(JAKUOT 



GARTER 



91 



making, was apprenticed to the printer of the 

 uri/ji'irt lli'i-nlil, an occupation which suited 

 In- taste; he soon intuit? himself master of the 

 mechanical part of the business, and W)IIMI only 

 -i \teen or seventeen tagan to write for the Hernia. 

 Hi- . -nut riluit ions, which were anonymous, were 

 favourably received, and lie H(M>II commenced to 

 >end .ut idles to the Salem Gazette and other papers, 

 drawing the attention of political circles by a 

 of articles under the signature Aristides, 

 with the view of removing the almost universal 

 apathy on the subject of slavery. In 1824 he 

 became editor of the Herald, and some of .). ('. 

 Whit tier's earliest poems were accepted by him, 

 while their author was yet unknown to fame. 

 At'ii-r two or three other attempts, in 1829 he 

 joined Mr Lundy at Haltimore in editing the 

 i of Universal Emancipation. The vigor- 

 ous expression of his anti-slavery views in this 

 last paper led to his imprisonment for libel, from 

 which he was released by Mr Tappan, a New 

 York merchant, who paid his fine. He now pre- 

 pared a series of emancipation lectures, subse- 

 quently delivered in New. York and other places. 

 He returned to Boston, and in 1831 started the 

 Liberator, without capital or subscribers, a paper 

 with which his name is inseparably associated, and 

 which he carried on for thirty-five years, until 

 slavery was abolished in the United States. For 

 the first few years the mail brought hundreds of 

 letters to Garrison, threatening his assassination 

 if he did not discontinue this journal ; the legis- 

 lature of Georgia ottered a reward of 5000 dollars 

 to any one who should prosecute and bring him 

 to conviction in accordance with the laws of that 

 state ; in 1835 he was severely handled by a Boston 

 mob, and the mayor of that city was constantly 

 appealed to from the South to suppress his paper. 

 In spite of all, he successfully persevered. In 1833 

 he visited Great Britain, and on his return organ- 

 ised the American Anti-slavery Society, of which 

 he was afterwards president. He visited England 

 again, in the furtherance of his anti-slavery opinions, 

 in 1846 and 1848. The diverging views of the 

 anti-slavery party, as to whether a political plat- 

 form should be adopted, and as to the voting and 

 speaking of women, rent the body for a time, but on 

 1st January 1863 Lincoln's proclamation of freedom 

 to the slaves as a military measure placed the 

 civil struggle on an anti-slavery basis. In 1865, 

 when Garrison's labours had been completely suc- 

 cessful, and after the total abolition or slavery in 

 the United States, his friends presented him with 

 30,000 dollars (6000) as a memorial of his services. 

 In 1867 he was once more in England, and enter- 

 tained at a public breakfast in St James's Hall. 

 He died at New York, 24th May 1879. A bronze 

 statue has been erected to his memory in Boston. 

 Some Sonnets and other Poems by him were pub- 

 lished in 1847, and Selections from his Writings and 

 Speeches in 1852. See Johnson's William Lloyd 

 Garrison (1882); William Lloyd Garrison: the 

 Story of his Life, by his children (4 vols. 1885-89) ; 

 and poems to his memory by both Whittier and 

 Lowell. 



Garrot a name applied to various ducks e.g. 

 to Fiilix clang nla ami Harelda histrionica. See 

 DUCK, WILD-FOWL. 



Garrotte (Span, garrote, 'a stick or cudgel'), 

 a mode of execution practised in Spain and the 

 Sjtiinish colonies. Originally it consisted in simply 

 placing a cord round the neck of a criminal, wlm 

 was seated on a chair fixed to a post, and then 

 twisting the cord by means of a stick ( whence the 

 name) inserted between the post and the back of the 

 neck, till strangulation was produced. Afterwards 

 a brass collar was used, containing a screw, which 



tin- executioner turned till it- point entered the 

 spinnl marrow where it unites with the brain, 

 CMII-MI^' iiistnritHiiei.il- death. In it- primitive form 

 it exactly resemble* the punishment of the bow- 

 string in use among Mohammedan nation*. 

 Garrotting is also the name given in Britain to a 

 species of robbery which became rather common 

 in the winter of 1862-63, and in which the robber* 

 suddenly come behind their victim, and half- 

 strangle him till their purpose is effected. An act 

 passed in 1863 imposing Flogging (^.v.) as part of 

 the penalty was effective in speedily suppressing 

 the offence. 



Garter, THE MOST NOBLE ORDER OK THE. 

 This renowned order of knighthood was instituted 

 liy King Edward III., at what exact date has been 

 matter of dispute, but most probably on 18th 

 January 1344. Edward, having laid claim to the 

 French throne, assumed the style of king^ of 

 France. He had been partially successful in his first 

 French campaign, ami, meditating a second expedi- 

 tion, he resolved to institute an order of knighthood 

 in honour of his successes past and to come, and as 

 a means of rewarding some of his most distin- 

 guished comrades in arms. Hence the colour of 

 the emblem chosen was blue, the French livery 

 colour, and the motto, Honi soit qui mal y pente 

 (i.e. ' Dishonoured be he who thinks ill of it'), was 

 appropriate whether it applied to the French ex- 

 pedition or to the order itself. The tradition is 

 that the choice of both emblem and motto was 

 determined by a trivial incident. The Countess 

 of Salisbury dropped her garter when dancing with 

 the king, and the king, picking it up, tied it round 

 his leg ; but, observing the queen's jealous glances, 

 he returned it to its fair owner with the remark, 

 Honi soit qui mal y pense. The order was origin- 

 ally founded in honour of the Holy Trinity, the 

 Virgin Mary, St George of Cappadocia, and St 

 Edward the Confessor; but St George was alwa\- 

 accounted its especial patron, so much that it has 

 sometimes been callea the 'Order of St George.' 

 By the original constitution the Knights Com- 

 panions were to be twenty-five in number exclusive 

 of the sovereign, and were to assemble yearly on 

 the eve of St George in St George's Chapel, where 

 each was assigned a stall. Subsequent statutes 

 authorised the admission into the order, in addi- 

 tion to the twenty-five companions, of foreigners 

 of distinction, and such descendants of George II. 

 (extended to descendants of George I. in 1831) 

 as should be elected, always excepting the Prince 

 of Wales, who was of necessity a companion ; also 

 of extra knights, which last, however, have always, 

 on vacancies occurring, been incorporated into the 

 number of the twenty-five companions. 



The habits and ensigns of the order originally 

 consisted of the garter, surcoat, mantle, and 

 hood, to which were afterwards added the collar 

 and George, the star, and the under habit. 



This order has, unlike all others, for its princi- 

 pal emblem neither chain nor badge, but the 

 garter, which, at first of light-blue silk with the 

 motto sometimes set in pearls, rubies, and diamonds, 

 is now of dark-blue velvet alnmt an inch wide, with 

 the motto in gold letters. It is worn on the left 

 leg a little l>elow the knee : and when the sovereign 

 is a queen, she wears it, as sovereign of the order, on 

 the left arm above the elbow. The statutes forbade 

 the companions to appear in public without it, 

 yet in the effigies on their monuments it is often 

 wanting. The practice of surrounding the armorial 

 insignia of the companions with the garter began 

 in the reign of Henry V. ; and the first sovereign 

 on whose tomb this usage was complied with was 

 Henry VII. An embroidered garter with the 

 motto of the order seems to have been formerly 

 worn on the left arm of the wives of companions. 



