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it were a mountain and rivulet of the same name. This place is famous, in Christian history, because Jesus used to reside here during the time of his ministry; and in its vicinity he delivered the sermon on the mount. Nothing of it now remains. As Capernaum is not men tioned in the Old Testament, it may have been built after the return from the Babylonish captivity. It stood on the coast of Galilee, on the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim.

CAPET; the name of the French race of kings, which has given 118 sovereigns to Europe, viz. 36 kings of France, 22 kings of Portugal, 11 of Naples and Sicily, 5 of Spain, 3 of Hungary, 3 emperors of Constantinople, 3 kings of Navarre, 17 dukes of Burgundy, 12 dukes of Brittany, 2 dukes of Lorraine, and 4 dukes of Parma. The history of this royal race is, at the same time, the history of the rise and progress of the French monarchy. (See France.) The fate of one of the most interesting countries and nations in Europe is connected with the name of Capet. After having been deprived of four thrones, and again restored to them, this family stands forth as the first and most ancient support of the European principle of political legitimacy, that divine right, which, in this house, commenced with treason. Its origin is remarkable. Pepin the Short, the father of Charlemagne, and mayor of the palace under the Merovingian dynasty, had displaced that royal house, and usurped the throne of the ancient kings of the Franks. After a space of 235 years, his own descendants, the Carlovingian monarchs, experienced a similar fate. Under the last Carlovingians, destitute alike of energy and wisdom, Hugh the Great, duke of France (by which was then understood the Isle of France), Orleans and Burgundy, exercised a power as unlimited as that of the mayor of the palace under the Merovingians. On the death of Louis V, without children, in 987, his uncle Charles, duke of Lower Lorraine, laid claim to the throne, which the Franks had sworn to preserve to the family of Charlemagne. The French nobility, supported by pope John XV, proclaimed Hugh, son of Hugh the Great, duke of France and count of Paris, king, with the surname of Capet (capetus, capito, broad-head; or, more probably, from a sort of hat, capatus). The valiant Charles of Lorraine was surprised in Laon, by the treachery of a bishop, and made prisoner. He died, soon afterwards, in prison, and his son

Otho, duke of Lower Lorraine, died in 1006. Both his younger brothers died childless in Germany. Thus the race of Capet was left in possession of the throne of France. According to some historians, Hugh Capet was descended from a German family. He was married to a German princess, Adelaide, daughter of king Henry I of Germany (duke of Saxony). Hugh was crowned at Rheims, and swore to preserve to the nation, and particularly to the powerful feudal nobility and clergy, all their existing privileges, By his wise measures, he gave permanence to his dynasty, which, next to the family of Guelph, is the eldest sovereign house at present existing. (See Bourbon.) Hugh, and the succeeding monarchs, till Louis VII, took the precaution to have their successors invested with the royal title during their own life-time. Thus Hugh had his son Robert crowned and anointed, as his colleague, as early as Jan. 1, 988. He abolished, by law, the parti tion of the hereditary estates among the sons of the kings, and forbade the alienation of the family domains. The daughters of the kings were endowed, from that time, with money, and the appanage which was given to the princes of the blood returned to the crown in default of male heirs. Both these principles were more fully confirmed by later laws. Thus Hugh Capet, by uniting his hereditary duchy, consisting of Paris, Isle de France and Burgundy, unalienably with the crown, may be regarded as the founder of the French monarchy. What he had begun was completed by his successors, particularly in the times of the crusades, and by the establishment of standing armies. All the political statements illus trative of this subject are collected by the marquis de Pastoret, peer of France, in his continuation of the Ordonnances des Rois de France de la troisième Race, vols. xv. xvi. xvii. (Paris, 1811, 1814, 1820, fol.), with which may be compared the essay of the advocate Beugnot, which obtained the prize of the academy of inscriptions, Essai sur les Institutions de St. Louis (Paris, 1821).

