CAPITAL. into floating, or movable, and fixed; the former consisting of things that may be moved, and are susceptible of manual delivery; the latter, of those confined to one place, as a house or piece of land. We use the terms in a different sense when applied to any particular establishment, by the floating capital of which is meant that which remains after payment is made for all their apparatus and the implements of their business, and which is usually invested in the materials to be manufactured or transported, or to pass through the process, whatever it is, which constitutes the business conducted. Thus one carrying on a flouring-mill wants a floating or disposable capital, over and above the cost of his works, to be invested in wheat to be floured, and flour not yet disposed of. This instance illustrates what is meant by the floating or disposable capital of a whole community being that movable, exchangeable stock of things on hand, over and above the fixtures and apparatus of production, including lands, buildings, ships, working animals, all the implements of the arts, with necessary food, clothing, and a stock of seed sufficient for the time requisite for reproduction. What remains over these is the disposable capital, and, in a flourishing community, the disposable floating capital is constantly invested in new fixed capital, implements and apparatus of production. A declining community, on the contrary, consumes a part of its implements and apparatus of industry, or, what is, in effect, the same thing, it does not repair and replace the damage of use and decay. The idea is held out in many economical treatises, that a community cannot have a surplus capital; that is, it cannot have more capital than it can make use of in its consumption and reproduction. As no grounds whatever are given for this doctrine, it seems to be hardly entitled to a consideration; for the position is certainly, at the first view, very improbable, since we know very well that men may accumulate; and why they may not, in any possible case, accumulate a surplus, does not appear by any plausible reason; and whether such surplus accunulation may be useful or not, will depend entirely upon the kind of articles of which such accumulation consists. If it consist in articles the value of which depends on the prices in foreign_markets, the excess may be of no value at all; for it may so depress the foreign prices as to countervail all the indirect advantage arising from the cheaper sup 499 means ply, for a time, of the domestic demand. Fictitious capital generally nothing more nor less than excessive credits, which throw the management and disposition of a great deal of property into the hands of persons who are not able to answer for the risks of loss from its bad management, or other causes. A whole community, in the aggregate, can have fictitious capital only in case of its members having an excessive credit in a foreign country. But the members may, among themselves, have a fictitious capital, by too great facility of credits in their dealings with each other, and the fiction, in this case, is in their false promises of payment. CAPITAL, in geography; a city in which reside the highest authorities of a district, province, country, &c. Capitals, in the modern meaning of the word, can hardly be said to have existed in ancient times; at least, they were then only the seat of the sovereign, but not the centre of all the national activity, Rome only, perhaps, excepted; but this city was, for a very long time, the state itself, and, at a later period, the tyrant of the whole empire, rather than the head of a well-organized body. In Asia, there existed, indeed, in ancient times, capitals of very large empires; but they are not to be compared to the capitals of large modern empires, since the channels of communication and intercourse had not then reached that degree of perfection which enables them, in our days, to bring into close connexion all parts of a country. Each province was, therefore, left much more to itself. It would be difficult to determine whether the good or evil consequences of large capitals, in modern times, are greater, and such an examination would far exceed our limits; otherwise, it would be very easy to point out, in every department of civilization, in science, social intercourse, politics, arts, &c., both salutary and pernicious effects, resulting from the influence of capitals. It seeins to us a matter of little doubt, that it must be regarded as disadvantageous to any country, if the capital ceases to be the concentration of the skill, genius and strength of a nation, for the benefit of the whole, and by a disproportionate superiority destroys the importance of the rest of the country, as we find to be the case with Paris, which, as has been often observed, contains France. In Germany, the state of things is quite