from the fire point of view means better and more
valuable structures of longer life from the economic aspect. Such better
and safer constructional work pays for itself and cannot be considered
in the light of an extra tax on the building owner. The compilation and
administration of the fire protective clauses in a Building Act would be
attended to by the same executive authorities as would in any case
superintend general structural matters, and the additional work would at
the most require some increased clerical aid. If the execution of the
fire survey regulations were delegated to the same authority there would
again simply be some extra clerical aid to pay for, and the salaries of
perhaps a few extra surveyors. To make the inspections thoroughly
efficient, it has been found advisable in several instances to form
parties of three for the rounds. The second man would, in this case, be
a fire brigade officer, and the third probably a master chimney-sweep,
who would have to receive a special retaining fee.
The cost of the public training referred to would be small, as the
elementary part would simply be included in the schoolmaster's work, and
the Press matters could be easily managed in the fire brigade office.
Payments would have only to be made for advertisements, such as the
official warnings, lists for fire-call points, &c., and perhaps for the
publication of semi-official hints. Self-help, as far as inspection and
drills for amateurs are concerned would be under the control of the fire
brigade. There would, however, be an extra expense for the purchase and
maintenance of the street first-aid appliances referred to.
The most expensive items in the system of fire protection undoubtedly
come under the headings "Fire-Call" and "Fire Brigade." As to the
former, there are a number of cities where the cost is modified by
having the whole of the electrical service for the police force, the
ambulance and fire brigade, managed by a separate department. The same
wires call up each of these services, and, as the same staff attend to
their maintenance, the fire protection of a city need only be debited
with perhaps a third of the outlay it would occasion if managed
independently. The combined system has also the great advantage of
facilitating the mutual working of the different services in case of an
emergency. The indicators which have been referred to involve an outlay;
but here again, if the three services work together, the expenses on the
count of fire protection can be lessened. The money rewards given in
some cities to the individuals who first call the fire-engines may
become a heavy item. Their utility is doubtful, and they have formed an
inducement for arson.
As to the outlay on fire brigade establishment, a strong active force
should be provided, supported by efficient reserves. The latter should
be as inexpensive as possible, but should at least constitute a
part-paid and disciplined body which could be easily called in for
emergencies. Fire brigade budgets cannot allow for an active force being
ready for such coincidences as an unusual number of large fires starting
simultaneously, but they must allow for an ample strength always being
forthcoming for the ordinary emergencies, and this with all due
consideration for men's rest and possible sickness. An undermanned fire
brigade is an anomaly which is generally fatal, not only to the property
owner, but also to the whole efficiency and esprit of the force. The
budget must also allow for an attractive rate of pay, as the profession
is one which requires men who have a maximum of the sterling qualities
which we look for in the pick of a nation. It must also not be
forgotten that the fire service is one of the few where a system of
pensions is the only fair way of recognizing the risks of limb and
health, and at the same time securing that stability in which practical
experience from long service is so essential a factor. The budget must
allow for an ample reserve of appliances.
Whether or not a fire brigade should be so strong as to permit of its
having a separate section for salvage corps purposes depends on
circumstances. Economically a salvage corps is required, and should be
part and parcel of the municipal brigade and organized on the same lines
with a reserve, no matter whether the insurance of the locality be
managed by the authorities or by companies. If a corps is necessary, it
matters little whether it be paid for out of premiums or out of rates.
Of further expenses which have to be considered, there are items for
fire research and fire inquest. If managed economically, due confidence
being placed in the opinions of the fire officers and surveyors, there
is no reason why the outlay should be great. The statistical work would
only require some clerical aid. Where special coroners are retained for
criminal cases some extra money will of course be required; but even
here the costs need not be excessive, as there are many retired fire
brigade officers and fire surveyors who are well suited for the work,
and would be satisfied with a small emolument.
As to the cost of the water supply, there are but few places where
special fire high-pressure mains are laid on in the interests of fire
protection. As a rule the costs which are debited to the heading "Fire
Protection" have simply to cover the maintenance of hydrants and
tablets, or at the most the cost of the water actually used for
fire-extinguishing purposes. Sometimes the cost of hydrants is shared
with the scavenging department or the commission of sewers, which also
have the use of them. Where the provision of water and hydrants falls to
a private water company, the property owners will be paying their share
for them, indirectly, in the form of water rates.
The protective measures referred to will serve both for life-saving and
for the protection of property. It should be remembered that a good
staircase and a ladder are often as useful for the manoeuvring of the
firemen as for life-saving purposes, and that they are practically as
essential for the saving of property as for saving life. No distinction
need be made between the two risks when speaking of fire protection in
general; but as the safety of the most valueless life is generally
classed higher than that of the most valuable property, it may be well
to give life-saving the first place when alluding to the two separately.
Criminal fire-raising only prevails where the fire-protective system is
defective. With good construction and a fire survey, the quick arrival
of the firemen, and careful inquests, the risks of detection are as a
rule far too great to encourage its growth.
_Saving of Life._--Under "Fire Prevention" special requirements in the
Building Act can greatly influence the safety of life by requiring
practical exits and sufficient staircase accommodation. The risks in
theatres and assembly halls require separate legislation. In ordinary
structures no inmate of a building should be more than sixty feet away
from a staircase, and preferably there should be two staircases at his
disposal in the event of one being blocked. Generally, attention is only
given to the construction of staircases; but it must be pointed out that
their ventilation is equally important. Smoke is even a greater danger
than fire, and may hamper the helpers terribly. The possibility of
opening a window has saved many a life.
_Safety of Property._--As far as the protection of property is
concerned, the prevention of outbreaks can be influenced by the careful
construction of flues, hearths, stoves, and in certain classes of
buildings by the construction of floors and ceilings, the arrangement of
skylights, shutters and lightning conductors. Then comes the prevention
of the fire spreading, first, by the division of risks, and secondly, by
the materials used in construction.
The legislator's first ambition must be to prevent a fire in one house
from spreading to another, and a stranger's property, so to say, from
being endangered. This is quite possible, given good party walls
carried well over the roof to a height regulated by the nature of the
risk, the provision of the shutters to windows where necessary, and the
use of fire-resisting glass. Again, a thoroughly good roof--or still
better, a fire-resisting attic floor--can do much. If the locality has a
fire brigade and the force is efficiently handled, "spreads" from one
house to another should never occur. Narrow thoroughfares and courts
are, however, a source of danger which may baffle all efforts to
localize a fire. This should be remembered by those responsible for
street improvements.
The division of a building or large "risk" into a number of minor ones
is only possible to a certain extent. There is no need to spend enormous
sums to make each of the minor "risks" impregnable. The desire should be
simply to try to retard the spread for a certain limited time after the
flames have really taken hold of the contents. In those minutes most
fires will have been discovered, and, where there is an efficient
fire-extinguishing establishment, a sufficient number of firemen can be
on the spot to localize the outbreak and prevent the conflagration from
becoming a big one. In the drawing-room of an ordinary well-built house,
for example, if the joists are strong and the boards grooved, if some
light pugging be used and the plastering properly done, if the doors are
made well-fitting and fairly strong, a very considerable amount of
furniture and fittings can remain well alight for half an hour before
there is a spread. In a warehouse or factory "risk" the same holds good.
With well-built wooden floors, thickly pugged, and the ceilings perhaps
run on wire netting or on metal instead of on laths, with ordinary
double ledged doors safely hung, at the most perhaps lined with sheet
iron or asbestos cloth, a very stiff blaze can be imprisoned for a
considerable time. Many of the recent forms of "patent" flooring are
exceedingly useful for the division of "risks," and with their aid a
fire can be limited to an individual storey of a building, but it should
not be forgotten that even the best of flooring is useless if carried by
unprotected iron girders supported, say, by some light framing or weak
partition. The general mistake made in using expensive iron and concrete
construction is the tendency to allow some breach to be made (for lifts,
shafting, &c.), through which the fire spreads, or to forget that the
protection of the supports and girder-work requires most careful
attention.
Of the various systems of "patent" flooring, as a rule the simpler forms
are the more satisfactory. It should, however, always be remembered that
any specific form of flooring alone does not prevent a fire breaking
from one "risk" to another. They should go hand in hand with general
good construction, and naked ironwork must be non-existent. Some of the
modern fire-resisting floors are too expensive to permit their
introduction for fire protection alone. In considering their
introduction, the general advantages which they afford as to spans,
thickness, general stability, &c., should be taken into account. A
practical installation of floors, partitions, doors, &c., should, first,
not increase the cost of a building more than 5%, and secondly should
add to the general value of the structure by giving it a more
substantial character.
The danger of lift wells, skylights and shaft openings should not be
forgotten. The last should be as small as possible, well armed with
shutters, the skylights should have fire-resisting glass, and the lifts
not only vertical doors, but also horizontal flaps, cutting up the well
into sections. The question of light partitions must also not be
neglected.
Division of "risks," common-sense construction, and proper staircase
accommodation are really all that fire protection requires, and where
the special Building Act clauses have been kept within the lines
indicated, there has been little friction and discontent. It is only as
a rule when the authorities are eccentric in their demands that the
building owner considers himself harassed by protective measures.
Fire survey regulations should mainly aim at preventing the actual
outbreak of fire. In certain classes of risks fire survey can also
increase the personal safety of the inmates and lessen the possibility
of a fire spreading. The provision of fire-escapes or ladders, and a
regular inspection of their efficiency, will do much. The examination of
a rusty door-catch may save a building. The actual preventive work of
the surveyor will, however, mostly consist in warning property owners
against temporary stoves standing on ordinary floor boards, sooty
chimneys, badly hung lamps, dangerous burners and gas brackets fixed in
risky positions. Self-help will be greatly facilitated by the judicious
arrangement of fire-extinguishing gear, and a like inspection of its
efficiency. Hydrants and cocks must not rust, nor must the hose get so
stiff that the water cannot pass through it, or sprinklers choked. Hand
pumps and pails must always stand ready filled. One of the greatest
errors generally made in distributing such apparatus is disregard of the
fact that the amateur likes to have an easy retreat if his efforts are
unsuccessful, and if this is not the case, he may not, perhaps, use the
gear at all.
With regard to regulations governing "special risks," so far as the
safety of the public in theatres and public assembly halls is concerned,
attention should be chiefly given to the exits. Spread of fire, and even
its outbreak, are secondary considerations. A panic caused by the
suspicion of a fire can be quite as fatal as that caused by the actual
start of a conflagration. In the storage of petroleum in shops, direct
communication should be prevented between the shop or cellar and the
main staircase or the living rooms. The sale of dangerous lamps and
burners should be prohibited.
_Fire-resisting Materials._--One of the greatest misnomers in connexion
with fire prevention was originally the description of certain materials
and systems of construction as being "fire-proof." This has seriously
affected the development of the movement towards fire prevention, for,
having regard to the fact that nothing described as "fire-proof" could
be fire-proof in the true sense, confidence was lost in everything so
described, and in fact everything described as "fire-proof" came to be
looked on with suspicion. In order to decrease this suspicion and obtain
a better understanding on the subject, the International Fire Prevention
Congress of London in 1903, at which some 800 representatives of
government departments and municipalities were present, discussed this
matter at considerable length, and they arrived at conclusions which, in
consideration of their importance in affecting the whole development of
fire-resisting construction, are published below. It is the
classification of fire resistance adopted by this congress in 1903 that
has been utilized by all concerned throughout the British empire, and in
numerous other countries, since that date.
The resolutions adopted by the congress embodied the recommendations
contained in the following statement issued by the British Fire
Prevention Committee:--
The executive of the British Fire Prevention Committee having given
their careful consideration to the common misuse of the term
"fire-proof," now indiscriminately and often most unsuitably applied
to many building materials and systems of building construction in use
in Great Britain, have come to the conclusion that the avoidance of
this term in general business, technical, and legislative vocabulary
is essential.
The executive consider the term "fire-resisting" more applicable for
general use, and that it more correctly describes the varying
qualities of different materials and systems of construction intended
to resist the effect of fire for shorter or longer periods, at high or
low temperatures, as the case may be, and they advocate the general
adoption of this term in place of "fire-proof."
Further, the executive, fully realizing the great variations in the
fire-resisting qualities of materials and systems of construction,
consider that the public, the professions concerned, and likewise the
authorities controlling building operations, should clearly
discriminate between the amount of protection obtainable or, in fact,
requisite for different classes of property. For instance, the city
warehouse filled with highly inflammable goods of great weight
requires very different protection from the tenement house of the
suburbs.
The executive are desirous of discriminating between fire-resisting
materials and systems of construction affording _temporary_
protection, _partial_ protection, and _full_ protection against fire,
and to classify all building materials and systems of construction
under these three headings. The exact and definite limit of these
three classes is based on the experience obtained from numerous
investigations and tests, combined with the experience obtained from
actual fires, and after due consideration of the limitations of
building practice and the question of cost.
The executive's minimum requirements of fire-resistance for building
materials or systems of construction will be seen from the standard
tables appended for--
I. Fire-resisting floors and ceilings,
II. Fire-resisting partitions,
III. Fire-resisting doors,
but they could be popularly summarized as follows:--
(a) That temporary protection implies resistance against fire for at
least three-quarters of an hour.
(b) That partial protection implies resistance against a fierce fire
for at least one hour and a half.
(c) That full protection implies resistance against a fierce fire
for at least two hours and a half.
The conditions under this resistance should be obtainable, the actual
minimum temperatures, thickness, questions of load, and the
application of water can be appreciated from the annexed tables by all
technically interested, but for the popular discrimination---which the
executive are desirous of encouraging--the time standard alone should
suffice.
It is desirable that these standards become the universal standards in
this country, on the continent and in the United States, so that the
same standardization may in future be common to all countries, and the
preliminary arrangements for this universal standardization are
already in hand.
_Fire Combating._--As to self-help, complication must always be avoided.
The amateur fireman must be drilled on the simplest lines. One thing
which must be instilled into him is not to waste water--a sure sign of
lack of training. Of course the drills must be on the same lines as
those of the local brigade, and on no account should other gear be used
for self-help than is generally customary in that force. When
volunteers and regulars work together, the former should always remember
that the paid force are experts, though the regulars must never have
that contempt for volunteer work so often noticeable. Volunteers are
often men who are probably experts in some other vocation outside
fire-fighting, and have not had the opportunities which a professional
fire-fighter has had.
_Standard Table for Fire-resisting Floors and Ceilings._
+--------------------+----------+---------+------------+----------------+---------------+------------+
| | | | | Load per | Minimum | Minimum |
| | |Duration | Minimum | Superficial | Superficial | Time for |
| Classification |Sub-Class.| of Test.|Temperature.| Foot | Area |Application |
| | |At Least | | Distributed | under Test. | of Water |
| | | | |(per Sq. Metre).| |under Press.|
+--------------------+----------+---------+------------+----------------+---------------+------------+
| | Class A | 45 mins.| 1500° F. | Optional | 100 sq. ft. | 2 mins. |
| | | | (815.5° C.)| |(9.290 sq. m.) | |
|Temporary Protection+----------+---------+------------+----------------+---------------+------------+
| | Class B | 60 mins.| 1500° F. | Optional | 200 sq. ft. | 2 mins. |
| | | | (815.5° C.)| |(18.580 sq. m.)| |
+--------------------+----------+---------+------------+----------------+---------------+------------+
| | Class A | 90 mins.| 1800° F. | 112 lb. | 100 sq. ft. | 2 mins. |
| | | | (982.2° C.)| (546.852 kg.) | (9.290 sq. m.)| |
|Partial Protection +----------+---------+------------+----------------+---------------+------------+
| | Class B |120 mins.| 1800° F. | 168 lb. | 200 sq. ft. | 2 mins. |
| | | | (982.2° C.)| (820.278 kg.) |(18.580 sq. m.)| |
+--------------------+----------+---------+------------+----------------+---------------+------------+
| | Class A |150 mins.| 1800° F. | 224 lb. | 100 sq. ft. | 2 mins. |
| | | | (982.2° C.)| (1093.706 kg.) | (9.290 sq. m.)| |
|Full Protection +----------+---------+------------+----------------+---------------+------------+
| | Class B |240 mins.| 1800° F. | 280 lb. | 200 sq. ft. | 5 mins. |
| | | | (982.2° C.)| (1367.130 kg.) |(18.258 sq. m.)| |
+--------------------+----------+---------+------------+----------------+---------------+------------+
kg. = kilogramme.
_Standard Table for Fire-resisting Partitions._
+--------------------+----------+---------+------------+----------------+---------------+------------+
| | | | | | Minimum | Minimum |
| | |Duration | Minimum | Thickness of | Superficial | Time for |
| Classification |Sub-Class.|of Test. |Temperature.| material. | Area |Application |
| | |At Least | | | Under Test. | of Water |
| | | | | | |under Press.|
+--------------------+----------+---------+------------+----------------+---------------+------------+
| | Class A | 45 mins.| 1500° F. |2 in. and under | 80 sq. ft. | 2 mins. |
| | | | (815.5° C.)| (.051 m.) |(7.432 sq. m.) | |
|Temporary Protection+----------+---------+------------+----------------+---------------+------------+
| | Class B | 60 mins.| 1500° F. | Optional | 80 sq. ft. | 2 mins. |
| | | | (815.5° C.)| |(7.432 sq. m.) | |
+--------------------+----------+---------+------------+----------------+---------------+------------+
| | Class A | 90 mins.| 1800° F. |2½ in. and under| 80 sq. ft. | 2 mins. |
| | | | (982.2° C.)| (.063 m.) |(7.432 sq. m.) | |
|Partial Protection +----------+---------+------------+----------------+---------------+------------+
| | Class B |120 mins.| 1800° F. | Optional | 80 sq. ft. | 2 mins. |
| | | | (982.2° C.)| |(7.432 sq. m.) | |
+--------------------+----------+---------+------------+----------------+---------------+------------+
| | Class A |150 mins.| 1800° F. |2½ in. and under| 80 sq. ft. | 2 mins. |
| | | | (982.2° C.)| (.063 m.) |(7.432 sq. m.) | |
|Full Protection +----------+---------+------------+----------------+---------------+------------+
| | Class B |240 mins.| 1800° F. | Optional | 80 sq. ft. | 5 mins. |
| | | | (982.2° C.)| |(7.432 sq. m.) | |
+--------------------+----------+---------+------------+----------------+---------------+------------+
kg. = kilogramme.
_Standard Table for Fire-resisting Single Doors, with or without
Frames._
+--------------------+----------+---------+------------+----------------+---------------+------------+
| | | | | | Minimum | Minimum |
| | |Duration | Minimum | Thickness of | Superficial | Time for |
| Classification |Sub-Class.| of Test.|Temperature.| material. | Area |Application |
| | |At Least | | | Under Test. | of Water |
| | | | | | |under Press.|
+--------------------+----------+---------+------------+----------------+---------------+------------+
| | Class A | 45 mins.| 1500° F. |2 in. and under | 20 sq. ft. | 2 mins. |
| | | |(815.5° C.) | (.051 m.) |(1.858 sq. m.) | |
|Temporary Protection+----------+---------+------------+----------------+---------------+------------+
| | Class B | 60 mins.| 1500° F. | Optional | 20 sq. ft. | 2 mins. |
| | | |(815.5° C.) | |(1.858 sq. m.) | |
+--------------------+----------+---------+------------+----------------+---------------+------------+
| | Class A | 90 mins.| 1800° F. |2½ in. and under| 20 sq. ft. | 2 mins. |
| | | |(982.2° C.) | (.063 m.) |(1.858 sq. m.) | |
|Partial Protection +----------+---------+------------+----------------+---------------+------------+
| | Class B |120 mins.| 1800° F. | Optional | 20 sq. ft. | 2 mins. |
| | | |(982.2° C.) | |(1.858 sq. m.) | |
+--------------------+----------+---------+------------+----------------+---------------+------------+
| | Class A |150 mins.| 1800° F. | ½ in. and under| 25 sq. ft. | 2 mins. |
| | | |(982.2° C.) | (.018 m.) |(2.322 sq. m.) | |
|Full Protection +----------+---------+------------+----------------+---------------+------------+
| | Class B |240 mins.| 1800° F. | Optional | 25 sq. ft. | 5 mins. |
| | | |(982.2° C.) | |(2.322 sq. m.) | |
+--------------------+----------+---------+------------+----------------+---------------+------------+
_Transmission of Fire-Calls._--There are several methods of transmitting
the message of a fire-call. The simplest is, of course, to run direct to
the nearest fire-station; but this is only possible where the distance
is short. In one or two cities, however, the number of fire-stations is
so great that they are very close to one another, and hence "direct"
calls are generally recorded.
Then comes the system of special messengers. The fire is reported at
some public office, police-station or guard-room, where there are always
runners ready to start off to the nearest fire-station. The special
runner is here practically a makeshift for the more modern telegraph or
telephone line, and it is believed that the only city in which this
system is employed is one where the unsettled political atmosphere has
compelled the authorities to prohibit the construction of any telegraph
lines other than those for the use of the general postal service.
Similar messenger services have, however, also been introduced in
connexion with the telegraphic signalling system. Private enterprises
known as "general messenger" or "call-boy" services, which are organized
for business purposes, have the advantage of including the fire-call and
the police-call. In the same way that a cab can be signalled, a call may
come for a fire-engine, and the ever-ready runner makes off to the
fire-station instead of to the cab rank. As a rule, these messenger
offices are near the fire-station. The combination is rather a curious
one, as it embraces the most advanced notions of giving every "risk" its
own fire-call, and the somewhat ancient one of the special runner.
Another system for facilitating the fire-call relies entirely on the
public telephone system, the terms of subscription to which may compel
holders to forward fire messages if required to do so. This system
allows for such development as the payment of retaining fees to porters
in public and other buildings which have a night service, on condition
that the fire-call shall be promptly despatched. The telephones are,
perhaps, even provided free, if they are not forthcoming; but it should
be remembered that the service always goes through a general telephone
exchange, which is, of course, open day and night.
In the special telephone line system special wires are laid from
buildings which are practically open all the year round direct to their
nearest fire-stations, and some payment is again made for prompt
attention. Sometimes the telegraph takes the place of the telephone, but
this requires the porter or attendant to be specially trained to the
work. To simplify matters, the buildings are sometimes provided with
automatic fire-calls instead of telephones; but the principle of the
system remains the same. In districts where there are few public
offices, the list of buildings at which messages can be handed in has
been frequently augmented by a set of bakeries or apothecaries' shops,
where night service is not unusual.
What may be termed semi-public street alarms come next. Automatic
fire-calls are put up in the street, but their handles are under lock
and key, and the keys are distributed only among policemen, watchmen or
householders, and the messages can, therefore, only be given by persons
known to the authorities.
The public automatic street-call is the simplest system next to the
direct message. Private automatic fire-calls or telephones can be laid
on from dangerous risks, and there has even been an instance where an
attempt was made to give every householder a private fire-call. This
system is, however, unfortunately too extreme for the municipal purse.
If in connexion with some other paying enterprise, as in the case of the
messenger services referred to, it would be a different matter, though
it should also not be forgotten that too great a number of call points
means a probable repetition of signals of the same fire, and a risk of
too many sections of the fire brigade being on the road to it.
Besides these forms of "call," there is also the private alarm.
Dangerous buildings are frequently provided with telephones,
alarm-posts, or even automatic temperature indicators, by which a call
can be given direct from the "risk" involved.
Call points should be not only conspicuous, but also in most frequented
positions. Possibly, in some towns, a point in front of a church would
be the best; in others, the front of a public-house. It should always be
remembered that every facility should be given to enable as many people
as possible to know the whereabouts of the call points without any
distinct effort on their part. Red paint may make a call pillar
conspicuous by day, and a coloured lamp by night.
As to the indication of call points, a plate on every letter-box stating
the position of the nearest call-point is perhaps one of the best
methods. The letter-box is one of the instruments most in use in a
modern city, and hence the plate is read by many. In an oriental town
the public fountain would, however, take the place of the letter-box.
Plates put up inside every front door are somewhat extreme measures. In
one city red darts are painted on the glass of every street lamp,
indicating the direction to be taken to find a street alarm. This sign,
however, has the disadvantage of requiring a previous knowledge of its
meaning, and is generally useless to a stranger in the town.
Rewards paid to messengers vary from one shilling to half a sovereign.
In some places every call is rewarded--even those to chimney fires--and
this often results in an abuse of the privilege. Rogues light fires on
the top of a chimney and then run to call the engines. If a reward be
given, a limitation should be made. In one town no relation or employé
of the owner receives a reward. In other cities no rewards are given for
calls to a fire in a dust-bin or a chimney.
No true fireman would be annoyed at a false alarm given by mistake. The
possibility of a fire, or the suspicion of one, is a bona fide reason
for a call which should not be discouraged. Malicious alarms should,
however, be treated with the utmost rigour, as the absence of firemen
from their stations always means an extra risk to life and property.
Combined "lynch law" and imprisonment has generally been adopted with
good effect. The rascal should first be put when caught over the pole of
the engine and thrashed with a broad fireman's belt, and after that
handed to the police.
The fire-call should, if possible, also be so constructed as to
facilitate intercommunication between the scene of a fire and the
headquarters of the fire brigade. Where the runner is employed or the
telephone is used no special arrangements are required, but where the
telegraph or automatic call point has been introduced, the apparatus
must be adapted for this contingency. At some automatic fire-call points
a few signals can be given, at others, a telegraphic or telephonic
transmitter can be applied. Much valuable time may be saved in this way
when more assistance is required.
_Fire Brigades._--The organization of fire brigades varies greatly.
There are brigades where officers and men are practically constantly
ready to attend a fire, and others where they are ready on alternate
days, two days out of every three, or three days out of every four, and
the off day is entirely their own, or at the most, only partially used
by the authorities for some light work. The men off duty are only
expected to attend a fire if there is a great emergency, the brigade
being strong enough without them for ordinary eventualities. Both
systems can be worked with or without part-paid or volunteer service,
which would be only called out for great calamities. They could be
organized as a practically independent reserve force, or the reserve men
might be attached to sections of the regulars and mixed with them when
the occasion arises. The reserves can consist either of retired firemen
who have a few regular drills, or of amateurs who go through a special
course of training, and have some series of drills at intervals, with
preferably a short spell of service every year with the regulars. For
the regulars, forty-eight hours on duty to every twenty-four off has
given the most satisfactory results.
The division of the active force may be on a system of a number of small
parties of twos and threes backed by one or more strong bodies. Another
system allows for subdivision into sections of equal strength, ranging
from parties of, say, five men with a non-commissioned officer to thirty
non-commissioned officers and men with an officer. The force can, of
course, also simply be divided up into parties or sections of different
strengths not governed by a system of military units. The sections
either can work independently, as units, simply governed by one central
authority, or there can be a grouping of the units into minor or major
bodies or districts, each duly officered, and as a whole individually
responsible to headquarters.
The officers may be all taken from the ranks, or they may be "officers
and gentlemen" in the military sense, or have only temporarily done work
with the rank and file when in training. There could also be a
combination of these two systems. Only the captain and deputy-captain
might be officers in the military sense, the sections or divisions being
officered by "non-coms." Some cities have an officer to every thirty
"non-coms" and men, whilst others put a division of as many as two
hundred under a fireman who has risen from the ranks. Where protection
is treated as a science, and where those in charge of a brigade have
really to act as advisers to their employers, officers in the military
sense have been found essential. They have also been found advantageous
where their scope is limited to fire extinguishing. The prestige of the
fire service has been raised everywhere where the officers, besides
being fire experts, are educated men of social standing. There are
cities where the officers of the fire brigade are in every way
recognized as equal to army or navy men, their social position is the
same, and their mess fulfils the same functions as a regimental mess.
The fire brigade officer is recognized at court, and there is no
ceremonial without him. On the other hand, there are also cities with
brigades several hundred strong where the captain's social standing is
beneath that of a petty officer or colour-sergeant. As to the primary
training of a fire brigade officer, the best men have generally had some
experience in another profession, such as the army, the navy, or the
architectural and engineering professions, previous to their entering
the fire service. Some brigades recruit from army officers only, and
preferably from the engineers or artillery regiments; others recruit
from among architects and engineers, subject to their having at least
had some military experience in the reserve forces or the volunteers.
Some cities only take engineers or architects, and make a point of it
that they should have no previous military experience. Some previous
experience in the handling of men is essential.
As to the men, there are cities where only trained soldiers are taken as
firemen; others where the engines are manned by sailors. In some towns
the building trades supply the recruits; in others, all trades are
either discriminately or indiscriminately represented. A combination
from the army or navy on the one side and the building trades on the
other is most satisfactory. The knowledge of building construction in
the ranks stands the force in good stead, and has often saved both lives
and property. Where a brigade can boast of a few men of each important
trade, much money has been saved the ratepayers by the men doing their
own repairs and refitting, but the number of men from sedentary trades
should not be excessive. Where there are only men of one trade or
calling, there is often too great a tendency to one-sidedness, and a
great amount of prejudice.
Physical strength and perfect constitution are requisite for both
officers and men. As to the height of the men, small, wiry men are very
useful. First-class eyes, ears and nose are necessary, also a good
memory. Fat men are entirely out of place in a brigade, and should be
transferred to some other service if the fatness be developed during
their engagement with a brigade. Many brigades take only single men,
"non-coms" and officers only being allowed to marry. There are many
brigades where twenty-two and forty are the limits of age for the
privates, fifty for the "non-coms," and sixty for the officers.
As to the equipment, there are brigades which have all their sections or
units provided with practically the same gear; others where each unit
has a double or treble set, one of which is used according to
circumstances. The section may have a manual engine, a steamer and a
ladder truck at its disposal, and may turn out with either. There are
towns where the units are differently equipped, and steamer or manual
sections called out, as the case may be. In a few extreme cases, where
the sections are very strong, they may be equipped with a set of engines
and trucks, and the unit, in every case, turns out complete with (say) a
chemical engine, a steamer and a horsed escape. The contrast to this
will be found in the small parties of twos or threes, whose turn-out
would only consist of a small hose trolley or an escape. Of course,
there are all kinds of combinations, the most important of which allows
a section to have one or more independent subsections. Though
practically belonging to the "unit," the subsections work independently
in charge of a certain gear. This may be a hose-reel, a long ladder, or
a smoke helmet, according to circumstances. The subsections may act as
outposts or simply as specialist parties, which are only called out for
particular work.
As for the housing of the units or sections, simple street stations are
provided for the small parties referred to. In a few cases two small
parties are housed under the same roof. The large bodies that back them
are generally quartered together in extensive barracks, from which any
number of engines and men can be turned out according to the nature of
the call. Then there are cities where every section has its own
well-built station; others where one or two sections are housed
together, according to circumstances, and perhaps as many as half a
dozen located at headquarters. If groups are formed, the headquarters of
the group or district has, perhaps, two sections, while each of the
other stations has only one. The general headquarters may be the central
station of a district at the same time. The actual working of the
district headquarters would, however, then be kept separate from the
working of the headquarters staff. The latter would, perhaps, have some
sections ready to send anywhere besides the trucks, &c., necessary for
the officers, the general extra gear, &c., that might be required. It is
usual to combine workshops, stores, hose-drying towers, &c., with the
headquarters station, and, in some cases, also with the district
centres.
In the distribution of the stations, the formation of districts, &c.,
various systems have been adopted. The most satisfactory results have
been obtained where a fully-equipped section (not simply a hose-car or
escape-party) can reach any building in the city within six minutes from
the time of the call reaching the station, the six minutes including
both turn-out and run. Where there are exceptionally large or dangerous
risks, this time has had to be shortened to four minutes, and the
possibility of an attendance from a second station assured within six
minutes. In dividing up districts, the most satisfactory results have
been obtained where every house can be reached from the district centre
within fifteen minutes from the call. Headquarters would naturally have
a central position in the city. In one or two instances the headquarters
offices are located in a separate building, which in no way serves as a
fire-station, but simply as a centre through which all orders and
business pass.
The different stations must be in connexion with each other. The special
runner or rider is practically disappearing. The telegraph and
telephone have taken his place. Some cities favour Morse telegraphy,
which certainly had great advantages over the telephone at one time, as
messages could be easily transmitted to several stations with the same
effort, but telephone distributors have now been successfully
introduced. Errors are less frequent by telegraph than by telephone, and
there is always a record of every message. The most modern forms of
telephone communication are, however, more suitable for the fire service
than the telegraph. Headquarters should be in direct communication with
every station, but every station should be able to communicate with its
neighbour directly, as well as through the headquarters office, and
there should be a direct wire to its district station if it has one.
There should be three routes of communication, so that two should be
always ready for use in case of one breaking down. Either headquarters
or the district centres would be in touch with the various auxiliaries
referred to, as well as the general telegraph office and the telephone
exchange.
As to the attendance at fires, some cities turn out but one unit to
answer the first call if they have no particulars, others always turn
out two or three sections, and there are several cities where the
district centre would at least send an officer and a few men as well. In
one brigade, headquarters is always represented by either the chief or
the second officer in the case of a call of this kind. The idea is that
it is always better to have too strong a force quickly in attendance
than too small a number of men, and that it is most important that the
first arrival should be well handled. Further, if two sections answer a
call and one breaks down on the road, there is no chance of there being
too great a delay in the arrival of organized help. It should, however,
not be forgotten that further calls in the same district to other fires
are not unusual, and that the absence of too many engines, on account of
a first call, is dangerous. In some cities, when a call reaches the
firemen one or two of the nearest stations turn out, and if more help is
required other sections will be called up individually. In others the
reinforcements are not called up separately, but the fires are divided
into three classes--small, medium and large; and on the message arriving
of a more extensive conflagration at a certain point, the section
already know beforehand whether they must attend or not. First calls to
certain classes of risks, e.g. to theatres or public offices, may always
be considered to be for medium or large fires; and the same message will
then simultaneously turn out the stronger body without any further
detailed instructions being necessary. In some towns the fire-call
automata are so arranged that the messenger can at once call for the
different classes of fire. This, however, is not to be recommended, as a
messenger will probably consider the smallest fire to be a gigantic
blaze, and will bring out too many engines.
_Equipment._--The following are characteristic features in the equipment
of brigades. First, where there is a high-pressure water supply, some
brigades simply attend with hose-cars, life-saving gear and ladders; or,
instead of the hose-cars, take their manuals, which they practically
never use and which serve only as vehicles to carry men and hose. Others
take, and make a point of using, the manuals, and have a barrel with
them ready to supply the first gallons of water necessary. No time is
thus lost in connecting with the nearest hydrant or plug; and in case of
a hydrant being out of order, there is always sufficient water at hand
until the second hydrant has been found. Many cities have introduced
chemical engines to take the place of this combination of water barrel
and manual engine. A supply of water is carried on the chemical engine.
Some cities always have an attendance of steamers, which are, however,
only used in urgent cases. In other instances the steamer is at once
used in the same way as the manual, and this quite independently of the
pressure there is in the water service. Where there is no good water
service, manuals or steamers have, of course, to be sent out, and are
supplied either from the low-pressure service or from the natural
waterways or wells. There are still a large number of cities where the
suburbs have no proper water service, and the water barrel is then very
handy for water porterage. Attempts have also been made at the chemical
treatment of water which is to be thrown on to a fire, with the view of
increasing its effect, or at the use of chemicals instead of water. In
certain localities fire appliances are still run out to fires by hand,
especially where there is a high pressure water system and hose carts
only are required. Generally the appliances are horsed. Motor traction
is, however, now rapidly superseding horse traction for reasons of
economy and the wider and more rapid range of efficiency.
As to life saving and manoeuvring gear, some brigades rely almost
entirely on hook ladders, others almost entirely depend on scaling
ladders or telescopic escapes. In some great confidence is placed in the
jumping-sheet; in another, chutes are much used; and there are a few
where wonderful work is done with life-lines. To indicate the diversity
with which any one appliance can be treated, made or handled, in the
fire service, it may be mentioned that there are quite ten different
ways in which a jumping-sheet can be held. Then there is the material of
the jumping-sheet to be considered; the size and the shape--whether
round, oblong, square or rectangular; then the means of holding it, the
way to fold it, how and where to stow it, and at what distance from the
endangered building the sheet is to be held. Last, but not least, come
the words of command.
_Working of Brigades._--In some forces all possible attention is given
to the rapidity of the actual turn out, while in others the speed at
which engines run to the fire is considered to be of primary importance.
Other brigades, again, give equal attention to both. There are brigades
which work entirely on military lines, each man having certain duties
marked out for him beforehand for every possible occasion, and there are
others where happy-go-lucky working is preferred. Of course there are
combinations in the same way as regards command. Some chief officers
arrive at a fire with a staff of adjutants and orderlies, and control
the working of the brigade from a position of vantage at a distance.
Other chiefs delight to be in the thick of a fire, perhaps at the branch
itself, or on some gallant life-saving exploit where they no doubt do
good work as a fireman, but in no way fulfil the office of commanders.
Officers must remember that they are officers, and not rank and file;
and this is generally very difficult to those who have advanced from the
ranks. Superintendents, however smart, must leave acts of bravery to
their men, and chief officers, without going to extremes, must always be
in a good position where they can superintend everything pertaining to
the outbreak in question. Some brigades seem to make a point of working
quietly, and shouting is absolutely forbidden, all commands being given
by shrill whistles. In some brigades all commands are given by word of
mouth, and there is much bawling. In others commands, besides being
bawled, are even repeated on horns, and the noise becomes trying. As a
rule, quiet working is a sign of efficiency.
Some brigades work as close as possible to the fire, others are
satisfied with putting water on or about the fire from a distance. Some
attack the fire direct, others only try to protect what surrounds the
seat of the flames. Several brigades are ordered always to try to attack
by the natural routes of the front door and the staircases. In others,
the men always have to attempt some more unnatural entrance, with the
aid of ladders--through windows, for instance. Some brigades carefully
extinguish a fire, some simply swamp it. Some brigades boast of never
having damaged property unnecessarily. They have, for instance, had the
patience to suffocate a cellar fire, instead of putting the whole cellar
under water. In certain classes of property the bucket, the mop, and the
hand-pump have been far more effective in minimizing actual destruction
than the branch and hose. It is one of the easiest signs by which to
judge the training and handling of a fire brigade--to see what damage
they do. Even an inconsiderate smashing of doors and windows, when there
is absolutely no need for it, can be avoided, where every man in the
force feels that his first duty is to prevent damage and loss and his
second to extinguish the fire.
Where the brigade includes a salvage division, it is generally stationed
at headquarters; where this division is split up into sections, there
would also be a distribution among the district centres; the salvage men
are simply part of the force, told off on special duty. Where there are
private salvage corps, their stations are generally near the
headquarters or district centres of the brigade, from which they receive
notice of the fire. In some cities the salvage corps work quite
independently; in others, they work under the chief of the brigade
directly they arrive at the fire.
As to the working of allied civilian forces in conjunction with the fire
service, the advantages of firemen having plenty of room to work in is
now fully recognized, and the police are at once called out and often
brought on to the scene in an incredibly short time. The value of these
measures should not be under-rated, especially in cities where rowdyism
exists. In many cities the ambulance service is also turned out to
fires. Where no independent ambulance corps exists, some of the firemen
should be trained to work as ambulance men. Turncocks and gasmen are
also frequently brought to all fires. Lastly, in many garrison towns the
military turn out to assist the fire brigade.
_National Fire Brigades' Union._--The National Fire Brigades' Union,
which is the representative Fire Service Society for Great Britain,
originated in a national demonstration of volunteer fire brigades held
at Oxford in celebration of Queen Victoria's jubilee on the 30th of
May 1887, when 82 fire brigades with 916 firemen were present. Next
day a meeting of the officers was held at the Guildhall, Oxford, and
it was then resolved to form the National Fire Brigades Union.
Alderman Green, the chief officer of the Oxford fire brigade, was
appointed the first chairman. Sir Eyre Massey Shaw was appointed first
president in 1888, and on his retirement in 1896 through ill-health he
was succeeded by the duke of Marlborough. When the union offered to
provide ambulance firemen and stretcher bearers for his regiment the
duke accepted the offer, and two fully equipped corps were sent out to
the Imperial Yeomanry hospital at Deelfontein, South Africa, under
Colonel Sloggett, who specially mentioned the services rendered by the
firemen in his despatches.
The union is divided into seventeen districts, each having its own
council, and sending one delegate for every ten brigades to the
central council. The districts are:--Eastern, Midlands, South Coast,
South-Eastern, West Midland, North-Eastern, North-Western, South
Western, Surrey, South Midlands, Southern, South Wales, North Wales,
Cornish, Yorkshire, Central and South Africa (formed in 1902). There
are also seventy-five foreign members and correspondents in America,
Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany,
Holland, Italy, New Zealand, Russia, South Africa, India and the
Federated Malay Straits. The total strength of the union is 667 fire
brigades and members with nearly 12,000 firemen. Every member of the
union gives his time and services for the benefit of the country; all
appointments are honorary, with the exception that a small allowance
is made for clerical assistance. A drill book is issued by the union,
and the fourth edition was published in 1902. Over 60,000 of these
books have been issued to brigades all over the world.
The ambulance department is under the charge of medical officers. All
members have to come up for re-examination every three years, else
they are not entitled to wear the red cross, and the examination is
more stringent than that held by the St John Ambulance Association.
This department has proved to be a great benefit to provincial fire
brigades, who are often called upon to undertake ambulance work. A
very useful and instructive manual has been issued by the union
entitled _First Aid in the Fire Service_, by Chief Officer William
Ettles, M.D.
The union organized and took part in the International Fire
Exhibitions, at the Royal Agricultural Hall, London, in 1893 and 1896,
and it was represented at the International Fire Congresses at
Antwerp, Brussels, Ghent, Paris, Lyons, Havre and Berlin. It has also
held a review before the German emperor at the Crystal Palace, and
before Queen Victoria in Windsor Park.
_Fire Brigade Organization._
Below are given examples of the organization of different fire brigades.
The brigades so described have been selected not so much on account of
their intrinsic importance, as because they represent classes or types
of brigades and fire brigade organization which it may be useful to
refer to. In respect of the London fire brigade, however, historical
data are also presented, as it is only with the aid of these that the
extraordinary development of that force can be properly realized.
With regard to modern views as to the functions of the fire brigade, the
resolutions of the Fire Prevention Congress of 1903 are reprinted below.
As they indicate, the general feeling amongst all interested in fire
protection from an economic point of view is that fire brigades should
not be merely fire extinguishing organizations but should utilize their
influence in a much wider sense.
The Congress considered:--
1. That public authorities should encourage fire brigade officers to
take an active interest in the preventive aspect of fire projection,
inasmuch as the result of the fire brigade officers' experience in
actual fire practice, if suitably applied in conjunction with the work
of architects, engineers and public officials, would be most useful
for the organization and development of precautionary measures.
2. That fire brigade societies, associations and unions should
encourage amongst the brigades affiliated to these bodies the study of
questions of fire prevention.
3. That fire brigades should be placed on a sound legal basis, and
that it is advisable that their efficiency be supervised by a
government department.
4. That an official investigation should be made of all fires. That on
the occurrence of every fire an investigation should be immediately
made by an official, duly qualified and empowered to ascertain the
cause and circumstances connected therewith, reporting the result of
such investigation to a public department for tabulation and
publication.
5. That the whole or part of the cost of such inquiry should be
charged to the occupier of the premises where the fire occurred, as
may appear desirable in the circumstances of each case.
6. That the press should from time to time publish technical reports
on fires so that the public may benefit from the knowledge and
experience gained.
_London._--In the early part of the 19th century the methods in vogue
for the suppression of outbreaks of fire in the metropolis were of the
most crude and disjointed character, in striking contrast with the
highly elaborated system now put into practice by the London County
Council through its fire brigade; and it was not until the second half
of the 19th century was well advanced that anything approaching an
adequate and satisfactory organization was brought into existence. Until
the passing of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade Act 1865, the only acts
relating to the suppression of outbreaks of fire in London were the
Lighting and Watching Act (3 & 4 William IV., c. 90), and "an act (14
Geo. III., c. 78) for the further and better Regulation of Buildings and
Party Walls, and for the more effectually preventing Mischiefs by Fire
within the Cities of London and Westminster, and the Liberties thereof,
and other the Parishes, Precincts and Places within the Weekly Bills of
Mortality, the Parishes of Marylebone, Paddington, St Pancras, and St
Luke's at Chelsea, in the County of Middlesex." The clauses in the
latter act relating to protection against fire remained in force till
the passing of the act of 1865. They provided that every parish should
keep "one large engine and one small, called a hand engine, a leathern
pipe, and a certain number of ladders." The Lighting and Watching Act
contained a clause which extended to England and Wales and so covered
the area "without the bills of mortality," enabling the inspectors
appointed under that act to provide and keep up two fire-engines; and
certain of the parishes in the metropolitan district, without the bills
of mortality, availed themselves of this provision.
The select committee of fires in the metropolis, which sat in 1862,
reported that it was difficult to ascertain how far the act of George
III. was attended to, or when it ceased to be considered practically of
importance, but that, at the time of the report, the arrangements
generally made by the parishes under the act were not only entirely
useless, but in many cases produced injurious results, as the system
under the act frequently conferred a reward for the first useless
parochial engine, whereas the efficient engine which might be on the
spot a few minutes later derived no pecuniary advantages. There were,
however, exceptions to the general rule. At Hackney, for example, a
"very efficient" fire brigade was maintained at an expense of about £500
a year, or about one halfpenny in the pound on the rating of the parish.
The select committee were unable to ascertain with any accuracy the
total amount paid by the metropolitan parishes for the maintenance,
"however inefficient," of their fire-engines, but it was estimated to be
about £10,000.
For many years previous to 1832, the principal fire insurance offices in
London kept fire brigades at their individual expense; to these
brigades were attached a considerable number of men usually occupied as
Thames watermen, retained in the service of the different Fire Offices,
who received payment only on the occurrence of fires, and who wore the
livery and badge of the respective companies. These fire brigades were,
to quote the report of the select committee of 1862, considered as
giving notoriety to the different insurance companies, and a
considerable rivalry was maintained, which was productive naturally of
good as well as of some considerable evil on occasions of fires.
The large expenses thus incurred by the companies induced an attempt to
be made, which was effectually carried out in the year 1832, by R. Bell
Forde, a leading director of the Sun Fire Office, to form one brigade
for the purpose of promoting economy as well as greater efficiency. Thus
the first organized fire brigade for London began its operations under
the united sanction of, and from funds contributed by, most of the
leading insurance offices in London. The force thus formed was known as
the London Fire Engine Establishment. The annual expense was at first
£8000, the number of stations 19, the number of men employed 80. By 1862
the annual cost had grown to £25,000, the number of stations had become
20, and the number of men 127.
It is interesting to note that the chief station of the Fire Engine
Establishment was the Watling-Street station, in substitution for which
the new Cannon-Street station has been built. The following is a list of
the other stations of the establishment:--
School House-lane, Shadwell Crown Street, Soho
Wellclose Square Wells Street
Jeffrey's Square Baker Street
Whitecross Street King Street, Golden Square
Farringdon Street Horseferry Road
Holborn Waterloo Road
Chandos Street Southwark Bridge Road
Tooley Street Southwark Bridge (floating)
Lucas Street, Rotherhithe Rotherhithe (floating)
The work of this force was carried out in an efficient manner as far as
its limited equipment and strength would permit, but it was universally
admitted that the staff, engines and stations were totally inadequate
for the general protection of London from fire. The directors of the
insurance offices themselves admitted this, but they considered their
brigade sufficient for the protection of that part of London in which
the largest amount of insured property was located, and contended that
it was not their business to provide fire stations in the more outlying
districts where, if a fire occurred, it was not likely to involve their
offices in serious loss.
From 1836 the work of the brigade maintained by the fire offices was
supplemented by the "Society for the Protection of Life from Fire." This
society was managed by a committee of which the lord mayor was
president. It was supported entirely by voluntary contributions, and, at
a cost of about £7000 a year, maintained fire-escapes at from 80 to 90
stations in different parts of the most central districts in London. Its
most outlying station was only 4 m. from the Royal Exchange, and it
maintained no stations in such localities as Greenwich, Peckham,
Deptford and New Cross. It did much useful work, though its equipment
was quite inadequate to cope with the needs of the metropolis.
In 1834, two years after the institution of the London Fire Engine
Establishment, the Houses of Parliament were destroyed by fire, and the
attention of the government was consequently directed to the inadequacy
of the existing conditions for fire extinction. It was suggested, at the
time, that the parochial engines should be placed under the inspection
of the commissioners of police, but this proposal was not adopted, and
the existing state of matters was allowed to continue for another thirty
years. The select committee of 1862 recommended that a fire brigade
should be created under the superintendence of the commissioners of
police, and should form part of the general establishment of the
metropolitan police. In 1865, however, the Metropolitan Fire Brigade Act
was passed, under which the responsibility for the provision and
maintenance of an efficient fire brigade was laid upon the Metropolitan
Board of Works. Under the provisions of the act, the board took over the
staff, stations and equipment of the Fire Engine Establishment; the
engines maintained by the various parochial authorities, and the men in
charge of them were also absorbed by the new organization, as were the
fire-escapes and staff of the Society for the Protection of Life from
Fire.
The funds provided by the Fire Brigade Act for the maintenance of the
brigade were: (1) the produce of a halfpenny rate on all the rateable
property in London; (2) contributions by the fire insurance companies at
the rate of £35 per million of the gross amount insured by them in
respect of property in London; and (3) a contribution of £10,000 a year
by the government. Although the revenue allotted increased year by year,
its increase was far from keeping pace with the constant calls from all
parts of London for protection from fire. Some temporary financial
relief was afforded by the Metropolitan Board of Works (Loans) Act 1869,
which (1) authorized the interest on borrowed money to be paid, and the
principal to be redeemed out of the proceeds of the Metropolitan
Consolidated rate, apart from the halfpenny allocated for fire brigade
purposes; and (2) provided that the amount to be raised for the annual
working expenditure on the brigade should be equal to what would be
produced by a halfpenny in the pound on the gross annual value of
property, instead of, as before, on the rateable value. One result of
the passing of the Local Government Act 1888 (by which the London County
Council was constituted), under which a county rate for all purposes is
levied, was virtually to repeal the limitation of the amount which might
be raised from the ratepayers for fire brigade purposes. Since that time
the expenditure on the brigade has therefore, like that of other
departments of the council's service, been determined solely by what the
council has judged to be the requirements of the case.
When the council came into existence early in 1889 the fire brigade was
admittedly not large enough properly to protect the whole of London, the
provision in various suburban districts being notoriously inadequate to
the requirements. A plan for enlarging and improving old stations, and
for carrying out a scheme of additional protection laid down after
careful consideration of the needs of London as a whole, was approved on
the 8th of February 1898 (and somewhat enlarged in 1901); it provided
for the placing of horsed escapes at existing fire stations, for the
establishment of some 22 additional stations provided with horsed
escapes, and for the discontinuance of nearly all the fire-escape and
hose-cart stations in the public thoroughfares.
Since it came into existence the London County Council has established
additional fire stations at Dulwich, New Cross, Kingsland,
Whitefriars, Lewisham, Shepherd's Bush, West Hampstead, East
Greenwich, Perivale, Homerton, Highbury, Vauxhall, Pageant's Wharf
(Rotherhithe), Streatham, Kilburn, Bayswater, Eltham, Burdett Road
(Mile End), Wapping, Northcote Road (Battersea), Herne Hill, Lee Green
and North End (Fulham). Of these, Vauxhall, Kilburn, Bayswater,
Eltham, Burdett Road, Herne Hill and North End stations are
sub-stations. New stations have been erected, in substitution for
small and inconvenient buildings, at Wandsworth, Shoreditch, Fulham,
Brompton, Islington, Paddington, Redcross Street (City), Euston Road,
Clapham, Mile End, Deptford, Old Kent Road, Millwall, Kensington,
Westminster, Brixton and Cannon Street (City), and the existing
stations at Kennington, Rotherhithe, Clerkenwell, Hampstead,
Battersea, Whitechapel, Greenwich and Stoke Newington have been
considerably enlarged. Two small stations without horses have been
established in Battersea Park Road and North Woolwich respectively. A
building has been erected at Rotherhithe for the accommodation of the
staff of the Cherry-garden river station; and another building has
been erected at Battersea for the accommodation of the staff of a
river station which has been established there.
In 1909 new stations in substitution for existing stations were in
course of erection at Knightsbridge and Tooting, and additional
sub-stations were being erected at Plumstead and Hornsey Rise. The
Bethnal Green station was being considerably altered and enlarged. The
council had also determined to erect new stations in substitution for
existing inconvenient buildings at Holloway, Waterloo Road, Shooter's
Hill and North End, Fulham; and to build additional sub-stations at
Charlton, Caledonian Road, Brixton Hill, Camberwell New Road,
Roehampton, Balham, Brockley and Earlsfield.
_Budapest._--There is a combination of a professional force and a
volunteer force at Budapest, and in addition an auxiliary service of
factory fire brigades. The professional fire brigade possesses a central
station and eight sub-stations, two minor stations, and permanent
theatre-watchrooms at the royal theatres. The staff (in 1901) of the
professional brigade consisted of a chief officer, an inspector, a
senior adjutant and two junior adjutants, a clerk, and further 23
warrant officers, 3 engineers, 15 foremen, 154 firemen and 30 coachmen
with 62 horses. There have been some slight increases since. The
apparatus at their disposal consists of 6 steam fire-engines, 22 manual
engines, 27 small manual engines, 11 water carts, 13 traps, 4 tenders,
26 hose reels and hose carts, 5 long ladders, 9 ordinary extension
ladders, 34 hook ladders, 12 smoke helmets and 22,000 metres of hose.
The various stations are connected with the central station by private
telephone lines. There are 149 telephonic fire alarms distributed
throughout the city. They are on radial lines connected up with their
respective nearest stations, and on a single radial line there are from
three to seventeen call-points.
The volunteer brigade has an independent constitution and comprises some
eighty members. Its equipment is housed with that of the professional
brigade, and is bought and maintained by the municipality. This
volunteer brigade is a comparatively wealthy institution, having a
capital of 100,000 crowns, whilst receiving a special subsidy annually
from the municipality. Though legally an entirely independent
institution, the brigade voluntarily puts itself under the command of
the chief officer of the professional brigade. It further puts daily at
the disposal of the professional fire chief ten men who do duty every
night and "turn out" when called upon to render service. This volunteer
brigade stands as a kind of model to the other volunteer brigades, and
it is in connexion with this volunteer brigade that the educational
classes referred to above are held and facilities accorded to the
officers undergoing instruction to gain experience at the Budapest
fires.
The Budapest professional fire brigade, even if assisted by the
volunteer force, would scarcely be of adequate strength to deal with
the great factory risks of that city were it not that the Budapest
factories and mills have a splendidly organized service of factory
fire brigades. These brigades--forty-four in number--are essentially
private institutions, intended to render self-help in the factories to
which they belong, but they are well organized, and have a mutual
understanding whereby the neighbouring brigades of any one factory
immediately turn out and assist in case of need. These factory
brigades have a total staff of 1600 men. They are equipped with 1
steam fire-engine, 57 large manuals, 136 small manuals, and have a
very considerable amount of small gear, including 15 smoke helmets.
_Cologne._--The Cologne professional fire brigade is 153 strong (1906),
with a chief officer, a second officer, and two divisional officers, a
warrant officer, a telegraph superintendent and 16 foremen. The brigade
has 26 horses, of which 2, however, are used for ambulance purposes. The
brigade has three large stations and a minor station, and has a
permanent fire-watch at the two municipal theatres. Men are told off for
duty as coachmen among the firemen. The staff do forty-eight hours of
duty to twenty-four hours of rest.
A peculiarity of the Cologne organization is its auxiliary retained fire
brigade in two sections, comprising a superintendent, 2 deputy
superintendents, 5 foremen, and 51 men, with 2 horses, who are retained
men housed in municipal buildings (tenements), and available as an
immediate reserve force. The first section of the reserve force are
housed centrally.
There is a further system of suburban volunteer fire brigades manned by
volunteers but equipped by the municipality, and horsed from the
municipal stables or municipal tramways. Three of these volunteer
brigades, which have large suburban districts, comprise each a
superintendent, 2 senior foremen and 3 junior foremen, with 50 firemen
and 3 coachmen. The minor outlying suburbs have several such brigades,
each having one senior foreman, 3 junior foremen, 20 firemen and 2
coachmen. The combined force of the suburban volunteer brigades is 295,
all ranks.
The Cologne fire service thus comprises a combination of professional
brigade with a retained auxiliary brigade and a system of suburban
volunteer brigades. Of the three stations, the central one is still an
old building, and the other two are in modern buildings; the extra
sub-station (near the river stores) is also a modern building. The
brigade has about 150 fires to attend per annum. Its printed matter,
in the form of an annual detailed report, is exceptionally well
prepared. The brigade does permanent "fire-watch" duty at the
municipal theatres which are strengthened of an evening. It provides
additional watches during performances at all other theatres and
public entertainments. Such duties are provided in part by an
auxiliary brigade and partly by the professional brigade. A number of
the professional brigade are always utilized for doing general work in
the workshops of the brigade. The first or central section of the
auxiliary brigade drills eleven times per annum, and is additionally
turned out eleven times per annum (without drill). Men newly attached
to the auxiliary force have to go through a four weeks' recruit drill.
_Nuremberg._--The Nuremberg fire service stands as the most economically
organized efficient fire service in Central Europe, and its form of
organization is peculiar and exceptional. In 1902 the entire
fire-service cost the city 126,000 marks (£6300). The total of
inhabitants in 1900 was 261,000. For this small amount of money the city
gets a highly-trained retained fire brigade of 156 men (1907), and two
volunteer fire brigades of 130 and 224 men respectively. Further, it has
an auxiliary of eighteen suburban volunteer fire brigades (1080 men) and
two private factory fire brigades (71 men). The whole service stands
under a professional chief officer and professional second officer.
There are 8 telegraph clerks, 6 watchmen and 17 coachmen attached to the
retained brigade. The service has been in existence for fifty years. It
has gradually developed and has worked remarkably well, and may, in
fact, be taken as a model institution for municipal economy, with due
regard to up-to-dateness and efficiency. The retained fire brigade
comprises entirely municipal employés, regularly engaged in the
municipal workshops, scavenging and works department. The municipal
workshops are located alongside the fire-brigade stations. There is a
headquarters station for the retained brigade and volunteer brigade in
the centre of the town, a modern district station in the western
district, and a third district station is in course of erection for the
eastern district, which is at present only served by a small branch
station.
At headquarters station there are on immediate duty by day 14 firemen
(chiefly smiths and carpenters) of the retained brigade. Nine men of
the retained brigade are on duty at headquarters at night, together
with 8 men of the volunteer fire brigade. At the west district
station, 14 men of the retained brigade are on duty by day, and the
same number at night.
The headquarters can turn out in succession four complete units of the
following strength, namely:--
First unit, a large chemical engine, and a mechanical long ladder.
Second unit, a trap with hose reel, a special gear-cart and a long
ladder.
Third unit, a trap with hose-cart and manual, and a long ladder.
Fourth unit, a steam fire-engine, and hose- and coal-tender trap.
From the west district station three units can be turned out in
rotation, namely:---
First unit, large chemical engine, large trap and a long ladder.
Second unit, a trap with hose-reel and manual engine.
Third unit, a steam fire-engine and a hose-tender and coal-tender
trap.
The equipment of the eastern sub-station at present comprises a
turn-out of a trap and a long ladder.
The brigade can thus turn out immediately, in rapid succession, these
horsed appliances, well organized and fully manned. It further has a
reserve of 4 manual engines and 2 long ladders.
The suburban volunteer brigades have besides at their disposal 25
manual engines, 9 fire-escapes and 18 hose-reels. The whole of the
hose for all brigades is of uniform pattern and make, with bayonet
pattern standard couplings. The brigade posts an evening "fire watch"
at the theatres. The men of the retained brigade get modest extra pay
for fire brigade duty, but this pay is intended rather to cover
disbursements or expenses than to be considered as wages. The brigade
uses the municipal horses, all of which are stabled in proximity to
the fire stations, and a number of which are kept on duty for fire
brigade purposes in the actual stations. For all practical purposes
the retained brigade is the professional brigade in which the men do
municipal work in the municipal workshops, and elsewhere, i.e. in
training, drill and general efficiency they are quite up to the best
professional standard. The volunteer brigade is well drilled and
includes the best of the younger townsmen, who do duty at night by
rotation. The brigade's responsibilities are clearly defined, and the
position of the professional chief and second officer clearly laid
down by by-laws. There are 129 fire-call points. During the fifty
years' existence of the service, 85 firemen received the twenty-five
years' long-service medal, of whom 32 belonged to the suburban
volunteer brigades.
_Venice._--The Venice fire brigade is a section of the force of "Vigili"
or municipal watchmen, which body does general duty in preserving order
and rendering assistance to the community. In other words, this force
performs the duties of the civil police (rather than governmental or
criminal police), fire, patrol watch service, and public control in a
general sense. The force, which in all its sections made a most
excellent impression, has a commandant, under whom the two primary
sections work, namely (a) the civil police section and the (b) fire
brigade section; each section in turn having its own principal officers.
The police section comprises some 108 of all ranks, and the fire brigade
section some 73 of all ranks (1908). The commandant of the whole force
is a retired military officer, and the chief of the fire service section
is a civil engineer, and these two officers, together with the chief of
the civil police section, are the three superior officers of the force.
The police section serve as auxiliaries to the fire brigade section in
case of any great fire, and, of course, generally work very much hand in
hand on all occasions. The fire brigade section has 3 superintendents, 6
foremen, 6 sub-foremen, 6 corporals and 40 file. The section is well
equipped with appliances, both hand and steam, having a large modern
petrol-propelled float, constructed in London, a large old type
steam-float, two 35-ft. old steam-floats, and several small petrol
motor-floats or first turnout appliances. The manual-engines, ladders,
&c., which are in considerable number, are carried in a large fleet of
swift gondolas. Fire-escape work is done with Roman ladders, which are
usually planted on two gondolas flung together barge-form, or, if the
depth of the canal permits, the lower length is buried in the canal
bottom. Hook ladders are also used.
Men are distributed in six companies of varying strength, the
headquarters company being stationed at the town hall, with a strength
of 22, and most of the steam and petrol floats lie opposite the
station. The fire brigade does theatre watch duty. As a fire station
of considerable interest, should be mentioned the one at the Doge's
palace; the large vaults occupying a portion of the ground floor
facing St Mark's Square have been adapted for fire station purposes in
a very simple yet artistic manner, and the old gear of the brigade has
been used to form emblems, &c.
_Vienna._--In 1892 the Vienna fire service was reconstituted on modern
lines owing to the area of the Vienna municipality having been greatly
extended. The professional brigade was somewhat strengthened and
entirely re-equipped, and the various existing volunteer brigades of the
outlying districts were transformed into suburban volunteer fire
brigades, equipped and controlled by the municipality and standing under
the general command of the fire brigade headquarters. The principle
involved was the utilization of the splendid volunteer force around
Vienna for the purpose of strengthening the municipal brigade, a
principle of great economic advantage, as the professional brigade would
otherwise have had to be materially strengthened, probably trebled.
These suburban volunteer fire brigades number no fewer than 34, and have
1200 firemen of all ranks. They are practically independent institutions
as far as the election of officers and administration is concerned, but
their equipment and uniforms and their fire stations are provided by the
municipality, and in certain districts a staff of professional firemen
detached from headquarters are attached to their stations as telegraph
clerks and drill-instructors.
The suburban volunteer brigades turn out to fires in their own
districts, and further, assist in other districts when so ordered by
headquarters. They form a strong reserve for great fires in the city
proper. Headquarters, of course, renders assistance at large suburban
fires. These suburban volunteer fire brigades are very perfectly
equipped with appliances, generally of the same type as those used in
the central professional brigade. Some of these brigades are equipped
with combined chemical engines with 15-metres long ladders attached.
They have smoke helmets, and everything that may be termed modern. The
men are volunteers in the truest sense of the word, i.e. do not take pay
of any description or make any charges for attendance at fires or
refreshments at fires.
The Vienna "professional brigade," as it is generally called, has a
personnel (1906) consisting of 8 officers, 5 officials and 475 men. Of
stations there is the headquarters, a district station, 4 branch
stations with steam fire engines, 9 small branch stations, and 2
"watches" in public buildings. The officers of the brigade consist of
the commandant, chief inspector and six inspectors. The officers, of
whom four are on duty daily, are all quartered at headquarters. There
are three telegraph superintendents. The rank and file is composed of 8
drill-sergeants, 40 telegraph clerks (three classes), 53 foremen (two
classes), 22 engineers and stokers, 248 men (three classes). Twenty-four
telegraph clerks and engineers are detailed for duty with the suburban
volunteer brigades. There are 78 coachmen.
The following are the fire-extinguishing and life-saving apparatus and
service vehicles of all kinds standing ready to "turn out":--2 open
and 2 officers' service carriages (at headquarters), 6 "traps" for the
first "turn-out" (5 at headquarters and 1 at the district fire
station), each manned by one officer in charge and nine men, and
equipped with 3 hook-ladders, a portable extension ladder and jumping
sheet, a life-saving chute, an ambulance chest, 3 tool-boxes, a jack,
tools, torches, 2 smoke-helmets, with hand-pump and a hose-reel
attached; five special gear-carts (4 at headquarters and 1 at the
district station), each manned by seven firemen and equipped like the
"traps" with the exception that, instead of the life-saving chute, the
carts carry with them a sliding-sheet, two petroleum torches each, an
extension ladder (15 metres long) and some spare coal for the steam
fire-engines; 4 pneumatic extension ladders each 25 metres long, and 3
extension turn-table ladders each 25 metres long (at headquarters and
at two of the sub-stations); each of the pneumatic ladders has three
men, and each turn-table ladder five men; 18 chemical engines (3 at
headquarters and 1 each in the other stations), each having five men
with 3 hook-ladders, a jointed ladder (in four sections), a hose-reel,
a hand-engine, a smoke helmet, a jumping sheet, an ambulance chest, a
tool box, torches, &c.; 8 steam fire-engines (3 at headquarters and
one each in the district fire station and the 4 steam-engine
stations), each with an engineer and stoker.
The reserve of appliances includes 12 manual engines, 15 large
chemical engines, 17 steel water-carts (with 1000 litre reservoirs).
The total number of oxygen smoke helmets in the brigade is 68, and
there are 15 ordinary smoke helmets with hand-pumps. The total number
of horses is 132. One electrically-driven trap and two
electrically-driven chemical engines are being tried. The fire
telegraphic and telephonic installation, including the lines in the
volunteer brigades' districts kept up by the professional brigade,
comprises 47 telegraph stations, 249 telephone stations, with
altogether 161 Morse instruments and 536 semi-public fire-call points.
_Zürich._--Zürich covers about 12,000 English acres, 1500 of which are
built over with some 15,000 houses, the whole of the buildings being
subject to the local building regulations and the State Insurance
Association's rules, in which they are compulsorily insured. The brigade
is a compulsory militia brigade, placed under the control of the head of
the department of police under a law of 1898. The same municipal officer
is head of a special municipal committee of nine, entrusted with the
safety of the town from fire. The executive officer of the committee is
known as the inspector, and acts as captain of the fire brigade. His
office is at the fire-brigade headquarters, where he has a small
permanent staff both for brigade work and correspondence. Every male
inhabitant of Zürich is compelled to do some service for the prevention
of, or protection against, fire, from the age of twenty to fifty years.
The duty may be fulfilled (1) by active service, or (2) in the case of
an able-bodied citizen, who for some reason is not found suited to be a
member of the brigade, or has been dismissed from the brigade, by the
payment of a tax, which tax is fixed on the basis of his income. Certain
citizens, however, are _ipso facto_ exempt from active service, namely
members of parliament, members of council of the Polytechnic school, of
the Cantonal government, of the High Court of Justice, and of the Town
Council; also clergymen and schoolmasters, the officials of railways,
tramway and steamboat companies, of the post-office and telephone
department, students of the Polytechnic school and other educational
institutions and municipal officials, with whose duties fire brigade
service is incompatible. Exemption from active service can also be
accorded on a testimonial of a medical board. Exemption from active
service, however, in no case exempts from the tax, the total of which
amounts to between £4000 and £5000. In making the selection of men for
active service only, men particularly fitted for the work are taken,
namely, men who are personally keen, who have a good physique, and who
are preferably of the building or allied trades. The officers of the
brigade are appointed by the municipal committee. The men's drills are
by the chief officer, and the men are liable to fines and to
imprisonment (up to four days) for not attending their drills. The whole
of the brigade is insured against accidents and illness with the Swiss
Fire Brigade Union at the expense of the city, and the city in addition
provides a fund for families in cases of death of firemen on duty. There
is also a sick fund provided for the brigade by the municipality, which
also accords a scale of compensation.
The fire brigade comprises the very large complement of fifteen
companies with 120 men each. Each company has three sections, namely,
a fire service section, a life-saving section, and a police section,
the last being utilized for keeping the ground and attending to
salvage. Each company is supposed to be able, as a rule, to deal with
the fire in its own district without calling upon the company of an
adjoining district, and it is only in the case of a very serious fire
that additional companies are turned out. There is thus a system of
decentralization and independence of companies in this brigade not
often met with elsewhere. Firemen are paid one franc for each drill of
two hours. For fires, two francs for two hours, and fifty centimes per
hour afterwards. Refreshments are provided. Any telephone can be used
free by law for an alarm. The brigade has at its disposal an extension
telephone service, but the men are not all connected up with the
telephone of their respective districts, and thus the alarm is given
mainly with horns sounded by men who are on the telephone. No section
of the brigade has less than ten men on the telephone.
The water-supply is of a most excellent character. The appliances in
the main comprise hydrants and hose-reels with ladder trucks, and each
section has not less than 3000 ft. of hose. They are mainly housed in
small temporary corrugated iron sheds with roller shutter doors, to
which all the firemen have keys. There are some sixty of these hydrant
houses distributed round the city, the larger appliances being at
headquarters and at some depots.
Apart from the fact of there being the inspector or chief officer for
the whole district, with a certain permanent staff, each company might
be considered as a separate brigade, having its own chief officer and
staff, and independent organization, the organization of the
companies, however, being identical. A company comprises 1 chief
officer, 1 second officer, 1 doctor, 2 ambulance men and 6 orderlies,
a staff in charge, and the three sections have respectively 1
lieutenant, 1 deputy-lieutenant and 40 men for the fire service
section; 1 lieutenant, 1 deputy-lieutenant and 40 men for the
life-saving section, and 1 lieutenant, 1 deputy-lieutenant and 20 men
for the police section. Only in the case of sections 1 and 2 is there
some slight variation in the organization, namely, 1 and 2 sections
have been combined as a joint section, with an additional senior
officer. At Zürich, as in all Swiss fire brigades, there is an
extraordinary uniformity of drills, rules, regulations and
instructions in all its sections. In 1908 the brigade comprised 2268
in all ranks. There were about 70 fires in that year. (E. O. S.)
_United States._
Fire service in the United States has developed on so large a scale that
in 1902 it was estimated by P.G. Hubert ("Fire Fighting To-Day and
To-Morrow," _Scribner's Magazine_, 1902, 32, pp 448 sqq.) that in
proportion to population the fire force of America was nearly four times
that of Germany or France and about three times that of England. The
many fires consequent on wooden construction even in the large cities;
the bad effect of sudden climatic changes--drying, parching heat being
followed by weather so cold as to require artificial heating; the less
safe character of heating appliances; and, especially in tenements, the
more inflammable character of furniture, are some of the reasons
assigned for greater fire frequency in America. Fire-fighting service in
the United States is in no way connected with the military as it is on
the continent of Europe; the association of volunteer with paid firemen
is uncommon except in the suburban parts of the large cities, and in the
smaller cities and towns, where volunteers serving for a certain term
are, during that term and thereafter, exempt from jury duty.
_New York._--The fire department of New York City is the result of
gradual development. The first record of municipal action in regard to
fire prevention dates from 1659, when 250 leather buckets and a supply
of fire-ladders and hooks were purchased, and a tax of one guilder for
fire apparatus was imposed on every chimney; in 1676 fire-wells were
ordered to be dug; in 1686 every dwelling-house with two chimneys was
required to provide one bucket (if with more than two hearths, two), and
bakers and brewers had to provide three and six buckets respectively; in
1689 "brent-masters" or fire-marshals were appointed; in 1695 every
dwelling-house had to provide one fire-bucket at least; in 1730 two
Richard Newsham hand-engines were ordered from England, and soon
afterwards a superintendent of fire-engines was appointed on a small
salary; in 1736 an engine-house was built near the watch-house in Broad
Street, and an act of the provincial legislature authorized the
appointment of twenty-four firemen exempt from constable or militia
duty. Early in the 19th century volunteer fire companies increased
rapidly in numbers and in importance, especially political; and success
in a fire company was a sure path to success in politics, the best-known
case being that of Richard Croker, a member of "Americus 6," commonly
called "Big Six," of which William M. Tweed was organizer and foreman.
Parades of fire companies, chowder parties and picnics (predecessors of
the present "ward leader's outing") under the auspices of the volunteer
organizations, annual balls after 1829, water-throwing contests, often
over liberty poles, and bitter fights between different companies
(sometimes settled by fist duels between selected champions), improved
the organization of these companies as political factors if not as
fire-fighters. So devoted were the volunteers to their leaders that in
1836, when James Gulick, chief engineer since 1831, was removed from
office for political reasons, the news of his removal coming when the
volunteers were fighting a fire caused them all to stop their work, and
they began again only when Gulick assured them that the news was false;
almost all the firemen resigned until Gulick was reinstated. The type of
the noisy, rowdy New York volunteer fire hero was made famous in
1848-1849 by Frank S. Chanfrau's playing of the part Mose in Benjamin
Baker's play, _A Glance at New York_. The Ellsworth Zouaves of New York
were raised entirely from volunteer firemen of the city.
In 1865, when the volunteer service was abolished, it consisted of 163
companies (52 engines, 54 hose; 57 hook and ladder) manned by 3521 men
(engines averaging 40 to 60 men, hose-carts about 25, and hook and
ladder companies about 40); the chief engineer, elected with assistants
for terms of five or three years by ballots of the firemen, received a
salary of $3000 a year; and three bell-ringers in each of eight district
watch-towers, who watched for smoke and gave alarms, received $600 a
year. The legislature in March 1865 created a Metropolitan Fire District
and established therein a Fire Department, headed by four commissioners,
who with the mayor and comptroller constituted a board of estimate.
This organization was practically unchanged until 1898, when the Greater
New York was chartered and the present system was introduced. At its
head is a commissioner who receives $7500 a year. The more immediate
head of the firemen is a chief (annual salary $10,000), the only member
of the force not appointed on the basis of a civil service examination;
the chief has a deputy in Manhattan (for Manhattan, Bronx and Richmond
boroughs) and another for Brooklyn and Queens, each receiving an annual
salary of $5000.
In December 1908 there were: 14 deputy chiefs (eight in Manhattan,
Bronx and Richmond, and six in Brooklyn and Queens); 59 chiefs of
battalion (31 in Manhattan, Bronx and Richmond, and 28 in Brooklyn and
Queens); 248 foremen or captains (137 in Manhattan, Bronx and
Richmond, and 111 in Brooklyn and Queens), 365 assistant foremen (221
in Manhattan, Bronx and Richmond; and 144 in Brooklyn and Queens); 431
engineers of steamers (247 in Manhattan, Bronx and Richmond, and 184
in Brooklyn and Queens) and 2933 firemen (1772 in Manhattan, Bronx and
Richmond, and 1161 in Brooklyn and Queens); and the total uniformed
force was 4107. At the close of 1908 there were 88 engine
companies--at East 99th St., Battery Park, Grand St. (East River),
West 35th St., Gansevoort St. and West 132nd St.; and in Manhattan and
the Bronx there were 38 hook and ladder companies; in Brooklyn and
Queens there were 70 engine companies, including two fire-boat
companies--at 42nd St. and at North 8th St. The appropriations for the
year 1906 were $4,777,687 for Manhattan, Bronx and Richmond, and
$3,147,033 for Brooklyn and Queens; and the department expenses were
$3,980,535 for Manhattan, Bronx and Richmond, and $2,565,849 for
Brooklyn and Queens.
The first high-pressure main system in the city was installed at Coney
Island in 1905, gas-engines working the pumps. Electrically driven
centrifugal pumps are used in Brooklyn (protected area, 1360 acres)
and in Manhattan, where the system was introduced in 1908, and where
the protected district (1454 acres) reaches from the City Hall to 25th
St. and from the Hudson east to Second Avenue and East Broadway, being
the "Dry Goods District"; water is pumped either from city mains or
from the river, and the change may be made instantaneously. The fire
watch-tower system was abolished in 1869; the present system is that
of red box electric telegraph alarms, which register at headquarters
(East 67th St.), where an operator sends out the alarm to that
engine-house nearest to the fire which is ready to respond, and a
chart informing him of the absence from the engine-house of apparatus.
There are volunteer forces (about 2700 men) in Queens and Richmond
boroughs and in other outlying districts.
_Boston._--The Boston fire department (reorganized after the great
fire of 1872) is officered by a commissioner (annual salary, $5000), a
chief (annual salary, $4000), a senior deputy ($2400), and a junior
deputy ($2200), twelve district chiefs ($2000 each), a superintendent
and an assistant superintendent of fire-alarms, and a superintendent
and an assistant superintendent of the repair shop. In 1909 the force
numbered 877 regulars and 8 call men. There were 53 steam
fire-engines, 14 chemical engines, 3 water-towers, 3 combination
chemical engines and hose-wagons (one being motor-driven), 3
fire-boats (built in 1889, 1895 and 1909 respectively), 29
ladder-trucks and 49 hose-wagons. The auxiliary salt-water main
service was established in 1893. The earliest suggestion of the
application of the electric telegraph to a fire-alarm system was made
in Boston in 1845 by Dr Wm. F. Channing; in 1847-1848 Moses G. Farmer,
then a telegraph operator at Framingham, made a practicable electric
telegraph alarm; and in 1851-1855 Farmer became superintendent of the
Boston fire-alarm system, a plant being installed in 1852.[2]
_Chicago._--The Chicago organization practically dates from the fire
of 1871, though there was a paid department as early as 1858. Its
principal officers are a fire-marshal and chief of brigade (salary
$8000), four assistant fire-marshals, a department inspector, eighteen
battalion chiefs, a superintendent of machinery, a veterinary and
assistant, and about one hundred each of captains, lieutenants,
engineers and assistant engineers; the total regular force in 1908 was
1799 men with an auxiliary volunteer force of 71 in Riverdale, Norwood
Park, Hansen Park and Ashburn Park. In the business part of the city
there is a patrol of seven companies employed by the Board of Fire
Underwriters. Since 1895 all men in the uniformed force (except the
chief of brigade) are under civil service rules. In 1908 the equipment
included 117 engine companies, 34 hook and ladder companies, including
one water-tower, 15 chemical engines and one hose company; and there
were 5 fire-boats (4 active and 1 reserve). The first fire-boat was
built in 1883. The initial installation of high-pressure mains was
completed in 1902, and was greatly enlarged in 1908.
_Fire Appliances._
_Fire-Alarms._--Most large cities possess a system of electrical
fire-alarms, consisting of call boxes placed at frequent intervals along
the streets. Any one wishing to give notice of a fire either opens the
door of one of these boxes or breaks the glass window with which it is
fitted, and then pulls the handle inside, thus causing the particular
number allocated to the box, which of course indicates its position, to
be electrically telegraphed to the nearest fire station, or elsewhere as
thought advisable. Sometimes a telephone is fixed in each call-box.
Automatic fire-alarms consist of arrangements whereby an electric
circuit is closed when the surrounding air reaches a certain
temperature. The electric circuit may be used to start an alarm bell or
to give warning to a watchman or central office, and the devices for
closing it are of the most varied kinds--the expansion of mercury in a
thermometer tube, the sagging of a long wire suspended between
horizontal supports, the unequal expansion of the brass in a curved
strip of brass and steel welded together, &c.
_Fire-Engines._--The earliest method of applying water to the extinction
of fires was by means of buckets, and these long remained the chief
instruments employed for the purpose, though Hero of Alexandria about
150 B.C. described a fire-engine with two cylinders and pistons worked
by a reciprocating lever, and Pliny refers to the use of fire-engines in
Rome. In the 16th century (as at Augsburg in 1518) we hear of fire
squirts or syringes worked by hand, and towards the end of the same
century Cyprien Lucar described a very large one operated by a screw
handle. The fire squirts used in London about the time of the Great Fire
were 3 or 4 ft. long by 2½ or 3 in. in diameter, and three men were
required to manipulate them. The next stage of development was to mount
a cistern or reservoir on wheels so that it was portable, and to provide
it with pumps which forced out the water contained in it through a fixed
delivery pipe in the middle of the machine. An important advance was
made in 1672 when two Dutchmen, Jan van der Heyde, senior and junior,
made flexible hose by sewing together the edges of a strip of leather,
and applied it for both suction and delivery, so that the engines could
be continuously supplied with water and the stream could be more readily
directed on the seat of the fire. For many years manual engines were the
only ones employed, and they came to be made of great size, requiring as
many as 40 or 50 men to work them; but now they are superseded by
power-driven engines, at least for all important services. The first
practical steam fire-engine was made by John Braithwaite about 1829, but
though it proved useful in various fires in London for several years
after that date, it was objected to by the men of the fire brigade and
its use was abandoned. A generation later, however, steam fire-engines
began to come into vogue. At first they were usually drawn by horses to
the scene of the fire, though exceptionally their engines could be
geared to the wheels so that they became self-propelled; and it was not
till the beginning of the 20th century that motor fire-engines were
employed to any extent. Steam, petrol and electricity have all been
used. Such engines have the advantage that they can reach a fire much
more rapidly than a horse-drawn vehicle, especially in hilly districts,
and they can if necessary be made of greater power, since their size
need not be limited by considerations of the weight that can be drawn by
horses. Petrol-propelled engines can be started off from a station
within a few seconds of the receipt of an alarm, and their pumps are
ready to work immediately the fire is reached; steam-propelled engines
possess the same advantage, if they are kept always standing under
steam, though this involves expense that is avoided with petrol engines,
which cost nothing for maintenance except while they are actually
working. Motor engines are made with a capacity to deliver 1000 gallons
of water a minute or even more, but the sizes than can deal with 400 or
500 gallons a minute are probably those most commonly used.
In towns standing on a navigable water-way fire-boats are often provided
for extinguishing fires in buildings, in docks and along the waterside.
The capacity of these may rise to 6000 gallons a minute. Steam is the
power most commonly used in them, both for propulsion and for pumping,
but in one built for Spezia by Messrs Merryweather & Sons of London in
1909, an 80 H. P. petrol engine was fitted for propulsion, while a steam
engine was employed for pumping. The boiler was fired with oil-fuel, and
steam could be raised in a few minutes while the boat was on its way to
a fire. The pumps could throw a 1½-in. jet to a height of nearly 200 ft.
In some places, as at Boston, Mass., the fire-boats are utilized for
service at some distance from the water. Fire-mains laid through the
streets terminate in deep water at points accessible to the boats, the
pumps of which can be connected to them and made to fill them with water
at high pressure. In cities where a high-pressure hydraulic supply
system is available, a relatively small quantity of the pressure water
can be used, by means of Greathead hydrants or similar devices, to draw
a much larger quantity from the ordinary mains and force it in jets to
considerable heights and distances, without the intervention of any
engine.
The water is conducted from the engines or hydrants in hose-pipes, which
are made either of leather fastened with brass or copper rivets, or of
canvas (woven from flax) which has the merit of lightness but is liable
to rot, or of rubber jacketed with canvas (or in America with cotton).
For directing the water on the fire, nozzles of various forms are
employed, some throwing a plain solid jet, others producing spray, and
others again combining jet and spray, the spray being useful to drive
away smoke and protect the firemen. Various devices are employed to
enable the upper storeys of buildings to be effectively reached. A line
of hose may be attached to a telescopic ladder, the extensions of which
are pulled out by a wire rope until the top rests on the wall of the
building at the required height. Water-towers enable the jet to be
delivered at a considerable height independently of any support from the
building. A light, stiff, lattice steel frame is mounted on a truck, on
which it lies horizontally while being drawn to a fire, but when it has
to be used it is turned to an upright position, often by the aid of
compressed gas, and then an extensible tube is drawn out to a still
greater height. The direction of the stream delivered at the top may be
controlled from below by means of gearing which enables the nozzle to be
moved both horizontally and vertically. The pipe up the tower may be of
large diameter, so that it can carry a huge volume of water, and at the
bottom it may terminate in a reservoir into which several fire-engines
may pump simultaneously.
Another class of fire-engines, known in the smaller portable sizes as
fire-extinguishers or "extincteurs," and in the larger ones as "chemical
engines," throw a jet of water charged with gas, commonly carbon
dioxide, which does not support combustion. Essentially they consist of
a closed metal tank, filled with a solution of some carbonate and also
containing a small vessel of sulphuric acid. Under normal conditions the
acid is kept separate from the solution, but when the machine has to be
used they are mixed together; in some cases there is a plunger
projecting externally, which when struck a sharp blow breaks the bottle
of acid, while in others the act of inverting the apparatus breaks the
bottle or causes it to fall against a sharp pricker which pierces the
metallic capsule that closes it. As soon as the acid comes into contact
with the carbonate solution carbon dioxide is formed, and a stream of
gas and liquid mixed issues under considerable pressure from the
attached nozzle or hosepipe. Hand appliances of this kind, holding a few
gallons, are often placed in the corridors of hotels, public buildings,
&c., and if they are well-constructed, so that they do not fail to act
when they are wanted, they are useful in the early stages of a fire,
because they enable a powerful jet to be quickly brought to bear; but it
is doubtful whether the stream of mixed gas and liquid they emit is much
more efficacious than plain water, and too much importance can easily be
attached to spectacular displays of their power to extinguish artificial
blazes of wood soused with petrol, which have been burning only a few
seconds. Chemical engines, up to 60 or 70 gallons capacity, are used by
fire brigades as first-aid appliances, being mounted on a horsed or
motor vehicle and often combined with a fire-escape, a reel of hose, and
other appliances needed by the firemen, and even with pumps for throwing
powerful jets of ordinary water. Large buildings, such as hotels and
warehouses, where a competent watchman is assumed to be always on duty,
may be protected by a large chemical engine placed in the basement and
connected by pipes to hydrants placed at convenient points on the
various floors. At each hose-station a handle is provided which when
pulled actuates a device that effects the mixing of the acid and
carbonate solution in the machine, so that in a minute or so a stream is
available at the hydrants.
_Automatic Sprinklers._--Factories, warehouses and other buildings in
which the fire risks are great, are sometimes fitted with automatic
sprinklers which discharge water from the ceiling of a room as soon as
the temperature rises to a certain point. Lines of pipes containing
water under pressure are carried through the building near the ceilings
at distances of 8 or 10 ft. apart, and to these pipes are attached
sprinkler heads at intervals such that the water from them is
distributed all over the room. The valves of the sprinklers are normally
kept closed by a device the essential feature of which is a piece of
fusible metal; this as soon as it is softened (at a temperature of about
160° F.) by the heat from an incipient fire, gives way and releases the
water, which striking against a deflecting plate is spread in a shower.
In situations where the water is liable to freeze, the ceiling pipes are
filled only with air at a pressure of say 10 lb. per sq. in. When the
sprinkler head opens under the influence of the heat from a fire, the
compressed air escapes, and the consequent loss of pressure in the pipes
is arranged to operate a system of levers that opens the water-valve of
the main-feed pipe. The idea of automatic sprinklers is an old one, and
a system was patented by Sir William Congreve in 1812; but in their
present development they are specially associated with the name of
Frederick Grinnell, of Providence, Rhode Island.
_Fire-Escapes._--The best kind of fire-escape, because it is always in
place, and always ready for use, is an external iron staircase, reaching
from the top of a building to the ground, and connected with balconies
accessible from the windows on each floor. In many towns the building
by-laws require such staircases to be provided on buildings exceeding a
certain height and containing more than a certain number of persons. Of
non-fixed escapes, designed to enable the inmates of an upper room to
reach the ground through the window, numberless forms have been
invented, from simple knotted ropes and folding ladders to slings and
baskets suspended by a rope over sheaves fixed permanently outside the
windows, and provided with brakes by which the occupant can regulate the
speed of his descent, and to "chutes" or canvas tubes down which he
slides. Fire brigades are provided with telescopic ladders, mounted on a
wheeled carriage, up which the firemen climb; sometimes the persons
rescued are sent down a chute attached to the apparatus, but many fire
brigades think it preferable to rely on carrying down those who are
unable to descend the ladder unaided. Jumping sheets or nets, held by a
number of men, are provided to catch those whose only chance of escape
is by jumping from an upper window. (X.)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] In the United States a special officer called a "fire-marshal"
has for some time been allocated to this work in many cities, and in
1894 state fire-marshals were authorized in Massachusetts and in
Maryland, this example being followed by Ohio (1900), Connecticut
(1901), and Washington (1902); and in other states laws have been
passed making official inquiry compulsory. In England the question
has been mooted whether coroners, even where no death has occurred,
should hold similar inquiries, but though this has been done in
recent years in the City of London no regular system exists.
[2] See Thomas C. Martin, _Municipal Electric Fire Alarm and Police
Patrol Systems_ (Washington, 1904), Bulletin II of the Bureau of the
Census, Department of Commerce and Labour. The next plant was
installed in Philadelphia in 1855; one in St Louis was completed in
1858; and work was begun in New Orleans and Baltimore in 1860.
