[Privateer], a private vessel licensed by Government under a letter of marque to seize and plunder the ships of an enemy, otherwise an act of the kind is treated as piracy.
[Privy Council], is theoretically a council associated with the sovereign to advise him in matters of government. As at present constituted it includes the members of the royal family, the Cabinet, the two archbishops and the bishop of London, the principal English and Scotch judges, some of the chief ambassadors and governors of colonies, the Commander-in-Chief, the First Lord of the Admiralty, &c. No members attend except those summoned, usually the Cabinet, the officers of the Household, and the Primate. The functions of the Privy Council may be grouped as: (1) executive, in which its duties are discharged by the Cabinet, which is technically a committee of the Privy Council; (2) administrative—the Board of Trade, the Local Government Board, and the Board of Agriculture originated in committees; the Education Department is still a committee, and the Council retains such branches as the supervision of medical, pharmaceutical, and veterinary practice, the granting of municipal charters, &c.; (3) judicial—the Judicial Committee is a court of law, whose principal function is the hearing of appeals from ecclesiastical courts and from Indian and colonial courts.
[Privy Seal], the seal of the sovereign appended to grants that do not require to pass the great seal.
[Probus, Marcus Aurelius], Roman emperor from 276 to 282, born in Pannonia; having distinguished himself in the field as a soldier, was elected by the army and the citizens to succeed Tacitus; defended the empire successfully against all encroachments, and afterwards devoted himself to home administration, but requiring the service of the soldiers in public works, which they considered degrading, was seized by a body of them compelled so to drudge, and put to death.
[Proclus], a Neo-Platonic philosopher, born in Constantinople; appears to have held a Trinitarian view of the universe, and to have regarded the All abstractly viewed as contained in the Divine ever emerging from it and returning into it, a doctrine Implied in John i. 1, but far short of the corresponding trinity in the ripe philosophy of Hegel (412-485).
[Proconsul], name given to the governor of a Roman province who was absolute ruler of it, disposed of the army, dispensed justice, controlled administration, and was represented by legates.
[Procop], the name of two Hussite leaders of the Taborites, who after leading successful forays on all hands from their head-quarters in Bohemia, fell in battle with their rivals the Calixtines at Lippau in 1434.
[Procopius], a Greek historian, born at Cæsarea, the secretary of Belisarius, and author of a History of the Wars of Justinian, which is still the chief authority for the events of his reign; d. 565.
[Procrustes], a brigand of ancient Attica, who when any one fell into his hands placed him on a bed, stretching him out if he was too short for it and amputating him if he was too long till he died; he was one day overpowered by Theseus, who tortured him to death as he had done his own victims; his practice has given name to any attempt to enforce conformity by violent measures.
[Procter, Bryan Walter], English lyrist, known by his pseudonym as Barry Cornwall, born in London; was bred to the bar, and was for 30 years a Commissioner of Lunacy, and is chiefly memorable as the friend of all the eminent literary men of two generations, such as Wordsworth, Lamb, and Scott on the one hand and Carlyle, Thackeray, and Tennyson on the other; he was no great poet (1787-1874).