AM

to mitigate the bitterness of rising hostility, and even BASSY. of actual warfare, in their case; on the breaking out of a war, the ambassador is permitted quietly, and with all his attendants and property, to retire home. Notice may be given that an ambassador will not be received; and if this caution be neglected, they may be taken for enemies; but if once admitted, even by enemies in arms, they are entitled to the protection of the law of nations; and the ordinary respect paid to a flag of truce proceeds upon this principle. The Turks have sometimes thrown ambassadors into the castle of the Seven Towers, at Constantinople, on the commencement of hostilities, and even mutilated their persons; but the Porte latterly has seemed inclined to follow the more humane usages of other courts. By statute 7 Anne, cap. 12, an ambassador and suite is in this country protected from the consequences of arrest by the king's writs for debt; if they are arrested the process shall be void, and the persons suing out and executing the writ shall suffer such penalties and corporal punishment as the lord chancellor, or either of the chief justices, shall think proper to inflict. This act originated in the following singular circumstance: The count de Matueof, ambassador of Peter the First of Russia to the court of Queen Anne, was publicly arrested by a laceman of London, and maltreated by the bailiffs, who dragged him from his coach to prison, where he continued until bailed by the earl of Feversham; and neither the count nor the czar were readily to be appeased. Most of the foreign ambassadors in London joined in a protest against the insult, and Matueof retired to Holland. Anne and her ministers are said to have been much perplexed respecting the proper course to be pursued; the parties concerned in the arrest were apprehended; but the secretary of state reluctantly acknowledged that the law of England provided no equal punishment for them; for Peter demanded, with out hesitation, that the sheriff and all concerned should suffer death. Nor was it until an extraordinary embassy was sent, with the new act now carried through parliament, and the offer to pay all the expences of the count, that this awkward affair was amicably settled. To this day there are shown in Westminster-abbey the unburied coffins of two foreign ambassadors, whose bodies were arrested after death.

There has been some dispute respecting what violations of the criminal code of a country ought to be punished in an ambassador. The modern usage is to consider him amenable to his own sovereign only, in all cases, excepting that of treason against the state where he resides, which is held to be in itself a violation of the law of nations. Instances, however, have occurred, in former times, of the conviction of persons closely attached to an embassy in this country; as in 1654, when the brother of the Portuguese ambassador, who is said to have been jointly accredited with him to the English court, was tried, condemned, and beheaded for murder; the only difference made between his punishment and that of some of his servants, who were also implicated, being that they were executed the common way. But when the duke de Sully resided at this court as ambassador of Henry IV. of France, and being informed that one of his gentlemen had murdered a man at a bagnio, sent a message to the magistrates of the city, that they might take the offender and proceed with him according to law, though he was

tried and condemned, the British monarch thought pro- AMEF per to grant him a pardon and his liberty.

The ceremonies, on the reception of ambassadors, vary according to the customs of different courts. At some, an ambassador is expected not to quit his house until he has been received with all due pomp at the court to which he is sent. In China the ceremony of prostration is required, on the admission of an ambassador to the presence of the emperor; and in the recent British embassy a ninefold humiliation of this kind was exacted. This has been hitherto refused by British ambassadors, sometimes at the expence of the total failure of the object concerning which they had becu sent. So important is the ceremony of a due reception, that, according to the general usage of European states, no ambassador is entitled to any privilege of his office, nor can he publicly assume any of its functions, until he have been thus properly acknowledged and accredited.

AMBATO, ASSIENTO DE, an extensive town of South America, the capital of a district of the same name. It is 18 leagues from Quito, and four from Tarunga. An irruption of the Cotopaxi volcano entirely destroyed the town in the year 1698; this calamity was accelerated by a deluge of mud and lava from the neighbouring desert of Carguairaso, generally called the Snowy mountain. The town, however, has long revived from this awful visit; and there are at present a parish church, two chapels of ease, and a convent of Franciscans here. E. lon. 78°, 25'. N. lat. 1°, 14'.

AMBAZAC, a small town of France, in the department of Upper Vienne, arrondissement of Limoges, from which place it stands about four leagues N. N. E.

AMBE, or AMBI, in Surgery, an instrument formerly used for setting a dislocated shoulder. Although there have been many improvements in this instrument since its first invention, other means much readier and more effectual are now used to accomplish the object in view. See SURGERY, Div. ii.

AMBEER, a town of India in the district of Jypore, or Jyenaghur, of which place it was the ancient capi tal, when its Rajahs were of great weight and importance in the court of the Great Mogul. E. lon. 75°, 53'. N. lat. 26°, 48'.

