GALLEY

(Fr. g'aldre.) A low-built ve el propelled by sails and x>ars, either on a single tier, or on tiers of benches one above the other. The war ve els of antiquity were all galleys. Among the Greeks those chiefly mentioned are the pen tec on tori, which appear to have had fifty oars disposed in a single tier; and the trieres (Lat. triremes), ve els with three banks of oars, concerning the disposition of which much controversy has taken place. It is commonly supposed that a trireme had three banks of oars one above the other; but this is rendered improbable by the circumstance of Pliny making mention of galleys having thirty, forty, and even fifty banks of oars, for it seems hardly credible that so many could have been arranged directly above each other. Some have suggested that the rows of oars in the trireme were disposed, not horizontally, but obliquely; in which case an increase in the number of banks of oars would augment the length, and probably the height would be increased in proportion. (See Meibomius, De Fabric a. veterum Triremium.) Galleys were likewise chiefly employed by the maritime nations of the middle ages in the Mediterranean. Their use in naval war hardly ceased until the end of the 17th century: and the Venetian republic, down to the period of its extinction, always maintained a number of war galleys. The Venetian galleys had a single tier only, and all modern galleys followed the same construction. These were formidable ve els in a calm, but unfit for a sea, and accordingly found chiefly in the Mediterranean. The Venetians had also a large high-pooped sort of galley called galeazza, whence the word gallea and galliott in old English writers. The Deal galley is a long narrow boat used by the Deal boatmen, and managed on the most hazardous occasions in saving the crew of stranded ve els with consummate skill; it is also used by smugglers on account of its velocity. The galley is also the kitchen of a ship. Tiie punishment of the galleys, i. e. the employment of condemned criminals in the toilsome employment of rowing them, is said to have originated under the Greek empire; as well as the name FaXea^a/, or galley slaves — in French galeriens. It was used by all the nations bordering on the Mediterranean. In France, under the old jurisprudence, the punishment of the galleys was the severest after that of death. About the end of the reign of Louis XIV., when galleys themselves began to be disused, the galley slaves were employed in hospitals, public works, .; and the name of the punishment was changed by the constituent.i embly (1798) to travaux forces, compulsory labour, whence the word forgat for a criminal so condemned. Under the code of the empire the punishment was accompanied with forfeiture of property, infamy, and branding. By an alteration of the law effected in 1832, the brand was abolished; and the criminals, who had hitherto been intermingled in the three penal fortre es (Toulon, Rochefort, and Brest), were cla ified. Toulon is now appropriated to those condemned for 10 years and under; Brest, to those from 10 to 20; Rochefort, to the condemned for life. The name Bagne, which is applied in France to prisons in which those condemned to compulsory labour are confined, is derived from the famous Bagnio prison at Constantinople, so called on account of some baths 483 GALL NUTS. situated there. The principal crimes now punished in this manner by the French law are — some acts of violence against the government or public law; coining and forgery; a aults followed by death on legal officers; murder, unle under such aggravated circumstances as are punished by death; cutting and maiming; rape, abduction, burglary, highway robbery, burning of insulated buildings, threatening letters, perjury, . [s. 496]