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 172 AZAlS AZALEA the period of the French invasion, while the municipal organizations of the villages and un- important towns had preserved their integrity, the charters of most of the great towns and cities of the kingdom had been violated, and the rights of the people abridged. During that invasion the constitution of 1812, recog- nizing and restoring all the ancient fueros, was adopted by the people. This constitution was abrogated by Ferdinand VII. on his restora- tion, revived by the revolution of 1820, and again suppressed in 1823. The constitution of 1837, however, restored the ayuntamientos. In 1840, in consequence of the check which this system of local government gave to the policy of the court, Queen Christina, by the advice of the French government, introduced a measure intended to restrain the political action of the ayuntamientos. This, although it at the time led to disturbances, was sub- stantially carried out in 1844. AZAIS, Pierre Hyadnthe, a French philosopher, born in Sorreze, Languedoc, March 1, 1766, died in Paris, Jan. 22, 1845. He was educated at the Benedictine college of Sorreze, where his father was teacher of music, and at the college of the Oratorians at Toulouse, and afterward became secretary to the bishop of Oleron, but lost this position on refusing to take orders. He was at first a partisan of the revolution, but having published a pamphlet against its excesses, he was condemned to transportation. He found a refuge, however, in the hospital of the sisters of charity at Tarbes, where he served as sec- retary and bookkeeper. There he wrote his "Discourses of the Soul with the Creator," and his " Religious Inspirations, or the Eleva- tion of the Soul to the Spirit of God." In these works he first put forth his ideas of eternal justice, and the natural and necessary balance of good and evil in the universe and in the destinies of men. After remaining 18 months concealed in this hospital, he retired to Saint-Sauveur, at the foot of the Pyrenees, and there wrote his book on the " Misfortunes and the Happiness of Life." Here he remained six years, engaged in writing his philosophical " System of Compensations," the best known of his works. He then went to Paris, married the widow of an officer, and was appointed professor of geography in the military school of Saint-Cyr. This office he resigned when the school was removed to La Fleche, and was afterward appointed inspector of booksell- ing at Avignon, where he published his great work, Le gysteme universel(2 vols. 8vo, 1812). The following year he went to Nancy in the same capacity, and commenced a work on the destiny of man. At the downfall of Napoleon he lost his place, and retired again to Paris, where he lived some time in poverty ; but his friends at length obtained for him a pension. He lectured publicly at the Athenee Royal in Paris, and attracted large audiences; and in 1827-'8 he held conferences in his garden in the suburbs of Paris, which were attended by the elite of both sexes. In 1826 he published his Explication universelle ; in 1829, Principes de morale et de politique ; in 1833, Cours d' 'explication universelle ; in 1834, Idee precise de la, verite premiere; in 1835, De la vraie medecine, and De la vraie morale; in 1836, Physiologic du Men et du mal, for which the French academy awarded a prize of 5,000 francs ; in 1839, De la phrenologie, du ma- gnetisme et de la folie ; in 1840, La constitu- tion de Vunivers et Vexplication generale des moutements politiques, for which the academy awarded another prize of 2,000 francs. AZALEA (Gr. dfaAfof, arid), a genus of plants belonging to the natural order ericacece, and to the sub-order rhodorete, named in allusion to the dry places in which many of the species grow, and consisting of upright shrubs with large, handsome, and fragrant flowers, often cultivated in gardens. The genus comprises more than 100 species, most of them natives of China or North America, having profuse nm- Azalea viscosa belled clusters of white, orange, purple, or variegated flowers, some of which have long been the pride of the gardens of Europe. The general characteristics of the genus are a 5-parted calyx, a 5-lobed, funnel form, slightly irregular corolla, 5 stamens, a 5-celled pod, and alternate, oblong, entire, and ciliated leaves, furnished with a glandular point. The species may be classified into those which have gluti- nous flowers, and those whose flowers are but slightly or not at all glutinous; each of which classes may be subdivided into those which have short stamens, and those which have stamens much longer than the corolla. Of those which have a glutinous corolla and short stamens are the vixcosa and the glauca, very nearly resembling each other, found native in North America from Maine to Georgia, grow- ing from 4 to 10 feet high, and having many varieties of flowers, either white or tinged with