RIFLED ARMS. were used, and they set themselves to discover how they might be counteracted. It occurred to them that this could best be managed by securing that the plane of rotation of the ball should be at right angles to its motion of translation, as the irregularities in its structure, which produce aberrations of the first and second kind, would thus act equally in all directions, producing an exact counterbalance, while the aberration from the ball's rotation would wholly disappear; and the constancy of the vertical transverse position of the plane of the ball's rotation was obtained by making one or more spiral grooves along the interior of the barrel. As early as 1498, the citizens of Leipzig possessed the germ of the future rifle, for their arms had a grooved bore, but the grooves were straight. Not many years after, in 1520, Augustin Kutter (or Koster) of Nürnberg was celebrated for his rose or star-grooved barrels, in which the grooves had a spiral form. It took its name from the rose-like shape of the bore at the muzzle; and, setting aside superiority of workmanship subsequently developed, Kutter's arm was the veritable rifle, and to him, therefore, so far as history shews, is due the invention of this terrible weapon, which reduces the flight of the projectile to a question of the individual skill of the marksman. The spiral groove gives to the bullet, if it fits into the grooves, a rotation rapid in proportion to the force of the explosion and the sharpness of the twist in the spiral. This revolution of the bullet on its own axis keeps that axis, gravity excepted, in the line in which it leaves the piece. In 1628, Arnold Rotsiphen patented a new way of 'makeing gonnes,' which, from a subsequent patent granted him in 1635, appears to have consisted, among other improvements, in rifling the barrels. It would be tedious to enumerate the various principles of rifling which were tried during the two centuries following Rotsiphen-suffice it to say, that scarcely a form of rifling now prevails but had its prototype among the old inventions. The difficulty of mechanical appliances making the rifling true, deferred, however, their general introduction, and the cost of rifled arms limited their use to the purposes of the chase. The revolutionary government of France had rifles issued to portions of their troops, but they met with so indifferent a success that Napoleon recalled them soon after he came to power. In the Peninsula, however, picked companies of sharpshooters practised with rifles with deadly effect on both the English and French sides. During the American war, 1812-1814, the Americans demonstrated incontestably the value of rifles in warfare; but many years were yet to elapse before they were definitively placed in the hands of soldiers, many of those of every nation in the Crimea having fought with the ineffective and almost ridiculous 'Brown Bess.' Soon after the French invaded Algeria, they had armed the Chasseurs d'Orleans with rifles, to counteract the superior range of the Arab guns. The inutility of the old musket was shewn in a battle during the Kaffir war, where our men discharged 80,000 cartridges, and the loss of the enemy was 25 men struck. After experiments with the old musket, it was found that its aim had no certainty whatever beyond 100 yards. It was soon discovered that a spherical ball was not the best missile; one in which the longer axis coincided with the axis of the gun flying truer the relative length of the axis and the shape of the head being matters of dispute. The first war-rifle was that of Captain Delvigne, proposed in 1826, and adopted for a few men in the French army; but this still included the old and rude plan of forcing the leaden ball through the grooves by blows of the ramrod, it being of Fig. 2.-Minié Bullet. course requisite that the projectile should occupy the grooves tightly. In 1842, Colonel Thouvenin invented a carabine à tige, in which the breech had a small pillar screwed into it, round which the powder lay, and on the end of which the bullet rested, its base being flattened out by the force of the ramrod. Colonel Delvigne added a conical bullet to this rifle, and the combined invention was issued to the Chasseurs d'Afrique in 1846. But the tige, or pillar, became bent by usage, and was found otherwise objectionable. It was superseded by using with a grooved barrel the Minié bullet, which, being made smaller than the bore of the piece, could be almost dropped into the barrel. It was of lead, and in its base it contained a conical recess, to receive the apex of a smaller iron cup (A). The force of the explosion drove this cup into the bullet, causing the lead to expand into the grooves of the barrel. (It is right, however, to state that this contrivance is claimed for a Mr Greener as early as 1836.) The