FOOTNOTE:

[1] This may also be understood as meaning simply "a single file,"

but the explanation given above is more probable, as it is

essentially a marching and not a fighting formation that is expressed

by the phrase.

FILE-FISH, or TRIGGER-FISH, the names given to fishes of the genus

_Balistes_ (and _Monacanthus_) inhabiting all tropical and subtropical

seas. Their body is compressed and not covered with ordinary scales, but

with small juxtaposed scutes. Their other principal characteristics

consist in the structure of their first dorsal fin (which consists of

three spines) and in their peculiar dentition. The first of the three

dorsal spines is very strong, roughened in front like a file, and

hollowed out behind to receive the second much smaller spine, which,

besides, has a projection in front, at its base, fitting into a notch of

the first. Thus these two spines can only be raised or depressed

simultaneously, in such a manner that the first cannot be forced down

unless the second has been previously depressed. The latter has been

compared to a trigger, hence the name of Trigger-fish. Also the generic

name _Balistes_ and the Italian name of "Pesce balistra" refer to this

structure. Both jaws are armed with eight strong incisor-like and

sometimes pointed teeth, by which these fishes are enabled, not only to

break off pieces of madrepores and other corals on which they feed, but

also to chisel a hole into the hard shells of Mollusca, in order to

extract the soft parts. In this way they destroy an immense number of

molluscs, and become most injurious to the pearl-fisheries. The gradual

failure of those fisheries in Ceylon has been ascribed to this cause,

although evidently other agencies must have been at work at the same

time. The _Monacanthi_ are distinguished from the _Balistes_ in having

only one dorsal spine and a velvety covering of the skin. Some 30

different species are known of _Balistes_ and about 50 of _Monacanthus_.

Two species (_B. maculatus_ and _capriscus_), common in the Atlantic,

sometimes wander to the British coasts.

[Illustration: _Balistes vidua_]

FILELFO, FRANCESCO (1398-1481), Italian humanist, was born in 1398 at

Tolentino, in the March of Ancona. When he appeared upon the scene of

human life, Petrarch and the students of Florence had already brought

the first act in the recovery of classic culture to conclusion. They had

created an eager appetite for the antique, had disinterred many

important Roman authors, and had freed Latin scholarship to some extent

from the barbarism of the middle ages. Filelfo was destined to carry on

their work in the field of Latin literature, and to be an important

agent in the still unaccomplished recovery of Greek culture. His

earliest studies in grammar, rhetoric and the Latin language were

conducted at Padua, where he acquired so great a reputation for learning

that in 1417 he was invited to teach eloquence and moral philosophy at

Venice. According to the custom of that age in Italy, it now became his

duty to explain the language, and to illustrate the beauties of the

principal Latin authors, Cicero and Virgil being considered the chief

masters of moral science and of elegant diction. Filelfo made his mark

at once in Venice. He was admitted to the society of the first scholars

and the most eminent nobles of that city; and in 1419 he received an

appointment from the state, which enabled him to reside as secretary to

the consul-general (_baylo_) of the Venetians in Constantinople. This

appointment was not only honourable to Filelfo as a man of trust and

general ability, but it also gave him the opportunity of acquiring the

most coveted of all possessions at that moment for a scholar--a

knowledge of the Greek language. Immediately after his arrival in

Constantinople, Filelfo placed himself under the tuition of John

Chrysoloras, whose name was already well known in Italy as relative of

Manuel, the first Greek to profess the literature of his ancestors in

Florence. At the recommendation of Chrysoloras he was employed in

several diplomatic missions by the emperor John Palaeologus. Before very

long the friendship between Filelfo and his tutor was cemented by the

marriage of the former to Theodora, the daughter of John Chrysoloras. He

had now acquired a thorough knowledge of the Greek language, and had

formed a large collection of Greek manuscripts. There was no reason why

he should not return to his native country. Accordingly, in 1427 he

accepted an invitation from the republic of Venice, and set sail for

Italy, intending to resume his professorial career. From this time

forward until the date of his death, Filelfo's history consists of a

record of the various towns in which he lectured, the masters whom he

served, the books he wrote, the authors he illustrated, the friendships

he contracted, and the wars he waged with rival scholars. He was a man

of vast physical energy, of inexhaustible mental activity, of quick

passions and violent appetites; vain, restless, greedy of gold and

pleasure and fame; unable to stay quiet in one place, and perpetually

engaged in quarrels with his compeers.

When Filelfo arrived at Venice with his family in 1427, he found that

the city had almost been emptied by the plague, and that his scholars

would be few. He therefore removed to Bologna; but here also he was met

with drawbacks. The city was too much disturbed with political

dissensions to attend to him; so Filelfo crossed the Apennines and

settled in Florence. At Florence began one of the most brilliant and

eventful periods of his life. During the week he lectured to large

audiences of young and old on the principal Greek and Latin authors, and

on Sundays he explained Dante to the people in the Duomo. In addition to

these labours of the chair, he found time to translate portions of

Aristotle, Plutarch, Xenophon and Lysias from the Greek. Nor was he dead

to the claims of society. At first he seems to have lived with the

Florentine scholars on tolerably good terms; but his temper was so

arrogant that Cosimo de' Medici's friends were not long able to put up

with him. Filelfo hereupon broke out into open and violent animosity;

and when Cosimo was exiled by the Albizzi party in 1433, he urged the

signoria of Florence to pronounce upon him the sentence of death. On the

return of Cosimo to Florence, Filelfo's position in that city was no

longer tenable. His life, he asserted, had been already once attempted

by a cut-throat in the pay of the Medici; and now he readily accepted an

invitation from the state of Siena. In Siena, however, he was not

destined to remain more than four years. His fame as a professor had

grown great in Italy, and he daily received tempting offers from princes

and republics. The most alluring of these, made him by the duke of

Milan, Filippo Maria Visconti, he decided on accepting; and in 1440 he

was received with honour by his new master in the capital of Lombardy.

Filelfo's life at Milan curiously illustrates the multifarious

importance of the scholars of that age in Italy. It was his duty to

celebrate his princely patrons in panegyrics and epics, to abuse their

enemies in libels and invectives, to salute them with encomiastic odes

on their birthdays, and to compose poems on their favourite themes. For

their courtiers he wrote epithalamial and funeral orations; ambassadors

and visitors from foreign states he greeted with the rhetorical

lucubrations then so much in vogue. The students of the university he

taught in daily lectures, passing in review the weightiest and lightest

authors of antiquity, and pouring forth a flood of miscellaneous

erudition. Not satisfied with these outlets for his mental energy,

Filelfo went on translating from the Greek, and prosecuted a paper

warfare with his enemies in Florence. He wrote, moreover, political

pamphlets on the great events of Italian history; and when

Constantinople was taken by the Turks, he procured the liberation of his

wife's mother by a message addressed in his own name to the sultan. In

addition to a fixed stipend of some 700 golden florins yearly, he was

continually in receipt of special payments for the orations and poems he

produced; so that, had he been a man of frugal habits or of moderate

economy, he might have amassed a considerable fortune. As it was, he

spent his money as fast as he received it, living in a style of

splendour ill befitting a simple scholar, and indulging his taste for

pleasure in more than questionable amusements. In consequence of this

prodigality, he was always poor. His letters and his poems abound in

impudent demands for money from patrons, some of them couched in

language of the lowest adulation, and others savouring of literary

brigandage.

During the second year of his Milanese residence Filelfo lost his first

wife, Theodora. He soon married again; and this time he chose for his

bride a young lady of good Lombard family, called Orsina Osnaga. When

she died he took in wedlock for the third time a woman of Lombard

birth, Laura Magiolini. To all his three wives, in spite of numerous

infidelities, he seems to have been warmly attached; and this is perhaps

the best trait in a character otherwise more remarkable for arrogance

and heat than for any amiable qualities.

On the death of Filippo Maria Visconti, Filelfo, after a short

hesitation, transferred his allegiance to Francesco Sforza, the new duke

of Milan; and in order to curry favour with this parvenu, he began his

ponderous epic, the _Sforziad_, of which 12,800 lines were written, but

which was never published. When Francesco Sforza died, Filelfo turned

his thoughts towards Rome. He was now an old man of seventy-seven years,

honoured with the friendship of princes, recognized as the most

distinguished of Italian humanists, courted by pontiffs, and decorated

with the laurel wreath and the order of knighthood by kings. Crossing

the Apennines and passing through Florence, he reached Rome in the

second week of 1475. The terrible Sixtus IV. now ruled in the Vatican;

and from this pope Filelfo had received an invitation to occupy the

chair of rhetoric with good emoluments. At first he was vastly pleased

with the city and court of Rome; but his satisfaction ere long turned to

discontent, and he gave vent to his ill-humour in a venomous satire on

the pope's treasurer, Milliardo Cicala. Sixtus himself soon fell under

the ban of his displeasure; and when a year had passed he left Rome

never to return. Filelfo reached Milan to find that his wife had died of

the plague in his absence, and was already buried. His own death

followed speedily. For some time past he had been desirous of displaying

his abilities and adding to his fame in Florence. Years had healed the

breach between him and the Medicean family; and on the occasion of the

Pazzi conspiracy against the life of Lorenzo de' Medici, he had sent

violent letters of abuse to his papal patron Sixtus, denouncing his

participation in a plot so dangerous to the security of Italy. Lorenzo

now invited him to profess Greek at Florence, and thither Filelfo

journeyed in 1481. But two weeks after his arrival he succumbed to

dysentery, and was buried at the age of eighty-three in the church of

the Annunziata.

Filelfo deserves commemoration among the greatest humanists of the

Italian Renaissance, not for the beauty of his style, not for the

elevation of his genius, not for the accuracy of his learning, but for

his energy, and for his complete adaptation to the times in which he

lived. His erudition was large but ill-digested; his knowledge of the

ancient authors, if extensive, was superficial; his style was vulgar; he

had no brilliancy of imagination, no pungency of epigram, no grandeur of

rhetoric. Therefore he has left nothing to posterity which the world

would not very willingly let die. But in his own days he did excellent

service to learning by his untiring activity, and by the facility with

which he used his stores of knowledge. It was an age of accumulation and

preparation, when the world was still amassing and cataloguing the

fragments rescued from the wrecks of Greece and Rome. Men had to receive

the very rudiments of culture before they could appreciate its niceties.

And in this work of collection and instruction Filelfo excelled, passing

rapidly from place to place, stirring up the zeal for learning by the

passion of his own enthusiastic temperament, and acting as a pioneer for

men like Poliziano and Erasmus.

All that is worth knowing about Filelfo is contained in Carlo de'

Rosmini's admirable _Vita di Filelfo_ (Milan, 1808); see also W.

Roscoe's _Life of Lorenzo de' Medici_, Vespasiano's _Vite di uomini

illustri_, and J.A. Symonds's _Renaissance in Italy_ (1877). (J. A. S.)

A complete edition of Filelfo's Greek letters (based on the Codex

Trevulzianus) was published for the first time, with French

translation, notes and commentaries, by E. Legrand in 1892 at Paris

(C. xii. of _Publications de l'ecole des lang. orient._). For further

references, especially to monographs, &c., on Filelfo's life and work,

see Ulysse Chevalier, _Repertoire des sources hist.,

bio-bibliographie_ (Paris, 1905), s.v. _Philelphe, Francois_.

