Paris, Treaty of, 1856.
A treaty signed by England, France, Russia, Turkey, Prussia and Sardinia, after the close of the Crimean War. It provided for the return of Kars to Turkey and of Sebastopol to Russia. The Powers agreed to respect the integrity of Turkey, while the Sultan undertook to issue a firman ameliorating the condition of his Christian subjects. The Black Sea was neutralized, and the Bosphorus and Dardanelles closed to ships of war in time of peace, while the navigation of the Danube was thrown open to all nations. The treaty also dealt with the laws of maritime war, and the following principles were accepted by the signatories: (1) Privateering to be henceforth unlawful; (2) The flag to cover the merchandise, except in the case of contraband of war; (3) Neutral goods under an enemy’s flag not to be liable to capture, unless contraband of war; (4) Blockades not to be binding unless effective. In 1870 Russia took advantage of the Franco-German War to repudiate the clause neutralizing the Black Sea.
Paris, Treaty of, 1857.
A treaty between Great Britain and Persia, by which Persia renounced all her rights in Afghanistan, including Herat, and undertook to submit to the arbitration of Great Britain any questions that might arise between her and Afghanistan. By a clause in this treaty the slave trade in the Persian Gulf was made illegal.
Parish School Act.
An Act passed by the Irish Parliament in 1537, providing that no person should be appointed to any benefice in Ireland who was not acquainted with the English language, and requiring every beneficed clergyman to establish and maintain English schools in his parish, and to teach his parishioners the prayers of the Church in the English tongue.
Parlement.
The judicial body which succeeded the Cours Plénières, or Baronial Courts of the early French kings. It was organized by Louis IX, and was at first without any fixed seat, though under Philip the Fair in 1302 it was established in Paris and became known as the Parlement de Paris. It was then composed of two prelates, two nobles, thirteen clerics and thirteen laymen. Its earliest records are dated 1254. Later, similar bodies, known also as Parlements, were established in the chief provincial centres.
Parliament of 1265.
To this Parliament of Henry III, in addition to the knights of the shires, who had been summoned intermittently since the reign of William the Conqueror, there were summoned, for the first time in English history, two burgesses from each of the principal cities. The first regular Parliament, however, in which all the estates of the realm were duly represented is generally held to have been that of Edward I, which met in 1294.