C THE AMERICANA onshohocken, Pa., a town of Montgomery County, on the Schuylkill River and Canal, and on the Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia & R. R.R.'s. It has a number of manufacturing interests, including blast furnaces, rolling-mills, woolen- and cotton mills, and pottery works. Pop. (1910) 7,480. Considérant, Victor-Prosper, vēk-tōr-prōspār kôn-se-da-rän, French Socialist: b. Salins 12 Oct. 1808; d. 27 Dec. 1893. After being educated at the Polytechnic School of Paris, he entered the army, which, however, he soon left to promulgate the doctrines of the Socialist Fourier. On the death of his master (1837), Considérant became the head of his school, and undertook the management of the Phalange,' a review devoted to the spread of their opinions. Having gained the support of a young Englishman, Mr. Young, who advanced the money, Considérant established, on a large estate in the department Eure et Loire, a Socialist colony or Phalanstere; but the experiment failed, and with it the 'Phalange' fell to the ground. Thereafter he continued to promote his views in the 'Democratié Pacifique. Among his numerous writings, the chief is the 'Destinee Sociale,' dedicated to Louis Philippe. In 1849 Considérant was accused of high treason and compelled to flee from France. Near San Antonio, Texas, he founded a Socialist community. La Réunion, which flourished for a time, but afterward came to nothing and he returned to France in 1869. Consideration, a legal term covering the principle governing contracts. In law no contract is valid if it does not expressly stipulate the amount or consideration for which any lease, sale or transfer is made. As there are various kinds of contracts recognized in law, so are there different sorts of considerations. The simplest case is that where one party surrenders some property right to another for a consideration. In dual contracts the promises are mutual each promising a consideration to the other. But whatever the nature of the contracts -and they grow in complexity from day to day-no legal action can be taken upon them unless the consideration is clearly specified therein. But considerations need not always involve direct benefits to the contracting parties. Promises made after services rendered cannot become the basis of legal action, because such services are not rendered in view of a consideration. Thus, promising a reward after being saved from drowning, for instance, does not make one liable. Nor are promises binding when they involve the performance of what is one's legal duty, anyhow. No promise is legal which involves the performance of an illegal act. The adequacy or inadequacy of a consideration, however great or small, never matters in law. Thus, one may legally transfer property rights worth thousands of dollars in consideration of one cent. The history of the law of contracts, could we enter into it here, would show the origin of the requirement of consideration. It clearly grew out of the original custom of requiring proof of damage or detriment suffered by the plaintiff seeking pecuniary satisfaction. See CONTRACT. Consistory, in ecclesiastical usage, means a court or council of ministers and Church officials or dignitaries, for transaction of business relating to the Church. In the Roman Catholic Church the Consistory by eminence is the whole college of the cardinals, which is, so to speak, the Pope's senate, assembled at stated or occasional times to deliberate questions of Church administration. It is usually presided over by the Pope in person, but often by his delegate; the stated meetings are twice a month; the sessions are secret usually, but often they are public or semi-public, Church dignitaries of rank inferior to the cardinalate being admitted. In the Church of England every bishop of a diocese has a consistorial court for determination of ecclesiastical causes arising within his jurisdiction. In Presbyterian and other Protestant communions the Consistory is an assembly or. council of ministers and elders. Consolacion Del Sur, kōn-sō-lä-the-ôn děl soor, Cuba, the name of a district and a city in the eastern central part of Pinar del Rio province. It has railroad communication with Havana. Pop. of the district about 17,000; of the city 3,062. Consolato Del Mare, kon-sō-lä'tō děl mäʼrě. See COMMERCIAL LAW. Consolidated Fund, a fund, which now receives the produce of nearly all the taxes and other sources of revenue of Great Britain and Ireland, was formed in 1787 by the union of certain separate funds by Act 27 George III., cap. xiii. On the union of the exchequer of Great Britain and Ireland, in 1816, the fund was augmented with the separate revenue of the Irish exchequer, and the charges hitherto made upon that exchequer were thrown upon it. The fund is pledged for the payment of the interest of the whole of the national debt of Great Britain and Ireland, and after defraying the specific charges assigned to it, the surplus is applied indiscriminately to the public service. lic stock forming the greater portion of the naConsols, or Consolidated