ABDUCTION-ABD-UR-RAHMAN.

law relating to divorce and matrimonial causes, and the sultan, and the kindness of the Vizir Fadhel, he under which the marriage may be either annulled, was enabled to proceed to Egypt, where he delivered with, in the case of the adultery of the wife, damages lectures while Saladin was fighting the Lion-heart from the adulterers; or the parties may be 'judicially separated.'

ABDUCTION OF WOMEN GENERALLY.-Not only are heiresses or females having property protected against forcible marriages or against violation; but the same law has been extended also to all women with or without expectations. By the 24 and 25 Vict. c. 96, s. 54, whosoever shall, by force, take away, or detain against her will, any woman of any age, with intent to marry or carnally know her, or to cause her The sovereigns of Turkey have long been in an to be married or carnally known by any other person, anomalous position. The ambassadors of the great shall be guilty of felony, and subject to a punish-powers have ruled the divan; and the sultan had a ment similar in all respects to the case of heiresses. This enactment, which had existed in Ireland since 1830, was extended to England in 1861.

ABEL-ABENCERRAGES.

dispute by relinquishing this sort of 'black-mail,' formerly levied by Marocco on European ships in the Mediterranean. The religious war under Abd-elKader against the French in Algerie involved the sultan in its movements; but was concluded by the battle of Isly, 1844, and the subsequent mediation of England. The piratical habits of his subjects brought A. to the brink of war with more than one European state. The sultan was a zealous Mussulman, without the wild fanaticism common among his countrymen; as a ruler, he was strict, and often cruel. He was succeeded in 1859 by his eldest son, Sidi-Mohammed (born 1803; died 1873).

to separate the lovers; but it was too late. They fled together to the country, where Heloise bore a son, and was privately married to A., with the consent of her uncle. Not long after, Heloise returned to Fulbert's house, and denied the mar riage, that her love might be no hinderance to A.'s advancement in the church. Enraged at this, and at a second flight which she took with her lover, Fulbert, in order to make him canonically incapable of ecclesiastical preferment, caused A. to be emasculated. In deep humiliation, A. entered as a monk the abbey of St Denis, and induced Heloise to take the veil at Argenteuil. But the lectures which he began ABEL appears in the book of Genesis as the to give soon after exposed him to new persecutions. second son of Adam, and a shepherd. He was slain The synod of Soissons (1121) declared his opinions on by his elder brother Cain, under the influence of the Trinity to be heretical. He left St Denis, and jealousy, because the offering of the latter had been built at Nogent-on-the-Seine a chapel and hermitage rejected by Jehovah, and that of the former accepted. scholars to a monastic foundation, he, on his appointcalled Paraclete, which, after being enlarged by his It is not said in Genesis, why Jehovah accepted the sacrifice of Abel; but the Saviour, in the New ment as abbot of St-Gildas-de-Ruys, in Bretagne, gave Testament, speaks of righteous Abel, from which over to Heloise and her sisterhood for a dwelling. His it is concluded that there dwelt in him a spirit of residence in St-Gildas was imbittered by a continued faith or trust in the unseen God, of which his struggle against his love, and by the hatred of the brother was destitute. The writer of the Epistle to monks; till at last, in 1140, his doctrine was conthe Hebrews opens his enumeration of the "faithful' demned by Pope Innocent III., and he was ordered in the 11th chapter of Hebrews, with these words: to be imprisoned. But Peter the Venerable, abbot "By faith Abel offered unto God, a more excellent of Clugny, after A. had retracted his opinions on sacrifice than Cain.' Such, also, has been in all ages enemies. A. died with the reputation of a model of the Trinity and Redemption, reconciled him to his the universal opinion of the Christian Church, which has regarded Abel as a type of innocence and faith. monastic propriety, on April 21, 1142, in the abbey of St Marcel, not far from Chalons-on-the-Saône. ABEL, CHARLES FREDERICK, a native of Koethen, Heloise had him interred at the Paraclete, hoping one in Germany, born in 1719, was a distinguished musi-day to lie by his side. She survived A. twenty years. cian. He was a pupil of Sebastian Bach, and for The ashes of both were taken to Paris in 1808, and some years a member of the famous Dresden band of in 1828 were buried in one sepulchre in Père la Chaise. the Elector of Saxony, king of Poland. In 1758, The doctrines advanced by A. in his controversy when nearly forty years of age, he came to England in a state of great destitution; but his talents were quickly recognised. He was appointed chambermusician to the queen of George III. His peculiar instrument, the viola da gamba, a small violoncello, with six strings, was never played by any one in equal perfection. He also obtained considerable reputation as a composer, though his pieces are not now held in very great estimation. He died in 1787, having shortened his life by his intemperate habits. ABELARD (Fr. Abelard or Abailard; Lat. Abalardus), PETER, a scholastic philosopher and theologian, the boldest thinker of the 12th c., was born near Nantes, in 1079, at Palet, a village which belonged to his parents. An irrepressible thirst for knowledge, and a special pleasure in scholastic logic, moved him to resign his rights of primogeniture in favour of his younger brothers. He left Bretagne for Paris, in order to hear the prelections of William of Champeaux, but soon incurred the hatred of his master, whom he puzzled by his wonderful subtlety. He fled to Melun, and afterwards to Corbeil, persecuted and admired wherever he went. He then returned home for the restoration of his health. With renewed strength, he returned to Paris, reconciled himself with his opponents, and moulded, by his influence as a lecturer, some of the most distinguished men of his age, amongst whom were the future Pope Celestine II.; Peter Lombard; Berengar, his future apologist; and Arnold of Brescia. At this time, there lived in Paris, Heloise, the niece of the Canon Fulbert, then seventeen years of age, and already remarkable for her beauty, talents, and knowledge. She soon kindled in the breast of A., then thirty-eight years old, a violent and overwhelming passion, which was returned by Heloise with no less fervour. By means of Fulbert, A. became teacher and companion of Heloise, and the lovers were happy together until A.'s ardent poetical

