OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Freeman

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​FREEMAN, primarily one who is free, as opposed to a slave or serf (see Feudalism; Slavery). The term is more specifically applied to one who possesses the freedom of a city, borough or company. Before the passing of the Municipal Corporations ​Act 1835, each English borough admitted freemen according to its own peculiar custom and by-laws. The rights and privileges of a freeman, though varying in different boroughs, generally included the right to vote at a parliamentary election of the borough, and exemption from all tolls and dues. The act of 1835 respected existing usages, and every person who was then an admitted freeman remained one, retaining at the same time all his former rights and privileges. The admission of freemen is now regulated by the Municipal Corporations Act 1882. By section 201 of that act the term “freeman” includes any person of the class whose rights and interests were reserved by the act of 1835 under the name either of freemen or of burgesses. By section 202 no person can be admitted a freeman by gift or by purchase; that is, only birth, servitude or marriage are qualifications. The Honorary Freedom of Boroughs Act 1885, however, makes an exception, as by that act the council of every borough may from time to time admit persons of distinction to be honorary freemen of the borough. The town clerk of every borough keeps a list, which is called “the freeman’s roll,” and when any person claims to be admitted a freeman in respect of birth, servitude or marriage, the mayor examines the claim, and if it is established the claimant’s name is enrolled by the town clerk.
A person may become a freeman or freewoman of one of the London livery companies by (1) apprenticeship or servitude; (2) patrimony; (3) redemption; (4) gift. This last is purely honorary. The most usual form of acquiring freedom was by serving apprenticeship to a freeman, free both of a company and of the city of London. By an act of common council of 1836 apprenticeship was permitted to freemen of the city who had not taken up the freedom of a company. By an act of common council of 1889 the term of service was reduced from seven years to four years. Freedom by patrimony is always granted to children of a person who has been duly admitted to the freedom. Freedom by redemption or purchase requires the payment of certain entrance fees, which vary with the standing of the company. In the Grocers’ Company freedom by redemption does not exist, and in such companies as still have a trade, e.g. the Apothecaries and Stationers, it is limited to members of the trade.
See W. C. Hazlitt, The Livery Companies of the City of London (1892).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Freesia

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​FREESIA, in botany, a genus of plants belonging to the Iris family (Iridaceae), and containing a single species, F. refracta, native at the Cape of Good Hope. The plants grow from a corm (a solid bulb, as in Gladiolus) which sends up a tuft of long narrow leaves and a slightly branched stem bearing a few leaves and loose one-sided spikes of fragrant narrowly funnel-shaped flowers. Several varieties are known in cultivation, differing in the colour of the flower, which is white, cream or yellow. They form pretty greenhouse plants which are readily increased from seed. They are extensively grown for the market in Guernsey, England and America. By potting successively throughout the autumn a supply of flowers is obtained through winter and spring. Some very fine large-flowered varieties, including rose-coloured ones, are now being raised by various growers in England, and are a great improvement on the older forms.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Freehold

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​FREEHOLD, in the English law of real property, an estate in land, not being less than an estate for life. An estate for a term of years, no matter how long, was considered inferior in dignity to an estate for life, and unworthy of a freeman (see Estate). “Some time before the reign of Henry II., but apparently not so early as Domesday, the expression liberum tenementum was introduced to designate land held by a freeman by a free tenure. Thus freehold tenure is the sum of the rights and duties which constitute the relation of a free tenant to his lord.” In this sense freehold is distinguished from copyhold, which is a tenure having its origin in the relation of lord and villein (see Copyhold). Freehold is also distinguished from leasehold, which is an estate for a fixed number of years only. By analogy the interest of a person who holds an office for life is sometimes said to be a freehold interest. The term customary freeholds is applied to a kind of copyhold tenure in the north of England, viz. tenure by copy of court-roll, but not, as in other cases, expressed to be at the will of the lord.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Freeport

