in 1398, while those of Säckingen were bought up in 1395, on condition of a small annual payment. Glarus early adopted Protestantism, but there were many struggles later on between the two parties, as the chief family, that of Tschudi, adhered to the old faith. At last it was arranged that, besides the common Landsgemeinde, each party should have its separate Landsgemeinde (1623) and tribunals (1683), while it was not till 1798 that the Protestants agreed to accept the Gregorian calendar. The slate-quarrying industry appeared early in the 17th century, while cotton-spinning was introduced about 1714, and calico-printing by 1750. In 1798, in consequence of the resistance of Glarus to the French invaders, the canton was united to other districts under the name of canton of the Linth, though in 1803 it was reduced to its former limits. In 1799 it was traversed by the Russian army, under Suworoff, coming over the Pragel Pass, but blocked by the French at Näfels, and so driven over the Panixer to the Grisons. The old system of government was set up again in 1814. But in 1836 by the new Liberal constitution one single Landsgemeinde was restored, despite the resistance (1837) of the Romanist population at Näfels.
Authorities.—J. Bäbler, Die Alpwirtschaft im Kant. G. (Soleure, 1898); J. J. Blumer, article on the early history of the canton in vol. iii. (Zürich, 1844) of the Archiv f. schweiz. Geschichte; E. Buss and A. Heim, Der Bergsturz von Elm (1881) (Zürich, 1881); W. A. B. Coolidge, The Range of the Tödi (London, 1894); J. G. Ebel, Schilderung der Gebirgsvölker d. Schweiz, vol. ii. (Leipzig, 1798); Gottfried Heer, Geschichte d. Landes Glarus (to 1830) (2 vols., Glarus, 1898–1899), Glarnerische Reformationsgeschichte (Glarus, 1900), Zur 500 jährigen Gedächtnisfeier der Schlacht bei Näfels (1388) (Glarus, 1888) and Die Kirchen d. Kant. Glarus (Glarus, 1890); Oswald Heer and J. J. Blumer-Heer, Der Kant. Glarus (St Gall, 1846); J. J. Hottinger, Conrad Escher von der Linth (Zürich, 1852); Jahrbuch, published annually since 1865 by the Cantonal Historical Society; A. Jenny-Trümpy, “Handel u. Industrie d. Kant. G.” (article in vol. xxxiii., 1899, of the Jahrbuch); M. Schuler, Geschichte d. Landes Glarus (Zürich, 1836); E. Näf-Blumer, Clubführer durch die Glarner-Alpen (Schwanden, 1902); Aloys Schulte, article on the true and legendary early history of the Canton, published in vol. xviii., 1893, of the Jahrbuch f. schweiz. Geschichte (Zürich); J. J. Blumer, Staats- und Rechtsgeschichte d. schweiz. Demokratien (3 vols., St Gall, 1850–1859); H. Ryffel, Die schweiz. Landsgemeinden (Zürich, 1903); R. von Reding-Biberegg, Der Zug Suworoffs durch die Schweiz in 1799 (Stans, 1895). (W. A. B. C.)
GLAS, GEORGE (1725–1765); Scottish seaman and merchant
adventurer in West Africa, son of John Glas the divine, was
born at Dundee in 1725, and is said to have been brought up
as a surgeon. He obtained command of a ship which traded
between Brazil, the N.W. coasts of Africa and the Canary Islands.
During his voyages he discovered on the Saharan seaboard a
river navigable for some distance inland, and here he proposed
to found a trading station. The exact spot is not known with
certainty, but it is plausibly identified with Gueder, a place
in about 29° 10′ N., possibly the haven where the Spaniards had
in the 15th and 16th centuries a fort called Santa Cruz de Mar
Pequeña. Glas made an arrangement with the Lords of Trade
whereby he was granted £15,000 if he obtained free cession of
the port he had discovered to the British crown; the proposal
was to be laid before parliament in the session of 1765.
Having chartered a vessel, Glas, with his wife and daughter,
sailed for Africa in 1764, reached his destination and made
a treaty with the Moors of the district. He named his settlement
Port Hillsborough, after Wills Hill, earl of Hillsborough
(afterwards marquis of Downshire), president of the Board
of Trade and Plantations, 1763–1765. In November 1764
Glas and some companions, leaving his ship behind, went in
the longboat to Lanzarote, intending to buy a small barque
suitable for the navigation of the river on which was his settlement.
