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amateurs, in conjunction with the most eminent masters of the time, with the view of promoting the study and practice of vocal and instrumental harmony. This institution, which had the advantage of a library, consisting of the most celebrated compositions, both foreign and domestic, in manuscript and in print, and which was aided by the performances of the gentlemen of the chapel royal, and the choir of St Paul's, with the boys belonging to each, continued to flourish for many years. In 1731 a charge of plagiarism brought against Bononcini, a member of the academy, for claiming a madrigal of Lotti of Venice as his own, threatened the existence of the institution. Dr Greene, who had introduced the madrigal into the academy, took part with Bononcini, and withdrew from the society, taking with him the boys of St Paul's. In 1734 Mr Gates, another member of the society, and master of the children of the royal chapel, also retired in disgust; so that the institution was thus deprived of the assistance which the boys afforded it in singing the soprano parts. From this time the academy became a seminary for the instruction of youth in the principles of music and the laws of harmony. Dr Pepusch, who was one of its founders, was active in accomplishing this measure; and by the expedient of educating boys for their purpose, and admitting auditor members, the subsistence of the academy was continued. The Royal Academy of Music

was formed by the principal nobility and gentry of the kingdom, for the performance of operas, composed by Handel, and conducted by him at the theatre in the Haymarket. The subscription amounted to £50,000, and the king, besides subscribing £1000, allowed the society to assume the title of Royal Academy. It consisted of a governor, deputy-governor, and twenty directors. A contest between Handel and Senesino, one of the performers, in which the directors took the part of the latter, occasioned the dissolution of the academy, after it had subsisted with reputation for more than nine years. The present Royal Academy of Music dates from 1822, and was incorporated in 1830 under the patronage of the queen. It instructs pupils of both sexes in music, charging 33 guineas per annum; but many receive instruction free. It also gives public concerts. In this institution the leading instrumentalists and vocalists of England have received their education. (See Musical Directory published by Rudall, Carte, and Co.)

ACADEMY is a term also applied to those royal collegiate seminaries in which young men are educated for the navy and army. In our country there are three colleges of this description-the Royal Naval College at Portsmouth, the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.

(F. S.)

ACADIE, or ACADIA, the name borne by Nova Scotia while it remained a French settlement.

ACALEPHÆ (from åkaλýóŋ, a nettle), a name given to the animals commonly known as jelly-fish, sea-blubber, Medusa, sea-nettles, &c.

ACANTHOCEPHALA (from ǎkava, a thorn, and Kepaλŋ, the head), a group of parasitic worms, having the heads armed with spines or hooks.

ACANTHOPTERYGII (from akava, a thorn, and Tépuέ, a wing), an order of fishes, having bony skeletons with prickly spinous processes in the dorsal fins.

ACANTHUS, a genus of plants belonging to the natural order Acanthaccæ. The species are natives of the southern parts of Europe. The most common species is the Acanthus mollis or Brankursine. It has large, deeply-cut, hairy, shining leaves, which are supposed to have suggested the decoration of the Corinthian column. Another species, Acanthus spinosus, is so called from its spiny leaves.

ACAPULCO, a town and port in Mexico, on a bay of the Pacific Ocean, about 190 miles S.S. W. of Mexico, in N. lat. 16° 50', W. long. 99° 46'. The harbour, which is the best on the Pacific coast, is almost completely landlocked. It is easy of access, and the anchorage is so secure that heavily-laden ships can lie close to the rocks which surround it. The town lies N.W. of the harbour, and is defended by the castle of San Diego, which stands on an eminence. During a part of the dry season the air is infected with the putrid effluvia of a morass eastward of the town. This, together with the heat of the climate, aggravated by the reflection of the sun's rays from the granite rocks that environ the town, renders it very unhealthy, especially to Europeans, though a passage cut through the rocks, to let in the sea breeze, has tended to improve its salubrity. Acapulco was in former times the great depôt of the trade of Spain with the East Indies. A galleon sailed from this port to Manilla in the Philippine Islands, and another returned once a year laden with the treasures and luxuries of the East. On the arrival of this galleon a great fair was held, to which merchants resorted from all parts of Mexico. The trade between Acapulco

| and Manilla was annihilated when Mexico became independent; and, from this cause, and also on account of the frequent earthquakes by which the town has been visited, it had sunk to comparative insignificance, when the discovery of gold in California gave its trade a fresh impetus. It is now the most important seaport in Mexico, and is regularly touched at by the Pacific mail steamers. having a large transit trade, it exports wool, skins, cocoa, cochineal, and indigo; and the imports include cottons, silks, and hardware. Population about 5000.

