Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/151

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PARTNERSHIP (LIMITED) his share of the balance set off or paid to him in severalty. This right or interest his credi- tor may acquire by attachment or levy; and if it be done by attachment, a frequent, and generally speaking the better way, is to sum- mon all the partners as trustees or garnishees under the process of foreign attachment. PARTNERSHIP, Limited (or, as it is some- times called, special partnership), a partnership whereof one or more of the members con- tribute a certain amount to the capital, which may be lost by its being demanded for payment of the debts of the firm, but beyond which they have no further liability. This is utterly unknown to the common law, or to the law merchant as existing in England and the Uni- ted States; but it has been common on the continent of Europe for a long time. Recently it has been adopted in this country, and is now common. After much opposition, it has also to some extent become established in England. The statutes of no two states, perhaps, are precisely the same ; but they agree substantial- ly in the following provisions : 1, there must be one or more general partners, all of whom are liable in solido ; 2, there may be one or more special partners, and the specific sum con- tributed by each special partner must be actu- ally paid in ; 3, the arrangement or articles of partnership must be in writing, must generally be acknowledged before a magistrate, and must be published in one or more newspapers; 4, this advertisement, or publication, must state accurately the names and residence of the gen- eral partners, the names and residence of the special partners, the name of the firm, the sum which each special partner contributes, the business to be transacted, and the period for which the partnership is made or the time when it will terminate ; and during that time the special partner cannot withdraw his capi- tal. In some of the states there are provisions limiting special partnerships to mercantile busi- ness, and excluding insurance, banking, &c. If any of the requirements of law are disregard- ed, the special partner becomes a general part- ner, and is liable in solido. The courts apply these rules with much severity. Thus, a special partner has been held liable in solido because, by an error of one of the newspapers, the sum he contributed was stated erroneously. (See JOINT-STOCK COMPANY, and LIMITED LIABILITY.) PARTON. I. James, an American author, born in Canterbury, England, Feb. 9, 1822. At five years of age he was brought to New York, and at 19 he became a teacher in an academy at White Plains, Westchester eo., and after- ward in Philadelphia and New York. His first literary employment was on the staff of the "Home Journal" of New York, with which he was connected about three years. Since then he has devoted himself to literary labor and public lecturing. In March, 1875, he pur- chased a house in Newburyport, Mass., in- tending to make it his future residence. He has published a "Life of Horace Greeley" PARTRIDGE 141 (New York, 1855 ; new ed., 1868) ; a collec- tion of " Humorous Poetry of the English Lan- guage, from Chaucer to Saxe " (1857) ; " Life and Times of Aaron Burr " (1857 ; new ed., 2 vols., 1864) ; " General Butler in New Orleans" (1863) ; " Life and Times of Benjamin Frank- lin " (2 vols., 1864) ; " Smoking and Drinking," and " People's Book of Biography " (1868) ; " Famous Americans of Recent Times " (1870) ; " Triumphs of Enterprise, Ingenuity, and Pub- lic Spirit" (1871); "Topics of the Time" (1871); " Words of Washington " (1872) ; and " Life of Thomas Jefferson " (1874). In 1875 he was engaged upon a series of articles for "Harper's Monthly" on "Caricatures in all Times and Lands." For 15 years he has been collecting materials for a life of Voltaire. II. Sara Payson Willis, wife of the preceding, born in Portland, Me., July 7, 1811, died in New York, Oct. 10, 1872. Her father, Nathaniel Willis, was for many years editor of the " Bos- ton Recorder." She was married to Charles H. Eldredge, cashier of the merchants' bank, Bos- ton, with whom she lived for several years in affluence and happiness; but upon the death of her husband she was suddenly thrown upon her own resources to provide a maintenance for herself and two children. After unsuc- cessful attempts to procure employment as a teacher and in other vocations, she turned her attention in 1851 to literature, and prepared a short essay which was rejected by the editors of several Boston journals. One of them at length purchased it for half a dollar ; it proved successful, and was rapidly followed by others, which soon made her pseudonyme of " Fanny Fern" famous. A collection of her sketches was published in 1853 under the title of " Fern Leaves," of which 70,000 copies were sold in a short time. This was followed by " Little Ferns " (1853), " Fern Leaves, Second Series " (1854), "Ruth Hall," "Rose Clark," "Fresh Leaves" (1857), " The Play Day Book " (1857), "Folly as it Flies" (1868), "Ginger Snaps" (1870), and "Caper Sauce" (1871). For the last few years of her life she was chiefly em- ployed in writing for the " New York Ledger." She was married to Mr. Parton in January, 1856. See "Fanny Fern, a Memorial Volume, containing her Select Writings and a Me- moir," by James Parton (1873). PARTRIDGE, the popular name of the family of perdicidce, which includes also the quails. They differ from the grouse in having the legs bare and the nostrils protected by a naked hard scale ; they are also smaller and the species are more numerous ; the head seldom has a naked space around the eyes, and the sides of the toes are hardly pectinated ; they are widely distrib- uted over the globe, but the true partridges, 01 perdicince, have no representative in Ameri- ca. Great confusion exists in the application of the term partridge ; the spruce partridge is the Canada grouse (tetrao [canace] Canadensis, Linn.) ; the partridge of New England is the ruffed grouse (bonasa umbellus, Steph.) ; the