Azalea.

AYTON, Sir ROBERT, a Scottish poet and favorite courtier in the reign of James VI He was a younger son of Andrew Ayton of Kinaldie, Fifeshire, where he was born in 1570. He was enrolled as a student in St. Leonard's college, St. Andrews, in 1584, and took his degree of M.A. in 1588. For purposes of study, he next visited France, from whence he addressed, in 1603, an elegant panegyric, in Latin verse, to king James, on his accession to the throne of England. This poem appears to have been the making of A.'s fortune, for we find him afterwards appointed, successively, one of the gentlemer of the bedchamber, private secretary to the queen, and master of requests. Subsequently, he held the appointment of secretary to the queen of Charles I. King James employed him to convey copies of one of his works, conjectured to be his Apology for the Oath of Allegiance, to the German courts. A. was on terms of familiarity with all the most eminent men of his time--poets, wits, and philosophers alike-among others, Hobbes and Ben Jonson. He was himself a poet of considerable merit; but, unfortunately, a large number of his effusions being complimentary verses to his friends, are characterized by conceit and extravagant flattery. He was one of the first Scotsmen who wrote in English with any degree of elegance and purity. His verses on general topics" are conceived in a refined and tender strain of fancy, that reminds us more of the fairy strains of Herrick than anything else." Burns had a great admiration of some of A.'s pieces, two or three of which he paraphrased. A. is also said to have written verses in Greek and French, as well as in English and Latin. Several of his Latin poems are preserved in the work called Delicia Poëtarum Scotorum, printed at Amsterdam in 1637. A. died in Whitehall palace, Mar., 1638.

AY TOUN, WILLIAM EDMONDSTOUNE, was a native of Edinburgh, having been b. there in 1813. He received his education at the metropolitan university, and was called to the Scottish bar in 1840. In 1845, he was appointed regius professor of rhetoric and belles-letters in the university of Edinburgh; and after the formation of the Derby administration, in 1852, he was promoted to the shrievalty of Orkney and Shetland He married a daughter of prof. Wilson. During many years, prof. Aytoun devoted himself to literary work. The earliest work of his with which we are acquainted is entitled The Life and Times of Richard I., published in 1840—a subject well treated, and singularly in consonance with his chivalrous and romance-loving nature. Despite his minstrel tendencies, he is a master of caricature and parody; and many of the most successful of the Bon Gaultier Ballads are understood to be from his pen. In 1849, he published the Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers and other Poems, which established his repu tation as a poet of the school of Sir Walter Scott, and which has run through many editions. Among his subsequent writings are-Firmilian, a Spasmodic Tragedy, published in 1854; and Bothwell, a narrative poem of considerable length, in the measure and manner of Sir Walter Scott, which was, after its first publication in 1856, to a large extent recast and improved. His edition of the Scottish Ballads, in 2 vols., appeared in 1858. In the ensuing year, he issued, in conjunction with his friend, Mr. Theodore Martin, translations of various minor poems of Goethe, in one volume. He was for many years one of the most frequent and brilliant contributors to Blackwood's Magazine. Prof. A. was successful in quite opposite departments of literature-he was distinguished at once as a poet and humorist. His poems exhibit a ballad-like simplicity, and a fiery flow of narration-the special merits of the poetical school in which he graduated; while his tales-the best known and appreciated of which are The Glenmutchkin Railway, and How I became a Yeoman-possess a certain robust humor and farcical abandonment, and are related to the writings of the great masters of humor much in the degree that the "screaming farce" is related to genteel comedy. His poetical powers appear in their greatest perfection in the Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers; the special merits of his humor are best exhibited in How I became a Yeoman. As a critic, he took up the knout of the dreaded Christopher North of the Noctes, which he wielded with considerable dexterity and force. Prof. A. died at Edinburgh, Aug. 4, 1865. His life has been written by Theodore Martin (Lond. 1867).

