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OBITUARIES, FOREIGN. (RICHMOND SASSOON.) 



vey Vancouver island and the coasts of British 

 Columbia. He was nominated at the same time on 

 a commission, with Capt. Prevost, for the settle- 

 ment of the Oregon boundary question between 

 Great Britain and the United States. He continued 

 the stirveys of these coasts, on the '' Plumper" and 

 afterward on the "Hecate" till 1863, returning to 

 England by way of the western Pacific and Torres 

 Straits, making surveys and carrying chronometric 

 distances on the voyage, which completed his third 

 circumnavigation of the globe. On his arrival he 

 was appointed hydrographer of the navy, in which 

 post he continued for more than ten years. He 

 was promoted to the rank of rear admiral in 1870, 

 retired in 1874, and advanced to the grade of vice- 

 admiral in 1877 and admiral in 1884. He was 

 knighted in 1888. 



Richmond, George, an English portrait painter, 

 born in Brompton, March 28,1809; died in Lon- 

 don. March 19, 1896. He was a son of Thomas 

 Richmond, a miniature painter, from whom he re- 

 ceived his first lessons in art, becoming at fifteen a 

 student at the Royal Academy. The next year he 

 came under the influence of William Blake, the ar- 

 tist poet, and all his earlier work gives evidence of 

 that influence. In 1828 he went to Paris to study 

 art and anatomy, and on his return to England 

 sent two pictures and three portraits to the Royal 

 Academy in 1830. lie married the next year, and 

 definitely took up the profession of purl rait paint- 

 ing. He was always fortunate in his friendships, 

 adding Ruskin in 1840 to his already wide circle. 

 Up to 1846 he had worked in water color and crayon 

 almost entirely, but after that date he painted much 

 in oil. Many of the eminent people of his genera- 

 tion sat to him for their portraits. A few among 

 his many portraits are those of Newman, Liddon, 

 Sir Gilbert Scott, Cardinal Manning. Gladstone, 

 Mrs. Stowe, Darwin, and Tyndall. I Ms latest por- 

 trait was that of Lord Salisbury, in 1887. He was 

 not without skill as a sculptor, as the bust of Pusey, 

 at Pusey Home. Oxford, and the recumbent statue 

 of Bishop Blomfield, in St. Paul's Cathedral, afford 

 evidence. He was very successful as a portrait 

 painter, being surpassed by few in his ability to 

 catch the best expression of his various sitters. In 

 1857 he was elected an associate of the Royal Acad- 

 emy, becoming a royal academician i:i 1866. His 

 death occurred at his house, in York Street, Putnam 

 Square, where he had lived more than fifty years. 



Rolllfs, Gerhard, a German explorer, born near 

 Bremen in 1831 ; died in Goderberg, Rhenish Prus- 

 sia, June 3, 1896. After he had received a medical 

 education, he went to Algeria, and there enlisted in 

 the foreign legion. He learned Arabic thoroughly, 

 and in 1860 went to Morocco, adopted Moorish at- 

 tire, passed for a Moslem, and was thus enabled to 

 live for some time in Fez. and to travel freely about 

 the country. He revealed the oasis of Tafilet to 

 the world in 1862, explored in 1863 the eastern part 

 of the Greater Atlas, and penetrated into the desert 

 to Tuat. In 1865 he set out from Tripoli, crossed 

 the Sahara to Lake Chad, traversed Bornu and So- 

 koto, and reached the Benue and descended to the 

 mouth of the Niger. He accompanied the British 

 expedition against Abyssinia in 1867. In 1868 he 

 journeyed across the northern part of the great Lib- 

 yan desert, discovering the depressions below sea 

 level south of the coast plateau. In 1873 and 1874 

 he made further explorations in the Libyan desert 

 at the expense of the Khedive. In 1880 he visited 

 the court of the Negus Johannes, bearing a letter 

 from the German Emperor. He was appointed 

 consul general of Germany at Zanzibar in 1885, but 

 soon 7'esigned and returned to Germany, where he 

 took up his residence at Weimar. He published 

 many books descriptive of his adventures. 