with St Bernhard, have a decidedly rationalist tend-
ency; and he, and his predecessor Erigena, may
be looked upon as the first avowed representatives
of that school. A. laid down the principle, that
nothing is to be believed but what has been
first understood; while the church held that we
must believe in order to understand; and Bernhard
was for banishing inquiry altogether from the pro-
vince of religion. In judging of A.'s merits, we
are not to look so much to his writings, as to the
influence which his wonderful power of public dis-
putation enabled him to exercise on his age. His
character, no less than his doctrine, gave great
offence. Until recently, it is chiefly the romantic
history of his love that has occupied attention.
The chief biographies that have appeared are that
by Rémusat (2 vols., Par. 1845), and that by
Wilkens (Gött. 1855). The Latin writings and
letters of A. and Heloise were collected by Amboise,
and published by Duchesne (Par. 1616).
works of A. have been recently discovered; among
others, Sic et Non, a collection of doctrinal con-
tradictions from the Fathers. Cousin, who pub-
lished the hitherto unedited works in 1836, has
given us a complete edition of A.'s works (2 vols.,
Par. 1849-59).

ABELE. See POPLAR.

Some

ABELITES, a Christian sect of the 4th c., found chiefly in the neighbourhood of Hippo, in North Africa. Their chief distinction consisted in marrying but abstaining from matrimonial intercourse, in order not to propagate original sin. They held that Abel so lived, because the Bible mentions no children of his.

ABELMOSCHUS. See HIBISCUS.

ABENCERRAGES, a noble Moorish race whose struggles with the family of the Zegris, and tragical destruction in the royal palace of the Alhambra, in Granada, in the time of Abu-Hassan (1466-84

ABENDBERG-ABERDEEN.

the last but one of the kings of Granada, furnish the materials for a charming Spanish work of fiction, Historia de las Guerras Civiles de Granada (Madrid, 1694). From this Chateaubriand composed Les Aventures du Dernier Abencerrage, and furnished the text of an opera of Cherubini's. The work, however, seems to be destitute of historical foundation; at least Conde is perfectly silent on the subject in his Historia de la Dominacion de los Arabes en España (3 vols., Madrid, 1829).

A'BENDBERG, a hill in the canton of Berne, rising abruptly out of the waters of Lake Thun, on the south side. It is interesting as the site of an institution, established by Dr Guggenbühl, for the cure of Cretins (q. v.), and supported by contributions from far and near. The sanguine hopes raised as to the good to be effected by the healthiness of the situation, and the mode of treatment followed, have been greatly disappointed, little alleviation being perceptible. The establishment still exists as an asylum for these unfortunate beings. ABEN-ESRA, properly Abraham-Ben-Meir-Ben-mander of the forces in Ireland; but his enlightened Esra, born 1093 in Spain, died 1168 in Rome, was one of the most learned Jews of his times. He understood the Hebrew, Arabic, and Aramaic languages; had considerable knowledge of mathematics, astronomy, and medicine; was a scientific observer; and generally distinguished himself as a sagacious thinker. Having left his native land, he visited Lombardy, Provence, France, Egypt, and England, and passed the later years of his life in Rome; everywhere giving lectures on grammar, theology, astronomy, &c., besides writing and translating several works in Hebrew and Arabic. His Commentaries on the Old Testament are the most important of his works, which include some treatises on astrology, since published in Latin. The scholastic writers mention Aben-Esra as ABENARE or AVENARD.

