cost of the transmission of letters. Rowland Hill's proposals were received with great favour by the commercial public; and in spite of the usual official inaction and obstruction, the exertions of the friends of postal reform procured the appointment of a select committee of the house of commons in the latter part of 1837, to investigate the matter. Towards the end of 1838 the committee reported in favour of the plan. On the 12th of July, 1839, a resolution was carried in the house of commons approving of it, and an act of parliament embodying it was passed. The founder of the new system was appointed to the treasury at a salary of £1500 a year to superintend the execution of his plans; but after three years his services were dispensed with by the ministry of Sir Robert Peel, an act which caused considerable indignation. A public testimonial to Mr. Hill was proposed in 1844, and resulted in the presentation to him of the sum of £15,000 raised by general subscription. In the meantime, he became chairman of the London and Brighton Railway Company, which under his auspices and at his instance, was among the first to adopt the system of cheap excursions and of cheap fares generally. In 1846, on the resumption of office by the whigs, Rowland Hill was appointed secretary to the postmaster-general, and in 1854 sole secretary to the post-office. This situation he resigned in February, 1864; the full salary attached to it being, however, continued on account of his vast exertions in the cause of postal reform, for which also he was made a knight commander of the bath in March, 1860.—F. E.
HILL, Sir Thomas Noel, Colonel, K.C.B., youngest brother of General Lord Hill, was born on the 14th February, 1784. He entered the 10th dragoons as a cornet in September, 1801. Early in 1809 he was a major serving with the Portuguese army in the Peninsula. He commanded the 1st Portuguese regiment at the battle of Busaco, the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo, the battles of Salamanca and Vittoria, and the siege of St. Sebastian. He obtained the brevet rank of lieutenant-colonel in 1811, was assistant adjutant-general in Flanders and France during the close of the struggle with Napoleon, and was present at the battle of Waterloo. Knighted in 1814, he was made a K.C.B. Colonel by brevet in 1825, he served as adjutant-general in the Canadas from 1827 to 1830, when he was appointed to the command of the depot at Maidstone, where he died on the 4th of January, 1832.—F. E.
HILLEL HAZZAKEN, or the Elder, a Jewish rabbi, born at Babylon about 112 b.c. He afterwards removed to Jerusalem, where he studied under the greatest doctors of the law, and became so proficient that he was made head of the Jerusalem school. The Jews say that he was one hundred and twenty years old at his death; forty years he lived at Babylon, forty years he taught the law, and forty years he governed Israel. They say he studied all forms of learning, that he had a thousand disciples, and that one of these disciples was the teacher of Jesus! As president of the sanhedrim, he bore the title of Nasi, or prince, a dignity which continued in his family for ten generations. The Pallio mentioned by Josephus in the fifteenth book of the Jewish Antiquities, appears to be the same as Hillel. He is supposed to have died about a.d. 8.—B. H. C.
HILLEL the Younger, called Nasi, the son of Judah the Holy, was director of the school of Tiberias early in the fourth century. Some writers say he was consulted by Origen; but as Origen died in 254, this is impossible. Hillel introduced important improvements into the Jewish calendar. To him also is ascribed a correct recension of the Hebrew Bible. The time of his death is unknown.—B. H. C.
