Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

has been analyzed by several chemists. The following is a general view of the results:

[blocks in formation]

M. Braconnot has recently extended our views concerning the artificial production of sugar and gum. Sulphuric acid (specific gravity 1.827) mixed with well dried elm dust, became very hot, and on being diluted with water, and neutralized with chalk, afforded a liquor which became gummy on evaporation. Shreds of linen triturated in a glass mortar, with sulphuric acid, yield a similar gum. Nitric acid has a similar power. If the gummy matter from linen be boiled for some time with dilute sulphuric acid, we obtain a crystallizable sugar, and an acid, which M. Braconnot calls the vegeto-sul phuric acid. The conversion of wood, also, into sugar, will no doubt appear remarkable; and when persons not familiar with chemistry, are told that a pound of rags can be converted into more than a pound of sugar, they may be disposed to consider the statement as a piece of pleasantry, though nothing can be more true.

SUGAR-CANE (Saccharum officinarum). The art of cultivating the sugar-cane has been practised in China from the highest antiquity. It was unknown to the ancient Egyptians, Jews, Greeks, or Romans, and did not pass into Arabia till the end of the thirteenth century. From Arabia it was carried into Egypt, Nubia, and Ethiopia. The Moors obtained it from Egypt, and the Spaniards from the Moors. In the fifteenth century, the cane was introduced into the Canary islands by the Spaniards, and into Madeira by the Portuguese, and thence into the West India islands and the Brazils. Previous to the year 1466, sugar was known in England chiefly as a medicine; and, though cultivated in a few places on the Mediterranean, it was not more generally used on the continent. Now, in point of importance, it ranks next to wheat and rice, among all the products of the vegetable world, and has become the first article of maritime commerce. The Atlantic has been the principal theatre of this trade, which, more than any other circumstance, contributed to give a new spring to commerce in Europe, and to engraft the curse of slavery upon the new world. The sugar-cane, like the

bamboo and Indian corn, belongs to the family of the grasses. It grows to the height of seven or eight feet, or more, and its broad leaves, and large, silky panicles, give it a beautiful aspect. The stems are very smooth, shining, and filled with a spongy pith the flowers are small, and very abundant, clothed externally with numerous silky hairs. The sugar-cane flowers only after the lapse of an entire year. In the West Indies, it is propagated by cuttings from the root end, planted in hills or trenches in the spring or autumn. The cuttings root at the joints under ground, and from those above, send up shoots, which, in eight, twelve, or fourteen months, are from six to ten feet long, and fit to cut down for the mill. A plantation lasts from six to ten years. (For the process of making sugar, see the preceding article.) The juice of the sugar-cane is so palatable and nutritive, that, during the sugar harvest, every creature which partakes freely of it, whether man or animal, appears to derive health and vigor from its use. The meagre and sickly negroes exhibit at this season a surprising alteration; and the laboring horses, oxen, and mules, though constantly at work, yet, as they are allowed to eat, almost without restraint, of the refuse plants and scummings from the boiling house, improve infinitely more than at any other period of the year. The sugar-cane is now cultivated in all the warm parts of the globe. In the U. States it flowers, but does not ripen seed. Its growth is constant, but varies in rapidity according to the situation, the season, or the weather. The variety from Otaheite has lately elicited some attention, as it is said to succeed in soils too poor for the common variety, and to produce four crops, while the other yields only three: the crystallization is also more regular. Sugar is now cultivated to considerable extent in the U. States, chiefly in the southern parts of Louisiana, about the mouths of the Mississippi; and a sufficient supply for home consumption might be obtained in that quarter. The consumption of England alone now amounts to upwards of 400,000,000 pounds, which

gives an average of about thirty pounds for each individual. In some parts of the interior, sugar is manufactured to considerable extent from the sap of two species of maple. This is superior to the common brown sugar of the West Indies, but probably will eventually be superseded by that article, on account of its cheapness. (See Maple.)

SUGAR OF LEAD. (See Lead.)

