Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/645

Rh S E D S E D 619 both popular and respected. He lived to a considerable age, dying at Paris on 17th May 1797. SEDALIA, a city of the United States, county town of Pettis county, Missouri, lies 189 miles west of St Louis, on the highest swell of a rolling prairie, which drains by small streams north-east to the Missouri. It is a railroad centre, and, besides the machine-shops and carriage- factories of two railway companies (the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas, and the Missouri Pacific, Middle Division), it contains foundries, flour-mills, and establishments for the manufacture of furniture, woollen goods, soap, beer, <kc. Among the public buildings are two opera-houses, a public library, a high school, and a gymnasium. Founded in 1860 by General George R. Smith, Sedalia had 4560 inhabitants in 1870, and 9561 in 1880. SEDAN, a town of France, the chef -lieu of an arrondisse- ment in the department of Ardennes, lies on the right bank of the Meuse, 13 miles east-south-east of Mezieres by the railway to Thionville (Lorraine), and is surrounded by heights of about 1000 feet. Since its fortifications were dedasses, a process of embellishment has been going on. Place Turenne takes its name from the statue of the illustrious marshal, who was born in the town in 1611. The public buildings include a Protestant church, a syna- gogue, a museum, and a college. The manufacture of fine black cloth has long been, and still continues to be, the staple industry, employing in the town and neighbourhood more than 10,000 workmen, and producing to the value of 40,000,000 francs annually. Several spinning-mills have been erected by Alsatian refugees since 1871. Consider- able activity is also displayed in various departments of metal- working, especially in the surrounding villages. The population was 13,807 in 1872, and 19,240 in 1881 (19,556 in the commune). Sedan was in the 13th century a dependency of the abbey of Mouzon, the possession of which was disputed by the bishops of Liege and Rheims. United to the crown of France by Charles V., it was ceded by Charles VI. to Guillaume de Braquemont, Avho sold it to the La Marcks. For two centuries this powerful family managed to continue masters of the place in spite of the bishops of Liege and the dukes of Burgundy and Lorraine ; and in the person of Henri Robert they adopted the title "prince of Sedan." In the 16th century the town was an asylum for many Protestant refugees, who laid the basis of its industrial prosperity, and it became the seat of a Protestant seminary. The last heiress of the La Marck family brought Sedan and the duchy of Bouillon to Henri de la Tour d'Auvergne, viscount of Turenne. When the new duke attempted to maintain his independence, Henry IV. captured Sedan in three days ; and the second duke (eldest brother of the great marshal), who had several times revolted against Louis XIII., was at last, after his share in the conspiracy of Cinq- Mars, obliged to surrender his principality. Sedan thus became part of the royal domain in 1641. On 1st September 1870 the fortress was the centre of the most disastrous conflict of the Franco-German War. Shut in by the Germans, who had occupied the surrounding heights, the whole French army, after a terrific contest, was obliged to capitulate, the emperor, 39 generals, 230 staff-officers, 2600 officers, and 83,000 men becoming prisoners of war. The village of Bazeilles was the scene of the heroic stand made by the marines under Martin des Pallieres. It now contains the great ossuary, and a monument to the memory of the marines ; and the house which has been rendered famous by Neuville's painting, " Les Dernieres Cartouches," is a museum of objects found on the battlefield. SEDDON, THOMAS (1821-1856), landscape painter, was born in London on 28th August 1821. His father was a cabinetmaker, and the son for some time followed the same occupation ; but in 1842 he was sent to Paris to study ornamental art. On his return he executed designs for furniture for his father, and in 1848 gained a silver medal from the Society of Arts. In the following year he made sketching expeditions in Wales and France, and in 1852 began to exhibit in the Royal Academy, sending a figure- piece, Penelope, and afterwards landscapes, deriving their subjects from Brittany. In the end of 1853 he started for the East and joined Mr Holman Hunt at Cairo. He worked for a year in Egypt and Palestine, executing views which Mr Ruskin has pronounced to be " the first landscapes uniting perfect artistical skill with topographical accuracy ; being directed, with stern self-restraint, to no other purpose than that of giving to persons who cannot travel trustworthy knowledge of the scenes which ought to be most interest- ing to them." Seddon's Eastern subjects were exhibited in Berners Street, London, in 1855, and in Conduit Street in 1856. In October 1856 Seddon again visited Cairo, where, after a very brief illness, he died on 23d November. In 1857 his works were collected and exhibited in the rooms of the Society of Arts, and his important and elaborately finished picture, Jerusalem and the Valley of Jehoshaphat, was purchased by subscription and presented to the National Gallery. A memoir of Seddon, by his brother, was pub- lished in 1859. SEDGWICK, ADAM (1785-1873), geologist, was born in 1785 at Dent, Yorkshire, where his father was vicar of the parish. He was educated at Sedbergh school and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated as fifth wrangler in. 1808, and was elected a fellow in 1809. For some years he devoted himself chiefly to the studies and duties of academic life, but gradually he acquired an ab- sorbing interest in geology and natural science, which was fostered by long excursions into the country, rendered necessary by the state of his health. In 1818 he suc- ceeded Professor Hailstone in the Woodwardian chair of geology. Among his principal discoveries, which appeared for the most part in the Cambridge Transactions and the Transactions of the Geological Society, were those of the true position and succession of the Palaeozoic strata of Devonshire and Cornwall, of the geological relation of the beds afterwards named Permian in the north and north-west of England, and of the general structure of North Wales, a subject which led him. into controversy with Murchison. In 1834 he published a Discourse on the Studies of the University of Cambridge, which reached a fifth edition. By his generosity and energy he succeeded in rendering the geological collection of the Woodwardian Museum one of the most complete in the kingdom. He was one of the original secretaries of the Cambridge Philo- sophical Society established in 1819, and was president of the Geological Society of London from 1829 to 1831. Having taken holy orders, he was advanced to the dignity of canon of Norwich cathedral, and for some time also he was vice -master of Trinity College. Sedgwick died at Cambridge on 25th January 1873. SEDITION in Roman law was considered as majestas or treason. In English law it is a very elastic term, including offences ranging from libel to TREASON (q.v.). It is rarely used except in its adjectival form, e.g., sedi- tious libel, seditious meeting, or seditious conspiracy. " As to sedition itself," says Mr Justice Stephen, " I do not think that any such offence is known to English law " (Hist. Grim. Law, vol. ii. chap, xxiv.). 1 The same high authority lays down the law in the following terms, which were substantially adopted by the Draft Criminal Code Commissioners. " Every one commits a misdemeanour who publishes verbally or otherwise any words or any document with a seditious intention. If the matter so published consists of words spoken, the offence is called the speaking of seditious words. If the matter so published is contained in anything capable of being a libel, the offence is called the publication of a seditious libel. Every one commits a misdemeanour who agrees with any other person or persons to do any act for the furtherance of any seditious intention common to both or all of them. Such an offence is called a seditious conspiracy. A seditious intention is an intention to bring into hatred or con- tempt or to excite disaffection against the person of Her Majesty, her heirs and successors, or the Government and constitution of the 1 The word "sedition" occurs, however, in 40 and 41 Viet. c. 21, s. 40.