Chapter XX: Act 1856: , is mainly declaratory of the English common law, as embodied (13)

The leading idea in connexion with all shaped powder grains, and with
the very large sizes, was to regulate the rate of burning so as to
avoid extreme pressure when first ignited and to keep up the pressure
in the gun as more space was provided in the chamber or tube by the
movement of the shot towards the muzzle. In the perforated prismatic
powder the ignition is intended to proceed through the perforations;
since in a charge the faces of the prisms fit pretty closely together,
it was thought that this arrangement would prevent unburnt cores or
pieces of powder from being blown out. These larger grain powders
necessitated a lengthened bore to take advantage of the slower
production of gases and complete combustion of the powder. General T.
J. Rodman first suggested and employed the perforated cake cartridge
in 1860, the cake having nearly the diameter of the bore and a
thickness of 1 to 2 in. with perforations running parallel with the
gun axis. The burning would then start from the comparatively small
surfaces of the perforations, which would become larger as the powder
burnt away. Experiments bore out this theory perfectly. It was found
that small prisms were more convenient to make than large disks, and
as the prisms practically fit together into a disk the same result was
obtained. This effect of mechanical density on rate of burning is good
only up to a certain pressure, above which the gases are driven
through the densest form of granular material. After granulating or
pressing into shapes, all powders must be dried. This is done by
heating in specially ventilated rooms heated by steam pipes. As a rule
this drying is followed by the finishing or polishing process. Powders
are finally blended, i.e. products from different batches or "makes"
are mixed so that identical proof results are obtained.

_Sizes and Shapes of Powders._--In fig. 1, _a_ to _k_ show the
relative sizes and shapes of grain as formerly employed for military
purposes, except that the three largest powders, _e-f-g_ and _h_ are
figured half-size to save space, whereas the remainder indicate the
actual dimensions of the grains. _a_ is for small-arms, all the others
are for cannon of various sizes.

_Proof of Powder._--In addition to chemical examination powder is
passed through certain mechanical tests:--

1. _For colour, glaze, texture and freedom from dust._

2. _For proper incorporation._

3. _For shape, size and proportion of the grains._--The first is
judged by eye, and grains of the size required are obtained by the use
of sieves of different sizes.

4. _Density._--The density is generally obtained in some form of
mercury densimeter, the powder being weighed in air and then under
mercury. In some forms of the instrument the air can be pumped out so
that the weighing takes place _in vacuo_.

5. _Moisture and absorption of moisture._--The moisture and
hygroscopic test consists in weighing a sample, drying at 100 deg. C.
for a certain time, weighing again, &c., until constant. The dried
weighed sample can then be exposed to an artificial atmosphere of
known moisture and temperature, and the gain in weight per hour
similarly ascertained by periodic weighings.

6. _Firing proof._--The nature of this depends upon the purpose for
which the powder is intended. For sporting powders it consists in the
"pattern" given by the shot upon a target at a given distance, or, if
fired with a bullet, upon the "figure of merit," or mean radial
deviation of a certain number of rounds; also upon the penetrative
power. For military purposes the "muzzle" velocity produced by a
powder is ascertained by a chronograph which measures the exact time
the bullet or other projectile takes to traverse a known distance
between two wire screens. By means of "crusher gauges" the exact
pressure per square inch upon certain points in the interior of the
bore can be found.

In the chemical examination of gunpowder the points to be ascertained
are, in addition to moisture, freedom from chlorides or sulphates, and
correct proportion of nitre and sulphur to charcoal.

_Products of Fired Powder and Changes taking place on
Explosion._--With a mixture of the complexity of gunpowder it is quite
impossible to say beforehand what will be the relative amounts of
products. The desired products are nitrogen and carbon dioxide as
gases, and potassium sulphate and carbonate as solids. But the
ingredients of the mixture are not in any simple chemical proportion.
Burning in contact with air under one atmosphere pressure, and burning
in a closed or partially closed vessel under a considerable number of
atmospheres pressure, may produce quite different results. The
temperature of a reaction always rises with increased pressure.
Although the main function of the nitre is to give up oxygen and
nitrogen, of the charcoal to produce carbon dioxide and most of the
heat, and of the sulphur by vaporizing to accelerate the rate of
burning, it is quite impossible to represent the actions taking place
on explosion by any simple or single chemical equation. Roughly
speaking, the gases from black powder burnt in a closed vessel have a
volume at 0 deg. C. and 760 mm. pressure of about 280 times that of
the original powder. The temperature produced under one atmosphere is
above 2000 deg. C., and under greater pressures considerably higher.

Experiments have been made by Benjamin Robins (1743), Charles Hutton
(1778), Count Rumford (1797), Gay-Lussac (1823), R. Bunsen and L.
Schiskoff (1857), T. J. Rodman (1861), C. Karolyi (1863), and later
many researches by Sir Andrew Noble and Sir F. A. Abel, and by H.
Debus and others, all with the idea of getting at the precise
mechanism of the explosion. Debus (_Ann._, 1882, vols. 212, 213; 1891,
vol. 265) discussed at great length the results of researches by
Bunsen, Karolyi, Noble and Abel, and others on the combustion of
powder in closed vessels in such manner that all the products could be
collected and examined and the pressures registered. A Waltham Abbey
powder, according to an experiment by Noble and Abel, gave when fired
in a closed vessel the following quantities of products calculated
from one gram of powder:--

Fractions of Fractions of a
a gram. molecule or atom.

