FREE CITY 



3330 



FREEDOM OF THE SEAS 



strong body, numerically, finan- 

 cially, and in foreign mission work. 

 In 1900 it was amalgamated with 

 the United Presbyterian Church in 

 Scotland, and was thenceforward 

 known as the United Free Church 

 of Scotland. The present Free 

 Church of Scotland consists of 

 those members of the original Free 

 Church who refused to unite with 

 the U.P. Church in 1900. They are 

 larly known as the "Wee 



After the union of 1900 the Free 

 Church made legal claim to the en- 

 tire property of the original Free 

 Church. This claim led to the famous 

 ecclesiastical law case of Bannatyne 

 v. Overtoun. It was argued in 

 the court of session, when judge- 

 ment was given in favour of the 

 United Free Church. The small 

 Free Church party then appealed 

 to the House of Lords, and judge- 

 ment was given in their favour in 

 1904. An amazing situation was 

 thus created, for a handful of mem- 

 bers were given all the property, 

 churches, manses, colleges, and 

 funds of the original Free Church. 

 In 1905 an Act of Parliament 

 was passed to alter this. A royal 

 commission allocated the property 

 between the two bodies, and gener- 

 ally regularised the position. The 

 Free Church of Scotland is strong- 

 est in the Highlands, and at one 

 time had about 180 congregations, 

 but is on the decline. See Presby- 

 terianism ; Scotland, Church of ; 

 United Free Church; United 

 Presbyterian Church ; Chalmers, 

 Thomas; Rainy, Robert. 



Free City. City that is inde- 

 pendent of any save the highest 

 authority. The free cities of the 

 Middle Ages were under the rule 

 of none save the emperor himself, 

 being in practice little republics, 

 each with its own form of govern- 

 ment. The modern free city, 

 Danzig (q.v.), is under that of the 

 League of Nations only. 



The first free cities were towns 

 standing on land ruled by the em- 

 peror, but their numbers were 

 augmented when the privilege was 

 found to be a valuable one. Some 

 bought it, to others it was given ; 

 while on the other hand some 

 were deprived of it an instance of 

 this being Donauworth in 1607. 

 The free cities were represented in 

 the imperial diet from about 1490, 

 and, as constituted later, one of its 

 colleges was composed of their 

 representatives. They were divided 

 into two groups, Rhenish and 

 Swabian, and played a considerable 

 part in the affairs of Germany. 

 Some of them had considerable 

 forces, many had a good deal of 

 wealth, so their help was fre- 

 quently sought by emperors and 



other rulers, especially in times of 

 war. The hostility of the free cities 

 was feared by the most powerful ; 

 their support kept kings on their 

 thrones. Their number varied ; 

 in 1521 a list gave 84 of them, after 

 which there was a decrease. 



With the changes caused by the 

 French Revolution many of the 

 cities lost their freedom, and in 

 1803 six only were recognized. 

 They were Hamburg, Liibeck, 

 Bremen, Augsburg, Frankfort, and 

 Nuremberg. In 1806 Bavaria 

 secured Augsburg and Nuremberg, 

 but the other four lasted until 

 1866, when Frankfort, having 

 fought against Prussia, lost its 

 independence. As free cities the 

 other three entered the German 

 empire in 1871, and remained 

 therein after the changes of 1918. 

 See Germany : History ; Town. 



Freedmen's Bureau. Public 

 department in the U.S.A. charged 

 with the duty of looking after the 

 freed slaves. It was established 

 in 1865 and continued in existence 

 until 1872, although only intended 

 to last one year. The work was 

 chiefly in the southern states, and 

 took the form of providing for the 

 maintenance and education of the 

 freed slaves, regulating the con- 

 ditions under which they were 

 employed and administering justice 

 to them. It also controlled the 

 confiscated lands. Many of the 

 officials acted very unwisely, and 

 the bureau was used for political 

 purposes. It fell into disrepute, 

 doing, it was argued, more harm 

 than good, and was ended in 1872. 



Freedom of the Press. Liberty 

 to print and publish without 

 official licence. By the Press is 

 usually meant the newspapers, but 

 the term includes printing gener- 

 ally. Before the introduction of 

 the military censorship in 1914 

 the British press had enjoyed this 

 liberty since 1694, save for re- 

 strictions imposed by the paper 

 duty, 1694-1861 ; stamp duty, 

 1711-1855 ; advertisement tax, 

 1712-1853 ; and libel laws which 

 unfairly shackled expression of 

 opinion until the middle of the 19th 

 century, even to the restriction of 

 references to foreign rulers. 



Partial reports of parliamentary 

 proceedings began to appear in 

 print in 1729, but were regarded 

 as a breach of privilege for which 

 summary punishment was in- 

 flicted. White this parliamentary 

 privilege is still nominally pre- 

 served, reporters have been ad- 

 mitted to parliament since 1835. 



From the 15th century in Roman 

 Catholic countries the Inquisition 

 or the bishops acted as censors 

 of the press. At the Reformation 

 Henry VIII assumed this control, 



and it was exercised by the Star 

 Chamber till 1640. In 1640-43 

 the press was virtually free. In 

 June, 1643, parliament revived the 

 censorship ; Milton's Areopagitica, 

 or Speech for the Liberty of Un- 

 licensed Printing, was published 

 in 1644. The office of Licenser of 

 the Press was operative in 1655-79 

 and 1685-94. The later struggles 

 for a free press in Great Britain 

 were carried on largely on political 

 grounds, and the struggle has 

 followed similar lines in all con- 

 stitutional countries. See Censor- 

 ship ; Defoe ; Journalism ; Libel ; 

 Marprelate ; Newspaper ; Press 

 Bureau ; Wilkes, John. 



Freedom of the Seas. Term 

 used in international law. Grotius, 

 in his work Mare Liberum (the 

 free sea), in 1609, advanced the 

 theory that the waters of the ocean 

 are free and open to all traffic, 

 in peace, though he admitted that 

 in war the goods of an enemy 

 in a neutral ship could be seized 

 and confiscated. His doctrine of 

 the freedom of the seas was gradu- 

 ally extended to mean the com- 

 plete immunity of neutral and even 

 hostile shipping in war from all 

 action by a belligerent navy, thus 

 depriving a combatant fleet of the 

 right to blockade and to seize 

 hostile goods and contraband. In 

 this form it became the second of 

 President Wilson's 14 points of 

 peace, laid down in his speech of 

 Jan. 8, 1918, which required : 



" Absolute freedom of naviga- 

 tion upon the seas outside terri- 

 torial waters alike in peace and in 

 war, except as the seas may be 

 closed in whole or in part by inter- 

 national action for the enforce- 

 ment of international covenants." 



Had this doctrine formed part 

 of international law it was always 

 rejected by British authorities 

 then, in the American Civil War 

 of 1861-65, the S. states could 

 never have been defeated by the 

 ruthless blockade imposed by the 

 United States. In the Napoleonic 

 wars Napoleon would have tri- 

 umphed. In the Great War 

 Germany would have been free to 

 import arms, munitions, and food, 

 and British sea-power, which 

 eventually brought about her de- 

 feat, would have been paralysed. 



The Allied governments, in a 

 note to the U.S.A. in Oct., 1918, 

 pointed out "that clause 2 (of 

 the 14 points), relating to what is 

 usually described as the freedom 

 of the seas, is open to various 

 interpretations, some of which they 

 could not accept. They must 

 therefore reserve to themselves 

 complete freedom on this subject 

 when they enter the peace con- 

 ference." There is no reference to 