Prussians, meanwhile, had armed their troops with the needle-rifle (Zündnadelgewehr), which is still in use. In England, however, no improvement took place until 1851, when 28,000 rifled muskets to fire the Minié bullet were ordered to be issued. Notwithstanding the many advantages of the Minié system, it was found defective in practice. The rifle fouled quickly, and sometimes the iron cup went beyond expanding the lead, by being driven completely through it, leaving the bullet a mere distorted tube, which sometimes remained firmly fixed in the barrel. Experiments were set on foot in all directions, and resulted in 1853 in the production of the Enfield rifle, which had three grooves, taking one complete turn in 78 inches, and fired a bullet resembling the Minié, except that a wooden cup was substituted for one of iron. This rifle Fig. 3.-Section of the is stronger than its predecessor, while its weight with 60 cartridges is 3 lbs. less, a matter of no small moment to the soldier. Its diameter is 577 of an inch, its bullet weighs 530 grains, and ranges with great accuracy for 800 yards, and fairly up to 1100. Since 1853, this has been the weapon of the British army; and although beaten in execution by the Whitworth, Lancaster, and some other rifles, it is incontestably the best for precision of fire with which any army has to this time been equipped; but its system of rifling is only the system long in use. The vast manufactory at Enfield (see SMALL ARMS FACTORY) enables many thousand rifles to be turned out annually, so exactly made in all their parts as to be absolutely interchangeable. As, however, the results were not entirely satisfactory, government confided to Mr Whitworth, a very celebrated mechanician, the task of arriving, by inductive reasoning, at the best form of rifling. After protracted and most careful experiments, he concluded to dispense entirely with the old grooves and lands, and substituting for this a polygonal bore, with a twist towards the muzzle. He selected the hexagon as the most suitable polygon, and reduced the bore to 451; used a projectile fitting mechanically to the bore; took one turn for his spiral in 20 inches; and, as a result, reduced the height of the trajectory to 8 feet a Enfield Rifle. a, groove; b, land. RIFLED ARMS-RIFLEMEN. instead of 11 in the Enfield, while he obtained a steady and accurate flight of 2000 yards and upwards. Mr Lancaster, by other reasoning, had previously abandoned grooves for a uniform elliptical bore with a spiral (see LANCASTER RIFLE). Various other systems have from time to time been proposed by Mr Westley Richards, Mr Terry, and other eminent gunmakers; but the Enfield grooves, the Whitworth polygon, and the Lancaster ellipse, will probably remain the representative guns of the different classes, and between them the ultimate victory will probably lie. canister, which would destroy the grooves. In the Whitworth, the shot is constructed to pass freely through the spiral hexagonal bore, windage being O ARMSTRONG. WHITWORTH LANCASTER. Fig. 4. the principle.) FRENCH. prevented by a greased wad, which is said to foul the piece considerably. Lancaster's shot are elliptical, to correspond with the bore; they are simple and accurate; but there is some danger that they will jam in the gun, and cause it to burst. The French projectiles have ribs of projecting metal to corre spond to the grooves, and are very effective, the system having the concomitant advantage of being able to fire ordinary shot without material injury to the gun. To sum up: the Armstrong gun is the most accurate, that and the Whitworth have the longest range, each having attained 53 miles; the Lancaster fouls least; the French is simplest, and can fire ordinary cannon-balls, canister, or case. As with small-arms, so with cannon, rifling is no new discovery. In the Museum at St Petersburg is a cannon which was rifled in nine grooves as early as 1615. In 1661, the Prussians experimented with a gun rifled in 13 shallow grooves. By 1696, the Germans had tried elliptical bores. From thence till 1833, many attempts were made to rifle cannon, with more or less success; but although the firing of smooth-bore guns was as aberrant as that of smooth-bore muskets, and from greater range even more so, yet, since the gunners were safe from musketry-fire at 200 yards, and the cannon could be (The Ellipse of the bore in the Lancaster is exaggerated to shew directed against masses of men with tolerable certainty up to 600, there was no special inducement to improve their powers. But the introduction of rifled small-arms changed the relative advantages; for an Enfield rifle might pick off the gunners of a smooth-bore cannon before their weapon could come into effective play. In 1833 and 1836, Monsieur Montigny of Brussels tried rifled guns with considerable success. In 