It was the maxim of a very wise prince, that he who knows not how to dissemble, knows not how to reign:' and I desire that you would receive it as mine, that he who knows not how to riddle, knows not how to live. Fitzosborne's Letters. RIDE, v. n. & v. a. I Sax. pidan; Dan. RIDER, n. s. Sride; Swed. rida; Goth. reida. To travel on horseback; or be drawn by horses; manage a horse; be borne in a vehicle or vessel; be supported by something subservient; to set on so as to be borne; to manage at will: a rider is the party carried, or who manages a horse. The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the Exodus. sea. Am not I thine ass, upon which thou hast ridden? It is provided by another provincial constitution, that no suffragan bishop shall have more than one riding apparitor, and that archdeacons shall not have so much as one riding apparitor, but only a foot passenger. Ayliffe's Parergon. The strong camel and the gen'rous horse, Restrained and awed by man's inferior force, Do to the rider's will their rage submit, And answer to the spur, and own the bit. Prior. Humility does not make us servile or insensible nor oblige us to be ridden at the pleasure of every coxcomb. Collier. Good housewives all the winter's rage despise, Defended by the ridinghood's disguise. Gay. The palliolum was like our ridinghoods, and served both for a tunick and a coat. Arbuthnot. Let your master ride on before, and do you gallop after him. Swift's Directions to the Groom. The nobility could no longer endure to be ridden by bakers, cobblers, and brewers. Swift. RIDGE, n. s.I Sax. pɲigg; Dan. rig; Teut. RID'GY, adj. rugge, the back. The top of the back; any protuberance, or mound: to form a ridge rising in a ridge. : Thou visitest the earth; thou waterest the ridges thereof abundantly; thou settlest the furrows thereof. Psalm 1xv. 10. Far in the sea, against the foaming shore, There stands a rock, the raging billows roar Above his head in storms; but, when 'tis clear, Uncurl their ridgy backs, and at his feet appear. Id. The highest ridges of those mountains serve fo the maintenance of cattle for the inhabitants of the vallies. Ray. Wheat must be sowed above furrow fourteen days before Michaelmas, and laid up in round high warm ridges. Mortimer. Ridge tiles or roof tiles, being in length thirteen inches, and made circular breadthways like an half cylinder, whose diameter is about ten inches or more, and about an inch and half a quarter in thickness, are laid upon the upper part or ridge of the roof, and also on the hips. Moxon. The body is smooth on that end, and on this 'tis set with ridges round the point. Woodward. Then holding the spectacles up to the courtYour lordship observes they are made with a straddle As wide as the ridge of the nose is; in short, RIDICULE, n. s. & v. a.` Cowper. Fr. ridicule; Lat. ridiculum. Wit or banter that provokes laugha ridiculer, one who ridicules: the adjective, adverb, and noun substantive corresponding. RIDICULOUSNESS, n. s. ter: Thus was the building left Milton. What sport do Tertullian, Minucius, and Arnobius make with the image consecrated to divine worship! from the meanness of the matter they are made, the casualties of fire, and rottenness they are subject to, on purpose to represent the ridiculousness of worshipping such things. Stillingfleet. I wish the vein of ridiculing all that is serious and good may have no worse effect upon our state, than knight errantry had on theirs. Temple. Epicurus's discourse concerning the original of Earl of Chesterfield. See HORSEMANSHIP. RIDING on horseback. RIDING, in geography. Yorkshire is divided into three ridings, viz. the east, west, and north ridings. In all indictments in that county, both the town and riding must be expressed. RIDING, in naval affairs, is the state of a ship's being retained in a particular station, by means of one or more cables with their anchors, which are for this purpose sunk into the bottom of the sea, &c., in order to prevent the vessel from being driven at the mercy of the wind or current. A rope is said to ride, when one of the turns by which it is wound about the capstern or windlass lies over another, so as to interrupt the operation of heaving. RIDING ATHWART, the position of a ship which lies across the direction of the wind and tide, when the former is so strong as to prevent her from falling into the current of the latter. RIDING BETWEEN THE WIND AND TIDE, the situation of a vessel at anchor, when the wind and tide act upon her in direct opposition, in such a manner as to destroy the effort of each other upon her hull; so that she is in a manner balanced between their reciprocal force, and rides without the least strain on her cables. When a ship does not labor heavily, or feel a great strain when anchored in an open road or bay, she is said to ride easy. On the contrary, when she pitches violently into the sea, so as to strain her cables, masts, or hull, it is called riding hard, and the vessel is termed a bad roader. A ship is rarely said to ride when she is fastened at both the ends, as in a harbour or river, she being then moored. RIDLEY (Nicholas), bishop of London, was descended of an ancient family, and born in the beginning of the sixteenth century, at Wilmontswick, in Northumberland. From the grammar school at Newcastle-upon-Tyne he was sent to Pembroke Hall in Cambridge, in 1518, where