rod, employing it at first in discovering springs, mines, and hidden treasures, and finally in reclaiming stolen property and in detecting the thief. He acquired a great reputation in this way, and at length in 1692, a vintner and his wife having been murdered at Lyons, he was employed to follow up the murderer, and finally charged the crime upon a hunchback in the jail at Beaucaire, who confessed his complicity and was broken on the wheel. The country rang with these events, and innumerable pamphlets were written on the subject in 1692 and 1693. Aymar was invited to Paris by the prince de Condé to display his skill, but failed completely in everything he attempted, and at length admitted that he was an impostor. The mystery of the hunchback was never entirely cleared up. AYR, the county town of Ayrshire, Scotland, on the frith of Clyde, near the mouth of the river Ayr, 30 m. S. W. of Glasgow; pop. in 1871, 17,851. The town is well built, and has commodious public buildings, a large fish market, and several pleasant squares. The Ayr is here crossed by two bridges, celebrated by Burns in one of his best known poems. A good harbor is formed by the mouth of the river, but the town has little commerce, though it was Robert Burns's Cottage, near Ayr. formerly largely engaged in the importation of wine from France. The principal industries are fishing, rope and sail making, and iron founding. Ship building is also carried on to a small extent.-About two miles from Ayr, in what was formerly the parish of Alloway, is the small cottage in which Burns was born in 1759. A monument has been erected to the poet on a hill not far off. AYRER, Jakob, a German poet who flourished at Nuremberg, died in 1605. He is the author of upward of 60 comedies, tragedies, burlesques, and carnival plays, which were published at Nuremberg in 1618, under the title of Opus Theatricum. Tieck inserted five of these plays in the first volume of his Deutsches Theater. similar to those of Staffa. The county abounds in coal, particularly that known as blende coal, which is found in a state of coke; iron, lead, antimony, and various kinds of building stone are also found; and there is a granite valued for mill stones, and a black stone used in building ovens. The county is remarkable for its fine crops and for the general prosperity of its farmers. The manufactures are considerable in linens, woollens, cottons, leather, and other articles. The relics of antiquity, Druidical and Roman, are numerous, while there are also many ruins of buildings of the middle ages. One of the most notable of these in point of interest is Turnberry castle, the ancestral residence of the Bruce. Capital, Ayr. AYSCUE, Sir George, an English admiral, born about 1616, died about 1676. He entered the navy early, and was knighted by Charles I. In the civil war, siding with the parliament, he had command as admiral in the Irish seas. In 1651 he reduced Barbadoes and Virginia, which had held out for the king. In 1652 he seconded Blake in his contest with Van Tromp and De Ruyter. In June, 1666, in the memorable naval battle of the four days, he commanded a squadron, but his ship (the Royal Prince, the largest ship then afloat) running on the Galoper sands, his men forced him to surrender, and the Dutch captured his vessel. He was held a prisoner for several years. AYTON, or Aytoun, Sir Robert, a Scottish poet, private secretary to the queens of James I. and Charles I., born at Kinaldie, Fifeshire, in 1570, died in the palace of Whitehall in March, 1638. When James VI. of Scotland became king of England, Ayton was rewarded for a very eulogistic Latin poem by knighthood, and several lucrative offices. His Latin poems, chiefly panegyrical, were published in his lifetime, and much esteemed. His English poems, principally preserved by tradition, were scarcely known until the Ballantyne club at Edinburgh printed a collection of them in their "Miscellany." Some years later a manuscript containing Ayton's poems was picked up at a sale, and the whole, edited by C. A. Pryor, were published in 1844. Burns greatly admired such of Ayton's poems as he had seen-among them the original of "Auld Lang Syne.' Ayton was intimate with Ben Jonson and the leading literary men of his time. AYTOUN, William Edmondstoune, a Scottish poet, born in Fifeshire in 1813, died in Edinburgh, Aug. 4, 1865. He was educated in the schools of Edinburgh, where he gained distinction in English and Latin composition. A prize poem, "Judith" (1831), received the applause of Prof. Wilson, whose daughter he afterward married; and encouraged by him he published his first volume, entitled "Poland and other Poems," which attracted but little attention. Mr. Aytoun was called to the bar in 1840, and became well known as a wit and as an advocate in criminal cases. In 1845 he succeeded Mr. Moir as professor