FIREBACK, the name given to the ornamented slab of cast iron protecting
the back of a fireplace. The date at which firebacks became common
probably synchronizes with the removal of the fire from the centre to
the side or end of a room. They never became universal, since the
proximity of deposits of iron ore was essential to their use. In England
they were confined chiefly to the iron districts of Sussex and Surrey,
and appear to have ceased being made when the ore in those counties was
exhausted. They are, however, occasionally found in other parts of the
country, and it is reasonable to suppose that there was a certain
commerce in an appliance which gradually assumed an interesting and even
artistic form. The earlier examples were commonly rectangular, but a
shaped or gabled top eventually became common. English firebacks may
roughly be separated into four chronological divisions--those moulded
from more than one movable stamp; armorial backs; allegorical,
mythological and biblical slabs with an occasional portrait; and copies
of 17th and 18th century continental designs, chiefly Netherlandish. The
fleur-de-lys, the rosette, and other motives of detached ornament were
much used before attempts were made to elaborate a homogeneous design,
but by the middle of the 17th century firebacks of a very elaborate type
were being produced. Thus we have representations of the Crucifixion,
the death of Jacob, Hercules slaying the hydra, and the plague of
serpents. Coats of arms were very frequent, the royal achievement being
used extensively--many existing firebacks bear the arms of the Stuarts.
About the time of Elizabeth the coats of private families began to be
used, the earliest instances remaining bearing those of the Sackvilles,
who were lords of a large portion of the forest of Anderida, which
furnished the charcoal for the smelting operations in our ancient
iron-fields. To the armorial shields the date was often added, together
with the initials of the owner. The method of casting firebacks was to
cut the design upon a thick slab of oak which was impressed face
downwards upon a bed of sand, the molten metal being ladled into the
impression. Firebacks were also common in the Netherlands and in parts
of France, notably in Alsace. At Strassburg and Metz there are several
private collections, and there are also many examples in public museums.
The museum of the Porte de Hal at Brussels contains one of the finest
examples in existence with an equestrian portrait of the emperor Charles
V., accompanied by his arms and motto. When monarchy was first destroyed
in France the possession of a _plaque de cheminée_ bearing heraldic
insignia was regarded as a mark of disaffection to the republic, and on
the 13th of October 1793 the National Convention issued a decree giving
the owners and tenants of houses a month in which to turn such firebacks
with their face to the wall, pending the manufacture by the iron
foundries of a sufficient number of backs less offensive to the instinct
of equality. Very few of the old plaques were however removed, and to
this day the old chateaux of France contain many with their backs
outward. Reproductions of ancient chimney backs are now not infrequently
made, and the old examples are much prized and collected.
FIRE BRAT, a small insect (_Thermobia_ or _Thermophila furnorum_)
related to the silverfish, and found in bakehouses, where it feeds upon
bread and flour.
FIREBRICK.--Under this term are included all bricks, blocks and slabs
used for lining furnaces, fire-mouths, flues, &c., where the brickwork
has to withstand high temperature (see BRICK).
The conditions to which firebricks are subjected in use vary very
greatly as regards changes of temperature, crushing strain, corrosive
action of gases, scouring action of fuel or furnace charge, chemical
action of furnace charge and products of combustion, &c., and in order
to meet these different conditions many varieties of firebricks are
manufactured.
Ordinary firebricks are made from fireclays, i.e. from clays which
withstand a high temperature without fusion, excessive shrinkage or
warping. Many clays fulfil these conditions although the term "fireclay"
is generally restricted in use to certain shales from the Coal Measures,
which contain only a small percentage of soda, potash and lime, and are
consequently highly refractory. There is no fixed standard of
refractoriness for these clays, but no clay should be classed as a
fireclay which has a fusion point below 1600° C.
Fireclays vary considerably in chemical composition, but generally the
percentage of alumina and silica (taken together) is high, and the
percentage of oxide of iron, magnesia, lime, soda and potash (taken
together) is low. Other materials, such as lime, bauxite, &c., are
also used for the manufacture of firebricks where special chemical or
other properties are necessary.
The suitability of a fireclay for the manufacture of the various
fireclay goods depends upon its physical character as well as upon its
refractoriness, and it is often necessary to mix with the clay a
certain proportion of ground firebrick, ganister, sand or some similar
refractory material in order to obtain a suitable brick. Speaking
generally, fireclay goods used for lining furnaces where the firing is
continuous, or where the lining is in contact with molten metal or
other flux, are best made from fine-grained plastic clays; whereas
firebricks used in fire-mouths and other places which are subjected to
rapid changes of temperature must be made from coarser-grained and
consequently less plastic clays. In all cases care should be taken to
obtain a texture and also, as far as possible, by selection and
mixing, to obtain a chemical composition suitable for the purpose to
which the goods are to be applied. The Coal Measure clays often
contain nodules of siderite in addition to the carbonate of iron
disseminated in fine particles throughout the mass, and these nodules
are carefully picked out as far as practicable before the clay is
used.
A firebrick suitable for ordinary purposes should be even and rather
open in texture, fairly coarse in grain, free from cracks or warping,
strong enough to withstand the pressure to which it may be subjected
when in use, and sufficiently fired to ensure practically the full
contraction of the material. Very few fireclays meet all these
requirements, and it is usual to mix a certain proportion of ground
firebrick, ganister, sand or clay with the fireclay before making up.
The fireclay or shale or other materials are ground either between
rollers or on perforated pans, and then passed through sieves to
ensure a certain size and evenness of grain, after which the clay and
other materials are mixed in suitable proportion in the dry state,
water being generally added in the mixing mill, and the bricks made up
from plastic or semi-plastic clay in the ordinary way.
The proportion of ground firebrick, &c., used depends on the nature of
the clay and the purpose for which the material is required, but
generally speaking the more plastic clays require a higher percentage
of a plastic material than the less plastic clays, the object being to
produce a clay mixture which shall dry and fire without cracking,
warping or excessive shrinkage, and which shall retain after firing a
sufficiently open and even texture to withstand alternate heatings and
coolings without cracking or flaking. For special purposes special
mixtures are required and many expedients are used to obtain fireclay
goods having certain specific qualities. In preparing clay for the
manufacture of ordinary fire-grate backs, &c., where the temperature
is very variable but never very high, a certain percentage of sawdust
is often mixed with the fireclay, which burns out on firing and
ensures a very open or porous texture. Such material is much less
liable to splitting or flaking in use than one having a closer
texture, but it is useless for furnace lining and similar work, where
strength and resistance to wear and tear are essential. For the
construction of furnaces, fire-mouths, &c., the firebrick used must be
sufficiently strong and rigid to withstand the crushing strain of the
superimposed brickwork, &c., at the highest temperature to which they
are subjected.
The wearing out of a firebrick used in the construction of furnaces,
&c., takes place in various ways according to the character of the
brick and the particular conditions to which it is subjected. The
firebrick may waste by crumbling--due to excessive porosity or
openness of texture; it may waste by shattering, due to the presence
of large pebbles, pieces of limestone, &c.; it may gradually wear away
by the friction of the descending charge in the furnace, of the solid
particles carried by the flue gases and of the flue gases themselves;
it may waste by the gradual vitrification of the surface through
contact with fluxing materials: in cases where it is subjected to very
high temperature it will gradually vitrify and contract and so split
and fall away from the setting. It is a well-recognized fact that
successive firings to a temperature approaching the fusion point, or
long continued heating near that temperature, will gradually produce
vitrification, which brings about a very dense mass and close texture,
and entirely alters the properties of the brick.
Where firebricks are in contact with the furnace charge it is
necessary that the texture shall be fairly close, and that the
chemical composition of the brick shall be such as to retard the
formation of fusible double silicates as much as possible. Where the
furnace charge is basic the firebrick should, generally speaking, be
basic or aluminous and not siliceous, i.e. it should be made from a
fireclay containing little free silica, or from such a fireclay to
which a high percentage of alumina, lime, magnesia, or iron oxide has
been added. For such purposes firebricks are often made from materials
containing little or no clay, as for example mixtures of calcined and
uncalcined magnesite; mixtures of lime and magnesia and their
carbonates; mixtures of bauxite and clay; mixtures of bauxite, clay
and plumbago; bauxite and oxide of iron, &c.
In certain cases it is necessary to use an acid brick, and for the
manufacture of these a highly siliceous mineral, such as chert or
ganister, is used, mixed if necessary with sufficient clay to bind the
material together. Dinas fireclay, so-called, and the ganisters of the
south Yorkshire coal-fields are largely used for making these
siliceous firebricks, which may be also used where the brickwork does
not come in contact with basic material, as in the arches, &c., of
many furnaces. It is evident that no particular kind of firebrick can
be suitable for all purposes, and the manufacturer should endeavour to
make his bricks of a definite composition, texture, &., to meet
certain definite requirements, recognizing that the materials at his
disposal may be ill-adapted or entirely unsuitable for making
firebricks for other purposes. In setting firebricks in position, a
thin paste of fireclay and water or of material similar to that of
which the brick is composed, must be used in place of ordinary mortar,
and the joints should be as close as possible, only just sufficient of
the paste being used to enable the bricks to bed on one another.
It has long been the practice on certain works to wash the face of
firebrick work with a thin paste of some very refractory
material--such as kaolin--in order to protect the firebricks from the
direct action of the flue gases, &c., and quite recently a thin paste
of carborundum and clay, or carborundum and silicate of soda has been
more extensively used for the same purpose. So-called carborundum
bricks have been put on the market, which have a coating of
carborundum and clay fired on to the firebrick, and which are said to
have a greatly extended life for certain purposes. It is probable that
the carborundum gradually decomposes in the firing, leaving a thin
coating of practically pure silica which forms a smooth, impervious
and highly-refractory facing. (J. B.*; W. B.*)
FIREFLY, a term popularly used for certain tropical American
click-beetles (_Pyrophorus_), on account of their power of emitting
light. The insects belong to the family _Elateridae_, whose characters
are described under COLEOPTERA (q.v.). The genus _Pyrophorus_ contains
about ninety species, and is entirely confined to America and the West
Indies, ranging from the southern United States to Argentina and Chile.
Its species are locally known as _cucujos_. Except for a few species in
the New Hebrides, New Caledonia and Fiji, the luminous _Elateridae_ are
unknown in the eastern hemisphere. The light proceeds from a pair of
conspicuous smooth ovoid spots on the pronotum and from an area beneath
the base of the abdomen. Beneath the cuticle of these regions are
situated the luminous organs, consisting of layers of cells which may be
regarded as a specialized portion of the fat-body. Both the male and
female fireflies emit light, as well as their larvae and eggs, the egg
being luminous even while still in the ovary. The inhabitants of
tropical America sometimes keep fireflies in small cages for purposes of
illumination, or make use of the insects for personal adornment.
The name "firefly" is often applied also to luminous beetles of the
family _Lampyridae_, to which the well-known glow-worm belongs.
FIRE-IRONS, the implements for tending a fire. Usually they consist of
poker, tongs and shovel, and they are most frequently of iron, steel, or
brass, or partly of one and partly of another. The more elegant brass
examples of the early part of the 19th century are much sought after for
use with the brass fenders of that date. They were sometimes hung from
an ornamental brass stand. The fire-irons of our own times are smaller
in size and lighter in make than those of the best period.
FIRENZUOLA, AGNOLO (1493-c. 1545), Italian poet and littérateur, was
born at Florence on the 28th of September 1493. The family name was
taken from the town of Firenzuola, situated at the foot of the
Apennines, its original home. The grandfather of Agnolo had obtained the
citizenship of Florence and transmitted it to his family. Agnolo was
destined for the profession of the law, and pursued his studies first at
Siena and afterwards at Perugia. There he became the associate of the
notorious Pietro Aretino, whose foul life he was not ashamed to make the
model of his own. They met again at Rome, where Firenzuola practised for
a time the profession of an advocate, but with little success. It is
asserted by all his biographers that while still a young man he assumed
the monastic dress at Vallombrosa, and that he afterwards held
successively two abbacies. Tiraboschi alone ventures to doubt this
account, partly on the ground of Firenzuola's licentiousness, and partly
on the ground of absence of evidence; but his arguments are not held to
be conclusive. Firenzuola left Rome after the death of Pope Clement
VII., and after spending some time at Florence, settled at Prato as
abbot of San Salvatore. His writings, of which a collected edition was
published in 1548, are partly in prose and partly in verse, and belong
to the lighter classes of literature. Among the prose works
are--_Discorsi degli animali_, imitations of Oriental and Aesopian
fables, of which there are two French translations; _Dialogo delle
bellezze delle donne_, also translated into French; _Ragionamenti
amorosi_, a series of short tales in the manner of Boccaccio, rivalling
him in elegance and in licentiousness; _Discacciamento delle nuove
lettere_, a controversial piece against Trissino's proposal to introduce
new letters into the Italian alphabet; a free version or adaptation of
_The Golden Ass_ of Apuleius, which became a favourite book and passed
through many editions; and two comedies, _I Lucidi_, an imitation of the
_Menaechmi_ of Plautus, and _La Trinuzia_, which in some points
resembles the _Calandria_ of Cardinal Bibbiena. His poems are chiefly
satirical and burlesque. All his works are esteemed as models of
literary excellence, and are cited as authorities in the vocabulary of
the Accademia della Crusca. The date of Firenzuola's death is only
approximately ascertained. He had been dead several years when the first
edition of his writings appeared (1548).
His works have been very frequently republished, separately and in
collected editions. A convenient reprint of the whole was issued at
Florence in 2 vols. in 1848.
FIRESHIP, a vessel laden with combustibles, floated down on an enemy to
set him on fire. Fireships were used in antiquity, and in the middle
ages. The highly successful employment of one by the defenders of
Antwerp when besieged by the prince of Parma in 1585 brought them into
prominent notice, and they were used to drive the Armada from its
anchorage at Gravelines in 1588. They continued to be used, sometimes
with great effect, as late as the first quarter of the 19th century.
Thus in 1809 fireships designed by Lord Cochrane (earl of Dundonald)
were employed against the French ships at anchor in the Basque Roads;
and in the War of Greek Independence the successes of the Greek
fireships against the Ottoman navy, and the consequent demoralization of
the ill-disciplined Turkish crews, largely contributed to secure for
the insurgents the command of the sea. In general, however, it was found
that fireships hampered the movements of a fleet, were easily sunk by an
enemy's fire, or towed aside by his boats, while a premature explosion
was frequently fatal to the men who had to place them in position. They
were made by building "a fire chamber" between the decks from the
forecastle to a bulkhead constructed abaft the mainmast. This space was
filled with resin, pitch, tallow and tar, together with gunpowder in
iron vessels. The gunpowder and combustibles were connected by trains of
powder, and by bundles of brushwood called "bavins." When a fireship was
to be used, a body of picked men steered her down on the enemy, and when
close enough set her alight, and escaped in a boat which was towed
astern. As the service was peculiarly dangerous a reward of £100, or in
lieu of it a gold chain with a medal to be worn as a mark of honour, was
granted in the British navy to the successful captain of a fireship. A
rank of _capitaine de brûlot_ existed in the French navy of Louis XIV.,
and was next to the full captain--or _capitaine de vaisseau_.
FIRE-WALKING, a religious ceremony common to many races. The origin and
meaning of the custom is very obscure, but it is shown to have been
widespread in all ages. It still survives in Bulgaria, Trinidad, Fiji
Islands, Tahiti, India, the Straits Settlements, Mauritius, and it is
said Japan. The details of its ritual and its objects vary in different
lands, but the essential feature of the rite, the passing of priests,
fakirs, and devotees barefoot over heated stones or smouldering ashes is
always the same. Fire-walking was usually associated with the spring
festivals and was believed to ensure a bountiful harvest. Such was the
Chinese vernal festival of fire. In the time of Kublai Khan the Taoist
Buddhists held great festivals to the "High Emperor of the Sombre
Heavens" and walked through a great fire barefoot, preceded by their
priests bearing images of their gods in their arms. Though they were
severely burned, these devotees held that they would pass unscathed if
they had faith. J.G. Frazer (_Golden Bough_, vol. iii. p. 307) describes
the ceremony in the Chinese province of Fo-kien. The chief performers
are labourers who must fast for three days and observe chastity for a
week. During this time they are taught in the temple how they are to
perform their task. On the eve of the festival a huge brazier of
charcoal, often twenty feet wide, is prepared in front of the temple of
the great god. At sunrise the next morning the brazier is lighted. A
Taoist priest throws a mixture of salt and rice into the flames. The two
exorcists, barefooted and followed by two peasants, traverse the fire
again and again till it is somewhat beaten down. The trained performers
then pass through with the image of the god. Frazer suggests that, as
the essential feature of the rite is the carrying of the deity through
the flames, the whole thing is sympathetic magic designed to give to the
coming spring sunshine (the supposed divine emanation), that degree of
heat which the image experiences. Frazer quotes Indian fire-walks,
notably that of the Dosadhs, a low Indian caste in Behar and Chota
Nagpur. On the fifth, tenth, and full moon days of three months in the
year, the priest walks over a narrow trench filled with smouldering wood
ashes. The Bhuiyas, a Dravidian tribe of Mirzapur, worship their tribal
hero Bir by a like performance, and they declare that the walker who is
really "possessed" by the hero feels no pain. For fire-walking as
observed in the Madras presidency see _Indian Antiquary_, vii. (1878) p.
126; iii. (1874) pp. 6-8; ii. (1873) p. 190 seq. In Fiji the ceremony is
called _vilavilarevo_, and according to an eyewitness a number of
natives walk unharmed across and among white-hot stones which form the
pavement of a huge native oven. In Tahiti priests perform the rite. In
April 1899 an Englishman saw a fire-walk in Tokio (see _The Field_, May
20th, 1899). The fire was six yards long by six wide. The rite was in
honour of a mountain god. The fire-walkers in Bulgaria are called
_Nistinares_ and the faculty is regarded as hereditary. They dance in
the fire on the 21st of May, the feast of SS. Helena and Constantine.
Huge fires of faggots are made, and when these burn down the
_Nistinares_ (who turn blue in the face) dance on the red-hot embers
and utter prophecies, afterwards placing their feet in the muddy ground
where libations of water have been poured.
The interesting part of fire-walking is the alleged immunity of the
performers from burns. On this point authorities and eyewitnesses differ
greatly. In a case in Fiji a handkerchief was thrown on to the stones
when the first man leapt into the oven, and what remained of it snatched
up as the last left the stones. Every fold that touched the stone was
charred! In some countries a thick ointment is rubbed on the feet, but
this is not usual, and the bulk of the reports certainly leave an
impression that there is something still to be explained in the escape
of the performers from shocking injuries. S.P. Langley, who witnessed a
fire-walk in Tahiti, declares, however, that the whole rite as there
practised is a mere symbolic farce (_Nature_ for August 22nd, 1901).
For a full discussion of the subject with many eyewitnesses' reports
_in extenso_, see A. Lang, _Magic and Religion_ (1901). See also Dr
Gustav Oppert, _Original Inhabitants of India_, p. 480; W. Crooke,
_Introd. to Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern India_, p. 10
(1896); _Folklore Journal_ for September 1895 and for 1903, vol. xiv.
P. 87.
FIREWORKS. In modern times this term is principally associated with the
art of "pyrotechny" (Gr. [Greek: pur], fire, and [Greek: technê], art),
and confined to the production of pleasing scenic effects by means of
fire and inflammable and explosive substances. But the history of the
evolution of such displays is bound up with that of the use of such
substances not only for scenic display but for exciting fear and for
military purposes; and it is consequently complicated by our lack of
exact knowledge as to the materials at the disposal of the ancients
prior to the invention of gunpowder (see also the article GREEK FIRE).
For the following historical account the term "fireworks" is therefore
used in a rather general sense.
_History._--It is usually stated that from very ancient times fireworks
were known in China; it is, however, difficult to assign dates or quote
trustworthy authorities. Pyrotechnic displays were certainly given in
the Roman circus. While a passage in Manilius,[1] who lived in the days
of Augustus, seems to bear this interpretation, there is the definite
evidence of Vopiscus[2] that fireworks were performed for the emperor
Carinus and later for the emperor Diocletian; and Claudian,[3] writing
in the 4th century, gives a poetical description of a set piece, where
whirling wheels and dropping fountains of fire were displayed upon the
_pegma_, a species of movable framework employed in the various
spectacles presented in the circus. After the fall of the Western empire
no mention of fireworks can be traced until the Crusaders carried back
with them to Europe a knowledge of the incendiary compounds of the East,
and gunpowder had made its appearance. Biringuccio,[4] writing in 1540,
says that at an anterior period it had been customary at Florence and
Siena to represent a fable or story at the Feast of St John or at the
Assumption, and that on these occasions stage properties, including
effigies with wooden bodies and plaster limbs, were grouped upon lofty
pedestals, and that these figures gave forth flames, whilst round about
tubes or pipes were erected for projecting fire-balls into the air: but
he adds that these shows were never heard of in his time except at Rome
when a pope was elected or crowned. But if relinquished in Italy, fire
festivals on the eve of St John were observed both in England and
France; the custom was a very old one in the days of Queen Elizabeth,[5]
while De Frezier,[6] writing in 1707, says it was commonly adhered to in
his time, and that on one occasion the king of France himself set a
light to the great Paris bonfire. Survivals of these curious rites have
been noted quite recently in Scotland and Ireland.[7] Early use also of
fireworks was made in plays and pageants. Hell or hell's mouth was
represented by a gigantic head out of which flames were made to
issue:[8] in the river procession on the occasion of the marriage of
Henry VII. and Elizabeth (1487) the "Bachelors' Barge" carried a dragon
spouting flames, and Hall relates that at the marriage of Anne Boleyn
(1538) "there went before the lord mayor's barge a foyst or wafter full
of ordnance, which foyst also carried a great red dragon that spouted
out wild fyre and round about were terrible monstrous and wild men
casting fire and making a hideous noise."[9] These individuals were
known as "green men." Their clothing was green, they wore fantastic
masks, and carried "fire clubs." They were sometimes employed to clear
the way at processions.[10]
Soon after the introduction of gunpowder the gunner and fireworker came
into existence; at first they were not soldiers, but civilians who
sometimes exercised military functions, and part of their duties was
intimately connected with the preparation of fireworks both for peace
and war. The emperor Charles V. brought his fireworks under definite
regulations in 1535,[11] and eventually other countries did the same.
The _ignes triumphales_ were an early form of public fireworks. Scaffold
poles were erected with trophies at their summits, while fixed around
them were tiers of casks filled with combustibles, so that they
presented the appearance of huge flaming trees; at their bases crouched
dragons or other mythical beasts. With such a display Antwerp welcomed
the archduke of Austria in 1550.[12] Then the "fire combat" came into
fashion. Helmets from which flames would issue were provided for the
performers; there were also swords and clubs that would give out sparks
at every stroke, lances with fiery points, and bucklers that when struck
gave forth a detonation and a flame. A picture of a combat with weapons
such as these will be found in Hanzelet's _Recueil de machines
militaires_ (1620). In addition, the fireworker grew to be somewhat of a
scenic artist who could devise a romantic background and fill it with
shapes bizarre, beautiful or terrific; he had to make his castle, his
cave or his rocky ravine, and people his stage with distressed damsel,
errant knight or devouring dragon. Furthermore he had to give motion to
the inanimate persons of the drama; thus his dragon would run down an
incline on hidden wheels, be actuated by a rope, or be propelled by a
rocket.[13] In 1613 at the marriage of the prince palatine to the
daughter of James, the pyrotechnic display was confided to four of the
king's gunners, who provided a fiery drama which included a giant, a
dragon, a lady, St George, a conjurer, and an enchanted castle, jumbled
up together after the approved fashion of the Spenserian legends.[14] As
time went on a more refined taste rejected the bizarre features of the
old displays, artistic merit began to creep into the designs, and an
effort was made to introduce something appropriate to the occasion. Thus
Clarmer of Nuremberg, a well-known fire-worker, celebrated the capture
of Rochelle (1613) by an adaptation of the Andromeda legend, where
Rochelle was the rock, Andromeda the Catholic religion, the monster
Heresy, and Perseus on his Pegasus the all-conquering Louis XIII.[15] In
the first half of the 17th century many books[16] on fireworks appeared,
which avoided the old grotesque ideas and advocated skill and finesse.
"It is a rare thing," says Nye (1648), "to represent a tree or fountain
in the air." The most celebrated work of them all was the _Great Art of
Artillery_ by Siemienowitz, which was considered important enough to be
translated into English by order of the Board of Ordnance, nearly eighty
years after it had appeared.[17] The classic façade now came into
fashion; on it and about it were placed emblematic figures, and disposed
around were groups of rockets, Roman candles, &c., musket barrels for
projecting stars, and mortars from which were fired shells called
balloons, which were full of combustibles. The figures were carved out
of wood which was soaped or waxed over and covered with papier mâché so
that a skin was formed: this was cut vertically into two parts, removed
from the wood, formed into a hollow figure, and filled with fireworks.
National fireworks now assumed a stately and dignified appearance, and
for two centuries played a conspicuous part all over Europe in the
public expression of thanksgiving or of triumph. Representations and
sometimes accounts will be found in the British Museum[18] of the more
important English displays, from the coronation of James II. down to the
peace rejoicings of 1856, during which period national fireworks were
provided by the officials of the Ordnance. But since the days of
Ranelagh and Vauxhall fireworks have become a subject of private
enterprise, and the triumphs of such firms as Messrs Brock or Messrs
Pain at the Crystal Palace and elsewhere have been without an official
rival. (J. R. J. J.)
_Modern Fireworks._--In modern times the art of pyrotechny has been
gradually improved by the work of specialists, who have had the
advantage of being guided by the progress of scientific chemistry and
mechanics. As in all such cases, however, science is useless without the
aid of practical experience and acquired manual dexterity.
Many substances have a strong tendency to combine with oxygen, and will
do so, in certain circumstances, so energetically as to render the
products of the combination (which may be solid matter or gas) intensely
hot and luminous. This is the general cause of the phenomenon known as
fire. Its special character depends chiefly on the nature of the
substances burned and on the manner in which the oxygen is supplied to
them. As is well known, our atmosphere contains oxygen gas diluted with
about four times its volume of nitrogen; and it is this oxygen which
supports the combustion of our coal and candles. But it is not often
that the pyrotechnist depends wholly upon atmospheric oxygen for his
purposes; for the phenomena of combustion in it are too familiar, and
too little capable of variation, to strike with wonder. Two cases,
however, where he does so may be instanced, viz. the burning of
magnesium powder and of lycopodium, both of which are used for the
imitation of lightning in theatres. Nor does the pyrotechnist resort
much to the use of pure oxygen, although very brilliant effects may be
produced by burning various substances in glass jars filled with the
gas. Indeed, the art could never have existed in anything like its
present form had not certain solid substances become known which,
containing oxygen in combination with other elements, are capable of
being made to evolve large volumes of it at the moment it is required.
The best examples of these solid _oxidizing agents_ are potassium
nitrate (nitre or saltpetre) and chlorate; and these are of the first
importance in the manufacture of fireworks. If a portion of one of these
salts be thoroughly powdered and mixed with the correct quantity of some
suitable combustible body, also reduced to powder, the resulting mixture
is capable of burning with more or less energy without any aid from
atmospheric oxygen, since each small piece of fuel is in close
juxtaposition to an available and sufficient store of the gas. All that
is required is that the liberation of the oxygen from the solid
particles which contain it shall be started by the application of heat
from without, and the action then goes on unaided. This, then, is the
fundamental fact of pyrotechny--that, with proper attention to the
chemical nature of the substances employed, solid mixtures
(_compositions_ or _fuses_) may be prepared which contain within
themselves all that is essential for the production of fire.
If nitre and potassium chlorate, with other salts of nitric and chloric
acids and a few similar compounds, be grouped together as oxidizing
agents, most of the other materials used in making firework compositions
may be classed as _oxidizable substances_. Every composition must
contain at least one sample of each class: usually there are present
more than one oxidizable substance, and very often more than one
oxidizing agent. In all cases the proportions by weight which the
ingredients of a mixture bear to one another is a matter of much
importance, for it greatly affects the manner and rate of combustion.
The most important oxidizable substances employed are charcoal and
sulphur. These two, it is well known, when properly mixed in certain
proportions with the oxidizing agent nitre, constitute gunpowder; and
gunpowder plays an important part in the construction of most fireworks.
It is sometimes employed alone, when a strong explosion is required; but
more commonly it is mixed with one or more of its own ingredients and
with other matters. In addition to charcoal and sulphur, the following
oxidizable substances are more or less employed:--many compounds of
carbon, such as sugar, starch, resins, &c.; certain metallic compounds
of sulphur, such as the sulphides of arsenic and antimony; a few of the
metals themselves, such as iron, zinc, magnesium, antimony, copper. Of
these metals iron (cast-iron and steel) is more used than any of the
others. They are all employed in the form of powder or small filings.
They do not contribute much to the burning power of the composition; but
when it is ignited they become intensely heated and are discharged into
the air, where they oxidize more or less completely and cause brilliant
sparks and scintillations.
Sand, potassium sulphate, calomel and some other substances, which
neither combine with oxygen nor supply it, are sometimes employed as
ingredients of the compositions in order to influence the character of
the fire. This may be modified in many ways. Thus the rate of combustion
may be altered so as to give anything from an instantaneous explosion to
a slow fire lasting many minutes. The flame may be clear, smoky, or
charged with glowing sparks. But the most important characteristic of a
fire--one to which great attention is paid by pyrotechnists--is its
_colour_, which may be varied through the different shades and
combinations of yellow, red, green and blue. These colours are imparted
to the flame by the presence in it of the heated vapours of certain
metals, of which the following are the most important:--sodium, which
gives a yellow colour; calcium, red; strontium, crimson; barium, green;
copper, green or blue, according to circumstances. Suitable salts of
these metals are much used as ingredients of fire mixtures; and they are
decomposed and volatilized during the process of combustion. Very often
the chlorates and nitrates are employed, as they serve the double
purpose of supplying oxygen and of imparting colour to the flame.
The number of fire mixtures actually employed is very great, for the
requirements of each variety of firework, and of almost each size of each
variety, are different. Moreover, every pyrotechnist has his own taste in
the matter of compositions. They are capable, however, of being
classified according to the nature of the work to which they are suited.
Thus there are rocket-fuses, gerbe-fuses, squib-fuses, star-compositions,
&c.; and, in addition, there are a few which are essential in the
construction of most fireworks, whatever the main composition may be.
Such are the _starting-powder_, which first catches the fire, the
_bursting-powder_, which causes the final explosion, and the
_quick-match_ (cotton-wick, dried after being saturated with a paste of
gunpowder and starch), employed for connecting parts of the more
complicated works and carrying the fire from one to another. Of the
general nature of fuses an idea may be had from the following two
examples, which are selected at hazard from among the numerous recipes
for making, respectively, tourbillion fire and green stars:--
_Tourbillion_. _Green Stars_.
Meal gunpowder 24 parts. Potassium chlorate 16 parts.
Nitre 10 " Barium nitrate 48 "
Sulphur 7 " Sulphur 12 "
Charcoal 4 " Charcoal 1 "
Steel filings 8 " Shellac 5 "
Calomel 8 "
Copper sulphide 2 "
Although the making of compositions is of the first importance, it is
not the only operation with which the pyrotechnist has to do; for the
construction of the _cases_ in which they are to be packed, and the
actual processes of packing and finishing, require much care and
dexterity. These cases are made of paper or pasteboard, and are
generally of a cylindrical shape. In size they vary greatly, according
to the effect which it is desired to produce. The relations of length to
thickness, of internal to external diameter, and of these to the size of
the openings for discharge, are matters of extreme importance, and must
always be attended to with almost mathematical exactness and considered
in connexion with the nature of the composition which is to be used.
There is one very important property of fireworks that is due more to
the mechanical structure of the cases and the manner in which they are
filled than to the precise chemical character of the composition, i.e.
their power of _motion_. Some are so constructed that the piece is kept
at rest and the only motion possible is that of the flame and sparks
which escape during combustion from the mouth of the case. Others, also
fixed, contain, alternately with layers of some more ordinary
compositions, balls or blocks of a special mixture cemented by some kind
of varnish; and these _stars_, as they are called, shot into the air,
one by one, like bullets from a gun, blaze and burst there with striking
effect. But in many instances motion is imparted to the firework as a
whole--to the case as well as to its contents. This motion, various as
it is in detail, is almost entirely one of two kinds--_rotatory_ motion
round a fixed point, which may be in the centre of gravity of a single
piece or that of a whole system of pieces, and _free ascending_ motion
through the air. In all cases the cause of motion is the same, viz. that
large quantities of gaseous matter are formed by the combustion, that
these can escape only at certain apertures, and that a backward pressure
is necessarily exerted at the point opposite to them. When a large gun
is discharged, it recoils a few feet. Movable fireworks may be regarded
as very light guns loaded with heavy charges; and in them the recoil is
therefore so much greater as to be the most noticeable feature of the
discharge; and it only requires proper contrivances to make the piece
fly through the air like a sky-rocket or revolve round a central axis
like a Catherine wheel. Beauty of motion is hardly less important in
pyrotechny than brilliancy of fire and variety of colour.
The following is a brief description of some of the forms of firework
most employed:--
_Fixed Fires._--_Theatre fires_ consist of a slow composition which
may be heaped in a conical pile on a tile or a flagstone and lit at
the apex. They require no cases. Usually the fire is coloured--green,
red or blue; and beautiful effects are obtained by illuminating
buildings with it. It is also used on the stage; but, in that case,
the composition must be such as to give no suffocating or poisonous
fumes. _Bengal lights_ are very similar, but are piled in saucers,
covered with gummed paper, and lit by means of pieces of match.
_Marroons_ are small boxes wrapped round several times with lind cord
and filled with a strong composition which explodes with a loud
report. They are generally used in _batteries_, or in combination with
some other form of firework. _Squibs_ are straight cylindrical cases
about 6 in. long, firmly closed at one end, tightly packed with a
strong composition, and capped with touch-paper. Usually a little
bursting-powder is put in before the ordinary composition, so that the
fire is finished by an explosion. The character of the fire is, of
course, susceptible of great variation in colour, &c. _Crackers_ are
characterized by the cases being doubled backwards and forwards
several times, the folds being pressed close and secured by twine. One
end is primed; and when this is lit the cracker burns with a hissing
noise, and a loud report occurs every time the fire reaches a bend. If
the cracker is placed on the ground, it will give a jump at each
report; so that it cannot quite fairly be classed among the fixed
fireworks. _Roman candles_ are straight cylindrical cases filled with
layers of composition and _stars_ alternately. These stars are simply
balls of some special composition, usually containing metallic
filings, made up with gum and spirits of wine, cut to the required
size and shape, dusted with gunpowder and dried. They are discharged
like blazing bullets several feet into the air, and produce a
beautiful effect, which may be enhanced by packing stars of
differently coloured fire in one case. _Gerbes_ are choked cases, not
unlike Roman candles, but often of much larger size. Their fire
spreads like a sheaf of wheat. They may be packed with variously
coloured stars, which will rise 30 ft. or more. _Lances_ are small
straight cases charged with compositions like those used for making
stars. They are mostly used in complex devices, for which purpose they
are fixed with wires on suitable wooden frames. They are connected by
_leaders_, i.e. by quick-match enclosed in paper tubes, so that they
can be regulated to take fire all at the same time, singly, or in
detachments, as may be desired. The devices and "set pieces"
constructed in this way are often of an extremely elaborate character;
and they include all the varieties of _lettered designs_, of _fixed
suns_, _fountains_, _palm-trees_, _waterfalls_, _mosaic work_,
_Highland tartan_, _portraits_, _ships_, &c.
_Rotating Fireworks._--_Pin_ or _Catherine wheels_ are long paper
cases filled with a composition by means of a funnel and packing-wire
and afterwards wound round a disk of wood. This is fixed by a pin,
sometimes vertically and sometimes horizontally; and the outer primed
end of the spiral is lit. As the fire escapes the recoil causes the
wheel to revolve in an opposite direction and often with considerable
velocity. _Pastiles_ are very similar in principle and construction.
Instead of the case being wound in a spiral and made to revolve round
its own centre point, it may be used as the engine to drive a wheel or
other form of framework round in a circle. Many varied effects are
thus produced, of which the _fire-wheel_ is the simplest. Straight
cases, filled with some fire-composition, are attached to the end of
the spokes of a wheel or other mechanism capable of being rotated.
They are all pointed in the same direction at an angle to the spokes,
and they are connected together by leaders, so that each, as it burns
out, fires the one next it. The pieces may be so chosen that brilliant
effects of changing colour are produced; or various fire-wheels of
different colours may be combined, revolving in different planes and
different directions--some fast and some slowly. _Bisecting wheels_,
_plural wheels_, _caprice wheels_, _spiral wheels_, are all more or
less complicated forms; and it is possible to produce, by mechanism of
this nature, a model in fire of the solar system.
_Ascending Fireworks._--_Tourbillions_ are fireworks so constructed as
to ascend in the air and rotate at the same time, forming beautiful
spiral curves of fire. The straight cylindrical case is closed at the
centre and at the two ends with plugs of plaster of Paris, the
composition occupying the intermediate parts. The fire finds vent by
six holes pierced in the case. Two of these are placed close to the
end, but at opposite sides, so that one end discharges to the right
and the other to the left; and it is this which imparts the rotatory
motion. The other holes are placed along the middle line of what is
the under-surface of the case when it is laid horizontally on the
ground; and these, discharging downwards, impart an upward motion to
the whole. A cross piece of wood balances the tourbillion; and the
quick-match and touch-paper are so arranged that combustion begins at
the two ends simultaneously and does not reach the holes of ascension
till after the rotation is fairly begun. The _sky-rocket_ is generally
considered the most beautiful of all fireworks; and it certainly is
the one that requires most skill and science in its construction. It
consists essentially of two parts,--the body and the head. The body is
a straight cylinder of strong pasted paper and is choked at the lower
end, so as to present only a narrow opening for the escape of the
fire. The composition does not fill up the case entirely, for a
central hollow conical bore extends from the choked mouth up the body
for three-quarters of its length. This is an essential feature of the
rocket. It allows of nearly the whole composition being fired at once;
the result of which is that an enormous quantity of heated gases
collects in the hollow bore, and the gases, forcing their way
downwards through the narrow opening, urge the rocket up through the
air. The top of the case is closed by a plaster-of-Paris plug. A hole
passes through this and is filled with a fuse, which serves to
communicate the fire to the head after the body is burned out. This
head, which is made separately and fastened on after the body is
packed, consists of a short cylindrical paper chamber with a conical
top. It serves the double purpose of cutting a way through the air and
of holding the _garniture_ of stars, sparks, crackers, serpents, gold
and silver rain, &c., which are scattered by bursting fire as soon as
the rocket reaches the highest point of its path. A great variety of
beautiful effects may be obtained by the exercise of ingenuity in the
choice and construction of this garniture. Many of the best results
have been obtained by unpublished methods which must be regarded as
the secrets of the trade. The _stick_ of the sky-rocket serves the
purpose of guiding and balancing it in its flight; and its size must
be accurately adapted to the dimensions of the case. In _winged_
rockets the stick is replaced by cardboard wings, which act like the
feathers of an arrow. A _girandole_ is the simultaneous discharge of a
large number of rockets (often from one hundred to two hundred), which
either spread like a peacock's tail or pierce the sky in all
directions with rushing lines of fire. This is usually the final feat
of a great pyrotechnic display.
See Chertier, _Sur les feux d'artifice_ (Paris, 1841; 2nd ed., 1854);
Mortimer, _Manual of Pyrotechny_ (London, 1856); Tessier, _Chimie
pyrotechnique, ou traité pratique des feux colorés_ (Paris, 1858);
Richardson and Watts, _Chemical Technology_, s.v. "Pyrotechny"
(London, 1863-1867); Thomas Kentish, _The Pyrotechnist's Treasury_
(London, 1878); Websky, _Luftfeuerwerkkunst_ (Leipzig, 1878).
(O. M.)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Manilius, _Astronomica_, lib. v., 438-443.
[2] Vopiscus, _Carus, Numerianus et Carinus_, ch. xix.
[3] Claudianus, _De consulatu Manlii Theodori_, 325-330.
[4] Vanuzzio Biringuccio, _Pyrotechnia_.
[5] Strutts, _Sports and Pastimes of the English People_.
[6] De Frezier, _Traité des feux d'artifice_ (1707 and 1747).
[7] _Notes and Queries_, series 5, vol. ix. p. 140, and series 8,
vol. ii. pp. 145 and 254.
[8] J.B. Nichols & Sons, _London Pageants_.
[9] Hall's _Chronicles_.
[10] J. Bate, _Mysteries of Nature and Art_ (1635). This contains a
picture of a green man.
[11] _Geschichte des Feuerwerkswesen_ (Berlin, 1887). The Jubilee
pamphlet of the Brandenburg Artillery.
[12] See "Fairholts' Collection" bequeathed to the Royal Society of
Antiquaries.
[13] _Journal_ of the Royal Artillery, vol. xxxii. No. 11.
[14] Somers' _Tracts_, vol. iii.
[15] De Frezier.
[16] Diego Ufano, _Artillery_, in Spanish (1614); Master Gunner
Norton, _The Gunner_ and _The Gunner's Dialogue_ (1628); F. de Malthe
(Malthus), _Artificial Fireworks_, in French and English (1628);
"Hanzelet," _Recueil de plusieurs machines militaires et feux
artificiels pour la guerre et récréation_ (1620 and 1630);
Furttenback, master gunner of Bavaria, _Halinitro Pyrobolio_, in
German (1627); (John Babington Matross, _Pyrotechnia_, 1635); Nye,
master gunner of Worcester, _Art of Gunnery_ (Worcester, 1648);
Casimir Siemienowitz, lieut.-general of the Ordnance to the king of
Poland, _The Great Art of Artillery_, in French (1650).
[17] Translated by George Shelvocke, 1727, by order of the
surveyor-general of the Ordnance.
[18] "Crace Collection" in the print-room; the King's Prints and
Drawings in the library. See also "The Connection of the Ordnance
Department with National and Royal Fireworks," _R. A. Journal_, vol.
xxii. No. 11.
FIRM, an adjective originally indicating a dense or close consistency,
hence steady, unshaken, unchanging or fixed. This word, in M. Eng.
_ferme_, is derived through the French, from Lat. _firmus_. The medieval
Latin substantive _firma_ meant a fixed payment, either in the way of
rent, composition for periodic payments, &c.; and this word, often
represented by "firm" in translations of medieval documents, has
produced the English "farm" (q.v.). From a late Latin use of _firmare_,
to confirm by signature, _firma_ occurs in many Romanic languages for a
signature, and the English "firm" was thus used till the 18th century.
From a transferred use came the meaning of a business house. In the
Partnership Act 1890, persons who have entered into partnership with one
another are called collectively a firm, and the name under which their
business is carried on is called the firm-name.
FIRMAMENT, the sky, the heavens. In the Vulgate the word _firmamentum_,
which means in classical Latin a strengthening or support (_firmare_, to
make firm or strong) was used as the equivalent of [Greek: stereôma]
([Greek: stereoein], to make firm or solid) in the LXX., which
translates the Heb. raqiya'. The Hebrew probably signifies literally
"expanse," and is thus used of the expanse or vault of the sky, the verb
from which it is derived meaning "to beat out." In Syriac the verb means
"to make firm," and is the direct source of the Gr. [Greek: stereôma]
and the Lat. _firmamentum_. In ancient astronomy the firmament was the
eighth sphere containing the fixed stars surrounding the seven spheres
of the planets.
FIRMAN (an adaptation of the Per. _ferman_, a mandate or patent, cognate
with the Sanskrit _pramana_, a measure, authority), an edict of an
oriental sovereign, used specially to designate decrees, grants,
passports, &c., issued by the sultan of Turkey and signed by one of his
ministers. A decree bearing the sultan's sign-manual and drawn up with
special formalities is termed a _hatti-sherif_, Arabic words meaning a
line, writing or command, and lofty, noble. A written decree of an
Ottoman sultan is also termed an _irade_, the word being taken from the
Arab. _irada_, will, volition, order.
FIRMICUS, MATERNUS JULIUS, a Latin writer, who lived in the reign of
Constantine and his successors. About the year 346 he composed a work
entitled _De erroribus profanarum religionum_, which he inscribed to
Constantius and Constans, the sons of Constantine, and which is still
extant. In the first part (chs. 1-17) he attacks the false objects of
worship among the Oriental cults; in the second (chs. 18-29) he
discusses a number of formulae and rites connected with the mysteries.
The whole tone of the work is fanatical and declamatory rather than
argumentative, and is thus in such sharp contrast with the eight books
on astronomy (Libri VIII. _Matheseos_) bearing the same author's name,
that the two works have usually been attributed to different writers.
Mommsen (_Hermes_ vol. 29, pp. 468-472) has, however, shown that the
astronomy--a work interfused with an urbane Neoplatonic spirit--was
composed about 336 and not in 354 as was formerly held. When we add to
this the similarity of style, and the fact that each betrays a connexion
with Sicily, there is the strongest reason for claiming the same author
for the two books, though it shows that in the 4th century acceptance of
Christianity did not always mean an advance in ethical standpoint.
The Christian work is preserved in a Palatine MS. in the Vatican
library. It was first printed at Strassburg in 1562, and has been
reprinted several times, both separately and along with the writings
of Minucius Felix, Cyprian or Arnobius. The most correct editions are
those by Conr. Bursian (Leipzig, 1856), and by C. Halm, in his
_Minucius Felix_ (_Corp. Scr. Eccl. Lat._ ii.), (Vienna, 1867). The
Neoplatonist work was first printed by Aldus Manutius in 1501, and has
often been reprinted. For full discussions see G. Ebert, _Gesch. der
chr. lat. Litt._, ed. 1889, p. 129 ff.; O. Bardenhewer, _Patrologie_,
ed. 1901, p. 354.
FIRMINY, a town of central France in the department of Loire, 8 m. S.W.
of St Etienne by rail. Pop. (1906) 15,778. It has important coal mines
known since the 14th century and extensive manufactures of iron and
steel goods, including railway material, machinery and cannon. Fancy
woollen hosiery is also manufactured.
FIRST-FOOT, in British folklore, especially that of the north and
Scotland, the first person who crosses the threshold on Christmas or New
Year's Eve. Good or ill luck is believed to be brought the house by
First-Foot, and a female First-Foot is regarded with dread. In
Lancashire a light-haired man is as unlucky as a woman, and it became a
custom for dark-haired males to hire themselves out to "take the New
Year in." In Worcestershire luck is ensured by stopping the first
carol-singer who appears and leading him through the house. In Yorkshire
it must always be a male who enters the house first, but his fairness is
no objection. In Scotland first-footing was always more elaborate than
in England, involving a subsequent entertainment.
FIRST OF JUNE, BATTLE OF THE. By this name we call the great naval
victory won by Lord Howe over the French fleet of Admiral
Villaret-Joyeuse, on the 1st of June 1794. No place name can be given to
it, because the battle was fought 429 m. to the west of Ushant.
The French people were suffering much distress from the bad harvest of
the previous year, and a great convoy of merchant ships laden with corn
was expected from America. Admiral Vanstabel of the French navy had been
sent to escort it with two ships of the line in December of 1793. He
sailed with his charge from the Chesapeake on the 11th of April 1794. On
the previous day six French ships of the line left Brest to meet
Vanstabel in mid ocean. The British force designed to intercept the
convoy was under Lord Howe, then in command of the channel fleet. He
sailed from Spithead on the 2nd of May with 34 sail of the line and 15
smaller vessels, having under his charge nearly a hundred merchant ships
which were to be seen clear of the Channel. On the 4th, when off the
Lizard, the convoy was sent on its way protected by 8 line of battle
ships and 6 or 7 frigates. Two of the line of battle ships were to
accompany them throughout the voyage. The other six under Rear-admiral
Montagu were to go as far as Cape Finisterre, and were then to cruise on
the look-out for the French convoy between Cape Ortegal and Belle Isle.
These detachments reduced the force under Lord Howe's immediate command
to 26 of the line and 7 frigates. On the 5th of May he was off Ushant,
and sent frigates to reconnoitre the harbour of Brest. They reported to
him that the main French fleet, which was under the command of
Villaret-Joyeuse, and was of 25 sail of the line, was lying at anchor in
the roads. Howe then sailed to the latitude on which the convoy was
likely to be met with, knowing that if the French admiral came out it
would be to meet the ships with the food and cover them from attack. To
seek the convoy was therefore the most sure way of forcing
Villaret-Joyeuse to action. Till the 18th the British fleet continued
cruising in the Bay of Biscay. On the 19th Lord Howe returned to Ushant
and again reconnoitred Brest. It was then seen that Villaret-Joyeuse had
gone to sea. He had sailed with his whole force on the 16th and had
passed close to the British fleet on the 17th, unseen in a fog. On the
19th the French admiral was informed by the "Patriote" (74) that Nielly
had fallen in with, and had captured, the British frigate "Castor" (32),
under Captain Thomas Troubridge, together with a convoy from
Newfoundland. On the same day Villaret-Joyeuse captured part of a Dutch
convoy of 53 sail from Lisbon. On the 19th a frigate detached by Admiral
Montagu joined Howe. It brought information that Montagu had recaptured
part of the Newfoundland convoy, and had learnt that Nielly was to join
Vanstabel at sea, and that their combined force would be 9 sail of the
line. Montagu himself had steered to cruise on the route of the convoy
between the 45th and 47th degrees of north latitude. Howe now steered to
meet his subordinate who, he considered, would be in danger from the
main French fleet. On the 21st he recaptured some of the Dutch ships
taken by Villaret-Joyeuse. From them he learnt that on the 19th the
French fleet had been in latitude 47° 46' N. and in longitude 11° 22' N.
and was steering westward. Judging that Montagu was too far to the south
to be in peril from Villaret-Joyeuse, and considering him strong enough
to perform the duty of intercepting the convoy, Lord Howe decided to
pursue the main French fleet. The wind was changeable and the weather
hazy. It was not till the 28th of May at 6.30 A.M. that the British
fleet caught sight of the enemy in 47° 34' N. and 13° 39' W.
The wind was from the south-east, and the French were to windward.
Villaret-Joyeuse bore down to a distance of 10 m. from the British, and
then hauled to the wind on the port tack. It was difficult for the
British fleet to force an action from leeward if the French were
unwilling to engage. Lord Howe detached a light squadron of four ships,
the "Bellerophon" (74), "Russel" (74), "Marlborough" (74), and
"Thunderer" (74) under Rear-admiral Thomas Pasley, to attack the rear of
the French line. Villaret-Joyeuse stood on and endeavoured to work to
windward. In the course of the afternoon Rear-admiral Pasley's ships
began to come up with the last of the French line, the "Révolutionnaire"
(110). A partial action took place which went on till after dark; other
British vessels joined. The "Révolutionnaire" was so damaged that she
was compelled to leave her fleet, and the British "Audacious" (74) was
also crippled and compelled to return to port. The "Révolutionnaire" was
accompanied by another liner. During the night the two fleets continued
on the same course, and next day Howe renewed his attempts to force an
action from leeward. He tacked his fleet in succession--his first ship
tacking first and the rest in order--in the hope that he would be able
to cut through the French rear and gain the weather-gage.
Villaret-Joyeuse then turned all his ships together and again headed in
the same direction as the British. This movement brought him nearer the
British fleet, and another partial action took place between the van of
each force. Seeing that the French admiral was not disposed to charge
home, Howe at noon once more ordered his fleet to tack in succession.
His signal was poorly obeyed by the van, and his object, which was to
cut through the French line, was not at once achieved. But the admiral
himself finally set an example by tacking his flagship, the "Queen
Charlotte" (100), and passing through the French, two ships from the end
of their line. He was followed by his fleet, and Villaret-Joyeuse,
seeing the peril of the ships in his rear, wore all his ships together
to help them. Both forces had been thrown into considerable confusion by
these movements, but the British had gained the weather-gage.
Villaret-Joyeuse was able to save the two ships cut off, but he had
fallen to leeward and the power to force on a battle had passed to Lord
Howe. During the 30th the fleets lost sight of one another for a time.
The French, who had four ships crippled, had been joined by four others,
and were again 26 in number, including the "Patriote."
The 31st of May passed without a hostile meeting and in thick weather,
but by the evening the British were close to windward of the French. As
Howe, who had not full confidence in all his captains, did not wish for
a night battle, he waited till the following morning, keeping the French
under observation by frigates. On the 1st of June they were in the same
relative positions, and at about a quarter past eight Howe bore down on
the French, throwing his whole line on them at once from end to end,
with orders to pass through from windward to leeward, and so to place
the British ships on the enemy's line of retreat. It was a very bold
departure from the then established methods of fighting, and most
honourable in a man of sixty-eight, who had been trained in the old
school. Its essential merit was that it produced a close _mêlée_, in
which the better average gunnery and seamanship of the British fleet
would tell. Lord Howe's orders were not fully obeyed by all his
captains, but a signal victory was won,--six of the French line of
battle ships were taken, and one, the "Vengeur," sunk. The convoy
escaped capture, having passed over the spot on which the action of the
20th May was fought, on the following day, and it anchored at Brest on
the 3rd of June. Its safe arrival went far to console the French for
their defeat. The failure to stop it was forgotten in England in the
pleasure given by the victory.
See James's _Naval History_, vol. i. (1837); and Tronde, _Batailles
navales de la France_ (1867). (D. H.)
FIRTH, CHARLES HARDING (1857- ), British historian, was born at
Sheffield on the 16th of March 1857, and was educated at Clifton College
and at Balliol College, Oxford. At his university he took the Stanhope
prize for an essay on the marquess Wellesley in 1877, became lecturer at
Pembroke College in 1887, and fellow of All Souls College in 1901. He
was Ford's lecturer in English history in 1900, and became regius
professor of modern history at Oxford in succession to F. York Powell in
1904. Firth's historical work was almost entirely confined to English
history during the time of the Great Civil War and the Commonwealth; and
although he is somewhat overshadowed by S.R. Gardiner, a worker in the
same field, his books are of great value to students of this period. The
chief of them are: _Life of the Duke of Newcastle_ (1886); _Scotland and
the Commonwealth_ (1895); _Scotland and the Protectorate_ (1899);
_Narrative of General Venables_ (1900); _Oliver Cromwell_ (1900);
_Cromwell's Army_ (1902); and the standard edition of _Ludlow's Memoirs_
(1894). He also edited the _Clarke Papers_ (1891-1901), and Mrs
Hutchinson's _Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson_ (1885), and wrote an
introduction to the _Stuart Tracts_ (1903), besides contributions to the
_Dictionary of National Biography_. In 1909 he published _The Last Years
of the Protectorate_.
FIRTH, MARK (1819-1880), English steel manufacturer and philanthropist,
was born at Sheffield on the 25th of April 1819, the son of a steel
smelter. At the age of fourteen Mark, with his brother, left school to
join their father in the foundry where he was employed, and ten years
later the three together started a six-hole furnace of their own. The
venture proved successful, and besides an extensive home business, they
soon established a large American connexion. Their huge Norfolk works
were erected at Sheffield in 1849, and still greater were afterwards
acquired at Whittington in Derbyshire and others at Clay Wheels near
Wadsley. The manufacture of steel blocks for ordnance was the principal
feature of their business, and they produced also shot and heavy
forgings. They also installed a plant for the production of steel cores
for heavy guns, and for some time they supplied nearly all the metal
used for gun making by the British government and a large proportion of
that used by the French. On the death of his father in 1848 Mark Firth
became the head of the firm. In 1869 he built and endowed "Mark Firth's
Almshouses" at Ranmoor near Sheffield, and in 1875, when mayor, he
presented to his native place a freehold park of thirty-six acres. He
founded and endowed Firth College, for lectures and classes in connexion
with the extension of university education, which was opened in 1879. He
died on the 28th of November 1880, and was accorded a public funeral.
FIRUZABAD, a town of Persia, in the province of Fars, 72 m. S. of
Shiraz, in 28° 51' N. Pop. about 3000. It is situated in a fertile
plain, 15 m. long and 7 m. broad, well watered by the river Khoja which
flows through it from north to south. The town is surrounded by a mud
wall and ditch. Three or four miles north-west of the town are the ruins
of the ancient city and of a large building popularly known as the
fire-temple of Ardashir, and beyond them on the face of the rock in the
gorge through which the river enters the plain are two Sassanian
bas-reliefs.
The river leaves the plain by a narrow gorge at the southern end, and
according to Persian history it was there that Alexander the Great, when
unable to capture the ancient city, built a dike across the gorge, thus
damming up the water of the river and turning the plain into a lake and
submerging the city and villages. The lake remained until the beginning
of the 3rd century, when Ardashir, the first Sassanian monarch, drained
it by destroying the dike. He built a new city, called it Gur, and made
it the capital of one of the five great provinces or divisions of Fars.
Firuz (or Peroz, q.v.), one of Ardashir's successors, called the
district after his name Firuzabad ("the abode of Firuz"), but the name
of the city remained Gur until Azud ed Dowleh (Adod addaula) (949-982)
changed it to its present name. He did this because he frequently
resided at Gur, and the name meaning also "a grave" gave rise to
unpleasant allusions, for instance, "People who go to Gur (grave) never
return alive; our king goes to Gur (the town) several times a year and
is not dead yet."
The district has twenty villages and produces much wheat and rice. It is
said that the rice of Firuzabad bears sixty-fold. (A. H.-S.)
FIRUZKUH, a small province of Persia, with a population of about 5000,
paying a yearly revenue of about £500. Its chief place is a village of
the same name picturesquely situated in a valley of the Elburz, about 90
m. east of Teheran, at an elevation of 6700 ft. and in 35° 46' N. and
52° 48' E. It has post and telegraph offices and a population of 2500. A
precipitous cliff on the eastern side of the valley is surmounted by the
ruins of an ancient fort popularly ascribed to Alexander the Great.
FISCHART, JOHANN (c. 1545-1591), German satirist and publicist, was
born, probably at Strassburg (but according to some accounts at Mainz),
in or about the year 1545, and was educated at Worms in the house of
Kaspar Scheid, whom in the preface to his _Eulenspiegel_ he mentions as
his "cousin and preceptor." He appears to have travelled in Italy, the
Netherlands, France and England, and on his return to have taken the
degree of _doctor juris_ at Basel. From 1575 to 1581, within which
period most of his works were written, he lived with, and was probably
associated in the business of, his sister's husband, Bernhard Jobin, a
printer at Strassburg, who published many of his books. In 1581 Fischart
was attached, as advocate to the Reichskammergericht (imperial court of
appeal) at Spires, and in 1583, when he married, was appointed _Amtmann_
(magistrate) at Forbach near Saarbrücken. Here he died in the winter of
1590-1591. Fischart wrote under various feigned names, such as Mentzer,
Menzer, Reznem, Huldrich Elloposkleros, Jesuwalt Pickhart, Winhold
Alkofribas Wüstblutus, Ulrich Mansehr von Treubach, and Im Fischen
Gilt's Mischen; and it is partly owing to this fact that there is doubt
whether some of the works attributed to him are really his. More than 50
satirical works, however, both in prose and verse, remain authentic,
among which are--_Nachtrab oder Nebelkräh_ (1570), a satire against one
Jakob Rabe, who had become a convert to the Roman Catholic Church; _Von
St Dominici des Predigermönchs und St Francisci Barfüssers artlichem
Leben_ (1571), a poem with the expressive motto "Sie haben Nasen und
riechen's nit" (Ye have noses and smell it not), written to defend the
Protestants against certain wicked accusations, one of which was that
Luther held communion with the devil; _Eulenspiegel Reimensweis_
(written 1571, published 1572); _Aller Praktik Grossmutter_ (1572),
after Rabelais's _Prognostication Pantagrueline_; _Flöh Haz, Weiber
Traz_ (1573), in which he describes a battle between fleas and women;
_Affentheuerliche und ungeheuerliche Geschichtschrift vom Leben, Rhaten
und Thaten der ... Helden und Herren Grandgusier Gargantoa und
Pantagruel_, also after Rabelais (1575, and again under the modified
title, _Naupengeheurliche Geschichtklitterung_, 1577); _Neue künstliche
Figuren biblischer Historien_ (1576); _Anmahnung zur christlichen
Kinderzucht_ (1576); _Das glückhafft Schiff von Zürich_ (1576,
republished 1828, with an introduction by the poet Ludwig Uhland), a
poem commemorating the adventure of a company of Zürich arquebusiers,
who sailed from their native town to Strassburg in one day, and brought,
as a proof of this feat, a kettleful of _Hirsebrei_ (millet), which had
been cooked in Zürich, still warm into Strassburg, and intended to
illustrate the proverb "perseverance overcomes all difficulties";
_Podagrammisch Trostbüchlein_ (1577); _Philosophisch Ehzuchtbüchlein_
(1578); the celebrated _Bienenkorb des heiligen römischen
Immenschwarms_, &c., a modification of the Dutch _De roomsche
Byen-Korf_, by Philipp Marnix of St Aldegonde, published in 1579 and
reprinted in 1847; _Der heilig Brotkorb_ (1580), after Calvin's _Traité
des reliques_; _Das vierhörnige Jesuiterhütlein_, a rhymed satire
against the Jesuits (1580); and a number of smaller poems. To Fischart
also have been attributed some "Psalmen und geistliche Lieder" which
appeared in a Strassburg hymn-book of 1576.
Fischart had studied not only the ancient literatures, but also those of
Italy, France, the Netherlands and England. He was a lawyer, a
theologian, a satirist and the most powerful Protestant publicist of the
counter-reformation period; in politics he was a republican. Above all,
he is a master of language, and was indefatigable with his pen. His
satire was levelled mercilessly at all perversities in the public and
private life of his time--at astrological superstition, scholastic
pedantry, ancestral pride, but especially at the papal dignity and the
lives of the priesthood and the Jesuits. He indulged in the wildest
witticisms, the most abandoned caricature; but all this he did with a
serious purpose. As a poet, he is characterized by the eloquence and
picturesqueness of his style and the symbolical language he employed.
Thirty years after Fischart's death his writings, once so popular, were
almost entirely forgotten. Recalled to the public attention by Johann
Jakob Bodmer and Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, it is only recently that his
works have come to be a subject of investigation, and his position in
German literature to be fully understood.
Freiherr von Meusebach, whose valuable collection of Fischart's works
has passed into the possession of the royal library in Berlin, deals
in his _Fischartstudien_ (Halle, 1879) with the great satirist.
Fischart's poetical works were published by Hermann Kurz in three
volumes (Leipzig, 1866-1868); and selections by K. Goedeke (Leipzig,
1800) and by A. Hauffen in Kürschner's _Deutsche Nationalliteratur_
(Stuttgart, 1893); _Die Geschichtklitterung_ and some minor writings
appeared in Scheible's _Kloster_, vols. 7 and 10 (Stuttgart,
1847-1848). _Das glückhafft Schiff_ has been frequently reprinted,
critical edition by J. Baechtold (1880). See for further biographical
details, Erich Schmidt in the _Allgemeine deutsche Biographie_, vol.
7; A.F.C. Vilmar in Ersch and Gruber's _Encyclopaedie_; W.
Wackernagel, _Johann Fischart von Strassburg und Basels Anteil an ihm_
(2nd ed., Basel, 1875); P. Besson, _Étude sur Jean Fischart_ (Paris,
1889); and A. Hauffen, "Fischart-Studien" (in _Euphorion_, 1896-1909).
FISCHER, EMIL (1852- ), German chemist, was born at Euskirchen, in
Rhenish Prussia, on the 9th of October 1852, his father being a merchant
and manufacturer. After studying chemistry at Bonn, he migrated to
Strassburg, where he graduated as Ph.D. in 1874. He then acted as
assistant to Adolf von Baeyer at Munich for eight years, after which he
was appointed to the chair of chemistry successively at Erlangen (1882)
and Würzburg (1885). In 1892 he succeeded A.W. von Hofmann as professor
of chemistry at Berlin. Emil Fischer devoted himself entirely to organic
chemistry, and his investigations are characterized by an originality of
idea and readiness of resource which make him the master of this branch
of experimental chemistry. In his hands no substance seemed too complex
to admit of analysis or of synthesis; and the more intricate and
involved the subjects of his investigations the more strongly shown is
the conspicuous skill in pulling, as it were, atom from atom, until the
molecule stood revealed, and, this accomplished, the same skill combined
atom with atom until the molecule was regenerated. His _forte_ was to
enter fields where others had done little except break the ground; and
his researches in many cases completely elucidated the problem in hand,
and where the solution was not entire, his methods and results almost
always contained the key to the situation.
In 1875, the year following his engagement with von Baeyer, he
published his discovery of the organic derivatives of a new compound
of hydrogen and nitrogen, which he named hydrazine (q.v.). He
investigated both the aromatic and aliphatic derivatives, establishing
their relation to the diazo compounds, and he perceived the readiness
with which they entered into combination with other substances, giving
origin to a wealth of hitherto unknown compounds. Of such condensation
products undoubtedly the most important are the hydrazones, which
result from the interaction with aldehydes and ketones. His
observations, published in 1886, that such hydrazones, by treatment
with hydrochloric acid or zinc chloride, yielded derivatives of indol,
the pyrrol of the benzene series and the parent substance of indigo,
were a valuable confirmation of the views advanced by his master, von
Baeyer, on the subject of indigo and the many substances related to
it. Of greater moment was his discovery that phenyl hydrazine reacted
with the sugars to form substances which he named osazones, and
which, being highly crystalline and readily formed, served to identify
such carbohydrates more definitely than had been previously possible.
He next turned to the rosaniline dyestuffs (the magenta of Sir W.H.
Perkin), and in collaboration with his cousin Otto Fischer (b. 1852),
then at Munich and afterwards professor at Erlangen, who has since
identified himself mainly with the compounds of this and related
groups, he published papers in 1878 and 1879 which indubitably
established that these dyestuffs were derivatives of triphenyl
methane. Fischer's next research was concerned with compounds related
to uric acid. Here the ground had been broken more especially by von
Baeyer, but practically all our knowledge of the so-called purin group
(the word _purin_ appears to have been suggested by the phrase _purum
uricum_) is due to Fischer. In 1881-1882 he published papers which
established the formulae of uric acid, xanthine, caffeine, theobromine
and some other compounds of this group. But his greatest work in this
field was instituted in 1894, when he commenced his great series of
papers, wherein the compounds above mentioned were all referred to a
nitrogenous base, purin (q.v.). The base itself was obtained, but only
after much difficulty; and an immense series of derivatives were
prepared, some of which were patented in view of possible
therapeutical applications.[1] These researches were published in a
collected form in 1907 with the title _Untersuchungen in der
Puringruppe_ (1882-1906). The first stage of his purin work
successfully accomplished, he next attacked the sugar group. Here the
pioneer work was again of little moment, and Fischer may be regarded
as the prime investigator in this field. His researches may be taken
as commencing in 1883; and the results are unparalleled in importance
in the history of organic chemistry. The chemical complexity of these
carbohydrates, and the difficulty with which they could be got into a
manageable form--they generally appeared as syrups--occasioned much
experimental difficulty; but these troubles were little in comparison
with the complications due to stereochemical relations. However,
Fischer synthesized fructose, glucose and a great number of other
sugars, and having showed how to deduce, for instance, the formulae of
the 16 stereoisomeric glucoses, he prepared several stereoisomerides,
thereby completing a most brilliant experimental research, and
simultaneously confirming the van't Hoff theory of the asymmetric
carbon atom (see STEREO-ISOMERISM). The study of the sugars brought in
its train the necessity for examining the nature, properties and
reactions of substances which bring about the decomposition known as
fermentation (q.v.). Fischer attacked the problem presented by
ferments and enzymes, and although we as yet know little of this
complex subject, to Fischer is due at least one very important
discovery, viz. that there exists some relation between the chemical
constitution of a sugar and the ferment and enzyme which breaks it
down. The magnitude of his researches in this field may be gauged by
his collected papers, _Untersuchungen über Kohlenhydrate und Fermente_
(1884-1908), pp. viii. + 912 (Berlin, 1909).
From the sugars and ferments it is but a short step to the subject of
the proteins, substances which are more directly connected with life
processes than any others. The chemistry of the proteins, a subject
which bids fair to be Fischer's great lifework, presents difficulties
which are probably without equal in the whole field of chemistry,
partly on account of the extraordinary chemical complexity of the
substances involved, and partly upon the peculiar manner in which
chemical reactions are brought about in the living organism. But by
the introduction of new methods, Fischer succeeded in breaking down
the complex albuminoid substances into amino acids and other
nitrogenous compounds, the constitutions of most of which have been
solved; and by bringing about the recombination of these units,
appropriately chosen, he prepared synthetic peptides which approximate
to the natural products. His methods led to the preparation of an
octadeca-peptide of the molecular weight 1213, exceeding that of any
other synthetic compound; but even this compound falls far short of
the simplest natural peptide, which has a molecular weight of from
2000 to 3000. He considers, however, that the synthesis of more
complex products is only a matter of trouble and cost. His researches
made from 1899 to 1906 have been published with the title
_Untersuchungen über Aminosauren, Polypeptides und Proteine_ (Berlin,
1907). The extraordinary merit of his many researches has been
recognized by all the important scientific societies in the world, and
he was awarded the Nobel prize for chemistry in 1902. Under his
control the laboratory at Berlin became one of the most important in
existence, and has attracted to it a constant stream of brilliant
pupils, many of whom are to be associated with much of the
experimental work indissolubly connected with Fischer.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] For a brief review of the pharmacology of purin derivatives see
F. Francis and J.M. Fortescue-Brinkdale, _The Chemical Basis of
Pharmacology_ (1908).
FISCHER, ERNST KUNO BERTHOLD (1824-1907), German philosopher, was born
at Sandewalde in Silesia, on the 23rd of July 1824. After studying
philosophy at Leipzig and Halle, he became a privat-docent at Heidelberg
in 1850. The Baden government in 1853 laid an embargo on his teaching
owing to his Liberal ideas, but the effect of this was to rouse
considerable sympathy for his views, and in 1856 he obtained a
professorship at Jena, where he soon acquired great influence by the
dignity of his personal character. In 1872, on Zeller's removal to
Berlin, Fischer succeeded him as professor of philosophy and the history
of modern German literature at Heidelberg, where he died on the 4th of
July 1907. His part in philosophy was that of historian and commentator,
for which he was especially qualified by his remarkable clearness of
exposition; his point of view is in the main Hegelian. His _Geschichte
der neuern Philosophie_ (1852-1893, new ed. 1897) is perhaps the most
accredited modern book of its kind, and he made valuable contributions
to the study of Kant, Bacon, Shakespeare, Goethe, Spinoza, Lessing,
Schiller and Schopenhauer.
Some of his numerous works have been translated into English: _Francis
Bacon of Verulam_, by J. Oxenford (1857); _The Life and Character of
Benedict Spinoza_, by Frida Schmidt (1882); _A Commentary on Kant's
Kritik of Pure Reason_, by J.P. Mahaffy (1866); _Descartes and his
School_, by J.P. Gordy (1887); _A Critique of Kant_, by W.S. Hough
(1888); see also H. Falkenheim, _Kuno Fischer und die
litterar-historische Methode_ (1892); and bibliography in J.M.
Baldwin's _Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology_ (1905).
FISH, HAMILTON (1808-1893), American statesman, was born in New York
City on the 3rd of August 1808. His father, Nicholas Fish (1758-1833),
served in the American army during the War of American Independence,
rising to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. The son graduated at Columbia
College in 1827, and in 1830 was admitted to the bar, but practised only
a short time. In 1843-1845 he was a Whig representative in Congress. He
was the Whig candidate for lieutenant-governor of New York in 1846, and
was defeated by Addison Gardner (Democrat); but when in 1847 Gardner was
appointed a judge of the state court of appeals, Fish was elected
(November 1847) to complete the term (to January 1849). He was governor
of New York state from 1849 to 1851, and was United States senator in
1851-1857, acting with the Republicans during the last part of his term.
In 1861-1862 he was associated with John A. Dix, William M. Evarts,
William E. Dodge, A.T. Stewart, John Jacob Astor, and other New York
men, on the Union Defence Committee, which (from April 22, 1861, to
April 30, 1862) co-operated with the municipal government in the raising
and equipping of troops, and disbursed more than a million dollars for
the relief of New York volunteers and their families. Fish was secretary
of state during President Grant's two administrations (1869-1877). He
conducted the negotiations with Great Britain which resulted in the
treaty of the 8th of May 1871, under which (Article 1) the "Alabama
claims" were referred to arbitration, and the same disposition (Article
34) was made of the "San Juan Boundary Dispute," concerning the Oregon
boundary line. In 1871 Fish presided at the Peace Conference at
Washington between Spain and the allied republics of Peru, Chile,
Ecuador and Bolivia, which resulted in the formulation (April 12) of a
general truce between those countries, to last indefinitely and not to
be broken by any one of them without three years' notice given through
the United States; and it was chiefly due to his restraint and
moderation that a satisfactory settlement of the "Virginius Affair" was
reached by the United States and Spain (1873). Fish was
vice-president-general of the Society of the Cincinnati from 1848 to
1854, and president-general from 1854 until his death. He died in
Garrison, New York, on the 7th of September 1893.
His son, NICHOLAS FISH (1846-1902), was appointed second secretary of
legation at Berlin in 1871, became secretary in 1874, and was _chargé
d'affaires_ at Berne in 1877-1881, and minister to Belgium in 1882-1886,
after which he engaged in banking in New York City.
FISH (O. Eng. _fisc_, a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Dutch
_visch_, Ger. _Fisch_, Goth. _fisks_, cognate with the Lat. _piscis_),
the common name of that class of vertebrate animals which lives
exclusively in water, breathes through gills, and whose limbs take the
form of fins (see ICHTHYOLOGY). The article FISHERIES deals with the
subject from the economic and commercial point of view, and ANGLING with
the catching of fish as a sport. The constellation and sign of the
zodiac known as "the fishes" is treated under PISCES.
The fish was an early symbol of Christ in primitive and medieval
Christian art. The origin is to be found in the initial letters of the
names and titles of Jesus in Greek, viz. [Greek: Iêsous Christos, Theou
Huios, Sôtêr], Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour, which together spell
the Greek word for "fish," [Greek: ichthys]. The fish is also said to be
represented in the oval-shaped figure, pointed at both ends, and formed
by the intersection of two circles. This figure, also known as the
_vesica piscis_, is common in ecclesiastical seals and as a glory or
aureole in paintings of sculpture, surrounding figures of the Trinity,
saints, &c. The figure is, however, sometimes referred to the almond, as
typifying virginity; the French name for the symbol is _Amande
mystique_.
The word "fish" is used in many technical senses. Thus it is used of the
purchase used in raising the flukes of an anchor to the bill-board; of a
piece of wood or metal used to strengthen a sprung mast or yard; and of
a plate of metal used, as in railway construction, for the strengthening
of the meeting-place of two rails. This word is of doubtful origin, but
it is probably an adaptation of the Fr. _fiche_, that which "fixes," a
peg. This word also appears in the English form "fish," in the metal,
pearl or bone counters, sometimes made in the form of fish, used for
scoring points, &c., in many games.
FISHER, ALVAN (1792-1863), American portrait-painter, was born at
Needham, Massachusetts, on the 9th of August 1792. At the age of
eighteen he was a clerk in a country shop, and subsequently was employed
by the village house painter, but at the age of twenty-two he began to
paint portrait heads, alternating with rural scenes and animals, for
which he found patrons at modest prices. In ten years he had saved
enough to go to Europe, studying at the Paris schools and copying in the
galleries of the Louvre. Upon his return he became one of the recognized
group of Massachusetts portrait-painters. Along with Doughty, Harding
and Alexander, in 1831, he held an exhibition of his work in
Boston--perhaps the first joint display by painters ever held in that
city. Though he had considerable talent for landscape, a lack of
patronage for such work caused him to confine himself to portraiture, in
which he was moderately successful. He died at Dedham, Mass., on the
16th of February 1863.
FISHER, GEORGE PARK (1827-1909), American theologian, was born at
Wrentham, Massachusetts, on the 10th of August 1827. He graduated at
Brown University in 1847, and at the Andover Theological Seminary in
1851, spent three years in study in Germany, was college preacher and
professor of divinity at Yale College in 1854-1861, and was Titus Street
professor of ecclesiastical history in the Yale Divinity School in
1861-1901, when he was made professor _emeritus_. He was president of
the American Historical Association in 1897-1898. His writings have
given him high rank as an authority on ecclesiastical history. They
include _Essays on the Supernatural Origin of Christianity_ (1865);
_History of the Reformation_ (1873), republished in several revisions;
_The Beginnings of Christianity_ (1877); _Discussions in History and
Theology_ (1880); _Outlines of Universal History_ (1886); _History of
the Christian Church_ (1887); _The Nature and Method of Revelation_
(1890); _Manual of Natural Theology_ (1893); _A History of Christian
Doctrine_, in the "International Theological Library" (1896); and _A
Brief History of Nations_ (1896). He died on the 20th of December 1909.
FISHER, JOHN (c. 1469-1535), English cardinal and bishop of Rochester,
born at Beverly, received his first education at the collegiate church
there. In 1484 he went to Michael House, Cambridge, where he took his
degrees in arts in 1487 and 1491, and, after filling several offices in
the university, became master of his college in 1499. He took orders;
and his reputation for learning and piety attracted the notice of
Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII., who made him her confessor and
chaplain. In 1501 he became vice-chancellor; and later on, when
chancellor, he was able to forward, if not to initiate entirely, the
beneficent schemes of his patroness in the foundations of St. John's and
Christ's colleges, in addition to two lectureships, in Greek and
Hebrew. His love for Cambridge never waned, and his own benefactions
took the form of scholarships, fellowships and lectures. In 1503 he was
the first Margaret professor at Cambridge; and the following year was
raised to the see of Rochester, to which he remained faithful, although
the richer sees of Ely and Lincoln were offered to him. He was nominated
as one of the English prelates for the Lateran council (1512), but did
not attend. A man of strict and simple life, he did not hesitate at the
legatine synod of 1517 to censure the clergy, in the presence of the
brilliant Wolsey himself, for their greed of gain and love of display;
and in the convocation of 1523 he freely opposed the cardinal's demand
for a subsidy for the war in Flanders. A great friend of Erasmus, whom
he invited to Cambridge, whilst earnestly working for a reformation of
abuses, he had no sympathy with those who attacked doctrine; and he
preached at Paul's Cross (12th of May 1521) at the burning of Luther's
books. Although he was not the author of Henry's book against Luther, he
joined with his friend, Sir Thomas More, in writing a reply to the
scurrilous rejoinder made by the reformer. He retained the esteem of the
king until the divorce proceedings began in 1527; and then he set
himself sternly in favour of the validity of the marriage. He was Queen
Catherine's confessor and her only champion and advocate. He appeared on
her behalf before the legates at Blackfriars; and wrote a treatise
against the divorce that was widely read.
Recognizing that the true aim of the scheme of church reform brought
forward in parliament in 1529 was to put down the only moral force that
could withstand the royal will, he energetically opposed the reformation
of abuses, which doubtless under other circumstances he would have been
the first to accept. In convocation, when the supremacy was discussed
(11th of February 1531), he declared that acceptance would cause the
clergy "to be hissed out of the society of God's holy Catholic Church";
and it was his influence that brought in the saving clause, _quantum per
legem Dei licet_. By listening to the revelations of the "Holy Maid of
Kent," the nun Elizabeth Barton (q.v.), he was charged with misprision
of treason, and was condemned to the loss of his goods and to
imprisonment at the king's will, penalties he was allowed to compound by
a fine of £300 (25th of March 1534). Fisher was summoned (13th of April)
to take the oath prescribed by the Act of Succession, which he was ready
to do, were it not that the preamble stated that the offspring of
Catherine were illegitimate, and prohibited all faith, trust and
obedience to any foreign authority or potentate. Refusing to take the
oath, he was committed (15th of April) to the Tower, where he suffered
greatly from the rigours of a long confinement. On the passing of the
Act of Supremacy (November 1534), in which the saving clause of
convocation was omitted, he was attainted and deprived of his see. The
council, with Thomas Cromwell at their head, visited him on the 7th of
May 1535, and his refusal to acknowledge Henry as supreme head of the
church was the ground of his trial. The constancy of Fisher, while
driving Henry to a fury that knew no bounds, won the admiration of the
whole Christian world, where he had been long known as one of the most
learned and pious bishops of the time. Paul III., who had begun his
pontificate with the intention of purifying the curia, was unaware of
the grave danger in which Fisher lay; and in the hope of reconciling the
king with the bishop, created him (20th of May 1535) cardinal priest of
St Vitalis. When the news arrived in England it sealed his fate. Henry,
in a rage, declared that if the pope sent Fisher a hat there should be
no head for it. The cardinal was brought to trial at Westminster (17th
of June 1535) on the charge that he did "openly declare in English that
the king, our sovereign lord, is not supreme head on earth of the Church
of England," and was condemned to a traitor's death at Tyburn, a
sentence afterwards changed. He was beheaded on Tower Hill on the 22nd
of June 1535, after saying the _Te Deum_ and the psalm _In te Domine
speravi_. His body was buried first at All Hallows, Barking, and then
removed to St. Peter's _ad vincula_ in the Tower, where it lies beside
that of Sir Thomas More. His head was exposed on London Bridge and then
thrown into the river. As a champion of the rights of conscience, and
as the only one of the English bishops that dared to resist the king's
will, Fisher commends himself to all. On the 9th of December 1886 he was
beatified by Pope Leo XIII.
Fisher's Latin works are to be found in the _Opera J. Fisheri quae
hactenus inveniri potuerunt omnia_ (Würzburg, 1595), and some of his
published English works in the Early English Text Society (Extra
series. No. 27, part i. 1876). There are others in manuscript at the
P.R.O. (27, Henry VIII., No. 887). Besides the State papers, the main
sources for his biography are _The Life and Death of that renowned
John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester_ (London, 1655), by an anonymous
writer, the best edition being that of Van Ortroy (Brussels, 1893);
Bridgett's _Life of Blessed John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester_ (London,
1880 and 1890); and Thureau, _Le bienheureux Jean Fisher_ (Paris,
1907). (E. Tn.)
FISHER, JOHN ARBUTHNOT FISHER, 1ST BARON (1841- ), British admiral,
was born on the 25th of January 1841, and entered the navy in June 1854.
He served in the Baltic during the Crimean War, and was engaged as
midshipman on the "Highflyer," "Chesapeake" and "Furious," in the
Chinese War, in the operations required by the occupations of Canton,
and of the Peiho forts in 1859. He became sub-lieutenant on the 25th of
January 1860, and lieutenant on the 4th of November of the same year.
The cessation of naval wars, at least of wars at sea in which the
British navy had to take a part, after 1860, allowed few officers to
gain distinction by actual services against the enemy. But they were
provided with other ways of proving their ability by the sweeping
revolution which transformed the construction, the armament, and the
methods of propulsion of all the navies of the world, and with them the
once accepted methods of combat. Lieutenant Fisher began his career as a
commissioned officer in the year after the launching of the French
"Gloire" had set going the long duel in construction between guns and
armour. He early made his mark as a student of gunnery, and was promoted
commander on the 2nd of August 1869, and post-captain on the 30th of
October 1874. In this rank he was chosen to serve as president of the
committee appointed to revise "The Gunnery Manual of the Fleet." It was
his already established reputation which pointed Captain Fisher out for
the command of H.M.S. "Inflexible," a vessel which, as the
representative of a type, had supplied matter for much discussion. As
captain of the "Inflexible" he took part in the bombardment of
Alexandria (11th July 1882). The engagement was not arduous in itself,
having been carried out against forts of inferior construction,
indifferently armed, and worse garrisoned, but it supplied an
opportunity for a display of gunnery, and it was conspicuous in the
midst of a long naval peace. The "Inflexible" took a prominent part in
the action, and her captain had the command of the naval brigade landed
in Alexandria, where he adapted the ironclad train and commanded it in
various skirmishes with the enemy. After the Egyptian campaign, he was,
in succession, director of Naval Ordnance and Torpedoes (from October
1886 to May 1891); A.D.C. to Queen Victoria (18th June, 1887, to 2nd
August 1890, at which date he became rear-admiral); admiral
superintendent of Portsmouth dockyard (1891 to 1892); a lord
commissioner of the navy and comptroller of the navy (1892 to 1897), and
vice-admiral (8th May 1896); commander-in-chief on the North American
and West Indian station (1897). In 1899 he acted as naval expert at the
Hague Peace Conference, and on the 1st of July 1899 was appointed
commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean. From the Mediterranean command,
Admiral Fisher passed again to the admiralty as second sea lord in 1902,
and became commander-in-chief at Portsmouth on the 31st of August 1903,
from which post he passed to that of first sea lord. Besides holding the
foreign Khedivial and Osmanieh orders, he was created K.C.B. in 1894 and
G.C.B. in 1902. As first sea lord, during the years 1903-1909, Sir John
Fisher had a predominant influence in all the far-reaching new measures
of naval development and internal reform; and he was also one of the
committee, known as Lord Esher's committee, appointed in 1904 to report
on the measures necessary to be taken to put the administration and
organization of the British army on a sound footing. The changes in
naval administration made under him were hotly canvassed among critics,
who charged him with autocratic methods, and in 1906-1909 with undue
subservience to the government's desire for economy; and whatever the
efficiency of his own methods at the admiralty, the fact was undeniable
that for the first time for very many years the navy suffered, as a
service, from the party-spirit which was aroused. It was notorious that
Admiral Lord Charles Beresford in particular was acutely hostile to Sir
John Fisher's administration; and on his retirement in the spring of
1909 from the position of commander-in-chief of the Channel fleet, he
put his charges and complaints before the government, and an inquiry was
held by a small committee under the Prime Minister. Its report,
published in August, was in favour of the Admiralty, though it
encouraged the belief that some important suggestions as to the
organization of a naval "general staff" would take effect. On the 9th of
November Sir John Fisher was created a peer as Baron Fisher of
Kilverstone, Norfolk. He retired from the Admiralty in January 1910.
FISHERIES,[1] a general term for the various operations engaged in for
the capture of such aquatic creatures as are useful to man. From time
immemorial fish have been captured by various forms of spears, nets,
hooks and more elaborate apparatus, and a historical description of the
methods and appliances that have been used would comprise a considerable
portion of a treatise on the history of man. For the most part the
operations of fishing have been comparable with those of primitive
hunting rather than with agriculture; they have taken the least possible
account of considerations affecting the supply; when one locality has
been fished out, another has been resorted to. The increasing pressure
on every source of food, and the enormous improvements in the catching
power of the engines involved, has made some kind of regulation and
control inevitable, with the result that in practically every civilized
country there exists some authority for the investigation and regulation
of fisheries.
The annexed table shows the department of state and the approximate
expenditure on fisheries in some of the chief countries of the world.
The figures are only approximate and are based on the expenditure for
1907. In the case of England and Wales the expenditure is not complete,
as under the Sea Fisheries Regulation Act of 1888 the whole of the coast
of England and Wales could be placed under local fisheries committees
with power to levy rates for fishery purposes, and in a certain number
of districts advantage has been taken of this act. But even with this
addition, British expenditure on fisheries is less than that undertaken
by most of the countries of northern Europe, although British fisheries
are much more valuable than those of all the rest of Europe together.
_Administration of Fisheries._
+--------------------------------+---------------+------------+------------+--------------+------------+---------------+
| | Norway. | Sweden. | Denmark. | Germany. | Holland. | Belgium. |
+--------------------------------+---------------+------------+------------+--------------+------------+---------------+
|Department of State |Trade and |Agriculture.|Agriculture.|Imperial De- |Agriculture.|Agriculture and|
| | Industry and | | | partment of | | Woods and |
| | Agriculture. | | | Interior. | | Forests. |
|Approximate Annual Expenditure--| | | | | | |
| 1. Administration | £15,000 | £5,500 | £10,200 |Conducted by | £12,500 | .. |
| | | | | Maritime | | |
| | | | | States | | |
| 2. Scientific Fishery Research| 5,000 | 4,500 | 6,300 | £27,750 | 2,500 | £1,000 |
+--------------------------------+---------------+------------+------------+--------------+------------+---------------+
+--------------------------------+------------+-------------------+---------------+---------------+----------------+
| | Canada. | U.S. America. | England and | Scotland. | Ireland. |
| | | | Wales. | | |
+--------------------------------+------------+-------------------+---------------+---------------+----------------+
|Department of State |Marine and |Bureau of Fisheries|Agriculture and|Fishery Board. |Agriculture and |
| | Fisheries.| under Commerce | Fisheries. | | Technical |
| | | and Labour. | | | Instruction. |
|Approximate Annual Expenditure--| | | | |
| 1. Administration | £159,000 |Conducted by | £8,000 | £13,000 | £10,000 |
| | | Costal States | | | |
| 2. Scientific Fishery Research| 48,000 | £141,000 | 14,000 | 800 | .. |
| | | | | (expended | | |
| | | | |through agents)| | |
+--------------------------------+------------+-------------------+---------------+---------------+----------------+
The early years of the 20th century witnessed another great expansion of
the sea fisheries of the United Kingdom. The herring fishery has been
revolutionized partly by the successful introduction of steam drifters,
which have markedly increased the aggregate catching power, and partly
by the prosecution of the fishery on one part or other of the British
coasts during the greater part of the year. The crews of many Scottish
vessels which formerly worked at the herring and line fisheries in
alternate seasons of the year now devote their energies almost entirely
to the herring fishery, which they pursue in nomad fleets around all the
coasts of Great Britain. The East Anglian drifters carry on their
operations at different seasons of the year from Shetland in the north
(for herrings) to Newlyn in the west (for mackerel). In Scotland the
value of the nets employed on steam drifters has increased from £3000 in
1899 to £61,000 in 1906, and the average annual catch of herrings has
increased from about four to about five million cwts. during the past
ten years. In England also the annual catch of herrings, which reached a
total of two million cwts. for the first time in 1899, has exceeded
three millions in each year from 1902 to 1905.
