Gaelic Topics, published when he was otily 19, dedicated to the New Ireland Literary Society (an ephemeral body which he him- self had founded) by its President. This little book contained the germs of much later and better work, including a plea for enthusiasm, and a prophecy that the Gael would " become the saviour of idealism in modern intellectual and social life." In order to carry out his educational schemes he founded a school at Cullenswood, in Dublin, which prospered. The idea was to give an Irish education such as he assumed would be given in a free Ireland. Much stress was laid on the Irish language and on religion. In 1910 he removed this school to the Hermitage, Rath- farnham, a few miles out of Dublin, and continued to run it un- til his death. He travelled in America collecting money for his schemes, and on his return threw himself into the Irish Volunteer movement. He was high up in its councils, and led in the revolu- tion of 1916, of which he was commander-in-chief. At the same time he proclaimed an Irish Republic. After a week's fighting in Dublin he saw that further resistance was useless, and ordered the Volunteers to lay down their arms. He and Thomas Mac- Donagh, who had formerly been one of his assistant masters at the Hermitage, and other leaders were tried by court-martial and shot soon after their surrender. Pearse was an excellent orator, with a fine resonant voice. He was a pious Catholic, of irreproachable life, a great lover of children and of nature.
After his death appeared The Collected Works of Padraic H. Pearse (3 vols. 1917). containing plays, poems and stories in Irish, and one volume of English writing. (D. HY.)
PEARSON, SIR (CYRIL) ARTHUR (1866-1921), English
newspaper proprietor and philanthropist, was born at VVookey, near Wells, Feb. 24 1866, and was educated at Winchester. He
early founded the business of C. Arthur Pearson, Ltd., news-
paper proprietors and publishers; and after having made large
profits with Pearson's Weekly and other periodicals he founded
in 1900 the Daily Express, a halfpenny rival to the Daily Mail,
and in 1904 purchased the Standard (see 19.560, 561). He was a
strong supporter of Mr. Chamberlain's tariff-reform movement.
In 1910 increasing later complete failure of sight obliged
him to retire from the active direction of newspapers. Hence-
forth he devoted himself and his fortune with whole-hearted
industry to efforts to ameliorate the condition of the blind.
During the World War he established at his house, St. Dun-
stan's, in Regent's Park, London, a hospital for blinded soldiers,
and became chairman of the Blinded Soldiers and Sailors Care
Committee (1914). He also became president of the National
Institution for the Blind. He was created a baronet in 1916
and G.B.E. in the first gazette of the new Order of the British
Empirein 1917. He died in London Dec. 9 1921. Havingbeen
eager to encourage those among the blind who cannot command
attendance, he had made it his practice to have his bath un-
aided, but on this occasion he accidently slipped, was stunned
by striking his head on a tap and suffocated while unconscious,
his face under water.
PEARY, ROBERT EDWIN (1856-1920), American Arctic
explorer (see 21.30), died in Washington, D.C., Feb. 20 1920. Because of his discovery of the North Pole (1909) he was pro-
moted rear-admiral in 191 1 and received by special Act the thanks
of Congress. The same year he was U.S. delegate to the Inter-
national Polar Commission in Rome. During his later years he
was much interested in aerial navigation and delivered many
addresses in which he urged coast patrol by aeroplanes. In 1913
he was made Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour (France).
He was the author of The North Pole (1910) and Secrets of
Polar Travel (1917).
PEEL, ARTHUR WELLESLEY PEEL, 1ST VISCOUNT (1829-
1912), English statesman (see 21.39), died at Sandy, Beds., Oct. 24 1912.
He was succeeded by his son, WILLIAM ROBERT WELLESLEY PEEL, who in 1916 was chairman of the Committee on Detention of Neutral Vessels, in 1919 became Under-Secretary for War, and in 1921 Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.
PEKING, China (see 21.61). During the first decade of the new Chinese Republic, great improvements were made in the matter of the maintenance, lighting and sanitation of the principal thoroughfares of the capital; the police were reorganized on western lines, and instructed in traffic control; and, as the result of the introduction of metalled roads, the old-type mule cart was rapidly replaced by carriages, motor-cars and jinrikishas. Many of these changes were due to the initiative of Chu Chi-chien, Minister of the Interior in 1913.
