CIVITA CASTKLLANA 



CLAIRVOYANCE 



273 



territories and the District of Columbia. The law 

 provide* a period of probation before .my al.-.ilme 

 appointment is made, and exempts all pei-on- in 

 tin- pulilii- -,-i vice from all obligation in contribute 

 to any political fund or to render any political 

 service. It forbid* any person in the public service 

 uMng his otlicial authority to coerce the ]K>litical 

 action of an\ -other pel-son or )MM!V. Non competi- 

 tive examinations in all proper cases are proviiled 

 (or after notice given of a vacancy, the appointing 

 power to give notice in writing to'the Civil Service 

 Commission of the nersons -elected for appointment 

 among those who nave been examined. Power is 

 given this Commission to make regulations for, and 

 to have control of, such examinations, subject to 

 the rules made by the President. The Civil 

 Service Commission is required to report annually 

 to the President, for transmiHsion to Congress, its 

 own action, the rules and regulations, and the 

 exceptions thereto in force, the practical objects 

 thereof, and any suggestions for the more effectual 

 accomplishment of the purposes of the law. Pro- 

 vision is made for holding examinations at con- 

 venient places twice each year in every state and 

 territory of the United States. 



The Commission punishes by fine and imprison- 

 ment all in the public service who wilfully defeat, 

 obstruct, or deceive any person in respect to his or 

 her right of examination, or who shall corruptly and 

 falsely mark, grade, estimate, or report upon the 

 proper standing of any person examined, or aid in 

 so doing, or who shall furnish to any person any 

 special or secret information for the purpose of 

 either improving or injuring the prospects of any 

 person so examined being appointed, employed, or 

 promoted. It was provided that after six months 

 from the passing or the act, no officer or clerk was 

 to be appointed until after passing examination, 

 unless specially exempted by the act ; and no 

 person in the habit of using intoxicating beverages 

 to excess is to be appointed to or retained in any 

 office, appointment, or employment to which the 

 act applies. This and sulwequent legislation has 

 wrought a wonderful change for the better, lessened 

 the number of incompetent politicians who thrive 

 upon the * spoils system ' applying for office, and 

 secures a far tetter class of public servants in all 

 departments of the government. 



Ciyita' Castellana, a town of Central Italy, 



25 miles N. of Rome by the old Flaminian Road, 

 on a plateau of volcanic tufa alove the Treja. It 

 has a handsome cathedral (1210), and a citadel 

 built under Alexander VI., now a state-prison. 

 Pop. 4251. In the neighbourhood are remains of 

 the Etruscan Falerii. 



Civitn' Veccllia, an Italian fortified port, 50 

 miles NW. of Rome by rail, on the Mediterranean. 

 The harlxMir is Irnth a commercial and naval one. 

 and was originally constructed by the Emperor 

 Trajan ; the town indeed owed its origin entirely 

 to the port of this emperor, and hence came to be 

 known as Portus Trajani. Population, 12,300. 

 The harbour is formed by two moles and a break- 

 water, on which latter is a lighthouse. The place, 

 which became a free port under Pope Innocent XII. 

 in 1696, is regularly visited by steam-packets from 

 Marseilles, ( Jenoa, Leghorn, Naplc-.. Messina, and 

 Malta. It suffered at the hands of (Joths ami 

 Saracens, and was occupied by the French in 1849. 

 The papal troops opened the gates of the fortress 

 to the Italian general Bixio in 1870. 



Clackmannan, the county town of Chvck- 

 mannanshire, on the Devon, 2 miles E. by S. 

 of Alloa. An eminence rising 100 feet above the 

 Forth is crowned by the ruined tower of the Bruce* ; 

 and there are also an old market-cross, three 

 churches, and a public hall. Pop. 1503. 

 122 



< l.-irkmaiuiaiishirr, the nmalle*t county of 

 Scotland, lies between the counties of Perth, Fife, 

 and Stirling, and slopes from the green Ochil Mill* 

 to the Fortn. Its greatest length w 10 miles ; area, 

 48 mi. in. Pop. (1871) 23,747; (1891) 28,473. A 

 tid-e of high ground, with inferior Boil, often 

 rc-iing on clay, runs west through the mid-lie of 

 Clackmannanshire, between the very fertile alluvial 

 lands resting on the coal-measures in the south, 

 and the North Devon valley in the north. The 

 'Hillfoots' have long l>een celebrated for their 

 woollen manufactures; ale and glass bottles are 

 largely produced, and there is a trade in iron 

 and shipbuilding. Clackmannan is the county 

 town, but Alloa is the most important place. 

 Clackinannanshire, with Kinross-shire, returns oue 

 member to parliament ; since 1895 it includes the 

 parish of Alva, formerly attached to Stirlingshire. 

 See Beveridge, Between the Forth and the Ochils 

 (1888). 



Clacton-on-Sea, an Essex watering-place, 15 

 miles SK. of Colchester ; pop. 1700. 



('Indium, a genus of Cyperaceae, of which one 

 species, C. Mariscus, is a native of bogs and 

 marshes in Britain, particularly in Cambridgeshire. 

 Its habit is to grow in large masses, but these by 

 no means occur frequently. It is rough-edged, 

 and is consequently hurtful to cattle, but it is used 

 for thatching. 



Claiborne Group, a name given in America 

 to certain beds of clay, lignite, shelly sands, and 

 marly limestone which occur at Claiborne, Alabama, 

 and are believed to belong to the Eocene system. 



Clairac, a town in the French department of 

 Lot-et-Garonne, on the Lot, 18 miles NW. of 

 Agen. Here fine white wines are made. Pop. 

 2197. 



ClairaUt, ALEXIS CLAUDE, mathematician, 

 was born at Paris, 13th May 1713. He early 

 exhibited a most remarkable aptitude for mathe- 

 matics, and was considered worthy of admission 

 to the Academy of Sciences when only eighteen 

 years of age. Clairaut wrote a great number of 

 scientific papers, but his fame rests principally 

 upon his Theorie de la Figure de la Terre (1743), 

 in which he promulgated the theorem that the 

 variation of gravity on the surface of the earth, 

 regarded as an elliptic spheroid, was altogether 

 independent of the law of density ; on his explana- 

 tion of the motion of the lunar apogee, a point left 

 unexplained by Newton ; and on his computation 

 of the time of the return of Halley's comet. He 

 died at Paris, May 17, 1765. 



OlairvailX, a village of France, on the Aube, 

 10 miles SE. of Bar-sur-Aube, is remarkable as the 

 site of the once famous Cistercian abbey, founded 

 in 1115 by St Bernard, who presided over it till his 

 death in 1153, when he was buried in the church. 

 The unwholesome swampy valley became the 

 smiling L'lnnt Vtillia under the efforts of the monks, 

 who at BernanTs death numbered 700 ; after- 

 wards the founder's ascetic rule was disregarded, 

 and the simple row of cells gave place to a palatial 

 monastery, whose church was reckoned a master- 

 piece of architecture, but was destroyed at the 

 Restoration. The abbey, which at one time 

 possessed a revenue of 120,000 livres, had been 

 suppressed at the Revolution, and the extensive 

 buildings are now used as a central prison for the 

 thirteen eastern departments of France. 



Clairvoyance, the faculty, attributed to 

 persons in the mesmeric state, of seeing object* 

 not present to the bodily senses, whereby the 

 clairvoyant is enabled to describe events passing at 

 a distance. For the scientific estimate of such 

 claims, see ANIMAL MAGNETISM. The simple 