SUHL, or SUHLA; a town in the government of Erfurt, in the Prussian province of Saxony, lying in a romantic valley on the Lauter, on the south-west side of the Thuringiau forest. It owes its importance to the mines which were discovered here in the fourteenth century. The iron works, and the manufacture of arms, form the chief employment of the inhabitants. The fire-arins made here are highly esteemed. Population, 5800; twenty-eight miles south-west of Erfurt.

SUнM, Peter Frederic von, Danish chamberlain and historiographer at Copenhagen, born in 1728, was a philosopher, poet and historian. His father, a Danish admiral, educated him carefully. He died, in 1798, at Copenhagen. Suhm possessed a large fortune, which he used in aid of charitable objects and literary enterprises. He acquired reputation, as a critic and philosopher, by his moral essays and treatises of practical utility, as a poet, by his Northern Idyls and Tales, and as a classical historian, by his works on the history of his country. His library contained 100,000 volumes. He supported a librarian, and paid large sums for copying manuscripts, and in aid of poor students. The library was open to every one. Of his numerous works we need only mention his Scriptorum Rerum Dania Medii Evi; his Introduction to the Critical History of Denmark (1769-73, 5 vols., 4to.); the Critical History of Denmark during the Pagan Ages (1774-81, 4 vols.); the Modern History of Denmark (of which seven volumes have been published, the first of which appeared in 1782). His miscellaneous works were collected and reprinted, with an account of his life, at Copenhagen (1788-98, 15 vols.).

SUICIDE. (See Homicide.)

SUIDAS; a Greek grammarian, who lived, according to some, in the eleventh century, according to others in the tenth. He wrote an encyclopædia, particularly relating to geographical and historical subjects, which, though not perfectly accurate, is yet important, as it contains many things not to be found elsewhere. The

best edition is that of Küster (Cambridge, 1705, 3 vols., folio).

SUIT AT LAW. (See Action.)

SULIOTS; a mixed people of Arnaout and Greek descent, speaking the Arnaout and the Romaic dialects. They derive their origin from Arnaout and Grecian shepherds, who, in the seventeenth century, settled in the Cassiopeian mountains, Occupying a wild valley, enclosed on three sides by almost inaccessible mountains, and accessible on the fourth only by a narrow defile. Here their numbers had increased, towards the end of the last century, to 10,000 souls, in seventy villages, of which Suli or Souli was the capital of the district. The Suliots are of the Greek church; their government was republican. They are brave, hardy, active, resolute and faithful. When, after a struggle of twelve years, Ali Pacha (q. v.) had rather reduced them to despair than conquered them (1803), they abandoned their country, and entered the service of the powers who had possession of the Ionian Islands. But when Ali found himself hard pressed by the Turks and deserted by the Albanians, he recalled the Suliots to his assistance. Their brave leader, Marco Botzaris, gained some brilliant successes; but the tyrant, who trusted neither the Suliots nor the other Greeks, perished in 1822. The Albanians then joined the Turks; but the Suliots remained true to the cause of Grecian liberty. Suli, however, was reduced by famine, Sept. 4, 1822, and 3000 Suliots embarked in English ships for Cephalonia: the rest dispersed themselves in the mountains. The younger Marco Botzaris, son of the abovementioned leader of the same name, threw himself into Missolonghi, which he successfully defended, and afterwards fell at Carpinitzi. (See Greece, Revolution of.) His uncle, Noto Botzaris, defended Missolonghi in 1826. (See Missolonghi.) The corps of 500 men, raised and equipped by lord Byron at his own expense, was composed of Suliots, for whom he had a great admiration. (See Byron.)

