Swedish monarch, he so rapidly acquired his esteem, that Charles immediately resolved to raise him to the throne of Poland, which he effected at an election held, in the presence of the Swedish general, on the 27th July, 1704, Stanislaus being then in his twenty-seventh year. He was, however, soon after driven from Warsaw by his rival Augustus; but another change brought him back to that capital, where he was crowned, with his wife, in October, 1705; and the next year Augustus was compelled solemnly to abdicate. (See Charles XII.) The fatal defeat of his patron Charles XII, at Pultowa, in 1709, again obliged him to retreat into Sweden, where he endeavored to join Charles XII, at Bender, in disguise; but, being detected, he was held captive in that town until 1714. Being then suffered to depart, he repaired to DeuxPonts, where he was joined by his family, and remained until the death of Charles XII, in 1719, when the court of France afforded him a retreat at Weissemburg, in Alsace. He remained in obscurity until 1725, when his daughter, the princess Mary, was unexpectedly selected as a wife by Louis XV (q. v.), king of France. On the death of Augustus, in 1733, an attempt was made by the French court to replace Stanislaus on the throne of Poland; but, although he had a party who supported him and proclaimed him king, his competitor, the electoral prince of Saxony, being aided by the emperors of Germany and Russia, he was obliged to retire. (See Poland, and Augustus III.) He endured this, like every other reverse of fortune, with great resignation, and, at the peace of 1736, formally abdicated his claim to the kingdom of Poland, on condition of retaining the title of king, and being put in possession for life of the duchies of Lorraine and Bar. Thenceforward he lived as the sovereign of a small country, which he rendered happy by the exercise of virtues which acquired him the appellation of "Stanislaus the Beneficent. He not only relieved his people from excessive imposts, but, by strict economy, was able to found many useful charitable establishments, and to patronise the arts and sciences. He was himself fond of literature, and wrote some treatises on philosophy, morals and politics, which were published under the title of Euvres du Philosophe bienfaisant (4 vols., 8vo., 1765). He died in 1766. STANISLAUS II, PONIATOWSKI, king of Poland. (See Poniatowski, Stanislaus.) STANITZA (village, place of encamp ment); a word found in numerous Russian geographical names belonging to the regions inhabited by the Cossacs. STANNARIES, COURT OF. (See Courts.) STANZA (Italian, a stand); a strophe or number of verses connected with each other, terminating with a full point or pause, and forming one of the regular divisions of a poem. It was formerly sometimes used to denote an entire lyric poem of one strophe. Thus Dante speaks in his work De vulgari Eloquentia (book ii. chap. 3 et seq.) of cantiones (canzoni) and of stantii (stanze). Stanzas are said to have been first introduced from the Italian into French poetry, about the year 1580, and thence passed into English. The principal Italian stanza-the ottava rima-originated in Sicily, where poets made use of it even in the thirteenth century: thence it passed into Italy, and there received, in the fourteenth century, from Boccaccio, that regular form which it has ever since retained, as the standing division of the Italian epic. Boccaccio first made use of it in his Theseide. Politian improved it further. Trissino, in the sixteenth century, wrote a narrative poem in blank verse, but had no imita tors. The oltava rima, or stanza of Boc caccio (as we may call it, in contradistinction to the Sicilian, which forms a continued chain of alternate rhymes, without the double rhyme in the two last lines), consists of eight iambic verses of eleven syllables each, with female rhymes (q. v.), of which the six first are alternate, but the two last are successive, and thus give to the whole an agreeable conclusion. These two last lines, however, easily seduce the poet into attempts at pointed expression, unbecoming a serious epic, and from which even Tasso is not always free. Boiardo, and particularly Ariosto and Tasso, are the great masters of the ottava rima. Göthe, Schlegel, Tieck and others have used it with great success in German, with the change required by the genius of the German language, viz. that they employ male and female rhymes in the first six lines, but the two last always end with female rhymes. (For the Spenserian stanza, see Spenser.) STANZE. (See Raphael, and Vatican.) STAPLE; a public market, whither merchants are obliged to carry their good for sale. Various derivations have bera suggested; as, 1. staples, found in the ipuarian laws, and signifying a lace where justice is administered; 