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​FREEPORT, a city and the county-seat of Stephenson county, Illinois, in the N.W. part of the state, on the Pecatonica river, 30 m. from its mouth and about 100 m. N.W. of Chicago. Pop. (1890) 10,189; (1900) 13,258, of whom 2264 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 17,567. The city is served by the Chicago & North-Western, the Chicago, Milwaukee & St Paul, and the Illinois Central railways, and by the Rockford & Interurban electric railway. The Illinois Central connects at South Freeport, about 3 m. S. of Freeport, with the Chicago Great Western railway. Among Freeport’s manufactures are foundry and machine shop products, carriages, hardware specialties, patent medicines, windmills, engines, incubators, organs, beer and shoes. The Illinois Central has large railway repair shops here. The total value of the city’s factory product in 1905 was $3,109,302, an increase of 14.8% since 1900. In the surrounding country cereals are grown, and swine and poultry are raised. Dairying is an important industry also. The city has a Carnegie library (1901). In the Court House Square is a monument, 80 ft. high, in memory of the soldiers who died in the Civil War. At the corner of Douglas Avenue and Mechanic Street a granite boulder commemorates the famous debate between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas, held in Freeport on the 27th of August 1858. In that debate Lincoln emphasized the differences between himself and the radical anti-slavery men, and in answer to one of Lincoln’s questions Douglas declared that the people of a territory, through “unfriendly” laws or denial of legislative protection, could exclude slavery, and that “it matters not what way the Supreme Court may hereafter decide on the abstract question whether slavery may or may not go into a territory under the Constitution.” This, the so-called “Freeport doctrine,” greatly weakened Douglas in the presidential election of 1860. Freeport was settled in 1835, was laid out and named Winneshiek in 1836, and in 1837 under its present name was made the county-seat of Stephenson county. It was incorporated as a town in 1850 and chartered as a city in 1855.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Freebench

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​FREEBENCH, in English law, the interest which a widow has in the copyhold lands of her husband, corresponding to dower in the case of freeholds. It depends upon the custom of the manor, but as a general rule the widow takes a third for her life of the lands of which her husband dies seised, but it may be an estate greater or less than a third. If the husband surrenders his copyhold and the surrenderee is admitted, or if he contracts for a sale, it will defeat the widow’s freebench. As freebench is regarded as a continuation of the husband’s estate, the widow does not (except by special custom) require to be admitted.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Freeland

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​FREELAND, a borough of Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., about 20 m. S. of Wilkes-Barre, in the E. part of the state. Pop. (1890) 1730; (1900) 5254 (1339 foreign-born, many being Slavs); (1910) 6197. Freeland is served by the Lehigh Valley railway and by electric railway to Upper Lehigh (1 m. distant, served by the Central Railroad of New Jersey) and to other neighbouring places. The borough is built on Broad Mountain, nearly 2000 ft. above sea-level, and the chief industry is the mining of coal at the numerous surrounding collieries. Freeland is the seat of the Mining and Mechanical Institute of the Anthracite Region, chartered in 1894, modelled after the German Steigerschulen, with elementary and secondary departments and a night school for workmen. The borough has foundries and machine shops of considerable importance, and manufactures silk, overalls, beer and hames. Freeland was first settled about 1842, was laid out in 1870, and was incorporated in 1876.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Constance, Lake of

