KING. 503 KING-BIRD. the Rebellion broke out King exercised a power- ful inlluence in favor of the National Government against the large Southern element among the people of California. During the war he was active in soliciting aid for the United States Sanitary Commission, and to him was chiefly due the splendid gift of California to that cause. He died at San Francisco, ilarch 4, 1804. He wrote The White Hills: Their Legends, Land- scapes, and I'oetry (18.5'J), and contributed fre- quently to reviews and other periodicals. After )iis dfnih three volumes of his lectures, etc., were pulilislied, one of them, Cliristianiti/ and Human- it;/, with memoir by E. P. Wliipple ( Boston, 1877). One of the peaks of the White Mountains has been named Starr King in his honor. KING, WiLLiAJf (1603-1712). An English author, born in London. Fnmi Westminster School lie went to Christ Churcli, O.xford, where he sraduated in lOSo. Five years afterwards he made his literary debut with an entertaining Dialogue Hhoicing the Way to Modem Preferment, which favored the Higli-Church Tory Party. Through his Animadversions (1094) in defense of the Danish Government he was made secre- tary to the Princess Anne, wliile his Journey to London in the Year 16!)S and Dialogues of the Dead (1099) established his re])utation as a caustic but humorous critic. He published other satirical Dialogues, and had ditl'creiit appoint- ments — judge of the Admiralty Court in Ireland (1701), Vicar-General of Armagh (170.3), and keeper of the records at Dublin Castle (1707) ; but he was of an indolent tem]ierament, and careless about the publication of his writings, which were collected and edited bv John Nichols after his death (3 vols., 1770). the Ijest of the contents is The Art of Cookery ' 1 708 ) , a poem imitating The Art of Poetry by llckrace, though The Art of Love (1709), a parody called Useful Transueticns in Philosophy, and Other l^orts of Learning (1709), and a school-bool':. llistorienl Account of the Heathen Gods' and Heroes (1710), are also noteworthy. KING, William Rcfus (1780-1853). An American statesman. He was bom in Sampson County, X. C, graduated at the University of Xorth Carolina in 1803, and studied law at Fayetteville, where he was admitted to the bar in 1800. In tlie same year he was elected to the State Legislature, serving until his elec- tion, as a Democrat, to the United States Con- gress in 1810. There he remained until 1810, supporting the Administration's war policy, and receiving in the latter year the position of secretary of legation at Saint Petersburg. Re- turning in 1818. he settled as a cotton planter in Dallas County, Ala., was a member of the convention which drew up the Constitution for the proposed State in that year, and after its admission in 1819 took his seat in the United States Senate as one of the first Senators from 'Alabama, lie remained in the Senate by re- election until 1844, serving after 1838 as presi- dent pro tempore. In 1844 he accepted from President Tyler an appointment as Minister to France, where he is said to have prevented a French protest against the annexation of Texas. Recalled nt his own request in September. 1S46, lie was in December of that year returned to the Senate to fill an unexpired term, was reiMectcd for a full term, and served until 1853, again presiding over the body in the last three years as president pro tempore. In 1852 King, who had been a candidate for the Democratic nomina- tion for the Vice-Presidency ever since 1840, was finally named for that oliice on the Pierce ticket, and was elected. Before the inauguration, how- ever, his health began to fail rapidly, and he went to Havana, Cuba, where bj- special act of Congress he was allowed to take the oath of oliice on March 4, 1853. He never entered upon the duties of his ofhce, however, but died shortly after his return to Alabama in the April follow- ing. KING-AT-AEMS, or Kino-of-Abms. The title of the principal heraldic officer of any coun- try'. There are four kings-at-arms in England, of whom three, (garter, Clarencieux. and Xorroy, fonii the College of Heraldry. The fourth is Hath king-at-arms. Garter principal king-at-arms was instituted by Henry V. (a.d. 1417) for the service of the Order of the Garter. His duties include the regu- lations of the arms of peers and of the knights of the Bath. In the capacity of king-at-arms of the Order of the Garter, he has apartments with- in the Castle of Windsor, and a mantle of blue satin, with the arms of Saint George on the left shoulder, besides a badge and sceptre. His ofTi- cial costume, as principal king-at-arms of Eng- land, is a surcoat of velvet, richly embroidered with the arms of the sovereign, a crown, and a collar of SS. Clarencieux and Xorroy are prin- cipal kings-at-arms with jurisdiction to the south and north of the Trent respectively. They ar- range and register, alone or conjointly with Gar- ter, the arms of all Ix-low the rank of the peerage. Kings-at-arms were formerly entitled to wear crowns on all occasions when the sovereign wore his; now they assume them only at the ceremony of a coronation. The installation of kings-at-arms anciently took pl.ace with great state, and always on a Sunday or a festival day, the ceremony being performed by the King, the Earl Marshal, or some other person duly appointed by royal warrant. Bath king-at-arms, though not a mem- ber of the college, takes precedence of Clarencieux and Xorroy. His oflice was created in 1725. for the service of the Order of the Bath. On .Janu- aiy 14, 1726, he was constituted Gloucester king- at-arms. The chief heraldic officer for Scotland is called Lyon king-at-arms (q.v.), who since the Union has ranked next to Garter. His title is derived from the lion rampant in the Scottish royal iii.'vignia, and he holds his olTice immediately from the sovereign, and not. as the English king-at- arms. from the Earl Marshal. Before the revolu- tion he was crowned by the sovereign or his com- missioner on receiving his office. There is one king-at-arms in Ireland, named Ulster. The royal ordinance relative to the Order of Saint Patrick, issued ilay 17. 1833. declares that in all ceremonials and assemblies Ulster king-at-arms shall have place immediately after the Lyon. Consult Burke, Encyclopcedia of Heraldry. KING-ATTK. In Scandinavia, the little auk. See DovEKiK. KING-BIRD. One of the most useful and interesting of the American tyrant flycatchers
