Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/763

Rh P R I P R I 739 commencement of the 18th century. The old Italian and Welsh princes and the more modern princes of Orange are in fact nearly the only reigning princes who are remembered in history. As a name of dignity, neither of dominion on the one hand nor of courtesy on the other, &quot; prince &quot; is common enough among the nobility of the Continent. But in England it is never conferred on anybody except the heir-apparent to the crown, and his principality is a peerage. Since the reign of Edward III. the eldest sons of the kings and queens of England have always been dukes of Cornwall by birth, and, with a few exceptions, princes of &quot;Wales by creation. Before that Edward I. had con ferred the principality on his eldest son, afterwards Edward II., who was summoned to and sat in parliament as prince of Wales. But Edward the Black Prince was the original grantee of the principality as well as of the dukedom, under the special limitations which have continued in force to the present day. The entail of the former was &quot; to him and his heirs the kings of England &quot; and of the latter &quot; to him and his heirs the first-begotten sons of the kings of England.&quot; Hence when a prince of Wales and duke of Cornwall succeeds to the throne the principality in all cases merges at once in the crown, and can have no sepa rate existence again except under a fresh creation, while the dukedom, if he has a son, descends immediately to him, or remains in abeyance until he has a son if one is not already born. If, however, a prince of Wales and duke of Corn wall should die in the lifetime of the sovereign, leaving a son and heir, both dignities are extinguished, because his son, although he is his heir, is neither a king of England nor the first-begotten son of a king of England. But, if instead of a son he should leave a brother his heir, then as was decided in the reign of James I. on the death of Henry, prince of Wales, whose heir was his brother Charles, duke of York the dukedom of Cornwall would pass to him as the first-begotten son of the king of England then alive, the principality of Wales alone becoming merged in the crown. It has thus occasionally happened that the dukes of Cornwall have not been princes of Wales, as Henry VI. and Edward VI., and that the princes of Wales have not been dukes of Cornwall, as llichard II. and George III. It was in direct imitation of these dignities that the princi pality of the Asturias and the dukedom of Rothesay were created by John I. of Castile and Robert III. of Scotland in favour of their eldest sons and the eldest sons of their successors. In the new kingdoms of Holland and Italy the principalities of Orange and Naples have been appropriated to the eldest sons of the sovereigns. Under the monarchy in France princes invariably yielded precedence to dukes, unless of course they were &quot;princes du sang&quot; or &quot;princes legitimes,&quot; as the princes of Conde, of Conti, or of Lamballe. Several of the French dukes numbered principalities among their inferior titles, as the duke of La Rochefoucauld also prince of Marcillac, and the duke of Gramont also prince of Bidache, while several of the French princes were the heads merely of junior branches of ducal families, as the princes of Leon and of Soubise of the Rohan family, and the princes of Tingry and of Robecq of the Montmorency family. When Napoleon established the empire and reintroduced titles into France, princes were made the first and dukes the second order of the new nobility. But only a few princes were created Talleyrand, prince of Benevent; Bernadotte, prince of Ponte Corvo ; Berthier, prince of Wagram ; Davoust, prince of Eckmiihl ; Massena, prince of Essling ; and Ney, prince of Moskowa, nearly if not quite exhausting the list. In Germany and Austria the title of &quot;prince&quot; is represented by &quot;Prinz&quot; when it appertains to the members of imperial and royal families, as Kronprinz von Oesterreich or Prinz Wilhelm von Preussen, and by &quot;Ftirst&quot; when it appertains to the members of mediatized or noble families, as Fiirst von Salm-Salm or von Hohenlohe-Langenburg, and Fiirst von Metternich-Winneburg or von Bismarck- Schonhausen. According to its identification with &quot; Prinz &quot; or &quot;Fiirst&quot; it is a higher or lower dignity than &quot;Herzog&quot; (duke). In the old empire, however, the Churfiirsten or electors were always next to the emperor and the king of the Romans. In Italy, as well as in Belgium and Hol land, princes are inferior to dukes as members of a parti cular order of nobility. In Spain and Portugal we are not aware that the title of &quot;prince&quot; has ever been conferred on a subject outside of the royal family except in the well- known case of Godoy, Prince of the Peace. Among the Russian nobility there are neither dukes nor marquesses, the orders being princes, counts, and barons. It is to be observed, however, that in no part of the Continent does precedence depend exclusively as in the United Kingdom on the apparent rank of titular distinctions or the relative positions which they nominally occupy in formal classifi cation. (F. DR.) PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND, formerly called Isle St See Jean, a province of Canada, in British North America, plate IV -&amp;gt; lies between 45 58 and 47 7 N. lat. and 62 and 64 voL X1 27 W. long., on the south side of the Gulf of St Lawrence. It is separated from Nova Scotia on the south and from New Brunswick on the south and west by Northumberland Strait, which varies from 9 to 30 miles in width. Its greatest length is nearly 150 miles, its general breadth 34 miles, and the area 2133 square miles (1,365,120 acres). Physical Features. Prince Edward Island resembles a crescent in its northern outline, the two horns being North and East Capes, and it is altogether irregular in form. Its surface is slightly rolling, the elevations of land, how ever, rising nowhere higher than 500 feet. The coast-line is indented with numerous bays and projecting headlands, the more prominent of the latter being North Cape on the north-west, West Cape on the west, East Cape on the east, Cape Bear on the south-east; others are Stewart, Bell, Prim, Gallas, Black, Amherst, and Fifteen on the south, Kildare, Aylesbury, Turner, Cablehead, and Campbell on the north, Durell and Bruce on the east, and Seal Point on the west. The principal bays are Richmond on the north, Egmont on the south-west, Hillsborough on the south, and Cardigan on the east. These inlets, piercing the land from opposite directions, form narrow isthmuses which divide the island into three distinct peninsulas. Other bays are St Peter s, Grenville, Harrington, and Tignish on the north ; Colville, Rollo, Fortune, and Bough- ton on the east ; Orwell and Pownal on the south. Along the coasts there are several small islands, viz., Grover, Fish, Burnbury, Lennox, Robinson s, Boughton, Panmore, Wood, Governor, St Peter s, and Brae. The chief rivers are North, Elliott or West, Hillsborough or East, Ellis or Grand, Percival, Trout, Boughton, Murray, Dunk, and Morrell. The Grand river is the seat of a large and in creasing oyster and codfish trade. The Dunk is a fine salmon and trout stream. The principal harbours are Charlottetown, Georgetown, Bedeque, Port Hill, Cascum- peque, Souris, Murray, Savage, Bedford, and Westmore land. The island is well watered, and by the disintegration of the soft red sandstones a bright red loamy soil of great fertility is produced. To this the province owes its re markable productiveness as an agricultural district, and the gently undulating surface, the rich fields, and pretty homesteads embowered in trees give variety and beauty to the landscape. Geology. The oldest geological formations in Prince Edward Island are represented by beds of brown, grey, and red sandstone and shale, with layers of coarse concre tionary limestone and fossil plants. These are of newer Carboniferous (or in part of Lower Permian) age, and have