erated republic in Central America, the most important were those of Barrios, President of Guatemala, who resorted to force (1885) and perished in the attempt, and the peaceful union formed in 1895 by Nicaragua, Salvador, and Honduras, which combined to form the Greater Republic of Central America, with provisions for the admission of Guatemala and Costa Rica. A constitution was adopted, and went into effect on November 1, 1898, but one month later, owing to the dissatisfaction of Salvador, the union was dissolved. Great Britain, in 1665, extended her protection to the Mosquito Coast, which was relinquished in 1850. Through colonization British Honduras was established in that year. See AMERICA; BRITISH HONDURAS; COSTA RICA; GUATEMALA HONDURAS; NICARAGUA; SALVADOR; MOSQUITO COAST. CENTRAL CITY. A city and county-seat of Gilpin County, Col., 40 miles west by north of Denver, on the Colorado and Southern Railroad (Map: Colorado, E 2). It is the centre of sup ply for a rich mining district, and is engaged in gold-mining. The first discovery in the State of gold in paying quantities was made at Central City; it was settled in 1859, and was incorporated in 1864. The government is administered by a mayor, annually elected, and a city council. There are municipal water-works. Population, in 1890, 2480; in 1900, 3114. CENTRAL CITY. The county-seat of Merrick County, Neb., 132 miles west of Omaha, on the Platte River, and on the Union Pacific and the Burlington and Missouri River railroads (Map: Nebraska, F 2). Population, in 1890, 1368; in 1900, 1571. CENTRAL FALLS. A city in Providence County, R. I., 4 miles north of Providence, on the Blackstone River, and on the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad (Map: Rhode Isl and, C 2). It has extensive manufactures of cotton, woolen, and silk goods, haircloth, and machinery. Central Falls has a public library and parks, and obtains its water-supply from Pawtucket, though it owns the pipe system by which the water is supplied. The city, formerly included in the town of Lincoln, was incorporated in 1895, having been settled in the Eighteenth Century. Under its present charter, the mayor is elected annually, and the city council is a bicameral assembly. The executive, with the consent of the board of aldermen, nominates police officers, and the school committee is chosen by popular election; except in these departments, all officials are selected by the council. Population, in 1900, 18,167. Il CENTRAL FORCES. Forces which produce on a moving body an acceleration toward a fixed point called the 'centre of force.' lustrations are afforded by the motion of a stone whirled in a sling, by the motion of the moon with reference to the earth, or of the earth with reference to the sun. It is evident, since the line of action of the force is through a fixed point, that the moving body will always move in a definite plane, and that the moment of the force around a line through the fixed point perpendicular to this plane being zero, there is no change in the angular momentum around this line. (See MECHANICS.) This leads at once to what is called the principle of the 'conservation of areas,' or the statement that, if a radius vector be drawn from the fixed point to the moving body, it will describe equal areas in equal intervals of time; thus, the nearer the body is to the centre, the greater must be its speed. It can be shown further that, if the force is an attraction varying inversely as the square of the distance from the centre to the body, the orbit of the body will be an ellipse, hyperbola! or parabola, depending upon the conditions under which the motion may be regarded as being started, the centre of the force being a focus. If the orbit is elliptical, it may be shown that the square of the period of revolution of the body in its orbit is proportioned to the cube of the major axis of the ellipse. See Tait and Steele, Dynamics of a Particle (London, 1856). The great astronomer Kepler, in 1609, by a careful consideration of the observations of Tycho Brahe on the motions of the planets, deduced the fact that these motions obeyed the three laws stated above; that is, they satisfy the conservation of areas, their orbits are elliptical about the sun as a focus, and the squares of their periods are proportional to the cubes of the major These are, therefore, often axis of the orbit. Sir Isaac Newton some called 'Kepler's laws.' years later showed that these laws were a necessary consequence of his principle of universal gravitation, which states that any two particles of matter act upon each other with a force of attraction which varies directly as the product of the masses of the particles and inversely as the square of their distance apart, and of the further principle that a large spherical body acts upon outside points as if its matter were con centrated at its centre. CENTRALIA. A city in Marion County, Ill., 62 miles east of Saint Louis, Mo., on the Illinois Central, the Jacksonville and Saint Louis, the Southern, and the Illinois Southern of a noted fruit-growing country, and has a large railroads (Map: Illinois, C 5). It is the centre trade in fruit, especially apples and strawberries. Coal-mining is another important industry, and there are also the repair-shops of the Illinois Central Railroad, flour-mills, glass-works, and manufactures of boxes, crates, pick-handles, and envelopes. The city owns and operates its waterworks, and has a large city hall, a Carnegie public library, and parks. Settled in 1853, Centralia was incorporated in 1859, and is now governed under a charter of 1872, since amended at various times, which provides for a mayor, elected biennially, and a city council. Population, in 1890, 4763; in 1900, 6721. CENTRAL INDIA POLITICAL AGENCY. The official name for a group of feudatory States in the centre of India, the principal of which are Gwalior, Indore, Rewah, Bhopal, Bundelkhand, Baghelkhand, and West Malwa. The total number, including the smaller States, is over seventy, covering about 90.000 square miles. Population, in 1891, 10,318,812; in 1901, 8,501,883. CENTRALISTS. A political party in Mex ico, and some of the South American republics, which advocated the centralization of the gov ernment, as against a federalization of