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Rh the summit of a hill to the north of Kenmare River is the remarkable stone fortress known as Staigue Fort. There are several stone cells in the principal Skellig island, where penance, involving the scaling of dangerous rocks, was done by pilgrims, and where there were formerly monastic remains which have been swept away by the sea. The principal groups of sepulchral stones are those on the summits of the Tomie Mountains, a remarkable stone fort at Cahersiveen, a circle of stones with cromlech in the parish of Tuosist, and others with inscriptions near Dingle. The remote peninsula west of a line from Dingle to Smerwick harbour is full of remains of various dates. The most notable monastic ruins are those of Innisfallen, founded by St Finian, a disciple of St Columba, and the fine remains of Muckross Abbey, founded by the Franciscans, but there are also monastic remains at Ardfert, Castlemaine, Derrynane, Kilcoleman and O’Dorney. Among ruined churches of interest are those of Aghadoe, Kilcrohane, Lough Currane, Derrynane and Muckross. The cathedral of Ardfert, founded probably in 1253, was partly destroyed during the Cromwellian wars, but was restored in 1831. Some interesting portions remain (see ). There is a large number of feudal castles.

KERSAINT, ARMAND GUY SIMON DE COETNEMPREN, (1742–1793), French sailor and politician, was born at Paris on the 29th of July 1742. He came of an old family, his father, Guy François de Coetnempren, comte de Kersaint, being a distinguished naval officer. He entered the navy in 1755, and in 1757, while serving on his father’s ship, was promoted to the rank of ensign for his bravery in action. By 1782 he was a captain, and in this year took part in an expedition to Guiana. At that time the officers of the French navy were divided into two parties—the reds or nobles, and the blues or roturiers. At the outbreak of the Revolution, Kersaint, in spite of his high birth, took the side of the latter. He adopted the new ideas, and in a pamphlet entitled Le Bon Sens attacked feudal privileges; he also submitted to the Constituent Assembly a scheme for the reorganization of the navy, but it was not accepted. On the 4th of January 1791 Kersaint was appointed administrator of the department of the Seine by the electoral assembly of Paris. He was also elected as a député suppléant to the Legislative Assembly, and was called upon to sit in it in place of a deputy who had resigned. From this time onward his chief aim was the realization of the navy scheme which he had vainly submitted to the Constituent Assembly. He soon saw that this would be impossible unless there were a general reform of all institutions, and therefore gave his support to the policy of the advanced party in the Assembly, denouncing the conduct of Louis XVI., and on the 10th of August 1792 voting in favour of his deposition. Shortly after, he was sent on a mission to the armée du Centre, visiting in this way Soissons, Reims, Sedan and the Ardennes. While thus occupied he was arrested by the municipality of Sedan; he was set free after a few days’ detention. He took an active part in one of the last debates of the Legislative Assembly, in which it was decided to publish a Bulletin officiel, a report continued by the next Assembly, and known by the name of the Bulletin de la Convention Nationale. Kersaint was sent as a deputy to the Convention by the department of Seine-et-Oise in September 1792, and on the 1st of January 1793 was appointed vice-admiral. He continued to devote himself to questions concerning the navy and national defence, prepared a report on the English political system and the navy, and caused a decree to be passed for the formation of a committee of general defence, which after many modifications was to become the famous Committee of Public Safety. He had also had a decree passed concerning the navy on the 11th of January 1793. He had, however, entered the ranks of the Girondins, and had voted in the trial of the king against the death penalty and in favour of the appeal to the people. He resigned his seat in the Convention on the 20th of January. After the death of the king his opposition became more marked; he denounced the September massacres, but when called upon to justify his attitude confined himself to attacking Marat, who was at the time all-powerful. His friends tried in vain to obtain his appointment as minister of the marine; and he failed to obtain even a post as officer. He was arrested on the 23rd of September at Ville d’Avray, near Paris, and taken before the Revolutionary Tribunal, where he was accused of having conspired for the restoration of the monarchy, and of having insulted national representation by resigning his position in the legislature. He was executed on the 4th of December 1793.

His brother, (1747–1822), also served in the navy, and took part in the American war of independence. He did not accept the principles of the Revolution, but emigrated. He was restored to his rank in the navy in 1803, and died in 1822, after having been préfet maritime of Antwerp, and prefect of the department of Meurthe.

See Kersaint’s own works, Le Bon Sens (1789); the Rubicon (1789); Considérations sur la force publique et l’institution des gardes nationales (1789); Lettre à Mirabeau (1791); Moyens présentés à l’Assemblée nationale pour rétablir la paix et l’ordre dans les colonies; also E. Chevalier, Histoire de la Marine française sous la première République; E. Charavay, L’Assemblée électorale de Paris en 1790 et 1791 (Paris, 1890); and Agénor Bardoux, La Duchesse de Duras (Paris, 1898), the beginning of which deals with Kersaint, whose daughter married Amédée de Duras.

 KERVYN DE LETTENHOVE, CONSTANTINE BRUNO, , (1817–1891), Belgian historian, was born at Saint-Michel-les-Bruges in 1817. He was a member of the Catholic Constitutional party and sat in the Chamber as member for Eecloo. In 1870 he was appointed a member of the cabinet of Anethan as minister of the interior. But his official career was short. The cabinet appointed as governor of Lille one Decker, who had been entangled in the financial speculations of Langand-Dumonceau by which the whole clerical party had been discredited, and which provoked riots. The cabinet was forced to resign, and Kervyn de Lettenhove devoted himself entirely to literature and history. He had already become known as the author of a book on Froissart (Brussels, 1855), which was crowned by the French Academy. He edited a series of chronicles—Chroniques relatives à l’histoire de la Belgique sous la domination des ducs de Bourgogne (Brussels, 1870–1873), and Rélations politiques des Pays Bas et de l’Angleterre sous le regne de Philippe II. (Brussels, 1882–1892). He wrote a history of Les Hugenots et les Gueux (Bruges, 1883–1885) in the spirit of a violent Roman Catholic partisan, but with much industry and learning. He died at Saint-Michel-les-Bruges in 1891.

See Notices biographiques et bibliographiques de l’académie de Belgique for 1887.

KESHUB CHUNDER SEN (1838–1884), Indian religious reformer, was born of a high-caste family at Calcutta in 1838. He was educated at one of the Calcutta colleges, where he became proficient in English literature and history. For a short time he was a clerk in the Bank of Bengal, but resigned his post to devote himself exclusively to literature and philosophy. At that time Sir William Hamilton, Hugh Blair, Victor Cousin, J. H. Newman and R. W. Emerson were among his favourite authors. Their works made the deepest impression on him, for, as he expressed it, “Philosophy first taught me insight and reflection, and turned my eyes inward from the things of the external world, so that I began to reflect on my position, character and destiny.” Like many other educated Hindus, Keshub Chunder Sen had gradually dissociated himself from the popular forms of the native religion, without abandoning what he believed to be its spirit. As early as 1857 he joined the Brahma Samaj, a religious association aiming at the reformation of Hinduism. Keshub Chunder Sen threw himself with enthusiasm into the work of this society and in 1862 himself undertook the ministry of one of its branches. In the same year he helped to found the Albert College and started the Indian Mirror, a weekly journal in which social and moral subjects were discussed. In 1863 he wrote The Brahma Samaj Vindicated. He also travelled about the country lecturing and preaching. The steady development of his reforming zeal led to a split in the society, which broke into two sections, Chunder Sen putting himself at the head of the reform movement, which took the name “Brahma Samaj of India,” and tried to propagate