ABATTOIR. 



ABBEY. 



formed, either "simply by laying down and fastening the trees, or, if 

 when so placed they would be too high to fire over, by sinking them 

 in a ditch whose section is an angle with its longest slope towards the 

 enemy. They are sometimes formed against the counterscarp of a 

 rampart, sometimes in the covered way, and may generally be used 

 wherever an obstruction is to be raised to the enemy's progress, pro- 

 vided they can be flanked by a fire sufficient to prevent his destroying 

 theui at his leisure. 



ABATTOIR. An abattoir is the French name for a slaughter-house. 

 The existing French system was first adopted at Paris in 1817, and 

 completed in 1818. There are three abattoirs on the north side of 

 Paris, and two on the south side, not far from the barriers, and about 

 two miles from the centre of the city. The cattle markets for the 

 supply of Paris are several miles distant, and the cattle are driven 

 from them round the exterior boulevards to the abattoirs, and conse- 

 quently do not enter the city. At one of the abattoirs each butcher 

 has his slaughter-house, a place for keeping the meat, an iron rack for 

 fat, pang for melting it, and a place with convenience for giving cattle 

 hay and water, and where they may be kept before being slaughtered. 

 A fixed sum is charged for this accommodation, the charge for cattle 

 being a franc and a half per head, and the blood, brains, and entrails. 

 In some of the abattoirs, two or three butchers use the same slaughter- 

 house. There are 240 slaughter-houses in all. The income of the 

 establishment, arising from these fees, the sale of manure, &c., was 

 above 48,0001. ill 1842. An inspector is appointed at each abattoir, and 

 means are taken to prevent unwholesome meat being sold. The manu- 

 factories of glue, gelatine, Prussian blue, hoof-oil, blood-manure, and 

 other chemicals produced from offal, are conveniently placed near the 

 abattoirs. Much of the fat is melted down at the abattoirs, and tripe 

 is also prepared within the establishment!). An excellent account of 

 the abattoirs at Montmartre will be found in ' Household Words,' vol. ii. 

 p. 556 ; and another in Head's ' Faggot of French Sticks.' There are 

 slaughter-houses under public regulations in most of the Continental 

 cities ; and those of New York and Philadelphia, and some other of 

 the cities of the American Union, are, it is said, placed on a similar 

 footing. 



The great cattle-market in Smithfield, for the supply of London, 

 existed above five centuries, but the spot was originally a piece of waste 

 ground beyond the city, instead of being, as at present, surrounded by 

 a dense population. The cattle sold for the London market amount 

 annually to about 240,000, the sheep to about 1,700,000, calves 28,000, 

 and pigs 35,000. A large proportion of these are slaughtered within the 

 limit* of the metropolis. There are slaughtermen who kill for other 

 butchers frequently above a hundred head of cattle, and perhaps five or 

 ix hundred sheep, every week ; many butchers kill for themselves to a 

 considerable extent, and there are few who have not accommodation 

 for slaughtering and dressing a few sheep, either in the cellar under- 

 neath their shop, or in the rear of their premises. The slaughter- 

 houses for sheep in Newgate Market, many of which are in cellars, and 

 in Warwick Lane, are close to Newgate Street, and within a hundred 

 and fifty yards of Ludgate Street, two of the great thoroughfares of 

 London. 



The inconveniences attending the system of having the cattle- 

 market and the slaughter-houses in the midst of the metropolis were 

 seriously felt ; and, after a long opposition on the part of the city 

 authorities, an Act of Parliament was passed in August 1851 for 

 removing it to a spot of ground of about 15 acres, between the Cale- 

 donian Road and Maiden Lane, on the north of London. The 

 execution was intrusted to the corporation of the city of London. 

 It was undertaken and carried out in a liberal spirit. Considerable 

 architectural merit is shown in the designs for the various buildings 

 aii'l the surrounding wall Excellent accommodation has been pro- 

 vided for the animals, with a large supply of water for them and for 

 cleansing the market, and facilities for the transaction of business, by the 

 erection of banking-houses, hotels, &c. When completed, the old market 

 in Smithfielrl was closed on September llth, 1855, and the new one 

 opened on September 13th. It provides space for about 35,000 sheep, 

 8600 oxen, 1425 calves, and 900 pigs; with lairage for 3000 oxen and 

 8000 sheep. There are two public slaughter-houses, at which 600 oxen 

 can be killed weekly, the only approach made in the metropolis to 

 the abattoir system; but still the greater proportion of beasts and 

 sheep are driven through the crowded streets of the metropolis to be 

 killed at private slaughter-houses, many yet remaining in Warwick 

 Lsne and the vicinity of Newport Market. But strenuous attempts 

 have 'been made to lessen the nuisance even in these. By the Towns 



.vement Act (10 & 11 Viet. cap. 34, 1857), they have to be regis- 

 tered and licensed ; even for those in which private butchers slaughter 

 t home powers of inspection are given, and provision is made for the 

 removal of offal and ordure. These regulations are not confined to the 



l*>lis, but are extended to all towns i and the execution of the 

 (irovisions of the Act were intrusted to Boards of Health, and are now, 

 by the Local Government Act (21 & 22 Viet. cap. 98), transferred to 

 tin- municipality or other governing body of the town or place ; but as 

 the adoption of this Act is optional, the supervision in many places 



no with the Boards of Health, or has not been brought into 

 operation. These Act* are confined to England nnd Wales; but in 

 Edinburgh an abattoir has been provided that may be a model to 

 municipalities who may concern themselves for public good, and many 



other towns have provided themselves with excellent abattoirs within 

 the last few years. In these places, however, the use of the abattoir is 

 not compulsory and private slaughter-houses continue to exist in most 

 if not in all of them. 