In steam trawling also great enterprise has been shown. In 1906 Messrs
Hellyer of Hull launched a new steam trawling fleet of 50 vessels for
working the North Sea grounds, and the delivery of new steam trawlers at
Grimsby was greater than at any previous period, these vessels being
designed more especially to exploit the distant fishing grounds, the
range of which has been extended from Morocco to the White Sea. About
100 vessels were added to the Grimsby fleet in the course of twelve
months. These new vessels measure about 140 ft. in length and over 20
ft. in beam, and exceed 250 tons gross tonnage, the accommodation both
for fish and crews being considerably in excess of that provided in
vessels of this class hitherto.
Returns of the steam trawlers registered in 1907 in the chief European
countries show the expanse of this industry, and the enormous
preponderance of Great Britain. The numbers are as follows:--
Belgium 23
Denmark 5
France 224
Germany 239
Netherlands 81
Norway 20
Portugal 13
Spain 12-18
Sweden 11
Scotland 292
Ireland 6
England and Wales 1317
A simultaneous development of the sea fisheries has been manifested in
other maritime countries of Europe, particularly in Germany and Holland,
but the total number of steam trawlers belonging to those countries in
1905 scarcely exceeded the mere additions to the British fishing fleet
in 1906.
The relative magnitude of British fisheries may best be gauged by a
comparison with the proceeds of the chief fisheries of other European
countries. The following table is based upon official returns and mainly
derived from the _Bulletin Statistique_ of the International Council for
the Study of the Sea. It represents in pounds sterling the value of the
produce of the various national fisheries during the year 1904, except
in the case of France, for which country the latest available figures
are those for 1902.
_Values in Thousands of £._
+---------------+--------+-------+-------+-------+-----------+
| |Herring.| Cod. |Plaice.| Other | Total. |
| | | | | Fish. | |
+---------------+--------+-------+-------+-------+-----------+
| British Isles | 1870 |1015 |1100 |5496 | 9,481,000 |
| Norway | 352 | 834 | .. | 443 | 1,629,000 |
| Denmark | 117 | 60 | 171 | 223 | 571,000 |
| Germany | 220 | 64[2]| 40[2]| 512[2]| 836,000 |
| Holland | 575 | 53 | 58 | 311 | 997,000 |
| France (1902) | 635 | 851[3]| .. |3562 | 5,048,000 |
+---------------+--------+-------+-------+-------+-----------+
The total value of the sea fisheries in the three chief subdivisions of
the British Isles in the year 1905, according to the official returns,
was as follows:
+------------------------+-------------+-------------+
| Fish landed in | Excluding | Including |
| | Shellfish. | Shellfish. |
+------------------------+-------------+-------------+
| England and Wales | £7,200,644 | £7,502,768 |
| Scotland | 2,649,148 | 2,719,810 |
| Ireland | 360,577 | 414,364 |
| +-------------+-------------+
| Total |£10,210,369 |£10,636,942 |
+------------------------+-------------+-------------+
These figures show an increase of £1,000,000 as compared with the total
value in 1900, and of more than £3,000,000 as compared with 1895 (cf.
Table I. at end).
In England and Wales the trawl fisheries for cod, haddock, and flat fish
yielded about three-quarters of the total, and the drift fisheries for
herring and mackerel nearly the whole of the remaining quarter. The line
fisheries in England and Wales are now relatively insignificant and
yield only about one-fortieth of the total (cf. Table VIII. at end).
In Scotland, on the other hand, there is not so much difference in the
relative importance of the three chief fisheries. In 1905 herrings and
other net-caught fish yielded rather more than one-half of the total,
the trawl fisheries nearly three-eighths, and the line fisheries
one-eighth (cf. Table X.).
+-------------------------+---------------------+---------------------+----------+
| | Trawl and Line. |Drift and Stake-nets.|Shellfish.|
| Fishery. +----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+
| |Thousands |Thousands |Thousands |Thousands |Thousands |
| | of cwt. | of £. | of cwt. | of £. | of £. |
+-------------------------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+
|England and Wales, 1905--| | | | | |
| East Coast | 6017 | 4713 | 3042 | 1145 | 202 |
| South Coast | 303 | 245 | 728 | 268 | 64 |
| West Coast | 1002 | 720 | 219 | 111 | 36 |
|Scotland, 1906-- | | | | | |
| East Coast | 2296 | 1202 | 2709 | 819 | 25 |
| Orkney and Shetland | 114 | 42 | 1735 | 642 | 10 |
| West Coast | 148 | 62 | 591 | 210 | 38 |
|Ireland, 1905-- | | | | | |
| North Coast | 9 | 5 | 177 | 70 | 7 |
| East Coast | 79 | 70 | 110 | 32 | 18 |
| South and West Coast | 46 | 35 | 577 | 148 | 28 |
+-------------------------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+
In Ireland the mackerel and herring fisheries provide nearly
three-quarters of the total yield, the mackerel forming the chief item
in the south and west, and the herring on the north and east coasts.
The remaining quarter is mainly derived from the trawl fisheries, the
headquarters of which are at Dublin, Howth and Balbriggan on the east,
and at Galway and Dingle on the west coast.
The value of the fishing boats and gear employed in the Scottish
fisheries during 1905 is returned as nearly £4,120,000. Upon a moderate
estimate, the total value of the boats and gear employed in the
fisheries of Great Britain and Ireland cannot be less than £12,000,000.
The relative yield and value of the various fisheries on the separate
coasts of the British Isles is illustrated in the table of landings from
the latest data available.
From these figures it is manifest that the yield and value of the east
coast fisheries of England and Scotland preponderate enormously over
those of the western coasts, whether attention be paid to the drift-net
fisheries for surface fish or to the fisheries for bottom fish with
trawls and lines.
The preceding statistics and remarks, as well as the supplementary
tables at the end of this article, indicate that the British fishing
industry has enjoyed a period of unexampled prosperity. The community at
large has benefited by the more plentiful supply, and the merchant by
the general lowering of prices at the ports of landing (see Tables
I.-IV. at end). But it is to be noted that this wave of prosperity, as
on previous occasions, has been attained by the application of increased
and more powerful means of capture and by the exploitation of new
fishing grounds in distant waters, and not by any increase, natural or
artificial, in the productivity of the home waters,--unless perhaps the
abundance of herrings is to be ascribed to the destruction of their
enemies by trawling. British fisheries are still pursued as a form of
hunting rather than of husbandry. In 1892 the Iceland and Bay of Biscay
trawling banks were discovered, in 1898 the Faroe banks, in 1905 rich
plaice grounds in the White Sea. In 1905 one-half of the cod and a
quarter of the haddock and plaice landed at east coast ports of England
were caught in waters beyond the North Sea.
_Table showing, in Thousands of Cwt., the Quantity of Fish landed by
Steam Trawlers on the East Coast of England from Fishing Grounds within
and beyond the North Sea respectively._
+-----+--------------------------------+--------------------------------+
| | Within the North Sea. | Beyond the North Sea. |
|Year.+----+--------+-------+----------+----+--------+-------+----------+
| |Cod.|Haddock.|Plaice.|All Kinds.|Cod.|Haddock.|Plaice.|All Kinds.|
+-----+----+--------+-------+----------+----+--------+-------+----------+
| 1903| 729| 2301 | 812 | 4776 | 470| 389 | 114 | 1189 |
| 1904| 637| 2032 | 658 | 4228 | 447| 429 | 284 | 1389 |
| 1905| 640| 1560 | 621 | 3739 | 603| 518 | 244 | 1682 |
+-----+----+--------+-------+----------+----+--------+-------+----------+
The statistics of the English Board of Agriculture and Fisheries have
distinguished since 1903 between the catch of fish within and beyond the
North Sea, and between the catch of trawlers and liners. Neglecting the
catch of the liners as relatively insignificant, and of the sailing
trawlers as relatively small and practically constant during the three
years in question, we see from the board's figures (see table above)
that the total catch of English steam trawlers within the North Sea
during 1904 and 1905 was in each year 500,000 cwt. less than in the year
before, amounting to a gross decrease of more than 25% in 1905 as
compared with 1903, and, in relation to the catching power employed, to
an average decrease of 2½ cwt. per boat per diem. This decrease may be
largely explained by the occurrence in 1903 of one of those periodic
"floods" of small cod and haddock which take place in the North Sea from
time to time; but the steady decline in the number of North Sea voyages
by English steam trawlers--from 29,300 in 1903 to 26,700 in
1905--affords a clear indication of the fact that many of our trawling
skippers are deserting the North Sea for more profitable fishing
grounds. The number of Scottish steam trawlers "employed" at Scottish
North Sea ports has also declined during the same period from 240 in
1903 to 228 in 1905.
The following table shows the number of British and foreign steam
trawlers registered at North Sea ports, and for English vessels the
number of fishing voyages made within and beyond the North Sea
respectively:--
+-----+-----------+-----------------------+---------+-----------+
| | |English Steam Trawlers.| | |
| | | Voyages.[4] | | German, |
|Year.| Boats +-----------+-----------+Scottish.| Dutch and |
| |Registered.| Within | Beyond |Employed.| Belgian. |
| | | North Sea.| North Sea.| |Registered.|
+-----+-----------+-----------+-----------+---------+-----------+
| 1903| 1060 | 29,328 | 1822 | 240 | 181 |
| 1904| 1049 | 28,589 | 2120 | 233 | 199 |
| 1905| 1064 | 26,670 | 2671 | 228 | 228 |
+-----+-----------+-----------+-----------+---------+-----------+
Unfortunately the North Sea gains no rest from this withdrawal of
British trawlers, since the place of the latter is filled year after
year by increasing numbers of continental fishing boats. The number of
fishing steamers (practically all trawlers) registered at North Sea
ports in Germany and Holland was 159 in 1903, 177 in 1904, 205 in 1905,
and 330 in 1907.
It is satisfactory under these circumstances to note the increased
attention which has been paid in recent years to the acquisition of more
exact knowledge upon the actual state of the fisheries and upon the
biological and other factors which influence the supply.
A comprehensive programme of co-operative investigations, both
scientific and statistical, was put into execution in the course of 1902
under the International Council for the Study of the Sea (see below).
The Fishery Board for Scotland and the Marine Biological Association for
England were commissioned to carry out the work at sea allotted to Great
Britain, and the English fishery department was equipped soon afterwards
with the means for collecting more adequate statistics.
Trawling investigations and the quantitative collection of fish eggs
have located important spawning grounds of cod, haddock, plaice, sole,
eel, &c.; marking experiments with cod, plaice and eel have thrown much
light upon the migrations of these fishes; and the rate of growth of
plaice, cod and herring has been elucidated in different localities. The
percentage of marked plaice annually recaptured in the North Sea has
been found to be remarkably high (from 25 to 50 %), and throws a
significant light on the intensity of fishing under modern conditions.
It seems probable that the impoverishment of the stock of plaice on the
central grounds of the North Sea is mainly attributable to the excessive
rate of capture of plaice during their annual off-shore migrations from
the coast. On the other hand, it has been shown that the growth-rate of
plaice on the Dogger Bank is constantly and markedly greater (five- or
six-fold in weight) than on the coastal grounds where these fish are
reared,--facts which open up the possibility of increasing the permanent
supply of plaice from the North Sea by the adoption of some plan of
commercial transplantation (see PISCICULTURE).
_History._--A brief review may now be given of the history of the
administration of British sea-fisheries since 1860, and of the steps
which have been taken for the attainment of scientific and statistical
information in relation thereto.
In 1860 a royal commission, consisting of Professor Huxley, Mr
(afterwards Sir) John Caird, and Mr G. Shaw-Lefevre (afterwards Lord
Eversley), was appointed to inquire into the condition of the British
sea-fisheries, the harmfulness or otherwise of existing methods of
fishing, and the necessity or otherwise of the existing legislation. The
important report of this commission, issued in 1866, embodied the
following main conclusions and recommendations:--(1) the total supply of
fish obtained upon the British coasts is increasing and admits of
further augmentation; (2) beam-trawling in the open sea is not a
wastefully destructive mode of fishing; (3) all acts of parliament which
profess to regulate or restrict the modes of fishing pursued in the open
sea should be repealed and "unrestricted freedom of fishing be
permitted hereafter"; (4) all fishing boats should be lettered and
numbered as a condition of registration and licence.
In 1868 full effect was given to these recommendations by the passing of
the Sea Fisheries Act. Regulations for the registration of fishing boats
were issued by order in council in the following year. (New regulations
were introduced in 1902.)
In 1878 a commission was given to Messrs Buckland and Walpole to inquire
into the alleged destruction of the spawn and fry of sea fish,
especially by the use of the beam-trawl and ground seine. Their report
is an excellent summary of the condition of the sea fisheries at the
time, and shows how little was then known with regard to the eggs and
spawning habits of our marine food fishes.
In 1882 the former Board of British White Herring was dissolved and the
Fishery Board for Scotland instituted, the latter being empowered to
take such measures for the improvement of the fisheries as the funds
under their administration might admit of. Arrangements were made in the
following year with Professor M'Intosh of St Andrews which enabled the
latter to fit up a small marine laboratory and to begin a series of
studies on the eggs and larvae of sea fishes, which have contributed
greatly to the development of more exact knowledge concerning the
reproduction of fishes. Under the Sea Fisheries (Scotland) Amendment Act
of 1885 the board closed the Firth of Forth and St Andrews Bay against
trawlers as an experiment for the purpose of ascertaining the result of
such prohibition on the supply of fish on the grounds so protected. The
treasury also, by a further grant of £3000, enabled the board to
purchase the steam-yacht "Garland" as a means of carrying out regular
experimental trawlings over the protected grounds. Reports on the
results of these experiments have been annually published, and were
summarized at the end of ten years' closure in the board's report for
1895. Dr Fulton's summary showed that "no very marked change took place
in the abundance of food-fishes generally, either in the closed or open
waters of the Firth of Forth or St Andrews Bay," as a consequence of the
prohibition of trawling. Nevertheless, among flat fishes, plaice and
lemon soles, which spawn off-shore, were reported to have decreased in
numbers in all the areas investigated, whether closed or open, while
dabs and long rough dabs showed a preponderating, if not quite
universal, increase.
The results of this classical experiment point strongly to the
presumptions (1) that trawling operations in the open sea have now
exceeded the point at which their effect on the supply of eggs and fry
for the upkeep of the flat fisheries is inappreciable; and (2) that
protection of in-shore areas alone is insufficient to check the
impoverishment caused by over-fishing off-shore. (For critical
examinations of Dr Fulton's account see M'Intosh, _Resources of the
Sea_, London, 1889; Garstang, "The Impoverishment of the Sea," _Journ.
Mar. Biol. Ass._ vol. vi., 1900; and Archer, _Report of Ichthyological
Committee_, Cd. 1312, 1902.)
A laboratory and sea-fish hatchery were subsequently established by the
board at Dunbar in 1893, but removed to Aberdeen in 1900.
In 1883 a royal commission, under the chairmanship of the late earl of
Dalhousie, was appointed to inquire into complaints against the practice
of beam-trawling on the part of line and drift-net fishermen. A small
sum of money (£200) was granted to the commission for the purpose of
scientific trawling experiments, which were carried out by Professor
M'Intosh.
The report of this commission was an important one, and its
recommendations resulted in the institution of fishery statistics for
England, Scotland and Ireland (1885-1887).
In 1884 the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom was
founded for the scientific study of marine zoology and botany,
especially as bearing upon the food, habits and life-conditions of
British food-fishes, crustacea and molluscs. Professor Huxley was its
first president, and Professor Ray Lankester, who initiated the
movement, succeeded him. A large and well-equipped laboratory was
erected at Plymouth, and formally opened for work in 1888. The work of
the association has been maintained by annual grants of £400 from the
Fishmongers' Company and £1000 from H. M. treasury, and by the
subscriptions of the members. The association publishes a half-yearly
journal recording the results of its investigations.
In 1886 a fishery department of the Board of Trade was organized under
the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Act of that year. The department
publishes annually a return of statistics of sea-fish landed, a report
on salmon fisheries (transferred from the home office), and a report on
sea fisheries. It consists of several inspectors under an assistant
secretary of the board; it has no power to make scientific
investigations or bye-laws and regulations affecting the sea-fisheries.
In 1894 the administration of the acts relating to the registration of
fishing vessels, &c., was transferred to the fisheries department.
In 1888 the Sea Fisheries Regulation Act provided for the constitution
(by provisional order of the Board of Trade) of local fisheries
committees having, within defined limits, powers for the regulation of
coast fisheries in England and Wales. The powers of district committees
were extended under Part II. of the Fisheries Act 1891, and again under
the Fisheries (Shell Fish) Regulation Act 1894. Sea-fisheries districts
have now been created round nearly the whole coast of England and Wales.
Under bye-laws of these committees steam-trawling has been prohibited in
nearly all the territorial waters of England and Wales, and trawling by
smaller boats has been placed under a variety of restrictions. Local
scientific investigations have been initiated under several of the
committees, especially in Lancashire by Professor Herdman of Liverpool
and his assistants.
In 1890 an important survey of the fishing grounds off the west coast of
Ireland was undertaken by the Royal Dublin Society, with assistance from
the government, and in the hands of Mr E.W.L. Holt led to the
acquisition of much valuable information concerning the spawning habits
of fishes and the distribution of fish on the Atlantic seaboard.
In 1892, under powers conferred by the Herring Fishery (Scotland) Act of
1889, the Fishery Board for Scotland closed the whole of the Moray
Firth--including a large tract of extra-territorial waters--against
trawling, in order to test experimentally the effect of protecting
certain spawning grounds in the outer parts of the firth. The closure
has given rise to a succession of protests from the leaders of the
trawling industry in Aberdeen and England. It seems that the difficulty
of policing so large an area, as well as the absence of any power to
enforce the restriction on foreign vessels, have defeated the original
intention; and the bye-law appears to be now retained mainly in
deference to the wishes of the local line-fishermen, the decadence of
whose industry--from economic causes which have been alluded to
above--is manifest from the figures in Table X. below. The controversy
has had the effect of causing the transference of a number of English
trawlers to foreign flags, especially the Norwegian.
_Statistics._--The following tables summarize the official statistics
of fish landed on the coasts of England and Wales, Scotland and
Ireland, and give some information relative to the numbers of
fishing-boats and fishermen in the three countries.
TABLE I.--_Summary of Statistics of Fish landed, imported and exported
for the United Kingdom._
+------+-------------------------+-----------+-------------+
| Year.| Fish landed | Net | Exports of |
| | (excluding Shell-fish). | Imports. |British Fish.|
|------+------------+------------+-----------+-------------+
| | Cwt. | | | |
| 1890 | 12,774,010 | £6,361,487 |£2,315,572 | £1,795,267 |
| 1895 | 14,068,641 | 7,168,025 | 2,453,676 | 2,282,406 |
| 1900 | 14,671,070 | 9,242,491 | 2,937,486 | 3,000,852 |
| 1905 | 20,164,276 | 10,210,369 | 2,250,259 | 4,164,869 |
+------+------------+------------+-----------+-------------+
_Note._--Imported fish afterwards re-exported (consisting chiefly of
salted or cured fish to the value of over £900,000 in 1905) are not
included in the above values of imports and exports. The exports
consist mainly of herrings.
TABLE II.--_Quantity and Average Landing Value of Flat Fishes landed
on the Coasts of England and Wales (all caught with Trawl-nets, except
Halibut in part)._
+-----+-------------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| | Quantity | Average Price (per Cwt.). |
|Year.| (in Thousands of Cwt.). | |
| +-----+-------+------+-------+--------+-----+-------+------+-------+--------+
| |Sole.|Turbot.|Brill.|Plaice.|Halibut.|Sole.|Turbot.|Brill.|Plaice.|Halibut.|
+-----+-----+-------+------+-------+--------+-----+-------+------+-------+--------+
| | | | | | |£ s. | £ s. | £ s. | £ s. | £ s. |
| 1890| 72.1| 51.9 | 15.4 | 623 | 95 |6 7 | 3 13 | 2 8 | 0 19 | 1 10 |
| 1895| 82.8| 77.9 | 19.0 | 789 | 114 |6 16 | 3 17 | 2 11 | 1 1 | 1 15 |
| 1900| 75.3| 60.7 | 20.7 | 752 | 136 |7 11 | 4 3 | 2 14 | 1 4 | 1 14 |
| 1905| 80.1| 89.5 | 22.4 | 1074 | 120 |5 18 | 3 11 | 2 11 | 0 19 | 1 17 |
+-----+-----+-------+------+-------+--------+-----+-------+------+-------+--------+
TABLE III.--_Quantity and Average Landing Value of Round Fishes,
caught with Trawls and Lines, landed on the Coasts of England and
Wales._
+-----+-----------------------------------+--------------------------------------+
| | Quantity | Average Price (per Cwt.). |
|Year.| (in Thousands of Cwt.). | |
| +----+--------+-----+-----+---------+-----+--------+------+------+---------+
| |Cod.|Haddock.|Hake.|Ling.|Sundries.| Cod.|Haddock.| Hake.| Ling.|Sundries.|
+-----+----+--------+-----+-----+---------+-----+--------+------+------+---------+
| | | | | | |s. d.| s. d. | s. d.| s. d.| s. d. |
| 1890| 363| 1585 | .. | 96 | 1151 |13 10| 9 7 | .. | 14 3| 14 0 |
| 1895| 496| 2433 | 132 | 114 | 1013 |12 5| 9 9 | 16 2| 11 8| 13 7 |
| 1900| 589| 2487 | 233 | 100 | 1190 |14 8| 13 8 | 15 10| 12 10| 14 10 |
| 1905|1423| 2148 | 484 | 165 | 1425 |12 4| 12 5 | 13 4| 11 3| 9 8 |
+-----+----+--------+-----+-----+---------+-----+--------+------+------+---------+
TABLE IV.--_Quantity and Average Landing Value of Surface Fishes
landed on the Coasts of England and Wales (caught with Drift-, Seine-,
and Stow-nets)._
+-----+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
| | Quantity | Average Price (per Cwt.). |
|Year.| (in Thousands of Cwt.). | |
| +---------+--------+---------+------+---------+--------+---------+------+
| |Mackerel.|Herring.|Pilchard.|Sprat.|Mackerel.|Herring.|Pilchard.|Sprat.|
+-----+---------+--------+---------+------+---------+--------+---------+------+
| | | | | | s. d. | s. d. | s. d. | s. d.|
| 1890| 509 | 1332 | 61 | 99 | 15 5 | 7 2 | 5 10 | 3 0 |
| 1895| 375 | 1437 | 65 | 91 | 16 3 | 5 10 | 5 3 | 3 1 |
| 1900| 321 | 2425 | 106 | 73 | 15 9 | 7 8 | 4 6 | 4 11 |
| 1905| 682 | 3062 | 169 | 75 | 8 11 | 7 7 | 5 0 | 3 6 |
+-----+---------+--------+---------+------+---------+--------+---------+------+
TABLE V.--_Quantity and Average Landing Value of Shell-fish landed on
the Coasts of England and Wales._
+-----+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
| | Number. | Average Price. |
| +----------------+--------+---------+-------------------------+---------+
|Year.| Thousands. | Mills. |Thousands| Per Hundred. | Per Cwt.|
| | | | of Cwt. | | |
| +----------------+--------+---------+------+---------+--------+---------+
| |Crabs.|Lobsters.|Oysters.|Sundries.|Crabs.|Lobsters.|Oysters.|Sundries.|
+-----+----------------+--------+---------+------+---------+--------+---------+
| | | | | | £. s.| £. s. | s. d. | s. d. |
|1890 | 4808 | 922 | 47.6 | 505 | 1 4 | 4 18 | 6 1 | 5 0 |
|1895 | 4501 | 677 | 25.3 | 590 | 1 4 | 4 8 | 6 2 | 4 11 |
|1900 | 5177 | 654 | 37.8 | 539 | 1 2 | 4 7 | 7 0 | 5 8 |
|1905 | 5106 | 503 | 35.4 | 423 | 1 3 | 4 15 | 5 9 | 5 6 |
+-----+----------------+--------+---------+------+---------+--------+---------+
TABLE VI.--_Total Quantity of the more important Fishes and Shell-fish
landed in Scotland._
+-----+----------------------------------------------------------------------+--------+-------------------------+
| | In Thousands of Cwt. | Cwt. | Number |
| | | | (Thousands). |
|Year.+--------+-----+----------+--------+----+-----+--------+--------+------+--------+------+---------+--------+
| | | | Flounder,| | | | | | | | | | |
| |Herring.|Lemon| Plaice, |Halibut.|Cod.|Ling.|Haddock.|Whiting.|Skate.|Mussels.|Crabs.|Lobsters.|Oysters.|
| | |Sole.|and Brill.| | | | | | | | | | |
+-----+--------+-----+----------+--------+----+-----+--------+--------+------+--------+------+---------+--------+
| 1890| 3980 | 17 | 81 | 20 | 449| 170 | 754 | 75 | 54 | 181 | 2882 | 643 | 350 |
| 1895| 4077 | 19 | 80 | 29 | 459| 165 | 1001 | 43 | 59 | 194 | 2548 | 610 | 239 |
| 1900| 3520 | 21 | 102 | 26 | 434| 157 | 761 | 75 | 72 | 143 | 3128 | 680 | 796 |
| 1905| 5343 | 31 | 561 | 36 | 677| 151 | 932 | 184 | 100 | 103 | 1990 | 760 | 218 |
+-----+--------+-----+----------+--------+----+-----+--------+--------+------+--------+------+---------+--------+
TABLE VII.--_Total Quantity of the more important Fishes and
Shell-fish returned as landed on the Irish Coasts._
+-----+-------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------+
| | In Thousands of Cwt. | Number (Thousands). |
|Year.+---------+--------+-----+-------+----+-----+--------+--------+-----+--------+------+---------+
| |Mackerel.|Herring.|Sole.|Turbot.|Cod.|Ling.|Haddock.|Whiting.|Hake.|Oysters.|Crabs.|Lobsters.|
+-----+---------+--------+-----+-------+----+-----+--------+--------+-----+--------+------+---------+
| 1890| 502 | 85 | 4.5 | 1.4 |39.6| 14.8| 16.4 | 13.5 | 25.3| 576 | 228 | 238 |
| 1895| 339 | 171 | 1.8 | 1.0 |43.6| 29.7| 30.9 | 11.9 | 18.7| 563 | 240 | 276 |
| 1900| 278 | 284 | 3.1 | 1.5 |33.6| 11.9| 12.4 | 11.9 | 16.3| 236 | 202 | 286 |
| 1905| 505 | 354 | 3.5 | 0.8 |18.6| 9.1| 11.3 | 18.3 | 7.1| 348 | 175 | 236 |
+-----+---------+--------+-----+-------+----+-----+--------+--------+-----+--------+------+---------+
_Note._--The Irish statistics of shell-fish are very incomplete, owing
to the inadequate means at the disposal of the authorities for
collecting statistics over large sections of the coast.
TABLE VIII.--_Classified List of British Fishing Boats on the Register
for 1905, omitting 2nd Class Steamers and Vessels under 18 Ft. Keel or
Navigated by Oars only and Vessels unemployed._
+----------+-------------------------+-------------------------+-------------------------+
| | England and Wales. | Scotland. | Ireland. |
| Mode of +---------+---------------+---------+---------------+---------+---------------+
| Fishing. |Steamers.| Sailing. |Steamers.| Sailing. |Steamers.| Sailing. |
| | 1st Cl. |1st Cl. 2nd Cl.| 1st cl. |1st Cl. 2nd Cl.| 1st Cl. |1st Cl. 2nd Cl.|
+----------+---------+-------+-------+---------+-------+-------+---------+-------+-------+
|Trawling | 1173 | 904 | 586 | 244 | .. | 68 | 10 | 142 | 283 |
|Drift-nets| 263 | 562 | 539 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |
|Lines | 56 | 29 | 685 | 209 | 3403 | 2910 | .. | 229 | 2776 |
|Various | 21 | 215 | 2277 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |
+----------+---------+-------+-------+---------+-------+-------+---------+-------+-------+
| Total | 1513 | 1710 | 4087 | 453 | 3403 | 2978 | 10 | 371 | 3059 |
+----------+---------+-------+-------+---------+-------+-------+---------+-------+-------+
_Note._--1st class = steamers of at least 15 tons gross tonnage, and
other boats of at least 15 tons registered tonnage (in Scotland
exceeding 30 ft. keel). 2nd class = less than 15 tons tonnage, or from
18 to 30 ft. keel.
TABLE IX.--_Number (A) of Men and Boys constantly employed and (B) of
other Persons occasionally employed in Fishing._
+-----+---------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| | England and | Scotland. | Ireland. | United |
|Year.| Wales. | | | Kingdom. |
| +--------+------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
| | A. | B. | A. | B. | A. | B. | A. | B. |
+-----+--------+------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
| 1890| 32,503 | 9312 | 34,319 | 20,829 | 10,121 | 13,981 | 78,450 | 46,337 |
| 1895| 32,229 | 8995 | 31,044 | 12,329 | 8,692 | 18,218 | 73,090 | 41,230 |
| 1900| 31,589 | 7994 | 27,288 | 10,288 | 8,677 | 18,982 | 68,708 | 37,814 |
| 1905| 34,318 | 8132 | 29,064 | 10,487 | 8,744 | 17,079 | 73,293 | 36,131 |
+-----+--------+------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
TABLE X.--_Catch and Value of Line-caught and Trawled Fish landed in
Scotland._
+------+----------------------+----------------------+
| Year.| Line-caught Fish. | Trawled Fish. |
+------+-----------+----------+-----------+----------+
| | Cwt. | | Cwt. | |
| 1890 | 1,577,299 | £591,059 | 291,812 | £203,620 |
| 1895 | 1,479,654 | 548,629 | 531,695 | 291,165 |
| 1900 | 757,416 | 371,173 | 1,077,082 | 703,427 |
| 1905 | 735,654 | 348,610 | 1,745,431 | 948,117 |
+------+-----------+----------+-----------+----------+
In 1893 a select committee of the House of Commons took evidence as to
the expediency of adopting measures for the preservation of the
sea-fisheries in the seas around the British Islands, with especial
reference to the alleged wasteful destruction of under-sized fish. They
recommended the adoption of a size-limit of 8 in. for soles and plaice,
and 10 in. for turbot and brill, below which the sale of these fishes
should be prohibited, on the ground that these limits would approximate
to those already adopted by foreign countries.
In 1899 the Agriculture and Technical Instruction (Ireland) Act
transferred the powers and duties of the inspectors of Irish fisheries
to the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland.
The department is provided with a steam cruiser, the "Helga," 375 tons,
fully equipped for fishery research, as well as with a floating marine
laboratory. Mr Holt, formerly of the Marine Biological Association, was
appointed to take charge of the scientific work.
In 1900 another select committee of the House of Commons was appointed
to consider and take evidence on the proposals of the Sea Fisheries
Bill, which had been framed in accordance with the recommendations of
the select committee of 1893, but had failed to pass in several sessions
of parliament. Owing to marked divergencies of opinion on the question
whether the low size-limits proposed would be effectual in keeping the
trawlers from working on the grounds where small fish congregated, the
committee reported against the bill, and urged the immediate equipment
of the government departments with means for undertaking the necessary
scientific investigations.
In 1901 an international conference of representatives of all the
countries bordering upon the North and Baltic Seas met at Christiania to
revise proposals which had been drafted at Stockholm in 1899 for a
scientific exploration of these waters in the interest of the fisheries,
to be undertaken concurrently by all the participating countries. The
British government was represented by Sir Colin Scott-Moncrieff, K.C.M
G., with Professor D'Arcy W. Thompson, Mr (afterwards Professor) W.
Garstang and Dr H.R. Mill as advisers. The proposals were subsequently
accepted, with some restrictions, and an international council of
management was appointed by the participating governments. The Fishery
Board for Scotland and the Marine Biological Association from England
were commissioned in 1902 to carry out the work at sea allotted to Great
Britain, and a special grant of £5500 per annum was made to each body by
the Treasury for this purpose. Two steamers, the "Huxley" and the
"Goldseeker," were chartered for the investigations and began work in
1902 and 1903 from Lowestoft and Aberdeen respectively. Reports on the
work of the first five years were published in 1909.
In 1901 the Board of Trade appointed a committee (the Committee on
Ichthyological Research) to inquire and report as to the best means by
which scientific fishery research could be organized and assisted in
relation to the state or local authorities. The committee consisted of
Sir Herbert Maxwell, M.P. (chairman), Mr W.F. Archer, Mr Donald
Crawford, Rev. W.S. Green, Professor W.A. Herdman, Hon. T.H.W. Pelham,
Mr S.E. Spring Rice and Professor J.A. Thomson. Sir Herbert Maxwell
resigned his chairmanship before the report was drawn up (September
1902), and was succeeded by Sir Colin Scott-Moncrieff. The committee
recommended the provision of more complete statistics; the provision and
maintenance of five special steamers (where not already existing) to
work in connexion with as many marine laboratories, viz. one for each of
the three coasts of England and Wales, and one each for Scotland and
Ireland; the provision of three biological assistants at each
laboratory; the grant of statutory powers to local sea-fisheries
committees to expend money on fishery research; the constitution of a
fishery council for England and Wales, and of a conference of
representatives of the central authorities in England, Scotland and
Ireland. In 1903 the fishery department of the Board of Trade was
transferred to the Board of Agriculture, Mr W.E. Archer, chief inspector
of fisheries, becoming an assistant secretary of the new Board of
Agriculture and Fisheries.
In 1907 a departmental treasury committee was appointed to inquire into
the scientific and statistical investigations carried on in relation to
the fishing industry of the United Kingdom. The committee consisted of
Mr H.J. Tennant, M.P. (chairman), Lord Nunburnholme, Sir Reginald
MacLeod, Mr N.W. Helms, M.P., Mr A. Williamson, M.P., Dr P. Chalmers
Mitchell, F.R.S., Mr J.S. Gardiner, F.R.S., the Rev. W.S. Green, Mr R.H.
Rew and Mr L.S. Hewby. This committee reviewed the work that had already
been done and urged its continuation and extension under the direction
of a central council composed of representatives of the government
departments concerned with fishery matters in England, Scotland and
Ireland, with a scientific chairman and director, and further insisted
on the need of international co-operation in the investigations.
_United States Fisheries._--The administration of the fisheries of the
United States of America is under the control of the several coastal
states, but the Bureau of Fisheries at Washington, which reports to the
secretary of commerce and labour, conducts a vast amount of scientific
fishery investigation, issues admirable statistical and biological
reports, and conducts on a very large scale work on the replenishment of
the fishing stations by artificial means (see PISCICULTURE). Although in
recent years Canada has given an increasing amount of state support to
the investigation, control and assistance of her fisheries, an amount
actually and relatively far exceeding that given in Great Britain, the
fishing industry of the United States still far exceeds that of Canada.
A considerable bulk of fish, taken by American ships from the
Newfoundland coasts and from those of other British provinces, is landed
at American ports, but as the following recent table shows, it is much
less than that taken from American waters.
_Quantities and Values of Fish landed by American Vessels at Boston and
Gloucester, Mass., in 1905._
+------------------------------------------+--------------+----------+
| | Quantities. | Value. |
+------------------------------------------+--------------+----------+
|(a) From fishing grounds off U.S. | | |
| coasts | 152,241,139 | £669,640 |
|(b) From fishing grounds off Newfoundland | 17,165,083 | 103,145 |
|(c) From fishing grounds off other | | |
| British provinces | 32,608,343 | 192,517 |
+------------------------------------------+--------------+----------+
The fisheries of the United States show a substantial increase from year
to year. There has been a decline in some important branches owing to
indiscreet fishing and to the inevitable effects of civilization on
certain kinds of animal life and in certain restricted areas. Such
diminution has been more than compensated for by growth resulting from
the invasion of new fishing grounds made possible by increase in the
sea-going capacity of the vessels employed, by improvement in the
preservation and handling of the catch, and by the greater utilization
of products which until comparatively recently were disregarded or
considered without economic value. The annual value of the water
products taken and sold by the United States fishermen now amounts to
over £11,000,000, and this sum does not include the very large
quantities taken by the fishermen for home consumption or captured by
sportsmen and amateurs. Between two and three hundred thousand persons
make a livelihood by the industry, and the capital involved exceeds
£16,000,000.
The oyster is the most valuable single product, and the output of the
United States industry exceeds the combined output of all other
countries in the world. The most notable feature of this fishery is that
nearly half the total yield now comes from cultivated grounds, so that
the business is being placed on a secure basis. Virginia has now taken
the first rank as an oyster-producing state, oyster farming being now
highly developed with an annual yield of nearly nine million bushels.
The high-sea fisheries for cod, haddock, hake, halibut, mackerel,
herring, and so forth are on the whole not increasing in prosperity, the
annual value being between one and two million pounds. The lobster
fishery shows a markedly diminishing yield, the diminution having been
progressive since about 1890, and being attributed to over-fishing and
violation of the restrictive regulations. At present a large part of the
lobsters consumed in the United States comes from Nova Scotia, but there
is evidence of useful results coming from the extensive cultural
operations now being carried out.
The whale fishery, at one time the leading fishing industry of the
country, is now conducted chiefly in the North Pacific and Arctic
oceans, but is decaying, being now expensive, uncertain and often
unremunerative. The annual value of the take is now under £200,000.
The important group of anadromous fishes (those like salmon, shad,
alewife, striped bass and sea perches, which ascend the rivers from the
ocean) has continued to provide an increasing source of income to
fishermen, the combined value of the catch on the Atlantic and Pacific
seaboards now amounting to over £3,000,000 annually. The fisheries of
the Great Lakes yield about £600,000 annually. (W. Ga.; P. C. M.)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] For fisheries in the cases of CORAL, OYSTER, PEARL, SALMON,
SPONGES and WHALE, see these articles; for fishing as a sport see
ANGLING.
[2] Estimated as regards about one-third of the total.
[3] Including the Newfoundland fishery.
[4] Excluding the voyages of the fleeting trawlers which supply
London by means of carriers.
FISHERY (LAW OF). This subject has (1) its international aspect; (2) its
municipal aspect. On the high seas outside territorial waters the right
of fishery is now recognized as common to all nations. Claims were made
in former times by single nations to the exclusive right of fishing in
tracts of open sea; such as that set up by Denmark in respect of the
North Sea, as lying between its possessions of Norway and Iceland,
against England in the 17th century, and against England and Holland in
the 18th century, when she prohibited any foreigners fishing within 15
German miles of the shores of Greenland and Iceland. This claim,
however, was always effectively resisted on the ground stated in Queen
Elizabeth's remonstrance to Denmark on the subject in 1602, that "the
law of nations alloweth of fishing in the sea everywhere, even in seas
where a nation hath propertie of command." The enunciation of this
principle is to be found, also, in the award of the arbitration court
which decided the question of the fur-seal fishery in Bering Sea in
1894. (See BERING SEA ARBITRATION; ARBITRATION, INTERNATIONAL.) The
right of nations to take fish in the sea may, however, be restrained or
regulated by treaty or custom; and Great Britain has entered into
conventions with other nations with regard to fishing in certain parts
of the sea. The provisions of such conventions are made binding on
British subjects by statutes.
Instances of these are the conventions of 1818 and 1872 between Great
Britain and the United States as to the fisheries on the eastern
coasts of British North America and the United States within certain
limits, and the award of the Bering Sea arbitration tribunal under the
treaty of 1892; the conventions between Great Britain and France in
1839 and 1867 as regards fishing in the seas adjoining these
countries, the latter of which will come into force on the repeal of
the former; the agreement of 1904 with respect to the Newfoundland
fisheries (see NEWFOUNDLAND); the convention of 1882 between Belgium,
Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain and Holland, regarding the
North Sea fisheries; that of 1887 between the same parties concerning
the liquor traffic in the North Sea; and the declaration regarding the
same waters made between Great Britain and Belgium for the settlement
of differences between their fishermen subjects in such
extra-territorial waters. At the instance of the Swedish government
the British parliament also passed an act in 1875 to establish a close
time for the seal fishery in the seas adjacent to the eastern coasts
of Greenland.
Cases have come before British courts with regard to the whale fishery
in northern and southern seas; and the customs proved to exist among the
whaling ships of the nations engaged in a particular trade have been
upheld if known to the parties to the action. In territorial waters, on
the other hand, fishery is a right exclusively belonging to the subjects
of the country owning such waters, and no foreigners can fish there
except by convention.
(a) _Tidal Waters._--In British territorial waters, it may be stated,
as the general rule, that fishery is a right incidental to the soil
covered by the waters in which that right is exercised.
The bed of all navigable rivers where the tide flows and reflows, and
of all estuaries or arms of the sea, is vested in the crown; and
therefore, in Lord Chief Justice Hale's words, "the right of the
fishery in the sea and the creeks and arms thereof is originally
lodged in the crown, as the right of depasturing is originally lodged
in the owner of the waste whereof he is lord, or as the right of
fishing belongs to him that is the owner of a private or inland
river." "But," he continues, "though the king is the owner of this
great waste, and as a consequent of his propriety hath the primary
right of fishing in the sea and the creeks and arms thereof, yet the
common people of England have regularly a liberty of fishing therein
as a public common of piscary, and may not without injury to their
right be restrained of it unless in such places or creeks or navigable
rivers where either the king or some particular subject hath gained a
propriety exclusive of that common liberty." (_De Jure Maris_, ch.
iv.).
This right extends to all fish floating in the sea or left on the
seashore, except certain fish known as royal fish, which, when taken in
territorial waters, belong to the crown or its grantee, though caught by
another person. These are whales, sturgeons and porpoises; and grampuses
are also sometimes added (whales, porpoises and grampuses being "fishes"
only in a legal sense). In Scotland only whales which are of large size
can be so claimed; but the rights of salmon fishing in the sea and in
public and private rivers, and those of mussel and oyster fishing,
except in private rivers, are _inter regalia_, and are only enjoyable by
the crown or persons deriving title under it. As salmon fishery was
formerly practised by nets and engines on the shore, and the mussel and
oyster fisheries were necessarily carried on on the shore, the opinion
was held at one time that angling for salmon was a public right, but the
later decisions have established that the right of salmon fishing by
whatever means is a _jus regale_ in Scotland. In England the crown in
early times made frequent grants of fisheries to subjects in tidal
waters, and instances of such fisheries belonging to persons and
corporations are very common at the present day: but by Magna Carta the
crown declared that "no rivers shall be defended from henceforth, but
such as were in defence in the time of King Henry, our grandfather, by
the same places and the same bounds as they were wont to be in his
time"; and thus bound itself not to create a private fishery in any
navigable tidal river. Judicial decision and commentators having
interpreted this statute according to the spirit and not the letter, at
the present day the right of fishery in tidal waters prima facie belongs
to the public, and they can only be excluded by a particular person or
corporation on proof of an exclusive right to fish there not later in
its origin than Magna Carta; and for this it is necessary either to
prove an actual grant from the crown of that date to the claimant's
predecessor in title, or a later grant or immemorial custom or
prescription to that effect, from which such an original grant may be
presumed. This exclusive right of fishing may be either a franchise
derived from the crown, or may arise by virtue of ownership of the soil
covered by the waters.
In Lord Hale's words: "Fishing may be of two kinds ordinarily, viz.
fishing with a net, which may be either as a liberty without the soil,
or as a liberty arising by reason of and in concomitance with the soil
or an interest or propriety of it; or otherwise it is a local fishing
that ariseth by or from the propriety of the soil,--such are
_gurgites_, wears, fishing-places, _borachiae_, _stachiae_, which are
the very soil itself, and so frequently agreed by our books. And such
as these a subject may have by usage; either in gross, as many
religious houses had, or as parcel of or appurtenant to their manors,
as both corporations and others have had; and this not only in
navigable rivers and arms of the sea but in creeks and ports and
havens, yea, and in certain known limits in the open sea contiguous to
the shore. And these kinds of fishings are not only for small
sea-fish, such as herrings, &c., but for great fish, as salmons, and
not only for them but for royal fish.... Most of the precedents
touching such rights of fishing in the sea, and the arms and creeks
thereof belonging by usage to subjects, appear to be by reason of the
propriety of the very water and soil wherein the fishing is, and some
of them even within parts of the seas" (_De Jure Maris_, ch. v.)
An instance of the former kind of fishery is to be found in the old case
of _Royal Fishery of the River Bann_ (temp. James I., Davis 655), and
the modern one of _Wilson_ v. _Crossfield_, 1885, 1 T.L.R. 601, where a
right of fishery in gross was established; but the latter kind, as Hale
says, is much more common, and the presumption is always in its favour;
_à fortiori_ where the fishing is proved to have been carried on by
means of engines or structures fixed in the soil. In England the public
have not at common law, as incidental to their right of fishing in tidal
waters, the right to make use of the banks or shores for purposes
incidental to the fishery, such as beaching their boats upon them,
landing there, or drying their nets there (though they can do so by
proving a custom from which such a grant may be presumed); but statutes
relating to particular parts of the realm, such as Cornwall for the
pilchard fishery, give them such rights. In Scotland a right of salmon
fishing separate from land implies the right of access to and use of the
banks, foreshores or beach for the purposes of the fishing; and so does
white fishing by statute. But otherwise there is no right to do so, e.g.
in a public river for trout fishing. A similar privilege is given to
Irish fishermen for the purpose of sea fishery by special statute. There
is no property in fish in the sea, and they belong to the first taker;
and the custom of the trade decides when a fish is taken or not, e.g. in
the whale fishery the question whether a fish is "loose" or not has come
before English courts.
(b) _Fresh Waters._---In non-tidal waters in England and Ireland, for
the reason given above, the presumption is in favour of the fishery in
such waters belonging to the owners of the adjacent lands; "fresh waters
of what kind soever do of common right belong to the owners of the soil
adjacent, so that the owners of the one side have of common right the
property of the soil, and consequently the right of fishing _usque ad
filum aquae_, and the owners of the other side the right of soil or
ownership and fishing unto the _filum aquae_ on their side; and if a man
be owner of the land on both sides, in common presumption he is owner of
the whole river, and hath the right of fishing according to the extent
of his land in length" (Hale, ch. i.). There is a similar presumption
that the owner of the bed of a river has the exclusive right of fishery
there, and this is so even though he does not own the banks; but these
presumptions may be displaced by proof of a different state of things,
e.g. where the banks of a stream are separately owned the owner of one
bank may show by acts of ownership exercised over the whole stream that
he has the fishery over it all. The crown prerogative of fishery, never
it seems, extended to non-tidal waters flowing over the land of a
subject, and it could not therefore grant such a franchise to a subject,
nor has it any right _de jure_ to the soil or fisheries of an inland
lake such as Lough Neagh (_Bristow_ v. _Cormican_, 1878, 3 App. Cas.
641). The public cannot acquire the right to fish in fresh waters by
prescription or otherwise although they are navigable; such a right is
unknown to law, because a profit _à prendre in alieno solo_ is neither
to be acquired by custom nor by prescription under the Prescription Act.
It has been decided that the "dwellers" in a parish cannot acquire such
a right, being of too vague a class; but the commoners in a manor may
have it by custom; and the "free inhabitants of ancient tenements" in a
borough have been held capable of acquiring a right to dredge for
oysters in a fishery belonging to the corporation of the borough on
certain days in each year by giving proof of uninterrupted enjoyment of
it from time immemorial, on the presumption that this was a condition to
which the grant made to the corporation was subject.
In Scotland the law is similar. The right to fish for trout in private
streams is a pertinent of the land adjacent, and owners of opposite
banks may fish _usque ad medium filum aquae_; and where two owners own
land round a private loch, both have a common of fishing over it. The
public cannot prescribe for it, for a written title either to adjacent
lands or to the fishery is necessary. A right of way along the bank of a
river or loch does not give it, nor does the right of the public to be
on or at a navigable but non-tidal river. The right of salmon fishing
carries with it the right of trout fishing: and eel fishing passes in
the same way.
In England and Ireland private fisheries have been divided into (a)
several (_separalis_), (b) free (_libera_), (c) common of piscary
(_communis_), whether in tidal or non-tidal waters. The distinction
between several and free fisheries has always been uncertain.
Blackstone's opinion was that several fishery implied a fishery in right
of the soil under the water, while free fishery was confined to a public
river and did not necessarily comprehend the soil. He is supported by
later writers, such as Woolrych and Paterson. On the other hand, the
opinions of Coke and Hale are opposed to this view. "A man may prescribe
to have a several fishery in such a water, and the owner shall not fish
there; but if he claim to have common of fishery or free fishery the
owner of the soil shall fish there" (Co Littl. 122 A); "one man may have
the river and others the soil adjacent: or one man may have the river
and soil thereof, and another the free or several fishing in that river"
(_De Jure Maris_, ch. i.). Lord Holt, though in one instance he
distinguished them, in a later case thought that they were "all one."
Later decisions have established the latter view, and it is now settled
that although the owner of the several fishery is prima facie owner of
the soil of the waters, this presumption may be displaced by showing
that the terms of the grant only convey an incorporeal hereditament, and
that the words "sole and exclusive fishery" give a several fishery _in
alieno solo_. In the words of Mr Justice Willes, "the only substantial
distinction is between an exclusive right of fishery, usually called
'several,' and sometimes 'free,' as in 'free warren,' and a right in
common with others, usually called 'common of fishery,' and sometimes
'free,' as in 'free port.' A several fishery means an exclusive right to
fish in a given place, either with or without the property in the soil"
(_Malcolmson_ v. _O'Dea_, 1863, 10 H.L.). A common of piscary, or "a
right to fish in common with certain other persons in a particular
stream," is usually found in manors, the commoners of which may have the
right to enjoy it to an extent sufficient for the sustenance of their
tenements; but they cannot, except by immemorial special prescription,
exclude the lord of the manor therefrom, and have no rights over the
soil itself. Decisions also establish that a grant of "fishery" will
prima facie pass an exclusive fishery; a grant of soil covered by water
or a lease of lands including water will pass the fishery therein; a
several fishery will not merge on being resumed by the crown; and a
fishery situate within a manor is presumed to belong to the owners of
adjacent land, and not to the lord. A several fishery, as already seen,
being an incorporeal hereditament, can only be transferred by deed, and
therefore cannot be abandoned, and so acquired by the public, even on
proof that the public have, as far back as living memory, exercised the
right of fishing in the _locus in quo_ to the knowledge of and without
interruption from the claimant of the fishery. But to establish a title
to a several fishery, a "paper title," i.e. one founded on documentary
evidence only, is not sufficient; it must be supported by evidence of
acts of ownership in recent times, for otherwise it will be presumed
that a person other than the alleged owner is the real owner. If the
waters of a tidal river leave their old channel and flow into another,
the owner of a several fishery in the old channel cannot claim to have
it in the new one; but, on the other hand, the owner of a several
fishery can take advantage of a gradual encroachment by the river upon
and into the land of a riparian owner, the limits of whose land are
ascertained. The owner of an exclusive fishery, whether in tidal or
fresh waters, has the right to take as many fish as he can, and may do
so by means of fixed engines or dredging, provided that in navigable
waters he does not interfere with the right of navigation, and that in
navigable and other waters he does not interfere with the fishing rights
of his neighbours or infringe the provisions made by old or modern
statutes as to the methods of taking the fish, e.g. by weirs. These were
forbidden in rivers by Magna Carta and later statutes, and on the
seashore by a statute of James I.; but all weirs in navigable fresh
waters traceable to a date not later than 25 Edward III. are lawful, for
the statutes forbidding weirs do not apply to navigable waters. It
seems, however, that at common law any fixed structures put up by the
owner of a fishery in his part of a river, which at all prevent the free
passage of fish to the waters above or below, give the owners of
fisheries therein a right of action against him. So the grantee of an
exclusive fishery with rod and line in an unnavigable river can prevent
any person from polluting the river higher up and so damaging the
fishery. At common law there is no property in fish when enjoying their
natural liberty; the taker is entitled to keep them unless they are
caught from a tank or small pond; or except in the case of salmon by
statute.
Modern statutes now regulate all fisheries, sea or fresh, in territorial
or inland waters. As regards sea fishery in England, the Board of
Agriculture and Fisheries has (since 1903, when it took it over from the
Board of Trade) power by order to create sea fisheries districts,
comprising any part of the sea within which British subjects have, by
international law, the exclusive right of fishing, and to provide for
the constitution of a local fisheries committee to regulate the sea
fisheries in such district, which can make by-laws for that purpose. It
appoints fishery officers to enforce them, prescribes a close time for
sea fish (which does not include salmon as defined in the Salmon Act),
has summary jurisdiction over offences committed on the sea coast or at
sea beyond the ordinary jurisdiction of a court of summary jurisdiction,
can enforce the Sea Fisheries Acts, or regulate, protect and develop
fisheries for all or any kind of shell fish. Special provision is also
made by statute for the oyster fishery and herring fishery (applicable
also to Scotland), and that of mussels, cockles, lobsters and crabs
(applicable to all the United Kingdom). In Scotland the Fishery Board
can constitute sea fishery districts, and boards with like powers to
those in England, and has general control over the coast and deep-sea
fisheries of Scotland; and there are acts relative to herring, mussel
and oyster fisheries, and allowing the appropriation of money intended
to relieve local distress and taxation towards the encouragement of sea
fisheries, and marine superintendence and enforcement of Scottish sea
fisheries laws. In Ireland the sea fisheries are under the direction of
the inspectors of Irish fisheries, who have replaced the former fishery
commissioners and special commissioners for Irish fisheries; special
statutes, besides the general ones applying to all the United Kingdom,
deal with oyster fisheries and mussel fisheries; and money is also
appropriated for sea fisheries under the head of technical instruction.
In all three component parts of the United Kingdom there are also
special statutes relative to salmon and freshwater fish: for England,
the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Acts 1861-1907, and the Freshwater
Fisheries Acts 1878-1886; for Scotland the chief Salmon Acts are those
of 1862-1868, and for trout and freshwater fish those of 1845-1902; for
Ireland, the Fisheries (Ireland) Acts 1842-1901. A similar scheme is
adopted in each case, namely, fishery districts and district boards are
set up which regulate the fishing by by-laws and protect the fish by
fixing a close time, and prescribing passes, licences, inspection and
the like, breaches of which are punishable by courts of summary
jurisdiction. The supreme authorities in each case are--for England the
Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, for Scotland the Fishery Board, and
for Ireland the inspectors of fisheries, and in England a certain
official number of conservators on such boards are appointed by the
county councils. The Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Act 1907 gives the
Board of Agriculture and Fisheries power to make provisional orders for
the regulation of salmon fisheries or freshwater fisheries within any
area on the application of any board of conservators, or of a county
council, or of the owners of one-fourth in value of private fisheries.
There are also special acts dealing with the fishing in certain rivers,
such as the Thames, Medway, Severn, Tweed and Esk. (The act of 1907
applies, however, to the Esk, but not otherwise to Scotland nor to
Ireland.) Throughout the United Kingdom the use of dynamite or other
explosive substance to catch or destroy fish in any public fishery is
prohibited, as it is also in England in any private waters subject to
the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Acts 1878, in which it is also
forbidden to use poison or other noxious substance for destroying fish.
Officers in the army or marines are forbidden (under penalty) to kill
fish without written leave from the person entitled to grant it. There
are also provisions of the criminal law dealing with the protection of
fisheries generally, as well as the provisions of the acts already
mentioned dealing with special kinds of fish.
Special provision is made by the Merchant Shipping Acts 1894-1906 for
sea-fishing boats (except in Scotland and the colonies), relating to
their registration, carrying official papers, carrying boats in
proportion to their tonnage, the punishment of offences on board, the
wages of their crews, and keeping record of all casualties, punishments
and the like on board. As regards trawlers, especially in the case of
those of 25 tons and upwards, a statutory form of agreement with the
crew is prescribed, as well as accounts of wages and discharges; and
skippers and second hands must have certificates of competency, which
are granted under similar conditions to those required in the case of
sea-going ships and are registered with the Board of Trade. Scottish
fishing boats are regulated by a special statute of 1886 (except as
regards agreements to pay crew by share of profits, dealt with by the
above act) and by the Sea Fisheries Act of 1868, which applies to all
British fishing boats. Particular lights must be carried by fishing
boats in navigation. An act of 1908 (The Cran Measures Act) legalized
the use of cran measures in connexion with trading in fresh herrings in
England and Wales, the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries being
empowered to make regulations under the act.
AUTHORITIES.--Green, _Encyclopaedia of Scots Law_ (Edinburgh, 1896);
Stewart, _Law of Fishing in Scotland_ (Edinburgh, 1869); Woolrych,
_Waters_ (London, 1851); Paterson, _Fishery Laws of the United
Kingdom_ (London and Cambridge, 1863); Stuart Moore, _Foreshore_
(London, 1888); Phillimore, _International Law_ (3rd ed., London,
1879); Martens, _Causes célèbres du droit des gens_ (Leipzig, 1827);
Selwyn, _Nisi Prius_, _Fishery_ (London, 1869). (G. G. P.*)
FISHGUARD (_Abergwaun_), a market town, urban district, contributory
parliamentary borough and seaport of Pembrokeshire, Wales, near the
mouth of the river Gwaun, which here flows into Fishguard Bay of St
George's Channel. Pop. (1901) 2002. Its railway station, which is the
chief terminus of the South Wales system of the Great Western railway,
is at the hamlet of Goodwick across the bay, a mile distant to the
south-west. Fishguard Bay is deep and well sheltered from all winds save
those of the N. and N.E., and its immense commercial value has long been
recognized. After many years of labour and at a great expenditure of
money the Great Western railway has constructed a fine breakwater and
railway pier at Goodwick across the lower end of the bay, and an
important passenger and goods traffic with Rosslare on the opposite
Irish coast was inaugurated in 1906.
The importance of Fishguard is due to the local fisheries and the
excellence of its harbour, and its early history is obscure. The chief
historical interest of the town centres round the so-called "Fishguard
Invasion" of 1797, in which year on the 22nd of February three French
men-of-war with troops on board, under the command of General Tate, an
Irish-American adventurer, appeared off Carreg Gwastad Point in the
adjoining parish of Llanwnda. To the great alarm of the inhabitants a
body of about 1400 men disembarked, but it quickly capitulated,
practically without striking a blow, to a combined force of the local
militias under Sir Richard Philipps, Lord Milford and John Campbell,
Lord Cawdor; the French frigates meanwhile sailing away towards Ireland.
For many years the castles and prisons of Haverfordwest and Pembroke
were filled to overflowing with French prisoners of war. Close to the
banks of the Gwaun is the pretty estate of Glyn-y-mel, for many years
the residence of Richard Fenton (1746-1821), the celebrated antiquary
and historian of Pembrokeshire.
FISHKILL LANDING, or FISHKILL-ON-THE-HUDSON, a village of Fishkill
township, Dutchess county, New York, U.S.A., about 58 m. N. of New York
City, on the E. bank of the Hudson river, opposite Newburgh. Pop. (1890)
3617; (1900) 3673, of whom 540 were foreign-born; (1905) 3939; (1910)
3902, of Fishkill township (1890) 11,840; (1900) 13,016; (1905) 13,183;
(1910) 13,858. In the township are also the villages of Matteawan
(q.v.), Fishkill and Glenham. Fishkill Landing is served by the New York
Central & Hudson River and the New York, New Haven & Hartford railways;
by railway ferry and passenger ferries to Newburgh, connecting with the
West Shore railway; by river steamboats and by electric railway to
Matteawan. Four miles farther N. on Fishkill Creek is the village of
Fishkill (incorporated in 1899), pop. (1905) 579. In this village are
two notable old churches, Trinity (1769), and the First Dutch Reformed
(1731), in which the New York Provincial Congress met in August and
September 1776. At the old Verplanck mansion in Fishkill Landing the
Society of the Cincinnati was organized in 1783. Among the manufactures
of Fishkill Landing are rubber-goods, engines (Corliss) and other
machinery, hats, silks, woollens, and brick and tile. The village of
Fishkill Landing was incorporated in 1864. The first settlement in the
township was made about 1690. The township of Fishkill was, like
Newburgh, an important military post during the War of Independence, and
was a supply depot for the northern Continental Army.
FISK, JAMES (1834-1872), American financier, was born at Bennington,
Vermont, on the 1st of April 1834. After a brief period in school he ran
away and joined a circus. Later he became a hotel waiter, and finally
adopted the business of his father, a pedlar. He then became a salesman
for a Boston dry goods firm, his aptitude and energy eventually winning
for him a share in the business. By his shrewd dealing in army contracts
during the Civil War, and it is said by engaging in cotton smuggling,
he accumulated a considerable capital which he soon lost in
speculation. In 1864 he became a stockbroker in New York and was
employed by Daniel Drew as a buyer. He aided Drew in his war against
Vanderbilt for the control of the Erie railway, and as a result of the
compromise that was reached he and Jay Gould became members of the Erie
directorate. The association with Gould thus began continued until his
death. Subsequently by a well-planned "raid," Fisk and Gould obtained
control of the road. They carried financial "buccaneering" to extremes,
their programme including open alliance with the Tweed "ring," the
wholesale bribery of legislatures and the buying of judges. Their
attempt to corner the gold market culminated in the fateful Black Friday
of the 24th of September 1869. Fisk was shot and killed in New York City
by E.S. Stokes, a former business associate, on the 6th of January 1872.
FISK, WILBUR (1792-1839), American educationist, was born in
Brattleboro, Vermont, on the 31st of August 1792. He studied at the
university of Vermont in 1812-1814, and then entered Brown University,
where he graduated in 1815. He studied law, and in 1817 came under the
influence of a religious revival in Vermont, where at Lyndon in the
following year he was licensed as a local preacher and was admitted to
the New England conference. His influence with the conference turned
that body from its opposition to higher education as immoral in tendency
to the establishment of secondary schools and colleges. Upon the removal
in 1824 of the conference's academy at New Market, New Hampshire, to
Wilbraham, Massachusetts, Fisk became one of its agents and trustees,
and in 1826 its principal. He drafted the report of the committee on
education to the general conference in 1828, at which time he declined
the bishopric of the Canada conference. He was first president of
Wesleyan University from the opening of the university in 1831 until his
death on the 22nd of February 1839 in Middletown, Connecticut. His
successful administration of the Wesleyan Academy at Wilbraham and of
Wesleyan University were remarkable. He was an able controversialist,
and in the interests of Arminianism attacked both New England Calvinism
and Unitarianism; he published in 1837 _The Calvinistic Controversy_. He
also wrote _Travels on the Continent of Europe_ (1838).
See _Life and Writings of Wilbur Fisk_ (New York, 1842), edited by
Joseph Holdich, and the biography by George Prentice (Boston, 1890),
in the _American Religious Leaders Series_; also a sketch in _Memoirs
of Teachers and Educators_ (New, York, 1861), edited by Henry Barnard.
FISKE, JOHN (1842-1901), American historical, philosophical and
scientific writer, was born in Hartford, Connecticut, on the 30th of
March 1842, and died at Gloucester, Massachusetts, on the 4th of July
1901. His name was originally Edmund Fiske Green, but in 1855 he took the
name of a great-grandfather, John Fiske. His boyhood was spent with a
grandmother in Middletown, Connecticut; and prior to his entering college
he had read widely in English literature and history, had surpassed most
boys in the extent of his Greek and Latin work, and had studied several
modern languages. He graduated at Harvard in 1863, continuing to study
languages and philosophy with zeal; spent two years in the Harvard law
school, and opened an office in Boston; but soon devoted the greater
portion of his time to writing for periodicals. With the exception of one
year, he resided at Cambridge, Massachusetts, from the time of his
graduation until his death. In 1869 he gave a course of lectures at
Harvard on the Positive Philosophy; next year he was history tutor; in
1871 he delivered thirty-five lectures on the Doctrine of Evolution,
afterwards revised and expanded as _Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy_
(1874); and between 1872 and 1879 he was assistant-librarian. After that
time he devoted himself to literary work and lecturing on history. Nearly
all of his books were first given to the public in the form of lectures
or magazine articles, revised and collected under a general title, such
as _Myths and Myth-Makers_ (1872), _Darwinism and Other Essays_ (1879),
_Excursions of an Evolutionist_ (1883), and _A Century of Science_
(1899). He did much, by the thoroughness of his learning and the lucidity
of his style, to spread a knowledge of Darwin and Spencer in America. His
_Outlines of Cosmic_ _Philosophy_, while Setting forth the Spencerian
system, made psychological and sociological additions of original matter,
in some respects anticipating Spencer's later conclusions. Of one part of
the argument of this work Fiske wrote in the preface of one of his later
books (_Through Nature to God_, 1899): "The detection of the part played
by the lengthening of infancy in the genesis of the human race is my own
especial contribution to the Doctrine of Evolution." In _The Idea of God
as affected by Modern Knowledge_ (1885) Fiske discusses the theistic
problem, and declares that the mind of man, as developed, becomes an
illuminating indication of the mind of God, which as a great immanent
cause includes and controls both physical and moral forces. More
original, perhaps, is the argument in the immediately preceding work,
_The Destiny of Man, viewed in the Light of his Origin_ (1884), which is,
in substance, that physical evolution is a demonstrated fact; that
intellectual force is a later, higher and more potent thing than bodily
strength; and that, finally, in most men and some "lower animals" there
is developed a new idea of the advantageous, a moral and non-selfish line
of thought and procedure, which in itself so transcends the physical that
it cannot be identified with it or be measured by its standards, and may
or must be enduring, or at its best immortal.
It is principally, however, through his work as a historian that Fiske's
reputation will live. His historical writings, with the exception of a
small volume on _American Political Ideas_ (1885), an account of the
system of _Civil Government in the United States_ (1890), _The
Mississippi Valley in the Civil War_ (1900), a school history of the
United States, and an elementary story of the American Revolution, are
devoted to studies, in a unified general manner, of separate yet related
episodes in American history. The volumes have not appeared in
chronological order of subject, but form a nearly complete colonial
history, as follows: _The Discovery of America, with some Account of
Ancient America, and the Spanish Conquest_ (1892, 2 vols.); _Old
Virginia and her Neighbours_ (1897, 2 vols.); _The Beginnings of New
England_; or, _The Puritan Theocracy in its Relations to Civil and
Religious Liberty_ (1889); _Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America_
(1899); _The American Revolution_ (1891, 2 vols.); and _The Critical
Period of American History_, 1783-1789 (1888). Of these the most
original and valuable is the _Critical Period_ volume, a history of the
consolidation of the states into a government, and of the formation of
the constitution. (C. F. R.)
FISKE, MINNIE MADDERN (1865- ), American actress, was born in New
Orleans, the daughter of Thomas Davey. As a child she played, under her
mother's name of Maddern, with several well-known actors. In 1882 she
first appeared as a "star," but in 1890 she married Harrison Grey Fiske
and was absent from the stage for several years. In 1893 she reappeared
in _Hester Crewe_, a play written by her husband, and afterwards acted a
number of Ibsen's heroines, and in _Becky Sharp_, a dramatization of
Thackeray's _Vanity Fair_. In 1901 she opened, in opposition to the
American theatrical "trust," an independent theatre in New York, the
Manhattan. She won a considerable reputation in the United States as an
emotional actress.
FISTULA (Lat. for a pipe or tube), a term in surgery used to designate
an abnormal communication leading either from the surface of the body to
a normal cavity or canal, or from one normal cavity or canal to another.
These communications are the result of disease or injury. They receive
different names according to their situation: _lachrymal fistula_ is the
small opening left after the bursting of an abscess in the upper part of
the tear-duct, near the root of the nose; _salivary fistula_ is an
opening into the salivary duct on the cheek; _anal fistula_, or _fistula
in ano_, is a suppurating track near the outlet of the bowel; _urethral
fistula_ is the result of a giving way of the tissues behind a
stricture. These are examples of the variety of the first kind of
fistula; while _recto-vesical fistula_, a communication between the
rectum and bladder, and _vesico-vaginal fistula_, a communication
between the bladder and vagina, are examples of the second. The abnormal
passage may be straight or tortuous, of considerable diameter or of
narrow calibre. Fistulae may be caused by an obstruction of the normal
channel, the result of disease or injury, which prevents, for example,
the tears, saliva or urine, as the case may be, from escaping; their
retention gives rise to inflammation and ulceration in order that an
exit may be obtained by the formation of an abscess, which bursts, for
example, into the gut or through the skin; the cavity does not close,
and a fistula is the result. The fistulous channel remains open as long
as the contents of the cavity or canal with which it is connected can
pass through it. To obliterate the fistula one must remove the
obstruction and encourage the flow along the natural channel; for
example, one must open up the nasal duct so as to allow the tears to
reach the nasal cavity, and the _lachrymal fistula_ will close; and so
also in the _salivary_ and _urethral_ fistulae. Sometimes it may be
necessary to lay the channel freely open, to scrape out the unhealthy
material which lines the track, and to encourage it to fill up from its
deepest part, as in _anal fistula_; in other cases it may be necessary
to pare the edges of the abnormal opening and stitch them together.
(E. O.*)
FIT, a word with several meanings. (1) A portion or division of a poem,
a canto, in this sense often spelled "fytte." (2) A sudden but temporary
seizure or attack of illness, particularly one with convulsive paroxysms
accompanied by unconsciousness, especially an attack of apoplexy or
epilepsy, but also applied to a transitory attack of gout, of coughing,
fainting, &c., also of an outburst of tears, of merriment or of temper.
In a transferred sense, the word is also used of any temporary or
irregular periods of action or inaction, and hence in such expressions
as "by fits and starts." (3) As an adjective, meaning suitable, proper,
becoming, often with the idea of having necessary qualifications for a
specific purpose, "a fit and proper person"; and also as prepared for,
or in a good condition for, any enterprise. The verb "to fit" is thus
used intransitively and transitively, to be adapted for, to suit,
particularly to be of the right measurement or shape, of a dress, of
parts of a mechanism, &c., and to make or render a thing in such a
condition. Hence the word is used as a substantive.
The etymology of the word is difficult; the word may be one in origin,
or may be a homonymous term, one in sound and spelling but with
different origin in each different meaning. In Skeat's _Etymological
Dictionary_ (ed. 1898) (1) and (2) are connected and derived from the
root of "foot," which appears in Lat. _pes_, _pedis_. The evolution of
the word is: step, a part of a poem, a struggle, a seizure. (3) A word
of Scandinavian origin, with the idea of "knitted together" (cf. Ice.
_fitja_, to knit together, Goth, _fetjan_, to adorn); the ultimate
origin is a Teutonic root meaning to seize (cf. "fetch"). The _New
English Dictionary_ suggests that this last root may be the origin of
all the words, and that the underlying meaning is junction, meeting; the
early use of "fit" (2) is that of conflict. It is also pointed out that
the meanings of "fit," suitable, proper, have been modified by "feat,"
which comes through Fr. _fait_, from Lat. _factum_, _facere_, to do,
make.
FITCH, JOHN (1743-1798), American pioneer of steam navigation, was born
at Windsor, Connecticut, on the 21st of January 1743. He was the son of
a farmer, and received the usual common school education. At the age of
seventeen he went to sea, but he discontinued his sailor life after a
few voyages and became successively a clockmaker, a brassfounder and a
silversmith. During the War of Independence he was a sutler to the
American troops, and amassed in that way a considerable sum of money,
with which he bought land in Virginia. He was appointed deputy-surveyor
for Kentucky in 1780, and when returning to Philadelphia in the
following year he was captured by the Indians, but shortly afterwards
regained his liberty. About this time he began an exploration of the
north-western regions, with the view of preparing a map of the district;
and while sailing on the great western rivers, the idea occurred to him
that they might be navigated by steam. He endeavoured by the sale of his
map to find money for the carrying out of his projects, but was
unsuccessful. He next applied for assistance to the legislatures of
different states, but though each reported in favourable terms of his
invention, none of them would agree to grant him any pecuniary
assistance. He was successful, however, in 1786, in forming a company
for the prosecution of his enterprise, and shortly afterwards a
steam-packet of his invention was launched on the Delaware. His claim to
be the inventor of steam-navigation was disputed by James Rumsey of
Virginia, but Fitch obtained exclusive rights in steam-navigation in New
Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware, while a similar privilege was granted
to Rumsey in Virginia, Maryland and New York. A steam-boat built by
Fitch conveyed passengers for hire on the Delaware in the summer of
1790, but the undertaking was a losing one, and led to the dissolution
of the company. In 1793 he endeavoured to introduce his invention into
France, but met with no success. On his return to America he found his
property overrun by squatters, and reaping from his invention nothing
but disappointment and poverty, he committed suicide at Bardstown,
Kentucky, on the 2nd of July 1798.
He left behind him a record of his adventures and misfortunes,
"inscribed to his children and future posterity"; and from this a
biography was compiled by Thompson Westcott (Philadelphia, 1857.)
FITCH, SIR JOSHUA GIRLING (1824-1903), English educationist, second son
of Thomas Fitch, of a Colchester family, was born in Southwark, London,
in 1824. His parents were poor but intellectually inclined, and at an
early age Fitch started work as an assistant master in the British and
Foreign School Society's elementary school in the Borough Road, founded
by Thomas Lancaster. But he continued to educate himself by assiduous
reading and attending classes at University College; he was made
headmaster of another school at Kingsland; and in 1850 he took his B.A.
degree at London University, proceeding MA. two years later. In 1852 he
was appointed by the British and Foreign School Society to a tutorship
at their Training College in the Borough Road, soon becoming
vice-principal and in 1856 principal. He had previously done some
occasional teaching there, and he was thoroughly imbued with the
Lancasterian system. In 1863 he was appointed a government inspector of
schools for the York district, from which, after intervals in which he
was detached for work as an assistant commissioner (1865-1867) on the
Schools Inquiry Commission, as special commissioner (1869), and as an
assistant commissioner under the Endowed Schools Act (1870-1877), he was
transferred in 1877 to East Lambeth. In 1883 he was made a chief
inspector, to superintend the eastern counties, and in 1885 chief
inspector of training colleges, a post he held till he retired in 1894.
In the course of an extraordinarily active career, he acquired a unique
acquaintance with all branches of education, and became a recognized
authority on the subject, his official reports, lectures and books
having a great influence on the development of education in England. He
was a strong advocate and supporter of the movement for the higher
education of women, and he was constantly looked to for counsel and
direction on every sort of educational subject; his wide knowledge, safe
judgment and amiable character made his co-operation of exceptional
value, and after he retired from official life his services were in
active request in inquiries and on boards and committees. In 1896 he was
knighted; and besides receiving such academic distinctions as the LL.D.
degree from St Andrews University, he was made a chevalier of the French
Legion of Honour in 1889. He was a constant contributor to the leading
reviews; he published an important series of _Lectures on Teaching_
(1881), _Educational Aims and Methods, Notes on American Schools and
Colleges_ (1887), and an authoritative criticism of _Thomas and Matthew
Arnold, and their Influence on English Education_ (see also the article
on ARNOLD, MATTHEW) in 1901; and he wrote the article on EDUCATION in
the supplementary volumes (10th edition) of this encyclopaedia (1902).
He died on the 14th of July 1903 in London. A civil list pension was
given to his widow, whom, as Miss Emma Wilks, he had married in 1856.
See also _Sir Joshua Fitch_, by the Rev. A.L. Lilley (1906),
FITCH, RALPH (fl. 1583-1606), London merchant, one of the earliest
English travellers and traders in Mesopotamia, the Persian Gulf and
Indian Ocean, India proper and Indo-China. In January 1583 he embarked
in the "Tiger" for Tripoli and Aleppo in Syria (see Shakespeare,
_Macbeth_, Act I. sc. 3), together with J. Newberie, J. Eldred and two
other merchants or employees of the Levant Company. From Aleppo he
reached the Euphrates, descended the river from Bir to Fallujah, crossed
southern Mesopotamia to Bagdad, and dropped down the Tigris to Basra
(May to July 1583). Here Eldred stayed behind to trade, while Fitch and
the rest sailed down the Persian Gulf to Ormuz, where they were arrested
as spies (at Venetian instigation, as they believed) and sent prisoners
to the Portuguese viceroy at Goa (September to October). Through the
sureties procured by two Jesuits (one being Thomas Stevens, formerly of
New College, Oxford, the first Englishman known to have reached India by
the Cape route in 1579) Fitch and his friends regained their liberty,
and escaping from Goa (April 1584) travelled through the heart of India
to the court of the Great Mogul Akbar, then probably at Agra. In
September 1585 Newberie left on his return journey overland via Lahore
(he disappeared, being presumably murdered, in the Punjab), while Fitch
descended the Jumna and the Ganges, visiting Benares, Patna, Kuch Behar,
Hugli, Chittagong, &c. (1585-1586), and pushed on by sea to Pegu and
Burma. Here he visited the Rangoon region, ascended the Irawadi some
distance, acquired a remarkable acquaintance with inland Pegu, and even
penetrated to the Siamese Shan states (1586-1587). Early in 1588 he
visited Malacca; in the autumn of this year he began his homeward
travels, first to Bengal; then round the Indian coast, touching at
Cochin and Goa, to Ormuz; next up the Persian Gulf to Basra and up the
Tigris to Mosul (Nineveh); finally via Urfa, Bir on the Euphrates,
Aleppo and Tripoli, to the Mediterranean. He reappeared in London on the
29th of April 1591. His experience was greatly valued by the founders of
the East India Company, who specially consulted him on Indian affairs
(e.g. 2nd of October 1600; 29th of January 1601; 31st of December 1606).
See Hakluyt, _Principal Navigations_ (1599), vol. ii. part i. pp.
245-271, esp. 250-268; Linschoten, _Voyages_ (_Itineraris_), part i.
ch. xcii. (vol. ii. pp. 158-169, &c., Hakluyt Soc. edition); Stevens
and Birdwood, _Court Records of the East India Company 1599-1603_
(1886), esp. pp. 26, 123; _State Papers, East Indies_, &c.,
_1513-1616_ (1862), No. 36; Pinkerton, _Voyages and Travels_
(1808-1814), ix. 406-425.
FITCHBURG, a city and one of the county-seats of Worcester county,
Massachusetts, U.S.A., situated, at an altitude varying from about 433
ft. to about 550 ft., about 23 m. N. of Worcester and about 45 m. W.N.W.
of Boston. Pop. (1880) 12,429; (1890) 22,037; (1900) 31,531, of whom
10,917 were foreign-born, including 4063 French Canadians, 836 English
Canadians, 2306 Irish and 963 Finns; (1910 census) 37,826. Fitchburg is
traversed by the N. branch of the Nashua river, and is served by the
Boston & Maine, and the New York, New Haven & Hartford railways, and by
three interurban electric lines. The city area (27.7 sq.m.) is well
watered, and is very uneven, with hill spurs running in all directions,
affording picturesque scenery. The court house and the post office (in a
park presented by the citizens) are the principal public buildings.
Fitchburg is the seat of a state normal school (1895), with model and
training schools; has a free public library (1859; in the Wallace
library and art building), the Burbank hospital, the Fitchburg home for
old ladies, and an extensive system of parks, in one of which is a fine
fountain, designed by Herbert Adams. Fitchburg has large mercantile and
financial interests, but manufacturing is the principal industry. The
principal manufactures are paper and wood pulp, cotton and woollen
goods, yarn and silk, machinery, saws, horn goods, and bicycles and
firearms (the Iver Johnson Arms and Cycle Works being located here). In
1905 the city's total factory product was valued at $15,390,507, of
which $3,019,118 was the value of the paper and wood pulp product,
$2,910,572 was the value of the cotton goods, and $1,202,421 was the
value of the foundry and machine shop products. The municipality owns
and operates its (gravity) water works system. Fitchburg was included in
Lunenburg until 1764, when it was incorporated as a township and was
named in honour of John Fitch, a citizen who did much to secure
incorporation; it was chartered as a city in 1872.
See W.A. Emerson, _Fitchburg, Massachusetts, Past and Present_
(Fitchburg, 1887).
FITTIG, RUDOLF (1835- ), German chemist, was born at Hamburg on the
6th of December 1835. He studied chemistry at Göttingen, graduating as
Ph.D. with a dissertation on acetone in 1858. He subsequently held
several appointments at Göttingen, being privat docent (1860), and
extraordinary professor (1870). In 1870 he obtained the chair at
Tübingen, and in 1876 that at Strassburg, where the laboratories were
erected from his designs. Fittig's researches are entirely in organic
chemistry, and cover an exceptionally wide field. The aldehydes and
ketones provided material for his earlier work. He observed that
aldehydes and ketones may suffer reduction in neutral, alkaline, and
sometimes acid solution to secondary and tertiary glycols, substances
which he named pinacones; and also that certain pinacones when distilled
with dilute sulphuric acid gave compounds, which he named pinacolines.
The unsaturated acids, also received much attention, and he discovered
the internal anhydrides of oxyacids, termed lactones. In 1863 he
introduced the reaction known by his name. In 1855 Adolph Wurtz had
shown that when sodium acted upon alkyl iodides, the alkyl residues
combined to form more complex hydrocarbons; Fittig developed this method
by showing that a mixture of an aromatic and alkyl haloid, under similar
treatment, yielded homologues of benzene. His investigations on Perkin's
reaction led him to an explanation of its mechanism which appeared to be
more in accordance with the facts. The question, however, is one of much
difficulty, and the exact course of the reaction appears to await
solution. These researches incidentally solved the constitution of
coumarin, the odoriferous principle of woodruff. Fittig and Erdmann's
observation that phenyl isocrotonic acid readily yielded
[alpha]-naphthol by loss of water was of much importance, since it
afforded valuable evidence as to the constitution of naphthalene. They
also investigated certain hydrocarbons occurring in the high boiling
point fraction of the coal tar distillate and solved the constitution of
phenanthrene. We also owe much of our knowledge of the alkaloid piperine
to Fittig, who in collaboration with Ira Remsen established its
constitution in 1871. Fittig has published two widely used text-books;
he edited several editions of Wohler's _Grundriss der organischen
Chemie_ (11th ed., 1887) and wrote an _Unorganische Chemie_ (1st ed.,
1872; 3rd, 1882). His researches have been recognized by many scientific
societies and institutions, the Royal Society awarding him the Davy
medal in 1906.
FITTON, MARY (c. 1578-1647), identified by some writers with the "dark
lady" of Shakespeare's sonnets, was the daughter of Sir Edward Fitton of
Gawsworth, Cheshire, and was baptized on the 24th of June 1578. Her
elder sister, Anne, married John Newdigate in 1587, in her fourteenth
year. About 1595 Mary Fitton became maid of honour to Queen Elizabeth.
Her father recommended her to the care of Sir William Knollys,
comptroller of the queen's household, who promised to defend the
"innocent lamb" from the "wolfish cruelty and fox-like subtlety of the
tame beasts of this place." Sir William was fifty and already married,
but he soon became suitor to Mary Fitton, in hope of the speedy death of
the actual Lady Knollys, and appears to have received considerable
encouragement. There is no hint in her authenticated biography that she
was acquainted with Shakespeare. William Kemp, who was a clown in
Shakespeare's company, dedicated his _Nine Daies Wonder_ to Mistress
Anne (perhaps an error for Mary) Fitton, "Maid of Honour to Elizabeth";
and there is a sonnet addressed to her in an anonymous volume, _A
Woman's Woorth defended against all the Men in the World_ (1599). In
1600 Mary Fitton led a dance in court festivities at which William
Herbert, later earl of Pembroke, is known to have been present; and
shortly afterwards she became his mistress. In February 1601 Pembroke
was sent to the Fleet in connexion with this affair, but Mary Fitton,
whose child died soon after its birth, appears to have simply been
dismissed from court. Mary Fitton seems to have gone to her sister,
Lady Newdigate, at Arbury. A second scandal has been fixed on Mary
Fitton by George Ormerod, author of _History of Cheshire_, in a MS.
quoted by Mr. T. Tyler (_Academy_, 27th Sept. 1884). Ormerod asserted,
on the strength of the MSS. of Sir Peter Leycester, that she had two
illegitimate daughters by Sir Richard Leveson, the friend and
correspondent of her sister Anne. He also gives the name of her first
husband as Captain Logher, and her second as Captain Polwhele, by whom
she had a son and daughter. Polwhele died in 1609 or 1610, about three
years after his marriage. But Ormerod was mistaken in the order of Mary
Fitton's husbands, for her second husband, Logher, died in 1636. Her own
will, which was proved in 1647, gives her name as "Mary Lougher." In
Gawsworth church there is a painted monument of the Fittons, in which
Anne and Mary are represented kneeling behind their mother. It is stated
that from what remains of the colouring Mary was a dark woman, which is
of course essential to her identification with the lady of the sonnets,
but in the portraits at Arbury described by Lady Newdigate-Newdegate in
her _Gossip from a Muniment Room_ (1897) she has brown hair and grey
eyes.
The identity of the Arbury portrait with Mary Fitton was challenged by
Mr Tyler and by Dr Furnivall. For an answer to their remarks see an
appendix by C.G.O. Bridgeman in the 2nd edition of Lady
Newdigate-Newdegate's book.
The suggestion that Mary Fitton should be regarded as the false
mistress of Shakespeare's sonnets rests on a very thin chain of
reasoning, and by no means follows on the acceptance of the theory
that William Herbert was the addressee of the sonnets, though it of
course fails with the rejection of that supposition. Mr William Archer
(_Fortnightly Review_, December 1897) found some support for Mary
Fitton's identification with the "dark lady" in the fact that Sir
William Knollys was also her suitor, thus numbering three "Wills"
among her admirers. This supplies a definite interpretation, whether
right or wrong, to the initial lines of Sonnet 135:--
"Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy 'Will,'
And 'Will' to boot, and 'Will' in overplus."
Arguments in favour of her adoption into the Shakespeare circle will
be found in Mr Thomas Tyler's _Shakespeare's Sonnets_ (1890, pp.
73-92), and in the same writer's _Herbert-Fitton Theory of
Shakespeare's Sonnets_ (1898).
FITTON, WILLIAM HENRY (1780-1861), British geologist was born in Dublin
in January 1780. Educated at Trinity College, in that city, he gained
the senior scholarship in 1798, and graduated in the following year. At
this time he began to take interest in geology and to form a collection
of fossils. Having adopted the medical profession he proceeded in 1808
to Edinburgh, where he attended the lectures of Robert Jameson, and
thenceforth his interest in natural history and especially in geology
steadily increased. He removed to London in 1809, where he further
studied medicine and chemistry. In 1811 he brought before the Geological
Society of London a description of the geological structure of the
vicinity of Dublin, with an account of some rare minerals found in
Ireland. He took a medical practice at Northampton in 1812, and for some
years the duties of his profession engrossed his time. He was admitted
M.D. at Cambridge in 1816. In 1820, having married a lady of means, he
settled in London, and devoted himself to the science of geology with
such assiduity and thoroughness that he soon became a leading authority,
and in the end, as Murchison said, "one of the British worthies who have
raised modern geology to its present advanced position." His
"Observations on some of the Strata between the Chalk and the Oxford
Oolite, in the South-east of England" (_Trans. Geol. Soc._ ser. 2, vol.
iv.) embodied a series of researches extending from 1824 to 1836, and
form the classic memoir familiarly known as Fitton's "Strata below the
Chalk." In this great work he established the true succession and
relations of the Upper and Lower Greensand, and of the Wealden and
Purbeck formations, and elaborated their detailed structure. He had been
elected F.R.S. in 1815, and he was president of the Geological Society
of London 1827-1829. His house then became a meeting place for
scientific workers, and during his presidency he held a conversazione
open on Sunday evenings to all fellows of the Geological Society. From
1817 to 1841 he contributed to the _Edinburgh Review_ many admirable
essays on the progress of geological science; he also wrote "Notes on
the Progress of Geology in England" for the _Philosophical Magazine_
(1832-1833). His only independent publication was _A Geological Sketch
of the Vicinity of Hastings_ (1833). He was awarded the Wollaston medal
by the Geological Society in 1852. He died in London on the 13th of May
1861.
Obituary by R.I. Murchison in _Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc._, vol. xviii.,
1862, p. xxx.
FITZBALL, EDWARD (1792-1873), English dramatist, whose real patronymic
was Ball, was born at Burwell, Cambridgeshire, in 1792. His father was a
well-to-do farmer, and Fitzball, after receiving his schooling at
Newmarket, was apprenticed to a Norwich printer in 1809. He produced
some dramatic pieces at the local theatre, and eventually the marked
success of his _Innkeeper of Abbeville, or The Ostler and the Robber_
(1820), together with the friendly acceptance of one of his pieces at
the Surrey theatre by Thomas Dibdin, induced him to settle in London.