Potassium carbonate .2615 .00189 molecule
Potassium sulphate .1268 .00072 "
" thiosulphate .1666 .00087 "
" sulphide .0252 .00017 "
Sulphur .0012 .00004 atom
Carbon dioxide .2678 .00608 molecule
Carbon monoxide .0339 .00121 "
Nitrogen .1071 .00765 atom
Hydrogen .0008 .0008 "
Hydrogen sulphide .0080 .00023 molecule
Potassium thiocyanate .0004
Nitre .0005
Ammonium carbonate .0002

From this, and other results, Debus concluded that Waltham Abbey
powder could be represented by the formula 16KNO3+21.18C+6.63S and
that on combustion in a closed vessel the end results could be fairly
expressed (rounding off fractions) by 16KNO3+21C+5S = 5K2CO3 +
K2SO4+2K2S2+13CO2+3CO+8N2. Some of the sulphur is lost, part combining
with the metal of the apparatus and part with hydrogen in the
charcoal. The military powders of most nations can be represented by
the formula 16KNO3+21.2C+6.6S, proportions which are reasonably near
to a theoretical mixture, that is one giving most complete combustion,
greatest gas volume and temperature. The combustion of powder consists
of two processes: (i.) oxidation, during which potassium carbonate and
sulphate, carbon dioxide and nitrogen are mainly formed, and (ii.) a
reduction process in which free carbon acts on the potassium sulphate
and free sulphur on the potassium carbonate, producing potassium
sulphide and carbon monoxide respectively. Most powders contain more
carbon and sulphur than necessary, hence the second stage. In this
second stage heat is lost. The potassium sulphide is also the most
objectionable constituent as regards fouling.

The energy of a powder is given, according to Berthelot, by
multiplying the gas volume by the heat (in calories) produced during
burning; Debus shows that a powder composed of 16KNO3 to 8C and 8S
would have the least, and one of composition 16KNO3+24C+16S the
greatest, when completely burnt. The greatest capability with the
lowest proportion of carbon and sulphur to nitre would be obtained
from the mixture /16KNO3+22C+8S.

Smokeless and even noiseless powders seem to have been sought for
during the whole gunpowder period. In 1756 one was experimented with
in France, but was abandoned owing to difficulties in manufacture.
Modern smokeless powders are certainly less noisy than the black
powders, mainly because of the absence of metallic salts which
although they may be gaseous whilst in the gun are certainly ejected
as solids or become solids at the moment of contact with air.

_Brown Powders._--About the middle of the 19th century guns and
projectiles were made much larger and heavier than previously, and it
was soon found that the ordinary black powders of the most dense form
burnt much too rapidly, straining or bursting the pieces. Powders were
introduced containing about 3% sulphur and 17-19% of a special form of
charcoal made from slightly charred straw, or similar material. This
"brown charcoal" contains a considerable amount of the hydrogen and
oxygen of the original plant substance. The mechanical processes of
manufacture of these brown powders is the same as for black. They,
however, differ from black by burning very slowly, even under
considerable pressure. This comparative slowness is caused by (1) the
presence of a small amount of water even when air-dry; (2) the fact
that the brown charcoal is practically very slightly altered
cellulosic material, which before it can burn completely must undergo
a little further resolution or charring at the expense of some heat
from the portion of charge first ignited; and (3) the lower content of
sulphur. An increase of a few per cent in the sulphur of black powder
accelerates its rate of burning, and it may become almost a blasting
powder. A decrease in sulphur has the reverse effect. It is really the
sulphur vapour that in the early period of combustion spreads the
flame through the charge.

Many other powders have been made or proposed in which nitrates or
chlorates of the alkalis or of barium, &c., are the oxygen providers
and substances as sugar, starch, and many other organic compounds as
the combustible elements. Some of these compositions have found
employment for blasting or even as sporting powders, but in most cases
their objectionable properties of fouling, smoke and mode of exploding
have prevented their use for military purposes. The adoption by the
French government of the comparatively smokeless nitrocellulose
explosive of Paul Vieille in 1887 practically put an end to the old
forms of gunpowders. The first smokeless powder was made in 1865 by
Colonel E. Schultze (_Ding. Pol. Jour._ 174, p. 323; 175, p. 453) by
nitrating wood meal and adding potassium and barium nitrates. It is
somewhat similar in composition to the E. C. sporting powder. F.
Uchatius, in Austria, proposed a smokeless powder made from nitrated
starch, but it was not adopted owing to its hygroscopic nature and
also its tendency to detonate.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Vanucchio Biringuccio, _De la pirotechnia_ (Venice,
1540); Tartaglia, _Quesiti e invenzioni diversi_ (lib. iii.) (Venice,
1546); Peter Whitehorne, _How to make Saltpetre, Gunpowder, &c._
(London, 1573); Nic. Macchiavelli, _The Arte of Warre_, trans. by
Whitehorne (London, 1588); Hanzelet, _Recueil de plusiers machines
militaires_ (Paris, 1620); Boillet Langrois, _Modelles artifices de
feu_ (1620); Kruger, _Chemical Meditations on the Explosion of
Gunpowder_ (in Latin) (1636); Collado, _On the Invention of Gunpowder_
(Spanish) (1641); _The True Way to make all Sorts of Gunpowder and
Matches_ (1647); Hawksbee, _On Gunpowder_ (1686); Winter, _On
Gunpowder_ (in Latin); Robins, _New Principles of Gunnery_ (London,
1742) (new ed. by Hutton, 1805); D'Antoni, _Essame della polvere_
(Turin, 1765) (trans. by Captain Thomson, R. A., London, 1787); Count
Rumford, "Experiments on Fired Gunpowder," _Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc._
(1797); Charles Hutton, _Mathematical Tracts_, vol. iii. (1812); Sir
W. Congreve, _A Short Account of Improvements in Gunpowder made by_
(London, 1818); Bunsen and Schiskoff, "On the Chemical Theory of
Gunpowder," _Pogg. Ann._, 1857, vol. cii.; General Rodman,
_Experiments on Metal for Cannon, and Qualities of Cannon Powder_
(Boston, 1861); Napoleon III., _Etudes sur le passe et l'avenir de
l'artillerie_, vol. iii. (Paris, 1862); Von Karolyi, "On the Products
of the Combustion of Gun Cotton and Gunpowder," _Phil. Mag._ (October
1863); Captain F. M. Smith, _Handbook of the Manufacture and Proof of
Gunpowder at Waltham Abbey_ (London, 1870); Noble and Abel, _Fired
Gunpowder_ (London, 1875, 1880); Noble, _Artillery and Explosives_
(1906); H. W. L. Hime, _Gunpowder and Ammunition, their Origin and
Progress_ (1904); O. Guttmann, _The Manufacture of Explosives_ (1895),
_Monumenta pulveris pyrii_ (1906); _Notes on Gunpowder and Gun
Cotton_, published by order of the secretary of state for war (London,
1907). (See also EXPLOSIVES.) (W. R. E. H.)

