PORTITE whom he pleases: amounting to a fourth where the testator has three or more children; a third, where he has two; half, where he has one child, or no child, but relatives capable of succession on the side both of father and mother; three-fourths, where he has relatives only in one ascending line. Portite. A s licate of alumina, magnesia, and lime, found in the gabbro rosso of Tuscany, and named after M. Porte. Portland Powder. A medicine consisting of equal parts of the roots of Aristolochia rotunda and Gentiana lutea. POSITION among the Egyptians. The Greeks exhibited iconic figures of their generals, in their public buildings, shortly after the Persian war, the Romans painted their portraits upon their shields, and these were sometimes dedicated in the public temples after the death of the owners. They also placed portraits of writers in the public libraries, over the cases containing their works; and the upper classes preserved wax portraits of their ancestors, which were carried in the funeral procession, when any distinguished member of the family died. These were the imagines majorum, the possession of which constituted a proof of nobility, as none but those families who had borne some curule magistracy had the privilege of having their portraits [Jus]; families boasted of their smoky images, fumosæ imagines, to show the antiquity of their houses. Portland Stone. An important building material obtained from the upper part of the oolitic series of rocks, and chiefly quarried in the island of Portland. It is perhaps the best building stone in England when well selected, but it is heavy and dear, and there are very bad portions that must be carefully Among great portrait painters are most conavoided. The best bed is near the top, and is spicuous, Apelles, John van Eyck, Leonardo from three to eight feet thick. Other inferior da Vinci, Raphael, Titian, Tintoretto, Moroni, but still excellent beds are much worked. St. Sebastian del Piombo, Jacopo da Pontormo, Paul's Cathedral and Greenwich Hospital are Bronzino, Velazquez, Holbein, Rubens, Vanboth excellent specimens of Portland that has dyck, Rembrandt, Reynolds, Gainsborough, &c. resisted the attacks of time and weather in (Wornum, Epochs of Painting, &c. 1864.) a London atmosphere. Portland vase. A celebrated cinerary urn or vase, long in the possession of the noble family of the Barberini at Rome (whence it was called the Barberini vase). From the Barberini it passed into the possession of the Portland family, who deposited it in 1810 in the British Museum. This beautiful specimen of ancient art was found in the tomb of the emperor Alexander Severus and his mother Mammæa. It is described by Montfaucon (Antiq. Expliqué, tom. v.), who was evidently mistaken in representing it as formed of a precious stone. The substance is said to be of glass, or composition; it is of a deep blue or violet colour, and the figures in the scene depicted on it are white. The subjects are mythological, but have been very imperfectly explained. (See two memoirs upon it, by Dr. King and W. Marsh, in the 8th volume of the Archaologia, and one by Dr. Darwin in the Notes to his Botanic Garden.) The late Mr. Wedgwood made a mould of this vase, and took from it a number of casts wrought with the greatest skill, and perfectly resembling the original. Portrait (Fr.). In Painting, strictly the picture of any object taken from nature, or generally the representation of an individual, or, more strictly speaking, of the human face, painted from real life, Portraits are of full-length, halflength, kit-cat size, and three-quarters, &c.; and are executed in oil or water colours, in crayons and in miniature. Whole lengths and half-lengths vary in size; the kit-cat, so called from the size chosen by the old club of that name, from Christopher Cat, the master of the house in which the club was held, was a yard in height, by three-quarters of a yard in width. Portraits are almost coeval with the earliest efforts in painting; they were not uncommon Portreeve or Port Greve (A.-Sax. gerefa). The principal magistrate in Anglo-Saxon ports and maritime towns. According to Camden, this was the ancient title of the officer who was afterwards called mayor of London. Portulacaceae (Portulaca, one of the genera). A small order of hypogynous Exogens of the Silenal alliance, known by their consymmetrical flowers, their amphitropal ovules, and alternate leaves without stipules. The typical genus is Portulaca, one species of which, P. oleracea, under the name of Purslane, was formerly cultivated as a potherb. Poseidon. In Greek Mythology, a son of Kronos and god of the sea, standing to Nereus in a relation corresponding to that of Phoebus to Helios. [ZEUS.] Posidonia Schist A somewhat important bituminous shale belonging to the lias, and very extensively distributed over Europe. The Posidonia is a flat bivalve shell. It appears often in incredible abundance, almost composing a mass of black shale, but mixed up with so large a quantity of carbon in the form of bitumen, that it is valuable for distilling. There are now several establishments in Germany where the Posidonia schist of the lias is worked for distillation. Position (Lat. positio, from pono, I place). A rule in Arithmetic, called also the rule of supposition, or rule of false. It consists in assuming a number, and performing upon it the operation described in the question, and then comparing the result with that given in the question, in order to discover the error of the assumption. Writers on arithmetic divide the rule into two parts, single position and double position; the former comprehending those questions in which the results are proportional to the suppositions, and where, consequently, only one assumption is required; POSITION the latter those in which the results are not proportional to the suppositions, and where two suppositions are