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Title: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Constantine Pavlovich" to "Convention"

Author: Various

Release date: January 11, 2010 [eBook #30935]
                Most recently updated: January 6, 2021

Language: English

Credits: Produced by Marius Masi, Don Kretz, Juliet Sutherland and
        the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
        https://www.pgdp.net


*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA, 11TH EDITION, "CONSTANTINE PAVLOVICH" TO "CONVENTION" ***




Produced by Marius Masi, Don Kretz, Juliet Sutherland and
the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
https://www.pgdp.net







Transcriber's notes:
  (1) Numbers following letters in mathematical expressions such as a1
  or [gamma]1 were originally printed as subscripts.

  (2) Some section headings were originally constructed as side-notes.
  They were placed here at the head of their respective paragraphs, and
  moved to paragraph's start where given at paragraph's middle. See HTML
  version for the original headers placement.




                       ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA

  A DICTIONARY OF ARTS, SCIENCES, LITERATURE AND GENERAL INFORMATION

                          ELEVENTH EDITION

                        VOLUME VII slice II

                 CONSTANTINE PAVLOVICH to CONVENTION




CONSTANTINE PAVLOVICH (1779-1831), grand-duke and cesarevich of Russia,
was born at Tsarskoye Selo on the 27th of April 1779. Of the sons born
to the unfortunate tsar Paul Petrovich and his wife Maria Feodorovna,
_née_ princess of Württemberg, none more closely resembled his father in
bodily and mental characteristics than did the second, Constantine
Pavlovich. The direction of the boy's upbringing was entirely in the
hands of his grandmother, the empress Catherine II. As in the case of
her eldest grandson (afterwards the emperor Alexander I.), she regulated
every detail of his physical and mental education; but in accordance
with her usual custom she left the carrying out of her views to the men
who were in her confidence. Count Nicolai Ivanovich Soltikov was
supposed to be the actual tutor, but he too in his turn transferred the
burden to another, only interfering personally on quite exceptional
occasions, and exercised neither a positive nor a negative influence
upon the character of the exceedingly passionate, restless and
headstrong boy. The only person who really took him in hand was César La
Harpe, who was tutor-in-chief from 1783 to May 1795 and educated both
the empress's grandsons.

Like Alexander, Constantine was married by Catherine when not yet
seventeen years of age, a raw and immature boy, and he made his wife,
Juliana of Coburg, intensely miserable. After a first separation in the
year 1799, she went back permanently to her German home in 1801, the
victim of a frivolous intrigue, in the guilt of which she was herself
involved. An attempt made by Constantine in 1814 to win her back to his
hearth and home broke down on her firm opposition. During the time of
this tragic marriage Constantine's first campaign took place under the
leadership of the great Suvorov. The battle of Bassignano was lost by
Constantine's fault, but at Novi he distinguished himself by such
personal bravery that the emperor Paul bestowed on him the title of
cesarevich, which according to the fundamental law of the constitution
belonged only to the heir to the throne. Though it cannot be proved that
this action of the tsar denoted any far-reaching plan, it yet shows that
Paul already distrusted the grand-duke Alexander. However that may be,
it is certain that Constantine never tried to secure the throne. After
his father's death he led a wild and disorderly bachelor life. He
abstained from politics, but remained faithful to his military
inclinations, though, indeed, without manifesting anything more than a
preference for the externalities of the service.

In command of the guards during the campaign of 1805 Constantine had a
share of the responsibility for the unfortunate turn which events took
at the battle of Austerlitz; while in 1807 neither his skill nor his
fortune in war showed any improvement. However, after the peace of
Tilsit he became an ardent admirer of the great Corsican and an upholder
of the Russo-French alliance. It was on this account that in political
questions he did not enjoy the confidence of his imperial brother. To
the latter the French alliance had always been merely a means to an end,
and after he had satisfied himself at Erfurt, and later during the
Franco-Austrian War of 1809, that Napoleon likewise regarded his
relation to Russia only from the point of view of political advantage,
he became convinced that the alliance must transform itself into a
battle of life and death. Such insight was never attained by
Constantine; even in 1812, after the fall of Moscow, he pressed for a
speedy conclusion of peace with Napoleon, and, like field-marshal
Kutusov, he too opposed the policy which carried the war across the
Russian frontier to a victorious conclusion upon French soil. During the
campaign he was a boon companion of every commanding-officer. Barclay de
Tolly was twice obliged to send him away from the army. His share in the
battles in Germany and France was insignificant. At Dresden, on the 26th
of August, his military knowledge failed him at the decisive moment, but
at La Fère-Champenoise he distinguished himself by personal bravery. On
the whole he cut no great figure. In Paris the grand-duke excited public
ridicule by the manifestation of his petty military fads. His first
visit was to the stables, and it was said that he had marching and
drilling even in his private rooms.

In the great political decisions of those days Constantine took not the
smallest part. His importance in political history dates only from the
moment when the emperor Alexander entrusted him in Poland with a task
which enabled him to concentrate all the one-sidedness of his talents
and all the doggedness of his nature on a definite object: that of the
militarization and outward discipline of Poland. With this begins the
part played by the grand-duke in history. In the Congress-Poland created
by Alexander he received the post of commander-in-chief of the forces of
the kingdom; to which was added later (1819) the command of the
Lithuanian troops and of those of the Russian provinces that had
formerly belonged to the kingdom of Poland. In effect he was the actual
ruler of the country, and soon became the most zealous advocate of the
separate position of Poland created by the constitution granted by
Alexander. He organized their army for the Poles, and felt himself more
a Pole than a Russian, especially after his marriage, on the 27th of
May 1820, with a Polish lady, Johanna Grudzinska. Connected with this
was his renunciation of any claim to the Russian succession, which was
formally completed in 1822. It is well known how, in spite of this, when
Alexander I. died on the 1st of December 1825 the grand-duke Nicholas
had him proclaimed emperor in St Petersburg, in connexion with which
occurred the famous revolt of the Russian Liberals, known as the rising
of the Dekabrists. In this crisis Constantine's attitude had been very
correct, far more so than that of his brother, which was vacillating and
uncertain. Under the emperor Nicholas also Constantine maintained his
position in Poland. But differences soon arose between him and his
brother in consequence of the share taken by the Poles in the Dekabrist
conspiracy. Constantine hindered the unveiling of the organized plotting
for independence which had been going on in Poland for many years, and
held obstinately to the belief that the army and the bureaucracy were
loyally devoted to the Russian empire. The eastern policy of the tsar
and the Turkish War of 1828 and 1829 caused a fresh breach between them.
It was owing to the opposition of Constantine that the Polish army took
no part in this war, so that there was in consequence no Russo-Polish
comradeship in arms, such as might perhaps have led to a reconciliation
between the two nations.

The insurrection at Warsaw in November 1830 took Constantine completely
by surprise. It was owing to his utter failure to grasp the situation
that the Polish regiments passed over to the revolutionaries; and during
the continuance of the revolution he showed himself as incompetent as he
was lacking in judgment. Every defeat of the Russians appeared to him
almost in the light of a personal gratification: _his_ soldiers were
victorious. The suppression of the revolution he did not live to see. He
died of cholera at Vitebsk on the 27th of June 1831. He was an
impossible man in an impossible situation. On the Russian imperial
throne he would in all probability have been a tyrant like his father.

   See also Karrnovich's _The Cesarevich Constantine Pavlovich_ (2
   vols., St Petersburg, 1899), (Russian); T. Schiemann's _Geschichte
   Russlands unter Kaiser Nicolaus I._ vol. i. (Berlin, 1904);
   Pusyrevski's _The Russo-Polish War of 1831_ (2nd ed., St Petersburg,
   1890) (Russian).     (T. SE.)




CONSTANTINE, a city of Algeria, capital of the department of the same
name, 54 m. by railway S. by W. of the port of Philippeville, in 36° 22'
N., 6° 36' E. Constantine is the residence of a general commanding a
division, of a prefect and other high officials, is the seat of a
bishop, and had a population in 1906 of 46,806, of whom 25,312 were
Europeans. The population of the commune, which includes the suburbs of
Constantine, was 58,435. The city occupies a romantic position on a
rocky plateau, cut off on all sides save the west from the surrounding
country by a beautiful ravine, through which the river Rummel flows. The
plateau is 2130 ft. above sea-level, and from 500 to nearly 1000 ft.
above the river bed. The ravine, formed by the Rummel, through erosion
of the limestone, varies greatly in width--at its narrowest part the
cliffs are only 15 ft. apart, at its broadest the valley is 400 yds.
wide. At the N.E. angle of the city the gorge is spanned by an iron
bridge (El-Kantara) built in 1863, giving access to the railway station,
situated on Mansura hill. A stone bridge built by the Romans, and
restored at various times, suddenly gave way in 1857 and is now in
ruins; it was built on a natural arch, which, 184 ft. above the level of
the river, spans the valley. Along the north-eastern side of the city
the Rummel is spanned in all four times by these natural stone arches or
tunnels. To the north the city is commanded by the Jebel Mecid, a hill
which the French (following the example of the Romans) have fortified.

Constantine is walled, the extant medieval wall having been largely
constructed out of Roman material. Through the centre from north to
south runs a street (the rue de France) roughly dividing Constantine
into two parts. The place du Palais, in which are the palace of the
governor and the cathedral, and the kasbah (citadel) are west of the rue
de France, as is likewise the place Négrier, containing the law courts.
The native town lies chiefly in the south-east part of the city. A
striking contrast exists between the Moorish quarter, with its tortuous
lanes and Oriental architecture, and the modern quarter, with its
rectangular streets and wide open squares, frequently bordered with
trees and adorned with fountains. Of the squares the place de Nemours is
the centre of the commercial and social life of the city. Of the public
buildings those dating from before the French occupation possess chief
interest. The palace, built by Ahmed Pasha, the last bey of Constantine,
between 1830 and 1836, is one of the finest specimens of Moorish
architecture of the 19th century. The kasbah, which occupies the
northern corner of the city, dates from Roman times, and preserves in
its more modern portions numerous remains of other Roman edifices. It is
now turned into barracks and a hospital. The fine mosque of
Sidi-el-Kattani (or Salah Bey) dates from the close of the 18th century;
that of Suk-er-Rezel, now transformed into a cathedral, and called
_Notre-Dame des Sept Douleurs_, was built about a century earlier. The
Great Mosque, or Jamaa-el-Kebir, occupies the site of what was probably
an ancient pantheon. The mosque Sidi-el-Akhdar has a beautiful minaret
nearly 80 ft. high. The museum, housed in the hôtel de ville, contains a
fine collection of antiquities, including a famous bronze statuette of
the winged figure of Victory, 23 in. high, discovered in the kasbah in
1858.

A religious seminary, or medressa, is maintained in connexion with the
Sidi-el-Kattani; and the French support a college and various minor
educational establishments for both Arabic and European culture. The
native industry of Constantine is chiefly confined to leather goods and
woollen fabrics. Some 100,000 burnouses are made annually, the finest
partly of wool and partly of silk. There is also an active trade in
embossing or engraving copper and brass utensils. A considerable trade
is carried on over a large area by means of railway connexion with
Algiers, Bona, Tunis and Biskra, as well as with Philippeville. The
railways, however, have taken away from the city its monopoly of the
traffic in wheat, though its share in that trade still amounts to from
£400,000 to £480,000 a year.

Constantine, or, as it was originally called, Cirta or Kirtha, from the
Phoenician word for a city, was in ancient times one of the most
important towns of Numidia, and the residence of the kings of the
Massyli. Under Micipsa (2nd century B.C.) it reached the height of its
prosperity, and was able to furnish an army of 10,000 cavalry and 20,000
infantry. Though it afterwards declined, it still continued an important
military post, and is frequently mentioned during successive wars.
Caesar having bestowed a part of its territory on his supporter Sittius,
the latter introduced a Roman settlement, and the town for a time was
known as Colonia Sittianorum. In the war of Maxentius against Alexander,
the Numidian usurper, it was laid in ruins; and on its restoration in
A.D. 313 by Constantine it received the name which it still retains. It
was not captured during the Vandal invasion of Africa, but on the
conquest by the Arabians (7th century) it shared the same fate as the
surrounding country. Successive Arab dynasties looted it, and many
monuments of antiquity suffered (to be finally swept away by "municipal
improvements" under the French régime). During the 12th century it was
still a place of considerable prosperity; and its commerce was extensive
enough to attract the merchants of Pisa, Genoa and Venice. Frequently
taken and retaken by the Turks, Constantine finally became under their
dominion the seat of a bey, subordinate to the dey of Algiers. To Salah
Bey, who ruled from 1770 to 1792, we owe most of the existing Moslem
buildings. In 1826 Constantine asserted its independence of the dey of
Algiers, and was governed by Haji Ahmed, the choice of the Kabyles. In
1836 the French under Marshal Clausel made an unsuccessful attempt to
storm the city, which they attacked by night by way of El-Kantara. The
French suffered heavy loss. In 1837 Marshal Valée approached the town by
the connecting western isthmus, and succeeded in taking it by assault,
though again the French lost heavily. Ahmed, however, escaped and
maintained his independence in the Aures mountains. He submitted to the
French in 1848 and died in 1850.

CONSTANTINOPLE, the capital of the Turkish empire, situated in 41° 0'
16'' N. and 28° 58' 14" E. The city stands at the southern extremity of
the Bosporus, upon a hilly promontory that runs out from the European or
western side of the straits towards the opposite Asiatic bank, as though
to stem the rush of waters from the Black Sea into the Sea of Marmora.
Thus the promontory has the latter sea on the south, and the bay of the
Bosporus, forming the magnificent harbour known as the Golden Horn, some
4 m. long, on the north. Two streams, the Cydaris and Barbysus of
ancient days, the Ali-Bey-Su and Kiahat-Hané-Su of modern times, enter
the bay at its north-western end. A small winter stream, named the
Lycus, that flows through the promontory from west to south-east into
the Sea of Marmora, breaks the hilly ground into two great masses,--a
long ridge, divided by cross-valleys into six eminences, overhanging the
Golden Horn, and a large isolated hill constituting the south-western
portion of the territory. Hence the claim of Constantinople to be
enthroned, like Rome, upon seven hills. The 1st hill is distinguished by
the Seraglio, St Sophia and the Hippodrome; the 2nd by the column of
Constantine and the mosque Nuri-Osmanieh; the 3rd by the war office, the
Seraskereate Tower and the mosque of Sultan Suleiman; the 4th by the
mosque of Sultan Mahommed II., the Conqueror; the 5th by the mosque of
Sultan Selim; the 6th by Tekfour Serai and the quarter of Egri Kapu; the
7th by Avret Tash and the quarter of Psamatia. In Byzantine times the
two last hills were named respectively the hill of Blachernae and the
Xerolophos or dry hill.

_History, Architecture and Antiquities._--Constantinople is famous in
history, first as the capital of the Roman empire in the East for more
than eleven centuries (330-1453), and secondly as the capital of the
Ottoman empire since 1453. In respect of influence over the course of
human affairs, its only rivals are Athens, Rome and Jerusalem. Yet even
the gifts of these rivals to the cause of civilization often bear the
image and superscription of Constantinople upon them. Roman law, Greek
literature, the theology of the Christian church, for example, are
intimately associated with the history of the city beside the Bosporus.

The city was founded by Constantine the Great, through the enlargement
of the old town of Byzantium, in A.D. 328, and was inaugurated as a new
seat of government on the 11th of May, A.D. 330. To indicate its
political dignity, it was named New Rome, while to perpetuate the fame
of its founder it was styled Constantinople. The chief patriarch of the
Greek church still signs himself "archbishop of Constantinople, New
Rome." The old name of the place, Byzantium, however, continued in use.

The creation of a new capital by Constantine was not an act of personal
caprice or individual judgment. It was the result of causes long in
operation, and had been foreshadowed, forty years before, in the policy
of Diocletian. After the senate and people of Rome had ceased to be the
sovereigns of the Roman world, and their authority had been vested in
the sole person of the emperor, the eternal city could no longer claim
to be the rightful throne of the state. That honour could henceforth be
conferred upon any place in the Roman world which might suit the
convenience of the emperor, or serve more efficiently the interests he
had to guard. Furthermore, the empire was now upon its defence. Dreams
of conquests and extension had long been abandoned, and the pressing
question of the time was how to repel the persistent assaults of Persia
and the barbarians upon the frontiers of the realm, and so retain the
dominion inherited from the valour of the past. The size of the empire
made it difficult, if not impossible, to attend to these assaults, or to
control the ambition of successful generals, from one centre. Then the
East had grown in political importance, both as the scene of the most
active life in the state and as the portion of the empire most exposed
to attack. Hence the famous scheme of Diocletian to divide the burden of
government between four colleagues, in order to secure a better
administration of civil and of military affairs. It was a scheme,
however, that lowered the prestige of Rome, for it involved four
distinct seats of government, among which, as the event proved, no place
was found for the ancient capital of the Roman world. It also declared
the high position of the East, by the selection of Nicomedia in Asia
Minor as the residence of Diocletian himself. When Constantine,
therefore, established a new seat of government at Byzantium, he adopted
a policy inaugurated before his day as essential to the preservation of
the Roman dominion. He can claim originality only in his choice of the
particular point at which that seat was placed, and in his recognition
of the fact that his alliance with the Christian church could be best
maintained in a new atmosphere.

But whatever view may be taken of the policy which divided the
government of the empire, there can be no dispute as to the wisdom
displayed in the selection of the site for a new imperial throne, "Of
all the events of Constantine's life," says Dean Stanley, "this choice
is the most convincing and enduring proof of his real genius." Situated
where Europe and Asia are parted by a channel never more than 5 m.
across, and sometimes less than half a mile wide, placed at a point
commanding the great waterway between the Mediterranean and the Black
Sea, the position affords immense scope for commercial enterprise and
political action in rich and varied regions of the world. The least a
city in that situation can claim as its appropriate sphere of influence
is the vast domain extending from the Adriatic to the Persian Gulf, and
from the Danube to the eastern Mediterranean. Moreover, the site
constituted a natural citadel, difficult to approach or to invest, and
an almost impregnable refuge in the hour of defeat, within which broken
forces might rally to retrieve disaster. To surround it, an enemy
required to be strong upon both land and sea. Foes advancing through
Asia Minor would have their march arrested, and their blows kept beyond
striking distance, by the moat which the waters of the Bosporus, the Sea
of Marmora and the Dardanelles combine to form. The narrow straits in
which the waterway connecting the Mediterranean with the Black Sea
contracts, both to the north and to the south of the city, could be
rendered impassable to hostile fleets approaching from either direction,
while on the landward side the line of defence was so short that it
could be strongly fortified, and held against large numbers by a
comparatively small force. Nature, indeed, cannot relieve men of their
duty to be wise and brave, but, in the marvellous configuration of land
and sea about Constantinople, nature has done her utmost to enable human
skill and courage to establish there the splendid and stable throne of a
great empire.

Byzantium, out of which Constantinople sprang, was a small,
well-fortified town, occupying most of the territory comprised in the
two hills nearest the head of the promontory, and in the level ground at
their base. The landward wall started from a point near the present
Stamboul custom-house, and reached the ridge of the 2nd hill, a little
to the east of the point marked by Chemberli Tash (the column of
Constantine). There the principal gate of the town opened upon the
Egnatian road. From that gate the wall descended towards the Sea of
Marmora, touching the water in the neighbourhood of the Seraglio
lighthouse. The Acropolis, enclosing venerated temples, crowned the
summit of the first hill, where the Seraglio stands. Immediately to the
south of the fortress was the principal market-place of the town,
surrounded by porticoes on its four sides, and hence named the
Tetrastoon. On the southern side of the square stood the baths of
Zeuxippus, and beyond them, still farther south, lay the Hippodrome,
which Septimius Severus had undertaken to build but failed to complete.
Two theatres, on the eastern slope of the Acropolis, faced the bright
waters of the Marmora, and a stadium was found on the level tract on the
other side of the hill, close to the Golden Horn. The Strategion,
devoted to the military exercises of the brave little town, stood close
to Sirkedji Iskelessi, and two artificial harbours, the Portus
Prosforianus and the Neorion, indented the shore of the Golden Horn,
respectively in front of the ground now occupied by the station of the
Chemins de Fer Orientaux and the Stamboul custom-house. A graceful
granite column, still erect on the slope above the head of the
promontory, commemorated the victory of Claudius Gothicus over the Goths
at Nissa, A.D. 269. All this furniture of Byzantium was appropriated for
the use of the new capital.

[Illustration: CONSTANTINOPLE (Map)
  Professor A. van Millingen, inv.
  Emery Walker sc.]

According to Zosimus, the line of the landward walls erected by
Constantine to defend New Rome was drawn at a distance of nearly 2 m.
(15 stadia) to the west of the limits of the old town. It therefore ran
across the promontory from the vicinity of Un Kapan Kapusi (Porta
Platea), at the Stamboul head of the Inner Bridge, to the neighbourhood
of Daud Pasha Kapusi (Porta S. Aemiliani), on the Marmora, and thus
added the 3rd and 4th hills and portions of the 5th and 7th hills to the
territory of Byzantium. We have two indications of the course of these
walls on the 7th hill. One is found in the name Isa Kapusi (the Gate of
Jesus) attached to a mosque, formerly a Christian church, situated above
the quarter of Psamatia. It perpetuates the memory of the beautiful
gateway which formed the triumphal entrance into the city of
Constantine, and which survived the original bounds of the new capital
as late as 1508, when it was overthrown by an earthquake. The other
indication is the name Alti Mermer (the six columns) given to a quarter
in the same neighbourhood. The name is an ignorant translation of
Exakionion, the corrupt form of the designation Exokionion, which
belonged in Byzantine days to that quarter because marked by a column
outside the city limits. Hence the Arians, upon their expulsion from the
city by Theodosius I., were allowed to hold their religious services in
the Exokionion, seeing that it was an extra-mural district. This
explains the fact that Arians are sometimes styled Exokionitae by
ecclesiastical historians. The Constantinian line of fortifications,
therefore, ran a little to the east of the quarter of Alti Mermer. In
addition to the territory enclosed within the limits just described, the
suburb of Sycae or Galata, on the opposite side of the Golden Horn, and
the suburb of Blachernae, on the 6th hill, were regarded as parts of the
city, but stood within their own fortifications. It was to the ramparts
of Constantine that the city owed its deliverance when attacked by the
Goths, after the terrible defeat of Valens at Adrianople, A.D. 378.

In the opinion of his courtiers, the bounds assigned to New Rome by
Constantine seemed, it is said, too wide, but after some eighty years
they proved too narrow for the population that had gathered within the
city. The barbarians had meantime also grown more formidable, and this
made it necessary to have stronger fortifications for the capital.
Accordingly, in 413, in the reign of Theodosius II., Anthemius, then
praetorian prefect of the East and regent, enlarged and refortified the
city by the erection of the wall which forms the innermost line of
defence in the bulwarks whose picturesque ruins now stretch from the Sea
of Marmora, on the south of Yedi Kuléh (the seven towers), northwards to
the old Byzantine palace of the Porphyrogenitus (Tekfour Serai), above
the quarter of Egri Kapu. There the new works joined the walls of the
suburb of Blachernae, and thus protected the city on the west down to
the Golden Horn. Somewhat later, in 439, the walls along the Marmora and
the Golden Horn were brought, by the prefect Cyrus, up to the
extremities of the new landward walls, and thus invested the capital in
complete armour. Then also Constantinople attained its final size. For
any subsequent extension of the city limits was insignificant, and was
due to strategic considerations. In 447 the wall of Anthemius was
seriously injured by one of those earthquakes to which the city is
liable. The disaster was all the more grave, as the Huns under Attila
were carrying everything before them in the Balkan lands. The
desperateness of the situation, however, roused the government of
Theodosius II., who was still upon the throne, to put forth the most
energetic efforts to meet the emergency. If we may trust two
contemporary inscriptions, one Latin, the other Greek, still found on
the gate Yeni Mevlevi Khanéh Kapusi (Porta Rhegium), the capital was
again fully armed, and rendered more secure than ever, by the prefect
Constantine, in less than two months. Not only was the wall of Anthemius
restored, but, at the distance of 20 yds., another wall was built in
front of it, and at the same distance from this second wall a broad moat
was constructed with a breastwork along its inner edge. Each wall was
flanked by ninety-six towers. According to some authorities, the moat
was flooded during a siege by opening the aqueducts, which crossed the
moat at intervals and conveyed water into the city in time of peace.
This opinion is extremely doubtful. But in any case, here was a
barricade 190-207 ft. thick, and 100 ft. high, with its several parts
rising tier above tier to permit concerted action, and alive with large
bodies of troops ready to pour, from every coign of vantage, missiles of
death--arrows, stones, Greek fire--upon a foe. It is not strange that
these fortifications defied the assaults of barbarism upon the civilized
life of the world for more than a thousand years. As might be expected,
the walls demanded frequent restoration from time to time in the course
of their long history. Inscriptions upon them record repairs, for
example, under Justin II., Leo the Isaurian, Basil II., John
Palaeologus, and others. Still, the ramparts extending now from the
Marmora to Tekfour Serai are to all intents and purposes the ruins of
the Theodosian walls of the 5th century.

This is not the case in regard to the other parts of the fortifications
of the city. The walls along the Marmora and the Golden Horn represent
the great restoration of the seaward defences of the capital carried out
by the emperor Theophilus in the 9th century; while the walls between
Tekfour Serai and the Golden Horn were built long after the reign of
Theodosius II., superseding the defences of that quarter of the city in
his day, and relegating them, as traces of their course to the rear of
the later works indicate, to the secondary office of protecting the
palace of Blachernae. In 627 Heraclius built the wall along the west of
the quarter of Aivan Serai, in order to bring the level tract at the
foot of the 6th hill within the city bounds, and shield the church of
Blachernae, which had been exposed to great danger during the siege of
the city by the Avars in that year. In 813 Leo V. the Armenian built the
wall which stands in front of the wall of Heraclius to strengthen that
point in view of an expected attack by the Bulgarians.

The splendid wall, flanked by nine towers, that descends from the court
of Tekfour Serai to the level tract below Egri Kapu, was built by Manuel
Comnenus (1143-1180) for the greater security of the part of the city in
which stood the palace of Blachernae, then the favourite imperial
residence. Lastly, the portion of the fortifications between the wall of
Manuel and the wall of Heraclius presents too many problems to be
discussed here. Enough to say, that in it we find work belonging to the
times of the Comneni, Isaac Angelus and the Palaeologi.

If we leave out of account the attacks upon the city in the course of
the civil wars between rival parties in the empire, the fortifications
of Constantinople were assailed by the Avars in 627; by the Saracens in
673-677, and again in 718; by the Bulgarians in 813 and 913; by the
forces of the Fourth Crusade in 1203-1204; by the Turks in 1422 and
1453. The city was taken in 1204, and became the seat of a Latin empire
until 1261, when it was recovered by the Greeks. On the 29th of May 1453
Constantinople ceased to be the capital of the Roman empire in the East,
and became the capital of the Ottoman dominion.

The most noteworthy points in the circuit of the walls of the city are
the following. (1) The Golden gate, now included in the Turkish fortress
of Yedi Kuléh. It is a triumphal archway, consisting of three arches,
erected in honour of the victory of Theodosius I. over Maximus in 388,
and subsequently incorporated in the walls of Theodosius II., as the
state entrance of the capital. (2) The gate of Selivria, or of the Pegé,
through which Alexius Strategopoulos made his way into the city in 1261,
and brought the Latin empire of Constantinople to an end. (3) The gate
of St Romanus (Top Kapusi), by which, in 1453, Sultan Mahommed entered
Constantinople after the fall of the city into Turkish hands. (4) The
great breach made in the ramparts crossing the valley of the Lycus, the
scene of the severest fighting in the siege of 1453, where the Turks
stormed the city, and the last Byzantine emperor met his heroic death.
(5) The palace of the Porphyrogenitus, long erroneously identified with
the palace of the Hebdomon, which really stood at Makrikeui. It is the
finest specimen of Byzantine civil architecture left in the city. (6)
The tower of Isaac Angelus and the tower of Anemas, with the chambers in
the body of the wall to the north of them. (7) The wall of Leo, against
which the troops of the Fourth Crusade came, in 1203, from their camp on
the hill opposite the wall, and delivered their chief attack. (8) The
walls protecting the quarter of Phanar, which the army and fleet of the
Fourth Crusade under the Venetian doge Henrico Dandolo carried in 1204.
(9) Yali Kiosk Kapusi, beside which the southern end of the chain drawn
across the mouth of the harbour during a siege was attached. (10) The
ruins of the palace of Hormisdas, near Chatladi Kapu, once the residence
of Justinian the Great and Theodora. It was known in later times as the
palace of the Bucoleon, and was the scene of the assassination of
Nicephorus Phocas. (11) The sites of the old harbours between Chatladi
Kapu and Daud Pasha Kapusi. (12) The fine marble tower near the junction
of the walls along the Marmora with the landward walls.

The interior arrangements of the city were largely determined by the
configuration of its site, which falls into three great divisions,--the
level ground and slopes looking towards the Sea of Marmora, the range of
hills forming the midland portion of the promontory, and the slopes and
level ground facing the Golden Horn. In each division a great street ran
through the city from east to west, generally lined with arcades on one
side, but with arcades on both sides when traversing the finer and
busier quarters. The street along the ridge formed the principal
thoroughfare, and was named the Mesé ([Greek: Mesê]), because it ran
through the middle of the city. On reaching the west of the 3rd hill, it
divided into two branches, one leading across the 7th hill to the Golden
gate, the other conducting to the church of the Holy Apostles, and the
gate of Charisius (Edirnéh Kapusi). The Mesé linked together the great
fora of the city,--the Augustaion on the south of St Sophia, the forum
of Constantine on the summit of the 2nd hill, the forum of Theodosius I.
or of Taurus on the summit of the 3rd hill, the forum of Amastrianon
where the mosque of Shah Zadéh is situated, the forum of the Bous at Ak
Serai, and the forum of Arcadius or Theodosius II. on the summit of the
7th hill. This was the route followed on the occasion of triumphal
processions.

Of the edifices and monuments which adorned the fora, only a slight
sketch can be given here. On the north side of the Augustaion rose the
church of St Sophia, the most glorious cathedral of Eastern Christendom;
opposite, on the southern side of the square, was the Chalcé, the great
gate of the imperial palace; on the east was the senate house, with a
porch of six noble columns; to the west, across the Mesé, were the law
courts. In the area of the square stood the Milion, whence distances
from Constantinople were measured, and a lofty column which bore the
equestrian statue of Justinian the Great. There also was the statue of
the empress Eudoxia, famous in the history of Chrysostom, the pedestal
of which is preserved near the church of St Irené. The Augustaion was
the heart of the city's ecclesiastical and political life. The forum of
Constantine was a great business centre. Its most remarkable monument
was the column of Constantine, built of twelve drums of porphyry and
bearing aloft his statue. Shorn of much of its beauty, the column still
stands to proclaim the enduring influence of the foundation of the city.

In the forum of Theodosius I. rose a column in his honour, constructed
on the model of the hollow columns of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius at
Rome. There also was the Anemodoulion, a beautiful pyramidal structure,
surmounted by a vane to indicate the direction of the wind. Close to the
forum, if not in it, was the capitol, in which the university of
Constantinople was established. The most conspicuous object in the forum
of the Bous was the figure of an ox, in bronze, beside which the bodies
of criminals were sometimes burnt. Another hollow column, the pedestal
of which is now known as Avret Tash, adorned the forum of Arcadius. A
column in honour of the emperor Marcian still stands in the valley of
the Lycus, below the mosque of Sultan Mahommed the Conqueror. Many
beautiful statues, belonging to good periods of Greek and Roman art,
decorated the fora, streets and public buildings of the city, but
conflagrations and the vandalism of the Latin and Ottoman conquerors of
Constantinople have robbed the world of those treasures.

The imperial palace, founded by Constantine and extended by his
successors, occupied the territory which lies to the east of St Sophia
and the Hippodrome down to the water's edge. It consisted of a large
number of detached buildings, in grounds made beautiful with gardens and
trees, and commanding magnificent views over the Sea of Marmora, across
to the hills and mountains of the Asiatic coast. The buildings were
mainly grouped in three divisions--the Chalcé, the Daphné and the
"sacred palace." Labarte and Paspates have attempted to reconstruct the
palace, taking as their guide the descriptions given of it by Byzantine
writers. The work of Labarte is specially valuable, but without proper
excavations of the site all attempts to restore the plan of the palace
with much accuracy lack a solid foundation. With the accession of
Alexius Comnenus, the palace of Blachernae, at the north-western corner
of the city, became the principal residence of the Byzantine court, and
was in consequence extended and embellished. It stood in a more retired
position, and was conveniently situated for excursions into the country
and hunting expeditions. Of the palaces outside the walls, the most
frequented were the palace at the Hebdomon, now Makrikeui, in the early
days of the Empire, and the palace of the Pegé, now Balukli, a short
distance beyond the gate of Selivria, in later times. For municipal
purposes, the city was divided, like Rome, into fourteen Regions.

As the seat of the chief prelate of Eastern Christendom, Constantinople
was characterized by a strong theological and ecclesiastical
temperament. It was full of churches and monasteries, enriched with the
reputed relics of saints, prophets and martyrs, which consecrated it a
holy city and attracted pilgrims from every quarter to its shrines. It
was the meeting-place of numerous ecclesiastical councils, some of them
ecumenical (see below, Constantinople, Councils of). It was likewise
distinguished for its numerous charitable institutions. Only some twenty
of the old churches of the city are left. Most of them have been
converted into mosques, but they are valuable monuments of the art which
flourished in New Rome. Among the most interesting are the following. St
John of the Studium (Emir-Achor Jamissi) is a basilica of the middle of
the 5th century, and the oldest ecclesiastical fabric in the city; it is
now, unfortunately, almost a complete ruin. SS. Sergius and Bacchus
(Kutchuk Aya Sofia) and St Sophia are erections of Justinian the Great.
The former is an example of a dome placed on an octagonal structure, and
in its general plan is similar to the contemporary church of S. Vitale
at Ravenna. St Sophia (i.e. [Greek: Hagia Sophia], Holy Wisdom) is the
glory of Byzantine art, and one of the most beautiful buildings in the
world. St Mary Diaconissa (Kalender Jamissi) is a fine specimen of the
work of the closing years of the 6th century. St Irené, founded by
Constantine, and repaired by Justinian, is in its present form mainly a
restoration by Leo the Isaurian, in the middle of the 8th century. St
Mary Panachrantos (Fenari Isa Mesjidi) belongs to the reign of Leo the
Wise (886-912). The Myrelaion (Bodrum Jami) dates from the 10th century.
The Pantepoptes (Eski Imaret Jamissi), the Pantocrator (Zeirek Kilissè
Jamissi), and the body of the church of the Chora (Kahriyeh Jamissi)
represent the age of the Comneni. The Pammacaristos (Fetiyeh Jamissi),
St Andrew in Krisei (Khoja Mustapha Jamissi), the narthexes and side
chapel of the Chora were, at least in their present form, erected in the
times of the Palaeologi. It is difficult to assign precise dates to SS.
Peter and Mark (Khoda Mustapha Jamissi at Aivan Scrai), St Theodosia
(Gul Jamissi), St Theodore Tyrone (Kilissé Jamissi). The beautiful
façade of the last is later than the other portions of the church, which
have been assigned to the 9th or 10th century.

For the thorough study of the church of St Sophia, the reader must
consult the works of Fossati, Salzenburg, Lethaby and Swainson, and
Antoniadi. The present edifice was built by Justinian the Great, under
the direction of Anthemius of Tralles and his nephew Isidorus of
Miletus. It was founded in 532 and dedicated on Christmas Day 538. It
replaced two earlier churches of that name, the first of which was built
by Constantius and burnt down in 404, on the occasion of the exile of
Chrysostom, while the second was erected by Theodosius II. in 415, and
destroyed by fire in the Nika riot of 532. Naturally the church has
undergone repair from time to time. The original dome fell in 558, as
the result of an earthquake, and among the improvements introduced in
the course of restoration, the dome was raised 25 ft. higher than
before. Repairs are recorded under Basil I., Basil II., Andronicus III.
and Cantacuzene. Since the Turkish conquest a minaret has been erected
at each of the four exterior angles of the building, and the interior
has been adapted to the requirements of Moslem worship, mainly by the
destruction or concealment of most of the mosaics which adorned the
walls. In 1847-1848, during the reign of Abd-ul-Mejid, the building was
put into a state of thorough repair by the Italian architect Fossati.
Happily the sultan allowed the mosaic figures, then exposed to view, to
be covered with matting before being plastered over. They may reappear
in the changes which the future will bring.

The exterior appearance of the church is certainly disappointing, but
within it is, beyond all question, one of the most beautiful creations
of human art. On a large scale, and in magnificent style, it combines
the attractive features of a basilica, with all the glory of an edifice
crowned by a dome. We have here a stately hall, 235 ft. N. and S., by
250 ft. E. and W., divided by two piers and eight columns on either hand
into nave and aisles, with an apse at the eastern end and galleries on
the three other sides. Over the central portion of the nave, a square
area at the angles of which stand the four piers, and at a height of 179
ft. above the floor, spreads a dome, 107 ft. in diameter, and 46 ft.
deep, its base pierced by forty arched windows. From the cornice of the
dome stretches eastwards and westwards a semi-dome, which in its turn
rests upon three small semi-domes. The nave is thus covered completely
by a domical canopy, which, in its ascent, swells larger and larger,
mounts higher and higher, as though a miniature heaven rose overhead.
For lightness, for grace, for proportion, the effect is unrivalled. The
walls of the building are reveted with marbles of various hues and
patterns, arranged to form beautiful designs, and traces of the mosaics
which joined the marbles in the rich and soft coloration of the whole
interior surface of the building appear at many points. There are forty
columns on the ground floor and sixty in the galleries, often crowned
with beautiful capitals, in which the monograms of the emperor Justinian
and the empress Theodora are inscribed. The eight porphyry columns,
placed in pairs in the four bays at the corners of the nave, belonged
originally to the temple of the sun at Baalbek. They were subsequently
carried to Rome by Aurelian, and at length presented to Justinian by a
lady named Marcia, to be erected in this church "for the salvation of
her soul." The columns of verde antique on either side of the nave are
commonly said to have come from the temple of Diana at Ephesus, but
recent authorities regard them as specially cut for use in the church.
The inner narthex of the church formed a magnificent vestibule 205 ft.
long by 26 ft. wide, reveted with marble slabs and glowing with mosaics.

The citizens of Constantinople found their principal recreation in the
chariot-races held in the Hippodrome, now the At Meidan, to the west of
the mosque of Sultan Ahmed. So much did the race-course (begun by
Severus but completed by Constantine) enter into the life of the people
that it has been styled "the axis of the Byzantine world." It was not
only the scene of amusement, but on account of its ample accommodation
it was also the arena of much of the political life of the city. The
factions, which usually contended there in sport, often gathered there
in party strife. There emperors were acclaimed or insulted; there
military triumphs were celebrated; there criminals were executed, and
there martyrs were burned at the stake. Three monuments remain to mark
the line of the Spina, around which the chariots whirled; an Egyptian
obelisk of Thothmes III., on a pedestal covered with bas-reliefs
representing Theodosius I., the empress Galla, and his sons Arcadius and
Honorius, presiding at scenes in the Hippodrome; the triple serpent
column, which stood originally at Delphi, to commemorate the victory of
Plataea 479 B.C.; a lofty pile of masonry, built in the form of an
obelisk, and once covered with plates of gilded bronze. Under the
Turkish buildings along the western side of the arena, some arches
against which seats for the spectators were built are still visible.

The city was supplied with water mainly from two sources; from the
streams immediately to the west, and from the springs and rain impounded
in reservoirs in the forest of Belgrade, to the north-west, very much on
the system followed by the Turks. The water was conveyed by aqueducts,
concealed below the surface, except when crossing a valley. Within the
city the water was stored in covered cisterns, or in large open
reservoirs. The aqueduct of Justinian, the Crooked aqueduct, in the open
country, and the aqueduct of Valens that spans the valley between the
4th and 3rd hills of the city, still carry on their beneficent work, and
afford evidence of the attention given to the water-supply of the
capital during the Byzantine period. The cistern of Arcadius, to the
rear of the mosque of Sultan Selim (having, it has been estimated, a
capacity of 6,571,720 cubic ft. of water), the cistern of Aspar, a short
distance to the east of the Gate of Adrianople, and the cistern of
Mokius, on the 7th hill, are specimens of the open reservoirs within the
city walls. The cistern of Bin Bir Derek (cistern of Illus) with its 224
columns, each built up with three shafts, and the cistern Yen Batan
Serai (Cisterna Basilica) with its 420 columns show what covered
cisterns were, on a grand scale. The latter is still in use.[1]

Byzantine Constantinople was a great commercial centre. To equip it more
fully for that purpose, several artificial harbours were constructed
along the southern shore of the city, where no natural haven existed to
accommodate ships coming up the Sea of Marmora. For the convenience of
the imperial court, there was a small harbour in the bend of the shore
to the east of Chatladi Kapu, known as the harbour of the Bucoleon. To
the west of that gate, on the site of Kadriga Limani (the Port of the
Galley), was the harbour of Julian, or, as it was named later, the
harbour of Sophia (the empress of Justin II.). Traces of the harbour
styled the Kontoscalion are found at Kum Kapu. To the east of Yeni Kapu
stood the harbour of Kaisarius or the Heptascalon, while to the west of
that gate was the harbour which bore the names of Eleutherius and of
Theodosiur I. A harbour named after the Golden Gate stood on the shore
to the south-west of the triumphal gate of the city.