the reverse. There is no city which may boast of being the point of national concentration. The consequences have been very advantageous to science, and somewhat disadvantageous to literature.' In politics, this want of a central point has had melancholy consequences for Germany. London never exercised that degree of influence over England which Paris has over France; one reason of which may be, that the two most extensive institutions for the diffusion of knowledge are not seated in the metropolis. The system of concentration has, there is little doubt, been carried to an extreme in Europe; the best of every thing having been collected in the capitals, and the provinces having been almost stripped of pictures, libraries, &c. In many countries, this fault is acknowledged, and a return to a more equitable system is perceptible. The great increase of wealth and consequence, which the capitals of large empires in Europe have acquired, in modern times, by the introduction of the bureau system (q. v.), which has brought together, in one place, the different departments of administration, has had much influence on military operations, having made the capture of the capital now far more important than formerly. -In the U. States, the word capital is not used officially, but, instead of it, the phrase seat of government, which is, in most cases, not the largest place of the state. It is not here the place to discuss, whether it would be more beneficial to the whole country if the seat of the general government were in one of the largest cities of the U. States. As it is now, to use the words of a traveller, "Washington must by no means be considered as the capital of the nation, but only as the capital of governmental business. It is a camp of business." CAPITAL, in architecture. (See Architecture.) CAPITAL OFFENCE. (See Crime.) CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. (See Death, punishment of.) CAPITANATA; a province of Naples, bounded N. and E. by the Adriatic, S. by the country of Bari and Basilicata, and W. by the Molise. This was the ancient Apulia Daunica. The whole country is a vast plain, and the soil generally sandy, with few trees, and scarcely any springs or rivers of fresh water; yet the land produces a great deal of corn, and feeds a great number of cattle. Salt is made along the coast. The Gargano is the only mountain: on the sides are plantations of oranges. The coasts are defended by 22 towers. The principal towns are Lucera, Foggia, St. Severo and Volturara. Population, 254,809. Square miles, 3289 Manfredonia is the principal seaport. Capitanata forms what is generally called the spur of Italy. CAPITANI, or CAPATANS; the hereditary chieftains who have taken possession of the district of Maina, the mountainous country of the ancient Messenia. They exercised, under the Turkish government, an arbitrary jurisdiction, without any kind of responsibility. With the bey, whom they chose from among themselves, they formed a kind of great council. The bey took care that the haratsch, or poll-tax, was paid to the Turks, and was the agent in all dealings with the pacha. Generally, the capitani were. robber chieftains, who lived retired in rocky fastnesses, and defied the Turks and their neighbors. They united only if resistance against the Turks became necessary. At other times, they lived at war amongst themselves. From this wild oligarchy most of the generals of the modern Greeks have sprung up; their Colocotroni, Odysseus, Niketas (called Turkophagus) and others. The palikaris, or the Greek warriors, also called klephtes (i. e., robbers), followed the orders of the capitani as long as they had confidence in them, and met with good success. The French colonel Voutier has given us in-` teresting information concerning them. CAPITE CENSI were the Roman citizens, of the lowest class, who possessed no property. They had this name because they were counted by their heads, not by their property, in the divisions of the centuries. CAPITOL, now Campidoglio; the citadel of ancient Rome, standing on the Capitoline hill, the smallest of the seven hills of Rome, anciently called the Saturnine and the Tarpeian rock. It was begun A. C. 614, by Tarquinius Priscus, but not completed till after the expulsion of the kings. At the time of the civil commotions under Sylla, it was burnt down, and rebuilt by the senate. It again suffered the same fate twice, and was restored by Vespasian and Domitian. The latter caused it to be built with great splendor, and instituted there the Capitoline games. Dionysius says the temple, with the exterior pillars, was 200 feet long and 185 broad. The whole building consisted of three temples, which were dedicated to Jupiter, Juno and Miverva, and separated from one another by walls. In the wide portico, triumphal banquets were given to the people. The statue of Jupiter, in the capitol, represented him sitting CAPITOL-CAPITULATION. 