Chapter VIII: Part 8

On the 19th of September 1900 the United States Philippine Commission passed an act "for the establishment and maintenance of an efficient and honest civil service in the Philippine Islands." This act, in its general features, is based upon the national civil service law, but includes also a number of the stronger points to be found in the state and municipal law mentioned above. Among these are the power given the civil service board to administer oaths, summon witnesses, and require the production of official records; and the power to stop payment of salaries to persons illegally appointed. Promotions are determined by competitive examinations, and are made throughout the service, as there are no excepted positions. A just right of preference in local appointments is given to natives. The president of the Philippine commission in introducing this bill said: "The purpose of the United States government ... in these islands is to secure for the Filipino people as honest and as efficient a government as may be possible.... It is the hope of the commission to make it possible for one entering the lowest ranks to reach the highest, under a tenure based solely upon merit." Judging by past experience it is believed that this law is well adapted to accomplish the purpose above stated.

For fuller information upon the details of the present workings of the
merit system in the Federal service, recourse should be had to the
publications of the U.S. Civil Service Commission, which are to be
found in the public libraries in all the principal cities in the
United States, or which may be had free of charge upon application to
the commission. The _Manual of Examinations_, published semi-annually,
gives full information as to the character of the examinations held by
the commission, together with the schedule of dates and places for the
holding of those examinations. The _Annual Reports_ of the commission
contain full statistics of the results of its work, together with
comprehensive statements as to the difficulties encountered in
enforcing the law, and the means used to overcome them. In the
_Fifteenth Report_, pp. 443-485, will be found a very valuable
historical compilation from original sources, upon the "practice of
the presidents in appointments and removals in the executive civil
service, from 1789 to 1883." In the same report, pp. 511-517, is a
somewhat comprehensive bibliography of "civil service" in periodical
literature in the 19th century, brought down to the end of 1898. See
also C.R. Fish, _The Civil Service and the Patronage_ (New York,
1905).

In most European countries the civil service is recruited on much the
same lines as in the United Kingdom and the United States, that is,
either by examination or by nomination or by both. In some cases the
examination is purely competitive, in other cases, as in France,
holders of university degrees get special privileges, such as being
put at the head of the list, or going up a certain number of places;
or, as in Germany, many departmental posts are filled by nomination,
combined with the results of general examinations, either at school or
university. In the publications of the United States Department of
Labour and Commerce for 1904-1905 will be found brief details of the
systems adopted by the various foreign countries for appointing their
civil service employees.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] See letter to Monroe, November 29th, 1820, Jefferson's
_Writings_, vii. 190. A quotation from this letter is given at p. 454
of the _Fifteenth Report of the U.S. Civil Service Commission_.

[2] See _Senate Report No. 576_, 47th Congress, 1st session; also
_U.S. Civil Service Commission's Third Report_, p. 16 et seq., _Tenth
Report_, pp. 136, 137, and _Fifteenth Report_, pp. 483, 484.

[3] The progressive classification of the executive civil service,
showing the growth of the merit system, is discussed, with
statistics, in the _U.S. Civil Service Commission's Sixteenth
Report_, pp. 129-137. A revision of this discussion, with important
additions, appears in the _Seventeenth Report_.

[4] For details justifying these statements, see _U.S. Civil Service
Commission's Fourteenth Report_, pp. 12-14.

[5] For the scope of these exceptions, see Civil Service Rule VI., at
p. 57 of the _U.S. Civil Service Commission's Fifteenth and Sixteenth
Reports_. A statement of the number of positions actually affected by
this action of the president appears in the _Seventeenth Report_.

[6] In the _U.S. Civil Service Commission's Fifteenth Report_, pp.
489-502, the "growth of the civil service reform in states and
cities" is historically treated, briefly, but with some thoroughness.

CIVITA CASTELLANA (anc. _Falerii_, q.v.), a town and episcopal see of the province of Rome, 45 m. by rail from the city of Rome (the station is 5 m. N.E. of the town). Population (1901) 5265. The cathedral of S. Maria possesses a fine portico, erected in 1210 by Laurentius Romanus, his son Jacobus and his grandson Cosmas, in the cosmatesque style, with ancient columns and mosaic decorations: the interior was modernized in the 18th century, but has some fragments of cosmatesque ornamentation. The citadel was erected by Pope Alexander VI. from the designs of Antonio da Sangallo the elder, and enlarged by Julius II. and Leo X. The lofty bridge by which the town is approached belongs to the 18th century. Mount Soracte lies about 6 m. to the south-east.

