Q. amara is a lofty tree, not unlike the common ash in its general appearance, inhabiting the same countries. The flowers are in terminal recemes, and of a bright red. All parts of the tree are intensely bitter, but the bark is now esteemed the most powerful. Quassia has no sensible odor. Its taste is that of a pure bitter, more intense and durable than that of almost any other known substance. It is said to be sometimes used in brewing malt liquors, as a substitute for hops.

QUATRAIN, in versification; a strophe of four verses; for example, the two first strophes of a sonnet; but the quatrain may form an independent whole.

QUATRE-BRAS and LIGNY, BATTLES OF, on June 16, 1815. These two battles are to be considered as the first act of the great and bloody drama of Waterloo. (q. v.) Napoleon's plan, at the opening of the campaign of 1815, was to fight his enemies singly, as he felt himself unequal to meet their combined forces. The chief purpose of his movements, therefore, was to anticipate their concentration. The Russians and Austrians, yet on their march towards the Rhine, might be left out of the calculation; but Wellington, with 102,000 British, Netherlandish, and Brunswick troops, and Blücher, with 120,000 Prussians, were near the French frontiers, between Brussels and Liege, yet in detachment cantonments, on account of the difficulty of obtaining provisions. Their united forces were much superior to those of Napoleon, which, according to the French accounts, amounted to 150,000. It was, therefore, necessary for him to prevent the union of Wellington and Blücher, and to beat them separately. Several circumstances held out a prospect of success: he was perfectly acquainted with the ground, could determine how much time was necessary to concentrate the different corps of the enemy; and Blücher and Wellington would need at least two days to effect a union. Blücher, as the most hasty, was to be first attacked, and driven back to the Rhine; after which it would not be difficult to beat the more cautious Wellington. The calculations seemed excellent, but were not successfully accomplished. Napoleon found the enemy, on the morning of June 15, yet apparently in perfect quiet. His rapid advance, in three columns, over the Sambre, towards Charleroy, was equivalent to a surprise. The first Prussian corps, under general Ziethen, forming, as it were, Blücher's advanced guard, retired, according to standing orders, with equal

skill and coolness, though not without considerable loss, towards Fleurus, gaining time, as had been intended, to concentrate the other corps, and prepare for action in the rear of Fleurus. Towards noon, Napoleon, then at Charleroy, developed his plan more fully. On the road leading north from Charleroy to Brussels, which is thirty miles distant, lie the positions Gosselies, Frasnes, Quatre-Bras (a hamlet consisting of a few houses, where the road from Nivelles to Namur crosses, in a south-easterly direction, that to Brussels), Jemappes and Waterloo. On this road, marshal Ney was ordered to advance with the first and second divisions, and the cavalry belonging to them (42,000 strong), to Quatre-Bras, to drive every thing before him, and to prevent, at any sacrifice, the approach and junction of Wellington, who was expected to advance from Brussels. Ney, therefore, commanded the left wing of the French army, and formed the wedge which Napoleon proposed to force between the British and Prussian armies, while he threw himself upon Blücher. Ney's charge seems to have been a difficult one: it appears, from the complaints and the justifications of his conduct, that the emperor, by a certain indistinctness in his orders, placed him in the disagreeable situation of being obliged to act according to circumstances. Ney executed his orders literally; that is, he advanced, on the 15th of June, as far as Frasnes, his outposts being beyond that place, in the direction of Quatre-Bras, where they encountered an advanced post of the prince of Orange's corps, which prince Bernard of Weimar had thrown forward from Quatre-Bras. This post was maintained; and night coming on prevented any examination of what was passing behind it. During the whole day, Ney had heard a warm cannonade in his rear (caused by the action between Vandamme, Grouchy and the first Prussian corps near Fleurus), which forbade him to calculate on a very rapid advance of the French. This circumstance induced him to act with caution: he remained at Frasnes. It cannot be doubted that the brave resistance of the first Prussian corps, which Vandamme and Grouchy were not able to drive back quickly enough, was unexpected by Napoleon. He had probably expected to penetrate beyond Fleurus, on the 15th, with his main body. On the night of the 15th, the British forces, sensible of Napoleon's object, advanced on the road from Brussels towards QuatreBras, in order, if possible, to support the Prussians; and Blücher got his first, sec

