miniscences of an Old Man," published in the "Knickerbocker Magazine;" ;" "St. Leger, or the Threads of Life" (New York and London, 1849); "Letters from England;" "Letters from Cuba" (1850); "Cuba and the Cubans" (1850); "Romance of Student Life Abroad" (1853); and "Lecture before the New York Law Institute." KIMCHI, or KIMHI, DAVID, a rabbi of Narbonne, celebrated as a Hebrew grammarian, lexicographer, and commentator, flourished in the earlier part of the 13th century. He was the son of Rabbi Joseph Kimchi, surnamed Mestre Petit, who about the middle of the 12th century emigrated from Spain during a persecution by the Moslems, and the younger brother and pupil of Rabbi Moses, both distinguished as writers on the same sciences in which David was to eclipse all his predecessors. He was early initiated into the study of philosophy, which at that period had reached its golden age among the Jews of Spain and southern France, especially through the works of Maimonides, of which, in a lively rabbinical controversy, he toward the decline of his life became one of the most eminent defenders. He died in old age. Conscientious research and an uncommonly sound critical judgment are the chief, though not the only merits of Kimchi's writings, which have been regarded down to this day, both by Jewish and Christian scholars, as standard works in their branches. Beside some fragments and minor works, there are extant the "Hebrew Grammar" (Venice, 1545; Leyden, 1631, &c.), and "Hebrew Dictionary" (Naples, 1490; Venice, 1529 and 1552), and commentaries on the prophets, the Psalms, and Chronicles.

KINBURN, a fortress in the Russian government of Taurida, situated on a small peninsula at the mouth of the Dnieper. With the opposite fortress of Otchakoff, it completely commands the entrance of that river. About a mile from the fort stands the pretty village of Kinburn. Most of its inhabitants are fishermen. Within the fort is a monument dedicated to the memory of Gen. Suwaroff, who gained a signal victory over the Turkish invaders there in 1787. On Oct. 17, 1855, after a bombardment of several hours, the fort surrendered to the AngloFrench squadron, and the Russian commander Kochanovitch with his garrison of 1,400 men were taken prisoners. French troops were stationed there during the following winter, notwithstanding the great intensity of the cold. The ships and floating batteries were imbedded in the ice of the Dnieper, and the vessels converted by the French into regular fortifications, the ice being sawn away for some distance, so as to form a deep ditch round each vessel, while the pieces of ice which had been cut away were piled up and used as barricades. No attack however took place. On May 16, 1856, the French evacuated it, and Kinburn was then restored to Russia.

KINCARDINESHIRE, or THE MEARNS, a maritime co. of Scotland, bounded N. by Aberdeenshire, from which it is separated by the

river Dee, E. by the German ocean, and S. and W. by Forfarshire, from which it is divided by the North Esk; area, 381 sq. m.; pop. in 1851, 34,598. Geographically the county is divided into the Grampians or hill district, Deeside, the valley or "howe" of the Mearns, and the coast side. Mount Battock, the highest point of the Grampians in Kincardineshire, is 3,500 feet high. The county is mainly agricultural. There are manufactures of linen. On the coast there are 13 or 14 fishing villages. Capital, Stonehaven.

KINESIPATHY. See LING, Peter Henrik. KING (Germ. König ; Dutch, koning ; Swed. konung, kung; Dan. konge; Icel. konunge, konge), a title of dignity designating the supreme ruler of a nation or country. The etymology of the word is far from being settled, some deriving it from the old Gothic chuni, family or (noble) race; others from roots like know, can, ken, denoting ability; while others compare it with khan and other eastern terms of similar meaning. The Romanic languages all use words little altered from the Latin rex (ruler), which was the title of the first 7 sovereigns of Rome, while those who followed the fall of the republic assumed that of imperator (commander), now altered into our emperor. The difference between king and emperor, and between kingdom and empire, is not always one of power or extent, but is sometimes the result of historical developments. Thus Louis XIV. and Louis Philippe were satisfied with the title of king, while the sovereign successor to the unaltered dominions of the latter, Napoleon III., assumed that worn by the conqueror from whom he derived his historical claims to power. Soulouque, who like both Napoleons paved his way to the throne by a coup d'état, also chose the title of emperor. În Europe there are 15 independent In kingdoms, viz: Great Britain and Ireland, Prussia, Sweden and Norway, Spain, the Two Sicilies, Sardinia, Portugal, Bavaria, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, Greece, Hanover, Würtemberg, and Saxony. The grand duchies and the electorate (of Hesse) rank next in dignity and power, some of the former surpassing in extent and population the minor kingdoms. Thus Tuscany is superior in territorial extent to Würtemberg, and Baden to Saxony. Beside these 15 kingdoms there are others in Europe which, having lost their independence, have maintained their title, adding it to those of the other possessions of their rulers. Thus the emperor of Russia is king of Poland, and the emperor of Austria king of Hungary, Bohemia, &c. There are also some titles preserved by houses who have lost the possessions to which they were attached. The emperor of Austria styles himself king of Jerusalem, and the king of Sweden also king of the Vandals. The royal dignity in Europe is now everywhere hereditary. Formerly there were elective kings of Poland, Hungary, &c.; the former were little more than presidents for life of a republic. The successor elect of the German emperors was called king of

Rome; the same title was bestowed by Napoleon I. on his son. The period of Napoleon was productive of new kingdoms, of which some, as Westphalia and Etruria, were short-lived.

