REPTON 



REPUBLICAN 



655 



surviving representative of the Rhyncocephalia, 

 the order may be almost regarded as extinct. It is 

 represented by Palreohatteria from the Permian, 

 besides Champsosaurus, Hyperodapeton, Rhyncho- 

 saurus from later strata. Within or near this order 

 may also be included a remarkable form Protero- 

 saiirus from the Permian, a type for which Seeley 

 has established a distinct order, Proterosanria. 

 The special interest of these forms is, according to 

 Baur, that they 'are certainly the most general- 

 ised group of all reptiles and come nearest, in 

 many respects, to that order of reptiles from 

 which all others took their origin.' 



Dinostitiria. The largest land Reptiles of croco- 

 dilian or more bird-like form, represented from the 

 Trias to the Upper Chalk axhibiting affinities with 

 crocodiles and with birds, Representative genera 

 are Iguanodon (sometimes measuring about 30 

 feet), Camptosaurus, Scelidosaurus, Stegosaurus, 

 Ceratops (with long horns on the skull), Megalo- 

 saiirus, Ceratosaurus (also horned), Brontosaurus 

 (upward* of 50 feet in length), Atlantosaurus 

 (with a femur fi feet long). 



Ornithotaurid. Flying reptiles, often called 

 Pterodactyles, with a fold of skin extended on the 

 greatly elongated outermost finger. The order is 

 represented from the Lias to the Upper Chalk by 

 such genera as Pteranodon, Pterodactylus, Di- 

 morphodon, and Rhamphorhynclms. Some had an 

 expanse of wing of aliout 25 feet, lint many were 

 small. Their affinities are uncertain. 



See Huxley, Anatomy of VtrMiratrd Animalt (1879); 

 Nicholson and Lydekker, Manual of Palaontiilariy, vol. ii. 

 by Lydekker ( Kdin. 1890) ; Hoffmann in Bronn'a Klasen 

 nnd Ordnunrifn d(8 Thierrnchg (Leip., in progress); 

 Dumeril and Bihron, Erpttlotiie Gtntrale (9 vols. Paris, 

 I ) ; British Museum Catalogues by Boulenger &c. ; 

 Holbruok, North American Herjietoloyy (Phila. 5 vols. 

 183-42). 



ltc|>t<)ll. a village of Derbyshire, 6} miles 

 SS\V. of Derby and 4i NE. of Burton-upon-Trent. 

 Here was founded the first Christian church in 



Mercia, of which Repton for a while was the royal 



episcopal capital. 

 660 till its destruction by the Danes in 874 of a cele- 



and episcopal capital. It was the seat from liefore 



brated nunnery, as afterwards of an Austin priory 

 from 1172 till the Dissolution. Remains of this 

 priory are incorporated in the buildings of the free 

 grammar-school, which, founded in 1556 by Sir 

 John Forte, has risen to be one of the great 

 English public schools, with an endowment of 

 2000, eignt scholarships and several entrance exhi- 

 bitions, some 20 masters, and 275 boarders. Among 

 former pupils have lieen Justice Denman, Bishop 

 Piers Claughton, Professor Sanday, and J. E. 

 Sandys, the public orator at Cambridge. The 

 police church has a graceful spire and a very 

 interesting Saxon crypt, 17 feet square. Pop. of 

 parish, 2060. See Bigsby's History of Repton 

 (1854). 



Republic ( Lat. res publics, ' the public good ' ), 

 a political community in which the sovereign power 

 is lodged, not in a hereditary chief, but either in 

 certain privileged memliers of the community or 

 in the whole community. According to the con- 

 stitution of the governing body, a republic may 

 therefore vary from the most exclusive oligarchy 

 to a pure democracy. The several republics of 

 Greece and that of Rome were, at the outset at 

 least, aristocratic communities. The mcili;. val 

 republics of Venice, Genoa, and the other Italian 

 towns were also more or less aristocratic. The 

 sovereign power was held to be vested in the 

 franchisee! citi/cns. and every function legislative, 

 Bxi-eutive, or judicial not exercised directly by 

 that body could only be exercised by parties 

 deriving their authority from it. But the extent 

 of the franchise, and the mode of exercising 



it, varied much in these civic communities ; and 

 the most prosperous and long-lived was Venice, 

 which was also the most aristocratic of them all. 

 In the 16th century the Seven Provinces of the 

 Netherlands, on their revolt from Spain, adopted 

 a republican form of government, as did Switzer- 

 land^ on becoming independent of the German 

 empire. Great Britain was nominally a republic 

 for eleven years (from 1649 to 1660). France was 

 a republic from 1793 to 1805, and from 1848 to 

 1853; and the republic was again proclaimed 4th 

 September 1870. Such government as Spain had 

 between February 1873 and December 31, 1874, 

 was of a republican form. Switzerland is also a 

 republic ; since 1848 more democratic than for- 

 merly. The other republics of Europe are the 

 diminutive states of San Marino and Andorra, 

 and, in certain respects, the free cities of Hamburg, 

 Bremen, and Liibeck. The most important of 

 modern republics is that of the United States of 

 America, where pure democracy has been tried 

 on a scale unknown elsewhere. Except during the 

 short-lived empire of 1863-67, Mexico has been a 

 republic since 1824. Since the revolution in Brazil 

 in 1890 all the South American states (omitting 

 the three Guiana dependencies) are republics. 

 In the republics of the ancient world the fran- 

 ehised classes exercised their power directly without 

 any system of delegation or representation. The 

 same was at first the case in the Swiss cantons, 

 where, however, representative government has 

 lieen gradually but generally introduced. Modem 

 republics have been founded on the representative, 

 not the direct, system, which can hardly exist 

 except in a community that is very small and con- 

 centrated as to space. Switzerland and the United 

 States of America are federal' republics, consisting 

 of a number of separate states bound together by 

 a treaty, so as to present to the external world the 

 ap|>earance of one state with a central government, 

 which hius the power of enacting laws and issuing 

 orders that are directly binding on the individual 

 citizens. The constitutions of the various republi- 

 can countries are discussed under their several 

 heads : see especially ATHENS, ROME, VENICE, 



SWITZERLAND, FRANCE, and UNITED STATES. 



If <'|iiili!ir;in. a party name in American poli- 

 tics. \\liich has had at different times different 

 significations. In the first years of the Republic 

 it was the alternative title of the Anti-federalists, 

 who advocated the sovereignty of the states and 

 the rights of the people, and finally secured those 

 amendment* and additions to the Constitution 

 which were intended to guarantee state rights, 

 and which declared that all powers not expressly 

 granted to congress by the Constitution are re- 

 tained by the states or the people. Before the war 

 of 1812, however, the term Democrats (q.v.) had 

 been substituted as the title of the party ; and the 

 name of Republicans went out of use until 1856, 

 when it was taken up by the new party which was 

 organised to oppose the Democrats, its original 

 holders. This party was formed to combat the 

 extension of slavery ; it appealed to all who were 

 opposed to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise 

 (see MISSOURI) and the efforts to make Kansas a 

 slave state ( see KANSAS ). It grew out of the Free- 

 soil party (see FREE-SOILERS), and at once took the 

 place, as opponents of the Democrats, that the 

 Whig party, which had died of over compromise, 

 had for some time feebly held. In 1856 it nomin- 

 ated Fremont for the presidency, and made a good 

 fight. The decision in the Dred Scott Case 

 (q.v.) and the progress of events in Kansas greatly 

 strengthened the party, and after the divisions 

 among the Democrats over the same question in 

 I860 the success of the Republicans was assured. 

 Electing Lincoln in that year, they held office 



