PRESTON PANS known before. He held the office until 1851, when declining years and health prompted his retirement. He soon after established the Columbia lyceum, which he endowed with his library, containing 3,000 selected volumes. As an orator and a lawyer he held a distinguished place among the public men of South Carolina, although his reputation in the former capacity interfered with his success at the bar. Judge O'Neall, in his "Bench and Bar of South Carolina," testifies to his great abilities as a nisi prius lawyer, and asserts that "his circuit speeches, especially in criminal cases, were unsurpassed." His style was ornate and florid, his elocution graceful, and in his more elaborate productions he evinced a considerable knowledge of English classical literature. II. JOHN S., brother of the preceding, born near Abingdon, Va., April 20, 1809. He was educated at Hampden Sidney college and the university of Virginia, and subsequently studied in the law school of Harvard university. In 1830 he married a daughter of Gen. Wade Hampton of South Carolina, and during the political excitement of that period became an active nullifier. For a number of years subsequent he was chiefly occupied with sugar planting in Louisiana, where he owned large estates, although he still retained his residence in Columbia, S. C. From 1848 to 1856 he was a member of the South Carolina legislature, where he gained considerable reputation as an orator; and during the same period he became more widely known in this capacity by addresses before the '76 association of Charleston, the literary societies of the South Carolina college, and particularly at the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the battle of King's Mountain, which was attended by 15,000 persons from North and South Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee. From 1856 to 1860 he resided chiefly abroad, superintending the education of his children, and in 1860 he was elected a delegate to the national democratic convention which met in Charleston in May of that year to nominate a candidate for the presidency, and in which he acted as chairman of the South Carolina delegation. Subsequently he withdrew with his associates from the convention, and was not again a delegate. His course in participating in the proceedings of the convention at all, under the peculiar relations which South Carolina then sustained to such bodies, subjected him to severe censure; but having promptly joined the secession movement after the election of Mr. Lincoln, he was appointed a commissioner to Virginia, and upon presenting his credentials to the convention of that state in Feb. 1861, made an elaborate plea in favor of her immediate withdrawal from the Union, which is esteemed the crowning effort of his oratory. He has since occupied himself almost exclusively with his private business. PRESTON PANS, a village in Haddingtonshire, Scotland, on the frith of Forth, 83 m. E. of Edinburgh, where was fought a memorable action between the Scottish Jacobites under 573 the Young Pretender and the royal troops under Sir John Cope, Sept. 21, 1745. The opposing armies came within sight of each other on the afternoon of the 20th, Cope occupying a strong position adjoining the village of Preston Pans, and having his front protected by a deep morass, while the pretender's troops, consisting mostly of highlanders, were posted on a ridge about a mile distant. The armies were nearly equal in numbers, the royalists having about 2,200 men, with 6 pieces of artillery, and the insurgents 2,500; but in appointments and discipline the former had decidedly the advantage, the highlanders being a hastily gathered rabble, without artillery or cavalry, indiscriminately armed with muskets, broadswords, scythes, or Lochaber axes, and kept together chiefly by enthusiasm for their cause and the expectation of plunder. Cope was urged to commence the engagement at once, instead of allowing the spirits of his men to be damped by remaining on the defensive, but declined; and at nightfall both armies lay in sight of each other. At midnight the pretender was informed that a path leading to the plain below and avoiding the morass had been discovered, and at a council of chiefs immediately summoned, it was determined to march at once to the attack. Under cover of the darkness and of a heavy mist the clans reached the plain in safety, where Cope's forces, alarmed by the firing of their outposts, were drawn up to receive them, the infantry occupying the centre, and either wing being protected by a regiment of dragoons, in front of one of which, Gardiner's, was the artillery. As the sun rose, the highlanders, who were formed in 2 lines, the 2d of which was led by the pretender, uncovered, and having uttered a short prayer, rushed with a terrific yell upon their enemy. The artillery, which was badly served by seamen collected from the fleet, instead of by regular gunners, was in a moment overpowered; and the dragoons in their rear, panic-stricken by the fierce shouts and the impetuous courage of their opponents, who, discarding their muskets after a single volley, threw themselves broadsword in hand upon the very muzzles of the guns, galloped away in all directions, heedless of the exhortations of their commander, Col. Gardiner. The other regiment of dragoons was scattered with equal rapidity, and the infantry, uncovered at both flanks, were, after a brief though brave resistance, completely routed. "So rapid was this highland onset," says Lord Mahon, "that in 5 or 6 minutes the whole brunt of the battle was over." Nearly all the royal infantry were killed or taken prisoners; but the dragoons, owing to the lack of troopers in the pretender's army, mostly escaped. Cope himself headed the fugitives, and scarcely drew rein until safe behind the walls of Berwick, where Lord Mark Kerr, the commandant, congratulated him upon being the first general on record who had carried the tidings of his own defeat. The humorous Scotch bal lad, "Johnnie Cope," was suggested by the PRESUMPTION, in law, an inference or as- LIMITATION, STATUTES OF.)