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 FAHLCRANTZ, CHRISTIAN ERIK (1790–1866), Swedish author, was born at Stora Tuna in Sweden on the 30th of August 1790. His brothers, Carl Johan (1774–1861), the landscape-painter, and Axel Magnus (1780–1854), the sculptor, became hardly less distinguished than himself. In 1804 he entered the university of Upsala; in 1821 he became tutor in Arabic, and in 1825 professor of Oriental languages. In 1828 he entered the church, but earlier than this, in 1825, he published his Noachs Ark, a successful satire on the literary and social life of his time, followed in 1826 by a second part. In 1835 Fahlcrantz brought out the first part of his epic of Ansgarius, which was completed in 1846, in 14 cantos. In 1842 he was made a member of the Swedish Academy, and in 1849 he was made bishop of Vesterås, his next literary work being an archaeological study on the beautiful ancient cathedral of his diocese. In the course of the years 1858–1861 appeared the five volumes of his Rom förr och nu (Rome as it was and is), a theological polemic, mainly directed against the Jesuits. He died on the 6th of August 1866. His complete works (7 vols., Örebro, 1863–1866) were issued mainly under his own superintendence.

 FAHRENHEIT, GABRIEL DANIEL (1686–1736), German physicist, was born at Danzig on the 14th of May 1686. For the most part he lived in England and Holland, devoting himself to the study of physics and making a living, apparently, by the manufacture of meteorological instruments. He was the author of important improvements in the construction of thermometers, and he introduced the thermometric scale known by his name and still extensively used in Great Britain and the United States (see ). He also invented an improved form of hygrometer, a description of which, together with accounts of various observations and experiments made by him, was published in the ''Phil. Trans.'' for 1724. He died in Holland on the 16th of September 1736.  FAIDHERBE, LOUIS LÉON CÉSAR (1818–1889), French general and colonial administrator, was born on the 3rd of June 1818, at Lille, received his military education at the École Polytechnique and at Metz, and entered the engineers in 1840. From 1844 to 1847 he served in Algeria, then two years in the West Indies, and again in Algeria, taking part in many expeditions against the Arabs. In 1852 he was transferred to Senegal as sub-director of engineers, and in 1854 was promoted chef de bataillon and appointed governor of the colony. He held this post with one brief interval until July 1865. The work he accomplished in West Africa constitutes his most enduring monument. At that time France possessed in Senegal little else than the town of St Louis and a strip of coast. Explorers had, however, made known the riches and possibilities of the Niger regions, and Faidherbe formed the design of adding those countries to the French dominions. He even dreamed of creating a French African empire stretching from Senegal to the Red Sea. To accomplish even the first part of his design he had very inadequate resources, especially in view of the aggressive action of Omar Al-Hadji, the Moslem ruler of the countries of the middle Niger. By boldly advancing the French outposts on the upper Senegal Faidherbe stemmed the Moslem advance, and by an advantageous treaty with Omar in 1860 brought the French possessions into touch with the Niger. He also brought into subjection the country lying between the Senegal and Gambia. When he resigned his post French rule had been firmly established over a very considerable and fertile area and the foundation laid upon which his successors built up the predominant position occupied now by France in West Africa. In 1863 he became general of brigade. From 1867 to the early part of 1870 he commanded the subdivision of Bona in Algeria, and was commanding the Constantine division at the commencement of the Franco-German War. Promoted general of division in November 1870, he was on the 3rd of December appointed by the Government of National Defence to be commander-in-chief of the army of the North. In this post he showed himself to be possessed of the highest military talents, and the struggle between the I. German army and that commanded by Faidherbe, in which were included the hard-fought battles of Pont Noyelles, Bapaume and St Quentin, was perhaps the most honourable to the French army in the whole of the People’s War. Even with the inadequate force of which he disposed he was able to maintain a steady resistance up to the end of the war. Elected to the National Assembly for the department of the Nord, he resigned his seat in consequence of its reactionary proceedings. For his services he was decorated with the grand cross, and made chancellor of the order of the Legion of Honour. In 1872 he went on a scientific mission to Upper Egypt, where he studied the monuments and inscriptions. An enthusiastic geographer, philologist and archaeologist, he wrote numerous works, among which may be mentioned Collection des inscriptions numidiques (1870), Épigraphie phénicienne (1873), Essai sur la langue poul (1875), and Le Zénaga des tribes sénégalaises (1877), the last a study of the Berber language. He also wrote on the geography and history of Senegal and the Sahara, and La Campagne de l’armée du Nord (1872). He was elected a senator in 1879, and, in spite of failing health, continued to the last a close student of his favourite subjects. He died on the 29th of September 1889, and received a public funeral. Statues and monuments to his memory were erected at Lille, Bapaume, St Quentin and St Louis, Senegal.  FAIENCE, properly the French term for the porzellana di Faenza, a fine kind of glazed and painted earthenware made at Faenza in Italy, hence a term applied generally to all kinds of pottery other than unglazed pottery or porcelain. It is often particularly applied to the translucent earthenware made in Persia (see ).  FAILLY, PIERRE LOUIS CHARLES DE (1810–1892), French general, was born at Rozoy-sur-Serre (Aisne) on the 21st of January 1810, and entered the army from St Cyr in 1828. In 1851 he had risen to the rank of colonel, and Napoleon III., with whom he was a favourite, made him general of brigade in 1854 and general of division in 1855, after which for a time De Failly was his aide-de-camp. In the war of 1859 De Failly commanded a division, and in 1867 he defeated Garibaldi at Mentana, this action being the first in which the chassepot was used. In 1870 De Failly commanded the V. corps. His inactivity at Bitsch on the 6th of August while the I. corps on his right and the II. corps on his left were crushed at Wörth and Spicheren respectively, gave rise to the greatest indignation in France, and his military career ended, after the V. corps had been severely handled at Beaumont on the 30th of August, with the catastrophe of Sedan. The rest of his life was spent in retirement. De Failly wrote Campaigne de 1870, Opérations et marche du 5me corps jusqu’au 30 août (Brussels, 1871).

 FAIN, AGATHON JEAN FRANÇOIS (1778–1837), French historian, was born in Paris on the 11th of January 1778. Having gained admittance to the offices of the Directory, he became head of a department. Under the Consulate he entered the office of the secretary of state, in the department of the archives. In 1806 he was appointed secretary and archivist to the cabinet particulier of the emperor, whom he attended on his campaigns and journeys. He was created a baron of the empire in 1809, and, on the fall of Napoleon, was first secretary of the cabinet and confidential secretary. Compelled by the second Restoration to retire into private life, he devoted his leisure to writing the history of his times, an occupation for which his previous employments well fitted him. He published successively Manuscrit de 1814, contenant l’histoire des six derniers mois du règne de Napoléon (1823; new edition with illustrations, 1906); Manuscrit de 1813, contenant le précis des événements de cette année pour servir à l’histoire de l’empereur Napoléon (1824); Manuscrit de 1812 (1827); and ''Manuscrit de l’an iii. (1794–1795), contenant les premières transactions de l’Europe avec la république française et le tableau des derniers événements du régime conventionnel'' (1828), all of which are remarkable for accuracy and wide range of knowledge, and are a very valuable source for the history of