question became for a time more prominent than the Home Rule
question, and the party of Mr. Parnell was practically
absorbed in an Irish National Land League, formed to force
landlords to a reduction of rents. The methods of coercion
adopted brought the League into collision with the Liberal
Government, notwithstanding the general sympathy of the latter
with Irish complaints. For a time the Irish Nationalists went
into alliance with the English Conservatives; but in 1886 Mr.
Gladstone became convinced, and convinced the majority of his
party, that just and harmonious relations between Ireland and
Great Britain could never be established without the
concession of Home Rule to the former. A bill which he
introduced to that end was defeated in the House of Commons
and Mr. Gladstone resigned. In 1892 he was returned to power,
and in September of the following year he carried in the House
of Commons a bill for the transferring of Irish legislation to
a distinct Parliament at Dublin. It was defeated, however, in
the House of Lords, and the question now rests in an unsettled
state. Mr. Gladstone's retirement from the premiership and
from the leadership of his party, which occurred in March,
1894, may affect the prospects of the measure; but the English
Liberals are committed to its principle, and it appears to be
certain that the Irish question will attain some solution
within no very long time.
Conclusion.
The beginning of the year 1894, when this is written, finds
Europe at peace, as it has been for a number of years. But the
peace is not of friendship, nor of honorable confidence, nor
of good will. The greater nations are lying on their arms, so
to speak, watching one another with strained eyes and with
jealous hearts. France, Germany, Italy, Austria, Russia, are
marshaling armies in the season of peace that, not many years
ago, would have seemed monstrous for war. Exactions of
military service and taxation for military expenditure are
pressed upon their people to the point of last endurance. The
preparation for battle is so vast in its scale, so unceasing,
so increasing, so far in the lead over all other efforts among
men, that it seems like a new affirmation of belief that war
is the natural order of the world.
And yet, the dread of war is greater in the civilized world
than ever before. The interests and influences that work for
peace are more powerful than at any former time. The wealth
which war threatens, the commerce which it interrupts, the
industry which it disturbs, the intelligence which it offends,
the humanity which it shocks, the Christianity which it
grieves, grow stronger to resist it, year by year. The
statesman and the diplomatist are under checks of
responsibility which a generation no older than Palmerston's
never felt. The arbitrator and the tribunal of arbitration
have become familiar within a quarter of a century. The spirit
of the age opposes war with rising earnestness and increasing
force; while the circumstance and fact of the time seem
arranged for it as the chief business of mankind. It is a
singular and a critical situation; the outcome from it is
impenetrably hidden.
Within itself, too, each nation is troubled with hostilities
that the world has not known before. Democracy in politics is
bringing in, as was inevitable, democracy in the whole social
system; and the period of adjustment to it, which we are
passing through, could not fail to be a period of trial and of
many dangers. The Anarchist, the Nihilist, the Socialist in
his many variations--what are they going to do in the time
that lies before us?
Europe, at the present stage of its history, is in the thick
of many questions; and so we leave it.
{1104}
EURYMEDON, Battles of the (B. C. 466).
See ATHENS: B. C. 470-466.
EUSKALDUNAC.
See BASQUES.
EUTAW SPRINGS, Battle of(1781).
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1780-1781.
EUTHYNI, The.
See LOGISTÆ.
EUTYCHIAN HERESY.
See NESTORIAN AND MONOPHYSITE CONTROVERSY.
EUXINE, The.
Euxinus Pontus, or Pontus Euxinus, the Black Sea,
as named by the Greeks.
EVACUATION DAY.
The anniversary of the evacuation of New York by
the British, Nov. 25, 1783.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1783 (NOVEMBER-DECEMBER).
EVANGELICAL UNION OF GERMANY, The.
See GERMANY: A. D. 1608-1618.
EVER VICTORIOUS ARMY, The.
See CHINA: A. D. 1850-1864.
EVESHAM, Battle of (1265).
The battle which finished the civil war in England known as
the Barons' War. It was fought Aug. 3, 1265, and Earl Simon de
Montfort, the soul of the popular cause, was slain, with most
of his followers. Prince Edward, afterwards Edward I.,
commanded the royal forces.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 1216-1274.
EVICTIONS, Irish.
See IRELAND: A. D. 1886.
EXARCHS OF RAVENNA.
See ROME: A. D. 554-800.
EXARCHS OF THE DIOCESE.
See PRIMATES.
EXCHEQUER.--EXCHEQUER ROLLS.--EXCHEQUER TALLIES.
"The Exchequer of the Norman kings was the court in which the
whole financial business of the country was transacted, and as
the whole administration of justice, and even the military
organisation, was dependent upon the fiscal officers, the
whole framework of society may be said to have passed annually
under its review. It derived its name from the chequered cloth
which covered the table at which the accounts were taken, a
name which suggested to the spectator the idea of a game at
chess between the receiver and the payer, the treasurer and
the sheriff. ... The record of the business was preserved in
three great rolls; one kept by the Treasurer, another by the
Chancellor, and a third by an officer nominated by the king,
who registered the matters of legal and special importance.
