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* PORTAGE. 261 PORT ARTHUR. It has a public library, and among the prominent buildings are the high school and the city hall. Portage is the commercial centre of a productive farming section, and manufactures hosiery and knit goods, brick, flour, etc. The government is administered, under a charter of 1900, by a mayor elected biennially and a unicameral coun- cil. There are municipal water-works. Portage was settled in 1835 and was chartered as a city in 1854, having been first incorporated two years earlier. Xear the city limits are the remains of old Fort Winnebago, which was built in 1828. Population, in 1890, 5143; in 1900, 5459. PORTAL (OF. porta}, Fr. portail, from ilL. portale, entrance, vestibule, neu. sg. of pur- talis, relating to a gate, from Lat. porta, gate). A doorway or gateway ; and, by extension, an architectural structure having for its chief object the inclosing and containing of such doorway, or several doorways. The French term, portail, of similar meaning, is often applied to the whole west front of a church, or to the northern or southern transept-front, or to the lower part of such a front in which the doorwa.ys are opened. This usage has influenced English writers to a certain extent, and the group of doorways at one front or flank of a building, with the architec- tural accessories, such as gables, canopies, columns, and the like, is often a portal. The parte cochere of a large French building, that is, the great doorway through which a carriage or wagon can be driven, is properly called a portal. The portal and the porch (q.v. ) are not to be separated absolutely. Thus where, as in the Palazzo Canossa at Verona, there is a triple arch- way of entrance, the three arches taken together may be considered a portal of three openings; or the square hall into which they lead, taken with the arches, may be considered a porch, in which case the arches in the outer wall form a part of it. PORTALEGRE, pOr'ta-la'gra. The capital of the district of the same name in Portugal, situated near the Spanish frontier, 95 miles northeast of Lisbon. It is a fortified town, and has a handsome cathedral. It manufactures woolen goods, and cork is obtained in the vicinity. Population, in 1900, 11,893. PORTALIS, por'ta'les', Jean Etienne :Marie (174G-1807I, A French jurist and statesman, born at Le Beausset, near Toulon. He studied law at the University of Aix and in 1765 was admitted to practice before the provincial Parliament. Charged with a commission to investigate the legal status of the Protestants in France, he pub- lished in 1771 Coiisultation -tur la validite des mariiifies des protestants en France, in which he established the character of marriage as a civil contract, the general tone of the work being wholly favorable to religious toleration. From 1778 to 1782 he was provincial assessor of Provence, returning subsequently to the practice of law. Always moderate in his views, Portalis retired to his estate when the Revolution entered upon its stormy phase. He was compelled to flee to Lyons and thence to Paris, where in December, 1793, he was arrested. He was liberated on the fall of Robespierre and in 1795 was elected to the Council of. cients. of which in June of the fol- lowing year he became president. His clemency to the adherents of the old regime aroused the hostility of the Directors, and after the coup d'etat of the 18th Fructidor (September 4, 1797) he escaped deportation by seeking refuge abroad. Returning in 1800, he was made by Xapoleon a member of the commission charged with the prep- aration of a civil code. He took a most important part in the labors of the commission, for which he was peculiarh' fitted by his extensive knowledge of the civil law. After the conclusion of the Concordat (1801) Portalis was intrusted with the task of formulating a body of supplementary rules to serve as a basis for tlie administrative jjolicv of the State with regard to the Catholic religion. Made Minister of Public Worship in 1804, he effected important changes in the organi- zation of religious instruction. In 1806 he became a member of the Academy. He died in Paris August 2.5, 1807. Consult: Lavolee, Portalis, sa vie et ses osuvres (Paris, 1869) ; Sainte-Beuve, Causeries du lundi, vol. v. (Paris, 1852). PORTAL VEIN. See Livek; Circulation. PORTA MAGGIORE, por'ta mad-jo'ra. The ancient Porta Pr;tnestina at Rome, a gate with two arches, one of which is now closed, through which issued the Via Proenestina and the Via Labicana. It was the meeting-place of the water systems of the ancient citj', and was originally designed to carry the Aqua Claudia and the Anio Vetus over the two roads. Its inscriptions record its construction and restorations. It was included as a gate in tl5e walls of Aurelian. Dur- ing the restoration of the walls by Arcadius and Honorius the level of its threshold was raised ten feet by the leveling of the accumulated rubbish. POR'TAMEN'TO (It., carriage). A musical term used to denote the sustaining of the voice in passing from one note to another. In legato the voice passes directly from one tone to the next, while in portamento it passes through all intermediate tones. But this passing is so rapid that no single tone is heard separately. The ef- fect of portamento can best be attained upon a stringed instrument played with a bow. The finger quickly glides along the string from one note to the next. PORTA NIGRA, por'ta ne'gra (Lat., Black Gate). A famous gateway of Treves, dating probably from the fourth century a.d. It is constructed of sandstone, and is blackened with age. whence its name. The gate was closed by a portcullis and fortified by two towers, one of which was occupied early in the eleventh cen- tury by Simeon, a Cireek hermit, and from this fact the gate is called also Simeonsthor. A num- ber of Roman antiquities are preserved in the interior. PORT ANTO'NIO. A seaport town on the northern coast of .Jamaica (Map: Cuba, J 8). It is the second commercial town of the island and is the centre of the fruit trade. It is connected by rail with Kingston. PORTA PR.a:'NESTI'NA. See Porta IMag- GIORE. PORT AR'THTIR (Chin. Lii-shun E'ow). A town and strongly fortified naval station near the Lao T'ich Shan promontory of the peninsular por- tion of the Manchurian province of Shing-king or Fung-t'ien fu. leased by China to Russia with cer- tain adjacent territory for a period of 25 years under an agreement dated ilarch 27. 1898 (Map: China, F 4). The object of Russia was to secure