and Tragicorum Romanorum fragmenta (1897); Tacitus, Annals,
v. 8, xi. 13, xii. 28; Quintilian, Inst. Orat. x. 1. 98; Pliny, Nat.
Hist. xiv. 5; M. Schanz, Geschichte der römischen Literatur, ii. 2
(1900); Teuffel, Hist. of Roman Literature (Eng. trans., 1900), 284, 7.
SECURITY (Lat. securus, free from care, safe), in general, the condition of being secure. In law, a security is a document evidencing the right to money, goods or other property, e.g. stocks, shares, bills of exchange, mortgages, &c. A security is termed collateral when it is given merely as a guarantee for the repayment of money; personal, when it gives a right of action against a person for the recovery of money. A convertible security is one which can be readily converted into money (e.g. consols), as contrasted with land or buildings, sometimes termed “dead” security. A person who holds himself responsible for the fulfilment of another’s obligations or goes surety for him is called a security.
SEDAINE, MICHEL JEAN (1719–1797), French dramatist,
was born at Paris on the 4th of July 1719. His father, who was
an architect, died when Sedaine was quite young, leaving no
fortune, and the boy began life as a mason’s labourer. He was
at last taken as pupil by an architect whose kindness he eventually
repaid by the help. he was able to give to his benefactor’s
grandson, the painter David. Meanwhile he had done his best
to repair his deficiencies of education, and in 1750 he published a
Recueil de pièces fugitives, which included fables, songs and
pastorals. His especial talent was, however, for light opera.
He produced Le Diablo à quatre (1756), the music being by
several composers; Blaise le Savetier (1759), for the music of
Danican Philidor; On ne s’avise jamais de tout (1761) and others
with Pierre Alexandre de Monsigny; Aucassin et Nicolette (1780),
Richard Cœur de Lion (1784), and Amphitryon (1788) with
André Grétry. Sedaine’s vaudevilles and operettas attracted
the attention of Diderot, and two plays of his were accepted and
performed at the Théâtre Français. The first and longest, the
Philosophe sans le savoir, was acted in 1765; the second, a
lively one-act piece, La Gageure imprévue in 1768. These two
at once took their place as stock pieces and are still ranked among
the best French plays, each of its class. Except these two pieces
little or nothing of his has kept the stage or the shelves, but
Sedaine may be regarded as the literary ancestor of Scribe and
Dumas. He had the practical knowledge of the theatre, which
enabled him to carry out the ideas of Diderot and give him claims
to be regarded as the real founder of the domestic drama in
France. Sedaine, who became a member of the Academy (1786),
and secretary for architecture of the fine arts division, died at
Paris on the 17th of May 1797. He wrote two historical dramas,
Raymond V. comte de Toulouse, and Maillard, ou Paris sauvé.
His Œuvres (1826) contain a notice of his life by Ducis.
SEDALIA, a city and the county-seat of Pettis county, Missouri,
U.S.A., a little W. of the centre of the state. Pop. (1900) 15,231;
(1725 negroes; 972 foreign-born); (1910) 17,822. Sedalia is served
by the Missouri Pacific and the Missouri, Kansas & Texas railway
systems, and is a transportation centre with good facilities.
The city has a high and pleasant site (about 990 ft. above sea-level)
on a rolling prairie, and is laid out as an exact square.
Among the public buildings much the handsomest are the court
house, built of Warrensburg blue sandstone (1884), and the
Public Library (1900), given by Andrew Carnegie. Sedalia is
the seat of the George R. Smith College (M. E., founded in 1894)
for negroes. Liberty Park (60 acres), in the W. part of the city,
is owned by the municipality. Broadway, the principal residence
street, is 120 ft. wide, and is parked on either side. The State
Board of Agriculture established fair grounds (now 210 acres)
adjoining the city on the S.W. in 1900, and the annual state fair
attracts many visitors. The water supply is derived from a
storage lake on Flat Creek, 3 m. from the city, settling basins
being used to clarify the water. There are a city hospital and
the Maywood, a private hospital; and the Missouri, Kansas &
Texas, railway maintains here a hospital for all parts of its
system. The surrounding country is a magnificent livestock and
farming region, and in the immediate vicinity are valuable
deposits of coal, of limestone, of shale suitable for sewer pipe and
of fire clays. The city has important horse and mule yards.