ond and third divisions in position to the north of Fleurus, having the British on his right, and expecting his fourth division, under Bülow, from Liege. His position was on a chain of heights imperfectly covered by the Ligny, a small stream, and dependent upon the possession of the villages St. Amand, Ligny, Tongrines and Sombref in front: in the rear it was intersected by the road from Quatre-Bras to Namur. Napoleon, having examined his disposition on the morning of the 16th, and it being necessary to rest his troops, ordered an attack in the afternoon. Ney again received orders to press forward on Quatre-Bras, to drive out the English before they could be concentrated, and to make a diversion in the Prussian rear, leaving his first corps under general Erlon, 20,000 strong (nearly half of his whole force), as a reserve at Frasnes, which might support him or Napoleon, as necessity should require. Some French writers have accused Ney of dilatoriness, while others have defended him from this charge. (See Gourgaud's Campaign of 1815, with the counter statements of Gamot and Marchand.) It is certain that he did not fully develope his forces before four o'clock in the afternoon, when he made his attack on Quatre-Bras, after the prince of Orange, with the Netherlandish troops, the duke of Brunswick, with his corps, and the Hanoverian and British divisions, under Alten and Picton, had already arrived and taken position. Although the junction between Blücher and, Wellington was not accomplished on that day, yet Ney's attack was repulsed, notwithstanding his superiority, in the beginning of the action, in cavalry and artillery, of which his opponents were almost completely destitute, and in spite of the uncommon valor displayed by his troops. Wellington, on the Nivelles road, with his right wing resting on Quatre-Bras and the wood defended by the duke of SaxeWeimar, and his left on the village of Piermont, held Ney in check so successfully, that, in the evening, new British reinforcements continuing to arrive, the former was forced to send for his reserve at Frasnes, and, finally, to make a retrograde movement, and leave the field to the English. The loss on both sides was nearly equal, amounting to about 10,000 men, among whom was the duke of Brunswick. Napoleon began his attack on the Prussians at three o'clock in the afternoon, in two columns. The third French division, under Vandamme, advanced against the Prussian right wing at St. Amand; the fourth, under Gerard,

pressed forward towards Ligny; Grouchy, with the cavalry, occupied the attention of the Prussian left wing, under Thielemann, near Sombref. Vandamme's attack was, at first, not without effect, but, towards five o'clock, was repelled so effectually that Napoleon desisted, and, as Ney's diversion in the Prussian rear was not effected, directed his attention upon Ligny. The Prussians had, from the beginning, considered the possession of this village as of the greatest importance. Here the battle raged with the greatest fury, and the ground was covered with the dead and wounded. Gerard had sacrificed nearly his whole division for the possession of one half of the village, separated by the rivulet of the same name from the other half. He was unable to penetrate farther; nor could the Prussians, on the other hand, dislodge him by the most vigorous attacks. If the fourth division, under Bülow, had arrived at this moment, it would have decided the fate of the day; but a variety of obstacles retarded it. The evident relaxation in Napoleon's attack on the right wing gave the Prussians an opportunity of obtaining an apparent advantage in that quarter. All the disposable reserves were directed towards that point, when Napoleon unexpectedly threw himself upon Ligny. He now accomplished his purpose by means of his guards, who passed the Ligny on the right and left of the village, and threatened to cut off the exhausted Prussians, which would have been the more easily effected, as all the reserves and artillery had been withdrawn. Blücher attempted in vain to repel the French cuirassiers, with about 1000 light cavalry. He was in such danger, on this occasion, that he was only saved by the darkness, almost by a miracle. (See Blücher.) Nothing remained but to abandon Ligny, and retire with his first and second divisions, in large bodies, upon Wavre, whither, towards midnight, the third division, which had been less actively engaged during the day, followed. Napoleon overrated the loss of the Prussians, and allowed them to retire unmolested, probably because his troops were too much fatigued, and required rest to be in a state to be led against Wellington. Grouchy, Vandamme, and generals Excelmans and Pajol, received orders, on the 17th, to follow the Prussians, with 35,000 men; but they had lost sight of them in the beginning of the pursuit-a circumstance which, with Grouchy's affair at Wavre (q. v.), had a great influence upon the events at Waterloo. In the battle of

