Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/279

Rh R A J R A L 261 short. The capture of the town of Kotah, which had been held by the mutineers of that state, in March 1858, marked the extinction of armed rebellion in the province. (W. T. R.) RAJSHAHl or RAJESHAYE, a district of India, in the lieutenant-governorship of Bengal, forming the south- western corner of the Rajshahf with Kuch Behar division. 1 It lies between 24 3' and 24 59' N. lat. and between 88 21' and 89 24' E. long., and is bounded on the N". by the districts of Dinajpur and Bogra, on the E. by Bogra and Pabna, on the S. by the Ganges and Nuddea district, and on the W. by Maldah and Murshidabad. The area of 2359 square miles is one alluvial plain seamed with old river-beds and studded with marshes. The Ganges and the Mahanandci are its principal rivers ; the former con- stitutes a great natural boundary-line to the south and south-west, and the latter, which rises in the Himalayas, borders the district on the west for a few miles before joining the Ganges. Other rivers are the Narad and Baral, important offshoots of the Ganges ; the Atrai, a channel of the Tista ; and the Jamuna, a tributary of the Atrai. Both the Atrai and the Jamuna belong to the Brahmaputra system and are navigable throughout the year for small cargo boats. The drainage of Rajshahi is not carried off by means of its rivers, but through the chains of marshes and swamps, the most important of which is the Chalan " bil " or lake, which discharges itself into the Brahmaputra. The climate of Rajshahi does not differ from that of other districts of Lower Bengal ; its average rainfall for the five years ending 1882/83 equalled 68 inches. The Northern Bengal State Railway intersects the district from north to south. Population. The census of 1881 gave a population, almost en- tirely rural, of 1,338,638 (males 660,226, females 678,412). Of this number 288,749 were returned as Hindus, 1,049,700 as Moham- medans, and only 121 as Christians. The only town with over 10,000 inhabitants was Rampur Beauleah (19,228), which is the chief town and administrative headquarters of the district. This town is situated on the north bank of the Ganges in 24 22' N. lat. ami 88 39' E. long. ; it is of modern growth and is built for the most part on river alluvia. It was formerly the seat of the Dutch ami East India Company's factories, and is still a centre of the silk and indigo trade. Rice is the staple crop of the district ; other cereal crops are wheat, barley, and Indian corn, which are grown to a small extent ; among miscellaneous crops are indigo, sugar-cane, mulberry, and tobacco. Ganja is also grown in a small tract to the north of the district. Silk spinning and weaving and the preparation of indigo are the chief manufactures, but these are now both declining. The total revenue of Rajshahi in 1883-84 amounted to 123,098, towards which the land-tax contributed 88,584. History. When the East India Company took over the adminis- tration of Bengal in 1765 Rajshahi was one of the largest and most important districts in the province. It appears to have extended from Bhagulpur on the west to Dacca on the east, and to have in- cluded an important subdivision called Nij-Chakla Rajshahi on the south of the Ganges, which extended over a great portion of what now lies within the districts of Murshidabad, Nuddea, Jessore, Birbhum, and Burdwan. The total area was estimated at 12,909 square miles, or more than five times the size of the present district. Having been found much too large to be effectually administered by one central authority, Rajshahi was stripped by Government in 1793 of a considerable portion of its outlying territory, and a natural boundary -line was drawn to the west, south, and east along the Ganges and Brahmaputra. Its north-western limits were reduced in 1 81 3, when the present district of Maldah was constituted. The erection of Bogra into a separate jurisdiction in 1821 still further reduced its area ; and in 1832 the limits of Rajshahi were finally fixed very much at their present lines by the constitution of Pabna into an independent jurisdiction. RAKOCZY, the name of an old and wealthy family of upper Hungary. SIGISMTJNB was on llth February 1607 elected prince of Transylvania, but in the following year abdicated in favour of Gabriel B.ithori, to whom succeeded 1 The Rajshahi with Kuch Behar division comprises the seven dis- tricts of Dinajpur, Rajshahi, Rangpur, Bogra, Pabna, Darjiling, Jal- pakniri, and the native state of Kuch Behar. Its total area is 18,735 square miles, and its population (1881) 8,336,399 (males 4,237,388, females 4,099,011). Bethlen Gabor. Bethlen died in 1629, and GEORGE I. (1591-1648), son of Sigismund, born in 1591, was, after the demission of Gabor's widow, Catherine of Brandenburg, 26th November 1631, elected prince of Transylvania by the estates. In 1645 he joined the Swedes in an attempt to deliver Hungary from the yoke of Austria and secure religious liberty to the Protestants, but when the emperor Ferdinand showed a disposition to enter into a treaty with him he became oblivious of the cause of which he had been the professed champion. By the treaty of Linz he was formally recognized as prince of Transylvania. He died on 24th October 1648. GEORGE II. (1615-1660), son of the preceding, was chosen by the estates to succeed him as prince of Transylvania. Having been disappointed in his hopes of the crown of Poland on the death of Casimir V., he entered into an alliance with John Casimir and invaded the country, but was completely defeated on 16th July 1657. His procedure against Poland provoked the hos- tility of the Turks, with whom he was engaged in con- tinual war until his death at Grosswardein on 26th June 1660, from wounds received at the battle of Klausenburg. FRANCIS I. (1642-1676), son of the preceding, did not succeed his father as prince of Transylvania. Having become connected with a plot for the overthrow of the Austrian Government, his life was only saved through the intervention of his mother, who was a Catholic, and he had to pay a fine of 400,000 florins. He edited a volume of prayers, which had an extensive circulation in Hungary. He died on 8th July 1676. FRANCIS LEOPOLD (1676- 1735), son of the preceding, was at the age of twelve along with his mother made prisoner by the Austrians, and by them was educated in a Jesuit college in Bohemia. After his marriage with a princess of Hesse he returned to Hungary, where the greater portion of his estates was restored to him. On account of his connexion with a conspiracy of the malcontent party he was in 1701 arrested and brought to Vienna, but making his escape he went to Poland, where he spent several years in exile. In 1703 he headed a new insurrection, which had achieved consider- able success before the death of the emperor Leopold in the end of 1705. Owing to the milder attitude of Joseph I., matters for a time assumed a more peaceful appearance. In 1707 Rak6czy was elected prince of Transylvania, and on 31st May of this year the independence of Hungary was proclaimed. From this time, however, the fortunes of the Hungarian cause began to decline, and Rak6czy finally in despair, having refused an amnesty and offers of pardon, retired to the frontiers of Poland, after which, on 1st May 1711, peace was concluded at Szatm&r. Rakoczy refused to own it, and retired to France and subsequently to Turkey, where he died at Rodosto on 8th April 1735. (See HUN- GARY, vol. xii. pp. 369-370.) RALEIGH, a city of the United States, the capital of North Carolina and the seat of justice of Wake county, is situated in 35 47' N. lat. and 78 48' W. long!, a little to the north-east of the geographical centre of the State, and occupies a kind of high ground in the upper valley of the Neuse, a river flowing south-east towards Pamlico Sound. It is the meeting-place of three railways the Raleigh and Gaston, the Raleigh and Augusta, and the Richmond and Danville lines and its railway distance from Portsmouth is 177 miles and from Washington 230. Raleigh is laid out round a park of 10 acres called Union Square and divided into four sections by four broad streets which strike out symmetrically from this centre ; the fine old trees which were spared by the original settlers give it the sobriquet of "City of Oaks." Besides the State house or capitol (a substantial granite structure in Union Square), the public buildings comprise the county court- house, the governor's mansion, the United States court-