CONRAD VON WÜRZBURG

Aragon. The tragic tale has furnished materials for many poets. See SICILIAN VESPERS; also Del Giudice, La Condanna di Carradino (Naples, 1876).

Conrad von Würzburg, one of the most celebrated poets of the middle ages, died at Basel in 1287. Conrad is fertile in imagination, learned, and-although marking the decline of Middle High-German poetry by his prolix and artificial style-probably the most perfect master of German versification that had appeared up to his own day. His last poem, which he left in an unfinished condition, has for its subject The Trojan War. But Conrad appears to most advantage in his smaller narrative poems, of which the best are Engelhart, Otto, Der Welt Lohn, Silvester, Alexius, Der Schwanritter, and Die Goldene Schmiede. His Lieder have been edited by Bartsch (1870).

Consalvi, ERCOLE, CARDINAL, a distinguished reformer of abuses in the Papal States, was born at Rome, June 8, 1757. He was made cardinal and secretary of state by Pope Pius VII., and in this capacity concluded the concordat with Napoleon in 1801. His staunch maintenance of the rights of his own sovereign against the insidious encroachments of France offended Napoleon. He was the papal representative at the Congress of Vienna, and secured the restoration of the Papal States. As papal secretary he reformed numerous abuses, suppressing all monopolies, feudal taxes, and exclusive rights. He was a liberal patron of science, but especially of the fine arts, and employed his leisure in the study of literature and music. In diplomacy he displayed great address, and was generally successful. He died in Rome, January

24, 1824.

In the

Consanguinity (Lat. con, together,' and sanguis, 'blood'), the relationship which subsists between persons who are of the same blood. It is either direct, which is the relationship between ascendants and descendants, or collateral, between persons sprung from a common ancestor. direct line, a son is said to stand in the first degree to his father; a grandson, in the second degree to his grandfather; and so on.-Affinity (q.v.) is the relationship brought about by marriage between a husband and the blood-relations of his wife, or between a wife and the blood-relations of her husband.

Consanguinity and affinity have been in all parts of the world more or less looked on as impediments to marriage between the parties related. Among the ancient Persians and Egyptians, marriages were sometimes sanctioned between brother and sister, and even father and daughter; and in the book of Genesis we read of Abraham marrying his half-sister.

The Roman law prohibited marriage between ascendants and descendants, a prohibition extended to relations by adoption. In the collateral line, the prohibited degrees included brother and sister, and all cases where one party stood in loco parentis to the other, as uncle and niece. Marriage between cousins-g -german, at one time prohibited, was declared lawful by Arcadius and Honorius. The degrees prohibited in consanguinity were by Constantine also prohibited in affinity.

By the old canon law and early decretals, marriages were prohibited between persons as far removed as the seventh degree of consanguinity or affinity. The fourth council of Lateran, 1215 A.D., narrowed the prohibition from the seventh to the fourth degree; i.e. the grandchildren of cousinsgerman. A marriage between persons related in any of these ways was accounted incestuous, and the children bastards. The pope assumed the right of granting dispensations from impediments to

marriage arising from consanguinity and affinity, a power which seems to have been first exercised in the 12th century.

In the countries which embraced the Reforma

tion, a general relaxation took place in the prohibitions to marriage from consanguinity and affinity. In England, an act of 1547 allowed all persons to marry who were not prohibited by the Levitical law; and according to the interpretation put on this statute, the prohibitions included all relations in the direct line, brother and sister, and collaterals, when one party is brother or sister to the direct ascendant or descendant of the other; the degrees prohibited in consanguinity being equally prohibited in affinity. In Scotland, acts of 1567, professing to take the Levitical law as the standard, assimilated the prohibitions from consanguinity and affinity to those of England. In between ascendants and descendants lawful or France, the Code Napoléon prohibits marriage natural, and persons similarly connected by affinity; and in the collateral line between brothers and sisters lawful or natural, and persons similarly connected by affinity. Marriage between uncle and niece, and aunt and nephew, is also prohibited. In various countries of Europe, as Denmark, no prohibitions from affinity, except in the direct line, are recognised. In most of the United States of America, marriage is allowed between uncle and niece. See AFFINITY, DECEASED WIFE'S SISTER; counting relationship, MARRIAGE. and for exogamy and curious savage methods of

