ITS 



ARAM. EUGENE. 



ARANDA, COCHT OF. 



176 



exert a powerful influence on the magnetic needle, particularly whan 

 in movement Bach metal* appeared to Iwcome magnetic by mecha- 

 Diol moUoo- phenomenon which hu since been referred by Faraday 

 to general Uwi of magnetic induction. 



In 1828 Ango wm ehoern a member of the Bureau de* Longitude*, 

 and from 1824 till hi* death the Annuaire,' publUhed by the board, 

 contain*! a notice oa some (dentine cubjcet from hit pen M delightful 

 M instructive " They will iilwave be repenued," aty* M. Combe*. 

 president of the academy. " with the tame pleuure by mm of trimce 

 and by the ordinary reader. In them we find on admirable, clearness, 

 with an erudition u correct a* it U extendvr, and joine I thereto the 

 moet rigorous accuracy in the statement of the phenomena, and the 

 eoeaequeneai wbioh remit from them." Arago won the position and 

 honour be moet prued in 1830. when on the death of Fourier he WM 

 eUeted Perpetual Secretary of the Academy. And now the duty 

 devolved upon him of writing thoee 'clog**' of deceased member* 

 which are among the most interesting of his literary production* 

 graceful in style, and abundant in anecdote and illustration. They 

 appeared to be written with a fluent pen ; but be wu a alow composer, 

 and only acquired hie felicities of expression by real and repeated hard 

 work of mind and hand. In the came year he wai appointed Director 

 of the Observatory. 



la 1834 Arago Tinted Eogland a lecond time, and attended the 

 meting of the British Aaiociation at Edinburgh. He continued hi* 

 eatanllno insnsrrhss. among which are the discovery of a neutral point 

 in the polarisation of the atmosphere determination of the synchro- 

 nona pertorbation* of the magnetic needle at place* wido apart, by 

 obeatisUons earned on simultaneously with Kupfler at Kuan and 

 the suggestion of a decisive proof of the truth of the undulatory 

 theory, which ha* lince bean demonstrated by Foucault beside* other 

 point* of photometry and a*tronomy. 



The later yean of Ango'* life were passed amid much bodily suf- 

 fern*, when, with failing light and afflicted with diabetes, he net 

 Mmeelf to finish hi* incomplete paper*. In the summer of 1853 he 

 went, attended by hi* niece, to his natiro place, seeking relief in change 

 of air ; but the hope was disappointed : he returned to Paris and died 

 on the 2nd of October, aged 67. He wu buried iu the cemetery of 

 Pere-la-Chaue, followed by a concourse of 3000 persons to the grave, 

 where Flonrens pronounced the funeral oration. 



Arago wa* elected a foreign member of the Royal Society in 1818. 

 In 1825 their Copley medal wa* awarded to him for his " discovery of 

 the magnetic properties of substance* not containing iron ;" and their 

 Rumford medal in 1850, for hi* "experimental investigations of pola- 

 lieed light." The Royal Astronomical Society elected him one of their 

 sedate* ia 1822; be wu al*o a member of some of the leading scientific 

 odeties on the continent Arago wu once married : his wife died in 

 1889, leaving two son*, who still survive. He had been accused of 

 hoarding up wealth, but he left no other fortune to hi* relative* than 

 a oame ana reputation of which they may be jtutly proud. His entire 

 work* are oadiy accessible, u they have been collected and published 

 la a aerie* of octavo volume* in French and English. It is said that 

 be hu left a narrative of bis later years, not leas interesting than that 

 to which reference hu been made above, for publication when the 

 fitting time (ball arrive. 



National vanity and an impassioned nature at times involved Arago 

 la bitter controversies with other savants, in which he too often lost 

 eight of truth and justice. It U certain also that be was occasionally 

 tempted to sacrifice accuracy to effect In politic* he wu an ardent 

 republican, to wbioh be owed hi* election to the Chamber of Deputies 

 after the Three Day* ' of July, 1830. By hi* eloquent advocacy the 

 ubsenstmj at Pari* wu placed on iu proper footing among the obser- 

 vatories of Europe, and the work* of I*plaoe and Format were pub- 

 liabed at the national expense. His voice wu always raised iu favour 

 of sdenee. To him Melloni, the Italian philosopher, owed his return 

 to Naples from a wearisome exile. In 1840 he became a member of 

 the Council-General of the Seine ; and in 1848 he wu chosen into the 

 Provisional Government, in which ho discharged -the functions of 

 mhiMer of war and marine. In bitterness of spirit be despaired of 

 the republic oa witnessing the popular caprice. He refused to take 

 the oath of allegiance after the coup-d'e'tat of 1852, and justified his 

 refusal in a memorable letter to the government, which elicited a con- 

 riisrii alike gratifying to hi* oonaoicnoe u a politician and his dignity 

 at philoaopbrr. "A special exception," so wrote the minuter 

 by the Prince-President, " would be made in favour of a 

 r wboee labours had rendered France illuntrious, and whose 

 be government would be loath to sadden." 

 BUOEICE, wu born in 1704. at Uauisgill, in Yorkshire. 