ACARNANIA, a province of ancient Greece, now called Carnia. It was bounded on the N. by the Ambracian gulf, on the N.E. by Amphilochia, on the W. and S.W. by the Ionian Sea, and on the E. by Ætolia. It was a hilly country, with numerous lakes and tracts of rich pasture, and its hills are to the present day crowned with thick wood. It was celebrated for its excellent breed of horses. The Acarnanians, according to Mr Grote, though admitted as Greeks to the Pan-Hellenic games, were more akin in character and manners to their barbarian neighbours of Epirus. Up to the time of the Peloponnesian war, they are mentioned only as a race of rude shepherds, divided into numerous petty tribes, and engaged in continual strife and rapine. They were, however, favourably distinguished from their Ætolian neighbours by the fidelity and steadfastness of their character. They were good soldiers, and excelled as slingers. At the date above mentioned they begin, as the allies of the Athenians, to make a more prominent figure in the history of Greece. The chief town was Stratos, and subsequently Leucas. ACARUS (from aκapt, a mite), a genus of Arachnides, represented by the cheese mite and other forms.

ACCELERATION is a term employed to denote generally the rate at which the velocity of a body, whose motion is not uniform, either increases or decreases. As the velocity is continually changing, and cannot therefore be estimated, as in uniform motion, by the space actually passed over in a certain time, its value at any instant has to be measured by the space the body would describe in the unit of time, supposing that at and from the instant in

question the motion became and continued uniform. If
the motion is such that the velocity, thus measured, in-
creases or decreases by equal amounts in equal intervals of
time, it is said to be uniformly accelerated or retarded.
In that case, if ƒ denote the amount of increase or decrease
of velocity corresponding to the unit of time, the whole of
such increase or decrease in t units of time will evidently
beft, and therefore if u be the initial and v the final
velocity for that interval, v=uft, the upper sign apply-
ing to accelerated, the lower to retarded, motion. To find
the distance or space, s, gone over in t units of time, let t
be divided into n equal intervals. The velocities at the
end of the successive intervals will be u±ƒ, u±ƒ
u±ƒ &c. Let it now be supposed that during each
of these small intervals the body has moved uniformly
with its velocity at the end of the interval, then (since a
body moving uniformly for x seconds with a velocity of y
feet per second will move through xy feet) the spaces
described in the successive intervals would be the product
of the velocities given above by, and the whole space in
the time t would be the sum of these spaces; i.e.,

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velocity takes place continuously, this sum will be too
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thing) the smaller the intervals are during which the
velocity is supposed to be uniform, the nearer will the
result be to the truth. Hence making n as large as pos-
sible, or as small as possible, i.e., = 0, we obtain as the
correct expression s = ut ± ft2. In the case of motion
from rest, u = 0, and the above formulæ become v=ft,
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produce a continuous series of sounds in undistinguished monotonous repetitions like the tum, tum, tum, of a drum; a rational being using words for a rational purpose to manifest his thoughts and feelings, necessarily accents both words and sentences in some way or other." That the accentuation of some languages is more distinct, various, and effective than that of others is beyond question, but there are none, so far as we know, in which its power is not felt. The statement sometimes made, that the French have no accent in their words, can only mean that their accent is less emphatic or less variously so than that of certain other nations. If it means more, it is not merely an error, but an absurdity. From this conception of the subject, it is obvious that accent must be fundamentally the same thing in all languages, and must aim more or less successfully at the same results, however diverse the rules by which it is governed. But there are, nevertheless, important differences between the conditions under which accent operated in the classical, and those in which it operates in modern tongues. It did not wholly determine the rhythm, nor in the least affect the metre of classical syllables. It was a musical element superadded classical verse; it did not fix the quantity or length of to the measured structure of prose and verse.

and use.

