PROCLU3 



6347 



PROCURATION 



appointed officers elsewhere. They 

 are always issued on the demise of 

 the crown and the accession of a 

 new sovereign, and on declaration 

 of war. In times of war and other 

 emergency they contain the in- 

 structions of the executive govern- 

 ment with regard to the duties and 

 liabilities of the people. Thus, for 

 example, they may order reservists 

 to rejoin the colours, or call upon 

 well-disposed citizens to cooperate 

 with the authorities in repressing 

 seditious or revolutionary action by 

 ill-disposed members of the com- 

 munity. 



In normal times they are con- 

 cerned with the dissolution or pro- 

 rogation of parliament, with the 

 calling and adjourning or discharge 

 of certain courts of law, and the 

 like. Proclamations are binding 

 only when issued to enforce the 

 execution of existing law. At- 

 tempts made by Henry VIII to 

 give them the effect of statute law, 

 and thus to set the will of the sov- 

 ereign above the authority of the 

 legislature, were defeated by parlia- 

 ment in the reign of Edward VI, 

 and proclamations are thus the 

 utterance of the legally constituted 

 executive authority. 



Proclus (A.D. 410-485). Neo- 

 Platonist philosopher. Born at 

 Constantinople, of Lycian descent, 

 he studied at Athens, where he 

 succeeded Syrianus as head of the 

 Neo-Platonist school. A violent 

 opponent of Christianity, he is 

 chiefly important as having rigidly 

 systematised the doctrines of his 

 predecessors. He was in the main a 

 follower of Plotinus, although more 

 of a mystic ; but some of his views 

 in regard to the divine unities and 

 the intelligible are new. In addi- 

 tion to commentaries on certain 

 dialogues of Plato, he was the 

 author of mathematical and as- 

 tronomical works. It is uncertain 

 whether he was the author of a 

 Grammatical Chrestomathy, the 

 only source of our knowledge of 

 the so-called epic cycle, consider- 

 able extracts of which are pre- 

 served in the Bibliotheca of Photius. 

 See Homer ; Neo-Platonism ; Pho- 

 tius; Plotinus. 



Proconsul. Magistrate of 

 ancient Rome invested with the 

 power of a consul, and charged 

 with the command of an army or 

 the administration of a province. 

 In the later republican period the 

 wide powers or imperium granted 

 to proconsuls were often shame- 

 fully abused. See Consul ; Rome. 



Procopius. East Roman em- 

 peror, A.D. 365-6. Born in Cilicia, 

 he was a kinsman of Julian the 

 Apostate, who made him joint 

 commander of the army in Meso- 

 potamia, and is said to have in- 



tended him to be his successor. On 

 the accession of Valens (364), Pro- 

 copius, finding his life in danger, 

 fled to the Bosporus, crossed over 

 to Constantinople, and, favoured 

 by popular discontent, was pro- 

 claimed emperor. Valens at first 

 thought of abdicating, but, after 

 two severe defeats in Phrygia, 

 Procopius, abandoned by his army, 

 was captured and beheaded. 



Procopius (c. A.D. 540). Byzan- 

 tine historian. Born at Caesarea 

 in Palestine, and trained as a 

 lawyer, he acted as secretary to 

 Belisarius in several of his cam- 

 paigns, and seems to have found 

 favour with the emperor Justinian, 

 who appointed him prefect of Con- 

 stantinople in 562. He wrote his- 

 tories of the Persian, Vandal, and 

 Gothic Wars, and a work on the 

 public buildings erected by Jus- 

 tinian, but his most interesting 

 work is his Secret History, a sort 

 of chronique scandahiise of the 

 court of Constantinople from 549 

 to 562, containing an attack on 

 the Empress Theodora. There is 

 a translation, by H. B. Dewing, in 

 the LoebClassical Library, 1914-19. 

 Procrustes (Gr., the stretcher). 

