CONSERVATISM, indisposition to change established laws and customs that have wrought beneficially in the past and contributed to the welfare of the country; in practical politics often a very different thing, and regarded by Carlyle in his time "a portentous enbodied sham; accursed of G.o.d, and doomed to destruction, as all lies are."

CONSIDeRANT, VICTOR PROSPER, a French Socialist and disciple of Fourier; founded a colony in Texas on Fourier's principles, which proved a failure; wrote much in advocacy of his principles, of which the most important is "La Destinee Sociale"; _b_. 1808.

CONSOLS, the Consolidated Fund, loans to Government made at different times and at different rates of interest, consolidated for convenience into one common loan, bearing interest at 3 per cent., reduced in 1830 to 2, and in 1893 to 2.

CONSTABLE, a high officer of State in the Roman empire, in France, and in England, charged at one time with military, judicial, and regulative functions.

CONSTABLE, ARCHIBALD, Edinburgh publisher, born in Carnbee, Fife; started as a bookseller near the Cross in Edinburgh; published the _Scots Magazine_, the _Edinburgh Review_, and the "Encyclopaedia Britannica," and from 1802 to 1826 the works of Sir Walter Scott, when the bankruptcy connected with the publication of these so affected him that it ruined his health, though he lived after the crash came to start the "Miscellany" which bears his name (1774-1827).

CONSTABLE, HENRY, English poet, author of sonnets, 28 in number, under the t.i.tle of "Diana" (1560-1612).

CONSTABLE, JOHN, an eminent landscape-painter, born in Suffolk; his works were more generously appreciated in France than in his own country, as they well might be, where they had not, as in England, to stand comparison with those of Turner; but he is now, despite the depreciation of Ruskin, becoming recognised among us as one of our foremost landscapists, and enormous prices have been given of late for his best pictures; some of his best works adorn the walls of the National Gallery; Ruskin allows his art is original, honest, free from affectation, and manly (1776-1837).

CONSTABLE DE BOURBON, Charles, Duc de Bourbon, a brilliant military leader, and a powerful enemy of Francis I.; killed when leading the a.s.sault on Rome (1489-1527).

CONSTANCE (16), a city of the Grand-Duchy of Baden, on the S. bank of the Rhine, at its exit from the lake; famous for the seat of the council (1414-1418) which condemned John Huss and Jerome of Prague to death; long famous for its linen manufacture.

CONSTANCE, LAKE, or BODENSEE, partly in Germany and partly in Switzerland; is about 44 m. long and 9 m. broad at most; is traversed by the Rhine from W. to E., is 1306 ft. above sea-level; is surrounded by vineyards, cornfields, and wooded slopes; its waters are hardly ever frozen, and often rise and fall suddenly.

CONSTANT, BENJAMIN, a highly popular French painter of the Realistic school, born at Paris; his first picture was "Hamlet and the King"; afterwards he took chiefly to Oriental subjects, which afforded the best scope for his talent; occupies a high place in the modern French school, and has been promoted to the rank of Officer of the Legion of Honour; _b_. 1845.

CONSTANT DE REBECQUE, HENRY BENJAMIN DE, a French politician, of liberal const.i.tutional principles, born at Lausanne, of Huguenot parents; settled in Paris at the commencement of the Revolution, where he distinguished himself by his political writings and speeches; was expelled from France in 1802, along with Mme. de Stael, for denouncing the military ascendency of Napoleon; lived for a time at Weimar in the society of Goethe and Schiller; translated Schiller's "Wallenstein"; returned to France in 1814; declared for the Bourbons, and pled in favour of const.i.tutional liberty; he was a supporter of Louis Philippe, and a rationalist in religion, and declared himself opposed to the supernatural element in all religions (1760-1830).

CONSTANTIA, a wine district of Cape Colony under E. flank of Table Mountain.

CONSTANTINE (50), inland city of Algeria, on a rocky height; leather-working its staple industry.

CONSTANTINE, the name of 13 emperors who reigned at Rome or Byzantium between 306 and 1453.

CONSTANTINE I., called the Great, born in Moesia, son of Constantius Chlorus by Helena; on the death of his father at York, where he accompanied him, was proclaimed Emperor by the troops; this t.i.tle being challenged by Maximian, his father-in-law, and Maxentius, his brother-in-law, he took up arms against first the one and then the other, and defeated them; when one day he saw a cross in the sky with the words _By this Conquer_ in Greek, under this sign, known as the _labarum_, which he adopted as his standard, he accordingly marched straight to Rome, where he was acknowledged Emperor by the Senate in 312; and thereafter an edict was issued named of Milan, granting toleration to the Christians; he had still to extend his empire over the East, and having done so by the removal of Lucinius, he transferred the seat of his empire to Byzantium, which hence got the name of Constantinople, i. e.