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​CONSTANCE, LAKE OF (called by the Romans Lacus Brigantinus or lake of Bregenz, and now usually named in German Bodensee, as well as the “Swabian Sea”), the most extensive sheet of water in the Alpine region, after the Lake of Geneva. It is situated on the north-east frontier of Switzerland, and is formed by the Rhine. Its shape is oblong, while at its north-western extremity it divides into two arms, the Untersee (from Constance to Stein-am-Rhein) and the Überlingersee (running up to Ludwigshafen). The length of the lake from Bregenz to Stein-am-Rhein is 461/2 m., while that from Bregenz to Ludwigshafen is but 40 m. Its surface is 1309 ft. above sea-level, the greatest width is 101/2 m., and the greatest depth 827 ft. The area of the lake is 2043/4 sq. m., of which 811/4 sq. m. have belonged to Switzerland since 1803, the canton of Thurgau holding 593/4 sq. m. and that of St Gall 211/2 sq. m. Austria has held Bregenz, at the south-eastern angle of the lake, since 1451, while the north end of the lake belongs to Baden (Constance held since 1805), and bits of its eastern shore form part of Württemberg (Friedrichshafen, formerly called Buchhorn, since 1810) and of Bavaria (Lindau since 1805). The first steamer was placed on its waters in 1824. Numerous remains of lake-dwellings have been found on the shores of this lake (see E. von Tröltsch, Die Pfahlbauten des Bodenseegebietes, Stuttgart, 1902). (W. A. B. C.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Constans, Jean Antoine Ernest

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​CONSTANS, JEAN ANTOINE ERNEST (1833–), French statesman, was born at Béziers. He began his career as professor of law, and in 1876 was elected deputy for Toulouse. He sat in the Left Centre and was one of the 363 of the 16th of May 1877. Re-elected in October 1877, he joined Freycinet as minister of the interior in May 1880, holding this portfolio until the 14th of November 1881. On the 22nd of February 1889 he again assumed the same office in the Tirard cabinet. He became prominent as a stalwart opponent of the Boulangist party, ​constituting the senate a high court of justice, and taking police measures against the Ligue des patriotes. He resigned on the 1st of March 1890, but his resignation involved the fall of the cabinet, and he resumed his portfolio in the Freycinet cabinet on the 17th of March. On the 29th of December 1889 he had been elected senator by the department of the Haute-Garonne. He was violently attacked by the press and the Boulangist deputies, but did not resign until the whole cabinet withdrew, on the 26th of February 1892. In December 1898 he was appointed ambassador at Constantinople.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Constant, Benjamin

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​CONSTANT, BENJAMIN (1845–1902), French painter, was born in Paris, and studied under Cabanel. His first Salon picture, “Hamlet et le Roi,” was hung in 1869, and he became at once one of the recognized modern masters in France. In addition to a number of subject-pictures, such as “Trop Tard” (1870), “Samson et Delilah” (1871), and others taken from Moroccan studies, he was an eminent painter of portraits of some of the most prominent men and women of the day, one of his last being that of Queen Victoria (1900). He was a member of the Institut de France and received several French and foreign decorations.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Constantia

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​CONSTANTIA, a district of Cape Colony, in the Cape peninsula, noted for the excellent quality of its wines, the best produced in South Africa. The government wine farm, Groot Constantia, 10 m. S. of Cape Town, contains over 150,000 vines. This and the adjacent farm of High Constantia are the only farms on which the vines yielding the finest wines flourish. The district is also celebrated for the excellence of the fruit it yields. Groot Constantia House is a good example of the Dutch colonial dwelling-houses of the 17th century. It was built (c. 1684) by the governor Simon van der Stell, and named in honour of his wife Constance. Van der Stell also laid out the vineyard, which soon attained a wide reputation. Old Cape Colony, by Mrs A. F. Trotter (London, 1903), contains a plan and sketches of Groot Constantia.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Constantine (Flavius Claudius Constantinus)