ABER is a Celtic word which enters into the composition of several names of places, chiefly in Wales and Scotland. It indicates the mouth or embouchure of a stream, either into the sea, or into another river as Aberbrothock, at the mouth of the Brothock, in Forfarshire; Abergavenny, at the junction of the Usk and Gavenny, in Wales.

ABERCROMBY, SIR RALPH, was born at Menstry, in Clackmannanshire, in 1734. He was designed by his father for the Scottish bar; and studied from 1752 to 1755 at the universities of Edinburgh and Leipsic. His natural inclination, however, pointed to a military life; and in 1758, he went to Germany as a cornet in the 3d Dragoon Guards. In 1780, he raised a regiment in Ireland, which was called the 103d, or King's Irish. It was disbanded in 1783; and the next ten years were spent by Sir Ralph in the retirement of a country life. He had married in 1767. In 1793, he accompanied the Duke of York to Holland. His conduct throughout that unfortunate campaign, especially during the disastrous retreat in the winter of 1794-5, won him the love and admiration of the whole army. On his return to England, he was appointed to the chief command of the expedition to the West Indies, which, notwithstanding the vexatious obstruction of his designs, he conducted with distinguished success, taking Grenada, Demerara, Essequibo, St Lucia, St Vincent, and Trinidad. Soon after, he was appointed comand manly remonstrances against the policy of government towards that country occasioned his removal to a similar command in Scotland. In 1799, he was appointed second in command to the Duke of York in the expedition to Holland, still more unhappy and ignominious in its results than the former." occasions with entire credit. A. alone acquitted himself on all On his return, he was appointed to command the expedition to the Mediterranean. The fleet anchored in Aboukir Bay on the 2d of March. On the 7th, A. reconnoitred the shore in person. the British troops were in possession of the sandBefore mid-day of the 8th, hills that commanded the shore, having landed in the face of a storm of shot that ploughed the water around them. On the 13th, the enemy were driven within the lines of Alexandria. On the morning of the 21st, Menou attempted to surprise the British camp. He found them ready, under arms. In the glorious action that ensued, the British commander was struck by a musket-ball in the thigh; but not till the battle was won, and he saw the enemy retreating, did he shew any sign of pain. He was borne from the field in a hammock, cheered by the blessings of the soldiers as he passed, and conveyed on board Lord Keith's ship. The ball could not be extracted; mortifica tion ensued; and on the 28th he died, in the sixtyeighth year of his age. In the character of A. were combined the qualities that seem peculiarly characteristic of a true British soldier. He was at once gentle and brave, clear-sighted and cool in deliberation, in action prompt and daring, even to hardihood. Apart from his qualities as a soldier, he was a man of liberal accomplishments, free from prejudices, and of sound practical judgment.-The national gratitude to this eminent man took the form of a peerage conferred on his widow, afterwards enjoyed by his eldest son, with the title of Baron Abercromby. His third son, JAMES ABERCROMBY, after being M.P. for Edinburgh and Speaker of the reformed House of Commons, was raised to the British peerage in 1839, with the title BARON DUNFERMLINE. He died in March 1858.

ABERCROMBIE, JOHN, M.D., in his own day the most eminent of Scottish physicians, and still worthy of remembrance for his professional and moral excellence, was born in 1781, at Aberdeen, where his father was long a parish minister. He studied medicine in Edinburgh, taking his degree in 1801, and thenceforth devoted himself to the practice of his profession in the Scottish capital. At a comparatively early age, he attained a high reputation; and after the death (in 1821) of the celebrated Dr Gregory, he became recognised as the first consulting physician in Scotland. His professional writings contributed to his celebrity, which was still further extended by the publication, in 1830 and 1833, of his works on The Intellectual Powers and The Moral Feelings. These works have no pretensions to originality or depth of thought, but acquired, from the high personal character of the author, a reputation during his life, which a few years have sufficed to impair. They possess, however, the merit of being more readable than many works of the same class, and are pervaded by a moral and religious feeling, ABERDEEN, the chief city and seaport in the which, in the case of their pious and benevolent N. of Scotland, lies in lat. 57° 9' N., and long. 2° 6' W., author, was perfectly genuine. Dr A. died in the S.E. angle of the county of the same name, suddenly, Nov. 14, 1844. Among the honours at the mouth of the river Dee, which forms its harbestowed upon him during his life were the degree of M.D. from Oxford, the rectorship of Marischal College, the vice-presidency of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and the office of Physician in Ordinary to Her Majesty for Scotland.