_The Modern City._--As the capital of the Ottoman empire, the aspect of
the city changed in many ways. The works of art which adorned New Rome
gradually disappeared. The streets, never very wide, became narrower, and
the porticoes along their sides were almost everywhere removed. A
multitude of churches were destroyed, and most of those which survived
were converted into mosques. In race and garb and speech the population
grew largely oriental. One striking alteration in the appearance of the
city was the conversion of the territory extending from the head of the
promontory to within a short distance of St Sophia into a great park,
within which the buildings constituting the seraglio of the sultans, like
those forming the palace of the Byzantine emperors, were ranged around
three courts, distinguished by their respective gates--Bab-i-Humayum,
leading into the court of the Janissaries; Orta Kapu, the middle gate,
giving access to the court in which the sultan held state receptions; and
Bah-i-Saadet, the Gate of Felicity, leading to the more private
apartments of the palace. From the reign of Abd-ul-Mejid, the seraglio
has been practically abandoned, first for the palace of Dolmabagché on
the shore near Beshiktash, and now for Yildiz Kiosk, on the heights above
that suburb. It is, however, visited annually by the sultan, to do homage
to the relics of the prophet which are kept there. The older apartments
of the palace, such as the throne-room, the Bagdad Kiosk, and many of the
objects in the imperial treasury are of extreme interest to all lovers of
oriental art. To visit the seraglio, an imperial iradé is necessary.
Another great change in the general aspect of the city has been produced
by the erection of stately mosques in the most commanding situations,
where dome and minarets and huge rectangular buildings present a
combination of mass and slenderness, of rounded lines and soaring
pinnacles, which gives to Constantinople an air of unique dignity and
grace, and at the same time invests it with the glamour of the oriental
world. The most remarkable mosques are the following:--The mosque of
Sultan Mahommed the Conqueror, built on the site of the church of the
Holy Apostles, in 1459, but rebuilt in 1768 owing to injuries due to an
earthquake; the mosques of Sultan Selim, of the Shah Zadeh, of Sultan
Suleiman and of Rustem Pasha--all works of the 16th century, the best
period of Turkish architecture; the mosque of Sultan Bayezid II.
(1497-1505); the mosque of Sultan Ahmed I. (1610); Yeni-Validé-Jamissi
(1615-1665); Nuri-Osmanieh (1748-1755); Laleli-Jamissi (1765). The
Turbehs containing the tombs of the sultans and members of their families
are often beautiful specimens of Turkish art.

In their architecture, the mosques present a striking instance of the
influence of the Byzantine style, especially as it appears in St Sophia.
The architects of the mosques have made a skilful use of the semi-dome
in the support of the main dome of the building, and in the consequent
extension of the arched canopy that spreads over the worshipper. In some
cases the main dome rests upon four semi-domes. At the same time, when
viewed from the exterior, the main dome rises large, bold and
commanding, with nothing of the squat appearance that mars the dome of
St Sophia, with nothing of the petty prettiness of the little domes
perched on the drums of the later Byzantine churches. The great mosques
express the spirit of the days when the Ottoman empire was still mighty
and ambitious. Occasionally, as in the case of Laleli Jamissi, where the
dome rests upon an octagon inscribed in a square, the influence of SS.
Sergius and Bacchus is perceptible.

For all intents and purposes, Constantinople is now the collection of
towns and villages situated on both sides of the Golden Horn and along
the shores of the Bosporus, including Scutari and Kadikeui. But the
principal parts of this great agglomeration are Stamboul (from Gr.
[Greek: eis tên polin], "into the city"), the name specially applied to
the portion of the city upon the promontory, Galata and Pera. Galata has
a long history, which becomes of general interest after 1265, when it
was assigned to the Genoese merchants in the city by Michael
Palaeologus, in return for the friendly services of Genoa in the
overthrow of the Latin empire of Constantinople. In the course of time,
notwithstanding stipulations to the contrary, the town was strongly
fortified and proved a troublesome neighbour During the siege of 1453
the inhabitants maintained on the whole a neutral attitude, but on the
fall of the capital they surrendered to the Turkish conqueror, who
granted them liberal terms. The walls have for the most part been
removed. The noble tower, however, which formed the citadel of the
colony, still remains, and is a striking feature in the scenery of
Constantinople. There are also churches and houses dating from Genoese
days. Galata is the chief business centre of the city, the seat of
banks, post-offices, steamship offices, &c. Pera is the principal
residential quarter of the European communities settled in
Constantinople, where the foreign embassies congregate, and the
fashionable shops and hotels are found.

Since the middle of the 19th century the city has yielded more and more
to western influences, and is fast losing its oriental character. The
sultan's palaces, and the residences of all classes of the community,
adopt with more or less success a European style of building. The
streets have been widened and named. They are in many instances better
paved, and are lighted at night. The houses are numbered. Cabs and
tramways have been introduced. Public gardens have been opened. For some
distance outside the Galata bridge, both shores of the Golden Horn have
been provided with a quay at which large steamers can moor to discharge
or embark their passengers and cargo. The Galata quay, completed in
1889, is 756 metres long and 20 metres wide; the Stamboul quay,
completed in 1900, is 378 metres in length. The harbour, quays and
facilities for handling merchandise, which have been established at the
head of the Anatolian railway, at Haidar Pasha, under German auspices,
would be a credit to any city. It is true that most of these
improvements are due to foreign enterprise and serve largely foreign
interests; still they have also benefited the city, and added much to
the convenience and comfort of local life. There has been likewise
progress in other than material respects. The growth of the imperial
museum of antiquities, under the direction of Hamdy Bey, within the
grounds of the Seraglio, has been remarkable; and while the collection
of the sarcophagi discovered at Sidon constitutes the chief treasure of
the museum, the institution has become a rich storehouse of many other
valuable relics of the past. The existence of a school of art, where
painting and architecture are taught, is also a sign of new times. A
school of handicrafts flourishes on the Sphendoné of the Hippodrome. The
fine medical school between Scutari and Haidar Pasha, the Hamidieh
hospital for children, and the asylum for the poor, tell of the advance
of science and humanity in the place.

Considerable attention is now given to the subject of education
throughout the empire, a result due in great measure to the influence of
the American and French schools and colleges established in the
provinces and at the capital. More than thirty foreign educational
institutions flourish in Constantinople itself, and they are largely
attended by the youth belonging to the native communities of the
country. The Greek population is provided with excellent schools and
gymnasia, and the Armenians also maintain schools of a high grade. The
Turkish government itself became, moreover, impressed with the
importance of education, and as a consequence the whole system of public
instruction for the Moslem portion of the population was, during the
reign of Sultan Abd-ul-Hamid II., more widely extended and improved.
Beside the schools of the old type attached to the mosques, schools of a
better class were established under the direct control of the minister
of education, which, although open to improvement, certainly aimed at a
higher standard than that reached in former days. The progress of
education became noticeable even among Moslem girls. The social and
political influence of this intellectual improvement among the various
communities of the empire soon made itself felt, and had much to do with
the startling success of the constitutional revolution carried out,
under the direction of the Committee of Union and Progress, in the
autumn of 1908.

_Climate._--The climate of the city is healthy, but relaxing. It is damp
and liable to sudden and great changes of temperature. The winds from
the north and those from the south are at constant feud, and blow cold
or hot in the most capricious manner, often in the course of the same
day. "There are two climates at Constantinople, that of the north and
that of the south wind." The winters may be severe, but when mild they
are wet and not invigorating. In summer the heat is tempered by the
prevalence of a north-east wind that blows down the channel of the
Bosporus. Observations at Constantinople and at Scutari give the
following results, for a period of twenty years.

  +------------------------+-----------------+--------------+
  |                        | Constantinople. |   Scutari.   |
  +------------------------+-----------------+--------------+
  |  Mean temperature      |    57° 7'       |   58° 1'     |
  |  Maximum               |    99° 1'       |  103° 6'     |
  |  Minimum               |    17° 2'       |   13° 0'     |
  |  Rain                  |    28.3 in.     |   29.29 in.  |
  |  Number of rainy days  |    112          |   128.6      |
  +------------------------+-----------------+--------------+

The sanitation of the city has been improved, although much remains to
be done in that respect. No great epidemic has visited the city since
the outbreak of cholera in 1866. Typhoid and pulmonary diseases are
common.

_Population._--The number of the population of the city is an uncertain
figure, as no accurate statistics can be obtained. It is generally
estimated between 800,000 and 1,000,000. The inhabitants present a
remarkable conglomeration of different races, various nationalities,
divers languages, distinctive costumes and conflicting faiths, giving,
it is true, a singular interest to what may be termed the human scenery
of the city, but rendering impossible any close social cohesion, or the
development of a common civic life. Constantinople has well been
described as "a city not of one nation but of many, and hardly more of
one than of another." The following figures are given as an approximate
estimate of the size of the communities which compose the population.

  Moslems                     384,910
  Greeks                      152,741
  Greek Latins                  1,082
  Armenians                   149,590
  Roman Catholics (native)      6,442
  Protestants (native)            819
  Bulgarians                    4,377
  Jews                         44,361
  Foreigners                  129,243
                             --------
                              873,565

_Water-Supply._--Under the rule of the sultans, the water-supply of the
city has been greatly extended. The reservoirs in the forest of Belgrade
have been enlarged and increased in number, and new aqueducts have been
added to those erected by the Byzantine emperors. The use of the old
cisterns within the walls has been almost entirely abandoned, and the
water is led to basins in vaulted chambers (_Taxim_), from which it is
distributed by underground conduits to the fountains situated in the
different quarters of the city. From these fountains the water is taken
to a house by water-carriers, or, in the case of the humbler classes, by
members of the household itself.

For the supply of Pera, Galata and Beshiktash, Sultan Mahmud I.
constructed, in 1732, four bends in the forest of Belgrade, N.N.W. and
N.E. of the village of Bagchekeui, and the fine aqueduct which spans the
head of the valley of Buyukderé. Since 1885, a French company, La
Compagnie des Eaux, has rendered a great service by bringing water to
Stamboul, Pera, and the villages on the European side of the Bosporus,
from Lake Dercos, which lies close to the shore of the Black Sea some 29
m. distant from the city. The Dercos water is laid on in many houses.
Since 1893 a German company has supplied Scutari and Kadikeui with water
from the valley of the Sweet Waters of Asia.

_Trade._--The trade of the city has been unfavourably affected by the
political events which have converted former provinces of the Turkish
empire into autonomous states, by the development of business at other
ports of the empire, owing to the opening up of the interior country
through the construction of railroads, and by the difficulties which the
government, with the view of preventing political agitation, has put in
the way of easy intercourse by natives between the capital and the
provinces. Most of the commerce of the city is in hands of foreigners
and of Armenian and Greek merchants. Turks have little if anything to do
with trade on a large scale. "The capital," says a writer in the
_Konstantinopler Handelsblatt_ of November 1904, "produces very little
for export, and its hinterland is small, extending on the European side
only a few kilometres--the outlet for the fertile Eastern Rumelia is
Dedeagach--and on the Asiatic side embracing the Sea of Marmora and the
Anatolian railway district. Even part of this will be lost to
Constantinople when the Anatolian railway is connected with the port of
Mersina and with the Kassaba-Smyrna railway. Some 750 tons of the
sweetmeat known as 'Turkish delight' are annually exported to the United
Kingdom, America and Rumelia; embroideries, &c., are sold in fair
quantities to tourists. Otherwise the chief articles of Constantinople's
export trade consist of refuse and waste materials, sheep's wool (called
_Kassab bashí_) and skins from the slaughter-houses (in 1903 about
3,000,000 skins were exported, mostly to America), horns, hoofs, goat
and horse hair, guts, bones, rags, bran, old iron, &c., and finally
dogs' excrements, called in trade 'pure,' a Constantinople speciality,
which is used in preparing leather for ladies' gloves. From the
hinterland comes mostly raw produce such as grain, drugs, wool, silk,
ores and also carpets. The chief article is grain."

The average value of the goods passing through the port of
Constantinople at the opening of the 20th century was estimated at about
£T 11,000,000. From the imperfect statistics available, the following
tables of the class of goods imported and exported, and their respective
values, were drawn up in 1901 by the late Mr Whittaker, _The Times_
correspondent.

                   _Imports._

  Manufactured goods (cotton,
     woollen, silk, &c.)       £T[2] 3,500,000
  Haberdashery, ironmongery             90,000
  Sugar                                500,000
  Petroleum                            400,000
  Flour                                400,000
  Coffee                               300,000
  Rice                                 250,000
  Cattle                               100,000
  Various                              850,000
                                     ---------
                          Total   £T 7,000,000


                   _Exports._

  Cereals                         £T 1,000,000
  Mohair                               800,000
  Carpets                              700,000
  Silk and cocoons                     500,000
  Opium                                400,000
  Gum tragacanth                       150,000
  Wool                                 100,000
  Hides                                100,000
  Various                              250,000
                                     ---------
                          Total   £T 4,100,000

About 40% of the import trade of Constantinople is British. According to
the trade report of the British consulate, the share of the United
Kingdom in the value of £7,142,000 on the total imports to
Constantinople during the year 1900-1901 was £1,811,000; while the share
of the United Kingdom in the value of £2,669,000 on the total exports
during the same year was £998,000. But it is worthy of note that while
British commerce still led the way in Turkey, the trade of some other
countries with Turkey, especially that of Germany, was increasing more
rapidly. Comparing the average of the period 1896-1900 with the total
for 1904, British trade showed an increase of 33%, Austro-Hungarian of
nearly 60%, Germany of 130%, Italian of 98%, French of 8%, and Belgian
of nearly 33%. The shipping visiting the port of Constantinople during
the year 1905, excluding sailing and small coasting vessels, was 9796,
representing a total of 14,785,080 tons. The percentage of steamers
under the British flag was 37.1; of tonnage, 45.9.

_Administration._--For the preservation of order and security, the city
is divided into four divisions (Belad-i-Selassi), viz. Stamboul,
Pera-Galata, Beshiktash and Scutari. The minister of police is at the
head of the administration of the affairs of these divisions, and is
_ex-officio_ governor of Stamboul. The governors of the other divisions
are subordinate to him, but are appointed by the sultan. Each governor
has a special staff of police and gendarmery and his own police-court.
In each division is a military commander, having a part of the garrison
of the city under his orders, but subordinate to the commander-in-chief
of the troops guarding the capital.

The municipal government of the four divisions of the city is in the
hands of a prefect, appointed by the sultan, and subordinate to the
minister of the interior. He is officially styled the prefect of
Stamboul, and is assisted by a council of twenty-four members, appointed
by the sultan or the minister of the interior. All matters concerning
the streets, the markets, the bazaars, the street-porters (_hamals_),
public weighers, baths and hospitals come under his jurisdiction. He is
charged also with the collection of the city dues, and the taxes on
property. The city is furthermore divided into ten municipal circles as
follows. In Stamboul: (1) Sultan Bayezid, (2) Sultan Mehemet, (3) Djerah
Pasha (Psamatia); on the European side of the Bosporus and the northern
side of the Golden Horn: (4) Beshiktash, (5) Yenikeui, (6) Pera, (7)
Buyukderé; on the Asiatic side of the Bosporus: (8) Anadol Hissar, (9)
Scutari, (10) Kadikeui. Each circle is subdivided into several wards
(_mahalleh_). "The outlying parts of the city are divided into six
districts (_Cazas_), namely, Princes' Islands, Guebzeh, Beicos, Kartal,
Kuchuk-Chekmedjé and Shilé, each having its governor (_kaimakam_), who
is usually chosen by the palace. These districts are dependencies of the
ministry of the interior, and their municipal affairs are directed by
agents of the prefecture."

In virtue of old treaties, known as the Capitulations (q.v.), foreigners
enjoy to a large extent the rights of exterritoriality. In disputes with
one another, they are judged before their own courts of justice. In
litigation between a foreigner and a native, the case is taken to a
native court, but a representative of the foreigner's consulate attends
the proceedings. Foreigners have a right to establish their own schools
and hospitals, to hold their special religious services, and even to
maintain their respective national post-offices. No Turkish policeman
may enter the premises of a foreigner without the sanction of the
consular authorities to whose jurisdiction the latter belongs. A certain
measure of self-government is likewise granted to the native Christian
communities under their ecclesiastical chiefs.

   BIBLIOGRAPHY.--On Constantinople generally, besides the regular
   guide-books and works already mentioned, see P. Gyllius, _De
   topographia Constantinopoleos, De Bosporo Thracio_ (1632); Du Cange,
   _Constantinopolis Christiana_ (1680); J. von Hammer,
   _Constantinopolis und der Bosporos_ (1822); Mordtmann, _Esquisse
   topographique de Constantinople_ (1892); E. A. Grosvenor,
   _Constantinople_ (1895); van Millingen, _Byzantine Constantinople_
   (1899); Paspates, [Greek: Byzantinai Meletai] (1877); Scarlatos
   Byzantios, [Greek: Hê Kônstantinou polis] (1851); E. Pears, _Fall of
   Constantinople_ (1885), _The Destruction of the Greek Empire_ (1903);
   Gibbon, _The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_; Salzenberg,
   _Altchristliche Baudenkmale von Konstantinopel_; Lethaby and
   Swainson, _The Church of Sancta Sophia_; Pulgher, _Les Anciennes
   Églises byzantines de Constantinople_; Labarte, _Le Palais impérial
   de Constantinople et ses abords_.     (A. van M.)


FOOTNOTES:

  [1] For full information on the subject of the ancient water-supply
    see Count A. F. Andréossy, _Constantinople et le Bosphore_;
    Tchikatchev, _Le Bosphore et Constantinople_ (2nd ed., Paris, 1865);
    Forchheimer and Strzygowski, _Die byzantinischen Wasserbehälter_;
    also article AQUEDUCT.

  [2] A Turkish lira = 18 shillings (English).




CONSTANTINOPLE, COUNCILS OF. Of the numerous ecclesiastical councils
held at Constantinople the most important are the following:

1. The second ecumenical council, 381, which was in reality only a synod
of bishops from Thrace, Asia and Syria, convened by Theodosius with a
view to uniting the church upon the basis of the Orthodox faith. No
Western bishop was present, nor any Roman legate; from Egypt came only a
few bishops, and these tardily. The first president was Meletius of
Antioch, whom Rome regarded as schismatic. Yet, despite its sectional
character, the council came in time to be regarded as ecumenical alike
in the West and in the East.

The council reaffirmed the Nicene faith and denounced all opposing
doctrines. The so-called "Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed," which has
almost universally been ascribed to this council, is certainly not the
Nicene creed nor even a recension of it, but most likely a Jerusalem
baptismal formula revised by the interpolation of a few Nicene
test-words. More recently its claim to be called "Constantinopolitan"
has been challenged. It is not found in the earliest records of the acts
of the council, nor was it referred to by the council of Ephesus (431),
nor by the "Robber Synod" (449), although these both confirmed the
Nicene faith. It also lacks the definiteness one would expect in a creed
composed by an anti-Arian, anti-Pneumatomachian council. Harnack
(Herzog-Hauck, _Realencyklopädie_, 3rd ed., s.v. "Konstantinopolit.
Symbol.") conjectures that it was ascribed to the council of
Constantinople just before the council of Chalcedon in order to prove
the orthodoxy of the Fathers of the second ecumenical council. At all
events, it became the creed of the universal church, and has been
retained without change. Save for the addition of _filioque_.

Of the seven reputed canons of the council only the first four are
unquestionably genuine. The fifth and the sixth probably belong to a
synod of 382, and the seventh is properly not a canon. The most
important enactments of the council were the granting of metropolitan
rights to the bishops of Alexandria, Antioch, Thrace, Pontus and
Ephesus; and according to Constantinople the place of honour after Rome,
against which Rome protested. Not until 150 years later, and then only
under compulsion of the emperor Justinian, did Rome acknowledge the
ecumenicity of the council, and that merely as regarded its doctrinal
decrees.

   See Mansi iii. pp. 521-599; Hardouin i. pp. 807-826; Hefele, 2nd ed.,
   ii. pp. 1 sqq. (English translation, ii. pp. 340 sqq.); Hort, _Two
   Dissertations_ (Cambridge, 1876); and the article Creeds.

2. The council of 553, the fifth ecumenical, grew out of the controversy
of the "Three Chapters," an adequate account of which, up to the time of
the council, may be found in the articles JUSTINIAN and VIGILIUS. The
council convened, in response to the imperial summons, on the 4th of May
553. Of the 165 bishops who subscribed the acts all but the five or six
from Egypt were Oriental; the pope, Vigilius, refused to attend (he had
made his escape from Constantinople, and from his retreat in Chalcedon
sent forth a vain protest against the council). The synod was utterly
subservient to the emperor. The "Three Chapters" were condemned, and
their authors, long dead, anathematized, without, however, derogating
from the authority of the council of Chalcedon, which had given them a
clean bill of orthodoxy. Vigilius was excommunicated, and his name
erased from the diptychs. The Orthodox faith was set forth in fourteen
anathemas. Opinion is divided as to whether Origen was condemned. His
name occurs in the eleventh anathema, but some consider it an
interpolation; Hefele defends the genuineness of the text, but finds no
evidence for a special session against Origen, as some have conjectured.

The council was confirmed by the emperor, and was generally received in
the East. Vigilius was soon coerced into submission, but the West
repudiated his pusillanimous surrender, and rejected the council. A
schism ensued which lasted half a century and was not fully healed until
the synod of Aquileia, about 700. But the ecumenicity of the council was
generally acknowledged by 680.

   See Mansi ix. pp. 24-106, 149-658, 712-730; Hardouin iii. pp. 1-328,
   331, 414, 524; Hefele, 2nd ed., ii. pp. 798-924 (English translation,
   iv. pp. 229-365).

3. The sixth ecumenical council, 680-681, which was convened by the
emperor Constantine Pogonatus to terminate the Monothelitic controversy
(see Monothelites). All the patriarchates were represented,
Constantinople and Antioch by their bishops in person, the others by
legates. The number of bishops present varied from 150 to 300. The
council approved the first five ecumenical councils and reaffirmed the
Nicene and "Niceno-Constantinopolitan" creeds. Monothelitism was
unequivocally condemned; Christ was declared to have had "two natural
wills and two natural operations, without division, conversion,
separation or confusion." Prominent Monothelites, living or dead, were
anathematized, in particular Sergius and his successors in the see of
Constantinople, the former pope, Honorius, and Macarius, the patriarch
of Antioch. An imperial decree confirmed the council, and commanded the
acceptance of its doctrines under pain of severe punishment. The
Monothelites took fright and fled to Syria, where they gradually formed
the sect of the Maronites (q.v.).

The anathematizing of Honorius as heterodox has occasioned no slight
embarrassment to the supporters of the doctrine of papal infallibility.
It is not within the scope of this article to pass judgment upon the
various proposed solutions of the difficulty, e.g. that Honorius was not
really a Monothelite; that in acknowledging one will he was not speaking
_ex cathedra_; that, at the time of condemning him, the council was no
longer ecumenical; &c. One thing is certain, however, he was
anathematized; and the notion of interpolation in the acts of the
council (Baronius) may be dismissed as groundless.

   See Mansi xi. pp. 190-922; Hardouin iii. pp. 1043-1644; Hefele, 2nd
   ed. iii. pp. 121-313.

4. The "Quinisext Synod" (692), so-called because it was regarded by the
Greeks as supplementing the fifth and sixth ecumenical councils, was
held in the dome of the Imperial Palace ("In Trullo," whence the synod
is called also "Trullan"). Its work was purely legislative and its
decisions were set forth in 102 canons. The sole authoritative standards
of discipline were declared to be the "eighty-five apostolic canons,"
the canons of the first four ecumenical councils and of the synods of
Ancyra, Neo-Caesarea, Antioch, Changra, Laodicea, Sardica and Carthage,
and the canonical writings of some twelve Fathers,--all canons, synods
and Fathers, Eastern with one exception, viz. Cyprian and the synod of
Carthage; the bishops of Rome and the occidental synods were utterly
ignored.

The canons of the second and fourth ecumenical councils respecting the
rank of Constantinople were confirmed; the rank of a see was declared to
follow the civil rank of its city; unenthroned bishops were guaranteed
against diminution of their rights; metropolitans were forbidden to
alienate the property of vacant suffragan sees.

The provisions respecting clerical marriage were avowedly more lenient
than the Roman practice. Ordination was denied to any one who after
baptism had contracted a second marriage, kept a concubine, or married a
widow or a woman of ill-repute. Lectors and cantors might marry after
ordination; presbyters, deacons and sub-deacons, if already married,
should retain their wives; a bishop, however, while not dissolving his
marriage, should keep his wife at a distance, making suitable provision
for her. An illegally married cleric could not perform sacerdotal
functions. Monks and nuns were to be carefully separated, and were not
to leave their houses without permission.

It was forbidden to celebrate baptism or the eucharist in private
oratories; neither might laymen give the elements to themselves, nor
approach the altar, nor teach. Offerings for the dead were authorized,
and the mixed chalice made obligatory. Contrary to the occidental
custom, fasting on Saturday was forbidden. The mutilation of the
Scriptures and the desecration of sacred places were severely condemned;
likewise the use of the lamb as the symbol for Christ (a favourite
symbol in the West).

The synod legislated also concerning marriage, bigamy, adultery, rape,
abortion, seductive arts and obscenity. The theatre, the circus and
gambling were unsparingly denounced, and soothsayers and jugglers, pagan
festivals and customs, and pagan oaths were placed under the ban.

The council was confirmed by the emperor and accepted in the East; but
the pope protested against various canons, chiefly those respecting the
rank of Constantinople, clerical marriage, the Saturday fast, and the
use of the symbol of lamb; and refused, despite express imperial command
and threat, to accept the "Pseudo-Sexta." So that while the synod
adopted a body of legislation that has continued to be authoritative for
the Eastern Church, it did so at the cost of aggravating the irritation
of the West, and by so much hastening the inevitable rupture of the
church.

   See Mansi xi. pp. 921-1024; Hardouin iii. pp. 1645-1716; Hefele, 2nd
   ed., iii. pp. 328-348.

5. The iconoclastic synods of 754 and 815, both of which promulgated
harsh decrees against images and neither of which is recognized by the
Latin Church, and the synod of 842, which repudiated the synod of 815,
approved the second council of Nicaea, and restored the images, are all
adequately treated in the article Iconoclasts.

   See Mansi xii. pp. 575 sqq., xiii. pp. 210 sqq., xiv. pp. 111 sqq.,
   787 sqq.; Hardouin iv. pp. 330 sqq., 1045 sqq., 1457 sqq.; Hefele,
   2nd ed. iv. pp. 1 sqq., 104 sqq.

6. The synods of 869 and 879, of which the former, regarded by the Latin
Church as the eighth ecumenical council, condemned Photius as an usurper
and restored Ignatius to the see of Constantinople; the latter, which
the Greeks consider to have been the true eighth ecumenical council,
held after the death of Ignatius and the reconciliation of Photius with
the emperor, repudiated the synod of 869, restored Photius, and
condemned all who would not recognize him. (For further details of these
two synods see Photius.)

   See Mansi xv. pp. 143-476 et passim, xvi. pp. 1-550, xvii. pp.
   66-186, 365-530; Hardouin v. pp. 119-390, 749-1210, et passim, vi.
   pp. 19-87, 209-334; Hefele, 2nd ed., iv. pp. 228 sqq., 333 sqq., 435
   sqq.; Hergenröther, _Photius_ (Regensburg, 1867-1869). (T. F. C.)




CONSTANTINUS, pope from 708 to 715, was a Syrian by birth and was
consecrated pope in March 708. He was eager to assert the supremacy of
the papal see; at the command of the emperor Justinian II. he visited
Constantinople; and he died on the 9th of April 715.




CONSTANTIUS, FLAVIUS VALERIUS, commonly called CHLORUS (the Pale), an
epithet due to the Byzantine historians, Roman emperor and father of
Constantine the Great, was born about A.D. 250. He was of Illyrian
origin; a fictitious connexion with the family of Claudius Gothicus was
attributed to him by Constantine. Having distinguished himself by his
military ability and his able and gentle rule of Dalmatia, he was, on
the 1st of March 293, adopted and appointed Caesar by Maximian, whose
step-daughter, Flavia Maximiana Theodora, he had married in 289 after
renouncing his wife Helena (the mother of Constantine). In the
distribution of the provinces Gaul and Britain were allotted to
Constantius. In Britain Carausius and subsequently Allectus had declared
themselves independent, and it was not till 296 that, by the defeat of
Allectus, it was re-united with the empire. In 298 Constantius overthrew
the Alamanni in the territory of the Lingones (Langres) and strengthened
the Rhine frontier. During the persecution of the Christians in 303 he
behaved with great humanity. He obtained the title of Augustus on the
1st of May 305, and died the following year shortly before the 25th of
July at Eboracum (York) during an expedition against the Picts and
Scots.

   See Aurelius Victor, _De Caesaribus_, 39; Eutropius ix. 14-23;
   Zosimus ii. 7.




CONSTANTZA (_Constanta_), formerly known as Kustendji or Kustendje, a
seaport on the Black Sea, and capital of the department of Constantza,
Rumania; 140 m. E. by S. from Bucharest by rail. Pop. (1900) 12,725.
When the Dobrudja was ceded to Rumania in 1878, Constantza was partly
rebuilt. In its clean and broad streets there are many synagogues,
mosques and churches, for half the inhabitants are Roman Catholics,
Moslems, Armenians or Jews; the remainder being Orthodox Rumans and
Greeks. In the vicinity there are mineral springs, and the sea-bathing
also attracts many visitors in summer. The chief local industries are
tanning and the manufacture of petroleum drums. The opening, in 1895, of
the railway to Bucharest, which crosses the Danube by a bridge at Cerna
Voda, brought Constantza a considerable transit trade in grain and
petroleum, which are largely exported; coal and coke head the list of
imports, followed by machinery, iron goods, and cotton and woollen
fabrics. The harbour, protected by breakwaters, with a lighthouse at the
entrance, is well defended from the north winds, but those from the
south, south-east, and south-west prove sometimes highly dangerous. In
1902 it afforded 10 alongside berths for shipping. It had a depth of 22
ft. in the old or inner basin, and of 26 ft. in the new or outer basin,
beside the quays. The railway runs along the quays. A weekly service
between Constantza and Constantinople is conducted by state-owned
steamers, including the fast mail and passenger boats in connexion with
the Ostend and Orient expresses. In 1902, 576 vessels entered at
Constantza, with a net registered tonnage of 641,737. The Black Sea
squadron of the Rumanian fleet is stationed here.

Constantza is the Constantiana which was founded in honour of
Constantia, sister of Constantine the Great (A.D. 274-337). It lies at
the seaward end of the Great Wall of Trajan, and has evidently been
surrounded by fortifications of its own. In spite of damage done by
railway contractors (see Henry C. Barkley, _Between the Danube and the
Black Sea_, 1876) there are considerable remains of ancient
masonry--walls, pillars, &c. A number of inscriptions found in the town
and its vicinity show that close by was Tomi, where the Roman poet Ovid
(43 B.C.-A.D. 17) spent his last eight years in exile. A statue of Ovid
stands in the main square of Constantza.

   In regard to the Constantza inscriptions in general, see Allard, _La
   Bulgarie orientale_ (Paris, 1866); Desjardins in _Ann. dell' istit.
   di corr. arch._ (1868); and a paper on Weickum's collection in
   _Sitzungsbericht_ of the Munich Academy (1875).




CONSTELLATION (from the Lat. _constellatus_, studded with stars; _con_,
with, and _stella_, a star), in astronomy, the name given to certain
groupings of stars. The partition of the stellar expanse into areas
characterized by specified stars can be traced back to a very remote
antiquity. It is believed that the ultimate origin of the constellation
figures and names is to be found in the corresponding systems in vogue
among the primitive civilizations of the Euphrates valley--the
Sumerians, Accadians and Babylonians; that these were carried westward
into ancient Greece by the Phoenicians, and to the lands of Asia Minor
by the Hittites, and that Hellenic culture in its turn introduced them
into Arabia, Persia and India. From the earliest times the star-groups
known as constellations, the smaller groups (parts of constellations)
known as asterisms, and also individual stars, have received names
connoting some meteorological phenomena, or symbolizing religious or
mythological beliefs. At one time it was held that the constellation
names and myths were of Greek origin; this view has now been disproved,
and an examination of the Hellenic myths associated with the stars and
star-groups in the light of the records revealed by the decipherment of
Euphratean cuneiforms leads to the conclusion that in many, if not all,
cases the Greek myth has a Euphratean parallel, and so renders it
probable that the Greek constellation system and the cognate legends are
primarily of Semitic or even pre-Semitic origin.

The origin and development of the grouping of the stars into
constellations is more a matter of archaeological than of astronomical
interest. It demands a careful study of the myths and religious thought
of primitive peoples; and the tracing of the names from one language to
another belongs to comparative philology.

The Sumerians and Accadians, the non-Semitic inhabitants of the
Euphrates valley prior to the Babylonians, described the stars
collectively as a "heavenly flock"; the sun was the "old sheep"; the
seven planets were the "old-sheep stars"; the whole of the stars had
certain "shepherds," and _Sibzianna_ (which, according to Sayce and
Bosanquet, is the modern Arcturus, the brightest star in the northern
sky) was the "star of the shepherds of the heavenly herds." The
Accadians bequeathed their system to the Babylonians, and cuneiform
tablets and cylinders, boundary stones, and Euphratean art generally,
point to the existence of a well-defined system of star names in their
early history. From a detailed study of such records, in their nature of
rather speculative value, R. Brown, junr. (_Primitive Constellations_,
1899) has compiled a Euphratean planisphere, which he regards as the
mother of all others. The tablets examined range in date from 3000-500
B.C., and hence the system must be anterior to the earlier date. Of
great importance is the _Creation Legend_, a cuneiform compiled from
older records during the reign of Assur-bani-pal, c. 650 B.C., in which
there occurs a passage interpretable as pointing to the acceptance of 36
constellations: 12 northern, 12 zodiacal and 12 southern. These
constellations were arranged in three concentric annuli, the northern
ones in an inner annulus subdivided into 60 degrees, the zodiacal ones
into a medial annulus of 120 degrees, and the southern ones into an
outer annulus of 240 degrees. Brown has suggested a correlation of the
Euphratean names with those of the Greeks and moderns. His results may
be exhibited in the following form:--the central line gives the modern
equivalents of the names in the Euphratean zodiac; the upper line the
modern equivalents of the northern paranatellons; and the lower line
those of the southern paranatellons. The zodiacal constellations have an
interest peculiarly their own; placed in or about the plane of the
ecliptic, their rising and setting with the sun was observed with
relation to weather changes and the more general subject of chronology,
the twelve subdivisions of the year being correlated with the twelve
divisions of the ecliptic (see Zodiac).

  +----------------+---------------+--------------------+
  |    Northern    |    Zodiacal   |      Southern      |
  +----------------+---------------+--------------------+
  |  Cassiopeia    |  Aries        |  Eridanus          |
  |  Auriga        |  Taurus       |  Orion             |
  |  Cepheus       |  Gemini       |  Canis major       |
  |  Ursa minor    |  Cancer       |  Argo              |
  |  Ursa major    |  Leo          |  Hydra Crater      |
  |  Boötes        |  Virgo        |  Corvus            |
  |  Serpentarius  |  Libra        |  Centaurus         |
  |  Hercules      |  Scorpio      |  Lupus             |
  |  Lyra          |  Sagittarius  |  Ara               |
  |  Aquila        |  Capricornus  |  ?                 |
  |  Pegasus       |  Aquarius     |  Piscis australis  |
  |  Andromeda     |  Pisces       |  Cetus             |
  +----------------+---------------+--------------------+

The Phoenicians--a race dominated by the spirit of commercial
enterprise--appear to have studied the stars more especially with
respect to their service to navigators; according to Homer "the stars
were sent by Zeus as portents for mariners." But all their truly
astronomical writings are lost, and only by a somewhat speculative
piecing together of scattered evidences can an estimate of their
knowledge be formed. The inter-relations of the Phoenicians with the
early Hellenes were frequent and far-reaching, and in the Greek
presentation of the legends concerning constellations a distinct
Phoenician, and in turn Euphratean, element appears. One of the earliest
examples of Greek literature extant, the _Theogonia_ of Hesiod (c. 800
B.C.), appears to be a curious blending of Hellenic and Phoenician
thought. Although not an astronomical work, several constellation
subjects are introduced. In the same author's _Works and Days_, a
treatise which is a sort of shepherd's calendar, there are distinct
references to the Pleiades, Hyades, Orion, Sirius and Arcturus. It
cannot be argued, however, that these were the only stars and
constellations named in his time; the omission proves nothing. The same
is true of the Homeric epics wherein the Pleiades, Hyades, Ursa major,
Orion and Boötes are mentioned, and also of the stars and constellations
mentioned in Job. Further support is given to the view that, in the
main, the constellations were transmitted to the Greeks by the
Phoenicians from Euphratean sources in the fact that Thales, the
earliest Greek astronomer of any note, was of Phoenician descent.
According to Callimachus he taught the Greeks to steer by Ursa minor
instead of Ursa major; and other astronomical observations are assigned
to him. But his writings are lost, as is also the case with those of
Phocus the Samian, and the history of astronomy by Eudemus, the pupil of
Aristotle; hence the paucity of our knowledge of Thales's astronomical
learning.

From the 6th century B.C. onwards, legends concerning the constellation
subjects were frequently treated by the historians and poets.
Aglaosthenes or Agaosthenes, an early writer, knew Ursa minor as [Greek:
Kynosoura], Cynosura, and recorded the translation of Aquila; Epimenides
the Cretan (c. 600 B.C.) recorded the translation of Capricornus and the
star Capella; Pherecydes of Athens (c. 500-450 B.C.) recorded the legend
of Orion, and stated the astronomical fact that when Orion sets Scorpio
rises; Aeschylus (525-456 B.C.) and Hellanicus of Mytilene (c. 496-411
B.C.) narrate the legend of the seven Pleiades--the daughters of Atlas;
and the latter states that the Hyades are named either from their
orientation, which resembles [upsilon] (upsilon), "or because at their
rising or setting Zeus rains"; and Hecataeus of Miletus (c. 470 B.C.)
treated the legend of the Hydra.

In the 5th century B.C. the Athenian astronomer Euctemon, according to
Geminus of Rhodes, compiled a weather calendar in which Aquarius,
Aquila, Canis major, Corona, Cygnus, Delphinus, Lyra, Orion, Pegasus,
Sagitta and the asterisms Hyades and Pleiades are mentioned, always,
however, in relation to weather changes. The earliest Greek work which
purported to treat the constellations _qua_ constellations, of which we
have certain knowledge, is the [Greek: Phainomena] of Eudoxus of Cnidus
(c. 403-350 B.C.). The original is lost, but a versification by Aratus
(c. 270 B.C.), a poet at the court of Antigonus Gonatas, king of
Macedonia, and an [Greek: Exêgêsis] or commentary by Hipparchus, are
extant. In the [Greek: Phainomena] of Aratus 44 constellations are
enumerated, viz. 19 northern:--Ursa major, Ursa minor, Boötes, Draco,
Cepheus, Cassiopeia, Andromeda, Perseus, Triangulum, Pegasus, Delphinus,
Auriga, Hercules, Lyra, Cygnus, Aquila, Sagitta, Corona and
Serpentarius; 13 central or zodiacal:--Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer,
Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricornus, Aquarius, Pisces
and the Pleiades; and 12 southern:--Orion, Canis, Lepus, Argo, Cetus,
Eridanus, Piscis australis, Ara, Centaurus, Hydra, Crater and Corvus. In
this enumeration Serpens is included in Serpentarius and Lupus in
Centaurus; these two constellations were separated by Hipparchus and,
later, by Ptolemy. On the other hand, Aratus kept the Pleiades distinct
from Taurus, but Hipparchus reduced these stars to an asterism. Aratus
was no astronomer, while Hipparchus was; and from the fact that the
latter adopted, with but trifling exceptions, the constellation system
portrayed by Aratus, it may be concluded that the system was already
familiar in Greek thought. And three hundred years after Hipparchus, the
Alexandrian astronomer Ptolemy adopted a very similar scheme in his
uranometria, which appears in the seventh and eighth books of his
_Almagest_, the catalogue being styled the [Greek: Ekthesis kanonikê] or
"accepted version."

The _Almagest_ has a dual interest: first, being the work of one
primarily a commentator, it presents a crystallized epitome of all
earlier knowledge; and secondly, it has served as a basis of subsequent
star-catalogues.[1] The Ptolemaic catalogue embraces only those stars
which were visible at Rhodes in the time of Hipparchus (c. 150 B.C.),
the results being corrected for precession "by increasing the longitudes
by 2° 40', and leaving the latitudes undisturbed" (Francis Baily, _Mem.
R.A.S._, 1843). The names and orientation of the constellations therein
adopted are, with but few exceptions, identical with those used at the
present day; and as it cannot be doubted that Ptolemy made only very few
modifications in the system of Hipparchus, the names were adopted at
least three centuries before the _Almagest_ was compiled. The names in
which Ptolemy differs from modern usage are:--Hercules ([Greek: en
gonasin]), Cygnus ([Greek: Hornis]), Eridanus ([Greek: Potamos]), Lupus
([Greek: Thêrion]), Pegasus ([Greek: Hippos]), Equuleus ([Greek: Hippou
protomê]), Canis minor ([Greek: Prokyôn]), and Libra ([Greek: Chêlai],
although [Greek: zygos] is used for the same constellation in other
parts of the _Almagest_). The following table gives the names of the
constellations as they occur in (1) modern catalogues; (2) Ptolemy (A.D.
150); (3) Ulugh Beg (1437); (4) Tycho Brahe (1628); the last column
gives the English equivalent of the modern name.