The rolls of the Treasurer and Chancellor were duplicates;
that of the former was called from its shape the great roll of
the Pipe, and that of the latter the roll of the Chancery. These
documents are mostly still in existence. The Pipe Rolls are
complete from the second year of Henry II. and the
Chancellor's Rolls nearly so. Of the preceding period only one
roll, that of the thirty-first year of Henry I., is preserved,
and this with Domesday book is the most valuable store of
information which exists for the administrative history of the
age. The financial reports were made to the barons by the
sheriffs of the counties. At Easter and Michælmas each of
these magistrates produced his own accounts and paid in to the
Exchequer such an instalment or proffer as he could afford,
retaining in hand sufficient money for current expenses. In
token of receipt a tally was made; a long piece of wood in
which a number of notches were cut, marking the pounds,
shillings, and pence received; this stick was then split down
the middle, each half contained exactly the same number of
notches, and no alteration could of course be made without
certain detection. ... The fire which destroyed the old Houses
of Parliament is said to have originated in the burning of the
old Exchequer tallies."
W. Stubbs,
Constitutional History of England,
chapter 11, section 126.
"The wooden 'tallies' on which a large notch represented
£1,000, and smaller notches other sums, while a halfpenny was
denoted by a small round hole, were actually in use at the
Exchequer until the year 1824."--
Sir J. Lubbock,
Preface to Hall's "Antiquities and
Curiosities of the Exchequer."
ALSO IN: E. F. Henderson,
Select Historical Documents of the Middle Ages,
book 1, number 5.
See, also, CURIA REGIS and CHESS.
EXCHEQUER, Chancellor of the.
In the reign of Henry III., of England, "was created the
office of Chancellor of the Exchequer, to whom the Exchequer
seal was entrusted, and who with the Treasurer took part in
the equitable jurisdiction of the Exchequer, although not in
the common law jurisdiction of the barons, which extended
itself as the legal fictions of pleading brought common pleas
into this court."
W. Stubbs, Constitutional History of England,
chapter 15, section 237.
EXCLUSION BILL, The.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 1679-1681.
EXCOMMUNICATIONS AND INTERDICTS.
"Excommunication, whatever opinions may be entertained as to
its religious efficacy, was originally nothing more in
appearance than the exercise of a right which every society
claims, the expulsion of refractory members from its body. No
direct temporal disadvantages attended this penalty for
several ages; but as it was the most severe of spiritual
censures, and tended to exclude the object of it, not only
from a participation in religious rites, but in a considerable
degree from the intercourse of Christian society, it was used
sparingly and upon the gravest occasions. Gradually, as the
church became more powerful and more imperious,
excommunications were issued upon every provocation, rather as
a weapon of ecclesiastical warfare than with any regard to its
original intention. ... Princes who felt the inadequacy of
their own laws to secure obedience called in the assistance of
more formidable sanctions. Several capitularies of Charlemagne
denounce the penalty of excommunication against incendiaries
or deserters from the army. Charles the Bald procured similar
censures against his revolted vassals. Thus the boundary
between temporal and spiritual offences grew every day less
distinct; and the clergy were encouraged to fresh
encroachments, as they discovered the secret of rendering them
successful. ... The support due to church censures by temporal
judges is vaguely declared in the capitularies of Pepin and
Charlemagne. It became in later ages a more established
principle in France and England, and, I presume, in other
countries. By our common law an excommunicated person is
incapable of being a witness or of bringing an action; and he
may be detained in prison until he obtains absolution. By the
Establishments of St. Louis, his estate or person might be
attached by the magistrate. These actual penalties were
attended by marks of abhorrence and ignominy still more
calculated to make an impression on ordinary minds. They were
to be shunned, like men infected with leprosy, by their
servants, their friends, and their families. ...
{1105}
But as excommunication, which attacked only one and perhaps a
hardened sinner, was not always efficacious, the church had
recourse to a more comprehensive punishment. For the offence
of a nobleman she put a county, for that of a prince his
entire kingdom, under an interdict or suspension of religious
offices. No stretch of her tyranny was perhaps so outrageous
as this. During an interdict the churches were closed, the
bells silent, the dead unburied, no rite but those of baptism
and extreme unction performed. The penalty fell upon those who
had neither partaken nor could have prevented the offence; and
the offence was often but a private dispute, in which the
pride of a pope or bishop had been wounded. Interdicts were so
rare before the time of Gregory VII., that some have referred
them to him as their author; instances may however be found of
an earlier date."
H. Hallam,
The Middle Ages,
chapter 7, part 1.
ALSO IN:
M. Gosselin,
The Power of the Pope in the Middle Ages,
part 2, chapter 1, article 3.
H. C. Lea,
Studies in Church History,
part 3.
P. Schaff,
History of the Christian Church,
volume 4, chapter 8, section 86.
EXECUTIVE SESSIONS.
See CONGRESS OF THE UNITED SESSIONS.
EXEGETÆ, The.
A board of three persons in ancient Athens "to whom
application might be made in all matters relating to sacred
law, and also, probably, with regard to the significance of
the Diosemia, or celestial phenomena and other signs by which
future events were foretold."
G. F. Schömann,
Antiquities of Greece: The State,
part 3, chapter 3.
EXETER, Origin of.
"Isca Damnoniorum, Caer Wisc, Exanceaster, Exeter, keeping
essentially the same name under all changes, stands
distinguished as the one great English city which has, in a
more marked way than any other, kept its unbroken being and
its unbroken position throughout all ages. The City on the
Exe, in all ages and in all tongues keeping its name as the
City on the Exe, allows of an easy definition. ... It is the
one city [of England] in which we can feel sure that human
habitation and city life have never ceased from the days of
the early Cæsars to our own." At the Norman conquest, Exeter
did not submit to William until after a siege of 18 days, in
1068.