501 on a throne of ivory and gold, and con- heads, sometimes to explain, sometimes sisted, in the earliest times, of clay, paint- to amend, and sometimes to reconcile or ed red. Under Trajan, it was formed of remove the difference between them. gold. The roof of the temple was made They were generally promulgated in of bronze: it was gilded by Q. Catulus. public assemblies, composed of the soveThe doors were of the same metal. reign and the chief men of the nation, both Splendor and expense were lavished upon ecclesiastical and secular. They reguthe whole edifice. The gilding alone lated equally the spiritual and temporal cost 12,000 talents (about 9,000,000 dol- administration of the kingdom; and the lars), for which reason the Romans called execution of them was intrusted to the it the golden capitol. On the pediment bishops, the courts and the missi regii, stood a chariot, drawn by four horses, officers so called because they were sent, at first of clay, and afterwards of gilded by the French kings of the first and secbrass. The temple itself contained an ond race, to dispense law and justice in immense quantity of the most magnifi- the provinces. Many copies of these cent presents. The most important state capitularies were made, one of which papers, and particularly the Sibylline was generally preserved in the royal arbooks, were preserved in it. The present chives. The authority of the capitularies capitol (Campidoglio), standing near, and was very extensive. It prevailed in every partly on, the site of the old one, is a kingdom under the dominion of the modern edifice, after the design of Mi- Franks, and was submitted to in many chael Angelo. The principal entrance to parts of Italy and Germany. The earliest it commands a most splendid prospect, collection of the capitularies is that of but the buildings, as connoisseurs tell us, Angesise, abbot of Fontenelles. It was are among Michael Angelo's inferior adopted by Louis the Debonnaire and I works. The modern capitol consists of Charles the Bald, and was publicly apthree buildings (in the principal one re- proved of in many councils of France sides the senator of Rome), which do not, and Germany. But, as Angesise had however, cover the whole Capitoline omitted many capitularies in his collecmount. On the ruins of the former tem- tion, Benedict, the Levite or deacon of ple of Jupiter Capitolinus, of which some the church of Mentz, added three books pillars are still to be found, a Franciscan to them. Each of the collections was church is now erected. The present considered to be authentic, and of course capitol is one of the most interesting spots was appealed to as law. Subsequent in Rome. From the summit of the mid- additions have been made to them. dle building, the spectator has a splendid best edition of them is that of Baluze, in view of one of the most remarkable re- 1697. The capitularies remained in force gions in the world-the Campagna up to in Italy longer than in Germany, and in the mountains. The museums contain France longer than in Italy. The incursome of the finest collections of statues sions of the Normans, the intestine conand paintings. The stairs leading up to fusion and weakness of the government the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius under the successors of Charlemagne, are beautiful. Every thing contributes and, above all, the publication of the to render the capitol venerable and interest- epitome of canon law, termed the Deing. The name of capitol is also given to cretum of Gratian, in the year 1150, which the edifice in Washington, where congress totally superseded them in all religious assembles. Some of the states of North concerns, put an end to their authority in America also call their state-houses capitols. France. (Butler's Hora Juridica SubseciCAPITULARY. The word capitulary is væ, p. 128-131.) generic, and denotes every kind of literary composition divided into chapters. Laws of this description were promulgated by Childebert, Clothaire, Carloman and Pepin, kings of France; but no sovereign seems to have put forth so many of them as the emperor Charlemagne, who appears to have wished to effect, in a certain degree, a uniformity of law throughout his extensive dominions. With this view, it is supposed, he added to the existing codes of feudal laws many other laws, divided into capitularies, or small chapters or The CAPITULATION formerly signified a writing drawn up in heads; now commonly used, in military language, to signify the act of surrendering to an enemy upon stipulated terms, in opposition to surrender at discretion. In the 15th century, capitulations, as they were called, were presented by the ecclesiastical establishments in Germany to their newly chosen abbots and bishops, who were obliged to swear to observe them as laws and conditions for their future