Porte in 1829. In general, however, he was in favour of a policy of neutrality in continental questions. He recognised Louis Philippe immediately; he refused to employ the English power to dispossess Don Miguel of the crown of Portugal; and he strongly objected to the Quadruple Alliance which Lord Palmerston negotiated. His first tenure of office ended in 1830. He was Colonial Secretary under Sir R. Peel in 1834-35, and Foreign Secretary to the same statesman in 1841. He assisted in carrying the repeal of the Corn Laws and the commercial reforms of Peel, and on the death of that statesman he became the When in acknowledged head of his party. succession both Whigs and Tories had failed to carry on the government, and there was no course left but to apply to the Peelites, Lord Aberdeen was invited to form a government, 1852. He formed a coalition ministry, embracing "men of all parties, from the extreme Tory to the extreme Radical." It was his misfortune to be met by the complications in foreign politics which led to the Crimean War. It was thought at the time, and the opinion has been frequently expressed since, that a greater display of vigour on the part of the ministry might have averted the war. The mismanagement of the campaign completed the unpopularity of the ministry. On January 25th, 1855, Mr. Roebuck moved for a select committee to inquire into the state of the army and the conduct of the war. On the motion being carried Lord Aberdeen resigned, and during the remainder of his life took no further share in public affairs. In his home policy Lord Aberdeen represented the advanced section of the Conservatives, regarding Catholic Emancipation and the repeal of the Corn Laws as advantageous measures rather than as necessary evils. foreign politics he was the advocate of the principles of friendship with foreign powers, and non-intervention, which he perhaps attempted to apply too indiscriminately. Lord Aberdeen, "the travelled thane, Athenian Aberdeen," of Byron's English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, was an accomplished scholar, specially learned in Hellenic antiquities.

In

branch of the Neville family on the marriage of Sir Edward Neville (second son of Ralph Neville, Earl of Westmoreland, by Joan, daughter of John of Gaunt) with Elizabeth, heiress of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Worcester, Baron Bergavenny. George, fifteenth Baron, was created Earl in 1784, and William, fifth Earl, was advanced to the dignity of Marquis in 1876. [NEVILLE.]

Abergavenny, GEORGE NEVILLE, 3rd BARON (d. 1536), was one of the nobles arrested in 1502 on suspicion of being engaged in a conspiracy with Edmund de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk. He was, however, soon restored to liberty, and eventually came into great favour with Henry VII. and Henry VIII. During the Cornish revolt of 1497, it was partly owing to Lord Abergavenny's local influence that the insurgents met with no encouragement from the people of Kent.

Abergavenny, HENRY NEVILLE, 4th BARON (d. 1587), who was supposed to favour the insurgents in 1554, finally declared for Mary, and defeated the rebels at Wrotham Heath (q.v.). He was one of the commissioners at the trial of Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1586.

Abhorrers (1679), was the name given to the adherents of the court party, who, on petitions being presented to the king, praying him to summon Parliament for January, 1680, signed counter-petitions, expressing abhorrence for those who were attempting to encroach on the royal prerogative. [See PETITIONERS.] It is said that the names Whig and Tory, as party designations, were first used in the disputes between the Petitioners and Abhorrers.

Burnet, History of His Own Time, ii. 238; Rapin, Hist. of Eng. ii. 712; Macaulay, Hist. of Eng. i. 258.

Abingdon Abbey Chronicle, THF, is a well-preserved record which narrates the history of the great Benedictine monastery of Abingdon. It extends from the foundation of the abbey in 675 to the accession of Richard I. in 1189. It is specially useful for the light it throws on social history, on the relations of the clergy to the laity, on the state of society before the Norman Conquest, and on the details of the changes produced by that event.

The Chronicon Monasterii de Abingdon has been printed in the Rolls Series, 1858, with valuable introductions by Mr. Stevenson.

Abingdon, PEERAGE OF. In 1572 Sir Henry Norris, who was ambassador to France of the Sir the preceding year, and son Henry Norris beheaded in 1536 for alleged criminality with Anne Boleyn, was created Baron Norris of Ryecote. He was the father of the distinguished military commander, Sir John Norris. His grandson, Francis, was created Earl of Berkshire in 1620, but died the same year, and the Berkshire peerage

expired. The Norris peerage descended by the female line to James Bertie, who was created Earl of Abingdon in 1682. This nobleman commanded the Oxfordshire Militia against the Duke of Monmouth on the latter's invasion of England. He, however, opposed James II.'s action in religious matters, and was the first English peer to join William.

