The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 110

CARTERET, JOHN, EARL GRANVILLE, eminent British statesman, orator, and diplomatist, entered Parliament in the Whig interest; his first speech was in favour of the Protestant succession; after service as diplomatist abroad, was made Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, in which capacity he was brought into contact with Swift, first as an enemy but at length as a friend, and proved a successful viceroy; in Parliament was head of the party opposed to Sir Robert Walpole and of the subsequent administration; his foreign policy has been in general approved of; had the satisfaction of seeing, which he was instrumental in securing, the elder Pitt installed in office before he retired; was a "fiery, emphatic man" (1690-1763).

CARTERET, PHILIP, English sailor and explorer, explored in the Southern Seas, and discovered several islands, Pitcairn's Island among the number; _d_. 1796.

CARTHAGE, an ancient maritime city, on a peninsula in the N. of Africa, near the site of Tunis, and founded by Phoenicians in 850 B.C.; originally the centre of a colony, it became the capital of a wide-spread trading community, which even ventured to compete with, and at one time threatened, under Hannibal, to overthrow, the power of Rome, in a series of protracted struggles known as the Punic Wars, in the last of which it was taken and destroyed by Publius Cornelius Scipio in 146 B.C., after a siege of two years, though it rose again as a Roman city under the Caesars, and became a place of great importance till burned in A.D. 698 by Ha.s.san, the Arab; the struggle during the early part of its history was virtually a struggle for the ascendency of the Semitic people over the Aryan race in Europe.

CARTHUSIANS, a monastic order of a very severe type, founded by St.

Bruno in 1086, each member of which had originally a single cell, eventually one consisting of two or three rooms with a garden, all of them opening into one corridor; they ama.s.sed considerable wealth, but were given to deeds of benefaction, and spent their time in study and contemplation, in consequence of which they figure not so much in the outside world as many other orders do.

CARTIER, a French navigator, born at St. Malo, made three voyages to N. America in quest of a North-West pa.s.sage, at the instance of Francis I.; took possession of Canada in the name of France, by planting the French flag on the soil (1494-1554).

CARTOONS, drawings or designs made on stiff paper for a fresco or other paintings, transferred by tracing or pouncing to the surface to be painted, the most famous of which are those of Raphael.

CARTOUCHE, a notorious captain of a band of thieves, born in Paris, who was broken on the wheel alive in the Place de Greve (1698-1721).

CARTWRIGHT, EDMUND, inventor of the powerloom and the carding machine, born in Nottinghams.h.i.+re; bred for the Church; his invention, at first violently opposed, to his ruin for the time being, is now universally adopted; a grant of 10,000 was made him by Parliament in consideration of his services and in compensation for his losses; he had a turn for versifying as well as mechanical invention (1743-1823).

CARTWRIGHT, JOHN, brother of the preceding; served in the navy and the militia, but left both services for political reasons; took to the study of agriculture, and the advocacy of radical political reform much in advance of his time (1740-1824).

CARUS, KARL GUSTAV, a celebrated German physiologist, born at Leipzig; a many-sided man; advocate of the theory that health of body and mind depends on the equipoise of antagonistic principles (1789-1869).

CARY, HENRY FRANCIS, translator of Dante, born at Gibraltar; his translation is admired for its fidelity as well as for its force and felicity (1772-1844).

CARYATIDES, draped female figures surmounting columns and supporting entablatures; the corresponding male figures are called Atlantes.

CASA, Italian statesman, Secretary of State under Pope Paul IV.; wrote "Galateo; or, the Art of Living in the World" (1503-1556).

CASABIANCA, LOUIS, a French naval officer, born in Corsica, who, at the battle of Aboukir, after securing the safety of his crew, blew up his s.h.i.+p and perished along with his son, who would not leave him (1755-1798).

CASA'LE (17), a town on the Po; manufactures silk twist.

CASANOVA, painter, born in London, of Venetian origin; painted landscapes and battle-pieces (1727-1806).