rule. The ecclesiastical electors obtained, after the fall of the Hohenstaufen family, certain advantageous promises from the new emperors, which were called capitulations. When Charles V was proposed as emperor, and it was apprehended, 'on account of his foreign education, that he would disregard the German constitution, he was obliged to make oath, that he would not reside without the German empire, nor appoint foreigners to office in the empire, &c. This was called his election capitulation. Such a Wahlcapitulation was afterwards presented to every new emperor, as a fundamental law of the empire, and shook the constitution of the German government to its very foundations, since the electors, at the choice of every new emperor, made some new infringement on the imperial privileges. The Wahlcapitulationen were acknowledged bargains, certainly unique in history. CAPNIST, OF KAPNIST, Wassil Wassiljewitsch, Russian counsellor of state, member of the academy of St. Petersburg and other learned societies, one of the first lyric poets of Russia, born in 1756, was the rival of his friend and relation, the celebrated poet Derschavin. (q. v.) He translated Horace with applause. The collection of his works appeared at Petersburg, in 1806 (Lyric Poems, by Wassil Capnist). He wrote a comedy, called Jabeda, in 1799, and a tragedy, called Antigone, in 1815. His critique on Homer's Odyssey, published in Russian and French, is more acute than profound. His odes have not the easy and bold character by which those of Derschavin are distinguished, but they have a charm of another kind. Purity of style, richness of thought, and a sound philosophy, connected with deep and genuine feeling, are Capnist's characteristic traits. Some years ago, he retired to Obuchowka, his country-seat, in Little Russia, where he lived devoted to the muses till his death, which took place Oct. 28, 1823, in his 67th year. CAPO D'ISTRIA, John, count of, formerly Russian secretary of state, now president of Greece, was born at Corfu, 1780, where his father was a physician, and studied medicine at Venice. When the Russian troops occupied the Ionian islands, in 1799, Anthony Maria de Capo d'Istria, his father, was at the head of the government. But, after the islands were again made dependent on France, in 1807, in consequence of the peace of Tilsit, he entered into the Russian service. He afterwards returned to Corfu, became a senator there, and died, April 17, 1821, aged 80 years. The son still continued in Russia, where he was first employed in the office of count Rumanzoff, and afterwards went as Russian ambassador to Vienna. In 1812, he conducted the diplomatic business of the army of the Danube, of which admiral Tschitschagoff was commander-in-chief. When this army was united with the great Russian army, after the retreat of the French, Capo d'Istria managed the diplomatic correspondence at head-quarters, under the emperor's direction, and soon gained the confidence of his monarch to such a degree, that he was afterwards engaged in the most important public business, and appointed secretary of state for the department of foreign affairs. He was made grand-cross of the Wladimir order, knight of St. Ann, grand-cross of the royal Austrian Leopold order, and of the Prussian order of the red eagle. In 1813. he was Russian ambassador to Switzerland, negotiated with the Austrian ambassadors the new relations of this republic, and, in Sept., 1814, was present at the congress of Vienna as Russian plenipotentiary, from which the downfall of Napoleon, in 1815, recalled him to the head-quarters of the allies at Paris. As imperial Russian plenipotentiary, he subscribed the treaty of Paris, Nov. 20, 1815, and returned with his monarch to Petersburg, where he took a very active part in the business of the council of state. His endeavors for the restoration of the republic of the Ionian islands, for the support of the established religion in Russia against the intrigues of the Jesuits, and for the deliverance of the Greeks from the Turkish yoke, are well known. But, as Russia disapproved of the attempts of the Greeks, and Stroganoff (q. v.) returned from his mission to Constantinople, in. 1822 count Capo d'Istria left the public service, and retired, as a private man, to Germany and Switzerland, living chiefly at Geneva, till the year 1827, when he was elected president of the Greek republic. He stands now at the head of this government; but his means have been as yet so feeble, and the whole state of Greece such, that we are not able to judge of his talents for administration. So much, however, is certain, that he immediately brought Greece into closer connexion with the other governments of Europe, and has thus exerted a salutary influence. CAPO D'ISTRIA (the ancient Egida); a seaport of Austria, on the gulf of Trieste, 8 miles south of Trieste; lon. 13° 43′ E.; lat. 