of rhetoric and belles-letters in the university of Edinburgh, and the lectures which he delivered there were celebrated for their pithy treatment of topics and their brilliant style. He abandoned the liberal political views toward which he tended in his youth, and after the death of Prof. Wilson was the most prominent among the contributors to "Blackwood's Magazine.' In this periodical first appeared his celebrated national ballads, "Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers and other Poems" (London and Edinburgh, 1849; 10th ed., 1857). Prof. Aytoun lectured with great success in London in 1853 upon poetry and dramatic literature, and in 1854 published "Firmilian, a Spasmodic Tragedy, by T. Percy Jones," designed to ridicule the raptures of some of the young poets of the day. He also took part in the "Book of Ballads,' edited under the pseudonyme of "Bon Gaultier." His last poem was "Bothwell" (2d ed., 1856). He was one of the most effective of British political writers, and in reward for his services to the conservative party he was in 1852 appointed by Lord Derby sheriff and vice admiral of Orkney. Theodore Martin, one of his colaborers, has published a memoir of his life (1868). AYUNTAMIENTO, the name of village and town councils in Spain. During the wars between the Moors and Christian Spaniards it was the policy of the sovereigns to induce inhabitants and cultivators to settle in the depopulated country as fast as it was recovered. As an incentive they granted to the villages and towns municipal privileges of a character derived from Roman antiquity, and totally antagonistic to the spirit of the feudal law. The town councils were to be composed of the judge, the mayor, the regidores or clerks, the jurados, and the personeros or deputies; all these were elective officers, except the judge or corregidor, who was appointed by the king. The only qualification for a citizen was Spanish birth, residence, and to be the head of a family. These privileges were consonant with the most ancient rights of the Spaniards and their Gothic conquerors, but now they were confirmed by fueros or charters. The only liability under which the districts thus organized were placed was that of paying a tax to the king, and of serving in arins in defence of the country, under their own alcalde. Their elections were by ballot; persons soliciting a vote or using undue influence were disfranchised. The king himself might not interfere with the proceedings of the ayuntamiento, which had supreme control of all local expenditure and taxation. All the citizens in these districts had equal rights. Noblemen had to lay aside their rank and exclusive privileges if they desired to reside in the district. There were no special privileges; all men and all religions were equal before the law. These regulations continued in force for centuries; but under the house of Austria and the early Bourbons they were frequently encroached upon, until at the period of the French invasion, while the municipal organizations of the villages and unimportant towns had preserved their integrity, the charters of most of the great towns and cities of the kingdom had been violated, and the rights of the people abridged. During that invasion the constitution of 1812, recognizing and restoring all the ancient fueros, was adopted by the people. This constitution was abrogated by Ferdinand VII. on his restoration, revived by the revolution of 1820, and again suppressed in 1823. The constitution of 1837, however, restored the ayuntamientos. In 1840, in consequence of the check which this system of local government gave to the policy of the court, Queen Christina, by the advice of the French government, introduced a measure intended to restrain the political action of the ayuntamientos. This, although it at the time led to disturbances, was substantially carried out in 1844. AZAÏS, Pierre Hyacinthe, a French philosopher, born in Sorrèze, Languedoc, March 1, 1766, died in Paris, Jan. 22, 1845. He was educated at the Benedictine college of Sorrèze, where his father was teacher of music, and at the college of the Oratorians at Toulouse, and afterward became secretary to the bishop of Oléron, but lost this position on refusing to take orders. He was at first a partisan of the revolution, but having published a pamphlet against its excesses, he was condemned to transportation. He found a refuge, however, in the hospital of the sisters of charity at Tarbes, where he served as secretary and bookkeeper. There he wrote his "Discourses of the Soul with the Creator," and his "Religious Inspirations, or the Elevation of the Soul to the Spirit of God." In these works he first put forth his ideas of eternal justice, and the natural and necessary balance of good and evil in the universe and in the destinies of men. After remaining 18 months concealed