Abinger, JAMES SCARLETT, LORD (b. 1769, d. 1844), the second son of Robert Scarlett of Jamaica, after gaining great reputation as an advocate, entered Parliament in 1818 as member for Peterborough. He resisted the plans of Castlereagh and Vansittart for increased taxation, and supported Romilly and Mackintosh in their attempts to ameliorate the Penal Code. He also unsuccessfully endeavoured to bring in a bill for amending the Poor Laws. In 1827, when Mr. Canning sought the assistance of the Whigs, Mr. Scarlett became Attorney-General. He now gradually drifted over to Conservatism. He retained his office under Lord Goderich, and, on the dismissal of Sir Charles Wetherell by the Duke of Wellington, took office again under the latter. In 1830 he resigned with his party. In 1834 he was made Chief Baron by Sir R. Peel, and raised to the peerage.

Foss, The Judges of England. Abjuration Oath, THE (1701), was a pledge of renunciation of the exiled Stuart dynasty, exacted from time to time after the Revolution of 1688. It first appears in 1690, embodied in a proposed "Act for the further security of his Majesty's person, and for extinguishing the hopes of the pretended Prince of Wales, and all other pretenders and their abettors." Every person who held any office, civil, military, or spiritual, was to solemnly abjure the exiled king; the oath of abjuration might be tendered by any justice of the peace to any subject of their Majesties; and, if it were refused, the recusant might be sent to prison, to lie there as long as he continued obstinate. The influence of William caused this bill to be rejected, as well as a less severe measure, imposing a declaration on all office-holders that they would stand by William and Mary against James and James's adherents. In the last year of the reign, after Louis XIV. had acknowledged the Pretender, it was again introduced in the "Act for the further security of his Majesty's person, and the succession of the crown in the Protestant line." After a long debate in the Commons, the abjuration oath was made compulsory; but the provision was only carried by a majority of one. William gave his assent to the measure on his death-bed. On the accession of Anne a new Act was passed, applying the oath to the new reign. The oath was taken freely by the Tories, and even by noted Jacobites, the Pretender having, it was said, sent instructions to that effect to his adherents. It was renewed on the occasion of the union

with Scotland, when the Scottish clergy petitioned against it, but without result. The bill was subsequently re-introduced on the accession of George I., and on the death of the old Pretender (1766). The oath was not finally abolished until 1858. The definition of persons required to take the Abjuration Oath," says Mr. Burton, "is an attempt, and a successful attempt, to exhaust the gentry and the educated community." It includes the holders of all public offices, members of the universities, and all teachers, clergymen, and legal practitioners; and as a general remedy of omissions, the oath might be tendered "to any person or persons whatsoever."

Burnet, Hist. of his Own Time; Burton, Reign of Queen Anne; Stanhope, Reign of Queen Anne; Macaulay, Hist. f Eng. [L. C. S.]

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Abjuration Oath for Scotland, THE (1662), was imposed on all persons holding public office, and consisted, among other abjurations, of a declaration that the Covenant and League are of themselves unlawful oaths, and were taken by and imposed upon the subjects of this kingdom against the fundamental laws and liberties of the same." The oath was modified in 1716, when it became a simple declaration of allegiance to the Hanover settlement and a renunciation of the Stuarts. [COVENANT.]

Abjuration of the Realm, was the oath to quit the country, which might be enforced on any person guilty of felony who had taken advantage of the privilege of sanctuary. Such a person was bound to leave the kingdom within thirty days, and if he returned he might be put to death. The practice was abolished, in company with the privilege of sanctuary, by James I., cap. 28. [SANCTUARY.] By a statute passed in the 35th year of Elizabeth, Protestant Dissenters who had failed to attend divine service, and Roman Catholics, might be compelled to abjure the realm, and if they refused, or returned without license, they were adjudged felons, and might be hanged. Dissenters were relieved of the necessity of abjuration by the Act of Toleration; but so far as regards Roman Catholics, it was not finally removed from the Statute Book till

to contribute two-thirds of their means to the defence of Ireland. In 1413 all Irishmen were, with the same object, ordered to leave England, and were excluded from the Inns of Court. In Henry VI.'s reign, legislation against absenteeism was also frequent. James II. in 1689 summoned all absentees to join him. Under George I., absenteeism having much increased, in 1729 an absentee-tax of four shillings in the pound was imposed on all moneys paid out of Ireland; but the king being allowed to grant exemptions, it did not do much good. In 1767, this law was renewed, and the exemptions done away with, or, at least, only maintained for members of the royal family and distinguished officers. But an attempt to increase the tax in 1773 had to be given up, owing to the opposition it aroused in England. In 1783, a like attempt failed in Ireland. In 1796, an absentee-tax was defeated in the Irish Parliament by English influence, and after that no such measure was mooted, though the evil continued to increase. In 1779, Arthur Young estimated the amount of rent annually sent out of the country, at £732,000.