CASANOVA DE SEINGALT, a clever Venetian adventurer and scandalous impostor, of the Cagliostro type, who insinuated himself into the good graces for a time of all the distinguished people of the period, including even Frederick the Great, Voltaire, and others; died in Bohemia after endless roamings and wrigglings, leaving, as Carlyle would say, "the smell of brimstone behind him"; wrote a long detailed, brazen-faced account of his career of scoundrelism (1725-1798).

CASAS, BARTOLOMEO DE LAS, a Spanish prelate, distinguished for his exertions in behalf of the Christianisation and civilisation of the Indians of S. America (1474-1566).

CASAUBON, ISAAC, an eminent cla.s.sical scholar and commentator, born in Geneva; professor of Greek at Geneva and Montpellier, and afterwards of belles-lettres at Paris, invited thither by Henry IV., who pensioned him; being a Protestant he removed to London on Henry's death, where James I. gave him two prebends; has been ranked with Lepsius and Scaliger as a scholar (1559-1614).

CASAUBON, MERIC, son of preceding; accompanied his father to England; held a church living under the Charleses; became professor of Theology at Oxford, and edited his father's works (1599-1671).

CASCADE MOUNTAINS, a range in Columbia that slopes down toward the Pacific from the Western Plateau, of which the Rocky Mountains form the eastern boundary; they are nearly parallel with the coast, and above 100 m. inland.

CASERTA (35), a town in Italy, 20 m. from Naples, noted for a magnificent palace, built after plans supplied by Vanvitelli, one of the architects of St. Peter's at Rome.

CASHEL, a town in Tipperary, Ireland, 49 m. NE. of Cork; a bishop's see, with a "Rock" 300 ft. high, occupied by interesting ruins; it was formerly the seat of the kings of Munster.

CASHMERE or KASHMIR (2,543), a native Indian State, bordering upon Tibet, 120 m. long and 80 m. wide, with beautiful scenery and a delicious climate, in a valley of the Himalayas, forming the basin of the Upper Indus, hemmed in by deep-gorged woods and snow-peaked mountains, and watered by the Jhelum, which spreads out here and there near it into lovely lakes; shawl weaving and lacquer-work are the chief occupations of the inhabitants.

CASIMIR, the name of five kings of Poland; the most eminent, Casimir III., called the Great, after distinguis.h.i.+ng himself in wars against the Teutonic Knights, was elected king in 1333; recovered Silesia from Bohemia in two victories; defeated the Tartars on the Vistula, and annexed part of Lithuania; formed a code of laws, limiting both the royal authority and that of the n.o.bles (1309-1370).

CASIMIR-PERIER, president of the French Republic, born in Paris; a man of moderate views and firm character; was premier in 1893; succeeded Carnot in 1894; resigned 1895, because, owing to misrepresentation, the office had become irksome to him; _b_. 1847.

CASINO, a club-house or public building in Continental towns provided with rooms for social gatherings, music, dancing, billiards, &c.

CASIRI, a Syro-Maronite religious, and a learned Orientalist (1710-1791).

CASPARI, KARL PAUL, German theologian, born at Dessau; professor at Christiania (1814-1892).

CASPIAN SEA, an inland sea, partly in Europe and partly in Asia, the largest in the world, being 600 m. from N. to S. and from 270 to 130 m.

in breadth, with the Caucasus Mts. on the W. and the Elburz on the S., is the fragment of a larger sea which extended to the Arctic Ocean; shallow in the N., deep in the S.; the waters, which are not so salt as the ocean, abound in fish, especially salmon and sturgeon.

Ca.s.s, LEWIS, an eminent American statesman, a member of the Democratic party, and openly hostile to Great Britain; though in favour of slave-holding, a friend of Union; wrote a "History of the U.S.

Indians" (1782-1867).

Ca.s.sAGNAC, GRANIER DE, a French journalist; at first an Orleanist, became a supporter of the Empire; started several journals, which all died a natural death; edited _Le Pays_, a semi-official organ; embroiled himself in duels and lawsuits without number (1806-1880).