governor, and principally for the purpose of judicial decision | him for mal-administration (repetunda, peculatus), which on matters in dispute, both between Roman citizens, and was no uncommon thing, application was made to the Roman citizens and the provincials. The judices were Roman senate; and the great Romans, who were the patrons chosen, after the Roman fashion, from the persons who and friends of the cities which made the complaint, were attended the conventus, or circuit courts. It appears that also applied to for their aid and interest. If he had bethe fundamental laws of a province were not interfered trayed the interests of the Roman state, he was guilty of with, for, as we have seen, the soil retained its former legal the offence of majestas. A regular mode of inquiry and character, and was not invested with that of Italic soil, and trial (quæstio) were adopted for such occasions. Yet little the personal status or condition of Roman citizens was not was done without bribing the powerful men at Rome: and communicated to the provincials merely as such. Some the chance of redress against a governor who bad even of the provinces, as Sicily, obtained the Latinitas [LATI- grossly misconducted himself was very small: it was more NUM JUS] from Julius Caesar, and the Civitas, or complete frequently obtained through the influence of the powerful Roman citizenship, was given to the Sicilians after his Romans, stimulated by motives of private hostility to the death (Cic., Ad Att., xiv. 12); but this was not the general accused, than through the justice of the case. rule. By means of the edict, which the prætor published on entering upon his duties, and which was often framed upon the prætorian edict at Rome [PRÆTOR], many important changes must have been gradually introduced into the legal system of the provinces, and particularly with reference to matters of contract and forms of procedure, in which there could be no ground for the same distinction that was maintained between provincial and Italic land, and which necessarily influenced the rights of landholders and the forms of action. Special enactments (leges) were also sometimes made at Rome with reference to provincial affairs. The prætor had complete jurisdiction in criminal as well as civil matters, and both over provincials and Roman citizens; but a Roman citizen could appeal to Rome in a criminal matter. A province consisted of a variety of parts. Some towns included in it had from the commencement an alliance with Rome, and were in all respects free. Others, which had been subdued, were declared free, and were not under the immediate jurisdiction of the prætor. The provinces also contained numerous colonies, and both colonies of Roman citizens and colonies of the class called Latinæ. [LATINUM JUS.] Thus towards the close of the republican period a province contained, besides those parts of it which were subject to the complete jurisdiction of the governor, allied towns, free towns, Roman colonies, and Latin colonies. According to this view, the provincia properly comprised those parts and towns which were subject to taxation and to the prætor's immediate jurisdiction. Some writers assert that the Roman and Latin colonies which were sent from Italy into the provinces were in all respects like such colonies in Italy, and that these colonies had quiritarian ownership of the soil, and consequently freedom from taxes. But there is some difficulty about this part of the subject. The privileges called Latinitas, or Latium, were often given to particular towns, one effect of which was to release them from the immediate jurisdiction at least of the Roman governor, and to give them a jurisdictio, or power of holding courts: citizens who filled certain offices (magistratus in such towns), thereby obtained the Roman citizenship. [Strabo, p. 186, speaking of Nîmes. See our article, p. 234.) The taxes which were raised in the provinces varied in the different countries, according to the products of the provinces, and probably also according to the system of taxation which the Romans found established; for they seem in their administration to have avoided the error of changing more than was necessary. The taxes generally consisted in a capitation tax and a property tax: the latter was sometimes paid in money and sometimes in kind. The state did not collect the taxes, but they were sold or farmed: thus, after the Sempronia lex, those of the provinces of Asia were sold by the censors at Rome, and those of Sicily, with some exceptions, were sold in the respective districts of the country, according to a practice established by Hiero. There was also money paid for the use of the open pasture-lands, which the Roman state appropriated to itself. The tolls and port duties, as well as the pasture-land tax (scriptura) were farmed by the publicani. [PUBLICANI.] Besides these and other regular sources of revenue, the province was subjected to occasional demands of an additional tenth, and to many exactions, some of which had a kind of legalised form, and others were merely gifts made to satisfy the demands of the governor, or to secure his favour. The governor had to give an account of his administration from his own books and those of his quæstor. Originally he gave in this account at Rome; but after the Julian law (B.C. 61), he was required to deposit two copies in the two principal towns of his province, and to send one to the Erarium at Rome. If the province had ground of complaint against P. C., No. 1175. With Augustus commenced a new period. He took under his own care the more important provinces, and those which required