* HILLER, Ferdinand, a musician, was born of Jewish parents at Frankfort-on-the-Maine, 24th October, 1811. He was a pupil of Rinck for counterpoint, and of Hummel for the pianoforte and composition. In 1828 he went to Paris; there he was engaged for a short time as accompanyist in Choron's school for the practice of religious music; but he soon resigned this appointment, and applied himself exclusively to study. He gave a concert in 1831, at which he produced his first symphony, and some other important compositions. About 1836 he went to Italy, where he spent some years, and thence returned to Frankfort. He then had an appointment as director of a singing academy in Dresden, which he resigned to Schumann in 1844. We next find him at the head of the conservatorium at Cologne; but he gave up this office to undertake the conductorship of the Italian opera at Paris in the season of 1850-51. He came to London in 1852, and besides playing here with success, he excited much interest by the production of his characteristic symphony, "In der Freie," at one of the concerts of the Philharmonic. He revisited this country in 1853. Hiller resumed his post at Cologne at the earnest solicitation of the committee of the conservatorium, in this year; he is still principal of the institution, the fame of which has been much extended through his able administration. The competency he inherited from his parents has always exempted him from professional drudgery; thus he has freely indulged his love for art, and has never had any check to the high aspirations which give a colour to all his works. He was an intimate acquaintance of Mendelssohn, and is the esteemed friend of the best musicians of the time. As a pianist, Hiller is distinguished by purity of style; as a composer, he is characterized by originality, feeling, sound knowledge, and true earnestness of purpose. His works consist of symphonies and concert overtures, concertos for the pianoforte, many concerted and solo pieces of chamber music, and a valuable series of studies for the same instrument; an oratorio called, "Die Zerstörung von Jerusalem," another named "Saul," the orchestration of Handel's Deborah, a setting of the 125th Psalm, an ode in honour of Schiller, and other choral works; and an opera entitled "Conradin der letzte Hohenstaufe."—G. A. M.
HILLIARD, Nicholas, limner, jeweller, and goldsmith to Queen Elizabeth and to James I., was born in 1547 at Exeter, where his father was high sheriff in 1560. Though bred a jeweller, he was most distinguished as a miniature painter; he painted Mary Queen of Scots; Queen Elizabeth several times; James I., &c. James gave Hilliard the exclusive privilege for twelve years of painting his majesty and the royal family. There is a well-known eulogy of his miniatures by Dr. Donne. He died in London in 1619, and was buried in St. Martin's-in-the-Fields. The celebrated Isaac Oliver was pupil of Hilliard, whose miniatures are still much prized by collectors.—R. N. W.
HILTON, John, an English musician who flourished in the first half of the seventeenth century. It is uncertain when and where he was born. His earliest composition in print is the madrigal, "Fair Oriana, Beauty's Queen," in five parts, printed in the Triumphs of Oriana, 1601. He was admitted to the degree of bachelor of music at Cambridge in 1626, which further appears from an inscription attached to his portrait in the music school at Oxford—John Hilton, Mus. Bac. Cantab. mdcxxvi.; but in the dedication to his "Ayres, or Fa Las," 1627, "To the Worshipfull William Heather, Doctor in Musicke," he says, "My duety obliges mee to offer you these unripe first-fruits of my labours, being but a drop that I receiv'd from you the fountaine." Whether the words, "a drop that I receiv'd from you," implied that he received his musical education under Dr. Heather, or were merely intended as a compliment, remains doubtful. Hilton was elected organist and parish clerk of St. Margaret's, Westminster, in 1628. The former office he resigned in 1644, when all organs were ordered to be taken down and destroyed; but it is probable that he continued in the office of parish clerk until his death, which is supposed to have occurred in 1657, during the Interregnum. That he died later than 1652 is known from his most celebrated work, "Catch that Catch can," which was published by himself in that year. A subsequent edition appeared in 1658, edited by John Playford. He was buried in the cloisters of Westminster abbey, and it is said an anthem was sung in that church over his body; but, as not only the cathedral service was suppressed during this period, but the liturgy itself and every species of choral music, the statement seems improbable. Mr. Warren, who reproduced his "Fa Las" in score for the Musical Antiquarian Society, says, "I have searched and made inquiries, but no tablet or stone now remains to record where he lies. If there ever was one, it must have been a flagstone, which is now worn or taken away." Hilton composed a number of catches, canons, rounds, dialogues, and songs; besides two services, and about a dozen anthems. They are all excellent in their kind. His service in G minor, consisting of Te Deum, Benedictus, Kyrie Eleison, Nicene Creed, Magnificat, and Nunc Dimittis, has been printed in Dr. Rimbault's Collection of Ancient Services.—E. F. R.
HILTON, Walter, was a Carthusian in the time of Henry VI., and a brother of the monastery of Sheen in Surrey, founded by Henry V. Hilton wrote "Scala Perfectionis," an English version of which was published by Pynson in 1494, folio, and the work went through several editions.—W. C. H.