AYUNTAMIENTO is the name given in Spain to the councils or governing bodies of towns. Sprung from the institutions of the Romans, and firmly established during the long struggles with the Moors, the ayuntamientos acquired great influence and political power, the more so that the nobility were not excluded from them. Although this importance was impaired through the insurrection of Juan de Padilla in 1521; and at a later period, under the Bourbons, the last shadow of municipal freedom was lost; the remembrance of it continued to be cherished by the peopie. Accordingly, the cortes of Cadiz, in 1812, took up the leading features of the former system, adapting them, by more democratic modifications, to the requirements of the time. On the return of Ferdinand VII, the ayuntamientos were abolished; they were again restored by the cortes, in 1823; and after the invasion by France, once more set aside. During the civil war, various proposals were made regarding the ayuntamientos; but at last the arrangements of 1812 were confirmed by the constitution of 1837. According to that statute, the A., with the alcalde as president, is appointed by the free choice of the people, and is entitled to exercise the highest functions within the circle of its jurisdiction. The government can provisionally annul its acts, but must afterwards procure the ratification of the cortes, by which alone an A. can be dissolved. The ayuntamientos are empowered to

make up the lists of electors and jurors, to organize the national guards, to command the police within their own bounds, to direct the apportionment and raising of taxes, and to manage the funds of the commune. In 1840, a bill was brought into the cortes, formed on the model of the French law, proposing to deprive the ayuntamientos of all political power, and restrict their functions to purely municipal matters, and also to limit the franchise to the most highly taxed. But the insurrection which this step excited, and which ended in the expulsion of the queen, Maria Christina, prevented the project from being carried out. At last, in 1844, a law, similar to that proposed in 1840, was, through the intriguing of Christina, supported by French influence, adopted by the cortes, then composed of moderados; and this law, with little alteration, continues in force to the present day.

AZAD'IRINE, a bitter extract sometimes used in place of quinine. It is got from the bark of an East Indian tree known in America as the "Pride of China."

AZAIS, PIERRE HYACINTHE, 1766-1845; a French author and philosopher. He was a teacher in the college at Tarbes, but not liking the duties he became secretary to the bishop of Oleron; he soon gave up the place, and supported himself by playing the organ in a church. When the revolution of 1792 broke out, A. was one of its warmest advocates, but the horrors perpetrated made him a vehement opponent, and a pamphlet severely condemning the movement made immediate flight necessary. He returned to Paris in 1806, and in 1809 published his Des Compensations dans les Destinées Humaines, an optimist's view that good and evil are about fairly balanced, and that it is the duty of good citizens to submit to a fixed government. The idea naturally pleased Napoleon, who made A. professor at St. Cyr. At a later period he was in the public libraries at Avignon and Nancy. His Bonapartism kept him out of place for some years after the restoration, but he finally got a pension which placed him beyond the reach of want. According to A., all existence, whose cause is God, is the product of two factors, matter and force. Matter consists of primitive atoms. Force is expansive and subject to the law of equilibrium. All the phenomena of the universe are successive stages of the dovelopment of this one force acting on the primitive atoms; and this is traced in three orders of facts: 1, the physical; 2, the psychological; and, 3, the intellectual, moral, and political. In the physical, development can be traced from the simplest mechanical motion up through the more complex forces of light, heat, and electricity to the power of magnetic attraction, by means of which the second great order of facts is produced out of the first; for magnetic force acting on elastic bodies creates the primitive living globule, which is shaped like a tube open at both ends. From this first vital element a gradual ascent can be traced, culminating in man, who differs from other animals in the possession of intellect, or consciousness of the ideas which external things impress upon him. The immaterial in man, or his soul, is the expansive force inherent in him. Moral and political phenomena are the results of two primitive instincts, progressive and self-conservative, corresponding to the forces of expansion and represssion. From the reciprocal relations of these instincts may be deduced the necessary conditions of political and social life. The ultimate goal of life is the fulfillment of the law of equilibrium, the establishment of universal harmony. When that is accomplished, the destiny of man will have been achieved, and he will vanish from the earth, and that event may be looked for in 7000 years. For establishing complete universal equilibrium, 5000 years more will be requisite, at which period the present system of things will end.

