The executive is entrusted to a municipal council of nine, elected annually from among the general body of foreign ratepayers, irrespective of nationality. The legislative function is exercised by all ratepayers possessing a certain pecuniary qualification in public meeting assembled. Proxies for absentee landlords are allowed. One such public meeting must be held annually to pass the budget and fix the taxation for the year. No official sanction is required, and no veto is allowed for such money votes. Special meetings may be held at any time for special purposes, New legislation of a general kind requires to be approved by all the treaty powers in order to be binding on their several nationalities, but within certain limits the ratepayers can pass by-laws which do not require such sanction. The French municipality is worked on similar lines, except that every vote and every disbursement of money is subject to the approval of the French consul-general. The executive council consists of eight members, four of whom must be French and four may be foreign. The French consul-general is chairman ex officio, so that the control in any case is French and practically official.
Both settlements were originally intended for the residence of foreign merchants only, but as the advantages of living under foreign protection became evident by reason of the security it gave from arbitrary taxation and arrest, Chinese began to fiock in. This movement has continued, and is now particularly noticeable in the cases of retired officials, many of whom have made Shanghai their home. The total native population in the settlements by the census of 1895 was 286,753, and the estimated population of the native city was 125,000, making a total for all Shanghai of 411,753. The census of the foreign population in 1905 showed 3713 British, 2157 Japanese, 1329 Portuguese, 991 Americans, 785 Germans and 568 Indians, out of a total of 11,497. The magnitude of the foreign interests invested in Shanghai may be gathered from the following rough summary: Assessed value of land in settlements registered as foreign-owned £5,500,000; docks, wharves and other industrial public companies-market value of stock, £2,250,000; private property estimated £1,500,000—total £9,250,000. This is exclusive of banks, shipping and insurance companies, and other institutions which draw profits from other places besides Shanghai.
SHANHAI-KWAN, a garrison town in the extreme east of the
province of Chih-li, China. Pop. about 30,000. It is situated
at the point where the range of hills carrying the Great Wall of
China dips to the sea, leaving a kwan or pass of limited extent
between China proper and Manchuria. It is thus an important
military station, and the thoroughfare of trade between Manchuria
and the great plain of China. The Imperial Northern
railway from Tientsin and Taku, 174 m. from the former, runs
through the pass, and skirts the shore of the Gulf of Liao-tung as
far as the treaty port of Niu-chwang, where it connects with the
railways leading from Port Arthur to the Siberian main line.
The pass formed the southern limit of the Russian sphere of
influence as defined in the convention between Great Britain and
Russia of the 28th of April 1899.
SHANKARSETT, JAGANNATH (1800–1865), the recognized
leader of the Hindu community of Bombay for more than
forty years, was born in 1800 into a family of goldsmiths of the
Daivadnya caste. Unlike his forefathers, he engaged in commerce,
and soon acquired what was in those days a large fortune,
a great part of which he devoted to the good of the public. So
high was his credit that Arabs, Afghans and other foreign
merchants chose to place their treasures in his custody rather
than with the banks. Foreseeing the need of better methods of
education, he became one of the founders of the School Society
and the Native School of Bombay, the first of its kind in Western
India, which in 1824 developed into the Bombay Native Institution,
and again in 1840 into the Board of Education which
preceded the Elphinstone Educational Institution founded in18 56.
When the Students' Literary and Scientific Society first opened
their girls' schools, in spite of strong opposition of the Hindu
community, he set the good example of providing another girls'
school entirely at his private cost. His zeal for progress was also
shown in his starting the English School, the Sanskrit Seminary
and the Sanskrit Library, all in Girgaum. To Jagannath
Shankarsett and his public-spirited friends, Sir George Birdwood
and Dr Bhau Daji, Bombay is also indebted for the reconstruction
which, beginning in 1857, gradually changed a close network
of lanes and streets into a spacious and airy city, adorned with
fine avenues and splendid buildings. He was the first Indian
to be nominated to the legislative council of Bombay under the
Act of 1861. While his influence was used by Sir John Malcolm
to induce the Hindus to acquiesce in the suppression of suttee or
widow-burning, his own community remember gratefully that
to him they owe the cremation ground at Sonapur. He died
at Bombay on the 31st of July 1865, regretted by all classes of
society, who, about a year before his death, in a public meeting
assembled at the Town Hall, voted a marble statue to perpetuate
his memory.