necessary in order to deduce the true answer. To simple position belong such questions as the following: What Humber is that from which, if a third and a fourth of itself be subtracted, the remainder is 60? Double position comprehends questions of this sort: What number is that which, being multiplied by 6, the product increased by 18, and the sum divided by 9, the quotient shall be 20? It will be observed that both these questions are immediately solved by a simple algebraic equation. Position is also called the rule of trial and error, and is sometimes employed with good effect in approximating to the roots of numerical equations. POSITION. In Painting, the placing of the model in the manner best calculated for the end in view by the artist. Position, Angle of. In Astronomy, the angle made by one or more components of a double or multiple star with the primary, referred to the direction of the diurna! motion. It may also indicate the direction of a comet's tail, &c. Positive Electricity. [ELECTRICITY.] Positive Quantity. In Algebra, this term denotes an affirmative or additive quantity, which character is indicated by the sign +, called, in consequence, the positive sign. The term is used in contradistinction to negative; negative quantities being such as are subtractive, and marked by the sign-, which is called the negative sign. [SIGN.] Positivism. This word is commonly used to designate the system of philosophy maintained by M. Comte, who is vaguely supposed to have originated a method unknown to philosophers before his time. Like most popular notions, this is a mistake. M. Comte certainly strove to systematise the whole field of knowledge; but the ground on which he raised his gigantic fabric is that on which all philosophers who have really promoted the advance of science, have commonly worked. His fundamental doctrine, in his Cours de Philosophie Positive, is that we have no knowledge of any thing but phenomena, and that our knowledge of phenomena is relative, not absolute, i. e. that we know not the essence or the real mode of production of any fact, but only its relations to other facts in the way of succession and similitude. This doctrine is practically that of Galileo, Bacon, and Descartes; and to this conclusion, that the only knowledge accessible to us is that of the successions and sequences of phenomena, we owe the whole progress of science during the last four centuries. But the distinguishing characteristic of M. Comte's philosophy was the hypothesis that all human conceptions pass through three stages, the theological, the metaphysical, and the positive. The nomenclature is his own, and although it is open to many objections, his conceptions cannot be adequately unfolded except in his own terminology. The theological POSITIVISM stage of thought he again subdivided into FETICHISM, POLYTHEISM, and MONOTHEISM, the successive transitions being prepared, and indeed caused by, the gradual uprising of the two rival modes of thought, the metaphysical and the positive, and in their turn preparing the way for the ascendency of these; first and temporarily of the metaphysical, and lastly of the positive.' This doctrine, which takes no account of anything but an ascertained order of phenomena, is not unfrequently charged with atheism. M. Comte apparently rejected the idea of the dependence of nature on an Intelligent Will; but the adoption of his principle of experience, which is the principle of Bacon and of Newton, by no means necessarily involves his conclusion. The positive theory merely throws back the question of an Intelligent Will, instituting the cosmos, to the origin of all things. 'The laws of nature cannot account for their own origin. The positive philosopher is free to form his opinion on the subject, according to the weight he attaches to the analogies which are called marks of design, and to the general traditions of the human race,' It is compatible with M. Comte's system to believe that the universe was created, and even that it is continuously governed by an intelligence, provided we admit that the intelligent Governor adheres to fixed laws, which are only modified or counteracted by other laws of the same dispensation, and are never either capriciously or providentially departed from. Whoever regards all events as parts of a constant order, each one being the invariable consequent of some antecedent condition or combination of conditions, accepts fully the positive mode of thought, whether he acknowledge or not a universal antecedent on which the whole system of nature was originally consequent, or whether that universal antecedent is conceived as an intelligence or not.' M. Comte has been also charged with repudiating metaphysics; but it is a mistake to suppose that he interdicted himself from analysing or criticising any of the abstract conceptions of the mind,' although with all his strength he opposed the ideas which regard mental abstractions as real entities. His crusade against these realistic theories, which the Baconian philosophy professes utterly to eschew, led him into an elaborate and masterly survey of the developement of human thought and knowledge, the result of which showed that fetichism preceded polytheism, and that the exhaustion of the latter prepared the minds of all genuine thinkers for the reception of a monotheism such as that of Christianity, which has persisted to the present time in giving partial satisfaction to the mental dispositions that lead to polytheism by admitting into its theology the thoroughly polytheistic conception of a devil.' This tendency to monotheism was the result of a practical feeling of the invariability of natural laws; but for many centuries the monotheistic creed so introduced POSOLOGY was belief in a God 'flexible by entreaty, incessantly ordering the affairs of mankind by direct volitions, and continually reversing the course of