CIVITA VECCHIA, a seaport town and episcopal see of Italy, in the province of Rome, 50 m. N.W. by rail and 35 m. direct from the city of Rome. Pop. (1871) 8143; (1901) 17,589. It is the ancient _Centum Cellae_, founded by Trajan. Interesting descriptions of it are given by Pliny the Younger (_Epist._ vi. 31) and Rutilius Namat. i. 237. The modern harbour works rest on the ancient foundations, and near it the cemetery of detachments of the _Classes Misenensis_ and _Ravennas_ has been found (_Corp. Inscr. Lat._ vol. xi., Berlin, 1888, pp. 3520 seq.). Remains of an aqueduct and other Roman buildings are preserved; the imperial family had a villa here. Procopius mentions it in the 6th century as a strong and populous place, but it was destroyed in 813 by the Saracens. Leo IV. erected a new city for the inhabitants on the site where they had taken refuge, about 8 m. N.N.E. of Civita Vecchia towards the hills, near La Farnesina, where its ruins may still be seen; the city walls and some of the streets and buildings may be traced, and an inscription (which must have stood over one of the city gates) recording its foundation has been discovered. It continued to exist under the name Cencelle as a feudal castle until the 15th century. In the meantime, however, the inhabitants returned to the old town by the shore in 889 and rebuilt it, giving it the name Civitas Vetus, the modern Civita Vecchia (see O. Marucchi in _Nuovo Bullettino di archeologia cristiana_, vi., 1900, p. 195 seq.). In 1508 Pope Julius II. began the construction of the castle from the designs of Bramante, Michelangelo being responsible for the addition of the central tower. It is considered by Burckhardt the finest building of its kind. Pius IV. added a convict prison. The arsenal was built by Alexander VII. and designed by Bernini. Civita Vecchia was the chief port of the Papal State and has still a considerable trade. There are cement factories in the town, and calcium carbide is an important article of export. The principal imports are coal, cattle for the home markets, and fire-bricks from the United Kingdom. Three miles N.E. were the _Aquae Tauri_, warm springs, now known as _Bagni della Ferrata_: considerable remains of the Roman baths are still preserved. About 1 m. W. of these are other hot springs, those of the _Ficoncella_, also known in Roman times.

CLACKMANNAN, the county town of Clackmannanshire, Scotland. Pop. 1505. It lies near the north bank of the Forth, 2 m. E. of Alloa, with two stations on the North British railway. Among the public buildings are the parish church, the tower of which, standing on a commanding eminence, is a conspicuous landmark. Clackmannan Tower is now a picturesque ruin, but at one time played an important part in Scottish history, and was the seat of a lineal descendant of the Bruce family after the failure of the male line. The old market cross still exists, and close to it stands the stone that gives the town its name (Gaelic, _clach_, stone; Manann, the name of the district). A large spinning-mill and coalpits lend a modern touch in singular contrast with the quaint, old-world aspect of the place. About 1 m. to the S.E. is Kennet House, the seat of Lord Balfour of Burleigh, another member of the Bruce family.

CLACKMANNANSHIRE, the smallest county in Scotland, bounded S.W. by the Forth, W. by Stirlingshire, N.N.E. and N.W. by Perthshire, and E. by Fifeshire. It has an area of 35,160 acres, or about 55 sq. m. An elevated ridge starting on the west, runs through the middle of the county, widening gradually till it reaches the eastern boundary, and skirting the alluvial or carse lands in the valleys of the Forth and Devon. Still farther to the N. the Ochil hills form a picturesque feature in the landscape, having their generally verdant surface broken by bold projecting rocks and deeply indented ravines. The principal summits are within the limits of the shire, among them Ben Cleuch (2363 ft.), King's Seat (2111 ft.), Whitewisp (2110 ft.), the Law (above Tillicoultry, 2094 ft.) and Blairdenon (2072 ft.), on the northern slope, in which the river Devon takes its rise. The rivers of importance are the Devon and the Black or South Devon. The former, noted in the upper parts for its romantic scenery and its excellent trout-fishing, runs through the county near the base of the Ochils, and falls into the Forth at the village of Cambus, after a winding course of 33 m., although as the crow flies its source is only 5 1/4 m. distant. The Black Devon, rising in the Cleish Hills, flows westwards in a direction nearly parallel to that of the Devon, and falls into the Forth near Clackmannan. It supplies motive power to numbers of mills and collieries; and its whole course is over coal strata. The Forth is navigable as far as it forms the boundary of the county, and ships of 500 tons burden run up as far as Alloa. The only lake is Gartmorn, 1 m. long by about 1/3 of a mile broad, which has been dammed in order to furnish water to Alloa and power to mills. The Ochils are noted for the number of their glens. Though these are mostly small, they are well wooded and picturesque, and those at Menstrie, Alva, Tillicoultry and Dollar are particularly beautiful.

_Geology._--This county is divided geologically into two areas, the
boundary line skirting the southern margin of the Ochils and running
westwards from a point north of Dollar by Alva in the direction of
Airthrev in Stirlingshire. The northern portion forms part of the
volcanic range of the Ochils which belongs to the Old Red Sandstone
period, and consists of a great succession of lavas--basalts and
andesites--with intercalations of tuff and agglomerate. As the rocks
dip gently towards the north and form the highest ground in the county
they must reach a great thickness. They are pierced by small intrusive
masses of diorite, north of Tillicoultry House. The well-marked
feature running E. and W. along the southern base of the Ochils
indicates a line of fault or dislocation which abruptly truncates the
Lower Old Red volcanic rocks and brings down an important development
of Carboniferous strata occupying the southern part of the county.
These belong mainly to the Coal-measures and comprise a number of
valuable coal-seams which have been extensively worked. The
Clackmannan field is the northern continuation of the great
Lanarkshire basin which extends northwards by Slamannan, Falkirk and
the Carron Ironworks to Alloa. Along the eastern margin between
Cairnmuir and Brucefield the underlying Millstone Grit, consisting
mainly of false-bedded sandstones, comes to the surface. Close to the
river Devon south of Dollar the Vicars Bridge Limestone, which there
marks the top of the Carboniferous Limestone series, rises from
beneath the Millstone Grit. The structure of the Clackmannan field is
interesting. The strata are arranged in synclinal form, the highest
seams being found near the Devon ironworks, and they are traversed by
a series of parallel east and west faults each with a downthrow to the
south, whereby the coals are repeated and the field extended. During
mining operations evidence has been obtained of the existence of a
buried river-channel, filled with boulder clay and stratified deposits
along the course of the Devon, which extends below the present
sea-level and points to greater elevation of the land in pre-glacial
time. An excellent example of a dolerite dyke trending slightly north
of west occurs in the north part of the county where it traverses the
volcanic rocks of Lower Old Red Sandstone age.

