are termed by Aldhelmus (8th c.), apparently with justice, Carmina inepta.

The riddle, but more perhaps as an amusement for the baronial hall on winter-nights, or for the monastic mess-room, than as a serious intellectual effort, was much cultivated during the middle ages. This character of lively or amusing puzzle it has ever since for the most part retained. Many specimens of what would now be termed riddle' or 'conundrum books' exist in French, English, and German collections of manuscripts, and were printed at an early period. One of these, entitled Demands Joyous, which may be rendered Amusing Questions,' was printed in English by Wynkin de Worde in 1511. Many of these 'joyous demands' are simply coarse jests; but others, again, illustrate the simple, child-like religious belief of medieval Christendom-e. g., Demand: What bare the best burden that ever was borne?' Response: The ass that carried our Lady when she fled with our Lord into Egypt.' Some are really fitted to excite risibility-e. g., Demand: What is that that never was and never will be?' Response: A mouse's nest in a cat's ear.'-'What is the worst bestowed charity that one can give?' 'Alms to a blind man; for he would be glad to see the person hanged that gave it to him.' The Reformation, at least in Protestant countries, checked, if it did not wholly stop, the merry pastime of riddle-making; but in the 17th c. it began to creep into favour again. Le Père Ménestrier, a learned Jesuit, wrote a grave treatise on the subject; and in France, riddles soon rivalled in popularity the madrigals and sonnets of the period. The Abbé Cotin was a famous fabricator of riddles, and published a recueil of his own and those of his contemporaries, preceded by a dissertation, in which he modestly dubbed himself Le Père de l'Enigme (The Father of the Riddle); but, as a French critic remarks, posterity has not recognised his paternity. In the 18th c., the taste for the manufacture of riddles continued to increase, and most of the brilliant French littérateurs, such as Boileau, Voltaire, and Rousseau, did a little in this line, until, finally, the Mercure de France became a fortnightly repository of riddles, the solution of which was sufficient to make a reputation in society. In Germany, Schiller gave a broader development to the riddle. In his hands, it once again became something grave and sibylline, and attained in expression a high degree of literary beauty and force. A good collection of the best riddles is to be found in Ohnesorgen's collection, entitled Sphinx (6 vols. Ber. 1833).

RIDGE, the upper angle of a roof, usually covered with lead or zinc, and sometimes with stone or tile. Ridges are often ornamented with a cresting or running design, and recently cast-iron has been much used for this purpose.

RIDING (Saxon, trithing, third part), a term applied to three parts into which the county of York is divided, termed respectively East, West, and North Riding. A similar division existed in several other counties in the Anglo-Saxon period; there were the laths of Kent, the rapes of Sussex, the parts of Lincoln. The trithing, lath, or rape was formed of three or more hundreds, and presided over by a trithing-man or lath-grieve. In Domes day Book, we find Yorkshire divided, as at present, into three ridings, and subdivided into wapentakes. See WAPENTAKE.

RIDING-MASTER, an officer in the cavalry, military train, and artillery, whose duty it is to instruct the officers and men in the management of their horses. He is most commonly selected om the ranks; his pay is 9s. a day, rising by

length of service to 10s. 6d. and 128.; besides which, he receives £7 per troop per annum for riding-house expenses; and he is believed to make some profit out of this allowance. The riding. master has the relative rank of lieutenant, and, after an aggregate service of 30 years, including at least 15 years as riding-master, he has the right to retire on 10s. a day, with the honorary rank of captain.

