Quebec (63), the capital of the above province, and once of all Canada, a city of historical interest, is situated on the steep promontory, 333 feet in height, of the NW. bank of the St. Lawrence, at the mouth of the St. Charles River, 300 m. from the sea, and 180 m. below Montreal; it is divided into Upper and Lower, the latter the business quarter and the former the west-end, as it were; there are numerous public buildings, including the governor's residence, an Anglican cathedral, and a university; it is a commercial centre, has a large trade in timber, besides several manufacturing industries; the aspect of the town is Norman-French, and there is much about it and the people to remind one of Normandy.
Quedlinburg (19), an old town of Prussian Saxony, on the river Bode, at the foot of the Harz Mountains, 32 m. SW. of Magdeburg, founded by Henry the Fowler, and where his remains lie; was long a favourite residence of the emperors of the Saxon line; it has large nurseries, an extensive trade in flower seeds, and sundry manufactures.
Queen Anne's Bounty, a fund established in 1704 for the augmentation of the incomes of the poorer clergy, the amount of which for distribution in 1890 was £176,896; it was the revenue from a tax on the Church prior to the Reformation, and which after that was appropriated by the Crown.
Queen Charlotte Islands, a small group of islands on the W. coast of North America, N. of Vancouver's Island, 80 m. off the coast of British Columbia, a half-submerged mountain range, densely wooded, with peaks that rise sheer up 2000 ft.
Queenborough, a town on the Isle of Sheppey, 2 m. S. of Sheerness, between which and Flushing, in Holland, a line of steamers plies daily.
Queen's College, a college for women in Harley Street, London, founded in 1848, and incorporated by Royal Charter in 1853, of which Maurice, Trench, and Kingsley were among the originators; attendance of three years entitles to the rank of "Associate," and of six or more to that of "Fellow"; it is self-supporting.
Queen's Colleges, colleges established in Ireland in 1845 to afford a university education to members of all religious denominations, and opened at Belfast, Cork, and Galway in 1849, the first having 23 professors, with 343 students; the second 23 professors, with 181 students; and the third 37 professors, with 91 students. There is also a Queen's College in Melbourne.
Queen's County (6), one of the inland counties of Leinster, in Ireland, N. of King's County, mostly flat; agriculture and dairy-farming are carried on, with a little woollen and cotton-weaving; population mostly Roman Catholics.
Queen's Metal, an alloy of nine parts tin and one each of antimony, lead, and bismuth, is intermediate in hardness between pewter and britannia metal.
Queensland, a British colony occupying the NE. of Australia, 1300 m. from N. to S. and 800 m. from E. to W., two-thirds of it within the tropics, and occupying an area three times as large as that of France. Mountains stretch away N. parallel to the coast, and much of the centre is tableland; one-half of it is covered with forests, and it is fairly well watered, the rivers being numerous, and the chief the Fitzroy and the Burdekin. The population is only half a million, and the chief towns are Brisbane, the capital, Gympie, Maryborough, Rockhampton, and Townsville. The pastoral industry is very large, and there is considerable mining for gold. The mineral resources are great, and a coal-field still to be worked exists in it as large as the whole of Scotland. Maize and sugar are the principal products of the soil, and wool, gold, and sugar are the principal exports; the colony is capable of immense developments. Until 1859 the territory was administered by New South Wales, but in that year it became an independent colony, with a government of its own under a Governor appointed by the Crown; the Parliament consists of two Houses, a Legislative Council of 41 members, nominated by the Governor, and the Legislative Assembly of 72 members, elected for three years by manhood suffrage.
Queenstown, a seaport, formerly called the Cove of Cork, on the S. shore of Great Island, and 14 m. SE. of Cork; a port of call for the Atlantic line of steamers, specially important for the receipt and landing of the mails.
Quelpart (10), an island 52 m. S. of the Corea, 40 m. long by 17 broad, surrounded with small islets in situation to the Corea as Sicily to Italy.
Quercitron, a yellow dye obtained from the bark of a North American oak.
Querétaro (36), a high-lying Mexican town in a province of the same name, 150 m. NW. of Mexico; has large cotton-spinning mills; here the Emperor Maximilian was shot by order of court-martial in 1867.
Quern, a handmill of stone for grinding corn, of primitive contrivance, and still used in remote parts of Ireland and Scotland.
