Parliament passed
in 1644, whereby the members bound themselves not to accept certain
executive offices, particularly commands in the army.

SELIM I., a warlike sultan of Turkey, who, having dethroned and put
to death his father, Bajazet II., entered upon a victorious career of
military aggrandisement, overcoming the Persians in 1515, conquering and
annexing Egypt, Syria, and the Hejaz in 1517, finally winning for himself
the position of Imam or head of the Mohammedan world; greatly
strengthened his country, and strove according to his lights to deal
justly with and ameliorate the condition of the peoples whom he conquered
(1467-1520).

SELJUKS, a Turkish people who in the 10th century, headed by a chief
named Seljuk (whence their name), broke away from their allegiance to the
khan of Kirghiz, adopted the Mohammedan faith, and subsequently conquered
Bokhara, but were driven across the Oxus and settled HI Khorassan; under
Toghril Beg, grandson of Seljuk, they in the 11th century won for
themselves a wide empire in Asia, including the provinces of Syria and
Asia Minor, whose rulers, by their cruel persecution of Christian
pilgrims, led to the Crusade movement in Europe. The Seljuks were in part
gradually absorbed by the advancing Mongol tribes, while numbers fled
westward, where they were at length incorporated in the Ottoman Empire in
the 14th century.

SELKIRK (6), county town of Selkirkshire, on the Ettrick, 40 m. SE.
of Edinburgh; famed at one time for its "Souters"; is a centre of the
manufacture of tweeds.

SELKIRKSHIRE (27), a south inland county of Scotland; extends S.
from the corner of Midlothian to Dumfriesshire, between Peebles (W.) and
Roxburgh (E.); the grassy slopes of its hills afford splendid pasturage,
and sheep-farming is a flourishing industry; manufactures are mainly
confined to Galashiels and Selkirk; is traversed by the Ettrick and the
Yarrow, whose romantic valleys are associated with much of the finest
ballad literature of Scotland.

SELWYN, GEORGE, a noted wit in the social and literary life of
London in Horace Walpole's time, born, of good parentage, in
Gloucestershire; was expelled from Oxford in 1743 for blasphemy; four
years later entered Parliament, and supported the Court party, and
received various government favours; his vivacious wit won him ready
entrance into the best London and Parisian society; is the chief figure
in Jesse's entertaining "George Selwyn and his Contemp