PROSPERO 



about the property to be acquired, 

 the amount of subscriptions on 

 which the directors will proceed to 

 allotment, etc. These and other 

 conditions are laid down in the 

 Companies Act, 1900, which 

 strengthened the earlier Acts in 

 certain necessary directions. The 

 law is now contained in the Com- 

 panies Consolidation Act of 1908. 



Prospero. Character in Shake- 

 speare's play The Tempest. C The 

 victim of a plot by his brother 

 Antonio, the usurping duke of 

 Milan, and Alonso, king of Naples, 

 he spends 12 years in exile on an 

 island with his daughter Miranda. 

 Raising a mimic storm, he lands 

 his enemies on the island, and with 

 them Alonso's son, Ferdinand, who, 

 falling hi love with Miranda, paves 

 the way for a general reconciliation. 



Prostate Gland. Organ which 

 surrounds the neck of the bladder 

 and first part of the urethra hi the 

 male. Somewhat resembling in 

 shape a Spanish chestnut, it is 

 about one and a half inches across 

 and contains a secretion which 

 forms a constituent of the sper- 

 matic fluid. Prostatitis, acute 

 inflammation of the prostate, is 

 usually a result of gonorrhoea. 

 Chronic prostatitis may follow. 



Prostejov OR PROSSNITZ. Town 

 of the republic of Czecho-Slovakia, 

 in the Moravian division. It is 

 13 m. S.W. of Olomouc (Olmiitz), 

 and has manufactures of textiles, 

 beer, spirits, and farm implements. 

 Pop. 34,000. 



Prostitution (Lat. pro, before ; 

 statuere, to place). Promiscuous 

 sexual intercourse for the sake of 

 gain. The women who practise it, 

 usually for a livelihood, are known 

 as prostitutes. Prostitution has 

 existed in every country and hi 

 every age, and all the efforts of 

 Church and State to stamp it out 

 have failed. In Greece and Rome 

 it was recognized and regulated, 

 and the same is true of the coun- 

 tries of Europe, including England, 

 during the Middle Ages. To-day in 

 the United Kingdom the law 

 treats it as an offence against 

 public order, but cases are ex- 

 tremely difficult to prove and it 

 flourishes openly. In France and 

 other countries prostitution is regu- 

 lated with varying degrees of strict- 

 ness, prostitutes being registered, 

 examined, and confined to certain 

 areas. See Procuration. 



Protagoras (490-415 B.C.). 

 Greek philosopher and sophist. 

 Born at Abdera in Thrace, he 

 taught in Sicily and latterly at 

 Athens, from which place he fled 

 after conviction on a charge of 

 atheism brought against him for 

 opinions expressed in his treatise 

 on theology. He was drowned at 



6361 



Prospero, in his cell, invokes a fairy masque to celebrate 

 the betrothal of Miranda and Ferdinand 



From the painting by Jot. Wright 



sea. He was the author of a treatise 

 which began with the famous 

 sentence, " Man is the measure of 

 all things." By this he meant that 

 truth was relative and not absolute, 

 and that what each man holds to 

 be true, that is true to him. The 

 same principle also applied to 

 morality, right and wrong being 

 dependent on opinion. Protagoras 

 was the first to study and write on 

 Grammar. He is one of the chief 



PROTECTION 



interlocutors i n 

 Plato's Dialogue 

 which bears his 

 name. See So- 

 phists ; consult 

 also Greek Think- 

 ers, T. Gomperz, 

 E n g. trans. L. 

 Magnus, 1901-12. 

 P r o t e a ceae. 

 Natural order of 

 trees and shrubs 

 (a few perennial 

 herbs). They are 

 natives of the 

 warm regions of 

 the S. hemisphere. 

 They have 

 leathery leaves of 

 varied form, from 

 entire to much divided, in the 

 different species. The flower parts 

 are in fours, but the form, like 

 that of the fruits, varies. There 

 are nearly a thousand species. 

 Some of the Australian species yield 

 close-grained red or pink wood of 

 considerable value to the cabinet- 

 maker on account of its pretty 

 markings. Representative genera 

 are Banksia, Persoonia, Grevillea, 

 Hakea, and Protect. 



PROTECTION : IN POLITICS & INDUSTRY 



Percy A. Hurd, M.P.. formerly Secretary of the Tariff Commission 



For the presentation of the opposite case see Free Trade. See 



Tariff Reform ; also Corn Laws ; Dumping ; Political Economy ; 



and biographies of Joseph Chamberlain, Peel, and others 



Protection, in the economic 

 sense, may be defined as the foster- 

 ing of home manufactures and 

 produce by imposing taxes on the 

 importation of goods from abroad. 

 Under the laws of Edward the 

 Confessor, foreign merchants in 

 England were to sell wholesale only, 

 and were not to engage in any 

 work which would compete with 

 the industry of English citizens. 

 But in Saxon and Norman times 

 there was no manufacturing indus- 

 try in England worthy the name, 

 and it is not until the reign of 

 Edward III that England's indus- 

 trial progress really began. This, 

 progress Edward III did his best 

 to foster by discouraging any 

 importations that could compete 

 with home industry. The famous 

 statutes of 1337 bear witness to 

 the protectionism of Edward III. 



The protectionist idea thus 

 formulated was consolidated under 

 the Tudor dynasty. Henry VII 

 not only entered into commercial 

 treaties for the security of the 

 Icelandic and Mediterranean trade, 

 but legislated on behalf of the 

 staple woollen industry by pro- 

 hibiting the export of uni'ulled 

 woollen cloth ; on behalf of the 

 other textile industries by con- 

 tinuing for twenty years the old 



prohibitions against the importa- 

 tion of ribbons and silks, etc. ; on 

 behalf of home industry generally 

 by re-enacting in perpetuity 

 Edward IV's ordinance that aliens 

 should expend moneys obtained by 

 them from selling their produce in 

 the purchase of English produce, 

 and by reviving statutes against 

 the exportation of bullion. The 

 policy of fostering home industries 

 was carried on by Elizabeth. 



The value of the protective 

 policy, of which the foundations 

 had thus been laid, was put to the 

 test during the 17th century. 

 Holland was then at her zenith, 

 but before the end of the century 

 England's industrial position was 

 superior to Holland's, and this 

 superiority was brought about by 

 adhering to the protective principle 

 and developing its application. The 

 country's commercial prosperity 

 had made steady progress from the 

 time of Elizabeth, and seemed to 

 reach a climax in the 18th century, 

 and then England was enabled to 

 reap a rich reward from the out- 

 burst of scientific invention which 

 marked that century. 



The bounty system was largely 

 resorted to for the encouragement 

 of industry. In 1703 bounties were 

 given to American colonists on the 