RIDLEY, NICHOLAS, one of the most noted leaders of the Reformation in England in the 16th century, was a native of Northumberland, and born about the commencement of the century. He was educated at the foundation-school of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and subsequently at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge. He became a Fellow of this college in 1524, and ultimately President. The spirit of the Reformation had already begun to penetrate the universities both of Oxford and Cambridge. Tyndale and Bilney had taught the new doctrines in the latter place; and Ridley, no less than Cranmer and Latimer, all Cambridge students about the same period, had probably caught something of their spirit. This reforming tendency was greatly strengthened by a tour on the continent of Europe, which he undertook on the completion of his studies. He encountered some of the most active Reformers abroad, and after a three years' absence, he returned, with his principles firmly grounded in favour of the new course of things. He became proctor to the university of Cambridge, and in this capacity protested against the claims of the papal see to supreme ecclesiastical jurisdiction in England. He was also chosen public orator, and, under the patronage of his friend Cranmer, advanced first to be one of the king's chaplains, and then, in 1547, nominated Bishop of Rochester. He distinguished himself by his vehement denunciations of the idolatrous use of images and of holy water, and very soon became one of the most prominent, as he remained one of the most consistent and inflexible supporters of the Reformed doctrines. He joined actively in the measures of Edward VI.'s reign, and on the deprivation of Bonner, Bishop of London, Ridley became his successor, three years subsequent to his elevation to the see of Rochester. In this high position he distinguished himself by his 'moderation, his learning, and his munificence.' He earnestly promoted the Reformation, yet without bigotry or intolerance; he exerted himself in the foundation of Christ's Hospital, and of the hospitals of St Bartholomew and St Thomas in Southwark, the two latter of which have become eminent as schools of medicine--the former as a school of classical He assisted Cranmer and general instruction. in the preparation of the 41 articles, afterwards reduced to 39. On the death of Edward VI., he Grey; and on its speedy failure, and the accession warmly espoused the unfortunate cause of Lady Jane of Mary, his known connection with it, as well as his general activity in the cause of the Reformation, exposed him to the vengeance of the papal party, again ascendant. He was committed to the Tower in 1553, and in the subsequent year, when a convocation was convened at Oxford for the discussion of the doctrine of transubstantiation, he was removed thither along with Cranmer and Latimer, in order that he might engage in the discussion. It was not to be expected, however, that any good would issue from such a step as this. The discussion proved a mere pretence; the Reformers were adjudged defeated and obstinate heretics, and condemned to suffer at the stake. On the 16th October 1555, R. was led forth to execution, along with his friend and fellow-reformer, Latimer. He suffered

in front of Baliol College, cheerful, steadfast, and consistently enduring as he had been throughout his life. He was, according to Burnet, one of the ablest of all who advanced the Reformation in England. His character is pure, elevated, and self-denying. Foxe says of him he was wise of counsel, deep of wit, benevolent in spirit.' His gentleness wins our sympathy, while his scholarly and calm intrepidity excite our admiration.

RIENZI, COLA DI, the famous Roman tribune, was born at Rome in 1313. His parentage was humble, h3 father being a tavern-keeper, named Lorenzo (by abbreviation, Rienzo), and his mother a washer woman. Until his twentieth year, he lived among the peasants of Anagni; then he returned to his native city, where he studied grammar and rhetoric, read and re-read the Latin historians, philosophers, and poets (Greek was scarcely yet known in Italy), and excited his imagination, while at the same time he coloured his speech, with the prophetic enthusiasm of the inspired writers. The assassination of his brother by a Roman noble, whom he found it impossible to bring to punishment, is considered to be the incident that finally determined him to deliver the city, as soon as he was able, from the barbarous thraldom of the barons. He assumed the significant title of consul of orphans, widows, and the poor. In 1343, he was appointed by the heads of the Guelph party spokesman or orator of a deputation sent to the papal court at Avignon to beseech Clement VI. to return to Rome in order to protect the citizens from the tyranny of their oppressors. Here he formed a close friendship with Petrarch, through whose assistance he obtained a favourable hearing from his Holiness, who appointed him notary to the City Chamber. In April 1344, R. returned home, and sought to obtain the countenance of the magistrates in his ideas of reform; but reform, he found, was impossible without revolution; yet he did not conspire, properly speaking, to the very last moment. During three years, he loudly and openly-perhaps even ostentatiously-menaced the nobles, for the enthusiasm of R. for a nobler and juster government, though sincere, was showy and vain. The reason why the nobles took no steps to crush him was because they thought him mad. At last, when R. thought he could rely on the support of the citizens, he summoned them together on the 20th of May 1347, and surrounded by 100 horsemen and the papal legate, he delivered a magnificent discourse, and proposed a series of laws for the better government of the community, which he termed il buono stato, and which were unanimously approved of. The aristocratic senators were driven out of the city, and B. was invested with dictatorial power. He took the title of tribune of liberty, peace, and justice,' and chose the papal legate for his colleague, but reserved to himself the direction of affairs, after having, however, suggested the institution of a syndicate, to which he should be responsible. The pope confirmed the eloquent dictator in his authority; all Italy rejoiced in his success, and foreign lands, even warlike France (according to Petrarch), began to dread the reviving majesty of the Eternal City. A bright dream now seems to have flashed across R.'s imagination-the unity of Italy and the supremacy of Rome! Every great Italian has dreamed that dream from Dante to Mazzini. R. despatched messengers to the various Italian states, requesting them to send deputies to Rome to consult for the general interests of the Peninsula, and to devise measures for its unification. These messengers were everywhere received with enthusiasm, and on the 1st of August 1347, two hundred deputies assembled in the Lateran

