RANGPUR 



RANKE 



577 



Burma, the Phayre Museum in the horticultural 

 wardens, St John's College, the high school, a hos- 



Eital, &c. Along the river-side are numerous rice- 

 usking-mills and sawmills. Pop. (1852) 25,000; 

 <1872) 89,897; (1881) 134,176; (1891) 181,210. A 

 little less than one-half are Burmese, and the 

 natives of India are nearly as many. Rangoon is the 

 principal port in all Burma, about 86 per cent, of 

 the total trade of that country passing in and out 

 at this port. Its trade has grown at a wonderfully 

 rapid rate since the British took possession of 

 Lower Burma. In 1852 the port was entered hy not 

 more than 125 small vessels, and even in 1859 the 

 total imports and exports together had only risen 

 to 2,131,000. By 1878 the statistics of the port 

 stood at 559,000 tonnage of vessels entering ; value 

 of imports 3,777,700, and of exports 4,414,300. 

 Since 1890 the port is entered byaoout 1001* vessels 

 annually of some 1,000,000 tons burden ; the total 

 imports (excluding coasting trade) are valued at 

 about 5,000,000 a year, and the total exiiorts at 

 9,000,000. The chief exports are rice, teak, india- 

 rubber, raw cotton, and other articles mentioned in 

 the article BUKMA. Since the incorporation of 

 Burma with British India, Rangoon ranks as fourth 

 of the commercial cities of the Indian Kmpire. A 

 town has existed on the site of Rangoon since the 

 6th century B.C. It was always called Pagon 

 down to the capture of the place by the Burmese 

 sovereign Alompra towards the end of the 18th 

 century. That prince rebuilt the place ami called 

 it Rangoon. It was taken by the British in lsi">, 

 and held until 1827 ; they captured it again in 

 1852, and have kept possession of it ever since. 



Kaiminir. a town of Bengal, on the Ghaghat, 

 an arm of the Brahmaputra, and 1 10 miles SE. of 

 Darjiling. It is the capital of a district in a great 

 well-watered, fertile, well-tilled plain of sandy 

 loam. Pop. 14,500. 



Ranjit Singh, the founder of the Sikh king- 

 dom in the Punjab of India, was born at Gujran- 

 wala on 2d November 1780, the son of a Sikh chief. 

 His father died when he was twelve and his mother 

 when he was seventeen years old. He at once began 

 to show his ambition and capability for rule, and 

 after the shah of Afghanistan had given him the 

 province of Lahore he directed all his energies to 

 the founding of a kingdom which should unite all 

 the Sikh provinces under his own personal rule (see 

 SIKHS). He died on 27th June 1839. He procured 

 from an Afghan prince, as the price of his assist- 

 ance in war, the famous Koh-i-nur diamond (sec 

 DIAMOND). See Sir L. Griffin, Ranjit Singh 

 (Oxford, 1892). 



Rank in the military forces of the British 

 empire is not confined to the commissioned classes ; 

 the various grades of non-commissioned ollicere, 

 and even the titles gunner, driver, sapper, or 

 private are officially styled ranks. Lance or acting 

 rank is a temporary advancement. Thus, a private 

 or sapper is first made a lance-corporal, and a 

 gunner or driver an acting- bombardier, before 

 being permanently promoted. Until so promoted 

 they rank only as private soldiers. Similarly a 

 lance-sergeant is a corporal acting as sergeant, and 

 holds only the lower rank. 



Officers of the army and royal marines may 

 hold either regimental or army rank or both. Up 

 to captain inclusive, rank is purely regimental. 

 Afterwards a captain may he promoted in his regi 

 nient to the successive ranks of major and lieuten- 

 ant-colonel, or while still remaining a captain in 

 his regiment he may become a major or lieutenant- 

 colonel in the nrmy by Brevet (q.v.). The rank of 

 colonel i* purely 1111 army rank, obtainable only by 

 brevet or on receiving an appointment, such as 

 assistant -adjutant general, which carries that rank. 