E. A. Freeman,
Exeter,
chapters 1-2.
EXILARCH, The.
See JEWS: 7TH CENTURY.
EXODUS FROM EGYPT, The.
See JEWS: THE ROUTE OF THE EXODUS.
EYLAU, Battle of (1807).
See GERMANY: A. D. 1806-1807.
EYRE, Governor, and the Jamaica insurrection.
See JAMAICA: A. D. 1865.
EYSTEIN I., King of Norway, A. D. 1116-1122.
Eystein II., 1155--1157.
EZZELINO, OR ECCELINO DI ROMANO,
The tyranny of, and the crusade against.
See VERONA: A. D. 1236-1259.
F.
FABIAN POLICY.-FABIAN TACTICS.
The policy pursued by Q. Fabius Maximus, the Roman Dictator,
called "the Cunctator" or Lingerer, in his campaigns against
Hannibal.
See PUNIC WAR, THE SECOND.
FACTORY LEGISLATION, English.
"During the 17th and 18th centuries, when the skill of the
workmen had greatly improved, and the productiveness of labour
had increased, various methods were resorted to for the
purpose of prolonging the working day. The noontide nap was
first dispensed with, then other intervals of rest were
curtailed, and ultimately artificial light was introduced,
which had the effect of abolishing the difference between the
short days of winter and the long days of summer, thus
equalising, the working day throughout the year. The opening
of the 19th century was signalised by a new cry, namely, for a
reduction in the hours of labour; this was in consequence of
the introduction of female and child labour into the
factories, and the deterioration of the workers as a result of
excessive overwork. ... The overwork of the young, and
particularly the excessive hours in the factories, became such
crying evils that in 1801 the first Act was passed to restrict
the hours of labour for apprentices, who were prohibited from
working more than 12 hours a day, between six A. M. and nine
P. M., and that provision should be made for teaching them to
read and write, and other educational exercises. This Act
further provided that the mills should be whitewashed at least
once a year; and that doors and windows should be made to
admit fresh air. This Act was followed by a series of
commissions and committees of inquiry, the result being that
it was several times amended. The details of the evidence
given before the several commissions and committees of inquiry
are sickening in the extreme; the medical testimony was
unanimous in its verdict that the children were physically
ruined by overwork; those who escaped with their lives were so
crippled and maimed that they were unable to maintain
themselves in after life, and became paupers. It was proven
that out of 4,000 who entered the factory before they were 30
years of age, only 600 were to be found in the mills after
that age. By Sir Robert Peel's Bill in 1819 it was proposed to
limit the hours to 11 per day with one and a half for meals,
for those under 16 years of age. But the mill-owners
prophesied the ruin of the manufacturers of the country--they
could not compete with the foreign markets, it was an
interference with the freedom of labour, the spare time given
would be spent in debauchery and riot, and that if passed,
other trades would require the same provisions. The Bill was
defeated, and the hours fixed at 72 per week; the justices,
that is to say the manufacturers, were entrusted with the
enforcement of the law. In 1825 a new law was passed defining
the time when breakfast and dinner was to be taken, and fixing
the time to half an hour for the first repast, and a full hour
for dinner; the traditional term of apprentices was dropped
and the modern classification of children and young persons
was substituted, and children were once more prohibited from
working more than 12 hours a day. But every means was adopted
to evade the law. ... After thousands of petitions, and
numerous angry debates in Parliament, the Act of 1833 was
passed, which limited the working hours of children to 48
hours per week, and provided that each child should have a
certain amount of schooling, and with it factory inspectors
were appointed to enforce the law.
{1106}
But the law was not to come into operation until March 1,
1836, during which time it had to be explained and defended in
one session, amended in a second, and made binding in a third.
After several Royal Commissions and inquiries by select
committees, this Act has been eight times amended, until the
working hours of children are now limited to six per day, and
for young persons and women to 56 per week; these provisions
with certain modifications are now extended to workshops, and
the whole law is being consolidated and amended. ... The whole
series of the Factory Acts, dating from 42 George III., c. 73,
to the 37 and 38 Victoria 1874, forms a code of legislation,
in regard to working people, unexampled in any age and
unequalled in any country in the world. . . . Outside
Parliament efforts have been constantly made to further reduce
the working hours."
G. Howell,
The Conflicts of Capital and Labour,
pages 298-301.
