Kidd, William

born in Scotland, died in 1701. He early proved himself a bold and skillful navigator. He received a reward from t!.e New York Council in 1691 for kis services to the colonies. In 1696 he was placed in command of the ‘‘ Adventure,” o*f thirty guns and 154 men, to destroy piracy. He was led to engage in the traffic he was commi ioned to destroy, and became one of the most noted cf pirates. In 1699 he returned to New England, was arrested and sent to Engiand, where he was hanged. _ Kieft, Wilhelm (1600?-1647), the fifth Dutch Governor of New Netherlands, ruled from 1638 to 1647. IIe concent. ed the government in himself. He improved the condition and appearance of New A meter dam, repaired the forts, prohivited illegal traffic, enforced obe ‘ dience to the police ordinances of the town, erected public houses and improved the system of land tenure. His rule was neverthele tyrannical and despotic, and he was detested by the people. He organized the first representative a embly in New Netherlands in 1641, but di olved it in 1643. He was recalled in 1647 at the request of the colonists, Kilbourn vs. Thompson, an important case decided by the U. S. Supreme Court in 1880. Kilbourn was summoned as a witne before the House of Representatives of the United States in 1876, and required to answer questions and produce certain papers, This he refused to do, and accordingly Thompson, sergeant-at-arms of the House, was ordered to arrest and imprison him for forty-five days in the common jail of the District of Columbia. He was released on a writ of habeas corpus, and brought suit before the Supreme Court against Thompson and certain Congre men on the plea of illegal imprisonment. The court decided that the House might punish its own members for disorderly conduct, but that the Constitution did not invest either House with a general povver of punishment for contempt. 382