Passing over the consideration of the accentual system of the Hebrews with the single remark, that it exhibits, though with more elaborate and complicated expression, most of the characteristics both of Greek and English accent, we find that the Greeks employed three grammatical accents, viz., the acute accent ('), which shows when the tone of the voice is to be raised; the grave accent (`), when it is to be depressed; and the circumflex accent (^), composed of both the acute and the grave, and pointing out a kind of undulation of the voice. The Latins have made the same use as the Greeks of these three accents, and various modern nations, French, English, &c., have also adopted them. As to the Greek accents, now seen both in manuscripts and printed books, there has been great dispute about their antiquity But the following things seem to be undoubtedly taught by the ancient grammarians and rhetoricians:-(1.) That by accent (πроσwdía, Tóvos) the Greeks understood the elevation or falling of the voice on a particular syllable We have a familiar instance of uniformly accelerated of a word, either absolutely, or in relation to its position and uniformly retarded motion in the case of bodies fall- in a sentence, accompanied with an intension or remission ing and rising vertically near the earth's surface, where, if of the vocal utterance on that syllable (eítaσis, åveσis), the resistance of the air be neglected, the velocity of the occasioning a marked predominance of that syllable over body is increased or diminished, in consequence of the the other syllables of the word. The predominance thus earth's attraction, by a uniform amount in each second of given, however, had no effect whatever on the quantity time. To this amount is given the name of the accelera-long or short-of the accented syllable. The accented tion of gravity (usually denoted by the letter g), the value syllable in Greek as in English, might be long or it might of which, in our latitudes and at the surface of the sea, is be short; elevation and emphasis of utterance being one very nearly 32 feet per second. Hence the space a body thing, and prolongation of the vocal sound quite another falls from rest in any number of seconds is readily found thing, as any one acquainted with the first elements of by multiplying 16 feet by the square of the number of music will at once perceive. The difficulty which many seconds. For a fuller account of accelerating force,-ex- modern scholars have experienced in conceiving how a pressed in the notation of the Differential Calculus by syllable could be accented and not lengthened, has arisen ƒ= ± or ƒ = ± -the reader is referred to the article partly from a complete want of distinct ideas on the nature of the elements of which human speech is composed, and partly also from a vicious practice which has long prevailed in the English schools, of reading Greek, not according to the laws of its own accentuation, but according to the accent of Latin handed down to us through the Roman Catholic Church. For the rules of Latin accentuation are, as Quintilian and Cicero and the grammarians expressly mention, very different from the Greek; and the long syllable of a word has the accent in Latin in a hundred cases, where the musical habit of the Greek ear placed it upon the short. There is, besides, a vast number of words in Greek accented on the last syllable (like volunteer, ambusca'de, in English), of which not a single instance occurs in the Latin lan

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ACCENT, in reading or speaking, is the stress or pressure of the voice upon a syllable of a word. The derivation of the term (Lat. accentus, quasi adcantus) clearly shows that it was employed by the classical grammarians to express the production of a musical effect. Its origin is therefore to be sought in the natural desire of man to gratify the ear by modulated sound, and probably no language exists in which it does not play a more or less important part. "Only a machine," says Professor Blackie (Place and Power of Accent in Language, in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1871), "could