"The continental governments, of course, have been obliged to
make regulations covering kindred subjects, but rarely have
they kept pace with English legislation. America has enacted
progressive laws so far as the condition of factory workers
has warranted. It should be remembered that the abuses which
crept into the system in England never existed in this country
in any such degree as we know they did in the old country. Yet
there are few States in America where manufactures predominate
or hold an important position in which law has not stepped in
and restricted either the hours of labor, or the conditions of
labor, and insisted upon the education of factory children,
although the laws are usually silent as to children of
agricultural laborers. It is is not wholly in the passage of
purely factory acts that the factory system has influenced the
legislation of the world. England may have suffered
temporarily from the effects of some of her factory
legislation, and the recent reduction of the hours of labor to
nine and one-half per day, less than in any other country, has
had the effect of placing her works at a disadvantage; but, in
the long run, England will be the gainer on account of all the
work she has done in the way of legislative restrictions upon
labor. In this she has changed her whole policy. Formerly
trade must be restricted and labor allowed to demoralize
itself under the specious plea of being free; now, trade must
be free and labor restricted in the interests of society,
which means in the interest of good morals. The factory system
has not only wrought this change, but has compelled the
economists to recognize the distinction between commodities
and services. There has been greater and greater freedom of
contract in respect to commodities, but the contracts which
involve labor have become more and more completely under the
authority and supervision of the State. 'Seventy-five years
ago scarcely a single law existed in any country for
regulating the contract for services in the interest of the
laboring classes. At the same time the contract for
commodities was everywhere subject to minute and incessant
regulations' [Hon. F. A. Walker]. Factory legislation in
England, as elsewhere, has had for its chief object the
regulation of the labor of children and women; but its scope
has constantly increased by successive and progressive
amendments until they have attempted to secure the physical
and moral well-being of the working-man in all trades, and to
give him every condition of salubrity and of personal safety
in the workshops. The excellent effect of factory legislation
has been made manifest throughout the whole of Great Britain.
'Physically, the factory child can bear fair comparison with
the child brought up in the fields,' and, intellectually,
progress is far greater with the former than with the latter.
Public opinion, struck by these results, has demanded the
extension of protective measures for children to every kind of
industrial labor, until parliament has brought under the
influence of these laws the most powerful industries. To carry
the factory regulations and those relative to schooling into
effect, England has an efficient corps of factory inspectors.
The manufacturers of England are unanimous in acknowledging
that to the activity, to the sense of impartiality, displayed
by these inspectors, is due the fact that an entire
application of the law has been possible without individual
interests being thereby jeopardized to a very serious extent.
... In no other country is there so elaborate a code of
factory laws as the 'British factory and workshop act' of 1878
(41 Vict., chapter 16), it being an act consolidating all the
factory acts since Sir Robert Peel's act of 1802."
C. D. Wright,
Factory Legislation
(Tenth Census of the United States, volume 2).
ALSO IN:
First annual Report of the Factory Inspectors of
the State of New York, 1886, appendix.
C. Knight,
Popular History of England,
volume 8, chapters 22 and 27.
H. Martineau,
History of the Thirty Years' Peace,
volume 2, pages 512-515.
See, also, ENGLAND: A. D. 1832-1833.
FADDILEY, Battle of.
Fought successfully by the Britons with the West Saxons, on
the border of Cheshire, A. D. 583.
J. R. Green,
The Making of England,
page 206.
FAENZA, Battle of (A. D. 542).
See ROME: A. D. 535-553.
FÆSULÆ.
See FLORENCE, ORIGIN AND NAME.
FAGGING.
See EDUCATION, MODERN: EUROPEAN COUNTRIES.
ENGLAND.--THE GREAT PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
FAGGIOLA, Battle of (1425).
See ITALY: A. D. 1412-1447.
FAINÉANT KINGS.
See FRANKS: A. D. 511-752.
FAIR OAKS, Battle of.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1862 (MAY: VIRGINIA).
FAIRFAX AND THE PARLIAMENTARY ARMY.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 1645 (JANUARY-APRIL),
and (JUNE); 1647 (APRIL-AUGUST);
1648 (NOVEMBER); 1649 (FEBRUARY).
FALAISE.
"The Castle [in Normandy] where legend fixes the birth of
William of Normandy, and where history fixes the famous homage
of William of Scotland, is a vast donjon of the eleventh or
twelfth century. One of the grandest of those massive square
keeps which I have already spoken of as distinguishing the
earliest military architecture of Normandy crowns the summit
of a precipitous rock, fronted by another mass of rock, wilder
still, on which the cannon of England were planted during
Henry's siege. To these rocks, these 'felsen,' the spot owes
its name of Falaise. ... Between these two rugged heights lies
a narrow dell. ... The den is crowded with mills and
tanneries, but the mills and tanneries of Falaise have their
share in the historic interest of the place. ... In every from
which the story has taken in history or legend, the mother of
the Conqueror appears as the daughter of a tanner of Falaise."
E. A. Freeman,
Norman Conquest,
chapter 8, section 1.
{1107}
FALAISE, Peace of (1175).
See SCOTLAND: A. D. 1174-1189.
FALK LAWS, The.
See GERMANY: A. D. 1873-1887.
FALKIRK, Battles of (1298 and 1746).
See SCOTLAND: A. D. 1290-1305;
and 1745-1746.
FAMAGOSTA: A. D. 1571. Taken by the Turks.
See TURKS: A. D. 1566-1571.
FAMILIA.
The slaves belonging to a master were collectively called
familia among the Romans.
E. Guhl and W. Koner,
Life of the Greeks and Romans,
section 100.
FAMILY COMPACT,
The First Bourbon.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1733.
The Second.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1743 (OCTOBER).
The Third.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1761 (AUGUST).
FAMILY COMPACT IN CANADA, The.
See CANADA: A. D.1820-1837.
FAMINE, The Cotton.
See, ENGLAND: A. D. 1861-1865,
FAMINE, The Irish.
See IRELAND: A. D. 1845-1847.
FANARIOTS.
See PHANARIOTS.
FANEUIL HALL.
