Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/1117

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Drepana, and was defeated by Adherbal with the loss of almost all his forces. Having been recalled and commanded to nominate a dictator, he named M. Claudius Glycias or Glicia, the son of a freedman, but the appointment was set aside. He was accused of treason, and severely punished. The exact date of his death is unknown. To the people he was an object of great dislike.—J. T.

CLAUDIUS. See. Appius Claudius.

CLAUSEL, Bertrand, Count and Marshal of France, was born 12th December, 1772. He was the nephew of Jean Baptiste Clausel, one of the regicides. Having entered the army in 1791, he served in several campaigns, and was also employed in various missions. He was made general of brigade in 1799, and sent to St. Domingo. He returned to France in 1802, with the rank of general of division. In 1805 he was employed in the armies of the north, and of Holland, and subsequently in Naples, Germany, and Spain. He was present at the famous battle of Salamanca and assumed the command after Marmont was wounded. He was present also at the disastrous conflict of Vittoria. After the first abdication of Napoleon, Clausel was appointed inspector-general of infantry, and obtained the grand cross of the legion of honour from Louis XVIII.; but this did not prevent him from deserting the cause of the Bourbons as soon as Bonaparte landed from Elba. On the final overthrow of Napoleon, Clausel fled to America to escape the sentence of death pronounced upon him, 11th September, 1816. On the proclamation of the amnesty of 1820 he returned to France, and was elected a deputy. In 1830 Louis Philippe made him commander of the African army, and created him a marshal in 1831. The disastrous result of the expedition to Constantina in 1836 was attributed to Clausel. He died in 1842.—J. T.

* CLAUSEN, Henry Nicholas, a celebrated Danish theologian and statesman, born in 1793; became professor of theology at the university of Copenhagen in 1821; some years afterwards became known as an intrepid champion of constitutional rights; in 1840 was elected a deputy to the legislative assembly; played a conspicuous part in the reforms of 1848, and till 1852 was a member of the Danish ministry. His works are numerous.

CLAUSSEN, Peder, the celebrated translator of Snorre Sturleson, was born at Egersund, on the southwest coast of Norway, in the year 1545. He became, in 1566, parish priest of Undal, as his father had been before him. His translation of Sturleson did not appear till after his decease which happened in 1614. It was brought out in 1633 under the care of the learned Ole Warm, and at the expense of Joachim Moltken. An inferior edition, altered for the worse, was brought out by the printer Godiche in 1757. Claussen's translation of Sturleson's great work is not a mere literal translation, but a free and somewhat abridged rendering, in a very bold and original style. It furnished for a long period the favourite reading of the Norwegian peasantry. Claussen was also the author of a "Description of Norway," published likewise after his death, in 1632, at the cost of the same Joachim Moltken.—M. H.

CLAVELL, John, a highwayman of the time of Charles I., nephew of Sir N. Clavell, published in 1628 a poem entitled "The Recantation of an Ill-led Life, or Discovery of the Highway Law." &c.—J. S., G.

CLAVERÉT, Jean, born at Orleans in 1590; died in 1666. He first studied law, and commenced to practise as an advocate. He fancied himself a poet, and formed an acquaintance with Corneille, who advised him to stick to his trade of advocate. He was offended, and commenced a pamphlet war against Corneille. This was not enough; he had interest sufficient to get a comedy acted, which bore the same title as one of Corneille's. The court were for Claverét, the public for Corneille. He regarded this as success, and tried another comedy, which, however, the actors refused to bring out. It was the day when the unities were the rule of the French theatre, and Claverét, who was not daring enough to violate them, escaped from the difficulty with a dexterity all his own. A drama of his, "The Rape of Proserpine," was so arranged as to have the scene now in heaven, now on earth in Sicily, and now in hell. The unity of place was not violated, for the poet imagined a perpendicular line from heaven to hell passing through Sicily.—J. A., D.

