STANHOPE. I. JAMES, earl, a British statesman and soldier, born in 1673, died in London, Feb. 5, 1721. He was the son of Alexander Stanhope, a brother of the 2d earl of Chesterfield and a diplomatist of some distinction under William III. Entering the military service at an early age, he was in 1694 commissioned a captain in the foot guards. After serving with credit in the wars in Flanders which terminated with the peace of Ryswick, he participated in the disastrous expeditions of 1702 and 1704 to the Spanish peninsula; and in 1705, being then a brigadier-general, he shared in the exploits of the earl of Peterborough's brilliant Spanish campaign. In 1707 he was made major-general, in 1708 commander-in-chief of the British forces in Spain, and in the latter year effected the reduction of Minorca and the capture of Port Mahon. After gaining further important successes in Spain, he was on Nov. 27, 1710, surprised by the duke of Vendôme at Brihuega, and forced with his army of 2,000 men to capitulate. Subsequent to his return to England he held no military command, but became a prominent whig member of parliament, to which he had been regularly returned since 1702. Having distinguished himself by his opposition to the commercial treaty with France and on other occasions, he was appointed by George I. on his accession one of his principal secretaries of state, Viscount Townshend being the other. The intrigues of the earl of Sunderland, by whom Stanhope, it has been asserted, was incited to betray his ministerial colleagues, led to the retirement of Townshend, Walpole, and others of the cabinet; and Stanhope was in April, 1717, made first lord of the treasury, and a few months afterward raised to the peerage as Baron Stanhope of Elvaston and Viscount Stanhope of Mahon. In the succeeding year he resumed his office of secretary, Sunderland becoming first lord of the treasury, and was created Earl Stanhope. On Feb. 4, 1721, while replying with much heat to an attack upon the ministry by the duke of Wharton, he burst a blood vessel, which caused his death on the succeeding day. II. CHARLES, 3d earl, grandson of the preceding, born in Aug. 1753, died in 1816. By his first wife, a daughter of the earl of Chatham, he had 3 daughters, the eldest of whom was the eccentric Lady Hester Stanhope. Succeeding to his family honors in 1786, he became noted for his radical democratic opinions on the prominent questions of the day, in discussing which he carried the principles of the whigs, with whom he voted, to a point deemed so perilous by that party that none dared follow him; and in the latter years of his life he used to be called "the minority of one." As a mechanical inventor he is well known by the printing press which bears his name, by his improvements in the construction of locks for canals, and by two ingenious calculating machines, one of which performed addition and subtraction, and the other multiplication and division. He also gave considerable atten

tion to the subject of electricity, and in 1779 published his theory of what is called the return stroke. His political works consist of a refutation of Price's “Plan for a Sinking Fund," a reply to Burke's "Reflections on the French Revolution," and an "Essay on Juries." III. PHILIP HENRY, 5th earl, a British statesman and author, grandson of the preceding, born at Walmer, Kent, in 1805. He was graduated at Oxford in 1827, and in 1830, being then known by his courtesy title of Lord Mahon, entered parliament as member for Wotton Bassett, upon the disfranchisement of which borough he was returned for Hertford. Being unseated on petition, he was reëlected in 1835, and continued to represent Hertford until 1852. He has been conservative in politics, and held office during brief periods in the cabinets of the duke of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel. As a legislator he is favorably known by the copyright act of 1842, which he introduced and carried, and he occupies an important place among modern English writers of history and biography. His first work was the "Life of Belisarius" (8vo., 1829), succeeded by a "History of the War of Succession in Spain" (8vo., 1832), and the "History of England from the Peace of Utrecht to the Peace of Versailles, 1713-'83" (7 vols., 1836-'54). His remaining works comprise "Spain under Charles II." (8vo., 1840); 'Life of Louis, Prince of Condé" (18mo., 1845); "Historical Essays contributed to the Quarterly Review" (8vo., 1849); a “Life of Joan of Arc" (1853); and a "Life of William Pitt" (4 vols. 8vo., 1861 et seq.). He has edited "The Letters of Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield" (1845; 2d edition, 5 vols. 8vo., 1853), and, in conjunction with Mr. Cardwell, 2 vols. of the "Memoirs by the Right Hon. Sir Robert Peel, Bart." (1856-7), to be followed by a selection from his correspondence. During the publication of his history of England he entered into a controversy with Mr. Jared Sparks on the accuracy and value of the latter's edition of the "Writings of George Washington." He subsequently exonerated Mr. Sparks from the charges of serious "omissions and additions" originally preferred against him, but continued to "differ widely from him on the privileges and duties pertaining to an editor." Lord Stanhope succeeded to his title in 1855, since which time he has taken a less active part in public life. In 1834 he received the degree of D.C.L. from the university of Oxford, and since 1846 he has been president of the society of antiquaries. He was appointed by the duke of Wellington his literary executor.