Annuities, a pubtional debt of Great Britain. It was formed in stocks bearing interest at 3 per cent into one 1751 by an act consolidating several separate general stock. At the period when the consolidation took place, the principal of the funds united amounted to £9,137,821; but through the addition of other loans it has increased so much that now, after considerable reductions, it still amounts to more than half of the national debt. Con'sonance, in music, is the effect of two or more sounds heard at the same time, which Consonances have two forms satisfies the ear. (major and minor), as the third and sixth, are called "imperfect"; those having only one form, as the fifth and octave, are called "perfect." See CONCORD. Con'sonant, a letter, which cannot be sounded, or only imperfectly, by itself and for utterance requires a vowel to be added. Conso CONSORT-CONSTABLE nants are either liquids or mutes. The liquid consonants, 1, m, n, r, are pronounced easily and with only a slight contact of the articulating organs. The mute consonants, those formed by such a position of the vocal organs as stops the emission of sound entirely, are b, d, g hard, p, k, and t. The two sibilants, s and z, usually numbered with consonants, are a class apart, for neither for initial nor for continued utterance do they need to be combined with a vowel; hence, like the liquids and v, they are semivowels. Consort, he, she or that which shares the same lot with another; a companion; a partner; an intimate associate; a wife or husband; applied in a modern sense chiefly to persons of royal degree or position, in countries where women are able to reign; as a queen consort; a prince consort; that is the wife of a reigning monarch, or spouse of a queen-regnant. It is also applied to a ship sailing in company with another. The queen consort, the wife of the reigning king, is, in all legal proceedings, looked upon as a single, not as a married woman. She may purchase and convey lands, grant leases, and do other acts of ownership without the intervention of the king. She may also sue and be sued in her separate person, and possesses courts and officers distinct from those of the king. She pays no toll, and is free from any fine which a court could impose upon women in general; but in other respects she is on a similar footing with the other subjects of the king. In her life and person, however, she enjoys the same protection as the king, it being high treason to design the death of either. The husband of a queen-regnant is not endowed by the constitution with any distinctive rights or privileges. All his privileges and honors, therefore, must emanate from the crown, under the form of a warrant, grant, or patent, or else be tonferred by act of Parliament introduced after a royal message on the subject. Up to 1857, when the title of Prince Consort was bestowed upon him by letters-patent, the late Prince Albert possessed no distinctive title and no place in court ceremonial but such as was accorded to him by courtesy. Conspiracy, legally defined, "a combination by two or more persons, by some concerted action, to accomplish an unlawful purpose, or to accomplish a purpose not in itself unlawful, by unlawful means." The common law recognizes as an offense the agreement between the conspirators to do an unlawful act, and no overt act is necessary for the completion of the crime; but changes have been made in this holding of the common law by the laws of several of the States and by Federal legislation in the United States. Where the changes have been made it has been declared that an overt act was necessary to make the conspiracy a crime. Conspiracies are ranked as misdemeanors, except such as by acts of legislation have been declared statutory conspiracies, and punishable as such, and they are ranked as felonies. Consult Bishop, New Commentaries on the Criminal Law.' Constable, kun'stä-bl, Archibald, Scottish publisher: b. Carnee, Fifeshire, 24 Feb. 1774; d. Edinburgh 21 July 1827. He was the original publisher of the Edinburgh Review', the poems of Sir Walter Scott, the Waverley Novels, and other well-known works. In 1826, however, the firm was compelled to stop payment, with liabilities exceeding $1,250,000. Sir Walter Scott, who was heavily involved, practically sacrificed his life in the endeavor to meet his creditors. Constable himself did not long survive his misfortunes. Constable, Archibald, and His Literary Correspondents, a work by Thomas Constable. (1873.) It is the story of the Edinburgh publishing house which established the Edinburgh Review; initiated the publication of cheap popular volumes of literature, art, and science; and by a bold liberality in payment of authors, with remarkable sagacity in judging what would succeed with the public, virtually transformed the business of publishing. In October 1802 the first number of the Edinburgh Review' appeared. The generous scale of payment soon adopted,-25 guineas a sheet,- startled the trade, and greatly contributed to make Constable the foremost among publishers of his day. Constable, Henry, English