SIDNEY. 140 SIDNEY. riages, aluminum ware, brooms, bicycle rims, newspaper folders, and flour. There is also a large chicken liatchcry. The government is rested in a mayor, elected biennially, and a unicameral council. The water- works are owned and ope- rated bv the municipality. Sidney was settled be- tween 1800 and 1810, incorporated about 1819, and received its present charter in 1897. Popu- lation, in 1890, 4850; in 1900, 5688. SIDNEY, Algerko>- (c.1622-83). An English Revolutionary statesman. After receiving a care- ful education he accompanied his father, the sec- ond Earl of Leicester, on embassies to Denmark and France. His first military service was against the rebels of Ireland in 1641 while his father was Lord Lieutenant there. In the Civil War he fought for Parliament. The year 1647 saw liim lieutenant-general of the Horse in Ire- land, and the next year he became Governor of Dover, a position which he held for more tlian two years. In 164.5 Cardiff bad returned liim to the Long Parliament, and three years afterwards he was appointed a commissioner for the trial of Charles I. He absented himself from the sessions of the court, however, because, as be explains, be wished to keep liimself "clean from having any hand in this Imsiness." His objection to the trial of the King was that the House of Lords had not assented to it. But it is said that he afterwards spoke of the execution as "the justest and bravest action that was ever done in England or any- where else." In principle a severe republican, he resented the concentration of power in Crom- well. When the restored Parliament met in 1659 Sidney was again nominated to the Council of State, and dispatched to Denmark on a political mission. After the Restoration he lived precari- ously on the Continent, flitting about from place to place. Received with great honor into the high- est society of Rome, he desired to pass the re- mainder of his life there: but as political ene- mies sought his life, he dared not remain long in one place. All came to regard him as the ablest of the English exiles, and the King's friends feared his great influence; but in 1677 Charles II. pardoned him, and he returned to his native country. Holding persistently to his old principles, how- ever, he favored the Duke of ]Moumouth as suc- cessor to Charles II. in place of the Duke of York. To accomplish his object he solicited the aid of the French monarch, who is known to have sup- plied him with money through Barillon. the French Ambassador to England. His designs were suspected, and when the Rye House Plot was discovered in June, 1683, the opportiuiity was seized to be rid of a man felt to be danger- ous. With his friend. Lord Russell, and others he was arrested and committed to the Tower. His trial for high treason began November 21st before the brutal Jeffreys, who on the merest mockery of evidence found him guilty and con- demned him to death. The execution took place December 7th on Tower Hill. His heroic firm- ne#s in death awakened the sympathy and the indignation of the public, which, in recognition of his devotion to principle, has ever since re- vered him as a patriot hero and martyr. In the history and theory of government Sidney Avas more deeply learned than any other man of his time. His Diacnurses Concerning Government ■were published in London in 1698, and his entire works appeared in 1772. Consult: Arraignment, Trial and Condemna- tion of Algernon Sidney, etc. (London, 1684) ; Ewald. Life and Times of Algernon Sidney (Lon- don, 1873). • SIDNEY, Sir Philip ( 1554-86) . A celebrated English writer and soldier. He was born at Pens- burst in Kent, and when ten years old was sent to the school at Shrewsbury, 'whence, in 1568, he went to Christ Church, Oxford. He left the uni- versity without a degree, but with a high reputa- tion for scholarship and general abilit}'. In 1572 he went abroad to travel. He was in Paris when the massacre of Saint Bartholomew took place, but ran no personal risk, as he was under the protection of the English embass.v. Thereafter he visited Belgium, Germany, Hvingarv, and Italy ; wherever he went he occupied most of his time in studying languages, literature, current history, and politics, but he also cultivated the acquaintance of eminent men: and in 1575 he returned home, perfected in all manly accom- plishments. His uncle Dudley. Earl of Leicester, Avas at this time in the zenith of his fortunes, and for Sidney a career at Court lay temptingly open. As a courtier his success was great: with Queen Elizabeth he was throughout life an es- pecial favorite. In 1577 she intrusted him with a mission to Heidelberg and Prague, and, though he failed in his negotiations, he was warmly com- mended on his return. Tliree years afterwards he had the boldness to address to the Queen a 're- monstrance' against her proposed marriage with Henry, Duke of Anjou, a union to which she seemed herself not indisposed. It is significant of the high favor in which he was held by her that Elizabeth, imperious as she was in temper, and little inclined to brook such interference, was satisfied with his retirement from Court for a few months. This interval he passed in literary work at Wilton with his sister, the accomplished Countess of Pembroke, For her entertainment he wrote his celebrated pastoral romance, Ar- cadia, which was published posthumously by his sister in 1590. In 1583 he consoled himself for the marriage of Lady Penelepe Devereux, to whom he had been ardently attached, and who figures as the Stella of his poems, by manwing Frances, the daughter of Sir Francis Walsing- ham. In the spring of 1585 he is said to have meditated sailing with Sir Francis Drake in an expedition against the Spaniards in the West Indies, but to have been forbidden by Elizabeth through fear "lest she lose the jewel of her do- minions." Later in the year, however, she ap- pointed him Governor of Flushing, whither he went to take part in the war then beins waged between her allies, the Dutch and the Spanish. At the battle of Zutphen. in Gelderland, he reck- lessly exposed himself. A horse was killed under him, and he received a musket-shot in the thigh from which, after great suffering, he died at Arn- beim on October 7, 1586. A beautiful trait of humanity was noticed in him while he was borne from the field. As he complained of thirst, a bot- tle of water was brought him : but when he was about to drink, he was toviched by the wistful look of a mortally wounded soldier, who lay close by: and taking the water untasted from his lips, Sidney handed it to his fellow in need, with the words, "Thy necessity is greater than mine."
