RIEMANN 



RIFLE 



found guilty of treason and was 

 hanged at Regina, Nov. 16, 1885, 

 an event that aroused hot passions 

 in Canada. See The Creation of 

 Manitoba : or, A History of the 

 Red River Troubles, A. Begg, 

 1871 ; History of the Hudson Bay 

 Company, G. Bryce, 1900. 



Ricmann, GEORG FRIEDRICII 

 . BKRNHARD (1826-66). German 

 mathematician. Born at Breselenz, 

 Hanover, Sept. 17, 1826, he studied 

 mathematics at Gottingen, where 

 he was a pupil of Gauss, and at 

 Berlin, under Jacobi. He succes- 

 sively became privatdocent, 1854, 

 adjunct professor, 1857, and pro- 

 fessor, 1859, at Gottingen, and 

 died July 20, 1866. Riemann was 

 one of the most brilliant mathe- 

 maticians of the 19th century. He 

 suffered ill-health and was severely 

 handicapped by poverty, but de- 

 spite these drawbacks his work on 

 non-Euclidean geometry, on the 

 theory of functions of -a complete 

 variable, and on the surfaces which 

 bear his name, stamp him as a 

 mathematician of the highest 

 originality. 



Rienzi, COLA DI (c. 1313-54). 

 Roman patriot. The son of an inn- 

 keeper, he became a notary. Em- 

 bittered by 

 the death of 

 his brother, 

 who had been 

 murdered by 

 a patrician, 

 Rienzi threw 

 all his ener- 

 gies into the 

 cause of the 

 people. A 

 visit to Cle- 

 ment VI at 



Cola di Rienzi, 

 Roman patriot 



Avignon, 1343, brought him to 

 more public notice. On Whit- 

 sunday, May 20, 1347, Rienzi's 

 plans took shape in the calling of a 

 national council on the Capitol Hill. 

 There he harangued the people, 

 and was soon after proclaimed 

 tribune. Asserting his jurisdiction 

 over the other cities of Italy under 

 the title of dictator, he cited the 

 emperor and the electors to appear 

 before him. In face of the opposi- 

 tion of the nobles and the im- 

 possibility of maintaining the 

 position he claimed, his popularity 

 soon waned, and after a few tem- 

 porary successes against the nobles 

 he was crushed, Dec. 15, 1347, and 

 Hed. In 1354, after many im- 

 prisonments and vicissitudes, 

 Rienzi was sent as senator to Rome 

 by Innocent VI, but he had lost 

 his popularity, and while attempt- 

 ing to quell a riot he was killed, 

 Oct. 8, 1354. Bulwer Lytton, 

 who proposed to write a Life of 

 Cola di Rienzi, made him the 

 central figure of his historical 



romance Rienzi, the Last of the 

 Roman Tribunes, which adheres 

 closely to the facts, and was written 

 in Rome. On this Wagner based 

 his opera, first produced in 1842. 



Riesa. Town of Saxony. It 

 stands on the Elbe, 33 m. by rly. 

 N.W. of Dresden. A rly. junction, 

 its chief industry is shipping, and 

 it is one of the most flourishing 

 river ports on the Elbe, exporting 

 coal, grain, etc., and has steamers 

 to Dresden and elsewhere. There 

 are several manufactures, and 

 before 1919 Riesa was a military 

 centre. Pop. 15,300. 



Riesengebirge (Ger., giant 

 mountains). Mt. range of Ger- 

 many. It is 23 m. long, separating 

 Bohemia from Prussian Silesia. It 

 forms part of the great Sudetic 

 system which extends from the 

 Oder to the Elbe. Its outlines are 

 undulating rather than rugged, 

 while the valleys are extremely 

 beautiful. The geological forma- 

 tion of the range is a blend of 

 granite and gneiss. The highest 

 peaks are the Schneekoppe, 5,260 

 ft., and the Brunnenberg, 5,120 ft. 



Riesi. Town of Sicily, in the 

 prov. of Caltanissetta. It is 14 m. 

 S. of the town of Caltanissetta, 

 and is noted for its wine and oil. 

 Sulphur is worked in the adjacent 

 mines. Pop. 15,000. 



Rieti. City of Italy, in the prov. 

 of Perugia. The ancient Reate, it 

 stands on the river Velino, 15 m. 

 direct and 25 m. by rly. S.E. of 

 Term. It has a cathedral dating 

 from 1456, and an episcopal palace 

 of the 13th century. It trades in 

 wine, oil, and cattle. Reate, which 

 was a Sabine city, received the 

 Roman franchise in 290 B.C. It 

 was sacked by the papal troops 

 in 1799. Pop. 14,000. 



Rievaulx. Village of York- 

 shire (N.R.), England. On the Rye, 

 its name a corruption of Rye 

 Vale, it is 3 m. from Helmsley, its 

 station on the N.E. Rly. It is 

 famous for the ruins of its abbey, 

 the oldest Cistercian house in York- 

 shire. Founded 

 about 1130, its re- j 

 mains consist of 

 parts of the choir 

 and transepts of 

 the church, the re- 

 fectory, chapter 

 house, etc. In 1920 

 the ruins were 

 carefully exam- 

 ined and a good 

 deal of the nave 

 was cleared and its 

 plan traced. It 

 had six chapels, 

 and two of their 

 altars were found 

 to be practically 

 perfect. See Abbey. 



Rif OR ER-RIF. Mountainous 

 dist. in N. Morocco, bordering upon 

 the Mediterranean. The moun- 

 tains extend for about 180 m. from 

 the W. frontiers of Algeria to the 

 Jebel Hassan, S.W. of Tetuan, 

 whence a N. spur, known as the 

 Sierra de Bullones, runs towards 

 Ceuta and terminates in the 

 Jebel Musa. The country, which 

 falls within the Spanish zone, is 

 wild and difficult of access. The 

 Berber tribes are turbulent, and 

 have been in constant insurrection 

 against Spain. The principal port 

 of entry is Melilla. Fighting took 

 place between the tribesmen and 

 Spanish troops, resulting in the 

 heavy defeat of the latter, July- 

 Aug., 1921. See Morocco. 



Rifle. Firearm of the musket 

 type, having a specially grooved 

 barrel. In it the bullet is thus 

 caused to rotate during its passage 

 through the barrel. The rotation 

 is maintained during flight and 

 increases the accuracy of fire. The 

 invention of rifled firearms oc- 

 curred about 1500, and is generally 

 ascribed to August Kotter, of 

 Nuremberg. The rifle had become 

 sufficiently general by 1563 for the 

 Swiss to institute special rules re- 

 garding its use in competitions 

 against smooth bores. It was, 

 however, only very slowly adopted 

 for military purposes. The British 

 learnt the value of the military 

 rifle in the American War of Inde- 

 pendence, when they were opposed 

 by large bodies of men armed with 

 the sporting rifles which were their 

 private property, and it became 

 necessary for Britain to subsidise 

 corps of Continental jagers who 

 were armed with rifles, to compete 

 against the American marksmen. 



After the war these mercenary 

 troops were replaced by the King's 

 Royal Rifles. The Rifle Brigade 

 had been equipped with the 

 Baker rifle in 1800. The great diffi- 

 culty with the weapon was still 

 its slow loading, and various ex- 

 pedients were tried in the way of 



Rievaulx, Yorkshire. Ruins of the Cistercian abbey, 

 from the south-east 



