PETER II.-PETERHEAD. the 7th of July. In 1721 he abolished the patriarchate, in pursuance of his plan of subjecting the church to the crown. Projects of peace with Sweden had for some years been under discussion, and the czar had lent his countenance to several wild schemes of Charles XII. or his minister Görtz; but the death of Charles, in December, 1718, had put an end to these by changing the policy of Sweden; the war with Russia again became more active, and was waged both by sea and land to the advantage of the latter power. The Peace of Nystadt was signed in 1721, by which the czar retained nearly all his conquests, including Livonia, Esthonia, part of Carelia, Viborg, and the adjacent islands. He relinquished the greater part of Finland, and paid to Sweden about £400,000. The senate after this peace conferred on him the title of Emperor of all the Russias, to which were added the epithets of the Great and Father of his Country. In 1723 Peter founded the Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg. For some time before his death he suffered from a painful disease of the bladder, which he attempted to alleviate by hard drinking. Having rashly gone into the water to rescue a boatful of soldiers who had been cast ashore on Lake Lagoda, he took inflammation and died, His son Alexis had left chil28th January, 1725. dren, and his eldest daughter was married to the Duke of Holstein Gottorp; but he had caused Catharine to be crowned in the previous May. He had been alienated from her by the discovery of her infidelity, and it is doubtful in what disposition he died; He but by the influence of Mentchikoff and the new Russian party she was declared his successor. left a Journal of his Campaigns against Sweden, published in 1773 by order of Catharine II., letters, and translations of French works on mechanics, hydraulics, &c. PETER II., ALEXEIEVITCH, Emperor of Russia, grandson of Peter the Great, and son of Alexis, ascended the throne in consequence of the will of Catharine I., in 1727, when but thirteen years old. He died in 1730 of the small-pox, and was succeeded by Anna Ivanovna. | PETER III. (FEODOROWITCH), Emperor of Russia. As the male line of the Romanoffs ceased with Peter II., the Empress Elizabeth, daughter of Peter I. and Catharine I., agreeably to the order of succession enjoined by her father, appointed Charles Peter Ulrich, duke of Holstein-Gottorp, son of her sister Anna Petrovna and the Duke of Holstein, her successor in 1742, and in 1745 she married him to the Princess Sophia Augusta of Anhalt-Zerbst, who, on joining the Greek Church, took the name of Catharine. Peter III. ascended the throne in 1762. His first step was a reconciliation with Frederick II., to whom he restored the conquered Kingdom of Prussia Proper, and sent 15,000 men to assist him. He established some salutary laws; but a conspiracy broke out which put an end to his life, after a reign His predilection for the people of of six months. Holstein, his attempts to establish Prussian tactics, and to overthrow the privileges of the great, had made him numerous enemies. This conspiracy broke out in the night of July 8, 1762. (See CATHARINE II.) He abdicated the throne, July 10, but could not save He was, it is said, killed at his life by this means. Ropscha, a seat of Count Rasumoffsky, July 17, 1762. See ORLOFF. PETERBOROUGH, an episcopal city and parliamentary borough of England, in the county and 32 miles north by east of the town of Northampton, on the left bank of the Nen, is an important railway centre, the main line of the Great Northern running through it, and branches of the Great Eastern, London and North-Western, and Midland Railways run ning into it. It is also the centre of a large agricul- PETERBOROUGH, CHARLES MORDAUNT, EARL PETERHEAD, a seaport in Scotland, in the county and 26 miles N.N.E. of Aberdeen, on a peninsula, the most easterly point of Scotland, with a harbour on either side of it, communicating by a cut across the isthmus. It is substantially built of granite, obtained from quarries in the neighbourhood largely worked for exportation. It has two Established churches, besides other places of worship; a town-hall with a spire 110 feet high, a market-cross, a custom-house, an academy and various other schools. There is here a woollen factory, an iron-foundry, and also a granite work; and the town has an extensive, and owing to improvements on its harbour a rapidly increasing trade, chiefly in herrings. Its building yards turn out a considerable number of vessels; and the Greenland whale-fishery still forms one of its most important interests. Peterhead belongs to the Elgin group of parliamentary boroughs. (See ELGIN.) Some miles from the town are the interesting ruins of the castles of Ravenscraig and Inverugie, the latter once the seat of the Keiths, earls-marischal of Scotland. There is at Peterhead a statue of James Keith, field-marshal in the Prussian service, who was killed at the battle of Hochkirch in 1758, and who was the brother of the tenth earl-marischal. Pop. (1871), 8535. PETERHOF, a