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​CONSTANTINE [Flavius Claudius Constantinus], usurper in Britain, Gaul and Spain (A.D. 407–410) during the reign of Honorius, was a common soldier, invested with the purple by his comrades in Britain by reason of his alleged descent from Constantine the Great. He at once crossed over to Bononia (Boulogne), and with the support of the Gallic troops soon made himself master of the country as far as the Alps and Pyrenees, and established his capital at Arelate (Arles). In Spain two kinsmen of Honorius, who offered considerable resistance, were finally defeated by Constans, the son of Constantine. The downfall of Stilicho caused an alteration in the policy of Honorius, who, hard pressed by the barbarians, pardoned Constantine, recognized him as joint ruler, and permitted him to confer the title of Caesar upon Constans. This gave Constantine his opportunity. With a large army he marched into Italy, avowedly to assist Honorius, in reality with the intention of making himself ruler of the West. But his plans were upset by the revolt of Gerontius. This capable general, who had been appointed commander in Spain during the absence of Constans on a visit to his father, indignant at being superseded, set up one of his own adherents as emperor, invaded Gaul, and put Constans to death at Vienna (Vienne). He then besieged Constantine himself in Arelate, but the advance of an Italian army under Constantius and Ulfilas forced him to retire. The generals of Honorius themselves continued the siege and completely defeated a body of German troops on their way to assist Constantine. The latter, seeing that further resistance was useless, took refuge in a church, laid down the imperial insignia, took orders as a priest, and surrendered the city on condition that his life should be spared. He and his younger son Julian were sent to Honorius, by whose orders they were put to death on the way to Ravenna. The revolt of Constantine materially influenced the subsequent history of Britain, since the virtual abandonment by Honorius of any claim to sovereignty over it cleared the Way for the Saxon conquest of the island.
See Zosimus v. ad fin. and vi.; Sozomen, Ecclesiastical History, ix. II foll.; Gibbon’s Decline and Fall, ed. J. B. Bury, pp. 272, 340, 502; E. A. Freeman, “Tyrants of Britain, Gaul and Spain” in English Historical Review, i. (1886); O. Seeck in Pauly-Wissowa’s Realencyclopädie, iv. pt. 1 (1900).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bouillé, François Claude Amour

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​BOUILLÉ, FRANÇOIS CLAUDE AMOUR, Marquis de (1739–1800), French general. He served in the Seven Years’ War, and as governor in the Antilles conducted operations against the English in the War of American Independence. On his return to France he was named governor of the Three Bishoprics, of Alsace and of Franche-Comté. Hostile to the Revolution, he had continual quarrels with the municipality of Metz, and brutally suppressed the military insurrections at Metz and Nancy, which had been provoked by the harsh conduct of certain noble officers. Then he proposed to Louis XVI. to take refuge in a frontier town where an appeal could be made to other nations against the revolutionists. When this project failed as a result of Louis XVI.’s arrest at Varennes, Bouillé went to Russia to induce Catherine II. to intervene in favour of the king, and then to England, where he died in 1800, after serving in various royalist attempts on France. He left Mémoires sur la Révolution française depuis son origine jusqu’à la retraite du duc de Brunswick (Paris, 1801).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Boulainvilliers, Henri

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​BOULAINVILLIERS, HENRI, Comte de (1658–1722), French political writer, was born at St Saire in Normandy in 1658. He was educated at the college of Juilly, and served in the army until 1697. He wrote a number of historical works (published after his death), of which the most important were the following: Histoire de l’ancien gouvernement de la France (La Haye, 1727); État de la France, avec des mémoires sur l’ancien gouvernement (London, 1727); Histoire de la pairie de France (London, 1753); Histoire des Arabes (1731). His writings are characterized by an extravagant admiration of the feudal system. He was an aristocrat of the most pronounced type, attacking absolute monarchy on the one hand and popular government on the other. He was at great pains to prove the pretensions of his own family to ancient nobility, and maintained that the government should be entrusted solely to men of his class. He died in Paris on the 23rd of January 1722.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Boulay de la Meurthe, Antoine Jacques Claude Joseph