nature by miraculous interpositions.' Here, again, according to M. Comte, the influences which led to the decay of polytheism had a further field for action. The increased assurance of a natural order gradually excluded the idea of such interferences; and the metaphysical stage, which followed this exclusion, has given way or is yielding to the positive mode of regarding all phenomena in the one aspect of sequence or succession. On these principles M. Comte undertook the Herculean task of arranging all sciences according to the degree of the complexity of their phenomena, so that each science shall depend on the truths of all those which precede it with the addition of peculiar truths of its own. But for further details of his plan and of the method in which he carried it out, and for a more complete examination of his philosophy in its earlier and later aspects, we must refer the reader to the elaborate articles in which Mr. J. S. Mill has analysed the merits and defects of M. Comte as a philosopher and a sociologist. (Westminster Review, April and July, 1865; these articles have since been republished.) On a subject so vast, and so encumbered with controversy, we have confined ourselves to giving, as nearly as possible, in Mr. Mill's words, a brief account of his primary doctrines, which may serve to give a true, although necessarily inadequate, idea of his system. We refer the reader also to an article entitled Comte and Positivism,' in Macmillan's Magazine, March 1866), in which Dr. Whewell maintains that the history of every science would reveal to us how baseless is the notion that there is a good positive stage of science which succeeds a bad metaphysical stage. Posology (Gr. #óños, how much; and Aóyos, description). In Medicine, that which relates to the doses or quantities in which medicines should be administered. Posse Comitatus (Lat. cum potestate comitatus). In Law, the power of the county, which the sheriff is empowered to raise in case of riot, possession kept on forcible entry, rescue, or other force made in opposition to the king's writ or execution of justice. It is said to include all knights and other men, above the age of fifteen, able to travel within the county. Justices of the peace may also raise the posse in order to remove a force in making entry into or detaining lands. Post (Lat. positus, part. of pono, I place). In Public Economy, a messenger, courier, or conveyance travelling at stated periods, and generally with more than ordinary speed, to convey letters or other despatches, whether of government or individuals. [PoST OFFICE.] Post Mortem (Lat. after death). In Anatomy, the technical phrase signifying the inspection and examination of the dead body in order to determine the cause of death: it is also applied to the appearances presented, and POST OFFICE more especially to some phenomena which are constantly noticed shortly after death. Thus, the muscles retain their property of contracting under the influence of stimuli applied to them, or to their nerves, for some time after death; and when they have lost this irritability, they spontaneously pass into a state of contraction, producing a general stiffening of the body, which is called post-mortem rigidity, or rigor mortis. Post Obit (Lat. post obitum, after death). A bond given for the purpose of securing a sum of money on the death of some specified individual. Post Office. A place for the reception and distribution of the letters and despatches that are to be or that have been carried by the post; where the duties on them are paid, and where the various departments connected with the business of the post are conducted or superintended. The conveyance of letters by post is one of the few industrial undertakings which are certainly better managed by government than they could be by individuals. It is indispens➡ able to the satisfactory working of the post office that it should be conducted with the greatest regularity and precision; and that all the departments should be made subservient to each other, and conducted on the same plan. It is plain that such results could not be obtained in any extensive country otherwise than by the agency of government; and the interference of the latter is also required to make arrangements for the safe and speedy conveyance of letters to, from, and through foreign countries. The organisation of the post office supplies one of the most striking examples of the advantages resulting from the division and combinations of employment. Nearly the same exertions that are necessary to send a single letter from Falmouth to New York will suffice to send 50,000. If every man were to effect the transmission of his own correspondence, the whole life of an eminent merchant might be passed in travelling, without his being able to deliver all the letters which the post office forwards for him in a single evening. The labour of a few individuals, devoted exclusively to the forwarding of letters, produces results which all the exertions of all the inhabitants of Europe could not effect, each person acting independently.' (Senior On Political Economy.) Posts appear to have been established for the first time in modern Europe in 1479, by Louis XI. of France. They were originally intended to serve merely for the conveyance of public despatches, and of persons travelling by authority of government. Subsequently, however, private individuals were allowed to avail themselves of this institution for forwarding letters and despatches; and governments, by imposing higher duties or rates of postage on the letters and parcels conveyed by post than are sufficient to defray the expense of the establishment, have rendered it productive of a POST OFFICE considerable revenue. Nor, while the rates of in less than half the time that had been re postage are confined within reasonable limits, and do not materially affect the facility