Quesnay, François, a great French economist, born at Mérez (Seine-et-Oise), bred to the medical profession, and eminent as a medical practitioner, was consulting physician to Louis XV., but distinguished for his articles in the "Encyclopédie" on political economy, and as the founder of the Physiocratic School (q. v.), the school which attaches special importance in State economy to agriculture (1694-1774).
Quesnel, Pasquier, a French Jansenist theologian, born in Paris; was the author of a great many works, but the most celebrated is his "Reflexions Morales"; was educated at the Sorbonne, and became head of the congregation of the Oratory in Paris, but was obliged to seek refuge in Holland with Arnauld on embracing Jansenism; his views exposed him to severe persecution at the hands of the Jesuits, and his "Reflexions" were condemned in 101 propositions by the celebrated bull Unigenitus; spent his last years at Amsterdam, and died there (1634-1719).
Quételet, Adolphe, Belgian astronomer and statistician, born at Ghent; wrote on meteorology and anthropology, in the light especially of statistics (1796-1874).
Quetta, a strongly fortified town in the N. of Beluchistan, commanding the Bolan Pass, and occupied by a British garrison. It is also a health resort from the temperate climate it enjoys.
Queues, Bakers', "long strings of purchasers arranged in tail at the bakers' shop doors in Paris during the Revolution period, so that first come be first served, were the shops once open," and that came to be a Parisian institution.
Quevedo y Villegas, Francisco Gomez de, a Spanish poet, born at Madrid, of an old illustrious family; left an orphan at an early age, and educated at Alcalá, the university of which he left with a great name for scholarship; served as diplomatist and administrator in Sicily under the Duke of Ossuna, the viceroy, and returned to the Court of Philip IV. in Spain at his death; struggled hard to purify the corrupt system of appointments to office in the State then prevailing but was seized and thrown into confinement, from which, after four years, he was released, broken in health; he wrote much in verse, but only for his own solace and in communication with his friends, and still more in prose on a variety of themes, he being a writer of the most versatile ability, of great range and attainment (1580-1645).
Quibéron, a small fishing village on a peninsula of the name, stretching southward from Morbihan, France, near which Hawke defeated a French fleet in 1759, and where a body of French emigrants attempted to land in 1795 in order to raise an insurrection, but were defeated by General Hoche.
Quichuas, a civilised people who flourished at one time in Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia, and spoke a highly-cultivated language called Quichua after them.
Quick, Robert Hebert, English educationist; wrote "Essays on Educational Reformers"; was in holy orders (1832-1891).
Quicksand, sandbank so saturated with water that it gives way under pressure; found near the mouths of rivers.
Quietism, the name given to a mystical religious turn of mind which seeks to attain spiritual illumination and perfection by maintaining a purely passive and susceptive attitude to Divine communication and revelation, shutting out all consciousness of self and all sense of external things, and independently of the observance of the practical virtues. The high-priest of Quietism was the Spanish priest Molinos (q. v.), and his chief disciple in France was Madame de Guyon, who infected the mind of the saintly Fénélon. The appearance of it in France, and especially Fénélon's partiality to it, awoke the hostility of Bossuet, who roused the Church against it, as calculated to have an injurious effect on the interests of practical morality; indeed the hostility became so pronounced that Fénélon was forced to retract, to the gradual dying out of the fanaticism.
Quilimane (6), a seaport of East Africa, on the Mozambique Channel, in a district subject to Portugal; stands 15 m. from the mouth of a river of the name.
Quilon, a trading town on the W. coast of Travancore, 85 m. N. of Comorin.
Quimper (17), a French town 63 m. SE. of Brest, with a much admired cathedral; has sundry manufactures, and a fishing industry.
Quin, James, a celebrated actor, born in London; was celebrated for his representation of Falstaff, and was the first actor of the day till the appearance of Garrick in 1741 (1693-1766).
Quinault, French poet; his first performances procured for him the censure of Boileau, but his operas, for which Luini composed the music, earned for him a good standing among lyric poets (1635-1688).
Quincey, De. See De Quincey.
Quincy (31), a city in Illinois, U.S., on the Mississippi, 160 m. above St. Louis; a handsome city, with a large trade and extensive factories; is a great railway centre.