SHANKLIN, a watering-place in the Isle of Wight, England,
8½ m. S. of Ryde by rail. Pop. of urban district (1901) 4533.
It is beautifully situated on the cliffs bordering the S.E. coast,
and is sheltered W. by high-lying downs. The church of St John
the Baptist is Perpendicular. There are several modern churches
and chapels, numerous villas, a pier and a lift connecting the
town with the esplanade beneath the cliff. The picturesque
winding chasm of Shanklin Chine breaches the cliffs S. of the
town.
SHANNON, CHARLES HAZELWOOD (1865–), English
artist, was born at Sleaford in Lincolnshire, the son of the Rev.
Frederic Shannon. He attended the Lambeth school of art, and
was subsequently considerably influenced by his friend Charles
Ricketts and by the example of the great Venetians. In his early
work he was addicted to a heavy low tone, which he abandoned
subsequently for clearer and more transparent colour. He
achieved great success with his portraits and his Giorgionesque
figure compositions, which are marked by a classic sense of style,
and with his etchings and lithographic designs. The Dublin
Municipal Gallery owns his circular composition “ The Bunch of
Grapes ” and “ The Lady with the Green Fan ” (portrait of Mrs
Hacon). His “ Study in Grey ” is at the Munich Gallery, a
“ Portrait of Mr Staats Forbes ” at Bremen, and a “ Souvenir
of Van Dyck ” at Melbourne. One of his most remarkable
pictures is “The Toilet of Venus ” in the collection of Lord
Northcliffe. Complete sets of his lithographs and etchings have
been acquired by the British Museum and the Berlin and Dresden
print rooms. He was awarded a first-class gold medal at Munich
in 1895 and a first-class silver medal in Paris in 1900.
SHANNON, JAMES JEBUSA (1862– ), Anglo-American
artist, was born at Auburn, New York, in 1862, and at the age of
eight was taken by his parents to Canada. When he was sixteen,
he went to England, where he studied at South Kensington, and
after three years won the gold medal for figure painting. His
portrait of the Hon. Horatia Stopford, one of the queen's maids
of honour, attracted attention at the Royal Academy in 1881,
and in 1887 his portrait of Henry Vigne in hunting costume was
one of the successes of the exhibition, subsequently securing
medals for the artist at Paris, Berlin and Vienna. He soon
became one of the leading portrait painters in London. He was
one of the first members of the New English Art Club, and in
1897 was elected an associate of the Royal Academy, and
R.A. in 1909. His picture, “ The Flower Girl,” was bought in
1901 for the National Gallery of British Art.
SHANNON, the principal river of Ireland. It flows with a
bow-shaped course from N. to S. and S.W., from the N.W. part
of the island to its mouth in the Atlantic on the S.W. coast, with
a length of about 240 m. and a drainage area of 4544 sq. m.
Rising in county Cavan in some small pools at the foot of Cuilcagh
Mountain, the Shannon crosses county Leitrim, traversing the
first of a series of large lakes, Lough Allen (9 m. in length). It
then separates county Roscommon on the right (W.) bank from
counties Leitrim, Longford, Westmeath and King's County on
the left. In this part of its course it forms Loughs Boderg
(7 m. long), Forbes (3 m.) and Ree (18 m.), and receives from
W. the river Boyle and from E. the Inny, while in county Longford
it is joined by the Royal Canal. It now separates county
Galway on the right from King's County and county Tipperary;
receiving the Suck from W. and the Brosna from E., and forming
Lough Derg (23 m.). Dividing county Clare from counties
Tipperary and Limerick, the Shannon reaches the city of Limerick
as a broad and noble river, and debouches upon an estuary 60 m.
in length with a. direction nearly E. and W. This divides county
Clare on the right from counties Limerick and Kerry on the left.