SUPREME COURT 



SURFACE-TENSION 



815 



recognised in all countries whose inhabitants are 

 in communion with the Church of Rome. The 

 Statutes of Provisors (q.v.) and Prsemunire (q.v.) 

 asserted in some measure the authority of the 

 sovereign ; but at the English Reformation the 

 papal supremacy was abolished, and 26 Henry VIII. 

 chap. 1 declared the king and his successors to be 

 the ' only supreme head on earth of the Church 

 of England.' A document was at the same time 

 drawn up by the government, in which it was 

 explained that the recognition of this headship of 

 the church implies only that the king should have 

 such power as of right appertaineth to a king 

 by the law of God, and that he should not take 

 any spiritual power from spiritual ministers, or 

 pretend to ' take any power from the successors 

 of the apostles that was given them by God.' In 

 1535, the year in which this act was passed, 

 Bishop Fisher of Rochester, Sir Thomas More, 

 and others were beheaded for denying the 

 king's supremacy. On Elizabeth's accession it 

 was thought prudent, while again claiming the 

 supremacy in all causes, as well ecclesiastical as 

 civil, to keep that designation in the background. 

 By successive statutes the oath of supremacy was 

 appointed to be taken by the holders of public 

 offices along with the oath of allegiance and of 

 abjuration ; these three oaths were consolidated 

 into one in 1858 ; and now the oath of supremacy 

 is not explicitly imposed on members or parlia- 

 ment. See OATH, ENGLAND (CHURCH OF), 

 HKXRY VIII. 



Supreme Court of Judicature, in Eng- 

 land, comprises the Court of Appeal (q.v.) and the 

 High Court of Justice, with its four divisions 

 Chancery, Common Law, Bankruptcy and Probate, 

 Divorce and Admiralty, all separately dealt with. 

 In Scotland the term refers to the Court of Session 

 (q.v.) and the Justiciary Court (q.v.). 



Surabaya, a seaport on the north coast of 

 Java, and on the strait of Madura, over against 

 the island of Madura. Here the Dutch have a 

 marine arsenal, a cannon-foundry, and a mint, and 

 there are machine, sugar, and furniture factories, 

 shipbuilding-yards, and foundries. Sugar, coffee, 

 hides, and tobacco are the chief articles exported ; 

 rice and cotton are also grown in the province (area, 

 2327 sq. m. ; pop. 1,856,635), of which Surabaya 

 is the capital. Pop. 127,403, of whom more than 

 6000 are Europeans and nearly 7500 Chinese. 



Snraja Dowlah. See BLACK HOLE, CLIVE. 



Snrakarta, a town in the centre of Java, 

 but connected by rail with Samarang on the north 

 and Surabaya on the east. It is the residence of 

 the native sultan of Surakarta, who, however, 

 is a dependent of the Dutch government and is 

 advised by a resident. The town (pop. 124,000) 

 is the capital of his kingdom, a mountainous but 

 in part very fertile region, with an area of 2191 

 sq. m. and a pop. of 1,053,985. 



Surat. a city of British India, on the south 

 bank of the river Tapti (crossed by a five-girder 

 bridge), 14 miles from its mouth, and 160 by rail 

 N. of Bombay. It stretches in a semicircle for 

 more than a mile, along the river, the quondam cit- 

 adel (1540; government offices since 1862) form- 

 ing the central feature in the line. The houses 

 are closely packed, but the streets are clean and 

 well paved ; beyond them lie the suburbs, wide- 

 spread in the midst of gardens. The chief orna- 

 ments of Surat are four handsome Mohammedan 

 mosques, two Parsee fire-teinples, three Hindu 

 temples, the old English and Dutch factories, and 

 a clock-tower (80 feet high). The existing city 

 was founded early in the 16th century, and very 

 soon after (in 1512) was burned by the Portu- 

 guese, who burned it again in 1530 and 1531. 



A stronger fort was erected in 1546, and Surat, 

 already a place of considerable trade, soon rose 

 to be one of the greatest commercial cities of 

 India. In 1612 the English established them- 

 selves there, in spite of the opposition of the 

 Portuguese, and shortly after they were followed 

 by the Dutch. These last were the busiest of the 

 European traders. Surat at this time had com- 

 mercial relations with western Europe, with the 

 great cities of Northern India, with Arabia, 

 Persia, the coast-towns of Southern India, Ceylon, 

 and the East Indies, silk, cotton, and indigo being 

 the most valuable exports. Here, too, the Mo- 

 hammedan pilgrims of India were wont to embark 

 for Mecca. Shortly after the middle of the 17th 

 century the Mahrattas began to harass the city, 

 and they pillaged it several times before the cen- 

 tury ran out. But towards the end of the 17th 

 century the commerce of Surat hegan to decline, 

 Bombay gradually taking its place, especially 

 after the East India Company transferred to that 

 city the headquarters of their government. Just 

 previous to this change Surat is believed to have 

 had a population of 200,000. The place was trans- 

 ferred to English rule entirely in 1800, and for a 

 time it had a revival of its old prosperity and 

 became the most populous city in India. But by a 

 quarter of a century later it had once more declined, 

 and in 1837 was almost wholly ruined by a disas- 

 trous fire followed by a great flood. In 1858 it 

 began once more to revive, and flourished during 

 the period of the American civil war, its chief 

 export being cotton. Pop. (1811)250,000; (1847) 

 80,000; (1881) 109,840; (1891) 109,229. Cotton, 

 silk brocade, and embroidery are manufactured. 



S in-hit on. See KINGSTON-UPON- THAMES. 



Sn M-oiif. ROBERT, a great French privateer, 

 was born at St Malo, 12th December 1773, and 

 died there, a taciturn but prosperous and corpulent 

 boat-builder, in 1827. He preyed on the English 

 shipping in the Indian seas during the long war, 

 and showed extraordinary skill anil courage. His 

 greatest exploits were the capture of the Company's 

 ships Triton of 800 tons (1785) and of the 

 Kent (1800), almost at the end of her voyage 

 from England to Calcutta. See Prof. J. K. 

 Laugh tons Studies in Naval History (1887). 



Surd. See IRRATIONAL NUMBERS. 



Surety. See GUARANTY. 



Surface-tension, in liquids, is that property 

 in virtue of which a liquid surface behaves as if it 

 were a stretched elastic membrane say a sheet of 

 india-rubber. We owe the idea to Segner ( 1751 ) ; 

 but it was Young who, in 1805, first applied it 

 successfully to the explanation of various physical 

 phenomena, such as those of capillarity. The 

 whole subject was subsequently developed in 

 its complete mathematical form by Laplace and 

 Gauss. The general description of the meaning of 

 surface-tension has been given under CAPILLARITY. 

 Here we shall refer to a few other phenomena, 

 which require for their elucidation the assumption 

 of a tension existing in liquid surfaces. Pure 

 water lias the highest surface-tension of any ordi- 

 nary liquid except mercury. If a little alcohol be 

 dropped on the water, the surface-tension will be 

 diminished there. The more powerful surface- 

 tension over the pure water will show its superiority 

 by pulling the alcohol over the whole surface until 

 the surface is reduced to uniformity, and equili- 

 brium produced. Again, a piece of camphor placed 

 on water will dart from place to place in the most 

 capricious manner. This is due to the irregular 

 way in which the camphor dissolves in the water, 

 so that the surface-tension is more weakened on 

 one side than on the other. It is the action of 

 surface-tension that draws out all over the surface 



