R I G 
98 RIG 
particular situations, by a committee of French artillery 
officers. In the course of the memoir in which the above 
experiments are detailed, M. Guyton mentions another kind 
of rifle cannon, invented by an Italian officer, which was 
found remarkably correct in projecting the ball in a right 
line. The bore of this gun is slightly conical, being greatest 
at the breech, where the piece is loaded by unscrewing the 
breech, as in some rifle muskets and pistols: the ball is of 
lead, which must necessarily, from the construction of. the 
gun, change its form in passing through the bore. But this, 
as well as the one above-mentioned, requires so much time in 
loading, that it will probably never come into general use. 
RI'FLEMAN, s. One armed with a rifle. 
Rl'FLER, s. Robber; plunderer; pillager. Prompt. 
Parv. —Parting both with cloak and coat, it any please to 
be the nfler. Milton. 
RIFT, s. [from To rive; riven, rived, rift. Chaucer 
writes this word reft. “ If thou maiest finden any shore, 
or hole, or refte." The Icel. rifa is a chink.] A cleft; a 
breach; an opening. 
Either tropick now 
’Gan thunder, and both ends of heaven; the clouds, 
From many a horrid rift abortive pour’d 
Fierce rain with lightning mixt. Milton. 
To RIFT, v. a. To cleave, to split. To rive is perhaps 
more proper. 
To the dread rattling thunder 
Have I giv’n fire, and rifted Jove's stout oak 
With his own bolt. Shalcspeare. 
To RIFT, v. n. To burst ; to open. 
I’d shriek, that even your ears 
Should rift to hear me. Shalcspeare. 
To belch; to break wind. \r never, Danish, the same; per¬ 
haps from the Sax. pip, alvus, venter.] A northern word. 
RIFTS, in Farriery, are small cracks, clefts, chaps, or any 
other similar fissures or openings in the hoofs of horses’ feet. 
RIG, s. [from the Saxon, hjug£, and the Icelandick, 
hriggr, both signifying a back. Rig is still our northern 
word, used in opposition : as rig and furrow.] A furrow. 
RIG, s. [perhaps from the Icel. riga, citare in gyrum.] 
“ Bluster,” Todd ; rather, turbulence.—This sanguine little 
king’s fisher (not prescient of the storm, as by his instinct 
he ought to be) appearing at that uncertain season before the 
riggs of old Michaelmas were yet well composed, and when 
the unclement storms of winter were approaching, began to 
flicker over the seas, and was busy in building its halcyon nest, 
as if the angry ocean had been soothed by the genial breath 
of May. Burke. 
RIG, s. [perhaps from the old French, rigoler, to mock ; 
to laugh at; “ se rigoler de, to make merry, or wanton with. ’ 
Cotgrave. ] A wanton ; an impudent woman ; a strumpet.— 
Fie on thee thou rampe, thou rig ! Com. of Gamin. Gur- 
ton's Needle. 
The most voluptuous, over-wanton rigge. 
Proud penalty, scorns meek piety’s womanhood. Davies. 
To run a Rig. To play a trick; to jest; to banter. 
Cowper uses it of one suffering a laughable mishap. A 
vulgarism. 
Away went Gilpin, neck or nought, 
Away went hat and wig; 
He little dreamt, when he set out, 
Of running such a rig. Cowper. 
To RIG, v.n. To play the wanton. Unused. 
To RIG, v. a. [the past participle of the Sax. ppigan, to 
cover.. Mr. H. Tooke.~] To dress; to accoutre. 
All Occupations opening like a mart. 
That serve to rig the body out with bravery. Beaum. and FI. 
Keep — 
The body of your strength, your noble heart, 
From ever yielding to dishonest ends, 
Rigg'd round' about with virtue, • Beaum. and FI. 
To fit with-tackling. 
My mind for Egypt stoode ; 
When nine faire ships, I rigg'd forth for the flood. 
Chapman. 
RIGA, ptal.] A line of the staff in music; and speaking 
of music in general, the whole five lines, or staff, are called 
una riga. 
RIGA, Government of. See Livonia. 
RIGA, a city of European Russia, and the capital of 
Livonia, is situated in a large plain on the Dwina or Duna-, 
about nine miles from the sea. It has 36,000 inhabitants, 
and was, in a commercial sense, the second city of Russia, 
until the rapid increase of Odessa. The width of its river, 
and its distance from the sea, renders its port both spacious 
and safe. The town stands on the right, the suburbs on the 
left bank of the river. Without being a regular fortress, 
Riga has considerable strength, being surrounded with an 
earthen mound and moat, and having, moreover, a citadei. 
The entrance of the river is guarded from maritime attacks 
by the forest of Dunamunde. Though the houses are in 
general of stone, and a number of them neat, the town on the 
whole is unhandsome, the streets being narrow and crooked. 
Of the public buildings, the principal are the town-house, 
the exchange, the house of assembly for the states or repre¬ 
sentatives of Livonia, the arsenal, the hospital of St. George, 
and the Catharinenhof. 1 he church of St. Peter is remarka¬ 
ble for its fine tower, commanding a magnificent view of the 
harbour. The Baltic being frozen during winter, vessels in 
Riga are necessarily laid up in dock during several months. 
The Dwina, far too wide for a bridge of stone or iron, is 
crossed by a bridge of pontoons, which rise and fall with 
the tide, and are loosely attached to piles. This bridge is 
40 feet, broad but its length is 2600 feet, forming a 
fashionable w alk in summer. At the beginning of winter 
the pontoons are removed, and the piles being soon raised by 
the frost, are drawn on shore, where they remain till 
spring, the river being, during this long interval, passed on 
the ice. 
Of the inhabitants of Riga, the majority are Germans and 
Livonians, the Russians being comparatively few’. The- 
shipping in the river, the bustle in the streets, the stock of 
merchandise in the shops and warehouses, all indicate com¬ 
mercial activity. The export trade is chiefly managed by 
English and Scotch houses; the principal articles are timber, 
flax, hemp, and com, all brought from a great distance, by 
a tedious but not expensive water conveyance. Part of these 
articles are brought from the south-east of Poland, being 
floated up the Dnieper, and conveyed by land carriage from 
that river to the Dwina. The course of the latter is south-east) 
in the direction of Vitepsk, and at one part it comes within 
20 miles of the Dnieper. Canals are the grand desiderata 
of Russian seaports, and a new one is now excavating, for 
the communication of Riga with the interior. The magis¬ 
trates of this town, anxious to maintain the reputation of 
their timber, send annually persons into the interior, to mark 
the trees which they purchase. The average number of 
vessels arriving yearly at Riga is between 700 and 800; the 
computed value of the exports a million sterling, of which 
fully the half are sent to England and Scotland. The ma¬ 
nufactures of Riga are insignificant, being confined to starch, 
a sugar refinery, and other small articles; but the rye and 
barley of the neighbouring country fonn articles of export. 
The imports, if not equal in value to the exports, are more- 
varied, comprising groceries of all kinds, printed cottons, 
woollens, silks, and wine; also bay salt and fish. Bay salt, 
imported chiefly from Spain, forms an article of transit, 
being sent up the Dwina for the supply of the countries to 
the right and left. 
As to religion, few of the inhabitants of Riga are Catholics; 
the majority are Lutherans, or members of the Greek church. 
There is here a lyceum or academy, and a high school, with 
a provision for maintaining and educating poor children. 
There is also a public library, a cabinet of natural his¬ 
tory, and a literary society, all formed in the present century. 