ABBfi is the French term for Abbot. In France, before the Revo- 

 lution, Abb was the denomination of a very numerous body of 

 persons, who had little or no connection with the Church, except the 

 apparent one which they derived from this title, which frequently 

 occurs in the literary and political history of that period. Many of 

 them had not even received the tonsure, which is, in Roman Catholic 

 countries, the first and indispensable mark of the clerical character. 

 So far back as the end of the 17th century, we find Richelet, the 

 lexicographer, complaining that there was scarcely a young man, 

 tolerably well made, and who had acquired the air of an ecclesiastic, 

 who did not, by an insufferable abuse, assume the style of Monsieur 

 l'Abb(S. Another author, Mercier, writing a century later, describes, 

 with some asperity, the effeminate manners and dandyism of the same 

 class of characters. The abbds occupied a very conspicuous place in 

 French society, and discharged a variety of domestic functions. Many 

 of the abbe's however followed a more useful and creditable way of 

 life. Some acted as private tutors in families, though these were sel- 

 dom treated with much respect, and were consequently in general 

 persons of very inferior qualifications. Others were professors of the 

 university ; and a great many employed themselves as men of letters, 

 in which capacity their labours have given to the title of Abbe an 

 honourable celebrity, and redeemed it from the universal contempt to 

 which swarms of frivolous and intriguing sycophants would otherwise 

 have reduced it. 



ABBES COMMENDATAIRES, were such abbe's as held abbeys in 

 commendam, that is, with the right of administering their revenues, 

 or a part of them. There were, before the Revolution, between 200 

 and 300 abbeys in France, which the king had the privilege of con- 

 ferring hi commendam ; and it was the expectation of obtaining one 

 of these benefices which induced so many persons to take the title of 

 Abbe\ Before obtaining such preferment, they used to be called Abbes 

 de tainte esplrance, abbes of holy hope. After they were thus provided 

 for, they were Abbes Commendataires. The papal bull, which ratified 

 their appointment, commanded them in all cases to get themselves 

 ordained priests within the year, or as soon as they should arrive at the 

 canonical age (five-and-twenty) on pain of the benefice being declared 

 vacant ; but it was common to obtain dispensations for disregarding 

 this condition, and most of them remained Secular Abbe's. The Abb4 

 Commendataire received the third part of the revenues of his abbey, 

 and also enjoyed certain dignities and privileges which it is unnecessary 

 to specify ; but the actual goveniment of the house was committed to 

 the hands of a resident superior, the prieur claustral, who was in 

 almost all respects quite independent of the sinecurist, his colleague. 



ABBESS, the superior of a nunnery, or other female religious com- 

 munity. An abbess, in the Roman Catholic Church, possesses, in 

 general, the same dignity and authority as an abbot, except that she 

 cannot exercise the spiritual functions appertaining to the priest- 

 hood. According to a decree of the Council of Trent, an abbess, at 

 the time of her election, ought to be at least forty years old, and to 

 have made profession for eight years. It is forbidden that any person 

 be elected to the dignity who has not been professed for five years, 

 or is under thirty years of age. 



ABBEY, a religious community presided over by an abbot or abbess. 

 When the superior was denominated a prior, the establishment was 

 called a priory ; but there was latterly no real distinction between a 

 priory and an abbey. The priories appear to have been all originally 

 off-shoots from certain abbeys, to which they continued for some time 

 to be regarded as subordinate. The wealthiest abbeys, in former times, 

 were in Germany ; and of all such foundations in the world, the most 

 splendid and powerful was that of Fulda, or Fulden, situated near the 

 town of the same name in Franconia. This monastery, which belonged 

 to the order of St Benedict, was founded by St. Boniface, in the year 

 784. Every candidate for admission was required to prove his nobility. 

 The monks elected their abbot from their own number; and that digni- 

 tary became, by right of his office, Arch-Chancellor to the Empress, and 

 Prince Bishop of the diocese of Fulda. He claimed precedence over all 

 the other abbots both of Germany and of France. One of the first 

 effects of the Reformation both in England and in Germany was the 

 destruction of the religious houses; although, even in the Protestant 

 parts of the latter country, a few male and female monastic commu- 

 nities still subsist. In England their extinction was complete. The 

 preface to Bishop Tanner's ' Notitia Monastica ' may be consulted for 

 the most accurate account that has been given of the number and 

 revenues of the English monasteries at the time of the dissolution. 

 From this statement, it appears that, by the Act of Parliament passed 

 in 1535 for the suppression of all those having a less revenue than 

 200?. a-year, about 380 houses were dissolved ; from whose possessions 

 the crown derived a revenue of 32,OOOJ., besides plate and jewels to the 

 value of about 100,0002. By an act passed in 1539, all the remaining 

 monasteries were suppressed, to the number of 186 ; the revenues of 

 these amounted to 100,OOOJ. per annum. Besides the monasteries, 

 48 houses of the knights hospitallers of St. John were also confiscated 

 to the crown. Other authorities make the wealth of the monastic 

 establishments much greater than it would appear to have been from 



