sident of the board of public improvements. The elective officers, | including the members of the board of public improvements, are nominated by the mayor and approved by the council, and the appointments are made at the beginning of the third year of the mayor's term, so as to remove the distribution of municipal patronage from the influences of a general city election. The power of the mayor and council touching appointments to office and removals is subject to certain reciprocal checks.

The bonded debt of St Louis at the close of the fiscal year, 13th April 1885, was $22,016,000. This debt is reduced each year by the operation of the sinking fund. The city has no floating debt. The receipts for the fiscal year ending 13th April 1885, deducting proceeds of revenue bonds and special deposits, were $5,659,086, or with balance in treasury at opening of year $6,514,877. The total expenditure was $5,681,557. The city tax rate for the year 1884 was $1.75 on the $100. During the last few years the rate of interest on the bonded debt has been reduced from 6 and 7 per cent. to 5 per cent, and more recently to 4 per cent. Most of the outstanding bonds are held in England and Germany. All appropriations are rigidly limited to the available means, and the increase of the bonded debt is forbidden by law. In 1860 the taxable valuation was $69,846,845, in 1870 it was $147,969,660, in 1880 $160,493,000, and in 1885 $207,910,350.

Commerce. Subjoined are a few of the more important facts and figures respecting the commerce of St Louis. In 1884 there were 6,440,787 tons of freight received by rail and 520,350 by river, making a total of 6,961,137 tons. In the same year there were shipped by rail 3,611,419 tons and by river 514,910 tons (total 4,126,329). The total receipts of grain for 1884, including wheat reduced to flour, were 52,776,832 bushels, as against 51,983,494 bushels in the previous year. During 1884 the amount of flour manufactured was 1,960,737 barrels, and the amount that changed hands 4,757,079 barrels; 302,534 bales of cotton, 19,426 hogsheads of tobacco, and 118,484,220 Ib of sugar were received; and 193,875,479 fb of pork in various forms were shipped. There are thirteen tobacco manufactories, with a production in 1884 of 22,631,104 b. In live stock, lumber, hides, wool, salt, lead, and a long list of other commodities the business is large and increasing. Extensive stock yards are established in the northern part of the city, and also in East St Louis, where they are known as the national stock-yards, and cover a space of over 600 acres. In 1884 there were imported cattle, 450,717; sheep, 380,822; pigs, 1,474,475; horses and mules, 41,870. The shipments in the same year were-cattle, 315,433; sheep, 248,545; pigs, 678,874; horses and mules, 39,544. There are twelve grain elevators, with a total capacity for bulk grain of 10,950,000 bushels and 415,000 sacks. The coal received during the year amounted to 52,349,600 bushels. The foreign value of imports for the year was $2,586,876, and the collections at the custom-house were $1,463,495.

Among the more important manufactures may be mentioned those of iron and steel, glass, flour, sugar, beer, bagging, prepared foods, tobacco, boots and shoes, furniture, planed and sawed lumber, wire and wire-work, carriages and waggons, foundry and machine. shop products, hardware, agricultural implements, &c. Meat packing is also an important industry. The summary of manufactures in the United States census of 1880 shows 2924 establishments, having a capital of $50,832,885; amount paid in wages during the year, $17,743,532; value of materials, $75,379,867; value of products, $114,333,375. These figures ought probably to be largely increased now (1886). In the wholesale grocery trade St Louis is ahead of nearly all the inland cities of the Union. There are between twenty and thirty wholesale houses, and it is estimated that the annual sales exceed $30,000,000. The Belcher sugar-refinery is able to turn out 1200 barrels a day. The capital employed in the wholesale and retail dry goods establishments is estimated at between $10,000,000 and $12,000,000, and the annual amount of business at $35,000,000 to $40,000,000. The brewing business of St Louis has had an astonishing development, and its product is shipped to all parts of the world. It employs over $8,000,000 of capital, and pays out in wages over $2,000,000 per annum. The ale and beer shipments during 1884 numbered 1,834,545 packages. The brick-making industry has recently become important, and the hard red brick for building and the fire brick produced in St Louis are. among the best to be found in the United States. In 1884 there were eighteen State banks and six national banks representing-capital and surplus, $14,742,123; savings and time deposits, $9,102,021; current deposits, $29,000,691; circulation, $674,150; total, $53,518,985. The clearings for 1884 amount to $785,202,177, and the balances to $125,260,945, making a total of $910,463,122. Railways.-St Louis is one of the most important railroad centres in the United States; the nineteen lines which run trains into the Union depôt represent nearly 20,000 miles of railway: The Union passenger depôt, contiguous to the business centre of the city, is connected with the bridge over the Mississippi by a tunnel. The buildings are of a temporary character, and are not adequate to the enormous business transacted; a new depôt of imposing proportions is now in contemplation. Over 150 passen

