[1] The distribution of the different species is rather curious,
while the range of some is exceedingly wide,--one, _C. maillardi_,
seems to be limited to the island of Reunion (Bourbon).
[2] A singular mistake, which has been productive of further error,
was made by Albin, who drew his figure (_Hist. Birds_, ii. pi. 5)
from a specimen of one species, and coloured it from a specimen of
the other.
HARRIGAN, EDWARD (1845- ), American actor, was born in New York of
Irish parents on the 26th of October 1845. He made his first appearance
in San Francisco in 1867, and soon afterwards formed a stage partnership
with Tony Hart, whose real name was Anthony Cannon. As "Harrigan and
Hart," they had a great success in the presentation of types of low life
in New York. Beginning as simple sketches, these were gradually worked
up into plays, with occasional songs, set to popular music by David
Braham. The titles of these plays indicate their character, _The
Mulligan Guards_, _Squatter Sovereignty_, _A Leather Patch_, _The
O'Regans_. The partnership with Hart lasted from 1871-1884. Subsequently
Harrigan played in different cities of the United States, one of his
favourite parts being George Coggswell in _Old Lavender_.
HARRIMAN, EDWARD HENRY (1848-1909), American financier and railroad
magnate, son of the Rev. Orlando Harriman, rector of St George's
Episcopal church, Hempstead, L.I., was born at Hempstead on the 25th of
February 1848. He became a broker's clerk in New York at an early age,
and in 1870 was able to buy a seat on the New York Stock Exchange on his
own account. For a good many years there was nothing sensational in his
success, but he built up a considerable business connexion and prospered
in his financial operations. Meanwhile he carefully mastered the
situation affecting American railways. In this respect he was assisted
by his friendship with Mr Stuyvesant Fish, who, on becoming
vice-president of the Illinois Central in 1883, brought Harriman upon
the directorate, and in 1887, being then president, made Harriman
vice-president; twenty years later it was Harriman who dominated the
finance of the Illinois Central, and Fish, having become his opponent,
was dropped from the board. It was not till 1898, however, that his
career as a great railway organizer began with his formation, by the aid
of the bankers, Kuhn, Loeb & Co., of a syndicate to acquire the Union
Pacific line, which was then in the hands of a receiver and was
generally regarded as a hopeless failure. It was soon found that a new
power had arisen in the railway world. Having brought the Union Pacific
out of bankruptcy into prosperity, and made it an efficient instead of a
decaying line, he utilized his position to draw other lines within his
control, notably the Southern Pacific in 1901. These extensions of his
power were not made without friction, and his abortive contest in 1901
with James J. Hill for the control of the Northern Pacific led to one of
the most serious financial crises ever known on Wall Street. But in the
result he became the dominant factor in American railway matters. At his
death, on the 9th of September 1909, his influence was estimated to
extend over 60,000 m. of track, with an annual earning power of
$700,000,000 or over. Astute and unscrupulous manipulation of the stock
markets, and a capacity for the hardest of bargaining and the most
determined warfare against his rivals, had their place in this success,
and Harriman's methods excited the bitterest criticism, culminating in a
stern denunciation from President Roosevelt himself in 1907.
Nevertheless, besides acquiring colossal wealth for himself, he helped
to create for the American public a vastly improved railway service, the
benefit of which survived all controversy as to the means by which he
triumphed over the obstacles in his way.
HARRIMAN, a city of Roane county, Tennessee, U.S.A., on the Emory river,
about 35 m. W. by S. of Knoxville. Pop. (1900) 3442 (516 being negroes);
(1910) 3061. Harriman is served by the Harriman & North Eastern, the
Tennessee Central, and the Southern railways. It is the seat of the East
Tennessee Normal and Industrial Institute, for negroes, and of the
American University of Harriman (Christian Church, coeducational; 1893),
which comprises primary, preparatory, collegiate, Bible school, civic
research, commercial, music and art departments, and in 1907-1908 had 12
instructors and 317 students. Near the city are large deposits of iron
and an abundance of coal and timber. Among manufactures are cotton
products, farming tools, leather, tannic acid, furniture and flour.
Harriman was founded in 1890 by a land company. A clause in this
company's by-laws requires that every conveyance of real estate by the
company "shall contain a provision forbidding the use of the property or
any building thereon, for the purpose of making, storing or selling
intoxicating beverages as such." Harriman was chartered as a city in
1891, and its charter was revised in 1899.
