bishop of the place, which may be given either absolutely or with restrictions. Confes sion is prescribed in the ritual of the Greek, the Russo-Greek, the Coptic, the Syrian, and the other Oriental churches. In most of these churches the practice is obligatory, but in some it has gone into disuse. The Lutheran Church professes (according to the eleventh article of the Augsburg Confession) "that private confession must be retained in the Church; but that

full and particular statement of all sins is not necessary, because, according to Psa. xix. 12, it is impossible." In the Apology of the Augsburg Confession, it is said to be 'impious' to abolish the practice of private confession to the priest; but in practice the Lutheran Church has widely departed from these rules. The Reformed Church in Germany has always been more inclined to general confession, and the United Church also substitutes for private confession certain devotional exercises previous to communion. The Church of England employs a general form of confession and absolution in its morning and evening services, but retains private confession in the rubric for visitation of the sick (the last not retained by the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States). See ABSOLUTION; PENANCE; CONTRITION.

The sigillum confessionis ('seal of confession'), in the Roman Catholic and in the German Protestant Church, means the obligation of a confessor or priest not to divulge the secrets of the confessional. This custom of secrecy is traceable in the fourth and fifth centuries, but was made binding by Innocent III. (1198-1216), and its violation by a priest makes him subject to the severest penalties that can be inflicted by the Church. See PRIVILEGED COMMUNICATION.

CONFESSION (the tomb of a confessor or martyr). In church architecture, the recess, ambulatory, or chapel beneath the central altar, containing the relics of the saints, and corresponding to the subterranean tombs of the martyrs in the catacombs over which churches were erected. Such confessions gradually grew in size between the fourth and seventh centuries, until they developed into the crypt (q.v.).

CONFESSIONAL (ML. confessionalis, relating to confession, from Lat. confessio, confession). The seat, recess, or booth in which the priest sits to hear confession in a Roman Catholic church. These booths are distributed throughout the interiors of churches, in the nave and aisles, and are slight closed structures made of wood. The confessional commonly has a door in front, through which the priest enters, and an opening on one or both sides, like a small window, with a grating of wire or zinc, for the penitents to speak through as they kneel.

CONFESSION AND AVOIDANCE. Pleadings are said to be in confession and avoidance, in common-law practice, when they expressly or by a reasonable implication admit the allegations of the pleading to which they are interposed, and show some justification or excuse which will deprive them of the legal effect of supporting the plaintiff's claim of a right to The admission must be sufficiently comprehensive to give color to the matter adversely alleged-that is, must show it to be prima facie, or apparently, true. Any pleading after the declaration may be by way of confes

recover.

sion and avoidance of the last pleading of the opposite party. Thus, if the defendant should plead a release by plaintiff, the latter might in his replication admit that he gave a release, but allege that it was obtained from him by coercion or fraud. This might be denied by the opposite party, and then the cause would be at issue. See PLEADING.

CONFESSION D'UN ENFANT DU SI

ÈCLE, kôN'fe-syon' dụ näN'fän' dụ syèk'l', La (Fr., the confession of a child of the century). A work of fiction by Alfred de Musset (1836), founded upon the author's love affair with George Sand.

CONFESSION OF JUDGMENT. A method of allowing judgment to be entered against a person upon his acknowledgment in proper form that a claim is, or is about to become, due and owing to another, and consenting that the latter may enter judgment for the amount named. A judgment thus obtained is equally valid and binding as though it had been secured by legal process. While the weight of advantage is with the person obtaining the judgment, in the saving of the time and expense of litigation, this device may also be of advantage to the debtor in saving him the annoyance and costs of suit involved in the ordinary process. It is commonly resorted to in cases where the debtor desires to prefer a certain creditor and give him the priority over other creditors and the additional security which a judgment affords.

It differs from cognovit (q.v.) in the fact that it may be made without the institution of an action, and in the further fact that it is generally limited to debts, in the usual sense of that term, and is not available for the liquidation of claims founded on torts. However, as intimated above, a confession of judgment may be equally valid for a claim not yet accrued, as for future

advances.