FOOTNOTE:

[1] These words were emended by some authors to read _luru mope can
ubre_, the letters of which can be arranged to give _pulvere
carbonum_.

[2] This represents the composition of English powder at present, and
no doubt it has remained the same for a longer time than the above
date indicates.

[3] Brown or coco-powder for large charges in guns. The charcoal is
not burnt black but roasted until brown, and is made from some
variety of straw, not wood.

GUNPOWDER PLOT, the name given to a conspiracy for blowing up King James I. and the parliament on the 5th of November 1605.

To understand clearly the nature and origin of the famous conspiracy, it is necessary to recall the political situation and the attitude of the Roman Catholics towards the government at the accession of James I. The Elizabethan administration had successfully defended its own existence and the Protestant faith against able and powerful antagonists, but this had not been accomplished without enforcing severe measures of repression and punishment upon those of the opposite faith. The beginning of a happier era, however, was expected with the opening of the new reign. The right of James to the crown could be more readily acknowledged by the Romanists than that of Elizabeth: Pope Clement VIII. appeared willing to meet the king half-way. James himself was by nature favourable to the Roman Catholics and had treated the Roman Catholic lords in Scotland with great leniency, in spite of their constant plots and rebellions. Writing to Cecil before his accession he maintained, "I am so far from any intention of persecution as I protest to God I reverence their church as our mother church, although clogged with many infirmities and corruptions, besides that I did ever hold persecution as one of the infallible notes of a false church." He declared to Northumberland, the kinsman and master of Thomas Percy, the conspirator, "as for the Catholics, I will neither persecute any that will be quiet and give but an outward obedience to the law, neither will I spare to advance any of them that will be of good service and worthily deserved." It is probable that these small but practical concessions would have satisfied the lay Roman Catholics and the secular priests, but they were very far from contenting the Jesuits, by whom the results of such leniency were especially feared: "What rigour of laws would not compass in so many years," wrote Henry Tichborne, the Jesuit, in 1598, "this liberty and lenity will effectuate in 20 days, to wit the disfurnishing of the seminaries, the disanimating of men to come and others to return, the expulsion of the society and confusion as in Germany, extinction of zeal and favour, disanimation of princes from the hot pursuit of the enterprise.... We shall be left as a prey to the wolves that will besides drive our greatest patron [the king of Spain] to stoop to a peace which will be the utter ruin of our edifice, this many years in building." Unfortunately, about this time the Jesuits, who thus thrived on political intrigue, and who were deeply implicated in treasonable correspondence with Spain, had obtained a complete ascendancy over the secular priests, who were for obeying the civil government as far as possible and keeping free from politics. The time, therefore, as far as the Roman Catholics themselves were concerned, was not a propitious one for introducing the moderate concessions which alone James had promised: James, too, on his side, found that religious toleration, though clearly sound in principle, was difficult in practice. During the first few months of the reign all went well. In July 1603 the fines for recusancy were remitted. In January 1604 peaceable Roman Catholics could live unmolested and "serve God according to their consciences without any danger." But James's expectations that the pope would prevent dangerous and seditious persons from entering the country were unfulfilled and the numbers of the Jesuits and the Roman Catholics greatly increased. Rumours of plots came to hand. Cecil, though like his master naturally in favour of toleration, with his experience gained in the reign of Elizabeth, was alarmed at the policy pursued and its results, and great anxiety was aroused in the government and nation, which was in the end shared by the king. It was determined finally to return to the earlier policy of repression. On the 22nd of February 1604 a proclamation was issued banishing priests; on the 28th of November 1604, recusancy fines were demanded from 13 wealthy persons, and on the 10th of February 1605 the penal laws were ordered to be executed. The plot, however, could not have been occasioned by these measures, for it had been already conceived in the mind of Robert Catesby. It was aimed at the repeal of the whole Elizabethan legislation against the Roman Catholics and perhaps derived some impulse at first from the leniency lately shown by the administration, afterwards gaining support from the opposite cause, the return of the government to the policy of repression.

