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C O N S E T T —C ONSTANTINOPLE

first to follow in the steps of Conscience. Another national writer who, though much older than the novelist, became his eager disciple, was J. F. Willems (1793-1846), and Flemish literature began to live. In 1845 Conscience published a History of Belgium, but he was well advised to return to those exquisite pictures of Flemish home-life which must always form the most valuable portion of his repertory. He was now at the height of his genius, and Blind Rosa, 1850; Rikketikketak, 1851; The Decayed Gentleman, 1851; and The Miser, 1853, rank among the most important of the long list of his novels. These had an instant effect upon contemporary fiction, and Conscience had many imitators. Nevertheless, not ohe of the latter has approached Conscience in popularity, or has deserved to approach him. In 1855 the earliest translations of his tales began to appear in English, French, German, and Italian, and his fame became universal. In 1867 the post of Keeper of the Royal Belgian Museums was created, and this important sinecure was given to Conscience. He continued to produce novels with great regularity, and his separate publications amounted at last to nearly eighty in number. He was now the most eminent of the citizens of Antwerp, and his seventieth birthday was celebrated by public festivities. After a long illness he died, in his house in Antwerp, on the 10th of September 1883; he was awarded a public funeral. The portraits of Conscience present to us a countenance rather French than Flemish in type, with long smooth hair, contemplative dark eyes under heavy brows, a pointed nose, and a humorous broad mouth; in late life he wore the ornament of a long white beard. Whether the historical romances of Conscience will retain the enormous popularity which they have enjoyed is much less than certain, but far more likely to live are the novels in which he undertook to be the genre-painter of the life of his own day. In spite of too rhetorical a use of soliloquizing, and of a key of sentiment often pitched too high for modern taste, the stories of Conscience are animated by a real spirit of genius, mildly lustrous, perhaps, rather than startlingly brilliant. Whatever glories may be in store for the literature of Flanders, Conscience is always sure of a distinguished place as its forerunner and its earliest classic. (e. g.) Con Sett, a town and railway station m the northwestern parliamentary division of Durham, England, 12 miles north-west of Durham city and 14 south-west of Newcastle. Besides the parish church there are Baptist, Wesleyan, and other chapels; also a town-hall. There are extensive collieries in the district, and large ironworks. Area of urban district, 1024 acres. Population (1891), 8460 ; (1901), 9694. Conshohocken, a borough of Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., situated in 40° 04' N. lat. and 75° 18' W. long., on the north bank of Schuylkill river, 13 miles north-west of Philadelphia, in the south-east part of the state. It is entered by the Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia and Reading Railways. Population (1880), 4561 ; (1890), 5470; (1900), 5762. Constance, a city in the grand duchy of Baden, on the south bank of the Rhine at its exit from the Lake of Constance, and 30 miles from Schaffhausen by rail. It stands at a height of 1316 feet above the level of the sea. The Vincent collection of painted glass in the chapter-house has now been sold. The Dominican convent has been converted into a hotel; in its tower John Hus was confined for three months, before he was burnt on 6th July 1415 on a field in the suburb of Bruhl. In the marketplace are two historical houses—one wherein Barbarossa signed the peace of Constance with the Lombard cities in 1183, and the other in which Frederick of Hohenzollern

was in 1417 invested with the March of Brandenburg. The population of Constance was 21,363 in 1901. S. J. Cappek, IJi c Shores it nd Cities of the JBoctensee, London, 1881.—G. Gsell-Fels. Der Bodensee. Munich, 1893 (Bruckmann’s illustrierter Reisefiihrer).—E. Issel. Die Reformation in Konstanz. Freiburg i/B., 1898.—F. X. Kraus. Die Kunstdenkmdler des Kreises Konstanz. Freiburg i/B., 1887. J. Laible. Geschichte der Stadt Konstanz. Konstanz, 1896. Constance, Lake of, or the “Swabian Sea,” on the north-east frontier of Switzerland. According to the latest measurements, its area is 207 square miles (of which Sl j square miles belonged to Switzerland, viz., 59f square miles to Canton Thurgau, and 21 Jr square miles to Canton St Gall), its height above the sea-level 1309 feet, its greatest length 40 miles, its greatest depth 1014 feet, and its greatest width 7|- miles. Constant, Benjamin (1845-1902), French painter. See Schools of Painting {France). Constanta (or Kustendji), a town and seaport of Rumania on the Black Sea, 140 miles by rail from Bucharest. The bridge at Cernavoda across the river Danube was opened by the king in 1896. A line of fast passenger steamers, owned by the Rumanian Government, in connexion with the Orient express and Ostend express, conveys passengers and mails to Constantinople. The town has greatly developed of late years, owing to its improved communications by land and sea, and is now much used as a summer bathing resort. The streets are clean and well kept. Constanta is on the site of the ancient Tomi, where Ovid lived and died in exile. There is a statue erected to his memory in the chief square of the town. Population (1895), 10,607 ; (1900), 12,725, about one-half of whom are of the Orthodox faith, and the remainder pretty equally divided between Roman Catholics, Moslems, Armenians, and Jews. Constantina, a town and railway station of Spain, in the north of the province of Seville. Population in 1897, 9983. The neighbourhood is chiefly agricultural, with some mines, lead and iron, in the sierra not far off. The local industries are those connected with cork, wood, alcohol, and tanneries, and the market days every week are very animated. It is one of the most important towns of the province, though its public buildings offer nothing worthy of notice. Constantine, capital of the department of the same name in the east of Algeria, picturesquely perched, 2130 feet above the sea, on a rock rising perpendicularly nearly 1000 feet from the bed of the Rummel, which surrounds it on the north and the east, while on the west the city is connected by an isthmus with the mainland. It is 54 miles by rail south by west of Philippeville, its seaport, and has railway connexion also with Algiers, Bona, Tunis, and Biskra. Important strategically, Constantine by its beauty of situation annually attracts crowds of visitors. There are no important buildings of recent erection. Railways have taken away from the city its monopoly of the traffic in wheat, though its share in that trade still amounts to from 10 to 12 million francs (£400,000-£480,000) a year. Its industry also is considerable, its peltry business employing 1000 persons and supplying the wants of 2 millions. It also manufactures woollen stuffs. There is a project to surround the city with capacious reservoirs, such as would transform the face of the country. The population in 1891 was 46,580, and in 1900 it was 51,997, of whom 18,387 were French. The indigenous element, numbering 28,000, grows faster than the colonial. Constantinople, the capital of the Turkish Empire, situated on the strait between the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmora. The last quarter of the 19th