"The fame of Faneuil Hall [Boston, Mass.] is as wide as the
country itself. It has been called the 'Cradle of Liberty,'
because dedicated by that early apostle of freedom, James
Otis, to the cause of liberty, in a speech delivered in the
hall in March, 1763. ... Its walls have echoed to the voices
of the great departed in times gone by, and in every great
public exigency the people, with one accord, assembled
together to take counsel within its hallowed precincts. ...
The Old Market-house ... existing in Dock Square in 1734, was
demolished by a mob in 1736-37. There was contention among the
people as to whether they would be served at their houses in
the old way, or resort to fixed localities, and one set of
disputants took this summary method of settling the question.
... In 1740, the question of the Market-house being revived,
Peter Faneuil proposed to build one at his own cost on the
town's land in Dock Square, upon condition that the town
should legally authorize it, enact proper regulations, and
maintain it for the purpose named. Mr. Faneuil's noble offer
was courteously received, but such was the division of opinion
on the subject that it was accepted by a majority of only
seven votes, out of 727 persons voting. The building was
completed in September, 1742, and three days after, at a
meeting of citizens, the hall was formally accepted and a vote
of thanks passed to the donor. ... The town voted that the
hall should be called Faneuil Hall forever. ... The original
size of the building was 40 by 100 feet, just half the present
width; the hall would contain 1,000 persons. At the fire of
January 13, 1763, the whole interior was destroyed, but the
town voted to rebuild in March, and the State authorized a
lottery in aid of the design. The first meeting after the
rebuilding was held on the 14th March, 1763, when James Otis
delivered the dedicatory address. In 1806 the Hull was
enlarged in width to 80 feet, and by the addition of a third
story."
S. A. Drake,
Old Landmarks of Boston,
chapter 4.
FANNIAN LAW, The.
See ORCHIAN, FANNIAN, DIDIAN LAWS.
FARM.
See FERM.
FARMERS' ALLIANCE.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1877-1891.
FARMER'S LETTERS, The.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1767-1768.
FARNESE, Alexander, Duke of Parma, in the Netherlands.
See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1577-1581, to 1588-1593.
FARNESE, The House of.
See PARMA: A. D. 1545-1592.
FARRAGUT, Admiral David G.
Capture of New Orleans.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1862 (APRIL: ON THE MISSISSIPPI).
Attack on Vicksburg.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1862 (MAY-JULY: ON THE MISSISSIPPI).
Victory in Mobile Bay.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D.1864 (AUGUST: ALABAMA).
FARSAKH, OR FARSANG, The.
See PARASANG.
FASCES.
See LICTORS.
FASTI.
"Dies Fasti were the days upon which the Courts of Justice [in
ancient Rome] were open, and legal business could be
transacted before the Praetor; the Dies Nefasti were those
upon which the Courts were closed. ... All days consecrated to
the worship of the Gods by sacrifices, feasts or games, were
named Festi. ... For nearly four centuries and a-half after
the foundation of the city the knowledge of the Calendar was
confined to the Pontifices alone. ... These secrets which
might be, and doubtless often were, employed for political
ends, were at length divulged in the year B. C. 314, by Cn.
Flavius, who drew up tables embracing all this
carefully-treasured information, and hung them up in the Forum
for the inspection of the public. From this time forward
documents of this description were known by the name of Fasti.
... These Fasti, in fact, corresponded very closely to a
modern Almanac. ... The Fasti just described have, to prevent
confusion, been called Calendaria, or Fasti Calendares, and
must be carefully distinguished from certain compositions also
named Fasti by the ancients. These were regular chronicles in
which were recorded each year the names of the Consuls and
other magistrates, together with the remarkable events, and
the days on which they occurred. The most important were the
Annales Maximi, kept by the Pontifex Maximus."
W. Ramsay,
Manual of Roman Antiquities,
chapter 11.
FATIMITE CALIPHS, The.
See MAHOMETAN CONQUEST AND EMPIRE: A. D. 908-1171;
Also, ASSASSINS.
FAVILA, King of Leon and the Asturias, or Oviedo, A. D. 737-739.
FEAST OF LIBERTY.
See GREECE: B. C. 479:
PERSIAN WARS.
PLATÆA.
FEAST OF REASON, The.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1793 (NOVEMBER).
FEAST OF THE FEDERATION, The.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1789-1791.
FEAST OF THE SUPREME BEING, The.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1793-1794 (NOVEMBER-JUNE).
FECIALES.--FETIALES.
See FETIALES.
FEDELI.
See CATTANI.
FEDERAL CITY, The.
See WASHINGTON (CITY): A. D. 1791.
FEDERAL CONSTITUTION OF SWITZERLAND.
See CONSTITUTION OF THE SWISS CONFEDERATION.
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FEDERAL CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
See CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES.
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.--FEDERATIONS.
"Two requisites seem necessary to constitute a Federal
Government in ... its most perfect form. On the one hand, each
of the members of the Union must be wholly independent in
those matters which concern each member only. On the other
hand, all must be subject to a common power in those matters
which concern the whole body of members collectively. Thus
each member will fix for itself the laws of its criminal
jurisprudence, and even the details of its political
constitution. And it will do this, not as a matter of
privilege or concession from any higher power, but as a matter
of absolute right, by virtue of its inherent powers as an
independent commonwealth. But in all matters which concern the
general body, the sovereignty of the several members will
cease. Each member is perfectly independent within its own
sphere; but there is another sphere in which its independence,
or rather its separate existence, vanishes. It is invested
with every right of sovereignty on one class of subjects, but
there is another class of subjects on which it is as incapable
of separate political action as any province or city of a
monarchy or of an indivisible republic. ... Four Federal
Commonwealths ... stand out, in four different ages of the
world, as commanding, above all others, the attention of
students of political history. Of these four, one belongs to
what is usually known as 'ancient,' another to what is
commonly called 'mediæval' history; a third arose in the
period of transition between mediæval and modern history; the
creation of the fourth may have been witnessed by some few of
those who are still counted among living men, ... These four
Commonwealths are, First, the Achaian League [see GREECE: B.