HARRINGTON, EARLS OF. The first earl of Harrington was the diplomatist
and politician, William Stanhope (c. 1690-1756), a younger son of John
Stanhope of Elvaston, Derbyshire, and a brother of Charles Stanhope
(1673-1760), an active politician during the reign of George I. His
ancestor, Sir John Stanhope (d. 1638), was a half-brother of Philip
Stanhope, 1st earl of Chesterfield. Educated at Eton, William Stanhope
entered the army and served in Spain, but soon he turned his attention
to more peaceful pursuits, went on a mission to Madrid and represented
his country at Turin. When peace was made between England and Spain in
1720 Stanhope became British ambassador to the latter country, and he
retained this position until March 1727, having built up his reputation
as a diplomatist during a difficult period. In 1729 he had some part in
arranging the treaty of Seville between England, France and Spain, and
for his services in this matter he was created Baron Harrington in
January 1730. Later in the same year he was appointed secretary of state
for the northern department under Sir Robert Walpole, but, like George
II., he was anxious to assist the emperor Charles VI. in his war with
France, while Walpole favoured a policy of peace. Although the latter
had his way Harrington remained secretary until the great minister's
fall in 1742, when he was transferred to the office of president of the
council and was created earl of Harrington and Viscount Petersham. In
1744, owing to the influence of his political allies, the Pelhams, he
returned to his former post of secretary of state, but he soon lost the
favour of the king, and this was the principal cause why he left office
in October 1746. He was lord lieutenant of Ireland from 1747 to 1751,
and he died in London on the 8th of December 1756.
The earl's successor was his son, William (1719-1779), who entered the
army, was wounded at Fontenoy and became a general in 1770. He was a
member of parliament for about ten years and he died on the 1st of April
1779. This earl's wife Caroline (1722-1784), daughter of Charles
Fitzroy, 2nd duke of Grafton, was a noted beauty, but was also famous
for her eccentricities. Their elder son, Charles (1753-1829), who became
the 3rd earl, was a distinguished soldier. He served with the British
army during the American War of Independence and attained the rank of
general in 1802. From 1805 to 1812 he was commander-in-chief in Ireland;
he was sent on diplomatic errands to Vienna and to Berlin, and he died
at Brighton on the 15th of September 1829.
Charles Stanhope, 4th earl of Harrington (1780-1851), the eldest son of
the 3rd earl, was known as Lord Petersham until he succeeded to the
earldom in 1829. He was very well known in society owing partly to his
eccentric habits; he dressed like the French king Henry IV., and had
other personal peculiarities. He married the actress, Maria Foote, but
when he died in March 1851 he left no sons, and his brother Leicester
Fitzgerald Charles (1784-1862) became the 5th earl. This nobleman was a
soldier and a politician of advanced views, who is best known as a
worker with Lord Byron in the cause of Greek independence. He was in
Greece in 1823 and 1824, where his relations with Byron were not
altogether harmonious. He wrote _A Sketch of the History and Influence
of the Press in British India_ (1823); and _Greece in 1821 and 1824_
(English edition 1824, American edition 1825). His son Sydney Seymour
Hyde, 6th earl (1845-1866), dying unmarried, was succeeded by a cousin,
Charles Wyndham Stanhope (1809-1881), as 7th earl, and in 1881 the
latter's son Charles Augustus Stanhope (b. 1844) became 8th earl of
Harrington.
Before the time of the first earl of Harrington the Stanhope family
had held the barony of Stanhope of Harrington, which was created in
1605 in favour of Sir John Stanhope (c. 1550-1621) of Harrington,
Northamptonshire. Sir John was a younger son of Sir Michael Stanhope
(d. 1552) of Shelford, Nottinghamshire, who was a brother-in-law of
the protector Somerset. Sir Michael's support of Somerset cost him his
life, as he was beheaded on the 26th of February 1552. Sir John was
treasurer of the chamber from 1596 to 1616 and was a member of
parliament for several years. He died on the 9th of March 1621, and
when his only son Charles, 2nd baron (c. 1595-1675), died without
issue in 1675 the barony became extinct.