guage. Partly, however, from ignorance, partly from carelessness, and partly perhaps from stupidity, our scholars transferred the pronunciation of the more popular learned language to that which was less known; and with the help of time and constant usage, so habituated themselves to identify the accented with the long syllable, according to the analogy of the Latin, that they began seriously to doubt the possibility of pronouncing otherwise. English scholars have long ceased to recognise its existence, and persist in reading Greek as if the accentual marks meant nothing at all. Even those who allow (like Mr W. G. Clark and Professor Munro) that ancient Greek accent denoted an elevation of voice or tone, are still of opinion that it is impossible to reproduce it in modern times. "Here and there," says the former (Cambridge Journal of Philology, vol. i. 1868), "a person may be found with such an exquisite ear, and such plastic organs of speech, as to be able to reproduce the ancient distinction between the length and tone of syllables accented and anaccented, and many not so gifted may fancy that they reproduce it when they do nothing of the kind. For the mass of boys and men, pupils as well as teachers, the distinction is practically impossible." But, in spite of such pessimist views, it may, on the whole, be safely asserted that since the appearance of a more philosophical spirit in philology, under the guidance of Hermann, Boeckh, and other master-minds among the Germans, the best grammarians have come to recognise the importance of this element of ancient Hellenic enunciation, while not a few carry out their principles into a consistent practice. The only circumstance, indeed, that prevents our English scholars from practically recognising the element of accent in classical teaching, is the apprehension that this would interfere seriously with the practical inculcation of quantity; an apprehension in which they are certainly justified by the practice of the modern Greeks, who have given such a predominance to accent, as altogether to subordinate, and in many cases completely overwhelm quantity; and who also, in public token of this departure from the classical habit of pronunciation, regularly compose their verses with a reference to the spoken accent only, leaving the quantity -as in modern language generally-altogether to the discretion of the poet. But, as experiment will teach any one that there is no necessity whatever in the nature of the human voice for this confusion of two essentially different elements, it is not unlikely that English scholars will soon follow the example of the Germans, and read Greek prose at least systematically according to the laws of classical speech, as handed down to us by the grammarians of Alexandria and Byzantium. In the recitation of classical verse, of course, as it was not constructed on accentual principles, the skilful reader will naturally allow the musical accent, or the emphasis of the rhythm to overbear, to a great extent, or altogether to overwhelm, the accent of the individual word; though with regard to the recitation of verse, it will always remain a problem how far the ancients themselves did not achieve an "accentuum cum quantitate apta conciliatio," such as that which Hermann (De emendanda ratione, &c.) describes as the perfection of a polished classical enunciation. A historic survey of the course of learned opinion on the subject of accent, from the age of Erasmus down to the present day, forms an interesting and important part of Professor Blackie's essay quoted above. See Pennington's work on Greek Pronunciation, Cambridge, 1844; the German work on Greek Accent by Göttling (English), London, 1831; and Blackie's essay on the Place and Power of Accent, in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1870-71.

If there is any perplexity regarding the nature or influence of classical accent, there is none about English.

does not conflict or combine with the modulations of quantity. It is the sole determining element in our metrical system. Almost the very earliest of our authors, the Venerable Bede, notices this. In defining rhythm he says "It is a modulated composition of words, not according to the laws of metre, but adapted in the number of its syllables to the judgment of the ear, as are the verses of our vulgar poets" (Bede, Op. vol. i. p. 57, ed. 1553). We have, of course, long vowels and short, like the Greeks and the Romans, but we do not regulate our verse by them; and our mode of accentuation is sufficiently despotic to occasionally almost change their character, so that a long vowel shall seem short, and vice versa. In reality this is not so. The long vowel remains long, but then its length gives it no privilege of place in a verse. It may modify the enunciation, it may increase the roll of sound, but a short vowel could take its place without a violation of metre. Take the word far, for example; there the vowel a is long, yet in the line

"O Moon, far-spooming Ocean bows to thee,"

it is not necessary that the a in far should be long; a short vowel would do as well for metrical purposes, and would even bring out more distinctly the accentuation of the syllable spoom.

Originally English accent was upon the root, and not upon inflectional syllables. Göttling finds the same principle operating in Greek, but in that language it certainly never exercised the universal sway it does in the earlier forms of English. In the following passage from Beowulf, the oldest monument of English literature, belonging, in its first form, to a period even anterior to the invasion of Britain by the Angles and Saxons, we shall put the accented or emphatic syllables in italics :

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It will be observed that in these verses the accent (not to be confounded with the mark which is used in Anglo-Saxon to show that the vowel over which it is placed is long) is invariably on a monosyllable, or on the root part of a word of more than one syllable. The passage is also a good illustration of what has previously been stated, that the metre or rhythm in English is determined not by the vowel-quantity of a syllable, but by the stress of the voice on particular syllables, whether the vowels are long or short. In the older forms of English verse the accent is somewhat irregular; or, to put it more accurately, the number of syllables intervening between the recurrent accents is not definitely fixed. Sometimes two or more intervene, sometimes none at all. Take, for example, the opening lines of Langland's poem, entitled the Vision of

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It But no matter how irregular the time elapsing between the

recurrence of the accents, they are always on the rootsyllables.

corona, colossus, ide'a, hypothesis, casu'ra, dia'resis, diag no'sis, diluvium, diploma, effluvium, elys'ium, &c.; besides the still larger number that have suffered a slight modification of form, but no change of accent, as dialectic, diag nos'tic, efflorescent, elliptic, emer'sion, emollient, &c. The Italian contributions to our tongue retain their original accent when the form is untouched, as mulatto, sona'ta, volca'no, but lose it when the form is shortened, as ban'dit (It. bandi'to).

