get all eight pieces round and home before the opponents can do so.
See Games, Ancient and Oriental, by E. Falkner (London, 1892).
PACHMANN, VLADIMIR DE (1848–), Russian pianist, was born at Odessa, where his father was a professor at the university. He was educated in music at Vienna, and from 1869 to 1882 only rarely performed in public, being engaged in the meanwhile in assiduous study. He then obtained the greatest success, particularly as a player of Chopin, his brilliance of execution and rendering being no less remarkable than the playfulness of his platform manner.
PACHMARHI, a hill-station and sanatorium for British troops in the Central Provinces of India. Pop. (1901), 3020, rising to double that number in the season. It is situated at a height of 3500 ft. on a plateau of the Satpura hills in Hoshangabad district, 32 m. by road from Piparia station on the Great Indian Peninsula railway. Though not free from fever in the hot season, it affords the best available retreat for the Central Provinces.
PACHOMIUS, ST (292–346), Egyptian monk, the founder of Christian cenobitical life, was born, probably in 292, at Esna in Upper Egypt, of heathen parents. He served as a conscript in one of Constantine’s campaigns, and on his return became a Christian (314); he at once went to live an eremitical life near Dendera by the Nile, putting himself under the guidance of an aged hermit. After three or four years he was called (by an angel, says the legend) to establish a monastery of cenobites, or monks living in common (see Monasticism, § 4). Pachomius spent his life in organizing and directing the great order he had created, which at his death included nine monasteries with some three thousand monks and a nunnery. The order was called Tabennesiot, from Tabennisi, near Dendera, the site of the first monastery. The most vivid account of the life and primitive rule is that given by Palladius in the Lausiac History, as witnessed by him (c. 410). Difficulties arose between Pachomius and the neighbouring bishops, which had to be composed at a synod at Esna. But St Athanasius was his firm friend and visited his monastery c. 330 and at a later period. Pachomius died (probably) in 346.
The best modern work on Pachomius is by P. Ladeuze, Le Cénobitisme pakhomien (1898). There have been differences of opinion in regard to the dates; those given above are Ladeuze’s, now commonly accepted. The priority of the Greek Life of Pachomius over the Coptic may be said to be established; the historical character and value of this life are now fully recognized. A good analysis of all the literature is supplied in Herzog’s Realencyklopädie (ed. 3). (E. C. B.)
PACHUCA, a city of Mexico and capital of the state of
Hidalgo, 55 m. direct and 68 m. by rail N.N.E. of the city of
Mexico. Pop. (1900), 37,487. Pachuca’s railway connexions
include the Mexican, the Hidalgo and the Mexican Oriental,
besides which it has 5 m. of tramway line. The town stands
in a valley of an inland range of the Sierra Madre Oriental,
at an elevation over 8000 ft. above the sea, and in the midst of
several very rich mineral districts—Atatonileo el Chico, Capula,
Potosí, Real del Monte, Santa Rosa and Tepenené. It is said
that some of these silver mines were known to the Indians before
the discovery of America. Pachuca has some fine modern
edifices, among which are the palace of justice, a scientific and
literary institute, a school of mines and metallurgy, founded in
1877, a meteorological observatory and a public library. Mining
is the chief occupation of its inhabitants, of whom about 7000
are employed underground. Electric power is derived from the
Regla Falls, in the vicinity. The city’s industrial establishments
include smelting works and a large number of reduction works,
among which are some of the largest and most important in
the republic. It was here that Bartolomé de Medina discovered
the “patio” process of reducing silver ores with quicksilver in
1557, and his old hacienda de beneficio is still to be seen. Pachuca
was founded in 1534, some time after the mines were discovered.
Here Pedro Romero de Terreros made the fortune in 1739 that
enabled him to present a man-of-war to Spain and gain the title
of Count of Regla. Pachuca was sacked in 1812, and so keen
was the desire to possess its sources of wealth, in common with
other mining towns, that mining operations were partially
suspended for a time and the mines were greatly damaged.
In 1824 the Real del Monte mines were sold to an English
company and became the centre of a remarkable mining speculation—the
company ruining itself with lavish expenditures and
discontinuing work in 1848. The mines in 1909 belonged to an
American company.
PACHYMERES, GEORGIUS (1242-c. 1310), Byzantine historian and miscellaneous writer, was born at Nicaea, in Bithynia, where his father had taken refuge after the capture of Constantinople by the Latins in 1204. On their expulsion by Michael Palaeologus in 1261 Pachymeres settled in Constantinople, studied law, entered the church, and subsequently became chief advocate of the church (πρωτέκδικος) and chief justice of the imperial court (δικαιοφύλαξ). His literary activity was considerable, his most important work being a Byzantine history in 13 books, in continuation of that of Georgius Acropolita from 1261 (or rather 1255) to 1308, containing the history of the reigns of Michael and Andronicus Palaeologi. He was also the author of rhetorical exercises on hackneyed sophistical themes; of a Quadrivium (Arithmetic, Music, Geometry, Astronomy), valuable for the history of music and astronomy in the middle ages; a general sketch of Aristotelian philosophy; a paraphrase of the speeches and letters of Dionysius Areopagita; poems, including an autobiography; and a description of the Augusteum, the column erected by Justinian in the church of St Sophia to commemorate his victories over the Persians.
The History has been edited by I. Bekker (1835) in the Corpus Scriptorum hist. byzantine, also in J. P. Migne, Patrologia graeca. cxliii., cxliv.; for editions of the minor works see C. Krumbacher, Geschichte der byzantinischen Litteratur (1897).
PACIFIC BLOCKADE, a term invented by Hautefeuille, the French writer on International Maritime Law, to describe a blockade exercised by a great power for the purpose of bringing pressure to bear on a weaker state without actual war. That it is an act of violence, and therefore in the nature of war, is undeniable, seeing that it can only be employed as a measure of coercion by maritime powers able to bring into action such vastly superior forces to those the resisting state can dispose of that resistance is out of the question. In this respect it is an act of war, and any attempt to exercise it against a power strong enough to resist would be a commencement of hostilities, and at once bring into play the rights and duties affecting neutrals. On the other hand, the object and justification of a pacific blockade being to avoid war, that is general hostilities and disturbance of international traffic with the state against which the operation is carried on, rights of war cannot consistently be exercised against ships belonging to other states than those concerned. And yet, if neutrals were not to be affected by it, the coercive effect of such a blockade might be completely lost. Recent practice has been to limit interference with them to the extent barely necessary to carry out the purpose of the blockading powers.[1]
It is usual to refer to the intervention of France, England and Russia in Turkish affairs in 1827 as the first occasion on which the coercive value of pacific blockades was put to the test. Neutral vessels were not affected by it. This was followed by a number of other coercive measures described in the textbooks as pacific blockades. The first case, however, in which the operation was really a blockade, unaccompanied by hostilities, and which therefore can be properly called a “pacific blockade,” was that which in 1837 Great Britain exercised against New Granada. A British subject and consul of the name of Russell was accused of stabbing a native of the country in a street brawl. He was arrested, and after being kept in detention for some months he was tried for the unlawful carrying of arms and
- ↑ There is always the alternative of making the blockade an act of war. This was done in 1902–3, when Great Britain, Germany and Italy proclaimed a blockade of certain ports of Venezuela and the mouths of the Orinoco. The blockade in this case was not pacific, but was war with all its consequences for belligerents and neutrals (see Foreign Office notice in London Gazette of December 20, 1902).