It was in May 1603 that Catesby told Percy, in reply to the latter's declaration of his intention to kill the king, that he was "thinking of a most sure way." Subsequently, about the 1st of November 1603, Catesby sent a message to his cousin Robert Winter at Huddington, near Worcester, to come to London, which the latter refused. On the arrival of a second urgent summons shortly afterwards he obeyed, and was then at a house at Lambeth, probably in January 1604, initiated by Catesby together with John Wright into the plot to blow up the parliament house. Before putting this plan into execution, however, it was decided to try a "quiet way"; and Winter was sent over to Flanders to obtain the good offices of Juan de Velasco, duke of Frias and constable of Castile, who had arrived there to conduct the negotiations for a peace between England and Spain, in order to obtain the repeal of the penal laws. Winter, having secured nothing but vain promises from the constable, returned to England about the end of April, bringing with him Guy Fawkes, a man devoted to the Roman Catholic cause and recommended for undertaking perilous adventures. Subsequently the three and Thomas Percy, who joined the conspiracy in May, met in a house behind St Clement's and, having taken an oath of secrecy together, heard Mass and received the Sacrament in an adjoining apartment from a priest stated by Fawkes to have been Father Gerard. Later several other persons were included in the plot, viz. Winter's brother Thomas, John Grant, Ambrose Rokewood, Robert Keyes, Sir Everard Digby, Francis Tresham, a cousin of Catesby and Thomas Bates Catesby's servant, all, with the exception of the last, being men of good family and all Roman Catholics. Father Greenway and Father Garnet, the Jesuits, were both cognisant of the plot (see GARNET, HENRY). On the 24th of May 1604 a house was hired in Percy's name adjoining the House of Lords, from the cellar of which they proposed to work a mine. They began on the 11th of December 1604, and by about March had got half-way through the wall. They then discovered that a vault immediately under the House of Lords was available. This was at once hired by Percy, and 36 barrels of gunpowder, amounting to about 1 ton and 12 cwt., were brought in and concealed under coal and faggots. The preparations being completed in May the conspirators separated. Fawkes was despatched to Flanders, where he imparted the plot to Hugh Owen, a zealous Romanist intriguer. Sir Edmund Baynham was sent on a mission to Rome to be at hand when the news came to gain over the pope to the cause of the successful conspirators. An understanding was arrived at with several officers levied for the service of the archduke, that they should return at once to England when occasion arose of defending the Roman Catholic cause. A great hunting match was organized at Danchurch in Warwickshire by Digby, to which large numbers of the Roman Catholic gentry were invited, who were to join the plot after the successful accomplishment of the explosion of the 5th of November, the day fixed for the opening of parliament, and get possession of the princess Elizabeth, then residing in the neighbourhood; while Percy was to seize the infant prince Charles and bring him on horseback to their meeting-place. Guy Fawkes himself was to take ship immediately for Flanders, spread the news on the continent and get supporters. The conspirators imagined that a terrorized and helpless government would readily agree to all their demands. Hitherto the secret had been well kept and the preparations had been completed with extraordinary success and without a single drawback; but a very serious difficulty now confronted the conspirators as the time for action arrived, and disturbed their consciences. The feelings of ordinary humanity shrunk from the destruction of so many persons guiltless of any offence. But in addition, among the peers to be assassinated were included many Roman Catholics and some lords nearly connected in kinship or friendship with the plotters themselves. Several appeals, however, made to Catesby to allow warning to be given to certain individuals were firmly rejected.

On the 26th of October Lord Monteagle, a brother-in-law of Francis Tresham, who had formerly been closely connected with some of the other conspirators and had engaged in Romanist plots against the government, but who had given his support to the new king, unexpectedly ordered supper to be prepared at his house at Haxton, from which he had been absent for more than a year. While at supper about 6 o'clock an anonymous letter was brought by an unknown messenger which, having glanced at, he handed to Ward, a gentleman of his service and an intimate friend of Winter, the conspirator, to be read aloud. The celebrated letter ran as follows:--

"My lord, out of the love I bear to some of your friends, I have a
care for your preservation. Therefore I would advise you, as you
tender your life, to devise some excuse to shift of your attendance
of this Parliament, for God and man hath concurred to punish the
wickedness of this time. And think not slightly of this advertisement,
but retire yourself into your country, where you may expect the event
in safety, for though there be no appearance of any stir, yet I say
they shall receive a terrible blow the Parliament, and yet they shall
not see who hurts them. This counsel is not to be contemned, because
it may do you good and can do you no harm, for the danger is past as
soon as you have burnt the letter: and I hope God will give you the
grace to make good use of it, to whose holy protection I commend you."

The authorship of the letter has never been disclosed or proved, but all evidence seems to point to Tresham, and to the probability that he had some days before warned Monteagle and agreed with him as to the best means of making known the plot and preventing its execution, and at the same time of giving the conspirators time to escape (see TRESHAM, FRANCIS).

Monteagle at once started for Whitehall, found Salisbury and other ministers about to sit down to supper, and showed the letter, whereupon it was decided to search the cellar under the House of Lords before the meeting of parliament, but not too soon, so that the plot might be ripe and be fully disclosed. Meanwhile Ward, on the 27th of October, as had evidently been intended, informed Winter that the plot was known, and on the 28th Winter informed Catesby and begged him to give up the whole project. Catesby, however, after some hesitation, finding from Fawkes that nothing had been touched in the cellar, and prevailed upon by Percy, determined to stand firm, hoping that the government had put no credence in Monteagle's letter, and Fawkes returned to the cellar to keep guard as before. On the 4th the king, having been shown the letter, ordered the earl of Suffolk, as lord chamberlain, to examine the buildings. He was accompanied by Monteagle. On arriving at the cellar, the door was opened to him by Fawkes. Seeing the enormous piles of faggots he asked the name of their owner, to which Fawkes replied that they belonged to Percy. His name immediately aroused suspicions, and accordingly it was ordered that a further search should be made by Thomas Knyvett, a Westminster magistrate who, coming with his men at night, discovered the gunpowder and arrested Fawkes on the threshold.

The opinion that the whole plot was the work of Salisbury, that he acted as an _agent provocateur_ and lured on his victims to destruction, repeated by some contemporary and later writers and recently formulated and urged with great ability, has no solid foundation. Nor is it even probable that he was aware of its existence till he received Monteagle's letter. Even after its reception complete belief was not placed in the warning. A search was made only to make sure that nothing was wrong and guided only by Monteagle's letter, while no attempt was made to seize the conspirators. The steps taken by Salisbury after the discovery of the gunpowder do not show the possession of any information of the plot or of the persons who were its chief agents outside Fawkes's first statement, and his knowledge is seen to develop according to the successive disclosures and confessions of the latter. Thus on the 7th of November he had no knowledge of the _mine_, and it is only after Fawkes's examination by torture on the 9th, when the names of the conspirators were drawn from him, that the government was able to classify them according to their guilt and extent of their participation. The inquiry was not conducted by Salisbury alone, but by several commissioners, some of whom were Roman Catholics, and many rivals and secret enemies. To conceal his intrigue from all these would have been impossible, and that he should have put himself in their power to such an extent is highly improbable. Again, the plan agreed upon for disclosing the plot was especially designed to allow the conspirators to escape, and therefore scarcely a method which would have been arranged with Salisbury. Not one of the conspirators, even when all hope of saving life was gone, made any accusation against Salisbury or the government and all died expressing contrition for their crime. Lastly Salisbury had no conceivable motive in concocting a plot of this description. His political power and position in the new reign had been already secured and by very different methods. He was now at the height of his influence, having been created Viscount Cranborne in August 1604 and earl of Salisbury in May 1605; and James had already, more than 16 months before the discovery of the plot, consented to return to the repressive measures against the Romanists. The success with which the conspirators concealed their plot from Salisbury's spies is indeed astonishing, but is probably explained by its very audacity and by the absence of incriminating correspondence, the medium through which the minister chiefly obtained his knowledge of the plans of his enemies.

