Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/742

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
706
CUM—CUN

the 15th. of April, resulted in the total overthrow of the Highland army. It is vain to deny that the men wounded in battle were deliberately despatched by orders of the duke, and that his hard and unsparing nature, coupled with his firm and unfeeling resolve to treat the vanquished merely as rebels, induced him to deny to those whom he had con quered the privileges of war or their rights as fellow-country men. His excesses have been over-estimated, but it cannot be gainsaid that they were unconstitutional and most cruel. The relief occasioned to Britain by the duke s victorious efforts was acknowledged by his being voted an income of 40,000 per annum in addition to his revenue as a prince

of the royal house.

Henceforth, however, the career of Cumberland was to be one of signal defeat. In 1747 he was again on the Continent opposing the still victorious Marshal Saxe; and at Lauffeld, near Maestricht, the Dutch, Austrian, and English allies under the joint command of the duke and his brother-in-law Prince William of Nassau received a notable defeat. Ten years afterwards Cumberland soured his popu larity both as a soldier and a statesman by the affair of Closterseven. When Frederick the Great was suffering the terrible defeats of Prague and Kolin, at the hands of the Austrians, the duke of Cumberland was attempting to defend Hanover at the head of a motley army, raised chiefly in Brunswick, Prussia, and the Electorate. But it was quite in vain ; and at Hastenbeck, near Hameln, on the 26th of July 1757, he was defeated by the superior forces of D Estrees. In September of the same year his defeat had almost become disgrace. Driven from point to point, and at last hemmed in by the French under Richelieu, he capitulated at Closterseven on the 8th of the month, abjectly agreeing to disband his army and to evacuate Hanover, which he had undertaken to defend. His disgrace was completed on his return to England by the king s re fusal to be bound by the terms of the duke s agreement. In chagrin and disappointment he retired into private life, after having formally resigned the public offices he held.

It was not till shortly before his death that he again appeared on the stage of public affairs. In 1765, when the debates on the regency bill were agitating the people of England, George III., dissatisfied with Grenville and his ministr} 1 -, applied to his royal uncle the duke of Cumber land, who was now in failing health, to open negotiations with Pitt for a return to power. On Pitt s declinature, and symptoms of violence becoming evident among the populace, Cumberland again attempted to extricate the king from his unfortunate position by a second negotiation with the great and popular statesman. This too was, however, unsuccessful. On 31st October 1765 the duke died. His statue stands in Cavendish Square.


See, in addition to the histories of the time and the literature of the Rebellion, Historical Memoirs of the Duke of Cumberland; A Journey through part of England and Scotland along with the Army under the command of H.R.H. the Duke of Cumberland ; and especially William Augustus Duke of Cumberland, by A. N. Campbell-Maclachlan, 1876.

(t. s.)

CUMBRAE ISLANDS. See Bute.

CUMIN, or Cummin (Cuminum Cyminum), is an annual, umbelliferous, herbaceous plant, indigenous to Upper Egypt, but early cultivated in Arabia, India, and China, and in the countries bordering the Mediterranean. Its stem is slender and branching, and about a foot in height ; the leaves are multifid, with filiform segments ; the flowers are small and white. The fruits or achenes, the so-called seeds, which constitute the cumin of pharmacy, are fusiform or ovoid in shape, and compressed laterally ; they are two lines long, are hotter to the taste, lighter in colour, and larger than caraway seeds, and have on each half nine fine ridges, overlying as many oil-channels or vittae. Their strong aromatic smell and warm bitterish taste are due to the presence of about three per cent, of an essential oil. The tissue of the seeds contains a fatty oil, with resin, mucilage and gum, malates, and albuminous matter ; and in the pericarp there is much tannin. The volatile oil of cumin, which may be separated by distillation of the seed with water, is mainly a mixture of cyinol or cymene, C 10 H 14 , and cuminic aldehyde,C H 4 (C 3 H 7 )COH. Cumin is mentioned in Isaiah xxviii. 25, 27, and Matthew xxiii. 23, and in the works of Hippocrates and Dioscorides. From Pliny we learn that the ancients took the ground seed medicinally with bread, water, or wine, and that it was accounted the best of condiments as a remedy for squeamishness. It was found to occasion pallor of the face, whence the expression of Horace, exsangue cuminum (Epist. i. 19), and that of Persius, pallentis grana cumini (Sat. v. 55). Pliny relates the story that it was employed by the followers of Porcius Latro, the celebrated rhetorician, in order to produce a complexion such as bespeaks applica tion to study (xx. 57). In the Middle Ages cumin was one of the commonest spices of European growth. Its average price per pound in England in the 13th and 14th. centuries was 2d., or, at present value, about Is. 4d. (Rogers, Hist, of Agric. and Prices, i. 631). It is stimulant and carminative, and is employed in the manufacture of curry powder. The medicinal use of the drug is now almost confined to veterinary practice. Cumin is exported from India, Mcgador, Malta, and Sicily.

CUMMING, Roualeyn Gordon, Scottish traveller and sportsman, generally known as " the Lion Hunter," was born March 15, 1820. He was the second son of Sir William G. Gordon Gumming, baronet, of Altyre and Gordonstown, North Britain. In his early years a strong love for nature in her wildest forms and a passion for sporb displayed themselves in him, at once foreshadowing and determining his future career. He was educated at Eton, and at the age of eighteen passed the examination at Addiscombe and entered the Indian army (Madras Light Cavalry). In consequence of the injurious effects of the climate on his health he did not remain long in India, but retired from the service and returned to Scotland. During his stay, however, he had laid the foundation of his large and interesting collection of hunting trophies and specimens of natural history. After indulging for a time in his favourite pursuits in his native land, he resolved to visit the prairies and mountain solitudes of the Far West. This project, however, was relinquished in favour of a visit to South Africa. He joined the Cape Riflemen, and in 1843 began his five years hunter s life, the story of which is told in his well-known work, published in 1850. He did not remain long in the army ; but for the sake of absolute freedom sold out and set forth to explore the unknown regions of interior Africa. His waggon was his only home ; and even this he often quitted for the sake of bolder ventures either alone or attended only by savages. His collection, the South African Museum, was exhibited in London in 1851, at the time of the Great Exhibition, and was illustrated by a lecture delivered by the famous hunter himself. The museum was afterwards exhibited in various parts of the country. During the last eight years of his life he resided at Fort Augustus, where his collection attracted many visitors. He died there, March 24, 1866.

CUNARD, Sir Samuel (1787-1865), baronet, civil

engineer, founder of the Cunard line of Atlantic steam-ships, was born at Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 17^7. He was the son of a merchant, and was himself trained for the pursuits of commerce, in which, by his abilities and enterprising spirit, he attained a conspicuous position. When, in the early years of steam navigation, the English Government made known its desire to substitute steam vessels for the

sailing ships then employed in the mail service between