thereafter a Spanish official was placed in residence. St Charles was organized as a village under territorial law in 1809, and in 1849 was chartered as a city. It was the first capital of the state (1820-1826).
SAINT CLAIR, a borough of Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., on Mill Creek, 3 m. N. of Pottsville, and about 40 m. by rail N.N.W. of Reading. Pop. (1910) 6455. Saint Clair is served by the Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia & Reading railways. It is engaged chiefly in the mining (very largely surface-stripping) and shipping of anthracite coal, and in the manufacture of miners' supplies. Saint Clair was settled in 1825 and was incorporated as a borough in 1850.
ST CLAIR, a lake and river of North America, forming part of the boundary between the state of Michigan, U.S.A., and the province of Ontario, Canada. The lake is 29 m. long and 20 broad. It contains numerous islands, receives from the Canadian side several rivers, the largest of which is the Thames, and is drained into Lake Erie by the Detroit river. At its foot are the cities of Detroit (Michigan) and Windsor (Ontario). On the north it receives the St Clair river, the outlet of Lake Huron. The shores of both lake and river are flat, and their waters shallow, but, owing to the enormous traffic which passes through, they have been in great part canalized, and can accommodate the largest steamers.
ST CLAUDE, a town of eastern France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Jura, 42 m. S.S.E. of Lons-le-Saunier by rail. Pop. (1906) 9558. The town is beautifully situated 1300 ft. above sea-level at the western base of Mont Bayard, among the heights of the eastern Jura at the confluence of the Bienne and the Tacon. The latter river is crossed by a fine suspension bridge. The cathedral of St Pierre, once the abbey church, a building of the 14th to the 18th centuries, contains fine 15th-century stalls and a reredos of the Renaissance period. The town is the seat of a bishop, suffragan of Lyons, and of a sub-prefect. St Claude has been noted since the close of the middle ages for its fancy articles in horn, tortoise-shell, hardwood, ivory, &c., and there are manufactures of briar-root pipes. Diamond-cutting and lapidary work and the manufacture of measures are also prosperous industries.
The town derives its name from that of an archbishop of Besançon who died in the 7th century in the monastery founded here in the 5th century. This monastery subsequently acquired almost independent sovereignty in the locality, and held its retainers in a state of serfdom till the Revolution. Voltaire pleaded the cause of the serfs, though unsuccessfully, before the parlement of Besançon, and in memory of his services a statue was erected to him in 1887. St Claude was constituted a bishopric in 1762. The abbey-buildings and most of the town were destroyed by fire in 1799.
ST CLOUD, a town of northern France, in the department of Seine-et-Oise, on the left bank of the Seine, 2 m. W. of the fortifications of Paris by road. Pop. (1906) 7316. Picturesquely built on a hill-slope, St Cloud overlooks the river, the Bois de Boulogne and Paris; and, lying amid the foliage of its magnificent park and numerous villa gardens, it is one of the favourite resorts of the Parisians. The palace of St Cloud, which had been a summer residence for Napoleon I., Louis XVIII., Charles X., Louis Philippe and Napoleon III., was burned by the Prussians in 1870 along with part of the village. In spite of the damage inflicted on the park at the same period its magnificent avenues and ornamental water still make it one of the pleasantest spots in the neighbourhood of Paris. Every year in September, at the time of the pilgrimage of St Cloud, a fair lasting four weeks is held in the park. Within its precincts are situated the national Sèvres porcelain manufactory and the Breteuil pavilion, the seat of the international commission on the metre. St Cloud possesses a modern church in the style of the 12th century with an elegant stone spire; and here, too, is established the higher training college for male teachers for the provincial training colleges of primary instruction.
Clodoald or Cloud, grandson of Clovis, adopted the monastic life and left his name to the spot where his tomb was discovered after the lapse of 1200 years, in a crypt near the present church. He had granted the domain to the bishops of Paris, who possessed it as a fief till the 18th century. At St Cloud Henry III. and the king of Navarre (Henry IV.) established their camp during the League for the siege of Paris; and there the former was assassinated by Jacques Clément. The castle was at that time a plain country house belonging to Pierre de Gondi, archbishop of Paris; in 1658 it was acquired by the duke of Orleans, who was the originator of the palace which perished in 1870. Peter the Great of Russia was received there in 1717 by the regent, whose grandson sold the palace to Marie Antoinette. It was at St Cloud that Bonaparte executed the coup d'état of 18th Brumaire (1799); after he became emperor the palace was his favourite residence, and there he celebrated his marriage with Marie Louise. In 1815 it was the scene of the signing of the capitulation of Paris; and in 1830 from St Cloud Charles X. issued the orders which brought about his fall. Napoleon III. was there when he received the senatusconsult which restored the empire in his favour (1st December 1852). Seized by the Prussians at the beginning of the investment of Paris in 1870, St Cloud was sacked during the siege.
ST CLOUD, a city in Stearns, Benton and Sherburne counties, Minnesota, U.S.A., and the county-seat of Stearns county, about 65 m. N.W. of Minneapolis, on both banks of the Mississippi river, and about 970 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1900) 8663, of whom 1907 were foreign-born; (1910 U.S. census) 10,600. It is served by the Great Northern and the Northern Pacific railways. It is the seat of one of the State Normal Schools (1869), and of the Minnesota State Reformatory (1887). In the city are a Carnegie library, a Federal building, a Roman Catholic cathedral, St Raphael's Hospital (Roman Catholic), St Clotilda's Academy of Music and two business colleges. The Mississippi has a considerable fall here, and provides valuable water-power. Among the manufactures are flour, barrels, bricks, and foundry and machine-shop products—the Great Northern maintains extensive car and repair shops here. In 1905 the value of the city's factory product was $1,994,476, an increase of 27.8% since 1900. There are large lumber yards, and excellent grey and red granites (St Cloud is called “the Granite City”) from neighbouring quarries are exported. The city lies in a large grain-growing and stock-raising district. St Cloud was settled in 1852, platted in 1854, incorporated as a village in 1868, and chartered as a city in 1889. Until reached by the Great Northern railway, St Cloud was the Hudson's Bay Company's terminus for the unloading of furs from the wooden ox-carts (“Red river” carts).
ST CROIX or Santa Cruz, the largest island in the Danish West Indies. It lies 65 m. S.E. of Puerto Rico, in 17° 40' N. and 64° 14' W., is 22 m. long, varies in breadth from 1 m. to 6 m., and has an area of 84 sq. m. Pop. (1901) 18,590. Parallel with the western coast is a range of hills, culminating in Mount Eagle (1164 ft.). The narrower western part is also hilly, but on the S. shore there are marshy tracts with lagoons of brackish water. Sugar is the staple product, and near Christianstäd there is a central factory conducted by the government. The planters are mostly English, and their language predominates. The capital, Christianstäd (locally known as “Bassin”), is situated at the head of an inlet on the N. coast, but its harbour is to a large extent choked with mud. It is a picturesque town, and the seat of the Danish governor during half the year. The only other town, Frederickstäd, stands on an open road stead on the W. coast. It is locally known as “West End,” and part of the town, wrecked by the blacks in 1878, lies in ruins. The climate is healthy, the mean annual temperature being 74° F. and the average rainfall 45.7 in. per annum.
St Croix was discovered in 1493 by Columbus, and was owned in turn by the Dutch, British and Spanish. In 1651 it was taken by France, and two years later was given to the Knights of Malta by Louis XIV. In 1733 it was purchased by Denmark. Slavery was abolished in 1848 after a violent insurrection which had broken out among the slaves.
See Sir H. H. Johnston, The Negro in the New World (1910).
