274 



SION SIRENS. 



missioners, or by trustees, who should hold the 

 amount redeemed, and receive interest upon it, lik 

 any other creditors of the government, applying th 

 interest so received to the further purchase o 

 stock. This latter system was adopted in Grea 

 Britain, so that, in 1813, when this system of the 

 sinking fund had been in operation twenty-seven 

 years, a little more than 210,000,000 sterling hai 

 been redeemed, leaving the net amount of the publi 

 debt about 575,000,000, though the nomina 

 amount was then above 812,000,000. In 1786 

 the debt was about 238,000,000. When this 

 system was adopted, it was represented that, by 

 some mysterious operation, it would infallibly re 

 suit in the extinguishment of the debt; and the 

 system was celebrated as a grand economical dis- 

 covery. But after infinite arguments and calcula- 

 tions, and some ridicule on the part of unbelievers, 

 it was found that there was no advantage obtained 

 by buying up a part of the debt, and at the same 

 time contracting an equal 01 greater amount at an 

 equivalent rate of interest. A sinking fund, in the 

 plain and intelligible sense of being a system of pro- 

 visions and guaranties for the payment of the inte- 

 rest and redemption of the principal of the public 

 debt, is undoubtedly of great importance, and neces- 

 sary to sustain the public credit. When no part ol 

 the debt is made redeemable, such a system can be 

 carried into operation only by buying up the public 

 securities. But the still continuing to call the part 

 so bought, up a portion of the public debt, and re- 

 ceiving interest upon it, and keeping accounts re- 

 specting it, are a mere idle ceremony. See Hamil- 

 ton, Robert. 



A sinking fund was early established under the 

 government of the United States. From 1803 down 

 to 1817, the sum of 8,000,000 dollars annually was 

 appropriated to that fund, and the stock bought up or 

 paid off by the commissioners, was registered in the 

 treasury office, to the credit of the commissioners of 

 that fund ; and the interest accruing on sucb stock 

 constituted a part of the fund for the payment of the 

 interest and redemption of the principal of the unre- 

 deemed part of the debt; and in 1814, a little more 

 than 33,000,000 dollars was entered in the books of 

 the treasury to the credit of those commissioners. 

 Certain revenues were appropriated to this fund, it 

 being intended, like any other similar one, as a sort 

 of pledge of the public faith and resources to the 

 public creditors. But before tbe close of that war, 

 the fund had, from time to time, been charged with 

 the payment of amounts to which it was inadequate, 

 so that it no longer held out sufficient security to 

 the public creditors. Accordingly, in 1817, a larger 

 amount of appropriations was made to the fund, and 

 by the act of congress of the third of March of that 

 year, it was provided that the certificates of the 

 stock redeemed should be cancelled; that is, the 

 commissioners of this fund did not any longer ap- 

 pear as the creditors of the government on the 

 treasury books. The ordinary and plain mode of 

 proceeding was adopted : when any part of the debt 

 was paid, the securities were cancelled, and did not 

 afterwards appear in the public accounts. 



SIGN; one of the hills on which the city of 

 Jerusalem was built. The part of the city on 

 mount Sion was also called the "city of David," 

 and the lower city, on mount Acra, was called the 

 " daughter of Sion." See Jerusalem. 



SIOUX, OB DAHCOTAH INDIANS; a family 

 of Indian tribes dwelling to the west of the Missis- 

 sippi. See Indians, American. 



I SIPHON ; a bent tube with one leg shorter than 

 the other, used for transferring a liquid from one 

 vessel to another. This is effected by exhausting 

 the siphon of the air which it contains, or at least 

 so rarefying it that the pressure of the atmosphere 

 on the surface of the water will force up the liquid 

 beyond the highest point of the curve of the siphon, 

 when it will descend by the opposite leg. The 

 power of the siphon is limited merely to decanting, 

 and cannot be applied to raise the liquid above its 

 level in the original vessel; nor will it continue to 

 act after the level of the vessel into which it is de- 

 canted becomes equal to that from which it is drawn 

 off. Instead of exhausting the siphon of air, it may 

 be inverted and filled with water ; if both ends are 

 then stopped, and the shorter leg immersed in the 

 water to be drawn off, on removing the plugs, ihc 

 water will flow. If the siphon is large, as is the 

 case where it is used for carrying water over a hill, 

 it may be filled by an orifice in the upper point of 

 the curve, which may then be plugged; and, on re- 

 moving the plugs of the ends, the water will flow, 

 as in the case last mentioned. A Wiirtemberg 

 siphon is one in which the extremities of the legs 

 are turned upwards, and which can be kept con- 

 stantly filled. See Hydrostatics, and Air. 



SIR ; a term of courtesy, now applied, without 

 distinction of rank, to all persons, formerly confined 

 to gentlemen (probably derived from sieur, seigneur, 

 lord). It is also the title of honour of knights and 

 baronets, and as such is always prefixed to the 

 Christian name. Sire, in France, is a term of re- 

 spect, by which the king is addressed. 



SIRACH. Jesus, son of Sirach, was a Jew of 

 Palestine, who, about B. C. 140, after his arrival 

 in Egypt, translated into Greek, for the use of the 

 Alexandrian Jews, the book of Proverbs, which his 

 grandfather, of the same name, had originally com- 

 posed in Hebrew. The Catholic church admits 

 bhis book (Wisdom of Jesus, son of Sirach, or Ec- 

 clesiasticus) into the canon; by the Protestants it 

 is ranked among the apocryphal books. It is writ- 

 ten in a deep religious tone, and abounds in excel- 

 .ent practical rules of life. 



SIREN. See Salamander. 



SIRENS ; inferior goddesses, who, by their sing- 

 ng, fascinated those that sailed by theirisland, and 

 ;hen destroyed them. Homer mentions but two, 

 and represents them as young women, without in- 

 brming us of their origin. Later poets, who give 

 a different account of their persons, number, names, 

 and places of residence, usually describe them as 

 daughters of the .ffitolian river god Achelous, by 

 Sterope, daughter of Amythaon, or by the muse 

 Melpomene, or Terpsichore, sometimes as having 

 sprung from the blood which flowed to the earth 

 rom the horn of Achelous, broken in his struggle 

 with Hercules. Euripides, in reference to the lat- 

 er account, calls them the daughters of the Earth. 

 Sophocles calls them daughters of Phorcus; and 

 his is, perhaps, the oldest account. The author of 

 he Orphic Argonautics places them on a projecting 

 ock on the shore near JEtna, alluring the Argonauts 

 >y their fatal singing. But Orpheus sang a heroic 

 ong to his lute, and the Sirens flung away their flutes 

 nd lyres, and threw themselves into the sea, where 

 hey became formidable rocks. These Sirens, thus 

 onverted to stone, could not be dangerous to Ulys- 

 es, and the poet assumes others in the Tyrrhenean 

 ea, whom he encountered. Plato feigns eight 

 iirens, who are borne round on the eight heavenly 

 ircles and who make the music of the spheres, 