CLAVIER, Etienne, born at Lyons in 1762; bred to the law, he combined with his legal pursuits the study of ancient l anguages and literature, more especially the Greek, and even seems to have imbibed the heroic spirit of the days of old. It was while he sat as judge of the criminal court of the department of the Seine that he set an example of independence not very common under the empire. When General Moreau was on his trial before him, the law officers, pressing for a capital conviction on grounds which the court deemed insufficient, thought to overcome scruples by an intimation that the emperor, if gratified by a conviction, would pardon the accused; on which the judge exclaimed—"Who would pardon us?" In 1809 he was elected member of the class of ancient history and literature at the Institute. In 1811 the criminal court over which he presided was suppressed. His chief literary labours consist of translations from the Greek. He wrote, besides, essays on the oracles of the ancients, and "A History of the early times of Greece." He died in 1817.—J. F. C.

CLAVIÈRE, Etienne, a French statesman of the revolutionary period, was born at Geneva in 1735. He was one of the leaders of the party of the Girondists; in 1792 he was appointed minister of finance. The following year, along with all the most eminent members of his party, he was condemned to death. He killed himself in prison.—J. S., G.

CLAVIGERO, Francisco Saviero, a Spanish jesuit, born in Mexico in 1720, and author of a curious work on the customs, history, and language of his native country since the Spanish conquest. In the latter part of his life he came to Europe, and resided at Cesena in the papal states, where his great work was published in 1780, under the title of "Storia Antica del Messico," &c.—F. M. W.

CLAVIJO, Ruy Gonzales de, a Spaniard, who lived about the commencement of the fifteenth century, and was sent on an embassy to Tamerlane by Henry III., king of Castile, of which an account, supposed to be from his pen, was published at Seville in 1582.—J. T.

CLAVIJO Y FAJARDA, José, a Spanish author, editor of a journal at Madrid, and the translator of Buffon, born in 1730; died in 1806. He fought a duel with Beaumarchais, who came to Madrid to avenge a slight which Clavijo had put upon one of his sisters. More than one dramatist has made use of the incident.—F. M. W.

CLAVIUS, Christopher, an eminent German mathematician, called "the Euclid of the sixteenth century," was born at Bamberg in 1537, and died at Rome in 1612. He was employed by Pope Gregory XIII. in the business of reforming the calendar.

* CLAY, Cassius Marcellus, the seventh son of General Green Clay, born in Madison county, Kentucky, in 1810, has been mainly and very honourably distinguished for his bold and resolute efforts to free his native state from the curse of slavery, and to induce the great body of slaveholders to adopt measures looking to ultimate emancipation. With a view to qualifying himself for an active public and political career, he studied law. The owner of extensive lands and proprietor of many slaves, he commenced his efforts for the freedom of Kentucky by giving his slaves their freedom. His life has since been frequently in danger from the propagandists of slavery. The writings of C. M. Clay, with a memoir by Horace Greeley, Esq., were published in New York in 1848.—F. B.

CLAY, Henry, an eminent American senator and statesman, was the son of a baptist clergyman, and was born in Hanover county, Virginia, in 1777. His father died when he was only four years old, leaving his mother very poor, so that his only education was obtained in a log school-house, and in 1791 he was placed as an apprentice in a store in Richmond. But his stepfather procured for him a place as copying clerk in the office of the chancery court, where his character and talents attracted the notice of the venerable Chancellor Wythe, who gave him the use of his library, superintended his reading, and turned his ambition to the study of law. His preparation was completed in the office of the attorney-general, Brooke, and being admitted to the bar, he removed to Lexington, Kentucky, when hardly twenty-one years old, and began the practice of his profession. His success was signal and immediate; with a competent amount of legal learning, he became one of the most successful advocates that ever addressed a jury. With a winning manner, a silver-toned voice, great fluency of speech, and quickness of thought, and an instinctive appreciation of the characters and prejudices of those whom he addressed, he never failed of enlisting their sympathies, and seldom of winning their assent.