Roquette, Otto, a German poet, born in the 

 province of Posen in 1824 ; died in Darmstadt in 

 April. 1896. He taught for several years in Dres- 

 den and Berlin, wrote critical essays, and was ap- 

 pointed Professor of German Literature and His- 

 tory at the Polytechnicum of Darmstadt, where he 

 remained till his death. His bright and cheerful 

 poem of " Waldmeisters Brautfahrt," published in 

 1851, had an immense and lasting popularity. He 

 was the author of novels and dramatic poems and 

 of a " Geschichte der deutschen Literatur." 



Rossi, Ernesto, an Italian actor, born in Leg- 

 horn in 1829; died in Rome, June 4, 1896. He 

 studied law in the University of Pisa, but decided 

 to go upon the stage, for which he prepared himself 

 in the dramatic academy founded by Gustavo Mo- 

 dena. After playing in Milan, Turin, and other 

 Italian cities, he went to Paris with Ristori in 1853 

 and was much admired for his masterly rendering 

 of Goldoni and other Italian dramatists. In Vienna 

 he was equally well received. On returning to Italy, 

 he gathered a company, of which he was manager. 

 He played an Italian version of the "Cid" at Cor- 

 neille's anniversary in Paris in 1866, and next vis- 

 ited Spain and Portugal. After giving a remark- 

 able series of Shakespearean impersonations in Paris 

 in 1875, he went to London, where he was much 

 appreciated. He retired from the stage in 1889, 

 but appeared occasionally later, and at the time of 

 his death had just returned from a tour in Russia, 

 lie was the author of plays and of a volume of rem- 

 iniscences of his artistic life during forty years. 



Rousseau, Arinand, a French administrator, 

 born in Tretlez, Finisterre, in 1835; died in Hanoi, 

 Toiiquin. D'c. 10, 1S96. He was educated at the 

 Polytechnic School in Parfe, and began life as a 

 Government engineer at Brest. In 1871 he was 

 elected a Republican Deputy from his native de- 

 partment. In 1876 he was appointed to a post in 

 the Ministry of Public Works. He was Under Sec- 

 retary of Public Works in the Freycinet Cabinet of 

 1882 and Under Secretary of Marine in the Brisson 

 Cabinet in 1885. Losing his seat, he was appointed 

 a member of the Council of State in 1886, and 

 shortly afterward was sent to Panama to report on 

 the canal, on which the Government wanted infor- 

 mation before sanctioning a new lottery loan. His 

 report set forth that a canal at the sea level would 

 be far too costly, and that locks must be adopted, 

 to which change of plan M. de Lesseps reluctantly 

 agreed. When M. Lanessan was dismissed at the 

 end of 1894, M. Rousseau was appointed to succeed 

 him as Governor of French Indo-China. While 

 still in Tonquin where eventually he fell a victim 

 to the climate he was elected a Senator for Finis- 

 terre in October, 1895. 



RHggiero,%taetanO, an Italian prelate, born in 

 Naples, Jan. 12, 1816 ; died in Rome, Oct. 9, 1896. 

 He was a distinguished writer and exponent of the 

 views in favor at the Vatican, and held the oflice of 

 secretary of the Department of Apostolic Briefs and 

 the Grand Chancellerie of Orders. He was created 

 a cardinal on May 8, 1889. 



Sassoon, Sir Albert Abdallah David, an In- 

 dian merchant and philanthropist .born in Bagdad, 

 July 25, 1818 ; died in Brighton, England, Oct. 24, 

 1896. His father, who was a merchant and state 

 treasurer of Bagdad and chief of the Mesopotamia!! 

 Jews, known by the title of Nassi or Prince of the 

 Captivity, left Bagdad in 1832 to settle in Bombay, 

 where he became one of the richest of Indian mer- 

 chants, leaving to his sons a fortune of 2,090,000. 

 Albert, the eldest, who received a European educa- 

 tion, succeeded his father as head of the banking 

 and mercantile firm of David Sassoon & Co., and 

 extended its reputation and operations. He sug- 

 gested and contributed liberally to the Elphinstone 



