Part 17

The French people were suffering much distress from the bad harvest of the previous year, and a great convoy of merchant ships laden with corn was expected from America. Admiral Vanstabel of the French navy had been sent to escort it with two ships of the line in December of 1793. He sailed with his charge from the Chesapeake on the 11th of April 1794. On the previous day six French ships of the line left Brest to meet Vanstabel in mid ocean. The British force designed to intercept the convoy was under Lord Howe, then in command of the channel fleet. He sailed from Spithead on the 2nd of May with 34 sail of the line and 15 smaller vessels, having under his charge nearly a hundred merchant ships which were to be seen clear of the Channel. On the 4th, when off the Lizard, the convoy was sent on its way protected by 8 line of battle ships and 6 or 7 frigates. Two of the line of battle ships were to accompany them throughout the voyage. The other six under Rear-admiral Montagu were to go as far as Cape Finisterre, and were then to cruise on the look-out for the French convoy between Cape Ortegal and Belle Isle. These detachments reduced the force under Lord Howe's immediate command to 26 of the line and 7 frigates. On the 5th of May he was off Ushant, and sent frigates to reconnoitre the harbour of Brest. They reported to him that the main French fleet, which was under the command of Villaret-Joyeuse, and was of 25 sail of the line, was lying at anchor in the roads. Howe then sailed to the latitude on which the convoy was likely to be met with, knowing that if the French admiral came out it would be to meet the ships with the food and cover them from attack. To seek the convoy was therefore the most sure way of forcing Villaret-Joyeuse to action. Till the 18th the British fleet continued cruising in the Bay of Biscay. On the 19th Lord Howe returned to Ushant and again reconnoitred Brest. It was then seen that Villaret-Joyeuse had gone to sea. He had sailed with his whole force on the 16th and had passed close to the British fleet on the 17th, unseen in a fog. On the 19th the French admiral was informed by the "Patriote" (74) that Nielly had fallen in with, and had captured, the British frigate "Castor" (32), under Captain Thomas Troubridge, together with a convoy from Newfoundland. On the same day Villaret-Joyeuse captured part of a Dutch convoy of 53 sail from Lisbon. On the 19th a frigate detached by Admiral Montagu joined Howe. It brought information that Montagu had recaptured part of the Newfoundland convoy, and had learnt that Nielly was to join Vanstabel at sea, and that their combined force would be 9 sail of the line. Montagu himself had steered to cruise on the route of the convoy between the 45th and 47th degrees of north latitude. Howe now steered to meet his subordinate who, he considered, would be in danger from the main French fleet. On the 21st he recaptured some of the Dutch ships taken by Villaret-Joyeuse. From them he learnt that on the 19th the French fleet had been in latitude 47 deg. 46' N. and in longitude 11 deg. 22' N. and was steering westward. Judging that Montagu was too far to the south to be in peril from Villaret-Joyeuse, and considering him strong enough to perform the duty of intercepting the convoy, Lord Howe decided to pursue the main French fleet. The wind was changeable and the weather hazy. It was not till the 28th of May at 6.30 A.M. that the British fleet caught sight of the enemy in 47 deg. 34' N. and 13 deg. 39' W.

The wind was from the south-east, and the French were to windward. Villaret-Joyeuse bore down to a distance of 10 m. from the British, and then hauled to the wind on the port tack. It was difficult for the British fleet to force an action from leeward if the French were unwilling to engage. Lord Howe detached a light squadron of four ships, the "Bellerophon" (74), "Russel" (74), "Marlborough" (74), and "Thunderer" (74) under Rear-admiral Thomas Pasley, to attack the rear of the French line. Villaret-Joyeuse stood on and endeavoured to work to windward. In the course of the afternoon Rear-admiral Pasley's ships began to come up with the last of the French line, the "Revolutionnaire" (110). A partial action took place which went on till after dark; other British vessels joined. The "Revolutionnaire" was so damaged that she was compelled to leave her fleet, and the British "Audacious" (74) was also crippled and compelled to return to port. The "Revolutionnaire" was accompanied by another liner. During the night the two fleets continued on the same course, and next day Howe renewed his attempts to force an action from leeward. He tacked his fleet in succession--his first ship tacking first and the rest in order--in the hope that he would be able to cut through the French rear and gain the weather-gage. Villaret-Joyeuse then turned all his ships together and again headed in the same direction as the British. This movement brought him nearer the British fleet, and another partial action took place between the van of each force. Seeing that the French admiral was not disposed to charge home, Howe at noon once more ordered his fleet to tack in succession. His signal was poorly obeyed by the van, and his object, which was to cut through the French line, was not at once achieved. But the admiral himself finally set an example by tacking his flagship, the "Queen Charlotte" (100), and passing through the French, two ships from the end of their line. He was followed by his fleet, and Villaret-Joyeuse, seeing the peril of the ships in his rear, wore all his ships together to help them. Both forces had been thrown into considerable confusion by these movements, but the British had gained the weather-gage. Villaret-Joyeuse was able to save the two ships cut off, but he had fallen to leeward and the power to force on a battle had passed to Lord Howe. During the 30th the fleets lost sight of one another for a time. The French, who had four ships crippled, had been joined by four others, and were again 26 in number, including the "Patriote."