During the next twenty-five years he produced a great number of plays,
most of which were highly successful. He had a special talent for
nautical drama. His _Floating Beacon_ (Surrey theatre, 19th of April
1824) ran for 140 nights, and his _Pilot_ (Adelphi, 1825) for 200
nights. His greatest triumph in melodrama was perhaps _Jonathan
Bradford, or the Murder at the Roadside Inn_ (Surrey theatre, 12th of
June 1833). He was at one time stock dramatist and reader of plays at
Covent Garden, and afterwards at Drury Lane. He had a considerable
reputation as a song-writer and as a librettist in opera. The last years
of his life were spent in retirement at Chatham, where he died on the
27th of October 1873.
His autobiography, _Thirty-Five Years of a Dramatic Author's Life_ (2
vol., 1859), is a naïve record of his career. Numbers of his plays are
printed in _Cumberland's Minor British Theatre, Dick's Standard Plays_
and _Lacy's Acting Edition of Plays_.
FITZGERALD, the name of an historic Irish house, which descends from
Walter, son of Other, who at the time of the Domesday Survey (1086) was
castellan of Windsor and a tenant-in-chief in five counties. From his
eldest son William, known as "de Windsor," descended the Windsors of
Stanwell, of whom Andrew Windsor was created Lord Windsor of Stanwell (a
Domesday possession of the house) by Henry VIII., which barony is now
vested in the earl of Plymouth, his descendant in the female line. Of
Walter's younger sons, Robert was given by Henry I. the barony of Little
Easton, Essex; Maurice obtained the stewardship (_dapiferatus_) of the
great Suffolk abbey of Bury St Edmunds; Reinald the stewardship to Henry
I.'s queen, Adeliza; and Gerald (also a _dapifer_) became the ancestor
of the FitzGeralds. As constable and captain of the castle that Arnulf
de Montgomery raised at Pembroke, Gerald strengthened his position in
Wales by marrying Nesta, sister of Griffith, prince of South Wales, who
bore to him famous children, "by whom the southern coast of Wales was
saved for the English and the bulwarks of Ireland stormed." Of these
sons William, the eldest, was succeeded by his son Odo, who was known as
"de Carew," from the fortress of that name at the neck of the Pembroke
peninsula, the eldest son Gerald having been slain by the Welsh. The
descendants of Odo held Carew and the manor of Moulsford, Berks, and
some of them acquired lands in Ireland. But the wild claims of Sir Peter
Carew, under Queen Elizabeth, to vast Irish estates, including half of
"the kingdom of Cork," were based on a fictitious pedigree. Odo de
Carew's brothers, Reimund "Fitz William" (known as "Le Gros") and
Griffin "Fitz William," took an active part in the conquest of Ireland.
Returning to Gerald and Nesta, their son David "Fitz Gerald" became
bishop of St David's (1147-1176), and their daughter Angharat mother of
Gerald de Barri (Giraldus Cambrensis, q.v.), the well-known historian
and the eulogist of his mother's family. A third son, Maurice, obtained
from his brother the stewardship (_dapiferatus_) of St David's, c. 1174,
and having landed in Ireland in 1169, on the invitation of King Dermod,
founded the fortunes of his house there, receiving lands at Wexford,
where he died and was buried in 1176. His eventual territory, however,
was the great barony of the Naas in Ophaley (now in Kildare), which
Strongbow granted him with Wicklow Castle; but his sons were forced to
give up the latter. His eldest son William succeeded him as baron of the
Naas and steward of St David's, but William's granddaughter carried the
Naas to the Butlers and so to the Loundreses. Gerald, a younger son of
Maurice, who obtained lands in Ophaley, was father of Maurice "Fitz
Gerald," who held the great office of justiciar of Ireland from 1232 to
1245. In 1234 he fought and defeated his overlord, the earl marshal,
Richard, earl of Pembroke, and he also fought for his king against the
Irish, the Welsh, and in Gascony, dying in 1257. He held Maynooth
Castle, the seat of his descendants.
Much confusion follows in the family history, owing to the justiciar
leaving a grandson Maurice (son of his eldest son Gerald) and a younger
son Maurice, of whom the latter was justiciar for a year in 1272, while
the former, as heir male and head of the race, inherited the Ophaley
lands, which he is said to have bequeathed at his death (1287) to John
"Fitz Thomas," whose fighting life was crowned by a grant of the castle
and town of Kildare, and of the earldom of Kildare to him and the heirs
male of his body (May 14th, 1316), Dying shortly after, he was succeeded
by his son Thomas, son-in-law of Richard (de Burgh) the "red earl" of
Ulster, who received the hereditary shrievalty of Kildare in 1317, and
was twice (1320, 1327) justiciar of Ireland for a year. His younger son
Maurice "Fitz Thomas," 4th earl (1331-1390), was frequently appointed
justiciar, and was great-grandfather of Thomas, the 7th earl
(1427-1477), who between 1455 and 1475 was repeatedly in charge of the
government of Ireland as "deputy," and who founded the "brotherhood of
St George" for the defence of the English Pale. He was also made lord
chancellor of Ireland in 1463. His son Gerald, the 8th earl (1477-1513),
called "More" (the Great), was deputy governor of Ireland from 1481 for
most of the rest of his life, though imprisoned in the Tower two years
(1494-1496) on suspicion as a Yorkist. He was mortally wounded while
fighting the Irish as "deputy." Gerald, the 9th earl (1513-1534),
followed in his father's steps as deputy, fighting the Irish, till the
enmity of the earl of Ormonde, the hereditary rival of his house,
brought about his deposition in 1520. In spite of temporary restorations
he finally died a prisoner in the Tower.
In his anger at his rival's successes the 9th earl had been led, it was
suspected, into treason, and while he was a prisoner in England his son
Lord Thomas Fitzgerald, "Silken Thomas," broke out into open revolt
(1534), and declared war on the government; his followers slew the
archbishop of Dublin and laid siege to Dublin Castle. Meanwhile he made
overtures to the native Irish, to the pope and to the emperor; but the
Butlers took up arms against him, an English army laid siege to his
castle of Maynooth, and, though its fall was followed by a long struggle
in the field, the earl, deserted by O'Conor, had eventually to surrender
himself to the king's deputy. He was sent to the Tower, where he was
subsequently joined by his five uncles, arrested as his accomplices.
They were all six executed as traitors in February 1537, and acts of
attainder completed the ruin of the family.
But the earl's half-brother, Gerald (whose sister Elizabeth was the earl
of Surrey's "fair Geraldine"), a mere boy, had been carried off, and,
after many adventures at home and abroad, returned to England after
Henry VIII.'s death, and to propitiate the Irish was restored to his
estates by Edward VI. (1552). Having served Mary in Wyat's rebellion, he
was created by her earl of Kildare and Lord Offaley, on the 13th of May
1554, but the old earldom (though the contrary is alleged) remained
under attainder. Although he conformed to the Protestant religion under
Elizabeth and served against the Munster rebels and their Spanish
allies, he was imprisoned in the Tower on suspicion of treason in 1583.
But the acts attainting his family had been repealed in 1569, and the
old earldom was thus regained. In 1585 he was succeeded by his son Henry
("of the Battleaxes"), who was mortally wounded when fighting the Tyrone
rebels in 1597. On the death of his brother in 1599 the earldom passed
to their cousin Gerald, whose claim to the estates was opposed by
Lettice, Lady Digby, the heir-general. She obtained the ancestral castle
of Geashill with its territory and was recognized in 1620 as Lady
Offaley for life. George, the 16th earl (1620-1660), had his castle of
Maynooth pillaged by the Roman Catholics in 1642, and after its
subsequent occupation by them in 1646 it was finally abandoned by the
family.
The history of the earls after the Restoration was uneventful, save for
the re-acquisition in 1739 of Carton, which thenceforth became the seat
of the family, until James the 20th earl (1722-1773), who obtained a
viscounty of Great Britain in 1747, built Leinster House in Dublin, and
formed a powerful party in the Irish parliament. In 1756 he was made
lord deputy; in 1760 he raised the royal Irish regiment of artillery;
and in 1766 he received the dukedom of Leinster, which remained the only
Irish dukedom till that of Abercorn was created in 1868. His wealth and
connexions secured him a commanding position. Of his younger children
one son was created Lord Lecale; another was the well-known rebel, Lord
Edward Fitzgerald; another was the ancestor of Lord De Ros; and a
daughter was created Baroness Rayleigh. William Robert, the 2nd duke
(1749-1804), was a cordial supporter of the Union, and received nearly
£30,000 for the loss of his borough influence. In 1883 the family was
still holding over 70,000 acres in Co. Kildare; but, after a tenure of
nearly 750 years, arrangements were made to sell them to the tenants
under the recent Land Purchase Acts. In 1893 Maurice Fitzgerald (b.
1887) succeeded his father Gerald, the 5th duke (1851-1893), as 6th duke
of Leinster.
The other great Fitzgerald line was that of the earls of Desmond, who
were undoubtedly of the same stock and claimed descent from Maurice, the
founder of the family in Ireland, through a younger son Thomas. It would
seem that Maurice, grandson of Thomas, was father of Thomas "Fitz
Maurice" _Nappagh_ ("of the ape"), justice of Ireland in 1295, who
obtained a grant of the territory of "Decies and Desmond" in 1292, and
died in 1298. His son Maurice Fitz Thomas or Fitzgerald, inheriting vast
estates in Munster, and strengthening his position by marrying a
daughter of Richard de Burgh, earl of Ulster, was created earl of
Desmond (i.e. south Munster) on the 22nd of August 1329, and Kerry was
made a palatine liberty for him. The greatest Irish noble of his day, he
led the Anglo-Irish party against the English representatives of the
king, and was attacked as the king's enemy by the viceroy in 1345. He
surrendered in England to the king and was imprisoned, but eventually
regained favour, and was even made viceroy himself in 1355. He died,
however, the following year. Two of his sons succeeded in turn, Gerald,
the 3rd earl (1359-1398), being appointed justiciar (i.e. viceroy) in
1367, despite his adopting his father's policy which the crown still
wished to thwart. But he was superseded two years later, and defeated
and captured by the native king of Thomond shortly after. Yet his
sympathies were distinctly Irish. The remote position of Desmond in the
south-west of Ireland tended to make the succession irregular on native
lines, and a younger son succeeded as 6th or 7th earl about 1422. His
son Thomas, the next earl (1462-1467), governed Ireland as deputy from
1463 to 1467, and upheld the endangered English rule by stubborn
conflict with the Irish. Yet Tiptoft, who superseded him, procured his
attainder with that of the earl of Kildare, on the charge of alliance
with the Irish, and he was beheaded on the 14th of February 1468, his
followers in Munster avenging his death by invading the Pale. His
younger son Maurice, earl from 1487 to 1520, was one of Perkin Warbeck's
Irish supporters, and besieged Waterford on his behalf. His son James
(1520-1529) was proclaimed a rebel and traitor for conspiring with the
French king and with the emperor. At his death the succession reverted
to his uncle Thomas (1529-1534), then an old man, at whose death there
was a contest between his younger brother Sir John "of Desmond" and his
grandson James, a court page of Henry VIII. Old Sir John secured
possession till his death (1536), when his son James succeeded _de
facto_, and _de jure_ on the rightful earl being murdered by the
usurper's younger brother in 1540. Intermarriage with Irish chieftains
had by this time classed the earls among them, but although this James
looked to their support before 1540, he thenceforth played so prudent a
part that in spite of the efforts of the Butlers, the hereditary foes
of his race, he escaped the fate of the Kildare branch and kept Munster
quiet and in order for the English till his death in 1558. His four
marriages produced a disputed succession and a break-up of the family.
His eldest son Thomas "Roe" (the Red) was disinherited, and failed to
obtain the earldom, which was confirmed by Elizabeth to his half-brother
Gerald "the rebel earl" (1558-1582), but Gerald had other enemies in his
uncle Maurice (the murderer of 1540) and his son especially, the famous
James "Fitz Maurice" Fitz Gerald. Gerald's turbulence and his strife
with the Butlers led to his detention in England (1562-1564) and again
in 1565-1566. In 1567 Sidney imprisoned him in Dublin Castle, whence,
with his brother, Sir John "of Desmond," he was sent to England and the
Tower, and not allowed to return to Ireland till 1573. Meanwhile the
above James, in spite of the protests of Thomas "Roe," had usurped his
position in his absence and induced the natives to choose him as
"captain" or chieftain of Desmond. He formed a strong Irish Catholic
party and broke into revolt in 1569. Suppressed by Sidney, he rebelled
again, till crushed by Perrot in 1573. As Earl Gerald on his return
would not join James in revolt, the latter withdrew to France. But
Gerald himself, after some trimming, rose in rebellion (July 1574),
though he soon submitted to the queen's forces. On the continent James
Fitz Maurice offered the crown of Ireland in succession to France and to
Spain, and finally to the nephew of Pope Gregory XIII. With the papal
nuncio and a few troops he landed at Dingle in Kerry (June 1579) and
called on the earls of Kildare and Desmond to join him, but the latter
assured the English government of his loyalty, and James was killed in a
skirmish. Yet Desmond was viewed with suspicion and finally forced, by
being proclaimed as a traitor (Nov. 1st, 1579), into a miserable
rebellion. His castles were soon captured, and he was hunted as a
fugitive, till surprised and beheaded on the 11th of November 1583,
after long wanderings, his head being fixed on London Bridge. His ruin
is attributable to his restless turbulence and lack of settled policy.
The vast estates of the earls, estimated at 600,000 acres, were
forfeited by act of parliament.
But the influence of his mighty house was still great among the Irish.
The disinherited Thomas "Roe" left a son James "Fitz Thomas," who,
succeeding him in 1595 and finding that the territory of the earls would
never be restored, assumed the earldom and joined O'Neill's rebellion in
1598, at the head of 8000 of his men. Long sheltered from capture by the
fidelity of the peasantry, he was eventually seized (1601) by his
kinsman the White Knight, Edmund Fitz Gibbon, whose sister-in-law he had
married, and sent to the Tower. The "sugan" (sham) earl lingered there
obscurely as "James M'Thomas" till his death. In consequence of his
rebellion and the devotion of the Irish to his race, James, son of
Gerald "the rebel earl," who had remained in the Tower since his
father's death (1583), was restored as earl of Desmond and sent over to
Munster in 1600, but he, known as "the queen's earl," could, as a
Protestant, do nothing, and he died unmarried in 1601. The "sugan"
earl's brother John, who had joined in his rebellion, escaped into
Spain, and left a son Gerald, who appears to have assumed the title and
was known as the Conde de Desmond. He was killed in the service of the
emperor Ferdinand in 1632. The common origin of the earls of Desmond and
of Kildare had never been forgotten, and intermarriage had cemented the
bond. Just before his death the exile wrote as "Desmond _alias_ Gerratt
Fitz Gerald" to his "Most Noble Cosen" the earl of Kildare, that "wee
must not be oblivious of the true amity and love that was inviolably
observed betweene our antenates and elders."
There can be no doubt that the house of Fitzmaurice was also of this
stock, although their actual origin, in the 12th century, is doubtful.
From a very early date they were feudal lords of Kerry, and their
dignity was recognized as a peerage by Henry VII. in 1489. The isolated
position of their territory ("Clanmaurice") threw them even more among
the Irish than the earls of Desmond, and they often adopted the native
form of their name, "MacMorrish." Under Elizabeth the lords of Kerry
narrowly escaped sharing the ruin of the earls. The conduct of Thomas
in the rebellion of James "Fitz Maurice" was suspicious, and his sons
joined in that of the earl of Desmond, while he himself was a rebel in
1582. Patrick, his successor (1590-1600), was captured in rebellion
(1587), and when free, joined the revolt of 1598, as did his son and
heir Thomas, who continued in the field till he obtained pardon and
restoration in 1603, though suspect till his death in 1630. His grandson
withdrew to France with James II., but the next peer became a supporter
of the Whig cause, married the eventual heiress of Sir William Petty,
and was created earl of Kerry in 1723. From him descend the family of
Petty-Fitzmaurice, who obtained the marquessate of Lansdowne (q.v.) in
1818, and still hold among their titles the feudal barony of Kerry
together with vast estates in that county.
From the three sons by a second wife of one of the earls of Desmond's
ancestors, descended the hereditary White Knights, Knights of Glin and
Knights of Kerry, these feudal dignities having, it is said, been
bestowed upon them by their father, as Lord of Decies and Desmond. Glin
Castle, county Limerick, is still the seat of the (Fitzgerald) Knight of
Glin. Valencia Island is now the seat of the Knights of Kerry, who
received a baronetcy in 1880.
AUTHORITIES.--Calendars of Irish documents and state papers and Carew
papers; Gilbert's _Viceroys of Ireland_; Lord Kildare's _Earls of
Kildare_; G.E. C[okayne]'s _Complete Peerage_; Haymond Graves,
_Unpublished Geraldine Documents_; _Annals of the Four Masters_;
Calendar of the duke of Leinster's MSS. in 9th _Report on Historical
MSS._, part ii.; Ware's _Annals_; J.H. Round's "Origin of the
Fitzgeralds" and "Origin of the Carews" in the _Ancestor_; his
"Earldom of Kildare and Barony of Offaley" in _Genealogist_, ix., and
"Barons of the Naas" in _Genealogist_, xv.; and his "Decies and
Desmond" in _Eng. Hist. Rev._ xviii. (J. H. R.)
FITZGERALD, EDWARD (1809-1883), English writer, the poet of Omar
Khayyám, was born as EDWARD PURCELL, at Bredfield House, in Suffolk, on
the 31st of March 1809. His father, John Purcell, who had married a Miss
FitzGerald, assumed in 1818 the name and arms of his wife's family. From
1816 to 1821 the FitzGeralds lived at St Germain and at Paris, but in
the latter year Edward was sent to school at Bury St Edmunds. In 1826 he
proceeded to Trinity College, Cambridge, where, some two years later, he
became acquainted with Thackeray and W.H. Thompson. With Tennyson, "a
sort of Hyperion," his intimacy began about 1835. In 1830 he went to
live in Paris, but in 1831 was in a farm-house on the battlefield of
Naseby. He adopted no profession, and lived a perfectly stationary and
rustic life, presently moving into his native county of Suffolk, and
never again leaving it for more than a week or two. Until 1835 the
FitzGeralds lived at Wherstead; from that year until 1853 the poet
resided at Boulge, near Woodbridge; until 1860 at Farlingay Hall; until
1873 in the town of Woodbridge; and then until his death at his own
house hard by, called Little Grange.
During most of this time FitzGerald gave his thoughts almost without
interruption to his flowers, to music and to literature. He allowed
friends like Tennyson and Thackeray, however, to push on far before him,
and long showed no disposition to emulate their activity. In 1851 he
published his first book, _Euphranor_, a Platonic dialogue, born of
memories of the old happy life at Cambridge. In 1852 appeared
_Polonius_, a collection of "saws and modern instances," some of them
his own, the rest borrowed from the less familiar English classics.
FitzGerald began the study of Spanish poetry in 1850, when he was with
Professor E.B. Cowell at Elmsett and that of Persian in Oxford in 1853.
In the latter year he issued _Six Dramas of Calderon_, freely
translated. He now turned to Oriental studies, and in 1856 he
anonymously published a version of the _Salámán and Absál_ of Jámi in
Miltonic verse. In March 1857 the name with which he has been so closely
identified first occurs in FitzGerald's correspondence--"Hafiz and _Omar
Khayyám_ ring like true metal." On the 15th of January 1859 a little
anonymous pamphlet was published as _The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám_. In
the world at large, and in the circle of FitzGerald's particular
friends, the poem seems at first to have attracted no attention. The
publisher allowed it to gravitate to the fourpenny or even (as he
afterwards boasted) to the penny box on the bookstalls. But in 1860
Rossetti discovered it, and Swinburne and Lord Houghton quickly
followed. The _Rubáiyát_ became slowly famous, but it was not until 1868
that FitzGerald was encouraged to print a second and greatly revised
edition. Meanwhile he had produced in 1865 a version of the _Agamemnon_,
and two more plays from Calderon. In 1880-1881 he issued privately
translations of the two Oedipus tragedies; his last publication was
_Readings in Crabbe_, 1882. He left in manuscript a version of Attar's
_Mantic-Uttair_ under the title of _The Bird Parliament_.
From 1861 onwards FitzGerald's greatest interest had centred in the sea.
In June 1863 he bought a yacht, "The Scandal," and in 1867 he became
part-owner of a herring-lugger, the "Meum and Tuum." For some years,
till 1871, he spent the months from June to October mainly in "knocking
about somewhere outside of Lowestoft." In this way, and among his books
and flowers, FitzGerald gradually became an old man. On the 14th of June
1883 he passed away painlessly in his sleep. He was "an idle fellow, but
one whose friendships were more like loves." In 1885 a stimulus was
given to the steady advance of his fame by the fact that Tennyson
dedicated his _Tiresias_ to FitzGerald's memory, in some touching
reminiscent verses to "Old Fitz." This was but the signal for that
universal appreciation of Omar Khayyám in his English dress, which has
been one of the curious literary phenomena of recent years. The melody
of FitzGerald's verse is so exquisite, the thoughts he rearranges and
strings together are so profound, and the general atmosphere of poetry
in which he steeps his version is so pure, that no surprise need be
expressed at the universal favour which the poem has met with among
critical readers. But its popularity has gone much deeper than this; it
is now probably better known to the general public than any single poem
of its class published since the year 1860, and its admirers have almost
transcended common sense in the extravagance of their laudation.
FitzGerald married, in middle life, Lucy, the daughter of Bernard
Barton, the Quaker poet. Of FitzGerald as a man practically nothing was
known until, in 1889, Mr W. Aldis Wright, his intimate friend and
literary executor, published his _Letters and Literary Remains_ in three
volumes. This was followed in 1895 by the _Letters to Fanny Kemble_.
These letters constitute a fresh bid for immortality, since they
discovered that FitzGerald was a witty, picturesque and sympathetic
letter-writer. One of the most unobtrusive authors who ever lived,
FitzGerald has, nevertheless, by the force of his extraordinary
individuality, gradually influenced the whole face of English
_belles-lettres_, in particular as it was manifested between 1890 and
1900.
_The Works of Edward FitzGerald_ appeared in 1887. See also a
chronological list of FitzGerald's works (Caxton Club, Chicago, 1899);
notes for a bibliography by Col. W.F. Prideaux, in _Notes and Queries_
(9th series, vol. vi.), published separately in 1901; _Letters and
Literary Remains_ (ed. W. Aldis Wright, 1902-1903); and the _Life of
Edward FitzGerald_, by Thomas Wright (1904), which contains a
bibliography (vol. ii. pp. 241-243) and a list of sources (vol. i. pp.
xvi.-xvii.). The volume on FitzGerald in the "English Men of Letters"
series is by A.C. Benson. The FitzGerald centenary was celebrated in
March 1909. See the _Centenary Celebrations Souvenir_ (Ipswich, 1909)
and _The Times_ for March 25, 1909. (E. G.)
FITZGERALD, LORD EDWARD (1763-1798), Irish conspirator, fifth son of
James, 1st duke of Leinster, by his wife Emilia Mary, daughter of
Charles Lennox, 2nd duke of Richmond, was born at Carton House, near
Dublin, on the 15th of October 1763. In 1773 the duke of Leinster died,
and his widow soon afterwards married William Ogilvie, who superintended
Lord Edward's early education. Joining the army in 1779, Lord Edward
served with credit in America on the staff of Lord Rawdon (afterwards
marquess of Hastings), and at the battle of Eutaw Springs (8th of
September 1781) he was severely wounded, his life being saved by a negro
named Tony, whom Lord Edward retained in his service till the end of his
life. In 1783 Fitzgerald returned to Ireland, where his brother, the
duke of Leinster, had procured his election to the Irish parliament as
member for Athy. In parliament he acted with the small Opposition group
led by Grattan (q.v.), but took no prominent part in debate. After
spending a short time at Woolwich to complete his military education, he
made a tour through Spain in 1787; and then, dejected by unrequited love
for his cousin Georgina Lennox (afterwards Lady Bathurst), he sailed for
New Brunswick to join the 54th regiment with the rank of major. The
love-sick mood and romantic temperament of the young Irishman found
congenial soil in the wild surroundings of unexplored Canadian forests,
and the enthusiasm thus engendered for the "natural" life of savagery
may have been already fortified by study of Rousseau's writings, for
which at a later period Lord Edward expressed his admiration. In
February 1789, guided by compass, he traversed the country, practically
unknown to white men, from Frederickstown to Quebec, falling in with
Indians by the way, with whom he fraternized; and in a subsequent
expedition he was formally adopted at Detroit by the Bear tribe of
Hurons as one of their chiefs, and made his way down the Mississippi to
New Orleans, whence he returned to England.
Finding that his brother had procured his election for the county of
Kildare, and desiring to maintain political independence, Lord Edward
refused the command of an expedition against Cadiz offered him by Pitt,
and devoted himself for the next few years to the pleasures of society
and his parliamentary duties. He was on terms of intimacy with his
relative C.J. Fox, with R.B. Sheridan and other leading Whigs. According
to Thomas Moore, Lord Edward Fitzgerald was the only one of the numerous
suitors of Sheridan's first wife whose attentions were received with
favour; and it is certain that, whatever may have been its limits, a
warm mutual affection subsisted between the two. His Whig connexions
combined with his transatlantic experiences to predispose Lord Edward to
sympathize with the doctrines of the French Revolution, which he
embraced with ardour when he visited Paris in October 1792. He lodged
with Thomas Paine, and listened to the debates in the Convention. At a
convivial gathering on the 18th of November he supported a toast to "the
speedy abolition of all hereditary titles and feudal distinctions," and
gave proof of his zeal by expressly repudiating his own title--a
performance for which he was dismissed from the army. While in Paris
Fitzgerald became enamoured of a young girl whom he chanced to see at
the theatre, and who is said to have had a striking likeness to Mrs
Sheridan. Procuring an introduction he discovered her to be a _protégée_
of Madame de Sillery, comtesse de Genlis. The parentage of the girl,
whose name was Pamela (?1776-1831), is uncertain; but although there is
some evidence to support the story of Madame de Genlis that Pamela was
born in Newfoundland of parents called Seymour or Sims, the common
belief that she was the daughter of Madame de Genlis herself by Philippe
(Égalité), duke of Orleans, was probably well founded. On the 27th of
December 1792 Fitzgerald and Pamela were married at Tournay, one of the
witnesses being Louis Philippe, afterwards king of the French; and in
January 1793 the couple reached Dublin.
Discontent in Ireland was now rapidly becoming dangerous, and was
finding a focus in the Society of the United Irishmen, and in the
Catholic Committee, an organization formed a few years previously,
chiefly under the direction of Lord Kenmare, to watch the interests of
the Catholics. French revolutionary doctrines had become ominously
popular, and no one sympathized with them more warmly than Lord Edward
Fitzgerald, who, fresh from the gallery of the Convention in Paris,
returned to his seat in the Irish parliament and threw himself actively
into the work of opposition. Within a week of his arrival he denounced
in the House of Commons a government proclamation, which Grattan had
approved, in language so violent that he was ordered into custody and
required to apologize at the bar of the House. As early as 1794 the
government had information that placed Lord Edward under suspicion; but
it was not till 1796 that he joined the United Irishmen, whose aim after
the recall of Lord Fitzwilliam in 1795 was avowedly the establishment of
an independent Irish republic. In May 1796 Theobald Wolfe Tone was in
Paris endeavouring to obtain French assistance for an insurrection in
Ireland. In the same month Fitzgerald and his friend Arthur O'Connor
proceeded to Hamburg, where they opened negotiations with the Directory
through Reinhard, French minister to the Hanseatic towns. The duke of
York, meeting Pamela at Devonshire House on her way through London with
her husband, had told her that "all was known" about his plans, and
advised her to persuade him not to go abroad. The proceedings of the
conspirators at Hamburg were made known to the government in London by
an informer, Samuel Turner. Pamela was entrusted with all her husband's
secrets and took an active part in furthering his designs; and she
appears to have fully deserved the confidence placed in her, though
there is reason to suppose that at times she counselled prudence. The
result of the Hamburg negotiations was Hoche's abortive expedition to
Bantry Bay in December 1796. In September 1797 the government learnt
from the informer MacNally that Lord Edward was among those directing
the conspiracy of the United Irishmen, which was now quickly maturing.
He was specially concerned with the military organization, in which he
held the post of colonel of the Kildare regiment and head of the
military committee. He had papers showing that 280,000 men were ready to
rise. They possessed some arms, but the supply was insufficient, and the
leaders were hoping for a French invasion to make good the deficiency
and to give support to a popular uprising. But French help proving
dilatory and uncertain, the rebel leaders in Ireland were divided in
opinion as to the expediency of taking the field without waiting for
foreign aid. Lord Edward was among the advocates of the bolder course.
His opinions and his proposals for action were alike violent. He was on
intimate terms with apologists for assassination; there is some evidence
that he favoured a project for the massacre of the Irish peers while in
procession to the House of Lords for the trial of Lord Kingston in May
1798. It was probably abhorrence of such measures that converted Thomas
Reynolds from a conspirator to an informer; at all events, by him and
several others the authorities were kept posted in what was going on,
though lack of evidence producible in court delayed the arrest of the
ringleaders. But on the 12th of March 1798 Reynolds' information led to
the seizure of a number of conspirators at the house of Oliver Bond.
Lord Edward Fitzgerald, warned by Reynolds, was not among them. The
government were anxious to save him from the consequences of his own
folly, and Lord Clare said to a member of his family, "for God's sake
get this young man out of the country; the ports shall be thrown open,
and no hindrance whatever offered." Fitzgerald with chivalrous
recklessness refused to desert others who could not escape, and whom he
had himself led into danger. On the 30th of March a proclamation
establishing martial law and authorizing the military to act without
orders from the civil magistrate, which was acted upon with revolting
cruelty in several parts of the country, precipitated the crisis.
The government had now no choice but to secure if possible the person of
Lord Edward Fitzgerald, whose social position more than his abilities
made him the most important factor in the conspiracy. On the 11th of May
a reward of £1000 was offered for his apprehension. The 23rd of May was
the date fixed for the general rising. Since the arrest at Bond's,
Fitzgerald had been in hiding, latterly at the house of one Murphy, a
feather dealer, in Thomas Street, Dublin. He twice visited his wife in
disguise; was himself visited by his stepfather, Ogilvie, and generally
observed less caution than his situation required. The conspiracy was
honeycombed with treachery, and it was long a matter of dispute to whose
information the government were indebted for Fitzgerald's arrest; but it
is no longer open to doubt that the secret of his hiding place was
disclosed by a Catholic barrister named Magan, to whom the stipulated
reward was ultimately paid through Francis Higgins, another informer. On
the 19th of May Major Swan and a Mr. Ryan proceeded to Murphy's house
with Major H.C. Sirr and a few soldiers. Lord Edward was discovered in
bed. A desperate scuffle took place, Ryan being mortally wounded by
Fitzgerald with a dagger, while Lord Edward himself was only secured
after Sirr had disabled him with a pistol bullet in the shoulder. He
was conveyed to Newgate gaol, where by the kindness of Lord Clare he was
visited by two of his relatives, and where he died of his wound on the
4th of June 1798. An Act of Attainder (repealed in 1819) was passed,
confiscating his property; and his wife--against whom the government
probably possessed sufficient evidence to secure a conviction for
treason--was compelled to leave the country before her husband had
actually expired.
Pamela, who was scarcely less celebrated than Lord Edward himself, and
whose remarkable beauty made a lasting impression on Robert Southey,
repaired to Hamburg, where in 1800 she married J. Pitcairn, the American
consul. Since her marriage with Lord Edward she had been greatly beloved
and esteemed by the whole Fitzgerald family; and although after her
second marriage her intimacy with them ceased, there is no sufficient
evidence for the tales that represented her subsequent conduct as open
to grave censure. She remained to the last passionately devoted to the
memory of her first husband; and she died in Paris in November 1831. A
portrait of Pamela is in the Louvre. She had three children by Lord
Edward Fitzgerald: Edward Fox (1794-1863); Pamela, afterwards wife of
General Sir Guy Campbell; and Lucy Louisa, who married Captain Lyon,
R.N.
Lord Edward Fitzgerald was of small stature and handsome features. His
character and career have been made the subject of eulogies much beyond
their merits. He had, indeed, a winning personality, and a warm,
affectionate and generous nature, which made him greatly beloved by his
family and friends; he was humorous, light-hearted, sympathetic,
adventurous. But he was entirely without the weightier qualities
requisite for such a part as he undertook to play in public affairs.
Hotheaded and impulsive, he lacked judgment. He was as conspicuously
deficient in the statesmanship as he was in the oratorical genius of
such men as Flood, Plunket or Grattan. One of his associates in
conspiracy described him as "weak and not fit to command a sergeant's
guard, but very zealous." Reinhard, who considered Arthur O'Connor "a
far abler man," accurately read the character of Lord Edward Fitzgerald
as that of a young man "incapable of falsehood or perfidy, frank,
energetic, and likely to be a useful and devoted instrument; but with no
experience or extraordinary talent, and entirely unfit to be chief of a
great party or leader in a difficult enterprise."
See Thomas Moore, _Life and Death of Lord Edward Fitzgerald_ (2 vols.,
London, 1832), also a revised edition entitled _The Memoirs of Lord
Edward Fitzgerald_, edited with supplementary particulars by Martin
MacDermott (London, 1897); R.R. Madden, _The United Irishmen_ (7
vols., Dublin, 1842-1846); C.H. Teeling, _Personal Narrative of the
Irish Rebellion of 1798_ (Belfast, 1832); W.J. Fitzpatrick, _The Sham
Squire, The Rebellion of Ireland and the Informers of 1798_ (Dublin,
1866), and _Secret Service under Pitt_ (London, 1892); J.A. Froude,
_The English in Ireland in the Eighteenth Century_ (3 vols., London,
1872-1874); W.E.H. Lecky, _History of England in the Eighteenth
Century_, vols. vii. and viii. (London, 1896); Thomas Reynolds the
younger, _The Life of Thomas Reynolds_ (London, 1839); _The Life and
Letters of Lady Sarah Lennox_, edited by the countess of Ilchester and
Lord Stavordale (London, 1901); Ida A. Taylor, _The Life of Lord
Edward Fitzgerald_ (London, 1903), which gives a prejudiced and
distorted picture of Pamela. For particulars of Pamela, and especially
as to the question of her parentage, see Gerald Campbell, _Edward and
Pamela Fitzgerald_ (London, 1904); _Memoirs of Madame de Genlis_
(London, 1825); Georgette Ducrest, _Chroniques populaires_ (Paris,
1855); Thomas Moore, _Memoirs of the Life of R.B. Sheridan_ (London,
1825). (R. J. M.)
FITZGERALD, RAYMOND, or REDMOND (d. ca. 1182), surnamed Le Gros, was the
son of William Fitzgerald and brother of Odo de Carew. He was sent by
Strongbow to Ireland in 1170, and landed at Dundunnolf, near Waterford,
where he was besieged in his entrenchments by the combined Irish and
Ostmen, whom he repulsed. He was Strongbow's second in command, and had
the chief share in the capture of Waterford and in the successful
assault on Dublin. He was sent to Aquitaine to hand over Strongbow's
conquests to Henry II., but was back in Dublin in July 1171, when he led
one of the sallies from the town. Strongbow offended him later by
refusing him the marriage of his sister Basilea, widow of Robert de
Quenci, constable of Leinster. Raymond then retired to Wales, and
Hervey de Mountmaurice became constable in his place. At the outbreak of
a general rebellion against the earl in 1174 Raymond returned with his
uncle Meiler Fitz Henry, after receiving a promise of marriage with
Basilea. Reinstated as constable he secured a series of successes, and
with the fall of Limerick in October 1175 order was restored.
Mountmaurice meanwhile obtained Raymond's recall on the ground that his
power threatened the royal authority, but the constable was delayed by a
fresh outbreak at Limerick, the earl's troops refusing to march without
him. On the death of Strongbow he was acting governor until the arrival
of William Fitz Aldhelm, to whom he handed over the royal fortresses. He
was deprived of his estates near Dublin and Wexford, but the Geraldines
secured the recall of Fitz Aldhelm early in 1183, and regained their
power and influence. In 1182 he relieved his uncle Robert Fitzstephen,
who was besieged in Cork. The date of his death, sometimes stated to be
1182, is not known.
FITZGERALD, LORD THOMAS (10th earl of Kildare), (1513-1537), the eldest
son of Gerald Fitzgerald, 9th earl of Kildare, was born in London in
1513. He spent much of his youth in England, but in 1534 when his father
was for the third time summoned to England to answer for his
maladministration as lord deputy of Ireland, Thomas, at the council held
at Drogheda, in February was made vice-deputy. In June the Ormond
faction spread a report in Ireland that the earl had been executed in
the Tower, and that his son's life was to be attempted. Inflamed with
rage at this apparent treachery, Thomas rode at the head of his
retainers[1] into Dublin, and before the council for Ireland (the 11th
of June 1534) formally renounced his allegiance to the king and
proclaimed a rebellion. His enemies, including Archbishop John Allen (of
Dublin), who had been set by Henry VIII. to watch Fitzgerald, took
refuge in Dublin Castle. In attempting to escape to England, Allen was
taken by the rebels, and on the 28th of July 1534, was murdered by
Fitzgerald's servants in his presence, but whether actually by his
orders is uncertain. In any case he sent to the pope for absolution, but
was solemnly excommunicated by the Irish Church. Leaving part of his
army (with the consent of the citizens) to besiege Dublin Castle,
Fitzgerald himself went against Piers Butler, earl of Ossory, and
succeeded at first in making a truce with him. But the citizens of
Dublin now rose against him, Ossory invaded Kildare, and the approach of
an English army forced Fitzgerald to raise the siege. Part of the
English army landed on the 17th of October, the rest a week later, but
taking advantage of the inactivity of the new lord deputy, Sir William
Skeffington, Fitzgerald from his stronghold at Maynooth ravaged Kildare
and Meath throughout the winter. He had now succeeded to the earldom of
Kildare, his father having died in the Tower on the 13th of December
1534, but he does not seem to have been known by that title. In March
Skeffington stormed the castle, the stronghold of the Geraldines, which
was defended, and some said betrayed, by Christopher Parese,
Fitzgerald's foster-brother. It fell on the 23rd of March 1535, and most
of the garrison were put to the sword. This proved the final blow to the
rebellion. The news of what is known as the "pardon of Maynooth" reached
Fitzgerald as he was returning from levying fresh troops in Offaley; his
men fell away from him, and he retreated to Thomond, intending to sail
for Spain. Changing his mind he spent the next few months in raids
against the English and their allies, but his party gradually deserting
him, on the 18th of August 1535 he surrendered himself to Lord Leonard
Grey (d. 1541). It seems likely that he made some conditions, but what
they were is very uncertain. He was taken to England and placed in the
Tower. In February 1536 his five uncles were also, some of them with
great injustice, seized and brought to England. The six Geraldines were
hanged at Tyburn on the 3rd of February 1537. Acts of attainder against
them and Gerald the 9th earl were passed by both the Irish and English
parliaments; but the family estates were restored by Edward VI. to
Gerald, 11th earl of Kildare (stepbrother of Thomas), and the attainder
was repealed by Queen Elizabeth. Lord Thomas Fitzgerald married Frances,
youngest daughter of Sir Adrian Fortescue, but had no children.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Richard Stanihurst, _Chronicles of Ireland_ (vol. ii.
of _Holinshed's Chronicles_); Sir James Ware, _Rerum Hibernicarum
annales_ (Dublin, 1664); _The Earls of Kildare_, by C.W. Fitzgerald,
duke of Leinster (3rd ed., 1858); Richard Bagwell, _Ireland under the
Tudors_ (3 vols., 1885, vol. i. passim); _Calendar State Papers, Hen.
VIII., Irish_; G. E. C.'s _Peerage_; John Lodge, _Peerage of Ireland_,
ed. M. Archdall (1789), vol. i.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] Fitzgerald was known by the sobriquet of "Silken Thomas," either
from the silken fringes on his helmet, or from his distinguished
manners.
FITZHERBERT, SIR ANTHONY (1470-1538), English jurist, was born at
Norbury, Derbyshire. After studying at Oxford, he was called to the
English bar, and in 1523 became justice of the Court of Common Pleas,
the duties of which office he continued to discharge till within a short
time of his death in 1538. As a judge he left behind him a high
reputation for fairness and integrity, and his legal learning is
sufficiently attested by his published works.
He is the author of _La Graunde Abridgement_, a digest of important
legal cases written in Old French, first printed in 1514; _The Office
and Authority of Justices of the Peace_, first printed in 1538 (last
ed. 1794); the _New Natura Brevium_ (1534, last ed. 1794), with a
commentary ascribed to Sir Matthew Hale. To Fitzherbert are sometimes
attributed the _Book of Husbandry_ (1523), the first published work on
agriculture in the English language, and the _Book of Surveying and
Improvements_ (1523) (see AGRICULTURE).
FITZHERBERT, THOMAS (1552-1640), English Jesuit, was the eldest son and
heir of William Fitzherbert of Swynnerton in Staffordshire, and grandson
of Sir Anthony Fitzherbert, judge of the common pleas. He was educated
at Oxford, where, at the age of twenty, he was imprisoned for recusancy.
On his release he went to London, where he was a member of the
association of young men founded in 1580 to assist the Jesuits Edmund
Campion and Robert Parsons. In 1582 he withdrew to the continent, where
he was active in the cause of Mary, queen of Scots. He married in this
year Dorothy, daughter of Edward East of Bledlow in Buckinghamshire.
After the death of his wife (1588) he went to Spain, where on the
recommendation of the duke of Feria he received a pension from the king.
He continued his intrigues against the English government, and in 1598
he was charged with complicity in a plot to poison Queen Elizabeth.
After this he was for a short while in the service of the duke of Feria
at Milan, then went to Rome, where he was ordained priest (1601-1602)
and became agent for the English clergy. He was unpopular with them,
however, owing to his subserviency to the Jesuits, and resigned the
agency in 1607 owing to the remonstrances of the English arch-priest
George Birkhead. In 1613 he joined the Society of Jesus, and was
appointed superior of the English mission at Brussels in 1616, and in
1618 rector of the English college at Rome. He held this post to within
a year of his death, which occurred at Rome on the 7th of August (O.S.)
1640.
Father Fitzherbert, who is described as "a person of excellent parts,
a notable politician, and of graceful behaviour and generous spirit,"
wrote many controversial works, a list of which is given in the
article on him by Mr Thompson Cooper in the _Dictionary of National
Biography_, together with authorities for his life.
FITZ NEAL or (FITZ NIGEL), RICHARD (d. 1198), treasurer of Henry II. and
Richard I. of England, and bishop of London, belonged to a great
administrative family whose fortunes were closely linked with those of
Henry I., Henry II. and Richard I. The founder of the family was Roger,
bishop of Salisbury, the great minister of Henry I. Before the death of
that sovereign (1135) the care of the treasury passed from Roger to his
nephew, Nigel, bishop of Ely (d. 1169), who held that office until the
whole family were disgraced by Stephen (1139). Becoming a partisan of
the empress, Nigel reaped his reward at the accession of her son, Henry
II., who made him at first chancellor and then treasurer. Nigel's son,
Richard, who was born before his father's elevation to the episcopate
(1133), succeeded to the office of treasurer in 1158, and held it
continuously for forty years. His name appears in the lists of itinerant
justices for 1179 and 1194, but these are the only occasions on which
he exercised that office. Before 1184 he became dean of Lincoln, and
was in that year presented by the chapter of Lincoln among three select
candidates for the vacant see. The king passed him over in favour of
Hugh of Avalon, having resolved on this occasion to make a disinterested
appointment. Richard I., however, rewarded the treasurer's services with
the see of London (1189).
Richard Fitz Neal is best remembered as an author. He lacked the broad
statesmanship of his father and great-uncle; he avoided any connexion
with political parties; he is only once mentioned as taking part in a
debate of the Great Council (1193), and then spoke, in his character as
a bishop, to support a royal demand for a special aid. But his work _De
necessariis observantiis Scaccarii dialogus_, commonly called the
_Dialogus de Scaccario_, is of unique interest to the historian. It is
an account, in two books, of the procedure followed by the exchequer in
the author's time. Richard handles his subject with the more enthusiasm
because, as he explains, the "course" of the exchequer was largely the
creation of his own family. When read in connexion with the Pipe Rolls
the _Dialogus_ furnishes a most faithful and detailed picture of English
fiscal arrangements under Henry II. The speakers in the dialogue are
Richard himself and an anonymous pupil. The latter puts leading
questions which Richard answers in elaborate fashion. The date of the
conversation is given in the prologue as 1176-1177. This probably marks
the date at which the book was begun; it was not completed before 1178
or 1179. Soon after the author's death we find it already recognized as
the standard manual for exchequer officials. It was frequently
transcribed and has been used by English antiquarians of every period.
Hence it is the more necessary to insist that the historical statements
which the treatise contains are sometimes demonstrably erroneous; the
author appears to have relied excessively upon oral tradition. But, as
the work is only known to us through transcripts, it is possible that
some of the blunders which it now contains are due to the misdirected
zeal of editors. Richard Fitz Neal also compiled in his earlier years a
register or chronicle of contemporary affairs, arranged in three
parallel columns. This was preserved in the exchequer at the time when
he wrote the _Dialogus_, but has since disappeared. Stubbs' conjectural
identification of this _Liber tricolumnis_ with the first part of the
_Gesta Henrici_ (formerly attributed to Benedictus Abbas) is now
abandoned as untenable.
See Madox's edition in his _History of the Exchequer_ (1769); and that
of A. Hughes, C.G. Crump and C. Johnson (Oxford, 1902). F.
Liebermann's _Einleitung in den Dialogus de Scaccario_ (Göttingen,
1875) contains the fullest account of the author. (H. W. C. D.)
FITZ-OSBERN, ROGER (fl. 1070), succeeded to the earldom of Hereford and
the English estate of William Fitz-Osbern in 1071. He did not keep on
good terms with William the Conqueror, and in 1075, disregarding the
king's prohibition, married his sister Emma to Ralph Guader, earl of
Norfolk, at the famous bridal of Norwich. Immediately afterwards the two
earls rebelled. But Roger, who was to bring his force from the west to
join the earl of Norfolk, was held in check at the Severn by the
Worcestershire fyrd which the English bishop Wulfstan brought into the
field against him. On the collapse of his confederate's rising, Roger
was tried before the Great Council, deprived of his lands and earldom,
and sentenced to perpetual imprisonment; but he was released, with other
political prisoners, at the death of William I. in 1087.
FITZ-OSBERN, WILLIAM, Earl of Hereford (d. 1071), was an intimate friend
of William the Conqueror, and the principal agent in preparing for the
invasion of England. He received the earldom of Hereford with the
special duty of pushing into Wales. During William's absence in 1067,
Fitz-Osbern was left as his deputy in central England, to guard it from
the Welsh on one side, and the Danes on the other. He also acted as
William's lieutenant during the rebellions of 1069. In 1070 William sent
him to assist Queen Matilda in the government of Normandy. But Richilde,
widow of Baldwin VI. of Flanders, having offered to marry him if he
would protect her son Arnulf against Robert the Frisian, Fitz-Osbern
accepted the proposal and joined Richilde in Flanders. He was killed,
fighting against Robert, at Cassel in 1071.
See Freeman, _Norman Conquest_, vols. iii. and iv.; Sir James Ramsay,
_Foundations of England_, vol. ii.
FITZ OSBERT, WILLIAM (d. 1196), was a Londoner of good position who had
served in the Third Crusade, and on his return took up the cause of the
poorer citizens against the magnates who monopolized the government of
London and assessed the taxes, as he alleged, with gross partiality. It
is affirmed that he entered on this course of action through a quarrel
with his elder brother who had refused him money. But this appears to be
mere scandal; the chronicler Roger of Hoveden gives Fitz Osbert a high
character, and he was implicitly trusted by the poorer citizens. He
attempted to procure redress for them from the king; but the city
magistrates persuaded the justiciar Hubert Walter that Fitz Osbert and
his followers meditated plundering the houses of the rich. Troops were
sent to seize the demagogue. He was smoked out of the sanctuary of St
Mary le Bow, in which he had taken refuge, and summarily dragged to
execution at Tyburn.
FITZ PETER, GEOFFREY (d. 1213), earl of Essex and chief justiciar of
England, began his official career in the later years of Henry II., whom
he served as a sheriff, a justice itinerant and a justice of the forest.
During Richard's absence on Crusade he was one of the five justices of
the king's court who stood next in authority to the regent, Longchamp.
It was at this time (1190) that Fitz Peter succeeded to the earldom of
Essex, in the right of his wife, who was descended from the famous
Geoffrey de Mandeville. In attempting to assert his hereditary rights
over Walden priory Fitz Peter came into conflict with Longchamp, and
revenged himself by taking an active part in the baronial agitation
through which the regent was expelled from his office. The king,
however, forgave Fitz Peter for his share in these proceedings; and,
though refusing to give him formal investiture of the Essex earldom,
appointed him justiciar in succession to Hubert Walter (1198). In this
capacity Fitz Peter continued his predecessor's policy of encouraging
foreign trade and the development of the towns; many of the latter
received, during his administration, charters of self-government. He was
continued in his office by John, who found him a useful instrument and
described him in an official letter as "indispensable to the king and
kingdom." He proved himself an able instrument of extortion, and
profited to no small extent by the spoliation of church lands in the
period of the interdict. But he was too closely connected with the
baronage to be altogether trusted by the king. The contemporary
_Histoire des ducs_ describes Fitz Peter as living in constant dread of
disgrace and confiscation. In the last years of his life he endeavoured
to act as a mediator between the king and the opposition. It was by his
mouth that the king promised to the nation the laws of Henry I. (at the
council of St Albans, August 4th, 1213). But Fitz Peter died a few weeks
later (Oct. 2), and his great office passed to Peter des Roches, one of
the unpopular foreign favourites. Fitz Peter was neither a far-sighted
nor a disinterested statesman; but he was the ablest pupil of Hubert
Walter, and maintained the traditions of the great bureaucracy which the
first and second Henries had founded.
See the original authorities specified for the reigns of Richard I.
and John. Also Miss K. Norgate's _Angevin England_, vol. ii. (1887),
and _John Lackland_ (1902); A. Ballard in _English Historical Review_,
xiv. p. 93; H.W.C. Davis' _England under the Normans and Angevins_
(1905). (H. W. C. D.)
FITZROY, ROBERT (1805-1865), English, vice-admiral, distinguished as a
hydrographer and meteorologist, was born at Ampton Hall, Suffolk, on the
5th of July 1805, being a grandson, on the father's side, of the third
duke of Grafton, and on the mother's, of the first marquis of
Londonderry. He entered the navy from the Royal Naval College, then a
school for cadets, on the 19th of October 1819, and on the 7th of
September 1824 was promoted to the rank of lieutenant. After serving in
the "Thetis" frigate in the Mediterranean and on the coast of South
America, under the command of Sir John Phillimore and Captain Bingham,
he was in August 1828 appointed to the "Ganges," as flag-lieutenant to
Rear-Admiral Sir Robert Otway, the commander-in-chief on the South
American station; and on the death of Commander Stokes of the "Beagle,"
on the 13th of November 1828, was promoted to the vacant command. The
"Beagle," a small brig of about 240 tons, was then, and had been for the
two previous years, employed on the survey of the coasts of Patagonia
and Tierra del Fuego, under the orders of Commander King in the
"Adventure," and, together with the "Adventure," returned to England in
the autumn of 1830. Fitzroy had brought home with him four Fuegians, one
of whom died of smallpox a few weeks after arriving in England; to the
others he endeavoured, with but slight success, to impart a rudimentary
knowledge of religion and of some useful handicrafts; and, as he had
pledged himself to restore them to their native country, he was making
preparations in the summer of the following year to carry them back in a
merchant ship bound to Valparaiso, when he received his reappointment to
the "Beagle," to continue the survey of the same wild coasts. The
"Beagle" sailed from Plymouth on the 27th of December 1831, carrying as
a supernumerary Charles Darwin, the afterwards famous naturalist. After
an absence of nearly five years, and having, in addition to the survey
of the Straits of Magellan and a great part of the coast of South
America, run a chronometric line round the world, thus fixing the
longitude of many secondary meridians with sufficient exactness for all
the purposes of ordinary navigation, the "Beagle" anchored at Falmouth
on the 2nd of October 1836. In 1835 Fitzroy had been advanced to the
rank of captain and was now for the next few years principally employed
in reducing and discussing his numerous observations. In 1837 he was
awarded the gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society; and in 1839 he
published, in two thick 8vo volumes, the narrative of the voyage of the
"Adventure" and "Beagle," 1826-1830, and of the "Beagle," 1831-1836,
with a third volume by Darwin--a book familiarly known as a record of
scientific travel. Of Fitzroy's work as a surveyor, carried on under
circumstances of great difficulty, with scanty means, and with an outfit
that was semi-officially denounced as "shabby," Sir Francis Beaufort,
the Hydrographer to the Admiralty, wrote, in a report to the House of
Commons, 10th of February 1848, that "from the equator to Cape Horn, and
from thence round to the river Plata on the eastern side of America, all
that is _immediately_ wanted has been already achieved by the splendid
survey of Captain Robert Fitzroy." This was written before steamships
made the Straits of Magellan a high-road to the Pacific. The survey that
was sufficient then became afterwards very far from sufficient.
In 1841 Fitzroy unsuccessfully contested the borough of Ipswich, and in
the following year was returned to parliament as member for Durham.
About the same time he accepted the post of conservator of the Mersey,
and in his double capacity obtained leave to bring in a bill for
improving the condition and efficiency of officers in the mercantile
marine. This was not proceeded with at the time, but gave rise to the
"voluntary certificate" instituted by the Board of Trade in 1845, and
furnished some important clauses to the Mercantile Marine Act of 1850.
Early in 1843 Fitzroy was appointed governor and commander-in-chief of
New Zealand, then recently established as a colony. He arrived in his
government in December, whilst the excitement about the Wairau massacre
was still fresh, and the questions relating to the purchase of land from
the natives were in a very unsatisfactory state. The early settlers were
greedy and unscrupulous; Fitzroy, on the other hand, had made no secret
of his partiality for the aborigines. Between such discordant elements
agreement was impossible: the settlers insulted the governor; the
governor did not conciliate the settlers, who denounced his policy as
adverse to their interests, as unjust and illegal; colonial feeling
against him ran very high; petition after petition for his recall was
sent home, and the government was compelled to yield to the pressure
brought to bear on it. Fitzroy was relieved by Sir George Grey in
November 1845.
In September 1848 he was appointed acting superintendent of the
dockyard at Woolwich, and in the following March to the command of the
"Arrogant," one of the early screw frigates which had been fitted out
under his supervision, and with which it was desired to carry out a
series of experiments and trials. When these were finished he applied to
be superseded, on account at once of his health and of his private
affairs. In February 1850 he was accordingly placed on half-pay; nor did
he ever serve again, although advanced in due course by seniority to the
ranks of rear-and vice-admiral on the retired list (1857, 1863). In 1851
he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1854, after serving
for a few months as private secretary to his uncle, Lord Hardinge, then
commander-in-chief of the army, he was appointed to the meteorological
department of the Board of Trade, with, in the first instance, the
peculiar title of "Meteorological Statist."
From the date of his joining the "Beagle" in 1828 he had paid very great
attention to the different phenomena foreboding or accompanying change
of weather, and his narratives of the voyages of the "Adventure" and
"Beagle" are full of interesting and valuable details concerning these.
Accordingly, when in 1854 Lord Wrottesley, the president of the Royal
Society, was asked by the Board of Trade to recommend a chief for its
newly forming meteorological department, he, almost without hesitation,
nominated Fitzroy, whose name and career became from that time
identified with the progress of practical meteorology. His _Weather
Book_, published in 1863, embodies in broad outline his views, far in
advance of those then generally held; and in spite of the rapid march of
modern science, it is still worthy of careful attention and exact study.
His storm warnings, in their origin, indeed, liable to a charge of
empiricism, were gradually developed on a more scientific basis, and
gave a high percentage of correct results. They were continued for
eighteen months after his death by the assistants he had trained, and
though stopped when the department was transferred to the management of
a committee of the Royal Society, they were resumed a few months
afterwards; and under the successive direction of Dr R.H. Scott and Dr
W.N. Shaw, have been developed into what we now know them. But though it
is perhaps by these storm warnings that Fitzroy's name has been most
generally known, seafaring men owe him a deeper debt of gratitude, not
only for his labours in reducing to a more practical form the somewhat
complicated wind charts of Captain Maury, but also for his great
exertions in connexion with the life-boat association. Into this work,
in its many ramifications, he threw himself with the energy of an
excitable temperament, already strained by his long and anxious service
in the Straits of Magellan. His last years were fully and to an
excessive degree occupied by it; his health, both of body and mind,
threatened to give way; but he refused to take the rest that was
prescribed. In a fit of mental aberration he put an end to his existence
on the 30th of April 1865.
Besides his works already named mention may be made of _Remarks on New
Zealand_ (1846); _Sailing Directions for South America_ (1848); his
official reports to the Board of Trade (1857-1865); and occasional
papers in the journal of the Royal Geographical Society and of the
Royal United Service Institution. (J. K. L.)
FITZROY, a city of Bourke county, Victoria, Australia, 2 m. by rail N.E.
of and suburban to Melbourne. Pop. (1901) 31,610. It is a prosperous
manufacturing town, well served with tramways and containing many fine
residences.
FITZ STEPHEN, ROBERT (fl. 1150), son of Nesta, a Welsh princess and
former mistress of Henry I., by Stephen, constable of Cardigan, whom
Robert succeeded in that office, took service with Dermot of Leinster
when that king visited England (1167), In 1169 Robert led the vanguard
of Dermot's Anglo-Welsh auxiliaries to Ireland, and captured Wexford,
which he was then allowed to hold jointly with Maurice Fitz Gerald.
Taken prisoner by the Irish in 1171, he was by them surrendered to Henry
II., who appointed him lieutenant of the justiciar of Ireland, Hugh de
Lacy. Robert rendered good service in the troubles of 1173, and was
rewarded by receiving, jointly with Miles Cogan, a grant of Cork (1177).
He had difficulty in maintaining his position and was nearly
overwhelmed by a rising of Desmond in 1182. The date of his death is
uncertain.
FITZ STEPHEN, WILLIAM (d. c. 1190), biographer of Thomas Becket and
royal justice, was a Londoner by origin. He entered Becket's service at
some date between 1154 and 1162. The chancellor employed Fitz Stephen in
legal work, made him sub-deacon of his chapel and treated him as a
confidant. Fitz Stephen appeared with Becket at the council of
Northampton (1164) when the disgrace of the archbishop was published to
the world; but he did not follow Becket into exile. He joined Becket's
household again in 1170, and was a spectator of the tragedy in
Canterbury cathedral. To his pen we owe the most valuable among the
extant biographies of his patron. Though he writes as a partisan he
gives a precise account of the differences between Becket and the king.
This biography contains a description of London which is our chief
authority for the social life of the city in the 12th century. Despite
his connexion with Becket, William subsequently obtained substantial
preferment from the king. He was sheriff of Gloucestershire from 1171 to
1190, and a royal justice in the years 1176-1180 and 1189-1190.
See his "Vita S. Thomae" in J.C. Robertson's _Materials for the
History of Thomas Becket_, vol. iii. (Rolls series, 1877). Sir T.D.
Hardy, in his _Catalogue of Materials_, ii. 330 (Rolls series, 1865),
discusses the manuscripts of this biography and its value. W.H.
Hutton, _St Thomas of Canterbury_, pp. 272-274 (1889), gives an
account of the author. (H. W. C. D.)
FITZ THEDMAR, ARNOLD (d. 1274), London chronicler and merchant, was born
in London on the 9th of August 1201. Both his parents were of German
extraction. The family of his mother migrated to England from Cologne in
the reign of Henry II.; his father, Thedmar by name, was a citizen of
Bremen who had been attracted to London by the privileges which the
Plantagenets conferred upon the Teutonic Hanse. Arnold succeeded in time
to his father's wealth and position. He held an honourable position
among the Hanse traders, and became their "alderman." He was also, as he
tells us himself, alderman of a London ward and an active partisan in
municipal politics. In the Barons' War he took the royal side against
the populace and the mayor Thomas Fitz Thomas. The popular party
planned, in 1265, to try him for his life before the folk-moot, but he
was saved by the news of the battle of Evesham which arrived on the very
day appointed for the trial. Even after the king's triumph Arnold
suffered from the malice of his enemies, who contrived that he should be
unfairly assessed for the tallages imposed upon the city. He appealed
for help to Henry III., and again to Edward I., with the result that his
liability was diminished. In 1270 he was one of the four citizens to
whose keeping the muniments of the city were entrusted. To this
circumstance we probably owe the compilation of his chronicle. _Chronica
Maiorum et Vicecomitum_, which begins at the year 1188 and is continued
to 1274. From 1239 onwards this work is a mine of curious information.
Though municipal in its outlook, it is valuable for the general history
of the kingdom, owing to the important part which London played in the
agitation against the misrule of Henry III. We have the king's word for
the fact that Arnold was a consistent royalist; but this is apparent
from the whole tenor of the chronicle. Arnold was by no means blind to
the faults of Henry's government, but preferred an autocracy to the
mob-rule which Simon de Montfort countenanced in London. Arnold died in
1274; the last fact recorded of him is that, in this year, he joined in
a successful appeal to the king against the illegal grants which had
been made by the mayor, Walter Hervey.
The _Chronica Maiorum et Vicecomitum_, with the other contents of
Arnold's common-place book, were edited for the Camden Society by T.
Stapleton (1846), under the title _Liber de Antiquis Legibus_. Our
knowledge of Arnold's life comes from the _Chronica_ and his own
biographical notes. Extracts, with valuable notes, are edited in G.H.
Pertz's _Mon. Germaniae historica, Scriptores_, vol. xxviii. See also
J.M. Lappenberg's _Urkundliche Geschichte des Hansischen Stahlhofes zu
London_ (Hamburg, 1851). (H. W. C. D)
FITZWALTER, ROBERT (d. 1235), leader of the baronial opposition against
King John of England, belonged to the official aristocracy created by
Henry I. and Henry II. He served John in the Norman wars, and was taken
prisoner by Philip of France, and forced to pay a heavy ransom. He was
implicated in the baronial conspiracy of 1212. According to his own
statement the king had attempted to seduce his eldest daughter; but
Robert's account of his grievances varied from time to time. The truth
seems to be that he was irritated by the suspicion with which John
regarded the new baronage. Fitzwalter escaped a trial by flying to
France. He was outlawed, but returned under a special amnesty after
John's reconciliation with the pope. He continued, however, to take the
lead in the baronial agitation against the king, and upon the outbreak
of hostilities was elected "marshal of the army of God and Holy Church"
(1215). To his influence in London it was due that his party obtained
the support of the city and used it as their base of operations. The
famous clause of Magna Carta (§ 39) prohibiting sentences of exile,
except as the result of a lawful trial, refers more particularly to his
case. He was one of the twenty-five appointed to enforce the promises of
Magna Carta; and his aggressive attitude was one of the causes which
contributed to the recrudescence of civil war (1215). His incompetent
leadership made it necessary for the rebels to invoke the help of
France. He was one of the envoys who invited Louis to England, and was
the first of the barons to do homage when the prince entered London.
Though slighted by the French as a traitor to his natural lord, he
served Louis with fidelity until captured at the battle of Lincoln (May
1217). Released on the conclusion of peace he joined the Damietta
crusade of 1219, but returned at an early date to make his peace with
the regency. The remainder of his career was uneventful; he died
peacefully in 1235.
See the list of chronicles for the reign of John. The _Histoire des
ducs de Normandie et des rois d'Angleterre_ (ed. F. Michel, Paris,
1840) gives the fullest account of his quarrel with the king. Miss K.
Norgate's _John Lackland_ (1902), W. McKechnie's _Magna Carta_ (1905),
and Stubbs's _Constitutional History_, vol. i. ch. xii. (1897), should
also be consulted.
FITZWILLIAM, SIR WILLIAM (1526-1599), lord deputy of Ireland, was the
eldest son of Sir William Fitzwilliam (d. 1576) of Milton,
Northamptonshire, where he was born, and grandson of another Sir William
Fitzwilliam (d. 1534), alderman and sheriff of London, who was also
treasurer and chamberlain to Cardinal Wolsey, and who purchased Milton
in 1506. On his mother's side Fitzwilliam was related to John Russell,
1st earl of Bedford, a circumstance to which he owed his introduction to
Edward VI. In 1559 he became vice-treasurer of Ireland and a member of
the Irish House of Commons; and between this date and 1571 he was
(during the absences of Thomas Radclyffe, earl of Sussex, and of his
successor, Sir Henry Sidney) five times lord justice of Ireland. In 1571
Fitzwilliam himself was appointed lord deputy, but like Elizabeth's
other servants he received little or no money, and his period of
government was marked by continuous penury and its attendant evils,
inefficiency, mutiny and general lawlessness. Moreover, the deputy
quarrelled with the lord president of Connaught, Sir Edward Fitton
(1527-1579), but he compelled the earl of Desmond to submit in 1574. He
disliked the expedition of Walter Devereux, earl of Essex; he had a
further quarrel with Fitton, and after a serious illness he was allowed
to resign his office. Returning to England in 1575 he was governor of
Fotheringhay Castle at the time of Mary Stuart's execution. In 1588
Fitzwilliam was again in Ireland as lord deputy, and although old and
ill he displayed great activity in leading expeditions, and found time
to quarrel with Sir Richard Bingham (1528-1599), the new president of
Connaught. In 1594 he finally left Ireland, and five years later he died
at Milton. From Fitzwilliam, whose wife was Anne, daughter of Sir
William Sidney, were descended the barons and earls Fitzwilliam.
See R. Bagwell, _Ireland under the Tudors_, vol. ii. (1885).
FITZWILLIAM, WILLIAM WENTWORTH FITZWILLIAM, 2ND EARL (1748-1833),
English statesman, was the son of the 1st earl (peerage of the United
Kingdom), who died in 1756. The English family of Fitzwilliam claimed
descent from a natural son of William the Conqueror, and among its
earlier members were a Sir William Fitzwilliam (1460-1534), sheriff of
London, who in 1506 acquired the family seat of Milton Manor in
Northamptonshire, and his grandson Sir William Fitzwilliam (see above).
The latter's grandson was made an Irish baron in 1620; and in later
generations the Irish titles of Viscount Milton and Earl Fitzwilliam
(1716) and the English titles of Baron Milton (1742) and Viscount Milton
and Earl Fitzwilliam (1746), were added. These were all in the English
house of the Fitzwilliams of Milton Manor. They were distinct from the
Irish Fitzwilliams of Meryon, who descended from a member of the English
family who went to Ireland with Prince John at the end of the 12th
century, and whose titles of Baron and Viscount Fitzwilliam died out
with the 8th viscount in 1833; the best known of these was Richard, 7th
viscount (1745-1816), who left the Fitzwilliam library and a fund for
creating the Fitzwilliam Museum to Cambridge University.
The 2nd earl inherited not only the Fitzwilliam estates in
Northamptonshire, but also, on the death of his uncle the marquess of
Rockingham in 1782, the valuable Wentworth estates in Yorkshire, and
thus became one of the wealthiest noblemen of the day. He had been at
Eton with C.J. Fox, and became an active supporter of the Whig party;
and in 1794, with the duke of Portland, Windham and other "old Whigs" he
joined Pitt's cabinet, becoming president of the council. At the end of
the year, however, he was sent to Ireland as viceroy. Fitzwilliam,
however, had set his face against the jobbery of the Protestant leaders,
and threw himself warmly into Grattan's scheme for admitting the
Catholics to political power; and in March 1795 he was recalled, his
action being disavowed by Pitt, the result of a series of
misunderstandings which appeared to Fitzwilliam to give him just cause
of complaint. The quarrel was, however, made up, and in 1798 Fitzwilliam
was appointed lord-lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire. He
continued to take an active part in politics, and in 1806 was president
of the council, but his Whig opinions kept him mainly in opposition. He
died in February 1833, his son, Charles William Wentworth, the 3rd earl
(1786-1857), and later earls, being notable figures in the politics and
social life of the north of England.
FIUME (Slav. _Rjeka_, _Rieka_ or _Reka_, Ger. _St Veit am Flaum_), a
royal free town and port of Hungary; situated at the northern extremity
of the Gulf of Quarnero, an inlet of the Adriatic, and on a small stream
called the Rjeka, Recina or Fiumara, 70 m. by rail S.E. of Trieste. Pop.
(1900) 38,955; including 17,354 Italians, 14,885 Slavs (Croats, Serbs
and Slovenes), 2482 Hungarians and 1945 Germans. Geographically, Fiume
belongs to Croatia; politically the town, with its territory of some 7
sq. m., became a part of Hungary in August 1870. The picturesque old
town occupies an outlying ridge of the Croatian Karst; while the modern
town, with its wharves, warehouses, electric light and electric trams,
is crowded into the amphitheatre left between the hills and the shore.
On the north-west there is a fine public garden. The most interesting
buildings are the cathedral church of the Assumption, founded in 1377,
and completed with a modern façade copied from that of the Pantheon in
Rome; the church of St Veit, on the model of Santa Maria della Salute in
Venice; and the Pilgrimage church, hung with offerings from shipwrecked
sailors, and approached by a stairway of 400 steps. In the old town is a
Roman triumphal arch, said to have been erected during the 3rd century
A.D. in honour of the emperor Claudius II. Fiume also possesses a
theatre and a music-hall; palaces for the governor and the Austrian
emperor; a high court of justice for commerce and marine; a chamber of
commerce; an asylum for lunatics and the aged poor; an industrial home
for boys; and several large schools, including the marine academy (1856)
and the school of seamanship (1903). Municipal affairs are principally
managed by the Italians, who sympathize with the Hungarians against the
Slavs.
Fiume is the only seaport of Hungary, with which country it was
connected, in 1809, by the Maria Louisa road, through Karlstadt. It has
two railways, opened in 1873; one a branch of the southern railway from
Vienna to Trieste, the other of the Hungarian state railway from
Karlstadt. There are several harbours, including the _Porto Canale_, for
coasting vessels; the _Porto Baross_, for timber; and the _Porto
Grande_, sheltered by the _Maria Theresia_ mole and breakwater, besides
four lesser moles, and flanked by the quays, with their grain-elevators.
The development of the _Porto Grande_, originally named the _Porto
Nuovo_, was undertaken in 1847, and carried on at intervals as trade
increased. In 1902, arrangements were made for the construction of a new
mole and an enlargement of the quays and breakwater; these works to be
completed within 5 years, at a cost of £420,000. The exports, worth
£6,460,000 in 1902, chiefly consisted of grain, flour, sugar, timber and
horses; the imports, worth £3,678,000 in the same year, of coal, wine,
rice, fruit, jute and various minerals, chemicals and oils. A large
share in the carrying trade belongs to the Cunard, Adria, Ungaro-Croat
and Austrian Lloyd Steamship Companies, subsidized by the state. A
steady stream of Croatian and Hungarian emigrants, officially numbered
in 1902 at 7500, passes through Fiume. Altogether 11,550 vessels, of
1,963,000 tons, entered at Fiume in 1902; and 11,535, of 1,956,000,
cleared. Foremost among the industrial establishments are Whitehead's
torpedo factory, Messrs Smith & Meynie's paper-mill, the royal tobacco
factory, a chemical factory, and several flour-mills, tanneries and rope
manufactories. In 1902 the last shipbuilding yard was closed. The soil
of the surrounding country is stony, but the climate is warm, and wine
is extensively produced. The Gulf of Quarnero yields a plentiful supply
of fish, and the tunny trade with Trieste and Venice is of considerable
importance. Steamboats ply daily from Fiume to the Istrian health-resort
of Abbazia, the Croatian port of Buccari, and the islands of Veglia and
Cherso.
Fiume is supposed to occupy the site of the ancient Liburnian town
_Tersatica_; later it received the name of _Vitopolis_, and eventually
that of _Fanum Sancti Viti ad Flumen_, from which its present name is
derived. It was destroyed by Charlemagne in 799, from which time it
probably long remained under the dominion of the Franks. It was held in
feudal tenure from the patriarch of Aquileia by the bishop of Pola, and
afterwards, in 1139, by the counts of Duino, who retained it till the
end of the 14th century. It next passed into the hands of the counts of
Wallsee, by whom it was surrendered in 1471 to the emperor Frederick
III., who incorporated it with the dominions of the house of Austria.
From this date till 1776 Fiume was ruled by imperial governors. In 1723
it was declared a free port by Charles VI., in 1776 united to Croatia by
the empress Maria Theresa, and in 1779 declared a _corpus separatum_ of
the Hungarian crown. In 1809 Fiume was occupied by the French; but it
was retaken by the British in 1813, and restored to Austria in the
following year. It was ceded to Hungary in 1822, but after the
revolution of 1848-1849 was annexed to the crown lands of Croatia, under
the government of which it remained till it came under Hungarian control
in 1870.
FIVES, a ball-game played by two or four players in a court enclosed on
three or four sides, the ball being struck with the hand, usually
protected by a glove, whence the game is known in America as "handball."
The origin of the game is probably the French _jeu de paume_, tennis
played with the hand, the hand in that case being eventually superseded
by the racquet. Fives and racquets are probably both descended from the
_jeu de paume_, of which they are simplified forms. The name fives may
be derived from _la longue paume_, in which five on a side played, or
from the five fingers, or from the fact that five points had to be made
by the winners (in modern times the game consists of fifteen points).
Fives is played in Great Britain principally at the schools and
universities, although its encouragement is included in the functions of
the Tennis Racquets and Fives Association, founded in 1908. In America
it is much affected for training purposes by professional athletes and
boxers. There are two forms of fives--the Eton game and the Rugby
game--which require separate notice, though the main features of the two
games are the serving of the ball to the taker of the service, the
necessity of hitting the ball before the second bounce, and of hitting
it above a line and within the limits of the court.
_Eton Fives._--The peculiar features of the Eton court arose from the
fact that in early times the game was played against the chapel-wall, so
that buttresses formed side walls and the balustrade of the chapel-steps
projected into the court, while a step divided the court latitudinally.
These were reproduced in the regular courts, the buttress being known as
the "pepper-box" and the space between it and the step as the "hole."
The riser of the step is about 5 in. The floor of the court is paved;
there is no back wall. On the front wall is a ledge, known as the
"line," 4 ft. 6 in. from the floor, and a vertical line, painted; 3 ft.
8 in. from the right-hand wall. Four people usually play, two against
two; one of each pair plays in the forward court, the other in the back
court. The server stands on the left of the forward court, his partner
in the right-hand corner of the back court; the taker of the service by
the right wall of the forward court, his partner at the left-hand corner
of the back court. The forward court is known as "on-wall," the other as
"off-wall." The server must toss the ball gently against the front wall,
above the line, so that it afterwards hits the right wall and falls on
the "off-wall," but the server's object is not, as at tennis and
racquets, to send a service that cannot be returned. At fives he must
send a service that hand-out can take easily; indeed hand-out can refuse
to take any service that he does not like, and if he fails to return the
ball above the line no stroke is counted. After the service has been
returned either of the opponents returns the ball if he can, and so on,
each side and either member of it returning the ball above the line
alternately till one side or the other hits it below the line or out of
court. Only hand-in can score. If hand-in wins a stroke, his side scores
a point; if he misses a stroke he loses his innings and his partner
becomes server, unless he has already served in this round, in which
case the opponents become hand-in. The game is fifteen points. If the
score is "13 all," the out side may "set" the game to 5 or 3; i.e. the
game becomes one of 5 or 3 points; at "14 all" it may be set to three.
The game and its terminology being somewhat intricate, can best be
learnt in the court. No apparatus is required except padded gloves and
fives-balls, which are covered with white leather tightly stretched over
a hard foundation of cork, strips of leather and twine. The Eton balls
are 1¾ in. in diameter and weigh about 1¼ oz. apiece.
_Rugby Fives_ is much less complicated owing to the simpler form of the
court. The rules as to service, taking the balls, &c., are the same as
in Eton Fives. The balls are rather smaller. The courts are larger,
measuring about 34 ft. by 19 ft. 6 in. and may be roofed or open. The
side walls slope from 20 ft. to 12 ft. Some courts have a dwarf back
wall, some have none. The back wall, when there is one, is 5 ft. 8 in.
in height. In some courts the side walls are plain; in others, where
there is no back wall, a projection about 3 in. deep is built at right
angles to the two side walls; in others a buttress, similar to the
_tambour_ of the tennis-court, is built out from the left-hand wall
about 10 ft. from the front wall, and continued to the end of the court.
The line is generally a board fixed across the front wall, its upper
edge 34 in. from the ground, but the height varies slightly.
_Handball_, of ancient popularity in Ireland and much played in the
United States, is practically identical with fives, though there are
minor differences. The usual American court is about 60 ft. long, 24½
ft. wide and 35 ft. high at the front, tapering to 33 ft. at the back
wall. The front wall is of brick faced with marble, the sides of cement
and the floor of white pine laid on beams 10 in. apart. These are the
dimensions of the Brooklyn court of the former American champion, Phil
Casey (d. 1904), which has been extensively copied. Twenty-one aces
constitute a game and gloves are not usually worn. The American ball is
a trifle larger and softer than the Irish, which is called a "red ace"
when made of solid red rubber, and "black ace" when made of black
rubber. Baggs of Tipperary, who was in his prime about 1855, was the
most celebrated Irish handball player. In his day nearly every village
tavern in Ireland had a court. Browning and Lawlor, who won the Irish
championship in 1885, were his most prominent successors. In America
Phil Casey and Michael Egan are the best-known names.
See A. Tait's _Fives_ in the All England Series: "Fives" in the
_Encyclopaedia of Sport_; and _Official Handball Guide_ in Spalding's
Athletic Library.
FIX, THÉODORE (1800-1846), French journalist and economist, was born at
Soleure in Switzerland in 1800. His father was a French physician whose
ancestors had been expatriated by the revocation of the edict of Nantes.
At first a land surveyor, he in 1830 became connected with the _Bulletin
universal des sciences_, to which he contributed most of the
geographical articles. In 1833 he founded the _Revue mensuelle
d'économie politique_, which he edited during the three years of its
existence. He then became engaged in journalistic work, till his essay
on _L'Association des douanes allemandes_ won him a prize from the
Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques in 1840, and also procured
him work on the report on the progress of sciences since the Revolution,
which the Institute was preparing. A few months before his death he
published _Observations sur les classes ouvrières_, in which he argued
against all attempts to regulate artificially the rate of wages, and
attributed the condition of the working classes to their own
thriftlessness and intemperance. He died suddenly at Paris on the 31st
of July 1846.
FIXTURES (Lat. _figere_, to fix), in law, chattels which have been so
fixed or attached to land (as it is expressed in English law, "so
annexed to the freehold"), as to become, in contemplation of law, a part
of it. All systems of law make a marked distinction for certain
purposes, between immovables and movables, between real and personal
property, between land and all other things. In the case of fixtures the
question arises under which set of rights they are to fall--under those
of real or of personal property. The general rule of English law is that
everything attached to the land goes with the land--_quicquid plantatur
solo, solo cedit_. This, like many other rules of English law, is all in
favour of the freeholder; but its hardship has been modified by a large
number of exceptions formulated from time to time by the courts as
occasion arose.
In order to constitute a fixture there must be some degree of annexation
to the land, or to a building which forms part of it. Thus it has been
held that a barn laid on blocks of timber, but not fixed to the ground
itself, is not a fixture; and the onus of showing that articles not
otherwise attached to the land than by their own weight have ceased to
be chattels, rests with those who assert the fact. On the other hand, an
article, even slightly affixed to the land, is to be considered part of
it, unless the circumstances show that it was intended to remain a
chattel. The question is one of fact in each case--depending mainly on
the mode, degree and object of the annexation, and the possibility of
the removal of the article without injury to itself or the freehold. In
certain cases the courts have recognized a constructive annexation, when
the articles, though not fixed to the soil, pass with the freehold as if
they were, e.g. the keys of a house, the stones of a dry wall, and the
detached or duplicate portions of machines.
Questions as to the property in fixtures principally arise--(1) between
landlord and tenant, (2) between heir and executor, (3) between executor
and remainder-man or reversioner, (4) between seller and buyer.
1. At common law, if the tenant has affixed anything to the freehold
during his occupation, he cannot remove it without the permission of
his landlord. But an exception was established in favour of _trade
fixtures_. In a case before Lord Holt it was held that a soap-boiler
might, _during his term_, remove the vats he had set up for trade
purposes, and that not by virtue of any special custom, but "by the
common law in favour of trade, and to encourage industry," and it may
be stated as a general rule that things which a tenant has fixed to
the freehold for the purpose of trade or manufacture may be taken away
by him, whenever the removal is not contrary to any prevailing
practice, or the particular terms of the contract of tenancy, and can
be effected without causing material injury to the estate or
destroying the essential character of the articles themselves
(_Lambourn_ v. _M^cLellan_, 1903, 2 Ch. 269). Agricultural tenants are
not entitled, at common law, to remove trade fixtures. But the
Landlord and Tenant Act 1851 granted such a right of removal in the
case of buildings or machinery erected by a tenant at his own
expense, and with his landlord's consent in writing, provided that the
freehold was not injured or that any injury was made good, and that
before removal a month's written notice was given to the landlord, who
had an option of purchase. Under the Agricultural Holdings Act 1883
the tenant might, under similar conditions, remove fixtures, although
the landlord had not consented to their erection. The Agricultural
Holdings Act 1900 extended this provision to fixtures or buildings
acquired, although not annexed or erected, by the tenant. Similar
rights were created by the Allotments Compensation Act 1887, and by
the Market Gardeners' Compensation Act 1895. All these provisions were
re-enacted by the Agricultural Holdings Act 1908.
Again, _ornamental_ fixtures, set up by the tenant for ornament and
convenience, such as hangings and looking-glasses, tapestry,
iron-backs to chimneys, wainscot fixed by screws, marble
chimney-pieces, are held to belong to the tenant, and to be removable
without the landlord's consent. Here again the extent of the privilege
has been a matter of some uncertainty.
In all these cases the fixtures must be removed during the term. If
the tenant gives up possession of the premises without removing the
fixtures, it will be presumed, it appears, that he has made a gift of
them to the landlord, and that presumption probably could not be
rebutted by positive evidence of a contrary intention. His right to
the fixtures is not, however, destroyed by the mere expiry of the
term, if he still remains in possession; but if he has once left the
premises he cannot come back and claim his fixtures. In one case where
the fixtures had actually been severed from the freehold after the end
of the term, it was held that the tenant had no right to recover them.
2. As between heir and executor or administrator. The question of
fixtures arises between these parties on the death of a person owning
land. The executor has no right to remove trade fixtures, set up for
the benefit of the inheritance. As regards ornamental objects, the
rule _quicquid plantatur solo, solo cedit_ was in early times somewhat
relaxed in favour of the executor. As far back as 1701, it was held
that hangings fixed to a wall for ornament passed to the executor;
and, although the effect of this relaxation was subsequently cut down,
it is supported by the decisions of the courts affirming the
executor's right to valuable tapestries affixed by a tenant for life
to the walls of a house for ornament and their better enjoyment as
chattels (_Leigh_ v. _Taylor_, 1902, App. Cas. 157); and the same has
been held as to statues and bronze groups set on pedestals in the
grounds of a mansion house.
3. When a tenant for life of land dies, the question of fixtures
arises between his representatives and the persons next entitled to
the estate (the remainder-man or reversioner). The remainder-man is
not so great a favourite of the law as the heir, and the right to
fixtures is construed more favourably for executors than in the
preceding cases between heir and executor. Whatever are executor's
fixtures against the heir would therefore be executor's fixtures
against the remainder-man. And the result of the cases seems to be
that, as against the remainder, the executor of the tenant for life
would be certainly entitled to trade fixtures. Agricultural fixtures
are not removable by the executor of a tenant for life.
4. As between seller and buyer, a purchase of the lands includes a
purchase of all the fixtures. But here the intention of the parties is
of great importance. Similar questions may arise in other cases, e.g.
as between mortgagor and mortgagee. When land is mortgaged the
fixtures pass with it, unless a contrary intention is expressed in the
conveyance; and this even where the chattels affixed are the subject
of a hire purchase agreement (_Reynolds_ v. _Ashby_, 1903, 1 K.B. 87).
Again, in reference to bills of sale the question arises. Bills of
sale are dispositions of personal property similar to mortgages, the
possession remaining with the person selling them. To make them valid
they must be registered, and so the question has arisen whether deeds
conveying fixtures ought not to have been registered as bills of sale.
Unless it was the intention of the parties to make the fixtures a
distinct security, it seems that a deed of mortgage embracing them
does not require to be registered as a bill of sale. The question of
what is or is not a fixture must also often be considered in questions
of rating or assessment.
The law of Scotland as to fixtures is the same as that of England. The
Agricultural Holdings (Scotland) Acts 1883 (ss. 35, 42) and 1900 (as
to market gardens) give a similar statutory right of removal. The law
of Ireland has been the subject of the special legislation sketched in
the article LANDLORD AND TENANT. The French Code Civil recognizes the
right of the usufructuary to remove articles attached by him to the
subject of his estate on the expiry of his term, on making good the
place from which they were taken (Art. 599); and there are similar
provisions in the Civil Codes of Italy (Art. 495), Spain (Arts. 487,
489), Portugal (Art. 2217) and Germany (Arts. 1037, 1049).
The law of the United States as to fixtures is substantially identical
with English common law. Constructive, as well as actual, annexation
is recognized. The same relaxations (from the common law rule
_quicquid plantatur solo, solo cedit_) as regards trade fixtures, and
ornamental fixtures, such as tapestry, have been recognized.
In Mauritius the provisions of the Code Civil are in force without
modification. In Quebec (Civil Code, Arts. 374 et seq.) and St Lucia
(Civil Code, Arts. 368 et seq.) they have been re-enacted in
substance. Some of the British colonies have conferred a statutory
right to remove fixtures on tenants (cf. Tasmania, Landlord and Tenant
Act 1874). In certain of the colonies acquired by cession or
settlement (e.g. New Zealand) the English Landlord and Tenant Act 1851
is in force.
AUTHORITIES.--English law: Amos and Ferard, _Law of Fixtures_ (3rd
ed., London, 1883); Brown, _Law of Fixtures_ (3rd ed., London, 1875);
Ryde, on _Rating_ (2nd ed., London, 1905). Scots Law: Hunter,
_Landlord and Tenant_; Erskine's _Principles_ (20th ed., Edin., 1903).
American Law: Bronson, _Law of Fixtures_ (St Paul, 1904); Reeves,
_Real Property_ (Boston, 1904); _Ruling Cases_ (London and Boston,
1894-1901), Tit. "Fixtures" (American Notes). (A. W. R.)
FIZEAU, ARMAND HIPPOLYTE LOUIS (1819-1896), French physicist, was born
at Paris on the 23rd of September 1819. His earliest work was concerned
with improvements in photographic processes; and then, in association
with J.B.L. Foucault, he engaged in a series of investigations on the
interference of light and heat. In 1849 he published the first results
obtained by his method for determining the speed of propagation of light
(see LIGHT), and in 1850 with E. Gounelle measured the velocity of
electricity. In 1853 he described the employment of the condenser as a
means for increasing the efficiency of the induction-coil. Subsequently
he studied the expansion of solids by heat, and applied the phenomena of
interference of light to the measurement of the dilatations of crystals.
He died at Venteuil on the 18th of September 1896. He became a member of
the French Academy in 1860 and of the Bureau des Longitudes in 1878.
FJORD, or FIORD, the anglicized Norwegian word for a long narrow arm of
the sea running far inland, with more or less precipitous cliffs on each
side. These "sea-lochs," as they are sometimes called, present many
peculiar features. They differ entirely from an estuary in the fact that
they are bounded seawards by a rocky sill, covered by shallow water, and
they deepen inland for some distance before the bottom again curves up
to the surface. They are thus true rock basins drowned in sea-water. It
is pointed out by Dr H.R. Mill that Loch Morar on the west coast of
Scotland, a fresh-water basin 178 fathoms deep, with its surface 30 ft.
above sea-level, which is connected with the sea by a short river, is
exactly similar in configuration to Loch Etive, 80 fathoms deep, filled
with sea-water which pours over the seaward sill in a waterfall with the
retreating tide; that Loch Nevis with a depth of 70 fathoms has its sill
8 fathoms below the surface, while the gigantic Sogne Fjord in Norway,
more than 100 m. in length, is a rock basin with a maximum depth of 700
fathoms. Any inland rock basin such as Loch Morar would become a fjord
if the seaward portion sank below sea-level. The origin of these rock
basins has not yet been satisfactorily determined. Recent work upon
somewhat similar basins in the high Alps has suggested local weathering
of surface rock in fracture belts or faulted areas, or dikes, where
material is easily eroded, thus producing a trough bounded by high walls
in which a lake forms under favourable conditions. But investigations in
such regions as the Rocky Mountains and the Yosemite Valley, where there
is frequently a "reversed grade" similar to that near the seaward end of
rock basins and fjords, seem to show, in some cases at least, that such
a formation may be due to the "gouging" effect of a glacier coming down
the valley which it constantly deepens where the ice pressure and the
supply of eroding material are greatest. There may be several causes,
but the results are the same in all these drowned valleys. The mass of
sea-water in the depth of the basin is either unaffected by the seasonal
changes in surface temperature, which in Norway penetrate no deeper than
200 fathoms, or else, as in Loch Goil, the fresher film of surface water
responds quickly to seasonal changes, while the heat of advancing summer
penetrates so slowly to the depth of the basin that it takes six months
to reach the bottom, arriving there in winter. It has been found that
where the fresher surface water has been frozen over, the temperature
may be as much as 45° F. at a few fathoms from the surface. When the
surface is warmest, on the other hand, the depths are coldest.
