solve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume. among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and, accordingly, all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present king of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having, in direct object, the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these States. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world: He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and, when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the Legislature; a right inestimable to them, and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused, for a long time after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected ; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the State remaining, in the mean time, exposed to all the danger of invasion from without and convulsions within.

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the laws for the naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.

He has obstructed the administration of justice by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.

He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies, without the consent of our legislature.

He has affected to render the military independent of, and superior to, the civil power.

He has combined, with others, to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws, giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation.

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us :

For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment, for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing taxes on us without our consent:

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:

For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offense :

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries, so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering, fundamentally, the powers of our governments:

For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection, and waging war against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is, at this time, transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun, with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on the high seas, to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections among us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions.

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms; our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts made by their legislature to extend an unwarrant able jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigra tion and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them, by the ties of our common kindred, to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They, too, have been deaf to the voice of justice and consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace, friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by the authority of the good people of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; and that, as free and independent States, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent States may of right do. And, for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. INDEPENDENCE OF STATES, a term applied to states which by international law are self-governing as to their internal affairs, and also perform international acts toward other states. None of the United States being absolutely self-governing, and none having any international character, none is independent.

INDEPENDENTS, such bodies of Christians as claim the right of each individual church to administer its own affairs, free from ecclesiastical or civil authority. In history the name has been usually applied to the Congregationalists of Great Britain, who differ from the Congregationalists of America and other countries, in regarding the fellowship of the local churches as unessential. The first Independent church was organized in London about 1555, and the Brownists (q.v.) or Separatists, as the Independents were first called, steadily increased in numbers in spite of persecution and emigration. They were prominent in the Westminster Assembly; and from the times of the Commonwealth down to the present day have ever been noted for their devotion to civil and religious liberty. In 1831 the Congregational Union of England and Wales was formed, in which most of the Independent churches are represented. The Independents, or, Congregationalists, as they are now more frequently called, are the largest dissenting body, next to the Wesleyan Methodists, in the United Kingdom, and in 1890 reported 4817 churches and chapels, and about 400,000 communicants.

INDETERMINATE PROBLEMS. It was shown in the article EQUATIONS that the values of the unknown quantities could only be determined when the number of equations was equal to the number of unknown quantities, but that, if the latter exceeded the former, several values might be found for each unknown, in which case the problems which give rise to the equations are called indeterminate problems. For example. "To find the number which, when divided by 2 and 3, leaves remainders 1 and 2," is an indeterminate problem, admitting of an infinite number of solutions; for though only one unknown quantity appears in the question, yet, in order to form an equation, we are obliged to proceed in the following manner: as a is divisible by 2, with a remainder 1, 2p+1; again, as x is divisible by 3, with a remainder 2, x=3q+2; hence we have the equation 2p+1=3q+2 (one equation to find two unknown quantities), from which, by a process which is explained in the ordinary books on algebra, we find x = 6r 1, where r is any positive number whatever. The values of x are, therefore, 5, 11, 17, 28, etc. In general, if the equation is of the form ax + by = c, the number of pairs of values (of x and y) is finite; but if of the form ax by c, the number is infinite. The Diophantine (q.v.) analysis exhibits a very interesting class of indeterminate problems of the second degree.

=

INDEX (more fully INDEX LIBRORUM PROHIBITORUM), a catalogue published by papal authority in the Roman Catholic church of books the reading of which is prohibited to members of that church, whether on doctrinal, moral, or religious grounds. As a natural consequence of the claim of the Catholic church to authority in matters of religion, and to infallibility, that church also claims the right or the duty of watching over the faith of its members, and of guarding it against every danger of corruption, the chief among which is held to be the circulation of books believed to be injurious to faith or to morality. The earliest recorded exercise of this restrictive authority is the prohibition of the writings of Arius; and a council of Carthage, in the year 398, issued, even for bishops, a similar prohibition of gentile books, although it permitted to them the reading of the works of heretics. The earliest example of a prohibitory catalogue is found in the decree of a council held at Rome (494) under pope Gelatius (Labbe Cone., ii. col. 938-41), which, having enumerated the canonical books of Scripture and other approved works, recites also the apocryphal books, together with a long list of heretical authors, whose writings it prohibits, and orders to be eliminated from the churches. The medieval popes and councils pursued the same course as to the heterodox or dangerous writings of their respective periods, and the multiplication of such books after the invention of printing led to a more stringent as well as more systematic procedure. The university press of Louvain issued in 1546, and again in 1550, a catalogue of prohibited books. Similar lists appeared by authority at Venice, Paris, and Cologne; and Pius IV. issued in 1557 and 1559 what may be regarded as properly the first Roman Index. One of the gravest undertakings of the council of Trent was a more complete and authoritative enumeration of all those books the use of which it was expedient to prohibit to the faithful. A committee was appointed for the purpose, and had made great progress in the work; but it was found impossible to bring the examination of the books to an end before the close of the council; and the entire of the papers of the committee were handed over by the council to the pope, with instructions that the work should be completed, and the result published by his own authority, which was accordingly done by Pius IV. in 1564. Further additions and certain modifications of its rules were made by Sixtus V. and Clement VII. It was republished in 1595, and with the addition of such books as from time to time it was deemed expedient to prohibit, in several subsequent editions, the most remarkable of which are those of Brasichelli (Rome, 1607); Quiroga, Index Librorum Expurgandorum (Salamanca, 1601); and Sotomayor, Novissimus Index (Madrid, 1648). The edition best known to modern theological readers is that of Rome, 1819. In the intervals between the editions, the decrees by which further additions to the Index are made, are made public at Rome, and circulated in the various countries.

