REVISING BARRISTER 



REVOLVER 



events, character sketches and por- 

 traits of notable men and women, 

 reviews of books, and a selection 

 from contemporary caricatures. In 

 1921-22 Sir Philip Gibbs (?..) 

 was editor. Its success led to the 

 foundation of an American edi- 

 tion, which was edited by Albert 

 Shaw, in 1891, and an Australian 

 edition, edited by Rev. W. H. 

 Fitchett, in 1892. 



Revising Barrister. One ap- 

 pointed under the Registration of 

 Electors Act to investigate claims 

 and objections to the admission of 

 names on the register of persons 

 entitled to a parliamentary vote. 

 In England the revising barristers 

 were barristers of seven years' 

 standing, appointed annually by 

 the lord chief justice in London, 

 and throughout the country by the 

 senior judge on the summer circuit. 

 They held courts between Sept. 8 

 and Oct. 12, and appeal lay from 

 their decision to a divisional court 

 of the king's bench. The office 

 of Revising Barristers is now 

 abolished, and appeal is to the 

 county court. In Scotland the 

 revision of the register is carried out 

 by the sheriffs, subject to appeal 

 to the registration appeal court. 



In Ireland the registers of voters 

 are prepared- under the Registration 

 (Ireland) Rules, 1899, revision 

 being performed for the county and 

 city of Dublin by revising barris- 

 ters appointed by the lord-lieuten- 

 ant, and elsewhere by the county 

 court judges and chairmen of 

 quarter sessions. See Barrister; 

 Election ; Registration. 



Revival (Lat. re, again; vivere, 

 to live). Term used for a recovery 

 of any kind, for instance a re- 

 vival of culture or a revival of 

 trade. In a religious sense it refers 

 to any movement for promoting 

 and awakening religious zeal and 

 enthusiasm. Examples are the 

 Franciscan revival in the 13th 

 century, and the Wesleyan revival 

 in the 18th. In its more modern 

 sense the term is used for move- 

 ments among the evangelical de- 

 nominations especially in the 

 Free Churches in which great 

 outbreaks of fervour have accom- 

 panied the meetings conducted by 

 popular preachers. Among these 

 may be mentioned the work of 

 Moody and Sankey in 1874, and the 

 Welsh revival under Evan Roberts 

 in 1905-6. In 1921 a religious re- 

 vival among the fishing popula- 

 tion of Scotland and in E. Anglia 

 was reported. See Methodism; 

 Moody, D. L. ; Wesley, J. 



Revival of Learning. Euro- 

 pean movement from the -14th to 

 the 16th century, consisting of a 

 renewed interest in and know- 

 ledge of the Greek and Latin lan- 



guages, literatures, and antiquities. 

 An important phase of the Renais- 

 sance, it began about 1350 with 

 Petrarch and others. Learned 

 Greeks taught in Italy, Greek and 

 Latin classics were rediscovered, 

 and monastic education was re- 

 placed by that based on Human- 

 ism. The invention of printing 

 powerfully aided the movement, 

 which had spent its force in Italy 

 by 1520 and spread northward. 

 See Bembo, P. ; Education ; Eras- 

 mus, D. ; Humanism ; Library ; 

 Mirandola, P. della ; Petrarch, F. ; 

 Poliziano, A. ; Printing ; Renaiss- 

 ance ; Reuchlin, J. 



Revocation (Lat., calling back). 

 In English law, taking back, 

 annulment, or cancellation of a 

 thing done or granted. A contract 

 may be revoked by mutual consent 

 before anything is done under it. 

 A will may always be revoked ; and 

 it is frequently advisable, on mak- 

 ing a fresh will, to say, " I revoke 

 all former wills by me made." The 

 authority of an agent is revoked by 

 the death or bankruptcy of his prin- 

 cipal. It is also used for the annul- 

 ling of any law, e.g. the revocation 

 of the edict of Nantes in 1685. 