STANHOPE, LADY HESTER LUCY, an eccentric English woman, born in London, March 12, 1776, died at Joon, in the Lebanon, June 23, 1839. She was the eldest child of Charles, 3d Earl Stanhope, by Hester, daughter of the great earl of Chatham, and in girlhood was remarkable for precocity, and boldness and independence of character. Unlike her father, who was almost a democrat in principle, she

prided herself upon her aristocratic birth, and the superior mental and physical qualities which she supposed to be its concomitants; and it was probably in consequence of this antagonism between parent and child that at an early age she entered the family of her uncle William Pitt, with whom she lived until his death, acting as his private secretary and sharing in all his confidences. Pitt having recommended his niece to the care of the nation, she received a pension of £1,200, which proving inadequate to support her according to her former rank and style, she retired to solitude in Wales. In 1810, disgusted with the artificial character of European society, and influenced also by the impression that a great destiny awaited her in the East, she resolved to expatriate herself. After spending several years in travel, during which she visited Jerusalem, Baalbec, Damascus, and Palmyra, at which last place she is said to have been crowned by 50,000 Arabs queen of the East, she established herself in 1813 at the deserted convent of Mar Elias, beside the little village of Joon, and within 8 miles of Sidon. Her striking manners and conversation, her munificence and reputation for extraordinary wealth, produced a strong impression upon the neighboring tribes and their chiefs, who learned to admire and ultimately to fear her. The old convent, perched upon an isolated eminence among the wildest scenery of the Lebanon, was soon converted into a fortress garrisoned by a band of Albanians, and became a refuge to all the persecuted and distressed who sought her assistance. Possessing a passion for intrigue and considerable diplomatic talent, she exercised a despotic sway over the surrounding country, fomenting and allaying commotions at her pleasure. So powerful was the influence which she wielded, that Ibrahim Pasha, when about to invade Syria in 1832, was constrained to solicit her neutrality. After the siege of Acre in the same year, she is said to have sheltered several hundred refugees. Whether for the purpose of awing her followers or from inward conviction, she practised astrology and other secret arts, and promulgated some peculiar religious sentiments which she held to the last. That her mind was diseased on certain points is clear from the fact that she kept in a magnificent stable two mares, on which she fancied she was to ride into Jerusalem with the Messiah at his next coming, to inaugurate the millennium. She treated with extreme rudeness many of the travellers who visited her, particularly Englishmen, and had an especial enmity against consuls and commercial agents, who, she said, "were intended to regulate merchants, and not to interfere with or control nobility." The extravagant state which she maintained and her numerous benefactions gradually brought pecuniary embarrassments, and during the latter years of her life she was constantly harassed by debts. Nothing, however, could tempt her to return to England, and she was forced to resort to

various dishonorable shifts to elude her credi、 tors, dying at last with no European near her, and surrounded by a crowd of native servants, who plundered the house almost before life had left her body. She was buried in the garden adjoining her residence by the British consul at Beyrout and Dr. W. M. Thomson, an American missionary, the latter of whom, for several years her neighbor, thus sums up her qualities: "On most subjects she was not merely sane, but sensible, well informed, and extremely shrewd. She possessed extraordinary powers of conversation, and was perfectly fascinating to all with whom she chose to make herself agreeable. She was however whimsical, imperious, tyrannical, and at times revengeful in a high degree. Bold as a lion, she wore the dress of an emeer, weapons, pipe, and all; nor did she fail to rule her Albanian guards and her servants with absolute authority. She kept spies in the principal cities, and at the residences of pashas and emeers, and knew every thing that was going forward in the country." Her "Memoirs as related by Herself" (3 vols. 8vo.), and "Travels" (3 vols. 8vo.) by Dr. Meryon, who had been for several years her physician, were published soon after her death.