The prohibitions of the Roman Index are of two classes, either absolute and total, or partial and provisional, "until the book shall have been corrected." The edition of Quiroga, mentioned above, regards the latter. The ground of the prohibition may be either the authorship of the work, or its subject, or both together. Under the first head are prohibited all the writings of heresiarchs-i.e., the first founders of heresies-no matter what may be the subject. Under the second head are prohibited all books confessedly immoral, and all books on magic, nécromancy, etc. Under the third are prohibited all books of heretical authorship treating on doctrinal subjects; all versions of the Bible by heretical authors; and all books, no matter by whom written, which contain statements, doctrines, or insinuations prejudicial to the Catholic religion. The preparation of the Index, in the first instance, was committed to the care of the congregation of the inquisition in Rome; but a special congregation of the Index was established by Pius V., and more fully organized by Sixtus V. This congregation consists of a prefect (who is always a cardinal), of cardinals, of consulters, and of examiners of books (qualificatores). Its proceedings are governed by rules which have been authoritatively laid down by several popes, especially by Benedict XIV., in a constitution issued July 10, 1753, to which the reader is referred for the best and most authentic exposition of a subject on which much misconception exists on the part of Catholics as well as of Prot

estants.

The growth of modern literature has, of course, entirely outstripped the limited and tardy machinery of this tribunal. A very small proportion even of the most anti-Catholic publications outside of Italy find their way by name to the Roman Index; but besides the positive prohibitions of the Index itself, there are certain general rules regarding the use of books by which the freedom of what is considered perilous or pernicious reading is much limited among members of the Roman Catholic church. These, however, would be entirely beyond the scope of our publication; nor could the rules of the Index even be practically brought into operation in those countries where the Catholic and Protestant literatures are so interwoven, that it is impossible to separate them even in the ordinary intercourse of life. See Wetzer's Kirchen-Lexicon, art. "Index."

Few parts of the Roman Catholic system are more foreign to Protestant usage than the institution of the Index,' as it strikes at the root of the fundamental principle of Protestantism itself-namely, that of private judgment. And the Protestant objection to it is increased by seeing that, in its practical working, such names as Gibbon, Robertson. Guicciardini, Sismondi, Hallam, Goldsmith (History of England), Des

India.

cartes, Locke, Kant (Essay on Pure Reason), J. S. Mill (Political Economy), Whately Logic), Bacon, Milton, Addison, Dante (De Monarchia), etc., are put under the ban.

INDIA,* an extensive region of southern Asia, celebrated during many ages for its riches and valuable natural productions, its beautiful manufactures and costly merchandise, the magnificence of its sovereigns, and the early civilization of its people. It possesses especial interest to the Englishman, from the intimate connection of its history with that of his own country.

Hither India is the central peninsula of southern Asia, and lies in 8° 4' to 35° n. lat., and 67° to 92° e. long. According to these limits, its length may be stated approximately at 1900 m., and its breadth, reckoned along the parallel of 25° n. lat., at 1600 m., with an area of about 1,300,000 sq. miles. The natural boundaries of this vast region are, on the n., the range of the Himalaya mountains, which separates it from Tartary, China, and Thibet; on the w., the Suliman mountains divide it from Afghanistan and Beloochistan; on the s., the Arabian sea and the gulf of Bengal; and on the e., the hill-ranges which separate Chittagong and Assam from Burmah. From the mouths of the Brahmaputra and the Indus, the e. and w. coasts, inclining towards the same point, meet at cape Comorin, and thus give to southern India the form of an irregular triangle. The two sides of the triangle have each a coast-line of about 2,000 miles. India is, in fact, from its great extent of seaboard, essentially a maritime country.

