Arbitration is the determination of a dispute by an arbitrator or arbitrators rather than by a court of law. Any civil (i.e. non-criminal) matter may be settled in this way; commercial contracts often contain arbitration clauses providing for this to be done in a specified way. If each side appoints its own arbitrator, as is usual, and the arbitrators fail to agree, the arbitrators are often empowered to appoint an umpire, whose decision is final. Arbitration is made binding on the parties by the Arbitration Acts (1950 and 1975). Various industries and chambers of commerce set up tribunals for dealing with disputes in their particular trade or business. Research Arbitration
Fleet Prison was a famous London Prison which stood in Farringdon Street, on what was called Fleet Market, from the River Fleet which flowed into the Thames. Its keeper was called the Warden of the Fleet. As far back as the 12th century the Fleet served as a Royal Prison. In the reigns of Mary and Elizabeth I it was used for religious martyrs and the political victims of the StarChambers. In 1641 it became a place of confinement for debtors and persons committed for contempt of court, and rapidly acquired a notoriety for every kind of brutality and extortion. It was It was burned by Wat Tyler in 1381, at the Great Fire in 1666, and by the Gordon rioters in 1780 and rebuilt several times before being finally abolished in 1842. Research Fleet Prison
The Ba'obab or monkey-bread tree (Adansoniadigitata),is a tree belonging to the natural order (or sub-order) Bombaceae, and the only known species of its genus, which was named after the naturalist Adanson. It is one of the largest of trees, its trunk sometimes attaining a diameter of ten meters; and as the profusion of leaves and drooping boughs sometimes almost hides the stem, the whole forms a hemispherical mass of verdure 42 to 45 metres in diameter and 18 to 21 metres high. It is a native of Western Africa, and is found also in Abyssinia; it is cultivated in many of the warmer parts of the world. The roots are of extraordinary length, a tree 23 metres in girth having a tap-root 33 metres in length. The leaves are deep green, divided into five unequal parts lanceolate in shape, and radiating from a common centre. The flowers resemble the white poppy, having snowy petals and violet-coloured stamens; and the fruit, which is large and of a rectangular shape, is said to taste like gingerbread, with a pleasant acid flavour. The wood is pale -coloured. light, and soft. The tree is liable to be attacked by a fungus which, vegetating in the woody part, renders it soft and pithlike. By the natives of the west coast these trunks are hollowed into chambers, and dead bodies are suspended in them. There they become perfectly dry and well preserved, without further preparation or embalming. The baobab is emollient and mucilaginous; the pulverized leaves constitute lalo, which the natives mix with their daily food to diminish excessive perspiration, and which was formerly used by Europeans in fevers and diarrhoeas. The expressed juice of the fruit is used as a cooling drink in putrid fevers, and also as a seasoning for various foods. Research Baobab
Fucaceae is a family of dark-coloured algae consisting of olive-coloured inarticulate seaweeds distinguished from other algae by their reproductive organs which consist of archegonia and antheridia, contained in common chambers, united in club-shaped receptacles at the ends of the fronds. Research Fucaceae
Onthopagus is a genus of dung beetle of the family Scarabaeidae. The female lays her eggs on separate piles of dung stored in underground chambers connected by branching galleries. Research Onthopagus
Toothwort (Lathraea squamaria) is a genus of perennial root-parasites of the natural order Orobanchaceae, native of Europe and Asia. Toothwort has a thick fleshy white rootstock whose rootlets are attached to those of its victim, chiefly hazel. The stout whitish stems are from 10 to 25 centimeters high, clothed with broad scales in lieu of leaves, which are folded back upon themselves, enclosing several chambers whose walls are studded with stalked elands. It is believed that minute creatures enter these chambers, become entangled in the hairs of the glands, and have their juices sucked to feed the plant. The purple-tinged flowers are also fleshy, and crowded on a one-sided spike borne in spring. Research Toothwort
The weaver bird or baya (Ploceus philippinus), is an interesting East Indian passerinebird, somewhat like the bullfinch. Its nest resembles a bottle, and is suspended from the branch of a tree. The entrance is from beneath, and there are two chambers, one for the male, the other for the female. The weaver bird is easily tamed, and will fetch and carry at command. Research Weaver Bird
Denis Diderot was a French philosopher, novelist, playwright, encyclopaedist and critic. He was born in 1713 at Langres in Champagne and died in 1784.
Educated in the school of the Jesuits, and afterwards at Paris, at the College of Harcourt, his first works were the Essai sur le Merite et la Vertu (1745); and the Pensees Philosophiques (1746), a pamphlet against the Christian religion. His Lettre sur les Aveugles a l'Usage de Ceux qui Voyent, is in the same strain. These heterodox publications cost him an imprisonment for some time at Vincennes. Denis Diderot now tried writing for the stage, but his pieces were failures. In 1749 he had begun along with D'Alembert and some others the Encyclopedia. At first it was intended to be mainly a translation of one already published in English by Chambers. Denis Diderot and D'Alembert, however, enlarged upon this project, and made the new Encyclopaedia a magnificently comprehensive and bold account of all the thought and science of the time. Denis Diderot, besides revising the whole, undertook at first the mechanical arts, and subsequently made contributions in history, philosophy, and art criticism. But the profits of all his labour were small, and it was only the liberality of the Russian EmpressCatharine, who purchased his library for 50,000 livres and made him a yearly allowance of 1000 livres, that saved Denis Diderot from destitution.
In 1773 he visited St Petersburg to thank his benefactress and was received with great honour. On his return to France he lived in retirement, and died in 1784. Besides his articles in the Encyclopedia he wrote numerous works, some of which were published after his death. Among the best known are Le Neveu de Eameau, a kind of philosophical dialogue which Johann Goethe thought worthy of translation; Essai sur la Peinture, and Paradoxe sur le Comedien, suggestive essays on the principles of painting and acting; two lively tales, La Religieuse and Jacques le Fataliste. Research Denis Diderot
The Doctrinaires were a section of French politicians, represented by the Duc de Broglie, Royer-Collard, Francois Guizot and others, who became prominent after the Restoration in 1815. They favoured a constitutional monarchy with a balance of powers similar to that which then existed in Britain. In the chambers they thus occupied a.place between radicals and ultra-royalists. They received the name of doctrinaires because they were looked upon more as theoretical constitution-makers than practical politicians, and the term is now used with a wider application to political theorists generally. Research Doctrinaires
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Arbitration
