The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 198

FELTON, CORNELIUS CONWAY, American scholar, born at West Newbury, Ma.s.sachusetts; graduated at Harvard in 1827, and became professor of Greek there, rising to the Presidency of the same college in 1860; edited Greek cla.s.sics, and made translations from the German; most important work is "Greece, Ancient and Modern," in 2 vols. (1807-1862).

FELTON, JOHN, the Irish a.s.sa.s.sin of the Duke of Buckingham in 1628.

FEMMES SAVANTES, a comedy in five acts by Moliere, and one of his best, appeared in 1672.

FENELLA, a fairy-like attendant of the Countess of Derby, deaf and dumb, in Scott's "Peveril of the Peak," a character suggested by Goethe's Mignon in "Wilhelm Meister."

FeNeLON, FRANcOIS DE SALIGNAC DE LA MOTHE, a famous French prelate and writer, born in the Chateau de Fenelon, in the prov. of Perigord; at the age of 15 came to Paris, and, having already displayed a remarkable gift for preaching, entered the Plessis College, and four years later joined the Seminary of St. Sulpice, where he took holy orders in 1675; his directors.h.i.+p of a seminary for female converts to Catholicism brought him into prominence, and gave occasion to his well-known treatise "De l'education des Filles"; in 1685, after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, he conducted a mission for the conversion of the Huguenots of Saintonge and Poitou, and four years later Louis XIV. appointed him tutor to his grandson, the Duke of Burgundy, an appointment which led to his writing his "Fables," "Dialogues of the Dead," and "History of the Ancient Philosophers"; in 1694 he became abbe of St. Valery, and in the following year archbishop of Cambrai; soon after this ensued his celebrated controversy with BOSSUET (q. v.) regarding the doctrines of QUIETISM (q. v.), a dispute which brought him into disfavour with the king and provoked the Pope's condemnation of his "Explication des Maximes des Saints sur la Vie interieure"; the surrept.i.tious publication of his most famous work "Telemache," the MS. of which was stolen by his servant, accentuated the king's disfavour, who regarded it as a veiled attack on his court, and led to an order confining the author to his own diocese; the rest of his life was spent in the service of his people, to whom he endeared himself by his benevolence and the sweet piety of his nature; his works are extensive, and deal with subjects historical and literary, as well as philosophical and theological (1651-1715).

FENIANS, an Irish political organisation having for its object the overthrow of English rule in Ireland and the establishment of a republic there. The movement was initiated in the United States soon after the great famine in Ireland of 1846-47, which, together with the harsh exactions of the landlords, compelled many Irishmen to emigrate from their island with a deeply-rooted sense of injustice and hatred of the English. The Fenians organised themselves so far on the model of a republic, having a senate at the head, with a virtual president called the "head-centre," and various "circles" established in many parts of the U.S. They collected funds and engaged in military drill, and sent agents to Ireland and England. An invasion of Canada in 1866 and a rising at home in 1867 proved abortive, as also the attack on Clerkenwell Prison in the same year. Another attempt on Canada in 1871 and the formation of the _Skirmis.h.i.+ng Fund_ for the use of the _Dynamitards_ and the inst.i.tution of the _Clan-na-Gael_ leading to the "Invincibles," and the Phoenix Park murders (1882) are later manifestations of this movement. The Home Rule and Land League movements practically superseded the Fenian. The name is taken from an ancient military organisation called the Fionna Eirinn, said to have been inst.i.tuted in Ireland in 300 B.C.

FERDINAND THE CATHOLIC, V. of Castile, II. of Aragon and Sicily, and III. of Naples, born at Sos, in Aragon, married Isabella of Castile in 1849, a step by which these ancient kingdoms were united under one sovereign power; their joint reign is one of the most glorious in the annals of Spanish history, and in their hands Spain quickly took rank amongst the chief European powers; in 1492 Columbus discovered America, and the same year saw the Jews expelled from Spain and the Moorish power crushed by the fall of Granada. In 1500-1 Ferdinand joined the French in his conquest of Naples, and three years later managed to secure the kingdom to himself, while by the conquest of Navarre in 1512 the entire Spanish peninsula came under his sway. He was a shrewd and adroit ruler, whose undoubted abilities, both as administrator and general, were, however, somewhat marred by an unscrupulous cunning, which found a characteristic expression in the inst.i.tution of the notorious Inquisition, which in 1480 was started by him, and became a powerful engine for political as well as religious persecution for long years after (1452-1516).