The reverence and authority which was accorded the famous compilation of
the Alexandrian astronomer is well evidenced by the catalogue of the
Tatar Ulugh Beg, the Arabian names there adopted being equivalent to the
Ptolemaic names in nearly every case; this is also shown in the Latin
translations given below. Tycho Brahe, when compiling his catalogue of
stars, was unable to observe Lupus, Ara, Corona australis and Piscis
australis, on account of the latitude of Uranienburg; and hence these
constellations are omitted from his catalogue. He diverged from Ptolemy
when he placed the asterisms Coma Berenices and Antinous upon the level
of formal constellations, Ptolemy having regarded these asterisms as
unformed stars ([Greek: amorphôtoi]). The next innovator of moment was
Johann Bayer, a German astronomer, who published a _Uranometria_ in
1603, in which twelve constellations, all in the southern hemisphere,
were added to Ptolemy's forty-eight, viz. Apis (or Musca) (Bee), Avis
Indica (Bird of Paradise), Chameleon, Dorado (Sword-fish), Grus (Crane),
Hydrus (Water-snake), Indus (Indian), Pavo (Peacock), Phoenix, Piscis
volans (Flying fish), Toucan, Triangulum australe. According to W. Lynn
(_Observatory_, 1886, p. 255), Bayer adapted this part of his catalogue
from the observations of the Dutch navigator Petrus Theodori (or Pieter
Dirchsz Keyser), who died in 1596 off Java. The _Coelum stellatum
Christianum_ of Julius Schiller (1627) is noteworthy for the attempt
made to replace the names connoting mythological and pagan ideas by the
names of apostles, saints, popes, bishops, and other dignitaries of the
church, &c. Aries became St Peter; Taurus, St Andrew; Andromeda, the
Holy Sepulchre; Lyra, the Manger; Canis major, David; and so on. This
innovation (with which the introduction of the twelve apostles into the
solar zodiac by the Venerable Bede may be compared) was shortlived.
According to Charles Hutton [_Math. Dict._ i. 328 (1795)] the editions
published in 1654 and 1661 had reverted to the Greek names; on the other
hand, Camille Flammarion (_Popular Astronomy_, p. 375) quotes an
illuminated folio of 1661, which represents "the sky delivered from
pagans and peopled with Christians." A similar confusion was attempted
by E. Weigelius, who sought to introduce a _Coelum heraldicum_, in which
the constellations were figured as the arms or insignia of European
dynasties, and by symbols of commerce.


[Illustration: PLATE I.
  CONSTELLATIONS OF THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE.]

[Illustration: PLATE II.
  CONSTELLATIONS OF THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE.]


CONSTELLATION

 +----------------+---------------------+------------------------+-----------------------+-------------------+
 |     Modern.    |   Ptolemy. [Greek]  |       Ulugh Beg.       |      Tycho Brahe.     |      Meaning.     |
 +----------------+---------------------+------------------------+-----------------------+-------------------+
 |                                                                                                           |
 |  Northern constellations (21).                                                                            |
 |  -----------------------------                                                                            |
 |                                                                                                           |
 |  Ursa minor        Arktou mikras         Stellae Ursi minoris     Ursa minor, Cynosura     Little Bear    |
 |                      asterismhost                                                                         |
 |                                                                                                           |
 |  Ursa major        Arktou megalês a.     S. Ursi majoris          Ursa major, Helice       Great Bear     |
 |                                                                                                           |
 |  Draco             Drakontos a.          S. Draconis              Draco                    Dragon         |
 |                                                                                                           |
 |  Cepheus           Kêpheôs a.            S. Cephei                Cepheus                  Cepheus        |
 |                                                                                                           |
 |  Boötes            Boôtou a.             S. Vociferatoris         Boötes, Arctophylax      Ploughman      |
 |                                                                                                           |                                                                                                            |
 |  Corona borealis   Stephanou Boreiou a.  S. Coronae or Phecca     Corona borea             Northern Crown |
 |                                                                                                           |
 |  Hercules          Tou en gonasin a.     S. Incumbentis genubus   Engonasi, Hercules       Man kneeling   |
 |                                                                                                           |
 |  Lyra              Lyras a.              S. [tou] Shelyak or      Lyra, Vultur cadens      Lyre           |
 |                                             Testudo                                                       |
 |                                                                                                           |
 |  Cygnus            Ornithos a.           S. Gallinae              Olor, Cygnus             Bird, Swan     |
 |                                                                                                           |
 |  Cassiopeia        Kassiepeias a.        S. Inthronatae           Cassiopeia               Cassiopeia     |
 |                                                                                                           |
 |  Perseus           Perseôs a.            S. Bershaush or Portans  Perseus                  Perseus        |
 |                                            Caput Larvae                                                   |
 |                                                                                                           |
 |  Auriga            Hêniochou a.          S. Tenentis habenas      Auriga, Heniochus,       Charioteer     |
 |                                                                     Erichthonius                          |
 |                                                                                                           |
 |  Serpentarius      Ophiouchou a.         S. Serpentarii           Ophiuchus, Serpentarius  Serpent-holder |
 |                                                                                                           |
 |  Serpens           Oreôs ophiouchou a.   S. Serpentis             Serpens ophiuchi         Serpent        |
 |                                                                                                           |
 |  Sagitta           Oistou a.             S. Sagittae              Sagitta or Telum         Arrow          |
 |                                                                                                           |
 |  Aquila            Aetou a.              S. Aquilae               Aquila or Vultur volans  Eagle          |
 |                                                                                                           |
 |  Delphinus         Delphinos a.          S. Delphini              Delphinus                Dolphin        |
 |                                                                                                           |
 |  Equuleus          Hippou protomês a.    S. Sectionis equi        Equuelus, Equi sectio    Colt           |
 |                                                                                                           |
 |  Pegasus           Hippou a.             S. Equi majoris          Pegasus, Equus alatus    Pegasus, Horse |
 |                                                                                                           |
 |  Andromeda         Andromedas a.         S. Mulieris catenatae    Andromeda                Andromeda      |
 |                                                                                                           |
 |  Triangulum        Trigônou a.           S. Trianguli             Triangulus, Deltoton     Triangle       |
 |                                                                                                           |
 |                                                                                                           |
 |  Zodiacal constellations (12).                                                                            |
 |  -----------------------------                                                                            |
 |                                                                                                           |
 |  Aries             Kriou a.              S. Arietis               Aries                    Ram            |
 |                                                                                                           |
 |  Taurus            Taurou a.             S. Tauri                 Taurus                   Bull           |
 |                                                                                                           |
 |  Gemini            Didymôn a.            S. Gemellorum            Gemini                   Twins          |
 |                                                                                                           |
 |  Cancer            Karkinou a.           S. Cancri                Cancer                   Crab           |
 |                                                                                                           |
 |  Leo               Leontos a.            S. Leonis                Leo                      Lion           |
 |                                                                                                           |
 |  Virgo             Parthenou a.          S. Virginis, Sumbela     Virgo                    Virgin         |
 |                                                                                                           |
 |  Libra             Chêlôn a.             S. Librae                Libra                    Balance        |
 |                                                                                                           |
 |  Scorpio           Skorpiou a.           S. Scorpionis            Scorpius                 Scorpion       |
 |                                                                                                           |
 |  Sagittarius       Toxotou a.            S. Sagittarii, Arcum     Sagittarius              Archer         |
 |                                                                                                           |
 |  Capricornus       Aigokerôtos a.        S. Capricorni            Capricornus              Goat           |
 |                                                                                                           |
 |  Aquarius          Hydrochoou a.         S. Effusoris aquae,      Aquarius                 Water-pourer   |
 |                                            Situla                                                         |
 |                                                                                                           |
 |  Pisces            Ichthyôn a.           S. Piscis                Pisces                   Fishes         |
 |                                                                                                           |
 |                                                                                                           |
 |  Southern constellations (15).                                                                            |
 |  -----------------------------                                                                            |
 |                                                                                                           |
 |  Cetus             Kêtous a.             S. Ceti                  Cete                     Sea-monster,   |
 |                                                                                              Whale        |
 |                                                                                                           |
 |  Orion             Ôrionos a.            S. Gigantis              Orion                    Orion          |
 |                                                                                                           |
 |  Eridanus          Potamou a.            S. Fluminis              Eridanus fluvius         River          |
 |                                                                                                           |
 |  Lepus             Lagôou a.             S. Leporis               Lepus                    Hare           |
 |                                                                                                           |
 |  Canis major       Kynos a.              S. Canis majoris         Canis major              Great Dog      |
 |                                                                                                           |
 |  Canis minor       Prokynos a.           S. Canis minoris         Canis minor, Procyon     Little Dog     |
 |                                                                                                           |
 |  Argo              Argous a.             S. Navis                 Argo navis               Ship           |
 |                                                                                                           |
 |  Hydra             Hydrou a.             S. Hydri                 Hydra                    Sea-serpent    |
 |                                                                                                           |
 |  Crater            Kratêros a.           S. Craterae              Crater                   Bowl           |
 |                                                                                                           |                                                                                                            |
 |  Corvus            Korakos a.            S. Corvi                 Corvus                   Crow           |
 |                                                                                                           |
 |  Centaurus         Kentaurou a.          S. Centauri              Centaurus, Chiron        Centaur        |
 |                                                                                                           |
 |  Lupus             Thêriou a.            S. Ferae                                          Wild beast     |
 |                                                                                                           |
 |  Ara               Thymiatêriou a.       S. Thuribuli                                      Censer, Altar  |
 |                                                                                                           |
 |  Corona australis  Stephanou notiou a.   S. Coronae australis                              Southern Crown |
 |                                                                                                           |
 |  Piscis australis  Ichthyos notiou a.    S. Piscis australis                               Southern Fish  |
 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

In Edmund Halley's southern catalogue (_Catalogus stellarum
australium_), published in 1679 and incorporated in Flamsteed's
_Historia coelestis_ (1725), the following constellations are
named:--Piscis australis, Columba Noachi, Argo navis, Robur Caroli, Ara,
Corona australis, Grus, Phoenix, Pavo, Apus or Avis Indica, Musca apis,
Chameleon, Triangulum australe, Piscis volans, Dorado or Xiphias, Toucan
or Anser Americanus, and Hydrus. Flamsteed's maps also contained Mons
Menelai. This list contains nothing new except Robur Caroli, since
Columba Noachi (Noah's dove) had been raised to the skies by Bartschius
in 1624. The constellation Robur Caroli and also the star Cor Caroli
([alpha] Canum Venaticorum) were named by Halley in honour of Charles
II. of England.

In 1690 two posthumous works of Johann Hevelius (1611-1687), the
_Firmamentum sobiescianum_ and _Prodromus astronomiae_, added several
new constellations to the list, viz. Canes venatici (the Greyhounds),
Lacerta (the Lizard), Leo minor (Little Lion), Lynx, Sextans Uraniae,
Scutum or Clypeus Sobieskii (the shield of Sobieski), Vulpecula et Anser
(Fox and Goose), Cerberus, Camelopardus (Giraffe), and Monoceros
(Unicorn); the last two were originally due to Jacobus Bartschius. In
1679 Augustine Royer introduced the most interesting of the
constellations of the southern hemisphere, the Crux australis or
Southern Cross. He also suggested Nubes major, Nubes minor, and Lilium,
and re-named Canes venatici the river Jordan, and Vulpecula et Anser
the river Tigris, but these innovations met with no approval. The
Magellanic clouds, a collection of nebulae, stars and star-clusters in
the neighbourhood of the south pole, were so named by Hevelius in honour
of the navigator Ferdinand Magellan.

Many other star-groupings have been proposed from time to time; in some
cases a separate name has been given to a part of an authoritatively
accepted constellation, e.g. Ensis Orionis, the sword of Orion, or an
ancient constellation may be subdivided, e.g. Argo (ship) into Argo,
Malus (mast), Vela (sails), Puppis (stern), Carina (keel); and whereas
some of the rearrangements, which have been mostly confined to the
southern hemisphere, have been accepted, many, reflecting nothing but
idiosyncrasies of the proposers, have deservedly dropped into oblivion.
Nicolas Louis de Lacaille, who made extended observations of the
southern stars in 1751 and in the following years, and whose results
were embodied in his posthumous _Coelum australe stelliferum_ (1763),
introduced the following new constellations:--Apparatus sculptoris
(Sculptor's workshop), Fornax chemica (Chemical furnace), Horologium
(Clock), Reticulus rhomboidalis (Rhomboidal net), Caela sculptoris
(Sculptor's chisels), Equuleus pictoris (Painter's easel), Pyxis nautica
(Mariner's compass), Antlia pneumatica (Air pump), Octans (Octant),
Circinus (Compasses), Norma _alias_ Quadra Euclidis (Square),
Telescopium (Telescope), Microscopium (Microscope) and Mons Mensae
(Table Mountain). Pierre Charles Lemonnier in 1776 introduced Tarandus
(Reindeer), and Solitarius; J. J. L. de Lalande introduced Le Messier
(after the astronomer Charles Messier) (1776), Quadrans muralis (Mural
quadrant) (1795), Globus aerostaticus (Air balloon) (1798), and Felis
(the Cat) (1799). Martin Poczobut introduced in 1777 Taurus
Poniatovskii; Bode introduced the Honores Frederici (Honours of
Frederick) (1786), Telescopium Herschelii (Telescope of Herschel)
(1787), Machina electrica (Electrical machine) (1790), Officina
typographica (Printing press) (1799), and Lochium funis (Log line); and
M. Hell formed the Psalterium Georgianum (George's lute).

The following list gives the names of the constellations now usually
employed: they are divided into three groups:--north of the zodiac, in
the zodiac, south of the zodiac. Those marked with an asterisk have
separate articles.

                           _Northern_ (28).

  *Andromeda        *Cepheus          *Hercules         Pegasus
  *Aquila           *Coma Berenices    Lacerta         *Perseus
  *Auriga           *Corona borealis  *Leo minor       *Sagitta
  *Boötes           *Cygnus            Lynx             Serpens
   Camelopardus     *Delphinus        *Lyra             Triangulum
  *Canes venatici    Draco           { Ophiuchus       *Ursa major
  *Cassiopeia        Equuleus        {*Serpentarius    *Ursa minor
                                                       *Vulpecula et Anser

                           _Zodiacal_ (12).

  *Aquarius         *Capricornus      *Libra           *Scorpio
  *Aries            *Gemini           *Pisces          *Taurus
  *Cancer           *Leo              *Sagittarius     *Virgo.

                           _Southern_ (49).

   Antlia            Columba Noachi    Lupus            Puppis
    (pneumatica)     Corona australis  Malus            Recticulum
   Apus              Corvus            Microscopium     Sculptor
  *Ara               Crater            Monoceros          (Apparatus
   Argo              Crux              Musca australis     sculptoris)
   Caela sculptoris  Dorado            Norma            Scutum Sobieskii
     (Caelum)       *Eridanus          Octans           Sextans
  *Canis major       Fornax chemica   *Orion            Telescopium
   Canis minor       Grus              Pavo             Toucan
   Carina            Horologium        Phoenix          Triangulum australe
  *Centaurus        *Hydra             Pictor           Vela
  *Cetus             Hydrus              (Equuleus      Volans
   Chameleon         Indus                pictoris)       (Piscis volans)
   Circinus          Lepus             Piscis australis
                                                                (C. E.*)


FOOTNOTE:

  [1] The historical development of star-catalogues in general, regarded
    as statistics of the co-ordinates, &c., of stars, is given in the
    historical section of the article Astronomy. See also E. B. Knobel,
    "Chronology of Star Catalogues," _Mem. R.A.S._ (1877).




CONSTIPATION (from Lat. _constipare_, to press closely together, whence
also the adjective "costive"), the condition of body when the faeces are
unduly retained, or there is difficulty in evacuation, tightness of the
bowels (see Digestive Organs; and Therapeutics). It may be due to
constitutional peculiarities, sedentary or irregular habits, improper
diet, &c. The treatment varies with individual cases, according to the
cause at work, laxatives, dieting, massage, &c., being prescribed.




CONSTITUENCY (from "constituent," that which forms a necessary part of a
thing; Lat. _constituere_, to create), a political term for the body of
electors who choose a representative for parliament or for any other
public assembly, for the place or district possessing the right to elect
a representative, and for the residents generally, apart from their
voting powers, in such a locality. The term is also applied, in a
transferred sense, to the readers of a particular newspaper, the
customers of a business and the like.




CONSTITUTION AND CONSTITUTIONAL LAW. The word constitution
(_constitutio_) in the time of the Roman empire signified a collection
of laws or ordinances made by the emperor. We find the word used in the
same sense in the early history of English law, _e.g._ the Constitutions
of Clarendon. In its modern use constitution has been restricted to
those rules which concern the political structure of society. If we take
the accepted definition of a law as a command imposed by a sovereign on
the subject, the constitution would consist of the rules which point out
where the sovereign is to be found, the form in which his powers are
exercised, and the relations of the different members of the sovereign
body to each other where it consists of more persons than one. In every
independent political society, it is assumed by these definitions, there
will be found somewhere or other a sovereign, whether that sovereign be
a single person, or a body of persons, or several bodies of persons. The
commands imposed by the sovereign person or body on the rest of the
society are positive laws, properly so called. The sovereign body not
only makes laws, but has two other leading functions, viz. those of
judicature and administration. Legislation is for the most part
performed directly by the sovereign body itself; judicature and
administration, for the most part, by delegates. The constitution of a
society, accordingly, would show how the sovereign body is composed, and
what are the relations of its members _inter se_, and how the sovereign
functions of legislation, judicature and administration are exercised.
Constitutional law consists of the rules relating to these subjects, and
these rules may either be laws properly so called, or they may not--i.e.
they may or may not be commands imposed by the sovereign body itself.
The English constitutional rule, for example, that the king and
parliament are the sovereign, cannot be called a law; for a law
presupposes the fact which it asserts. And other rules, which are
constantly observed in practice, but have never been enacted by the
sovereign power, are in the same way constitutional laws which are not
laws. It is an undoubted rule of the English constitution that the king
shall not refuse his assent to a bill which has passed both Houses of
Parliament, but it is certainly not a law. Should the king veto such a
bill his action would be unconstitutional, but not illegal. On the other
hand the rules relating to the election of members to the House of
Commons are nearly all positive laws strictly so called. Constitutional
law, as the phrase is commonly used, would include all the laws dealing
with the sovereign body in the exercise of its various functions, and
all the rules, not being laws properly so called, relating to the same
subject.

The above is an attempt to indicate the meaning of the phrases in their
stricter or more technical uses. Some wider meanings may be noticed. In
the phrase constitutional government, a form of government based on
certain principles which may roughly be called popular is the leading
idea. Great Britain, Switzerland, the United States, are all
constitutional governments in this sense of the word. A country where a
large portion of the people has some considerable share in the supreme
power would be a constitutional country. On the other hand,
constitutional, as applied to governments, may mean stable as opposed to
unstable and anarchic societies. Again, as a term of party politics,
constitutional has come to mean, in England, not obedience to
constitutional rules as above described, but adherence to the existing
type of the constitution or to some conspicuous portions thereof,--in
other words, conservative.

The ideas associated with constitution and constitutionalism are thus,
it will be seen, mainly of modern and European origin. They are wholly
inapplicable to the primitive and simple societies of the present or of
the former times. The discussion of forms of government occupies a large
space in the writings of the Greek philosophers,--a fact which is to be
explained by the existence among the Greeks of many independent
political communities, variously organized, and more or less democratic
in character. Between the political problems of the smaller societies
and those of the great European nations there is no useful parallel to
be drawn, although the predominance of classical learning made it the
fashion for a long time to apply Greek speculations on the nature of
monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy to public questions in modern
Europe. Representation (q.v.), the characteristic principle of European
constitutions, has, of course, no place in societies which were not too
large to admit of every free citizen participating personally in the
business of government. Nor is there much in the politics or the
political literature of the Romans to compare with the constitutions of
modern states. Their political system, almost from the beginning of
empire, was ruled absolutely by a small assembly or by one man.

The impetus to constitutional government in modern times has to a large
extent come from England, and it is from English politics that the
phrase and its associations have been borrowed. England has offered to
the world the one conspicuous example of a long, continuous, and orderly
development of political institutions. The early date at which the
principle of self-government was established in England, the steady
growth of the principle, the absence of civil dissension, and the
preservation in the midst of change of so much of the old organization,
have given its constitution a great influence over the ideas of
politicians in other countries. This fact is expressed in the proverbial
phrase--"England is the mother of parliaments." It would not be
difficult to show that the leading features of the constitutions now
established in other nations have been based on, or defended by,
considerations arising from the political history of England.

In one important respect England differs conspicuously from most other
countries. Her constitution is to a large extent _unwritten_, using the
word in much the same sense as when we speak of unwritten law. Its rules
can be found in no written document, but depend, as so much of English
law does, on precedent modified by a constant process of interpretation.
Many rules of the constitution have in fact a purely legal history, that
is to say, they have been developed by the law courts, as part of the
general body of the common law. Others have in a similar way been
developed by the practice of parliament. Both Houses, in fact, have
exhibited the same spirit of adherence to precedent, coupled with a
power of modifying precedent to suit circumstances, which distinguishes
the judicial tribunals. In a constitutional crisis the House of Commons
appoints a committee to "search its journals for precedents," just as
the court of king's bench would examine the records of its own
decisions. And just as the law, while professing to remain the same, is
in process of constant change, so, too, the unwritten constitution is,
without any acknowledgment of the fact, constantly taking up new ground.

In contrast with the mobility of an unwritten constitution is the fixity
of a constitution written out, like that of the United States or
Switzerland, in one authoritative code. The constitution of the United
States, drawn up at Philadelphia in 1787, is contained in a code of
articles. It was ratified separately by each state, and thenceforward
became the positive and exclusive statement of the constitution. The
legislative powers of the legislature are not to extend to certain kinds
of bills, e.g. _ex post facto_ bills; the president has a veto which can
only be overcome by a majority of two-thirds in both Houses; the
constitution itself can only be changed in any particular by the consent
of the legislatures or conventions of three-fourths of the several
states; and finally the judges of the Supreme Court are to decide in all
disputed cases whether an act of the legislature is permitted by the
constitution or not.

The constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the land as
to the matters which it embraces. The constitution of each state is the
supreme law of the state, except so far as it may be controlled by the
constitution of the United States. Every statute in conflict with the
constitution to which it is subordinate is void so far as this conflict
extends. If it concerns only a distinct and separable part of the
statute, that part only is void. Every court before which a statutory
right or defence is asserted has the power to inquire whether the
statute in question is or is not in conflict with the paramount
constitution. This power belongs even to a justice of the peace in
trying a cause. He sits to administer the law, and it is for him to
determine what is the law. Inferior courts commonly decline to hold a
statute unconstitutional, even if there may appear to be substantial
grounds for such a decision. The presumption is always in favour of the
validity of the law, and they generally prefer to leave the
responsibility of declaring it void to the higher courts.

The judges of the state courts are bound by their oath of office to
support the constitution of the United States. They have an equal right
with those of the United States to determine whether or how far it
affects any matter brought in question in any action. So, vice versa,
the judges of the United States courts, if the point comes up on a trial
before them, have the right to determine whether or how far the
constitution of a state invalidates a statute of the state. They,
however, are ordinarily bound to follow the views of the state courts on
such a question. They are not bound by any decision of a state court as
to the effect of the constitution of the United States on a state
statute or any other matter. This judicial power of declaring a statute
void because unconstitutional has been not infrequently exercised, from
the time when the first state constitutions were adopted.

Juries in criminal causes are sometimes made by American statutes or
recognized by American practice as judges of the law as well as the
fact. The better opinion is that this does not make them judges of
whether a law on which the prosecution rests violates the paramount
constitution and is therefore void (_United States_ v. _Callender_,
Wharton's _State Trials_, 688; _State_ v. _Main_, 69 Connecticut
Reports, 123, 128).

If a state court decides a point of constitutional law, set up under the
constitution of the United States, against the party relying upon it,
and this decision is affirmed by the state court of last resort, he may
sue out a writ of error, and so bring his case before the Supreme Court
of the United States. If the state decision be in his favour, the other
side cannot resort to like proceedings.

A decree of the Supreme Court of the United States on a point of
construction arising under the constitution of the United States settles
it for all courts, state and national.

The salient characteristic of the United States constitution is,
perhaps, its formidable apparatus of provisions against change; and, in
fact, only 15 constitutional amendments had been adopted from 1789 up to
1909, the last being in 1870. In the same period the unwritten
constitution of England has made a most marked advance, chiefly in the
direction of democratizing the monarchy, and diminishing the powers of
the House of Lords. The House of Commons has continuously asserted its
legislative predominance, and has reduced the other House to the
position of a revising chamber, which in the last resort, however, can
produce a legislative deadlock, subject to the results of a new general
election (see Parliament). And the cabinet, which depends on the
support of the House of Commons, has become more and more the executive
council of the realm. One conspicuous feature of the English
constitution, by which it is broadly distinguished from written or
artificial constitutions, is the presence throughout its entire extent
of legal fictions. The influence of the lawyers on the progress of the
constitution has already been noticed, and is nowhere more clearly shown
than in this peculiarity of its structure. As in the common law, so in
the constitution, change has been effected in substance without any
corresponding change in terminology. There is hardly one of the phrases
used to describe the position of the crown which can be understood in
its literal sense, and many of them are currently accepted in more
senses than one. The American constitution of 1789 reproduced, however,
in essentials, and with necessary modifications, the contemporary
British model, and, where it did so, has preserved the old conception of
what was then the British system of Government. The position and powers
of the president were a fair counterpart of the royal prerogative of
that day; the two houses of Congress corresponded sufficiently well to
the House of Lords and the House of Commons, allowing for the absence of
the elements of hereditary rank and territorial influence. While the
English constitution has changed much, the American constitution has
changed very little in these respects. Allowing for the more democratic
character of the constituencies, the organization of the supreme power
in the United States is nearer the English type of the 18th century--is,
in fact, less elastic than in the United Kingdom.

On the other hand, it is not uncommon to misinterpret the rigidity of
the United States constitution, from a regard rather to the theory which
its text suggests than to the practical working of the machine. For the
letter of the constitution has to some extent been modified, if not
technically amended, in various respects by judicial interpretation, and
by use and wont (e.g. as regards the election of the president). This
side of the matter may be studied in C. G. Tiedeman's work cited below.
Moreover, even in respect of the 18th-century British character
attaching to the constitution, as drawn up in 1787, it has to be
remembered that this was not taken direct from England. As several
American constitutional historians have elaborately shown (e.g. A. C.
McLaughlin, in _The Confederation and the Constitution_, 1905), the
English idea had already been developed in various directions during the
preceding colonial period, and the constitution really represented the
English constitutional usage _as known in America_, into which the
Philadelphia convention introduced new features corresponding to the
prevailing civil conditions or suggested by English analogy. It is
important to emphasize this point, since the resemblance of the American
constitution of 1789 to the contemporary English constitution has
sometimes been exaggerated; but the fact remains that the written
constitution has been less susceptible of development than the
unwritten.

Between England and some other constitutional countries a difference of
much constitutional importance is to be found in the terms on which the
component parts of the country were brought together. All great
societies have been produced by the aggregation of small societies into
larger and larger groups. In England the process of consolidation was
completed before the constitution settled down into its present form. In
the United States, on the other hand, in Switzerland, and in Germany the
constitution is in form an alliance among a number of separate states,
each of which may have a constitution and laws of its own for local
purposes. In federal governments it remains a question how far the
independence of individual states has been sacrificed by submission to a
constitution. In the United States constitutional progress is hampered
by the necessity thus created of having every amendment ratified by the
separate vote of three-fourths of the states.

   See also Government; Sovereignty; Cabinet; Prerogative, &c., and the
   section on Government or Constitution in the articles on the various
   countries. The standard work on the English constitution is Sir
   William Anson's _Law and Custom of the Constitution_ (1st ed. 1886;
   3rd ed. 1909); see also A. L. Lowell, _The Government_ _of England_
   (1908); W. Bagehot, _The English Constitution_; S. Low, _The
   Governance of England_ (1904); A. V. Dicey, _The Law of the
   Constitution_ (7th ed. 1909); W. Stubbs, _Constitutional History of
   England_ (1878); R. Gneist, _History of the English Constitution_
   (Engl. trans. 1886); J. Macy, _The English Constitution_ (New York,
   1897); E. W. Ridges, _Constitutional Law of England_ (1905); F. W.
   Maitland, _Constitutional History of England_ (1908); G. B. Adams and
   H. M. Stephens, _Select Documents of English Constitutional History_
   (New York, 1901). For America, see C. E. Stevens, _Sources of the
   Constitution of the United States_ (London and New York, 1894); G. T.
   Curtis, _Constitutional History of the United States_ (2 vols., New
   York, 1889-1896); T. McI. Cooley, _General Principles of
   Constitutional Law in the United States_ (Boston, 1880; 3rd ed.
   1898); S. G. Fisher, _Evolution of the Constitution of the United
   States_ (Philadelphia, 1897); J. I. C. Hare, _American Constitutional
   Law_ (2 vols., Boston, 1889); J. F. Jameson (ed.), _Essays on the
   Constitutional History of the United States in the Formative Period,
   1775-1789_ (Boston, 1889); W. M. Meigs, _Growth of the Constitution
   in the Federal Convention of 1787_ (Philadelphia, 1900); and C. G.
   Tiedeman, _Unwritten Constitution of the United States_ (New York,
   1890). Also A. L. Lowell, _Government and Parties in Continental
   Europe_ (2 vols., 1896); W. F. _Dodd, Modern Constitutions_ (2 vols.,
   Chicago, 1909), a collection of the fundamental laws of twenty-two of
   the most important countries.




"CONSTITUTION OF ATHENS" ([Greek: Athênaiôn politeia]), a work
attributed to the philosopher Aristotle (384-322 B.C.), forming one of a
series of _Constitutions_ ([Greek: politeiai]), 158 in number, which
treated of the institutions of the various states in the Greek world. It
was extant until the 7th century of our era, or to an even later date,
but was subsequently lost. A copy of this treatise, written in four
different hands upon four rolls of papyrus, and dating from the end of
the 1st century A.D., was discovered in Egypt, and acquired by the
trustees of the British Museum, for whom it was edited by F. G. Kenyon,
assistant in the manuscript department, and published in January 1891.
Some very imperfect fragments of another copy had been acquired by the
Egyptian Museum at Berlin, and were published in 1880.

_Authorship._--It may be regarded as now established that the treatise
discovered in Egypt is identical with the work upon the constitution of
Athens that passed in antiquity under the name of Aristotle. The
evidence derived from a comparison of the British Museum papyrus with
the quotations from the lost work of Aristotle's which are found in
scholiasts and grammarians is conclusive. Of fifty-eight quotations from
Aristotle's work, fifty-five occur in the papyrus. Of thirty-three
quotations from Aristotle, which relate to matters connected with the
constitution, or the constitutional history of Athens, although they are
not expressly referred to the [Greek: Athênaiôn politeia], twenty-three
are found in the papyrus. Of those not found in the papyrus, the
majority appear to have come either from the beginning of the treatise,
which is wanting in the papyrus, or from the latter portion of it, which
is mutilated. The coincidence, therefore, is as nearly as possible
complete. It may also be regarded as established by internal evidence
that the treatise was composed during the interval between Aristotle's
return to Athens in 335 B.C. and his death in 322. There are two
passages which give us the latter year as the _terminus ad quem_, viz.
c. 42. 1 and c. 62. 2. In the former passage the democracy which is
about to be described is spoken of as the "present constitution"
([Greek: ê nun katastasis tês politeias]). The democratic constitution
was abolished, and a timocracy established, on the surrender of Athens
to Antipater, at the end of the Lamian War, in the autumn of 322. At the
same time Samos was lost; it is still reckoned, however, among the
Athenian possessions in the latter passage. On the other hand, the
foreign possessions of Athens are limited to Lemnos, Imbros, Scyros,
Delos and Samos. This could only apply to the period after Chaeronea
(338 B.C.). In c. 61. 1, again, mention is made of a special Strategus
[Greek: epi tas symmorias]; but it can be proved from inscriptions that
down to the year 334 the generals were _collectively_ concerned with the
symmories. Finally, in c. 54. 7 an event is dated by the archonship of
Cephisophon (329). We thus get the years 329 and 322 as fixing the
limits of the period to which the composition of the work must be
assigned. It follows that, whether it is by Aristotle or not, its date
is later than that of the _Politics_, in which there is no reference to
any event subsequent to the death of Philip in 336.

The only question as to authorship that can fairly be raised is the
question whether it is by Aristotle or by a pupil; i.e. as to the sense
in which it is "Aristotelian." The argument on the two sides may be
summarized as follows:--

_Against._--(i.) The occurrence of non-Aristotelian words and phrases
and the absence of turns of expression characteristic of the undisputed
writings of Aristotle. (ii.) The occurrence of statements contradictory
of views found in the _Politics_; e.g. c. 4 (Constitution of Draco)
compared with _Pol._ 1274 b 15 ([Greek: Drakontos nomoi men eisi,
politeia d' hyparchousê tous nomous ethêken]); c. 8. 1 (the archons
appointed by lot out of selected candidates) compared with _Pol._ 1274 a
17, and 1281 b 31 (the archons elected by the _demos_); c. 17. 1 (total
length of Peisistratus' reign, 19 years) compared with _Pol._ 1315 b 32
(total length, 17 years); c. 21. 6 (Cleisthenes left the clan and
phratries unaltered) compared with _Pol._ 1319 b 20 (Cleisthenes
increased the number of the phratries); c. 21. 2 and 4 compared with
_Pol._ 1275 b 37 (different views as to the class admitted to
citizenship by Cleisthenes). It will be observed that the instances
quoted relate to the most famous names in the early history of Athens,
viz. Draco, Solon, Peisistratus and Cleisthenes. (iii.) Arguments drawn
from the style, composition and general character of the work, which are
alleged to be unworthy of the author of the undoubtedly genuine
writings. There is no sense of proportion (contrast the space devoted to
Peisistratus and his sons, or to the Four Hundred and the Thirty, with
the inadequate treatment of the period between the Persian and
Peloponnesian Wars); there is a lack of historical insight and an
uncritical acceptance of erroneous views; and the anecdotic element is
unduly prominent. These considerations led several of the earlier
critics to deny the Aristotelian authorship, e.g. the editors of the
Dutch edition of the text, van Herwerden and van Leeuwen; Rühl, Cauer
and Schvarcz in Germany; H. Richards and others in England.

_For._--(i.) The consensus of antiquity. Every ancient writer who
mentions the _Constitution_ attributes it to Aristotle, while no writer
is known to have questioned its genuineness. (ii.) The coincidence of
the date assigned to its composition on internal grounds with the date
of Aristotle's second residence in Athens. (iii.) Parallelisms of
thought or expression with passages in the _Politics_; e.g. c. 16. 2 and
3 compared with _Pol._ 1318 b 14 and 1319 a 30; the general view of
Solon's legislation compared with _Pol._ 1296 b 1; c. 27. 3 compared
with _Pol._ 1274 a 9. To argument (i.) against the authorship, it is
replied that the _Constitution_ is an historical work, intended for
popular use; differences in style and terminology from those of a
philosophical treatise, such as the _Politics_, are to be expected. To
argument (ii.) it is replied that, as the _Constitution_ is a later work
than the _Politics_, a change of view upon particular points is not
surprising. These considerations have led the great majority of writers
upon the subject to attribute the work to Aristotle himself. On this
side are found Kenyon and Sandys among English scholars, and in Germany,
Wilamowitz, Blass, Gilbert, Bauer, Bruno Keil, Busolt, E. Meyer, and
many others. On the whole, it can hardly be doubted that the view which
is supported by so great a weight of authority is the correct one. The
arguments advanced on the other side are not to be lightly set aside,
but they can scarcely outweigh the combination of external and internal
evidence in favour of the attribution to Aristotle. An attentive study
of the parallel passages in the _Politics_ will go a long way towards
carrying conviction. It is true that a series such as the
_Constitutions_ might well be entrusted to pupils working under the
direction of their master. It is also true, however, that the
_Constitution of Athens_ must have been incomparably the most important
of the series and the one that would be most naturally reserved for the
master's hand. There are no traces in the treatise either of variety of
authorship or of incompleteness, though there are evidences of
interpolation.

_Contents._--The treatise consists of two parts, one historical, and the
other descriptive. The first forty-one chapters compose the former part,
the remainder of the work the latter. The first part comprised an
account of the original constitution of Athens, and of the eleven
changes through which it successively passed (see c. 41). The papyrus,
however, is imperfect at the beginning (the manuscript from which it was
copied appears to have been similarly defective), the text commencing in
the middle of a sentence which relates to the trial and banishment of
the Alcmeonidae for their part in the affair of Cylon. The missing
chapters must have contained a sketch of the original constitution, and
of the changes introduced in the time of Ion and Theseus.

   The following is an abstract of Part I. in its present form. Chapters
   2, 3, description of the constitution before the time of Draco. 4,
   Draco's constitution. 5-12, reforms of Solon. 13, party feuds after
   the legislation of Solon. 14-19, the rule of Peisistratus and his
   sons. 20, 21, the reforms of Cleisthenes. 22, changes introduced
   between Cleisthenes and the invasion of Xerxes. 23, 24, the supremacy
   of the Areopagus, 479-461 B.C. 25, its overthrow by Ephialtes. 26,
   27, changes introduced in the time of Pericles. 28, the rise of the
   demagogues. 29-33, the revolution of the Four Hundred. 34-40, the
   government of the Thirty. 41, list of the successive changes in the
   constitution. It may be noted that the reforms of Solon, the tyranny
   of Peisistratus and his sons, and the revolutions of the Four Hundred
   and the Thirty, together occupy considerably more than two-thirds of
   Part I.

   Part II. describes the constitution as it existed at the period of
   the composition of the treatise (329-322 B.C.). It begins with an
   account of the conditions of citizenship and of the training of the
   _ephebi_ (citizens between the ages of 18 and 20). In chapters 43-49
   the functions of the Council ([Greek: boulê]) and of the officials
   who act in concert with it are described. 50-60 deal with the
   officials who are appointed by lot, of whom the most important are
   the nine Archons, to whose functions five chapters (55-59) are
   devoted. The military officers, who come under the head of elective
   officials, form the subject of c. 61. With c. 63 begins the section
   on the Law-courts, which occupied the remainder of the
   _Constitution_. This portion, with the exception of c. 63, is
   fragmentary in character, owing to the mutilated condition of the
   fourth roll of the papyrus on which it was written. It will thus be
   seen that the subjects which receive fullest treatment in Part II.
   are the Council, the Archons and the Law-courts. The Ecclesia, on the
   other hand, is dealt with very briefly, in connexion with the
   _prytaneis_ and _proedri_ (cc. 43, 44).

_Sources._--The labours of several workers in this field, notably Bruno
Keil and Wilamowitz, have rendered it comparatively easy to form a
general estimate of Aristotle's indebtedness to previous writers,
although problems of great difficulty are encountered as soon as it is
attempted to determine the precise sources from which the historical
part of the work is derived. Among these sources are unquestionably
Herodotus (for the tyranny of Peisistratus, and for the struggle between
Cleisthenes and Isagoras), Thucydides (for the episode of Harmodius and
Aristogeiton, and for the Four Hundred), Xenophon (for the Thirty), and
the poems of Solon. There is now among critics a general consensus in
favour of the view that the most important of his sources was the
_Atthis_ of Androtion, a work published in all probability only a few
years earlier than the _Constitution_; in any case, after the year 346.
From it are derived not only the passages which are annalistic in
character and read like excerpts from a chronicle (e.g. c. 13. 1, 2; c.
22; c. 26. 2, 3), but also most of the matter common to the
_Constitution_ and to Plutarch's _Solon_. The coincidences with
Plutarch, which are often verbal, and extend to about 50 lines out of
170 in cc. 5-11 of the _Constitution_, can best be explained on the
hypothesis that Hermippus, the writer followed by Plutarch, used the
same source as Aristotle, viz. the _Atthis_ of Androtion. Androtion is
probably closely followed in the account of the pre-Draconian
constitution, and to him appear to be due the explanation of local names
(e.g. [Greek: chôrion ateles]), or proverbial expressions (e.g. [Greek:
to mê phylokrinein]), as well as the account of "Strategems" such as
that of Themistocles against the Areopagus (c. 25) or that employed by
Peisistratus in order to disarm the people (c. 15. 4). Whether the
anecdotes, which are a conspicuous feature in the _Constitution_, should
be referred to the same source is more open to doubt. It is also
generally agreed that among the sources was a work, written towards the
end of the 5th century B.C., by an author of oligarchical sympathies,
with the object of defaming the character and policy of the heroes of
the democracy. This source can be traced in passages such as c. 6. 2
(Solon turning the Seisachtheia to the profit of himself and his
friends), 9. 2 (obscurity of Solon's laws intentional, cf. c. 35. 2),
27. 4 (Pericles' motive for the introduction of the dicasts' pay). But
while the object ([Greek: oi boulomenoi blasphêmein], c. 6) and the date
of this oligarchical pamphlet (for the date cf. Plutarch's _Solon_, c.
15 [Greek: oi peri Konôna kai Kleinian kai Hipponikon], which points to
a time when Conon, Alcibiades and Callias were prominent in public life)
are fairly certain, the authorship is quite uncertain, as is also its
relationship to another source of importance, viz. that from which are
derived the accounts of the Four Hundred and the Thirty. The view taken
of the character and course of these revolutions betrays a strong bias
in favour of Theramenes, whose ideal is alleged to have been the [Greek:
patrios politeia]. It has been maintained, on the one hand, that this
last source (the authority followed in the accounts of the Four Hundred
and the Thirty) is identical with the oligarchical pamphlet, and, on the
other, that it is none other than the _Atthis_ of Androtion. The former
hypothesis is improbable. In favour of the latter two arguments may be
adduced. In the first place, Androtion's father, Andron, was one of the
Four Hundred, and took Theramenes' side. Secondly, the precise marks of
time, which are characteristic of the _Atthis_, are conspicuous in these
chapters. In view, however, of the fact that Androtion in his political
career showed himself not only a democrat, but a democrat of the extreme
school, the hypothesis must be pronounced untenable.