 401 



The several grades of General (q.v.) are also army 

 ranks only. Local rank is sometimes conferred on 

 an officer to enable him to exercise command over 

 others senior to him in a certain locality (South 

 Africa, Egypt, &c. ). Temporary rank is often 

 similarly granted, and some appointments carry 

 such rank ; for instance, a colonel appointed quar- 

 termaster-general in India becomes a temporary 

 major-general while so employed, and reverts to 

 the lower rank at the end of his five years' term of 

 office unless promoted in the meantime. Honorary 

 rank is held by officers of the ordnance-store and 

 army -pay departments and by Quartermasters 

 (q.v.) and riding-masters. Officers of the militia, 

 yeomanry, and volunteers also, after a certain 

 number of years' service, receive a step of honorary 

 rank. Substantive rank includes all rank other 

 than army, brevet, honorary, local, and temporary 

 rank, held by officers unless they are on the unem- 

 ployed half-pay list. Half-pay rank as lieutenant- 

 colonel (200 a year) may be taken by an officer 

 after seven years' service as major. Relative rank 

 is held by army chaplains and veterinary surgeons. 

 It carries with it all precedence and advantages 

 attaching to the military rank with which it cor- 

 responds, and regulates rates of lodging-money, 

 number of servants and horses, rations of fuel and 

 light (or allowances in their stead), detention and 

 prize-money. It does not entitle the holder to 

 salutes from ships or fortresses, nor to the turning 

 out of guards, and, of course, it does not confer any 

 right to command. The corresponding ranks in the 

 army and navy are shown in the following table, 

 where the asterisks denote ' according to date of 

 commission,' and the dagger 'junior of the rank.' 



N*y. Army. 



Admiral of the Fleet .............. rtnk with Field-marshal.* 



Admirals ........................ rank ,i Generals. 



Vice-admirals ...................... .. Lieut-generals * 



Rear-admirals .................... H Major-generals. * 



Captains of the Fleet ........... ) i, . , 



Commodores, 1st and 2d class..; Brig. -generals.' 



Captains over 8 years' sen-ice . ... ,i H Colonels.* 



Captains under S years' service ... n ,. Lieut-colonels.* 



('"iniii.-iiidere ..................... i, n Lieut, -colonels, t 



Lieutenants of 8 years' standing. . n i, Majors.* 



I. HMiu-nants tinder 8 years' standing u Captains.* 



Hub-lieutenants .................. u ,t Lieutenants.* 



"' 110 "'' 1 " " " M Lieut-nants* 



Ranke, LEOPOLD VON, the greatest of German 

 historians, was l>orn on 21st December 1795, at 

 Wiehe, about half-way between Gotha and Halle. 

 Although he studied theology and philology at 

 Halle and Berlin, and in 1818 began to teach at 

 the gymnasium of Frankfort-on-Oder, his chiefest 

 thoughts were given to the study of history, to 

 which they were directed principally by his Luther 

 studies and the reading of Scott's romances. The 

 two works, Geschichte der romanischen und gentian- 

 ixchen Volker von 1494 bis 1535 (1824) and 

 Zur Kritik nenerer Geschicktschreiber (1824), pro- 

 cured him a call to Berlin as professor of History 

 in 1825. The latter of these works, and Analcctn 

 to his subsequent books, expound his views of 

 the functions of history, and the methods of 

 the ideal historian. History is the record of 

 facts. It should know nothing of the political 

 party, or church politics, or subjective views of the 

 writer. It should be based upon sound document- 

 ary evidence, critically examined and sifted. In 

 1827 he was sent by the Prussian government to 

 consult the archives of Vienna, Venice, Rome, and 

 Florence ; four years he spent in this work, and 

 returned with a mass of the most valuable historical 

 materials. The results of his labours were seen in 

 Fursten und Volker von Siid-Europa im 16 imd 17 

 Jahrhundert (1827) and other books dealing with 

 Servia, Turkey, and Venice ; and Die riimtschen 

 Piipste im 16 und 17 Jahrhundert ( 1834-37 ; 9th ed. 



