acts to the repeal of which the regent may not assent. To maintain or affirm the right of any person to the crown, contrary to the provisions of the act, is high treason by an act of 1707.
See T. P. Taswell-Langmead’s English Const. Hist. (1905); H. Hallam, Constitutional History, vol. iii. (1855); and L. von Ranke, Englische Geschichte (1859–1868).
SETUBAL (formerly called in English St Ubes and in French
St Yves), a seaport of Portugal, in the district of Lisbon (formerly
included in the province of Estremadura), 18 m. S.E. of Lisbon
by the Barreiro-Pinhal Novo-Setubal railway. Pop. (1900)
22,074. Setubal is built on the north shore of a deep estuary,
formed by the rivers Sado, Marateca and São Martinho, which
discharge their waters into the Bay of Setubal 3 m. below the
city. Setubal is overtopped on the west by the treeless red
heights of the Serra da Arrabida. There are five forts for the
defence of the harbour; the castle of St Philip, built by Philip III.
of Spain (1578–1621), commands the city. Setubal is the
third seaport and fourth largest city of Portugal. It exports
large quantities of fine salt, oranges and muscatel grapes; it
has many sardine-curing and boat-building establishments, and
manufactures of fish-manure and lace. Its port is officially
included in that of Lisbon. Under John II. (1481–1495) Setubal
was a favourite royal residence, and one of the churches dates
from this period; but most of the ancient buildings were destroyed
by the great earthquake of 1755. There are some fine
public buildings, statues and fountains of later date, including
a statue of the poet M. M. de B. du Bocage (1766–1806), who
was a native of Setubal. In the sandhills of a low-lying promontory
in the bay opposite Setubal are the so-called ruins of “Troia,”
uncovered in part by heavy rains in 1814 and excavated in 1850
by an antiquarian society. These ruins of “Troia,” among
which have been brought to view a beautiful Roman house and
some 1600 Roman coins, are those of Cetobriga, which flourished
A.D. 300–400. In the neighbourhood, on a mountain 1600 ft.
high, is the monastery of Arrabida.
SEUME, JOHANN GOTTFRIED (1763–1810), German author,
was born at Poserna, near Weissenfels, on the 29th of January
1763. He was educated, first at Borna, then at the Nikolai
school and university of Leipzig. The study of Shaftesbury and
Bolingbroke weakened his interest in theology, and, breaking off
his studies, he set out for Paris. On the way he was seized by
Hessian recruiting officers and sold to England, whereupon he
was drafted to Canada.. After his return in 1783 he deserted
at Bremen, but was captured and brought to Emden; a second
attempt at flight also failed. In 1787, however, a citizen of
Emden became surety for him to the amount of 80 talers, and he
was allowed to visit his home. He did not return, but paid off
his debt in Emden with the remuneration he received for translating
an English novel. He taught languages for a time in
Leipzig, and became tutor to a Graf Igelström, whom, in 1792,
he accompanied to Warsaw. Here he became secretary to
General von Igelström, and, as a Russian officer, experienced
the terrors of the Polish insurrection. In 1796 he was again in
Leipzig and, resigning his Russian commission, entered the
employment of the publisher Göschen. In December 1801 he
set out on his famous nine months’ walk to Sicily, described in his
Spaziergang nach Syrakus (1803). Some years later he visited
Russia, Finland and Sweden, a journey which is described in
Mein Sommer im Jahr 1805 (1807). His health now began to fail,
and he died on the 13th of June 1810, at Teplitz. His reputation
rests on the two books just mentioned, to which may be added
his autobiography, Mein Leben (1813, continued by C. A. H.
Clodius). These works reflect Seume’s sterling character and
sturdy patriotism; his style is clear and straightforward; his
descriptions realistic and vivid. As a dramatist (Miltiades, 1808),
and as a lyric poet (Gedichte, 1801), he had but little success.
Seume’s Gesammelte Schriften were first edited by J. P. Zimmermann (1823–1826); his Sämtliche Werke (1826–1827), passed through seven editions. The most recent edition is J. G. Seume’s Prosaische und poetische Werke (10 vols., 1879). See O. Planer and C. Reissmann, J. G. Seume. Geschichte seine: Lebens und seiner Schriften (1898).