a large military force; the rest he left to the care of the senate and the Roman people. This arrangement continued, with some modifications, to the third century. Of the provinces of the senate, two were yearly given to consular men, and the rest to those who had been prætors: these governors were all called proconsuls, and they were assisted by legates. They had the jurisdictio both of the prætor urbanus and peregrinus. Quaestors were also sent with them to their provinces: the quaestors had the same jurisdictio that the ædiles had at Rome. It seems however that the power of the proconsuls in their provinces was considerably diminished. The emperor considered himself as the proconsul of his own provinces; and he governed them, though residing in Rome, by his representatives called legati Cæsaris, who had prætorian power. They were selected from those who had held the office of prætor and consul, or were senators of inferior rank. The Imperial governor of Egypt was called præfectus, and he was always an Eques. They held their office so long as the emperor pleased, and received all their powers directly from him. These governors of the emperor's provinces were called præsides and correctores in the later periods, though the name præses was applied under the emperors to a governor either of a senatorial or an Imperial province. They had also legati under them; but in the place of quæstors there was a procurator Cæsaris, who was an Eques or a freedman of the Cæsar; he looked after the taxes and other dues of the emperor, paid the troops, and attended generally to the business of the fiscus. After the time of Claudius, the procurator had jurisdiction in matters that concerned the fiscus. There were also procuratores Cæsaris appointed by the emperor in the senatorian provinces, who collected certain dues, even in those provinces, for the fiscus, independent of what was the due of the Ærarium, or public treasury. Sometimes a small province, or a part of a larger one, was governed by a procurator Cæsaris, with the full power of a præses; this was the case with Judæa, which was a part of Syria, and governed by a procurator who was under the præses of Syria. The general constitution of the provinces remained the same, though, as before observed, a greater uniformity in administration was gradually introduced, and from the time of Hadrian the Imperial rescripts and the writings of the Roman jurists contributed to form a body of common law for the whole empire. The taxes continued as before, and were partly paid in money, and partly in kind; but the object of the Romans was always to have them paid in money. The basis of the taxation was a general census of persons and property, which Augustus introduced, and which was taken from time to time. Certain taxes, as tolls and duties, were let, as before, to the publicani. The towns, at least under the early emperors, seem to have retained their privileges; though some modifications were very early introduced; for instance, Augustus indirectly deprived the citizens of the colonies of their suffrage at Rome, a measure which seems to have led the way to other changes. Numerous colonies, chiefly i. not exclusively of the class called military, were also established by the emperors in the provinces; and it is to this period that some writers refer the gift of the Jus Italicum to provincial cities. The inhabitants of the provinces were now divided into three classes as to political rights, Roman citizens, Latini, and Peregrini. The Roman citizens were either Italians resident in the provinces; or members of Municipia and colonies which had the Roman citizenship; or those who had individually obtained this right. The two latter classes had all the privileges of Italians, except with some restrictions as to attaining the senatorian dignity; but many of VOL. XIX.-K them obtained the rank of Equites. The Latini had not the | connubium only and the commercium, but they could obtain the civitas in several ways. The Peregrini had neither the connubium nor commercium; in fact, they had none of those rights which characterised a Roman citizen; but yet they served in the army. By a constitution of Antoninus Caracalla (A.D. 211-17), the citizenship was given to all persons within the Roman empire, and accordingly the distinction of Civis, Latini, and Peregrini ceased, and the two latter classes henceforward only existed among manumitted slaves. and considering the importance of this fact as bearing on the origin and history of languages, it has not been suffi ciently observed by philologists. The cause of a want of attention to the multiplicity of dialects in a language is to be found in the ascendency which one dialect of a language always acquires over the others, and the obscurity and neglect to which the latter are consequently consigned. Whenever a country reaches a sufficient height of civilization to admire and produce literary works, some one of the various dialects of its lanThe administration of the provinces gradually came more guage is selected by the poets and other native writers, and under the power of the emperor, and particularly as to mat- is cultivated by them. In general, this choice s deterters which required a legal decision. The governors not only mined not by any quality of the dialect itself, such as its received general instructions from the emperor, but they superior harmony or energy, but by some external circummade special application to him in cases of difficulty. The stance, such as its prevalence near the birth-place or home constitution of Caracalla must have had the immediate of the writer, or near the king's court