Siberia nor even an administrative centre for exiles. The kreml, or citadel, built in the reign of Peter the Great, by Swedish prisoners, in imitation of the kreml of Moscow, contains the cathedral, erected towards the end of the 17th century. Some 12 m. south-east are the ruins of the “ fort of Kuchum," the site of the capital of Siberia, Isker, before the Russian conquest. Tobolsk was founded in 1587 by Cossacks, and forms the see of the bishop of Tobolsk and Siberia.
TOBRUK (anc. Antipyrgos), a settlement with small Turkish
garrison on a fine natural harbour situated on the N. coast of
Africa at the intersection of 32° N. Lat., with 24° E. Long.
The harbour, which is small but deep, and sheltered by high
ground, opens to the east. It is about 2½ m. long by ¾ m. wide;
the depth in the centre is over 40 ft. and soundings of over 30 ft.
extend to within a very short distance of the shores. It is the
only safe port easily accessible to large vessels for over 1000 m.,
between Sfax in Tunisia and Alexandria, for, although there is
safe and deep anchorage in the recess of the Gulf of Bomba, the
entrance is rocky and difficult. Tobruk has long been the outlet
for the trade of the oases which extend from Jarabub to
Siwah, and are a stronghold of the Senussi order (see Cyrenaica);
and it is also the headquarters of the Libyan sponge fishery,
prosecuted by Greeks. In the spring it is visited by a great
number of boats, to protect which a small Hellenic warship
has sometimes been dispatched. But it is as a future man-of-war
harbour that Tobruk is likely to be important. It has been
visited both by British and Italian squadrons and has become
an object of considerable solicitude to the government of
Italy. By running into Tobruk and the neighbouring Gulf of
Bomba the French fleet eluded British vigilance on its way to
Egypt in 1798. (D. G. H.)
TOCHI VALLEY, or Dawar, one of the chief routes into Afghanistan in the North-West Frontier Province of India. It
leads from the Bannu through tribal country, and is inhabited
by the Dawari (q.v.). The valley is divided into two parts, known as Upper and Lower Dawar, by a narrow pass called the
Taghrai Tangi, some three m. long. Between Dawar and British
territory is the low range of uninhabited hills, which skirt the
Bannu district. It was by this route that Mahmud of Ghazni
effected several of his raids into India and the remains of a road
flanking the valley and of defensive positions are still to be
traced. After the Waziristan Expedition of 1894 the Tochi was
garrisoned by British troops; but when Lord Curzon reorganized
the frontier in 1901, the British troops were withdrawn, and their
place supplied by tribal militia. The chief posts are Saidgi, Idak,
Miranshah, Datta Khel and Sheranni. The valley was the
scene of action for the Tochi or Dawari Expedition under
Brigadier-General Keyes in 1872, and the Tochi Expedition
under General Corrie Bird in 1897.
TOCQUEVILLE, ALEXIS HENRI CHARLES MAURICE CLEREL, Comte de (1805–1859), was born at Verneuil on the 29th of July 1805. His family on the father's side were of good descent, and distinguished both in the law and in arms, while his mother was the granddaughter of Malesherbes. Alexis de Tocqueville was brought up for the bar, or rather for the bench, and became an assistant magistrate in 1830. A year later he obtained from the government of July a mission to examine prisons and penitentiaries in America, and proceeded thither
with his life-long friend Gustave de Beaumont. He returned in
less than two years, and published a report, but the real result
of his tour was the famous De la Démocratie en Amerique, which
appeared in 1835, and very soon made his reputation (3rd ed.
1868). It was at once caught up by influential members of
the Liberal party in England, which country Tocqueville soon
after visited, and where he married an Englishwoman. Returning
to France, he was elected a member of the Académie des
sciences morales et politiques (Jan. 6, 1838), and beginning life
as a country gentleman at Tocqueville, he thought to carry out
the English ideal completely by standing for the chamber of
deputies. But, with a scruple which illustrated his character,
he refused government nomination from Molé, and was defeated.
Later he was successful, and sat for several years both before
and after the revolution of February, becoming in 1849
vice-president of the assembly, and for a few months minister of
foreign affairs. He was a warm supporter of the Roman expedition,
but an equally warm opponent of Louis Napoleon, and after
being one of the deputies who were arrested at the coup d'état
he retired from public life. Twenty years after his first, he
produced another book, De l'Ancien régime, which almost, if not
quite, equalled its success. His health was never very strong,
and in 1858 he broke a blood-vessel. He was ordered to the
south, and, taking up his residence at Cannes, died there on the
16th of April 1859. He had published some minor pieces
during his lifetime, and his complete works, including much
unpublished correspondence, were produced after his death in
uniform shape by H. G. de Beaumont (Œuvres completes de
Tocqueville, 9 vols., 1860-1865).
During the last twenty years of his life, and for perhaps half that time after his death, Tocqueville had an increasing European fame. His manner, which is partly imitated from Montesquieu, has considerable charm; and he was the first and has remained the chief writer to put the orthodox liberal ideas which governed European politics during the first half or two-thirds of the 19th century into an orderly and attractive shape. He was, moreover, as has been said, much taken up by influential persons in England — N. W. Senior, John Stuart Mill and others — and he had the great advantage of writing absolutely the first book of reasoned politics on democratic government in America. Besides, he was, if not an entirely impartial writer, neither a devotee nor an opponent of democracy. All this gave him a very great advantage which he has not yet wholly lost. At the same time he had defects which were certain to make themselves felt as time went on, even without the alteration of the centre of liberal opinion which has taken place of late years. The chief of these was a certain weakness which can hardly be described by any word more dignified than “priggishness.” His correspondence with Molé, above alluded to, is an instance of this, and it was also reflected on in various epigrams by countrymen and contemporaries; one of these accuses him of having “begun to think before he had begun to learn,” while another declares that he avait l'air de savoir de toute éternité ce qu'il venait d'apprendre. He appears both in reading history and in conducting actual political business to have been constantly surprised and disgusted that men and nations did not behave as he expected them to behave. This excess of the deductive spirit explains at once both the merits and the defects of his two great works, which will probably remain political classics, though they are less and less likely to be used as practical guides.
See Heinrich Jacques, Alexis de Tocqueville; ein Lebens- und Geistesbild (Vienna, 1876); James Bryce, The Predictions of Tocqueville (Baltimore, 1887); Count de Puymaigre, Les Souvenirs d'Alexis de Tocqueville (1893); and Correspondance entre Alexis de Tocqueville et Arthur de Gobineau (1908).
TOCSIN, a signal of alarm given by the ringing of a bell, hence
any warning or danger signal. The earliest form in English is
tocksaine, which was borrowed from the O. Fr. toquesin (toquer, to strike, cf. toucher and sin, mod. signe, a signal, Lat. signum). The use of “touch” and its cognate forms with the idea of giving a sound is seen in “tucket,” Ital. toccata, which probably originally meant a signal given by tap of drum, but is always applied to a flourish or fanfare on a trumpet.
TOD, JAMES (1782–1835), British officer and Oriental scholar,
was born on the 20th of March 1782, and went to India as a
cadet in the Bengal army in 1799. He commanded the escort
attached to the resident with Sindia from 1812 to 1817. In the
latter year he was in charge of the Intelligence Department
which largely contributed to break up the confederacy of Maratha
chiefs in the Pindari War, and was of great assistance in the
campaign in Rajputana. In 1818 he was appointed political
agent for the states of western Rajputana, where he conciliated
the chieftains, settled their mutual feuds and collected materials
for his Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan (2 vols., 1829–1832).
Another book of value, Travels in Western India (1839), was
published posthumously. He returned from India in 1823,