Ligny, the Prussians were superior in nuinber. They lost about 20,000 men and fifteen cannons, partly in consequence of their confined position. Napoleon had brought only about 60,000 men into battle, his sixth division not having reached Fleurus till dark; and the first marched back and forward to and from Frasnes, without taking part in the action; whether in consequence of its original orders, or from misunderstanding, or from the wish of its commander to participate in the battle of St. Amand, has not been clearly explained. The loss of this corps was of the most fatal consequence to Ney. The French accounts gave their loss at Ligny at from 6 to 7000. After Wellington had learned the issue of the battle at Ligny, he retired from Quatre-Bras in the forenoon of the 17th, and was followed by Napoleon. (See Waterloo.)

QUATREMÈRE-DE-QUINCY, Antoine Chrysostome, a distinguished French savant, member of the Paris academy of inscriptions, was distinguished for his literary taste and talents before the commencement of the revolution. He embraced the cause of moderate reform, and, in 1791, was chosen deputy for Paris, to the legislative assembly, where he was the advocate of the constitutional monarchy. His firmness and moderation could not fail to displease the violent; and he was among the deputies who, on the 8th of August, were insulted on coming out of the assembly. After the dissolution of the legislative assembly, Quatremère was thirteen months in prison, and, after the proscriptions of 1793, his horror of the terrorists was such that he became one of the leaders of the insurrection of the 13th of Vendémiaire (5th of October, 1795). The party of the Jacobins having triumphed, he was condemned to death for contumacy, in not appearing to a charge of having excited a revolt against the convention. He escaped; and a jury having, in July, 1796, declared, that no revolt had existed on that occasion, he came forward, took his trial, and pronounced a discourse on his acquittal, which was distinguished for its boldness and strength. The department of the Seine named him, in 1797, deputy to the council of five hundred; but his opposition to the revolutionists of that day involved him in the sentence of banishment of the 18th of Fructidor (5th of September, 1797). He again escaped, and was recalled in December, 1799, by the consuls. In 1800, having been named member of the general council of the department of the Seine, he was appointed secretary to that

body, and was afterwards called to the national institute, in the class of history and ancient literature. In 1814, he was made officer of the legion of honor, censor royal, and intendant of arts and public monuments. In 1815, he was named member of the council of public instruction. He was appointed editor of the Journal des Savants, for the department of the fine arts, in 1816, and knight of St. Michael, in 1817. He has pronounced funeral discourses on many of his departed fellow academicians, which have been distinguished for their rich and powerful eloquence. Among his works are, Le Jupiter Olympien (1814), on ancient sculpture in ivory and gold; Essais sur l'Imitation dans les Beaux-Arts (1823); La Vie et les Ouvrages de Raphael (1824).

QUATUORDECIMIANS. (See Sects.)

QUEBEC, city; the capital of Lower Canada, on a promontory on the northwest side of the river St. Lawrence, 180 miles below Montreal, nearly 400 from the sea, 700 west by north from Halifax, and 740 from Washington; lat. 46° 47′ N.; lon. 70° 56′ W. The population of the city and suburbs is stated by Bouchette (British Dominions in N. America, London, 1831, 2 vols. 4to.) at about 30,000. By far the greater part of the inhabitants are Roman Catholics, and the French language is most in use. The promontory on which Quebec is built, is formed by the St. Lawrence and St. Charles, and is the termination of a ridge of land, generally from one to two miles wide, which runs from east to west. On the north it has the bold promontory of cape Diamond, rising almost perpendicularly 345 feet above the water; and across it at the north-east, or lower end, the city is built. The fortifications extending across the peninsula, shut in the ground on which the city stands, the circuit of which is about two and a half miles. It is divided into two parts, upper and lower. Upper Quebec is situated on the side of cape Diamond, which slopes to the north, towards the river St. Charles. It is separated from the lower town by a line of steep rocks, which run from the cape towards the west. The lower town is situated immediately under cape Diamond, on ground considerably raised, to prevent its being overflowed, as formerly, at flood tide. The streets run from the upper side of cape Diamond down to the St. Charles, a distance of about half a mile. They are of considerable breadth, and the houses are large and commodious. The houses next the river have very extensive warehouses attached to them, and vessels