On the arrest of Fawkes the other conspirators, except Tresham, fled in parties by different ways, rejoining each other in Warwickshire, as had been agreed in case the plot had been successful. Catesby, who with some others had covered the distance of 80 m. between London and his mother's house at Ashby St Legers in eight hours, informed his friends in Warwickshire, who had been awaiting the issue of the plot, of its failure, but succeeded in persuading Sir Everard Digby, by an unscrupulous falsehood, to further implicate himself in his hopeless cause by assuring him that both James and Salisbury were dead; and, according to Father Garnet, this was not the first time that Catesby had been guilty of lies in order to draw men into the plot. He pushed on the same day with his companions in the direction of Wales, where, it was hoped, they would be joined by bands of insurgents. They arrived at Huddington at 2 in the afternoon. On the morning of the 7th the band, numbering about 36 persons, confessed and heard Mass, and then rode away to Holbeche, 2 m. from Stourbridge, in Staffordshire, the house of Stephen Littleton, who had been present at the hunting at Danchurch (see DIGBY, EVERARD), where they arrived at 10 o'clock at night, having on their way broken into Lord Windsor's house at Hewell Grange and taken all the armour they found there. Their case was now desperate. None had joined them: "Not one came to take our part," said Sir Everard Digby, "though we had expected so many." They were being followed by the sheriff and all the forces of the county. All spurned them from their doors when they applied for succour. One by one their followers fled from the house in which the last scene was to be played out. They now began to feel themselves abandoned not only by man but by God; for an explosion of some of their gunpowder, on the morning of the 8th, by which Catesby and some others were scorched, struck terror into their hearts as a judgment from heaven. The assurance of innocence and of a just cause which till now had alone supported them was taken away. The greatness of their crime, its true nature, now struck home to them, and the few moments which remained to them of life were spent in prayer and in repentance. The supreme hour had now arrived. About 11 o'clock the sheriff and his men came up and immediately began firing into the house. Catesby, Percy and the two Wrights were killed, Winter and Rokewood wounded and taken prisoners with the men who still adhered to them. In all eight of the conspirators, including the two Winters, Digby, Fawkes, Rokewood, Keyes and Bates, were executed, while Tresham died in the Tower. Of the priests involved, Garnet was tried and executed, while Greenway and Gerard succeeded in escaping.

So ended the strange and famous Gunpowder Plot. However atrocious its conception and its aims, it is impossible not to feel, together with horror for the deed, some pity and admiration for the guilty persons who took part in it. "Theirs was a crime which it would never have entered into the heart of any man to commit who was not raised above the lowness of the ordinary criminal." They sinned not against the light but in the dark. They erred from ignorance, from a perverted moral sense rather than from any mean or selfish motive, and exhibited extraordinary courage and self-sacrifice in the pursuit of what seemed to them the cause of God and of their country. Their punishment was terrible. Not only had they risked and lost all in the attempt and drawn upon themselves the frightful vengeance of the state, but they saw themselves the means of injuring irretrievably the cause for which they felt such devotion. Nothing could have been more disastrous to the cause of the Roman Catholics than their crime. The laws against them were immediately increased in severity, and the gradual advance towards religious toleration was put back for centuries. In addition a new, increased and long-enduring hostility was aroused in the country against the adherents of the old faith, not unnatural in the circumstances, but unjust and undiscriminating, because while some of the Jesuits were no doubt implicated, the secular priests and Roman Catholic laity as a whole had taken no part in the conspiracy.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--The recent controversy concerning the nature and origin
of the plot can be followed in _What was the Gunpowder Plot?_ by John
Gerard, S.J. (1897); _What Gunpowder Plot was_, by S. R. Gardiner (a
rejoinder) (1897); _The Gunpowder Plot ... in reply to Professor
Gardiner_, by John Gerard, S.J. (1897); _Thomas Winter's Confession
and the Gunpowder Plot_, by John Gerard, S.J. (with facsimiles of his
writing) (1898); _Eng. Hist. Rev._ iii. 510 and xii. 791; _Edinburgh
Review_, clxxxv. 183; _Athenaeum_ 1897, ii. 149, 785, 855; 1898, i.
23, ii. 352, 420; _Academy_, vol. 52 p. 84; _The Nation_, vol. 65 p.
400. A considerable portion of the controversy centres round the
question of the authenticity of Thomas Winter's confession, the MS. of
which is at Hatfield, supported by Professor Gardiner, but denied by
Father Gerard principally on account of the document having been
signed "Winter" instead of "Wintour," the latter apparently being the
conspirator's usual style of signature. The document was deposited by
the 3rd Marquess of Salisbury for inspection at the Record Office, and
was pronounced by two experts, one from the British Museum and another
from the Record Office, to be undoubtedly genuine. The cause of the
variation in the signature still remains unexplained, but ceases to
have therefore any great historical importance. The bibliography of
the contemporary controversy is given in the article on Henry Garnet
in the _Dictionary of National Biography_ and in _The Gunpowder Plot_
by David Jardine (1857), the latter work still remaining the principal
authority on the subject; add to these Gardiner's _Hist. of England_,
i., where an excellent account is given; _History of the Jesuits in
England_, by Father Ethelred Taunton (1901); Father Gerard's
_Narrative in Condition of the Catholics under James I._ (1872), and
Father Greenway's Narrative in _Troubles of our Catholic Forefathers_,
1st series (1872), interesting as contemporary accounts, but not to be
taken as complete or infallible authorities, of the same nature being
_Historia Provinciae Anglicanae Societatis Jesu_, by Henry More, S.J.
(1660), pp. 309 et seq.; also History of Great Britain, by John Speed
(1611), pp. 839 et seq.; _Archaeologia_, xii. 200, xxviii. 422, xxix.
80; _Harleian Miscellany_ (1809), iii. 119-135, or _Somers Tracts_
(1809), ii. 97-117; M. A. Tierney's ed. of _Dodd's Church History_,
vol. iv. (1841); _Treason and Plot_, by Martin Hume (1901); _Notes and
Queries_, 7 ser. vi., 8 ser. iv. 408, 497, v. 55, xii. 505, 9 ser. xi.
115; _Add. MSS. Brit. Mus._ 6178; _State Trials_, ii.; _Calendar of
State Pap. Dom._ (1603-1610), and the official account, _A True and
Perfect Relation of the Whole Proceedings against the late most
Barbarous Traitors_ (1606), a neither true nor complete narrative
however, now superseded as an authority, reprinted as _The Gunpowder
Treason ..._ with additions in 1679 by Thomas Barlow, bishop of
Lincoln. A large number of letters and papers in the State Paper
Office relating to the plot were collected in one volume in 1819,
called the _Gunpowder Plot Book_; these are noted in their proper
place in the printed calendars of State Papers, Domestic Series; see
also articles on FAWKES, GUY; TRESHAM, FRANCIS; MONTEAGLE, WILLIAM
PARKER, 4TH BARON; PERCY, THOMAS; CATESBY, ROBERT; GARNET, HENRY;
DIGBY, SIR EVERARD. (P. C. Y.)