AMBELACHIA, AMBELAKIA, or AMPHILOCHIA, a Grecian village in the ancient Thessaly, situated on the declivity of mount Ossa, between Larissa and the

gean sea, and on the right bank of the river Penens. It is of some importance for its dye-houses, as well as for the character of its inhabitants. The dye-houses are about twenty-four in number, and they export annually about 2,500 bales of red Turkish yarn to Germany. The inhabitants are wholly Greek, and, admitting no Turks into their society, have hitherto resisted all attempts to involve them in that direful slavery to which the rest of their nation are exposed. AM'BER, 0

Skinner and Wachter decide for AM'BER, n. a German, in preference to an AM'BER, adj. Arabic, origin. Amberen, anbernen, sive anbrennen, to burn, to kindle. Embers, when applied to ashes; in Dutch, amer, amber; Saxon, emmer; English, ember (q. s. ustum), is derived by Wachter

from the same source.

devout aftre his lawe; and he hathe abouten his nekke 300 perics The kyng of that yle is fulle riche and fulle myghty, & righte oryent, gode and grete, and knotted, as pater nostres here of amber. Sir John Maundeville, p. 237.

Say, will no white-rob'd son of light,
Swift-darting from his heav'nly height,

Here deign to take his hallow'd stand;
Here wave his amber locks; unfold
His pinions cloth'd with downy gold;

Here smiling stretch his tutelary wand?

Mason's Elfrida. AMBER, in Natural History, a sort of resinous, yellow-coloured, inflammable substance, of which there are two kinds, the white and the yellow; these are distinguished by their difference of surface, the manner of their fracture, and their different degrees of lastre and transparency. Various conjectures are made with regard to the nature and origin of this substance, some holding it to be of a vegetable, and others of a mineral nature. For the various theories respecting it and its numerous properties, see MINERALOGY, Div. ii. AMBER-TREE, in Botany. See ANTHOS PERNUM and, ORYCTOGNOSY.

AMBERG, a city of Germany, the capital of the Upper Palatinate of Bavaria, with a strong castle, ramparts, and deep ditches. It is situated on the river Vils, which divides it into two parts, near the confines of Franconia. The electoral castle, mint, arsenal, and colleges of justice and finance, are noble buildings. Its trade and manufactures are in iron, earthen-ware, fire-arms, and tobacco. Population 9,000. E. lon. 129. N. lat. 49°, 25′.

AMBERGREASE KEY, an island in the bay of Honduras, situated on the cast side of the peninsula Yucaten. It stretches along the mouth of the bay, and is about seventy miles in length, but extremely narrow. Its chief produce is logwood and other woods for dying, and several sorts of game. W. lon. 88°, 48'. N. lat. 18°, 50'.

AMBERGRIS, or AMBERGREASE, in Natural History, from amber and gris, grey; an unctuous, light, fusible, and variegated substance; fragrant when heated; and used both as a perfume, and as a cordial in medicine. It is soluble, but very partially so, in alcohol, though assisted by a boiling heat; almost entirely soluble by the essential oil of turpentine'; and perfectly soluble in ether, oil of vitriol, or by the caustic fixed alkalis. There are various suppositions and theories as to the nature of this substance, whether it belong to

VOL. XVII.

AMBI

EGNE OVES.

the vegetable, mineral (for it is found adhering to rocks AMBERwashed by the sea), or to the animal kingdom. Dr. GRIS. Swediar, however, appears nearly to have terminated the controversy, in Phil. Trans. Ixxiii. art. 15, and to have ascertained it to be an animal production, as it is frequently found in the intestines of a fish of the cetaceous kind, and particularly in the spermaceti whale, in which it produces a disease. It is sometimes also found floating on the sea, and in this case it is conjectured by the learned doctor, that the belly of the spermaceti whale having burst by an abscess, or the quantity of this substance having been fatal to that fish, it is then naturally found floating on the surface of the scå: this supposition seems supported by the fact, that wherever ambergris is taken in quantity, fishermen conclude that the spermaceti whale is, or has been frequenting the same parts.

AMBERIEUX, a town of France, in the department of Ain, and chief place of a canton, in the arondissement of Bellay, about eight leagues N. E. of Lyons: population about 3,000. E. lon. 5°, 26. N. lat. 45°, İ5'.

