An armistice is a temporary suspension of hostilities between two belligerent powers or two armies by mutual agreement, often concluded for only a few hours to bury the slain, remove the wounded, and exchange prisoners, as also sometimes to allow of a parley between the opposing generals. A general armistice is usually the preliminary of a peace. Research Armistice
The Council of Basel was a celebrated oecumenical council of the church convoked by Pope Martin V and his successor Eugenius IV. It was opened on the 14th of December 1431, under the presidency of the Cardinal Legate Juliano Cesarini of St Angelo. The objects of its deliberations were to extirpate heresies (that of the Hussites in particular), to unite all Christian nations under the Catholic church, to put a stop to wars between Christian princes, and to reform the church. But its first steps towards a peaceable reconciliation with the Hussites were displeasing to the pope, who authorized the cardinal legate to dissolve the council. That body opposed the pretensions of the pope, and, notwithstanding his repeated orders to remove to Italy, continued its deliberations under the protection of the emperor Sigismund, of the Overman princes, and of France. On the pope continuing to issue bulls for its dissolution the council commenced a formal process against him, and cited him to appear at its bar. On his refusal to comply with this demand the council declared him guilty of contumacy, and, after Eugenius had opened a counter-synod at Ferrara, decreed his suspension from the papal chair on January the 24th, 1438.
The removal of Eugenius, however, seemed so impracticable, that some prelates, who until then had been the boldest and most influential speakers in the council, including the Cardinal Legate Juliano, left Basel, and went over to the party of Eugenius. The Archbishop of Aries, Cardinal Louis Allemand, was now made first president of the council, and directed its proceedings with much vigour. In May, 1439, it declared Eugenius, on account of his disobedience of its decrees, a heretic, and formally deposed him. Excommunicated by Eugenius, they proceeded, in a regular conclave, to elect the dukeAmadeus of Savoy to the papal chair. Felix V - the name he adopted - was acknowledged by only a few princes, cities, and universities. After this the moral power of the council declined; its last formal session was held on May the 16th, 1443, though it was not technically dissolved until May the 7th, 1449, when it gave in its adhesion to Nicholas V, the successor of Eugenius. The decrees of the Council of Basel are admitted into none of the Roman collections, and are considered of no authority by the Roman lawyers. They are regarded, however, as of authority in points of canon law in France and Germany, as their regulations for the reformation of the church have been adopted in the pragmatic sanctions of both countries, and, as far as they regard clerical discipline, have been actually enforced. Research Council of Basel
In law, habeas corpus is a writ ordering a person to be brought before a court or judge. The term is particularly applied to a writ so issued so that the court may ascertain whether the person's detention is lawful. From the time of the Magna Charta imprisonment at the discretion of any person has been unlawful in England, but for long the royal prerogative was so indefinite and the power of the crown so great that persons were frequently detained in custody at the discretion of the crown. It was not until the 17th century that the Habeas Corpus Act, passed in 1679 provided the great remedy for the violation of personal liberty by the writ of habeas corpus ad subjiciendum (that you have the body to answer).
The provisions of the act may be stated generally thus : 1. That on complaint or request in writing, by, or on behalf of, any person committed and charged with any crime (unless treason, felony, etc, expressed in the warrant), the lord-chancellor, or any of the judges shall award a habeas corpus for such prisoner, and shall discharge the party, if bailable, upon security being given to appear and answer to the accusation. 2. The writ shall be returned, and the prisoner brought up within a limited time, not exceeding twenty days. 3. No person once delivered by habeas corpus shall be recommitted for the same offence. 4. Every person committed for treason or felony may insist on being tried at the next assizes, or admitted to bail, and if not tried at the second assizes or sessions, he shall be discharged from the imprisonment. The writ may be applied for by persons confined in any part of England, or Jersey and Guernsey. As the writ originally had to do solely with crimes, the statute 56 George III. cap. c. was passed, which extended the writ to other than criminal cases.
