Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/249

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URUMIAH rapidly augmented by numerous tributaries, until in the lower part of its course, for near- ly 100 m., it becomes a lake, varying in width from 4 to 7 m. The right bank is here low, wooded, and often marshy ; the left is formed by the slopes of hills 200 to 500 ft. high, in- tersected by numerous streams and interspersed with settlements. In lat. 34 it unites with the Parana to form the Plata. The Kio Ne- gro is its largest affluent. The total length of the Uruguay is 1,020 m. Its waters are always clear and limpid. Its islands, much less nu- merous than in the Parana, are mostly high and rocky. On the island of Higuerita is a populous town. On its banks are the Uru- guayan towns of Fray Bentos, Paysandu, and Salto, the Argentine towns of Concepcion and Porto Ruiz, the port of Gualeguaychu, and the Brazilian towns of Uruguayans and Itaqui. The main stream is navigable about 600 m. for flat-bottomed steamers and 200 m. more for boats. The annual freshets occur in Sep- tember or October, sometimes with great ra- pidity. The average rise is 20 ft., but occa- sionally there is a difference of 40 ft. between extreme high and low water. Utnimi, or Oroomlah. I. A town of Persia, in the province of Azerbijan, 65 m. S. W. of Tabriz; pop. estimated by the Austrian con- sul general in 1872 at 50,000 (other estimates varying from 25,000 to 40,000), chiefly Mo- hammedans, but including several thousand Jews and Nestorians. Embosomed in foliage and orchards, Urumiah is one of the most beautiful towns of Persia, extending over a mile, and having fine open spaces and gar- dens and several good streets. The jurisdic- tion of the local authorities extends over 10 districts, with an aggregate population of about 150,000. The Protestant mission here has been transferred from the American board of for- eign missions to the Presbyterian board, whose organization in the neighboring village of Seir dates from the end of 1872. It comprises a printing office, which in that year issued 3,230 volumes in the old and new Syriac lan- guages, 3 main and 50 subsidiary stations, 50 native preachers, 95 teachers, 55 schools, a female seminary, and more than 700 church members. In the vicinity of Urnmiah are mounds believed to have been used in early periods for the rites of the fire worshippers. Urumiah, under the name of Thabarma, was by the early Persians held sacred as the birth- place of Zoroaster. II. Lake, a body of water in the vicinity of the town, forming an oblong and shallow basin, nowhere exceeding 24 ft. in depth, extending in its longer direction from N. N. "W. to S. S. E. over 80 m., with an aver- age width of about 25 m. It is 4,200 ft. (ac- cording to Rawlinson) above the sea level. Its waters, heavily impregnated with salt, resem- ble those of the Dead sea ; the color is deep blue, whence the Armenian name of Kapotan Zauw, u Blue sea." On the E. side a penin- sula projecting far into the lake divides it USES 229 into unequal northern and southern portions; the latter and larger contains a group of isl- ands, some of which are large. The lake re- ceives many important streams. Among the most interesting towns near the E. shore is Maragha, which once had an immense popula- tion, now reduced to about 20,000, after which the lake is called by the Arabs. CUES. See AUEOCHS. USES. The word mm was employed in the Roman civil law, and there meant a right to take so much of the fruit or profit of a thing as was needed for sustenance ; while mvfruc- tus had a larger meaning, including a qualified right of possession. In the law of England and the United States, the word use has a pre- cise meaning, which is similar to that of the Jidei commissum of the Roman law. It means a confidence reposed in one who has the prop- erty (or to whom it is given) in possession, that he will hold it for the use or benefit of another, who is called in Norman French the cestuy gue use. A Roman magistrate (a prsetor) was charged with the enforcement of these Jidei commissa, and was called commissarius. When uses became common in England, the chancel- lor, under whose jurisdiction they passed, had much the same duty to perform as the Roman commissarim ; and indeed Lord Bacon calls this magistrate a Roman chancellor. Uses were invented in England to avoid and defeat the statutes of mortmain (see TRUST) ; and to protect those statutes against uses, the statute of 27 Henry VIII., commonly called the stat- ute of uses, was enacted. This provided that any person or corporation entitled to a use in fee simple, fee tail, or otherwise, should stand seized and possessed of the land itself, in the like estate which they had in the use ; the in- tention being to subject a conveyance to the use of any one, and the property and the cestuy que me, to the same legal restraints and liabili- ties as if the conveyance had been made directly to the cestuy que use. This statute was said, in legal phraseology, " to execute the use." It was intended to prevent conveyances to use, by making them of no effect where they vio- lated the statutes of mortmain, and of no more effect than a direct conveyance where they did not. Still such uses as the law permitted, or as courts of equity could protect, were found to be exceedingly convenient, and became com- mon ; and courts of equity retained their hold upon them, the person to whom the convey- ance was made being considered as having the legal estate, subject to the rules of law and the jurisdiction of courts of law, while the cestiiy que use has an equitable estate subject to the rules and the courts of equity. This is now the prevailing condition of the law of uses in England and in the United States. But the whole system of law and of equity in regard to uses has become as intricate and extensive as it is important. Here we can do no more than indicate the principal rules of this system. There can be no use, unless : 1, there is a per-