Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/194

Rh 176 S A I S A I wood, is rapidly extending in several directions, and in recent years many dwelling-houses of an improved descrip- tion have been erected. There is an abundant supply of excellent water, brought in pipes from a lake 5 miles off. Epidemics are rare, and the city is very healthy. Of the public buildings the most important are Government House, a substantial and spacious building erected in 1828 by the Imperial Government; the colonial building (1847), con- taining the chambers of the legislature and Government offices; the athenaeum (1877), containing a public hall, library, reading-room, savings bank, museum, <fcc. The foundation of a new post-office was laid in the same year. The churches are the Church of England and Roman Catholic cathedrals, St Thomas's and St Mary's (Church of England), St Patrick's, three Methodist churches, St Andrew's Presbyterian church, and the Congregational church. The manufacture of seal and cod oils has long been carried on upon an extensive scale. Of late years other manufactures have been introduced, and have made considerable progress. There are three iron-foundries, two large machine-shops, two boot and shoe factories, a nail-factory, three furniture -factories, two tobacco- factories, soap-works, two tanneries, and a large and well-equipped factory for the manufacture of cables, ropes, twines, nets, seines, &c. The export trade in fish of various kinds, fish oils, seal oil, and seal skins is very large ; the greater part of all the imports into Newfound- land also arrives at St John's. The city is not yet (1886) incorporated, the Colonial Board of Works having charge of all civil affairs. The population, which in 1780 was 1605, had in 1801 increased to 3420, in 1812 to 7075, in 1835 to 15,000, and in 1874 to 23,890, and in 1884 it was 28,610 (Roman Catholics, 17,693; Episcopalians, 5741; Methodists, 3715; Presbyterians, 973; Congrega- tionalists, 465 ; other denominations, 23). The census last mentioned also shows the population of the whole island and Labrador to be 197,589, being an increase of 36,209 since 1874, or at the rate of about 22 per cent, in ten years. The population of the Atlantic coast of Labrador, which is under the jurisdiction of Newfound- land, was 4211, 1347 being Eskimo. ST JOHNSBURY, a township of the United States, capital of Caledonia county, Vermont, on the Passumpsic river (a tributary of the river Connecticut), about 50 miles south of the Canadian frontier, and on the railway between Boston (205 miles) and Montreal. St Johnsbury is the seat of perhaps the largest scale-factory in the world, which employs about 1000 hands and works up 6000 tons of iron per annum. The township contains an athenaeum, public library (12,000 vols.), and art gallery. The popu- lation has increased from 2758 in 1850 to 4665 in 1870 and 5800 in 1880. The three villages are distinguished as St Johnsbury (3360 in 1880), St Johnsbury Centre, and St Johnsbury East. Founded in 1786, the township received its name in honour of St John de Crevecceur, French consul at New York, and a benefactor of Vermont. ST JOSEPH, a city of the United States, capital of Buchanan county, Missouri, on the right bank of the Missouri, 260 miles west by north of St Louis. It is an important railway junction, possessing since 1873 a great road and railway bridge over the river constructed of iron ; in the extent of its wholesale business it rariks as the third city in the State ; and among its manufac- turing establishments are flour-mills, starch-works, boot and shoe factories, pork-packing establishments, waggon-fac- tories, a distillery, fec. Besides a city-hall and market-house, it contains a court-house (1875), an opera-house, a State lunatic asylum (1874), an agricultural and mechanical ex- position association, a Roman Catholic cathedral, and five public libraries. The population was 8932 in 1860, 19,565 (1512 coloured) in 1870, and 32,431 (3227 coloured) in 1880. Founded in 1843 by Joseph Robidoux, a French Roman Catholic, who had settled in the district some years previously as a trader, St Joseph in 1846 was made the county seat, and before 1857, when it received its first city charter, became well known as the great point of departure for emigrants bound for California and the West. During the Civil War, when it was fortified by the Federals, its natural development was considerably checked, but this revived as soon as the struggle was over. SAINT-JUST, ANTOINE (1767-1794), French revolu- tionary leader, was born at Decize in the Nivernais on 25th August 1767. He was educated at Soissons, and showed his character at school as ringleader of a plot to set the school buildings on fire. Saint-Just was caught red- handed in the act of incendiarism, and, refusing to exhibit any tokens of submission, was ignominiously expelled. His education, however, does not appear to have been neglected ; and the reports and speeches of his short and stormy political career exhibit not a little scholarship, and in particular considerable acquaintance with ancient history. Intoxicated with republican ideas, Saint-Just threw himself with enthusiasm into the political troubles of his time, had himself appointed an officer in the National Guard, and by fraud he being yet under age admitted as a member of the electoral assembly of his district. Ambitious of fame, he in 1789 published twenty cantos of licentious verses under the title of Organt, and this work was afterwards reissued under the title of My Pastimes ; or The New Organt. From that year onwards, however, the open turbulence of his youth gave place to a rigor- ously stoical demeanour, which, united to a policy tyran- nical, uncompromisingly thorough, and pitilessly severe, became the marked and startling characteristic of his life. He now entered into correspondence with Robespierre, who thenceforward became his hero and ideal. Robes- pierre invited him to Paris, felt flattered by his worship, saw that he suited his purpose, and in a short time the two became hand and glove. Thus supported, Saint- Just became deputy of the department of Aisne to the national convention, where he made his first speech gloomy, fanatical, remorseless in tone on 19th November 1792. He had but twenty months to live; but into these he seemed to crowd the life of twenty years. In the convention, in the Jacobin Club, and among the popu- lace his relations with Robespierre became known, and he was dubbed the "St John of the Messiah of the People." Hardly a week passed without the attention of France being arrested by his attitude or his utterances. Both were anxiously watched, as the unfailing indication of the trend of Robespierre's designs. His appointment as a member of the committee of public safety now placed him at the very height and centre of the political fever-heat. In the name of this committee he was charged with the drawing up of reports to the convention upon the absorbing themes of the overthrow of the party of the Gironde, thereafter, when even the " Mountain " seemed to have fallen in pieces, of the Hebertists, and finally, as the tragic sequel to the rupture between Robes- pierre and Danton, of that denunciation of the latter which consigned him and his followers to the guillotine. What were then called reports were far less statements of fact than appeals to the passions ; in Saint-Just's hands they furnished the occasion for a display of fanatical dar- ing, of gloomy eloquence, and of undoubted genius ; and with the shadow of Robespierre behind them they served their turn. Once a flash of cruel humour lighted up his angry retorts, and it became memorable. Des- moulins, in jest and mockery, said of Saint- Just the youth with the beautiful cast of countenance and the long fair locks " He carries his head like a Holy Sacrament."