Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/647

Rh R O H R O H 623 Rochefort, who then held the archbishopric, and he was also consecrated bishop of Canopus. But he preferred the elegant life and the gaiety of Paris to his clerical duties, and had also an ambition to make a figure in politics. He joined the party opposed to the Austrian alliance, which had been cemented by the marriage of the arch- duchess Marie Antoinette to the dauphin. This party was headed by the due d'Aiguillon, who in 1771 sent Prince Louis on a special embassy to Vienna to find out what was being done there with regard to the partition of Poland. Rohan arrived at Vienna in January 1772, and made a great noise with his lavish f tes. But the empress Maria Theresa was implacably hostile to him ; not only did he attempt to thwart her policy, but he spread scandals about her daughter Marie Antoinette, laughed at herself, and shocked her ideas of propriety by his dis- sipation and luxury. On the death of Louis XV., in 1774, Rohan was recalled from Vienna, and coldly received at Paris ; but the influence of his family was too great for him to be neglected, and in 1777 he was made grand almoner, and in 1778 abbot of St Vaast. In 1778 he was made a cardinal on the nomination of Stanislaus Ponia- towski, king of Poland, and in the following year succeeded his uncle as archbishop of Strasburg and became abbot of Noirmoutiers and Chaise-Dieu. His various preferments brought him in an income of two and a half millions of livres ; yet the cardinal was restless and unhappy until he should be reinstated in favour at court and had appeased the animosity which Marie Antoinette felt against him. Though a man of some ability, he became infatuated with the notorious charlatan Cagliostro in 1780, and lodged him in his palace, and in 1782 he made the acquaint- ance of Madame de Lamotte-Valois, a descendant of an illegitimate branch of the Valois, but a poor adventuress, and married to an adventurer. These people, having ac- quired great influence over Rohan, determined to turn his excessive desire to become reconciled to the queen to their own advantage. They persuaded him that Marie Antoi- nette wished him well, and contrived an interview between him and a girl named Oliva, who greatly resembled the queen, in the gardens of Versailles in August 1784, so skilfully that he believed he had seen the queen herself and that she had given him a rose. The adventuress then persuaded him that the queen would be much gratified by the present of an extremely valuable diamond necklace which she had refused in 1778 and 1781, and on 26th January 1785 the cardinal purchased it for 1,600,000 francs, to be paid in three instalments, and handed it over to a pretended valet of the queen on receipt of a forged letter of thanks signed "Marie Antoinette of France." The comte de Lamotte-Valois at once started for London, and, after breaking up the necklace, began to sell the diamonds separately. The plot soon came to light, and the king sent the cardinal to the Bastille. This arrest of a great nobleman and an archbishop excited the wrath of both the nobility and the bishops, and the large party opposed to the Austrian alliance regarded him as a martyr. In this feeling the old courtiers and the judges of the parlement of Paris participated, for they hated the queen for her abolition of strict etiquette and for her extrava- gance and frivolity. The people, who had also been taught by pamphleteers to hate her and to regard her as the cause of all their ills, shared the feeling of their superiors in education ; and, when the parlement of Paris solemnly absolved the cardinal of all blame on 31st May 1786, his acquittal was received with universal enthusiasm, and regarded as a victory over the court and the queen. Though acquitted by the parlement of Paris, the cardinal was deprived of his office as grand almoner and exiled to his abbey of Chaise-Dieu. He was soon allowed to return to Strasburg, and his popularity was shown by his election in 1789 to the states-general by the clergy of the bailliages of Haguenau and Weissenburg. He at first declined to sit, but the states-general, when it became the national assembly, insisted on validating his election. But as a prince of the church in January 1791 he refused to take the oath to the constitution, and went to Ettenheim, in the German part of his diocese. In exile his character improved, and he spent what wealth remained to him in providing for the poor clergy of his diocese who had been obliged to leave France; and in 1801 he resigned his nominal rank as archbishop of Strasburg. On 17th February 1803 he died at Ettenheim. For the affair of the diamond necklace and the life of the cardinal see the Memoires of his secretary, the Abbe Georgel, of the baroness d'Oberkirch, of Beugnot, and of Madame Campan ; the Memoires inedits du Comte de Lamotte-Valois, ed. Louis Lacour, 1858, in which Rohan is ably defended and Marie Antoinette stigmatized ; Marie Antoinette et le Proces du Collier, by Emile Campardon, 1863 ; and Carlyle's "The Diamond Necklace," in Fraser's Maga- zine (1837), republished in his Essays. ROHILKHAND or ROHILCUND, a division or commis- sionership in the North-Western Provinces of India, lying between 27 35' and 30 1' N. lat. and between 78 1' and 80 26' E. long. It comprises the six districts of Bijnaur (Bijnor), Muradabad, Budaun, Bareli (Bareilly), Shahjahanpur, and Pilibhit, together containing an area of 10,885 square miles, with a population (1881) of 5,122,557 (males 2,728,761, females 2,393,796). By religion, Hindus numbered 3,921,989, Mohammedans 1,192,263, and Christ- ians 6304. In the same year there were 11,327 towns and villages in the division and 639,604 occupied houses. Of the total area 6446 square miles were returned as culti- vated and 2516 as cultivable. In 1883-84 Rohilkhand division had 2592 miles of road and 163 miles of railway; in the same year its gross revenue amounted to 980,682, of which the land-tax contributed 695,181. ROHTAK, a British district of India, in the Hissar division, under the lieutenant-governorship of the Punjab, lying between 28 19' and 29 17' N. lat. and between 76 17' and 77 30' E. long. It contains an area of 1811 square miles, and is bounded on the N. by Karnal, on the E. by Delhi, on the S. by Gurgaon, and on the W. by Hissar and the native state of Jhind. Rohtak district is situated in the midst cf the level tableland separating the Jumna and the Sutlej valleys; it is one unbroken plain, consisting of a hard clay copiously interspersed with light yellow sand, and covered in its wild state by a jungle of scrubby brushwood. It possesses no grand scenery, but on the whole the features of the district are more diversi- fied than many of the plain districts of the Punjab. The only natural reservoir for its drainage is the Najafgarh Jhil, a marshy lake lying within the boundaries of Delhi. The Sahibi, a small stream from the Ajmere hills, traverses a corner of the district, and the northern portions are watered by the Rohtak and Butana branches of the Western Jumna Canal, but the greater portion of the central plain, comprising about two-thirds of the district area, is entirely dependent upon the uncertain rainfall. The climate, though severe in point of heat, is generally healthy; the average rainfall is about 19 inches. Rohtak has no railway ; it is, however, well provided with roads, which cross it in every direction, and telegraphic com- munication is now under construction. In 1881 the population of Rohtak district numbered 553,609 (296,224 males and 257,385 females). By religion Hindus numbered 468,905, or nearly 85 per cent, of the total population, and Moham- medans 79,510. There are only two towns in the district with inhabitants exceeding 10,000, namely, ROHTAK (see below) and Jhajjar with 11,650. Rohtak is a purely agricultural district, but its produce hardly more than suffices for its home consumption. Of the total area of 1811 square miles, 1416 were in 1883-84 re- turned as cultivated and 269 as cultivable. The chief producls