Clearing-House, established in 1848, has its headquarters in Dublin, and was incorporated by act of parliament in 1860.
General.—The principle of clearing adopted by banks and railways has been applied with considerable success in other businesses.
In 1874 the London Stock Exchange Clearing-House was established for the purpose of settling transactions in stock, the clearing being effected by balance-sheets and tickets; the balance of stock to be received or delivered is shown on a balance-sheet sent in by each member, and the items are then cancelled against one another and tickets issued for the balances outstanding. The New York Stock Exchange Clearing-House was established in 1892. The settlements on the Paris Bourse are cleared within the Bourse itself, through the Compagnie des Agents de Change de Paris.
In 1888 a society was formed in London called the Beetroot Sugar Association for clearing bargains in beetroot sugar. For every 500 bags of sugar of a definite weight which a broker sells, he issues a filière (a form something like a dock-warrant), giving particulars as to the ship, the warehouse, trade-marks, &c. The filière contains also a series of transfer forms which are filled up and signed by each successive holder, so transferring the property to a new purchaser. The new purchaser also fills up a coupon attached to the transfer, quoting the date and hour of sale. This coupon is detached by the seller and retained by him as evidence to determine any liability through subsequent delay in the delivery of the sugar. Any purchaser requiring delivery of the sugar forwards the filière to the clearing-house, and the officials then send on his name to the first seller who tenders him the warrant direct. These filières pass from hand to hand within a limit of six days, a stamp being affixed on each transfer as a clearing-house fee. The difference between each of the successive transactions is adjusted by the clearing-house to the profit or loss of the seller.
The London Produce Clearing-House was established in 1888 for regulating and adjusting bargains in foreign and colonial produce. The object of the association is to guarantee both to the buyer and the seller the fulfilment of bargains for future delivery. The transactions on either side are allowed to accumulate during a month and an adjustment made at the end by a settlement of the final balance owing. On the same lines are the Caisse de Liquidation at Havre and the Waaren Liquidations Casse at Hamburg. The Cotton Association also has a clearing-house at Liverpool for clearing the transactions which arise from dealings in cotton.
Authorities.—W. Howarth, Our Clearing System and Clearing Houses (1897), The Banks in the Clearing House (1905); J. G. Cannon, Clearing-houses, their History, Methods and Administration (1901); H. T. Easton, Money, Exchange and Banking (1905); and the various volumes of the Journal of the Institute of Bankers. (T. A. I.)
CLEAT (a word common in various forms to many Teutonic languages, in the sense of a wedge or lump, cf. “clod” and “clot”), a wedge-shaped piece of wood fastened to ships’ masts and elsewhere to prevent a rope, collar or the like from slipping, or to act as a step; more particularly a piece of wood
or metal with double or single horns used for belaying ropes.
A “cleat” is also a wedge fastened to a ship’s side to catch the
shores in a launching cradle or dry dock. “Cleat” is also used
in mining for the vertical cleavage-planes of coal.
CLEATOR MOOR, an urban district in the Egremont parliamentary division of Cumberland, England, 4 m. S.E. of Whitehaven, served by the Furness, London & North-Western and Cleator & Workington Junction railways. Pop. (1901) 8120. The town lies between the valleys of the Ehen and its tributary the Dub Beck, in a district rich in coal and iron ore. The mining
of these, together with blast furnaces and engineering works, occupies the large industrial population.
CLEAVERS, or Goose-Grass, Galium Aparine (natural order
Rubiaceae), a common plant in hedges and waste places, with
a long, weak, straggling, four-sided, green stem, bearing whorls
of 6 to 8 narrow leaves, ½ to 2 in. long, and, like the angles of the
stem, rough from the presence of short, stiff, downwardly-pointing,
hooked hairs. The small, white, regular flowers are borne, a few
together, in axillary clusters, and are followed by the large, hispid,
two-celled fruit, which, like the rest of the plant, readily clings
to a rough surface, whence the common name. The plant has a
wide distribution throughout the north temperate zone, and is also
found in temperate South America.
CLEBURNE, a town and the county-seat of Johnson county,
Texas, U.S.A., 25 m. S. of Fort Worth. Pop. (1890) 3278;
(1900) 7493, including 611 negroes; (1910) 10,364. It is served by
the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fé, the Missouri, Kansas & Texas,
and the Trinity & Brazos Valley railways. It is the centre of a
prosperous farming, fruit and stock-raising region, has large
railway repair shops, flour-mills, cotton gins and foundries, a
canning factory and machine shops. It has a Carnegie library,
and St Joseph’s Academy (Roman Catholic; for girls). The
town was named in honour of Patrick Ronayne Cleburne (1828–1864),
a major-general of the Confederate army, who was of
Irish birth, practised law in Helena, Arkansas, served at Shiloh,
Perryville, Stone River, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, Ringgold
Gap, Jonesboro and Franklin, and was killed in the last-named
battle; he was called the “Stonewall of the West.”
CLECKHEATON, an urban district in the Spen Valley parliamentary division of the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, 5½ m. S. by E. of Bradford, on the Lancashire & Yorkshire, Great Northern and London & North-Western railways. Pop. (1901) 12,524. A chamber of commerce has held meetings here since 1878. The industries comprise the manufacture of woollens, blankets, flannel, wire-card and machinery.
CLEETHORPES, a watering-place of Lincolnshire, England;
within the parliamentary borough of Great Grimsby, 3 m. S.E.
of that town by a branch of the Great Central railway. Pop.
of urban district of Cleethorpe with Thrunscoe (1901) 12,578.
Cleethorpes faces eastward to the North Sea, but its shore of
fine sand, affording good bathing, actually belongs to the estuary
of the Humber. There is a pier, and the sea-wall extends for
about a mile, forming a pleasant promenade. The suburb of New Clee connects Cleethorpes with Grimsby. The church of the Holy Trinity and St Mary is principally Norman of various dates, but work of a date apparently previous to the Conquest appears in the tower. Cleethorpes is greatly favoured by visitors from the midland counties, Lancashire and Yorkshire.
CLEFT PALATE and HARE-LIP, in surgery. Cleft Palate is a congenital cleavage, or incomplete development in the roof
of the mouth, and is frequently associated with hare-lip. The
infant is prevented from sucking, and an operation is necessary.
Cleft-palate is often a hereditary defect. The most favourable
time for operating is between the age of two weeks and three
months, and if the cleft is closed at this early date, not only are
the nutrition and general development of the child greatly
improved, but the voice is probably saved from much of the
unpleasant tone which is usually associated with a defective
roof to the mouth and is apt to persist even if a cleft has been
successfully operated on later in childhood. The greatest advance
which has been made in the operative treatment of cleft palate
is due to the teaching of Dr Truman W. Brophy, who adopted
the ingenious plan of thrusting together to the middle line of
the mouth the halves of the palate which nature had unfortunately
left apart. But, as noted above, this operation must, to
give the best results, be undertaken in the earliest months of
infancy. After the cleft in the palate has been effectually dealt
with, the hare-lip can be repaired with ease and success.
Hare-lip.—In the hare the splitting of the lip is in the middle line, but in the human subject it is on one side, or on both sides of the middle line. This is accounted for on developmental grounds: a cleft in the exact middle line is of extremely rare occurrence. Hare-lip is often associated with cleft palate. Though we are at present unable to explain why development should so frequently miss the mark in connexion with the formation of the lip and palate, it is unlikely that maternal impressions have anything to do with it. As a rule, the supposed “fright” comes long after the lips are developed. They are completely formed by the ninth week. Heredity has a powerful influence