and seat of the goeffect of extending the Roman law, for in making all per- vernment. The influence of the latter circumstance is illussons Roman citizens, it established all the relations of per- trated by the following remarks of Dr. Jamieson, in his sonal status that existed at Rome; and it seems that a pro- preface to his dictionary of the Scottish language, respecting vince became in nearly every respect assimilated to Italy, the cause of the decline of that language:-'The union of with perhaps the exception as to the soil, when the special the crowns (he says), although an event highly honourable privilege was not given to it. Indeed Italy itself was assi- to Scotland, soon had an unfavourable influence on the anmilated to the form of a province by Hadrian, who divided tient language of the country. She still indeed retained it, with the exception of a district that was immediately ap- her national independence; but the removal of the court propriated to the praetor urbanus, into four divisions, which seems to have been viewed as an argument for closer aphe placed under the care of consulares. Under M. Aurelius, proximation, in language, to those who lived within its the consulares were replaced by juridici, a word which in- verge. From this time forward, as living authors in general dicates their function of dispensing justice. The privileges of avoided the peculiarities of their native tongue, typographers the towns, as to jurisdiction, were gradually encroached upon seem to have reckoned it necessary to alter the diction by the Imperial power and those to whom it was deputed, even of the venerable dead. In thus accommodating our a change the commencement of which is traced by Savigny antient national works to the growing servility of their to the time when Cisalpine Gaul ceased to be a province times, they have in many instances totally lost the sense of and was incorporated with Italy. In the provinces justice the original writers. In this manner even the classical was administered generally by the praeses and his legati, writings of our ancestors have been gradually neglected.' though not always in the first instance, and the privileges of When a dialect, by any of the means above described, has the free towns were in course of time impaired. The prae- been distinguished from and raised above the others, it is ses and his legati had full jurisdiction; there was an ap- adopted for all the native literary compositions, both ir peal from the legati to the praeses, and from him to the poetry and in prose. Hence it is still further cultivated, emperor; and it was not uncommon for the proconsul to and is moreover thereby rendered more susceptible of ulterefer a matter of law to the emperor even in the first in- rior cultivation and refinement. It becomes the general stance. The praeses had complete jurisdiction in criminal language of the government, of education, of literature, and matters; yet he could not pronounce sentence of deporta- of polished society; new words are introduced into it from tion. He had also ample powers both civil and military for other languages, antient or modern; and it is learned by maintaining tranquillity in his province, and there were foreigners. soldiers stationed in all the provinces in permanent camps, many of which remain to the present day, and others were the origin of existing towns. The condition of the provinces under the Christian emperors would require a separate and lengthened notice. This general and necessarily very incomplete view may be completed by those who can refer to Savigny's Geschichte des Römischen Rechts im Mittelalter, vol. i.; to Walter's Geschichte des Römischen Rechts, &c., Bonn, 1840; where abundant references to original authorities are given. The statements in Adam's Roman Antiquities are generally correct. Incidental information will also be found in the following essaysDas Ackergesetz des Sp. Thorius,' Zeitschrift, x.; Ueber den Inhalt der Lex Rubria de Gallia Cisalpina,' Ibid., x.; Ueber das Jus Italicum,' Ibid., vol. v.) The rise and progress of one dialect, according to the general description just given, may be observed to have taken place in every civilised country. In Greece, on account of the multiplicity of independent states into which the nation was divided, each dialect of the language received a separate cultivation. The early historians and philosophers wrote in the Ionic dialect, and lyric poetry was composed in the Doric and Æolic dialects. But after the Persian war, and the great predominance of the Athenians, both in political power and in literature, the Attic dialect obtained the ascendant in Greece and became the common literary language. (Müller's History of Greek Literature, c. 20, § 1, 2.) In like manner, the Tuscan dialect, chiefly on account of the pre-eminence of the Tuscan writers, became the literary language of Italy, and threw into the shade the Sicilian dialect, in which the first essays of Italian poetry were made. But notwithstanding the predominance of the literary Tuscan in Italy, both as the literary language and as a means of communication between inhabitants of different parts of Italy, yet every Italian city or territory has its own dialect, which is habitually spoken, not only by the lower and middle classes, but also by the upper classes when persons from other parts of Italy or strangers are not present. [ITALY, vol. xiii., p. 62, 63.] In France, the dialect of the langue d'oil, spoken in and about the seat of government, has not only thrown into the shade the other dialects of that language (such as the Walloon, Picard, Norman, &c.), spoken in the