ger trains arrive and depart daily. The tunnel already referred to commences a few hundred yards east of the Union depôt. It has double tracks throughout its length, which is about 1 mile, and is supplied with electric lights, ventilating shafts, and the best appliances for safety and convenience. It is leased by the Wabash, St Louis, and Pacific and the Missouri Pacific Railroad Companies, which are also the lessees of the bridge. The bridge across the Mississippi river at St Louis is one of the most remarkable structures in the world in character and magnitude. It consists of three arches, the two side spans being 502 feet in the clear and the centre span 520 feet, and carries a roadway for ordinary traffic 54 feet wide and below this two lines of rail. The dimensions of the abutments and piers are as follows:

The foundations of abutments and piers rest on solid rock. The two piers and the east abutment were sunk by means of pneumatic caissons. The greatest depth below the surface at which work was done was 110 feet, the air-pressure in the caisson being 49 lb. Each arch consists of four equal ribs; each rib is composed of two circular members, 12 feet apart, which are connected by a single system of diagonal braces. The circular members consist of steel tubes, which are 12 feet long and 18 inches in diameter; each tube is composed of 6 steel staves, varying in thickness between 1 and 24 inches. These staves are held together by a steel envelope, a quarter of an inch thick. The tubes are joined together by couplings, and the end tubes are rigidly connected with wrought-iron skewbacks, which are fixed to the masonry by long. bolts. The arches were erected without using any false work. Work on the bridge was commenced March 1868, and it was opened for traffic on 4th July 1874. The total cost of bridge and approaches was $6,536,730. The traffic across the bridge is rapidly developing. In 1876 the gross earnings were $448,447 (loaded waggons, 45,027; railway passengers, 496,686); in 1884 the gross earnings were $1,520,483 (loaded waggons, 172,730; railway passengers, 1,333,360); a total of 2,225,994 tons was carried; and the total number of cars which crossed the bridge was 472,324.

History.-The first permanent settlement on the site of St Louis was made in February 1764, and was in the nature of a trading post, established by Pierre Laclede Liguest. Long prior to this event there had been some exploration of the vast regions of the Mississippi and its tributaries by Marquette, Joliet, La Salle, Hennepin, and others; but, although a few widely separated military and trading posts had been established, there was no accurate knowledge of the character and resources of the country. Laclede's expedition was nearly contemporaneous with the treaty of Paris, 1763, by which the title of France to the regions in the valley of the Mississippi was practically extinguished, Spain becoming owner of all Louisiana west of the Mississippi, and England of all territory east of that river, excepting New Orleans. The few French forts north of the Ohio were nominally surrendered to the English, including Vincennes, Cahokia, Kaskaskia, and Fort de Chartres; but there was no immediate formal assertion of English control, and French sentiments and manners and customs remained undisturbed. In 1771 St Louis was formally occupied by a small body of Spanish troops, commanded by Don Pedro Piernas, and a period of somewhat over thirty years of Spanish rule followed, during which few local events of noteworthy character occurred. On 25th May 1780-the festival of Corpus Christi-the post, or village, was attacked by Indians, and about thirty of the citizens were killed; but the savages were beaten off and did not renew the attack. In 1800 Spain ceded back to France all her territory of Louisiana, and three years later-30th April 1803-France ceded to the United States all her right, title, and interest in the territory for eighty million francs. At this time St Louis and the adjacent districts had a population of not over 3000, and the total population of Upper Louisiana was between 8000 and 9000, including 1300 Negroes. There were not over 200 houses in the embryo city, which consisted mainly of two streets parallel to the river. For fifty or sixty years after the landing of Laclede the progress of the town was necessarily slow. In 1810 the population was less than 1500, and in 1830 it had not reached 6000. From the latter date.progress became steady and rapid, and the real growth of the city was com pressed within half a century. An extensive conflagration occurred in 1849, which destroyed most of the business houses on the Levee and Main Street. During the Civil War the commercial advance. ment of St Louis was seriously retarded; but the city continued to expand in population owing to its advantageous-geographical position. (D. H. M'A.)

guese Jew, who taught a species of mysticism drawn from | cabbalistic sources, and endeavoured to found thereon a secret cult with magical or theurgical rites. In 1771 Saint-Martin left the army in order to become a social preacher of mysticism. His conversational powers made him welcome in the most aristocratic and polished Parisian salons; but his missionary zeal led him to England, Italy, and Switzerland, as well as to the chief towns of France. At Strasburg in 1788 he met Charlotte de Boecklin, who initiated him in the writings of Jacob Boehme, and at the same time inspired in his breast a semi-romantic attachment. His later years were devoted almost entirely to the composition of his chief works and to the translation of those of Boehme. He died at Aunay, near Paris, on the 23d October 1803.

