Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/801

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CIN—CIR
787

or the right of receiving toll and of holding serfs ; (4) Bloodwith and fledwith, or the right to punish shedders of blood and those who were seized in an attempt to escape from justice ; (5) Pillory and tumbrell ; (6) Ingfangtheof and outfangtheof, or power to imprison and execute felons ; (7) Mundbriech, or authority to erect banks or dykes on any man s land as a defence against the sea ; (8) Waives and strays, or the right to appropriate lost property or cattle not claimed within a year and a day ; (9) The right to seize all flotsom, jetsom, or witsom, or in other words, whatever of value was cast ashore by the sea ; (10) The privilege of being a guild with power to impose taxes for the common weal; and (11) The right of assembling in portmote or parliament at Shepway or Shepway Cross, a few miles west of Hythe the parliament being empowered to make bye-laws for the Cinque Ports, to regulate the Yarmouth fishery, to hear appeals from the local courts, and to give decision in all cases of treason, sedition, illegal coining, or concealment of treasure trove. The ordinary business of the ports is conducted in two courts known respectively as the Court of Brotherhood and the Court of Brotherhood and Guestling, the former being composed of the mayors of the seven principal towns and a number of jurats and freemen from each, and the latter including in addition the mayors, bailiffs, and other representatives of the corporate members. The Court of Brotherhood was formerly called the Brotheryeeld, Brodall, or Brodhull ; and the name Guestling seems to owe its origin to the fact that the officials of the " members " were at first in the position of invited guests. The highest office in connection with the Cinque Ports is that of the Lord Warden, who also acts as governor of Dover Castle, and has a maritime jurisdiction as admiral of the ports. His power was formerly of great extent, and he held a court of chancery at Dover in the old parish church of St James. He still presides in the court of Shepway, and appoints the justices

of peace for the liberties of the Cinque Ports.

See Samuel Jeake, Charters of the Cinque Ports, London, small folio, 1728 ; Philipott s Villare Cantianum ; the First Report on Municipal Corporations in 1835; and the Census of England and Wales, 1871, vol. i.

CINTRA, a town of Portugal in the province of Estremadura, 14 miles north-west of Lisbon, with about 4500 inhabitants. It stands at the foot of a rocky moun tain of an altitude varying from 1800 to 3000 feet, and is remarkable for the picturesque beauty of its situa tion and the salubrity of its climate, which render it a favourite resort of the wealthier inhabitants of Lisbon. On one of the adjacent summits stands the Penha Castle, erected by King Ferdinand of Coburg on the site of the former convent of the Hieronymites ; and on another ars the ruins of a Moorish castle. There is also an ancient royal palace described as a medley of Moorish and Christian architecture, and long famous as the summer residence of the court ; and in the neighbourhood is the "Cork Convent" of Santa Cruz, which derives its name from the lining of its cells, and owes its origin to Joao de Castro, the celebrated viceroy of the Indies, whose heart is still preserved in the chapel of Penha Verde, near the villa in which he resided after his return. The convention by which the French were allowed to leave Portugal without molestation was signed at Cintra, August, 22, 1808.

CIPHER. See Cryptography.

CIPRIANI, Giovanni Battista (1727-1785), painter and draughtsman, was of Pistoian descent, but was born at Florence, where he studied design and colour under Heckford and Gabbiani. After painting several pictures at Pistoia and elsewhere, Cipriani, who had contracted a friendship with Bartolozzi, the eminent engraver, quitted Florence for London. There he worked for the duke of Richmond and other noblemen and gentlemen, repaired the Rubens ceiling in Whitehall Chapel, and the Verrio frescoes at Windsor, and decorated in part the Royal Academy library. His drawings, which are better than his paintings, engraved by Bartolozzi and his pupils, achieved a wide popularity, and were bought up eagerly all over Europe ; but his reputation is nowadays somewhat faded.

CIRCAR is an Indian term applied to the component parts of a Subah or province, each of which is administered by a deputy-governor. In English it is principally employed in the name of the Northern Circars, used to designate a now obsolete division of the Madras presidency, which consisted of a narrow slip of territory lying along tho western side of the Bay of Bengal from 15 40 to 20 17 N. lat. These Northern Circars were five in number, Cicacole, Rajamundry, Ellore, Condapilly, and Guntoor, and their total area was about 30,000 square miles. The district corresponds in the main to that now occupied by the modern divisions of Guntoor, Masulipatam, Rajamun dry, Vizagapatam, and Gunjam. It was first invaded by the Mahometans in 1471; in 1541 they conquered Conda pilly, and nine years later they extended their conquests over all Guntoor and the districts of Masulipatam. But the invaders appear to have acquired only an imperfect possession of the country, as it was again wrested from the Hindu princes of Orissa about the year 1571, during the reign of Ibrahim Kutub, shah of Hyderabad or Golcondah. In 1687 the Circars were added, along with the empire of Hyderabad, to the extensive empire of Aurung- zebe. Salabut Jung, the son of Nizam ul Mulk, who was indebted for his elevation to the throne to the French East India Company, granted them in return for their services the district of Condavir or Guntoor, and soon afterwards the other Circars. In 1759, by the conquest of the fortress of Masulipatam, the dominion of the maritime provinces on both sides, from the River Gondegama to the Chilca Lake, was necessarily transferred from the French to the British. But the latter left them under the administration of the Nizam, with the exception of the town and fortress of Masulipatam, which were retained by the English East India Company. In 1765 Lord Clive obtained from the Mogul a grant of four of the Circars, which in the following year was confirmed by a treaty entered into with Nizam. Ali, who had by this time superseded Salabut Jung in his authority. The remaining Circar of Guntoor devolved to the East India Company in 1788.

CIRCASSIA. The name of Circassia is commonly given

to the whole of the north-western portion of the Caucasus, including the district between the mountain range and the Black Sea, and extending to the north of the central ridge as far as the River Kuban. In this sense the term is still in use as a geographical appellation, though the Circassians, as a nation, may be regarded as extinct. The region thus defined may be considered as extending from the neighbour hood of Anapa on the Black Sea to the frontiers of Mingrelia, and having a seaboard of about 280 English miles. Throughout this extent the country is almost wholly mountainous, the great range of the Caucasus, which begins in the neighbourhood of Anapa at a moderate eleva tion, rising gradually as it extends towards the south-east, till it culminates in the lofty summit of Mount Elbruz, at an elevation of 18,526 feet. The strip of land between the dividing ridge or watershed of these mountains and the sea, a tract varying from twenty to forty miles in width, is extremely rugged, traversed by successive offshoots of the mountains, extending quite down to the sea, and covered for the most part with extensive forests. The slopes on the northern side of the Caucasus are more gentle, and here the valleys afford abundant pasturage, but hardly any portion

of Circassia, properly so called, is a level or open country.