Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/327

Rh ceeded best with the county familiar to him from his boy hood ; but his repetitions of manner and subject are in reality so many tentatives towards perfection. His merits were recognized in France ; but his studio was full of unsold pictures at his death, and it is certain that he could not have earned a livelihood by his art without abandoning his theories. Since his death, however, his pictures have greatly increased in value ; and his influence on contem porary French and English landscape is recognized as both great and good.

1em  CONSTANCE, or, a city of the grand duchy of Baden, and the chief town of a circle of its own name, formerly called the See Kreis, or Lake Circle, is situated on the southern or Swiss side of the Rhine, at its exit from the Lake of Constance, 30 miles east of Schaffhausen by railway. It stands 1298 feet above the level of the sea. The older portion of the city is still surrounded by its ancient walls, but beyond their limits lie extensive suburbs, of which the most remarkable are Briilil, Kreuzlingen, Paradies, and Petershausen. The last of these, which has grown up round a free imperial abbey, is situated on the other side of the river, and communicates with the city by means of a long covered bridge raised on stone piers. A large number of the buildings of Constance are of mediseval origin, and several are of high interest both to the historian and antiquary. Most remarkable are the minster, originally founded in 1048, but dating in its present form mainly from the beginning of the IGth century; St Stephen s Church, belonging to the 14th ; the old Dominican convent on the island of Genf (now a cotton-printing factory) ; the Kaufhaus, or public mart, in the hall of which sat the famous council of 1414-1418; and the old chancery or town-hall, erected in 1503. Besides the various administra tive offices of the circle the town further possesses a gymnasium, a lyceum, various collections of antiquities, a public collection of books and pictures in the Wessenbery Hans, and a valuable series of archives. Since the intro duction of steam-boat and railway communication the commercial prosperity of the city has greatly increased. It now contains cotton-factories, linen-factories, carpet-looms, and breweries, maintains a considerable activity in printing and publishing, and has a vigorous and varied local trade. Population in 1864, 8516 ; in 1872, 10,061.

1em  CONSTANCE, (German, ), a large sheet of water on the confines of Switzerland, surrounded on the S.W. by the cantons of Thurgau and St Gall, E. by Tyrol, N.E. and N.W. by Wiirtemberg and Baden respectively. It is of an oblong shape, the western extre mity being considerably contracted. The length of the lake from Bregenz to Spittelberg is 42 miles, with an average width of 7/ miles. It forms the great reservoir of the Rhine, receiving the upper waters of that river near the village of Altenrhein and parting with them at Con stance. The mean level of the surface is 1290 feet above the sea. The depth between Romanshorn and Langenar- gen is 152 fathoms, between Constance and Friederichs- hafen 120 fathoms, and between Lindau and the mouth of the Rhine 45 fathoms.  CONSTANT DE REBECQUE,, an eminent French statesman and publicist, was born at Lausanne, 25th October 1757, and died at Paris 10th December 1830. His family was French, and had taken refuge in Switzerland during the religious persecutions. Till the age of thirteen he lived in his father s house at Lausanne ; he afterwards studied at Oxford, Erlangen, and Edinburgh successively. It was in these foreign studies that he made a beginning in the cosmopolitan culture which afterwards characterized him ; in England especially he learned to admire constitutional government, and made the acquaintance of such men as Erskine and Mackintosh. Shortly before the Revolution he went to Paris, and became acquainted with some of the leading liberal spirits of that city, where, after further travels, he finally settled in 1795, He attached himself to the moderate republican party, and supported it through many changes of fortune, both in the Assemblies and by writing, under the Directory and the Consulate, till 1802, when he was expelled from the Tribunate by Napoleon. The circle to which he belonged again provoked the anger of the First Consul by its private opposition to the Government, whereupon Constant, with his celebrated friend Madame de Stael, found it advis: able to retire from France. Thus arrested in his political career he turned to literature, and proceeded to Weimar, where he enjoyed the acquaintance of Gosthe and Schiller, translated Wallenstein, and wrote the romance of Adolphe. He did not return to France till the overthrow of Napoleon in 1814. Attracted by the prospect of the restoration of constitutional government he supported the Bourbons ; and, apparently for a similar reason, he adhered to Napoleon during the Hundred Days. After the violence of the second Bourbon restoration had subsided Constant re appeared on the political scene to maintain the principles of constitutionalism. By all legal means, in the journals and in the Chambers, as well as by political tractates and pamphlets, under Louis XVIII. and Charles X. he combated, not without success, the reactionary measures of the government. Ill-health detained him in the country during the revolution of July (1830) ; but at the urgent request of Lafayette he returned to tho capital, and concurred in the elevation to the vacant throne of Louis Philippe. Notwithstanding his feeble health Constant continued to support the new Government, but an unsuc cessful candidature for a seat in the Academy so aggravated his previous complaint, that he died a few months after the triumph of the principles to which he had consecrated his life. Adverse circumstances had prevented the champion of representative government from playing a first part in the history of France, assuming that he had the faculty to do so. His voice was dry, his manner deficient in ease and grace, and he did not excel in improvising a reply ; but his intellect was clear and powerful, his culture wide, and his industry remarkable. The greater part of his political tractates have been collected by himself under the title of Cours de Politique Constitutionelle. J. P. Pages collected the speeches delivered at the Chamber of Deputies, 3 vols. in 8vo. (1832- 1833). His great philosophical work was De la religion con&ideree dans sa source, ses formes, et ses developpements. 