PRIESTLEY. 392 PRILUKI. I reputation. In 1777 he published his Disgiiisi- tion RchitiiHj to Matter and f^pirit. This led to the severance of his relations with Lord Shcl- burne, and in 17S0 he became the minister of a dissenting chapel at Birmingham. Here he made the acquaintance of James Watt and Dr. Darwin, the grandfather of the famousauthorof the Origin of dpccics, and here he had his celebrated con- troversy with Bisliop Samuel Horsley, in which he was the recognized champion of Socinianism. His reply to Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Frencli Rcrolulion led to liis being made a citizen of the French Republic and unhappily resulted in his liouse and chapel being burned bj' a mob and all his books, manuscripts, and .scientitie instru- ments being destroyed. This occurred in 1701, and because of the attack he left Birmingham and took up ministerial work at Hacknej', London. He- preached there for three ye^rs, and then, in 1704, removed to America, whither his sons had emi- grated the year before. He settled at Northum- berland, Pa., and spent the rest of liis life there. He preaclied and lectured occasionally, Imt his services were not in great demand and his ora- torical powers were failing. He declined the otl'er of a professorship of chemistry at I'hiladelpliia, and later the principalship of the L'niversity of Pennsylvania, ilost of his time was spent with his books and in scientific experiment, and he continued to write liberally till the hour of his death, although his later years were clouded l>y the phvsical infirmities of age. He died February 6, 1S04. Priestley was in many wa.ys a remarkable man. He presented the unusual combination of theolo- gian, scientist, and politician. His manifold and varied publications gave evidence of the scope of his genius. His pen was imtiring. In religion and in politics he was a radical, but he was a sincere seeker after truth and a man of unblem- ished reputation and irreproachable moral char- acter. His Tltcolofiical and Miscellaneous Works and Memoirs and Correspondence were collected and edited by .John T. Kutt. the former in 20 vols. (London, 1817-32), the latter in 2 vols, (ib., 1831-32). The edition contains over one hun- dred and thirty separate works, varying in size from short pamphlets to four-volume treatises, and the sul)jects treated of cover almost the whole ground of human knowledge and specu- lation. PRIESTLEY, Sir William Overend (1829- 1900). An English obstetrician, a grand-nephew of Joseph Priestley. He was born near Leeds, studied at King's College, London, in Paris, and at the University of Edinburgh. In 1856 he set- tled in London, where for ten years (1862-72) he was professor of obstetric medicine at King's College, and from 1866 to 1876 was examiner in midwifery at the English Royal College of Surgeons. Priestley was knighted in 1893 and entered Parliament in 1806 as representative of Edinburgh and Saint Andrews. Following his master Simson, whose works he edited ( 18.55- 56), he devoted himself to the systematization of midwifery and largely contributed toward raising it from a position of mere empiricism. PRIETO, pre-.n'to. .Jo.QuiM (1786-18.54). A Chilean jiolitician, born at Concepcion. Although at first a Royalist, he took the patriot side in 1811, and was one of the foremost in the fight for independence. In the Civil War of 1829-30 he defeated Friere at the Battle of Lircay (1830) and was made provisional President of Chile. This appointment was ratified six months after- wards, anil he was reelected President in 1836. In the same year a war with Peru was begun in which Chile assisted the dissatisfied Peruvians to overthrow the Peruvian-Bolivian Confedera- tion. General Prieto was commandant at Val- paraiso at the time of his death. PRIG, Betsey. An ignorant, brutal nurse, the friend of Jlrs. Sarah Ciamp, and her "frequent jjardner," in Dickens's Martin Chuzzleirit. PRIGG VS. PENNSYLVANIA. An impor- tant case decided in 1842 l>y the Supreme Court of the United States, which defined the rights and duties of the various States with reference to the rendition of fugitive slaves. In 1826 Pennsyl- vania passed a law against kidnapping which im- posed severe penalties upon any one who should remove any negro from the State with the inten- tion of reducing or returning such slave to a con- dition of slaveiy. In 1837 a slave woman, Mar- g-arette ilorgan, who five years before had es- caped from her owner in ilarylaml into Pennsyl- vania, was seized by one Edward Prigg, the at- torney of her owner, and, together with her children, was delivered to her mistress. Prig^ was thereupon tried and convicted of kidnapping in the court of York County, Fa., and the de- cision of this court was confirmed liy the Su- preme Court of Pennsylvania, to which Prigg ap- pealed. The case was then carried before the Supreme Court of the United States which, by a vote of five to four, reversed the earlier decisions, and, among other things, decided ( 1 ) that hj the Constitution the National Congress had the ex- elusive right to legislate concerning the rendition of fugitive slaves; (2) that the Legislatures of the various States had no power to pass legisla- tion upon this subject; (3) that Pennsylvania's law of 1826 was therefore void; (4) that "the owner of a slave is clothed with entire authority in every State in the Union to seize and recap- ture his slave, whenever he can do it without any breach of the peace, or any illegal violence;" and (o) that no State could be compelled to aid the enforcement of a L'nited States law on this subject. Though the right of slave-owners to their fugitive slaves was unequivocably confirmed, this decision has been regarded b.y many as in one respect a "triumph of freedom," since it relieved the various free States of any necessary partici- pation in the catching and returning of fugitive slaves and encouraged them to pass laws, known as "Personal Liberty Laws," prohibiting all State officials, under heavypenalties. from aiding slave- eatchers in any way and forbidding the use of State jails for the detention of captured fugitives. Consult Thaver, Vases on Constitutional Law, vol. i. (Boston, 1804) ; and 16 Peters 539. PRILLIEXJX, pre'ye', Edolaed Erxest (183_6_- — ). A French botanist, born in Paris. In 1877 he was appointed professor of botany at the In- stitut National Agronomique: in 1883 he was made inspector-general of agriculture, and in the same year became an ofiScer of the Legion of Honor. His publications include articles on vege- table parasites, contributed to various French periodicals, and Maladies des plantes afiricoks et des arhres fruitiers et forestiers (1895-97). PRILUKI, prJ-lon'ke. A district town in the Government of Poltava, Russia, situated 145
