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II HABEAS CORPUS. 



H 



H ; the eighth letter and sixth consonant in the Eng- 

 lish alpliabet. H was not always considered a con- 

 sonant. The other consonants are pronounced with 

 a less opening of the mouth than the vowels, but h 

 with a greater opening than even the vowel a. In 

 Latin and ancient Greek, it was, therefore, not con- 

 sidered as a consonant, but merely as a breathing. 

 The latter language, as is well known, had no literal 

 sign for it, but merely what is called the rough breath- 

 ing (*) ; and in Latin prosody, it is not considered as 

 a letter. In languages in which h is considered a 

 consonant, it is classed with the gutturals. In con- 

 nexion with other consonants, it sometimes renders 

 them softer ; as, for instance, after p ; in Italian, 

 however, it serves to give to c and g, followed by e 

 or ', the hard sound (that of g in give, and c in 

 colour) ; hence che is pronounced fee, and ghibellino 

 like gibeline in English. It is a very delicate letter, 

 and is frequently not sounded at all ; as, in French, 

 in all words beginning with h derived from Latin. It 

 also takes the place of other letters, as of/ (q. v.), 

 in Spanish, or of c ; as the people in the environs of 

 Saint-Malo say hlef and hloche for clef and cloche. 

 In the article G, it is shown how intimately h is con- 

 nected with the two guttural sounds of the German 

 ach and ich ; and, as these are only stronger aspira- 

 tions than h, g is intimately connected with h, as we 

 find to be the case in the Sclavonic languages. In the 

 Bohemian, Wendish, and Sclavonic languages, h, at 

 the beginning of a word, particularly before / and r, 

 is frequently pronounced like g or gh ; as, for in- 

 stance, Hlubos is pronounced Glubosh ; Huspodar, 

 Gospodar. The name of the German town Glaucha 

 comes from the Wendish Hluchowe ; and in the Rus- 

 sian alpliabet, g and h have only one character. In 

 the ancient Prankish dialect, h often stood before /, r 

 and i ; and, at a later period, it was sometimes sup- 

 pressed, sometimes changed into ch or k ; as Hlothar, 

 Hrudolf, Hlodowig, have become Lothaire and Clo- 

 thaire, Rudolf, Ludwig. But we must not suppose 

 that h was not pronounced, wherever it would be 

 difficult for us at present to sound it ; because we 

 find the aspirates h, v, w, before /, m, &c., in the 

 dialects of the North American Indians. An er- 

 roneous aspiration early crept into the Latin, of which 

 Cicero complains (Orat. 48), and on which Catullus 

 made an epigram (c. 83). The orthography ofpul- 

 cher, triumphus, cohors, &c., was then substituted 

 for pulcer, triumpus, coors, which, as well as that 

 of Gracchus and Bacchus, although quite foreign from 

 the Latin, was gradually adopted as the correct one. 

 The Italians have almost entirely banished h as an 

 independent letter ; they leave it out at the begin- 

 ning of words, with few exceptions, because it is not 

 pronounced ; and instead of ph, they write/. In the 

 English language, h is used, in connexion with t, to 

 designate the lisping sound which the Spaniards de- 

 note by z, and the Greeks by 6. The French and 

 German th are pronounced like simple t. The H of 

 the Greeks was the long e, but was sometimes used 

 as an aspirate, as in words in which it precedes i, as 

 HEKATON. It was formed by the union of the two 

 breathings, the rough 1- and the smooth -I. On Ro- 

 man coins, inscriptions, and in manuscripts, II has a 

 diversity of meanings, as honestas, hie, heeres, homo, 

 halet, ftora, honor. Harfrianus, &c. On modern : 



French coins, it means the mint of Rochelle. II, 

 among the Greeks, as a numeral, signified 8 ; in the 

 Latin of the middle ages, 200, and H with a dash 

 over it, 200,000. In music, h is the seventh degree 

 in the diatonic scale, and the twelfth in the chromatic; 

 in the solmization called b mi, being the seventh 

 major of c, the pure fifth of e, and of g the third 

 major. 



HAARLEM, or HAERLEM ; a city in North 

 Holland, on the river Spaaren, about three miles 

 from the sea, eleven miles west of Amsterdam ; Jon. 

 4 38' 19'' E. ; lat. 52 22' 56" N. It communi- 

 cates with Amsterdam, Leyden and the lake of Haar- 

 lem, by several navigable canals. It was formerly a 

 place of strength, but the ramparts are now converted 

 into public promenades. A number of canals tra- 

 verse the town in different directions, some of them 

 bordered with trees. Among the public edifices are 

 the stadthouse, an elegant building, containing a 

 valuable collection of pictures, a mansion or palace 

 of the royal family, and several charitable institu- 

 tions. The number of churches, great and small, is 

 fifteen ; the principal one is said to be the largest in 

 Holland, and contains a collection of antiquities of 

 the time of the crusades, and a remarkable organ. 

 The other objects of interest are, the town library, 

 the anatomical theatre, and the botanical garden. 

 The scientific institutions are, the academy of sciences, 

 founded in 1752, and the horticultural society; to the 

 former belongs a valuable museum. Here are several 

 manufactures on a small scale, viz., jewelry, cotton, 

 linen and silk stuffs, thread and ribbons. Haarlem 

 has long been celebrated for its bleaching grounds. 

 It carries on an extensive traffic in flowers, particu- 

 larly tulips. Population, 24,000. 



HABAKKUK ; a Jewish prophet, who flourished 

 about 600 B. C. His prophecy is in an elevated 

 religious, lyrical style. Lamentations for the fearful 

 devastations of the Chaldeans in Judaea, and the ap- 

 proaching downfall of the kingdom, consolations and 

 cheering hopes for the future, the humiliation of the 

 conquerors, and a new period of happiness for the 

 Jews, form the contents of his writings. His senti- 

 ments and language are greatly admired. With all 

 the boldness and fervour of his imagination, his 

 language is pure, and his verse melodious. His 

 expressions are characteristic and lively. His de- 

 nunciations are terrible ; his derision bitter ; his con- 

 solation cheering. Habakkuk seems to signify strug- 

 gler. He is one of the twelve minor prophets. 



HABEAS CORPUS. It is one of the first objects 

 of all civil institutions, to secure to every member the 

 rights of personal liberty, or, in other words, the 

 control and disposition of his own person, at his own 

 will and pleasure, in such manner, however, as not 

 to violate the laws or infringe upon the rights of 

 others. It may seem upon the first consideration of 

 the subject, that this is not an object of the institu- 

 tions and laws of an arbitrary government, since the 

 sovereign , and those representing him in an execu- 

 tive or military capacity, may seize and imprison any 

 one, with or without cause, or upon grounds more or 

 less important and excusable, according as the go- 

 vernment is, in its principles and in its administration, 

 more or less arbitrary. But a slight reflection will 

 show, that, even in the most arbitrary governments, 