Further India is the name given to the south-eastern peninsula of Asia. It is not treated of in this article, and for information concerning it reference is made to the articles on SIAM, BURMAH, COCHIN-CHINA, etc.

Physical Features.-Hither India presents a most diversified surface and varied scenery; it has indeed been called “an epitome of the whole earth," consisting as it does of mountains far above the level of perpetual snow; broad and fertile plains, bathed in intensest sunshine, arid wastes, and impenetrable forests. Its great natural divisions are the sub-Himalayan countries, the plain of the Ganges, the plain of the Indus, the highlands of northern Hindustan, and the peninsular portion of the country to the s of the Vindhya mountains.

The sub Himalayan Countries form an elevated tract lying between the chief ridge of the Himalayas and the lower elevations which adjoin the plains of the Ganges and Indus. They consist of Cashmere, Gurhwal, Kumaon, Nepaul, Sikkim, and Bhotan, all hill-countries, which, owing to their elevation above the sea, have a cool climate and the vegetation of the temperate zones. These regions are separated from the plain of the Ganges by the Terai, or Great Indian swamp, which extends in a long belt, 5 to 25 m. in width, from Hurdwar to the Brahmaputra. It is covered with great forest trees, and is the haunt of innumerable wild beasts. The soil is very fertile, but malaria renders it uninhabitable by man and the domestic animals, at least from April to Oct. It is then said to be abandoned even by the wild beasts. This wilderness forms a great physical barrier between the hill-countries and the plains, and separates populations distinct from each other in race and language.

The Plain of the Ganges, which includes Bengal, Bahar, the Doab, Oude, and Rohilcund, is a vast alluvial flat, extending from the bay of Bengal to the Punjab. Throughout its entire length, the Ganges and its numerous tributaries spread out like the veins of a leaf, carrying everywhere their fertilizing influence. The population of these fertile and well-cultivated plains is very dense. Scattered over the agricultural districts, and massed in the great cities and towns, there are not less than 100,000,000 people.

The Plains of the Indus, in the n.w., are less extensive than those of the Ganges, and are separated from the latter by the Aravulli hills. The Punjab occupies the northern portion. South of the Punjab, and parallel with the river, the great sandy desert of the Indus extends for nearly 500 miles. The valley of the Indus is continued through Sinde to the ocean. The plains of the Indus may be considered to include Cutch and Gugerat, which like them slope towards the Arabian sea. Between the Indus and the Aravulli mountains lies the Thur or Indian desert, an expanse covered with sand-hills, 400 m. long and 100 broad. It is only in the neighborhood of the Indus and the Luni that the surface can be cultivated-although crops of grain may be grown in a few narrow valleys after the rains. The horse and camel alone can cross this desert, which is described in Hindu geography as "the region of death." Like the Terai, it forms a great physical barrier separating western and eastern India.

The Highlands of Northern Hindustan extend from the Vindhya mountains as a base to the border of the Thur. They include the table-land of Malwa and Rajpootana or Rajasthan, which has an elevation of about 2,000 ft. above the level of the sea.

The Peninsular Portion of India, s. of the Vindhya mountains, which remains to be considered, is called by the natives the Deccan (q.v.). The most remarkable geographi cal feature of this area is a central table-land-a vast plateau-extending from 12 to 21° n. lat., rising from 2,000 to 3,000 ft. above the sea, and inclosed on all sides by lofty

* The name is borrowed by the Greeks from the Persians, who, however, applied the name of Hindus at first only to the dwellers on the banks of the river Sindhu (Sans. for Indus). From this, by the regular change of 8 into h. the Persian Hind is derived. Hindustán (the country of the Hirdus) is a modern word applied by the Persians to the whole of India; but Europeans understand it as applying properly to that portion of it which lies n. of the Vindhya mountains.

mountains, between which and the sea, on the e. and w., are narrow strips of low flat country, divided into several districts. From the low country on the coast to the central table-land the mountains rise abruptly, in a succession of gigantic terraces or steps, and hence the name of Ghauts" (q.v.). The rivers of the Deccan rise in the western Ghauts, and after transversing the table-land, descend to the sea over the eastern Ghauts, The slope of the country corresponds with the course of the rivers; it has a gradual incli nation towards the east. Ceylon, the Lacadive, and Maladive islands may also be considered to belong to this part of India.