AMBERT, a town of France, on the Dore, in the department of Puy de Dome, and chief place of an arrondissement; about 10 leagues S. E. of Clermont. It has a manufacture of camblets and woollen stuffs, and also of cards and paper. The town contains about 5,500 inhabitants. E. lon. 3°, 48. N. lat. 45°, 33'.

AMBIANUM, in Ancient Geography, a town of Belgium, at present Amiens: its inhabitants were called Ambiani, and conspired against Cæsar. Cæs. Bell. Gull. AMBIDEXTER, n. Lat. ambo, dexter, aμpidežic; AMBIDEX TROUS. both hands right.

One who uses the left hand equally with the right. One who will act with readiness on both hands, or with either party.

Brown uses ambilevous, as opposed to ambidexter. Lame are we in Platoes censure, if we be not ambidexters, vsing both handes alike. A Worlde of Wordes, by Florio. Dedication. Thus perverse men cavil, So it will ever be, some of all sorts, good, bad, indifferent, true, false, zealous, ambodexters, neutralists, lukewarm libertines, atheists, &c. They will see these religious

sectaries agree amongst themselves, be reconciled all, before they will participate with, or beleeve any. Burton's Anat. of Mel.

Now in these men [ambidexters], the right hand is on both sides, and that is not the left which is opposite unto the right, according to common acception.

Again, some are Aupagirago, as Galen hath expressed; that is, vigour have not the use of either; who are gymnastically composed, ambilevous, or left-handed on both sides: such as with agility and Brown's Vulgar Lrrours.

nor actively use those parts.

AMBIDEXTER, in Law, one that acts on both sides; a juror, a solicitor, or an embraceur, taking money from both parties, under a promise to aid the cause of each. The penalty upon this offence is to forfeit, decies tantion, as much ten times as is thus illegally received; to which sometimes imprisonment is added..

AMBIEGNE OVES, were sheep offered up to the goddess Juno, accompanied with their twin lambs. Ambiegna was a name generally given to a victim which was accompanied with any lesser sacrifices.

3 B

Though the cohesion of the solid particles of the body be not sufficiently accounted for by the pressure of the air, or of any ambient fluid, yet we have a very clear idea of cohesion in its effects. Bolingbroke's Essay on Human Knowledge. AMBIGENAL HYPERBOLA, in Conics, a name in the "Enumeratio Linearum tertii Ordinis" of Sir Isaac Newton, by which is designated one of the triple hyperbolas of the second order, with one of its legs infinite, and falling within an angle formed by the assymptotes; the other leg falling without that angle. AMBIGUITY, n. Lat. ambigo (from am, the AMBIGUOUS, Gr. augi, around, and ago, to AMBIGUOUSLY. drive.) Applied when the mind is driven or forced around or about from thought to thought, and left in suspense and uncertainty.

Doubtfulness; indistinctness.

They dronk, and then Geffrey seid, "Sir Beryne,
Yee mut declare yeur maters to myne intelligence,
That I may the bet preseyve all inconvenience,
Dout, pro, contra, and ambiguitie,
Thorough your declaratioune, and enformyd be.

Chaucer. The Merchant's Seconde Tale.

Thinking that in so trobelous a season, he [the duke of Burgoyn] had vnknit the knot of all ambiguities and doubtes perceiving all thynges to haue better succeded for his purpose then he before imagined, dismissed Thenglishmen into their countrey geuing to them harty thankes and great rewardes. Hall. Henry IV. f. 30.

Althoughe that manye woordes thereupon hadde bene spokene, like as yt is to be beleued to be, among people that be ambiguous or doubtefulle and that perceyue theymselfe assieged and oppressedde Thucidides, book vi. f. 175.

more and more.

His [Spinoza's] trae meaning, therefore, however dastardly and AMBIGU ambiguously he sometimes speaks, must be this

ITY

Clarke, on the Attributes. Ambiguous, or equivocal words, are such as are sometimes taken AMBI. in a large and general sense, and sometimes in a sense more strict TION. and limited, and have different ideas affixed to them accordingly. Watts's Logic.

I apprehend, that we [the teachers of the gospel] mistake our proper duty, when we avoid the public discussion of difficult or ambiguous texts. Horsley's Sermons. AMBIL, one of the smaller Philippine islands, near Luban, having a volcanic mountain, and producing an inferior kind of hemp.

AMBIT, in Geometry, the sum of all the lines by which a figure is bounded. It is synonymous with the perimeter of a figure.

AMBITION, n.

AMBITIOUS,

AMBITIOUSLY,

AMBICIOUSNESS.

