WINTHROP MACKWORTH, a talented writer and politician, was the son of Mr Serjeant Praed, and was born in 1802. His educational career from the very first was full of the richest promise. At Eton he wrote precocious essays in a magazine called The Etonian. At Trinity College, Cambridge, his genius continued to develop itself, and there was scarcely a learned accomplishment in which he did not outstrip his rivals. He carried off four prizes for classical odes and epigrams, and three prizes for English poetry; he contested the leadership of the Union Debating Club with Thomas Babington Macaulay (now Lord Macaulay); and before he left the university he had produced poems in Knight's Quarterly Magazine which placed him among the very first of the rising literary men of that age. After practising for a short time at the bar, Praed began his parliamentary career by taking his seat in 1830 for St Germans. It is true that he failed to secure his return in 1832. But he entered Parliament again in 1835 as member for Great Yarmouth, and proved himself a great acquisition to the Tory party. Industrious in collecting his own arguments, wonderfully rapid in demolishing those of his opponents, and fervidly eloquent in enforcing his views, he became a very effective debater. A standing of great reputation and influence was already within his reach, when consumption cut him off in 1839.

PREFECT (Prefectus urbi) was originally warden of the city of Rome, and received the name of Custos Urbis. The title of prefect does not seem to have been used till after the time of the Decemvirs. On the absence of the king from Rome, the custos urbis acted as his representative; and exercised all the powers of the consul if they were absent. Persons of consular rank were alone eligible for this office; and, down to the time of the Decemvirate every prefect had previously been consul.

On the institution of the office of praetor urbanus, the wardenship of the city became a mere name. In the reign of Augustus, at the suggestion of Maecenas, an office bearing this designation was instituted, but widely different from the original. This new prefectus urbi was a permanent magistrate, with the superintendence of butchers, bankers, theatres, &c.; and to enable him the better to exercise his authority, he had distributed throughout the city a number of milites stationarii, a sort of modern police. Gradually his office extended, until he in turn swallowed up the office of praetor urbanus. On Constantinople becoming the second capital of the empire, it had its prefectus urbi; who were the direct representatives of the emperor. All the officers of the administration of the city—all corporations and public institutions were under their supervision. They received the petitions of the people addressed to the emperor; and when the capital deigned to present the emperor with an expression of their loyalty, it was through the prefect they had to approach him. (Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities.)

PREMUNIRE (used for præmunire, to forewarn), is the first word of an ancient writ, whereby a party was summoned before the crown to answer a charge of contempt of the sovereign. The writ commenced—"Præmuni facias A.B., quod sit coram nobis," &c. The contempt consisted in the doing of some act derogatory of the allegiance due to the sovereign. The term has now the two meanings of the writ itself, and the offence to which the writ is applied.

PRÆNESTE (the modern Palestrina), one of the most important cities of ancient Latium, was situated about 2400 feet above the level of the sea, on the south-western side of a bastion-like projection of the Apennines. This favourable position rendered it a place of great strength and power from the earliest times. Accordingly we find the Prænestines offering a formidable opposition to the might of the Romans. In 390 B.C., taking advantage of the civil dissensions among their enemies, they marched up to the very gates of Rome. A severe defeat which Cincinnatus gave them immediately afterwards on the banks of the Allia, did not break their power. In the very next year they were again in the field, summoning the rest of the states of Latium to come to their aid against the common aggressors on the banks of the Tiber. It is true that in the great Latin war which began in 340 B.C., they were forced to submit, and become allies of the Romans. Yet, in 82 B.C., the city is found in greater strength than ever, sustaining a close blockade from the forces of Sylla. It was not until that general, after receiving its surrender, had razed its fortifications, and butchered all its inhabitants, that the power of the town received its death-blow. After this period Praeneste was famous as a place of resort. People repaired from all parts of Italy, and even from foreign countries, to consult at the shrine of Fortune which overlooked the city. The wealthy and the noble came from Rome to pass the hot summer months on the breezy terraces which rose upon the hillside. There, too, amid the roses for which the town was celebrated, might be seen such a poet as Horace, sitting over the famous nuts and wine which were grown in the neighbourhood, luxuriating in the cool zephyr which blew from the Tyrrhenian sea, and looking down upon the plain which swept away, in wooded undulations, to the foot of the Alban hills.

The modern Palestrina is chiefly known on account of the remains of the ancient Praeneste, which still exist. Many of the large irregular blocks of limestone which formed the wall of the citadel are to be seen at the present day. An exquisite piece of mosaic, which was dug up from among the ruins of the temple of Fortune in the seventeenth century, and which has been considered the finest specimen of its kind, is still preserved in the family of Barberini.

PRÆTOR (for praetor from praire), a title of office among the Romans. The consuls were called praetors, as leaders of the armies of the state; but the term was especially appropriated to the praetor urbanus, first appointed in the year B.C. 366. He was at first chosen from the Patricians, who created this office as a sort of indemnification for being compelled to share the consulship with the plebeians. (Liv. vi. 42; vii. 1.) The plebeians, however, soon had a hand in the office; and in B.C. 337 the patricians were left to mourn the appointment of a plebeian praetor. The praetors were called colleagues to the consuls, and were created with the same auspices.

The praetorship was originally a sort of third consulship. The praetor occasionally commanded the armies of the state, instead of the consul; and when the consul was absent with the army he exercised his function within the city. The praetor was one of the magistratus majorum; he went attended by six lictors (latterly by two), and owed respect and obedience to the consuls. A second praetor was appointed B.C. 246, to administer justice between the peregrini, or the peregrini and the citizens; and hence he received the name of praetor peregrinus. It was determined by lot what functions these praetors should fulfil; and when the one was at the head of the army, the other performed the duties of both within the city. On the extension of the state beyond the bounds of Italy, new praetors were chosen. Sulla increased their number to eight; Julius Caesar raised them successively to ten, twelve, fourteen, and sixteen; and Pomponius says of his own time, "eighteen praetors administer justice in the state."

The praetor urbanus seems to have held the first rank; and as his name implied, his duties confined him to Rome. He was the chief magistrate for the administration of justice, and to him Roman law owes much of its development and improvement. The chief judicial function of the praetor consisted in giving a judex; and cases before the praetor were said to be in jure. They presided at criminal trials (questiones perpetuae); and a body of judices determined by a majority of votes the condemnation or the acquittal of the party accused.

The praetors existed till a late period in the Roman empire, and seem to have held still their original right of jurisdiction. Praetors were usually appointed governors of provinces on the expiration of their official year, with the title of propraetor. (See Die Prätorischen Edicte der Römer, &c., von D. Ed. Schrader, Weimar, 1815.)

PRÆTORIANS was, during the Roman republic, a select cohort that attended the praetor or commander of an army. They frequently decided the fate of battles. After the overthrow of the republic, Augustus formed them into nine cohorts, and fixed their station in the capital as bodyguards. They became, in short, under the emperors, what "the guards" are to the monarchies of Europe. They, in addition to their military duties, frequently had the charge of state prisoners, and often acted the part of executioners. They were all picked men, chosen for the most part from Italy. Their power increased greatly under the empire until they frequently determined the fate of an emperor. Diocletian reduced their number, and Constantine disbanded them.