poet: b. Newark, England, 1562; d. Liège, Belgium, 9 Oct. 1613. His chief work was his book of sonnets, Diana,' published in 1592, when few sonnets in the Italian form had been written. He was probably the author also of the Forest of Fancy' (1579), attributed to Chettle. Suspected of treason against Elizabeth, he was compelled to leave the country, and on his return in 1604 was confined in the Tower for a short time. His lyric and Adonis take a high place in contemporary 'Diaphenia and his pastoral Venus song. Constable, John, English landscape painter: b. East Bergholt, Suffolk, 11 June 1776; d. London 30 March 1837. His father was a wealthy miller, and was at first desirous that his son should enter the Church, and then, on finding him disinclined to this career, proposed that he should follow his own business. At the latter employment he continued for several years, but his favorite pursuit was painting, and in this he used to occupy his leisure hours. After considerable objection on the part of his father, he entered as a student of the Royal Academy in 1799. For many years his progress as an artist was extremely slow, and it was not until 1814. 12 years after he had begun to send pictures to the exhibition, that he succeeded in getting any of them sold. In 1819 his View on the River Stour attracted much attention, and procured him admission as an associate of the Academy, From this period his reputation widely extended itself, both over Great Britain and the Continent, and for some of his works exhibited at the Louvre he received a gold medal from the king of France. Constable's pictures are remarkable for the truth and vividness with which country scenes and natural phenomena are represented. Fuseli said of them that they made him call for his umbrella; and a French critic declared that his leaves and grass were bespangled with morning dew. Among the finest of his works are: A View of Salisbury Cathedral'; 'The Cornfield; "The Lock'; and The Valley Farm. Lately several good examples of Constable's art have been added to the Louvre, and the late Henry Marquand presented two fine pictures by him to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. See: Leslie, Memoirs of Constable' (1845); Wedmore, 'Studies in Eng CONSTABLE-CONSTANCE Fish Art (1876-80); Brock-Arnold, Gainsborough and Constable' (1881); Chesneau, La Peinture Anglaise (1882); Muther, History of Modern Painting) (1896). Constable (Lat. comes stabuli, count of the stable master of the horse). 1. A great noble under the later Roman empire, and so down through the Middle Ages; usually the commander-in-chief of the army; in France also of the navy, and the chief subject in the state, whence Richelieu abolished the office in 1627. Napoleon revived the title but not the authority, and it lapsed with him. In England the lord high constable and the earl marshal held the courtsmartial and courts of chivalry; but Henry VIII. left the office unfilled, and it is only revived temporarily for great pageants. There were constables who were wardens of castles, and whose office is still existent, hereditary or appointive. 2. In England, a petty constable was the chief parish officer for keeping the peace, but is now mostly supplanted by the police. 3. In the United States, outside of cities and incorporated villages, the constable is still the chief conservator of the peace. The office was borrowed from England, and in colonial times was of high importance, including functions now assigned to various other officers. In New England he was appointed by the selectmen, in Vir ginia by the hundred, in other provinces or States chosen by the town. He not only made arrests, imprisoned, had right of search and executing processes, etc., but he was often tax collector, overseer of the roads, and even petty judge, and gave notice of town-meetings. There was no legally defined scope of his duties, each community deciding them for itself, but the place was always considered one of power and dignity. Philadelphia and New York had high constables, the latter up to about 1830, when his functions were given to the chief of police. The office of "constable of the commonwealth" has also been created in some States. Con'stance (Ger. Constanz, or Konstanz, ancient CONSTANTIA), Germany, city and lakeport in the grand-duchy of Baden, occupying the only territory belonging to Germany on the south side of the Lake of Constance, at the place where that lake communicates with the arm known as the Untersee, "Lower Lake," and where the Rhine issues from it; 35 miles northeast of Zurich. The chief edifices are a cathedral, the Kaufhaus, in which the famous Council of Constance sat from 1414 to 1418, and which deposed three anti-popes, and condemned Huss and Jerome of Prague; an ancient palace; a grand ducal residence. The city has manufactories of cotton. goods, carpets, chemicals, and sacking. Constance is said to have been founded in 378 A.D. by Constantius Chlorus as a bulwark against the Alemanni. In the Middle Ages, when it reached the height of its prosperity (at the time