The 31st of May passed without a hostile meeting and in thick weather, but by the evening the British were close to windward of the French. As Howe, who had not full confidence in all his captains, did not wish for a night battle, he waited till the following morning, keeping the French under observation by frigates. On the 1st of June they were in the same relative positions, and at about a quarter past eight Howe bore down on the French, throwing his whole line on them at once from end to end, with orders to pass through from windward to leeward, and so to place the British ships on the enemy's line of retreat. It was a very bold departure from the then established methods of fighting, and most honourable in a man of sixty-eight, who had been trained in the old school. Its essential merit was that it produced a close _melee_, in which the better average gunnery and seamanship of the British fleet would tell. Lord Howe's orders were not fully obeyed by all his captains, but a signal victory was won,--six of the French line of battle ships were taken, and one, the "Vengeur," sunk. The convoy escaped capture, having passed over the spot on which the action of the 20th May was fought, on the following day, and it anchored at Brest on the 3rd of June. Its safe arrival went far to console the French for their defeat. The failure to stop it was forgotten in England in the pleasure given by the victory.

See James's _Naval History_, vol. i. (1837); and Tronde, _Batailles navales de la France_ (1867). (D. H.)

FIRTH, CHARLES HARDING (1857- ), British historian, was born at Sheffield on the 16th of March 1857, and was educated at Clifton College and at Balliol College, Oxford. At his university he took the Stanhope prize for an essay on the marquess Wellesley in 1877, became lecturer at Pembroke College in 1887, and fellow of All Souls College in 1901. He was Ford's lecturer in English history in 1900, and became regius professor of modern history at Oxford in succession to F. York Powell in 1904. Firth's historical work was almost entirely confined to English history during the time of the Great Civil War and the Commonwealth; and although he is somewhat overshadowed by S.R. Gardiner, a worker in the same field, his books are of great value to students of this period. The chief of them are: _Life of the Duke of Newcastle_ (1886); _Scotland and the Commonwealth_ (1895); _Scotland and the Protectorate_ (1899); _Narrative of General Venables_ (1900); _Oliver Cromwell_ (1900); _Cromwell's Army_ (1902); and the standard edition of _Ludlow's Memoirs_ (1894). He also edited the _Clarke Papers_ (1891-1901), and Mrs Hutchinson's _Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson_ (1885), and wrote an introduction to the _Stuart Tracts_ (1903), besides contributions to the _Dictionary of National Biography_. In 1909 he published _The Last Years of the Protectorate_.

FIRTH, MARK (1819-1880), English steel manufacturer and philanthropist, was born at Sheffield on the 25th of April 1819, the son of a steel smelter. At the age of fourteen Mark, with his brother, left school to join their father in the foundry where he was employed, and ten years later the three together started a six-hole furnace of their own. The venture proved successful, and besides an extensive home business, they soon established a large American connexion. Their huge Norfolk works were erected at Sheffield in 1849, and still greater were afterwards acquired at Whittington in Derbyshire and others at Clay Wheels near Wadsley. The manufacture of steel blocks for ordnance was the principal feature of their business, and they produced also shot and heavy forgings. They also installed a plant for the production of steel cores for heavy guns, and for some time they supplied nearly all the metal used for gun making by the British government and a large proportion of that used by the French. On the death of his father in 1848 Mark Firth became the head of the firm. In 1869 he built and endowed "Mark Firth's Almshouses" at Ranmoor near Sheffield, and in 1875, when mayor, he presented to his native place a freehold park of thirty-six acres. He founded and endowed Firth College, for lectures and classes in connexion with the extension of university education, which was opened in 1879. He died on the 28th of November 1880, and was accorded a public funeral.