FILEY, a seaside resort in the Buckrose parliamentary division of the

East Riding of Yorkshire, England, 9-1/2 m. S.E. of Scarborough by a

branch of the North Eastern railway. Pop. of urban district (1901) 3003.

It stands upon the slope and summit of the cliffs above Filey Bay, which

is fringed by a fine sandy beach. The northern horn of the bay is

formed by Filey Brigg, a narrow and abrupt promontory, continued seaward

by dangerous reefs. The coast-line sweeps hence south-eastward to the

finer promontory of Flamborough Head, beyond which is the watering-place

of Bridlington. The church of St Oswald at Filey is a fine cruciform

building with central tower, Transitional Norman and Early English in

date. There are pleasant promenades and good golf links, also a small

spa which has fallen into disuse. Filey is in favour with visitors who

desire a quiet resort without the accompaniment of entertainment common

to the larger watering-places. Roman remains have been discovered on the

cliff north of the town; the site was probably important, but nothing is

certainly known about it.

FILIBUSTER, a name originally given to the buccaneers (q.v.). The term

is derived most probably from the Dutch _vry buiter_, Ger. _Freibeuter_,

Eng. _freebooter_, the word changing first into _fribustier_, and then

into Fr. _flibustier_, Span. _filibustero_. _Flibustier_ has passed into

the French language, and _filibustero_ into the Spanish language, as a

general name for a pirate. The term "filibuster" was revived in America

to designate those adventurers who, after the termination of the war

between Mexico and the United States, organized expeditions within the

United States to take part in West Indian and Central American

revolutions. From this has sprung the modern use of the word to imply

one who engages in private, unauthorized and irregular warfare against

any state. In the United States it is colloquially applied to

legislators who practise obstruction.

FILICAJA, VINCENZO DA (1642-1707), Italian poet, sprung from an ancient

and noble family of Florence, was born in that city on the 30th of

December 1642. From an incidental notice in one of his letters, stating

the amount of house rent paid during his childhood, his parents must

have been in easy circumstances, and the supposition is confirmed by the

fact that he enjoyed all the advantages of a liberal education, first

under the Jesuits of Florence, and then in the university of Pisa.

At Pisa his mind became stored, not only with the results of patient

study in various branches of letters, but with the great historical

associations linked with the former glory of the Pisan republic, and

with one remarkable institution of which Pisa was the seat. To the

tourist who now visits Pisa the banners and emblems of the order of St

Stephen are mere matter of curiosity, but they had a serious

significance two hundred years ago to the young Tuscan, who knew that

these naval crusaders formed the main defence of his country and

commerce against the Turkish, Algerine and Tunisian corsairs. After a

five years' residence in Pisa he returned to Florence, where he married

Anna, daughter of the senator and marquis Scipione Capponi, and withdrew

to a small villa at Figline, not far from the city. Abjuring the thought

of writing amatory poetry in consequence of the premature death of a

young lady to whom he had been attached, he occupied himself chiefly

with literary pursuits, above all the composition of Italian and Latin

poetry. His own literary eminence, the opportunities enjoyed by him as a

member of the celebrated Academy Della Crusca for making known his

critical taste and classical knowledge, and the social relations within

the reach of a noble Florentine so closely allied with the great house

of Capponi, sufficiently explain the intimate terms on which he stood

with such eminent men of letters as Magalotti, Menzini, Gori and Redi.

The last-named, the author of _Bacchus in Tuscany_, was not only one of

the most brilliant poets of his time, and a safe literary adviser; he

was the court physician, and his court influence was employed with zeal

and effect in his friend's favour. Filicaja's rural seclusion was owing

even more to his straitened means than to his rural tastes. If he ceased

at length to pine in obscurity, the change was owing not merely to the

fact that his poetical genius, fired by the deliverance of Vienna from

the Turks in 1683, poured forth the right strains at the right time, but

also to the influence of Redi, who not only laid Filicaja's verses

before his own sovereign, but had them transmitted with the least

possible delay to the foreign princes whose noble deeds they sung. The

first recompense came, however, not from those princes, but from

Christina, the ex-queen of Sweden, who, from her circle of savants and

courtiers at Rome, spontaneously and generously announced to Filicaja

her wish to bear the expense of educating his two sons, enhancing her

kindness by the delicate request that it should remain a secret.

The tide of Filicaja's fortunes now turned. The grand-duke of Tuscany,

Cosmo III., conferred on him an important office, the commissionership

of official balloting. He was named governor of Volterra in 1696, where

he strenuously exerted himself to raise the tone of public morality.

Both there and at Pisa, where he was subsequently governor in 1700, his

popularity was so great that on his removal the inhabitants of both

cities petitioned for his recall. He passed the close of his life at

Florence; the grand-duke raised him to the rank of senator, and he died

in that city on the 24th of September 1707. He was buried in the family

vault in the church of St Peter, and a monument was erected to his

memory by his sole surviving son Scipione Filicaja. In the six

celebrated odes inspired by the great victory of Sobieski, Filicaja took

a lyrical flight which has placed him at moments on a level with the

greatest Italian poets. They are, however, unequal, like all his poetry,

reflecting in some passages the native vigour of his genius and purest

inspirations of his tastes, whilst in others they are deformed by the

affectations of the _Seicentisti_. When thoroughly natural and

spontaneous--as in the two sonnets "Italia, Italia, o tu cui feo la

sorte" and "Dov' e, Italia, il tuo braccio? e a che ti serve;" in the

verses "Alla beata Vergine," "Al divino amore;" in the sonnet "Sulla

fede nelle disgrazie"--the truth and beauty of thought and language

recall the verse of Petrarch.

Besides the poems published in the complete Venice edition of 1762,

several other pieces appeared for the first time in the small Florence

edition brought out by Barbera in 1864.

FILIGREE (formerly written _filigrain_ or _filigrane_; the Ital.

_filigrana_, Fr. _filigrane_, Span, _filigrana_, Ger. _Drahtgeflecht_),

jewel work of a delicate kind made with twisted threads usually of gold

and silver. The word, which is usually derived from the Lat. _filum_,

thread, and _granum_, grain, is not found in Ducange, and is indeed of

modern origin. According to Prof. Skeat it is derived from the Span.

_filigrana_, from "_filar_, to spin, and _grano_, the grain or principal

fibre of the material." Though filigree has become a special branch of

jewel work in modern times it was anciently part of the ordinary work of

the jeweller. Signor A. Castellani states, in his _Memoir on the

Jewellery of the Ancients_ (1861), that all the jewelry of the Etruscans

and Greeks (other than that intended for the grave, and therefore of an

unsubstantial character) was made by soldering together and so building

up the gold rather than by chiselling or engraving the material.

The art may be said to consist in curling, twisting and plaiting fine

pliable threads of metal, and uniting them at their points of contact

with each other, and with the ground, by means of gold or silver solder

and borax, by the help of the blowpipe. Small grains or beads of the

same metals are often set in the eyes of volutes, on the junctions, or

at intervals at which they will set off the wire-work effectively. The

more delicate work is generally protected by framework of stouter wire.

Brooches, crosses, earrings and other personal ornaments of modern

filigree are generally surrounded and subdivided by bands of square or

flat metal, giving consistency to the filling up, which would not

otherwise keep its proper shape. Some writers of repute have laid equal

stress on the _filum_ and the _granum_, and have extended the use of the

term filigree to include the granulated work of the ancients, even where

the twisted wire-work is entirely wanting. Such a wide application of

the term is not approved by current usage, according to which the

presence of the twisted threads is the predominant fact.

The Egyptian jewellers employed wire, both to lay down on a background

and to plait or otherwise arrange _a jour_. But, with the exception of

chains, it cannot be said that filigree work was much practised by them.

Their strength lay rather in their cloisonne work and their moulded

ornaments. Many examples, however, remain of round plaited gold chains

of fine wire, such as are still made by the filigree workers of India,

and known as Trichinopoly chains. From some of these are hung smaller

chains of finer wire with minute fishes and other pendants fastened to

them. In ornaments derived from Phoenician sites, such as Cyprus and

Sardinia, patterns of gold wire are laid down with great delicacy on a

gold ground, but the art was advanced to its highest perfection in the

Greek and Etruscan filigree of the 6th to the 3rd centuries B.C. A

number of earrings and other personal ornaments found in central Italy

are preserved in the Louvre and in the British Museum. Almost all of

them are made of filigree work. Some earrings are in the form of flowers

of geometric design, bordered by one or more rims each made up of minute

volutes of gold wire, and this kind of ornament is varied by slight

differences in the way of disposing the number or arrangement of the

volutes. But the feathers and petals of modern Italian filigree are not

seen in these ancient designs. Instances occur, but only rarely, in

which filigree devices in wire are self-supporting and not applied to

metal plates. The museum of the Hermitage at St Petersburg contains an

amazingly rich collection of jewelry from the tombs of the Crimea. Many

bracelets and necklaces in that collection are made of twisted wire,

some in as many as seven rows of plaiting, with clasps in the shape of

heads of animals of beaten work. Others are strings of large beads of

gold, decorated with volutes, knots and other patterns of wire soldered

over the surfaces. (See the _Antiquites du Bosphore Cimmerien_, by

Gille, 1854; reissued by S. Reinach, 1892, in which will be found

careful engravings of these objects.) In the British Museum a sceptre,

probably that of a Greek priestess, is covered with plaited and netted

gold wire, finished with a sort of Corinthian capital and a boss of

green glass.

It is probable that in India and various parts of central Asia filigree

has been worked from the most remote period without any change in the

designs. Whether the Asiatic jewellers were influenced by the Greeks

settled on that continent, or merely trained under traditions held in

common with them, it is certain that the Indian filigree workers retain

the same patterns as those of the ancient Greeks, and work them in the

same way, down to the present day. Wandering workmen are given so much

gold, coined or rough, which is weighed, heated in a pan of charcoal,

beaten into wire, and then worked in the courtyard or verandah of the

employer's house according to the designs of the artist, who weighs the

complete work on restoring it and is paid at a specified rate for his

labour. Very fine grains or beads and spines of gold, scarcely thicker

than coarse hair, projecting from plates of gold are methods of

ornamentation still used.

Passing to later times we may notice in many collections of medieval

jewel work (such as that in the South Kensington Museum) reliquaries,

covers for the gospels, &c., made either in Constantinople from the 6th

to the 12th centuries, or in monasteries in Europe, in which Byzantine

goldsmiths' work was studied and imitated. These objects, besides being

enriched with precious stones, polished, but not cut into facets, and

with enamel, are often decorated with filigree. Large surfaces of gold

are sometimes covered with scrolls of filigree soldered on; and corner

pieces of the borders of book covers, or the panels of reliquaries, are

not unfrequently made up of complicated pieces of plaited work

alternating with spaces encrusted with enamel. Byzantine filigree work

occasionally has small stones set amongst the curves or knots. Examples

of such decoration can be seen in the South Kensington and British

Museums.

In the north of Europe the Saxons, Britons and Celts were from an early

period skilful in several kinds of goldsmiths' work. Admirable examples

of filigree patterns laid down in wire on gold, from Anglo-Saxon tombs,

may be seen in the British Museum--notably a brooch from Dover, and a

sword-hilt from Cumberland.

