The Additional Forces Act was passed in Britain by Pitt, owing to the imminent danger of the invasion of the country by Napoleon in 1803 and the following years. The act legalised the formation of second battalions to the regular regiments then serving abroad. The United Kingdom was divided up into districts, which were required by the act to furnish quotas of 3000 men each. The act was repealed after the death of Pitt. Research Additional Forces Act
In law, a deposition is the testimony given in court by a witness upon oath. It is also used to signify the attested written testimony of a witness by way of answer to interrogatories. Depositions are frequently taken conditionally, or de bene esse, as it is called; for instance, when the parties are sick, aged, or going abroad, depositions are taken, to be read in court in case of their death or departure before the trial comes on. Research Deposition
Slavery in the American colonies began with the importation of a cargo of slaves into Virginia by a Dutch ship in 1619. In the other colonies it was gradually introduced. The slave trade was favoured by the British Government during the eighteenth century. Meantime a sentiment unfavourable to it began to develop in the colonies. The Germantown Quakers drew up a memorial against it in 1688, Boston town meeting in 1701. Woolman and other Quakers preached against it. Slaves were few in the North, but numerous in the South, where their increase and the danger felt from them caused severe laws respecting them.
The American Revolution, as a movement for liberty, with its declaration proclaiming all men free and equal, joined with the humanitarian spirit of the close of the century to increase anti-slavery sentiment. The Northern States either abolished slavery or provided for gradual emancipation. All the States but the southernmost forbade the importation of slaves from abroad. But the sentiment soon declined.
In the Constitution of 1787, States were given representation in the House of Representatives for three-fifths of their slaves, and Congress was forbidden to prohibit the slave trade until 1808. The invention of the cotton-gin made slave labour more profitable than ever before, and the South began to defend slavery as a positive good, in spite of its obvious economic disadvantages.
Abolition societies, first formed about 1793, languished after 1808. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 arranged that the area west of the Mississippi and north of 36 degrees 30 minutes should not be open to slavery, except in the Case of Missouri. The Ordinance of 1787 had forbidden slavery in the region north of the Ohio.
The American Colonization Society tried to palliate the evils of slavery by emancipation and deportation. About 1830 the agitation against slavery took on a more ardentphase, and henceforth for thirty years slavery was the most absorbing of political themes. Slave labour demanded more and more new land, and the Government was led to the annexation of Texas and the war with Mexico largely by this need. After bitter disputes, the territory so acquired was thrown open to slavery if the settlers desired it; this was done by the Compromise of 1850. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 extended the same permission to territory north of 36 degrees 30 minutes, repealing the Missouri Compromise; and the Supreme Court sustained such repeal.
The question of slavery in the territories proved the crucial question. Many in the North who had no desire for the abolition of slavery in States where it was already existent and legal were unwilling to see it extended, while slave-owners claimed Constitutional right to protection of their property in slaves, as essential if they were to have any share in the common territories. The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 and the unwillingness of Northern people to execute it assisted to precipitate conflict. Finally, in 1860, the election of Abraham Lincoln was taken by the South as proof that their claims were to be disregarded, and secession and the American Civil War resulted.
In 1790 there were 698,000 slaves in the United States 40,000 in the North, 293,000 in Virginia, 107,000 in South Carolina, 103,000 in Maryland, 101,000 in North Carolina; in 1800, 894,000; in 1810, 1,191,000; in 1820, 1,538,000; in 1830, 2,009,000; in 1840, 2,487,000; in 1850, 3,204,000; in 1860, 3,954,000, the last being about one-fourth of the total population of the Southern States. Research Slavery in America
Transportation is the policy of punishing crime by removing offenders to some penal settlement abroad for a period of years or life. In England the Vagrancy Act of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I first empowered justices to order that certain classes of offenders might be sent beyond the seas, and by the reign of Charles II convicts were regularly transported to America where they were forced to work on plantations. Transportation to the American colony ended with the American War of Independence, and in 1788 the first batch of convicts landed at Botany Bay in New South Wales. The convicts sent to Australia were sent with a view to colonising the country. However, in 1835 a party was formed with the view of abolishing the transportation of convicts into Australia and from 1840 convicts were instead sent to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) where penal settlements already existed.
The system of transportation was abolished in Britain in 1853 in favour of penal servitude, by the Penal Servitude Act. Research Transportation
University is the name given to a national institution for advanced teaching and study, recognized for that purpose by a charter from the state. A university is empowered by its charter to confer degrees upon its students, after they have conformed to the regulations laid down in the statutes. These regulations determine the conditions of length of residence, attendance on lectures, and the requisite examinations to be passed, precedent to the conferment of degrees.