_Industries._--The soil is generally productive and well cultivated, though the greater part of the elevated range which is interposed between the carse lands on the Forth and the vale of Devon at the base of the Ochils on the north consists of inferior soils, often lying upon an impervious clay. Oats are the chief crop, but wheat and barley are profitably grown. Sheep-farming is successfully pursued, the Ochils affording excellent pasturage, and cattle, pigs and horses are also raised. There is a small tract of moorland in the east, called the Forest, bounded on its northern margin by the Black Devon. Iron-ore (haematite), copper, silver, lead, cobalt and arsenic have all been discovered in small quantity in the Ochils, between Alva and Dollar. Ironstone--found either in beds, or in oblate balls embedded in slaty clay, and yielded from 25 to 30% of iron--is mined for the Devon iron-works, near Clackmannan. Coal has been mined for a long period. The strata which compose the field are varieties of sandstone, shale, fire-clay and argillaceous ironstone. There is a heavy continuous output of coal at the mines at Sauchie, Fishcross, Coalsnaughton, Devonside, Clackmannan and other pits. The spinning-mills at Alloa, Tillicoultry and Alva are always busy, Alloa yarns and fingering being widely famous. The distilleries at Glenochil and Carsebridge and the breweries in Alloa and Cambus do a large export business. The minor trades include glass-blowing, pottery, coopering, tanning, iron-founding, electrical apparatus making, ship-building and paper-making.

The north British railway serves the whole county, while the Caledonian has access to Alloa.

_Population and Government._--The population was 33,140 in 1891 and 32,029 in 1901, when 170 persons spoke Gaelic and English and one person Gaelic only. The county unites with Kinross-shire in returning one member to parliament. Clackmannan (pop. 1505) is the county town, but Alloa (14,458), Alva (4624), and Tillicoultry (3338) take precedence in population and trade. Menstrie (pop. 898) near Alloa has a large furniture factory and the great distillery of Glenochil. To the north-east of Alloa is the thriving mining village of Sauchie. Clackmannan forms a sheriffdom with Stirling and Dumbarton shires, and a sheriff-substitute sits at Alloa. Most of the schools in the shire are under school-board control, but there are a few voluntary schools, besides an exceptionally well-equipped technical school in Alloa and a well-known academy at Dollar.

See James Wallace, _The Sheriffdom of Clackmannan: a Sketch of its
History_ (Edinburgh, 1890); D. Beveridge, _Between the Ochils and the
Forth_ (Edinburgh, 1888); John Crawford, _Memorials of Alloa_ (1885);
William Gibson, _Reminiscences of Dollar, Tillicoultry_,

CLACTON-ON-SEA, a watering-place in the Harwich parliamentary division of Essex, England; 71 m. E.N.E. from London by a branch from Colchester of the Great Eastern railway; served also by steamers from London in the summer months. Pop. of urban district (1901) 7456. Clay cliffs of slight altitude rise from the sandy beach and face south-eastward. In the neighbourhood, however, marshes fringe the shore. The church of Great Clacton, at the village 11/2 m. inland, is Norman and later, and of considerable interest. Clacton is provided with a pier, promenade and marine parade; and is the seat of various convalescent and other homes.

CLADEL, LEON (1835-1892), French novelist, was born at Montauban (Tarn-et-Garonne) on the 13th of March 1835. The son of an artisan, he studied law at Toulouse and became a solicitor's clerk in Paris. He made a reputation in a limited circle by his first book, _Les Martyrs ridicules_ (1862), a novel for which Charles Baudelaire, whose literary disciple Cladel was, wrote a preface. He then returned to his native district of Quercy, where he produced a series of pictures of peasant life in _Eral le dompteur_ (1865), _Le Nomme Qouael_ (1868) and other volumes. Returning to Paris he published the two novels which are generally acknowledged as his best work, _Le Bouscassie_ (1869) and _La Fete votive de Saint Bartholomee Porte-glaive_ (1872). _Une Maudite_ (1876) was judged dangerous to the public morals and cost its author a month's imprisonment. Other works by Cladel are _Les Va-nu-pieds_ (1873), a volume of short stories; _N'a qu'un oeil_ (1882), _Urbains et ruraux_ (1884), _Gueux de marque_ (1887), and the posthumous _Juive errante_ (1897). He died at Sevres on the 20th of July 1892.

See _La Vie de Leon Cladel_ (Paris, 1905), by his daughter Judith
Cladel, containing also an article on Cladel by Edmond Picard, a
complete list of his works, and of the critical articles on his work.

CLAFLIN, HORACE BRIGHAM (1811-1885), American merchant, was born in Milford, Massachusetts, on the 18th of December 1811. He was educated at Milford Academy, became a clerk in his father's store in Milford, and in 1831, with his brother Aaron and his brother-in-law Samuel Daniels, succeeded to his father's business. In 1832 the firm opened a branch store in Worcester, Mass., and in 1833 Horace B. Claflin and Daniels secured the sole control of this establishment and restricted their dealing to dry goods. In 1843 Claflin removed to New York City and became a member of the firm of Bulkley & Claflin, wholesale dry goods merchants. In 1851 and in 1864 the firm was reorganized, being designated in these respective years as Claflin, Mellin & Company and H.B. Claflin & Company. Under Claflin's management the business increased so rapidly that the sales for a time after 1865 probably exceeded those of any other mercantile house in the world. Though the firm was temporarily embarrassed at the beginning of the Civil War, on account of its large business interests in the South, and during the financial panic of 1873, the promptness with which Mr Claflin met these crises and paid every dollar of his liabilities greatly increased his reputation for business ability and integrity. He died at Fordham, New York, on the 14th of November 1885.