Quincy, Josiah, American statesman, born at Boston; was bred to the bar, and entered Congress in 1804, where he distinguished himself by his oratory as leader of the Federal party, as the sworn foe of slave-holding, and as an opponent of the admission of the Western States into the Union; in 1812 he retired from Congress, gave himself for a time to purely local affairs in Massachusetts, and at length to literary labours, editing his speeches for one thing, without ceasing to interest himself in the anti-slavery movement (1772-1864).
Quinet, Edgar, a French man of letters, born at Bourg, in the department of Ain; was educated at Bourg and Lyons, went to Paris in 1820, and in 1823 produced a satire called "Les Tablettes du Juif-Errant," at which time he came under the influence of Herder (q. v.) and executed in French a translation of his "Philosophy of Humanity," prefaced with an introduction which procured him the friendship of Michelet, a friendship which lasted with life; appointed to a post in Greece, he collected materials for a work on Modern Greece, and this, the first fruit of his own view of things as a speculative Radical, he published in 1830; he now entered the service of the Revue des Deux Mondes, and in the pages of it his prose poem "Ahasuérus" appeared, which was afterwards published in a book form and soon found a place in the "Index Expurgatorius" of the Church; this was followed by other democratic poems, "Napoleon" in 1835 and "Prometheus" in 1838; from 1838 to 1842 he occupied the chair of Foreign Literature in Lyons, and passed from it to that of the Literature of Southern Europe in the College of France; here, along with Michelet, he commenced a vehement crusade against the clerical party, which was brought to a head by his attack on the Jesuits, and which led to his suspension from the duties of the chair in 1846; he distrusted Louis Napoleon, and was exiled in 1852, taking up his abode at Brussels, to return to Paris again only after the Emperor's fall; through all these troubles he was busy with his pen, in 1838 published his "Examen de la Vie de Jésus," his "Du Genie des Religions," "La Révolution Religieuse au xixe Siècle," and other works; he was a disciple of Herder to the last; he believed in humanity, and religion as the soul of it (1803-1875).
Quinine, an alkaloid obtained from the bark of several species of the cinchona tree and others, and which is employed in medicine specially as a ferbrifuge and a tonic.
Quinisext, an ecclesiastical council held at Constantinople in 692, composed chiefly of Eastern bishops, and not reckoned among the councils of the Western Church.
Quinquagesima Sunday, the Sunday before the beginning of Lent.
Quinsy, inflammation of the tonsils of the throat.
Quintana, Manuel José, a Spanish lyric and dramatic poet, born in Madrid; was for a time the champion of liberal ideas in politics, which he ceased to advocate before he died; is celebrated as the author of a classic work, being "Lives of Celebrated Spaniards" (1772-1857).
Quintette, a musical composition in obligato parts for five voices or five instruments.
Quintilian, Marcus Fabius, celebrated Latin rhetorician, born in Spain; went to Rome in the train of Galba, and began to practise at the bar, but achieved his fame more as teacher in rhetoric than a practitioner at the bar, a function he discharged with brilliant success for 20 years under the patronage and favour of the Emperor Vespasian in particular, being invested by him in consequence with the insignia and title of consul; with posterity his fame rests on his "Institutes," a great work, being a complete system of rhetoric in 12 books; he commenced it in the reign of Domitian after his retirement from his duties as a public instructor, and it occupied him two years; it is a wise book, ably written, and fraught with manifold instruction to all whose chosen profession it is to persuade men (35-92).
Quipo, knotted cords of different colours used by the ancient Mexicans and Peruvians for conveying orders or recording events.
Quirinal, one of the seven hills on which Rome was built, N. of the Palatine, and one of the oldest quarters of the city.
Quirites, the name the citizens of Rome assumed in their civic capacity.
Quito (80), the capital of Ecuador, situated at an elevation of nearly 9000 ft. above the sea-level, and cut up with ravines; stands in a region of perpetual spring and amid picturesque surroundings, the air clear and the sky a dark deep blue. The chief buildings are of stone, but all the ordinary dwellings are of sun-dried brick and without chimneys. It is in the heart of a volcanic region, and is subject to frequent earthquakes, in one of which, in 1797, 40,000 of the inhabitants perished. The population consists chiefly of Indians, whose religious interests must be well cared for, for there are no fewer than 400 priests to watch over their spiritual welfare.