Almost every Irish historian, statesman, and economist, has had something to say on the subject of absenteeism. The reader will find it referred to, at some length, in Froude, The English in Ireland, passim; Lecky, Hist, of Eng., vol. ii.; the works of Swift and Arthur Young; and The Report of the Select Committee on the State of Ireland, 1828.

Abyssinian Expedition, THE (1867). Theodore, King of Abyssinia, fancying that he was slighted by the British Government, who had refused to assist him against the Egyptians, had seized and imprisoned in his fortress of Magdala all the British subjects within his reach. Among others was Mr. Cameron, British Consul at Massowah. An embassy was sent to the king, headed by Mr. Rassam, British Assistant-Resident at Aden, to expostulate. The mission was at first well received and cajoled by the crafty king, but eventually seized and imprisoned with the rest. Lord Stanley's remonstrance being disregarded, war was declared. It was waged from India, and the expedition was despatched from Bombay in the winter of 1867 under Sir Robert Napier. The campaign was conducted under difficulties, which arose from the varying nature of the climate and the natural impediments of the ground. The difficult task of transporting the military stores and artillery in a country where roads were unknown, and which bristled with lofty and rugged mountains, was performed with complete success. baggage-elephants were especially useful, and greatly facilitated the progress of the expedition. Little resistance was experienced from the natives. There were one or two straggling skirmishes, and a wild battle was fought, in which the reckless bravery of the Abyssinians proved ineffectual against the

The

serried masses of the English bayonets, and the deadly fire of the English artillery. Theodore, at last, sent back all the prisoners, and offered to treat. Napier, however, refused to listen to any terms short of a total surrender, and to this the king refused to agree. He shut himself up in his citadel of Magdala, which was perched upon a lofty rock, and defended not only by the natural difficulty of the ascent, but also by walls of great thickness, and gateways strongly fortified. The English, with great bravery, surmounted the difficulties of the ascent, forced their way through the gate at the top, and fought from post to post till the position was won. Theodore was found dead inside the gate, slain by his own hand. The town and fortress were destroyed, and within a week the troops were on the sea returning home. Sir Robert Napier for his services was created Lord Napier of Magdala, with a pension, and received the thanks of both Houses of Parliament.

Acadia. [NOVA SCOTIA.]

Accord, THE, is the name given by some Scotch writers to the Treaty of Leith (q.v.).

Acre, or ST. JEAN D'ACRE, a town on the coast of Syria, anciently called Ptolemais, is connected with three episodes in English history (1) THE SIEGE OF ACRE. In June, 1191, Richard I. arrived before the town, which had already been besieged by the Crusaders for more than two years, with the loss, it is said, of over 120,000 men. A series of assaults was immediately made on the town, but these were seriously impeded by the attacks of Saladin on the Christian lines. At length, however, the garrison offered to treat; they were allowed to retain their lives, and (July 12) the Crusaders marched into the town. (2) THE DEFENCE OF ACRE. On March 16, 1799, Bonaparte's Egyptian army appeared before Acre. The town was held by a Turkish garrison, under Yussuf Pasha, aided by Sir Sidney Smith, who commanded the English squadron in the roads, and a French engineer, Philippoteaux, who had once been a school-fellow of Bonaparte. Animated by these leaders, the Turks held out with great bravery for sixty days of open trenches; and on May 20 the French were compelled to retreat. "That miserable fort," as Napoleon called it, was thus the means of causing his Syrian expedition to be abandoned, and his great projects of Oriental conquest to be altogether hopeless. Alluding to Sir Sidney Smith, he is said to have frequently remarked: "That man made me miss my destiny." (3) THE BOMBARDMENT OF ACRE, Nov. 3, 1840. After the refusal of Mehemet Ali to agree to the terms of the Quadrilateral Alliance, 1840, a combined Austrian, Turkish, and British squadron (the latter, consisting of 6 line-of-battle ships, and 10 smaller vessels, commanded by Admiral

Sir R. Stopford) sailed to the coast of Syria, and bombarded Acre, which fell in total ruins after enduring a tremendous tire for three hours.

Act of Parliament. [STATUTE.]

