A series of laws introduced by Dr. Falk, Prussian Minister of Public Worship, between 1872 and 1879, in pursuance of the Kulturkampf. They were exceedingly oppressive to the Catholic population. The more important of them were passed in the month of May, 1873, whence they are also known as the May laws. Family Compact. A secret agreement, made in 1733, between Louis XV of France and Philip V of Spain, the object of which was the harassing of English commerce in the South Seas, and the recovery by Spain of Gibraltar and Minorca. It culminated in 1761 in a close alliance between the two Powers, to which the Bourbon Princes of Parma and Naples were also admitted. Family Convention. An agreement between Giovanni de’ Medici and Philip V of Spain, in 1731, by which the former recognized Don Carlos as his heir to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. Farines, Journée des. The day of the Cornsacks was January 3, 1591, when some of the followers of Henri IV of France disguised themselves as millers, and attempted to seize the barrier of St. Honoré, with the object of making themselves masters of Paris. Farmer George. A nickname of George III. Farmers’ Alliance. A political organization formed in the United States in 1873 to promote the interests of the agricultural classes. It was absorbed by the Populists in 1891. Farquharsons, Massacre of the. The Farquharsons of Deeside were practically exterminated in the reign of James VI by the Gordons under the Marquis of Huntly, in revenge for the murder of Gordon of Brackley. Two hundred children who survived the massacre were kept by Huntly as wild beasts, and fed from a pig trough. They were rescued from their inhuman captor by the Laird of Grant, who distributed them among his clansmen. It is said that their descendants are still known as the Race of the Trough. Farthings, War of. _See_ Rappenkrieg. Fashoda Question. This question brought France and England to the verge of war in 1898. In that year, Captain Marchand, after an adventurous journey from the French Soudan, reached Fashoda on the Nile, and hoisted the French flag there and at certain points on the Sobat river. Sir Herbert Kitchener, who had just captured Khartoum, invited Marchand to withdraw, and hoisted the English and Egyptian flags. Marchand refusing, the matter was referred to London and Paris. The French were at first inclined to hold that, the Anglo-Egyptian occupation of the Soudan having been suspended by the Mahdist domination, it was open to them to make a settlement on the Nile. It was clearly proved, however, that they had been warned on several occasions that this would not be permitted, and after some hesitation, due probably to the doubt as to whether they would have the support of Russia if they stood firm, they yielded, and the Marchand expedition was withdrawn. Father of America. The sobriquet of Samuel Adams, the American revolutionary leader (1722-1803.) Father of his Country.