The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 360

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND (109), an island province of Canada, in the S.

of Gulf of St. Lawrence, occupies a great bay formed by New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Cape Breton, and is somewhat larger than Northumberland.

The coast-line is exceedingly broken, the surface low and undulating, and very fertile. The chief industry is agriculture, oats and potatoes are the best crops; decayed sh.e.l.ls found in beds on the sh.o.r.e are an excellent manure; sheep and horses are raised with great success. The climate is healthy, milder and clearer than on the mainland, but with a tedious winter. Coal exists, but is not wrought. The fisheries are the best on the Gulf, but are not developed. Manufactures are inconsiderable.

Discovered by the Cabots, it was settled by the French in 1715, and ceded to Great Britain in 1763. Const.i.tuted a province in 1768, the name was changed from St. John to Prince Edward in 1799. Since 1875 the local government have bought out most of the great proprietors, and resold the land to occupying owners. Education is free. There are normal schools and two colleges. Half the people are Roman Catholics. A railway traverses the island, and there is daily steam communication with the mainland. The capital is Charlottetown (13); Summerside, Georgetown, and Sourio are the other towns.

PRINCE OF PEACE, a t.i.tle given by Charles IV. of Spain to his Prime Minister, DON MANUEL G.o.dOY (q. v.).

PRINCETON (3), a town of New Jersey, 50 m. SW. of New York; was the scene of a battle in the War of Independence, and the meeting-place of the Continental Congress of 1783; now noted as the seat of the College of New Jersey, founded at Newark 1746, and removed to Princeton ten years later, with now 50 teachers and 600 students; Jonathan Edwards and Dr.

James M'Cosh as presidents, James Madison and others as alumni, have given it l.u.s.tre. The Theological Seminary, the oldest and largest Presbyterian one in the States, was founded in 1812, and a School of Science in 1871. The college is rich in museums, observatories, laboratories, libraries, and funds.

PRINGLE, THOMAS, minor poet, born in Roxburghs.h.i.+re; edited the _Monthly Magazine_; emigrated to South Africa; held a small government appointment; was bullied out of it; returned home, and became Secretary to the Anti-Slavery Society (1789-1834).

PRINTED PAPER, Carlyle's satirical name for the literature of France prior to the Revolution.

PRINZENRAUB (the stealing of the princes), name given to an attempt, to satisfy a private grudge of his, on the part of Kunz von Kaufingen to carry off, on the night of the 7th July 1455, two Saxon princes from the castle of Altenburg, in which he was defeated by apprehension at the hands of a collier named Schmidt, through whom he was handed over to justice and beheaded. See CARLYLE'S ACCOUNT OF THIS IN HIS "MISCELLANIES."

PRIOR, MATTHEW, English poet and diplomatist, born near Wimborne, East Dorset; studied at Cambridge; became Fellow of Trinity College; was amba.s.sador to France; involved himself in an intrigue, was imprisoned, and on his release lived in retirement; he is remembered as a poet; wrote in 1687 a parody of Dryden's "Hind and Panther," ent.i.tled "The Story of the Country Mouse and the City Mouse," and afterwards, "Solomon on the Vanity of the World," "Alma; or, The Progress of the Mind," after Butler, as well as tales, lyrics, and epigrams; Professor Saintsbury calls him "the king of 'verse of society'" (1664-1721).

PRISCIAN, Latin grammarian of the 6th century, born in Caesarea; was author of "Grammatical Commentaries" in 18 books, a standard work during the Middle Ages, and in universal use at that time.

PRISCILLIAN, a Spaniard of n.o.ble birth, who introduced a Gnostic and Manichaean heresy into Spain, and founded a sect called after him, and was put to death by the Emperor Maximius in 385; his followers were an idly speculative sect, who practised a rigidly ascetic style of life, and after being much calumniated did not survive him over 60 years.

PRISMATIC COLOURS, the seven colours a ray of pure white light is resolved into when refracted through a prism, applied figuratively by Carlyle to the pure light refracted through the soul of a man of genius.

PRISONER OF CHILLON, the name given to FRANcOIS DE BONIVARD (q. v.), who was for six years kept prisoner in the castle of Chillon, on the Lake of Geneva, and is the subject of a well-known poem by Byron.

PRIVATEER, a private vessel licensed by Government under a letter of marque to seize and plunder the s.h.i.+ps of an enemy, otherwise an act of the kind is treated as piracy.

PRIVY COUNCIL, is theoretically a council a.s.sociated with the sovereign to advise him in matters of government. As at present const.i.tuted it includes the members of the royal family, the Cabinet, the two archbishops and the bishop of London, the princ.i.p.al English and Scotch judges, some of the chief amba.s.sadors and governors of colonies, the Commander-in-Chief, the First Lord of the Admiralty, &c. No members attend except those summoned, usually the Cabinet, the officers of the Household, and the Primate. The functions of the Privy Council may be grouped as: (1) executive, in which its duties are discharged by the Cabinet, which is technically a committee of the Privy Council; (2) administrative--the Board of Trade, the Local Government Board, and the Board of Agriculture originated in committees; the Education Department is still a committee, and the Council retains such branches as the supervision of medical, pharmaceutical, and veterinary practice, the granting of munic.i.p.al charters, &c.; (3) judicial--the Judicial Committee is a court of law, whose princ.i.p.al function is the hearing of appeals from ecclesiastical courts and from Indian and colonial courts.

PRIVY SEAL, the seal of the sovereign appended to grants that do not require to pa.s.s the great seal.