CLAIRAULT (or CLAIRAUT), ALEXIS CLAUDE (1713-1765), French mathematician, was born on the 13th or 7th of May 1713, at Paris, where his father was a teacher of mathematics. Under his father's tuition he made such rapid progress in mathematical studies that in his thirteenth year he read before the French Academy an account of the properties of four curves which he had then discovered. When only sixteen he finished a treatise, _Recherches sur les courbes a double courbure_, which, on its publication in 1731, procured his admission into the Academy of Sciences, although even then he was below the legal age. In 1736, together with Pierre Louis Maupertuis, he took part in the expedition to Lapland, which was undertaken for the purpose of estimating a degree of the meridian, and on his return he published his treatise _Theorie de la figure de la terre_ (1743). In this work he promulgated the theorem, known as "Clairault's theorem," which connects the gravity at points on the surface of a rotating ellipsoid with the compression and the centrifugal force at the equator (see EARTH, FIGURE OF THE). He obtained an ingenious approximate solution of the problem of the three bodies; in 1750 he gained the prize of the St Petersburg Academy for his essay _Theorie de la lune_; and in 1759 he calculated the perihelion of Halley's comet. He also detected singular solutions in differential equations of the first order, and of the second and higher degrees. Clairault died at Paris, on the 17th of May 1765.

CLAIRON, LA (1723-1803), French actress, whose real name was CLAIRE JOSEPH HIPPOLYTE LERIS, was born at Conde sur l'Escaut, Hainaut, on the 25th of January 1723, the natural daughter of any army sergeant. In 1736 she made her first stage appearance at the Comedie Italienne, in a small part in Marivaux's _Ile des esclaves_. After several years in the provinces she returned to Paris. Her life, meanwhile, had been decidedly irregular, even if not to the degree indicated by the libellous pamphlet _Histoire de la demoiselle Cronel, dite Fretillon, actrice de la Comedie de Rouen, ecrite par elle-meme_ (The Hague, 1746), or to be inferred from the disingenuousness of her own _Memoires d'Hippolyte Clairon_ (1798); and she had great difficulty in obtaining an order to make her _debut_ at the Comedie Francaise. Succeeding, however, at last, she had the courage to select the title-role of _Phedre_ (1743), and she obtained a veritable triumph. During her twenty-two years at this theatre, dividing the honours with her rival Mlle Dumesnil, she filled many of the classical roles of tragedy, and created a great number of parts in the plays of Voltaire, Marmontel, Saurin, de Belloy and others. She retired in 1766, and trained pupils for the stage, among them Mlle Raucourt. Goldsmith called Mlle Clairon "the most perfect female figure I have ever seen on any stage" (_The Bee_, 2nd No.); and Garrick, while recognizing her unwillingness or inability to make use of the inspiration of the instant, admitted that "she has everything that art and a good understanding with great natural spirit can give her."

CLAIRVAUX, a village of north-eastern France, in the department of Aube, 40 m. E.S.E. of Troyes on the Eastern railway to Belfort. Clairvaux (_Clara Vallis_) is situated in the valley of the Aube on the eastern border of the Forest of Clairvaux. Its celebrity is due to the abbey founded in 1115 by St Bernard, which became the centre of the Cistercian order. The buildings (see ABBEY) belong for the most part to the 18th century, but there is a large storehouse which dates from the 12th century. The abbey, suppressed at the Revolution, now serves as a prison, containing on an average 800 inmates, who are employed in agricultural and industrial occupations. Clairvaux has iron-works of some importance.

CLAIRVOYANCE (Fr. for "clear-seeing"), a technical term in psychical research, properly equivalent to lucidity, a supernormal power of obtaining knowledge in which no part is played by (_a_) the ordinary processes of sense-perception or (_b_) supernormal communication with other intelligences, incarnate, or discarnate. The word is also used, sometimes qualified by the word _telepathic_, to mean the power of gaining supernormal knowledge from the mind of another (see TELEPATHY). It is further commonly used by spiritualists to mean the power of seeing spirit forms, or, more vaguely, of discovering facts by some supernormal means.

_Lucidity._--Few experiments have been made to test the existence of this faculty. If communications from discarnate minds are regarded as possible, there are no means of distinguishing facts obtained in this way from facts obtained by independent clairvoyance. In practice no evidence has been obtained pointing to the possession by a discarnate spirit of knowledge not possessed by any living person (see MEDIUM). As explanation of the few successful experiments in independent clairvoyance we have the choice of three explanations: (1) lucidity; (2) telepathy from living persons; (3) hyperaesthesia. The second possibility was overlooked in Richet's diagram experiments; it cannot be assumed that a picture put into an envelope and not consciously recalled has been in reality forgotten. Similarly the clairvoyant diagnosis of diseases may depend on knowledge gained telepathically from the patient, who may be subliminally aware of diseased states of the body. The most elaborate experiments are by Prof. Richet with a hypnotized subject who succeeded in naming twelve cards out of sixty-eight. But no precautions were taken against hyperaesthesia further than enclosing the card in a second envelope. There is a power possessed by a certain number of people, of naming a card drawn by them or held in the hand face downwards, so that there is no normal knowledge of its suit and number. Few thorough trials have been made; but it seems to point to some kind of hyperaesthesia rather than to clairvoyance; in the Richet experiments even if the envelopes excluded hyperaesthesia of touch on the part of the medium, there may have been subliminal knowledge on Prof. Richet's part of the card which he put in the envelope. The experience known as the _deja vu_ has sometimes been explained as due to clairvoyance.