In a few of the States of the United States it is customary to give a promissory note at the time of its inception the form and character of a confession of judgment, whereby the holder of the note is authorized at maturity, or at a specified time thereafter, to enter up judgment thereupon without further process. This extension of the principle is not, however, generally favored. See JUDGMENT; WARRANT OF ATTOR

NEY.

CONFESSIONS, LES, lå kôN'fe-syôN' (Fr., the confessions). A remarkable autobiography of great frankness and dramatic strength, by Jean Jacques Rousseau, composed between 1766 and 1770. The work, in twelve books, was published in 1781 and 1788, after the author's death, contrary to his intention of suppressing it during the lifetime of the persons referred to in it. The confessions present the author in an unfavorable light, showing much that is base and weak in the acts admitted by him; but the work is distinguished by great narrative skill and a feeling for natural beauty.

CONFESSIONS OF AN ENGLISH OPIUM

EATER. A work by Thomas De Quincey (1821). It describes the effects of opium-eating, and is an example of impassioned prose which has few, if any, equals in English.

CONFESSIONS OF A YOUNG MAN. See MOORE, George.

CONFESSIONS OF SAINT AUGUSTINE, THE. A work by Saint Augustine in thirteen books, of which the first ten are autobiographical. The remaining three are exegetical, treating the first portion of Genesis.

CONFIDENTIAL COMMUNICATION. See PRIVILEGED COMMUNICATION.

CONFIRMATION (Lat. confirmatio, from confirmare, to strengthen, from com-, together + firmare, to make firm, from firmus, firm). In the ancient Church, the rite so named was administered immediately after baptism, which is still the custom in the Greek and African churches. In the Roman Catholic Church, for the last 300 or 400 years, the bishops have interposed a delay of seven years after infant baptism; in the Lutheran Church, the rite is usually delayed for from thirteen to sixteen years; and in the English Church, from fourteen to eighteen years. The ceremony consists in the imposition of hands, accompanied by an invocation of the Holy Ghost as the Comforter and Strengthener. But both in the Lutheran and English churches, the ceremony is made the occasion of requiring, from those who have been baptized in infancy, a renewal in their own persons of the baptismal vow made for them by their godfathers and godmothers, who are thereby released from their responsibility. None can partake of the Lord's Supper, in these churches, unless they have been confirmed. In the Roman Catholic Church, confirmation is held to be one of the seven sacraments, and in its administration, unction and the sign of the cross are used; in addition to the imposition of hands, the person confirmed receives a light blow on the cheek, to remind him that he must in future suffer affronts for the name of Christ. In the English Thirty-nine Articles, confirmation is declared not to be one of the sacraments, and the above ceremonies have been discontinued since the Reformation. See SACRAMENT.

CONFIRMATION. In old English law, a conveyance of an estate or right in lands to one who has the possession or some estate therein, the object being to confirm or render sure and indefeasible an estate which, but for such confirmation, is defective and voidable. It may be illustrated by the case of a disseizin, where the disseizee, or rightful owner, confirms the estate of the disseizor, who is in adverse possession of the land, vesting an absolute and indefeasible title in the latter. A confirmation was effected by deed and was nearly equivalent to a release (q.v.), by which it has been superseded. The confirmation is now, as a separate mode of conveyance. obsolete, though the term is still sometimes employed to describe the release of an outstanding claim to land to the party in possession. See CONVEYANCE.

CONFISCATION (Lat. confiscatio, from confiscare, to confiscate, from com-, together + fiscus, basket, treasury). The forfeiture of lands or goods to the Crown or State. At Rome bona confiscata were goods forfeited to the Emperor's treasury. Though sometimes employed in English and American law as synonymous with forfeiture for crime, confiscation is, at common law, a term of much more limited signification, and should probably be confined to the cases of the seizure by the Crown of waifs (bona waviata), or goods scattered by a thief in his flight, and of goods found in the possession of a felon and dis

claimed by him. See ESCHEAT; FORFEITURE; EMINENT DOMAIN.

Under certain statutes, however, the State exercises the right to confiscate goods for violation of law, as in case of false entries of goods under customs and other revenue laws, and for violations of excise and internal revenue laws of the

United States. The seizure and sale of real property by the State for non-payment of taxes is a similar proceeding.

