[1] J.T. Browne, _Works_ (9th ed. by J. Drake), iv. 99-100; T. Forde,
_Virtus rediviva_ (1661), 106.
[2] _Cal. of State Pap. Dom._, 1672, p. 478, and 1670, p. 26.
[3] F. Maseres, _Tracts of the Civil War_, ii. 673.
FELL. (1) (Through the O. Fr. _fel_, from Low Lat. _fello_, felon),
savage, ruthless, deadly; only used now in poetry. (2) (Of Scandinavian
origin, cf. Danish _fjeld_, probably connected with a Teutonic root
appearing in German _fels_, rock), a hill, as in the names of mountains
in the Lake District in England, e.g. Scawfell; also a lofty moorland
down. (3) (A word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Ger. _fell_, and
Dutch _vel_, cognate with Lat. _pellis_, skin), the pelt or hide of an
animal, with the hair or wool and skin; also used of any thick shaggy
covering, like a matted fleece. (4) To cause to "fall," a word common to
Teutonic languages and akin to the root of the Lat. _fallere_ and Gr.
[Greek: sphallein], to cause to stumble, to deceive. As a substantive
"fell" is used of a flat seam laid level with the surface of the fabric;
also, in weaving, of the end of the web.
FELLAH (pl. Fellahin), Arabic for "ploughman" or "tiller," the word used
in Arabic-speaking countries to designate peasantry. It is employed
especially of the peasantry of Egypt, "Fellahin" in modern English usage
being almost equivalent to "Egyptians." In Egypt the name is applied to
the peasantry as opposed to the Arabs of the desert (and even those who
have settled on the land), the Turks and the townsfolk. Fellah is used
by the Arabs as a term of reproach, somewhat like the English "boor,"
but rather implying a slavish disposition; the fellahin, however, are
not ashamed of the name and may pride themselves on being of good fellah
descent, as a "fellah of a fellah." They may be classified as
Hamito-Semites, and preserve to some extent the blood of the ancient
Egyptians. They form the bulk of the population of Egypt and are mainly
Mahommedan, though some villages in Upper Egypt are almost exclusively
Copt (Christian). Their hybridism is well shown by their great
divergence of colour, fellahin in the Delta being sometimes lighter than
Arabs, while in Upper Egypt the prevailing complexion is dark brown. The
average fellah is somewhat above medium height, big-boned, of clumsy but
powerful build, with head and face of fine oval shape, cheek-bones high,
forehead broad, short flattish nose with wide nostrils, and black but
not woolly hair. The eyebrows are always straight and smooth, never
bushy. The mouth is thick-lipped and large but well formed. The eyes are
large and black, and are remarkable for the closeness of the eyelashes.
The women and girls are particularly noted for their graceful and
slender figures and their fine carriage, due to the custom of carrying
burdens, especially water-jars, on their heads. The men's heads are
usually shaved. The women are not as a rule closely veiled: they
generally paint the lips a deep blue, and tattoo a floral device on the
chin, sometimes on the forehead and other parts of the body. All but the
poorest wear necklaces of cheap pearls, coins or gilt disks. The men
wear a blue or brown cotton shirt, linen drawers and a plain skull-cap,
or on occasion the tarbush or fez, round which sometimes a turban is
wound; the women wear a single cotton smock. The common fellah's home is
a mere mud hut, roofed with durra straw. Inside are a few mats, a
sheepskin, baskets and some earthenware and wooden vessels. He lives
almost entirely on vegetables, millet bread, beans, lentils, dates and
onions. But some of the sheikhs are wealthy, and have large houses built
of crude brick and whitewashed with lime, with courtyard, many
apartments and good furniture. The fellah is laborious in the fields,
and abominates absence from his occupations, which generally means loss
of money to him. Military service on the old oriental plan was both
ruinous and distasteful to him; hence voluntary mutilations to avoid
conscription were formerly common and the ingrained prejudice against
military service remains. Trained by British officers the fellahin make,
however, excellent soldiers, as was proved in the Sudan campaigns of
1896-98. The fellah is intelligent, cheerful and sober, and as
hospitable as his poverty allows. (See COPTS and EGYPT.)
FELLENBERG, PHILIPP EMANUEL VON (1771-1844), Swiss educationist, was
born on the 27th of June 1771 at Bern, in Switzerland. His father was of
patrician family, and a man of importance in his canton, and his mother
was a grand-daughter of the Dutch admiral Van Tromp. From his mother and
from Pfeffel, the blind poet of Colmar, he received a better education
than falls to the lot of most boys, while the intimacy of his father
with Pestalozzi gave to his mind that bent which it afterwards followed.