CAPI AGA; in the Turkish court, the superintendent of the eunuchs. He also announces all who desire to speak to the grand vizier, and introduces foreign ambassadors to an audience.-Capigi (capidschi) is a name applied to the guards or door-keepers of the seraglio, in number about 400. Their superintendent is called Capigi Baschi. They likewise convey the sultan's orders. Among their duties

is that of carrying the cord to those who are to be strangled.

CAPIAS. A writ or process of capias is one whereby the sheriff is ordered to arrest the body of the defendant, either before judgment, to compel him to answer to a suit; and this is called a capias ad respondendum; or, after the judgment, to compel him to satisfy the judgment; and this is called a capias ad satisfaciendum, commonly abbreviated ca. sa. In case of injuries without force, the civil law, and, originally, the common law, did not authorize the arrest of the defendant before judgment, that is, the arrest to answer; and upon feudal principles, says sir William Blackstone, 3 Com. 281, "the person of a feudatory was not liable to be attached for injuries merely civil, lest, thereby, the lord should be deprived of his services." The first writ of capias ad respondendum was given by act of parliament in 1267, 52 Henry III, c. 23, 1, which provided, that, "if bailiffs, which ought to make account to their lords, do withdraw themselves, and have no lands nor tenements whereby they may be distrained, they shall be attached by their bodies, so that the sheriff shall cause them to come to make their account." This act applied to a particular description of receivers, and supposes them not only to be debtors, but also to have in their own hands the evidence of the amount of the debt, the production of which was one object of the process. The statute of 13 Edward I, c. 11, passed in 1285, 18 years after the former, extends this process to "all manner of receivers bound to yield account," and provides "if they be found in arrearages upon this account, their bodies shall be arrested, and, by the testimony of the auditors, shall be sent into the next gaol, and be imprisoned in irons under safe custody, and remain in prison at their own cost, until they have satisfied their master [the creditor] fully of their arrearages." This statute seems to suppose the proof and establishment of the debt before the arrest, and, so far, seems to have the character of a ca. sa.; but it is considered a capias ad respondendum by sir William Blackstone; so in Jacobs's Law Dictionary, and, indeed, generally. And it appears that the practice of arresting on mesne process, that is, before judgment, to answer, in civil suits, grew out of these statutes; for the subsequent statutes of 25 Edward III, c. 17 (A. D. 1350), providing that "such process shall be made in writ of debt, detinue of chattels, and

taking of beasts, by writ of capias, as is used in writ of account;" and of 21 Henry VII, c. 9 (A. D. 1503), providing that "like process shall be hereafter, in actions upon the case, as in action of trespass or debt;" evidently have reference to an arrest to answer. A writ upon which a suit is commenced is either a capias, distress or summons; either the person of the defendant is seized, and (unless he is bailed) imprisoned until the trial, or his goods or lands are seized as a guarantee of his appearance to answer; and more often, in modern times, to obtain a lien to secure satisfaction of the judgment; or be is only summoned, that is, merely has notice, that a suit has been commenced before such a court, by such a plaintiff, and is to be heard at such a time. This last is uniformly the process adopted in claims of land. But by the statute of 5 Geo. II, c. 27, since made perpetual by another statute, it is provided, that, "in all cases where the cause of action shall not amount to ten pounds, the plaintiff shall not arrest the body of the defendant;" and "in all cases where the cause of action shall amount to ten pounds, an affidavit shall be made and filed of such cause of action, and the sum specified in such affidavit shall be endorsed on the writ, for which sum the sheriff shall take bail, and no more." "It is curious to remark," says Mr. Tidd, "the changes which the law of arrest has undergone at different periods. Anciently, an arrest was not allowed, except in action of trespass vi et armis; afterwards, an arrest was introduced with a capias in other actions; now, by the operation of the before-mentioned statutes, an arrest cannot be made in the only action wherein it was formerly allowed." But, as has been justly remarked in a Pennsylvania case (6 Binn, 302), the reason for not requiring bail in trespass is, the difficulty of fixing the amounts for which it ought to be required. In the U. States, except Louisiana, the form of process is usually adopted from the English law, but with so great modifications on this particular subject, that it is not easy to lay down any general rule; and to state the particular cases in which an arrest of the person on mesne process is allowed in each of the states, would far exceed the limits prescribed by the plan of this work. The general principle was laid down, in the trial of judge Chase on articles of impeachment, in 1804, that, in criminal proceedings, wherever the of fence charged subjects the party to the punishment of imprisonment, the process

