Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/497

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BTTSSELL of resistance to tyranny. Some of his obser- vations during the few days that passed be- tween his sentence and execution show much pleasant humor, and others great depth of thought and eloquence. He refused to accept of a plan formed for his escape. At the scaf- fold he gave a paper to the sheriff that em- bodied his sentiments. His fellow victim, Al- gernon Sidney, was executed before the close of the year. Russell's attainder was reversed immediately after the revolution, and his fa- ther was created duke of Bedford in 1694, the patent stating, among the reasons for con- ferring the honor, " that this was not the least, that he was the father to Lord Russell, the ornament of his age," &c. His wife, Lady Rachel Russell, survived him 40 years, dying Sept. 29, 1723, at the age of 87. Her' "Let- ters," edited by Miss Berry, were published in 1819. A more perfect edition, edited by Lord John Russell, appeared in 1854, who has also written " The Life of William Lord Russell, with some Account of the Times in which he lived" (2 vols. 8vo, London, 1819). RUSSELL, William, a Scottish historian, born in Selkirkshire in 1741, died in Dumfriesshire, Dec. 25, 1793. He was apprenticed for five years to a bookseller and printer of Edinburgh, and on the completion of his term published a " Select Collection of Modern Poems." In 1767 he went to London, where he was em- ployed as corrector of the press for Strachan the publisher. From 1787 he lived on a farm in Dumfriesshire. His principal works are: " History of America " (2 vols. 4to, 1779 ; new ed., with additions by Charles Coote, 1815) ; "History of Modern Europe" (4 vols. 8vo, !779-'84; 5 vols., 1786), continued by Coote and others in various editions to 1856 (4 vols., 1857; and "History of Ancient Europe, with a View of the Revolutions in Asia and Africa " (2 vols. 8vo, 1793; new ed. by Coote, 1815). He left an unfinished " History of England from the beginning of the Reign of George III." RUSSELL, William Howard, a British journal- ist, born at Lily Vale, county Dublin, Ireland, March 28, 1821. While a student at Trinity college, Dublin, he was employed to report Irish elections for the London "Times." In 1842 he went to London, and in 1843-'5 was engaged as one of the chief reporters for the "Times." He entered the Middle Temple in 1846, and was called to the bar in 1850, but renewed his connection with the " Times." In 1854-'5 he corresponded with that journal from the Crimea, and witnessed and reported all the important engagements. In 1857-'8 he was in India to report the progress of the mu- tiny and revolt. He shortly after established the "Army and Navy Gazette," of which he is still (1875) editor and principal proprietor. In 1861-'2 he was in the United States as a war correspondent of the " Times," and trav- elled in Canada. In 1865 he was in the un- successful expedition of the Great Eastern to lay an Atlantic cable. In the Austro-Prussian RUSSIA 477 war of 1866 he wrote letters to the "Times" from the Austrian headquarters, and during the Franco-German war of 1870-'71 from the headquarters of the crown prince of Prussia. He-has published a " History of the Crimean War" (2 vols. 12mo, 1855-'6; enlarged ed., 1857); "Rifle Clubs and Volunteer Corps" (1859); "My Diary in India" (2 vols. 8vo, 1860) ; " My Diary North and South " (2 vols. 8vo, 1862); "Memorials of the Marriage of the Prince of Wales" (fol., 1864); "Review of Todleben's History of the Defence of Sebas- topol " (8vo, 1864) ; " Canada, its Defences, Condition, and Resources "(1865); "The Great Eastern and the Atlantic Cable " (1865) ; " Ad- ventures of Dr. Brady," a novel (3 vols., 1868) ; " Diary in the East : Tour of the Prince and Princess of Wales" (1869); "My Diary du- ring the last Great War" (1873); and some minor works collected from his contributions to periodicals. RUSSIA (Russ. Rossiya), the largest connect- ed empire of the world, extending, in Europe and Asia, from Int. 38 20' to about 77 30' N., and from Ion. 17 38' E. to about 170 W. It is bounded N. by the Arctic ocean, E. by the Pa- cific, S. by the Chinese empire, Independent Tur- kistan, Persia, Asiatic Turkey, and the Black sea, and S. W. and W. by Roumania, Austria, Prussia, the Baltic sea, and Sweden. Its great- est length from W. to E. is about 6,000 m. ; its greatest breadth (exclusive of islands) about 2,300 m. Its total surface is estimated to comprise one twenty-sixth of the entire sur- face of the globe, and to represent one sixth of its firm land. THe natural geographical ad- vantages of Russia are very great. The first trade with England began at the port of Arch- angel on the White sea. Now the maritime trade of the empire has its chief emporiums on the Baltic, the Black and Caspian seas, and the inlets of the northern Pacific. The N. coast is deeply penetrated by large arms of the Arctic ocean, forming gulfs, of which those of Obi and Kara, on the border of Europe and Asia, and on the N. W. the White sea, are the most important. The rivers of Russia are numerous and remarkable for their magnitude. Those of European Russia (to which alone we mainly restrict the descriptive portions of this article, referring the reader for Asiatic Russia to the articles CAUCASUS, SIBERIA, and TURKIS- TAN) belong to the four great basins of the Arctic ocean, the Baltic, the Black sea, and the Caspian sea. The great watershed is formed by a broad central ridge, commencing on the frontiers of Poland, stretching across the em- pire in an irregular waving line, and termi- nating on the W. side of the Ural mountains. The waters N. of this shed fall into the Arctic ocean and the Baltic sea, those S. of it into the Black or the Caspian. The Arctic ocean receives directly the Petchora, which rises in the Ural mountains, traverses the most desert- ed parts of Russia, receives several tributaries, and discharges by a wide estuary, remarkable