FLACCUS, a cognomen in the plebeian gens Fulvia, one of the most
illustrious in ancient Rome. Cicero and Pliny state that the family
came from Tusculum, where some were still living in the middle of the
1st century B.C. Of the Fulvii Flacci the most important were the
following:
QUINTUS FULVIUS FLACCUS, son of the first of the family, Marcus, who was
consul with Appius Claudius Caudex in 264. He especially distinguished
himself during the second Punic War. He was consul four times (237, 224,
212, 209), censor (231) pontifex maximus (216), praetor urbanus (215).
During his first consulships he did good service against the Ligurians,
Gauls and Insubrians. In 212 he defeated Hanno near Beneventum, and with
his colleague Appius Claudius Pulcher began the siege of Capua. The
capture of this place was considered so important that their imperium
was prolonged, but on condition that they should not leave Capua until
it had been taken. Hannibal's unexpected diversion against Rome
interfered with the operations for the moment, but his equally
unexpected retirement enabled Flaccus, who had been summoned to Rome to
protect the city, to return, and bring the siege to a successful
conclusion. He punished the inhabitants with great severity, alleging in
excuse that they had shown themselves bitterly hostile to Rome. He was
nominated dictator to hold the consular elections at which he was
himself elected (209). He was appointed to the command of the army in
Lucania and Bruttium, where he crushed all further attempts at
rebellion. Nothing further is known of him. The chief authority for his
life is the part of Livy dealing with the period (see PUNIC WARS).
His brother GNAEUS was convicted of gross cowardice against Hannibal
near Herdoniae in 210, and went into voluntary exile at Tarquinii. His
son, QUINTUS, waged war with signal success against the Celtiberians in
182-181, and the Ligurians in 179. Having vowed to build a temple to
Fortuna Equestris, he dismantled the temple of Juno Lacinia in Bruttium
of its marble slabs. This theft became known and he was compelled to
restore them, though they were never put back in their places.
Subsequently he lost his reason and hanged himself.
MARCUS FULVIUS FLACCUS, grandnephew of the first Quintus, lived in the
times of the Gracchi, of whom he was a strong supporter. After the death
of Tiberius Gracchus (133 B.C.) he was appointed in his place one of the
commission of three for the distribution of the land. He was suspected
of having had a hand in the sudden death of the younger Scipio (129),
but there was no direct evidence against him. When consul in 125, he
proposed to confer the Roman citizenship on all the allies, and to allow
even those who had not acquired it the right of appeal to the popular
assembly against penal judgments. This proposal, though for the time
successfully opposed by the senate, eventually led to the Social War.
The attack made upon the Massilians (who were allies of Rome) by the
Salluvii (Salyes) afforded a convenient excuse for sending Flaccus out
of Rome. After his return in triumph, he was again sent away (122), this
time with Gaius Gracchus to Carthage to found a colony, but did not
remain absent long. In 121 the disputes between the optimates and the
party of Gracchus culminated in open hostilities, during which Flaccus
was killed, together with Gracchus and a number of his supporters. It is
generally agreed that Flaccus was perfectly honest in his support of the
Gracchan reforms, but his hot-headedness did more harm than good to the
cause. Cicero (_Brutus_, 28) speaks of him as an orator of moderate
powers, but a diligent student.
See Livy, _Epit._ 59-61; Val. Max. ix. 5. 1; Vell. Pat. ii. 6; Appian,
_Bell. Civ._ i. 18, 21, 24-26; Plutarch, _C. Gracchus_, 10. 13; also
A.H.J. Greenidge, _Hist. of Rome_ (1904), and authorities quoted under
GRACCHUS.
FLACH, GEOFROI JACQUES (1846- ), French jurist and historian, was born
at Strassburg, Alsace, on the 16th of February 1846, of a family known
at least as early as the 16th century, when Sigismond Flach was the
first professor of law at Strassburg University. G.J. Flach studied
classics and law at Strassburg, and in 1869 took his degree of doctor of
law. In his theses as well as in his early writings--such as _De la
subrogation réelle, La Bonorum possessio_, and _Sur la durée des effets
de la minorité_ (1870)--he endeavoured to explain the problems of laws
by means of history, an idea which was new to France at that time. The
Franco-German War engaged Flach's activities in other directions, and he
spent two years (described in his _Strasbourg après le bombardement_,
1873) at work on the rebuilding of the library and the museum, which had
been destroyed by Prussian shells. When the time came for him to choose
between Germany and France, he settled definitely in Paris, where he
completed his scientific training at the École des Chartes and the École
des Hautes Études. Having acted for some time as secretary to Jules
Sénard, ex-president of the Constituent Assembly, he published an
original paper on artistic copyright, but as soon as possible resumed
the history of law. In 1879 he became assistant to the jurist Edouard
Laboulaye at the Collège de France, and succeeded him in 1884 in the
chair of comparative legislation. Since 1877 he had been professor of
comparative law at the free school of the political sciences. To qualify
himself for these two positions he had to study the most diverse
civilizations, including those of the East and Far East (e.g. Hungary,
Russia and Japan) and even the antiquities of Babylonia and other
Asiatic countries. Some of his lectures have been published,
particularly those concerning Ireland: _Histoire du régime agraire de
l'Irlande_ (1883); _Considérations sur l'histoire politique de
l'Irlande_ (1885); and _Jonathan Swift, son action politique en Irlande_
(1886).
His chief efforts, however, were concentrated on the history of ancient
French law. A celebrated lawsuit in Alsace, pleaded by his friend and
compatriot Ignace Chauffour, aroused his interest by reviving the
question of the origin of the feudal laws, and gradually led him to
study the formation of those laws and the early growth of the feudal
system. His great work, _Les Origines de l'ancienne France_, was
produced slowly. In the first volume, _Le Régime seigneurial_ (1886), he
depicts the triumph of individualism and anarchy, showing how, after
Charlemagne's great but sterile efforts to restore the Roman principle
of sovereignty, the great landowners gradually monopolized the various
functions in the state; how society modelled on antiquity disappeared;
and how the only living organisms were vassalage and clientship. The
second volume, _Les Origines communales, la féodalité et la chevalerie_
(1893), deals with the reconstruction of society on new bases which took
place in the 10th and 11th centuries. It explains how the Gallo-Roman
_villa_ gave place to the village, with its fortified castle, the
residence of the lord; how new towns were formed by the side of old,
some of which disappeared; how the townspeople united in corporations;
and how the communal bond proved to be a powerful instrument of
cohesion. At the same time it traces the birth of feudalism from the
germs of the Gallo-Roman personal _comitatus_; and shows how the bond
that united the different parties was the contract of the fief; and how,
after a slow growth of three centuries, feudalism was definitely
organized in the 12th century. In 1904 appeared the third volume, _La
Renaissance de l'état_, in which the author describes the efforts of the
Capetian kings to reconstruct the power of the Frankish kings over the
whole of Gaul; and goes on to show how the clergy, the heirs of the
imperial tradition, encouraged this ambition; how the great lords of the
kingdom (the "princes," as Flach calls them), whether as allies or foes,
pursued the same end; and how, before the close of the 12th century, the
Capetian kings were in possession of the organs and the means of action
which were to render them so powerful and bring about the early downfall
of feudalism.
In these three volumes, which appeared at long intervals, the author's
theories are not always in complete harmony, nor are they always
presented in a very luminous or coherent manner, but they are marked by
originality and vigour. Flach gave them a solid basis by the wide range
of his researches, utilizing charters and cartularies (published and
unpublished), chronicles, lives of saints, and even those dangerous
guides, the _chansons de geste_. He owed little to the historians of
feudalism who knew what feudalism was, but not how it came about. He
pursued the same method in his _L'Origine de l'habitation et des lieux
habités en France_ (1899), in which he discusses some of the theories
circulated by A. Meitzen in Germany and by Arbois de Jubainville ville
in France. Following in the footsteps of the jurist F.C. von Savigny,
Flach studied the teaching of law in the middle ages and the
Renaissance, and produced _Cujas, les glossateurs et les Bartolistes_
(1883), and _Études critiques sur l'histoire du droit romain au moyen
âge, avec textes inédits_ (1890).
FLACIUS (Ger. _Flach_; Slav. _Vlakich_), MATTHIAS (1520-1575), surnamed
ILLYRICUS, Lutheran reformer, was born at Albona, in Illyria, on the 3rd
of March 1520. Losing his father in childhood, he was in early years
self-educated, and made himself able to profit by the instructions of
the humanist, Baptista Egnatius in Venice. At the age of seventeen he
decided to join a monastic order, with a view to sacred learning. His
intention was diverted by his uncle, Baldo Lupetino, provincial of the
Franciscans, in sympathy with the Reformation, who induced him to enter
on a university career, from 1539, at Basel, Tübingen and Wittenberg.
Here he was welcomed (1541) by Melanchthon, being well introduced from
Tübingen, and here he came under the decisive influence of Luther. In
1544 he was appointed professor of Hebrew at Wittenberg. He married in
the autumn of 1545, Luther taking part in the festivities. He took his
master's degree on the 24th of February 1546, ranking first among the
graduates. Soon he was prominent in the theological discussions of the
time, opposing strenuously the "Augsburg Interim," and the compromise of
Melanchthon known as the "Leipzig Interim" (see ADIAPHORISTS).
Melanchthon wrote of him with venom as a renegade ("aluimus in sinu
serpentem"), and Wittenberg became too hot for him. He removed to
Magdeburg (Nov. 9, 1551), where his feud with Melanchthon was patched
up. On the 17th of May 1557 he was appointed professor of New Testament
theology at Jena; but was soon involved in controversy with Strigel, his
colleague, on the synergistic question (relating to the function of the
will in conversion). Affirming the natural inability of man, he
unwittingly fell into expressions consonant with the Manichaean view of
sin, as not an accident of human nature, but involved in its substance,
since the Fall. Resisting ecclesiastical censure, he left Jena (Feb.
1562) to found an academy at Regensburg. The project was not successful,
and in October 1566 he accepted a call from the Lutheran community at
Antwerp. Thence he was driven (Feb. 1567) by the exigencies of war, and
betook himself to Frankfort, where the authorities set their faces
against him. He proceeded to Strassburg, was well received by the
superintendent Marbach, and hoped he had found an asylum. But here also
his religious views stood in his way; the authorities eventually
ordering him to leave the city by Mayday 1573. Again betaking himself to
Frankfort, the prioress, Catharina von Meerfeld, of the convent of White
Ladies, harboured him and his family in despite of the authorities. He
fell ill at the end of 1574; the city council ordered him to leave by
Mayday 1575; but death released him on the 11th of March 1575. His first
wife, by whom he had twelve children, died in 1564; in the same year he
remarried and had further issue. His son Matthias was professor of
philosophy and medicine at Rostock. Of a life so tossed about the
literary fruit was indeed remarkable. His polemics we may pass over; he
stands at the fountain-head of the scientific study of church history,
and--if we except, a great exception, the work of Laurentius Valla--of
hermeneutics also. No doubt his impelling motive was to prove popery to
be built on bad history and bad exegesis. Whether that be so or not, the
extirpation of bad history and bad exegesis is now felt to be of equal
interest to all religionists. Hence the permanent and continuous value
of the principles embodied in Flacius' _Catalogus testium veritatis_
(1556; revised edition by J.C. Dietericus, 1672) and his _Clavis
scripturae sacrae_ (1567), followed by his _Glossa compendiaria in N.
Testamentum_ (1570). His characteristic formula, "historia est
fundamentum doctrinae," is better understood now than in his own day.
See J.B. Ritter, _Flacius's Leben u. Tod_ (1725); M. Twesten, _M.
Flacius Illyricus_ (1844); W. Preger, _M. Flacius Illyricus u. seine
Zeit_ (1859-1861); G. Kawerau, in Herzog-Hauck's _Realencyklopädie_
(1899). (A. Go.*)
FLACOURT, ÉTIENNE DE (1607-1660), French governor of Madagascar, was
born at Orleans in 1607. He was named governor of Madagascar by the
French East India Company in 1648. Flacourt restored order among the
French soldiers, who had mutinied, but in his dealings with the natives
he was less successful, and their intrigues and attacks kept him in
continual harassment during all his term of office. In 1655 he returned
to France. Not long after he was appointed director general of the
company; but having again returned to Madagascar, he was drowned on his
voyage home on the 10th of June 1660. He is the author of a _Histoire de
la grande isle Madagascar_ (1st edition 1658, 2nd edition 1661).
See A. Malotet, _Ét. de Flacourt, ou les origines de la colonisation
française à Madagascar (1648-1661)_, (Paris, 1898).
FLAG (or "FLAGGE," a common Teutonic word in this sense, but apparently
first recorded in English), a piece of bunting or similar material,
admitting of various shapes and colours, and waved in the wind from a
staff or cord for use in display as a standard, ensign or signal. The
word may simply be derived onomatopoeically, or transferred from the
botanical "flag"; or an original meaning of "a piece of cloth" may be
connected with the 12th-century English "flage," meaning a baby's
garment; the verb "to flag," i.e. droop, may have originated in the idea
of a pendulous piece of bunting, or may be connected with the O. Fr.
_flaguir_, to become flaccid. It is probable that almost as soon as men
began to collect together for common purposes some kind of conspicuous
object was used, as the symbol of the common sentiment, for the rallying
point of the common force. In military expeditions, where any degree of
organization and discipline prevailed, objects of such a kind would be
necessary to mark out the lines and stations of encampment, and to keep
in order the different bands when marching or in battle. In addition, it
cannot be doubted that flags or their equivalents have often served, by
reminding men of past resolves, past deeds and past heroes, to arouse to
enthusiasm those sentiments of _esprit de corps_, of family pride and
honour, of personal devotion, patriotism or religion, upon which, as
well as upon good leadership, discipline and numerical force, success in
warfare depends.
_History._--Among the remains of the people which has left the earliest
traces of civilization, the records of the forms of objects used as
ensigns are frequently to be found. From their carvings and paintings,
supplemented by ancient writers, it appears that several companies of
the Egyptian army had their own particular standards. These were formed
of such objects as, there is reason to believe, were associated in the
minds of the men with feelings of awe and devotion. Sacred animals,
boats, emblems or figures, a tablet bearing a king's name, fan and
feather-shaped symbols, were raised on the end of a staff as standards,
and the office of bearing them was looked upon as one of peculiar
privilege and honour (Fig. 1). Somewhat similar seem to have been the
customs of the Assyrians and Jews. Among the sculptures unearthed by
Layard and others at Nineveh, only two different designs have been
noticed for standards: one is of a figure drawing a bow and standing on
a running bull, the other of two bulls running in opposite directions
(Fig. 2). These may resemble the emblems of war and peace which were
attached to the yoke of Darius's chariot. They are borne upon and
attached to chariots; and this method of bearing such objects was the
custom also of the Persians, and prevailed during the middle ages. That
the custom survived to a comparatively modern period is proved from the
fact that the "Guns," which are the "standards" of the artillery, have
from time immemorial been entitled to all the parade honours prescribed
by the usages of war for the flag, that is, the symbol of authority. In
days comparatively recent there was a "flag gun," usually the heaviest
piece, which emblemized authority and served also as the "gun of
direction" in the few concerted movements then attempted. No
representations of Egyptian or Assyrian naval standards have been found,
but the sails of ships were embroidered and ornamented with devices,
another custom which survived into the middle ages.
In both Egyptian and Assyrian examples, the staff bearing the emblem is
frequently ornamented immediately below with flag-like streamers.
Rabbinical writers have assigned the different devices of the different
Jewish tribes, but the authenticity of their testimony is extremely
doubtful. Banners, standards and ensigns are frequently mentioned in the
Bible. "Every man of the children of Israel shall pitch by his standard,
with the ensign of their father's house" (Num. ii. 2). "Who is she that
looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun,
terrible as an army with banners?" (Cant. vi. 10. See also Num. ii. 10,
x. 14; Ps. xx. 5, lx. 4; Cant. ii. 4; Is. v. 26, x. 18, lix. 19; Jer.
iv. 21).
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Egyptian Standards.]
The Persians bore an eagle fixed to the end of a lance, and the sun, as
their divinity, was also represented upon their standards, which appear
to have been formed of some kind of textile, and were guarded with the
greatest jealousy by the bravest men of the army. The Carian soldier who
slew Cyrus, the brother of Artaxerxes, was allowed the honour of
carrying a golden cock at the head of the army, it being the custom of
the Carians to wear that bird as a crest on their helmets. The North
American Indians carried poles fledged with feathers from the wings of
eagles, and similar customs seem to have prevailed among other
semi-savage peoples.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--Assyrian Standards.]
The Greeks bore a piece of armour upon a spear in early times;
afterwards the several cities bore sacred emblems or letters chosen for
their particular associations--the Athenians the olive and the owl, the
Corinthians a pegasus, the Thebans a sphinx, in memory of Oedipus, the
Messenians their initial M, and the Lacedaemonians A. A purple dress was
placed on the end of a spear as the signal to advance. The Dacians
carried a standard representing a contorted serpent, while the dragon
was the military sign of many peoples--of the Chinese, Dacians and
Parthians among others--and was probably first used by the Romans as the
ensign of barbarian auxiliaries (see fig. 3).
[Illustration: FIG. 3.--Roman Standards.]
The question of the _signa militaria_ of the Romans is a wide and very
important one, having direct bearing on the history of heraldry, and on
the origin of national, family and personal devices. With them the
custom was reduced to system. "Each century, or at least each maniple,"
says Meyrick, "had its proper standard and standard-bearer." In the
early days of the republic a handful of hay was borne on a pole, whence
probably came the name _manipulus_ (Lat. _manus_, a hand). The forms of
standards in later times were very various; sometimes a cross piece of
wood was placed at the end of a spear and surmounted by the figure of a
hand in silver, below round or oval discs, with figures of Mars or
Minerva, or in later times portraits of emperors or eminent generals
(Fig. 3). Figures of animals, as the wolf, horse, bear and others, were
borne, and it was not till a later period that the eagle became the
special standard of the legion. According to Pliny, it was Gaius Marius
who, in his second consulship, ordained that the Roman legions should
only have the eagle for their standard; "for before that time the eagle
marched foremost with four others--wolves, minotaurs, horses and
bears--each one in its proper order. Not many years passed before the
eagle alone began to be advanced in battle, and the rest were left
behind in the camp. But Marius rejected them altogether, and since this
it is observed that scarcely is there a camp of a legion wintered at any
time without having a pair of eagles."
The _vexillum_, which was the cavalry flag, is described by Livy as a
square piece of cloth fastened to a piece of wood fixed crosswise to the
end of a spear, somewhat resembling the medieval _gonfalon_. Examples of
these vexilla are to be seen on various Roman coins and medals, on the
sculptured columns of Trajan and Antoninus, and on the arch of Titus.
The _labarum_, which was the imperial standard of later emperors,
resembled in shape and fixing the vexillum. It was of purple silk richly
embroidered with gold, and sometimes was not suspended as the vexillum
from a horizontal crossbar, but displayed as our modern flags, that is
to say, by the attachment of one of its sides to a staff. After
Constantine, the labarum bore the monogram of Christ (fig. 5, A). It is
supposed that the small scarf, which in medieval days was often
attached to the pastoral staff or crook of a bishop, was derived from
the labarum of the first Christian emperor, Constantine the Great. The
Roman standards were guarded with religious veneration in the temples at
Rome; and the reverence of this people for their ensigns was in
proportion to their superiority to other nations in all that tends to
success in war. It was not unusual for a general to order a standard to
be cast into the ranks of the enemy, to add zeal to the onset of his
soldiers by exciting them to recover what to them was perhaps the most
sacred thing the earth possessed. The Roman soldier swore by his ensign.
Although in earlier times drapery was occasionally used for standards,
and was often appended as ornament to those of other material, it was
probably not until the middle ages that it became the special material
of military and other ensigns; and perhaps not until the practice of
heraldry had attained to definite nomenclature and laws does anything
appear which is in the modern sense a flag.
Early flags were almost purely of a religious character. In Bede's
description of the interview between the heathen king Æthelberht and the
Roman missionary Augustine, the followers of the latter are said to have
borne banners on which silver crosses were displayed. The national
banner of England for centuries--the red cross of St George--was a
religious one; in fact the aid of religion seems ever to have been
sought to give sanctity to national flags, and the origin of many can be
traced to a sacred banner, as is notably the case with the oriflamme of
France and the Dannebrog of Denmark. Of the latter the legend runs that
King Waldemar of Denmark, leading his troops to battle against the enemy
in 1219, saw at a critical moment a cross in the sky. This was at once
taken as an answer to his prayers, and an assurance of celestial aid. It
was forthwith adopted as the Danish flag and called the "Dannebrog,"
i.e. the strength of Denmark. Apart from all legend, this flag
undoubtedly dates from the 13th century, and the Danish flag is
therefore the oldest now in existence.
The ancient kings of France bore the blue hood of St Martin upon their
standards. The Chape de St Martin was originally in the keeping of the
monks of the abbey of Marmoutier, and the right to take this blue flag
into battle with them was claimed by the counts of Anjou. Clovis bore
this banner against Alaric in 507, for victory was promised him by a
verse of the Psalms which the choir were chanting when his envoy entered
the church of St Martin at Tours. Charlemagne fought under it at the
battle of Narbonne, and it frequently led the French to victory. At what
precise period the oriflamme, which was originally simply the banner of
the abbey of St Denis, supplanted the Chape de St Martin as the sacred
banner of all France is not known. Probably, however, it gradually
became the national flag after the kings of France had transferred the
seat of government to Paris, where the great local saint, St Denis, was
held in high honour, and the banner hung over the tomb of the saint in
the abbey church. The king of France himself was one of the vassals of
the abbey of St Denis for the fief of the Vexin, and it was in his
quality of count of Vexin that Louis VI., le Gros, bore this banner from
the abbey to battle, in 1124. He is credited with having been the first
French king to have taken the banner to war, and it appeared for the
last time on the field of fight at Agincourt in 1415. The accounts also
of its appearance vary considerably. Guillaume Guiart, in his
_Chronicle_ says:--
"Oriflambe est une bannière
De cendal voujoiant et simple
Sans portraiture d'autre affaire."
It would, therefore, seem to have been a plain scarlet flag; whilst an
English authority states "the celestial auriflamb, so by the French
admired, was but of one colour, a square redde banner." The _Chronique
de Flandres_ describes it as having three points with tassels of green
silk attached. The banner of William the Conqueror was sent to him by
the pope, and the early English kings fought under the banners of Edward
the Confessor and St Edmund; while the blended crosses of St George, St
Andrew and St Patrick still form the national ensign of the united
kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland, whose patron saints they
severally were.
[Illustration: FIG. 4--Pennons and Standards from the Bayeux Tapestry.]
The Bayeux tapestry, commemorating the Norman conquest of England,
contains abundant representations of the flags of the period borne upon
the lances of the knights of William's army. They appear small in size,
and pointed, frequently indented into three points and bearing pales,
crosses and roundels. One, a Saxon pennon, is triangular, and roundly
indented into four points; one banner is of segmental shape and rayed,
and bears the figure of a bird, which has been supposed to represent the
raven of the war-flag of the Scandinavian Vikings (fig. 4). In all,
thirty-seven pennons borne on lances by various knights are represented
in the Bayeux tapestry, and of these twenty-eight have triple points,
whilst others have two, four or five. The devices on these pennons are
very varied and distinctive, although the date is prior to the period in
which heraldry became definitely established. In fact, the flags and
their charges are probably not really significant of the people bearing
them; for, even admitting that personal devices were used at the time,
the figures may have been placed without studied intention, and so give
the general figure only of such flags as happened to have come under the
observation of the artists. The figures are probably rather ornamental
and symbolic than strictly heraldic,--that is, personal devices, for the
same insignia do not appear on the shields of the several bearers. The
dragon standard which he is known to have borne is placed near Harold;
but similar figures appear on the shields of Norman warriors, which fact
has induced a writer in the _Journal of the Archaeological Association_
(vol. xiii. p. 113) to suppose that on the spears of the Saxons they
represent only trophies torn from the shields of the Normans, and that
they are not ensigns at all. Standards in form much resembling these
dragons appear on the Arch of Titus and the Trajan column as the
standards of barbarians.
At the battle of the Standard in 1138 the English standard was formed of
the mast of a ship, having a silver pyx at the top and bearing three
sacred banners, dedicated severally to St Peter, St John of Beverley and
St Wilfrid of Ripon, the whole being fastened to a wheeled vehicle.
Representations of three-pointed, cross-bearing pennons are found on
seals of as early date as the Norman era, and the warriors in the first
crusade bore three-pointed pennons. It is possible that the three points
with the three roundels and cross, which so often appear on these
banners, have some reference to the faith of the bearers in the Trinity
and in the Crucifixion, for in contemporary representations of Christ's
resurrection and descent into hell he bears a three-pointed banner with
cross above. The triple indentation so common on the flags of this
period has been supposed to be the origin of one of the honourable
ordinaries--the pile. The "pile," it may be explained, is in the form
of a wedge, and unless otherwise specified in the blazon, occupies the
central portion of the escutcheon, issuing from the middle chief. It
may, however, issue from any other extremity of the shield, and there
may be more than one. More secular characters were, however, not
uncommon. In 1244 Henry III. gave order for a "dragon to be made in
fashion of a standard of red silk sparkling all over with fine gold, the
tongue of which should be made to resemble burning fire and appear to be
continually moving, and the eyes of sapphires or other suitable stones."
_The Siege of Carlaverock_, an Anglo-Norman poem of the 14th century,
describes the heraldic bearings on the banners of the knights at the
siege of that fortress. Of the king himself the writer says:--
"En sa bannière trois luparte
De or fin estoient mis en rouge;"
and he goes on to describe the kingly characteristics these may be
supposed to symbolize. A MS. in the British Museum (one of Sir
Christopher Barker's heraldic collection, Harl. 4632) gives drawings of
the standards of English kings from Edward III. to Henry VIII., which
are roughly but artistically coloured.
The principal varieties of flags borne during the middle ages were the
pennon, the banner and the standard. The "guydhommes" or "guidons,"
"banderolls," "pennoncells," "streamers" or pendants, may be considered
as minor varieties. The pennon (fig. 5, B) was a purely personal ensign,
sometimes pointed, but more generally forked or swallow-tailed at the
end. It was essentially the flag of the knight simple, as apart from the
knight banneret, borne by him on his lance, charged with his personal
armorial bearings so displayed that they stood in true position when he
couched his lance for action. A MS. of the 16th century (Harl. 2358) in
the British Museum, which gives minute particulars as to the size, shape
and bearings of the standards, banners, pennons, guydhommes,
pennoncells, &c., says "a pennon must be two yards and a half long, made
round at the end, and conteyneth the armes of the owner," and warns that
"from a standard or streamer a man may flee but not from his banner or
pennon bearing his arms."
[Illustration: FIG. 5.--A, Labarum from medallion of Constantine; B,
Medieval Pennon; C. Medieval Banner; D., Standard of Henry V.]
A pennoncell (or penselle) was a diminutive pennon carried by the
esquires. Flags of this character were largely used on any special
occasion of ceremony, and more particularly at state funerals. For
instance, we find "XII. doz. penselles" amongst the items that figured
at the funeral of the duke of Norfolk in 1554, and in the description of
the lord mayor's procession in the following year we read of "ij goodly
pennes (state barges) deckt with flages and stremers, and a m (1000)
penselles." Amongst the items that ran the total cost of the funeral of
Oliver Cromwell up to an enormous sum of money, we find mention of
thirty dozen of pennoncells a foot long and costing twenty shillings a
dozen, and twenty dozen of the same kind of flags at twelve shillings a
dozen.
The banner was, in the earlier days of chivalry, a square flag, though
at a later date it is often found greater in length than in depth,
precisely as is the case in the ordinary national flags of to-day. In
some very early examples it is found considerably longer in the depth on
the staff than in its outward projection from the staff. The banner was
charged in a manner exactly similar to the shield of the owner, and it
was borne by knights banneret and all above them in rank. As a rough
guide it may be taken that the banner of an emperor was 6 ft. square; of
a king, 5 ft.; of a prince or duke, 4 ft.; of a marquis, earl, viscount
or baron, 3 ft. square. As the function of the banner was to display the
armorial bearings of the dignitary who had the right to carry it, it is
evident that the square form was the most convenient and akin to the
shield of primal heraldry. In fact, flags were originally heraldic
emblems, though in modern devices the strict laws of heraldry have often
been departed from.
The rank of knights bannerets was higher than that of ordinary knights,
and they could be created on the field of battle only. To create a
knight banneret, the king or commander-in-chief in person tore off the
fly of the pennon on the lance of the knight, thus turning it roughly
into the square flag or banner, and so making the knight a banneret. The
date in which this dignity originated is uncertain, but it was probably
about the period of Edward I. John Chandos is said to have been made a
banneret by the Black Prince and the king of Castile at Najara on the
3rd of April 1367; John of Copeland was made a banneret in the reign of
Edward III., he having taken prisoner David Bruce, the Scottish king, at
the battle of Durham. In more modern times Captain John Smith, of Lord
Bernard Stuart's troop of the King's Guards, who saved the royal banner
from the parliamentary troops at Edgehill, was made a knight banneret by
Charles I. From this time the custom of creating knights banneret ceased
until it was revived by George II. after Dettingen in 1743, when the
dignity was again conferred. It is true, however, that, when in 1763 Sir
William Erskine presented to George III. sixteen stands of colours
captured by his regiment [now the 15th (king's) Hussars] at Emsdorf, he
was raised to the dignity of knight banneret, but as the ceremony was
not performed on the field of battle, the creation was considered
irregular, and his possession of the rank was not generally recognized.
The banner was therefore not only a personal ensign, but it also denoted
that he who bore it was the leader of a military force, large or small
according to his degree or estate. It was, in fact, the battle flag of
the leader who controlled the particular force that followed it into the
fight. Every baron who in time of war had furnished the proper number of
men to his liege was entitled to charge with his arms the banner which
they followed. There could indeed be at present found no better
representative of the medieval "banner" than what we now term the "royal
standard"; it is essentially the personal battle flag of the king of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It and other royal and
imperial standards have now become "standards," inasmuch as they are
to-day used for display in the same fashion, and for the same purposes
as was the "standard" of old. The "gonfalon" or "gonfannon" was a battle
flag differing from the ordinary banner in that it was not attached to
the pole but hung from it crosswise, and was not always square in shape
but serrated, so that the lower edge formed streamers. The gonfalon was
in action borne close to the person of the commander-in-chief and
denoted his position. In certain of the Italian cities chief magistrates
had the privilege of bearing a gonfalon, and for this reason were known
as "gonfaloniere."
The standard (fig. 5, D) was a flag of noble size, long, tapering
towards the fly (the "fly" is that portion of the flag farther from the
pole, the "hoist" the portion of the flag attached to the pole), the
edges of the flag fringed or bordered, and with the ends split and
rounded off. The shape was not, however, by any means uniform during
the middle ages nor were there any definite rules as to its charges. It
varied in size according to the rank of the owner. The Tudor MS.
mentioned above says of the royal standard of that time--"the Standard
to be sett before the king's pavilion or tente, and not to be borne in
battayle; to be in length eleven yards." A MS. of the time of Henry VII.
gives the following dimensions for standards: "The King's had a length
of eight yards; that of a duke, seven; a marquis, six and a half; an
earl, six; a viscount, five and a half; a baron, five; a knight
banneret, four and a half; and a knight four yards." The standard was,
in fact, from its size, and as its very name implies, not meant to be
carried into action, as was the banner, but to denote the actual
position of its possessor on occasions of state ceremonial, or on the
tilting ground, and to denote the actual place occupied by him and his
following when the hosts were assembled in camp preparatory for battle.
It was essentially a flag denoting position, whereas the banner was the
rallying point of its followers in the actual field. Its uses are now
fulfilled, as far as royalties are concerned, by the "banner" which has
now become the "royal standard," and which floats over the palace where
the king is in residence, is hoisted at the saluting point when he
reviews his troops, and is broken from the mainmast of any ship in his
navy the moment that his foot treads its deck. The essential condition
of the standard was that it should always have the cross of St. George
conspicuous in the innermost part of the hoist immediately contiguous to
the staff; the remainder of the flag was then divided fesse-wise by two
or more stripes of colours exactly as the heraldic "ordinary" termed
"fesse" crosses the shield horizontally. The colours used as stripes, as
also those used in the fringe or bordering of the standard, were those
which prevailed in the arms of the bearer or were those of his livery.
The standard here depicted (fig. 5, D) is that of Henry V.; the colours
white and blue, a white antelope standing between two red roses, and in
the interspaces more red roses. To quote again from the Harleian MS.
above mentioned: "Every standard and guidon to have in the chief the
cross of St George, the beast or crest with his devyce and word, and to
be slitt at the end." The motto indeed usually figured on most
standards, though occasionally it was missing. An excellent type of the
old standard is that of the earls of Percy, which bore the blue lion,
the crescent, and the fetterlock--all badges of the family--whilst, as
tokens of matrimonial alliances with the families of Poynings, Bryan and
Fitzpayne, a silver key, a bugle-horn and a falchion were respectively
displayed. There was also the historic Percy motto, _Espérance en Dieu_.
No one, whatsoever his rank, could possess more than one banner, since
it displayed his heraldic arms, which were unchangeable. A single
individual, however, might possess two or three standards since this
flag displayed badges that he could multiply at discretion, and a motto
that he could at any time change. For example, the standards of Henry
VII., mostly green and white--the colours of the Tudor livery--had in
one "a red firye dragon," in another "a donne kowe," in a third "a
silver greyhound and two red roses." The standard was always borne by an
eminent person, and that of Henry V. at Agincourt is supposed to have
been carried upon a car that preceded the king. At Nelson's funeral his
banner and standard were borne in the procession, and around his coffin
were the banderolls--square, bannerlike flags bearing the various arms
of his family lineage. Nelson's standard bore his motto, _Palmam qui
meruit ferat_, but, in lieu of the cross of St George, it bore the union
of the crosses of St George, St Andrew and St Patrick, the medieval
England having expanded into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland. Again, at the funeral of the duke of Wellington we find amongst
the flags his personal banner and standard, and ten banderolls of the
duke's pedigree and descent.
The guidon, a name derived from the Fr. _Guyd-homme_, was somewhat
similar to the standard, but without the cross of St George, rounded at
the end, less elongated and altogether less ornate. It was borne by a
leader of horse, and according to a medieval writer "must be two and a
half yards or three yards long, and therein shall no armes be put, but
only the man's crest, cognisance, and devyce."
The streamer, so called in Tudor days but now better known as the
pennant or pendant, was a long, tapering flag, which it was directed
"shall stand in the top of a ship or in the forecastle, and therein be
put no armes, but the man's cognisance or devyce, and may be of length
twenty, thirty, forty or sixty yards, and is slitt as well as a guidon
or standard." Amongst the fittings of the ship that took Beauchamp, earl
of Warwick, to France in the reign of Henry VII. was a "grete stremour
for the shippe xl yardes in length viij yardes in brede." In the hoist
was "a grete bere holding a raggid staffe," and the rest of the fly
"powdrid full of raggid staves."
NATIONAL FLAGS.--_British._ The royal standard of England was, when it
was hoisted on the Tower on the 1st of January 1801, thus heraldically
described:--"Quarterly; first and fourth, gules, three lions passant
gardant, in pale, or, for England; second, or, a lion rampant, gules,
within a double tressure flory counter flory of the last, for Scotland;
third, azure, a harp or, stringed argent, for Ireland." The present
standard connects in direct descent from the arms of the Conqueror.
These were two leopards passant on a red field, and remained the same
until the reign of Henry II., when lions were substituted for leopards,
and a third added. The next change that took place was in the reign of
Edward III. when the royal arms were for the first time quartered;
_fleurs-de-lis_ in the first and fourth quarters, and the three lions of
England in the second and third. The _fleurs-de-lis_ were assumed in
token of the monarch's claim to the throne of France. In the "coats" of
Edward III. and the two monarchs that succeeded him, the _fleurs-de-lis_
were powdered over a blue ground, but under Henry V. the _fleurs-de-lis_
were reduced in number to three, and the "coat" so devised remained the
same until the death of Queen Elizabeth. The lion of Scotland and the
Irish harp were added to the flag on the accession of James I., and the
flag then had the French and English arms quartered in the first and
fourth quarters, the lion of Scotland, red on a yellow ground, in the
second quarter, and the harp of Ireland, gold on a blue ground, in the
third quarter. With the exception of the period of the Commonwealth, to
which reference will be made later, the flag remained thus until the
accession of William III., who imposed upon the Stuart standard a
central shield carrying the arms of Nassau. Queen Anne made further
alterations; the first and fourth quarters were subdivided, the three
lions of England being in one half, the lion of Scotland in the other.
The _fleurs-de-lis_ were in the second quarter; the Irish harp in the
third. Under George I. and George II. the first, second and third
quarters remained the same, the arms of Hanover being placed in the
fourth quarter, and this continued to be the royal standard until 1801,
when the standard was rearranged as first described with the addition of
the Hanoverian arms displayed on a shield in the centre. On the
accession of Queen Victoria, the Hanoverian arms were removed, and the
flag remained as it to-day exists. It is worthy of note, however, that
in the royal standard of King Edward VII. which hangs in the chapel of
St George at Windsor, the ordinary "winged woman" form of the harp in
the Irish third quartering is altered to a harp of the old Irish
pattern. At King Edward's accession this banner replaced that of Queen
Victoria which for sixty-two years had hung in this, the chapel of the
order of the Garter.
Up to the time of the Stuarts it had been the custom of the lord high
admiral or person in command of the fleet to fly the royal standard as
deputy of the sovereign. When royalty ceased to be, a new flag was
devised by the council of state for the Commonwealth, which comprised
the "arms of England and Ireland in two several escutcheons in a red
flag within a compartment." In other words, it was a red flag containing
two shields, the one bearing the cross of St George, red on a white
ground, the other the harp, gold on a blue ground, and round the shields
was a wreath of palm and shamrock leaves. One of these flags is still in
existence at Chatham dockyard, where it is kept in a wooden chest which
was taken out of a Spanish galleon at Vigo by Admiral Sir George Rooke
in 1704. When Cromwell became protector of the commonwealth of England,
Scotland and Ireland, he devised for himself a personal standard. This
had the cross of St George in the first and fourth quarters, the cross
of St Andrew, a white saltire on a blue ground, in the second, and the
Irish harp in the third. His own arms--a lion on a black shield--were
imposed on the centre of the flag. No one but royalty has a right to fly
the royal standard, and though it is constantly seen flying for purposes
of decoration its use is irregular. There has, however, always been one
exception, namely, that the lord high admiral when in executive command
of a fleet has always been entitled to fly the royal standard. For
example, Lord Howard flew it from the mainmast of the "Ark Royal" when
he defeated the Spanish Armada; the duke of Buckingham flew it as lord
high admiral in the reign of Charles I., and the duke of York fought
under it when he commanded during the Dutch Wars.
The national flag of the British empire is the Union Jack, in which are
combined in union the crosses of St George, St Andrew and St Patrick. St
George had long been a patron saint of England, and his banner, argent,
a cross gules, its national ensign. St Andrew in the same way was the
patron saint of Scotland, and his banner, azure, a saltire argent, the
national ensign of Scotland. On the union of the two crowns James I.
issued a proclamation ordaining that "henceforth all our subjects of
this Isle and Kingdom of Greater Britain and the members thereof, shall
bear in their main-top the red cross commonly called St George's cross,
and the white cross commonly called St Andrew's cross, joined together
according to a form made by our heralds, and sent by us to our admiral
to be published to our said subjects; and in their fore-top our subjects
of south Britain shall wear the red cross only, as they were wont, and
our subjects of north Britain in their fore-top, the white cross only as
they were accustomed." This was the first Union Jack, as it is generally
termed, though strictly the name of the flag is the "Great Union," and
it is only a "Jack" when flown on the jackstaff of a ship of war.
Probably the name of the Stuart king "Jacques," which James I. always
signed, gave the name to the flag, and then to the staff at which it was
hoisted. At the death of Charles I., the union with Scotland being
dissolved, the ships of the parliament reverted to the simple cross of
St George, but the union flag was restored when Cromwell became
protector, with the Irish harp imposed upon its centre. On the
Restoration, Charles II. removed the harp and so the original union flag
was restored, and continued as described until the year 1801, when, on
the legislative union with Ireland, the cross of St Patrick, a saltire
gules, on a field argent, was incorporated in the union flag. To so
combine these three crosses without losing the distinctive features of
each was not easy; each cross must be distinct, and retain equally
distinct its fimbriation, or bordering, which denotes the original
ground. In the first union flag, the red cross of St George with the
white fimbriation that represented-the original white field was simply
imposed upon the white saltire of St Andrew with its blue field. To
place the red saltire of St Patrick on the white saltire of St Andrew
would have been to obliterate the latter, nor would the red saltire have
its proper bordering denoting its original white field; even were the
red saltire narrowed in width the portion of the white saltire that
would appear would not be the St Andrew saltire, but only the
fimbriation appertaining to the saltire of St Patrick. The difficulty
has been got over by making the white broader on one side of the red
than the other. In fact, the continuity of direction of the arms of the
St Patrick red saltire has been broken by its portions being removed
from the centre of the oblique points that form the St Andrew's saltire.
Thus both the Irish and Scottish saltires can be easily distinguished
from one another, whilst the red saltire has its due white fimbriation.
The Union Jack is the most important of all British ensigns, and is
flown by representatives of the empire all the world over. It flies from
the jackstaff of every man-of-war in the navy. With the Irish harp on a
blue shield displayed in the centre, it is flown by the lord-lieutenant
of Ireland. When flown by the governor-general of India the star and
device of the order of the Star of India are borne in the centre.
Colonial governors fly it with the badge of their colony displayed in
the centre. Diplomatic representatives use it with the royal arms in the
centre. As a military flag, it is flown over fortresses and
headquarters, and on all occasions of military ceremonial. Hoisted at
the mainmast of a man-of-war it is the flag of an admiral of the fleet.
Military flags in the shape of regimental standards and colours, and
flags used for signalling, are described elsewhere, and it will here be
only necessary to deal with the navy and admiralty flags.
The origin of the three ensigns--the red, white, and blue--had its
genesis in the navy. In the days of huge fleets, such as prevailed in
the Tudor and Stuart navies, there were, besides the admiral in supreme
command, a vice-admiral as second in command, and a rear-admiral as
third in command, each controlling his own particular group or squadron.
These were designated centre, van, and rear, the centre almost
invariably being commanded by the admiral, the vice-admiral taking the
van and the rear-admiral the rear squadron. In order that any vessel in
any group could distinguish its own admiral's ship, the flagships of
centre, van, and rear flew respectively a plain red, white, or blue
flag, and so came into being those naval ranks of admiral, vice-admiral,
and rear-admiral of the red, white, and blue which continued down to as
late as 1864. As the admiral in supreme command flew the union at the
main, there was no rank of admiral of the red, and it was not until
November 1805 that the rank of admiral of the red was added to the navy
as a special compliment to reward Trafalgar. About 1652, so that each
individual ship in the squadron should be distinguishable as well as the
flagships, each vessel carried a large red, white, or blue flag
according as to whether she belonged to the centre, van, or rear, each
flag having in the left-hand upper corner a canton, as it is termed, of
white bearing the St George's cross. These flags were called ensigns,
and it is, of course, due to the fact that the union with Scotland was
for the time dissolved that they bore only the St George's cross. Even
when the restoration of the Stuarts restored the _status quo_ the cross
of St George still remained alone on the ensign, and it was not altered
until 1707 when the bill for the Union of England and Scotland passed
the English parliament. In 1801, when Ireland joined the Union, the
flag, of course, became as we know it to-day. All these three ensigns
belonged to the royal navy, and continued to do so until 1864, but as
far back as 1707 ships of the mercantile marine were instructed to fly
the red ensign. As ironclads replaced the wooden vessels and fleets
became smaller the inconvenience of three naval ensigns was manifest,
and in 1864 the grades of flag officer were reduced again to admiral,
vice-admiral, and rear-admiral, and the navy abandoned the use of the
red and blue ensigns, retaining only the white ensign as its distinctive
flag. The mercantile marine retained the red ensign which they were
already using, whilst the blue ensign was allotted to vessels employed
on the public service whether home or colonial.
The white ensign is therefore essentially the flag of the royal navy. It
should not be flown anywhere or on any occasion except by a ship (or
shore establishment) of the royal navy, with but one exception. By a
grant of William IV. dating from 1829 vessels belonging to the Royal
Yacht Squadron, the chief of all yacht clubs, are allowed to fly the
white ensign. From 1821 to 1829 ships of the squadron flew the red
ensign, as that of highest dignity, but as it was also used by merchant
ships, they then obtained the grant of the white ensign as being more
distinctive. Some few other yacht clubs flew it until 1842, when the
privilege was withdrawn by an admiralty minute. By some oversight the
order was not conveyed to the Royal Western of Ireland, whose ships flew
the white ensign until in 1857 the usage was stopped. Since that date
the Royal Yacht Squadron has alone had the privilege. Any vessel of any
sort flying the white ensign, or pennant, of the navy is committing a
grave offence, and the ship can be boarded by any officer of His
Majesty's service, the colours seized, the vessel reported to the
authorities, and a penalty inflicted on the owners or captain or both.
The penalty incurred is £500 fine for each offence, as laid down in the
73rd section of the Merchant Shipping Act 1894. In 1883 Lord Annesley's
yacht, belonging to the Royal Yacht Squadron, was detained at the
Dardanelles in consequence of her flying the white ensign of the royal
navy which brought her under the category of a man-of-war, and no
foreign man-of-war is allowed to pass the Dardanelles without first
obtaining an imperial _irade_. Since then owners belonging to the
squadron have been warned that they must either sail their ships through
the straits under the red ensign common to all ships British owned, or
obtain imperial permission if they wish to display the white ensign.
Besides the white ensign the ship of war flies a long streamer from the
maintopgallant masthead. This, which is called a pennant, is flown only
by ships in commission; it is, in fact, the sign of command, and is
first hoisted when a captain commissions his ship. The pennant, which
was really the old "pennoncell," was of three colours for the whole of
its length, and towards the end left separate in two or three tails, and
so continued till the end of the great wars in 1816. Now, however, the
pennant is a long white streamer with the St George's cross in the inner
portion close to the mast. Pennants have been carried by men-of-war from
the earliest times, prior to 1653 at the yard-arm, but since that date
at the maintopgallant masthead.
The blue ensign is exclusively the flag of the public service other than
the royal navy, and is as well the flag of the royal naval reserve. It
is flown also by certain authorized vessels of the British mercantile
marine, the conditions governing this privilege being that the captain
and a certain specified portion of the officers and crew shall belong to
the ranks of the royal naval reserve. When flown by ships belonging to
British government offices the seal or badge of the office is displayed
in the fly. For example, hired transports fly it with the yellow anchor
in the fly; the marine department of the Board of Trade has in the fly
the device of a ship under sail; the telegraph branch of the post-office
shows in the fly a device representing Father Time with his hour-glass
shattered by lightning; the ordnance department displays upon the fly a
shield with a cannon and cannon balls upon it. Certain yacht clubs are
also authorized by special admiralty warrant to fly the blue ensign.
Some of these display it plain; others show in the fly the distinctive
badge of the club. Consuls-general, consuls and consular agents also
have a right to fly the blue ensign, the distinguishing badge in their
case being the royal arms.
The red ensign is the distinguishing flag of the British merchant
service, and special orders to this effect were issued by Queen Anne in
1707, and again by Queen Victoria in 1864. The order of Queen Anne
directed that merchant vessels should fly a red flag "with a Union Jack
described in a canton at the upper corner thereof next the staff," and
this is probably the first time that the term "Union Jack" was
officially used. In some cases those yacht clubs which fly the red
ensign change it slightly from that flown by the merchant service, for
they are allowed to display the badge of the club in the fly. Colonial
merchantmen usually display the ordinary red ensign, but, provided they
have a warrant of authorization from the admiralty, they can use the
ensign with the badge of the colony in the fly.
In regard to ensigns it is important to remember that they are purely
maritime flags, and though the rule is more honoured in the breach than
in the observance, the only flag that a private individual or a
corporation has a right to display on shore is the national flag, the
Union Jack, in its plain condition and without any emblazonment.
There are two other British sea flags which are worthy of brief notice.
These are the admiralty flag and the flag of the master of Trinity
House. The admiralty flag is a plain red flag with a clear anchor in the
centre in yellow. In a sense it is a national flag, for the sovereign
hoists it when afloat in conjunction with the royal standard and the
Union Jack. It would appear to have been first used by the duke of York
as lord high admiral, who flew it when the sovereign was afloat and had
the royal standard flying in another ship. When a board of commissioners
was appointed to execute the office of lord high admiral this was the
flag adopted, and in 1691 we find the admiralty, minuting the navy
board, then a subordinate department, "requiring and directing it to
cause a fitting red silk flag, with the anchor and cable therein, to be
provided against Tuesday morning next, for the barge belonging to this
board." In 1725, presumably as being more pretty and artistic, the cable
in the device was twisted round the stock of the anchor. It was thus
made into a "foul anchor," the thing of all others that a sailor most
hates, and this despite the fact that the first lord at the time, the
earl of Berkeley, was himself a sailor. The anchor retained its
unseamanlike appearance, and was not "cleared" till 1815, and even to
this day the buttons of the naval uniform bear a "foul anchor." The
"anchor" flag is solely the emblem of an administrative board; it does
not carry the executive or combatant functions which are vested in the
royal standard, the union or an admiral's flag, but on two occasions it
has been made use of as an executive flag. In 1719 the earl of Berkeley,
who at the time was not only first lord of the admiralty, but
vice-admiral of England, obtained the special permission of George I. to
hoist it at the main instead of the union flag. Again in 1869, when Mr
Childers, then first lord, accompanied by some members of his board,
went on board the "Agincourt" he hoisted the admiralty flag and took
command of the combined Mediterranean and Channel squadrons, thus
superseding the flags of the two distinguished officers who at the time
were in command of these squadrons. It is hardly necessary to add that
throughout the navy there was a very distinct feeling of dissatisfaction
at the innovation. When the admiralty flag is flown by the sovereign it
is hoisted at the fore, his own standard being of course at the main,
and the union at the mizzen.
The flag of the master of the Trinity House is the red cross of St
George on its white ground, but with an ancient ship on the waves in
each quarter; in the centre is a shield with a precisely similar device
and surmounted by a lion.
The sign of a British admiral's command afloat is always the same. It is
the St George's cross. Of old it was borne on the main, the fore, or the
mizzen, according as to whether the officer to whom it pertained was
admiral, vice-admiral, or rear-admiral, but, as ironclads superseded
wooden ships, and a single pole mast took the place of the old three
masts, a different method of indicating rank was necessitated. To-day
the flag of an admiral is a square one, the plain St George's cross.
When flown by a vice-admiral it bears a red ball on the white ground in
the upper canton next to the staff; if flown by a rear-admiral there is
a red ball in both the upper and lower cantons. As nowadays most
battleships have two masts, the admiral's flag is hoisted at the one
which has no masthead semaphore. The admiral's flag is always a square
one, but that of a commodore is a broad white pennant with the St
George's cross. If the commodore be first class the flag is plain; if of
the second class the flag has a red ball in the upper canton next to the
staff. The same system of differentiating rank prevails in most navies,
though very often a star takes the place of the ball. In some cases,
however, the indications of rank are differently shown. For instance,
both in the Russian and Japanese navies the distinction is made by a
line of colour on the upper or lower edges of the flag.
The flags of the British colonies are the same as those of the mother
country, but differentiated by the badge of the colony being placed in
the centre of the flag if it is the Union Jack, or in the fly if it be
the blue or red ensign. Examples of these are shown in the Plate, where
the blue ensign illustrated is that of New Zealand, the device of the
colony being the southern cross in the fly. Precisely the same flag,
with a large six-pointed star, emblematic of the six states immediately
under the union, forms the flag of the federated commonwealth of
Australia. The red ensign shown is that of the Dominion of Canada, the
device in the fly being the armorial bearings of the Dominion. As the
lord-lieutenant of Ireland, as the representative of royalty, flies the
Union Jack with a harp in the centre, or the viceroy of India flies the
same flag with, in the centre, the badge of the order of the Star of
India, so too colonial governors or high commissioners fly the union
flag with the arms of the colony they preside over on a white shield in
the centre and surrounded by a laurel wreath. In the case of Canada the
wreath, however, is not of laurel but of maple, which is the special
emblem of the Dominion.
_French._--To come to flags of other countries, nowhere have historical
events caused so much change in the standards and national ensigns of a
country as in the case of France. The oriflamme and the Chape de St
Martin were succeeded at the end of the 16th century, when Henry III.,
the last of the house of Valois, came to the throne, by the white
standard powdered with _fleurs-de-lis_. This in turn gave place to the
famous tricolour. The tricolour was introduced at the time of the
Revolution, but the origin of this flag and its colours is a disputed
question. Some maintain that the intention was to combine in the flag
the blue of the Chape de St Martin, the red of the oriflamme, and the
white flag of the Bourbons. By others the colours are said to be those
of the city of Paris. Yet again, other authorities assert that the flag
is copied from the shield of the Orleans family as it appeared after
Philippe Égalité had knocked off the _fleurs-de-lis_. The tricolour is
divided vertically into three parts of equal width--blue, white and red,
the red forming the fly, the white the middle, and the blue the hoist of
the flag. During the first and second empires the tricolour became the
imperial standard, but in the centre of the white stripe was placed the
eagle, whilst all three stripes were richly powdered over with the
golden bees of the Napoleons. The tricolour is now the sole flag of
France.
_American._--Before the Declaration of Independence the flags of those
colonies which now form the United States of America were very various.
In the early days of New England the Puritans objected to the red cross
of St George, not from any disloyalty to the mother country, but from a
conscientious objection to what they deemed an idolatrous symbol. By the
year 1700 most of the colonies had devised badges to distinguish their
vessels from those of England and of each other. In the early stages of
the revolution each state adopted a flag of its own; thus, that of
Massachusetts bore a pine tree, South Carolina displayed a rattlesnake,
New York had a white flag with a black beaver, and Rhode Island a white
flag with a blue anchor upon it. Even after the Declaration of
Independence, and the introduction of the stars and stripes, the latter
underwent many changes in the manner of their arrangement before taking
the position at present established. In 1775 a committee was appointed
to consider the question of a single flag for the thirteen states. It
recommended that the union be retained in the upper corner next to the
staff, the remainder of the field of the flag to be of thirteen
horizontally disposed stripes, alternately red and white. This flag,
curiously enough, was precisely the same as the flag of the old
Honourable East India Company. On the 14th of June 1777 congress
resolved "that the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes,
alternate red and white; that the Union be thirteen stars, white in a
blue field, representing a new constellation." This was the origin of
the national flag, but at first, as the number of the stripes were
unequal, the flag very often varied, sometimes having seven white and
six red stripes, and at other times seven red and six white, and it was
not for some considerable time that it was authoritatively laid down
that the latter arrangement was the one to be adopted. It has also been
held that the stars and stripes of the American national flag, as well
as the eagle, were suggested by the crest and arms of the Washington
family. The latter supposition is absurd, for the Washington crest was a
raven. The Washington arms were a white shield having two horizontal red
bars, and above these a row of three red stars. This might, by a stretch
of imagination, be supposed to have inspired the original idea of the
flag which was that each state in the Union should be represented in the
national flag by a star and stripe. Naturally other states coming into
the Union expected the same privilege. After Vermont in 1790 and
Kentucky in 1792 had entered the Union, the stars and stripes were
changed in number from thirteen to fifteen. Later on other states
joined, and soon the flag came to consist of twenty stars and stripes.
It was, however, found objectionable to be constantly altering the
national flag, and in the year 1818 it was determined to go back to the
original thirteen stripes, but to place a star for each state in the
blue union canton in the top corner of the flag next the staff. Thus the
stars always show the exact number of states that are in the Union,
whilst the stripes denote the original number of the states that formed
the union.[1] The presidential flag of the president of the United
States is an eagle on a blue field, bearing on its breast a shield
displaying stripes, and above the national motto _E pluribus unum_, and
a design of the stars of the original thirteen states of the union.
_Other Countries._--The most general and important of the various
national flags are figured in the Plate. In the top line representing
Great Britain are shown the royal standard, the Union Jack (the national
flag), the white ensign of the royal navy, the blue ensign of government
service, and the red ensign of the commercial marine, colonial flags
being shown in the case of the two latter ensigns. The two Japanese
flags shown are the man-of-war ensign--a rising sun, generally known as
the sun-burst--and the flag of the mercantile marine, in which the red
ball is used without the rays and placed in the centre of the white
field. The imperial standard of Japan is a golden chrysanthemum on a red
field. It is essential that the chrysanthemum should invariably have
sixteen petals. Heraldry in Japan is of a simpler character than that of
Europe, and is practically limited to the employment of "Mon," which
correspond very nearly to the "crests" of European heraldry. The great
families of Japan possess at least one, and in many cases even three,
"Mon." The imperial family use two, the one _Kiku no go Mon_ (the august
chrysanthemum crest) and _Kiri no go Mon_ (the august Kiri crest). The
first represents the sixteen-petalled chrysanthemum, and, although the
use of the chrysanthemum flower as a badge is not necessarily confined
to the imperial family, they alone have the right to use the
sixteen-petalled form. If used by any other family, or society or
corporation, it must be with a number of petals less or more than
sixteen. The second imperial "Mon" is composed of three leaves and three
flower spikes of the Kiri (_Paulownia imperialis_). This, however, is
not displayed as an official emblem, that being reserved for the
chrysanthemum. The Kiri is used for more private purposes. For example,
the chrysanthemum figures in the imperial standard, and the Kiri "Mon"
adorns the harness of the emperor's horses. It is very probable that the
chrysanthemum crest did not originally represent the chrysanthemum
flower at all but the sun with sixteen rays, and it will be noticed that
in the "sun-burst" flag the sun's rays are sixteen in number. The use of
the number sixteen is probably traceable to Chinese geomantic ideas.
The German imperial navy and mercantile marine flags are next
depicted. The "iron cross" in the navy flag is that of the Teutonic
Order, and dates from the close of the 12th century. For five
centuries black and white have been the Hohenzollern colours, and the
first verse of the German war song, _Ich bin ein Preusse_, runs:--
"I am a Prussian! Know ye not my banner?
Before me floats my flag of black and white!
My fathers died for freedom, 'twas their manner,
So say these colours floating in your sight."
The mercantile marine tricolour of black, white and red is emblematic
of the joining of the Hohenzollern black and white with the red and
white, which was the ensign of the Hanseatic League. This flag came
into being when the North German Confederacy was established (November
25th, 1867) at the close of the Austro-Prussian War.
The German imperial standard has the iron cross with its white border
displayed on a yellow field, diapered over in each of the four
quarters with three black eagles and a crown. In the centre of the
cross is a shield bearing the arms of Prussia surmounted by a crown,
and surrounded by a collar of the Order of the Black Eagle. In the
four arms of the crown are the legend _Gott mit uns_ 1870. The United
States flag and the tricolour of France have already been fully dealt
with, and in both countries the one flag is common to both men-of-war
and ships of the mercantile marine.
The next depicted are the imperial navy and the mercantile marine
flags of the Austro-Hungarian empire. In the latter the introduction
of the green half stripe denotes the combination of the Austrian red,
white and red with the Hungarian red, white and green. The shields
with which the flag is charged contain respectively the arms of
Austria and of Hungary. The former shield only is borne on the
man-of-war ensign, and displays the heraldic device of the ancient
dukes of Austria, which dates back to the year 1191. The Austrian
imperial standard has, on a yellow ground, the black double-headed
eagle, on the breast and wings of which are imposed shields bearing
the arms of the provinces of the empire. The flag is bordered all
round, the border being composed of equal-sided triangles with their
apices alternately inwards and outwards, those with their apices
pointing inwards being alternately yellow and white, the others
alternately scarlet and black.
The green, white and red Italian tricolour was adopted in 1805, when
Napoleon I. formed Italy into one kingdom. It was adopted again in
1848 by the Nationalists of the peninsula, accepted by the king of
Sardinia, and, charged by him with the arms of Savoy, it became the
flag of a united Italy. The man-of-war flag is precisely similar to
that of the mercantile marine, except that in the case of the former
the shield of Savoy is surmounted by a crown. The royal standard is a
blue flag. In the centre is a black eagle crowned and displaying on
its breast the arms of Savoy, the whole surrounded by the collar of
the Most Sacred Annunziata, the third in rank of all European orders.
In each corner of the flag is the royal crown.
For Portugal the flag is one of the few national flags that are
parti-coloured. It is half blue, half white, with, in the centre, the
arms of Portugal surmounted by the royal crown, and it is the same
both in the mercantile marine and in the Portuguese navy. The royal
standard of Portugal is an all-red flag charged in the centre with the
royal arms, as shown in the national flag.
In the Spanish ensigns red and yellow are the prevailing colours, and
here again the arrangement differs from that generally used. The navy
flag has a yellow central stripe, with red above and below. To be
correct the yellow should be half the width of the flag, and each of
the red stripes a quarter of the width of the flag. The central yellow
stripe is charged in the hoist with an escutcheon containing the arms
of Castile and Leon, and surmounted by the royal crown. In the
mercantile flag the yellow centre is without the escutcheon, and is
one-third of the entire depth of the flag, the remaining thirds being
divided into equal stripes of red and yellow, the yellow above in the
upper part of the flag, the red in the lower. Of all royal standards
that of Spain is the most elaborate, for it contains quarterings of
the Spanish royal escutcheon, many of the bearings being as much an
anachronism as if the royal arms of England were to-day to be
quartered with the _fleur-de-lis_. In all, the quarterings displayed
are those of Leon, Castile, Aragon, Sicily, Austria, Burgundy,
Flanders, Antwerp, Brabant, Portugal and France. The flag is usually
depicted as composed entirely of the quarterings. We believe, however,
that it is more correctly a purple flag in the centre of which the
quarterings are displayed on an oval shield surmounted by a crown and
encircled by the collar of the order of the Golden Fleece.
The flag of the Russian mercantile marine is a horizontal tricolour of
white, blue and red. Originally, it was a tricolour of blue, white and
red, and it is said that the idea of its colouring was taken by Peter
the Great when learning shipbuilding in Holland, for as the flag then
stood it was simply the Dutch ensign reversed. Later, to make it more
distinctive, the blue and white stripes changed places, leaving the
tricolour as it stands to-day. The flag of the Russian navy is the
blue saltire of St Andrew on a white ground. St Andrew is the patron
saint of Russia, from whence the emblem. The imperial standard is of a
character akin to that of Austria; the ground is yellow, and the
centre bears the imperial double-headed eagle, a badge that dates back
to 1472, when Ivan the Great married a niece of Constantine
Palaeologus and assumed the arms of the Greek empire. On the breast of
the eagle is an escutcheon charged with the emblem of St George and
the Dragon on a red ground, and this is surrounded by the collar of
the order of St Andrew. On the splayed wings of the eagle are small
shields bearing the arms of the various provinces of the empire.
The Rumanian flag is a blue, yellow and red tricolour, the stripes
vertical, with the blue stripe forming the fly. The Servian flag is a
horizontal tricolour, the top stripe red, the middle blue and the
lower white. When these tricolours are flown as royal standards the
royal arms are displayed on the central stripe. The flag of Montenegro
is a horizontal tricolour, the top stripe red, the centre blue, the
lowermost white. The Bulgarian flag is a similar tricolour, white,
green and red, the white stripe uppermost, but when flown as a war
ensign there is a canton in the upper corner of the hoist in which is
a golden lion on a red ground.
The flags of all the three Scandinavian kingdoms are somewhat similar
in design. That of Denmark, the Dannebrog, has been already alluded
to, and it is shown in our illustration as flown by the Danish navy.
The mercantile marine flag is precisely similar, but rectangular
instead of being swallow-tailed. The Swedish flag is a yellow cross on
a blue ground. When flown from a man-of-war it is forked as in the
Danish, but the longer arm of the cross is not cut off but pointed,
thus making it a three-pointed flag as illustrated. For the mercantile
marine the flag is rectangular. When Norway separated from Denmark in
1814, the first flag was red with a white cross on it, and the arms of
Norway in the upper corner of the hoist, but as this was found to
resemble too closely the Danish flag, a blue cross with a white border
was substituted for the white cross. This, it will be seen, is the
Danish flag with a blue cross imposed upon the white one. For a
man-of-war the flag is precisely similar to that of Sweden in shape;
that is to say, converted from the rectangular into the three-pointed
design. While Sweden and Norway remained united the flag of each
remained distinct, but each bore in the top canton of the hoist a
union device, being the combination of the Norwegian and Swedish
national colours and crosses. In each of the three above nationalities
the flag used for a royal standard is the man-of-war flag with the
royal arms imposed on the centre of the cross.
The Belgian tricolour is vertical, the stripes being black next the
hoist, yellow in the centre and red in the fly. That of the
Netherlands is a horizontal tricolour, red above, white in the centre
and blue below. In both countries the same flag is common to both navy
and mercantile marine, but when the flag is used as a royal standard
the royal arms are displayed in the central stripe. The black, yellow
and red of the Belgian flag are the colours of the duchy of Brabant,
and were adopted in 1831 when the monarchy was founded. The original
Dutch colours adopted when Holland declared its independence were
orange, white and blue, the colours of the house of Orange, and when
and how the orange became red is not quite clear, though it was
certainly prior to 1643.
The blue and white which form the colouring of the Greek flag shown in
our illustration are the colours of the house of Bavaria, and were
adopted in 1832, when Prince Otho of Bavaria was elected to the throne
of Greece. The stripes are nine in number--five blue and four
white--with, in the upper corner of the hoist, a canton bearing a
white cross on a blue ground. The flag for the royal navy is similar
to that flown by the mercantile marine, with the exception that it has
the addition of a golden crown in the centre of the cross. The royal
standard is a blue flag with a white cross, on the centre of which the
royal arms are imposed. The cross is exactly similar to that in the
Danish flag, that is to say, the arms of the cross are not of equal
length, the shorter end being in the hoist of the flag.
The very simple flag of Switzerland is one of great antiquity, for it
was the emblem of the nation as far back as 1339, and probably
considerably earlier. In addition to the national flag of the Swiss
confederation, each canton has its own cantonal colours. In each case
the flag has its stripes disposed horizontally. Basel, for instance,
is half black, half white; Berne, half black, half red; Glarus, red,
black and white, &c., &c.
The Turkish crescent moon and star were the device adopted by Mahomet
II. when he captured Constantinople in 1453. Originally they were the
symbol of Diana, the patroness of Byzantium, and were adopted by the
Ottomans as a triumph, for they had always been the special emblem of
Constantinople, and even now in Moscow and elsewhere the crescent
emblem and the cross may be seen combined in Russian churches, the
crescent badge, of course, indicating the Byzantine origin of the
Russian church. The symbol originated at the time of the siege of
Constantinople by Philip the father of Alexander the Great, when a
night attempt of the besiegers to undermine the walls was betrayed by
the light of a crescent moon, and in acknowledgment of their escape
the Byzantines raised a statue to Diana, and made her badge the symbol
of the city. Both the man-of-war and mercantile marine flags are the
same, but the imperial standard of the sultan is scarlet, and bears in
its centre the device of the reigning sovereign. This device is known
as the "Tughra," and consists of the name of the sultan, the title of
khan, and the epithet _al-Muzaffar Daima_, which means "the ever
victorious." The origin of the "Tughra" is that the sultan Murad I.,
who was not of scholarly parts, signed a treaty by wetting his open
hand with ink, and pressing it on the paper, the first, second and
third fingers making smears close together, the thumb and fourth
finger leaving marks apart. Within the marks thus made the scribes
wrote in the name of Murad, his title, and the epithet above quoted.
The "Tughra" dates from the latter part of the 14th century. The
smaller characters in the "Tughra" change, of course, on the accession
of every fresh sovereign, but the leading form of the device always
remains the same, namely, rounded lines to the left denoting the
thumb, lines to the right denoting where the little finger made
impression, and three upright lines indicating the other fingers.
The Mahommedan states tributary to Turkey also display the crescent
and star. Morocco, Muscat and other Arab states where they use an
ensign display a red flag, that of the Zanzibar protectorate having
the British union in the centre of the red field.
The Persian flag is white with a border, green on the upper edge of
the flag and in the fly, and red in the hoist and on the lower edge.
On the white ground are the lion and sun.
The flag of Siam is a white elephant on a red ground. That of Korea,
a white flag with, in the centre, a ball, half red, half blue, the
colours being curiously intermixed, the whole being precisely as if
two large commas of equal size, one red and the other blue, were
united to form a complete circle.
The Chinese flag is a yellow one, bearing on it the emblem of the
dragon devouring the sun. As at present used, it is a square flag, but
an earlier version was a triangular right-angled flag, hoisted with
the right-angle in the base of the hoist. The merchant flag is red
with a yellow ball in the centre.
Among the South American republics the Brazilian flag is peculiar
inasmuch as it is the only national flag which carries a motto.
Mexico flies precisely the same tricolour as Italy, but plain in the
case of the merchant ensign, and charged on the central stripe with
the Mexican arms (as illustrated) when flown as a man-of-war ensign.
The Argentine flag is as illustrated flown by the navy, but, when used
by the mercantile marine, the sun emblazoned on the central white
stripe is omitted, the flag otherwise being precisely the same.
The Venezuelan flag shown is also that of the navy. The flag of the
mercantile marine is the same, but the shield bearing the arms of the
state is not introduced into the yellow top stripe in the corner near
the hoist, as in the naval flag.
The Chilean ensign illustrated is used alike by men-of-war and vessels
in the mercantile marine, but, when flown as the standard of the
president, the Chilean arms and supporters are placed in the centre of
the flag.
The plain red, white, red in vertical stripes, is the flag of the
mercantile marine of Peru, and becomes the naval ensign when charged
on the central stripe with the Peruvian arms as shown in our
illustration. In fact, in nearly every case with the South American
republics, the ordinary mercantile marine flag becomes that of the war
navy by the addition of the national arms, and in some cases is used
in the same way as a presidential flag.
In nearly every case the flags of the lesser American republics are
tricolours, and in a very great many of them the flags are by no means
such combinations as would meet with the approval of European heralds.
All flag devising should be in accordance with heraldic laws, and one
of the most important of these is that colour should not be placed on
colour, nor metal on metal, yellow in blazonry being the equivalent of
gold and white of silver. Hence, properly devised tricolours are such
as, for example, those of France, where the red and blue are divided
by white, or Belgium, where the black and red are divided by yellow.
On the other hand, the yellow, blue, red of Venezuela is heraldically
an abomination.
_Manufacture and Miscellaneous Uses._--Flags, the manufacture, of which
is quite a large industry, are almost invariably made from bunting, a
very light, tough and durable woollen material. The regulation bunting
as used in the navy is made in 9 in. widths, and the flag classes in
size according to the number of breadths of bunting of which it is
composed. The great centre of the manufacture of flags, as far as the
royal navy is concerned, is the dockyard at Chatham. Ensigns and Jacks
are made in different sizes; the largest ensign made is 33 ft. long by
16½ ft. in width; the largest Jack issued is 24 ft. long and 12 ft.
wide.
The dimensions of a flag according to heraldry should be either square
or in the proportion of two to one, and it is this latter dimension that
is used in the navy and generally.
Signalling flags are dealt with elsewhere (see SIGNAL), and here it will
only be necessary to make brief allusion to some international customs
with regard to the use of flags to indicate certain purposes. For long a
blood-red flag has always been used as a symbol of mutiny or of
revolution. The black flag was in days gone by the symbol of the pirate;
to-day, in the only case in which it survives, it is flown after an
execution to indicate that the requirements of the law have been duly
carried out. All over the world a yellow flag is the signal of
infectious illness. A ship hoists it to denote that there are some on
board suffering from yellow fever, cholera or some such infectious
malady, and it remains hoisted until she has received quarantine. This
flag is also hoisted on quarantine stations. The white flag is
universally used as a flag of truce.
At the sea striking of the flag denotes surrender. When the flag of one
country is placed over that of another the victory of the former is
denoted, hence in time of peace it would be an insult to hoist the flag
of one friendly nation above that of another. If such were done by
mistake, say in "dressing ship" for instance, an apology would have to
be made. This custom of hoisting the flag of the vanquished beneath that
of the victor is of comparatively modern date, as up to about a century
ago the sign of victory was to trail the enemy's flag over the taffrail
in the water. Each national flag must be flown from its own flagstaff,
and this is often seen when the allied forces of two or more powers are
in joint occupation of a town or territory. To denote honour and respect
a flag is "dipped." Ships at sea salute each other by "dipping" the
flag, that is to say, by running it smartly down from the masthead, and
then as quickly replacing it. When troops parade before the sovereign
the regimental flags are lowered as they salute him. A flag flying
half-mast high is the universal symbol of mourning. When a ship has to
make the signal of distress, this is done by hoisting the national
ensign reversed, that is to say, upside down. If it is wished to
accentuate the imminence of the danger it is done by making the flag
into a "weft," that is, by knotting it in the middle. This means of
showing distress at sea is of very ancient usage, for in naval works
written as far back as the reign of James I. we find the "weft"
mentioned as a method of showing distress.
We have already alluded to the Union Jack as used for denoting
nationality, and as a flag of command, but it also serves many other
purposes. For instance, if a court-martial is being held on board any
ship the Union Jack is displayed while the court is sitting, its
hoisting being accompanied by the firing of a gun. In a fleet in company
the ship that has the guard for the day flies it. With a white border it
forms the signal for a pilot, and in this case is known as a Pilot Jack.
In all combinations of signalling flags which denote a ship's name the
Union Jack forms a unit. Lastly, it figures as the pall of every sailor
or soldier of the empire who receives naval or military honours at his
funeral.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--See _Flags: Some Account of their History and Uses_, by
A. MacGeorge (1881); _National Banners: Their History and
Construction_, by W. Bland (1892) (one of a series of Heraldic Tracts,
1850-1892, Br. Museum Library, No. 9906, b. 9; this pamphlet gives the
design of the national banners of St George, St Andrew and St Patrick,
and illustrates and tells the story of the composition of the three
flags into the great union flag, commonly known as the Union Jack);
_Our Flags: Their Origin, Use and Traditions_, by Rear-Admiral S.
Eardley-Wilmot (1901), an excellent treatise, historical and
narrative, on all the flags of the British empire; _A History of the
Flag of the United States_ (Boston, 1872), by G.H. Preble; _Flags of
the World: Their History, Blazonry and Associations_, by Edward Hulme,
F.L.S., F.S.A. (1897), a most complete monograph on the subject,
illustrated with a very complete series of plates; _Admiralty Book of
Flags of all Nations_, printed for H.M. Stationery office, 1889, kept
up to date by the publication periodically of Errata, officially
issued under an admiralty covering letter; _Flags of Maritime
Nations_, prepared by the Bureau of Equipment department of the navy,
printed by authority (Washington, 1899). The last two works have no
letterpress beyond titles, but contain, to scale, delineations of all
the flags at present used officially by all nations. Between the two
there are no discrepancies, and the delineation of a flag taken from
either may be assumed as absolutely correct. Both are respectively the
guides for flag construction in the royal navy and the United States
navy. (H. L. S.)
FOOTNOTE:
[1] By the admission of Oklahoma as a state in 1907 the number of
stars became 46, arranged from the top in horizontal rows thus: 8, 7,
8, 7, 8, 8 = 46.
FLAGELLANTS (from Lat. _flagellare_, to whip), in religion, the name
given to those who scourge themselves, or are scourged, by way of
discipline or penance. Voluntary flagellation, as a form of exalted
devotion, occurs in almost all religions. According to Herodotus (ii.
40. 61), it was the custom of the ancient Egyptians to beat themselves
during the annual festival in honour of their goddess Isis. In Sparta
children were flogged before the altar of Artemis Orthia till the blood
flowed (Plutarch, _Instit. Laced._ 40). At Alea, in the Peloponnese,
women were flogged in the temple of Dionysus (Pausanias, Arcad. 23). The
priests of Cybele, or _archigalli_, submitted to the discipline in the
temple of the goddess (Plutarch, _Adv. Colot._ p. 1127; Apul., _Metam._
viii. 173). At the Roman Lupercalia women were flogged by the celebrants
to avert sterility or as a purificatory ceremony (W. Mannhardt, _Mythol.
Forsch._, Strassburg, 1884, p. 72 seq.).
Ritual flagellation existed among the Jews, and, according to Buxtorf
(_Synagoga judaica_, Basel, 1603), was one of the ceremonies of the day
of the Great Pardon. In the Christian church flagellation was originally
a punishment, and was practised not only by parents and schoolmasters,
but also by bishops, who thus corrected offending priests and monks (St
Augustine, _Ep. 159 ad Marcell._; cf. _Conc. Agd._ 506, can. ii.).
Gradually, however, voluntary flagellation appeared in the _libri
poenitentiales_ as a very efficacious means of penance. In the 11th
century this new form of devotion was extolled by some of the most
ardent reformers in the monastic houses of the west, such as Abbot Popon
of Stavelot, St Dominic Loricatus (so called from his practice of
wearing next his skin an iron _lorica_, or cuirass of thongs), and
especially Cardinal Pietro Damiani. Damiani advocated the substitution
of flagellation for the recitation of the penitential psalms, and drew
up a scale according to which 1000 strokes were equivalent to ten
psalms, and 15,000 to the whole psalter. The majority of these reformers
exemplified their preaching in their own persons, and St Dominic gained
great renown by inflicting upon himself 300,000 strokes in six days. The
custom of collective flagellation was introduced into the monastic
houses, the ceremony taking place every Friday after confession.
The early Franciscans flagellated themselves with characteristic rigour,
and it is no matter of surprise to find the Franciscan, St Anthony of
Padua, preaching the praises of this means of penance. It is incorrect,
however, to suppose that St Anthony took any part in the creation of the
flagellant fraternities, which were the result of spontaneous popular
movements, and later than the great Franciscan preacher; while Ranieri,
a monk of Perugia, to whom the foundation of these strange communities
has been attributed, was merely the leader of the flagellant brotherhood
in that region. About 1259 these fraternities were distributed over the
greater part of northern Italy. The contagion spread very rapidly,
extending as far as the Rhine provinces, and, across Germany, into
Bohemia. Day and night, long processions of all classes and ages, headed
by priests carrying crosses and banners, perambulated the streets in
double file, reciting prayers and drawing the blood from their bodies
with leathern thongs. The magistrates in some of the Italian towns, and
especially Uberto Pallavicino at Milan, expelled the flagellants with
threats, and for a time the sect disappeared. The disorders of the 14th
century, however, the numerous earthquakes, and the Black Death, which
had spread over the greater part of Europe, produced a condition of
ferment and mystic fever which was very favourable to a recrudescence of
morbid forms of devotion. The flagellants reappeared, and made the state
of religious trouble in Germany, provoked by the struggle between the
papacy and Louis of Bavaria, subserve their cause. In the spring of 1349
bands of flagellants, perhaps from Hungary, began their propaganda in
the south of Germany. Each band was under the command of a leader, who
was assisted by two lieutenants; and obedience to the leader was
enjoined upon every member on entering the brotherhood. The flagellants
paid for their own personal maintenance, but were allowed to accept
board and lodging, if offered. The penance lasted 33½ days, during which
they flogged themselves with thongs fitted with four iron points. They
read letters which they said had fallen from heaven, and which
threatened the earth with terrible punishments if men refused to adopt
the mode of penance taught by the flagellants. On several occasions they
incited the populations of the towns through which they passed against
the Jews, and also against the monks who opposed their propaganda. Many
towns shut their gates upon them; but, in spite of discouragement, they
spread from Poland to the Rhine, and penetrated as far as Holland and
Flanders. Finally, a band of 100 marched from Basel to Avignon to the
court of Pope Clement VI., who, in spite of the sympathy shown them by
several of his cardinals, condemned the sect as constituting a menace to
the priesthood. On the 20th of October 1349 Clement published a bull
commanding the bishops and inquisitors to stamp out the growing heresy,
and in pursuance of the pope's orders numbers of the sectaries perished
at the stake or in the cells of the inquisitors and the episcopal
justices. In 1389 the leader of a flagellant band in Italy called the
_bianchi_ was burned by order of the pope, and his following dispersed.
In 1417, however, the Spanish Dominican St Vincent Ferrer pleaded the
cause of the flagellants with great warmth at the council of Constance,
and elicited a severe reply from John Gerson (_Epistola ad
Vincentium_), who declared that the flagellants were showing a tendency
to slight the sacramental confession and penance, were refusing to
perform the _cultus_ of the martyrs venerated by the church, and were
even alleging their own superiority to the martyrs.
The justice of Gerson's protest was borne out by events. In Germany, in
1414, there was a recrudescence of the epidemic of flagellation, which
then became a clearly-formulated heresy. A certain Conrad Schmidt placed
himself at the head of a community of Thuringian flagellants, who took
the name of Brethren of the Cross. Schmidt gave himself out as the
incarnation of Enoch, and prophesied the approaching fall of the Church
of Rome, the overthrow of the ancient sacraments, and the triumph of
flagellation as the only road to salvation. Numbers of Beghards joined
the Brethren of the Cross, and the two sects were confounded in the
rigorous persecution conducted in Germany by the inquisitor Eylard
Schöneveld, who almost annihilated the flagellants. This mode of
devotion, however, held its ground among the lower ranks of Catholic
piety. In the 16th century it subsisted in Italy, Spain and southern
France. Henry III. of France met with it in Provence, and attempted to
acclimatize it at Paris, where he formed bands divided into various
orders, each distinguished by a different colour. The king and his
courtiers joined in the processions in the garb of penitents, and
scourged themselves with ostentation. The king's encouragement seemed at
first to point to a successful revival of flagellation; but the practice
disappeared along with the other forms of devotion that had sprung up at
the time of the league, and Henry III.'s successor suppressed the Paris
brotherhood. Flagellation was occasionally practised as a means of
salvation by certain Jansenist convulsionaries in the 18th century, and
also, towards the end of the 18th century, by a little Jansenist sect
known as the Fareinists, founded by the brothers Bonjour, _curés_ of
Fareins, near Trévoux (Ain). In 1820 a band of flagellants appeared
during a procession at Lisbon; and in the Latin countries, at the season
of great festivals, one may still see brotherhoods of penitents
flagellating themselves before the assembled faithful.
For an account of flagellation in antiquity see S. Reinach, _Cultes,
mythes et religions_ (vol. i. pp. 173-183, 1906), which contains a
bibliography of the subject. For a bibliography of the practice in
medieval times, see M. Röhricht, "Bibliographische Beiträge zur Gesch.
der Geissler" in _Briegers Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte_, i. 313.
(P. A.)
FLAGELLATA, the name given to the Protozoa whose dominant phase is a
"flagellula," or cell-body provided with one, few or rarely many long
actively vibratile, cytoplasmic processes. Nutrition is variable:--(1)
"Holozoic"; food taken in by ingestion, by amoeboid action either
unspecialized or at one or more well-defined oral spots, or through an
aperture (mouth); (2) "Saprophytic"; food taken in in solution through
the general surface of the body; (3) "Holophytic"; food-material formed
in the coloured plasm by fixation of carbon from the medium, with
liberation of oxygen, in presence of light, as in green plants. Fission
in the "active" state occurs and is usually longitudinal. Multiple
fission rarely occurs save in a sporocyst, and produces microzoospores,
which in some cases may conjugate with others as isogametes or with
larger forms (megagametes). "Hypnocysts" to tide over unfavourable
conditions are not infrequent, but have no necessary relation to
reproduction. Many have a firm pellicle which may form a hard shell:
again a distinct cell-wall of chitin or cellulose may be formed:
finally, an open cup, "theca," of firm or gelatinous material may be
present, with or without a stalk: such a cup and stalk are often found
in colonial species, and are subject to much the same conditions as in
Infusoria. The nucleus is simple in most cases; but in Haemoflagellates
it is connected with a second nucleus, which again is in immediate
relation with the motile apparatus; the former is termed the
"tropho-nucleus," the latter the "kineto-nucleus."
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Flagellata.
1. _Chlamydomonas pulvisculus_, Ehr. (_Chlamydomonadidae_)
free-swimming individual.
a = nucleus.
b = contractile vacuole.
c = starch corpuscle.
d = cellulose investment.
e = stigma (eye-spot).
2. Resting stage of the same, with fourfold division of the
cell-contents. Letters as before.
3. Breaking up of the cell-contents into minute biflagellate
swarm-spores, which escape, and whose history is not further known.
4. _Syncrypta volvox_, Ehr. (_Chrysomonadidae_). A colony enclosed by
a common gelatinous test c.
a = stigma.
b = vacuole (non-contractile).
5. _Uroglena volvox_, Ehr. (_Chrysomonadidae_). Half of a large
colony, the flagellates embedded in a common jelly.
6. _Chlorogonium euchlorum_, Ehr. (_Chlamydomonadidae_).
a = nucleus.
b = contractile vacuole.
c = starch grain.
d = eye-spot.
7. _Chlorogonium euchlorum_, Ehr. (_Chlamydomonadidae_). Copulation of
two liberated microgonidia.
a = nucleus.
b = contractile vacuole.
d = eye-spot (so-called).
8. Colony of _Dinobryon sertularia_, Ehr. (_Chrysomonadidae_).
9. _Haematococcus palustris_, Girod (= _Chlamydococcus_, Braun,
_Protococcus_, Cohn), one of the _Chrysomonadidae_; ordinary
individual with widely separated test.
a = nucleus.
b = contractile vacuole.
c = amylon nucleus (pyrenoid).
10. Dividing resting stage of the same, with eight fission products in
the common test e.
11. A microgonidium of the same.
12. _Phalansterium consociatum_, Cienk. (_Choanoflagellata_); × 325.
Disk-like colony.
13. _Euglena viridis_, Ehr.; × 300 (_Euglenidae_).
a = pigment spot (stigma).
b = clear space.
c = paramylum granules.
d = chromatophor (endochrome
plate).
14. _Gonium pectorale_, O. F. Müller (_Volvocineae_). Colony seen from
the flat side; × 300.
a = nucleus.
b = contractile vacuole.
c = amylon nucleus.
15. _Dinobryon sertularia_, Ehr. (_Chrysomonadidae_).
a = nucleus.
b = contractile vacuole.
c = amylon nucleus.
d = free colourless flagellates, probably not belonging to
Dinobryon.
e = stigma (eye-spot).
f = chromatophors.
16. _Peranema trichophorum_, Ehr. (Peranemidae), creeping individual
seen from the back; × 140.
c = pharynx.
d = mouth.
17. Anterior end of _Euglena acus_, Ehr., in profile.
a = mouth.
b = vacuoles.
c = pharynx.
d = stigma (eye-spot).
e = paramylum-body.
f = chlorophyll corpuscles.
18. Part of the surface of a colony of _Volvox globator_, L.
(_Volvocidae_), showing the intercellular connective fibrils.
a = nucleus.
b = contractile vacuole.
c = starch granule.
19. Two microgametes (spermatozoa) of _Volvox globator_, L.
a = nucleus.
b = contractile vacuole.
20. Ripe asexually produced daughter-individual of _Volvox minor_,
Stein, still enclosed in the cyst of the partheno-gonidium.
a = young, partheno-gonidia.
21. 22. _Trypanosoma sanguinis_, Gruby (_Haematoflagellates_), from
the blood of _Rana esculenta_.
a = nucleus; × 500.
23-26. Reproduction of _Bodo caudatus_, Duj. (_Bodonidae_), after
Dallinger and Drysdale:--23, fusion of several individuals
(plasmodium);
24, encysted fusion-product dividing into four; 25, later into eight;
26, cyst filled with swarm-spores.
27. _Distigma proteus_, Ehbg., O.F. Müller (_Euglenidae_); × 440.
Individual with the two flagella, and strongly contracting hinder
region of the body.
28. The same devoid of flagella.
c, c = the two dark pigment spots (so-called eyes) near the mouth.
29. _Oicomonas termo_ (_Monas termo_) Ehr. (one of the
_Oicomonadidae_).
c = food-ingesting vacuole.
d = food-particle; × 440.
30. The food-particle d has now been ingested by the vacuole.
31. _Oicomonas mutabilis_, Kent (_Oicomonadidae_), with adherent stalk.
a = nucleus.
b = contractile vacuole.
c = food-particle in food vacuole.
32, 33. _Cercomonas crassicauda_, Duj. (_Oicomonadidae_), showing two
conditions of the pseudo-podium-protruding tail.
a = nucleus.
b = contractile vacuoles.
c = mouth.]
As reserves the protoplasm may contain oil, starch, paramylum, leucosin
(a substance soluble in water, and of doubtful composition), proteid
granules. In the holophytic forms the cytoplasm contains specialized
parts of more or less definite form, known generally as "plastids" or
"chromatophores" impregnated with a lipochrome pigment, whether green
(chlorophyll), yellow or brown (diatomin or some allied pigment), or
again red (chlorophyll with phycoerythrin). In the active condition of
such coloured holophytic forms there is usually at least one anterior
"eye-spot," of a refractive globule embedded behind in a collection of
red pigment granules. The single anterior "flagellum tractellum" of so
many of the larger forms acts by the bending over of its free end in
consecutive meridians, so as to describe a hollow cone with its apex
backwards: we may imitate this by bending the head of a slender sapling
round and round while it is implanted in the soil; and the result is to
push the water backwards, or in other words to pull the body forwards,
the whole rotating on its longitudinal axis as it moves on (Y. Delage).