The Irish filigree work is more thoughtful in design and more varied in

pattern than that of any period or country that could be named. Its

highest perfection must be placed in the 10th and 11th centuries. The

Royal Irish Academy in Dublin contains a number of reliquaries and

personal jewels, of which filigree is the general and most remarkable

ornament. The "Tara" brooch has been copied and imitated, and the shape

and decoration of it are well known. Instead of fine curls or volutes

of gold thread, the Irish filigree is varied by numerous designs in

which one thread can be traced through curious knots and complications,

which, disposed over large surfaces, balance one another, but always

with special varieties and arrangements difficult to trace with the eye.

The long thread appears and disappears without breach of continuity, the

two ends generally worked into the head and the tail of a serpent or a

monster. The reliquary containing the "Bell of St Patrick" is covered

with knotted work in many varieties. A two-handled chalice, called the

"Ardagh cup," found near Limerick in 1868, is ornamented with work of

this kind of extraordinary fineness. Twelve plaques on a band round the

body of the vase, plaques on each handle and round the foot of the vase

have a series of different designs of characteristic patterns, in fine

filigree wire work wrought on the front of the repousse ground. (See a

paper by the 3rd earl of Dunraven in _Transactions of Royal Irish

Academy_, xxiv. pt. iii. 1873.)

Much of the medieval jewel work all over Europe down to the 15th

century, on reliquaries, crosses, croziers and other ecclesiastical

goldsmiths' work, is set off with bosses and borders of filigree.

Filigree work in silver was practised by the Moors of Spain during the

middle ages with great skill, and was introduced by them and established

all over the Peninsula, whence it was carried to the Spanish colonies in

America. The Spanish filigree work of the 17th and 18th centuries is of

extraordinary complexity (examples in the Victoria and Albert Museum),

and silver filigree jewelry of delicate and artistic design is still

made in considerable quantities throughout the country. The manufacture

spread over the Balearic Islands, and among the populations that border

the Mediterranean. It is still made all over Italy, and in Malta,

Albania, the Ionian Islands and many other parts of Greece. That of the

Greeks is sometimes on a large scale, with several thicknesses of wires

alternating with larger and smaller bosses and beads, sometimes set with

turquoises, &c., and mounted on convex plates, making rich ornamental

headpieces, belts and breast ornaments. Filigree silver buttons of

wire-work and small bosses are worn by the peasants in most of the

countries that produce this kind of jewelry. Silver filigree brooches

and buttons are also made in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Little chains

and pendants are added to much of this northern work.

Some very curious filigree work was brought from Abyssinia after the

capture of Magdala--arm-guards, slippers, cups, &c., some of which are

now in the South Kensington Museum. They are made of thin plates of

silver, over which the wire-work is soldered. The filigree is subdivided

by narrow borders of simple pattern, and the intervening spaces are made

up of many patterns, some with grains set at intervals.

A few words must be added as to the granulated work which, as stated

above, some writers have classed under the term of filigree, although

the twisted wires may be altogether wanting. Such decoration consists of

minute globules of gold, soldered to form patterns on a metal surface.

Its use is rare in Egypt. (See J. de Morgan, _Fouilles a Dahchour_,

1894-1895, pl. xii.) It occurs in Cyprus at an early period, as for

instance on a gold pendant in the British Museum from Enkomi in Cyprus

(10th century B.C.). The pendant is in the form of a pomegranate, and

has upon it a pattern of triangles, formed by more than 3000 minute

globules separately soldered on. It also occurs on ornaments of the 7th

century B.C. from Camirus in Rhodes. But these globules are large,

compared with those which are found on Etruscan jewelry. Signor

Castellani, who had made the antique jewelry of the Etruscans and Greeks

his special study, with the intention of reproducing the ancient models,

found it for a long time impossible to revive this particular process of

delicate soldering. He overcame the difficulty at last, by the discovery

of a traditional school of craftsmen at St Angelo in Vado, by whose help

his well-known reproductions were executed.

For examples of antique work the student should examine the gold

ornament rooms of the British Museum, the Louvre and the collection

in the Victoria and Albert Museum. The last contains a large and very

varied assortment of modern Italian, Spanish, Greek and other jewelry

made for the peasants of various countries. It also possesses

interesting examples of the modern work in granulated gold by

Castellani and Giuliano. The Celtic work is well represented in the

Royal Irish Academy in Dublin.

FILLAN, SAINT, or FAELAN, the name of the two Scottish saints, of Irish

origin, whose lives are of a purely legendary character. The St Fillan

whose feast is kept on the 20th of June had churches dedicated to his

honour at Ballyheyland, Queen's county, Ireland, and at Loch Earn,

Perthshire. The other, who is commemorated on the 9th of January, was

specially venerated at Cluain Mavscua, Co. Westmeath, Ireland, and so

early as the 8th or 9th century at Strathfillan, Perthshire, Scotland,

where there was an ancient monastery dedicated to him, which, like most

of the religious houses of early times, was afterwards secularized. The

lay-abbot, who was its superior in the reign of William the Lion, held

high rank in the Scottish kingdom. This monastery was restored in the

reign of Robert Bruce, and became a cell of the abbey of canons regular

at Inchaffray. The new foundation received a grant from King Robert, in

gratitude for the aid which he was supposed to have obtained from a

relic of the saint on the eve of the great victory of Bannockburn.

Another relic was the saint's staff or crozier, which became known as

the coygerach or quigrich, and was long in the possession of a family of

the name of Jore or Dewar, who were its hereditary guardians. They

certainly had it in their custody in the year 1428, and their right was

formally recognized by King James III. in 1487. The head of the crozier,

which is of silver-gilt with a smaller crozier of bronze inclosed within

it, is now deposited in the National Museum of the Society of

Antiquaries of Scotland.

The legend of the second of these saints is given in the Bollandist

_Acta SS._ (1643), 9th of January, i. 594-595; A.P. Forbes, _Kalendars

of Scottish Saints_ (Edinburgh, 1872), pp. 341-346; D. O'Hanlon's

_Lives of Irish Saints_ (Dublin), n.d. pp. 134-144. See also

_Historical Notices of St Fillan's Crozier_, by Dr John Stuart

(Aberdeen, 1877).

FILLET (through Fr. _filet_, from the med. Lat. _filettum_, diminutive

of _filum_, a thread), a band or ribbon used for tying the hair, the

Lat. _vitta_, which was used as a sacrificial emblem, and also worn by

vestal virgins, brides and poets. The word is thus applied to anything

in the shape of a band or strip, as, in coining, to the metal ribbon

from which the blanks are punched. In architecture, a "fillet" is a

narrow flat band, sometimes called a "listel," which is used to separate

mouldings one from the other, or to terminate a suite of mouldings as at

the top of a cornice. In the fluted column of the Ionic and Corinthian

Orders the fillet is employed between the flutes. It is a very important

feature in Gothic work, being frequently worked on large mouldings; when

placed on the front and sides of the moulding of a rib it has been

termed the "keel and wings" of the rib.

In cooking, "fillet" is used of the "undercut" of a sirloin of beef, or

of a thick slice of fish or meat; more particularly of a boned and

rolled piece of veal or other meat, tied by a "fillet" or string.

FILLMORE, MILLARD (1800-1874), thirteenth president of the United States

of America, came of a family of English stock, which had early settled

in New England. His father, Nathaniel, in 1795, made a clearing within

the limits of what is now the town of Summerhill, Cayuga county, New

York, and there Millard Fillmore was born, on the 7th of January 1800.

Until he was fifteen he could have acquired only the simplest rudiments

of education, and those chiefly from his parents. At that age he was

apprenticed to a fuller and clothier, to card wool, and to dye and dress

the cloth. Two years before the close of his term, with a promissory

note for thirty dollars, he bought the remainder of his time from his

master, and at the age of nineteen began to study law. In 1820 he made

his way to Buffalo, then only a village, and supported himself by

teaching school and aiding the postmaster while continuing his studies.

In 1823 he was admitted to the bar, and began practice at Aurora, New

York, to which place his father had removed. Hard study, temperance and

integrity gave him a good reputation and moderate success, and in 1827

he was made an attorney and, in 1829, counsellor of the supreme court

of the state. Returning to Buffalo in 1830 he formed, in 1832, a

partnership with Nathan K. Hall (1810-1874), later a member of Congress

and postmaster-general in his cabinet. Solomon G. Haven (1810-1861),

member of Congress from 1851 to 1857, joined them in 1836. The firm met

with great success. From 1829 to 1832 Fillmore served in the state

assembly, and, in the single term of 1833-1835, the national House of

Representatives, coming in as anti-Jackson, or in opposition to the

administration. From 1837 to 1843, when he declined further service, he

again represented his district in the House, this time as a member of

the Whig party. In Congress he opposed the annexation of Texas as slave

territory, was an advocate of internal improvements and a protective

tariff, supported J.Q. Adams in maintaining the right of offering

anti-slavery petitions, advocated the prohibition by Congress of the

slave trade between the states, and favoured the exclusion of slavery

from the District of Columbia. His speech and tone, however, were

moderate on these exciting subjects, and he claimed the right to stand

free of pledges, and to adjust his opinions and his course by the

development of circumstances. The Whigs having the ascendancy in the

Twenty-Seventh Congress, he was made chairman of the House Committee of

Ways and Means. Against a strong opposition he carried an appropriation

of $30,000 to Morse's telegraph, and reported from his committee the

Tariff Bill of 1842. In 1844 he was the Whig candidate for the

governorship of New York, but was defeated. In November 1847 he was

elected comptroller of the state of New York, and in 1848 he was elected

vice-president of the United States on the ticket with Zachary Taylor as

president. Fillmore presided over the senate during the exciting debates

on the "Compromise Measures of 1850."

President Taylor died on the 9th of July 1850, and on the next day

Fillmore took the oath of office as his successor. The cabinet which he

called around him contained Daniel Webster, Thomas Corwin and John J.

Crittenden. On the death of Webster in 1852, Edward Everett became

secretary of state. Unlike Taylor, Fillmore favoured the "Compromise

Measures," and his signing one of them, the Fugitive Slave Law, in spite

of the vigorous protests of anti-slavery men, lost him much of his

popularity in the North. Few of his opponents, however, questioned his

own full persuasion that the Compromise Measures were vitally necessary

to pacify the nation. In 1851 he interposed promptly but ineffectively

in thwarting the projects of the "filibusters," under Narciso Lopez for

the invasion of Cuba. Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry's expedition,

which opened up diplomatic relations with Japan, and the exploration of

the valley of the Amazon by Lieutenants William L. Herndon (1813-1857)

and Lardner Gibbon also occurred during his term. In the autumn of 1852

he was an unsuccessful candidate for nomination for the presidency by

the Whig National Convention, and he went out of office on the 4th of

March 1853. In February 1856, while he was travelling abroad, he was

nominated for the presidency by the American or Know Nothing party, and

later this nomination was also accepted by the Whigs; but in the ensuing

presidential election, the last in which the Know Nothings and the Whigs

as such took any part, he received the electoral votes of only one

state, Maryland. Thereafter he took no public share in political

affairs. Fillmore was twice married: in 1826 to Abigail Powers (who died

in 1853, leaving him with a son and daughter), and in 1858 to Mrs.

Caroline C. Mclntosh. He died at Buffalo on the 8th of March 1874.

In 1907 the Buffalo Historical Society, of which Fillmore was one of

the founders and the first president, published the _Millard Fillmore

Papers_ (2 vols., vol. x. and xi. of the Society's publications;

edited by F.H. Severance), containing miscellaneous writings and

speeches, and official and private correspondence. Most of his

correspondence, however, was destroyed in pursuance of a direction in

his son's will.

