A French order of religious chivalry, confirmed by Pope Alexander IV in 1255. Their special function was the cure of lepers. The order existed until the Revolution.
St. Patrick, Order of.
An order of knighthood instituted by George III in 1783. The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland is an ex-officio member.
St. Petersburg, Treaty of.
A treaty between England and Russia, signed in 1805, by which the signatories pledged themselves to support a European league to demand from France the evacuation of Hanover and Italy and the independence of Holland and Switzerland. They further undertook not to interfere in the internal affairs of France, and to summon a Congress for the settlement of all outstanding European questions. This treaty was the germ of the Coalition against Napoleon.
St. Simonism.
The political system of the Comte de St. Simon (1760-1825) who may be considered the founder of French socialism. It includes the abolition of the hereditary principle, and the vesting in the State of all the instruments of production, the worker, however, being rewarded according to his capacity, and not by equal division regardless of merit.
Saisons, Société des.
A revolutionary secret society in Paris, headed by Bernard, Blanqui and Barbès. Some 600 members of the Society rose in 1837, and raised barricades in the streets of Paris, but the outbreak was immediately suppressed, and its leaders were all seized and imprisoned.