The Himalaya (q.v.) and the Suliman mountains (see AFGHANISTAN) far exceed in alti. tude the chains which lie within the boundaries of India. The Vindhya mountains, which cross India between 22° and 25° of n. lat., and separate Hindustan proper from the southern or peninsular portion of the country, nowhere exceed 6,000 ft. in height. The Satpura range, between the Nerbudda and Tapti valleys, is a spur of the Vindhya. The Western Ghauts run parallel with the Indian ocean at a distance of 20 to 40 miles. At Mahabaleshwar, the sanitarium of Bombay, they rise to 4,500 ft., but they are lofty near Coorg, where one summit has an elevation of 7,000 feet. On the opposite coast, forming the south-eastern buttress of the table-land of the Deccan, are the Eastern Ghauts (see GHAUTS). The physical geography of southern India presents the singular phenomenon of isolated masses upheaved amidst the vast plains that occupy the greater portion of the peninsula. Of these, the most remarkable are the Neilgherries (q. v.) or Blue mountains, which cover an area of 600 sq. miles. Ootacamund (q.v.), the great sanitarium of southern India, situated in the midst of them, has an elevation of 7,400 feet. Of the minor mountain-ranges of India, the principal are the Sewalik range, near Hurdwar, rising 3,000 ft.; the Kala or Salt range, adjacent to the Suliman range, rising 2,500 ft., the Aravulli, between the basins of the Ganges and the Indus, culminating in Mt. Abu at an altitude of 5,000 ft.; the Kattywar hills, rising from 1000 to 3,000 ft. in the center of the Katty war peninsula; the hills of Bundelcund, 2,000 ft.; and the Rajmahal hills, rising from 5,000 to 7,000 feet.

The river-system of India is on a grand scale. The Indus (q.v.) traverses the n.w., and drains about 400,000 sq.m. of country. The Ganges (q.v.), on the n.e., together with its tributaries, drains an area of about 500,000 sq. miles. The Brahmaputra (q.v.) has a course of upwards of 600 m. from the point where it leaves the Himalayas to that where it enters the bay of Bengal. The eastern side of India-the region southward of the Nerbudda, and eastward of the Malabar Ghauts-is watered by 18 rivers, the principal being the Godavery, 830 m. long; Kistna, 800; Cauvery (Kaveri), 470; Mahanadi, 520; Brahmini, 400; North Pennar, 350; and the South Pennar, 240. About 20 rivers water the western side of India. The most noteworthy are the Nerbudda, 800 m. long; the Tapti, 400-both of which flow into the gulf of Cambay; the Myhi, 350 m.; Luni, 320 m.; Bunnas, 180 m.; and the Bhadro, 130 miles.

Geology. From observations that have been made at different points in India, the general features of its geological structure are known. A staff of geologists commenced more than a quarter of a century ago a geological survey of India, which has since then been uninterruptedly proceeded with. They have already examined an area more than four times as large as that of Great Britain, and their inquiries have sup plied, for the districts they have dealt with, an accurate knowledge of the mineral resources of India.

India is bounded on the n.e. by the range of the Himalayas, the great water-shed of central Asia. These mountains consist of granitic rocks which have penetrated the stratified rocks, thrown them up in endless confusion, and metamorphosed them in many places into gneiss, mica-schist, clay-slate, or crystalline limestone. Layers of sandstone and conglomerate extend along the base of the mountains. They are of the miocene age, containing the remains of species of camel, giraffe, hippopotamus, sivatherium, elephant, crocodile, and tortoise. These are extensively developed in the Sewalik hills. An immense tract of post-tertiary alluvial deposits covers the whole of the river-basins of the Ganges and the Indus, stretching across the n. of India from sea to sea. The eastern and western Ghauts consist of metamorphic rocks, which are continued across the country to the n. of the Godavery. Between this transverse band of altered strata and the diluvial deposits of the n., large tract of country is occupied with paleozoic rocks, frequently broken through and covered with different kinds of trap, and in some places overlaid with secondary and fresh-water tertiary strata. One of the most important labors of prof. Oldham and his geological staff has been the exploration of the great Indian coal-fields. They lie in a region bounded by the Ganges on the n., and extending beyond the Godavery on the south. The coals come from one geological formation called Damuda," from the river Damodar, in the valley of which the chief beds occur. It differs little geologically from the carboniferous beds of England. Iron, copper, and lead are worked in different parts of India. Salt is obtained from the Salt range above referred to, and produced abundantly by evaporation in the salt lakes of the Thur.

Vegetable Productions.-The vegetation of India is as varied as its soil and climate, and passes from the flora of a tropical to that of an alpine region. The groves of palm that border the coast, and, in the interior, the umbrageous mango topes, are striking features of Indian scenery. Rice is the chief article of food in India, and is produced in