2. the German stapelen, to put in a heap; 3. stabile emporium used in the civil lev style 4 of former times, and signifying a fixed post. Formerly the merchants of England were obliged to carry their wool, cloth, lead, and other like staple commodities, to particular places, in order to utter the same by wholesale. Merchants of the staple was the denomination of the most ancient commercial society of England, from their exporting the staple wares of the kingdom. It is said to have originated in 1248. In 1336, the staple of wool was fixed in Brabant; in 1341, at Bruges; and, in 1348, at Calais. In 1353, it was removed from Bruges to several English and Irish towns. Calais, however, still remained a staple. In the staple towns courts of law-merchant were established for determining all mercantile disputes and for punishing offenders. STAPSS, Frederic, born March 14, 1792, son of a Protestant clergyman at Naumburg, in Thuringia, undertook to assassinate the emperor Napoleon, because he supposed him to be the author of the misfortunes of Germany. With this design he went to Vienna, remained ten days, and on Oct. 23, 1809, travelled to Schönbrunn, where Napoleon was reviewing his forces. The emperor stood between Berthier and Rapp, when the youth advanced, and desired to speak with Napoleon. Rapp directed him to wait till after the muster. But, being struck with the look, the voice and the bearing of Stapss, he ordered him to be imprisoned in the castle. Here a large case-knife was found upon him, and the portrait of a young female. Rapp, who spoke German, asked him his name, and why he carried a knife. "I can tell no one but Napoleon himself." "Do you intend to murder him with it?" "Yes, sir." "For what reason ?" "I can answer this question to none but himself." The emperor then commanded the young man to be brought before him. Bernadotte, Berthier, Savary, Duroc and Rapp were present. With an air of calmness, and his hands bound behind his back, the youth came into the presence of the emperor, and respectfully bowed to him. Napoleon asked him, through Rapp, the following questions: "What is your place of resiience ?" "Naumburg." "Who is your father ?" "A Protestant clergyman." "How old are you?" "Eighteen years." "What did you intend to do with your knife?" "To kill you." "You are beside yourself, young man: you are an Illumine." "I am not beside myself; I do not know what an Illumine is." "You are sick, then." "No, I am not; I VOL XI 48 am perfectly well." "Why did you mean to kill me?” "Because you have injured my country." "Have I ever wronged you?" "You have injured me in common with all the Germans." "Who sent you? Who urged you to this crime ?" "No one: the conviction that I should do a great service to my country and to all Europe by putting you to death, was my motive." With the same calmness, Stapss replied to all the emperor's interrogatories. Corvisart, Napoleon's physician, was called to feel the pulse of the young man. "Is it not true, sir, that I am not sick ?” "The young man is well," said Corvisart, addressing the emperor." I said so," observed the youth. "Your head is disordered," continued the emperor; "you will make your family unhappy. I will spare your life, if you acknowledge your crime and ask my pardon." wish for no pardon. I deeply regret the failure of my plan." "Whose was the portrait found on you?" "It was that of a young person, whom I love.” "She· will be greatly afflicted by your enterprise." "She will be pained at its ill success. She hates you as much as I do." "If I pardon you, will you thank me for it?" "It shall not prevent my killing you, if an opportunity offers." Stapss was led away, and general Lauer appointed to question him further, to discover whether he had any associates. The youth firmly maintained that no one was acquainted with his undertaking. He was shot, Oct. 27, at 7 o'clock in the morning. He had taken no nourishment since the 24th. Food was offered him, but he refused to eat. He said that he was strong enough to go to the place of execution. (See Rapp's Memoirs.) STAR. (See Fixed Stars, Constellations, and Planets.) STAR, FALLING or SHOOTING. (See Falling Stars, Fireballs, and Meteors.) STAR OF BETHLEHEM. (See Appendix.) STAR-CHAMBER (camera stellata); a room in the house of lords, so called from having its ceiling adorned with gilded stars, or, according to some, because it was originally the place of deposit of the Jewish starts (starra) or covenants. The despotic tribunal, which sat here, was also called the star-chamber. It was under the direction of the chancellor, and had jurisdiction of forgery, perjury, riots, maintenance, fraud, libel and conspiracy, and, in general, of every misdemeanor, especially those of public importance for which the law had provided no