mission or by entry without opposition, within a dwelling house, the sheriff may break open inner doors, or chests or boxes, in search of goods; and it is said that he may do this without the ceremony of asking that they be opened for him.

FIESCHI, GIOVANNI LUIGI DE', count of Lavagna, a conspirator of Genoa, born there about 1523, drowned Jan. 2, 1547. Wealthy, accomplished, and of high rank, he evinced from his earliest youth an insatiable lust of power, and succeeded in making himself popular with the mob of Genoa. Andrea Doria was at that time the ruler of Genoa, and although Fieschi was not so much opposed to Andrea as personally exasperated against his nephew Giannettino (who was allowed a precedence of rank which was due to himself), he instigated, in concert with Calcagno, Verrina, Sacco, and other discontented politicians, a conspiracy with the view of overthrowing the existing government. The rebellion came to an explosion during the night of Jan. 2, 1547. Giannettino Doria was killed, but his uncle the doge escaped. Fieschi himself was drowned while on his way to the galleys in the port of Genoa, and his death put an end to the outbreak. The life of his widow was spared, but two of his brothers, Geronimo and Ottoboni, were put to death, and the other leaders of the revolt had their property confiscated and were banished by the doge, although an amnesty had been originally granted to them by the senate. FIESŎLE, FRA GIOVANNI ANGELICO DA, one of the most celebrated of the early Italian painters, born in Fiesole in 1387, died in Rome in 1455. No character in the history of art is more beautiful to contemplate than that of this painter monk. At the age of 20, for the sake of a tranquil life, and particularly for his spiritual benefit, he entered the Dominican monastery of St. Mark at Florence (previous to which time he had borne the name of Guido Petri di Mugello), where he passed the remainder of his days in the devout discharge of his religious duties and the pursuit of his art. A more humble or holy spirit never animated an artist, and from the seraphic beauty of his angels and glorified saints he was called by his countrymen il beato (the blessed), and the angelic. He painted only sacred subjects, would never accept money for his pictures, and never commenced them without prayer. The practice of his art was thus with him an act of religion, and to the species of devotional ecstasy with which it was pursued must be ascribed the elevated purity which his works display, and in which they are not surpassed by the most inspired creations of Raphael. Whenever the subject is not in harmony with his gentle spirit he is less successful, and his delineations of human passion or vigorous action are comparatively feeble. He visited Rome at the command of Nicholas V. to decorate the papal chapel. The pope offered to make him archbishop of Florence, a dignity which his great humility would not permit him to accept, but

which he succeeded in procuring for a deserv ing brother monk. He painted frescos in his own monastery and in the church of Santa Maria Novella, at Florence, and numerous easel pictures, of which the Louvre possesses a noble specimen, the "Coronation of the Virgin." In many of the details of his art he was excelled by his contemporaries; but, in the language of Mrs. Jameson," the expression of ecstatic faith and hope, or serene contemplation, has never been placed before us as in his pictures."

FIEVÉE, JOSEPH, a French politician and author, born in Paris, April 8, 1767, died there, May 7, 1839. At first employed in a printing office, he devoted himself also to literature and politics, embraced the principles of the revolution in 1789, and assisted Condorcet and Millin in editing the Chronique de Paris. Disgusted with the excesses of the terrorists, he entered in 1795 upon a perilous course of opposition, and shone as an orator in the public assemblies of Paris during the period of the reaction. Proscribed by the revolutionists, he was imprisoned in 1799, and restored to liberty on the 18th Brumaire. In 1802 he was sent by Napoleon upon a delicate mission to England, and on his return published a volume of letters concerning that country which were severely judged in the "Edinburgh Review." He took part in editing several royalist journals, and especially contributed by his skill in polemics to the power of the Journal des débats. He wrote several romances, remarkable for grace and simplicity, published a pamphlet in 1795 Sur la nécessité d'une religion, which first gave him a leading position in the religious and monarchical party, and left a great number of political treatises.

