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POPULAR DICTIONARY

OF

ARTS, SCIENCES, LITERATURE, HISTORY, POLITICS, AND

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Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1832, by

CAREY AND LEA, In the Clerk's office of the District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

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University of Wisconsin - Madison

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E55 1835

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V.13

NOTICE.

Ar the commencement of this Encyclopædia, it was announced that it would be completed in twelve volumes; but, owing to the great difficulty of accommodating the length and number of so multifarious a collection of articles to the proposed limits, it was found, on approaching the end of the work, that it would be impossible strictly to adhere to these limits, without so curtailing what remained, as to make this disproportionate to the preceding parts. Under these circumstances, it became indispensable to publish a thirteenth volume; and we have taken the opportunity thus afforded to furnish a number of supplementary articles. In addition to these, the reader will find, in the Appendix, at the end of this volume, many references to articles already given. In the preparation of a work including so great an extent of subjects, it could not always be anticipated what variety of topics would be treated under particular heads ; and it was thought, on examination, that the reader would be much assisted, in

consulting the work, by our furnishing a considerable number of

а

additional references.

In preparing this Encyclopædia, the conductors have endeavored to obtain the best materials and the best assistance within their power. Their labors have been lightened by the kind contributions which they have received from various quarters. To the Hon. Judge Story, and to John Pickering, Esq., of Boston, they are under peculiar obligations. The longest and most elaborate articles in the law department are from

of the former gentleman ; and it is needless to say how much

the

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these add to the value of the work. From Mr. Pickering they have received, in a variety of ways, the most important aid. They are also indebted for valuable contributions, or favors of other kinds, to numerous other gentlemen, among whom they may be permitted to mention Mr. Duponceau, of Philadelphia ; Mr. Woodbridge, editor of the Annals of Education ; James E. Heath, Esq., of Richmond, Virginia ; Gov. Marcy, B. F. Butler, Esq., and Dr. Beck, of Albany ; Rev. Professor Palfrey, of Cambridge, Massachusetts ; Mr. De Schweinitz, of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania ; Samuel A. Eliot, Esq., of Boston ; Gov. Cass, and Mr. Brush, of Michigan; Gen. Dearborn, of Roxbury, Massachusetts ; Mr. James K. Paulding, of New York; Hon. Nathan Appleton, and Professor Ticknor, of Boston ; Mr. Roberts Vaux, and Mr. Thomas Evans, of Philadelphia ; Rev. Frederic A. Farley, of Providence, Rhode Island; Dr. Walter Channing, of Boston; Dr. Dewees, of Philadelphia; and the late Hon. Charles Ewing, chief justice of New Jersey. The friendly aid received from these and other gentlemen is most gratefully acknowledged.

Boston, Feb. 1, 1833.

ENCYCLOPÆDIA AMERICANA.

VISIGOTHS. The powerful confedera- their independence on the Peninsula, was cy of nations under the name of Goths one of the causes of its internal weak(9. V.), was, at an early period, geographi- ness. Another cause was the difference cally divided into Ostrogoths, who had in the religious doctrines of the conquertheir seats on the Pontus, and Visigoths, ors and the conquered, the former prowho inhabited Dacia. About the middle fessing the Arian doctrines (see Arians), of the fourth century, the two nations which were detestable to the Catholic separated into distinct political bodies. descendants of the Roman settlers. This The Ostrogoths, weakened by this sepa- eircumstance gave rise to a strict separaration, having submitted to the Huns, the tion between the Goths and Romans, and Visigoths fled to the mountains, and soon caused the Catholic clergy to become after obtained from the Romans permission more firmly attached to each other and to to settle in the desolated Thrace. The Rome. Notwithstanding this, and notrelation of the nations to each other was withstanding the convulsions produced by this means essentially changed. Under by frequent changes of government, and the name of allies, the Goths formed a by factions, the kingdom of the Visigoths, chief part of the Roman army; but they in the first century of its existence, conbecame hostile whenever the promises tinued to extend itself even beyond the Pyrmade them were violated; and scarcely enees, and, by political regulations, obtainwas Theodosius dead, and the empire ed internal consistency. Euric, the fifth divided, when the Visigoths, under Alaric, king, who, from 466 to 483, during the broke forth upon Italy, and Rome fell, in total decline of the Roman empire, made 410, into the power of the Visigoths. grcat conquests in Spain and Gaul, gave Alaric, had he not been overtaken by the Visigoths, who had previously been death, when on the point of conquering governed by customary laws, written statAfrica, would have founded a Germanic utes, which were extended by his sucempire in Italy. His brother-in-law cessors, and reduced to a system (see LinAthaulf (Ataulphus), who was placed at denbrog's Coder Legum Antiquarum, and the head of the nation, abandoned Alaric's Canciani's Barbarorum Leges Antique), projects, and turned towards Gaul, to which is the most complete of all the make new conquests on both sides of the German codes, and exhibits jurispruPyrenees. He reached Barcelona, where dence in a state of great advancement. he was murdered, in 415; but his suc- His successor, Alaric, gave also to his cessors, in the midst of perpetual con- Roman subjects in Gaul a system of laws, flicts with the previous occupants and which he caused to be compiled, by perwith the Romans, founded in the south sons well versed in jurisprudence, from of France and in Spain the kingdom of the Theodosian code, from the enactthe Visigoths. The unnatural extension ments of the later emperors, and other of this kingdom to the north of the Pyr- sources, in order that the provinces might enees, where even the capital, and the retain their ancient laws, but that the residence of the king, Toulouse, was sit- obligatory force of the law might prouated, while the Suevi still maintained' ceed from his own authority. This code

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