OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Matilda, Queen

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​MATILDA (1102–1164), queen of England and empress, daughter of Henry I. of England, by Matilda, his first wife, was born in 1102. In 1109 she was betrothed to the emperor-elect, Henry V., and was sent to Germany, but the marriage was delayed till 1114. Her husband died after eleven years of wedlock, leaving her childless; and, since both her brothers were now dead, she was recalled to her father’s court in order that she might be recognized as his successor in England and Normandy. The Great Council of England did homage to her under considerable pressure. Their reluctance to acknowledge a female sovereign was increased when Henry gave her in marriage to Geoffrey Plantagenet, the heir of Anjou and Maine (1129); nor was it removed by the birth of the future Henry II. in 1133. On the old king’s death both England and Normandy accepted his nephew, Stephen, of Mortain and Boulogne. Matilda and her husband were in Anjou at the time. They wasted the next few years in the attempt to win Normandy; but Earl Robert of Gloucester, the half-brother of the empress, at length induced her to visit England and raise her standard in the western shires, where his influence was supreme. Though on her first landing Matilda only escaped capture through the misplaced chivalry of her opponent, she soon turned the tables upon him with the help of the Church and the barons of the west. Stephen was defeated and captured at Lincoln (1141); the empress was acclaimed lady or queen of England (she used both titles indifferently) and crowned at London. But the arrogance which she displayed in her prosperity alienated the Londoners and the papal legate, Bishop Henry of Winchester. Routed at the siege of Winchester, she was compelled to release Stephen in exchange for Earl Robert, and thenceforward her cause steadily declined in England. In 1148, having lost by the earl’s death her principal supporter, she retired to Normandy, of which her husband had in the meantime gained possession. Henceforward she remained in the background, leaving her eldest son Henry to pursue the struggle with Stephen. She outlived Henry’s coronation by ten years; her husband had died in 1151. As queen-mother she played the part of a mediator between her sons and political parties. Age mellowed her temper, and she turned more and more from secular ambitions to charity and religious works. She died on the 30th of January 1164.
See O. Rössler, Kaiserin Mathilde (Berlin, 1897); J. H. Round, Geoffrey de Mandeville (London, 1892). (H. W. C. D.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Mathew, Theobald

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​MATHEW, THEOBALD (1790–1856), Irish temperance reformer, popularly known as Father Mathew, was descended from a branch of the Llandaff family, and was born at Thomastown, Tipperary, on the 10th of October 1790. He received his school education at Kilkenny, whence he passed for a short time to Maynooth; from 1808 to 1814 he studied at Dublin, where in the latter year he was ordained to the priesthood. Having entered the Capuchin order, he, after a brief time of service at Kilkenny, joined the mission in Cork, which was the scene of his religious and benevolent labours for many years. The movement with which his name is most intimately associated began in 1838 with the establishment of a total abstinence association, which in less than nine months, thanks to his moral influence and eloquence, enrolled no fewer than 150,000 names. It rapidly spread to Limerick and elsewhere, and some idea of its popularity may be formed from the fact that at Nenagh 20,000 persons are said to have taken the pledge in one day, 100,000 at Galway in two days, and 70,000 in Dublin in five days. In 1844 he visited Liverpool, Manchester and London with almost equal success. Meanwhile the expenses of his enterprise had involved him in heavy liabilities, and led on one occasion to his arrest for debt; from this embarrassment he was only partially relieved by a pension of £300 granted by Queen Victoria in 1847. In 1849 he paid a visit to the United States, returning in 1851. He died at Queenstown on the 8th of December, 1856.
See Father Mathew, a Biography, by J. F. Maguire, M.P. (1863).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Matlock

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​MATLOCK, a market town in the western parliamentary division of Derbyshire, England, on the river Derwent, 17 m. N. by W. of Derby on the Midland railway. Pop. (1901), of urban district of Matlock, 5979; of Matlock Bath and Scarthin Nick, 1819. The entire township includes the old village of Matlock, the commercial and manufacturing district of Matlock Bridge, and the fashionable health resorts of Matlock Bath and Matlock Bank. The town possesses cotton, corn and paper mills, while in the vicinity there are stone-quarries and lead mines. A peculiar local industry is the manufacture of so-called “petrified” birds’ nests, plants, and other objects. These are steeped in water from the mineral springs until they become encrusted with a calcareous deposit which gives them the appearance of fossils. Ornaments fashioned out of spar and stalactites have also a considerable sale.
Matlock Bath, one and a half miles south of Matlock, having a separate railway station, overlooks the narrow and precipitous gorge of the Derwent, and stands in the midst of woods and cliffs, deriving its name from three medicinal springs, which first became celebrated towards the close of the 17th century. They were not known to the Romans, although lead-mining was carried on extensively in the district in the 1st and 2nd centuries A.D. The mean temperature of the springs is 68° F. Extensive grounds have been laid out for public use; and in the neighbourhood there are several fine stalactite caverns.
Sheltered under the high moorlands of Darley, Matlock Bank has grown up about a mile north-east of the old village, and has become celebrated for the number and excellence of its hydropathic establishments. A tramway, worked by a single cable, over a gradient said to be the steepest in the world, affords easy communication with Matlock Bridge.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Rush, Richard

