326 



PASSPORT. 



PASTURE LAND. 



celebration : A lamb, or kid, a male of the first year, without blemish 

 was selected by each household (or if the households were small, by 

 two conjointly) on the 10th day of the month, and it was kept till the 

 14th day of the month, when it was killed in the evening (literally, 

 " between the two evenings," an expression which is variously inter- 

 preted), and roasted, and eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 

 None of it was to be left till the next day : all that was not eaten was 

 to be burnt. They were to eat it in haste, standing, with their loins 

 girt, their shoes on their feet, and their stares in their hands, as those 

 prepared for a journey. None, whether Israelites or strangers, were to 

 partake of it unless they had been circumcised. Not a bone of the 

 paschal lamb was to be broken, and all of it was to be eaten in the same 

 house. When the lamb was killed, its blood was sprinkled with a 

 bunch of hyssop on the lintel and door-posts of the houses, which was 

 intended, in the original institution of the feast, as a sign to distinguish 

 the houses of the Israelites from those of the Egyptians ; and no one 

 was to go out of doors till the morning. 



During the seven days for which the feast lasted none but unleavened 

 bread was to be eaten, on penalty of being cut off from the people. 

 Sacrifices were appointed to be offered on each of the seven days 

 (Numb, xxviii. 17-25). On the second day of the feast a sheaf of corn 

 was to be brought, as the first-fruits of the harvest, and the priest was 

 to wave it before the Lord. (Levit. xxiii. 10 ; Joseph., ' Ant.,' iii. 

 10, 5). 



The word passover is used not only for the feast, but also repeatedly 

 for the paschal lamb itself. 



This institution was typical of the death of Christ for the salvation 

 of his people (1 Cor. v. 7) ; and it was at the passover that the Lord's 

 supper was instituted. 



(Winer's Jiiblackes Realwdrterbuch, under 'Pascha;' Lightfoot's 

 Temple Service, c. 12.) 



PASSPORT, a printed permission signed by the secretary of state 

 of the home department of a country, or some other constituted 

 authority, which allows a subject of that country to leave it and go 

 abroad. When he has obtained this, the bearer must have his passport 

 signed by the minister or agent of the state to which he intends to 

 proceed. A foreigner who wishes to leave a country where he has been 

 residing, generally obtains his passport from the minister or agent or 

 consul of his own state. Such a document states the name, surname, 

 age, and profession of the bearer, and serves as a voucher of his cha- 

 racter and nation, and entitles him to the protection of the authorities 

 of other countries through which he may pass, and which are at peace 

 with his own. On arriving at the outports or frontier towns of a 

 foreign state, every traveller is obliged to show his passport, which is 

 examined by the proper authorities and signed, or visdd, before he is 

 allowed to proceed on his journey. This ceremony is sometimes re- 

 peated at every garrison town which he passes on the road. Even the 

 natives of most European states cannot travel twenty miles through 

 their own country without being furnished with a passport. In Great 

 Britain passports to foreign countries are granted by the secretary of 

 state for F6reign Affaire, by whom also agents are appointed at many 

 of the British ports, who are authorised to grant passports to British 

 subjects. 



The system of passports is old. The only civilised countries in 

 which passports are not required are the British Islands and the United 

 States of North America; and the natives of those two countries, 

 accustomed to the freedom of unobstructed locomotion, find the regu- 

 lations as to passports when they travel on the continent of Europe to 

 be rather irksome. The practice has been defended on the plea that 

 it prevents improper and dangerous persons from introducing or con- 

 cealing themselves ; but numerous instances have proved that persons, 

 however obnoxious, who have money and friends, can evade such 

 restrictions. That every state may admit or refuse admittance to 

 foreigners, as it thinks fit, cannot be questioned ; and in times of war 

 especially, gome sort of restriction may be required for the safety of 

 the country ; but the present system of passports, as enforced in many 

 European states in time of profound peace, is both illiberal and puerile. 

 It is a check upon travellers, to whom it causes much trouble and loss 

 of time, while the advantages supposed to result from it are at least 

 very dubious. It has been compared to spiders' webs, in which flies 

 are caught, but which larger insect* or birds easily carry off along with 

 them. In Turkey a passport is called a FIRMAN. 



PASTES. [GLASS.] 



PA'STORAL (from the Latin pattor, a shepherd or herdsman), is 

 the name given to poems which are descriptive of the pursuits of 

 country life, or to dramas in which the characters represent shepherds 

 or other country-people. [Bi'cotics ; IDYLL.] 



Pastoral letters are circulars addressed by a bishop to his diocesans 

 for purposes of religious instruction or admonition in matters of dis- 

 cipline. This name also is derived from " pastor," the bishop being 

 styled the shepherd of his spiritual flock 



PASTURE, COMMON OF. [COMBOS*.] 



PASTURE LAND. There ore tribes which have no other occu- 

 pation than that of pasturing domestic animals, and immense tracts of 

 fertile soil are still unappropriated to any definite owner. Where the 

 climate is genial, and the extremes of heat and cold are unknown, 

 cattle are fed all the year round by moving from one place to another. 