may be commenced by an arrest of the person, that the party charged may be held in custody, to receive punishment in case of his being found guilty. In civil suits, the capias ad respondendum was anciently adopted very extensively, if not universally, under the colonial governments, in actions of account, assumpsit, covenant, debt and case. The capias was adopted early and implicitly, in many of the states, as a part of the common law; and a large part of the legislation on the subject, subsequent to the adoption of the constitutions of the states, is a modification of a practice already existing. And the very laws authorizing the arrest are not to be found, except by implication from those modifying and regulating the practice. In many of the states, however, arrest on mesne process for debt is abolished, except in cases where it is apprehended the debtor intends to escape. In other states, the debtor is arrested on the capias ad respondendum, but set at large immediately on surrendering his property, on oath, for the benefit of his creditors. It seems, indeed, to be putting a slight value upon personal liberty to permit arrest, in any case, without the intervention of a magistrate; and, in case of debt or contract, there does not appear to be any good reason for arresting the person on mesne process, unless it be made to appear satisfactorily to a magistrate, that there is reason to apprehend the defendant will depart beyond the jurisdiction of the court. The capias ad satisfaciendum, or arrest on execution, issues, in England, in those cases where the capias ad respondendum lies, and so was the original common or statute law, generally, in the U. States; but the bankrupt and insolvent laws of England, and the insolvent laws of several of the U. States, enable the defendant, by surrendering his property for the benefit of his creditors, to defeat the capias ad satisfaciendum.

CAPIGI. (See Capi Aga.)

CAPILLARY TUBES, in physics; little pipes, the canals of which are extremely narrow, their diameter being only a half, third or fourth, &c. of a line. If one end of a tube of this sort, open at both ends, be immersed in a fluid which adheres to glass, as water, the liquor within the tube will rise to a sensible height above the surface of that without, and the height to which it will rise is inversely as the diameter of the tube, at least unless the tubes are excessively fine. This phenomenon is explained by the attraction which exists between the glass and the

fluid. Such liquids as do not adhere to glass (e. g., quicksilver) do not rise in the tube: on the contrary, they stand lower within than without it. The phenome non of the rise of liquids in such tubes is exhibited in numberless instances in nature, as in the rising of the sap in plants. (See the article Adhesion; also, Laplace's Theorie de l'Action Capillaire, Paris, 1806, 4to., and the Supplement to the same, Paris, 1807, 4to., also annexed to the third volume of his Mecanique Celeste.)

CAPILLARY VESSELS; the minute ves sels in which the arteries terminate, and from which, in a way not well understood, the veins commence. The distinction between the arteries and veins is, therefore, lost in these vessels. The support of the solid, and the formation of the fluid, parts of the system take place especially in these vessels.

CAPITAL, in political economy, is the stock of valuable exchangeable commodities possessed by individuals or a community. This is the usual and more limited meaning of the term; for, in comparing the capital of one individual with that of another, we have in mind the amount of money for which the stock of each can be exchanged. The market value is in view. In estimating the capital of any individual, we necessarily take into consideration the debts due to and from him; and many men of large capital are only possessed of claims upon others; their whole stock is in the hands of others at interest; and they have only promises for a certain amount of money, and actu ally possess neither lands nor goods to any considerable value; while others possess large quantities of both, and yet have little or no capital, since they owe, in money, the value of the greater part or the whole of their possessions. Now it is plain that no individual can undertake production, to any large extent, without an extensive stock. He must have land to cultivate, or materials to work up, and implements to work with. Even a savage must have a capital, such as his hut, clothes, cooking utensils, food enough to support him until he can obtain a new supply, and implements, such as a hatchet, gun, canoe, fishing gear, with which to procure this supply. The first effort of industry is to supply the implements, apparatus and machinery for his own employment; and as society and the arts advance, and the operations of industry are extended, the implements, apparatus, machinery and materials, requisite in conducting the processes of production, must