he was supported by his uncle Dr. Robert Ridley, fellow of Queen's College. In 1522 he took his degree of A. B.; two years after was elected fellow, and in 1525 he commenced M. A. In 1527, having taken orders, he was sent by his uncle for further improvement tó the Sorbonne at Paris; thence he went to Louvain, and continued abroad till 1529. On his return to Cambridge he was chosen under treasurer of the university; and, in 1533, was elected senior proctor. He afterwards proceeded B. D., and was chosen chaplain of the university, orator, and magister glomeriæ. At this time he was much admired as a preacher and disputant. He lost his uncle in 1536, but was soon after patronised by Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, who made him his domestic chaplain, and presented him to the vicarage of Herne in east Kent. In 1540, having commenced D. D., he was made king's chaplain, and elected master of his new college in Cambridge. Soon after he was collated to a prebend in the church of Canterbury; but was afterwards accused in the bishop's court, by Bishop Gardiner, of preaching against the doctrine of the six articles. The matter being referred to Cranmer, Ridley was acquitted. In 1545 he was made a prebendary of Westminster Abbey; in 1547 he was presented by the fellows of Pembroke Hall to the living of Soham, in the diocese of Norwich; and was consecrated bishop of Rochester. In 1540 he was translated to the see of London; in which year he was one of the commissioners for examining bishop Gardiner, and concurred in his deprivation. In 1552, returning from Cambridge, he unfortunately paid a visit to the princess, afterwards queen Mary; to whom, prompted by his zeal for reformation, he expressed himself with too much freedom; and she was scarcely seated on the throne when Ridley was doomed a victim to her revenge. He was burnt alive with Latimer at Oxford, on the 16th of October, 1555. He wrote, 1. A Treatise concerning Images in Churches. 2. A Brief Declaration of the Lord's Supper. 3. Certain Godly and Comfortable Conferences between Bishop Ridley and Mr. Hugh Latimer, during their Imprisonment. 4. A Comparison between the Comfortable Doctrine of the Gospel. and the Traditions of the Popish Religion, and other works. RIDLEY (Dr. Gloster), was of the same family with the bishop, and was born at sea in 1702, on board the Gloucester East Indiaman, educated at Winchester school, and thence elected to a fellowship of New College, Oxford, where he proceeded B. C. L. April 29th, 1729. During a vacancy, in 1728, he joined with Mr. Thomas Fletcher (afterwards bishop of Kildare), Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Eyre, Mr. Morrison, and Mr. Jennens, in writing a tragedy called The Fruitless Redress, each undertaking an act on a plan previously concerted. When they delivered in their several proportions, few readers would have known that the whole was not the production of a single hand. This tragedy, which was offered to Mr. Wilks, but never acted, is still in MS. with another called Jugurtha. Dr. Ridley in his youth was much addicted to theatrical performances. Midhurst, in Sussex, was the place where they were exhibited; and the company of gentlemen actors to which he belonged consisted chiefly of his coadjutors in the above tragedy. For a great part of his life he had no other preferment than the small college living of Westow in Norfolk, and the donative of Poplar in Middlesex, where he resided. To these his college added the donative of Romford in Essex. In 1740 and 1741 he preached Eight Sermons at Lady Moyer's Lecture, which were published in 1742, 8vo. In 1763 he published the Life of Bishop Ridley, in 4to., by subscription. In 1765 he published his Review of Philip's Life of Cardinal Pole; ard in 1768, in reward for his labors in this controversy, and in another which The Confessional produced, he was presented by archbishop Secker to a golden prebend in the cathedral church of Salisbury. He died in 1774, leaving a widow and four daughters. RIE, n. s., or RYE, which see. An esculent grain, differing from wheat in having a flatter spike, and the corn larger and more naked. August shall bear the form of a young man of a fierce aspect, upon his head a garland of wheat and rie. Peacham. RIEGO (Raphael del), a modern Spanish patriot, was of a noble family, in Asturias. He entered early into the army, and served during the invasion of Spain by Buonaparte. Being taken prisoner, the constitutional general Abisbal on his liberation gave him a staff appointment; and, when his chief betrayed the cause of independence, Riego retired from the service. In 1820 he proclaimed at the head of a battalion the Spanish constitution, and, traversing a large extent of country, shut himself up in a fortress with a small number of troops. Aware however of the danger of delay, he sallied forth from the Isle of Leon with a few hundred followers, made his way through the forces that opFosed him, visited several large towns, fought obstinately, lost the greater part of his troops, and retired to the mountains. At last the provinces ranged themselves under his banners, and he was ultimately appointed a deputy to the Cortes of 1822, of which assembly he became president, displaying in this arduous post both a firmness and a conciliatory spirit which did him honor. When Ferdinand refused to maintain the