northern portion of the kingdom, and reduced them to the condition of mere patois, but it has also superseded the langue d'oc, the language of the south, which had been raised to considerable literary importance by the poems of the Troubadours. [FRANCE, vol. x., p. 432.] The Castilian dialect has obtained a similar ascendency in Spain through the influence of the Castilian writers; and the high German of Saxony has become the literary language of Germany mainly through the influence of Luther's Every language which is spoken by a large population translation of the Bible; although the Suabian dialect reover a wide extent of country, contains several dialects.ceived a literary cultivation in the lays of the MinneThe number and variety of these is in some cases very great; singers before any other of the German dialects. [GERMANY, The enumeration of the provinces is given under ROME. PROVINCIALISM. The difference between the languages of a family and the dialects of a language is only a difference of degree. For example, the Sanscrit, Persian, Teutonic, Greek and Latin, Slavonic, and Celtic, are languages of the Indo-Teutonic family [LANGUAGE, vol. xiii., p. 309]; and the Doric, Ionic, and Eolic are dialects of the Greek language. Although the dialects of a language may present considerable differences both in the roots and forms of their words, the differences are less considerable than those which obtain between languages of the same family. Thus a historian tracing the origin of the Romance languages might doubt whether he ought to consider them as altered dialects of the Latin language, or as cognate languages of the same family. If the Italian, Spanish, and French languages were considered as modern Latin dialects, their various dialects (such as the Sicilian, Venetian, Milanese, Walloon, Valentian, &c.) would be regarded as mere varieties, analogous to the varieties of the Doric dialect as spoken by the different states of the Doric race. (Müller's Dorians, app. v.) vol. xi., p. 193.] The classical English is mainly formed upon the dialect spoken in Middlesex, Surrey, Kent, and the other counties in the neighbourhood of London. Its forms differ materially from those of the dialects spoken in the more distant counties, as Devonshire, Somersetshire, Cheshire, Lancashire, and Yorkshire; and still more from those of the dialect of the English which is spoken in the lowlands of Scotland, and in the border counties of England. The latter dialect has received considerable literary cultivation not only from early writers, such as Buchanan, Barbour, and others, but also from Burns, Walter Scott, and their imitators, who have used it with great skill and success for ballad poetry and tales of fiction. A peculiar dialect of the English has been formed in the New England States of the American Union, a specimen of which may be seen in the humorous work by Mr. Haliburton, entitled 'The Clockmaker.' The American dialect of the English contains a few words which are peculiar to the country (such as caucus, mocassin, pappoose, squaw); but most of the American expressions have been borrowed from English provincialisms, and are still current in different parts of England (as, I reckon and I guess, roile, snag, spry, &c.). See Pickering's American Vocabulary, Boston, 1816. was a genuine old name for barley, and though in Honer's time and in his particular country it might not have been the common name for it, still an expression taken from this word might very well have been in use in the language of common life' (p. 76, Engl. Trans.). It may be here remarked that words peculiar to any dialect were called by the Greeks yλwooai (Aristot., Poet., c. 21); whence yλwood pov, or glossary, meant originally a collection of such Awooat.' (Quarterly Review, vol. xxii., p. 305.) Afterwards a gloss came to mean any comment, and was applied to the commentaries on the Corpus Juris made in Italy in the middle ages. Provincial dialects are chiefly preserved among the humbler and illiterate classes; educated persons generally speak the literary language of the country. Moreover they are chiefly preserved in rural districts; and thus many of the provincial words relate to agricultural subjects. (Preface to Boucher's Glossary, p. xliv.) In Fielding's time, country gentlemen in England often spoke the provincial dialect of their county, as may be seen by Squire Western's language in 'Tom Jones.' Provincialisms, being either antient classical words, actually obsolete in the literary language, or diverging words or forms in a parallel dialect, are genuine remains of the antient language of the country. In this respect they differ materially from the following classes of words:-1. Low, vulgar, or obscene words, which are of universal or general currency, and are not confined to any particular locality. (Grose's Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, and the Dictionnaire du Bas Langage.) 2. Slang or cant expressions, used by gypsies and thieves for the purpose of concealing the sub By a provincial word is meant a word which is not received in the literary language of the time, but which is current among the inhabitants of some district; and provincial words may be divided into the following classes:1. Words formerly current in the literary dialect of the language, but which have ceased to be so, and are current only as provincialisms. For example, the word cantle, meaning a piece or fragment, and shard, meaning cow-ject of their conversation in the presence of persons who are dung, are used provincially in parts of England, though obsolete in the literary language. They were however literary words in the time of Shakspere. Ere to black Hecate's summons (See Craven Glossary in v. 