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FRAYSSINOUS-FREYCINET.

at Prague and at Goritz assisted in the education of the young duke of Bordeaux. He returned, however, to France in 1838, living there in retirement till his death, which occurred in 1841. Besides some funeral orations and other discourses, he is the author of a pamphlet on "the true principles of the Gallican church" (1818), and a Defence of Christianity" (3 vols. 8vo. 1825).

FREDERICK WILLIAM III.* died on the 7th June 1840, and was succeeded, on the throne of Prussia, by his son Frederick William IV.

FREDERICK VI.* king of Denmark, died December 3d 1839, and was succeeded by his cousin Christian VIII.

sides his memoirs inserted in the transactions of the Academy, Fresnel published a number of papers in the "Annales de physique et chimie," and in the "Bulletin de la société philomatique."

FREYBERG, or rather Freiberg, had, in 1840, 11,446 inhabitants. The decline of its population since the middle of the 17th century is chiefly to be attributed to the diminishing productiveness of its mines; and this has been owing to the exhaustion of the richest veins, or to the shafts having been driven so deep that it is next to impossible to drain off the water. The number of miners employed, in the numerous silver, copper, lead, and cobalt mines in the vicinity, has been lately stated to be 4500.

FRESNEL (Augustin Jean) was born at Broglie, in the department of the Eure, in FREYBURG, or Freiburg. Population, France, in 1788. He was a pupil of the in 1840, 12,240. The university here is polytechnic school, and first made himself a Roman Catholic one, and was founded known as a man of science in 1815, when in the year 1454. It is in a flourishing he presented to the Academy of Sciences condition, having about 600 students. It a memoir on the diffraction of light. Until has a library with upwards of 80,000 volthen he had followed the profession of a umes, a cabinet of natural history, mu civil engineer. Thenceforth he devoted seum, a fine collection of philosophical inhimself entirely to mathematical and phy-struments, a chemical laboratory, an anasical investigations, and especially in re- tomical theatre, a school for clinical inference to the subject of light. Before struction, and a botanic garden. long, he published a series of important papers, in which the phenomena of its diffraction, inflexion, polarization, refraction, &c., were explained on the undulatory hypothesis, and shown to be connected with each other; and in which, also, he exhibited extraordinary skill in the management of the higher geometry. He afterwards applied himself to determine with accuracy the dispersive powers of different transparent substances, as compared with their refracting powers. In 1821, he was appointed one of the examiners of the polytechnic school. In 1823, he was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences of Paris, and two years afterwards of the Royal Society of London. This society awarded to him in 1827, only a few weeks before his death, the prize, founded by count Rumford, for the most important discovery on light and heat. To the claims of Fresnel to scientific distinction, already mentioned, should be added his improvements in the mode of exhibiting the light in light-houses. He succeeded in producing, in co-operation with Arago, a much more brilliant light, by means of lenses of an extraordinary size, than had hitherto been produced with the most powerful reflectors. An account of these improvements is given in a memoir presented by him to the Academy of Sciences, and which was published in 1822.-Be

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FREYCINET (Claude Louis de Saulces de) was born at Montélimart, in France, August 7th 1779. Having entered into the naval service of his country, he had attained to the rank of a lieutenant when he was appointed to accompany Captain Baudin in his voyage of discovery. In 1804-5, M. de Freycinet commanded a corvette; in 1811, a frigate; and in 1817, he set sail, in the corvette Uranie, on his celebrated voyage round the world, -a voyage undertaken chiefly for the purpose of determining with exactness the form of the globe, and the intensity of the magnetic forces, in the southern hemisphere, but which was productive of important hydrographical results and meteorological observations, as well as of extensive collections in natural history. The Uranie, leaving Toulon, September 17th, proceeded by way of the Canary Islands and Rio Janeiro to the Cape of Good Hope, thence to the isles of France and Bourbon, the Asiatic Islands, the Sandwich and other islands of the Pacific ocean, New Holland, New Zealand, and then directed its course to Europe eastwards round Cape Horn. It made shipwreck on a submarine rock off the coast of the Falkland Islands, on the 14th of February 1820. The crew, as well as every thing of value which the vessel contained, were however saved; and Captain Freycinet was so fortunate

FREYCINET-FULMINIC ACID.