constitution, Riego again appeared in arms to assert the liberty of his country; but was taken prisoner after the surrender of Cadiz to the French, and, being conveyed to Madrid, was executed as a traitor, October 7th, 1823. His widow sought refuge in England, and died at Chelsea, June 19th, 1824. RIENZI (Nicholas Gabrini de), was born at Rome. Though his father was a vintner, and his mother a laundress, they gave their son a liberal education; and to a good natural understanding he joined great assiduity, and made considerable proficiency in ancient literature. He had a strong memory: and retained much of Cicero, Valerius Maximus, Livy, the two Senecas, and Cæsar. He passed whole days among the inscriptions in Rome, and soon was esteemed a great antiquary. He also insinuated himself into the favor of the administration, and was nominated one of the deputies sent to pope Clement VI., who resided at Avignon. The intention of this deputation was to make Clement sensible how prejudicial his absence was to the interest of Rome. While employed in this embassy he took the liberty to tell the pope that the grandees of Rome were avowed robbers, thieves, adulterers, and profligates; who authorised the most horrid crimes. To them he attributed the desolation of Rome; of which he drew so lively a picture that the pope, incensed against the Roman nobility, made Rienzi his apostolic notary, and sent him back loaded with favors. Having returned to Rome, he began to execute the functions of his office; and by affability, candor, assiduity, and impartiality in the administration of justice, he attained a high degree of popularity. But he still continued his invectives against the vices of the great; till at last he was severely reprimanded and displaced. From this time it was his constant endeavour to inspire the people with a fondness for their ancient liberties; for which purpose he caused to be hung up in the most public places emblematic pictures, expressive of the former splendor and present decline of Rome, and to these he added frequent harrangues upon the same subject. Having by these means collected a number of followers, he at last resolved to seize the supreme power. The 20th of May, being Whitsunday, he fixed upon to sanctify his enterprise; and asserted that all he acted was by particular inspiration of the Holy Ghost. About nine he came out of the church bare-headed, accompanied by the pope's vicar, surrounded by 100 armed men. A vast crowd followed him with acclamations. The conspirators carried three standards before him, on which were wrought devices, intimating that his design was to reestablish liberty, justice, and peace. In this manner he proceeded directly to the Capitol, where he mounted the rostrum ; and expatiated on the miseries to which the Romans were reduced telling them : that the happy hour of their deliverance was at length come, and that he was to be their deliverer, regardless of the dangers to which he was exposed for the service of the Holy Father and the people's safety.' After which he ordered the laws of what he called the good establishment to be read; assured that the Romans would resolve to observe these laws, he engaged in a short time to reestablish them in their ancient grandeur.' These laws promised plenty and security, and the humiliation of the nobility, who were deemed common oppressors. Such laws could not fail of being agreeable to the people, and enraptured with the pleasing ideas of a liberty to which they had long been strangers, and the hope of gain, they entered most zealously into the fanaticisms of Rienzi. They resumed the authority of the Romans; they declared him sovereign of Rome; and granted him the power of life and death, of rewards and punishments, of enacting and repealing the laws, and treating with foreign powers; in a word, they gave him full and supreme authority in all the territories of the Romans. Rienzi, arrived at the summit of his wisnes, pretended to be very unwilling to accept of their offers, except upon two conditions: the first that they should nominate the pope's vicar (the bishop of Orvieto) his copartner; the second that the pope's consent should be granted. The people granted his request, but paid all the honors to him; the bishop appeared a mere shadow, Rienzi was seated in his triumphal chariot. He seized upon the palace, where he continued after he had turned out the senate; and, the same day, he began to dictate his laws from the Capitol.' This election, though not very pleasing to the pope, was ratified by him; nevertheless, Rienzi, as he owed his elevation to the people, chose the title of tribune, as their magistrate. It was conferred on him and his copartner, with the addition of deliverers of their country. His behaviour in his elevation was at first such as commanded esteem and respect, not only from the Romans, but from the neighbouring states. The troubles of a throne few but princes can properly appreciate, and Rienzi soon found that his exalted station only rendered him a more easy mark for the shafts of envy and hatred, and of distrust. The pope conceived his designs to be contrary to the interests of the holy see; and the nobles conspired against him; they succeeded, and Rienzi was forced to quit an authority he had possessed little more than six months, and to make a precipitate flight. He now went to Prague, to Charles king