_Telepathic Clairvoyance._--For a discussion of this see TELEPATHY and CRYSTAL-GAZING. It may be noted here that some curious relation seems to exist between apparently telepathic acquisition of knowledge and the arrival of a letter, newspaper, &c, from which the same knowledge could be directly gained. We are confronted with a similar problem in attempting an explanation of the power of mediums to state correctly facts relating to objects placed in their hands. Of a somewhat different character is retrocognition (_q.v._), where the knowledge in many cases, if telepathic, must be derived from a discarnate mind.

Clairvoyance, as a term of spiritualism, with its correlative _clairaudience_, is the name given to the power of seeing and hearing discarnate spirits of dead relatives and others, with whom the living are said to be surrounded. More vaguely it includes the power of gaining knowledge, either through the spirit world or by means of psychometry (i.e. the supernormal acquisition of knowledge about owners of objects, writers of letters, &c). Some evidence for these latter powers has been accumulated by the Society for Psychical Research, but in many cases the piecing together of normally acquired knowledge, together with shrewd guessing, suffices to explain the facts, especially where the investigator has had no special training for his task.

See Richet, _Experimentelle Studien_ (1891); also in _Proc. S.P.R._
vi. 66. For a criticism see N.W. Thomas, _Thought Transference_, pp.
44-48. For Clairvoyance in general see F.W.H. Myers, _Human
Personality_, and in _Proc. S.P.R._ xi. 334 et seq. For a criticism of
the evidence see Mrs Sidgwick in _Proc. S.P.R._ vii. 30, 356.
(N. W. T.)

CLAMECY, a town of central France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Nievre, at the confluence of the Yonne and Beuvron and on the Canal du Nivernais, 46 m. N.N.E. of Nevers on the Paris-Lyon railway. Pop. (1906) 4455. Its principal building is the church of St Martin, which dates chiefly from the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries. The tower and facade are of the 16th century. The chevet, which is surrounded by an aisle, is rectangular--a feature found in few French churches. Of the old castle of the counts of Nevers, vaulted cellars alone remain. A church in the suburb of Bethlehem, dating from the 12th and 13th centuries, now serves as part of an hotel. The public institutions include the sub-prefecture, tribunals of first instance and of commerce and a communal college. Among the industrial establishments are saw-mills, fulling-mills and flour-mills, tanneries and manufactories of boots and shoes and chemicals; and there is considerable trade in wine and cattle and in wood and charcoal, which is conveyed principally to Paris, by way of the Yonne.

In the early middle ages Clamecy belonged to the abbey of St Julian at Auxerre; in the 11th century it passed to the counts of Nevers, one of whom, Herve, enfranchised the inhabitants in 1213. After the capture of Jerusalem by Saladin in 1188, Clamecy became the seat of the bishops of Bethlehem, who till the Revolution resided in the hospital of Panthenor, bequeathed by William IV., count of Nevers. On the _coup d'etat_ of 1851 an insurrection broke out in the town, and was repressed by the new authorities with great severity.

CLAN (Gaelic _clann_, O. Ir. _cland_, connected with Lat. _planta_, shoot or scion, the ancient Gaelic or Goidelic substituting k for p), a group of people united by common blood, and usually settled in a common habitat. The clan system existed in Ireland and the Highlands of Scotland from early times. In its strictest sense the system was peculiar to those countries, but, in its wider meaning of a group of kinsmen forming a self-governing community, the system as represented by the village community has been shown by Sir H. Maine and others to have existed at one time or another in all lands.

Before the use of surnames and elaborate written genealogies, a tribe in its definite sense was called in Celtic a _tuath_, a word of wide affinities, from a root _tu_, to grow, to multiply, existing in all European languages. When the tribal system began to be broken up by conquest and by the rise of towns and of territorial government, the use of a common surname furnished a new bond for keeping up a connexion between kindred. The head of a tribe or smaller group of kindred selected some ancestor and called himself his _Ua_, grandson, or as it has been anglicized _O', e.g. Ua Conchobair_ (O' Conor), _Ua Suilleabhain_ (O'Sullivan). All his kindred adopted the same name, the chief using no fore-name however. The usual mode of distinguishing a person before the introduction of surnames was to name his father and grandfather, e.g. Owen, son of Donal, son of Dermot. This naturally led some to form their surnames with _Mac_, son, instead of _Ua_, grandson, e.g. _MacCarthaigh_, son of _Carthach_ (MacCarthy), _MacRuaidhri_, son of Rory (Macrory). Both methods have been followed in Ireland, but in Scotland _Mac_ came to be exclusively used. The adoption of such genealogical surnames fostered the notion that all who bore the same surname were kinsmen, and hence the genealogical term _clann_, which properly means the descendants of some progenitor, gradually became synonymous with _tuath_, tribe. Like all purely genealogical terms, _clann_ may be used in the limited sense of a particular tribe governed by a chief, or in that of many tribes claiming descent from a common ancestor. In the latter sense it was synonymous with _sil, siol_, seed e.g. _Siol Alpine_, a great clan which included the smaller clans of the Macgregors, Grants, Mackinnons, Macnabs, Macphies, Macquarries and Macaulays.

