besonders der Griechen (1810–1812), in which he maintained that the mythology of Homer and Hesiod came from an Eastern source through the Pelasgians, and was the remains of the symbolism of an ancient revelation. This work was vigorously attacked by Hermann in his Briefen über Homer und Hesiod, and in his letter, addressed to Creuzer, Über das Wesen und die Behandlung der Mythologie; by J. H. Voss in his Antisymbolik; and by Lobek in his Aglaophamos. Of Creuzer’s other works the principal are an edition of Plotinus; a partial edition of Cicero, in preparing which he was assisted by Moser; Die historische Kunst der Griechen (1803); Epochen der griech. Literaturgeschichte (1802); Abriss der römischen Antiquitäten (1824); Zur Geschichte altrömischer Cultur am Oberrhein und Neckar (1833); Zur Gemmenkunde (1834); Das Mithreum von Neuenheim (1838); Zur Galerie der alten Dramatiker (1839); Zur Geschichte der classischen Philologie (1854).
See the autobiographical Aus dem Leben eines alten Professors (Leipzig and Darmstadt, 1848), to which was added in the year of his death Paralipomena der Lebenskizze eines alten Professors (Frankfort, 1858); also Starck, Friederich Kreuzer, sein Bildungsgang und seine bleibende Bedeutung (Heidelberg, 1875).
CREVASSE, a French word used in two senses. (1) In French
Switzerland, and thence universally in high mountain regions, it
designates a fissure in a glacier caused by gigantic cracks in the
ice-mass, sometimes of great depth, into which climbers frequently
fall through a light bridge of snow which conceals the
crevasse. (2) Adopted from the French of Louisiana, it signifies
locally a wide crack or breach in the bank of a canal or river,
and particularly of the “levee” of the Mississippi.
CREVIER, JEAN BAPTISTE LOUIS (1693–1765), French
author, was born at Paris, where his father was a printer. He studied under Rollin and held the professorship of rhetoric in the college of Beauvais for twenty years. He completed Rollin’s Histoire romaine by the addition of six volumes (1750–1756); he also published two editions of Livy, with notes; L’Histoire
des empereurs des Romains, jusqu’à Constantin (1749); Histoire de l’Université de Paris, and a Rhétorique françoise, which enjoyed much popularity.
CREVILLENTE, a town of eastern Spain, in the province of
Alicante, and on the Murcia-Alicante railway. Pop. (1900)
10,726. Crevillente is a picturesque old town built among the
eastern foothills of the Sierra de Crevillente. Its flat-roofed
Moorish houses are enclosed by gardens of cactus, dwarf palm,
orange and other subtropical plants, interspersed with masses
of rock. The surrounding country, though naturally sterile, is
irrigated from two adjacent springs, which differ in temperature
by no less than 25° F. The district is famous for its melons,
and also produces wine, olives, wheat and esparto grass. Local
industries include the manufacture of coarse cloth, esparto
fabrics, oil and flour.
CREW, NATHANIEL CREW, 3rd Baron (1633–1721), bishop of Durham, was a son of John Crew (1598–1679), who was created Baron Crew of Stene in 1661, and a grandson of Sir Thomas Crew (1565–1634), speaker of the House of Commons. Born on the 31st of January 1633, Nathaniel was educated at Lincoln College,
Oxford, and was appointed rector of the college in 1668. He
became dean and precentor of Chichester in 1669, clerk of the
closet to Charles II. shortly afterwards, bishop of Oxford in
1671, and bishop of Durham in 1674. He owed his rapid preferment
to James, then duke of York, whose favour he had gained
by conniving at the duke’s leanings to the Roman Church. After
the accession of James II. Crew received the deanery of the Chapel
Royal. He served in 1686 on the revived ecclesiastical commission
which suspended Compton, bishop of London, and then
shared the administration of the see of London with Sprat,
bishop of Rochester. In 1687 he was a member of another
ecclesiastical commission, which suspended the vice-chancellor
of the university of Cambridge for refusing the degree of M.A.
to a monk who would not take the customary oath. On the decline
of James’s power Crew dissociated himself from the court,
and made a bid for the favour of the new government by voting
for the motion that James had abdicated. He was excepted
from the general pardon of 1690, but afterwards was allowed to
retain his see. He left large estates to be devoted to charitable
ends, and his benefaction to Lincoln College and to Oxford
University is commemorated in the annual Crewian oration.