The result was that no person could be illegally confined in England for any length of time, since some friend could always apply for a habeas corpus, which, on a good prima facie case, would be issued. If the party was confined under recognized authority, as a child by a parent, this fact had to be stated.
In times of great political excitement, and suspected treasonable conspiracies, the operation of the Habeas Corpus Act has been occasionally suspended, and during the early 21st century under the pretext of 'combatting terrorism' exceptions made to it. But such suspension does not enable any one to imprison without cause or valid pretext for so doing. It only prevents persons who are committed from being bailed, tried, or discharged during the suspension, leaving to the committing magistrate all the responsibility attending on illegal imprisonment.
In Scotland similar protection of the liberty of the subject was secured by the Wrongous Imprisonment Act of 1701. The English statute was copied in the United States without essential change.
In the United States habeas corpus was suspended on July the 5th, 1861. Attorney-GeneralBates gave an opinion in favour of the President's power to declare martial law and suspend the writ of habeas corpus. A special session of Congress approved this opinion. Thereafter many arbitrary arrests were made, arousing much indignation. On September the 24th, 1862, the suspension was made general by the President so far as it might affect persons arrested by military authority for disloyal practices. An act of Congress, on March the 3rd, 1863, again authorized the suspension of the writ by the President in cases of prisoners of war, deserters, those resisting drafts and offenders against the military or naval service. The arrest of Vallandigham, in Ohio, and of Milligan, in Indiana, caused great excitement. The case of the latter being brought before the Supreme Court of the Union, that body decided that Congress could not give to military commissions the power of trial and conviction, and that the suspension of the privilege of habeas corpus did not suspend the writ itself. In the case of the Ku-Klux rebellions there was a brief suspension of habeas corpus in 1871. Research Habeas Corpus
The Lotus Exige is a British two-door, rear-wheel drive sports car powered by a transverse, mid-mounted in-line four-cylinder, 1796 cc engine and a six-speed manual transmission providing acceleration of 0 to 60 mph in 4.1 seconds and a top speed of 148 mph with a fuel consumption ranging between 23 and 39 mpg depending upon the environment. Typical of Lotus sports car, the handling is excellent, with independent double wishbone with coil springs over monotube dampers suspension, making the Exige capable of steering at speed through sharp corners where other vehicles career off the road. Research Lotus Exige
The Maryland Gazette was the earliest newspaper published in Maryland, USA. It was established at Annapolis in 1727 by William Parks, and continued irregularly as a weekly until about 1736, when it was suspended. In 1745 another Gazette appeared, which, with the exception of a short suspension in 1765 on account of the Stamp Act, was published regularly during the American Revolution, and still existed as a weekly journal at the end of the 19th century. Maryland was the fourth American colony in which a newspaper was established. Research Maryland Gazette
In America, nullification is the formal suspension by a State government of the operation of a law of the United States within the territory under the jurisdiction of the State. It was first suggested as the rightful remedy in the case of illegal stretches of Federal legislative authority, in the Kentucky Resolutions of 1799. Practical exemplifications of its operation were afforded by Pennsylvania in the Olmstead case in 1809, by Georgia in the matter of the Cherokees 1825 to 1830, etc. But the theory was most completely developed by John C Calhoun, and its most important application was in South Carolina in 1832, in her protest against the tariff of that year, which was exceedingly distasteful to the Southern States. Calhoun's nullification contemplated a suspension of the objectionable law by an aggrieved State, until three-fourths of the States in national convention should overrule the nullification. The question turned upon the dogma of State sovereignty. The State Legislature of 1832, made up of nullifiers, put the State in a position for war and passed various acts resuming powers expressly prohibited to the States by the Constitution. On December the 11th, President Jackson issued the 'nullification proclamation', declaring nullification to be incompatible with the existence of the Union and contrary to the Constitution. On February the 1st, 1833, a bill called the 'bloody bill', was passed by Congress, authorizing the enforcement of the tariff. On February the 26th, Clay submitted a compromise tariff bill, which was enacted. In consequence of this the South Carolina Convention repealed the nullification ordinance on March the 16th, 1833. Research Nullification