An anterior lateral trailing flagellum may modify this axial rotation,
and help in steering. When the animal is at rest--attached by its base
or with its body so curved as to resist onward motion--the current
produced by the tractellum will bring suspended particles up against the
protoplasm at its base of insertion. As noted by E.R. Lankester, the
posterior flagellum of many Haemoflagellates, like that of the
spermatozoon of Metazoa, propels the cell by a sculling motion behind;
he terms it a "pulsellum." Such flagellar motion is distinct from that
of cilia, which always move backwards and forwards, with a swift
downstroke and a slower recovery in the same plane; though where the
flagella are numerous they may behave in this way, and indeed flagella
agree with cilia in being mere vibratory extensions of cytoplasm.
Symmetrically placed flagella may have a symmetrical reciprocating
motion like that of cilia.
Many of the Flagellata are parasitic (some haematozoic); the majority
live in the midst of putrefying organic matter in sea and fresh waters,
but are not known to be active as agents of putrefaction. Dallinger and
Drysdale have shown that the spores of _Bodo_ and others will survive an
exposure to a higher temperature than do any known Schizomycetes
(Bacteria), viz. 250° to 300° Fahr., for ten minutes, although the
adults are killed at 180°.
The Flagellata are for the most part very minute; the Protomastigopoda
rarely exceeding 20 µ in length. The Euglenaceae contain the largest
species, up to 130 µ in length, exclusive of the flagellum.
Our classification is modified from those of Senn (in Engler and Prantl,
_Pflanzenfamilien_) and Hartog (in _Cambridge Natural History_).
I. RHIZOFLAGELLATA (PANTOSTOMATA)
Food taken in by pseudopodia at any part of the body.
Order 1.--HOLOMASTIGACEAE. Body homaxial with uniform flagella.
_Multicilia_ (Cienkowski); _Grassia_ (Fisch, in frog's blood and
gastric mucus).
Order 2.--RHIZOMASTIGACEAE. Flagellum 1, 2 or few, diverging from
anterior end. _Mastigamoeba_ (F.E. Schulze).
II. EUFLAGELLATA
Food taken in at one or more definite mouth-spots, or by a true mouth,
or by absorption; or nutrition holophytic.
Order 1.--PROTOMASTIGACEAE. Contractile vacuole simple, one or more,
or absent; either holozoic, ingesting food by a mouth-spot (or 2 or
more), saprophytic, or parasitic.
Family 1.--OICOMONADIDAE. Flagellum 1, sometimes with a tail-like
posterior prominence passing into a temporary flagellum, but without
other cytoplasmic processes. _Oicomonas_ (Kent); _Cercomonas_
(Dujardin) (Fig. 1, 32, 33); _Codonoeca_ (James-Clark), with a
gelatinous theca.
Family 2.--BICOECIDAE. Differs from _Oicomonadidae_ in a unilateral
proboscidiform process next the flagellum; often thecate and
stalked, forming branched colonies, like Choanoflagellates in habit.
_Bicoeca_ (J.-Cl.), _Poteriodendron_.
Family 3.--CHOANOFLAGELLIDAE (Choanoflagellata, Kent;
Craspedomonadina, Stein). As in previous families, but with
flagellum surrounded by an obconical or cylindrical rim of
cytoplasm, at the base of which is the ingestive area. The cells of
this group have the morphology of the flagellate cells (choanocytes)
of sponges. They are often colonial, and in the gelatinous colony of
_Proterospongia_, the more internal cells (Fig. 2, 15) pass into a
definite "reproductive state." Many stalked forms are epizoic on
Entomostracan Crustacea.
(a) Naked forms often stalked: _Monosiga_ (Kent), stalked
solitary; _Codosiga_ (Kent) (Fig. 2, 3), stalked social;
_Desmarella_ (Kent), unstalked, and _Astrosiga_ (Kent), stalked,
form floating colonies.
(b) Forms enclosed in a vase-like shell: _Salpingoeca_ (J.-Cl.);
(Fig. 2, 1, 6, 7) recalling the habit of _Monosiga_ and _Cod
siga_; _Polyoeca_ forming a branched free swimming colony.
(c) Forms surrounded by a gelatinous sheath: _Proterospongia_
(Kent) (Fig. 2, 15); _Phalansterium_ (Cienk.) (Fig. 1, 12), has a
slender cylindrical collar, and a branching tubular stalk.
Family 4.--HAEMOFLAGELLIDAE. Forms with a complex nuclear apparatus,
and a muscular undulating membrane with which one or two flagella
are connected, parasitic in Metazoa (often in the blood).
_Trypanosoma_ (Gruby) (Fig. 1, 21, 22), _Herpetomonas_(Kent),
_Treponema_ (Vuillemin)(= _Spirochaete_, auctt., nec. Ehrbg.).
Family 5.--AMPHIMONADIDAE. Flagella 2 anterior, both directed
forward, equal and similar; in stalk sheath, &c., often recalling
Choanoflagellata, _Amphimonas_ (Kent), _Diplomitus_ (Kent);
_Spongomonas_ (St.), with thick branching gelatinous sheath.
Family 6.--MONADIDAE. Flagella 2 (3), anterior all directed
forwards, one long the other (or 2) accessory, short.
_Monas_ (St.); _Anthophysa_ (Bory) (Fig. 2, 12, 13), with the stalk
composed of the accumulation of faeces at the hinder end of the
cells of the colony.
Family 7.--BODONIDAE. Flagella 2 (or 3) 1 anterior, the other (1 or
2) antero-lateral and trailing or becoming fixed at the end to form
a temporary anchor.
_Bodo_ (Ehrb.) (figs. 1, 23-26 and 2, 10). _B. lens_ is the "hooked"
and _B. saltans_ the "springing monad" of Dallinger and Drysdale;
_Dallingeria_ (Kent) with a pair of antero-lateral flagella; _Costia
necatrix_ (Leclerq) is also 3-flagellate; causes destructive
epidemics in fish-hatcheries.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--Flagellata.
1. _Salpingoeca fusiformis_, S. Kent (Choanoflagellata). The
protoplasmic body is drawn together within the goblet-shaped shell,
and divided into numerous spores.
2. Escape of the spores of the same as monoflagellate and
swarm-spores.
3. _Codosiga umbellata_, Tatem (Choanoflagellata); adult colony formed
by dichotomous growth.
4. A single zooid of the same.
a = nucleus.
b = contractile vacuole.
c = the characteristic "collar" of naked streaming protoplasm.
5. _Hexamita inflata_, Duj.(_Distomatidae_); normal adult.
6, 7 _Salpingoeca urceolata_, S Kent (_Choanoflagellata_)--6, with
collar extended; 7, with collar retracted within the stalked cup.
8 _Polytoma uvella_, Mull. sp. (_Chlamydomonadidae_).
9. _Lophomonas blattarum_, Stein (_Trichonymphidae_) from the
intestine of _Blatta orientalis_.
10. _Bodolens_, Mull. (_Bodonidae_), the wavy filament is a
tractellum, the straight one is a trailing thread.
11. _Tetramitus sulcatus_, Stein (_Tetramitidae_)
12. _Anthophysa vegetans_, O.F. Müller (_Monadidae_). A typical,
erect, shortly-branching colony stock with four terminal
monad-clusters.
13. Monad cluster of the same in optical section, showing the
relation of the individual monads or flagellate zooids to the stem d.
14. _Tetramitus rostratus_, Perty (_Tetramitidae_).
a = nucleus.
b = contractile vacuole.
15. _Proterospongia Haeckeli_, Saville Kent (Choanoflagellata); A
social colony of about forty flagellate zooids.
a = nucleus.
b = contractile vacuole.
c = amoebiform cell sunk within the colonial gelatinous test
compared by S. Kent to a mesoderm cell of the sponges.
d = similar cell reproducing by transverse fission.
e = normal cells, with their collars contracted.
f = substance of test.
g = individual reproducing by multiple fission, producing
microzoospores, comparable to the spermatozoa of sponges.]
[Illustration: FIG. 3.
1. _Trichonympha agilis_, Leidy, from gut of White Ant (Termite).
2. _Opalina ranarum_, Purkinje parasitic in frog rectum multinucleate
adult.
3, 4. Binary fissions of same, 1-nucleat individual at final stage of
fission.
5. Same encysted dejected from rectum to be swallowed by tadpole.
6. Young 1-nucleate individual emerged from cyst, destined to grow,
proliferating its nuclei to adult form.
a = nucleus.
b = food (?) particles in Fig. 1.]
Family 8.--TETRAMITIDAE. Body pyriform, the pointed end posterior;
flagella 4 anterior.
_Tetramitus_ (Perty) (_T. calycinus_ of Kent, Fig. 2, 11, 14), is
the "calycine monad" of Dallinger and Drysdale; _Trichomonas_,
Donné, possesses a longitudinal undulating membrane, and is an
innocuous human parasite; it is possibly related to Haemoflagellates
on one hand and to _Trichonymphidae_ on the other.
Family 9.--DISTOMATIDAE. Mouth-spots two, or one, with a distinct
construction; flagella symmetrically arranged; nucleus bilobed or
geminate. _Hexamitus_ (Duj.) (Fig. 2, 5), saprophytic and parasitic;
_Trepomonas_ (Duj.), freshwater; _Megastoma_ (Grassi) (= _Lamblia_
of Blanchard), with constricted mouth-spot and blepharoplast
(kineto-nucleus) parasitic in the small intestine of Mammals,
including Man.
Family 10.--TRICHONYMPHIDAE. Flagella numerous, sometimes
accompanied by one or more undulating membranes; cytoplasm highly
differentiated; contractile vacuole absent; all parasitic in insects
(all except _Lophomonas_ in Termites--the so-called White Ants.)
_Lophomonas_(St.) (Fig. 2, 9); parasitic in the cockroach;
_Dinenympha_ (Leidy), _Pyrsonympha_ (Leidy); _Trichenympha_ (Leidy)
(Fig. 3, 1).
Family 11.--OPALINIDAE. Flagella short, numerous, ciliform.
uniformly distributed over the flat oval body; nuclei small,
numerous, uniform.
Only genus, _Opalina_ (Purkinje and Valentin) (Fig. 3, 2-6), in
bladder and cloaca of the frog (usually regarded as an aberrant
ciliate, but E.R. Lankester expressed doubts as to its position in
the 9th edition of this encyclopaedia).
Order 2.--CHRYSOMONADACEAE. Contractile vacuole simple (in fresh-water
forms) or absent; plastids yellow or brown always present; reserves
fat.
Family 1.--CHRYSOMONADIDAE. Body naked, often amoeboid in active
state, or sometimes with a cup-like theca, a gelatinous investment,
a firm cuticle, or silicified shell; reserves fat or leucosin
(starch in _Zooxanthella_); eye-spot present. _Chromulina_ (Cienk.)
often forms a golden scum on tanks; _Chrysamoeba_ (Klebs);
_Hydrurus_ (Agardh), theca of colony forming branching tubes,
simulating a yellow Conferva in mountain torrents; _Dinobryon_
(Ehrb.) (Fig. 1, 8, 15); _Stylochrysalis_ (St.); _Uroglena_ (Ehrb.);
_Syncrypta_ (Ehrb.), and _Synura_ (Ehrb.) (Fig. 1, 5) form floating
spherical colonies; _Zooxanthella_ (Brandt), symbiotic as "yellow
cells" in Radiolaria _Foraminifera_, _Millepora_, and many
Actinozoa.
Family 2.--COCCOLITHOPHORIDAE. Body invested in a spherical test
strengthened by calcareous elements, tangential circular plates,
"coccoliths," "discoliths," "cyatholiths," or radiating rods
"rhabdoliths." These are often found in Foraminiferal ooze and its
fossil condition, chalk; when coherent as in the complete test, they
are known as "coccospheres" and "rhabdospheres." _Coccolithophora_
(Lohmann), _Rhabdosphaera_ (Haeckel).
Order 3.--CRYPTOMONADACEAE. Contractile vacuole (in freshwater forms)
simple; plastids green, more rarely red, brown or absent; reserves
starch; holophytic or saprophytic. _Cryptomonas_ (Ehrb.); _Paramoeba_
(Greeff) has yellow plastids and shows two cycles, in the one
amoeboid, finally encysting to produce a brood of flagellulae; in the
other flagellate, and multiplying by longitudinal fission (it differs
from _Mastigamoeba_ in possessing no flagellum in the amoeboid state,
though it takes in food amoeba-fashion); _Chilomonas_ (Ehrb.).
Order 4.--CHLOROMONADACEAE. Contractile vacuoles 1-3, a complex of
variable arrangement; pellicle delicate; plastids discoid
chlorophyll-bodies; reserves oil; eye-spot absent even in active
state; holophytic or saprophytic, though with an anterior blind
tubular depression simulating a pharynx. _Coelomonas_ (St.),
_Vacuolaria_ (Cienk.).
Order 5.--EUGLENACEAE. Vacuole large, a reservoir for one or more
accessory vacuoles, contractile and opening to the surface by a canal
("pharynx") in which are planted one or two strong flagella; pellicle
strong often striated; nucleus large, chromatophores green, complex or
absent; reserves paramylum granules of definite shape, and oil;
nutrition variable; body stiff or "metabolic," never amoeboid. Among
the true Flagellates these are the largest, few being below 40 µ and
several attaining 130 µ in length of cell-body (excluding flagellum).
Encysted condition common; the green forms sometimes multiply in this
state and simulate unicellular Algae.
Family 1.--EUGLENIDAE. Radial (monaxial) forms; nutrition
saprophytic or holophytic, mostly one flagellate. (1) Chromatophore
large; eye-spot conspicuous. _Euglena_ (Ehrb.) (Fig. 1, 13, 17),
with flexible cuticle and metabolic movements (this is probably
Priestley's "green matter" through which he obtained oxygen gas)--a
very common genus; _Colacium_ (Ehbg.), in its resting state epizoic
on Copepoda, which it colours green; _Eutreptia_ (Perty),
biflagellate; _Ascoglena_ (St.); _Trachelomonas_ (Ehrb.), with a
hard brown cuticle; _Phacus_ (Nitszche), with a firm rigid pellicle,
often symmetrically flattened; _Cryptoglena_ (Ehbg.). (2)
Chromatophores absent. _Astasia_ (Duj.), body metabolic; _Menoidium_
(Perty), body not metabolic, somewhat inflected and crescentic;
_Sphenomonas_ (Stein), with a short accessory trailing flagellum in
front peeled; _Distigma_ (Ehbg.) (Fig. 1, 27, 28), very metabolic,
with two unequal flagella and two dark pigment spots.
Family 2.--PERANEMIDAE. Bilaterally symmetrical, often creeping,
pharynx highly developed, with a firm rod-like skeleton, sometimes
protrusible; nutrition saprophytic and holozoic. _Peranema_ (Ehbg.)
and _Urceolus_ (Mereschowsky), uni-flagellate creeping, very
metabolic. _Petalomonas_ (St.), uni-flagellate flattened with a deep
ventral groove, not metabolic; _Heteronema_ (Duj.) and
_Tropidoscyphus_ (St.), with a small accessory anterior trailing
flagellum; _Anisonema_ (Duj.) and _Entosiphon_ (St.), with the
trailing flagellum as long as the tractellum or even much longer.
Order 6.--VOLVOCACEAE. Contractile vacuole simple anterior; cell
always enclosed in a cellulose wall (sometimes gelatinous) perforated
by the two (more rarely four, five) diverging anterior flagella;
reserves starch; chlorophyll almost always present, except in
_Polytoma_, sometimes masked by a red pigment; nutrition usually
holophytic, rarely saprophytic, never holozoic. Brood-division in
active state common, radial.
Family 1.--CHLAMYDOMONADIDAE. Cell-wall firm not gelatinous, rarely
forming colonies. Fore-end of the body with two or four (seldom
five) flagella. Almost always green in consequence of the presence
of a very large single chromatophore. Generally a delicate
shell-like envelope of membranous consistence. 1 to 2 simple
contractile vacuoles at the base of the flagella. Usually one
eye-speck. Division of the protoplasm within the envelope may
produce four, eight or more new individuals. This may occur in the
swimming or in a resting stage. Also by more continuous fission
microgametes of various sizes are formed. Conjugation is frequent.
Genera.--_Chlorangium_ (Stein), lacking green chlorophyll;
_Chlorogonium_ (Ehr.) (Fig. 1, 6, 7); _Polytoma_ (Ehr.) (Fig. 2, 8);
_Chlamydomonas_ (Ehr.) (Fig. 1, 1, 2, 3); _Haematococcus_ (Agardh) (=
_Chlamydococcus_, A. Braun, Stein); _Protococcus_ (Conn, Huxley and
Martin); _Chlamydomonas_ (Cienkowski), causes red snow and "bloody
rain"; _Carteria_ (Diesing), quadri-flagellate; _Spondytomorum_
(Ehrb.), forming floating colonies; _Coccomonas_ (St.); _Phacotus_
(Perty); _Zoochlorella_ (Brandt), is the name given to undetermined
Chlamydomonads found multiplying in the resting state within and in
symbiotic relation to other Protozoa, to the freshwater sponge,
_Ephydatia_, _Hydra viridis_, and to the Turbellarian, _Convoluta
viridis_ (in which last species the active form has been recognized as
a _Carteria_).
Family 2.--VOLVOCIDAE. Cell-wall gelatinous; always associated in
colonies; cells, as in Family 1. The number of individuals united to
form a colony varies very much, as does the shape of the colony.
Reproduction by the continuous division of all or of only certain
individuals of the colony, resulting in the production of a daughter
colony (from each such individual). In some, probably in all, at
certain times copulation of the individuals of distinct sexual
colonies takes place, without or with a differentiation of the
colonies and of the copulating cells as male and female. The result
of the copulation is a resting zygospore (also called zygote or
oospermo or fertilized egg), which after a time develops itself into
one or more new colonies.
Genera.--_Gonium_ (O.F. Müller) (Fig. 1, 14); _Stephanosphaera_
(Cohn); _Pandorina_ (Bory de Vine); _Eudorina_ (Ehr.); _Volvox_
(Ehr.)(Fig. 1, 18, 20).
The sexual reproduction of the colonies of the Volvocaceae is one of
the most important phenomena presented by the Protozoa. In some
families of Flagellata full-grown individuals become amoeboid, fuse,
encyst, and then break up into flagellate spores which develop simply
to the parental form (Fig. 1, 23 to 26). In the _Chlamydomonadidae_ a
single adult individual by division produces small individuals,
so-called "microgametes." These conjugate with one another or with
similar microgametes formed by other adults (as in Chlorogonium, Fig.
1, 7); or more rarely in certain genera a microgamete conjugates with
an ordinary individual megagamete. The result in either case is a
"zygote," a cell formed by fusion of two which divides in the usual
way to produce new individuals. The microgamete in this case is the
male element and equivalent to a spermatozoon; the megagamete is the
female and equivalent to an egg-cell. The zygote is a "fertilized
egg," or oosperm. In some colony-building forms we find that only
certain cells produce by division microgametes; and, regarding the
colony as a multicellular individual, we may consider these cells as
testis-cells and their microgametes as spermatozoa.
CYSTOFLAGELLATA(RHYNCHOFLAGELLATA of E.R. Lankester) and
DINOFLAGELLATA are scarcely more than subdivisions of Flagellata; but,
following O. Bütschli, we describe them separately; the three groups
being united into his MASTIGOPHORA.
_Further Remarks on the Flagellates._--Besides the work of special
Protozoologists, such as F. Cienkowski, O. Bütschli, F. v. Stein, F.
Schaudinn, W. Saville Kent, &c., the Flagellates have been a favourite
study with botanists, especially algologists: we may cite N.
Pringsheim, F. Cohn, W.C. Williamson, W. Zopf, P.A. Dangeard, G.
Klebs, G. Senn, F. Schütt; the reason for this is obvious. They
present a wide range of structure, from the simple amoeboid genera to
the highly differentiated cells of Euglenaceae, and the complex
colonies of _Proterospongia_ and _Volvox_. By some they are regarded
as the parent-group of the whole of the Protozoa--a position which may
perhaps better be assigned to the Proteomyxa; but they seem
undoubtedly ancestral to Dinoflagellates and to Cystoflagellates, as
well as to Sporozoa, and presumably to Infusoria. Moreover, the only
distinction between the _Chlamydomonadidae_ and the true green Algae
or Chlorophyceae is that when the former divide in the resting
condition, or are held together by gelatinization of the older
cell-walls (_Palmella_ state), they round off and separate, while the
latter divide by a "party wall" so as to give rise either to a
cylindrical filament when the partitions are parallel and the axis of
growth constant (_Conferva_ type), or to a plate of tissue when the
directions alternate in a plane. The same holds good for the
Chrysomonadaceae and Cryptomonadaceae, so that these little groups are
included in all text-books of botany. Again among Fungi, the zoospores
of the Zoosporous Phycomycetes (Chytrydiaceae, Peronosporaceae,
Saprolegniaceae) have the characters of the _Bodonidae_. Thus in two
directions the Flagellates lead up to undoubted Plants. Probably also
the Chlamydomonads have an ancestral relation to the Conjugatae in the
widest sense, and the Chrysomonadaceae to the Diatomaceae; both groups
of obscure affinity, since even the reproductive bodies have no
special organs of locomotion. For these reasons the Volvocaceae,
Chloromonadaceae, Chrysomonadaceae and Cryptomonadaceae have been
united as Phytoflagellates; and the Euglenaceae might well be added to
these. It is easy to understand the relation of the saprophytic and
the holophytic Flagellates to true plants. The capacity to absorb
nutritive matter in solution (as contrasted with the ingestion of
solid matter) renders the encysted condition compatible with active
growth, and what in holozoic forms is a true hypnocyst, a state in
which all functions are put to sleep, is here only a rest from active
locomotion, nutrition being only limited by the supply of nutritive
matter from without, and--in the case of holophytic species--by the
illumination: this latter condition naturally limits the possible
growth in thickness in holophytes with undifferentiated tissues. The
same considerations apply indeed to the larger parasitic organisms
among Sporozoa, such as Gregarines and Myxosporidia and
Dolichosporidia, which are giants among Protozoa.
LITERATURE.--W.S. Kent, _Manual of the Infusoria_, vol. i. Protozoa
(1880-1882); O. Bütschli, _Die Flagellaten_ (in Bronn's _Thierreich_,
vol. i. Protozoa, 1885); these two works contain full bibliographies
of the antecedent authors. See also J. Goroschankin (on
Chlamydomonads) in _Bull. Soc. Nat._ (Moscow, iv. v., 1890-1891); G.
Klebs, "Flagellatenstudien" in _Zeitsch. Wiss. Zool._ lv. (1892);
Doflein, _Protozoen als Krankheitserreger_ (1900); Senn,
"Flagellaten," in Engler and Prantl's _Pflanzenfamilien_, 1 Teil, Abt.
1a (1900); R. Francé, _Der Organismus der Craspedomonaden_ (1897);
Grassi and Sandias, "Trichonymphidae," in _Quart. J. Micr. Sci._
xxxix.-xl. (1897); Bezzenberger, "Opa inidae" in _Arch. Protist_, iii.
(1903); Marcus Hartog, "Protozoa," in _Cambridge Nat. Hist._ vol. i.
(1906). (M. Ha.)
FLAGEOLET, in music, a kind of _flute-à-bec_ with a new fingering,
invented in France at the end of the 16th century, and in vogue in
England from the end of the 17th to the beginning of the 19th century.
The instrument is described and illustrated by Mersenne,[1] who states
that the most famous maker and player in his day was Le Vacher. The
flageolet differed from the recorder in that it had four finger-holes in
front and two thumb-holes at the back instead of seven finger-holes in
front and one thumb-hole at the back. This fingering has survived in the
French flageolet still used in the provinces of France in small
orchestras and for dance music. The arrangement of the holes was as
follows: 1, left thumb-hole at the back near mouthpiece; 2 and 3,
finger-holes stopped by the left hand; 4, finger-hole stopped by right
hand; 5, thumb-hole at the back; 6, hole near the open end. According to
Dr Burney (_History of Music_) the flageolet was invented by the Sieur
Juvigny, who played it in the _Ballet comique de la Royne_, 1581. Dr
Edward Browne,[2] writing to his father from Cologne on the 20th of June
1673, relates, "We have with us here one ... and Mr Hadly upon the
flagelet, which instrument he hath so improved as to invent large ones
and outgoe in sweetnesse all the basses whatsoever upon any other
instrument." About the same time was published Thomas Greeting's
_Pleasant Companion; or New Lessons and Instructions for the Flagelet_
(London, 1675 or 1682), a rare book of which the British Museum does not
possess a copy. The instrument retained its popularity until the
beginning of the 19th century, when Bainbridge constructed double and
triple flageolets.[3] The three tubes were bored parallel through one
piece of wood communicating near the mouthpiece which was common to all
three. The lowest notes of the respective tubes were [Musical notes: D B
G]
The word flageolet was undoubtedly derived from the medieval Fr.
_flajol_, the primitive whistle-pipe. (K. S.)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] _Harmonie universelle_ (Paris, 1636), bk. v. pp. 232-237.
[2] See Sir Thomas Browne's Works, vol. i. p. 206.
[3] See Capt. C.R. Day, _Descriptive Catalogue of Musical
Instruments_ (London, 1891), pp. 18-22 and pl. 4; also _Complete
Instructions for the Double Flageolet_ (London, 1825); and _The
Preceptor, or a Key to the Double Flageolet_ (London, 1815).
FLAGSHIP, the vessel in a fleet which carries the flag, the symbol of
authority of an admiral.
FLAHAUT DE LA BILLARDERIE, AUGUSTE CHARLES JOSEPH, COMTE DE (1785-1870),
French general and statesman, son of Alexandre Sébastien de Flahaut de
la Billarderie, comte de Flahaut, beheaded at Arras in February 1793,
and his wife Adélaide Filleul, afterwards Mme de Souza (q.v.), was born
in Paris on the 21st of April 1785. Charles de Flahaut was generally
recognized to be the offspring of his mother's liaison with Talleyrand,
with whom he was closely connected throughout his life. His mother took
him with her into exile in 1792, and they remained abroad until 1798. He
entered the army as a volunteer in 1800, and received his commission
after the battle of Marengo. He became aide-de-camp to Murat, and was
wounded at the battle of Landbach in 1805. At Warsaw he met Anne
Poniatowski, Countess Potocka, with whom he rapidly became intimate.
After the battle of Friedland he received the Legion of Honour, and
returned to Paris in 1807. He served in Spain in 1808, and then in
Germany. Meanwhile the Countess Potocka had established herself in
Paris, but Charles de Flahaut had by this time entered on his liaison
with Hortense de Beauharnais, queen of Holland. The birth of their son
was registered in Paris on the 21st of October 1811 as Charles Auguste
Louis Joseph Demorny, known later as the due de Morny. Flahaut fought
with distinction in the Russian campaign of 1812, and in 1813 became
general of brigade, aide-de-camp to the emperor, and, after the battle
of Leipzig, general of division. After Napoleon's abdication in 1814 he
submitted to the new government, but was placed on the retired list in
September. He was assiduous in his attendance on Queen Hortense until
the Hundred Days brought him into active service again. A mission to
Vienna to secure the return of Marie Louise resulted in failure. He was
present at Waterloo, and afterwards sought to place Napoleon II. on the
throne. He was saved from exile by Talleyrand's influence, but was
placed under police surveillance. Presently he elected to retire to
Germany, and thence to England, where he married Margaret, daughter of
Admiral George Keith Elphinstone, Lord Keith, and after the latter's
death Baroness Keith in her own right. The French ambassador opposed the
marriage, and Flahaut resigned his commission. His eldest daughter,
Emily Jane, married Henry, 4th marquess of Lansdowne. The Flahauts
returned to France in 1827, and in 1830 Louis Philippe gave the count
the grade of lieutenant-general and made him a peer of France. He
remained intimately associated with Talleyrand's policy, and was, for a
short time in 1831, ambassador at Berlin. He was afterwards attached to
the household of the duke of Orleans, and in 1841 was sent as ambassador
to Vienna, where he remained until 1848, when he was dismissed and
retired from the army. After the _coup d'état_ of 1851 he was again
actively employed, and from 1860 to 1862 was ambassador at the court of
St James's. He died on the 1st of September 1870. The comte de Flahaut
is perhaps better remembered for his exploits in gallantry, and the
elegant manners in which he had been carefully trained by his mother,
than for his public services, which were not, however, so inconsiderable
as they have sometimes been represented to be.
See A. de Haricourt, _Madame de Souza et sa famille_ (1907).
FLAIL (from Lat. _flagellum_, a whip or scourge, but used in the Vulgate
in the sense of "flail"; the word appears in Dutch _vlegel_, Ger.
_Flegel_, and Fr. _fléau_), a farm hand-implement formerly used for
threshing corn. It consists of a short thick club called a "swingle" or
"swipple" attached by a rope or leather thong to a wooden handle in such
a manner as to enable it to swing freely. The "flail" was a weapon used
for military purposes in the middle ages. It was made in the same way as
a threshing-flail but much stronger and furnished with iron spikes. It
also took the form of a chain with a spiked iron ball at one end
swinging free on a wooden or iron handle. This weapon was known as the
"morning star" or "holy water sprinkler." During the panic over the
Popish plot in England from 1678 to 1681, clubs, known as "Protestant
flails," were carried by alarmed Protestants (see GREEN RIBBON CLUB).
FLAMBARD, RANULF, or RALPH (d. 1128), bishop of Durham and chief
minister of William Rufus, was the son of a Norman parish priest who
belonged to the diocese of Bayeux. Migrating at an early age to England,
the young Ranulf entered the chancery of William I. and became
conspicuous as a courtier. He was disliked by the barons, who nicknamed
him Flambard in reference to his talents as a mischief-maker; but he
acquired the reputation of an acute financier and appears to have played
an important part in the compilation of the Domesday survey. In that
record he is mentioned as a clerk by profession, and as holding land
both in Hants and Oxfordshire. Before the death of the old king he
became chaplain to Maurice, bishop of London, under whom he had formerly
served in the chancery. But early in the next reign Ranulf returned to
the royal service. He is usually described as the chaplain of Rufus; he
seems in that capacity to have been the head of the chancery and the
custodian of the great seal. But he is also called treasurer; and there
can be no doubt that his services were chiefly of a fiscal character.
His name is regularly connected by the chroniclers with the ingenious
methods of extortion from which all classes suffered between 1087 and
1100. He profited largely by the tyranny of Rufus, farming for the king
a large proportion of the ecclesiastical preferments which were
illegally kept vacant, and obtaining for himself the wealthy see of
Durham (1099). His fortunes suffered an eclipse upon the accession of
Henry I., by whom he was imprisoned in deference to the popular outcry.
A bishop, however, was an inconvenient prisoner, and Flambard soon
succeeded in effecting his escape from the Tower of London. A popular
legend represents the bishop as descending from the window of his cell
by a rope which friends had conveyed to him in a cask of wine. He took
refuge with Robert Curthose in Normandy and became one of the advisers
who pressed the duke to dispute the crown of England with his younger
brother; Robert rewarded the bishop by entrusting him with the
administration of the see of Lisieux. After the victory of Tinchebrai
(1106) the bishop was among the first to make his peace with Henry, and
was allowed to return to his English see. At Durham he passed the
remainder of his life. His private life was lax; he had at least two
sons, for whom he purchased benefices before they had entered on their
teens; and scandalous tales are told of the entertainments with which he
enlivened his seclusion. But he distinguished himself, even among the
bishops of that age, as a builder and a pious founder. He all but
completed the cathedral which his predecessor, William of St Carilef,
had begun; fortified Durham; built Norham Castle; founded the priory of
Mottisfout and endowed the college of Christchurch, Hampshire. As a
politician he ended his career with his submission to Henry, who found
in Roger of Salisbury a financier not less able and infinitely more
acceptable to the nation. Ranulf died on the 5th of September 1128.
See Orderic Vitalis, _Historia ecclesiastica_, vols. iii. and iv. (ed.
le Prévost, Paris, 1845); the first continuation of Symeon's _Historia
Ecclesiae Dunelmensis_ (Rolls ed., 1882); William of Malmesbury in the
_Gesta pontificum_ (Rolls ed., 1870); and the _Peterborough Chronicle_
(Rolls ed., 1861). Of modern writers E.A. Freeman in his _William
Rufus_ (Oxford, 1882) gives the fullest account. See also T.A. Archer
in the _English Historical Review_, ii. p. 103; W. Stubbs's
_Constitutional History of England_, vol. i. (Oxford, 1897); J.H.
Round's _Feudal England_ (London, 1895). (H. W. C. D.)
FLAMBOROUGH HEAD, a promontory on the Yorkshire coast of England,
between the Filey and Bridlington bays of the North Sea. It is a lofty
chalk headland, and the resistance it offers to the action of the waves
may be well judged by contrast with the low coast of Holderness to the
south. The cliffs of the Head, however, are pierced with caverns and
fringed with rocks of fantastic outline. Remarkable contortion of strata
is seen at various points in the chalk. Sea-birds breed abundantly on
the cliffs. A lighthouse marks the point, in 54° 7' N., 0° 5' W.
FLAMBOYANT STYLE, the term given to the phase of Gothic architecture in
France which corresponds in period to the Perpendicular style. The word
literally means "flowing" or "flaming," in consequence of the
resemblance to the curved lines of flame in window tracery. The earliest
examples of flowing tracery are found in England in the later phases of
the Decorated style, where, in consequence of the omission of the
enclosing circles of the tracery, the carrying through of the foliations
resulted in a curve of contrary flexure of ogee form and hence the term
flowing tracery. In the minster and the church of St Mary at Beverley,
dating from 1320 and 1330, are the earliest examples in England; in
France its first employment dates from about 1460, and it is now
generally agreed that the flamboyant style was introduced from English
sources. One of the chief characteristics of the flamboyant style in
France is that known as "interpenetration," in which the base mouldings
of one shaft are penetrated by those of a second shaft of which the
faces are set diagonally. This interpenetration, which was in a sense a
_tour de force_ of French masons, was carried to such an extent that in
a lofty rood-screen the mouldings penetrating the base-mould would be
found to be those of a diagonal buttress situated 20 to 30 ft. above it.
It was not limited, however, to internal work; in late 15th and early
16th century ecclesiastical architecture it is found on the façades of
some French cathedrals, and often on the outside of chapels added in
later times.
FLAME (Lat. _flamma_; the root _flag_-appears in _flagrare_, to burn,
blaze, and Gr. [Greek: phlégein]). There is no strict scientific
definition of flame, but for the purpose of this article it will be
regarded as a name for gas which is temporarily luminous in consequence
of chemical action. It is well known that the luminosity of gases can be
induced by the electrical discharge, and with rapidly alternating
high-tension discharges in air an oxygen-nitrogen flame is produced
which is long and flickering, can be blown out, yields nitrogen
peroxide, and is in fact indistinguishable from an ordinary flame except
by its electrical mode of maintenance. The term "flame" is also applied
to solar protuberances, which, according to the common view, consist of
gases whose glow is of a purely thermal origin. Even with the restricted
definition given above, difficulties present themselves. It is found,
for example, with a hydrogen flame that the luminosity diminishes as the
purity of the hydrogen is increased and as the air is freed from dust,
and J.S. Stas declared that under the most favourable conditions he was
only able, even in a dark room, to localize the flame by feeling for it,
an observation consistent with the fact that the line spectrum of the
flame lies wholly in the ultra-violet. On the other hand, there are many
examples of chemical combination between gases where the attendant
radiation is below the pitch of visibility, as in the case of ethylene
and chlorine. It will be obvious from these facts that a strict
definition of flame is hardly possible. The common distinction between
luminous and non-luminous flames is, of course, quite arbitrary, and
only corresponds to a rough estimate of the degree of luminosity.
The chemical energy necessary for the production of flame may be
liberated during combination or decomposition. A single substance like
gun-cotton, which is highly endothermic and gives gaseous products, will
produce a bright flame of decomposition if a single piece be heated in
an evacuated flask. Combination is the more common case, and this means
that we have two separate substances involved. If they be not mixed _en
masse_ before combination, the one which flows as a current into the
other is called conventionally the "combustible," but the simple
experiment of burning air in coal gas suffices to show the unreality of
this distinction between combustible and supporter of combustion, which,
in fact, is only one of the many partial views that are explained and
perhaps justified by the dominance of oxygen in terrestrial chemistry.
Although hydrocarbon flames are the commonest and most interesting, it
will be well to consider simpler flames first in order to discuss some
fundamental problems. In hydrocarbon flames the complexity of the
combustible, its susceptibility to change by heating, and the
possibilities of fractional oxidation, create special difficulties. In
the flame of hydrogen and oxygen or carbon monoxide and oxygen we have
simpler conditions, though here, too, things may be by no means so
simple as they seem from the equations 2H2 + O2 = 2H2O and 2CO + O2 =
2CO2. The influence of water vapour on both these actions is well known,
and the molecular transactions may in reality be complicated. We shall,
however, assume for the sake of clearness that in these cases we have a
simple reaction taking place throughout the mass of flame. There are
various ways in which a pair of gases may be burned, and these we shall
consider separately. Let us first suppose the two gases to have been
mixed _en masse_ and a light to be applied to the stationary mixture. If
the mixture be made within certain limiting proportions, which vary for
each case, a flame spreads from the point where the light is applied,
and the flame traverses the mixture. This flame may be very slow in its
progress or it may attain a velocity of the order of one or two thousand
metres per second. Until comparatively recent times great
misunderstanding prevailed on this subject. The slow rate of movement of
flame in short lengths of gaseous mixtures was taken to be the velocity
of explosion, but more recent researches by M.P.E. Berthelot, E.
Mallard and H.L. le Chatelier and H.B. Dixon have shown that a
distinction must be made between the slow _initial rate of inflammation_
of gaseous mixtures and the _rapid rate of detonation_, or rate of the
_explosive wave_, which in many cases is subsequently set up. We shall
here deal only with the slow movements of flame. The development of a
flame in such a gaseous mixture requires that a small portion of it
should be raised to a temperature called the _temperature of ignition_.
Here again considerable misunderstanding has prevailed. The temperature
of ignition has often been regarded as the temperature at which chemical
combination begins, whereas it is really the temperature at which
combination has reached a certain rate. The combination of hydrogen and
oxygen begins at temperatures far below that of ignition. It may indeed
be supposed that the combination occurs with extreme slowness even at
ordinary temperatures, and that as the temperature is raised the
velocity of the reaction increases in accordance with the general
expression according to which an increase of 10°C. will approximately
double the rate. However that may be, it has been proved experimentally
by J.H. van't Hoff, Victor Meyer and others that the combination of
hydrogen and oxygen proceeds at perceptible rates far below the
temperature of ignition. The phenomenon appears to be greatly influenced
by the solid surfaces which are present; thus in a plain glass vessel
the combination only began to be perceptible at 448°, whilst in a
silvered glass vessel it would be detected at 182°C.
The same kind of thing is true for most oxidizable substances, including
ordinary combustibles. We must look upon the application of heat to a
combustible mixture as resulting in an increase of the rate of
combination locally. Let us suppose that we are dealing with a stratum
of the mixture in small contiguous sections. If we raise the temperature
of the first section _a_°C., an increased rate of combination is set up.
The heat produced by this combination will be dissipated by conduction
and radiation, and we will suppose that it does not quite suffice to
raise the adjacent section of the mixture to _a_°C. The combination in
that section, therefore, will not be as rapid as in the first one, and
so evidently the impulse to combination will go on abating as we pass
along the stratum. Suppose now we start again and heat the first section
of the mixture to a temperature _c_°C., such that the rate of
combination is very rapid and the heat developed by combination suffices
to raise the adjacent section of the mixture to a temperature higher
than _c_°C. The rate of combination will then be greater than in the
first section, and the impulse to combination will be intensified in the
same way from section to section along the stratum until a maximum
temperature is reached. It is obvious that there must be a temperature
of _b_°C. between _a_° and _c_° which will satisfy this condition, that
the heat which results from the combination stimulated in the first
section just suffices to raise the temperature of the second section to
_b_°. This temperature _b_° is the temperature of ignition of the
mixture; so soon as it is attained by a portion of the mixture the
combustion becomes self-sustaining and flame spreads through the
mixture. Ignition temperature may be defined briefly as the temperature
at which the initial loss of heat due to conduction, &c., is equal to
the heat evolved in the same time by the chemical reaction (van't Hoff).
From the above considerations we see that the temperature of ignition
will vary not only when the gases are varied, but when the proportions
of the same gases are varied, and also when the pressure is varied. We
can see also that outside certain limiting proportions a mixture of
gases will have no practicable ignition temperature, that is to say, the
cooling effect of the gas which is in excess will carry off so much heat
that no attainable initial heating will suffice to set up the
transmission of a constant temperature. Thus in the case of hydrogen and
air, mixtures containing less than 5 and more than 72% of hydrogen are
not inflammable. The theory of ignition temperature enables us to
understand why in an explosive mixture a very small electric spark may
not suffice to induce explosion. Combination will indeed take place in
the path of the spark, but the amount of it is not sufficient to meet
the loss of heat by conduction, &c. It must be added that the theory of
ignition temperatures given above does not explain all the observed
facts. F. Emich states that the inflammability of gaseous mixtures is
not necessarily greatest when the gases are mixed in the proportions
theoretically required for complete combination, and the influence of
foreign gases does not appear to follow any simple law. The presence of
a small quantity of a gas may exercise a profound influence on the
ignition temperature as in the case of the addition of ethylene to
hydrogen (Sir Edward Frankland), and again when a mixture of methane and
air is raised to its ignition temperature a sensible interval (about 10
seconds) elapses before inflammation occurs.
The rate at which a flame will traverse a mixture of two gases which has
been ignited depends on the proportions in which the gases are mixed.
Fig. 1 (Bunte) represents this relationship for several common gases.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Rates of inflammation of combustible gases with
air.]
If a ready-made gaseous mixture is to be used for the production of a
steady flame, it may be forced through a tube and ignited at the end; it
is obvious that the velocity of efflux must be greater than the initial
rate of inflammation of the mixture, for otherwise the mixture would
fire back down the tube. If the velocity of efflux be considerably
greater than the rate of inflammation, the flame will be separated from
the end of the tube, and only appear as a flickering crown where the
velocity and inflammability of the issuing gas have been diminished by
admixture with air. With much increased velocity of efflux the flame
will be blown out. J.B.A. Dumas used to show the experiment of blowing
out a candle with electrolytic gas. A steady flame formed by burning a
ready-made gaseous mixture at the end of a tube of circular section has
the form shown in fig. 2. The small internal cone marks the lower
limiting surface of the flame; it is the locus of all points where the
velocity of efflux is just equal to the velocity of inflammation, and
its conical form is explained by the fact that the rate of efflux of gas
is greatest in the vertical axis of the tube where the flow is not
retarded by friction with the walls, as well as by the further fact that
the gas issuing from such an orifice spreads outwards, the inflammation
proceeding directly against it. The flame, it will be seen, is of
considerable thickness. If the gaseous mixture be hydrogen and oxygen,
or carbon monoxide and oxygen, it will have no obvious features of
structure beyond those shown in the figure; that is to say, the shaded
region of burning gas has the appearance of homogeneity and uniform
colour which might be expected to accompany a uniform chemical
condition. Some admixture of the external air will, of course, take
place, especially in the upper parts of the flame, and detectable
quantities of oxides of nitrogen may be found in the products of
combustion, but this is an inconsiderable feature. The flame just
described is essentially that of a blowpipe.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.]
A second way of producing a flame is the more common one of allowing one
gas to stream into the other. Using the same gases as before, hydrogen
or carbon monoxide with oxygen, we find again that the flame is conical
in form and uniform in colour, but in this case, if the velocity of
efflux be not immoderate, the burning gas only extends over a
comparatively thin shell, limited on the inside by the pure combustible
and on the outside by a mixture of the products of combustion with
oxygen. The combustible gas has to make its own inflammable mixture with
the circumambient oxygen, and we may suppose the column of gas to be
burned through as it ascends. The core of unburned gas thus becomes
thinner as it ascends and the flame tapers to a point. The external
surface of a flame of this kind will for the same consumption of gas be
larger than that of a flame where the ready-made mixture of gases is
used. If a jet of one gas be sent with a sufficient velocity into
another, turbulent admixture takes place and an unsteady sheet of flame
of uniform colour is obtained.
A third way of forming a flame is to allow the whole of one gas, mixed
with a less quantity of the second than is sufficient for complete
combustion, to issue into an atmosphere of the second. This is the case
with what are generally known as atmospheric burners, of which the
Bunsen burner is the prototype. The development of a flame of this kind
can be well studied in the case of carbon monoxide and air. The carbon
monoxide is fed into a Bunsen burner with closed air-valve, the
burner-tube being prolonged by affixing a glass tube to it by means of a
cork. The flame consists of a single conical blue sheet. If now the
air-valve be opened very slightly, an internal cone of the same blue
colour makes its appearance. The air which has entered through the
air-valve ("primary" air) has become mixed with the carbon monoxide and
so oxidizes its quota in an internal cone, the rest of the carbon
monoxide (diluted now, of course, with carbon dioxide and nitrogen)
wandering into the external atmosphere to burn (with "secondary" air) in
a second cone. The existence of the internal cone and the subsequent
thermal effect lead to slight convexity of surface in the outer cone. If
the quantity of primary air be increased more internal combustion can
take place. This, however, does not lead to an enlargement of the inner
cone, for the increase of air increases the rate of inflammation of the
mixture, and the inner cone (which only maintains its stability because
the rate of efflux of the mixture is greater than the velocity of
inflammation) contracts, and will, as the proportion of primary air is
increased, soon evince a tendency to enter the burner-tube. At this
stage an interesting phenomenon is to be noticed. When we have reached
the point of aeration where the velocity of inflammation of the mixture
just surpasses the velocity of efflux, the inner cone enters the
burner-tube as a disk and descends, but this downward motion checks the
suction flow of air through the valve at the base of the burner, whilst
it does not appreciably check the pressure flow of the carbon monoxide
through the gas nozzle. The result is that a stratum of gas-mixture poor
in air, and therefore of low rate of inflammation, is formed, and when
the descending disk of flame meets it, the descent is arrested and the
disk returns to the top of the tube, reproducing the inner cone. The
full air suction is now restored and the course of events is repeated.
This oscillatory action can be maintained almost indefinitely long if
the pressure and other conditions be maintained constant. With still
more primary air the inner cone of flame simply fires back to the burner
nozzle, or, in the last stage, we may have enough air entering to
produce a flame of the blast blowpipe type, namely, one where the carbon
monoxide mixed with an _excess_ of primary air burns with a single cone
in a steady flame.
By means of a simple contrivance devised by A. Smithells a two-coned
flame of the kind described may be resolved into its components. The
apparatus is like a half-extended telescope made of two glass tubes, and
it is evident that the velocity of a mixture of gases flowing through it
must be greater in the narrow tube than in the wider one. If the end of
the narrower tube be fixed to a Bunsen burner and the flame be formed at
the end of the wider one, then when the air-supply is increased to a
certain point the inner cone will descend into the wide tube and attach
itself to the upper end of the narrower one. This occurs when the
velocity of inflammation is just greater than the upward velocity of the
gaseous stream in the wide tube and less than the upward velocity in the
narrow tube. If the outer tube be now drawn down, a two-coned flame
burns at the end of the inner tube; if the outer tube be slid up again,
it detaches the outer cone and carries it upward. This apparatus has
been of use in investigating the progress of combustion in various
flames.
_Temperature of Flames._--The term "flame-temperature" is used very
vaguely and has no clear meaning unless qualified by some description.
It is least ambiguous when used in reference to flames where the
combining gases are mixed in theoretical proportions before issuing from
the burner. The flame in such a case has considerable thickness and
uniformity, and, though the temperature is not constant throughout,
flames of this type given by different combustibles admit of comparison.
In other flames where the shells of combustion are thin and envelop
large regions of unburned or partly-burned gas, it is not clear how
temperature should be specified. An ordinary gas-flame will not, from
the point of view of the practical arts, give a sufficient temperature
for melting platinum, yet a very thin platinum wire may be melted at the
edge of the lower part of such a flame. The maximum temperature of the
flame is therefore not in any serious sense an available temperature. It
will suffice to point out here that in order to burn a gas so that it
may have the highest available temperature, we must burn it with the
smallest external flame-surface obtainable. This is done when the
combining gases are completely mixed before issuing from the burner.
Where this is impracticable we may employ a burner of the Bunsen type,
and arrange matters so that a large amount of primary air is supplied.
It is in this direction that modern improvements have been made with a
view to obtaining hot flames for heating the Welsbach mantle. The Kern
burner, for example, employs the principle of the Venturi tube. Where
much primary air is drawn in it is usual to provide for it being well
mixed with the gas, otherwise an unsteady flame may be produced with a
great tendency to light back. The burner head is therefore usually
provided with a mixing chamber and the mixture issues through a slit or
a mesh. A great many modified Bunsen burners have been produced, the aim
in all of them being to produce a flame which shall combine steadiness
with the smallest attainable external surface.
To estimate the temperature of flames several methods have been
employed. The method of calculation, based on the supposition that the
whole heat of combustion is localized in the product (or products) of
combustion and heats it to a temperature depending on its specific heat,
cannot be applied in a simple way. Apart from the assumption (which
there is reason to suppose incorrect) that none of the chemical energy
assumes the radiant form directly, we have to regard the possible change
of specific heat at high temperatures, the likelihood of dissociation
and the time of reaction. Any practical consideration of temperature
must have regard to a large assemblage of molecules and not to a single
one, and therefore any influence which means delay in combination will
result in reduction of temperature by radiation and conduction. It can
hardly be maintained that in the present state of knowledge we have the
requisite data for the calculation of flame temperature, though good
approximations may be made. Many attempts have been made to determine
flame temperatures by means of thermo-electric couples and by radiation
pyrometers. The couple most employed is that known as H.L. le
Chatelier's, consisting of two wires, one of platinum and the other an
alloy of 90% platinum and 10% of rhodium. When all possible precautions
are taken it is possible by means of such thermo-couples to measure
local flame temperatures with a considerable degree of accuracy.
Subjoined are some results obtained at different times and by different
observers with regard to the maximum temperatures of flames:--
Coal gas in Bunsen burner (Waggener, 1896) 1770° C.
" " " " (Berkenbusch, 1899) 1830°
" " " " (White & Traver, 1902) 1780°
" " " " (Féry, 1905) 1871°
The following are given by Féry:--
Acetylene 2548° C.
Alcohol 1705°
Hydrogen (in air) 1900°
Oxy-hydrogen 2420°
Oxy-coal gas blowpipe 2200°
_Source of Light in Flames._--We may consider first those flames where
solid particles are out of the question; for example, the flame of
carbon monoxide in air. The old idea that the luminosity was due to the
thermal glow of the highly heated product of combustion has been
challenged independently by a number of observers, and the view has been
advanced that the emission of light is due to radiation attendant upon a
kind of discharge of chemical energy between the reacting molecules. E.
Wiedemann proposed the name "chemi-luminescence" for radiation of this
kind. The fact is that colourless gases cannot be made to glow by any
purely thermal heating at present available, and products of combustion
heated to the average temperature of the flames in which they are
produced are non-luminous. On the other hand, it must be remembered that
in a mass of burning gas only a certain proportion of the molecules are
engaged at one instant in the act of chemical combination, and that the
energy liberated in such individual transactions, if localized
momentarily as heat, would give individual molecules a unique condition
of temperature far transcending that of the average, and the
distribution of heat in a flame would be very different from that
existing in the same mixture of gases heated from an external source to
the same average temperature. The view advocated by Smithells is that in
the chemical combination of gases the initial phase of the formation of
the new molecule is a vibratory one, which directly furnishes light, and
that the damping down of this vibration by colliding molecules is the
source of that translatory motion which is evinced as heat. This, it
will be seen, is an exact reversal of the older view.
The view of Sir H. Davy that "whenever a flame is remarkably brilliant
and dense it may always be concluded that some solid matter is produced
in it" can be no longer entertained. The flames of phosphorus in oxygen
and of carbon disulphide in nitric oxide contain only gaseous products,
and Frankland showed that the flames of hydrogen and carbon monoxide
became highly luminous under pressure. From his experiments Frankland
was led to the generalization that high luminosity of flames is
associated with high density of the gases, and he does not draw a
distinction in this respect between high density due to high molecular
weight and high density due to the close packing of lighter molecules.
The increased luminosity of a compressed flame is not difficult to
understand from the kinetic theory of gases, but no explanation has
appeared of the luminosity considered by Frankland to be due merely to
high molecular weight. It is possible that the electron theory may
ultimately afford a better understanding of these phenomena.
_Structure of Flame._--The vagueness of the term structure, as applied
to flames, is to be seen from the very conflicting accounts which are
current as to the number of differentiated parts in different flames.
Unless this term is restricted to sharp differences in appearance, there
is no limit to the number of parts which may be selected for mention.
The flame of carbon monoxide, when the gas is not mixed with air before
it issues from the burner, shows no clearly differentiated structure,
but is a shell of blue luminosity of shaded intensity--a hollow cone if
the orifice of the burner be circular and the velocity of the gas not
immoderate, or a double sheet of fan shape if the burner have a slit or
two inclined pores which cause the jets of issuing gas to spread each
other out. Such a flame has but one single distinct feature, and this is
not surprising, as there is no reason to suppose that there is any
difference in the chemical process or processes that are occurring in
different quarters of the flame. The amount of materials undergoing this
transformation in different parts of the flame may and does vary; the
gases become diluted with products of combustion, and the molecular
vibrations gradually die down. These things may cause a variation in the
intensity of the light in different quarters, but the differences
induced are not sharp or in any proper sense structural. A flame of this
kind may develop a secondary feature of structure. If carbon monoxide be
burnt in oxygen which is mixed or combined with another element there
may be an additional chemical process that will give light; flames in
air are sometimes surrounded by a faintly luminous fringe of a greenish
cast, apparently associated with the combination of nitrogen with oxygen
(H.B. Dixon). Carbon monoxide on being strongly heated begins to
dissociate into carbon and carbon dioxide; if the unburnt carbon
monoxide within a flame of that gas were so highly heated by its own
burning walls as to reach the temperature of dissociation, we might
expect to see a special feature of structure due to the separated
carbon. Such a temperature does not, however, appear to be reached.
Apart from hydrocarbon flames not much has been published in reference
to the structure of flames. The case of cyanogen is of peculiar
interest. The beautiful flame of this gas consists of an almost crimson
shell surrounded by a margin of bright blue. Investigations have shown
that these two colours correspond to two steps in the progress of the
combustion, in the first of which the carbon of the cyanogen is oxidized
to carbon monoxide and in the second the carbon monoxide oxidized to
carbon dioxide.
The inversion of combustion may bring new features of structure into
existence; thus when a jet of cyanogen is burnt in oxygen no solid
carbon can be found in the flame, but when a jet of oxygen is burnt in
cyanogen solid carbon separates on the edge of the flame.
_Hydrocarbon Flames._--As already stated the flames of carbon compounds
and especially of hydrocarbons have been much more studied than any
other kind, as is natural from their common use and practical
importance. The earliest investigations were made with coal gas,
vegetable oils and tallow, and the composite and complex nature of these
substances led to difficulties and confusion in the interpretation of
results. One such difficulty may be illustrated by the fact, often
overlooked, that when a mixed gaseous combustible issues into air the
individual component gases will separate spontaneously in accordance
with their diffusibilities: hydrogen will thus tend to get to the outer
edge of a flame and heavy hydrocarbons to lag behind.
The features of structure in a hydrocarbon flame depend of course on the
manner in which the air is supplied. The extreme cases are (i.) when the
issuing gas is supplied before it leaves the burner with sufficient air
for complete combustion, as in the blast blowpipe, in which case we have
a sheet of blue undifferentiated flame; and (ii.) when the gas has to
find all the air it requires after leaving the burner. The intermediate
stage is when the issuing gas is supplied before leaving the burner with
a part of the air that is required. In this case a two-coned flame is
produced. The general theory of such phenomena has already been
discussed. It must be remarked that the transition of one kind of flame
into the others can be effected gradually, and this is seen with
particular ease and distinctness by burning benzene vapour admixed with
gradually increasing quantities of air. The key to the explanation of
the structure of an ordinary luminous flame, such as that of a candle,
is to be found, according to Smithells, by observing the changes
undergone by a well-aerated Bunsen flame as the "primary" air is
gradually cut off by closing the air-ports at the base of the burner. It
is then seen that the two cones of flame evolve or degenerate into the
two recognizable blue parts of an ordinary luminous flame, whilst the
appearance of the bright yellow luminous patch becomes increasingly
emphasized as a hollow dome lying within the upper part of the blue
sheath. There are thus three recognizable features of structure in an
ordinary luminous flame, each region being as it were a mere shell and
the interior of the flame filled with gas which has not yet entered into
active combustion. If, as is suggested, the blue parts of an ordinary
luminous flame are the relics of the two cones of a Bunsen flame, the
chemistry of a Bunsen flame may be appropriately considered first. What
happens chemically when a hydrocarbon is burned in a Bunsen burner? The
air sent in with the gas is insufficient for complete combustion so
that the inner cone of the flame may be considered as air burning in an
excess of coal gas. What will be the products of this combustion? This
question has been answered at different times in very different ways.
There are many conceivable answers: part of the hydrocarbon might be
wholly oxidized and the rest left unaltered to mix with the outside air
and burn as the outer cone; on the other hand, there might be (as has
been so commonly assumed) a selective oxidation in the inner cone
whereby the hydrogen was fully oxidized and the carbon set free or
oxidized to carbon monoxide; or again the carbon might be oxidized to
carbon dioxide or monoxide and the hydrogen set free. There might of
course be other intermediate kinds of action. Now it is important at
this point to insist upon a distinction between what can be found by
direct analysis as to the products of partial combustion, and what can
be imagined or inferred as the transitory existence of substances of
which the products actually found in analysis are the outcome. We shall
consider only in the first instance what substances are found by
analysis. Earlier experiments on the Bunsen burner in which coal gas was
used, and the gases withdrawn directly from the flame by aspiration,
gave no very clear results, but the introduction of the cone-separating
apparatus and the use of single hydrocarbons led to more definite
conclusions. The analysis of the inter-conal gases from an ethylene
flame gave the following numbers:--carbon dioxide = 3.6; water = 9.5;
carbon monoxide = 15.6; hydrocarbons = 1.3; hydrogen = 9.4; nitrogen =
60.6.
It appears therefore, and it may be stated as a fact, that a
considerable amount of hydrogen is left unoxidized, whilst practically
all the carbon is converted into monoxide or dioxide. As the gases have
cooled down before analysis and as the reaction CO + H2O<-->CO2 + H2 is
reversible, it may be objected that the inter-conal gases may have a
composition when they are hot very different from what they show when
cold. Experiments made to test this question have not sustained the
objection. Subsequent experiments on the oxidation of hydrocarbons have
made it appear undesirable to use the expression "preferential
combustion" or "selective combustion" in connexion with the facts just
stated; but for the purpose of describing in brief the chemistry of a
hydrocarbon flame it is necessary to say that in the inner cone of a
Bunsen flame hydrogen and carbon monoxide are the result of the limited
oxidation, and that the combustion of these gases with the external air
generates the outer cone of the flame. As to the actual stages in the
limited oxidation of a hydrocarbon a large amount of very valuable work
has been carried out by W.A. Bone and his collaborators. Different
hydrocarbons mixed with oxygen have been circulated continuously through
a vessel heated to various temperatures, beginning with that (about 250°
C.) at which the rate of oxidation is easily appreciable. Proceeding in
this way, Bone, without effecting a complete transformation of the
hydrocarbon into partially oxidized substances, has isolated large
quantities of such products, and concludes that the oxidation of a
hydrocarbon involves nothing in the nature of a selective or
preferential oxidation of either the hydrogen or the carbon. He
maintains that it occurs in several well-defined stages during which
oxygen enters into and is incorporated with the hydrocarbon molecule,
forming oxygenated intermediate products among which are alcohols and
aldehydes. The reactions between ethane and ethylene with an equal
volume of oxygen would be represented as follows:--
Stage 1. Stage 2.
CH3·CH3 ----> CH3·CH2OH ----> CH3·CH(OH)2
Ethane. Ethyl alcohol. _____/\______
____/\____ / CH3·CHO+H2O \
/ C2H4+H2O \ Acetaldehyde.
/ 2C+2H2+H2O \ ____/\_____
/ CH4+CO \
/ C+2H2+CO \
CH2 : CH2 ---> CH2 : CHOH -----> / HO·CH : CH·OH \
____/\____ ______/\_______
Ethylene. / C2H2+H2O \ / 2CH2O=2CO+2H2 \
/ 2C+H2+H2O \ Formaldehyde.
The affinity between the hydrocarbon and oxygen at a high temperature
is so great that, when the supply of oxygen is sufficient to carry the
oxidation as far as the second stage, practically no decomposition of
the monohydroxy molecule formed in the first stage occurs. This is
especially the case with unsaturated hydrocarbons.
As a crucial test decisive against the hypothesis of preferential carbon
oxidation, Bone cites the experiment of firing a mixture of equal
volumes of ethane and oxygen sealed up in a glass bulb. In such a case a
lurid flame fills the vessel, accompanied by a black cloud of carbon
particles and considerable condensation of water. About 10% of methane
is also found. It is impossible within the limits of this article to
give a more extended account of these later researches on the oxidation
of hydrocarbons. They make it evident that the relative oxidizability of
carbon and hydrogen cannot form the basis of a general theory of the
combustion of hydrocarbons, and that both the a priori view that
hydrogen is the more oxidizable element, and the inference from the
behaviour of ethylene when exploded with its own volume of oxygen, viz.
that carbon is the more oxidizable element in hydrocarbons, are not in
harmony with experimental facts.
The view that the bright luminosity of hydrocarbon flames is due "to the
deposition of solid charcoal" was first put forward by Sir Humphry Davy
in 1816. In explaining the origin of this charcoal, Davy used somewhat
ambiguous language, stating that it "might be owing to a decomposition
of a part of the gas towards the interior of the flame where the air was
in smallest quantity." This statement was interpreted commonly as
implying that the charcoal became free by the preferential combustion of
the hydrogen, and such an interpretation was given explicitly by
Faraday. Whatever may have been Davy's view with regard to this part of
the theory, his conclusion that finely divided carbon was the cause of
luminosity in hydrocarbon flames was not questioned until 1867, when E.
Frankland, in connexion with researches already alluded to, maintained
that the luminosity of such flames was not due in any important degree
to solid particles of carbon, but to the incandescence of dense
hydrocarbon vapours. Among the arguments adduced against this view the
most decisive is furnished by the optical test first used by J.L. Soret.
If the image of the sun be focussed upon the glowing part of a
hydrocarbon flame the scattered light is found to be polarized, and it
is indisputable that the luminous region is pervaded by a cloud of
finely divided solid matter. The quantity of this solid (estimated by
H.H.C. Bunte to be 0.1 milligram in a coal-gas flame burning 5 cub. ft.
per hour) is sufficient to account for the luminosity, so that Davy's
original view may be said to be now universally accepted.
The remaining question with regard to the luminosity of a hydrocarbon
flame relates to the manner in which the carbon is set free. The
fact-that hydrocarbons when strongly heated in absence of air will
deposit carbon has long been known and is daily evident in the operation
of coal-gas making, when gas carbon accumulates as a hard deposit in the
highly-heated crown of the retorts. There is no difficulty in supposing
therefore that the carbon in a flame is separated from the hydrocarbon
within it by the purely thermal action of the blue burning walls of the
flame. Many experiments might be adduced to confirm this view. It is
sufficient to name two. If a ring of metal wire be so disposed in a
small flame as to make a girdle within the blue walls towards the base,
the withdrawal of heat is rapid enough to prevent the maintenance of a
temperature sufficient to cause a separation of carbon, and the bright
luminosity disappears. Again, if the flame of a Bunsen burner be fed
through the air-ports not with air but with some neutral gas such as
nitrogen, carbon dioxide or steam, the dilution of the burning gas and
the hydrocarbon within it becomes so great that the temperature of
separation is not attained, no carbon is separated and the flame
consists of a single blue shell.
Whilst it is thus easy to understand generally why carbon becomes
separated as a solid within a flame, it is not easy to trace the
processes by which the carbon becomes separated in the case of a given
hydrocarbon. According to M.P.E. Berthelot, who made prolonged and
elaborate researches on the pyrogenetic relationships of hydrocarbons,
these compounds only liberate carbon by a process of the continual
coalescence of hydrocarbon molecules with the elimination of hydrogen,
until there is left the limiting solid hydrocarbon hardly
distinguishable from carbon itself and constituting the glowing soot of
flames.
V.B. Lewes, on the other hand, basing his conclusions on a study of the
thermal decomposition of hydrocarbons, on temperature measurements of
flames and analysis of their gases, has more recently developed a theory
of flame luminosity in which the formation and sudden exothermic
decomposition of acetylene are regarded as the essential incidents
productive of carbon separation and luminosity. Smithells has disputed
the evidence on which this theory is based and it appears to have gained
no adherence from those who have worked in the same field; but as it has
not been formally disavowed by the author and has found its way into
some text-books, it is mentioned here.
W.A. Bone and H.F. Coward (_Journ. Chem. Soc._, 1908) published the
results of a very careful study of the decomposition of hydrocarbons
when heated in a stationary condition and when continually circulated
through hot vessels. Their results disclose once more the great
difficulty of tracing the processes of decomposition and of arriving at
a generalization of wide applicability, but they appear to be conclusive
against the views both of Berthelot and of Lewes.
They do not think that the decomposition of hydrocarbons can be
adequately represented by ordinary chemical equations owing to the
complexity of the changes which really take place. Methane, which is the
most stable of the hydrocarbons, appears to be resolved at high
temperatures directly into carbon and hydrogen, but the phenomenon is
dependent mainly on surface action; ethane, ethylene and acetylene
undergo decomposition throughout the body of the gas (loc. cit. p. 1197
et seq.).
"In the cases of ethane and ethylene it may be supposed that the
_primary_ effect of high temperature is to cause an elimination of
hydrogen with a simultaneous loosening or dissolution of the bond
between the carbon atoms, giving rise to (in the event of dissolution)
residues such as : CH2 and [·:] CH. These residues, which can only
have a very fugitive separate existence, may either (a) form H2C :
CH2 and HC [·:] CH, as the result of encounters with other similar
residues, or (b) break down directly into carbon and hydrogen, or
(c) be directly hydrogenized to methane in an atmosphere rich in
hydrogen. These three possibilities may all be realized simultaneously
in the same decomposing gas in proportions dependent on the
temperature, pressure and amount of hydrogen present. The whole
process may be represented by the following scheme, the dotted line
indicating the tendency to dissolve a bond between the carbon atoms
which becomes actually effective at higher temperatures:--
H·:H
-------- / (a) C2H4 + H2
H·C·:C·H = [2(:CH2) + H2] = < (b) 2C + 2H2 + H2
H·:H \ (c) plus H2 = 2CH4
H·:H / (a) C2H2 + H2
-------- = [2(·:CH) + H2] = < (b) 2C + H2 + H2
H·C·:C·H \ (c) _plus_ 2H2 = CH4.
"In the ease of acetylene, the main primary change may be either one
of polymerization or of dissolution according to the temperature, and
if the latter, it may be supposed that the molecule breaks down across
the triple bond between the carbon atoms, giving rise to 2([·:]CH),
and that these residues are subsequently either resolved into carbon
and hydrogen or "hydrogenized" according to circumstances, thus:--
H·C·:C·H = [2(·:CH)] = / (a) 2C + H2
\/ \ (b) _plus_ 3H2 = 2CH4.
Polymerization.
"Acetylene is, moreover, distinguished by its power of polymerization
at moderate temperatures so that whether it is the gas initially
heated or whether it is a prominent product of the decomposition of
another hydrocarbon polymerization will occur to an extent dependent
on temperature."
We may describe briefly the view to which we are led as to the genesis
of an ordinary luminous hydrocarbon flame:--
The gaseous hydrocarbon issues from the burner or wick, let us suppose,
in a cylindrical column. This column is not sharply marked off from the
air but is so penetrated by it that we must suppose a gradual transition
from the pure hydrocarbon in the centre of column to the pure air on the
outside. Let us take a thin transverse slice of the flame, near the
lower part of the wick or close to the burner tube. At what lateral
distance from the centre will combustion begin? Clearly, where enough
oxygen has penetrated the column to give such partial combustion as
takes place in the inner cone of a Bunsen burner. This then defines the
blue region. Outside this the combustion of the carbon monoxide,
hydrogen and any hydrocarbons which pass from the blue region takes
place in a faintly luminous fringe. These two layers form a sheath of
active combustion, surrounding and intensely heating the enclosed
hydrocarbons in the middle of the column. These heated hydrocarbons rise
and are heated to a higher temperature as they ascend. They are
accordingly decomposed with separation of carbon in the higher parts of
the flame, giving the region of bright yellow luminosity. There remains
a central core in which neither is there any oxygen for combustion nor a
sufficiently high temperature to cause carbon separation. This
constitutes the dark interior region of the flame. We thus account for
the different parts of the flame. It is to be noted, however, that the
bright blue layer only surrounds the lower part of the flame, whilst the
pale, faintly-luminous fringe surrounds the whole flame. The flame also
is conical and not cylindrical. The foregoing explanation is therefore
not quite complete. Let us suppose that the changes have gone on in the
small section of the flame exactly as described and consider how the
processes will differ in parts above this section. The central core of
unburned gases will pass upwards and we may treat it as a new
cylindrical column which will undergo changes just as the original one,
leaving, however, a smaller core of unburned gases, or, in other words,
each succeeding section of the flame will be of smaller diameter. This
gives us the conical form of the flame. Again, the higher we ascend the
flame the greater proportionally is the amount of separated carbon, for
we have not only the heat of laterally outlying combustion to effect
decomposition, but also that of the lower parts of the flame. The lower
part of a luminous flame accordingly contains less separated carbon than
the upper. Where the hydrocarbon is largely decomposed before combustion
we have no longer the conditions of the Bunsen flame, and so in the
upper parts of a luminous flame the bright blue part fades away. The
luminous fringe would, however, be continued, for the separated hydrogen
has still to burn. In this way then we may reasonably account for the
existence, position and relative sizes of the four regions of an
ordinary luminous flame. (A. S.)
FLAMEL, NICOLAS (c. 1330-1418), reputed French alchemist and scrivener
to the university of Paris, was born in Paris or Pontoise about 1330,
and died in Paris in 1418, bequeathing the bulk of his property to the
church of Saint-Jacques-la-Boucherie, where he was buried. During his
life he contributed freely to charitable and religious purposes from the
considerable wealth he amassed either by the practice of his craft, or,
as some surmise without definite proof, by fortunate speculation or
money lending, or, as legend has it, by alchemy. According to a document
purporting to be written by himself in 1413 (printed in Waite's _Lives
of the Alchemystical Philosophers_, London, 1888), there fell into his
hands in 1357, at the cost of two florins, a book on alchemy by Abraham
the Jew, which taught in plain words the transmutation of metals. It did
not, however, explain the _materia prima_, but merely figured or
depicted it, and for more than 20 years Flamel strove in vain to find
out the secret. Then, returning from a journey to Spain, he fell in with
a Christian Jew, named Canches, who gave him the explanation, and after
three more years' work he succeeded in preparing the _materia prima_,
thus being enabled in 1382 to transmute mercury into both silver and
gold. But this fantastic story was disposed of by the facts, derived
from parish records, set forth in Vilain's _Essai sur l'histoire de
Saint-Jacques-la-Boucherie_, 1758, and his _Histoire critique de Nicolas
Flamel et de Pernelle sa femme, recueillie d'actes anciens qui
justifient l'origine et la médiocrité de leur fortune contre les
imputations des alchimistes_, 1761.
A book on alchemy in the Paris Bibliothèque, _Le Trésor de
philosophie_, professing to be written and illuminated by Flamel with
his own hand, is of very doubtful authenticity, and other treatises
bearing his name, such as the _Sommaire philosophique de Nicolas
Flamel_, published in 1561 in a collection of alchemist treatises
entitled _Transformation métallique_, are certainly spurious.
FLAMEN (from _flare_, "to blow up" the altar fire), a Roman sacrificial
priest. The flamens were subject to the pontifex (q.v.) maximus, and
were consecrated to the service of some particular deity. The highest in
rank were the _flamen Dialis_, _flamen Martialis_ and _flamen
Quirinalis_, who were always selected from among the patricians. Their
institution is generally ascribed to Numa. When the number of flamens
was raised from three to fifteen, those already mentioned were entitled
_majores_, in contradistinction to the other twelve, who were called
_minores_, as connected with less important deities, and were chosen
from the plebs. Towards the end of the republic the number of the lesser
flamens seems to have diminished. The flamens were held to be elected
for life, but they might be compelled to resign office for neglect of
duty, or on the occurrence of some ill-omened event (such as the cap
falling off the head) during the performance of their rites. The
characteristic dress of the flamens in general was the _apex_, a white
conical cap, the _laena_ or mantle, and a laurel wreath. The official
insignia of the _flamen Dialis_ (of Jupiter), the highest of these
priests, were the white cap (_pileus, albogalerus_), at the top of which
was an olive branch and a woollen thread; the _laena_, a thick woollen
_toga praetexta_ woven by his wife; the sacrificial knife; and a rod to
keep the people from him when on his way to offer sacrifice. He was
never allowed to appear without these emblems of office, every day being
considered a holy day for him. By virtue of his office he was entitled
to a seat in the senate and a curule chair. The sight of fetters being
forbidden him, his toga was not allowed to be tied in a knot but was
fastened by means of clasps, and the only kind of ring permitted to be
worn on his finger was a broken one. If a person in fetters took refuge
in his house he was immediately loosed from his bonds; and if a criminal
on his way to the scene of his punishment met him and threw himself at
his feet he was respited for that day. The _flamen Dialis_ was not
allowed to leave the city for a single night, to ride or even touch a
horse (a restriction which incapacitated him for the consulship), to
swear an oath, to look at an army, to touch anything unclean, or to look
upon people working. His marriage, which was obliged to be performed
with the ceremonies of _confarreatio_ (q.v.), was dissoluble only by
death, and on the death of his wife (called _flaminica Dialis_) he was
obliged to resign his office. The _flaminica Dialis_ assisted her
husband at the sacrifices and other religious duties which he performed.
She wore long woollen robes; a veil and a kerchief for the head, her
hair being plaited up with a purple band in a conical form (_tutulus_);
and shoes made of the leather of sacrificed animals; like her husband,
she carried the sacrificial knife. The main duty of the flamens was the
offering of daily sacrifices; on the 1st of October the three major
flamens drove to the Capitol and sacrificed to _Fides Publica_ (the
Honour of the People). Some of the municipal towns in Italy had flamens
as well as Rome.
We may mention, as distinct from the above, the _flamen curialis_, who
assisted the curio, the priest who attended to the religious affairs of
each curia (q.v.); the flamens of various sacerdotal corporations, such
as the Arval Brothers; the _flamen Augustalis_, who superintended the
worship of the emperor in the provinces.
See Marquardt, _Römische Staatsverwaltung_, iii. (1885), pp. 326-336,
473; H. Dessau, in _Ephemeris epigraphica_, iii. (1877); and the
exhaustive article by C. Jullian in Daremberg and Saglio,
_Dictionnaire des antiquités_.
FLAMINGO (Port. _Flamingo_, Span. _Flamenco_), one of the tallest and
most beautiful birds, conspicuous for the bright flame-coloured or
scarlet patch upon its wings, and long known by its classical name
_Phoenicopterus_, as an inhabitant of most of the countries bordering
the Mediterranean Sea. Flamingos have a very wide distribution, and the
sole genus comprises only a few species. _Ph. roseus_ or _antiquorum_,
white, with a rosy tinge above, and with scarlet wing-coverts, while the
remiges are black (as in all species), ranges from the Cape Verde
Islands to India and Ceylon, north as far as Lake Baikal; southwards
through Africa and Madagascar, eventually as _P. minor_. _P. ruber_,
entirely light vermilion, extends from Florida to Para and the
Galapagos; _P. chilensis_ s. _ignipalliatus_, from Peru to Patagonia,
more resembles the classical species; while _P. andinus_, the tallest of
all, which lacks the hallux, inhabits the salt lakes of the elevated
desert of Atacama, whence it extends into Chile and Argentina. Fossil
remains of flamingos have been described from the Lower Miocene of
France as _P. croizeti_, and from the Pliocene of Oregon. From the
Mid-Miocene to the Oligocene of France are known several species of
_Palaelodus_, _Elornis_ and _Agnopterus_, which have relatively shorter
legs, longer toes and a complicated hypotarsus, and represent an earlier
family, less specialized although not directly ancestral to the
flamingos. _Palaelodidae_ and _Phoenicopteridae_ together form the
larger group Phoenicopteri. These are in many respects exactly
intermediate between Anserine and stork-like birds, so much so in fact
that T.H. Huxley preferred to keep them separate as _Amphimorphae_.
However, if we carefully sift their characters, the flamingos obviously
reveal themselves as much nearer related to the _Ciconiae_, especially
to _Platalea_ and _Ibis_, than to the Anseres. This is the opinion
arrived at by W.F.R. Weldon, M. Fuerbringer and Gadow, while others
prefer the goose-like voice and the webbed toes as reliable characters.
(For a detailed analysis of this instructive question see Bronn's
_Thierreich_, Aves Syst. p. 146.)
[Illustration: The Flamingo.]
The food of the flamingo seems to consist chiefly of small aquatic
invertebrate animals which live in the mud of lagoons, for instance
Mollusca, but also of Confervae and other low salt-water algae. Whilst
feeding, the bird wades about, stirs up the mud with its feet, and,
reversing the ordinary position of its head so as to hold the crown
downwards and to look backwards, sifts the mud through its bill. This is
abruptly bent down in the middle, as if broken; the upper jaw is rather
flat and narrow, while the lower jaw is very roomy and furnished with
numerous lamellae, which, together with the thick and large tongue, act
like a sieve, an arrangement enhanced by the considerable movability of
the upper jaw. Then the bird erects its long neck to swallow the
selected food. When flying, flamingos present a striking and beautiful
sight, with legs and neck stretched out straight, looking like white and
rosy or scarlet crosses with black arms. Not less fascinating is a flock
of these sociable birds when at rest, standing on one or both legs, with
their long necks twisted or coiled upon the body in any conceivable
position.
The nest is likewise peculiar. It is built of mud, a somewhat conical
structure rising above the water according to the depth, of which the
cone is from a few inches to 2 ft. in height. If, as often happens, the
water-level sinks, the nests stand out higher. On the top is a shallow
cup for the reception of the one or two eggs, which have a bluish-white
shell with chalky incrustation. Of course the hen sits with her legs
doubled up under her, as does any other long-legged bird. It seems
strange that many ornithologists should have given credence to W.
Dampier's statement of the mode of incubation (_New Voyage round the
World_, ed. 2, i. p. 71, London, 1699): "And when they lay their eggs,
or hatch them, they stand all the while, not on the hillock, but close
by it with their legs on the ground and in the water, resting themselves
against the hillock, and covering the hollow nest upon it with their
rumps," &c. P.S. Pallas (_Zoograph. Rosso-Asiatica_, ii. p. 208) tried
to improve upon this by stating that the standing bird leans upon the
nest with its breast! The young, which are hatched after about four
weeks' incubation, look very different from the adult. The small bill is
still quite straight and the legs are short. The whole body is covered
with a thick coat of short nestling feathers, pure white in colour.
These _neossoptiles_ or first feathers bear no resemblance to those of
the Anseriform birds, but agree in detail with those of spoonbills, the
young of which the little flamingos resemble to a striking extent, but
they leave the nest soon after their birth to shift for themselves like
ducks and geese. (H. F. G.)
FLAMINIA, VIA, an ancient high road of Italy, constructed by C.
Flaminius during his censorship (220 B.C.). It led from Rome to
Ariminum, and was the most important route to the north. We hear of
frequent improvements being made in it during the imperial period.
Augustus, when he instituted a general restoration of the roads of
Italy, which he assigned for the purpose among various senators,
reserved the Flaminia for himself, and rebuilt all the bridges except
the Pons Mulvius, by which it crosses the Tiber, 2 m. N. of Rome (built
by M. Scaurus in 109 B.C.), and an unknown Pons Minucius. Triumphal
arches were erected in his honour on the former bridge and at Ariminum,
the latter of which is still preserved. Vespasian constructed a new
tunnel through the pass of Intercisa, modern Furlo, in A.D. 77 (see
CALES), and Trajan, as inscriptions show, repaired several bridges along
the road.
The Via Flaminia runs due N. from Rome, considerable remains of its
pavement being extant in the modern high road, passing slightly E. of
the site of the Etruscan Falerii, through Ocriculi and Narnia. Here it
crossed the Nar by a splendid four-arched bridge to which Martial
alludes (_Epigr._ vii. 93, 8), one arch of which and all the piers are
still standing; and went on, followed at first by the modern road to
Sangemini which passes over two finely preserved ancient bridges, past
Carsulae to Mevania, and thence to Forum Flaminii. Later on a more
circuitous route from Narnia to Forum Flaminii was adopted, passing by
Interamna, Spoletium and Fulginium (from which a branch diverged to
Perusia), and increasing the distance by 12 m. The road thence went on
to Nuceria (whence a branch road ran to Septempeda and thence either to
Ancona or to Tolentinum and Urbs Salvia) and Helvillum, and then crossed
the main ridge of the Apennines, a temple of Jupiter Apenninus standing
at the summit of the pass. Thence it descended to Cales (where it turned
N.E.), and through the pass of Intercisa to Forum Sempronii
(Fossombrone) and Forum Fortunae, when it reached the coast of the
Adriatic. Thence it ran N.W. through Pisaurum to Ariminum. The total
distance from Rome was 210 m. by the older road and 222 by the newer.
The road gave its name to a juridical district of Italy from the 2nd
century A.D. onwards, the former territory of the Senones, which was at
first associated with Umbria (with which indeed under Augustus it had
formed the sixth region of Italy), but which after Constantine was
always administered with Picenum. (T. As.)
FLAMININUS, TITUS QUINCTIUS (c. 228-174 B.C.), Roman general and
statesman. He began his public life as a military tribune under M.
Claudius Marcellus, the conqueror of Syracuse. In 199 he was quaestor,
and the next year, passing over the regular stages of aedile and
praetor, he obtained the consulship.
Flamininus was one of the first and most successful of the rising school
of Roman statesmen, the opponents of the narrow patriotism of which Cato
was the type, the disciples of Greek culture, and the advocates of a
wide imperial policy. His winning manners, his polished address, his
knowledge of men, his personal fascination, and his intimate knowledge
of Greek, all marked him out as the fittest representative of Rome in
the East. Accordingly, the province of Macedonia, and the conduct of the
war with Philip V. of Macedon, in which, after two years, Rome had as
yet gained little advantage, were assigned to him. Flamininus modified
both the policy and tactics of his predecessors. After an unsuccessful
attempt to come to terms, he drove the Macedonians from the valley of
the Aous by skilfully turning an impregnable position. Having thus
practically made himself master of Macedonia, he proceeded to Greece,
where Philip still had allies and supporters. The Achaean League (q.v.)
at once deserted the cause of Macedonia, and Nabis, the tyrant of
Sparta, entered into an alliance with Rome; Acarnania and Boeotia
submitted in less than a year, and, with the exception of the great
fortresses, Flamininus had the whole of Greece under his control. The
demand of the Greeks for the expulsion of Macedonian garrisons from
Demetrias, Chalcis and Corinth, as the only guarantee for the freedom of
Greece, was refused, and negotiations were broken off. Hostilities were
renewed in the spring of 197, and Flamininus took the field supported by
nearly the whole of Greece. At Cynoscephalae the Macedonian phalanx and
the Roman legion for the first time met in open fight, and the day
decided which nation was to be master of Greece and perhaps of the
world. It was a victory of superior tactics. The left wing of the Roman
army was retiring in confusion before the Macedonian right led by Philip
in person, when Flamininus, leaving them to their fate, boldly charged
the left wing under Nicanor, which was forming on the heights. Before
the left wing had time to form, Flamininus was upon them, and a massacre
rather than a fight ensued. This defeat was turned into a general rout
by a nameless tribune, who collected twenty companies and charged in the
rear the victorious Macedonian phalanx, which in its pursuit had left
the Roman right far behind. Macedonia was now at the mercy of Rome, but
Flamininus contented himself with his previous demands. Philip lost all
his foreign possessions, but retained his Macedonian kingdom almost
entire. He was required to reduce his army, to give up all his decked
ships except five, and to pay an indemnity of 1000 talents (£244,000).
Ten commissioners arrived from Rome to regulate the final terms of
peace, and at the Isthmian games a herald proclaimed to the assembled
crowds that "the Roman people, and T. Quinctius their general, having
conquered King Philip and the Macedonians, declare all the Greek states
which had been subject to the king henceforward free and independent."
Flamininus's last act before returning home was characteristic. Of the
Achaeans, who vied with one another in showering upon him honours and
rewards, he asked but one personal favour, the redemption of the Italian
captives who had been sold as slaves in Greece during the Hannibalic
War. These, to the number of 1200, were presented to him on the eve of
his departure (spring, 194), and formed the chief ornament of his
triumph.
In 192, on the rupture between the Romans and Antiochus III. the Great,
Flamininus returned to Greece, this time as the civil representative of
Rome. His personal influence and skilful diplomacy secured the wavering
Achaean states, cemented the alliance with Philip, and contributed
mainly to the Roman victory at Thermopylae (191). In 183 he undertook
an embassy to Prusias, king of Bithynia, to induce him to deliver up
Hannibal, who forestalled his fate by taking poison. Nothing more is
known of Flamininus, except that, according to Plutarch, his end was
peaceful and happy.
There seems no doubt that Flamininus was actuated by a genuine love of
Greece and its people. To attribute to him a Machiavellian policy, which
foresaw the overthrow of Corinth fifty years later and the conversion of
Achaea into a Roman province, is absurd and disingenuous. There is more
force in the charge that his Hellenic sympathies prevented him from
seeing the innate weakness and mutual jealousies of the Greek states of
that period, whose only hope of peace and safety lay in submitting to
the protectorate of the Roman republic. But if the event proved that the
liberation of Greece was a political mistake, it was a noble and
generous mistake, and reflects nothing but honour on the name of
Flamininus, "the liberator of the Greeks."
His life has been written by Plutarch, and in modern times by F.D.
Gerlach (1871); see also Mommsen, _Hist. of Rome_ (Eng. tr.), bk. iii.
chs. 8, 9.
FLAMINIUS, GAIUS, Roman statesman and general, of plebeian family.
During his tribuneship (232 B.C.), in spite of the determined opposition
of the senate and his own father, he carried a measure for distributing
among the plebeians the _ager Gallicus Picenus_, an extensive tract of
newly-acquired territory to the south of Ariminum (Cicero, _De
senectute_, 4, _Brutus_, 14). As praetor in 227, he gained the lasting
gratitude of the people of his province (Sicily) by his excellent
administration. In 223, when consul with P. Furius Philus, he took the
field against the Gauls, who were said to have been roused to war by his
agrarian law. Having crossed the Po to punish the Insubrians, he at
first met with a severe check and was forced to capitulate. Reinforced
by the Cenomani, he gained a decisive victory on the banks of the Addua.
He had previously been recalled by the optimates, but ignored the order.
The victory seems to have been due mainly to the admirable discipline
and fighting qualities of the soldiers, and he obtained the honour of a
triumph only after the decree of the senate against it had been
overborne by popular clamour. During his censorship (220) he strictly
limited the freedmen to the four city tribes (see COMITIA). His name is
further associated with two great works. He erected the Circus Flaminius
on the Campus Martius, for the accommodation of the plebeians, and
continued the military road from Rome to Ariminum, which had hitherto
only reached as far as Spoletium (see FLAMINIA, VIA). He probably also
instituted the "plebeian" games. In 218, as a leader of the democratic
opposition, Flaminius was one of the chief promoters of the measure
brought in by the tribune Quintus Claudius, which prohibited senators
and senators' sons from possessing sea-going vessels, except for the
transport of the produce of their own estates, and generally debarred
them from all commercial speculation (Livy xxi. 63). His effective
support of this measure vastly increased the popularity of Flaminius
with his own order, and secured his second election as consul in the
following year (217), shortly after the defeat of T. Sempronius Longus
at the Trebia. He hastened at once to Arretium, the termination of the
western high road to the north, to protect the passes of the Apennines,
but was defeated and killed at the battle of the Trasimene lake (see
PUNIC WARS).
The testimony of Livy (xxi., xxii.) and Polybius (ii., iii.)--no
friendly critics--shows that Flaminius was a man of ability, energy and
probity. A popular and successful democratic leader, he cannot, however,
be ranked among the great statesmen of the republic. As a general he was
headstrong and self-sufficient and seems to have owed his victories
chiefly to personal boldness favoured by good fortune.
His son, GAIUS FLAMINIUS, was quaestor under P. Scipio Africanus the
elder in Spain in 210, and took part in the capture of New Carthage.