FERDINAND I., emperor of Germany (1556-64), born at Alcala, in Spain, son of Philip I., married Anna, a Bohemian princess, in 1521; was elected king of the Romans (1531), added Bohemia and Hungary to his domains (1503-1564).

FERDINAND II., emperor of Germany (1619-37), grandson of the preceding and son of Charles, younger brother of Maximilian II., born at Gratz; his detestation of the Protestants, early instilled into him by his mother and the Jesuits, under whom he was educated, was the ruling pa.s.sion of his life, and involved the empire in constant warfare during his reign; an attempt on the part of Bohemia, restless under religious and political grievances, to break away from his rule, brought about the Thirty Years' War; by ruthless persecutions he re-established Catholicism in Bohemia, and reduced the country to subjection; but the war spread into Hungary and Germany, where Ferdinand was opposed by a confederacy of the Protestant States of Lower Saxony and Denmark, and in which the Protestant cause was in the end successfully sustained by the Swedish hero, GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS (q. v.), who had opposed to him the imperial generals TILLY and WALLENSTEIN (q. v.); his reign is regarded as one of disaster, bloodshed, and desolation to his empire, and his connivance at the a.s.sa.s.sination of Wallenstein will be forever remembered to his discredit (1578-1637).

FERDINAND III., emperor of Germany (1637-57), son of the preceding, born at Gratz; more tolerant in his views, would gladly have brought the war to a close, but found himself compelled to face the Swedes reinforced by the French; in 1648 the desolating struggle was terminated by the Peace of Westphalia; the rest of his reign pa.s.sed in tranquillity (1608-1657).

FERDINAND I., king of the Two Sicilies, third son of Charles III. of Spain, succeeded his father on the Neapolitan throne (1759), married Maria Caroline, daughter of Maria-Theresa; joined the Allies in the struggle against Napoleon, and in 1806 was driven from his throne by the French, but was reinstated at the Congress of Vienna; in 1816 he const.i.tuted his two States (Sicily and Naples) into the kingdom of the Two Sicilies, and in the last four years of his reign ruled, with the aid of Austria, as a despot, and having broken a pledge to his people, was compelled ere his return to grant a popular const.i.tution (1751-1825).

FERDINAND II., king of the Two Sicilies, grandson of the preceding and son of Francis I.; after the death of his first wife, a daughter of Victor Emmanuel I., he married the Austrian princess Maria-Theresa, and fell under the influence of Austria during the rest of his reign; in 1848 he was compelled to grant const.i.tutional rights to his people, but was distrusted, and an insurrection broke out in Sicily; with merciless severity he crushed the revolt, and by his savage bombardment of the cities won him the epithet "Bomba"; a reign of terror ensued, and in 1851 Europe was startled by the revelations of cruel injustice contained in Mr. Gladstone's famous Neapolitan letters (1810-1859).

FERDINAND III., Grand-duke of Tuscany and Archduke of Austria, born at Florence; succeeded to the government of Tuscany in 1790; introduced many wise measures of reform, which brought peace and prosperity to his State; reluctantly joined the coalition against Napoleon in 1793, but two years later entered into friendly relations with France, and in 1797, in order to save his States being merged in the Cisalpine Republic, undertook to make payment of an annual subsidy; later he formed an alliance with Austria, and was by Napoleon driven from his possessions, which were, however, restored to him in 1814 by the Peace of Paris (1769-1824).

