Chattels are property movable and immovable, not being freehold. The word chattel is originally the same word with cattle, formed from the late Latin capitalia, meaning heads of cattle, from the Latin caput, head. Chattels are divided into real and personal. Chattels real are such as belong not to the person immediately, but dependently upon something, as an interest in a land or tenement, or a lease, or an interest in advowsoris. Any interest in land or tenements, for example, is a real chattel; so also is a lease, an interest in advowsons, and so forth. Chattels personal are goods which belong immediately to the person of the owner, and include all movable property. Research Chattels
In English law, title is the right of ownership, especially in regard to property in land. The purchaser of such must see that his title to the property is a good one, i.e. that he cannot be molested in its possession. To secure this, various documents are examined and further documents conveying the land are drawn up. To obviate this cumbersome proceeding, the registration of title to land by the state was suggested and to some extent adopted. In England, land can be registered at the land transfer office, and after a time an absolute title is secured for it. Title deeds embrace all those deeds and documents by which the owner proves his ownership, a mortgagee his mortgage, a lessee his lease, and the like. The Larceny Act of 1916, made it a felony for anyone, with fraudulent intent, to destroy, obliterate, cancel, or alter any document of title to land. Research Title
Abraham Cowley was an English poet. He was born in 1618 at London and died in 1667. He was one of the metaphysical school of poets who followed John Donne in his use of far-fetched conceits. He published his first volume, Poetic Blossoms, at the age of fifteen. He entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1636, but was ejected as a royalist in 1643, and removed to St John's College, Oxford. He engaged actively in the royal cause, and when the queen was obliged to quit England, Abraham Cowley accompanied her. He was absent from his native country nearly ten years, and it was principally through him that the correspondence was maintained between the king and queen. On the Restoration he returned with the other royalists, and obtained the lease of a farm at Chertsey, held under the queen, by which his income was about 300 pounds sterling per annum. Abraham Cowley's poems have failed to maintain their ancient popularity, but he still holds a high position as a prosewriter and as an essayist. He took a considerable interest in science, and was one of the founders of the Royal Society. His chief works are: Love's Riddle, a pastoralcomedy; Davideis, a scriptural epic; Naufragium Joculare; The Mistress, a collection of love verses; Pindarique Odes; Liber Plantarum; etc. Research Abraham Cowley
Hezeki'ah was the twelfth, and one of the best of the kings of Judah. He succeeded Ahaz about 717 BC and died about 698 BC. He repressed idolatry, fought successfully against the Philistines, and hoped to become entirely independent of Assyria, but had his fenced cities captured, and was mulcted in a large tribute. About this time Hezekiah had a serious illness from which he miraculously recovered, and celebrated his fresh lease of life in a thanksgiving, preserved in Isaiah xxxviii. Among the ambassadors who came with letters and gifts to congratulate him on his recovery was the viceroy of Babylon, to whom he displayed the royal treasures. For this he received a terrible rebuke, and he was told by Isaiah that from Babylon would come the ruin and captivity of Judah. The greater part of the Scripture records bearing on the reign of Hezekiah is occupied by the two invasions of Sennacherib, and the sudden destruction of the Assyrian army. Hezekiah did not long survive this deliverance. Research Hezekiah
Ibrahim Pasha was an adopted son of Mehemet Ali, viceroy of Egypt. He was born in 1789 and died in 1848. He first gave signal proofs of his courage and military talents in the war with the Wahabis of Arabia, whom he completely defeated, and in the subjugation of Sennaar and Darfur. In 1825 he invaded the Morea at the head of an Egyptian army, with the view of conquering Greece for his father;
but in 1828, in consequence of the interference of the great powers, was obliged to abandon the attempt. To effect his father's purpose of making Syria a bulwark to his new Egypto-Cretan kingdom he, in 1831, crossed the Egyptian frontiers with an army, overran Palestine, took St Jean d'Acre by storm, and made himself master of all Syria.