Church, where R. declared that the choice of an emperor of the Holy Roman Empire belonged to the Roman people, and summoned Ludvig of Bavaria and Karl of Bohemia, who were then disputants for the dignity, to compear before him. The step was wildly impolitic. R. had no material power to enable him to give efficacy to his splendid assumption. The pope was indignant at the transference of authority from himself to his subjects; and the barons, taking advantage of certain ceremonial extravagances which the dictator had committed, and which had diminished the popular regard for him, gathered together their forces, and renewed their devastations. After some ineffectual resistance, R. resigned his functions, weeping all the while, and withdrew from Rome, which was entered by the barons two days after. His tenure of power had lasted only seven months. In the solitudes of the Neapolitan Apennines, where he found refuge, R. would seem to have recovered his enthusiasm and his faith. Regarding his fall as a just chastisement of God for his love of worldly vanities, he joined an order of Franciscan hermits, and spent nearly two years in exercises of piety and penitence-all the while, however, cherishing the hope that he would one day deliver' Rome again. This ambition to play a distinguished part made him readily listen to a brother-monk, who, about the middle of 1350, declared that, according to the prophecies of Joachim of Flores, of Cyrillus, and of Merlin, R. was destined, by the help of the emperor Karl IV., to introduce a new era of happiness into the world. R. betook himself at once to Prague, and announced to the emperor that in a year and a half a new hierarchy would be established in the Church, and under a new pope, Karl would reign in the West, and R. in the East. Karl, not knowing very well what to say in reply to such language, thought it safest to put the prophet' in prison, and then wrote to inform his friend the pope of the matter. In July 1351, R. was transferred to Avignon, where proceedings were opened against him in reference to his exercise of tribunitial power. He was condemned to death, but his life was spared at the earnest entreaties of Petrarch and others; and the next two years were spent in an easy confinement in the French papal city. Meanwhile the state of matters at Rome had become worse than ever. The great families were even more factious, more anarchical, more desperately fond of spilling blood than formerly; and at last Innocent VI. sent Cardinal Athornoz to re-establish order. R. was also released from prison, and accompanied the cardinal. A residence was assigned him at Perugia; but in August 1354, having borrowed money, and raised a small body of soldiers, he made a sort of triumphal entry into Rome, and was received with universal acclamations. But misfortune had impaired and debased his character; he abandoned himself to good living, and his once generous sentiments had given place to a hard, mistrustful, and cruel disposition. The barons refused to recognise his government, and fortified themselves in their castles. The war against them necessitated the contraction of heavy expenses; the people grumbled; R. only grew more severe and capricious in his exactions and punishments. In two months his rule had become intolerable, and on the 8th of October, an infuriated crowd surrounded him in the Capitol, and put him to death with ferocious indignities.

RIE'SENGEBIRGE (giant mountains), a mountain range about 23 miles long by about 12 miles broad, between Bohemia and Prussian Silesia. See

BOHEMIA.

RIE'TI (ancient, Reate), a city of Central Italy,

in the province of Perugia in Umbria, is situated at the foot of a hill, on the banks of the Velino, 45 miles north-east of Rome. It is walled, its streets are regular, and it has a fine cathedral, and many benevolent institutions. It is the seat of an archbishop. R. was a noted city of the Sabines. Pop. 14,224.

