R A S R A T 287 It dispersed, however, without result, war having again broken out between France and Austria. As the French plenipotentiaries were leaving the town they were waylaid and assassinated by Hungarian hussars. The object and instigators of this deed have remained shrouded in mystery, but the balance of evidence seems to indicate that the Austrian authorities had ordered a violent seizure of the ambassadors' papers, to avoid damaging disclosures with regard to Austrian designs on Bavaria, and that the soldiers had simply exceeded their instructions. The Baden revolution of 1849 began at Rastatt with a military mutiny and ended here a few months later with the capture of the town by the Prussians. Rastatt is now a fortress of the German empire. RASTELL, the name of two early English printers. I. JOHN RASTELL or RASTALL, printer and author, was born at London towards the end of the 15th century. He was educated at Oxford, and married Elizabeth, the sister of Sir Thomas More. He was a man of considerable learning and, although not bred to the law like his son, showed his devotion to legal studies by his writings. He went into the printing business about the year 1514, and produced Liber assisarum, with a preface by himself. His first dated publication was Abbreviamentum librorum legum Anf/lorum (1517). He also printed The Wydow Edyih (1525), A Dyaloge of Syr Thomas More (1529), and a number of other books. The last dated piece from his press was FabyVs Ghoste (1533), a poem. He lived "at the sygne of the meremayd at Powlysgate." John Rastell, the Jesuit, who has been frequently confounded with him, was no relation. By his will, dated 20th April 1536, he appointed Henry VIII. one of his executors ; administra- tion was granted on the renunciation of the executorship by the king on 18th July 1536. It is a curious document, and contains a long account of the testator's religious belief. Rastell was occupied upon a concordance at the time of his death ; its publication was provided for by the will (see Arber's Registers of Comp. of Stationers, ii. 8, 9). He died at London, leaving two sons, William, printer and judge (see below), and John, a justice of the peace. Rastell's chief writings are the following. The Pastyme of People ; the Chronycles of dyuers Realmys and most specyally of the Rcalme of Englonde (1529), now of extreme rarity ; a note in the catalogue of the British Museum says, "the only perfect copy known." It ranges from the earliest times to Richard III., and was edited by Dibdin in 1811 for the quarto series of English chronicles. A new Boke of Purgatory, 1530, being dialogues on the subject between "Comyngo au Almayne a Christen Man, and one Gyngemyn a Turke." This was answered by John Frith, pro- ducing Rastell's Apology against John Fryth, also answered by the latter. The controversy is said to have ended in Rastell's con- version to the Reformed religion. Expositiones terminorum legum anglorum (in French, also translated into English, 1527 ; reprinted as recently as 1812 as Lcs Termes de la Ley). The Abbreviation of Statutis (1520), the first abridgment of the statutes in English, with an interesting preface by Rastell, giving reasons for the in- novation ; down to 1625 fifteen editions appeared. II. WILLIAM RASTELL (c. 1 508-1 565), printer and judge, son of the above, was born in London about 1508. At the age of seventeen he went to the university of Oxford, but did not take a degree, being probably called home to superintend his father's business. The first work which bears his own imprint was A Dyaloge of Sir Thomas More (1531), a reprint of the edition published by his father in 1529. He also brought out a few law books, some poetry, an edition of Fabyaris Cronyde (1533), and The Apologye (1533) and The Supplycacyon of Soulys of his uncle Sir Thomas More. His office was "in Fletestrete in saynt Brydys chyrche yarde." He became a student at Lincoln's Inn on 12th September 1532, and gave up the printing business two years later. In 1547 he was appointed reader. On account of his religion he left England for Louvain; but upon the accession of Mary he returned, and was made sergeant-at-law in October 1555. He was one of the seven sergeants who gave the famous feast that year in the Inner Temple Hall (see Dugdale's Orig. Jwrid., 1680, p. 128). His patent as judge of the Queen's Bench was granted on 27th October 1558. One of his pre- decessors, John Boteler, had also been printer and judge. Rastell continued on the bench until 1562, when he retired to Louvain without the queen's licence. By virtue of a special commission issued by the barons of the Exchequer on the occasion an inventory of his goods and chattels was taken. It furnishes an excellent idea of the modest nature of the law library (consisting of twenty-four works) and of the chambers of an Elizabethan judge (see Law Magazine, February 1844). He died at Louvain on 27th August 1565. It is difficult to distinguish between the books written by him and those by his father. The following are believed to be his : A Collection of all the Statutes (1557), A Table collected of the Yeares of the Kynges of Englande (1561), both frequently reprinted with con- tinuations, and A Collection of Entrees, of Declarations, &c. (1566), also frequently reprinted. The entries are not of Rastell's own drawing, but have been selected from printed and MS. collections ; their " pointed brevity and precision " are commended by Story. He supplied tables or indexes to several law books, and edited La novel natura brevium de Monsieur Anton. Fitzherbert- and The Worlces of Sir T. More in the English Tonge (1557). He is also stated to have written a life of Sir T. More, but it has not come down to us. See Bale, Scriptores maioris Brytannise, 1557-59 ; Pits, Relationes hist, de rebus Angl., 1619; Tanner, Bibliotheca, 1748; Ames, Typogr. Antiq., by Dibdin, 1816, iii. pp. 81, 370 ; Wood, Athena Oxonienses, 1813, i. pp. 100, 343 ; Dodd, Church History, 1739, ii. p. 149; Foss, Biographia Juridica, 1870; Reeves, History of the Engl. Law, 1869, iii. p. 432 ; Marvin, Legal Bibliography, 1847 ; Clarke, Biblio- theca Legum, 1819; Bridgman, Legal Bibliography, 1807; Catalogue of Books in the British Museum before 16UO, 1884. RASTRICK, an urban sanitary district in the West Riding of Yorkshire, is situated on an acclivity near the Calder, and on the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway 5 miles south-east of Halifax and 3| north of Huddersfield. It possesses woollen and silk manufactures, and there are stone quarries in the neighbourhood. The ancient chapel of St Matthew was replaced in 1798 by a church in the Grecian style, which was restored in 1879. A school was founded in 1701 by Mrs Mary Law, who also endowed a charity for poor widows. The population of the urban sanitary district (area, 1371 acres) in 1871 was 5896, and in 1881 it was 8039. RAT. Under the article MOUSE (vol. xvii. p. 5) an account has been already given of the relationships and chief allies of the animals known as rats, and the present article is confined to the two species to which the name rat is most strictly applicable. These are the so-called old English black rat, Mus rattus, and the common brown or Norway rat, M. decumanus. The first of these is a com- paratively small and lightly built animal, seldom exceeding about 7 inches in length, with a slender head, large ears (see fig., A), and a long thin scaly tail about 8 or 9 inches in length. Its colour is, at least in all tem- perate climates, a peculiar shining bluish black, rather lighter on the belly, the ears, feet, and tail being also A. B - Black Rat (Mus rattus). Brown Rat (M. decmnanus). black ; but in tropical regions it is represented by a grey or rufous -backed and white -bellied race to which the name of Alexandrian rat (M. alexandrinus) has been applied, owing to its having been first discovered at Alexandria, but which cannot be considered to be really specifically distinct from the true black rat. Its disposi-