_Value._--It is by no means easy to convey a just impression of the
value of Aristotle's work as an authority for the constitutional history
of Athens. In all that relates to the practice of his own day
Aristotle's authority is final. There can be no question, therefore, as
to the importance, or the trustworthy character, of the Second Part. But
even here a caution is necessary. It must be remembered that its
authority is final for the 4th century only, and that we are not
justified in arguing from the practice of the 4th century to that of the
5th, unless corroborative evidence is available. In the First Part,
however, where he is treating of the institutions and practice of a past
age, Aristotle's authority is very far from being final. An analysis of
this part of the work discloses his dependence, in a remarkable degree,
upon his sources. Occasionally he compares, criticizes or combines; as a
rule he adheres closely to the writer whom he is using. There is no
evidence, either of independent inquiry, or of the utilization of other
sources than literary ones. Where "original documents" are quoted, or
referred to, as e.g. in the history of the Four Hundred, or of the
Thirty, it is probable that he derived them from a previous writer. For
the authority of Aristotle we must substitute, therefore, the authority
of his sources; i.e. the value of any particular statement will vary
with the character of the source from which it comes. For the history of
the 5th century the passages which come from Androtion's _Atthis_ carry
with them a high degree of authority. It by no means follows, however,
that a statement relating to earlier times is to be accepted simply
because it is derived from the same source. And in passages which are
derived from other sources than the _Atthis_ a much lower degree of
authority can be claimed, even for statements relating to the 5th
century. The supremacy of the Areopagus after the Persian Wars, the
policy attributed to Aristides (c. 24), and the association of
Themistocles with Ephialtes, are cases in point. Nor must the reader
expect to find in the _Constitution_ a great work, in any sense of the
term. The style, it is true, is simple and clear, and the writer's
criticisms are sensible. But the reader will look in vain for evidence
of the philosophic insight which makes the _Politics_, even at the
present day, the best text-book of political philosophy. It is perhaps
hardly too much to say that there is not a single great idea in the
whole work. He will look in vain, too, for any consistent view of the
history of the constitution as a whole, or for any adequate account of
its development. He will find occasional misunderstandings of measures,
and confusions of thought. There are appreciations which it is difficult
to accept, and inaccuracies which it is difficult to pardon. There are
contradictions which the author has overlooked, and there are omissions
which are unaccountable. Yet, in spite of such defects, the importance
of the _Constitution_ can hardly be exaggerated. Its recovery has
rendered obsolete any history of the Athenian constitution that was
written before the year 1891. Before this date our knowledge was largely
derived from the statements of scholiasts and lexicographers which had
not seldom been misunderstood. The recovery of the _Constitution_ puts
us for the first time in possession of the evidence. To appreciate the
difference that has been made by its recovery, it is only necessary to
compare what we now know of the reforms of Cleisthenes with what we
formerly knew. It is much of it evidence that needs a careful process of
weighing and sifting before it can be safely used; but it is, as a rule,
the best, or the only evidence. The First Part may be less trustworthy
than the Second; it is not less indispensable to the student of
constitutional history.

   BIBLIOGRAPHY.--A conspectus of the literature of the _Constitution_
   complete down to the end of 1892 is given in Sandys p. lxvii., and,
   though less complete, down to the beginning of 1895 in Busolt,
   _Griechische Geschichte_, 2nd ed. vol. ii. p. 15. In the present
   article only the most important editions, works or articles are
   mentioned.

   Editions of the text: _Editio princeps_, ed. by F. G. Kenyon, 30th
   January 1891, with commentary. Autotype facsimile of the papyrus
   (1891). _Aristotelis_ [Greek: politeia Athênaiôn], ed. G. Kaibel et
   U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff (Berlin, Weidmann, 1891). _Aristotelis
   qui fertur_ [Greek: Athênaiôn politeia] recensuerunt H. van Herwerden
   et J. van Leeuwen (Leiden, 1891). Teubner text, ed. by F. Blass
   (Leipzig, 1892). Edition of the text without commentary by Kenyon.

   Most of these have passed through several editions. The fullest
   commentary is that contained in the edition of the text by J. E.
   Sandys (London, 1893). The best translations are those of Kenyon, in
   English, and of Kaibel and Kiessling, in German.

   Works dealing with the subject: Bruno Keil, _Die Solonische
   Verfassung nach Aristoteles_ (Berlin, 1892); G. Gilbert,
   _Constitutional Antiquities of Sparta and Athens_ (Eng. trans.,
   1895); U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, _Aristoteles und Athen_ (2
   vols., Berlin, 1893), a work of great importance, in spite of many
   unsound conclusions; E. Meyer, _Forschungen_, vol. ii. pp. 406 ff.
   (the section dealing with the Four Hundred is especially valuable).
   Articles: R. W. Macan, _Journal of Hellenic Studies_ (April 1891); R.
   Nissen, _Rheinisches Museum_ (1892), p. 161; G. Busolt, _Hermes_
   (1898), pp. 71 ff.; O. Seeck, "Quellenstudien zu des Aristoteles'
   Verfassungsgeschichte Athens," in Lehmann's _Beiträge zur alten
   Geschichte_, vol. iv. pp. 164 and 270.     (E. M. W.)




CONSUETUDINARY (Med. Lat. _consuetudinarius_, from _consuetudo_,
custom), customary, a term used especially of law based on custom as
opposed to statutory or written law. As a noun "consuetudinary" (Lat.
_consuetudinarius_, sc. _liber_) is the name given to a ritual book
containing the forms and ceremonies used in the services of a particular
monastery, cathedral or religious order.




CONSUL (in Gr. generally [Greek: hypatos], a shortened form of [Greek:
stratêgos hypatos], i.e. _praetor maximus_), the title borne by the two
highest of the ordinary magistrates of the whole Roman community during
the republic. In the imperial period these magistrates had ceased
practically to be the heads of the state, but their technical position
remained unaltered. (For the modern commercial office of consul see the
separate article below.)

The consulship arose with the fall of the ancient monarchy (see further
ROME: _History_, II. "The Republic"). The Roman reverence for the
abstract conception of the magistracy, as expressed in the imperium and
the auspicia, led to the preservation of the regal power weakened only
by external limitations. The two new officials who replaced the king
bore the titles of leaders (_praetores_) and of judges (_judices_; cf.
Cicero, _De legibus_, iii. 3. 8, "regio imperio duo sunto iique a
praeeundo judicando ... praetores judices ... appellamino"). But the new
fact of colleagueship caused a third title to prevail, that of
_consules_ or "partners," a word probably derived from _consalio_ on the
analogy of _praesul_ and _exul_ (Mommsen, _Staatsrecht_, ii. p. 77, n.
3). This first example of the collegiate principle assumed the form that
soon became familiar in the Roman commonwealth. Each of the pair of
magistrates could act up to the full powers of the imperium; but the
dissent of his colleague rendered his decision or his action null and
void. At the same time the principle of a merely annual tenure of office
was insisted on. The two magistrates at the close of their year of
office were bound to transmit their power to successors; and these
successors whom they nominated were obliged to seek the suffrages of the
people. The only body known to us as electing the consuls during the
republican period was the _comitia centuriata_ (see Comitia). The
consulate was originally confined to patricians. During the struggle for
higher office that was waged between the orders the office was suspended
on fifty-one occasions between the years 444 and 367 B.C. and replaced
by the military tribunate with consular power, to which plebeians were
eligible. The struggle was brought to an end by the Licinio-Sextian laws
of 367 B.C., which enacted that one consul must be a plebeian (see
Patricians).

Most of the internal history of Rome down to the beginning of the third
century B.C. consists in a series of attacks, whether intentional or
accidental, on the power of the executive. As the consuls are the sole
representatives of higher executive authority in early times, this
history is one of a progressive decline in the originally wide and
arbitrary powers of the office. Their right of summary criminal
jurisdiction was weakened by the successive laws of appeal
(_provocatio_); their capacity for interpreting the civil law at their
pleasure by the publication of the Twelve Tables and the Forms of
Action. The growth of the tribunate of the plebs hampered their activity
both as legislators and as judges. They surrendered the duties of
registration to the censors in 443 B.C., and the rights of civil
jurisdiction and control over the market and police to the praetor and
the curule aediles in 367 B.C.

The result of these limitations and of this specialization of functions
in the community was to leave the consuls with less specific duties at
home than any magistrates in the state. But the absence of specific
functions may be of itself a sign of a general duty of supervision. The
consuls were in a very real sense the heads of the state. Polybius
describes them as controlling the whole administration (Polyb. vi. 12
[Greek: pasôn eisi kurioi tôn dêmosiôn praxeôn]). This control they
exercised in concert with the senate, whose chief servants they were. It
was they who were the most regular consultants of this council, who
formulated its decrees as edicts, and who brought before the people
legislative measures which the senate had approved. It was they also who
represented the state to the outer world and introduced foreign envoys
to the senate. The symbols of their presidency were manifold. It was
marked by the twelve lictors (q.v.), a number permitted to no other
ordinary magistrate, by the fact that the first act of newly-admitted
consuls was to take the auspices, their second to summon the senate, and
by the use of their names for dating the year. The consulate was,
indeed, as Cicero expresses it, the culminating point in an official
career ("Honorum populi finis est consulatus," Cic. _Pro Planco_, 25.
60).

In the domestic sphere the consuls retained certain powers of
jurisdiction. This jurisdiction was either (i.) administrative or (ii.)
criminal. (i.) Their administrative jurisdiction was sometimes concerned
with financial matters such as pecuniary claims made by the state and
individuals against one another. They acted in these matters in the
periods during which the censors were not in office. We also find them
adjudicating in disputes about property between the cities of Italy,
(ii.) Their criminal jurisdiction was of three kinds. In the first place
it was their duty, before the development of the standing commissions
which originated in the middle of the 2nd century B.C., to set in motion
the criminal law against offenders for the cognizance of ordinary, as
opposed to political, crimes. The reference of such cases to the
assembly of the people was effected through their quaestors (see
Quaestor). Secondly, when the people and senate, or the senate alone,
appointed a special commission (see Senate), the commissioner named was
often a consul. Thirdly, we find the consul conducting a criminal
inquiry raised by a point of international law. It is possible that in
this case his advising body (_consilium_) was composed of the _fetiales_
(see Herald, ad fin.). (Cicero, _De republica_, iii. 18. 28; Mommsen,
_Staatsrecht_, ii. p. 112, n. 3).

During the greater part of the republic the consuls were recognized as
the heads of the administration abroad as well as at home. It thus
became necessary that departments of administration (_provinciae_)
should be determined and assigned. The method of assignment varied. The
least usual device was for one consul to take the field at the head of
an army, while the other remained at home to transact the civil business
of state. More often foreign wars demanded the attention of both
consuls. In this case the regular army of four legions was usually
divided between them. When it was necessary that both armies should
co-operate, the principle of rotation was adopted, each consul having
the command for a single day--a practice which may be illustrated by the
events preceding the battle of Cannae (Polybius iii. 110; Livy xxii.
41). During the great period of conquest from 264 to 146 B.C. Italy was
generally one of the consular "provinces," some foreign country the
other; and when at the close of this period Italy was at peace, this
distinction approximated to one between civil and military command. The
consuls settled their departments amongst themselves by agreement or by
lot (_comparatio_, _sortitio_), the power of declaring what should be
the consular _provinciae_ was usurped by the senate, (see Senate), and a
_lex Sempronia_ passed by C. Gracchus, probably in 122 B.C., ordained
that the two consular provinces should be declared before the election
of the consuls. At this time the consuls entered office on the 1st of
January (a practice which commenced in 153 B.C.), and their military
command began on the 1st of March. They could hold this military command
until they were superseded in the following March, and thus their tenure
of power was practically raised to fourteen months. But meanwhile the
home officials invested with the imperium had proved insufficient for
the military needs of the empire, and the system of prolonging the
command (_prorogatio imperii_) had been growing up (see Province). The
consul whose command had been prolonged now served abroad as proconsul.
It is probable that Sulla in his legislation of 81 B.C. did something to
stereotype this system. Certainly the government by pro-magistrates
becomes the rule after this period (cf. Cicero, _De natura deorum_, ii.
3. 9; _De divinatione_, ii. 36. 76, 77), although there are several
instances of consuls assuming the active command of provinces between
the years 74 and 55 B.C. (Mommsen, _Rechtsfrage_, p. 30), and Cicero
declares that the consul has a right to approach every province
("consules, quibus more majorum concessum est vel omnes adire
provincias," Cicero, _Ad Atticum_, viii. 15. 3). Certainly in theory the
provinces were still regarded as "consular," not "proconsular," and were
technically, although not practically, held from the 1st of March of the
consul's tenure of office at Rome (cf. Cicero, _De provinciis
consularibus_, 15. 37; Mommsen, _Rechtsfrage_, _passim_). It was not
until the lex Pompeia of 52 B.C. (Dio Cassius xl. 56) had established a
five years' interval between home and foreign command that the theory of
the _prorogatio imperii_ vanished and the proconsulate became a separate
office.

Since the theory of the persistence of the republican constitution was
of the essence of the Principate, the consuls necessarily lost little of
their outward position and dignity under the rule of the Caesars. The
consulship was the only office in which a citizen, other than a member
of the imperial house, might have the princeps as a colleague, and in
the interval between the death or deposition of one princeps and the
appointment of another the consuls resumed their normal position as the
heads of the state (cf. Herodian ii. 12). As the presidents of the
senate, who after A.D. 14 elected them to their office, they were the
chief personal representatives of those elements of sovereignty that
were supposed to attach to that body, and they directed that high
criminal jurisdiction which the senate of this period assumed (see
Senate). A restored power of jurisdiction is indeed one of the features
of their position during this time, and it is probable that the civil
appeals which came to the senate were delegated to the consuls. They
also acted for a time as delegates to the princeps in matters of
Chancery jurisdiction such as trusts and guardianship (Mommsen,
_Staatsrecht_, ii. p. 103). The consulship was also a preparation for
certain high commands, such as the government of certain public and
imperial provinces (see Province) and the praefecture of the city. It
was probably due to the fact that the consulship was such a prize, and
perhaps also to the expense imposed on the office by its association
with the celebration of games (Dio Cassius lvi. 46, lix. 20) that the
tenure was progressively shortened. In the early principate the consuls
hold office for six months, later for four to two months (Mommsen,
_Staatsrecht_, ii. pp. 84-87). The consuls appointed for the 1st of
January were called _ordinarii_, the others _suffecti_; and the whole
year was dated by the names of the former.

This distinction continued in the Empire that was founded by Diocletian
and Constantine. The _ordinarii_ were nominated by the emperor, the
_suffecti_ were nominated by the senate, and their appointment was
ratified by the emperor. The consulship was still the greatest dignity
which the Empire had to bestow; and the pomp and ceremony of the office
increased in proportion to the decline in its actual power. The entry of
the consuls on office was celebrated by a great procession, by games
given to the people, by a distribution of gifts, such as the ivory
diptychs, a long series of which has been preserved. But the senate,
over which they presided until the time of Justinian, was little more
than the municipal council of the city of Rome; and the justice which
they meted out had dwindled down to the formal and uncontested acts of
manumission and the granting of guardians. Sometimes there was a consul
of the West at Rome and a consul of the East at Constantinople; at other
times both consuls might be found in either capital. The last consul
born in a private station was Basilius in the East in A.D. 541. But the
emperors continued to bear the title for some time longer.

   AUTHORITIES.--Mommsen, _Römisches Staatsrecht_, ii. pp. 74-140 (3rd
   ed., Leipzig, 1887); Herzog, _Geschichte und System der römischen
   Staatsverfassung_, i. p. 688 foll., 827 foll. (Leipzig, 1884, &c.),
   Lange, _Römische Alterthümer_, i. p. 524 foll. (Berlin, 1856, &c.);
   Schiller, _Staats- und Rechtsaltertümer_, p. 53 foll. (Munich, 1893,
   _Handbuch der klassischen Altertums-Wissenschaft_, von Dr Iwan von
   Müller); Daremberg-Saglio, _Dictionnaire des antiquités grecques et
   romaines_, i. 1455 foll. (1875, &c.); De Ruggiero, _Dizionario
   epigrafico di antichità Romane_, ii. 679 foll., 868 foll. (Rome,
   1886, &c.); Pauly-Wissowa, _Realencyclopädie_, iv. 1112 foll. (new
   edition, Stuttgart, 1893, &c.).

   For the consular diptychs, cf. besides Daremberg-Saglio, _l.c._,
   Gori, _Thesaurus veterum diptychorum_ (Florence, 1759), and Labarte,
   _Histoire des arts industriels au moyen âge_, i. p. 10 foll., 190
   foll. (1st ed., Paris, 1864).     (A. H. J. G.)




CONSUL, a public officer authorized by the state whose commission he
bears to manage the commercial affairs of its subjects in a foreign
country, and formally permitted by the government of the country wherein
he resides to perform the duties which are specified in his commission,
or _lettre de provision_. (For the ancient magisterial office of consul
see separate article above.)

A consul, as such, is not invested with any diplomatic character, and he
cannot enter on his official duties until a rescript, termed an
_exequatur_ (sometimes a mere countersign endorsed on the commission),
has been delivered to him by the authorities of the state to which his
nomination has been communicated by his own government. This
_exequatur_, called in Turkey a _barat_, may be revoked at any time at
the discretion of the government where he resides. The status of consuls
commissioned by the Christian powers to reside in Mahommedan countries,
China, Korea, Siam, and, until 1899, in Japan, and to exercise judicial
functions in civil and criminal matters between their own countrymen and
strangers, is exceptional to the common law, and is founded on special
conventions or capitulations (q.v.).

The title of consul, in the sense in which it is used in international
law, is derived from that of certain magistrates, in the cities of
medieval Italy, Provence and Languedoc, charged with the settlement of
trade disputes whether by sea or land (_consules mercatorum, consules
artis maris_, &c.)[1] With the growth of trade it early became
convenient to appoint agents with similar powers in foreign parts, and
these often, though not invariably, were styled consuls (_consules in
partibus ultramarinis_).[2] The earliest foreign consuls were those
established by Genoa, Pisa, Venice and Florence, between 1098 and 1196,
in the Levant, at Constantinople, in Palestine, Syria and Egypt. Of
these the Pisan agent at Constantinople bore the title of consul, the
Venetian that of baylo (q.v.). In 1251 Louis IX. of France arranged a
treaty with the sultan of Egypt under which French consuls were
established at Tripoli and Alexandria, and Du Cange cites a charter of
James of Aragon, dated 1268, granting to the city of Barcelona the right
to elect consuls in _partibus ultramarinis_, &c. The free growth of the
system was, however, hampered by commercial and dynastic rivalries. The
system of French foreign consulships, for instance, all but died out
after the crushing of the independent life of the south and the
incorporation of Provence and Languedoc under the French crown; while,
with the establishment of Venetian supremacy in the Levant, the _baylo_
developed into a diplomatic agent of the first class at the expense of
the consuls of rival states. The modern system of consulships actually
dates only from the 16th century. Early in this century both England and
Scotland had their "conservators" with "jurisdiction to do justice
between merchant and merchant beyond the seas"; but France led the way.
The alliance between Francis I. and Suleiman the Magnificent gave her
special advantages in the Levant, of which she was not slow to take
advantage. Her success culminated in the capitulations signed in 1604,
under the terms of which her consuls were given precedence over all
others and were endowed with diplomatic immunities (e.g. freedom from
arrest and from domiciliary visits), while the traders of all other
nations were put under the protection of the French flag. It was not
till 1675 that, under the first capitulations signed with Turkey,
English consuls were established in the Ottoman empire. Ten years
earlier, under the commercial treaty between England and Spain, they had
been established in Spain.

The frequent wars of the succeeding century hindered the development of
the consular system. Thus, though the system of consuls was regularly
established in France by the ordinance of 1661, in 1760 France had
consuls only in the Levant, Barbary, Italy, Spain and Portugal, while
she discouraged the establishment of foreign consuls in her own ports as
tending to infringe her own jurisdiction. It was not till the 19th
century that the system developed universally. Hitherto consuls had, for
the most part, been business men with no special qualification as
regards training; but the French system, under which the consular
service had been long established as part of the general civil service
of the country, a system that had survived the Revolution unchanged, was
gradually adopted by other nations; though, as in France, consuls not
belonging to the regular service, and having an inferior status,
continued to be appointed. In Great Britain the consular service was
organized in 1825 (see below); in France the series of ordinances and
laws by which its modern constitution was fixed began in 1833. In
Germany progress was hindered by the political conditions of the country
under the old Confederation; for the Hanse cities, which practically
monopolized the oversea trade, lacked the means to establish a consular
system on the French model. The present magnificently organized consular
system of Germany is, then, one of the most remarkable outcomes of the
establishment of the united empire. It was initiated by an act of the
parliament of the North German Confederation (Nov. 8, 1867),
subsequently incorporated in the statutes of the Empire, which laid down
the principle that the German consulates were to be under the immediate
jurisdiction of the president of the Confederation (later the emperor).
The functions, duties and privileges of French and German consuls do not
differ materially from those of British consuls; but there is a great
difference in the organization and _personnel_ of the consular service.
In France, apart from the _consuls élus_ or _consuls marchands_, who are
mere consular agents, selected by the government from among the traders
of a town where it desires to be represented, and unsalaried, the
consular body proper was, by the decrees of July 10, 1880, and April 27,
1883, practically constituted a branch of the diplomatic service. It is
recruited from the same sources, and its members are free to exchange
into the _corps diplomatique_, or vice versa. Candidates for the
diplomatic and consular services have to undergo the same training and
pass the same examinations, i.e. in the constitutional, administrative
and judicial organization of the various powers, in international law,
commercial law and maritime law, in the history of treaties and in
commercial and political geography, in political economy, and in the
German and English languages. They have to serve three years abroad or
attached to some ministerial department before they can enter for the
examination which entitles them to an appointment as attaché or as
_consul suppléant_. This assimilation of the consular to the diplomatic
service remains peculiar to France.[3]

In Germany it was enacted by the law of February 28, 1873, that German
consuls must be either trained jurists, or must have passed special
examinations. The result of this system has been the establishment
throughout the world of an elaborate network of trained commercial
experts, directly responsible to the central government, and charged as
one of their principal duties with the task of keeping the government
informed of all that may be of interest to German traders. These annual
consular reports were from the first regularly and promptly published in
the _Deutsche Handelsarchiv_, and have contributed much to the wonderful
expansion of German trade. The right to establish consuls is now
universally recognized by Christian civilized states. Jurists at one
time contended that according to international law a right of
"ex-territoriality" attached to consuls, their persons and dwellings
being sacred, and themselves amenable to local authority only in cases
of strong suspicion on political grounds. It is now admitted that, apart
from treaty, custom has established very few consular privileges; that
perhaps consuls may be arrested and incarcerated, not merely on criminal
charges, but for civil debt; and that, if they engage in trade or become
the owners of immovable property, their persons certainly lose
protection. This question of arrest has been frequently raised in
Europe:--in the case of Barbuit, a tallow-chandler, who from 1717 to
1735 acted as Prussian consul in London, and to whom the exemption
conferred by statute on ambassadors was held not to apply; in the case
of Cretico, the Turkish consul in London in 1808; in the case of Begley,
the United States consul at Genoa, arrested in Paris in 1840; and in the
case of De la Fuente Hermosa, Uruguayan consul, whom the _Cour Royale_
of Paris in 1842 held liable to arrest for debt. In the same way consuls
are often exempt from all kinds of rates and taxes, and always from
personal taxes. They are exempt from billeting and military service, but
are not entitled (except in the Levant, where also freedom from arrest
and trial is the rule) to have private chapels in their houses. The
right of consuls to exhibit their national arms and flag over the door
of the bureau is not disputed.

Until the year 1825 British consuls were usually merchants engaged in
trade in the foreign countries in which they acted as consuls, and their
remuneration consisted entirely of fees. An act of that year, however,
organized the consular service as a branch of the civil service, with
payment by a fixed salary instead of by fees; consuls were forbidden
also to engage in trade, and the management of the service was put under
the control of a separate department of the foreign office, created for
the purpose. In 1832 the restriction as to engaging in trade was
withdrawn, except as regards salaried members of the British consular
service.

The duty of consuls, under the "General Instructions to British
Consuls," is to advise His Majesty's trading subjects, to quiet their
differences, and to conciliate as much as possible the subjects of the
two countries. Treaty rights he is to support in a mild and moderate
spirit; and he is to check as far as possible evasions by British
traders of the local revenue laws. Besides assisting British subjects
who are tried for offences in the local courts, and ascertaining the
humanity of their treatment after sentence, he has to consider whether
home or foreign law is more appropriate to the case, having regard to
the convenience of witnesses and the time required for decision; and,
where local courts have wrongfully interfered, he puts the home
government in motion through the consul-general or ambassador. He sends
in reports on the labour, manufacture, trade, commercial legislation and
finance, technical education, exhibitions and conferences of the country
or district in which he resides, and, generally, furnishes information
on any subject which may be desired of him. He acts as a notary public;
he draws up marine and commercial protests, attests documents brought to
him, and, if necessary, draws up wills, powers of attorney, or
conveyances. He celebrates marriages in accordance with the provisions
of the Foreign Marriage Act 1892, and, where the ministrations of a
clergyman cannot be obtained, reads the burial service. At a seaport he
has certain duties to perform in connexion with the navy. In the absence
of any of His Majesty's ships he is senior naval officer; he looks after
men left behind as stragglers, or in hospital or prison, and sends them
on in due course to the nearest ship. He is also empowered by statute to
advance for the erection or maintenance of Anglican churches, hospitals,
and places of interment sums equal to the amount subscribed for the
purpose by the resident British subjects.

As the powers and duties of consuls vary with the particular commercial
interests they have to protect, and the civilization of the state in
whose territory they reside, instead of abstract definition, we
summarize the provisions on this subject of the British Merchant
Shipping Acts.[4] Consuls are bound to send to the Board of Trade such
reports or returns on any matter relating to British merchant shipping
or seamen as they may think necessary. Where a consul suspects that the
shipping or navigation laws are being evaded, he may require the owner
or master to produce the log-book or other ship documents (such as the
agreement with the seamen, the account of the crew, the certificate of
registration); he may muster the crew, and order explanations with
regard to the documents. Where an offence has been committed on the high
seas, or aboard ashore, by British seamen or apprentices, the consul
makes inquiry on oath, and may send home the offender and witnesses by a
British ship, particulars for the Board of Trade being endorsed on the
agreement for conveyance. He is also empowered to detain a foreign ship
the master or seamen of which appear to him through their misconduct or
want of skill to have caused injury to a British vessel, until the
necessary application for satisfaction or security be made to the local
authorities. Every British mercantile ship, not carrying passengers, on
entering a port gives into the custody of the consul to be endorsed by
him the seamen's agreement, the certificate of registry, and the
official log-book; a failure to do this is reported to the
registrar-general of seamen. The following five provisions are also made
for the protection of seamen. If a British master engage seamen at a
foreign port, the engagement is sanctioned by the consul, acting as a
superintendent of Mercantile Marine Offices. The consul collects the
property (including arrears of wages) of British seamen or apprentices
dying abroad, and remits to H.M. paymaster-general. He also provides for
the subsistence of seamen who are shipwrecked, discharged, or left
behind, even if their service was with foreign merchants; they are
generally sent home in the first British ship that happens to be in want
of a complement, and the expenses thus incurred form a charge on the
parliamentary fund for the relief of distressed seamen, the consul
receiving a commission of 2½% on the amount disbursed. Complaints by
crews as to the quality and quantity of the provisions on board are
investigated by the consul, who enters a statement in the log-book and
reports to the Board of Trade. Money disbursed by consuls on account of
the illness or injury of seamen is generally recoverable from the owner.
With regard to passenger vessels, the master is bound to give the consul
facilities for inspection and for communication with passengers, and to
exhibit his "master's list," or list of passengers, so that the consul
may transmit to the registrar-general, for insertion in the Marine
Register Book, a report of the passengers dying and children born during
the voyage. The consul may even defray the expenses of maintaining, and
forwarding to their destination, passengers taken off or picked up from
wrecked or injured vessels, if the master does not undertake to proceed
in six weeks; these expenses becoming, in terms of the Passenger Acts
1855 and 1863, a debt due to His Majesty from the owner or charterer,
where a salvor is justified in detaining a British vessel, the master
may obtain leave to depart by going with the salvor before the consul,
who, after hearing evidence as to the service rendered and the
proportion of ship's value and freight claimed, fixes the amount for
which the master is to give bond and security. In the case of a foreign
wreck the consul is held to be the agent of the foreign owner. Much of
the notarial business which is imposed on consuls, partly by statute and
partly by the request of private parties, consists in taking the
declarations as to registry, transfers, &c., under the Mercantile
Shipping Acts. Consuls in the Ottoman empire, China, Siam and Korea have
extensive judicial and executive powers.

Since the incorporation of the British consular service in the civil
service there have been several proposals to "reform" the system with
the view of increasing its usefulness, more particularly from the point
of view of providing assistance to British trade abroad (see _Reports of
Special Committees of the House of Commons on the Consular Service_,
1858, 1872, 1903). It has been frequently urged that British consuls in
their commercial knowledge and intercourse with foreign merchants
compare unfavourably, for example, with the consuls of the United
States. It must be remembered, however, that there are points of
striking dissimilarity between the duties of the consuls of these two
countries. The American consul is necessarily brought much into touch
with the trade and commerce of the country to which he is assigned
through the system of consular invoices (see Ad Valorem); in his
ordinary reports he is not confined to one stereotyped form, and when
preparing special reports (a valuable feature of the United States
consular service) he is liberally treated as regards any expense to
which he has been put in obtaining information. He is practically free
from the multifarious duties which the English consul has to discharge
in connexion with the mercantile marine, nor has he to perform marriage
ceremonies; and financially he is much better off, being allowed to
retain as personal all fees obtained from his notarial duties. The
Committee of 1903 was appointed to inquire, _inter alia_, whether the
limits of age--25 to 50--for candidates should be altered, and whether
service as a vice-consul for a certain period should be required to
qualify for promotion to the rank of consul; whether means could not be
adopted to give consular officers opportunities of increasing their
practical knowledge of commercial matters and to bring them more into
personal contact with the commercial community. The suggestions of the
committee as the result of its inquiries were adopted in principle by
the Foreign Office. The consular service is now grouped into three main
divisions: (1) the general service; (2) Levant and Persia; and (3)
China, Japan, Korea and Siam. The general consular service is graded
into three divisions: first grade, consuls-general, salary £1000 with
local allowances; second grade, consuls-general and consuls, salary £800
and local allowances; third grade, consuls, salary £600, with local
allowances. Vice-consuls have an annual salary of £350, rising by annual
increments of £15 to £450. In the general consular service appointments
are sometimes made to the higher offices from the ranks, but more
usually from a select list of nominees, who must pass a qualifying
examination. A proportion of the vacancies are reserved for competition
amongst candidates who have had actual commercial experience. Divisions
2 and 3 are recruited by open competition. There were at one time a
small number of commercial agents whose business consisted in watching
and reporting on the commerce, industries and products of special
districts, and in answering inquiries on commercial subjects. Their
duties were subsequently transferred to the consular staff, and a new
class of officers, consular attachés, created. The consular attachés
divide their time between special investigations abroad, and visits to
manufacturing districts in the United Kingdom. The headquarters of the
commercial attachés in Europe, except those at Paris and Constantinople,
were transferred to London, without defined districts, in 1907 (see
_Report on the System of British Commercial Attachés and Agents_, 1908,
Cd. 3610). "Pro-consuls" are frequently appointed for the purpose of
administering oaths, taking affidavits or affirmations, and performing
notarial acts under the Commissioners for Oaths Acts 1889.

The position of the United States consuls is minutely described in the
Regulations, Washington, 1896. Under various treaties and conventions
they enjoy large privileges and jurisdiction. By the treaty of 1816 with
Sweden the United States government agreed that the consuls of the two
states respectively should be sole judges in disputes between captains
and crews of vessels. (Up to 1906 there were eighteen treaties
containing this clause.) By convention with France in 1853 they likewise
agreed that the consuls of both countries should be permitted to hold
real estate, and to have the "police interne des navires à commerce." In
Borneo, China, Korea, Morocco, Persia, Siam, Tripoli and Turkey an
extensive jurisdiction, civil and criminal, is exercised by treaty
stipulation in cases where United States subjects are interested.
Exemption from liability to appear as a witness is often stipulated. The
question was raised in France in 1843 by the case of the Spanish consul
Soller at Aix, and in America in 1854 by the case of Dillon, the French
consul at San Francisco, who, on being arrested by Judge Hoffmann for
declining to give evidence in a criminal suit, pulled down his consular
flag. So, also, inviolability of national archives is often stipulated.
To the consuls of other nations the United States government have always
accorded the privileges of arresting deserters, and of being themselves
amenable only to the Federal and not to the States courts. They also
recognize foreign consuls as representative suitors for absent
foreigners.

The United States commercial agents are appointed by the president, and
usually receive an _exequatur_. They form a class by themselves, and are
distinct from the consular agents, who are simply deputy consuls in
districts where there is no principal consul.

By a law of April 1906 the U.S. consular service was reorganized and
graded, the office of consul-general being divided into seven classes,
and that of consul into nine classes; and on June 27 an executive order
was issued by President Roosevelt governing appointments and promotions.

   See A. de Miltitz, _Manuel des consuls_ (London and Berlin,
   1837-1843); Baron Ferdinand de Cussy, _Dictionnaire du diplomate et
   du consul_ (Leipzig, 1846), and _Réglements consulaires des
   principaux états maritimes de l`Europe et de l`Amérique_ (ib., 1851);
   Tuson, _British Consul's Manual_ (London, 1856); De Clercq, _Guide
   pratique des consulats_ (1st ed., 1858, 5th ed. by de Vallat, Paris,
   1898); C. J. Tarring, _British Consular Jurisdiction in the East_
   (London, 1887); Lippmann, _Die Konsularjurisdiktion im Orient_
   (Berlin, 1898); Zorn, _Die Konsulargesetzgebung des deutschen Reichs_
   (2nd ed., Berlin, 1901); v. König, _Handbuch des deutschen
   Konsularwesens_ (6th ed., Berlin, 1902); Martens, _Das deutsche
   Konsular-und Kolonialrecht_ (Leipzig, 1904); Malfatti di Monte
   Tretto, _Handbuch des österreichischungarischen Konsularwesens_ (2
   vols., 2nd ed., Vienna, 1904). See also the _Parliamentary Reports_
   referred to in the text. For British consuls much detailed
   information, including, e.g., minute directions for the uniforms of
   the various grades, will be found in the official _Foreign Office
   List_ published annually. As regards American consuls, see C. L.
   Jones, _The Consular Service of the U. S. A._ (Philadelphia, 1906);
   _Publications of Univ. of Pennsylvania_, "Series in Pol. Econ. and
   Public Law," No. 18; and Fred. Van Dyne, _Our Foreign Service_
   (Rochester, N.Y., 1909).


FOOTNOTES:

  [3] The title of consul was borne by the chief municipal officers of
    several cities of the south of France during the middle ages and up
    to the Revolution. The name was not due to their being the
    successors of the chiefs of the Roman _municipia_. They were members
    of the governing body known as the _consulat_, and in Latin
    documents are sometimes styled _consiliarii_, i.e. councillors. The
    _consulat_ itself is not traceable beyond the 12th century.

  [2] Particular quarters of mercantile cities were assigned to
    foreign traders and were placed under the jurisdiction of their own
    magistrates, variously styled syndics, provosts (_praepositi_),
    échevins (_scabini_), &c., who had power to fine or to expel from
    the quarter. The Hanseatic League (q.v.), particularly, had numerous
    settlements of this kind, the earliest being the Steelyard at
    London, established in the 13th century.

  [3] i.e. as regards the organization of the system. Consuls, or
    consuls-general, of other countries have sometimes a diplomatic or
    quasi-diplomatic status. Consuls-general chargés d'affaires, e.g.,
    rank as diplomatic agents. Of these the most notable is the British
    agent and consul-general in Egypt, whose position is unique. The
    diplomatic agent of Belgium at Buenos Aires, e.g., is
    minister-resident and consul-general, and the minister of Ecuador in
    London is consul-general chargé d'affaires.

  [4] See also instructions to consuls prepared by the Board of Trade
    and approved by the secretary of state for foreign affairs.




"CONSULATE OF THE SEA," a celebrated collection of maritime customs and
ordinances (see also Sea Laws) in the Catalan language, published at
Barcelona in the latter part of the 15th century. Its proper title is
_The Book of the Consulate_, or in Catalan, _Lo Libre de Consolat_, the
name being derived from the fact that it embodied the rules of law
followed in the maritime cities of the Mediterranean coast by the
commercial judges known generally as consuls (q.v.). The earliest extant
edition of the work, which was printed at Barcelona in 1494, is without
a title-page or frontispiece, but it is described by the above-mentioned
title in the epistle dedicatory prefixed to the table of contents. The
only known copy of this edition is preserved in the National Library in
Paris. The epistle dedicatory states that the work is an amended version
of the _Book of the Consulate_, compiled by Francis Celelles with the
assistance of numerous shipmasters and merchants well versed in maritime
affairs. According to a statement made by Capmany in his _Codigo de los
costumbras maritimas de Barcelona_, published at Madrid in 1791, there
was extant to his knowledge in the last century a more ancient edition
of the _Book of the Consulate_, printed in semi-Gothic characters, which
he believed to be of a date prior to 1484. This is the earliest period
to which any historical record of the _Book of the Consulate_ being in
print can be traced back. There are, however, two Catalan MSS. preserved
in the National Library in Paris, the earliest of which, being MS.
Espagnol 124, contains the two first treatises which are printed in the
_Book of the Consulate_ of 1494, and which are the most ancient portion
of its contents, written in a hand of the 14th century, on paper of that
century. The subsequent parts of this MS. are on paper of the 15th
century, but there is no document of a date more recent than 1436. The
later of the two MSS., being MS. Espagnol 56, is written throughout on
paper of the 15th century, and in a hand of that century, and it
purports, from a certificate on the face of the last leaf, to have been
executed under the superintendence of Peter Thomas, a notary public, and
the scribe of the Consulate of the Sea at Barcelona.

The edition of 1494, which is justly regarded as the _editio princeps_
of the _Book of the Consulate_, contains, in the first place, a code of
procedure issued by the kings of Aragon for the guidance of the courts
of the consuls of the sea, in the second place, a collection of ancient
customs of the sea, and thirdly, a body of ordinances for the government
of cruisers of war. A colophon at the end of these ordinances informs
the readers that "the book commonly called the _Book of the Consulate_
ends here"; after which there follows a document known by the title of
_The Acceptations_, which purports to record that the previous chapters
and ordinances had been approved by the Roman people in the 11th
century, and by various princes and peoples in the 12th and 13th
centuries. Capmany was the first person to question the authenticity of
this document in his _Memorias historicas sobre la marina, &c., de
Barcelona_, published at Madrid in 1779-1792. Pardessus and other
writers on maritime law followed up the inquiry in the 19th century, and
have conclusively shown that the document, whatever may have been its
origin, has no proper reference to the _Book of the Consulate_, and is,
in fact, of no historical value whatsoever. The paging of the edition of
1494 ceases with this document, at the end of which is the printer's
colophon, reciting that "the work was completed on the 14th of July
1494, at Barcelona, by Père Posa, priest and printer." The remainder of
the volume consists of what may be regarded as an appendix to the
original _Book of the Consulate_. This appendix contains various
maritime ordinances of the kings of Aragon and of the councillors of the
city of Barcelona, ranging over a period from 1340 to 1484. It is
printed apparently in the same type with the preceding part of the
volume. The original _Book of the Consulate_, coupled with this
appendix, constitutes the work which has obtained general circulation in
Europe under the title of _The Consulate of the Sea_, and which in the
course of the 16th century was translated into the Castilian, the
Italian, and the French languages. The Italian translation, printed at
Venice in 1549 by Jean Baptista Pedrezano, was the version which
obtained the largest circulation in the north of Europe, and led many
jurists to suppose the work to have been of Italian origin. In the next
following century the work was translated into Dutch by Westerven, and
into German by Engelbrecht, and it is also said to have been translated
into Latin.

