Althing, Bundesrath, Chambre, Congress, Cortes, Delegations, Folkething, Junta, Landesgemeinde, Landstag, Long Diet, Odalsthing, Potchefstroom, Reichsrath, Reichstag, Rigsdag, Skuptschina, Sobranje, States General, Storthing, Thing, United Diet, Volksraad. Parnell Commission. A commission appointed by Act of Parliament in 1888 to try the charges brought against Mr. Parnell by the _Times_ in their articles “Parnellism and Crime.” The gravamen of these charges was that Parnell and other Irish leaders were insincere in their condemnation of agrarian crime, and they were based on a series of letters sold to the _Times_ by a certain Pigott. In one of these letters Mr. Parnell wrote that Mr. Burke, who was murdered in Phœnix Park, had only got his deserts. Under cross-examination Pigott broke down, and confessed that the letters were forgeries. The Commission cleared Parnell and the other Irish members of the graver charges, but considered their complicity in much of the lawlessness of the Land League clearly proved. Parnellites. The followers of Mr. Parnell in the House of Commons, especially the small section of the party which remained faithful to him after his deposition from the leadership in 1890, and which continued in opposition to the Anti-Parnellites after his death, under the leadership of Mr. Redmond. Parsees. Descendants of the ancient Zoroastrians of Persia, who, rather than forsake their religion, fled to India, on the conquest of Persia by the Caliph Omar in 651. They form a community of about 85,000, with their headquarters in Bombay. Parsons’ Emperor. _See_ Pfaffen-Kaiser. Parthenopæan Republic. A short-lived republic, established in the kingdom of Naples in 1799, as the result of a popular rising. Partition Treaty, First. A treaty between Great Britain, Holland and Spain, signed in 1698, with the object of dealing in anticipation with the claims of the rival pretenders to the Spanish succession. It was agreed that Spain, the Netherlands, and the Spanish Indies should pass to the Elector of Bavaria, the least powerful of the three claimants. France was to receive Guipuscoa and the two Sicilies, and Austria the Milanese. The terms of this treaty, though secret, leaked out, and Charles was persuaded to execute a will leaving the whole of his dominions to the Bavarian Prince. Partition Treaty, Second. The death of the Elector of Bavaria having rendered the First Partition Treaty of no effect, a second treaty was signed by the same three powers in 1700. By this instrument Spain, the Netherlands and the Indies were assigned to the Austrian Archduke, while France, in addition to the two Sicilies and Guipuscoa, was to receive the Milanese, to be exchanged eventually for Lorraine, which was a German fief encroaching on the natural dominions of France. Pasquinades.