Jump to content

Page:EB1911 - Volume 24.djvu/74

From Wikisource
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
60
SALAR JUNG, SIR—SALE, G.

See T. Ashby in Papers of the British School at Rome, iii. 3-38; N. Persichetti, Viaggio archeologico sulla Via Salaria nel Circondario di Cittàducale (Rome, 1893); and in Römische Mitteilungen (1903), 276 seq.


SALAR JUNG, SIR (1829–1883), Indian statesman of Hyderabad, born in 1829, descendant of a family which had held various appointments, first under the Adil Shahi kings of Bijapur, then under the Delhi emperors and lastly under the Nizams. While he was known to the British as Sir Salar Jung, his personal name was Mir Turab Ali, he was styled by native officials of Hyderabad the Mukhtaru ’l-Mulk, and was referred to by the general public as the Nawab Sahib. He succeeded his uncle Suraju ’l-Mulk as prime minister in 1853. The condition of the Hyderabad state was at that time a scandal to the rest of India. Salar Jung began by infusing a measure of discipline into the Arab mercenaries, the more valuable part of the Nizam’s army, and employing them against the rapacious nobles. and bands of robbers who had annihilated the trade of the country. He then constituted courts of justice at Hyderabad, organized the police force, constructed and repaired irrigation works, and established schools. On the outbreak of the Mutiny he supported the British, and although unable to hinder an attack on the residency, he warned the British minister that it was in contemplation. The attack was repulsed; the Hyderabad contingent remained loyal, and their loyalty served to ensure the tranquillity of the Deccan. Salar Jung took advantage of the preoccupation of the British government with the Mutiny to push his reforms more boldly, and when the Calcutta authorities were again at liberty to consider the condition of affairs his work had been carried far towards completion. During the lifetime of the Nizam Afzulu’d-dowla, Salar Jung was considerably hampered by his master’s jealous supervision. When Mir Mahbub Ali, however, succeeded his father in 1869, Salar Jung, at the instance of the British government, was associated in the regency with the principal noble of the state, the Shamsu ’l-Umara or Amir Kabir, and enjoyed an increased authority. In 1876 he visited England with the object of obtaining the restoration of Berar. Although he was unsuccessful, his personal merits met with full recognition. He died of cholera at Hyderabad on the 8th of February 1883. He was created G.C.S.I. on the 28th of May 1870, and received the honorary degree of D.C.L. from the University of Oxford on the 21st of June 1876. His grandson enjoyed an estate of 1486 sq. m., yielding an income of nearly £60,000.

See Memoirs of Sir Salar Jung, by his private secretary, Syed Hossain Bilgrami, 1883.

SALARY, a payment for services rendered, usually a stipulated sum paid monthly, quarterly, half-yearly or yearly, and for a permanent or lengthy term of employment. It is generally contrasted with “wages,” a term applied to weekly or daily payment for manual services. As laid down by Bowen, L. J., In re Shine (1892) 1 Q.B. 529, “Salary means a definite payment for personal services under some contract and computed by time.” The Latin salarium meant originally salt money (Lat. sal, salt), i.e. the sum paid to soldiers for salt. In post-Augustan Latin the word was applied to any allowance, pension or stipend.


SALAS, or San Martin de Salas, a town of southern Spain, in the province of Oviedo; on the road from Tineo to Grado, and on a small sub-tributary of the river Narcea. Pop. (1900), 17,147. The official total of the inhabitants includes not only the actual residents in the town, but also the population of the district of Salas, a mountainous region in which coal-mining and agriculture are the principal industries. The products of this region are sent for export to Cudillero, a small harbour on the Bay of Biscay.