The clan system in the most archaic form of which we have any definite information can be best studied in the Irish _tuath_, or tribe.[1] This consisted of two classes: (1) tribesmen, and (2) a miscellaneous class of slaves, criminals, strangers and their descendants. The first class included tribesmen by blood in the male line, including all illegitimate children acknowledged by their fathers, and tribesmen by adoption or sons of tribeswomen by strangers, foster-sons, men who had done some signal service to the tribe, and lastly the descendants of the second class after a certain number of generations. Each _tuath_ had a chief called a _rig_, king, a word cognate with the Gaulish _rig-s_ or _rix_, the Latin _reg-s_ or _rex_, and the Old Norse _rik-ir_. The tribesmen formed a number of communities, each of which, like the tribe itself, consisted of a head, _ceann fine_, his kinsmen, slaves and other retainers. This was the _fine_, or sept. Each of these occupied a certain part of the tribe-land, the arable part being cultivated under a system of co-tillage, the pasture land co-grazed according to certain customs, and the wood, bog and mountains forming the marchland of the sept being the unrestricted common land of the sept. The sept was in fact a village community.

What the sept was to the tribe, the homestead was to the sept. The head of a homestead was an _aire_, a representative freeman capable of acting as a witness, compurgator and bail. These were very important functions, especially when it is borne in mind that the tribal homestead was the home of many of the kinsfolk of the head of the family as well as of his own children. The descent of property being according to a gavel-kind custom, it constantly happened that when an _aire_ died the share of his property which each member of his immediate family was entitled to receive was not sufficient to qualify him to be an _aire_. In this case the family did not divide the inheritance, but remained together as "a joint and undivided family," one of the members being elected chief of the family or household, and in this capacity enjoyed the rights and privileges of an _aire_. Sir H.S. Maine directed attention to this kind of family as an important feature of the early institutions of all Indo-European nations. Beside the "joint and undivided family," there was another kind of family which we might call "the joint family." This was a partnership composed of three or four members of a sept whose individual wealth was not sufficient to qualify each of them to be an _aire_, but whose joint wealth qualified one of the co-partners as head of the joint family to be one.

So long as there was abundance of land each family grazed its cattle upon the tribe-land without restriction; unequal increase of wealth and growth of population naturally led to its limitation, each head of a homestead being entitled to graze an amount of stock in proportion to his wealth, the size of his homestead, and his acquired position. The arable land was no doubt applotted annually at first; gradually, however, some of the richer families of the tribe succeeded in evading this exchange of allotments and converting part of the common land into an estate in sevralty. Septs were at first colonies of the tribe which settled on the march-land; afterwards the conversion of part of the common land into an estate in sevralty enabled the family that acquired it to become the parent of a new sept. The same process might, however, take place within a sept without dividing it; in other words, several members of the sept might hold part of the land of the sept as separate estate. The possession of land in sevralty introduced an important distinction into the tribal system--it created an aristocracy. An _aire_ whose family held the same land for three generations was called a _flaith_, or lord, of which rank there were several grades according to their wealth in land and chattels. The _aires_ whose wealth consisted in cattle only were called _bo-aires_, or cow-_aires_, of whom there were also several grades, depending on their wealth in stock. When a _bo-aire_ had twice the wealth of the lowest class of _flaith_ he might enclose part of the land adjoining his house as a lawn; this was the first step towards his becoming a _flaith_. The relations which subsisted between the _flaiths_ and the _bo-aires_ formed the most curious part of the Celtic tribal system, and throw a flood of light on the origin of the feudal system. Every tribesman without exception owed _ceilsinne_ to the _rig_, or chief, that is, he was bound to become his _ceile_, or vassal. This consisted in paying the _rig_ a tribute in kind, for which the _ceile_ was entitled to receive a proportionate amount of stock without having to give any bond for their return, giving him service, e.g. in building his _dun_, or stronghold, reaping his harvest, keeping his roads clean and in repair, killing wolves, and especially service in the field, and doing him homage three times while seated every time he made his return of tribute. Paying the "_calpe_" to the Highland chiefs represented this kind of vassalage, a _colpdach_ or heifer being in many cases the amount of food-rent paid by a free or _saer ceile_. A tribesman might, however, if he pleased, pay a higher rent on receiving more stock together with certain other chattels for which no rent was chargeable. In this case he entered into a contract, and was therefore a bond or _daer ceile_. No one need have accepted stock on these terms, nor could he do so without the consent of his sept, and he might free himself at any time from his obligation by returning what he had received, and the rent due thereon.

What every one was bound to do to his _rig_, or chief, he might do voluntarily to the _flaith_ of his sept, to any _flaith_ of the tribe, or even to one of another tribe. He might also become a bond _ceile_. In either case he might renounce his ceileship by returning a greater or lesser amount of stock than what he had received according to the circumstances under which he terminated his vassalage. In cases of disputed succession to the chiefship of a tribe the rival claimants were always anxious to get as many as possible to become their vassals. Hence the anxiety of minor chieftains, in later times in the Highlands of Scotland, to induce the clansmen to pay the "_calpe_" where there happened to be a doubt as to who was entitled to be chief.