1845, Colonel Cavalli of the Sardinian service commenced experiments with his rifled cannon: two Swedish officers-Baron Wahrendorf and Lieutenant Engstroem-next produced rifled cannon; but none of these systems were permanently adopted. The Crimean war set inventors vigorously at work, and many admirable guns have resulted from their attempts, the great difficulty of the day being to decide which is most effectual. The first point was the metal; and here cast-iron was found quite useless, being incapable of resisting the explosion of the large charges necessary to force closely fitting projectiles through rifled barrels. Several plans were resorted to. Sir William Armstrong welds coils of wrought-iron round a mandrel into one homogeneous mass of extraordinary tenacity, which he again strengthens by similar rings round the breech. Mr Whitworth forces rings of wrought iron over the barrel by hydraulic pressure: Captain Blakely strengthens a barrel of longitudinal bars welded together by shrinking wrought-iron bands over it. The French rifle brass guns and use small charges; having also guns of wrought-iron. The Austrians have made a new bronze alloy, which has proved extremely strong; the Belgians have tried Bessemer's steel. The system of rifling was the next important matter. Mr Lancaster adhered to his oval bore; Sir William Armstrong produced a bore rifled in a great number of small sharp grooves (this gun was adopted by the British government); Mr Whitworth retained a hexagonal bore; and the French government adopted a bore with two, and subsequently three rather deep spiral grooves. After careful experiments, the Austrian, Spanish, Dutch, and Italian governments have concurred in the French system. These several bores are shewn below in section. In the Armstrong, the rotation is communicated to the projectile by the latter being cased with lead, which the explosion forces into the grooves. The numerous fine grooves impart a very correct centering to the shot, and give extreme accuracy of range; but they render the gun a delicate weapon, and they preclude the occasional firing of round shot or Although the Armstrong gun was officially adopted into the British service in 1859, as the best weapon then known, the competition is still open, and it is uncertain at this moment (1865) whether it may not be superseded by the Whitworth. In 1864, Mr Mackay of Liverpool produced a gun on quite a new principle, called his windage-gun,' the effects of which, as regards range, precision, and penetration, have been very remarkable. His bore is rifled with small grooves, but the projectile is not made to fit into the grooves, a rapid revolution being imparted to it by the rush of gas through the grooves, and therefore around its circumference during the explosion. The projectiles used with the various guns will be described under SHELL and SHOT. one RIFLEMEN are troops armed with rifles, and employed more or less as sharpshooters. The name now has nearly lost all meaning, for the whole infantry are now riflemen; but a few years agoi. e., as late as 1854, the riflemen were quite the exception, the army generally having the smoothbore Brown Bess.' There were at that time only two line regiments of Rifles, the 60th and the Rifle Brigade, with 2 colonial regiments of infantry (Canadian Rifles and Ceylon Rifles), and Hottentot regiment of mounted infantry (the Cape Mounted Rifles). The establishment of Ritle regiments was taught to the British by the Americans and French, from the sharpshooters of both of which nations our armies suffered severely. During the French war, the 60th and 95th Regiments were armed as riflemen, taught light infantry drill, and clothed in dark green, to be as invisible as possible. The 95th became the Rifle Brigade. Experiment has since shewn that gray is RIGA-RIGGING. less conspicuous than green as a uniform, whence its adoption by many Volunteer corps. The Volunteer riflemen of Great Britain will be described under VOLUNTEERS. RIGA, a most important seaport of Russia, capital of Livonia, and the centre of administration for the three Baltic Provinces, stands mainly on the right bank of the Dwina, 5 miles from the mouth of that river, in the Gulf of Riga. It is 376 miles south-west of St Petersburg, and is the terminus of a railway to Moscow, not yet (1865) completed. From the steeple of St Peter's Church, said to be the highest in the empire, a full view of the situation of the city is obtained. R. contains a number of striking and handsome public buildings, of which the castle, or Dom, built in 1204, now the residence of the governor-general of the three Baltic Provinces, is the chief. The Dwina is crossed by a bridge of boats, 800 paces long, of which the boats in the middle are movable, to allow of the passage of vessels, and which is entirely removed in