408 



CONSERVATORY CONSONANTS. 



national tie musique. In 1795, it received its final or- 

 ganization, ; i in I the name of conservatoire. It was 

 intended for both sexes. 600 pupils from all the de- 

 partments, were to be instructed there by 115 

 teachers. The expenses were fixed at 240,000 francs 

 annually, but, in 1802, were limited to 100,000 francs, 

 and, in consequence, the number of pupils and 

 teachers was reduced. The instruction was divided 

 between music anil theatrical declamation. The most 

 distinguished musicians liave been instructors in 

 this institution ; of whom we need only mention 

 Gossec, Mehul, Garat, Choron, Cherubini, Gre'try, 

 Boieldieu, Kreutzer, &c. Since its foundation, 2000 

 musicians and singers of both sexes have been edu- 

 cated there. At the same time, the conservatoire 

 is the central point of all amateurs of music. The 

 public performances of the pupils are the most 

 splendid concerts in Paris. The execution of sym- 

 phonies, in particular, is unparalleled. For al- 

 most all branches of music, the conservatoire has 

 published elementary works, or methods, as they 

 are called, which are circulated and adopted through- 

 out Europe. The institutions of the same namefin 

 Vienna and Prague, are less important. The 



Conservatoire royal des Arts et Metiers, at Paris, 

 is an establishment, which deserves the greatest 

 praise, containing a collection of models of ma- 

 chines, of manufactures, &c., and having profes- 

 sors, who deliver lectures on mechanics, chemistry, 

 and the processes used in manufacturing, to per- 

 sons who wish to prepare themselves for pursuing 

 mechanical arts and the business of manufacturing 

 in a scientific way. The king selects the pupils. 

 The foundation of this praiseworthy establishment 

 was laid on the 19th Vendemiaire, year III. (Oct. 

 10, 1794), by the convention. After many impor- 

 tant changes, it was finally organized by an ordi- 

 nance, November 25, 1819. 



CONSERVATORY, in gardening, is a term gen- 

 erally applied, by gardeners, to plant nouses, in which 

 the plants are raised in a bed or border without the 

 use of pots. They are sometimes placed in the plea- 

 sure ground, along with the other hot-houses, but 

 more frequently attached to the mansion. The prin- 

 ciples of their construction are, in all respects, the 

 same as for the greenhouse, with the single difference 

 of a pit or bed of earth being substituted for the stage, 

 and a narrow border instead of surrounding flues. 

 The power of admitting abundance of air, both by the 

 sides and roof, is highly requisite both for the 

 green-house and conservatory; but for the latter, 

 it is desirable, in almost every case, that the roof, 

 and even the glazed sides should be removable in 

 summer. When the construction of the conser- 

 vatory does not admit of this, the plants in a few' 

 years become etiolated, and naked below, and are 

 no longer objects of beauty ; but when the whole 

 superstructure, excepting the north side, is remov- 

 ed during summer, the influence of the rains, 

 winds, dews, and the direct rays of the sun, pro- 

 duces a bushiness of form, closeness of foliage, 

 and a vividness of colour, not attainable by any 

 other means. Therefore a conservatory of any of 

 the common forms, unless it be one devoted entirely 

 to palms, ferns, scitaminece, or other similarly grow- 

 ing plants, should always be so constructed as to 

 admit of taking off the sashes of the roof and the 

 front ; and if it be a detached structure in the flower- 

 garden, a plan that would admit of the removal of 

 everything excepting the flues and the plants, would 

 be the most suitable. 



CONSILIUM ABEUNDI (Latin; advice to de- 

 part). There are two ways in Germany of dismissing 

 a student from a university the consilium abeundi, 

 and the relegatio. The former is without any impu- 



tation on the morals of the student, and inflicted for 

 youthful imprudences : the latter is the punishment 

 of crimes. Since the late police regulations respect- 

 ing the universities, the relegatio is an extremely 

 severe punishment, as the German diet at Frankfort 

 made a rule that no relegated student should be ad- 

 mitted into another university, or be capable of any 

 appointment by any German government. The par- 

 don of the ruler, however, can generally be obtained 

 by a change of conduct. 



CONSISTORY (from the Latin consistorium). 

 This word has been handed down from the time of 

 the Roman emperors, particularly from the time of 

 the emperor Adrian, who died A. D. 138. The 

 emperors had a college of counsellors (consistoriani) 

 about them, who were obliged to be always together 

 consistere), in order to determine the cases which 

 were brought before the emperor. The council was 

 called consistorium sacrum, or consistorium principum. 

 When the Roman hierarchy had become firmly esta- 

 blished, and the bishops had acquired jurisdiction in 

 many cases, they imitated the institutions and names 

 appertaining to the secular power. Thus, down to the 

 present time, the highest council of state, in the papal 

 government, has been called consistory. The ordi- 

 nary consistory of the pope assembles every week in 

 the papal palace ; the extraordinary consistories are 

 called together, by the pope, according as occasions 

 arise for regulating anew the affairs or the church. 

 These are called secret consistories. All political affairs 

 of importance, the election of cardinals, archbishops, 

 bishops, &c., are transacted in the consistory. Also 

 in Protestant countries, on the European continent, 

 consistories exist, which manage the affairs of the 

 church as far as the monarch, the highest bishop, 

 allows them. In Russia, they are little more than 

 the executive officers of the minister, through whom 

 he manages the concerns of schools and churches. In 

 Vienna, and in Paris, likewise, Protestant consistories 

 exist, which are the highest Protestant ecclesiastical 

 bodies hi those countries. 



CONSOLS ; the abbreviation of consolidated, i. e., 

 funds ; the largest of the British funds, formed by 

 the consolidation of different annuities, which had 

 been severally formed into a capital. See Funds. 



CONSONANCE, if we deduce the definition of 

 this word from its etymology, is the effect of two or 

 more sounds heard at the same time ; but its signifi- 

 cation is generally confined to concording intervals. 

 When the interval of a consonance is invariable, it is 

 called perfect ; and when it may be either major or 

 minor, it is termed imperfect. 



CONSONANTS (from the Latin con-sonans, 

 sounding at the same time) ; those letters which can- 

 not be pronounced by themselves, but want the aid 

 of vowels, as, b, k. This circumstance shows tliat 

 the division of syllables into letters is artificial ; the 

 natural division of languages being syllables, which, 

 in feet, are the elementary sounds of which languages 

 are composed. It deserves, however, the praise of 

 great ingenuity ; nay, we consider it as one of those 

 grand and simple ideas, which, like the invention of 

 the mode of writing numbers, in the way in which it 

 is performed with the Arabic ciphers, as they are 

 called, evince the most philosophical spirit in their 

 conceivers. There does not, in most instances, 

 exist, in reality, so clear a division between the con- 

 sonants and vowels of a syllable, as we express by 

 writing, but both form one inseparable sound. Con- 

 sonants are to be considered the more permanent part 

 of language. The vowels are comparatively little 

 regarded in etymology. Some nations, as, for 

 instance, the Hebrews, did not even write the greater 

 number of the vowels. We do not know of any 

 language, in which all the five simple vowels a (bar; 



