Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VIII.djvu/745

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HILL >runna (1809). In the subsequent campaigns the peninsula he distinguished himself par- ticularly at Talavera, Arroyo de Molinos, and ' Imaraz. His services were rewarded by the anks of parliament, and his elevation to the peerage in 1814 as Baron Hill of Almaraz and of Hawkestone. He closed a brilliant military career at Waterloo, where he .commanded a di- vision of the allied army. In 1828 he was appointed commander-in-chief of the British army, a post he occupied till 1842, when, upon resigning office, he was created a viscount. He ossessed almost every quality of a great com- der, and was called the " right arm of Wel- ngton," who bore frequent testimony to his gic skill and high military capacity. His rsonal qualities rendered him perhaps the ost popular soldier of his time in the British vice. HILL, Sir Rowland, author of the cheap post- system in Great Britain, born in Kidder- minster, Dec. 3, 1795. He .early showed a great fondness for figures, which was subse- quently developed in the study of mathematics. His first occupation was that of mathematical tutor in a school kept by his father, and for a number of years he devoted himself to im- proving school instruction and organization. In 1833 he was appointed secretary to the South Australian commission, and aided in founding the colony of South Australia. About this time the defects in postal arrangements began to occupy his attention, and in 1837 he published a pamphlet on post-office reform. By his personal exertions he succeeded in 1838 in having the matter referred to a special com- mittee of the house of commons. In August, 1838, the committee reported in favor of a uni- form low rate of postage as recommended by Mr. Hill, and at the next session more than 2,000 petitions were presented in its favor. In July, 1839, a bill to enable the treasury to carry Mr. Hill's plan into effect, introduced by the chancellor of the exchequer, passed by a ma- jority of 102 ; and on Aug. 17 the project be- came a law. A temporary office under the treasury was at the same time created to ena- ble Mr. Hill to inaugurate his plan, and on Jan. 10, 1840, the uniform penny rate came into operation. The post-office authorities were, however, hostile to the change, and Mr. Hill found himself without adequate support from the existing ministry or from that which suc- ceeded it. His scheme worked well ; during the commercial depression which followed its adoption, the post-office revenue went on in- creasing, while every other source of national income proved less productive than before. He was nevertheless dismissed from his office soon after the accession of the Peel ministry. In 1843 he was appointed one of the directors of the Brighton railway, in which capacity he projected several useful improvements. A sub- scription for a testimonial to him, begun in 1844, reached the amount of 13,000. Upon the return of the whigs to power in 1846 he HILLEH 727 was appointed secretary to the postmaster gen- eral, holding divided authority with Col. Ma- berly; and eight years later, on the transfer of the latter to the audit office (April, 1854), he became sole secretary. In 1860 he was knighted in acknowledgment of his services at the post office, and received a parliamentary grant of 20,000, the first Albert gold medal of the society of arts, and the degree of D.C.L. from Oxford. In 1865 he was appointed a member of a royal commission on railways. HILL, Thomas, an American clergyman, born in New Brunswick, K J., Jan. 7, 1818. He was left an orphan at 10 years of age, and at 12 was apprenticed to the printer of a news- paper, where he remained four years. He then entered an apothecary's shop, after a year's attendance at school, and served in it 3 years. He graduated at Harvard college in 1843, com- pleted his term of residence at the divinity school in 1845, and was settled at Waltham, Mass., on Christmas of the same year. He has published an " Elementary Treatise on Arith- metic," "Geometry and Faith," and "First Lessons in Geometry." It is, however, in his investigations in curves that he has displayed the greatest originality and fertility. He has added to the number of known curves, and simplified their expression ; and by overstep- ping the common methods of using coordinates, and introducing new combinations, he has vastly extended the field of research. In 1859 he became president of Antioch college, at Yellow Springs, Ohio, and in 1862 of Harvard univer- sity. He resigned the latter office in 1868, resided for some years at Waltham, and is now (1874) pastor of a Unitarian church at Portland, Maine. HILLARD, George Stillman, an American au- thor, born in Machias, Me., Sept. 22, 1808. He graduated at Harvard college in 1828, and for some time was a teacher in the Round Hill school at Northampton. He then studied law, and was admitted to the bar in Boston in 1833. In 1846 he visited Europe, and on returning in 1847 he delivered a course of 12 lectures on Italy before the Lowell institute. He was one of the editors of the "Christian Register" (Unitarian) in 1833, and afterward of the "Ju- rist," and then of the daily " Courier." He contributed a life of Capt. John Smith to Sparks's "American Biography," edited Spen- ser's poetical works, translated Guizot's " Char- acter and Influence of Washington" (1840), and edited the Boston "Memorial of Daniel Web- ster " (1853), and selections from the writings of Walter Savage Landor (1856). He has also published "Six Months in Italy" (2 vols., 1853), "Life and Campaigns of George B. McClellan" (1864), "Political Duties of the Educated Classes," "Dangers and Duties of the Mercantile Profession," and a series of school readers. He was United States district attorney for Massachusetts in 1867-'70. HILLEH, or Hillah, a town of Asiatic Turkey, in the vilayet of Bagdad, on both sides of the