Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 07.djvu/163

This page needs to be proofread.
LEFT
119
RIGHT

PARIS, TREATIES OF 119 PARK agreed to four points in international law — viz.: (1) Privateering is abolished; (2) the neutral flag covers enemies' goods, excepting contraband of war; (3) neutral goods, with the same exception, are not liable to be seized even under an enemy's flag; (4) blockades, in order to be binding, must be effective. The United States refused to accept the first point, because the European Powers de- clined to affirm that hereafter all private property should be exempted from cap- ture by ships of war. See Neutrality. PARIS, TREATIES OF. Of the numerous treaties bearing this designa- tion a few only of the most important can be mentioned here. On Feb. 10, 1763, a treaty of peace was signed be- tween France, Spain, Portugal, and Eng- land in which Canada was ceded to Great Britain, On Feb. 8, 1778, was signed that between France and the United States, in which the independence of the latter country was recognized. A treaty was signed between Napoleon I. and the allies, ratified April 11, 1814, by which Napoleon was deposed and banished to Elba. The treaty for the conclusion of peace between Russia on the one hand, and France, Sardinia, Austria, Turkey, and Great Britain on the other, at the end of the Crimean War, was ratified March 30, 1856. The treaty of peace with Germany, at the end of the Franco- German War, was concluded May 10, 1871, and modified by the convention of Oct. 12, 1871, by which France lost a great part of the Rhine provinces. The treaty between Spain and the United States at the end of the American- Spanish War was concluded Dec. 10, 1898; was ratified by the United States Senate, Feb. 6, 1899; was signed by President McKinley, Feb. 10, 1899; and by the Queen Regent of Spain, March 17, 1899. The most important treaty signed at Paris was that which con- cluded the World War. The Peace Con- ference which concluded this treaty met on Jan. 18, 1919, and its deliberations ■were continued at the Palace of Ver- sailles until June 28, 1919, when the instrument was signed by the German and the Allied and Associated repre- sentatives. See World War: Peace Treaty. PARIS, UNIVERSITY OF, a notable French institution that came into exist- ence in the beginning of the 13th century, and was long the most famous center of learning in Europe. It was suppressed by a decree of the Convention of 1793. PARIS GREEN, a poisonous green powder composed of a mixture of double salts of the acetate and the arsenite of copper; used to destroy the potato bug, or Colorado beetle. PARISH, a district marked out as that belonging to one church, and whose spiritual wants are to be under the par- ticular charge of its own minister; or, to give the sense which the word often has in acts of Parliament, a district having its own offices for the legal care of the poor, etc. PARK, in a legal sense, a large piece of ground inclosed and privileged for wild beasts of chase, by the monarch's grant, or by prescription. The only dis- tinction between a chase and a park was that the latter was inclosed, where a chase was always open. The term now commonly means a considerable piece of ornamental ground connected with a gentleman's residence; or an inclosed piece of public ground devoted to recre- ation, and generally in or near a large town. See National Parks. PARK, MUNGO, a celebrated Scotch traveler; born in Selkirkshire, Scotland, Sept. 10, 1771. He was sent to Africa under the auspices of the African Asso- ciation, and explored the Gambia and Upper Niger, publishing on his return the well-known "Travels in the Interior of Africa" (1799). On his second ex- pedition, which was equipped by the British Government, he descended the Niger some 1,500 miles; and after losing the majority of his men from fever, was treacherously murdered by natives, in 1806. PARK, NATIONAL MILITARY. In the United States the name is given to a group of battlefields, celebrated in the Civil War, cared for by the War Department, and containing memorials commemorative of personages and events in that war. The most famous of them is the Gettysburg National Military Park, established in 1895, with an area of 24,460 acres, comprising the field on which the battle of Gettysburg was fought in 1863. Another is the Chicka- mauga and Chattanooga Park, in Georgia and Tennessee, established in 1890, with 6,966 acres, comprising the Missionary Ridge and Lookout Moun- tain, and the battle grounds of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga engage- ments. Shiloh National Military Park contains the field of Shiloh, where a bat- tle was fought in 1862. Vicksburg Na- tional Military Park, in Mississippi, is commemorative both of the Confederate and Union forces, and the positions held by them in the spring of 1863. These sites were not established as national property immediately after the war, but