A society formed about 1584 by the more violent partisans of the League. It was so called because its proceedings were directed by a committee of sixteen, each of whom took a district of Paris under his special charge. Sixteen, Council of. A council provided by the will of Henry VIII, to act as regents until Edward VI came of age. They were also called the Executors. Skanderbeg. _See_ Iskander Beg. Skinners. Bands of American marauders who infested the east bank of the Hudson during the American War of Independence. Skirmishing Fund. The name given to a fund raised by the Fenians about 1880, for the purpose of procuring the commission of dynamite outrages in England. Skoptsi. A Russian sect of schismatics, who practise self-mutilation. They interpret the Scriptures literally, and act on the injunction: “If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out.” Skuptschina. The Servian National Assembly. Slachter’s Nek, Insurrection of. An insurrection of burghers in the Graaf-Reinet district of Cape Colony in 1815, arising out of an attempt to bring a certain Jan Bezuidenhoot to justice for ill-treating a Kaffir. He and his relations and neighbours rose against the Government, but were overpowered, after a short resistance, at Slachter’s Nek. Bezuidenhoot fled, but was killed by his pursuers a few days later. Six of the leaders were condemned to death, but at the execution four of the ropes broke. Notwithstanding the remonstrances of the spectators, who considered this to be a Divine intimation of their innocence, the sentence was duly carried out. This execution is still looked upon by the Dutch as one of the crimes of the British Government. Slave Kings. The third Dynasty of the Mohammedan Kings of India, founded by Kutb-ud-Din, the favourite slave of Mohammed of Ghor, who ruled as Mohammed’s viceroy from 1186 to 1206, and on his master’s death, without issue, ascended the throne. The dynasty lasted till 1288. Slave Trade. The trade in slaves was made a felony by an Act passed in 1807. The Act abolishing slavery in the British Dominions, known as the Emancipation Act, was not passed till 1833. Slavery. _See_ Abolitionists, Anti-Slavery, Compromise Act, Dred Scott, Emancipation, Freesoilers. Fugitive, Harper’s Ferry, Kansas, Missouri Compromise, Squatter Sovereignty, Underground Railroad, Wilmot Proviso. Slavophils. A band of educated Muscovites who led the reaction against the indiscriminate adoption of Western ideas, and the abandonment of ancient Russian customs. They were especially active about the period of the emancipation of the serfs in 1861, when the village communal system was threatened by the reforming party. Sliding Scale. A system of graduated duties on imported corn, based upon the prices ruling for home-grown wheat, first adopted in the Corn Law of 1804. Smithfield, Treaty of.