Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/546

526  1em  PORT ADELAIDE,. See.  PORTADOWN, a market-town of Armagh, Ireland, is situated on the river Bann, and on the Great Northern Railway, 25 miles west -south -west of Belfast and 10 north-north-east of Armagh. The Bann, which is connected with the Newry Canal and falls into Lough Neagh about 5 miles north of the town, is navigable for vessels of 90 tons burden. It is crossed at Portadown by a stone bridge of seven arches, originally built in 1764, but since then re-erected. The town consists of a principal street, containing a number of good shops and houses, and with several streets inhabited by the working-classes branching from it at various points. The only public building of importance is the court-house and news-room. The manufacture of linen and cotton is carried on, and there is a considerable trade in pork, grain, and farm produce. The manor in the reign of Charles I. was bestowed on John Obyns, who erected a mansion and a few houses, which were the beginning of the town. A grain-market was established in 1780. The population in 1871 was G735, and in 1881 it was 7850.  PORTALIS, (1745–1807), French jurist and the principal author of the Code Civil, which as the Code Napoleon has been declared the greatest monu ment of the reign of the emperor, came of a bourgeois family, and was born at Bausset in Provence on 1st April 1745. He was educated by the Oratorians at their schools in Toulon and Marseilles, and then went to the university of Aix ; while a student there he published his first two works, Observatioiis sur mile in 1763 and Des Prejuycx in 1764. In 1765 he became an avocat at the parlement of Aix, and soon obtained so great a reputation that he was instructed by Choiseul in 1770 to draw up the decree authorizing the marriage of Protestants. From 1778 to 1781 he was one of the four assessors or administrators of Provence, and in 1783 he brought about the countess of Mirabeau s separation from her husband in spite of the impassioned pleading of the great Mirabeau himself. In 1788 he protested on behalf of the avocats of Aix against Lomenie de Brienne s May edicts, but in the following year, probably owing to Mirabeau s influence, he was not elected to the States- General. He entirely disapproved of the great changes brought about by the Constituent Assembly ; and, after refusing to be one of the royal com mission for splitting up Provence into departments, he retired, first to his country house and then to Lyons, and took no further part in politics. In November 1793, after the republic had been proclaimed, he came to Paris, and was thrown into prison, being the brother-in-law of Simeon, who was the leader of the federalists in Provence. He was soon removed through the influence of Barere to a maison de sante, where he remained undisturbed till the fall of Robespierre. On being released he practised as a lawyer in Paris; and in 1795 he was elected by the capital to the Council of Ancients, at once becoming a leader of the moderate party opposed to the directory. His reports, however, were chiefly on questions of law reform, and he commenced the labours which have made his name famous. As a leader of the moderates he was proscribed at the coup d etat of Fructidor, but, unlike Pichegru and Barbe-Marbois, he managed to escape to Switzerland, and did not return till Bonaparte became First Consul. Bonaparte knew his value, and made him a conseiller d etat in 1800, and then charged him, with Tronchet, Bigot de Preameneu, and Jacques de Maleville, to draw up the Code Civil. Of this commission he was the most industrious member, and many of the most im portant titles, notably those on marriage and heirship, are his work. In 1801 he was placed in charge of the depart ment of cultes, or public worship, and in that capacity had the chief share in drawing up the provisions of the Con cordat. In 1803 he became a member of the Institute, in 1804 minister of public worship, and in 1805 a knight grand cross of the Legion of Honour. He soon after be came totally blind ; and after undergoing an unsuccessful operation he died at Paris on 23d August 1807. 1em  PORT AU PRINCE (originally undefined, and for brief periods undefined and undefined), the capital of the of  (western portion of the  of, ), lies in 18° 34′N. and 72° 20′W. at the apex of the which strikes inland for about 100  between the two great  of the west, and has its upper recesses protected by the beautiful  of  (30  long by 2 broad). The (an ric since the 