Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/82

Rh 66 V A N V A N parliament supreme over the army. This he sent to Crom well, and so alarmed was the Protector at the interest it excited that Vane was summoned on 12th August to the council in consequence. Refusing to give security not to disturb the public peace, he was on 9th September sent prisoner to Carisbrooke Castle, and there remained until 31st December. He had previously, according to his opponents, excited the jealousy of the Government by &quot;going up and down among the Quakers, and endeavour ing to withdraw them from their submission to the Govern ment.&quot; After the death of Cromwell he stood for Kingston and Bristol successively, and was elected, but the court managers gave the certificate of election to the defeated candidates ; finally, however, he was chosen for Whitchurch and took his seat on 27th January 1659, at the head of the small body of forty republicans. He was at once urgent in pressing that, before Richard Cromwell, for whom he had a great contempt, was acknowledged pro tector, the limitations of his power, and the full security of parliament and subjects, should be settled. Upon Richard s abdication he joined the army leaders in reviv ing the Rump ; and, when the breach occurred between it and the army, he adhered to the latter, accepting a com mission from them. He was one of the committee of safety and also of the council of state appointed in May ; he was, too, chairman of the army and navy commission, and soon afterwards of another special commission for the navy. In September he was made president of the council. He had, morever, in May, been appointed with Lambert and others to treat with the Dutch ambassador for freeing the commerce of the Baltic. When Monk arrived in London Vane was ordered to his seat in Lincolnshire, having been discharged from the parliament for espousing the cause of the army. At the Restoration Vane was imprisoned in the Tower by the king s order. After several conferences between the Houses of Parliament it was agreed that he should be excepted from the indemnity bill, but that a petition should be sent to Charles asking that his life might be spared. The petition was granted. During the conferences he had been moved from prison to prison, and was finally placed in a castle in the Scilly Isles. In his captivity he wrote the People s Case /Stated, with many other political and religious works of the highest eloquence and beauty. On 7th March 1662, the Convention Parliament being no longer in existence, he was taken to London, and on 2d June put upon his trial, which was conducted with a shameless absence of equity. He was refused the assistance of counsel and was not allowed to see the indictment before it was read. In his own behalf he spoke courageously and well, pleading the authority of the Long Parliament for his acts, and maintaining that the House of Commons, &quot; represent ing the whole body of the people in case of a difference between the authority, royal and politic, possessed a just power to defend the right of the people, and to authorize the people of England and every one of them to defend them.&quot; Charles, however, was determined that he should die, and, in spite of his answer to the petition mentioned above, wrote himself to Clarendon declaring that Vane was &quot; too dangerous a man to let live, if we can honestly put him out of the way.&quot; He was therefore sentenced on llth June to death. On the 14th he was taken out to execution, and died with the serenity and courage which had marked his life. (o. A.) VANILLA, a flavouring agent largely used in the manufacture of chocolate, in confectionery, and in per fumery. It consists of the fermented and dried pods of several species of orchids belonging to the genus Vanilla. 1 The great bulk of the commercial article is the produce of 1 Span, rainilla, dim. of vaina, a pod. V. planifolia, Andrews, a native of eastern Mexico, but now largely cultivated in several tropical countries, especi ally in Reunion, the Seychelles, and Java. The plant has a long fleshy stem and attaches itself by its aerial rootlets to trees, and appears to be little dependent on the soil for nourishment. The leaves are alternate, oval-lanceolate, and fleshy ; and the greenish white flowers form axillary Vanilla plant. A. Flower, leaf, and aerial rootlets. B. Pod or fruit. spikes. The fruit is a pod from 6 to 12 inches long, and when mature about half an inch in diameter. The wild plant yields a smaller and less aromatic fruit, distinguished in Mexico as Baynilla cimarona, the cultivated vanilla being known as B. corriente. Mexican vanilla is regarded as the best. It is principally consumed in the United States, which import about 100,000 Ib of it annually. Reunion produces about the same quantity, which is sent to Bordeaux, the chief centre of the trade in France. Its odour is said to differ from the Mexican variety in having a suggestion of tonqua bean. Guadaloupe produces about 5000 H) per annum, which is likewise shipped to Bordeaux. Mauritius exported 20,481 Ib in 1877. The Seychelles have lately produced large quantities of exceedingly fine quality ; the produce of these islands goes chiefly to the London market. The Java vanilla, grown chiefly in Kra- wang and the Preanger Regencies, is shipped to Holland. The amount exported from the East Indian Archipelago to Holland in 1876 amounted to about 5000 Ib. The best varieties of vanilla pods are of a dark chocolate brown or nearly black colour, and are covered with a crystalline efflorescence technically known as givre, the presence of which is taken as a criterion of quality. The peculiar fragrance of vanilla is due to vanillin, C 8 H 8 3, which forms this efflorescence. Chemically speaking, it is the aldehyde of methyl-protocatechuic acid. It is not naturally present in the fleshy exterior of the pod, but is secreted by hair- like papillae lining its three internal angles, and ultimately becomes diffused through the viscid oily liquid surround ing the seeds. The amount of vanillin varies according to the kind : Mexican vanilla yields 1 69, Bourbon or Reunion 1 9 to 2 48, and Java 275 per cent. Besides vanillin, the pods contain vanillic acid (which is odourless), about 1 1 per cent, of fixed oil, 2 3 per cent, of soft resin, sugar, gum, and oxalate of lime. Vanillin forms crystalline needles, fusible at 81 C., and soluble in alcohol and ether, hardly soluble in cold, but more so in boiling water. Like other aldehydes, it forms a compound with the alkaline bisulphites, and can by this means be extracted from bodies con taining it. Vanillin has been found in Siam benzoin and in raw sugar, and has been prepared artificially from coniferin, a substance found in the sapwood of fir-trees, from asafcetida, and from a con stituent of oil of cloves named eugenol. It is from the last-named that vanillin is now prepared on a commercial scale, chiefly in Germany. Vanillin does not appear to have any physiological