Quito, Cordillera of, a chain of mountains, the chief of them volcanic, in Ecuador, containing the loftiest peaks of the Andes, and including among them Antisana, Cotopaxi, and Chimborazo.
Quit-rent, a rent the payment of which frees the tenant of a holding from other services such as were obligatory under feudal tenure.
Quorra, the name given to the middle and lower course of the Niger.
Quorum, the number of the members of a governing body required by law to give legality to any transaction in the name of it.
R
Raab (20), a town in Hungary, 67 m. NW. of Buda Pesth, manufactures tobacco and cutlery.
Raasay, one of the Inner Hebrides, belonging to Inverness-shire, lies between Skye and Ross-shire; bare on the W., picturesque on the E.; has interesting ruins of Brochel Castle.
Rabant de St. Étienne, a moderate French Revolutionary; member of the Constituent Assembly; one of the Girondists; opposed the extreme party, and concealed himself between two walls he had built in his brother's house; was discovered, and doomed to the guillotine, as were also those who protected him (1743-1793).
Rabat (26), known also as New Sallee, a declining port in Morocco, finely situated on elevated ground overlooking the mouth of the Bu-Ragrag River, 115 m. SE. of Fez; is surrounded by walls, and has a commanding citadel, a noted tower, interesting ruins, &c.; manufactures carpets, mats, &c., and exports olive-oil, grain, wool, &c.
Rabbi (lit. my master), an appellation of honour applied to a teacher of the Law among the Jews, in frequent use among them in the days of Christ, who was frequently saluted by this title.
Rabbism, the name applied in modern times to the principles and methods of the Jewish Rabbis, particularly in the interpretation of the Jewish Scriptures.
Rabelais, François, great French humorist, born at Chinon, the son of a poor apothecary; was sent to a convent at nine; became a Franciscan monk; read and studied a great deal, but, sick of convent life, ran away at forty years of age; went to Montpellier, and studied medicine, and for a time practised it, particularly at Lyons; here he commenced the series of writings that have immortalised his name, his "Gargantua" and "Pantagruel," which he finished as curé of Meudon, forming a succession of satires in a vein of riotous mirth on monks, priests, pedants, and all the incarnate solecisms of the time, yet with all their licentiousness revealing a heart in love with mankind, and a passionate desire for the establishment of truth and justice among men (1495-1553).
Races of Mankind. These have been divided into five, the Caucasian (q. v.) or Indo-European, the Mongolian or Yellow, the Negro or Black, the Malayan or Tawny, and the India or Copper-coloured.
Rachel, Eliza, a great French tragédienne, born in Switzerland, of Jewish parents; made her début in Paris in 1838, and soon became famous as the interpreter of the principal characters in the masterpieces of Racine and Corneille, her crowning triumph being the representation, in 1843, of Phèdre in the tragedy of Racine; she made a great impression wherever she appeared, realised a large fortune, and died of decline (1821-1858).
Racine (21), a flourishing city of Wisconsin, U.S.A., capital of Racine County, at the entrance of Root River into Lake Michigan, 62 m. N. of Chicago; has an Episcopal university: trades in lumber, flax, and the products of various factories.
Racine, Jean, great French tragic poet, born at La Ferté Milon, in the dep. of Aisne; was educated at Beauvais and the Port Royal; in 1663 settled in Paris, gained the favour of Louis XIV. and the friendship of Boileau, La Fontaine, and Molière, though he quarrelled with the latter, and finally lost favour with the king, which he never recovered, and which hastened his death; he raised the French language to the highest pitch of perfection in his tragedies, of which the chief are "Andromaque" (1667), "Britannicus" (1669), "Mithridate" (1673), "Iphigénie" (1774), "Phèdre" (1677), "Esther" (1688), and "Athalie" (1691), as well as an exquisite comedy entitled "Les Plaideurs" (1669); when Voltaire was asked to write a commentary on Racine, his answer was, "One had only to write at the foot of each page, beau, pathétique, harmonieux, admirable, sublime" (1639-1699).
Rack, an instrument of torture; consisted of an oblong wooden frame, fitted with cords and levers, by means of which the victim's limbs were racked to the point of dislocation; dates back to Roman times, and was used against the early Christians; much resorted to by the Spanish Inquisition, and also at times by the Tudor monarchs of England, though subsequently prohibited by law in England.
