a time attached to the Court; was for three years of the household of
James V. of Scotland in connection with it, and afterwards in the service
of the Duke of Orleans, but having lost his hearing gave himself up to
literature, writing odes and sonnets; he was of the PLÉIADE SCHOOL OF
POETS (q. v.), and contributed to introduce important changes in
the idiom of the French language, as well as in the rhythm of French
poetry (1521-1585).
RÖNTGEN, WILHELM KONRAD VON, discoverer of the Röntgen rays, born at
Lennep, in Rhenish Prussia; since 1885 has been professor of Physics at
Würzburg; his discovery of the X-rays was made in 1898, and has won him a
wide celebrity; _b_. 1845.
RÖNTGEN RAYS, described by Dr. Knott as "rays of light that pass
with ease through many substances that are optically opaque, but are
absorbed by others." "For example," he says, "the bony structures of the
body are much less transparent than the fleshy parts; hence by placing
the hand between a fluorescent screen and the source of these rays we see
the shadow of the skeleton of the hand with a much fainter shadow of the
flesh and skin bordering it." See Dr. Knott's "Physics."
ROOKE, SIR GEORGE, British admiral, born at Canterbury;
distinguished himself at the battle of Cape La Hogue in 1692; in an
expedition against Cadiz destroyed the Plate-fleet in the harbour of Vigo
in 1702; assisted in the capture of Gibraltar from the Spaniards in 1704,
and fought a battle which lasted a whole day with a superior French force
off Malaga the same year (1650-1709).
ROON, COUNT VON, Prussian general, born in Pomerania; was Minister
of War in 1859 and of Marine in 1861; was distinguished for the important
reforms he effected in the organisation of the Prussian army, conspicuous
in the campaigns of 1866 and 1871-72 (1803-1879).
ROOT, GEORGE FREDERICK, a popular American song-writer, born at
Sheffield, Massachusetts; was for some time a music teacher in Boston and
New York; took to song writing, and during the Civil War leaped into fame
as the composer of "Tramp, tramp, tramp the Boys are Marching," "Just
before the Battle, Mother," "The Battle Cry of Freedom," and other
songs; was made a Musical Doctor by Chicago University in 1872
(1820-1895).
ROOT AND BRANCH MEN, name of a party in the Commons who in 1641
supported a petition for the abolition of Episcopacy in England, and even
carried a bill through two readings, to be finally thrown out.
ROPEMAKER, THE BEAUTIFUL. See LABÉ, LOUISE.
RORKE'S DRIFT, a station on the Tugela River, Zululand, the defence
of which was on the night of the 24th January 1879 successfully
maintained by 80 men of the 24th Regiment against 4000 Zulu warriors.
ROSA, CARL, father of English opera, born at Hamburg; introduced on
the English stage the standard Italian, French, and German operas with an
English text (1842-1889).
ROSA, SALVATOR, Italian painter, born near Naples, a man of
versatile ability; could write verse and compose music, as well as paint
and engrave; his paintings of landscape were of a sombre character, and
generally representative of wild and savage scenes; he lived chiefly in
Rome, but took part in the insurrection of Masaniello at Naples in 1647
(1615-1673).
ROSAMOND, FAIR, a daughter of Lord Clifford, and mistress of Henry
II., who occupied a bower near Woodstock, the access to which was by a
labyrinth, the windings of which only the king could thread. Her retreat
was discovered by Queen Eleanor, who poisoned her.
ROSARIO (51), an important city of the Argentine Republic, on the
Paraná, 190 m. NW. of Buenos Ayres; does a large trade with Europe,
exporting wool, hides, maize, wheat, &c.
ROSARY, a string of beads used by Hindus, Buddhists, Mohammedans,
and Roman Catholics as an aid to the memory during devotional exercises;
the rosary of the Roman Catholics consists of beads of two sizes, the
larger ones mark the number of Paternosters and the smaller the number of
Ave Marias repeated; of the former there are usually five, of the latter
fifty.
ROSAS, JEAN MANUEL, Argentine statesman, born at Buenos Ayres;
organised the confederation, became dictator, failed to force the Plate
River States into the confederation, and took refuge in England, where he
died (1793-1877).
ROSCHER, WILHELM, distinguished political economist, born at
Hanover, professor at Göttingen and Leipzig, the head of the historical
school of political economy; his chief work a "System of Political
Economy" (1817-1894).
ROSCIUS, QUINTUS, famous Roman comic actor, born near Lanuvium, in
the Sabine territory; was a friend of Cicero, and much patronised by the
Roman nobles; was thought to have reached perfection in his art, so that
his name became a synonym for perfection in any profession or art.
ROSCOE, SIR HENRY, chemist, born in London, grandson of succeeding,
professor at Owens College, Manchester; author of treatises on chemistry;
_b_. 1834.
ROSCOE, WILLIAM, historian, born in Liverpool; distinguished as the
author of the "Life of Lorenzo de' Medici" and of "Leo X.," as well as of
"Handbooks of the Italian Renaissance" and a collection of poems
(1753-1831).
ROSCOMMON (114), an inland county of Connaught, SW. Ireland; is
poorly developed; one-half is in grass, and a sixth mere waste land;
crops of hay, potatoes, and oats are raised, but the rearing of sheep and
cattle is the chief industry; the rivers Shannon and Suck lie on its E.
and W. borders respectively; there is some pretty lake-scenery,
interesting Celtic remains, castle, and abbey ruins, &c. The county town,
96 m. NW. of Dublin, has a good cattle-market, and remains of a
13th-century Dominican abbey and castle.
ROSCREA (3), an old market-town of Tipperary, 77 m. SW. of Dublin;
its history reaches back to the 7th century, and it has interesting ruins
of a castle, round tower, and two abbeys.
ROSEBERY, ARCHIBALD PHILIP PRIMROSE, EARL OF, born in London;
educated at Eton and Christ's Church, Oxford; succeeded to the earldom in
1868; was twice over Secretary for Foreign Affairs under Mr. Gladstone,
in 1885 and 1892; was first Chairman of London County Council; became
Prime Minister on March 1894 on Mr. Gladstone's retirement, and resigned
in June 1895; he is one of the most popular statesmen and orators of the
day, and held in deservedly high esteem by all classes; _b_. 1847.
ROSECRANS, WILLIAM STARKE, American general, born at Kingston, Ohio;
trained as an engineer, he had settled down to coal-mining when the Civil
War broke out; joined the army in 1861, and rapidly came to the front;
highly distinguished himself during the campaigns of 1862-63, winning
battles at Iuka, Corinth, and Stone River; but defeated at Chickamauga he
lost his command; reinstated in 1864 he drove Price out of Missouri; has
been minister to Mexico, a member of Congress, and since 1885 Registrar
of the U.S. Treasury; _b_. 1819.
ROSENKRANZ, KARL, philosopher of the Hegelian school, born at
Magdeburg; professor of Philosophy at Königsberg; wrote an exposition of
the Hegelian system, a "Life of Hegel," on "Goethe and his Works," &c.
(1805-1879).
ROSES, WARS OF THE, the most protracted and sanguinary civil war in
English history, fought out during the reigns of Henry VI., Edward IV.,
and Richard III. between the adherents of the noble houses of York and
Lancaster--rival claimants for the throne of England--whose badges were
the white and the red rose respectively; began with the first battle of
St. Albans (1455), in which Richard, Duke of York, defeated Henry VI.'s
forces under the Duke of Somerset; but not till after the decisive
victory at Towton (1461) did the Yorkists make good their claim, when
Edward (IV.), Duke of York, became king. Four times the Lancastrians were
defeated during his reign. The war closed with the defeat and death of
the Yorkist Richard III. at Bosworth, 1485, and an end was put to the
rivalry of the two houses by the marriage of Henry VII. of Lancaster with
Elizabeth of York, 1486.
ROSETTA (18), a town on the left branch of the delta of the Nile, 44
m. NE. of Alexandria, famous for the discovery near it by M. Boussard, in
1799, of the Rosetta stone with inscriptions in hieroglyphic, demotic and
Greek, and by the help of which archæologists have been able to interpret
the hieroglyphics of Egypt.
ROSICRUCIANS, a fraternity who, in the beginning of the 15th
century, affected an intimate acquaintance with the secrets of nature,
and pretended by the study of alchemy and other occult sciences to be
possessed of sundry wonder-working powers.
ROSINANTE, the celebrated steed of Don Quixote, reckoned by him
superior to the Bucephalus of Alexander and the Bavieca of the Cid.
ROSLIN, a pretty little village of Midlothian, by the wooded side of
the North Esk, 6½ m. S. of Edinburgh; has ruins of a 14th-century castle,
and a small chapel of rare architectural beauty, built in the 16th
century as the choir of a projected collegiate church.
ROSMINI, ANTONIO ROSMINI-SERBATI, distinguished Italian philosopher,
born at Rovereto, entered the priesthood, devoted himself to the study of
philosophy, founded a system and an institute called the "Institute of
the Brethren of Charity" at Stresa, W. of Lake Maggiore, on a pietistic
religious basis, which, though sanctioned by the Pope, has encountered
much opposition at the hands of the obscurantist party in the Church
(1797-1865).
ROSS, SIR JOHN, Arctic explorer, born in Wigtownshire; made three
voyages, the first in 1811 under Parry; the second in 1829, which he
commanded; and a third in 1850, in an unsuccessful search for Franklin,
publishing on his return from them accounts of the first two, in both of
which he made important discoveries (1777-1856).
ROSSANO (19), a town of Southern Italy, in Calabria, 2 m. from the
SW. shore of the Gulf of Taranto; has a fine cathedral and castle;
valuable quarries of marble and alabaster are wrought in the vicinity.
ROSSBACH, a village in Prussian Saxony, 9 m. SW. of Merseburg, where
Frederick the Great gained in 1767 a brilliant victory with 22,000 men
over the combined arms of France and Austria with 60,000.
ROSSE, WILLIAM PARSONS, THIRD EARL OF, born in York; devoted to the
study of astronomy; constructed reflecting telescopes, and a monster one
at the cost of £30,000 at Parsonstown, his seat in Ireland, by means of
which important discoveries were made, specially in the resolution of
nebulæ (1800-1867).
ROSSETTI, CHARLES DANTE GABRIEL, poet and painter, born in London,
the son of Gabriele Rossetti; was as a painter one of the
PRE-RAPHAELITE BROTHERHOOD (q. v.), and is characterised by
Ruskin as "the chief intellectual force in the establishment of the
modern romantic school in England,... as regarding the external world as
a singer of the Romaunts would have regarded it in the Middle Ages, and
as Scott, Burns, Byron, and Tennyson have regarded it in modern times,"
and as a poet was leader of the romantic school of poetry, which, as
Stopford Brooke remarks, "found their chief subjects in ancient Rome and
Greece, in stories and lyrics of passion, in mediæval romance, in Norse
legends, in the old English of Chaucer, and in Italy" (1828-1882).
ROSSETTI, CHRISTINA GEORGINA, poetess, born in London, sister of
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and of kindred temper with her brother, but with
distinct qualities of her own; her first volume, called the
"Goblin-Market," contains a number of very beautiful short poems; she
exhibits, along with a sense of humour, a rare pathos, which, as
Professor Saintsbury remarks, often "blends with or passes into the
utterance of religious awe, unstained and unweakened by any craven fear"
(1830-1894).
ROSSETTI, GABRIELE, Italian poet and orator, born at Vasto; had for
his patriotic effusions to leave Italy, took refuge in London, and became
professor of Italian in King's College, London; was a man of strong
character, and student of literature as well as man of letters himself;
was the father of Dante Gabriel and Christina (1783-1854).
ROSSI, PELLEGRINO, an Italian jurist and politician, born at
Carrara, educated at Bologna, where he became professor of Law in 1812;
four years later was appointed to a chair in Geneva, where he also busied
himself with politics as a member of the Council and deputy in the Diet;
settled in Paris in 1833, became professor at the Collège de France, was
naturalised and created a peer, returned to Rome, broke off his
connection with France, won the friendship of Pius IX., and rose to be
head of the ministry; was assassinated (1787-1848).
ROSSINI, GIOACCHINO, celebrated Italian composer of operatic music,
born at Pesaro; his operas were numerous, of a high order, and received
with unbounded applause, beginning with "Tancred," followed by "Barber of
Seville," "La Gazza Ladra," "Semiramis," "William Tell," &c.; he composed
a "Stabat Mater," and a "Mass" which was given at his grave (1792-1868).
ROSTOCK (44), a busy German port in Mecklenburg, on the Warnow, 7 m.
from its entrance into the Baltic; exports large quantities of grain,
wool, flax, &c., has important wool and cattle markets; shipbuilding is
the chief of many varied industries, owns a flourishing university, a
beautiful Gothic church, a ducal palace, &c.
ROSTOFF, 1, a flourishing town (67) of South Russia, on the Don, 34
m. E. of Taganrog; manufactures embrace tobacco, ropes, leather,
shipbuilding, &c. 2, One of the oldest of Russian market-towns (12), on
the Lake of Rostoff, 34 m. SW. of Jaroslav, seat of an archbishop;
manufactures linens, silks, &c.
ROSTOPCHINE, COUNT, Russian general, governor of Moscow; was charged
with having set fire to the city against the entrance of the French in
1812; in his defence all he admitted was that he had set fire to his own
mansion, and threw the blame of the general conflagration on the citizens
and the French themselves (1763-1826).
ROSTRUM (lit. a beak), a pulpit in the forum of Rome where the
orators delivered harangues to the people, so called as originally
constructed of the prows of war-vessels taken at the first naval battle
in which Rome was engaged.
ROTHE, RICHARD, eminent German theologian, born at Posen, professor
eventually at Heidelberg; regarded the Church as a temporary institution
which would decease as soon as it had fulfilled its function by leavening
society with the Christian spirit; he wrote several works, but the
greatest is entitled "Theological Ethics" (1799-1867).