sufficiant punishment. It was this criminal juris. diction (its civil having gone into disuse) that made it so powerful and odious an auxiliary of a despotic administration Its process was summary, and often iniquitous, and the punishment which it inflicted, often arbitrary and cruel. It became particularly violent in the reign of Charles I; and it was abolished, with the no less hateful high commission court, by the long parliament, in 1641. Its fall was an important step in the progress of English liberty. STARBOARD; the right side of a ship, when the eye is directed forward. STARCH is a white, insipid, vegetable substance, insoluble in cold water, but forming a jelly with boiling water. It exists chiefly in the white and brittle parts of vegetables, particularly in tuberose roots, and the seeds of gramineous plants. It may be extracted by pounding these parts, and agitating them in cold water, when the fibrous parts will first subside, after which the starch will gradually precipitate itself in a fine white powder; or the pounded or grated substance (as the roots of arum, potatoes, acorns, or horse-chestnuts, for instance) may be put into a hair-sieve, and the starch washed through with cold water, leaving the grosser matters behind. Farinaceous seeds may be ground and treated in a similar manner. Oily seeds require to have the oil expressed from them before the farina is extracted. In starchmaking, the farina ferments and becomes sour; but the starch that does not undergo fermentation is rendered more pure by this process. Some water, already soured, is mixed with the flour and water, which regulates the fermentation, and presents the mixture from becoming putrid; and in this state it is left about ten days in summer, and fifteen in winter, before the scum is removed and the water poured off. The starch is then washed out from the bran, and dried, first in the open air, and finally in an oven. When starch is triturated with iodine, it forms combinations of various colors. When the proportions of iodine are small, these compounds are violet; when somewhat greater, blue; and when still greater, black. We can always obtain the finest blue color by treating starch with an excess of iodine, dissolving the compound in liquid potash, and precipitating by a vegetable acid. The color is manifested even at the instant of pouring water of odine into a liquid which contains starch diffused through it. Hence iodine beomes an excellent test for detecting starch, and starch for detecting iodine. Starch is convertible into sugar by dilute sulphuric acid. To produce this change, we must take 2000 parts of starch, dif fuse them in 8000 parts of water, containing 40 parts of strong sulphuric acid, and boil the mixture for thirty-six hours in a basin of silver or lead, taking care to stir the materials with a wooden rod, during the first hour of ebullition. At the end of this time, the mass, having become liquid, does not require to be stirred, except at intervals. In proportion as the water evaporates, it ought to be replaced. When the liquor has been sufficiently boiled, chalk and animal char coal are added, and it is clarified with white of egg. The whole is then filtered through a flock of wool, and the clear liquid is concentrated, till it has acquired a sirupy consistence. After this, the basin is removed from the fire, in order, that, by cooling, its sulphate of lime may be precipitated. The pure sirup is now decanted, and evaporated to the proper dryness. It is found, also, that sugar may be obtained from starch without the use of sulphuric acid. It is obtained by leaving the starch, first brought to the pulpy state, to itself, either with or with out the contact of the air, or by mixing it with dried gluten. At the same time, however, other products are obtained; viz. 1. a gum like that from roasted starch; 2. anıydine, a body whose properties are intermediate between those of starch and gum; and, 3. an insoluble substance, like ligneous matter. Twelve parts of boiling water and one of starch, fermented by dry gluten, yielded, Without With contact contact of air. of air. 47.4 49.7 23.0 9.7 8.9 5.2 10.3 9.2 0.3 a trace Sugar, Gum, Amydine, Amylaceous lignin, Lignin with charcoal, Undecomposed starch, . . . . 