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 630 ARAGON to the Barcelona dynasty about the middle of the 12th century. The latter gave 1 to Aragon, ending with Martin in 1410, and won and kept the Balearic islands, Sicily, and Sardinia. The Barcelona dynasty was succeed- ed in 1412 by Ferdinand I. as the first king of the house of Castile. In consequence of the marriage of Ferdinand II. with Isabella, heiress of Castile, in 1469, Aragon and Castile were united, and the consolidation of the Spanish mon- archy dates from the accession of their grandson Charles V. (1516). The Aragonese had prob- ably the earliest representative system of Eu- rope. Their fueros (constitutional charter) com- pelled the king to take an oath to support them, to give to his subjects half the territory he should take from the enemy, not to enact laws without their consent, nor to declare war or to make peace without the consent of his counsellors. The fueros provided a cortes, in which all classes of the state were represented, and also enunciated principles of self-govern- ment and popular rights not exceeded by the liberalism of the present day. To insure the sovereign's adherence to this compact, ajvti- cia was provided for as guardian of the laws. He was to be appointed by king and cortes to- gether; his decisions were without appeal, and he was only answerable to the nation at large. The cortes were composed of the nobility, the caballeros, and the commons, to whom in 1801 the ecclesiastics were added. Unanimous consent of the king and the four orders was requisite to a law. The cortes were summoned and dismissed by the king, who presided at their deliberations in person, unless unable to do so, in which case the crown prince or his lieutenant was present. He could not remain in the cortes at the taking of the votes on a measure. Every Aragonese had the right to lay before the cortes any greuges (grudges or grievances) in relation to a breach of tiiefueros of the kingdom, and the cortes appointed a committee to report on the grievance. After all petitions and grievances had been disposed of, but not before, the cortes voted the supplies for the services of the state. These supplies were of a limited character. In 1876 the first money grant was asked by Pedro IV. to levy a body of men-at-arms. The Aragonese cortes refused, being "accustomed, "as they said, "to serve the king with their persons, not their purses." Subsequently, the same king, how- ever, coaxed his subjects into a loan. In 1412 Ferdinand I. obtained another loan, which loans paved the way to royal aids, benevo- lences, and other exactions. On the dissolu- tion of the cortes, officers called a disputation, and associated with the just icia, were appointed by the cortes to watch over the public interests until they met again. The Aragonese had an ancient constitutional right of taking up arms as a defence against the refusal of their king to observe and protect their fueros. The king at his coronation having taken the oath to uphold the constitution, protect thefutro, and do jus- ARAKTCHEYEFF tice, the justicia who administered it replied in the name of the people, " We, who are worth as much as you, take you for our king and lord, provided you keep our laws and liberties ; otherwise not." The decline of Aragonese lib- erty began with the union of the crowns of Aragon and Castile, which increased the power of the monarchy; and the accession of Charles V. was the death blow to the liberty and privi- leges of the Spanish cities and provinces. In the reign of Philip II. the justicia, Juan de Samoza, having summoned the people to arms to protect their fueros, the king sent a force against him, and wrote an autograph letter to his general, directing him to take and pun- ish the justicia without delay ; an order which was strictly obeyed, the judge being beheaded without form of trial. ARAGONA, a town of Sicily, in the province and 8 m. N. by E. of Girgenti; pop. about 8,000. It is a very poor place, situated on a bare plain, backed by steep hills ; but it has a large castle of the princes of Aragona, and is in the neighborhood of extensive sulphur mines, and of the mud volcanoes called Maccalube, which rise about 200 feet above the plain, and are known to have been in a state of continual activity for 1,500 years. ARAGl'AY, or Aragiayt, a river of Brazil, rises in lat. 18 10' S. and Ion. 51 80' W., flows northward, between the provinces of Matto Grosso and Goyaz, to Sao Joao, lat. 6 5' S., where it unites with the Tocantins, and the combined stream discharges its waters, after a course of nearly 400 m. further, into the south- ern estuary of the Amazon, in lat. 1 40' S. Its whole course is about 1,300 m., of which about 1,100 are navigable. About midway in its course it separates into two arms, which en- close the island of Banana or Santa Anna, 210 m. long and 40 broad. Its principal tributary is Das Mortes, which joins it in lat. 12 S. Many tribes of warlike savages are found on the banks of the Araguay. It furnishes an un- interrupted navigation from Para almost to the head waters of the Parana. ARAKTCHEYEFF, Atexel, count, a Russian statesman, born in 1769, died May 8, 1834. He was of an obscure family, was educated in the military school of St. Petersburg, entered the ar- tillery, and reached in it the highest rank. He was a favorite of Paul I., and for a short time governor general of St. Petersburg, but was dismissed on account of his insufferable harsh- ness. Paul made him commander of his fa- vorite regiment of guards at Gatchina, an im- perial residence in the environs of the capital. Suspicious of danger, Paul the day before his murder sent an order for Araktcheyeff and his regiment. The courier was detained by the conspirators, and AraktcheyetF reached the barriers of the capital too late. Alexander, the successor of Paul, kept Araktcheyeff near his person, and he remained unshaken in his mas- ter's favor. He was energetic and active, but hard and utterly distrustful. The military col-