HOWE HUBER. 



815 



mutiny among the seamen at Portsmouth. His 

 death took place Aug. 5, 1791). 



HOWE, SIR WILLIAM, brother of the preceding, 

 succeeded general Gage in the chief command of the 

 British forces in America, having landed at Boston 

 with generals Clinton and Burgoyne, in May, 1775. 

 General Howe commanded at the attack on Bunker 

 hill, was besieged in Boston during the next winter, 

 evacuated that town in the ensuing spring, and retired 

 to Halifax. In June, 1776, he arrived at Staten 

 Island, where he was joined by his brother, lord 

 Howe. Here the brothers informed congress that 

 they had received full powers to grant pardon to all 

 the rebels who should return to their obedience ; but 

 the commissioners appointed by that body considered 

 both the form and substance of the propositions too 

 objectionable to deserve attention. August 27, gene- 

 ral Howe defeated the Americans on Long Island, 

 and, September 15, took possession of New York. 

 After the campaign in the Jerseys, he set sail from 

 New York, and entered Chesapeake bay, August 

 24. September 23, having previously secured the 

 command of the Schuylkill; he crossed it with his 

 army, advanced to Germantown on the 26th, and, on 

 the 27th, lord Cornwallis entered Philadelphia. Oct. 

 4, general Howe repelled the attack of the Americans 

 at Germantowu. In May, 1778, he was succeeded 

 in the command by Clinton. He died in 1814. 



HOWEL THE GOOD, or HYWEL DDA, a Cambrian 

 prince, famous as a legislator in the tenth century, 

 in 926 went to Rome to obtain information prepara- 

 tory to the compilation of a code 01 laws for the 

 Welsh. On the return of Howel, a kind of national 

 convention was assembled of the heads of tribes, 

 and learned clergymen and laymen, by whose co-ope- 

 ration a collection of laws was prepared, founded on 

 the laws of Dunwallo Molmutius, an ancient British 

 sovereign ; and this code was constitutionally estab- 

 lished throughout the territories of Wales. Howel 

 went again to Rome in 930, to procure the farther 

 sanction of learned jurists for the confirmation of his 

 laws, which were long held in great veneration among 

 the inhabitants of Wales. These institutes are still 

 extant, and may be found among the Leges Wailiccz 

 ccclesiasticee et civiles, Hoelz Boni et aliorum fValliee 

 Principum, published by Wotton, in 1730. " The 

 laws and ordinances of Howel Dda," says Dairies 

 Barrington, " are the most regular of any extant, 

 and have been wonderfully preserved, considering 

 their antiquity ; but though there are many provi- 

 sions in them dictated by wisdom and sound policy, 

 there are some which it is impossible to peruse with- 

 out a smile, and others which should not be passed 

 over without censure." 



HOWITZER ; a piece of ordnance which ranks 

 midway between the cannon and mortar. It is 

 mounted upon a carriage, and throws its grenades in 

 a curve approaching a horizontal line (at the highest 

 16). The arrangement of the chamber, anil the 

 extensive range of the piece, resemble those of the 

 mortar. The length of the tube amounts to five 

 seventh times the caliber. The howitzer is used to 

 throw grenades (q. v.), case-shot, and sometimes fire- 

 balls. Its principal object, however, is the discharge 

 of grenades. Troops upon an open plain, who are 

 secure from the fire of cannon, can be reached and 

 injured by the discharge and bursting of grenades. 

 By the same means villages and towns can be set on 

 fire, and garrisons dislodged from their works. 

 Howitzers are of German invention, and bore, origi- 

 nally, the name of Haufenitz, when they were loaded 

 with old nails, broken glass, &c. From thence is 

 derived the French obusier, and the English howitzer. 



H. R. R. ; abbreviation for Heiligfs Romisches 

 Reich (holy Roman empire), met with in very many 



manuscripts, diplomas, and books printed during the 

 existence of the German empire, which, as is well 

 known, was, in theory, the continuation of the old 

 Roman empire. 



HUARTE, JUAN ; the only Spanish philosopher 

 who is much distinguished beyond the limits of his 

 own country. Nothing is known of his life, except 

 that from the title-page of his works, it appears that 

 he was born at San Juan del Pie del Puerto, in 

 Navarre. Some have therefore called him a French- 

 man, but, as Ferdinand the Catholic had taken pos- 

 session of Navarre, and driven out king Jean d'Al- 

 bert, Huarte may have been the son of Spaniards 

 who had settled there. He is known to have been 

 living about 1580, and to have been dead in 1590. 

 In the preface to his work, he says, that no one ought 

 to write before the age of thirty-one, and every pru- 

 dent man will lay down his pen when fifty years old. 

 He was a physician by profession. His work is en- 

 titled Examen de Ingenios para las Ciencias, &c., or 

 an examination of such geniuses as are born fit for 

 acquiring the sciences, " wherein, by marvellous and 

 useful secrets, drawn from true philosophy, both natu- 

 ral and divine, are shown the gifts and different abil- 

 ities found in man, and for what kind of study the 

 genius of every man is adapted, in such a manner, 

 that whoever shall read this book attentively will 

 discover the properties of his own genius, and be able 

 to make choice of that science in which he will make 

 the greatest improvement." This work has been 

 translated into many languages ; into English by 

 Carew and Bellamy, under the title of the Tryal of 

 Wits ; into German by Lessing, under the title of 

 P.rufung der Kopfe. Respecting the many paradoxes 

 of the author, Lessing says, A good horse strikes out 

 the brightest sparks when he stumbles. The work 

 is full of practical wisdom, and continues to be in 

 great esteem with the Spaniards ; and don Vicente 

 de los Rios, the author of the Fida de Miguel de Cer- 

 vantes, calls Huarte nuestro sabio Filosofo. Huarte 

 has been reproached for having published, as genuine, 

 a spurious letter of Lentulus, the proconsul, from 

 Jerusalem, in which a description of the Saviour's 

 person is given. 



HUBER ; a name of many distinguished authors, 

 including, 



1. JOHN JAMES HCBER, born 1707, in Switzerland, 

 died in 1778, professor of anatomy at Cassel. 



2. ULRICH HUBER, born at Dockum, in Friesland, 

 1636, died 1694, known by his work De Jure Civi- 

 tatis (Leyden, 1667, 4to) He was professor of law 

 at Franeker. 



3. His son, ZACHARIAS HCBER, born in 1669, dit-d 

 1731, also known as a jurist. 



4. MARY HUBER, an ingenious writer, was born 

 1694, at Geneva, and died 1759, at Lyons. She was 

 a deistical writer, and her principal work, Lettressur 

 la Religion de I' Homme (1739 and 1754), was tran- 

 slated into English and German. 



5. JOHN JAMES HCBER, born 1668, died 1748, a 

 painter whom Fussli, in his History of Swiss Painters, 

 calls the Swiss Tintoretto. 



6. MICHAEL HUBER, born 1727, in Bavaria, died 

 1804, was professor of the French language in Leip- 

 sic.and translated several German works into French, 

 which did much towards making the two nations 

 better acquainted with each other. 



7. Louis FERDINAND HUBER, born at Paris, 1764, 

 died 1804, son of the preceding. His Sammtlichd 

 Werke seit 1802 were published at Tubingen (1807). 

 He edited several journals. 



8. THERESA HUBER. born 1764, at Gottingen, 

 daughter of the celebrated philologist Heyne, was 

 married to Louis Ferdinand Huber. She is a popu- 

 lar German author. She wrote several novels, dur- 