bour, and 111 miles N. of Edinburgh. Its mean annual temperature is 45°.8 F., and rainfall, 30-57 inches. William the Lion made A. a royal burgh in 1179. The English burned A. in 1336, but it was soon rebuilt, and called New Aberdeen.

Old A.,

ABERDEENSHIRE ABERDEEN.

within the same parliamentary boundary, is a small Old), Peterhead, Fraserburgh, Huntly, Kintore, town a mile to the N., near the mouth of the Don. Inverury, and Turriff. The county returns two King's College and University, founded in Old A. in members to parliament; the city of Aberdeen, one; 1494, and Marischal College and University, founded and the burghs of Peterhead, Kintore, and Inverury, in New A. in 1593, were in 1860 united into one insti- with Elgin, Cullen, and Banff, one. About 37 per tution, the University of Aberdeen. It had 797 cent. of the area of A. is cultivated. In 1875, it students in 1874-1875, and its general council, with had 193,111 acres in oats, 19,756 in barley and bere; that of Glasgow University, sends one member to 95,363 in turnips; and 169,739 cattle. A. produces parliament. In the 17th c. A. had become an import-one-fifth of the turnips and one-seventh of the ant place, but it suffered much from both parties cattle reared in Scotland, and is unsurpassed in in the civil wars. It has now a flourishing trade breeding and feeding stock. The fisheries on the and large manufactures, and its handsome light-gray coast are very productive. Pop. in 1871, 244,603, granite architecture is much admired. The harbour with 34,589 inhabited houses, and 84.83 per cent. of has been much enlarged and deepened, and a new the children, of ages 5 to 13, receiving education. breakwater has been lately built. The total regis- The munificent Dick and Milne bequests for parotered shipping of the port in 1874 amounted to chial schoolmasters has given A. a high place in the 103,149 tons. The chief exports are linens, woollens, statistics of education. A. has about 290 places cotton-yarns, paper, combs, granite (hewn and of worship, 105 being Established, and 100 Free. polished), cattle, grain, preserved provisions, and Value of real property (exclusive of railways), in fish. A. has the largest comb and granite-polishing | 1875-1876, £778,612. works in the kingdom. It has considerable ironworks and much ship-building. The A. clipper-bow ships are celebrated as fast sailers. A has above 60 places of worship, and 10,000 children at school. Connected with A., which has always been a cele brated seat of learning, have been the names of Barbour and Boece; Bishops Elphinstone, Dunbar, and Forbes; the Earls Marsichal; Jameson, Gregory, Reid, Beattie, Campbell, and Hamilton. The British Association met here in 1859, under the presidency of the Prince Consort. The burgh is governed by 25 councillors, including a provost, six bailies, a dean of guild, &c. Pop. in 1871, of municipal burgh, 76,348; parliamentary burgh, 88,125, with a valuation in 1875-1876 of £337,045, and sending one member to parliament.

ABERDEEN, GEORGE HAMILTON GORDON, EARL OF, was born at Edinburgh in 1784. He was educated at Harrow and at St John's College, Cambridge, where he took his degree of M.A. in 1804. Before this, on succeeding to the earldom in 1801, he made a tour through Greece, the record of which is preserved in Byron's well-known line

'The travelled thane, Athenian Aberdeen.'

In his twenty-second year, he was elected one of the sixteen Scottish representative peers, and entered public life as a Tory. In 1813, he was appointed ambassador to the Austrian court, and conducted the negotiations which terminated in the alliance of that power with Britain. At this time he formed that close friendship with Prince Metternich which so decidedly influenced his subsequent policy as a statesman. On the conclusion of the war, he was elevated to the British peerage as Viscount Gordon. From this time till the year 1828, his lordship made no prominent appearance in public life. In that year he took office in the new ministry formed under the Duke of

