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R A U R A V 295 May 1781. His father (who died in 1822) was much esteemed in Anhalt, where, as "kammerdirector," he did excellent service to agriculture. Raumer was educated at the Joachimsthal Gymnasium, Berlin, and at the universi- ties of Halle and Gottingen. In 1801 he began to practise as a lawyer in the Brandenburg chamber, and in the follow- ing year he was made assessor. From 1806 to 1808 he was connected with a department of the crown lands chamber at Wusterhausen near Berlin. Having been made a coun- cillor in 1809, he was called in 1810 to a post in the office for the national debt, and soon afterwards received an appointment in the bureau of the chancellor, Hardenberg. He was made a professor at the university of Breslau in 1811, and in 1819 he became professor of political science and history at Berlin. In 1815 he had carried on histori- cal investigations in Venice, and in the two following years he had travelled much in Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. At Berlin he was for some time a member of the Upper Board of Censors and secretary of the Academy of Sciences. The former office he resigned in 1831, the latter in 1847. His professorship at the Berlin university he did not give up until 1853, and even then he did not altogether cease to lecture. In 1848 he was elected a member of the national assembly at Frankfort, where he associated him- self with the right centre ; and from Frankfort he was sent on a mission to Paris. At a later period he was a member of the first chamber of the Prussian parliament. He died at Berlin on 14th June 1873. Raumer made many contributions to history, in all of which he embodied the results of independent research and gave evidence of a sound and penetrating judgment. His style is direct, lucid, and vigorous, and his best books have been as warmly appreciated by ordinary readers as by scholars. His first work, published anonymously in 1806, was entitled Seeks Dialoge iiber Krieg und Handel. This was followed by Das britischc Bcstcuerungssystem (1810), Handbuchmerkwilrdiger Stellen aus den lateinischen Geschichtschreibern des Mittelalters (1813), Herbstreise nach Venedig (1816), and other books. His most famous works are Geschichte der Hohenstaufen und ihrer Zeit (1823-25) and Geschichte Europas seit dem Ende des 15ten Jahrhunderts (1832-50). In 1831 appeared Briefe aus Paris und FranTcreich im Jahre 1830 and Briefe aus Paris zur Erlduterung der Geschichte des 16len und 17ten Jahrhunderts. He went to England in 1835, to Italy in 1839, and to America in 1843, and these visits led to the publication of various works England in 1835 (1836), Beitrage zur neuern Ge- sckichte aus dem Britischen Museum und Reichsarchive (1836-39), Italien, Beitrage zur Kenntniss dieses Landes (1840), Die Vereinigten Staaten von Nordamerika (1845). Among his later books maybe men- tioned Antiquarische Briefe (1851), Historisch-politische Briefe iiber die geselligen Verhdltnisse der Menschen (I860), Lebenserinnerungen und Briefwechsel (1861), and Handbuch zur Geschichte der Literatur (1864-66). In 1830 Raumer began the Historisches Taschenbuch published by Brockhaus, which from 1871 was continued by Riehl. RAUPACH, ERNST BENJAMIN SALOMO (1784-1852), German dramatic writer, was born on the 21st of April 1784 at Straupitz, a village near Liegnitz in Silesia. He attended the gymnasium at Liegnitz and afterwards studied theology at Halle. He spent a good many years in Russia as a teacher, and in 1816 was made a professor in the university of St Petersburg. In 1822 he left Russia, and after travelling for some time in Italy settled as a writer for the stage in Berlin, where he remained during the rest of his life. He died at Berlin on the 18th of March 1852. Raupach was not a man of imaginative genius, but he had re- markable skill in the invention of effective dramatic situations, and was master of a vigorous rhetorical style. These qualities secured for him a prominent place among the most popular dramatic writers of his day. He wrote both tragedies ana comedies, and was the author of a series of dramas representing the great events of the age of the Hohenstaufen. See P. Raupach, Raupach, eine liographische Skizze (1853). RAVAILLAC, FRANCOIS (1578-1610), the assassin of Henry IV. of France, Avas born near Angouleme in 1578. He was of humble origin, and began life as a valet de chambre, but afterwards became a petty solicitor and also teacher of a school. He was not able, however, to keep clear of debt, and after having been imprisoned for some time by his creditors he sought admission to the