of correspondence, is there, perhaps, a less objection able tax. The post office was not established in England till the seventeenth century. Postmasters, indeed, existed in more ancient times; but their business was confined to the furnishing of post horses to persons who were desirous of travelling expeditiously, and to the despatching of extraordinary packets upon special occasions. In 1635, Charles I. erected a letter office for England and Scotland; but this extended only to a few of the principal roads; the times of carriage were uncertain; and the postmasters on each road were required to furnish horses for the conveyance of the letters at the rate of 24d. a mile. This establishment did not succeed; and, at the breaking out of the civil war, great difficulty was experienced in the forwarding of letters. At length a post office, or establishment for the weekly conveyance of letters to all parts of the kingdom, was instituted in 1649, by Mr. Edward Prideaux, attorney-general for the Commonwealth; the immediate consequence of which was a saving to the public of 7,000l. a year on account of postmasters. In 1657, the post office was established nearly on its present footing, and the rates of postage that were then fixed were continued till the reign of Queen Anne. (Black. Com. by Stephens, vol. ii. pp. 576-8.) From the establishment of the post office by Cromwell, down to 1784, mails were conveyed either on horseback, or in carts made for the purpose; and instead of being the most expeditious and safest conveyance, the post had become, at the latter period, one of the slowest and most easily robbed of any in the country. In 1784, it was usual for the diligences between London and Bath to accomplish the journey in seventeen hours, while the post took forty hours; and on other roads the comparative rate of travelling of the post and stage coaches was in about the same proportion. The natural consequence of such a difference in point of despatch was, that a very great number of letters were sent by other conveyances than the mail: the law to the contrary being easily defeated, by giving them the form of small parcels. quired under the old system, the coaches by which they were conveyed afforded, by their regularity and speed, a most desirable mode of conveyance for travellers. Mr. Palmer was the author of several other improvements in the economy of the post office; nor is there any individual to whom the department owes more. (Macpherson's Annals of Com. anno 1784.) Within the last few years, however, the construction of railways between most of the great towns of the empire has gone far to supersede the use of mail coaches on the principal lines of road, and has added prodigiously to the facilities of correspondence and travelling. The journey from London to Liverpool, which had been accomplished by the mail in about twenty or twenty-two hours, is now accomplished, by railway, in nine or ten hours; and on other roads in the same proportion.' The great expense of the post office consists, in fact, not so much in the conveyance of letters from place to place, as in their previous collection and their distribution after they have been conveyed to their destination. This necessitates the establishment of a vast number of subordinate offices in the remoter parts of the kingdom, many of which do not defray their expenses. Much of this expense, however, has been obviated of late years by economy in the means of collection, especially by the establishment of pillar letter boxes in substitution for offices in town and village shops. Up to 1839, the rates of postage levied on the carriage of letters were exceedingly high, amounting, it is said, to a fraction above 7d. on each letter. The post office was treated practically as a tax on private correspondence, for the monopoly of the post was cautiously guarded by penal clauses inflicting heavy fines on any person who made use of any method of transmitting letters besides that provided by government. These penal clauses were probably inoperative, or, if they had any operation, must have affected only the inexperienced and unwary. It is certain that, notwithstanding the great growth of foreign and home trade, the revenue of the post office remained almost stationary for twenty years; in other words, its Under such circumprovisions were evaded. stances some remedial measure became absolutely necessary. This was discovered, or at Under these circumstances, it occurred to least elaborated, by the secretary of the post Mr. John Palmer, of Bath, comptroller-general office, Sir Rowland Hill, and the scheme sugof the post office, that a very great improve-gested by him was, in its leading features at ment might be made in the conveyance of least, carried out by the government. letters, in respect of economy, as well as of speed and safety, by contracting with the proprietors of stage coaches for the carriage of the mail; the latter being bound to perform the journey in a specified time, and to take a guard with the mail for its protection. Mr. Palmer's plan encountered much opposition, but was at length carried into effect with the most advantageous results. The use of mail-coaches speedily extended to most parts of the empire; and, while letters and parcels were conveyed The fundamental principle of the new Post Office Act, was that the rate pad should be uniform, on the ground that the charge levied was not for carriage, this being in so light a matter as a letter unimportant, but for colThe rate at which lection and distribution. the service should be appraised was not, it appears, so essential a consideration; though it was felt that, on the whole, government, acting in the carriage of letters as a trader, should not seck to obtain an exorbitant rate of profit POST OFFICE Once for the service rendered. However, after a 'account. Nor is it to the purpose to compare the taxation