winter. The old town is dark and gloomy, and shews all the main features of a German town of the middle ages; but the extensive suburbs are modern and handsome, and the whole is defended by ramparts, bastions, and other fortified works. R. is the second trading town in Russia. It contains numerous soap, candle, glass, and iron works; cloth, leather, sugar, and tobacco factories, and rope-walks. Shipbuilding is extensively carried on in the town and vicinity. The principal articles of export are flax, hemp, linseed, corn, timber, tallow, and tobacco. In 1863, the exports amounted to £3,348,550, and of this sum the chief items were: flax, £1,380,000; hemp, £600,000; and linseed, £420,000. The imports do not exceed £853,000, the principal articles being fish and salt. In 1863, the value of the export trade to Great Britain was £1,812,705, being considerably more than half the entire export trade. The import trade from Great Britain, in 1863, valued £293,250, or a third of the whole imports. Of the 3506 vessels, of 570,170 tons, that entered and cleared the port in 1863, 726 vessels, of 148,690 tons, were British. Pop. 73,953. R. was founded in the beginning of the 13th c. by Albert Buckshoevden, Bishop of Livonia, and soon became a first-rate commercial town, and member of the Hanseatic League. The Teutonic Knights possessed it in the 16th century. In 1621, R. was taken by Gustavus Adolphus, and held under Swedish dominion till 1710, but was finally annexed to Russia in 1721. RIGA, GULF OF, an inlet in the north-east of the Baltic Sea, washes the shores of the three Baltic Provinces, Courland, Livonia, and Esthonia. It is over 100 miles in length from north to south, and is about 70 miles in breadth. The islands of Oesel, Dagö, Mohn, and Worms stand in the entrance to it, and narrow the mouth of the gulf to a passage about 20 miles in width. The chief river which falls into the gulf is the Dwina. Sandbanks render navigation in some parts dangerous. or repetition, the corresponding ropes, &c., on each main stay, and fore-stay; Rigging is either Standing or Running. The former is employed in maintaining, in fixed position, the masts and bowsprit; the latter runs Fig. 1. freely through numerous blocks, and its functions are to raise and lower the upper masts and the yards, to trim the sails, to 12 RIGGING, in a ship, is a combination of very numerous ropes to afford stability to the masts, and to lower and hoist the sails. Notwithstanding the complication which the cordage of a rigged ship presents at first sight to the eye, the arrangement is remarkably simple. In all substantial points, the rig of each mast is the same; to understand one is, consequently, to understand all. In the accompanying diagrams, the same notation is observed throughout, spars being shewn by capital letters; sails, by italic letters; standing rigging, by Roman numerals; and running rigging, by Arabic numerals. To hoist the signals and other flags, and occasionally avoid a confusing number of symbols and needless to furl the sails. Fig. 2. RIGGING. Each mast has the following standing rigging: at each side shrouds (I., II., III.), consisting of several very thick (usually plaited) ropes; in front, the stay (IV., V., VI., VII.); and behind, the backstays (VIII, IX., X.), coming down to the ship's sides behind the shrouds. Across the lowermast and topmast shrouds, thin ropes, called ratlings, are hitched horizontally, and form convenient ladders for the men to use in going aloft. The standing rigging of the lower mast reaches the chains on the ship's sides; while the shrouds of the topmast and topgallantmast are worked into the top, their stays to the tops of the masts nearer the bow in each case (the bowsprit serving as an anterior mast for the fore-rigging); all the backstays, however, are brought down to the ship's sides. In steamers, the mainstays require modification, in order to avoid the funnel; they are often adjusted on a plan similar to that of the backstays. The standing rigging of the bowsprit consists of the bobstays (XIV.), generally of chain; the martingale stays (XI., XII.), and martingale backstays (XIII.), which all exert an adverse pressure to that of the stays from the foremast, topmast, &c. The running rigging is of four classes: 1. Lifts for the upper masts and the jib-boom. These are not shewn in the diagrams, from the fact that they run parallel, and closely contiguous to the masts, topmasts, and bowsprit. 2. The lifts for the yards and sails. Each yard has two lifts, one proceeding from a point near either extremity, and passing through a pulley at the head of that section of the mast to which the sail or yard belongs. They are worked either on the deck or in the top. The yard-lifts are shewn by the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4. The gaff and boom have separate lifts working into the mizzen-top (13, 15). Each jib-sail has a lift (not shewn), which acts parallel and close to IV., V., 10, or 11. If the ship carry stay-sails, there will be lifts parallel to the main and mizzen topmast stays and higher stays. 