Radcliffe (20), a prosperous town of Lancashire, on the Irwell, 7 m. NW. of Manchester; manufactures cotton, calico, and paper; has bleaching and dye works, and good coal-mines.
Radcliffe, Mrs. Ann, née Ward, English novelist, born in London; wrote a series of popular works which abound in weird tales and scenes of old castles and gloomy forests, and of which the best known is the "Mysteries of Udolpho" (1764-1823).
Radcliffe, John, physician, born at Wakefield, studied at Oxford; commenced practice in London; by his art and professional skill rose to eminence; attended King William and Queen Mary; summoned to attend Queen Anne but did not, pleading illness, and on the queen's death was obliged to disappear from London; left £40,000 to found a public library in the University of Oxford (1650-1714).
Radetzky, Johann, Count von, Austrian field-marshal, born in Bohemia; entered the Austrian army in 1784; distinguished himself in the war with Turkey in 1788-89, and in all the wars of Austria with France; checked the Revolution in Lombardy in 1848; defeated and almost annihilated the Piedmontese army under Charles Albert in 1849, and compelled Venice to capitulate in the same year, after which he was appointed Governor of Lombardy (1766-1858).
Radicals, a class of English politicians who, at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th, aimed at the political emancipation of the mass of the people by giving them a share in the election of parliamentary representatives. Their Radicalism went no farther than that, and on principle could not go farther.
Radnorshire (22), the least populous of the Welsh counties; lies on the English border between Montgomery (N.) and Brecknock (S.); has a wild and dreary surface, mountainous and woody. Radnor Forest covers an elevated heathy tract in the E.; is watered by the Wye and the Teme. The soil does not favour agriculture, and stock-raising is the chief industry. Contains some excellent spas, that at Llandrindod the most popular. County town, Presteign.
Radowitz, Joseph von, Prussian statesman; entered the army as an artillery officer, rose to be chief of the artillery staff; by marriage became connected with the aristocracy; at length head of the Anti-Revolutionary party in the State, and the political adviser of William IV., in which capacity he endeavoured to effect a reform of the German Diet, and to give a political constitution to Germany (1797-1853).
Rae, John, Arctic voyager, born in Orkney, studied medicine in Edinburgh; first visited the Arctic regions as a surgeon; was engaged in three expeditions to these regions, of which he published reports; was made a LL.D. of Edinburgh University on the occasion of Carlyle's installation as Lord Rector (1813-1893).
Raeburn, Sir Henry, portrait-painter, born at Stockbridge, Edinburgh; was educated at George Heriot's Hospital; apprenticed to a goldsmith in the city, and gave early promise of his abilities as an artist; went to Italy; was introduced to Reynolds by the way, and after two years' absence settled in Edinburgh, and became famous as one of the greatest painters of the day; the portraits he painted included likenesses of all the distinguished Scotsmen of the period, at the head of them Sir Walter Scott; was knighted by George IV. a short time before his death (1756-1823).
Raff, Joachim, musical composer of the Wagner School, born at Lachen, in Switzerland; began life as a schoolmaster; was attracted to music; studied at Weimar; lived near Liszt, and became Director of the Conservatorium at Frankfort-on-Main; his works include symphonies, overtures, with pieces for the violin and the piano (1822-1882).
Raffles, Sir Thomas Stamford, English administrator, born in Jamaica; entered the East India Company's service, and rose in it; became Governor of Java, and wrote a history of it; held afterwards an important post in Sumatra, and formed a settlement at Singapore; returned to England with a rich collection of natural objects and documents, but lost most of them by the ship taking fire (1781-1826).
Rafn, Karl Christian, Danish archæologist, born in Fünen; devoted his life to the study of northern antiquities; edited numerous Norse MSS.; executed translations of Norse literature; wrote original treatises in the same interest, and by his researches established the fact of the discovery of America by the Norsemen in the 10th century (1796-1864).
Ragged Schools, a name given to the charity schools which provide education and, in most cases, food, clothing, and lodging for destitute children; they receive no Government support. The movement had its beginning in the magnanimous efforts of John Pounds (d. 1839), a shoemaker of Portsmouth; but the zeal and eloquence of Dr. Guthrie (q. v.) of Edinburgh greatly furthered the development and spread of these schools throughout the kingdom.
