333 GENERAL ASSEMBLY, CHURCH OF SCOTLAND. 



GENESIS. 



334 



general). But the title of captain-general probably did not long 

 remain in use ; for, in the list of the army raised by Elizabeth in 1588, 

 the highest officer is styled lieutenant-general, the queen herself being 

 probably considered as the commander-in-chief. In the army which, 

 iu 1620, it was proposed to raise for the recovery of the Palatinate, 

 and in that raised by Charles I. in 1639, the commander is entitled 

 the lord-general ; a lieutenant-general appears as the second in 

 command, and the third is designated sergeant-major-general. It was 

 probably soon after this time that the last officer was called simply 

 major-general; for we find that in 1656 Cromwell appointed twelve 

 officers under that title to have civil and military jurisdiction over the 

 counties of England. (Clarendon, b. 15). 



It is evident, from the histories of the northern states, that the 

 armies in that part of Europe have always been commanded nearly in 

 the same manner as those of France and England. Sir James Turner, 

 who wrote his ' Military Essayes ' in 1670, states that in Germany, 

 Denmark, and Sweden, the commander-in-chief was designated field- 

 marshal, and that he had under him lieutenant-generals of the whole 

 army, besides generals and major-generals of horse and foot. With 

 respect to the first title, he considers it to have been granted, as a 

 more honourable distinction than that of lieutenant-general, only 

 within about fifty years from his time : and he appears to ascribe the 

 introduction of it to the king of Sweden (Gustavus Adolphus), who, 

 when he invaded Poland, thought fit t'o gratify some of his generals by 

 designating them lieutenant-field-marshals. (' Pallas Armata,' ch. 13.) 

 From that time, both in Germany and Great Britain, such title, 

 omitting the word lieutenant, has been considered the highest in the 

 army. 



In France, during the reign of Louis XIV., and perhaps at an earlier 

 time, the naval commander immediately below the rank of vice-admiral 

 was entitled lieutenant-general. A similar designation seems to have 

 been early employed in the English service, for in the time of Queen 

 Elizabeth the commander of a squadron was called the general ; and, 

 as late as the time of the Commonwealth, a joint commission of admiral 

 and general was given to Blake and Montague, though the expedition 

 on which the fleet was sent was confined to an object purely naval. 



The administration of military affairs in the great nations of Europe 

 becoming highly complicated during the eighteenth century, the com- 

 manders-in-cbief, even when not actually on the field of battle, found 

 themselves fully occupied with the higher departments of the service ; 

 and it became indispensable that the number of subordinate generals 

 should be increased, in order that all the steps which were to be taken 

 for the immediate security of the armies, and for the acquisition of the 

 necessary supplies, might be duly superintended by responsible officers. 

 The division of an army into brigades and divisions for the purpose of 

 sation and also of occupying important positions or of obtaining 

 subsistence, led also to the appointment of several distinct' com- 

 manders, each of whom required his own particular staff; and this 

 circumstance, added to the necessity of having a number of officers 

 prepared at once to assume the command of troops when circum- 

 stances should reqxtire it, will explain why military men holding the 

 rank of general appear now to be so numerous. 



In tho British service there are about 60 full generals, and 100 

 lieutenant- and 160 major-generals ; of this number many command 

 particular regiments as colonels, or hold military governments in the 

 country and colonies ; many of them have only local rank ; and many 

 have retired from the service, retaining the title, but without receiving 

 the pay or being qualified for obtaining any progressive promotion. 



The adjutant- and quarter-master-general are officers of the staff. 

 [STAFF.] 



In the English army, a general of division is either a major or 

 lieutenant-general placed in command of a division of an army in the 

 field, and a brigadier-general is either a colonel or major-general in 

 command of a brigade the titles only lasting while tho officer is 

 actually holding the command. In the French service however, 

 general de brigade and general de division are permanent ranks 

 answering to our major-general and lieutenant-general. 



The first notice of a commander of the artillery occurs in the time of 

 Richard III. :" this officer was designated simply master of the 

 ordnance till 1603, when the Earl of Devon was dignified with the title 

 of General. The head of this department was, till lately, styled 

 master general of the ordnance. The office is now abolished. 



GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND. 

 This is the Scottish ecclesiastical parliament ; it is a representative, 

 legislative, and judicial body, which differs essentially in its constitu- 

 tion from the Convocation of the English church [CONVOCATION], in 

 beii^g composed of representatives of the laity, as well as of the clergy ; 

 and, therefore (like the British House of Commons), may be considered 

 as a delegation from its constituency, the church. [CunncH.] 



The General Assembly consists of representatives from the various 

 yteries, of which there are 84 ; of lay elders sent from Edinburgh 

 and many other royal burghs, and from the universities (the represen- 

 tatives of the universities may be either ministers or elders) ; and 

 one minister and one elder to represent the churches in India in con- 

 nection with the church of Scotland. The kirk of Scotland in 1859 

 had 1023 parishes, with 1194 ministers. 