-Conclusive presumptions are not very common in the law. But disputable or rebuttable presumptions, answering to the præsumptio juris of the civil law, constantly occur. They are indeed little more than legal inferences from existing evidence, open to modification or reversal by further evidence. They are much the same with prima facie conclusions or inferences; as, for example, when one sues a promissory note, and proves his own possession and the signature of the maker, the law presumes the plaintiff to be the owner of the note, and also presumes consideration, and gives the plaintiff his case, unless the defendant overcomes the presumption by evidence on his part of some ground of defence. The general presumptions of innocence in favor of an alleged criminal, and of absence of debt in favor of a defendant in a civil suit, are of this kind. It will be seen therefore that disputable presumptions do little more than determine where the burden of proof rests. PRETENDER, an epithet applied to the eldest son and grandson of James II., who laid claim to the throne of England. (See JAMES FRANCIS EDWARD STUART, and CHARLES EDWARD.) PREVILLE, the assumed name of PIERRE LOUIS DUBUS, a French comedian, born in Paris in 1721, died in Beauvais, Dec. 18, 1799. After having performed at many provincial theatres, he appeared at the théâtre Français in Paris in 1753, and was the favorite of the Parisian public for 33 years. His best parts were Sosie in Molière's Amphitryon, Turcaret in Le Sage's comedy of that name, La Rissole in Boursault's Mercure galant, and Figaro in Beaumarchais' Barbier de Séville and Mariage de Figaro. From memoranda which he left, M. Cahaïsse composed his Mémoires (Paris, 1813). PRÉVOST D'EXILES, ANTOINE FRANÇOIS, a French novelist, born at Hesdin, Artois, April 1, 1697, died near Chantilly, Nov. 23, 1763. He was intended for the church and educated at a Jesuit college, but in his 16th year entered the army. Soon returning to the college, in a few months he ran away again, and for 4 or 5 years led a very dissipated life. At the age of 22 he sought admission among the Benedictines of St. Maur, took the vows in 1721, was ordained priest, and proved a successful preacher. Being sent to the abbey of St. Germain des Prés, he shared in the historical and literary labors of the learned monks, and in the mean time diverted his mind by writing novels. Unable to support the austerities of the convent, he desired to be removed to a less severe branch of the same order; but the issuing of the brief of translation which had been granted to him by the pope being unaccountably delayed, he abandoned the order altogether in 1728, and went to Holland, where he supported himself by his pen. Having published Mémoires d'un homme de qualité (6 vols. 12mo., 1729), he went to England, where he published Cleveland (6 vols. 12mo., 1732), and L'histoire de Manon PRIAM Lescaut et du chevalier des Grieux (1733). The last named work is supposed to be a slightly disguised account of the author's own experience, and ranks as one of the best of French novels. In 1734 he was permitted to return to France and appointed almoner to the prince of Conti. He now wrote Le doyen de Killerine (6 vols., 1736), published a French translation of Cicero's letters Ad Familiares (1745), undertook a Histoire générale des voyages, which he carried forward to the 80th volume, and translated into French Richardson's "Pamela,' ," "Clarissa Harlowe," and "Sir Charles Grandison." In his later years he led a quiet religious life at St. Firmin, near Chantilly. Having fallen in a fit of apoplexy, he was supposed to be dead, and autopsy was ordered. The first stroke of the knife restored him to consciousness, but it had inflicted a mortal wound. His complete works comprise more than 170 volumes. His Œuvres choisies were published in 39 vols. 8vo. (Paris, 1783-5), and reprinted in 1810, with illustrations. The Histoire générale des voyages was abridged and continued by La Harpe. PRIAM, the last king of Troy, and according to the legend 5th in descent from Jupiter. He was the son of Laomedon, and in his youth was taken prisoner by Hercules. Previous to this he had been called Podarces, the swift-footed; but he was now bought from Hercules by his sister Hesione, and was thence called Priamus, or the ransomed. According to Homer he had 50 children, Hecuba alone having borne him 19; among them were Hector, Paris, Helenus, Deiphobus, Polyxena, Cassandra, and Creusa. During the sack of Troy by the Greeks he was slain at the foot of an altar by Pyrrhus. PRIAPUS, in