ROTHERHAM (42), a flourishing town in Yorkshire, situated on the
Don, 5 m. NE. of Sheffield; its cruciform church is a splendid specimen
of Perpendicular architecture; manufactures iron-ware, chemicals,
pottery, &c.
ROTHESAY (9), popular watering-place on the W. coast of Scotland,
capital of Buteshire, charmingly situated at the head of a fine hill-girt
bay on the NE. side of the island of Bute, 19 m. SW. of Greenock; has an
excellent harbour, esplanade, &c.; Rothesay Castle is an interesting
ruin; is a great health and holiday resort.
ROTHSCHILD, MEYER AMSCHEL, the founder of the celebrated banking
business, born at Frankfort-on-the-Main, a Jew by birth; began his career
as a money-lender and made a large fortune (1743-1812); left five sons,
who were all made barons of the Austrian empire--AMSELM VON R.,
eldest, head of the house at Frankfort (1773-1855); SOLOMON VON R.,
the second, head of the Vienna house (1774-1855); NATHAN VON R., the
third, head of the London house (1777-1836); KARL VON R., the
fourth, head of the house at Naples (1755-1855); and JACOB VON R.,
the fifth, head of the Paris house (1792-1868).
ROTROU, JEAN DE, French poet, born at Dreux; was a contemporary of
Corneille and a rival, wrote a number of plays, almost all tragedies, on
romantic and classical subjects, some of which have kept the stage till
now (1609-1650).
ROTTERDAM (223), the chief port and second city of Holland, situated
at the junction of the Rotte with the Maas, 19 m. from the North Sea and
45 m. SW. of Amsterdam; the town is cut in many parts by handsome canals,
which communicate with the river and serve to facilitate the enormous
foreign commerce; the quaint old houses, the stately public buildings,
broad tree-lined streets, canals alive with fleets of trim barges,
combine to give the town a picturesque and animated appearance. Boymans'
Museum has a fine collection of Dutch and modern paintings, and the
Groote Kerk is a Gothic church of imposing appearance; there is also a
large zoological garden; shipbuilding, distilling, sugar-refining,
machine and tobacco factories are the chief industries.
ROTTI (60), a fertile hilly island in the Indian Archipelago, SW. of
Timor, a Dutch possession.
ROUBAIX (115), a busy town in the department of Nord, N. of France;
situated on a canal 6 m. NE. of Lille; is of modern growth; actively
engaged in the manufacture of all kinds of textiles, in brewing, &c.
ROUBILLIAC, LOUIS FRANÇOIS, sculptor, born at Lyons; studied in
Paris, came to London; executed there statues of Shakespeare in the
British Museum, Sir Isaac Newton at Cambridge, and Händel at London
(1693-1762).
ROUBLE, a silver coin of the value of 3s. 2d.; the unit of the
Russian monetary system; a much depreciated paper rouble is also in
circulation; the rouble is divided into 100 copecks.
ROUEN (112), the ancient capital of Normandy, a busy manufacturing
town on the Seine, 87 m. NW of Paris; a good portion of the old, crowded,
picturesque town has given place to more spacious streets and dwellings;
the old ramparts have been converted into handsome boulevards; has
several Gothic churches unrivalled in beauty, a cathedral (the seat of an
archbishop), &c.; the river affords an excellent waterway to the sea, and
as a port Rouen ranks fourth in France; is famed for its cotton and other
textiles; Joan of Arc was burned here in 1431.
ROUGET DE LISLE, officer of the Engineers, born at Lons-le-Saulnier;
immortalised himself as the author of the "MARSEILLAISE" (q. v.);
was thrown into prison by the extreme party at the Revolution, but
was released on the fall of Robespierre; fell into straitened
circumstances, but was pensioned by Louis Philippe (1760-1836).
ROUGE-ET-NOIR (i. e. red and black), a gambling game of chance
with cards, so called because it is played on a table marked with two red
and two black diamond-shaped spots, and arranged alternately in four
different sections of the table.
ROUHER, EUGÈNE, French Bonapartist statesman, born at Riom, where he
became a barrister; entered the Constituent Assembly in 1848, and in the
following year became Minister of Justice; was more or less in office
during the next 20 years; he became President of the Senate in 1869; fled
to England on the fall of the Empire; later on re-entered the National
Assembly, and vigorously defended the ex-emperor Napoleon III.
(1814-1884).
ROULERS (20), a manufacturing town in West Flanders, 19 m. SW. of
Bruges; engaged in manufacturing cottons, lace, &c.; scene of a French
victory over the Austrians in 1794.
ROULETTE, a game of chance, very popular in France last century, now
at Monaco; played with a revolving disc and a ball.
ROUMANIA (5,800), a kingdom of SE. Europe, wedged in between Russia
(N.) and Bulgaria (S.), with an eastern shore on the Black Sea; the
Carpathians on the W. divide it from Austro-Hungary; comprises the old
principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, which, long subject to Turkey,
united under one ruler in 1859, and received their independence in 1878,
in which year the province of Dobrudja was ceded by Russia; in 1881 the
combined provinces were recognised as a kingdom; forms a fertile and
well-watered plain sloping N. to S., which grows immense quantities of
grain, the chief export; salt-mining and petroleum-making are also
important industries; the bulk of the people belong to the Greek Church;
peasant proprietorship on a large scale is a feature of the national
life; government is vested in a hereditary limited monarch, a council of
ministers, a senate, and a chamber of deputies; BUCHAREST (q. v.)
is the capital, and GALATZ (q. v.) the chief port.
ROUMELIA, a former name for a district which embraced ancient Thrace
and a portion of Macedonia; the territory known as East Roumelia was
incorporated with Bulgaria in 1885.
ROUND TABLE, THE, the name given to the knighthood of King Arthur: a
larger, from including as many as 150 knights; and a smaller, from
including only 12 of the highest order.
ROUND TOWERS, ancient towers, found chiefly in Ireland, of a tall,
round, more or less tapering structure, divided into storeys, and with a
conical top, erected in the neighbourhood of some church or monastery,
and presumably of Christian origin, and probably used as strongholds in
times of danger; of these there are 118 in Ireland, and three in
Scotland--at Abernethy, Brechin, and Eglishay (Orkney).
ROUNDHEADS, the name of contempt given by the Cavaliers to the
Puritans or Parliamentary party during the Civil War, on account of their
wearing their hair close crept.
ROUS, FRANCIS, provost of Eton, born in Cornwall; sat in the
Westminster Assembly, and was the author of the metrical version of the
Psalms, as used in Presbyterian churches (1579-1659).
ROUSSEAU, JEAN BAPTISTE, French lyric poet, born in Paris, the son
of a shoemaker; gave offence by certain lampoons ascribed to him which to
the last he protested were forgeries, and was banished; his satires were
certainly superior to his lyrics, which were cold and formal; died at
Brussels in exile (1670-1741).
ROUSSEAU, JEAN JACQUES, a celebrated French philosopher, and one or
the great prose writers of French literature, born in Geneva, the son of
a watchmaker and dancing-master; was apprenticed to an engraver, whose
inhuman treatment drove him at the age of 16 into running away; for three
years led a vagrant life, acting as footman, lackey, secretary, &c.;
during this period was converted to Catholicism largely through the
efforts of Madame de Warens, a spritely married lady living apart from
her husband; in 1731 he took up residence in his patroness's house, where
he lived for nine years a life of ease and sentiment in the ambiguous
capacity of general factotum, and subsequently of lover; supplanted in
the affections of his mistress, he took himself off, and landed in Paris
in 1741; supported himself by music-copying, an occupation which was his
steadiest means of livelihood throughout his troubled career; formed a
_liaison_ with an illiterate dull servant-girl by whom he had five
children, all of whom he callously handed over to the foundling hospital;
acquaintance with Diderot brought him work on the famous Encyclopédie,
but the true foundation of his literary fame was laid in 1749 by "A
Discourse on Arts and Sciences," in which he audaciously negatives the
theory that morality has been favoured by the progress of science and the
arts; followed this up in 1753 by a "Discourse on the Origin of
Inequality," in which he makes a wholesale attack upon the cherished
institutions and ideals of society; morosely rejected the flattering
advances of society, and from his retreat at Montlouis issued "The New
Héloïse" (1760), "The Social Contract" (1762), and "Émile" (1762); these
lifted him into the widest fame, but precipitated upon him the enmity and
persecution of Church (for his Deism) and State; fled to Switzerland,
where after his aggressive "Letters from the Mountains," he wandered
about, the victim of his own suspicious, hypochondriacal nature; found
for some time a retreat in Staffordshire under the patronage of Hume;
returned to France, where his only persecutors were his own morbid
hallucinations; died, not without suspicion of suicide, at Ermenonville;
his "Confessions" and other autobiographical writings, although
unreliable in facts, reflect his strange and wayward personality with
wonderful truth; was one of the precursive influences which brought on
the revolutionary movement (1712-1778).
ROUSSEAU, PIERRE ÉTIENNE THÉODORE, an eminent French artist, born in
Paris; at 19 exhibited in the Salon; slowly won his way to the front as
the greatest French landscape painter; in 1848 settled down in Barbizon,
in the Forest of Fontainebleau, his favourite sketching ground; his
pictures (e. g. "The Alley of Chestnut Trees," "Early Summer Morning")
fetch immense prices now (1812-1867).
ROVEREDO (10), an Austrian town in the Tyrol, pleasantly situated on
the Leno, in the Lägerthal; is the centre of the Tyrolese silk trade.
ROW, JOHN, a Scottish reformer; graduated LL.D. in Padua; came over
from the Catholic Church in 1558, and two years later helped to compile
the "First Book of Discipline"; settled as a minister in Perth, and was
four times Moderator of the General Assembly (1525-1580). His son, John
Row, was minister of Carnock, near Dunfermline, and author of an
authoritative "History of the Kirk of Scotland" (1568-1646).
ROWE, NICHOLAS, dramatist and poet-laureate, born at Barford,
Bedfordshire; was trained for the law, but took to literature, and made
his mark as a dramatist, "The Fair Penitent," "Jane Shore," &c., long
maintaining their popularity; translated Lucan's "Pharsalia," which won
Dr. Johnson's commendation; edited Shakespeare; became poet-laureate in
1715; held some government posts; was buried at Westminster Abbey
(1674-1718).
ROWLANDSON, THOMAS, caricaturist, born in London; studied art in
Paris; gambled and lived extravagantly; led a roving life in England and
Wales; displayed great versatility and strength in his artistic work, _e.
g_. in "Imitations of Modern Drawings," illustrations to Sterne's
"Sentimental Journey," "Munchausen's Travels," &c.; ridiculed Napoleon in
many cartoons (1756-1827).
ROWLEY REGIS (31), a flourishing town of Staffordshire, 3 m. SE. of
Dudley; has large iron-works, potteries, &c.
ROWTON HEATH, in the vicinity of Chester, scene of a great
Parliamentary victory over the forces of Charles I. in September 1645.
ROXBURGHSHIRE (54), in Border pastoral county of Scotland, between
Berwick (NE.) and Dumfries (SW.); the Cheviots form its southern
boundary; lies almost wholly within the basin of the Tweed, which winds
along its northern border, receiving the Teviot, Jed, &c.; includes the
fine pastoral districts of Teviotdale and Liddesdale, where vast flocks
of sheep are reared; agriculture and woollen manufactures are important
industries; Hawick is the largest town, and Jedburgh the county town;
near Kelso stood the royal castle and town of Roxburgh, which gave its
name to the county, destroyed in 1460.
ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS, in London; was instituted in 1768 by George
III. as a result of a memorial presented to him by 29 members who had
seceded from "The Incorporated Society of Artists of Great Britain"
(founded 1765); for some years received grants from the privy purse, and
was provided with rooms in Somerset House; removed to Trafalgar Square in
1836, and to its present quarters at Burlington House in 1869; receives
now no public grant; holds yearly exhibitions, and supports an art
school; membership comprises 42 Royal Academicians, besides Associates.
The present President is Sir Edward John Poynter. The Royal Hibernian
Academy (founded 1823) and the Scottish Academy (1826) are similar
institutions.
ROYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH, THE, was incorporated by royal charter
in 1783 through the efforts of Robertson the historian, and superseded
the old Philosophical Society; held fortnightly meetings (December till
June) in the Royal Institution; receives a grant of £300; publishes
_Transactions_; has a membership of some 550, including foreign and
British Fellows.
ROYAL SOCIETY OF LONDON, incorporated by royal charter in 1662, but
owing its origin to the informal meetings about 1645 of a group of
scientific men headed by Theodore Haak, a German, Dr. Wilkins, and
others; in 1665 the first number of their _Philosophical Transactions_
was published which, with the supplementary publication, _Proceedings of
the Royal Society_, begun in 1800, constitute an invaluable record of the
progress of science to the present day; encouragement is given to
scientific investigation by awards of medals (Copley, Davy, Darwin, &c.),
the equipping of scientific expeditions (e. g. the _Challenger_), &c.;
weekly meetings are held at Burlington House (quarters since 1857) during
the session (November till June); membership comprises some 500 Fellows,
including 40 foreigners; receives a parliamentary grant of £4000 a year,
and acts in an informal way as scientific adviser to Government.
ROYAN (6), a pretty seaside town of France, on the estuary of the
Gironde, 60 m. NW. of Bordeaux; trebles its population in the summer.
ROYER-COLLARD, PIERRE PAUL, politician and philosopher, born at
Sompuis; called to the Paris bar at 20; supported the Revolution, but
refused to follow the Jacobins, and during the Reign of Terror sought
shelter in his native town; was elected to the Council of the Five
Hundred in 1797, retired in 1804, and betook himself to philosophic
studies; became professor of Philosophy in Paris 1811, and exercised
great influence; re-entered political life in 1815, and was actively
engaged in administrative work till his retirement in 1842; was all
through his life a doctrinaire and rather unpractical (1763-1842).
ROYTON (13), a busy cotton town in Lancashire, 2 m. NW. of Oldham.
RUABON (18), a mining town in Denbighshire, 4½ m. SW. of Wrexham;
has collieries and iron-works.
RUBENS, PETER PAUL, the greatest of the Flemish painters, born at
Siegen, in Westphalia; came with his widowed mother in 1587 to Antwerp,
where he sedulously cultivated the painter's art, and early revealed his
masterly gift of colouring; went to Italy, and for a number of years was
in the service of the Duke of Mantua, who encouraged him in his art, and
employed him on a diplomatic mission to Philip III. of Spain; executed at
Madrid some of his finest portraits; returned to Antwerp in 1609;
completed in 1614 his masterpiece, "The Descent from the Cross," in
Antwerp Cathedral; with the aid of assistants he painted the series of 21
pictures, now in the Louvre, illustrating the principal events in the
life of Maria de' Medici during 1628-1629; diplomatic missions engaged
him at the Spanish and English Courts, where his superabundant energy
enabled him to execute many paintings for Charles I.--e. g. "War and
Peace," in the National Gallery--and Philip IV.; was knighted by both; in
all that pertains to chiaroscuro, colouring, and general technical skill
Rubens is unsurpassed, and in expressing particularly the "tumult and
energy of human action," but he falls below the great Italian artists in
the presentation of the deeper and sublimer human emotions; was a
scholarly, refined man, an excellent linguist, and a successful
diplomatist; was twice married; died at Antwerp, and was buried in the
Church of St. Jacques; his tercentenary was celebrated in 1877
(1577-1640).
RUBICON, a famous river of Italy, associated with Julius Cæsar, now
identified with the modern Fiumecino, a mountain torrent which springs
out of the eastern flank of the Apennines and enters the Adriatic N. of
Ariminum; marked the boundary line between Roman Italy and Cisalpine
Gaul, a province administered by Cæsar; when he crossed it in 49 B.C. it
was tantamount to a declaration of war against the Republic, hence the
expression "to cross the Rubicon" is applied to the decisive step in any
adventurous undertaking.
RUBINSTEIN, ANTON, a famous Russian pianist and composer, born, of
Jewish parents, near Jassy, in Moldavia; studied at Moscow, under Liszt
in Paris, and afterwards at Berlin and Vienna; established himself at St.
Petersburg in 1848 as a music-teacher; became director of the
Conservatoire there; toured for many years through Europe and the United
States, achieving phenomenal success; resumed his directorship at St.
Petersburg in 1887; composed operas (e. g. "The Maccabees," "The
Demon"), symphonies (e. g. "Ocean"), sacred operas (e. g. "Paradise
Lost"), chamber music, and many exquisite songs; as a pianist he was a
master of technique and expression; was ennobled by the Czar in 1869;
published an autobiography; his works as well as his performances display
both vigour and sensibility (1829-1894).
RUBRICS, a name, as printed originally in red ink, applied to the
rules and instructions given in the liturgy of the Prayer-Book for
regulating the conduct of divine service, hence applied in a wider
significance to any fixed ecclesiastical or other injunction or order;
was used to designate the headings or title of chapters of certain old
law-books and MSS., formerly but not now necessarily printed in red
characters.
RUBY, a gem which in value and hardness ranks next to the diamond;
is dichroic, of greater specific gravity than any other gem, and belongs
to the hexagonal system of crystals; is a pellucid, ruddy-tinted stone,
and, like the sapphire, a variety of corundum, also found (but rarely) in
violet, pink, and purple tints; the finest specimens come from Upper
Burmah; these are the true Oriental rubies, and when above 5 carats
exceed in value, weight for weight, diamonds; the Spinel ruby is the
commoner jeweller's stone; is of much less value, specific gravity and
hardness, non-dichroic, and forms a cubical crystal.
RÜCKERT, FRIEDRICH, German poet, born at Schweinfurt, in Bavaria; at
Würzburg University showed his talent for languages, and early devoted
himself to philology and poetry; was for 15 years professor of Oriental
Languages at Erlangen; introduced German readers, by excellent
translations, to Eastern poetry; filled for some time the chair of
Oriental Languages in Berlin; takes rank as a lyrist of no mean powers;
essayed unsuccessfully dramatic composition (1788-1866).
RUDDIMAN, THOMAS, author of a well-known Latin grammar, a Banffshire
man, and graduate of Aberdeen University; was school-mastering at
Laurencekirk, where his scholarly attainments won him an assistantship in
the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh; spent a busy life in that; city in
scholarly occupation, editing many learned works, the most notable being
Buchanan's works and the "immaculate" edition of Livy; his famous Latin
grammar was completed in 1732; in 1730 became principal keeper of the
Advocates' Library (1674-1757).
RUDOLF I., of the House of Hapsburg, founder of the Austrian
dynasty; born, the son of a count, at Schloss Limburg (Breisgau); greatly
increased his father's domain by marriage, inheritance, and conquest,
becoming the most powerful prince in S. Germany; acquired a remarkable
ascendency among the German princes, and was elevated to the imperial
throne in 1273, and by friendly concessions to the Pope, Gregory IX.,
terminated the long struggle between the Church and the empire; shattered
the opposition of Ottocar, king of Bohemia, and brought peace and order
to Germany (1218-1291).
RUDOLF II., German Emperor, son of Maximilian II., born at Vienna;
became king of Hungary in 1573, and of Bohemia three years later;
ascended the imperial throne in 1576; indolent and incapable, he left the
empire to the care of worthless ministers; disorder and foreign invasion
speedily followed; persecution inflamed the Protestants; by 1611 his
brother Matthias, supported by other kinsmen, had wrested Hungary and
Bohemia from him; had a taste for astrology and alchemy, and patronised
Kepler and Tycho Brahé (1552-1612).
RUDOLF LAKE, in British East Africa, close to the highlands of S.
Ethiopia, practically an inland sea, being 160 m. long and 20 broad, and
brackish in taste; discovered in 1888.
RUDRA, in the Hindu mythology the old deity of the storm, and father
of the Marutz.
RUGBY (11), a town in Warwickshire, at the junction of the Swift and
the Avon, 83 m. NW. of London; an important railway centre and seat of a
famous public school founded in 1567, of which DR. ARNOLD (q. v.),
and Archbishops Tait and Temple were famous head-masters, is one of
the first public schools in England, and scholars number about 450.
RUGE, ARNOLD, a German philosophical and political writer, born at
Bergen (Rügen); showed a philosophic bent at Jena; was implicated in the
political schemes of the BURSCHENSCHAFT (q. v.), and was
imprisoned for six years; taught for some years in Halle University, but
got into trouble through the radical tone of his writings in the _Halle
Review_ (founded by himself and another), and went to Paris; was
prominent during the political agitation of 1848, and subsequently sought
refuge in London, where for a short time he acted in consort with Mazzini
and others; retired to Brighton, and ultimately received a pension from
the Prussian Government; his numerous plays, novels, translations, &c.,
including a lengthy autobiography, reveal a mind scarcely gifted enough
to grasp firmly and deeply the complicated problems of sociology and
politics; is characterised by Dr. Stirling as the "bold and brilliant
Ruge"; began, he says, as an expounder of Hegel, and "finished off as
translator into German of that 'hollow make-believe of windy conceit,' he
calls it, Buckle's 'Civilisation in England'" (1802-1880).
RÜGEN (45), a deeply-indented island of Germany, in the Baltic,
separated from the Pomeranian coast by a channel (Strela Sund) about a
mile broad; the soil is fertile, and fishing is actively engaged in.
Bergen (4) is the capital.
RUHR, an affluent of the Rhine, which joins it at Ruhrort after a
course of 142 m.; navigable to craft conveying the product of the
coal-mines to the Rhine.
RULE OF FAITH, the name given to the ultimate authority or standard
in religious belief, such as the Bible alone, as among Protestants; the
Bible and the Church, as among Romanists; reason alone, as among
rationalists; the inner light of the spirit, as among mystics.
RUM, a mountainous, forest-clad island in one of the Inner Hebrides,
lies 15 m. off Ardnamurchan Point; a handful of inhabitants cultivate a
very small portion of it; the rest is mountain, wood, and moorland; forms
a deer-forest.
RUMFORD, COUNT, Benjamin Thompson, soldier, philanthropist, and
physicist, born at Woburn, Massachusetts; a fortunate marriage lifted him
into affluence, relieving him from the necessity of teaching; fought on
the British side during the American War; became a lieutenant-colonel,
and for important services was knighted in 1782 on his return to England;
entered the Bavarian service, and carried through a series of remarkable
reforms, such as the suppression of mendicity, the amelioration of the
poorer classes by the spread of useful knowledge, culinary, agricultural,
&c.; was made a Count of the Holy Roman Empire, and placed in charge of
the War Department of Bavaria; was a generous patron of science in
England and elsewhere; retired from the Bavarian service in 1799, and
five years later married the widow of Lavoisier the chemist; his later
years were spent in retirement in a village near Paris, where he devoted
himself to physical research, especially as regards heat (1753-1814).
RUMP, THE, name of contempt given to the remnant of the Long
Parliament in 1659.
RUNCORN (20), a flourishing river-port of Cheshire, on the Mersey,
12 m. SE. of Liverpool, at the terminus of the Bridgewater Canal; is an
old place dating back to the 10th century; has excellent docks;
industries embrace shipbuilding, iron-founding, &c.
RUNEBERG, JOHAN LUDWIG, the national poet of Finland, born at
Jacobstad; educated at, and afterwards lectured in, the university of
Abo; published his first volume, "Lyric Poems," in 1830; edited a
bi-weekly paper; for forty years (till his death) was Reader of Roman
Literature in the College of Borga; his epic idylls, "The Elk Hunters,"
"Christmas Eve," his epic "King Fjalar," &c., are the finest poems in the
Swedish language; are characterised by a repose, simplicity, and artistic
finish, yet have withal the warmth of national life in them (1804-1877).
RUNES, a name given to the letters of the alphabet by heathen
Teutonic tribes prior to their coming under the influence of Roman
civilisation; are formed almost invariably of straight lines, and
scarcely exist except in inscriptions dating back to A.D. 1; found
chiefly in Scandinavia, also in Britain. There are three runic alphabets
(much alike), the oldest being the Gothic of 24 letters or runes. They
are now believed to have first come into use among the Goths in the 6th
century B.C., and to be a modified form of the old Greek alphabet
introduced by traders.
RUNNIMEDE, a meadow on the right bank of the Thames, 36 m. SW. of
London, where King John signed the Magna Charta, 15th June 1215.
RUPEE, a silver coin, the monetary unit of India, whose face value
is 2s., but which, owing to the depreciation of silver, is now valued in
outside markets at about 1s. 2½d.; a lac of rupees equals 100,000.
RUPERT, PRINCE, son of Frederick V., Elector Palatine, and grandson
of James I. of England; received an excellent education; took part in the
Thirty Years' War, and suffered three years' imprisonment at Linz; in
England, at the outbreak of the Great Rebellion, he was entrusted with a
command by Charles I., and by his dash and daring greatly heartened the
Royalist cause, taking an active part in all the great battles; finally
surrendered to Fairfax at Oxford in 1646; but two years later took
command of the Royalist ships and kept up a gallant struggle till his
defeat by Blake in 1651; escaped to the West Indies, where he kept up a
privateering attack upon English merchantmen; came in for many honours
after the Restoration, and distinguished himself in the Dutch War; the
closing years of his life were quietly spent in scientific research
(physical, chemical, mechanical), for which he had a distinct aptitude
(1619-1682).
RUPERT'S LAND, a name given by Prince Rupert to territory the
drainage of which flows into Hudson Bay or Strait.
RUSH, BENJAMIN, a noted American physician and professor, born at
Byberry, near Philadelphia; studied medicine at Princeton and Edinburgh;
became professor of chemistry at Philadelphia in 1769; sat in Congress,
and signed the Declaration of Independence (1776); held important medical
posts in the army; resigned, and assumed medical professorship in
Philadelphia; won a European reputation as a lecturer, philanthropist,
and medical investigator; published several treatises, and from 1799
acted as treasurer of the U.S. Mint (1745-1813).
RUSHWORTH, JOHN, historian and politician, born at Warkworth,
Northumberland; although a barrister he never practised, but set himself
to compile elaborate notes of proceedings at the Star Chamber and other
courts, which grew into an invaluable work of 7 vols., entitled
"Historical Collections"; acted as assistant-clerk to the Long
Parliament; sat as a member in several Parliaments, and was for some
years secretary to Fairfax and the Lord-Keeper; fell into disfavour after
the Restoration, and in 1684 was arrested for debt and died in prison; is
an authority whom Carlyle abuses as a Dry-as-dust (1607-1690).
RUSKIN, JOHN, art-critic and social reformer, born in London, son of
an honourable and a successful wine-merchant; educated with some severity
at home under the eye of his parents, and particularly his mother, who
trained him well into familiarity with the Bible, and did not object to
his study of "Robinson Crusoe" along with the "Pilgrim's Progress" on
Sundays, while, left to his own choice he read Homer, Scott, and Byron on
week days; entered Christ's Church, Oxford, as a gentleman Commoner in
1837, gained the Newdigate Prize in 1839, produced in 1843, under the
name of "A Graduate of Oxford," the first volume of "Modern Painters,"
mainly in defence of the painter Turner and his art, which soon extended
to five considerable volumes, and in 1849 "The Seven Lamps of
Architecture," in definition of the qualities of good art in that line,
under the heads of the Lamps of Sacrifice, of Truth, of Power, of Beauty,
of Life, of Memory, and Obedience, pleading in particular for the Gothic
style; these were followed in 1851 by "PRE-RAPHAELITISM" (q. v.),
and 1851-53 by the "Stones of Venice," in further exposition of his
views in the "Seven Lamps," and others on the same and kindred arts. Not
till 1862 did he appear in the _rôle_ of social reformer, and that was by
the publication of "Unto this Last," in the _Cornhill Magazine_, on the
first principles of political economy, the doctrines in which were
further expounded in "Munera Pulveris," "Time and Tide," and "FORS
CLAVIGERA" (q. v.), the principles in which he endeavoured to give
practical effect to by the Institution of St. George's Guild, with the
view of commending "the rational organisation of country life independent
of that of cities." His writings are numerous, several of them originally
lectures, and nearly all on matters of vital account, besides many others
on subjects equally so which he began, but has had, to the grief of his
admirers, to leave unfinished from failing health, among these his
"Præterita," or memories from his past life. The most popular of his
recent writings is "Sesame and Lilies," with perhaps the "Crown of Wild
Olive," and the most useful that of the series beginning with "Unto this
Last," and culminating in "Time and Tide." He began his career as an
admirer of Turner, and finished as a disciple of Thomas Carlyle, but
neither slavishly nor with the surrender of his own sense of justice and
truth; Justice is the goddess he worships, and except in her return to
the earth as sovereign he bodes nothing but disaster to the fortunes of
the race; his despair of seeing this seems to have unhinged him, and he
is now in a state of fatal collapse; his contemporaries praised his style
of writing, but to his disgust they did not believe a word he said; he
sits sadly in these days at Brantwood, in utter apathy to everything of
passing interest, and if he thinks or speaks at all it would seem his
sense of the injustice in things, and the doom it is under, is not yet
utterly dead--his sun has not even yet gone down upon his wrath; the
keynote of his wrath was, Men do the work of this world and rogues take
the pay, selling for money what God has given for nothing, or what others
have purchased by their life's blood; _b_. 1819. He died 20th January
1900.
RUSSELL, JOHN, EARL, known best as LORD JOHN RUSSELL,
statesman, youngest son of the Earl of Bedford; travelled in Spain,
studied at Edinburgh, entered Parliament in 1813, took up vigorously the
cause of parliamentary reform and Catholic Emancipation, joined Earl
Grey's ministry in 1830 as Paymaster of the Forces, framed and zealously
advocated the Reform Bill (1832), drove Peel from office in 1835, and
became, under Lord Melbourne, Home Secretary and leader of the Commons;
four years later he was appointed Colonial Secretary, warmly espoused the
cause of repeal of the Corn Laws, formed a Ministry on the downfall of
Peel in 1846, and dealt with Irish difficulties and Chartism; resigned in
1852, and in the same year became Foreign Secretary under Aberdeen,
became unpopular on account of his management of the Crimean War (1855)
and conduct at the Vienna Conference; again Foreign Secretary in
Palmerston's ministry of 1859, an earl in 1861, and premier a second time
in 1865-66; author of various pamphlets, biographies, memoirs, &c.; was
twice married; was nicknamed "Finality John" from his regarding his
Reform Bill of 1832 as a final measure (1792-1878).
RUSSELL, WILLIAM, LORD, prominent politician in Charles II.'s reign,
younger son of the Earl of Bedford; entered the first Restoration
Parliament, became a prominent leader in the Country Party in opposition
to the CABAL (q. v.) and the Popish schemes of the king;
vigorously supported the Exclusion Bill to keep James, Duke of York from
the throne in 1683; was charged with complicity in the Rye-house Plot,
was found guilty on trumped-up evidence, and beheaded (1639-1683).
RUSSELL, WILLIAM CLARK, a popular writer of nautical novels, born in
New York; gained his experience of sea life during eight years' service
as a sailor; was a journalist on the staff of the _Daily Chronicle_
before, in 1887, he took to writing novels, which include "John
Holdsworth," "The Wreck of the 'Grosvenor,'" &c.; _b_. 1844.
RUSSELL, SIR WILLIAM HOWARD, a celebrated war correspondent, born
near Dublin; was educated at Trinity College, called to the English bar
in 1850, had already acted for some years as war correspondent for the
_Times_ before his famous letters descriptive of the Crimean War won him
a wide celebrity; subsequently acted as correspondent during the Indian
Mutiny, American Civil War, Franco-German War, &c.; accompanied the
Prince of Wales to India in 1875; knighted in 1895; _b_. 1821.
RUSSELL OF KILLOWEN, CHARLES RUSSELL, LORD, a distinguished lawyer,
born at Newry; educated at Trinity College, Dublin, called to the English
bar in 1859, entered Parliament in 1880, became Attorney-General in 1886,
receiving also a knighthood; in 1894 was elevated to the Lord
Chief-Justiceship and created a life-peer; _b_. 1832.
RUSSIA (117,562), next to the British empire the most extensive empire in
the world, embracing one-sixth of the land-surface of the globe,
including one-half of Europe, all Northern and a part of Central Asia; on
the N. it fronts the Arctic Ocean from Sweden to the NE. extremity of
Asia; its southern limit forms an irregular line from the NW. corner of
the Black Sea to the Sea of Japan, skirting Turkey, Persia, Afghanistan,
East Turkestan, and the Chinese empire; Behring Sea, Sea of Okhotsk, and
the Sea of Japan wash its eastern shores; Sweden, the Baltic, Germany,
and Austria lie contiguous to it in West Europe. This solid, compact mass
is thinly peopled (13 to the sq. m. over all) by some 40
different-speaking races, including, besides the dominant Russians
(themselves split into three branches), Poles, Finns, Esthonians,
Servians, Bulgarians, Lithuanians, Kurds, Persians, Turco-Tartars,
Mongols, &c. Three-fourths of the land-surface, with one-fourth of the
population, lies in Asia, and is treated under Siberia, Turkestan,
Caucasia, &c. Russia in Europe, embracing FINLAND and POLAND (q. v.), is
divided from Asia by the Ural Mountains and River and Caspian Sea; forms
an irregular, somewhat elongated, square plain sloping down to the low
and dreary coast-lands of the Baltic (W.), White Sea (N.), and Black Sea
(S.); is seamed by river valleys and diversified by marshes, vast lakes
(e. g. Ladoga, Onega, Peipus, and Ilmen), enormous forests, and in the N.
and centre by tablelands, the highest of which being the Valdai Hills
(1100 ft.); the SE. plain is called the STEPPES (q. v.). The cold and
warm winds which sweep uninterrupted from N. and S. produce extremes of
temperature; the rainfall is small. Agriculture is the prevailing
industry, engaging 90 per cent. of the people, although in all not more
than 21 per cent. of the soil is cultivated; rye is the chief article of
food for the peasantry, who comprise four-fifths of the population. The
rich plains, known as the "black lands" from their deep, loamy soil,
which stretch from the Carpathians to the Urals, are the most productive
corn-lands in Europe, and rival in fertility the "yellow lands" of China,
and like them need no manure. Timber is an important industry in the NW.,
and maize and the vine are cultivated in the extreme S.; minerals abound,
and include gold, iron (widely distributed), copper (chiefly in middle
Urals), and platinum; there are several large coal-fields and rich
petroleum wells at Baku. The fisheries, particularly those of the
Caspian, are the most productive in Europe. Immense numbers of horses and
cattle are reared, e. g. on the Steppes. Wolves, bears, and valuable
fur-bearing animals are plentiful in the N. and other parts; the reindeer
is still found, also the elk. Want of ports on the Mediterranean and
Atlantic hamper commerce, while the great ports in the Baltic are frozen
up four or five months in the year; the southern ports are growing in
importance, and wheat, timber, flax, and wool are largely exported. There
is a vast inland trade, facilitated by the great rivers (Volga, Don,
Dnieper, Dniester, Vistula, &c.) and by excellent railway and telegraphic
communication. Among its varied races there exists a wide variety of
religions--Christianity, Mohammedanism, Buddhism, Shamanism, &c.; but
although some 130 sects exist, the bulk of the Russians proper belong to
the Greek Church. Education is backward, more than 85 per cent. of the
people being illiterate; there are eight universities. Conscription is
enforced; the army is the largest in the world. Government is an absolute
monarchy, save in FINLAND (q. v.); the ultimate legislative and executive
power is in the hands of the czar, but there is a State Council of 60
members nominated by the czar. In the 50 departments a good deal of local
self-government is enjoyed through the village communes and their public
assemblies, but the imperial power as represented by the police and
military is felt in all parts, while governors of departments have wide
and ill-defined powers which admit of abuse. The great builders of the
empire, the beginnings of which are to be sought in the 9th century, have
been Ivan the Great, who in the 15th century drove out the Mongols and
established his capital as Moscow; Ivan the Terrible, the first of the
czars, who in the 16th century pushed into Asia and down to the Black
Sea; and PETER THE GREAT (q. v.). Its restless energies are still
unabated, and inspire a persistently aggressive policy in the Far East.
Within recent years its literature has become popular in Europe through
the powerful writings of Pushkin, Turgenief, and Tolstoi.
RUSTCHUK (27), a town in Bulgaria, on the Danube, 40 m. S. by W. of
Bucharest; manufactures gold and silver ware, shoes, cloth, &c.; has a
number of interesting mosques; its once important fortifications were
reduced in 1877.
RUTEBEUF or RUSTEBEUF, a celebrated trouvère of the 13th
century, of whom little is known save that he led a Bohemian life in
Paris and was unfortunate in his marriage; his songs, satires, &c., are
vigorous and full of colour, and touch a note of seriousness at times
which one hardly anticipates.
RUTHENIANS, a hardy Slavonic people, a branch of the Little Russian
stock, numbering close upon 3½ millions, dwelling in Galicia and Northern
Hungary.
RUTHERFORD, SAMUEL, a Scottish divine, born at Nisbet, near
Jedburgh; studied at Edinburgh University, became professor of Humanity,
but had to resign; studied divinity, and became minister of Anworth in
1627, and was a zealous pastor and a fervid preacher; corresponded far
and wide with pious friends by letters afterwards published under his
name, and much esteemed by pious people; became at length professor of
Divinity at St. Andrews, and represented the Scottish Church in the
Westminster Assembly in 1643; wrote several works, for one of which he
was called to account, but had to answer a summons on his deathbed before
a higher bar (1600-1661).
RUTHERGLEN (13), a town of Lanarkshire, on the Clyde, 3 m. SE. of
Glasgow, of which it is practically a suburb; a handsome bridge spans the
river; has been a royal burgh since 1126, and has interesting historical
associations.
RUTHIN (3), an interesting old town of Denbighshire, on the Clwyd, 8
m. SE. of Denbigh.
RUTHVEN, RAID OF, a conspiracy entered into by certain Scottish
nobles, headed by William, first Earl of Gowrie, to seize the young king
James VI., and break down the influence of his worthless favourites,
Lennox and Arran; at Ruthven Castle, or Huntingtower, in Perthshire, on
23rd August 1582, the king was captured and held for 10 months; Arran was
imprisoned, and Lennox fled, to die in France; the conduct of the
conspirators was applauded by the country, but after the escape of the
king from St. Andrews Castle the conspirators were proclaimed guilty of
treason, and Gowrie was ultimately executed.
RUTHWELL CROSS, a remarkable sandstone cross, 17¾ ft. high, found in
Ruthwell parish, 9 m. SE. of Dumfries; dates back to the 7th century;
bears runic and Latin inscriptions, notably some verses of the Saxon
poem, "The Dream of the Holy Rood"; was broken down in 1642 by the
Covenanters as savouring of idolatry; found and re-erected in 1802.
RUTLAND (21), the smallest county of England, bounded by Lincoln,
Northampton, and Leicester; has a pleasant undulating surface, with
valleys in the E., and extensive woods; is watered by the Welland; is
largely pastoral, and raises fine sheep; dairy produce (especially
cheese) and wheat are noted; Oakham is the capital.
RUYSDAEL, JACOB, a famous Dutch landscape-painter, born and died at
Haarlem; few particulars of his life are known; his best pictures, to be
seen in the galleries of Dresden, Berlin, Paris, &c., display a fine
poetic spirit (1628-1682).
RUYTER, MICHAEL DE, a famous Dutch admiral, born of poor parents at
Flushing; from a boy of 11 served in the merchant and naval service;
commanded a ship under Van Tromp in the war with England 1652-1654; was
ennobled in 1660 by the king of Denmark for services rendered in the
Dano-Swedish war; for two years fought against Turkish pirates in the
Mediterranean; commanded the Dutch fleet in the second war against
England, and in 1667 struck terror into London by appearing and burning
the shipping in the Thames; held his own against England and France in
the war of 1672; co-operated with Spain against France; was routed and
mortally wounded off the coast of Sicily; a man of sterling worth
(1607-1675).
RYAN, LOCH, an arm of the sea penetrating Wigtownshire in a
south-easterly direction, 8 m. long and from 1½ to 3 broad; at its
landward end is STRANRAER (q. v.); forms an excellent anchorage.
RYBINSK (20, 100 in the summer), a busy commercial town in Russia,
on the Volga, 48 m. NW. of Yaroslav; connected by canal with St.
Petersburg; industries embrace boat-building, brewing, distilling, &c.
RYDE (11), a popular old watering-place on the NE. coast of the Isle
of Wight, 4½ m. SW. of Portsmouth; rises in pretty wooded terraces from
the sea; has a fine promenade, park, pier, &c.
RYE (4), an interesting old port in the SE. corner of Sussex,
situated on rising ground flanked by two streams, 63 m. SE. from London,
one of the CINQUE PORTS (q. v.); the retiral of the sea has left
it now 2 m. inland; has a fine Norman and Early English church.
RYE HOUSE PLOT, an abortive conspiracy in 1683 to assassinate
Charles II. of England and his brother James, Duke of York, planned by
Colonel Rumsey, Lieutenant-Colonel Walcot, the "plotter" Ferguson, and
other reckless adherents of the Whig party. The conspirators were to
conceal themselves at a farmhouse called Rye House, near Hertford, and to
waylay the royal party returning from Newmarket; the plot miscarried
owing to the king leaving Newmarket sooner than was expected; the chief
conspirators were executed.
RYMER, THOMAS, the learned editor of the "Foedera," an invaluable
collection of historical documents dealing with England's relations with
foreign powers, born at Northallerton; was a Cambridge man and a
barrister; turned to literature and wrote much both in prose and poetry,
but to no great purpose; was Historiographer-royal; Macaulay in
characteristic fashion calls him "the worst critic that ever lived"; but
his "Foedera" is an enduring monument to his unwearied industry
(1639-1714).
RYSBRACH, MICHAEL, a well-known sculptor in the 18th century, born
at Antwerp; established himself in London and executed busts and statues
of the most prominent men of his day, including the monument to Sir Isaac
Newton in Westminster Abbey, statue of Marlborough, busts of Walpole,
Bolingbroke, Pope, &c. (1694-1770).
RYSWICK, PEACE OF, signed on October 30, 1697, at the village of
Ryswick, 2 m. S. of The Hague, by England, Holland, Germany, and Spain on
the one hand and France on the other, terminating the sanguinary struggle
which had begun In 1688; it lasted till 1702.
S
SAADI. See SÁDI.
SAALE, the name of several German rivers, the most important of
which rises in the Fichtelgebirge, near Zell, in Upper Bavaria; flows
northward, a course of 226 m., till it joins the Elbe at Barby; has
numerous towns on its banks, including Jena, Halle, and Naumburg, to
which last it is navigable.
SAARBRÜCK (10), a manufacturing town in Rhenish Prussia, on the
French frontier, where the French under Napoleon III. repulsed the
Germans, August 2, 1870.
SABADELL (18), a prosperous Spanish town, 14 m. NW. of Barcelona;
manufactures cotton and woollen textiles.
SABÆANS, a trading people who before the days of Solomon and for
long after inhabited South Arabia, on the shores of the Bed Sea, and who
worshipped the sun and moon with other kindred deities; also a religious
sect on the Lower Euphrates, with Jewish, Moslem, and Christian rites as
well as pagan, called Christians of St. John; the term Sabæanism
designates the worship of the former.
SABAOTH, name given in the Bible, and particularly in the Epistle of
James, to the Divine Being as the Lord of all hosts or kinds of
creatures.
SABATHAI, LEVI, a Jewish impostor, who gave himself out to be the
Messiah and persuaded a number of Jews to forsake all and follow him; the
sultan of Turkey forced him to confess the imposture, and he turned
Mussulman to save his life (1625-1676).
SABBATH, the seventh day of the week, observed by the Jews as a day
of "rest" from all work and "holy to the Lord," as His day, specially in
commemoration of His rest from the work of creation, the observance of
which by the Christian Church has been transferred to the first of the
week in commemoration of Christ's resurrection.
SABELLIANISM, the doctrine of one Sabellius, who, in the third
century, denied that there were three persons in the Godhead, and
maintained that there was only one person in three functions, aspects, or
manifestations, at least this was the form his doctrine assumed in course
of time, which is now called by his name, and is accepted by many in the
present day.
SABIANISM. See SABÆANS.
SABINE, a river of Texas which, rising in the extreme N. of the
State, flows SE. and S., forming for 250 m. the boundary between
Louisiana and Texas, passes through Sabine Lake into the Gulf of Mexico
after a navigable course of 500 in.
SABINE, SIR EDWARD, a noted physicist, born in Dublin; served in
artillery in 1803, maintained his connection with it till his retirement
in 1874 as general, but owes his celebrity to his important
investigations into the nature of terrestrial magnetism; accompanied as a
scientist Boss and Parry in their search for the North-West Passage
(1819-20); was President both of the Royal Society from 1861 to 1879 and
of the British Association in 1853 (1788-1883).
SABINES, an ancient Italian people of the Aryan stock, near
neighbours of ancient Borne, a colony of whom is said to have settled on
the Quirinal, and contributed to form the moral part of the Roman people.
Numa, the second king of the city, was a Sabine. See ROMULUS.
SABLE ISLAND, a low, sandy, barren island in the Atlantic, 110 m.
off the E. coast of Nova Scotia; is extremely dangerous to navigation,
and is marked by three lighthouses; is gradually being washed away.
SABOTS, a species of wooden shoes extensively worn by the peasants
of France, Belgium, &c.; each shoe is hollowed out of a single block of
wood (fir, willow, beech, and ash); well adapted for marshy districts.
SACERDOTALISM, a tendency to attach undue importance to the order
and the ministry of priests, to the limitation of the operation of Divine
grace.
SACHEVEREL, HENRY, an English Church clergyman, born at Maryborough,
who became notorious in the reign of Queen Anne for his embittered attack
(contained in two sermons in 1700) on the Revolution Settlement and the
Act of Toleration; public feeling was turning in favour of the Tories,
and the impolitic impeachment of Sacheverel by the Whig Government fanned
popular feeling to a great height in his favour; was suspended from
preaching for three years, at the expiry of which time the Tories, then
in power, received him with ostentatious marks of favour; was soon
forgotten; was an Oxford graduate, and a friend of Addison; a man of no
real ability (1672-1724).
SACHS, HANS, a noted early German poet, born at Nürnberg; the son of
a tailor, by trade a shoemaker; learned "the mystery of song" from a
weaver; was a contemporary of Luther, who acknowledged his services in
the cause of the Reformation; in his seventy-fourth year (1568), on
examining his stock for publication, found that he had written 6048
poetical pieces, among them 208 tragedies and comedies, and this besides
having all along kept house, like an honest Nürnberg burgher, by
assiduous and sufficient shoemaking; a man standing on his own basis;
wrote "Narrenschneiden," a piece in which the doctor cures a bloated and
lethargic patient by "cutting out half-a-dozen fools from his interior";
he sunk into oblivion during the 17th century, but his memory was revived
by Goethe in the 18th (1494-1576).
SACHS, JULIUS, a German botanist and professor, born at Breslau; has
written several works on botany, and experimented on the physiology of
plants; _b_. 1832.
SACKVILLE, THOMAS, EARL OF DORSET, poet and statesman, born at
Buckhurst; bred for the bar; entered Parliament in 1558; wrote with
Thomas Norton a tragedy called "Gorboduc," contributed to a collection of
British legends called the "Mirror of Magistrates" two pieces in noble
verse (1536-1608).
SACRAMENT, a ceremonial observance in the Christian Church divinely
instituted as either really or symbolically a means, and in any case a
pledge, of grace.
SACRAMENTARIAN, a High Churchman who attaches a special sacred
virtue to the sacraments of the Church.
SACRAMENTO, largest river of California, rises in the NE. in the
Sierra Nevada; follows a south-westerly course, draining the central
valley of California; falls into Suisund Bay, on the Pacific coast, after
a course of 500 miles, of which 250 are navigable.
SACRAMENTO (29), capital of California, situated at the confluence
of the Sacramento and American Rivers, 90 m. NE. of San Francisco;
industries embrace flour and planing mills, foundries, potteries, &c.;
has an art gallery, court-house, &c.; the tropical climate is tempered at
night by cool sea breezes.
SACRED WARS. See AMPHICTYONIC COUNCIL.
SACRIFICE, anything of value given away to secure the possession of
something of still higher value, and which is the greater and more
meritorious the costlier the gift.
SACRING-BELL, or SANCTUS-BELL, the bell which rings when the
Host is elevated at the celebration of High Mass.
SACY, ANTOINE ISAAC, BARON SILVESTRE DE, the greatest of modern
Orientalists, born at Paris; by twenty-three was a master of classic,
Oriental, and modern European languages; was appointed in 1795 professor
of Arabic in the School of Oriental Languages, and in 1806 of Persian in
the College de France, besides which he held various other appointments;
founded the Asiatic Society in 1822; was created a baron by Napoleon
Bonaparte, and entered the Chamber of Peers in 1832; published
"Biographies of Persian Poets," a standard Arabic grammar, &c.; his
writings gave a stimulus to Oriental research throughout Europe
(1758-1838).
SADDA, the name given to a Persian epitome of the Zend-Avesta.
SADDUCEES, a sect of the Jews of high priestly origin that first
came into prominence by their opposition to the Pharisees, being the
party in power when Pharisaism arose in protestation against their policy
as tending to the secularisation of the Jewish faith, or the prostitution
of it to mere secular ends. They represented the Tory or Conservative
party among the Jews, as the Pharisees did the High Church party among
us. The antagonism which thus arose on political grounds gradually
extended to religious matters. In regard to religion they were the old
orthodox party, and acknowledged the obligation of only the written law,
and refused to accept tradition at the hands of the Scribes. They denied
the immortality of the soul, the separate existence of spirits, and this
they did on strictly Old Testament grounds, but this not from any real
respect for the authority of Scripture, only as in accord with the main
article of their creed, which attached importance only to what bears upon
this present life, and which in modern times goes under the name of
secularism. They were at bottom a purely political party, and they went
out of sight and disappeared from Jewish history with the fall of the
Jewish State, only the Pharisaic party surviving in witness of what
Judaism is.
SADE, DONATIEN ALPHONSE FRANÇOIS, MARQUIS DE, French novelist, who,
after fighting in the Seven Years' War, was sentenced to death for odious
crimes, effected his escape, but was caught and imprisoned in the
Bastille, where he wrote a number of licentious romances; died a lunatic
(1740-1814).
SÁDI, a celebrated Persian poet, born at Shiraz, of noble lineage,
but born poor; bred up in the Moslem faith; made pilgrimages to Mecca no
fewer than 15 times; spent years in travel; fell into the hands of the
Crusaders; was ransomed by a merchant of Aleppo, who thought him worth
ransoming at a cost; retired to a hermitage near Shiraz, where he died
and was buried; his works, both in prose and verse, are numerous, but the
most celebrated is the "Gulistan" (the rose-gardens), a collection of
moral tales interlarded with philosophical reflections and maxims of
wisdom, which have made his name famous all over both the East and the
West (1184-1291).
SADLER, SIR RALPH, a politician and diplomatist; was employed by
Henry VIII. in carrying out the dissolution of the monasteries, and
conducted diplomatic negotiations with Scotland; distinguished himself at
the battle of Pinkie; enjoyed the favour of Elizabeth; was Queen Mary's
keeper in the Castle of Tutbury; was the bearer of the news of Queen
Mary's execution to King James (1507-1587).
SADOLETO, JACOPO, cardinal, born in Modena; acted as secretary under
Leo X., Clement VII., and Paul III., the latter of whom created him a
cardinal in 1536; was a faithful Churchman and an accomplished scholar,
and eminent in both capacities (1477-1547).
SADOWA. See KÖNIGGRÄTZ.
SAFED (17), a town of Palestine, 12 m. N. of Tiberias, occupied
principally by Jews attracted thither in part by the expectation that the
Messiah, when He appears, will establish His kingdom there; it spreads in
horse-shoe fashion round the foot of a hill 2700 ft. high; is a seat of
Hebrew learning.
SAFETY LAMP, name of a variety of lamps for safety in coal-mines
against "fire-damp," a highly explosive mixture of natural gas apt to
accumulate in them; the best known being the "Davey Lamp," invented by
Sir Humphrey Davy; the "Geordie," invented by George Stephenson, both of
which, however, have been superseded by the Gray, Muesler, Marsant, and
other lamps; all are constructed on the principle discovered by Davy and
Stephenson, that a flame enveloped in wire gauze of a certain fineness
does not ignite "fire-damp."
SAFFI, or ASFI (9), a decayed seaport of Morocco, on the
Mediterranean coast, 120 m. NW. of the city of Morocco; has ruins of a
castle of the Sultans and of the old Portuguese fortifications; has still
a fair export trade in beans, wool, olive-oil, &c.
SAGAR, a low island at the mouth of the Hûgli, a sacred spot and a
place of pilgrimage to the Hindus; mostly jungle; sparsely peopled.
SAGAS, a collection of epics in prose embodying the myths and
legends of the ancient Scandinavians, originally transmitted from mouth
to mouth, and that began to assume a literary form about the 12th
century.
SAGASTA, PRAXEDES MATEO, Spanish statesmen of liberal sympathies;
took part in the insurrections of 1856 and 1866, and was for some time a
fugitive in France; entered Prim's Cabinet, supported the elected King
Amadeus, and since his abdication has led the Liberal party; has twice
been Prime Minister; _b_. 1827.
SAGHALIEN (12), a long narrow island belonging to Russia, situated
close to the E. coast of Siberia, from which it is separated by the
so-called Gulf of Tartary; stretches N. from the island of Yezo, a
distance of 670 m.; is mountainous and forest-clad in the interior; has
excellent coast fisheries, but a cold, damp climate prevents successful
agriculture; rich coal-mines exist, and are wrought by 4000 or 5000
convicts. Ceded by Japan to Russia in 1875.
SAGUENAY, a large and picturesque river of Canada; carries off the
surplus waters of Lake St. John, replenished by a number of large
streams, and issuing a full-bodied stream, flows SE. through magnificent
forest and mountain scenery till it falls into the St. Lawrence, 115 m.
below Quebec, after a course of 100 m.; is remarkable for its depth, and
is navigable by the largest ships.
SAGUNTUM, a town of ancient Spain, was situated where now stands the
town of Murviedro, 18 m. NE. of Valencia; famous in history for its
memorable siege by Hannibal in 219 B.C., which led to the Second Punic
War.
SAHARA, the largest desert region in the world, stretches E. and W.
across Northern Africa, from the Atlantic to the valley of the Nile, a
distance of 3000 m., and on the N. is limited by the slopes of the Atlas
Mountains, and on the S. by the valleys of the Senegal and Niger Rivers.
The surface is diversified by long sweeps of undulating sand-dunes,
elevated plateaux, hill and mountain ranges (8000 ft. highest) furrowed
by dried-up water-courses, and dotted with fertile oases which yield
date-palms, oranges, lemons, figs, &c. The most sterile tract is in the
W., stretching in a semicircle between Cape Blanco and Fezzan. Rain falls
over the greater part at intervals of from two to five years. Temperature
will vary from over 100°F. to below freezing-point in 24 hours. There are
a number of definite caravan routes connecting Timbuctoo and the Central
Soudan with the Niger and coast-lands. Dates and salt are the chief
products; the giraffe, wild ass, lion, ostrich, python, &c., are found;
it is chiefly inhabited by nomadic and often warlike Moors, Arabs,
Berbers, and various negro races. The greater part is within the sphere
of French influence. "When the winds waken, and lift and winnow the
immensity of sand, the air itself is a dim sand-air, and dim looming
through it, the wonderfullest uncertain colonnades of sand-pillars whirl
from this side and from that, like so many spinning dervishes, of a
hundred feet of stature, and dance their huge Desert waltz there."
SAHARANPUR (59), a town in the North-West Provinces of India, 125 m.
N. of Delhi, in a district formerly malarious, but now drained and
healthy; the population principally Mohammedans, who have recently built
in it a handsome mosque.
SAHIB (i. e. master), used in India when addressing a European
gentleman; Mem Sahib to a lady.
SAIGON (16), capital of French Cochin-China, on the river Saigon,
one of the delta streams of the Mekhong, 60 m. from the China Sea; is
handsomely laid out with boulevards, &c.; has a fine palace, arsenal,
botanical and zoological gardens, &c.; Cholon (40), 4 m. SW., forms a
busy trading suburb, exporting rice, cotton, salt, hides, &c.
SAINT, a name applied to a holy or sacred person, especially one
canonised; in the plural it is the name assumed by the Mormons.
ST. ALBANS (13), an old historic city of Hertfordshire, on an
eminence by the Ver, a small stream, which separates it from the site of
the ancient Verulamium; has a splendid ancient abbey church, rebuilt in
1077; industries include brewing, straw-plaiting, silk-throwing, &c.;
scene of two famous battles (1455 and 1461) during the Wars of the Roses.
ST. ALOYSIUS, Italian marquis, who renounced his title, became a
Jesuit, devoted himself to the care of the plague-stricken in Rome; died
of it, and was canonised (1568-1591).
ST. ANDREWS (7), a famous city of Fife, occupies a bold site on St.
Andrews Bay, 42 m. NE. of Edinburgh; for long the ecclesiastical
metropolis of Scotland, and associated with many stirring events in
Scottish history; its many interesting ruins include a 12th-century
priory, a cathedral, "robbed" in 1559, a castle or bishop's palace built
in the 13th century; has a university (St. Salvator's 1521 and St.
Leonard's 1537) the first founded in Scotland, and is still an important
educational centre, having several excellent schools (Madras College the
chief); since the Reformation its trade has gradually dwindled away;
fishing is carried on, but it depends a good deal on its large influx of
summer visitors, attracted by the splendid golf links and excellent
sea-bathing.
SAINT ARNAUD, JACQUES LEROY DE, a noted French marshal, born at
Bordeaux; was already a distinguished soldier when he entered actively
into the plans of Louis Napoleon to overthrow the Republic; assisted at
the _coup d'état_, and was created a marshal in reward; commanded the
French forces at the outbreak of the Crimean War, and took part in the
battle of the Alma, but died a few days later (1796-1854).
ST. ASAPH (2), a pretty little city in Flintshire, 6 m. SE. of Rhyl;
its cathedral, the smallest in the kingdom, was rebuilt after 1284,
mainly in the Decorated style.
ST. BEES (1), a village on the Cumberland coast, 4 m. S. of
Whitehaven; has a Church of England Theological College, founded in 1816
by Dr. Law, bishop of Chester; designed for students of limited means; a
ruined priory church of Henry I.'s time was renovated for the
accommodation of the college.
ST. BERNARD, the name of two mountain passes in the Alps: 1, GREAT
ST. BERNARD, in the Pennine Alps, leading from Martigny to Aosta, is
8120 ft. high, near the top of which stands a famous hospice, founded in
962, and kept by Augustinian monks, who, with the aid of dogs called of
St. Bernard, do noble service in rescuing perishing travellers from the
snow; 2, LITTLE ST. BERNARD, in the Graian Alps, crosses the
mountains which separate the valleys of Aosta and Tarantaise in Savoy.
Hannibal is supposed to have crossed the Alps by this pass.
ST. BRIEUC (16), capital of the dep. of Côtes du Nord, Brittany, on
the Gouet, and 2 m. from its mouth; has a 13th-century cathedral, ruins
of an interesting tower, lyceum, &c.; at the mouth of the river is the
port Le Ligné.
ST. CHRISTOPHER or ST. KITTS (30), one of the Leeward Islands,
in the West Indies archipelago, 45 m. NW. of Guadeloupe; a narrow
mountainous island, 23 m. long; produces sugar, molasses, rum, &c.;
capital is Basse-terre (7).
ST. CLAIR, a river of North America, flowing in a broad navigable
stream from Lake Huron into Lake St. Clair, which in turn pours its
surplus waters by means of the Detroit River into Lake Erie.
ST. CLOUD (5), a town in the dep. of Seine-et-Oise, France; occupies
an elevated site near the Seine, 10 m. W. of Paris; the fine château,
built by Louis XIV.'s brother, the Duke of Orleans, was for long the
favourite residence of the Emperor Napoleon, since destroyed; a part of
the park is occupied by the Sèvres porcelain factory.
ST. CYR (3), a French village, 2 m. W. of Versailles, where Louis
XIV., at the request of Madame de Maintenon, founded an institution for
the education of girls of noble birth but poor, which was suppressed at
the time of the Revolution, and afterwards converted into a military
school by Napoleon.
SAINT-CYR, LAURENT GOUVION, MARQUIS DE, marshal of France, born at
Toul; joined the army in 1792, and in six years had risen to the command
of the French forces at Rome; fought with distinction in the German and
Italian campaigns, and in the Peninsular War; won his marshal's baton
during the Russian campaign of 1812; was captured at the capitulation of
Dresden in 1813, much to the regret of Napoleon; created a peer after the
Restoration, and was for some time Minister of War; wrote some historical
works (1764-1830).
ST. DAVIDS (2), an interesting old cathedral town in Pembrokeshire,
on the streamlet Alan, and not 2 m. from St. Brides Bay; its cathedral,
rebuilt after 1180 in the Transition Norman style, was at one time a
famous resort of pilgrims. On the other side of the Alan stand the ruins
of Bishop Gower's palace.
ST. DENIS (48), a town of France, on a canal of the same name, 4 m.
N. of Paris, noted for its old abbey church, which from the 7th century
became the burying-place of the French monarchs. During the Revolution in
1793 the tombs were ruthlessly desecrated; there is also a school for the
daughters of officers of the Legion of Honour, founded by Napoleon;
manufactures chemicals, printed calicoes, &c.
ST. ELIAS, MOUNT, an isolated, inaccessible volcanic mountain in the
extreme NW. of Canada, close to the frontier of Alaska, 18,010 ft. high;
has never been scaled.
ST. ELMO'S FIRE. See ELMO'S FIRE, ST.
ST. ÉTIENNE (133), a busy industrial town of France, capital of
department of Loire, on the Furens, 36 m. SW. of Lyons; has been called
the "Birmingham of France"; is in the centre of a rich coal district, and
produces every kind of hardware; the manufacture of ribbons is also an
important industry; there is a school of mines.
SAINT-ÉVREMOND, CHARLES MARGUETEL DE SAINT-DENIS, SEIGNEUR DE, a
celebrated French wit and author; won distinction as a soldier, and rose
to be a field-marshal; his turn for satiric writing got him into trouble,
and in 1661 he fled to England, where the rest of his life was spent;
wrote charming letters to his friend Ninon de l'Enclos; enjoyed the
favour of Charles II., and published satires, essays, comedies, &c.,
which are distinguished by their polished style and genial irony; was
buried in Westminster (1613-1703).
ST. GALL (230), a NE. canton of Switzerland, on the Austrian
frontier; its splendid lake and mountain scenery and mineral springs
render many of its towns popular holiday resorts; the embroidery of
cottons and other textiles is an important industry. ST. GALL (28),
the capital, is situated on the Steinach, 53 m. E. of Zurich; is a town
of great antiquity, and celebrated in past ages for its monastic schools;
its magnificent mediæval cathedral has been restored; the old Benedictine
monastery is used now for government purposes, but still contains its
famous collection of MSS.; embroidering textiles is the chief industry.
ST. GOTHARD, a noted mountain in the Lepontine Alps, 9850 ft. high,
crossed by a pass leading from Lake Lucerne to Lake Maggiore; since 1882
traversed by a railway with a tunnel through from Göschenen to Airolo, a
distance of 9¼ m.
ST. HELENA (4), a precipitous cliff-bound island lying well out in
the Atlantic, 1200 m. off the W. coast of Africa; belongs to Britain;
celebrated as Napoleon Bonaparte's place of imprisonment from 1815 till
his death in 1821. Jamestown (2), the capital, is a second-class coaling
station for the navy, and is fortified.
ST. HELENS (71), a thriving manufacturing town of Lancashire, on
Sankey Brook, a feeder of the Mersey, 21 m. W. by S. of Manchester; is
the chief centre of the manufacture of crown, plate, and sheet glass.
ST. HELIER (29), capital of Jersey Island, on St. Aubin Bay, on the
S. side; is well fortified by Fort Regent and Elizabeth Castle, on a
rocky islet near the shore; has a college, public library, &c.; fishing
and shipbuilding are important industries.
ST. IVES, 1, a town in Cornwall, 8 m. N. of Penzance, the
inhabitants of which are chiefly engaged in the pilchard fisheries. 2, A
town in Huntingdonshire, on the Ouse, 5 m. E. of Huntingdon, where
Cromwell lived and Theodore Watts the artist was born.
ST. JAMES'S PALACE, an old, brick-built palace in Pall Mall, London,
originally a hospital, converted into a manor by Henry VIII., and became
eventually a royal residence. It gives name to the British court.
ST. JOHN, a river of North America, rises in the highlands of North
Maine and crosses the continent in an easterly direction and falls into
the Bay of Fundy after a course of 450 m., of which 225 m. are in New
Brunswick; is navigable for steamers as far as Fredericton.
ST. JOHN (39), embracing the adjacent town of Portland, chief
commercial city of New Brunswick, on the estuary of St. John River, 277
m. NW. of Halifax; has an excellent harbour; shipbuilding, fishing, and
timber exporting are the chief industries; has a great variety of
prosperous manufactures, such as machine and iron works, cotton and
woollen factories, &c.; does a good trade with the West Indies.
ST. JOHNS (26), capital of Newfoundland, situated on a splendid
harbour on the peninsula or Avalon, in the E. of the island: is the
nearest port of America to the continent of Europe; has oil and tan
works, &c.
ST. JOSEPH (103), a city of Missouri, on the Missouri River (here
spanned by a fine bridge), 110 m. above Kansas City, is an important
railway centre; as capital of Buchanan County it possesses a number of
State buildings and Roman Catholic colleges; does a large trade in
pork-packing, iron goods, &c.
SAINT-JUST, LOUIS FLORELLE DE, a prominent French Revolutionist,
born at Decize, near Nevers; as a youth got into disgrace with his family
and fled to Paris, where, being bitten already by the ideas of Rousseau,
he flung himself heart and soul into the revolutionary movement, became
the faithful henchman of Robespierre, and finally followed his master to
the guillotine, having in his zeal previously declared "for
Revolutionists there is no rest but in the tomb"; "he was a youth of
slight stature, with mild mellow voice, enthusiast olive-complexioned,
and long black hair" (1767-1794).
ST. KILDA. See KILDA, ST.
ST. LAWRENCE, one of the great rivers of North America; issues in a
noble stream from Lake Ontario, and flowing due NE. discharges into the
Gulf of St. Lawrence, forming a broad estuary; is 750 m. long and from 1
to 4 m. broad; the scenery in parts is very grand, notably in the
expansion--the Lake of the Thousand Isles; is navigable for large
steamers as far as Montreal: the Ottawa is its chief tributary; in winter
navigation is suspended on account of the ice.
ST. LÓ (10), a town in Normandy, on a rocky eminence 60 m. SE. of
Cherbourg; has textile manufactures; was the birthplace of Leverrier.
ST. LOUIS, 1, One of the great commercial cities (575) of the United
States, capital of Missouri State; situated on the Mississippi (here
spanned by two fine bridges), 21 m. below its confluence with the
Missouri; is a handsomely built city, and equipped with every modern
convenience, entirely lit by electric light, &c.; has spacious parks, two
universities, public libraries, &c.; is a centre for 18 railroads, which
with the great river-way enables it to carry on a vast trade in grain,
cotton, wool, furs, live stock, &c.; its tobacco manufacture is the
greatest in the world. 2, Also capital (17) of the French colony of
Senegal, in West Africa.
ST. LUCIA (42), a rocky, forest-clad island in the West Indies, the
largest of the Windward group; exports sugar, cocoa, logwood, &c.;
capital is Castries (8).
ST. MALO (12), a strongly fortified seaport of France, on the
Brittany coast (department of Ille-et-Vilaine), at the mouth of the
Ranee; the old town is built over the Rocher d'Auron, an islet connected
with the mainland by a causeway 215 yards long; there is a good harbour,
and a considerable amount of shipping is done; potatoes, dairy-produce,
and some cereals are exported. It was the birthplace of several
distinguished French authors and sailors.
ST. MICHAEL'S (126), the largest and most fertile of the Azores, 40
m. long by from 5 m. to 10 m. in breadth; is of volcanic origin; yields
cereals, oranges, &c.
ST. MICHAEL'S MOUNT, an islet, forming a precipitous granite mass,
in Mount's Bay, Cornwall, connected with the mainland by a low causeway
passable only at low tides; a fine old castle crowns its rocky height,
and a small fishing village lies sheltered on the northern side.
ST. MICHEL, MONT, a remarkable islet in St. Michel Bay, SW. corner
of Normandy, 18 m. W. of Avranches; is formed of a single cone of
granite, 242 ft. high, crowned by a historic Benedictine monastery; on
the lower slopes is built a little fortified town; a causeway 1 m. long
joins it to the mainland.
ST. NAZAIRE (26), a flourishing seaport of France, on the Loire, 40
m. W. of Nantes, where large sums have been expended in improving its
spacious docks to accommodate an increasing shipping-trade; its exports,
brandy, coal, wheat, &c., are mainly from Nantes and the interior.
ST. NEOTS (4), an old market-town of Huntingdonshire, on the Ouse, 8
m. SW. of Huntingdon; has an interesting old parish church, a corn
exchange, and iron and paper works.
ST. NICHOLAS, the patron saint of boys, who was fabled to bring
presents to good children on Christmas eve; was bishop of Myra in the 4th
century, and had taken a special interest in the young.
ST. OMER (20), a fortified town of France, on the Aa, 26 m. SE. of
Calais; has a fine old Gothic cathedral, a ruined Benedictine abbey
church, a Catholic college, arsenal, &c.; manufactures embrace light
textiles, tobacco pipes, &c.
ST. PAUL (168), capital of Minnesota State, finely situated on the
Mississippi, a little below the mouth of the Minnesota River; in 1849 a
village of 500 inhabitants; is now a beautiful and spacious city,
equipped with colleges, libraries, government buildings, electric
street-railways, &c.; is a centre for 10 railways, and carries on a large
trade in distributing groceries and dry goods throughout the State.
ST. PAUL'S SCHOOL, at West Kensington, London, a famous charity
school founded by JOHN COLET (q. v.), dean of St. Paul's, for
children of "every nation, country, and class"; originally stood in St.
Paul's Churchyard, but was burned out by the Great Fire of 1666; the
present building was opened in 1884. The endowment amounts to £10,000 a
year, and 1000 boys and 400 girls are provided with education and board.
There are a number of Oxford and Cambridge exhibitions.
ST. PETERSBURG (1,036), capital of Russia, an imposing city,
occupying a dreary, isolated site at the head of the Gulf of Finland, on
the banks and delta islands (100) of the Neva, founded in 1702 by Peter
the Great; a large number of bridges span the main stream and its
numerous divisions; massive stone quays hold back the waters, but a rise
of 12 ft. floods the city (a yearly occurrence in the poorer parts); the
river is ice-bound nearly half the year, and is given over to sleighing,
&c.; the short summer is hot; covers nearly 48 sq. m.; its palaces and
government buildings for number and grandeur are unsurpassed; Neva View
is the finest street in Europe; is the centre of Russian political,
literary, scientific, and artistic life; has a university, numerous
academies, cathedral, technical and training colleges, and libraries (the
Imperial Public Library contains 1,200,000 vols.); connected with the
Volga basin by a canal, and the centre of four railways, it is the
commercial metropolis and chief port of Russia, and carries on half the
foreign trade; exports one-fifth of the corn of Russia, besides flax,
linseed, leather, petroleum, &c.; imports coal, machinery, &c.; principal
manufactures are cotton goods and other textiles, leather, sugar,
porcelain goods, &c.
ST. PIERRE, HENRI BERNARDIN DE, French novelist, born at Havre; an
engineer by profession, was a disciple of Rousseau both sentimentally and
speculatively; his chief work, "PAUL AND VIRGINIA" (q. v.),
shows here as in his other writings, says Professor Saintsbury, "a
remarkable faculty of word-painting, and also of influencing the
feelings" (1737-1814).
ST. QUENTIN (48), a manufacturing town of France, on the Somme, 95
m. NE. of Paris; manufactures all kinds of cotton and woollen goods,
machinery, paper, &c.; has a fine old Gothic church and town-hall; here
the French were routed by the Spaniards in 1557, and by the Germans in
1871.
ST. RÉAL, ABBÉ DE, historian, born at Chambéry, where he settled in
1679, and where he died; was historiographer to the Duke of Savoy, and
wrote the "History of the Conspiracy of Spain against Venice," a
masterpiece of its kind, and modelled on Sallust (1639-1692).
SAINT SAËNS, CHARLES CAMILLE, a French musician, born in Paris; for
19 years organist of the Madeleine; composer of a number of operas (e. g.
"Henri VIII.") indifferently successful, and of much orchestral and
chamber music of a masterly kind; is held to be one of the greatest of
living pianists and organists; also noted for his musical critiques; _b_.
1835.
ST. SIMON, CLAUDE HENRI, COMTE DE, founder of French Socialism, and
of a sect called after him St. Simonians, born in Paris, of an old noble
family; grand-nephew of the succeeding, but renounced his title and
devoted his life and all his means of living to the promotion of his
Socialist scheme, reducing himself in the end to utter penury; he made
few disciples, though some of them were men of distinction; he is
credited by Carlyle with having discovered, "not without amazement, that
man is still man, of which forgotten truth," he bids us remark, "he had
made a false application"; that is, we presume, by reorganisation from
without instead of regeneration from within; his scheme was a
reconstruction of society by the abolition of the hereditary principle,
and the vesting of the instruments of production in the State and the
administration of these for the welfare of all its members (1760-1825).
ST. SIMON, LOUIS DE ROUVROY, DUC DE, French courtier and diplomatist
in the reign of Louis XIV.; left "Memoirs" in record of the times he
lived in, depicting with remarkable sagacity the manners of the Court and
the characters of the courtiers (1676-1755).
ST. SIMONIANS. See ST. SIMON, COMTE DE.
ST. TAMMANY, an American-Indian chief, popularly canonised as a
saint, and adopted as the tutelary genius by a section of the democratic
party in the States; his motto was "Unite in peace for happiness; in war
for defence."
ST. THOMAS, 1, an unhealthy volcanic island (20) in the Gulf of
Guinea, belonging to Portugal; produces coffee, cocoa, and some spices;
chief town, St. Thomas (3), a port on the NE. 2, One of the Virgin
Islands (14), 37 m. E. of Porto Rico; belongs to Denmark; since the
abolition of slavery its prosperous sugar trade has entirely departed;
capital, St. Thomas (12), is now a coaling-station for steamers.
ST. THOMAS'S, a handsome hospital on the S. side of the Thames,
opposite Westminster, founded in 1553, and with an annual revenue of
£40,000.
SAINT-VICTOR, PAUL DE, an ornate French writer, born in Paris; from
1851 was engaged in dramatic and other criticism, and established his
reputation as a stylist of unusual brilliance. "When I read Saint-Victor
I put on blue spectacles," said Lamartine; author of several works on
historical and æsthetic subjects (e. g. "Anciens et Modernes," "Hommes
et Dieux") was for a number of years General Inspector of Fine Arts
(1827-1881).
ST. VINCENT (41), one of the Windward Islands, in the West Indies,
105 m. W. of Barbadoes, belongs to Britain; a coaling and cable station;
mountainous and volcanic; warm, but healthy climate; exports sugar, rum,
spices, &c.; chief town is Kingston (6), a port on the SW. coast.
ST. VINCENT, CAPE, a lofty and rugged headland in the extreme SW. of
Portugal, off which have been fought several naval battles, the most
memorable being the great victory on February 14, 1797, when Jervis and
Nelson annihilated the Franco-Spanish fleet.
ST. VINCENT, JOHN JERVIS, EARL, a noted English admiral, born at
Meaford Hill, Staffordshire; ran away to sea when a boy, and by gallantry
at Quebec in 1759 and otherwise rose rapidly in the service; commanded
the naval attack upon the French West Indies (1793), and four years
later, as admiral of the Mediterranean fleet, shared with Nelson the
honours of a brilliant victory over the combined fleets of France and
Spain off Cape St. Vincent; was created an earl in reward; during
1801-1804 was a successful First Lord of the Admiralty (1734-1823).
SAINTE-BEUVE, CHARLES AUGUSTIN, the greatest of French literary
critics, born at Boulogne-sur-Mer; adopted medicine as a profession in
deference to the wishes of his widowed mother, and for some years studied
at Paris, but even as a student had begun his career as a literary critic
by contributions to the _Globe_ newspaper; in 1827 became acquainted with
Victor Hugo, whose commanding influence drew him into the Romantic
movement, and determined for him a literary career; a critical work on
French poetry in the 16th century (1828), two volumes of mediocre poetry
(1829-1830), and a psychological novel, "Volupté" (1834), the fruit of
spiritual and mental unrest, preceded his lectures at Lausanne on
Port-Royal (1837), which, afterwards elaborated and published, contain
some of his finest writings; an appointment in the Mazarin Library, Paris
(1840), brought him a modest competence, and allowed him during the next
8 years to contribute without strain or stress to the _Revue des Deux
Mondes_; was elected in 1845 to the Academy; three years later lectured
for a session at Liège University; during 1849-1869 he contributed a
weekly literary article to the _Constitutionnel_; these form his famous
"Causeries du Lundi" and "Nouveaux Lundis," which, for variety of human
interest, critical insight, and breadth of sympathy, remain unsurpassed;
was appointed professor of Latin in the Collège de France (1854), but his
unpopularity with the students, owing to his support of Napoleon III.,
led to his resignation; as a senator in 1865 his popularity revived by
his eloquent advocacy of freedom of thought, and on his decease some
10,000 people attended his funeral (1804-1869).
SAINTE-CLAIRE DEVILLE, HENRI ÉTIENNE, a noted French chemist, born
in St. Thomas, West Indies; occupied for many years the chair of
Chemistry in the Sorbonne, Paris; his important contributions to chemical
knowledge include a process for simplifying the extraction of aluminium
and platinum (1818-1881).
SAINTES (15), an interesting old town in West France, dep.
Charente-Inférieure, on the Charente, 28 m. SE. of Rochefort; known in
ancient times as Mediolanum; has some splendid Roman remains, a
cathedral, &c.; manufactures copper and iron goods, leather, &c.
SAINTSBURY, GEORGE, literary critic, born at Southampton; graduated
at Merton College, Oxford; was engaged in scholastic work for a number of
years at Manchester, Guernsey, and Elgin; in 1876 settled in London, and
made a reputation for vigorous and scholarly criticism, devoting much of
his time to French literature; elected to the Chair of English Literature
in Edinburgh University, 1895; is the author of a "Short History of
French Literature," a "Short History of English Literature," besides
several volumes of essays, &c.; _b_. 1845.
SAÏS, a city of ancient Egypt, on the delta, on the right bank of
the W. branch of the Nile; gave name to two Egyptian dynasties founded by
natives of it, was a religious centre, and eventually for a time capital,
the temple of which was said to contain a veiled statue which became a
subject of legend.
SAIVAS, in the Hindu religion the worshippers of Siva, one of the
two great sections of the Hindus, the worshippers of Vishnu being the
other.
SAKI, a beer of alcoholic quality made in Japan from rice by
fermentation. It is drunk hot at meals, and is in a small way
intoxicating.
SAKUNTALA, in Hindu mythology a benignant female character, made the
subject of a famous drama of KÁLIDÁSA (q. v.), translated in
1789 by Sir William Jones.
SAKYAMUNI (i. e. the solitary of the Sakyas), the name given to
Buddha, one of the tribe of the Sakyas in Northern India.
SALA, GEORGE AUGUSTUS, a well-known journalist, born in London, of
Italian and English parentage; had some training in art before he began
writing for Dickens's _Household Words_, &c.; lived a busy, rambling
life; founded and edited _Temple Bar;_ acted as war-correspondent for the
_Daily Telegraph_; author of several popular novels, "Captain Dangerous"
and "Quite Alone" among them, and books of travel, "A Trip to Barbary"
and "America Revisited" (1828-1895).
SALAAM, an Oriental term of salutation meaning "Peace," especially
among the Mohammedans.
SALADIN, sultan of Egypt and Syria, the hero of the third crusade on
the Saracen side; a man of noble and chivalrous character; served first
as a soldier under Nureddin; rose to be vizier of Egypt, and ultimately
sovereign in 1174; distinguished himself by the capture of Damascus,
Aleppo, &c., and entering the Holy Land defeated the Christians at
Tiberias, thereafter taking Jerusalem and laying siege to Tyre; found in
Richard Coeur de Lion a foeman worthy of his steel, concluded a truce in
1192, and died the year after (1137-1193).
SALAMANCA (22), an interesting old city of Spain, capital of a
province of the same name, occupies a hilly site on the Tormes, here
spanned by a Roman bridge, 110 m. NW. of Madrid, long famous for its
university, which in its heyday (16th century) numbered 8000 students,
now fallen to 400; holds within its surrounding walls many fine old
cathedrals, colleges, and other buildings; its industries are greatly
fallen off, and consist mainly of cloth, linen, leather, and pottery
manufacturing; in this neighbourhood Wellington won a great victory over
the French on July 22, 1812.
SALAMANDER, an elemental spirit conceived in the Middle Ages as an
animal that lived in the fire as its proper element.
SALAMIS, a mountainous island of Greece, on the NW. coast of Attica,
the strait between which and the mainland was the scene of a naval
victory over the armament of Xerxes by the combined fleets of Athens,
Sparta, and Corinth in 480 B.C.
SALDANHA OLIVEIRA E DAUN JOÃO CARLOS, DUKE OF, Portuguese statesman
and soldier, played an honourable and patriotic part in many wars and
crises of his country, notably in Brazil in the struggle between Dom
Pedro and Dom Miguel, and during his occupancy of the Premiership on
three several occasions between 1846-70; proved a mild constitutionalist,
and enjoyed the confidence and support of England; was created a duke in
1846 (1790-1876).
SALE, GEORGE, Orientalist, born in Kent, and bred for the bar,
contributed to the "Universal History" and the "General Dictionary," but
is best known as the translator of the "Korân," with a preliminary
dissertation and notes; he left a body of MSS. behind him (1690-1736).
SALE, SIR ROBERT HENRY, British general; saw a great deal of
fighting; was distinguished in the Burmese War of 1824-25, and in the war
against Afghanistan in 1834, in both of which he was wounded, and
afterwards in the latter country during 1841-42; he was killed at the
battle of Mudki fighting against the Sikhs (1782-1865).
SALEM, 1, a city (36) and seaport of the United States, founded in
1626 on a peninsula in Massachusetts Bay, 15 m. NE. of Boston; its
foreign trade has fallen away, but a good coasting trade is done in ice
and coal; manufactures include cottons, jutes, shoes, &c. 2, Capital (5)
of Oregon, on the Willamette River, 720 m. N. of San Francisco.
SALERNO (22), a city of South Italy, on a gulf of the name, 33 m.
SE. of Naples; has some fine Gothic buildings, notably the cathedral of
St. Matthew; had a European fame in the Middle Ages for its medical
school and university, closed in 1817; cotton-spinning is the chief
industry; in the neighbourhood are the ruins of Pæstum and an old Norman
castle.
SALETTE, LA, a French village amid Alpine scenery, 28 m. SE. of
Grenoble; has become a place of pilgrimage, since the alleged appearance
of the Virgin to two peasant children on 19th September 1846.
SALFORD (198), a suburb of Manchester, with cotton factories and
iron-works, and with Manchester forms the second largest city in England.
SALIC LAW, a law which obtained among the Salian Franks, as also in
certain German States, which excluded females from succession to the
throne.
SALICYLIC ACID, produced in commercial quantities from carbolic
acid; is a white crystalline powder, soluble in water, odourless, of a
sweetish acid taste; largely used as an external antiseptic, and
internally in the form of salicylate of sodium as a febrifuge and cure
for acute rheumatism.
SALISBURY (17), a cathedral city, and capital of Wiltshire, 84 m.
WSW. of London; the cathedral, founded in 1225, and frequently added to
and restored, is one of the finest specimens of Early English
architecture; has a number of other interesting old buildings--churches,
almshouses, inns, an endowed school, &c.; agriculture is the staple
industry; also called New Sarum, and a mile to the N. is the
half-obliterated site of Old Sarum, with many interesting historical
associations; while round the neighbourhood sweeps the wide, undulating,
pastoral Salisbury Plain, with its Druidical circle of STONEHENGE
(q. v.).
SALISBURY, ROBERT ARTHUR TALBOT GASCOIGNE CECIL, MARQUIS OF,
statesman, educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford; as Lord Cecil,
represented Stamford in Parliament in 1853; was, as Lord Cranborne,
Secretary for India in 1866 under Lord Derby; entered the House of Lords
as Lord Salisbury in 1867, and distinguished himself as foremost in
debate; became Secretary for India under Disraeli in 1874, and Secretary
for Foreign Affairs in 1881, in which latter year he, on the death of
Beaconsfield, became leader of the Conservative party; after this he was
three times raised to the Premiership, the last time on Lord Roseberys
retirement in 1890, by coalition with the LIBERAL UNIONISTS (q. v.);
was at one time a contributor to the _Saturday Review_, and is
interested in scientific pursuits, chemistry in particular; _b_. 1830.
SALLUST, Roman historian, born at Amiternum, in the territory of the
Sabines, and attained the quæstorship and the tribunate, though a
plebeian; for a misdemeanour was expelled the Senate; joined Cæsar's
party in the Civil War, and became governor of Numidia; enriched himself
by extortions, and returned to Rome a rich man, and gave himself to
literature; wrote the "Catiline Conspiracy," and the "War with Jugurtha,"
among other works, in a terse and forcible style, and was the precursor
of Livy and Tacitus; as a writer he affects the moralist, though he lived
in vice (86-35 B.C.).
SALMASIUS, eminent French scholar, learned in Greek, Latin, Hebrew,
Arabic, and other languages; succeeded Scaliger at Leyden, and associated
with Casaubon, Grotius, and other scholars; embraced Protestantism; wrote
a number of learned works, but his "Defence of Charles I." proved a
failure, and provoked from Milton a crushing reply; died a disappointed
man, though he refused to sell his literary talent for money, when
Richelieu tried hard to bribe him (1588-1653).
SALMON, GEORGE, mathematician and divine, born in Dublin, and there
in 1839 graduated with mathematical honours at Trinity College; became a
Fellow, entered the Church, and in 1866 was elected regius professor of
Divinity, becoming provost of the college in 1888; has carried on with
eminent success his dual studies, mathematics and theology, and has
published some notable works in both sciences, e. g. in theology,
"Non-Miraculous Christianity," "Gnosticism and Agnosticism," a scholarly
and popular "Introduction to the New Testament," and in mathematics
"Analytic Geometry," "The Higher Plane Curves," &c. _b_. 1819.
SALOMON, JOHANN PETER, a violinist and composer, born at Bonn; was
in his youth attached, to the court of Prince Henry of Prussia, at which
time he wrote some operas; came to London, and is remembered for the
great stimulus he gave to musical culture, and especially the study of
Haydn in England by his Philharmonic Concerts (1790) and production of
that great master's symphonies; composed songs, glees, violin pieces,
&c.; buried in Westminster Abbey (1745-1815).
SALONICA or SALONIKI (122), the Thessalonica of the Scriptures,
the second port and city of Turkey in Europe; occupies a bold and rocky
site at the head of the Gulf of Salonica, 370 m. SW. of Constantinople;
is surrounded by walls, is well laid out, drained, &c.; contains many
fine old mosques; has an increasing commerce, exporting corn, cotton,
opium, wool, &c.; founded in 315 B.C., and has ever since been a place
of considerable importance.
SALSETTE (108), an island N. of Bombay, and connected with it by a
causeway, with richly cultivated fields and rock temples among other
ruins.
SALT, SIR TITUS, English manufacturer, born near Leeds; introduced
the manufacture of alpaca, planted his factory at Saltaire, near Leeds,
which he made a model village for his workers as a philanthropic employer
of labour (1803-1876).
SALT LAKE CITY (53), the capital of Utah, a high-lying city and
stronghold of Mormonism, 11 m. from Great Salt Lake; contains the Mormon
temple, which it took 40 years to build, and it has besides many fine
churches, and the university of Deseret.
SALT RANGE, a tract of lofty tableland buttressed on either side by
mountain ranges 3000 to 5000 ft. high, and stretching across the Punjab
E. and W., between Jhelum and Indus Rivers; derives its name from the
remarkably rich deposits of rock-salt, which are extensively worked.
SALTS, in chemistry an important class of compound substances formed
by the union of an acid with a metal or a base, that is, a substance
having, like a metal, the power of replacing in part or in whole the
hydrogen of the acid employed.
SALTUS, EDGAR, an interesting American writer, born in New York; a
busy writer in fiction, biography (Balzac), and philosophy, e. g. "The
Philosophy of Disenchantment" and "The Anatomy of Negation," studies in a
somewhat cheerful pessimism; _b_. 1858.
SALVADOR (780), the smallest but the most densely populated of the
republics of Central America, about one-sixth the size of England and
Wales; has a western foreshore between Guatemala (N.) and Nicaragua (S.),
fronting the Pacific for 140 m.; slopes up from rich alluvial coast-lands
to high plateaus, which stretch, seamed and broken by rivers and
volcanoes, to the Cordillera frontier of Honduras on the E.; soil is
extremely fertile and naturally irrigated by numerous streams, and
produces in abundance coffee and indigo (chief exports), balsam, tobacco,
sugar, cereals, &c.; has a warm, healthy climate. The natives are chiefly
Indians of Aztec descent, but speaking Spanish. The government is vested
in a president and chamber of deputies. Education is free and compulsory.
Broke away from Spanish control in 1821; was a member of the Central
American Confederacy, but since 1853 has enjoyed complete independence.
Capital, SAN SALVADOR (q. v.).
SALVATION ARMY, a modern religious organisation and propaganda,
remarkable alike for its novel methods and phenomenal expansion; assumed
its present quasi-military form in 1878, but is in reality the outgrowth
of a mission founded in London in 1865 by the Rev. WILLIAM BOOTH
(q. v.), and nobly furthered by his wife. It is in essence a protest
against the older conventional methods of propagating the Christian
religion, and would seem by its remarkable success to have ministered to
some latent and wide-spread need among the poorer classes. In 1895 it
numbered 500,000 enrolled soldiers, 25,126 local officers, and 11,740
officers; these are spread over 35 countries. The members assume
semi-military attire, march through the streets to the sound of musical
instruments, displaying banners; but while these and other sensational
devices bring its purposes home to the hearts of the people, its vitality
rests upon the real spiritual devotion and self-sacrifice of its members.
Various agencies of a more directly philanthropic kind (homes of rest,
rescues, workshops, farms, etc.) have become attached to it, and are
generously supported by the public. Funds are raised by means of the _War
Cry_ and other periodicals.
SALVINI, TOMMASO, a celebrated Italian tragedian, born, the son of
an actor, at Milan; was trained to the stage, and joined Ristori's
company; served with distinction in the revolutionary war of 1849, and
returning to the stage won for himself a European fame, appearing in
France, Spain, United States, England, &c.; achieved his greatest success
in "Othello"; retired after 1884, and published "Leaves from My
Autobiography"; _b_. 1830.
SALWEEN, a river of Asia whose source is still uncertain; forms in
its lower part the boundary between Siam and British Burma, and falls
into the Gulf of Martaban; its upper course traverses the northern Shan
district; only 80 m. of it are navigable.
SALZBURG (174), a western province and duchy of Austria, borders on
Bavaria between the Tyrol and Upper Austria; is woody and mountainous,
especially in the S., where fine scenery is formed by the Alps; excellent
meadowland favours a prosperous industry in the rearing of cattle and
horses. The inhabitants, being Protestants, were severely persecuted by
the Church, and 30,000 of them emigrated in 1730, and on the invitation
of Frederick William of Prussia settled in Lithuania, that had been
desolated by plague. Salzburg (28), the capital, occupies a fine site on
the hill-girt banks of the Salzach (crossed by 3 bridges), 80 m. E. by S.
of Münich; is a handsome and interesting city, with many fine old
buildings, including a cathedral, archbishop's palace, imperial palace,
monasteries, &c.; has a theological college, libraries, &c.; birthplace
of Mozart; manufactures musical instruments, &c.
SALZKAMMERGUT (18), a beautiful mountain district of Austria,
between Salzburg (W.) and Styria (E.); salt mines and springs give a rich
yield of salt.
SAM SLICK. See SLICK.
SAM WELLER. See WELLER.
SAMARCAND (33), a city of West Turkestan, situated at the western
base of the Tian-Shan Mountains, 130 m. SE. of Bokhara. Suffered at the
hands of Genghis Khan in the 13th century; was Timur's capital in the
14th century, and has since been held sacred by the Moslems. Captured by
the Russians in 1868, who have improved it, and built a handsome suburb
on the west. Manufactures silk, cotton, paper, &c.
SAMARIA, a city of a district of the name between Judea and Galilee
in the Holy Land, and which became the capital of the North Kingdom of
Israel after the revolt from the Southern; was desolated by the hosts of
Assyria in 720 B.C., and repeopled afterwards by Assyrian settlers, who
were converted to the Jewish faith, and ministered to by a Jewish priest;
when the Jews rebuilt the Temple of Jerusalem, the Samaritans' offer to
aid was rejected, and the refusal led to a bitter hostility between the
Jews and Samaritans ever after.
SAMARITAN PENTATEUCH, a version of the Pentateuch in use among the
Samaritans, and alone accepted by them as canonical. It is of value from
its independence of other versions.
SAMARITANS. See SAMARIA.
SAMAVEDA, the section of the Veda that contains the chants, intended
for singers.
SAMIAN SAGE, name given to Pythagoras as a native of Samos.
SAMNITES, a warlike people of ancient Italy in territory SE. of
Rome; gave the Romans much trouble till, after two successive wars in 343
and 327 B.C., they were subdued in 290 B.C. A revolt in 90 B.C. led to
their extermination as an nation.
SAMOA, or NAVIGATORS' ISLANDS (36), a group of 14 volcanic
islands in the W. Pacific, of which three alone are of any size--Savaii,
Upolu, and Tutuila; all are mountainous and richly wooded; climate is
moist and warm; copra is the chief export, and cotton, coffee, tobacco,
&c., are grown; the natives, a vigorous Polynesian race, have been
Christianised; the islands are under the joint suzerainty of Britain,
Germany, and the United States; the chief town of the group is Apia (2),
at the head of a pretty bay in Upolu; near here R. Louis Stevenson spent
the last five years of his life.
SAMOS, a fertile island in the Ægean Sea, about 30 m. long and 8
wide, separated from the coast of Ionia, three-quarters of a mile wide;
had an extensive trade with Egypt and Crete; came through various
fortunes under the chief Powers of ancient and mediæval Europe till it
became subject to Turkey; had a capital of the same name, which in the
fifth century B.C. was one of the finest cities in the world.
SAMOTHRACE, a mountainous, bleak island in the Ægean Sea, NW. of the
mouth of the Dardanelles; has only one village of 2000 inhabitants; was
in ancient times place of CABIRI WORSHIP (q. v.).
SAMOYEDES, a people of the Mongolian race, occupying the N. shores
of Russia and Siberia from the White Sea to the Yenisei; live by hunting
and fishing, and are idol-worshippers; they are fast disappearing.