FRANCOIS
LOUIS especially, who was a man of supreme ability both in war and
science, and had the merit to be elected king of Poland (1664-1709).

CONTINENTAL SYSTEM, Napoleon's scheme for interdicting all commerce
between the Continent and Great Britain, carried out with various issues
till the fall of Napoleon. See BERLIN and MILAN DECREES.

CONTRAT, SOCIAL, Rousseau's theory of society that it is based on
mere contract, each individual member of it surrendering his will to the
will of all, under protection of all concerned, a theory which led to the
conclusion that the rule of kings is an usurpation of the rights of the
community, and which bore fruit as an explosive in the Revolution at the
end of the century.

CONVENTION, NATIONAL, a revolutionary convention in France which, on
September 20, 1792, succeeded the Legislative Assembly, proclaimed the
Republic, condemned the king to death, succeeded in crushing the
royalists of La Vendee and the south, in defeating all Europe leagued
against France, and in founding institutions of benefit to France to this
day; it was dissolved on October 26, 1795, to make way for the Directory.

CONVERSATIONS LEXICON, a popular German encyclopaedia of 16 vols.,
started in 1796, and since 1808 published by Brockhaus, in Leipzig.

CONVERSION, "the grand epoch for a man," says Carlyle, "properly the
one epoch; the turning-point, which guides upwards, or guides downwards,
him and his activities for evermore."

CONVOCATION, an assemblage of the English clergy, with little or no
legislative power, summoned and prorogued by an archbishop under
authority of the Crown; one under the Archbishop of Canterbury, held at
Canterbury, and one under the Archbishop of York, held at York,
consisting each of two bodies, an Upper of bishops, and an Under of
lesser dignitaries and inferior clergy, in separate chambers, though they
originally met in one.

CONWAY, a port in Carnarvon, on the river Conway, with a massive
castle, one of those built by Edward I. to keep Wales in check; is a
favourite summer resort, and is amid beautiful scenery.

CONWAY, HUGH, the _nom de plume_ of Frederick Fargus, born in
Bristol; bred to the auctioneer business; author of "Called Back," a
highly sensational novel, and a success; gave up his business and settled
in London, where he devoted himself to literature, and the production of
similar works of much promise, but caught malarial fever at Monte Car