of the Romans, whom the year before he had summoned to his tribunal, and who, he foresaw, would deliver him up to a pope highly incensed against him. He was accordingly soon after sent to Avignon, and there thrown into prison, where he continued three years. The disturbances in Italy, occasioned by the number of petty tyrants that had established themselves in the ecclesiastical territories, and even in Rome, occasioned his enlargement. Innocent VI., who succeeded Clement, sensible that the Romans still entertained an affection for Rienzi, thought him a proper instrument to assist him in reducing these petty tyrants; and therefore not only gave him his liberty, but appointed him governor and senator of Rome. He met with many obstacles to the assumption of this newly granted authority; all which however he overcame. But giving way to his passions, which were immoderately warm, and attempting to revenge himself on some of his former enemies, he excited a general resentment against him, and he was murdered, October 8th, 1354. Such was the end of Nicholas Rienzi, one of the most renowned men of the age; who, after forming a conspiracy apparently the most extravagant, and executing it in the sight of almost the whole world; after causing plenty, justice, and liberty, to flourish among the Romans; after protecting potentates, and terrifying sovereign princes; after reestablishing the ancient majesty and power of the Roman republic, and filling all Europe with his fame during the seven months of his first reign; after having compelled his masters themselves to confirm him in the authority he had usurped against their interests-fell at the end of his second, which lasted not four months, a sacrifice to the nobility, whose ruin he had vowed, and to those vast projects which his death prevented him from putting into exe cution.' RIESENGEBIRGE, i. e. the Giants' Mountains, a name under which is comprehended all that part of the great Sudetic chain which begins on the borders of Lusatia, and separates Bohemia, and Moravia from Silesia, till it joins the Carpathians. This term however is properly confined to that part of the range which lies between the sources of the Neisse and the Bober; a track of no great length, but containing the loftiest mountains of the north or central part of Germany, being almost every where about 3000 feet in height. Of these, the Schneeberge has a height of 5270 English feet; the great Sturmhaube of 5030, and the lesser Sturmhaube nearly as much. From the top of the first, Breslau (distant seventy miles to the northeast) and Prague (at nearly the same distance to the south-west) are visible. The valleys are picturesque, and produce the finest Alpine plants, but are not well adapted to corn, and the inhabitants are miserably poor. RIETI, an old town of Italy, in the States of the church, the capital of a delegation of the same name, and situated on the Velino. It is not well built, but is the see of a bishop, and has, besides its cathedral, a number of churches and convents. It has some manufactures of woollens, and in the environs the culture of woad for dyeing is much followed. In 1785 this town was much damaged by an earthquake. Inhabitants 6500. Twenty-five miles S. S. E. of Spoleto, and thirty-seven N. N. E. of Rome. RIFE, adj. Saxon nyre; Belg. rif; RIFE'LY, adv. Swed. ref. Prevalent; aRIFE'NESS, n. s. bounding the adverb and noun-substantive corresponding: used of epidemical distempers. While those restless desires, in great men rife, To visit so low folks did much disdein, This while, though poor, they in themselves did reign. Sidney, Guyon closely did await Advantage; whilst his foe did rage most rife; Sometimes athwart, sometimes he strook him straight, And falsed oft his blows. Spenser. The plague was then rife in Hungary. Knolles. It was rifely reported that the Turks were coming in a great fleet. Id. History. Blessings then are plentiful and rife, More plentiful than hope. Herbert. Space may produce new worlds; whereof so rife There went a fame in heaven, that he ere long Intended to create. Milton's Paradise Lost. Before the plague of London, inflammations of the lungs were rife and mortal. Arbuthnot on Air. He ascribes the great rifeness of carbuncles in the summer, to the great heats. Secure beneath the storm Where peace and love are cankered by the worm Which in Ambition's lofty land is rife, Of pride, each bud of joy industrious to deform. Id. Beattie. RIFLE, v. a. Fr. riffer; rifler; Belg. rifeRIFLER, n. s. len; Swed. rifla. To rob; pillage; plunder; take away. Stand, Sir, and throw us what you have about you; if not, we'll make you, Sit, and rifle you. Shakspeare. Ransacked the centre, and with impious hands For treasures better hid. Milton's Paradise Lost. A commander in the parliament's rebel army rifled and defaced the cathedral at Litchfield. South. Mine is thy daughter, priest, and shall remain, And prayers, and tears, and bribes shall plead in vain, are less deflected, and approach more to a right line, it being usual for the grooves with which the best rifled barrels are cut, to take about one whole turn in a length of thirty inches. The number of these grooves differs according to the size of the barrel and fancy of the workman; and their depth and width are not regulated by any invariable rule. There are also different methods of charging pieces of this kind, but