   An excellent translation into French of "The Customs of the Sea,"
   which are the most valuable portion of the _Book of the Consulate_,
   was published by Pardessus in the second volume of his _Collection
   des lois maritimes_ (Paris, 1834), under the title of "La Compilation
   connue sous le nom de consulat de la mer." See introduction, by Sir
   Travers Twiss, to the _Black Book of the Admiralty_ (London, 1874),
   which in the appendix to vol. iii. contains his translation of "The
   Customs of the Sea," with the Catalan text.     (T. T.)




CONSUMPTION (Lat. _consumere_), literally, the act of consuming or
destroying. Thus the word is popularly applied to phthisis, a "wasting
away" of the lungs due to tuberculosis (q.v.). In economics the word has
a special significance as a technical term. It has been defined as the
destruction of utilities, and thus opposed to "production," which is the
creation of utilities, a utility in this connexion being anything which
satisfies a desire or serves a purpose. Consumption may be either
productive or unproductive; productive where it is a means directly or
indirectly to the satisfaction of any economic want, unproductive when
it is devoted to pleasures or luxuries. Its place in the science of
economics, and its close relation with production, are treated of in
every text-book, but special reference may be made to W. Roscher,
_Nationalökonomie_, 1883, and G. Schönberg, _Handbuch d. polit.
Ökonomie_, 1890-1891.




CONSUS, an ancient Italian deity, originally a god of agriculture. The
time at which his festival was held (after harvest and seed-sowing), the
nature of its ceremonies and amusements, his altar at the end of the
Circus Maximus always covered with earth except on such occasions, all
point to his connexion with the earth. In accordance with this, the name
has been derived from _condere_ (= Condius, as the "keeper" of grain or
the "hidden" god, whose life-producing influence works in the depths of
the earth). Another etymology is from _conserere_ ("sow," cf. Ops Consiva
and her festival Opiconsivia). Amongst the ancients (Livy i. 9; Dion.
Halic. ii. 31) Census was most commonly identified with [Greek: Poseidôn
Hippios] (Neptunus Equester), and in later Latin poets Consus is used
for Neptunus, but this idea was due to the horse and chariot races which
took place at his festival; otherwise, the two deities have nothing in
common. According to another view, he was the god of good counsel, who
was said to have "advised" Romulus to carry off the Sabine women (Ovid,
_Fasti_, iii. 199) when they visited Rome for the first celebration of
his festival (Consualia). In later times, with the introduction of Greek
gods into the Roman theological system, Consus, who had never been the
object of special reverence, sank to the level of a secondary deity,
whose character was rather abstract and intellectual.

His festival was celebrated on the of August and the 15th of December.
On the former date, the flamen Quirinalis, assisted by the vestals,
offered sacrifice, and the pontifices presided at horse and chariot
races in the circus. It was a day of public rejoicing; all kinds of
rustic amusements took place, amongst them running on ox-hides rubbed
with oil (like the Gr. [Greek: haskoliasmos]). Horses and mules, crowned
with garlands, were given rest from work. A special feature of the games
in the circus was chariot racing, in which mules, as the oldest draught
beasts, took the place of horses. The origin of these games was
generally attributed to Romulus; but by some they were considered an
imitation of the Arcadian [Greek: hippokrateia] introduced by Evander.
There was a sanctuary of Consus on the Aventine, dedicated by L.
Papirius Cursor in 272, in early times wrongly identified with the altar
in the circus.

   See W. W. Fowler, _The Roman Festivals_ (1899); G. Wissowa, _Religion
   und Kultus der Römer_ (1902); Preller-Jordan, _Römische Mythologie_
   (1881).




CONTANGO, a Stock Exchange term for the rate of interest paid by a
"bull" who has bought stock for the rise and does not intend to pay for
it when the Settlement arrives. He arranges to carry over or continue
his bargain, and does so by entering into a fresh bargain with his
seller, or some other party, by which he sells the stock for the
Settlement and buys it again for the next, the price at which the
bargain is entered being called the making-up price. The rate that he
pays for this accommodation, which amounts to borrowing the money
involved until the next Settlement, is called the contango.




CONTARINI, the name of a distinguished Venetian family, who gave to the
republic eight doges and many other eminent citizens. The story of their
descent from the Roman family of Cotta, appointed prefects of the Reno
valley (whence Cotta Reni or Conti del Reno), is probably a legend. One
Mario Contarini was among the twelve electors of the doge Paulo Lucio
Anafesto in 697. Domenico Contarini, elected doge in 1043, subjugated
rebellious Dalmatia and recaptured Grado from the patriarch of Aquileia.
He died in 1070. Jacopo was doge from 1275 to 1280. Andrea was elected
doge in 1367, and during his reign the war of Chioggia took place
(1380); he was the first to melt down his plate and mortgage his
property for the benefit of the state. Other Contarini doges were:
Francesco (1623-1624), Niccolò (1630-1631), who built the church of the
Salute, Carlo (1655-1656), during whose reign the Venetians gained the
naval victory of the Dardanelles, Domenico (1659-1675) and Alvise
(1676-1684). There were at one time no less than eighteen branches of
the family; one of the most important was that of Contarini dallo Zaffo
or di Giaffa, who had been invested with the countship of Jaffa in Syria
for their services to Caterina Cornaro, queen of Cyprus; another was
that of Contarini degli Scrigni (of the coffers), so called on account
of their great wealth. Many members of the family distinguished
themselves in the service of the republic, in the wars against the
Turks, and no less than seven Contarini fought at Lepanto. One Andrea
Contarini was beheaded in 1430 for having wounded the doge Francesco
Foscari (q.v.) on the nose. Other members of the house were famous as
merchants, prelates and men of letters; among these we may mention
Cardinal Gasparo Contarini (1483-1542), and Marco Contarini (1631-1689),
who was celebrated as a patron of music and collected at his villa of
Piazzola a large number of valuable musical MSS., now in the Marciana
library at Venice. The family owned many palaces in various parts of
Venice, and several streets still bear its name.

   See J. Fontana, "Sulla patrizia famiglia Contarini," in _Il
   Gondoliere_ (1843).     (L. V.*)




CONTAT, LOUISE FRANÇOISE (1760-1813), French actress, made her _début_
at the Comédie Française in 1766 as Atalide in _Bajazet_. It was in
comedy, however, that she made her first success, as Suzanne in
Beaumarchais's _Mariage de Figaro_; and in several minor character
parts, which she raised to the first importance, and as the soubrette in
the plays of Molière and Marivaux, she found opportunities exactly
fitted to her talents. She retired in 1809 and married de Parny, nephew
of the poet. Her sister Marie Émilie Contat (1769-1846), an admirable
soubrette, especially as the pert servant drawn by Molière and de
Regnard, made her _début_ in 1784, and retired in 1815.




CONTE, literally a "story," derived from the Fr. _conter_, to narrate,
through low Lat. and Provençal forms _contare_ and _comtar_. This word,
although not recognized by the _New English Dictionary_ as an English
term, is yet so frequently used in English literary criticisms that some
definition of it seems to be demanded. A _conte_, in French, differs
from a _récit_ or a _rapport_ in the element of style; it may be
described as an anecdote told with deliberate art, and in this
introduction of art lies its peculiar literary value. According to
Littré, there is no fundamental difference between a _conte_ and a
_roman_, and all that can be said is that the _conte_ is the generic
term, covering long stories and short alike, whereas the _roman_ (or
novel) must extend to a certain length. But if this is the primitive and
correct signification of the word, it is certain that modern criticism
thinks of a _conte_ essentially as a short story, and as a short story
exclusively occupied in illustrating one set of ideas or one disposition
of character. As early as the 13th century, the word is used in French
literature to describe an anecdote thus briefly and artistically told,
in prose or verse. The fairy-tales of Perrault and the apologues of La
Fontaine were alike spoken of as _contes_, and stories of peculiar
extravagance were known as _contes bleus_, because they were issued to
the common public in coarse blue paper covers. The most famous _contes_
in the 18th century were those of Voltaire, who has been described as
having invented the _conte philosophique_. But those brilliant stories,
_Candide_, _Zadig_, _L'Ingénu_, _La Princess de Babylone_ and _Le
Taureau blanc_, are not, in the modern sense, _contes_ at all. The
longer of these are _romans_, the shorter _nouvelles_, not one has the
anecdotical unity required by a _conte_. The same may be said of those
of Marmontel, and of the insipid imitations of Oriental fancy which were
so popular at the close of the 18th century. The most perfect recent
writer of _contes_ is certainly Guy de Maupassant, and his celebrated
anecdote called "Boule de suif" may be taken as an absolutely perfect
example of this class of literature, the precise limitations of which it
is difficult to define.     (E. G.)




CONTÉ, NICOLAS JACQUES (1755-1805), French mechanical genius, chemist
and painter, was born at Aunou-sur-Orne, near Sées, on the 4th of August
1755, of a family of poor farm labourers. At the age of fourteen he
displayed precocious artistic talent in a series of religious panels,
remarkably fine in colour and composition, for the principal hospital of
Sées, where he was employed to help the gardener. With the advice of
Greuze he took up portrait painting, quickly became the fashion, and
laid by in a few years a fair competency. From that time he gave free
rein to his passion for the mechanical arts and scientific studies. He
attended the lectures of J. A. C. Charles, L. N. Vaquelin and J. B.
Leroy, and exhibited before the Academy of Science an hydraulic machine
of his own invention of which the model was the subject of a flattering
report, and was placed in Charles's collection. The events of the
Revolution soon gave him an opportunity for a further display of his
inventive faculty. The war with England deprived France of plumbago; he
substituted for it an artificial substance obtained from a mixture of
graphite and clay, and took out a patent in 1795 for the form of pencil
which still bears his name. At this time he was associated with Monge
and Berthollet in experiments in connexion with the inflation of
military balloons, was conducting the school for that department of the
engineer corps at Meudon, was perfecting the methods of producing
hydrogen in quantity, and was appointed (1796) by the Directory to the
command of all the aerostatic establishments. He was at the head of the
newly created Conservatoire des arts et métiers, and occupied himself
with experiments in new compositions of permanent colours, and in 1798
constructed a metal-covered barometer for measuring comparative heights,
by observing the weight of mercury issuing from the tube. Summoned by
Bonaparte to take part as chief of the aerostatic corps in the
expedition to Egypt, he considerably extended his field of activity, and
for three years and a half was, to quote Berthollet, "the soul of the
colony." The disaster of Aboukir and the revolt of Cairo had caused the
loss of the greater part of the instruments and munitions taken out by
the French. Conté, who, as Monge says, "had every science in his head
and every art in his hands," and whom the First Consul described as
"good at everything," seemed to be everywhere at once and triumphed over
apparently insurmountable difficulties. He made, in an almost
uncivilized country, utensils, tools and machinery of every sort from
simple windmills to stamps for minting coin. Thanks to his activity and
genius, the expedition was provided with bread, cloth, arms and
munitions of war; the engineers with the exact tools of their trade; the
surgeons with operating instruments. He made the designs, built the
models, organized and supervised the manufacture, and seemed to be able
to invent immediately anything required. On his return to France in 1802
he was commissioned by the minister of the interior, Chaptal, to
superintend the publication of the great work of the commission on
Egypt, and an engraving machine of his construction materially shortened
this task, which, however, he did not live to see finished. He died at
Paris on the 6th of December 1805. Napoleon had included him in his
first promotions to the Legion of Honour. A bronze statue was erected to
his memory in 1852 at Sées, by public subscription.




CONTEMPT OF COURT, in English law, any disobedience or disrespect to the
authority or privileges of a legislative body, or interference with the
administration of a court of justice.

1. _The High Court of Parliament._ Each of the two houses of Parliament
has by the law and custom of parliament power to protect its freedom,
dignity and authority against insult, disregard or violence by resort to
its own process and not to ordinary courts of law and without having its
process interfered with by those courts. The nature and limits of this
authority to punish for contempt have been the subject of not infrequent
conflict with the courts of law, from the time when Lord Chief Justice
Holt threatened to commit the speaker for attempting to stop the trial
of _Ashby_ v. _White_ (1701), as a breach of privilege, to the cases of
_Burdett_ v. _Abbott_ (1810), _Stockdale_ v. _Hansard_ and _Howard_ v.
_Gosset_ (1842, 1843), and _Bradlaugh_ v. _Gosset_ (1834). It is now the
accepted view that the power of either House to punish contempt is
exceptional and derived from ancient usage, and does not flow from their
being courts of record. Orders for committal by the Commons are
effectual only while the House sits; orders by the Lords may be for a
time specified, in which event prorogation does not operate as a
discharge of the offender. It was at one time considered that the
privilege of committing for contempt was inherent in every deliberative
body invested with authority by the constitution, and consequently that
colonial legislative bodies had by the nature of their functions the
power to commit for contempt. But in _Kielley_ v. _Carson_ (1843; 4
Moore, P.C. 63) it was held that the power belonged to parliament by
ancient usage only and not on the theory above stated, and in each
colony it is necessary to inquire how far the colonial legislature has
acquired, by order in council or charter or from the imperial
legislature, power to punish breach of privilege by imprisonment or
committal for contempt. This power has in some cases been given
directly, in others by authority to make laws and regulations under
sanctions like those enforced by the Houses of the imperial parliament.
In the case of Nova Scotia the provincial assembly has power to give
itself by statute authority to commit for contempt (_Fielding_ v.
_Thomas_, 1896; L.R.A.C. 600). In _Barton_ v. _Taylor_ (1886; 11 A.C.
197) the competence of the legislative assembly of New South Wales to
make standing orders punishing contempt was recognized to exist under
the colonial constitution, but the particular standing orders under
consideration are held not to cover the acts which had been punished.
(See May, _Parl. Pr._, 10th ed., 1896; Anson, _Law and Custom of the
Constitution_, 3rd ed., 1897.)

2. _Courts of Justice._ The term contempt of court, when used with
reference to the courts or persons to whom the exercise of the judicial
functions of the crown has been delegated, means insult offered to such
court or person by deliberate defiance of its authority, disobedience to
its orders, interruption of its proceedings or interference with the due
course of justice, or any conduct calculated or tending to bring the
authority or administration of the law into disrespect or disregard, or
to interfere with or prejudice parties or witnesses during the
litigation. The ingenuity of the judges and of those who are concerned
to defeat or defy justice have rendered contempt almost Protean in its
character. But for practical purposes most, if not all, contempts fall
within the classification which follows:--

(a) Disobedience to the judgment or order of a court commanding the
doing or abstaining from a particular act, e.g. an order to execute a
conveyance of property or an order on a person in a fiduciary capacity
to pay into court trust moneys as to which he is an accounting party.
This includes disobedience by the members of a local authority to a
_mandamus_ to do some act which they are by law bound to do; and
proceedings for contempt have been taken in the case of guardians of the
poor who have refused to enforce the Vaccination Acts, e.g. at Keighley
and Leicester, and of town councillors who have refused to comply with
an order to take specified measures to drain their borough (e.g.
Worcester). This process for compelling obedience is in substance a
process of civil execution for the benefit of the injured party rather
than a criminal process for punishing the disobedience; and for purposes
of appeal orders dealing with these forms of contempt have hitherto been
treated as civil proceedings.

(b) Disobedience by inferior judges or magistrates to the lawful order
of a superior court. Such disobedience, if amounting to wilful
misconduct, would usually give ground for amotion or removal from
office, or for prosecution or indictment or information for misconduct
(Archbold, _Criminal Pleading_, 147, 23rd ed.).

(c) Disobedience or misconduct by executive officers of the law, e.g.
sheriffs and their bailiffs or gaolers. The contempt consists in not
complying with the terms of writs or warrants sent for execution. For
instance, a judge of assize having ordered the court to be cleared on
account of some disturbance, the high sheriff issued a placard
protesting against "this unlawful proceeding," and "prohibiting his
officer from aiding and abetting any attempt to bar out the public from
free access to the court." The lord chief justice of England, sitting in
the other court, summoned the sheriff before him and fined him £500 for
the contempt, and £500 more for persisting in addressing the grand jury
in court, after he had been ordered to desist. A sheriff who fails to
attend the assizes is liable to severe fine as being in contempt
(Oswald, 51). And in Harvey's case (1884, 26 Ch. D. 644) steps were
taken to attach a sheriff who had failed to execute a writ of attachment
for contempt of court in the mistaken belief that he was not entitled to
break open doors to take the person in contempt. The Sheriffs Act 1887
enumerates many instances in which misconduct is punishable under that
act, but reserves to superior courts of record power to deal with such
misconduct as a contempt (s. 29).

(d) Misconduct or neglect of duty by subordinate officials of courts of
justice, including solicitors. In these cases it is more usual for the
superior authorities to remove the offender from office, or for
disciplinary proceedings to be instituted by the Law Society. But in the
case of an unqualified person assuming to act as a solicitor or in the
case of breach of an undertaking given by a solicitor to the court,
proceedings for contempt are still taken.

(e) Misconduct by parties, jurors or witnesses. Jurors who fail to
attend in obedience to a jury summons and witnesses who fail to attend
on subpoena are liable to punishment for contempt, and parties, counsel
or solicitors who practise a fraud on the court are similarly liable.

(f) Contempt in _facie curiae_. "Some contempts," says Blackstone, "may
arise in the face of the court, as by rude and contumelious behaviour,
by obstinacy, perverseness or prevarication, by breach of the peace, or
any wilful disturbance whatever"; in other words, direct insult to or
interference with a sitting court is treated as contempt of the court.
It is immaterial whether the offender is juror, party, witness, counsel,
solicitor or a stranger to the case at hearing, and occasionally it is
found necessary to punish for contempt persons under trial for felony or
misdemeanour if by violent language or conduct they interrupt the
proceedings at their trial. Judges have even treated as contempt the
continuance outside the court-house after warning of a noise sufficient
to disturb the proceedings of the court; and in Victoria Chief Justice
Higginbotham committed for contempt a builder who persisted after
warning in building operations close to the central criminal court in
Melbourne, which interfered with the due conduct of the business of the
sittings.

(g) Attempts to prevent or interfere with the due course of justice,
whether made by a person interested in a particular case or by an
outsider. This branch of contempt takes many forms, such as frauds on
the court by justices, solicitors or counsel (e.g. by fraudulently
circularizing shareholders of a company against which a winding-up
petition had been filed), tampering with witnesses by inducing them
through threats or persuasion not to attend or to withhold evidence or
to commit perjury, threatening judge or jury or attempting to bribe them
and the like; and also by "scandalizing the court itself" by abusing
the parties concerned in a pending case, or by creating prejudice
against such persons before their cause is heard.


  Invectives against judges.

The _locus classicus_ on the subject of contempt by attacks on judges is
a judgment prepared by Sir Eardley-Wilmot in the case of an application
for an attachment against J. Almon in 1765, for publishing a pamphlet
libelling the court of king's bench. The judgment was not actually
delivered as the case was settled, but has long been accepted as
correctly stating the law. Sir Eardley-Wilmot said that the offence of
libelling judges in their judicial capacity is the most proper case for
an attachment, for the "arraignment of the justice of the judges is
arraigning the king's justice; it is an impeachment of his wisdom and
goodness in the choice of his judges; and excites in the minds of the
people a general dissatisfaction with all judicial determinations, and
indisposes their minds to obey them. To be impartial, and _to be
universally thought_ so, are both absolutely necessary for the giving
justice that free, open and uninterrupted current which it has for many
ages found all over this kingdom, and which so eminently distinguishes
and exalts it above all nations upon the earth." Again, "the
constitution has provided very apt and proper remedies for correcting
and rectifying the involuntary mistakes of judges, and for punishing and
removing them for any perversion of justice. But if their authority is
to be trampled on by pamphleteers and news-writers, and the people are
to be told that the power given to the judges for their protection is
prostituted to their destruction, the court may retain its power some
little time, but I am sure it will eventually lose all its authority."

The object of the discipline enforced by the court by proceedings for
contempt of court is not now, if it ever was, to vindicate the personal
dignity of the judges or to protect them from insult as individuals, but
to vindicate the dignity and authority of the court itself and to
prevent acts tending to obstruct the due course of justice. The question
whether a personal invective against judges should be dealt with _brevi
manu_ by the court attacked, or by proceedings at the instance of the
attorney-general by information or indictment for a libel on the
administration of justice or on the judge attacked, or should be dealt
with by a civil action for damages, depends on the nature and occasion
of the attack on the judge.

There has at times been a disposition by judges in colonial courts to
use the process of the court to punish criticisms on their acts by
counsel or parties or even outsiders, which the privy council has been
prone to discourage. For instance in a Nova Scotia case a barrister was
suspended from practice for writing to the chief justice of the province
a letter relating to a case in which the barrister was suitor. The privy
council while considering the letter technically a contempt, held the
punishment inappropriate. In _Macleod_ v. _St Aubyn_ (1899, A.C. 549) it
was said that proceedings for scandalizing the court itself were
obsolete in England. But in 1900 the king's bench division, following
the Almon case, summarily punished a scurrilous personal attack on a
judge of assize with reference to his remarks in a concluded ease,
published immediately after the conclusion of the case (_R._ v. _Gray_,
1900, 2 Q.B. 36). The same measure may be meted out to those who publish
invectives against judges or juries with the object of creating
suspicion or contempt as to the administration of justice. But the
existence of this power does not militate against the right of the press
to publish full reports of trials and judgments or to make with
fairness, good faith, candour and decency, comments and criticisms on
what passed at the trial and on the correctness of the verdict or the
judgment. To impute corruption is said to go beyond the limits of fair
criticism. Shortt (_Law relating to Works of Literature_) states the law
to be that the temperate and respectful discussion of judicial
determination is not prohibited, but mere invective and abuse, and still
more the imputation of false, corrupt and dishonest motives is
punishable. In an information granted in 1788 against the corporation of
Yarmouth for having entered upon their books an order "stating that the
assembly were sensible that Mr W. (against whom an action had been
brought for malicious prosecution, and a verdict for £3000 returned,
which the court refused to disturb) was actuated by motives of public
justice, of preserving the rights of the corporation to their admiralty
jurisdiction, and of supporting the honour and credit of the chief
magistrate," Mr Justice Butler said, "The judge and jury who tried the
case, confirmed by the court of common pleas, have said that instead of
his having been actuated by motives of public justice, or by any motives
which should influence the actions of an honest man, he had been
actuated by malice. These opinions are not reconcilable; if the one be
right the other must be wrong. It is therefore a direct insinuation that
the court had judged wrong in all they have done in this case, and is
therefore clearly a libel on the administration of justice."

The exact limits of the power to punish for contempt of court in respect
of statements or comments on the action of judges and juries, or with
reference to _pending_ proceedings, have been the subject of some
controversy, owing to the difficulty of reconciling the claims of the
press to liberty and of the public to free discussion of the proceedings
of courts of justice with the claims of the judges to due respect and of
the parties to litigation that their causes should not be prejudiced
before trial by outside interference. As the law now stands it is
permissible to publish contemporaneous _reports_ of the proceedings in
cases pending in any court (Law of Libel Amendment Act 1888, s. 3),
unless the proceedings have taken place in private (_in camera_), or the
court has in the interests of justice prohibited any report until the
case is concluded, a course now rarely, if ever, adopted. But it is not
permissible to make any comments on a pending case calculated to
interfere with the due course of justice in the case, nor to publish
statements about the cause or the parties calculated to have that
effect. This rule applies even when the case has been tried and the jury
has disagreed if a second trial is in prospect. Applications are
frequently made to commit proprietors and editors who comment too freely
or who undertake the task of trying in their newspapers a pending case.
The courts are now slow to move unless satisfied that the statements or
comments may seriously affect the course of justice, e.g. by reaching
the jurors who have to try the case.

The difference between pending and decided cases has been frequently
recognized by the courts. What would be a fair comment in a decided case
may tend to influence the mind of the judge or the jury in a case
waiting to be heard, and will accordingly be punished as a contempt. In
_Tichborne_ v. _Mostyn_ the publisher of a newspaper was held to have
committed a contempt by printing in his paper extracts from affidavits
in a pending suit, with comments upon them. In the case of _R._ v.
_Castro_ it was held that after a true bill has been found, and the
indictment removed into the court of queen's bench, and a day fixed for
trial, the case was pending; and it was a contempt of court to address
public meetings, alleging that the defendant was not guilty, that there
was a conspiracy against the defendant, and that he could not have a
fair trial; and the court ordered the parties to answer for their
contempt. In the case of the Moat Farm murder (1903) the high court
punished as contempt a series of articles published in a newspaper while
the preliminary inquiry was proceeding and before the case went to a
jury (_R._ v. _Parker_, 1903, 2 K.B. 432). The like course was followed
in 1905 in the case of statements made in a Welsh newspaper about a
woman awaiting trial for attempted murder (_R._ v. _Davies_, 1906, 1
K.B. 32); and in the case of the _Weekly Dispatch_ in 1902 (_R._ v.
_Tibbits and Windust_, 1 K.B. 77), two journalists were tried on
indictment, and held to have been rightly convicted, for conspiring to
prevent the course of justice by publishing matter calculated to
interfere with the fair trial of persons who were under accusation.


  Courts having jurisdiction.

"In the superior courts the power of committing for contempt is inherent
in their constitution, has been coeval with their original institution
and has been always exercised" (Oswald, _On Contempt_, 3). The high
court in which these courts are merged is the only court which has a
general jurisdiction to deal summarily with all forms of contempt. Each
division of that court deals with the particular contempts arising with
reference to proceedings before the division; but the king's bench
division, in the exercise of the supervisory authority inherited from
the old court of king's bench as _custos morum_, also from time to time
deals with acts constituting interference with justice in other inferior
courts whether of record or not. The nature and limits of this
jurisdiction after much discussion have been defined by decisions in
1903 and 1905 in attempts to try by newspapers cases under inquiry by
justices or awaiting trial at assizes or quarter sessions. The exercise
of this authority in the king's bench division, being in a criminal
cause or matter, is not the subject of appeal to any higher court.

Inferior courts of record have, as a general rule, power to punish only
those contempts which are committed _in facie curiae_ or consist in
disobedience to the lawful orders or judgments of the court. For
instance, a county court may summarily punish persons who insult the
judge or any officer of the court or any juror or witness, or wilfully
interrupt the proceedings, or misbehave in the court-house (County Court
Act 1888, s. 162), and may also attack persons who having means refuse
to comply with an order to pay money, or refuse to comply with an order
to deliver up a specific chattel or disobey an injunction. A court of
quarter sessions has at common law a like power as to contempts _in
facie curiae_ and is said to have power to punish its officials for
contempt in non-attendance or neglect of duty.


  Punishment.

Contempt of court is a misdemeanour and is punishable by fine and
imprisonment or either at discretion. The offence may be tried
summarily, or may be prosecuted on information or on indictment as was
done in the case of the _Weekly Dispatch_ already mentioned. The
prerogative of pardon extends to all contempts of court which are dealt
with by a sentence of clearly punitive character; but it is doubtful
whether it extends to committals for disobedience to orders made in aid
of the execution of a civil judgment.

Contempt is usually dealt with summarily by the court contemned in the
case of contempt _in facie curiae_. The offender may be instantly
apprehended and without further proof or examination fined or sent to
prison. In the case of other contempts the High Court not only can deal
with contempts affecting itself, but can also intervene summarily to
protect inferior courts from contempts. This jurisdiction was asserted
and exercised in the Moat Farm case (1903) and the _South Wales Post_
case (1905) already mentioned.

Except in cases of contempt _in facie curiae_ evidence on oath as to the
alleged contempt must be laid before the court, and application made for
the "committal" or "attachment" of the offender. The differences between
the two modes are technical rather than substantial.

The procedure for dealing with contempt of court varies somewhat
according as the contempt consists in disobeying an order of the High
Court made in a civil cause, or consists in interference with the course
of justice by persons not present in court nor parties to the cause. In
the first class of cases the court proceeds by order of committal or
giving leave to issue writ of attachment. In either case the person said
to be in contempt must have full notice of the proposed motion and of
the grounds on which he is said to be in contempt; and the rules
regulating such proceedings must be strictly complied with (_R._ v.
_Tuck_, 1906, 2 Ch. 692). In proceedings on the crown side of the king's
bench division it is still usual to apply in the first place for a rule
nisi for leave to attach the alleged offender who is given an
opportunity of explaining, excusing or justifying the incriminated acts.
It is essential that before punishment the alleged offender should have
had full notice as to the specific offence charged and opportunity of
answering to it. The king's bench procedure is that generally used for
interference with the due course of criminal justice or disobedience to
prerogative writs such as _mandamus_.

An order of committal is an order in execution specifying the nature of
the detention to be suffered, or the penalty to be paid. The process of
attachment merely brings the accused into court; he is then required to
answer on oath interrogatories administered to him, so that the court
may be better informed of the circumstances of the contempt. If he can
clear himself on oath he is discharged; if he confesses the court will
punish him by fine or imprisonment, or both, at its discretion. But in
very many cases on proper apology and submission, and undertaking not to
repeat the contempt, and payment of costs, the court allows the
proceedings to drop without proceeding to fine or imprison.

From time to time proposals have been made to deprive the superior
courts of the power to deal summarily with contempts not committed _in
facie curiae_, and to require proceedings on other charges for contempt
to go before a jury. This distinction has already been made in some
British colonies, e.g. British Guiana, by an ordinance of 1900 (No. 31).
Recent decisions in England have so fully defined the limits of the
offence and declared the practice of the courts that it would probably
only result in undue licence of the press if the power now carefully and
judicially exercised of dealing summarily with journalistic interference
with the ordinary course of justice were taken away and the delay
involved in submitting the case to a jury were made inevitable. The
courts now only act in clear cases, and in cases of doubt can always
send the question to a jury. The experience of other countries makes it
undesirable to part with the summary remedy so long as it is in the
hands of a trusted judicature.

   _Scotland._--In Scotland the courts of session and justiciary have,
   at common law, and exercise the power of punishing contempt committed
   during a judicial proceeding by censure, fine or imprisonment
   _proprio motu_ without formal proceedings or a summary complaint. The
   nature of the offence is there in substance the same as in England
   (see Petrie, 1889: 7 Rettie Justiciary 3; Smith, 1892: 20 Rettie
   Justiciary 52).

   _Ireland._--In Ireland the law of contempt is on the same lines as in
   England, but conflicts have arisen between the bench and popular
   opinion, due to political and religious differences, which have led
   to proposals for making juries and not judges arbiters in cases of
   contempt.

   _British Dominions beyond Seas._--The courts of most British
   possessions have acquired and freely exercise the power of the court
   of king's bench to deal summarily with contempt of court; and, as
   already stated, it is not infrequently the duty of the privy council
   to restrain too exuberant a vindication of the offended dignity of a
   colonial court.     (W. F. C.)




CONTI, PRINCES OF. The title of prince of Conti, assumed by a younger
branch of the house of Condé, was taken from Conti-sur-Selles, a small
town about 20 m. S.W. of Amiens, which came into the Condé family by the
marriage of Louis of Bourbon, first prince of Condé, with Eleanor de
Roye in 1551.

FRANÇOIS (1558-1614), the third son of this marriage, was given the
title of marquis de Conti, and between 1581 and 1597 was elevated to the
rank of a prince. Conti, who belonged to the older faith, appears to
have taken no part in the wars of religion until 1587, when his distrust
of Henry, third duke of Guise, caused him to declare against the League,
and to support Henry of Navarre, afterwards King Henry IV. of France. In
1589 after the murder of Henry III., king of France, he was one of the
two princes of the blood who signed the declaration recognizing Henry
IV. as king, and he continued to support Henry, although on the death of
Charles cardinal de Bourbon in 1590 he himself was mentioned as a
candidate for the throne. In 1605 Conti, whose first wife Jeanne de
Cöeme, heiress of Bonnétable, had died in 1601, married the beautiful
and witty Louise Marguerite (1574-1631), daughter of Henry duke of Guise
and Catherine of Cleves, whom, but for the influence of his mistress
Gabrielle d'Estrées, Henry IV. would have made his queen. Conti died in
1614. His only child Marie having predeceased him in 1610, the title
lapsed. His widow followed the fortunes of Marie de' Medici, from whom
she received many marks of favour, and was secretly married to François
de Bassompierre (q.v.), who joined her in conspiring against Cardinal
Richelieu. Upon the exposure of the plot the cardinal exiled her to her
estate at Eu, near Amiens, where she died. The princess wrote _Aventures
de la cour de Perse_, in which, under the veil of fictitious scenes and
names, she tells the history of her own time.

In 1629 the title of prince de Conti was revived in favour of ARMAND DE
BOURBON (1629-1666), second son of Henry II. of Bourbon, prince of
Condé, and brother of Louis, the great Condé. He was destined for the
church and studied theology at the university of Bourges, but although
he received several benefices he did not take orders. He played a
conspicuous part in the intrigues and fighting of the Fronde, became in
1648 commander-in-chief of the rebel army, and in 1650 was with his
brother Condé imprisoned at Vincennes. Released when Mazarin went into
exile, he wished to marry Mademoiselle de Chevreuse (1627-1652),
daughter of the famous confidante of Anne of Austria, but was prevented
by his brother, who was now supreme in the state. He was concerned in
the Fronde of 1651, but soon afterwards became reconciled with Mazarin,
and in 1654 married the cardinal's niece, Anne Marie Martinozzi
(1639-1672), and secured the government of Guienne. He took command of
the army which in 1654 invaded Catalonia, where he captured three towns
from the Spaniards. He afterwards led the French forces in Italy, but
after his defeat before Alessandria in 1657 retired to Languedoc, where
he devoted himself to study and mysticism until his death. At Clermont
Conti had been a fellow student of Molière's for whom he secured an
introduction to the court of Louis XIV., but afterwards, when writing a
treatise against the stage entitled _Traité de la comédie et des
spectacles selon les traditions de l'Église_ (Paris, 1667), he charged
the dramatist with keeping a school of atheism. Conti also wrote
_Lettres sur la grâce_, and _Du devoir des grands et des devoirs des
gouverneurs de province_.

LOUIS ARMAND DE BOURBON, prince de Conti (1661-1685), eldest son of the
preceding, succeeded his father in 1666, and in 1680 married Marie Anne,
a daughter of Louis XIV. and Louise de la Vallière. He served with
distinction in Flanders in 1683, and against the wish of the king went
to Hungary, where he assisted the Imperialists to defeat the Turks at
Gran in 1683. After a dissolute life he died at Fontainebleau from
smallpox.

FRANÇOIS LOUIS DE BOURBON, prince de Conti (1664-1709), younger brother
of the preceding, was known until 1685 as prince de la Roche-sur-Yon.
Naturally of great ability, he received an excellent education and was
distinguished both for the independence of his mind and the popularity
of his manners. On this account he was not received with favour by Louis
XIV.; so in 1683 he assisted the Imperialists in Hungary, and while
there he wrote some letters in which he referred to Louis as _le roi an
théâtre_, for which on his return to France he was temporarily banished
to Chantilly. Conti was a favourite of his uncle the great Condé, whose
grand-daughter Marie Thérese de Bourbon (1666-1732) he married in 1688.
In 1689 he accompanied his intimate friend Marshal Luxembourg to the
Netherlands, and shared in the French victories at Fleurus, Steinkirk
and Neerwinden. On the death of his cousin, Jean Louis Charles, duc de
Longueville (1646-1694), Conti in accordance with his cousin's will,
claimed the principality of Neuchâtel against Marie, duchesse de Nemours
(1625-1707), a sister of the duke. He failed to obtain military
assistance from the Swiss, and by the king's command yielded the
disputed territory to Marie, although the courts of law had decided in
his favour. In 1697 Louis XIV. offered him the Polish crown, and by
means of bribes the abbé de Polignac secured his election. Conti started
rather unwillingly for his new kingdom, probably, as St Simon remarks,
owing to his affection for Françoise, wife of Philip II., duke of
Orleans, and daughter of Louis XIV. and Madame de Montespan. When he
reached Danzig and found his rival Augustus II., elector of Saxony,
already in possession of the Polish crown, he returned to France, where
he was graciously received by Louis, although St Simon says the king was
vexed to see him again. But the misfortunes of the French armies during
the earlier years of the war of the Spanish Succession compelled Louis
to appoint Conti, whose military renown stood very high, to command the
troops in Italy. He fell ill before he could take the field, and died on
the 9th of February 1709, his death calling forth exceptional signs of
mourning from all classes.

LOUIS ARMAND DE BOURBON, prince de Conti (1606-1727), eldest son of the
preceding, was treated with great liberality by Louis XIV., and also by
the regent, Philip duke of Orleans. He served under Marshal Villars in
the War of the Spanish Succession, but he lacked the soldierly qualities
of his father. In 1713 he married Louise Elisabeth (1693-1775), daughter
of Louis Henri de Bourbon, prince de Condé, and grand-daughter of Louis
XIV. He was a prominent supporter of the financial schemes of John Law,
by which he made large sums of money.

LOUIS FRANÇOIS DE BOURBON, prince de Conti (1717-1776), only son of the
preceding, adopted a military career, and when the war of the Austrian
Succession broke out in 1741 accompanied Charles Louis, duc de
Belle-Isle, to Bohemia. His services there led to his appointment to
command the army in Italy, where he distinguished himself by forcing the
pass of Villafranca and winning the battle of Coni in 1744. In 1745 he
was sent to check the Imperialists in Germany, and in 1746 was
transferred to the Netherlands, where some jealousy between Marshal Saxe
and himself led to his retirement in 1747. In this year a faction among
the Polish nobles offered Conti the crown of that country, where owing
to the feeble health of King Augustus III. a vacancy was expected. He
won the personal support of Louis XV. for his candidature, although the
policy of the French ministers was to establish the house of Saxony in
Poland, as the dauphiness was a daughter of Augustus. Louis therefore
began secret personal relations with his ambassadors in eastern Europe,
who were thus receiving contradictory instructions; a policy known later
as the _secret du roi_. Although Conti did not secure the Polish throne
he remained in the confidence of Louis until 1755, when his influence
was destroyed by the intrigues of Madame de Pompadour; so that when the
Seven Years' War broke out in 1756 he was refused the command of the
army of the Rhine, and began the opposition to the administration which
caused Louis to refer to him as "my cousin the advocate." In 1771 he was
prominent in opposition to the chancellor Maupeou. He supported the
parlements against the ministry, was especially active in his hostility
to Turgot, and was suspected of aiding a rising which took place at
Dijon in 1775. Conti, who died on the 2nd of August 1776, inherited
literary tastes from his father, was a brave and skilful general, and a
diligent student of military history. His house, over which the comtesse
de Boufflers presided, was the resort of many men of letters, and he was
a patron of Jean Jacques Rousseau.

LOUIS FRANÇOIS JOSEPH, prince de Conti (1734-1814), son of the
preceding, possessed considerable talent as a soldier, and distinguished
himself during the Seven Years' War. He took the side of Maupeou in the
struggle between the chancellor and the parlements, and in 1788 declared
that the integrity of the constitution must be maintained. He emigrated
owing to the weakness of Louis XVI., but refused to share in the plans
for the invasion of France, and returned to his native country in 1790.
Arrested by order of the National Convention in 1793, he was acquitted,
but was reduced to poverty by the confiscation of his possessions. He
afterwards received a pension, but the Directory banished him from
France, and as he refused to share in the plots of the royalists he
lived at Barcelona till his death in 1814, when the house of Conti
became extinct.

   See F. de Bassompierre, _Mémoires_ (Paris, 1877); G. Tallemant des
   Reaux, _Historiettes_ (Paris, 1854-1860); L. de R. duc de Saint
   Simon, _Mémoires_ (Paris, 1873); C. E. duchesse d'Orleans, _Mémoires_
   (Paris, 1880); R. L. Marquis d'Argenson, _Journal et mémoires_
   (Paris, 1859-1865); F. J. de P. cardinal de Bérnis, _Mémoires et
   lettres_ (Paris, 1878); J. V. A. duc de Broglie, _Le Secret du roi_
   (Paris, 1878); P. A. Cheruel, _Histoire de la minorité de Louis XIV
   et du ministère de Mazarin_ (Paris, 1879); E. Boutaric,
   _Correspondence secrète de Louis XV sur la politique étrangère_
   (Paris, 1866); P. Foncin, _Essai sur le ministère de Turgot_ (Paris,
   1877); E. Bourgeois _Neuchâtel et la politique prussienne en
   Franche-Comté_ (Paris, 1877).




