606 



POLE POLICE. 



centre is in llie centre of its corresponding system 

 of rings. As the points A and Bare points where 

 there is no polarization, the lines passing- through 

 thriii have been called the axes of non-polaii- 

 tation. 



From what has been already said, the reader may 

 be led to inter that, there is no deviation in these 

 coloured rings or fringes from those produced by 

 thin plates, as given in Newton's table ; but 

 Brewsler found, that in almost all crystals with two 

 axes, the tints in the neighbourhood of the resultant 

 axis, when the plates have a considerable thickness, 

 lo-e their resemblance to the colours in Newton's 

 table, and Sir J. E. Herschel discovered, while exa- 

 mining- homogeneous light, that the resultant axes 

 differ in situation within one and the same crystal, 

 for the differently refrangible homogeneous rays. 

 Take a crystal of Rochefie salt, and cut it into a 

 plate perpendicular to one of its optic axes, and place 

 it in a tourmaline apparatus ; let the lens be illu- 

 minated by the rays of a prismatic spectrum in suc- 

 cession, beginning with the least refrangible, the 

 red. and by gradation on to the violet. Let the eye 

 be kept all the while looking at the rings ; they will 

 appear with remarkable distinctness, but they will 

 also be found to contract the more refrangible the 

 rays are, or the nearer we go to the violet. The 

 subject will be still farther illustrated in our article 

 Refraction, Double, as, without a knowledge of the 

 principles developed there, it would be impossible 

 to investigate this interesting branch of science to 

 any greater extent. See also Colour. 



POLE, REGINALD, cardinal, an eminent states- 

 man and ecclesiastic, bom in 1500, was the son of 

 Sir Richard Pole, lord Montacute, cousin to Henry 

 VII., by Margaret, daughter of the duke of Cla- 

 rence, brother to Edward IV. He entered into 

 deacon's orders at an early age, and had several 

 benefices conferred on him by Henry VIII. , with 

 whom he was a great favourite. In 1519, he visited 

 Italy, and returned to England in 1525; but, in 

 consequence of the affair of the divorce from Ca- 

 tharine of Arragon, withdrew to Paris. Henry 

 desired to obtain the concurrence of his kinsman in 

 that measure; but Pole, imbued with the maxims 

 of the church of Rome, drew up a treatise De Uni- 

 tate Ecclesiastica, in which he excited the emperor 

 Charles V. to revenge the injury of his aunt. The 

 consequence of this conduct was the loss of all his 

 preferment in England, in return for which, lie en- 

 deavoiu-ed to form a party against Henry, which 

 design terminated in the destruction of his brother, 

 lord Montacute, and of his aped mother, then coun- 

 tess of Salisbury, whom the vindictive Henry sent 

 to the scaffold. But the countenance of the court 

 of Rome was extended to Pole, and, besides being 

 raised to the dignity of cardinal, he \vas employed 

 in various negotiations. He was also appointed one 

 of the three papal legates to the council of Trent. 

 On the accession of Mary I., his attainder was 

 reversed, and he was invited to England, where he 

 endeavoured to moderate the rigour of Gardiner 

 and others against the reformers, and was an advo- 

 cate for lenient measures, and such a correction of 

 clerical abuses as would conciliate them. On the 

 death of Cranmer, Pole, then, for the first time, 

 ordained a priest, became archbishop of Canter- 

 bury, and was, at the same time, elected chancellor 

 of both the universities ; and, while he acted with 

 much severity in the extirpation of heresy, he made 

 several salutary regulations for the advancement of 

 learning. He died in 1558. Cardinal Pole seems 

 not to have been a man of commanding talents, 

 either political or literary; but he merited great 

 esteem for his mildness, generosity, and compara- 



tive moderation, in an age when persecution was 

 deemed lawful on all sides. 



POLK, in magnetism. Two points of a load- 

 stone, corresponding to the poles of the equator, llie 

 one pointing to the north, the other to the south, 

 are called poles. See Magnetism. 



POLE, OR POLAR STAR, is a star of the second 

 magnitude, the last in the tail of Ursa Minor. 



POLE, PERCH, OR ROD, in surveying, is a 

 measure containing sixteen feet and a half. 



POLE-AXE; a sort of hatchet nearly resembling 

 a battle-axe, having a handle about fifteen inches 

 long, and being furnished with a sharp point, bend- 

 ing downwards from the back of its head. It is 

 principally used on board of ships to cut away the 

 rigging of an adversary who endeavours to board. 

 They have also been sometimes employed in board- 

 ing an enemy whose hull was more lofty than that 

 of the boarders, by driving the points into her side, 

 one above another, and thereby forming a kind of 

 scaling-ladder; when they are sometimes called 

 boarding-axes. 



POLES OF THE ECLIPTIC ; two points on the 

 surface of the sphere, 23 30' distant from the poles 

 of the equator, and 90 distant from every part of 

 the ecliptic. 



POLEMBURG. See Poelemburg. 



POLEND A, OR POLENTA; a national dish in 

 Italy, particularly in the northern part of the coun- 

 try, but very common in all the Mediterranean sea- 

 ports. It is a kind of soft pudding made of the flour 

 of chestnuts or maize, generally with small pieces 

 of meat in it. 



POLICE, in the common acceptation of the word, 

 in England, is applied to the municipal rules, insti- 

 tutions and officers provided for maintaining order, 

 cleanliness, &c. ; but in all the great countries of 

 the European continent, there is, besides this police, 

 a military police extending over the whole state, 

 and what is called the high police, which is occu- 

 pied in watching the political tendency of the people, 

 and every thing connected with it. It is evident 

 that a police of this sort, as a regular instrument of 

 the government, is incompatible with English lib- 

 erty. This high police generally forms a -depart- 

 ment under a minister ; several branches of the 

 lower police are generally connected with it, some- 

 times all except the lowest street police. The end 

 of the high police is obtained chiefly by means of 

 the secret police ; that cancer which eats into the 

 vitals of society, and the pollution of which Great 

 Britain may be proud of having escaped, notwith- 

 standing the violent political changes which she has 

 undergone. The secret police consists of a body of 

 people of all classes, needy men and women of 

 rank, mistresses, &c., down to the waiters of coffee- 

 houses, and the lowest visitors of taverns and houses 

 of ill-fame, who report whatever they hear against 

 the government. How often do they not invent 

 stories to render themselves important ! The de- 

 plorable consequences of an institution so destruc- 

 tive to all confidence and sense of security, are ob- 

 vious, especially when it is considered that its 

 instruments are the most worthless part of the com- 

 munity. On the reports of such miscreants men's 

 lives and liberties depend ; and the charges being 

 kept secret, no means are afforded of refuting them. 

 These agents are not unlike the familiars of the 

 inquisition. This institution originated in France, 

 if we do not consider the informers, whom every 

 tyrant probably has had, as a secret police. The 

 marquis d'Argenson, under Louis XIV., was 

 the inventor of it. He was lieutenant-general de 

 la police from 1697 to 1718 (since 1667 this had 

 been a separate office). The prevailing licentious- 