In 1790 he entered the university of Tubingen, where he distinguished
himself by his rapid progress in legal studies. On account of his health
he afterwards undertook a walking tour in Switzerland and the adjoining
portions of France, Swabia and Tirol, visiting the hamlets and
farmhouses, mingling in the labours and occupations of the peasants and
mechanics, and partaking of their rude fare and lodging. After the
downfall of Robespierre, he went to Paris and remained there long enough
to be assured of the storm impending over his native country. This he
did his best to avert, but his warnings were disregarded, and
Switzerland was lost before any efficient means could be taken for its
safety. Fellenberg, who had hastily raised a levy _en masse_, was
proscribed; a price was set upon his head, and he was compelled to fly
into Germany. Shortly afterwards, however, he was recalled by his
countrymen, and sent on a mission to Paris to remonstrate against the
rapacity and cruelty of the agents of the French republic. But in this
and other diplomatic offices which he held for a short time, he was
witness to so much corruption and intrigue that his mind revolted from
the idea of a political life, and he returned home with the intention of
devoting himself wholly to the education of the young. With this
resolution he purchased in 1799 the estate of Hofwyl, near Bern,
intending to make agriculture the basis of a new system which he had
projected, for elevating the lower and rightly training the higher
orders of the state, and welding them together in a closer union than
had hitherto been deemed attainable. For some time he carried on his
labours in conjunction with Pestalozzi, but incompatibility of
disposition soon induced them to separate. The scheme of Fellenberg at
first excited a large amount of ridicule, but gradually it began to
attract the notice of foreign countries; and pupils, some of them of the
highest rank, began to flock to him from every country in Europe, both
for the purpose of studying agriculture and to profit by the high moral
training which he associated with his educational system. For forty-five
years Fellenberg, assisted by his wife, continued his educational
labours, and finally raised his institution to the highest point of
prosperity and usefulness. He died on the 21st of November 1844.
See Hamm, _Fellenberg's Leben und Wirken_ (Bern, 1845); and Schoni,
_Der Stifter von Hofwyl, Leben und Wirken Fellenberg's_.
FELLER, FRANCOIS XAVIER DE (1735-1802), Belgian author, was born at
Brussels on the 18th of August 1735. In 1752 he entered a school of the
Jesuits at Reims, where he manifested a great aptitude for mathematics
and physical science. He commenced his novitiate two years afterwards,
and in testimony of his admiration for the apostle of India added Xavier
to his surname. On the expiry of his novitiate he became professor at
Luxembourg, and afterwards at Liege. In 1764 he was appointed to the
professorship of theology at Tyrnau in Hungary, but in 1771 he returned
to Belgium and continued to discharge his professorial duties at Liege
till the suppression of the Jesuits in 1773. The remainder of his life
he devoted to study, travel and literature. On the invasion of Belgium
by the French in 1794 he went to Paderborn, and remained there two
years, after which he took up his residence at Ratisbon, where he died
on the 23rd of May 1802.
Feller's works exceed 120 volumes. In 1773 he published, under the
assumed name Flexier de Reval (an anagram of Xavier de Feller), his
_Catechisme philosophique_; and his principal work _Dictionnaire
historique et litteraire_ (published in 1781 at Liege in 8 volumes,
and afterwards several times reprinted and continued down to 1848),
appeared under the same name. Among his other works the most important
are _Cours de morale chretienne et de litterature religieuse_ and his
_Coup d'oeil sur congres d'Ems_. The _Journal historique et
litteraire_, published at Luxembourg and Liege from 1774 to 1794 in 70
volumes, was edited and in great part written by him.
FELLING, an urban district in the Jarrow parliamentary division of
Durham, England, forming an eastern suburb of Gateshead. Pop. (1901)
22,467. Its large industrial population is employed in the neighbouring
collieries and the various attendant manufactures.
FELLOE, the outer rim of a wheel, to which the spokes are attached. The
word is sometimes spelled and usually pronounced "felly." It is a
Teutonic word, in O. Eng. _felg_, cognate with Dutch _velge_, Ger.
_Felge_; the original Teutonic root from which these are derived
probably meant "to fit together."
FELLOW, properly and by origin a partner or associate, hence a
companion, comrade or mate, as in "fellow-man," "fellow-countryman," &c.
The word from the 15th century has also been applied, generally and
colloquially, to any male person, often in a contemptuous or pitying
sense. The Old English _feolage_ meant a partner in a business, i.e. one
who lays (_lag_) money or property (_feoh_, fee) together for a common
purpose. The word was, therefore, the natural equivalent for _socius_, a
member of the foundation of an incorporated college, as Eton, or a
college at a university. In the earlier history of universities both the
senior and junior members of a college were known as "scholars," but
later, as now, "scholar" was restricted to those members of the
foundation still in _statu pupillari_, and "fellow" to those senior
graduate members who have been elected to the foundation by the
corporate body, sharing in the government and receiving a fixed
emolument out of the revenues of the college. It is in this sense that
"fellow" is used at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge and
Trinity, Dublin. At these universities the college teaching is performed
by those fellows who are also "tutors." At other universities the term
is applied to the members of the governing body or to the holders of
certain sums of money for a fixed number of years to be devoted to
special study or research. By analogy the word is also used of the
members of various learned societies and institutions.