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Having, at length, passed his theological examination, but been unexpectedly disappointed in obtaining a settlement as a

as to be able to purchase an American vessel that happened to touch at the Falkland Islands, in which he completed his voyage to France, arriving, on the follow-clergyman, which had been promised him, ing 18th of November, in the port of Havre. In this notice of the voyage of the Uranie, we must not omit to mention the remarkable incident, that as soon as the vessel, on leaving France, had fairly got out to sea, the commander discovered his own wife secreted on board, and disguised in the dress of a common sailor. She, of course, accomplished her object of going with her husband on his expedition, which could scarcely have been accomplished in any other, mode, the presence of a female on board a ship-of-war not being in any case permitted. In 1826, Freycinet became a member of the Academy of Sciences, and in 1829, was appointed governor of Martinique. But complaints being made to the government of his conduct towards the coloured inhabitants of this island, he was recalled home shortly after the revolution of July. Jointly with H. Clément, he contrived a new process for rendering sea-water fit for drinking; and he likewise invented a new method of engraving charts on copper, which was afterwards applied practically with great success by Brué.-An account of his celebrated expedition of discovery was published at the expense of the French government, in a splendid form, under the title of "Voyage autour du monde, entrepris par ordre du roi, sur les corvettes de S. M. l'Uranie, &c., pendant les années 1817 à 1820" (8 vol. 4to., with an atlas). FREYTAG (George William Frederick) was born, September 19th 1788, at Lunenburg, in Hanover, of humble parents, who early destined him for the study of theology. For this purpose, after he had received his preparatory education in his native town, they provided him,—at the cost of many deprivations on their part,with the means of pursuing his studies at Göttingen. There, however, he applied himself assiduously, as well to philosophy, and the Hebrew language, with its kindred dialects, as to theology. An university prize, conferred upon him in 1810, led to his being appointed a tutor, in the institution, in the course of the following year. This post, Göttingen being then comprehended in the kingdom of Westphalia, he abandoned, in 1913, from patriotic motives, and went to Königsberg, in Prussia, where, for a time, he procured the means of support as an assistant to the librarian of the university, and as a subordinate teacher in one of the superior schools of the city. VOL. XIV. 38

he accepted of a chaplaincy in the Prussian army, that penetrated into France in 1815. At Paris, he made the acquaintance of Silvestre de Sacy, under whose direction he resumed his study of the languages of the East. Through the intervention of de Sacy with prince Hardenberg and Alex. de Humboldt, he procured, in the first place, leave of absence for a year from his official duties, and was subsequently enabled, by the grant of an annual stipend from the king of Prussia, to resign his office altogether, and to continue his residence in the French capital, prosecuting his favourite studies, with the advantage of consulting the rich treasures of oriental literature, preserved in the Royal Library. Here he published, in 1819, his "Selecta ex historia Halebi," in the original Arabic, with a Latin translation, and erudite notes. About this period, he was invited to a professorship in the newly established university of Bonn, on the Rhine. The leisure time which this office left at his disposal was employed in the preparation and publication of the following, among other works:-the ode of Caabi Ben-Sohair, in honour of Mohammed (1823); “Locmani fabulæ et plura loca ex codicibus maximam partem historicis selecta" (1823); Hamasa Carmina," a collection of the earliest Arabic poetry, with the scholiums of Tebrisi, (1828); a treatise on the versification of the Arabians (1830); "Chrestomathia Arabica, Grammatica, Historica" (1834); a Hebrew grammar (1835); an Arabic and Latin dictionary (4 vols., 4to., 1827-38), with an abridgment of it (1 vol., 4to., 1837); and a collection of Arabian proverbs (1838.)

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FRIMONT was transferred from the military command of Lombardy to the presidency of the Council of War at Vienna; where he died on the 26th of December 1831.

FRITH OF FIRTH is used in Scotland to denote the wide opening of a considerable river into the sea. The term corresponds to the fiord of the Danes and Norwegians.