C. 280-146] in the later days of Ancient Greece, whose most
flourishing period comes within the third century before our
era. Second, the Confederation of the Swiss Cantons [see
CONSTITUTION OF THE SWISS CONFEDERATION], which, with many
changes in its extent and constitution, has lasted from the
thirteenth century to our own day. Third, the Seven United
Provinces of the Netherlands [see NETHERLANDS: A. D.
1577-1581, and after], whose Union arose in the War of
Independence against Spain, and lasted, in a republican form,
till the war of the French Revolution. Fourth, the United
States of North America [see CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES
OF AMERICA], which formed a Federal Union after their revolt
from the British Crown under George the Third, and whose
destiny forms one of the most important, and certainly the
most interesting, of the political problems of our own time.
Of these four, three come sufficiently near to the full
realization of the Federal idea to be entitled to rank among
perfect Federal Governments. The Achaian League, and the
United States since the adoption of the present Constitution,
are indeed the most perfect developments of the Federal
principle which the world has ever seen. The Swiss
Confederation, in its origin a Union of the loosest kind, has
gradually drawn the Federal bond tighter and tighter, till,
within our own times, it has assumed a form which fairly
entitles it to rank beside Achaia and America. The claim of
the United Provinces is more doubtful; their union was at no
period of their republican being so close as that of Achaia,
America, and modern Switzerland."
E. A. Freeman,
History of Federal Government,
volume 1, pages 3-6.
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT:
Classification of Federal Governments.
"To the classification of federal governments publicists have
given great attention with unsatisfactory results. History
shows a great variety of forms, ranging from the lowest
possible organization, like that of the Amphictyonic Council
[see AMPHIKTYONIC COUNCIL] to the highly centralized and
powerful German Empire. Many writers deny that any fixed
boundaries can be described. The usual classification is,
however, into three divisions,--the Staatenstaat, or state
founded on states; the Staatenbund, or union of states--to
which the term Confederacy nearly corresponds; and the
Bundesstaat, or united state, which answers substantially to
the term federation as usually employed. The Staatenstaat is
defined to be a state in which the units are not individuals,
but states, and which, therefore, has no operation directly on
individuals, but deals with and legislates for its corporate
members; they preserve undisturbed their powers of government
over their own subjects. The usual example of a Staatenstaat
is the Holy Roman Empire [see ROMAN EMPIRE, THE HOLY]. This
conception ... is, however, illogical in theory, and never has
been carried out in practice. ... Historically, also, the
distinction is untenable. The Holy Roman Empire had courts,
taxes, and even subjects not connected with the states. In
theory it had superior claims upon all the individuals within
the Empire; in practice it abandoned control over the states.
The second category is better established. Jellinek says:
"When states form a permanent political alliance, of which
common defence is at the very least the purpose, with
permanent federal organs, there arises a Staatenbund.' This
form of government is distinguished from an alliance by the
fact that it has permanent federal organs; from a commercial
league by its political purpose; from a Bundesstaat by its
limited purpose. In other words, under Staatenbund are
included the weaker forms of true federal government, in which
there is independence from other powers, and, within the
purposes of the union, independence from the constituent
states. ... The Staatenbund form includes most of the federal
governments which have existed. The Greek confederations
(except perhaps the Lycian and Achæan) and all the mediæval
leagues were of this type: even the strong modern unions of
the United States, Germany, and Switzerland, have gone through
the Staatenbund stage in their earlier history. Between the
Staatenbund and the more highly developed form, the
Bundesstaat, no writer has described an accurate boundary.
There are certain governments, notably those of Canada,
Germany, Switzerland, and the United States, in which is found
an elaborate and powerful central organism, including federal
courts; to this organism is assigned all or nearly all the
common concerns of the nation; within its exclusive control
are war, foreign affairs, commerce, colonies, and national
finances; and there is an efficient power of enforcement
against states. Such governments undoubtedly are
Bundesstaaten."
A. B. Hart,
Introduction to the Study of Federal Government
(Harvard Historical Monographs, number 2),
chapter 1.
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FEDERAL GOVERNMENT:
Greek Federations.
"Under the conditions of the Græco-Roman civic life there were
but two practicable methods of forming a great state and
diminishing the quantity of warfare. The one method was
conquest with incorporation, the other method was federation.
... Neither method was adopted by the Greeks in their day of
greatness. The Spartan method of extending its power was
conquest without incorporation: when Sparta conquered another
Greek city, she sent a harmost to govern it like a tyrant; in
other words she virtually enslaved the subject city. The
efforts of Athens tended more in the direction of a peaceful
federalism. In the great Delian confederacy [see GREECE: B. C.