Greek and Roman mythology, a type of fecundity, son of Bacchus and Venus. According to different Greek and Roman poets, he was the son of Bacchus and a Naiad, or of Adonis and Venus, or of Mercury or of Pan. He was generally represented in the form of herma, or a head placed on a quadrangular pillar, and painted red. His emblem was the phallus, and bearing this his image was placed in gardens and vineyards. PRICE, RICHARD, an English divine and moralist, born in Tynton, Glamorganshire, Feb. 23, 1723, died in London, April 19, 1791. The son of a dissenting Calvinistic minister, he was educated under private clerical tuition, till in his 18th year he went to London to complete his preparation for the ministry. His uncle obtained for him admission into a dissenting academy, where for 4 years he studied mathematics, philosophy, and theology. In 1743 he became domestic chaplain to Mr. Streathfield of Stoke Newington, in which office he remained 13 years, at the same time preaching occasionally. The death of his uncle left him a small fortune, and he married in 1757, and became morning preacher in Newington Green chapel. He was afterward appointed pastor of the Gravelpit meeting, Hackney, and afternoon preacher at Newington Green, both of which offices he resigned a short time before his death. In 1757 he published his "Review of the Principal Questions and Difficulties in Morals," an attempt to found moral obligation on intellectual instead of sentimental tests. Reason alone, he says, did we possess it in a higher degree, would answer all the ends of the passions. In 1769 he published a treatise on reversionary payments, drawing attention to the defective principles adopted by several societies designed to secure annuities to surviving widows, which resulted in their dissolution or modification; the 5th edition appeared in 1803. He published in 1776 his "Observations on Civil Liberty and the Justice and Policy of the War with America," of which 60,000 copies were soon distributed. The American congress afterward invited him, through their commissioners, to become a citizen of the United States, and to aid them in managing their finances, promising him a liberal remuneration if he should remove to America. He declined the request, at the same time speaking of the United States as the hope and the future refuge of mankind. He was an admirer of Plato, and a firm believer in the immateriality of the soul. He is the author of various works on religion, ethics, politics, and finance. His biography was written by William Morgan, D.D. (London, 1815). PRICE, SIR UVEDALE, an English writer on landscape gardening, born in 1747, died in Foxley, Herefordshire, Sept. 11, 1829. He was educated at Oxford, and in 1780 first appeared in print as the translator of Pausanias, in a work entitled "An Account of the Statues, Pictures, and Temples in Greece." His fame rests chiefly upon his "Essay on the Picturesque, as compared with the Sublime and Beautiful, and on the Use of studying Pictures for the purpose of improving Real Landscapes" (1794), which brought him into conflict with Repton, then a prominent landscape gardener. To his criticism Price replied in 1795, in "A Letter to H. Repton, Esq., on the Application of the Practice as well as the Principles of Landscape Painting to Landscape Gardening." In 1828 he was made a baronet. PRICHARD, JAMES COWLES, M.D., an English ethnologist, born in Ross, Herefordshire, Feb. 11, 1786, died in London, Dec. 22, 1848. He was graduated M.D. at Edinburgh, and settled as a physician in Bristol in 1810, but devoted his leisure to ethnological studies. In 1813 he published his "Researches into the Physical History of Man," and in 1826 a second and greatly enlarged edition of it, in which he developed for the first time to its full extent the philological element in ethnology. In 1841 he was appointed inspector of lunatic asylums, and removed to London, where in 1847 he brought out the third edition of the "Researches" (5 vols. 8vo.), comprising the results of 37 years' study. He is also the author of various professional works, a résumé of his “ Physical History," Natural 66 History of Man" (2 vols., 1843), and what is called by Bunsen his most original contribution to science, "The Eastern Origin of the Celtic Nations" (London, 1831; new ed. by Latham). Dr. Prichard's position as an ethnologist was one of eminence in Europe; the same writer (Baron Bunsen) says of his great work: "Up to this time there exists no book which treats all subjects bearing on the great question of the unity of the human species with equal depth and candor, good sense, and sound judgment." PRICKLY PEAR. See CACTUS. PRIDE OF INDIA, PRIDE OF CHINA, or NEEM TREE (melia azedarach, natural order meliacea), a native of Syria, Persia, and the north of India, and cultivated in different parts of the world as an ornamental tree. It grows to the height of 30 or 40 feet with a trunk of 20 inches diameter; but in open spaces it is spreading and not so high. Its leaves consist of smooth, pointed, dark green leaflets, arranged in pairs with an odd one at the end. The flowers, hanging in clusters at the ends of the branches, are of lilac color and agreeable perfume. They give place to bunches of berries about as large as cherries, and yellow when ripe. The pericarp has afforded an oil