Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/311

 STADIUM m. W. of Hamburg; pop. in 1871, 8,693. It is of great antiquity, and was ruled by local counts until the close of the 12th century, when the last count became archbishop of Bremen. The Elbe dues raised at Stade caused the Han- sa in 1267 to enter upon hostile proceedings. The dues were restored in 1688 under Swe- dish domination, and increased by George I., as elector of Hanover, after the annexation of the town in 1719, together with the duchy of Bremen, to his dominions ; and they were not finally abolished till 1861, when Hanover re- ceived a compensation for them of 3,100,000 thalers, Great Britain and Hamburg respec- tively contributing one third, and other mari- time nations the remainder. The fortress was ,ptured by the Prussians, June 18, 1866. STADIUM (Gr. Grddtov), originally a Grecian urse for foot races at the places where games ere celebrated, and sometimes in the gym- ia of cities where there were no games, e most celebrated stadia were those at Olym- pia, Delphi, Thebes, Epidaurus, and the Pan- athenaic at Athens. The stadium was an ob- long area terminated at one end by a straight line, and at the other by a semicircle, with ranges of seats rising above one another in steps around the circumference. The length of the stadium at Olympia was 600 Grecian ft., equal to 606 ft. 9 in. English; and from continual reference to it as a comparison, this length became used throughout Greece as the standard of measurement for itinerary dis- tances, and was subsequently adopted by the Romans, chiefly for nautical and astronomical measurement. The stadium at Ephesus was 685 ft. long and 200 ft. wide, and it was used not only as the arena for foot races, wrestling, and pugilistic combats, but also for combats with wild beasts. STADTHOLDER (Dutch, atadhouder, city hold- er or governor), the title given by certain of the United Provinces of the Netherlands to "William of Orange, who thereupon became the chief magistrate or president of those prov- inces and commander-in-chief of their forces. In 1587 Maurice, his son, was appointed stadt- holder of the United Provinces, and the dignity continued in the house of Orange, with occa- sional intermissions during which the states general governed without a stadtholder, till 1747, when William IV., of a collateral branch of the Orange family, was declared heredi- tary stadtholder. After the restoration of the Orange family in 1814, the title was exchanged for that of king. STAEL-HOLSTEIN, Anne Louise Germaine Necker de, baroness, a French authoress, born in Paris, April 22, 1766, died there, July 14, 1817. She was the only child of the finance min- ister Necker (originally of Geneva), whom she idolized, and whose fondness mitigated the excessive austerity which her mother brought to bear upon her education. She early dis- played her literary genius and brilliant con- versational power, which was much stimulated STAEL-HOLSTEIN 299 by her precocious discussions with the many learned friends of the family. She became es- pecially interested in the celebrated Matthieu de Montmorency; but her mother arranged for her a conventional marriage with the Swedish ambassador, Baron de Stael-Holstein, which at the age of 20 made her the centre and, owing to her commanding presence and intellect, the oracle of a distinguished soci- ety. She hailed with delight the revolution of 1789, but deplored its excesses ; and after de- vising a plan for the safety of the royal family, which was not acted upon, she saved Mont- morency and other friends from the guillotine, though barely escaping herself. After joining her parents at Coppet, she went to London, where she at once (1793) published an appeal in behalf of Marie Antoinette. I^ere she met Talleyrand, whom she afterward helped to return to France and to enter the ministry of foreign affairs. Under the directory she was conspicuous in Paris as a leader of the consti- tutional party in conjunction- with Benjamin Constant, and her influence was so great that Joseph Bonaparte offered to obtain for her 2,000,000 francs due to her father from the treasury, in the hope of overcoming her preju- dices against his brother Napoleon; but she resisted, though she subsequently accepted the money from Louis XVIII. She was not per- mitted to remain in Paris, and took refuge with Mme. Recamier. When she returned to the more immediate vicinity of the capital, a work published by her father (1802) served as a pretext for her banishment 40 leagues from Paris, and she went to Germany. At Weimar she became acquainted with Goethe, Schiller, the brothers Schlegel, and others, and at Ber- lin with the royal family of Prussia. In the spring of 1804 she hastened home to attend her father in his last illness, but when she reached Coppet he was dead. Broken-hearted and out of health, she sought relief in her memorable journey to Italy. In the summer of 1805 she returned to Switzerland in com- pany with August Wilhelm von Schlegel, her mentor in regard to Germany, and the instruc- tor of her children. She now alternately resi- ded at Geneva and Coppet, her chateau in the latter place (now belonging to Baron Roth- schild) being a resort of her friends, and espe- cially for some time of Mme. Recamier. For a time she was tolerated in France, but having in 1807 removed to the vicinity of Paris to confer with her publishers about Corinne and secretly visited the capital, she was ordered back to Coppet. In 1810 she made an equally unsuccessful attempt to bring out her book on Germany, taking up her residence in the coun- try house of her friend Montmorency. She was ruthlessly expelled, and although thou- sands of copies had been issued with the sanc- tion of the censorship, the work was confis- cated, no motive being assigned excepting that "it was not French," probably referring to its excessive appreciation of German thought.