village in Russia, in the government and about 10 miles w.s.w. of St. Petersburg. Its great and only attraction is its imperial palace, built in 1711, by Peter the Great, on the plans of the celebrated Le Blond. It is a large but not very regular edifice, situated on a height on the Gulf of Finland, and surrounded by beautiful gardens, adorned with fountains, cascades, and grottoes. Pop. 7745. PETERLOO MASSACRE. The name popularly given to the dispersal of an open-air meeting in favour of Parliamentary Reform, held on 16th July, 1819, in St. Peter's Field, Manchester. The meeting was dispersed by yeomanry cavalry, under orders of the magistrates. A number of persons were injured, and some killed. The word Peterloo is a burlesque of Waterloo. The number of persons assembled is said to have been 60,000, and the number of killed is stated at eight. PETER PENCE. An annual tribute paid by England to the pope from the Anglo-Saxon period to the Reformation. It is said to have been originated in 721, by Ina of Wessex, for the purpose of supporting an English college at Rome, and a similar grant was made by Offa of Mercia, in 790. Some authors fix its origin much later, but still within the Anglo-Saxon period. The tax consisted of a silver penny for each household. It was paid at the feast of St. Peter in vinculis. It was at first regarded as an alms, but subsequently became a consuetudinary tribute, and ecclesiastical censures were levelled against those who neglected to pay it. In the laws of Edward the Confessor and William the Conqueror it was limited to those 'qui haberent 30 denariatas vivæ pecuniæ in domo suâ.' It was prohibited by Edward I. and Edward III., abolished by Henry VIII, revived by Mary, and finally abolished by Elizabeth. A voluntary revival of this tribute for the purpose of supporting a volunteer force to maintain the secular power of the pope was promoted by the Roman Catholic clergy in 1860. It was levied chiefly in France and Ireland, but proved an entire failure. PETER-PORT, Sr., a town in the Channel Islands, capital and only town of the island of Guernsey, on the shore of a bay on the east side, occupying the slope of a hill, and presenting a very attractive appearance from the sea, but which is not maintained by a nearer inspection. The streets are narrow, steep, and crooked, but mostly well paved, and lined by old-looking dusky houses. The environs are exceedingly beautiful, being studded with the handsome residences of the gentry, who all live outside the town. The most interesting buildings are St. Peter's church, with a tower in the centre, sur mounted by a low spire; St. James' church, Elizabeth College, public hospital, and the fish-market, one of the handsomest and most commodious to be seen anywhere. There are here two or three chapels of ease, and several places of worship for Dissenters, a public library, assembly-room, mechanics' institute, court-house, prison, and several banks. The harbour, formed by two piers, is small, but sufficient for the trade of the place. The roadstead affords convenient anchorage. Fort-George, a regular fortification on the heights, stands about mile south from the town; it is considered to be of great strength. Pop. in 1871, 16,166. PETER'S, SAINT, Cathedral of Rome. There is a non-historical legend that St. Anacletus, the successor of Peter as Bishop of Rome, erected an oratory on the present site of Saint Peter's to commemorate the site of the apostle's martyrdom, and that of many of the early Christians of Rome. In 306 Constantine the Great erected on this spot a basilica of great magnificence, which was richly adorned with the spoil of antiquity. Plans both of the interior and exterior of this building remain. In the time of Nicholas V. it threatened to fall into ruins, and that pontiff determined on its reconstruction. The work was begun in 1450, on the plans of Rossellini and Battista Alberti. After the death of Nicholas little was done till the pontificate of Paul II. (1464-71). Julius II. (1503-13) decided on the erection of an entirely new building and intrusted it to Bradamante, who decided on an imitation of the pantheon of Agrippa, with a great cupola supported by four colossal pillars. The building was to be in the form of a Greek cross. After the death of Bramante his plans were carried out under the pontificate of Leo X., by Giuliano di Sangallo, and by Raphael, who changed the plan of the building to a Latin cross. Baldassare Peruzzi, who succeeded him, reverted to the Greek cross. The tribune was completed by him during the pontificate of Clement VII. Paul III. employed Antonio Sangallo, who returned to Raphael's plan, but both he and his successor Giulio Romano died before they could carry out their plans. Michael Angelo, then in his seventieth year, was now (1546) intrusted with the work, with unlimited powers to alter or pull down the work of his predecessors. He adopted the Greek cross, enlarged the tribune, and formed a new project for the dome, declaring his intention to raise the pantheon in the air. At his