recently founded order of Feuillants, but after a short probation was dis- missed as a visionary. An application for admission to the Society of Jesus was equally unsuccessful in 1606. His various disappointments tended to foster a violently fanatical temperament, and widely- spread rumours that the king was intending to make war upon the pope sug- gested to him the idea of assassination, which he deliber- ately and successfully carried out on 14th May 1610. In the course of his trial he was frequently put to the torture, but persistently (and it is now believed truly) denied that he had been prompted by any one or had any accomplices. Sentence of death was carried out with revolting barbarity on 27th May. RAVEN (Anglo-Saxon ffr&fn, Icelandic Hrafn, Danish Ravn, Dutch Raaf, German Robe), the largest of the Birds of the Order Passeres; and, as already shewn (ORNI- THOLOGY, vol. xviii. p. 49), probably the most highly developed of all Birds. Quick-sighted, sagacious, and bold, it must have followed the prehistoric fisher and hunter, and generally without molestation from them, to prey on the refuse of their spoils, just as it now waits, with the same intent, on the movements of their successors ; while it must have likewise attended the earliest herdsmen, who could not have regarded it with equal indifference, since its now notorious character for attacking and putting to death a weakly animal was doubtless in those days manifested. Yet the Raven is no mere dependant upon man, being always able to get a living for itself; and moreover a sentiment of veneration or superstition has from very remote ages and among many races of men attached to it a sentiment so strong as often to overcome the feeling of distrust not to say of hatred which its deeds inspired, and, though rapidly decreas- ing, even to survive in some places until the present day. There is no need to dwell on the association of this bird with well-known characters of history sacred or profane Noah or Elijah, Odin or Flokki, the last of whom by its means discovered Iceland. The Raven is even said to have played its part in the mythology of the Red Indian ; and none can wonder that all this should be so, since, wherever it occurs and more especially wherever it is numerous, as in ancient times and in thinly peopled countries it must have been, its size, appearance, and fearless habits Avould be sure to attract especial attention. Nor has this attention wholly ceased with the advance of enlightenment, for both in prose and verse, from the time of Shakespeare to that of Poe and Dickens, the Raven has often figured, and generally without the amount of misrepresenta- tion which is the fate of most animals which celebrated writers condescend to notice. Notwithstanding all this, however, the Raven has now fallen upon evil days. The superstitious reverence with which it was once regarded has all but vanished and has been very generally succeeded by persecution, which in many districts has produced actual extirpation, so that it is threatened with ex- tinction, save in the wildest and most unpeopled districts. 1 The Raven breeds very early in the year, in England resorting to its nest, which is usually an ancient if not an ancestral structure, about the middle or towards the end of January. Therein are laid from five to seven eggs of the common Corvine coloration (see CROW, vol. vi. pp. 617, 618), and the young are hatched before the end of February. In more northern countries the breeding-season is naturally delayed, but everywhere this species is almost if not quite the earliest of birds to enter upon tKe business 1 That all lovers of nature should take what steps they can to arrest this sad fate is a belief which the present writer fully holds. With- out attempting to deny the loss which in some cases is inflicted upon the rearers of cattle by Ravens, it is an enormous mistake to suppose that the neighbourhood of a pair of these birds is invariably detri- mental. On this point he can speak from experience. For many years he had an intimate knowledge of a pair occupying an inland locality surrounded by valuable flocks of sheep, and abounding in rabbits and game, and had ample opportunities, which he never neglected, of repeatedly examining the pellets of bones and exuviae that these, like all other carnivorous birds, cast up. He thus found that this pair of Ravens fed almost exclusively on moles. Soon after he moved from the neighbourhood in which they lived the unreasoning zeal of a gamekeeper (against, it is believed, the orders of his master) put an end to this interesting couple the last of their species which inhabited the county.