284 



CLAY 



CLEARING-HOUSE 



Copyright 1889, 1897, and 

 1900 in the U.S. by J. B. 

 Lippincott Company. 



tend to render clays fertile when under cultivation. 

 The physical characters, however, of the different 

 varieties of clay soils arising from the varying pro- 

 portions of silica, and other substances mixed with 

 the alumina, are chiefly concerned in their relative 

 fertility. Calcareous matter exercises a consider- 

 able influence on their powers of producing crops. 

 For an account of the distribution of soils in this 

 country, see Johnston's and Cameron's Elements -.of 

 Agricultural Chemistry and Geology. 



Clay, CASSIUS MARCELLUS, a zealous aboli- 

 tionist, born in Kentucky in 1810, graduated at, 

 Yale in 1832, and three years after was elected to 

 the legislature of his native state. He opposed 

 the annexation of Texas ( 1844 ) ; started at Lexing- 

 ton The True American, a vigorous anti-slavery 

 paper, the following year; volunteered in the 

 Mexican war (1846); supported Mr Lincoln in 

 1860 ; and from 1861 till 1869 was U.S. Minister to 

 Russia. A true son of Kentucky, Clay delivered 

 his political addresses armed to the teeth, was in- 

 volved in a number of serious quarrels, and in 1877 

 was tried but acquitted on a charge of killing a dis- 

 charged negro servant who had threatened his life. 

 See his Life, Writings, and Speeches (2 vols. 1886). 



Clay, HENRY, an eminent American statesman, 

 called, from his birthplace in the Virginia ' Slashes,' 

 and his pursuits in early life as 

 assistant in a grist-mill, ' the 

 mill-boy of the Slashes,' was 

 born in Hanover county, Virginia, April 12, 1777. 

 His father was a preacher, and the on received 

 but scanty schooling, yet in manhood, with Cal- 

 houn and Webster, he formed the great triumvirate 

 of American orators. At fifteen he became an 

 assistant-clerk in the Virginia chancery court, and 

 for four years was amanuensis to the chancellor, 

 George Wythe. After studying law for one year 

 with Kobert Brooke, attorney-general of Virginia, 

 he was licensed in 1797 to practise, though he was 

 under age, and in the same year he removed to 

 Lexington, Kentucky, where he soon acquired a 

 high reputation as an orator and as a jury lawyer. 

 In 1799, when Kentucky was framing her constitu- 

 tion as a separate state, he publicly advocated pro- 

 visions for the gradual abolition of slavery. He 

 was sent in 1806, and again in 1809, to the United 

 States senate for short terms ; and he entered the 

 lower house in 1811, being chosen its Speaker, booh 

 then and subsequently. He urged the war of 1812, 

 and was sent to Ghent on the commission which 

 ended the war. By his course in regard to the 

 'Missouri Compromise' of 1821, he won the title 

 of 'the great pacificator.' In 1824 he was one of 

 the strongest advocates of a high protective tariff, 

 and in the same year was one of the four candi- 

 dates for the presidency. No choice having been 

 made by the electoral college, Mr J. Q. Adams 

 was elected president by the House of Representa- 

 tives ; and Clay's acceptance of the position of 

 secretary of state under Adams was by many 

 held to constitute a proof of a corrupt bargain be- 

 tween two statesmen, neither of whom, in truth, 

 would have been guilty of countenancing such 

 a bargain. Clay re-entered the senate in 1831, 

 and in the same year was renominated for the 

 presidency ; but in the following year General 

 Jackson was re-elected to that office. His candi- 

 dature for the office of president in 1844 was in 

 like manner unsuccessful. The compromise of 

 1850 between the opposing free-soil and pro-slavery 

 interests was largely Clay's work. He died July 

 29, 1852. Although he was the most attractive 

 public speaker in his country during what is 

 justly regarded as 'the golden age of American 

 oratory,' his ability as a reasoner was excelled 

 by that of Webster; while his other principal 



rival, Calhoun, surpassed him in intensity and 

 fiery earnestness. No man had a larger following 

 of devoted personal friends than Clay, and for 

 more than forty years he had a very conspicuous 

 share in shaping the legislation of the republic. 

 As a public man his career was without a blemish. 

 Of the rather numerous biographies of Clay the 

 best is that by Carl Schurz ( Boston, 1887 ). 



Clay Cross, a town in Derbyshire, 4 miles 

 S. of Chesterfield, the centre of a coal and iron 

 district. The collieries here were begun by George 

 Stephenson in 1838. Pop. (1891) 7143. 



Clay Ironstone, a granular or compact 

 admixture of the mineral swlerite (ferrous carbon- 

 ate) and clay. It occurs as nodules or in thin 

 beds in various geological systems, but especially in 

 the carboniferous strata. It frequently contains 

 organic matter. When very highly carbonaceous, 

 it passes into the variety called blackband iron- 

 stone. See IRON, Vol. VI. p. 216. 



Claymore ( a Gaelic term meaning ' the great 

 sword ' ) is properly used of the old Celtic one- 

 handed, two-edged longsword, often engraved on 

 ancient tombstones, with the guards pointing 

 downwards. The name is now commonly given, 

 inaccurately, to the basket-hilted sword of the 

 officers of Highland regiments. 



Clayton, JOHN MIDDLETON, statesman, was 

 born in Sussex county, Delaware, 24th July 1796, 

 studied at Yale, and practised as a lawyer. In 

 1829 he became a United States senator, and while 

 secretary of state in 1849-50, he negotiated the 

 Clayton-Bulwer Treaty with Britain, guaranteeing 

 the neutrality of lines of interoceanic communica- 

 tion across Nicaragua or elsewhere. He died 9th 

 November 1856. See BULWER. 



Clazoni'enae, one of the twelve cities of Ionia 

 which stood on the gulf of Smyrna, westward from 

 Smyrna. Under the Romans it was a free city, and 

 had an extensive commerce. It was the birthplace 

 of Anaxagoras. It is now called Vurla. 



Cle&nthes, a Stoic philosopher, born at Assos, 

 in Troas, about 300 B.C. His poverty was such 

 that he had to work all night at drawing water in 

 order to obtain money for nis support and to pay 

 his class-fee while attending the lectures of Zeno 

 a fact discovered only when the Areopagus called 

 upon the ardent young student to show how he 

 obtained his living. For nineteen years he listened 

 patiently to the great Stoic, and, on his death, 

 succeeded him in his school. He died of voluntary 

 starvation when about eighty years old. Cleanthes 

 differed from the other Stoics in regarding the sun 

 as the governing principle of the world ; but none 

 of his writings are extant except a Hymn to Zeus, 

 one of the purest and noblest pieces of poetry in 

 the Greek language, showing an admirable union of 

 religious feeling and philosophic thought. 



Clear, CAPE, a headland of Clear Island, the 

 most southerly point of Ireland, with a lighthouse 

 and telegraph station. Clear Island, 66 miles SW. 

 of Cork, is 1504 acres in area. Pop. 594. 



Clearing-house. The business facilities 

 afforded by bankers to their customers in collecting 

 their bills, cheques on other firms, and similar 

 obligations, early necessitated an organised system 

 of interchanging such documents, whereby labour 

 might be saved, and the cash-balances required in 

 settlements reduced. It is claimed by a French 

 writer that the Chambre de Compensation de Lyon, 

 as reorganised in 1667, was practically similar to 

 the modern clearing-house ; and the Scottish bank- 

 note exchanges (a species of clearing) were estab- 

 lished as far back as 1752. The present system, 

 however, originated in London at an unknown 

 date. It is said that the clerks, when collecting 