PROBUS, MARCUS AURELIUS, Roman emperor from 276 to 282, born in Pannonia; having distinguished himself in the field as a soldier, was elected by the army and the citizens to succeed Tacitus; defended the empire successfully against all encroachments, and afterwards devoted himself to home administration, but requiring the service of the soldiers in public works, which they considered degrading, was seized by a body of them compelled so to drudge, and put to death.

PROCLUS, a Neo-Platonic philosopher, born in Constantinople; appears to have held a Trinitarian view of the universe, and to have regarded the All abstractly viewed as contained in the Divine ever emerging from it and returning into it, a doctrine Implied in John i. 1, but far short of the corresponding trinity in the ripe philosophy of Hegel (412-485).

PROCONSUL, name given to the governor of a Roman province who was absolute ruler of it, disposed of the army, dispensed justice, controlled administration, and was represented by legates.

PROCOP, the name of two Hussite leaders of the Taborites, who after leading successful forays on all hands from their head-quarters in Bohemia, fell in battle with their rivals the Calixtines at Lippau in 1434.

PROCOPIUS, a Greek historian, born at Caesarea, the secretary of Belisarius, and author of a History of the Wars of Justinian, which is still the chief authority for the events of his reign; _d_. 565.

PROCRUSTES, a brigand of ancient Attica, who when any one fell into his hands placed him on a bed, stretching him out if he was too short for it and amputating him if he was too long till he died; he was one day overpowered by Theseus, who tortured him to death as he had done his own victims; his practice has given name to any attempt to enforce conformity by violent measures.

PROCTER, BRYAN WALTER, English lyrist, known by his pseudonym as Barry Cornwall, born in London; was bred to the bar, and was for 30 years a Commissioner of Lunacy, and is chiefly memorable as the friend of all the eminent literary men of two generations, such as Wordsworth, Lamb, and Scott on the one hand and Carlyle, Thackeray, and Tennyson on the other; he was no great poet (1787-1874).

PROCTOR, RICHARD ANTONY, astronomer and lecturer on Astronomy; determined the rotation of the planet Mars, and propounded the theory of the solar corona (1837-1888).

PROCURATOR-FISCAL, is a Scottish law officer appointed by the sheriff, and irremovable on efficient and good behaviour, whose duties are to initiate the prosecution of crimes and inquire into deaths under suspicious circ.u.mstances.

PROGNE, the sister of Philomela and wife of Tereus, changed into a swallow by the G.o.ds. See TEREUS.

PROGRESS OF THE SPECIES MAGAZINES, Carlyle's name for the literature of the day which does nothing to help the progress in question, but keeps idly boasting of the fact, taking all the credit to itself, like aesop's fly on the axle of the careering chariot soliloquising, "What a dust I raise!"

PROHIBITIONIST, one who would prohibit the sale of all intoxicating liquors.

PROLETARIAT, the name given to the lowest and poorest cla.s.s in the State, and which still retains the original Roman meaning, as denoting, from _proles_, offspring, one who enriches the State not by his prosperity, but by his progeny.

PROMETHEUS (i. e. Forethought), a t.i.tan, the son of lapetus and Klymene, and the brother of EPIMETHEUS (q. v.), who, when the G.o.ds, just installed on Olympus, met with men at Mekone to arrange with them as to their dues in sacrifice, came boldly forth as the representative and protector of the human race and slew a bullock in sacrifice, putting the flesh of it in one pile and the entrails with the bones in another, veiled temptingly with fat, and invited Zeus to make his choice, whereupon, knowing well what he was about, Zeus chose the latter, but in revenge took away with him the fire which had been bestowed by the G.o.ds upon mortals. It was a strife of wit _versus_ wit, and Prometheus, as the defender of the rights of man, was not to be outwitted even by the G.o.ds, so he reached up a hollow fennel stalk to the sun and brought the fire back again, whereupon the strife was transformed into one of force _versus_ force, and Zeus caught the audacious t.i.tan and chained him to a rock on Mount Caucasus, where an eagle gnawed all day at his liver which grew again by night, though, in inflicting this punishment, Zeus was soon visited with a relenting heart, for it was by express commission from him that Hercules, as a son of his, scaled the rock and slew the eagle. The myth is one of the deepest significance, reflecting an old belief, and one which has on it the seal of Christ, as sanctioned of Heaven, that the world was made for man and not man for the world, only there is included within it an expression of the jealousy with which Heaven watches the use mankind make of the gifts that, out of her own special store, she bestows upon them. Prometheus is properly the incarnation of the divine fire latent from the beginning in the soul of man.

PROPAGANDA, a congregation, as it is called, at Rome, originated by Gregory XIII., and organised in 1622 by Gregory XV., the object of which is to propagate the faith of the Church among heathen nations and in countries where there is no established hierarchy, connected with which there is a college at Rome called the Congregatio de Propaganda Fide, where pupils are instructed for different fields of missionary enterprise.

PROPERTIUS, s.e.xTUS, a Latin elegaic poet, born in Umbria; went to Rome and became a protege of Maecenas; devoted himself to the cultivation of the poetic art; came under the spell of a gifted lady, to whom, under the name of Cynthia, he dedicated the first products of his muse, and whom he has immortalised in his poems; in his elegies he follows Greek models; his poetry, and the poetic quality it displays, have been much admired by Goethe (51-14 B.C.).

PROPHECY, properly not a forecasting of particular events and the succession of them, but so far as it refers to the future at all is an insight into the course of things in the time to come from insight into the course of them in days gone by or now, and that is believed to be the character of Hebrew prophecy, founded on faith in the immutability of the divine order of things.

PROPHETS. See PRIESTS, HEBREW PROPHECY.