establishment of the bank of England. Michael became the first deputy-governor. In this capacity he had gone over in 1695 to the king's head quarters at Namur to make arrangements for the remittance of money from England to the army in the Netherlands. Curiosity prompted him to mingle with the officers of the staff at the hottest period of that famous siege; and the king, who had perceived him, was expostulating with him for this needless exposure of his person, when a cannon ball from the ramparts laid Godfrey dead at his majesty's feet. He published a pamphlet entitled "A Short Account of the intended Bank of England," London, 4to, 1694.—R. H.
GODFREY, Thomas, one of the inventors of the instruments for measuring angles by two reflections, which are essential to accurate observations at sea, was a glazier in Philadelphia, and died in December, 1749. The first who proposed such an instrument in clear and definite terms was Newton. He communicated his invention to Halley in 1700; but it was not published till after his death in 1742, when a description and drawing were found among his papers (Brewster's Life of Newton). The same instrument, with some differences in detail, rendering it more easy to handle, was independently reinvented by Godfrey and by John Hadley in 1730, and communicated by them to the Royal Society in 1731. That body decided that Hadley and Godfrey were independent inventors, and gave Godfrey a reward of £200. An attempt was afterwards made to prove that Hadley had pirated the invention of Godfrey, having been informed of it by a brother, Lieutenant Hadley of the British navy, who had seen the instrument in the possession of a son of Godfrey in the West Indies in 1730; but that hypothesis is disproved by the fact that there was no such officer as Lieutenant Hadley in the British navy at that time; so that the decision of the Royal Society must be regarded as just.—W. J. M. R.
GODIGISELUS, a king of the Vandals, headed the first formidable attempt of that tribe to penetrate from their Dacian settlements into Gaul in 406. They were met by the Franks on the Rhenish frontier, and in the sanguinary battle which ensued, Godigiselus, with twenty thousand of his countrymen, perished.—W. B.
GODIN, Louis, a French astronomer, geodetician, and engineer, was born in Paris on the 28th of February, 1704, and died at Cadiz on the 11th of September, 1760. He studied astronomy under Delisle. In 1725 he became a member of the Academy of Sciences, and undertook the continuation of the history of that academy which had been begun by Fontenelle. Of this work he wrote eleven volumes, bringing it down to 1699. By a report which he wrote on the state of knowledge of the figure of the earth, he induced the government to send two expeditions to measure arcs of the meridian, one in high northern latitudes and the other near the equator. Godin, having first visited England to obtain instruction in geodesy from Halley, joined the latter expedition, which sailed from Rochelle for Peru on the 16th of May, 1735. The leaders of the expedition (Bouguer, Godin, De la Condamine, Juan, and Ulloa), after spending ten years in astronomical and geodetical operations, succeeded in measuring with great accuracy three meridional arcs in the immediate neighbourhood of the equator, the subsequent comparison of which with the arc measured by the leaders of the northern expedition (Camus, Clairaut, Lemonnier, Maupertuis, and Outhier), fully established the fact of the flattening of the earth at the poles, which had been predicted on theoretical grounds by Newton. When the work of the equatorial expedition was concluded, the viceroy of Peru refused to let them depart until Godin consented to remain for a time at Quito to teach mathematics. Meanwhile occurred the earthquake of 1746. The observation of its destructive effects suggested to Godin an improved system of house-building for districts subject to earthquakes, which has since been practised with great advantage. In 1751 Godin was permitted to quit Peru. Finding on his return to Europe that he had been superseded as an academician, he accepted the post at Cadiz of director of the school for the marine service. On the occurrence of the great earthquake of 1755 (the same which destroyed Lisbon), Godin made use of his South American experience by superintending the measures taken for the public safety at Cadiz. In 1756 he went to Paris, and was reappointed a member of the Academy of Sciences. He reviited Cadiz in order to make arrangements for quitting it finally; but while there, a short illness, aggravated by grief at the loss of a daughter, caused his death in 1760. He published various astronomical tables in the Connaissance des Temps. His éloge was written by Fouchy.—W. J. M. R.