AZALEA, a genus of plants belonging to the natural order Erice, and distinguished from rhododendron (q.v.) chiefly by the flowers having five stamens instead of ten. Most of the species of A. also differ from the rhododendrons in having thin deciduous leaves. Some botanists unite the genus A. to rhododendron. One of the species best deserving of notice is A. pontica, a shrub from 3 to 5 ft. high, a native of the countries around the Black sea, with large obovate or oblongolanceolate shining leaves and umbellate yellow flowers, which are externally covered with glutinous hairy glands, and are very fragrant. It may be regarded as, like many of the other ericea (heaths, etc.), a social plant; and its golden flowers give great brilliancy to the landscape in many parts of the Crimea, the s.e. of Poland, the Caucasus, etc. It covers many mountain slopes, but does not ascend to great elevations, giving place to the more alpine rhodo dendron ponticum. It is common in gardens and shrubberies in Britain, and varies with orange, red, and almost white flowers. The whole plant is narcotic and poisonous, and the honey collected by bees from its flowers, which very much abound in honey, is said to cause stupefaction and delirium, as happened to Xenophon's soldiers in their famous retreat in Asia.-North America abounds in azaleas as well as in rhododendrons, and some of the species have been long cultivated in Britain, particularly A. nudiflora and A. viscosa, which, with A. pontica, have become the parents of many hybrids. The former has pink, the latter, pure white flowers of delicious fragrance. A. viscosa has the flowers covered with glutinous hairs like A. pontica; but the Howers of A. nudiflora are nearly destitute of them. Both species abound from Canada to the southern parts of the United States. They are taller shrubs than A. pontica. A. arborescens, a mountainous species, from 3 to 10 ft. high, has large rose-colored flowers. A. calen dulacea, a native of the southern parts of the United States, is described as frequently clothing the mountains with a robe of living scarlet.-India and China produce several

species of A., of which one of the finest is A. Indica, well known in Britain as a greenhouse shrub. Its flowers exhibit great brilliancy of colors. Many hybrids exist between the more hardy species and this. Another extremely beautiful species is A. ledifolia, an evergreen, which has been introduced into Britain from China.

A diminutive, procumbent, evergreen shrub, a native of alpine regions in Europe and North America, plentiful on high mountains in Scotland, was long known as A. procumbens, but is now called Loiseleuria procumbens. The flowers are small and rosecolored. The whole appearance of the plant widely differs from that of the genus of Azalea.

AZARA, DON FELIX DE, 1746-1811; a Spanish general; wounded in a fight with the pirates of Algiers in 1775. Six years afterwards he was one of the commissioners to settle the boundaries between the Spanish and Portuguese settlements in South America. He was there for twenty years, and developed a strong taste for natural history, publishing an important work on the Quadrupeds of Paraguay in Paris in 1801. His chief work, issued in 1809, is the story of the discovery and conquest of Paraguay and the river La Plata.

AZARI'AH, a frequent name among the Hebrews, signifying "helped by Jehovah." Eleazer has the same meaning. A number of A.'s are mentioned in the scripture, the most important being the prophet who met Asa on his return from a victory over the Cushites, and warned the king to suppress the worship of idols; 2, a son of Jehoida, who made special effort to restore the worship of the temple and put down Athaliah's usurpation; 3, a high priest who assisted Hezekiah in purifying the services of the temple; 4, called in Chaldaic "Abednego," one of the three cast into the fiery furnace.

AZAZEL, the word inscribed upon the lots cast by the high priest of the ancient Hebrews on the day of atonement, to determine which of the goats selected for a sinoffering should be the scape-goat, and which one should be sacrificed. Critics are unable to decide upon the meaning of the word.