HARRINGTON, or HARINGTON, JAMES (1611-1677), English political
philosopher, was born in January 1611 of an old Rutlandshire family. He
was son of Sir Sapcotes Harrington of Rand, Lincolnshire, and
great-nephew of the first Lord Harington of Exton (d. 1615). In 1629 he
entered Trinity College, Oxford, as a gentleman commoner. One of his
tutors was the famous Chillingworth. After several years spent in
travel, and as a soldier in the Dutch army, he returned to England and
lived in retirement till 1646, when he was appointed to the suite of
Charles I., at that time being conveyed from Newcastle as prisoner.
Though republican in his ideas, Harrington won the king's regard and
esteem, and accompanied him to the Isle of Wight. He roused, however,
the suspicion of the parliamentarians and was dismissed: it is said that
he was for a short time put in confinement because he would not swear to
refuse assistance to the king should he attempt to escape. After
Charles's death Harrington devoted his time to the composition of his
_Oceana_, a work which pleased neither party. By order of Cromwell it
was seized when passing through the press. Harrington, however managed
to secure the favour of the Protector's favourite daughter, Mrs
Claypole; the work was restored to him, and appeared in 1656, dedicated
to Cromwell. The views embodied in _Oceana_, particularly that bearing
on vote by ballot and rotation of magistrates and legislators,
Harrington and others (who in 1659 formed a club called the "Rota")
endeavoured to push practically, but with no success. In November 1661,
by order of Charles II., Harrington was arrested, apparently without
sufficient cause, on a charge of conspiracy, and was thrown into the
Tower. Despite his repeated request no public trial could be obtained,
and when at length his sisters obtained a writ of _habeas corpus_ he was
secretly removed to St Nicholas Island off Plymouth. There his health
gave way owing to his drinking guaiacum on medical advice, and his mind
appeared to be affected. Careful treatment restored him to bodily
vigour, but his mind never wholly recovered. After his release he
married,--at what date does not seem to be precisely known. He died on
the 11th of September 1677, and was buried next to Sir Walter Raleigh in
St Margaret's, Westminster.
Harrington's writings consist of the _Oceana_, and of papers, pamphlets,
aphorisms, even treatises, in defence of the _Oceana_. The _Oceana_ is a
hard, prolix, and in many respects heavy exposition of an ideal
constitution, "Oceana" being England, and the lawgiver Olphaus
Megaletor, Oliver Cromwell. The details are elaborated with infinite
care, even the salaries of officials being computed, but the main ideas
are two in number, each with a practical corollary. The first is that
the determining element of power in a state is property generally,
property in land in particular; the second is that the executive power
ought not to be vested for any considerable time in the same men or
class of men. In accordance with the first of these, Harrington
recommends an agrarian law, limiting the portion of land held to that
yielding a revenue of L3000, and consequently insisting on particular
modes of distributing landed property. As a practical issue of the
second he lays down the rule of rotation by ballot. A third part of the
executive or senate are voted out by ballot every year (not being
capable of being elected again for three years). Harrington explains
very carefully how the state and its governing parts are to be
constituted by his scheme. _Oceana_ contains many valuable ideas, but it
is irretrievably dull.
His _Works_ were edited with biography by John Toland in 1700;
Toland's edition, with additions by Birch, appeared in 1747, and again
in 1771. _Oceana_ was reprinted by Henry Morley in 1887. See Dwight in
_Political Science Quarterly_ (March, 1887). Harrington has often been
confused with his cousin Sir James Harrington, a member of the
commission which tried Charles I., and afterwards excluded from the
acts of pardon.
HARRIOT, or HARRIOTT, THOMAS (1560-1621), English mathematician and
astronomer, was born at Oxford in 1560. After studying at St Mary Hall,
Oxford, he became tutor to Sir Walter Raleigh, who appointed him in 1585
to the office of geographer to the second expedition to Virginia.
