Part 110 (1/2)
CARTERET, JOHN, EARL GRANVILLE, eminent British statesman, orator, and diplomatist, entered Parliament in the Whig interest; his first speech was in favour of the Protestant succession; after service as diplomatist abroad, was made Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, in which capacity he was brought into contact with Swift, first as an enemy but at length as a friend, and proved a successful viceroy; in Parliament was head of the party opposed to Sir Robert Walpole and of the subsequent administration; his foreign policy has been in general approved of; had the satisfaction of seeing, which he was instrumental in securing, the elder Pitt installed in office before he retired; was a ”fiery, emphatic man” (1690-1763).
CARTERET, PHILIP, English sailor and explorer, explored in the Southern Seas, and discovered several islands, Pitcairn's Island among the number; _d_. 1796.
CARTHAGE, an ancient maritime city, on a peninsula in the N. of Africa, near the site of Tunis, and founded by Phoenicians in 850 B.C.; originally the centre of a colony, it became the capital of a wide-spread trading community, which even ventured to compete with, and at one time threatened, under Hannibal, to overthrow, the power of Rome, in a series of protracted struggles known as the Punic Wars, in the last of which it was taken and destroyed by Publius Cornelius Scipio in 146 B.C., after a siege of two years, though it rose again as a Roman city under the Caesars, and became a place of great importance till burned in A.D. 698 by Ha.s.san, the Arab; the struggle during the early part of its history was virtually a struggle for the ascendency of the Semitic people over the Aryan race in Europe.
CARTHUSIANS, a monastic order of a very severe type, founded by St.
Bruno in 1086, each member of which had originally a single cell, eventually one consisting of two or three rooms with a garden, all of them opening into one corridor; they ama.s.sed considerable wealth, but were given to deeds of benefaction, and spent their time in study and contemplation, in consequence of which they figure not so much in the outside world as many other orders do.
CARTIER, a French navigator, born at St. Malo, made three voyages to N. America in quest of a North-West pa.s.sage, at the instance of Francis I.; took possession of Canada in the name of France, by planting the French flag on the soil (1494-1554).
CARTOONS, drawings or designs made on stiff paper for a fresco or other paintings, transferred by tracing or pouncing to the surface to be painted, the most famous of which are those of Raphael.
CARTOUCHE, a notorious captain of a band of thieves, born in Paris, who was broken on the wheel alive in the Place de Greve (1698-1721).
CARTWRIGHT, EDMUND, inventor of the powerloom and the carding machine, born in Nottinghams.h.i.+re; bred for the Church; his invention, at first violently opposed, to his ruin for the time being, is now universally adopted; a grant of 10,000 was made him by Parliament in consideration of his services and in compensation for his losses; he had a turn for versifying as well as mechanical invention (1743-1823).
CARTWRIGHT, JOHN, brother of the preceding; served in the navy and the militia, but left both services for political reasons; took to the study of agriculture, and the advocacy of radical political reform much in advance of his time (1740-1824).
CARUS, KARL GUSTAV, a celebrated German physiologist, born at Leipzig; a many-sided man; advocate of the theory that health of body and mind depends on the equipoise of antagonistic principles (1789-1869).
CARY, HENRY FRANCIS, translator of Dante, born at Gibraltar; his translation is admired for its fidelity as well as for its force and felicity (1772-1844).
CARYATIDES, draped female figures surmounting columns and supporting entablatures; the corresponding male figures are called Atlantes.
CASA, Italian statesman, Secretary of State under Pope Paul IV.; wrote ”Galateo; or, the Art of Living in the World” (1503-1556).
CASABIANCA, LOUIS, a French naval officer, born in Corsica, who, at the battle of Aboukir, after securing the safety of his crew, blew up his s.h.i.+p and perished along with his son, who would not leave him (1755-1798).
CASA'LE (17), a town on the Po; manufactures silk twist.
CASANOVA, painter, born in London, of Venetian origin; painted landscapes and battle-pieces (1727-1806).
CASANOVA DE SEINGALT, a clever Venetian adventurer and scandalous impostor, of the Cagliostro type, who insinuated himself into the good graces for a time of all the distinguished people of the period, including even Frederick the Great, Voltaire, and others; died in Bohemia after endless roamings and wrigglings, leaving, as Carlyle would say, ”the smell of brimstone behind him”; wrote a long detailed, brazen-faced account of his career of scoundrelism (1725-1798).