in this hospital, he retired to Saint-Sauveur, at the foot of the Pyrenees, and there wrote his book on the "Misfortunes and the Happiness of Life." Here he remained six years, engaged in writing his philosophical "System of Compensations," the best known of his works. He then went to Paris, married the widow of an officer, and was appointed professor of geography in the military school of Saint-Cyr. This office he resigned when the school was removed to La Flèche, and was afterward appointed inspector of bookselling at Avignon, where he published his great work, Le système universel (2 vols. 8vo, 1812). The following year he went to Nancy in the same capacity, and commenced a work on the destiny of man. At the downfall of Napoleon he lost his place, and retired again to Paris, where he lived some time in poverty; but his friends at length obtained for him a pension. He lectured publicly at the Athénée Royal in Paris, and attracted large audiences; and in 1827-'8 he held conferences in his garden in the suburbs of Paris, which were attended by the élite of both sexes. In 1826 he published his Explication universelle; in 1829, Principes de morale et de politique; in 1833, Cours d'explication universelle, in 1834, Idée précise de la vérité première; in 1835, De la vraie médecine, and De la vraie morale; in 1836, Physiologie du bien et du mal, for which the French academy awarded a prize of 5,000 francs; in 1839, De la phrénologie, du magnétisme et de la folie; in 1840, La constitution de l'univers et l'explication générale des mouvements politiques, for which the academy awarded another prize of 2,000 francs. AZALEA (Gr. áçaλéos, arid), a genus of plants belonging to the natural order ericacea, and to the sub-order rhodoreæ, named in allusion to the dry places in which many of the species grow, and consisting of upright shrubs with large, handsome, and fragrant flowers, often cultivated in gardens. The genus comprises more than 100 species, most of them natives of China or North America, having profuse um belled clusters of white, orange, purple, or variegated flowers, some of which have iong been the pride of the gardens of Europe. The general characteristics of the genus are a 5-parted calyx, a 5-lobed, funnel form, slightly irregular corolla, 5 stamens, a 5-celled pod, and alternate, oblong, entire, and ciliated leaves, furnished with a glandular point. The species may be classified into those which have glutinous flowers, and those whose flowers are but slightly or not at all glutinous; each of which classes may be subdivided into those which have short stamens, and those which have stamens much longer than the corolla. Of those which have a glutinous corolla and short stamens are the viscosa and the glauca, very nearly resembling each other, found native in North America from Maine to Georgia, growing from 4 to 10 feet high, and having many varieties of flowers, either white or tinged with by Gorgias. rose color. Of those which have a glutinous Abednego. Apart from these, the most promcorolla, with long stamens, are the nitida, his- inent persons bearing the name are a prophet pida, and pontica, the first two being Ameri- who met Asa after his victory over Terah, king can species and found in mountainous regions of Ethiopia, and exhorted him to put away in the middle states, the last a native of idolatrous worship; and a high priest who Turkey and the northern borders of the Black aided Hezekiah in reforming the temple worsea, and distinguished by its brilliant yellow ship.-In its Greek form, Azarias, several percorolla. Of those whose flowers are smooth sons of this name are mentioned in the apocryor but slightly glutinous, and have long sta- phal books, one of them being one of the genmens, are the periclymena, or upright honey-erals of Judas Maccabæus, who suffered defeat suckle, found on hillsides in all the woods of North America; the canescens, with a white flower which has a red tube, an early and tender American species; and the arborescens, a rare and beautiful shrub, with elegant foliage and very fragrant rose-colored blossoms, found about the Blue Ridge mountains of Pennsylvania. Of those whose flowers are not glutinous, and which have short stamens, are the sinensis, nearly resembling the pontica; the indica, a Chinese species, with brilliant variegated flowers, cultivated in Europe and America as a greenhouse plant; and the ledifolia, also a native of China, with evergreen leaves, and larger flowers than those of the preceding. All the American species are deciduous. In cultivation the azaleas love the shade and a soil of sandy peat or loam. AZARA, Felix de, a Spanish naturalist, born in Aragon, May 18, 1746, died there in 1811. He became a brigadier general in the Spanish army, and was wounded in the warfare against the Algerine pirates (1775). In 1781 he went to