Harriot published an account of this expedition in 1588, which was
afterwards reprinted in Hakluyt's _Voyages_. On his return to England,
after an absence of two years, he resumed his mathematical studies, and
having made the acquaintance of Henry Percy, earl of Northumberland,
distinguished for his patronage of men of science, he received from him
a yearly pension of L120. He died at London on the 2nd of July 1621. A
manuscript of Harriot's entitled _Ephemeris chrysometria_ is preserved
in Sion College; and his _Artis analyticae praxis ad aequaliones
algebraicas resolvendas_ was published at London in 1631. His
contributions to algebra are treated in the article ALGEBRA; Wallis's
_History of Algebra_ (1685) may also be consulted. From some papers of
Harriot's, discovered in 1784, it would appear that he had either
procured a telescope from Holland, or divined the construction of that
instrument, and that he coincided in point of time with Galileo in
discovering the spots on the sun's disk.
See Charles Hutton, _Mathematical and Philosophical Dictionary_
(1815), and J. E. Montucla, _Histoire des mathematiques_ (1758).
HARRIS, GEORGE, 1ST BARON (1746-1829), British general, was the son of
the Rev George Harris, curate of Brasted, Kent, and was born on the 18th
of March 1746. Educated at Westminster school and at the Royal Military
Academy, Woolwich, he was commissioned to the Royal Artillery in 1760,
transferring to an ensigncy in the 5th foot (Northumberland Fusiliers)
in 1762. Three years later he became lieutenant, and in 1771 captain.
His first active service was in the American War of Independence, in
which he served at Lexington, Bunker Hill (severely wounded) and in
every engagement of Howe's army except one up to November 1778. By this
time he had obtained his majority, and his next service was under
Major-General Medows at Santa Lucia in 1778-1779, after which his
regiment served as marines in Rodney's fleet. Later in 1779 he was for a
time a prisoner of war. Shortly before his promotion to
lieutenant-colonel in his regiment (1780) he married. After commanding
the 5th in Ireland for some years, he exchanged and went with General
Medows to Bombay, and served with that officer in India until 1792,
taking part in various battles and engagements, notably Lord
Cornwallis's attack on Seringapatam. In 1794, after a short period of
home service, he was again in India. In the same year he became
major-general, and in 1796 local lieutenant-general in Madras. Up to
1800 he commanded the troops in the presidency, and for a short time he
exercised the civil government as well. In December 1798 he was
appointed by Lord Wellesley, the governor-general, to command the field
army which was intended to attack Tipu Sahib, and in a few months Harris
reduced the Mysore country and stormed the great stronghold of
Seringapatam. His success established his reputation as a capable and
experienced commander, and its political importance led to his being
offered the reward (which he declined) of an Irish peerage. He returned
home in 1800, became lieutenant-general in the army the following year,
and attained the rank of full general in 1812. In 1815 he was made a
peer of the United Kingdom under the title Baron Harris of Seringapatam
and Mysore, and of Belmont, Kent. In 1820 he received the G.C.B., and in
1824 the governorship of Dumbarton Castle. Lord Harris died at Belmont
in May 1829. He had been colonel of the 73rd Highlanders since 1800.
His descendant, the 4th Baron Harris (b. 1851), best known as a
cricketer, was under-secretary for India (1885-1886), under-secretary
for war (1886-1889) and governor of Bombay (1890-1895).
See Rt. Hon. S. Lushington, _Life of Lord Harris_ (London, 1840), and
the regimental histories of the 5th Northumberland Fusiliers and 73rd
Highlanders.
HARRIS, JAMES (1709-1780), English grammarian, was born at Salisbury on
the 20th of July 1709. He was educated at the grammar school in the
Close at Salisbury, and at Wadham College, Oxford. On leaving the
university he was entered at Lincoln's Inn as a student of law, though
not intended for the bar. The death of his father in 1733 placed him in
possession of an independent fortune and of the house in Salisbury
Close. He became a county magistrate, and represented Christchurch in
parliament from 1761 till his death, and was comptroller to the queen
from 1774 to 1780. He held office under Lord Grenville, retiring with
him in 1765. The decided bent of his mind had always been towards the
Greek and Latin classics; and to the study of these, especially of
Aristotle, he applied himself with unremitting assiduity during a period
of fourteen or fifteen years. He published in 1744 three treatises--on
art; on music, painting and poetry; and on happiness. In 1751 appeared
the work by which he became best known, _Hermes_, a philosophical
inquiry concerning universal grammar. He also published _Philosophical
Arrangements_ and _Philosophical Inquiries_. Harris was a great lover of
music, and adapted the words for a selection from Italian and German
composers, published by the cathedral organist, James Corfe. He died on
the 22nd of December 1780.
