REBEC 



RECEIPT 



597 



in which he details his discoveries of the mode of 

 producing steel from iron, and of the mode of 

 tinning iron. For these and other researches he 

 received from the French government a sum of 

 12,000 livres, which he spent in promoting and 

 encouraging the industrial arts in his native 

 country. In 1739 he succeeded in producing an 

 opaque glass which was equal to the porcelain of 

 Saxony and Japan. His invention of the Thermo- 

 meter (q.v.) which bears his name need not be 

 more than mentioned here. He died of a fall from 

 a horse, 17th October 1757, leaving behind him a 

 voluminous collection of works on all the subjects 

 above stated, also a treatise on ' the silk of spiders,' 

 a number of Memoirs (1731 40), containing his 

 thermometric researches on air, and on mixtures 

 of fluids with fluids or solids, and his Mtmoires 

 finiir ervir d FHintoire lies Inaectes (Amsterdam, 

 !-' vols. 1737-48). 



Rebec (Arabic rebab), an ancient musical 

 instrument of the violin kind, of which the l>ody, 

 instead of consisting of two hemispherical enlarge- 

 ments, like other instruments of the same tribe, 

 was narrow towards the neck, and gradually 

 enlarged till it rounded off at the lower end. 

 Milton, in his L'Alleyro, characterises this instru- 

 ment as the 'jocund rebec.' 



Rebecca Riots a series of popular outbreaks 

 wliirh originated in Carmarthenshire in 1843-44, 

 and quickly spread over Pembroke, Cardigan, ami 

 Brecon. They grew out of the impatience of the 

 people at the great increase of toll-gates on public 

 roads, and owed their singular name to their adopt- 

 ing a a motto Genesis, xxiv. tin. Bands of men live 

 hundred strong, their leaders disguised in women's 

 clothes, scoured the country by night, threw down 

 the toll-bars, and then dispersed. A strong force 

 of soldiers was poured into the country, but the 

 rioters offered an olwtinate resistance, and were 

 not put down without great difh'ctilty and consider- 

 able bloodshed. The commission appointed by 

 government to inquire into the causes of the out- 

 break found that it grew out of a genuine public 

 grievance, whereupon measures of relief were intro- 

 duced. The rioters seized were punished lightly. 



Rebellion. 'The Great ReMlion ' generally 

 means the revolt of the Long Parliament against 

 the authority of Charles I. (q.v.). See also ( 'KOM- 

 WELL, FALKLAND, HAMPDEN, &c. ; ENGLAND 

 (p. 362); and the works of S. K. Gardiner. The 

 revolts on behalf of the House of Stuart in 1715 

 and 1745 are often, particularly in Scotland, spoken 

 of emphatically as ' The Rebellion ' ( see JACOBITES ). 

 The term is applied in the United States to the 

 secession of the southern states. 



Rebus, an enigmatical representation of a name 

 or thing by using pictorial devices for letters, 

 syllables, or parts of words. The term probably 

 in initiates from the device speaking to the beholder 

 ///,// i-rrliin sed rebitg. Devices of this kind, allusive 

 to the bearer's name, were exceedingly common in 

 the middle ages, particularly in England. In marry 

 instances they were used by ecclesiastics and 

 others -who had not a right to armorial ensigns. 

 See BADGE. 



Recamier, MADAME (nte JEANNE FRANCOISE 

 JULIE ADELAIDE BERNARD), a famous French- 

 woman, was born at Lyons, 4th December 1777. 

 She grew up a girl of remarkable grace and lieauty, 

 and at fifteen she was married to M. Jacques 

 Recamier, a rich banker about thrice her own age. 