Fourteen years later, when curule aedile, he distributed large
quantities of grain among the citizens at a very low price. In 193, as
praetor, he carried on a successful war against the insubordinate
populations of his recently constituted province of Hispania Citerior.
In 187 he was consul with M. Aemilius Lepidus, and subjugated the
warlike Ligurian tribes. In the same year the branch of the Via Aemilia
connecting Bononia with Arretium was constructed by him. In 181 he
founded the colony of Aquileia. The chief authority for his life is the
portion of Livy dealing with the history of the period.
FLAMSTEED, JOHN (1646-1719), English astronomer, was born at Denby, near
Derby, on the 19th of August 1646. The only son of Stephen Flamsteed, a
maltster, he was educated at the free school of Derby, but quitted it
finally in May 1662, in consequence of a rheumatic affection of the
joints, due to a chill caught while bathing. Medical aid having proved
of no avail, he went to Ireland in 1665 to be "stroked" by Valentine
Greatrakes, but "found not his disease to stir." Meanwhile, he solaced
his enforced leisure with astronomical studies. Beginning with J.
Sacrobosco's _De sphaera_, he read all the books on the subject that he
could buy or borrow; observed a partial solar eclipse on the 12th of
September 1662; and attempted the construction of measuring instruments.
A tract on the equation of time, written by him in 1667, was published
by Dr John Wallis with the _Posthumous Works_ of J. Horrocks (1673); and
a paper embodying his calculations of appulses to stars by the moon,
which appeared in the _Philosophical Transactions_ (iv. 1099), signed
_In Mathesi a sole fundes_, an anagram of "Johannes Flamsteedius,"
secured for him, from 1670, general scientific recognition.
On his return from a visit to London in 1670 he became acquainted with
Isaac Newton at Cambridge, entered his name at Jesus college, and took,
four years later, a degree of M.A. by letters-patent. An essay composed
by him in 1673 on the true and apparent diameters of the planets
furnished Newton with data for the third book of the _Principia_, and he
fitted numerical elements to J. Horrocks's theory of the moon. In 1674,
and again in 1675, he was invited to London by Sir Jonas Moore, governor
of the Tower, who proposed to establish him in a private observatory at
Chelsea, but the plan was anticipated by the determination of Charles
II. to have the tables of the heavenly bodies corrected, and the places
of the fixed stars rectified "for the use of his seamen," and Flamsteed
was appointed "astronomical observator" by a royal warrant dated 4th of
March 1675. His salary of £100 a year was cut down by taxation to £90;
he had to provide his own instruments, and to instruct, into the
bargain, two boys from Christ's hospital. Sheer necessity drove him, in
addition, to take many private pupils; but having been ordained in 1675,
he was presented by Lord North in 1684 to the living of Burstow in
Surrey; and his financial position was further improved by a small
inheritance on his father's death in 1688. He now ordered, at an expense
of £120, a mural arc from Abraham Sharp, with which he began to observe
systematically on the 12th of September 1689 (see ASTRONOMY: _History_).
The latter part of Flamsteed's life passed in a turmoil of controversy
regarding the publication of his results. He struggled to withhold them
until they could be presented in a complete form; but they were urgently
needed for the progress of science, and the astronomer-royal was a
public servant. Sir Isaac Newton, who depended for the perfecting of his
lunar theory upon "places of the moon" reluctantly doled out from
Greenwich, led the movement for immediate communication; whence arose
much ill-feeling between him and Flamsteed. At last, in 1704, Prince
George of Denmark undertook the cost of printing; a committee of the
Royal Society was appointed to arrange preliminaries, and Flamsteed,
protesting and exasperated, had to submit. The work was only partially
through the press when the prince died, on the 28th of October 1708, and
its completion devolved upon a board of visitors to the observatory
endowed with ample powers by a royal order of the 12th of December 1712.
As the upshot, the _Historia coelestis_, embodying the first Greenwich
star-catalogue, together with the mural arc observations made 1689-1705,
was issued under Edmund Halley's editorship in 1712. Flamsteed denounced
the production as surreptitious; he committed to the flames three
hundred copies, of which he obtained possession through the favour of
Sir Robert Walpole; and, in defiance of bodily infirmities, vigorously
prosecuted his designs for the entire and adequate publication of the
materials he continued to accumulate. They were but partially executed
when he died on the 31st of December 1719. The preparation of his
monumental work, _Historia coelestis Britannica_ (3 vols. folio, 1725),
was finished by his assistant, Joseph Crosthwait, aided by Abraham
Sharp. The first two volumes included the whole of Flamsteed's
observations at Derby and Greenwich; the third contained the _British
Catalogue_ of nearly 3000 stars. Numerous errors in this valuable record
having been detected by Sir William Herschel, Caroline Herschel drew up
a list of 560 stars observed, but not catalogued, while 111 of those
catalogued proved to have never been observed (_Phil. Trans._ lxxxvii.
293; see also F. Baily, _Memoirs Roy. Astr. Society_, iv. 129). The
appearance of the _Atlas coelestis_, corresponding to the _British
Catalogue_, was delayed until 1729. A portrait of Flamsteed, painted by
Thomas Gibson in 1712, hangs in the rooms of the Royal Society. The
extent and quality of his performance were the more remarkable
considering his severe physical sufferings, his straitened means, and
the antagonism to which he was exposed. Estimable in private life, he
was highly susceptible in professional matters, and hence failed to keep
on terms with his contemporaries.
Francis Baily's _Account of the Rev. John Flamsteed_ (1835) is the
leading authority for his life. It comprises an autobiographical
narrative pieced together from various sources, a large collection of
Flamsteed's letters, a revised and enlarged edition of the _British
Catalogue_, besides authoritative and detailed introductory
discussions. Some clamour was raised by a publication in which blame
for harsh dealings was freely imputed to Newton, but W. Whewell
vindicated his character in _Flamsteed and Newton_ (1836).
See also _General Dictionary_, vol. v. (1737), from materials supplied
by James Hodgson, Flamsteed's nephew-in-law; _Biographia Britannica_,
iii. 1943 (1750); S. Rigaud's _Correspondence of Scientific Men_;
Cunningham's _Lives of Eminent Englishmen_, iv. 366 (1835); Mark
Noble's Continuation of James Granger's Biog. _Hist. of England_, ii.
132; R. Grant's _Hist. of Phys. Astronomy_, p. 467; W. Whewell's
_Hist. of the Inductive Sciences_, ii. 162; J.S. Bailly's _Hist. de
l'astronomie moderne_, ii. 423, 589, 650; J. Delambre's _Hist. de
l'astronomie au XVIII^e siècle_, p. 93; _Observatory_, xv. 355, 379,
382. (A. M. C.)
FLANDERS (Flem. _Vlaanderen_), a territorial name for part of the
Netherlands, Europe. Originally it applied only to Bruges and the
immediate neighbourhood. In the 8th and 9th centuries it was gradually
extended to the whole of the coast region from Calais to the Scheldt. In
the middle ages this was divided into two parts, one looking to Bruges
as its capital, and the other to Ghent. The name is retained in the two
Belgian provinces of West and East Flanders.
1. West Flanders is the portion bordering the North Sea, and its
coast-line extends from the French to the Dutch frontier for a little
over 40 m. Its capital is Bruges, and the principal towns of the
province are Ostend, Courtrai, Ypres and Roulers. Agriculture is the
chief occupation of the population, and the country is under the most
careful and skilful cultivation. The admiration of the foreign observer
for the Belgian system of market gardening is not diminished on learning
that the subsoil of most of this tract is the sand of the "dunes."
Fishing employs a large proportion of the coast population. The area of
West Flanders is officially computed at 808,667 acres or 1263 sq. m. In
1904 the population was 845,732, giving an average of 669 to the sq. m.
2. East Flanders lies east and north-east of the western province, and
extends northwards to the neighbourhood of Antwerp. It is still more
productive and richer than Western Flanders, and is well watered by the
Scheldt. The district of Waes, land entirely reclaimed within the memory
of man, is supposed to be the most productive district of its size in
Europe. The principal towns are Ghent (capital of the province), St
Nicolas, Alost, Termonde, Eecloo and Oudenarde. The area is given at
749,987 acres or 1172 sq. m. In 1904 the population was 1,073,507,
showing an average of 916 per sq. m.
_History._--The ancient territory of Flanders comprised not only the
modern provinces known as East and West Flanders, but the southernmost
portion of the Dutch province of Zeeland and a considerable district in
north-western France. In the time of Caesar it was inhabited by the
Morini, Atrebates and other Celtic tribes, but in the centuries that
followed the land was repeatedly overrun by German invaders, and finally
became a part of the dominion of the Franks. On the break-up of the
Carolingian empire the river Scheldt was by the treaty of Verdun (843)
made the line of division between the kingdom of East Francia
(Austrasia) under the emperor Lothaire, and the kingdom of West Francia
(Neustria) under Charles the Bald. In virtue of this compact Flanders
was henceforth attached to the West Frankish monarchy (France). It thus
acquired a position unique among the provinces of the territory known in
later times as the Netherlands, all of which were included in that
northern part of Austrasia assigned on the death of the emperor Lothaire
(855) to King Lothaire II., and from his name called Lotharingia or
Lorraine.
The first ruler of Flanders of whom history has left any record is
Baldwin, surnamed _Bras-de-fer_ (Iron-arm). This man, a brave and daring
warrior under Charles the Bald, fell in love with the king's daughter
Judith, the youthful widow of two English kings, married her, and fled
with his bride to Lorraine. Charles, though at first very angry, was at
last conciliated, and made his son-in-law margrave (_Marchio Flandriae_)
of Flanders, which he held as an hereditary fief. The Northmen were at
this time continually devastating the coast lands, and Baldwin was
entrusted with the possession of this outlying borderland of the west
Frankish dominion in order to defend it against the invaders. He was the
first of a line of strong rulers, who at some date early in the 10th
century exchanged the title of margrave for that of count. His son,
Baldwin II.--the Bald--from his stronghold at Bruges maintained, as did
his father before him, a vigorous defence of his lands against the
incursions of the Northmen. On his mother's side a descendant of
Charlemagne, he strengthened the dynastic importance of his family by
marrying Aelfthryth, daughter of Alfred the Great. On his death in 918
his possessions were divided between his two sons Arnulf the Elder and
Adolphus, but the latter survived only a short time and Arnulf succeeded
to the whole inheritance. His reign was filled with warfare against the
Northmen, and he took an active part in the struggles in Lorraine
between the emperor Otto I. and Hugh Capet. In his old age he placed the
government in the hands of Baldwin, his son by Adela, daughter of the
count of Vermandois, and the young man, though his reign was a very
short one, did a great deal for the commercial and industrial progress
of the country, establishing the first weavers and fullers at Ghent, and
instituting yearly fairs at Ypres, Bruges and other places.
On Baldwin III.'s death in 961 the old count resumed the control, and
spent the few remaining years of his life in securing the succession of
his grandson Arnulf II.--the Younger. The reign of Arnulf was terminated
by his death in 989, and he was followed by his son Baldwin IV., named
_Barbatus_ or the Bearded. This Baldwin fought successfully both against
the Capetian king of France and the emperor Henry II. Henry found
himself obliged to grant to Baldwin IV. in fief Valenciennes, the
burgraveship of Ghent, the land of Waes, and Zeeland. The count of
Flanders thus became a feudatory of the empire as well as of the French
crown. The French fiefs are known in Flemish history as Crown Flanders
(_Kroon-Vlaanderen_), the German fiefs as Imperial Flanders
(_Rijks-Vlaanderen_). Baldwin's son--afterwards Baldwin V.--rebelled in
1028 against his father at the instigation of his wife Adela, daughter
of Robert II. of France; but two years later peace was sworn at
Oudenaarde, and the old count continued to reign till his death in 1036.
Baldwin V. proved a worthy successor, and acquired from the people the
surname of _Débonnaire_. He was an active enterprising man, and greatly
extended his power by wars and alliances. He obtained from the emperor
Henry IV. the territory between the Scheldt and the Dender as an
imperial fief, and the margraviate of Antwerp. So powerful had he become
that the Flemish count on the decease of Henry I. of France in 1060 was
appointed regent during the minority of Philip I. (see FRANCE). Before
his death he saw his eldest daughter Matilda (d. 1083) sharing the
English throne with William the Conqueror, his eldest son Baldwin of
Mons in possession of Hainaut in right of his wife Richilde, heiress of
Regnier V. (d. 1036) and widow of Hermann of Saxony (d. 1050/1) (see
HAINAUT), and his second son Robert the Frisian regent (_voogd_) of the
county of Holland during the minority of Dirk V., whose mother, Gertrude
of Saxony, widow of Floris I. of Holland (d. 1061), Robert had married
(see HOLLAND). On his death in 1067 his son Baldwin of Mons, already
count of Hainaut, succeeded to the countship of Flanders. Baldwin V. had
granted to Robert the Frisian on his marriage in 1063 his imperial
fiefs. His right to these was disputed by Baldwin VI., and war broke out
between the two brothers. Baldwin was killed in battle in 1070. Robert
now claimed the tutelage of Baldwin's children and obtained the support
of the emperor Henry IV., while Richilde, Baldwin's widow, appealed to
Philip I. of France. The contest was decided at Ravenshoven, near
Cassel, on the 22nd of February 1071, where Robert was victorious.
Richilde was taken prisoner and her eldest son Arnulf III. was slain.
Robert obtained from Philip I. the investiture of Crown Flanders, and
from Henry IV. the fiefs which formed Imperial Flanders.
The second son of Richilde was recognized as count of Hainaut (see
HAINAUT), which was thus after a brief union separated from Flanders.
Robert died in 1093, and was succeeded by his son Robert II., who
acquired great renown by his exploits in the first crusade, and won the
name of the Lance and Sword of Christendom. His fame was second only to
that of Godfrey of Bouillon. Robert returned to Flanders in 1100. He
fought with his suzerain Louis the Fat of France against the English,
and was drowned in 1111 by the breaking of a bridge. His son and
successor, Baldwin VII., or Baldwin with the Axe, also fought against
the English in France. He died at the age of twenty-seven from the wound
of an arrow, in 1119, leaving no heir. He nominated as his successor his
cousin Charles, son of Knut IV. of Denmark and of Adela, daughter of
Robert the Frisian. Charles tried his utmost to put down oppression and
to promote the welfare of his subjects, and obtained the surname of "the
Good." His determination to enforce the right made him many enemies, and
he was foully murdered on Ash Wednesday, 1127, at Bruges. He died
childless, and there were no less than six candidates to the countship.
The contest lay between two of these, William Clito, son of Robert of
Normandy and grandson of William the Conqueror and Matilda of Flanders,
and Thierry or Dirk of Alsace, whose mother Gertrude was a daughter of
Robert the Frisian. William Clito, through the support of Louis of
France, was at first accepted by the Flemish nobles as count, but he
gave offence to the communes, who supported Thierry. A struggle ensued
and William was killed before Alost. Thierry then became count without
further opposition. He married the widow of Charles the Good, Marguerite
of Clermont, and proved himself at home a wise and prudent prince,
encouraging the growth of popular liberty and of commerce. In 1146 he
took part in the second crusade and distinguished himself by his
exploits. In 1157 he resigned the countship to his son Philip of Alsace
and betook himself once more to Jerusalem. On his return from the East
twenty years later Thierry retired to a monastery to die in his own
land.
Count Philip of Alsace was a strong and able man. He did much to promote
the growth of the municipalities for which Flanders was already becoming
famous. Ghent, Bruges, Ypres, Lille and Douai under him made much
progress as flourishing industrial towns. He also conferred rights and
privileges on a number of ports, Hulst, Nieuwport, Sluis, Dunkirk, Axel,
Damme, Gravelines and others. But while encouraging the development of
the communes and "free towns," Philip sternly repressed any spirit of
independence or attempted uprisings against his authority. This count
was a powerful prince. He acted for a time as regent in France during
the minority of his godson Philip Augustus, and married his ward to his
niece Isabella of Hainaut (1180). Philip took part in the third
crusade, and died in the camp before Acre of the pestilence in 1191.
As he had no children, the succession passed to Baldwin of Hainaut, who
had married Philip's sister Margaret. The countships of Flanders and
Hainaut were thus united under the same ruler. Baldwin did not obtain
possession of Flanders without strong opposition on the part of the
French king, and he was obliged to cede Artois, St Omer, Lens, Hesdin
and a great part of southern Flanders to France, and to allow Matilda of
Portugal, the widow of Philip of Alsace, to retain certain towns in
right of her dowry. Margaret died in 1194 and Baldwin the following
year, and their eldest son Baldwin IX. succeeded to both countships.
Baldwin IX. is famous in history as the founder of the Latin empire at
Constantinople. He perished in Bulgaria in 1206. The emperor's two
daughters were both under age, and the government was carried on by
their uncle Philip, marquess of Namur, whom Baldwin had appointed regent
on his departure to Constantinople. Philip proved faithless to his
charge, and he allowed his nieces to fall into the hands of Philip
Augustus, who married the elder sister Johanna of Constantinople to his
nephew Ferdinand of Portugal. The Flemings were averse to the French
king's supremacy, and Ferdinand, who acted as governor in the name of
his wife, joined himself to the confederacy formed by Germany, England,
and the leading states of the Netherlands against Philip Augustus.
Ferdinand was, however, taken prisoner at the disastrous battle of
Bouvines (1214) and was kept for twelve years a prisoner in the Louvre.
The countess Johanna ruled the united countships with prudence and
courage. On Ferdinand's death she married Thomas of Savoy, but died in
1244, leaving no heirs. She was succeeded in her dignities by her
younger sister Margaret of Constantinople, commonly known amongst her
contemporaries as "Black Meg" (_Zwarte Griet_). Margaret had been twice
married. Her first husband was (1212) Buchard of Avesnes, one of the
first of Hainaut's nobles and a man of knightly prowess, but originally
destined for the church. On this ground he was excommunicated by
Innocent III. and imprisoned by the countess Johanna, with the result
that Margaret at last was driven to repudiate him. She married in second
wedlock (1225) William of Dampierre. Two sons were the issue of the
first marriage, three sons and three daughters of the second.
When Margaret in 1244 became countess of Flanders and Hainaut, she
wished her son William of Dampierre to be acknowledged as her successor.
John of Avesnes, her eldest son, strongly protested against this and was
supported by the French king. A civil war ensued, which ended in a
compromise (1246), the succession to Flanders being granted to William
of Dampierre, that of Hainaut to John of Avesnes. Margaret, however,
ruled with a strong hand for many years and survived both her sons,
dying at the age of eighty in 1280. On her death her grandson, John II.
of Avesnes, became count of Hainaut: Guy of Dampierre, her second son by
her second marriage, count of Flanders.
The two counties were once more under separate dynasties. The government
of Guy of Dampierre was unfortunate. It was the interest of the Flemish
weavers to be on good terms with England, the wool-producing country,
and Guy entered into an alliance with Edward I. against France. This led
to an invasion and conquest of Flanders by Philip the Fair. Guy with his
sons and the leading Flemish nobles were taken prisoners to Paris, and
Flanders was ruled as a French dependency. But though in the principal
towns, Ghent, Bruges and Ypres, there was a powerful French
faction--known as _Leliaerts_ (adherents of the lily)--the arbitrary
rule of the French governor and officials stirred up the mass of the
Flemish people to rebellion. The anti-French partisans (known as
_Clauwaerts_) were strongest at Bruges under the leadership of Peter de
Conync, master of the cloth-weavers, and John Breydel, master of the
butchers. The French garrison at Bruges were massacred (May 19th, 1302),
and on the following 11th of July a splendid French army of invasion was
utterly defeated near Courtray. Peace was concluded in 1305, but owing
to Guy of Dampierre, and the leading Flemish nobles being in the hands
of the French king, on terms very disadvantageous to Flanders. Very
shortly afterwards the aged count Guy died, as did also Philip the Fair.
Robert of Bethune, his son and successor, had continual difficulties
with France during the whole of his reign, the Flemings offering a
stubborn resistance to all attempts to destroy their independence.
Robert was succeeded in 1322 by his grandson Louis of Nevers. Louis had
been brought up at the French court, and had married Margaret of France.
His sympathies were entirely French, and he made use of French help in
his contests with the communes.
Under Louis of Nevers Flanders was practically reduced to the status of
a French province. In his time the long contest between Flanders and
Holland for the possession of the island of Zeeland was brought to an
end by a treaty signed on the 6th of March 1323, by which West Zeeland
was assigned to the count of Holland, the rest to the count of Flanders.
The latter part of the reign of Louis of Nevers was remarkable for the
successful revolt of the Flemish communes, now rapidly advancing to
great material prosperity under Jacob van Artevelde (see ARTEVELDE,
JACOB VAN). Artevelde allied himself with Edward III. of England in his
contest with Philip of Valois for the French crown, while Louis of
Nevers espoused the cause of Philip. He fell at the battle of Crécy
(1346). He was followed in the countship by his son Louis II. of Mâle.
The reign of this count was one long struggle with the communes, headed
by the town of Ghent, for political supremacy. Louis was as strong in
his French sympathies as his father, and relied upon French help in
enforcing his will upon his refractory subjects, who resented his
arbitrary methods of government, and the heavy taxation imposed upon
them by his extravagance and love of display. Had the great towns with
their organized gilds and great wealth held together in their opposition
to the count's despotism, they would have proved successful, but Ghent
and Bruges, always keen rivals, broke out into open feud. The power of
Ghent reached its height under Philip van Artevelde (see ARTEVELDE,
PHILIP VAN) in 1382. He defeated Louis, took Bruges and was made
_ruward_ of Flanders. But the triumph of the White Hoods, as the popular
party was called, was of short duration. On the 27th of November 1382
Artevelde suffered a crushing defeat from a large French army at
Roosebeke and was himself slain. Louis of Male died two years later,
leaving an only daughter Margaret, who had married in 1369 Philip the
Bold, duke of Burgundy.
Flanders now became a portion of the great Burgundian domain, which in
the reign of Philip the Good, Margaret's grandson, had absorbed almost
the whole of the Netherlands (see BURGUNDY; NETHERLANDS). The history of
Flanders as a separate state ceases from the time of the acquisition of
the countship by the Burgundian dynasty. There were revolts from time to
time of great towns against the exactions even of these powerful
princes, but they were in vain. The conquest and humiliation of Bruges
by Philip the Good in 1440, and the even more relentless punishment
inflicted on rebellious Ghent by the emperor Charles V. exactly a
century later are the most remarkable incidents in the long-continued
but vain struggle of the Flemish communes to maintain and assert their
privileges. The Burgundian dukes and their successors of the house of
Habsburg were fully alive to the value to them of Flanders and its rich
commercial cities. It was Flanders that furnished to them no small part
of their resources, but for this very reason, while fostering the
development of Flemish industry and trade, they were the more determined
to brook no opposition which sought to place restrictions upon their
authority.
The effect of the revolt of the Netherlands and the War of Dutch
Independence which followed was ruinous to Flanders. Albert and Isabel
on their accession to the sovereignty of the southern Netherlands in
1599 found "the great cities of Flanders and Brabant had been abandoned
by a large part of their inhabitants; agriculture hardly in a less
degree than commerce and industry had been ruined." In 1633 with the
death of Isabel, Flanders reverted to Spanish rule (1633). By the treaty
of Munster the north-western portion of Flanders, since known as States
(or Dutch) Flanders, was ceded by Philip IV. to the United Provinces
(1648). By a succession of later treaties--of the Pyrenees (1659),
Aix-la-Chapelle (1668), Nijmwegen (1679) and others--a large slice of
the southern portion of the old county of Flanders became French
territory and was known as French Flanders.
From 1795 to 1814 Flanders, with the rest of the Belgic provinces, was
incorporated in France, and was divided into two departments--_département
de l'Escaut_ and _département de la Lys_. This division has since been
retained, and is represented by the two provinces of East Flanders and
West Flanders in the modern kingdom of Belgium. The title of count of
Flanders was revived by Leopold I. in 1840 in favour of his second son,
Philip Eugene Ferdinand (d. 1905). (G. E.)
FLANDRIN, JEAN HIPPOLYTE (1809-1864), French painter, was born at Lyons
in 1809. His father, though brought up to business, had great fondness
for art, and sought himself to follow an artist's career. Lack of early
training, however, disabled him for success, and he was obliged to take
up the precarious occupation of a miniature painter. Hippolyte was the
second of three sons, all painters, and two of them eminent, the third
son Paul (b. 1811) ranking as one of the leaders of the modern landscape
school of France. Auguste (1804-1842), the eldest, passed the greater
part of his life as professor at Lyons, where he died. After studying
for some time at Lyons, Hippolyte and Paul, who had long determined on
the step and economized for it, set out to walk to Paris in 1829, to
place themselves under the tuition of Hersent. They chose finally to
enter the atelier of Ingres, who became not only their instructor but
their friend for life. At first considerably hampered by poverty,
Hippolyte's difficulties were for ever removed by his taking, in 1832,
the Grand Prix de Rome, awarded for his picture of the "Recognition of
Theseus by his Father." This allowed him to study five years at Rome,
whence he sent home several pictures which considerably raised his fame.
"St Clair healing the Blind" was done for the cathedral of Nantes, and
years after, at the exhibition of 1855, brought him a medal of the first
class. "Jesus and the Little Children" was given by the government to
the town of Lisieux. "Dante and Virgil visiting the Envious Men struck
with Blindness," and "Euripides writing his Tragedies," belong to the
museum at Lyons. Returning to Paris through Lyons in 1838 he soon
received a commission to ornament the chapel of St John in the church of
St Séverin at Paris, and reputation increased and employment continued
abundant for the rest of his life. Besides the pictures mentioned above,
and others of a similar kind, he painted a great number of portraits.
The works, however, upon which his fame most surely rests are his
monumental decorative paintings. Of these the principal are those
executed in the following churches:--in the sanctuary of St Germain des
Prés at Paris (1842-1844), in the choir of the same church (1846-1848),
in the church of St Paul at Nismes (1848-1849), of St Vincent de Paul at
Paris (1850-1854), in the church of Ainay at Lyons (1855), in the nave
of St Germain des Prés (1855-1861). In 1856 Hippolyte Flandrin was
elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts. In 1863 his failing health,
rendered worse by incessant toil and exposure to the damp and draughts
of churches, induced him again to visit Italy. He died of smallpox at
Rome on the 21st of March 1864. As might naturally be expected in one
who looked upon painting as but the vehicle for the expression of
spiritual sentiment, he had perhaps too little pride in the technical
qualities of his art. There is shown in his works much of that austerity
and coldness, expressed in form and colour, which springs from a faith
which feels itself in opposition to the tendencies of surrounding life.
He has been compared to Fra Angelico; but the faces of his long
processions of saints and martyrs seem to express rather the austerity
of souls convicted of sin than the joy and purity of never-corrupted
life which shines from the work of the early master.
See Delaborde, _Lettres et pensées de H. Flandrin_ (Paris, 1865);
Beulé, _Notice historique sur H. F._ (1869).
FLANNEL, a woollen stuff of various degrees of weight and fineness, made
usually from loosely spun yarn. The origin of the word is uncertain, but
in the 16th century flannel was a well-known production of Wales, and a
Welsh origin has been suggested. The French form _flanelle_ was used
late in the 17th century, and the Ger. _Flanell_ early in the 18th
century. Baize, a kind of coarse flannel with a long nap, is said to
have been first introduced to England about the middle of the 16th
century by refugees from France and the Netherlands. The manufacture of
flannel has naturally undergone changes, and, in some cases,
deteriorations. Flannels are frequently made with an admixture of silk
or cotton, and in low varieties cotton has tended to become the
predominant factor. Formerly a short staple wool of fine quality from a
Southdown variety of the Sussex breed was principally in favour with the
flannel manufacturers of Rochdale, who also used largely the wool from
the Norfolk breed, a cross between the Southdown and Norfolk sheep. In
Wales the short staple wool of the mountain sheep was used, and in
Ireland that of the Wicklow variety of the Cottagh breed, but now the
New Zealand, Cape and South American wools are extensively employed, and
English wools are not commonly used alone. Over 2000 persons are
employed in flannel manufacture in Rochdale alone, which is the historic
seat of the industry, and a good deal of flannel is now made in the Spen
Valley district, Yorkshire. Blankets, which constitute a special branch
of the flannel trade, are largely made at Bury in Lancashire and
Dewsbury in Yorkshire. Welsh flannels have a high reputation, and make
an important industry in Montgomeryshire. There are also flannel
manufactories in Ireland.
A moderate export trade in flannel is done by Great Britain. The
following table gives the quantities exported during three years:--
1904. 1905. 1906.
Yards 9,758,300 9,220,500 8,762,200
In 1877 the export was 9,273,429 yds., so it appears that this trade has
varied comparatively little. The imports of flannel are not very large.
Many so-called flannels have been made with a large admixture of cotton,
but the Merchandise Marks Act has done something to limit the
indiscriminate use of names. Unquestionably the development of the
flannel trade has been checked by the great increase in the production
of flannelettes, the better qualities of which have become formidable
competitors with flannel. There must, however, be a regular and large
demand for flannel while theory and experience confirm its value as a
clothing particularly suitable for immediate contact with the body.
FLANNELETTE, a cotton cloth made to imitate flannel. The word seems to
have been first used in the early 'eighties, and there is a reference in
the _Daily News_ of 1887 to "a poverty-stricken article called
flannelette." Now it is used very extensively for underclothing, night
gear, dresses, dressing-gowns, shirts, &c. It is usually made with a
much coarser weft than warp, and its flannel-like appearance is obtained
by the raising or scratching up of this weft, and by various finishing
processes. Some kinds are raised equally on both sides, and the nap may
be long or short according to the purpose for which the cloth is
required. A considerable trade is done in plain cloths dyed, and also in
woven coloured stripes and checks, but almost any heavy or coarse cotton
cloth can be made into flannelette. It is now largely used by the poorer
classes of the community, and the flimsier kinds have been a frequent
source of accident by fire. It is, however, when used discreetly and in
a fair quality, a cheap and useful article. A flannelette, patented
under the title of "Non-flam," has been made with fire-resisting
properties, but its sale has been more in the better qualities than in
the lower and more dangerous ones. Flannelette is made largely on the
continent of Europe, and in the United States as well as in Great
Britain.
FLASK, in its earliest meaning in Old English a vessel for carrying
liquor, made of wood or leather. The principal applications in current
usage are (1) to a vessel of metal or wood, formerly of horn, used for
carrying gunpowder; (2) to a long-necked, round-bodied glass vessel,
usually covered with plaited straw or maize leaves, containing olive or
other oil or Italian wines--it is often known as a "Florence flask":
similarly shaped vessels are used for experiments, &c., in a
laboratory; (3) to a small metal or glass receptacle for spirits, wine
or other liquor, of a size and shape to fit into a pocket or holster,
usually covered with leather, basket-work or other protecting substance,
and with a detachable portion of the case shaped to form a cup. "Flask"
is also used in metal-founding of a wooden frame or case to contain part
of the mould. The word "flagon," which is by derivation a doublet of
"flask," is usually applied to a larger type of vessel for holding
liquor, more particularly to a type of wine-bottle with a short neck and
circular body with flattened sides. The word is also used of a
jug-shaped vessel with a handle, spout and lid, into which wine may be
decanted from the bottle for use at table, and of a similarly shaped
vessel to contain the Eucharistic wine till it is poured into the
chalice. "Flask" (in O. Eng. _flasce_ or _flaxe_) is represented both in
Teutonic and Romanic languages. The earliest examples are found in Med.
Lat. _flasco_, _flasconis_, whence come Ital. _fiascone_, O. Fr.
_flascon_ (mod. _flacon_), adapted in the Eng. "flagon." Another Lat.
form is _flasca_, this gave a Fr. _flasque_, which in the sense of
"powder flask" remained in use till later than the 16th century. In
Teutonic languages the word, in its various forms, is the common one for
"bottle," so in Ger. _Flasche_, Dutch _flesch_, &c. If the word is of
Romanic origin it is probably a metathesized form of the Lat.
_vasculum_, diminutive of _vas_, vessel. There is no very satisfactory
etymology if the word is of Teutonic origin; the New English Dictionary
considers a connexion with "flat" probable phonetically, but finds no
evidence that the word was used originally for a flat-shaped vessel.
FLAT (a modification of O. Eng. _flet_, an obsolete word of Teutonic
origin, meaning the ground beneath the feet), a term commonly used as an
adjective, signifying level in surface, level with the ground, and so,
figuratively, fallen, dead, inanimate, tasteless, dull; or, by another
transference, downright; or, in music, below the true pitch. In a
substantival form, the term is used in physical geography for a level
tract.
The word is also generally applied by modern usage to a self-contained
residence or separate dwelling (in Scots law, the term _flatted house_
is still used), consisting of a suite of rooms which form a portion,
usually on a single floor, of a larger building, called the tenement
house, the remainder being similarly divided. The approach to it is over
a hall, passage and stairway, which are common to all residents in the
building, but from which each private flat is divided off by its own
outer door (Clode, _Tenement Houses and Flats_, pp. 1, 2).
There is in England a considerable body of special law applicable to
flats. The following points deserve notice:--(i.) The occupants of
distinct suites of rooms in a building divided into flats are generally,
and subject, of course, to any special terms in their agreements, not
lodgers but tenants with exclusive possession of separate
dwelling-houses placed one above the other. They are, therefore, liable
to distress by the immediate landlord, and each flat is separately
rateable, though as a general rule by the contract of tenancy the rates
are payable by the landlord. Flats used solely for business purposes are
exempt from house tax, by the Customs and Inland Revenue Act 1878 (see
_Grant_, v. _Langston_, 1900, A.C. 383); and, by the Revenue Act 1903
(s. 11), provision is made for excluding from assessment or for
assessing at a low rate buildings used for providing separate dwellings
at rents not exceeding £60 a year. It appears that tenants of a flat
would not come within the meaning of "lodger" for the purposes of the
Lodgers' Goods Protection Act 1871. (ii.) The owner of an upper storey,
without any express grant or enjoyment for any given time, has a right
to the support of the lower storey (_Dalton_ v. _Angus_, 1881, 6 A.C.
740, 793). The owner of the lower storey, however, so long as he does
nothing actively in the way of withdrawing its support, is not bound to
repair, in the absence of a special covenant imposing that obligation
upon him. The right of support being an easement in favour of the owner
of the upper storey, it is for him to repair. He is in law entitled to
enter on the lower storey for the purpose of doing the necessary
repairs. It appears, however, that there is an implied obligation by the
landlord to the tenants to keep the common stair and the lift or
elevator in repair, and, for breach of this duty, he will be liable to
a third party who, while visiting a tenant in the course of business, is
injured by its defective condition (_Miller_ v. _Hancock_, 1893, 2 Q.B.
177). No such liability would be involved in a mere licence to the
tenants to use a part of the building not essential to the enjoyment of
their flats. (iii.) In case of the destruction of the flat by fire, the
rent abates _pro tanto_ and an apportionment is made; _pari ratione_,
where a flat is totally destroyed, the rent abates altogether (Clode, p.
14); unless the tenant has entered into an express and unqualified
agreement to pay rent, when he will remain liable till the expiration of
his tenancy. (iv.) Where the agreements for letting the flats in a
single building are in common form, an agreement by the lessor not to
depart from the kind of building there indicated may be held to be
implied. Thus an injunction has been granted to restrain the conversion
into a club of a large part of a building, adapted to occupation in
residential flats, at the instance of a tenant who held under an
agreement in a common form binding the tenants to rules suitable only
for residential purposes (_Hudson_ v. _Cripps_, 1896, 1 Ch. 265). (v.)
The porter is usually appointed and paid by the landlord, who is liable
for his acts while engaged on his general duties; while engaged on any
special duty for any tenant the porter is the servant of the latter, who
is liable for his conduct within the scope of his employment.
In Scots law the rights and obligations of the lessors and lessees of
flats, or--as they are called--"flatted houses," spring partly from the
exclusive possession by each lessee of his own flat, partly from the
common interest of all in the tenement as a whole. The "law of the
tenement" may be thus summed up. The _solum_ on which the flatted house
stands, the area in front and the back ground are presumed to belong to
the owner of the lowest floor or the owners of each floor severally,
subject to the common right of the other proprietors to prevent injury
to their flats, especially by depriving them of light. The external
walls belong to each owner in so far as they enclose his flat; but the
other owners can prevent operations on them which would endanger the
security of the building. The roof and uppermost storey belong to the
highest owner or owners, but he or they may be compelled to keep them in
repair and to refrain from injuring them. The gables are common to the
owner of each flat, so far as they bound his property, and to the owner
of the adjoining house; but he and the other owners in the building have
cross rights of common interest to prevent injury to the stability of
the building. The floor and ceiling of each flat are divided in
ownership by an ideal line drawn through the middle of the joists; they
may be used for ordinary purposes, but may not be weakened or exposed to
unusual risk from fire. The common passages and stairs are the common
property of all to whose premises they form an access, and the walls
which bound them are the common property of those persons and of the
owners on their farther side.
In the United States the term "apartment-house" is applied to what in
England are called flats. The general law is the same as in England. The
French Code Civil provides (Art. 664) that where the different storeys
of a house belong to different owners the main walls and roof are at the
charge of all the owners, each one in proportion to the value of the
storey belonging to him. The proprietor of each storey is responsible
for his own flooring. The proprietor of the first storey makes the
staircase which leads to it, the proprietor of the second, beginning
from where the former ended, makes the staircase leading to his and so
on. There are similar provisions in the Civil Codes of Belgium (Art.
664), Quebec (Art. 521), St Lucia (Art. 471).
AUTHORITIES.--ENGLISH LAW: Clode, _Law of Tenement-Houses and Flats_
(London, 1889); Daniels, _Manual of the Law of Flats_ (London, 1905).
SCOTS LAW: Erskine, _Principles of the Law of Scotland_ (20th ed.,
Edinburgh, 1903); Bell, _Principles of the Law of Scotland_ (10th ed.,
Edinburgh, 1899). AMERICAN LAW: Bouvier, _Law Dicty._ (Boston and
London, 1897). FOREIGN LAWS: Burge, _Foreign and Colonial Laws_ (2nd
ed., London, 1906). (A. W. R.)
FLATBUSH, formerly a township of Kings county, Long Island, New York,
U.S.A., annexed to Brooklyn in 1894, and after the 1st of January 1898 a
part of the borough of Brooklyn, New York City. The first settlement
was made here by the Dutch about 1651, and was variously called
"Midwout," "Midwoud" and "Medwoud" (from the Dutch words, _med_,
"middle" and _woud_, "wood") for about twenty years, when it became more
commonly known as Vlachte Bos (_vlachte_, "wooded"; _bos_, "plain") or
Flackebos, whence, by further corruption, the present name. Farming was
the chief occupation of the early settlers. On the 23rd of August 1776
the village was occupied by General Cornwallis's division of the
invading force under Lord Howe, and on the 27th, at the disastrous
battle of Long Island (or "battle of Flatbush," as it is sometimes
called), "Flatbush Pass," an important strategic point, was vigorously
defended by General Sullivan's troops.
FLAT-FISH (_Pleuronectidae_), the name common to all those fishes which
swim on their side, as the halibut, turbot, brill, plaice, flounder,
sole, &c. The side which is turned towards the bottom, and in some kinds
is the right, in others the left, is generally colourless, and called
"blind," from the absence of an eye on this side. The opposite side,
which is turned upwards and towards the light, is variously, and in some
tropical species even vividly, coloured, both eyes being placed on this
side of the head. All the bones and muscles of the upper side are more
strongly developed than on the lower; but it is noteworthy that these
fishes when hatched, and for a short time afterwards, are symmetrical
like other fishes.
Assuming that they are the descendants of symmetrical fishes, the
question has been to determine which group of Teleosteans may be
regarded as the ancestors of the flat-fishes. The old notion that they
are only modified Gadids (Anacanthini) was the result of the artificial
classification of the past and is now generally abandoned. The condition
of the caudal fin, which in the cod tribe departs so markedly from that
of ordinary Teleosteans, is in itself a sufficient reason for dismissing
the idea of the homocercal flat-fishes being derived from the
Anacanthini, and the whole structure of the two types of fishes speaks
against such an assumption. On the other hand it has been shown, as
noticed in the article DORY, that considerable, deep-seated resemblances
exist between the Zeidae or John Dories and the more generalized of the
Pleuronectidae; and that a fossil fish from the Upper Eocene,
_Amphistium paradoxum_, evidently allied to the Zeidae, appears to
realize in every respect the prototype of the Pleuronectidae before they
had assumed the asymmetry which characterizes them as a group. In
accordance with these views the flat-fishes are placed by G.A. Boulenger
in the suborder Acanthopterygii, in a division called _Zeorhombi_. The
three families included in that division can be traced back to the Upper
Eocene, and their common ancestors will probably be found in the Upper
Cretaceous associated with the _Berycidae_, to which they will no doubt
prove to be related. The very young are transparent and symmetrical,
with an eye on each side, and swim in a vertical position. As they grow,
the eye of one side moves by degrees to the other side, where it becomes
the upper eye. If at that age the dorsal fin does not extend to the
frontal region, the migrating eye simply moves over the line of the
profile, temporarily assuming the position which it preserves in some of
the less modified genera, such as _Psettodes_; in other genera, the
dorsal fin has already extended to the snout before the migration takes
place, and the eye, passing between the frontal bone and the tissues
supporting the fin, appears to make its way from side to side through
the head, as was believed by some of the earlier observers.
About 500 species of flat-fish are known, mostly marine, a few species
allied to the sole being confined to the fresh waters of South America,
West Africa, and the Malay Archipelago, whilst a few others, such as the
English flounder, ascend streams, though still breeding in the sea. They
range from the Arctic Circle to the southern coasts of the southern
hemisphere and may occur at great depths. (G. A. B.)
FLATHEADS, a tribe of North American Indians of Salishan stock. They
formerly occupied the mountains of north-western Montana and the country
around. They have always been friendly to the whites. Curiously enough
they have not the custom, so general among American tribes, of
flattening the heads of their infants. Father P.J. de Smet in 1841
founded among them a mission which proved the most successful in the
north-west. With the Pend d'Oreille tribe and some Kutenais they are on
a reservation in Montana, and number a few hundreds.
FLAUBERT, GUSTAVE (1821-1880), French novelist, was born at Rouen on the
12th of December 1821. His father, of whom many traits are reproduced in
Flaubert's character of Charles Bovary, was a surgeon in practice at
Rouen; his mother was connected with some of the oldest Norman families.
He was educated in his native city, and did not leave it until 1840,
when he came up to Paris to study law. He is said to have been idle at
school, but to have been occupied with literature from the age of
eleven. Flaubert in his youth "was like a young Greek," full of vigour
of body and a certain shy grace, enthusiastic, intensely individual, and
apparently without any species of ambition. He loved the country, and
Paris was extremely distasteful to him. He made the acquaintance of
Victor Hugo, and towards the close of 1840 he travelled in the Pyrenees
and Corsica. Returning to Paris, he wasted his time in sombre dreams,
living on his patrimony. In 1846, his mother being left quite alone
through the deaths of his father and his sister Caroline, Flaubert
gladly abandoned Paris and the study of the law together, to make a home
for her at Croisset, close to Rouen. This estate, a house in a pleasant
piece of ground which ran down to the Seine, became Flaubert's home for
the remainder of his life. From 1846 to 1854 he carried on relations
with the poetess, Mlle Louise Colet; their letters have been preserved,
and according to M. Émile Faguet, this was the only sentimental episode
of any importance in the life of Flaubert, who never married. His
principal friend at this time was Maxime du Camp, with whom he travelled
in Brittany in 1846, and through the East in 1849. Greece and Egypt made
a profound impression upon the imagination of Flaubert. From this time
forth, save for occasional visits to Paris, he did not stir from
Croisset.
On returning from the East, in 1850, he set about the composition of
_Madame Bovary_. He had hitherto scarcely written anything, and had
published nothing. The famous novel took him six years to prepare, but
was at length submitted to the _Revue de Paris_, where it appeared in
serial form in 1857. The government brought an action against the
publisher and against the author, on the charge of immorality, but both
were acquitted; and when _Madame Bovary_ appeared in book-form it met
with a very warm reception. Flaubert paid a visit to Carthage in 1858,
and now settled down to the archaeological studies which were required to
equip him for _Salammbô_, which, however, in spite of the author's
ceaseless labours, was not finished until 1862. He then took up again the
study of contemporary manners, and, making use of many recollections of
his youth and childhood, wrote _L'Éducation sentimentale_, the
composition of which occupied him seven years; it was published in 1869.
Up to this time the sequestered and laborious life of Flaubert had been
comparatively happy, but misfortunes began to gather around him. He felt
the anguish of the war of 1870 so keenly that the break-up of his health
has been attributed to it; he began to suffer greatly from a distressing
nervous malady. His best friends were taken from him by death or by fatal
misunderstanding; in 1872 he lost his mother, and his circumstances
became greatly reduced. He was very tenderly guarded by his niece, Mme
Commonville; he enjoyed a rare intimacy of friendship with George Sand,
with whom he carried on a correspondence of immense artistic interest,
and occasionally he saw his Parisian acquaintances, Zola, A. Daudet,
Tourgenieff, the Goncourts; but nothing prevented the close of Flaubert's
life from being desolate and melancholy. He did not cease, however, to
work with the same intensity and thoroughness. _La Tentation de
Saint-Antoine_, of which fragments had been published as early as 1857,
was at length completed and sent to press in 1874. In that year he was
subjected to a disappointment by the failure of his drama _Le Candidat_.
In 1877 Flaubert published, in one volume, entitled _Trois contes, Un
Coeur simple, La Légende de Saint-Julien-l'Hospitalier and Hérodias_.
After this something of his judgment certainly deserted him; he spent the
remainder of his life in the toil of building up a vast satire on the
futility of human knowledge and the omnipresence of mediocrity, which he
left a fragment. This is the depressing and bewildering _Bouvard et
Pécuchet_ (posthumously printed, 1881), which, by a curious irony, he
believed to be his masterpiece. Flaubert had rapidly and prematurely aged
since 1870, and he was quite an old man when he was carried off by a
stroke of apoplexy at the age of only 58, on the 8th of May 1880. He died
at Croisset, but was buried in the family vault in the cemetery of Rouen.
A beautiful monument to him by Chapu was unveiled at the museum of Rouen
in 1890.
The personal character of Flaubert offered various peculiarities. He was
shy, and yet extremely sensitive and arrogant; he passed from silence to
an indignant and noisy flow of language. The same inconsistencies marked
his physical nature; he had the build of a guardsman, with a magnificent
Viking head, but his health was uncertain from childhood, and he was
neurotic to the last degree. This ruddy giant was secretly gnawn by
misanthropy and disgust of life. His hatred of the "bourgeois" began in
his childhood, and developed into a kind of monomania. He despised his
fellow-men, their habits, their lack of intelligence, their contempt for
beauty, with a passionate scorn which has been compared to that of an
ascetic monk. Flaubert's curious modes of composition favoured and were
emphasized by these peculiarities. He worked in sullen solitude,
sometimes occupying a week in the completion of one page, never
satisfied with what he had composed, violently tormenting his brain for
the best turn of a phrase, the most absolutely final adjective. It
cannot be said that his incessant labours were not rewarded. His private
letters show that he was not one of those to whom easy and correct
language is naturally given; he gained his extraordinary perfection with
the unceasing sweat of his brow. One of the most severe of academic
critics admits that "in all his works, and in every page of his works,
Flaubert may be considered a model of style." That he was one of the
greatest writers who ever lived in France is now commonly admitted, and
his greatness principally depends upon the extraordinary vigour and
exactitude of his style. Less perhaps than any other writer, not of
France, but of modern Europe, Flaubert yields admission to the inexact,
the abstract, the vaguely inapt expression which is the bane of ordinary
methods of composition. He never allowed a _cliché_ to pass him, never
indulgently or wearily went on, leaving behind him a phrase which
"almost" expressed his meaning. Being, as he is, a mixture in almost
equal parts of the romanticist and the realist, the marvellous propriety
of his style has been helpful to later writers of both schools, of every
school. The absolute exactitude with which he adapts his expression to
his purpose is seen in all parts of his work, but particularly in the
portraits he draws of the figures in his principal romances. The degree
and manner in which, since his death, the fame of Flaubert has extended,
form an interesting chapter of literary history. The publication of
_Madame Bovary_ in 1857 had been followed by more scandal than
admiration; it was not understood at first that this novel was the
beginning of a new thing, the scrupulously truthful portraiture of life.
Gradually this aspect of his genius was accepted, and began to crowd out
all others. At the time of his death he was famous as a realist, pure
and simple. Under this aspect Flaubert exercised an extraordinary
influence over É. de Goncourt, Alphonse Daudet and M. Zola. But even
since the decline of the realistic school Flaubert has not lost
prestige; other facets of his genius have caught the light. It has been
perceived that he was not merely realistic, but real; that his
clairvoyance was almost boundless; that he saw certain phenomena more
clearly than the best of observers had done. Flaubert is a writer who
must always appeal more to other authors than to the world at large,
because the art of writing, the indefatigable pursuit of perfect
expression, were always before him, and because he hated the lax
felicities of improvization as a disloyalty to the most sacred
procedures of the literary artist.
His _Oeuvres complètes_ (8 vols., 1885) were printed from the original
manuscripts, and included, besides the works mentioned already, the
two plays, _Le Candidat_ and _Le Château des coeurs_. Another edition
(10 vols.) appeared in 1873-1885. Flaubert's correspondence with
George Sand was published in 1884 with an introduction by Guy de
Maupassant. Other posthumous works are _Par les champs et par les
grèves_ (1885), the result of a tour in Brittany; and four volumes of
_Correspondance_ (1887-1893). See also Paul Bourget, _Essais de
psychologie contemporaine_ (1883); Émile Faguet, _Flaubert_ (1899);
Henry James, _French Poets and Novelists_ (1878); Émile Zola, _Les
Romanciers naturalistes_ (1881); C.A. Sainte-Beuve, _Causeries du
lundi_, vol. xiii., _Nouveaux lundis_, vol. iv.; and the _Souvenirs
littéraires_ (2 vols., 1882-1883) of Maxime du Camp. (E. G.)
FLAVEL, JOHN (c. 1627-1691), English Presbyterian divine, was born at
Bromsgrove in Worcestershire, probably in 1627. He was the elder son of
Richard Flavel, described in contemporary records as "a painful and
eminent minister." After receiving his early education, partly at home
and partly at the grammar-schools of Bromsgrove and Haslar, he entered
University College, Oxford. Soon after taking orders in 1650 he obtained
a curacy at Diptford, Devon, and on the death of the vicar he was
appointed to succeed him. From Diptford he removed in 1656 to Dartmouth.
He was ejected from his living by the passing of the Act of Uniformity
in 1662, but continued to preach and administer the sacraments privately
till the Five Mile Act of 1665, when he retired to Slapton, 5 m. away.
He then lived for a time in London, but returned to Dartmouth, where he
laboured till his death in 1691. He was married four times. He was a
vigorous and voluminous writer, and not without a play of fine fancy.
His principal works are his _Navigation Spiritualized_ (1671); _The
Fountain of Life, in forty-two Sermons_ (1672); _The Method of Grace_
(1680); _Pneumatologia, a Treatise on the Soul of Man_ (1698); _A
Token for Mourners_; _Husbandry Spiritualized_ (1699). Collected
editions appeared throughout the 18th century, and in 1823 Charles
Bradley edited a 2 vol. selection.
FLAVIAN I. (d. 404), bishop or patriarch of Antioch, was born about 320,
most probably in Antioch. He inherited great wealth, but resolved to
devote his riches and his talents to the service of the church. In
association with Diodorus, afterwards bishop of Tarsus, he supported the
Catholic faith against the Arian Leontius, who had succeeded Eustathius
as bishop of Antioch. The two friends assembled their adherents outside
the city walls for the observance of the exercises of religion; and,
according to Theodoret, it was in these meetings that the practice of
antiphonal singing was first introduced in the services of the church.
When Meletius was appointed bishop of Antioch in 361 he raised Flavian
to the priesthood, and on the death of Meletius in 381 Flavian was
chosen to succeed him. The schism between the two parties was, however,
far from being healed; the bishop of Rome and the bishops of Egypt
refused to acknowledge Flavian, and Paulinus, who by the extreme
Eustathians had been elected bishop in opposition to Meletius, still
exercised authority over a portion of the church. On the death of
Paulinus in 383, Evagrius was chosen as his successor, but after the
death of Evagrius (c. 393) Flavian succeeded in preventing his receiving
a successor, though the Eustathians still continued to hold separate
meetings. Through the intervention of Chrysostom, soon after his
elevation to the patriarchate of Constantinople (398), and the influence
of the emperor Theodosius, Flavian was acknowledged in 399 as legitimate
bishop of Antioch by the Church of Rome; but the Eustathian schism was
not finally healed till 415. Flavian, who died in February 404, is
venerated in both the Western and Eastern churches as a saint.
See also the article Meletius of Antioch, and the article "Flavianus
von Antiochien" by Loofs in Herzog-Hauck's _Real-encyklop._ (ed. 3).
For the Meletian schism see also A. Harnack's, _Hist. of Dogma_, iv.
95.
FLAVIAN II. (d. 518), bishop or patriarch of Antioch, was chosen by the
emperor Anastasius I. to succeed Palladius, most probably in 498. He
endeavoured to please both parties by steering a middle course in
reference to the Chalcedon (q.v.) decrees, but was induced after great
hesitation to agree to the request of Anastasius that he should accept
the Henoticon, or decree of union, issued by the emperor Zeno. His doing
so, while it brought upon him the anathema of the patriarch of
Constantinople, failed to secure the favour of Anastasius, who in 511
found in the riots which were occurring between the rival parties in the
streets of Antioch a pretext for deposing Flavian, and banishing him to
Petra, where he died in 518. Flavian was soon after his death enrolled
among the saints of the Greek Church, and after some opposition he was
also canonized by the Latin Church.
FLAVIAN (d. 449), bishop of Constantinople, and an adherent of the
Antiochene school, succeeded Proclus in 447. He presided at the council
which deposed Eutyches (q.v.) in 448, but in the following year he was
deposed by the council of Ephesus (the "robber synod"), which reinstated
Eutyches in his office. Flavian's death shortly afterwards was
attributed, by a pious fiction, to ill treatment at the hands of his
theological opponents. The council of Chalcedon canonized him as a
martyr, and in the Latin Church he is commemorated on the 18th of
February.
FLAVIGNY, a town of eastern France, in the department of Côte-d'Or,
situated on a promontory overlooking the river Ozerain, 33 m. W.N.W. of
Dijon by road. Pop. (1906) 725. Among its antiquities are the remains of
an abbey of the 8th century, which has been rebuilt as a factory for the
manufacture of anise, an industry connected with the town as early as
the 17th century. There is also a church of the 13th and 15th centuries,
containing carved stalls (15th century) and a fine rood-screen (early
16th century). A Dominican convent, some old houses and ancient gateways
are also of interest. About 3 m. north-west of Flavigny rises Mont
Auxois, the probable site of the ancient Alesia, where Caesar in A.D. 52
defeated the Gallic chieftain Vercingetorix, to whom a statue has been
erected on the summit of the height. Numerous remains of the Gallo-Roman
period have been discovered on the hill.
FLAVIN (Lat. _flavus_, yellow), the commercial name for an extract or
preparation of quercitron bark (_Quercus tinctoria_), which is used as a
yellow dye in place of the ground and powdered bark (see QUERCITRON).
FLAX. The terms flax or lint (Ger. _Flachs_, Fr. _lin_, Lat. _linum_)
are employed at once to denote the fibre so called, and the plant from
which it is prepared. The flax plant (_Linum usitatissimum_) belongs to
the natural order _Linaceae_, and, like most plants which have been long
under cultivation, it possesses numerous varieties, while its origin is
doubtful. As cultivated it is an annual with an erect stalk rising to a
height of from 20 to 40 in., with alternate, sessile, narrowly
lance-shaped leaves, branching only at the top, each branch or branchlet
ending in a bright blue flower. The flowers are regular and symmetrical,
having five sepals, tapering to a point and hairy on the margin, five
petals which speedily fall, ten stamens, and a pistil bearing five
distinct styles. The fruit or boll is round, containing five cells, each
of which is again divided into two, thus forming ten divisions, each of
which contains a single seed. The seeds of the flax plant, well known as
linseed, are heavy, smooth, glossy and of a bright greenish-brown
colour. They are oval in section, but their maximum contour represents
closely that of a pear with the stalk removed. The contents are of an
oily nature, and when liquefied are of great commercial value.
The earliest cultivated flax was _Linum angustifolium_, a smaller plant
with fewer and narrower leaves than _L. usitatissimum_, and usually
perennial. This is known to have been cultivated by the inhabitants of
the Swiss lake-dwellings, and is found wild in south and west Europe
(including England), North Africa, and western Asia. The annual flax
(_L. usitatissimum_) has been cultivated for at least four or five
thousand years in Mesopotamia, Assyria and Egypt, and is wild in the
districts included between the Persian Gulf, the Caspian Sea and the
Black Sea. This annual flax appears to have been introduced into the
north of Europe by the Finns, afterwards into the west of Europe by the
western Aryans, and perhaps here and there by the Phoenicians; lastly,
into Hindustan by the eastern Aryans after their separation from the
European Aryans. (De Candolle, _Origin of Cultivated Plants_.)
The cultivation and preparation of flax are among the most ancient of
all textile industries, very distinct traces of their existence during
the stone age being preserved to the present day. "The use of flax,"
says Ferdinand Keller (_Lake Dwellings of Switzerland_, translated by
J.E. Lee), "reaches back to the very earliest periods of civilization,
and it was most extensively and variously applied in the lake-dwellings,
even in those of the stone period. But of the mode in which it was
planted, steeped, heckled, cleansed and generally prepared for use, we
can form no idea any more than we can of the mode or tools employed by
the settlers in its cultivation.... Rough or unworked flax is found in
the lake-dwellings made into bundles, or what are technically called
heads, and, as much attention was given to this last operation, it was
perfectly clean and ready for use." As to its applications at this early
period, Keller remarks: "Flax was the material for making lines and nets
for fishing and catching wild animals, cords for carrying the
earthenware vessels and other heavy objects; in fact, one can hardly
imagine how navigation could be carried on, or the lake-dwellings
themselves be erected, without the use of ropes and cords; and the
erection of memorial stones (menhirs, dolmens), at whichever era, and to
whatever people these monuments may belong, would be altogether
impracticable without the use of strong ropes."
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Flax Plant (_Linum usitatissimum_).]
_Manufacture._--That flax was extensively cultivated and was regarded as
of much importance at a very early period in the world's history there
is abundant testimony. Especially in ancient Egypt the fibre occupied a
most important place, linen having been there not only generally worn by
all classes, but it was the only material the priestly order was
permitted to wear, while it was most extensively used as wrappings for
embalmed bodies and for general purposes. In the Old Testament we are
told that Pharaoh arrayed Joseph "in vestures of fine linen" (Gen. xlii.
42), and among the plagues of Egypt that of hail destroyed the flax and
barley crops, "for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was bolled"
(Exod. ix. 31). Further, numerous pictorial representations of flax
culture and preparation exist to the present day on the walls of tombs
and in Egypt. Sir J. G. Wilkinson in his description of ancient Egypt
shows clearly the great antiquity of the ordinary processes of preparing
flax. "At Beni Hassan," he says, "the mode of cultivating the plant, in
the same square beds now met with throughout Egypt (much resembling our
salt pans), the process of beating the stalks and making them into
ropes, and the manufacture of a piece of cloth are distinctly pointed
out." The preparation of the fibre as conducted in Egypt is illustrated
by Pliny, who says: "The stalks themselves are immersed in water, warmed
by the heat of the sun, and are kept down by weights placed upon them,
for nothing is lighter than flax. The membrane, or rind, becoming loose
is a sign of their being sufficiently macerated. They are then taken out
and repeatedly turned over in the sun until perfectly dried, and
afterwards beaten by mallets on stone slabs. That which is nearest the
rind is called _stupa_ ['tow'], inferior to the inner fibres, and fit
only for the wicks of lamps. It is combed out with iron hooks until the
rind is all removed. The inner part is of a whiter and finer quality.
Men are not ashamed to prepare it" (Pliny, _N.H._ xix. 1). For many
ages, even down to the early part of the 14th century, Egyptian flax
occupied the foremost place in the commercial world, being sent into all
regions with which open intercourse was maintained. Among Western
nations it was, without any competitor, the most important of all
vegetable fibres till towards the close of the 18th century, when, after
a brief struggle, cotton took its place as the supreme vegetable fibre
of commerce.
Flax prospers most when grown upon land of firm texture resting upon a
moist subsoil. It does well to succeed oats or potatoes, as it requires
the soil to be in fresh condition without being too rich. Lands newly
broken up from pasture suit it well, as these are generally freer from
weeds than those that have been long under tillage. It is usually
inexpedient to apply manure directly to the flax crop, as the tendency
of this is to produce over-luxuriance, and thereby to mar the quality of
the fibre, on which its value chiefly depends. For the same reason it
must be thickly seeded, the effect of this being to produce tall,
slender stems, free from branches. The land, having been ploughed in
autumn, is prepared for sowing by working it with the grubber, harrow
and roller, until a fine tilth is obtained. On the smooth surface the
seed is sown broadcast by hand or machine, at the rate of 3 bushels per
acre, and covered in the same manner as clover seeds. It is advisable
immediately to hand-rake it with common hay-rakes, and thus to remove
all stones and clods, and to secure a uniform close cover of plants.
When these are about 2 to 3 in. long the crop must be carefully
hand-weeded. This is a tedious and expensive process, and hence the
importance of sowing the crop on land as free as possible from weeds of
all kinds. The weeders, faces to the wind, move slowly on hands and
knees, and should remove every vestige of weed in order that the flax
plants may receive the full benefit of the land. When flax is cultivated
primarily on account of the fibre, the crop ought to be pulled before
the capsules are quite ripe, when they are just beginning to change from
a green to a pale-brown colour, and when the stalks of the plant have
become yellow throughout about two-thirds of their height.
The various operations through which the crop passes from this point
till flax ready for the market is produced are--(1) Pulling, (2)
Rippling, (3) Retting, (4) Drying, (5) Rolling, (6) Scutching.
_Pulling_ and _rippling_ may be dismissed very briefly. Flax is always
pulled up by the root, and under no circumstances is it cut or shorn
like cereal crops. The pulling ought to be done in dry clear weather;
and care is to be taken in this, as in all the subsequent operations, to
keep the root-ends even and the stalks parallel. At the same time it is
desirable to have, as far as possible, stalks of equal length
together,--all these conditions having considerable influence on the
quality and appearance of the finished sample. As a general rule the
removal of the "bolls" or capsules by the process of rippling
immediately follows the pulling, the operation being performed in the
field; but under some systems of cultivation, as, for example, the
Courtrai method, alluded to below, the crop is made up into sheaves,
dried and stacked, and is only boiled and retted in the early part of
the next ensuing season. The best rippler, or apparatus for separating
the seed capsules from the branches, consists of a kind of comb having,
set in a wooden frame, iron teeth made of round-rod iron 3/16ths of an
inch asunder at the bottom, and half an inch at the top, and 18 in.
long, to allow a sufficient spring, and save much breaking of flax. The
points should begin to taper 3 in, from the top. A sheet or other cover
being spread on the field, the apparatus is placed in the middle of it,
and two ripplers sitting opposite each other, with the machine between
them, work at the same time. It is unadvisable to ripple the flax so
severely as to break or tear the delicate fibres at the upper part of
the stem. The two valuable commercial products of the flax plant, the
seeds and the stalk, are separated at this point. We have here to do
with the latter only.
_Retting_ or _rotting_ is an operation of the greatest importance, and
one in connexion with which in recent years numerous experiments have
been made, and many projects and processes put forth, with the view of
remedying the defects of the primitive system or altogether supplanting
it. From the earliest times two leading processes of retting have been
practised, termed respectively water-retting and dew-retting; and as no
method has yet been introduced which satisfactorily supersedes these
operations, they will first be described.
_Water-retting._--For this--the process by which flax is generally
prepared--pure soft water, free from iron and other materials which
might colour the fibre, is essential. Any water much impregnated with
lime is also specially objectionable. The dams or ponds in which the
operation is conducted are of variable size, and usually between 4 and 5
ft. in depth. The rippled stalks are tied in small bundles and packed,
roots downwards, in the dams till they are quite full; over the top of
the upper layer is placed a stratum of rushes and straw, or sods with
the grassy side downwards, and above all stones of sufficient weight to
keep the flax submerged. Under favourable circumstances a process of
fermentation should immediately be set up, which soon makes itself
manifest by the evolution of gaseous bubbles. After a few days the
fermentation subsides; and generally in from ten days to two weeks the
process ought to be complete. The exact time, however, depends upon the
weather and upon the particular kind of water in which the flax is
immersed. The immersion itself is a simple matter; the difficulty lies
in deciding when the process is complete. If allowed to remain under
water too long, the fibre is weakened by what is termed "over-retting,"
a condition which increases the amount of codilla in the scutching
process; whilst "under-retting" leaves part of the gummy or resinous
matter in the material, which hinders the subsequent process of
manufacture. As the steeping is such a critical operation, it is
essential that the stalks be frequently examined and tested as the
process nears completion. When it is found that the fibre separates
readily from the woody "shove" or core, the beets or small bundles are
ready for removing from the dams. It is drained, and then spread, evenly
and equally, over a grassy meadow to dry. The drying, which takes from a
week to a fortnight, must be uniform, so that all the fibres may spin
equally well. To secure this uniformity, it is necessary to turn the
material over several times during the process. It is ready for
gathering when the core cracks and separates easily from the fibre. At
this point advantage is taken of fine dry weather to gather up the flax,
which is now ready for scutching, but the fibre is improved by stooking
and stacking it for some time before it is taken to the scutching mill.
_Dew-retting_ is the process by which all the Archangel flax and a large
portion of that sent out from St Petersburg are prepared. By this method
the operation of steeping is entirely dispensed with, and the flax is,
immediately after pulling, spread on the grass where it is under the
influence of air, sunlight, night-dews and rain. The process is tedious,
the resulting fibre is brown in colour, and it is said to be peculiarly
liable to undergo heating (probably owing to the soft heavy quality of
the flax) if exposed to moisture and kept close packed with little
access of air. Archangel flax is, however, peculiarly soft and silky in
structure, although in all probability water-retting would result in a
fibre as good or even better in quality.
The theory of retting, according to the investigations of J. Kolb, is
that a peculiar fermentation is set up under the influence of heat and
moisture, resulting in a change of the intercellular substance--pectose
or an analogue of that body--into pectin and pectic acid. The former,
being soluble, is left in the water; but the latter, an insoluble body,
is in part attached to the fibres, from which it is only separated by
changing into soluble metapectic acid under the action of hot alkaline
ley in the subsequent process of bleaching.
To a large extent retting continues to be conducted in the primitive
fashions above described, although numerous and persistent attempts have
been made to improve upon it, or to avoid the process altogether. The
uniform result of all experiments has only been to demonstrate the
scientific soundness of the ordinary process of water-retting, and all
the proposed improvements of recent times seek to obviate the
tediousness, difficulties and uncertainties of the process as carried on
in the open air. In the early part of the 19th century much attention
was bestowed, especially in Ireland, on a process invented by Mr James
Lee. He proposed to separate the fibre by purely mechanical means
without any retting whatever; but after the Irish Linen Board had
expended many thousands of pounds and much time in making experiments
and in erecting his machinery, his entire scheme ended in complete
failure. About the year 1851 Chevalier Claussen sought to revive a
process of "cottonizing" flax--a method of proceeding which had been
suggested three-quarters of a century earlier. Claussen's process
consisted in steeping flax fibre or tow for twenty-four hours in a weak
solution of caustic soda, next boiling it for about two hours in a
similar solution, and then saturating it in a solution containing 5% of
carbonate of soda, after which it was immersed in a vat containing water
acidulated with ½% of sulphuric acid. The action of the acid on the
carbonate of soda with which the fibre was impregnated caused the fibre
to split up into a fine cotton-like mass, which it was intended to
manufacture in the same manner as cotton. A process to turn good flax
into bad cotton had, however, on the face of it, not much to recommend
it to public acceptance; and Claussen's process therefore remains only
as an interesting and suggestive experiment.
The only modification of water-retting which has hitherto endured the
test of prolonged experiment, and taken a firm position as a distinct
improvement, is the warm-water retting patented in England in 1846 by an
American, Robert B. Schenck. For open pools and dams Schenck substitutes
large wooden vats under cover, into which the flax is tightly packed in
an upright position. The water admitted into the tanks is raised to and
maintained at a temperature of from 75° to 95° F. during the whole time
the flax is in steep. In a short time a brisk fermentation is set up,
gases at first of pleasant odour, but subsequently becoming very
repulsive, being evolved, and producing a frothy scum over the surface
of the water. The whole process occupies only from 50 to 60 hours. A
still further improvement, due to Mr Pownall, comes into operation at
this point, which consists of immediately passing the stalks as they are
taken out of the vats between heavy rollers over which a stream of pure
water is kept flowing. By this means, not only is all the slimy
glutinous adherent matter thoroughly separated, but the subsequent
processes of breaking and scutching are much facilitated.
A process of retting by steam was introduced by W. Watt of Glasgow in
1852, and subsequently modified and improved by J. Buchanan. The system
possessed the advantages of rapidity, being completed in about ten
hours, and freedom from any noxious odour; but it yielded only a harsh,
ill-spinning fibre, and consequently failed to meet the sanguine
expectations of its promoters.
In connexion with improvements in retting, Mr Michael Andrews, secretary
of the Belfast Flax Supply Association, made some suggestions and
experiments which deserve close attention. In a paper contributed to the
International Flax Congress at Vienna in 1873 he entered into details
regarding an experimental rettery he had formed, with the view of
imitating by artificial means the best results obtained by the ordinary
methods. In brief, Mr Andrews' method consists in introducing water at
the proper temperature into the retting vat, and maintaining that
temperature by keeping the air of the chamber at a proper degree of
heat. By this means the flax is kept at a uniform temperature with great
certainty, since even should the heat of the air vary considerably
through neglect, the water in the vat only by slow degrees follows such
fluctuations. "It may be remarked," says Mr Andrews, "that the
superiority claimed for this method of retting flax over what is known
as the 'hot-water steeping' is uniformity of temperature; in fact the
experiments have demonstrated that an absolute control can be exercised
over the means adopted to produce the artificial climate in which the
vats containing the flax are situated."
Several other attempts have been made with a view of obtaining a quick
and practical method of retting flax. The one by Messrs Doumer and
Deswarte appears to have been well received in France, but in Ireland
the invention of Messrs Loppens and Deswarte has recently received the
most attention. The apparatus consists of a tank with two chambers, the
partition being perforated. The flax is placed in the upper chamber and
covered by two sets of rods or beams at right angles to each other.
Fresh water is allowed to enter the lower chamber immediately under the
perforated partition. As the tank fills, the water enters the upper
chamber and carries with it the flax and the beams, the latter being
prevented from rising too high. The soluble substances are dissolved by
the water, and the liquid thus formed being heavier than water, sinks to
the bottom of the tank where it is allowed to escape through an outlet.
By this arrangement the flax is almost continually immersed in fresh
water, a condition which hastens the retting. The flow of the liquids,
in and out, can be so arranged that the motion is very slow, and hence
the liquids of different densities do not mix. When the operation is
completed, the whole of the water is run off, and the flax remains on
the perforated floor, where it drains thoroughly before being removed to
dry.
The Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland, and
the Belfast Flax Supply Association, have jointly made some experiments
with this method, and the following extract from the Association's
report for 1905 shows the success which attended their efforts:--
"By desire of the department (which has taken up the position of an
impartial critic of the experiment) a quantity of flax straw was
divided into two equal lots. One part was retted at Millisle by the
patent-system of Loppens and Deswarte; the other was sent to Courtrai
and steeped in the Lys. Both lots when retted and scutched were
examined by an inspector of the department and by several flax
spinners. That which was retted at Millisle was pronounced superior to
the other"....
"To summarise results up to date--
1. It has been proved that flax can be thoroughly dried in the field
in Ireland.
2. That the seed can be saved, and is of first quality.
3. That the system of retting (Loppens and Deswarte's patent) is at
least equal to the Lys, as to quality and yield of fibre produced."
Since these results appear to be satisfactory, it is natural to expect
further attempts with the same object of supplanting the ordinary
steeping. A really good chemical, mechanical or other method would
probably be the means of reviving the flax industry in the remote parts
of the British Isles.
_Scutching_ is the process by which the fibre is freed from its woody
core and rendered fit for the market. For ordinary water-retted flax two
operations are required, first breaking and then scutching, and these
are done either by hand labour or by means of small scutching or lint
mills, driven either by water or steam power. Hand labour, aided by
simple implements, is still much used in continental countries; also in
some parts of Ireland where labour is cheap or when very fine material
is desired; but the use of scutching mills is now very general, these
being more economical. The breaking is done by passing the stalks
between grooved or fluted rollers of different pitches; these rollers,
of which there may be from 5 to 7 pairs, are sometimes arranged to work
alternately forwards and backwards in order to thoroughly break the
woody material or "boon" of the straw, while the broken "shoves" are
beaten out by suspending the fibre in a machine fitted with a series of
revolving blades, which, striking violently against the flax, shake out
the bruised and broken woody cores. A great many modified scutching
machines and processes have been proposed and introduced with the view
of promoting economy of labour and improving the turn-out of fibre, both
in respect of cleanness and in producing the least proportion of codilla
or scutching tow.
The celebrated Courtrai flax of Belgium is the most valuable staple in
the market, on account of its fineness, strength and particularly bright
colour. There the flax is dried in the field, and housed or stacked
during the winter succeeding its growth, and in the spring of the
following year it is retted in crates sunk in the sluggish waters of the
river Lys. After the process has proceeded a certain length, the crates
are withdrawn, and the sheaves taken out and stooked. It is thereafter
once more tied up, placed in the crates, and sunk in the river to
complete the retting process; but this double steeping is not invariably
practised. When finally taken out, it is unloosed and put up in cones,
instead of being grassed, and when quite dry it is stored for some time
previous to undergoing the operation of scutching. In all operations the
greatest care is taken, and the cultivators being peculiarly favoured as
to soil, climate and water, Courtrai flax is a staple of unapproached
excellence.
An experiment made by Professor Hodges of Belfast on 7770 lb. of
air-dried flax yielded the following results. By rippling he separated
1946 lb. of bolls which yielded 910 lb. of seed. The 5824 lb. (52 cwt.)
of flax straw remaining lost in steeping 13 cwt., leaving 39 cwt. of
retted stalks, and from that 6 cwt. 1 qr. 2 lb. (702 lb.) of finished
flax was procured. Thus the weight of the fibre was equal to about 9%
of the dried flax with the bolls, 12% of the boiled straw, and over
16% of the retted straw. One hundred tons treated by Schenck's method
gave 33 tons bolls, with 27.50 tons of loss in steeping; 32.13 tons
were separated in scutching, leaving 5.90 tons of finished fibre, with
1.47 tons of tow and pluckings. The following analysis of two
varieties of heckled Belgian flax is by Dr Hugo Müller (Hoffmann's
_Berichte über die Entwickelung der chemischen Industrie_):--
Ash 0.70 1.32
Water 8.65 10.70
Extractive matter 3.65 6.02
Fat and wax 2.39 2.37
Cellulose 82.57 71.50
Intercellular substance and pectose bodies 2.74 9.41
According to the determinations of Julius Wiesner (_Die Rohstoffe des
Pflanzenreiches_), the fibre ranges in length from 20 to 140
centimetres, the length of the individual cells being from 2.0 to 4.0
millimetres, and the limits of breadth between 0.012 and 0.025 mm.,
the average being 0.016 mm.
Among the circumstances which have retarded improvement both in the
growing and preparing of flax, the fact that, till comparatively recent
times, the whole industry was conducted only on a domestic scale has had
much influence. At no very remote date it was the practice in Scotland
for every small farmer and cotter not only to grow "lint" or flax in
small patches, but to have it retted, scutched, cleaned, spun, woven,
bleached and finished entirely within the limits of his own premises,
and all by members or dependents of the family. The same practice
obtained and still largely prevails in other countries. Thus the flax
industry was long kept away from the most powerful motives to apply to
it labour-saving devices, and apart from the influence of scientific
inquiry for the improvement of methods and processes. As cotton came to
the front, just at the time when machine-spinning and power-loom weaving
were being introduced, the result was that in many localities where flax
crops had been grown for ages, the culture gradually drooped and
ultimately ceased. The linen manufacture by degrees ceased to be a
domestic industry, and began to centre in and become the characteristic
factory employment of special localities, which depended, however, for
their supply of raw material primarily on the operations of small
growers, working, for the most part, on the poorer districts of remote
thinly populated countries. The cultivation of the plant and the
preparation of the fibre have therefore, even at the present day, not
come under the influence (except in certain favoured localities) of
scientific knowledge and experience.
_Cultivation._--The approximate number of acres (1905) under cultivation
in the principal flax-growing countries is as follows:--
Russia 3,500,000 acres.
Caucasia 450,000 "
Austria 175,000 "
Italy 120,000 "
Poland 95,000 "
Rumania 80,000 "
Germany 75,000 "
France 65,000 "
Belgium 53,000 "
Hungary 50,000 "
Ireland 46,000 "
Holland 38,000 "
Although the amount grown in Russia exceeds considerably the combined
quantity grown in the rest of the above-mentioned countries, the quality
of the fibre is inferior. The fibre is cultivated in the Russian
provinces of Archangel, Courland, Esthonia, Kostroma, Livonia, Novgorod,
Pskov, Smolensk, Tver, Vyatka, Vitebsk, Vologda and Yaroslav or
Jaroslav, while the bulk of the material is exported through the Baltic
ports. Riga and St Petersburg (including Cronstadt) are the principal
ports, but flax is also exported from Revel, Windau, Pernau, Libau,
Narva and Königsberg. Sometimes it is exported from Archangel, but this
port is frost-bound for a great period of the year; moreover, most of
the districts are nearer to the Baltic.
_The following Prices, taken from the Dundee Year Books, show the
Change in Price of a few well-known Varieties._
+---------------+----------+----------+----------+-----+--------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| | Dec. | Dec. | Dec. | Dec.| Dec. | Dec.| Dec.| Dec.| Dec.| Dec.|
| | 1897. | 1898. | 1899. |1900.| 1901. |1902.|1903.|1904.|1905.|1906.|
| +----------+----------+----------+-----+--------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
|Riga-- | £ | £ | £ | £ | £ | £ | £ | £ | £ | £ |
| SPK | 23½ |21 to 22 |28 to 32 | 42 |28 to 32| 32 | 39 | 33 | 35 | 32 |
| XHDX | 27 | 26½ |32½ to 33 | 43½ | 34 | 35 | 42 | 34 | 36 | 33 |
| W |16 to 16¼ |15½ to 16 |22½ to 24 | 31 |18 to 19| 22 | 29 | 23 | 24 | 24 |
|St Petersburg--| | | | | | | | | | |
| Bajetsky |28 to 29 |26 to 27 |32 to 32½| 46 | 37 | 33 | 49 | 36 | 42 | 38 |
| Jaropol |24 to 25 |23 to 23½| 30 | 42 | 32 | 30 | 42 | 33 | 35 | 33 |
|Tows-- | | | | | | | | | | |
| Mologin |24 to 24¼ |23 to 23½|24½ to 25 | 31½ | 32 | 32 | 42 | 32 | 34 | 32½ |
| Novgorod |23½ to 24 | 23[1] |26 to 26½| 33 | 31½ | 32½ | 41 | 31½ | 37 | 34½ |
| | [1] | | [1] | | | | | | | |
|Archangel-- | | | | | | | | | | |
| ½ and ½ tow | 25 |24 to 24½|26 to 27 | 32 | 31 | 32 | 41 | 31½ | 32½ | 31 |
| 2nd Codilla | 25 |24 to 24 |25½ to 26 | 32 | 31 | 32 | 41 | 32 | 33 | 31 |
+---------------+----------+----------+----------+-----+--------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
The raw flax is almost invariably known by the same name as the district
in which it is grown, and it is further classified by special marks.
The following names amongst others are given to the fibre:--Archangel,
Bajetsky, Courish, Dorpat, Drogobusher, Dunaberg, Fabrichnoi, Fellin,
Gjatsk, Glazoff, Griazourtz, Iwashkower, Jaransk, Janowitz, Jaropol,
Jaroslav, Kama, Kashin, Königsberg, Kostroma, Kotelnitch, Kowns,
Krasnoholm, Kurland (Courland), Latischki, Livonian Crowns, Malmuish,
Marienberg, Mochenetz, Mologin, Newel, Nikolsky, Nolinsk, Novgorod,
Opotchka, Ostroff, Ostrow, Otbornoy, Ouglitch, Pernau, Pskoff, Revel,
Riga, Rjeff, St Petersburg, Seretz, Slanitz, Slobodskoi, Smolensk,
Sytcheffka, Taroslav. Tchesna, Totma, Twer, Ustjuga, Viatka, Vishni,
Vologda, Werro, Wiasma, Witebsk.
These names indicate the particular district in which the flax has been
grown, but it is more general to group the material into classes such as
Livonian Crowns, Rija Crowns, Hoffs, Wracks, Drieband, Zins, Ristens,
Pernau, Archangel, &c.
The quotations for the various kinds of flaxes are made with one or
other special mark termed a base mark; this usually, but not
necessarily, indicates the lowest quality. The September-October 1906
quotations appeared as under:--
Livonian basis K £26 to £27 per ton,
Hoffs " HD £21 to £22 "
Pernau. " D £28 to £28: 10 "
Dorpat " D £32 to £32: 10 "
cleaned.
It will, of course, be understood that the base mark is subject to
variation, the ruling factors being the amount of crop, quality and
demand.
The marks in the Crown flaxes have the following signification:--
K means Crown and is usually the base mark.
H " Light and represents a rise of about £1
P " Picked " " " £3
G " Grey " " " £3
S " Superior " " " £4
W " White " " " £4
Z " Zins " " " £10
Each additional mark means a rise in the price, but it must be
understood that it is quite possible for a quality denoted by two
letters to be more valuable than one indicated by three or more, since
every mark has not the same value.
If we take £25 as the value of the base mark, the value per ton for
the different groups would be:--
K £25 HSPK £33
HK £26 GSPK £35
PK £28 WSPK £36
HPK £29 ZK £35
GPK £31 HZK £36
SPK £32 GZK £38, &c.
The Hoffs flaxes are reckoned in a similar way. Here H is for Hoffs, D
for Drieband, P for picked, F for fine, S for superior, and R for
Risten. In addition to these marks, an X may appear before, after or
in both places. With £20 as base mark we have:--
HD £20 per ton.
PHD £23 " "
FPHD £26 " "
SFPHD £29 " "
XHDX £32 " "
XRX £35 " "
Of the lower qualities of Riga flax the following may be named;
W, Wrack flax. PD, Picked Dreiband flax.
PW, Picked wrack flax. LD, Livonian Dreiband.
WPW, White picked wrack. PLD, Picked Livonian Dreiband.
GPW, Grey picked wrack flax. SD, Slanitz Dreiband.
D, Dreiband (Threeband). PSD, Picked Slanitz Dreiband.
The last-named (SD and PSD) are dew-retted qualities shipped from Riga
either as Lithuanian Slanitz, Wellish Slanitz or Wiasma Slanitz,
showing from what district they come, as there are differences in the
quality of the produce of each district. The lowest quality of Riga
flax is marked DW, meaning Dreiband Wrack.
Another Russian port from which a large quantity of flax is imported
is Pernau, where the marks in use are comparatively few. The leading
marks are:--
LOD, indicating Low Ordinary Dreiband (Threeband).
OD, " Ordinary Dreiband.
D, " Dreiband.
HD, " Light Dreiband.
R, " Risten.
G, " Cut.
M, " Marienburg.
Pernau flax is shipped as Livonian and Fellin sorts, the latter being
the best.
Both dew-retted and water-retted flax are exported from St Petersburg,
the dew-retted or Slanitz flax being marked 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th
Crown, also Zebrack No. 1 and Zebrack No. 2, while all the Archangel
flax is dew-retted.
Some idea of the extent of the Russian flax trade may be gathered from
the fact that 233,000 tons were exported in 1905. Out of this quantity
a little over 53,000 tons came to the United Kingdom. The Chief
British ports for the landing of flax are:--Belfast, Dundee, Leith,
Montrose, London and Arbroath, the two former being the chief centres
of the flax industry.
The following table, taken from the annual report of the Belfast Flax
Supply Association, shows the quantities received from all sources
into the different parts of the United Kingdom:--
+-------+------------+------------+-------------+
| | Imports to | Imports to | Imports to |
| Year. | the United | Ireland. | England and |
| | Kingdom. | | Scotland. |
+-------+------------+------------+-------------+
| | Tons. | Tons. | Tons. |
| 1895 | 102,622 | 33,506 | 67,116 |
| 1896 | 95,199 | 36,650 | 58,549 |
| 1897 | 98,802 | 37,715 | 61,087 |
| 1898 | 97,253 | 34,440 | 62,813 |
| 1899 | 99,052 | 40,145 | 58,907 |
| 1900 | 71,586 | 31,563 | 40,023 |
| 1901 | 75,565 | 28,785 | 46,780 |
| 1902 | 73,611 | 29,727 | 43,884 |
| 1903 | 94,701 | 38,168 | 56,533 |
| 1904 | 74,917 | 33,024 | 41,893 |
| 1905 | 90,098 | 40,063 | 50,035 |
+-------+------------+------------+-------------+
The extent of flax cultivation in Ireland is considerable, but the
acreage has been gradually diminishing during late years. In 1864 it
reached the maximum, 301,693 acres; next year it fell to 251,433.
After 1869 it declined, there being 229,252 acres in flax crop that
year, and only 122,003 in 1872. From this year to 1889 it fluctuated
considerably, reaching 157,534 acres in 1880 and dropping to 89,225
acres in 1884. Then for five successive years the acreage was above
108,000. From 1890 to 1905 it only once reached 100,000, while the
average in 1903, 1904 and 1905 was a little over 45,000 acres.
(T. Wo.)
FOOTNOTE:
[1] 8 and 2, which means 80% of one quality and 20% of another.
Sometimes other proportions obtain, while it is not unusual to have
quotations for flaxes containing four different kinds.
FLAXMAN, JOHN (1755-1826), English sculptor and draughtsman, was born on
the 6th of July 1755, during a temporary residence of his parents at
York. The name John was hereditary in the family, having been borne by
his father after a forefather who, according to the family tradition,
had fought on the side of parliament at Naseby, and afterwards settled
as a carrier or farmer, or both, in Buckinghamshire. John Flaxman, the
father of the sculptor, carried on with repute the trade of a moulder
and seller of plaster casts at the sign of the Golden Head, New Street,
Covent Garden, London. His wife's maiden name was See, and John was
their second son. Within six months of his birth the family returned to
London, and in his father's back shop he spent an ailing childhood. His
figure was high-shouldered and weakly, the head very large for the body.
His mother having died about his tenth year, his father took a second
wife, of whom all we know is that her maiden name was Gordon, and that
she proved a thrifty housekeeper and kind stepmother. Of regular
schooling the boy must have had some, since he is reputed as having
remembered in after life the tyranny of some pedagogue of his youth; but
his principal education he picked up for himself at home. He early took
delight in drawing and modelling from his father's stock-in-trade, and
early endeavoured to understand those counterfeits of classic art by the
light of translations from classic literature.
Customers of his father took a fancy to the child, and helped him with
books, advice, and presently with commissions. The two special
encouragers of his youth were the painter Romney, and a cultivated
clergyman, Mr Mathew, with his wife, in whose house in Rathbone Place
the young Flaxman used to meet the best "blue-stocking" society of those
days, and, among associates of his own age, the artists Blake and
Stothard, who became his closest friends. Before this he had begun to
work with precocious success in clay as well as in pencil. At twelve
years old he won the first prize of the Society of Arts for a medal, and
became a public exhibitor in the gallery of the Free Society of Artists;
at fifteen he won a second prize from the Society of Arts and began to
exhibit in the Royal Academy, then in the second year of its existence.
In the same year, 1770, he entered as an Academy student and won the
silver medal. But all these successes were followed by a discomfiture.
In the competition for the gold medal of the Academy in 1772, Flaxman,
who had made sure of victory, was defeated, the prize being adjudged by
the president, Sir Joshua Reynolds, to another competitor named
Engleheart. But this reverse proved no discouragement, and indeed seemed
to have had a wholesome effect in curing the successful lad of a
tendency to conceit and self-sufficiency which made Thomas Wedgwood say
of him in 1775: "It is but a few years since he was a most supreme
coxcomb."