Both international law and municipal law recognize the right of the sovereign authorities to confiscate the goods of an alien enemy found within the State, but the right is in fact seldom exercised in modern times.

CONFLICT OF LAWS. An opposition or contrariety between the laws of different jurisdictions affecting the rights of the same individual. In the decision of legal controversies every court regularly applies its own law (lex fori), i.e. the law prevailing within its jurisdiction; but exceptionally, and not infrequently, justice requires, and the domestic law itself authorizes, the application of foreign law. The cases in which the question arises whether domestic or foreign law should be applied are figuratively termed cases of conflict; and 'conflict of laws is the title under which it is customary to set forth the rules by which such conflicts are adjusted. Because this branch of the law has been of international growth, and because the rules applied in the different nations are in the main similar, it is sometimes described as 'international private law.' Apart from other objections, this term is too narrow; for the rules in question apply not merely to conflicts between the laws of different nations, but also to conflicts between different cantonal or provincial laws within the same State, and to conflicts between the laws of different States within the same empire or federation. To a New York court, the law of New Jersey is as foreign as that of England or of France, and the same rules govern its application. This branch of modern law was developed on the Continent of Europe in the Middle Ages; and because in the later Middle Ages all purely local rules, whether of written or unwritten law, were termed statutes (statuta), it was first known as the doctrine of 'collision of statutes.' It took form as a body of judicial usages, but its development was largely controlled by the writings of leading jurists. Until the sixteenth century the authoritative writers were Italians (Bartolus and Baldus); from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, they were French (Dumoulin, D'Argentré, Bouhier, and Boullenois), or Dutch (Burgundus, Rodenburg, P. and J. Voet, and Huber); in the nineteenth century the most important treatises were those of the American, Story, and the German. Savigny.

BY WHAT LAW SPECIAL RELATIONS ARE GOVERNED. Since Savigny, the effort of writers and of courts has been to determine by what local law each class of legal relations is properly gov erned. A substantial consensus exists on many of the chief points. (1) Domestic relations are regularly governed by the law of the husband's and father's domicile (lex domicilii). (2) Succession, whether testamentary or ab intestato, is governed by the law of the decedent's domicile. On the Continent of Europe this is generally

father, but the boy was most carefully educated by his mother, and trained according to the highest ideals of China. At an early age he gave evidence of his exceptional abilities and his regard for ancient customs, while his thirst for learning was insatiable. When only seventeen years old he was manager for a wealthy landowner of Lu, and two years later he married. As in the case of other great teachers, however, notably Buddha, and later, Rama Krishna of India, Confucius seems to have been little adapted for family life. He had one son, who was born in 531, and, it would seem, two daughters. After four years he parted from his wife, but doubtless with unbroken friendship on both sides. The real life work of Confucius began when he was twenty-two, and from that time till his death, a period of fiftyone years, he led the life of a teacher, migrating frequently from place to place. His conduct on the death of his mother, which occurred in 527, is significant as showing the bent of his mind. With a filial devotion very rare at that epoch, he erected a large mound over her as she lay in the same grave with his father, and for twenty-seven months remained in entire seclusion. This time was probably not wasted. Doubtless his meditations during this period of mourning had considerable influence on his subsequent teachings. The effect of his rigorous observance of the ancient ceremonial custom of mourning for parents had an effect on all who knew him, and heightened their respect for his words. By the time Confucius had reached the age of thirty, he had formulated to his own satisfaction the tenets of his philosophy. In 517 he gained his first pupils of importance, and he was enabled to visit Lo-yang, the capital of the district, where he had an interview with Lao Tsz', the founder of Taoism. On his return to Lu in the following year, he found the city in a state of anarchy, and on the expulsion of the governor, who was his friend, Confucius retired with the ex-official to the neighboring State of Tsi. Here, however, he could not find a congenial home, and he returned to Lu, where he remained for the next fifteen years, carefully keeping himself aloof from all factional strife, and never slackening his devotion to his mission. At last his moral worth received its reward, and at the age of fifty-two Confucius was appointed Governor of Chung-tu, and this honor was followed by others higher still. Through the machinations of the Governor of Tsi, however, the influence of Confucius in Lu was so weakened that he left the country after four years. For thirteen years he wandered from place to place, and did not return to Lu until 485, seven years before his death. These last years were spent in wellearned retirement; but they were full of sorrow, marked by the deaths of his son and his two bestloved disciples, Yen Hui and Tsz' Lu. In 478 the teacher himself died, saddened by the fear lest he had failed to accomplish his mission. Herein he was wrong. The news of his death spread throughout the land, and called attention anew to his purity of life and teaching, so that the name of Confucius has ever since been the highest and most honored in the land to which he gave his life-long devotion. By the irony of fate he was deified after his death, and, like Buddha, Confucius, who had little belief in the supernatural, became a divinity.

