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FUNDAMENTAL NOTE FUNERAL RITES. 



Function, in mathematics. A quantity is said to 

 be a function of another quantity, when its value 

 depends on that quantity and known quantities only ; 

 and it is said to be a function of several quantities, 

 \vhen its value depends on those quantities and known 

 quantities only. 



FUNDAMENTAL NOTE, in music; the princi- 

 pal note in a song, or composition, to which all the 

 rest are adapted : it is called the key to the song. 



FUNDING SYSTEM ; the manner in which mo- 

 dern governments have sought to give security to 

 public loans, and thereby strengthen the public 

 ctedit. It was first used in Britain, and after- 

 wards followed by all the other states which paid atten- 

 tion to their credit. It provides that, on the creation 

 of a public loan, funds shall immediately be formed, 

 and secured by law, for the payment of the interest 

 until uhe state redeems the whole, and also for the 

 gradual redemption of the capital itself. This gra- 

 dual redeeming of the capital is called the sinking 

 of the debt, and the fund appropriated for this pur- 

 pose is called the sinking fund. (q. v.) 



FUNDS. See Loan, Sinking Fund, Slocks, Pub- 

 lic Stocks, and National Debt. 



FUNDS, PUBLIC ; the name given in England 

 to those taxes and other public imposts, which are 

 destined for the discharge of the interest, or capital 

 of the national debt. The government, resorting to 

 the expedient of borrowing considerable sums for the 

 public service, assigned to those who made the loans 

 the income of some branch of the revenues of the 

 state, which was deemed sufficient for the paying off 

 of the interest or the capital, or both, according to 

 the contract made between the government and the 

 capitalists. Thus every loan had its funds. In order, 

 however, to avoid the inconveniences which arose 

 from the circumstance, that sometimes a single fund 

 was not sufficient for the discharge of the sums for 

 which it was destined, while another one afforded a 

 surplus, several funds were united, and from the com- 

 mon amount the payments made, for which they had 

 been appropriated. In this manner the Aggregate 

 Fund originated in 1715, the South Sea Fund in 1716, 

 the General Fund in 1716 ; the Sinking Fund, into 

 which the surplus of the three beforementioned funds 

 flows, and which was originally destined for the dimi- 

 nution of the national debt, but in latter years has also 

 been applied to meet the necessities of government ; 

 finally the Consolidated Fund, under which appellation, 

 in the year 1786 (all the beforementioned funds being 

 then abolished), the whole amount of the public 

 revenues (with the exception of the annual grants) 

 became united. The interest of the whole public 

 debt, as well as the capitals, the payment of which 

 is due, also the interest of the bills of the exchequer, 

 the civil list, the pensions, salaries, and several other 

 annual expenditures, are all paid out of this fund. 

 The surplus is annually assigned by the parliament, 

 for the necessary expenses of the current year. As 

 every obligation of the public treasury for the pay- 

 ment of interest or capital, is assigned to a certain 

 fund, the holder of government securities for a certain 

 amount is said to have such an amount in the funds, 

 and the expression " .1000 in the public funds " 

 means a capital of iGlOOO, which, according to the 

 original conditions made at the time of the loan, 

 brings a certain annual interest payable by the state. 

 The public debts, for which certain interests are 

 paid until the time when the capital itself is to be 

 discharged, are called, in the language of the finan- 

 ciers, perpetual or redeemable annuities, and, in com- 

 mon life, funds or stocks. A small part of the pub- 

 lic debt consists of annuities for a certain number of 

 years, which cease as soon as the term has expired. 

 They are called irredeemable or determinate annui- 



ties; and are divided into long annuities, such as last 

 foi a period of ninety or 100 years (in the time 

 of king William III., they brought ten, twelve, and 

 fourteen per cent, above par; those which have not 

 yet ceased, will all expire in the year 1860), and 

 short annuities, which, in 1778, were granted for 

 terms of ten, twenty, at most thirty years, as an in- 

 demnification to those persons who had suffered losses 

 on the redeemable annuities. Besides those, there 

 are also life annuities, which last until the death of 

 one or several persons. By far the greater part of 

 annuities are perpetual, which differ according to the 

 interest they bring. As often, however, as the go- 

 vernment makes a new loan, it is thrown into that 

 part of the public debt which pays equal interest, 

 and the funds destined for the payment of the inter- 

 est of the new loan are joined to the fund, out of 

 which the interest of the older capitals is paid. In 

 this manner, the old and new debts are consolidated, 

 and all the interest is paid out of the whole amount 

 of the fund. The business which is daily transacted 

 in these different funds, particularly in the consoli- 

 dated three percent., of which the far greater part 

 of the public debt consists, is enormous. It is yet 

 augmented by stock-jobbing a kind of traffic con- 

 sisting in a contract, which two parties make for a 

 certain sum, so that, after a fixed period has expired, 

 not the capital, but only the sum, to which the differ- 

 ence of the value of the stock on the day of the con- 

 tract's expiring, and that on which it was entered 

 into, amounts, must be paid. Although this traffic 

 is prohibited by the laws, and the honour of the par- 

 ties is the only pledge for the fulfilment of their en- 

 gagements, yet the business transacted in this way is 

 very considerable. See Public Stocks, National 

 Debt, &c. 



FUNDY, BAY OF ; a bay of North America, be- 

 tween New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, extending 

 about 200 miles in a N. E. direction. It is twelve 

 leagues across from St John's, N.B., to the gut of 

 Annapolis, N. S. Here the tides rise thirty feet. 

 In the basin of Minas, the eastern arm of the bay, the 

 tides rise forty feet ; and at the head of the north- 

 eastern arm, called Chignecto channel, they rise sixty 

 feet. These tides are so rapid as to overtake animals 

 feeding on the shore. 



FUNEN, or FYEN ; an island of Denmark, at the 

 entrance of the Baltic, nearly of an oval form, with 

 some irregularities, extending from N. to S. about 

 thirty-five miles, and from E. to W. about thirty ; 

 population, 112,000; square miles, 1194. It is a 

 fertile and pleasant island. Most of the Danish 

 nobility have seats here. The soil yields great crops 

 of corn, so that nearly 100,000 barrels are exported 

 annually to Norway and Sweden, exclusive of the 

 consumption at home. The inhabitants keep a great 

 number of bees, and, with the honey produced, make 

 mead, which forms a considerable article of trade, 

 being sent to every part of the kingdom. Odensee 

 is the capital. Lon. 9 40' to 10 50' E. ; lat. 55 

 2' to 55 35' N. 



FUNERAL RITES. Religious dogmas combine 

 with physical circumstances to decide the character 

 of the last tribute of friendship and love paid to the 

 remains of the dead ; nor is it always easy to deter- 

 mine which of these causes may have led one nation 

 to preserve the corpse by an artificial and expensive 

 process, another to reduce it at once to its original 

 elements, and others to leave it in the earth at the 

 disposition of nature. On the other hand, we find 

 the influence of religious opinions in many cruel, ab- 

 surd, and revolting practices, which have prevailed 

 in some countries, and their milder and better influ- 

 ences in the touching yet consoling usages of others. 

 We must content ourselves here with a brief notice 