His chief works are-Lettre à un ami sur la Révolution Française; Éclair sur l'association humaine; De l'esprit des choses; Ministère de l'homme-esprit. Other treatises appeared in his Euvres posthumes (1807). Saint-Martin regarded the French Revolution as a sermon in action, if not indeed a miniature of the last judgment; its result was to be the regeneration of society by a destruction of its abuses. His ideal society was 'a natural and spiritual theocracy," in which God would raise up men of mark and endowment, who would regard themselves strictly as "divine commissioners to guide the people through the crises of their history. This mystical dictatorship was to rest entirely upon persuasion. In like manner all ecclesiastical organization was to disappear, giving place to a purely spiritual Christianity, the doctrines of which constitute a species of theosophy. Their philosophical basis in Saint-Martin is the assertion of a faculty superior to the reason, which he calls the moral sense, and from which we derive our knowledge of God. In man, and not elsewhere, is to be found the key to the divine nature. God exists as an eternal personality, and the creation is an overflowing of the divine love, which was unable to contain itself. The human soul, the human intellect or spirit, the spirit of the universe, and the elements or matter are the four stages of this divine emanation, man being the immediate reflexion of God, and nature in turn a reflexion of man. Man,

however, has fallen from his high estate, and matter is one of the consequences of his fall. But the divine love, united to humanity in Christ, will work the final regeneration or restoration of all things.

Comp. Gence, Notice biographique (1824); Caro, Essai sur la vie et les doctrines de Saint-Martin (1852); Sainte-Beuve, Causeries de Lundi, vol. x. p. 190; Matter, Saint-Martin, le philosophe inconnu (1862); Franck, La philosophie mystique en France à la fin du dix-huitième siècle (1866).

ST MAUR-SUR-LOIRE, founded by St Maurus (see MAURUS), was the first Benedictine monastery in Gaul. It was situated on the left bank of the Loire about 15 miles below Saumur. About the middle of the 9th century it was reduced to ruins by the Normans; shortly before the event and in anticipation of it the relics of the saint were transferred to St Maur-les-Fossés near Paris. St Maur-sur-Loire was afterwards restored and fortified, but the only extant remains consist of a part of the church and a few shattered columns.

ST MICHAEL'S. See AZORES, vol. iii. p. 171. ST NAZAIRE, a town of France, in the department of Loire Inférieure, and a port on the right bank of the Loire near its mouth. It has rapidly grown since the new docks rendered it the outport or detached harbour of NANTES (q.v.), from which it is distant 29 miles west-north-west by water and 40 by rail. Begun in 1845 and opened in 1857, the first basin has an area of 26 acres and Ï mile of quays; and the depth varies from 20 to 25 feet. To the north of the first basin a new dock (Penhouet), 56. acres in extent and with 1 miles of quay, was constructed between 1864 and 1881, at a cost of nearly £1,000,000. It communicates with the older basin by a passage 82 feet wide and 673 long. The harbour can admit vessels of 23 feet draught at every tide, the depth of water on the sill varying from 26 to 30 feet at high tide, and never being less than 13. The town is the terminus of the General Transatlantic Company, whose steamers connect France with Mexico, the Antilles, and the Isthmus of Panama. The total imports and exports amount to about 1,600,000 tons annually, valued at £24,000,000. The staple articles

imported are coals from Great Britain (500,000 tons), grain, sugar, coffee, rice, timber (from the North), phos phates, and guano. Pit-props, salt, and preserved foods are exported. The town being of recent origin, its indus tries are only in process of development; but it already contains shipbuilding yards, large ironworks, artificial fuel factories, sawmills, a flour-mill, and extensive commercial warehouses. There are no edifices of historical or architectural note with the exception of a granite dolmen, 10 feet long and 5 broad, resting horizontally on two other stones sunk in the soil, above which they rise 6 feet. The population was 16,314 in 1881 (19,626 in the commune). According to certain remains discovered on excavating the docks, St Nazaire seems to occupy the site of the ancient Corbilo, placed by Strabo among the more important maritime towns of Gaul, and probably founded by the Phoenicians. It was in the harbour of Corbilo that Crassus by Cæsar's order built the fleet by which, in 56 B.C., Brutus routed the 220 vessels of the Venetian insurgents. At the close of the 4th century the site of Corbilo was occupied by Saxons, and, their conversion to Christianity being effected one or two hundred years later by St Felix of Nantes, the place took the name of St Nazaire. It was still only a little "bourg" of 3000 inhabitants when it was chosen as the site of the new harbour for Nantes, because the ascent of the Loire was becoming more and more difficult. In 1868 the sub-prefecture was transferred to St Nazaire from Savenay.