Confucius was, as he himself said, not a re

former, but a conserver. This is strikingly evident in his services to the literature of China. Although he is sometimes called a prolific author, he was in reality but a careful though voluminous editor, and he may, if this is clearly understood, be termed the founder of Chinese literature. Thus he established the canon of four of the 'five classics,' the Shih Ching, or Book of Poems, the Li Ching, or Book of Rites, the I Ching, or Book of Changes (originally a cosmological work), and the Shu Ching, or Book of Historical Documents, for which Confucius is said to have composed a preface, although merely a list of books which the Shu Ching once contained now remains. His one independent work, apart from his apothegms which were recorded by his disciples, is the Ch'un Tsin, or Spring and Autumn. This is an extremely dry annalistic history, very meagre in content and information, and altogether untrustworthy as a source of Chinese history, and records the events in the Province of Lu from B.C. 721 to 480.

Confucius was in no real sense of the word a religious teacher. His doctrines were entirely ethical and political. His attitude toward the supernatural may be summed up in his own words: "Respect the gods! but have as little as possible to do with them," and it is recorded that he spoke but seldom of four subjects-marvels, feats of strength, rebellions, and spiritual beings. In harmony with this attitude, he expresses no opinion concerning the immortality of the soul. He inculcates ever the duty, which he himself had observed so faithfully, of honor to parents and of obedience to temporal power. In this way the individual becomes absorbed in the family and the family in the State, which was regarded by Confucius as the highest concept on earth. For a State to be prosperous, mercy and all other virtues are necessary, and these qualities are to be manifested by the entire body of citizens. His teachings are, consequently, wholly worldly in character, and the dry maxims in which he expressed his views are permeated by a utilitarian philosophy which is devoid of any touch of idealism. His attitude toward women is the one generally current in the Orient. Metaphysical speculation, like religious investigation, is absent from his system, which sums up its principles in the five cardinal virtues-humanity, uprightness, decorum, wisdom, and truth. Confucius may perhaps be said to be China incarnate in his lack of originality; but with his devotion to the practical and his moral principles as patriot, sage, and teacher, he ranks among the foremost men that the world has ever seen. The most valuable account of Confucius is contained in the Lun Yü, or Philosophical Dialogues, which record his conversations, while the Ta Hsüch, or Great Learning, and the Chung Yung, or Doctrine of the Mean, are important sources for the study of his system of philosophy.

As illustrations of the maxims of Confucius, the following characteristic ones may be cited: Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is death of the mind. Riches and honor are what men desire; yet, except in accordance with right, they should not be enjoyed: poverty and degradation are what men dread; yet, except in accordance with right, they should not be avoided. What the superior man seeks is in himself; what the small man seeks is

in others. The foundation of all good is the virtue of individual men. Confucius also enunciated the Golden Rule, although in negative terms, as follows: "What ye would not that others should do unto you, do ye not unto them." Despite the negative form of this maxim, it is to all intents and purposes closely parallel to the Golden Rule as given by Christ.