ABERDEENSHIRE, a large maritime county in the E. of Scotland, between 56° 52′ and 57° 42′ N. lat., and 1° 49′ and 3° 48′ W. long.; bounded N. by Banffshire and the North Sea; E. by the North Sea; S. by Kincardine, Forfar, and Perth shires; W. by Inverness and Banff shires. It is the fifth in size of the Scottish counties; greatest length, 102 miles; greatest breadth, 50 miles; with 60 miles of sea-coast, and an area of 1970 square miles. It Wellington. The general principle which guided his has long been popularly divided into five districts (proceeding from south-west to north-east)-Mar, Strathbogie, Garioch, Formartin, and Buchan. A. is generally hilly, and in the south-west (Braemar) entirely mountainous, the Grampians running along the south side, and branching off to the north-east and north. Braemar contains the highest mountains; Ben-Muic-Dhui (next to Ben Nevis, the highest hill in the British Isles), 4296 feet; Cairntoul, 4245; Cairngorm, 4083; Ben-na-Buird, 3860; Lochnagar, 3770. The predominant rocks are granite and gneiss. The granite is very durable, and is much used for building and polishing. The chief rivers are the Dee (96 miles long), Ďon (78 miles), and Ythan (37 miles), which run eastward into the North Sea; and the Doveran (58 miles), which runs north-east into the North Sea (see DEE, DON, DOVERAN). On the upper part of the Dee is Balmoral (q. v.). The Ythan yields the pearlmuscle, but rarely pearls of any value. The mean annual rainfall of A. varies from 30 to 37 inches. Clay soils predominate near the coast, loamy soils near the centre, and poor, gravelly, sandy, and peaty soils elsewhere. The most fertile parts lie between the Don and Ythan, and in the north-east angle of the county. Nowhere in the kingdom have the natural disadvantages of soil and climate been more successfully overcome. A. has 188 miles of railway, and 2359 miles of public roads, the latter supported by rates, and not by tolls. The chief towns and villages are Aberdeen (New, and

policy, as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, was that of non-interference in the internal affairs of foreign states, which, joined to his well-known sympathy with such statesmen as Metternich, has exposed him-not always justly-to the suspicion of being inimical to the cause of popular liberty. His gradual abandonment of high Tory principles was evinced by his support of the bill for the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts, and of the Roman Catholic Emancipation Act. From the fall of the Wellington ministry till the Peel administration in 1841, his lordship was out of office, with the exception of his brief administration of the Colonial Office in the Tory ministry of 1834-5. In 1841, he again received the seals of the Foreign Office. M. Guizot was at that time foreign minister in France, and the two statesmen acted in cordial alliance. The conclusion of the Chinese War, the Ashburton Treaty, and the Oregon Treaty, were the principal services rendered to the country during his administration of foreign affairs. His act in 1843 for removing doubts regarding the admission of ministers to benefices in Scotland, neither saved the disruption of the Church, nor pleased those for whom it was meant, and is now virtually repealed by the Act for the Abolition of Patronage' (1874). From the time that the repeal of the corn-laws became the rallying-point of the Peel party, he became identified with their policy. In 1846, he resigned with Sir Robert Peel. In 1853, on the resignation of Lord Derby, the extraordinary state of parties necessitated a coali

ABERDEVINE ABINGDON.

tion, and Lord A. was selected as the fittest man to head the new ministry, which for some time was extremely popular. The feeble and vacillating policy displayed in the conduct of the war with Russia, gradually undermined its stability, and the disastrous mismanagement brought to light in the winter of 1854, in all departments of the public business connected with the war, filled up the measure of the popular discontent. On Feb. 1, 1855, Lord A. resigned office. He was author of an Essay on Grecian Architecture (1822). He died in 1860.

A'BERDEVINE, or SISKIN (Fringilla Spinus), a song-bird, nearly allied to the goldfinch, with which it is placed by Cuvier and others in the new genus Carduelis. It is rather smaller than the goldfinch, and less elongated in form. The crown of the head and the throat are black, the nape, dusky green, and there is a broad yellow streak above and behind each eye. It is only a winter visitant of Britain, and breeds in the north of Europe, building its nest in high trees. It is frequently kept as a cage-bird, being easily tamed; and breeds freely with the canary. It feeds on the seeds of the thistle, alder, birch, and elm, and occasionally does great damage to the hop plantations in Germany. In France it injures the blossoms of the apple trees.