death, in 1564, the drum of the dome had been finished, and he left exact plans for the completion of the work, which were strictly followed by his successors Vignola and Piero Ligorio. Giacomo della Porta completed the dome under Sixtus V. in 1590. In 1608 Paul V. employed Carlo Maderno to complete the nave and façade. The design of Michael Angelo was now for the first time abandoned, and the Latin cross reverted to. The nave was finished in 1612, the façade and portico in 1614, and the church was dedicated by Urban VIII., on 18th November, 1626. The colonnade which surrounds the piazza was begun by Bernini in 1667, and the sacristy erected by Carlo Marchionni in 1780. The dome as formed by Michael Angelo is double, and the stairs which lead to its summit pass between the inner and outer cupola. Its interior diameter is 139 feet, the exterior diameter 195 feet; its height from the pavement to the base of the lantern 405 feet, to the top of the cross outside 448 feet. The length of the cathedral within the walls is 613 feet; the height of the nave near the door 152 feet; the width 874 feet. The width of the side aisles is 33 feet; the entire width of nave and side aisles, including the pilasters that separate them, 197 feet. The height of the baldacchino is PETER'S (ST.) COLLEGE-PETERSBURG (ST.). 94 feet. The circumference of the pillars which The façade is greatly support the dome is 253 feet. blamed, for two reasons, that it is out of proportion to the building, and that it prevents the dome from being seen from the exterior in its full proportions, and in harmonious combination with the rest of the building. The proportions observed in the interior details of St. Peter's prevent the beholder from being at once struck with its vast size, all the figures of natural objects, as statues of men, being so adjusted to the laws of perspective as to appear of life size. In the tribune or upper end of the nave beyond the The cost of St. transept is the chair of St. Peter. Peter's is estimated to have exceeded £10,000,000. The sale of indulgences to defray it was one of the proximate causes of the Reformation. inundations of the Neva, some of which have been formidable. Moreover, the climatic influences of the locality are extremely adverse to the durability of the edifices of St. Petersburg, which is constantly being rebuilt; the excessive humidity disintegrates the stone, and the violent frosts rend it. The insalubrity of the climate is also great. The grandeur and magnificence of the public buildings of St. Petersburg strike the visitor with astonishment, and seen from an elevation the contour of its immense palaces and the gilded domes of its churches form a scene The streets are long, wide, and enchantment. which presents itself to the fancy as a work of straight, and open upon immense squares; the buildings are of colossal proportions, the quays of granite. The defect of the town is the want of a national type. It is a pêle-mêle of foreign and classical architectural PETER'S (SAINT) COLLEGE, Cambridge, was founded in 1257 (charter 1284), by Hugh Balsham, notions, imitated without maturity of judgment. bishop of Ely, for a master and fourteen fellows. By The abuse of columns, which are profusely used in the revised statutes confirmed by the queen in council, all the great buildings, is especially conspicuous. The southern part of St. Petersburg has a lively and 27th August, 1860, the foundation consists of a master, fourteen fellows, and at least twenty-three bustling aspect; the northern division is remarkable scholars. The master, who is elected by the fellows, for its quiet and deserted appearance. The spaciousness of the city, which is built on an unusually large must be a member of the Church of England, a Master of Arts and of Laws, and of some superior scale for the number of its inhabitants, makes the degree in the university. The fellows must be grad- appearance of activity in it much less than it would uates of the college, or, at the option of the society, be in narrower thoroughfares. The greatest thorof the university, and British subjects. Three mem-oughfares are the Square or Place of the Admiralty, bers of the society at least must be in holy orders. A fellowship is not tenable by any one who is in possession of a life income of more than twice its amount, and according to the general rule it cannot be held after marriage, but to this there are several exceptions. Any fellow may within twelve months of his election declare his option of holding his fellowship for a fixed term of twelve years, in which case he is at liberty to hold it for that period without restriction as to marriage. Any fellow who is a professor in the university, and whose income does not exceed £800 a year, may continue to hold his fellowship after marriage. Any fellow who serves the college as tutor, assistant-tutor, or lecturer, may, by a vote of not less than two-thirds of the whole society, be allowed to retain his fellowship after marriage, while he continues to serve in any of these capacities. PETERSBURG, ST., the