4.0 3.8 Potato starch differs considerably from that of wheat. It is more friable, is composed of much larger sized grains, forms a jelly with water at a lower temperature, and is less readily decomposed by spontaneous fermentation. Starch is composed of carbon 43.48, oxygen 49.45, hydrogen 7.06. Doctor Prout considers starch as sugar partly organized; for it has the same essential composition, but differs in containing minute portions of other mat ter, which, we may presume, prevent its constituent particles from arranging them selves in the crystalline form, and thus cause it to assume totally different sensible properties. When starch is roasted at a moderate heat in an oven, it is converted into a species of gum, employed by calico printers: potato starch answers best for this purpose. Salop is composed of a little gum, very little starch, and much of a kind of gum called Bassorine. Sago is an uniform substance, soluble in cold water, more so in hot, precipitated blue by iodine, and differing from common starch only in the first mentioned property.. Tapioca seems to be identical with sago. Arrow root is nearly pure starch, agreeing in all respects with the starch of potato, which may be converted by heat into something similar to sago and tapioca. Bennington. With this design, he despatched colonel Baum, a German officer, at the head of fifteen hundred Hessians and tories, with one hundred savage auxiliaries and two field-pieces. Colonel Baum commenced his march on the 14th of August, and, having proceeded twelve or thirteen miles, halted. Fortunately Stark was at or near Bennington, with about fourteen hundred New England militia, part of whom, from the New Hampshire grants, were denominated Green mountain boys. Advancing to reconnoitre the position of the Germans, skirmishing ensued, with some loss to the latter, when their commander became alarmed, and sent to Burgoyne for a reinforcement. The 15th was a wet day, and no operations of moment took place; but on the 16th, Stark, having made the proper arrangements, assaulted the enemy, when a STARK, John, a brigadier-general in the American revolutionary war, was born at Londonderry, New Hampshire, on the 17th of August, 1728. At the age of twenty-severe and long conflict ensued. Notone years, while hunting, he was captured by the Indians, by whom he was detained a prisoner four months He commanded a provincial company of rangers in the French war of 1755, and accompanied the British general, lord Howe, at the assault on the French lines, in July, 1758, when that officer was killed. This war being concluded, he retired with reputation, and when the report of the battle of Lexington reached him, was engaged at work in his saw-mill. Instantly seizing his musket, he repaired to the camp of his countrymen, at Cambridge, where he received a colonel's commission, and was enabled, by his own popularity, added to the spirit of the times, to levy eight hundred men in two hours. In the battle of Breed's hill, colonel Stark fought at the head of his New Hampshire troops, and evinced much zeal and bravery. Upon the evacuation of Boston, he joined the northern army in its retreat from Canada, and commanded a party employed in fortifying mount Independence. In December, 1776, he served with distinction under general Washington, in the brilliant stroke at Trenton. He also shared in the affair at Princeton soon after. The achievement, however, on which Stark's fame principally rests, was performed at Bennington, in Vermont, at one of the most lowery periods in the revolutionary struggle. After his successes in the northern colonies of the confederacy, and while his army was triumphantly marching towards Albany, general Burgoyne formed a project for capturing a quantity of stores collected by the Americans at withstanding the superior force of Baum, with the advantage of breast-works, his efforts at resistance were ineffectual: the Americans demolished his defences with the muzzles of their guns, and compelled his detachment to surrender at discretion. The victory was complete on the American side, they taking possession of two pieces of brass cannon, a number of prisoners, baggage, &c. Scarcely was this affair finished, the troops under general Stark being scattered in the performance of various duties, when a body of one thousand German troops, with two field-pieces, commanded by colonel Breyman, arrived to assist their defeated countrymen. Being joined at this moment by a fresh regiment under colonel Warner, Stark rallied his own wearled and hungry soldiers, and proceeded to attack this new enemy. He ordered a field-piece, which had been taken from Baum, to be brought forward; but his men had never seen such a thing before, and he dismounted himself to instruct them in the management of it. In the action which followed, both parties fought with determined courage; but, on the approach of night, the Germans were entirely routed, and retreated under cover of the darkness. The loss of the enemy was nine hundred and thirty four, of whom one hundred and fiftyseven were tories: six hundred and fiftyfour were made prisoners. One thousand stand of arms, four brass field-pieces, two hundred and fifty dragoon swords, eight loads of baggage, and twenty horses, were added to the numerous trophies taken by the conquerors. Colonel