RIFF, THE, a portion of the coast of Morocco which extends from Tangier on the west to near the western frontier of Algiers, having a length of about 210 miles, with a breadth of 58. The name, in the Berber language, which is that of the inhabitants, signifies a mountainous and rugged coast. The Riff mountains, which stretch along near and parallel to the coast, are green and wooded, and are here and there intersected transversely by fertile valleys or deep ravines, each of them possessing its brook or rivulet, which descends to the Mediterranean. The R. region is separated from the parallel mountain chain south of it by an extensive, fertile, and well-watered plain, in which stands the city of Fez. The inhabitants of the R. are almost wholly Berbers, who are employed in feeding and breeding cattle, fishing, and occasional piracy. On account of the injuries inflicted by them on merchant vessels, most of the maritime states of Europe agreed to pay an annual sum as quit-money. However, in 1828, Austria declined further payment of the tax. A Venetian vessel was seized by the pirates, in the harbour of Rabat, but the arrival of an Austrian fleet off the port produced restitution of the ship and its cargo, as well as the formal renunciation of all further claims. France followed the same course by declaring war against the Sultan of Morocco, and obtained compensation, in 1844, since which period piracy has much diminished. Its example was followed by the Spaniards in 1859. The sultan, however, had always discountenanced piracy, but his authority in the R. was too weak to compel obedience.

RIFLE-BIRD (Ptiloris Paradiseus), a bird of the family Upupide, with a long curved bill, and in size about equal to a large pigeon. It inhabits the south-eastern districts of Australia, and is found only in very thick bush.' The male is regarded as more splendid in plumage than any

Rifle-Bird (Ptiloris Paradiseus).

other Australian bird. The upper parts are velvety black, tinged with purple; the under parts velvety black, diversified with olive-green. The crown of the head and the throat are covered with innumerable little specks of emerald green, of most brilliant lustre. The tail is black, the two central feathers rich metallic green.

RIFLED ARMS were invented for the purpose of remedying certain defects essentially connected with cylindrical smooth-bore guns. These defects, which are chiefly owing to atmospheric resistance, shewed themselves in the erratic motion of the ball,

especially when fired at a long range, and arose from the following causes: First, The ball never fitted tightly, and, in consequence of this, its centre was below the centre of the bore. A portion of the explosive force of the powder escaped over the top of the bullet, and was not only wasted, but exercised a downward pressure on the ball, tending to squeeze it into the under side of the barrel, and so great was this pressure, that in guns of soft metal, as brass, a perceptible dint was produced after a few rounds. Another and more important consequence of the looseness of the ball was, that the action of the powder on it was necessarily irregular and its resulting motion along the barrel was a series of oblique impacts, now against one side, now against the other, and the direction of its motion after expulsion was necessarily not in line with the axis of the barrel, and depended upon the side of the barrel with which it was last in contact. Secondly, Balls can never be perfectly homogeneous, and the violent and sudden pressure of the exploded powder produces a slight change of shape; consequently, the centre of gravity can never accurately coincide with the centre of the sphere, the air resists its forward motion unequally, and true flight is precluded. Thirdly, As a consequence of the friction of the ball against the sides of the barrel, it acquires a rotatory motion, the direction of its rotation after expulsion being determined by the particular point of the muzzle with which it was last in contact. Thus, if it finally touched the top or bottom of the muzzle, the plane of rotation of the anterior surface of the ball would be in line with its progressive motion, and the rotation would be in an upward or downward direction; if it last rebounded from the right side, the plane of rotation would be in line with its path, and the rotation of the anterior The ball, surface from left to right, and so on. in its rapid flight, compresses the air in front, and produces a vacuum behind; the denser, because more compressed, air in front, attempts to rush round the sides of the ball to fill up the vacuum. Now (see fig. 1), let us suppose that the ball, while in rapid advance, zontal plane, and from left is also revolving in a hori to right, the side A, whose rotation conspires with the motion of translation, resists, by its friction, the attempt of the air to reach the vacuum by that side; while the side B, whose rotation is against the motion of translation, conspires to aid the air in It reaching the vacuum. follows from this, that the air is denser in front of A than in front of B; its resistance on the side A is greater than that on B, and the ball, in consequence, is deflected towards the side on which the resistance is least (towards the right in this instance). If the ball struck the top of the muzzle, its revolution would be in a vertical plane in line with the barrel, and in an upward direction, under which circumstances the ball would tend, first, downwards from the first reason, and then upwards from the third; while, if it struck the bottom of the muzzle, the contrary would be the case. These aberrations of the ball from its true theor etical path, as was evident to artillerists, could never be wholly annihilated while su ooth-bores

Fig. 1.

Horizontal section of spherical bullet,

the straight arrow shewing the direction of its forward motion or motion of translation, and the curved arrows that of its motion of rotation. The ball, in this instance, is supposed to have struck against the right side of the muzzle.

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. 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

α

Enfield Rifle.

a, groove; b, land.

As,