FERDINAND VII. OF SPAIN, son of Charles IV. of Spain; too weak to steer his way through the intrigues of the court, he appealed to Napoleon in 1807 to support the king, his father, and himself; but his letter was discovered, and his accomplices exiled; the following year the French entered Spain, and Charles abdicated in favour of his son Ferdinand; but soon after, under Napoleon's influence, the crown was surrendered to the French, and Joseph Bonaparte became king; in 1813 Ferdinand was reinstated, but found himself immediately met by a demand of his people for a more liberal representative government; the remaining years of his reign were spent in an internecine struggle against these claims, in which he had French support under Louis XVIII. (1784-1833).

FERDUSI. See FIRDAUSI.

FERETRUM, the shrine containing the sacred effigies and relics of a saint.

FERGUS, the name of three Scottish kings: F. I., _d_. 356; F.

II., king from 411 to 427; and F. III., king from 764 to 767.

FERGUSON, ADAM, a Scotch philosopher and historian, born at Logierait, Perths.h.i.+re; after pa.s.sing through the universities of St.

Andrews and Edinburgh, he in 1745 was appointed Gaelic chaplain to the Black Watch Highland Regiment, and was present at the battle of Fontenoy; in 1757 he became keeper of the Advocates' Library in Edinburgh; two years later professor of Natural Philosophy, and subsequently of Moral Philosophy in the university there; during his professors.h.i.+p he, as secretary, was attached to the commission sent out by Lord North to bring about a friendly settlement of the dispute pending between England and the North American colonies; resigning his chair in 1785 he retired to Neidpath Castle, to engage in farming at Hallyards, an estate in the same neighbourhood; died at St. Andrews; his best-known works are "Inst.i.tutes of Moral Philosophy," "History of the Roman Republic," and "Principles of Moral and Political Science" (1723-1816).

FERGUSON, JAMES, a popular writer on astronomy and mechanics, born at Rothiemay, Banff, son of a labourer; his interest in astronomy was first aroused by his observation of the stars while acting as a "herd laddie," and much of his time among the hills was spent in the construction of mechanical contrivances; compelled by circ.u.mstances to betake himself to various occupations, pattern-drawing, clock-mending, copying prints, and portrait sketching, he still in his leisure hours pursued those early studies, and coming to London in 1743 (after a residence of some years in Edinburgh), began lecturing on his favourite subjects; a pension of 50 was granted him out of the privy purse, and in 1763 he was elected an F.R.S.; besides publis.h.i.+ng lectures on mechanics, hydrostatics, optics, &c., he wrote several works on astronomy, chiefly popular expositions of the methods and principles of Sir Isaac Newton (1710-1776).

FERGUSON, PATRICK, soldier and inventor of the breech-loading gun, born at Pitfour, Aberdeens.h.i.+re; served in the English army in Germany and Tobago; brought out his new rifle in 1766, which was tried with success in the American War of Independence; rose to be a major, and fell at the battle of King's Mountains, in South Carolina (1744-1780).

FERGUSON, ROBERT, a notorious plotter, who took part in Monmouth's invasion in 1685 and was prominent in the various plots against Charles II. and James II., but after the Revolution turned Jacobite; published a history of the Revolution in 1706; died in poverty (about 1637-1714).

FERGUSSON, JAMES, a writer on the history and art of architecture, born at Ayr; went to India as an indigo-planter, but afterwards gave himself up to the study of the rock-temples; published various works, and in his later years interested himself in the fortifications of the United Kingdom; his "History of Architecture," in 4 vols., is a standard work (1808-1886).

FERGUSSON, ROBERT, a Scottish poet, born in Edinburgh; after a university course at St. Andrews he obtained a post in the office of the commissionary-clerk of Edinburgh; his first poems appeared in _Ruddiman's Weekly Magazine_, and brought him a popularity which proved his ruin; some years of unrestrained dissipation ended in religious melancholia, which finally settled down into an incurable insanity; his poems, collected in 1773, have abundant energy, wit, and fluency, but lack the pa.s.sion and tenderness of those of Burns; he was, however, held in high honour by Burns, who regarded him as "his elder brother in the Muses."