 In such a state are gome of the wandering tribes of Asia, who have no 



fixed habitations, but pitch their tents wherever pasture is abundant, 

 and move them to another spot as soon as it is consumed where they 

 are. In civilised countries, where the land is divided and appropriated, 

 such a system cannot exist ; though there are still traces of it in this 

 country, as we see in the few remaining waste lands, on which there is 

 a right of common. 



The pasturage of cattle is now a part of regular husbandry ; the 

 land which affords the herbage for cattle forms part of private 

 possessions, and a rent is paid for its use. This has introduced a new 

 system. Pastures are now fenced and protected, and pains are taken 

 to improve them, so as to maintain many more cattle or sheep than 

 they would in their natural state. We shall not here speak of rich 

 grass lands, in which bullocks and sheep are fatted, and which are 

 commonly called grazing land ; nor of artificial pastures, which form 

 portions of arable farms, and have been depastured only to enrich 

 them and make them more fit to produce corn when again submitted 

 to the plough. But we shall consider those tracts of land which, from 

 situation, climate, or other causes, although they are portions of 

 certain estates and the property of individuals, lie nearly in a state of 

 nature, and produce a revenue or profit only according to the number 

 of cattle and sheep which can be reared or maintained in them. Such 

 are the rich pastures on the Jura, the Alps, and Pyrenees, too high 

 and exposed to allow of cultivation or permanent habitation, but 

 producing abundant food for cattle in particular seasons of the year. 

 The Jura and the Alps, which are best known to English travellers, 

 contain very rich pastures for cows, and give a considerable return in 

 butter and cheese. The snow which covers these mountains for a 

 considerable part of the year, protects the herbage ; and the moisture 

 which prevails in the summer by the continual passage of clouds, 

 which appear in the form of heavy fogs to those who are enveloped 

 in them, keeps up a luxuriant vegetation of the small Alpine plants 

 which form the richest pasture. 



Whenever pastures are hired, the rent is always reckoned, not by 

 the extent of surface, but by the stock which can be maintained upon 

 it. Thus, in Switzerland, the mountain pastures are divided into 

 portions of twenty, forty, or more cows. This mode of reckoning is 

 much fairer than by mere extent of surface. In many places pasturing 

 has been found much more productive than cultivation ; and some 

 large proprietors have converted great tracts of land from arable into 

 pasture farms. But this can only be done where the population is 

 very scanty, and where the soil and climate do not tempt men of 

 capital to settle. 



Considerable improvements have been made in natural pastures, 

 not only by the raising of banks and stone walls as shelter against the 

 winter's storms, but also by extensive draining and clearing the 

 surface of wild plants and shrubs, which prevent the herbage from 

 springing up, and greatly diminish the feed. On the sides of steep 

 hills, where springs are apt to break out and produce bogs and swamps, 

 drains judiciously made have carried off the water and laid dry the 

 pastures below them ; while reservoirs have been constructed in many 

 places to receive the water and to supply the stock in dry weather. 

 On peaty moon the application of lime to the surface has often pro- 

 duced wonderful effects, and made various kinds of clover and grasses 

 spring up which were never seen on the spot before. 



Those who are possessed of extensive pastures often look upon them 

 as of too little value to lay out any money in their improvement ; and 

 unless when an attempt is made to bring them into regular cultivation, 

 which often fails after a great outlay of money, they are not thought 

 worth any attention. Yet many rough hilly pastures might be 

 doubled and tripled in value merely by clearing the surface, burning 

 coarse grasses, rushes, ferns, and furze ; and sowing a few seeds where 

 the ashes have been spread. The additional number of cattle or sheep 

 which can be maintained by this means, would surprise any one who 

 had not had experience of such improvements. The forming of con- 

 venient channels for the water to run off is another important object, 

 which can often be effected at a trifling expense ; and a loose surface 

 laid dry by this means may be much improved, by merely burning 

 the heath which grows upon it. After the fire has scorched the 

 ground, grasses will spring up spontaneously; and, at a very small 

 expense, a considerable tract of mountain pasture may be converted 

 from the state of a brown heath or moor to that of a fine green sward. 



Wherever there are large pastures, proper and suitable buildings 

 made of substantial materials should be erected. The cattle should 

 have numerous sheds for refuge in bad weather, and sheep especially 

 should have protection and shelter. Warmth is in some cases of as 

 much importance as food ; and an animal exposed to all the severities 

 of a northern climate requires more food to keep him alive, than when 

 be is kept warm and protected from the immediate influence of 

 cutting winds. 



There is another kind of pasture in England on the chalky hills 

 which are called downs, where useful and hardy sheep are reared. 

 Here the exposure is less, and the proximity to the plains gives 

 frequent opportunity of driving the sheep to sheltered situations. 

 The grass on the chalk hills is in general very fine and short, and the 

 quality is very good. The soil is only a few inches deep, and has 

 been robbed for generations by the pasturage of sheep during day, 

 which at night are folded on arable land in their neighbourhood for 

 the sake of the manure which they drop, nevertheless it annually 