In 1697 Crew succeeded his brother Thomas as 3rd Baron Crew, He died on the 18th of September 1721, when the barony became extinct.
CREW (sometimes explained as a sea term of Scandinavian origin, cf. O. Icel. krú, a swarm or crowd, but now regarded as
a shortened form of accrue, accrewe, used in the 16th century
in the sense of a reinforcement, O. Fr. acreue, from accroître,
to grow, increase), a band or body of men associated for a
definite purpose, a gang who jointly carry out a particular piece
of work, and especially those who man a ship, exclusive of the
captain, and sometimes also of the officers.
CREWE, ROBERT OFFLEY ASHBURTON CREWE-MILNES,
1st Earl of (1858– ), English statesman and writer, was
born on the 12th of January 1858, being the son of Lord Houghton
(q.v.), and was educated at Harrow and Trinity, Cambridge.
In 1880 he married Sibyl Marcia Graham, who died in 1887,
leaving him with two daughters. He inherited his father’s
literary tastes, and published Stray Verses in 1890, besides other
miscellaneous literary work. A Liberal in politics, he became
private secretary to Lord Granville when secretary of state for
foreign affairs (1883–1884), and in 1886 was made a lord-in-waiting.
In the Liberal administration of 1892–1895 he was
lord-lieutenant for Ireland, having Mr John Morley as chief
secretary. In 1895 he was created 1st earl of Crewe, his maternal
grandfather, the 2nd Baron Crewe, having left him his heir.
In 1899 he married Lady Margaret Primrose, daughter of the
5th earl of Rosebery. In 1905 he became lord president of the
council in the Liberal government; and in 1908, in Mr Asquith’s
cabinet, he became secretary of state for the colonies and Liberal
leader in the House of Lords.
CREWE, a municipal borough in the Crewe parliamentary division of Cheshire, England, 158 m. N.W. of London, on the main line of the London & North-Western railway. Pop. (1901) 42,074. The town was built on an estate called Oak Farm in the parish of Monk’s Coppenhall, and takes its name from the original stations having been placed in the township of Crewe, in which the seat of Lord Crewe is situated. It is a railway junction where lines converge from London, Manchester, North Wales and Holyhead, North Stafford and Hereford. It is inhabited principally by persons in the employment of the London & North-Western railway company, and was practically created by that corporation, at a point where in 1841 only a farmhouse stood in open country. Crewe is not only one of the busiest railway stations in the world, but is the locomotive metropolis of the London & North-Western company, which has centred here enormous workshops for the manufacture of the material and plant used in railways. In 1901 the 4000th locomotive was turned out of the works. A series of subterranean ways extending many miles have been constructed to enable merchandise traffic to pass through without interfering with passenger trains on the surface railways. The company possesses one of the finest electric stations in the world, and electrical apparatus for the working of train signals is in operation. The station is fitted with an extensive suite of offices for the interchange of postal traffic, the chief mails to and from Ireland and Scotland being stopped here and arranged for various distributing centres. Its enormous railway facilities and its geographical situation as the junction of the great trunk lines running north and south, tapping also the Staffordshire potteries on the one side and the great mineral districts of Wales on the other, constitute Crewe station one of the most important links of railway and postal communication in the kingdom. The railway company built its principal schools, provided it with a mechanics’ institute, containing library, science and art classes, reading rooms, assembly rooms, &c. Victoria Park, also the gift of the company, was opened in 1888. The municipal corporation built the technical school and school of art. The borough incorporated in 1877, is under a mayor, 7 aldermen and 21 councillors. Area, 2185 acres.