be proportionally accumulated; and these will constitute a part of the capital of a community, and also of an individual, which is essential to success in productive processes. And these can be commanded by any one in proportion to the extent of his individual capital; or, if he have credit, then his resources for production will depend upon the capital of others in other words, that of the community to which he belongs.-In considering the aggregate capital of a community, we may put out of the question all the debts due from any of the members to others; for, whether these be great or small,and they will vary according as the practice of giving credit is more or less in use, -still the capital of the community will consist in its lands, buildings, ships, machinery, materials on hand, implements; in short, in all those things which bear a value in the market. Provided the community owes no debts abroad, these will constitute its aggregate capital; and, if its members are indebted abroad, we find its actual net capital, as in the case of an individual, by deducting the amount of its debts from the value of its possessions, without regarding the debts due from some of its members to others.-In comparing the capital or wealth of two communities, we may be led into an error by comparing the value of their possessions in gold and silver, since the value of these metals is well known to differ in different countries, by whatever standard the comparison be made. If, for instance, we compare the value of the metals in reference to the wages of a common day laborer, we find he has 2 or 3 pence a day in Egypt, and from 50 to 72 pence in the U. States. We shall find the same diversity in other things. If we take a horse, of the same beauty and serviceable qualities, for an example, we shall find his price, in money, to be twice as great in one place as in another. In order, therefore, to make such a comparison through the medium of the metals, or by adopting them as a common measure, we should, in the first place, correct the measure itself, and ascertain whether an ounce of gold, in one of the places between which the comparison is to be made, is worth a half of an ounce or an ounce and a half in the other; and the way of correcting the standard would be, to take equal quantities of a great num ber of articles of the same quality, in the two places, or equivalent quantities of equivalent articles, as nearly as their equivalence can be ascertained, and com

pare their money prices in the two places But this correction of the common meas ure is not very easily made. The means of comparing the value of money at successive periods, in the same community, are very defective; and the only attempt at any scale of value, of this description, known to the writer of this article, is that of Mr. Evelyn, published in the Transac tions of the royal society of London for 1798, and corrected, since, by Mr. Colquhoun. But suppose the comparative value of money, in two states or kingdoms, to be ascertained, and then a valuation of all the property in each, of every description, to be made, the capital of each and the comparative capital of the two are thus ascertained. But this comparison would not show the comparative resources of the two, either for war or for production. This will appear from the obvious fact, that a river like the Hudson is a greater facility to transportation than the Languedoc canal; yet, in making a return of the property, or the estimation of the capital of France, the Languedoc canal would be a great item, whereas the Hudson river, though of equal or greater utility, would not appear as constituting a part of the capital of New York. The inhabitants are the great agents of production in every country; and, though their productive efficiency will be influenced, very essentially, by the amount of capital, fertility of the soil, quality of its products, facilities of transportation, and arrangements of industry, still the character, habits and skill of the agents themselves are the most important circumstances in estimating the productive resources of a community. Industry and skill will rapidly create capital. Mr. Phillips, in his Manual of Political Economy, estimates that the whole value of the capital of a country is consumed and reproduced every three or four years. But the training of a population, and forming its character and habits, is a work of many years. The most important ingredient in the national resources is, therefore, not only no part of its capital, but is a thing of very slow growth, and results from the combined and long-continued influence of a thousand causes, moral, physical and political, too complicated to be disentangled, and so blended that the action of each cannot be distinctly traced. Economists have confined their views of production toe much to considerations of capital, and neglected, or, at least, not given sufficient weight to, the other economical capacities and resources.-Capital is distinguished