GUN-ROOM, a ship cabin occupied by the officers below the rank of lieutenant, but who are not warrant officers of the class of the boatswain, gunner or carpenter. In the wooden sailing ships it was on the lower deck, and was originally the quarters of the gunner.

GUNTER, EDMUND (1581-1626), English mathematician, of Welsh extraction, was born in Hertfordshire in 1581. He was educated at Westminster school, and in 1599 was elected a student of Christ Church, Oxford. He took orders, became a preacher in 1614, and in 1615 proceeded to the degree of bachelor in divinity. Mathematics, however, which had been his favourite study in youth, continued to engross his attention, and on the 6th of March 1619 he was appointed professor of astronomy in Gresham College, London. This post he held till his death on the 10th of December 1626. With Gunter's name are associated several useful inventions, descriptions of which are given in his treatises on the _Sector, Cross-staff, Bow, Quadrant and other Instruments_. He contrived his sector about the year 1606, and wrote a description of it in Latin, but it was more than sixteen years afterwards before he allowed the book to appear in English. In 1620 he published his _Canon triangulorum_ (see LOGARITHMS). There is reason to believe that Gunter was the first to discover (in 1622 or 1625) that the magnetic needle does not retain the same declination in the same place at all times. By desire of James I. he published in 1624 _The Description and Use of His Majestie's Dials in Whitehall Garden_, the only one of his works which has not been reprinted. He introduced the words cosine and cotangent, and he suggested to Henry Briggs, his friend and colleague, the use of the arithmetical complement (see Brigg's _Arithmetica Logarithmica_, cap. xv.). His practical inventions are briefly noticed below:

_Gunter's Chain_, the chain in common use for surveying, is 22 yds.
long and is divided into 100 links. Its usefulness arises from its
decimal or centesimal division, and the fact that 10 square chains
make an acre.

_Gunter's Line_, a logarithmic line, usually laid down upon scales,
sectors, &c. It is also called _the line of lines_ and _the line of
numbers_, being only the logarithms graduated upon a ruler, which
therefore serves to solve problems instrumentally in the same manner
as logarithms do arithmetically.

_Gunter's Quadrant_, an instrument made of wood, brass or other
substance, containing a kind of stereographic projection of the sphere
on the plane of the equinoctial, the eye being supposed to be placed
in one of the poles, so that the tropic, ecliptic, and horizon form
the arcs of circles, but the hour circles are other curves, drawn by
means of several altitudes of the sun for some particular latitude
every year. This instrument is used to find the hour of the day, the
sun's azimuth, &c., and other common problems of the sphere or globe,
and also to take the altitude of an object in degrees.

_Gunter's Scale_ (generally called by seamen the _Gunter_) is a large
plane scale, usually 2 ft. long by about 1-1/2 in. broad, and engraved
with various lines of numbers. On one side are placed the natural
lines (as the line of chords, the line of sines, tangents, rhumbs,
&c.), and on the other side the corresponding artificial or
logarithmic ones. By means of this instrument questions in navigation,
trigonometry, &c., are solved with the aid of a pair of compasses.

GUNTHER, JOHANN CHRISTIAN (1695-1723), German poet, was born at Striegau in Lower Silesia on the 8th of April 1695. After attending the gymnasium at Schweidnitz, he was sent in 1715 by his father, a country doctor, to study medicine at Wittenberg; but he was idle and dissipated, had no taste for the profession chosen for him, and came to a complete rupture with his family. In 1717 he went to Leipzig, where he was befriended by J. B. Mencke (1674-1732), who recognized his genius; and there he published a poem on the peace of Passarowitz (concluded between the German emperor and the Porte in 1718) which acquired him reputation. A recommendation from Mencke to Frederick Augustus II. of Saxony, king of Poland, proved worse than useless, as Gunther appeared at the audience drunk. From that time he led an unsettled and dissipated life, sinking ever deeper into the slough of misery, until he died at Jena on the 15th of March 1723, when only in his 28th year. Goethe pronounces Gunther to have been a poet in the fullest sense of the term. His lyric poems as a whole give evidence of deep and lively sensibility, fine imagination, clever wit, and a true ear for melody and rhythm; but an air of cynicism is more or less present in most of them, and dull or vulgar witticisms are not infrequently found side by side with the purest inspirations of his genius.