45° 31′ N.; population 5,119; CAPO D'ISTRIA-CAPSTAN. is a bishop's see, and the capital of a district, containing 65,150 inhabitants. The town is two miles in circumference, has, besides the cathedral, 30 other churches, six convents, hospitals, &c. CAPOC; a sort of cotton, so short and fine, that it cannot be spun. It is used, in the East Indies, to line palanquins, to make beds, mattresses, &c. CAPONIER, OF CAPONNIERE, in fortresses; a place which is covered against the fire of the enemy, on the sides, sometimes also above, and serves for the connexion of two works, or for maintaining an important point. In particular1. a passage secured by two parapets, in the form of glacis, which leads through the dry ditch, from one work to another; for instance, from the chief wall to the ravelin. If danger is to be apprehended only from one side, and consequently only one parapet is made, it is called a demi-caponniere: if it is covered above with hurdles or with wood, it is called a coffer: but this word is often used indifferently for caponniere.-2. Small blockhouses in the covered way, for its defence. Coehorn laid out similar, but less useful works below the glacis, and Scharnhorst proposes them, under the name of fieldcaponnieres, for the saliant angles of fieldfortifications. Cappadocia, in antiquity; one of the most important provinces of Asia, once a famous kingdom; bounded W. by Lycaonia, S. by Cilicia and Syria, E. by Armenia, and N. by the Pontus Euxinus. In the period of the Persian government, Cappadocia comprehended all the country between the Halys and Euphrates. By the former river, it was separated from Phrygia and Paphlagonia; by the latter, from Armenia: therefore the region afterwards called Pontus was comprehended in this territory. The Persians divided it, according to Strabo, into two satrapies, which bore the name of Cappadocia Magna (afterwards Cappadocia Proper) and Cappadocia Minor (afterwards Pontus). This division, however, was not always strictly observed. The Persian satraps governed, at a later time, under the title of kings, and sometimes made themselves independent. At the time of the famous retreat of the 10,000 Greeks, both the Cappadocias seem to have been under the rule of Mithridates, who had participated in the conspiracy of Cyrus the Younger, but retained his government, and became, after the defeat of Cyrus, again dependent upon the kings of Persia. Cappadocia Magna was a poorly-cultivated coun 503 try, little favored by nature, the plains of which were only fit for breeding sheep. The climate was rough, and, wood being scarce, the habitations of the people were low and mean. Even the capital, Mazaca, was more like a camp than a city. The Cappadocians, also called Leukosyri (the White Syrians), because they had a language resembling the Syrian, were considered stupid and ill-tempered. CAPREA, or CAPREE. (See Capri.) CAPRI; an island in the beautiful gulf of Naples, which contributes not a little to the charms of this favorite scene of nature. Capri, five miles long and two broad, lies at the entrance of the gulf, and consists of two mountains of limestone, remarkable for their picturesque shape, and a well-cultivated valley. The inhabitants, amounting to 3000, are occupied in the production of oil and wine, in fishing and in catching quails, which come in immense numbers from Africa to the shores of Italy. Every spot on the island, which can be made productive,, is cultivated. In fact, agriculture all around Naples is in the highest state of perfection. The town of Capri (lon. 14° 8′ E.; lat. 40° 11' N.) is the seat of a bishop, to whom all the quails belong. A high rock separates Capri from Anacapri, 1600 feet high, with 3500 inhabitants, to which a stairway in the rock, of 522 steps, leads from the lower part of the island. With the Romans, Capri was called Caprea. Augustus obtained it by exchange from the Neapolitans, and made it a place of agreeable retreat, but never made use of it. Tiberius spent here the last seven years of his life in degrading voluptuousness and infamous cruelty. The ruins of his palace are still extant, and other ruins are scattered over the island. CAPRICCIO. Caprice is the name applied to a sort of musical composition, ja which the composer follows the bent of his humor. The capriccio may be used with propriety in pieces for exercise, in which the strangest and most difficult figures may be introduced, if they are not at variance with the nature of the instrument or of the voice. CAPRIFICATION. (See Figs.) CAPSICIN. Cayenne pepper contains a peculiar substance, discovered by Forchhammer, and called capsicin by doctor C. Conwell, which, according to the latter, when perfectly pure, is tasteless, inodorous, and crystallizes in acicular fragments. It is neither acid nor alkaline. CAPSTAN, in shipping (in French, cabeştan; Dutch, kapstani); a strong, massy |