FULMINIC ACID* is composed of two equivalents of cyanogen=52, and 2 of oxygen-16, corresponding, therefore, in ultimate composition with the cyanic acid. The fulminates of silver and mercury, or fulminating silver or mercury, are objects of manufacturing interest; the former being used in detonating bonbons, and the latter more largely and importantly as a priming for the percussion caps of gun locks.

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FUR TRADE-GAGERN.

FUR TRADE.* The "North West" and [ of the districts from the Mississippi to the "Hudson's Bay". Fur Companies were Pacific, and from the Arctic Sea to the united under the firm of the "Hudson's Gulph of Mexico, are now traversed in Bay Fur Company," in 1821. The skins every direction by the hunter. Almost all collected by this company are all shipped the American furs which do not belong to to London, mostly from their factories of the Hudson's Bay Company find their way York Fort and Moose Fort, in Hudson's to New York, where they are either disBay; some, however, from Fort Vancou-tributed for consumption in the United ver, on the W. coast of America; and States, or exported chiefly to London.some from Montreal. This last, which The fur trade is also extensively pursued was the principal seat of the N. W. Com- by the Russians in the N. of Asia, and the pany, has, since the union, sunk into a N. W. coast of America. Their principal subordinate station.-On the part of the association is the Russian American ComUnited States, the fur trade is chiefly pro- pany of Moscow; and the most important secuted, as already mentioned, by the markets for their furs are the fairs of Ki"North American Fur Company." Its achta, Novgorod, and Leipsic. The value principal establishment is at Michilimacki- of furs, especially of those which are arti nac, where skins are received, not only cles of luxury and fashion, varies in an exfrom the posts directly connected with this traordinary manner, in consequence of the station, but from those on the Mississippi, great inequality of the supply and deMissouri, and Yellowstone rivers, and the mand; and the fluctuations in price, in the great range of country extending thence course of a single year, often exceed 300 to the Rocky Mountains. This Company per cent. penetrates into the bosom of these distant regions by means of steamboats. Of other associations in the United States, the most noted are Ashley's Company from St. Louis, and Captain Bonneville's, formed at New York in 1831; which last pushed its enterprises into tracts between the Rocky Mountains and the coasts of Monterey and Upper California. Indeed, the whole

G.

ABELLE was the name given, before the revolution of 1789, to the tax imposed in France upon the consumption of salt. It had been levied down to that period, with the exception only of the five years from 1340 to 1345, ever since the reign of Philip of Valois, in the earlier part of the 14th century. The distribution of it was most capricious and arbitrary, some provinces having been altogether exempt from, and some more, and others less, subject to its operation. Towards the close of the reign of Louis XV., and the beginning of that of Louis XVI., the sum which it yielded to the farmers-general of the revenue was 38 millions of francs, only a small portion of which found its way into the public treasury. This tax had always been an exceedingly unpopular one, occasionally leading to tumults or even insurrection, and at all times to extensive smuggling, and consequent infliction of frequent and severe punishments on the parties offending; and

FUSTIAN; a kind of coarse, thick, twilled cotton, which is generally dyed of an olive, leaden, or other dark colour, and of which velveteen and corduroy are varieties.

FUSTIC. Young fustic is the Venice sumach, a plant that grows in Italy and the S. of France. It imparts a beautiful bright greenish yellow dye, which, when proper mordants are used, is very permanent.

just before the revolution, it constituted one of the principal grounds of dissatisfac tion with the existing constitution of the government. The gabelle was abolished on the 10th of May 1790. The consump tion of salt remained unrestricted until 1806, when Napoleon once more imposed a tax upon this article. At the present day, every kilogramme of salt (worth from 3 to 4 centimes) pays a duty into the public treasury of 30 centimes; and the whole amount of the duty is 60 millions of francs, levied principally on the necessities of the poorer classes of the community.

GABLER* died on the 17th of February 1826.

GAGERN. Besides the works of which this statesman was mentioned, in a previ ous volume, to have been the author, he wrote a memoir, which was presented to the German Diet, in 1817, and which attracted a certain degree of attention in this country, at the time of its publication; and also a work entitled "My Political Life" (Mein

GAGERN-GAME LAWS.

