Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/345

Rh S A V S A V 325 State, is situated on the right or southern bank of the Savannah river, 12 miles in a straight line and 18 miles by water from the ocean. By rail it is 104 miles south- west of Charleston, S.C. Stretching about three miles along the river, opposite Hutchinson's Island, and extend- ing inland l miles, Savannah has an area of 3J square miles. The site is partly formed by a bold bluff of sand about a mile long, which lies 40, feet above low-water mark, ending abruptly at either extremity, but "slopes inland for several miles with a very gentle and regular declivity." Though laid out in parallelograms, Savannah has less than usual of the monotony of system, no fewer than twenty-four small public parks or gardens being dis- tributed throughout the city, and most of its streets being well shaded with trees. In the south is Forsyth Park (30 acres), with a fountain after the model of that in the Place de la Concorde, Paris, and a monument to the memory of the Confederate slain. Johnson Square con- tains a Doric obelisk, in memory of General Nathaniel Greene and Count Pulaski, the corner stone of which was laid by Lafayette in 1825; and in Monterey Square, on the spot where Pulaski fell in 1779, rises a more elaborate monument a statue of Liberty displaying the national banner, on the top of a marble shaft 55 feet high. The focus of commercial life in Savannah is the so-called Bay, a narrow street built at the foot of the river bluff, with its top stories opening on the higher level behind. Among the more conspicuous buildings are the custom-house and post office, the city exchange, the court-house, Oglethorpe United States barracks, Chatham academy, St Andrew's hall, the library hall of the Georgia Historical Society, the Savannah medical college, the Roman Catholic cathedral, and St John's Episcopal church. Besides being the second cotton port in the States, Savannah has a large trade in rice, timber, resin, and turpentine, the value of its exports being $29,850,275 in 1873, and $21,527,235 in 1880. Planing mills, foundries, and flour-mills are the chief industrial establishments. The harbour has in Tybee Eoads a depth of 31 feet and 38 feet at mean low and high water, and the bar 19 and 26 feet. The population, 5195 in 1810, was 15,312 in 1850, 28,235 in 1870, and 30,709 (15,654 coloured) in 1880. Savannah was settled in February 1733 under General Ogle- tliorpe. A British attack in 1776 was repulsed ; but it was cap- tured in 1778, and though the French and American forces made an attempt to recover it in 1779 it was held by the British till July 1783. The first session of the legislature of the State was held in Savannah in January 1784. A city charter was granted in 1789. A great fire in 1796 and another in 1820 did damage to the amount of $1,000,000 and $4,000,000 respectively. During the Civil "War Savannah was held by the Confederates ; but it was ultimately captured by General Sherman on 21st December 1864. SAVARY, ANNE JEAN MAEIE RENE (1774-1833), duke of Rovigo, was born at Marcq, in the canton of Grandpre and department of Ardennes, on 26th April 1774. He was educated at the college of St Louis in Metz, where he gained a scholarship. When a youth of sixteen he became a volunteer in a cavalry regiment. His first military ex- periences were with the army of the Rhine under Custine ; he distinguished himself under Moreau and Ferino, and by 1797 had reached the rank of major. In the next year, under Desaix, he took part in the Egyptian expedition, and he followed the same general in the second Italian campaign, and at the great battle of Marengo (14th June 1800). He had by this time attracted the favourable notice of Napoleon, who detected not only his soldierly powers but his singular gifts in the region of diplomacy and intrigue. For Savary the plans and will of Napoleon formed a law which obliterated every other, and in pre- sence of which political and moral scruple had no place. So early as 1800, while only twenty-six years of age, he was appointed a colonel and the commander of that legion which was afterwards to form the picked bodyguard of the emperor. In 1803 he was general of brigade, and in 1804 he was charged with the execution of the Due d'Enghien. Savary in his Memoirs (published in Paris in 1828, 8 vols. 8vo) avows that all he did was to convey to Vincennes a letter whose contents he did not know, and early next morning, in obedience to the orders of a superior officer, to have the duke shot. The other side of the story is that he knew all about it, that of set purpose, and in order to prevent an appeal to Napoleon's clemency, he hastened the execution ; and it is certain that, unlike a man merely under orders, he himself went straight to Bonaparte to report the death. Savary was the hand which Napoleon employed in the delicate negotiations with the emperor Alexander about the time of the battle of Austerlitz in 1805. At Jena in 1806 he distinguished himself by his successful pursuit of the retreating Prus- sians ; he rendered signal service by the siege of Hameln, which he forced to capitulate on 20th November; and, finally, the severe defeat which he inflicted upon the Russian forces at Ostrolenka, on 16th February 1807, was his crowning victory. Among other honours and rewards, he received a pension of 20,000 francs. After the peace of Tilsit he was despatched to St Petersburg ; but shortly thereafter the Napoleonic scheme for the crown of Spain being now apparently complete he was recalled, was created duke of Rovigo, and started for Madrid. His deceitful intrigue was soon successful, and Joseph Bonaparte ascended the Spanish throne. From 1808 to 1810 he was again beside Napoleon in the many and changing scenes of his exploits ; but on the 8th of June of the latter year France itself, now fully alive to the vast and mysterious power he had learned to wield, was startled by his appointment as successor to Fouche in the ministry of police. His administration, however, was. not a success. After the overthrow of Napoleon, he desired to accompany his master to St Helena, but this was refused, and he was imprisoned at Malta. He escaped thence to Smyrna, thereafter wandered about the east of Europe, and finally embarked for England, which he reached in 1819. Three years before he had been condemned to death by default ; and, learning this, he proceeded to Paris to clear himself of the sentence, in which he succeeded, being also reinvested with his rank and dignities. He retired to Rome, where he remained till 1831, when he was appointed commander-in-chief of the African army, and entrusted with the administration of Algeria. His duties were successfully performed, but he returned in March 1833 in weak health to Paris, where he died on the 2d of June. SAVIGLIANO, a city of Italy, in the province of Cuneo, 31| miles by rail south of Turin, lies in a plain between the Maira and the Mellea (head-streams of the Po) 1081 feet above the sea. It still retains some traces of its ancient walls, demolished in 1707, and has a fine col- legiate church (Sanf Andrea, .dating at least from the llth century, but in its present form comparatively modern), a triumphal arch erected in honour of the marriage of Victor Amadeus I. with Christine of France, and in the Taffini palace paintings by the 16th-century local artist Giovanni Mollineri (Mulinari, II Caraccino). Savigliano has long been a place of considerable industrial activity; its modern manufactures comprise paper, silk, and beer. The population was 9932 in 1881 (commune 17,150). First mentioned in 981 as Villa Savilliani, Savigliano appears in the 12th century as a member of the Lombard league. Its name perpetually crops up in the history of Piedmont and Savoy. _ It was besieged and taken by the duke of Savoy in 1347 and again in 1367; and in the 16th and 17th centuries it suffered severely from French garrisons. Charles Emmanuel I. died in 1630 at Savigliano, where the Piedmontese senate had met to escape the pestilence.