478-477, and ATHENS: B. C. 466-454], which developed into the
maritime empire of Athens, the Ægean cities were treated as
allies rather than subjects. As regards their local affairs
they were in no way interfered with, and could they have been
represented in some kind of a federal council at Athens, the
course of Grecian history might have been wonderfully altered.
As it was, they were all deprived of one essential element of
sovereignty,--the power of controlling their own military
forces. ... In the century following the death of Alexander,
in the closing age of Hellenic independence, the federal idea
appears in a much more advanced stage of elaboration, though
in a part of Greece which had been held of little account in
the great days of Athens and Sparta. Between the Achaian
federation, framed in 274 B. C., and the United States of
America, there are some interesting points of resemblance
which have been elaborately discussed by Mr. Freeman, in his
'History of Federal Government.' About the same time the
Ætolian League [see ÆTOLIAN LEAGUE] came into prominence in
the north. Both these leagues were instances of true federal
government, and were not mere confederations; that is, the
central government acted directly upon all the citizens and
not merely upon the local governments. Each of these leagues
had for its chief executive officer a General elected for one
year, with powers similar to those of an American President.
In each the supreme assembly was a primary assembly at which
every citizen from every city of the league had a right to be
present, to speak, and to vote; but as a natural consequence
these assemblies shrank into comparatively aristocratic
bodies. In Ætolia, which was a group of mountain cantons
similar to Switzerland, the federal union was more complete
than in Achaia, which was a group of cities. ... In so far as
Greece contributed anything towards the formation of great and
pacific political aggregates, she did it through attempts at
federation. But in so low a state of political development as
that which prevailed throughout the Mediterranean world in
pre-Christian times, the more barbarous method of conquest
with incorporation was more likely to be successful on a great
scale. This was well illustrated in the history of Rome,--a civic
community of the same generic type with Sparta and Athens, but
presenting specific differences of the highest importance. ...
Rome early succeeded in freeing itself from that insuperable
prejudice which elsewhere prevented the ancient city from
admitting aliens to a share in its franchise. And in this
victory over primeval political ideas lay the whole secret of
Rome's mighty career."
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT:
Mediæval Leagues in Germany.
"It is hardly too much to say that the Lombard League led
naturally to the leagues of German cities. The exhausting
efforts of the Hohenstaufen Emperors to secure dominion in
Italy compelled them to grant privileges to the cities in
Germany; the weaker emperors, who followed, bought support
with new charters and privileges. The inability of the Empire
to keep the peace or to protect commerce led speedily to the
formation of great unions of cities, usually commercial in
origin, but very soon becoming political forces of prime
importance. The first of these was the Rhenish League, formed
in 1254. The more important cities of the Rhine valley, from
Basle to Cologne, were the original members; but it eventually
had seventy members, including several princes and ruling
prelates. The league had Colloquia, or assemblies, at stated
intervals; but, beyond deciding upon a general policy, and the
assignment of military quotas, it had no legislative powers.
There was, however, a Kommission, or federal court, which
acted as arbiter in disputes between the members. The chief
political service of the league was to maintain peace during
the interregnum in the Empire (1256-1273). During the
fourteenth century it fell apart, and many of its members
joined the Hansa or Suabian League. ... In 1377 seventeen
Suabian cities, which had been mortgaged by the Emperor,
united to defend their liberties. They received many
accessions of German and Swiss cities; but in 1388 they were
overthrown by Leopold III. of Austria, and all combinations of
cities were forbidden. A federal government they cannot be
said to have possessed; but political, almost federal
relations continued during the fifteenth century. The similar
leagues of Frankfort and Wetterau were broken up about the
same time. Other leagues of cities and cantons were in a like
manner formed and dissolved,--among them the leagues of
Hauenstein and Burgundy; and there was a confederation in
Franche Comté, afterward French territory. All the mediæval
leagues thus far mentioned were defensive, and had no extended
relations beyond their own borders. The great Hanseatic League
[see HANSA TOWNS], organized as a commercial union, developed
into a political and international power, which negotiated and
made war on its own account with foreign and German
sovereigns; and which was for two centuries one of the leading
powers of Europe."
A. B. Hart,
Introduction to the Study of Federal Government
(Harvard Historical Monographs, number 2),
chapter 3.
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT:
Mediæval League of Lombardy.
When Frederick Barbarossa entered Italy for the fifth time in
1163, to enforce the despotic sovereignty over that country
which the German kings, as emperors, were then claiming (see
ITALY: A. D. 961-1039), a league of the Lombard cities was
formed to resist him. "Verona, Vicenza, Padua, and Treviso,
the most powerful towns of the Veronese marches, assembled
their consuls in congress, to consider of the means of putting
an end to a tyranny which overwhelmed them. The consuls of
these four towns pledged themselves by oath in the name of
their cities to give mutual support to each other in the
assertion of their former rights, and in the resolution to
reduce the imperial prerogatives to the point at which they
were fixed under the reign of Henry IV. Frederick, informed of
this association; returned hastily into Northern Italy, to put it
down ... but he soon perceived that the spirit of liberty had
made progress in the Ghibeline cities as well as in those of
the Guelphs. ...