of the Council it was able to receive 20.000 visitors), it was frequently called Kostnitz. It was annexed to the Austrian dominions in 1549, and to Baden in 1805. Pop. 16,500. Constance, General Council of, the 16th ecumenical council of the Church, was held at Constance in Switzerland; it was presided over by Pope John XXIII., in its opening session 5 Nov. 1414, and was dissolved in its 45th session 1418. It was called for the purpose of restoring peace to the Church, which was trou honors. bled with schisms owing to the rivalry of three claimants of the papal throne. There was Balthasar Cossa, styled John XXIII. his title seemed to be sound in point of law, but the man was eminently unfit for the office; then there was Petrus de Luna, styled Benedict XIIII.: he was a Spaniard, but was chosen by the French cardinals: his style Benedict XIII., was formally disallowed when the Pope, Vincenzo Marco Orsini, who at first assumed the style of Benedict XIV. (1724), afterward changed that to Benedict XIII.; and there was Angelo Corario, styled Gregory XII.: both of these had been condemned as perjured men, heretics, and schismatics, by the Council of Pisa, which council "deposed" them; but they still claimed papal Besides the healing of these schisms, the Council was called to take measures for repression of Wiclefism in England and analogous heresies in Bohemia and elsewhere. Also the Council was to consider the ways and means of effecting a "reformation of the Church in head and members." In the Council were some of the eminent divines of the time, among them Pierre d'Ailly and Gerson, chancellor of the University of Paris, both sturdy advocates of reform: there were also in the Council bishops representing the churches of England and Ireland. John Huss, chancellor of the University of Prague, summoned to plead in the Council to the charge of maintaining the Wiclefite heresies, attended, having come under a safe-conduct of the Emperor Sigismund. The Council condemned the doctrines of Huss and ordered him to be given up to the civil power, to be dealt with according to the laws: he perished at the stake. Memorable among the acts of this Council is its decision of a question submitted to the fathers regarding the succession to the sovereignty of the margraviate of Brandenburg. The Council recog nized the superior validity of the claim of Conrad of Hohenzollern; from him is sprung the royal line of Prussia. The Council in the 12th session 29 May 1415 published a decree deposing John XXIII., who after a while formally resigned. In the 14th session Gregory XII. (Corario) gave in his resignation. Petrus de Luna (Benedict XIII.) refused to resign: but being no longer sustained by the king of Spain, he was simply ignored, and Cardinal Otto Colonna was elected Pope 11 Nov. 1417 under the style of Martin V. The schisms caused by the rival After a few reformatory popes were ended. measures, quite inadequate for the needs of the situation, were enacted, the Council was dissolved 22 April 1418. Constance, Lake (anciently LACUS BRIGANTINUS; German Boden See), in central Europe, forming a common centre, in which Switzerland, and the territories of Baden, Würtemburg, Bavaria, and Austria meet. It lies between lat. 47° 28′ and 47° 50' N.; and lon. 9° and 9° 42′ E.; length, northwest to southeast, 40 miles; greatest breadth, about 9 miles; area, 200 square miles; greatest depth, which is between Friedrichshafen and Rorschach, 964 feet; 1,283 feet above sea-level. At its northwest extremity the lake divides into two branches or arms, each about 14 miles in length: the north arm is called the Überlingen Lake, after the town of Überlingen, on its north bank; the south branch the Zellersee or Untersee. The Rhine enters the lake at Rheineck, at its southeast extremity, and leaves CONSTANCE FALCON - CONSTANTINE it at Stein, at its northwest termination. Various other smaller rivers empty themselves into it. The lake, the waters of which are of a darkgreen hue and very clear, are subject to sudden risings, the causes of which are unknown. In 1770 it rose in one hour from 20 to 24 feet above the ordinary level. It freezes in severe winters only. It is frequented by numerous aquatic birds, and contains a great variety and abundance of fish, including salmon, salmon-trout, pike, and carp. The traffic on it is considerable, although its navigation by sailing vessels is rendered dangerous by sudden and violent squalls. Steamers ply on the lake between Constance and various points on its shores. The land near is either flat or gently undulating, and fertile, and is covered with corn-fields, orchards, and gardens, interspersed with ruined castles, and other remains of the Middle Ages, and with numerous towns and villages, producing altogether a very pleasing and striking effect. Constance Falcon, or Phaulkon, Greek political adventurer of the 17th century. His proper name was Constantine, and he was born in the island of Cephalonia. Having secured the favor of the king of Siam he undertook the project of introducing Christianity among the Siamese, and