FILMER, SIR RORERT (d. 1653), English political writer, was the son of

Sir Edward Filmer of East Sutton in Kent. He studied at Trinity College,

Cambridge, where he matriculated in 1604. Knighted by Charles I. at the

beginning of his reign, he was an ardent supporter of the king's cause,

and his house is said to have been plundered by the parliamentarians ten

times. He died on the 26th of May 1653.

Filmer was already a middle-aged man when the great controversy between

the king and the Commons roused him into literary activity. His writings

afford an exceedingly curious example of the doctrines held by the most

extreme section of the Divine Right party. Filmer's theory is founded

upon the statement that the government of a family by the father is the

true original and model of all government. In the beginning of the world

God gave authority to Adam, who had complete control over his

descendants, even as to life and death. From Adam this authority was

inherited by Noah; and Filmer quotes as not unlikely the tradition that

Noah sailed up the Mediterranean and allotted the three continents of

the Old World to the rule of his three sons. From Shem, Ham and Japheth

the patriarchs inherited the absolute power which they exercised over

their families and servants; and from the patriarchs all kings and

governors (whether a single monarch or a governing assembly) derive

their authority, which is therefore absolute, and founded upon divine

right. The difficulty that a man "by the secret will of God may

unjustly" attain to power which he has not inherited appeared to Filmer

in no way to alter the nature of the power so obtained, for "there is,

and always shall be continued to the end of the world, a natural right

of a supreme father over every multitude." The king is perfectly free

from all human control. He cannot be bound by the acts of his

predecessors, for which he is not responsible; nor by his own, for

"impossible it is in nature that a man should give a law unto

himself"--a law must be imposed by another than the person bound by it.

With regard to the English constitution, he asserted, in his

_Freeholder's Grand Inquest touching our Sovereign Lord the King and his

Parliament_ (1648), that the Lords only give counsel to the king, the

Commons only "perform and consent to the ordinances of parliament," and

the king alone is the maker of laws, which proceed purely from his will.

It is monstrous that the people should judge or depose their king, for

they would then be judges in their own cause.

The most complete expression of Filmer's opinions is given in the

_Patriarcha_, which was published in 1680, many years after his death.

His position, however, was sufficiently indicated by the works which he

published during his lifetime: the _Anarchy of a Limited and Mixed

Monarchy_ (1648), an attack upon a treatise on monarchy by Philip Hunton

(1604?-1682), who maintained that the king's prerogative is not superior

to the authority of the houses of parliament; the pamphlet entitled _The

Power of Kings, and in particular of the King of England_ (1648), first

published in 1680; and his _Observations upon Mr Hobbes's Leviathan, Mr

Milton against Salmasius, and H. Grotius De jure belli et pacis,

concerning the Originall of Government_ (1652). Filmer's theory, owing

to the circumstances of the time, obtained a recognition which it is now

difficult to understand. Nine years after the publication of the

_Patriarcha_, at the time of the Revolution which banished the Stuarts

from the throne, Locke singled out Filmer as the most remarkable of the

advocates of Divine Right, and thought it worth while to attack him

expressly in the first part of the _Treatise on Government_, going into

all his arguments _seriatim_, and especially pointing out that even if

the first steps of his argument be granted, the rights of the eldest

born have been so often set aside that modern kings can claim no such

inheritance of authority as he asserted.

FILMY FERNS, a general name for a group of ferns with delicate

much-divided leaves and often moss-like growth, belonging to the genera

_Hymenophyllum_, _Todea_ and _Trichomanes_. They require to be kept in

close cases in a cool fernery, and the stones and moss amongst which

they are grown must be kept continually moist so that the evaporated

water condenses on the very numerous divisions of the leaves.

FILON, PIERRE MARIE AUGUSTIN (1841- ), French man of letters, son of

the historian Charles Auguste Desire Filon (1800-1875), was born in

Paris in 1841. His father became professor of history at Douai, and

eventually "_inspecteur d'academie_" in Paris; his principal works were

_Histoire comparee de France et de l'Angleterre_ (1832), _Histoire de

l'Europe au XVI^e siecle_ (1838), _La Diplomatie francaise sous Louis

XV_ (1843), _Histoire de l'Italie meridionale_ (1849), _Histoire du

senat romain_ (1850), _Histoire de la democratie athenienne_ (1854).

Educated at the Ecole normale, Augustin Filon was appointed tutor to the

prince imperial and accompanied him to England, where he remained for

some years. He is the author of _Guy Patin, sa vie, sa correspondance_

(1862); _Nos grands-peres_ (1887); _Prosper Merimee_ (1894); _Sous la

tyrannie_ (1900). On English subjects he has written chiefly under the

pseudonym of Pierre Sandrie, _Les Mariages de Londres_ (1875); _Histoire

de la litterature anglaise_ (1883); _Le Theatre anglais_ (1896), and _La

Caricature en Angleterre_ (1902).

FILOSA (A. Lang), one of the two divisions of Rhizopoda, characterized

by protoplasm granular at the surface, and fine pseudopodia branching

and usually acutely pointed at the tips.

FILTER (a word common in various forms to most European languages,

adapted from the medieval Lat. _filtrum_, felt, a material used as a

filtering agent), an arrangement for separating solid matter from

liquids. In some cases the operation of filtration is performed for the

sake of removing impurities from the filtrate or liquid filtered, as in

the purification of water for drinking purposes; in others the aim is to

recover and collect the solid matter, as when the chemist filters off a

precipitate from the liquid in which it is suspended.

In regard to the purification of water, filtration was long looked upon

as merely a mechanical process of straining out the solid particles,

whereby a turbid water could be rendered clear. In the course of time it

was noticed that certain materials, such as charcoal, had the power to

some extent also of softening hard water and of removing organic matter,

and at the beginning of the 19th century charcoal, both animal and

vegetable, came into use for filtering purposes. Porous carbon blocks,

made by strongly heating a mixture of powdered charcoal with oil, resin,

&c., were introduced about a generation later, and subsequently various

preparations of iron (spongy iron, magnetic oxide) found favour.

Innumerable forms of filters made with these and other materials were

put on the market, and were extolled as removing impurities of every

kind from water, and as affording complete protection against the

communication of disease. But whatever merits they had as clarifiers of

turbid water, the advent of bacteriology, and the recognition of the

fact that the bacteria of certain diseases may be water-borne,

introduced a new criterion of effectiveness, and it was perceived that

the removal of solid particles, or even of organic impurities (which

were realized to be important not so much because they are dangerous to

health _per se_ as because their presence affords grounds for suspecting

that the water in which they occur has been exposed to circumstances

permitting contamination with infective disease), was not sufficient;

the filter must also prevent the passage of pathogenic organisms, and so

render the water sterile bacteriologically. Examined from this point of

view the majority of domestic filters were found to be gravely

defective, and even to be worse than useless, since unless they were

frequently and thoroughly cleansed, they were liable to become

favourable breeding-places for microbes. The first filter which was more

or less completely impermeable to bacteria was the Pasteur-Chamberland,

which was devised in Pasteur's laboratory, and is made of dense biscuit

porcelain. The filtering medium in this, as in other filters of the same

kind, takes the form of a hollow cylinder or "candle," through the walls

of which the water has to pass from the outside to the inside, the

candles often being arranged so that they may be directly attached to a

tap, whereby the rate of flow, which is apt to be slow, is accelerated

by the pressure of the main. But even filters of this type, if they are

to be fully relied upon, must be frequently cleaned and sterilized, and

great care must be taken that the joints and connexions are watertight,

and that the candles are without cracks or flaws. In cases where the

water supply is known to be infected, or even where it is merely

doubtful, it is wise to have recourse to sterilization by boiling,

rather than trust to any filter. Various machines have been constructed

to perform this operation, some of them specially designed for the use

of troops in the field; those in which economy of fuel is studied have

an exchange-heater, by means of which the incoming cold water receives

heat from the outgoing hot water, which thus arrives at the point of

outflow at a temperature nearly as low as that of the supply. Chemical

methods of sterilization have also been suggested, depending on the use

of iodine, chlorine, bromine, ozone, potassium permanganate, copper

sulphate or chloride and other substances. For the sand-filtration of

water on a large scale, in which the presence of a surface film

containing zooglaea of bacteria is an essential feature, see WATER

SUPPLY.

Filtration in the chemical laboratory is commonly effected by the aid of

a special kind of unsized paper, which in the more expensive varieties

is practically pure cellulose, impurities like ferric oxide, alumina,

lime, magnesia and silica having been removed by treatment with

hydrochloric and hydrofluoric acids. A circular piece of this paper is

folded twice upon itself so as to form a quadrant, one of the folds is

pulled out, and the cone thus obtained is supported in a glass or

porcelain funnel having an apical angle of 60 deg. The liquid to be

filtered is poured into the cone, preferably down a glass rod upon the

sides of the funnel to prevent splashing and to preserve the apex of the

filter-paper, and passes through the paper, upon which the solid matter

is retained. In the case of liquids containing strong acids or alkalis,

which the paper cannot withstand, a plug of carefully purified asbestos

or glass-wool (spun glass) is often employed, contained in a bulb blown

as an enlargement on a narrow "filter-tube." To accelerate the rate of

filtration various devices are resorted to, such as lengthening the tube

below the filtering material, increasing the pressure on the liquid

being filtered, or decreasing it in the receiver of the filtrate. R.W.

Bunsen may be regarded as the originator of the second method, and it

was he who devised the small cone of platinum foil, sometimes replaced

by a cone of parchment perforated with pinholes, arranged at the apex of

the funnel to serve as a support for the paper, which is apt to burst

under the pressure differences. In the so-called "Buchner funnel," the

filtering vessel is cylindrical, and the paper receives support by being

laid upon its flat perforated bottom. In filtering into a vacuum the

flask receiving the filtrate should be connected to the exhaust through

a second flask. The suction may be derived from any form of air-pump; a

form often employed where water at fair pressure is available is the

jet-pump, which in consequence is known as a filter-pump. Another method

of filtering into a vacuum is to immerse a porous jar ("Pukall cell") in

the liquid to be filtered, and attach a suction-pipe to its interior. A

filtering arrangement devised by F.C. Gooch, which has come into common

use in quantitative analysis where the solid matter has to be submitted

to heating or ignition, consists of a crucible having a perforated

bottom. By means of a piece of stretched rubber tubing, this crucible is

supported in the mouth of an ordinary funnel which is connected with an

exhausting apparatus; and water holding in suspension fine scrapings of

asbestos, purified by boiling with strong hydrochloric acid and washing

with water, is run through it, so that the perforated bottom is covered

with a layer of felted asbestos. The crucible is then removed from the

rubber support, weighed and replaced; the liquid is filtered through in

the ordinary way; and the crucible with its contents is again removed,

dried, ignited and weighed. A perforated cone, similarly coated with

asbestos and fitted into a conical funnel, is sometimes employed.

In many processes of chemical technology filtration plays an important

part. A crude method consists of straining the liquid through cotton or

other cloth, either stretched on wooden frames or formed into long

narrow bags ("bag-filters"). Occasionally filtration into a vacuum is

practised, but more often, as in filter-presses, the liquid is forced

under pressure, either hydrostatic or obtained from a force-pump or

compressed air, into a series of chambers partitioned off by cloth,

which arrests the solids, but permits the passage of the liquid

portions. For separating liquids from solids of a fibrous or crystalline

character "hydro-extractors" or "centrifugals" are frequently employed.