The effect of the custom of gavel-kind was to equalize the wealth of each and leave no one wealthy enough to be chief. The "joint and undivided family" and the formation of "joint families," or gilds, was one way of obviating this result; another way was the custom of tanistry. The headship of the tribe was practically confined to the members of one family; this was also the case with the headship of a sept. Sometimes a son succeeded his father, but the rule was that the eldest and most capable member of the _geilfine_, that is, the relatives of the actual chief to the fifth degree,[2] was selected during his lifetime to be his successor--generally the eldest surviving brother or son of the preceding chief. The man selected as successor to a chief of a tribe, or chieftain of a sept, was called the tanist, and should be "the most experienced, the most noble, the most wealthy, the wisest, the most learned, the most truly popular, the most powerful to oppose, the most steadfast to sue for profits and (be sued) for losses." In addition to these qualities he should be free from personal blemishes and deformities and of fit age to lead his tribe or sept, as the case may be, to battle.[3] So far as selecting the man of the _geilfine_ who was supposed to possess all those qualities, the office of chief of a tribe or chieftain of a sept was elective, but as the _geilfine_ was represented by four persons, together with the chief or chieftain, the election was practically confined to one of the four. In order to support the dignity of the chief or chieftain a certain portion of the tribe or sept land was attached as an apanage to the office; this land, with the _duns_ or fortified residences upon it, went to the successor, but a chief's own property might be gavelled. This custom of tanistry applied at first probably to the selection of the successors of a _rig_, but was gradually so extended that even a _bo-aire_ had a tanist.

A sept might have only one _flaith_, or lord, connected with it, or might have several. It sometimes happened, however, that a sept might be so broken and reduced as not to have even one man qualified to rank as a _flaith_. The rank of a _flaith_ depended upon the number of his _ceiles_, that is, upon his wealth. The _flaith_ of a sept, and the highest when there was more than one, was _ceann fine_, or head of the sept, or as he was usually called in Scotland, the chieftain. He was also called the _flaith geilfine_, or head of the _geilfine_, that is, the kinsmen to the fifth degree from among whom should be chosen the tanist, and who, according to the custom of gavel-kind, were the immediate heirs who received the personal property and were answerable for the liabilities of the sept. The _flaiths_ of the different septs were the vassals of the _rig_, or chief of the tribe, and performed certain functions which were no doubt at first individual, but in time became the hereditary right of the sept. One of those was the office of _maer_, or steward of the chief's rents, &c.;[4] and another that of _aire tuisi_, leading _aire_, or _taoisech_, a word cognate with the Latin _duc-s_ or _dux_, and Anglo-Saxon here-_tog_, leader of the "here," or army. The _taoisech_ was leader of the tribe in battle; in later times the term seems to have been extended to several offices of rank. The cadet of a Highland clan was always called the _taoisech_, which has been translated captain; after the conquest of Wales the same term, _tywysaug_, was used for a ruling prince. Slavery was very common in Ireland and Scotland; in the former slaves constituted a common element in the stipends or gifts which the higher kings gave their vassal _sub-reguli_. Female slaves, who were employed in the houses of chiefs and _flaiths_ in grinding meal with the hand-mill or quern, and in other domestic work, must have been very common, for the unit or standard for estimating the wealth of a _bo-aire_, blood-fines, &c., was called a _cumhal_, the value of which was three cows, but which literally meant a female slave. The descendants of those slaves, prisoners of war, forfeited hostages, refugees from other tribes, broken tribesmen, &c., gathered round the residence of the _rig_ and _flaiths_, or squatted upon their march-lands, forming a motley band of retainers which made a considerable element in the population, and one of the chief sources of the wealth of chiefs and _flaiths_. The other principal source of their income was the food-rent paid by _ceiles_, and especially by the _daer_ or bond _ceiles_, who were hence called _biathachs_, from _biad_, food. A _flaith_, but not a _rig_, might, if he liked, go to the house of his _ceile_ and consume his food-rent in the house of the latter.

Under the influence of feudal ideas and the growth of the modern views as to ownership of land, the chiefs and other lords of clans claimed in modern times the right of best owing the tribe-land as _turcrec_, instead of stock, and receiving rent not for cattle and other chattels as in former times, but proportionate to the extent of land given to them. The _turcrec_-land seems to have been at first given upon the same terms as _turcrec_-stock, but gradually a system of short leases grew up; sometimes, too, it was given on mortgage. In the Highlands of Scotland _ceiles_ who received _turcrec_-land were called "taksmen." On the death of the chief or lord, his successor either bestowed the land upon the same person or gave it to some other relative. In this way in each generation new families came into possession of land, and others sank into the mass of mere tribesmen. Sometimes a "taksman" succeeded in acquiring his land in perpetuity, by gift, marriage or purchase, or even by the "strong hand." The universal prevalence of exchangeable allotments, or the rundale system, shows that down to even comparatively modern times some of the land was still recognized as the property of the tribe, and was cultivated in village communities.

The chief governed the clan by the aid of a council called the _sabaid_ (_sab_, a prop), but the chief exercised much power, especially over the miscellaneous body of non-tribesmen who lived on his own estate. This power seems to have extended to life and death. Several of the _flaiths_, perhaps, all heads of septs, also possessed somewhat extensive powers of the same kind.

The Celtic dress, at least in the middle ages, consisted of a kind of shirt reaching to a little below the knees called a _lenn_, a jacket called an _inar_, and a garment called a _brat_, consisting of a single piece of cloth. This was apparently the garb of the _aires_, who appear to have been further distinguished by the number of colours in their dress, for we are told that while a slave had clothes of one colour, a _reg tuatha_, or chief of a tribe, had five, and an _ollamh_ and a superior king six. The breeches was also known, and cloaks with a cowl or hood, which buttoned up tight in front. The _lenn_ is the modern kilt, and the _brat_ the plaid, so that the dress of the Irish and Welsh in former times was the same as that of the Scottish Highlander.