SALAS BARBADILLO, ALONSO JERÓNIMO DE (c. 1580–1635), Spanish novelist and playwright, born at Madrid about 1580, and educated at Alcalá de Henares and Valladolid. His first work, La Patrona de Madrid restituida (1609), is a dull devout poem, which forms a strange prelude to La Hija de Celestina (1612), a malicious transcription of picaresque scenes reprinted under the title of La Ingeniosa Elena. This was followed by a series of similar tales and plays, the best of which are El Cavallero puntual (1614), La Casa de placer honesto (1620), Don Diego de Noche (1623) and a most sparkling satirical volume of character-sketches, El Curioso y śabio Alexandro (1634). He died in poverty at Madrid on the 10th of July 1635. Some of his works were translated into English and French, and Scarron’s Hypocrites is based on La Ingeniosa Elena; he deserved the vogue which he enjoyed till late in the 17th century, for his satirical humour, versatile invention and pointed style are an effective combination.


SALDANHA BAY, an inlet on the south-western coast of South Africa, 63 m. by sea N. by W. of Cape Town, forming a land-locked harbour. The northern part of the inlet is known as Hoetjes Bay. It has accommodation for a large fleet with deep water close inshore, but the arid nature of the country caused it to be neglected by the early navigators, and with the growth of Cape Town Saldanha Bay was rarely visited. Considerable deposits of freestone in the neighbourhood attracted attention during the later 19th century. Proposals were also made to create a port which could be supplied by water from the Berg river, 20 m. distant. From Kalabas Kraal on the Cape Town-Clanwilliam railway, a narrow gauge line runs via Hopefield to Hoetjes Bay—126 m. from Cape Town.

Saldanha Bay is so named after Antonio de Saldanha, captain of a vessel in Albuquerque’s fleet which visited South Africa in 1503. The name was first given to Table Bay, where Saldanha’s ship cast anchor. On Table Bay being given its present name (1601) the older appellation was transferred to the bay now called after Saldanha. In 1781 a British squadron under Commodore George Johnstone 1731–1787) seized six Dutch East lndiamen, which, fearing an attack on Cape Town, had taken refuge in Saldanha Bay. This was the only achievement, so far as South Africa was concerned, of the expedition dispatched to seize Cape Town during the war of 1781–1783.

SALDERN, FRIEDRICH CHRISTOPH VON (1719–1785), Prussian soldier and military writer, entered the army in 1735, and (on account of his great stature) was transferred to the Guards in 1739. As one of Frederick’s aides-de-camp he was the first to discover the approach of Neipperg’s Austrians at Mollwitz. He commanded a guard battalion at Leuthen, again distinguished himself at Hochkirch and was promoted major-general. In 1760 at Liegnitz Frederick gave him four hours in which to collect, arrange and despatch the spoils of the battle, 6000 prisoners, 100 wagons, 82 guns and 5000 muskets. His complete success made him a marked man even in Frederick’s army. At Torgau, Saldern and Möllendorf (q.v.) with their brigades converted a lost battle into a great victory by their desperate assault on the Siptitz Heights. The manoeuvring skill, as well as the iron resolution, of the attack, has excited the wonder of modern critics, and after Torgau Saldern was accounted the “completest general of infantry alive” (Carlyle). In the following winter, however, being ordered by Frederick to sack Hubertusburg, Saldern refused on the ground of conscience. Nothing was left for him but to retire, but Frederick was well aware that he needed Saldern's experience and organizing ability, and after the peace the general was at once made inspector of the troops at Magdeburg. In 1766 he became lieutenant-general. The remainder of his life was spent in the study of military sciences in which he became a pedant of the most pronounced type. In one of his works he discussed at great length the question between 76 and 75 paces to the minute as the proper cadence of infantry. There can be no question that “Saldern-tactics” were the most extreme form of pedantry to which troops were ever subjected, and contributed powerfully to the disaster of Jena in 1806. His works included Taktik der Infanterie (Dresden, 1784) and Taktische Grundsätze (Dresden, 1786), and were the basis of the British “Dundas” drill-book. See Küster, Charakterzüge des Generalleutenants von Saldern (Berlin, 1792).


SALE, GEORGE (c. 1697–1736), English orientalist, was the son of a London merchant. In 1720 he was admitted a student of the Inner Temple, but subsequently practised as a solicitor. Having studied Arabic for some time in England, he became, in 1726, one of the correctors of the Arabic version of the New Testament, begun in 1720 by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, and subsequently took the principal part in the