ST NICOLAS, a town of Belgium, in the district of Dendermonde, in the province of East Flanders, 19 miles from Ghent by the railway to Antwerp. It is a well-built, modern-looking place, with a very spacious market-place, famous as the spot where Philip the Fair swore in 1497 to maintain the privileges of Waesland, of which St Nicolas was the capital. From a comparatively small village, with only 5000 inhabitants in 1661, it has grown into a large manufacturing centre, with wool and cotton mills, needle-factories, &c., and a population (in 1876) of 24,729. The more conspicuous buildings are the town-hall and two of the churches.

ST OMER, a town and fortress of France, chef-lieu of the department of Pas-de-Calais, situated on the Aa (which flows into the North Sea), 177 miles north of Paris by the railway to Arras, Hazebrouck, and Calais, at the junction of a line to Boulogne. Before the modifications made in the defensive system of the frontier the place was a fortress of the first class. At St Omer begins the canalized portion of the Aa, which reaches the sea at Gravelines, and under its walls it connects with the Neuffossé, which ends at the Lys. There are two harbours outside and one within the city. St-Omer has wide streets and spacious squares, but little stir of life. The old cathedral is the most curious church in Artois; it belongs almost entirely to the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries. Of its four portals the finest, dating from the 13th and 14th centuries, was decorated with statuettes, unfortunately mutilated during the Revolution. In spite of the spoliations of the 18th century, the contents of the church still comprise interesting paintings, a Virgin in wood of the 12th century (the object of numerous pilgrimages, and solemnly crowned in 1875), a colossal statue of Christ seated between the Virgin and St John (13th century, originally belonging to the cathedral of Thérouanne and presented by Charles V.), fine stained glass and mosaics, interesting tombstones, the cenotaph of St Omer, and numerous ex-votos, distinguished by their antiquity, originality,. and delicacy of workmanship: The clearing of the church from the encroachments of other buildings has led to the reconstruction of the apsidial chapel of the Sacred Heart in the purest Gothic style. Of St Bertin, the church of the abbey (built between. 1326 and 1520 on the site of previous churches), where Childeric III. retired to end his days, nothing now remains but some arches and a tower, 190 feet high, which serves to adorn the public gardens (once possessed by the monks). Several

other churches or convent chapels are of interest, but it is enough to mention St Sepulchre's (14th century) for the sake of its beautiful stone spire and stained-glass windows. A fine collection of records, a picture gallery, and a theatre are all accommodated in the town-hall, built of the materials of the abbey of St Bertin. Among the five hospitals the military hospital is of note as occupying the college opened by the English Jesuits in 1592 and known as the place where O'Connell received his education. The old episcopal palace is used as a court-house. Several learned societies exist in the town; the public library contains 20,000 volumes and 1000 MSS. The arsenal is an extensive series of buildings. Besides 30,000,000 to 40,000,000 tobaccopipes exported to America and the colonies, St Omer manufactures cloth, hosiery, and tulle, cambric, and muslin embroideries. Its trade (and it is the seat not only of a tribunal but also of a chamber of commerce) is mainly in provisions for England, the products of the local industry, and those of the paper-mills, flour-mills, distilleries, and sugar-factories in the vicinity, especially along the banks of the Aa. The suburb of Haut Pont to the north of St Omer is inhabited by a special stock, which has remained faithful to the Flemish tongue, its original costume, and its peculiar customs, and is distinguished by honesty and industry. The ground which these people cultivate has been reclaimed from the marsh, and the lègres (i.e., the square blocks of land) communicate with each other only by boats floated on the ditches and canals that divide them. At the end of the marsh, on the borders of the forest of Clairmarais, are the ruins of the abbey founded in 1140 by Thierri d'Alsace, to which Thomas a Becket betook himself in 1165. To the south of St Omer on a hill commanding the Aa lies the camp of Helfaut, often called the camp of St Omer. On 15th June 1884 a statue was erected to Jacqueline Robin, a heroine who in the time of Louis XIV. saved St Omer from foreign occupation. The population of the town was 20,479 in 1881 (21,556 in the commune). Near a castle named Sithiu, Omer, bishop of Thérouanne, erected churches and the monks of Luxeuil established monasteries in the 7th century; and in the 9th century the village thus originated took the name of its founder St Omer. The Normans laid the place waste in 861 and 881, but ten years later found town and monastery surrounded by walls and safe from their attack. Situated on the borders of territories frequently disputed by French, Flemish, English, and Spaniards, St Omer long continued subject to siege and military disaster. In 1071 Philip I. put all to sword and flame. Burned in 1136, captured in 1198 by Richard and Baldwin IX., attacked in 1214 by Ferrand of Portugal, in 1302 and 1308 by the Flemish, in 1337 and 1339 by the English, and in 1477 by Louis XI., St Omer at last fell in 1487 into the hands of Charles VIII. Two years later it was recovered by the archduke Maximilian; and Charles V. strengthened its ramparts with bastions. The French made five futile attempts against it between 1551 and 1596, and had no better success in 1638 (under Richelieu) or in 1647. But on 26th April 1677, after seventeen days' siege, Louis XIV. forced the town to capitulate; and the peace of Nimeguen permanently confirmed the conquest. From time to time the people of St Omer (Audomarois) still celebrate the entrance into the town of William Cliton, count of Flanders, from whom in 1127 they obtained a communal charter granting them numerous privileges. St Omer ceased to be a bishopric in 1790.