3. The ropes for adjusting the sails when spread These comprise, first, the sheets for hauling down the lower corners of each sail-specimens are shewn Fig. 3. Spars, &c.-A, Mast; B, Topmast; C, Topgallantmast; D, Royal-mast; E, Yard; F, Topsailyard; G, Topgallantsail-yard; H, Royal-yard; K, Truck; L, Bowsprit; M, Jib-boom; N, Flying Jib-boom; O, Martingale; P, Chains; Q, Top; R, Cap; S, Crosstrees; T, Topmast Cap; U, Gaff; V, Boom, or Spanker-boom. Sails.-a, Mainsail; b, Topsail; c, Topgallantsail; d, Royal; e, Spanker. Standing Rigging.-1. Shrouds; II. Topmast Shrouds, crossed by Ratlings; IIL Topgallant Shrouds; Iv. Stay; v. Topmast Stay; vi. Topgallantmast Stay; VII. Royal Stay; VIII. Topmast Backstay; Ix. Topgallantmast Backstay; x. Royal Backstay xI. Flying Jib-boom Martingale Stays; xII. Jib-boom Martingale Stays; XIII. Martingale Backstays; XIV. Bobstays, Running Rigging.-1, Lifts; 2, Topsail Lifts; 3, Topgallantsail Lifts; 4, Royal Lifts; 5, Braces; 6, Topsail Braces; 7, Topgallant Braces; 8, Royal Braces; 9, Signal Halyards; 10, Jib-stay; 11, Flying Jib-stay; 12, Sheet; 13, Peak Halyards; 14, Vangs; 15, Topping Lifts; 16, Spanker Sheet. at 12; secondly, the braces for turning the yards about, to trim the sails to the wind. Each yard has two braces, one from either end passing to| an adjoining mast, except the main braces, which are brought to the ship's side near the stern. The braces are shewn as Nos. 5, 6, 7, 8. The vangs and spanker sheet (14, 16) perform similar offices for the spanker. There are minor ropes in connection with the sails, for assisting in furling, 262 reefing, spreading, &c.; but it would have rendered the diagram too complicated to have inserted them. 4. Ropes in connection with the flags. Each mast has at its head a truck, containing two or more small pulleys. Over each of these, a thin halyard is passed, and brought down double to the deck. On these, any required flag is rapidly bent and hoisted with great ease. There are two pair of similar halyards to the gaff-peak; and when the RIGHI-RIGHTS. ship is to be decorated on any festive occasion, similar halyards are affixed to the end of each yard-arm. In different classes of ships, slight modifications occur in the rigging, to suit particular circumstances, but the main principles of rigging are as detailed above for all sizes of decked vessels. See SAILS. RIGHI, a mountain of Switzerland, in the canton of Schwyz, between Lakes Lucerne, Zug, and Lowerz, is isolated, and commands extensive views of some of the finest Swiss scenery. It is easily accessible; four mule-paths lead to its summit, which, though it forms an admirable natural observatory in favourable weather, is only 5676 feet above the sea. Verdant pastures clothe the entire summit, and the slopes are belted with forests. Crowds of tourists, of both sexes, ascend the R. every season, in order to enjoy the fine views (especially that of sunrise), which, in clear weather, commands. There is a large hotel at the top, where tourists pass the night, in order to see the sunrise. property over it. Right of entry, is a right to possess and use land or premises, &c. The RIGHTS, DECLARATION AND BILL OF. convention which called the Prince and Princess of Orange to the throne of England, set forth, in a solemn instrument known by the name of the Declaration of Rights, those fundamental principles of the constitution which were to be imposed on William and Mary on their acceptance of the crown. This declaration, drawn up by a committee of the Commons, of which Mr (afterwards Lord) Somers was chairman, and assented to by the Lords, began by declaring that King James II. had committed certain acts contrary to the laws of the realm. The king, by whose authority these unlawful acts had been done, had abdicated the throne; and the Prince of Orange having invited the estates of the realm to meet and deliberate on the security of religion, law, and freedom, the Lords and Commons had resolved to declare and assert therefore declared, that the power of suspending the ancient rights and liberties of England. It was and of dispensing with laws by regal authority RIGHT, in Legal language, is that kind of is illegal; that the commission for creating the interest or connection with a subject-matter which late Court of Commissioners for Ecclesiastical serves as a foundation for an action or suit, or Causes, and all commissions and courts of the like other protection of a court of law or equity; and nature, are illegal; that the levying of money for hence it means an interest that can be enforced, for the use of