Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/310

Rh 292 R A T R A T The early Celtic settlement of Radespona was chosen by the Romans, who named it Castra Rcgina, as the centre of their power on the upper Danube, and it soon attained considerable importance. It afterwards became the seat of the dukes of Bavaria and one of the main bulwarks of the East Frankish monarchy ; and it was also the focus from which Christianity spread over southern Germany. St Einmeran .founded an abbey here in the middle of the 7th century, and St Boniface established the bishop- ric about a hundred years later. Ratisbon acquired the freedom of the empire in the 13th century and was for a time the most flourishing city in southern Germany. It became the chief seat of the trade with India and the Levant, and the boatmen of Ratisbon are frequently heard of as expediting the journeys of the crusaders. The city was loyally Ghibelliue in its sympathies and was a favourite residence of the German emperors. .Numerous diets were held here from time to time, and after 1663 it became the regular place of meeting of the German diet. The Reforma- tion found only temporary acceptance at Ratisbon and was met by a counter -reformation inspired by the Jesuits. Before this period the city had almost wholly lost its commercial importance, owing to the changes in the great highways of trade. Ratisbon had its due share in the Thirty Years' and other wars, and is said to have suffered in all no fewer than seventeen sieges. In 1807 the town and bishopric were assigned to the prince primate Dalberg and in 1810 they were ceded to Bavaria. After the battle of Eggmiihl (1809) the Austrians retired upon Ratisbon, and the pursuing French defeated them again beneath its walls and reduced great part of the city to ashes. RATLAM or RTJTLAM, a native state of India, in the Western Malwa Agency (Central India Agency), lying be- tween 23 2' and 23 36' N. lat. and 74 42' and 75 17' E. long., with an area of 729 square miles, and a popula- tion (1881) of 87,314 (males 45,779, females 41,535), Hindus numbering 54,034, Mohammedans 9913, Jains 6038, Christians 19, and aboriginals 17,297. Its revenue from all sources in 1881-82 was estimated at 130,000. The Nimach State Railway connecting Indore with Nimach and Nasirabad passes by Ratlam town. This town, which is one of the principal seats of the opium trade of Malwa, is superior to most cities in Indore, and has good bazaars. Its population in 1881 amounted to 31,066 (16,544 males and 14,522 females). Ratlam state is held as tributary to Sindhia ; but in 1819 an arrangement was made by which the raja agreed to pay an annual tribute amounting to about 6600, while Sindhia engaged never to send any troops into the country or to interfere with the in- ternal administration. This tribute was assigned by the treaty of 1844 between the British Government and Sindhia in part payment of the Gwalior contingent. It is now paid to the British Government. RATNAGIRI or RUTNAGHERRY, a British district of India, in the Konkan division of the Bombay presidency, with an area of 3922 square miles. It lies between 15 40' and 18 5' N. lat. and 73 5' and 73 55' E. long., and is bounded on the N. by the Savitri river, separating it from the Janjira Agency, and by Kolaba district ; on the E. by the Western Ghats, dividing it from the districts of Satara and Belgaum and the native state of Kolhapur ; on the S., where it is reduced to a strip of sea-coast not more than 4 miles wide, by the Portuguese possessions of Goa; and on .the W. by the Arabian Sea. The district forms a belt between the Ghats and the sea, and its general character is rocky and rugged; nearly all the fertile land lies on the banks of the streams which intersect the country. The coast, about 150 miles in length, is almost uniformly rocky and dangerous. At intervals of about 10 miles a river or bay opens, sufficiently large to form a secure harbour for native craft, and the promontories at the river-mouths are almost invariably crowned with the ruins of an old fort. The rivers and creeks are generally navigable for about 20 miles, and afford great facilities for a coasting trade. The denudation of the forests has apparently tended to promote deposits of silt ; but active measures have of late been taken to preserve and extend the forest area. Tigers, leopards, bears, bison, wild boar, sambhar deer, and hysenas are found in the forests on the the population of Ratnagiri district was 997,090 (473,053 524,037 females), Hindus numbering 921,046, Moham- slopes and near the foot of the Sahyadri Hills. At the beginning of British rule there were no roads, and traffic was confined to places where there was water carriage ; but a network of roads has now been made, and the open- ing of the Ghat roads to cart traffic has revolutionized the trade and concentrated it at Chiplun, Rajapur, and Vengurla, which form the gates of a considerable traffic to and from the Deccan. The exports are salt fish, shell- lime, and cocoa-nuts, and the imports comprise food grains, molasses, tobacco, chillies, ground nuts, turmeric, ghi, blankets, piece goods, and iron. The mean temper- ature, as registered at Ratnagiri station, is 78'6, and the average annual rainfall is 103*58 inches. In 1881 males and medans 71,051, and Christians 3275. The district contains three towns with a population exceeding 10,000, RATNAGIRI (see be- low), Malwan (15,565), and Chiplun (12,065). Since it came under British rule the number of inhabitants has increased threefold ; all the land is occupied, and the population is greater than the land can feed. Food has in consequence to be imported, and the condition of the people would be deplorable were it not their custom to move in large numbers to Bombay in search of employment, where they earn good wages and return to spend it in their homes. The chief crops are grain and rice. The extent of arable land is small, but on the whole cultivation is good. Of 1,117,686 acres under actual cultivation in 1883-84, of which 38,865 were twice cropped, cereals occupied 1,020,583 and pulses 41,733 acres. There are no manufactures of any importance ; but the school of industry at Ratnagiri possesses steam saw-mills, and undertakes wood and iron work of all descriptions. The revenue of the district in 1883-84 amounted to 126,596, of which the land-tax contributed 91,429. Ratnagiri formed part of the dominions of the peshwa, and was annexed by the British Government in 1818 on the overthrow of Baji Rao. RATNAGIRI or RUTNAGHERRY, chief town of the above district, is situated on the Konkan coast in 16 59' N. lat. and 73 19' E. long., 136 miles south by east of Bombay. A leading industry connected with the town is the sardine fishery, Avhich usually takes place in January and February, and engages fleets of canoes. A single net-caster will fill his canoe in the course of a morning. The lighthouse was erected in 1867; its light, visible 18 miles distant, is 250 feet above high water. The popula- tion of the town in 1881 numbered 12,616 (males 6418, females 6198). RATRAMNUS, a theological controversialist of some mark, who flourished in the 9th century, was a monk of the Benedictine abbey of Corbie near Amiens, but beyond this fact almost nothing of his personal history has been preserved. He is now best known by his treatise on the Eucharist (De corpore et sanguine Domini liber), in which he controverted the doctrine of transubstantiation as taught in a similar work by his contemporary Radbertus Paschasius (see above, p. 210). In the controversy about election, when appealed to by Charles the Bald, he wrote two books De prxdestinatione Dei, in which he maintained the doctrine of a twofold predestination, nor did the fate of Gottschalk deter him from supporting the view of that un- fortunate theologian against Hincmar as to the orthodoxy of the expression "trina Deitas." Ratramnus perhaps won most glory in his own day by his Contra Grsecorum of>posita, in four books (868), a much valued contribution to the controversy between the Eastern and Western Churches which had been raised by the publication of the encyclical letter of Photius in 867. RATTAN. See CANE and PALM. RATTAZZI, URBANO (1808-1873), Italian statesman, was born on 29th June 1808 at Alessandria, and from 1838 practised with great success at the bar. In 1848 he was sent to the chamber of deputies in Turin as representative of his native town. By his debating powers he contributed to the defeat of the Balbo ministry, and for a short time held the portfolio of minister of public instruction ; after-