STANHOPE, PHILIP DORMER. See CHESTERFIELD.

STANISLAS I. LESZCZYNSKI, king of Poland, and afterward duke of Lorraine and Bar, born in Lemberg, Galicia, April 20, 1677, died in Lunéville, Feb. 23, 1766. He was the son of Raphael Leszczynski, palatine of Posen and treasurer of Poland, and was appointed archbutler of the crown by Augustus II. When war broke out between Charles XII. of Sweden and that prince, he was in 1704 sent on a mission to the former by the diet at Warsaw, won the good graces of the conqueror, and through his influence was in the same year elected to the throne of Poland. This he held but a few years; his patron having been defeated at Pultowa in 1709, he was unable to resist his competitor Augustus II., left Poland in 1712, and took refuge in Pomerania, and then in Sweden. For the sake of peace he was willing to abdicate, and having gone for this purpose to Charles XII., then at Bender, was taken prisoner by the hospodar of Moldavia and delivered to the Turks; being released in 1714, he returned to Sweden, was appointed governor of Deux-Ponts by Charles XII., and remained there until that prince's death in 1719. Without protection and bereft of his patrimonial estates, he sought an asylum in France, and the regent Philip of Orleans granted him a pension and permission to reside at Wissembourg, Alsace, where he lived obscurely with his only daughter Marie Leszczynska. He had given up all ambitious aspirations, when he was suddenly apprised that the hand of his daughter was desired for Louis XV., to whom she was married Sept. 5, 1725. In 1733, on the death of Augustus II., he was recalled to

Poland by his adherents, who hoped that he would be supported by the French government; he however received only lukewarm assistance, while Russia strongly favored his competitor Augustus III.; he was obliged to retire to Dantzic, where he was besieged by a Russian army, and after a bold resistance of several months had a remarkable escape. In accordance with the preliminaries of the peace of Vienna in 1738, he resigned his pretensions to the throne of Poland, but was allowed to preserve his royal title; his confiscated estates were restored to him, and he received beside from Austria the duchies of Lorraine and Bar, which on his death were to be united to France. He died after 3 weeks' suffering, caused by his garments taking fire as he was reading. He has been deservedly styled Le Bienfaisant. He left several essays on philosophy, politics, and morals, which have been printed under the title of Euvres du philosophe bienfaisant (4 vols. 8vo. and 4 vols. 12mo., 1765), a selection from which (Euvres choisies de Stanislas, roi de Pologne, duc de Lorraine et de Bar) was published in 1825.

STANISLAS AUGUSTUS, king of Poland. See POLAND, vol. xiii. pp. 432-'3.

STANISLAUS, a central co. of California, bounded N. in part by the Stanislaus, and drained by the San Joaquin and Tuolumne rivers; area, nearly 900 sq. m.; pop. in 1860, 2,245. The surface is generally hilly, and the soil well adapted for farming and grazing. The chief productions in 1858 were 18,500 bushels of wheat, 48,000 of barley, and 75,000 lbs. of wool. Gold and other minerals are found.

Capital, La Grange.

STANLEY, a S. W. co. of North Carolina, bounded E. by the Yadkin and S. by Rocky river; area, 280 sq. m.; pop. in 1860, 7,801, of whom 1,169 were slaves. The surface is mountainous and the soil generally fertile. The productions in 1850 were 31,267 bushels of wheat, 203,281 of Indian corn, and 22,877 of oats. There were 2 tanneries, 6 grist mills, 21 churches, and 600 pupils attending public schools. Gold and silver in considerable quantities have been found. Capital, Albemarle.