'shard.') So clomb, the preterit of climb, occurs in Chaucer and other old writers, but is now only a provincialism. Sometimes an antient classical word, though current provincially in ordinary discourse, is used as a literary word only in poetry or as a technical term. Thus the old words craven for coward, and dank for damp, which are still used familiarly in the provincial language of some districts, could only be employed as literary words in poetry or in poetical prose; and the old word soller, meaning an upper floor, which is current as a provincialism in many parts of the country, is only recognised by the literary language as a legal term, being thus used in the general words of a conveyance (cellars, sollers,' &c.). 2. Words which are not known to have ever been received in the literary language of the country. Many words of this class will occur to any person who consults a provincial glossary of any language. In some cases the word differs widely from any word which occurs either in the modern literary language or in old writers; more frequently however the difference consists mainly in the form. The Scotch dialect presents obvious examples of all these varieties. Sometimes a provincial word is not a dialectical variety of form, but is a corruption arising from ignorance, as atomy for anatomy, rusty for restive. From the manner in which provincial dialects are preserved, it is natural that many archaisms of language should remain current in them after they have been lost in the literary language. Thus Buttmann, in his Lexilogus,' explaining the word ȧkoσtev, which occurs in Homer, cites statements of grammarians that ȧkoorn meant barley, among the Cyprians and Thessalians, and proceeds to remark as follows:-'That Homer never used the word ȧkoor itself, is no objection to this derivation, any more than that it was borrowed from the Cyprians or Thessalians. Heyne has judiciously observed, that old words which disappeared from common use were still visible much later in certain dialects. Such idioms were noted while Greek was still a living language, in part for the very purpose of explaining Homer and other antient writers; and thus such words as this were introduced into the glossaries. 'Akoor therefore not their accomplices (called gergo by the Italians, ergot in French, and germania in Spanish). A glossary of the slang of the London thieves (which however seems to be very variable) is appended to Hardy Vaux's 'Memoirs.' A slang or cant language is often formed among classes of persons following any peculiar pursuit; thus there is a slang of the prize-ring and the stable in this country, and there is said to be a slang among bull-fighters in Spain. 3. Technical words, such as the peculiar language of sailors or miners. 4. Neologisms, such as the words talented, jeopardise, in English. Collections of provincial words are important in a philological point of view, as throwing light on the formation, structure, and analogies of languages; they are also important in a historical point of view, as illustrating the changes in the language of a country. The glossaries of provincial words which have been published in different countries are very numerous, though in general they have been made with little philological skill or knowledge, and are meagre in the explanations and illustrations of the meanings of the words. The limits of the present article do not permit us to give a list of the titlepages of even the principal provincial glossaries; but we will enumerate some of the dialects of the chief European languages of which glossaries exist. For the Italian there are glossaries of the Sicilian, Neapolitan, Venetian, Bolognese Ferrarese, Veronese, Mantuan, Brescian, Bergamasque, Milanese, and Piedmontese dialects. There are also short popular poems published in all or most of the Italian dialects. (Denina, Mémoires de l'Académie de Berlin, 1797; Classe des Belles-Lettres, p. 64-90; Adelung's Mithridates, vol. ii., p. 496-528.) We are not aware of the existence of a glossary of any Spanish dialect; an account of the Catalonian dialect, which closely resembles the langue d'oc, may be seen in the Mélanges sur les Langues et Patois,' p. 297-431, Paris, 1831. Dictionaries of the langue d'oc and of some of its varieties, as the Provençal and Limousin, exist. Copious specimens of the dialects of the French, or langue d'oil, may be seen in the Mélanges sur les Langues et Patois,' above cited. There are likewise glossaries of the Walloon French, and of the French of Geneva. For the German language glossaries exist of the dialects of the following countries and districts:-Austria, Bavaria, Esthonia and Livonia, Frisia, Hamburg, Henneberg, Holstein, Mark of Brandenburg, Meissen, Upper Palatinate, Pomerania and Rügen, Prussia, Saxony and Thuringia, Lower Saxony, Silesia, Suabia, German Switzerland, Westerwald, Westphalia. There are likewise general glossaries of Low German (platt-deutsch), of Southern German, and of the dialect of the German Jews (Jüdisch-deutsche Mundart). For the English language there are glossaries of the dialects of Nor folk, Suffolk, Sussex, Devonshire, Somersetshire, Cornwall, Herefordshire, Cheshire, Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Northumberland; to which may be added Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary.' A copious list of works illustrating the provincial dialects of England has been recently published in London. the fallen gladiators in the arena, exclaiming with joy that Et quoties victor ferrum jugulo inserit, illa