dicularly, a drop entering at the top of an upright tube at rest, will go through; but if the tube be carried forward horizontally, a drop entering the top will strike against the side before it goes far; and to make the drop go through the tube in motion, we must incline the top of it forward in the direction of the motion. The amount of this inclination will be the greater, the more rapid the motion of the tube is compared with that of the falling drops. If in the time that a drop takes to fall through the height AB of : the parallelogram in the annexed A cut, the inclined tube BC is moved horizontally over a space equal to its breadth, AC, a drop entering the top of the tube will descend without touching the sides. For in half the time, the tube will be in the position, B'C', and the drop in the position d; and so for any other portion of the time. This exactly illustrates the astronomical pheno- B menon in question. The tube is a telescope directed to receive the light of a star; this tube, and the person looking through it, are moving along with the earth in its orbit, and the light may be conceived as particles coming from the star like drops of rain, moving much faster, no doubt, still requiring time. That & particle or ray of light from the star may pass through the tube, it must be directed, not straight to the star, but at a slight angle in the direction of the earth's motion. Thus the place where we see the star is not its true place. As the earth's motion, however, is slow compared with the velocity of light, the angle of inclination is small-never exceeding about 20'. The result is, that, if we conceive the true place of a star as a fixed point, the apparent the course of a year, an ellipse whose greater axis is about 40". The aberration of light was discovered by the English astronomer Bradley, in 1727, while seeking to determine the parallax of certain fixed

B'

ABERGAVENNY. See SUPp., Vol. X. ABERNETHY, JOHN, a very eminent English surgeon, was born in London in 1764. His grandfather was the Rev. John Abernethy, an Irish Presbyterian clergyman, who acquired distinction by his writings, and his bold adoption of Bishop Hoadly's views on the right of private judgment and the subscription of Confessions. A.'s early tastes disposed him to the bar; but in 1780 he was apprenticed to Mr (afterwards Sir Charles) Blicke, surgeon of St Bartholomew's Hospital. He attended at the same time the lectures of John Hunter and Sir W. Blizard. In 1787, A. was elected assistant-place of the star describes about this true place, in surgeon to St Bartholomew's, an office which he filled for twenty-eight years; at the end of which time he was appointed surgeon, with a salary. Soon after his election, he began to lecture in the hospital on anatomy and surgery, and may be said to have laid the foundation of its character as a

school of surgery. At first, he manifested extraor dinary diffidence, but his power soon developed itself; and his lectures at last attracted such crowds, that, in 1790, it was found necessary to build a lecture-theatre in the hospital for his use. His clear, simple, and positive style, illustrated by an inexhaustible variety of apt anecdotes, made him the most popular medical teacher of his day. In 1813, he was appointed surgeon to Christ's Hospital, and in 1814, Professor of Anatomy and Surgery to the College of Surgeons. His practice increased with his celebrity, which the singular eccentricity and occasional rudeness of his manners contributed to heighten. Notwithstanding, however, the irritability and harshness which he so often exhibited, those who knew him best bear unanimous testimony to the generosity and kindliness of his character. He married in 1800, and had several children. He died at Enfield, in 1831. Of his works, the most original and important is his Observations on the Constitutional Origin and Treatment of Local Diseases, first published in 1806, in which a simple principle, till then little attended to, was made the foundation of much important and ingenious observation. His Lectures on the Theory and Practice of Surgery were published in 1830.

ABERRATION OF LIGHT is an apparent alteration in the place of a star, arising from the motion of the earth in its orbit combined with the progressive passage of light. When rain is falling perpen

stars.

the Cardigan district of parliamentary boroughs.
ABERY'STWITH, a seaport and a member of
In 1872, 320 vessels, of a total tonnage of 18,316
tons, entered the port. A. is much resorted to for
and lodging-houses. Pop. (1871) 6898.
sea-bathing, and is well provided with good hotels

ABEYANCE, a legal term importing that a freehold inheritance, dignity, or office is not vested in any one, but is in expectation, or suspended, until the true owner appears, or the right thereto is determined. Titles of honour are said to be in A. when it is uncertain who shall enjoy them. A parsonage remaining void is also said to be in A. This A. or suspense, being repugnant to the general principles of the tenure of land, is never allowed except when it is unavoidable. It finds no place in the law of Scotland, where it is a maxim that the fee of an inheritance, or the right of property, cannot be in pendente, but must be somewhere, for this, among other reasons, that creditors must know with whom the right of property is. Titles of honour and office stand on a different footing in Scotland, where, however, the general provisious of the law are so comprehensive as almost to exclude a case of A. ABIES. See FIR.

ABINGDON, a market town in Berkshire, England, situated at the junction of the Ock and the Thames. The name was originally Abbendon (town of the Abbey). It sends a member to parliament. Pop. of parliamentary borough (1871), 6571.