On the much-vexed question whether the marriage of relations tends to injure the constitution of their offspring, either by the intensification of hereditary taint or more directly, see The Marriage of Near Kin (2d ed. 1888), by A. H. Huth (who takes the negative view), and the bibliography there given of works on both sides of the question. See also BREED, CATTLE.

Conscience. See ETHICS.

Conscience, HENDRIK, a popular Flemish novelist, was born December 3, 1812, at Antwerp. His father, the inspector of the dockyards there, was a native of Besançon, but his mother was of Flemish birth. At fifteen the boy had to shift for his living as an under-master in a school, but at the outbreak of the revolution in 1830 he joined the Belgian ranks, and served till 1836. Patriotism and poverty together impelled him to write, and between them produced in 1837 his first volume in Flemish, In't Wonderjaer, 1566. Wappers the painter finally got him appointed in 1841 to an office in the Antwerp Academy, which he continued to fill until 1854. Three years later he received a place in the local administration of Courtrai, and became in 1866 director of the Wiertz Museum at Brussels. Here he died, September 10, 1883. His Phantazy (1837), a fine collection of tales, and his most popular romance, De Leeuw van Vlaenderen (1838), early made his name dear to his fellow-countrymen; but it was his series of charming pictures of quiet Flemish life, beginning with the little book, Hoe men schilder wordt (1843), that, through French, German, and English translations, carried his fame over Europe. Amongst those translated into English, besides the Lion of Flanders, are Blind Rosa, Ricketicketack, The Poor Gentleman, The Miser, and The Demon of Gold. The historical accuracy of his Geschiedenis van Belgien (1845) was somewhat impaired by his Catholic predilections. The vast popularity of Conscience's novels depended mainly on the unflagging vigour and interest of the incidents in which they abounded, although these often enough defied all historical consistency and verisimilitude alike. It should be remembered to his credit, as, indeed, it

was his own proudest boast, that in his hundred volumes he had never painted vice in seductive colours. A complete collection of his works appeared at Antwerp in 10 volumes, 1867-80; a German translation of the same at Münster in 75 small volumes, 1846-84. See his Life, in French, by Cekhoud (Brussels, 1881).

Conscience, COURTS OF, IN ENGLAND. These were courts for the recovery of small debts, constituted by special local acts of parliament in London, Westminster, and other trading districts. The county courts have superseded them. See, under COUNTY, County Courts, vol. iii. p. 522.

Conscience Money, money paid to relieve the conscience, is a not inapt term for money sent to the Chancellor of the Exchequer in payment of a tax that had previously been evaded, and in regard to which a tender conscience feels that something remained to be done. The conscience money is often sent anonymously.

Consciousness. This is the most comprehensive term employed in designating the mind. In the widest and most unexceptionable meaning, consciousness is a term which includes all mental states, operations, or processes, and, as has been truly said, it is not strictly susceptible of definition, seeing that we can have no experience of the unconscious. We may specify different modes or varieties of consciousness, such as thoughts, feelings, and volitions; but the quality in which they all agree, and which constitutes them mental facts or states of consciousness, cannot be otherwise explained than by a mere reference to the constant experience of every human being. Consciousness, in this its strict sense, thus embraces the whole field of mental experience, and the expression 'facts of consciousness is frequently used as synonymous with psychical facts or facts of mind to designate the subject-matter of psychology.

Popularly, therefore, when we are mentally alive, or performing any of the recognised functions of the mind, we are said to be conscious; while the total cessation of every mental energy is described by the term 'unconsciousness,' among other phrases. In dreamless sleep, in stupor, fainting, and under the influence of the anaesthetic drugs, we are unconscious; in waking, or rallying into renewed mental activity, we are said to become conscious.