CONTI, NICOLO DE' (fl. 1419-1444), Venetian explorer and writer, was a
merchant of noble family, who left Venice about 1419, on what proved an
absence of 25 years. We next find him in Damascus, whence he made his
way over the north Arabian desert, the Euphrates, and southern
Mesopotamia, to Bagdad. Here he took ship and sailed down the Tigris to
Basra and the head of the Persian Gulf; he next descended the gulf to
Ormuz, coasted along the Indian Ocean shore of Persia (at one port of
which he remained some time, and entered into a business partnership
with some Persian merchants), and so reached the gulf and city of
Cambay, where he began his Indian life and observations. He next dropped
down the west coast of India to Ely, and struck inland to Vijayanagar,
the capital of the principal Hindu state of the Deccan, destroyed in
1555. Of this city Conti gives an elaborate description, one of the most
interesting portions of his narrative. From Vijayanagar and the
Tungabudhra he travelled to Maliapur near Madras, the traditional
resting-place of the body of St Thomas, and the holiest shrine of the
native Nestorian Christians, then "scattered over all India," the
Venetian declares, "as the Jews are among us." The narrative next refers
to Ceylon, and gives a very accurate account of the Cingalese cinnamon
tree; but, if Conti visited the island at all, it was probably on the
return journey. His outward route now took him to Sumatra, where he
stayed a year, and of whose cruel, brutal, cannibal natives he gained a
pretty full knowledge, as of the camphor, pepper and gold of this
"Taprobana." From Sumatra a stormy voyage of sixteen days brought him to
Tenasserim, near the head of the Malay Peninsula. We then find him at
the mouth of the Ganges, and trace him ascending and descending that
river (a journey of several months), visiting Burdwan and Aracan,
penetrating into Burma, and navigating the Irawadi to Ava. He appears to
have spent some time in Pegu, from which he again plunged into the Malay
Archipelago, and visited Java, his farthest point. Here he remained nine
months, and then began his return by way of _Ciampa_ (usually
Cochin-China in later medieval European literature, but here perhaps
some more westerly portion of Indo-China); a month's voyage from Ciampa
brought him to _Coloen_, doubtless Kulam or Quilon, in the extreme
south-west of India. Thence he continued his homeward route, touching at
Cochin, Calicut and Cambay, to Sokotra, which he describes as still
mainly inhabited by Nestorian Christians; to the "rich city" of Aden,
"remarkable for its buildings"; to _Gidda_ or Jidda, the port of Mecca;
over the desert to _Carras_ or Cairo; and so to Venice, where he arrived
in 1444.

As a penance for his (compulsory) renunciation of the Christian faith
during his wanderings, Eugenius IV. ordered him to relate his history to
Poggio Bracciolini, the papal secretary. The narrative closes with
Conti's elaborate replies to Poggio's question on Indian life, social
classes, religion, fashions, manners, customs and peculiarities of
various kinds. Following a prevalent fashion, the Venetian divides his
Indies into three parts, the first extending from Persia to the Indus;
the second from the Indus to the Ganges; the third including all beyond
the Ganges; this last he considered to excel the others in wealth,
culture and magnificence, and to be abreast of Italy in civilization. We
may note, moreover, Conti's account of the bamboo in the Ganges valley;
of the catching, taming and rearing of elephants in Burma and other
regions; of Indian tattooing and the use of leaves for writing; of
various Indian fruits, especially the jack and mango; of the polyandry
of Malabar; of the cockfighting of Java; of what is apparently the bird
of Paradise; of Indian funeral ceremonies, and especially _suttee_; of
the self-mutilation and immolation of Indian fanatics; and of Indian
magic, navigation ("they are not acquainted with the compass"), justice,
&c. Several venerable legends are reproduced; and Conti's name-forms,
partly through Poggio's vicious classicism, are often absolutely
unrecognizable; but on the whole this is the best account of southern
Asia by any European of the 15th century; while the traveller's visit to
Sokotra is an almost though not quite unique performance for a Latin
Christian of the middle ages.

   The original Latin is in Poggio's _De varietate Fortunae_, book iv.;
   see the edition of the Abbé Oliva (Paris, 1723). The Italian version,
   printed in Ramusio's _Navigationi et viaggi_, vol. i., is only from a
   Portuguese translation made in Lisbon. An English translation with
   short notes was made by J. Winter Jones for the Hakluyt Society in
   the vol. entitled _India in the Fifteenth Century_ (London, 1857); an
   introductory account of the traveller and his work by R. H. Major
   precedes.     (C. R. B.)




CONTINENT (from Lat. _continere_, "to hold together"; hence "connected,"
"continuous"), a word used in physical geography of the larger
continuous masses of land in contrast to the great oceans, and as
distinct from the submerged tracts where only the higher parts appear
above the sea, and from islands generally.

On looking at a map of the world, continents appear generally as
wedge-shaped tracts pointing southward, while the oceans have a
polygonal shape. Eurasia is in some sense an exception, but all the
southern terminations of the continents advance into the sea in the form
of a wedge--South America, South Africa, Arabia, India, Malaysia and
Australia connected by a submarine platform with Tasmania. It is
difficult not to believe that these remarkable characters have some
relation to the structure of the great globe-mass, and according to T.
C. Chamberlin and R. D. Salisbury, in their _Geology_ (1906), "the true
conception is perhaps that the ocean basins and continental platforms
are but the surface forms of great segments of the lithosphere, all of
which crowd towards the centre, the stronger and heavier--the ocean
basins--taking precedence and squeezing the weaker and lighter ones--the
continents--between them." "The area of the most depressed, or master
segments, is almost exactly twice that of the protruding or squeezed
ones. This estimate includes in the latter about 10,000,000 sq. m. now
covered with shallow water. The volume of the hydrosphere is a little
too great for the true basins, and it runs over, covering the borders of
the continents" (see Continental Shelf). Several theories have been
advanced to account for the roughly triangular shape of the continents,
but that presenting the least difficulty is the one expressed above,
"since in a spherical surface divided into larger and smaller segments
the major part should be polygonal, while the minor residual segments
are more likely to be triangular."

As bearing on this geological idea, it is interesting to notice in this
connexion that the areas of volcanic activity are mostly where continent
and ocean meet; and that around the continents there is an almost
continuous "deep" from 100 to 300 m. broad, of which the Challenger Deep
(11,400 ft.) and the great Tuscarora Deep are fragments. If on a map of
the world a broad inked brush be swept seawards round Africa, passing
into the Mediterranean, round North and South America, round India, then
continuously south of Java and round Australia south of Tasmania and
northward to the tropic, this broad band will represent the encircling
ribbon-like "deep," which gives strength to the suggestion that the
continents in their main features are permanent forms and that their
structural connexion with the oceans is not temporary and accidental.
The great protruding or "squeezed" segments are the Eurasian (with an
area roughly of twenty-four, reckoning in millions of square miles),
strongly ridged on the south and east, and relatively flat on the
north-west; the African (twelve), rather strongly ridged on the east,
less abruptly on the west and north; the North American (ten), strongly
ridged on the west, more gently on the east, and relatively flat on the
north and in the interior; the South American (nine), strongly ridged on
the west and somewhat on the north-east and south-east, leaving ten for
the smaller blocks. The sum of these will represent one-third of the
earth's surface, while the remaining two-thirds is covered by the ocean.
The foundation structure of the continents is everywhere similar. Their
resulting rocks and soils are due to differential minor movements in the
past, by which deposits of varying character were produced. These
movements, taking place periodically and followed by long periods of
rest, produce continued stability for the development and migration of
forms of life, the grading of rivers, the development of varied
characteristic land forms, the migration and settlement of human beings,
the facility or difficulty of intelligent intercourse between races and
communities, with finally the commercial interchange of those
commodities produced by varying climatic conditions upon different parts
of the continental surface; in short, for those geographical factors
which form the chief product of past and present human history. (See
Geography.)




CONTINENTAL SHELF, the term in physical geography for the submerged
platform upon which a continent or island stands in relief. If a coin or
medal be partly sunk under water the image and superscription will stand
above water and represent a continent with adjacent islands; the sunken
part just submerged will represent the continental shelf and the edge of
the coin the boundary between it and the surrounding deep, called by
Professor H. K. H. Wagner the continental slope. If the lithosphere
surface be divided into three parts, namely, the continent heights, the
ocean depths, and the transitional area separating them, it will be
found that this transitional area is almost bisected by the coast-line,
that nearly one-half of it (10,000,000 sq. m.) lies under water less
than 100 fathoms deep, and the remainder 12,000,000 sq. m. is under 600
ft. in elevation. There are thus two continuous plain systems, one above
water and one under water, and the second of these is called the
continental shelf. It represents the area which would be added to the
land surface if the sea fell 600 ft. This shelf varies in width. Round
Africa--except to the south--and off the western coasts of America it
scarcely exists. It is wide under the British Islands and extends as a
continuous platform under the North Sea, down the English Channel to the
south of France; it unites Australia to New Guinea on the north and to
Tasmania on the south, connects the Malay Archipelago along the broad
shelf east of China with Japan, unites north-western America with Asia,
sweeps in a symmetrical curve outwards from north-eastern America
towards Greenland, curving downwards outside Newfoundland and holding
Hudson Bay in the centre of a shallow dish. In many places it represents
the land planed down by wave action to a plain of marine denudation,
where the waves have battered down the cliffs and dragged the material
under water. If there were no compensating action in the differential
movement of land and sea in the transitional area, the whole of the land
would be gradually planed down to a submarine platform, and all the
globe would be covered with water. There are, however, periodical
warpings of this transitional area by which fresh areas of land are
raised above sea-level, and fresh continental coast-lines produced,
while the sea tends to sink more deeply into the great ocean basins, so
that the continents slowly increase in size. "In many cases it is
possible that the continental shelf is the end of a low plain submerged
by subsidence; in others a low plain may be an upheaved continental
shelf, and probably wave action is only one of the factors at work" (H.
R. Mill, _Realm of Nature_, 1897).




CONTINUED FRACTIONS. In mathematics, an expression of the form

           b2
  a1 ± -----------
                b3
       a2 ± -----------
                     b4
            a3 ± ----------
                      b5
                 a4 ± ----
                      a5 ± ...,

where a1, a2, a3, ... and b2, b3, b4, ... are any quantities whatever,
positive or negative, is called a "continued fraction." The quantities
a1 ..., b2 ... may follow any law whatsoever. If the continued fraction
terminates, it is said to be a terminating continued fraction; if the
number of the quantities a1 ..., b2 ... is infinite it is said to be a
_non-terminating_ or _infinite_ continued fraction. If b2/a2, b3/a3 ...,
the _component fractions_, as they are called, recur, either from the
commencement or from some fixed term, the continued fraction is said to
be _recurring_ or _periodic_. It is obvious that every terminating
continued fraction reduces to a commensurable number.

The notation employed by English writers for the general continued
fraction is

       b2   b3   b4
  a1 ± --   --   --   ...
       a2 ± a3 ± a4 ±

Continental writers frequently use the notation

       b2   b3   b4                   b2 |      b3 |      b4 |
  a1 ± -- ± -- ± -- ± ..., or a1 ±  |----| ±  |----| ±  |----| ± ...
       a2   a3   a4                 | a2      | a3      | a4

The terminating continued fractions

           b2         b2   b3         b2   b3   b4
  a1, a1 + --,   a1 + --   --,   a1 + --   --   --, ...
           a2         a2 + a3         a2 + a3 + a4

reduced to the forms

  a1   a1a2 + b2   a1a2a3 + b2a3 + b2a1
  --,  ---------,  --------------------,
  1       a2           a2a3 + b3

                         a1a2a3a4 + b2a3a4 + b3a1a4 + b4a1a2 + b2b4
                         ------------------------------------------, ...
                                    a2a3a4 + a4b3 + a2b4

are called the successive convergents to the general continued fraction.

Their numerators are denoted by p1, p2, p3, p4...; their
denominators by q1, q2, q3, q4....

We have the relations

  p_n = a_{n}p_{n-1} + b_{n}p_{n-2}, q_n = a_{n}q_{n-1} + b_{n}q_{n-2}.

                                     b2   b3   b4
  In the case of the fraction   a1 - --   --   --   ..., we have the
                                     a2 - a3 - a4 -

relations

  p_n = a_{n}p_{n-1} - b_{n}p_{n-2}, q_n= a_{n}q_{n-1} - b_{n}q_{n-2}.

Taking the quantities a1 ..., b2 ... to be all positive, a continued

                            b2   b3
  fraction of the form a1 + --   --   ... is called a _continued fraction
                            a2 + a3 +

                                                      b2   b3   b4
of the first class_; a continued fraction of the form --   --   --   ...
                                                      a2 - a3 - a4 -

called a _continued fraction of the second class_.

                                        1    1    1
  A continued fraction of the form a1 + --   --   --   ..., where
                                        a2 + a3 + a4 +

a1, a2, a3, a4 ... are all _positive integers_, is called a _simple
continued fraction_. In the case of this fraction a1, a2, a3, a4 ... are
called the successive _partial quotients_. It is evident that, in this
case,

  p1, p2, p3 ...,  q1, q2, q3 ...,

are two series of positive integers increasing without limit if the
fraction does not terminate.

                                      b2   b3   b4
  The general continued fraction a1 + --   --   --   ... is evidently
                                      a2 + a3 + a4 +

equal, convergent by convergent, to the continued fraction

       [lambda]2b2   [lambda]2[lambda]3b3   [lambda]3[lambda]4b4
  a1 + -----------   --------------------   --------------------    ...,
       [lambda]2a2 +     [lambda]3a3      +      [lambda]4a4      +

where [lambda]2, [lambda]3, [lambda]4, ... are any quantities whatever,
so that by choosing [lambda]2b2 = 1, [lambda]2[lambda]3b3 = 1, &c., it
can be reduced to any equivalent continued fraction of the form

       1    1    1
  a1 + --   --   --   ...
       d2 + d3 + d4 +


_Simple Continued Fractions._

1. The simple continued fraction is both the most interesting and
important kind of continued fraction.

Any quantity, commensurable or incommensurable, can be expressed
uniquely as a simple continued fraction, terminating in the case of a
commensurable quantity, non-terminating in the case of an
incommensurable quantity. A non-terminating simple continued fraction
must be incommensurable.

In the case of a terminating simple continued fraction the number of
partial quotients may be odd or even as we please by writing the last

                                     1
  partial quotient, a_n as a_n - 1 + --.
                                     1

The numerators and denominators of the successive convergents obey the
law p_{n}q_{n-1} - p_{n-1}q_n = (-1)^n, from which it follows at once
that every convergent is in its lowest terms. The other principal
properties of the convergents are:--

The odd convergents form an increasing series of rational fractions
continually approaching to the value of the whole continued fraction;
the even convergents form a decreasing series having the same property.

Every even convergent is greater than every odd convergent; every odd
convergent is less than, and every even convergent greater than, any
following convergent.

Every convergent is nearer to the value of the whole fraction than any
preceding convergent.

Every convergent is a nearer approximation to the value of the whole
fraction than any fraction whose denominator is less than that of the
convergent.

The difference between the continued fraction and the n^{th} convergent

                     1                           a_{n+2}
  is less than ------------, and greater than ------------. These limits
               q_{n}q_{n+1}                   q_{n}q_{n+2}

may be replaced by the following, which, though not so close, are

                   1                    1
  simpler, viz. ------- and ------------------ .
                q^{2}_n     q_n(q_n + q_{n+1})

Every simple continued fraction must converge to a definite limit; for
its value lies between that of the first and second convergents and,
since

  p_n   p_{n-1}        1             p_n         p_{n-1}
  --- ~ ------- = ------------,  Lt. ----- = Lt. -------,
  q_n   q_{n-1}   q_{n}q_{n-1}       q_n         q_{n-1}

so that its value cannot oscillate.

The chief practical use of the simple continued fraction is that by
means of it we can obtain rational fractions which approximate to any
quantity, and we can also estimate the error of our approximation. Thus
a continued fraction equivalent to [pi] (the ratio of the circumference
to the diameter of a circle) is

      1   1    1     1    1    1
  3 + -   --   --   ---   --   --
      7 + 15 + 1  + 292 + 1  + 1  + ...

of which the successive convergents are

  3   22  333  355  103993
  --, --, ---, ---, ------, &c.,
  1   7   106  113  33102

the fourth of which is accurate to the sixth decimal place, since the
error lies between 1/q4q5 or .0000002673 and a6/q4q6 or .0000002665.

Similarly the continued fraction given by Euler as equivalent to
½(e -1) (e being the base of Napierian logarithms), viz.

  1    1    1    1    1
  --   --   --   --   --
  1  + 6  + 10 + 14 + 18 + ...,

may be used to approximate very rapidly to the value of e.

For the application of continued fractions to the problem "To find the
fraction, whose denominator does not exceed a given integer D, which
shall most closely approximate (by excess or defect, as may be assigned)
to a given number commensurable or incommensurable," the reader is
referred to G. Chrystal's _Algebra_, where also may be found details of
the application of continued fractions to such interesting and important
problems as the recurrence of eclipses and the rectification of the
calendar (q.v.).

Lagrange used simple continued fractions to approximate to the solutions
of numerical equations; thus, if an equation has a root between two
integers a and a + 1, put x = a + 1/y and form the equation in y; if the
equation in y has a root between b and b + 1, put y = b + 1/z, and so
on. Such a method is, however, too tedious, compared with such a method
as Homer's, to be of any practical value.

The solution in integers of the indeterminate equation ax + by = c may
be effected by means of continued fractions. If we suppose a/b to be
converted into a continued fraction and p/q to be the penultimate
convergent, we have aq - bp = +1 or -1, according as the number of
convergents is even or odd, which we can take them to be as we please.
If we take aq-bp = +1 we have a general solution in integers of ax + by
= c, viz. x = cq - bt, y = at - cp; if we take aq - bp = -1, we have x =
bt - cq, y = cp - at.

An interesting application of continued fractions to establish a unique
correspondence between the elements of an aggregate of m dimensions and
an aggregate of n dimensions is given by G. Cantor in vol. 2 of the
_Acta Mathematica_.

Applications of simple continued fractions to the theory of numbers, as,
for example, to prove the theorem that a divisor of the sum of two
squares is itself the sum of two squares, may be found in J. A. Serret's
_Cours d'Algèbre Supérieure_.

2. _Recurring Simple Continued Fractions._--The infinite continued
fraction

       1    1         1    1    1        1     1    1         1    1
  a1 + --   --       ---   --   --       ---   --   --       ---   --
       a2 + a3 ... + a_n + b1 + b2 ... + b_n + b1 + b2 ... + b_n + b1 + ...,

where, after the n^{th} partial quotient, the cycle of partial quotients
b1, b2, ..., b_n recur in the same order, is the type of a recurring
simple continued fraction.

The value of such a fraction is the positive root of a quadratic
equation whose coefficients are real and of which one root is negative.
Since the fraction is infinite it cannot be commensurable and therefore
its value is a quadratic surd number. Conversely every positive
quadratic surd number, when expressed as a simple continued fraction,
will give rise to a recurring fraction. Thus

        __   1    1    1    1    1
  2 - \/ 3 = --   --   --   --   --
             3  + 1  + 2  + 1  + 2  + ...,

       ___       1    1    1    1    1    1    1    1
     \/ 28 = 5 + --   --   --   --   --   --   --   --
                 3  + 2  + 3  + 10 + 3  + 2  + 3  + 10 + ...

The second case illustrates a feature of the recurring continued
fraction which represents a complete quadratic surd. There is only one
non-recurring partial quotient a1. If b1, b2, ..., b_n is the cycle of
recurring quotients, then b_n = 2a1, b1 = b_{n-1}, b2 = b_{n-2}, b3 =
b_{n-3}, &c.

In the case of a recurring continued fraction which represents [sqr]N,
where N is an integer, if n is the number of partial quotients in the
recurring cycle, and p_{nr}/q_{nr} the nr^{th} convergent, then p^2_{nr}
-Nq^2_{nr} = (-1)^{nr}, whence, if n is odd, integral solutions of the
indeterminate equation x² - Ny² = ±1 (the so-called Pellian equation)
can be found. If n is even, solutions of the equation x² -Ny² = +1 can
be found.

The theory and development of the simple recurring continued fraction is
due to Lagrange. For proofs of the theorems here stated and for
applications to the more general indeterminate equation x² -Ny² = H the
reader may consult Chrystal's _Algebra_ or Serret's _Cours d'Algèbre
Supérieure_; he may also profitably consult a tract by T. Muir, _The
Expression of a Quadratic Surd as a Continued Fraction_ (Glasgow, 1874).


_The General Continued Fraction._

1. _The Evaluation of Continued Fractions._--The numerators and
denominators of the convergents to the general continued fraction both
satisfy the difference equation u_n = a_{n}u_{n-1} + b_{n}u_{n-2}. When
we can solve this equation we have an expression for the n^{th}
convergent to the fraction, generally in the form of the quotient of two
series, each of n terms. As an example, take the fraction (known as
Brouncker's fraction, after Lord Brouncker)

  1     1²   3²   5²   7²
  --    --   --   --   --
  1  +  2  + 2  + 2  + 2  + ...

Here we have

  u_{n+1} = 2u_n + (2n-1)²u_{n-1},

whence

  u_{n+1} - (2n + 1)u_n = -(2n - 1){u_n - (2n - 1)u_{n-1}},

and we readily find that

  p_n         1    1    1            1
  ----- = 1 - -- + -- - -- + ... ± ------,
  q_n         3    5    7          2n + 1

whence the value of the fraction taken to infinity is ¼[pi].

It is always possible to find the value of the n^{th} convergent to a
recurring continued fraction. If r be the number of quotients in the
recurring cycle, we can by writing down the relations connecting the
successive p's and q's obtain a linear relation connecting

  p_{nr+m},   p_{(n-1)r+m},   p_{(n-2)r+m},

in which the coefficients are all constants. Or we may proceed as
follows. (We need not consider a fraction with a non-recurring part).
Let the fraction be

  a1   a2         a_r   a1
  --   --         ---   --
  b1 + b2 + ... + b_r + b1 + ...

            p_{nr+m}             a1   a2             a_r
  Let u_n = --------; then u_n = --   --         ------------, leading
            q_{nr+m}             b1 + b2 + ... + b_r + u_{n1}

to an equation of the form Au_{n}u_{n-1} + Bu_n + Cu_{n-1} + D = 0,
where A, B, C, D are independent of n, which is readily solved.

2. _The Convergence of Infinite Continued Fractions._--We have seen that
the simple infinite continued fraction converges. The infinite general
continued fraction of the first class cannot diverge for its value lies
between that of its first two convergents. It may, however, oscillate.
We have the relation p_{n}q_{n-1} - p_{n-1}q_n = (-1)^{n}b2b3...b_n,

             p_n   p_{n-1}          b2b3 ... b_n
  from which --- - ------- = (-1)^n ------------, and the limit of the
             q_n   q_{n-1}          q_{n}q_{n-1}

right-hand side is not necessarily zero.

The tests for convergency are as follows:

Let the continued fraction of the first class be reduced to the form

        1    1    1
  d1  + --   --   --      , then it is convergent if at least one of the
        d2 + d3 + d4 + ...

series d3 + d5 + d7 + ..., d2 + d4 + d6 + ... diverges, and oscillates
if both these series converge.

For the convergence of the continued fraction of the second class there
is no complete criterion. The following theorem covers a large number of
important cases.

"If in the infinite continued fraction of the second class
a_n [>=] b_n + 1 for all values of n, it converges to a finite limit not
greater than unity."

3. _The Incommensurability of Infinite Continued Fractions._--There is
no general test for the incommensurability of the general infinite
continued fraction.

Two cases have been given by Legendre as follows:--

If a2, a3, ..., a_n, b2, b3, ...,b_n are all positive integers, then

                                     b2   b3         b_{n}
  I. The infinite continued fraction --   --         -----       converges
                                     a2 + a3 + ... + a_{n} + ...

to an incommensurable limit if after some finite value of n the condition
a_{n} [not <] b_{n} is always satisfied.

                                      b2   b3         b_{n}
  II. The infinite continued fraction --   --         -----
                                      a2 - a3 - ... - a_{n} - ...

converges to an incommensurable limit if after some finite value of n
the condition a_{n} [>=] b_{n} + 1 is always satisfied, where the sign >
need not always occur but must occur _infinitely often_.


_Continuants._

The functions p_{n} and q_{n}, regarded as functions of a1, ..., a_{n},
b2, ..., b_{n} determined by the relations

  p_{n} = a_{n}p_{n-1} + b_{n}p_{n-2},
  q_{n} = a_{n}q_{n-1} + b_{n}q_{n-2},

with the conditions p1 = a1, p0 = 1; q2 = a2, q1 = 1, q0 = 0, have been
studied under the name of _continuants_. The notation adopted is

             /    b2,...,b_{n}\
  p_{n} = K (                  ),
             \a1, a2,...,a_{n}/

and it is evident that we have

             /    b3,...,b_{n}\
  q_{n} = K (                  ).
             \a2, a3,...,a_{n}/

The theory of continuants is due in the first place to Euler. The reader
will find the theory completely treated in Chrystal's _Algebra_, where
will be found the exhibition of a prime number of the form 4p + 1 as the
actual sum of two squares by means of continuants, a result given by H.
J. S. Smith.

The continuant

     /    b2, b3, ..., b_{n}\
  K (                        ) is also equal to the determinant
     \a1, a2, a3, ..., a_{n}/

is also equal to the determinant

  | a1  b2  0   0   .   .   .        0     |
  | -1  a2  b3  0   .   .   .        0     |
  | 0   -1  a3  b4  .   .   .        0     |
  | 0   0   -1  a4  b5  .   .        --    |
  |                                        |
  |                 u   -1  a_{n-1}  b_{n} |
  | 0   0   --  --  0   0   -1       a_{n} |,

from which point of view continuants have been treated by W.
Spottiswoode, J. J. Sylvester and T. Muir. Most of the theorems
concerning continued fractions can be thus proved simply from the
properties of determinants (see T. Muir's _Theory of Determinants_,
chap. iii.).

Perhaps the earliest appearance in analysis of a continuant in its
determinant form occurs in Lagrange's investigation of the vibrations of
a stretched string (see Lord Rayleigh, _Theory of Sound_, vol. i. chap.
iv.).


_The Conversion of Series and Products into Continued Fractions._

1. A continued fraction may always be found whose n^{th} convergent
shall be equal to the sum to n terms of a given series or the product to
n factors of a given continued product. In fact, a continued fraction

  b1   b2         b_{n}
  --   --         -----        can be constructed having for the
  a1 + a2 + ... + a_{n} + ...

numerators of its successive convergents any assigned quantities p1, p2,
p3, ..., p_{n}, and for their denominators any assigned quantities q1,
q2, q3, ..., q_{n} ...

The partial fraction b_{n}/a_{n} corresponding to the n^{th} convergent
can be found from the relations

  p_n = a_{n}p_{n-1} + b_{n}p_{n-2}, q_n = a_{n}q_{n-1} + b_{n}q_{n-2};

and the first two partial quotients are given by

  b1 = p1,  a1 = q1,  b1a2 = p2,  a1a2 + b2 = q2.

If we form then the continued fraction in which p1, p2, p3, ..., p_{n}
are u1, u1 + u2, u1 + u2 + u3, ..., u1 + u2 + ..., u_{n}, and q1, q2,
q3, ..., q_{n} are all unity, we find the series u1 + u2 + ..., u_{n}
equivalent to the continued fraction

  u1    u2/u1    u3/u2         u_n/u_{n-1}
  --   ------   ------         ----------
  1  -     u2       u3              u_{n}
       1 + -- - 1 + -- - ... - 1 + -------
           u1       u2             u_{n-1}

which we can transform into

  u1      u2       u1u3      u2u4            u_{n-2}u_{n}
  --   -------   -------   -------         ---------------,
  1  - u1 + u2 - u2 + u3 - u3 + u4 - ... - u_{n-1} + u_{n}

a result given by Euler.

2. In this case the sum to n terms of the series is equal to the n^{th}
convergent of the fraction. There is, however, a different way in which
a Series may be represented by a continued fraction. We may require to
represent the infinite convergent power series a0 + a1x + a2x² + ... by
an infinite continued fraction of the form

  [beta]0   [beta]1 x   [beta]2 x   [beta]3 x
  -------   ---------   ---------   ---------
     1    -     1     -     1     -     1     - ...

Here the fraction converges to the sum to infinity of the series. Its
n^{th} convergent is not equal to the sum to n terms of the series.
Expressions for [beta]0, [beta]1, [beta]2, ... by means of determinants
have been given by T. Muir (_Edinburgh Transactions_, vol. xxvii.).

A method was given by J. H. Lambert for expressing as a continued
fraction of the preceding type the quotient of two convergent power
series. It is practically identical with that of finding the greatest
common measure of two polynomials. As an instance leading to results of
some importance consider the series

                      x                       x²
  F(n,x) = 1 + --------------- + -------------------------------- + ...
               ([gamma] + n)1!   ([gamma] + n)([gamma] + n + 1)2!

We have

                                         x
  F(n + 1,x) - F(n,x) =  - ------------------------------ F(n + 2,x),
                           ([gamma] + n)([gamma] + n + 1)

whence we obtain

  F(1,x)   1    x/[gamma]([gamma] + 1)   x/([gamma] + 1)([gamma] + 2)
  ------ = --   ----------------------   ----------------------------
  F(0,x)   1  +           1            +              1              + ...,

which may also be written

  [gamma]        x             x
  -------   -----------   -----------
  [gamma] + [gamma] + 1 + [gamma] + 2 + ...

By putting ± x²/4 for x in F(0,x) and F(1,x), and putting at the same
time [gamma] = 1/2, we obtain

          x    x²   x²   x²                x    x²   x²   x²
  tan x = --   --   --   --       tanh x = --   --   --   --
          1  - 3  - 5  - 7  - ...          1  + 3  + 5  + 7  + ...

These results were given by Lambert, and used by him to prove that [pi]
and [pi]² incommensurable, and also any commensurable power of e.

Gauss in his famous memoir on the hypergeometric series

  F([alpha], [beta], [gamma], x) =

       [alpha]·[beta]    [alpha]([alpha] + 1)[beta]([beta] + 1)
       --------------x + -------------------------------------- x² + ...
         1.[gamma]             1.2.[gamma]·([gamma] + 1)

gave the expression for F([alpha], [beta] + 1, [gamma] + 1, x) ÷
F([alpha], [beta], [gamma], x) as a continued fraction, from which if we
put [beta] = 0 and write [gamma] - 1 for [gamma], we get the
transformation

      [alpha]    [alpha]([alpha] + 1)
  1 + -------x + --------------------x² +
      [gamma]    [gamma]([gamma] + 1)


      [alpha]([alpha] + 1)([alpha] + 2)
      ---------------------------------x³ + ... =
      [gamma]([gamma] + 1)([gamma] + 2)

      1   [beta]1 x  [beta]2 x
      --  ---------  ---------        where
      1  -    1     -    1      - ...

            [alpha]               ([alpha] + 1)[gamma]
  [beta]1 = -------, [beta]3 = --------------------------, ...,
            [gamma]            ([gamma] + 1)([gamma] + 2)

                                   ([alpha] + n - 1)([gamma] + n - 2)
                 [beta]_{2n-1}  = ------------------------------------,
                                  ([gamma] + 2n - 3)([gamma] + 2n - 2)


              [gamma] - [alpha]              2([gamma] + 1 - [alpha])
  [beta]2 = --------------------,  [beta]4 = --------------------------,
            [gamma]([gamma] + 1)             ([gamma] + 2)([gamma] + 3)

                                        n([gamma] + n - 1 - [alpha])
                 ..., [beta]_{2n} = ------------------------------------.
                                    ([gamma] + 2n - 2)([gamma] + 2n - 1)

From this we may express several of the elementary series as continued
fractions; thus taking [alpha] = 1, [gamma] = 2, and putting x for -x,

                       x    1²x   1²x   2²x   2²x   3²x   3²x
  we have log(1 + x) = --   ---   ---   ---   ---   ---   ---
                       1  +  2  +  3  +  4  +  5  +  6  +  7  + ...

Taking [gamma] = 1, writing x/[alpha] for x and increasing [alpha]
indefinitely, we have

        1    x    x    x    x    x
  e^x = --   --   --   --   --   --
        1  - 1  + 2  - 3  + 2  - 5  + ...

For some recent developments in this direction the reader may consult a
paper by L. J. Rogers in the _Proceedings of the London Mathematical
Society_ (series 2, vol. 4).


_Ascending Continued Fractions._

There is another type of continued fraction called the ascending
continued fraction, the type so far discussed being called the
descending continued fraction. It is of no interest or importance,
though both Lambert and Lagrange devoted some attention to it. The
notation for this type of fraction is

                      b5 +
                 b4 + ----
                       a5
            b3 + ---------
                    a4
       b2 + --------------
                  a3
  a1 + -------------------
               a2

It is obviously equal to the series

       b2    b3      b4        b5
  a1 + -- + ---- + ------ + -------- + ...
       a2   a2a3   a2a3a4   a2a3a4a5


_Historical Note._

The invention of continued fractions is ascribed generally to Pietro
Antonia Cataldi, an Italian mathematician who died in 1626. He used them
to represent square roots, but only for particular numerical examples,
and appears to have had no theory on the subject. A previous writer,
Rafaello Bombelli, had used them in his treatise on Algebra (about
1579), and it is quite possible that Cataldi may have got his ideas from
him. His chief advance on Bombelli was in his notation. They next appear
to have been used by Daniel Schwenter (1585-1636) in a _Geometrica
Practica_ published in 1618. He uses them for approximations. The
theory, however, starts with the publication in 1655 by Lord Brouncker
of the continued fraction

   1    1²  3²  5²
   --   --  --  --       as an equivalent of [pi]/4. This he is supposed
   1  + 2 + 2 + 2 + ...

to have deduced, no one knows how, from Wallis' formula for

               3 . 3 . 5 . 5 . 7 . 7 ...
  4/[pi], viz. -------------------------
               2 . 4 . 4 . 6 . 6 . 8 ...

John Wallis, discussing this fraction in his _Arithmetica Infinitorum_
(1656), gives many of the elementary properties of the convergents to
the general continued fraction, including the rule for their formation.
Huygens (_Descriptio automati planetarii_, 1703) uses the simple
continued fraction for the purpose of approximation when designing the
toothed wheels of his _Planetarium_. Nicol Saunderson (1682-1739), Euler
and Lambert helped in developing the theory, and much was done by
Lagrange in his additions to the French edition of Euler's _Algebra_
(1795). Moritz A. Stern wrote at length on the subject in _Crelle's
Journal_ (x., 1833; xi., 1834; xviii., 1838). The theory of the
convergence of continued fractions is due to Oscar Schlömilch, P. F.
Arndt, P. L. Seidel and Stern. O. Stolz, A. Pringsheim and E. B. van
Vleck have written on the convergence of infinite continued fractions
with complex elements.

   REFERENCES.--For the further history of continued fractions we may
   refer the reader to two papers by Gunther and A. N. Favaro,
   _Bulletins di bibliographia e di storia delle scienze mathematische e
   fisicke_, t. vii., and to M. Cantor, _Geschichte der Mathematik_, 2nd
   Bd. For text-books treating the subject in great detail there are
   those of G. Chrystal in English; Serret's _Cours d`algèbre
   supérieure_ in French; and in German those of Stern, Schlömilch,
   Hatterdorff and Stolz. For the application of continued fractions to
   the theory of irrational numbers there is P. Bachmann's _Vorlesungen
   über die Natur der Irrationalzahnen_ (1892). For the application of
   continued fractions to the theory of lenses, see R. S. Heath's
   _Geometrical Optics_, chaps. iv. and v. For an exhaustive summary of
   all that has been written on the subject the reader may consult Bd. 1
   of the _Encyklopädie der mathematischen Wissenschaften_ (Leipzig).
      (A. E. J.)




CONTOUR, CONTOUR-LINE (a French word meaning generally "outline," from
the Med. Lat. _contornare_, to round off), in physical geography a line
drawn upon a map through all the points upon the surface represented
that are of equal height above sea-level. These points lie, therefore,
upon a horizontal plane at a given elevation passing through the land
shown on the map, and the contour-line is the intersection of that
horizontal plane with the surface of the ground. The contour-line of 0,
or _datum level_, is the coastal boundary of any land form. If the sea
be imagined as rising 100 ft., a new coast-line, with bays and estuaries
indented in the valleys, would appear at the new sea-level. If the sea
sank once more to its former level, the 100-ft. contour-line with all
its irregularities would be represented by the beach mark made by the
sea when 100 ft. higher. If instead of receding the sea rose
continuously at the rate of 100 ft. per day, a series of levels 100 ft.
above one another would be marked daily upon the land until at last the
highest mountain peaks appeared as islands less than 100 ft. high. A
record of this series of advances marked upon a flat map of the original
country would give a series of concentric contour-lines narrowing
towards the mountain-tops, which they would at last completely surround.
Contour-lines of this character are marked upon most modern maps of
small areas and upon all government survey and military maps at varying
intervals according to the scale of the map.




CONTRABAND (Fr. _contrebande_, from _contra_, against, and _bannum_, Low
Lat. for "proclamation"), a term given generally to illegal traffic; and
particularly, as "contraband of war," to goods, &c., which subjects of
neutral states are forbidden by international law to supply to a
belligerent.

According to current practice contraband of war is of two kinds: (1)
absolute or unconditional contraband, i.e. materials of direct
application in naval or military armaments; and (2) conditional
contraband, consisting of articles which are fit for, but not
necessarily of direct application to, hostile uses. There is much
difference of opinion among international jurists and states, however,
as to the specific materials and articles which may rightfully be
declared by belligerents to belong to either class. There is also
disagreement as to the belligerent right where the immediate destination
is a neutral but the ultimate an enemy port.

An attempt was made at the Second Hague Conference to come to an
agreement on the chief points of difference. The British delegates were
instructed even to abandon the principle of contraband of war
altogether, subject only to the exclusion by blockade of neutral trade
from enemy ports. In the alternative they were to do their utmost to
restrict the definition of contraband within the narrowest possible
limits, and to obtain exemption of food-stuffs destined for places other
than beleaguered fortresses and of raw materials required for peaceful
industry. Though the discussions at the conference did not result in any
convention, except on the subject of mails, it was agreed among the
leading maritime states that an early attempt should be made to codify
the law of naval war generally, in connexion with the establishment of
an international prize court (see Prize).


  Mails.

Meanwhile, on the subject of mails, important articles were adopted
which figure in the "Convention on restrictions in the right of capture"
(No. 11 of the series as set out in the General Act, see Peace
Conference). They are as follows:--

   ART. I.--The postal correspondence of neutrals or belligerents,
   whatever its official or private character may be, found on the high
   seas on board a neutral or enemy ship is inviolable. If the ship is
   detained, the correspondence is forwarded by the captor with the
   least possible delay.

   The provisions of the preceding paragraph do not apply, in case of
   violation of blockade, to correspondence destined for, or proceeding
   from, a blockaded port.

   ART. II.--The inviolability of postal correspondence does not exempt
   a neutral mail ship from the laws and customs of maritime war as to
   neutral merchant ships in general. The ship, however, may not be
   searched except when absolutely necessary, and then only with as much
   consideration and expedition as possible.


  Foodstuffs and pre-emption.

As regards food-stuffs Great Britain has long and consistently held that
provisions and liquors fit for the consumption of the enemy's naval or
military forces are contraband. Her Prize Act, however, provides a
palliative, in the case of "naval or victualling stores," for the
penalty attaching to absolute contraband, the lords of the admiralty
being entitled to exercise a right of pre-emption over such stores, i.e.
to purchase them without condemnation in a prize court. In practice,
purchases are made at the market value of the goods, with an additional
10% for loss of profit.

On the continent of Europe no such palliative has yet been adopted; but
moved by the same desire to distinguish unmistakable from, so to speak,
constructive contraband, and to protect trade against the vexation of
uncertainty, many continental jurists have come to argue conditional
contraband away altogether. This change of opinion has especially
manifested itself in the discussions on the subject in the Institute of
International Law, a body composed exclusively of recognized
international jurists. The rules this body adopted in 1896, though they
do not represent the unanimous feeling of its members, may be taken as
the view of a large proportion of them. The majority comprised German,
Danish, Italian, Dutch and French specialists. The rules adopted contain
a clause, which, after declaring conditional contraband abolished,
states that: "Nevertheless the belligerent has, at his option and on
condition of paying an equitable indemnity, a right of sequestration or
pre-emption as to articles (_objets_) which, on their way to a port of
the enemy, may serve equally in war or in peace." This rule, it is seen,
is of wider application than the above-mentioned provision of the
British Prize Act. To become binding in its existing form, either an
alteration of the text of the Declaration of Paris or a modification in
the wording of the clause would be necessary, seeing that under the
Declaration of Paris "the neutral flag covers enemy goods, except
contraband of war." It may be said that, in so far as the continent is
concerned, expert opinion is, on the whole, favourable to the
recognition of conditional contraband in the form of a right of
sequestration or pre-emption and within the limits Great Britain has
shown a disposition to set to it as against herself.


  Coal.

As regards coal there is no essential difference between the position of
coal to feed ships and that of provisions to feed men. Neither is _per
se_ contraband. At the West African Conference in 1884 the Russian
representative protested against its inclusion among contraband
articles, but the Russian government included it in their declaration as
to contraband on the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War. In 1898 the
British foreign office replied to an inquiry of the Newport Chamber of
Commerce on the position of coal that: "Whether in any particular case
coal is or is not contraband of war, is a matter prima facie for the
determination of the Prize Court of the captor's nationality, and so
long as such decision, when given, does not conflict with
well-established principles of international law, H.M.'s government will
not be prepared to take exception thereto." The practical applications
of the law and usage of contraband in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5,
however, brought out vividly the need of reform in these
"well-established principles."


  Controversy with Russia in Russo-Japanese War.

