to one submitted to the convention by Franklin. This plan provided for a representative governing body to be known as the Grand Council, to which each colony should elect delegates (not more than seven or less than two) for a term of three years. This body was to have control of Indian affairs, impose taxes, nominate all civil officers, authorize the opening of new lands to settlement, and in general have charge of colonial defence, and of the enlistment, equipment and maintenance of an army. An executive or viceroy, to be known as the president-general, was to have the veto power over the acts of the Grand Council and the right of appointment of military officers. Finally, it was provided that the acts of the Grand Council should be valid unless vetoed by the crown within a period of three years. Neither the British government nor the growing party in the colonies which was clamouring for colonial rights received the plan with favour—the former holding that it gave the colonies too much independence, and the latter that it gave them too little. The strategic importance of Albany was fully recognized during the War of Independence, and it was against Albany that Burgoyne’s expedition was directed. Albany became the permanent state capital in 1797. In 1839 it became the centre of the “Anti-Rent War,” which was precipitated by the death of Stephen van Rensselaer (1764–1839), the last of the patroons; the attempt of his heirs to collect overdue rents resulting in disturbances which necessitated the calling out of the militia, spread into several counties where there were large landed estates, and were not entirely settled until 1847.
See William Barnes, The Settlement and Early History of Albany (Albany, 1864); J. Munsell, The Annals of Albany (10 vols., Albany, 1850–1859: 2nd ed., 4 vols., 1869–1871); E. B. O’Callaghan, Documentary History of the State of New York, vol. iii. (Albany, 1850); A. J. Weise, The History of the City of Albany (Albany, 1884); G. R. Howell and J. Tenney, Bi-centennial History of Albany (New York, 1886); Amasa J. Parker, Landmarks of Albany County (Syracuse, 1897); and Cuyler Reynolds, Albany Chronicles; or Albany Mayors and Contemporaneous Chronology (Albany, 1907).
ALBANY, a municipal town in the county of Plantagenet, West Australia, on Princess Royal Harbour, a branch of King George Sound, 352 m. by rail and 254 m. directly S.S.E. of Perth. Pop. (1901) 3650. It is the chief health resort of the state, and its climate is one of the finest in Australia; it has a mean annual temperature of 58·6° F., and the summer heat is never excessive. One of the features of the town is the Marine Drive, some 512 m. in circuit around the hills overlooking the harbour. Albany has several flourishing industries, of which the chief are brewing, coach-building, printing and tanning. In addition it has the finest harbour in West Australia. A pier extends for 1700 ft. into the sea, giving safe accommodation to the large steamers which call at the port. The Great Southern railway has a line to the seaward end of the pier, and affords direct communication with the interior of the colony. The harbour is protected by forts and there is a garrison in the town. King George Sound, of which Albany is the township, was first occupied in 1826 and a penal settlement was established. No attempt was made to colonize the locality until after this settlement was given up in 1831. Albany became a municipality in 1871.
ALBATEGNIUS (c. 850–929), an Arab prince and astronomer, correctly designated Mahommed ben Gebir al Batani, his surname being derived from his native town, Batan in Mesopotamia. From his observations at Aracte and Damascus, where he died, he was able to correct some of Ptolemy’s results, previously taken on trust. He compiled new tables of the sun and moon, long accepted as authoritative, discovered the movement of the sun’s apogee, and assigned to annual precession the improved value of 55″. Perhaps independently of Aryabhatta (born at Pātaliputra on the Ganges 476 A.D.), he introduced the use of sines in calculation, and partially that of tangents. His principal work, De Motu Stellarum, was published at Nuremberg in 1537 by Melanchthon, in a blundering Latin translation by Plato Tiburtinus (fl. 1116), annotated by Regiomontanus. A reprint appeared at Bologna in 1645. The original MS. is preserved at the Vatican; and the Escorial library possesses in MS. a treatise of some value by him on astronomical chronology. Albategnius takes the highest rank among Arab astronomers.
See Houzeau, Bibliographie astronomique, i. 467; M. Marie, Histoire des sciences, ii. 113; R. Wolf, Geschichte der Astronomie, p. 67; Delambre, Hist. de l’astr. au moyen âge, ch. ii.; Phil. Trans. 1693 (913), where E. Halley supplies corrections to some of the observations recorded in De Motu Stellarum.
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ALBATROSS (from the Port. Alcatraz, a pelican), the name of a genus of aquatic birds (Diomedea), closely allied to the petrels, and belonging, like them, to the order Tubinares. In the name Diomedea, assigned to them by Linnaeus, there is a reference to the mythical metamorphosis of the companions of the Greek warrior Diomedes into birds. The beak is large, strong and sharp-edged, the upper mandible terminating in a large hook; the wings are narrow and very long; the feet have no hind toe, and the three anterior toes are completely webbed. The best known is the common or wandering albatross (D. exulans), which occurs in all parts of the Southern Ocean. It is the largest and strongest of all sea-birds. The length of the body is stated at 4 ft., and the weight at from 15 to 25 ℔. It sometimes measures as much as 17 ft. between the tips of the extended, wings, averaging probably from 10 to 12 ft. Its strength of wing is very great. It often accompanies a ship for days—not merely following it, but wheeling in wide circles round it—without ever being observed to alight on the water, and continues its flight, apparently untired, in tempestuous as well as in moderate weather. It has even been said to sleep on the wing, and Moore alludes to this fanciful “cloud-rocked slumbering” in his Fire Worshippers. It feeds on small fish and on the animal refuse that floats on the sea, eating to such excess at times that it is unable to fly and rests helplessly on the water. The colour of the bird is white, the back being streaked transversely with black or brown bands, and the wings dark. Sailors capture the bird for its long wing-bones, which they manufacture into tobacco-pipe stems. The albatross lays one egg; it is white, with a few spots, and is about 4 in. long. In breeding-time the bird resorts to solitary island groups, like the Crozet Islands and the elevated Tristan da Cunha, where it has its nest—a natural hollow or a circle of earth roughly scraped together—on the open ground. The early explorers of the great Southern Sea cheered themselves with the companionship of the albatross in its dreary solitudes; and the evil hap of him who shot with his cross-bow the bird of good omen is familiar to readers of Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Several species of albatross are known; for the smaller forms see Mallemuck.
ALBAY, a city and the capital of the province of Albay, Luzon, Philippine Islands, near an inlet on the W. shore of the Gulf of Albay, 215 m. by wagon-road S.E. of Manila. Pop. (1903) 14,049; in October 1907 the towns of Daraga (pop. 1903, 18,695) and Legaspi (pop. 1903, 9206) were merged with Albay, making its total population, on the basis of the 1903 census, 41,950. Albay is one of the most important cities of the Philippine Islands. It is built on level ground near the S. base of Mount Mayon, a beautiful volcanic peak, 7916 ft. high, from which it is sheltered by the Linguin hills. The surrounding country is one of the most important hemp-producing districts in the Philippines; sinamay is woven here, and large quantities of hemp are shipped from here to Manila. Cocoa, copra, sugar and sweet potatoes are other important products of the district. The language is Bicol. The old town, called Cagsaua, which stood a short distance E.N.E. of the new, was completely destroyed by
