226 Rfi RE, or Rhe, an island of France, in the bay of Biscay, forming part of the department of Charente-Inferieure, and separated from La Kochelle by a channel about 2 m. wide ; area, about 30 sq. m. ; pop. about 18,000. The isl- and is inaccessible on the S. W., but the N. E. coast is strongly indented and forms sev- eral harbors. The inhabitants are engaged in commerce and the fisheries, the production of salt, and the manufacture of wine, brandy, and vinegar. The chief town, St. Martin de Re, on the N. E. coast (pop. in 1872, 2,740), is strongly fortified. From its commanding position near La Rochelle, the isle of R6 was of great military importance in Richelieu's final struggle with the Huguenots. In 1627 the duke of Buckingham led a powerful expedition against it. He landed on July 20, and con- tinued the attack for more than three months, but was finally forced to abandon it. REACH, Angus Bethnne, a British author, born in Inverness, Scotland, Jan. 23, 1821, died Nov. 25, 1856. He became about 1850 a re- porter on the staff of the London " Morning Chronicle," composed much for the stage, and published " Claret and Olives : from the Ga- ronne to the Rh&ne" (1852); two romances, "Clement Lorimer" (1849), and "Leonard Lindsay," a story of a buccaneer (1850) ; "Men of the Hour, in three Parts : Bores, Tuft Hunters, the Bui Masqu6" (1856), &c. READ, George, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, born in Cecil co., Md., Sept. 18, 1733, died in New Castle, Del., Sept. 21, 1798. He studied law at Philadelphia, was admitted to the bar at the age of 19, began practice at New Castle, and in 1763 was ap- pointed attorney general for the three lower counties on the Delaware, the designation by which the present state of Delaware was then known. In 1774 he was elected to congress, of which ho continued to be a member, with a brief interval, till near the close of the revo- lution. "When the question of independence was first agitated, Mr. Read opposed it as premature, but was afterward among its most zealous supporters. In 1776 he was president of the convention that formed the first con- stitution of Delaware, of which he was the author, and under which he was chosen vice president, and served for a short time as president during the captivity of the regu- lar incumbent. In 1782 he was made judge of the United States court of appeals in ad- miralty cases. He represented Delaware in the convention that framed the constitution of the United States, was the first senator chosen under it for that state, and retained his seat till 1793, when he was made chief justice of Delaware. READ, Nathan, an American inventor, born at "Warren, "Worcester co., Mass., July 2, 1759, died near Belfast, Me., Jan. 20, 1849. He graduated at Harvard college in 1781, and was tutor there for four years. In 1796 he estab- lished, with others, the Salem iron foundery, READE and invented a machine, patented in January, 1798, for cutting and heading nails at one operation. From 1800 to 1803 he was a mem- ber of congress. In 1807 he removed to Bel- fast, Me., and for many years was chief jus- tice in the court of Hancock co. He was the author of many inventions, was one of the first to experiment with steam for navigation, and invented multitubular boilers and high- pressure engines. He also invented a method of equalizing the action of windmills, by ac- cumulating the force of the wind by winding up a weight ; a plan of using the force of the tide by means of reservoirs alternately filled and emptied in such a way as to produce a constant stream; different forms of pumping engines and threshing machines; and a plan for using the expansion and contraction of metals, multiplied by levers, for winding up clocks and other purposes. He was a member of the academy of arts and sciences. See "Nathan Read, his Inventions," &c., by his nephew David Read (1870). READ, Thomas Buchanan, an American artist and poet, born in Chester co., Pa., March 12, 1822, died in New York, May 11, 1872. At the age of 17 he entered the studio of a sculp- tor in Cincinnati. In 1841 he removed to New- York, and after a few months to Boston, where he began his career as a painter. He contrib- uted poems to the Boston "Courier" in 1843 and 1844, and in 1846 settled in Philadelphia. In 1850 he went to Florence, and with occa- sional visits to America resided in Italy till the spring of 1872, when he returned to Amer- ica, but died soon after his arrival. His most popular pictures are portraits. He published "Lays and Ballads" (Philadelphia, 1848); "The New Pastoral" (1855); "The House by the Sea" (1856); "The Wagoner of the Alleghanies" (1862) ; "A Summer Story, and other Poems " (1865) ; and " Poetical Works " (3 vols., Philadelphia, 1866). READE. I. Charles, an English novelist, born at Ipsden, Oxfordshire, in 1814. He graduated in 1835 at Magdalen college, Oxford, where he was elected to one of the Vinerian fellowships in 1842. In 1843 he was called to the bar by the society of Lincoln's Inn, but soon after gave his attention wholly to literature. In 1847 he received the degree of D. 0. L. from his uni- versity. Among his earliest literary efforts was a drama in five acts, entitled " Gold," which appeared in 1850. In 1852 he published his first story, " Peg Woffiagton," which imme- diately gave him rank as a writer of fiction, and in the following year "Christie John- stone," which met with still greater favor. These stories are simple in plot and unpre- tentious in design, but are full of dramatic force, rich in incident, and marked by a pecu- liar tenderness and pathos. In 1854, in con- junction with Mr. Tom Taylor, he published a volume of plays, containing " Masks and Faces," the plot of which is identical with that of " Peg Woffington," " Two Loves and a Life,"
