504 
R Y N 
RYLE, Great and Little, two hamlets of England, in 
Northumberland; 8§ miles west of Alnwick. 
RYLE, a hamlet of England, in Dorsetshire, near 
Whitchurch. 
RYLSK, a town of the central part of European Russia, 
in the government of Kursk, at the confluence of the rivers 
Sem and Ryla. It contains 4600 inhabitants, is the chief 
place of a circle, and a bishop’s see; 52 miles west-south-west 
of Kursk. 
RYMANOW, a small town of Austrian Poland, on the 
Wisloea; 18 miles west-by-south of Sanok. 
RYME. See Rhyme. 
RYME, a parish of England, in Dorsetshire; 6 miles 
south-west of Sherborne. 
RYMER (Thomas), a critic and antiquary, who received 
his early education at the school of Northallerton, and was 
afterwards a student in the University of Cambridge, upon 
quitting which he entered at Gray’s Inn. He first made him¬ 
self known in 1678, by publishing “Edgar, a Tragedy;” 
and he was the author of a work, entitled “ A View of the 
Tragedies of the last age,” in which he exercised great 
severity against several of our early dramatic writers, not 
excepting Shakspeare. Some manuscript remarks on this 
work by Dryden are given in Johnson’s life of that poet, in 
which the critic is treated with considerable respect, though 
some of his opinions are confuted. Rymer seems, in his 
critical capacity, to have displayed much learning, and a 
good share of plain sense, but without any of that fancy and 
feeling which are essential in estimating works of true ge¬ 
nius ; and his own dramatic composition is spoken of as very 
inferior. It is only as an historical antiquary that his name 
is entitled to commemoration. He had probably made him¬ 
self conspicuous by some publications in that quality, when, 
in 1692, he was appointed historiographer to William III.; 
and he employed the opportunities afforded him by this office, 
in making a collection of public treaties and compacts, 
which he began to publish, in 1704, under the title of 
“ Foedera, Conventiones, et cujuscunque generis Acta pub- 
lica inter Reges Angliae et alios Principes ab An. 1101 ad 
nostra usque tempora,” of which he completed 15 vols. folio, 
and five more were afterwards added by Robert Sanderson. 
It was reprinted at the Hague in 1739, in ten vols. folio, and 
was abridged in French by Rapin, in Le Clerc’s “ Biblio- 
theque.” Although confused and ill digested, it is a publi¬ 
cation of great value, and necessary to the accurate know¬ 
ledge of English history. Rymer died, in 1713. 
RYN AB AD, a town of Bengal, district of Jessore. It 
stands on the south bank of the Boirub river, which is one of 
the most frequented channels by boats coming down the 
country in the hot season, through the woods or sunderbunds, 
and where they may be well supplied with provisions and 
fresh water for the remainder of their extraordinary voyage. 
Lat. 22. 42. N. long. 89. 44. E. 
RYNACH, a small town of the Swiss canton of Argovia, 
on the borders of that of Lucerne; 12 miles south-south-east 
of Aaran. 
RYNCHOPS, the Skimmer, in Ornithology, a genus of 
birds of the order Anseres, of which the generic character is, 
that the bill is straight, the upper mandible is much shorter 
than the under, the latter truncated at the apex; the tail is 
forked and shorter than the wings, nostrils linear, and the 
back toe small. 
Rynchops Nigra, Black Skimmer, or Cut-water.—The 
specific character is blackish, beneath white; bill red at the 
base; tire lower mandible grooved; the front and chin are 
white; wings with a transverse white band; the two middle 
tail-feathers are black, the next edged with white; the legs 
are red, and it is about twenty inches long. It is found in 
divers [parts of Asia and America. This bird is ever on the 
wing/ sweeping the surface of the water, dipping its bill, or 
at least its under mandible, to scoop out the smaller fishes, 
on which it feeds. In stormy weather it frequents the shores, 
and is contented with oysters, and other shell-fish. There is 
a variety of a tawny colour, with a black bill. 
RYND, a parish of Scotland, in Perthshire, about 4 miles 
R Y O 
long and 1 broad, situated at the confluence of the Erne with, 
the Tay. Population 393. 
RYNSBURG, or Rhynsburg, a village of Holland, on 
the channel called the Old Rhine. Population 1100; 2 
miles north-west of Leyden. 
RYOT, s. A renter of land in Hindostan. In every part 
of India, where the native Hindoo princes retain dominion, 
these Ryots hold their possession by a lease, which may be 
considered as perpetual, and at a rate fixed by ancient sur¬ 
veys and valuations. This arrangement has been so long 
established, and accords so well with the ideas of the natives, 
concerning the distinctions of casts, and the functions allotted 
to each, that it has been inviolably maintained, in all the 
provinces subject either to Mahometans or Europeans; and 
to both it serves as the basis on which their whole system of 
finance is founded. In a more remote period, before the 
original institutions of India were subverted by foreign 
invaders, the industry of the husbandman, on which every 
member of the community depended for subsistence, was a$ 
secure, as the tenure, by which he held his lands, was 
equitable. Even war did not interrupt his labours or en¬ 
danger his property. It was not uncommon, we are in¬ 
formed, that while two hostile armies were fighting a battle 
in one field, the peasants were ploughing or reaping in the 
next field in perfect tranquillity. (Strabo, lib. xv.) Under 
a form of government, which paid such attention to all the 
different orders of which the society is composed, particu¬ 
larly the cultivators of the earth, it is not wonderful that 
the ancients should describe the Indians as a most happy 
race of men; and that the most intelligent modern ob¬ 
servers should celebrate the equity, the humanity, and mild¬ 
ness of Indian policy. A Hindoo rajah resembles more a 
father presiding in a numerous family of his own children, 
than a sovereign ruling over inferiors subject to his dominion. 
He endeavours to secure their happiness with vigilant soli¬ 
citude ; they are attached to him with the most tender 
affection and inviolable fidelity. We can hardly conceive 
men to be placed in any state more favourable to their ac¬ 
quiring all the advantages derived from social union. It is 
only when the mind is perfectly at ease, and neither feels 
nor dreads oppression, that it employs its active powers in 
forming numerous arrangements of police, for securing its 
enjoyments and increasing them. Many arrangements of 
this nature the Greeks, though accustomed to their own 
institutions, the most perfect at that time in Europe, ob¬ 
served and admired among the Indians, and mention them 
as instances of high civilization and improvement. There 
were established among the Indians three distinct classes of 
officers, one of which had it in charge to inspect agricul¬ 
ture, and every kind of country work. They measured the 
portions of land allotted to each renter. They had the cus¬ 
tody of the tanks, or public reservoirs of water, without a 
regular distribution of which, the fields in a torrid climate 
cannot be rendered fertile. They marked out the course of 
the highways, along which, at certain distances, they erected 
stones, to measure the road and direct travellers. To officers 
of a second class was committed the inspection of the police 
in cities; their functions of course were many and various; 
some of which only we shall specify. They appropriated 
houses for the reception of strangers; they protected them 
from injury, provided for their subsistence, and, when seized 
with any disease, they appointed physicians to attend them; 
and, on the event of their death, they not only buried them 
with decency, but took charge of their effects, and restored 
them to their relations. They kept exact registers of births 
and of deaths. They visited the public markets, and ex¬ 
amined weights and measures. The third class of officers 
superintended the military department; but, as the objects 
to which their attention was directed are foreign from the 
subject of this article, it is unnecessary to enter into any detail 
with respect to them. 
There is still the same attention to the construction and 
preservation of tanks, and the distribution of their waters. 
The direction of roads, and placing stones along- -them, is 
still an object of police. Choultries, or houses built for 
the 
