Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 22.djvu/584

560 S T O S T different parts of the kingdom, where they lived for a shorter or longer time. When, from the development of state affairs, the need of a capital came to be felt, no city could compete with the claims of Stockholm. It is the usual residence of the king; in the summer he lives generally in one of the palaces in the neighbour- hood ; some part of every year he passes in his Norwegian capital. The supreme court of justice has its seat in Stockholm, as well as the Svea Hofrdtt, the next highest tribunal for central and northern Sweden. It is also the seat of all the other central governmental boards. Stockholm is also the seat of seven academies. (1) The Swedish Academy, with eighteen members, founded in 1786, deals with the language and literature of Sweden. It is engaged upon a Swedish dictionary, and celebrates every year the memory of some renowned Swede. (2) The academy of sciences, founded in 1739, with 100 ordinary members, distributed into nine classes, and 75 foreign members, has charge of the royal museum of natural history, the physical, astronomical, and meteorological institutes, and the botanical garden. (3) The academy of belles lettres, history, and antiquities, founded in 1753, reformed in 1786, now occupies itself only with history and antiquities ; it has 14 honorary members, 20 ordinary members, 16 foreign members and corre- spondents. The secretary of this academy is, at the same time, as royal antiquary of Sweden and garde des medailles, director of the archaeological, historical, and numismatical state collections, and inspector of the antiquities of the kingdom. (4) The academy of agriculture, founded in 1811, with 24 honorary members, 136 ordinary and 75 foreign members, occupies itself with agriculture and fisheries. It has an experimental institution for agricultural chemistry, physiology of plants, gardening, and practical agricul- ture. (5) The academy of fine arts, founded in 1735, has charge of the official school of art. (6) The academy of music, founded in 1771, has the care of the state conservatory of music. (7) The academy of military sciences was founded in 1796. Each of these academies is a distinct body; most of them publish their trans- actions, and each has its own library. There are several private societies of a scientific character, such as the society for publication of historical documents, the historical society, the society of anthropology and geography, the society of national antiquities, the geological society, the society of natural sciences, the entomological society, &c. Stockholm has no state university, but there is a high school of medicine (Carolinska Institute), which has several professors of mathematics and natural science. The city has also a high tech- nical school, a technical school, a high military school, and a military school (in the palace of Caiiberg, outside of the city), a veterinary school, a school of pharmacy, seven more or less complete secondary schools, and two seminaries for female teachers, besides private schools. The number of pupils in the secondary schools in 1884 was 2294 and in the primary schools 14,351. The following are the principal public collections. (1) The royal historical museum (in the national museum) contains a remarkably rich series of the prehistoric antiquities of the country. Founded in the 17th century, it has made greatest progress since 1837. (2) The royal numismatical collection (in the national museum) contains about 90,000 coins and medals. The series of Anglo-Saxon coins found in Sweden is very important. (3) The numismatical collec- tion of the Bank of Sweden (in the bank offices) contains very good series of Swedish coins and medals. (4) The royal collection of armour and royal dresses (in the royal palace) is very rich in speci- mens of the 17th and 18th centuries. (5) The royal museum of fine and industrial arts (in the national museum) contains sculptures, pictures, engravings, drawings, &c. The collection of Swedish art is, of course, very rich. Of foreign schools that of the Netherlands is best represented. The collection illustrating the development of industrial arts consists principally of gifts of Charles XV. and Count A. Bjelke. (6) The royal museum of natural history (in the palace of the academy of sciences), with very rich zoological, botanical, palaeontological, and mineral series, is exceedingly rich in objects from the arctic regions. Other collections deserving mention are (7) the museum of the geological survey of Sweden ; (8) the museum of the school of medicine ; (9) the northern museum, a private institution, a very rich collection representing the life of all social classes