separate States. It has been a factor in Mexican politics since 1823; and the fight for the ascendency between it and the Federalists has caused many Its revolutions in Spanish-American countries. See embracing the former Province of Nagpur, the CENTRALIZATION; also MEXICO. two territories of Sagar and Nerbudda, and other territories added since (Map: India, D 4). Chota-Nagpur on the north, Orissa on the east, It is bounded by the Central India Agency and Madras on the southeast, and Hyderabad, Berar, and Bombay on the southwest and west. total area is 115,936 square miles, of which the portion under direct British administration contains 86,614 square miles. The surface is covered with numerous hilly ranges, among which the chief, the Satpura range, enters from the west, runs in an easterly direction, and has numerous offshoots. The northern part belongs to the basin of the Nerbudda and forms a valley of about 10,000 square miles, with an average elevation of 1000 feet above sea-level. The portion south of the Satpura range is watered by the Wardha, Wainganga, and the Mahanadi rivers, and contains most of the cultivable land of the province. All of these rivers are navigable for some distance except during the dry season. CENTRALIZATION. In political theory, a term used to denote the tendency on the part of a central authority to reserve to itself increasing powers of legislation and administration. More strictly interpreted, the word centralization is capable of bearing a double meaning. It may signify the complete unification of a political entity as opposed to a loose assemblage of quasiindependent members. In this sense we speak of a strongly centralized federal government as opposed to a mere confederation of States. In this sense, too, the term might be used to describe the lax organization of the mediaval State in which the element of nationality was practically made impossible by the feudal system. In its second meaning, centralization in a State already completely unified would describe the concentration of governmental functions in the supreme Government in matters even of local interest. In no State, of course, is there any example of an absolutely centralized government, since in the nature of things some degree of power must be delegated to authorities provincial, municipal, and local, and thus in Russia, which stands as a type of autocracy, we find large powers of self-government enjoyed by the rural communes especially. In proportion only as the tendency toward centralization is stronger than the spirit of local self-government, can a government be spoken of as centralized or not. In ancient Rome the municipia possessed a very large measure of self-government under laws emanating from Rome. At the same time, so far as the broader aspects of government were concerned, the Empire was thoroughly centralized and was ruled from the Urbs as a unit. In the Middle Ages the power of the central governments, wherever there were such, was naturally small, and the privileges of provincial divisions, towns, and communes proportionately large. Powers which are at present conceded to be within the province of the sovereign, even in the least centralized of modern States, such as the administration of public charity and public education and of justice, were, during the Middle Ages, relegated to the clergy and the territorial lords respectively. The growth of modern States has been in fact simply a great centralizing movement, but in certain countries the process of centralization has been more complete than in others. England stands as a type of the first class in which a way seems to have been found for reconciling a strong central organization with wide powers of local self-government. France may be taken as a type of the second class, where the administration even of communal affairs is in large measure regulated by the central Government. In general, it may be said that the Latin countries, in which the traditions of the Roman Empire and the influence of the civil law are most strong, are more highly centralized than the northern nations of Europe. The extreme tendency on the part of a government to arrogate to itself functions belonging to small groups of inhabitants may, when applied to individuals, assume the char. acter of paternalism or State socialism. CENTRAL PARK. See NEW YORK CITY. CENTRAL PROVINCES. A chief-commissionership of British India, created in 1861, and The climate is hot and dry, and the rainfall is generally satisfactory, but the soil absorbs the moisture so quickly that artificial irrigation becomes necessary in cultivation, and this is supplied mostly by tanks. Of the total area of the British possessions in the provinces, only about one-fourth is cultivated, while the rest is either jungle. About one-third of the total area under unfit for cultivation or covered with forests and cultivation consists of rice-fields, while the remainder is under wheat and other food grains, oil-seeds, and cotton. The mineral deposits consist chiefly of coal and iron. The manufacturing industries are but little developed and consist chiefly in the production of cotton goods and iron articles. The Central Provinces are traversed by two almost parallel railway lines in the north and in the south, connecting Bombay with Cal cutta and Allahabad. The administration consists of a chief commissioner assisted by a secretary and a number of commissioners in charge of different departments. The British possessions are divided into the four divisions of Nagpur, Jabalpur, Nerbudda, and Chhattisgarh, each in charge of a commissioner. The tributary States are fifteen in number. Education is partly aided by the Government and partly private. There are about 2300 schools of all kinds, of which only 300 are in the native States. The population of the British territory was 10,784,294 in 1891, and 9,876,646 in 1901. The native States had a population of 2,160,511 in 1891 and 1,983,496 in 1901. Nearly 82 per cent. of the population is Hindu; over 16 per cent. Animistic, and the remainder is made up of Mohammedans, Jains, and Christians. The chief town and seat of administration is Nagpur (q.v.). CENTRAL STATE. Kansas. See STATES, POPULAR NAMES OF. CENTRAL STATIONS. See ELECTRIC LIGHTING; and TELEPHONE. |