As several persons appear to be engaged at present in Arnobius (b. iv.) towards the end casts a similar reproach upon the vestals. Prudentius wrote also: a series of sacred hymns, which have considerable poetical merit, and some of which have been inserted in the Liturgy of the Roman Catholic PROVISIONS, PROVISORS. [PRÆMUNIRE.] PROVOST, a term having its origin apparently in the Latin præpositus, which denotes the chief of any society, body, or community. In France the corresponding word prévôt approaches nearer the original form. In that country it is applied to the persons who discharge the functions of many different offices, but in England it is rarely used: we believe the only instances are those of the heads of certain colleges, as Eton, King's College (Cambridge), &c. But in Scotland it is used to designate the chief officer in cities, as the provost of Edinburgh or of Glasgow, where in England the same officer is called the mayor. PROVOST-MARSHAL, a term adopted from the French, who call an officer with similar functions the prévôt des maréchaux de France, or at least did so before the Revolution. The English provost-marshal is attached to the army, his duty being to attend to offences committed against military discipline, to seize and secure deserters and other criminals, to restrain the soldiery from pilfering and rapine, to take measures for bringing offenders to punishment, and to see to the execution of the sentences passed upon them. PROX, Mr. Ogilby's name for his last genus (the sixth) of Cervidae, the type being Prox moschatus (Cervus Muntjac). [DEER, vol. viii., p. 362.] The following are the genera comprised under Mr. Ogilby's family Cervidae, which he makes the second of the order Ruminantia, the Camelidae being the first, and the Moschide the third; assigning to Cervide the following character: Feet bisulcate; horns solid, generally deciduous, in the male only or in both sexes; incisor teeth (dentes primores) above, nine; below, eight. Genera. 1. Camelopardalis. Horns in both sexes permanent, simple, covered with skin. 2. Tarandus. Horns in both sexes, subpalmated, deciduous. Type.-The Reindeer, Cervus Tarandus. 3. Alces. Horns in the male only, palmated, deciduous. Type.-The Elk, Alces Machlis (Cervus Alces, Linn.). 4. Cervus. Horns in the male only, ramose, deciduous. Types.-The Stag, C. Elaphus and Cervus Saumer, or Hippelaphus, Cuv. 5. Caprea. Horns in the male only, subramose, deciduous. Type.-The Roe, Caprea Capreolus. 6. Prox. Horns in the male only, subramose, deciduous. Type.-The Muntjak. PROXY. [LORDS, HOUSE OF.] PRUDENTIUS, AURELIUS, born in Spain, A.D. 348, followed the profession of the law, and was employed in some official situation in his native country under the reign of Honorius. About the year 407 he repaired to Rome, partly on business, and partly, it seems, from religious motives. He afterwards returned to Spain, where he spent the rest of his life in pious practices and studious pursuits. The precise time of his death is not known. Prudentius wrote several works in Latin verse. Two books are entitled Orations' against Symmachus, prefect of Rome, who had addressed a petition to the emperor in the name of the senate of Rome for the re-establishment of the temples and rites of the old religion. [OROSIUS.] Prudentius exposes the absurdity and abominations of the heathen mythology, and the corruption resulting from the want of a moral check, in which the old heathen religion was deficient. Towards the end of the second, he eloquently descants against the cruel practice of gladiators' combats for the amusement of the people; and in order to show their brutalising influence, he instances a vestal attending in the amphitheatre, and witnessing the struggles and agonies of struggles between passion and duty in the human soul; and several books against the Marcionites and other heretics. One of the best editions of the works of Prudentius is that of Parma, 2 vols. 4to., 1788. PRUNING. [PLANTING.] PRUNUS is a genus of arborescent Rosaceous plants, which belongs to the Amygdaleous division of the order, and comprehends several of our domestic fruits. The Cherry, Bird Cherry, Plum, Damson, Sloe, Bullace, and Apricot are all comprehended in the genus as limited by Linnæus. But, in the opinion of some modern botanists, the true Plums require to be separated from the others, and should exclusively constitute the genus Prunus, while the others are to be considered as belonging to two other genera represented by the Cherry and the Apricot. In this view of the subject, each genus is characterised thus: Armeniaca, or the Apricot. Drupe woolly outside. Stone blunt at one end, sharp-pointed at the other, with a furrow passing all round it, and an even surface. Young leaves rolled up. Cerasus, or the Cherry. Drupe smooth, without bloom. Stones roundish, smooth. Young leaves folded flat. Prunus, or the Plum. Drupe smooth, covered with bloom. Stone sharp-pointed at each end, furrowed all round, and smooth on the surface. Young leaves rolled up. Of the Plum genus, thus restricted, there is in common use the Garden Plum (Prunus domestica), with all its numerous varieties, the Bullace (P. insititia), and the Sloe (P. spinosa). These plants are distinguished specifically by botanists, but apparently without reason. It is the opinion of the best experimental physiologists that the Sloe of our hedges was the origin of the others; and certainly there is not more difference between a Sloe and a Greengage than there is between a German Quetsche and an English White Magnum-Bonum. Several other species belong to the genus, but they are of no moment, with