HARQUEBUSS HA RRIS. 



641 



over which the wires are distended, supported by 

 bridges. In the front the keys are disposed, the 

 long ones of which are the naturals, and the short 

 ones the sharps and flats. These keys being pressed 

 by tile fingers, their enclosed extremities raise little 

 upright oblong slips of wood, called jacks, furnished 

 with crow-quill plectrums, which strike the wires. 

 The great advantage of the harpsichord beyond most 

 other stringed instruments, consists in its capacity of 

 sounding many notes at once, and forming those 

 combinations, and performing those evolutions of 

 narmony, which a single instrument cannot com- 

 mand. This instrument, called by the Italians 

 clavicembalo, by the French clavecin, and in Latin 

 grave cymbalttm, is an improvement upon the clari- 

 chord, which was borrowed from the harp, and has, 

 for more than a century, been in the highest esteem, 

 and in the most general use, both public and private, 

 throughout Europe ; but, since the invention of that 

 fine instrument, the grand piano-forte, the use of it 

 has considerably diminished. 



HARQUEBUSS (in the ancient statutes called also 

 arquebus , haquebut, or hagbuf) is a hand-gun, or fire- 

 arm of a proper length, &c.,tobe borne on the arm. 

 The word is formed of the French arquebuse, and that 

 from the Italian archibuso, or arco a buso (of area, a 

 bow, and bitgio, a hole), on account of the touch-hole, 

 at which powder is put to prime it, and the circum- 

 stance of its having succeeded to the bows of the 

 ancients, The harquebuss is, properly, a fire-arm, of 

 the ordinary length of a musket or fowling-piece, 

 cocked, usually, with a wheel. Hanzelet describes 

 its legitimate length to be forty calibres, and the 

 weight of its ball one ounce seven-eighths ; its charge 

 of powder as much. There is also a larger kind, called 

 Arquebuse A croc, much of the nature of our blunder- 

 busses. This was used, in time of war, to defend 

 places, being usually rested on something when dis- 

 charged. The first time these instruments were 

 seen was in the imperial army of Bourbon, who drove 

 Bonnivet out of the state of Milan. They were so 

 heavy, that two men were employed to carry them. 



HARRINGTON, JAMES, a celebrated political 

 writer, was born at Upton, in Northamptonshire, in 

 1611, and was educated at Trinity college, Oxford, 

 under the care of the celebrated Chillingworth. On 

 the death of his father, he visited the Netherlands, 

 where he entered lord Craven's regiment, and, being 

 quartered at the Hague, frequented the courts of 

 the prince of Orange and the queen of Bohemia, and 

 accompanied the elector palatine to Denmark. He 

 subsequently visited Germany, France and Italy; 

 and, on his return to England, siding with the parlia- 

 mentary party, in 1646, he accompanied their com- 

 missioners to Charles I. at Newcastle, and, on their 

 recommendation, was appointed groom of the stole 

 to the king. In this capacity, he never disguised 

 his republican sentiments ; yet he was desirous of 

 producing an accommodation between Charles and the 

 parliament ; which is supposed to have produced his 

 removal from the king's person. During the protec- 

 torate, he passed his time in retirement, and occupied 

 his leisure in writing his famous work. Oceana ; 

 which, after some opposition on the part of Cromwell, 

 was published in 1656. In order to propagate his 

 opinions, he established a sort of club, or debating 

 society, called the Rota, which was terminated by the 

 restoration. Being arrested for a supposed plot 

 against the government, of which he was entirely 

 innocent, he was treated with great severity, and his 

 release by habeas corpus evaded, by an arbitrary 

 removal to St Nicholas island, near Plymouth. Here, 

 either from distress of mind, or improper medical 

 treatment, his faculties became impaired ; which, 

 teing represented to the king by his relations led to 



his release. He partly recovered, and married a 

 lady to whom he had been early attached. He died, 

 of paralysis, in 1677, and was buried at St Margaret's, 

 Westminster. Harrington was a profound thinker. 

 His Oceana, which is a political romance, and the 

 Utopian image of a republic, is a work of genius, 

 thought, and invention, and is characterized by an 

 enthusiastic love of liberty. The writings of Har- 

 rington were published (in one volume, folio) by 

 Tindal, in 1700, and again, more completely, by 

 Doctor Birch, in 1737. 



HARRIS, a district of the Hebrides, in the shire 

 of Inverness, comprehending the southern part of 

 Lewis, and the small islands which surround it, of 

 which Berneray, Calligray, Ensay, Pabbay, Taran- 

 say, Scalpay, and Scarp, only are inhabited ; besides 

 a vast number of pasture and kelp isles, holms and 

 high rocks, which are also distinguished by particular 

 names. The mainland of Han-is is separated from 

 Lewis by a narrow isthmus of about six miles, formed 

 by the approximation of the two harbours of Loch 

 Resort and Loch Seaforth. The whole length, from 

 the isthmus to the southern end of Harris, where the 

 sea separates it from North Uist, may be estimated 

 at twenty-five or twenty-six miles. Its breadth is 

 extremely various, intersected by several arms of the 

 sea, but it generally extends from six to eight miles. 

 Harris is again naturally divided into two districts 

 by two arms of the sea, called East and West Loch 

 Tarbert, which approach so near each other as to 

 leave an isthmus of not more than a quarter of a mile 

 in breadth. The northern district, between Tarbert 

 and Lewis, is termed the Forest, though without a 

 tree or shrub. Its surface is exceedingly mountain- 

 ous, but the valleys contain tolerable pasturage ; and 

 some coarse grass is found growing in the interstices 

 of the mountains. Along the eastern and western 

 shores there are a number of creeks or inlets of the 

 sea, most of them commodious harbours ; at each of 

 which a colony of tenants contrive, by a wonderful 

 exertion of industry, to raise crops from a soil of the 

 most forbidding aspect. The surface of the ground 

 south of Tarbert is much of the same appearance as 

 the northern district ; but the hills are not so elevated, 

 and the coasts are better adapted for culture, and 

 consequently better peopled. From the nature of 

 the soil, sheep are easier raised than black cattle. 

 The manufacture of kelp used to be the staple source 

 of support to the inhabitants, but the reducing of 

 the duty on barilla ruined that trade, and was the 

 occasion of much misery to the poor Highlanders. 

 On the mainland of Harris there are many monu- 

 ments of druidism, and several religious edifices, 

 erected about the time of the introduction of Chris- 

 tianity into the Scottish and Pictish nations. The 

 churches together with the smaller chapels, all seem 

 to have depended immediately on the monastery at 

 Rowadill, dedicated to St Clement ; which, though 

 its foundation be attributed to King David I. is 

 generally supposed to be of more ancient date. The 

 different branches of the family of Macleod of Mac- 

 leod, and of Harris, are proprietors of the island. 

 The mountains contain no minerals of great value, 

 except some iron and copper ore which has been dis- 

 covered : granite and freestone abound in every part. 

 Population of the parish of Harris in 1831, 3,900. 



HARRIS, JAMES, a learned writer on philology 

 and the philosophy of language, was born at Salis- 

 bury, in 1709. Having passed through his prelimi- 

 nary studies, he entered as a gentleman commoner 

 of Wadham college, Oxford, at the age of sixteen ; 

 after which he became a probationer at Lincoln's Inn. 

 The death of his father put him in possession of au 

 independent fortune at the age of twenty-three ; on 

 which he retired to his native place, to dedicate his 

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