Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/736

Rh 710 S E V S E W 1883 the aggregate burthen of vessels cleared amounted to 358,541 tons (65,324 British). The imports were valued at 1,879,522, and the exports at 1,190,625. In the latter were included 3110 tuns of olive oil shipped to the United Kingdom, and 1610 tons of quick- silver from the Almaden mines, which had formerly sent their produce via Lisbon. lu addition to strictly local industries the chief factories of the city are the tobacco factory, the cnnnon foundry, and the small-arms factory. There are also a petroleum refinery, some soap works, iron foundries, artificial ice and marmalade factories, and several potteries. The ancient sources of water supply having proved insufficient, a new system of waterworks was designed, and was brought to a successful completion in 1883 by a firm of English engineers. (H. B. B. ) SEVRES, a town of France, in the department of Seine-et-Oise, on the left bank of the Seine, midway between Paris and Versailles, with a population of 6768 in 1881, owes its celebrity to the Government porcelain manufactory, which dates from 1756. In 1876 a new building was erected at the end of the park of St Cloud to replace the older structures, which were in a dangerous state, but have since been transformed into a normal school for girls. In the museum connected with the works are preserved specimens of the different kinds of ware manu- factured in all ages and countries, and the whole series of models employed at Sevres from the commencement of the manufacture, for an account of which see vol. xix. pp. 637-38. A technical school of mosaic was established at Sevres in 1875. SEVRES, DEUX, a department of western France, formed in 1790 mainly of the districts of Thouars, Gatinais, and Niortais, which constituted about one-fourth of Poitou, and to a small extent of a portion of Basse- Saintonge and Angoumois, and a very small fragment of Aunis. It derives its name from the 'Sevre of Niort, which flows across the south of the department from east to west, and the Sevre of Nantes, which drains the north-west. Lying between 45 58' and 47 7' N. lat. and between 56' W. and 13' E. long., it is bounded (for the most part conventionally) N. by Maine-et-Loire, E. by Vienne, S.E. by Charente, S. by Lower Charente, and W. by La Vendee. Part belongs to the basin of the Loire, part to that of the Sevres of Niort, and part to that of the Charente. There are three regions, the Gatine, the "Plain," and the "Marsh," distinguished by their geo- logical character and their general physical appearance. The Gatine, formed of primitive rocks (granite and schists), is the continuation of the "Bocage" of La Vendee and Maine-et-Loire. It is a poor district with an irregular surface, covered with hedges and clumps of wood or forests. The Plain, resting on Oolitic lime- stone or the "white rock" (pierre llandie), is a fertile grain country. The Marsh, occupying only a small part of the department to the south-west, consists of alluvial clays which also are extremely productive when pro- perly drained. The highest point in the department (892 feet above the sea) is to the east of Parthenay; the lowest lies only 10 feet above sea-level. The climate is mild, the annual temperature at Niort being 54 Fahr., and the rainfall a little more than 24 inches. The winters are colder in the Gatine, the summers warmer in the Plain ; and the Marsh is the moistest and mildest of the three districts. With a total area of 1,482,655 acres, the department contains 1,043,752 acres of arable ground, 125,534 acres of meadows, 49,129 of vineyards, 106,222 of forests, 20,429 of heath. The live stock in 1880 comprised 36,150 horses, 12,800 mules, 2012 asses, 217,935 cattle, 18,405 sheep (wool clip 102 tons) 78,930 pigs, 50,321 goats, 18,845 beehives (55 tons of honey). The horses are a strong breed, and the department raises mules for Spain, the Alps, Auvergne, and Provence. In 1883 there were produced wheat, 3,909,260 bushels; meslin, 466,909; rye, 673,920; and in 1880 barley pro- duced 1,293,600 bushels; buckwheat, 133,650; maize and millet, 508,062; oats, 2,744,500; potatoes, 4,312,000; pulse, 192,500 bushels ; beetroot, 123,429 tons ; hemp, 945 tons ; flax, 245 tons ; colza seed, 75,900 bushels (640 tuns of oil). The wine and cider amounted in 1882 to 2,859,912 and 210,914 gallons