of ... the wise Mr. Justice
Freeman, the good Lady Jones, and the great Sir Thomas Truby.--Sir
W. Scott.

=Pragmatic Sanction.= The word _pragmaticus_ means "relating to State
affairs," and the word _sanctio_ means "an ordinance" or "decree." The
four most famous statutes so called are:

1. _The Pragmatic Sanction of St. Louis_ (1268), which forbade the court
of Rome to levy taxes or collect subscriptions in France without the
express permission of the king. It also gave French subjects the right
of appealing, in certain cases, from the ecclesiastical to the civil
courts of the realm.

2. _The Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges_, passed by Charles VII. of
France, in 1438. By this ordinance the power of the people in France was
limited and defined. The authority of the National Council was declared
superior to that of the pope. The French clergy were forbidden to appeal
to Rome on any point affecting the secular condition of the nation; and
the Roman pontiff was wholly forbidden to appropriate to himself any
vacant living, or to appoint to any bishopric or parish church in
France.

3. _The Pragmatic Sanction of Kaiser Karl VI. of Germany_ (in 1713),
which settled the empire on his daughter, the Archduchess Maria Theresa,
wife of Fran[c,]ois de Loraine. Maria Theresa ascended the throne in 1740,
and a European war was the result.

4. _The Pragmatic Sanction of Charles III. of Spain_ (1767). This was to
suppress the Jesuits of Spain.

What is meant emphatically by _The Pragmatic Sanction_ is the third of
these ordinances, viz., settling the line of succession in Germany on
the house of Austria.

=Pramnian Mixture= (_The_), any intoxicating draught; so called from the
Pramnian grape, from which it was made. Circ[^e] gave Ulysses "Pramnian
wine" impregnated with drugs, in order to prevent his escape from the
island.

And for my drink prepared
The Pramnian mixture in a golden cup,
Impregnating (on my destruction bent)
With noxious herbs the draught.

Homer, _Odyssey_, x. (Cowper's trans.).

=Prasildo=, a Babylonish nobleman, who falls in love with Tisbi'na, wife
of his friend Iroldo. He is overheard by Tisbina threatening to kill
himself, and, in order to divert him from his guilty passion she
promises to return his love on condition of his performing certain
adventures which she thinks to be impossible. However, Prasildo performs
them all, and then Tisbina and Iroldo, fin