TWEED. 581 TWELVE TABLES. he was grand sachem in 1809-71. He was ap- pointed Deputy Street Commissioner in ISOl, and when in 1870 that dcjiartment was changed to the Department of Public Works, he was the Com- missioner at its liead, a position which enabled him to initiate, as is generally believed, the for- mation of the combination known as the 'Tam- many Ring," or the 'Tweed Ring.' The 'ring,^ having placated the Mozart Hall faction of Fer- nando Wood (q.v. ), elected its candidate for Mayor in 1805, and its candidate for Governor in 1S08, and so controlled the Leeislature as to se- cure such a modification of the city's charter as greatly to increase the power of the offices held by the 'ring.' Legislators and judges were bribed, and bills were passed and decisions ren- dered in favor of the members of the 'ring.' Gigantic schemes of city improvement were organized and carried out successfully, though accompanied senerally wilh much iieculation. Fraudulent bills were audited, and their sum divided among the thieves. Probably no other such complete plan of public spoliation was ever devised and executed in any country. The exposure of this vast system of peculation was made largely by the New York Times, through the intervention of a disappointed enemy of the 'ring,' in July, 1871; a vigorous investigation and prosecution was undertaken by a committee of seventy citizens, under the lead of .Samuel .1. Til- den (q.v.) ; and Tweed was indicted in 1S7'2 fiu- forgery and grand larceny. Two trials were held, and in 1873 Tweed was convicted, and sentenced to twelve years' confinement in the penitentiary, and to pay a fine of .$12,.300.18. He was confined on Rlacknell's Island from November, 1873, un- til June, 1875, when he was released by a de- cision of the Court of Appeals, on a legal techni- cality. He was immediately rearrested on a war- rant issued in a civil suit for .$0,108,1157.85. and sent to Ludlow Street Jail. Being permitted to go out to drive with an officer, he made his escape, and fled to Spain. He was returned in Novem- ber, 1870, and again incarcerated in Ludlow Street Jail until April 12, 1878. when he died. Much material relative to Tweed is to be found in Myers's Histort/ of Tammany Rail (New York), and in Breen's Thirty Years of Ncto York Poli- tics (ib., 1899). See also chapter 88 of James Bryce, The American Commonicealth (ib., 1889), on "The Tweed Ring," by F. J. Goodnow. TWEED'DALE, John Hat, Marquis of (1020-97). A Scotch soldier and statesman, sec- ond Earl of Tweeddale (1054). After serving in the King's army (1042) he fovight against Charles, at Marston Jloor (1044), and, four years later, commanded at Preston in the King's army again. He was sent to Parliament in 1054; became Privy Councilor on the Restoration and president of the Council in 1003; and in the next year was appointed High Commissioner on Ec- clesiastical Afl'airs. In this post he labored for a more lenient attitude toward Covenanters; and from it he was removed in 1074. by the influence of Lauderdale. He was restored to some of his old posts in IfiSO and 1082; held office under James IL, hut, disliking his Scotch policy, joined the Revolution; and, in 1089, became Privy Coun- cilor under William and Mary. He was a com- missioner on the Glencoe massacre and was dis- missed by the King in 1090 for assenting to the Colonization Act and Paterson's schemes in Uarien. TWEEDLEDUM AND TWEEDLEDEE. An expression denoting an inappreciable difl'er- ence between unimportant points. The phrase was used by Byron in a satire on the feud be- tween the partisans of Handel and Buononcini. TWEEDMOUTH, tvved'muth, Edwabd Mab- .U)U1I!.NKS, scroiid Haron (1849 — ). An Eng- lish statesman, born in London. He was educat- ed at Harrow and Oxford, became a barrister in 1874, and was a Liberal menil)er of Parliament for Berwick in 1880-94. In 1880 be was made Comptroller to the Household, and in 1892-94 he was Pai'liamentary Secretary to the Treasury and chief Liberal whip. In 1894-95 he was Lord Privy Seal and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lan- caster. TWELFTH NIGHT, oE What You Will. ( 1 ) A comedy liy Shakespeare, played at Miildle Temple Hall.'Twelfth Night, 1002, according to J. Manningham's diary. The principal plot was taken from Bandello's tale, perhaps through Belleforest's Bistoires Tragii/ues, or B. Rich's AjioUonius and XiUa, adapted from Ciuttico's Hecatommithi. A similar plot is found in two Italian plays, GVlngavnati (1537), and fll'In- i/(iiini (1592). The comic parts, Malvolio, Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, and the clown, are all Shake- speare's. (2) See Epiphant. TWELVE, Gospel of the. See Apocrvpha. TWELVE TABLES, Law of the. The ear- lier systematic written statement, or code, of Roman law. According to the Roman tradition, this code was drawn up to appease the plebeians, who complained that the unwritten customary law, as interpreted by patrician priests and ap- plied by patrician judges, gave no adequate pro- tection to their liberties. In B.C. 452 ten magis- trates were elected "to write laws" {decetnviri lefjibus scribendis), and before the end of the following year ten tables of laws were sub- mitted to and accepted by the popular assem- bly. In B.C. 450 two supplementary tables were similarly adopted. The decemvirs claimed that they had made the law equal for all, high and low; and there is no doubt that the Roman people regarded the XII. Tables with great veneration, as a bulwark of personal liberty. This code seems to have introduced little if any new law, being substantially a re-statement of the older custom. Its rules were simple, and were tersely and clearly expressed. It contained no constitutional law, and it dealt mainly with the law of family, property, crimes, torts, and civil procedure. It did not state the law fully even in these matters, for (as in other early codes) rules that were so well settled as to be indis- putable were not included. The XII. Tables have come dow^n to us in frag- ments only. In Roman legal, historical, and gram- matical writings, a couple of score of passages are directly cited, and it is sometimes stated in which of the tables the rule stood. Other rules are paraphrased or indicated by allusions. At- tempts to reconstruct the code have been made bv Gothofredus (1010). Dirksen (1824), Schoell (1860), and Voigt (1883). The text commonly given in works on Roman law is that of Schoell,