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Obliged to bend before a people which he considered only as
revolted subjects, he soon renounced a contest so humiliating,
and returned to Germany, to levy an army more submissive to
him. Other and more pressing interests diverted his attention
from this object till the autumn of 1166. ... When Frederick,
in the month of October, 1166, descended the mountains of the
Grisons to enter Italy by the territory of Brescia, he marched
his army directly to Lodi, without permitting any act of
hostility on the way. At Lodi, he assembled, towards the end
of November, a diet of the kingdom of Italy, at which he
promised the Lombards to redress the grievances occasioned by
the abuses of power by his podestas, and to respect their just
liberties; ... to give greater weight to his negotiation, he
marched his army into Central Italy. ... The towns of the
Veronese marches, seeing the emperor and his army pass without
daring to attack them, became bolder: they assembled a new
diet, in the beginning of April, at the convent of Pontida,
between Milan and Bergamo. The consuls of Cremona, of Bergamo,
of Brescia, of Mantua and Ferrara met there, and joined those
of the marches. The union of the Guelphs and Ghibelines, for
the common liberty, was hailed with universal joy. The
deputies of the Cremonese, who had lent their aid to the
destruction of Milan, seconded those of the Milanese villages
in imploring aid of the confederated towns to rebuild the city
of Milan. This confederation was called the League of Lombardy.
The consuls took the oath, and their constituents afterwards
repeated it, that every Lombard should unite for the recovery
of the common liberty; that the league for this purpose should
last twenty years; and, finally, that they should aid each
other in repairing in common any damage experienced in this
sacred cause, by any one member of the confederation:
extending even to the past this contract for reciprocal
security, the league resolved to rebuild Milan. ... Lodi was
soon afterwards compelled, by force of arms, to take the oath
to the league; while the towns of Venice, Placentia, Parma,
Modena, and Bologna voluntarily and gladly joined the
association."
J. C. L. de Sismondi,
History of the Italian Republics,
chapter 2.
In 1226 the League was revived
or renewed against Frederick II.
See ITALY: A. D. 1183-1250.
"Milan and Bologna took the lead, and were followed by
Piacenza, Verona, Brescia, Faenza, Mantua, Vercelli, Lodi,
Bergamo, Turin, Alessandria, Vicenza, Padua, and Treviso. ...
Nothing could be more unlike, than the First and the Second
Lombard Leagues, that of 1167, formed against Frederick the
First after the most cruel provocation, was sanctioned by the
Pope, and had for its end the deliverance of Lombardy. That of
1226, formed against Frederick the Second, after no
provocation received, was discountenanced by the Pope, and
resulted in the frustration of the Crusade and in sowing the
germ of endless civil wars. This year is fixed upon by the
Brescian Chronicler as the beginning of 'those plaguy factions
of Guelf and Ghibelline, which were so engrained into the
minds of our forefathers, that they have handed them down as
an heir-loom to their posterity, never to come to an end.'"
T. L. Kington,
History of Frederick the Second,
volume 1, pages 265-266.
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT:
Modern Federations.
"A remarkable phenomenon of the last hundred years is the
impetus that has been given to the development of Federal
institutions. There are to-day contemporaneously existing no
less than eight distinct Federal Governments. First and
foremost is the United States of America, where we have an
example of the Federal Union in the most perfect form yet
attained. Then comes Switzerland, of less importance than the
United States of America, but most nearly approaching it in
perfection. Again we have the German Empire [see CONSTITUTION
OF GERMANY], that great factor in European politics, which is
truly a Federal Union, but a cumbrous one and full of
anomalies. Next in importance comes the Dominion of Canada
[see CONSTITUTION OF CANADA], which is the only example of a
country forming a Federal Union and at the same time a colony.
Lastly come the Argentine Republic, Mexico, and the States of
Colombia and Venezuela [see CONSTITUTIONS]. This is a very
remarkable list when we consider that never before the present
century did more than two Federal Unions ever coexist, and
that very rarely, and that even those unions were far from
satisfying the true requirements of Federation. Nor is this
all. Throughout the last hundred years we can mark a growing
tendency in countries that have adopted the Federal type of
Government to perfect that Federal type and make it more truly
Federal than before. In the United States of America, for
instance, the Constitution of 1789 was more truly Federal than
the Articles of Confederation, and certainly since the Civil
War we hear less of State Rights, and more of Union. It has
indeed been remarked that the citizens of the United States
have become fond of applying the words 'Nation' and 'National'
to themselves in a manner formerly unknown. We can mark the
same progress in Switzerland. Before 1789, Switzerland formed
a very loose system of Confederated States--in 1815, a
constitution more truly Federal was devised; in 1848, the
Federal Union was more firmly consolidated; and lastly, in
1874, such changes were made in the Constitution that
Switzerland now presents a very fairly perfect example of
Federal Government. In Germany we may trace a similar
movement. In 1815, the Germanic Confederation was formed; but
it was only a system of Confederated States, or what the
Germans call Staatenbund; but after various changes, amongst
others the exclusion of Austria in 1866, it became, in 1871, a
composite State or, in German language, a Bundestaat. Beyond
this, we have to note a further tendency to Federation. In the
year 1886, a Bill passed the Imperial Parliament to permit of
the formation of an Australasian Council for the purposes of
forming the Australasian Colonies into a Federation. Then we
hear of further aspirations for applying the Federal system,
as though there were some peculiar virtue or talismanic effect
about it which rendered it a panacea for all political troubles.
There has, also, been much talk about Imperial Federation.
Lastly, some people think they see a simple solution of the
Irish Question in the application of Federation, particularly
the Canadian form of it, to Ireland."
Federal Government
(Westminster Rev., May, 1888,
pages 573-574).
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