CROWN DEBTS. G20 CROWN LANDS. or mortgagee lor value, imless a writ of execu- tion lias been issued and registered before the execution of the mortgage or conveyance. SimiJle contract debts have no such lien: but the Crown has in all cases jireference over private creditors in the distribution of the estates of bankrupts and deceased persons. See Admixistr.^- TioN ; l-)i:i!T : riiEHOGATivE ; Exchequer. Consult Prideaux. Law of J udyments and Crown Debts, us They Affect Reat Prope;-;^ (4th ed., London, 1854) . CROWN DIAMONDS, The. The English version of Auber's Les diainanis de la couronne (1844 I. CBOWNE, JoH.x (C.1G40-C.1703). An Eng- lish dramatist. He began his literary career with Pandion and Ampltigenia (1665), interest- ing as one of the very few English heroic ro- mances in imitation of Scuderj^ His contem- porary reputation as dramatist was gained by The Destruclion of Jerusalem, in two parts (pro- duced in 1677). His comedy ^ivr Courtly Xice (produced in 1685) held the stage through the eighteenth century. His numerous other plays have onlv slight interest. Consult Dramatic ^yorks (4 vols., Edinburgh, 1873). CROWN-GALL. A very destructive disease that attacks nearly all kinds of fruit-trees, grapes, almonds, walnuts, blackberries, rasiJ- berries, poplars, and chestnuts, frequently killing them. The point of attack is at the crowTi of the roots where the roots and .stem join, the galls formed on young trees being half an inch or more in diameter. Usually occurring at the crown, the galls are sometimes found upon the slender roots of nursery trees. When young they have the color of the young roots, but later they are considerably darker. They increase with the age of the tree, becoming as large as a man's fist or even larger. When small they are soft masses of irregular fibres, and when older they exhibit concentric rings in cross-section. On account of the deep woinids made by the fungus and the attack made upon the vitality of its host the tree is frequently killed, and whole orchards are reported in which every tree has succumbed to this cause. The disease is widely distributed, being known in Europe, in many parts of the United States, and recently reported from New Zealand. The cause is a low fungus or rajTComycete to which the name Dendrophayus ylobosus has been given. It is closely related to the cause of the club-root of cabbage and allied plants. Annual inspection of the trees, cutting off all galls and coating the cut surfaces with a paste made of copper silphate and lime, is the most efficieut protection known. CROWN GLASS (so called because of its erown-like shape when being blown). A soda- lime glass chiefly used for the manufacture of window-panes. In England it is usually made from 12 parts silica, 13 parts soda, 13 parts lime, and 2 parts iron and alumina oxides, while elsewhere it frequently contains more silica and less soda. See Gl.ss. CROWN and HALF-CROWN (So called from the crown which generally appears on the reverse). English silver coins since 1551. Be- fore that date they were made of gold. The crown, which is the five-shilling piece, is worth approximately $1.20 in United States cui-rency. CROWN IMPERIAL. See Fritii.i..ry. CROWN'INSHIELD, Akent Schuyler (1843 — ). A United States naval oliicer, born in New Vork. He graduated at the United States Naval Academj' in 1863, was a participant in both of the attacks on Fort Fislier ( Oirciiiber, 1864, and .January, 1865), and in 1868 attained the rank of lieutenant-commander. His further pro- motions were to be commander in 1880, captain in 18tl4, and rear-admiral in 18U7. He became chief of the Bureau of Navigation of the Navy De- partment in 1897, and during the Spanish-.meri- can War was a member of the Board of Naval Strategj'. He immediately preceded ('apt. H. D. Sigsbee in the command of the battle-ship Maine. CROWNINSHIELD, Frederic (1845—). An American painter and writer, born in Boston, November 27, 1845. He graduated at Harvard College (1866), after which he married and went abroad, where he remained eleven years. He studied under Rowbotham in London, Couture in Italy, and Cabanel in Paris. He returned to .Vmcrica, and from 1879 to 1885 was an in- structor in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. He published a volume of verse entitled I'iiioris CarniiiKi, in 1900, and has written a handbook on the processes of mural painting. CROWN LANDS. The English sovereign , W'as at one time not only the nominal owner, as lord paramount, of all the lands in England, but was also in his royal capacit}' one of the greatest landowners in the kingdom. He was, by virtue of his office, the lord of many manors, and in him were vested the wastes, forests, and common lands throughout the realm. The an- cient demesne lands of the Crown are now contracted within narrow limits, having been almost entirely granted away to subjects. King William III. so impoverished the Crown in this manner that an act was passed, 1 Anne, c. 7, S 5, the efl'ect of which and of subsequent statutes is that all grants or leases from the Crown of royal manors, or other possessions con- nected with land, for a period exceeding thirty- one years, are void. At a much earlier period (1455. c. 41), a Scottish statute had rendered the consent of Parliament necessary to the aliena- tion of the property of the Crown; but neither it nor the subsequent statutes which were passed with a similar object succeeded in check- ing the practice. Since the beginning of- the reign of George III., the English sovereign sur- renders during his life the hereditary revenues derived from the Crown lands in exchange for a ii.xed civil list granted by Parliament. The superintendence of such property as still belongs to the Crown is now vested in conunissioners appointed for that purpose, called the com- inissioners of Avoods, forests, and land revenues. These restrictions do not apply to estates pur- chased by the sovereigns out of the privy purse, or coming to the sovereign, his heirs, iir succes- sors, 1)V descent or otherwise, from ])er>-oiis not being kings or queens of the realm : for, although there is no marked line drawn between the pro- prietary rights which the King has as King and those which he has in his private capacity, and there are no lands which belong to the nation or State as a personified body, yet a distinction is made between the lands of ancient demesne and those coming by modern title, by which the alienation of the former is restricted and that of the latter left free. Consult: Cox, Institu-