FIFE, a small instrument of the flute species, consisting of a narrow tube, from a foot to 16 inches in length, perforated on one side with holes for the regulation of the tones, and blown through an opening at the side. It has but one key, and emits a shrill, piercing sound, very effective in military bands, in which it is chiefly employed.

FIFE, or FIFESHIRE, a peninsular county of Scotland, bounded N., E., and S. by the frith of Tay, the German ocean, and the frith of Forth, and W. by the counties of Clackmannan, Perth, and Kinross; greatest length, 43 m.; greatest breadth, 17 m.; area, 459 sq. m.; pop. in 1851, 153,546. The surface of the county is much diversified. The chief mountains are the Lomond hills, Largo Law, and Norman Law. The soil is of various quality, but so productive in general that fully two-thirds of the whole is under cultivation. During the last half century agriculture has made extraordinary advances in Fifeshire, especially in the department of drainage. In the mountainous districts and on inferior soils oats are the principal crop, but elsewhere wheat, barley, beans, potatoes, and turnips are extensively grown. The Fife breed of cattle have long been celebrated, and are in high repute both at home and in the English markets. Coal, iron, limestone, and freestone are abun

dant. The principal manufacture is linen, which is carried on very extensively at Dunfermline and Kirkcaldy. There are salmon fisheries in several of the rivers, and herring, cod. turbot, and haddock fisheries on the coasts.

FIFTEENTH, in music, an interva. equivalent to 2 octaves. The term is also applied to that stop of an organ whose tones are 2 octaves higher than those of the diapasons. FIFTH, in music, an interval embracing 5 degrees of the scale, as C-G, D-A, &c.

FIG TREE (ficus carica, Linn.), a native of Asia and Barbary, much cultivated in the warmer portions of the globe. The leaves of the fig tree are rough, lobed, and deciduous. The flowers are so curiously concealed from observation, that many persons think it has none, though they are very numerous, being borne inside of a succulent, hollow receptacle, which first appears on the sides of the young shoots like a small round bud. This receptacle is called a sycorus, and on being cut open, the minute, chaffy, apetalous florets, each furnished with 3 stamens and 2 styles, will be seen lining its walls. If these florets have become duly impregnated, the sycorus, after having remained entirely at rest for some time at its half growth, begins to swell again, augments considerably in size, becomes very pulpy and sweet when it ripens, assumes some kind of color, and is the fig. The pulpy, sweet mass will be found to be penetrated with small round seeds, each of which is the result of a minute chaffy floret. The fig tree attains the height of 20 feet, with a branching, spreading head, like an apple tree, in those countries where it is indigenous; but in northern countries it is seldom seen except as a shrub, unless when trained under glass. In the middle states, where cultivated in the open air, it is purposely kept low and shrub-like, so that it may be bent to the ground and covered with earth in winter, to protect it from frosts. In England the tree is usually planted against a low wall, in order that it may receive some of the heat reflected from the surface of the soil. Such walls are sometimes furnished with flues to conduct artificial heat to the ripening crop of figs in autumn. In some parts of France it is grown as a dwarf standard tree, the chief end being to keep the branches short, low, and spreading, in order that they may benefit by the sun's rays reflecting heat from the earth. The soil is manured occasionally and stirred once a year, and some slight protection is given to the lower branches and base of the trunk in the winter. In the south of England it has been treated in the same way with success. Two or more crops of fruit are produced from the fig tree by judicious pruning and training, each crop being produced on distinct sets of shoots. The second crop, for instance, grows from the eyes or buds of the shoots made in early summer, and if the season be sufficiently long and warm, the fruit will ripen; but this seldom happens in the open air. In hot climates it is the second crop that is the most prolific and valuable, being what