The material is placed in a perforated cage or "basket," which is

enclosed in an outer casing, and when the cage is rapidly rotated by

suitable gearing, the liquid portions are forced out into the external

casing.

FIMBRIA, GAIUS FLAVIUS (d. 84 B.C.), Roman soldier and a violent

partisan of Marius. He was sent to Asia in 86 B.C. as legate to L.

Valerius Flaccus, but quarrelled with him and was dismissed. Taking

advantage of the absence of Flaccus at Chalcedon and the discontent

aroused by his avarice and severity, Fimbria stirred up a revolt and

slew Flaccus at Nicomedia. He then assumed the command of the army and

obtained several successes against Mithradates, whom he shut up in

Pitane on the coast of Aeolis, and would undoubtedly have captured him

had Lucullus co-operated with the fleet. Fimbria treated most cruelly

all the people of Asia who had revolted from Rome or sided with Sulla.

Having gained admission to Ilium by declaring that, as a Roman, he was

friendly, he massacred the inhabitants and burnt the place to the

ground. But in 84 Sulla crossed over from Greece to Asia, made peace

with Mithradates, and turned his arms against Fimbria, who, seeing that

there was no chance of escape, committed suicide. His troops were made

to serve in Asia till the end of the third Mithradatic War.

See ROME: HISTORY; and arts, on SULLA and MARIUS.

FIMBRIATE (from Lat. _fimbriae_, fringe), a zoological and botanical

term, meaning fringed. In heraldry, "fimbriate" or "fimbriated" refers

to a narrow edge or border running round a bearing.

FINALE (Ital. for "end"), a term in music for the concluding movement in

an instrumental composition, whether symphony, concerto or sonata, and,

in dramatic music, the concerted piece which ends each act. Of

instrumental finales, the great choral finale to Beethoven's 9th

symphony, and of operatic finales, that of Mozart's _Nozze di Figaro_,

to the second act, and to the last act of Verdi's _Falstaff_ may be

mentioned. In the Wagnerian opera the finale has no place.

FINANCE. The term "finance," which comes into English through French, in

its original meaning denoted a payment (_finatio_). In the later middle

ages, especially in Germany, it acquired the sense of usurious or

oppressive dealing with money and capital. The specialized use of the

word as equivalent to the management of the public expenditure and

receipts first became prominent in France during the 16th century and

quickly spread to other countries. The plural form (_Les Finances_) was

particularly reserved for this application, while the singular came to

denote business activity in respect to monetary dealings (as in the

expression _la haute finance_). For the Germans the phrase "science of

finance" (_Finanzwissenschaft_) refers exclusively to the economy of the

state. English and American writers are less definite in their

employment of the term, which varies with the convenience of the author.

A work on "finance" may deal with the Money Market or the Stock

Exchange; it may treat of banking and credit organization, or it may be

devoted to state revenue and expenditure, which is on the whole the

prevailing sense. The expressions "science of finance" and "public

finance" have been suggested as suitable to delimit the last mentioned

application. At all events, the broad sense is quite intelligible.

"Financial" means what is concerned with business, and the idea of a

balance between effort and return is also prominent. In the present

article attention will be directed to "public finance"; for the other

aspects of the subject reference may be made (_inter alia_) to the

following:--BANKS AND BANKING; COMPANY; EXCHANGE; MARKET; STOCK

EXCHANGE. See also ENGLISH FINANCE, and the sections on finance under

headings of countries.

Finance, regarded as state house-keeping, or "political economy" (see

ECONOMICS) in the older sense of the term, deals with (1) the

expenditure of the state; (2) state revenues; (3) the balance between

expenditure and receipts; (4) the organization which collects and

applies the public funds. Each of these large divisions presents a

series of problems of which the practical treatment is illustrated in

the financial history of the great nations of the world. Thus the amount

and character of public expenditure necessarily depends on the

functions that the state undertakes to perform--national defence, the

maintenance of internal order, and the efficient equipment of the state

organization; such are the tasks that all governments have to discharge,

and for their cost due provision has to be made. The widening sphere of

state activity, so marked a characteristic of modern civilization,

involves outlay for what may be best described as "developmental"

services. Education, relief of distress, regulation of labour and trade,

are duties now in great part performed by public agencies, and their

increasing prominence involves augmented expense. The first problem on

this side of expenditure is the due balancing of outlay by income. The

financier has to "cover" his outlay. There is, further, the duty of

establishing a proper proportion between the several forms of

expenditure. Not only has there to be a strict control over the total

national expense; supervision has to be carried into each department of

the state. No one branch of public activity is entitled to make

unlimited calls on the state's revenue. The claims of the "expert"

require to be carefully scrutinized. The great financiers have made

their reputation quite as much by rigorous control over extravagance in

expenditure as by dexterity in devising new forms of revenue.

Unfortunately they have not been able to reduce their methods to rule.

As yet no more definite principle has been discovered than the somewhat

obvious one of measuring the proposed items of outlay (1) against each

other, (2) against the sacrifice that additional taxation involves. Of

almost equal importance is the rule that the utmost return is to be

obtained for the given outlay. The canon of _economy_ is as fundamental

in regard to public expenditure as it will appear, later, to be in

respect to revenue. Just application of the outlay of the state, so that

no class receives undue advantage, and the use of public funds for

"reproductive," in preference to "unproductive" objects, are evident

general principles whose difficulty lies in their application to the

circumstances of each particular case.

Far greater progress has been made in the formulation of general canons

as to the nature, growth and treatment of the public revenues.

Historically, there is, first, the tendency towards increase in state

income to balance the advance in outlay. A second general feature is the

relative decline of the receipts from state property and industries in

contrast to the expansion of taxation. Regarded as an organized system,

the body of receipts has to be made conformable to certain general

conditions. Thus there should be revenue sufficient to meet the public

requirements. Otherwise the financial organization has failed in one of

its essential purposes. In order continuously to attain this end, the

revenue must be flexible, or, as is often said, elastic enough to vary

in response to pressure. Frequently recurring deficits are, in

themselves, a condemnation of the methods under which they are found.

Again, the rule of "economy" in raising revenue, or, in other words,

taking as little as possible from the contributors over and above what

the state receives, holds good for the whole and for each part of public

revenue. In like manner the principle of formal justice has the same

claim in respect to revenue as to expenditure. No class of person should

bear more than his or its proper share. In fact the special maxims

usually placed under the head of taxation have really a wider scope as

governing the whole financial system. The recognition of even the most

elementary rules has been a very slow process, as the course of

financial history abundantly proves. Until the 18th century no

scientific treatment of financial problems was attained, though there

had been great advances on the administrative side.

A brief description of the historical evolution of the earlier financial

forms will be the most effective illustration of this statement. The

theory of well-organized public finance is also discussed under TAXATION

and NATIONAL DEBT.

The earliest forms of public revenue are those obtained from the

property of the chief or ruler. Land, cattle and slaves are the

principal kinds of wealth, and they are all constituents of the king's

revenue; enforced work contributed by members of the community, and the

furnishing commodities on requisition, further aid in the maintenance

of the primitive state. Financial organization makes its earliest

appearance in the great Eastern monarchies, in which tribute was

regularly collected and the oldest and most general form of

taxation--that levied on the produce of land--was established. In its

normal shape this impost consisted in a given proportion of the yield,

or of certain portions of the yield, of the soil; one-fourth as in

India, one-fifth as in Egypt, or two separate levies of a tenth as in

Palestine, are examples of what may from the last instance be called the

"tithe" system. Dues of various kinds were gradually added to the land

revenue, until, as in the later Egyptian monarchy, the forms of revenue

reached a bewildering complexity. But no Eastern state advanced beyond

the condition generally characterized as the "patrimonial," i.e. an

organization on the model of the household. The part played by money

economy was small, and it is noticeable that the revenues were collected

by the monarch's servants, the farming out of taxes being completely

unknown. Tribute, however, was paid by subject communities as a whole,

and was collected by them for transmission to the conquerors.

Ancient Greek.

A much higher stage was reached in the financial methods of the Greek

states, or more correctly speaking of Athens, the best-known specimen of

the class. Instead of the comparatively simple expedients of the

barbarian monarchies, as indicated above, the Athenian city state by

degrees developed a rather complex revenue system. Some of the older

forms are retained. The city owned public land which was let on lease

and the rents were farmed out by auction. A specially valuable property

of Athens was the possession of the silver mines at Laurium, which were

worked on lease by slave labour. The produce, at first distributed

amongst the citizens, was later a part of the state income, and forms

the subject of some of the suggestions respecting the revenue in the

treatise formerly ascribed to Xenophon. The reverence that attached to

the precious metals caused undue exaltation of the services rendered by

this property.

One of the characteristics of the ancient state was its extensive

control over the persons and property of its citizens. In respect to

finance this authority was strikingly manifested in the burdens imposed

on wealthy citizens by the requirements of the "liturgies" ([Greek:

leitourgiai]), which consisted in the provision of a chorus for

theatrical performances, or defraying the expenses of the public games,

or, finally, the equipment of a ship, "the trierarchy," which was

economically and politically the most important. Athenian statesmanship

in the time of Demosthenes was gravely exercised to make this form of

contribution more effective. The grouping into classes and the privilege

of exchanging property, granted to the contributor against any one whom

he believed entitled to take his place, are marks of the defective

economic and financial organization of the age.

Amongst taxes strictly so called were the market dues or tolls, which in

some cases approximated to excise duties, though in their actual mode of

levy they were closely similar to the _octrois_ of modern times. Of

greater importance were the customs duties on imports and exports. These

at the great period of Athenian history were only 2%. The prohibition of

export of corn was an economic rather than a financial provision. In the

treatment of her subject allies Athens was more rigorous, general import

and export duties of 5% being imposed on their trade. The high cost of

carriage, and the need of encouraging commerce in a community relying on

external sources for its food supply, help to explain the comparatively

low rates adopted. Neither as financial nor as protective expedients

were the custom duties of classical societies of much importance.

Direct taxation received much greater expansion. A special levy on the

class of resident aliens ([Greek: metoikton]), probably paralleled by a

duty on slaves, was in force. A far more important source of revenue was

the general tax on property ([Greek: eisphora]), which according to one

view existed as early as the time of Solon, who made it a part of his

constitutional system. Modern inquiry, however, tends towards the

conclusion that it was under the stress of the Peloponnesian War that

this impost was introduced (428 B.C.). At first it was only levied at

irregular intervals; afterwards, in 378 B.C., it became a permanent tax

based on elaborate valuation under which the richer members paid on a

larger quota of their capital; in the case of the wealthiest class the

taxable quota was taken as one-fifth, smaller fractions being adopted

for those belonging to the other divisions. The assessment ([Greek:

timema]) included all the property of the contributor, whose accuracy in

making full returns was safeguarded by the right given to other citizens

to proceed against him for fraudulent under-valuation. A further support

was provided in the reform of 378 B.C. by the establishment of the

symmories, or groups of tax-paying citizens; the wealthier members of

each group being responsible for the tax payments of all the members.