His works were collected and published in 1801, by his son, the first
earl of Malmesbury, who prefixed a brief biography.
HARRIS, JOEL CHANDLER (1848-1908), American author, was born in
Eatonton, Putnam county, Georgia, on the 8th of December 1848. He
started as an apprentice to the printer's trade in the office of the
_Countryman_, a weekly paper published on a plantation not far from his
home. He then studied law, and practised for a short time in Forsyth,
Ga., but soon took to journalism. He joined the staff of the Savannah
_Daily News_ in 1871, and in 1876 that of the Atlanta _Constitution_, of
which he was an editor from 1890 to 1901, and in this capacity did much
to further the cause of the New South. But his most distinctive
contribution to this paper, and to American literature, consisted of his
dialect pieces dealing with negro life and folk-lore. His stories are
characterized by quaint humour, poetic feeling and homely philosophy;
and "Uncle Remus," the principal character of most of them, is a
remarkably vivid and real creation. The first collection of his stories
was published in 1880 as _Uncle Remus: his Songs and his Sayings_. Among
his later works are _Nights with Uncle Remus_ (1883), _Mingo and Other
Sketches in Black and White_ (1884), _Free Joe and Other Georgian
Sketches_ (1887), _Balaam and His Master and Other Sketches and Stories_
(1891), _Uncle Remus and His Friends_ (1892), _On the Plantation_
(1892), which is partly autobiographic, _Sister Jane_ (1896), The
_Chronicles of Aunt Minervy Ann_ (1899), and _The Tar-Baby and Other
Rhymes of Uncle Remus_ (1904). More purely juvenile are _Daddy Jake the
Runaway and Other Stories_ (1889), _Little Mr Thimblefinger and his
Queer Country_ (1894) and its sequel _Mr Rabbit at Home_ (1895), _Aaron
in the Wildwoods_ (1897), _Plantation Pageants_ (1899), _Told by Uncle
Remus_ (1905), and _Uncle Remus and Br'er Rabbit_ (1907). He was one of
the compilers of the _Life of Henry W. Grady_, including his _Writings
and Speeches_ (1890) and wrote _Stories of Georgia_ (1896), and Georgia
from the Invasion of De Soto to Recent Times (1899). He died in Atlanta
on the 3rd of July 1908.
HARRIS, JOHN (c. 1666-1719), English writer. He is best known as the
editor of the _Lexicon technicum_, or _Dictionary of the Arts and
Sciences_ (1704), which ranks as the earliest of the long line of
English encyclopaedias, and as the compiler of the _Collection of
Voyages and Travels_ which passes under his name. He was born about
1666, probably in Shropshire, and was a scholar of Trinity College,
Oxford, from 1684 to 1688. He was presented to the vicarage of Icklesham
in Sussex, and subsequently to the rectory of St Thomas, Winchelsea. In
1698 he was entrusted with the delivery of the seventh series of the
Boyle lectures--_Atheistical Objections against the Being of God and His
Attributes fairly considered and fully refuted_. Between 1702 and 1704
he delivered at the Marine Coffee House in Birchin Lane the mathematical
lectures founded by Sir Charles Cox, and advertised himself as a
mathematical tutor at Amen Corner. The friendship of Sir William Cowper,
afterwards lord chancellor, secured for him the office of private
chaplain, a prebend in Rochester cathedral (1708), and the rectory of
the united parishes of St Mildred, Bread Street and St Margaret Moses,
in addition to other preferments. He showed himself an ardent supporter
of the government, and engaged in a bitter quarrel with the Rev. Charles
Humphreys, who afterwards was chaplain to Dr Sacheverel. Harris was one
of the early members of the Royal Society, and for a time acted as
vice-president. At his death on the 7th of September 1719, he was busy
completing an elaborate _History of Kent_. He is said to have died in
poverty brought on by his own bad management of his affairs.
HARRIS, THOMAS LAKE (1823-1906), American spiritualistic "prophet," was
born at Fenny Stratford in Buckinghamshire, England, on the 15th of May
1823. His parents were Calvinistic Baptists, and very poor. They settled
at Utica, New York, when Harris was five years old. When he was about
twenty Harris became a Universalist preacher, and then a Swedenborgian.