He continued to ply his art diligently, both as a student in the schools
and as an exhibitor in the galleries of the Academy, occasionally also
attempting diversions into the sister art of painting. To the Academy he
contributed a wax model of Neptune (1770); four portrait models in wax
(1771); a terracotta bust, a wax figure of a child, a figure of History
(1772); a figure of Comedy, and a relief of a Vestal (1773). During
these years he received a commission from a friend of the Mathew family,
for a statue of Alexander. But by heroic and ideal work of this class he
could, of course, make no regular livelihood. The means of such a
livelihood, however, presented themselves in his twentieth year, when he
first received employment from Josiah Wedgwood and his partner Bentley,
as a modeller of classic and domestic friezes, plaques, ornamental
vessels and medallion portraits, in those varieties of "jasper" and
"basalt" ware which earned in their day so great a reputation for the
manufacturers who had conceived and perfected the invention. In the same
year, 1775, John Flaxman the elder moved from New Street, Covent Garden,
to a more commodious house in the Strand (No. 420). For twelve years,
from his twentieth to his thirty-second (1775-1787), Flaxman subsisted
chiefly by his work for the firm of Wedgwood. It may be urged, of the
minute refinements of figure outline and modelling which these
manufacturers aimed at in their ware, that they were not the qualities
best suited to such a material; or it may be regretted that the gifts of
an artist like Flaxman should have been spent so long upon such a minor
and half-mechanical art of household decoration; but the beauty of the
product it would be idle to deny, or the value of the training which the
sculptor by this practice acquired in the delicacies and severities of
modelling in low relief and on a minute scale.
By 1780 Flaxman had begun to earn something in another branch of his
profession, which was in the future to furnish his chief source of
livelihood, viz. the sculpture of monuments for the dead. Three of the
earliest of such monuments by his hand are those of Chatterton in the
church of St Mary Redcliffe at Bristol (1780), of Mrs Morley in
Gloucester cathedral (1784), and of the Rev. T. and Mrs Margaret Ball in
the cathedral at Chichester (1785). During the rest of Flaxman's career
memorial bas-reliefs of the same class occupied a principal part of his
industry; they are to be found scattered in many churches throughout the
length and breadth of England, and in them the finest qualities of his
art are represented. The best are admirable for pathos and simplicity,
and for the alliance of a truly Greek instinct for rhythmical design and
composition with that spirit of domestic tenderness and innocence which
is one of the secrets of the modern soul.
In 1782, being twenty-seven years old, Flaxman was married to Anne
Denman, and had in her the best of helpmates until almost his life's
end. She was a woman of attainments in letters and to some extent in
art, and the devoted companion of her husband's fortunes and of his
travels. They set up house at first in Wardour Street, and lived an
industrious life, spending their summer holidays once and again in the
house of the hospitable poet Hayley, at Eartham in Sussex. After five
years, in 1787, they found themselves with means enough to travel, and
set out for Rome, where they took up their quarters in the Via Felice.
Records more numerous and more consecutive of Flaxman's residence in
Italy exist in the shape of drawings and studies than in the shape of
correspondence. He soon ceased modelling himself for Wedgwood, but
continued to direct the work of other modellers employed for the
manufacture at Rome. He had intended to return after a stay of a little
more than two years, but was detained by a commission for a marble group
of a Fury of Athamas, a commission attended in the sequel with
circumstances of infinite trouble and annoyance, from the notorious
Comte-Évêque, Frederick Hervey, earl of Bristol and bishop of Derry. He
did not, as things fell out, return until the summer of 1794, after an
absence of seven years,--having in the meantime executed another ideal
commission (a "Cephalus and Aurora") for Mr Hope, and having sent home
models for several sepulchral monuments, including one in relief for the
poet Collins in Chichester cathedral, and one in the round for Lord
Mansfield in Westminster Abbey.
But what gained for Flaxman in this interval a general and European fame
was not his work in sculpture proper, but those outline designs to the
poets, in which he showed not only to what purpose he had made his own
the principles of ancient design in vase-paintings and bas-reliefs, but
also by what a natural affinity, better than all mere learning, he was
bound to the ancients and belonged to them. The designs for the _Iliad_
and _Odyssey_ were commissioned by Mrs Hare Naylor; those for Dante by
Mr Hope; those for Aeschylus by Lady Spencer; they were all engraved by
Piroli, not without considerable loss of the finer and more sensitive
qualities of Flaxman's own lines.
During their homeward journey the Flaxmans travelled through central and
northern Italy. On their return they took a house, which they never
afterwards left, in Buckingham Street, Fitzroy Square. Immediately
afterwards we find the sculptor publishing a spirited protest against
the scheme already entertained by the Directory, and carried out five
years later by Napoleon, of equipping at Paris a vast central museum of
art with the spoils of conquered Europe.
The record of Flaxman's life is henceforth an uneventful record of
private affection and contentment, and of happy and tenacious industry,
with reward not brilliant but sufficient, and repute not loud but
loudest in the mouths of those whose praise was best worth
having--Canova, Schlegel, Fuseli. He took for pupil a son of Hayley's,
who presently afterwards sickened and died. In 1797 he was made an
associate of the Royal Academy. Every year he exhibited work of one
class or another: occasionally a public monument in the round, like
those of Paoli (1798), or Captain Montague (1802) for Westminster Abbey,
of Sir William Jones for St Mary's, Oxford (1797-1801), of Nelson or
Howe for St Paul's; more constantly memorials for churches, with
symbolic Acts of Mercy or illustrations of Scripture texts, both
commonly in low relief [Miss Morley, Chertsey (1797), Miss Cromwell,
Chichester (1800), Mrs Knight, Milton, Cambridge (1802), and many more];
and these pious labours he would vary from time to time with a classical
piece like those of his earliest predilection. Soon after his election
as associate, he published a scheme, half grandiose, half childish, for
a monument to be erected on Greenwich Hill, in the shape of a Britannia
200 ft. high, in honour of the naval victories of his country. In 1800
he was elected full Academician. During the peace of Amiens he went to
Paris to see the despoiled treasures collected there, but bore himself
according to the spirit of protest that was in him. The next event which
makes any mark in his life is his appointment to a chair specially
created for him by the Royal Academy--the chair of Sculpture: this took
place in 1810. We have ample evidence of his thoroughness and
judiciousness as a teacher in the Academy schools, and his professorial
lectures have been often reprinted. With many excellent observations,
and with one singular merit--that of doing justice, as in those days
justice was hardly ever done, to the sculpture of the medieval
schools--these lectures lack point and felicity of expression, just as
they are reported to have lacked fire in delivery, and are somewhat
heavy reading. The most important works that occupied Flaxman in the
years next following this appointment were the monument to Mrs Baring in
Micheldever church, the richest of all his monuments in relief
(1805-1811); that for the Worsley family at Campsall church, Yorkshire,
which is the next richest; those to Sir Joshua Reynolds for St Paul's
(1807), to Captain Webbe for India (1810); to Captains Walker and
Beckett for Leeds (1811); to Lord Cornwallis for Prince of Wales's
Island (1812); and to Sir John Moore for Glasgow (1813). At this time
the antiquarian world was much occupied with the vexed question of the
merits of the Elgin marbles, and Flaxman was one of those whose evidence
before the parliamentary commission had most weight in favour of the
purchase which was ultimately effected in 1816.
After his Roman period he produced for a good many years no outline
designs for the engraver except three for Cowper's translations of the
Latin poems of Milton (1810). Other sets of outline illustrations drawn
about the same time, but not published, were one to the _Pilgrim's
Progress_, and one to a Chinese tale in verse, called "The Casket,"
which he wrote to amuse his womenkind. In 1817 we find him returning to
his old practice of classical outline illustrations and publishing the
happiest of all his series in that kind, the designs to Hesiod,
excellently engraved by the sympathetic hand of Blake. Immediately
afterwards he was much engaged designing for the goldsmiths--a
testimonial cup in honour of John Kemble, and following that, the great
labour of the famous and beautiful (though quite un-Homeric) "Shield of
Achilles." Almost at the same time he undertook a frieze of "Peace,
Liberty and Plenty," for the duke of Bedford's sculpture gallery at
Woburn, and an heroic group of Michael overthrowing Satan, for Lord
Egremont's house at Petworth. His literary industry at the same time is
shown by several articles on art and archaeology contributed to Rees's
_Encyclopaedia_ (1819-1820).
In 1820 Mrs Flaxman died, after a first warning from paralysis six years
earlier. Her younger sister, Maria Denman, and the sculptor's own
sister,, Maria Flaxman, remained in his house, and his industry was
scarcely at all relaxed. In 1822 he delivered at the Academy a lecture
in memory of his old friend and generous fellow-craftsman, Canova, then
lately dead; in 1823 he received from A.W. von Schlegel a visit of which
that writer has left us the record. From an illness occurring soon after
this he recovered sufficiently to resume both work and exhibition, but
on the 3rd of December 1826 he caught cold in church, and died four days
later, in his seventy-second year. Among a few intimate associates, he
left a memory singularly dear; having been in companionship, although
susceptible and obstinate when his religious creed--a devout
Christianity with Swedenborgian admixtures--was crossed or slighted, yet
in other things genial and sweet-tempered beyond most men, full of
modesty and playfulness and withal of a homely dignity, a true friend
and a kind master, a pure and blameless spirit.
Posterity will doubt whether it was the fault of Flaxman or of his age,
which in England offered neither training nor much encouragement to a
sculptor, that he is weakest when he is most ambitious, and most
inspired when he makes the least effort; but so it is. Not merely does
he fail when he seeks to illustrate the intensity of Dante, or to rival
the tumultuousness of Michelangelo--to be intense or tumultuous he was
never made; but he fails, it may almost be said, in proportion as his
work is elaborate and far carried, and succeeds in proportion as it is
partial and suggestive. Of his completed ideal sculptures, the "St
Michael" at Petworth is the best, and is indeed admirably composed from
all points of view; but it lacks fire and force, and it lacks the finer
touches of the chisel; a little bas-relief like the diploma piece of the
"Apollo" and "Marpessa" in the Royal Academy compares with it
favourably. This is one of the very few things which he is recorded to
have executed in the marble entirely with his own hand; ordinarily he
entrusted the finishing work of the chisel to the Italian workmen in his
employ, and was content with the smooth mechanical finish which they
imitated from the Roman imitations (themselves often reworked at the
Renaissance) of Greek originals. Of Flaxman's complicated monuments in
the round, such as the three in Westminster Abbey and the four in St
Paul's, there is scarcely one which has not something heavy and
infelicitous in the arrangement, and something empty and unsatisfactory
in the surface execution. But when we come to his simple monuments in
relief, in these we find almost always a far finer quality. The truth is
that he did not thoroughly understand composition on the great scale and
in the round, but he thoroughly understood relief, and found scope in it
for his remarkable gifts of harmonious design, and tender, grave and
penetrating feeling. But if we would see even the happiest of his
conceptions at their best, we must study them, not in the finished
marble but rather in the casts from his studio sketches (marred though
they have been by successive coats of paint intended for their
protection) of which a comprehensive collection is preserved in the
Flaxman gallery at University College And the same is true of his
happiest efforts in the classical and poetical vein, like the well-known
relief of "Pandora conveyed to Earth by Mercury." Nay, going farther
back still among the rudiments and first conceptions of his art, we can
realize the most essential charm of his genius in the study, not of his
modelled work at all, but of his sketches in pen and wash on paper. Of
these the principal public collections are at University College, in the
British Museum, and the Victoria & Albert Museum; many others are
dispersed in public and private cabinets. Every one knows the excellence
of the engraved designs to Homer, Dante, Aeschylus and Hesiod, in all
cases save when the designer aims at that which he cannot hit, the
terrible or the grotesque. To know Flaxman at his best it is necessary
to be acquainted not only with the original studies for such designs as
these (which, with the exception of the Hesiod series, are far finer
than the engravings), but still more with those almost innumerable
studies from real life which he was continually producing with pen, tint
or pencil. These are the most delightful and suggestive sculptor's notes
in existence; in them it was his habit to set down the leading and
expressive lines, and generally no more, of every group that struck his
fancy. There are groups of Italy and London, groups of the parlour and
the nursery, of the street, the garden and the gutter; and of each group
the artist knows how to seize at once the structural and the spiritual
secret, expressing happily the value and suggestiveness, for his art of
sculpture, of the contacts, intervals, interlacements and balancings of
the various figures in any given group, and not less happily the charm
of the affections which link the figures together and inspire their
gestures.
The materials for the life of Flaxman are scattered in various
biographical and other publications; the principal are the
following:--An anonymous sketch in the _European Magazine_ for 1823;
an anonymous "Brief Memoir," prefixed to _Flaxman's Lectures_ (ed.
1829, and reprinted in subsequent editions); the chapter in Allan
Cunningham's _Lives of the Most Eminent British Painters_, &c., vol.
iii.; notices in the _Life of Nollekens_, by John Thomas Smith; in the
_Life of Josiah Wedgwood_, by Miss G. Meteyard (London, 1865); in the
_Diaries and Reminiscences of H. Crabbe Robinson_ (London, 1869), the
latter an authority of great importance; in the _Lives_ of Stothard,
by Mrs Bray, of Constable, by Leslie, of Watson, by Dr Lonsdale, and
of Blake, by Messrs Gilchrist and Rossetti; a series of illustrated
essays, principally on the monumental sculpture of Flaxman, in the
_Art Journal_ for 1867 and 1868, by Mr G.F. Teniswood; _Essays in
English Art_, by Frederick Wedmore; _The Drawings of Flaxman, in 32
plates, with Descriptions, and an Introductory Essay on the Life and
Genius of Flaxman_, by Sidney Colvin (London, 1876); and the article
"Flaxman" in the _Dictionary of National Biography_. (S. C)
FLEA (0. Eng. _fléah_, or _fléa_, cognate with _flee_, to run away from,
to take flight), a name typically applied to _Pulex irritans_, a
well-known blood-sucking insect-parasite of man and other mammals,
remarkable for its powers of leaping, and nearly cosmopolitan. In
ordinary language the name is used for any species of _Siphonaptera_
(otherwise known as _Aphaniptera_), which, though formerly regarded as a
suborder of _Diptera_ (q.v.), are now considered to be a separate order
of insects. All _Siphonaptera_, of which more than 100 species are
known, are parasitic on mammals or birds. The majority of the species
belong to the family _Pulicidae_, of which _P. irritans_ may be taken as
the type; but the order also includes the _Sarcopsyllidae_, the females
of which fix themselves firmly to their host, and the _Ceratopsyllidae_,
or bat-fleas.
Fleas are wingless insects, with a laterally compressed body, small and
indistinctly separated head, and short thick antennae situated in
cavities somewhat behind and above the simple eyes, which are always
minute and sometimes absent. The structure of the mouth-parts is
different from that seen in any other insects. The actual piercing
organs are the mandibles, while the upper lip or labrum forms a sucking
tube. The maxillae are not piercing organs, and their function is to
protect the mandibles and labrum and separate the hairs or feathers of
the host. Maxillary and labial palpi are also present, and the latter,
together with the labrum or lower lip, form the rostrum.
Fleas are oviparous, and undergo a very complete metamorphosis. The
footless larvae are elongate, worm-like and very active; they feed upon
almost any kind of waste animal matter, and when full-grown form a
silken cocoon. The human flea is considerably exceeded in size by
certain other species found upon much smaller hosts; thus the European
_Hystrichopsylla talpae_, a parasite of the mole, shrew and other small
mammals, attains a length of 5½ millimetres; another large species
infests the Indian porcupine. Of the _Sarcopsyllidae_ the best known
species is the "jigger" or "chigoe" (_Dermatophilus penetrans_),
indigenous in tropical South America and introduced into West Africa
during the second half of last century. Since then this pest has spread
across the African continent and even reached Madagascar. The
impregnated female jigger burrows into the feet of men and dogs, and
becomes distended with eggs until its abdomen attains the size and
appearance of a small pea. If in extracting the insect the abdomen be
ruptured, serious trouble may ensue from the resulting inflammation. At
least four species of fleas (including _Pulex irritans_) which infest
the common rat are known to bite man, and are believed to be the active
agents in the transmission of plague from rats to human beings.
(E. E. A.)
FLÈCHE (French for "arrow"), the term generally used in French
architecture for a spire, but more especially employed to designate the
timber spire covered with lead, which was erected over the intersection
of the roofs over nave and transepts; sometimes these were small and
unimportant, but in cathedrals they were occasionally of large
dimensions, as in the flèche of Notre-Dame, Paris, where it is nearly
100 ft. high; this, however, is exceeded by the example of Amiens
cathedral, which measures 148 ft. from its base on the cresting to its
finial.
FLÉCHIER, ESPRIT (1632-1710), French preacher and author, bishop of
Nîmes, was born at Pernes, department of Vaucluse, on the 10th of June
1632. He was brought up at Tarascon by his uncle, Hercule Audiffret,
superior of the Congrégation des Doctrinaires, and afterwards entered
the order. On the death of his uncle, however, he left it, owing to the
strictness of its rules, and went to Paris, where he devoted himself to
writing poetry. His French poems met with little success, but a
description in Latin verse of a tournament (_carrousel, circus regius_),
given by Louis XIV. in 1662, brought him a great reputation. He
subsequently became tutor to Louis Urbain Lefèvre de Caumartin,
afterwards _intendant_ of finances and counsellor of state, whom he
accompanied to Clermont-Ferrard (q.v.), where the king had ordered the
_Grands Jours_ to be held (1665), and where Caumartin was sent as
representative of the sovereign. There Fléchier wrote his curious
_Mémoires sur les Grand Jours tenus à Clermont_, in which he relates, in
a half romantic, half historical form, the proceedings of this
extraordinary court of justice. In 1668 the duke of Montausier procured
for him the post of _lecteur_ to the dauphin. The sermons of Fléchier
increased his reputation, which was afterwards raised to the highest
pitch by his funeral orations. The most important are those on Madame de
Montausier (1672), which gained him the membership of the Academy, the
duchesse d'Aiguillon (1675), and, above all, Marshal Turenne (1676). He
was now firmly established in the favour of the king, who gave him
successively the abbacy of St Séverin, in the diocese of Poitiers, the
office of almoner to the dauphiness, and in 1685 the bishopric of
Lavaur, from which he was in 1687 promoted to that of Nîmes. The edict
of Nantes had been repealed two years before; but the Calvinists were
still very numerous at Nîmes. Fléchier, by his leniency and tact,
succeeded in bringing over some of them to his views, and even gained
the esteem of those who declined to change their faith. During the
troubles in the Cévennes (see HUGUENOTS) he softened to the utmost of
his power the rigour of the edicts, and showed himself so indulgent even
to what he regarded as error, that his memory was long held in
veneration amongst the Protestants of that district. It is right to add,
however, that some authorities consider the accounts of his leniency to
have been greatly exaggerated, and even charge him with going beyond
what the edicts permitted. He died at Montpellier on the 16th of
February 1710. Pulpit eloquence is the branch of belles-lettres in which
Fléchier excelled. He is indeed far below Bossuet, whose robust and
sublime genius had no rival in that age; he does not equal Bourdaloue in
earnestness of thought and vigour of expression; nor can he rival the
philosophical depth or the insinuating and impressive eloquence of
Massillon. But he is always ingenious, often witty, and nobody has
carried farther than he the harmony of diction, sometimes marred by an
affectation of symmetry and an excessive use of antithesis. His two
historical works, the histories of Theodosius and of Ximenes, are more
remarkable for elegance of style than for accuracy and comprehensive
insight.
The last complete edition of Fléchier's works is by J.P. Migne (Paris,
1856); the _Mémoires sur les Grands Jours_ was first published in 1844
by B. Gonod (2nd ed. as _Mém. sur les Gr. J. d'Auvergne_, with notice
by Sainte-Beuve and an appendix by M. Chéruel, 1862). His chief works
are: _Histoire de Théodose le Grand_, _Oraisons funèbres_, _Histoire
du Cardinal Ximénès_, _Sermons de morale_, _Panégyriques des saints_.
He left a _portrait_ or _caractère_ of himself, addressed to one of
his friends. The _Life of Theodosius_ has been translated into English
by F. Manning (1693), and the "Funeral Oration of Marshal Turenne" in
H.C. Fish's _History and Repository of Pulpit Eloquence_ (ii., 1857).
On Fléchier generally see Antonin V.D. Fabre, _La Jeunesse de
Fléchier_ (1882), and Adolphe Fabre, _Fléchier, orateur_ (1886); A.
Delacroix, _Hist, de Fléchier_ (1865).
FLECKEISEN, CARL FRIEDRICH WILHELM ALFRED (1820-1899), German
philologist and critic, was born at Wolfenbüttel on the 23rd of
September 1820. He was educated at the Helmstedt gymnasium and the
university of Göttingen. After holding several educational posts, he was
appointed in 1861 to the vice-principalship of the Vitzthum'sches
Gymnasium at Dresden, which he held till his retirement in 1889. He died
on the 7th of August 1899. Fleckeisen is chiefly known for his labours
on Plautus and Terence; in the knowledge of these authors he was
unrivalled, except perhaps by Ritschl, his life-long friend and a worker
in the same field. His chief works are: _Exercitationes Plautinae_
(1842), one of the most masterly productions on the language of Plautus;
"Analecta Plautina," printed in _Philologus_, ii. (1847); _Plauti
Comoediae_, i., ii. (1850-1851, unfinished), introduced by an _Epistula
critica ad F. Ritschelium_; _P. Terenti Afri Comoediae_ (new ed., 1898).
In his editions he endeavoured to restore the text in accordance with
the results of his researches on the usages of the Latin language and
metre. He attached great importance to the question of orthography, and
his short treatise _Fünfzig Artikel_ (1861) is considered most valuable.
Fleckeisen also contributed largely to the _Jahrbücher fur Philologie_,
of which he was for many years editor.
See obituary notice by G. Götz in C. Bursian's _Biographisches
Jahrbuch für Altertumskunde_ (xxiii., 1901), and article by H. Usener
in _Allgemeine deutsche Biographie_ (where the date of birth is given
as the 20th of September).
FLECKNOE, RICHARD (c. 1600-1678?), English dramatist and poet, the
object of Dryden's satire, was probably of English birth, although there
is no corroboration of the suggestion of J. Gillow (_Bibliog. Dict. of
the Eng. Catholics_, vol. ii., 1885), that he was a nephew of a Jesuit
priest, William Flecknoe, or more properly Flexney, of Oxford. The few
known facts of his life are chiefly derived from his _Relation of Ten
Years' Travels in Europe, Asia, Affrique and America_ (1655?),
consisting of letters written to friends and patrons during his travels.
The first of these is dated from Ghent (1640), whither he had fled to
escape the troubles of the Civil War. In Brussels he met Béatrix de
Cosenza, wife of Charles IV., duke of Lorraine, who sent him to Rome to
secure the legalization of her marriage. There in 1645 Andrew Marvell
met him, and described his leanness and his rage for versifying in a
witty satire, "Flecknoe, an English Priest at Rome." He was probably,
however, not in priest's orders. He then travelled in the Levant, and in
1648 crossed the Atlantic to Brazil, of which country he gives a
detailed description. On his return to Europe he entered the household
of the duchess of Lorraine in Brussels. In 1645 he went back to England.
His royalist and Catholic convictions did not prevent him from writing a
book in praise of Oliver Cromwell, _The Idea of His Highness Oliver_ ...
(1659), dedicated to Richard Cromwell. This publication was discounted
at the restoration by the _Heroick Portraits_ (1660) of Charles II. and
others of the Stuart family. John Dryden used his name as a stalking
horse from behind which to assail Thomas Shadwell in _Mac Flecknoe_
(1682). The opening lines run:--
"All human things are subject to decay.
And, when fate summons, monarchs must obey.
This Flecknoe found, who, like Augustus, young
Was called to empire, and had governed long;
In prose and verse was owned, without dispute,
Throughout the realms of nonsense, absolute."
Dryden's aversion seems to have been caused by Flecknoe's affectation of
contempt for the players and his attacks on the immorality of the
English stage. His verse, which hardly deserved his critic's sweeping
condemnation, was much of it religious, and was chiefly printed for
private circulation. None of his plays was acted except _Love's
Dominion_, announced as a "pattern for the reformed stage" (1654), that
title being altered in 1664 to _Love's Kingdom_, with a _Discourse of
the English Stage_. He amused himself, however, by adding lists of the
actors whom he would have selected for the parts, had the plays been
staged. Flecknoe had many connexions among English Catholics, and is
said by Gerard Langbaine, to have been better acquainted with the
nobility than with the muses. He died probably about 1678.
A _Discourse of the English Stage_, was reprinted in W.C. Hazlitt's
_English Drama and Stage_ (Roxburghe Library, 1869); Robert Southey,
in his _Omniana_ (1812), protested against the wholesale depreciation
of Flecknoe's works. See also "Richard Flecknoe" (Leipzig, 1905, in
_Munchener Beiträge zur ... Philologie_), by A. Lohr, who has given
minute attention to his life and works.
FLEET, a word in all its significances, derived from the root of the
verb "to fleet," from O. Eng. _fleotan_, to float or flow, which
ultimately derives from an Indo-European root seen in Gr. [Greek:
pleein], to sail, and Lat. _pluere_, to rain; cf. Dutch _vliessen_, and
Ger. _fliessen_. In English usage it survives in the name of many
places, such as Byfleet and Northfleet, and in the Fleet, a stream in
London that formerly ran into the Thames between the bottom of Ludgate
Hill and the present Fleet Street. From the idea of "float" comes the
application of the word to ships, when in company, and particularly to a
large number of warships under the supreme command of a single officer,
with the individual ships, or groups of ships, under individual and
subordinate command. The distinction between a fleet and a squadron is
often one of name only. In the British navy the various main divisions
are or have been called fleets and squadrons indifferently. The word is
also frequently used of a company of fishing vessels, and in fishing is
also applied to a row of drift-nets fastened together. From the original
meaning of the word "flowing" comes the adjectival use of the word,
swift, or speedy; so also "fleeting," of something evanescent or fading
away, with the idea of the fast-flowing lapse of time.
FLEET PRISON, an historic London prison, formerly situated on the east
side of Farringdon Street, and deriving its name from the Fleet stream,
which flowed into the Thames. Concerning its early history little is
known, but it certainly dated back to Norman times. It came into
particular prominence from being used as a place of reception for
persons committed by the Star Chamber, and, afterwards, for debtors, and
persons imprisoned for contempt of court by the court of chancery. It
was burnt down in the great fire of 1666; it was rebuilt, but was
destroyed in the Gordon riots of 1780 and again rebuilt in 1781-1782. In
pursuance of an act of parliament (5 & 6 Vict. c. 22, 1842), by which
the Marshalsea, Fleet, and Queen's Bench prisons were consolidated into
one under the name of Queen's prison, it was finally closed, and in 1844
sold to the corporation of the city of London, by whom it was pulled
down. The head of the prison was termed "the warden," who was appointed
by patent. It became a frequent practice of the holder of the patent to
"farm out" the prison to the highest bidder. It was this custom which
made the Fleet prison long notorious for the cruelties inflicted on
prisoners. One purchaser of the office was of particularly evil repute,
by name Thomas Bambridge, who in 1728 paid, with another, the sum of
£5000 to John Huggins for the wardenship. He was guilty of the greatest
extortions upon prisoners, and, in the words of a committee of the House
of Commons appointed to inquire into the state of the gaols of the
kingdom, "arbitrarily and unlawfully loaded with irons, put into
dungeons, and destroyed prisoners for debt, treating them in the most
barbarous and cruel manner, in high violation and contempt of the laws
of this kingdom." He was committed to Newgate, and an act was passed to
prevent his enjoying the office of warden or any other office
whatsoever. The liberties or rules of the Fleet were the limits within
which particular prisoners were allowed to reside outside the prison
walls on observing certain conditions.
_Fleet Marriages._--By the law of England a marriage was recognized as
valid, so long as the ceremony was conducted by a person in holy orders,
even if those orders were not of the Church of England. Neither banns
nor licence were necessary, and the time and place were alike
immaterial. Out of this state of the marriage law, in the period of
laxness which succeeded the Commonwealth, resulted innumerable
clandestine marriages. They were contracted at first to avoid the
expenses attendant on the public ceremony, but an act of 1696, which
imposed a penalty of £100 on any clergyman who celebrated, or permitted
another to celebrate, a marriage otherwise than by banns or licence,
acted as a considerable check. To clergymen imprisoned for debt in the
Fleet, however, such a penalty had no terrors, for they had "neither
liberty, money nor credit to lose by any proceedings the bishop might
institute against them." The earliest recorded date of a Fleet marriage
is 1613, while the earliest recorded in a Fleet register took place in
1674, but it was only on the prohibition of marriage without banns or
licence that they began to be clandestine. Then arose keen competition,
and "many of the Fleet parsons and tavern-keepers in the neighbourhood
fitted up a room in their respective lodgings or houses as a chapel,"
and employed touts to solicit custom for them. The scandal and abuses
brought about by these clandestine marriages became so great that they
became the object of special legislation. In 1753 Lord Hardwicke's Act
(26 Geo. ii. c. 33) was passed, which required, under pain of nullity,
that banns should be published according to the rubric, or a licence
obtained, and that, in either case, the marriage should be solemnized in
church; and that in the case of minors, marriage by licence must be by
the consent of parent or guardian. This act had the effect of putting a
stop to these clandestine marriages, so far as England was concerned,
and henceforth couples had to fare to Gretna Green (q.v.).
The _Fleet Registers_, consisting of "about two or three hundred large
registers" and about a thousand rough or "pocket" books, eventually came
into private hands, but were purchased by the government in 1821, and
are now deposited in the office of the registrar-general, Somerset
House. Their dates range from 1686 to 1754. In 1840 they were declared
not admissible as evidence to prove a marriage.
AUTHORITIES.--J.S. Burn, _The Fleet Registers; comprising the History
of Fleet Marriages, and some Account of the Parsons and Marriage-house
Keepers_, &c. (London, 1833); J. Ashton, _The Fleet: its River, Prison
and Marriages_ (London, 1888).
FLEETWOOD, CHARLES (d. 1692), English soldier and politician, third son
of Sir Miles Fleetwood of Aldwinkle, Northamptonshire, and of Anne,
daughter of Nicholas Luke of Woodend, Bedfordshire, was admitted into
Gray's Inn on the 30th of November 1638. At the beginning of the Great
Rebellion, like many other young lawyers who afterwards distinguished
themselves in the field, he joined Essex's life-guard, was wounded at
the first battle of Newbury, obtained a regiment in 1644 and fought at
Naseby. He had already been appointed receiver of the court of wards,
and in 1646 became member of parliament for Marlborough. In the dispute
between the army and parliament he played a chief part, and was said to
have been the principal author of the plot to seize King Charles at
Holmby, but he did not participate in the king's trial. In 1649 he was
appointed a governor of the Isle of Wight, and in 1650, as
lieutenant-general of the horse, took part in Cromwell's campaign in
Scotland and assisted in the victory of Dunbar. The next year he was
elected a member of the council of state, and being recalled from
Scotland was entrusted with the command of the forces in England, and
played a principal part in gaining the final triumph at Worcester. In
1652 he married [1] Cromwell's daughter, Bridget, widow of Ireton, and
was made commander-in-chief in Ireland, to which title that of lord
deputy was added. The chief feature of his administration, which lasted
from September 1652 till September 1655, was the settlement of the
soldiers on the confiscated estates and the transplantation of the
original owners, which he carried out ruthlessly. He showed also great
severity in the prosecution of the Roman Catholic priests, and favoured
the Anabaptists and the extreme Puritan sects to the disadvantage of the
moderate Presbyterians, exciting great and general discontent, a
petition being finally sent in for his recall.
Fleetwood was a strong and unswerving follower of Cromwell's policy. He
supported his assumption of the protectorate and his dismissal of the
parliaments. In December 1654 he became a member of the council, and
after his return to England in 1655 was appointed one of the
major-generals. He approved of the "Petition and Advice," only objecting
to the conferring of the title of king on Cromwell, became a member of
the new House of Lords; and supported ardently Cromwell's foreign policy
in Europe, based on religious divisions, and his defence of the
Protestants persecuted abroad. He was therefore, on Cromwell's death,
naturally regarded as a likely successor, and it is said that Cromwell
had in fact so nominated him. He, however, gave his support to Richard's
assumption of office, but allowed subsequently, if he did not instigate,
petitions from the army demanding its independence, and finally
compelled Richard by force to dissolve parliament. His project of
re-establishing Richard in close dependence upon the army met with
failure, and he was obliged to recall the Long Parliament on the 6th of
May 1659. He was appointed immediately a member of the committee of
safety and of the council of state, and one of the seven commissioners
for the army, while on the 9th of June he was nominated
commander-in-chief. In reality, however, his power was undermined and
was attacked by parliament, which on the 11th of October declared his
commission void. The next day he assisted Lambert in his expulsion of
the parliament and was reappointed commander-in-chief. On Monk's
approach from the North, he stayed in London and maintained order. While
hesitating with which party to ally his forces, and while on the point
of making terms with the king, the army on the 24th of December restored
the Rump, when he was deprived of his command and ordered to appear
before parliament to answer for his conduct. The Restoration therefore
took place without him. He was included among the twenty liable to
penalties other than capital, and was finally incapacitated from holding
any office of trust. His public career then closed, though he survived
till the 4th of October 1692.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] He had lost his first wife, Frances Smith; and later he had a
third wife, Mary, daughter of Sir John Coke and widow of Sir Edward
Hartopp.
FLEETWOOD, WILLIAM (1656-1723), English divine, was descended of an
ancient Lancashire family, and was born in the Tower of London on New
Year's Day 1656. He received his education at Eton and at King's
College, Cambridge. About the time of the Revolution he took orders, and
was shortly afterwards made rector of St Austin's, London, and lecturer
of St Dunstan's in the West. He became a canon of Windsor in 1702, and
in 1708 he was nominated to the see of St Asaph, from which he was
translated in 1714 to that of Ely. He died at Tottenham, Middlesex, on
the 4th of August 1723. Fleetwood was regarded as the best preacher of
his time. He was accurate in learning, and effective in delivery, and
his character stood deservedly high in general estimation. In episcopal
administration he far excelled most of his contemporaries. He was a
zealous Hanoverian, and a favourite with Queen Anne in spite of his
Whiggism. His opposition to the doctrine of non-resistance brought him
into conflict with the tory ministry of 1712 and with Swift, but he
never entered into personal controversy.
His principal writings are---_An Essay on Miracles_ (1701); _Chronicum
preciosum_ (an account of the English coinage, 1707); and _Free
Sermons_ (1712), containing discourses on the death of Queen Mary,
the duke of Gloucester and King William. The preface to this last was
condemned to public burning by parliament, but, as No. 384 of _The
Spectator_, circulated more widely than ever. A collected edition of
his works, with a biographical preface, was published in 1737.
FLEETWOOD, a seaport and watering-place in the Blackpool parliamentary
division of Lancashire, England, at the mouth of the Wyre, 230 m. N.W.
by N. from London, the terminus of a joint branch of the London &
North-Western and Lancashire & Yorkshire railways. Pop. (1891) 9274;
(1901) 12,082. It dates its rise from 1836, and takes its name from Sir
Peter Hesketh Fleetwood, by whom it was laid out. The seaward views,
especially northward over Morecambe Bay, are fine, but the neighbouring
country is flat and of little interest. The two railways jointly are the
harbour authority. The dock is provided with railways and machinery for
facilitating traffic, including a large grain elevator. The shipping
traffic is chiefly in the coasting and Irish trade. Passenger steamers
serve Belfast and Londonderry regularly, and the Isle of Man and other
ports during the season. The fisheries are important, and there are
salt-works in the neighbourhood. There is a pleasant promenade, with
other appointments of a watering-place. There are also barracks with a
military hospital and a rifle range. Rossall school, to the S.W., is one
of the principal public schools in the north of England. Rossall Hall
was the seat of Sir Peter Fleetwood, but was converted to the uses of
the school on its foundation in 1844. The school is primarily divided
into classical and modern sides, with a special department for
preparation for army, navy or professional examinations. A number of
entrance scholarships and leaving scholarships tenable at the
universities are offered annually. The number of boys is about 350.
FLEGEL, EDWARD ROBERT (1855-1886), German traveller in West Africa, was
born on the 1st of October 1855 at Wilna, Russia. After receiving a
commercial education he obtained in 1875 a position in Lagos, West
Africa. In 1879 he ascended the Benue river some 125 m. above the
farthest point hitherto reached. His careful survey of the channel
secured him a commission from the German African Society to explore the
whole Benue district. In 1880 he went up the Niger to Gomba, and then
visited Sokoto, where he obtained a safe-conduct from the sultan for his
intended expedition to Adamawa. This expedition was undertaken in 1882,
and on the 18th of August in that year Flegel discovered the source of
the Benue at Ngaundere. In 1883-1884 he made another journey up the
Benue, crossing for the second time the Benue-Congo watershed. After a
short absence in Europe Flegel returned to Africa in April 1885 with a
commission from the German African Company and the Colonial Society to
open up the Niger-Benue district to German trade. This expedition had
the support of Prince Bismarck, who endeavoured, unsuccessfully, to
obtain for Germany this region, already secured as a British sphere of
influence by the National African Company (the Royal Niger Company).
Flegel, despite a severe illness, ascended the Benue to Yola, but was
unable to accomplish his mission. He returned to the coast and died at
Brass, at the mouth of the Niger, on the 11th of September 1886. (See
further GOLDIE, SIR GEORGE.)
Flegel wrote _Lose Blatter aus dem Tagebuche meiner Haussaafreunde_
(Hamburg, 1885), and _Vom Niger-Benue. Briefe aus Afrika_ (edited by
K. Flegel, Leipzig, 1890).
FLEISCHER, HEINRICH LEBERECHT (1801-1888), German Orientalist, was born
at Schandau, Saxony, on the 21st of February 1801. From 1819 to 1824 he
studied theology and oriental languages at Leipzig, subsequently
continuing his studies in Paris. In 1836 he was appointed professor of
oriental languages at Leipzig University, and retained this post till
his death. His most important works were editions of Abulfeda's
_Historia ante-Islamica_ (1831-1834), and of Beidhawi's _Commentary on
the Koran_ (1846-1848). He compiled a catalogue of the oriental MSS, in
the royal library at Dresden (1831); published an edition and German
translation of Ali's _Hundred Sayings_ (1837); the continuation of
Babicht's edition of _The Thousand and One Nights_ (vols. ix.-xii.,
1842-1843); and an edition of Mahommed Ibrihim's _Persian Grammar_
(1847). He also wrote an account of the Arabic, Turkish and Persian MSS.
at the town library in Leipzig. He died there on the 10th of February
1888. Fleischer was one of the eight foreign members of the French
Academy of Inscriptions and a knight of the German _Ordre pour le
mérite_.
FLEMING, PAUL (1609-1640), German poet, was born at Hartenstein in the
Saxon Erzgebirge, on the 5th of October 1609, the son of the village
pastor. At the age of fourteen he was sent to school at Leipzig and
subsequently studied medicine at the university. Driven away by the
troubles of the Thirty Years' War, he was fortunate enough to become
attached to an embassy despatched in 1634 by Duke Frederick of
Holstein-Gottorp to Russia and Persia, and to which the famous traveller
Adam Olearius was secretary. In 1639 the mission returned to Reval, and
here Fleming, having become betrothed, determined to settle as a
physician. He proceeded to Leiden to procure a doctor's diploma, but
died suddenly at Hamburg on his way home on the 2nd of April 1640.
Though belonging to the school of Martin Opitz, Fleming is distinguished
from most of his contemporaries by the ring of genuine feeling and
religious fervour that pervades his lyric poems, even his occasional
pieces. In the sonnet, his favourite form of verse, he was particularly
happy. Among his religious poems the hymn beginning "In allen meinen
Taten lass ich den Höchsten raten" is well known and widely sung.
Fleming's _Teutsche Poëmata_ appeared posthumously in 1642; they are
edited by J.M. Lappenberg, in the Bibliothek des litterarischen
Vereins (2 vols., 1863; a third volume, 1866, contains Fleming's Latin
poems). Selections have been edited by J. Tittmann in the second
volume of the series entitled _Deutsche Dichter des siebzehnten
Jahrhunderts_ (Leipzig, 1870), and by H. Österley (Stuttgart, 1885). A
life of the poet will be found in Varnhagen von Ense's _Biographische
Denkmale_, Bd. iv. (Berlin, 1826). See also J. Straumer, _Paul
Flemings Leben und Orientreise_ (1892); L.G. Wysocky, _De Pauli
Flemingi Germanice scriptis et ingenio_ (Paris, 1892).
FLEMING, RICHARD (d. 1431), bishop of Lincoln, and founder of Lincoln
College, Oxford, was born at Crofton in Yorkshire. He was descended from
a good family, and was educated at University College, Oxford. Having
taken his degrees, he was made prebendary of York in 1406, and the next
year was junior proctor of the university. About this time he became an
ardent Wycliffite, winning over many persons, some of high rank, to the
side of the reformer, and incurring the censure of Archbishop Arundel.
He afterwards became one of Wycliffe's most determined opponents. Before
1415 he was instituted to the rectory of Boston in Lincolnshire, and in
1420 he was consecrated bishop of Lincoln. In 1428-1429 he attended the
councils of Pavia and Siena, and in the presence of the pope, Martin V.,
made an eloquent speech in vindication of his native country, and in
eulogy of the papacy. It was probably on this occasion that he was named
chamberlain to the pope. To Bishop Fleming was entrusted the execution
of the decree of the council for the exhumation and burning of
Wycliffe's remains. The see of York being vacant, the pope conferred it
on Fleming; but the king (Henry V.) refused to confirm the appointment.
In 1427 Fleming obtained the royal licence empowering him to found a
college at Oxford for the special purpose of training up disputants
against Wycliffe's heresy. He died at Sleaford, on the 26th of January
1431. Lincoln College was, however, completed by his trustees, and its
endowments were afterwards augmented by various benefactors.
FLEMING, SIR SANDFORD (1827- ), Canadian engineer and publicist, was
born at Kirkcaldy, Scotland, on the 7th of January 1827, but emigrated
to Canada in 1845. Great powers of work and thoroughness in detail
brought him to the front, and he was from 1867 to 1880 chief engineer of
the Dominion government. Under his control was constructed the
Intercolonial railway, and much of the Canadian Pacific. After his
retirement in 1880 he devoted himself to the study of Canadian and
Imperial problems, such as the unification of time reckoning throughout
the world, and the construction of a state-owned system of telegraphs
throughout the British empire. After years of labour he saw the first
link forged in the chain, in the opening in 1902 of the Pacific Cable
between Canada and Australia. Though not a party man he strongly
advocated Federation in 1864-1867, and in 1891 vehemently attacked the
Liberal policy of unrestricted reciprocity with the United States. He
took the deepest interest in education, and in 1880 became chancellor of
Queen's University, Kingston.
He published _The Intercolonial: a History_ (Montreal and London,
1876); _England and Canada_ (London, 1884); and numerous _brochures_
and magazine articles on scientific, social and political subjects.
FLEMING, SIR THOMAS (1544-1613), English judge, was born at Newport,
Isle of Wight, in April 1544, and was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn
in 1574. He represented Winchester in parliament from 1584 to 1601, when
he was returned for Southampton. In 1594 he was appointed recorder of
London, and in 1595 was chosen solicitor-general in preference to Bacon.
This office he retained under James I. and was knighted in 1603. In 1604
he was created chief baron of the exchequer and presided over many
important state trials. In 1607 he was promoted to the chief justiceship
of the king's bench, and was one of the judges at the trial of the
_post-nati_ in 1608, siding with the majority of the judges in declaring
that persons born in Scotland after the accession of James I. were
entitled to the privileges of natural-born subjects in England. He was
praised by his contemporaries, more particularly Coke, for his "great
judgments, integrity and discretion." He died on the 7th of August 1613
at his seat, Stoneham Park, Hampshire.
See Foss, _Lives of the Judges_.
FLEMISH LITERATURE. The older Flemish writers are dealt with in the
article on DUTCH LITERATURE; after the separation of Belgium, however,
from the Netherlands in 1830 there was a great revival of Flemish
literature. The immediate result of the revolution was a reaction
against everything associated with Dutch, and a disposition to regard
the French language as the speech of liberty and independence. The
provisional government of 1830 suppressed the official use of the
Flemish language, which was relegated to the rank of a patois. For some
years before 1830 Jan Frans Willems[1] (1793-1846) had been advocating
the claims of the Flemish language. He had done his best to allay the
irritation between Holland and Belgium and to prevent a separation. As
archivist of Antwerp he made use of his opportunities by writing a
history of Flemish letters. After the revolution his Dutch sympathies
had made it necessary for him to live in seclusion, but in 1835 he
settled at Ghent, and devoted himself to the cultivation of Flemish. He
edited old Flemish classics, _Reinaert de Vos_ (1836), the rhyming
Chronicles of Jan van Heelu and Jan le Clerc, &c., and gathered round
him a band of Flemish enthusiasts, the chevalier Philipp Blommaert
(1809-1871), Karel Lodewijk Ledeganck (1805-1847), Fr. Rens (1805-1874),
F.A. Snellaert (1809-1872), Prudens van Duyse (1804-1859), and others.
Blommaert, who was born at Ghent on the 27th of August 1809, founded in
1834 in his native town the _Nederduitsche letteroefeningen_, a review
for the new writers, and it was speedily followed by other Flemish
organs, and by literary societies for the promotion of Flemish. In 1851
a central organization for the Flemish propaganda was provided by a
society, named after the father of the movement, the "Willemsfonds." The
Catholic Flemings founded in 1874 a rival "Davidsfonds," called after
the energetic J.B. David (1801-1866), professor at the university of
Louvain, and the author of a Flemish history of Belgium (_Vaderlandsche
historie_, Louvain, 1842-1866). As a result of this propaganda the
Flemish language was placed on an equality with French in law, and in
administration, in 1873 and 1878, and in the schools in 1883. Finally in
1886 a Flemish Academy was established by royal authority at Ghent,
where a course in Flemish literature had been established as early as
1854.
The claims put forward by the Flemish school were justified by the
appearance (1837) of _In't Wonderjaar_ 1566 (In the Wonderful year) of
Hendrik Conscience (q.v.), who roused national enthusiasm by describing
the heroic struggles of the Flemings against the Spaniards. Conscience
was eventually to make his greatest successes in the description of
contemporary Flemish life, but his historical romances and his popular
history of Flanders helped to give a popular basis to a movement which
had been started by professors and scholars.
The first poet of the new school was Ledeganck, the best known of whose
poems are those on the "three sister cities" of Bruges, Ghent and
Antwerp (_Die drie zustersteden, vaderlandsche trilogie_, Ghent, 1846),
in which he makes an impassioned protest against the adoption of French
ideas, manners and language, and the neglect of Flemish tradition. The
book speedily took its place as a Flemish classic. Ledeganck, who was a
magistrate, also translated the French code into Flemish. Jan Theodoor
van Rijswijck (1811-1849), after serving as a volunteer in the campaign
of 1830, settled down as a clerk in Antwerp, and became one of the
hottest champions of the Flemish movement. He wrote a series of
political and satirical songs, admirably suited to his public. The
romantic and sentimental poet, Jan van Beers (q.v.), was typically
Flemish in his sincere and moral outlook on life. Prudens van Duyse,
whose most ambitious work was the epic _Artavelde_ (1859), is perhaps
best remembered by a collection (1844) of poems for children. Peter
Frans Van Kerckhoven (1818-1857), a native of Antwerp, wrote novels,
poems, dramas, and a work on the Flemish revival (_De Vlaemsche
Beweging_, 1847).
Antwerp produced a realistic novelist in Jan Lambrecht Damien Sleeckx
(1818-1901). An inspector of schools by profession, he was an
indefatigable journalist and literary critic. He was one of the founders
in 1844 of the _Vlaemsch België_, the first daily paper in the Flemish
interest. His works include a long list of plays, among them _Jan Steen_
(1852), a comedy; _Grétry_, which gained a national prize in 1861; _De
Visschers van Blankenberg_ (1863); and the patriotic drama of _Zannekin_
(1865). His talent as a novelist was diametrically opposed to the
idealism of Conscience. He was precise, sober and concrete in his
methods, relying for his effect on the accumulation of carefully
observed detail. He was particularly successful in describing the life
of the shipping quarter of his native town. Among his novels are: _In't
Schipperskwartier_ (1856), _Dirk Meyer_ (1860), _Tybaerts en K^ie_
(1867), _Kunst en Liefde_ ("Art and Love," 1870), and _Vesalius in
Spanje_ (1895). His complete works were collected in 17 vols.
(1877-1884).
Jan Renier Snieders (1812-1888) wrote novels dealing with North Brabant;
his brother, August Snieders (b. 1825), began by writing historical
novels in the manner of Conscience, but his later novels are satires on
contemporary society. A more original talent was displayed by Anton
Bergmann (1835-1874), who, under the pseudonym of "Tony," wrote _Ernest
Staas, Advocat_, which gained the quinquennial prize of literature in
1874. In the same year appeared the _Novellen_ of the sisters Rosalie
(1834-1875) and Virginie Loveling (b. 1836). These simple and touching
stories were followed by a second collection in 1876. The sisters had
published a volume of poems in 1870. Virginie Loveling's gifts of fine
and exact observation soon placed her in the front rank of Flemish
novelists. Her political sketches, _In onze Vlaamsche gewesten_ (1877),
were published under the name of "W.G.E. Walter." _Sophie_ (1885), _Een
dure Eed_ (1892), and _Het Land der Verbeelding_ (1896) are among the
more famous of her later works. Reimond Stÿns (b. 1850) and Isidoor
Teirlinck (b. 1851) produced in collaboration one very popular novel,
_Arm Vlaanderen_ (1884), and some others, and have since written
separately. Cyril Buysse, a nephew of Mme Loveling, is a disciple of
Zola. _Het Recht van den Sterkste_ ("The Right of the Strongest," 1893)
is a picture of vagabond life in Flanders; _Schoppenboer_ ("The Knave of
Spades," 1898) deals with brutalized peasant life; and _Sursum corda_
(1895) describes the narrowness and religiosity of village life.
In poetry Julius de Geyter (b. 1830), author of a rhymed translation of
_Reinaert_ (1874), an epic poem on Charles V. (1888), &c., produced a
social epic in three parts, _Drie menschen van in de wieg tot in het
graf_ ("Three Men from the Cradle to the Grave," 1861), in which he
propounded radical and humanitarian views. The songs of Julius Vuylsteke
(1836-1903) are full of liberal and patriotic ardour; but his later life
was devoted to politics rather than literature. He had been the leading
spirit of a students' association at Ghent for the propagation of
"_flamingant_" views, and the "Willemsfonds" owed much of its success to
his energetic co-operation. His _Uit het studenten leven_ appeared in
1868, and his poems were collected in 1881. The poems of Mme van Ackere
(1803-1884), _née_ Maria Doolaeghe, were modelled on Dutch originals.
Joanna Courtmans (1811-1890), née Berchmans, owed her fame rather to her
tales than her poems; she was above all a moralist, and her fifty tales
are sermons on economy and the practical virtues. Other poets were
Emmanuel Hiel (q.v.), author of comedies, opera libretti and some
admirable songs; the abbé Guido Gezelle (1830-1899), who wrote religious
and patriotic poems in the dialect of West Flanders; Lodewijk de Koninck
(b. 1838), who attempted a great epic subject in _Menschdon Verlost_
(1872); J.M. Dautzenberg (1808-1869), author of a volume of charming
_Volksliederen_. The best of Dautzenberg's work is contained in the
posthumous volume of 1869, published by his son-in-law, Frans de Cort
(1834-1878), who was himself a song-writer, and translated songs from
Burns, from Jasmin and from the German. The _Makamen en Ghazelen_
(1866), adapted from Rückert's version of Hariri, and other volumes by
"Jan Ferguut" (J.A. van Droogenbroeck, b. 1835) show a growing
preoccupation with form, and with the work of Theodoor Antheunis (b.
1840), they prepare the way for the ingenious and careful workmanship of
the younger school of poets, of whom Charles Polydore de Mont is the
leader. He was born at Wambeke in Brabant in 1857, and became professor
in the academy of the fine arts at Antwerp. He introduced something of
the ideas and methods of contemporary French writers into Flemish verse;
and explained his theories in 1898 in an _Inleiding tot de Poëzie_.
Among Pol de Mont's numerous volumes of verse dating from 1877 onwards
are _Claribella_ (1893), and _Iris_ (1894), which contains amongst other
things a curious "_Uit de Legende van Jeschoea-ben-Jossef_," a version
of the gospel story from a Jewish peasant.
Mention should also be made of the history of Ghent (_Gent van den
vroegsten Tijd tot heden_, 1882-1889) of Frans de Potter (b. 1834), and
of the art criticisms of Max Rooses (b. 1839), curator of the Plantin
museum at Antwerp, and of Julius Sabbe (b. 1846).
See Ida van Düringsfeld, _Von der Schelde bis zur Maas_. _Das geistige
Leben der Vlamingen_ (Leipzig, 3 vols., 1861); J. Stecher, _Histoire
de la littérature néerlandaise en Belgique_ (1886); _Geschiedenis der
Vlaamsche Letterkunde van het jaar 1830 tot heden_ (1899), by Theodoor
Coopman and L. Scharpé; A. de Koninck, _Bibliographie nationale_ (3
vols., 1886-1897); and _Histoire politique et littéraire du mouvement
flamand_ (1894), by Paul Hamelius. The _Vlaamsche Bibliographie_,
issued by the Flemish Academy of Ghent, by Frans de Potter, contains a
list of publications between 1830 and 1890; and there is a good deal
of information in the excellent _Biographisch woordenboeck der Noord-
en Zuid- Nederlandsche Letterkunde_ (1878) of Dr W.J.A. Huberts and
others. (E. G.)
FOOTNOTE:
[1] See Max Rooses, _Keus van Dicht- en Prozawerken van J.F.
Willems_, and his _Brieven_ in the publications of the Willemsfonds
(Ghent, 1872-1874).
FLENSBURG (Danish, _Flensborg_), a seaport of Germany, in the Prussian
province of Schleswig-Holstein, at the head of the Flensburg Fjord, 20
m. N.W. from Schleswig, at the junction of the main line Altona-Vamdrup
(Denmark), with branches to Kiel and Glücksburg. Pop. (1905) 48,922. The
principal public buildings are the Nikolai Kirche (built 1390, restored
1894), with a spire 295 ft. high; the Marienkirche, also a medieval
church, with a lofty tower; the law courts; the theatre and the
exchange. There are two gymnasia, schools of marine engineering,
navigation, wood-carving and agriculture. The cemetery contains the
remains of the Danish soldiers who fell at the battle of Idstedt (25th
of July 1850), but the colossal Lion monument, erected by the Danes to
commemorate their victory, was removed to Berlin in 1864. Flensburg is a
busy centre of trade and industry, and is the most important town in
what was formerly the duchy of Schleswig. It possesses excellent
wharves, does a large import trade in coal, and has shipbuilding yards,
breweries, distilleries, cloth and paper factories, glass-works,
copper-works, soap-works and rice mills. Its former extensive trade
with the West Indies has lately suffered owing to the enormous
development of the North Sea ports, but it is still largely engaged in
the Greenland whale and the oyster fisheries.
Flensburg was probably founded in the 12th century. It attained
municipal privileges in 1284, was frequently pillaged by the Swedes
after 1643, and in 1848 became the capital, under Danish rule, of
Schleswig.
See Holdt, _Flensburg fruher und jetzt_ (1884).
FLERS, a manufacturing town of north-western France, in the
arrondissement of Domfront, and department of Orne, on the Vère, 41 m.
S. of Caen on the railway to Laval. Pop. (1906) 11,188. A modern church
in the Romanesque style and a restored château of the 15th century are
its principal buildings. There is a tribunal of commerce, a board of
trade-arbitrators, a communal college and a branch of the Bank of
France. Flers is the centre of a cotton and linen-manufacturing region
which includes the towns of Condé-sur-Noireau and La Ferté-Macé.
Manufactures are very important, and include, besides cotton and linen
fabrics, of which the annual value is about £1,500,000, drugs and
chemicals; there are large brick and tile works, flour mills and
dyeworks.
FLETA, a treatise, with the sub-title _seu Commentarius juris
Anglicani_, on the common law of England. It appears, from internal
evidence, to have been written in the reign of Edward I., about the year
1290. It is for the most part a poor imitation of Bracton. The author is
supposed to have written it during his confinement in the Fleet prison,
hence the name. It has been conjectured that he was one of those judges
who were imprisoned for malpractices by Edward I. Fleta was first
printed by J. Selden in 1647, with a dissertation (2nd edition, 1685).
FLETCHER, ALICE CUNNINGHAM (1845- ), American ethnologist, was born in
Boston, Massachusetts, in 1845. She studied the remains of Indian
civilization in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys, became a member of the
Archaeological Institute of America in 1879, and worked and lived with
the Omahas as a representative of the Peabody Museum of American
Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University. In 1883 she was appointed
special agent to allot lands to the Omaha tribes, in 1884 prepared and
sent to the New Orleans Exposition an exhibit showing the progress of
civilization among the Indians of North America in the quarter-century
previous, in 1886 visited the natives of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands
on a mission from the commissioner of education, and in 1887 was United
States special agent in the distribution of lands among the Winnebagoes
and Nez Percés. She was made assistant in ethnology at the Peabody
Museum in 1882, and received the Thaw fellowship in 1891; was president
of the Anthropological Society of Washington and of the American
Folk-Lore Society, and vice-president of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science; and, working through the Woman's National
Indian Association, introduced a system of making small loans to
Indians, wherewith they might buy land and houses. In 1888 she published
_Indian Education and Civilization_, a special report of the Bureau of
Education. In 1898 at the Congress of Musicians held at Omaha during the
Trans-Mississippi Exposition she read "several essays upon the songs of
the North American Indians ... in illustration of which a number of
Omaha Indians ... sang their native melodies." Out of this grew her
_Indian Story and Song from North America_ (1900), illustrating "a stage
of development antecedent to that in which culture music appeared."
FLETCHER, ANDREW, of Saltoun (1655-1716), Scottish politician, was the
son and heir of Sir Robert Fletcher (1625-1664), and was born at
Saltoun, the modern Salton, in East Lothian. Educated by Gilbert Burnet,
afterwards bishop of Salisbury, who was then the parish minister of
Saltoun, he completed his education by spending some years in travel and
study, entering public life as member of the Scottish parliament which
met in 1681. Possessing advanced political ideas, Fletcher was a
fearless and active opponent of the measures introduced by John
Maitland, duke of Lauderdale, the representative of Charles II. in
Scotland, and his successor, the duke of York, afterwards King James
II.; but he left Scotland about 1682, subsequently spending some time in
Holland as an associate of the duke of Monmouth and other malcontents.
Although on grounds of prudence Fletcher objected to the rising of 1685,
he accompanied Monmouth to the west of England, but left the army after
killing one of the duke's trusted advisers. This incident is thus told
by Sir John Dalrymple:
"Being sent upon an expedition, and not esteeming times of danger to
be times of ceremony, he had seized for his own riding the horse of a
country gentleman (the mayor of Lynne) which stood ready equipt for
its master. The master hearing this ran in a passion to Fletcher, gave
him opprobrious language, shook his cane and attempted to strike.
Fletcher, though rigid in the duties of morality, yet having been
accustomed to foreign services both by sea and land in which he had
acquired high ideas of the honour of a soldier and a gentleman and of
the affront of a cane, pulled out his pistol and shot him dead on the
spot. The action was unpopular in countries where such refinements
were not understood. A clamour was raised against it among the people
of the country, in a body they waited upon the duke with their
complaints; and he was forced to desire the only soldier and almost
the only man of parts in his army, to abandon him."
Another, but less probable account, represents Fletcher as quitting the
rebel army because he disapproved of the action of Monmouth in
proclaiming himself king.
His history during the next few years is rather obscure. He probably
travelled in Spain, and fought against the Turks in Hungary; and having
in his absence lost his estates and been sentenced to death, he joined
William of Orange at the Hague, and returned to Scotland in 1689 in
consequence of the success of the Revolution of 1688. His estates were
restored to him; and he soon became a leading member of the "club," an
organization which aimed at reducing the power of the crown in Scotland,
and in general an active opponent of the English government. In 1703, at
a critical stage in the history of Scotland, Fletcher again became a
member of the Scottish parliament. The failure of the Darien expedition
had aroused a strong feeling of resentment against England, and Fletcher
and the national party seized the opportunity to obtain a greater degree
of independence for their country.
His attitude in this matter, and also to the proposal for the union of
the two crowns, is thus described by a writer in the third edition of
the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_:--
"The thought of England's domineering over Scotland was what his
generous soul could not endure. The indignities and oppression which
Scotland lay under galled him to the heart, so that in his learned and
elaborate discourses he exposed them with undaunted courage and
pathetical eloquence. In that great event, the Union, he performed
essential service. He got the act of security passed, which declared
that the two crowns should not pass to the same head till Scotland was
secured in her liberties civil and religious. Therefore Lord Godolphin
was forced into the Union, to avoid a civil war after the queen's
demise. Although Mr Fletcher disapproved of some of the articles, and
indeed of the whole frame of the Union, yet, as the act of security
was his own work, he had all the merit of that important transaction."
Soon after the passing of the Act of Union Fletcher retired from public
life. Employing his abilities in another direction, he did a real, if
homely, service to his country by introducing from Holland machinery for
sifting grain. He died unmarried in London in September 1716.
Contemporaries speak very highly of Fletcher's integrity, but he was
also choleric and impetuous. Burnet describes him as "a Scotch gentleman
of great parts and many virtues, but a most violent republican and
extremely passionate." In appearance he was "a low, thin man, of a brown
complexion; full of fire; with a stern, sour look." Fletcher was a fine
scholar and a graceful writer, and both his writings and speeches afford
bright glimpses of the manners and state of the country in his time. His
chief works are: _A Discourse of Government relating to Militias_
(1698); _Two Discourses concerning the Affairs of Scotland_ (1698); and
_An Account of a Conversation concerning a right regulation of
Governments for the common good of Mankind_ (1704). In Two Discourses he
suggests that the numerous vagrants who infested Scotland should be
brought into compulsory and hereditary servitude; and in _An Account of
a Conversation_ occurs his well-known remark, "I knew a very wise man
so much of Sir Christopher's (Sir C. Musgrave) sentiment, that he
believed if a man were permitted to make all the ballads, he need not
care who should make the laws of a nation."
_The Political Works of Andrew Fletcher_ were published in London in
1737. See D.S. Erskine, 11th earl of Buchan, _Essay on the Lives of
Fletcher of Saltoun and the Poet Thomson_ (1792); J.H. Burton,
_History of Scotland_, vol. viii. (Edinburgh, 1905); and A. Lang,
_History of Scotland_, vol. iv. (Edinburgh, 1907).
FLETCHER, GILES (c. 1548-1611), English author, son of Richard Fletcher,
vicar of Cranbrook, Kent, and father of the poets Phineas and Giles
Fletcher, was born in 1548 or 1549. He was educated at Eton and at
King's College, Cambridge, taking his B.A. degree in 1569. He was a
fellow of his college, and was made LL.D. in 1581. In 1580 he had
married Joan Sheafe of Cranbrook. In that year he was commissary to Dr
Bridgwater, chancellor of Ely, and in 1585 he sat in parliament for
Winchelsea. He was employed on diplomatic service in Scotland, Germany
and Holland, and in 1588 was sent to Russia to the court of the czar
Theodore with instructions to conclude as alliance between England and
Russia, to restore English trade, and to obtain better conditions for
the English Russia Company. The factor of the company, Jerome Horsey,
had already obtained large concessions through the favour of the
protector, Boris Godunov, but when Dr Fletcher reached Moscow in 1588 he
found that Godunov's interest was alienated, and that the Russian
government was contemplating an alliance with Spain. The envoy was badly
lodged, and treated with obvious contempt, and was not allowed to
forward letters to England, but the English victory over the Armada and
his own indomitable patience secured among other advantages for English
traders exclusive rights of trading on the Volga and their security from
the infliction of torture. Fletcher's treatment at Moscow was later made
the subject of formal complaint by Queen Elizabeth. He returned to
England in 1589 in company with Jerome Horsey, and in 1591 he published
_Of the Russe Commonwealth, Or Maner of Government by the Russe Emperour
(commonly called The Emperour of Moskovia) with the manners and fashions
of the people of that Countrey_. In this comprehensive account of
Russian geography, government, law, methods of warfare, church and
manners, Fletcher, who states that he began to arrange his material
during the return journey, doubtless received some assistance from the
longer experience of his travelling companion, who also wrote a
narrative of his travels, published in _Purchas his Pilgrimes_ (1626).
The Russia Company feared that the freedom of Fletcher's criticisms
would give offence to the Muscovite authorities, and accordingly damage
their trade. The book was consequently suppressed, and was not reprinted
in its entirety until 1856, when it was edited from a copy of the
original edition for the Hakluyt Society, with an introduction by Mr
Edward A. Bond.
Fletcher was appointed "Remembrancer" to the city of London, and an
extraordinary master of requests in 1596, and became treasurer of St
Paul's in 1597. He contemplated a history of the reign of Queen
Elizabeth, and in a letter to Lord Burghley he suggested that it might
be well to begin with an account from the Protestant side of the
marriage of Henry VIII. and Ann Boleyn. But personal difficulties
prevented the execution of this plan. He had become security to the
exchequer for the debts of his brother, Richard Fletcher, bishop of
London, who died in 1596, and was only then saved from imprisonment by
the protection of the earl of Essex. He was actually in prison in 1601,
when he addressed a somewhat ambiguous letter to Burghley from which it
may be gathered that his prime offence had been an allusion to Essex's
disgrace as being the work of Sir Walter Raleigh. Fletcher was employed
in 1610 to negotiate with Denmark on behalf of the "Eastland Merchants,"
and he died next year, and was buried on the 11th of March in the parish
of St Catherine Colman, London.
_The Russe Commonwealth_ was issued in an abridged form in _Hakluyt's
Principal Navigations, Voyages_, &c. (vol. i. p. 473, ed. of 1598), a
somewhat completer version in _Purchas his Pilgrimes_ (pt. iii. ed.
1625), also as _History of Russia_ in 1643 and 1657. Fletcher also
wrote _De literis antiquae Britanniae_ (ed. by Phineas Fletcher,
1633), a treatise on "The Tartars," printed in _Israel Redux_ (ed. by
S(amuel) L(ee), 1677), to prove that they were the ten lost tribes of
Israel, Latin poems published in various miscellanies, and _Licia, or
Poemes of Love in Honour of the admirable and singular vertues of his
Lady, to the imitation of the best Latin Poets ... whereunto is added
the Rising to the Crowne of Richard the third_ (1593). This series of
love sonnets, followed by some other poems, was published anonymously.
Most critics, with the notable exception of Alexander Dyce (Beaumont
and Fletcher, _Works_, i. p. xvi., 1843) have accepted it as the work
of Dr Giles Fletcher on the evidence afforded in the first of the
_Piscatory Eclogues_ of his son Phineas, who represents his father
(Thelgon), as having "raised his rime to sing of Richard's climbing."
See E.A. Bond's Introduction to the Hakluyt Society's edition; also Dr
A.B. Grosart's prefatory matter to _Licia_ (_Fuller Worthies Library_,
Miscellanies, vol. iii., 1871), and to the works (1869) of Phineas
Fletcher in the same series. Fletcher's letters relative to the
college dispute with the provost, Dr Roger Goad, are preserved in the
Lansdowne MSS. (xxiii. art. 18 et seq.), and are translated in
Grosart's edition.
FLETCHER, GILES (c. 1584-1623), English poet, younger son of the
preceding, was born about 1584. Fuller in his _Worthies of England_ says
that he was a native of London, and was educated at Westminster school.
From there he went to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took his B.A.
degree in 1606, and became a minor fellow of his college in 1608. He was
reader in Greek grammar (1615) and in Greek language (1618). In 1603 he
contributed a poem on the death of Queen Elizabeth to _Sorrow's Joy_.
His great poem of _Christ's Victory_ appeared in 1610, and in 1612 he
edited the _Remains_ of his cousin Nathaniel Pownall. It is not known in
what year he was ordained, but his sermons at St Mary's were famous.
Fuller tells us that the prayer before the sermon was a continuous
allegory. He left Cambridge about 1618, and soon after received, it is
supposed from Francis Bacon, the rectory of Alderton, on the Suffolk
coast, where "his clownish and low-parted parishioners ... valued not
their pastor according to his worth; which disposed him to melancholy
and hastened his dissolution." (Fuller, _Worthies of England_, ed. 1811,
vol. ii. p. 82). His last work, _The Reward of the Faithful_, appeared
in the year of his death (1623).
The principal work by which Giles Fletcher is known is _Christ's
Victorie and Triumph, in Heaven, in Earth, over and after Death_ (1610).
An edition in 1640 contains seven full-page illustrative engravings by
George Tate. It is in four cantos and is epic in design. The first
canto, "Christ's Victory in Heaven," represents a dispute in heaven
between Justice and Mercy, assuming the facts of Christ's life on earth;
the second, "Christ's Victory on Earth," deals with an allegorical
account of the Temptation; the third, "Christ's Triumph over Death,"
treats of the Passion; and the fourth, "Christ's Triumph after Death,"
treating of the Resurrection and Ascension, concludes with an
affectionate eulogy of his brother Phineas Fletcher (q.v.) as
"Thyrsilis." The metre is an eight-line stanza owing something to
Spenser. The first five lines rhyme ababb, and the stanza concludes with
a rhyming triplet, resuming the conceit which nearly every verse
embodies. Giles Fletcher, like his brother Phineas, to whom he was
deeply attached, was a close follower of Spenser. In his very best
passages Giles Fletcher attains to a rich melody which charmed the ear
of Milton, who did not hesitate to borrow very considerably from the
_Christ's Victory and Triumph_ in his _Paradise Regained_. Fletcher
lived in an age which regarded as models the poems of Marini and
Gongora, and his conceits are sometimes grotesque in connexion with the
sacredness of his subject. But when he is carried away by his theme and
forgets to be ingenious, he attains great solemnity and harmony of
style. His descriptions of the Lady of Vain Delight, in the second
canto, and of Justice and of Mercy in the first, are worked out with
much beauty of detail into separate pictures, in the manner of the
_Faerie Queene_.
Giles Fletcher's poem was edited (1868) for the _Fuller Worthies
Library_, and (1876) for the _Early English Poets_ by Dr A.B. Grosart.
It is also reprinted for _The Ancient and Modern Library of
Theological Literature_ (1888), and in R. Cattermole's and H.
Stebbing's _Sacred Classics_ (1834, &c.) vol. 20. In the library of
King's College, Cambridge, is a MS. _Aegidii Fletcherii versio poetica
Lamentationum Jeremiae_.
FLETCHER, JOHN WILLIAM (1729-1785), English divine, was born at Nyon in
Switzerland on the 12th of September 1729, his original name being DE LA
FLÉCHIÈRE. He was educated at Geneva, but, preferring an army career to
a clerical one, went to Lisbon and enlisted. An accident prevented his
sailing with his regiment to Brazil, and after a visit to Flanders,
where an uncle offered to secure a commission for him, he went to
England, picked up the language, and in 1752 became tutor in a
Shropshire family. Here he came under the influence of the new Methodist
preachers, and in 1757 took orders, being ordained by the bishop of
Bangor. He often preached with John Wesley and for him, and became known
as a fervent supporter of the revival. Refusing the wealthy living of
Dunham, he accepted the humble one of Madeley, where for twenty-five
years (1760-1785) he lived and worked with unique devotion and zeal.
Fletcher was one of the few parish clergy who understood Wesley and his
work, yet he never wrote or said anything inconsistent with his own
Anglican position. In theology he upheld the Arminian against the
Calvinist position, but always with courtesy and fairness; his
resignation on doctrinal grounds of the superintendency (1768-1771) of
the countess of Huntingdon's college at Trevecca left no unpleasantness.
The outstanding feature of his life was a transparent simplicity and
saintliness of spirit, and the testimony of his contemporaries to his
godliness is unanimous. Wesley preached his funeral sermon from the
words "Mark the perfect man." Southey said that "no age ever provided a
man of more fervent piety or more perfect charity, and no church ever
possessed a more apostolic minister." His fame was not confined to his
own country, for it is said that Voltaire, when challenged to produce a
character as perfect as that of Christ, at once mentioned Fletcher of
Madeley. He died on the 14th of August 1785.
Complete editions of his works were published in 1803 and 1836. The
chief of them, written against Calvinism, are _Five Checks to
Antinomianism_, _Scripture Scales to weigh the Gold of Gospel Truth_,
and the _Portrait of St Paul_. See lives by J. Wesley (1786); L.
Tyerman (1882); F.W. Macdonald (1885); J. Maratt (1902); also C.J.
Ryle, _Christian Leaders of the 18th Century_, pp. 384-423 (1869).
FLETCHER, PHINEAS (1582-1650), English poet, elder son of Dr Giles
Fletcher, and brother of Giles the younger, noticed above, was born at
Cranbrook, Kent, and was baptized on the 8th of April 1582. He was
admitted a scholar of Eton, and in 1600 entered King's College,
Cambridge. He graduated B.A. in 1604, and M.A. in 1608, and was one of
the contributors to _Sorrow's Joy_ (1603). His pastoral drama,
_Sicelides or Piscatory_ (pr. 1631) was written (1614) for performance
before James I., but only produced after the king's departure at King's
College. He had been ordained priest and before 1611 became a fellow of
his college, but he left Cambridge before 1616, apparently because
certain emoluments were refused him. He became chaplain to Sir Henry
Willoughby, who presented him in 1621 to the rectory of Hilgay, Norfolk,
where he married and spent the rest of his life. In 1627 he published
_Locustae, vel Pietas Jesuitica_. _The Locusts or Apollyonists_, two
parallel poems in Latin and English furiously attacking the Jesuits. Dr
Grosart saw in this work one of the sources of Milton's conception of
Satan. Next year appeared an erotic poem, _Brittains Ida_, with Edmund
Spenser's name on the title-page. It is certainly not by Spenser, and is
printed by Dr Grosart with the works of Phineas Fletcher. _Sicelides_, a
play acted at King's College in 1614, was printed in 1631. In 1632
appeared two theological prose treatises, _The Way to Blessedness_ and
_Joy in Tribulation_, and in 1633 his _magnum opus, The Purple Island_.
The book was dedicated to his friend Edward Benlowes, and included his
_Piscatorie Eclogs and other Poetical Miscellanies_. He died in 1650,
his will being proved by his widow on the 13th of December of that year.
_The Purple Island, or the Isle of Man_, is a poem in twelve cantos
describing in cumbrous allegory the physiological structure of the human
body and the mind of man. The intellectual qualities are personified,
while the veins are rivers, the bones the mountains of the island, the
whole analogy being worked out with great ingenuity. The manner of
Spenser is preserved throughout, but Fletcher never lost sight of his
moral aim to lose himself in digressions like those of the _Faerie
Queene_. What he gains in unity of design, however, he more than loses
in human interest and action. The chief charm of the poem lies in its
descriptions of rural scenery. The _Piscatory Eclogues_ are pastorals
the characters of which are represented as fisher boys on the banks of
the Cam, and are interesting for the light they cast on the biography of
the poet himself (Thyrsil) and his father (Thelgon). The poetry of
Phineas Fletcher has not the sublimity sometimes reached by his brother
Giles. The mannerisms are more pronounced and the conceits more
far-fetched, but the verse is fluent, and lacks neither colour nor
music.
A complete edition of his works (4 vols.) was privately printed by Dr
A.B. Grosart (Fuller Worthies Library, 1869).
FLEURANGES, ROBERT (III.) DE LA MARCK, SEIGNEUR DE (1491-1537), marshal
of France and historian, was the son of Robert II. de la Marck; duke of
Bouillon, seigneur of Sedan and Fleuranges, whose uncle was the
celebrated William de la Marck, "The Wild Boar of the Ardennes." A
fondness for military exercises displayed itself in his earliest years,
and at the age of ten he was sent to the court of Louis XII., and placed
in charge of the count of Angoulême, afterwards King Francis I. In his
twentieth year he married a niece of the cardinal d'Amboise, but after
three months he quitted his home to join the French army in the
Milanese. With a handful of troops he threw himself into Verona, then
besieged by the Venetians; but the siege was protracted, and being
impatient for more active service, he rejoined the army. He then took
part in the relief of Mirandola, besieged by the troops of Pope Julius
II., and in other actions of the campaign. In 1512 the French being
driven from Italy, Fleuranges was sent into Flanders to levy a body of
10,000 men, in command of which, under his father, he returned to Italy
in 1513, seized Alessandria, and vigorously assailed Novara. But the
French were defeated, and Fleuranges narrowly escaped with his life,
having received more than forty wounds. He was rescued by his father and
sent to Vercellae, and thence to Lyons. Returning to Italy with Francis
I. in 1515, he distinguished himself in various affairs, and especially
at Marignano, where he had a horse shot under him, and contributed so
powerfully to the victory of the French that the king knighted him with
his own hand. He next took Cremona, and was there called home by the
news of his father's illness. In 1519 he was sent into Germany on the
difficult errand of inducing the electors to give their votes in favour
of Francis I.; but in this he failed. The war in Italy being rekindled,
Fleuranges accompanied the king thither, fought at Pavia (1525), and was
taken prisoner with his royal master. The emperor, irritated by the
defection of his father, Robert II. de la Marck, sent him into
confinement in Flanders, where he remained for some years. During this
imprisonment he was created marshal of France. He employed his enforced
leisure in writing his _Histoire des choses mémorables advenues du règne
de Louis XII et de François I, depuis 1499 jusqu'en l'an 1521_. In this
work he designates himself _Jeune Adventureux_. Within a small compass
he gives many curious and interesting details of the time, writing only
of what he had seen, and in a very simple but vivid style. The book was
first published in 1735, by Abbé Lambert, who added historical and
critical notes; and it has been reprinted in several collections. The
last occasion on which Fleuranges was engaged in active service was at
the defence of Péronne, besieged by the count of Nassau in 1536. In the
following year he heard of his father's death, and set out from Amboise
for his estate of La Marck; but he was seized with illness at
Longjumeau, and died there in December 1537.
See his own book in the _Nouvelle Collection des mémoires pour servir
à l'histoire de France_ (edited by J.F. Michaud and J.J.F. Poujoulat,
series i. vol. v. Paris, 1836 seq.).
FLEUR-DE-LIS (Fr. "lily flower"), an heraldic device, very widespread in
the armorial bearings of all countries, but more particularly associated
with the royal house of France. The conventional fleur-de-lis, as Littré
says, represents very imperfectly three flowers of the white lily
(_Lilium_) joined together, the central one erect, and each of the
other two curving outwards. The fleur-de-lis is a common device in
ancient decoration, notably in India and in Egypt, where it was the
symbol of life and resurrection, the attribute of the god Horus. It is
common also in Etruscan bronzes. It is uncertain whether the
conventional fleur-de-lis was originally meant to represent the lily or
white iris--the flower-de-luce of Shakespeare--or an arrow-head, a
spear-head, an amulet fastened on date-palms to ward off the evil eye,
&c. In Roman and early Gothic architecture the fleur-de-lis is a
frequent sculptured ornament. As early as 1120 three fleurs-de-lis were
sculptured on the capitals of the Chapelle Saint-Aignan at Paris. The
fleur-de-lis was first definitely connected with the French monarchy in
an _ordonnance_ of Louis le Jeune (c. 1147), and was first figured on a
seal of Philip Augustus in 1180. The use of the fleur-de-lis in heraldry
dates from the 12th century, soon after which period it became a very
common charge in France, England and Germany, where every gentleman of
coat-armour desired to adorn his shield with a loan from the shield of
France, which was at first _d'azur, semé de fleurs de lis d'or_. In
February 1376 Charles V. of France reduced the number of fleurs-de-lis
to three--in honour of the Trinity--and the kings of France thereafter
bore _d'azur, à trois fleurs de lis d'or_. Tradition soon attributed the
origin of the fleur-de-lis to Clovis, the founder of the Frankish
monarchy, and explained that it represented the lily given to him by an
angel at his baptism. Probably there was as much foundation for this
legend as for the more rationalistic explanation of William Newton
(_Display of Heraldry_, p. 145), that the fleur-de-lis was the figure of
a reed or flag in blossom, used instead of a sceptre at the proclamation
of the Frankish kings. Whatever be the true origin of the fleur-de-lis
as a conventional decoration, it is demonstrably far older than the
Frankish monarchy, and history does not record the reason of its
adoption by the royal house of France, from which it passed into common
use as an heraldic charge in most European countries. An order of the
Lily, with a fleur-de-lis for badge, was established in the Roman states
by Pope Paul III. in 1546; its members were pledged to defend the
patrimony of St Peter against the enemies of the church. Another order
of the Lily was founded by Louis XVIII. in 1816, in memory of the silver
fleurs-de-lis which the comte d'Artois had given to the troops in 1814
as decorations; it was abolished by the revolution of 1830.
[Illustration: Middle Ages. 17th century. 18th and 19th centuries.]
FLEURUS, a village of Belgium, in the province of Hennegau, 5 m. N.E. of
Charleroi, famous as the scene of several battles. The first of these
was fought on August 19/29, 1622, between the forces of Count Mansfeld
and Christian of Brunswick and the Spaniards under Cordovas, the latter
being defeated. The second is described below, and the third and fourth,
incidents of Jourdan's campaign of 1794, under FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY
WARS. The ground immediately north-east of Fleurus forms the battlefield
of Ligny (June 16, 1815), for which see WATERLOO CAMPAIGN.
[Illustration: Map of Fleurus 1690.]
The second battle was fought on the 1st of July 1690 between 45,000
French under François-Henri de Montgomery-Bouteville, duke of Luxemburg,
and 37,000 allied Dutch, Spaniards and Imperialists under George
Frederick, prince of Waldeck. The latter had formed up his army between
Heppignies and St Amand in what was then considered an ideal position; a
double barrier of marshy brooks was in front, each flank rested on a
village, and the space between, open upland, fitted his army exactly.
But Luxemburg, riding up with his advanced guard from Velaine, decided,
after a cursory survey of the ground, to attack the front and both
flanks of the Allies' position at once--a decision which few, if any,
generals then living would have dared to make, and which of itself
places Luxemburg in the same rank as a tactician as his old friend and
commander Condé. The left wing of cavalry was to move under cover of
woods, houses and hollows to gain Wangenies, where it was to connect
with the frontal attack of the French centre from Fleurus and to envelop
Waldeck's right. Luxemburg himself with the right wing of cavalry and
some infantry and artillery made a wide sweep round the enemy's left by
way of Ligny and Les Trois Burettes, concealed by the high-standing
corn. At 8 o'clock the frontal attack began by a vigorous artillery
engagement, in which the French, though greatly outnumbered in guns,
held their own, and three hours later Waldeck, whose attention had been
absorbed by events on the front, found a long line of the enemy already
formed up in his rear. He at once brought his second line back to oppose
them, but while he was doing so the French leader filled up the gap
between himself and the frontal assailants by posting infantry around
Wagnelée, and also guns on the neighbouring hill whence their fire
enfiladed both halves of the enemy's army up to the limit of their
ranging power. At 1 P.M. Luxemburg ordered a general attack of his whole
line. He himself scattered the cavalry opposed to him and hustled the
Dutch infantry into St Amand, where they were promptly surrounded. The
left and centre of the French army were less fortunate, and in their
first charge lost their leader, Lieutenant-General Jean Christophe,
comte de Gournay, one of the best cavalry officers in the service. But
Waldeck, hoping to profit by this momentary success, sent a portion of
his right wing towards St Amand, where it merely shared the fate of his
left, and the day was decided. Only a quarter of the cavalry and 14
battalions of infantry (English and Dutch) remained intact, and Waldeck
could do no more, but with these he emulated the last stand of the
Spaniards at Rocroi fifty years before. A great square was formed of the
infantry, and a handful of cavalry joined them--the French cavalry,
eager to avenge Gournay, had swept away the rest. Then slowly and in
perfect order, they retired into the broken ground above Mellet, where
they were in safety. The French slept on the battlefield, and then
returned to camp with their trophies and 8000 prisoners. They had lost
some 2500 killed, amongst them Gournay and Berbier du Metz, the chief of
artillery, the Allies twice as many, as well as 48 guns, and Luxemburg
was able to send 150 colours and standards to decorate Notre-Dame. But
the victory was not followed up, for Louis XIV. ordered Luxemburg to
keep in line with other French armies which were carrying on more or
less desultory wars of manoeuvre on the Meuse and Moselle.
FLEURY [ABRAHAM JOSEPH BÉNARD] (1750-1822), French actor, was born at
Chartres on the 26th of October 1750, and began his stage apprenticeship
at Nancy, where his father was at the head of a company of actors
attached to the court of King Stanislaus. After four years in the
provinces, he came to Paris in 1778, and almost immediately was made
_sociétaire_ at the Comédie Française, although the public was slow to
recognize him as the greatest comedian of his time. In 1793 Fleury, like
the rest of his fellow-players, was arrested in consequence of the
presentation of Laya's _L'Ami des lois_, and, when liberated, appeared
at various theatres until, in 1799, he rejoined the rehabilitated
Comédie Française. After forty years of service he retired in 1818, and
died on the 3rd of March 1822. He was notoriously illiterate, and it is
probable that the interesting _Mémoire de Fleury_ owes more to its
author, Lafitte, than to the subject whose "notes and papers" it is said
to contain.
FLEURY, ANDRÉ HERCULE DE (1653-1743), French cardinal and statesman, was
born at Lodève (Hérault) on the 22nd of June 1653, the son of a
collector of taxes. Educated by the Jesuits in Paris, he entered the
priesthood, and became in 1679, through the influence of Cardinal Bonzi,
almoner to Maria Theresa, queen of Louis XIV., and in 1698 bishop of
Fréjus. Seventeen years of a country bishopric determined him to seek a
position at court. He became tutor to the king's great-grandson and
heir, and in spite of an apparent lack of ambition, he acquired over the
child's mind an influence which proved to be indestructible. On the
death of the regent Orleans in 1723 Fleury, although already seventy
years of age, deferred his own supremacy by suggesting the appointment
of Louis Henri, duke of Bourbon, as first minister. Fleury was present
at all interviews between Louis XV. and his first minister, and on
Bourbon's attempt to break through this rule Fleury retired from court.
Louis made Bourbon recall the tutor, who on the 11th of July 1726 took
affairs into his own hands, and secured the exile from court of Bourbon
and of his mistress Madame de Prie. He refused the title of first
minister, but his elevation to the cardinalate in that year secured his
precedence over the other ministers. He was naturally frugal and
prudent, and carried these qualities into the administration, with the
result that in 1738-1739 there was a surplus of 15,000,000 livres
instead of the usual deficit. In 1726 he fixed the standard of the
currency and secured the credit of the government by the regular payment
thenceforward of the interest on the debt. By exacting forced labour
from the peasants he gave France admirable roads, though at the cost of
rousing angry discontent. During the seventeen years of his orderly
government the country found time to recuperate its forces after the
exhaustion caused by the extravagances of Louis XIV. and of the regent,
and the general prosperity rapidly increased. Internal peace was only
seriously disturbed by the severities which Fleury saw fit to exercise
against the Jansenists. He imprisoned priests who refused to accept the
bull _Unigenitus_, and he met the opposition of the parlement of Paris
by exiling forty of its members.
In foreign affairs his chief preoccupation was the maintenance of peace,
which was shared by Sir Robert Walpole, and therefore led to a
continuance of the good understanding between France and England. It was
only with reluctance that he supported the ambitious projects of
Elizabeth Farnese, queen of Spain, in Italy by guaranteeing in 1729 the
succession of Don Carlos to the duchies of Parma and Tuscany. Fleury had
economized in the army and navy, as elsewhere, and when in 1733 war was
forced upon him he was hardly prepared. He was compelled by public
opinion to support the claims of Louis XV.'s father-in-law Stanislaus
Leszczynski, ex-king of Poland, to the Polish crown on the death of
Frederick Augustus I., against the Russo-Austrian candidate; but the
despatch of a French expedition of 1500 men to Danzig only served to
humiliate France. Fleury was driven by Chauvelin to more energetic
measures; he concluded a close alliance with the Spanish Bourbons and
sent two armies against the Austrians. Military successes on the Rhine
and in Italy secured the favourable terms of the treaty of Vienna
(1735-1738). France had joined with the other powers in guaranteeing the
succession of Maria Theresa under the Pragmatic sanction, but on the
death of Charles VI. in 1740 Fleury by a diplomatic quibble found an
excuse for repudiating his engagements, when he found the party of war
supreme in the king's counsels. After the disasters of the Bohemian
campaign he wrote in confidence a humble letter to the Austrian general
Königsegg, who immediately published it. Fleury disavowed his own
letter, and died a few days after the French evacuation of Prague on the
29th of January 1743. He had enriched the royal library by many valuable
oriental MSS., and was a member of the French Academy, of the Academy of
Science, and the Academy of Inscriptions.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--F.J. Bataille, _Éloge historique de M. le Cardinal A.
H. de Fleury_ (Strassburg, 1737); C. Frey de Neuville, _Oraison
funèbre de S.E. Mgr. le Cardinal A. H. Fleury_ (Paris, 1743); P.
Vicaire, _Oraison funèbre du Cardinal A. H. de Fleury_ (Caen, 1743);
M. van Hoey, _Lettres et négotiations pour servir à l'histoire de la
vie du Cardinal de Fleury_ (London, 1743); _Leben des Cardinals A. H.
Fleury_ (Freiburg, 1743); F. Morénas, _Parallèle du ministère du
Cardinal Richelieu et du Cardinal de Fleury_ (Avignon, 1743);
_Nachrichten von dem Leben und der Verwaltung des Cardinals Fleury_
(Hamburg, 1744).
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 4 - "Finland" to "Fleury, Andre"" ***
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