FIRUZABAD, a town of Persia, in the province of Fars, 72 m. S. of Shiraz, in 28 deg. 51' N. Pop. about 3000. It is situated in a fertile plain, 15 m. long and 7 m. broad, well watered by the river Khoja which flows through it from north to south. The town is surrounded by a mud wall and ditch. Three or four miles north-west of the town are the ruins of the ancient city and of a large building popularly known as the fire-temple of Ardashir, and beyond them on the face of the rock in the gorge through which the river enters the plain are two Sassanian bas-reliefs.

The river leaves the plain by a narrow gorge at the southern end, and according to Persian history it was there that Alexander the Great, when unable to capture the ancient city, built a dike across the gorge, thus damming up the water of the river and turning the plain into a lake and submerging the city and villages. The lake remained until the beginning of the 3rd century, when Ardashir, the first Sassanian monarch, drained it by destroying the dike. He built a new city, called it Gur, and made it the capital of one of the five great provinces or divisions of Fars. Firuz (or Peroz, q.v.), one of Ardashir's successors, called the district after his name Firuzabad ("the abode of Firuz"), but the name of the city remained Gur until Azud ed Dowleh (Adod addaula) (949-982) changed it to its present name. He did this because he frequently resided at Gur, and the name meaning also "a grave" gave rise to unpleasant allusions, for instance, "People who go to Gur (grave) never return alive; our king goes to Gur (the town) several times a year and is not dead yet."

The district has twenty villages and produces much wheat and rice. It is said that the rice of Firuzabad bears sixty-fold. (A. H.-S.)

FIRUZKUH, a small province of Persia, with a population of about 5000, paying a yearly revenue of about L500. Its chief place is a village of the same name picturesquely situated in a valley of the Elburz, about 90 m. east of Teheran, at an elevation of 6700 ft. and in 35 deg. 46' N. and 52 deg. 48' E. It has post and telegraph offices and a population of 2500. A precipitous cliff on the eastern side of the valley is surmounted by the ruins of an ancient fort popularly ascribed to Alexander the Great.

FISCHART, JOHANN (c. 1545-1591), German satirist and publicist, was born, probably at Strassburg (but according to some accounts at Mainz), in or about the year 1545, and was educated at Worms in the house of Kaspar Scheid, whom in the preface to his _Eulenspiegel_ he mentions as his "cousin and preceptor." He appears to have travelled in Italy, the Netherlands, France and England, and on his return to have taken the degree of _doctor juris_ at Basel. From 1575 to 1581, within which period most of his works were written, he lived with, and was probably associated in the business of, his sister's husband, Bernhard Jobin, a printer at Strassburg, who published many of his books. In 1581 Fischart was attached, as advocate to the Reichskammergericht (imperial court of appeal) at Spires, and in 1583, when he married, was appointed _Amtmann_ (magistrate) at Forbach near Saarbrucken. Here he died in the winter of 1590-1591. Fischart wrote under various feigned names, such as Mentzer, Menzer, Reznem, Huldrich Elloposkleros, Jesuwalt Pickhart, Winhold Alkofribas Wustblutus, Ulrich Mansehr von Treubach, and Im Fischen Gilt's Mischen; and it is partly owing to this fact that there is doubt whether some of the works attributed to him are really his. More than 50 satirical works, however, both in prose and verse, remain authentic, among which are--_Nachtrab oder Nebelkrah_ (1570), a satire against one Jakob Rabe, who had become a convert to the Roman Catholic Church; _Von St Dominici des Predigermonchs und St Francisci Barfussers artlichem Leben_ (1571), a poem with the expressive motto "Sie haben Nasen und riechen's nit" (Ye have noses and smell it not), written to defend the Protestants against certain wicked accusations, one of which was that Luther held communion with the devil; _Eulenspiegel Reimensweis_ (written 1571, published 1572); _Aller Praktik Grossmutter_ (1572), after Rabelais's _Prognostication Pantagrueline_; _Floh Haz, Weiber Traz_ (1573), in which he describes a battle between fleas and women; _Affentheuerliche und ungeheuerliche Geschichtschrift vom Leben, Rhaten und Thaten der ... Helden und Herren Grandgusier Gargantoa und Pantagruel_, also after Rabelais (1575, and again under the modified title, _Naupengeheurliche Geschichtklitterung_, 1577); _Neue kunstliche Figuren biblischer Historien_ (1576); _Anmahnung zur christlichen Kinderzucht_ (1576); _Das gluckhafft Schiff von Zurich_ (1576, republished 1828, with an introduction by the poet Ludwig Uhland), a poem commemorating the adventure of a company of Zurich arquebusiers, who sailed from their native town to Strassburg in one day, and brought, as a proof of this feat, a kettleful of _Hirsebrei_ (millet), which had been cooked in Zurich, still warm into Strassburg, and intended to illustrate the proverb "perseverance overcomes all difficulties"; _Podagrammisch Trostbuchlein_ (1577); _Philosophisch Ehzuchtbuchlein_ (1578); the celebrated _Bienenkorb des heiligen romischen Immenschwarms_, &c., a modification of the Dutch _De roomsche Byen-Korf_, by Philipp Marnix of St Aldegonde, published in 1579 and reprinted in 1847; _Der heilig Brotkorb_ (1580), after Calvin's _Traite des reliques_; _Das vierhornige Jesuiterhutlein_, a rhymed satire against the Jesuits (1580); and a number of smaller poems. To Fischart also have been attributed some "Psalmen und geistliche Lieder" which appeared in a Strassburg hymn-book of 1576.