The Japanese regulations gave rise to no serious difficulties. Those
issued by Russia, on the other hand, led to much controversy between the
British government and that of Russia, in connexion with the latter's
pretension to class coal, rice, provisions, forage, horses and cotton
with arms, ammunition, explosives, &c., as absolute contraband. On June
1, 1904, Lord Lansdowne expressed the surprise with which the British
government learnt that rice and provisions were to be treated as
unconditionally contraband--"a step which they regarded as inconsistent
with the law and practice of nations." They furthermore "felt
themselves bound to reserve their rights by also protesting against the
doctrine that it is for the belligerent to decide what articles are as a
matter of course, and without reference to other considerations, to be
dealt with as contraband of war, regardless of the well-established
rights of neutrals"; nor would the British government consider itself
bound to recognize as valid the decision of any prize court which
violated those rights. It did not dispute the right of a belligerent to
take adequate precautions for the purpose of preventing contraband of
war, in the hitherto accepted sense of the words, from reaching the
enemy; but it objected to the introduction of a new doctrine under which
"the well-understood distinction between conditional and unconditional
contraband was altogether ignored, and under which, moreover, on the
discovery of articles alleged to be contraband, the ship carrying them
was, without trial and in spite of her neutrality, subjected to
penalties which are reluctantly enforced even against an enemy's ship."
(See section 40 of Russian Instructions on Procedure in Stopping,
Examining and Seizing Merchant Vessels, published in _London Gazette_ of
March 18, 1904.) In particular circumstances provisions might acquire a
contraband character, as, for instance, if they should be consigned
direct to the army or fleet of a belligerent, or to a port where such
fleet might be lying, and if facts should exist raising the presumption
that they were about to be employed in victualling the fleet of the
enemy. In such cases it was not denied that the other belligerent would
be entitled to seize the provisions as contraband of war, on the ground
that they would afford material assistance towards the carrying on of
warlike operations. But it could not be admitted that if such provisions
were consigned to the port of a belligerent (even though it should be a
port of naval equipment) they should therefore be necessarily regarded
as contraband of war. The test was whether there were circumstances
relating to any particular cargo to show that it was destined for
military or naval use.

The Russian government replied that they could not admit that articles
of dual use when addressed to private individuals in the enemy's country
should be necessarily free from seizure and condemnation, since
provisions and such articles of dual use, though intended for the
military or naval forces of the enemy, would obviously, under such
circumstances, be addressed to private individuals, possibly agents or
contractors for the naval or military authorities.

Lord Lansdowne in answer stated that while H.M. government did not
contend that the mere fact that the consignee was a private person
should necessarily give immunity from capture, they held that to take
vessels for adjudication merely because their destination was the
enemy's country would be vexatious, and constitute an unwarrantable
interference with neutral commerce. To render a vessel liable to such
treatment there should be circumstances giving rise to a reasonable
suspicion that the provisions were destined for the enemy's forces, and
it was in such a case for the captor "to establish the fact of
destination for the enemy's forces before attempting to procure their
condemnation" (September 30, 1904).

The protests of Great Britain led to the reference of the subject by the
Russian government to a departmental committee, with the result that on
October 22, 1904, a rectifying notice was issued declaring that articles
capable of serving for a warlike object, including rice and food-stuffs,
should be considered as contraband of war, if they are destined for the
government of the belligerent power or its administration or its army or
its navy or its fortresses or its naval ports; or for the purveyors
thereof; and that in cases where they were addressed to private
individuals these articles should not be considered as contraband of
war; but that in all cases horses and beasts of burden were to be
considered as contraband. As regards cotton, explanations were given by
the Russian government (May 11, 1904) that the prohibition of cotton
applied only to raw cotton suitable for the manufacture of explosives,
and not to yarn or tissues.


  Analogues of contraband.

The carriage of belligerent despatches connected with the conduct of a
war or of persons in the service of a belligerent state falls within the
prohibition of contraband traffic, but to distinguish such traffic from
that of contraband, properly so called, the term applied to it in
international law is "analogues of contraband." The penalty attaching to
such carriage necessarily varies according to the degree of the analogy.


  Continuous voyages.

Trade between neutrals has a prima facie right to go on, in spite of
war, without molestation. But if the ultimate destination of goods,
though shipped first to a neutral port, is enemy's territory, then,
according to the doctrine of "continuous voyages," the goods may be
treated as if they had been shipped to the enemy's territory direct. The
doctrine is entirely Anglo-Saxon in its origin[1] and development. Only
in one case does it seem ever to have been actually put in force by a
foreign prize court, namely, in the case of the "Doelwijk," a Dutch
vessel which was adjudged good prize by an Italian court on the ground
that, although bound for Djibouti, a French port, it was laden with a
provision of arms of a model which had gone out of use in Europe, and
could only be destined for the Abyssinians, with whom Italy was at war.

The Institute of International Law in 1896 adopted the following rule on
the subject:--

   "Destination to the enemy is presumed, where the shipment is to one
   of the enemy ports, or to a neutral port, if it is unquestionably
   proved by the facts that the neutral port was only a state (_étape_)
   towards the enemy as the final destination of a single commercial
   operation."

During the South African War (1899-1902) Great Britain was involved in
controversy with Germany, who at first declined to recognize the
existence of any rule which could interfere with trade between neutrals,
the German vessels in question having been stopped on their way to a
neutral port.

As stated above, the Second Hague Conference failed to come to any
understanding on contraband, but the subject was exhaustively dealt with
by the Conference of London (1908-1909) on the laws and customs of naval
war, in the following articles:--

   ART. 22.--The following articles may, without notice, be treated as
   contraband of war, under the name of absolute contraband: (1) Arms of
   all kinds, including arms for sporting purposes, and their
   distinctive component parts; (2) projectiles, charges and cartridges
   of all kinds, and their distinctive component parts; (3) powder and
   explosives specially prepared for use in war; (4) gun-mountings,
   limber boxes, limbers, military wagons, field forges and their
   distinctive component parts; (5) clothing and equipment of a
   distinctively military character; (6) all kinds of harness of a
   distinctively military character; (7) saddle, draught and pack
   animals suitable for use in war; (8) articles of camp equipment and
   their distinctive component parts; (9) armour plates; (10) warships,
   including boats, and their distinctive component parts of such a
   nature that they can only be used on a vessel of war; (11) implements
   and apparatus designed exclusively for the manufacture of munitions
   of war, for the manufacture or repair of arms, or war material for
   use on land or sea.

   ART. 23.--Articles exclusively used for war may be added to the list
   of absolute contraband by a declaration, which must be notified. Such
   notification must be addressed to the governments of other powers, or
   to their representatives accredited to the power making the
   declaration. A notification made after the outbreak of hostilities is
   addressed only to neutral powers.

   ART. 24.--The following articles, susceptible of use in war as well
   as for purposes of peace, may, without notice, be treated as
   contraband of war, under the name of conditional contraband: (1)
   Foodstuffs; (2) forage and grain, suitable for feeding animals; (3)
   clothing, fabrics for clothing, and boots and shoes, suitable for use
   in war; (4) gold and silver in coin or bullion; paper money; (5)
   vehicles of all kinds available for use in war, and their component
   parts; (6) vessels, craft and boats of all kinds; floating docks,
   parts of docks and their component parts; (7) railway material, both
   fixed and rolling-stock, and material for telegraphs, wireless
   telegraphs and telephones; (8) balloons and flying machines and their
   distinctive component parts, together with accessories and articles
   recognizable as intended for use in connexion with balloons and
   flying machines; (9) fuel; lubricants; (10) powder and explosives not
   specially prepared for use in war; (11) barbed wire and implements
   for fixing and cutting the same; (12) horseshoes and shoeing
   materials; (13) harness and saddlery; (14) field glasses, telescopes,
   chronometers and all kinds of nautical instruments.

   ART. 25.--Articles susceptible of use in war as well as for purposes
   of peace, other than those enumerated in Articles 22 and 24, may be
   added to the list of conditional contraband by a declaration, which
   must be notified in the manner provided for in the second paragraph
   of Article 23.

   ART. 26.--If a power waives, so far as it is concerned, the right to
   treat as contraband of war an article comprised in any of the classes
   enumerated in Articles 22 and 24, such intention shall be announced
   by a declaration, which must be notified in the manner provided for
   in the second paragraph of Article 23.

   ART. 27.--Articles which are not susceptible of use in war may not be
   declared contraband of war.

   ART. 28.--The following may not be declared contraband of war: (1)
   Raw cotton, wool, silk, jute, flax, hemp and other raw materials of
   the textile industries, and yarns of the same; (2) oil seeds and
   nuts; copra; (3) rubber, resins, gums and lacs; hops; (4) raw hides
   and horns, bones and ivory; (5) natural and artificial manures,
   including nitrates and phosphates for agricultural purposes; (6)
   metallic ores; (7) earths, clays, lime, chalk, stone, including
   marble, bricks, slates and tiles; (8) Chinaware and glass; (9) paper
   and paper-making materials; (10) soap, paint and colours, including
   articles exclusively used in their manufacture, and varnish; (11)
   bleaching powder, soda ash, caustic soda, salt cake, ammonia,
   sulphate of ammonia and sulphate of copper; (12) agricultural,
   mining, textile and printing machinery; (13) precious and
   semiprecious stones, pearls, mother-of-pearl and coral; (14) clocks
   and watches, other than chronometers; (15) fashion and fancy goods;
   (16) feathers of all kinds, hairs and bristles; (17) articles of
   household furniture and decoration; office furniture and requisites.

   ART. 29.--Likewise the following may not be treated as contraband of
   war: (1) Articles serving exclusively to aid the sick and wounded.
   They can, however, in case of urgent military necessity and subject
   to the payment of compensation, be requisitioned, if their
   destination is that specified in Article 30; (2) articles intended
   for the use of the vessel in which they are found, as well as those
   intended for the use of her crew and passengers during the voyage.

   ART. 30.--Absolute contraband is liable to capture if it is shown to
   be destined to territory belonging to or occupied by the enemy, or to
   the armed forces of the enemy. It is immaterial whether the carriage
   of the goods is direct or entails transhipment or a subsequent
   transport by land.

   ART. 31.--Proof of the destination specified in Article 30 is
   complete in the following cases: (1) When the goods are documented
   for discharge in an enemy port, or for delivery to the armed forces
   of the enemy; (2) when the vessel is to call at enemy ports only, or
   when she is to touch at an enemy port or meet the armed forces of the
   enemy before reaching the neutral port for which the goods in
   question are documented.

   ART. 32.--Where a vessel is carrying absolute contraband, her papers
   are conclusive proof as to the voyage on which she is engaged, unless
   she is found clearly out of the course indicated by her papers and
   unable to give adequate reasons to justify such deviation.

   ART. 33.--Conditional contraband is liable to capture if it is shown
   to be destined for the use of the armed forces or of a government
   department of the enemy state, unless in this latter case the
   circumstances show that the goods cannot in fact be used for the
   purposes of the war in progress. This latter exception does not apply
   to a consignment coming under Article 24 (4).

   ART. 34.---The destination referred to in Article 33 is presumed to
   exist if the goods are consigned to enemy authorities, or to a
   contractor established in the enemy country who, as a matter of
   common knowledge, supplies articles of this kind to the enemy. A
   similar presumption arises if the goods are consigned to a fortified
   place belonging to the enemy, or other place serving as a base for
   the armed forces of the enemy. No such presumption, however, arises
   in the case of a merchant vessel bound for one of these places if it
   is sought to prove that she herself is contraband. In cases where the
   above presumptions do not arise, the destination is presumed to be
   innocent. The presumptions set up by this article may be rebutted.

   ART. 35.--Conditional contraband is not liable to capture, except
   when found on board a vessel bound for territory belonging to or
   occupied by the enemy, or for the armed forces of the enemy, and when
   it is not to be discharged in an intervening neutral port. The ship's
   papers are conclusive proof both as to the voyage on which the vessel
   is engaged and as to the port of discharge of the goods, unless she
   is found clearly out of the course indicated by her papers, and
   unable to give adequate reasons to justify such deviation.

   ART. 36.--Notwithstanding the provisions of Article 35, conditional
   contraband, if shown to have the destination referred to in Article
   33, is liable to capture in cases where the enemy country has no
   seaboard.

   ART. 37.--A vessel carrying goods liable to capture as absolute or
   conditional contraband may be captured on the high seas or in the
   territorial waters of the belligerents throughout the whole of her
   voyage, even if she is to touch at a port of call before reaching the
   hostile destination.

   ART. 38.--A vessel may not be captured on the ground that she has
   carried contraband on a previous occasion if such carriage is in
   point of fact at an end.

   ART. 39.--Contraband goods are liable to condemnation.

   ART. 40.--A vessel carrying contraband may be condemned if the
   contraband, reckoned either by value, weight, volume or freight,
   forms more than half the cargo.

   ART. 41.--If a vessel carrying contraband is released, she may be
   condemned to pay the costs and expenses incurred by the captor in
   respect of the proceedings in the national prize court and the
   custody of the ship and cargo during the proceedings.

   ART. 42.--Goods which belong to the owner of the contraband and are
   on board the same vessel are liable to condemnation.

   ART. 43.--If a vessel is encountered at sea while unaware of the
   outbreak of hostilities or of the declaration of contraband which
   applies to her cargo, the contraband cannot be condemned except on
   payment of compensation; the vessel herself and the remainder of the
   cargo are not liable to condemnation or to the costs and expenses
   referred to in Article 41. The same rule applies if the master, after
   becoming aware of the outbreak of hostilities, or of the declaration
   of contraband, has had no opportunity of discharging the contraband.
   A vessel is deemed to be aware of the existence of a state of war, or
   of a declaration of contraband, if she left a neutral port
   subsequently to the notification to the power to which such port
   belongs of the outbreak of hostilities or of the declaration of
   contraband respectively, provided that such notification was made in
   sufficient time. A vessel is also deemed to be aware of the existence
   of a state of war if she left an enemy port after the outbreak of
   hostilities.

   ART. 44.--A vessel which has been stopped on the ground that she is
   carrying contraband, and which is not liable to condemnation on
   account of the proportion of contraband on board, may, when the
   circumstances permit, be allowed to continue her voyage if the master
   is willing to hand over the contraband to the belligerent warship.
   The delivery of the contraband must be entered by the captor on the
   log-book of the vessel stopped, and the master must give the captor
   duly certified copies of all relevant papers. The captor is at
   liberty to destroy the contraband that has been handed over to him
   under these conditions.

   See Hautefeuille, _Des droits et devoirs des nations neutres_ (2nd
   ed., 1858); Perels, _Droit maritime international_, traduit par
   Arendt (Paris, 1884); Moore, _Digest of International Law_ (1906); L.
   Oppenheim, _International Law_ (1907); Barclay, _Problems of
   International Practice and Diplomacy_ (1907). See also Hall,
   _International Law on Analogues of Contraband_; Smith and Sibley,
   _International Law as interpreted during the Russo-Japanese War,
   1905_, on "Malacca" and "Prinz Heinrich" cases (mails). (T. BA.)


FOOTNOTE:

  [1] See Springbok case, 1866, 5 Wallace I.; on _Doelwijk_ case see
    Brusa, _Rev. gén. de droit international public_ (1897); Fauchille
    _id._ (1897), p. 291, also _The Times_, April 15, May 25, June 1,
    1897.




CONTRACT (Lat. _contractus_, from _contrahere_, to draw together, to
bind), the legal term for a bargain or agreement; some writers,
following the Indian Contract Act, confine the term to agreements
enforceable by law: this, though not yet universally adopted, seems an
improvement. Enforcement of good faith in matters of bargain and promise
is among the most important functions of legal justice. It might not be
too much to say that, next after keeping the peace and securing property
against violence and fraud so that business may be possible, it is the
most important. Yet we shall find that the importance of contract is
developed comparatively late in the history of law. The commonwealth
needs elaborate rules about contracts only when it is advanced enough in
civilization and trade to have an elaborate system of credit. The Roman
law of the empire dealt with contract, indeed, in a fairly adequate
manner, though it never had a complete or uniform theory; and the Roman
law, as settled by Justinian, appears to have satisfied the Eastern
empire long after the Western nations had begun to recast their
institutions, and the traders of the Mediterranean had struck out a
cosmopolitan body of rules and custom known as the Law Merchant, which
claimed acceptance in the name neither of Justinian nor of the Church,
but of universal reason. It was amply proved afterwards that the
foundations of the Roman system were strong enough to carry the fabric
of modern legislation. But the collapse of the Roman power in western
Christendom threw society back into chaos, and reduced men's ideas of
ordered justice and law to a condition compared with which the earliest
Roman law known to us is modern.

In this condition of legal ideas, which it would be absurd to call
jurisprudence, the general duty of keeping faith is not recognized
except as a matter of religious or social observance. Those who desire
to be assured of anything that lies in promise must exact an oath, or a
pledge, or personal sureties; and even then the court of their
people--in England the Hundred Court in the first instance--will do
nothing for them in the first case, and not much in the two latter.
Probably the settlement of a blood-feud, with provisions for the payment
of the fine by instalments, was the nearest approach to a continuing
contract, as we now understand the term, which the experience of
Germanic antiquity could furnish. It is also probable that the
performance of such undertakings, as it concerned the general peace, was
at an early time regarded as material to the commonweal; and that these
covenants of peace, rather than the rudimentary selling and bartering of
their day, first caused our Germanic ancestors to realize the importance
of putting some promises at any rate under public sanction. We have not
now to attempt any reconstruction of archaic judgment and justice, or
the lack of either, at any period of the darkness and twilight which
precede the history of the middle ages. But the history of the law, and
even the present form of much law still common to almost all the
English-speaking world, can be understood only when we bear in mind that
our forefathers did not start from any general conception of the state's
duty to enforce private agreements, but, on the contrary, the state's
powers and functions in this regard were extended gradually,
unsystematically, and by shifts and devices of ingenious suitors and
counsel, aided by judges, rather than by any direct provisions of
princes and rulers. Money debts, it is true, were recoverable from an
early time. But this was not because the debtor had promised to repay
the loan; it was because the money was deemed still to belong to the
creditor, as if the identical coins were merely in the debtor's custody.
The creditor sued to recover money, for centuries after the Norman
Conquest, in exactly the same form which he would have used to demand
possession of land; the action of debt closely resembled the "real
actions," and, like them, might be finally determined by a judicial
combat; and down to Blackstone's time the creditor was said to have a
property in the debt--property which the debtor had "granted" him.
Giving credit, in this way of thinking, is not reliance on the right to
call hereafter for an act, the payment of so much current money or its
equivalent, to be performed by the debtor, but merely suspension of the
immediate right to possess one's own particular money, as the owner of a
house let for a term suspends his right to occupy it. This was no road
to the modern doctrine of contract, and the passage had to be made
another way.


  Action for debt.

In fact the old action of debt covered part of the ground of contract
only by accident. It was really an action to recover any property that
was not land; for the remedy of a dispossessed owner of chattels,
afterwards known as detinue, was only a slightly varying form of it. If
the property claimed was a certain sum of money, it might be due because
the defendant had received money on loan, or because he had received
goods of which the agreed price remained unpaid; or, in later times at
any rate, because he had become liable in some way by judgment, statute
or other authority of law, to pay a fine or fixed penalty to the
plaintiff. Here the person recovering might be as considerable as the
lord of a manor, or as mean as a "common informer"; the principle was
the same. In every case outside this last class, that is to say,
whenever there was a debt in the popular sense of the word, it had to be
shown that the defendant had actually received the money or goods; this
value received came to be called _quid pro quo_--a term unknown, to all
appearance, out of England. Nevertheless the foundation of the
plaintiff's right was not bargain or promise, but the unjust detention
by the defendant of the plaintiff's money or goods.


  Modes of proof.

We are not concerned here to trace the change from the ancient method of
proof--oath backed by "good suit," _i.e._ the oaths of an adequate
number of friends and neighbours--through the earlier form of jury
trial, in which the jury were supposed to know the truth of their own
knowledge, to the modern establishment of facts by testimony brought
before a jury who are bound to give their verdict according to the
evidence. But there was one mode of proof which, after the Norman
Conquest, made a material addition to the substantive law. This was the
proof by writing, which means writing authenticated by seal. Proof by
writing was admitted under Roman influence, but, once admitted, it
acquired the character of being conclusive which belonged to all proof
in early Germanic procedure. Oath, ordeal and battle were all final in
their results. When the process was started there was no room for
discussion. So the sealed writing was final too, and a man could not
deny his own deed. We still say that he cannot, but with modern
refinements. Thus the deed, being allowed as a solemn and probative
document, furnished a means by which a man could bind himself, or rather
effectually declare himself bound, to anything not positively forbidden
by law. Whoever could afford parchment and the services of a clerk might
have the benefit of a "formal contract" in the Roman sense of the term.
At this day the form of deed called a bond or "obligation" is, as it
stands settled after various experiments, extremely artificial; but it
is essentially a solemn admission of liability, though its conclusive
stringency has been relaxed by modern legislation and practice in the
interest of substantial justice. By this means the performance of all
sorts of undertakings, pecuniary and otherwise, could be and was legally
secured. Bonds were well known in the 13th century, and from the 14th
century onwards were freely used for commercial and other purposes; as
for certain limited purposes they still are. The "covenant" of modern
draftsmen is a direct promise made by deed; it occurs mainly as incident
to conveyances of land. The medieval "covenant," _conventio_, was, when
we first hear of it, practically equivalent to a lease, and never became
a common instrument of miscellaneous contracting, though the old books
recognize the possibility of turning it to various uses of which there
are examples; nor had it any sensible influence on the later development
of the law. On the whole, in the old common law one could do a great
deal by deed, but very little without deed. The minor bargains of daily
life, so far as they involved mutual credit, were left to the
jurisdiction of inferior courts, of the Law Merchant, and--last, not
least--of the Church.


  Fidel laesio.

Popular custom, in all European countries, recognized simpler ways of
pledging faith than parchment and seal. A handshake was enough to bind a
bargain. Whatever secular law might say, the Church said it was an open
sin to break plighted faith; a matter, therefore, for spiritual
correction, in other words, for compulsion exercised on the defaulter by
the bishop's or the archdeacon's court, armed with the power of
excommunication. In this way the ecclesiastical courts acquired much
business which was, in fact, as secular as that of a modern county
court, with the incident profits. Medieval courts lived by the suitors'
fees. What were the king's judges to do? However high they put their
claims in the course of the rivalry between Church and Crown, they could
not effectually prohibit the bishop or his official from dealing with
matters for which the king's court provided no remedy. Continental
jurists had seen their way, starting from the Roman system as it was
left by Justinian, to reduce its formalities to a vanishing quantity,
and expand their jurisdiction to the full breadth of current usage.
English judges could not do this in the 15th century, if they could ever
have done so. Nor would simplification of the requisites of a deed, such
as has now been introduced in many jurisdictions, have been of much use
at a time when only a minority even of well-to-do laymen could write
with any facility.

There was no principle and no form of action in English law which
recognized any general duty of keeping promises. But could not breach of
faith by which a party had suffered be treated as some kind of legal
wrong? There was a known action of trespass and a known action of
deceit, this last of a special kind, mostly for what would now be called
abuse of the process of the court; but in the later middle ages it was
an admitted remedy for giving a false warranty on a sale of goods. Also
there was room for actions "on the case," on facts analogous to those
covered by the old writs, though not precisely within their terms. If
the king's judges were to capture this important branch of business from
the clerical hands which threatened to engross it, the only way was to
devise some new form of action on the case. There were signs, moreover,
that the court of chancery would not neglect so promising a field if the
common law judges left it open.


  Assumpsit.

The mere fact of unfulfilled promise was not enough, in the eyes of
medieval English lawyers, to give a handle to the law. But injury caused
by reliance on another man's undertaking was different. The special
undertaking or "assumption" creates a duty which is broken by fraudulent
or incompetent miscarriage in the performance. I profess to be a skilled
farrier, and lame your horse. It is no trespass, because you trusted the
horse to me; but it is something like a trespass, and very like a
deceit. I profess to be a competent builder; you employ me to build a
house, and I scamp the work so that the house is not fit to live in. An
action on the case was allowed without much difficulty for such
defaults. The next step, and a long one, was to provide for total
failure to perform. The builder, instead of doing bad work, does nothing
at all within the time agreed upon for completing the house. Can it be
said that he has done a wrong? At first the judges felt bound to hold
that this was going too far; but suitors anxious to have the benefit of
the king's justice persevered, and in the course of the 15th century the
new form of action, called _assumpsit_ from the statement of the
defendant's undertaking on which it was founded, was allowed as a remedy
for non-performance as well as for faulty performance. Being an action
for damages, and not for a certain amount, it escaped the strict rules
of proof which applied to the old action of debt; being in form for a
kind of trespass, and thus a privileged appeal to the king to do right
for a breach of his peace, it escaped likewise the risk of the defendant
clearing himself by oath according to the ancient popular procedure.
Hence, as time went on, suitors were emboldened to use "assumpsit" as an
alternative for debt, though it had been introduced only for cases where
there was no other remedy. By the end of the 16th century they got their
way; and it became a settled doctrine that the existence of a debt was
enough for the court to presume an undertaking to pay it. The new form
of action was made to cover the whole ground of informal contracts, and,
by extremely ingenious devices of pleading, developed from the
presumption or fiction that a man had promised to pay what he ought, it
was extended in time to a great variety of cases where there was in fact
no contract at all.


  Consideration.

The new system gave no new force to gratuitous promises. For it was
assumed, as the foundation of the jurisdiction, that the plaintiff had
been induced by the defendant's undertaking, and with the defendant's
consent, to alter his position for the worse in some way. He had paid or
bound himself to pay money, he had parted with goods, he had spent time
in labour, or he had foregone some profit or legal right. If he had not
committed himself to anything on the strength of the defendant's
promise, he had suffered no damage and had no cause of action.
Disappointment of expectations is unpleasant, but it is not of itself
_damnum_ in a legal sense. To sum up the effect of this in modern
language, the plaintiff must have given value of some kind, more or
less, for the defendant's undertaking. This something given by the
promisee and accepted by the promisor in return for his undertaking is
what we now call the _consideration_ for the promise. In cases where
debt would also lie, it coincides with the old requirement of value
received (_quid pro quo_) as a condition of the action of debt being
available. But the conception is far wider, for the consideration for a
promise need not be anything capable of delivery or possession. It may
be money or goods; but it may also be an act or series of acts; further
(and this is of the first importance for our modern law), it may itself
be a promise to pay money or deliver goods, or to do work, or otherwise
to act or not to act in some specified way. Again, it need not be
anything which is obviously for the promisor's benefit. His acceptance
shows that he set some value on it; but in truth the promisee's burden,
and not the promisor's benefit, is material. The last refinement of
holding that, when mutual promises are exchanged between parties, each
promise is a consideration for the other and makes it binding, was
conclusively accepted only in the 17th century. The result was that
promises of mere bounty could no more be enforced than before, but any
kind of lawful bargain could; and there is no reason to doubt that this
was in substance what most men wanted. Ancient popular usage and feeling
show little more encouragement than ancient law itself to merely
gratuitous alienation or obligations. Also (subject, till quite modern
times, to the general rule of common-law procedure that parties could
not be their own witnesses, and subject to various modern statutory
requirements in various classes of cases) no particular kind of proof
was necessary. The necessity of consideration for the validity of simple
contracts was unfortunately confused by commentators, almost from the
beginning of its history, with the perfectly different rules of the
Roman law about _nudum pactum_, which very few English lawyers took the
pains to understand. Hasty comparison of misunderstood Roman law,
sometimes in its civil and sometimes in its ecclesiastical form, is
answerable for a large proportion of the worst faults in old-fashioned
text-books. Doubtless many canonists, probably some common lawyers, and
possibly some of the judges of the Renaissance time, supposed that _ex
nudo pacio non oritur actio_ was in some way a proposition of universal
reason; but it is a long way from this to concluding that the Roman law
had any substantial influence on the English.

The doctrine of consideration is in fact peculiar to those jurisdictions
where the common law of England is in force, or is the foundation of the
received law, or, as in South Africa, has made large encroachments upon
it in practice. Substantially similar results are obtained in other
modern systems by professing to enforce all deliberate promises, but
imposing stricter conditions of proof where the promise is gratuitous.


  Deeds.

As obligations embodied in the solemn form of a deed were thereby made
enforceable before the doctrine of consideration was known, so they
still remain. When a man has by deed declared himself bound, there is no
need to look for any bargain, or even to ask whether the other party has
assented. This rugged fragment of ancient law remains embedded in our
elaborate modern structure. Nevertheless gratuitous promises, even by
deed, get only their strict and bare rights. There may be an action upon
them, but the powerful remedy of specific performance--often the only
one worth having--is denied them. For this is derived from the
extraordinary jurisdiction of the chancellor, and the equity
administered by the chancellor was not for plaintiffs who could not show
substantial merit as well as legal claims. The singular position of
promises made by deed is best left out of account in considering the
general doctrine of the formation of contracts; and as to interpretation
there is no difference. In what follows, therefore, it will be needless,
as a rule, to distinguish between "parol" or "simple" contracts, that
is, contracts not made by deed, and obligations undertaken by deed.


  Promise and offer.

From the conception of a promise being valid only when given in return
for something accepted in consideration of the promise, it follows that
the giving of the promise and of the consideration must be simultaneous.
Words of promise uttered before there is a consideration for them can be
no more than an offer; and, on the other hand, the obligation declared
in words, or inferred from acts and conduct, on the acceptance of a
consideration, is fixed at that time, and cannot be varied by subsequent
declaration, though such declarations may be material as admissions. It
was a long while, however, before this consequence was clearly
perceived. In the 18th century it was attempted, and for a time with
considerable success, to extend the range of enforceable promises
without regard to what the principles of the law would bear, in order to
satisfy a sense of natural justice. This movement was checked only
within living memory, and traces of it remain in certain apparently
anomalous rules which are indeed of little practical importance, but
which private writers, at any rate, cannot safely treat as obsolete.
However, the question of "past consideration" is too minute and
technical to be pursued here. The general result is that a binding
contract is regularly constituted by the acceptance of an offer, and at
the moment when it is accepted; and, however complicated the transaction
may be, there must always, in the theory of English law, be such a
moment in every case where a contract is formed. It also follows that
an offer before acceptance creates no duty of any kind ("A revocable
promise is unknown to our law"--Anson); which is by no means necessarily
the case in systems where the English rule of consideration is unknown.
The question what amounts to final acceptance of an offer is, on the
other hand, a question ultimately depending on common sense, and must be
treated on similar lines in all civilized countries where the business
of life is carried on in a generally similar way. The rules that an
offer is understood to be made only for a reasonable time, according to
the nature of the case, and lapses if not accepted in due time; that an
expressed revocation of an offer can take effect only if communicated to
the other party before he has accepted; that acceptance of an offer must
be according to its terms, and a conditional or qualified acceptance is
only a new proposal, and the like, may be regarded as standing on
general convenience as much as on any technical ground.


  Correspondence.

Great difficulties have arisen, and in other systems as well as in the
English, as to the completion of contracts between persons at a
distance. There must be some rule, and yet any rule that can be framed
must seem arbitrary in some cases. On the whole the modern doctrine is
to some such effect as the following:--

The proposer of a contract can prescribe or authorize any mode, or at
least any reasonable mode, of acceptance, and if he specifies none he is
deemed to authorize the use of any reasonable mode in common use, and
especially the post. Acceptance in words is not always required; an
offer may be well accepted by an act clearly referable to the proposed
agreement, and constituting the whole or part of the performance asked
for--say the despatch of goods in answer to an order by post, or the
doing of work bespoken; and it seems that in such cases further
communication--unless expressly requested--is not necessary as matter of
law, however prudent and desirable it may be. Where a promise and not an
act is sought (as where a tradesman writes a letter offering goods for
sale on credit), it must be communicated; in the absence of special
direction letter post or telegraph may be used; and, further, the
acceptor having done his part when his answer is committed to the post.
English courts now hold (after much discussion and doubt) that any delay
or miscarriage in course of post is at the proposer's risk, so that a
man may be bound by an acceptance he never received. It is generally
thought--though there is no English decision--that, in conformity with
this last rule, a revocation by telegraph of an acceptance already
posted would be inoperative. Much more elaborate rules are laid down in
some continental codes. It seems doubtful whether their complication
achieves any gain of substantial justice worth the price. At first sight
it looks easy to solve some of the difficulties by admitting an interval
during which one party is bound and the other not. But, apart from the
risk of starting fresh problems as hard as the old ones, English
principles, as above said, require a contract to be concluded between
the parties at one point of time, and any exception to this would have
to be justified by very strong grounds of expediency. We have already
assumed, but it should be specifically stated, that neither offers nor
acceptances are confined to communications made in spoken or written
words. Acts or signs may and constantly do signify proposal and assent.
One does not in terms request a ferryman to put one across the river.
Stepping into the boat is an offer to pay the usual fare for being
ferried over, and the ferryman accepts it by putting off. This is a very
simple case, but the principle is the same in all cases. Acts fitted to
convey to a reasonable man the proposal of an agreement, or the
acceptance of a proposal he has made, are as good in law as equivalent
express words. The term "implied contract" is current in this connexion,
but it is unfortunately ambiguous. It sometimes means a contract
concluded by acts, not words, of one or both parties, but still a real
agreement; sometimes an obligation imposed by law where there is not any
agreement in fact, for which the name "quasi-contract" is more
appropriate and now usual.


  Interpretation.

The obligation of contract is an obligation created and determined by
the will of the parties. Herein is the characteristic difference of
contract from all other branches of law. The business of the law,
therefore, is to give effect so far as possible to the intention of the
parties, and all the rules for interpreting contracts go back to this
fundamental principle and are controlled by it. Every one knows that its
application is not always obvious. Parties often express themselves
obscurely; still oftener they leave large parts of their intention
unexpressed, or (which for the law is the same thing) have not formed
any intention at all as to what is to be done in certain events. But
even where the law has to fill up gaps by judicial conjecture, the
guiding principle still is, or ought to be, the consideration of what
either party has given the other reasonable cause to expect of him. The
court aims not at imposing terms on the parties, but at fixing the terms
left blank as the parties would or reasonably might have fixed them if
all the possibilities had been clearly before their minds. For this
purpose resort must be had to various tests: the court may look to the
analogy of what the parties have expressly provided in case of other
specified events, to the constant or general usage of persons engaged in
like business, and, at need, ultimately to the court's own sense of what
is just and expedient. All auxiliary rules of this kind are subject to
the actual will of the parties, and are applied only for want of
sufficient declaration of it by the parties themselves. A rule which can
take effect against the judicially known will of the parties is not a
rule of construction or interpretation, but a positive rule of law.
However artificial some rules of construction may seem, this test will
always hold. In modern times the courts have avoided laying down new
rules of construction, preferring to keep a free hand and deal with each
case on its merits as a whole. It should be observed that the fulfilment
of a contract may create a relation between the parties which, once
established, is governed by fixed rules of law not variable by the
preceding agreement. Marriage is the most conspicuous example of this,
and perhaps the only complete one in our modern law.


  Evidence.

There are certain rules of evidence which to some extent guide or
restrain interpretation. In particular, oral testimony is not allowed to
vary the terms of an agreement reduced to writing. This is really in aid
of the parties' deliberate intention, for the object of reducing terms
to writing is to make them certain. There are apparent exceptions to the
rule, of which the most conspicuous is the admission of evidence to show
that words were used in a special meaning current in the place or trade
in question. But they are reducible, it will be found, to applications
(perhaps over-subtle in some cases) of the still more general principles
that, before giving legal force to a document, we must know that it is
really what it purports to be, and that when we do give effect to it
according to its terms we must be sure of what its terms really say. The
rules of evidence here spoken of are modern, and have nothing to do with
the archaic rule already mentioned as to the effect of a deed.


  Performance.

Every contracting party is bound to perform his promise according to its
terms, and in case of any doubt in the sense in which the other party
would reasonably understand the promise. Where the performance on one or
both sides extends over an appreciable time, continuously or by
instalments, questions may arise as to the right of either party to
refuse or suspend further performance on the ground of some default on
the other side. Attempts to lay down hard and fast rules on such
questions are now discouraged, the aim of the courts being to give
effect to the true substance and intent of the contract in every case.
Nor will the court hold one part of the terms deliberately agreed to
more or less material than another in modern business dealings. "In the
contracts of merchants time is of the essence," as the Supreme Court of
the United States has said in our own day. Certain ancient rules
restraining the apparent literal effect of common provisions in
mortgages and other instruments were in truth controlling rules of
policy. New rules of this kind can be made only by legislation. Whether
the parties did or did not in fact intend the obligation of a contract
to be subject to unexpressed conditions is, however, a possible and not
uncommon question of interpretation. One class of cases giving rise to
such questions is that in which performance becomes impossible by some
external cause not due to the promisor's own fault; a similar but not
identical one is that in which the agreement could be literally
performed, and yet the performance would not give the promisor the
substance of what he bargained for; as happened in the "coronation
cases" arising out of the postponement of the king's coronation in 1902.
As to promises obviously absurd or impossible from the first, they are
unenforceable only on the ground that the parties cannot have seriously
meant to create a liability. For precisely the same reason, supported by
the general usage and understanding of mankind, common social
engagements, though they often fulfil all other requisites of a
contract, have never been treated as binding in law.


  Illegality.

In all matters of contract, as we have said, the ascertained will of the
parties prevails. But this means a will both lawful and free. Hence
there are limits to the force of the general rule, fixed partly by the
law of the land, which is above individual will and interests, partly by
the need of securing good faith and justice between the parties
themselves against fraud or misadventure. Agreements cannot be enforced
when their performance would involve an offence against the law. There
may be legal offence, it must be remembered, not only in acts commonly
recognized as criminal, disloyal or immoral, but in the breach or
non-observance of positive regulations made by the legislature, or
persons having statutory authority, for a great variety of purposes. It
would be useless to give details on the subject here. Again, there are
cases where an agreement may be made and performed without offending the
law, but on grounds of "public policy" it is not thought right that the
performance should be a matter of legal obligation, even if the ordinary
conditions of an enforceable contract are satisfied. A man may bet, in
private at any rate, if he likes, and pay or receive as the event may
be; but for many years the winner has had no right of action against the
loser. Unfortunate timidity on the part of the judges, who attempted to
draw distinctions instead of saying boldly that they would not entertain
actions on wagers of any kind, threw this topic into the domain of
legislation; and the laudable desire of parliament to discourage
gambling, so far as might be, without attempting impossible
prohibitions, has brought the law to a state of ludicrous complexity in
both civil and criminal jurisdiction. But what is really important under
this doctrine of public policy is the confinement of "contracts in
restraint of trade" within special limits. In the middle ages and down
to modern times there was a strong feeling--not merely an artificial
legal doctrine--against monopolies and everything tending to monopoly.
Agreements to keep up prices or not to compete were regarded as
criminal. Gradually it was found that some kind of limited security
against competition must be allowed if such transactions as the sale of
a going concern with its goodwill, or the retirement of partners from a
continuing firm, or the employment of confidential servants in matters
involving trade secrets, were to be carried on to the satisfaction of
the parties. Attempts to lay down fixed rules in these matters were made
from time to time, but they were finally discredited by the decision of
the House of Lords in the Maxim-Nordenfelt Company's case in 1894.
Contracts "in restraint of trade" will now be held valid, provided that
they are made for valuable consideration (this even if they are made by
deed), and do not go beyond what can be thought reasonable for the
protection of the interests concerned, and are not injurious to the
public. (The Indian Contract Act, passed in 1872, has unfortunately
embodied views now obsolete, and remains unamended.) All that remains of
the old rules in England is the necessity of valuable consideration,
whatever be the form of the contract, and a strong presumption--but not
an absolute rule of law--that an unqualified agreement not to carry on a
particular business is not reasonable.


  Fraud.

Where there is no reason in the nature of the contract for not
enforcing it, the consent of a contracting party may still not be
binding on him because not given with due knowledge, or, if he is in a
relation of dependence to the other party, with independent judgment.
Inducing a man by deceit to enter into a contract may always be treated
by the deceived party as a ground for avoiding his obligation, if he
does so within a reasonable time after discovering the truth, and, in
particular, before any innocent third person has acquired rights for
value on the faith of the contract (see FRAUD). Coercion would be
treated on principle in the same way as fraud, but such cases hardly
occur in modern times. There is a kind of moral domination, however,
which our courts watch with the utmost jealousy, and repress under the
name of "undue influence" when it is used to obtain pecuniary advantage.
Persons in a position of legal or practical authority--guardians,
confidential advisers, spiritual directors, and the like--must not abuse
their authority for selfish ends. They are not forbidden to take
benefits from those who depend on them or put their trust in them; but
if they do, and the givers repent of their bounty, the whole burden of
proof is on the takers to show that the gift was in the first instance
made freely and with understanding. Large voluntary gifts or beneficial
contracts, outside the limits within which natural affection and common
practice justify them, are indeed not encouraged in any system of
civilized law. Professional money lenders were formerly checked by the
usury law: since those laws were repealed in 1854, courts and juries
have shown a certain astuteness in applying the rules of law as to fraud
and undue influence--the latter with certain special features--to
transactions with needy "expectant heirs" and other improvident persons
which seem on the whole unconscionable. The Money Lenders Act of 1900
has fixed and (as finally interpreted by the House of Lords) also
sharpened these developments. In the case of both fraud and undue
influence, the person entitled to avoid a contract may, if so advised,
ratify it afterwards; and ratification, if made with full knowledge and
free judgment, is irrevocable. A contract made with a person deprived by
unsound mind or intoxication of the capacity to form a rational judgment
is on the same footing as a contract obtained by fraud, if the want of
capacity is apparent to the other party.


  Misrepresentation.