Th General Assembly meets annually, in the month of May, in 

 Edinburgh. The session lasts only ten days ; but special business not 



decided within the period of the session may be referred to a com- 

 mission, which is, in fact, the Assembly under another name : the 

 commission can hold quarterly meetings. The speaker, or president of 

 the assembly, is called moderator : he is chosen annually, and is, in 

 modern times, a clergyman, it being a rule that the moderator should 

 preach a sermon before the opening of the Assembly; but laymen 

 have occasionally filled the chair. 



Each parish in Scotland has its kirk session, composed of the 

 minister and lay elders of the parish, which manages the parochial 

 business. From the decision of the kirk session there is an appeal to 

 the presbytery in which the parish lies. Each presbytery is composed 

 of the ministers and elders of a certain number of parishes ; but the 

 presbyteries vary considerably in the number of parishes of which 

 they are formed. A higher court, called a synod, (of these there are 

 sixteen) is composed of two or more presbyteries. From the decision 

 of a synod an appeal lies to the General Assembly, whose decision is 

 final. The functions of the Assembly are analogous to a combination 

 of the functions of both houses of parliament. Its members speak and 

 vote ; it judges all matters connected with the government of the 

 church; and it can proceed judicially against any member of tho 

 church, clerical or laical, for alleged impropriety or inconsistency of 

 conduct or doctrine. 



The connection of the Church of Scotland with the State is indicated 

 in the General Assembly by the presence of a functionary, who, under 

 the title of lord-high-commissioner, represents the king or queen. The 

 Scottish church however does not recognise the king or queen as head 

 of the church, but as head of the state, with which the church is 

 allied, for purposes of protection and civil authority. The lord-high- 

 commissioner has no voice in the assembly ; business is not necessarily 

 interrupted by his absence ; and his presence merely implies the 

 sanction of the civil authority. On the conclusion of the session of 

 the General Assembly, the moderator, after mentioning the day in the 

 following year on which the Assembly meets again, dissolves the 

 meeting in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the head of the church 

 (sometimes the words 'the only head' are used), and then the lord- 

 high-commissioner adds the sanction of the civil authority by appointing 

 in the name of the king or queen the Assembly to meet on the day 

 named by the moderator. 



The Free Church, since the disruption, has held a General Assembly 

 of its own, about the same time as that of the established Church, 

 but it is not recognised by the government more than the assemblies 

 of other sects for the internal management of their own ecclesiastical 

 affairs. 



GENERAL ISSUE. [PLEADING.] 



GENERALISSIMO, the commander-in-chief of an army which 

 consists of two or more grand divisions under separate commanders. 

 The title is said by Balzac to have been first assumed by Cardinal 

 Richelieu, when he led a French army into Italy, and it has been since 

 occasionally given to officers at the head of armies on the continent, 

 but it has never been adopted in this country. 



GENERATING FUNCTIONS. The term generating function is 

 a name given by Laplace to any function of .r, considered with reference 

 to the coefficients of its expansion in powers of .r, as follows : If 



then <p.r is the generating function of i^n. Thus, the generating func- 

 tion of n is .r-=-(l x)", since the coefficient of x" jn the expansion of 

 the preceding is n. 



The theory of generating functions was investigated by Laplace, and 

 it may be found in his ' Thdorie des Probabilitds,' or in Lacroix, 

 ' Treatise on the Differential Calculus ' (in the third volume of the 

 quarto edition), iu the Appendix to the Cambridge translation of 

 Lacroix, or in the article on ' Probability ' in the ' Encyclopedia 

 Metropolitana.' Its principal use is in the solution of equations of 

 differences, and in the deduction of theorems connected with that 

 subject. 



GE'NESIS, THE BOOK OF, is the first of the five books of 

 Moses, and derives its name from the principal event recorded in it, 

 namely, the creation of the world and the human rtice, which in the 

 Septuagint Greek translation is expressed by the word Genesis (rVe<ru), 

 "creation," or "production." In the original Hebrew it is" named, 

 according to the usual custom, from the first word in the book, 

 Bereshith (rVSPSHS), " In the beginning." It is also the first book 

 of the Pentateuch, so called from the Greek Treyre, ' five," and rei/xos, 

 an) ' implement ' or ' volume ; ' that is, the five-fold volume, which 

 comprises the five books of Moses, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Num- 

 bers, and Deuteronomy, and which down to the present time form 

 one continuous rolled volume iu the Hebrew manuscripts. 



It has been thought by many critics that the book of Genesis was 

 not written by Moses. There are some passages in it which evidently 

 could not have been the composition of Mcse?, since they refer to 

 events which happened after his death. See c. xiii. 18, c. xxiii. 2, and 

 c. xiv. 14, where Hebron and Dan are mentioned, which, we learn from 

 other parts of the Bible, had different names in tha time of Moses. 

 See also Gen. xxxvi. 31, where an allusion is made to the kings of 

 Israel, and a list is given (31 43) of the princes of Edom, which is the 

 same as the list given in Chronicles i., c. i. 4354. But these and 