are called summer figs, ana used for exportation. By continued high temperature Mr. Knight has produced in England 8 crops in 12 months, showing at least the remarkable power of the tree. The fig tree is easily propagated from cuttings, or by ringing some branch and surrounding the cut place by a small pot of earth, into which the roots will penetrate and increase to such extent that the branch may be separated before the fruit upon it has ripened. Branches also girdled by removing a narrow ring of the bark below the fruit-bearing parts, will produce earlier ripening figs, the process being found as safe and efficacious as with the pear tree or the grape vine. It is cultivated to a considerable extent around Boston, Mass., in conservatories and forcing houses such as are used in the cultivation of foreign grapes. Trained upon the back wall of such structures, by using espaliers or by nailing in the branches, a single tree may be made to produce large crops. The branches are spread out horizontally, and so arranged that they can be loosened from the walls, pruned, washed, and cleaned when necessary. Judicious management is important to prevent too great growth of young or useless shoots. By this mode two crops are secured. There are many choice varieties of the fig, each having some peculiar merit. The London horticultural society's catalogue for 1842 gives 42 varieties, and in this number are comprised fruits of white, green, yellow, and brown colors. As an abundant bearer, and hardier than any other, the brown Turkey fig seems to be preferred. Downing considers it the best for the open air, and says that it has a delicious flavor. The brown Ischia, white Marseilles, Brunswick, and white Ischia are highly commended. Mr. J. F. Allen, a successful cultivator, esteems very highly the black fig of St. Michael's. The fresh ripened fig is delicious and luscious. Few, however, fancy it on first acquaintance, but experience soon decides in its favor over the dried and pressed fruit of commerce.-Nearly all the figs consumed in the United States and Great Britain are grown in Turkey. The imports into Great Britain in 1856 were 43,911 cwt., of the computed real value of £83,320; and the imports into the United States during the year ending June 30, 1858, were 4,989,603 lbs., valued at $308,472, of which 159,492 lbs., valued at $16,867, were reëxported to other parts of the western hemisphere.

FILANGIERI, GAETANO, an Italian publicist, born in Naples, Aug. 18, 1752, died July 21,1788. From 1777 he held various offices at court, and in 1787 he was called to the supreme council of finance. His principal work is the Scienza della legislazione, the first 4 books of which were published between 1780 and 1784, and the 5th was left unfinished at his death, caused prematurely by his excessive labors.-CARLO, a son of the preceding, born in Naples in 1783, was indebted for his military education at Paris to the kindness of Napoleon I., fought in the ranks of the French at the battle of Auster

mostly limited to certain established classes of forms, of which 3 are recognized, distinguished by the cross sections of the bar, viz.: those derived from the square, from the circle, and from the equilateral triangle. The common names of square, round, half-round, three-square, &c., are given from the form of the section of the bar. In its length also various modifications are given to the shape of the bar, by which many forms of files are distinguished. Taper files are drawn down and terminate in a sharp point; parallel files are made of a uniform size throughout their length; and blunt files are intermediate between these. Files of the different classes of cross section are subject to these modifications. Then they are variously designated according to the number of lines cut to the inch, an established number being adopted by the English file makers for each length of file; the coarsest are called rough, the next bastard, the third smooth, and the last dead smooth or superfine. Other varieties are produced by leaving an edge or side or other portion smooth, or safe, as it is technically called, thus adapting the files for working in angles and recesses without cutting away portions it is desirable. to preserve. The smooth part serves sometimes as a guide by which the file is directed. For the sake of economy an inferior blistered steel is commonly used for the heavier files, but for the finer ones the best cast steel is selected, rolled in rods approaching the dimensions of the files. The large flat files are drawn down from the bars upon the face of the anvil, one man striking with a heavy hammer and the other with a small hand hammer. The three-square, half-round, and many other forms are shaped from square rods, the end of one, heated to blood-red, being laid along in a die which is set in the anvil, and then hammered in until it fills it and receives its form, the hammers shaping the top side. The die of the half-round files presents a section of the segment of a circle; that of a triangular file is formed by two sides of a triangle meeting at the bottom. The square rod is placed with one edge down in this channel, and is then hammered into place and shape. Before the process is completed the tang also is shaped out of the blank. The next operation is to anneal the blanks, so as to soften the steel for receiving the impressions of the chisel used to cut the lines. This is commonly done in a brick annealing oven; sometimes by heating the blanks buried in sand in an iron box, the heat not being allowed to exceed a blood red. They are then smoothed upon the face, the small blanks by filing, the large ones by grinding, and sometimes those with parallel faces by planing. The blanks are then ready for the file cutter, who, seated astride of a low bench, has in front of him an anvil of size proportionate to the files he cuts. Taking one of these, he lays it, if flat, directly on the smooth face of the anvil, the end pointing toward him. The file is kept in place by two leather straps, one passing over each end, which are held down by the feet. Files other