SAINTONGE (Santonia, Santonensis tractus), an old province of France, of which SAINTES (q.v.) was the capital, was bounded on the N.W. by Aunis, on the N.E. by Poitou, on the E. by Angoumois, on the S. by Guienne, and on the W. by Guienne and the Atlantic. It now forms a small portion of the department of Charente and the greater part of that of Charente Inférieure.

ST OUEN, an industrial district in the outskirts of Paris, on the right bank of the Seine, 1 mile above St Denis. It had 17,718 inhabitants in 1881. The docks (6 acres in area), where the boats from the lower Seine discharge, are connected by rail with the Northern and Eastern lines at Paris and with the circular railway near Batignolles.

The importance of St Ouen is mainly due to its industrial establishments,-foundries and forges, steam-engine factories, dyeworks, waxcloth works, potteries, &c. ; it has also the steam-pumps for supplying the upper quarters of Paris with water from the river, a racecourse, and a fine castle, occupying the site of the building in which Louis XVIII. signed (2d May 1814) the declaration by which he promised a charter to France.

The

ST PAUL, a city of the nited States, second city of Minnesota, a port of entry and the capital of the State and of Ramsey county, is situated in 44° 52′ 46′′ N. lat. and 93° 5′ W. long., on the Mississippi river, 2150 miles from its mouth, 10 below the falls of St Anthony, the natural head of navigation, and 360 north-west of Chicago. ground on which the city is built rises from the river in a series of terraces, the ascent being in many places precipitous and not easily adapted to urban uses. The city is mainly confined to the second and third terraces, but is gradually spreading over the elevated plateau beyond. The difficulties of the situation have much increased the cost of erecting large business structures, circumscribed the business quarter, and impeded the railway companies in securing convenient and adequate facilities. The city site is underlaid with a thick stratum of bluish limestone, which comes near the surface, and which, while it renders excavation expensive, furnishes unlimited supplies of building material of a fair quality. The streets of the older portions are uncomfortably narrow, but the newer streets are better

1. State Capitol. 2. U.S. Custom-House and Post-Office.

5. Opera-House.

RIVER

6. Chamber of Commerce.

7. Rice Park.

8. Smith Park.

laid out. The chief public buildings are the State capitol (built in 1882), the United States custom-house and postoffice, the city-hall, and the city-market. A handsome operahouse and a chamber of commerce building are conspicuous features. In 1885 there were seventy-one church organizations,-9 Episcopal, 7 Presbyterian, 4 Congregational, 12 Methodist, 12 Lutheran, 2 Jewish, 7 Baptist, 11 Roman Catholic, 1 Unitarian, 4 Evangelical, 1 Swedenborgian, and 1 Disciples of Christ. Besides the charitable institutions connected with the church organizations there are an orphan asylum, a home for the friendless, a Swedish hospital, a women's Christian home, and a Magdalen home. Of periodical publications there were issued in 1885 5 dailies, 17 weeklies, and 7 monthlies. The city has (1886) eleven banks, of which six are national with an aggregate paid-up capital of $5,200,000, and five State institutions with a paid-up capital of $1,150,000. St Paul is an important railway centre, dividing with Minneapolis the terminal and distributing business of no less than fifteen lines owned by six different corporations and having an aggregate length of 15,818 miles. The navigation of the upper Mississippi acts as a check upon the rates charged by the