sidered as national property. The religious orders were dissolved, and their estates confiscated. When the National Assembly attempted to impose upon the clergy what they denominated the civil constitution of the clergy, a refusal to submit to it, and to that of taking an oath to maintain it, was attended with the most alarming consequences. One hundred and thirty-eight bishops and archbishops, and sixty-eight curates, or vicars, were, on this account, driven from their sees and parishes. Numbers of these unfortunate men were massacred in the streets, while hundreds of them sought refuge in this and other countries. Notwithstanding these proceedings, on the 28th of May, 1795, a decree was obtained for the freedom of religious worship; and on the following June the churches in Paris were re-opened, and divine service was again performed with great ceremony. The clergy have never since been molested in France; but their power and influence were greatly diminished: for though the Moderées, or Brissotine party, recalled them, no establishment was made for them, until Bonaparte, as First Consul, procured the Pope's consent to the Concordat, which the old Catholics assert surrendered all their rights and privileges of the church to the secular head. By degrees the Pope of Rome has continued to lose his influence in France. The number of Catholic clergy is now very considerably reduced; and all the religious orders in France, the Sisters of Charity excepted, are abolished, together with all public processions, pilgrimages, &c. The French General, Bonaparte, drove the late Pope Pius VI. from Rome, and compelled him to take shelter in a Carthusian monastery, about two miles from Florence, where he died, August 19th, 1799. The French army, who took possession of Rome, made no ceremony in abolishing many of those rites which for centuries had been regarded as sacred. A new Pope, however, has been elected, who has taken the name of Pius VII. This pontiff at present resides at Rome, the seat of his ancestors, and has often officiated in the Vatican. But his power is gone, probably for ever. Bonaparte has lately seized on his temporal dominions, and driven his friends and counsellors, the Cardinals, from his presence. On the 19th of April, 1808, a most curious and interesting state paper was published by the Pope, entitled "Answer of his eminence Cardinal Grabrielli, first Secretary of State, to the note VOL. X. of his excellency M. Champagny, addressed to M Le Fevre, charge d'affaires from the Emperor of France." We lament that our limits will not permit us to preserve the whole of this curious document in our pages. We may, however, remark, that this paper is in answer to a demand which the French ruler had made upon his holiness, to enter into an offensive and defensive league with the other powers of Italy, against all the enemies of France, and also that the Pope should dismiss from his court the Cardinals. To these demands his holiness replies in a spirited, but highly pathetic strain. He declares in one part of his paper, that "his holiness, unlike other princes, is invested with a two-fold character, namely, of sovereign pontiff, and of temporal sovereign, and has given repeated evidence that he cannot, by virtue of this second qualification, enter upon engagements, which would lead to results militating against his first and most important office, and injuring the religion of which he is the head, the propagator, and the avenger." To The French Emperor had declared, that in case the Pope would not accede to his demands, he would seize upon the temporal dominions of the holy see. which his holiness replies, that "If, in spite of all this, his majesty shall take possession, as he has threatened, of the papal dominions, respected by all, even the most powerful monarchy, during a space of ten centuries and upwards, and shall overturn the government, his holiness will be unable to prevent this spoliation; and can only, in bitter affliction of heart, lament the evil which his majesty will commit in the sight of God, trusting in whose protection, his holiness will remain in perfect tranquillity, enjoying the consciousness of not having brought on this disaster by imprudence or by contumacy, but to preserve the independence. of that sovereignty, which he ought to transmit uninjured to his successors, as he received it; and to maintain in its integrity that conduct which may secure the universal concurrence of all princes, so necessary to the welfare of religion." What the final result of these negotiations will be time only can determine; this, however, is certain, at present, that the Roman pontiff has lost his power and authority in France. Nor are his prospects much more favourable in other countries. There is scarcely a Catholic state in Europe that does not every year relax in its observance of the Romish PP laws, and in obedience to the holy see. The terrors of the Inquisition no longer exist; the thunders 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, but even publicly disavowed by numerous and respectable bodies of Catholics: in short, little now remains of the Romish faith and practice, especially in our own country, that ought to give seri. ous offence to liberal Protestants of the Church of England; there is indeed nothing remaining among these people of a nature dangerous to the peace and happiness of the community at large. The question concerning the Catholic emancipation in England and in Ireland being as yet undecided, 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 what ever, no variation in our worship, shall prove a barrier to the full exercise of all those rights, both civil 