SULLA, or SYLLA, Lucius Cornelius, Roman dictator, was born at Rome, U. C. 617 (B. C. 137), of the old and noble, but reduced, family of the Cornelii. He received a good education, but indulged himself in excessive dissipation and debauchery. A large fortune, partly left him by a courtesan, and partly obtained by marriage, enabled him to take a distinguished rank among the Roman knights, and to turn his attention to the career of ambition. He served, with

brilliant success, as questor in Africa; and it was through his instrumentality that Bocchus was prevailed upon to surrender Jugurtha to the Romans-an event which terminated the Numidian war. Sulla next served under Marius in the Cimbrian war, until, to avoid the jealousy of the latter, he joined the army of the consul Catulus, and, having twice defeated the Samnites, was chosen pretor. Having passed the year of his pretorship at Rome, he was, at the expiration of his term, appointed to the government of Asia Minor, where he established Ariobarzanes upon the throne of Cappadocia, and completely subdued Gordius, guardian of a son of Mithridates, then on the throne, in a single battle. He then concluded an alliance with the king of the Parthians, and conducted with so much haughtiness that one of the Cappadocians present exclaimed, "Surely this man is or will be master of the world." In the social war, in which Sulla and Marius were at the head of two separate armies, the indefatigable activity and daring courage of the former threw the reputation of the latter into the shade. Yet he himself declared that fortune had a greater share in his success than his own merit; and he readily accepted the surname of Felix (fortunate). The consulship was the reward of his services (B. C. 88); and the province of Asia, with the conduct of the war against Mithridates, fell to his lot. But Marius was also ambitious of this command, and procured a decree of the people that it should be intrusted to him. Sulla therefore entered Rome at the head of his army, and, after setting a price on the head of his enemy, finally sailed for Greece, a great part of which had been conquered by Mithridates. Here his good fortune still followed him. He expelled Mithridates from Europe, pursued him into the heart of his Asiatic dominions, was victorious in every direction, and finally granted pecce, on his own terms, to the enemy, on account of the state of affairs in Italy. During his three years' absence from Italy, his enemies had regained the superiority in Rome. Marius had been recalled; the blood of the friends of Sulla had been shed in torrents; he himself had been proscribed, and his property confiscated. Marius, exhausted by age and tortured by a guilty conscience, left his bed to oppose the return of his rival (see Marius), but died soon after entering upon his seventh consulship. The leaders of his party, Cinna and Carbo, still, however, continued to conduct the public affairs, when

Sulla, having intrusted the chief command in Asia to Murena, hastened to Italy at the head of 40,000 men. He landed at Brundusium, and was joined by many of his friends who had been banished from Rome. His enemies were much superior in numbers; but his courage and address rendered him victorious. After having gained four battles over the Roman forces in person, besides several through his generals, and, at the close of the war, defeated a Samnite army under Telesinus, before the walls of Rome, and having witnessed the destruction, captivity or flight of his enemies, he entered the city as a master. One of his first acts was, to put to death between 6000 and 7000 prisoners of war in the circus; and when the senate, assembled in the temple of Bellona, testified their horror at hearing the shrieks of the victims, he coldly said, "Regard it not, fathers; it is only a few rebels who are punished by my orders." Rome and all the provinces of Italy were filled with the most revolting scenes of cruelty. After satisfying his vengeance by the murder or proscription of several thousands, destroying all the cities of Samnium except three, and massacring the whole population of Preneste, he celebrated a triumph, exceeding in splendor any that had preceded it, and caused himself to be named dictator for an indefinite period (B. C. 81). He now ruled without restraint; repealed and made laws; abolished the tribuneship; added 300 knights to the senate, and admitted 10,000 slaves of persons proscribed to the rights of citizenship. After a few years, to the astonishment of all, he laid down his dictatorship (B. C. 79), and declared himself ready to answer for his actions, although he had caused above 100,000 men, among whom were ninety senators, fifteen men of consular rank, and 1600 knights, to be put to death. Retiring to Puteoli, and 'abandoning himself to all sorts of debauchery, he died, the following year, of a disgusting disease, occasioned by his excesses. Naturally insinuating and persuasive, Sulla endeavored, in his youth, to please universally. He spoke of himself with modesty, but was lavish of praises, and even of money, towards others. With the common soldiers he was familiar, adopting their customs, drank with them, and partook of their amusements and hardships. At times, he was severe, active and vigilant, and impenetrable even to the companions of his excesses. He lent a ready ear to soothsayers and astrologers; and his character was stained by sensual

ity, avarice and cruelty. Yet he had sufficient self-control to tear himself from his pleasures when ambition commanded. He was an able general and a great statesman; cruel, but faithful to his promises; calm and cold, but inflexible in his purposes. He sacrificed even his friends to the laws which he himself made and violated, and compelled his fellow citizens to be better than himself. He ordered it to be inscribed on his tomb, that no man had ever equalled him in doing evil to his enemies, nor in doing good to his friends.

