PREVIOUS QUESTION. 383 PREVOST D'EXILES. of Eepresentatives the previous question was de- batalUe, and it' it was negatived the main ques- tion was postponed for the day, according to the English practice; but in 1805 a rule of the House declared it to be undebatablp, and in 1800 a rule was adopted bv which consideration of the sub- ject is resumed when the ])revious question is negatived, thus completely changing the English practice. The original rule of the House pro- vided that the effect of the adoption of the pre- vious question was to cut off all motions excejjt the main question, but this was later changed so as to allow a vote first on the pending amend- ments and then on the main question. PREVOST, pre'vo', Augustine (1725-80). A British >()ldier. He was born in Geneva, Switzer- land: entered the British army, and in the French and Indian War distinguished himself in Wolfe's attack on Quebec, liolding at the time the rank of a captain in the Sixtieth Regiment. He be- came lieutenant-colonel in command of the regi- ment in 1701, and after the deatli of General Henry Bouquet in Septemlier, 1705, succeeded him in command of the British troops in the Southern Department, with lieadijuarters at Peii- sacola. He was still in command on the south- ern frontier at the outbreak of the Revolution, and late in 1778 he invaded Georgia, captured Sunljury, and with Colonel Campbell, wlio had captured Savannah, practically subdued for the time being the uprising in Georgia. In March, 177'J. he abandoned Augusta on the approach of General Aslie, but later, at Brier Creek, turned and administered a severe defeat to liis pursuers. He then drove Moultrie back on Charleston, lay- ing Avaste the country with fire and sword as he advanced, and encouraged his Clierokee allies to acts of the greatest barbarity and cruelty. Before he could take Charleston, however, Moultrie, its commander, was joined by Pulaski with reinforce- ments from the Northern Army, and Prevost withdrew into Georgia. In October, 1779, he repulsed an attack on Savannah by the combined French and American forces under D'Estaing and Lincoln. For this success he was promoted to be major-general, but took little further part of any iuqiortance in the operations in the South. PREVOST, pra'vo', Eugene Marcel (1802 — ). A French novelist, born in Paris May 1, 1 802. He was educated by the .Jesuits and at the Pnlyteclmic School, engaged in tobacco manufac- turing, and entered the literary field in 1891. In 1887, however, he published Le l^corpion, art at- tack on .Jesuit education : and this story was fol- lowed by Choiichcffe (1888) and Mademoiselle Janfre (1889), both of which were less crude and more sentimental and idyllic, though with some afl'ectation of moralizing. Coiisiiie Laura satirized the distortions of love, and the author pursued the theme in La confession d'lin aniant (1891). His next work, Leftres de femmes (1892), was the first to win distinct notice. It was succeeded by Nouielles Irttres de femmes (1894) and Der- nieres Irttres de femmes (1897). The series are gracefully written, witty, ironical, ingenious, and thoroughly seasoned to the moral taste of the French. The dominant note is sensual perversity. L'ttutomne d'line femme (1893) is nobler, but Les demi-rierfies is distasteful, and Le moulin de Nazareth (1894) may be classed as revolting, liotre cnmpa(i>w (1895), a collection of stories, is, on the other hand, never vulgar, always clever, and often pure; and Le jardin secret (1897) is a strong and worthj- narrative of con- ventional marriage, with the moral of Goethe's Die Mitschuldiyen. In 1900 appeared Les vierges fortes, which was composed of two volumes, Fre- dcrique and Lea. In 1901 L'heureux meiuige was published. These last volumes deal with the woman cjuestion, both as concerns the educa- tion and the free life of 3'oung girls, and the marriage relation. M. Prevost does not appear to find that the new or higher education for young women, as he understands its development in England and America, points to anything very satisfactory for the French, As a whole, his stories suggest Bourget and ilaupassant. At his best he is less powerful, less searching, but in narration he is admirably deft, lucid, compact, swift, and unerring. His feminine psA'chology is masterly, and probably no French author of his generation has so intimately understood the deli- cate, intricate nature of women. PREVOST, Sir George (1767-1816). A Brit- ish soldier and administrator. He was born in Xew York, entered the British Army in 1783, when he became a captain, and between 1790 and 1801 saw considerable service in the West Indies, commanding the British troops in Saint Vincent in 1794-95, and acting as Military Governor of Saint Lucia from 1798 to 1801, after which for a year he was Civil Governor. In 1802 he was appointed Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief in Dominica. Created a baronet in 1805, he was the same year made a major-general, and three years later a lieutenant-general. In 1808 he was appointed Lieutenant-Governor and commander- in-chief of Nova Scotia; in 1809 was .second in command at the capture of ilartinique, and in September, 1811, succeeded Sir James Craig as Governor of Lower Canada and Governor-General of British North America, which position he re- tained throughout the War of 1812, nominally, but not always actually, directing, as commander- in-chief, the British operations in Canada. On May 29, 1813, in concert with Sir James Yeo, he made an unsuccessful attack upon Sacketts Har- bor, N. Y., and on September 11, 1814, in conjunc- tion with Downie, who commanded the naval forces, was again unsuccessful in an attack upon Plattsburg, X, Y., where he was repulsed by the Americans under ^Macomb. For his faint- heartedness, or lack of enterprise, on the latter occasion he was called before a court-martial, but died before a verdict could be rendered. PREVOST D'EXILES, pra'vo' dag'zel', An- TOIXE Fraxiois ( 1097-17f!3) . A French novelist, best known as the author of Maiwn Lcscaiit (q.v.). Prevost was born at Hesdin, April 1, 1697. His father was a petty official. Antoine had been by turns a student of the Jesuits, a novice among them, a .soldier (1713-14), a .Jesuit, a soldier again, and, as "the unhajipy end of a too tender attachment." a Benedictine (1721-28). Then we liear of him as wanted by the police for a libel on the Duke of Tuscany and for alleged breaches of conventual discipline. It was a fate- ful period in the history of the French novel when Prevost sought refuge in England (1728), where he remained for two or three years, and, after a hasty and not wholly voluntary departure, returned thither in 1733 famous as author of the Memoires d'un homme de qiialite, the seventh volume of which is his greatest and shortest