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 Montpelier; a genus of the Pentandria Monogynia class and order. Natural order of Rubiaceæ, Jussieu. Essential character: corolla funnel-shaped; capsule two-celled, inferior, many-seeded, roundish, crowned. There are fourteen species. ROOD, a quantity of land equal to forty square perches, or the fourth part of an acre. ROOT, in mathematics, a quantity considered as the basis or foundation of a higher power; or one which, being multiplied into itself any number of times, produces a square, cubic, biquadratic, &c quantity; called the second, third, fourth, &c. power of the root, or quantity, so multiplied into itself: thus a is the square root of a X a, or a2; and 4 the square root of 4 X 4 = 16. Again, a is the cube root of a X a X aa3; and 3 the cube root of 3 x 3 x 3 = 27: and so on. The roots of powers are expressed by placing the radical sign over them, with a number denoting what kind of root they are: thus the square or second root of 16 is expressed by 2/16, and the cube or third root of 27 by 27; and, in general, the nth root of a raised to the power, m, is expressed by am. When the root of a compound quantity is wanted, the vinculum of the radical sign must be drawn over the whole: thus the square root of a2 + 2 a b + b2 is expressed by a +2ab+b2; 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 always meant; as a or √16, is the square root of a', 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 called a cord, and when very thick, a cable. All the different kinds of this manufacture, 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 are made of every substance that is sufficiently fibrous, flexible, and tenacious, but chiefly of the inner barks of plants. The Chinese, and other orientals, even make them of the ligneous parts of several reeds, the stems of the aloes, the fibrous plants, such as certain bamboos and 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 lindentle, are frequently used; but hemp and tree, of the willow, the bramble, the netflax 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 very 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 better deserve the attention of the intelligent 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 service 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 yarns, that is, twisting the hemp in the first instance. This is done in various ways, and with different machinery, according to the nature of the intended cordage. We shall confine our description to the manufacture of the larger kinds, such as are used for the standing and running rigging of ships. An alley, or walk, is inclosed for the purpose, about two hundred fathoms long, and of a breadth suited to the extent of the manufacture. It is sometimes covered above. At the upper end of this rope-walk is set up the spinning-wheel. The band of the wheel goes over several rollers, called whirls, turning on pivots in brass holes. The pivots at one end come through the frame, and terminate in little hooks. The wheel, being turned by a winch, gives motion in one direction to all those whirls. The spinner has a bundle of dressed hemp round his waist, with the two ends meeting before him. The hemp is laid in this bundle in the same way that women spread the flax on the distaff. There is great variety in this; but the general aim is to lay the fibres in such a manner, that as long as the bundle lasts, there may be an equal number of the ends at the extremity, and that a fibre may never offer itself double, or in a bight. The spinner draws out a proper number of fibres, twists them with his fingers, and having got a sufficient length detached, he fixes it to the hook of a whirl. The wheel is now turned, and the skein is twisted, becoming what is called rope-yarn, and the spinner walks backwards down the rope-walk. The part already twisted draws along with it more fibres out of the bundle. The spinner aids this with his fingers, supplying hemp in due proportion as he walks away from the wheel, and taking care that the fibres come in equally from both sides of his bundle, and that they enter always with their ends, and not by the middle, which would double them. He should also endeavour to enter every fibre at the heart of the yarn. This will cause all the fibres to mix equally in making it up, and will make the work smooth, because one end of each fibre is by this means buried among the rest, and the other end only lies outward; and this, in passing through the grasp of the spinner, who presses it tight with his thumb and palm, is also made to lie smooth. A good spinner endeavours always to supply the hemp in the form of a thin flat skein with his left hand, while his right is employed in grasping firmly the yarn that is ter. twining off, and in holding it tight from the whirl, that it may not run into loops or kinks. It is evident, that both the arrangement of the fibres and the degree of twisting depend on the skill and dexterity of the spinner, and that he must be instructed, not by a book, but by a masThe degree of twist depends on the rate of the wheel's motion, combined with the retrograde walk of the spinner. We may suppose him arrived at the lower end of the walk, or as far as is necessary for the intended length of his yarn. He calls out, and another spinner immediately detaches the yarn from the hook of the whirl, gives it to another, who carries it aside to the reel: and this second spinner attaches his own hemp to the whirl-hook. In the mean time, the first spinner keeps fast hold of the ends of his yarn; for the hemp, being dry, is very elastic, and if he were to let it go out of his hand, it would instantly