of the north ; (10) the royal library, very rich in books and manuscripts ; and (11) the royal archives. See Elers, Stockholm, 4 vols., 1800-1801 ; Ferlin, Stockholm* Stad; fiercittetser angaende Stockholm! Kommunalforvallning. (H. III.). STOCKINGS. See HOSIERY. STOCKPORT, a market-town and municipal and parliamentary borough of England, in Cheshire and partly in Lancashire, is situated on an elevation above the Mersey at the junction of the Tame and Goyt, and of a number of railway lines, 46 miles east-north-east of Chester, 37 east of Liverpool, and 6 south-south-east of Manchester. Owing to the lie of the ground the streets are very irre- gular and uneven, and occasionally precipitous, while in the south they rise above the river in tiers. The Mersey is crossed by a number of bridges, including one of eleven arches opened in 1826 at a cost of 40,000. None of the ecclesiastical buildings are of special interest, the principal being the church of St Mary, erected in 1817, at a cost of 30,000, on the site of one of the 15th century, of which the chancel and vestry remain. The free grammar school was founded and endowed in 1487 by Sir Edward Shaa or Shaw, knight. The present building was erected in 1831 by the Goldsmiths' Company, who further endowed it with 290 a year, and handed it over to the corpora- tion. The Stockport Sunday school, erected in 1805, has accommodation for 4000 scholars. There is a free public library, established in 1875. The principal public build- ings are the court-house, the market-house, the union workhouse, the mechanics' institute, the infirmary, the institution for the blind and deaf and dumb, and the fine new public baths. In St Peter's Square there is a statue, unveiled 27th November 1886, of Richard Cobden, who was elected member for the borough in 1841 and 1847. Vernon Park, finely situated about a mile from the town, contains a free miiseum, built in 1858 at the expense of the members for the borough, and since enlarged by the corporation. The staple industries are the spinning and weaving of cotton and felt-hat making. There are also breweries, foundries, machine-works, and flour-mills. The limits of the municipal and parliamentary boroughs are I co-extensive. The area is 2200 acres, with a population | in 1871 of 53,014 and in 1881 of 59,553. Though not referred to in any of the Roman itineraries, and ' possessing neither Roman nor Saxon remains, Stockport is supposed to have been a Roman camp or outpost, which occupied the hill on which the Normans afterwards built a baronial castle. It is not mentioned in Domesday. The castle was held in 1173 by Geoffrey de Costentyn against Henry II., but whether in his own right or not is uncertain. In the beginning of the 13th century it was possessed by the first Baron Ranulf de Dapifer, progenitor of the Despensers, from whom it passed to Robert de Stockeport, who in the reign of Henry III. made the town a free borough, and in 1260 received for it from the earl of Chester the grant of a market. The town was visited by the plague in 1605-6. It was of some import- ance during the Civil War, and was taken by the Royalists under Prince Rupert in ilay 1644. During the insurrection of 1745 Prince Charles Edward rested at the town on the 28th November. The town was enfranchised in 1832, with the right, which it still retains, of returning two members, and was incorporated under the Corporations Act in 1835. STOCKS, as a form of punishment, are now quite obsolete. They were originally established in England after the passing of the Statute of Labourers, 23 Edw. III. c. 1. That Act enjoined that stocks (ceppes) should be made in every town between the passing of the Act and Pentecost of that year (1350). By numerous other statutes, until comparatively modern times, the punish- ment of the stocks was inflicted for offences of a less heinous kind, e.g., breaches of the Sunday Observance Acts of Charles I. and Charles II. In the United States the stocks were formerly used as a means of punishing slaves. STOCKTON, a city of the United States, county seat of San Joaquin county, California, at the head of the Stockton navigable channel which joins the San Joaquin river, and 48 miles south-south-east of Sacramento, by the western division of the Central Pacific Railroad. It is the business centre of the San Joaquin valley, a great wheat market, and the seat of the State lunatic asylum (founded in 1853). Artesian wells 80 to 1000 feet deep provide the city with a perennial supply of water. Two public libraries, several public schools, and a convent may be mentioned among its important institutions; and it manufactures leather, agricultural implements, paper, flour, &c. The population was 10,066 in 1870 and 10,282 in