Raglan, Fitzroy Somerset, Lord, youngest son of the Duke of Beaufort; entered the army at sixteen; served with distinction all through the Peninsular War; became aide-de-camp to the Duke of Wellington, and his military secretary; lost his right arm at Waterloo; did diplomatic service at Paris in 1815, and held afterwards a succession of important military posts; was appointed commander-in-chief of the British forces in the Crimea, and was present at all the engagements till attacked by cholera, aggravated by a repulse and unjust reflections on his conduct of the war, he sank exhausted and died (1788-1855).
Ragman Roll, the name given to a record of the acts of fealty and homage done by the Scottish nobility and gentry in 1296 to Edward I. of England, and of value for the list it supplies of the nobles, gentry, burgesses, and clergy of the country at that period. The original written rolls of parchment have perished, but an abridged form is extant, and preserved in the Tower of London.
Ragnarök, in the Norse mythology the twilight of the gods, when it was predicted "the Divine powers and the chaotic brute ones, after long contest and partial victory by the former, should meet at last in universal, world-embracing wrestle and duel, strength against strength, mutually extinctive, and ruin, 'twilight' sinking into darkness, shall swallow up the whole created universe, the old universe of the Norse gods"; in which catastrophe Vidar and another are to be spared to found a new heaven and a new earth, the sovereign of which shall be Justice. "Insight this," says Carlyle, "of how, though all dies, and even gods die, yet all death is but a Phoenix fire-death, and new birth into the greater and the better as the fundamental law of being."
Ragusa, a decayed Austrian city on the Dalmatian coast, fronting the Adriatic; has interesting remains of its ancient greatness, and still contains several fine monastic and other buildings.
Rahel, wife of Varnhagen von Ense, born in Berlin, of Jewish parentage; was a woman of "rare gifts, worth, and true genius, and equal to the highest thoughts of her century," and lived in intimate relation with all the intellectual lights of Germany at the time; worshipped at the shrine of Goethe, and was the foster-mother of German genius generally in her day; she did nothing of a literary kind herself; all that remains of her gifts in that line are her Letters, published by her husband on her death, which letters, however, are intensively subjective, and reveal the state rather of her feelings than the thoughts of her mind (1771-1833).
Raikes, Robert, the founder of Sunday Schools, born in Gloucester; by profession a printer; lived to see his pet institution established far and wide over England; left a fortune for benevolent objects (1735-1811).
Railway King, name given by Sydney Smith to George Hudson (q. v.), the great railway speculator, who is said to have one day in the course of his speculations realised as much in scrip as £100,000.
Rainy, Robert, eminent Scottish ecclesiastic, born in Glasgow; professor of Church History and Principal in the Free Church College, Edinburgh; an able man, a sagacious and an earnest, a distinguished leader of the Free Church; forced into that position more by circumstances, it is believed, than by natural inclination, and in that situation some think more a loss than a gain to the Church catholic, to which in heart and as a scholar he belongs; b. 1826.
Rajah, a title which originally belonged to princes of the Hindu race, who exercised sovereign rights over some tract of territory; now applied loosely to native princes or nobles with or without territorial lordship.
Rajmahal (4), an interesting old Indian town, crowns an elevated site on the Ganges, 170 m. NW. of Calcutta; has ruins of several palaces.
Rajon, Paul Adolphe, French etcher, born at Dijon; made his mark in 1866 with his "Rembrandt at Work"; carried off medals at the Salon; visited England in 1872, and executed notable etchings of portraits of J.S. Mill, Darwin, Tennyson, &c. (1842-1888).
Rajput, a name given to a Hindu of royal descent or of the high military caste. See Caste.
Rajputana (12,016), an extensive tract of country in the NW. of India, S. of the Punjab, embracing some twenty native States and the British district, Ajmere-Merwara. The Aravalli Hills traverse the S., while the Thar or Great Indian Desert occupies the N. and W. Jodhpur is the largest of the native territories, and the Rajputs, a proud and warlike people are the dominant race in many of the States.
Rakoczy March, the national anthem of the Hungarians, composed about the end of the 17th century by an unknown composer, and said to have been the favourite march of Francis Rakoczy II. of Transylvania.
Rakshasas, in the Hindu mythology a species of evil spirits, akin to ogres.