SULLIVAN, John, a distinguished general in the American revolutionary army, was the eldest son of a Mr. Sullivan, who came from Ireland about the year 1723, and, after keeping a school in several parts of the eastern country, settled at Berwick, in the district of Maine, where he died at the age of 105. For several years before the revolution, the subject of this sketch practised law in New Hampshire with great success. In 1772, he became major of a regiment of militia; and as soon as hostilities commenced, he was among the first to take an active part. In 1774, he was a member of the first general congress, but resigned his seat to enter the army. In 1775, he was appointed a brigadier-general in the American army; and, during that campaign, commanded on Winter hill. In the following year, he was promoted to the rank of major-general, and sent to Canada, where he took command of the troops on the death of general Thomas. In effecting his retreat from that province, he displayed great military skill and resolution. He was soon afterwards, in the same year, invested with the command of Greene's division, on Long Island, in consequence of the illness of that general, and, in the battle of August 27, was taken prisoner. In October, he was exchanged for general Prescott, and, in the ensuing December, was placed at the head of the division of general Lee, who had been captured by the enemy. At the battle of Trenton, he commanded the right division. August 22, 1777, he planned and executed an expedition against Staten Island, for which, on an inquiry into his conduct, he received the approbation of the court. In the battles of Brandywine and Germantown, he also commanded the right division. In the winter of 1777, he was detached to take command of the troops in Rhode Island; and in August of the following year, he laid siege to Newport. causes of the failure of this enterprise; the

The

difficulties which occurred between general Sullivan and count d'Estaign, the commander of the French fleet, who was to assist the land operations, but abandoned the siege, and sailed to Boston,—are too well known to require relation. He raised the siege, and was pursued by the enemy, whom he repulsed. The next day he passed over to the continent, without the slightest suspicion, on the part of the British, of his movements. In the summer of 1779, he commanded an expedition, planned by general Washington, against the Six Nations of Indians in New York. Being joined by general Clinton, August 22, he began his march towards the enemy, who were stationed at Newtown, between the south end of Seneca lake and Tioga river, and, attacking them in their works, completely dispersed them. He then laid waste the country, and destroyed all their villages, in order to put a stop to their depredations. General Sullivan had made such high demands for military stores, and had so freely complained of the government for inattention to those demands, as to give great offence to some members of congress, and to the board of war. He, in consequence, resigned his command, November 9. After the peace, he resumed the practice of his profession. He was one of the convention which formed the state constitution for New Hampshire, and was chosen a mem-ber of the first council. In 1786, he was chosen president of that state, in which station he continued for three years. October, 1789, he was appointed district judge of New Hampshire. He died January 23, 1795, aged 54 years.

In

SULLIVAN, James, a brother of the foregoing, and governor of Massachusetts, was born at Berwick, Maine, April 22, 1744. He was educated entirely by his father. The fracture of a limb, in early life, caused him to turn his attention to legal pursuits, instead of embracing the military career, for which he had been destined. After studying with his brother, general Sullivan, he was admitted to the bar, and soon rose to celebrity. He was appointed king's attorney for the district in which he resided; but the prospects of advancement which he might have reasonably entertained, did not prevent him from taking an early and decided part on the side of his country, at the commencement of the revolutionary struggle. Being a member of the provincial congress of Massachusetts, in 1775, he was intrusted, together with two other gentlemen, with a difficult commission to

