189 



RUDING, ROGERS. 



RUFFO, FABRIZIO. 



190 



syntax. He also wrote a copious treatise on prosody, but published 

 only an abridgment of it. After this time he was made principal 

 keeper of the advocates' library. In 1739 he published Anderson's 

 ' Diplomata et Numismata Scotiao.' During the latter part of his life 

 he was engaged very much in controversy with different persons. 

 However in 1751 he found time to put forth an edition of Livy, in 

 four vols. 12mo, which Dr. Harwood pronounces one of the most 

 accurate editions ever published. About this time he resigned his 

 post of keeper of the advocates' library, and was succeeded by David 

 Hume. 



Ruddiman died at Edinburgh, January 19, 1757, in the eighty- 

 third year of his age. He was the author or editor of some other 

 publications besides those above mentioned, and among them ' The 

 Caledonian Mercury,' from which he is said to have derived more 

 profit than reputation. A Life of Ruddiman was published by 

 Mr. George Chalmers, 8vo, 1794. 



RUDING, ROGERS, was born at Leicester, August 9, 1751. He 

 was the second son of Rogers Ruding, Esq., of Westcotes, a member 

 of a highly respectable family, of which ^notices may be found in 

 Nichols's ' Leicestershire.' This gentleman was receiver-general for 

 the county, and as such came to London to pay the identical money 

 that he received into the Treasury. A friend, to whom Rudiiig men- 

 tioned this circumstance, suggests the possibility that this primitive 

 mode of transacting business may have contributed in some degree to 

 direct the mind of his son to the subject of money transactions. The 

 subject of this article was educated at Merton College, Oxford, of 

 which he was some time Fellow, and by which he was presented, in 

 1793, to the vicarage of Maldon and Chessington, two small adjoining 

 parishes in Surrey, which are always held together. He took the 

 degrees of B.A., 1771 ; M.A., 1775 ; and B.D., 1782. Mr. Ruding 

 married a* cousin of the same name, and by her had three sons, none 

 of whom survived him, and two daughters. 



Ruding's attention appears to have been early directed to the defects 

 of our monetary system, and in 1798 he published a pamphlet, 

 entitled 'A Proposal for restoring the ancient Constitution of the 

 Mint, so far as relates to the expense of Coinage ; together with a 

 plan for the improvement of Money, and for increasing the difficulty 

 of Counterfeiting.' In 1812 he issued proposals for his great work, 

 which was published in 1817, in four quarto volumes, under the 

 name of ' Annals of the Coinage of Britain and its dependencies, from 

 the earliest period of authentic history to the end of the fiftieth year 

 of his present majesty King George III.' The whole of the first edition 

 being sold within six months, it was shortly followed by another, in 

 octavo, which brought down the history to the middle of the year 

 1818; the additional matter being also printed in the form of a sup- 

 plement to the first edition. This important work, on the compila- 

 tion of which Mr. Ruding bestowed no ordinary amount of laborious 

 research, contains a chronological history of the monetary affairs of 

 this country, the constitution of the Mint, the process of coinage, and 

 the numerous and often ineffectual measures adopted to prevent the 

 deterioration and counterfeiting of the money. It also embraces an 

 account, geographically arranged, of all the Mints and Exchanges 

 formerly existing in various parts of the kingdom ; and a description 

 of the coins, illustrated by a series of more than a hundred plates, 

 including those previously published as tables of English gold and 

 silver coins, by Martin Folkes, Esq., which were lent by the Society 

 of Antiquaries for the purpose. 



Viewed simply as an historical work, Ruding's ' Annals of the Coin- 

 age ' is a book of great value and interest, embracing as it does the 

 result of the author's diligent investigation of a subject to which very 

 few could devote sufficient attention ; but the work had another 

 object, which may be explained by an extract from the author's 

 preface. He observes "Had these materials been collected for no 

 other purpose than the amusement of antiquarian curiosity, I should 

 have held myself blameable for the misapplication of much precious 

 time. But this work is given to the world with a higher and more 

 important view. Its object is to show, from the experience of ages, 

 the inadequacy of punishment, however severe, to prevent the com- 

 mission of the crime of counterfeiting the money, whilst the tempta- 

 tion to it remains so powerful, and the execution of it so easy. The 

 long succession of penal statutes, and the innumerable lives which 

 have been forfeited to them, seem to prove that the system is radically 

 defective, and that the crime can be prevented only by counteracting 

 and weakening the force of the temptation." Ruding considered his 

 theory to be supported by the great re-coinage of 1816 and 1817, at 

 which time the weight of the coins was so much diminished as to 

 remove the temptation to melting them down, while the coarseness 

 of the workmanship afforded such facility to imitation, that the real 

 coins and the counterfeits were ready for delivery almost at the same 

 instant. A new edition of this important work, extended to the com- 

 mencement of the reign of Victoria, edited by J. Y. Akerman, Esq., 

 aided by other numismatists, has been published by Mr. Hearne, in 

 three volumes, quarto. 



Mr. Ruding communicated many papers on coins, &c., to the 

 ' Gentleman's Magazine,' and memoirs on the trial of the pix and the 

 office of cuneator (which were, in fact, little more than chapters of 

 his larger work, perhaps put forth in that form to excite interest on 

 the subject) to the 17th and 18th volumes of the ' Archeeologia ' of the 



Society of Antiquaries, of which he was a Fellow. He was also an 

 honorary member of the Antiquarian Society of Newcastle-upon- 

 Tyne. He died at Maldon, on the 16th of February 1820, in his 

 sixty-ninth year. 