into floating, or movable, and fixed; the ply, for a time, of the domestic demand. former consisting of things that may be Fictitious capital generally means moved, and are susceptible of manual de- nothing more nor less than excessive livery; the latter, of those confined to one credits, which throw the management place, as a house or piece of land. We and disposition of a great deal of properuse the terms in a different sense when ty into the hands of persons who are not applied to any particular establishment, able to answer for the risks of loss from by the floating capital of which is meant its bad management, or other causes. A that which remains after payment is made whole community, in the aggregate, can for all their apparatus and the implements have fictitious capital only in case of its of their business, and which is usually in- members having an excessive credit in a vested in the materials to be manufactur- foreign country. But the members may, ed or transported, or to pass through the among themselves, have a fictitious capiprocess, whatever it is, which constitutes tal, by too great facility of credits in their the business conducted. Thus one car- dealings with each other, and the fiction, rying on a flouring-mill wants a floating in this case, is in their false promises of or disposable capital, over and above the payment. cost of his works, to be invested in wheat to be floured, and flour not yet disposed of. This instance illustrates what is meant by the floating or disposable capital of a whole community being that movable, exchangeable stock of things on hand, over and above the fixtures and apparatus of production, including lands, buildings, ships, working animals, all the implements of the arts, with necessary food, clothing, and a stock of seed sufficient for the time requisite for reproduction. What remains over these is the disposable capital, and, in a flourishing community, the disposable floating capital is constantly invested in new fixed capital, implements and apparatus of production. A declining community, on the contrary, consumes a part of its implements and apparatus of industry, or, what is, in effect, the same thing, it does not repair and replace the damage of use and decay. The idea is held out in many economical treatises, that a community cannot have a surplus capital; that is, it cannot have more capital than it can make use of in its consumption and reproduction. As no grounds whatever are given for this doctrine, it seems to be hardly entitled to a consideration; for the position is certainly, at the first view, very improbable, since we know very well that men may accumulate; and why they may not, in any possible case, accumulate a surplus, does not appear by any plausible reason; and whether such surplus accumulation may be useful or not, will depend entirely upon the kind of articles of which such accumulation consists. If it consist in articles the value of which depends on the prices in foreign markets, the excess may be of no value at all; for it may so depress the foreign prices as to countervail all the indirect advantage arising from the cheaper sup

CAPITAL, in geography; a city in which reside the highest authorities of a district, province, country, &c. Capitals, in the modern meaning of the word, can hardly be said to have existed in ancient times; at least, they were then only the seat of the sovereign, but not the centre of all the national activity, Rome only, perhaps, excepted; but this city was, for a very long time, the state itself, and, at a later period, the tyrant of the whole empire, rather than the head of a well-organized body. In Asia, there existed, indeed, in ancient times, capitals of very large empires; but they are not to be compared to the capitals of large modern empires, since the channels of communication and intercourse had not then reached that degree of perfection which enables them, in our days, to bring into close connexion all parts of a country. Each province was, therefore, left much more to itself. It would be difficult to determine whether the good or evil consequences of large capitals, in modern times, are greater, aud such an examination would far exceed our limits; otherwise, it would be very easy to point out, in every department of civilization, in science, social intercourse, politics, arts, &c., both salutary and pernicious effects, resulting from the influence of capitals. It seeins to us a matter of little doubt, that it must be regarded as disadvantageous to any country, if the capital ceases to be the concentration of the skill, genius and strength of a nation, for the benefit of the whole, and by a disproportionate superiority destroys the importance of the rest of the country, as we find to be the case with Paris, which, as has been often observed, contains France. In Germany, the state of things is quite the reverse. There is no city which may boast of being the point of national concentration. The consequences

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