220 



GIRDER 



GIRTIN 



generally bluish-white. For a specimen of extra- 

 ordinary brilliancy, not an inch and a half in 

 diameter, 1000 has been refused. The ancients 

 held this stone in high estimation, and called it 

 Asteria ( Gr. aster, ' a star ' ). They obtained it both 

 from Caramania and from India. The brightest are 

 at present brought from Brazil, but tine specimens 

 are also obtained in Siberia. Imitation girasols 

 are made of glass in which a little oxide of tin is 

 mixed. The name girasol is sometimes given to a 

 kind of sapphire, also called Asteria sapphire*, 

 exhibiting a similar reflection of light, and some- 

 times to Sunstone, an avanturine felspar. Accord- 

 ing to Castellani, many minerals can be made to 

 reflect light from the interior in the same way as 

 girasol, when they are carefully cut in a spherical 

 or semi-spherical form. He instances adularia, 

 hydrophane (a variety of opal), milky corundum, 

 some kinds of chalcedony, Brazilian chrysolite, &c. 



Girder, a beam of wood, iron, or steel used to 

 support joisting walls, arches, &c., in building 

 various kinds of bridges. See BRIDGE ; STRENGTH 

 OF MATERIALS. 



Girgeh, a town of Egypt, is situated on the 

 left bank of the Nile, in 26 20' N. lat. and 31 58' 

 E. long., lO^ miles N. of the ancient Abydus. The 

 town is being gradually undermined by the river. 

 It was here that the discontented Mamelukes 

 rallied against Mehemet Ali. Outside the town 

 is a Roman Catholic monastery, said to be the 

 oldest in Egypt. Pop. 15,500. Girgeh is the 

 capital of a province, which has an area of 9200 sq. 

 m., and a pop. of 530,000. 



Girgeilti, a town of Sicily, built on an emin- 

 ence overlooking the sea, near the site of the 

 ancient Agrigentum (q.v. ), and situated on the 

 south coast, 84 miles by rail SSE. of Palermo. 

 The town is the seat of a bishop and of the 

 prefect and other officials of the province, and has 

 a trade in grain, oil, fruit, sulphur, sumach, salt, 

 and fish. Its port is Porto Empedocle. Pop. 

 20,000. The province, with an area of 1172 sq. m., 

 has a pop. (1895) of 345,700. 



Gimar, a sacred mountain in India, stands in 

 the peninsula of Kathiawar, Bombay province, 10 

 miles E. of Junagarli. It is a bare and black rock 

 of granite rising to the height of 3500 feet above 

 the sea ; and, as a holy place of Jainism, is covered 

 with ruined temples. One group contains sixteen 

 temples, nearly 3000 feet above the sea. 



Gironde, a maritime department in the south- 

 west of France, is formed out of part of the old 

 province of Guienne. Area, 3760 sq. m. ; pop. 

 (1872) 705,149; (1891) 793,528. It is watered 

 mainly by the Garonne and the Dordogne, and by 

 the Gironde, the estuary formed by the union of 

 these two rivers. The eastern two-thirds of the 

 surface consist of a fertile hill and dale region ; the 

 remainder, in the west next the ocean, belongs to 

 the Landes ( q. v. ). In the east and north-east the 

 soil is chiefly calcareous. Wine, including the 

 finest clarets, is the staple product of the depart- 

 ment, several million gallons being produced 

 annually. Grain, vegetables, potatoes, pulse, and 

 fruit are grown largely. On the downs or sand- 

 hills of the west coast there are extensive planta- 

 tions of pine, from which turpentine, pitch, and 

 charcoal are obtained. The shepherds used to tra- 

 verse the Landes (q.v.) on high stilts, and travel 

 with them also to markets and fairs. Principal 

 manufactures, salt, sugar, wax candles, porcelain 

 and glass, chemical products, paper, and tobacco. 

 The department includes the six arrondissements 

 of Bazas, Blaye, Bordeaux, Lesparre, Libourne, 

 and Reole. Bordeaux is the capital. 



Girondists (Fr. Girondins), the moderate 

 republican party during the French Revolution. 