KING, CHARLES, an American journalist, president of Columbia college, born in New York in March, 1789. He is the 2d son of Rufus King, and during the residence of his father as American minister at St. James he was sent with his brother John A. King to Harrow school, and in 1805 to a preparatory school in Paris. In 1810 he married Eliza, the eldest daughter of Archibald Gracie, then a leading merchant of New York, with whom he was associated in business. Upon the breaking out of hostilities with Great Britain, Mr. King, though a federalist, deemed it right that the war should be prosecuted to an honorable and successful result; and as a member of the legislature of his native state in 1813, and as a volunteer in the autumn of 1814, he acted upon those sentiments. In 1823 the firm of which he was a member failed, and Mr. King became associated with Johnston Verplanck in the publication of the "New York American," a conservative newspaper, of much political influence and a high literary character, until 1827, when Mr. Verplanck retired and Mr. King continued sole editor. After its publication was discontinued Mr. King was associated in the conduct of the N. Y. "Courier and Enquirer" from 1845 until 1849, when he was chosen president of Columbia college, which office he still occupies. During his presidency the usefulness and the wealth of the college have been greatly increased. KING, JOHN CROOKSHANKS, an American sculptor, born in Kilwinning, Ayrshire, Scotland, Oct. 11, 1806. He was educated as a practical machinist, and emigrating to the United States in 1829 was employed for several years in Cincinnati and Louisville as superintendent of a factory. In 1834, at the suggestion of Hiram Powers, he made a model in clay of the head of his wife, and the success with which the work was accomplished encouraged him to adopt the profession of a sculptor. From 1837 to 1840 he resided in New Orleans, and modelled a number of busts of public men and made cameo likenesses. Subsequently he removed to Boston, where he now lives. He has executed several busts of Daniel Webster, also those of John Quincy Adams, Dr. Samuel Woodward, Professor Agassiz, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and other men prominent in public life or literature.

KING, JOHN P., an American lawyer and financier, born in Barrow co., Ky., about 1800. His father, soon after the birth of this son, removed to Bedford co., Tenn. After receiving an ordinary school education he studied law with Major Freeman Walker of Augusta, Ga., and was admitted to the bar before he was 19 years of age. Major Walker was shortly afterward elected to the United States senate, and Mr. King succeeded to his large practice, which he prosecuted with success for 3 years. He then travelled extensively in Europe, remaining there

several years, and attended lectures in Paris and Edinburgh. After his return from Europe he resumed his profession (in 1825), and at once entered into a highly lucrative practice, but he again abandoned it in 1829. He was elected in 1833 to the senate of the United States by the union democratic party, to fill an unexpired term. He was subsequently reelected for the full term of six years, but in 1837 resigned, avowing his intention to retire to private life. In 1842, when the country was in a state of unusual depression from a recent revulsion, he took charge of the Georgia railroad company, which, like most others of similar character in that day, had failed. Under Mr. King's management it was speedily revived and the road finished, and he has continued president of the company until the present time, the stockholders having refused to allow him to resign. Various other roads extending the connections of the Georgia road, north-west and south-west, have been projected and completed, mainly under his auspices. He received the title of judge by executive appointment, but at the close of the term declined a reelection.

KING, MITCHELL, LL.D., an American judge, born in Scotland, June 8, 1783. In youth he was a severe student and general reader, and began early to write essays. He went to London in 1804, and sailed for Malta in 1805 in a merchantman under convoy of two ships of war, witnessed the fight in which the convoy was destroyed by two French frigates, and was taken as a prisoner to Malaga. After studying the Spanish language he escaped from captivity, and sailed in an American vessel for Charleston, S. C. There he opened a school in 1806, and began to write verses for the newspapers, which attracted considerable attention; and he was soon promoted to a professorship in the college of that city. He began to study law in 1807, continuing his duties as teacher; was one of the founders of the philosophical society in 1809, among the first members of which were Hayne, Gadsden, Grimke, Prioleau, and others, and before which he delivered lectures on astronomy. In 1810 he was admitted to the bar. He soon distinguished himself in various departments of his profession, was prosperous in practice, and in 1815 revisited Europe. In 1819 he became judge, or, as the office was then called, recorder of the city court of Charleston. As early as 1816 he had denounced the principle of a protective tariff as unwise and impolitic, though not illegal, and in 1830-32 was an active member of the union party, and opposed the doctrine of the state veto, or nullification. As a citizen of large fortune he was prominent in the plans for extending the communications of South Carolina with the West, and was a delegate to numerous conventions held for the purpose. He succeeded Gen. Hayne as president of the Louisville, Cincinnati, and Charleston railroad, a great scheme which ultimately failed. In 1840 he again visited Europe; in 1842 he again became judge of the city court, which office he resigned