The conditions of railway traffic between the city and the outside world were also greatly .improved by the location of the termini of the Peking-Moukden and Peking-Hankow lines at the Chien Men, the great southern gate of the Tatar city, which lies between the palace and the Temple of Heaven. The wall adjoining this gate has been pierced with new passages for general traffic and broad thoroughfares thrown open to the public in the Forbidden City.
A large number of buildings in foreign style have been erected for Government offices, banks and business premises. In spite of these changes, however, chiefly conspicuous in the official and busi- ness quarters in the vicinity of the legations, the general features of the scene which the traveller sees from the walls remain much the same as in former times, a vast enclosure within which the yellow- tiled roofs of palaces and temples emerge here and there above the trees; and in the less frequented parts of the city, notably the Manchu quarter, there is but little outward evidence of change. The poverty-stricken appearance which the Chien MSn district and other business centres presented as the result of the destruc- tion wrought by the Boxers in 1900 has gradually disappeared.
The trade of the city remains local as of old, and generally unconcerned with industrial enterprise, but during the first ten years of the Republic the citizens of the capital were able to recover a considerable measure of comfortable prosperity, because of the freedom with which money was circulated by the various political and military parties.
New macadamized roads running from the city in several directions (to the western hills, to Tongshan and to Tungchow) are amongst the most conspicuous manifestations of the Peking municipal council's activities. The number of foreigners resident at the capital has increased considerably in recent years, and, although the city has not been opened by treaty to foreign trade, a number of business houses have been established with the tacit consent of the Chinese authorities.
See E. Backhouse and J. O. P. Bland, Annals and Memoirs of the Court of Peking (191^); D. Mennie and P. Weale, The Pageant of Peking (1921) ; P. H. Kent, The Passing of the Manchus (1912) ; J. O. P. Bland, China, Japan and Korea (1921).
PELISSIER, HARRY GABRIEL (1874-1913), English come-
dian, was born at Finchley in 1874. His father was a Frenchman living in England a descendant of Marshal Pelissier and his mother was English. In 1911 he married Fay Compton, the daughter of Edward Compton, the actor. He became an "entertainer" and author of musical sketches and organized a troupe known as "The Follies," who gained a very great success in a special genre of musical entertainment, half song, half witty parody, at the Apollo theatre, London. He died in London
Sept. 25 1913.
PELLETAN, CHARLES CAMILLE (1846-1915), French poli- tician and journalist (see 21.69), died June 4 1915.
PENLEY, WILLIAM SYDNEY (1852-1912), English actor (see 21.99), died at St. Leonards-on-Sea Nov. n 1912.
PENNSYLVANIA (see 21.105). During 1910-20 there was a great increase in the industrial developments of Pennsylvania, largely as a result of the World War. From 1914 until American participation in 1917, the Allied Governments expended many millions of dollars among the steel, ammunition and other establishments, bringing to the state a period of prosperity the extent of which was apparent when the Liberty Loans and war taxes disclosed the accumulated wealth. The state maintained its rank as the second state in population and in industry.
The pop. of the state in 1920 was 8,720,017, an increase of 1,054,906 over 1910. The rate of increase, 13-8%, was considerably lower than that of the preceding decade, 21-6%. In 1920 the pop. of the 15 largest cities of the state was: Philadelphia, 1,823, 158; Pittsburgh, 588,193; Scranton, 137, 783; Reading, 107,784; Erie, 93,372; Harrisburg, 75,917! Wilkes-Barre, 73,833; Allentown, 73,502; Johnstown, 67,327; Altoona, 60,331; Chester, 58,030; Lancaster, 53,15; Bethlehem, 50,358; York, 47,512; and McKeesport, 46,781.
Agriculture. A decrease of nearly $100,000,000 in the value of crops from 1919 to 1920 was reported by the state department of agriculture, but the state's farms showed an improvement in