RUDOLF OF HABSBURG. [HiBSBxma, HOUSE OP.] 

 RUFFO, FABRI'ZIO, born about the middle of the 18th century, 

 was a younger son of a noble and wealthy Neapolitan family. He was 

 brought up for the church, for which however he had little disposition. 

 Being introduced at Rome to Pope Pius VI., he was appointed trea- 

 surer, in which capacity he exhibited considerable economic abilities, 

 and he incurred the jealousy of many of the older members of the 

 Roman court. At last he resigned his office on being made a cardinal, 

 and returned to Naples, where King Ferdinand I. appointed him 

 intendant or chief administrator of his palace and domain of Caserta. 

 Ruffo was fond of agriculture, and he applied himself to make im- 

 provements on the estate. When King Ferdinand was driven away 

 from Naples by the French republican army in 1798, Ruffo followed 

 him to Sicily. He had disapproved of the provocation given to the 

 French by the court of Naples, and he was consequently at variance 

 with the favourite minister Acton. The latter, in order to get rid of 

 his presence, recommended him to Queen Caroline as a fit man to 

 recover the kingdom of Naples by placing himself at the head of the 

 Royalist population of Calabria, in which province the family of Ruffo 

 had large estates, and exercised considerable local influence. The 

 queen approved of the plan, however hazardous it might appear, and 

 made the king sanction it by bestowing on Ruffo the rank of his vicar- 

 general, with full powers to act. Ruffo, glad to escape from the 

 intrigues and vexations of the court of Palermo, accepted the office. 

 In February 1799 he crossed over in a boat with an escort of only five 

 men and 3000 ducats, and landed at Bagnara, a fief of his family. He 

 collected a number of adherents, and unfurling the royal flag with a 

 white cross, proclaimed a crusade against the French and their partisans. 

 The republicans of Naples had committed many errors and acts of 

 oppression in the provinces, and had exasperated the rustic population, 

 which were not ripe for the change from old absolutism to a republican 

 form of government. . The Calabrians flocked by thousands to Ruffo's 

 standard. The army of "the Holy Faith," which was the name it 

 assumed, marched against the town of Monteleone, which surrendered 

 by capitulation, as well as Catanzaro ; it afterwards stormed Cotrone, 

 which was given up to plunder ; took Cosenza through the treason of 

 its commander; and thus in less than a month Ruffo was master of all 

 Calabria, where he re-established the king's government. He was 

 joined by many regular officers and soldiers, and was supplied with 

 artillery. He then took the road to Apulia, and laid siege to Altamura, 

 which opposed his passage. The inhabitants defended themselves 

 desperately, but the town was taken and plundered for three days 

 with circumstances of great atrocity. The people in other parts of 

 Apulia hoisted the royal flag ; the Abruzzo was already in open revolt 

 against the republicans of Naples, who were soon after abandoned by 

 the French troops, which withdrew ab the beginning of May towards 

 North Italy, in order to oppose the Austrians and Russians, who were 

 predominant in that quarter. Naples was left to its fate with only a 

 small French garrison in one of the castles. On the other side Ruffo 

 was joined by some regular Russian and Albanian forces from Corfu. 

 He then advanced towards Naples by Avellinp, and surrounded the 

 capital at the head of from fifty to sixty thousand, mostly irregulars. 

 After some fighting outside the town, an insurrection of the lower 

 orders from within facilitated the entrance of Ruffo's bands, and the 

 town became a scene of carnage ; but the republicans still defended 

 themselves in the castles and the adjacent districts, where they had 

 fortified the massive palaces and houses. Ruffo, willing to spare 

 further destruction, entered into a convention with the republicans, 

 who were to be shipped off for France. The capitulation was signed 

 by him, and a part of the republicans were actually sent off to France, 

 when King Ferdinand arrived from Sicily in the bay, at the end of 

 June, on board the English admiral Nelson's ship, and refused to 

 sanction the capitulation, saying that Ruffo had exceeded his powers 

 in treating with rebels, and he appointed a special court to try the 

 republicans, many of whom, chiefly of the higher orders of society, 

 were put to death. The minister Acton charged Ruffo with partiality 

 for the Jacobins, as they were called, and the cardinal, disappointed 

 and humiliated, seized the opportunity of leaving Naples for the 

 conclave, which had been summoned to assemble at Venice for the 

 election of a pope. Ruffo followed the new pope, Pius VII., to Rome, 

 where he was made Prefect of the Annona. Some years after he 

 returned to Naples, where he resumed his place at the court. When 

 the court of Naples was obliged to emigrate a second time to Sicily in 

 1805, in consequence of its own imprudence and tergiversations, 

 Queen Caroline proposed to Ruffo to put himself again at the head of 

 the country people to oppose the French, but Ruffo replied that 

 " once was quite enough in a man's life for such vagaries." He retired 

 to Rome, where he remained till 1809, when he went to France and 

 made his peace with Napoleon, and he was one of the cardinals who 

 sanctioned by his presence his second marriage. In 1814 he rejoined 

 Pope Pius VII. at Rome. After a time he returned to Naples, and 

 took again his seat in the council, where he displayed a marked modera- 

 tion of sentiments. He went to Rome in 1823 to the conclave in which 

 Leo XII. was elected, and died at Naples in 1827 at an advanced age. 



