Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/271

 CONSTABLE in France. It was abolished by Henry VIII., and has not since been revived except for special occasions, as on trials of peers, corona- tions, &c. An office with a similar title has existed in Scotland to the present day, but it is now merely honorary. From the same der- ivation comes the designation of an inferior common law executive officer in England and America. Constables in England are of two kinds, the constable of the hundred, usually called the high constable, and the constable of the vill or tithing, called the petty consta- ble or tithingman. Special constables are also sworn in by the justices on special occasions when a breach of the peace is feared or exists. Constables serve the process of justices of the peace, and they also act generally as conser- vators of the peace, and rnay arrest without warrant any person committing a breach of the peace in their presence; and on reason- able suspicion that a felony has been commit- ted, they may arrest and detain for examina- tion the supposed offender; but they cannot arrest without warrant for a mere misdemeanor not committed in their presence. CONSTABLE, Archibald, a Scottish publisher, born in Fifeshire, Feb. 24, 1774, died July 21, 1827. After serving an appren- ticeship to a bookseller, he opened a small shop in Edinburgh in 1795 for the sale of old books and works on Scottish his- tory and literature. In 1801 he undertook the publication of the "Scots Magazine" and "Farm- er's Magazine." Upon the establishment of the " Edinburgh Review " in 1802 he became its pub- lisher. In 1803 he commenced the " Edin- burgh Medical and Surgical Journal," and in 1805 published Sir Walter Scott's "Lay of the Last Minstrel." With the exception of the first series of the " Tales of my Landlord," he pub- lished all of Scott's works down to the year 1826, as well as the works of Dugald Stewart and other eminent Scotchmen. He also became proprietor of the " Encyclopaedia Britannica," to which he published a supplement. In 1825 he commenced "Constable's Miscellany," but a few months afterward became bankrupt in the commercial revulsion of that year, Sir Walter Scott being liable for most of his debts. See "Archibald Constable and his Literary Cor- respondents," edited by his son, Thomas Con- stable (3 vols., Edinburgh, 1873). CONSTABLE, John, an English landscape paint- er, born at East Bergholt, Suffolk, in 1776, died in London, March 30, 1837. In 1800 he was admitted a student of the royal acade- CONSTANCE 267 my. He had a thorough contempt for the con- ventionalities of the art, and when asked by Sir George Beaumont what style he intended to adopt, replied, " None but God Almighty a style." His subjects were rural landscapes with figures, and he was fond of depicting all the phenomena connected with rain storms, the effects of dew on the grass or foliage, and other transient minutisB. Among the best of his works are the " Valley Farm," in the Ver- non gallery, and the " Corn Field," in the na- tional gallery. In 1829 he was elected a royal academician. See " Memoirs of John Consta- ble, R. A., chiefly from his Letters," by C. R. Leslie, R. A. (enlarged ed., 1845). CONSTANCE. I. (&w.Eon8tanz,OTKo8tnitz; anc. Constantia), a city of Baden, on the S. shore of Lake Constance, or rather on the nar- row channel which connects the lake with its N. W. arm, the Untersee, 73 m. E. N. E. of Basel ; pop. in 1871, 10,052. It is walled and defend- ed by towers and a ditch. The most interest- ing building is the minster, begun in 1052, re- Constance. built in the 16th century, and within a few years ornamented with a spire and tower of open work. The nave is supported by 16 pillars, each of a single block 18 ft. high, and there is a splendid altar> and many relics and works of art. In the merchants' hall, once a Carthusian monastery, is the room in which the. council of Constance was held. The city abounds in memorials of John Huss and Jerome of Prague, who were executed here. The manufactures embrace cotton cloth, yarn, silk, musical instruments, clocks, and watches. Fishing, navigation, and agriculture employ numbers of the inhabitants. The trade is con- siderable, and steam communication is kept up with other towns on the lake. A bridge connects the city with the opposite suburb of Peterhausen. Constance was formerly a free imperial town, but was annexed to the posses- sions of the house of Austria in 1549, and by the latter ceded to Baden in 1805. II. Lake