Gunther's collected poems were published in four volumes (Breslau,
1723-1735). They are also included in vol. vi. of Tittmann's _Deutsche
Dichter des 17ten Jahrh._ (Leipzig, 1874), and vol. xxxviii. of
Kurschner's _Deutsche Nationalliteratur_ (1883). A pretended
autobiography of Gunther appeared at Schweidnitz in 1732, and a life
of him by Siebrand at Leipzig in 1738. See Hoffmann von Fallersleben,
_J. Ch. Gunther_ (Breslau, 1833); O. Roquette, _Leben und Dichten J.
Ch. Gunthers_ (Stuttgart, 1860); M. Kalbeck, _Neue Beitrage zur
Biographie des Dichters C. Gunther_ (Breslau, 1879).

GUNTHER OF SCHWARZBURG (1304-1349), German king, was a descendant of the counts of Schwarzburg and the younger son of Henry VII., count of Blankenburg. He distinguished himself as a soldier, and rendered good service to the emperor Louis IV., on whose death in 1347 he was offered the German throne, after it had been refused by Edward III., king of England. He was elected German king at Frankfort on the 30th of January 1349 by four of the electors, who were partisans of the house of Wittelsbach and opponents of Charles of Luxemburg, afterwards the emperor Charles IV. Charles, however, won over many of Gunther's adherents, defeated him at Eltville, and Gunther, who was now seriously ill, renounced his claims for the sum of 20,000 marks of silver. He died three weeks afterwards at Frankfort, and was buried in the cathedral of that city, where a statue was erected to his memory in 1352.

See Graf L. Utterodt zu Scharffenberg, _Gunther, Graf von Schwarzburg,
erwahlter deutscher Konig_ (Leipzig, 1862); and K. Janson, _Das
Konigtum Gunthers von Schwarzburg_ (Leipzig, 1880).

GUNTRAM, or GONTRAN (561-592), king of Burgundy, was one of the sons of Clotaire I. On the death of his father (561) he and his three brothers divided the Frankish realm between them, Guntram receiving as his share the valleys of the Saone and Rhone, together with Berry and the town of Orleans, which he made his capital. On the death of Charibert (567), he further obtained the _civitates_ of Saintes, Angouleme and Perigueux. During the civil war which broke out between the kings of Neustria and Austrasia, his policy was to try to maintain a state of equilibrium. After the assassination of Sigebert (575), he took the youthful Childebert II. under his protection, and, thanks to his assistance against the intrigues of the great lords, the latter was able to maintain his position in Austrasia. After the death of Chilperic (584) he protected the young Clotaire II. in the same way, and prevented Childebert from seizing his dominions. His course was rendered easier by the fact that his own sons had died; consequently, having an inheritance at his disposal, he was able to offer it to whichever of his nephews he wished. The danger to the Frankish realm caused by the expedition of Gundobald (585), and the anxiety which was caused him by the revolts of the great lords in Austrasia finally decided him in favour of Childebert. He adopted him as his son, and recognized him as his heir at the treaty of Andelot (587); he also helped him to crush the great lords, especially Ursion and Berthefried, who were conquered in la Woevre. From this time on he ceased to play a prominent part in the affairs of Austrasia. He died in 592, and Childebert received his inheritance without opposition. Gregory of Tours is very indulgent to Guntram, who showed himself on occasions generous towards the church; he almost always calls him "good king Guntram," and in his writings are to be found such phrases as "good king Guntram took as his servant a concubine Veneranda" (iv. 25); but Guntram was really no better than the other kings of his age; he was cruel and licentious, putting his _cubicularius_ Condo to death, for instance, because he was suspected of having killed a buffalo in the Vosges. He was moreover a coward, and went in such constant terror of assassination that he always surrounded himself with a regular bodyguard.

See Krusch, "Zur Chronologie der merowingischen Konige," in the
_Forschungen zur deutschen Geschichte_, xxii. 451-490; Ulysse
Chevalier, _Bio-bibliographie_ (2nd ed.), s.v. "Guntram." (C. Pf.)

GUNTUR, a town and district of British India, in the Madras presidency. The town (pop. in 1901, 30,833) has a station on the Bellary-Bezwada branch of the Southern Mahratta railway. It is situated east of the Kondavid hills, and is very healthy. It appears to have been founded in the 18th century by the French. At the time of the cession of the Circars to the English in 1765, Guntur was specially exempted during the life of Basalat Jang, whose personal _jagir_ it was. In 1788 it came into British possession, the cession being finally confirmed in 1823. It has an important trade in cotton, with presses and ginning factories. There is a second-grade college supported by the American Lutheran Mission. Until 1859, Guntur was the headquarters of a district of the same name, and in 1904 a new DISTRICT OF GUNTUR was constituted, covering territory which till then had been divided between Kistna and Nellore. Area, 5733 sq. m. The population on this area in 1901 was 1,490,635. The district is bounded on the E. and N. by the river Kistna; in the W. a considerable part of the boundary is formed by the Gundlakamma river. The greater part consists of a fertile plain irrigated by canals from the Kistna, and producing cotton, rice and other crops.