STANLEY, EDWARD, an English divine and author, born in London, Jan. 1, 1779, died at Brahan castle, Ross-shire, Sept. 6, 1849. He was educated at St. John's college, Cambridge, and in 1805 presented to the living of Alderley, which he retained for the next 32 years. He gave much attention to the natural history of his neighborhood, and became a contributor on such topics to "Blackwood's Magazine" and other periodicals. His "Familiar History of Birds, their Nature, Habits, and Instincts" (2 vols., 1835), was published under the auspices of the society for promoting Christian knowledge. In 1837 he was offered by Lord Melbourne the bishopric of Norwich, which he accepted with some reluctance. His views were of so liberal a character, that he was accused of latitudinarianism. His "Addresses and Charges" were VOL. XV.-3

published in 1851, with a memoir by his son Arthur Penrhyn Stanley. His remaining works comprise "Questions on the Bible," and a number of occasional sermons, pamphlets, &c. He was a fellow of the royal society, and president of the Linnæan society.-ARTHUR PENRHYN, an English clergyman and author, son of the preceding, born in Alderley, Dec. 13, 1815. He was educated at Rugby under Dr. Arnold, and in 1838 was graduated at University college, Oxford, where he subsequently resided for several years as tutor. In 1851 he was appointed one of the canons of Canterbury, which office he still holds, and he was also one of the chaplains of Prince Albert. In 1856 he was elected regius professor of ecclesiastical history at Oxford. In 1842 he preached the funeral sermon of Dr. Arnold in the chapel of Rugby school, whose "Life and Correspondence" he published in 1844. He has also published "Sermons and Essays on the Apostolic Age" (Oxford, 1847); a "Lecture on the Study of Modern History" (1854); "Historical Memorials of Canterbury" (1855); "Sinai and Palestine in Connection with their History” (2d ed., 1857); "History of the Eastern Church" (1861); and several occasional sermons and lectures. He is a leader of the so called "Broad Church" party in England.

STANLEY, EDWARD HENRY SMITH, styled by courtesy Lord Stanley, an English statesman, born at Knowsley Park, July 21, 1826. He is the eldest son of the present earl of Derby, and was educated at Rugby under Dr. Arnold, and at Trinity college, Cambridge. Having contested unsuccessfully the representation of Lancaster in parliament, he made an extended tour in North America, visiting Canada, the United States, and the West India islands, and during his absence was, in Dec. 1848, elected for the borough of Lynn-Regis. During a subsequent visit to India he was appointed under secretary of state for foreign affairs in the first administration of his father (Feb. 27 to Dec. 28, 1852); and at the general election of 1852 he was again returned for Lynn-Regis, which he has continued to represent down to the present time. In the spring of 1853 he submitted to the house of commons a motion which contemplated a more complete reform of Indian affairs than the measures proposed by the Aberdeen-Russell administration, and which was a foreshadowing of the policy adopted in 1858. Although a conservative in politics, Lord Stanley showed such liberal views on many questions, particularly the abolition of church rates, and recommended himself to public approval so strongly by his ef forts for the intellectual improvement of the lower classes through the establishment of mechanics' institutes and libraries and the promotion of popular education, that on the death of Sir William Molesworth in 1855 he was offered by Lord Palmerston the seals of the colonial office, which he declined. He however accepted the office in the second Derby cabinet,

formed in Feb. 1858, and in the succeeding May assumed the presidency of the board of control upon the resignation of the earl of Ellenborough, with the title of "her majesty's commissioner for the affairs of India." Upon the transfer of the government of India from the East India company to the imperial crown (Aug. 1858), he became the first secretary of the new department of India then created. Since the retirement of the Derby ministry in June, 1859, he has not held office.

STANLEY, THOMAS, an English author, born in 1625, died in London, April 12, 1678. He was educated at Pembroke hall, Oxford, and subsequently resided for several years in the Middle Temple. In 1649 he published a volume of "Poems and Translations," followed in 1655-'60 by his "History of Philosophy, containing the Lives, Opinions, Actions, and Discourses of the Philosophers of every Sect" (3 vols. fol.), by far his most important production. A Latin translation of it by Olearius was published at Leipsic in 1711. In 1663 appeared his edition of Æschylus, including the fragments and the Greek scholia, together with a commentary and a Latin version. A reprint of this edition, with the commentary enlarged and corrected, was published at Cambridge in 1809 by Dr. Butler (4 vols. 4to.). In 1814-'15 appeared an edition of his poems with a biographical memoir by Sir Egerton Brydges.