for economical purposes. The fruit is sweetish, and is generally supposed to be poisonous, but it may be eaten with impunity. In the cities of the southern states and upon many of the plantations rows of pride of India trees are very common, and in the autumn the branches and the ground beneath are covered with their berries. The tree has some reputation for its medicinal virtues, and a decoction of the bark of the root is administered as a cathartic and emetic. It is considered in many places an excellent remedy for worms, and is much used for children. In large doses it is said to produce narcotic effects, and such appears to be the action of the ripe berries upon the robin redbreasts, which are very fond of them, and eat them until they become stupefied and fall to the ground. From this state however they soon recover. PRIDEAUX, HUMPHREY, an English clergyman and author, born in Padstow, Cornwall, May 3, 1648, died Nov. 1, 1724. He was educated at Westminster under Dr. Busby, and at Christchurch, Oxford, and assisted Dr. Fell in preparing an edition of the historian Lucius Florus. Having been selected by the university to edit the inscriptions of the Arundelian marbles, he published them in 1676 after two years' labors, under the title of Marmora Oxoniensia ex Arundellianis, Seldenianis, aliisque conflata, cum perpetuo Commentario. In 1679 he was presented by Lord Chancellor Finch to the rectory of St. Clement's, Oxford, was appointed the same year Dr. Busby's Hebrew lecturer in Christchurch, and published two tracts of Maimonides in the original with a Latin translation and notes, under the title De Jure Pauperis et Peregrini apud Judæos. In 1681 he was made a prebendary of the cathedral of Norwich, where he had a controversy with the Roman Catholics, which resulted in his publishing a book entitled "The Validity of the Orders of the Church of England made out." He opposed James II. in his proceedings against the established church, and, having been appointed to the archdeaconry of Suffolk, took after some hesitation the oath of allegiance to William and Mary. In 1696 he was made vicar of Trowse, near Norwich, and in 1702 dean of Norwich. He was the author of a "Life of Mahomet" (1697), "Directions to Church Wardens" (1707), and a work on "Tithes" (1710); but his last and greatest work was "The Connection of the History of the Old and New Testaments," which appeared in 2 parts in 1715 and 1717 (last ed., 1858). PRIESSNITZ, VINCENZ, a German peasant the founder of the water cure, born in Gräfenberg, Austrian Silesia, Oct. 4, 1799, died there, Nov. 28, 1851. His father was a farmer, and Vincenz, after receiving the rudiments of an education, was required to work on the farm. It was through an accident which happened to him while thus engaged, that he was first brought to employ the cure which he subsequently systematized. He then studied medicine, and opened his cold water establishment at Gräfenberg in 1829. (See HYDROPATHY.) PRIEST, a person set apart for the performance of religious offices and ceremonies, and in particular for the performance of sacrifice. History shows the priestly office to be nearly coextensive with religion itself, and hardly a barbarous tribe has been discovered without some sort of priests to guide the people in the worship of their deity. The Old Testament contains but little information concerning the exercise of priestly functions before the promulgation of the law of Moses. We read that Cain and Abel offered their own sacrifices; but it seems that the priestly office soon came to be exercised by the heads of families only, as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Job. The term priest, however, is not used respecting any of them; it occurs only once in the book of Genesis, when Melchisedek is called a priest of the Most High, but nothing is added to define the nature of his priesthood. The Mosaic law established a special priesthood consisting of three orders, the high priests, the priests, and the Levites, all of them taken from one tribe, that of Levi. The priesthood was made hereditary in the family of Aaron; and the first born of the oldest branch of that family, if he had no legal blemish, was always the high priest. This appointment was observed till the Jews fell under the dominion of the Syrian Greeks, and had their faith corrupted; then and afterward under the Romans the high priesthood was sometimes put up to sale, and became a temporary office. In the time of David the inferior priests were divided into 24 companies, serving in rotation, each company by itself for a week.-The early history of the priesthood of the several pagan PRIEST religions is still involved in great obscurity, though elucidated in many important details by modern criticism. With most of the uncivilized tribes the priest had a very limited sphere of action; he generally appears as a sorcerer, who derives by communication with a spirit world the command of magic powers for the relief of the distressed and suffering. With some tribes the power of sorcery seems to have been the only attribute of the priesthood; with others they were also clothed with the office of divining, and with that of offering sacrifices. In the Society islands and New Zealand the priesthood formed a hereditary corporation; but nowhere among pagan tribes have they been so powerful and numerous as in Mexico, where they are said to have numbered 4,000,000 at the arrival of the Spaniards. -The idea of priesthood was much more fully developed by Brahminism. The Brahmins have assigned to them the primacy of honor among the 4 castes, and it is easy to trace in the enormous prerogatives with which they are clothed the fundamental idea of a vicegerency of God upon earth, for the purpose of conveying to mankind the divine blessings. Brahmins are also charged with preserving the soundness of doctrine, and with presiding over sacrifices and divine services.