SEVASTOPOL, or Sebastopol, an important naval station
of Russia on the Black Sea, on the S.W. coast of the Crimea,
in 44° 37′ N. and 33° 31′ E., 956 m. from Moscow, with which it
is connected by rail via Kharkov. Pop. (1882) 26,150; (1897)
50,710. The estuary, which is one of the best road steads in
Europe and could accommodate the combined fleets of Europe, is
a deep and thoroughly sheltered indentation among chalky cliffs,
running east and west for nearly 4 m., with a width of three quarters
of a mile, narrowing to 930 yds. at the entrance. It
has a depth of 6 to 10 fathoms, with a good bottom, and large
ships can anchor at a cable’s length from the shore. The main
inlet has also four smaller indentations—Quarantine Bay at its
entrance, Yuzhnaya (Southern) Bay, which penetrates more
than 1 m. to the south, with a depth of 4 to 9 fathoms, Dockyard
Bay and Artillery Bay. A small river, the Chornaya, enters the
head of the inlet. The main part of the town, with an elevation of
30 to 190 ft., stands on the southern shore of the chief inlet,
between Yuzhnaya and Artillery Bays. A few buildings on the
other shore of the chief bay constitute the “northern side.”
Before the Crimean War of 1853–56 Sevastopol was a well built
city, beautified by gardens, and had 43,000 inhabitants;
but at the end of the siege it had not more than fourteen buildings
which had not been badly injured. After the war many privileges
were granted by the government in order to attract population
and trade; but both increased slowly, and at the end of seven
years the population numbered only 5750.
The present town is well built and is becoming a favourite watering-place on account of its sea-bathing and numerous sanatoria. It has a zoological marine station (1897), a museum commemorative of the siege (1895), a cathedral of Classical design and another finished in 1888, monuments of Admirals Nakhimov (1898) and Kornilov (1895) and of General Todleben, and two navigation schools. In 1890 Sevastopol was made a third-class fortress, and the commercial port has been transferred to Theodosia.
The peninsula between the Bay of Sevastopol and the Black Sea was known in the 7th century as the Heracleotic Chersonese. In the 5th century B.C. a Greek colony was founded here and remained independent for three centuries, when it became part of the kingdom of the Bosporus, and subsequently tributary to Rome. Under the Byzantine empire Chersonesus was an administrative centre for its possessions in Taurida. Vladimir, prince of Kiev, conquered Chersonesus (Korsun) before being baptized there, and restored it to the Greeks on marrying (988) the princess Anna. Subsequently the Slavs were cut off from relations with Taurida by the Mongols, and only made occasional raids, such as that of the Lithuanian prince Olgierd. In the 16th century a new influx of colonists, the Tatars, occupied Chersonesus and founded a settlement named Akhtyar. This village, after the Russian conquest in 1783, was selected for the chief naval station of the empire in the Black Sea and received its present name (“the August City”). In 1826 strong fortifications were begun. In 1854 the allied English, French and Turkish forces laid siege to the southern portion of the town, and on the 17th of October began a heavy bombardment. Sevastopol sustained a memorable eleven months’ siege, and on the 8th of September 1855 was evacuated by the Russians. The fortifications were blown up by the allies, and by the Paris treaty, the Russians were bound not to restore them (see Crimean War). In November 1870, during the Franco-German War, the Russian government decided again to make Sevastopol a naval arsenal.
SEVEN CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTENDOM, the name given in
medieval tales to the seven national saints—of England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, France, Spain and Italy—i.e. Saints George, Andrew, Patrick, David, Denis, James and Anthony. The classical version of their achievements is that of Richard Johnson (1573–c. 1659), Famous Historie of the Seaven Champions of Christendom (3 parts, 1596, 1608, 1610: many editions). The oldest known copy is dated 1597; there is also a poetical version by Sir George Buc (published 1623).
SEVEN DAYS’ BATTLE, a name given to a series of combats in the neighbourhood of Richmond, Virginia, during the American Civil War, June 26–July 2, 1862. The Federal Army of the Potomac, advancing from the sea and the river Parmunkey