He became associated about 1847 with a spiritualist of indifferent
character named Davis. After Davis had been publicly exposed, Harris
established a congregation in New York. About 1850 he professed to
receive inspirations, and published some long poems. He had the gift of
improvisation in a very high degree. About 1859 he preached in London,
and is described as a man "with low, black eyebrows, black beard, and
sallow countenance." He was an effective speaker, and his poetry was
admired by many; Alfred Austin in his book _The Poetry of the Period_
even devoted a chapter to Harris. He founded in 1861 a community at
Wassaic, New York, and opened a bank and a mill, which he superintended.
There he was joined by about sixty converts, including five orthodox
clergymen, some Japanese people, some American ladies of position, and
especially by Laurence Oliphant (q.v.) with his wife and mother. The
community--the Brotherhood of the New Life--decided to settle at the
village of Brocton on the shore of Lake Erie. Harris established there a
wine-making industry. In reply to the objections of teetotallers he said
that the wine prepared by himself was filled with the divine breath so
that all noxious influences were neutralized. Harris also built a tavern
and strongly advocated the use of tobacco. He exacted complete surrender
from his disciples--even the surrender of moral judgment. He taught that
God was bi-sexual, and apparently, though not in reality, that the rule
of society should be one of married celibacy. He professed to teach his
community a change in the mode of respiration which was to be the
visible sign of possession by Christ and the seal of immortality. The
Oliphants broke away from the restraint about 1881, charging him with
robbery and succeeding in getting back from him many thousands of pounds
by legal proceedings. But while losing faith in Harris himself, they did
not abandon his main teaching. In Laurence Oliphant's novel _Masollam_
his view of Harris will be found. Briefly, he held that Harris was
originally honest, greatly gifted, and possessed of certain psychical
powers. But in the end he came to practise unbridled licence under the
loftiest pretensions, made the profession of extreme disinterestedness a
cloak to conceal his avarice, and demanded from his followers a blind
and supple obedience. Harris in 1876 discontinued for a time public
activities, but issued to a secret circle books of verse dwelling mainly
on sexual questions. On these his mind ran from the first. In 1891 he
announced that his body had been renewed, and that he had discovered the
secret of the resuscitation of humanity. He published a book, _Lyra
triumphalis_, dedicated to A. C. Swinburne. He also made a third
marriage, and visited England intending to remain there. He was called
back by a fire which destroyed large stocks of his wine, and remained in
New York till 1903, when he visited Glasgow. His followers believed that
he had attained the secret of immortal life on earth, and after his
death on the 23rd of March 1906 declared that he was only sleeping. It
was three months before it was acknowledged publicly that he was really
dead. There can be little or no doubt as to the real character of
Harris. His teaching was esoteric in form, but is a thinly veiled
attempt to alter the ordering of sexual relations.
The authoritative biography from the side of his disciples is the
_Life_ by A. A. Cuthbert, published in Glasgow in 1908. It is full of
the jargon of Harris's sect, but contains some biographical facts as
well as many quotations. Mrs Oliphant's _Life of Laurence Oliphant_
(1891) has not been shaken in any important particular, and Oliphant's
own portrait of Harris in _Masollam_ is apparently unexaggerated. But
Harris had much personal magnetism, unbounded self-confidence, along
with endless fluency, and to the last was believed in by some
disciples of character and influence. (W. R. Ni.)
