103 



SAXONY SCAGLIOLA. 



during the war, loaded with a debt of more than 

 weiity million dollars. It now became necessary 

 for the government to renounce its ambitious 

 schemes, and endeavour to lessen the pressure of 

 the public burdens. Frederic Augustus III. (1763 

 1827) reluctantly took part in the war of 1792, 

 against France, and fuinished only his contingent 

 its a member of the empire, when war was declared 

 by the imperial diet (1793). In 1806, 20,000 

 Saxons were sent to the support of Prussia; but 

 after the battle of Jena, a peace was concluded 

 with France, and the elector acceded to the confe- 

 deration of the Rhine, with the royal title. Large 

 additions were made to the Saxon territory, 1807 

 and 1809; but these acquisitions were merely tem- 

 porary. In the war of 1813, Saxony was the scene 

 of the great struggle between Napoleon and the 

 northern powers. The battles of Liitzen and 

 Beautzen, Dresden and Leipsic (see the articles, 

 and Russian-German War), stripped the king of 

 Saxony of his newly acquired territories. The 

 king himself was twenty months a prisoner of the 

 allied powers, and his dominions were governed by 

 Russian and Prussian authorities. The fate of 

 Saxony was long a subject of discussion at the con- 

 gress of Vienna. It was at first proposed to unite 

 it with Prussia; and nothing but the jealousy of 

 Austria seems to have saved it from this fate. Its 

 partition was finally resolved upon, February, 1815, 

 and the king was obliged to cede more than half of 

 his kingdom to Prussia. This cession included the 

 whole of Lower Lusatia, part of Upper Lusatia, 

 the circle of Wittenberg, and -parts of those of 

 Meissen and Leipsic, the greater part of Merseburg, 

 &c., 8160 square miles, with a population of 875,578. 

 After the king's return to Dresden, he immediately 

 turned his attention to a system of public credit, 

 and to the establishment of scientific and other use- 

 ful institutions. By the partition, Saxony lost all 

 its salt works, and its finest grain districts and 

 forests, with some valuable mining districts, but 

 still retains the most populous manufacturing parts 

 of the country, with the rich Freyberg mines. A 

 prudent policy may heal the wounds she has re- 

 ceived ; but her independence is altogether precari- 

 ous. See Politz's History of the Kingdom of Saxony, 

 and Engelhardt's Description of Saxony, in Ger- 

 man. 



SAXONY, THE PRUSSIAN DUCHY OF; a 

 province of the kingdom of Prussia, chiefly com- 

 posed of the cessions made by the kingdom of 

 Saxony to Prussia, at the congress of Vienna, in 

 1815, together with other territories north of An- 

 halt and west of the Elbe and Havel. It is divided i 

 into the three governments of Magdeburg, Merse- 

 burg and Erfurt, and comprised, in 1828, 9653 

 square miles, with 1,409,388 inhabitants. It is 

 very productive. 



SAXON SWITZERLAND; a name which has 

 been improperly given, for about thirty years, to 

 the eastern part of the circle of Meissen, in the 

 kingdom of Saxony, on the Elbe. It is a group of 

 mountains of sandstone, with valleys and rivers of 

 the most picturesque character, extending from 

 Liebethal to the Bohemian frontier, about twenty- 

 four miles long, and equally wide. Some of the 

 rocks are 1800 feet high. It is one of the most 

 charming spots on earth, and, on account of its 

 vicinity to Dresden, so much resorted to for its 

 treasures of art, attracts many visitors in summer. 

 (See Gotzinger's, Hasse's and Lindau's description.) 

 The name is improper, because the region does not i 



resemble Switzerland, even in miniature; and such 

 comparisons lower the object compared. 



SAY, JE.VN BAPTISTE, a distinguished political 

 economist, was born at Lyons in 1707, and went to 

 Paris at an early period of the revolution, occupy- 

 ing himself with literature. He was subsequently 

 one of the establishes of the Decade (Revue) Phi- 

 losopldque, with which he was, however, connected 

 but a short time. In 1799, he was a member of 

 the tribunate, but being removed by Napoleon, de- 

 clined subsequent offers of office from him, devoting 

 himself entirely to his literary labours. His chief 

 works are his Traitc d'Economie politique (5th ed., 

 3 vols., 1826), translated into English by C. R. 

 Prinsep, and his Cours complet d'Economie politique 

 pratique (4 vols., 1829). (See Political Economy. ) 

 The third edition of his Catechisme d' Economic pol- 

 itique appeared in 1826. One of his most ingenious 

 works is Le petit Volume contenant quelques Aper- 

 cus des Hommes et de la Societe (1827). His statis- 

 tical treatises, De I'Angleterre et des Anglais (1815), 

 and Des Canaux de Navigation dans I'Etat actuel 

 de la France, are also esteemed. Say died in Novem- 

 ber, 1832. 



SBIRRI. In Italy, particularly in the States 

 of the Church, there were formerly certain police 

 officers, with a military organization, who were 

 called by this name. They were abolished in 1809. 



SCABIOUS (scabiosa) ; an extensive genus of 

 plants, belonging chiefly to Europe and the coun- 

 tries about the Mediterranean. The stems are her- 

 baceous, and the flowers are united in heads at the 

 extremities of the stems and branches, and resemble 

 compound flowers. <S. succisa is remarkable for 

 having the root suddenly truncated, and as if bitten 

 off; whence the name of devil's bit is applied to it. 



SC2EVOLA. See Mucius. 



SCAGGER AC (i. e. Scagen's reef) ; a sand-bank, 

 which extends from cape Skagen, on the northern 

 part of Denmark, a great way into the sea, on which 

 account a large coal fire is constantly kept up there 

 in the winter nights, as a mark for ships to avoid 

 it. For this purpose, in the year 1752, a new tower, 

 sixty-four feet high, was erected opposite to this 

 sand-bank, on the spot where the former light- 

 house stood, which had been demolished- by the 

 violence of the sea. The Scaggerac sea forms the 

 communication between the German ocean and the 

 Cattegat. See Baltic Sea. 



SCAGLIOLA; a mixture of fine gypsum and 

 powdered selenite (pietra specolare), made into a 

 paste with glue, and serving to form paintings of a 

 stony hardness. The process is as follows: Upon 

 a tablet of white stucco (consisting of this gypsum 

 paste), the outlines of the work designed are traced 

 with a sharp instrument, and the cavities thus made 

 are filled up with successive layers of paste, of the 

 same composition, but coloured. The application 

 of the different layers is continued until all the va- 

 rieties and shades of colour required are produced, 

 and the surface of the whole is then polished. 

 Scagliola work has the advantage over mosaic of 

 being susceptible of the greatest possible variety of 

 colouring, and, from the sameness of its material, of 

 forming a more compact mass, so that the painting 

 can receive a higher polish; by which means the 

 colours are better preserved. The invention of this 

 process is ascribed to Guido del Conte, or Fassi 

 (1584 1649J, an ingenious mason of Cari, near Cor- 

 reggio, in Lombardy. But we have some ancient 

 specimens (as the Iliari tables) in white stucco; and 

 inscriptions of the middle ages show that the ait 



