miles W. of 



R A Y 



markable was whether the difcovery of America had been 

 more ufeful or prejudicial to Europe. 



America has now, owing to tlie quarrel and war fubfift- 

 ing between Great Brilam and its colonics, become an 

 objcft of peculiar interelt ; and the abbe Raynal, in 1781, 

 publiflied " Tableau et Revolutions des Colonies Angloife 

 dans I'Amcriquc Septentrionale," which was commented 

 upon and expofed by Thomas Paine, who was a zealous 

 RwMOND or Raymond-town, a poft-towm in Cumberland and able defender of the American caufc, againft the mother 

 county, and diftrjft of Maine, containing 825 inhabitants ; country, ^ 



" •• " " "T^' ■ 1""'' ■" ~-»."..-^ii-r l„,nl 'phe abbe came to Paris in the important year 1788, 



when the revolution was jull ready to burfl forth. He had 

 not been long in the city, before the National Afl'embly 

 was convoked, and one ol its early afts annulled the decree 

 palled againft him ; for this favoiu", he addrelicd a letter of 

 thanks to the prefident, containing a rctraftion of certain 



RAY 



that period, may be pronounced as unv/orthy of notice, ex- 

 cept as a fpecimen of the artifice with which men frequently 

 impofe upon vulgar credulity. Enfield's Hiftory of Philo- 



Ra'ymond, in Geography, a townOiip of America, 

 in Rockingham county, New Hampfliire, incorporated in 

 1764, containing 898 inhabitants; iz or 14 

 Exeter. 



The land is generally level, 



cure 



was 



aU' 

 142 n^iles N.N.E. of Bolton. The lan^ 

 excepting one large hill, called Rattlefnake-hill, from its 

 abounding with thole reptiles. The greater pan of the 

 growth is pine and wliite oak, and the loil is difficult ol 



culture. ■ „• 7 T- I, 



RAYNAL, William-Francis, m biography, 3. trench 

 writer of celebrity, was born at St. Genics, in the Rovergue, 

 in 171 3. He entered at a very early age among the Jefuits, 

 and by his abilities excited high expeftations of his future 

 celebrity. His diflikc of rcitraint induced him to quit the 

 fociety in the year 1 748, although he had made his profefiion, 

 and had been ordained pricft. He now entered his career 

 of authorfhip, and diftinguifhed himfelf as a political, hif- 

 torical, and mifcellaneous writer. His firft piece, publiihcd 

 the fame year in which he quitted the fociety, was entitled 

 « Hiftoire du Stadhouderat ;" he next publilhed " Hiftoire 

 du Parlement d'Angleterre," which gained him much repu- 

 tation, though it had little claim to the dignified title of 

 hiftory, and was, moreover, tinged with many prejudices, 

 religious and political. He alfo compofed " Anecdotes 

 Literaires," in three vols. i2mo. ; and " Memoires de 

 Ninon de I'Enclos," and was much employed in the " Mer- 

 de France." The great work of the abbe Raynal 

 entitled " Hiftoire Philofophique et Politique des 

 Eftablifiemens et du Commerce des Europecns dans les 

 deux Indes," to the compofition of which he was led by his 

 engaging in fome commercial fpeculations, thinking them 

 likely to turn out more profitably than literary purfuits. 

 His hiftory was publiflied in 1770, and as it contained 

 hiftory, defeription, and calculation, intermixed with poli- 

 tical and philoi'ophical reflections, and was, through the 

 whole, animated by an ardent fpirit of philanthropy, and 

 hatred of tyranny, civil and religious, it became popular, 

 and the author was looked up to as one of the reformers of 

 the age. Critics, however, foon found that, as a literary 

 and philofophical work, it would not bear the teft of 

 examination. The ftyle, though rich, vvas exceedingly de- 

 clamatory ; the images were frequently inflaming ; and his 

 principles vitiated by the licentioufnefsof his country ; and 

 the fafts upon which the whole was founded were derived 

 from incorreft or dubious documents. The author, it 

 fhould feem, was foon made fenfible of the imperfeftions of 

 his work, and determined to improve it by travel : with 

 this view he vifited the principal commercial towns in 

 France, and paffed into England and Holland, at every 

 place making inquiries among travellers and merchants with 

 the moft unremitting affiduity. On his return, he publiilicd 

 at Geneva an improved edition of his work, in 10 vols. 8vo. 

 containing many additions and corredlions. Its tone was 

 unaltered, and its attacks upon exifting authorities were fo 

 bold, that the parhament of Paris ordered it to be burnt, and 

 ifl'ued a decree for apprehending the author. He retired to 

 Spa, whence he travelled through Germany, and after 

 having vifited all the principal places, he returned to France, 

 and lived fome time quietly in the fouthern provinces. At 

 the academies of Marfeillcs and Lyons he founded feveral 

 prizes for ell'ays on given fubjefts, of which the moft re- 



principles contained in his- work. Obferving, afterwards, 

 that the conftituent affembly were occupied in decrees which 

 he thought were violent infringements on the rights of pro- 

 perty, and in others calculated to augment the popular 

 effervefcencc, he wrote, in May 1791, along letter of advice 

 and remonftrance. It was foon feen that the fentiments in 

 this letter were very different from thofc which were gene- 

 rally expefted from the author of the " Hiftoire Philofo- 

 phique," their tendency being to reprefs popular licence^ 

 and to ftrengthen the hands of civil authority. Raynal, 

 like many other philofophers ©f that day, had aided all in 

 his power to produce tlie change, at which, when put into 

 praftice, he and they were greatly alarmed. But it was 

 now too late to return : they had fhewn the people their 

 power, had taught them their rights, which it was in vain 

 to expeft they would be induced to abandon for any 

 arguments he could produce. In the letter referred to, 

 he fays, " I have long dared to fpeak to kings, of their 

 duty, fuffer me now to fpeak to the people of their 

 errors, and to their reprefentatives of the dangers which 

 threaten us. I am, I own to you, deeply afflifted at the 

 crimes which plunge this empire into mourning. It is true 

 that I am to look back with horror at myfelf for being 

 one of thofe who, by feehng a noble indignation againft arbi- 

 trary power, may perhaps have furnifhed arms to licen- 

 tioufnefs. Do then religion, the laws, the royal authority, 

 and public order, demand back from philofophy and reafon 

 the ties which united them to the grand fociety of the 

 French nation, as if, by expofing abufes, and teaching the 

 rights of the people and the duties of princes, our criminal 

 efforts had broken thefe ties ? But no ! — never have the 

 bold conceptions of philofophy been reprefented by us as 

 the ftrift rule for afts of legiflation." He next proves, 

 that it was not the bufinefs of the affembly to abohfh every 

 ancient inftitution ; that the genius of the French people is 

 fuch, that they can never be happy or profperons but under 

 a well regulated monarchical government ; and that if they 

 wifhed not the nation to fall under the worft kind of def- 

 potifm, they muft increafe the power of the king. Raynal 

 was confidered to be in his dotage, and himfclf and his 

 writings were now difregarded. He retired in the midft of 

 ftormf to Pafly, where, being reduced to a ftate of indi- 

 gence, he died in March 1794, at the age of 85. Befides 

 the works already mentioned, the abbe Raynal pubhftied 

 " The Hiftory of the Divorce of Catharine of Arragon, 

 by Henry VIII. ;" and " A Hiftory of the Revocation of 

 the Edift of Nantes," in four volumes ; but he committed 

 many of his papers to the flames during the bloody reign 

 of the monfter Robefpierre. 



RAYNERIUS, a learned Italian monk, who flourifhed 

 moft probably in the 13th century, was a native of Pifa. 



He 



