Page images
PDF
EPUB

once as they can conveniently hold, and with a quick motion give every sheet its share of the size, which must be as hot as the hand can well bear. After this the paper is pressed, hung up sheet by sheet to dry, and being taken down is sorted, and what is only fit for outside quires laid by themselves; it is then told into quires, which are folded. and pressed. The broken sheets are commonly put together, and two of the worst quires are placed on the outside of every ream or bundle and being tied up in wrappers made of the settling of the vat, is fit for sale.

Paper is of various kinds, and used for various pur. poses with regard to colour, it is principally distin. guished into white, blue, and brown; and with regard to its dimensions, into atlas, elephant, imperial, superroyal, royal, medium, demy, crown, post, fool's-cap, pot paper, &c. In the Maldive islands, the natives are said to write on the leaves of a tree called macarequean, which are a fathom and a half long, and a foot broad: and divers, parts of the East-Indies, the leaves of the musa arbor, or plantain-tree, dried in the sun, served the same use, till of late the French taught them the use of European paper.

Egyptian paper, is that which was principally used among the ancients; made of a rush called papyrus, or biblus, growing chiefly in Egypt about the banks of the Nile; though it was also found in India; and Guilandinus assures us he saw in Chaldea, at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates, large fans, wherein with his own hands he plucked a papyrus, differing in nothing from that of the Nile. Strabo likewise speaks of a sort of papyrus growing in Italy, but we do not find it was ever used for making paper. The description given by Pliny of the papyrus, or paper-rush, is somewhat ob scure. Its root according to him is of the thickness of a man's arm, and ten cubits long; from this arise a great number of triangular stalks six or seven cubits high, each thick enough to be easily spanned. Its leaves are long like those of the bulrush; its flowers staminous, ranged in clusters at the extremities of the stalks; its roots woody and knotted like those of rushes, and its taste and smell near to those of the cyprus.

[ocr errors]

Marbled paper is a sort variously stained, or painted as it were with divers colours. The operation of mar. bling is thus performed; gum is first dissolved in a trough into which they plunge each sheet of paper; this done, and all the colours ranged on the table, where also the trough is placed, they begin by dipping a brush of hog's hair into any colour, commonly the blue first, and sprinkle it on the surface of the liquor. The red is next applied in the like manner, but with another pencil. After this the yellow, and lastly the green. When all the colours are thus floating on the liquor, to give them that agreeable cambleting which we admire in mar. ble paper, they use a pointed stick, which being applied by drawing it from one end of the trough to the other with address, stirs up the liquor and fluctuating colours.

POUNCE; a little heap of charcoal-dust inclosed in some open stuff; to be passed over holes pricked in a work, in order to make the lines or designs on a paper underneath. The word is formed from the French, ponce, pumice stone, because they anciently used only pumice-stone, powdered for this purpose. Pounce is used by embroiderers to transfer their pat. terns upon their stuffs, and also by lace-makers, and occasionally by writing-masters, though not so much as formerly.

PART III.

CIVIL POLITY.

TITLES AND DISTINCTIONS.

A TITLE is an appellation of dignity, honor, or pre-eminence. The King of England had the title of King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland; but since the Union with Ireland, his title is simply King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The

King of France had the title of King of France and Navarre: the King of Spain a whole page of titles to express the several kingdoms and territories of which he is master: the Majesty of Sweden, King of the Swedes and Goths: his Danish Majesty, King of Den mark and Norway (and England!) The Pope has the title of Holiness; a Cardinal Prince of the Blood, that of Royal Highness or Most Serene Highness; other cardinals, Most Eminent Highness; an archbishop, Grace, or Most Reverend Father in God; a bishop, Right Reverend Father in God; abbots and priests, Reverend. To emperors is given, the title of Imperial Majesty; to kings, Majesty; the kings of France had Most Christian Majesty; the King of Spain, Catholic Majesty; the King of Portugal, Most Faithful Majesty; the King of England had that of Defender of the Faith; the Turk, Grand Seignior, Sultan, and Highness; the Prince of Wales, Royal Highness; the Dauphin of France was stiled Serene Highness; the Doge of Venice, Most Serene Prince; electors, Electoral Highness; nuncios and ambassadors, Excellency. The Emperor of China among his titles takes that of Tien Su, Son of Heaven. The Orientals are exceed." ingly fond of titles: the simple governor of Schiras, for instance, after a pompous enumeration of qualities, lordships, &c. adds the titles of Flower of Courtesy, Nutmeg of Consolation, and Rose of Delight.