GUPTA, an empire and dynasty of northern India, which lasted from about A.D. 320 to 480. The dynasty was founded by Chandragupta I., who must not be confounded with his famous predecessor Chandragupta Maurya. He gave his name to the Gupta era, which continued in use for several centuries, dating from the 26th of February, A.D. 320. Chandragupta was succeeded by Samudragupta (c. A.D. 326-375), one of the greatest of Indian kings, who conquered nearly the whole of India, and whose alliances extended from the Oxus to Ceylon; but his name was at one time entirely lost to history, and has only been recovered of recent years from coins and inscriptions. His empire rivalled that of Asoka, extending from the Hugli on the east to the Jumna and Chambal on the west, and from the foot of the Himalayas on the north to the Nerbudda on the south. His son Chandragupta II. (c. A.D. 375-413) was also known as Vikra-Maditya (q.v.), and seems to have been the original of the mythical Hindu king of that name. About 388 he conquered the Saka satrap of Surashtra (Kathiawar) and penetrated to the Arabian Sea. His administration is described in the work of Fa-hien, the earliest Chinese pilgrim, who visited India in A.D. 405-411. Pataliputra was the capital of the dynasty, but Ajodhya seems to have been sometimes used by both Samudragupta and Chandragupta II. as the headquarters of government. The Gupta dynasty appears to have fostered a revival of Brahmanism at the expense of Buddhism, and to have given an impulse to art and literature. The golden age of the empire lasted from A.D. 330 to 455, beginning to decline after the latter date. When Skandagupta came to the throne in 455, India was threatened with an irruption of the White Huns, on whom he inflicted a severe defeat, thus saving his kingdom for a time; but about 470 the White Huns (see EPHTHALITES) returned to the attack, and the empire was gradually destroyed by their repeated inroads. When Skandagupta died about 480, the Gupta empire came to an end, but the dynasty continued to rule in the eastern provinces for several generations. The last known prince of the imperial line of Guptas was Kamaragupta II. (c. 535), after whom it passed "by an obscure transition" into a dynasty of eleven Gupta princes, known as "the later Guptas of Magadha," who seem for the most part to have been merely local rulers of Magadha. One of them, however, Adityasena, after the death of the paramount sovereign in 648, asserted his independence. The last known Gupta king was Jivitagupta II., who reigned early in the 8th century. About the middle of the century Magadha passed under the sway of the Pal kings of Bengal.

See J. F. Fleet, _Gupta Inscriptions_ (1888); and Vincent A. Smith,
_The Early History of India_ (2nd ed., Oxford, 1908), pp. 264-295.

GURA, EUGEN (1842-1906), German singer, was born near Saatz in Bohemia, and educated at first for the career of a painter at Vienna and Munich; but later, developing a fine baritone voice, he took up singing and studied it at the Munich Conservatorium. In 1865 he made his debut at the Munich opera, and in the following years he gained the highest reputation in Germany, being engaged principally at Leipzig till 1876 and then at Hamburg till 1883. He sang in 1876 in the _Ring_ at Bayreuth, and was famous for his Wagnerian roles; and his Hans Sachs in _Meistersinger_, as performed in London in 1882, was magnificent. In later years he showed the perfection of art in his singing of German _Lieder_. He died in Bavaria on the 26th of August 1906.

GURDASPUR, a town and district of British India, in the Lahore division of the Punjab. The town had a population in 1901 of 5764. It has a fort (now containing a Brahman monastery) which was famous for the siege it sustained in 1712 from the Moguls. The Sikh leader, Banda, was only reduced by starvation, when he and his men were tortured to death after capitulating.

The DISTRICT comprises an area of 1889 sq. m. It is bounded on the N. by the native states of Kashmir and Chamba, on the E. by Kangra district and the river Beas, on the S.W. by Amritsar district, and on the W. by Sialkot, and occupies the submontane portion of the Bari Doab, or tract between the Beas and the Ravi. An intrusive spur of the British dominions runs northward into the lower Himalayan ranges, to include the mountain sanatorium of Dalhousie, 7687 ft. above sea-level. This station, which has a large fluctuating population during the warmer months, crowns the most westerly shoulder of a magnificent snowy range, the Dhaoladhar, between which and the plain two minor ranges intervene. Below the hills stretches a picturesque and undulating plateau covered with abundant timber, made green by a copious rainfall, and watered by the streams of the Bari Doab, which, diverted by dams and embankments, now empty their waters into the Beas directly, in order that their channels may not interfere with the Bari Doab canal. The district contains several large _jhils_ or swampy lakes, and is famous for its snipe-shooting. It is historically important in connexion with the rise of the Sikh confederacy. The whole of the Punjab was then distributed among the Sikh chiefs who triumphed over the imperial governors. In the course of a few years, however, the maharaja Ranjit Singh acquired all the territory which those chiefs had held. Pathankot and the neighbouring villages in the plain, together with the whole hill portion of the district, formed part of the area ceded by the Sikhs to the British after the first Sikh war in 1846. In 1862, after receiving one or two additions, the district was brought into its present shape. In 1901 the population was 940,334, showing a slight decrease, compared with an increase of 15% in the previous decade. A branch of the North-Western railway runs through the district. The largest town and chief commercial centre is Batala. There are important woollen mills at Dhariwal, and besides their products the district exports cotton, sugar, grain and oil-seeds.

GURGAON, a town and district of British India, in the Delhi division of the Punjab. The town (pop. in 1901, 4765) is the headquarters of the district, but is otherwise unimportant. The district has an area of 1984 sq. m. It is bounded on the N. by Rohtak, on the W. and S.W. by portions of the Alwar, Nabha and Jind native states, on the S. by the Muttra district of the United Provinces, on the E. by the river Jumna and on the N.E. by Delhi. It comprises the southernmost corner of the Punjab province, stretching away from the level plain towards the hills of Rajputana. Two low rocky ranges enter its borders from the south and run northward in a bare and unshaded mass toward the plain country. East of the western ridge the valley is wide and open, extending to the banks of the Jumna. To the west lies the subdivision of Rewari, consisting of a sandy plain dotted with isolated hills. Numerous torrents carry off the drainage from the upland ranges, and the most important among them empty themselves at last into the Najafgarh _jhil_. This swampy lake lies to the east of the civil station of Gurgaon, and stretches long arms into the neighbouring districts of Delhi and Rohtak. Salt is manufactured in wells at several villages. The mineral products are iron ore, copper ore, plumbago and ochre.