the exception of a plant called Prunus Coccomilia, which inhabits the mountains of Calabria, and has a great reputation in Italy on account of the tonic qualities of its bark. PRURI'GO is a disease of the skin characterised by an eruption of small pimples and a most intense burning sensation of itching. The pimples are usually but slightly if at all red, and the skin between them has its natural colour. They are generally seated about the shoulders, back, and neck, but often also on the limbs, and in severe cases even on the face and over a great part of the body. Their course is always very slow, and they are not infectious. There are three principal varieties of Prurigo, namely, P. mitis, P. formicans, and P. senilis; and besides these, some others are distinguished by the names of the parts which are in each exclusively or chiefly affected. The Prurigo mitis is the mildest form of the disease. The pimples are very small, and so pale that they can scarcely be discerned, till, by the scratching, which is almost unavoidably resorted to in order to relieve the intolerable itching, their tops are torn off, and become covered by little black scabs of dried blood. In P. formicans all the symptoms of the disease are more severe, and the itching by which they are accompanied is united with a painful burning sensation in the skin, as if, patients say, hot needles were constantly piercing it. Both this and the preceding form of Prurigo may disappear with a slight desquamation in a few weeks, but more commonly a succession of eruptions follow one another, and the disease is prolonged for months or even years. Both of them occur in persons of all ranks and ages, but they are most common in the young and in the old, and among those who enjoy fewest of the comforts of life. They are not attended by any important constitutional disorder. Prurigo senilis, which is by far the worst form of the disease, occurs almost exclusively in enfeebled children and eld people. It usually lasts for years, producing all the time almost intolerable suffering by the intense itching that attends it, and which scarcely admits of relief by any known means. The pimples are usually very numerous, and often hard and prominent; the skin between them is also often thickened and indurated, other eruptions break out upon it, and if cleanliness be not carefully observed, it becomes infested with swarms of lice. The treatment of the two first forms of Prurigo must consist of a mild antiphlogistic regimen, tepid baths, and the use of alkalis both externally and internally. Stimulants of all kinds greatly increase the pain and itching, but they may sometimes be relieved by the application of ointments or lotions containing small quantities of opium, or Prussic acid, or cyanuret of potassium. In the Prurigo senilis the regimen must be more nutritious, and tonic medicines are useful; but in this form, as well as in the others, stimulants must be avoided. If the skin is infested with pediculi, the most effectual mode of destroying them is fumigation with the vapour of cinnabar. In this form also sulphur-baths are among the few means that will produce any relief. The alkaline lotions, which may be used in all cases, may be composed of one or two drachms of carbonate of potash to the pint of water, or of from one to three drachms of sulphuret of potash to the same quantity of water, the strength being determined by the irritability of the skin, and being always made less than sufficient to excite any heat or redness in it. PRU'SIAS. [BITHYNIA.] PRUSSIA consists of two great divisions, which are unconnected with one another. The western and smaller portion is situated on both sides of the Rhine, and called Rhenish Prussia (Rhin-Preussen). It extends between 49° and 52° 15′ N. lat., and between 6° and 9° 30′ E. long., and on the south borders on the French department of Moselle. On the west of it lies Belgium and Holland, and on the north the kingdom of Hanover. Portions of the last-mentioned country, with Brunswick, Lippe, Waldeck, and the electorate of Hesse, extend along its north-eastern boundaryline, and separate it from the larger portion of the Prussian monarchy. Farther south it borders on Nassau, HesseDarmstadt, and that portion of Bavaria which lies west of the Rhine. It comprehends an area of about 18,550 square miles, or about three-fourths of the area of Scotland. The eastern and larger portion of the Prussian monarchy, more properly called Prussia, though, strictly speaking, only the eastern portion of it bears that name, extends from 49° 50 to 55° 50′ N. lat. and from 9° 50′ to 12° 50' E. long. On the north-west of it lies Mecklenburg; on the west Hanover, Brunswick, and the electorate of Hesse. Along the southern boundary are the duchies of Saxony, the kingdom of Saxony, and several portions of the Austrian monarchy, and along the eastern side are the kingdom of Poland and Russia. The area of this portion is about 91,620 square miles, or about 7000 square miles more than the surface of Great Britain. The whole Prussian monarchy has a surface of 110,170 square miles, which is about 2000 square miles less than that of the British Islands. Surface and Soil.