The difficulties of the subject, however, have prevented a perfectly definite and uniform usage from being adhered to. As the mind in its waking or active condition may be more or less excited, or vary in the intensity of its manifestations, there are degrees of consciousness; and, accordingly, the name is apt to be applied to denote the higher degrees in opposition to the lower. Thus, in first learning to write, to cast up sums, to play on an instrument, or to ride a bicycle, our mind is put very much on the stretch; in other words, we are very much excited or highly conscious. But when years of incessant practice have consummated the process into a fullformed habit, a very small amount of mental attention is involved; and we may then be said to perform the work all but unconsciously. Such habitual actions are frequently designated secondarily automatic, and Sir W. Hamilton, for example, speaks in this connection of unconscious mental modifications." But as he has previously defined consciousness as co-extensive with all mental phenomena, such a phrase evidently involves a contradiction in terms, being equivalent to unconscious consciousness. It is explained, though not justified, by the (unavowed) double use of the term consciousness just adverted to. Later writers have sought to escape from this inconvenient terminology by speaking of the more obscure mental processes as sub-conscious.' Stress is laid by

CONSCRIPTION

them upon the infinite gradations of consciousness, and some amount of consciousness, however infinitesimal, is postulated so long as we can speak with propriety of mental phenomena at all. This sub. conscious region is understood to include not only the phenomena of habit referred to above, but the mass of organic or bodily feelings which, though intellectually unanalysed, are constantly present as a kind of background to our more distinct consciousness, and mainly determine both our habitual temperament and our varying moods. The hypothesis is also employed to explain the phenomena of memory as well as that instinctive basis of human life to which, under the name of the Unconscious, Hartmann (q.v.) has of late assigned such important philosophical functions.

A

Consciousness is sometimes used in a special sense to denote the mind's cognisance of itself, as opposed to the cognisance or examination of the outer world. Hence, in studying our own minds, we are said to be using consciousness as the instrument; but in studying minerals or plants, we resort to external observation by the senses. contrast is thus instituted between consciousness and observation, which contrast gives to the former word a peculiarly contracted meaning; for in the wide sense above described, observation is truly an act of consciousness. But such a usage is confusing and undesirable, and has been generally abandoned by accurate writers. The study of our own mind may be more appropriately expressed by such phrases as self-consciousness,' 'reflection,' or 'introspection.'

Important philosophical points are involved in the determination of the conditions of consciousness, or the circumstances attendant on the manifestation of mental energy. The most general and fundamental condition of our becoming conscious is difference or change. The even continuance of one impression tends to unconsciousness; and there are a number of facts that show that if an influence were present in one unvarying degree from the first moment of life to the last, that influence would be to our feeling and knowledge as if it did not exist at all. This condition of our mental life has been formulated by Professor Bain as the Law of Relativity. For the varieties or divisions of our conscious states, see MIND. See also PERSONALITY.

Conscription has been defined as the call to military service by the drawing of lots, a certain annual contingent of men for the army being selected by lot from the youths who have reached military age, while a man with sufficient means has the right to buy himself off, or pay for a substitute. This system obtained in France, with intervals, from 1798 until 1872, when substitutes were abolished and personal military service made obligatory upon every Frenchman not physically incapacitated. All such must enter the army at the age of twenty; but those who choose to enlist may do so at eighteen. The term, originally twenty years, was extended by the Military Bill of 1888 to twenty-five-viz. three in the regular army, six and a half in the army reserve, six in the territorial army (militia), and nine and a half in the territorial reserve. At forty-five years of age liability to service ceases. A register is kept of the number of youths in France who reach the age of twenty in each year (about 280,000). All under 5 feet 2 inches in height are exempt; also any whose natural infirmities unfit them for active service; the eldest of a family of orphans; the only son of a widow, or of disabled fathers, or of fathers above seventy years of age; and the pupils at certain colleges. Moreover, if the younger of two brothers is efficient, the elder is exempt; and if of two only brothers one is already in the army, or

CONSECRATION

has retired through wounds or infirmity, the other is exempt. Culprits and felons are not allowed to enlist.