GODIVA, the wife of Leoffric, duke of Mercia, lived in the eleventh century, during the reign of Edward the Confessor. Her memory has been preserved by tradition on account of a remarkable service which she is said to have rendered to the town of Coventry. Her husband had imposed a heavy tax on the citizens of that town, which she had in vain entreated him to remit. He at length yielded so far to her importunity as to promise that he would abolish the tax on condition that Godiva should ride naked on horseback through the town. She accepted the offer, and after issuing peremptory orders to the inhabitants that none of them on pain of death should appear in the streets or at the windows, she traversed the whole of the town in the manner prescribed. A curious citizen ("Peeping Tom," as he is traditionally termed) who disobeyed her orders, and ventured to look at the lady as she passed his window, was hanged for the offence. Art annual festival was instituted in memory of Godiva's exploit.—J. T.
GODOLPHIN, John, an eminent English lawyer, was born in 1617 in the island of Scilly. He was educated at Oxford, where he took his degree in civil law in 1642. He adopted this branch of law as his profession, and became celebrated for his profound acquaintance with its principles. He was addicted to theological studies, and adopted the religious views of the puritans. During the great civil war he sided with the parliament, and became conspicuous for his strenuous opposition to the royal claims. In 1653 he was nominated by Cromwell a judge of the admiralty. In spite of his anti-monarchical principles, his high reputation for legal knowledge obtained for him the post of king's advocate at the Restoration. He died in 1678. Godolphin's principal publications are a religious treatise entitled "The Holy Limbee, or an extraction of the Spirit from the Letter of certain eminent places in the Holy Scripture," 1650; "The Holy Harbour, containing the Sum and Substance of the Christian Religion," 1651; "A View of the Admiral's Jurisdiction," 1661; "The Orphan's Legacy, treating of last wills and testaments," 1674; and "Repertorium Canonicum," 1678, a vindication of the royal supremacy in England in opposition to the papal claims.—J. T.
GODOLPHIN, Sydney, the second son of Sir Wm. Godolphin, was born in Cornwall in 1610, and was educated at Exeter college, Oxford. He afterwards entered one of the inns of court, and left it for the purpose of travelling on the continent, where he accompanied the earl of Leicester in one of his embassies. His amiable disposition and great accomplishments made him a general favourite. When the great civil war broke out Godolphin joined the royal party and distinguished himself by his courage and activity. He was killed in 1643 in an encounter with the enemy at the village of Chagford in Devonshire. Godolphin was a friend of Hobbes', whose opinions, however, he did not hold, and bequeathed him a legacy of £200. He was the author of several poems, and translated the Loves of Dido and Æneas from Virgil, 8vo.—J. T.
GODOLPHIN, Sidney Godolphin, Earl of, a celebrated English statesman, was born about 1630. He was descended from a very old family, originally called Godolcan, which possessed estates in Cornwall before the Conquest. Francis Godolphin, father of Sidney, espoused the royal cause during the great civil war, and was made a knight of the bath at the coronation of Charles II. His son was introduced to Charles, then prince of Wales, in 1645, while holding a command in the royal army in the western counties. At the Restoration, Sydney was appointed a groom of the bedchamber, and was shortly after elected to serve in parliament. His political career began in 1678, when he was sent oy the duke of York (afterwards James II.) to negotiate with the prince of Orange an alliance between Holland and England against France. The project fell to the ground; but in the following year Godolphin was rewarded for his services by his appointment as one of the lords of the treasury. The ability which he displayed in this office, and his steady application to business, were so conspicuous, that he was sworn a member of the privy council in September, 1679, and was placed, along with Viscount Hyde (afterwards earl of Rochester) and the earl of Sunderland, at the head of the government. In 1680, when Sunderland was dismissed, Godolphin retained his office, though in his anxiety for the public peace he was willing that the exclusion bill should pass, depriving the duke of York
