183 



SE1KS SELDEN. 



of the feudal system which prevailed in France at 

 the time of the settlement of Canada, and many of 

 the details of which were transferred to the Trans- 

 atlantic colony. All the lands of the colony were 

 granted under the old feudal tenure, but many mo- 

 difications were successively introduced, tending to 

 abridge the rights of the seigneur, or lord, and ex- 

 tend those of the tenant. On the conquest of 

 Canada by the British, the institutions of the 

 colony were left unchanged ; but about thirty years 

 afterwards, the tenure of free and common soccage 

 was introduced, and all the lands not previously 

 granted have since been considered as soccage lands. 

 The seigneurs have no longer any jurisdiction, and 

 the feudal services of the tenants are light. See 

 Bouchette's British Dominions in North America, 

 vol. i., chap. xiv. 



SEIKS. See Sikhs. 



SEINE, one of the four great rivers of France, 

 rises in the mountains of Burgundy, flows north- 

 ward, through Champagne, to Troyes, receives the 

 Aube, and, turning to the west, is joined by the 

 Yonne, a river from the south, and before reaching 

 Paris, by the Marne, a larger stream flowing from 

 the west. At Paris, the Seine varies from 300 to 

 500 feet in width ; and it soon after receives an 

 addition to its streams, by the influx of the Oise, 

 when, pursuing a winding course to the north-west, 

 it passes Rouen, and discharges itself into the sea 

 at Havre de Grace ; length of its course, 400 miles. 

 It becomes navigable at Troyes, and large vessels 

 can go up to Rouen. 



SEINE; a department in the north of France, 

 which is, in fact, nothing more than the capital. 

 Its district forms a tract nearly square, of which the 

 breadth is about sixteen miles. See Department. 



SEINE, LOWER ; a department in the north 

 of France, comprising the north-east part of Nor- 

 mandy. See Department. 



SEINE AND MARNE ; a department in the 

 north-east of France, occupying the western part of 

 Champagne. See Department. 



SEINE AND OISE; a department of the north- 

 east of France, adjacent to that of the Oise, and to 

 that of the Seine and Marne/ See Department. 



SEISIN, in law, signifies possession. 



SEJANUS, the favourite of Tiberius, was the 

 son of a Roman knight. Although he knew how 

 to dissemble his ambition and pride before his mas- 

 ter, yet he spared no means of gratifying his passion. 

 He acquired the confidence of the suspicious Tibe- 

 rius, so as to govern him completely ; and the ser- 

 vile senate paid the greatest respect to the power- 

 ful favourite. The pretorian cohorts were also 

 favourable to him, and there was no obstacle in 

 the way of his attaining the supreme power, but 

 Drusus, son of Tiberius, and the sons of Germanicus, 

 the nearest of kin to the emperor. Drusus was 

 put out of the way by poison; the latter, with 

 their mother, were banished and thrown into prison 

 a step which they did not long survive. Several 

 distinguished Romans, friends of Germanicus, were 

 beheaded at the instigation of Sejanus; and when 

 Tiberius finally retired from Rome, and withdrew 

 from the government, Sejanus governed with abso- 

 lute power, and the senate ordered that the statues 

 erected in his honour should be publicly worshipped. 

 But at the moment of his highest elevation, the 

 suspicions of Tiberius were awakened, and his mea- 

 sures were taken so cautiously, that Sejanus sus- 

 pected nothing, until he was openly accused by the 

 emperor before the senate (A. D. 31). He was 



then imprisoned, condemned to death, and executed 

 on the same day. 



SELAM. See Flowers, Language of. 



SELBY; a town in the west riding of the 

 county of York, situated on the great road from 

 London to Edinburgh, and west bank of the Ouse, 

 181 miles north by west from London. The town 

 is well built, paved, and lighted, and has a hand- 

 some Gothic market-cross. It has latterly been 

 greatly improved by the erection of a new street, 

 called the Crescent. It contains manufactories for 

 sail-cloth, and leather, an iron-foundery, and a ship- 

 yard, for the building of small vessels, which can 

 now clear out for any part of the kingdom, as a 

 branch custom-house has lately been erected here ; 

 by means of the canal from the Ouse, to the Air 

 and Calder navigation, a communication has been 

 opened with Leeds, and Selby has thus become the 

 unloading-post for the west riding. Many of the 

 poorer people are employed in flax-spinning. Po- 

 pulation in 1831, 4600; in 1841, 5376. 



SELDEN, JOHN, a distinguished English scholar, 

 was born in 1584, at Sabington, in Sussex, and re- 

 ceived his education at Oxford. After a residence 

 of three or four years, he repaired to Clifford's Inn, 

 London, and about two years after removed to the 

 Inner Temple, and, on being called to the bar, acted 

 principally as a chamber counsel. The first object 

 of his studies was the history and antiquities of his 

 own county; and, in 1607, he drew up a work en- 

 titled Analectum Anglo-Britannicum, a treatise on 

 the civil government of Britain before the coming 

 of the Normans. It was succeeded, in 1610, by 

 England's Epinomes, and Jani Anglorum Fades al- 

 tera, a treatise on the progress of English law. In 

 1614, appeared his largest English work, Titles of 

 Honour, a standard authority in regard to all that 

 concerns the degrees of nobility and gentry in Eng- 

 land. This was followed, in 1617, by his De Diis 

 Syriis, an inquiry into the Syrian idolatry. In 

 1618, he entered the field of politics by his History 

 of Tythes, the object of which was to deny their 

 divine right. This publication highly offended 

 James I., and the author was brought before the 

 high-commission court, on which, without retract- 

 ing his opinions, he declared his sorrow for publish- 

 ing the work. In 1621, James I., in his speech to 

 parliament, having asserted that their privileges 

 were grants from the crown, Selden spoke so freely 

 in opposition to this doctrine, and was so instru- 

 mental in drawing up their protestation, that on 

 their dissolution he was committed to custody. He 

 was discharged at the expiration of six weeks, on 

 petition. In the following year, he was elected 

 member of parliament for Lancaster, and was again 

 a member in the two first parliaments of Charles I., 

 in the second of which he was appointed to support 

 the impeachment of the duke of Buckingham, and 

 otherwise became a leading opposer of the arbitrary 

 measures of the court. In 1629, he drew up his 

 learned treatise entitled Marmora Arundelliana. 

 (See Arundelian Marbles.} On the dissolution of 

 the parliament, Selden was one of the eight mem- 

 bers of the commons who were imprisoned in the 

 tower on a charge of sedition, and who refused to 

 give security for their good behaviour. This con- 

 finement lasted two or three years; but, at length, 

 he was admitted to bail, and finally released in the 

 beginning of 1634. During this period, he wrote 

 some of his treatises on Jewish antiquities, and, in 

 1635, published his treatise entitled Mare Clausum, 

 in answer to the Mare Liberum of Grotius ; in op- 