STANZA (Ital.), a certain number of lines regularly adjusted to each other, and forming one of the divisions of a poem. The stanza should properly terminate with a full point or pause, whence its name, which signifies a station or resting place; but in practice this rule is not always observed, even in such varieties as the Spenserian stanza, where the metre would seem especially to require a full pause.

STAR. See ASTRONOMY.

STAR CHAMBER, COURT OF THE (curia camera stellatæ, so called from the gilded stars on the ceiling of the old council chamber of the palace of Westminster, in which it sat), a tribunal famous in the political history of England, and of which mention is made as early as the reign of Edward III. It appears to have been then, and for upward of a century and a half afterward, identical with the ancient concilium regis, or king's ordinary council, which alone exercised jurisdiction, the concilium secretum, or privy council, being a deliberative body; and at the accession of Henry VII. its powers had become so greatly abridged by restraining statutes as to render it almost inoperative as a court of justice. The statute of 3 Henry VII. (1488) placed the jurisdiction of the council, or rather of a part of the council, on a permanent basis by establishing a court composed of three high officers of state (to whom a fourth was subsequently added), a bishop and temporal lord of the council, and two justices of the courts of Westminster, which took cognizance of riots, perjury, the misbehavior of sheriffs, and other offences against the administration of justice,

in examining which they invariably proceeded without the assistance of a jury. This tribunal, however, was distinct from the council itself, of which it may be considered a committee having delegated powers; nor did the act cited give the first legal authority to the criminal jurisdiction exercised by that body. It received an augmentation of its powers by act of 31 Henry VIII., "which," says Sir Thomas Smith, was at that time marvellous necessary to do to repress the insolence of the noblemen and gentlemen of the north parts of England, who made their force their law;" and after an existence of nearly 60 years it was during the minority of Edward VI. merged in the general body of the council, which thenceforth, as in earlier times, constituted the real court of the star chamber. The latter continued under the Tudors and their successors, in spite of numerous restraining statutes, to exercise a jurisdiction, particularly in criminal matters, unauthorized by the act of Henry VII. erecting a new court, and which gradually rendered it one of the most odious instruments in overthrowing the liberties of the people. Every misdemeanor, and especially those of public importance for which the law, owing to the timidity and narrow-mindedness of its judicial interpreters, had provided no sufficient punishment, seems to have come within the scope of its inquiry. Among these were corruption, breach of trust, and malfeasance in public affairs, attempts to commit felony, or breach of proclamations; and to such an extent was its authority stretched under the Stuarts, that, according to Clarendon, "any disrespect to any acts of state, or to the persons of statesmen, was in no time more penal, and the foundations of right never more in danger to be destroyed.” The mode of process was generally by information filed at the suit of the attorney-general, or, in certain cases, of a private relator, and in other respects resembled that familiar to the court of chancery. Although the court was held incompetent to pronounce sentence of death, fines, imprisonment, the pillory, whipping, branding, and various species of maiming were freely resorted to; and "the greater certainty of conviction," says Hallam, "and the greater severity of the punishment, rendered it incomparably more formidable than the ordinary benches of justice." According to the same authority, "the object of drawing so large a number of criminal cases into the star chamber seems to have been twofold: first, to inure men's minds to an authority more immediately connected with the crown than the ordinary courts of law, and less tied down to any rules of pleading or evidence; secondly, to eke out a scanty revenue by penalties and forfeitures.' After flourishing with constantly increasing power for upward of a century, the court of the star chamber was finally abolished by act of parliament in 1641, although such was the reverence for precedent still remaining, that at first nothing more than a bill to

regulate the tribunal was intended, and according to Clarendon the act finally passed was due to a suggestion from one not connected with the more ardent reformers.

