11 



RAFFLES, SIR THOMAS STAMFORD. 



RAFN, CAUL CHRISTIAN. 



and Leo X. It is true that at this particular time a change took place 

 in the style of art adopted by Raffaelle. He had acquired a new sense 

 for the effect of masses in his drapery and in his lights and shades, 

 and he worked on principles more consonant with the modern notions 

 of picturesque composition. Which of the two sources of pleasure 

 from painting is the purest and the most genuine may be a subject 

 of dispute ; but there can be no dispute as to the fact that in 

 each line, as he successively adopted them, Raffaelle attained the 

 highest pitch of excellence of which they respectively admitted. We 

 cannot however allow that an artist who could execute the Cartoons 

 had lost the power of conceiving and worthily embodying Christian 

 subjects. 



The second consideration which seems to place Raffaelle before all 

 other painters is the fact that of the large number of works attributed 

 to him with any certainty, hardly one can be called ordinary or 

 common-place in its character. If we consider the early age at which 

 he died, his pictures are very numerous. The best of them are con- 

 fessedly superior to the finest productions of other masters, and their 

 average quality is in a still greater degree superior to the average 

 quality of the works of any other painter. Besides the ' St. Catherine,' 

 and the ' Portrait of Julius II.,' mentioned above, the National 

 Gallery possesses a small fraction on panel, by Raffaelle, of The Vision 

 of a Knight/ with the original pen-and-ink drawing from which it was 

 traced ; also a portion of a cartoon of ' The Murder of the Innocents/ 

 painted over with oil. The university of Oxford has the good 

 fortune to possess an admirable collection of Raffaelle's drawings, a 

 1 ait of the fine collection formed by Sir Thomas Lawrence. 



RAFFLES, SIR THOMAS STAMFORD, the son of a captain in 

 the West India trade, was born at sea, off Jamaica, July 5, 1781. His 

 early education was imperfect, for he was taken from school at the 

 age of 15, and placed as an assistant clerk in the India House. In this 

 situation he showed so much talent and industry, that he attracted 

 the notice of the directors, and in 1805 was appointed uuder-secretary 

 to the new government formed by the East India Company at Pulo- 

 Penaug, or Prince of Wales' Islaud. Here he devoted his attention to 

 the study of the Malay language, the vernacular dialect of almost all 

 the Eastern islands, iu which he made rapid progress, as well as in a 

 knowledge of the productions of Peuang and the adjoining country, 

 and the manners of the inhabitants. These acquirements rendered 

 him so Aiseful to the government, that he was soon appointed chief 

 secretary, an office which he filled with the greatest ability : intense 

 application in an unhealthy climate, however, soon brought on serious 

 illness, which compelled him to go to Malacca, in 1808, for the recovery 

 of his health. 



During his stay at Malacca, Raffles had an opportunity of mixing 

 with a great number of natives congregated there from all parts of 

 the Archipelago, from China, Cochin-China, &c., with whom he freely 

 associated. He thus obtained a very considerable knowledge of their 

 customs, trades, and languages, which was afterwards of great value 

 to him. In 1809 he published his first literary essay, ' On the Malay 

 Nation/ by which he attracted the notice of Lord Minto, governor- 

 general of India, who sent for him to Calcutta, and was anxious to 

 place him in the government of the Moluccas. Other events however 

 interfered with this intention, for Raffles so strongly represented to 

 Lord Minto the advantages which would accrue to the English govern- 

 ment from the reduction of the Dutch settlement of Java (Holland 

 being at that time annexed to France), that an expedition was fitted 

 out against Batavia, in 1811, which was attended with complete 

 success, that place being speedily captured. Raffles offered such 

 valuable assistance in the preliminary arrangements of this expedition 

 and in the execution of it, that he was appointed lieutenant-governor 

 of Java and its dependencies. He was only thirty years of age when 

 he undertook this responsible situation, which he held for five years, 

 being recalled in 1816, shortly before the island was restored to the 

 Dutch. In his administration he evinced great energy of character, 

 and displayed an anxious desire to advance the welfare of the native 

 population. He found it necessary to make great alterations in the 

 economy of the government, and a complete revision of the judicial 

 system of the colony. He likewise abolished the system of slavery 

 in the island. The policy of some of his measures was considered 

 doubtful by the authorities at home, and his youth made him 

 an object of jealousy to some of his colleagues; a number of charges 

 were consequently brought against him, which led to his recal. But 

 the toard of directors of the East India Company afterwards acknow- 

 ledged that his measures were all undertaken from most benevolent 

 and laudable motives. Raffles devoted a considerable portion of time 

 to the investigation of the natural productions of Java, and during his 

 residence there he made many excursions into the interior, and col- 

 lected much geological and geographical information respecting the 

 island, as well as many interesting facts concerning the numerous 

 ruina and other antiquities, and the character of the different native 

 tribe. He arranged and published the different materials which he 

 had thus collected, on his return to England, in his ' History of Java/ 

 which appeared in 1817, 2 vols. 4to. 