The scanty and obscure references to finance, and to economic matters

generally, in classical literature do not elucidate all the details of

the system; but the analogies of other countries, e.g. the mode of

levying the _taille_ in 18th century France and the "tenth and

fifteenth" in medieval England, make it tolerably plain that in the 4th

century B.C. the Athenian state had developed a mode of taxation on

property which raised those questions of just distribution and effective

valuation that present themselves in the latest tax systems of the

modern world. Taken together with the liturgies, the "eisphora" placed a

very heavy burden on the wealthier citizens, and this financial pressure

accounts in great part for the hostility of the rich towards the

democratic constitution that facilitated the imposition of graduated

taxation and super-taxes--to use modern terms--on the larger incomes.

The normal yield of the property tax is reported as 60 talents

(L14,400); but on special occasions it reached 200 talents (L48,000), or

about one-sixth of the total receipts.

On the administrative side also remarkable advances were made by the

entrusting of military expenditure to the "generals," and in the 4th

century B.C. by the appointment of an administrator whose duty it was to

distribute the revenue of the state under the directions of the

assembly. The absence of settled public law and the influence of direct

democracy made a complete ministry of finance impossible.

The Athenian "hegemony" in its earlier and later phases had an important

financial side. The confederacy of Delos made provision for the

collection of a revenue ([Greek: phoros]) from the members of the

league, which was employed at first for defence against Persian

aggression, but afterwards was at the disposal of Athens as the ruling

state. The annual collection of 460 talents (L110,400) shows

sufficiently the magnitude of the league.

Too little is known of the financial methods of the other Greek states

and of the Macedonian kingdoms to allow of any definite account of their

position. In the latter, particularly in Egypt, the methods of the

earlier rulers probably survived. Their finance, like their social life

generally, exhibited a blending of Hellenic and barbarian elements. The

older land-taxes were probably accompanied by import dues and taxes on

property.

Roman.

In the infancy of the Roman republic its revenues were of the kind usual

in such communities. The public land yielded receipts which may

indifferently be regarded as rents or taxes; the citizens contributed

their services or commodities, and dues were raised on certain articles

coming to market. With the progress of the Roman dominion the financial

organization grew in extent. In order to meet the cost of the early wars

a special contribution from property (_tributum ex censu_) was levied at

times of emergency, though it was in some cases regarded as an advance

to be repaid when the occasion of expense was over. Owing to the great

military successes, and the consequent increase of the other sources of

revenue, it became feasible to suspend the _tributum_ in 167 B.C., and

it was not again levied till after the death of Julius Caesar. From this

date the expenses of the Roman state "were undisguisedly supported by

the taxation of the provinces." Neither the state monopolies nor the

public land in Italy afforded any appreciable revenue. The other charges

that affected Italy were the 5% duty on manumissions, and customs dues

on seaborne imports. But with the acquisition of the important provinces

of Sicily, Spain and Africa, the formation of a tax system based on the

tributes of the dependencies became possible. To a great extent the

pre-existing forms of revenue were retained, but were gradually

systematized. In legal theory the land of conquered communities passed

into the ownership of the Roman state; in practice a revenue was

obtained through land taxes in the form of either tithes (_decumae_) or

money payments (_stipendia_). To the latter were adjoined capitation and

trade taxes (the _tributum capitis_). For pasture land a special rent

was paid. In some provinces (e.g. Sicily) payment in produce was

preferred, as affording the supply needed for the free distribution of

corn at Rome.

The great form of indirect taxation consisted in the customs dues

(_portoria_), which were collected at the provincial boundaries and

varied in amount, though the maximum did not exceed 5%. Under the same

head were included the town dues (or _octrois_). Further, the local

administration was charged on the district concerned, and requisitions

for the public service were frequently made on the provincial

communities. Supplies of grain, ships and timber for military use were

often demanded.

The methods of levy may be regarded as an additional tax. "Vexation," as

Adam Smith remarks, "though not strictly speaking expense, is certainly

equivalent to the expense at which every man would be willing to redeem

himself from it"; and the Roman system was extraordinarily vexatious.

From an early date the collection of the taxes had been farmed out to

companies of contractors (_societates vectigales_), who became a by-word

for rapacity. Being bound to pay a stated sum to the public authorities

these _publicani_ naturally aimed at extracting the largest possible

amount from the unfortunate provincials, and, as they belonged to the

Roman capitalist class, they were able to influence the provincial

governors. Undue claims on the part of the tax collectors were

aggravated by the extortion of the public officials. The defects of the

financial organization were a serious influence in the complex of causes

that brought about the fall of the Republic.

One of the reasons that induced the subject populations to accept with

pleasure the establishment of the Empire was the improvement in

financial treatment that it secured. The corrupt and uneconomical method

of farming out the collection of the revenue was, to a great extent,

replaced by collection through the officials of the imperial household.

The earlier Roman treasury (_aerarium_) was formally retained for the

receipt of revenue from the senatorial provinces, but the officials were

appointed by the Princeps and became gradually mere municipal officers.

The real centre of finance was the _fiscus_ or imperial treasury, which

was under the exclusive control of the ruler ("res fiscales," says

Ulpian, "quasi propriae et privatae principis sunt"), and was

administered by officials of his household. Under the Republic the

Senate had been the financial authority, with the Censors as finance

ministers and the Quaestors as secretaries of the treasury. Never very

precise, this system in the 1st century B.C. fell into extreme decay. By

means of his freedmen the emperor introduced the more rigorous economy

of the Roman household into public finance. The census as a method of

valuation was revived; the important and productive land taxes were

placed on a more definite footing; while, above all, the substitution of

direct collection by state officials for the letting out by auction of

the tax-collection to the companies of _publicani_ was made general.

Thus some of the most valuable lessons as to the normal evolution of a

system of finance are to be learned in this connexion. Of equal, or even

greater moment is the failure of the administrative reforms of the

Empire to secure lasting improvement, a result due to the absence of

constitutional guarantees. The close relation between finance and

general policy is most impressively illustrated in this failure of

benevolent autocracy.

Viewed broadly, the financial resources of the earlier Empire were

obtained from (1) the public land alike of the state and the Princeps;

(2) the monopolies, principally of minerals; (3) the land tax; (4) the

customs; (5) the taxes on inheritances, on sales and on the purchase of

slaves (_vectigalia_). One result of the establishment of the Principate

was the consolidation of the public domain. The old "public land" in

Italy had nearly disappeared; but the royal possessions in the conquered

provinces and the private properties of the emperor became ultimately a

part of the property of the Fiscus. Such land was let either on

five-year leases or in perpetuity to coloni. Mines were also taken over

for public use and worked by slaves or, in later times, by convict

labour. The tendency towards state monopoly became more marked in the

closing days of the Empire, the 4th and 5th centuries A.D. Perhaps the

most comprehensive of the fiscal reforms of the Empire was the

reconstruction of the land tax, based on a census or (to use the French

term) _cadastre_, in which the area, the modes of cultivation and the

estimated productiveness of each holding were stated, the average of ten

preceding years being taken as the standard. After the reconstruction

under Diocletian at the end of the 3rd century A.D., fifteen years (the

_indictio_)--though probably used as early as the time of Hadrian--was

recognized as the period for revaluation. With the growing needs of the

state this taxation became more rigorous and was one of the great

grievances of the population, especially of the sections that were

declining in status and passing into the condition of villenage. The

_portoria_, or customs, received a better organization, though the

varying rates for different provinces continued. By degrees the older

maximum of 5% was exceeded, until in the 4th century 12-1/2% was in some

cases levied. Even at this higher rate the facilities for trade were

greater than in medieval or (until the revolution in transport) modern

times. In spite of certain prejudices against the import of luxuries and

the export of gold, there is little indication of the influence of

mercantilist or protectionist ideas. The nearest approach to excise was

the duty of 1% on all sales, a tax that in Gibbon's words "has ever been

the occasion of clamour and discontent." The higher charge of 4% on the

purchase of slaves, and the still heavier 5% on successions after death,

were likewise established at the beginning of the Empire and specially

applied to the full citizens. Escheats and lapsed legacies (_caduca_)

were further miscellaneous sources of gain to the state.

Taken as a whole, the financial system of Imperial Rome shows a very

high elaboration in _form_. The _patrimonium_, the _tributa_ and the

_vectigalia_ are divisions parallel to the _domaine_, the _contributions

directes_ and the _contributions indirectes_ of modern French

administration; or the English "non-tax" revenue, inland revenue and

"customs and excise." The careful regulations given in the Codes and the

Digest show the observance of technical conditions as to assessment and

accounting. In substance and spirit, however, Roman finance was

essentially backward. Without altogether accepting Merivale's judgment

that "their principles of finance were to the last rude and

unphilosophical," it may be granted that Roman statesmen never seriously

faced the questions of just distribution and maximum productiveness in

the tax system. Still less did they perceive the connexion between these

two aspects of finance. Mechanical uniformity and minute regulation are

inadequate substitutes for observance of the canons of equality,

certainty and economy in the operation of the tax system. Whether (as

has been suggested) an Adam Smith in power could have saved the Empire

is doubtful; but he would certainly have remodelled its finance. The

most glaring fault was plainly the undue and increasing pressure on the

productive classes. Each century saw heavier burdens imposed on the

actual workers and on their employers, while expenditure was chiefly

devoted to unproductive purposes. The distribution was also unfair as

between the different territorial divisions. The capital and certain

provincial towns were favoured at the expense of the provinces and the

country districts. Again, the cost of collection, though less than under

the farming-out system, was far too great. Some alleviation was indeed

obtained by the apportionment of contributions amongst the districts

liable, leaving to the community to decide as it thought best between

its members. The allotment of the land-tax to units (_juga_) of equal

value whatever might be the area, was a contrivance similar in

character.

The gradual way in which the several provinces were brought under the

general tax system, and the equally gradual extension of Roman

citizenship, account further for the irregularity and increased weight

of the taxes; as the absence of publicity and the growth of autocracy

explain the sense of oppression and the hopelessness of resistance so

vividly indicated in the literature of the later Empire. Exemptions at

first granted to the citizens were removed, while the cost of local

government which continually increased was placed on the middle-class of

the towns as represented by the _decuriones_, or members of the

municipalities.

The fact that no ingenuity of modern research has been able to construct

a real budget of expenditure and receipt for any part of the long

centuries of the Empire is significant as to the secrecy that surrounded

the finances, especially in the later period. For at the beginning of

the principate Augustus seems to have aimed at a complete estimate of

the financial situation, though this may be regarded as due to the

influence of the freer republican traditions which the reverence that

soon attached to the emperor's dignity completely extinguished.

In addition to its value as illustrating the difficulties and defects

that beset the development of a complex financial organization from the

simpler forms of the city and the province, Roman finance is of special

importance in consequence of its place as supplying a model or rather a

guide for the administration of the states that arose on its ruins. The

barbarian invaders, though they were accustomed to contributions to

their chiefs and to the payment of commodities as tributes or as

penalties, had no acquaintance with the working of a regular system of

taxation. The more astute rulers utilized the machinery that they

inherited from the Roman government. Under the Franks the land tax and

the provincial customs continued as forms of revenue, while beside them

the gifts and court fees of Teutonic origin took their place. Similar

conditions appear in Theodoric's administration of Italy. The

maintenance of Roman forms and terms is prominent in fiscal

administration. But institutions that have lost their life and animating

spirit can hardly be preserved for any length of time. All over western

Europe the elaborate devices of the _census_ and the stations for the

collection of customs crumbled away; taxation as such disappeared,

through the hostility of the clergy and the exemptions accorded to

powerful subjects. This process of disintegration spread out over

centuries. The efforts made from time to time by vigorous rulers to

enforce the charges that remained legally due, proved quite ineffectual

to restore the older fiscal system. The final result was a complete

transformation of the ingredients of revenue. The character of the

change may be best indicated as a substitution of private claims for

public rights. Thus, the land-tax disappears in the 7th century and only

comes into notice in the 9th century in the shape of private customary

dues. The customs duties become the tolls and transit charges levied by

local potentates on the diminishing trade of the earlier middle ages.