STAR FISH, the popular name of the radiated animals of the class of echinoderms and the order asteroidea, well exemplified by the common species of the New England coasts, the 5-fingered Jack of the sailors. The quinary arrangement prevails to a remarkable extent in the star fishes; one of the problems proposed by Sir Thomas Browne was: "Why, among sea stars, nature chiefly delighteth in 5 points?" The body of the star fishes is depressed, and divided into rays like a star; the upper surface is studded with rough knobs, varying in color with the species, but generally reddish or yellowish, between which are the openings of many very minute tubes for the passage of water in and out of the body; the skin is coriaceous, and contains the above named corpuscles, beneath which is a cutaneous skeleton of porous calcareous pieces, movably articulated, and extending on the lower surface from the mouth in the centre to the end of the rays. In the lacunæ between these pieces are the ambulacral pores, along the centre of the lower surface of each ray, through which are protruded the ambulacral tubes; these are the principal organs of locomotion, are arranged in a double or quadruple row, and are provided with contractile sacs or vesicles on the inner surface of the envelope; the tubes are constantly in motion, each ending in a suctorial disk, and pull the animal along as by the successive action of so many little anchors. On the external edges of the rays are series of stiff spines, probably serving for protection, and at the end of each ray is a small reddish eye speck; there are also scattered over the upper surface small processes ending in calcareous hooks or pincers. The mouth opens into the stomachal cavity, from which branching cæcal tubes extend to the extremity of each arm; having no long tentacles like the sea anemone (actinia), the stomach can be everted over their food and then be turned back again; the mouth is very dilatable, and will admit large mollusks with the shell, the hard parts being ejected after the soft portions are digested. There is great variety in the spreading, division, and subdivision of the arms, and in the relative size of the central disk, but all are arranged after the radiated plan; the rays can be bent in any direction, according to the will or need of the animal, by the contractile skin and muscles. The slender ophiurans progress by the undulatory movements of the rays, which, when very slender, long, and branching, have no eyes at the tips; there is generally no anal aperture, and when present it is on the dorsal surface. By the action of cilia water flows through the body, through the aquiferous system, distending and protruding the ambulacral feet, filling the circular vessel around the mouth, and serving for respiration, which, according to Siebold,

is performed partly by the vesicular appendages attached to the central ring; all the viscera are bathed in water, and respiration is also effected through the delicate blood vessels thereon distributed. The vascular system is very simple; the nervous ganglia are 5, arranged around the mouth, each sending filaments to the arm at whose base it lies; the sense of touch is very acute; the power of reproducing lost parts is very great, as every one knows from the mutilated and irregular specimens so commonly seen in the sea and in aquaria. On the upper surface, to one side of the centre and between two of the arms, is a round bright-colored spot, the madreporic plate or body, communicating with a canal leading to the water vessel around the mouth; this, according to Sharpey, is a sieve through which the water is filtered as it enters the aquiferous system for circulation through the whole body. They propagate by eggs only, and the sexes are in separate individuals; the larvæ are at first oval, ciliated bodies, without external organs or distinct parts; from these, which have a strictly bilateral symmetry, the radiated perfect animal is developed, at various stages of its growth, by a process of internal gemmation. The crinoid comatula, or feather star, free when adult, has its young attached on a long slender stem; Sars, a Norwegian naturalist, has traced the growth of echinaster from a spheroidal freemoving mass to the perfect star fish. Some species secrete a reddish fluid on the surface, probably the coloring matter, often irritating to the skin of persons handling them; according to Deslongchamps, they can inject a fluid into the shells of their victims, which stupefies and renders them an easy prey. Rymer Jones says star fishes may be considered as mere walking stomachs, their office in the economy of nature being to devour all kinds of garbage which would otherwise accumulate on the shores; they eat also living crustaceans, mollusks, and even small fish, and are believed to be very destructive to oysters; they are not used as food by man, but are in many places highly esteemed as manure. For a popular account of the British species the reader is referred to the "History of British Starfishes," by Edward Forbes (London, 1841), illustrated by excellent figures. In that work are described comatula (Lam.), the crinoid feather star; ophiura (Lam.), the sand star; ophiocoma (Ag.), the brittle star, so named from the facility with which the delicate arms are broken, but which are also readily repaired; astrophyton (Link), the Medusa's head, so called from the curling and interlacing of the very numerous ends of the rays; uraster (Ag.), the cross fish; solaster (Forbes), the sun star; palmipes (Link), the bird's foot star; goniaster (Ag.), the cushion star; and asterias aurantiaca (Linn.), the common star fish. mon star fish. The common star fish of the North American coast (asterias rubens, Linn.), generally considered the same as the European species, is too well known to need description;