South America as one of the commissioners for the settlement of the boundary between the Spanish and Portuguese possessions, and the researches which he prosecuted till 1801, despite the vexatious proceedings of the local Spanish officials, gave him distinction as an authority on the natural and political history of Paraguay and the Plata region. His Essai sur l'histoire naturelle des quadrupèdes de la province du Paraguay was first published in French (Paris, 1801), and afterward in Spanish (Madrid, 1802) under the auspices of his brother, the chevalier JOSÉ NICOLAS DE AZARA (born in 1731, died in Paris in 1804), Spanish ambassador to France, favorably known by a Spanish translation of Middleton's Cicero and by other literary achievements. Felix de Azara's masterpiece, Voyage dans l'Amérique méridionale depuis 1781 jusqu'en 1801 (4 vols., Paris, 1809), containing a narrative of the discovery and conquest of Paraguay and the Plata river, and in the last two volumes ornithological descriptions translated by Sonnini, was edited by the French naturalist Walckenaer, whose commentaries as well as those of Sonnini and Cuvier impart additional value to the work. A Spanish translation by Varela has been published at Montevideo. AZARIAH (Heb. 'Azaryah, or Azaryahu, helped of Jehovah), a very common name among the Hebrews. Uzziah, king of Judah, is also called Azariah. It was the Hebrew name of the friend of Daniel whose Chaldee name was AZEGLIO, Massimo Taparelli, marquis d', an Italian statesman, artist, and author, born in Turin, Oct. 2, 1798, died there, Jan. 15, 1866. In his youth, as he says himself in his memoirs, he was a swaggering soldier and a companion of scamps. His father being appointed in 1814 Sardinian ambassador in Rome, he accompanied him and remained there almost uninterruptedly for eight years, acquiring distinction as a painter, and for a time living the life of an artistic hermit in the outskirts of the Roman Apennines. After his father's death in 1830 he married a daughter of Manzoni, and after her death he married Louisa Blondel of Geneva. He was now a man of serious thought and strict virtue, and a decided liberal. His celebrated romances, Ettore Fieramosca (Milan, 1833) and Nicolò de' Lapi (1841), contributed to rouse the national spirit of independence and to establish his literary fame. In his Degli ultimi casi di Romagna (Florence, 1846), as well as by his personal influence with Pius IX., he advocated a liberal policy, while his political writings (collected in 1 vol., Turin, 1851) fostered a reformatory spirit in Sardinia and paved the way for coming changes. In 1848 he was aide-de-camp of Durando, who commanded the papal troops against Austria; but when the latter were recalled he joined the patriot volunteers in fighting the battle of Vicenza against Radetzky, and was severely wounded. After the restoration of peace he was chosen to the chamber of deputies. Victor Emanuel on ascending the throne appointed him (May 11, 1849) premier and minister of foreign affairs, and it was mainly his influence which saved constitutional institutions and paved the way for the work of Cavour. He dissolved the chambers twice on account of their opposition to the treaty of peace with Austria, which he caused to be ratified Jan. 9, 1850. Despite Azeglio's sympathies with progressive measures, he was considered as overconservative for the new order of things; and he finally succumbed to the combined influence of Count Cavour and Ratazzi and the opposition in the chambers, retiring Oct. 30, 1852. He had already tendered his resignation five months before, and continued in office only at the urgent request of the king. After the outbreak of the war of 1859, he contributed, as the king's commissioner in Bologna, to the preservation of order in the Romagna, and subsequently was for a short time prefect of Milan, his impaired health re tion to abolish the slave trade. Shortly before his death he was elected to the cortes as a reppresentative of the province of Rio de Janeiro. He was named bishop of Elvas, but declined, and in 1818 was appointed inquisitor general. He wrote a memoir on the conquest of Rio de Janeiro by Duguay-Trouin in 1711. AZEVEDO Y ZUÑIGA, Gaspard de, count of Monterey, and viceroy of Peru and Mexico, died March 16, 1606. He succeeded Luis de Velasco in the viceroyalty in 1603. He equipped a fleet to search for the great southern continent, which, under the command of Pedro Fernandez de Quiro, discovered several islands. AZINCOURT. See AGINCOURT. AZKAR TUARIK. See TUARIKS. AZOF. See Azov. quiring his retirement and obliging him to Ensaio economico sobre o commercio de Portuhave his speeches in the senate read by others. gal e suas colonias. In 1794 he was made A man of independent character and political bishop of Pernambuco. He published in Lonopinions, he severely