PENANG 



PENCILS 



23 



was followed by the administration of communion. 

 If any of the clergy were guilty of a crime to 

 which public penance was annexed, they were first 

 deposed from the rank of the clergy, and then 

 subjected to the ordeal, like the laity themselves. 

 This public discipline continued in force with 

 greater or less exactness in the 5th, 6th, and 7th 

 centuries, gradually, however, being replaced by 

 semi-public, and ultimately by private penance. 

 In the llth and 12th centuries 'the public penance 

 had entirely disappeared. The nature and origin 

 of / iinm-r is a subject of controversy 



lietween Catholics and Protestants ; the former 

 contending that it hail existed from the first, and 

 that it held the same place even in the ages of 

 public penance for secret sins which the public 

 penance did for public offences. At all events, 

 from the date of the cessation of the public dis- 

 cipline it has existed universally in the Roman 

 Cnurch. The priest, in absolving the penitent, 

 im poses upon him the obligation of reciting certain 

 prayers, undergoing certain works of mortification, 

 or performing certain devotional exercises. These 

 acts of the penitent are held to form an integral 

 part of the sacrament of penance. See CONFES- 

 SION ; and Morinus, De PaeniteiitiA ( 1651 ). 



By Protestant churches penance is not recog- 

 nised ; yet a confession was made and a penance 

 inflicted publicly in a church at East Clevedon in 

 Somersetshire in 1882 ; and there is a curious letter 

 from Dr Pusey to Mr Hope-Scott, then abroad 

 <1H44), desiring him to procure a 'discipline' and 

 ' send it by B. What was descril>ed to me was of 

 a very sacred character : five cords each with five 

 knots, in memory of the five wounds of our 

 Lord. ... I should be glad to know ,ilso whether 

 there were any cases in which it is unsafe e.g. in 

 a nervous person.' An approach to the Roman 

 liolic polity on the subject was in use among 

 the English Puritans of the 17th century, and more 

 particularly in the Church of Scotland during that 

 nd the succeeding century, when it was common 

 'to make satisfaction publicly on the Stool of 

 Repentance' (q.v.). In Ayrshire the kirk-sessions 

 were accustomed regularly to provide sackcloth 

 suits for ecclesiastical offenders as late as 1781 ; a 

 heinous breach of the seventh commandment might 

 involve the penitents' standing in the ' public 

 place of repentance ' in church, arrayed more or 

 less completely in sackcloth, every successive 

 Sunday for six months on end (see Edgar's Old 

 Church Life in Scotland, 1885). It does not seem 

 to have occurred to the Reformers or their more 

 immediate successors in the Protestant churches 

 that their system of discipline, with its public 

 rebukes and enforced humiliations of various kimls, 

 was liable to be interpreted in a sense very 

 different from that of a mere expression of sorrow 

 for sin ; but the belief is now very general among 

 the most zealous adherents of their doctrinal 

 opinions that in all this they adopted practices in- 

 congruous with their creed, and in harmony rather 

 with that of the ( 'hurch of Rome. Nor do they seem 

 to have perceived that Church Discipline (q.v.), in 

 its proper sense, as relating to ecclesiastical rights 

 and privileges, is wholly distinct from the imposi- 

 tion of penalties by churches or church courts. 

 IVnitential humiliations, imposed by ecclesiastical 

 authority, are now no more in favour where church 

 discipline is most strict than where the utmost 

 laxity prevails. The commutation of penalties 

 deemed shameful, for a fine to the poor of the 

 parish, was an abuse once prevalent in Scotland, 

 but never sanctioned by the higher ecclesiastical 

 authorities. 



IViiiinit (Palo Pi'nany, 'Betel-nut Island'), 

 the official but less used name of which is PRINCE 

 OF WALES ISLAND, one of the British Straits 



Settlements (q.v.), lies at the northern extremity 

 of the Strait of Malacca, 2 to 10 miles from the 

 west coast of the Malay Peninsula, and 360 miles 

 NNW. of Singapore. Length, 15 miles ; breadth, 

 5 to 10 miles; area, 107 sq. m., three-fifths being 

 hilly. A sanatorium crowns the highest point, 

 2920 feet above sea-level. The whole is covered 

 with forest and vegetation, cocoa-nut and areca 

 palms predominating. In the low lands the ther- 

 mometer ranges from 70 to 95, and at the sana- 

 torium from 60 to 75. The rainfall averages 

 HI inches a year. Penang is a great shipping 

 centre for the products of the native states of the 

 Malacca Peninsula. The value of the commerce of 

 Penang has greatly increased of late years. In 

 1888 the imports and exports combined reached a 

 total value of 15,425,458 ; in 1896-98 the annual 

 value of imports alone exceeded 10,000,000, and of 

 exports only a little less. By far the most im- 

 portant export is tin ; the next being spices, sugar, 

 and tobacco. Georgetown, the capital, is situated 

 at the north-east extremity of the island, and is 

 defended by forts; pop. about 2.J.OOO. Province 

 Wellesley, on the peninsula opposite, forms part 

 of this same settlement administratively. Pop. of 

 Penang, including Province Wellesley and the 

 Dindings, ( 1881 ) 190,597; (1891)235,618, one-half 

 Chinese, nearly one-fourth Malays, and one-sixth 

 Tamils and others from India. Nearly two-thirds 

 of the total are males. Many thousands of Chinese 

 and Indians arrive every year, and the arrivals 

 (129,896 Chinese and 20,599 Indians in 1887) are 

 not balanced by the departures. Province Wel- 

 lesley, 45 miles in length by 4 to 11 in breadth, 

 with an area of 270 sq. m., produces tapioca, sugar, 

 rice, and cocoa-nuts. Another dependency of the 

 settlement is the Bindings, including the island of 

 Pangkor, situated about 80 miles S. of Penang. 

 Pop. 2322. The native raja of Kedah ceded Penang 

 to the English in 1785 in return for an annual 

 pension of 1000. Thirteen years later the same 

 power acquired what is now Province Wellesley, 

 tor the purpose of putting down piracy. In 1805 

 the East India Company, the proprietors of the 

 settlement, made Penang a presidency of equal 

 rank with Bombay and Madras. From 1826 

 Singapore and Malacca were united with it, \)ut 

 in 1831 the seat of government was transferred 

 from Penang to Singapore. 



PKNANG LAWYERS is the commercial name for 

 the stems of a species of palm imported from 

 Penang for walking-sticks. They are small and 

 hard, and have a portion of the root-stock attached, 

 which is left to form the handle. 



Penarth Beds. See TRIASSIC SYSTEM. 



Penates. See LARES. 



Pencils. A slender stick of black lead, 

 slate, or coloured chalk, encased in a small round 

 piece of wood, is called a pencil ; but the term is 

 also applied to small hair-brushes used by artists, 

 and it was to these that the name was originally 

 given. Some early manuscripts have lines upon 

 them ruled with ordinary metallic lead. When 

 pencils of Black Lead (q.v.), called also graphite 

 and plumbago, were first used is uncertain, but 

 Beckmann points out that they are distinctly 

 mentioned in a book on fossils by Conrad Gesner, 

 printed at Zurich in 1565. The discovery of the 

 use of black lead as a material for writing or 

 drawing with was an important one, since for work 

 where words or lines may require to be frequently 

 rubbed out no other substance has such valuable 

 properties. 



For a long time the plumbago from the Borrow- 

 dale mines in Cumberland furnished the ' leads ' 

 for the best pencils ever made. These mines 

 have been exhausted since 1850; but when the 