respectively. Vegetables (artichokes, asparagus, cabbage, pease, onions) are largely cultivated. Oaks, chestnuts, and beeches are the most important trees. The apple-trees of the Gatine and the walnut-trees of tho Plain are also of considerable value. Coal (200 miners, and 21,457 tons in 1882) and peat are worked ; iron-ore, argentiferous lead, and antimony exist but are not worked ; and freestone, both hard and soft, is very extensively quarried. There are several sulphurous mineral waters in the department. The most important iinhi.stry is the manufacture of cloth serges, druggets, linen, handkerchiefs, flannels, swan-skins, and knitted goods. Wool and cotton sj'in- ning, tanning, and currying, glove, brush, and hat making, distil- ling, brewing, flour-milling, and oil-refining are also carried on. In 740 establishments water-power is used to the extent of 3000 horse-power ; and 301 stationary and 165 movable steam-engines represent respectively 1895 and 677 horse-power. The commerce of the department, which supplies mules, cattle, and provisions for Paris and the neighbouring great towns, is facilitated by 21 miles of waterway (the Sevre and its left-hand tributary the Mignon), 289 miles of national roads, 3535 of other roads, and 232 miles of railway. In density of population (350,103 in 1881) the depart- ment is below the average of France. It contains 38,000 Pro- testants, especially in the south-cast, there being only three French departments Card, Ardeche, and Dr6me which surpass it in this respect. Tho foivr arroudisscments are Niort, Bressuire (3549 inhabitants in the town), Melle (2433), and Parthenay (4842) ; the cantons number 31, and the communes 356. It is part of the diocese of Poitiers, where also is the court of appeal ; its military headquarters are at Tours. St Maixent (4790) has an infantry school. SEWAGE. See SEWERAGE. SEWARD, WILLIAM HENRY (1801-1872), American statesman, was born May 16, 1801, in the town of Florida, Orange county, N.Y. He was graduated at Union College in 1820, and began the practice of law three years after in the town of Auburn, which became his home for the rest of his life. Several of his cases brought him reputation as a lawyer, but he soon drifted into the more congenial field of politics. After he had served for four years in the State senate, the Whig party of New York nominated him for governor of the State in 1834. Though then defeated, he was nominated again in 1838 and elected, serving until 1842. He then returned to his law practice, retaining, however, the recognized leadership of the Whig party in the most important State of the Union. During the next seven years slavery became the burning question of American politics. The purely ethical and the philanthropic sides of the anti-slavery struggle are repre- sented by GARRISON and GREELEY (q.v.). Seward was the first to develop that purely political side, with an economic basis, which probably best met the desires and prejudices of the great mass of those who took part, will- ing or unwilling, in the struggle. The keynote of his theory was struck in 1848 in a speech at Cleveland : " The party of slavery upholds an aristocracy, founded on the humiliation of labour, as necessary to the existence of a chivalrous republic." The absurdity of the conception of a civilized nation which, in flat opposition to historical development, should tolerate for ever a systematic humilia- tion of labour was only his starting point. His theory culminated naturally in his famous Rochester speech of 1858, in which he enumerated the inevitable direct and indirect consequences of a free-labour and a slave-labour system- respectively, showed the two to be absolutely irreconcilable and yet steadily increasing their interferences with one another, and drew this pregnant inference : there is here "an irrepressible conflict between opposing and enduring forces, and it means that the United States must and will, sooner or later, become either entirely a slave- holding nation or entirely a free-labour nation." But the germ of the " irrepressible conflict " of 1858 lay clearly in the utterances of 1848, and Seward was even then most widely known as its exponent. When, therefore, the New York Whigs, who in 1849 controlled the State legislature, which elects United States senators, sent Seward to the senate with hardly a show of opposition, their defiance of