FELLOWS, SIR CHARLES (1799-1860), British archaeologist, was born in
August 1799 at Nottingham, where his family had an estate. When fourteen
he drew sketches to illustrate a trip to the ruins of Newstead Abbey,
which afterwards appeared on the title-page of Moore's _Life of Lord
Byron_. In 1820 he settled in London, where he became an active member
of the British Association. In 1827 he discovered the modern ascent of
Mont Blanc. After the death of his mother in 1832 he passed the greater
portion of his time in Italy, Greece and the Levant. The numerous
sketches he executed were largely used in illustrating C_hilde Harold_.
In 1838 he went to Asia Minor, making Smyrna his headquarters. His
explorations in the interior and the south led him to districts
practically unknown to Europeans, and he thus discovered ruins of a
number of ancient cities. He entered Lycia and explored the Xanthus from
the mouth at Patara upwards. Nine miles from Patara he discovered the
ruins of Xanthus, the ancient capital of Lycia, finely situated on
hills, and abounding in magnificent remains. About 15 m. farther up he
came upon the ruins of Tlos. After taking sketches of the most
interesting objects and copying a number of inscriptions, he returned to
Smyrna through Caria and Lydia. The publication of _A Journal written
during an Excursion in Asia Minor_ (London, 1839) roused such interest
that Lord Palmerston, at the request of the British Museum authorities,
asked the British consul at Constantinople to get leave from the sultan
to ship a number of the Lycian works of art. Late in 1839 Fellows, under
the auspices of the British Museum, again set out for Lycia, accompanied
by George Scharf, who assisted him in sketching. This second visit
resulted in the discovery of thirteen ancient cities, and in 1841
appeared _An Account of Discoveries in Lycia, being a Journal kept
during a Second Excursion in Asia Minor_. A third visit was made late in
1841, after Fellows had obtained a _firman_ by personal application at
Constantinople. He shipped a number of works of art for England, and in
the fourth and most famous expedition (1844) twenty-seven cases of
marbles were despatched to the British Museum. His chief discoveries
were at Xanthus, Pinara, Patara, Tlos, Myra and Olympus. In 1844 he
presented to the British Museum his portfolios, accounts of his
expeditions, and specimens of natural history illustrative of Lycia. In
1845 he was knighted "as an acknowledgment of his services in the
removal of the Xanthian antiquities to this country." He paid his own
expenses in all his journeys and received no public reward. Fellows was
twice married. He died in London on the 8th of November 1860.
In addition to the works above mentioned, Fellows published the
following: _The Xanthian Marbles; their Acquisition and Transmission
to England_ (1843), a refutation of false statements that had been
published; _An Account of the Ionic Trophy Monument excavated at
Xanthus_ (1848); a cheap edition of his two _Journals_, entitled
_Travels and Researches in Asia Minor, particularly in the Province of
Lycia_ (1852); and _Coins of Ancient Lycia before the Reign of
Alexander; with an Essay on the Relative Dates of the Lycian Monuments
in the British Museum_ (1855). See C. Brown's _Lives of
Nottinghamshire Worthies_ (1882), pp. 352-353, and _Journ. of Roy.
Geog. Soc._, 1861.
FELO DE SE (M.L. a felon, i.e. murderer, of himself), one who commits
murder upon himself. The technical conditions of murder apply to this
crime; e.g., "if one commits any unlawful malicious act, the consequence
of which is his own death, as if attempting to kill another he runs upon
his antagonist's sword, or shooting at another the gun bursts and kills
himself," he is a _felo de se_. The horror inspired by this crime led to
the revolting punishment of an "ignominious burial on the highway, with
a stake driven through the body." This was abolished by an act of 1823,
which ordered the burial of the body of a person found to be _felo de
se_ within 24 hours after the coroner's inquest, between the hours of 9
and 12 at night, and without Christian rites of sepulture. This act was
again superseded in 1882 by the Interments (_Felo de se_) Act, which
permits the interment of any _felo de se_ in the churchyard or other
burial ground of the parish or place in which by the law or custom of
England he might have been interred but for the verdict. The interment
is carried out in accordance with the Burial Laws Amendment Act 1880
(see BURIAL and BURIAL ACTS). The act does not authorize the performance
of any of the rites of Christian burial, but a special form of service
may be used. Formerly the goods and chattels, but not the land, of a
_felo de se_ were forfeited to the crown, but such forfeitures were
abolished by the Forfeiture Act 1870. (See also SUICIDE.)