come close to the wharves to discharge their cargoes. The communication from the lower to the upper town is by a winding street, at the top of which is a fortified gate. "Quebec," says professor Silliman, "for an American city, is certainly a very peculiar town: a military town-most compactly and permanently built-stone its sole material-environed, as to its most important parts, by walls and gates-and defended by numerous heavy cannongarrisoned by troops, having the arms, the costume, the music, the discipline of Europe-foreign in language, features, and origin, from most of those whom they are sent to defend-founded upon a rock, and in its higher parts overlooking a great extent of country-between three and four hundred miles from the ocean-in the midst of a great continent, and yet displaying fleets of foreign merchantmen, in its fine capacious bay, and showing all the bustle of a crowded seaport-its streets narrow, populous, and winding up and down almost mountainous declivitiessituated in the latitude of the finest parts of Europe exhibiting in its environs the beauty of a European capital, and yet, in winter, smarting with the cold of Siberiagoverned by people of different language and habits from the mass of the population-opposed in religion, and yet leaving that population without taxes, and in the full enjoyment of every privilege, civil and religious. Such are some of the important features which strike a stranger in the city of Quebec." The upper town is the seat of government, and the principal residence of the military. Great improvements have recently been made in the style of buildings, and many of the private dwellings, and several of the public buildings are spacious and elegant. There is a French seminary or college, containing usually more than 200 pupils; but much less attention is paid to education than in the principal cities of the U. States. Quebec is better fortified than any other town in America. Its strength has been greatly increased within a few years. It is so well defended at all points, as to render it abundantly adequate to repel any force that could approach it. The basin or harbor of Quebec is very beautiful, safe, and spacious; it is sufficient to contain 100 sail of the line. The depth of water is twenty-eight fathoms; the spring tides rise twenty-three or twenty-four feet, and the neap tides seventeen or eighteen. The river St. Lawrence is twelve miles wide above the city, but is here contracted to one mile in breadth.

The exports consist principally of timber, grain, flour, furs, and pot and pearlashes. The trade is very extensive, and is principally confined to British vessels. Amount of imports in 1829, £824,392. Quebec was settled by the French in 1608, taken by the English in 1759, and ceded to them in 1763. In 1775, an unsuccessful attack was made upon it by the Americans under general Montgomery, (q. v.) who fell, together with about 700 men.

QUEDLINBURG, a town in the Prussian government of Magdeburg, province of Saxony, is situated at the foot of the Hartz mountains, and contains 12,000 inhabitants. It is a place of considerable industry; its distilleries are important, and many swine are fatted for sale. Among its public establishments is an institute for juvenile offenders. Quedlinburg is the native place of Klopstock. The town owes its origin to the foundation of a religious house for ladies there, between 932 and 936, by king Henry I. The abbess, from 1539, a Lutheran, was a member of the estates of the empire.

QUEEN (Anglo-Saxon, cwen, the wife); the wife of a king. In England, the queen is either queen-consort, or merely wife of the reigning king, who is in general (unless where expressly exempted by law) upon the same footing with other subjects, being to all intents the king's subject, and not his equal; or queen-regent, regnant, or sovereign, who holds the crown in her own right, and has the same powers, prerogatives, and duties, as if she had been a king (see Great Britain, division English Constitution), and whose husband is a subject, and may be guilty of high treason against her; or queendowager, widow of the king, who enjoys most of the privileges which belonged to her as queen-consort. It is treason to compass or imagine the death of the queen-consort, and to violate or defile her person not only renders the person committing the act guilty of treason, but also the queen herself, if consenting. If the queen be accused of treason, she is (whether consort or dowager) tried by the house of peers. Queen Caroline (q. v.) was proceeded against by a bill of pains and penalties. (See Laws of Exception.) By act of parliament, August 2, 1831, the usual provision of £100,000 per annum, with the use of Marlborough house, was made for queen Adelaide, in case she should survive the king. In Prussia, Sweden and France, the succession being confined to the male line, there can be no queen regnant. (See Salic Law.) In Spain (by royal

decree of March 29, 1830), Portugal, &c., females are not excluded from the succession to the throne.

