mong four native rulers under Dutch
authority.

SUMNER, CHARLES, American statesman and abolitionist, born in
Boston; graduated at Harvard (1830), and was called to the bar in 1834,
but found a more congenial sphere in writing and lecturing; during
1837-40 pursued his favourite study of jurisprudence in France, Germany,
and England; was brought into public notice by his 4th of July oration
(1845) on "The True Grandeur of Nations," an eloquent condemnation of
war; became an uncompromising opponent of the slave-trade; was one of the
founders of the Free Soil Party, and in 1851 was elected to the National
Senate, a position he held until the close of his life, and where he did
much by his eloquent speeches to prepare the way for emancipation, and
afterwards to win for the blacks the rights of citizenship (1811-1874).

SUMNER, JOHN BIRD, archbishop of Canterbury; rose by a succession of
preferments to the Primacy, an office which he discharged with discretion
and moderation (1780-1862).

SUMPTUARY LAWS, passed in various lands and ages to restrict excess
in dress, food, and luxuries generally; are to be found in the codes of
Solon, Julius Caesar, and other ancient rulers; Charles VI. of France
restricted dinners to one soup and two other dishes; appear at various
times in English statutes down to the 16th century against the use of
"costly meats," furs, silks, &c., by those unable to afford them; were
issued by the Scottish Parliament against the extravagance of ladies in
the matter of dress to relieve "the puir gentlemen their husbands and
fathers"; were repealed in England in the reign of James I.; at no time
were they carefully observed.

SUMTER, FORT, a fort on a shoal in Charleston harbour, 31/2 m. from
the town; occupied by Major Anderson with 80 men and 62 guns in the
interest of the secession of South Carolina from the Union, and the
attack on which by General Beauregard on 12th April 1861 was the
commencement of the Civil War; it held out against attack and bombardment
till the month of July following.

SUN, THE, is a star; is the centre of the solar system, as it is in
consequence called, is a globe consisting of a mass of vapour at white
heat, and of such enormous size that it is 500 times larger than all the
planets of the system put together, or of a bulk one million and a half
times greater than the earth, from which it is ninety-two and a half
million miles distant; the bright surface of it is