Page:Men of the Time, eleventh edition.djvu/963

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ROST—ROUHER.

by Gustavo Modena. After having appeared at Milan, Turin, and other Italian cities, he went in 1853 with Mdlle. Ristori to Paris, where, by his masterly acting, he enabled the French public to appreciate the works of several Italian dramatists, and notably those of Goldoni. Signor Bossi achieved a like success at Vienna, and he then returned to his native country, where he established a dramatic company, of which he himself took the management. In 1866 he paid a second visit to Paris, and appeared at the Théâtre Français, on the occasion of the anniversary of Corneille, in an Italian translation of "The Cid." After having visited Portugal and Spain, interpreting with his company the Shaksperian repertory, which he has recently adopted, he returned to Paris in 1875, and gave at the Salle Ventadour, with remarkable success, a series of Shaksperian representations, in which he himself played the leading parts. He next visited London, where he met with an equally enthusiastic reception. M. Rossi, who has been styled the "Italian Talma," is the author of some dramatic pieces of no great merit. He has been decorated with the cross of SS. Maurice and Lazarus, and with several foreign orders.


ROST, Reinhold, Ph.D., was born Feb. 2, 1822, at Eisenberg, in Saxe-Altenburg, where his father was archdeacon, and educated at the Gymnasium at Altenburg and the University of Jena, where he took his degree of Ph.D. in 1847. Dr. Rost came to London in the same year; was appointed Oriental Lecturer in St. Augustine's College, Canterbury, in 1850; Secretary to the Royal Asiatic Society in 1863; and Librarian to the India Office in 1869. He has written a descriptive catalogue of the palm-leaf manuscripts belonging to the Imperial Public Library of St. Petersburg, 1852; edited Prof. N. H. Wilson's "Essays on the Religion of the Hindus, and on Sanskrit Literature," 5 vols., London, 1861-65; and was engaged in making a catalogue raisonné of the Sanskrit MSS. on palm-leaves belonging to the India Office Library. Dr. Rost attended the Congress of Orientalists held at Florence in Sept., 1878.


ROUHER, Eugène, statesman, born at Riom, Nov. 30, 1814, where he studied jurisprudence, was admitted a member of the bar in 1838. After the revolution of 1848, he was returned to the Constituent Assembly for the department of Puy-de-Dôme, which he continued to represent in the Legislative Assembly in 1849. His career as a minister began with his appointment as Minister of Justice by the President of the Republic, Oct. 31, 1849, a post which he resigned July 18, 1851. He soon resumed his connection with the ministry, and was re-appointed, Dec. 2, to his former office, which he resigned Jan. 22, 1852, and became Vice-President of the Council of State. He became Minister of Agriculture, Commerce, and Public Works, Feb. 3, 1855, and was nominated to the Senate, June 18, 1856. It was in the former capacity that he negotiated with the late Mr. Cobden the treaty of commerce and additional articles, signed Jan. 22, 1860, by the plenipotentiaries of the two powers, of whom he was one. He succeeded M. Billaut as Minister of State, Oct. 18, 1863, and became, ex officio, one of the "speaking ministers," whose duty it was "to explain and defend questions placed before the Senate and the Legislative Assembly." This arduous duty he discharged with consummate tact and ability during the next five years against such formidable antagonists as MM. Thiers, Berryer, and Jules Favre. After the famous Imperial letter of Jan. 19, 1867, addressed to M. Rouher, with regard to the Senatus-Consultum, he and his colleagues resigned, but nearly all of them were reinstated in office, including