Catholics. 36,000 speak German and 12,000 Italian. The remainder use the Romansch or the Ladin dialect, probably corrupt descendants of the old "lingua rustica" of the Roman empire. The former is dying out in some districts on the Tyrolese frontier, and German is now everywhere taught in the schools. A large portion of the population find occupation and profit in the summer in attending to the wants of the numerous visitors attracted by the scenery or the mineral waters. There is a considerable transport trade with Italy, particularly in Val Tellina wines. Many of the young men seek their fortunes abroad as confec tioners and coffee-house keepers. Since Roman times the passes of the Grisons have been among the most frequented routes across the Alps. The Julier and Bernina, the Septimer, Spliigen, and Lukmanier, were the most used in the Middle Ages. In 1818-23 the great road of the San Bernardino was made, and it was soon rivalled by the Spliigen. The internal communica tions of the canton have been greatly developed in the last twenty years. The following are the principal carriage roads: (1) the Ober Alp, Vorderrheinthal to Uri; (2) the Valserberg, Ilanz to Hinterrhein ; (3) the Schyn, Julier, Albula, and Fluela Passes, connecting the Rhine valley and Davos district with the Engadine ; (4) the Maloya and Bernina Passes, connecting the Upper Engadine with Chiavenna and Val Tellina respectively; (5) the Ofen Pass and the road following the gorge of the Inn to Fin- stermuntz, leading into Tyrol. Two districts, the Upper Engadine and Davos, have lately acquired European fame as health resorts. Davos now receives every winter over 1000 consumptive patients. Statistics show that diseases of the lungs are very rare in high mountain districts, and local doctors observed that inhabitants who had contracted them in the plain recovered speedily on their return home. Davos is singu larly well situated for a sanatarium for these diseases. The climate, owing to its distance from the warm currents rising from the Italian plain, is, though severe, singularly dry and equable in winter, and the valley is open and sunny. Many good hotels offer every comfort to invalids.
History.—The Rhseti, the original inhabitants of the region now known as Graubiinden, who were conquered under Augustus by the Romans, are reputed to have been an Etruscan race who had emigrated thither 500 years B.C. The Romans established numer ous roads through the country, and held it in subjection until the downfall of their empire. In 496 A.D. Theodoric the Great settled some Alemanni in Rhsetia. In 807 the district was incorporated by Charles the Great in his empire, and placed under a temporal coiint. In the middle of the llth century, in the confusion conse quent on the fall of the duchy of Alemannia, the bishop of Chur regained part of the temporal authority some of his predecessors had already held before 807, and in the early Middle Ages he appears as the most powerful among the petty rulers who disputed among themselves the right of oppressing the peasantiy. Towards the end of the 14th century, the bishop of Chur supported the league formed by the neighbouring districts to resist the encroachment of the lay nobles. This was known as the Gotteshausbund, and had Chur (see COIRE) as its chief town. In 1424 the Oberbund, some times called, perhaps from the grey coats of the delegates who assembled at Trons to confirm it, the Grauebund, was formed with the aid of the abbot of Dissentis and a party among the nobles in the Vorder Rheinthal. In 1436 the districts bordering on Tyrol, which had been vassals of the counts of Toggenburg (till the extinction of the line in that year), concluded, in imitation of their neighbours, a league known as the Zehngerichtenbund, with Davos for its centre. In 1450 the Zehngerichte formed an alliance with the Gotteshausbund, in 1471 with the Grauebund; but of the so- called "perpetual alliance" at Vazerol near Tiefenkasten there exists no authentic evidence in the oldest chronicles. It is certain, however, that several diets were held at Vazerol. Unhappily for the whole Grisons, nearly all the possessions of the Toggenburg lanuly had fallen by 1489 to the house of Austria, to which an excuse was thus given for interference in the country. In 1497 the Grauebund and in 1498 the Gotteshausbund entered into alliance with the seven Swiss cantons. In 1499 the contest with Austria broke out. The memorable victory of the Malserheide or Calveu, in which the imperial troops were defeated with a loss of 5000 men, coupled with other disasters to his arms in North Switzerland weakened the authority of Maximilian, but the rights of Austria in the Zehngerichtenbund were only extinguished by purchase in 1652. In 1512 the Grisons took advantage of the war in Italy to lay hands on Val Tellina, Bonnio, Chiavenna, and Val Misocco. These acquisitions attracted, a hundred years later, the cupidity of the Spanish governor of Milan. The Grisons, torn between the French and the Spanish, the Reformed and Catholic parties, offered a favourable field for his intrigues. In 1620 the Protestants of Val Tellina were cruelly massacred, the Spaniards gained the district, and an Austrian force occupied the greater part of the Grisons. The Austrians were expelled in 1635 by the French, but the Grisons did not recover their full authority over their Italian possessions till 1639. They finally lost them when Napoleon annexed these districts to his Cisalpine republic, a measure confirmed by the con gress of Vienna. The obscure quarrels of the Planta and De Salis factions, dating from the 17th century, were put an end to by the Napoleonic wars and the appearance of great armies French, Austrian, and Russian upon the mountains. The incursion of the French was marked by the wanton destruction of the great convent of Dissentis, in which perished the chronicle of Dissentis, dating from the 7th century, and many of the MSS. of Placidus a Spescha, one of the first systematic explorers of his native Alps. In 1803 the Grisons, by virtue of Napoleon s act of mediation, became a member of the Swiss Confederation, retaining its internal government. This con sists of a great council elected by universal suffrage, and meeting every year. Three citizens, elected yearly, form the executive government. A committee of 12 members assist them in weighty matters and in preparing bills for the chamber. Large powers of .self-government are left to the separate communities. The consti tution was last completely revised in 1853, but a further reform in an extreme democratic sense is now (1879) under debate.
(D. W. F.)
GRIVEGNÉE, a town of Belgium in the arrondissement
and province of Liege, is situated on the Ourthe about a
mile and a half S.W. of Liege. There are coal-mines in the
neighbourhood, and the town posesses iron foundries and
manufactories of brass-wire, nails, and iron boats. The
population is about 6000.
GROCYN, William, an English scholar of the 15th century, was born at Bristol about 1442. Designed by his parents for the church, he was sent to Winchester College, and there he remained till his twenty-second year, when he was elected to a scholarship at New College, Oxford. In 1467 he became a fellow, and though ii 1479 he accepted the rectory of Newton Longville in Buckinghamshire, he continued to reside in the university city. Having been chosen reader in divinity in Magdaleu College in 1483, it fell to his lot to maintain a disputation with John Taylor, professor of divinity, in presence of King Richard III., and so well did he carry himself in the matter that the king sent him a buck and five marks. About 1488 Grocyn left England for Italy, and before his return in 1492 he had visited Florence, Rome, and Padua, and studied Greek and Latin under Demetrius Chalchondylea and Politian. As lecturer in Exeter College he found an opportunity of indoctrinating his countrymen in the new learning, and had the honour of teaching -Greek not only to Sir Thomas More but to Erasmus himself, who was indebted to him also for an introduction to Archbishop Warham. When, some time afterwards, Grocyn removed to London, he was chosen by Dean Colet to deliver lectures in St Paul's ; and in connexion with this engagement he gave a singular proof of his honesty. Having at first denounced all who impugned the authenticity of the Ilierarchia, Ecclesiastica ascribed to Dionysius the Areopagite, he was led to modify his views as he advanced in his investigation of the subject, and at length openly declared that he had been completely mistaken. About this time he was evidently in straitened circumstances, and though in 1506
