Kej in former days was considered of very great importance by the rulers of Khelat, who have at various times marched large armies into the province with a view to maintaining their supremacy. At the commencement of the present century it had the reputation of being a town of considerable commercial importance, trading through Panjgur with Kandahar, with Kurrachee via Beyla, and with Muscat and the Persian Gulf by the seaport of Guader, distant about 80 miles. The present ruler of Khelat is able to exert but a feeble sway over this portion of his dominion, although he appoints a governor to the province. The principal tribe residing around Kej is that of the Gitchki, who claim to be of Rajput origin, and to have settled in Mekran during the 17th century, having been driven out of Rajputana. There are numerous other tribes having very curious traditions as to the time and manner of their settling in the country. The climate during summer is almost unbearable for Europeans. During winter, however, it is temperate. The principal exports consist of dates, which are considered of the finest quality. There is little chance of Kej resuming its former prosperity.
KELAT.See Khelat.
KELLERMANN, François Christophe (1735-1820), duke of Valmy and marshal of France, was born near Rothenburg, in Bavaria, in May 1735. He entered the French army as a volunteer, and served in the Seven Years War and in Louis XV.'s Polish expedition of 1771. By 1785 he had attained the rank of maréchal de-camp. In 1789 Kellermann enthusiastically embraced the cause of the Revolution, and in 1791 he became general of the army in Alsace. In August 1792 he received command of the army of the centre, with orders to effect a junction with Dumouriez in Champagne. The day after he had succeeded in this operation (September 20), he was forced to give battle to the allies on the heights of Valmy. General Kellermann's dash and bravery led his troops to a decisive victory, whose moral effects were of the utmost importance. Transferred next to the army on the Moselle, Kellermann was accused by General Custine of neglecting to support his operations on the Rhine; but from this, as from a similar charge in 1793, he was acquitted at the bar of the Convention in Paris, and was placed at the head of the army of the Alps and of Italy. Shortly afterwards he received instructions to reduce Lyons, then in open revolt against the Convention. The hesitation he displayed in executing that order brought him again into suspicion; and he was imprisoned in Paris for thirteen months. Once more honourably acquitted, he was reinstated in his command, and did good service in maintaining the south-eastern border against the Austrians. When Napoleon came to power Kellermann was named successively senator, marshal of France, and duke of Valmy. In 1814 he voted for the deposition of the emperor, and became a peer under the royal government. After the "Hundred Days" he sat in the high chamber and voted with the Liberals. He died September 12, 1820.
KELLGREN, Johan Henrik (1751-95), Swedish poet and critic, was born at Floby in West Gothland, December 1, 1751. He studied at the university of Åbo, and had already some reputation as a poet when in 1774 he there became a "docent" in æsthetics. Three years after this he removed to Stockholm, where in conjunction with Lenngren he began in 1778 the publication of the journal Stockholmsposten, whose chief contributor he continued to be almost throughout the remainder of his life. Kellgren was private librarian to Gustavus III. from 1780, and from 1785 his private secretary. On the institution of the Swedish Academy in 1786 he was appointed by the king one of its first members. He died at Stockholm after a severe illness of two years, April 20, 1795. Early familiar with the models of the French school of Voltaire, Kellgren did not till late in life awake to a sense of the value of the works of Lessing and Goethe. His strong satiric tendency led him into numerous controversies, the chief that with Thorild, against whom he directed his satire Nyt försök till orimmad vers, where he sneers at the "raving of Shakespeare" and "the convulsions of Goethe." His lack of humour detracts from the interest of his polemical writings. His poetical works are partly lyrical partly dramatic, but of the latter only the versification belongs to him, all the rest being due to Gustavus III. The songs interspersed in the four operas which they produced in common, viz., Gustaf Vasa, Gustaf Adolf och Ebba Brahe, Æneas i Kartago, and Drottning Kristina, are wholly the work of Kellgren. From about the year 1788 a higher and graver feeling pervades Kellgren's verses, partly owing to his increased knowledge of the newer German and English literature, but probably more directly due to his controversy with Thorild. Of his minor poems written before that date the most important are the charming spring-song Vinterns välde lyktar, and the satirical Mina löjen and Man eger ej snille för det man är galen. The best productions of what is called his later period are the satire Ljusets fiender, the comic poem Dumboms lefverne, the warmly patriotic Kantat d. 1 jan. 1789, the ode Till Kristina, the fragment Sigwart och Hilma, and the beautiful song Nya skapelsen, both in thought and form the finest of all his works. Among the lyrics of Kellgren are the choicest fruits of the Gustavian age of Swedish letters. His earlier efforts, indeed, express with great completeness the superficial doubt and pert frivolousness characteristic of his time; but in the works of his riper years he is no mere "poet of pleasure," as Thorild contemptuously styled him, but a worthy exponent of earnest moral feeling and wide human sympathies in the most felicitous and melodious verse. His Samlade skrifter (3 vols., 4th ed., Örebro, 1860), revised by himself, were, in accordance with his own direction, published by his friends after his death. His prose works were translated into German by Lappe (Neustrelitz, 1801).
See Wieselgren, Sveriges sköna literatur, 1833-49; Atterbom, Svenska siare och skalder, 1841-55; C. W. Böttiger in Transactions of the Swedish Academy, xlv. 107 sq., 1870; and Gustaf Ljunggren's Kellgren, Leopold, och Thorild, and his Svenska vitterhetens häfder, 1873, 1877.
KELLS, a market and municipal town of Meath county, Ireland, is situated on the Blackwater and on the Dublin and Meath Railway, 39 miles north-west of Dublin. The prosperity of the town depends chiefly upon its interesting antiquarian remains. The most notable is St Columba's house, originally an oratory, but afterwards converted into a church, the chancel of which was in existence in 1752. The present church is modern, with the exception of the bell-tower, rebuilt in 1578. Near the church there is a very perfect specimen of the ancient round tower, and there are also several ancient crosses, one being situated in the market-place.
Kells was originally a royal residence, whence its ancient name Ceanannus, meaning the dun or circular northern fort, in which the king resided, and the intermediate name Kenlis, meaning head fort. The other places in Ireland named Kells are probably derived from Cealla, signifying church. In the 6th century Kells, it is said, was granted to St Columba. The statement that he founded a monastery at it is probably incorrect; at any rate the town owes its ecclesiastical importance to the bishopric founded about 807, and united to Meath in the 13th century. Until the Act of Union Kells returned two members to parliament. Population of urban sanitary district in 1881, 2820.