A similar law of universal service has existed in Prussia since 1813, and in 1887 it was made even more severe than formerly throughout the whole German empire. Russia, Italy, and all the chief European nations have also adopted this method of recruiting.

In the United Kingdom a form of conscription was created by the Ballot Act of 1860 which provides for all males over 5 feet 2 inches between the ages of eighteen and thirty being called upon to serve in the militia, but is held in abeyance by an annual act of parliament. In the Channel Islands, service in the militia is always compulsory for all natives, tradesmen, and owners of real property, who are physically fit, from sixteen to forty-five years of age. Breaches of discipline are punished by the civil magistrate by fine or imprisonment.

Consecration is the act of solemnly dedicating a person or thing to the service of God. In the Jewish law, rites of this nature are frequently enjoined, the Levites and priests, the tabernacle and altar, &c. being specially dedicated or consecrated to God; and analogous forms occur in most pagan nations. Among Christians the word consecration describes (1) the ordination of bishops. The Nicene Council (can. 4) requires the ceremony to be performed by not less than three bishops. This rule is maintained by the Church of England. Among Roman Catholics the pope may permit consecration by one bishop and two priests. (2) The hallowing of the elements in the eucharist, by the words of institution according to Roman Catholics and Anglicans; by the invocation of the Holy Spirit according to the Greeks. (3) The dedication of churches; first mentioned by Eusebius, Hist. Eccles. x. 3. The rites, originally very simple, have become long and elaborate in the Church of Rome, though the present form is in substance as old as the Sacramentary of St Gregory. In the English Church the bishop chooses his own form. That most generally used was drawn up by the Anglican episcopate in 1712. In the American Episcopal Church a form was appointed in 1799. (4) The benediction of abbots and abbesses according to forms prescribed in the Roman Pontifical. It is usually performed by a bishop. (5) The consecration of altars, chalices, and patens by the bishop with the chrism or hallowed oil. secration of altars is mentioned by councils of the 6th century, that of chalices and patens in the Gregorian Sacramentary.

The con

Consecutive, a term in Music. In part writing consecutive octaves ΟΙ consecutive fifths, according to the rules of harmony, are strictly forbidden, though there are many exceptions to this in modern music.

Consent is the foundation of all contracts and legal obligations. The doctrine that the free consent of the parties bound, and not the will of any earthly legislator, or the form in which that will is expressed, constitutes the binding element in contracts, flows as an inevitable logical consequence from the doctrines of personal and political freedom. All that either civil or ecclesiastical authority can do is to ascertain, at the instance of one or other of the parties, whether consent has or has not been given.

Conservation of Energy. See ENERGY. Conservative, as applied to one of the two great parties in English politics, was first used by J. W. Croker in an article in the Quarterly for January 1830, and was by Macaulay in the Edinburgh for 1832 referred to as a new cant word.'

Conservative accordingly began to supersede Tory about the time of the Reform Bill controversies. See TORY.