capital of the Russian Empire, is built on a site chosen by Peter the Great at the mouth of the Neva, which here divides into three main branches-the Great Neva on the south, the Great Nevka on the north, and Little Nevka in the middle. The winding course of the river half incloses a tract of land between the main stream and On this tract, on the south or left the Great Neva. bank of the river, a considerable part of the city is situated; a small portion is on the north bank; and the remainder in the numerous islands formed by the different mouths. These various sections are connected by numerous bridges. St. Petersburg is connected with Moscow, Warsaw, and other parts of the empire by railways, which are also united to the general European system. The town is divided into thirteen quarters; one of the finest is the Admiralty; the Vasilevskoi contains the greater number of the literary and scientific institutions. The islands Aptekarskoi, Krestovskoi, Petrovskoi, and others are almost entirely occupied with summer houses and gardens. The site of St. Petersburg is in many respects unfavourable. It is low and marshy, and the atmosphere is constantly charged with humidity. The heat of summer is succeeded almost without transition by the rigours of winter. The Neva is frozen, on an average, during five months of the year, and in extreme seasons for seven. The short est day lasts 5 hours 47 minutes; the longest, 18 the quays of the Neva, and the summer garden. The palace, which was burned down and rebuilt within a year, at the expense of the lives of large numbers of workmen, on the caprice of the Emperor Nicholas, is one of the largest and most luxurious in Europe, but without artistic value. It is the ordinary residence of the imperial family. The court theatre attached to it is of great elegance. The marble palace of Orloff is remarkable for its richness and luxury. The palace of the Hermitage, separated by a narrow street from the winter-palace, with which it communicates by galleries, was built by Catharine II., and is appropriated to a museum, begun from her private collection, and which contains the best collection of pictures in Russia. This collection, containing 2000 pictures, and about as many masterpieces as the principal galleries in other European capitals, is the private property of the emperors. The French, Flemish, and Dutch schools are represented with great completeness; the Italian school is more numerous, but less select; the Spanish school is also liberally represented by about 100 pictures, while the Louvre has only about thirty. The Russian school is only represented by about thirty pictures. There is a colossal statue of Peter the Great, in bronze, in the square called by his name. It is placed on an immense block of Finland granite, which shows deep signs of the disintegrating effects of the climate. There is a monolithic Doric column of granite, 80 feet high, erected by the Emperor Nicholas to the memory of Alexander I. It is also rent and split by the weather. The Academy of Sciences has devised a cement to fill its crevices, by which its duration has been prolonged. The Admiralty, a vast parallelogram of brick, contains a naval museum, a museum of natural history, and a library. Ships of war, built in the docks here, are carried down the Neva to Cronstadt. The arsenal possesses a museum of artillery. The palace of the general staff contains many of the government offices. The senate has a handsome palace in the square of the same name. The custom-house, exchange, and bank are the chief commercial buildings. The fortress of Petropavlovsk, the Russian bastille, is situated near the church of St. Peter and St. Paul. St. Petersburg possesses numerous hospitals and charitable institutions, a university founded in 1819, and numerous special academies. The Academy of Sciences has an extensive museum, embracing numerous departments; and there are several other collections besides the pictorial one already adverted to. The imperial library of St. Petersburg is one of the most valuable in the world. It contains, according to different estimates, from 600,000 to 900,000 volumes, 30,000 manuscripts, and 75,000 engravings. The collection has been drawn chiefly from the Polish libraries, which were unscrupulously plundered to enrich it, a work which was sometimes intrusted to ignorant agents. The library of Warsaw arrived in an extremely dilapidated condition. There is a story that the Cossacks intrusted with its transportation sawed through the folios which were too large to go into their cases. The library of the Academy of Sciences and that of the Hermitage has eich over 100,000 volumes. Out of 120,000 volumes the latter contains only 10,000 in the Russian language. St. Petersburg has four theatres, one for Italian opera, one for Russian opera and comedy, one for Russian and German plays, and one for French and German. The mortality of St. Petersburg is nearly the highest in Europe; the death-rate uniformly exceeds by some thousands the birth-rate. The trade of St. Petersburg is said, in