The Pennsylvania Gazette was a semi-weekly newspaper established at Philadelphia on December the 24th, 1728, by Samuel Keimer. The full title was The Universal Instructor in all Arts and Sciences and Pennsylvania Gazette. Samuel Keimer soon turned it over to the management of his apprentice, Benjamin Franklin, who quickly made it the most valuable newspaper property in America. The semi-weekly publication was, however, changed to a weekly, owing to lack of subscription. Benjamin Franklin retired from the management of the Gazette in 1766. The Gazette did good service to the Revolutionary cause until the British occupation of Philadelphia. Publication was suspended until after evacuation. It was then renewed and survived another brief suspension in 1815. The first part of the title was dropped when Benjamin Franklin assumed the management. In 1845 the Gazette was merged in the Daily North American. Research Pennsylvania Gazette
Herring is the general name of fishes of the genus Clupea, the most important of which is the Clupea harengus, or common herring. It is of wide distribution in the
North Atlantic, 45 degrees North latitude being about the southern limit. It measures from 10 to 12 inches in length, with blue-green back and brilliant silvery white under parts. It has small teeth in both jaws, and is of an elegant shape, the body being much compressed.
It was once supposed that the herrings migrated in two great shoals every summer from the Polar Seas to the coasts of Britain and France, returning in the winter, but the migration is probably only from a deeper part of the ocean to a shallower. The feeding ground of the herring is probably the mud deposits found in the deeper parts of the sea, and it seems to be a fact that during their visits to the shallower waters of the coast for the purpose of spawning they do not feed, or feed very little.
In summer the herring leaves the deep water where it has passed the winter and spring months, and seeks the coast where it may deposit its ova, and where they may be exposed to the influences of oxygen, heat, and sun-light, which are essential to their development. They are generally followed by multitudes of hakes, dog-fishes, etc, and gulls and other sea-birds hover over the shoals. They swim near the surface, and are therefore easily taken by net.
It was erroneously thought in the 19th and early 20th centuries that so great is the herring's fecundity that enormous number could be taken without reducing their abundance, as many as 68,000 eggs having been counted in the roe of one female. As a result, massive drift nets were used to fish millions of Herring from the sea. However, in the mid-20th century over fishing had almost wiped out the Herring and a suspension of fishing for them was put in place until their numbers returned.
Herrings are traditionally taken throughout the year, but in the greatest quantities in summer. In Scotland the herring fishery was long one of the most important industries. Research Herring
Charles Ellet was an American civil engineer who designed the first wire- cable suspension bridge in the USA, in 1842. He was born in 1810 at Pennsylvania and died in 1862. He also designed the world's first long-span wire-cable suspension bridge, crossing the Ohio River at Wheeling, West Virginia. He began his career as a surveyor and assistant engineer on the Chesapeake and OhioCanal in 1828. In 1831 and 1832 he was in Europe, enrolled at the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris and studied the various engineering works taking place in France, Germany, and Britain. For his first wire-cable suspension bridge, over the Schuylkill River at Fairmount, Pennsylvania, Ellet introduced a technique he had learned in France of binding small wires together to make the cables. The central span of the suspension bridge over the Ohio River was at 308 meters the longest ever built when it was completed in 1849. The bridge failed under wind forces in 1854; however, Ellet's towers remained standing and the bridge was rebuilt.
Following the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, Ellet produced a steam-powered ship for the Union forces to ram the Confederates on the Mississippi River and in June 1862, led a fleet of nine of these rams in the Battle of Memphis. The Union side was victorious, but in the course of the fighting Ellet was fatally wounded. Research Charles Ellet
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Abeyance