Consult: Plath, Confucius und seiner Schüler Leben und Lehren (Munich, 1867-74); von der Gabelentz, Confucius und seine Lehre (Leipzig, 1888); Haug, Confucius der Weise Chinas (Berlin, 1880); Dvorak, Chinas Religionen, Band i., Confucius und seine Lehre (Münster, 1895); Legge, Life and Teachings of Confucius (London, 1887); Douglass, Confucianism and Taoism (London, 1879). For the original sources, Legge's translations of the Lun Yü, Ta Hsüeh, and Chung Yung in the first volume of his Chinese Classics (Hong Kong and London, 1861) should be consulted as of the first importance. The same scholar's translations of the Texts of Confucianism (comprising the Shu Ching, Hsiao Ching, I Ching, Li Ching, and portions of the Shih Ching), vols. iii., xvi., xxvii., xxviii. of the Sacred Books of the East (Oxford, 1879-85) are also of value.

CONFUSION (Lat. confusio, a mixing together, from confundere, to mingle or mix together, from com-, together + fundere, to pour, pour out) oF GOODS. The intermingling of the goods of two or more several owners so as to be indistinguishable. This may occur voluntarily, or by agreement of all the parties concerned-as in the common case of the deposit of grain in a common storage elevator; or accidentally, as when, in case of fire or shipwreck or innocent mistake, goods are inextricably mingled together; or the confusion may be malicious and willful, as when one person takes gold belonging to another and throws it into the melting pot with his own. In the first two cases the law adjusts the rights of the parties by making them tenants in common of the mixture, in the proportion of their respective contributions thereto, and, where the portions confused are of unequal value, in the proportion of their respective values. In the case of a willful confusion, however, the common law originally adopted the stringent rule of giving the entire mass to the innocent party, and this principle would still be applied in some common-law jurisdictions. The present tendency, however, in England as well as in the United States, is to adopt the milder rule of the Roman or civil law, either making the parties tenants in common of the mixture, as in the other cases referred to, or permitting the innocent party to recover the value of his share at the time of the confusion. Compare ACCESSION. Consult Schouler, Treatise on the Law of Personal Property (Boston, 1896).

given in England to the King's warrant or permission to a dean and chapter of a cathedral to proceed to the election of a bishop to a vacant see. Since the passing of the statute 25 Hen. VIII. c. 20, with the exception of short periods in the reigns of Edward VI. and Mary, the congé d'élire has always been accompanied by a letter missive from the King, mentioning the person to be elected by name, so that in reality it is an appointment by the Crown. If the dean and chapter delay the election beyond twelve days, the appointment is effected by letter patent from the Crown; if they elect another than the person named, they incur the penalties of a præmunire, i.e. loss of civil rights, forfeiture of their goods, and imprisonment during the royal pleasure. The same penalties are imposed upon any bishop or archbishop who neglects to assist in the consecration and investment of a bishop so elected, within twenty days after the royal announcement of his election. Consult Stephen, Commentaries, vol. iii. (London, 1886).

CONGENITAL DISEASE (Lat. congen.

itus, born with, from con-, together + gignere, to beget). A term used to denote any disease with which an infant enters the world. Congenital diseases may be acquired from the mother during pregnancy or during the act of delivery. In the former class belong syphilis, and, according to some authorities, smallpox. The latter class is to be separated into two subdivisions: (1) diseases obtained by infection from the parturient canal of the mother, as syphilis, gonorrhea, septic peritonitis, purulent ophthalmia, and pyæmia; (2) conditions due to accidents occurring during delivery of the infant, such as asphyxia, atelectasis (unexpanded lungs), and cephalhæmatoma (tumor of the scalp containing bloody fluid). Infants may also develop an acute fatty degeneration as well as tumors of various kinds before birth.

CONGER, kōn'ger (Lat., from Gk. yoɣypos, gongros, conger), or CONGER EEL. A marine eel (Leptocephalus conger) of the family Leptocephalidae, having the form of the typical eels, but no scales. The head is pointed and the mouth deeply cleft. The teeth in the outer series of either jaw are placed closely together so as to form a cutting edge. The dorsal fin commences

much nearer the head than in the fresh-water

eel and is confluent with the anal around the

tail.

CONGAREE (kon'gå-re') RIVER. A river of South Carolina, formed by the junction of the Broad and the Saluda rivers, near Columbia. (Map: South Carolina, D 3). It flows southeast, and, joining the Wateree, forms the Santee. It is 60 miles long and navigable to Grandby, two miles below Columbia. At this city it furnishes considerable water-power.