Ambio, to go round (am, and eo).

Going round; to solicit places of honour; and, consequently,

a desire to obtain honour, popular applause, power.

And ground & cause, why that men so striue
Is couetise, and false ambicion

That euerich would, haue dominacion
Quer other, and tread him vnder foot
Which of ali sorow, ginning is the root.

Story of Thebes, by John Lidgate, f. 394. c. 1. But Jesus to plucke this affection vtterly out of theyr mindes, he called vnto hym a certayne childe, and set hym in the middest of hys disciples, a litill one, and yet far from all affections of ambition and enuy, simple, pure, and living after the onely course of nature. Udal. Math: ch. xviii.

Th' ambitious prince doth hope to conquer all,
The dukes, earles, lords, and knights hope to be kings,
The prelates hope to pushe for popish pall,
The lawyers hope to purchase wonderous things.

Gascoigne.

Whether shee thinke ought, or say, or doe, nothing shall be outrageous, neither in passions of mind, nor words, nor deedes, nor presumptions, nor uice, nor wanton, piert nor boasting, nor ambitious. The Instruction of a Christian Woman, by Vives.

Why doest thou then permitte these proud homicides and spightfull murtherers to defyle them with their errours, and blaspheme them with their lyes: Kylling vp thy seruants without pittie, for holdynge with them, and reigning heere as gods vpon earth in ambiciousnesse, vayne glory, pompe, glotony, and lecherye, with other abbominable vices. Bale's Image of both Churches.

active, earnest, full of alacrity, and stirring, if it be not stopped. Ambition is like choler, which is an humour that maketh men But if it be stopped, and cannot have its way, it becometh adust, and thereby malign and venomous. So ambitious men, if they find the way open for their rising, and still get forward, they are rather busy than dangerous; but if they be checked in their desires, they become secretly discontent, and look upon men and matters with an evil eye, and are best pleased when things go backward: which is the worst property in a servant of a prince or state.

Bacon. Essay on Ambition,

If the bishoppes of Rome in olde times refused this name [universal bishop], not for wante of right, but onely, as M. Hardinge saithe, of humilitie, wherefore then did theire successours, that folowed afterwarde, so ambitiously laboure to geate the same? Jewel's Defence of the Apologie.

Poor in spirit, in contradistinction to literal poverty of estate, signifies a temper of mind, disingaged from, and sitting loose to, the covetous and ambitious desires of the present world.

No, Freedom, no, I will not tell
How Rome, before thy face,
With heaviest sound, a giant-statue, fell,
Push'd by a wild and artless race,
From off its wide ambitious base.

Clarke's Sermons.

Collins's Ode to Liberty.

AMBITION, in Ethies, has been more generally used for an excessive and corrupt pursuit of power or

I distinction. It has, however, by some writers, been N. justly said to be characterised by its object and direction, and as a particular species of desire and sympathy LE to be honourable or disgraceful according to the mode E. of its operation. Dr. Hartley, using the word in the more extended sense, proposes to classify all the pleasures and pains of ambition under four heads: 1. External advantages or disadvantages; 2. Bodily perfections or imperfections; 3. Intellectual accomplishments or defects; 4. Moral qualities. Among the Romans, it was a passion highly honourable, and worshipped as a divinity with very considerable sacrifices. : AMBITUS, amongst the ancient Romans (see AMBITION,) was used to denote the practice in candidates of walking about to solicit public suffrages or honours; and may be well exemplified by the English practice of canvassing a town or county, previous to an election. : AMBITUS, in Music, a term applied formerly to denote the extent or modification of any particular tone, as grave or acute.

AMBLAU, one of the smaller Molucca islands, three leagues from Bouro. AM'BLE, v. AM'BLING,

AM'BLER.

From the Lat. ambulare, to walk. Alterno crurum explicatu mollem gressum glomerare. Du Cange.

For thing y take is hard to put awey,
As hors that evir trottid, trewlich I yew telle,
It were hard to make hym aftir to ambill welle.
Chaucer. The Merchant's Second Tale.

This markis hath hire spoused with a ring
Brought for the same cause, and than hire sette
Upon an hors snow-white, and wel ambling,

Id. The Clerkes Tale.

Gower. Con. A. book ii.

And thus after hir lordes graunt,
Upon a mule white amblant
Fourth with a fewe rode this quene.
The wondred, what she wolde mene,
And riden after a softe pas.
And as she caste hir eie aboute
She sigh clad in one sute a route
Of ladies, where thei comen ride
A longe vnder the woodde side,
On fayre ambulende hors thei set,
That were all white, fayre and great,
And eurichone ride on side.
Upon an ambler esify she sat,
Ywimpled wel, and on hire hede an hat,
As brode as is a bokeler, or a targe.