Raleigh, Sir Walter, courtier, soldier, and man of letters, born near Budleigh, in E. Devon, of ancient family; entered as student at Oxford, but at 17 joined a small volunteer force in aid of the Protestants in France; in 1580 distinguished himself in suppressing a rebellion in Ireland; was in 1582 introduced at court, fascinated the heart of the Queen by his handsome presence and his gallant bearing, and received no end of favours at her hand; joined his half-brother, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, in an expedition to North America, founded a colony, which he called Virginia in honour of the queen, and brought home with him the potato and the tobacco plants, till then unknown in this country; rendered distinguished services in the destruction of the Armada; visited and explored Guiana, and brought back tidings of its wealth in gold and precious things; fell into disfavour with the queen, but regained her esteem; under King James he became suspected of disloyalty, and was committed to the Tower, where he remained 12 years, and wrote his "History of the World"; on his release, but without a pardon, he set out to the Orinoco in quest of gold-mines there, but returned heart-broken and to be sentenced to die; he met his fate with calm courage, and was beheaded in the Old Palace Yard; of the executioner's axe he smilingly remarked, "A sharp medicine, but an infallible cure" (1552-1618).
Ralston, William Shedden, a noted Russian scholar and translator, born in London; studied at Cambridge, and in 1862 was called to the bar, but never practised; assistant in the British Museum library till 1875; visited Russia; his works embrace "Songs of the Russian People," "Russian Folk-Tales," &c. (1828-1889).
Râma, in the Hindu mythology an avatar of Vishnu, being the seventh, in the character of a hero, a destroyer of monsters and a bringer of joy, as the name signifies, the narrative of whose exploits are given in the "Râmâyana" (q. v.).
Ramadan, the ninth month of the Mohammedan year, a kind of Lent, held sacred as a month of fasting by all Moslems, being the month in the life of Mahomet when, as he spent it alone in meditation and prayer, his eyes were opened to see, through the shows of things, into the one eternal Reality, the greatness and absolute sovereignty of Allah.
Râmâyana, one of the two great epic poems, and the best, of the Hindus, celebrating the life and exploits of Râma, "a work of art in which an elevated religious and moral spirit is allied with much poetic fiction, ... written in accents of an ardent charity, of a compassion, a tenderness, and a humility at once sweet and plaintive, which ever and anon suggest Christian influences."
Rambler, a periodical containing essays by Johnson in the Spectator vein, issued in 1750-52, but written in that "stiff and cumbrous style which," as Professor Saintsbury remarks, "has been rather unjustly identified with Johnson's manner of writing generally."
Rambouillet, Marquise de, a lady of wealth and a lover of literature and art, born in Rome, who settled in Paris, and conceiving the idea of forming a society of her own, gathered together into her salon a select circle of intellectual people, which, degenerating into pedantry, became an object of general ridicule, and was dissolved at her death (1588-1665).
Rameau, Jean Philippe, French composer, born at Dijon; wrote on harmony, and, settling in Paris, composed operas, his first "Hippolyte et Aricie," and his best "Castor et Pollux" (1683-1764).
Rameses, the name of several ancient kings of Egypt, of which the most famous are R. II., who erected a number of monuments in token of his greatness, and at whose court Moses was brought up; and R. III., the first king of the twentieth dynasty, under whose successors the power of Egypt fell into decay.
Ramillies, Belgian village in Brabant, 14 m. N. of Namur; scene of Marlborough's victory over the French under Villeroy in 1706.
Rammohun Roy, a Brahman, founder of the Brahmo-Somaj, born at Burdwân, Lower Bengal; by study of the theology of the West was led to embrace deism, and tried to persuade his countrymen to accept the same faith, by proofs which he advanced to show that it was the doctrine of their own sacred books, in particular the Upanishads; with this view he translated and published a number of texts from them in vindication of his contention, as well as expounded his own conviction in original treatises; in doing so he naturally became an object of attack, and was put on his defence, which he conducted in a succession of writings that remain models of controversial literature; died in Bristol (1772-1833).
Ramsay, Allan, Scottish poet, born in Crawford, Lanarkshire; bred a wig-maker; took to bookselling, and published his own poems, "The Gentle Shepherd," a pastoral, among the number, a piece which describes and depicts manners very charmingly (1686-1758).