The Missouri Pacific, three of whose operating divisions end at
Sedalia and thus make the city its central division point, in 1904
established large shops (129 acres) in a suburb E. of the city.
These shops and those of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas railway,
of which Sedalia is the central division point on the N. end of its
system, add greatly to the industrial importance of the city.
The total value of the factory product in 1905 was $1,691,727,
showing an increase of 31·8% since 1900.
Sedalia was established as a station on the Missouri Pacific railroad in 1857. In 1864 it was chartered as a town and was made the county-seat, succeeding Georgetown (then a flourishing town, which speedily fell into decay), the transfer of the offices taking place in 1865. Sedalia was a Union military post throughout the Civil War; on the 15th of October 1864 a detachment from Sterling Price’s raiding column dislodged a small Union force that was occupying the town, but the Confederate occupation lasted only one day. Sedalia was chartered as a city in 1889. In 1896 a constitutional amendment to remove the state capital from Jefferson City to Sedalia was defeated by popular vote.
SEDAN, a town of northern France, capital of an arrondissement
in the department of Ardennes, on the right bank of the
Meuse, 12 m. E.S.E. of Mézières by rail. Pop. (1906) town
16,014; commune 19,599. Sedan is built on the right bank of
the Meuse round a bend in the river forming a peninsula. On the
left bank stands the suburb of Torcy, situated partly within the
bend, partly beyond the canal which cuts across the neck of the
peninsula. There is a statue of Turenne (born at Sedan in 1611),
remains of a castle of the 15th century and a Protestant temple
dating from 1593. Sedan is the seat of a sub-prefect and has
a municipal school of weaving. The manufacture of fine black
cloth established in the middle of the 17th century by Cardinal
Mazarin, held its place as the staple industry of the town
till towards the end of the 19th century. A large variety of
woollen fabrics are produced, and there are flour mills and
factories for industrial machinery, boilers and heavy iron goods,
chocolate, &c.
Sedan was in the 14th century a dependency of the abbey of Mouzon, the possession of which was disputed by the bishops of Liége and Reims. United to the crown of France by Charles V., it was ceded by Charles VI. to Guillaume de Braquemont, whose son sold it to his brother-in-law Evrard de la Marck. For two centuries this family continued masters of the place in spite of the bishops of Liége and the dukes of Burgundy and Lorraine; and Henri Robert adopted the title “prince of Sedan.” In the 16th century the town was an asylum for many Protestant refugees, who laid the basis of its industrial prosperity, and it became the seat of a Protestant seminary. Robert I. de la Marck (d. 1489) was lord of Sedan when he acquired Bouillon. His grandson, Robert III., seigneur of Fleurange and Sedan (d. 1537), was marshal of France and left interesting memoirs. Robert IV. de la Marck (d. 1556), also marshal of France, erected Sedan on his own authority into an independent principality. By the marriage of his granddaughter Charlotte with Henry I. de la Tour d’Auvergne, the duchy of Bouillon and the principality of Sedan passed to the house of Turenne. When the new duke attempted to maintain his independence, Henry IV. captured Sedan in three days; and the second duke Frédéric Maurice de la Tour d’Auvergne, eldest brother of the great marshal, who had several times revolted against Louis XIII., was, after his share in the conspiracy of Cinq-Mars, obliged to surrender his principality. Sedan thus became part of the royal domain in 1642. On the 1st of September 1870 the fortress was the centre of the most disastrous conflict of the Franco-German War (see below). The village of Bazeilles, 3 m. S.E. of Sedan, contains the great ossuary. The house, rendered famous by Neuville’s paintings, “Les Dernières Cartouches,” now contains objects found on the battlefield. At Donchery, 312 m. to the west of Sedan, is the chateau of Bellevue, where Napoleon III. surrendered his sword and where the terms of capitulation of Sedan were agreed upon.
