In New York the responsible partners are called general partners, the others special partners. Such partnerships must, by the law of most states, be registered. In Louisiana universal partnerships (the societates universorum bonorum of Roman law) must be created in writing and registered (Civil Code, art. 2800). In some states the English law as it stood before Cox v. Hickman is followed, and participation in profits is still regarded as the test of partnership, e.g. Leggett v. Hyde (58 New York Rep. 272). In some states nominal partners are not allowed. Thus in New York, where the words “and Company” or and “Co.” are used, they must represent an actual partner or partners. A breach of this rule subjects offenders to penalties. In most states claims against the firm after the death of a partner must, in the first instance, be made to the survivors. The creditors cannot, as in England, proceed directly against the representatives of the deceased. An ordinary partnership between miners for working a mine is not dissolved by the death of one of the partners, nor by the transfer by one of his interest in the concern. Contract is not deemed the basis of the relation between the partners, but rather a common property and co-operation in its exploitation (Parsons, Principles of Partnership, § 15). A corporation cannot become a partner in any mercantile adventure, unless specially authorized by charter or general statute. If it could, the management of its affairs would no longer be exclusively in the hands of its directors, to whom the law has entrusted it. Hence, corporations cannot associate for the formation of a “trust” to be managed by the associated partners.
See 3 Kent’s Comm., lect. xliii.; Story, On Partnership; Bates, Law of Partnership (1888); Burdick, Law of Partnership (1899).
PARTON, JAMES (1822–1891), American biographer, was born in Canterbury, England, on the 9th of February 1822. He was taken to the United States when he was five years old, studied in New York City and White Plains, New York, and was a schoolmaster in Philadelphia and then in New York. He removed (1875) to Newburyport, Massachusetts, where he died on the 17th of October 1891. Parton was the most popular biographer of his day in America. His most important books are Life of Horace Greeley (1855), Life and Times of Aaron Burr (1857), Life of Andrew Jackson (1859–1860), Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin (1864), Life of Thomas Jefferson (1874), and Life of Voltaire (1881). Among his other publications are General Butler in New Orleans (1863), Famous Americans of Recent Times (1867), The People’s Book of Biography (1868); Noted Women of Europe and America (1883), and Captains of Industry (two series, 1884 and 1891), for young people. His first wife, Sara (1811–1872), sister of N. P. Willis, and widow of Charles H. Eldredge (d. 1846), attained considerable popularity as a writer under the pen-name “Fanny Fern.” (See James Parton’s Fanny Fern: a Memorial Volume, 1873). They were married in 1856. Her works include the novels, Ruth Hall (1854), reminiscent of her own life, and Rose Clark (1857); and several volumes of sketches and stories. In 1876 Parton married Ethel Eldredge, his first wife’s daughter by her first husband.
PARTONOPEUS DE BLOIS, hero of romance. The French
romance of Partonopeus de Blois dates from the 13th century, and has been assigned, on the strength of an ambiguous passage
in the prologue to his Vie seint Edmund le rei to Denis Piramus.
The tale is, in its essence a variation of the legend of Cupid
and Psyche. Partonopeus is represented as having lived in
the days of Clovis, king of France. He was seized while hunting
in the Ardennes, and carried off to a mysterious castle, the
inhabitants of which were invisible. Melior, empress of Constantinople,
came to him at night, stipulating that he must
not attempt to see her for two years and a half. After successful
fighting against the “Saracens,” led by Sornegur, king of
Denmark, he returned to the castle, armed with an enchanted
lantern which broke the spell. The consequent misfortunes
have a happy termination. The tale had a continuation giving
the adventures of Fursin or Anselet, the nephew of Sornegur.
The name of Partonopeus or Partonopex is generally assumed
to be a corruption of Parthenopaeus, one of the seven against
Thebes. It has been suggested that the word might be derived,
from Partenay, a supposition coloured by the points of similarity
between this story and the legend of Melusine (see Jean d’Arras)
attached to the house of Lusignan, as the lords of these two
places were connected.