-The rationalistic state church of China, which owes its final organization to Confucius, has no special priesthood, but the priestly functions are blended with those of the emperor and the subordinate state officers. The Buddhist priests, called lamas in Mongolia and Thibet, bonzes in Japan, rahans in Burmah, talapoins in Siam, and gunnis in Ceylon, are essentially spiritual guides. They are to be examples of a perfect life, consisting, according to Buddhist views, in overcoming matter, accumulating merits, and thus preparing for a higher second birth. They do not form a caste; they live in celibacy, and their chief, the dalai lama, is regarded as the incarnation of Buddha himself. (See LAMAISM.) The magi of the Persians were the conductors of religious services and the teachers of the people. In Egypt the priests likewise formed one of the supreme castes, endowed with many privileges, and in particular exempted from paying taxes. Being divided into several classes, they constituted a complete hierarchy, on a democratic basis, with a chief priest, Pyromis, at their head. More than any other pagan priesthood, they distinguished themselves as the teachers and educators of the people, and secured the continuance of their prerogatives by keeping up their literary superiority. The ancient religion of the Greeks had no general priesthood, but only priests of the several deities, who slaughtered the victims, and often secured a powerful influence as the interpreters of the will of the deity which they served. Finally the priestly office among them fell into utter insignificance. The Roman priesthood was to a larger extent than that of any other great nation of antiquity charged with the office of divining. It was VOL. XIII.-37 a well organized and largely privileged state institution, which knew how to retain its social position and political influence, when the belief in its faculty of divining had entirely ceased among the educated classes, and when, as Cicero says, he wondered how two augurs could meet without laughing at each other.-In the Christian system the gospel represents Christ as the one priest, who, for the redemption of the world, offered the one sacrifice, that of the cross. So far all who receive the record of the gospel as infallibly true agree; but there is a fundamental difference of opinion on the question, whether this sole priesthood of Christ is or is not incompatible with the existence of a proper priestly office in the church. The Roman Catholic church, and those eastern churches (Greek, Armenian, Nestorian, Jacobite, Coptic, Abyssinian) which regard ordination as a true sacrament, maintain that the sacrifice of the cross was to be continued and kept present in the church through appointed representatives and vicegerents of Christ, who for that purpose continue and partake in the priestly character of Christ and his mediatorial office between God and man. (See ORDINATION.) The other Christian denominations deny that there is in the Christian church any other real priest than Christ, since there is no one after Christ who has the power of offering sacrifices for the people. But they believe, on the other hand, in a spiritual priesthood of all Christians, which they derive from their union with Christ, the sole high priest. They therefore do not regard the clergy as an order of men specifically distinct from the laity, but only as the body of the teachers and servants of the church, who, being divinely called and properly appointed, possess certain ecclesiastical rights and undertake certain duties, which they derive partly from divine, partly from human law. (See CLERGY.) The Protestant Episcopal churches of England, Scotland, Ireland, and America have retained the word priest, to denote the second order of their hierarchy, but with very different significations, according to the different opinions entertained by the members of those churches respecting the Lord's supper. PRIESTLEY, JOSEPH, an English theologian and natural philosopher, born in Fieldhead, in the west riding of Yorkshire, March 13, 1733, died in Northumberland, Penn., Feb. 6, 1804. He was the son of a cloth dresser, and both of his parents, and also an aunt by whom he was adopted after his mother's death, were Calvinistic dissenters. Early remarkable for his love of reading and study, he was designed by his friends for a learned profession, and was instructed in the classics in a free grammar school. He learned Hebrew in his holidays under a dissenting minister, and with little instruction made progress in the Chaldaic, Syriac, Arabic, French, Italian, and German. mother had deeply impressed him with religious and moral sentiments, and even in boyhood his seriousness bordered upon melancholy, ren His |