the usual one is as follows:-After the powder is put in, a leaden bullet, somewhat larger than the bore of the gun, is taken, and it, having been well greased, is laid on the mouth of the piece, and rammed down with an iron rammer. The softness of the lead giving way to the violence with which the bullet is impelled, that zone of the bullet which is contiguous to the piece, varies its circular form, and acquires the shape of the inside of the barrel, so that it becomes the part of a male screw, exactly fitting the indents of the rifle. And hence it happens that, when the piece is fired, the indented zone of the bullet follows the sweep of the rifles, and thereby, besides its progressive motion, acquires a circular one round the axis of the barrel, which motion will be continued to the bullet after its separation from the piece; by which means a bullet discharged from a rifled barrel is constantly made to whirl round an axis which is coincident with the line of its flight. In Germany and Switzerland, an improvement is made in the above method, by cutting a piece of very thin leather in a circular shape, larger than the bore of the barrel. This circular piece being greased on one side is laid upon the muzzle with its greasy side downwards, and the bullet, being placed upon it, is then forced down the barrel with it: by which means the leather encloses the lower half of the bullet, and by its interposition between the rifles, prevents the lead from being cut by them. But in those barrels where this method is practised, the rifles are generally shallow, and the bullet ought not to be too large. The rifle-barrels, which have been made in England, where they are not very common, are contrived to be charged at the breech, the piece being, for this purpose, made larger there than in any other part. The powder and bullet are put in through the side of the barrel by an opening, which, when the piece is loaded, is filled up with a screw. By this means, when the piece is fired, the bullet is forced through the rifles, and acquires the same spiral motion as in the former kind of pieces; but these are neither safe nor so certain as the others. To enable these pieces to be loaded with greater expedition, it has been proposed to have the balls cast with projections to them, by making corresponding hollows round the zone of the bullet-mould; by this means the balls may be fitted so accurately to the rifles as to leave scarcely any windage; while the friction will be less than it is either when the ball is put in at the breech, or forced in at the muzzle. And, to render them in this respect still more complete, the sweep of the rifles should be in each part exactly parallel to each other; for then, after the bullet is once put in motion, it will slide out of the barrel without any shake, and with a much smaller degree of friction than if the threads of the rifles have not all of them the same degree of incurvation. The foreigners are so exact in this respect that they try their pieces in the following manner :-They first pour melted lead into them, and, letting it cool, they procure a leaden cylinder of perhaps two or three diameters in length, exactly fitted to one part of the inside of the piece; then if this leaden cylinder, being gently pushed by the rammer, will pass from one end of the barrel to the other, without any sensible strain or effort, they pronounce the piece perfect; but if it any where sticks, or moves hard, they esteem it defective. RIFLEMEN, marksmen armed with rifles. They formed the most formidable enemies during the war in America, being posted along the American ranks, and behind hedges, &c., for the purpose of picking off the British officers; many of whom fell by the rifle in our contest with that country. Most of these were hunters and back woodsmen, who could hit a dollar at eighty paces, and were not therefore likely to miss their aim. In the attack of New Orleans, a band of these men posted behind a breached redoubt rendered it perfectly impregnable. One of these men having claimed the honor of killing a British officer, another asserted that he himself had shot him in the breast. I am sure I hit him in the head,' replied the other, and on examination he was found shot through both in the breast and head, though the British troops never approached nearer the rampart than 150 yards. This has been called murderous practice, and some persons have questioned how far it ought to be admitted in civilised warfare; but is not war itself a murderous practice? A citizen of Boston being asked, after the affair at Lexington, 'how he dared to take aim at a British officer as he would at a mad dog?' replied that, having made up his mind to fight, he thought he had better take aim to prevent waste of time and ammunition.' Our infantry, on the contrary, never take aim, but, like the heroes of Chalk Farm, generally fire over their opponents' heads. The musket in such hands' observes colonel James, is by no means so formidable a weapon as the old English bow. A brigade of rifles has indeed been added to our war establishment, but it is throughout the line that the system of firing is defective.' RIFT, n. s, v. a., & v. n. Goth. rift. From RIVE. A cleft; breach; opening: to cleave; to burst. He pluckt a bough, out of whose rift there come Small drops of gory blood. Spenser. She did confine thee Shakspeare. |