HARRIS, SIR WILLIAM SNOW (1791-1867), English electrician, was descended
from an old family of solicitors at Plymouth, where he was born on the
1st of April 1791. He received his early education at the Plymouth
grammar-school, and completed a course of medical studies at the
university of Edinburgh, after which he established himself as a general
medical practitioner in Plymouth. On his marriage in 1824 he resolved to
abandon his profession on account of its duties interfering too much
with his favourite study of electricity. As early as 1820 he had
invented a new method of arranging the lightning conductors of ships,
the peculiarity of which was that the metal was permanently fixed in the
masts and extended throughout the hull; but it was only with great
difficulty, and not till nearly thirty years afterwards, that his
invention was adopted by the government for the royal navy. In 1826 he
read a paper before the Royal Society "On the Relative Powers of various
Metallic Substances as Conductors of Electricity," which led to his
being elected a fellow of the society in 1831. Subsequently, in 1834,
1836 and 1839, he read before the society several valuable papers on the
elementary laws of electricity, and he also communicated to the Royal
Society of Edinburgh various interesting accounts of his experiments and
discoveries in the same field of inquiry. In 1835 he received the Copley
gold medal from the Royal Society for his papers on the laws of
electricity of high tension, and in 1839 he was chosen to deliver the
Bakerian lecture. Meanwhile, although a government commission had
recommended the general adoption of his conductors in the royal navy,
and the government had granted him an annuity of L300 "in consideration
of services in the cultivation of science," the naval authorities
continued to offer various objections to his invention; to aid in
removing these he in 1843 published his work on _Thunderstorms_, and
also about the same time contributed a number of papers to the _Nautical
Magazine_ illustrative of damage by lightning. His system was actually
adopted in the Russian navy before he succeeded in removing the
prejudices against it in England, and in 1845 the emperor of Russia, in
acknowledgment of his services, presented him with a valuable ring and
vase. At length, the efficiency of his system being acknowledged, he
received in 1847 the honour of knighthood, and subsequently a grant of
L5000. After succeeding in introducing his invention into general use
Harris resumed his labours in the field of original research, but as he
failed to realize the advances that had been made by the new school of
science his application resulted in no discoveries of much value. His
manuals of _Electricity_, _Galvanism_ and _Magnetism_, published between
1848 and 1856, were, however, written with great clearness, and passed
through several editions. He died at Plymouth on the 22nd of January
1867, while having in preparation a _Treatise on Frictional
Electricity_, which was published posthumously in the same year, with a
memoir of the author by Charles Tomlinson.
HARRIS, WILLIAM TORREY (1835-1909), American educationist, was born in
North Killingly, Connecticut, on the 10th of September 1835. He studied
at Phillips Andover Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, and entered Yale,
but left in his junior year (1857) to accept a position as a teacher of
shorthand in the St Louis, Missouri, public schools. Advancing through
the grades of principal and assistant superintendent, he was city
superintendent of schools from 1867 until 1880. In 1858, under the
stimulus of Henry C. Brockmeyer, Harris became interested in modern
German philosophy in general, and in particular in Hegel, whose works a
small group, gathering about Harris and Brockmeyer, began to study in
1859. From 1867 to 1893 Harris edited _The Journal of Speculative
Philosophy_ (22 vols.), which was the quarterly organ of the
Philosophical Society founded in 1866. The Philosophical Society died
out before 1874, when Harris founded in St Louis a Kant Club, which
lived for fifteen years. In 1873, with Miss Susan E. Blow, he
established in St Louis the first permanent public-school kindergarten
in America. He represented the United States Bureau of Education at the
International Congress of Educators at Brussels in 1880. In 1889 he
represented the United States Bureau of Education at the Paris
Exposition, and from 1889 to 1906 was United States commissioner of
education. In 1899 the university of Jena gave him the honorary degree
of Doctor of Philosophy for his work on Hegel. In 1906 the Carnegie
Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching conferred upon him "as the
first man to whom such recognition for meritorious service is given, the
highest retiring allowance which our rules will allow, an annual income
of $3000." Besides being a contributor to the magazines and
encyclopedias on educational and philosophical subjects, he wrote _An
Introduction to the Study of Philosophy_ (1889); _The Spiritual Sense of
Dante's Divina Commedia_ (1889); _Hegel's Logic_ (1890); and
_Psychologic Foundations of Education_ (1898); and edited Appleton's
_International Education Series_ and Webster's _International
Dictionary_. He died on the 5th of November 1909.
See Henry R. Evans, "A List of the Writings of William Torrey Harris"
in the _Report of the Commissioner of Education for 1907_, vol. i.
(Washington, 1908).
HARRISBURG, the capital of Pennsylvania, U.S.A., and the county-seat of
Dauphin county, on the E. bank of the Susquehanna river, about 105 m. W.
by N. of Philadelphia. Pop. (1890), 39,385; (1900), 50,167, of whom 2493
were foreign-born and 4107 were negroes; (1910 census) 64,186. It is
served by the Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia & Reading, the Northern
Central and the Cumberland Valley railways; and the Pennsylvania canal
gives it water communication with the ocean. The river here is a mile
wide, and is ordinarily very shallow and dotted with islets, but rises
from 4 to 6 ft. after a moderate rain; it is spanned by several bridges.