criticised Cavour, Maz-don, in 1798, a pamphlet against the proposizini, and other liberal leaders, and among other popular measures opposed the intended transfer of the capital to Rome. His daughter, the marchioness Ricci, has published his autobiography, or, as he designates it, his "moral autopsy," entitled I miei ricordi (2 vols., 2d ed., Florence, 1867; German translation, 1869). A supplementary volume of correspondence between Azeglio and Torelli has been edited by Paoli (Milan, 1870). In 1867 appeared in Paris his Italie de 1847-1865, and his Correspondance politique, edited by E. Rendu. Carcano published at Milan in 1870 Azeglio's Lettere a sua moglie Luisa Blondel; and Barbera of Florence has lately published his Scritti inediti. His brother LUIGI, who died in Rome Sept. 24, 1862, was an eminent member of the order of Jesuits, editor of the ultra-clerical Civiltà cattolica, and the author of a work on natural and one on international law. His eldest brother, ROBERTO, who died in Turin, Dec. 24, 1862, published some excellent works on art, and was a promoter of political reforms toward the close of the reign of Charles Albert, a senator, and director of the royal gallery of paintings. The son of the latter, the marquis VITTORIO EMMANUELE TAPARELLI D'AZEGLIO, an accomplished artist, especially in statuary, was ambassador of Sardinia and afterward of Italy in London from 1850 to 1868. AZERBIJAN, or Azerbaijan, a N. W. province of Persia, bounded N. and N. E. by the Russian dominions, E. by the Persian province of Ghilan, S. by Irak-Ajemi and Persian Kurdistan, and W. by Turkish Kurdistan and Armenia; area, about 30,000 sq. m.; pop. estimated at 2,000,000. It nearly corresponds to the ancient Median province of Atropatene, from which its modern name is derived. The country is mountainous, with fertile valleys and small plains. Mt. Savalan, apparently once a volcano, is upward of 12,000 feet high. The chief rivers are the Aras (the ancient Araxes), which flows along the N. border, and its affluent, the Karasu. The salt lake of Urumiah is in this province. The climate is generally healthy; the summers are very hot and the winters very cold. In the plains the pomegranate and olive thrive in the open air. The mineral resources of the province are not developed; but there are mines of iron, lead, and copper. The inhabitants are chiefly Mohammedans, but there are some settlements of Nestorian Christians. Capital, Tabriz. AZEVEDO COUTINHO, Jozé Joaquim da Cunha, a Portuguese bishop, and the last inquisitor general of Portugal and Brazil, born at Campos dos Goitacazes, in Brazil, Sept. 8, 1742, died Sept. 12, 1821. He studied at Coimbra in Portugal, received orders, and soon became prominent both in the church and in Brazilian politics. He published in 1792 a work entitled AZOIC AGE, the period in the earth's history preceding the appearance of vegetable and animal life. A few years ago life was not known to have existed below the lower Silurian rocks, in the Cambrian of England, or in the Taconic (Laurentian and Huronian) of this country. If, however, eozoön be admitted as an animal form, the first appearance of life is carried back in time very much; and now American geologists are disposed to admit an eozoic age between the Silurian and azoic. AZORES, or Western Islands, a group of islands belonging to Portugal in the N. Atlantic, between lat. 36° 55' and 39° 44′ N., and lon. 25° 10' and 31° 16′ W., about 800 m. from the coast of Portugal; area, over 1,100 sq. m.; pop. about 250,000. They comprise three minor groups, the N. W. consisting of Flores and Corvo, the central of Terceira, San Jorge, Pico, Fayal, and Graciosa, and the S. E. of San Miguel and Santa Maria; and they extend from S. E. to N. W. about 400 m. The largest, San Miguel, is 50 m. long, and from 5 to 12 m. broad. They are all of volcanic origin, and have suffered severely from eruptions and earthquakes. A volcano rose suddenly to the height of 3,500 ft. in San Jorge in 1808, and burned for six days, desolating the entire island. In 1811 a volcano rose from the sea near San Miguel, and after vomiting ashes and stones disappeared. The peak of Pico, on the island of the same name, is 7,613 ft. high. All the islands are rugged and picturesque, with steep shores. The climate is moist but agreeable, and vegetation is luxuriant, fruits abounding, as well as the sugar cane, coffee, and tobacco. The principal exports are wine, brandy, oranges, lemons, beef, pork, and coarse linens, and their value is about $1,200,000 annually. The imports, valued at $1,700000, comprise woollen and cotton goods, iron, glass, pitch, timber, rum, sugar, tea, coffee, fish, &c. The tonnage entered in 1867 was 119,271; cleared, 117,690. There are no good harbors, the least exposed being Angra, on the island of Terceira.-The Azores were laid down on the |