Constantine's city; had himself baptized in 337 as a Christian, after having three years before proclaimed Christianity the State religion (274-337).

CONSTANTINE NICOLAIEVITCH, second son of the Czar Nicholas I.; was appointed grand-admiral while but a boy; had command of the Baltic fleet during the Crimean war; came under suspicion of sinister intriguing; became insane, and died in seclusion (1827-1892).

CONSTANTINE PAULOVITCH, Grand-duke of Russia, son of Paul I.; distinguished himself at Austerlitz; was commander-in-chief in Poland, where he ruled as despot; waived his right to the throne in favour of his brother Nicholas (1779-1831).

CONSTANTINE XIII., Palaeologus, the last of the Greek emperors; had to defend Constantinople against a besieging force of 300,000 under Mahomet II., and though he defended it bravely, the city was taken by storm, and the Eastern empire ended in 1543.

CONSTANTINOPLE (1,000), capital of the Turkish empire, on the Bosphorus, situated on a peninsula washed by the Sea of Marmora on the S.

and by the Golden Horn on the N., on the opposite side of which creek lie the quarters of Galata and Pera, one of the finest commercial sites in the world; it became the capital of the Roman empire under Constantine the Great, who gave name to it; was capital of the Eastern empire from the days of Theodosius; was taken by the crusaders in 1204, and by Mahomet II. in 1452, at which time the Greek and Latin scholars fled the city, carrying the learning of Greece and Rome with them, an event which led to the revival of learning in Europe, and the establishment of a new era--the Modern--in European history.

CONSTANTIUS CHLORUS, or THE PALE, Roman emperor; after a struggle of three years reunited Britain with the empire, which had been torn from it by Allectus; was equally successful against the Alemanni, defeating them with great loss; died at York, on an expedition against the Picts; was succeeded by Constantine, his son (250-305).

CONSt.i.tUENT a.s.sEMBLY, the legislative body which the National a.s.sembly of France resolved itself into in 1789, a name it a.s.sumed from the task it imposed on itself, viz., of making a const.i.tution, a task which, from the nature of it proved impossible, as a const.i.tution is an ent.i.ty which grows, and is not made, _nascitur, non fit_.

CONSUELO, the heroine of George Sand's novel of the name, her masterpiece; the impersonation of the triumph of moral purity over manifold temptations.

CONSUL, (1) one of the two magistrates of Rome elected annually after the expulsion of the kings, and invested with regal power; (2) a chief magistrate of the French Republic from 1799 to 1804; (3) one commissioned to protect, especially the mercantile rights of the subjects of a State in foreign country.

CONSULATE, name given to the French Government from the fall of the Directory till the establishment of the Empire. At first there were three provisional consuls, Bonaparte, Sieyes, and Roger Ducos; then three consuls for ten years, Bonaparte, Cambaceres, and Lebrun, which was dissolved with the establishment of the Empire on the 20th May 1804.

CONTARI'NI, an ill.u.s.trious Venetian family, which furnished eight Doges to the Republic, as well as an array of men eminent in the Church, statecraft, generalship, art, and letters.

CONTE, NICOLAS JACQUES, a French painter; distinguished for his mechanical genius, which was of great avail to the French army in Egypt (1755-1805).

CONTI, an ill.u.s.trious French family, a younger branch of the house of Bourbon-Conde, all more or less distinguished as soldiers; FRANcOIS LOUIS especially, who was a man of supreme ability both in war and science, and had the merit to be elected king of Poland (1664-1709).

CONTINENTAL SYSTEM, Napoleon's scheme for interdicting all commerce between the Continent and Great Britain, carried out with various issues till the fall of Napoleon. See BERLIN and MILAN DECREES.

CONTRAT, SOCIAL, Rousseau's theory of society that it is based on mere contract, each individual member of it surrendering his will to the will of all, under protection of all concerned, a theory which led to the conclusion that the rule of kings is an usurpation of the rights of the community, and which bore fruit as an explosive in the Revolution at the end of the century.

CONVENTION, NATIONAL, a revolutionary convention in France which, on September 20, 1792, succeeded the Legislative a.s.sembly, proclaimed the Republic, condemned the king to death, succeeded in crushing the royalists of La Vendee and the south, in defeating all Europe leagued against France, and in founding inst.i.tutions of benefit to France to this day; it was dissolved on October 26, 1795, to make way for the Directory.

CONVERSATIONS LEXICON, a popular German encyclopaedia of 16 vols., started in 1796, and since 1808 published by Brockhaus, in Leipzig.