Acton Burnel, PARLIAMENT OF (1283), was the name given to one of the sessions of Edward I.'s great council, reinforced probably by the merchants who had previously met in the Parliament at Shrewsbury. The presence of so many representatives of the commercial classes was taken advantage of by the king to issue the ordinance known as the Statute of Merchants.

Adamnan, Sr. (b. 624, d. 704), Abbot of Iona, was converted, while on a mission to Aldfrid of Northumbria in 688, to the custom of the Roman Church with regard to the observance of Easter-a conversion which embroiled him in disputes with the monks of Jona. In 692 he attended the Synod of Tara, and successfully urged, on part of the Irish Church, the necessity of conformity to the rest of the Church. Between the year 688 and his death, Adamnan wrote the Life of St. Columba, a work which, although containing some elements of legend, still comprises a good deal of valuable historical information. He also wrote a work, De Situ Terræ Sanctæ.

The

Forbes, Kalendar of the Scottish Saints. Life of St. Columba was edited by Dr. Reeves in 1857 for the Irish Archæological Society. Adams, JOHN (b. 1735, d. 1826), second President of the United States, was a lawyer in Boston, and took an active part in the measures of the colonists to defend their rights against the English Government. In the Philadelphia Congress of 1774 he was delegate for Massachusetts, and he was one of the members of the "Continental Congress of 1775. In this assembly he advocated immediate and vigorous hostile measures against the mother country, being convinced that any further attempts at reconciliation were hopeless. Adams was a skilful practical lawyer, as well as an earnest student of the philosophy of politics and jurisprudence; and much of the shape which the national and state constitutions assumed, as well as the curious basis of speculative legal theory on which the acts of the earlier congresses were grounded, was largely due to his influence. He was a declared opponent of the " pure democracy," advocated by a large section of the American leaders, and favoured the system of government by double chambers and "checks and balances," which was often stigmatised as aristocratic. In 1777 he was sent as diplomatic agent of the new government to Paris, and for the greater part of the next ten years was engaged in political and financial missions to the courts of France, Holland, and England. On his return to America in 1788 he was chosen Vice-President of the Union, and was immediately involved

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in the bitter party contests between the federalists, who followed Hamilton, and the republicans, who were now led by Jefferson. In 1797 Adams was chosen President by a slight and doubtful federalist majority. His term of office was not altogether a successful one. The southern federalists were only lukewarm supporters, and the republicans bitterly assailed him in public and priLike Washington, Adams held to the principle of neutrality in the contest between France and the other European states; but this made him very unpopular with the powerful body of republicans within the States. In the presidential election of 1801, Adams was defeated by Jefferson, and retired from public life amidst a storm of very undeserved obloquy. Adams was a voluminous writer of political and quasi-political treatises, and his works are very valuable for a correct understanding of the views and principles which actuated one large section of the founders of the United States.

F. Adams, Life and Works of John Adams, 10 vols., Boston, 1850; J. Q. and C. F. Adams, Life of J. Adams, 2 vols., 1871; Jared Sparks, Diplomatic Correspondence of the Amer. Revolu tion; Guizot, Washington. [S. J. L.]

ance.

Adams, SAMUEL (b. 1722, d. 1803), a distant relation of John Adams, was a leading member of the Boston "Caucus" Club, and took a considerable part in founding similar associations elsewhere. He was one of the first to oppose the measures by which the English Parliament attempted to raise revenue from the trade of the American colonists, and he did, perhaps, more than any other man to rouse the people of Massachusetts to open resistIn American politics he was by no means a devoted follower of Washington, and was in many respects an opponent of the federalist constitution. In 1797 ho retired from the governorship of Massachusetts, when the federal party were predominant. It is in a (probably spurious) speech of Samuel Adams, printed in London, and purporting to have been delivered at Philadelphia, August 1, 1776, that the famous phrase, a nation of shopkeepers," is applied to England. The speech was translated into French, and Bonaparte probably borrowed his use of the appellation from it.

W. V. Wells, Life of Samuel Adams, Boston, 1865.

Adamson, PATRICK (b. 1543, d. 1591), Archbishop of St. Andrews, was educated in France, and returned to Scotland in 1573, when he entered the ministry. In 1575 he was one of the commissioners employed to settle the constitution of the Church of Scotland, and soon atter was appointed by the Regent Morton Archbishop of St. Andrews. His life thenceforward was a long course of opposition to the Presbyterian party, who lost no opportunity of taking proceedings against him, and finally succeeded in getting him excom

municated, and deprived of the revenues of his see, so that; it is said, his last years were passed in actual want. He was the author of a poetical version of the Book of Job, and other works in Latin verse.

