ROD 



HOP 



laws, and in obedience to the Holy See. 

 The (.errors <,f the Inquisition no longer 

 exist; tiiu ihunders of the Vatican are 

 ceased or disregarded ; some of the most 

 offensive maxims of popery are not only 

 destroyed by the liberal spirit of the 

 times, out even publicl} disavowed by nu- 

 merous und resj)ectable bodies of Catho- 

 lics : in short, little now remains of the 

 Romish fai'h and practice, especially in 

 ouroxvn country, that ought t' give seri- 

 ous offence to' liberal Protestants of the 

 Church of England ; there is indeed no- 

 thing remaining among these people of a 

 nature dangerous to tbe pe:.ce and hap- 

 piness of the community ai large. 



The question concerning the Catholic 

 Emancipaiion in England and in Ireland 

 being as yet t ndecided, we must omit any 

 further notice of it ; at the same time most 

 ardently longing that the period may 

 soon commence, when no difference of 

 opinion whatever, no variation in our wor- 

 ship, shall prove a barrier to the full ex- 

 ercise of all tbose rights, both civil and 

 religious, to which all men are born, and 

 to which all good and peaceable men have 

 an equal claim. See PAPISTS. 



RONDELETIA, in botany, so named in 

 honour of Guilleaume Rondelet, a famous 

 physician and natural historian, of Mont- 

 pelier; a genus of the Pentandria Mono- 

 gynia class and order. Natural order of 

 Rubiaceac, Jussieu. Essential character : 

 corolla funnel-shaped ; capsule two-cell- 

 ed, inferior, many-seeded, roundish, 

 crowned. There are fourteen species. 



ROOD, a quantity of land equal to for- 

 ty square perches, or the fourth part of an 

 acre. ' 



ROOT, in mathematics, a quantity con- 

 sidered as the basis or foundation of a 

 higher power; or one which, being mul- 

 tiplied into itself any number of times, 

 produces a square, cubic, biquadratic, 

 &c. quantity ; called the second, third, 

 fourth, &c. power of the root, or quanti- 

 ty, so multiplied into itself: thus a is the 

 square root of a X a, or a 3 ; and 4 the 

 square root of 4 X 4 = 16. Again, a is 

 the cube root of a X X = 3 ; and 3 

 the cube root of 3 x 3 x 3 = 27 : and 

 so on. The roots of powers are express- 

 ed by placing the radic?! sign ^/ over 



them, with a number denoting what kind 

 of root they are : thus the square or se- 

 cond root of 16 is expressed by ^/"l6, 

 and the cube, or third root of 27 by /gf ; 



and, in general, the th root of a, ra; a cc* 

 to the power, m, is expressed b\ ^/~. 



When the root of a compound quantity is 

 wanted, the vinculum of the radical s'ign 

 must be drawn over the whole : thus the 

 square root of a 2 -j- 2 a b -+- b- is express- 

 ed by \/u- -j- 2 a b -f- 6* ; and it ought 

 to be observed, that when the radical 

 sign has no number above it, to denote 

 what root is wanted, the square root is al- 

 ways meant ; as ^/a-, or v/*16^ is the 

 square root of a 1 , or the square root of 

 16. 



ROPE, hemp, hair, &c. spun into a 

 thick yarn, and then several strings of 

 this yarn twisted together by means of a 

 wheel. When made very small, it is call- 

 ed a cord, and when very thick, a cable. 

 All the different kinds of this manufac- 

 ture, from a fishing-line, or whip-cord, to 

 the cable of a first-rate ship of war, go by 

 the general name of cordage. Ropes arc 

 made of every substance that is sufficiently 

 fibrous, flexible, and tenacious, but chief- 

 ly of the inner barks of plants. The Chi- 

 nese, and other orientals, even make 

 them of the ligneous parts of several 

 plants, sucb as certain bamboos and 

 reeds, the stems of the aloes, the fibrous 

 covering of the cocoa-nut, the filaments of 

 the cotton pod, and the leaves of some 

 grasses. But the barks of plants are the 

 most productive of fibrous matter, fit for 

 this manufacture. Those of the linden- 

 tree, of the willow, the bramble, the net- 

 tle, are frequently used ; but hemp and 

 flax are the best ; and of these, the hemp 

 is preferred, and employed in all cordage 

 exceeding the size of a line, and even in 

 many of this denomination. Hemp is ve- 

 ry various in its useful qualities; the best 

 in Europe comes to us through Riga, to 

 which port it is brought from very distant 

 places southward. 



ROPE making, is an art of very great 

 importance ; and there are few that bet- 

 ter deserve the attention of the intelli- 

 gent observer. Hardly any art can be 

 carried on without the assistance of the 

 rope-maker Cordage makes the very 

 sinews and muscles of a ship ; and every 

 improvement which can be made in its 

 preparation, either in respect to strength 

 or pliableness, must be of immense ser- 

 vice to the mariner, and to the commerce 

 and the defence of nations. The aim of 

 the rope-maker is to unite the strength 

 of a great number of fibres, and the first 

 part of his process is spinning of rope- 