AZE'GLIO, MAS'SIMO Marquis d', famous as an artist, a publicist, a romance-writer, and a statesman, was the descendant of an ancient and noble family of Piedmont. He was b. in 1798 at Turin, where his father held a high military position. In his fifteenth year, A. followed his father to Rome, where he had been appointed ambassador, and there contracted a love for the fine arts: but his study of music and painting was cut short by his father procuring him an appointment in a Piedmontese cavalry regiment. Here A. devoted his leisure with such intensity to scientific pursuits, that he brought on an illness which forced him to quit the service. A journey to Rome, from which he returned to Turin in 1830, restored his health, but deepened his passion for painting. After some difficulty, he got his father's permission to devote himself entirely to this art. A year had hardly elapsed ere A. had made himself a name in Rome as an artist. In landscape-painting he soon attained complete artistic skill. After a residence of eight years at Rome, during which he had pursued the study of history along with painting, he returned to Turin. On the death of his father in 1830, he went to Milan, where painting was then flourishing. In Milan he made the friendship of Alexander Manzoni, whose daughter he married. A. now began to make himself favorably known also in literature, his novels, Ettore Fieramosco (1833) and Niccola di Lapi (1841), having done much to fan the national spirit of the Italians. The political affairs of Italy soon occupied him exclusively; he traversed the provinces, cities, and villages, seeking to stir up the spirit of patriotism, and to conciliate the unhappy party divisions, and was everywhere received with rejoicing and acclamation. A. never belonged to a secret political society, but opposed conspiracies as mischievous, and exhorted the impatient to moderation. While in Florence, he wrote his famous piece, Degli ultimi Casi di Romagna, in which he lashed the miserable papal government, denounced the vain attempts at insurrection, and proved to the Italian princes the necessity of a national policy. After the election of Pius IX. as pope, A. returned to Rome, and to his influence were ascribed the reforms with which Pius began his government. He was intensely active at this time, and wrote much on public questions. (An edition of his political writings, collected in one volume, appeared at Turin 1851.) When Charles Albert, after the rising of Lombardy, crossed the Ticino, A. left Rome with the papal troops destined to support the Italian contest. In the battle of Vicenza, where he commanded a legion, he was severely wounded in the leg while fighting at the head of his troops. Scarcely was he recovered, when with his pen he courageously opposed the republican party, now intoxicated with victory. On the opening of the Sardinian parliament, he was chosen a member of the chamber of deputies. After the unfortunate event of the battle of Novara, the young king, Victor Emanuel II., appointed him (1849) president of the cabinet, an office which he undertook solely out of love to his king and country. His influence in this high position was most beneficial. At the close of the war in 1859, A. was appointed pro tempore general and commissioner extraordinary, purely military, for the Roman states. On his retirement, he issued a proclamation to the people, which greatly tended to strengthen their resolution by its noble yet temperate advice. He died on the 15th of Jan., 1866. Since his death, Political Correspondence, and other writings from his pen, have been given to the world; and his Autobiography has been published by his daughter.

AZERBIJAN', or ADERBAIJAN', the ancient Media Atropatene, is the most northerly province of Persia. It is situated between lat. 36° and 40° n., long. 44° and 48° 40′ e.; bounded on the s. by Persian Kurdistan and Irak, e. by Ghilan, n.e. and n. by the Russian territory, and w. by Turkish Kurdistan. It has an area of about 30,000 sq.m., and a pop. of 2,000,000. The surface of A. is very mountainous, many of the ranges rising from 7,000 to 9,000 ft. in height. The peak of Savalan (an extinct volcano) reaches an elevation of 13,000 ft Mt. Ararat rises on the n. w. border. The chief rivers of A. are the Aras or Araxes, Kara Su, and the Kizil-Uzen. The salt lake Urumiyah or Urumieyeh (q.v.), the largest in Persia, is situated on the western border of the province. The climate of A. is not unhealthy, but it is subject to the extremes of heat and cold. The transition from cold to heat is very rapid. In the mountainous districts, the hailstorms are occasionally so violent as to kill cattle. The principal products of A. are rice, barley, wheat, maize, flax, hemp, cotton, tobacco, honey, and saffron; camels, horses, cattle, and sheep are also reared; velvet, silks, stuff, carpets, woolens, and leather are the most important articles of manufacture, and a little is done in hardware. Lead, iron, copper, sulphur, saltpetre, and salt are found in the province. The capital of A. is Tabriz, with a pop. of about 120,000. It has suffered greatly from earthquakes. The other towns of note are Urumiyah, on the lake of that name; Maragha, famous as the place where Nasir Eddin, the astronomer, fixed his observatory; Miana, Khoi, Selmas, and Ardebil.

AZEVEDO COUTINHO, Jozé Joaquim (Da Cunha), 1742-1821; the last inquisitor-general of Portugal. He was bishop of Pernambuco in 1794, and became noted in 1798 for publishing in London an argument against the suppression of the slave trade. He was appointed inquisitor-general in 1818. He is the author of a narrative of the conquest of Rio Janeiro in 1711 by Duguay-Trouin.

