562 



GRENADE CRESSET. 



breadth. This country, together with Venezuela, was 

 formerly called Terra Firtna. It was formerly di- 

 vided into three audiences, Panama, Santa F< : , ;uul 

 Quito, and subdivided into twenty-four provinces ; 

 but a new division lias been made since New Grenada 

 and Venezuela have been united, and formed into a 

 republic. There are universities at Santa Fe de 

 Bogota, Quito, and Popayau. The principal rivers 

 are the Magdalena, Cauca, Apure, Meta, Putumayo, 

 and Caqueta. New Grenada abounds in the most 

 sublime mountain scenery. The great chain of the 

 Andes traverses this country from north to south, 

 and within the audience of Quito are found the lofty 

 summits of Chimborazo, Pinchinca, Cotopaxi, &c. 

 The mountains of this country are extremely rich in 

 gold and silver, and have also mines of platina, cop- 

 per, lead, and emeralds. The value of gold and silver 

 produced annually is stated at 650,000 sterling. 

 There are two mints, at Santa Fe and Popayan. 

 For further information, see Colombia, and Vene- 

 zuela. 



GRENADE; a hollow sphere of iron, differing from 

 a bomb by the smallness of its diameter. The smallest 

 grenades, or those thrown by the hand, are called hand 

 grenades ; they are from 2 to 3^ inches in diameter. 

 The fusee is calculated to burn from twelve to fif- 

 teen seconds, so that time is allowed for throwing 

 them. The short distance to which they can be 

 thrown, and the danger of accidents, have occasioned 

 them to be disused. The small grenades are now only 

 employed for what are called, in French, perdreaux, 

 several of them being fastened to a board, and thrown 

 from mortars. The grenades in general use are 

 thrown from howitzers, and are of very different sizes, 

 from 2 to 20 pounds weight. They are chiefly calcu- 

 lated to act against cavalry and distant columns, 

 where they may do great harm. In the battle of 

 Wagram, one grenade killed and wounded forty men. 

 As the utility of large grenades at sea is acknow- 

 ledged, but objections exist to the use of howitzers 

 of large calibre, the Americans introduced the use 

 of oval grenades in 1815, which may be fired from 

 12 and 24 pounders. The British imitated this, and 

 made the grenades with a spiral thread on the sur- 

 face, that the opposition of the air might give them 

 a rotatory motion, and thus more certainty of direc- 

 tion. Grenades are often thrown from cannons. Dur- 

 ing the siege of Gibraltar, they were thrown 3000 

 yards upon the Spanish works. 



GRENADIER ; originally a soldier destined to 

 throw the hand grenades. (See Grenade.) Soldiers 

 of long service and acknowledged bravery were 

 selected for this service, so that they soon formed a 

 kind of elite. They were the first in the assaults. 

 When hand grenades went out of use, the name 

 grenadier was preserved, and the troops so called 

 generally formed one battalion of a regiment, dis- 

 tinguished by the height of the men and a particular 

 dress, as, for instance, the high bear-skin cap. This 

 continues to be the case in most armies. In the 

 Russian and Prussian armies, the grenadiers form 

 whole regiments belonging to corps d'armie of the 

 guards. With the British and French, the grenadier 

 company is the first of each battalion. The dragoons 

 among the French also had grenadier companies, 

 which were afterwards united under the name of gre- 

 nadiers d cheval, a kind of cavalry between cuirassiers 

 and dragoons, and belonging to the guards ; and the 

 dragoons again had compagnies d'' elites. 



GRENOBLE ; an old city, situated in the former 

 province of Dauphiny, now capital of the department 

 of the Isere, 113 leagues S. E. from Paris ; lat. N. 

 45 11' 42'; long. E. 5 43' 57'; with 22,149 in- 

 habitants. It is the see of the suffragan bishop of 

 Lyons, the seat of several tribunals, and the head- 



quarters of a military division. Grenoble is a forti- 

 fied place. An old fortress called the Bastile, on a 

 hill of the same name, commands the whole city. It 

 contains several noble edifices ; among others, the 

 palace of the last constable of France, Lesdiguieres. 

 Here is also a law school, a royal College, and a pub- 

 lic library with 55,000 volumes and valuable manu- 

 scripts. Grenoble is the centre of a great manufac- 

 ture of gloves, and contains tanneries and important 

 distilleries; Commerce is facilitated by the Isere. A 

 number of distinguished men have been natives of 

 this place ; for instance, Bayard, Condillac, Mably, 

 Vaucanson, &c. The bridge over the Drac is a 

 single arch 120 feet high, and of 140 feet span. 

 Grenoble is a very old place, and of Gallic origin. In 

 the time of the Allobroges, it was called Calaro, 

 which name it retained under the Romans, until 

 Gratian enlarged it, and called it Gratianopolis. Re- 

 mains of antiquity which have been discovered here, 

 leave no doubt respecting its origin. It has been the 

 see of a bishop since the fourth century. Grenoble 

 was the first city of importance which opened her 

 gates to Napoleon, on his return from Elba. The 

 emperor, as his handful of troops were preparing for 

 the attack on the garrison of Grenoble, advanced 

 alone, and, uncovering his breast, said aloud to the 

 soldiers, S'il est parmi vous, s'il en est un seul qiti 

 veuille tuer son general, son empereur, il le pent, le 

 void. He was answered by cries of Vive I'empereur, 

 and joined by the soldiers. 



GRESHAM, SIR THOMAS, a merchant of London, 

 was born in 1519, and educated at Gonville hall, in 

 Cambridge. His father was agent of the king's 

 money affairs at Antwerp ; and, his successor having 

 brought them into a bad condition, young Gresham 

 was sent over, in 1552, to retrieve them. He ac- 

 quitted himself so well, that in two years he paid off 

 a heavy loan, and raised the king's credit consider- 

 ably. On the accession of Elizabeth, he was deprived 

 of his office ; but it was soon restored to him, with 

 that of queen's merchant, and he was also knighted. 

 In 1566, he planned and erected a burse or exchange, 

 for the merchants of London, in imitation of that of 

 Antwerp. In 1570, queen Elizabeth, visiting the 

 new building, solemnly proclaimed it the royal ex- 

 change ; which name its successor, since the fire of 

 London, still continues to bear. The troubles in the 

 Low Countries interrupting the loans from Antwerp 

 to the crown, Sir Thomas induced the moneyed men 

 in London to join in a small loan, which was the 

 commencement of the great advances since made 

 from the same body. He founded a college in Lon- 

 don, notwithstanding the opposition of the university 

 of Cambridge, and devised his house for habitations 

 and lecture rooms for seven professors, on the seven 

 liberal sciences, who were to receive a salary out of 

 the revenues of the royal exchange. Gresham col- 

 lege has since been converted into the modern general 

 excise-office ; but the places are still continued, with 

 a double salary for the loss of the apartments, and 

 the lectures are now given in the royal exchange. 

 He died suddenly, in 1579, at the age of sixty. 



CRESSET, JEAN BAPTISTS Louis, an agreeable 

 French poet, born at Amiens, 1709, entered the order 

 of the Jesuits in his sixteenth year, and left it ten 

 years afterwards, on account of the attention excited 

 by his poem Ver-Vert. In Paris he had the good 

 fortune to increase this reputation ; and, in 1748, he 

 was elected a member of the academy. He lived at 

 Amiens, where he filled an office in the financial de- 

 partment, and where he married a rich lady. After 

 the death of Louis XV., he visited Paris, and was 

 chosen to congratulate Louis XVI., in the name of 

 the academy, on his accession to the throne. The 

 court and the city were both desirous of beholding 