Id. book iv.

Chaucer. The Prologue, vol. i. p. 20. Pious and pleasant Bishop Felton indevoured in vain in his sermon to assimilate his [Lancelot Andrews] style; and therefore said merrily of himself," I had almost marr'd my own natural trot, by endeavouring to imitate his artificial amble.”

Fuller's Worthies. London.

But I, that am not shap'd for sportive trickes,
Not made to court an amorous looking-glasse:
I, that am rudely stampt, and want loue's maiesty,
To strut before a wanton ambling nymph.

Shakespeare's Rich. III. act. i. sc. 1.
An ambler is proper for a lady's saddle, but not for a coach. If
Tom undertakes this place, he will be an ambler in a coach, or a
trotter under a lady's saddle.
Howell's Letters.

Frequent in park with lady at his side,
Ambling and prattling scandal as he goes;
But rare at home, and never at his books,
Or with his pen, save when he scrawls a card.

Couper's Task, book ii. AMBLE, in Horsemanship, a shuffling pace between the trot and the gallop, in which the horse moves both his legs on the same side at the same time. AMBLESIDE, a township of Westmorland, about

AMBO

HITS

13 miles from Kendal, and 274 from London. It AMBLEstands in a most enchanting situation, near the lake of SIDE. Windermere. It is supposed that this town was once the large and populous city Dictus, of the Romans, built, according to Horsley, after their subjugation of MENE. the Brigantes. Camden erroneously calls it the Amboglana of the Notitia; but afterwards places that station at Willeford, in Cumberland. That this was at one time a city of considerable magnitude, is evident from the present ruins of walls and scattered heaps of rubbish, with some remains of a fort (evidently Roman), 660 feet in length and 400 in breadth, secured by a ditch and rampart. It is, however, now reduced to a small town, with a resident population of not more than 630 persons, During the summer season it is much resorted to by occasional visitors and the laketourists. There is a market on Wednesdays, and two annual fairs. The chapel, which was become ruinous, was rebuilt in the year 1812, in a neat Gothic style.

AMBLETEUSE, a sea-port town of Picardy, in France, in the department of the Straits of Calais, in the English channel, nine miles north of Boulogne, and 189 miles from Paris. Julius Caesar, on his invasion of Britain, embarked the Roman cavalry at this port, which he calls "Portus Ambletoniensis ;" and James II. of England, on his abdication of the throne in 1688, landed at this town. E. lon. 1°, 37'. N. lat. 50°, 48'.

AMBLYGON, in Geometry (from außλvs, obtuse, aud ywvia, an angle), obtuse-angled, a term sometimes applied to triangles, one of whose angles is obtuse.

AMBLYOPIA, in Anatomy (from außyvs, dull, and w, the eye), a disease of the eye, producing dullness of sight, which has been described as an incipient AMAUROSIS, which see.

AM'BO. Außwr, whatever rises up or projects (forma rotunda, Vossius), from avaßaire, außaire, to go up, to ascend, to mount.

An elevated place, formerly used in churches, for the purpose of saying or chanting some parts of the divine service, and also of preaching to the people. Menage and Du Cange.

Between the 'Twowinloves and the faithful, stood the ambo, or reading desk.

Sir G. Wheler's Acc. of the Churches of the Prim. Chris,
The ambo is now placed on the north side of the nave of the
church, nearer to the outward gates than the bema.
Id.

Socrates also and Zozomen inform us, that this was the ancient

custom; shewing, that St. John Chrysostom was the first that
preached in the ambo, or reading desk of the church, by reason of
the multitude of people that crouded up to hear him.
Id.

The AMBO is sometimes called AMBON, OF ANALOGIUM in Ecclesiastical History. The Gospel was read at the top of the ambo, the Epistles a step lower: here new converts of religion confessed their faith, and the acts of martyrs, and epistles of distant churches, were published to the people. Some of these ambos are still left standing, both in England and on the continent, although the modern reading desks and pulpits are more generally substituted in their stead..

AMBOHITSMENE, an extensive province of the island of Madagascar, so called from the vicinity of some lofty red mountains bearing the same name, and lying in S. lat. 20°. On one side of this ridge the sea extends into the country for fifteen leagues; on the other side lies a flat country, abounding in marshes.