FREDERICS OORD, FREEDOM OF CORPORATION. 



319 



commerce anil manufactures, encouraged agriculture 

 and the working of mines, and much increased the 

 wealth of his people and his own revenues. He was 

 a liberal patron of the arts and sciences, institutec 

 societies for the improvement of painting, sculpture 

 and architecture, sent a mission of learned men into 

 the Levant, for the purpose of making discoveries ir 

 natural history and antiquities, and founded places o: 

 instruction for the Laplanders. He died January. 

 1766. He was twice married, first to Louisa, daugh- 

 ter of George II., and secondly to Juliana Maria, 

 daughter of the duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel. 



FREDERICS OORD. See Colonies, Pauper, 

 after the article Colony. 



FREE CITIES. The cities of Germany originated 

 chiefly during the reign of the Carlovingians and the 

 emperors of the Saxon house, and remained, for a 

 long time, dependent on the secular or spiritual no- 

 bility, who often exercised their authority in a very 

 oppressive manner. The disturbances under Henry 

 IV. encouraged the inhabitants of some of the cities 

 (Worms and Cologne) to ami themselves. They 

 ottered their services to the emperor, who gladly ac- 

 cepted the offer, which his embarrassed situation 

 rendered very agreeable. Commerce and manufac- 

 tures gradually increased their importance ; they 

 frequently assisted the emperors in repressing the 

 arrogance of the nobles, and, in return for their ser- 

 vices or contributions, received various privileges 

 and immunities. In this manner, the imperial cities 

 originated in the middle of the twelfth century. 

 Gemeiner, however, has proved by means of docu- 

 ments, in his work, Ueber den Ursprung der Stadt 

 Regensburg und aller alien Freistadte, namentlich 

 der Stadte Basel, Strasburg, Speier, fVorms, Mainz 

 und Koln (On the Origin of the City of Ratisbon, 

 and all the ancient Free Cities ; in particular, those 

 of Basle, Strasburg, Spire, Worms, Mentz, and 

 Cologne), Munich, 1817 that there were free cities 

 in Germany, which existed from the time of the Ro- 

 mans, and had little in common with the free cities 

 of later times, and which, in the beginning of the 

 sixteenth century, lost their most essential privileges, 

 and even the name of free cities, through the ignor- 

 ance and carelessness of their magistrates. The 

 most important of those privileges, as is shown par- 

 ticularly in respect to Ratisbon, were, that they 

 should enjoy an independent government ; should 

 never swear allegiance to any emperor or king ; nor 

 be obliged either to engage in any expedition against 

 the Romans, or to pay for the privilege of exemp- 

 tion ; nor to pay any contributions whatsoever to the 

 empire ; nor be in any way reckoned among the 

 cities of the empire. In one word, until the period 

 above mentioned, they constituted independent re- 

 publics. The cities of Lombardy, enriched by com- 

 merce, and encouraged by the assistance of the popes, 

 often ventured to resist their masters, the emperors, 

 and could not be reduced to obedience without great 

 difficulty. The example of the cities of Lombardy 

 also encouraged those of Germany. In the middle 

 of the thirteenth century, two important confederacies 

 were established for common objects the Hanseatic 

 league (q. v.) (1241), and the league of the Rhenish 

 cities (1246). The powerful Hanseatic league lasted 

 nearly four centuries, until its dissolution was effected 

 by several causes, in 1630. The remnants of this 

 league, with the former confederacy of cities, which 

 had its representatives in the German diet, and the 

 free cities of Hamburg, Bremen, and Lubeck, were 

 Incorporated with the French empire in 1810. As 

 these cities co-operated vigorously in the recovery 

 of German independence, they were acknowledged, 

 together with Frankfort, as free cities, by die con- 

 gress of Vienna. As such they pined the German 



confederacy, June 8, 1815, and obtained the right of 

 a vote in the diet. In conformity with the twelfth 

 article of the constitution of the German confederacy, 

 they established a common supreme court of appeal, 

 in 1830. By the general act of the congress of 

 Vienna, the city of Frankfort, with its territory as it 

 was in 1803, was declared free, and a member of the 

 German confederacy. It was required that its con- 

 stitution should establish a perfect civil and political 

 equality of the different religious sects. Lubeck, 

 Bremen, and Hamburg, have restored their consti- 

 tutions, as they were before the year 1810. Besides 

 these four free cities in Germany, Cracow was like- 

 wise declared a free city by the general act of the 

 congress of Vienna, and is under the protection of 

 Russia, Austria, and Prussia. A perfect neutrality 

 has been guaranteed to it by these three powers, and 

 the limits of its territory have been accurately de- 

 fined. 



FREEDMEN (liberti, libertini) was the name ap- 

 plied by the Romans to those persons who had been 

 released from a state of servitude. The freedmaii 

 wore a cap or hat, as a sign of freedom, (hence the 

 origin of the cap of liberty) assumed the name of his 

 master, and received from him a white garment and 

 a ring. With his freedom he obtained the rights and 

 privileges of a Roman citizen of the plebeian rank, 

 but could not be raised to any office of honour. He 

 always remained in a certain moral dependency 

 (vinculum pietatis) on his former master. They owed 

 each other reciprocal aid and support. At a later 

 period, the number of emancipated slaves increased 

 to such an alarming extent, that they even became 

 formidable to some weak emperors by the power and 

 wealth they had acquired ; and many laws were 

 passed for the purpose of diminishing their number. 

 Thus, for instance, it was ordered, that out of 20,000 

 slaves, not more than 160 should be set free by testa- 

 ment. Besides emancipation by testament, two 

 other modes were in use. The one consisted in the 

 master causing his slave to be enrolled in the list of 

 citizens by the censor. The other was the more 

 solemn. The master, leading his slave by the hand 

 before the pretor or consul, declared, " I desire that 

 this man be free, according to the custom and usage 

 of the Romans." If the latter consented, he gave 

 the slave a blow on the head with a rod, saying, " I 

 declare this man free, according to the custom of the 

 Romans." The lictor, or the master of the slave, 

 then turned him round, gave him a blow on the 

 cheek, and let him go, intimating that he might de- 

 part where he pleased. The whole proceeding was 

 entered on the registers of the pretor, and the slave 

 received a cap or hat, the badge of freedom, in the 

 temple of Feronia. 



The manumitted slaves in the United States of North 

 America and in European colonies have this disad- 

 vantage in comparison with the freedmen among the 

 ancients, that their colour continually recalls their 

 former condition, and connects them with the re- 

 mainder of the same race in servitude, while it pro- 

 duces a marked distinction between them and their 

 fonner masters. This has prevented them from being 

 admitted to the full rights of citizenship in the United 

 States. (See Sketch of the Laws relating to Slavery 

 in the United States, by George M. Stroud, Phila- 

 delphia, 1827.) In Colombia, the emancipation of 

 all the blacks having been provided for, there is much 

 less unwillingness on the part of the whites to asso- 

 ciate with them, and some distinguished officers, in 

 the war of independence in that country, were per- 

 sons of colour. 



FREEDOM OF CORPORATION, the right ot en- 

 joying all the privileges and immunities that belong to 

 t. The freedom of cities and corporations is regularly 