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​BOULAY DE LA MEURTHE, ANTOINE JACQUES CLAUDE JOSEPH, Comte (1761–1840), French politician and magistrate, son of an agricultural labourer, was born at Chamousey (Vosges) on the 19th of February 1761. Called to the bar at Nancy in 1783, he presently went to Paris, where he rapidly acquired a reputation as a lawyer and a speaker. He supported the revolutionary cause in Lorraine, and fought at Valmy (1792) and Wissembourg (1793) in the republican army. But his moderate principles brought suspicion on him, and during the Terror he had to go into hiding. He represented La Meurthe in the Council of Five Hundred, of which he was twice president, but his views developed steadily in the conservative direction. Fearing a possible renewal of the Terror, he became an active member of the plot for the overthrow of the Directory in November 1799. He was rewarded by the presidency of the legislative commission formed by Napoleon to draw up the new constitution; and as president of the legislative section of the council of state he examined and revised the draft of the civil code. In eight years of hard work as director of a special land commission he settled the titles of land acquired by the French nation at the Revolution, and placed on an unassailable basis the rights of the proprietors who had bought this land from the government. He received the grand cross of the Legion of Honour and the title of count, was a member of Napoleon’s privy council, but was never in high favour at court. After Waterloo he tried to obtain the recognition of Napoleon II. He was placed under surveillance at Nancy, and later at Halberstadt and Frankfort-on-Main. He was allowed to return to France in 1819, but took no further active part in politics, although he presented himself unsuccessfully for parliamentary election in 1824 and 1827. He died in Paris on the 4th of February 1840. He published two books on English history—Essai sur les causes qui, en 1649, amenèrent en Angleterre l’établissement de la république (Paris, 1799), and Tableau politique des regnes de Charles II et Jacques II, derniers rois de la maison de Stuart (The Hague, 1818)—which contained much indirect criticism of the Directory and the Restoration governments. He devoted the last years of his life to writing his memoirs, which, with the exception of a fragment on the Théorie constitutionnelle de Sieyès (1836), remained unpublished.
His elder son, Comte Henri Georges Boulay de la Meurthe (1797–1858), was a constant Bonapartist, and after the election of Louis Napoleon to the presidency, was named (January 1849) vice-president of the republic. He zealously promoted popular education, and became in 1842 president of the society for elementary instruction.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Boulder (Colorado)

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​BOULDER, a city and the county-seat of Boulder county, Colorado, U.S.A., about 30 m. N.W. of Denver. Pop. (1890) 3330; (1900) 6150 (693 foreign-born); (1910) 9539. It is served by the Union Pacific, the Colorado & Southern, and the Denver, Boulder & Western railways; the last connects with the neighbouring mining camps, and affords fine views of mountain scenery. Boulder lies about 5300 ft. above the sea on Middle Boulder Creek, a branch of the St Vrain river about 30 m. from its confluence with the Platte, and has a beautiful situation in the valley at the foot of the mountains. The state university of Colorado, established at Boulder by an act of 1861, was opened in 1877; it includes a college of liberal arts, school of medicine (1883), school of law (1892), college of engineering (1893), graduate school, college of commerce (1906), college of education (1908), and a summer school (1904), and has a library of about 42,000 volumes. There are a fine park of 2840 acres, the property of the city, and three beautiful cañons near Boulder. At the southern limits, in a beautiful situation 400 ft. above the city, are the grounds of an annual summer school, the Colorado Chautauqua. The climate is beneficial for those afflicted with bronchial and pulmonary troubles; the average mean annual temperature for eleven years ending with 1907 was 51° F. There are medicinal springs in the vicinity. The water-works are owned and operated by the city, the water being obtained from lakes at the foot of the Arapahoe Peak glacier in the Snowy Range, 20 m. from the city. The surrounding country is irrigated, and successfully combines agriculture and mining. There are ore sampling works and brick-making establishments. Oil and natural gas abound in the vicinity; there are oil refineries in the city; and in Boulder county, especially at Nederland, 18 m. south-west, and at Eldora, about 22 m. south-west of the city, has been obtained since 1900 most of the tungsten mined in the United States; the output in 1907 was valued at about $520,000. The first settlement near the site of Boulder was made in the autumn of 1858. Placer gold was discovered on an affluent of Boulder Creek in January 1859. The town was laid out and organized in February 1859, and a city charter was secured in 1871 and another in 1882.