induced the king of Siam to send an embassy to Louis XIV. The ambassadors died on the route; but the French monarch, hearing of the scheme, sent two envoys, with some Jesuits, to Siam. French troops were also introduced into the country. These circum stances aroused the jealousy of the native princes and nobility, the result of which was a conspiracy which terminated in the dethronement of the king and the death of Constance, who was beheaded. Constans (kon'stǎnz), Flavius Julius, Roman emperor: b. about 320 A.D.; d. in Gaul 350 A.D. He was a son of Constantine the Great, and divided the empire after the death of his father with his brothers, Constantine II. and Constantius II., receiving for his share Illyricum, Italy, and Africa. Constantine, who invaded his provinces, having been slain in the battle of Aquileia, Constans became emperor of the whole West. He was weak, profligate, and rapacious. His misrule caused an insurrection in Gaul under Magnentius; he fled to Spain, but was overtaken at the foot of the Pyrenees by the soldiers of the usurper, and slain. Constans protected the creed of Nice against the Arians and the Donatists, and closed the pagan temples. Constans, Jean Antoine Ernest, zhon äntwän ĕr-na kôn-stän, French politician: b. Béziers 3 May 1833. He was professor of law at Toulouse, was a republican member of the Chamber of Deputies in 1816; minister of the interior 1880-2; minister to China 1885-7, and governor-general of Indo-China 1887-8. He was elected senator in 1889, and as minister of the interior 1889-92, actively contributed to the overthrow of Boulangerism. Constant, Jean Joseph Benjamin, zhon zho zěf bon-zhă-măn, French portrait painter: b. Paris 10 June 1845; d. there 26 May 1902. He studied in the Ecole des Beaux Arts and under Cabanel. He has exhibited with growing distinction, at successive salons, from that of 1860, with his 'Hamlet,' his Samson' in 1872, his 'Scenes from Algiers' in 1873-4, his great historical painting of 'Mohammed II. in 1453' in the Exposition of 1878, and in 1885 a large Oriental subject, as melodramatic as possible, with splendid rendering of the human figure and strong effects of color. Other noted canvases by him are 'Le Roi du Désert'; 'La Tigre Favori'; and portraits of Mrs. Walters; Madame Calvé; Queen Victoria, exhibited in the Salon of 1901; Queen Alexandra; and De Blowitz. He was the fashionable artist of his time in Paris and London. His noble picture of Justinian' is in the Metropolitan Art Museum, New York. He was decorated with the Legion of Honor in 1878. on-rẽ bon zhä măn kon-stän de re-běk, French Constant de Rebecque, Henri Benjamin, d. Paris 8 Dec. 1830. A member of the Revolupublicist: b. Lausanne, Switzerland, 23 Oct. 1767; tionary Tribunate, he was banished by Napoleon, and later by the Bourbons for accepting Napoleon. His chief works are: Cours de politique constitutionelle' (1818-20); Religion Considered in its Source, Its Forms, and Its Developments (1823-5); 'Roman Polytheism'; and a romance, Adolphe (1816). South Africa; on the eastern and northeastern Constan'tia, a district of Cape Colony, in slopes of Table Mountain range, and distant from Cape Town seven miles. Constantia consists of only three estates, High, Great, and Little Constantia, which have long been famed for the quality of the wines produced upon them. The wines are sweet wines of delicious aroma, both red and white. Constantin, kôn-stän-tăn, Abraham, Swiss painter on porcelain: b. Geneva 1785; d. after 1851. His first work, a copy of Raphael's 'Madonna della seggiola,' was executed for the Empress Josephine. He afterward spent many years in Italy in close study of the works of Raphael, of whose style he became a successful imitator. In 1832 he was commissioned by Louis Philippe to make copies of Raphael's chief works in the Vatican, in the execution of which he carried the art of enamel painting to a perfection never before attained. The Transfiguration' alone occupied him a year. He has also made copies of the masterpieces of Titian, Correggio, and others, and in a few instances has attempted original compositions and portraits from life, which are highly prized. His best works are in the museum at Sèvres, and at Turin. Constantin made some valuable discoveries in the mechanical processes of his art, particularly with reference to the effect of burning upon the colors. Constantine (kon'stan-tin) I., Pope. He was elected in 708, and died in 714. There was also an anti-pope of this name, who usurped the holy office in 767. Constantine I., Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus, called the GREAT, Roman emperor: b. Rome 27 Feb. 274; d. Nicomedia 22 May 337. He was the son of the Emperor Constantine Chlorus, and after the death of his father was chosen emperor by the soldiery, in the year 306. Galerius was very unwilling to allow him the title of AUGUSTUS, and gave him that of CESAR only. Constantine, however, took possession of the countries which had been subject to his father, namely, Gaul, Spain, and Britain. He overcame the Franks, who had formerly |