This revolution is in accordance with--indeed it is one side of--the

movement towards feudalism which was the great feature of this period.

Finance is essentially a part of _public_ law and administration. It

could, therefore, hold no prominent place in a condition of society

which hardly recognized the state, as distinct from the members of the

community, united by feudal ties. The same conception may be expressed

in another way, viz. by the statement that the kingdoms which succeeded

the Roman Empire were organized on the patrimonial basis (i.e. the

revenues passed into the hands of the king or, rather, his domestic

officials), and thus in fact returned to the condition of pre-classical

times. Notwithstanding the differing features in the several countries,

retrogression is the common characteristic of European history from the

5th to the 10th century, and it was from the ruder state that this

decline created that the rebuilding of social and political organization

had to be accomplished. On the financial side the work, as already

suggested, was aided by the ideas and institutions inherited from the

Roman Empire. This influence was common to all the continental states

and indirectly was felt even in England. Each of the great realms has,

however, worked out its financial system on lines suitable to its own

particular conditions, which are best considered in connexion with the

separate national histories.

Running through the different national systems there are some common

elements the result not of inheritance merely but still more of

necessity, or at the lowest of similarity in environment. Over and above

the details of financial development there is a thread of connexion

which requires treatment under Finance taken as a whole. As the great

aim of this side of public activity is to secure funds for the

maintenance of the state's life and working, the administration which

operates for this end is the true nucleus of all national finance. The

first sign of revival from the catastrophe of the invasions is the

reorganization of the Imperial household under Charlemagne with the

intention of establishing a more exact collection of revenue. The later

German empire of Otto and the Frederics; the French Capetian monarchy

and, in a somewhat different sphere, the medieval Italian and German

cities show the same movement. The treasury is the centre towards which

the special receipts of the ruler or rulers should be brought, and from

it the public wants should be supplied. Feudalism, as the antithesis of

this orderly treatment, had to be overthrown before national finance

could become established. The development can be traced in the financial

history of England, France and the German states; but the advance in the

French financial organization of the 15th and 16th centuries affords the

best illustration. The gradual unification operates on all the branches

of finance,--expenditure, revenue, debt and methods of control. In

respect to the first head there is a well-marked "integration" of the

modes for meeting the cost of the public services. What were

semi-private duties become public tasks, which, with the growing

importance of "money-economy," have to be defrayed by state payments.

Thus, the creation of the standing army in France by Charles VII. marks

a financial change of the first order. The English navy, though more

gradually developed, is an equally good illustration of the movement.

All outlay by the state is brought into due co-ordination, and it

becomes possible for constitutional government to supervise and direct

it. This improvement, due to English initiative, has been adopted

amongst the essential forms of financial administration on the

continent. The immense importance of this view of public expenditure as

representing the consumption of the state in its unified condition is

obvious; it has affected, for the most part unconsciously, the

conception of all modern peoples as to the functions of the state and

the right of the people to direct them.

On the side of receipts a similar unifying process has been

accomplished. The almost universal separation between "ordinary" and

"extraordinary" receipts, taxation being put under the latter head, has

completely ceased. It was, however, the fundamental division for the

early French writers on finance, and it survives for England as late as

Blackstone's _Commentaries_. The idea that the ruler possessed a normal

income in certain rents and dues of a quasi-private character, which on

emergency he might supplement by calls on the revenues of his subjects,

was a bequest of feudalism which gave way before the increasing power of

the state. In order to meet the unified public wants, an equally unified

public fund was requisite. The great economic changes which depreciated

the value of the king's domain contributed towards the result. Only by

well-adjusted taxation was it possible to meet the public necessities.

In respect to taxation also there has been a like course of

readjustment. Separate charges, assigned for distinct purposes, have

been taken into the national exchequer and come to form a part of the

general revenue. There has been--taking long periods--a steady

absorption of special taxes into more general categories. The

replacement of the four direct taxes by the income tax in France, as

proposed in 1909, is a very recent example. Equally important is the

growth of "direct" taxation. As tax contributions have taken the places

of the revenue from land and fees, so, it would seem, are the taxes on

commodities likely to be replaced or at least exceeded by the imposts

levied on income as such, in the shape either of income taxes proper or

of charges on accumulated wealth. The recent history of the several

financial systems of the world is decisive on this point. A clearer

perception of the conditions under which the effective attainment of

revenue is possible is another outcome of financial development.

Security, and in particular the absence of arbitrary impositions,

combined with convenient modes of collection, have come to be recognized

as indispensable auxiliaries in financial administration which further

aims at the selection of really productive forms of charge.

Unproductiveness is, according to modern standard, the cardinal fault of

any particular tax. How great has been the progress in these aspects is

best illustrated in the case of English finance, but both French and

German fiscal history can supply many instructive examples.

In a third direction the co-ordination of finance has been just as

remarkable. Financial adjustment implies the conception of a balance,

and this should be found in the relation of outlay and income. Under the

pressure of war and other emergencies it has been found impossible to

maintain this desirable equilibrium. But the use of the system of

credit, and the general establishment of constitutional government, have

enabled the difficulty to be surmounted by the creation on a vast scale

of national debts. Apart from the special problems that this system of

borrowing raises, there is the general one of its aid in making national

finance continuous and orderly. Deficits can be transferred to the

capital account, and the country's resources employed most usefully by

repaying liabilities contracted in times of extreme need. The growth of

this department, parallel with the general progress of finance, is

significant of its function.

Finally, in all countries though with diversities due to national

peculiarities, the modes of account and control have been brought into a

more effective condition. Previous legislative sanction for both

expenditure and receipts in all their particular forms is absolutely

necessary; so is thorough scrutiny of the actual application of the

funds provided. Either by administrative survey or by judicial

examination care is taken to see that there has been no improper

diversion from the designed purposes. It is only when the varied systems

of financial organization are studied in their general bearing, and with

regard to what may be called their frame-work, that their essential

resemblance is thoroughly realized. Such a real underlying unity is the

reason and justification for regarding "public finance" as a distinct

subject of study and as an independent division of political science.

_Local Finance._--One of the most remarkable features of modern

financial development has been the growth of the complementary system of

local finance, which in extent and complication bids to rival that of

the central authority. Under the constraining power of the Roman Empire

the older city states were reduced to the position of municipalities,

and their financial administration became dependent on the control of

the Emperor--as is abundantly illustrated in the correspondence of Pliny

and Trajan. After the fall of the Western Empire, a partial revival of

city life, particularly in Italy and Germany, gave some scope for a

return to the type of finance presented by the Athenian state. Florence

affords an instructive specimen; but the passage from feudalism to the

national state under the authority of monarchy made the cities and

country districts parts of a larger whole. It is in this condition of

subordination that the finance of localities has been framed and

effectively organized. Though each great state has adopted its own

methods, influenced by historical circumstances and by ideas of policy,

there are general resemblances that furnish material for scientific

treatment and allow of important generalizations being made.

Amongst these the first to be noticed is the essential _subordination_

of local finance. Alike in expenditure, in forms of receipt, and in

methods of administration the central government has the right of

directing and supervising the work of municipal and provincial

agencies. The modes employed are various, but they all rest on the

sovereignty of the state, whether exercised by the central officials or

by the courts. A second characteristic is the predominance of the

_economic_ element in the several tasks that local administrations have

to perform, and the consequent tendency to treat the charges of local

finance as payments for services rendered, or, in the usual phrase, to

apply the "benefits" principle, in contrast to that of "ability," which

rightly prevails in national finance. Over a great part of municipal

administration--particularly that engaged in supplying the needs of the

individual citizens--the finance may be assimilated to that of the

joint-stock company, with of course the necessary differences, viz.

that the association is compulsory; and that dividends are paid, not in

money, but in social advantage. The great expansion in recent years of

what is known as _Municipal Trading_ has brought this aspect of local

finance into prominence. Water supply, transport and lighting have

become public services, requiring careful financial management, and

still retaining traces of their earlier private character.

Corresponding to the mainly economic nature of local expenditure there

is the further limitation imposed on the side of revenue. Unlike the

state in this, localities are limited in respect to the amount and form

of their taxation. Several distinct influences combine to produce this

result. The needs of the central government lead to its retention of the

more profitable modes of procuring revenue. No modern country can

surrender the chief direct and indirect taxes to the local

administrations. Another limiting condition is found in the practical

impossibility of levying by local agencies such imposts as the customs

and the income-tax in their modern forms. The elaborate machinery that

is requisite for covering the national area and securing the revenue

against loss can only be provided by an authority that can deal with the

whole territory. Hence the very general limitation of local revenues to

certain typical forms. Though in some cases municipal taxation is

imposed on commodities in the form of _octrois_ or entry duties--as is

notably the case in France--yet the prevailing tendency is towards the

levy of direct charges on immovable property, which cannot escape by

removal outside the tax jurisdiction. In addition to these "land" and

"house" taxes, the employment of licence duties on trades, particularly

those that are in special need of supervision, is a favourite method.

Closely akin are the payments demanded for privileges to industrial

undertakings given as "franchises," very often in connexion with

monopolies, e.g. gas-works and tramways. Over and above the peculiar

revenues of local bodies there is the further resource--which emphasizes

the subordinate position of local finance--of obtaining supplemental

revenue from the central treasury, either by taxes additional to the

charges of the state, and collected at the same time; or by donations

from its funds, in the shape of grants for special services, or

assignments of certain parts of the state's receipts. Great Britain,

France and Prussia furnish good examples of these different modes of

preserving local administration from financial collapse.

The broad resemblance between the two parts of the entire system of

public finance is seen in another direction. To national debts there has

been added a great mass of municipal and local indebtedness, which seems

likely to equal, or even exceed in magnitude the liabilities of the

central governments. But here also the essential limitations of the

newer form are easily perceptible. The sovereignty of the state enables

it to deal as it thinks best with the public creditor. In its methods of

borrowing, in its plans for repayment, or, in extremity, in its power of

repudiation it is independent of external control. Local debt on the

other hand can only be contracted under the sanction of the appropriate

administrative organ of the state. The creditor has the right of

claiming the aid of the law against the defaulting municipality; and the

amounts, the terms, and the time of duration of local debt are

supervised in order to prevent injustice to particular persons or

improvidence with regard to the revenue and property of the local units.

The chief reason for contracting local debt being the establishment of

works that are, directly or indirectly, reproductive, the governing

conditions are evidently to be found in the character and probable yield

of those businesses. The principles of company investments are fully

applicable: the creation of sinking-funds, the fixing the term of each

loan to the time at which the return from its employment ceases, and the

avoidance of the formation of fictitious capital, become guiding rules

from this part of finance, and indicate the connexion with what the

commercial world calls "financial operations."