Fischart had studied not only the ancient literatures, but also those of Italy, France, the Netherlands and England. He was a lawyer, a theologian, a satirist and the most powerful Protestant publicist of the counter-reformation period; in politics he was a republican. Above all, he is a master of language, and was indefatigable with his pen. His satire was levelled mercilessly at all perversities in the public and private life of his time--at astrological superstition, scholastic pedantry, ancestral pride, but especially at the papal dignity and the lives of the priesthood and the Jesuits. He indulged in the wildest witticisms, the most abandoned caricature; but all this he did with a serious purpose. As a poet, he is characterized by the eloquence and picturesqueness of his style and the symbolical language he employed. Thirty years after Fischart's death his writings, once so popular, were almost entirely forgotten. Recalled to the public attention by Johann Jakob Bodmer and Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, it is only recently that his works have come to be a subject of investigation, and his position in German literature to be fully understood.

Freiherr von Meusebach, whose valuable collection of Fischart's works has passed into the possession of the royal library in Berlin, deals in his _Fischartstudien_ (Halle, 1879) with the great satirist. Fischart's poetical works were published by Hermann Kurz in three volumes (Leipzig, 1866-1868); and selections by K. Goedeke (Leipzig, 1800) and by A. Hauffen in Kurschner's _Deutsche Nationalliteratur_ (Stuttgart, 1893); _Die Geschichtklitterung_ and some minor writings appeared in Scheible's _Kloster_, vols. 7 and 10 (Stuttgart, 1847-1848). _Das gluckhafft Schiff_ has been frequently reprinted, critical edition by J. Baechtold (1880). See for further biographical details, Erich Schmidt in the _Allgemeine deutsche Biographie_, vol. 7; A.F.C. Vilmar in Ersch and Gruber's _Encyclopaedie_; W. Wackernagel, _Johann Fischart von Strassburg und Basels Anteil an ihm_ (2nd ed., Basel, 1875); P. Besson, _Etude sur Jean Fischart_ (Paris, 1889); and A. Hauffen, "Fischart-Studien" (in _Euphorion_, 1896-1909).