The titles of dukes, earls, &c. are conferred on persons from their interest or influence with the king or his ministers; and sometimes they are bestowed for services done to the state; as to admirals, great statesmen, and men learned in the law. The lord chancellor is always made a peer.

EMPEROR, among the ancient Romans signified a general of an army, who for some extraordinary success had been complimented with this appellation, It came afterwards to denote an absolute monarch, or a supreme commander of an empire. The title emperor cannot add any thing to the rights of sovereignty, but it gives precedence and pre-eminence above the sove reigns; and as such it raises all those invested with it, to the top of all human greatness. The emperors in

deed pretend, that the imperial dignity is more eminent than the regal; but the foundation of such prerogative does not appear; for the greatest and most absolute monarchs, as those of Babylon, Persia, Assyria, Egypt, &c. were called by the names of kings in all languages, ancient and modern. In the East, the title and quality of emperor are more frequent than among us; thus the sovereign princes of China, Mogul, Persia, &c. are all emperors. In 1723, the Czar of Muscovy assumed the title of Emperor of Russia. The kings of England had anciently the title of emperors; as appears from a charter of King Edgar. Ego Edgarus, Anglorum basilicus, omniumque regum insularum oceani quæ Britanniam circumjacent, &c. Imperator et Dominus. And the crown of England has been long ago declared in parliament to be an imperial crown.-Since the union with Ireland, our parliament is stiled an "Imperial Parliament."

KING. A monarch who rules singly over a people. Camden derives the word from the Saxon. Among the Greeks and Romans, kings were priests as well as princes. The king of the Romans is a prince chosen by the emperor, as a coadjutor in the government of the empire. The Hungarians formerly gave the title of King, to their Queen Mary. The title of Grace was first given to our kings about the time of Henry IV. and that of Highness and Majesty to Henry VIII. In all public letters, &c. the king stiles himself nos, we, though till the time of King John, he spoke in the singular number.

The King of England takes an oath at his coronation to preserve the rights and privileges of the church, the prerogative of the crown, and the laws and customs of the realm. He has the power by his prerogative, without any act of parliament, to make war or peace, conclude leagues and treaties, &c. He convokes and dissolves parliament; and may refuse his assent to any bill passed by both houses, without giving his reasons for it. He may increase the number of members of either house at pleasure, by creating new peers, and by be. stowing privileges on other towns for sending burgesses to parliament. Debts due to him are always to be satis

fied in the first place, in case of executorship. He has custody of the persons and estates of idiots and lunatics; and to him revert all estates when no heir appears. All bullion, money, &c. found, if the owners. are not known, belong to him. So all wrecks, and lands re covered from the sea, gold and silver mines, &c. are said to be his. He cannot make new laws, or raise taxes without the consent of parliament. But though in Great Britain, which is a limited monarchy, the power of the king is greatly restrained, it is so far from diminishing his honour, that it adds glory to his crown.

Of the king's revenues, some have belonged time out of mind to the crown, and some granted by parliament, by way of purchase or exchange for such of the king's inherent hereditary revenues, as were found inconve nient to the subject. Another branch of the king's ordinary revenue consists in the profits and rents of the demesne lands of the crown. These demesne lands were originally very large and extensive, comprising divers manors, honours, and lordships; at present they are greatly contracted. The profits arising from his forests are considered as another branch of the revenue; and that which arises from the king's ordinary courts of justice makes another branch. There are also many others. The king's extraordinary revenues consist in aids, 'subsidies and supplies, granted by the commons in parliament.

STADTHOLDER, a title formerly given to the governor or lieutenant of a province in the United Netherlands; particularly that of Holland, where the word has been mostly used. Menage derives the word from stadt, state; and houlder, holding, i. e. lieutenant of the states. The stadtholder was considered as the first member of the republic, and chief of all the courts of justice. All sentences and judgments were dispatched in his name; and when an office became vacant in any of the courts, the states proposed three persons to the stadtholder, who chose one of them. He could pardon criminals, which is a sovereign prerogative. He had the choice of chief magistrates in each city: the council of the city presenting two persons, one of which he appointed. He had the power to cashier masters, and

« PreviousContinue »