CLAVIE

clavie, burning the, an ancient scottish custom still observed at burghead, a fishing village on the moray firth, near forres. the "clavie" is a bonfire of casks split in two, lighted on the 12th of january, corresponding to the new year of the old calendar. one of these casks is joined together again by a huge nail (lat. _clavus_; hence the term). it is then filled with tar, lighted and carried flaming round the village and finally up to a headland upon which stands the ruins of a roman altar, locally called "the douro." it here forms the nucleus of the bonfire, which is built up of split casks. when the burning tar-barrel falls in pieces, the people scramble to get a lighted piece with which to kindle the new year's fire on their cottage hearth. the charcoal of the clavie is collected and is put in pieces up the cottage chimneys, to keep spirits and witches from coming down. claviere, etienne (1735-1793), french financier and politician, was a native of geneva. as one of the democratic leaders there he was obliged in 1782 to take refuge in england, upon the armed interference of france, sardinia and berne in favour of the aristocratic party. there he met other swiss, among them marat and etienne dumont, but their schemes for a new geneva in ireland--which the government favoured--were given up when necker came to power in france, and claviere, with most of his comrades, went to paris. there in 1789 he and dumont allied themselves with mirabeau, secretly collaborating for him on the _courrier de provence_ and also in preparing the speeches which mirabeau delivered as his own. it was mainly by his use of claviere that mirabeau sustained his reputation as a financier. but claviere also published some pamphlets under his own name, and through these and his friendship with j.p. brissot, whom he had met in london, he became minister of finance in the girondist ministry, from march to the 12th of june 1792. after the 10th of august he was again given charge of the finances in the provisional executive council, though with but indifferent success. he shared in the fall of the girondists, was arrested on the 2nd of june 1793, but somehow was left in prison until the 8th of december, when, on receiving notice that he was to appear on the next day before the revolutionary tribunal, he committed suicide.