PRIDEAUX, HUMPHREY, English prelate and scholar; remembered chiefly as the author of a learned work entitled “The Connection of the History of the Old and New Testaments”; wrote a “Life of Mahomet,” popular in its day and for long after (1648-1724).

PRIDE’S PURGE, the name given to a violent exclusion, in 1649, at the hands of a body of troops commanded by Colonel Pride of about a hundred members of the House of Commons disposed to deal leniently with the king, after which some eighty, known as the Rump, were left to deal with his Majesty and bring him to justice.

PRIESSNITZ, founder of the water-cure, in connection with which he had a large establishment at Graefenberg, in Austrian Silesia; was a mere empiric, having been bred to farming (1799-1851).

PRIEST, properly a man in touch with the religious life of the people, and for the most part consecrated to mediate between them and the Deity; the prophet, on the other hand, being one more in touch with the Deity, being at times so close to Him as to require a priest to mediate between him and the laity.

PRIESTLEY, JOSEPH, a Socinian divine, born near Leeds; wrote in defence of Socinianism, and in defence of Christianity; gave himself to physical research, particularly pneumatic chemistry; is claimed as the discoverer of oxygen; sympathised with the French Revolution; was mobbed, and had to flee to America, where he died, believing in immortality despite his materialistic philosophy (1733-1804).

PRIM, JUAN, a Spanish general; distinguished as a statesman; rose to be Minister of War, but aspiring to dictatorship, was shot by an assassin; he was the leader of the movement that overthrew Isabella in 1868 and installed Amadeo in her stead (1814-1870).

PRIMROSE, the name of a family in Goldsmith’s “Vicar of Wakefield.”

PRIMROSE LEAGUE, a politico-Conservative organisation founded in 1883 in memory of Lord Beaconsfield, and so called because the primrose was popularly reported to be his favourite flower.  It includes a large membership, nearly a million, comprising women as well as men; is divided into district habitations; confers honours and badges in the style of Freemasonry, and has extensive political influence under a grand-master.

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND (109), an island province of Canada, in the S. of Gulf of St. Lawrence, occupies a great bay formed by New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Cape Breton, and is somewhat larger than Northumberland.  The coast-line is exceedingly broken, the surface low and undulating, and very fertile.  The chief industry is agriculture, oats and potatoes are the best crops; decayed shells found in beds on the shore are an excellent manure; sheep and horses are raised with great success.  The climate is healthy, milder and clearer than on the mainland, but with a tedious winter.  Coal exists, but is not wrought.  The fisheries are the best on the Gulf, but are not developed.