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​RUSH, RICHARD (1780–1859), American statesman and diplomatist, son of Dr Benjamin Rush, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the 29th of August 1780 He graduated at Princeton in 1797, and was admitted to the bar in 1800. He was attorney-general of Pennsylvania in 1811, comptroller of the treasury of the United States in 1811-14, attorney general in the cabinet of President James Madison in 1814–17, acting secretary of state from March to September 1817, minister. to Great Britain in 1817–25, secretary of the treasury in the cabinet of President J. Q. Adams in 1825–29, and candidate for vice-president on the Adams ticket in 1828. In 1818, while minister to Great Britain, he, in association with Albert Gallatin, concluded with British plenipotentiaries the important treaty which determined the boundary line between the United States and Canada from the Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains and provided for the joint occupation of Oregon for ten years. He also conducted the negotiations with Canning in 1823 relating to the S. American policy of the Holy Alliance. He followed the Adams-Clay faction of the Democratic-Republican party in the split of 1825–28, but returned to the Democratic party about 1834 on the bank issue. In 1835 he and Benjamin C. Howard, of Baltimore, Maryland, were sent by President Jackson to prevent an outbreak of hostilities in the Ohio-Michigan boundary dispute. In 1836–38 Rush was commissioner to receive the Smithson legacy (see Smithsonian Institution), and in 1847–49 he was minister to France. He died at Philadelphia on the goth of July 1859.
He published A Narrative of a Residence at the Court of London from 1817 to 1825 (2 vols., 1833–45; all editions after the first edition of the 1st volume are entitled Memoranda of a Residence, &c.); Washington in Domestic Life (1857), compiled from letters written by Washington to his private secretary in 1790–98; and Occasional Productions, Political, Diplomatic and Miscellaneous (1860); and while attorney-general he suggested the plan for the compilation, Laws of the Nation (5 vols., 1815), edited by, John B. Colvin.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Russell, John (bishop)

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RUSSELL, JOHN (d. 1494), English bishop and chancellor, was admitted to Winchester College in 1443, and in 1449 went to Oxford as fellow of New College. He resigned his fellowship in 1462, and appears to have entered the royal service. In April 1467 and January 1468 he was employed on missions to Charles the Bold at Bruges. He was there again in February 1470 as one of the envoys to invest Charles with the Garter: the Latin speech which Russell delivered on this last occasion was one of Caxton's earliest publications, probably printed for him at Bruges by Colard Mansion (see Blades, Life of Caxton, i. p. vii, ii. 29–31). In May 1474 he was promoted to be keeper of the privy seal, and retained his office even after his consecration as bishop of Rochester on the 22nd of September 1476, and translation to Lincoln on the 9th of September 1480. As a trusted minister of Edward IV., he was one of the executors of the king's will; but on the 13th of May 1483 he accepted the office of chancellor in the interest of Richard of Gloucester, apparently with great reluctance. He retained the great seal till the 29th of July 1485. Russell was above all things an official, and was sometimes employed by Henry VII. in public affairs. But his last years were occupied chiefly with the business of his diocese, and of the university of Oxford, of which he had been elected chancellor in 1483. He died at Nettleham on the 30th of December 1494, and was buried at Lincoln Cathedral.
Sir Thomas More calls Russell “a wise manne and a good, and of much experience, and one of the best-learned men, undoubtedly, that England had in hys time.” Two English speeches composed by Russell, for the intended parliament of Edward V., and the first parliament of Richard III., are printed in Nichols's Grants of Edward V. (Camden Soc.). Some other writings of less interest remain in manuscript.
For contemporary notices see especially More's Life of Richard III., the Continuation of the Croyland Chronicle, ap. Freeman Scriptores, and Bentley's Excerpta Historica, pp. 16–17. See also Wood's History and Antiquities of the University of Oxford, and T. Kirby, Winchester Scholars, and Annals of Winchester College. There are modern biographies in Campbell's Lives of the Chancellors, and Foss's Judges of England. (C. L. K.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Rushworth, John

