Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/737

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I M O I M P 717 rounded by dry stone walls. The finest flowers are grown on the slopes of Bandols and Ciotat, where the plant begins to flower in June. It requires a light sandy or stony soil, and is very readily injured by rain or heavy dews. It can be propagated in quantity by means of offsets from the older stems. The flowering stems are gathered in June, when the bracts are fully developed, all the fully -expanded and immature flowers being pulled off and rejected. After being dried, they are sent to Paris in boxes containing 100 bundles, with the flowers placed outwards and the stems in the centre. The immortelle is sold by weight or by the bundle, the price varying from lid. to 3d. per bundle, according to size, or from 12s. to 18s. per hundredweight, according to quality. A well-managed plantation is pro ductive for eight or ten years. The plant is tufted in its growth, each plant producing 60 or 70 stems, while each stem produces an average of 20 flowers. About 400 such stems weigli a kilogramme. A hectare of ground will pro duce 40,000 plants, bearing from 2,400,000 to 2,800,000 stems, and weighing from 5i to 6| tons, or from 2 to 3 tons per acre. The colour of the bracts is a deep yellow. The natural flowers are commonly used for garlands for the dead, or plants dyed black are mixed with the yellow ones. The plant is also dyed green or orange-red, and thus em ployed for bouquets or other ornamental purposes. The following is a list of the more important everlasting flowers: Acrodiniu/n rose um ; Ammobium alatum ; Gnaphalium orientate and other species ; Hclichrysum bracteatum, macranlhum, and com- positum, from Australia, and H. vestitum, from the Cape of Good Hope; Helipterum cancscens and Sandforti, from South Africa; Rhodanthe Manglcsii, maculata, and atrosanguinea, from Swan River ; Waitzia nitida and nivca, from Swan Uiver ; and Xeran- tlicmum annuum. Frequently these everlastings are mixed with blenched grasses, as Lagurus ovatus, Briza maxima, Bromus brizce- formis, or with the leaves of the Cape silver tree (Leucadendron argenteum), to form bouquets or ornamental groups. IMOLA, the ancient forum Cornelii, a town of Italy, capital of a circle in the province of Bologna, is situated in a fruitful and charming plain on the old yEmilian way, near the river Santerno (ancient Vatremis), 21 miles south east of Bologna and 46 north-west of Rimini, on the rail way connecting those towns. It is the seat of a bishop and of a subprefecture. The town is surrounded by walls flanked with towers, and its streets are spacious and lined with arcades. It possesses a cathedral with an octagonal tower, an old castle, a gymnasium, a technical school, a school of music, a public library, orphanages for boys and girls, a hospital, and a corn exchange. The manu facture of wine is the principal industry, but a special kind of cream of tartar is also made, and there is considerable trade in corn, hemp, flax, rice, and silk, The population of the town in 1871 was 9355 and of the commune 28,398. In 1876 the population of the commune was 28,678. The ancient Forum Cornelii is said to have derived its name from its founder the dictator Sulla. According to Cicero, it was occupied by Octavian during the civil war which followed the death of Cresar, and Martial mentions it in the third book of his epigrams as the place where he was at that time residing. The modern name of the town is, according to Paulus Diaconus, derived from that of the old citadel. The town, after its destruction in 538 by Narses, general of the emperor Justinian I., was rebuilt by the Lombards, after which it remained under the lordship of Bologna till the end of the 13th century. In 1272 it was taken possession of by the Pagani, and in 1292 by the Alidosii, from whom it was seized in 1472 by Duke Philip Maria Visconti of Milan. Under the pontificate of Alexander VI. it was incorporated with the States of the (Jnurch. In 1708 it was captured by the imperialists, and in 1797 by the French. IMPEACHMENT, an exceptional, and now rare, form of procedure against criminals in England, in which the House of Commons are the prosecutors and the House of Lords the judges. It differs from procedure by bill of attainder, which follows the ordinary forms of legislation in both Houses, and takes effect in an Act of Parliament. In impeachment the form of procedure is strictly judicial. When the House of Commons has accepted a motion for impeachment, the mover is ordered to proceed to the bar of the House of Lords, and there impeach the accused " in the name of the House of Commons, and of all the Com mons of the United Kingdom." The charges are formu lated in articles, to each of which the accused may deliver a written answer. The prosecution must confine itself to the charges contained in the articles, though further articles may be adhibited from time to time. The Commons ap point managers to conduct the prosecution, but the whole House in committee attends the trial. The defen dant may appear by counsel. The president of the House of Lords is the lord high steward, in the case of peers im peached for high treason ; in other cases the lord chan cellor. The hearing takes place as in an ordinary trial, the defence being allowed to call witnesses if necessary, and the prosecution having a right of reply. At the end of the case the president "puts to each peer, beginning with the junior baron, the questions upon the first article, whether the accused be guilty of the crimes charged therein. Each peer in succession rises in his place when the question is put, and standing uncovered, and laying his right hand upon his breast, answers, Guilty or Not guilty, as the case may be, upon my honour. Each article is proceeded with separately in the same manner, the lord high steward giving his own opinion the last" (May s Parliamentary Practice, c. xxiii.). Should the accused be found guilty, judgment follows if the Commons move for it, but not otherwise. The Commons thus retain the power of pardon in their own hands, and this right they have in several cases expressly claimed by resolution, declaring that it is not par liamentary for their lordships to give judgment "until the same be first demanded by this House." An impeachment, unlike other parliamentary proceedings, is not interrupted by prorogation, nor even by dissolution. Proceedings in the House of Commons preliminary to an impeachment are subject to the ordinary rules, and in the Warren Hastings case an Act was passed to prevent the preliminary proceed ings from discontinuance by prorogation and dissolution. A royal pardon cannot be pleaded in bar of an impeach ment. The point was raised in the case of the earl of Danby in 1679, and the rule was finally settled by the Act of Settlement. Persons found guilty on impeachment may be reprieved or pardoned like other convicts. Impeachment will lie against all kinds of crimes and misdemeanours, and against offenders of all ranks. In the case of Simon de Beresford, tried before the House of Lords 4 Edward III., the House declared " that the judgment be not drawn into example or consequence in time to come, whereby the said peers may be charged hereafter to judge others than their peers," from which Blackstone and others have inferred that " a commoner cannot be impeached before the Lords for any capital offence, but only for high mis demeanours." In the case of Fitzharris in 1681, the House of Commons in answer to a resolution of the Lords suspend ing the impeachment, declared it to be their undoubted right " to impeach any peer or commoner for treason or any other crime or misdemeanour." And the House of Lords has in practice recognized the right of the Commons to im peach whomsoever they will. The procedure has, however, been reserved for great political offenders whom the ordi nary powers of the law might fail to reach. It has now fallen into desuetude. The last impeachments were those of Warren Hastings (1788-95) and Lord Melville (1805), but an unsuccessful attempt was made by Mr Anstey to im peach Lord Palmerston in 1848. The earliest recorded in stances of impeachment are those of Lord Latimer in 1376, and of Pole, earl of Suffolk, in 1386. From the time

of Edward IV. to Elizabeth it full into disuse, "partly,"