Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 07.djvu/581

* FENELON FALLS. 529 FENIAN SOCIETY. FENELON FALLS. A township of Victoria County, Ontario, Canada, 10 miles north of Lind- say, between Cameron and Sturgeon Lakes (Map: Ontario, E 3). II- name i- associated with a picturesque waterfall 20 feet high and 300 feet wide. It lias lumber industries and river traffic. Population, in 1891, 1219; in 1901, 1132. FEN'ESTEL'LA (I.at.. little window). A fossil polyzoan found in rocks of Ordovician I" Permian age and especially abundant in those of tin- Devonian and Lower Carboniferous series. The fragile colonies formed by tin imals are fan-shaped or funnel-form, and when examined with a lens are seen to consist of radial branches that diverge from a common rootstock and that bear on their inner surfaces the minute cells in which lived the individual animals. These radial branches are joined by frequent horizontal threads that give rigidity to the network. For illustra- tion, see Polyzoa. FENESTELLA (c. 51 B.a-19 A.D.). A Roman historian who flourished under Augustus, and, according to the elder Pliny and Jerome, died at the age of seventy, during the reign of Tibe- rius. He wrote a work of twenty-two volumes, entitled Annates, from which Plutarch derived some material for his Lives of distinguished Romans, and which was used as an authority by Asconius Pedianus in his commentaries on Cicero's orations. The few fragments preserved relate almost exclusively to events subsequent to the Carthaginian wars, but whether the work embraced all or only a portion of the period from the foundation of Rome to the downfall of the Republic cannot be determined. It is certain, however, that it included the greater part of Cicero's career. The De Sacerdotiis ct Magistra- films Romanorum, which was formerly attributed to Fenestella, was the work of Fiocchi, a native of Florence who lived during the fourteenth cen- tury. The fragments of the Annates are col- lected in Peter's Historicorum Romanorum Frag- menta (Leipzig, 1883). Consult: Mercklin, De Fenestelta Historico ct Porta (Dorpat, 1844): and Poeth, De Fencstetta Historiarum Hcriptore (Bonn. 1849). FENG-HWANG, feng'hwang'. See Fung- IIWAXG. FENIAN SOCIETY. A political association of Trish and Irish-Americans, the object of which was the overthrow of English authority in Ire- land, and the establishment of a republic there. It has been said, and is generally supposed, that the movement originated in America, and was transplanted to Ireland : but, as a matter of fact, the plans for both the Irish and American organi- zations were drawn in Paris by a small group of (he Irish revolutionary exiles of 1848. The Irish Society was organized by the efforts of .Tames Stephens, who in 1S53 traveled through Ireland, and organized the small centres of dis- affection into a powerful conspiracy. It was necessarily secret, and known as the Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood (popularly called I. R. B.). Its aim was to convert the peo- ple of Treland into a soldiery capable of resisting the British Army. Stephens him- self was the absolute military head, known as chief organizer (C. O.). He was assi-te.l by four executive officers (one for each Irish province), known as 'W (vice-organizers), and en by himself. The A"-' selected A'-' (col- onel.,), «ho in turn selected '!'•'- (captains choose and drill the '(V I private-; ; who were all able-bodied men capable of bearing arms. The political programme of the Brotherhood content plated the establishment of an independent re public based on universal suffrage, an, l peasant proprietorship of the land. The po--o — ions of hostile landlords were to be confi cated ami optional purchase was to be made at fair pi in ol her cases. Church property wa- to bo eon fiscated, and the clergy were to lie paid by tin' Mate. All religions were to lie alike before the law. The American society was organized at the same time by John O'Mahoney, according to the arrangements made in Paris, hut did not obtain a really good footing until the arrival of Stephens in 1858. Its principal object was to supply money and arms to the Irish branch. In Amer- ica the ability to bear arms was ii"i a necessary qualification for membership. At the head was 1 1 Mahoney, called the head centre, who appointed his own central treasurer, assistant, treasurer, and central secretaries. ]]{■ also commissioned State centres, on the recommendation of delegates from circles. The State centres eommis-ionod district centres, who in their turn organized circles (local associations). The membership dues were nominal, but the society received large -unis as voluntary contributions. The Fenian convention, which met in Chicago in October. 1863, made the constitution of the society more democratic, by making the office of head centre elective. The growth of the Fenian Society was very rapid. The American branch quickly spread into Canada, and the Irish branch into western England and Scotland. The funeral of .Terence McManus, an exile of 1848, who died in San Francisco, gave occasion for demonstrations of mourning in America and Ireland, which greatly increased the number of Fenians. Two newspa- pers, The Phcenix in Xew York, and The Irish People in Dublin, were the official organs of the societ}'. The effort of the Fenians made to win over Irish soldiers in the British Army is claimed to have been successful, but this is denied. Being a secret society in Ireland, it necessarily fell under the ban of the Catholic hierarchy, although the lower clergy sympathized with and in some cases participated in the movement. In America the clergy were divided in sentiment. The Civil War in the United States gave the Fenians a great opportunity to obtain military training. A large part of the Irish soldier- en- gaged on both sides in the struggle were Fe- nians, and at the end of the war there was a formidable number of trained soldiers ready to fight for Ireland. It was believed in Irish circles that a definite understanding existed between the federal (Jovernment and the head centre to the effect that after the war in America was ended the Fenians should receive material assistance. When the American officers went to Ireland to assist in drilling and leading the expected re- cruits, they found the organization not sufficient- ly advanced for active military measures. Meanwhile the British Government had kept itself informed of the movement by the aid of informers and spies. In 1865 it suddenly sus- pended the habeas corpus act and caused the chief leaders of the Brotherhood to be arrested. Stephens escaped from prison and fled to America,