AZEVEDO Y ZUNIGA, GASPARD DE, d. 1606; Count of Monterey and viceroy of Mexico and Peru. He fitted out an expedition under Pedro Fernandez de Quiro to search for the supposed great continent in the s. polar ocean. Some small islands were found, but not the continent.

AZI MABA'D, or TIROWLI, a t. of Sirhind, India, in 29° 48′ n. lat., and 77° e. long., on the route from Kurnal to Lodiana, 9 m. n.w. from Kurnal. Its site is slightly elevated above the neighboring plain, which is inundated in the rainy season. It is surrounded by a high brick wall, pierced with loopholes for musketry, and having bastions surmounted with a tower. A large caravansery is enclosed with a lofty embattled wall having a tower at each corner, and surrounded by a deep ditch, capable of being filled with water.

AZIMGĦUR', or AZIM'S FORT, a name primarily applied to a t. in India, and thence extended to its district, forming one of the n. w. provinces. 1. The t. is in lat. 26° n., and long. 83° 14' e. From Calcutta, it is 448 m. to the n. w. ; from Benares, 81 to the n.; from Allahabad, 109 to the n.e. ; and from Lucknow, 171 to the s.e. It is situated on

the north-eastern Tons, a considerable offset of the Gogra, which is here crossed by a bridge of boats, and which is navigable downwards a distance of 40 m., to its confluence with the Surjoo. The t. contained, in '71, about 14,000 inhabitants, besides the troops in garrison. During the mutiny in 1857, A. was so far, a creditable exception to the general rule of ruthless cruelty among the insurgents. The sepoys did indeed mutiny, actuated, apparently, by a wish to appropriate a passing treasure of 7 lacs of rupees, or £70,000 sterling. But having formed a square round their officers, and sworn to protect them, they brought carriages for them and their families, and escorted the whole 10 m. towards Ghazeepore.-2. The district stretches in n. lat. between 25° 36′ and 26° 24', and in e. long. between 82° 45′ and 84° 12'. Its area is stated to be 2550 sq.m.; and its pop., 71, to be 1,531,410. This gives the average of 600 persons to the sq.mile. This exceptionally high average is the more remarkable from the circumstance that there are few, if any, populous t. in the district besides the capital. The district is low and remarkably level. The soil is fertile, excepting that a few tracts are irreclaimably barren, from being impregnated with soda, nitre, and other saline substances. Magnificent crops of rice, sugar-cane, and indigo are produced. The principal manufactures are those of silk and cotton, the value of which amounts to more than £100,000 a year.

AZIMUTH. The A. of a heavenly body is the angle measured along the horizon between the n. or s. point, and the point where a circle, passing through the zenith and the body, cuts the horizon. The word comes from the Arabic, and is said to be derived from a word signifying a quarter of the heavens. It is usual to measure the A. westward from the point most remote from the elevated pole, beginning at 0°, and returning to it at 360°. Thus, in northern latitudes, where the n. pole is elevated, the A. is measured from the s. point, so that the e. point, for instance, has an A. of 270°. ARMILLARY SPHERE. A. circles are those which extend from zenith to nadir, cutting the horizon at right angles, or those in which all the points have the same azimuth.

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A'ZINCOURT, or AGINCOURT, a village in the department of Pas-de-Calais, France, celebrated for a bloody battle between the English and French, Oct. 25, 1415. The internal distractions of France under the imbecile Charles VI. (q.v.) had encouraged England to attempt to make good her ancient claim on France. Henry V. of England