untwist, and become little better than loose hemp. He waits therefore till he sees the reeler begin to turn the reel, and he goes slowly up the walk, keeping the yarn of an equal tightness all the way, till he arrives at the wheel, where he waits with his yarn in his hand till another spinner has finished his yarn. The first spinner takes it off the whirl hook, joins it to his own, that it may follow it on the reel, and begins a new yarn. The second part of the process is the conversion of the yarns into what may, with propriety, be called a rope, cord, or line. That we may have a clear conception of the principle which regulates this part of the process, we shall begin with the simplest possible case, the union of two yarns into one line. When hemp has been split into very fine fibres by the hatchel, it becomes exceedingly soft and pliant, and after it has lain for some time in the form of fine yarn, it may be unreeled, and thrown loose, without losing much of its twist. Two such yarns may be put on the whirl of a spinning wheel, and thrown like flaxen yarn, so as to make sewing thread. It is in this way, indeed, that the sailmakers' sewing thread is manufactured, and when it has been kept on the reel, or on balls or bobbins for some time, it retains its twist as well as its uses require. But this is by no means the case with yarns spun for great cordage. The hemp is so elastic, the number of fibres twisted together is so great, and the diameter of the yarn (which is a sort of lever, on which the elasticity of the fibre exerts itself) is so considerable, that no keeping will make the fibres retain this constrained position. The end of a rope yarn being thrown loose, it will immediately untwist, and this with considerable force and speed. It would, therefore, be a fruitless attempt to twist two such yarns together; yet the ingenuity of man has contrived to make use of this very tendency to untwist, not only to counteract itself, but even to produce another and a permanent twist, which requires force to undo it, and which will recover itself when this force is removed. Every person must recollect, that when he has twisted a packthread very hard with his fingers between his two hands, if he slackens the thread by bringing his hands nearer together, the packthread will immediately curl up, running into loops or kinks, and will even twist itself into a neat and firm cord. The component parts of a rope are called strands, and the operation of uniting them with a permanent twist is called laying or closing, the latter term being chiefly appropriated to cables and other very large cordage. The process for laying or closing large cordage is this: the strands of which the rope is composed consist of many yarns, and require a considerable degree of hardening. This cannot be done by a whirl driven by a wheel-band; it requires the power of a crank turned by the hand. The strands, when properly hardened, become very stiff, and when bent round the top are not able to transmit force enough for laying the heavy and unpliant rope which forms beyond it. The elastic twist of the hardened strands must, therefore, be assisted by an external force. All this requires a different machinery and a different process. At the upper end of the walk is fixed up the tackle-board; this consists of a strong oaken plank, called a breast board, having three or more holes in it, fitted with brass or iron plates. Into these are put iron cranks, called heavers, which have hooks or forelocks, and keys, on the ends of their spindles. They are placed at such a distance from each other, that the workmen do not interfere with each other while turning them round. This breast board is fixed to the top of strong posts, well secured by struts or braces, facing the lower end of the walk. At the lower end is another breast board, fixed to the upright post of a sledge, which may be loaded with stones or other weights. inilar cranks are placed in the holes of Si The this breast board; the whole goes by the name of the sledge. The top necessary for closing large cordage is too heavy to be held in the hand; it therefore has a long staff, which has a truck on the end: this rests on the ground, but even this is not enough in laying great cables. The top must be supported on a carriage, where it must lie very steady, and it needs attendance, because the master workman has sufficient employment in attending to the manner in which the strands close behind the top, and in helping them by various methods. The top is therefore fixed to the carriage, by lashing its staff to the two upright posts. A piece of soft rope, or strap, is attached to the handle of the top by the middle, and its two ends are brought back and wrapped several times tight round the rope, in the direction of its twist, and bound down. This greatly assists the laying of the rope by its friction, which both keeps the top from flying too far from the point of union of the strands, and brings the strands more regularly into their places. first operation is warping the yarns. At each end of the walk are frames called warping frames, which carry a great number of reels or winches, filled with ropeyarn. The foreman of the walk takes off a yarn end from each, till he has made up the number necessary for his rope or strand, and bringing the ends together, he passes the whole through an iron ring fixed to the top of a stake driven into the ground, and draws them through; then a knot is tied on the end of a bundle, and a workman pulls it through this ring, till the intended length is drawn off the reels. The end is made fast at the bottom of the walk, or at the sledge, and the foreman comes back along