A change in the position of the accent serves a variety of purposes in English. It distinguishes (1.) a noun from a verb, as ac'cent, accent'; aug'ment, augment'; tor'ment, torment'; com'ment, comment'; con'sort, consort'; con'test, contest'; con'trast, contrast'; di'gest, digest'; dis'count, discount'; in'sult, insult', &c.; (2.) an adjective from a verb, as ab'sent, absent'; fre'quent, frequent'; pre'sent, present'; com'pound, compound', &c.; (3.) an adjective from a noun, as ex'pert, expert'; com'pact, compact'. It also denotes a difference of meaning, e.g., con'jure, conjure'; in'cense, incense'; august, august'; su'pine, supine'.

The Norman Conquest, however, introduced a different system, which gradually modified the rigid uniformity of the native English accentuation. The change is visible as early as the end of the 12th century. By the middle of the 14th, that is to say, in the age of Chaucer, it is in full operation. Its origin is thus explained by Mr Marsh, in his Origin and History of the English Language (Lond., 1862)" The vocabulary of the French language is derived, to a great extent, from Latin words deprived of their terminal inflections. The French adjectives mortal and fatal are formed from the Latin mortalis and fatalis, by dropping the inflected syllable; the French nouns nation and condition from the Latin accusatives nationem, conditionem, by rejecting the em final. In most cases, the last syllable retained in the French derivatives was prosodically long in the Latin original; and either because it was also accented, or because the slight accent which is perceivable in the French articulation represents temporal length, the stress of the voice was laid on the final syllable of all these words. When we borrowed such words from the French we took them with their native accentuation; and as accent is much stronger in English than in French, the final syllable was doubtless more forcibly enunciated in the former than in the latter language." The new mode of accentuation soon began to affect even words of pure English origin-e.g., in Robert of Gloucester we find falshede instead of falshede, tidinge instead of tidinge, trewehede instead of trewehede, gladdore instead of gladdore, wisliche instead of wisliche, begynnyng instead of begynnyng, endyng in-grammar, and careless of diction. Who can wonder if, stead of endyng. In the Proverbs of Hendyng we have nothyng for nothing, habben for habben, fomon for fomon; in | Robert of Brunne, halydom for halydom, clothyng for clothing, gretand for gretand. Chaucer furnishes numerous instances of the same foreign influence revolutionising the native accent; fredom for fredom, hethenesse for hethenesse, worthinesse for worthinesse, lowly for lowly, wynnynge for wynnynge, weddynge for weddynge, comynge for comynge; and it is traceable even in Spenser. On the other hand, a contrary tendency must not be overlooked. We see an effort, probably unconscious, to compel words of French origin to submit to the rule of English accentuation. It is noticeable in the century before Chaucer : in Chaucer himself it begins to work strongly; mortal becomes mortal; tempest, tempest; substance, substance; amyable, amyable; morsel, morsel; servise, servise; duchesse, duchesse; cosyn, cosyn, &c.; while a multitude of words oscillate between the rival modes of accentuation, now following the French and now the English. Before and during the Elizabethan period, the latter began to prove the stronger, and for the last 300 years it may be said to have, for the most part, Anglicised the accent and the nature of the foreign additions to our vocabulary. Nevertheless, many French words still retain their own accent. Morris (Historical Outlines of English Accidence, p. 75) thus classifies these:

