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Rh divisions of the High Court to appoint receivers. Their powers and duties are exhaustively set by Kerr, On Receivers (5th ed., 1905), who classifies the cases in which they may be appointed under the following heads: (o) infants; (IJ) executors and trustees; (c) pending litigation as to probate; (d) mortgagor and mortgagee; (e) debtor and creditor; (f) public companies; (g) vendor and purchaser; (h) covenant er and covenanted; (i) tenant for life and remainder man; (j) partners; (Ie) lunacy; (1) tenants in common; (m) possession under legal title, and (n) other cases. The appointment of receivers is entirely within the discretion of the courts, and the power may be exercised “ in all cases in which it shall appear just and convenient.” Application for a receiver is usually made by motion, and the court will appoint the fittest person, without regard to who may propose him, the appointment of a receiver being for the beneht of all parties. Under the Conveyancing Act 1881, when a mortgagee has become entitled to exercise his powers of sale, he may, by writing under his hand, appoint such person as he think nt to be receiver. In bankruptcy practice a receiver, termed official receiver, is an officer of the court who in this capacity takes possession on the making of a receiving order, of all a debtor's assets. He is also an officer of the Board of Trade with the duty of taking cognisance of the conduct of the debtor and administering his estates (see BANKRUPTCY). Receiver-general is the title given to a chief receiver, more especially as applied to the collection of public revenue. The title survived in the Inland Revenue up to 1891, but it is now only used as the designation of an officer of the duchy court of Lancaster, who receives the revenues, &c., of the duchy.

RECEPT (from Lat. recipere, to take back), a philosophical term, used by Romanes (M entol Evolution of M on, ii. 36, 37), on the analogy of “ concept and percept, ” for mental images assumed to be produced by the simple repetition of percepts. The process is supposed to be the gradual elimination of elements in which the percepts disagree, and the emphasizing of those in which they agree. Thus the final residuum is a unity in difference. Recepts are, in fact, “ spontaneous associations, formed unintentionally as what may be termed unperceived abstractions, ” i.e. what are generally known as “ generic images.”

RECESS (Lat. recessus, a going back, withdrawal, from recedere, to withdraw), a term particularly used of a cessation of work or relief from duty, e.g. of the periods during the life of a parliament when it is not sitting. The word is also applied to an indentation in a line, especially of a small alcove sunk in the wall of a room. A particular use is the historical one for the acts and decrees of the Imperial Diet, the recessus I mperii, and also for those of the Hanseatic League. According to Du Change (s.v. Recesses) the reason for the use of this word was that these decrees, &c. (codex deliberationum), were written out antequam a conventibus recedant proceres congregati.

 RECHABITES, or, a sort of religious order among the Israelites in some respects analogous to the (q.v.), with whom they shared the rule of abstinence from wine. They also eschewed the luxuries and pursuits of settled life, and lived in tents, refusing to sow grain as well as to plant Vineyards. They represent a protest against the contemporary Canaanite civilization and a reaction towards the simplicity of life which was felt more strongly in Judah or to the east of the Jordan than in the northern kingdom of Israel. Their “ father,” or founder, was that Jehonadab or Jonadab, son of Rechab, who encouraged Jehu to abolish the Tyrian Baal-worship (2 Kings x.). The order founded by Jehonadab must from its constitution have soon become a sort of hereditary clan, and as such the “ house of Rechab ” appears in Judah after the fall of the northern kingdom and continued to observe the ordinance of Jehonadab till the approach of Nebuchadrezzar drove them for protection into Jerusalem (Jer. xxxv.). Jeremiah promised them as a reward of their obedience that they should never lack a man to represent them (as a priest) before Yahweh, whence perhaps the later Jewish tradition that the Rechabites intermarried with the Levites and so entered the temple service.

Later references to them probably indicate that the term was used as meaning merely ascetes (Euseb., H. E. ii. 23), the particular form of (q.v.) being less essential. One may compare the modern society of total abstainers known as the “ Rechabites." In I Chron. ii. 55 the “ house of Rechab " is associated with the (q.v.) as a family of scribes. Their origin is ascribed to Hammath (conceivably the Naphtalite city, Josh. xix. 35), but in 1 Chron. iv. 12 Rechab (so the LXX) is of Calebite descent.

RECHBERG-ROTHENLÖWEN, JOHANN BERNHARD, (1806-1899), Austrian statesman, was the second son of the Bavarian statesman Count Aloys von Rechberg-Rothemlöwen (1766-1849). Johann Bernhard was destined for the Bavarian public service, his elder brother being a hereditary member of the Upper House in the parliament of Württemberg. He was educated at the universities of Strassburg and Munich, but he incurred the displeasure of King Louis I. by the part he played as second in a duel, and in 1828 he transferred himself to the Austrian diplomatic service. After being attached to the embassies in Berlin, London and Brussels, he was appointed envoy at Stockholm (1841) and at Rio de Janeiro (1843) Returning to Europe in 1847, on the outbreak of the revolution of 1848 in Vienna he was of great service to Prince Metternich, whom he accompanied and assisted in his flight to England. In July 1848 he was appointed Austrian plenipotentiary in the German federal diet at Frankfort, in 1851 became Austrian infermmcius at Constantinople, and in 1853 Radetzky's civilian colleague in the government of Lombardo-Venetia. In 1855 he returned to Frankfort as Austrian representative and president of the federal diet. As a pupil of Metternich he would have wished to preserve the good understanding with Prussia which seemed the necessary foundation for a conservative policy; he was, however, made the instrument for the anti-Prussian policy of Buol; this brought about constant disputes with Bismarck, at that time Prussian envoy at the diet, which were sharpened by Rechberg's choleric temper, and on one occasion nearly led to a duel. Bismarck, however, always expressed a high appreciation of his character and abilities. In May 1859, on the eve of the war with Italy, he was appointed Austrian minister of foreign affairs and minister president, surrendering the latter post to the archduke Rainer in the following year.

The five years during which Rechberg held the portfolio of foreign affairs covered the war with Italy and France, the insurrection in Poland, the attempted reform of the German Confederation through the Frankfort Furstentag, and the Austro-Prussian war with Denmark. After the defeat of Magenta Rechberg accompanied the emperor to Italy, and he had to meet the crisis caused by a war for which he was not responsible. He began the concessions to Hungary and in the Polish question, and was responsible for the adhesion of Austria to the alliance of the Western Powers. In the German question Rechberg's policy was one of compromise. To the project of the Fiirstentog he Was altogether opposed. The project had been suggested to the emperor Francis Joseph by his son-in-law, the hereditary prince of Turn and Taxis, and by a pamphlet of Julius Frtibel, and the preliminary arrangements were made without Rechberg being informed. When at last he was told, he tendered his resignation, which was not accepted, and he accompanied the emperor to the abortive meeting at Frankfort (August 1863). The attempt made by Rechberg at the subsequent ministerial conference at Nuremberg to establish a German league without Prussia was equally unsuccessful, and he now returned to the policy, which in opposition to Schmerling he had throughout advocated, of a peaceful arrangement between Prussia and Austria as the indispensable preliminary to a reform of the Confederation.

At this juncture the death of King Frederick VII. of Denmark (15th of November 1863) opened up the whole Schleswig-Holstein question (q. v.). In the diplomatic duel that followed Rechberg was no match for Bismarck. It suited Austrian policy to act in concert with Prussia against Denmark; but Rechberg well knew that Bismarck was aiming at the annexation of the duchies. He attempted to guard against this by laying