QUEEN'S COLLEGE. (See New Brunswick, in New Jersey.)

QUERCITRON, in dyeing; the internal bark of the quercus nigra; it yields its color, which is yellow, by infusion in water, and by the common mordants gives a permanent dye.

QUERETARO; one of the states of the Mexican confederacy, formed in 1824, of the old intendancy of the same name, which had been separated from that of Mexico in 1816. It is bounded by the states of S. Luis, Potosi, and Vera Cruz, on the north, by that of Puebla on the east, by Mexico on the south, and by Mechoacan and Guanaxuato on the west; square miles, 15,000; population, about 60,000. It lies entirely on the central plateau of Mexico, which is about 6000 feet above the sea. The climate is temperate, and the productions are maize, wheat, European fruits, &c. (See Mexico.) Queretaro is one of the most manufacturing states of the union. Its capital, of the same name, with a population of 35,000, lies in a pleasant valley, 6500 feet above the level of the sea; lat. 20° 36′ N.; lon. 100° 10′ W.; 112 miles north-west of the city of Mexico. It is One of the handsomest cities in Mexico, containing a magnificent cathedral, several convents, hospitals, &c.: the streets are well laid out, and there are several fine squares. The city is the seat of considerable manufacturing industry.

QUESNAY, Francis, a French physician of some eminence, but chiefly noted as a writer on political economy, was born in 1694, and died at Paris in 1774. His father was a farmer, and he acquired the rudiments of his profession under a country surgeon; after which, going to the metropolis, he became secretary to a society established for the improvement of surgery. At length he took the degree of M. D., and obtained the situation of physician to Madame de Pompadour, the mistress of Louis XV, and through her interest became physician to the king. Amid the intrigues of a licentious court, he observed a simplicity of manners and apparent disinterestedness which formed a strong contrast with the characters of those around him. Towards the latter part of his life, he became the founder of the political sect of the economists. (See Physiocratic System, Political Economy, and Laharpe's Cours de Littérature, 14th vol.) He was the author of various surgical and medical works, several articles in the En

cyclopédie, and tracts on politics, including a treatise on Physiocrasy, or the Government most advantageous to the Human Race (1768, 8vo.).

QUESTORS; ordinary magistrates (see Magistrates) among the Romans, whe managed the public treasury (ærarium), kept in the temple of Saturn, and superintended the receipts and expenditures of the public money. They were at first appointed by the kings, afterwards by the consuls, and after 307, A. U., by the people in the comitia tributa. At first there were two questors, in 333, A. U.; two others were added to assist the consuls in war. The two first remained in the city. After the Romans had conquered all Italy, four more were added: under Sylla there were twenty; under Cæsar, forty. After this period their number was arbitrary, but in Rome itself the number was always two, who were called, by way of distinction, quastores urbani. The others were called quæstores provinciales, or militares. The questorship was the lowest office of honor, and opened the way to the senate; but it was sometimes filled by consular men.

QUEVEDO-VILLEGAS, don Francisco de, a Spanish poet, was born at Madrid in 1580, and studied at Alcala de Henares. Besides the ancient languages, his course of studies comprised theology, medicine and philosophy, as he was unwilling to devote himself to any professional pursuit. He combined extensive learning with much wit and great originality. In consequence of a duel, in which his adversary fell, he fled to Italy, where his services gained him the confidence and friendship of the duke of Ossuna. (q. v.) After having visited Germany and France, Quevedo returned to Spain; and on account of his connexions with the duke, then in disgrace, he was arrested and confined to his estate, La Torre de Juan, for three years. To restore his health, impaired by his confinement, he travelled through Spain, and afterwards lived in retirement on his estate, where he probably wrote his poems published under the title of the Bachelor of La Torre. Philip IV conferred on him the place of secretary, and, in 1634, Quevedo married the sister of the archbishop of Abarazin. But at the age of sixty-eight years, he was imprisoned for a libel on the duke of Olivarez, which was imputed to him without any proofs. He was released after two years' confinement, but his health had suffered much from his imprisonment. Being banished from court, he retired to his estate, which