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Accent has exercised a powerful influence in changing the forms of words. The unaccented syllables in the course of time frequently dropped off. This process was necessarily more rapid and thorough in English than in many other languages which were not subjected to equal strain. The Norman Conquest made havoc of the English tongue for a time. It was expelled from the court, the schools, the church, and the tribunals of justice; it ceased to be spoken by priests, lawyers, and nobles; its only guardians were churls, ignorant, illiterate, indifferent to in circumstances like these, it suffered disastrous eclipse? The latter part of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle furnishes melancholy evidence of the chaos into which it had fallen, yet out of this chaos it rose again into newness of life, reforming and re-accenting its half-ruined vocabulary, and drawing from the very agent of its destruction the elements of a richer and more plastic expression. For it cannot be doubted that the irregularities now existing in English accent, though perplexing to a foreigner, copiously vary the modulation, and so increase the flexibility and power of the language. The older forms of English, those in use before the Conquest, and down to the period of Chaucer, are stiff, monotonous, and unmusical. A hard strength is in the verse, but no liquid sweetness or nimble grace. Now, it is possible, in spite of our deficiency in vowel endings, to produce the noblest melody in accent words known to the modern world. Almost every kind of metre, swift or slow, airy or majestic, has been successfully attempted since the age of the Canterbury Tales. we compare the drone of Caedmon with the aerial melody of the Skylark, the Cloud, and the Arethusa of Shelley, we see what an infinite progress has been made by the development of accent in the rhythm of our native tongue.

When

See Lectures on the English Language, by G. P. Marsh (Lond. 1861); the Origin and History of the English Language, &c., by G. P. Marsh (Lond. 1862); Historische (1863-69); The English Language, by R. G. Latham Grammatik der Englische Sprache, von. C. Friedrich Koch (1855); Philological Essays, by the Rev. Richard Garnett (Lond. 1859); On Early English Pronunciation, with especial reference to Shakspere and Chaucer, by A. J. Ellis (Lond. 1867-71); Historical Outlines of English Accidence, by Dr R. Morris (Lond. 1872). (J. M. R.)

ACCEPTANCE is the act by which a person binds himself to comply with the request contained in a bill of exchange addressed to him by the drawer. In all cases it is understood to be a promise to pay the bill in money, the law not recognising an acceptance in which the promise is

to pay in some other way, as, for example, partly in money | embassies, he became Gonfalonier of Florence in 1473. He and partly by another bill. Acceptance may be absolute, conditional, or partial. Absolute acceptance is an engagement to pay the bill strictly according to its tenor, and is made by the drawee subscribing his name, with or without the word "accepted," at the bottom of the bill, or across the face of it. Conditional acceptance is a promise to pay on a contingency occurring, as, for example, on the sale of :ertain goods consigned by the drawer to the acceptor. No contingency is allowed to be mentioned in the body of the bill, but a contingent acceptance is quite legal, and equally binding with an absolute acceptance upon the acceptor when the contingency has occurred. Partial acceptance is where the promise is to pay only part of the sum mentioned in the bill, or to pay at a different time or place from those specified. In all cases acceptance involves the signature of the acceptor either by himself or by some person duly authorised on his behalf. A bill can be accepted in the first instance only by the person or persons to whom it is addressed; but if he or they fail to do so, it may, after being protested for non-acceptance, be accepted by another "supra protest," for the sake of the honour of one or more of the parties concerned in it.

ACCESSION is applied, in a historical or constitutional sense, to the coming to the throne of a dynasty or line of sovereigns, as the accession of the House of Hanover. The corresponding term, when a single sovereign is spoken of, is "succession." In law, accession is a method of acquiring property, by which, in things that have a close connection with or dependence on one another, the property of the principal draws after it the property of the accessory, according to the principle, accessio cedet principali, or accessorium sequitur principale. Thus, the owner of a cow becomes likewise the owner of the calf, and a landowner becomes proprietor of what is added to his estate by alluvion. Accession produced by the art or industry of man has been called industrial accession, and may be by specification, as when wine is made out of grapes, or by confusion or commixture. Accession sometimes likewise signifies consent or acquiescence. Thus, in the bankrupt law of Scotland, when there is a settlement by a trust-deed, it is accepted on the part of each creditor by a deed of accession.

