PRIX DE ROME 



6344 



PROBABILITY 



Prix de Rome (Fr., prize of 

 Rome). Highest award given to 

 students of the Ecole des Beaux 

 Arts, Paris, who show unusual 

 talent in painting, sculpture, en- 

 graving, or architecture. Its be- 

 stowal carries admittance to the 

 French academy at Rome, and a 

 monetary allowance varying with 

 the subject in which the candidate 

 qualifies. The award is made every 

 year for painting, sculpture, and 

 architecture, and once in two years 

 for engraving. 



Prize Bounty. Monetary re- 

 ward to those personally and im- 

 mediately responsible for the cap- 

 ture or destruction of an enemy 

 warship. It was legally authorised 

 in 1649, when the rate of bounty 

 was fixed at 20 per gun in the case 

 of an admiral's ship, 16 if a vice- 

 admiral's, and 10 for others. In 

 1708 the first Naval Prize Act fixed 

 the rate at 5 per head of the 

 people on board the hostile ship, 

 and this rate still obtains. Prize 

 bounty is payable only to those 

 " actually present at the taking or 

 destroying " of an armed enemy 

 ship (Naval Prize Act, 1864), and 

 this condition is rigidly enforced. 

 In the case of fleet actions bounty 

 does not, as a rule, realize much for 

 the individual, but it provides a 

 generous channel for rewarding the 

 work of submarines. For instance, 

 the Bll, with a crew of only two 

 officers and 14 men, was awarded 

 3,500 for sinking the Turkish 

 battleship Messudieh in the Dar- 

 danelles on Dec. 13, 1914. Bounty 

 is not granted in respect of troop 

 transports unless they are armed. 

 See Prize Money. 



Prize Court. Court of law held 

 in time of war. On the outbreak 

 of a war involving hostilities at sea 

 every country sets up a tribunal 

 called a prize court, whose business 

 it is to examine the validity of 

 capture of ships and goods made at 

 sea by the navy of its country. 

 Such a court is really an inter- 

 national tribunal, and its decisions 

 ought to be governed by inter- 

 national law, so that, theoretically, 

 any question at issue would be de- 

 cided the same way wherever it 

 was tried. Each country, however, 

 makes its own rules of procedure, 

 but in England, at 'any rate, no 

 rule is allowed to be made which 

 will hamper the court in deciding 

 cases according to international 

 law, or which will result in any 

 litigant being deprived of his rights 

 under that code. The British 

 courts of prize are constituted by 

 commission under the great seal. 

 In the British empire there is 

 always an appeal to the judicial 

 committee of the privy council. See 

 Blockade ; International Law. 



Prize Fight. Term used for a 

 pugilistic contest, fought with bare 

 fists, for a money prize. Such are 

 now forbidden by law in the 

 United Kingdom, the U.S.A., and 

 other civilized countries, and their 

 place has been taken by contests 

 in which boxing-gloves are worn. 

 In England the age of prize fights 

 was from about 1750 to 1850. 

 The last great prize fight was the 

 one between Sayers and Heenan 

 in 1860. See Boxing. 



Uskub, and at one time was 

 famous for its manufacture of 

 weapons. Before the Great War it 

 had a brisk trade, and a glass 

 industry. It is the seat of a R.C. 

 archbishop and a Greek metro- 

 politan. In the first Balkan War 

 it was occupied by the Serbs in 

 Oct., 1912. During the Great War 

 it was the scene of heavy fighting 

 yrior to the retreat through it 

 of the major part of the Serbian 

 army into the Albanian Mts. en 



Prizrend, Serbia. General view looking towards the old Turkish citadel 



Prize Money. Net proceeds of 

 the sale of enemy property and 

 contraband lawfully captured at 

 sea. Prior to the outbreak of th 

 Great War the distribution of prize 

 money was confined to those ships 

 actually making the capture, and 

 this led to large fortunes being 

 amassed by fortunately placed 

 officers. Thus, on May 21. 1762, 

 H.M. ships Active and Favourite 

 captured off Cadiz the Spanish 

 vessel Hermione, from Lima, and 

 the net proceeds in prize were 

 519,705 10s., resulting in the dis- 

 tribution of 65,000 to each cap- 

 tain, 13,000 to the lieutenants,and 

 484 to each seaman. In Aug., 

 1914, this system was suspended, 

 and later one was substituted for 

 it under which the whole prize 

 money proceeds are paid into a 

 common fund, in which every officer 

 and man participates at the con- 

 clusion of hostilities. 



For purposes of distributing 

 prize money and prize bounty 

 (q.v. ) all ranks and ratings in the 

 fleet are divided into classes, flag 

 officers alone excluded. Flag officers 

 share one-thirtieth of the whole, 

 and one-tenth of the remainder is 

 divided among captains and com- 

 manders serving as executive 

 officers under them. The residue 

 available for general distribution 

 is then divided up in accordance 

 with a scale by which every rank 

 and rating receives a certain 

 number of shares. 



Prizrend OR PRIZREN. Town of 

 Yugoslavia, in Serbia. Situated 

 on the E. edge of the Albanian 

 Mts., the centre of a department 

 of the same name (pop. 227,000 in 

 1914), it is about 60 m. E.N.E. of 



route to Scutari, Nov. -Dec., 1915. 

 It was occupied by the Bulgars, 

 Nov. 28, 1915, and reoccupied by 

 the French about Oct. 12, 1918. 

 Pop., in 1914, 21,000. 



Proa (Malay prahw). Malaysian 

 sailing boat. Both ends being built 

 sharp, it can sail equally well in 

 both directions, and it is fitted with 

 an outrigger contrivance projecting 

 a boat-like float to prevent cap- 

 sizing. Rigged with large lateen- 

 like sails, proas attain remarkably 

 high speed, and are used in many 

 parts of Polynesia. See Boat; 

 Catamaran. 



Probabilism. Doctrine or 

 theory according to which no 

 action is sinful when there ex- 

 ists the slightest probability that 

 it may be lawful, or when it has 

 the approval of a reputable 

 teacher. The origin of the doctrine 

 has been traced to the Greek 

 Sophists and Jewish Talmudists, 

 but it was first systematised among 

 the Jesuits. Condemned by the 

 Sorbonne, 1620, and disapproved 

 by Alexander VII, 1665, and 

 Innocent XI, 1679.. the Jesuit- 

 general T. Gonzales attacked it 

 in his Fundamenta Theologiae 

 Moralis, 1691, but it found a 

 champion in Alfonso Maria de 

 Liguori (1696-1787). The term is 

 often used in connexion with cases 

 arising in confession. See Casuistry. 



Probability. Branch of mathe- 

 matics concerned with the chance 

 of occurrence of any one of a num- 

 ber of possible events, some one of 

 which is bound to occur. 



The theory of probabilities is of 

 extreme importance in every-day 

 affairs, notably in insurance ques- 

 tions, annuities, etc. The first 