Conservatoire, or CONSERVATORIUM (Ital. Italians to schools instituted for the purpose of conservatorio), forms of a name given by the advancing the study of music and maintaining its purity. In the earliest times these schools were hospitals; others, again, were supported by partly attached to benevolent institutions and opulent private individuals. They were originally intended for foundlings, orphans, and the children of poor parents. Some trace their origin to St Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, in the 4th century, or St Leo, who flourished in the 5th. They The scholars, male and female, all received free were largely developed by Gregory the Great. board, lodging, and clothing, and were taught to sing and play. Extra boarders were also admitted on paying a fee. In Naples there were at one time four such schools, while in Venice there were four expressly for females. In 1808 the Neapolitan conservatoires were reduced to one, under the name of Reale Collegio di Musica. The Venetian conservatoires shared in the downfall of the Venetian republic. A new grand conservatoire was founded at Milan in 1808, which still exists. In France the necessity of a school for educating singers gave rise to the Ecole Royale de Chant et de Déclamation in 1784. During the French Revolution, in consequence of the scarcity of instrumental musicians for the army, the government decreed the erection of an Institut National de Musique in 1793, which was changed into the present establishment in 1795 under the name of the Conservatoire de Musique. The yearly expenses of this conservatoire were fixed at 240,000 francs, the number of masters was 125, and the pupils of both sexes amounted to 600. In 1802 the expense was reduced to 100,000 francs, with a corresponding reduction in the number of masters and pupils, but the original sum and number of pupils has now been nearly reached again; the professors are at present 77 in number. The tuition is divided over more than seventy different classes, in which all pertaining to music and also declamation is taught by the best masters. The elementary works published by this conservatoire for all instruments are known over the whole world, and it possesses a library and museum of the first import

ance.

The

The post of director has been held by an illustrious succession-Cherubini, 1822-42; Auber, 1842-71; and then, M. Ambroise Thomas. Other important conservatoires are those of Brussels (founded 1833), Prague, Vienna (1816), and the great conservatorium of Leipzig, established in 1842 under the auspices of Mendelssohn; also those of Cologne, Munich, Stuttgart, Berlin, &c. Royal College of Music in London, which received a charter in 1882, is designed to rival the conservatoires of the Continent. There are several of note in the United States, especially the Boston ConConservatory of Music (1870), also in Boston, and servatory of Music (1867), the New England the Grand Conservatory of Music of the City of New York (a corporation); and there are reputable schools of music, termed conservatories, in almost all the principal cities. The name conservatoire is used for other than musical schools in France. There is thus a Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers at Paris.

Conservators of the Peace, a title usually applied to knights elected in each shire from the 12th century onwards for the conservation of the peace. They were in fact the predecessors of the Justices of the Peace (q.v.), by whom they were superseded. Conservatory. See PLANT-HOUSE.

CONSOLS

such as the Railways Clauses Consolidation Act, 1845, the Titles to Land Consolidation Act, 1868, &c.

Consols, a contraction of Consolidated Annuities. In incurring the national debt, government borrowed money at different periods on special conditions, being generally the payment of an annuity of so much per cent. on the sum borrowed. Great confusion arose from the variety of stocks thus created, and it was thought expedient to consolidate them into one fund, kept in one account at the Bank of England. The Consolidated Annuities Act was passed in 1749-50, consolidation being completed in 1757. For consolidation of the Funded Debt subsequent to that period, see DEBT (NATIONAL).

Consonance is a combination of notes which can sound together without the harshness produced by beats. See SOUND, MUSIC.

Consonant. See LETTERS.

Consort, literally, one who throws in his lot with another. In English constitutional law, the term is applied to the husband or wife of the reigning sovereign, viewed not in a private but in a public capacity, as participating to a certain limited extent in the prerogatives of sovereignty. A queen-consort is specially so named in distinction from a queen-regnant, who holds the crown in her own right, as Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria, and from a queen-dowager, the widow of a king. A queen-consort is in all legal proceedings looked upon as a feme-sole, independent of her husband's control, as if she were a single woman. Coke gives as the reason for this that the common law would not have the king, whose care is for public affairs, troubled with the domestic concerns of his wife. The queen-consort has also a particular revenue and peculiar exemptions and privileges. One curious and ancient perquisite is that, when a whale, which is a royal fish, is taken upon the coast, it by right should be divided between the king and the queen, the head only being the king's property, and the tail the queen's. The consort is in all respects a subject of the sovereign; accordingly the husband of a queen-regnant is her subject, and may be guilty of treason against her. Up to the year 1857 the husband of Queen Victoria possessed no distinctive English title, and no place in court ceremonial except such as was conceded to him by courtesy. In that year the title of PrinceConsort was conferred upon him by letters-patent. Conspiracy, a combination between two or more persons to perpetrate an unlawful act, or to do a lawful act by unlawful means. A person injured by conspiracy has an action at law for the damage done, as when a man is falsely indicted of a crime. In criminal law, conspiracy is a misdemeanour punishable by penal servitude. Few things are left so doubtful in law as the point when a combination for a common object becomes unlawful. Formerly, combinations by workmen to raise the rate of wages were conspiracy, but this is no longer so; and till lately, prevailing judicial opinion was that a trade-union was a 'conspiracy în restraint of trade.' See COMBINATION.