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​RUSHWORTH, JOHN (c. 1612–1690), the compiler of the Historical Collections commonly described by his name, was the son of Lawrence Rushworth of Acklington Park, Warkworth, Northumberland. When he was given the degree of M.A. at Oxfordin 1649, he was said to belong to Queen's College, but there are no traces of his presence at the university. He was bred to the law, and in 1638 was appointed solicitor, to the town of Berwick. He was enrolled in Lincoln's Inn in 1641, and was called to the bar in 1647. He made a point of attending on all public occasions of a political and judicial character, such as proceedings before the Star Chamberor the Council, and of making shorthand notes of them. On the 25th of April 1640 he was appointed an assistant clerk to the, House of Commons. He was on duty when King Charles I. came down to arrest the five members on the 4th of January 1642, and made notes of his speech. The king insisted on taking thenotes, and ordered them to be published. Rushworth ​attended the trial of the earl of Strafford, and took shorthand notes of the proceedings. He was much employed as a messenger between the king and the parliament, and from the 11th of April 1644 till the 9th of March 1647 was licenser of pamphlets. When the new model army was formed he was appointed secretary to the parliamentary general, Sir Thomas Fairfax. He was present at the battle of Naseby, of which he wrote an account. When Fairfax, who was offended by the execution of the king, resigned his command, Rushworth was for a short time secretary to Cromwell. He was afterwards employed by the council of state and during the protectorate, and sat in Cromwell's parliament for Berwick. When Richard Cromwell resigned the protectorate, Rushworth was employed by the Rump after it had been re-established by Monk. He made his peace with the government of Charles II., and though he was threatened with trial as a regicide he was not seriously molested. During the reign of Charles II. he continued to act as agent for the town of Berwick, and he sat for it in parliament. He was also for a time agent for Massachusetts, but the colony complained that it received no advantage from his services. During the last years of his life he fell into poverty, and from 1684 till his death on the 12th of May 1690 he was a resident in the King's Bench prison. At this time he had destroyed his memory by over-indulgence in drink. The collection of papers which he made was published in eight volumes folio between 1659 and 1701. The volumes from the fourth onwards appeared after his death. The first, which appeared with a dedication to Richard Cromwell was recalled and the dedication was suppressed.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Russell, John Scott

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​RUSSELL, JOHN SCOTT (1808–1882), British engineer, was born in 1808 near Glasgow, a “son of the manse,” and was at first destined for the ministry. But this intention on his father’s part was changed in consequence of the boy’s early leanings towards practical science. He attended in succession the universities of St Andrews, Edinburgh and Glasgow, taking his degree in the last-named at the age of sixteen. After spending a couple of years in workshops, he settled in Edinburgh as a lecturer on science, and soon attracted large classes. In 1832–33 he was engaged to give the natural philosophy course at the university, the chair having become vacant by the death of Sir John Leslie. In the following year he began his remarkable series of observations on waves. Having been consulted as to the possibility of utilizing steam-navigation on the Edinburgh & Glasgow canal, he replied that the question could not be answered without experiments, which he was willing to undertake if a portion of the canal were placed at his disposal. The results of this inquiry are to be found in the Trans. Roy. Soc. Ed. (vol. xiv.), and in the British ​Association Reports (seventh meeting). The existence of the long wave, or wave of translation, with many of its most important features, was here first recognized, and it was clearly pointed out why there is a special rate, depending on the depth of the water, at which a canal-boat can be towed at the least expenditure of effort by the horse. The elementary mathematical theory of the long wave was soon supplied by commentators on Scott Russell's work, and a more complete investigation was subsequently given by Sir G. G. Stokes. Russell indulged in many extraordinary and groundless speculations, some of which were published in a posthumous volume, The Wave of Translation (1885). His observations led him to propose and experiment on a new system of shaping vessels, known as the wave system, which culminated in the building of the “Great Eastern.” His activity and ingenuity were also displayed in many other fields, -steam-coaches for roads, improvements in boilers and inf marine engines, the immense iron dome of the Vienna Exhibition, cellular double bottoms for iron ships, &c. With Mr Stafford Northcote (afterwards Lord Iddesleigh), he was joint-secretary of the Great Exhibition of 1851; and he was one of the chief founders of the Institution of Naval Architects. He died at Ventnor on the 8th of June 1882.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Rushden

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​RUSHDEN, an urban district in the E. parliamentary division of Northamptonshire, England, 66 m. N.N.W. from London by the Midland railway. Pop. (1901) 12,453. The church of St Mary is a fine cruciform building with western tower and spire. It is mainly decorated, with perpendicular additions, but retains some Early English details. The growth of Rushden as a town is modern. The industrial population is employed in boot and shoe making, the local staple.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Russell, John (painter)