Finally, there is the same set of problems in respect to accounting and

control in local as in central finance. Though the materials are

simpler, the need for a well-prepared budget is existent in the case of

the city, county or department, if there is to be clear and accurate

financial management. Perhaps the greatest weakness of local finance

lies in this direction. The public opinion that affects the national

budget is unfortunately too often lacking in the most important towns,

not excluding those in which political life is highly developed.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--The English literature on finance is rather

unsatisfactory; for public finance the available text-books are:

Adams, _Science of Finance_ (New York, 1898); Bastable, _Public

Finance_ (London, 1892; 3rd ed., 1903); Daniels, _Public Finance_ (New

York, 1899), and Plehn, _Public Finance_ (3rd ed., New York, 1909). In

French, Leroy-Beaulieu, _Traite de la science des finances_ (1877; 3rd

ed., 1908), is the standard work. The German literature is abundant.

Roscher, 5th ed. (edited by Gerlach), 1901; Wagner (4 vols.),

incomplete; Cohn (1889) and Eheberg (9th ed., 1908) have published

works entitled _Finanzwissenschaft_, dealing with all the aspects of

state finance. For Greek financial history Boekh, _Staalshaushaltung

der Athenen_ (ed. Frankel, 1887), is still a standard work. For Rome,

Marquardt, _Romische Staatsverwaltung_, vol. ii., and Humbert, _Les

Finances et la comptabilite publique chez les Romains_, are valuable.

Clamageran, _Histoire de l'impot en France_ (1876), gives the earlier

development of French finance. R.H. Patterson, _Science of Finance_

(London, 1868), C.S. Meade, _Trust Finance_ (1903), and E. Carroll,

_Principles and Practice of Finance_, deal with finance in the wider

sense of business transactions. (C. F. B.)

FINCH, FINCH-HATTON. This old English family has had many notable

members, and has contributed in no small degree to the peerage. Sir

Thomas Finch (d. 1563), who was knighted for his share in suppressing

Sir T. Wyatt's insurrection against Queen Mary, was a soldier of note,

and was the son and heir of Sir William Finch, who was knighted in 1513.

He was the father of Sir Moyle Finch (d. 1614), who was created a

baronet in 1611, and whose widow Elizabeth (daughter of Sir Thomas

Heneage) was created a peeress as countess of Maidstone in 1623 and

countess of Winchilsea in 1628; and also of Sir Henry Finch (1558-1625),

whose son John, Baron Finch of Fordwich (1584-1660), is separately

noticed. Thomas, eldest son of Sir Moyle, succeeded his mother as first

earl of Winchilsea; and Sir Heneage, the fourth son (d. 1631), was the

speaker of the House of Commons, whose son Heneage (1621-1682), lord

chancellor, was created earl of Nottingham in 1675. The latter's second

son Heneage (1649-1719) was created earl of Aylesford in 1714. The

earldoms of Winchilsea and Nottingham became united in 1729, when the

fifth earl of Winchilsea died, leaving no son, and the title passed to

his cousin the second earl of Nottingham, the earldom of Nottingham

having since then been held by the earl of Winchilsea. In 1826, on the

death of the ninth earl of Winchilsea and fifth of Nottingham, his

cousin George William Finch-Hatton succeeded to the titles, the

additional surname of Hatton (since held in this line) having been

assumed in 1764 by his father under the will of an aunt, a daughter of

Christopher, Viscount Hatton (1632-1706), whose father was related to

the famous Sir Christopher Hatton.

FINCH OF FORDWICH, JOHN FINCH, BARON (1584-1660), generally known as Sir

John Finch, English judge, a member of the old family of Finch, was born

on the 17th of September 1584, and was called to the bar in 1611. He was

returned to parliament for Canterbury in 1614, and became recorder of

the same place in 1617. Having attracted the notice of Charles I., who

visited Canterbury in 1625, and was received with an address by Finch in

his capacity as recorder, he was the following year appointed king's

counsel and attorney-general to the queen and was knighted. In 1628 he

was elected speaker of the House of Commons, a post which he retained

till its dissolution in 1629. He was the speaker who was held down in

his chair by Holles and others on the occasion of Sir John Eliot's

resolution on tonnage and poundage. In 1634 he was appointed chief

justice of the court of common pleas, and distinguished himself by the

active zeal with which he upheld the king's prerogative. Notable also

was the brutality which characterized his conduct as chief justice,

particularly in the cases of William Prynne and John Langton. He

presided over the trial of John Hampden, who resisted the payment of

ship-money, and he was chiefly responsible for the decision of the

judges that ship-money was constitutional. As a reward for his services

he was, in 1640, appointed lord keeper, and was also created Baron Finch

of Fordwich. He had, however, become so unpopular that one of the first

acts of the Long Parliament, which met in the same year was his

impeachment. He took refuge in Holland, but had to suffer the

sequestration of his estates. When he was allowed to return to England

is uncertain, but in 1660 he was one of the commissioners for the trial

of the regicides, though he does not appear to have taken much part in

the proceedings. He died on the 27th of November 1660 and was buried in

St Martin's church near Canterbury, his peerage becoming extinct.

See Foss, _Lives of the Judges_; Campbell, _Lives of the Chief

Justices_.

FINCH (Ger. _Fink_, Lat. _Fringilla_), a name applied (but almost always

in composition--as bullfinch, chaffinch, goldfinch, hawfinch, &c.) to a

great many small birds of the order _Passeres_, and now pretty generally

accepted as that of a group or family--the _Fringillidae_ of most

ornithologists. Yet it is one the extent of which must be regarded as

being uncertain. Many writers have included in it the buntings

(_Emberizidae_), though these seem to be quite distinct, as well as the

larks (_Alaudidae_), the tanagers (_Tanagridae_), and the weaver-birds

(_Ploceidae_). Others have separated from it the crossbills, under the

title of _Loxiidae_, but without due cause. The difficulty which at this

time presents itself in regard to the limits of the _Fringillidae_

arises from our ignorance of the anatomical features, especially those

of the head, possessed by many exotic forms.

Taken as a whole, the finches, concerning which no reasonable doubt can

exist, are not only little birds with a hard bill, adapted in most cases

for shelling and eating the various seeds that form the chief portion of

their diet when adult, but they appear to be mainly forms which

predominate in and are highly characteristic of the Palaearctic Region;

moreover, though some are found elsewhere on the globe, the existence of

but very few in the Notogaean hemisphere can as yet be regarded as

certain.

But even with this limitation, the separation of the undoubted

_Fringillidae_[1] into groups is a difficult task. Were we merely to

consider the superficial character of the form of the bill, the genus

_Loxia_ (in its modern sense) would be easily divided not only from the

other finches, but from all other birds. The birds of this genus--the

crossbills--when their other characters are taken into account, prove to

be intimately allied on the one hand to the grosbeaks (_Pinicola_) and

on the other through the redpolls (_Aegiothus_) to the linnets

(_Linota_)--if indeed these two can be properly separated. The linnets,

through the genus _Leucosticte_, lead to the mountain-finches

(_Montifringilla_), and the redpolls through the siskins

(_Chrysomitris_) to the goldfinches (_Carduelis_); and these last again

to the hawfinches, one group of which (_Coccothraustes_) is apparently

not far distant from the chaffinches (_Fringilla_ proper), and the other

(_Hesperiphona_) seems to be allied to the greenfinches (_Ligurinus_).

Then there is the group of serins (_Serinus_), to which the canary

belongs, that one is in doubt whether to refer to the vicinity of the

greenfinches or that of the redpolls. The mountain-finches may be

regarded as pointing first to the rock-sparrows (_Petronia_) and then to

the true sparrows (_Passer_); while the grosbeaks pass into many varied

forms and throw out a very well marked form--the bullfinches

(_Pyrrhula_). Some of the modifications of the family are very gradual,

and therefore conclusions founded on them are likely to be correct;

others are further apart, and the links which connect them, if not

altogether missing, can but be surmised. To avoid as much as possible

prejudicing the case, we shall therefore take the different groups of

_Fringillidae_ which it is convenient to consider in this article in an

alphabetical arrangement.

Of the Bullfinches the best known is the familiar bird (_Pyrrhula_

_europaea_). The varied plumage of the cock--his bright red breast and

his grey back, set off by his coal-black head and quills--is naturally

attractive; while the facility with which he is tamed, with his engaging

disposition in confinement, makes him a popular cage-bird,--to say

nothing of the fact (which in the opinion of so many adds to his charms)

of his readily learning to "pipe" a tune, or some bars of one. By

gardeners the bullfinch has long been regarded as a deadly enemy, from

its undoubted destruction of the buds of fruit-trees in spring-time,

though whether the destruction is really so much of a detriment is by no

means so undoubted. Northern and eastern Europe is inhabited by a larger

form (_P. major_), which differs in nothing but size and more vivid

tints from that which is common in the British Isles and western Europe.

A very distinct species (_P. murina_), remarkable for its dull

coloration, is peculiar to the Azores, and several others are found in

Asia from the Himalayas to Japan. A bullfinch (_P. cassini_) has been

discovered in Alaska, being the first recognition of this genus in the

New World.

The Canary (_Serinus canarius_) is indigenous to the islands whence it

takes its name, as well, apparently, as to the neighbouring groups of

the Madeiras and Azores, in all of which it abounds. It seems to have

been imported into Europe at least as early as the first half of the

16th century,[2] and has since become the commonest of cage-birds. The

wild stock is of an olive-green, mottled with dark brown above, and

greenish-yellow beneath. All the bright-hued examples we now see in

captivity have been induced by carefully breeding from any chance

varieties that have shown themselves; and not only the colour, but the

build and stature of the bird have in this manner been greatly modified.

The ingenuity of "the fancy," which might seem to have exhausted itself

in the production of topknots, feathered feet, and so forth, has brought

about a still further change from the original type. It has been found

that by a particular treatment, in which the mixing of large quantities

of vegetable colouring agents with the food plays an important part, the

ordinary "canary yellow" may be intensified so as to verge upon a more

or less brilliant flame colour.[3]

Very nearly resembling the canary, but smaller in size, is the Serin

(_Serinus hortulanus_), a species which not long since was very local in

Europe, and chiefly known to inhabit the countries bordering on the

Mediterranean. It has pushed its way towards the north, and has even

been several times taken in England (Yarrell's _Brit. Birds_, ed. 4, ii.

pp. 111-116). A closely allied species (_S. canonicus_) is peculiar to

Palestine.

The Chaffinches are regarded as the type-form of _Fringillidae_. The

handsome and sprightly _Fringilla coelebs_[4] is common throughout the

whole of Europe. Conspicuous by his variegated plumage, his peculiar

call note[5] and his glad song, the cock is almost everywhere a

favourite. In Algeria the British chaffinch is replaced by a

closely-allied species (_F. spodogenia_), while in the Atlantic Islands

it is represented by two others (_F. tintillon_ and _F. teydea_)--all of

which, while possessing the general appearance of the European bird, are

clothed in soberer tints.[6] Another species of true _Fringilla_ is the

brambling (_F. montifringilla_), which has its home in the birch forests

of northern Europe and Asia, whence it yearly proceeds, often in flocks

of thousands, to pass the winter in more southern countries. This bird

is still more beautifully coloured than the chaffinch--especially in

summer, when, the brown edges of the feathers being shed, it presents a

rich combination of black, white and orange. Even in winter, however,

its diversified plumage is sufficiently striking.

With the exception of the single species of bullfinch already noticed as

occurring in Alaska, all the above forms of finches are peculiar to the

Palaearctic Region. (A. N.)