Most universities are teaching universities, i.e. they contain a staff of teachers, styled professors, lecturers or readers, appointed each for the teaching of a special subject, to give instruction, and to direct the studies of students. Such students as are admitted to the university have had to qualify by passing an entrance examination, and are then said to be matriculated. From the time of matriculation to that of taking the degree, the student is called an undergraduate, and after conferment of the degree, a graduate. Degrees are of different grades, usually bachelor, master, and doctor. They can be taken in various groups of subjects, known as faculties. In the modern university examinations complete the courses of study followed under the instruction and direction of professors.
Historically, it is to be noted that the original term for a university was studium generate, which means a place in which were established facilities for teaching and learning, open to all comers, and not restricted to a special community of a town, or of a monastery. Thus, to the medieval universities of Italy, and to that of Paris, students went from various European countries, and found it convenient to group themselves into nations, according to the country or province from which they came. Thus, a studium generale contained many associations or groups, not altogether without analogy to trade and craft guilds.
It was in the latter part of the 14th century that universitas came to be used in the sense of a university. In other words, the first use of universitas was for voluntary groups, and only developed gradually into the idea of the whole institution, as recognized by the emperor or the pope, when its position was guaranteed by an imperial charter or papal bull. This seal of authority not only gave unity to the community of teachers and scholars as a whole, but also became a symbol of the unity of the whole learned world, because universities thus chartered were alone enabled to confer on their graduates degrees (certifying studies and training in teaching) which carried with them the right of teaching not only in their own university or their own country, but also in any studium generate.
This right was particularly valuable in the spread of knowledge, because medieval teachers and scholars communicated everywhere, both orally and by writing, through the medium of the Latin language and not through the vernacular. They naturally valued highly the facility of moving about from university to university at home and abroad. Roughly speaking, this use of Latin, as the language of teaching and learning, broke up with the decline of the Renaissance. We may date the beginning of the downfall of the Latin language for England with the Restoration of 1660. Not only has Latin fallen entirely out of use as a spoken language, but in some modern universities movements have arisen to minimise the study of ancient languages for degrees, if not to remove them as necessary subjects for all degrees. The modern civic universities are inclined to lay great stress on the subjects underlying the special industries of their localities. Hence, in some ways and to some extent there has been a reversal of the old idea that the university developed in the student a power of entering into the knowledge and learning common to all the universities.
On the other hand the since the Great War universities have laid more and more stress on the 'university spirit'. This means a constant watchfulness to aid and promote the advancement of learning and discovery of knowledge, to provide the stimulus of intellectual inquiry in every subject, and to raise the tone and level in all professional training. Particularly, it aims at encouraging in teachers and in taught a right and effective attitude towards methods of research. Research University
The armadillo (genus Dasypus), is an edentate mammal peculiar to South America, consisting of various species, belonging to a family intermediate between the sloths and ant-eaters. They are covered with a hard bony shell, divided into belts, composed of small separate plates like a coat of mail, flexible everywhere except on the forehead, shoulders, and haunches, where it is not movable. The belts are connected by a membrane, which enables the animal to roll itself up like a hedgehog. These animals burrow in the earth, where they lie during the daytime, seldom going abroad except at night. They are of different sizes; the largest, Dasypus gigas, being about one metre in length without the tail, and the smallest only 25 cm. They subsist chiefly on fruits and roots, sometimes on insects and flesh. They are inoffensive, and their flesh is esteemed good food. There is a genus of isopodous Crustacea called Armadillo, consisting of animals allied to the wood-lice, capable of rolling themselves into a ball. Research Armadillo
Toad (Bufo) is a large genus of over 100 species of batrachians, of world-wide distribution, with the exception of Australia and Madagascar ; most abundant in tropical America and the Indo-Malayan region. Closely related to the frogs (Rana), they differ from them in their flatter upper side, broader head, shorter limbs, and in the skin being dry and pimply, with glands which secrete an acrid fluid. In addition, the toads are toothless, and the tip of the tongue is not divided. They pass through a larval ('tadpole') stage similar to that of the frog, but the eggs, which vary from 700 to 2,000, are extruded in a double chain enclosed in a string of jelly, which is wound around water plants. The tadpoles are smaller and darker than those of the frog. The genus is represented in Britain by two species: the common toad (Bufo vulgaris) and the natterjack (Bufo calamita); but the former does not occur in Ireland.