FISCHER, EMIL (1852- ), German chemist, was born at Euskirchen, in Rhenish Prussia, on the 9th of October 1852, his father being a merchant and manufacturer. After studying chemistry at Bonn, he migrated to Strassburg, where he graduated as Ph.D. in 1874. He then acted as assistant to Adolf von Baeyer at Munich for eight years, after which he was appointed to the chair of chemistry successively at Erlangen (1882) and Wurzburg (1885). In 1892 he succeeded A.W. von Hofmann as professor of chemistry at Berlin. Emil Fischer devoted himself entirely to organic chemistry, and his investigations are characterized by an originality of idea and readiness of resource which make him the master of this branch of experimental chemistry. In his hands no substance seemed too complex to admit of analysis or of synthesis; and the more intricate and involved the subjects of his investigations the more strongly shown is the conspicuous skill in pulling, as it were, atom from atom, until the molecule stood revealed, and, this accomplished, the same skill combined atom with atom until the molecule was regenerated. His _forte_ was to enter fields where others had done little except break the ground; and his researches in many cases completely elucidated the problem in hand, and where the solution was not entire, his methods and results almost always contained the key to the situation.

In 1875, the year following his engagement with von Baeyer, he published his discovery of the organic derivatives of a new compound of hydrogen and nitrogen, which he named hydrazine (q.v.). He investigated both the aromatic and aliphatic derivatives, establishing their relation to the diazo compounds, and he perceived the readiness with which they entered into combination with other substances, giving origin to a wealth of hitherto unknown compounds. Of such condensation products undoubtedly the most important are the hydrazones, which result from the interaction with aldehydes and ketones. His observations, published in 1886, that such hydrazones, by treatment with hydrochloric acid or zinc chloride, yielded derivatives of indol, the pyrrol of the benzene series and the parent substance of indigo, were a valuable confirmation of the views advanced by his master, von Baeyer, on the subject of indigo and the many substances related to it. Of greater moment was his discovery that phenyl hydrazine reacted with the sugars to form substances which he named osazones, and which, being highly crystalline and readily formed, served to identify such carbohydrates more definitely than had been previously possible. He next turned to the rosaniline dyestuffs (the magenta of Sir W.H. Perkin), and in collaboration with his cousin Otto Fischer (b. 1852), then at Munich and afterwards professor at Erlangen, who has since identified himself mainly with the compounds of this and related groups, he published papers in 1878 and 1879 which indubitably established that these dyestuffs were derivatives of triphenyl methane. Fischer's next research was concerned with compounds related to uric acid. Here the ground had been broken more especially by von Baeyer, but practically all our knowledge of the so-called purin group (the word _purin_ appears to have been suggested by the phrase _purum uricum_) is due to Fischer. In 1881-1882 he published papers which established the formulae of uric acid, xanthine, caffeine, theobromine and some other compounds of this group. But his greatest work in this field was instituted in 1894, when he commenced his great series of papers, wherein the compounds above mentioned were all referred to a nitrogenous base, purin (q.v.). The base itself was obtained, but only after much difficulty; and an immense series of derivatives were prepared, some of which were patented in view of possible therapeutical applications.[1] These researches were published in a collected form in 1907 with the title _Untersuchungen in der Puringruppe_ (1882-1906). The first stage of his purin work successfully accomplished, he next attacked the sugar group. Here the pioneer work was again of little moment, and Fischer may be regarded as the prime investigator in this field. His researches may be taken as commencing in 1883; and the results are unparalleled in importance in the history of organic chemistry. The chemical complexity of these carbohydrates, and the difficulty with which they could be got into a manageable form--they generally appeared as syrups--occasioned much experimental difficulty; but these troubles were little in comparison with the complications due to stereochemical relations. However, Fischer synthesized fructose, glucose and a great number of other sugars, and having showed how to deduce, for instance, the formulae of the 16 stereoisomeric glucoses, he prepared several stereoisomerides, thereby completing a most brilliant experimental research, and simultaneously confirming the van't Hoff theory of the asymmetric carbon atom (see STEREO-ISOMERISM). The study of the sugars brought in its train the necessity for examining the nature, properties and reactions of substances which bring about the decomposition known as fermentation (q.v.). Fischer attacked the problem presented by ferments and enzymes, and although we as yet know little of this complex subject, to Fischer is due at least one very important discovery, viz. that there exists some relation between the chemical constitution of a sugar and the ferment and enzyme which breaks it down. The magnitude of his researches in this field may be gauged by his collected papers, _Untersuchungen uber Kohlenhydrate und Fermente_ (1884-1908), pp. viii. + 912 (Berlin, 1909).