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​RUSSELL, JOHN (1745–1806), British portrait painter in pastel, was born at Guildford, Surrey. At an early age he entered the studio of Francis Cotes, R.A., from whom he derived his artistic education, and set up his own studio in 1767. Russell was a man of remarkable religious character, adevout follower of Whitefield. He began an elaborate introspective diary in Byrom's shorthand in 1766 and continued it to the time of his death. In it he records his own mental condition and religious exercises, entering with a certain morbid ingenuity into long disquisitions, and only occasionally recording information concerning his sitters. His religious life is the key to his complex character, as it actuated his whole career. He obtained the gold medal at the Royal Academy for figure drawing in 1770 and exhibited from the beginning of the Academy down to 1805. He was the finest painter in crayons England ever produced, and although he painted in oil, in water-colours and in miniature, it was by his works in crayon that his reputation was made. He wrote the Elements of Painting in Crayon, and described in it his method. He made his own crayons, blending them on his pictures by a peculiar method termed “ sweetening.” This he carried out with his fingers, rubbing in the colours and softening them in outline, uniting colour to colour so accurately that they melt into one another with a characteristic cadence. His pastel work is to oil painting “ what the vaudeville is to the tragedy or the sonnet to the epic.” His colours were pure and his blending so perfect that no change is to be seen in his works since they were executed. Sir Joseph Banks, writing in 1789 respecting his portraits of the president, of Lady, Mrs and Miss Banks, stated that “ the oil pictures of the present time fade quicker than the persons they are intended to present, but the colours made use of by Russell will stand for ever,” and in that prophecy is so far justified.
An important picture by him hangs in the Louvre (“ Child with Cherries ”), and two, including “ The Old Bathing Man at Brighton,” are owned by the crown. At the Royal Academy, of which he was a member, he exhibited three hundred and thirty works, and his portraits were engraved by Collyer, Turner, Heath, Dean, Bartolozzi, Trotter and other prominent engravers. Russell received warrants of appointment to the king, queen, prince of Wales and the duke of York. He was interested in astronomy, a friend of Sir W. Herschell, and no mean mathematician. He drew an exceedingly accurate map of the moon, and invented a piece of complicated mechanism for exhibiting its phenomena, publishing a pamphlet, illustrated by his own drawings, describing the apparatus.
Two of his sons inherited their father's talent, and one of them, William (1780–1870), exhibited five fine portraits in the Royal Academy.
See George C. Williamson, John Russell (London, 1894).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Russell, Israel Cook

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​ RUSSELL, ISRAEL COOK (1852- ), American geologist, was born at Garrattsville, New York, on the 10th of December 1852. He graduated at New York University in 1872, and later studied at the School of Mines, Columbia, where he was assistant professor of geology from 1875-77. He was assistant ​ Geologist on the United States Geographical and Geological Surveys in 1878, and in 1880 became attached to the Geological Survey of the United States. In 1892 he was appointed professor of geology in the university of Michigan.
His publications include Sketch of the Geological History of Lake Lahontan (1885); The Newark System (Bulletin No. 85 U.S. Geol. Survey, 1892); Present and Extinct Lakes of Nevada (1896); Glaciers of North America (1897); Volcanoes of North America (1897); Glaciers of Mount Rainier (Ann. Rep. U.S. Geol. Survey, 1898); and North America (1900).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Standard

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​Standard, a term with three main meanings: (1) an ensign or flag; (2) a fixed weight, measure, value or quality established by law or customarily recognized as a unit of comparison by which the correctness of others can be determined; (3) an upright or standing object, such as a large candelabrum, or, particularly, a fruit-tree which stands without support. With regard to the derivation, the word which appears in most European languages, e.g. Du. standaard, Ger. Standarte, O. Fr. estandart, estendard, mod. étendard, Ital. stendale, stendardo, &c., is to be referred to the Teut. standan, to stand, and refers to the fixed pole to which an object or a pole was attached. The “standard” as a military ensign was properly stationary and served as the signal of the position of its owner on the ordered field of battle. The O. Fr. form estendard points to the influence of Lat. extendere, to spread out, extend, of the flag when hung upon the pole (see further Flag for the various meanings of the word and its history). The use of the term for a recognized unit of comparison is due probably to the fact that it is something fixed or set up, stable, and not to any fanciful reference to the ensign or flag as the object to which one turns as a rallying-point. For the standard weights and measures see Weights and Measures and Standards Department below. There are many other standards, such as electrical standards (see Electricity), standard solutions in chemistry (q.v.) for the purpose of volumetric analysis, &c. In engineering, the component parts of machines or other structures are “standardized” in accordance with agreed measurements. For “standard time” see Time, Standard.