Calderwood, True Hist. of the Church of Scotland; Cunningham, Church Hist. of Scotland. Addington, HENRY, Viscount Sidmouth (b. 1755, d. 1844), the son of Anthony Addington, Lord Chatham's family physician, was called to the Bar about the same time as Pitt, whose intimate friend he was. By Pitt he was persuaded to leave the Bar, and to turn his attention to political life. He was accordingly returned to Parliament as member for Devizes, and soon became conspicuous as a devoted follower of Pitt. In 1789 he was elected Speaker, and presided over the House until, on Pitt's resignation in 1801, he was invited by the king to form an administration. It was very feeble, and would scarcely have lived a month if Pitt had not for a time given it his protection and advice. Addington's ministry was chiefly signalised by the conclusion of the treaty of Amiens; but when Pitt withdrew his support, the utter weakness of the Cabinet became very clear, and Addington was forced to make way for his former leader. There was now a complete breach between the two, and Addington, who had been created Viscount Sidmouth, attacked Lord Melville, and through him the Prime Minister, with great vehemence. After Pitt's death, Addington became President of the Council in the Grenville and Fox administration. In the ministry of Perceval and the Duke of Portland he had no place; but, when Lord Liverpool came into office in 1812, he was appointed Home Secretary. In this position his repressive policy, and the hostility he showed to popular movements, made him remarkably unpopular with the nation at large; but he maintained his post for several years, until he resigned it to Sir Robert Peel, 1822, after which he took but little share in politics. His administration has been described by Macaulay as one which, in an age preeminently fruitful of parliamentary talents, contained hardly a single man who, in parliamentary talents, could be considered as even of the second rate. "He was," the same writer says, "universally admitted to have been the best speaker that had sate in the Chair since the retirement of Onslow. But nature had not bestowed on him very vigorous faculties," and his long occupation of the Chair had unfitted him for the task of heading an administration.

Pellew, Life and Correspondence of Lord Sid. mouth, 1847; Stanhope, Life of Pitt; Russell, Life of Fox; Lord Holland, Memoirs. [W. R. S.]

Addison, JOSEPH (b. 1672, d. 1719), was the son of the Reverend Launcelot Addison,

afterwards Dean of Lichfield. Joseph Addison was educated at the Charterhouse and Magdalen College, Oxford, where his Latin compositions gained him considerable reputation. He was elected to a fellowship in 1699. Soon after leaving Oxford, he became acquainted with Charles Montague, Earl of Halifax, and subsequently with Lord Somers, through whose influence he received, in 1695, a pension of £300 a year. In 1699 he left England, and travelled over France and Italy, until the death of William III. In 1704 his Campaign, a poem on the battle of Blenheim, written at the request of Godolphin, was highly successful, and at once brought its author into note. Henceforth his rise was rapid. He became Commissioner of Appeals, Secretary to the Legation at Hanover, and in 1708 Under-Secretary of State. In 1708 he entered Parliament as member for Lostwithiel. In the autumn of the same year, Lord Wharton, the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, appointed him his Chief Secretary and Keeper of the Records. From Ireland Addison sent his contributions to the Tatler, the first of the periodical publications, which his friend Steele projected. With Steele he was one of the founders of the new literary school of the Essayists, who introduced into English Prose a remarkable simplicity and purity of style, and in whose light and graceful publications modern periodical literature had its source. On the fall of the Whigs in 1710, Addison was dismissed from office. During the General Election he contributed some violent party papers to a political journal, entitled the Whig Examiner. In March, 1711, the Spectator appeared, under the conduct of Steele, and during the years of its existence (March, 1711-Dec., 1714), Addison was the principal contributor. In 1713 Addison's tragedy, Cato, was put on the stage. Political feeling was high at the time, and the opposite principles appealed to in the play caused it to be highly successful, both with Whigs and Tories. On the death of Anne, Addison was made Secretary to the Lords of the Regency. On the accession of George I., he again became Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant. 1715 he published the Freeholder, the best of his political writings. The next year he married the Dowager Countess of Warwick, and in 1717 became Secretary of State. But his health was failing, and his marriage was unhappy. He finally quitted office in 1718, with a pension of £1,500 a year. In 1719 his defence of the Peerage Bill involved him in a quarrel with Steele, whom he attacked in a party journal called the Old Whig. This was the last of Addison's literary efforts. He died June 17, 1719, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Addison's importance in the political history of England is not great, though he held high office, and his personal career was remarkably successful, even for an age when literary merit, aided by a certain amount of

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