106 SLIGO don, July 29, 1871. He graduated at Colum- bia college in 1810 and entered commercial life, but was not successful, and removed to New Orleans, where he became a prominent member of the Louisiana bar, and was Uni- ted States district attorney from 1829 to 1833. He was frequently elected to the state legis- lature, and was a representative in congress from 1843 to 1845. In the latter year he was sent as envoy extraordinary and minister pleni- potentiary to Mexico. In 1853 he was chosen United States senator for the unexpired term of Senator Soule, and was afterward reelect- ed for six years. lie was a supporter of the southern rights party, and when Louisiana had passed the ordinance of secession, in Jan- uary, 1861, he withdrew on Feb. 4 from the senate, after delivering a menacing and defiant speech. In the autumn he was sent as com- missioner to France, together with Mr. Mason of Virginia, who was appointed in the same capacity to England. Sailing from Charleston, they ran the blockade, and embarked at Ha- vana on board the English mail steamer Trent. On Nov. 8 Capt. Wilkes, of the United States sk-am frigate San Jacinto, boarded this ves- sel, and arrested the commissioners, who were confined in Fort Warren, Boston harbor. But as their capture was informal, they were re- leased on the reclamation of the British gov- ernment, and on Jan. 2, 1862, sailed for Eng- land. Mr. Slidell proceeded to Paris, where through the banker Erlanger (who became his son-in-law) he secured some aid in money and ships for the confederates, and after the close of the war settled in London. SLIGO. I. A county of Ireland, in the prov- ince of Connaught, on the N. W. coast, border- ing on Leitrim, Roscommon, Mayo, and the Atlantic ocean; area, 721 sq. m. ; pop. in 1871, 115,311. The chief towns are Sligo, Dromore, and Tobercurry. The coast line is generally ragged, and is deeply indented by the bays of Sligo and Killala. Sligo bay is about 6 m. wide at the mouth, and extends inland 10 m. to the town of Sligo. The principal rivers are the Sligo, Moy, Arrow, Awimnore, and Easky. Lough Gill, the chief lake, is about 5 m. long and 1J broad, and is remarkable for the beau- ty of its scenery. A great deal of the surface is mountainous or boggy. Iron ore is found, and copper and lead mines were formerly worked. Coarse woollens are manufactured. There are many remains of antiquity. II. A town, capital of the county, at the head of an arm of the bay of the same name, 107 m. N. W. of Dublin; pop. in 1871, 9,340. It has considerable commerce, but vessels drawing more than 13 ft. are obliged to anchor a mile below the town. In 1870 Sligo was disfran- chised as a parliamentary borough. M.OINK, Sir Hang, a British naturalist, born Ht Killyleagh, county Down, Ireland, April 10, 1 in Chelsea, near London, Jan. 11, 1753. lie studied medicine, natural history' and chemistry in London, where ho became SLOE acquainted with Ray and Boyle. After a tour on the continent, he settled in 1684 in London, and was soon after elected a fellow of the royal society. In 1687 he accompanied the duke of Albemarle to Jamaica in the capacity of physician, and during a residence of 15 months made large collections of natural cu- riosities, particularly of plants. Returning to London, he was chosen physician of Christ's hospital in 1694, a post which he filled for 86 years. Being shortly before this time elected secretary of the royal society, he revived the "Philosophical Transactions," and until 1712 was editor of the work. Meanwhile he had formed the nucleus of a comprehensive cabinet of curiosities, which it became one of the chief objects of his life to enrich and enlarge, and which in 1702 received a very considerable augmentation by the bequest of the collection of William Courten. In 1716 he was created a baronet, and was appointed physician general to the army, which office he held till 1727, when he became physician in ordinary to the king. In 1719 he was elected president of the college of physicians, and in 1727 president of the royal society. In 1741 he removed his library and collections to an estate in Chel- sea, purchased in 1720, where he spent the rest of his life in retirement. His collections, amounting to 200 volumes of dried plants and over 30,000 other specimens of natural history, besides a library of 50,000 volumes and 3,566 manuscripts, were by the direction of his will offered to the nation for 20,000, less than a quarter of their real value. The legacy was accepted by parliament, and in its purchase originated the British museum. Among many important benevolent schemes he was en- gaged in the establishment of a dispensary for providing the poor with medical services and medicines, and of the foundling hospital. He also presented the apothecaries' company with the freehold of their botanic garden, which formed part of his estate at Chelsea. His writings comprise " The Natural History of Jamaica " (2 vols. fol., 1707-'25), a Latin catalogue of the plants of Jamaica, a treatise on sore eyes (once highly esteemed), and contributions to the " Philosophical Trans- actions." He aided in the introduction of the use of Peruvian bark and other new remedies, and gave a considerable impulse to the prac- tice of inoculation by performing that opera- tion on several of the royal family. SLOE (A. S. Z#), a wild plum, prunus spino- sa, native in Europe and Russian and centra 1 Asia, and sparingly naturalized in the England and some others of the older states. It is a shrub or low tree, with its smaller branches ending in sharp thorns, which, with the blackish color of the bark, give it the name of blackthorn by which it is frequently called in England; the leaves are ovate or oblong; the small, white flowers are succeeded by a small, globular, black fruit, with a fine bloom; stone turgid; pulp greenish and astringent.
