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CAÏQUE—CAIRNES
  

CAÏQUE (from Turk. Kaik), a light skiff or rowing-boat used by the Turks, having from one to twelve rowers; also a Levantine sailing vessel of considerable size.


ÇA IRA, a song of the French Revolution, with the refrain:—

Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira!
Les aristocrates à la lanterne.

The words, written by one Ladré, a street singer, were put to an older tune, called “Le Carillon National,” and the song rivalled the “Carmagnole” (q.v.) during the Terror. It was forbidden by the Directory.


CAIRD, EDWARD (1835–1908), British philosopher and theologian, brother of John Caird (q.v.), was born at Greenock on the 22nd of March 1835, and educated at Glasgow University and Balliol College, Oxford. He took a first class in moderations in 1862 and in Literae humaniores in 1863, and was Pusey and Ellerton scholar in 1861. From 1864 to 1866 he was fellow and tutor of Merton College. In 1866 he became professor of moral philosophy in the university of Glasgow, and in 1893 succeeded Benjamin Jowett as master of Balliol. With Thomas Hill Green he founded in England a school of orthodox neo-Hegelianism (see Hegel, ad fin.), and through his pupils he exerted a far-reaching influence on English philosophy and theology. Owing to failing health he gave up his lectures in 1904, and in May 1906 resigned his mastership, in which he was succeeded by James Leigh Strachan-Davidson, who had previously for some time, as senior tutor and fellow, borne the chief burden of college administration. Dr Caird received the honorary degree of D.C.L. in 1892; he was made a corresponding member of the French Academy of Moral and Political Science and a fellow of the British Academy. His publications include Philosophy of Kant (1878); Critical Philosophy of Kant (1889); Religion and Social Philosophy of Comte (1885); Essays on Literature and Philosophy (1892); Evolution of Religion (Gifford Lectures, 1891–1892); Evolution of Theology in the Greek Philosophers (1904); and he is represented in this encyclopaedia by the article on Cartesianism. He died on the 1st of November 1908.

For a criticism of Dr Caird’s theology, see A. W. Benn, English Rationalism in the 19th Century (London, 1906).


CAIRD, JOHN (1820–1898), Scottish divine and philosopher, was born at Greenock on the 15th of December 1820. In his sixteenth year he entered the office of his father, who was partner and manager of a firm of engineers. Two years later, however, he obtained leave to continue his studies at Glasgow University. After a year of academic life he tried business again, but in 1840 he gave it up finally and returned to college. In 1845 he entered the ministry of the Church of Scotland, and after holding several livings accepted the chair of divinity at Glasgow in 1862. During these years he won a foremost place among the preachers of Scotland. In theology he was a Broad Churchman, seeking always to emphasize the permanent elements in religion, and ignoring technicalities. In 1873 he was appointed vice-chancellor and principal of Glasgow University. He delivered the Gifford Lectures in 1892–1893 and in 1895–1896. His Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion (1880) is an attempt to show the essential rationality of religion. It is idealistic in character, being in fact a reproduction of Hegelian teaching in clear and melodious language. His argument for the Being of God is based on the hypothesis that thought—not individual but universal—is the reality of all things, the existence of this Infinite Thought being demonstrated by the limitations of finite thought. Again his Gifford Lectures are devoted to the proof of the truth of Christianity on grounds of right reason alone. Caird wrote also an excellent study of Spinoza, in which he showed the latent Hegelianism of the great Jewish philosopher. He died on the 30th of July 1898.


CAIRN (in Gaelic and Welsh, Carn), a heap of stones piled up in a conical form. In modern times cairns are often erected as landmarks. In ancient times they were erected as sepulchral monuments. The Duan Eireanach, an ancient Irish poem, describes the erection of a family cairn; and the Senchus Mor, a collection of ancient Irish laws, prescribes a fine of three three-year-old heifers for “not erecting the tomb of thy chief.” Meetings of the tribes were held at them, and the inauguration of a new chief took place on the cairn of one of his predecessors. It is mentioned in the Annals of the Four Masters that, in 1225, the O'Connor was inaugurated on the cairn of Fraech, the son of Fiodhach of the red hair. In medieval times cairns are often referred to as boundary marks, though probably not originally raised for that purpose. In a charter by King Alexander II. (1221), granting the lands of Burgyn to the monks of Kinloss, the boundary is described as passing “from the great oak in Malevin as far as the Rune Pictorum,” which is explained as “the Carne of the Pecht’s fieldis.” In Highland districts small cairns used to be erected, even in recent times, at places where the coffin of a distinguished person was “rested” on its way to the churchyard. Memorial cairns are still occasionally erected, as, for instance, the cairn raised in memory of the prince consort at Balmoral, and “Maule’s Cairn,” in Glenesk, erected by the earl of Dalhousie in 1866, in memory of himself and certain friends specified by name in the inscription placed upon it. (See Barrow.)


CAIRNES, JOHN ELLIOTT (1823–1875), British political economist, was born at Castle Bellingham, Ireland, in 1823. After leaving school he spent some years in the counting-house of his father, a brewer. His tastes, however, lay altogether in the direction of study, and he was permitted to enter Trinity College, Dublin, where he took the degree of B.A. in 1848, and six years later that of M.A. After passing through the curriculum of arts he engaged in the study of law and was called to the Irish bar. But he felt no very strong inclination for the legal profession, and during some years he occupied himself to a large extent with contributions to the daily press, treating of the social and economical questions that affected Ireland. He devoted most attention to political economy, which he studied with great thoroughness and care. While residing in Dublin he made the acquaintance of Archbishop Whately, who conceived a very high respect for his character and abilities. In 1856 a vacancy occurred in the chair of political economy at Dublin founded by Whately, and Cairnes received the appointment. In accordance with the regulations of the foundation, the lectures of his first year’s course were published. The book appeared in 1857 with the title Character and Logical Method of Political Economy. It follows up and expands J. S. Mill’s treatment in the Essays on some Unsettled Questions in Political Economy, and forms an admirable introduction to the study of economics as a science. In it the author’s peculiar powers of thought and expression are displayed to the best advantage. Logical exactness, precision of language, and firm grasp of the true nature of economic facts, are the qualities characteristic of this as of all his other works. If the book had done nothing more, it would still have conferred inestimable benefit on political economists by its clear exposition of the true nature and meaning of the ambiguous term “law.” To the view of the province and method of political economy expounded in this early work the author always remained true, and several of his later essays, such as those on Political Economy and Land, Political Economy and Laissez-Faire, are but reiterations of the same doctrine. His next contribution to economical science was a series of articles on the gold question, published partly in Fraser’s Magazine, in which the probable consequences of the increased supply of gold attendant on the Australian and Californian gold discoveries were analysed with great skill and ability. And a critical article on M. Chevalier’s work On the Probable Fall in the Value of Gold appeared in the Edinburgh Review for July 1860.

In 1861 Cairnes was appointed to the professorship of political economy and jurisprudence in Queen’s College, Galway, and in the following year he published his admirable work The Slave Power, one of the finest specimens of applied economical philosophy. The inherent disadvantages of the employment of slave labour were exposed with great fulness and ability, and the conclusions arrived at have taken their place among the recognized doctrines of political economy. The opinions expressed by Cairnes as to the probable issue of the war in America were largely verified by the actual course of events, and the appearance of the book had a marked influence on the attitude taken by serious political thinkers in England towards the southern states.