than flat, and all that have been cut on one side, are held upon a block of soft alloy of lead and tin, adapted by grooves or otherwise to hold the blanks with the upper side properly presented for receiving the cuts. The chisels used for this purpose are very short for the sake of stiffness and for being conveniently held in the fingers of the left hand, and they have an edge longer than the width of the face to be cut, sharpened to an angle of about 20°. One being placed upon the blank at the further end of the file, it is held inclined toward the person at an angle of 12° or 14° from the perpendicular, and is then smartly struck with the hammer held in the right hand. A groove is thus cut across the blank with any desired obliquity, and a ridge of steel turned up; the chisel is then brought forward and slid from the operator until it reaches the ridge just made, which determines the position of the next cut, which is instantly given by another blow. Thus the blows and the cuts are made at the rate of 60 to 80 in a minute, their parallelism and uniformity being secured by the guiding ridges and by uniformity in the force of the blows. The heavier the blows, the deeper the cuts and the higher the ridges are thrown up, thus involving coarser work. The hammers vary greatly in weight. The coarse files require them to be of 7 or 8 pounds, and the finest ones are made with hammers of one to two ounces only. Great practice is required always to give the blows of equal force for in suring uniform work. When the face of the blank is gone over once the process is repeated for double-cut files, the chisel being held so as to cause the two sets of lines to cross each other obliquely. The blows are lighter, so that the second set is finer than the first. As the small ends of taper files will not bear the blows struck upon the middle of them, the work is commonly finer at their extremities. Files with curved surfaces are cut with the same sort of chisels as those with plane surfaces, a row of short cuts being first made the length of the file, then another row whose ends connect with those of the first row, then a third, and so on till the cuts meet around the cylindrical file or cover the curved surface of the section of the cylinder or cone. The fine round files sometimes require as many as 20 rows of cuts to encircle them, and an inch of the file may contain 100 cuts. The burrs upon rasps are punched up by a similar hand process. The workmen acquire great skill in raising them in true lines, and in bringing each one opposite a vacant space in the adjacent lines. The directions of the lines vary according to the purposes for which the rasps are required.-After the files are cut they are to be hardened—a process which requires experience and dexterity. The teeth must be protected from the direct action of the fire, or they will become oxidized and roughened. The files must be heated uniformly throughout, and not beyond a cherry red. They must be cooled in clean cold water, with particular care in immersing them to prevent their cooling so unequally as to

