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 POTENZA shin (2 vols., St. Petersburg, 1811); "Memoirs of Prince Potemkin" (London, 1814); and Memoires de la cour de Russie il y a cent cms. by Prince de Ligne (1859). POTENZA. I. A province of S. Italy, also known as Basilicata, (See BASILICATA.) II. A town, capital of the province, on the E. slope of the Apennines, 83 m. E. S. E. of Naples ; pop. about 19,000. It contains old walls, a handsome cathedral of the Doric order, a royal college, and a lyceum. Cotton, woollens, leather, and earthenware are manufactured. It has repeatedly suffered from earthquakes, especially in 1857. In the middle ages it was important, but was destroyed by Frederick II. and Charles of Anjou, and never fully recov- ered. The remains of the ancient city of Potentia are at La Murata, in the valley below the modern town. POTHIER, Robert Joseph, a French jurist, born in Orleans, Jan. 9, 1699, died there, March 2, 1772. He was judge successively of the court of the Chatelet in Orleans and of the pre- sidial, and in 1749 professor of French law. His principal work is his Pandectce Justini- anece in Novum Ordinem digests (3 vols. fol., Paris and Chartres, 1748-'52). His treatise on "Maritime Contracts" has been translated by Caleb Gushing (Boston, 1821); "Contracts of Sale," by L. S. Gushing (Boston, 1839); and "The Law of Obligations or Contracts," by W. D. Evans (Philadelphia, 1840). POTI, a fortified town of Russia, in the Cau- casian government of KutaiB, at the mouth of the Phasis, on the Black sea, 160 m. in a direct line W. N. W. of Tiflis, with which it is connected by rail; pop. about 7,000. The population increases rapidly despite the un- healthy climate. The lack of a safe harbor is the chief drawback. Nevertheless the foreign and coasting trade and the transit trade with Persia amounted in 1873 to about $8,000,000. The inward and outward foreign vessels (most- ly Russian) number in the aggregate 893, ton- nage 216,924. The principal imports are man- ufactured goods and tobacco; the staple ex- ports are silk, cocoons, and wool. POTOCKI, a Polish family of counts, the most prominent of whom are the following. 1. Stan- Islaw Felix, field marshal of the Polish artillery, born in 1745, died in 1803. He published with Rzewuski and Branicki, in 1792, the famous manifesto of the confederation of Targovitza, and was active in promoting its objects with the aid of the empress Catharine II. in 1793 ; but after the uprising of Poland under Kos- ciuszko in 1794, he took refuge in the United States, and was condemned to death as a trai- tor to his country. The victories of Suvaroff restored him to his native land, and Catha- rine made him field marshal. He passed the rest of his life principally on his estates in the Ukraine, suffering remorse for his political acts. II. Ignacy, grand marshal of Lithuania, cousin of the preceding, born in 1751, died in 1809. He was "one of the framers of the constitution POTOMAC 773 of May 3, 1791, and, when the Russian inva- sion took place, was obliged to flee to Prussia. The success of Kosciuszko called him back to Warsaw, where he became a member of the new government, but was captured by Suvaroff and conveyed as a state prisoner to Schliissel- burg. In 1796 he received his freedom from Paul, and went to Galicia, where he lived in retirement until the approach of Napoleon's army in 1806, when he was imprisoned a second time, but was released after a few months. lU. Stanislaw Kostka, brother of the preceding, born in 1757, died Sept. 14, 1821. He zealous- ly cooperated in framing the constitution of May 3, 1791, and after the second partition of Poland was arrested by order of the Austrian government. Released after some months, he devoted himself to the study of the arts, sci- ences, and literature. At the organization of the duchy of Warsaw in 1807, he became head of the board of education, and in 1815 was made minister of public instruction in the new- ly organized kingdom of Poland. He wrote " On Eloquence and Style " (4 vols., Warsaw, 1815), and on the "Art of the Ancients" (3 vols., Warsaw, 1815, unfinished), after Winck- elmann. His eloquence was greatly admired. IV. Jan, a historian, born in 1761, died in 1815. His most important works are: Voyage en Turquie et en .figypte fait en 1784 (Warsaw, 1788) ; Chroniques, memoires et recherches pour servir a Vhistoire de tons les peuples slaves (1793) ; Fragments Mstoriques et geographiques sur la Scythie, la Sarmatie et les Slaves (4 vols., Brunswick, 1796); and Histoire primitive des peuples de la Russie (St. Petersburg, 1802). Only 100 copies of each of these books were printed. POTOMAC, a large river of the United States, constituting nearly the whole boundary be- tween Maryland on the one hand and Virginia and West Virginia on the other, and formed by the junction of the North and South branches on the N. border of West Virginia. The North branch rises in the Alleghanies in the north of this state, and the South branch in the Shenandoah range on the border of Vir- ginia and West Virginia, From the junction, which is about 20 m. S. E. of Cumberland, its course forms an irregular curve, first N. E. and then generally S. E., until it reaches the city of Washington. Thence flowing S. and S. W., it expands into an estuary from 6 to 8 m. broad, and after a course of 40 m. again changes to S. E. for about 70 m., and enters Chesapeake bay 75 m. from the Atlantic, the entire length being nearly 400 m. Its prin- cipal tributary is the Shenandoah, which en- ters it just W. of the Blue Ridge. Several other streams, but none of considerable size, also contribute to its volume. Of these the principal are the Savage and Monocacy rivers, and the Conegocheague, Patterson, Occoquan, and Aquia creeks, all of which are navigable for short distances. The tide extends to George- town, 125 m. from its mouth, and it is naviga-