In 1818 he was appointed lieutenant-governor of Fort Marlborough, 

 the seat of the English government at Bcncoolcn, on the island of 

 SumAtra, and again returned to India, having first received the honour 

 of knighthood. Ho remained at Bencoolen six years, during which 



time he effected many improvements in the political constitution of 

 the colony and in the condition of the inhabitants. He emancipated 

 the slaves here, as he had done in Java, for which act he did not how- 

 ever escape censure. He established a British settlement at Singapore, 

 which has proved a most important commercial station, and founded 

 a college there for the encouragement of Anglo-Chinese and Malay 

 literature. Though distinguished by his administrative abilities, Sir 

 Stamford Raffles owes his reputation chiefly to his researches into the 

 natural productions of Sumatra, and particularly to his numerous 

 zoological discoveries. During one of his journeys into the interior, 

 accompanied by the enterprising and lamented Dr. Arnold, he dis- 

 covered the gigantic parasitical plant (or rather flower) which has been 

 called the 'Rafflesia Arnoldii/ In 1820 he sent home a large collec- 

 tion of preserved animals, which are now in the museum of the 

 London Zoological Society. The excitement of various official and 

 scientific engagements in a pestilential country, together with many 

 domestic afflictions (four out of his five children, and almost all his 

 personal friends, dying from the effects of the climate), so completely 

 destroyed his health, that he was obliged to resign his appointment 

 and return to England in 1824. In February of that year he embarked 

 with Lady Raffles on board the ship Fame, which took fire the same 

 night, by the carelessness of the steward. The crew and passengers 

 with difficulty saved themselves in the boats, and Sir Stamford was 

 obliged to remain at Bencoolen till the following April By this 

 disastrous event he entirely lost the greatest part of the extensive 

 collection which he had formed of animals and plants, as well as many 

 volumes of manuscripts and drawings relative to the civil and natu- 

 ral history of nearly every island in the Malayan Archipelago ; 

 besides this, which might be considered as a public loss, his own 

 pecuniary loss by the burning of the ship amounted to upwards of 

 20,000/. 



After his return to England he founded the present Zoological 

 Society, of which he was the first president. His health, however, 

 never recovered the shock which it had sustained, and he died in 1826, 

 before he had had time to arrange the numerous materials which he 

 had collected in the East. He left several manuscripts behind him. 

 (' Memoir by Lady Raffles.') 



* RAFN, CARL CHRISTIAN, the great living promoter of Ice- 

 landic literature, was born on the 16th January 1796, at Brahesborg 

 in the island of Funen. Even when a boy at the Cathedral-school of 

 Odensee he voluntarily applied himself to the study of Icelandic ; he 

 followed up the same pursuit at the University of Copenhagen, where 

 he took his degrees in jurisprudence. Being appointed in 1821 to a 

 post at the university library, his attention was directed to the vast 

 quantity of Icelandic manuscripts, yet unpublished, belonging to the 

 collection bequeathed there by Arnas Magnseus, and to the use that 

 might be made of them for shedding a light on hitherto obscure 

 portions of history. Early in 1824 he had a meeting of three Icelandic 

 students at his lodgings to consider of the best means of promoting 

 this object, and in 1825 he proposed and set on foot the "Society for 

 Northern Antiquities," " Selskab for Nordisk Oldkyndighed/ which a 

 few years after was taken under the patronage of the King of 

 Denmark, and which has awakened the attention of the world to the 

 subject it has prosecuted. Rafn was appointed its earliest secretary, 

 an office which he continues to hold, and he has devoted his life to its 

 objects. It had been customary to issue such Icelandic works as were 

 published by the Danish government and the Arne-Magnsean Com- 

 mission, in volumes of cumbrous size, with Latin or Danish transla- 

 tions and sometimes both, printed on the same or opposite pages, and 

 altogether in the most unattractive form. Under Rafn's direction 

 twelve volumes of the 'Forumanna Sb'gur' or ' Stories of the Ancients' 

 were printed in portable octavos, twelve volumes of a Danish trans- 

 lation and twelve of a Latin were printed to correspond with them, 

 and thus the student had an opportunity of acquiring either the 

 original only, or in case he wanted one, whichever translation he 

 pleased. Rafn took a great share in the translation and editorship 

 connected with these works and with the other publications issued by 

 the society. The 'Antiquitates Americanse/ issued by him in a quarto 

 volume in 1837 is of all the one that has produced the most sensation. 

 In this a collection is made of all the passages in the old Icelandic 

 sagas which describe the voyages to and history of Yinland. A 

 summary in English by Dr. Rafn is prefixed, entitled 'America 

 discovered by the Scandinavians in the Tenth century, an abstract of 

 the historical evidence contained in this work/ The abstract, which 

 was reprinted in the 'Transactions of the London Geographical 

 Society/ has been translated into every language of Europe, from 

 Polish to Portuguese, and it is now a received doctrine that Mas- 

 sachusetts had been reached by the Northmen five centuries before 

 Columbus. Dr. Rafu is now engaged on a similar work entitled, 

 ' Antiquitds Russes/ to prove by scattered passages from the sagas 

 that the Russian monarchy was founded by Scandinavian sea-rovers. 

 In his ' Gronlands Historiske Mindesmgerker/ or 'Historical Memorials 

 of Greenland,' (3 vols. 1838-40) brought out in conjunction with 

 Finn Magnusson, he rendered a similar service to the less attractive 

 annals of that barren coast. Among his other works is an edition of 

 the Fsereyinga Saga/ or ' History of the Feroc Islands/ in which the 

 Icelandic original is accompanied not only by a Danish translation but 

 by one in the Feroe language, made by a resident clergyman, and a 