be warped from a straight line. Long thin files are particularly liable to this, as also the halfround, and the defect is afterward corrected with difficulty. To protect the teeth in fine files they are first covered with a strong brine, thickened with beer grounds, yeast, or some cheap kind of flour, as that of beans. As this dries, the salt melts uniformly over the surface. The carbonaceous matter is thought to increase the hardness of the steel, but animal charcoal, as that of burnt leather, horn, &c., which is used by some makers, is better adapted for this object, and probably the prussiate of potash may prove still better. The temper of the tang is brought down by immersing it in melted lead. After hardening, the files are thoroughly cleansed by scouring with sand and water, and the salt is got rid of by leaving them some hours in lime water. They are then well dried, rubbed over with olive oil containing a little turpentine, tested with a piece of steel, sorted, and packed in papers for the market.-A variety of machines have been invented to take the place of hand labor in cutting files. Some of these, as that patented by Capt. Ericsson in 1836, were made with great ingenuity, and when introduced into large establishments, as this was in the works of Messrs. Turton and sons of Sheffield, each machine was found to do the work of nearly 10 men; but so many difficulties have been met with in their use, that they are for the most part entirely given up. A machine has recently been patented in England by M. Lacroix, which is recommended as embracing every motion requisite for cutting files, producing the varying degrees of fineness, the blows of different force, the various inclinations of the chisels, and all the other devices required in cutting the different kinds of files. In the London exhibition of 1851, a Prussian machine of this class was exhibited, and the display of hand-cut files from France, Austria, and other portions of Europe showed that the art was carried to a high degree of perfection in other countries beside England. The following is recorded of the Danish articles of this class: "In the Danish department was a series of files manufactured of cast steel by J. W. Naylor of Copenhagen. The largest file, which was square, was covered with a series of file cutter's cuts, representing on one face the city of Copenhagen, on another face the operations of the forge and of file cutting, &c. These effects were entirely produced by the file cutter's chisel; the effect of color and shading being given by the various angles of the teeth reflecting the light at different degrees of obliquity. The teeth of a large circular file were cut so as to represent, in a spiral going several times round the file, the maker's name, the date, wreaths of flowers, &c. This file was hollow, and contained within it a second hollow file, which in its turn contained 10 others, all ornamented with wreaths, &c. The smallest file was not larger than a small needle." In the United States the manufacture of files is successfully conducted in several localities; among

which may particularly be named the works of Mr. John Russell at Sing Sing, on the Hudson. FILICAJA, VINCENZO DA, an Italian lyrical poet, born in Florence in 1643, died there, Sept. 24, 1707. He studied theology, philosophy, and jurisprudence, was appointed to several civil offices, and was made senator and governor of Pisa. His poems are distinguished for their patriotic and religious sentiments, and their purity of style. An ode which he composed after the raising of the siege of Vienna by the Turks in 1683 gained for him the felicitations of several European sovereigns. The abdication of Christina, queen of Sweden, induced him to write a poem in praise of that princess, and he afterward received many favors from her. One of his sonnets, entitled L'Italia, is esteemed among the most admirable in the Italian language.

FILIGREE (It. filigrana, from Lat. filum, wire, and granum, a grain), ornamental work in fine gold or silver wire, often made with little metallic beads or grains interspersed among the wires. The work may be complete in itself, or it may be used, as is the common method, by applying the wire in flattened and twisted shapes upon the surfaces of the trinkets or whatever else it is designed to adorn, and soldering it there in the patterns of stems and leaves of plants. It is much practised by the Italians, who derived the art from the eastern nations. Fine specimens of it were seen at the great exhibition of 1851, in London, from Sardinia, Turkey, the Ionian islands, and Malta. The inhabitants of Sumatra are very expert in it, working with the rudest sort of tools. The leaves to be attached to the roughened wires, which represent the stems, are hammered out of these same wires and clipped off their ends, when they are arranged in their proper places and soldered down.

FILLIBUSTER. The river Vly in Holland is said to have furnished the name flyboat in English, in Spanish flibote, or by a softening of the first syllable filibote, to a sort of small fast-sailing vessel of about 100 tons burden, which in the 17th century held in point of sailing qualities the place now occupied by the Baltimore clippers. The buccaneers of the West Indies, who began their depredations against Spanish commerce in mere row boats, as they acquired the means for a more formidable outfit, selected these vessels as the sort of craft best suited to their purpose. Hence they became known in French as fibustiers, and in Spanish as filibusters, an appellation gradually extended in those languages to any kind of pirates. The term fillibuster has recently been introduced into the English language-its use commencing in New Orleans, but thence rapidly spreading wherever English is spoken-as a designation for certain adventurers who since the termination of the late war between Mexico and the United States have busied themselves with setting on foot within the United States military expeditions designed to operate in the Spanish American countries to the south of us.