 Her salon was soon filled with the brightest wits 

 of the literary and political circles of the day, but 

 fortunately for herself Madame Recamier possessed 

 a temperament that saved her from temptation 

 and almost scandal. For Madame de Stael she 

 had a warm affection that survived the exile 



required by the jealousy of Napoleon. Soon after 

 this her husband was completely ruined, and 

 Madame Recamier visited Madame de Stael at 

 Coppet in Switzerland (1806). Here she met 

 Prince August of Prussia, who alone of all her 

 innumerable admirers is supposed to have touched 

 her heart Indeed a marriage was arranged, pro- 

 vided M. Recamier would consent to a divorce. 

 The good man did not refuse, but his kindness 

 was too much for the generous heart of Madame 

 Recamier, who declared she could not leave him 

 in his adversity. The most distinguished friend 

 of her later years was M. de Chateaubriand. In 

 1846 he became a widower, and he then wished to 

 marry Madame Recamier, whose husband had teen 

 dead since 1830, but the lady declined the honour 

 without interrupting the current of their friend- 

 ship. Chateaubriand died 4th July 1848, and she 

 followed him to the grave on llth May 1849. 



See Souvenirs el Corretpondanee tiret det Papieri de 

 Madame JUcamier, edited by her niece, Madame Lenor- 

 inant ( 1859), and Madame R'eamirr, by the same (1872); 

 also tin- biography by Branier (1875), and the Lrltertof 

 Benjamin Constant to her, at length published in 1881. 



Rccnnati, a town of Italy, 15 miles S. of 

 Ancona, has a Gothic cathedral with a monument 

 to Po|>e Gri'gnrv XII. Here Leopardi was born. 

 Pop. 5824. Porto Hccaiiati, fi miles NE. on the 

 Adriatic coast, has a pup. of 3040. 



Receipt is the technical as well as popular 

 term signifying a legal acknowledgment of money 

 received in discharge of a debt or demand. In 

 England it is often believed that a written receipt 

 is the only legal proof of payment ; the fact being 

 that it is only one mode of proving it. If the 

 money be paid in presence of witnesses, or even 

 without witnesses, provided a jury or judge believe 

 the statement on path of the party paying it, this 

 is in England quite as jjood evidence of the pay- 

 ment as if a written receipt were given ; and even 

 a written receipt is conclusive only where it is 

 under seal, or endorsed on a conveyance under the 

 Conveyancing Act of 1881, unless the purchaser 

 had notice to the contrary, or on a marine policy 

 Ix-tween assured and underwriter. In other CAM* 

 a receipt is only jirimA facie evidence, and may l>e 

 explained. If a receipt is in writing and the sum 

 paid exceeds 40s. it must l>e stamped with a penny 

 receipt-stamp (which may lie an adhesive stamp), 

 to be cancelled before delivery, otherwise the 

 receipt is inadmissible as evidence of payment; but 

 on payment of certain penalties the receipt may 

 l>e after-stamped with an impressed stamp. Not 

 only is a receipt proper subject to stamp-duty, 

 but also any note or memorandum given to a 

 person on payment of money, and acknowledging 

 payment of any part of a debt or demand, whether 

 signed or not ; so receipts given on payment of 

 bills of exchange or promissory-notes are liable 

 to stamp-duty. But a mere acknowledgment of 

 indebtedness, as a receipt 'on loan,' or an I O U, 

 is not stampable as a receipt. There are several 

 exceptions from liability to stamp-duty. Such are 

 receipts for deposits with bankers to be accounted 

 for; receipts for any parliamentary taxes or duties, 

 or for any payment to the Sovereign ; receipts by 

 officers, seamen, marines, or soldiers for wages or 

 pay ; receipts for purchase of government stock 

 or for money due under Exchequer Bill ; receipts 

 written on any bill or note of the Bank of England 

 or of Ireland, on the back of duly stamped bills 

 of exchange or promissory. notes, or upon the back 

 of duly stamped instruments acknowledging the 

 receipt of money ; and generally receipts to or by 

 government departments. At one time, under the 

 Act of 1803, it was supposed to be the duty of the 

 debtor to provide stamped paper for a receipt, the 



