Featherstone, an urban district or town in the W. Riding of Yorks, England, 2 miles west by south of Pontefract; inhabitants work chiefly in the collieries. Pop. 14,839.
Feb´rifuge is an agent used to lessen fever. Antipyrine, quinine, and salicylic acid, are well-known examples of drugs used as febrifuges, while cold baths and cold sponging are the most effective of other methods.
Febro´nianism, in Roman Catholic theology, a system of doctrines antagonistic to the admitted claims of the Pope, and asserting the independence of national Churches, and the rights of bishops to unrestricted action in matters of discipline and Church government within their own dioceses. The term is derived from Justinus Febronius, a nom de plume assumed by John Nicholas von Hontheim, Archbishop of Trèves, in a work entitled De Statu Ecclesiæ et legitima Potestate Romani Pontificis (On the State of the Church and the Legitimate Power of the Roman Pontiff), published in 1763.
Feb´ruary (from the Roman Februa, a festival of expiation or purification), the second month in the year, having twenty-eight days, except in leap-year, when it has twenty-nine. This latter number of days it had originally among the Romans, until the Senate decreed that the seventh month should bear the name of Augustus, when a day was taken from February and added to August to make it equal to July in number of days.
Fécamp (fā-käṅ; Lat. Fiscanum, derived from Ficus Campus, Fig Plain), a seaport of France, department of Seine-Inférieure, 23 miles north-east of Havre. It is one of the best ports in the Channel, and has many vessels employed in the cod, herring, and mackerel fisheries. Pop. 17,383.
Fechter (fesh-tār), Charles Albert, French actor and dramatist, born in 1824, died in America in 1879. His first appearance on the stage was at the Salle Molière, after which he made a short tour of Italy with a travelling French company. Returning to Paris, he appeared between 1844 and 1856 at different Parisian theatres, and in 1857 he was joint-director of the Odéon. In 1860 he came to London, and at once achieved great success as Ruy Blas and Hamlet at the Princess's Theatre, characters in which he departed widely from stage traditions. He subsequently leased the Lyceum, and afterwards the Adelphi, acting youthful and melodramatic parts with striking power. From 1870 to 1878 he lived in the United States, but his experiences as a manager in New York were not successful.
Fed´eral, or Federalist, an appellation in America given to those politicians who wanted to strengthen the central government, in opposition to those who wished to extend the separate authority of each individual state. Hence in the Civil Wars of 1861-5 the term Federals was applied to the Northern party.
Federal Government, government by the confederation of several united states, self-governing in local matters, but subject in matters of general polity to a central authority, as, for instance, the Swiss Republic, the United States of North America, Mexico, Argentine, Brazil, The Union of South Africa, and Russia since the revolution of 1917. The degree to which such states give up their individual rights as sovereign bodies may be very different.—Bibliography: Viscount Bryce, The American Commonwealth; Burgess, Political Science and Comparative Constitutional Law; Freeman, History of Federal Government.
Fee, or Fief (A.S. feoh, cattle, property), in law, primarily meant a loan of land, an estate held in trust on condition of the grantee giving personal or other service to the prince or lord who granted it. Feudal estates, however, soon came to be regarded as inalienable heritages held on various tenures; hence the term fee came to be equivalent to an estate of inheritance, that is, an interest in land which passes to heirs if the owner die intestate. The amplest estate or interest in land is that of a fee-simple, which is also called an absolute fee, in contradistinction to a fee limited or clogged with certain conditions. A fee-simple means the entire and absolute possession of land, with full power to alienate it by deed, gift, or will. It is the estate out of which other lesser estates are said to be carved; such as a fee-tail (see Entail), which is limited to particular heirs, and subject to certain restrictions of use; and a base fee, which ceases with the existence of certain conditions.