From Lanzarote he forwarded to London the treaty
he had concluded for the acquisition of Port Hillsborough. A
few days later he was seized by the Spaniards, taken to Teneriffe
and imprisoned at Santa Cruz. In a letter to the Lords of Trade
from Teneriffe, dated the 15th of December 1764, Glas said
he believed the reason for his detention was the jealousy of the
Spaniards at the settlement at Port Hillsborough “because
from thence in time of war the English might ruin their fishery
and effectually stop the whole commerce of the Canary Islands.”
The Spaniards further looked upon the settlement as a step
towards the conquest of the islands. “They are therefore
contriving how to make out a claim to the port and will forge
old manuscripts to prove their assertion” (Calendar of Home
Office Papers, 1760–1765). In March 1765 the ship’s company
at Port Hillsborough was attacked by the natives and several
members of it killed. The survivors, including Mrs and Miss
Glas, escaped to Teneriffe. In October following, through the
representations of the British government, Glas was released
from prison. With his wife and child he set sail for England
on board the barque “Earl of Sandwich.” On the 30th of
November Spanish and Portuguese members of the crew, who
had learned that the ship contained much treasure, mutinied,
killing the captain and passengers. Glas was stabbed to death,
and his wife and daughter thrown overboard. (The murderers
were afterwards captured and hanged at Dublin.) After the
death of Glas the British government appears to have taken
no steps to carry out his project.
In 1764 Glas published in London The History of the Discovery and Conquest of the Canary Islands, which he had translated from the MS. of an Andalusian monk named Juan Abreu de Galindo, then recently discovered at Palma. To this Glas added a description of the islands, a continuation of the history and an account of the manners, customs, trade, &c., of the inhabitants, displaying considerable knowledge of the archipelago.
GLAS, JOHN (1695–1773), Scottish divine, was born at
Auchtermuchty, Fife, where his father was parish minister,
on the 5th of October 1695. He was educated at Kinclaven and
the grammar school, Perth, graduated A.M. at the university of
St Andrews in 1713, and completed his education for the ministry
at Edinburgh. He was licensed as a preacher by the presbytery
of Dunkeld, and soon afterwards ordained by that of Dundee
as minister of the parish of Tealing (1719), where his effective
preaching soon secured a large congregation. Early in his
ministry he was “brought to a stand” while lecturing on the
“Shorter Catechism” by the question “How doth Christ
execute the office of a king?” This led to an examination of
the New Testament foundation of the Christian Church, and in
1725, in a letter to Francis Archibald, minister of Guthrie,
Forfarshire, he repudiated the obligation of national covenants.
In the same year his views found expression in the formation of
a society “separate from the multitude” numbering nearly a
hundred, and drawn from his own and neighbouring parishes.
The members of this ecclesiola in ecclesia pledged themselves
“to join together in the Christian profession, to follow Christ
the Lord as the righteousness of his people, to walk together
in brotherly love, and in the duties of it, in subjection to
Mr Glas as their overseer in the Lord, to observe the ordinance
of the Lord’s Supper once every month, to submit themselves
to the Lord’s law for removing offences,” &c. (Matt. xviii.
15–20). From the scriptural doctrine of the essentially spiritual
nature of the kingdom of Christ, Glas in his public teaching
drew the conclusions: (1) that there is no warrant in the New
Testament for a national church; (2) that the magistrate as
such has no function in the church; (3) that national covenants
are without scriptural grounds; (4) that the true Reformation
cannot be carried out by political and secular weapons but by
the word and spirit of Christ only.
This argument is most fully exhibited in a treatise entitled The Testimony of the King of Martyrs (1729). For the promulgation of these views, which were confessedly at variance with the doctrines of the standards of the national church of Scotland, he was summoned (1726) before his presbytery, where in the course of the investigations which followed he affirmed still more explicitly his belief that “every national church established by the laws of earthly kingdoms is antichristian in its constitution and persecuting in its spirit,” and further declared opinions upon the subject of church government which amounted to a repudiation of Presbyterianism and an acceptance of the puritan type of Independency. For these opinions he was in 1728 suspended from the discharge of ministerial functions, and finally deposed in 1730. The members of the society already referred to, however, for the most part continued to adhere
