g of municipal charters, &c.; (3) judicial--the Judicial Committee
is a court of law, whose principal function is the hearing of appeals
from ecclesiastical courts and from Indian and colonial courts.

PRIVY SEAL, the seal of the sovereign appended to grants that do not
require to pass the great seal.

PROBUS, MARCUS AURELIUS, Roman emperor from 276 to 282, born in
Pannonia; having distinguished himself in the field as a soldier, was
elected by the army and the citizens to succeed Tacitus; defended the
empire successfully against all encroachments, and afterwards devoted
himself to home administration, but requiring the service of the soldiers
in public works, which they considered degrading, was seized by a body of
them compelled so to drudge, and put to death.

PROCLUS, a Neo-Platonic philosopher, born in Constantinople; appears
to have held a Trinitarian view of the universe, and to have regarded the
All abstractly viewed as contained in the Divine ever emerging from it
and returning into it, a doctrine Implied in John i. 1, but far short of
the corresponding trinity in the ripe philosophy of Hegel (412-485).

PROCONSUL, name given to the governor of a Roman province who was
absolute ruler of it, disposed of the army, dispensed justice, controlled
administration, and was represented by legates.

PROCOP, the name of two Hussite leaders of the Taborites, who after
leading successful forays on all hands from their head-quarters in
Bohemia, fell in battle with their rivals the Calixtines at Lippau in
1434.

PROCOPIUS, a Greek historian, born at Caesarea, the secretary of
Belisarius, and author of a History of the Wars of Justinian, which is
still the chief authority for the events of his reign; _d_. 565.

PROCRUSTES, a brigand of ancient Attica, who when any one fell into
his hands placed him on a bed, stretching him out if he was too short for
it and amputating him if he was too long till he died; he was one day
overpowered by Theseus, who tortured him to death as he had done his own
victims; his practice has given name to any attempt to enforce conformity
by violent measures.

PROCTER, BRYAN WALTER, English lyrist, known by his pseudonym as
Barry Cornwall, born in London; was bred to the bar, and was for 30 years
a Commissioner of Lunacy, and is chiefly memorable as the friend of all
the eminent literary men of two generations, such as Wordsworth, Lamb,
and Scott on the one hand and Carlyle, Tha