-I. Rhenish Prussia is divided into two equal portions by the Rhine, and each of these divisions consists of an elevated table-land and a low plain. The table-land on the west bank of the Rhine is connected on its south-eastern border with the Hardt Mountains, as the northern extremity of the Vosges is called. It extends over that part of Bavaria which is situated on the west side of the Rhine. The Hardt Mountains attain an elevation varying between 1100 and 1600 feet, and the highest summit, the Calmet or Kalmuck, is above 2000 feet. From this mountain-region the table-land extends northward to the parallel of the towns of Bonn and Aachen (or Aix-la-Chapelle). Along the south-eastern banks of the river Moselle is the highest part of the table-land, which appears in the shape of a range elevated on a very high base. Part of this range is called the Hochwald, and another part the Soonwald: its mean elevation is more than 2000 feet above the sea level, while the highest summit, called the Walderbsenkopf, atains nearly 2690 feet. The larger part of the table-land lies to the north of the Moselle river, and is called the Eifel, and in its northern districts the Hohe Veen. The mean elevation of this part is about 1600 feet, and it may be called a plain; neither the eminences nor the depressions are great. A few hills rise from 500 to 700 feet above it. This region has lately attracted much attention, on ac- | count of the unequivocal traces of volcanic action which it presents in its basalts and trachytic formations. Geologists have discovered some craters which are now filled with water and are thus converted into small lakes. Tracts of lava are frequent, and amidst them are conical hills resembling in form active volcanoes. The soil of the table-land is very poor, and produces only moderate crops of oats and potatoes, where it is cultivated. The tracts which are not cultivated are partly rocks, overgrown with peat and moss, and partly swamps, which are very extensive on the Hohe Veen. In other places tracts of sand occur. The soil in the valleys with which the edges of the table-land are furrowed. is much better, and especially the valleys of the Moselle and Rhine; but even here the fertility is only moderate, with the exception of a district surrounding the town of Trier (Treves), where good crops of wheat are raised. As far as this region lies within Prussia, it does not appear to contain metals or any useful minerals. The level country which extends from the northern border of the Eifel and Hohe Veen, between the Rhine and the Maas, is nearly a flat which sinks imperceptibly as we proceed northward. Its fertility is considerable, and it produces rich crops of all kinds of grain. Opposite the table-lánd of the Eifel, on the right bank of the Rhine, is a similar table-land, which extends southward through Nassau, where it rises along the banks of the Main and Rhine to a more elevated ridge known under the name of Taunus, which, like the Hochwald and Soonwald, attains a mean elevation of 2000 feet; and its highest summit, the Feldberg, is 2850 feet. From the Taunus the table-land extends northward, and terminates on the northern bank of the river Ruhr, an affluent of the Rhine. It extends about 40 miles farther north than the table-land west of the Rhine, and, between the Lahn and Sieg rivers, is called Westerwald; and, between the Sieg and Ruhr, Sauerland. The mean elevation of this district does not differ from that of the Eifel, being also about 1600 feet above the sea-level. But the surface is more uneven, especially that of the Westerwald, which contains several high summits, among which the Salzburgerkopf is 2172 feet high. Lava, trachyte, and basalt are also frequently met with in the Westerwald, but not north of the Sieg river. The soil of the whole region is poor; and it is unsuited for the production of any grain except oats, which supply the inhabitants with bread. The population is considerable, especially on the Sauerland, which is, without exception, the most manufacturing district in Germany, a circumstance owing to the abundance of iron and coals which this part of the table-land contains. The Rhine separates the two table-lands just mentioned, and runs in a narrow valley which is noted for its picturesque beauties. It begins to run between the mountains at Bingen, where its surface is a little more than 200 feet above the sea-level. It leaves the mountain-region at Bonn, where it is not more than 120 feet above the sea. In a course of about 70 miles it falls more than 80 feet. Between Bonn and Düsseldorf, a distance of nearly 50 miles, the fall is only 26 feet. That portion of Rhenish Prussia which lies to the north of the Sauerland, and extends to its northern limits has a soil which varies greatly in fertility. The western portion of it, from the Rhine to the banks of the Ems, is nearly a desert: the cultivable ground, which only occurs in isolated places, is only a small portion of the whole. On the east of the Ems the soil is much better, especially as we approach the hilly country, which extends along the western side of the river Weser, where wheat is raised: some good tracts occur also along the northern declivity of the Sauerland, but they are not extensive. II. The Eastern and larger portion of Prussia is a part of the great plain of Eastern Europe, which extends from the. Straits of Dover to the foot of the Uralian Mountains. Mountains occur only along the southern boundary. On the boundary of Prussia and Bohemia is that mountainrange which bears the general name of the Sudetes, anu whose northern portion is called Riesengebirge, or Giant Mountains. There are mountains also on the line which separates Prussia from Saxony. Where the south-western angle of Prussia is intersected by the duchies of Saxony and the territories of he princes of Reuss, and partly also by Hanover, it comprehends parts of the two mountain-systems of the Thüringerwald, or mountains of Thuringia, and of the Harz The Sudetes are not connected with the Carpathian Mountains. At the north-western extremity of the last |