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GAME LAWS-GANS.

magistrates. The most serious of these | in the bed of the stream, particularly in offences is what is called night poaching. Bengal, where the soil is the most loose After two convictions before a magistrate and yielding. Islands are formed, and in for this offence, it becomes a misdemeanor a few years again destroyed; extensive to be proceeded against by indictment, and marshes are continually produced; and the punishable by transportation for seven condition and limits of private property years, or imprisonment and hard labour. interfered with. The Ganges, like seve Night poaching committed by three or ral other great rivers, is subject to the more persons in company together is a phenomenon of the bore, or a rapid rush misdemeanor in the first instance, and of the tide up the stream to a considerable punishable by transportation for 14 years, distance. It occurs in all the mouths of or imprisonment and hard labour. the Ganges, and particularly in the Hooghly, through which branch it ascends as far as Culna, or even Nuddea, 200 miles from the sea.

GANILH (Charles) was born at Allanche, in the French department of the Cantal, on the 6th of January 1758. He was a lawyer (avocat) in Paris at the beginning of the Revolution in 1789, and acted a decided, though not a very conspicuous part, during its first stages, in support of free institutions. During the reign of terror, however, the moderation of his opinions subjected him to suspicion and imprisonment, and the events of the 9th of Ther

GANGES.* The annual inundation of this river is owing chiefly to the tropical rains, which prevail successively throughout all the countries through which the Ganges flows; and in this respect its inundation differs from that of the Nile, whose waters are augmented by rains falling along the upper part of its course only. The river begins to rise in the upper part of its course in the month of April; and by the end of July all the lower parts of Bengal, contiguous to the Ganges and Brahmapootra, are under water. A few days before the middle of August the waters attain their greatest height, and after re-midor alone prevented his deportation from maining for only a few days nearly sta- France. After the revolution of the 18th tionary, they begin to decline, notwith- of Brumaire, in which he took an active standing that great quantities of rain con- part, he became a member of the Tributinue to fall for the next 6 or 7 weeks. nate, where he voted steadily against all About the end of November the river is the measures of the consular government again in the same state in which it was in invading the independency of the judiciathe beginning of April. It decreases at ry, or restricting the liberty of the press. an average rate of half an inch a day from He was, in consequence, eliminated from the end of November to the latter part of the Tribunate at the first opportunity, that April, when it is lowest in Bengal, though is in 1802; from which period until 1815 the rains in the mountains have already he lived in retirement from all public af begun to augment it in the upper portion fairs. In this year, he was elected by his of the country. Major Rennell estimated native department a member of that Chamthe quantity of water discharged by the ber of Deputies which has been styled the Ganges per second in the dry season at "Chambre introuvable," and in which 80,000 cubic feet, and in the rainy season body he constituted one of the minority. at 405.000 cubic feet; being for the ave- He continued to sit as a deputy down to the rage of the year, as he surmises, and as year 1823, and was remarkable, throughhas previously been stated, 180,000 feet out his legislative career, for his moderaper second. But according to some ob- tion, and freedom from party prejudices. servations made at Ghazipore, above Cal- It was only on the annual presentation of cutta, by Mr. Everest, in 1831, it would the budget, and on occasion of the propos appear that from June to September about ing by them of exceptional laws, that he 500,000 cubic feet per second are dis- was a regular opponent of the ministers. charged; while the average of the remain- M. Ganilh was a voluminous writer. His der of the year is only 100,000 cubic feet three principal works are the "Essai poliper second. The quantity of earth brought tique sur le revenu public des peuples de down by the river is very great. Mr. Eve-l'antiquité, du moyen âge et des temps rest estimates the total annual discharge of mud at 6,368,077,440 cubic feet; the weight of which, in the opinion of Mr. Lyell, would exceed 60 times that of the great pyramid of Egypt. A very striking effect of the inundation of the Ganges is the change produced by it, year after year,

modernes” (2 vols. 8vo. 1806, 2d ed. 1823); a treatise entitled "Des systèmes de l'économie politique, de leurs inconvénients, et de leurs avantages" (1609, 2d ed. 1821); and the "Théorie de l'économie politique" (2 vols. 1815, 2d ed. 1822).

GANS (Edward), born at Berlin in Prus