the skein of yarns, to see that none are hanging slacker than the rest. He takes up in his hand such as are slack, and draws them tight, keeping them so till he reaches the upper end, where he cuts the yarns to a length, again adjusts their tightness, and joins them altogether in a knot, to which he fixes the hook of a tackle, the other block of which is fixed to a firm post, called the warping post. The skein is well stretched by this tackle, and then separated into its different strands. Each of these is knotted apart at both ends. The knots at their upper ends are made fast to the hooks of the cranks in the tackle-board, and those at the lower ends are fastened to the cranks in the sledge. The sledge itself is kept in its place by a tackle, by which the strands are again stretched in their places, and every thing adjusted, so that the sledge stands square on the walk, and then a proper weight is laid on it. The tackle is now cast off, and the cranks are turned at both ends, in the contrary direction to the twist of the yarns. In some kinds of cordage the cranks are turned the same way with the spinning twist. By this the strands are twisted and hardened up, and as they contract by this operation, the sledge is dragged up the walk. When the foreman thinks the strands sufficiently hardened, which he estimates by the motion of the sledge, he orders the heavers at the cranks to stop. The middle strand at the sledge is taken off from the crank; this crank is taken out, and a stronger one put in its place. The other strands are taken off from their cranks, and are all joined on the hook which is now in the middle hole; the top is then placed between the strands, and being pressed home to the point of their union, the carriage is placed under it, and it is firmly fixed down: some weight is taken off the sledge. The heavers now begin to turn at both ends; those at the tackle-board continue to turn as they did before, but the heavers at the sledge turn in the opposite direction to their former motion, so that the cranks at both ends are now turning one way. By the motion of the sledge-crank the top is forced away from the knot, and the rope begins to close. The heaving at the upper end restores to the strands the twist which they are constantly losing by the laying of the rope. The workmen judge of this by making a chalk mark on intermediate points of the strands, where they lie on the stakes which are set up along the walk for their support. If the twist of the strands is diminished by the motion of closing, they will lengthen, and the chalk mark will move away from the tackle-board; but if the twist increases by turning the cranks at the tackleboard, the strands will shorten, and the mark will come nearer to it. As the closing of the rope advances, the whole shortens, and the sledge is dragged up the walk. The top moves faster, and at last reaches the upper end of the walk, the rope being now laid. In the mean time, the sledge has moved several fathoms from the place where it was when the laying began. These motions of the sledge and top must be exactly adjusted to each other. The rope must be of a certain length, there. fore the sledge must stop at a certain place. At that moment the rope should be laid; that is, the top should be at the tackle-board. In this consists the address of the foreman. He has his attention directed both ways. He looks at the strands, and when he sees any of them hanging slacker between the stakes than the others, he calls to the heavers at the tackle-board to heave more upon that strand. He finds it more difficult to regulate the motion of the top. It requires a considerable force to keep it in the angle of the strands, and it is always disposed to start forward. To prevent or check this, some straps of soft rope are brought round the staff of the top, and then wrapped several times round the rope behind the top, and kept firmly down by a lanyard or bandage. This both holds back the top, and greatly assists the laying of the rope, causing the strands to fall into their places, and keep close to each other, which is sometimes very difficult, especially in ropes composed of more than three strands. It will greatly improve the laying the rope, if the top has a sharp, smooth, tapering pin of hard wood, pointed at the end, projecting so far from the middle of the smaller end, that it gets in between the strands which are closing. This supports them, and makes their closing more gradual and regular. The top, its notches, the pin, and the warp, or strap, which is lapped round the rope, are all smeared with grease or soap, to assist the closing. The foreman judges of the progress of closing chiefly by his acquaintance with the walk, knowing that when the sledge is abreast of a certain stake, the top should be abreast of a certain other stake. When he finds the top too far down the walk, he slackens the motion at the tackle-board, and makes the men turn briskly at the sledge. By this the top is forced up the walk, and the laying of the rope accelerates, while the sledge remains in the same place, because the strands are losing their twist, and are lengthening, while the closed rope is shortening. When, on the other hand, he thinks the top too far advanced, and fears that it will be at the head of the walk before the sledge has got to its proper place, he makes the men heave briskly on the strands, and the heavers at the sledge-crank work softly. This quickens the motion of the sledge by shortening the strands; and by thus compensating what has been over-done, the sledge and top come to their places at once, and the work appears to answer the intention. When the top approaches the tackle |