Page:EB1911 - Volume 23.djvu/457

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ROCK ISLAND—RocKPoRT
435

the earl of Bute, became first lord of the treasury, and the marquess of Rockingham was amongst those who in the following year were dismissed from their lord-lieu tenancies. The opposition now grew so strong that Lord Bute resigned in April 1763, and the king, true to his policy, appointed George Grenville to be his successor. But Grenville's section of the Whig party was not strong enough to maintain him in power long, and in July 1765 Lord Rockingham formed his first administration with General Conway and the duke of Grafton as secretaries of state. The cabinet seemed stronger than it really was, for it was divided by intestine quarrels, and the earl of Chatham refused to have anything to do with it. Nevertheless, Rockingham recovered his lord-lieu tenancies and won reputation as a good administrator. In May 1766 the duke of Grafton, a far abler man than Rockingham, though neither so conciliatory in his manners nor so generally popular, seceded from the government, and in August 1766 he succeeded his former chief as first lord of the treasury and prime minister. Then followed many years of fruitless opposition to the king's personal authority as exhibited through his ministers, but at last, on the 27th of March 1782, Lord Rockingham again became prime minister with Fox and Shelburne (afterwards marquess of Lansdowne) as secretaries of state. This time he enjoyed office for but a few weeks, for he died on the 1st of July 1782. He left no issue, and his property went to his nephew, the 2nd Earl Fitzwilliam, his titles becoming extinct. A few words from his epitaph by Burke deserve quotation as giving the reason of the predominance of such an ordinary man as Lord Rockingham over a party abounding in men of great abilities: “A man worthy to be held in esteem, because he did not live for himself. ... He far exceeded all other statesmen in the art of drawing together, without the seduction of self-interest, the concurrence and co-operation of various dispositions and abilities of men, whom he assimilated to his character and associated in his labours.”

See Memoirs of the Marquis of Rockingham and his Contemporaries, by George Thomas, earl of Albemarle (2 vols., 1852); Horace Walpole's Memoirs of the reign of George Ill., edited by G. F. R. Barker (1894); and the other letters, papers and diaries of the time.


ROCK ISLAND, a city and the county-seat of Rock Island county, Illinois, U.S.A., in the N.W. part of the state, on the E. bank of the Mississippi river, adjoining Moline, and opposite Davenport, Iowa (with which it is connected by two bridges), about 3 m. above the mouth of the Rock river, and at the foot of Rock Island rapids, which extend for nearly 16 m. Pop. (1890) 13,634; (1900) 19,493, of whom 4412 were foreign-born; (1910) 24,335. It is served by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, the Chicago, Milwaukee & St Paul, the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, and the Davenport, Rock Island & North-Western railways. Near the city, at the mouth of Rock river, the “Hennepin” (or Illinois & Mississippi) canal joins the Mississippi river. The city occupies a plain lying between the river and a series of bluffs. The island of Rock Island, a ridge of limestone rock about 3 m. long and 1% m. wide, is connected with the mainland by bridges to Rock Island and Moline; on it there are a Federal arsenal, the most important in the country for the manufacture of small-arms, gun carriages and artillery equipment, a Federal armoury and a national cemetery; the island is connected with the Illinois shore at Moline by a dam, whence good water power is derived. In the city are: a public library (1872), the Augustana College and Theological Seminary (controlled by the Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod of North America; co-educational), which was founded as Augustana Seminary in Chicago in 186O chiefly for the education of Swedish Lutheran clergymen, was removed to Paxton, Illinois, in 1863 and to Rock Island in 1875, and received its present name in 1869; and the principal offices of the Modern Woodmen of the World, a fraternal society, founded in 1884 and having 219,729 members in 1909. The city has a large trade by water and rail; commercially it forms a unit with Davenport and Moline. Among the city's manufactures are lumber, agricultural implements, flour, glass, stoves, carriages, soap, &c. In 1905 the value of the factory product was $5,332,967. Some coal is mined in the county.

On the north bank of the Rock river, 3 m. from its mouth, there was a large summer village (sometimes called Saukenuk) of the Sauk Indians, built about 1730 and destroyed in 1831; and near the mouth of the Rock river is a bluff called “Black Hawk's watch-tower.” A settlement on the island was made in 1816, when the fort was built; the first settlement on the mainland was made in 1826. In 1841 the town of Rock Island was formed by the consolidation of two small settlements named Stephenson and Farnhamsburg and was incorporated; it received a city charter in 1849. Upon the west end of the island the United States government in 1816 built Fort Armstrong, where on the 21st of September 1832, at the close of the Black Hawk War, a treaty of peace was signed by General Winfield Scott and Governor John Reynolds of Illinois and by the chiefs of the Sauk and Foxes, and where, six days before, General Scott and Governor Reynolds had made a treaty with the Winnebagoes. The fort was abandoned in 1836 and was burned in 1855; a. monument now marks its site. The Rock Island armoury and arsenal, under an act of 1862, were built in 1863, when a number of captured Confederate soldiers were confined on the island.


ROCKLAND, a city and the county-seat of Knox county, Maine, U.S.A., on Rockland Harbor, Penobscot Bay, 86 m. by rail E.N.E. of Portland. Pop. (1900) 8150; (1910) 8174. It is the eastern terminus of a branch of the Maine Central railway, and is served by an interurban electric line and by steamboat lines to Portland, Boston, Bangor, Bar Harbor and other coast ports. The harbour is protected by a breakwater nearly 5000 ft. long. The principal buildings are the United States Government Building and the County Court House. Granite and limestone are quarried in the vicinity. The granite (biotite, biotite-Muscovite and quartz-monzonite) is of fine quality, and has been used extensively in the United States for building and monumental purposes; and the burning of lime is by far the most important industry of the city. The shipbuilding industry is also important. The total value of the city's factory products in 1905 was $1,822,591 (46.5% more than in 1900). Lobsters and fish in considerable quantities are shipped from the city. Rockland was settled in 1769, but its growth began only with the establishment of the lime industry in 1795. It was a part of the township of Thomaston (pop. 2205 in 1910), from 1777 to 1848, when it was incorporated as a separate township under the name of East Thomaston. Two years later the present name was adopted, and in 1854 Rockland was chartered as a city.


ROCKLAND, a township of Plymouth county, Massachusetts, U.S.A., about 20 m. S. of Boston. Pop. (1890) 5213; (1900) 5327; (1910 U.S. census) 6928. Area, about 10 sq. m. It is served by the New York, New Haven & Hartford railway, and by interurban electric railway. Among its manufactures are boots and shoes and tacks. There is a public library (1878). Rockland was erected into a township in 1874, having been previously a part of Abington.


ROCKPORT, a township of Essex county, Massachusetts, U.S.A., on the N.E. end of Cape Ann, on the Atlantic Ocean, north-east of Gloucester, and about 35 m. north-east of Boston. Pop. (1890) 4087; (1900) 4592; (1910, U.S. census) 4211. Rockport is the southern terminus of the Gloucester branch of the Boston 81 Maine railway, and is served by an electric railway extending from Gloucester through Rockport and around the cape. Off Sandy Bay, a rendezvous of the Atlantic squadron of the U.S. navy, the Federal government began in 1884 a harbour of refuge, with an area of 1664 acres, to be protected from north and north-east winds by a breakwater, 117 ft. wide at a depth of 12 ft. below mean low water, rising 22 ft. above mean low water, and 9000 ft. long. In the township are the North Village or Pigeon Cove and the South Village or Rockport. Rockport is a summer resort, and there are many summer residences at Andrews Point and at the South