[Conscript Fathers], the collective name of members of the Roman Senate, and addressed as such, fathers as seniors and conscripts as enrolled.
[Conservation of Energy], the doctrine that, however it may be transformed or dissipated, no fraction of energy is ever lost, that the amount of force, as of matter, in the universe, under all mutation remains the same.
[Conservatism], indisposition to change established laws and customs that have wrought beneficially in the past and contributed to the welfare of the country; in practical politics often a very different thing, and regarded by Carlyle in his time "a portentous enbodied sham; accursed of God, and doomed to destruction, as all lies are."
[Considérant, Victor Prosper], a French Socialist and disciple of Fourier; founded a colony in Texas on Fourier's principles, which proved a failure; wrote much in advocacy of his principles, of which the most important is "La Destinée Sociale"; b. 1808.
[Consols], the Consolidated Fund, loans to Government made at different times and at different rates of interest, consolidated for convenience into one common loan, bearing interest at 3 per cent., reduced in 1830 to 2¾, and in 1893 to 2½.
[Constable], a high officer of State in the Roman empire, in France, and in England, charged at one time with military, judicial, and regulative functions.
[Constable, Archibald], Edinburgh publisher, born in Carnbee, Fife; started as a bookseller near the Cross in Edinburgh; published the Scots Magazine, the Edinburgh Review, and the "Encyclopædia Britannica," and from 1802 to 1826 the works of Sir Walter Scott, when the bankruptcy connected with the publication of these so affected him that it ruined his health, though he lived after the crash came to start the "Miscellany" which bears his name (1774-1827).
[Constable, Henry], English poet, author of sonnets, 28 in number, under the title of "Diana" (1560-1612).
[Constable, John], an eminent landscape-painter, born in Suffolk; his works were more generously appreciated in France than in his own country, as they well might be, where they had not, as in England, to stand comparison with those of Turner; but he is now, despite the depreciation of Ruskin, becoming recognised among us as one of our foremost landscapists, and enormous prices have been given of late for his best pictures; some of his best works adorn the walls of the National Gallery; Ruskin allows his art is original, honest, free from affectation, and manly (1776-1837).
[Constable de Bourbon], Charles, Duc de Bourbon, a brilliant military leader, and a powerful enemy of Francis I.; killed when leading the assault on Rome (1489-1527).