The city lies for the most part on the E. slope of a hill extending from
the river bank, several feet in height, across the Pennsylvania canal to
Paxton Creek. Front Street, along the river, is part of a parkway
connecting the park system with which the city is encircled. Overlooking
it are the finest residences, among them the governor's mansion. State
Street, 120 ft. in width, runs at right angles with Front Street through
the business centre of the city, being interrupted by the Capitol Park
(about 16 acres). The Capitol,[1] dedicated in 1906, was erected to
replace one burned in 1897; it is a fine building, with a dome modelled
after St Peter's at Rome. At the main entrance are bronze doors,
decorated in relief with scenes from the state's history; the floor of
the rotunda is of tiles made at Doylestown, in the style of the pottery
made by early Moravian settlers, and illustrating the state's resources;
the Senate Chamber and the House Chamber have stained-glass windows by
W. B. van Ingen and mural paintings by Edwin A. Abbey, who painted a
series, "The Development of the Law," for the Supreme Court room in the
eastern wing and decorated the rotunda. The mural decorations of the
south corridor, by W. B. van Ingen, portray the state's religious sects;
those in the north corridor, by John W. Alexander, represent the changes
in the physical and material character of the state; and there is a
frieze by Miss Violet Oakley, "The Founding of the State of Liberty
Spiritual," in the governor's reception room. Two heroic groups of
statuary for the building were designed by George Grey Barnard. The
state library in the Capitol contains about 150,000 volumes. In the same
park is also a monument 105 ft. high erected in 1868 to the memory of
the soldiers who fell in the Mexican War; it has a column of Maryland
marble 76 ft. high, which is surmounted by an Italian marble statue of
Victory, executed in Rome. At the base of the monument are muskets used
by United States soldiers in that war and guns captured at Cerro Gordo.
In State Street is the Dauphin County Soldiers' monument, a shaft 10 ft.
sq. at the base and 110 ft. high, with a pyramidal top.
For several years prior to 1902 Harrisburg suffered much from impure
water, a bad sewerage system, and poorly paved and dirty streets. In
that year, however, a League for Municipal Improvements was formed; in
February 1902 a loan of $1,000,000 for municipal improvements was voted,
landscape gardeners and sewage engineers were consulted, and a
non-partisan mayor was elected, under whom great advances were made in
street cleaning and street paving, a new filtration plant was completed,
the river front was beautified and protected from flood, sewage was
diverted from Paxton Creek, and the development of an extensive park
system was undertaken.
Harrisburg's charitable institutions include a city hospital, a home for
the friendless, a children's industrial home, and a state lunatic
hospital (1845). The city is the seat of a Roman Catholic bishopric.
Both coal and iron ore abound in the vicinity, and the city has numerous
manufacturing establishments. The value of its factory products in 1905
was $17,146,338 (14.3% more than in 1900), the more important being
those of steel works and rolling mills ($4,528,907), blast furnaces,
steam railway repair shops, cigar and cigarette factories ($1,258,498),
foundries and machine shops ($953,617), boot and shoe factories
($922,568), flouring and grist mills, slaughtering and meat-packing
establishments and silk mills.
Harrisburg was named in honour of John Harris, who, upon coming into
this region to trade early in the 18th century, was attracted to the
site as an easy place at which to ford the Susquehanna, and about 1726
settled here. He was buried in what is now Harris Park, where he erected
the first building, a small hut, within the present limits of
Harrisburg. In 1753 his son established a ferry over the river, and the
place was called Harris's Ferry until 1785, when the younger Harris laid
out the town and named it Harrisburg. In the same year it was made the
county-seat of the newly constituted county of Dauphin, and its name was
changed to Louisburg; but when, in 1791, it was incorporated as a
borough, the present name was again adopted. In 1812, after an effort
begun twenty-five years before, it was made the capital of the state;
and in 1860 it was chartered as a city. In the summer of 1827, through
the persistent efforts of persons most interested in the woollen
manufactures of Massachusetts and other New England states to secure
legislative aid for that industry, a convention of about 100
delegates--manufacturers, newspaper men and politicians--was held in
Harrisburg, and the programme adopted by the convention did much to
bring about the passage of the famous high tariff act of 1828.