Conspiracy was defined in the reign of Edward I. by the Ordinance of Conspirators, which was aimed at persons binding themselves together to lay false indictments, and otherwise to obstruct the course of justice. But the word came in time to have a wider meaning, and almost every combination to do a criminal or even an unlawful act is now an indictable conspiracy (see COMBINATION). The vagueness of the law has placed considerable power in the hands of juries. Almost any act, however innocent, may be treated as a crime if the jury choose to impute it to some motive connected with

an unlawful combination. Again, in proving a charge of conspiracy, the prosecution may begin by giving evidence of the existence of a general conspiracy, and such evidence may consist of acts of third parties with which the person accused had no connection. The judges also have exercised their own discretion in deciding whether the objects of a combination were contrary to good morals and public policy or not. But if juries and judges have not always exercised their discretion wisely, it is to be remembered that such discretion must of necessity form part of the law of conspiracy. Acts which are comparatively harmless when done. by one or two persons may become intolerably oppressive when they are committed by a large number of persons acting in concert. See PLOT, SEDITION.

Conspiracy Bill. See POLITICAL OFFENCES.

Constable (Lat. constabulus), the title of an ancient officer, originally of high military rank, but now generally an officer of the peace. The older writers, as Coke and Selden, fancifully derive the word from koning-stapel, 'staff and stay of the king.' It represents, however, the Latin comes stabuli, count of the stable,' an officer who in the later Roman empire was at first charged with the care of the stables, and afterwards became captain of a military force, and chief officer of the army. The title was borrowed from the Romans by the Franks. The Constable of France rose gradually in importance from the comparatively modest position of an officer of the household, till at last he became ex officio the commander-in-chief of the army in the absence of the monarch, the highest judge in military offences and in all questions of chivalry and honour, and the supreme regulator and arbitrator in all matters connected with tilts, tournaments, and all martial displays. The office was suppressed by Louis XIII. in 1626. Under Napoleon, the constable was the fifth of the great dignitaries of the empire. The office was again abolished on the restoration of the Bourbons. But besides the Constable of France, almost all the great vassals of the crown had constables who filled analogous offices at their minor courts.

The Lord High Constable of England appears shortly after the Conquest as the seventh great officer of the crown, and formerly a judge in the Court of Chivalry. The office went by inheritance to the Earls of Hereford and Essex, and afterwards in the line of Stafford. When Edward Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, was attainted in 1521, the office became forfeit, and has never since been granted except for a special ceremony of state, as when it was conferred on the Duke of Wellington for the coronation of Queen Victoria. The High Constable of Scotland was an officer very similar to the Constable of France and England. The office, now purely honorary, in 1314 was made hereditary in the noble family of Erroll, and is reserved both in the Treaty of Union and in the statute of George II. abolishing hereditary jurisdictions. The High Constable is by birth the first subject in Scotland after the bloodroyal.

The governor of a royal castle was often called Constable; see TOWER OF LONDON. The Constables of the Hundred, and of the Vill, were the predecessors of the high and petty constables of later times. The statute of Winchester (1285) ordains that in every hundred or franchise there shall be chosen two constables, to make the view of armour, and to see to the conservation of the peace. The petty constable exercised similar functions within the narrower limits of the township or parish, and was subordinate to the high constable of the hundred. The high constables were formerly appointed by the