ACCESSORY, a person guilty of a felonious offence, not as principal, but by participation; as by advice, command, aid, or concealment. În treason, accessories are excluded, every individual concerned being considered as a principal. In crimes under the degree of felony, also, all persons concerned, if guilty at all, are regarded as principals. (See 24 and 25 Vict. c. 94. s. 8.) There are two kinds of accessories-before the fact, and after it. The first is he who commands or procures another to commit felony, and is not present himself; for if he be present, he is a principal. The second is he who receives, assists, or comforts any man that has done murder or felony, whereof he haз knowledge. An accessory before the fact is liable to th same punishment as the principal; and there is now indeed no practical difference between such an accessory and a principal in regard either to indictment, trial, or punishment (24 and 25 Vict. c. 94). Accessories after the fact are in general punishable with imprisonment for a period not exceeding two years (ib. s. 4). The law of Scotland makes no distinction between the accessory to any crime (called art and part) and the principal. Except in the case of treason, accession after the fact is not noticed by the law of Scotland, unless as an element of evidence to prove previous accession.

ACCIAJUOLI, DONATO, was born at Florence in 1428. He was famous for his learning, especially in Greek and mathematics, and for his services to his native state. Having previously been intrusted with several important

died at Milan in 1478, when on his way to Paris to ask the
aid of Louis XI. on behalf of the Florentines against Pope
Sixtus IV. His body was taken back to Florence, and
buried in the church of the Carthusians at the public
expense, and his daughters were portioned by his fellow-
citizens, the fortune he left being, owing to his probity and
disinterestedness, very small. He wrote a Latin transla-
tion of some of Plutarch's Lives (Florence, 1478); Com-
mentaries on Aristotle's Ethics and Politics; and the lives
of Hannibal, Scipio, and Charlemagne. In the work on
Aristotle he had the co-operation of his master Argyropylus.
ACCIDENT. An attribute of a thing or class of things,
which neither belongs to, nor is in any way deducible from,
the essence of that thing or class, is termed its accident.
An accident may be either inseparable or separable: the
former, when we can conceive it to be absent from that
with which it is found, although it is always, as far as we
know, present, i.e., when it is not necessarily but is uni-
versally present; the latter, when it is neither necessarily
nor universally present. It is often difficult to determine
whether a particular attribute is essential or accidental to the
object we are investigating, subsequent research frequently
proving that what we have described as accidental ought to
be classed as essential, and vice versa. Practically, and
for the time being, an attribute, which neither directly nor
indirectly forms part of the signification of the term used
to designate the object, may be considered an accident;
and many philosophers look upon this as the only intelligible
ground for the distinction. Propositions expressing the
relation between a thing or class and an accident, and also
between a thing or class and its property (ie., something
deducible from, but not strictly forming part of, its essence),
are variously styled "accidental," "synthetical," "real,"
ampliative," in contradistinction to "essential," "analy-
tical," "verbal," and "explicative" propositions.
former give us information that we could not have dis-
covered from an analysis of the subject notion-e.g., "man
is found in New Zealand ;" the latter merely state what we
already know, if we understand the meaning of the language
employed, e.g., "man is rational."

The

ACCIUS, a poet of the 16th century, to whom is attributed A Paraphrase of Esop's Fables, of which Julius Scaliger speaks with great praise.

ACCIUS (or ATTIUS), LUCIUS, a Latin tragic poet, was the son of a freedman, born, according to St Jerome, in the year of Rome 583, though this appears somewhat uncertain. He made himself known before the death of Pacuvius by a dramatic piece, which he exhibited the same year that Pacuvius brought one on the stage, the latter being then eighty years of age, and Accius only thirty. We do not know the name of this piece of Accius's, but the titles of several of his tragedies are mentioned by various authors. He wrote on the most celebrated stories which had been represented on the Athenian stage; but he did not always take his subject from Grecian story; for he composed at least one dramatic piece wholly Roman, entitled Brutus, and referring to the expulsion of the Tarquins. Only fragments of his tragedies remain. He did not confine himself to dramatic writing, having left other productions, particularly his Annals, mentioned by Macrobius, Priscian, Festus, and Nonnius Marcellus. He has been censured for the harshness of his style, but in other respects he has been esteemed a great poet. He died at an advanced age; and Cicero, who evidently attaches considerable weight to his opinions, speaks of having conversed with him in his youth.

ACCLAMATION, the expression of the opinion. favourable or unfavourable, of any assembly by means of the voice. Applause denotes strictly a similar expression by

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