Revolt of Islam, THE. Poem in 

 twelve cantos by Percy Bysshe 

 Shelley. Originally printed in 1817 

 as Laon and Cythna, or the 

 Revolution of the Golden City : A 

 Vision of the Nineteenth Century, 

 it was suppressed and published in 

 the following year under its present 

 title. Written in Spenserian 

 stanzas, it has many beautiful 

 passages, but lacks any sufficient 

 plot to hold the interest through 

 nearly 5,000 lines. It is a story of 

 revolution produced by the in- 

 dividual genius of the hero and 

 heroine, the Golden City being 

 Constantinople. 



Revolution (Lat. re, again ; 

 volvere., to turn). Term used for 

 the motion of any body round a 

 centre or axis, for instance the 

 revolution of the moon round the 

 earth. In political science the 

 word refers to any violent political 

 change, such as the forcible over- 

 throw of a regular form of govern- 

 ment. It is thus opposed to reform, 

 which implies a gradual change car- 

 ried out by constitutional methods. 

 In England the substitution of 

 William III for James II, although 

 bloodless, is known as the great 

 revolution. Other examples are the 

 French Revolution, the American 

 Revolution, and the overthrow of 

 the tsarist regime in Russia in Mar., 

 1917. The change that turned 

 Britain from an agricultural into a 

 manufacturing country is known 

 as the Industrial Revolution (q.v. ). 

 See England : History ; French 

 Revolution. 



Revolver. Pistol with a re- 

 volving cylinder, comprising a 

 group of cartridge chambers, capa- 

 ble of firing a number of shots with- 

 out reloading. The principle of re- 

 volving barrels is of considerable 

 antiquity, and a few specimens of 

 flint-lock revolvers are known. The 

 complication was, however, too 

 great for firearms of that nature 

 to have much vogue, and the 

 advent of the percussion cap was 

 necessary for the revolver to 

 become a success. 



The " pepper-box," one of the 

 earliest varieties, is fairly well 

 known. It had four or six barrels, 

 generally all bored in the same 

 block of metal, which rotated round 

 a central axis as the hammer was 

 worked. The development of the 

 revolver is chiefly due to the efforts 

 of Colonel Colt, who devoted much 

 time to the subject from 1835 on- 

 wards. By that date he had pro- 

 duced a very efficient weapon hav- 

 ing one barrel and a revolving 

 cylinder with six chambers. The 

 latter were muzzle-loading and the 

 hammer had to be cocked by hand 

 for each shot, i.e. the revolver was 

 of the type known as " single 

 action." They were extremely 

 reliable and very accurate. 



Breech-loading revolvers began 

 to appear about 1850. By 1870 

 most revolvers were breech-load- 

 ing, and central fire ammunition 

 had been introduced. It had dis- 

 placed all other varieties for the 

 larger calibres, although at the 

 present time pin-fire ammunition is 

 used in large numbers of cheap 

 Belgian revolvers, whilst rim-fire is 

 paramount for -22 calibre. Up to 

 1890 most revolvers were of the 

 solid frame type, the empty car- 

 tridge cases being ejected one at a 

 time through a slot in the end 

 plate by means of a sliding pin, and 

 all were single-acting. 



The self-ejecting type of weapon 

 was invented by Smith and Wesson, 

 the barrel and cylinder together 

 pivoting on the frame, the action 

 of " breaking " the revolver caus- 

 ing a flange on the end of the cylin- 

 der to rise and throw out all the 

 empty cases. Double-action re- 

 volvers, i.e. those in which a long 

 pull on the trigger cocks the 

 hammer and then lets it fall to fire 

 the shot, also became general about 

 the same time. In ejecting mechan- 

 ism of this type it is essential that 

 the catch holding the barrel to the 

 top of the frame be of very sound 

 construction, and many experts 

 hold the view that this type of con- 

 struction is unsafe for a weapon of 

 greater calibre than -32. The Colt 

 system overcomes this objection 

 by the use of a solid frame, that is, 

 the barrel and frame are con- 