had landed at Harfleur, had taken that fortress, and wished to march through Picardie to Calais, in order to go into winter-quarters. The dauphin advanced against him with a powerful force. A great number of the nobility accompanied him; and so great was their confidence, that the offered aid of the duke of Burgundy and of the city of Paris was rejected. Henry hastened to the Somme, but was followed by the French, who opposed his passage; he at last managed to cross with his army at St. Quentin. Greatly weakened in numbers, and suffering extremely from want of provisions, Henry offered to purchase peace by reparation of injuries. But the French would not hear of a treaty; as they entertained the hope of completely annihilating the English army. They had, in fact, intercepted the English march to Calais, by getting possession of the high road behind the little river Ternoise, near the villages of A. and Framecourt. The invading army, therefore, still (according to French accounts) 14,000 strong, of whom 2000 were men-at-arms-though no English writer makes it more than 10,000-prepared for an engagement by posting themselves between two woods, in a single line of battle, with the archers on the wings. The French, to the number of 50,000, under the command of the constable D'Albret, were drawn up in two lines, the men-at-arms, of whom only 2000 were mounted, being in the first. The English were the first to begin the onset. The French cavalry rushed forward to meet them, but were received with such a storm of arrows that they took to flight, threw themselves upon the first line and put it in disorder. On this, the light-armed English archers took to their billhooks and hatchets, broke into the ranks of the men-at-arms that fought on foot, whose heavy armor and close array rendered them almost incapable of resistance, and made the greatest havoc among them. This being followed by a charge of the English horsemen, the first line took to flight, the second was unable to arrest the victors, and the whole French army was soon completely dispersed. The victory was decided. For a moment, Henry believed that the rallying masses were going to renew the fight; and hearing also that a troop of armed peasants were plundering his baggage, he gave orders to slay all the prisoners taken. The order was already executed when he discovered the groundlessness of his alarm. As many as 10,000 Frenchmen were slain, among whom were the constable and six dukes and princes, the duke of Brabant, the count of Nevers, the duke of Alencon, the duke of Bar and his two brothers. Five princes, among them the dukes of Orleans and Bourbon, were taken prisoners. The English lost 1600 killed, including the duke of York, the king's great-uncle, whom the duke of Alençon slew. Alençon had even struck the crown from king Henry's head, when he was surrounded by all present, and fell with many wounds. Henry, however, was too weak to pursue his advantage, and therefore continued his march to Calais, where he embarked for England.

AZO, PROFESSOR, a distinguished professor of civil law in the university of Bologna, in the early part of the 13th century. A. was one of the most eminent of the glossists, or commentators, of his time, and Savigny calls his works the mort important of that school which have come down to us. The name is sometimes given as Azzo, or Azzolenus; also Azo Soldanus, from the surname of his father.

AZOIC AGE, that period of geological time preceding the appearance of vegetable or animal life on earth. Constantly occurring discoveries render it impossible to fix a limit for the close of the age.

AZORES', a cluster of islands in the Atlantic, 800 m. due w. of the southern half of Portugal, ranging in n. lat. between 36° 55′ and 39° 44', and in w. long. between 25° 10' and 31° 16'. In the first half of the 15 c., the A. were discovered by the Portuguese, or rather, it has been said, appropriated by them, after having been revealed to them by a Flemish navigator, Joshua Vanderberg, of Bruges. They were at that time uninhabited -a fact which, so far as it goes, seems adverse to any notion that America could have been colonized from Europe in this direction. That the A. were visited by the Carthagenians is proved by Phoenician coins found on Corvo. As early as 1436, they are marked on a map of the world by the Venetian Andrea Bianco. The Portuguese colonists called the whole group A., from acor or azor, a hawk; and they named two individual islands Corvo and St. Jorgo, from Corvos Marinos and St. Jorsi, which, according to the maps of the 14th c., had been previously seen in the western ocean. In 1466, Alfonso V. made a life-grant of the island of Fayal to his aunt, the duchess of Burgundy, and from this circumstance many settlers migrated thither from Flanders. Without reckoning mere rocks, the islands are nine in number. Taken from e. to w., they are as follows: St. Mary, St. Michael, Terceira, Graciosa, St. Jorgo, Pico, Fayal, Flores, and Corvo. The area of the group is estimated at 980 sq.m.; while its pop. is '81, 269,401; yielding an average of 292 to a sq. mile. In the order of pop. and importance, the islands stand thus: St. Michael, Terceira, Pico, Fayal, St. Jorgo, Flores, Graciosa, St. Mary, and Corvo. Their capital is Angra, in Terceira; but Ponta Delgada and Ribeira Grande, both in St. Michael, are larger towns.

As may be presumed from the density of the population, the soil is fertile, and the climate healthy. The islands are also well watered. The exports are oranges, wine, brandy, grain, pulse, pork, beef, cheese, and coarse linens; and the imports are woolens, cottons, hardware, iron, glass, cordage, pitch, tar, staves, timber, oil, fish, rum, coffee, sugar, salt, and tea. Perhaps the greatest want of the group is a good harbor.