of the old system, with a tax upon any convenience of life, as sugar or tea. paid, the taxes levied on such commodities as these have ceased to have any effect. But a heavy tax levied upon an act necessary for the purposes of trade produces far more loss than its first and immediate incidence. It hampers and hinders other operations, and in effect does what the worst tax does-costs a community far more than it gets for the revenue. short period, during which the maximum rate was 4d., the uniform sum of 1d. was imposed, and the weight suffered to pass at this rate was fixed at half an ounce. Another feature in the new postal system was that of enforcing the prepayment of letters by levying a fine of one hundred per cent. as the postage on unpaid letters. The advantage of this regulation is obvious: it saves the labour of collection and distribution to a great extent. An attempt, indeed, was made to insist still more urgently on the necessity of prepayment, by issuing The post office has extended its operations a regulation to the effect that unstamped in certain directions unknown and indeed letters would not be forwarded. We are not impossible under the old régime, but now of informed as to the amount of loss consequent great advantage to the nation, and in some upon the collection of double rates for unpaid cases of great profit to the government. First, letters; but when the above-mentioned regu- it acts as a common carrier in the transmission lation was issued, the opposition to it, due, as of books and papers at low rates. The system far as it can be interpreted, to selfish and of taxing newspapers was to some extent com1 sentimental motives, was so strong that the pensated by their exemption from the old posrule was withdrawn. Previous also to the new tage rates. This, which was originally a mere Post Office Act, members of parliament had act of reciprocity, has been since the reduction the privilege of sending free a certain number and ultimately the abolition of the stamp duty, of letters daily. The privilege was abused, no continued on payment of the lowest stamp rate, doubt. It was abolished by the Act, and no or, supposing the newspaper to be below a certain letters are sent free except petitions intended weight, on a prepayment by a penny stamp. to be presented to the houses of parliament, The advantage accorded to newspapers has and bearing evidence of their nature. Even the since been on reasonable grounds extended to public offices, though they send official letters all printed matter and such writing as is not of which are unstamped, and practically unpaid, the nature of a letter. Next, it has afforded a are debited with the postage, the aggregate means by which additional security is afforded amount due from each office forming part of its to letters of value. The post office has never annual expenses. been liable to the law of bailment, i. e. to Many persons objected strongly, at the time the conditions attached to the function of a of passing the new Act, to the rate at which the common carrier of compensating the owner of postage would be levied for the future. The property intrusted to such a person for loss, most powerful argument brought forward by damage, or delay. There are, indeed, obvious the objectors, was that of the loss likely to reasons why a government office should be accrue to the revenue; and it cannot be de- exempted from such a general liability. By nied that the prediction was verified, the office means of registration, however, a security is having only lately returned annual profits equal afforded to valuable letters and enclosures which to those obtained before the alteration was is practically equal to the provisions of the law made. But the moral advantages of a cheap of bailments in the case of a common carrier. postal system are far more important than the Thirdly, by means of post office orders the mere question of the revenue derived from the government has taken upon itself some of the post office; and beyond question the commer- functions of a bank. The rates at which this cial benefits which have ensued from providing service is rendered are still probably too high, the means of cheap and ready communications and amount in the transmission of small sums have helped the revenue indirectly by returns to a very heavy percentage, falling with undue infinitely in excess of that which could have weight on such of the poorer classes as are been obtained under the old system. Any tax likely to transmit these small amounts. But, on correspondence is a great bar to exchange, on the whole, the adoption of the government a serious hindrance to trade, and therefore a orders is of great public utility. And, lastly, it damage to the gross revenue derivable, as all has been made the channel by which governrevenue must be, from the profits of productionment has given the advantages of savingsand commerce. It is true that as long as the profit is in excess of the charge at which letters are collected and delivered, the rate is of the nature of a tax; but as long, on the other hand, as the government system provides means of communication at a rate lower than that at which joint-stock enterprise could do the same service, it is a gain to the public, and in so far as it represents a profit upon the capital employed in the labour, it is an advantageous method by which a nation trades on its own VOL. III. 33 banks at a moderate rate of interest, and with absolute security, to the public. This last scheme is only in its infancy; but it is very likely that hereafter it may be a very important means for dealing with a considerable portion of the public debt. The postal system in this country has been, to a small extent, imitated by foreign governmnents. They have, for instance, all adopted stamps, and this even in the most remote regions. But very few of these communities have Ꭰ . |