Ticonderoga, which was executed in a very satisfactory manner. In the following year, he was appointed a judge of the superior court. In 1779 and 1780, he was a member of the convention which framed the constitution of the state. In February, 1782, he resigned his judgeship, and returned to the bar. In 1783, he was chosen a member of congress, and, in the following year, was one of the commissioners in the settlement of the controversy between Massachusetts and New York, respecting their claims to the western lands. He was repeatedly elected a representative of Boston, in the legislature. In 1787, he, was a member of the executive council, and judge of probate for Suffolk; and, in 1790, was appointed attorney-general, in which office he continued till June, 1807, when he was elevated to the chief magistracy of the commonwealth. He was subsequently appointed, by president Washington, agent, under the fifth article of the British treaty, for settling the boundaries between the U. States and the British provinces. He was a second time chosen governor of the state; but soon afterwards, his health became enfeebled, and or the 10th of December, 1808, he died, in the 65th year of his age. Governor Sullivan was the projector of the Middlesex canal. Amidst his professional and political pursuits, he found time to prepare several works, mostly on legal or political subjects. One is a History of the District of Maine, which is a creditable monument of his industry and research.

SULLIVAN ISLAND is between Ashley and Cooper rivers, six miles below Charleston, South Carolina. It is much resorted to by the people of Charleston, during the summer season. Fort Moultrie, on this island, received its name in honor of colonel Moultrie, for his very gallant defence of it, June 28, 1776. Sir Henry Clinton made an attack on it with the British squadron, for the purpose of taking possession of Charleston. The American army at this place was then commanded by general Lee. The fire from the fort was so well directed, that the British suffered very severely. The defence of the r'. was completely successful, and the Arican loss was only thirty-five men.

SULLY, Maximilian de Bethune, duke de; marshal of France, and first minister of Henry IV; one of the most estimable men that ever guided the helm of state. He was born at Rosny, of an ancient and noble family, in 1559, and educated in the

Protestant (Calvmistic) faith. At the age of eleven years, he was presented by his father to the queen of Navarre, and her son Henry, with whom he was educated. In 1572, he accompanied the young prince to Paris, for the purpose of pursuing his studies there, and was preserved, during the massacre of St. Bartholomew's, by the president of the college of Burgundy, who concealed him for three days. In the service of the young king of Navarre (see Henry IV), the baron de Rosny, as he was then styled, distinguished himself, on several occasions, by a bravery approaching to rashness. At Ivry (1590), where he took the standard of the duke of Maine, he was most dangerously wounded. In 1591, he took Gisors; and the capture of Dreux in 1593, Laon in 1594, La Fere in 1596, Amiens in 1597, and Montmelian in 1600, added to his reputation as a warrior. But his abilities as a diplomatist and financier were no less remarkable. In 1586, he concluded a treaty with the Swiss, for a supply of 20,000 troops for his master's service; and in 1597, he was placed at the head of the department of finance, and two years after, he was declared superintendent. About the same time (1599), he also negotiated the marriage of Henry with Mary de' Medici. In his embassy to England, after the death of queen Elizabeth, (1603), he displayed great penetration and address, and concluded a treaty with James I, advantageous to the interests of both countries. In addition to his other offices, he was appointed grand surveyor of France, grand master of the artillery, governor of the Bastile (1602), and superintendent of fortifications throughout the kingdom. His labors, as minister of finance, were attended with the happiest success; and the revenues of the government, which had been reduced to a state of complete dilapidation, by the combined effect of civil anarchy and open warfare, were by his care restored to order, regularity, and affluence. With a revenue of thirty-five millions, he paid off, in ten years, a debt of two hundred millions, besides laying up thirty-five millions. Though frequently thwarted in his purposes by the rapacity of the courtiers and mistresses of the monarch, he nobly pursued his career, ever distinguishing himself as the zealous friend of his country, and not the temporizing minister of his master. His industry was unwearied. He rose every morning at four o'clock, and, after dedicating some time to business, he gave audience to all who solicited admis

VOL. XIL

5

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »