[1] The spinhouses were for women prisoners, who were set to spinning
or other useful work; in the rasp-houses, the prisoners were employed
in rasping wood.
HOWARD, OLIVER OTIS (1830-1909), American soldier, was born in Leeds,
Maine, on the 8th of November 1830. He graduated at Bowdoin College in
1850, and at the U.S. Military Academy in 1854. In 1857 he served in
Florida against the Seminole Indians, and from 1857 to 1861 he was
assistant professor of mathematics at West Point. At the beginning of
the Civil War he resigned to become colonel of the 3rd Maine volunteer
regiment, and at the first battle of Bull Run was in command of a
brigade. In September he was promoted brigadier-general of volunteers.
He served in the Peninsular Campaign, and at the battle of Seven Pines
(Fair Oaks) he was twice wounded, losing his right arm. On his return to
active service in August 1862 he took part in the Virginian campaigns of
1862-63; at Antietam he succeeded Sedgwick in command of a division,
and he became major-general of volunteers in March 1863. In the campaign
of Chancellorsville (see WILDERNESS) he commanded the XI. corps, which
was routed by "Stonewall" Jackson, and in the first day's battle at
Gettysburg he was for some hours (succeeding Doubleday after Reynolds's
death) in command of the Union troops. The XI. corps was transferred to
Tennessee after Rosecrans's defeat at Chickamauga, and formed part of
Hooker's command in the great victory of Chattanooga. When Sherman
prepared to invade Georgia in the spring of 1864 the XI. corps was
merged with the XII. into the new XX., commanded by Hooker, and Howard
was then placed, in command of the new IV. corps, which he led in all
the actions of the Atlanta campaign, receiving another wound at
Pickett's Mills. On the death in action of General M'Pherson, Howard, in
July 1864, was selected to command the Army of the Tennessee. In this
position he took part in the "March to the Sea" and the Carolinas
campaign. In March 1865 he was breveted major-general U.S.A. "for
gallant and meritorious service in the battle of Ezra Church and during
the campaign against Atlanta," and in 1893 received a Congressional
medal of honour for bravery at Fair Oaks. After the peace he served as
commissioner of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands
from 1865 until 1874; in 1872 he was special commissioner to the hostile
Apaches of New Mexico and Arizona; in 1874-1881 was in command of the
Department of the Columbia and conducted the campaign against Chief
Joseph in 1877 and that against the Bannocks and Piutes in 1878. In
1881-1882 he was superintendent of West Point; and in 1882-1886 he
commanded the Department of the Platte, in 1886-1888 the Department of
the Pacific, and in 1888-1894 the Department of the East. In 1886 he was
promoted major-general and in 1894 he retired. He died at Burlington,
Vermont, on the 26th of October 1909.
Howard was deeply interested, in the welfare of the negroes; and the
establishment by the U.S. Government in 1867 of Howard University, at
Washington, especially for their education, was largely due to him; it
was named in his honour, and from 1869 to 1873 he presided over it. In
1895 he founded for the education of the "mountain whites" the Lincoln
Memorial University at Cumberland Gap, Tenn. (see CUMBERLAND MOUNTAINS),
and became president of its board. He held honorary degrees of various
universities, and was a chevalier of the Legion of Honour. He wrote,
amongst other works, _Donald's Schooldays_ (1877); _Chief Joseph_
(1881); a life of General Zachary Taylor (1892) in the "Great
Commanders" series; _Isabella of Castile_ (1894); _Fighting for
Humanity_ (1898); _Henry in the War_ (1898); papers in the "Battles and
Leaders" collection on the Atlanta campaign; _My Life and Experience
among our Hostile Indians_ (1907); and _Autobiography of O. O. Howard_
(2 vols., New York, 1907).
HOWARD, SIR ROBERT (1626-1698), English dramatist, sixth son of Thomas
Howard, 1st earl of Berkshire, was born in 1626. He was knighted at the
second battle of Newbury (1644) for his signal courage on the Royalist
side. Imprisoned in Windsor Castle under the Commonwealth, his loyalty
was rewarded at the Restoration, and he eventually became auditor of the
exchequer. His best play is a comedy, _The Committee, or the Faithful
Irishman_ (1663; printed 1665), which kept the stage, long after its
interest as a political satire was exhausted, for the character of
Teague, said to have been drawn from one of his own servants. He was an
early patron of Dryden, who married his sister, Lady Elizabeth Howard,
and in the _Indian Queen_, a tragedy in heroic verse (1664; pr. 1665)
Howard had assistance from Dryden, although the fact was not made public
until the production of Dryden's _Indian Emperor_. The magnificence of
the spectacle, and the novelty of the costume of feathers, presented by
Mrs. Aphra Behn, that was worn by Zempoalla, the Indian queen, made a
great sensation. The scenery and accessories were unusually brilliant,
the richest ever seen in England, according to Evelyn. In 1665 Howard
published _Foure New Plays_, in the preface to which he opposed the view
maintained by Dryden in the dedicatory epistle to _The Rival Ladies_,
that rhyme was better suited to the heroic tragedy than blank verse.
Howard made an exception in favour of the rhyme of Lord Orrery, but by
his silence concerning Dryden implicated him in the general censure.
Dryden answered by placing Howard's sentiments in the mouth of Crites in
his own _Essay on Dramatic Poesy_ (1668). The controversy did not end
here, but Dryden completely worsted his adversary in the 1668 edition of
_The Indian Emperor_. Howard died on the 3rd of September 1698.
His brother, James Howard, wrote two comedies, _All Mistaken, or the Mad
Couple_, a comedy (1667; pr. 1672), and _The English Mounsieur_ (1666;
pr. 1674), the success of which seems to have been partly due to the
acting of Nell Gwynn.
HOWARD, LORD WILLIAM (1563-1640), known as "Belted, or Bauld (bold)
Will," 3rd son of Thomas Howard, 4th duke of Norfolk (executed in 1572),
and of his second wife Margaret, daughter of Lord Audley, was born at
Audley End in Essex on the 19th of December 1563. He married on the 28th
of October 1577 Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas, Lord Dacre, and proceeded
subsequently to the University of Cambridge. Being suspected of
treasonable intentions together with his elder brother, Philip, earl of
Arundel, he was imprisoned in 1583, 1585 and 1589. He joined the church
of Rome in 1584, both brothers being dispossessed by the queen of a
portion of their Dacre estates, which were, however, restored in 1601
for a payment of L10,000. Howard then took up his residence with his
children and grandchildren at Naworth Castle in Cumberland, restored the
castle, improved the estate and established order in that part of the
country. In 1603, on the accession of James, he had been restored in
blood. In 1618 he was made one of the commissioners for the border, and
performed great services in upholding the law and suppressing marauders.
Lord William was a learned and accomplished scholar, praised by Camden,
to whom he sent inscriptions and drawings from relics collected by him
from the Roman wall, as "a singular lover of valuable antiquity and
learned withal." He collected a valuable library, of which most of the
printed works remain still at Naworth, though the MSS. have been
dispersed, a portion being now in the Arundel MSS. in the Royal College
of Arms; he corresponded with Ussher and was intimate with Camden,
Spelman, and Cotton, whose eldest son married his daughter. He
published, in 1592 an edition of Florence of Worcester's _Chronicon ex
Chronicis_, dedicated to Lord Burghley, and drew up a genealogy of his
family, now among the duke of Norfolk's MSS. at Norfolk House. He died
in October 1640 at Greystock, to which place he had been removed when
failing in health to escape the Scots who were threatening an advance on
Naworth. He had a large family of children, of whom Philip, his heir,
was the grandfather of Charles, 1st earl of Carlisle, and Francis was
the ancestor of the Howards of Corby.
HOWARD OF EFFINGHAM, WILLIAM HOWARD, 1st BARON (c. 1510-1573), English
lord high admiral, was the son of the 2nd duke of Norfolk. He was
popular with Henry VIII., and at Anne Boleyn's coronation was deputy
earl marshal; and he was sent on missions to Scotland and France; but in
1541 he was charged with abetting his relative Queen Catherine Howard,
and was convicted of misprision of treason, but pardoned. In 1552 he was
made governor of Calais, and in 1553 lord high admiral, being created
Baron Howard of Effingham in 1554 for his defence of London in Sir
Thomas Wyat's rebellion against Queen Mary. He befriended the princess
Elizabeth, but his popularity with the navy saved him from Mary's
resentment; and when Elizabeth became queen he had great influence with
her and filled several important posts. His son, the second baron, who
is famous in English naval history, was created earl of Nottingham
(q.v.); and from a younger son the later earls of Effingham were
descended. William's descendant, Francis (d. 1695), inherited the barony
of Howard of Effingham on the death of his cousin, Charles, in 1681; and
Francis's son, Francis (1683-1743), was created earl of Effingham in
1731. This earldom became extinct on the death of Richard, the fourth
holder, in 1816; but it was created again in 1837 in favour of Kenneth
Alexander (1767-1845), another of William Howard's descendants, who had
succeeded to the barony of Howard of Effingham in 1816.
HOWE, ELIAS (1819-1867), American sewing-machine inventor, was born in
Spencer, Massachusetts, on the 9th of July 1819. His early years were
spent on his father's farm. In 1835 he entered the factory of a
manufacturer of cotton-machinery at Lowell, Massachusetts, where he
learned the machinist's trade. Subsequently, while employed in a machine
shop at Cambridge, Mass., he conceived the idea of a sewing machine, and
for five years spent all his spare time in its development. In September
1846 a patent for a practical sewing machine was granted to him; and
Howe spent the following two years (1847-1849) in London, employed by
William Thomas, a corset manufacturer, to whom he had sold the English
rights for L250. Years of disappointment and discouragement followed
before he was successful in introducing his invention, and several
imitations which infringed his patent, particularly that of Isaac
Merritt Singer (1811-1875), had already been successfully introduced and
were widely used. His rights were established after much litigation in
1854, and by the date of expiration of his patent (1867) he had realized
something over $2,000,000 out of his invention. He died in Brooklyn, New
York, on the 3rd of October 1867.
See _History of the Sewing Machine and of Elias Howe, Jr., the
Inventor_ (Detroit, 1867); P. G. Hubert, Jr., _Inventors_, in "Men of
Achievement" series (New York, 1893).
HOWE, JOHN (1630-1706), English Puritan divine, was born on the 17th of
May 1630 at Loughborough, Leicestershire, where his father was vicar. On
the 19th of May 1647 he entered Christ's College, Cambridge, as a sizar,
and in the following year took his degree of B.A. During his residence
at the university he made the acquaintance of Ralph Cudworth, Henry More
and John Smith, from intercourse with whom, as well as from direct
acquaintance with the _Dialogues_ themselves, his mind received that
"Platonic tinge" so perceptible in his writings. Immediately after
graduation at Cambridge, he migrated to Oxford, where he became fellow
and chaplain of Magdalen College, proceeding M.A. in 1652. He was then
ordained by Charles Herle (1598-1659), the Puritan rector of Winwick,
and in 1654 went as perpetual curate to Great Torrington in Devon, where
he preached the discourses which later took shape in his treatises on
_The Blessedness of the Righteous_ and on _Delighting in God_. In the
beginning of 1657 a journey to London accidentally brought Howe under
the notice of Cromwell, who made him his domestic chaplain. In this
position his conduct was such as to win the praise of even the bitterest
enemies of his party. Without overlooking his fellow-Puritans, he was
always ready to help pious and learned men of other schools. Seth Ward
(afterwards bishop of Exeter) and Thomas Fuller were among those who
profited by Howe's kindness, and were not ashamed subsequently to
express their gratitude for it. On the resignation of Richard Cromwell,
Howe returned to Great Torrington, to leave it again in 1662 on the
passing of the Act of Uniformity. For several years he led a wandering
and uncertain life, preaching in secret as occasion offered to handfuls
of trusted hearers. Being in straits he published in 1668 _The
Blessedness of the Righteous_; the reputation which he thus acquired
procured him an invitation from Lord Massereene, of Antrim Castle,
Ireland, with whom he lived for five or six years as domestic chaplain,
frequently preaching in public, with the approval of the bishop of the
diocese. Here too he produced the most eloquent of his shorter
treatises, _The Vanity of Man as Mortal_, and _On Delighting in God_,
and planned his best work, _The Living Temple_. In the beginning of 1676
he accepted an invitation to become joint-pastor of a nonconformist
congregation at Haberdashers' Hall, London; and in the same year he
published the first part of _The Living Temple_ entitled _Concerning
God's Existence and his Conversableness with Man: Against Atheism or the
Epicurean Deism_. In 1677 appeared his tractate _On the
Reconcileableness of God's Prescience of the Sins of Men with the Wisdom
and Sincerity of His Counsels, Exhortations and whatsoever means He uses
to prevent them_, which was attacked from various quarters, and had
Andrew Marvell for one of its defenders. _On Thoughtfulness for the
Morrow_ followed in 1681; _Self-Dedication_ and _Union among
Protestants_ in 1682, and _The Redeemer's Tears wept over Lost Souls_ in
1684.
For five years after his settlement in London Howe enjoyed comparative
freedom, and was on not unfriendly terms with many eminent Anglicans,
such as Stillingfleet, Tillotson, John Sharp and Richard Kidder; but the
greater severity which began to be exercised towards nonconformists in
1681 so interfered with his liberty that in 1685 he gladly accepted the
invitation of Philip, Lord Wharton, to travel abroad with him. In 1686
he determined to settle for a time at Utrecht, where he officiated in
the English chapel. Among his friends there was Gilbert Burnet, by whose
influence he obtained several confidential interviews with William of
Orange. In 1687 Howe availed himself of the declaration for liberty of
conscience to return to England, and in the following year he headed the
deputation of nonconformist ministers who went to congratulate William
on his accession to the English throne. The remainder of his life was
uneventful. His influence was always on the side of mutual forbearance,
between conformists and dissenters in 1689, and between
Congregationalists and Presbyterians in 1690. In 1693 he published three
discourses _On the Carnality of Religious Contention_, suggested by the
disputes that became rife among nonconformists as soon as liberty of
doctrine and worship had been granted. In 1694 and 1695 he published
various treatises on the subject of the Trinity, the principal being _A
Calm and Solemn Inquiry concerning the Possibility of a Trinity in the
Godhead_. The second part of _The Living Temple_, entitled
_Animadversions on Spinosa and a French Writer pretending to confute
him, with a recapitulation of the former part and an account of the
destitution and restitution of God's Temple among Men_, appeared in
1702. In 1701 he had some controversy with Daniel Defoe on the question
of occasional conformity. In 1705 he published a discourse _On Patience
in the Expectation of Future Blessedness_, but his health had begun to
fail, and he died in London on the 2nd of April 1706. Richard Cromwell
visited him in his last illness.
Though excelled by Baxter as a pulpit orator, and by Owen in exegetical
ingenuity and in almost every department of theological learning, Howe
compares favourably with either as a sagacious and profound thinker,
while he was much more successful in combining religious earnestness and
fervour of conviction with large-hearted tolerance and cultured breadth
of view. He was a man of high principle and fine presence, and it was
said of him "that he never made an enemy and never lost a friend."
The works published in his lifetime, including a number of sermons,
were collected into 2 vols. fol. in 1724, and again reprinted in 3
vols. 8vo. in 1848. A complete edition of the _Whole Works_, including
much posthumous and additional matter, appeared with a memoir in 8
vols, in 1822; this was reprinted in 1 vol. in 1838 and in 6 vols. in
1862-1863. E. Calamy's _Life_ (1724) forms the basis of _The Life and
Character of Howe, with an Analysis of his Writings_, by Henry Rogers
(1836, new ed. 1863). See also a sketch by R. F. Horton (1896).
HOWE, JOSEPH (1804-1873), Canadian statesman, was born at Halifax, Nova
Scotia, on the 13th of December 1804, the son of John Howe (1752-1835),
a United Empire Loyalist who was for many years king's printer and
postmaster-general for the Maritime Provinces and the Bermudas. He
received little regular education, and at the age of 13 entered his
father's office. In 1827 he started the _Acadian_, a weekly
non-political journal, but soon sold it, and in 1828 purchased the _Nova
Scotian_, which later became amalgamated with the _Morning Chronicle_.
From this date he devoted increasing attention to political affairs, and
in 1835 was prosecuted for libelling the magistrates of Halifax. Being
unable to find a lawyer willing to undertake his case, he pleaded it
himself, and won his acquittal by a speech of over six hours, which
secured for Nova Scotia the freedom of the press and for himself the
reputation of an orator. In 1836 he was elected member for Halifax in
the provincial assembly, and during the next twelve years devoted
himself to attaining responsible government for Nova Scotia. This
brought him into fierce conflict with the reigning oligarchy and with
the lieutenant-governor, Lord Falkland (1803-1884), whom he forced to
resign. Largely owing to Howe's statesmanship responsible government was
finally conceded in 1848 by the imperial authorities, and was thus
gained without the bloodshed and confusion which marked its acquisition
in Ontario and Quebec. In 1850 he was appointed a delegate to England on
behalf of the Intercolonial railway, for which he obtained a large
imperial guarantee. In 1854 he resigned from the cabinet, and was
appointed chief commissioner of railways. In 1855 he was sent by the
imperial government to the United States in connexion with the Foreign
Enlistment Act, to raise soldiers for the war in the Crimea. Through the
rashness of others he got into difficulties, and was attacked in the
British House of Commons by Mr Gladstone, whom he compelled to
apologize.
In 1855 he was defeated by Mr (afterwards Sir Charles) Tupper, but was
elected by acclamation in the next year in Hants county, and was from
1860 to 1863 premier of Nova Scotia. In the latter years he was
appointed by the imperial government fishery commissioner to the United
States, and thus took no part in the negotiations for confederation.
Though his eloquence had done more than anything else to make
practicable a union of the British North American provinces, he opposed
confederation, largely owing to wounded vanity; but on finding it
impossible to obtain from the imperial authorities the repeal of the
British North America Act, he refused to join his associates in the
extreme measures which were advocated, and on the promise from the
Canadian government of better financial terms to his native province,
entered (on the 30th of January 1869) the cabinet of Sir John Macdonald
as president of the council. This brought upon him a storm of obloquy,
under which his health gradually gave way. In May 1873 he was appointed
lieutenant-governor of Nova Scotia, but died suddenly on the 1st of June
of the same year.
Howe's eloquence, and still more his unfailing wit and high spirits,
made him for many years the idol of his province. He is the finest
orator whom Canada has produced, and also wrote poetry, which shows in
places high merit. Many of his sayings are still current in Nova Scotia.
In 1904 a statue in his honour was erected in Halifax.
His _Letters and Speeches_ were published in 1858 in Boston, Mass., in
2 vols., edited nominally by William Annand, really by himself. See
also _Public Letters and Speeches of Joseph Howe_ (Halifax, 1909). The
_Life and Times_ by G. E. Fenety (1896) is poor. The _Life_ by the
Hon. James W. Longley (Toronto, 1904) is dispassionate, but otherwise
mediocre. _Joseph Howe_, by George Monro Grant (reprinted Halifax,
1904), is a brilliant sketch. (W. L. G.)
HOWE, JULIA WARD (1819-1910), American author and reformer, was born in
New York City on the 27th of May 1819. Her father, Samuel Ward, was a
banker; her mother, Julia Rush [Cutler] (1796-1824), a poet of some
ability. When only sixteen years old she had begun to contribute poems
to New York periodicals. In 1843 she married Dr Samuel Gridley Howe
(q.v.), with whom she spent the next year in England, France, Germany
and Italy. She assisted Dr Howe in editing the _Commonwealth_ in
1851-1853. The results of her study of German philosophy were seen in
philosophical essays; in lectures on "Doubt and Belief," "The Duality of
Character," &c., delivered in 1860-1861 in her home in Boston, and later
in Washington; and in addresses before the Boston Radical Club and the
Concord school of philosophy. Samuel Longfellow, his brother Henry,
Wendell Phillips, W. L. Garrison, Charles Sumner, Theodore Parker and
James Freeman Clarke were among her friends; she advocated abolition,
and preached occasionally from Unitarian pulpits. She was one of the
organizers of the American Woman-Suffrage Association and of the
Association for the Advancement of Women (1869), and in 1870 became one
of the editors of the _Woman's Journal_, and in 1872 president of the
New England Women's Club. In the same year she was a delegate to the
Prison Reform Congress in London, and founded there the Woman's Peace
Association, one of the many ways in which she expressed her opposition
to war. She wrote _The World's Own_ (unsuccessfully played at
Wallack's, New York, in 1855, published 1857), and in 1858, for Edwin
Booth, _Hippolytus_, never acted or published. Her lyric poetry, thanks
to her temperament, and possibly to her musical training, was her
highest literary form: she published _Passion Flowers_ (anonymously,
1854), _Words for the Hour_ (1856), _Later Lyrics_ (1866), and _From
Sunset Ridge: Poems Old and New_ (1898); her most popular poem is _The
Battle Hymn of the Republic_, written to the old folk-tune associated
with the song of "John Brown's Body," when Mrs Howe was at the front in
1861, and published (Feb. 1862) in the _Atlantic Monthly_, to which she
frequently contributed. She edited _Sex and Education_ (1874), an answer
to _Sex in Education_ (1873) by Edward Hammond Clarke (1820-1877); and
wrote several books of travel, _Modern Society_ (1880) and _Is Polite
Society Polite?_ (1895), collections of addresses, each taking its title
from a lecture criticizing the shallowness and falseness of society, the
power of money, &c., _A Memoir of Dr Samuel G. Howe_ (1876), _Life of
Margaret Fuller_ (1883), in the "Famous Women" series. _Sketches of
Representative Women of New England_ (1905) and her own _Reminiscences_
(Boston, 1899). Her children were: Julia Romana Anagnos (1844-1886),
who, like her mother, wrote verse and studied philosophy, and who taught
in the Perkins Institution, in the charge of which her husband, Michael
Anagnos (1837-1906), whose family name had been Anagnostopoulos,
succeeded her father; Henry Marion Howe (b. 1848), the eminent
metallurgist, and professor in Columbia University; Laura Elizabeth
Richards (b. 1850), and Maud Howe Elliott (b. 1855), wife of John
Elliott, the painter of a fine ceiling in the Boston library,--both
these daughters being contributors to literature. Mrs Howe died on the
17th of October 1910.
HOWE, RICHARD HOWE, EARL (1726-1799), British admiral, was born in
London on the 8th of March 1726. He was the second son of Emmanuel
Scrope Howe, 2nd Viscount Howe, who died governor of Barbadoes in March
1735, and of Mary Sophia Charlotte, a daughter of the baroness
Kilmansegge, afterwards countess of Darlington, the mistress of George
I.--a relationship which does much to explain his early rise in the
navy. Richard Howe entered the navy in the "Severn," one of the squadron
sent into the south seas with Anson in 1740. The "Severn" failed to
round the Horn and returned home. Howe next served in the West Indies in
the "Burford," and was present in her when she was very severely
damaged, in the unsuccessful attack on La Guayra on the 18th of February
1742. He was made acting-lieutenant in the West Indies in the same year,
and the rank was confirmed in 1744. During the Jacobite rising of 1745
he commanded the "Baltimore" sloop in the North Sea, and was dangerously
wounded in the head while co-operating with a frigate in an engagement
with two strong French privateers. In 1746 he became post-captain, and
commanded the "Triton" (24) in the West Indies. As captain of the
"Cornwall" (80), the flagship of Sir Charles Knowles, he was in the
battle with the Spaniards off Havana on the 2nd of October 1748. While
the peace between the War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven
Years' War lasted, Howe held commands at home and on the west coast of
Africa. In 1755 he went with Boscawen to North America as captain of the
"Dunkirk" (60), and his seizure of the French "Alcide" (64) was the
first shot fired in the war. From this date till the peace of 1763 he
served in the Channel in various more or less futile expeditions against
the coast of France, with a steady increase of reputation as a firm and
skilful officer. On the 20th of November 1759 he led Hawke's fleet as
captain of the "Magnanime" (64) in the magnificent victory of Quiberon.
By the death of his elder brother, killed near Ticonderoga on the 6th of
July 1758, he became Viscount Howe--an Irish peerage. In 1762 he was
elected M.P. for Dartmouth, and held the seat till he received a title
of Great Britain. During 1763 and 1765 he was a member of the Admiralty
board, and from 1765 to 1770 was treasurer of the navy. In that year he
was promoted rear-admiral, and in 1775 vice-admiral. In 1776 he was
appointed to the command of the North American station. The rebellion
of the colonies was making rapid progress, and Howe was known to be in
sympathy with the colonists. He had sought the acquaintance of Benjamin
Franklin, who was a friend of his sister Miss Howe, a clever eccentric
woman well known in London society, and had already tried to act as a
peacemaker. It was doubtless because of his known sentiments that he was
selected to command in America, and was joined in commission with his
brother Sir William Howe, the general at the head of the land forces, to
make a conciliatory arrangement. A committee appointed by the
Continental Congress conferred with the Howes in September 1776 but
nothing was accomplished. The appointment of a new peace commission in
1778 offended the admiral deeply, and he sent in a resignation of his
command. It was reluctantly accepted by Lord Sandwich, then First Lord,
but before it could take effect France declared war, and a powerful
French squadron was sent to America under the count d'Estaing. Being
greatly outnumbered, Howe had to stand on the defensive, but he baffled
the French admiral at Sandy Hook, and defeated his attempt to take
Newport in Rhode Island by a fine combination of caution and calculated
daring. On the arrival of Admiral John Byron from England with
reinforcements, Howe left the station in September. Until the fall of
Lord North's ministry in 1782 he refused to serve, assigning as his
reason that he could not trust Lord Sandwich. He considered that he had
not been properly supported in America, and was embittered both by the
supersession of himself and his brother as peace commissioners, and by
attacks made on him by the ministerial writers in the press.
On the change of ministry in March 1782 he was selected to command in
the Channel, and in the autumn of that year, September, October and
November, he carried out the final relief of Gibraltar. It was a
difficult operation, for the French and Spaniards had in all 46
line-of-battle ships to his 33, and in the exhausted state of the
country it was impossible to fit his ships properly or to supply them
with good crews. He was, moreover, hampered by a great convoy carrying
stores. But Howe was eminent in the handling of a great multitude of
ships, the enemy was awkward and unenterprising, and the operation was
brilliantly carried out. From the 28th of January to the 16th of April
1783 he was First Lord of the Admiralty, and he held that post from
December 1783 till August 1788, in Pitt's first ministry. The task was
no pleasant one, for he had to agree to economies where he considered
that more outlay was needed, and he had to disappoint the hopes of the
many officers who were left unemployed by the peace. On the outbreak of
the Revolutionary war in 1793 he was again named to the command of the
Channel fleet. His services in 1794 form the most glorious period of his
life, for in it he won the epoch-making victory of the 1st of June (see
FIRST OF JUNE, BATTLE OF). Though Howe was now nearly seventy, and had
been trained in the old school, he displayed an originality not usual
with veterans, and not excelled by any of his successors in the war, not
even by Nelson, since they had his example to follow and were served by
more highly trained squadrons than his. He continued to hold the nominal
command by the wish of the king, but his active service was now over. In
1797 he was called on to pacify the mutineers at Spithead, and his great
influence with the seamen who trusted him was conspicuously shown. He
died on the 5th of August 1799, and was buried in his family vault at
Langar. His monument by Flaxman is in St Paul's Cathedral. In 1782 he
was created Viscount Howe of Langar, and in 1788 Baron and Earl Howe. In
June 1797 he was made a knight of the Garter. With the sailors he was
always popular, though he was no popularity hunter, for they knew him to
be just. His nickname of Black Dick was given on account of his swarthy
complexion, and the well-known portrait by Gainsborough shows that it
was apt.
Lord Howe married, on the 10th of March 1758, Mary Hartop, the daughter
of Colonel Chiverton Hartop of Welby in Leicestershire, and had issue
two daughters. His Irish title descended to his brother William, the
general, who died childless in 1814. The earldom, and the viscounty of
the United Kingdom, being limited to heirs male, became extinct, but
the barony, being to heirs general, passed to his daughter, Sophia
Charlotte (1762-1835), who married the Hon. Penn Assheton Curzon. Their
son, Richard William Curzon (1796-1870), who succeeded his paternal
grandfather as Viscount Curzon in 1820, was created Earl Howe in 1821;
he was succeeded by his son, George Augustus (1821-1876), and then by
another son, Richard William (1822-1900), whose son Richard George Penn
Curzon-Howe (b. 1861) became 4th Earl Howe in 1900.
The standard _Life_ is by Sir John Barrow (1838). Interesting
reminiscences will be found in the _Life of Codrington_, by Lady
Bourchier. Accounts of his professional services are in Charnock's
_Biographia Navalis_, v. 457, and in Ralf's _Naval Biographies_, i.
83. See also Beatson's _Naval and Military Annals_, James's _Naval
History_, and Chevalier's _Histoire de la Marine francaise_, vols. i.
and ii. (D. H.)
HOWE, SAMUEL GRIDLEY (1801-1876), American philanthropist, was born at
Boston, Massachusetts, on the 10th of November 1801. His father, Joseph
N. Howe, was a ship-owner and cordage manufacturer; and his mother,
Patty Gridley, was one of the most beautiful women of her day. Young
Howe was educated at Boston and at Brown University, Providence, and in
1821 began to study medicine in Boston. But fired by enthusiasm for the
Greek revolution and by Byron's example, he was no sooner qualified and
admitted to practice than he abandoned these prospects and took ship for
Greece, where he joined the army and spent six years of hardship amid
scenes of warfare. Then, to raise funds for the cause, he returned to
America; his fervid appeals enabled him to collect about $60,000, which
he spent on provisions and clothing, and he established a relief depot
near Aegina, where he started works for the refugees, the existing quay,
or American Mole, being built in this way. He formed another colony of
exiles on the Isthmus of Corinth. He wrote a _History of the Greek
Revolution_, which was published in 1828, and in 1831 he returned to
America. Here a new object of interest engaged him. Through his friend
Dr John D. Fisher (d. 1850), a Boston physician who had started a
movement there as early as 1826 for establishing a school for the blind,
he had learnt of the similar school founded in Paris by Valentin Hauy,
and it was proposed to Howe by a committee organized by Fisher that he
should direct the establishment of a "New England Asylum for the Blind"
at Boston. He took up the project with characteristic ardour, and set
out at once for Europe to investigate the problem. There he was
temporarily diverted from his task by becoming mixed up with the Polish
revolt, and, in pursuit of a mission to carry American contributions
across the Prussian frontier, he was arrested and imprisoned at Berlin,
but was at last released through the intervention of the American
minister at Paris. Returning to Boston in July 1832, he began receiving
a few blind children at his father's house in Pleasant Street, and thus
sowed the seed which grew into the famous Perkins Institution. In
January 1833 the funds available were all spent, but so much progress
had been shown that the legislature voted $6000, later increased to
$30,000 a year, to the institution on condition that it should educate
gratuitously twenty poor blind from the state; money was also
contributed from Salem, and from Boston, and Colonel Thomas H. Perkins,
a prominent Bostonian, presented his mansion and grounds in Pearl Street
for the school to be held there in perpetuity. This building being later
found unsuitable, Colonel Perkins consented to its sale, and in 1839 the
institution was moved to South Boston, to a large building which had
previously been an hotel. It was henceforth known as the "Perkins
Institution and Massachusetts Asylum (or, since 1877, School) for the
Blind." Howe was director, and the life and soul of the school; he
opened a printing-office and organized a fund for printing for the
blind--the first done in America; and he was unwearied in calling public
attention to the work. The Institution, through him, became one of the
intellectual centres of American philanthropy, and by degrees obtained
more and more financial support. In 1837 Dr Howe went still further and
brought the famous blind deaf-mute, Laura Bridgman (q.v.) to the
school.
It must suffice here to chronicle the remaining more important facts in
Dr Howe's life, outside his regular work. In 1843 he married Julia Ward
(see above), daughter of a New York banker, and they made a prolonged
European trip, on which Dr Howe spent much time in visiting those public
institutions which carried out the objects specially interesting to him.
In Rome, in 1844, his eldest daughter, Julia Romana (afterwards the wife
of Michael Anagnos, Dr Howe's assistant and successor), was born, and in
September the travellers returned to America, and Dr Howe resumed his
activities. In 1846 he became interested in the condition and treatment
of idiots, and particularly in the experiments of Dr Guggenbuhl on the
cretins of Switzerland. He became chairman of a state commission of
inquiry into the number and condition of idiots in Massachusetts, and
the report of this commission, presented in 1848, caused a profound
sensation. An appropriation of $2500 per annum was made for training ten
idiot children under Dr Howe's supervision, and by degrees the value of
his School for Idiotic and Feeble-minded Youths, which, starting in
South Boston, was in 1890 removed to Waltham, was generally appreciated.
It was the first of its kind in the United States. An enthusiastic
humanitarian on all subjects, Dr Howe was an ardent abolitionist and a
member of the Free Soil party, and had played a leading part at Boston
in the movements which culminated in the Civil War. When it broke out he
was an active member of the sanitary commission. In 1871 he was sent to
Santo Domingo as a member of the commission appointed by President Grant
to examine the condition of the island, the government of which desired
annexation; and when that scheme was defeated through Sumner's
opposition he returned (1872) as the representative of the Samana Bay
Company, which proposed to take a lease of the Samana peninsula; but
though in 1874 he revisited the island, it was only to see the flag of
the company hauled down. His health was then breaking and began soon
after to fail rapidly, and on the 9th of January 1876 he died at Boston.
The governor of the state sent a special message of grief to the
legislature on his death, eulogies were delivered in the two houses, and
a public memorial service was held, at which Dr O. W. Holmes read a
poem. Whittier had in his lifetime commemorated him in his poem "The
Hero," in which he called him "the Cadmus of the blind"; and in 1901 a
centennial celebration of his birth was held at Boston, at which, among
other notable tributes, Senator Hoar spoke of Howe as "one of the great
figures of American history."
A _Memoir_ of Dr Howe by his wife appeared in 1876. See also the
_Letters and Journals of S. G. Howe_, edited by Laura E. Richards
(1910). (H. Ch.)
HOWE, WILLIAM HOWE, 5TH VISCOUNT (1729-1814), British general, was the
younger brother of George Augustus, 3rd viscount, killed in the
Ticonderoga expedition of 1758, and of Richard, 4th viscount and
afterwards Earl Howe, the admiral. He entered the cavalry in 1746,
becoming lieutenant a year later. On the disbanding of his regiment in
1749 he was made captain-lieutenant and shortly afterwards captain in
Lord Bury's (20th) regiment, in which Wolfe was then a field officer.
Howe became major in 1756 and lieutenant-colonel in 1757 of the 58th
(now Northampton) regiment, which he commanded at the capture of
Louisburg. In Wolfe's expedition to Quebec he distinguished himself
greatly at the head of a composite light battalion. He led the advanced
party in the landing at Wolfe's Cove and took part in the battle of the
Plains of Abraham which followed. He commanded his own regiment in the
defence of Quebec in 1759-1760, led a brigade in the advance on Montreal
and took part on his return to Europe in the siege of Belleisle (1761).
He was adjutant-general of the force which besieged and took Havana in
1762, and at the close of the war had acquired the reputation of being
one of the most brilliant of the junior officers of the army. He was
made colonel of the 46th foot in 1764 and lieutenant-governor of the
Isle of Wight four years later. From 1758 to 1780 he was M.P. for
Nottingham. In 1772 he became major-general, and in 1774 he was
entrusted with the training of light infantry companies on a new system,
the training-ground being Salisbury Plain.
Shortly after this he was sent out to North America. He did not agree
with the policy of the government towards the colonists, and regretted
in particular that he was sent to Boston, where the memory of his eldest
brother was still cherished by the inhabitants, and General Gage, in
whom he had no confidence, commanded in chief. He was the senior officer
after Gage, and led the troops actively engaged in the storming of
Bunker Hill, he himself being in the thickest of the fighting. In the
same year Howe was made a K.B. and a lieutenant-general, and appointed,
with the local rank of general, to the chief command in the seat of war.
For the events of his command see AMERICAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. He
retained it until May 1778--on the whole with success. The cause of his
resignation was his feeling that the home government had not afforded
the proper support, and after his return to England, he and his brother
engaged in a heated but fruitless controversy with the ministers. Howe's
own defence is embodied in _Narrative of Sir William Howe before a
Committee of the House of Commons_ (London, 1780). In 1782 Howe was made
lieutenant-general of the ordnance; in 1790 he was placed in command of
the forces organized for action against Spain, and in 1793 he was made a
full general. He held various home commands in the early part of the
French revolutionary war, in particular that of the eastern district at
the critical moment when the French established their forces on the
Dutch coast. When Earl Howe died in 1799, Sir William succeeded to the
Irish viscounty. He had been made governor of Berwick-on-Tweed in 1795,
and in 1805 he became governor of Plymouth, where he died on the 12th of
July 1814. With his death the Irish peerage became extinct.
HOWEL DDA ("the Good") (d. 950), prince of Deheubarth (South Central
Wales) from before 915, and king of Wales from 943 to 950, was the
grandson of Rhodri Mawr (the Great), who had united practically the
whole of Wales under his supremacy. As Idwal Voel succeeded his father
Anarawd, the elder son of Rhodri, as lord of Gwynedd in 915, so Howel at
some time before that date succeeded Rhodri's younger son Cadell as
prince of Deheubarth. Howel married Elen, daughter of the last king of
Dyfed, and also added Kidweli and Gwyr to his dominions, while on the
death of Idwal, who was slain by the English in 943, he took possession
of Gwynedd. Both these princes had done homage to the English kings,
Edward the Elder and Aethelstan, in 922 and 926, and we find that Howel
attended the witans of the English kingdom and witnessed about ten
charters between the years 931 and 949. He was secure, therefore, from
attack on the eastern side of his kingdom, and it is not certain whether
he was engaged in any of the battles recorded during these years in
Wales, either in Mon 914, at Dinas Newydd 919 or at Brun 935. To the
peaceful character of his reign is probably due the high place which he
holds among the Welsh princes. From 943 to 950 Howel Dda was probably
ruler of all Wales except Powys (apparently dependent on Mercia),
Brecheiniog, Buallt, Gwent and Morgannwg. With Morgan Hen, king of
Morgannwg, Howel had a dispute which was eventually settled in favour of
the former at the court of the English king. Howel died in 950, and such
unity as he had preserved at once disappeared in a war between his sons
and those of Idwal Voel. The code of laws attributed to this prince is
perhaps his chief claim to fame. He is said to have summoned four men
from each cantref in his dominions to the Ty Gwyn (perhaps Whitland in
Caermarthenshire) to codify existing custom. Three codes, accordingly
called Venedotian, Demetian and Gwentian, are said to have been written
down by Bleggwryd, archdeacon of Llandaff (see Welsh Laws).
See Sir John Rhys and Brynmor-Jones, _The Welsh People_ (London,
1900); and Aneurin Owen, _Ancient Laws and Institutions of Wales_
(London, 1841).
HOWELL, JAMES (c. 1594-1666), British author, who came of an old Welsh
family, was born probably at Abernant, in Carmarthenshire, where his
father was rector. From the free grammar school at Hereford he went to
Jesus College, Oxford, and took his degree of B.A. in 1613. About 1616
he was steward in Sir Robert Mansell's glass-works in Broad Street, and
was commissioned to go abroad to procure the services of expert
workmen. It was not till 1622 that he returned, having visited Holland,
France, Spain and Italy. With the intention of utilizing to better
purpose his knowledge of continental languages and methods, he left the
glass business and applied for a diplomatic post. Failing to obtain
this, he was for a short time tutor in a nobleman's family. At the close
of 1622 he was sent on a special mission to Madrid to obtain redress for
the seizure of an English vessel, but, owing to the presence at the
Spanish court of Prince Charles and the duke of Buckingham to arrange a
marriage between the prince and the infanta of Spain, the negotiations
had to be broken off. He made many friends among the prince's retinue,
and, after his return in 1624, applied for employment to the duke of
Buckingham, but without success. In 1626 he became secretary to Lord
Scrope, Lord President of the North at York, and retained the office
under Scrope's successor, Thomas Wentworth. In 1627 he was elected M.P.
for Richmond; in 1632 he was sent as secretary to the embassy of the
earl of Leicester to Denmark; and in 1642 the king appointed him one of
the clerks of the privy council. In 1643 he was committed to the Fleet
prison by the parliament, according to his own account, on suspicion of
royalist leanings, or, as Anthony a Wood says, for debt. Whatever the
reason, he remained in prison until 1651. He had acquired considerable
fame by his allegorical [Greek: Dendrologia]: _Dodona's Grove, or the
Vocall Forest_, published in 1640, and his _Instructions for Forreine
Travell_ (1642), which has been described as the first continental
handbook; and now he was driven to maintain himself by his pen. He
edited and supplemented (1650) Cotgrave's French and English dictionary,
compiled _Lexicon Tetraglotton, or an English, French, Italian and
Spanish Dictionary_ (London, 1660), translated various works from
Italian and Spanish, wrote a life of Louis XIII. and issued a number of
political pamphlets, varying the point of view somewhat to suit the
changes of the time. Among these tracts may be mentioned a rather
malicious _Perfect Description of the People and Country of Scotland_,
which was revived by John Wilkes and printed in the _North Briton_
during the agitation directed against Lord Bute. In 1660 he asked for
the place of clerk of the privy council; and, though this was not
granted him, the post of historiographer royal was created for him. In
1661 he applied for the office of tutor in foreign languages to the
infanta Catherine of Braganza, and in 1662 published an _English Grammar
translated into Spanish_. He was buried in the Temple Church on the 3rd
of November 1666, having realized to the last his favourite motto,
"Senesco non segnesco."
All Howell's writings are imbued with a certain simplicity and
quaintness. His elaborate allegories are forgotten; his linguistic
labours, of value in their time, are now superseded; but his _Letters_,
the _Epistolae Ho-elianae_ (four volumes issued in 1645, 1647, 1650 and
1655), are still models of their kind. Their dates are often fictitious,
and they are, in nearly every case, evidently written for publication.
Thackeray said that the _Letters_ was one of his bedside books. He
classes it with Montaigne and says he scarcely ever tired of "the
artless prattle" of the "priggish little clerk of King Charles's
council."
The _Epistolae_ have been frequently edited, notably by J. Jacobs in
1890, with a commentary (1891), and Agnes Repplier (1907).
HOWELLS, WILLIAM DEAN (1837- ), American novelist, was born at Martin's
Ferry, Ohio, on the 1st of March 1837. His father, William Cooper
Howells, a printer-journalist, moved in 1840 to Hamilton, Ohio, and here
the boy's early life was spent successively as type-setter, reporter and
editor in the offices of various newspapers. In the midst of routine
work he contrived to familiarize himself with a wide range of authors in
several modern tongues, and to drill himself thoroughly in the use of
good English. In 1860, as assistant editor of the leading Republican
newspaper in Ohio, he wrote--in connexion with the Presidential
contest--the campaign life of Lincoln; and in the same year he was
appointed consul at Venice, where he remained till 1865. On his return
to America he joined the staff of the _Atlantic Monthly_, and from 1872
to 1881 he was its editor-in-chief. Since 1885 he has lived in New York.
For a time he conducted for _Harper's Magazine_ the department called
"The Editor's Study," and in December 1900 he revived for the same
periodical the department of "The Easy Chair," which had lapsed with the
death of George William Curtis. Of Mr Howells's many novels, the
following may be mentioned as specially noteworthy: _Their Wedding
Journey_ (1872); _The Lady of the Aroostook_ (1879); _A Modern Instance_
(1882); _The Rise of Silas Lapham_ (1885); _The Minister's Charge_
(1886); _A Hazard of New Fortunes_ (1889); _The Quality of Mercy_
(1892); _The Landlord at Lion's Head_ (1897). He also published _Poems_
(1873 and 1886); _Stops of Various Quills_ (1895), a book of verse;
books of travel; several amusing farces; and volumes of essays and
literary criticism, among others, _Literary Friends and Acquaintance_
(1901), which contains much autobiographical matter, _Literature and
Life_ (1902), and _English Films_ (1905).
Howells is by general consent the foremost representative of the
realistic school of indigenous American fiction. From the outset his aim
was to portray life with entire fidelity in all its commonplaceness, and
yet to charm the reader into a liking for this commonplaceness and into
reverence for what it conceals. Though in his earliest novels his method
was not consistently realistic--he is at times almost as personal and as
whimsical as Thackeray--yet his vivid impressionism and his choice of
subjects, as well as an occasional explicit protest that "dulness is
dear to him," already revealed unmistakably his realistic bias. In _A
Modern Instance_ (1882) he gained complete command of his method, and
began a series of studies of American life that are remarkable for their
loyalty to fact, their truth of tone, and their power to reveal, despite
their strictly objective method, both the inner springs of American
character and the sociological forces that are shaping American
civilization. He refuses to over-sophisticate or to over-intellectualize
his characters, and he is very sparing in his use of psychological
analysis. He insists on seeing and portraying American life as it exists
in and for itself, under its own skies and with its own atmosphere; he
does not scrutinize it with foreign comparisons in mind, and thus try to
find and to throw into relief unsuspected configurations of surface. He
keeps his dialogue toned down to almost the pitch of everyday
conversation, although he has shown in his comedy sketches how easy a
master he is of adroit and witty talk.
See also J. M. Robertson, _Essays towards a Critical Method_ (London,
1889); H. C. Vedder, _American Writers_ (Boston, 1894).
HOWITT WILLIAM, (1792-1879), English author, was born on the 18th of
December 1792 at Heanor, Derbyshire. His parents were Quakers, and he
was educated at the Friends' public school at Ackworth, Yorkshire. In
1814 he published a poem on the "Influence of Nature and Poetry on
National Spirit." He married, in 1821, Mary Botham (1799-1888), like
himself a Quaker and a poet. William and Mary Howitt collaborated
throughout a long literary career, the first of their joint productions
being _The Forest Minstrels and other Poems_ (1821). In 1831 William
Howitt produced a work for which his habits of observation and his
genuine love of nature peculiarly fitted him. It was a history of the
changes in the face of the outside world in the different months of the
year, and was entitled _The Book of the Seasons, or the Calendar of
Nature_ (1831). His _Popular History of Priestcraft_ (1833) won for him
the favour of active Liberals and the office of alderman in Nottingham,
where the Howitts had made their home. They removed in 1837 to Esher,
and in 1840 they went to Heidelberg, primarily for the education of
their children, remaining in Germany for two years. In 1841 William
Howitt produced, under the pseudonym of "Dr Cornelius," _The Student
Life of Germany_, the first of a series of works on German social life
and institutions. Mary Howitt devoted herself to Scandinavian
literature, and between 1842 and 1863 she translated the novels of
Frederika Bremer and many of the stories of Hans Andersen. With her
husband she wrote in 1852 _The Literature and Romance of Northern
Europe_. In June of that year William Howitt, with two of his sons, set
sail for Australia, where he spent two years in the goldfields. The
results of his travels appeared in _A Boy's Adventures in the Wilds
of Australia_ (1854), _Land, Labour and Gold; or, Two Years in Victoria_
(1855) and _Tallangetta, the Squatter's Home_ (1857). On his return to
England Howitt had settled at Highgate and resumed his indefatigable
book-making. From 1856 to 1862 he was engaged on Cassell's _Illustrated
History of England_, and from 1861 to 1864 he and his wife worked at the
_Ruined Abbeys and Castles of Great Britain_. The Howitts had left the
Society of Friends in 1847, and became interested in spiritualism. In
1863 appeared _The History of the Supernatural in all Ages and Nations,
and in all Churches, Christian and Pagan, demonstrating a Universal
Faith_, by William Howitt. He added "his own conclusions from a
practical examination of the higher phenomena through a course of seven
years." From 1870 onwards Howitt spent the summers in Tirol and the
winters in Rome, where he died on the 3rd of March 1879. Mary Howitt was
much affected by his death, and in 1882 she joined the Roman Catholic
Church, towards which she had been gradually moving during her connexion
with spiritualism. She died at Rome on the 30th of January 1888. The
Howitts are remembered for their untiring efforts to provide wholesome
and instructive literature. Their son, Alfred William Howitt, made
himself a name by his explorations in Australia. Anna Mary Howitt
married Alaric Alfred Watts, and was the author of _Pioneers of the
Spiritual Reformation_ (1883).
Mary Howitt's autobiography was edited by her daughter, Margaret
Howitt, in 1889. William Howitt wrote some fifty books, and his wife's
publications, inclusive of translations, number over a hundred.
HOWITZER (derived, through an earlier form _howitz_, and the Ger.
_Haubitz_, from the Bohemian _houfnice_ = catapult, from which come
also, through the Ital. _obiza_ or _obice_, the French forms _obus_ =
shell and _obusier_ = howitzer), a form of mobile ordnance in use from
the 16th century up to the present day. It is a short and therefore
comparatively light gun, which fires a heavy projectile at low velocity.
A high angle of elevation is always given and the angle of descent of
the projectile is consequently steep (up to 70 deg.). On this fact is
based the tactical use of the modern howitzer. The field howitzer is of
the greatest value for "searching" trenches, folds of ground,
localities, &c., which are invulnerable to direct fire, while the more
powerful siege howitzer has, since the introduction of modern artillery
and, above all, of modern projectiles, taken the foremost place amongst
the weapons used in siege warfare.
See ARTILLERY, ORDNANCE and FORTIFICATION AND SIEGECRAFT.
HOWLER, a name applied to the members of a group of tropical American
monkeys, now known scientifically as _Alouata_, although formerly
designated _Mycetes_. These monkeys, which are of large size, with thick
fur, sometimes red and sometimes black in colour, are characterized by
the inflation of the hyoid-bone (which supports the roof of the tongue)
into a large shell-like organ communicating with the wind-pipe, and
giving the peculiar resonance to the voice from which they take their
title. To allow space for the hyoid, the sides of the lower jaw are very
deep and expanded. The muzzle is projecting, and the profile of the face
slopes regularly backwards from the muzzle to the crown. The long tail
is highly prehensile, thickly furred, with the under surface of the
extremity naked. Howlers dwell in large companies, and in the early
morning, and again in the evening, make the woods resound with their
cries, which are often continued throughout the night. They feed on
leaves, and are in the habit of sitting on the topmost branches of
trees. When active, they progress in regular order, led by an old male.
(R. L.*)
HOWRAH, a city and district of British India, in the Burdwan division of
Bengal. The city is situated opposite Calcutta, with which it is
connected by a floating bridge. The municipal area is about 11 sq. m.;
pop. (1901) 157,594, showing an increase of 35% in the decade. Since
1872 the population has almost doubled, owing to the great industrial
development that has taken place. Howrah is the terminus of the East
Indian railway, and also of the Bengal-Nagpur and East Coast lines. It
is also the centre of two light railways which run to Amta and
Sheakhala. Further, it is the headquarters of the jute-manufacturing
industry, with many steam mills, steam presses, also cotton mills, oil
mills, rope-works, iron-works and engineering works. Sibpur Engineering
College lies on the outskirts of the town. There is a hospital, with a
department for Europeans, and Howrah forms a suburban residence for many
people who have their place of business in Calcutta.
The DISTRICT OF HOWRAH extends southwards down the right bank of the
Hugli to the confluence of the river Damodar. For revenue purposes it is
included within the district of Hugli Its area is 510 sq. m.; pop.
(1901) 850,514, showing an increase of 11% in the decade. In addition to
the two steam tramways and the East Indian railway, the district is
crossed by the high-level canal to Midnapore, which communicates with
the Hugli at Ulubaria. The manufacturing industries of Howrah extend
beyond the city into the district. One or two systems of draining
low-lying lands are maintained by the government.
HOWSON, JOHN SAUL (1816-1885), English divine, was born at
Giggleswick-in-Craven, Yorkshire, on the 5th of May 1816. After
receiving his early education at Giggleswick school, of which his father
was head-master, he went to Trinity College, Cambridge, and there became
tutor successively to the marquis of Sligo and the marquis of Lorne. In
1845 Howson, having taken orders, accepted the post of senior classical
master at the Liverpool College under his friend W. J. Conybeare, whom
he succeeded as principal in 1849. This post he held until 1865, and it
was largely due to his influence that a similar college for girls was
established at Liverpool. In 1866 he left Liverpool for the vicarage of
Wisbech, and in 1867 he was appointed dean of Chester Cathedral, where
he gave himself vigorously to the work of restoring the crumbling
fabric, collecting nearly L100,000 in five years for this purpose. His
sympathies were with the evangelical party, and he stoutly opposed the
"Eastward position," but he was by no means narrow. He did much to
reintroduce the ministry of women as deaconesses. The building of the
King's School for boys, and the Queen's School for girls (both in
Chester), was due in a great measure to the active interest which he
took in educational matters. He died at Bournemouth on the 15th of
December 1885, and was buried in the cloister garth of Chester. Howson's
chief literary production was _The Life and Epistles of St Paul_ (1852)
in which he collaborated with Conybeare.
The book is still of interest, especially for its descriptive
passages, which were mostly done by Howson; but later researches (such
as those of Sir W. M. Ramsay) have made the geographical and
historical sections obsolete, and the same may be said of the
treatment of the Pauline theology.
HOWTH [pronounced _Hoth_], a seaside town of Co. Dublin, Ireland, on the
rocky hill of Howth, which forms the northern horn of Dublin Bay, 9 m.
N.E. by N. of Dublin by the Great Northern railway. Pop. (1901) 1166. It
is frequented by the residents of the capital as a watering-place. The
artificial harbour was formed (1807-1832) between the mainland and the
picturesque island of Ireland's Eye, and preceded Kingstown as the
station for the mail-packets from Great Britain, but was found after its
construction to be liable to silt, and is now chiefly used by
fishing-boats and yachts. The collegiate church, standing picturesquely
on a cliff above the sea, was founded about 1235, and has a monastic
building attached to it. The embattled castle contains the two-handed
sword of Sir Almeric Tristram, the Anglo-Norman conqueror of the hill of
Howth, and a portrait of Dean Swift holding one of the Drapier letters,
with Wood, the coiner against whom he directed these attacks, prostrate
before him. The view of Dublin Bay from the hill of Howth is of great
beauty. Howth is connected with the capital by electric tramway, besides
the railway, and another tramway encircles the hill.
HOXTER, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Westphalia,
prettily situated on the left bank of the Weser, and on the Prussian
state railways Borssum-Soest and Scherfede-Holzminden, 32 m. N. of
Cassel. Pop. (1905) 7699. It has a medieval town hall, and interesting
houses with high gables and wood-carved facades of the 15th and 16th
centuries. The most interesting of the churches is the Protestant church
of St Kilian, with a pulpit dating from 1595 and a font dating from
1631. There are a gymnasium, a school of architecture and a monument to
Hoffmann von Fallersleben in the town. The Weser is crossed here by a
stone bridge about 500 ft. in length, erected in 1833. On the Brunsberg
adjoining the town there is an old watch-tower, said to be the remains
of a fortress built by Bruno, brother of Widukind. Near Hoxter is the
castle, formerly the Benedictine monastery, of Corvey. The principal
manufactures of the town are linen, cotton, cement and gutta-percha, and
there is also a considerable shipping trade. Hoxter (Lat. _Huxaria_) in
the time of Charlemagne was a _villa regia_, and was the scene of a
battle between him and the Saxons. Under the protection of the monastery
of Corvey it gradually increased in prosperity, and became the chief
town of the principality of Corvey. Later it asserted its independence
and joined the Hanseatic League. It suffered severely during the Thirty
Years' War. After the peace of Westphalia in 1648 it was united to
Brunswick; in 1802 it was transferred to Nassau; and in 1807 to the
kingdom of Westphalia, after the dismemberment of which, in 1814, it
came into the possession of Prussia.
See Kampschulte, _Chronik der Stadt Hoxter_ (Hoxter, 1872).
HOY (Norse _Haey_, "high island"), the second largest island of the
Orkneys, county of Orkney, Scotland. Pop. (1901) 1216. It has an extreme
length from N.W. to S.E. of 13(1/3) m., its greatest breadth from E. to
W. is 8 m., and its area occupies 53 sq. m. It is situated 2 m. S.W. of
Pomona, from which it is separated by Hoy Sound. As seen from the west
it rises abruptly from the sea, presenting in this respect a marked
contrast to the rest of the isles of the Orcadian group, which as a
whole are low-lying. Its eastern and southern shores are indented by
numerous bays, one of which, Long Hope, forms a natural harbour 4 m.
long, with a breadth varying from 1/4 m. to more than 1 m., affording to
any number of vessels a haven of refuge from the roughest weather of the
Pentland Firth. Off the eastern coast lie the islands of Graemsay, Cava,
Risa, Fara, Flotta and Switha, while the peninsula of South Walls,
forming the southern side of the harbour of Long Hope, is an island in
all but name. Red and yellow sandstone cliffs, sometimes over 1000 ft.
in height, stretch for 10 to 12 m. on the Atlantic front. The detached
pillar or stack called the Old Man of Hoy (450 ft.) is a well-known
landmark to sailors. The only break in this remarkable run of rocky
coast is at Rackwick in the bight below the head of Rora. In the
interior, Ward Hill (1564 ft.) is the loftiest summit in either the
Orkneys or Shetlands. In the valley between Ward Hill and the ridge of
the Hamars to the south-east is situated the famous Dwarfie Stone, an
enormous block of sandstone measuring 28 ft. long, from 11 ft. to 14(1/2)
ft. broad, and 6(1/2) ft. high at one end and 2 ft. high at the other, in
which two rooms have been artificially hollowed out, traditionally
believed to be the bed-chambers of Trolld, the dwarf of the sagas, and
his wife. A boulder lying at the narrow end was supposed to be used to
close the entrance. The generally accepted theory is that it was a pagan
altar which some hermit afterwards converted into a cell. Other hills in
the island are the Cuilags (1420 ft.) and the Knap of Trewieglen (1308
ft.), besides several peaks exceeding 1000 ft. in height. Hoy is
commonly approached from Stromness, there being piers at Linksness, the
nearest point to Graemsay, and at Hackness, South Ness and North Bay,
the last three all on the harbour of Long Hope.
HOYLAKE, a watering-place in the Wirral parliamentary division of
Cheshire, England, 8 m. W. of Birkenhead, on the Wirral railway. With
West Kirby to the south, at the mouth of the estuary of the Dee, it
forms the urban district of Hoylake and West Kirby. Pop. (1901) 10,911.
The well-known links of the Royal Liverpool Golf Club are at Hoylake.
The town has a considerable population of fishermen.
HOYLAND NETHER, an urban district in the Hallamshire parliamentary
division of the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, 5(1/2) m. S.S.E. of
Barnsley, on the Midland railway. Collieries and brickworks employ the
large industrial population. Pop. (1901) 12,464.