Baum soon after died of a wound received in the action. The loss of the Americans did not exceed one hundred. Congress passed a resolve of thanks to general Stark and his men, for their conduct in this action, and appointed him a brigadiergeneral in the army of the U. States. He volunteered his services under general Gates previously to the capitulation of Burgoyne, and was one of the council that arranged the terms of that officer's surrender. In 1778, he conducted the defence of the northern frontier, and served in different quarters till the conclusion of the war. In person, general Stark was of the middle size. He was an excellent soldier, and a citizen of unblemished character. He lived to see his country grow and flourish under the benign system which he had fought to establish; and, having attained the venerable age of ninety-three years and eight months, he was gathered to his departed compatriots on the 8th of May, 1822. STARLING. (See Appendix, end of this volume.) STAROSTS, in Poland; those noblemen who were reckoned among the dignitaries of the land (dignitarii terrarum), and who received a castle or landed estate from the crown domains (mensa regia). The starosty was granted only for the life of the occupant, on whose death, how ever, the king was obliged to grant it anew. Some of the starosts had civil and criminal jurisdiction over a certain district (grod); others (tentuarii) merely enjoyed the revenues of the starosty. STATE (respublica, civitas, societas civilis); a body politic; an association of men for political ends, the object of which is well expressed in the term commonwealth (i. e. common good). Experience, as well as reason, shows that the isolated individual can attain but very imperfectly the ends of his being, and instinct early led men to form unions, for promoting the good of each by the power of all. Such a union is a state, and may be called the natural condition of man, because essential to the full developement of his faculties. Separated from society, he remains a brute. So true is the ancient definition of man as being a political animal, though it may have been taken, when first used, in too narrow a sense. (See the beginning of the article Slavery.) The right of men to form states being thus obvious from their nature, the next questions which arise are. What is the historical origin of states? and what is the best state, or best government? History shows, that states have been formed in a great variety of ways, by the violence of one or many, by artifice, by contract, &c. (See the articles Political Institutions, Sovereignty Estate, Legitimacy; also Communities, Cities, Corporations, Land, property in.) As to the other question, that state is the best, which is best adapted to promote the general good; so that the organization of such a state may, and must, differ according to circumstances. This fact is overlooked by those who treat the organization of a state merely as a matter of abstract speculation, and, on the other hand, is often used as a pretext for retaining abuses diametrically opposed to the true objects of political society. It should never be forgotten, that the form of government, important as it is, is merely a means of obtaining the great objects of the state; and the first objects to be provided for are security and good order, to which all forms must be made to yield. These terms include much more than the mere protection of individuals against violence on the part of each other-a sense to which none but despotic governments would limit the words. STATE ADVOCATE. (See Advocate of the Crown.) STATEN ISLAND is situated south of the city of New York, the centre of it being distant from the city eleven miles. It constitutes the county of Richmond, and is the most southern land belonging to New York. Its length is fourteen miles, and its greatest breadth eight miles. Its southern extremity is in lat. 40° 29′ N.; its western extremity is 18' west longitude from New York; population in 1830, 7084. STATES-GENERAL. (See Netherlands.) STATES OF THE CHURCH. (See Church, States of the.) STATICS. (See Dynamics, and Mechanics.) STATISTICS. The past, in all its extension, belongs to history; the present to geography and statistics. Schlözer (q. v.) said with much truth, "History is statistics in a state of progression; statistics is history at a stand." The subject of statistics is the investigation and exposition of the actual condition of states and nations, in regard to their internal organization and foreign relations. The description of the face of the country belongs to geography Statistics is often considered in too confined a view, as if it had to treat only of those particulars in the condition of a country which can be reduced to numerical calculation, and exhibited in |