FELONY (O. Fr. _felonie_, from _felon_, a word meaning "wicked," common
to Romanic languages, cf. Italian _fello_, _fellone_, the ultimate
origin of which is obscure, but is possibly connected either with Lat.
_fel_, gall, or _fallere_, to deceive. The English "fell" cruel or
fierce, is also connected; and the Greek [Greek: phelus], an impostor,
has also been suggested). Legal writers have sought to throw light on
the nature of felony by examining the supposed etymology of the word.
Coke says it is _crimen animo felleo perpetratum_ [a crime committed
with malicious or evil intent (_fee lohn_)]. Spelman connects it with
the word _fee_, signifying fief or feud; and felony in this way would be
equivalent to _pretium feudi_, an act for which a man lost or gave up
his fee (see Stephen's _Commentaries_, vol. iv. p. 7). And acts
involving forfeiture were styled felonies in feudal law, although they
had nothing of a criminal character about them. A breach of duty on the
part of the vassal, neglect of service, delay in seeking investiture,
and the like were felonies: so were injuries by the lord against the
vassal. Modern writers are now disposed to accept Coke's definition. In
English law, crimes are usually classified as treason, felony,
misdemeanour and summary offence. Some writers--and with some
justice--treat treason merely as a grave form of felony and it is so
dealt with in the Juries Detention Act 1897. But owing to legislation in
and since the time of William and Mary, the procedure for the trial of
most forms of treason differs from that of felony. The expression
summary offence is ambiguous. Many offences which are at common law or
by statute felonies, or misdemeanours indictable at common law or by
statute, may under certain conditions be tried by a court of summary
jurisdiction (q.v.), and many merely statutory offences which would
ordinarily be punishable summarily may at the election of the accused be
tried by a jury on indictment (Summary Jurisdiction Act 1879, s. 17).
The question whether a particular offence is felony or misdemeanour can
be answered only by reference to the history of the offence and not by
any logical test. For instance, killing a horse in an unlicensed place
is still felony under a statute of 1786. But most crimes described as
felonies are or have been capital offences at common law or by statute,
and have also entailed on the offender attaint and forfeiture of goods.
A few felonies were not punishable by death, e.g. petty larceny and
mayhem. Where an offence is declared a felony by statute, the common law
punishments and incidents of trial attach, unless other statutory
provision is made (Blackstone, _Commentaries_, iv. 94).
The chief common law _felonies_ are: homicide, rape, larceny (i.e. in
ordinary language, theft), robbery (i.e. theft with violence), burglary
and kindred offences. Counterfeiting the coin has been made a felony
instead of being treason; and forgery of most documents has been made a
felony instead of being, as it was at common law, a misdemeanour. At the
beginning of the 19th century felony was almost equivalent to capital
crime; but during that century capital punishment was abolished as to
all felonies, except wilful murder, piracy with violence (7 W. IV. & 1
Vict. c. 88, s. 2) and offences against the Dockyards, &c., Protection
Act 1772; and by the Forfeiture Act 1870, a felon no longer forfeits
land or goods on conviction, though forfeiture on outlawry is not
abolished. The usual punishment for felony under the present law is
penal servitude or imprisonment with or without hard labour. "Every
person convicted of any felony for which no punishment is specially
provided by the law in force for the time being is liable upon
conviction thereof to be sentenced to penal servitude for any period not
exceeding seven years, or to be imprisoned with or without hard labour
for any term not exceeding two years" (Stephen, _Dig. Cr. Law_ (6th
ed.), art 18, Penal Servitude Act 1891). A felon may not be fined or
whipped on conviction nor put under recognizance to keep the peace or be
of good behaviour except under statutory provision. (See Offences
against the Person Act 1861, ss. 5. 71.)
The result of legislative changes is that at the present time the only
practical distinctions between felony and misdemeanour are:--
1. That a private person may arrest a felon without judicial authority
and that bail on arrest is granted as a matter of discretion and not as
of right. Any one who has obtained a drove of oxen or a flock of sheep
by false pretences may go quietly on his way and no one, not even a
peace officer, can apprehend him without a warrant, but if a man offers
to sell another a bit of dead fence supposed to have been stolen, he not
only may but is required to be apprehended by that person (Greaves,
_Criminal Law Consolidation Acts_). (See ARREST, BAIL.)
2. That on an indictment for felony counts may not be joined for
different felonies unless they form part of the same transaction. (See
INDICTMENT.)
3. That on a trial for felony the accused has a right peremptorily to
challenge, or object to, the jurors called to try him, up to the number
of twenty. (See JURY.)
4. That a felon cannot be tried _in absentia_, and that the jury who try
him may not separate during the trial without leave of the court, which
may not be given in cases of murder.