 In Greek legend, the nickname of 

 Polypemon, a robber of Attica, 

 killed by Theseus. He boasted that 

 he had a bed which fitted every- 

 one, and made good his boast 

 by stretching the limbs of those 

 victims who were too short, and 

 cutting them off in the case of 

 those who were too long for the 

 bed. Procrustes and his methods 

 have become a proverbial expres- 

 sion for attempts to make every- 

 one conform to one standard. 



Procter, ADELAIDE ANN (1825- 

 64). British poet. She was born in 

 London, Oct. 30, 1825, a daughter 

 of Bryan 

 Waller Proc- 

 ter, better 

 known as 

 Barry Corn- 

 wall (q-v.). 

 Her poems, 

 collected as 

 Legends and 

 Lyrics, 1858- 

 60, and issued 

 with an intro- 

 duction by Charles Dickens, include 

 The Angel's Story and The Legend 

 of Provence, and such well-known 

 lyrics as The Lost Chord. Two 

 popular hymns by her are: I do 

 not ask, O Lord, that life may be ; 

 My God, I thank Thee. Miss 

 Procter, who was much interested 

 in the movement for the emanci- 

 pation of women, died of consump- 

 tion, .Feb. 2, 1864. 



Procter, BRYAN WALLER. Brit- 

 ish poet, better known under his 

 pen-name of Barry Cornwall (q.v.). 



Adelaide Procter, 

 British poet 



R. A. Proctor, 

 British astronomer 



Proctor. One who manages the 

 affairs of another. It is a con- 

 tracted form of procurator. The 

 king's proctor is an official entitled 

 to intervene in a divorce or nullity 

 suit where collusion or fraud is 

 suspected. At Oxford and Cam- 

 bridge the proctors are two uni- 

 versity officials whose duties in- 

 clude that of maintaining discip- 

 line. They hold office for only one 

 year. The sworn special con- 

 stables who accompany them on 

 their nightly rounds are known as 

 " bulldogs." The representative 

 of certain ecclesiastical bodies in 

 Convocation (q.v.) called a proctor. 

 Proctor, RICHARD ANTHONY 

 (1837-88). British astronomer. 

 Born at Chelsea, London, March 23, 

 1837, he was 

 e d u cated at 

 King's College, 

 London, and 

 S. John's Col- 

 1 e g e, 'Cam- 

 bridge. He 

 early took an 

 interest in as- 

 tronomy, and 

 wrote many 

 articles on the 

 subject. His book, Saturn and his 

 System, published 1865, estab- 

 lished him as a popular scientific 

 writer. He followed it with Half- 

 Hours with the Telescope, 1868 ; 

 Other Worlds than Ours, 1870; 

 The Orbs Around Us, 1872 ; The 

 Poetry of Astronomy, 1880 ; and 

 other books, which did much to 

 popularise astronomy. Proctor was 

 a very able lecturer on his subject, 

 and several times toured America, 

 where he settled in 1884. The 

 founder of the well-known scientific 

 monthly, Knowledge, Proctor died 

 in New York, Sept. 12, 1888. 



Procuration. Term for the 

 providing of women for the purpose 

 of illicit intercourse. In England, 

 the Criminal Law Amendment 

 Act of 1885 was directed mainly 

 against the trading in women and 

 girls disclosed by W. T. Stead's in- 

 vestigations. This statute imposes 

 heavy penalties for procuring any 

 girl or woman who is not of known 

 immoral character, either to have 

 illicit relations with any person, 

 to become a prostitute, or to be- 

 come an inmate of a house of ill- 

 fame. It deals also with the offence 

 of administering drugs, or using 

 threats or false representations for 

 the purpose of procuration. Where 

 there is reason to suspect that a 

 woman is detained in a disorderly 

 house, magistrates are empowered 

 to grant a search warrant. The 

 Act of 1885 was amended by the 

 Criminal Law Amendment Act, 

 1912. See Prostitution; White 

 Slave Traffic. 