 He (peat very short time at school, but be early discovered a great 

 thin* for learning, which be endeavoured to gratify even while acting 

 u esdetaot to bis father, a gardener. His attention wu first directed 

 to the mathematics, bat was soon drawn away to poetry, history, and 

 aatiqaitie* On marrying, be eUledua*d>oolma*ter in his native dis- 

 trict of Kethcrdale; there he taught himself Latin and Greek, commit- 

 ting to memory the grammar* which he used, and when he commenced 

 to sBaetraa, making it a rule never to pa** a word or sentence with- 

 out thoroochly mutering iu meaning, though hi* progress wu so 

 alow, that five line* often occupied him for the whole day. Thus he 

 read through the Ureek TesUment, and the principal poets and histo- 



rian*. In 17S4 he r -iioxv.l hi* school ti Knareeborough, where he 

 remained till 1745. In that year one Daniel Clark, a shoemaker, 

 taking advantage of the credit he enjoyed in consequence of hii 

 marriage with a woman possessed of a small fortune, obtained from 

 his fellow-townsmen a quantity of valuable goods, and then suddenly 

 disappeared. Aram being known u an intimate friend, wu suspected 

 of having aided him, and, hi* garden being searched, part of the 

 property wu found concealed. He wu apprehended, and although 

 discharged for want of evidence, he thought proper to quit Kuares- 

 borough, leaving his wife behind him. Aram proceeded to London, 

 and thrnce to various parts of England, earning his bread u a school- 

 usher, and all the while prosecuting his laborious studies. He obtained 

 a good knowledge of heraldry and botany, and of the Chaldee, Arabic, 

 Welsh, and Irish languages. Hi* researches in etymology led him to 

 conceive the idea of compiling a ' Comparative Lexicon of the English, 

 Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Celtic Languages;' for which he made 

 extensive collections, having compared above 8000 words, and detected 

 a close similarity between them. In the midst of bis studies, and 

 when engaged u usher in an academy at Lynn, in Norfolk, bo wu 

 (uddenly arrested on the charge of murder. 



A skeleton having been dug up in February, 1759, near Knares- 

 borough, wu suspected to be that of Daniel Clark, and Aram's wife 

 having often darkly intimated that her hutband and a man named 

 Houseman were privy to the mystery of Clark's disappearance, 

 Houseman wu apprehended. On being taken before the coroner, he 

 wu desired to declare bis innocence while holding a bone of the sup- 

 posed murdered man. He took up one accordingly, and exclaimed, 

 " This is no more Dan Clark's bone than it is mine ! " in so peculiar 

 a manner, that he wu at once suspected of knowing at least where 

 Clark's bones were. On being pressed, be acknowledged to have been 

 present at the murder of Clark by Aram and a man named Terry, and 

 affirmed that the body hud been buried in a particular part of St. 

 Robert's Cave, a well-known spot near Knaresborough. On digging 

 there a skeleton wu discovered iu the exact place indicate 1. Aram 

 being apprehended, was tried at York, August 3rd, 1759, Houseman 

 being the principal witness against him. Aram calle 1 no witnesses, 

 but delivered nn elaborate defence, not referring so much to the cue 

 in hand, u to the general fallibility of circumstantial evidence, especi- 

 ally that relating to the discovery of human bones, of which he 

 brought together a great number of instances. He wu notwithstand- 

 ing found guilty, and ordered for execution on the Monday following, 

 August 6th. After condemnation he acknowledged his guilt to two 

 clergymen who attended him, but intimated, as all believed, that 

 Houseman's share in the murder was larger than he acknowledged. 

 HU motive he stated to have been the discovery of a guilty com- 

 merce between Chirk aud his own wife. On the night before his 

 execution, Aram attempted to commit suicide, by opening two vtius 

 in his arm, but he was discovered before he had bled to deatl, 

 his sentence waa carried into effect. Before th.> attempt he had written 

 a defence of suicide. He left three sons and three daughters. 



The defence on his trial proves Aram to have been possessed of 

 considerable literary attainments. The style in which it U written, 

 though deformed by the stiffness of the period, is exceedingly good ; 

 and a sketch of his life, which, at the request of some friends, he 

 composed in the interval between condemnation aud execution, in dis- 

 tinguished by the same excellence. The ' Comparative Lexicon ' has 

 not been preserved, but passage* from the preface, which are extant, 

 show that part at leut to have been both well considered and well 

 written. His poetry, from the few specimens known, does not appear 

 to have had much merit The interest -attached to tho history of 

 Aram hu been revived and increased in our own day by Thonia* 

 Hood's powerful ballad of ' The Dream of Eugene Aram the M urderer,' 

 and Sir E. Bulwer Lytton's romance of ' Eugena Aram.' Such is the 

 effect they have produced, that St. Roberts Cave is always eagerly 

 inquired for by visitors to Kuaresborough. 



(fliografihiu Britannica, <dit Kippis, i. 230; (letiuine Account of 

 the Trial of Eugene Aram, etc., London, 1759.) 



ARANDA, DON 1'EURO PABLO ABARCA DE BOLKA, 

 COUNT OF, descended from a very anci-ut aud noble family iu 

 Armgon, wu born about the year 1718, bad embraced the ; 

 sion of arms, had been severely wounded iu 1743 iu an action against 

 the Austrians near Bologna, and had fallen into disgrace under 

 Ferdinand VI. After the accession of Charles III. to the crown of 

 S|i.iin in 1759, Aranda wu appointed ambassador to Frederic Augus- 

 tus II., elector of Saxony and king of Poland, tho father-in-law 

 of Charles III., where ho remained some yeais. On his rei 

 Spain, be wu sent to Portugal to supersede the Marquis Sarria 

 in the command of the Spanish army then invading Portugal Iu 

 August, 1762, he reduced Almeida and other places ; and soon after 

 peace wu made. In 1765 Aranda wa* appointed captain-general 

 of Valencia, and in the following year he was called to Madrid, that 

 capital being then in a state of violent commotion against tho minister 

 Squillace. He was made president of the council of Castile, and not 

 only succeeded in restoring tranquillity in the capital, but by making 

 a new municipal division of the city, by the establishment of a per- 

 manent garrison, and by other prudent regulations, the count prevented 

 the recurrence of similar riots. During his travels iu Europe, Arauda 

 had improved, hi* natural taleut* and knowledge, }\i\,k a 



