CLUB CLYMER. 



281 



St Remigius, archbishop of Rheims. Clovis was so- 

 lemnly baptized at Rheims, December 25, 49(5, with 

 several thousand Franks, men and women. St Re- 

 migius, at the same time, anointed liim. The cities 

 of Armorica (Bretagne) then submitted to his sceptre 

 hi 497. There now remained in Gaul only two in- 

 dependent powers besides the Franks, viz., the 

 Burgundians.and Visigoths. The former had two 

 kings, Godegisele and Gundebald. Clovis made an 

 attack upon the latter, whose territories extended 

 from the Vosges to the Alps and the sea-coast 

 of Marseilles. Gundebald, deserted by the faith- 

 less Godegisele, was routed near Dijon, compel- 

 led to surrender Lyons and Vienne to the victorious 

 Clovis, and to flee to Avignon, where he concluded 

 a peace. Clovis returnea home loaded with spoils. 

 Gundebald afterwards violated the treaty ; but Clo- 

 vis, fearing the Goths, entered into a new alliance 

 with him. Hostilities soon broke out between Alaric 

 king of the Goths, and Clovis. In the battle near 

 Poictiers, between the rivers Vonne and Clouere, the 

 latter gained a complete victory, slaying his enemy 

 with his own hand, and conquered Aquitania. After 

 this conquest, Clovis received the honour of the con- 

 sulship from the emperor Anastasius. The king of 

 the Franks, having his head adorned with a diadem, 

 appeared in the church of St Martin of Tours, clad 

 in the tunic and purple robe, and was saluted by the 

 people as consul and Augustus. He strengthened 

 his authority, while he tarnished his glory, by mur- 

 ders, and cruelties. He died Nov. 26, 511, having 

 reigned thirty years. His four sons divided his do- 

 minions between them. Twenty-five years later, the 

 kingdom of Burgundy came under the power of the 

 Franks, the Ostrogoths were obliged to yield to them 

 Aries and Marseilles, and Justinian conceded to 

 them the sovereignty of Gaul. In the last year of 

 his reign, Clovis had called a council at Orleans, 

 from which are dated the peculiar privileges claimed 

 by the kings of France in opposition to the pope. 



CLUB ; a society which meets on certain times, at 

 certain places, for various purposes ; for instance, 

 chess clubs, racing clubs, &c. The political clubs 

 originated in England, and thence passed to France 

 and to other countries. They were prohibited by a 

 law of the German empire, made in 1793. The 

 French clubs, during the revolution, must be con- 

 sidered as its focus. An accurate acquaintance with 

 their history is indispensable for the understanding of 

 a great part of the revolution. They were connected 

 and regularly organized, and their resolutions were 

 published. In the minuteness of their ramification 

 throughout the country, they resembled the corre- 

 sponding committees in the American colonies before 

 the American revolution. These French clubs de- 

 stroyed the constitution of 1795. They were after- 

 wards prohibited. See Jacobin and France. 



CLUE of a sail (in French, point) is the lower cor- 

 ner ; and hence clue-garnets (cargues-point, Fr.) are 

 a sort of tackles fastened to the clues of the mainsail 

 and foresail, to truss them up to the yard, which is 

 usually termed clueing-up the sails. Clue-lines are 

 used for the same purpose as clue-garnets, only that 

 the latter are confined to the courses, whilst the clue- 

 lines are common to all the square-sails. 



CLUNY ; a town of France, in the Saone-and- 

 Loire, lying between two mountains, on the Grone ; 

 nine miles N.W. Maoon, twenty-one miles S. Clia- 

 lons-sur-Saone ; population 3400. Here was a Bene- 

 dictine abbey, founded by William, duke of Aquitaine, 

 at one time the most celebrated in France. Its funds 

 were vast, and its edifices had the appearance of a well 

 built city. The church is one of the largest in France. 

 The town contains three parishes. See Abelard. 



CLYDE (anciently Glota) ; a large and beautiful 



river in Scotland, which rises amid the mountains and 

 wastes that separate Lanarkshire from the counties of 

 Peebles and Dumfries, passes by Lanark, Hamilton, 

 Glasgow, Renfrew, Dumbarton, Greenock, &c., and 

 forms finally an extensive estuary or firth before it 

 enters the Irish sea, at the southern extremity of the 

 island of Bute. From its source to Bute its length is 

 about one hundred miles, though in a direct line the 

 distance is much shorter. Its principal tributaries are 

 the Douglas water, the Mouse, the Nethan, the 

 Avon, the Calder, the North C alder, the Kelvin, the 

 White and Black Cart, and the Leven. Near La- 

 nark, it has three celebrated falls the uppermost, 

 Bonniton Linn, a cascade of about thirty feet ; the 

 next, Cora Linn, where the water takes three distinct 

 leaps, each about as high as Bonniton ; and the low- 

 est, Stonebyres, which, like Cora, has three distinct 

 falls, measuring altogether about seventy feet. Stone- 

 byres falls are two miles below Lanark ; the others are 

 situated about the same distance above that town. 

 The Clyde becomes navigable at Glasgow, and is the 

 most valuable river in Scotland for commerce. See 

 Glasgow. 



CLYMER, GEORGE, one of the signers of the 

 American declaration of independence, was born in 

 Philadelphia in 1739, of a respectable family. His 

 father emigrated from Bristol. The death of 

 his parents left George an orphan at the age of 

 seven years ; but he was well taken care of by his 

 uncle, William Coleman, who bequeathed to him the 

 principal part of his fortune. After the completion 

 of his studies, young Clymer entered into his uncle's 

 counting-house, though his inclination for cultivating 

 his mina was much greater than for mercantile pur- 

 suits. When discontent had been excited in the 

 colonies by the arbitrary acts of the British parlia- 

 ment, he was among the first in Pennsylvania to raise 

 his voice in opposition, and was named by a meeting 

 held in Philadelphia, Oct. 16, 1773, chairman of a 

 committee appointed to demand of the commissioners 

 for selling the tea which had been imported into 

 America, on account of the East India company, 

 their resignation of the office. The demand was 

 complied with. Mr Clymer was afterwards chosen 

 a member of the council of safety, when the increas- 

 ing troubles rendered such a body necessary. In 

 July, 1776, he was chosen, together with doctor 

 Benjamin Rush, James Wilson, George Ross, and 

 George Taylor, esquires, to supply the vacancy in 

 congress occasioned by the resignation of the mem- 

 bers of the Pennsylvania delegation, who had refused 

 their assent to the declaration of independence. The 

 new members were not present when the instrument 

 was agreed upon, but they all affixed to it their sig- 

 natures. In the autumn of 1777, his house in Ches- 

 ter county, in which his family resided, was plundered 

 by a band of British soldiers, his property greatly 

 damaged, and his wife and children constrained to fly 

 for safety. In the year 1780, Mr Clymer was a mem- 

 ber of an association which made an offer to congress 

 of establishing a bank for the sole purpose of facili- 

 tating the transportation of a supply of 3,000,000 of 

 rations and 300 hogsheads of rum to the army, which 

 was on the point of disbanding, in consequence of its 

 distressed condition. Congress received the offer, 

 and pledged the faith of the United States to the sub- 

 scribers to the bank for their full indemnity, and 

 deposited in it, as well for that purpose as in 

 support of its credit, bills for 150,000 sterling, 

 on the American ministers in Europe. Mr Cly- 

 mer was one of the gentlemen selected to preside 

 over the institution, the good effects of which were 

 long felt. In Nov. 1780, Mr Clymer was again 

 elected to congress, and strongly advocated there 

 the establishment of a national bank. In the autumn of 



