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LEFT IMPERIAL CITY 129 IMPRISONMENT IMPERIAL CITY, a designation of Rome, for ages the mistress of the world. IMPERIAL INSTITUTE. The Im- perial Institute of the United Kingdom, the Colonies, and India, designed to com- memorate the jubilee of Queen Victoria (1887), aims at comprising complete col- lections of the products of the various parts of the British empire, a commer- cial intelligence department for the pro- motion of trade and industry, and a great school of modern Oriental languages (opened in 1890). IMPERIAL SERVICE ORDER, THE, a British order, organized in 1902 by King Edward VII, membership being confined to officials under the British crown in the British Isles, colonies, and dependencies. The head of the order is the reigning sovereign, and the members are called companions, the number of whom is not allowed to exceed 450. A condition of entry is a continuous serv- ice of 25 years, though this is reduced to a minimum of 16 years in the cases of parts of the world unfavorable to the health of Europeans. A majority of the members consist of those engaged in service in Great Britain. IMPERIALISM, in its original, and, perhaps, its widest sense, was expressed in the great designs of Charlemagne. Regarded thus, it amounts to a scheme of undisputed sway over an extensive area of unbroken territory — autocracy on a grand scale. In that sense we find imperialism in the traditional policy of the czars of Russia — a policy which is supposed to imply continuous expansion to the E. In connection with the British empire, the word imperialism may, how- ever, be used as combining the interests of all the members of the group — the mother-country, the colonies and de- pendencies — as distinguished from purely national, colonial, or local concerns. In the United States "imperialism" is used to refer to the policy of "national expansion." The opponents of expansion made the constitutional right of the United States to establish a government over territory acquired by conquest or purchase, a question in the political cam- paign of 1900; the Democrats holding such government unconstitutional; Re- publicans affirming that the responsibil- ity resultant from the defeat of Spain, and the ensuing failure of Spanish gov- ernment, must be met, and a stable government established. On Dec. 2, 1901, the Supreme Court of the United States handed down a decision on the constitutionality of the policy of expan- sion. The broad principles settled by the decision are succinctly stated to be these: (1) The Constitution does not follow the flag till it is planted on new territory by special act of Congress. (2) The extension of the sovereignty of the United States to new territory car- ries with it all the constitutional guar- antees of the enjoyment of liberty, the right to property and the protection of the United States to the people thus af- fected in securing justice and maintain- ing public order and promoting peaceful progress. (3) The islands acquired from Spain by the treaty of Paris are "property of the United States" in the strict sense in which that term is used in the Constitution, and, this being the case, Congress can dispose of these islands in any way which it may believe to be con- ducive to the highest interests of the peo- ple of the United States and of these islands. * IMPOST, a tax, a toll, a tribute, a duty; a custom or duty levied upon goods ' imported. In architecture, the point where an arch rests on a wall or col- umn; the upper member of a pillar, column, or entablature, upon which an arch or superstructure rests; a plat band; the upper stone of a pier or abut- ment, upon which the springing or bot- tom stone of an arch is imposed; a "con- tinuous impost" is one in which the arch moldings are carried down the pier with- out interruption, and without having a capital or distinction of any kind at the spring of the arch; a "discontinuous impost," one in which the arch moldings abut and are stopped on the pier; a "shafted impost," one in which the arch moldings spring from a capital, and are different from those of the pier; and a "banded impost," one in which the pier and arch have the same moldings. IMPRESSIONISM, the system in art or literature which, avoiding elabora- tion, seeks to depict scenes in nature as they are first vividly impressed on the mind of the artist or writer. IMPRESSMENT, the forcible levying , of seamen for service in the navy. IMPRIMATUR, a license which, in countries subjected to the censorship of the press, must be granted by a public functionary appointed for the purpose before any book can be printed. IMPRISONMENT, the restraint of one's liberty under the custody, charge, or keeping of another. No man can be imprisoned except by the law of the land, and no man is to be imprisoned except as the law directs, either by command