"In his death," says Mr. Henley, "at four-and-twenty, a great loss was inflicted to Scottish literature; he had intelligence and an eye, a right touch of humour, the gifts of invention and observation and style, together with a true feeling for country and city alike ... Burns, who learned much from him, was an enthusiast in his regard for him, bared his head and shed tears over 'the green mound and the scattered gowans,'

under which he found his exemplar lying in Canongate Churchyard, and got leave from the managers to put up a headstone at his own cost there"

(1750-1774). See Mr. Henley's "Life of Burns" in the Centenary Burns, published by the Messrs. T. C. and E. C. Jack.

FERGUSSON, SIR W., surgeon, born at Prestonpans; graduated at Edinburgh; was elected to the chair of Surgery in King's College, London, and in 1866 was made a baronet; was serjeant-surgeon to the Queen, and president of the Royal College of Surgeons; Fergusson was a bold and skilful surgeon; is the author, amongst other treatises, of a "System of Practical Surgery," besides being the inventor of many surgical instruments (1808-1877).

FERISHTAH, a Persian historian, born at Astrabad, on the Black Sea; went at an early age, accompanied by his father, to India, where his life was spent in the service, first of Murtaza Nizam Shah, in Ahmednagar, and afterwards at the court of the prince of Bij.a.pur; his famous history of the Mohammedan power in India, finished in 1609, and the writing of which occupied him for 20 years, is still a standard work, and has been translated into English (about 1570-1611).

FERMANAGH (74), an Irish county in the SW. corner of Ulster, of a hilly surface, especially in the W.; is well wooded, and produces indifferent crops of oats, flax, and potatoes; some coal and iron, and quant.i.ties of limestone, are found in it; the Upper and Lower Loughs Erne form a waterway through its centre; chief town, Enniskillen.

FERMAT, PIERRE DE, a French mathematician, born near Montauban; made important discoveries in the properties of numbers, and with his friend Pascal invented a calculus of probabilities; was held in high esteem by Hallam, who ranks him next to Descartes (1601-1665).

FERNANDEZ, JUAN, a Spanish navigator, discovered the island off the coast of Chile that bears his name; _d_. in 1576.

FERNANDO PO (25), a mountainous island, with an abrupt and rocky coast, in the Bight of Biafra, W. Africa; the volcano, Mount Clarence (9300 ft.), rises in the N.; is covered with luxuriant vegetation, and yields maize and yams, some coffee, and palm-oil and wine; is inhabited by the Bubis, a Bantu tribe; is the chief of the Spanish Guinea Isles.

FEROZEPORE (50), the chief town of the district of the same name in the Punjab, India, a few miles S. of the Sutlej; is strongly fortified, and contains a large a.r.s.enal; the present town was laid out by Lord Lawrence. F. DISTRICT (887), lies along the S. bank of the Sutlej; came into the possession of the British in 1835; cereals, cotton, sugar, and tobacco are cultivated.

FERRAR, NICHOLAS, a religious enthusiast in the reign of Charles I.; was elected a Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge, in 1610; afterwards devoted himself to medicine and travelled on the Continent; subsequently joined his father in business in London, and entered Parliament in 1624; but a year later retired to the country, and at Little Gidding, Huntingdons.h.i.+re, founded, with some of his near relations, a religious community, known as the "Arminian Nunnery," some account of which is given in Shorthouse's "John Inglesant"; it was broken up by the Puritans in 1647; he was the intimate friend of George Herbert; this community consisted of some "fourscore persons, devoted to a kind of Protestant monasticism; they followed celibacy and merely religious duties, employed themselves in binding prayer-books, &c., in alms-giving and what charitable work was possible to them in their desert retreat, kept up, night and day, a continual repet.i.tion of the English liturgy, never allowing at any hour the sacred fire to go out" (1592-1637).

FERRAR, ROBERT, an English prelate, born at Halifax, was prior of the monastery of St. Oswald's, embraced the Reformation, and was made Bishop of St. David's by Edward VI.; suffered martyrdom under Mary in 1555.