The common species has on its upper side some tint of brown or grey, varying with its surroundings; and the under parts are whitish, more or less spotted with black. It seeks drier situations than the frog, and is inactive during the day, coming abroad in the dusk and feeding upon insects, worms, and snails large individuals on occasion catching small mice. One toad will in a night's foraging consume vast numbers of insects, so that its cooperation is always to be encouraged by gardeners. From ancient days the toad has been the subject of numerous erroneous beliefs, e.g. the possession of a jewel in its head, the power of ejecting venom, and of living for centuries entombed in solid stone or the heart of a tree. The toad hibernates, retiring in autumn to holes in dry ground or other suitable retreats, and on awakening in spring immediately seeks the ponds or ditches for mating and egg-laying. Research Toad
Adam Smith was a Scottish economist. He was born in 1723 at Kirkcaldy and died in 1790. Educated at Kirkcaldy and the University of Glasgow in 1740 he went to Balliol College, Oxford. In 1748 he began to lecture in Edinburgh, and in 1751 was chosen professor of logic at Glasgow, where from 1752 until 1763 he was professor of moral philosophy. In 1764 he went abroad with a pupil, the duke of Buccleuch, after which he gave ten years mainly to writing and study. In 1776 the result of his labour appeared in the first scientific work on the principles of economy, 'The Wealth of Nations'. Two years later he was appointed a commissioner of customs, a post he held until his death.
Although remembered as an economist, Adam Smith also enunciated a philosophy of his own, that all our sentiments arise from sympathy, and published his thoughts in 1759 in a book entitled 'Theory of Moral Sentiments'. Research Adam Smith
Alcibiades was an Athenian general and statesman. He was born in 450 BC and died in 404 BC.
An Athenian of high family and of great abilities, but of no principle, he was the son of Cleinias, and a relative of Pericles, who also was his guardian. In youth he was remarkable for the beauty of his person, no less than for the dissoluteness of his manners. He came under the influence of Socrates, but little permanent effect was produced on his character by the precepts of the sage. He acquired great popularity by his liberality in providing for the amusements of the people, and after the death of Cleon attained a political ascendancy which left him no rival but Nicias. Thus he played an important part in the long-continued Peloponnesian war.
In 415 he advocated the expedition against Sicily, and was chosen one of the leaders, but before the expedition sailed he was charged with profaning and divulging the Eleusinian mysteries, and mutilating the busts of Hermes, which were set up in public all through Athens. Rather than stand his trial he went over to Sparta, divulged the plans of the Athenians, and assisted the Spartans to defeat them. Sentence of death and confiscation was pronounced against him at Athens, and he was cursed by the ministers of religion. He soon left Sparta and took refuge with the Persian satrap Tissaphernes, ingratiating himself by his affectation of Persian manners, as he had previously done at Sparta by a similar affectation of Spartan simplicity.
He now began to intrigue for his return to Athens, offering to bring Tissaphernes over to the Athenian alliance, and latterly he was recalled and his banishment cancelled. He, however, remained abroad for some years in command of the Athenian forces, gained several victories, and took Chalcedon and Byzantium. In 407 BC he returned to Athens, but in 406, the fleet which he commanded having suffered a severe defeat, he was deprived of his command. He once more went over to the Persians, taking refuge with the satrap Pharnabazus of Phrygia, and here he was assassinated in 404 BC.
*Alcuin
Alcuin (real name Ealhwine) was an English theologian and scholar. He was born in 755 and died in 804. He was the confidant, instructor, and adviser of Charles the Great (Charlemagne). . He was educated and latterly had the management of the school at York. Alcuin having gone to Rome, Charlemagne became acquainted with him at Parma, invited him in 782 to his court, and made use of his services in his endeavours to civilize his subjects. To secure the benefit of his instructions Charlemagne established at his court a school, called Schola Palatinci, or the Palace School. In the royal academy Alcuin was called Flaccus Albinus. Most of the schools in France were either founded or improved by him; thus he founded the school in the abbey of St Martin of Tours, in 796, after the plan of the school in York. Alcuin left the court in 801, and retired to the abbey of St Martin of Tours, but kept up a constant correspondence with Charles to his death in 804. He left works on theology, philosophy, rhetoric, also poems and letters, all of which have been published. Research Alcibiades
Aleksei Frolovich Filippov was the first Cheka intelligence agent posted abroad. He was born in 1870 and trained as a lawyer before becoming a newspaper publisher. He was recruited to the Cheka in 1917 to go on intelligence assignments to Finland under cover as a journalist and businessman. He left for Finland in January 1918 with the main assignment to report on the former Tsarist General Karl Mannerheim who was leading the opposition to the Communist putsch. However his career ended with the German intervention in April 1918. Research Aleksei Filippov
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Additional Forces Act