From the first they formed the Left in the Legis- 

 lative Assembly, which met in October 1791, and 

 though inclined towards republicanism were yet 

 devoted to the new constitution as it stood. The 

 name was due to the fact that its earliest leaders, 

 Vergniaud, Guadet, Gensonne, Grangeneuve, and 

 the young merchant, Ducos, were sent up as repre- 

 sentatives by the Gironde department. Early in 

 1792 the reactionary policy of the court and the 

 dark clouds lowering on the horizon of France made 

 the king's ministers so unpopular that Louis was 

 fain to form a Girondist ministry, with Roland and 

 Dumouriez as its chiefs. Ere long, however, they 

 were dismissed a measure which led to the insur- 

 rection of the 20th June 1792. The advance of the 

 Austrian and Prussian invaders threw the influence 

 into the hands of the Jacobins, who alone possessed 

 vigour enough to ' save the revolution.' The great 

 emeute of the 10th August finally assured their 

 triumph, which vented itself in such infamies as 

 the September massacres. Next followed the 

 National Convention and the trial of the king. 

 The Girondists tried to save the king's life by 

 appealing to the sovereign people. The fall of 

 Roland and the ascendency of Robespierre fol- 

 lowed. Dumouriez, to save his head, rode over into 

 the Austrian camp, and the famous Committee of 

 Public Safety was created. Of its members not 

 one was a Girondist. The last effort of the party 

 was an ineffectual attempt to impeach Marat, who, 

 however, on the 2d July overthrew the party, 

 arresting as many as thirty-one deputies. The 

 majority had already escaped to the provinces. 

 In the departments of Eure, Calvados, all through 

 Brittany, and at Bordeaux and elsewhere in the 

 south-west the people rose in their defence, but the 

 movement was soon crushed by the irresistible 

 energy of the Mountain, now triumphant in the 

 Convention. 



On the 1st October 1793 the prisoners were 

 accused before the Convention of conspiring against 

 the republic with Louis XVI., the royalists, the 

 Duke of Orleans, Lafayette, and Pitt, and it was 

 decreed that they should be brought before the 

 Revolutionary Tribunal. On the 24th their trial 

 commenced. The accusers were such men as 

 Chabot, Hebert, and Fabre d'Eglantine. The 

 Girondists defended themselves so ably that the 

 Convention on the 30th was obliged to decree the 

 closing of the investigation. That very night, 

 Brissot, Vergniaud, Gensonne, Ducos, Fonfrede, 

 Lacaze, Lasource, Valaze, Sillery, Fauchet, Duper- 

 ret, Carra, Lehardy, Duchatel, Gardien, Boileau, 

 Beauvais, Vigee, Duprat, Mainvielle, and Antiboul 

 were sentenced to death, and, with the exception 

 of Valaze, who stabbed himself on hearing his 

 sentence pronounced, all perished by the guillotine. 

 On their way to the Place de Greve, in the true 

 spirit of French republicanism, they sang the 

 Marseillaise. Coustard, Manuel, Cussy, Noel, Ker- 

 saint, Rabaut St Etienne, Bernard, and Mazuyer 

 ^went later to the same fate. Biroteau, Grange- 

 neuve, Guadet, Salles, and Barbaroux ascended the 

 scaffold at Bordeaux ; Lidon and Chambon at 

 Brives ; Valady at Perigueux ; Dechezeau at Roch- 

 elle. Rebecqui drowned himself at Marseilles, 

 Petion and Buzot stabbed themselves, and Con- 

 dorcet poisoned himself. Sixteen months later, 

 after the fall of the Terrorists, the outlawed 

 members, including the Girondists Lanjuinais, De- 

 fermon, Pontecoulant, Louvet, Isnard, and La 

 Riviere, again appeared in the Convention. See 

 Lamartine's Histoire des Girondins (8 vols. Paris, 

 1847) ; and Guadet's Les Girondins (new ed. 1889). 



Girtin, THOMAS, one of the greatest of the 

 earlier English landscape-painters in water-colours, 

 was born in London, 18th February 1775, and died 

 9th November 1802. He was a close friend and 