the crown by prerogative, without grant if it is such as a court of law or equity cannot take of parliament, is illegal; that it is the right of the notice of, it may be called a natural or moral, but subjects to petition the king, and all prosecutions it is not a legal right. Strictly speaking, right for such petitioning are illegal; that the raising or merely means a relation between external nature keeping of a standing army in time of peace, except and some person or other, and therefore there is no with consent of parliament, is illegal; that Prosuch thing as abstract rights, for a right is only testant subjects may have arms for their defence; intelligible when predicated of some person who that the election of members of parliament should can exercise or enforce it. There is an old prac-be free; that freedom of speech in parliament tical division of all rights into rights of the person and rights of things. In the former class are included such divisions as rights of personal security and liberty; rights connected with marriage, infancy, &c.; while in the latter class are included the general rights arising out of the There possession of real and personal property. are various subjects which do not fall under either division exclusively; indeed, none of the usual divisions of rights can be said to be more than It might vaguely descriptive of their subjects. naturally be expected, that the correlative legal expression for rights should be wrongs, but this is not the case, the word wrong being used technically to mean only that class of infringements of one's rights which are connected with the person or the personal use of property. Thus, the refusing or withholding payment of a debt is not correctly called a legal wrong; but an assault or injury to one's person, or to one's property, irrespective of any contract, is properly called a wrong or a tort. The word right is also used, more or less technically, in a narrower sense. An action, called a writ of right, had for its object to establish the title to real property; but it was abolished, the same object being secured by the order of ejectment. A petition of right is a proceeding resembling an action by which a subject vindicates his rights against the crown, and recovers debts and claims, the first step being a petition, which is allowed by the home secretary, and referred for trial to a court of law. A right of way, is a right of a private owner or occupier to a way over the land of an adjoining proprietor, as incidental to his possession of a house, or premises, or land. Right of action, means simply a right to commence an action in one of the courts of law to recover damages or property. Right of common, means a right of one, who is not the owner or occupier of waste land, to send cattle to graze upon it, or to cut turf, or exercise some partial right of should not be questioned in any place out of parlia ment; that excessive bail ought not to be required, or excessive fines imposed, or cruel or unusual punishments inflicted; that jurors should be duly impanneled, and that jurors in trials for high treason should be freeholders; that grants and promises of fines and forfeitures before conviction are illegal; and that for redress of all grievances, and the amendment, strengthening, and preserving of the laws, parliaments ought to be held frequently. All these things the Lords and Commons claimed as their undoubted rights and liberties; and having done so, they resolved that William and Mary should be king and queen of England for their joint and separate lives, the administration being during their joint lives in William alone; and that on their decease the crown should descend to the issue of the queen, then to that of Anne and her posterity, and, failing them, to the issue of William. This Declaration of Rights was presented to the Being Prince and Princess of Orange at Whitehall, and accepted by them along with the crown. originally a revolutionary instrument, drawn up in an irregular assembly, it was considered necessary that it should be turned into law. The Declaration of Rights was therefore brought forward in the parliament, into which the convention had been turned, as a Bill of Rights, and passed the Commons; but an amendment proposed in the Lords regarding the settlement of the crown on the issue of the Princess Sophia, in the event of Mary, Anne, and William all dying without issue, led to several ineffectual conferences between the two Houses, which ended in the measure being dropped. The bill was, however, reintroduced in the following session of parliament (1689) without the proposed amendment, when it passed both Houses, and obtained the royal assent-a clause, however, being added, which originated in the House of Lords, to the effect that the kings and queens of England should be obliged, 263 |