Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/122

 112 F E K F E S custom. In Scotland the law is similar. There ferries are either public or private. Public ferries are under the management of the trustees of the roads connected with them, or of the justices of the peace of the county, or are regulated by special Acts of Parliament. Private ferries are those which have been granted by the crown to private individuals. They are acquired either by direct grant or by prescription. A new ferry calculated to affect the old one injuriously is illegal in Scotland as in England. A neigh bouring proprietor may make use of his boats to transport himself, his family, servants, visitors, and workmen, but he may not carry other persons, even gratuitously. FERSEN, AXEL, COUNT (1755-1810), marshal of the kingdom of Sweden, was born at Stockholm, September 4, 1755. He belonged to an old Livonian family, several members of which had attained distinction during the reigns of Queen Christina, Charles X., and Charles XI. He was educated by his father Count Axel, a senator of Sweden under Gustavus III., and afterwards studied at the military academy of Turin. In 1775 he returned to Sweden and entered the army. Four years later he went to France, and was appointed colonel of the royal regiment of Swedes in the service of Louis XVI. At the head of this regiment he served with distinction in the later cam paigns of the American war, and was aide-de-camp to General Rochambeau at Yorktown. After visiting England and Italy he returned to France, and on the outbreak of tlio Revolution he showed himself the devoted friend of the royal family. When their flight from Paris was arranged, Count Fersen consented to play the part of coachman in disguise ; and he conducted them to the post of Bondi, whence they were sent on under other care. After the failure of the scheme and the imprisonment of the royal family, he zealously exerted himself to minister in any way possible to their comfort and relief. Compelled to leave France after the execution of the king and queen, he visited Vienna, Dresden, and Berlin, and then returned to Sweden. He was named by the king grand-master of his household, chancellor of the university of Upsala, and marshal of the kingdom. He was soon after sent as pleni potentiary to the congress of Rastadt. But he was at the same time disliked and suspected by the people ; and when the crown prince, Christian of Augustenburg, suddenly died, in June 1810, suspicions fastened on him and his sister the Countess Piper of having taken part with others in poisoning the prince. At the funeral they were assailed by the crowd ; the marshal sought refuge in a house, but was slain by the mob, and his body exposed in the great square (June 20, 1810). His sister succeeded in making her escape. The complete innocence of Count Fersen and his family was established by a subsequent judicial investi gation. FESCA, FREDERIC ERXEST (1789-1826), violinist and composer of instrumental music, was born February 15, 1789 at Magdebiirg, where he received his early musical education from Lohse and Zacharia. He completed his studies at Leipsic under Eberhard Mtiller, and at the early age of fifteen appeared before the public with several con cert! for the violin, which were received with general applause, and resulted in his being appointed leading violinist of the Leipsic orchestra. This position he occupied till 1806, when he became concert-master to the duke of Oldenburg. In 1808 he was appointed solo- violinist by King Jerome of Westphalia at Cassel, and there he remained till the end of the French occupation (1814), when he went to Vienna, and soon afterwards to Carlsruhe, having been appointed concert-master to the grand-duke of Baden. His failing health prevented him from enjoying the numerous and well-deserved triumphs he owed to his art, and in 1826 he died of consumption at the early age of thirty-seven. As a virtuoso Fesca is amongst the best masters of the German school of violinists, the school sub sequently of Spohr and of Joachim. Especially as leader of a quartet he is said to have been unrivalled with regard to classic dignity and simplicity of style. Amongst his com positions, his quartets for stringed instruments and other pieces of chamber music are the most remarkable. His two operas, Cantemira and Omar and Leila, were less successful, lacking dramatic power and originality. He also wrote some sacred compositions, and numerous songs and vocal quartets. FESCH, JOSEPH (1763-1839), cardinal, archbishop of Lyons, was born at Ajaccio, in Corsica, January 3, 1763, six years before the island was conquered by the French. His father, Francis Fesch, of Basel, was a Swiss officer in the service of Genoa, who had married as his second wife a young widow, the mother of Letizia Bonaparte. Joseph Fesch was thus half-brother to Letizia, and uncle to her son Napoleon Bonaparte. He was educated at the seminary of Aix in Provence, took holy orders, and became arch deacon and provost of the chapter of Ajaccio. When the French Revolution broke out, and the chapters were sup pressed, Fesch protested against the civil constitution of the clergy, and laid aside his clerical dress. In 1793 he had to quit Corsica, followed the Bonapartes to Toulon, and obtained a post in the army administration. In 1795 he was named commissary of war in the army of Italy, of which his nephew Napoleon Bonaparte became commander- in-chief. After the 18th Brumaire (November 9, 1799) he resumed his ecclesiastical functions, and took part in the negotiations which led up to the concordat of 1801. In the following year he was consecrated archbishop of Lyons, and early in 1803 received a cardinal s hat. Napoleon having been proclaimed emperor, and desiring to be crowned at Paris by the pope, Cardinal Fesch was sent as ambassador to Rome to treat with Pius VII. respecting this project. He was received with much distinction, won the pope s good opinion, and brought the negotiations to a successful issue. On this occasion the cardinal had for his secretary the viscount de Chateaubriand, who had just made himself famous by the publication of his Genie du Christ ianisme. The association, however, was not a happy one. Cardinal Fesch accompanied Pius VII. to Paris, and took part in all the ceremonies of the coronation of his uncle. In reward for his services at Rome he was made grand-almoner of France, grand-cordon of the Legion of Honour, and senator. In 1806 he was chosen coadjutor and successor of Dalberg, prince-primate of the confederation of the Rhine, and arch-chancellor of the empire, and received a large annual subvention. The dissensions which continued be tween Napoleon and the holy see made the cardinal s posi tion a very difficult one ; but he resisted the violent measures taken by the emperor against the pope ; and when, in 1809, the emperor desired to have one of his kindred head of the French church, and offered to Fesch the archbishopric of Paris, he declined the offer. He refused even to accept the administration of the diocese. As presi dent of the national ecclesiastical council held at Paris in 1810, he boldly put forward views which gave offence to the emperor and lost him his favour. He was sent back to his diocese, and in consequence of his letter to the pope, then at Fontainebleau, he was deprived of his subvention. In 1814 he withdrew to Rome, but returned to France and his see during the Hundred Days. He was created a peer, but never sat in the chamber. After Waterloo he returned to Rome, and there spent the remaining years of his life in the enjoyment of his vast wealth and his accumulated art- treasures. He died at Rome, May 13, 1839. His corre spondence with Napoleon was published by Du Casse in 1855.