684 



PRIAM PRICE. 



at Paris and Lyons was the first magistrate of the 

 city. The prev6t tie Paris, as governor of the c/id- 

 telet, was the chief judicial officer, head of the 

 knights of the town, and its dependent territory, 

 and of the vicomte of Paris, and was the bailli of the 

 university. The prtv6ts des martehanx de France, 

 who were lately restored for a time under the name 

 of cours pr(v6tales, were guardians of the public 

 peace, and exercised a rather summary justice over 

 vagabonds, robbers, gipsies, and disturbers of the 

 public peace (house-breakers, highway robbers, 

 rioters, counterfeiters, etc.). The nobles, and most 

 of the officers of government, were not amenable 

 to their jurisdiction, which was so badly adminis- 

 tered (for the pr6v6ts were not jurists), that the 

 celebrated chancellors L'Hopital and D'Aguesseau 

 restricted their authority by the ordinances of 1505 

 and 1731 ; and, in 1790, it was entirely abolished. 

 But Napoleon found that the ordinary courts were 

 insufficient to maintain the strict control which 

 he desired over public order. Of this he took 

 advantage to extend his power. By the law of 

 March 3, 1810, concerning prisons of state, he 

 received the power of confining' dangerous persons, 

 without trial, in those prisons. In J800, the foun- 

 dation had already been laid for the erection of 

 special tribunals, which the new criminal organiza- 

 tion of 1808 confirmed, with new developments. 

 In these special tribunals the president of the court 

 of assizes, with four counsellors and three military 

 men, were to judge vagrants (gens sans aveu) for 

 all manner of crimes ; and, in case of rebellion, 

 armed smuggling, counterfeiting, and murder, by 

 numbers, the trial was to be without jury, and in a 

 summary form. The imperial decree of April 6, 

 1809, added to the above specified acts that of hav- 

 ing borne arms against Napoleon since September 

 1, 1S04. By the law of April 20, 1810, govern- 

 ment was authorized to establish extraordinary 

 special tribunals, for the term of one year, composed 

 of eight members of the court of appeals, in those 

 departments in which certain crimes were unusual- 

 ly frequent. For the trial of smugglers, by an im- 

 perial decree of October 18, 1810, cours de douanes 

 were established in thirty-six cities, and cours pre- 

 votales des douanes in eight cities ; the latter had a 

 grand-prevot for president, with eight assistant 

 judges, and in cases of armed smuggling had origi- 

 nal jurisdiction, and proceeded without jury. All 

 these extraordinary tribunals, together with the 

 military commissions, were abolished by the charter 

 of 1814 (art. 63), with a proviso for the restoration 

 of the cours prtvdtales, should it be found necessary. 

 By the law of December 20, 1815, the specia' 

 criminal courts were re-established, for two years 

 under the name of cours prtvotales. One of these 

 courts was erected in each department, consisting 

 of a jurist as president, a military officer as prevot 

 and four members of the court of the first instance 

 in the district. Their jurisdiction resembled thai 

 of the special criminal courts constituted in 1808 

 and their procedure was exactly the same. The; 

 were not renewed, and therefore tacitly expired in 

 1818. The article of the charter above referred to 

 (54th in the new charter) was so amended Angus 

 7th, 1830, as to read thus : " There can be no ex 

 traordinary commissions or tribunals, under any 

 title or name whatsoever," the proviso in favour o 

 the cours prtvotales being struck out. 



PR1 A M ; son of Laomedon and Strymoor Placia 

 called, in his earlier years, Podarces ; but whe 

 Hercules took Troy, and permitted Hesione to ran 

 som one of the prisoners at her own price, she se 

 lected her brother Podarces, and gave her veil fo 

 him. On this account he was ever after calle 



riam (the Ransomed). When a youth, he inarched 

 ith the Phrygians against the Amazons, and went 

 s ;mibas;ador to the Thracians. After the death 

 f his father he reigned in Troy. By his first wife, 

 Vrisbe. daughter of Merops, he had ^Esacus. He 

 Fterwards gave Arisbe to Hyrtacus, and married 

 lecuba, by whom he had, according to Homer, 

 ineteen children, among whom Hector, Paris, 

 reusa, Laodice, Polyxena, Cassandra (Alexandra), 

 Deiphobus, Helenus, Pammon, Polites, Antiphus, 

 [ipponous, Polydorus and Troilus were the most 

 istinguished . By four concubines, he also had 

 lirty-sons and four daughters. His name lias been 

 endered famous by the tragical fate of himself and 

 is family, brought on by his blind love for his son 

 aris ; for when he was extremely old, the Greeks 

 emanded of him the restoration of Helen, who had 

 een carried away by Paris, and, on his refusal to 

 ive her up they made war against Troy, took and 

 estroyed the city, after a siege of ten years, his son 

 lector (q. v.) having already fallen before his eyes. 

 n this night of horror the old man armed himself 

 o seek death in the midst of the enemy ; but the 

 irayers of Hecuba prevailed upon him to take shel- 

 er at the altar of Jupiter. Here he saw his son 

 elites fall by the hand of Pyrrhus ; and, unable to 

 ontain himself, he hurled his javelin at the youth- 

 ul warrior, who dragged the old man by the hair 

 o the altar, and plunged a sword into his breast. 



PRIAPUS : originally a god of the fields in 

 iampsacus, a town of Mysia, situated in a rich wine 

 country. Venus bore him to Bacchus, when the 

 atter was returning from India, but was unwilling 

 o acknowledge him, on account of his deformity. 

 Others give him a different origin ; but he was 

 always god of the fields, the protector of gardens, 

 >ees, goats, and sheep. He was represented with 

 horns and goat's ears, and large sexual parts, hav- 

 ng in his lap all kinds of fruits ; in his hand he held 

 a sickle, and usually a horn of plenty. His wor- 

 ship spread from Lampsacus over Greece to Rome. 

 Some mythologists consider him an emblem of na- 

 ,ure. 



PRICE, RICHARD ; a dissenting minister, distin- 

 guished as a mathematician and statistical writer, 

 rfe was born at Llangunor, in Glamorganshire, in 

 1723, and was educated at Talgrath, in his native 

 county, whence he removed to a Presbyterian 

 academy in London, and became pastor of a non- 

 conformist congregation, of Arian or semi-Arian 

 principles, at Hackney, where he continued as long 

 is he lived. He commenced his literary career in 

 1758 by his Review of the principal Difficulties 

 in Morals (8vo.), which was followed by Four Dis- 

 sertations on the Importance of Christianity, the 

 Nature of Historical Evidence, and Miracles, &c. 

 (1767, 8vo.). In 1769, he received the diploma of 

 D. D. from the University of Glasgow. In 1771 

 appeared his Observations on Reversionary Pay- 

 ments and Annuities (8vo.), which established his 

 character as a mathematical calculator. He next 

 published an Appeal to the Public on the Subject 

 of the National Debt ; and during the contest with 

 the North American colonies, advocated their cause 

 in Observations on Civil Liberty (1776, Svo.), Ad- 

 ditional Observations, and a Supplement. These 

 tracts provoked the animadversions of a number of 

 writers on the opposite side of the question, and 

 exposed him to some obloquy, but they also pro- 

 cured him a vote of thanks from the corporation 

 of London presented in a gold box. He en- 

 gaged in an epistolary correspondence with his 

 friend doctor Joseph Priestley on the subjects 

 of materialism and necessity, the substance of which 

 was laid before the public in an octavo volume, in 