Bibliography.—The French romance was edited by G. A. Crapelet, with an introduction by A. C. M. Robert, as Partonopeus de Blois (2 vols., 1834); an English Partonope of Blois, by W. E. Buckley for the Roxburghe Club (London, 1862), and another fragment for the same learned society in 1873; the German Partonopier und Melior of Konrad von Würzburg by K. Bartsch (Vienna, 1871); the Icelandic Partalópa saga by O. Klockhoff in Upsala Universitets Arsskrift for 1887. See also H. L. Ward, Catalogue of Romances, (i. 689, &c.); E. Kölbing, Die verschiedenen Gestaltungen der Partonopeus-Sage, in German. Stud. (vol. ii., Vienna, 1875), in which the Icelandic version is compared with the Danish poem Persenober and the Spanish prose Historia del conde Partinobles; E. Pfeiffer, “Über die HSS des Part. de Blois” in Stengel’s Ausg. in Abh. vom phil. (No. 25, Marburg, 1885).
PARTRIDGE, JOHN BERNARD (1861–), British artist, was born in London, son of Professor Richard Partridge, F.R.S., president of the Royal College of Surgeons, and nephew of John Partridge (1790–1872), portrait-painter extraordinary to Queen Victoria. He was educated at Stonyhurst College, and after matriculating at London University entered the office of Dunn & Hansom, architects. He then joined for a couple of years a firm of stained-glass designers (Lavers, Barraud & Westlake), learning drapery and ornament; and then studied and executed church ornament under Philip Westlake, 1880–1884. He began illustration for the press and practised water-colour painting, but his chief success was derived from book illustration. In 1892 he joined the staff of Punch. He was elected a member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water-colours and of the Pastel Society. For some years he was well known as an actor under the name of “Bernard Gould.”
PARTRIDGE, WILLIAM ORDWAY (1861–), American
sculptor, was born in Paris, France, on the 11th of April 1861.
He received his training as a sculptor in Florence (under Galli),
in Rome (under Welonski), and in Paris. He became a lecturer
and writer, chiefly on art subjects, and from 1894 to 1897
was professor in fine arts in Columbian University (now the
George Washington University), Washington, D.C. Among
his publications are: Art for America (1894), The Song Life of
a Sculptor (1894), The Technique of Sculpture (1895), The Angel
of Clay (1900), a novel, and Nathan Hale, the Ideal Patriot (1902).
His sculptural works consist largely of portraiture.
PARTRIDGE (Du. Partrijs, Fr. perdrix, from Lat. perdix,
apparently onomatopoeic from the call of the bird), a game-bird,
whose English name properly denotes the only species indigenous
to Britain, often nowadays called the grey partridge, the Perdix
cinerea of ornithologists. The excellence of its flesh at table
has been esteemed from the time of Martial. For the sport
of partridge-shooting see Shooting.
The grey partridge has doubtless largely increased in numbers in Great Britain since the beginning of the 19th century, when so much down, heath, and moorland was first brought under the plough, for its partiality to an arable country is very evident. It has been observed that the birds which live on grass lands or heather only are apt to be smaller and darker in colour than the average; but in truth the species when adult is subject to a much greater variation in plumage than is commonly supposed, and the well-known chestnut horse-shoe mark, generally considered distinctive of the cock, is very often absent. In Asia the grey partridge seems to be unknown, but in the temperate parts of Eastern Siberia its place is taken by a very nearly allied form, P. barbata, and in Tibet there is a bird, P. hodgsoniae, which can hardly with justice be generically separated from it.
The common red-legged partridge of Europe, generally called the French partridge, Caccabis rufa, seems to be justifiably considered the type of a separate group. This bird was introduced into England in the last quarter of the 18th century, and has established itself in various parts of the country, notwithstanding a widely-spread, and in some respects unreasonable, prejudice against it. It has certainly the habit of trusting
