Part 390

To PROSECUTE, to carry on. Hence to prosecute the war.

PROSPECTIVE, appertaining to viewing.

PROSTYLE, any building having pillars in the front only.

PROTECTOR. This word sometimes denotes the regent of a kingdom. Oliver Cromwell assumed this title on the death of Charles I. of England; Bonaparte exercises the power of emperor over a great part of Germany, under the title of Protector of the confederation of the Rhine.

PROTESTANT, an appellation first given in Germany to all who adhered to the doctrine published by Luther.

PROVEDITOR, (Provediteur, Fr.) The Venetians had two appointments of this description before the revolution. One gave the supreme command of the armies on shore, the other that of the fleets.

Of these proveditors, there were three who had the direction of matters relating to policy throughout the signory.

PROVEDITOR-general of the sea, an officer in Italy, whose authority extended over the fleet, when the captain-general was absent. He had particularly the disposal of the cash.

PROVET, an artillery machine used with howitzers. See EPROUVETTE.

PROVISIONS, are properly those articles of food and sustenance which soldiers receive from the public, and which in the British service are payed for by deductions from their pay. There is taken a deduction of six pence a day from the full pay of every Serjeant, corporal, trumpeter, drummer, fifer, private man of the life guards, horse guards, dragoon guards, dragoons, foot guards, infantry of the line, militia, fencible infantry, and companies of invalids, when serving out of Great Britain, on stations at which provisions are supplied by the public; also when embarked in transports, or other vessels; (except while serving as marines, or during their passage to and from India at the expence of the East-India company;) also when prisoners of war, and maintained at the expence of Great Britain; and likewise when in general hospitals, either at home or abroad. A deduction of three pence halfpenny is likewise to be made from the full pay of each serjeant, &c. when stationed in Jamaica, in New South Wales, at Gibraltar, (the loss by exchange at the latter place continuing as before) and while on their passage to and from India at the expence of the East-India company.

These deductions commenced, in regard to the troops in Europe, on the 25th of February, 1799; and in regard to the troops abroad, on the 25th of April, 1799.

PROVISIONS. See RATION.

PROVISIONAL, (Provisionel, Fr.) Temporarily established.

PROVISIONALLY, (Provisoirement, Fr.) by way of provision, or temporary arrangement. This adverb is frequently used both in French and English to distinguish the exercise of temporary functions from that of permanent appointments.

PROVOST-Marshal, of an army, is an officer appointed to secure deserters, and all other criminals: he is often to go round the army, hinder the soldiers from pillaging, indict offenders, execute the sentence pronounced, and regulate the weights and measures used in the army when in the field. He is attended by a lieutenant’s guard, has a clerk, and an executioner.

PROWESS, valor, bravery in the field, military gallantry.

PSILOI, light armed men among the Greeks, who fought with arrows and darts, or stones and slings, but were unfit for close fight. They were in honor and dignity inferior to the heavy armed. Next to these were the peltasti, a middle sort of foot soldiers between the hoplitai and the psiloi, being armed with spears, but far inferior in bigness to those of the heavy armed; their name is taken from their narrow shields, called Peltæ. Potter’s Greek Antiquities, vol. II. chap. 3.

PUBLICANS, persons who keep alehouses, &c. for the accommodation of travelers. In England, troops upon the march, or in quarters, may be billeted on them.

PUCKA fever, Ind. a putrid fever. The bilious fever of tropical climates.

PUCKALLIES, Ind. leathern bags for carrying water. They are placed on the backs of oxen. The word is also used for water-carriers.

PUDLAYS, pieces of stuff to do the office of levers or hand spikes.

PUHUR Din, Ind. Watches kept in the day; of which there are four; a similar number is kept in the night, called Puhurraat.

PUISANT, Fr. a well built of dry stones, or made in a wall to serve as a reservoir for water.

PUISSANCE, Fr. in algebra and geometry, powers of lines and quantities.

PUISOIR, Fr. a copper vessel which is used in making saltpetre.

PUITS, Fr. A well.

PUITS de mineur, Fr. a perpendicular opening, about four feet square, which is made in the earth for miners to let themselves down, as deep as may be judged expedient, in order to push the subterraneous galleries beneath the covert way, or under any other works constructed by the besieged or besieger.

PULK, a tribe, a particular body of men. This word is chiefly used in Russia; as a Pulk of cossacks.