amount, to be about half that of the whole Russian Empire. The Neva is only approachable for about seven months in the year; but a considerable part of the trade is conducted by railway, so that exact statistics of imports and exports are unattainable. There are glass-works, sugar-refineries, cotton-mills, breweries, and manufac tures of tobacco. There are also several government manufactures besides those connected with military and naval equipment, as a carpect manufac tory, modelled on that of the Gobelins at Paris; a glass and porcelain manufactory, which is said to be unable to maintain itself against private competition. St. Petersburg was founded by Peter the Great in 1703, when he had just wrested its site from the Swedes. The forced construction of a city in a site apparently forbidden by nature cost the lives, according to various accounts, of from 100,000 to 200,000 peasants, collected from all parts of the Russian Empire to perform the necessary labours. Even in 1724 the various groups of houses were separated from each other by marshes, and the town was surrounded by forests and deserts. The senate was transferred to St. Petersburg in 1714. The fortress and the admiralty had already been built. The Czarina Anna definitely removed the court to St. Petersburg, which from this time grew rapidly. The winter-palace was built by Elizabeth. The quays and numerous palaces and monuments were constructed by Catharine II. Commercial prosperity, due to the centralization of an autocratic government, likewise shone upon the new capital; but the system of railways having relieved Moscow from its isolation, the main motive for the transference of the capital has ceased to exist, and the restoration of Moscow to its former position, or even the choice of a new capital, has been repeatedly considered. Should such an event happen, of which there is no immediate probability, but which might be brought about suddenly by the caprice of a new czar, the natural disadvantages of St. Petersburg would tell heavily against it, and its decline might be as rapid as its rise. St. Petersburg has suffered from serious inundations in 1752, 1777, and 1824, and from a great fire in 1862. Pop. (1869), 667,026. PETERSFIELD, a parliamentary borough in England, county of Hants, 23 miles E.N.E. of Southampton; with a fine equestrian statue of William III., a town-hall, a church, a college for boarding and educating boys, and a National school. It sends one member to Parliament. Pop. in 1871, 6104. END OF VOL. V. GLASGOW: W. G. BLACKIE AND CO., PRINTERS, VILLAFIELD. WORKS PUBLISHED BY 6 Paternoster Buildings, London, E.C. BLACKIE & SON, LONDON, GLASGOW, AND EDINBURGH. Pictures and Royal Portraits, ILLUSTRATIVE OF ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH HISTORY, from the Introduction of Christianity to the Present Time. This Work will comprise a Series of 69 Magnificent Plates engraved on Steel in the most finished manner. With descriptive Historical Sketches, by THOMAS ARCHER. It will be printed on fine medium quarto paper, and will be completed in 8 divisions, with richly ornamented boards, at 8s. each, and in 23 parts at 2s. 6d., forming 2 elegant volumes, cloth extra, gilt edges, price 35s. each. "Pictures and Royal Portraits" will present a series of line engravings of historical designs, beautifully executed in steel, and produced in a new and attractive style, which imparts to them the appearance of highly-finished drawings in sepia. The series will include faithful reproductions of important paintings by some of the most eminent historical painters of the present century. Complete in 24 parts, super-royal 8vo, at 3s. each; or in 8 half-volumes, cloth extra, 11s. each. The Comprehensive History of England, CIVIL AND MILITARY, RELIGIOUS, INTELLECTUAL, AND SOCIAL. From the Earliest Period to Recent Times. By CHARLES MACFARLANE and the REV. THOMAS THOMSON. Illustrated by above Eleven Hundred Engravings-Antiquities, Manners and Customs, Views, Costumes, Portraits, Maps, Plans of Battles, &c. "An admirable record, not only of military and political events, but of moral and intellectual; thus comprising, in fact, a real History of England."-Civil Service Gazette. 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Embracing Comprehensive Descriptions of the Plants most interesting from their uses to Man and the Lower Animals; their application in the Arts, Manufactures, Medicine, and Domestic Economy; and from their beauty or peculiarities; together with the Physiology, Geographical Distribution, and Classification of Plants. By WILLIAM RHIND. Revised Edition, with SUPPLEMENT. Illustrated by 700 Figures on wood and steel, of which 100 are carefully coloured. "This work is a perfect marvel of research and industry. The mass of information condensed into one volume is really surprising."-Standard. "We assure our readers that if they desire to attain, or to excite in another, a knowledge of plants divested of dry scientific details, this volume will enable them to effect their purpose."-Journal of Horticulture. |