By the abolition of the heritable jurisdiction of the Highland chiefs, and the general disarmament of the clans by the acts passed in 1747 after the rebellion of 1745, the clan system was practically broken up, though its influence still lingers in the more remote districts. An act was also passed in 1747 forbidding the use of the Highland garb; but the injustice and impolicy of such a law being generally felt it was afterwards repealed. (W. K. S.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The following account of the Irish clan-system differs in some
respects from that in the article on BREHON LAWS (_q.v._); but it is
retained here in view of the authority of the writer and the admitted
obscurity of the whole subject. (ED. _E.B._)

[2] The explanation here given of _geilfine_ is different from that
given in the introduction to the third volume of the _Ancient Laws of
Ireland_, which was followed by Sir H.S. Maine in his account of it
in his _Early History of Institutions_, and which the present writer
believes to be erroneous.

[3] It should also be mentioned that illegitimacy was not a bar. The
issue of "handfast" marriages in Scotland were eligible to be chiefs,
and even sometimes claimed under feudal law.

[4] This office is of considerable importance in connexion with early
Scottish history. In the Irish annals the _rig_, or chief of a great
tribe (_mor tuath_), such as of Ross, Moray, Marr, Buchan, &c., is
called a _mor maer_, or great _maer_. Sometimes the same person is
called king also in these annals. Thus _Findlaec_, or Finlay, son of
_Ruadhri_, the father of Shakespeare's Macbeth, is called king of
Moray in the _Annals of Ulster_, and _mor maer_ in the _Annals of
Tighernach_. The term is never found in Scottish charters, but it
occurs in the Book of the Abbey of Deir in Buchan, now in the library
of the university of Cambridge. The Scotic kings and their successors
obviously regarded the chiefs of the great tribes in question merely
as their _maers_, while their tribesmen only knew them as kings. From
these "mor-maerships," which corresponded with the ancient _mor
tuatha_, came most, if not all, the ancient Scottish earldoms.

CLANRICARDE, ULICK DE BURGH (BOURKE or BURKE), 1st EARL OF (d. 1544), styled MacWilliam, and Ne-gan or Na-gCeann (i.e. "of the Heads," "having made a mount of the heads of men slain in battle which he covered up with earth"), was the son of Richard or Rickard de Burgh, lord of Clanricarde, by a daughter of Madden of Portumna, and grandson of Ulick de Burgh, lord of Clanricarde (1467-1487), the collateral heir male of the earls of Ulster. On the death of the last earl in 1333, his only child Elizabeth had married Lionel, duke of Clarence, and the earldom became merged in the crown, in consequence of which the de Burghs abjured English laws and sovereignty, and chose for their chiefs the sons of Sir William, the "Red" earl of Ulster's brother, the elder William taking the title of MacWilliam Eighter (Uachtar, i.e. Upper), and becoming the ancestor of the earls of Clanricarde, and his brother Sir Edmond that of MacWilliam Oughter (Ochtar, i.e. Lower), and founding the family of the earls of Mayo. In 1361 the duke of Clarence was sent over as lord-lieutenant to Ireland to enforce his claims as husband of the heir general, but failed, and the chiefs of the de Burghs maintained their independence of English sovereignty for several generations. Ulick de Burgh succeeded to the headship of his clan, exercised a quasi-royal authority and held vast estates in county Galway, in Connaught, including Loughry, Dunkellin, Kiltartan (Hilltaraght) and Athenry, as well as Clare and Leitrim. In March 1541, however, he wrote to Henry VIII., lamenting the degeneracy of his family, "which have been brought to Irish and disobedient rule by reason of marriage and nurseing with those Irish, sometime rebels, near adjoining to me," and placing himself and his estates in the king's hands. The same year he was present at Dublin, when the act was passed making Henry VIII. king of Ireland. In 1543, in company with other Irish chiefs, he visited the king at Greenwich, made full submission, undertook to introduce English manners and abandon Irish names, received a regrant of the greater part of his estates with the addition of other lands, was confirmed in the captainship and rule of Clanricarde, and was created on the 1st of July 1543 earl of Clanricarde and baron of Dunkellin in the peerage of Ireland, with unusual ceremony. "The making of McWilliam earl of Clanricarde made all the country during his time quiet and obedient," states Lord Chancellor Cusake in his review of the state of Ireland in 1553.[1] He did not live long, however, to enjoy his new English dignities, but died shortly after returning to Ireland about March 1544. He is called by the annalist of Loch Ce "a haughty and proud lord," who reduced many under his yoke, and by the Four Masters "the most illustrious of the English in Connaught."

Clanricarde married (1) Grany or Grace, daughter of Mulrone O'Carroll, "prince of Ely," by whom he had Richard or Rickard "the Saxon," who succeeded him as 2nd earl of Clanricarde (grandfather of the 4th earl, whose son became marquess of Clanricarde), this alliance being the only one declared valid. After parting with his first wife he married (2) Honora, sister of Ulick de Burgh, from whom he also parted. He married (3) Mary Lynch, by whom he had John, who claimed the earldom in 1568. Other sons, according to Burke's _Peerage_, were Thomas "the Athlete," shot in 1545, Redmond "of the Broom" (d. 1595), and Edmund (d. 1597).

See also _Annals of Ireland by the Four Masters_ (ed. by O. Connellan,
1846), p. 132 note, and reign of Henry VIII.; _Annals of Loch Ce
(Rerum Brit. Medii Aevi Scriptores_) (54) (1871); _Hist. Mem. of the
O'Briens_, by J.O. Donoghue (i860), pp 159, 519; _Ireland under the
Tudors_, by R. Bagwell, vol. i.; _State Papers, Ireland, Carew MSS._
and Gairdner's _Letters and Papers of Henry VIII.; Cotton MSS._ Brit.
Mus., Titus B xi. f. 388. (P.C.Y.)

FOOTNOTE:

[1] _Cal. of State Pap., Carew MSS._ 1515-1574, p. 246.