PRESSBURG 



PRESS-GANG 



secretaries, and a few naval and 

 military officers ; but by May, 

 1915, its staff included a director, 

 two assistant directors, a secretary, 

 and about 50 censors, of whom 

 the majority were appointed by 

 the admiralty and the war office. 

 The first director resigned soon 

 after the publication of The Times 

 Amiens dispatch of Black Sunday, 

 Aug. 30, 1914. He was succeeded 

 by Sir Stanley Buckmaster, Sept., 

 1914-May, 1915. Then, with the 

 home secretary as nominal chief 

 censor, Sir E. T. Cook and Sir 

 Frank Swettenham became joint 

 directors. After the United States 

 came into the war, a Public In- 

 formation Bureau was founded at 

 Washington to circulate reliable 

 war news. It assembled this news 

 in a daily Bulletin, which was sent 

 to the newspapers. The British 

 office came to an end, April 30, 1919. 

 See Censorship ; consult also The 

 Press in War Time, E. T. Cook, 1920. 

 Pressburg. City of Czecho- 

 slovakia, in the Slovakia division. 

 Known officially as Bratislava, it 

 _ was formerly in 



Pressburg arms 



Hungary, and 

 was then offici- 

 ally styled Poz- 

 sony. The his- 

 toric city gives 

 its name to the 

 Gate of Press- 

 burg, between 

 the Little Car- 

 pathians and the 

 heights of Burgenland, through 

 which the Danube flows E. from 

 the basin of Vienna. Since 1526 

 the kings of Hungary have been 

 crowned here, in the Gothic cathe- 

 dral of S. Martin, and here the 

 Hungarian Parliament met in the 

 Landhaus until 1848. The town 

 hall houses the Municipal Museum ; 

 near by is the Franciscan Church, 

 founded in 1272. The ruins of the 

 royal palace, which was burned 

 down in 1811, crown a wall- 

 encircled plateau at a height of 

 270 ft. above the river ; access to 

 the enclosure is gained through 



a massive Late Gothic gateway. 

 There is an iron bridge across the 

 river. The industries include petro- 

 leum refining and the manufacture 

 of tobacco, furniture, leather, and 

 machinerv. There is a Slovak uni- 

 versity. "Pop. 73,000. 



Press Cuttings. Articles and' 

 news items cut from newspapers 

 and magazines by authors, jour- 

 nalists, and others, and kept for 

 reference. Several agencies method- 

 ically supply cuttings on subjects 

 specified by their subscribers, and 

 special books and cabinets are 

 made for their preservation. To 

 keep these cuttings alphabetically 

 in marked envelopes in a cabinet 

 is preferable to pasting them in 

 books. Cuttings lose their reference 

 value if the date and place of their 

 original appearance are not ac- 

 curately noted. 



Pressense, EDMOND DEHAUT DE 

 (1824-91). French Protestant 

 pastor and politician. Born in 

 TS5| Paris, Jan. 7, 

 1 1824, he stud- 

 ied in Lau- 

 sanne, Halle, 

 and Berlin, 

 and became a 

 pastor in 

 Paris, 1847. In 

 1854 he found- 

 ed the Revue 

 Chretienne,an 

 influential 

 journal in Protestant France; he 

 served in the war of 1870-71, be- 

 came republican liberal deputy, 

 1871, and senator in 1883. Among 

 his published works are L'Eglise et 

 la Revolution Fra^aise, 1864 ; Le 

 Concile du Vatican, 1872 ; and Les 

 Origines, 1883. He died in Paris, 

 April 8, 1891. 



Pressense, FRANCIS DEHAUT 

 DE (1853-1914). French diplomat 

 and author. Born in Paris, son of 

 Edmond D. de Pressense, he served 

 in the Franco-Prussian War, 1870- 

 71, held diplomatic appointments 

 at Constantinople and Washington, 

 and became foreign editor of Le 

 Temps. A prominent contributor 



E. D. de Pressense, 

 French pastor 



F. D. de Pressense, 

 French diplomat 



to L'Aurore, he strong!}' defended 

 Dreyfus (q.v.), was for a time 

 socialist deputy for Lyons, and 

 promulgated the idea of a United 

 States of Europe. He died Jan. 

 19, 1914. His 

 works include 

 L'Irlande et 

 L'Angleterre 

 depuis 1'acte 

 d' union jus- 

 qu'a nos jours, 

 1889; Le Car- 

 dinal Manning, 

 1896; L'Idee 

 de Patrie, 

 1899. 



Press-Gang. Name given to the 

 bodies of men who formerly carried 

 out the impressment of those liable 

 to forced service in the army or 

 navy. Although impressment 

 (q.v.) could be either for land or 

 sea service, it came to be used 

 almost entirely to secure recruits 

 for the navy. Edward III set up a 

 commission of impressment, 1355, 

 and the methods of carrying out 

 the press were regulated by statute 

 in 1378, and on other occasions. 

 In 1641 Parliament declared the 

 system illegal, but it was used later 

 for land service by Cromwell, and 

 throughout the 18th century and 

 until 1815 the press-gang, called 

 in Elizabethan times the " takers," 

 was a common and unpopular fea- 

 ture of seaport life. 



Seafaring men between 18 and 

 55 years of age were liable, with 

 certain excepted classes. It was 

 customary for the press-gang to 

 land from a warship, seize likely 

 men, and convey them to the ship 

 as prisoners. Brutality was rife, 

 and violence was often caused, as 

 the novels of Smollett and Marryat 

 bear witness. Even sailors actually 

 serving on board a merchantman 

 could be seized, and vessels were 

 thus sometimes left almost helpless. 

 In 1798 the exemption of certain 

 classes of seamen was suspended 

 for five months. The press-gang 

 method was efficient neither in the 

 quality nor always in the number 



Pressburg, Czecho-Slovakia. View from the right bank of the Danube, showing the ruins of the palace, formerly the 

 residence of the kings of Hungary, which was burned down in 1811 



D 8 