The campaign terminated by an arrangement in which the Porte ceded Syria, and conferred the pashalic of Adana, by a kind of lease, personally on Ibrahim. Soon war with the sultan again broke out, and resulted in a great defeat of the Turkish forces at Nizib in 1839. By the interference of the great powers Ibrahim was eventually obliged, after retiring from all his Syrian conquests, to return to Egypt, marching across the desert from Damascus with great loss and suffering. From this time he seldom appeared in public life, and employed himself chiefly in the improvement of his own estates. In 1846 he visited England and France. In 1848 Ibrahim, after his father had become superannuated, proceeded to Constantinople (Istanbul), and was nominated Viceroy of Egypt, but he died in the same year at Cairo, while Mehemet Ali was still alive. He was succeeded by Abbas Pasha, the favourite grandson of Mehemet Ali. Research Ibrahim Pasha
Rudolf Hametovich Nureyev was a Russian dancer and choreographer. He was born in 1938 and died in 1993. A soloist with the KirovBallet, he defected to the West during a visit to Paris in 1961. Mainly associated with the Royal Ballet (London) and as Margot Fonteyn's principal partner, he was one of the most brilliant dancers of the 1960s and 1970s. Nureyev danced in such roles as Prince Siegfried in SwanLake and Armand in Marguerite and Armand, which was created especially for Fonteyn and Nureyev. He also danced and acted in films and on television and choreographed several ballets. It was due to his enormous impact on the ballet world that the male dancer's role was elevated to the equivalent of the ballerina's. Nureyev was a Tatar. He was born near LakeBaikal, on a train journey, and grew up in Ufa in extreme poverty. A love of folk dancing and the sight of professional dancers at the town's small opera house led to lessons with Anna Udeltsova, who had been a member of the Diaghilev Ballet. At the age of 17 he entered the famous
Vaganova Institute (also known as the KirovBallet School) in St Petersburg in the class of Aleksandr Pushkin, a brilliant teacher. Just three years later he joined the KirovBallet as a soloist, dancing with Natalya Dudinskaya, its top prima ballerina, for his first engagement. In 1961 the KirovBallet was in Paris on its first important tour of the West. Nureyev was highly praised but his socializing with French friends incurred the displeasure of the Soviet officials, who told him he had to return. Sensing that he would never again be allowed to leave the Soviet Union, he slipped his escort at Le Bourget Airport and sought political asylum - and a new career. In Nov 1961 he made his London debut at a gala in aid of the Royal Academy of Dancing with Poeme Tragique, a short solo composed for him by FrederickAshton, the director of the Royal Ballet, and this led to an invitation to partner Margot Fonteyn, the academy's president, in Giselle at Covent Garden. Thus began the legendary partnership and a new lease of
artistic life for Fonteyn, who was 19 years his senior. As well as dancing in the classics of the 19th century, he created many roles in modern works, most notably with Fonteyn in Ashton's Marguerite and Armand, first performed at Covent Garden 1963. He choreographed and staged ballets for nearly all the major companies, reviving works from the Russian repertoire like The Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, and Raymonda. In 1983 he was appointed director of the Ballet at the Opera in Paris, revitalized it, and gave much encouragement to young dancers. He appeared many times on television and in films, including the feature I Am a Dancer, shown first in 1972. Research Rudolph Nureyev
W Averell Harriman was an American politician and diplomat. He was born in 1891 at New York and died in 1986. A close friend of President Roosevelt, in 1941 he was America's special war-aid representative (Lease and Lend envoy) in Britain, leading three-power supply talks between Britain, America and Russia and in 1943 was appointed ambassador to Russia, and in 1946 to Britain. He was a Democratic governor of New York from 1955 until 1958. Research W. Averell Harriman
The Russo-Japanese war took place between 1904 and 1905 over a dispute between Russia and Japan over Russia's occupation of part of China. Russia, seeking a port free from ice all the year round, secured a lease of Port Arthur from China in 1896. Soon the Siberian railway extended into the town; the harbour was deepened; building operations were begun at Dalny, which it was intended to make the great port of Asia; and schemes were broached for elevating Russia into the position of a naval power in the Pacific.
In midsummer 1900 Russia took over the reins of power in the Amur province. She then tried to induce China formally to recognise the military occupation of the province. Both Great Britain and Japan flatly refused to consider the proposal. The following spring Russia promised to withdraw her troops within six months from part of Mukden and south Manchuria, as well as to restore the railway to China; to evacuate Mukden and Kirin altogether within the following six months; and to withdraw from Chinese territory finally within a third period of six months. Russia didn't keep her promise, and in June 1903 Japan proposed an agreement with Russia by which both parties would respect the integrity of China and Korea. Russia refused and in February 1904 Japan withdrew her minister at the Russian capital and three days later attacked the Russian fleets at Chemulpo and Port Arthur and landed troops at Chemulpo. Japanese troops in Korea occupied Seoul and marched north to Pingyang. The Japanese general attacked the opposing Russians on April the 30th on the Yalu, and completely routed them. Russia was defeated, and peace was finally secured by the treaty of Portsmouth (USA) signed on August the 29th 1905. By the treaty the island of Sakhalin was divided between both parties. Russia lost control in Manchuria to Japan, and both parties evacuated China leaving it to China. Research Russo-Japanese War
In business, amortization is the process of treating as an expense the annual amount deemed to waste away from a fixed asset. The concept is particularly applied to leases, which are acquired for a given sum for a specified term at the end of which the lease will have no value. It is customary to divide the cost of the lease by the number of years of its term and treat the result as an annual charge against profit. While this method does not necessarily reflect the value of the lease at any given time, it is an equitable way of allocating the original cost between periods. Goodwill may also be amortized. The statements of standard accounting practice recommend as its preferred method the writing-off in the year of purchase of all purchased goodwill. The charge should be to the reserves and not to the profit and loss account. However the standard also permits the writing-off of goodwill to the profit and loss account in regular instalments over the period of its economic life. Home-grown goodwill, if it is in the balance sheet at all, should be similarly dealt with by one of the two methods above. Research Amortization
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Chattels