There are many cases in which a statement made by one party to the other
about a material fact will enable the other to avoid the contract if he
has relied on it, and it was in fact untrue, though it may have been made
at the time with honest belief in its truth. This is so wherever,
according to the common course of business, it is one party's business to
know the facts, and the other practically must, or reasonably may, take
the facts from him. In some classes of cases even inadvertent omission to
disclose any material fact is treated as a misrepresentation. Contracts
of insurance are the most important; here the insurer very seldom has the
means of making any effective inquiry of his own. Misdescription of real
property on a sale, without fraud, may according to its importance be a
matter for compensation or for setting aside the contract. Promoters of
companies are under special duties as to good faith and disclosure which
have been worked out at great length in the modern decisions. But company
law has become so complex within the present generation that, so far from
throwing much light on larger principles, it is hardly intelligible
without some previous grasp of them. Sometimes it is said that
misrepresentation (apart from fraud) of any material fact will serve to
avoid any and every kind of contract. It is submitted that this is
certainly not the law as to the sale of goods or as to the contract to
marry, and therefore the alleged rule cannot be laid down as universal.
But it must be remembered that parties can, if they please, and not
necessarily by the express terms of the contract itself, make the
validity of their contract conditional on the existence of any matter of
fact whatever, including the correctness of any particular statement. If
they have done this, and the fact is not so, the contract has no force;
not because there has been a misrepresentation, but because the parties
agreed to be bound if the fact was so and not otherwise. It is a
question of interpretation whether in a given case there was any such
condition.


  Mistake.

Mistake is said to be a ground for avoiding contracts, and there are
cases which it is practically convenient to group under this head. On
principle they seem to be mostly reducible to failure of the acceptance
to correspond with the offer, or absence of any real consideration for
the promise. In such cases, whether there be fraud or not, no contract
is ever formed, and therefore there is nothing which can be ratified--a
distinction which may have important effects. Relief against mistake is
given where parties who have really agreed, or rather their advisers,
fail to express their intention correctly. Here, if the original true
intention is fully proved--as to which the court is rightly
cautious--the faulty document can be judicially rectified.


  Disability.

By the common law an infant (_i.e._ a person less than twenty-one years
old) was bound by contracts made for "necessaries," _i.e._ such
commodities as a jury holds, and the court thinks they may reasonably
hold, suitable and required for the person's condition; also by
contracts otherwise clearly for his benefit; all other contracts he
might confirm or avoid after coming of age. An extremely ill-drawn act
of 1874 absolutely deprived infants of the power of contracting loans,
contracting for the supply of goods other than necessaries, and stating
an account so as to bind themselves; it also disabled them from binding
themselves by ratification. The liability for necessaries is now
declared by legislative authority in the Sale of Goods Act 1893; the
modern doctrine is that it is in no case a true liability on contract.
There is an obligation imposed by law to pay, not the agreed price, but
a reasonable price. Practically, people who give credit to an infant do
so at their peril, except in cases of obvious urgency.

Married women were incapable by the common law of contracting in their
own names. At this day they can hold separate property and bind
themselves to the extent of that property--not personally--by contract.
The law before the Married Women's Property Acts (1882 and 1893, and
earlier acts now superseded and repealed) was a very peculiar creature
of the court of chancery; the number of cases in which it is necessary
to go back to it is of course decreasing year by year. But a married
woman can still be restrained from anticipating the income of her
separate property, and the restriction is still commonly inserted in
marriage settlements.

There is a great deal of philosophical interest about the nature and
capacities of corporations, but for modern practical purposes it may be
said that the legal powers of British corporations are directly or
indirectly determined by acts of parliament. For companies under the
Companies Acts the controlling instrument or written constitution is the
memorandum of association. Company draftsmen, taught by experience,
nowadays frame this in the most comprehensive terms. Questions of either
personal or corporate disability are less frequent than they were. In
any case they stand apart from the general principles which characterize
our law of contract.


  Contract and property.

The rights created by contract are personal rights against the promisors
and their legal representatives, and therefore different in kind from
the rights of ownership and the like which are available against all the
world. Nevertheless they may be and very commonly are capable of
pecuniary estimation and estimated as part of a man's assets. Book debts
are the most obvious example. Such rights are property in the larger
sense: they are in modern law transmissible and alienable, unless the
contract is of a kind implying personal confidence, or a contrary
intention is otherwise shown. The rights created by negotiable
instruments are an important and unique species of property, being not
only exchangeable but the very staple of commercial currency. Contract
and conveyance, again, are distinct in their nature, and sharply
distinguished in the classical Roman law. But in the common law property
in goods is transferred by a complete contract of sale without any
further act, and under the French civil code and systems which have
followed it a like rule applies not only to movables but to immovables.
In English law procuring a man to break his contract is a civil wrong
against the other contracting party, subject to exceptions which are
still not clearly defined.

   AUTHORITIES.--History: Ames, "The History of Assumpsit," _Harvard Law
   Rev._ ii. 1, 53 (Cambridge, Mass. 1889); Pollock and Maitland,
   _History of English Law_, 2nd ed., ii. 184-239 (Cambridge, 1898).
   Modern: Pollock, article "Contract" in _Encyclopaedia of the Laws of
   England_ (2nd ed., London, 1907), a technical summary of the modern
   law; the same writer's edition of the Indian Contract Act (assisted
   by D. F. Mulla, London and Bombay, 1905) restates and discusses the
   principles of the common law besides commenting on the provisions of
   the Act in detail. Of the text-books, Anson, _English Law of
   Contract_, reached an eleventh edition in 1906; Harriman, _Law of
   Contracts_ (second edition, 1901); Leake, _Principles of the Law of
   Contract_ (fifth edition by Randall, 1906); Pollock, _Principles of
   Contract_ (eighth edition, 1910, third American edition, Wald's
   completed by Williston, New York, 1906). O. W. Holmes's (justice of
   the Supreme Court of the United States) _The Common Law_ (Boston,
   Mass. 1881) is illuminating on contract as on other legal topics,
   though the present writer cannot accept all the learned judge's
   historical conjectures.     (F. PO.)




CONTRACTILE VACUOLE, in biology, a spherical space filled with liquid,
which at intervals discharges into the medium; it is found in all
fresh-water groups of Protozoa, and some marine forms, also in the naked
aquatic reproductive cells of Algae and Fungi. It is absent in states
with a distinct cell-wall to resist excessive turgescence, such as would
lead to the rupture of a naked cell, and we conclude that its chief
function is to prevent such turgescence in unprotected naked cells. It
fulfils also respiratory and renal functions, and is comparable,
physiologically, to the contractile vesicle or bladder of Rotifers and
Turbellarians. In many species it is part of a complex of canals or
spaces in the protoplasm.

   See M. Hartog, British Association _Reports_, and Degen, _Botanische
   Zeitung_, vol. lxiii. Abt. 1 (1905) (see also PROTOZOA; PROTOPLASM).




CONTRADICTION, PRINCIPLE OF (_principium contradictionis_), in logic,
the term applied to the second of the three primary "laws of thought."
The oldest statement of the law is that contradictory statements cannot
both at the same time be true, _e.g._ the two propositions "A is B" and
"A is not B" are mutually exclusive. A may be B at one time, and not at
another; A may be partly B and partly not B at the same time; but it is
impossible to predicate of the same thing, at the same time, and in the
same sense, the absence and the presence of the same quality. This is
the statement of the law given by Aristotle ([Greek: to gar auto
huparchein te kai mê huparchein adunaton tô autô kai kata to auto],
_Metaph._ [Gamma] 3, 1005 b 19). It takes no account of the truth of
either proposition; if one is true, the other is not; one of the two
must be true.

Modern logicians, following Leibnitz and Kant, have generally adopted a
different statement, by which the law assumes an essentially different
meaning. Their formula is "A is not not-A"; in other words it is
impossible to predicate of a thing a quality which is its contradictory.
Unlike Aristotle's law this law deals with the necessary relation
between subject and predicate in a single judgment. Whereas Aristotle
states that _one or other_ of two contradictory propositions must be
false, the Kantian law states that a particular kind of proposition is
_in itself_ necessarily false. On the other hand there is a real
connexion between the two laws. The denial of the statement "A is not-A"
presupposes some knowledge of what A is, _i.e._ the statement A is A. In
other words a judgment about A is implied. Kant's analytical
propositions depend on presupposed concepts which are the same for all
people. His statement, regarded as a logical principle purely and apart
from material facts, does not therefore amount to more than that of
Aristotle, which deals simply with the significance of negation.

   See text-books of Logic, _e.g._ C. Sigwart's _Logic_ (trans. Helen
   Dendy, London, 1895), vol. i. pp. 142 foll.; for the various
   expressions of the law see Ueberweg's _Logik_, § 77; also J. S. Mill,
   _Examination of Hamilton_, 471; Venn, _Empirical Logic_.




CONTRAFAGOTTO, DOUBLE BASSOON or _Contrabassoon_ (Fr. _contrebasson_;
Ger. _Kontrafagott_), a wood-wind instrument of the double reed family,
which it completes as grand bass, the other members being the oboe, cor
anglais, and bassoon. The contrafagotto corresponds to the double bass
in strings, to the contrabass tuba in the brass wind, and to the pedal
clarinet in the single reed wood wind.

[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Contrafagotto, German model (Wilhelm Heckel).

  From Capt. C. R. Day's _Cat. of Mus. Inst._ by permission of Fyre &
  Spottiswoode.]

[Illustration: FIG. 2.--Contrafagotto, Haseneier-Morton model.]

There are at the present day three distinct makes of contrafagotto. (1)
The modern German (fig. 1) is founded on the older models, resembling
the bassoon, the best-known being Heckel's of Biebrich-am-Rhein, used at
Bayreuth and in many German orchestras. In this model the
characteristics of the bassoon are preserved, and the tone is of true
fagotto quality extended in its lower register. The Heckel contrafagotto
consists of a wooden tube 16 ft. 4 in. long with a conical bore, and
doubled back four times upon itself to make it less unwieldy. It is thus
about the same length as the bassoon and terminates in a bell 4 in. in
diameter pointing downwards. The crook consists of a small brass tube
about 2 ft. long, having a very narrow bore, to which is bound the
double-reed mouthpiece. (2) The modern English double bassoon is one
designed by Dr W. H. Stone, and made under his superintendence by
Haseneier of Coblenz. It is stated that instruments of this pattern are
less fatiguing to blow than those resembling the bassoon. The bore is
truly conical, starting with a diameter of ¼ in. at the reed and ending
in a diameter of 4 in. at the open end of the tube which points upwards
and has no defined bell, being merely finished with a rim. Alfred
Morton, in England, has constructed double bassoons on Dr Stone's design
(fig. 2). (3) The third model is of brass and consists of a conical tube
of wide calibre some 15 or 16 ft. long, curved round four times upon
itself and having a brass tuba or euphonium bell which points upwards.
This brass model, usually known as the Belgian or French (fig. 3), was
really of Austrian origin, having been first introduced by Schöllnast of
Presburg about 1839. B. F. Czerveny of Königgrätz and Victor Mahillon of
Brussels both appear to have followed up this idea independently; the
former producing a metal contrafagotto in E[flat] in 1856 and one in
B[flat] which he called sub-contrafagotto in 1867, while Mahillon's was
ready in 1868. In the brass contrafagotto the lateral holes are pierced
at theoretically correct intervals along the bore, and have a diameter
almost equal to the section of the bore at the point where the hole is
pierced. The octave harmonic only is obtainable on this instrument owing
to the great length of the bore and its large calibre. There are
therefore two octave keys which give a chromatic compass [Illustration:
8va. bassa.]

The modern wooden contrafagotto has a pitch one octave below that of the
bassoon and three below that of the oboe; its compass extending from 16
ft. C. to middle C. The harmonics of the octave in the middle register
and of the 12th in the upper register are obtained by skilful
manipulation of the reed with the lips and increased pressure of the
breath. The notes of both extremes are difficult to produce.

[Illustration: FIG. 3.--The French or Belgian Contrafagotto.]

Although the double bassoon is not a transposing instrument the music
for it is written an octave higher than the real sounds in order to
avoid the ledger lines. The quality of tone is somewhat rough and
rattling in the lowest register, the volume of sound not being quite
adequate considering the depth of the pitch. In the middle and upper
registers the tone of the wooden contrafagotto possesses all the
characteristics of the bassoon. The contrafagotto has a complete
chromatic compass, and it may therefore be played in any key. Quick
passages are avoided since they would be neither easy nor effective, the
instrument being essentially a slow-speaking one. The lowest notes are
only possible to a good player, and cannot be obtained _piano_;
nevertheless, the instrument forms a fine bass to the reed family, and
supplies in the orchestra the notes missing in the double bass in order
to reach 16 ft. C.

   The origin of the contrafagotto, like that of the oboe (_q.v._) must
   be sought in the highest antiquity (see AULOS). Its immediate
   forerunner was the double bombard or bombardino or the great double
   quintpommer whose compass extended downwards to E [Illustration] It
   is not known precisely when the change took place, though it was
   probably soon after the transformation of the bassoon, but Handel
   scored for the instrument and it was used in military bands before
   being adopted in the orchestra. The original instrument made for
   Handel by T. Stanesby, junior, and played by J. F. Lampe at the
   Marylebone Gardens in 1739, was exhibited at the Royal Military
   Exhibition, London, in 1890. Owing to its faulty construction and
   weak rattling tone the double bassoon fell into disuse, in spite of
   the fact that the great composers Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven scored
   for it abundantly; the last used it in the C minor and choral
   symphonies and wrote an _obbligato_ for it in _Fidelio_. It was
   restored to favour in England by Dr W. H. Stone.     (K. S.)




CONTRALTO (from Ital. _contra-alto_, _i.e._ next above the alto), the
term for the lowest variety of the female voice, as distinguished from
the soprano and mezzo-soprano. Originally it signified, in choral music,
the part next higher than the alto, given to the falsetto counter-tenor.




CONTRAPUNTAL FORMS, in Music. The forms of music may be considered in
two aspects, the texture of the music from moment to moment, and the
shape of the musical design as a whole. Historically the texture of
music became definitely organized long before the shape could be
determined by any but external or mechanical conceptions. The laws of
musical texture were known as the laws of "counterpoint" (see
COUNTERPOINT and HARMONY). The "contrapuntal" forms, then, are
historically the earliest and aesthetically the simplest in music; the
simplest, that is to say, in principle, but not necessarily the easiest
to appreciate or to execute. Their simplicity is like that of
mathematics, the simplicity of the elements involved; but the intricacy
of their details and the subtlety of their expression may easily pass
the limits of popularity, while art of a much more complex nature may
masquerade in popular guise; just as mathematical science is seldom
popularized, while biology masquerades in infant schools as "natural
history." Here, however, the resemblance between counterpoint and
mathematics ends, for the simplicity of genuine contrapuntal style is a
simplicity of emotion as well as of principle; and if the style has a
popular reputation of being severe and abstruse, this is largely because
the popular conception of emotion is conventional and dependent upon an
excessive amount of external nervous stimulus.


_1. Canonic Forms and Devices._

In the _canonic_ forms, the earliest known in music as an independent
art, the laws of texture also determine the shape of the whole, so that
it is impossible, except in the light of historical knowledge, to say
which is prior to the other. The principle of canon being that one voice
shall reproduce the material of another note for note, it follows that
in a composition where all parts are canonic and where the material of
the leading part consists of a pre-determined melody, such as a
Gregorian chant or a popular song there remains no room for further
consideration of the shape of the work. Hence, quite apart from their
expressive power and their value in teaching composers to attain
harmonic fluency under difficulties, the canonic forms played the
leading part in the music of the 15th and 16th centuries; nor indeed
have they since fallen into neglect without grave injury to the art. But
strict canon soon proved inadequate, and even dangerous, as the sole
regulating principle in music; and its rival and cognate principle, the
basing of polyphonic designs upon a given melody to which one part
(generally the tenor) was confined, proved scarcely less so. Nor were
these two principles, the canon and the _canto fermo_, likely, by
combination in their strictest forms, to produce better artistic results
than separately. Both were rigid and mechanical principles; and their
development into real artistic devices was due, not to a mere increase
in the facility of their use, but to the fact that, just as the
researches of alchemists led to the foundations of chemistry, so did the
early musical puzzles lead to the discovery of innumerable harmonic and
melodic resources which have that variety and freedom of interaction
which can be organized into true works of art and can give the ancient
mechanical devices themselves a genuine artistic character attainable by
no other means.

The earliest canonic form is the _rondel_ or _rota_ as practised in the
12th century. It is, however, canonic by accident rather than in its
original intention. It consists of a combination of short melodies in
several voices, each melody being sung by each voice in turn. Now it is
obvious that if one voice began alone, instead of all together, and if
when it went on to the second melody the second voice entered with the
first, and so on, the result would be a canon in the unison. Thus the
difference between the crude counterpoint of the rondel and a strict
canon in the unison is a mere question of the point at which the
composition begins, and a 12th century rondel is simply a canon at the
unison begun at the point where all the voices have already entered.
There is some reason to believe that one kind of rondeau practised by
Adam de la Hale was intended to be sung in the true canonic manner of
the modern round; and the wonderful English rota, "Sumer is icumen in,"
shows in the upper four parts the true canonic method, and in its
two-part _pes_ the method in which the parts began together. In these
archaic works the canonic form gives the whole a consistency and
stability contrasting oddly with the dismal warfare between nascent
harmonic principles and ancient anti-harmonic criteria which hopelessly
wrecks them as regards euphony. As soon as harmony became established on
a true artistic basis, the unaccompanied round took the position of a
trivial but refined art-form, with hardly more expressive possibilities
than the triolet in poetry, a form to which its brevity and lightness
renders it fairly comparable. Orlando di Lasso's _Célébrons sans cesse_
is a beautiful example of the 16th century round, which was at that time
little cultivated by serious musicians. In more modern times the
possibilities of the round in its purest form have enormously increased;
and with the aid of elaborate instrumental accompaniments it plays an
important feature in such portions of classical operatic _ensemble_ as
can with dramatic propriety be devoted to expressions of feeling
uninterrupted by dramatic action. In the modern round the first voice
can execute a long and complete melody before the second voice joins in.
Even if this melody be not instrumentally accompanied, it will imply a
certain harmony, or at all events arouse curiosity as to what the
harmony is to be. And the sequel may shed a new light upon the harmony,
and thus by degrees the whole character of the melody may be
transformed. The power of the modern round for humorous and subtle, or
even profound, expression was first fully revealed by Mozart, whose
astounding unaccompanied canons would be better known if he had not
unfortunately set many of them to extemporized texts unfit for
publication. The round or the _catch_ (which is simply a specially
jocose round) is a favourite English art-form, and the English specimens
of it are probably more numerous and uniformly successful than those of
any other nation. Still they cannot honestly be said to realize the full
possibilities of the form. It is so easy to write a good piece of free
and fairly contrapuntal harmony in three or more parts, and so arrange
it that it remains correct when the parts are brought in one by one,
that very few composers seem to have realized that any further artistic
device was possible within such limits. Even Cherubini gives hardly more
than a valuable hint that the round may be more than a _jeu d'esprit_;
and, unless he be an adequate exception, the unaccompanied rounds of
Mozart and Brahms stand alone as works that raise the round to the
dignity of a serious art-form. With the addition of an orchestral
accompaniment the round obviously becomes a larger thing; and when we
consider such specimens as that in the finale of Mozart's _Cosi fan
tutte_, the quartet in the last act of Cherubim's _Faniska_, the
wonderfully subtle quartet "Mir ist so wunderbar" in Beethoven's
_Fidelio_, and the very beautiful numbers in Schubert's masses where
Schubert finds expression for his genuine contrapuntal feeling without
incurring the risks resulting from his lack of training in fugue-form,
we find that the length of the initial melody, the growing variety of
the orchestral accompaniment and the finality and climax of the free
coda, combine to give the whole a character closely analogous to that of
a set of contrapuntal variations, such as the slow movement of Haydn's
"Emperor" string quartet, or the opening of the finale of Beethoven's
9th Symphony. Berlioz is fond of beginning his largest movements like a
kind of round; _e.g._ his _Dies Irae_, and _Scène aux Champs_.

A moment's reflection will show that three conditions are necessary to
make a canon into a round. First, the voices must imitate each other in
the unison; secondly, they must enter at equal intervals of time; and
thirdly, the whole melodic material must be as many times longer than
the interval of time as the number of voices; otherwise, when the last
voice has finished the first phrase, the first voice will not be ready
to return to the beginning. Strict canon is, however, possible under
innumerable other conditions, and even a round is possible with some of
the voices at the interval of an octave, as is of course inevitable in
writing for unequal voices. And in a round for unequal voices there is
obviously a new means of effect in the fact that, as the melody rotates,
its different parts change their pitch in relation to each other. The
art by which this is possible without incorrectness is that of double,
triple and multiple counterpoint (see COUNTERPOINT). Its difficulty is
variable, and with an instrumental accompaniment there is none. In
fugues, multiple counterpoint is one of the normal resources of music;
and few devices are more self-explanatory to the ear than the process by
which the subject and counter-subjects of a fugue change their
positions, revealing fresh melodic and acoustic aspects of identical
harmonic structure at every turn. This, however, is rendered possible
and interesting by the fact that the passages in such counterpoint are
separated by episodes and are free to appear in different keys. Many
fugues of Bach are written throughout in multiple counterpoint; but the
possibility of this, even to composers such as Bach and Mozart, to whom
difficulties seem unknown, depends upon the freedom of the musical
design which allows the composer to select the most effective
permutations and combinations of his counterpoint, and also to put them
into whatever key he chooses. An unaccompanied round for unequal voices
would bring about the permutations and combinations in a mechanical
order; and unless the melody were restricted to a compass common to
soprano and alto each alternate revolution would carry it beyond the
bounds of one or the other group of voices. The technical difficulties
of such a problem are destructive to artistic invention. But they do not
appear in the above-mentioned operatic rounds, though these are for
unequal voices, because here the length of the initial melody is so
great that the composition is quite long enough before the last voice
has got farther than the first or second phrase, and, moreover, the free
instrumental accompaniment is capable of furnishing a bass to a mass of
harmony otherwise incomplete.

The resources of canon, when emancipated from the principles of the
round, are considerable when the canonic form is strictly maintained,
and are inexhaustible when it is treated freely. A canon need not be in
the unison; and when it is in some other interval the imitating voice
alters the expression of the melody by transferring it to another part
of the scale. Again, the imitating voice may follow the leader at any
distance of time; and thus we have obviously a definite means of
expression in the difference of closeness with which various canonic
parts may enter, as, for instance, in the stretto of a fugue. Again, if
the answering part enters on an unaccented beat where the leader began
on the accent, there will be artistic value in the resulting difference
of rhythmic expression. This is the device known as _per arsin et
thesin_. All these devices are, in skilful hands, quite definite in
their effect upon the ear, and their expressive power is undoubtedly due
to their special canonic nature. The beauty of the pleading, rising
sequences in crossing parts that we find in the canon in the 2nd at the
opening of the _Recordare_ in Mozart's _Requiem_ is attainable by no
other technical means. The close canon in the 6th at the distance of one
minim in reversed accent in Bach's eighteenth _Goldberg_ variation owes
all its smooth harmonic expression to the fact that the two canonic
parts move in sixths which would be simultaneous but for the pause of
the minim which reverses the accents of the upper part while it creates
that chain of suspended discords which give harmonic variety to the
whole.

Two other canonic devices have important artistic value, namely,
_augmentation_ and _diminution_ (two different aspects of the same
thing) and _inversion_. In augmentation the imitating part sings twice
as slow as the leader, or sometimes still slower. This obviously should
impart a new dignity to the melody, and in diminution the expression is
generally that of an accession of liveliness.[1] Neither of these
devices, however, continues to appeal to the ear if carried on for long.
In augmentation the answering part lags so far behind the leader that
the ear cannot long follow the connexion, while a diminished answer will
obviously soon overtake the leader, and can proceed on the same plan
only by itself becoming the leader of a canon in augmentation.
Beethoven, in the fugues in his sonatas _op._ 106 and 110, adapted
augmentation and diminution to modern varieties of thematic expression,
by employing them in triple time, so that, by _doubling_ the length of
the original notes across this triple rhythm, they produce an entirely
new rhythmic expression. This does not seem to have been applied by any
earlier composer with the same consistency or intention.

The device of _inversion_ consists in the imitating part reversing every
interval of the leader, ascending where the leader descends and vice
versa. Its expressive power depends upon such subtle matters of the
harmonic expression of melody that its artistic use is one of the surest
signs of the difference between classical and merely academic music.
There are many melodies of which the inversion is as natural as the
original form, and does not strikingly alter its character. Such are,
for instance, the theme of Bach's _Kunst der Fuge_, most of Purcell's
contrapuntal themes, the theme in the fugue of Beethoven's sonata, _op._
110, and the eighth of Brahms's variations on a theme by Haydn. In such
cases inversion sometimes produces harmonic variety as well as a sense
of melodic identity in difference. But where a melody has marked
features of rise and fall, such as long scale passages or bold skips,
the inversion, if productive of good harmonic structure and expression,
may be a powerful method of transformation. This is admirably shown in
the twelfth of Bach's _Goldberg Variations_, in the fifteenth fugue of
the first book of his _Forty-eight Preludes and Fugues_, in the finale
of Beethoven's sonata, _op._ 106, and in the second subjects of the
first and last movements of Brahms's clarinet trio.

The only remaining canonic device which figures in classical music is
that known as _cancrizans_, in which the imitating part reproduces the
leader backwards. It is of extreme rarity in serious music; and, though
it sometimes happens by accident that a melody or figure of uniform
rhythm will produce something equally natural when read backwards, there
is only one example of its use that appeals to the ear as well as the
eye. This is to be found in the finale of Beethoven's sonata, _op._ 106,
where it is applied to a theme with such sharply contrasted rhythmic and
melodic features that with long familiarity a listener would probably
feel not only the wayward humour of the passage in itself, but also its
connexion with the main theme. Nevertheless, the prominence given to the
device in technical treatises, and the fact that this is the one
illustration which hardly any of them cite, show too clearly the way in
which music is treated not only as a dead language but as if it had
never been alive.

All these devices are also independent of the canonic idea, since they
are so many methods of transforming themes in themselves and need not
always be used in contrapuntal combination.


_2. Fugue._

As the composers of the 16th century made progress in harmonic and
contrapuntal expression through the discipline of strict canonic forms,
it became increasingly evident that there was no necessity for the
maintenance of strict canon throughout a composition. On the contrary,
the very variety of canonic possibilities, apart from the artistic
necessity of breaking up the uniform fulness of harmony, suggested the
desirability of changing one kind of canon for another, and even of
contrasting canonic texture with that of plain masses of non-polyphonic
harmony. The result is best known in the polyphonic 16th-century motets.
In these the essentials of canonic effect are embodied in the entry of
one voice after another with a definite theme stated by each voice in
that part of the scale which best suits its compass, thus producing a
free canon for as many parts as there are voices, in alternate intervals
of the 4th, 5th and octave, and at such distances of time as are
conducive to clearness and variety of proportion. It is not necessary
for the later voices to imitate more than the opening phrase of the
earlier, or, if they do imitate its continuation, to keep to the same
interval.

Such a texture differs in no way from that of the fugue of more modern
times. But the form is not what is now understood as fugue, inasmuch as
16th-century composers did not normally think of writing long movements
on one theme or of making a point of the return of a theme after
episodes. With the appearance of new words in the text, the 16th-century
composer naturally took up a new theme without troubling to design it
for contrapuntal combination with the opening; and the form resulting
from this treatment of words was faithfully reproduced in the
instrumental _ricercari_ of the time. Occasionally, however, breadth of
treatment and terseness of design combined to produce a short movement
on one idea indistinguishable in form from a _fughetta_ of Bach; as in
the _Kyrie_ of Palestrina's Mass, _Salve Regina_.

But in Bach's art the preservation of a main theme is more necessary the
longer the composition; and Bach has an incalculable number of methods
of giving his fugues a symmetry of form and balance of climax so subtle
and perfect that we are apt to forget that the only technical rules of a
fugue are those which refer to its texture. In the _Kunst der Fuge_ Bach
has shown with the utmost clearness how in his opinion the various types
of fugue may be classified. That extraordinary work is a series of
fugues, all on the same subject. The earlier fugues show how an artistic
design may be made by simply passing the subject from one voice to
another in orderly succession (in the first example without any change
of key except from tonic to dominant). The next stage of organization is
that in which the subject is combined with inversions, augmentations and
diminutions of itself. Fugues of this kind can be conveniently called
stretto-fugues.[2] The third and highest stage is that in which the
fugue combines its subject with contrasted counter-subjects, and thus
depends upon the resources of double, triple and quadruple counterpoint.
But of the art by which the episodes are contrasted, connected climaxes
attained, and keys and subtle rhythmic proportions so balanced as to
give the true fugue-forms a beauty and stability second only to those of
the true sonata forms, Bach's classification gives us no direct hint. A
comparison of the fugues in the _Kunst der Fuge_ with those elsewhere in
his works reveals a necessary relation between the nature of the
fugue-subject and the type of fugue. In _Kunst der Fuge_ Bach has
obvious didactic reasons for taking the same subject throughout; and, as
he wishes to show the extremes of technical possibility, that subject
must necessarily be plastic rather than characteristic. Elsewhere Bach
prefers very lively or highly characteristic themes as subjects for the
simplest kind of instrumental fugue. On the other hand, there comes a
point when the mechanical strictness of treatment crowds out the proper
development of musical ideas; and the 7th fugue (which is one solid mass
of stretto in augmentation, diminution and inversion) and the 12th and
13th (which are invertible bodily) are academic exercises outside the
range of free artistic work. On the other hand, the less complicated
stretto-fugues and the fugues in double and triple counterpoint are
perfect works of art and as beautiful as any that Bach wrote without
didactic purpose.

Fugue is still, as in the 16th century, a texture rather than a form;
and the rules given in most technical treatises for its general shape
are based, not on the practice of the great composers, but on the
necessities of beginners, whom it would be as absurd to ask to write a
fugue without giving them a form as to ask a schoolboy to write so many
pages of Latin verses without a subject. But this standard form,
whatever its merits may be in combining progressive technique with
musical sense, has no connexion with the true classical types of fugue,
though it played an interesting part in the renaissance of polyphony
during the growth of the sonata style, and even gave rise to valuable
works of art (_e.g._ the fugues in Haydn's quartets, _op._ 20). One of
its rules was that every fugue should have a stretto. This rule, like
most of the others, is absolutely without classical warrant; for in Bach
the ideas of stretto and of counter-subject almost exclude one another
except in the very largest fugues, such as the 22nd in the second book
of the Forty-eight; while Handel's fugue-writing is a masterly method,
adopted as occasion requires, and with a lordly disdain for recognized
devices. But the pedagogic rule proved to be not without artistic point
in more modern music; for fugue became, since the rise of the
sonata-form, for some generations a contrast with the normal means of
expression instead of being itself normal. And while this was so, there
was considerable point in using every possible means to enhance the
rhetorical force of its peculiar devices, as is shown by the astonishing
modern fugues in Beethoven's last works. Nowadays, however, polyphony is
universally recognized as a permanent type of musical texture, and there
is no longer any reason why if it crystallizes into the fugue-form at
all it should not adopt the classical rather than the pedagogic type.

It is still an unsatisfied wish of accurate musicians that the term
fugue should be used to imply rather a certain type of polyphonic
texture than the whole form of a composition. At present one runs the
risk of grotesque misconceptions when one quite rightly describes as
"written in fugue" such passages as the first subjects in Mozart's
_Zauberflöte_ overture, the andantes of Beethoven's first symphony and C
minor quartet, or the first and second subjects of the finale of
Mozart's G major quartet, the second subject of the finale of his D
major quintet, and the exposition of quintuple counterpoint in the coda
of the finale of the _Jupiter Symphony_, and countless other passages in
the developments and main subjects of classical and modern works in
sonata form. The ordinary use of the term implies an adherence to a
definite set of rules quite incompatible with the sonata style, and
therefore inapplicable to these passages, and at the same time equally
devoid of real connexion with the idea of fugue as understood by the
great masters of the 16th century who matured it. In the musical
articles in this Encyclopaedia we shall therefore speak of writing "in
fugue" as we would speak of a poet writing in verse, rather than weaken
our descriptions by the orthodox epithet of "loose _fugato_."


_3. Counterpoint on a Canto Fermo._

The early practice of building polyphonic designs on a voice-part
confined to a given plain-song or popular melody furnishes the origin
for every contrapuntal principle that is not canonic, and soon develops
into a canonic principle in itself. When the _canto fermo_ is in notes
of equal length and is sung without intermission, it is of course as
rigid a mechanical device as an acrostic. Yet it may have artistic value
in furnishing a steady rhythm in contrast to suitable free motion in the
other parts. When it is in the bass, as in Orlando di Lasso's six-part
_Regina Coeli_, it is apt to cramp the harmony; but when it is in the
tenor (its normal place in 16th-century music), or any other part, it
determines little but the length of the composition. It may or may not
appeal to the ear; if not, it at least does no harm, for its restricting
influence on the harmony is small if its pace is slower than that of its
surroundings. If, on the other hand, its melody is characteristic, or
can be enforced by repetition, it may become a powerful means of effect,
as in the splendid close of Fayrfax's Mass _Albanus_ quoted by Professor
Wooldridge on page 320 in the second volume of the _Oxford History of
Music_. Here the tenor part ought to be sung by a body of voices that
can be distinctly heard through the glowing superincumbent harmony; and
then the effect of its five steps of sequence in a melodious figure of
nine semibreves will reveal itself as the principle which gives the
passage consistency of drift and finality of climax.

When the rhythm of the _canto fermo_ is not uniform, or when pauses
intervene between its phrases, whether these are different figures or
repetitions of one figure in different parts of the scale, the device
passes into the region of free art, and an early example of its simplest
use is described in the article MUSIC as it appears in Josquin's
wonderful _Miserere_. Orlando di Lasso's work is full of instances of
it, one of the most dramatic of which is the motet _Fremuit spiritu
Jesus_ (_Magnum Opus_ No. 553 [378]), in which, while the other voices
sing the scripture narrative of the death and raising of Lazarus, the
tenor is heard singing to an admirably appropriate theme the words,
_Lazare, veni foras_. When the end of the narrative is reached, these
words fall into their place and are of course taken up in a magnificent
climax by the whole chorus.

The free use of phrases of _canto fermo_ in contrapuntal texture,
whether confined to one part or taken up in fugue by all, constitutes
the whole fabric of 16th-century music; except where polyphonic device
is dispensed with altogether, as in Palestrina's two settings of the
_Stabat Mater_, his _Litanies_, and all of his later _Lamentations_
except the initials. A 16th-century mass, when it is not derived in this
way from those secular melodies to which the council of Trent objected,
is so closely connected with Gregorian tones, or at least with the
themes of some motet appropriate to the holy day for which it was
written, that in a Roman Catholic cathedral service the polyphonic music
of the best period co-operates with the Gregorian intonations to produce
a consistent musical whole with a thematic coherence almost suggestive
of Wagnerian _Leitmotif_. In later times the Protestant music of Germany
attained a similar consistency, under more complicated musical
conditions, by the use of chorale-tunes; and in Bach's hands the fugal
and other treatment of chorale-melody is one of the most varied and
expressive of artistic resources. It seems to be less generally known
that the chorale plays a considerable though not systematic part in
Handel's English works. The passage "the kingdoms of the world" in the
"Hallelujah Chorus" (down to "and He shall live for ever and ever") is a
magnificent development of the second part of the chorale _Wachet auf_
("Christians wake, a voice is calling"); and it would be easy to trace a
German or Roman origin for many of the solemn phrases in long notes
which in Handel's choruses so often accompany quicker themes.

From the use of an old _canto fermo_ to the invention of an original one
is obviously a small step; and as there is no limit to the possibilities
of varying the _canto fermo_, both in the part which most emphatically
propounds it and in the imitating or contrasted parts, so there is no
line of demarcation between the free development of counterpoint on a
_canto fermo_ and the general art of combining melodies which gives
harmony its deepest expression and musical texture its liveliest action.
Nor is there any such line to separate polyphonic from non-polyphonic
methods of accompanying melody; and Bach's _Orgelbüchlein_ and Brahms's
posthumous organ-chorales show every conceivable gradation between plain
harmony or arpeggio and the most complex canon.

In Wagnerian polyphony canonic devices are rare except in such simple
moments of anticipation or of communion with nature as we have before
the rise of the curtain in the _Rheingold_ and at the daybreak in the
second act of the _Götterdämmerung_. On the other hand, the art of
combining contrasted themes crowds almost every other kind of musical
texture (except tremolos and similar simple means of emotional
expression) into the background, and is itself so transformed by new
harmonic resources, many of which are Wagner's own discovery, that it
may almost be said to constitute a new form of art. The influence of
this upon instrumental music is as yet helpful only in those new forms
which are breaking away from the limits of the sonata style; and it is
impossible at present to sift the essential from the unessential in that
marvellous compound of canonic device, Wagnerian harmony, original
technique and total disregard of every known principle of musical
grammar, which renders the work of Richard Strauss the most remarkable
musical phenomenon of recent years. All that is certain is that the two
elements in which the music of the future will finally place its main
organizing principles are not those of instrumentation and external
expression, on which popular interest and controversy are at present
centred, but rhythmic flow and counterpoint. These have always been the
elements which suffered from neglect or anarchy in earlier
transition-periods, and they have always been the elements that gave
rationality to the new art to which the transitions led. (D. F. T.)


FOOTNOTES:

  [1] But see the E. major fugue in the second book of the
    _Wohltemperirtes Klavier_, where the entry of the diminished subject
    (in a new position of the scale) is very tender and solemn.

  [2] For technical terms see articles COUNTERPOINT and FUGUE.




CONTREXÉVILLE, a watering-place of north-eastern France, in the
department of Vosges, on the Vair, 39 m. W. of Épinal by rail. Pop.
(1906) 940. The mineral springs of Contrexéville have been in local
repute since a remote period, but became generally known only towards
the end of the 18th century; and the modern reputation of the place as a
health resort dates from 1864, when it began to be developed by a
company, the Société des Eaux de Contrexéville, and more particularly
from about 1895. In the ten years after this latter date many
improvements were made for the accommodation of visitors, for whom the
season is from May to September. The waters of the Source Pavilion,
which are used chiefly for drinking, have a temperature of 53° F. and
are characterized chiefly by the presence of calcium sulphate. They are
particularly efficacious in the treatment of gravel and kindred
disorders, by the elimination of uric acid.

   See _Thirty-five years at Contrexéville_ (1903), by Dr Debout
   d'Estrées.




CONTROL (Fr. _contrôle_, older form _contre rolle_, from Med. Lat.
_contra-rotulus_, a counter roll or copy of a document used to check the
original; there is no instance in English of the use of "control" in
this, its literal, meaning), a substantive (whence the verb) for that
which checks or regulates anything, and so especially command of body or
mind by the will, and generally the power of regulation. In England the
"Board of Control," abolished in 1858, was the body which supervised the
East India Company in the administration of India. In the case of
"controller," a general term for a public official who checks
expenditure, the more usual form "comptroller" is a wrong spelling due
to a false connexion with "accompt" or "account." A "control" or
"control-experiment," in science, is an experiment used, by an
application of the method of difference, to check the inferences drawn
from another experiment.


CONTUMACY (Lat. _contumacia_, obstinacy; derived from the root _tem-_,
as in _temnere_, to despise, or possibly from the root _tum-_, as in
_tumere_, to swell, with anger, &c.), a stubborn refusal to obey
authority, obstinate resistance; particularly, in law, the wilful
contempt of the order or summons of a court (see CONTEMPT OF COURT). In
ecclesiastical law, the contempt of the authority of an ecclesiastical
court is dealt with by the issue of a writ _de contumace capiendo_ from
the court of chancery at the instance of the judge of the ecclesiastical
court; this writ took the place of that _de excommunicato capiendo_ in
1813, by an act of George III. c. 127 (see EXCOMMUNICATION).




CONUNDRUM (a word of unknown origin, probably coined in burlesque
imitation of scholastic Latin, as "hocus-pocus" or "panjandrum"),
originally a term meaning whim, fancy or ridiculous idea; later applied
to a pun or play upon words, and thus, in its usual sense, to a
particular form of riddle in which the answer depends on a pun. In a
transferred sense the word is also used of any puzzling question or
difficulty.




CONVENT (Lat. _conventus_, from _convenire_, to come together), a term
applied to an association of persons secluded from the world and devoted
to a religious life, and hence to the building in which they live, a
monastery or (more particularly) nunnery. The diminution "conventicle"
(_conventiculum_), generally used in a contemptuous sense as implying
sectarianism, secrecy or illegality, is applied to the meetings or
meeting-places of religious or other dissenting bodies.




CONVENTION (Lat. _conventio_, an assembly or agreement, from
_convenire_, to come together), a meeting or assembly; an agreement
between parties; a general agreement on which is based some custom,
institution, rule of behaviour or taste, or canon of art; hence extended
to the abuse of such an agreement, whereby the rules based upon it
become lifeless and artificial. The word is of some interest
historically and politically. It is used of an assembly of the
representatives of a nation, state or party, and is particularly
contrasted with the formal meetings of a legislature. It is thus applied
to those parliaments in English history which, owing to the abeyance of
the crown, have assembled without the formal summons of the sovereign;
in 1660 a convention parliament restored Charles II. to the throne, and
in 1689 the Houses of Commons and Lords were summoned informally to a
convention by William, prince of Orange, as were the Estates of
Scotland, and declared the throne abdicated by James II. and settled the
disposition of the realm. Similarly, the assembly which ruled France
from September 1792 to October 1795 was known as the National Convention
(see below); the statutory assembly of delegates which framed the
constitution of the United States of America in 1787 was called the
Constitutional Convention; and the various American state constitutions
have been drafted and sometimes revised by constitutional ...


(Continued in volume 7, slice 3, page 46.)









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