an apparent new Polarity in Light (1840); Tides and Waves (1842).
He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1836, its president in 1871, and received both the Copley and Royal medals. He was five times president of the Royal Astronomical Society, was correspondent of the French Academy and belonged to many other foreign and American societies. He was D.C.L. of Oxford and LL.D. of Cambridge and Edinburgh. In 1872 he was made K.C.B. In the same year he was nominated a Grand Cross in the Imperial Order of the Rose of Brazil; he also held the Prussian Order “Pour le Mérite,” and belonged to the Legion of Honour of France and to the Order of the North Star of Sweden and Norway.
See also Proc. Roy. Society, li. 1 (E. J. Routh); Month. Notices Roy. Astr. Society, lii. 212; Observatory, xv. 74 (E. Dunkin); Nature, 31st of Oct. 1878 (A. Winnecke), 7th of Jan. 1892; The Times, 5th of Jan. 1892; R. Grant’s Hist. of Phys. Astronomy; R. P. Graves’s Life of Sir W. Rowan Hamilton. (A. A. R.*)
AISLABIE, JOHN (1670–1742), English politician, was born at Goodramgate, York, on the 7th of December 1670. He was the fourth son of George Aislabie, principal registrar of the archiepiscopal court of York. In 1695 he was elected member of parliament for Ripon. In 1712 he was appointed one of the commissioners for executing the office of lord high admiral, and in 1714 became treasurer of the navy, being sworn in two years later as a member of the privy council. In March 1718 he became chancellor of the exchequer. The proposal of the South Sea Company to pay off the national debt was strenuously supported by Aislabie, and finally accepted in an amended form by the House of Commons. After the collapse of that company a secret committee of inquiry was appointed by the Commons, and Aislabie, who had in the meantime resigned the seals of his office, was declared guilty of having encouraged and promoted the South Sea scheme with a view to his own exorbitant profit, and was expelled the House. Though committed to the Tower he was soon released, and was allowed to retain the property he possessed before 1718, including his country estate, to which he retired to pass the rest of his days. He died in 1742.
AISLE (from Lat. ala, a wing), a term which in its primary sense means the wing of a house, but is generally applied in architecture to the lateral divisions of a church or large building. The earliest example is that found in the basilica of Trajan, which had double aisles on either side of the central area; the same number existed in the original church of St Peter’s at Rome, in the basilica at Bethlehem, and according to Eusebius in the church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem. The aisles are divided from the nave or central area by colonnades or arcades, and may flank also the transept or choir, being distinguished as nave-aisles, transept-aisles or choir-aisles. If the choir is semi-circular, and the aisles, carried round, give access to a series of Chapels, the whole arrangement is known as the chevet. As a rule in Great Britain there is only one aisle on each side of the nave, the only exceptions being Chichester and Elgin cathedrals, where there are two. Many European cathedrals have two aisles on each side, as those of Paris, Bourges, Amiens, Troyes, St Sernin, Toulouse, Cologne, Milan, Seville, Toledo; and in those of Paris, Chartres, Amiens and Bourges, Seville and Toledo, double aisles flank the choir on each side. The cathedral at Antwerp has three aisles on each side. In some of the churches in Germany the aisles are of the same height as the nave. These churches are known as Hallenkirchen, the principal examples being St Stephen’s, Vienna, the Weissekirche at Soest, St Martin’s, Landshut, Munich cathedral, and the Marienkirche at Danzig. (R. P. S.)
AISNE, a frontier department in the north-east of France, formed in 1790 from portions of the old provinces of Ile-de-France and Picardy. Area 2866 sq. m. Pop. (1906) 534,495. It is bounded N. by the department of Nord and the kingdom of Belgium, E. by the department of Ardennes, S.E. by that of Marne, S. by that of Seine-et-Marne, and W. by those of Oise and Somme. The surface of the department consists of undulating and well-wooded plains, intersected by numerous valleys, and diversified in the north-east by hilly ground which forms a part of the mountain system of the Ardennes. Its general slope is from north-east, where the culminating point (930 ft.) is found, to south-west, though altitudes exceeding 750 ft. are also found in the south. The chief rivers are the Somme, the Escaut and the Sambre, which have their sources in the north of the department; the Oise, traversing the north-west, with its tributaries the Serre and the Aisne, the latter of which joins it beyond the limits of the department; and the Marne and the Ourcq in the south. The climate is in general cold and humid, especially in the north-east. Agriculture is highly developed; cereals, principally wheat and oats, and beetroot are the chief crops; potatoes, flax, hemp, rape and hops are also grown. Pasturage is good, particularly in the north-east, where dairy-farming flourishes. Wine of medium quality is grown on the banks of the Marne and the Aisne. Bee-farming is of some importance. Large tracts of the department are under wood; the chief forests are those of Nouvion and St Michel in the north, Coucy and St Gobain in the centre, and Villers-Cotterets in the south. The osiers grown in the vicinity of St Quentin supply an active basket-making industry.
Though destitute of metals Aisne furnishes abundance of freestone, gypsum and clay. There are numerous tile and brick works in the department. Its most important industrial establishments are the mirror manufactory of St Gobain and the chemical works at Chauny, and the workshops and foundries of Guise, the property of an association of workpeople organized on socialistic lines and producing iron goods of various kinds. The manufacture of sugar is very important; brewing, distilling, flour-milling, iron-founding, the weaving and spinning of cotton, wool and silk, and the manufacture of iron goods, especially agricultural implements, are actively carried on. Aisne imports coal, iron, cotton and other raw material and machinery; it exports cereals, live-stock and agricultural products generally, and manufactured goods. The department is served chiefly by the lines of the Northern railway; in addition, the main line of the Eastern railway to Strassburg traverses the extreme south. The Oise, Aisne and Marne are navigable, and canals furnish 170 m. of waterway. Aisne is divided into five arrondissements—St Quentin and Vervins in the north, Laon in the centre, and Soissons and Château-Thierry in the south—and contains 37 cantons and 841 communes. It forms part of the educational division (académie) of Douai and of the region of the second army corps, its military centre being at Amiens, where also is its court of appeal. Laon is the capital, and Soissons the seat of a bishopric of the province of Reims. Other important places are Château-Thierry, St Quentin and Coucy-le-Château. La Ferté-Milon has remains of an imposing château of the 14th and 15th centuries with interesting fortifications. The ruined church at Longpont (13th century) is the relic of an important Cistercian abbey; Urcel and Mont-Notre-Dame have fine churches, the first entirely in the Romanesque style, the second dating from the 12th and 13th centuries, to which period the church at Braisne also belongs. At Prémontré the buildings of the abbey, which was the cradle of the Premonstratensian order, are occupied by a lunatic asylum.
AÏSSÉ [a corruption of Haidée], Mademoiselle (c. 1694–1733), French letter-writer, was the daughter of a Circassian chief, and was born about 1694. Her father’s palace was pillaged by the Turks, and as a child of four years old she was sold to the Comte de Ferriol, the French ambassador at Constantinople. She was brought up in Paris by Ferriol’s sister-in-law with her own sons, MM. d’Argental and Pont de Veyle. Her great beauty and romantic history made her the fashion, and she attracted the notice of the regent, Philip, duke of Orleans, Whose offers she had the strength of mind to refuse. She formed a deep and lasting attachment to the Chevalier d’Aydie, by whom she had a daughter. She died in Paris on the 13th of March 1733. Her letters to her friend Madame Calandrini contain much interesting information with regard to contemporary celebrities, especially on Mme. du Deffand and Mme. de Tencin, but they are above all of interest in the picture they