in 1844; and at different periods he served as delegate in the state convention, and as president of the trustees of the medical college, and of other societies for the promotion of art, literature, science, and public enterprises. He originated the Charleston literary club, and has written numerous essays and addresses for various societies and literary institutions. The degree of LL.D. has been conferred upon him by the college of Charleston and the university of East Tennessee. He has an extensive reputation for various learning and cultivated tastes, as well as for refined and liberal hospitality. His library of 20,000 volumes is regarded as one of the best private collections in the country.

KING, PETER, lord, an English chancellor, born in Exeter in 1669, died in Ockham, Surrey, July 22, 1734. His mother was a sister of the philosopher Locke, at whose suggestion he was sent to the university of Leyden. He afterward entered himself at the Inner Temple, and was called to the bar. In 1699 he commenced his political career, and was elected to parliament for Beer-Alston, Devonshire, which he represented to the end of the reign of Queen Anne. In 1709 he was appointed one of the managers to conduct the impeachment of Sacheverell; and in 1712 acted as counsel, without fee, in defence of Whiston. Soon after the accession of George I. he was made chief justice of the common pleas, and a privy councillor; and in June, 1725, on the removal of the earl of Macclesfield, he was raised to the dignity of lord chancellor, with the title of Baron King of Ockham. He held office till Nov. 26, 1733, when ill health compelled him to resign. He did not figure well on the woolsack, and more of his decrees are said to have been set aside than of any former chancellor. He was the author of various works in support of the rights of Protestant dissenters, the most important of which perhaps is his "Inquiry into the Constitution, Discipline, Unity, and Worship of the Primitive Church" (London, 1691).

KING, PHILIP PARKER, a British admiral, born on Norfolk island, Dec. 13, 1793, died at Grantham, near Sydney, N. S. W., in Feb. 1855. He was the son of a naval officer, who, from the ability he exhibited in the settlement of Norfolk island, was appointed governor of New South Wales in 1800. His son entered the British navy in 1807. In 1817 he was intrusted with the conduct of an expedition to Australia, returning to Europe in 1823, when he published the results of his survey of the inter-tropical and western coasts; the atlas to this work was issued by the hydrographical office at the admiralty. In 1825 he was appointed to survey the S. coast of America, from the entrance of the Rio Plata round to Chiloe, and of Terra del Fuego, and published in 1832 "Sailing Directions to the Coasts of Eastern and Western Patagonia, including the Straits of Magelhaen and the Sea Coast of Terra del Fuego." Afterward he returned to Australia, where he took an ac

tive part in public institutions and in political affairs, having been elected in 1851 to the legis lature. Shortly before his death he was appointed rear admiral of the blue, being the first instance of a native of Australia rising to so high a rank in the British navy.

KING, RUFUS, an American statesman, born in Scarborough, Me., in 1755, died in Jamaica, L. I., April 29, 1827. His father, Richard King, a successful merchant, gave him the best education then attainable. He was prepared for college by Samuel Moody of Newburyport, and was admitted to Harvard college in 1773. During the revolutionary struggle which soon after commenced the college buildings were appropriated for military purposes, and the students were dispersed for a time. In 1776, after the evacuation of Boston by the British troops, the college was reopened in Cambridge, and there in 1777 Rufus King was graduated. He then went to Newburyport to study law under the direction of Theophilus Parsons. But war again broke in upon his studies, and when the expedition against Rhode Island, then occupied by the British, was organized in 1778 under Gen. Sullivan, Mr. King took part in it as a volunteer, and became aide-de-camp to Gen. Glover, who commanded a brigade of Maine men. Owing to the diversion of the French fleet of Count d'Estaing, upon the cooperation of which the success of Gen. Sullivan's expedition depended, the campaign was brief and fruitless. After receiving the thanks of his commander in an order of the day, Mr. King returned to his law studies, which he pursued without further interruption, was admitted to the bar in 1780, and entered on the practice of the law in Newburyport. He was successful from the outset, for he was diligent, methodical, learned, and eloquent. He was moreover sensitively alive to the great conflict in which his country was engaged, and bold and earnest in promoting all measures to strengthen her arms and her cause. In 1782 he was chosen by his townsmen one of their representatives to the general court of Massachusetts. In that body, to which he was repeatedly reelected, he took a leading part, and especially on one of the difficult questions which arose during the revolutionary struggle between the congress of the confederation and the legislature of the states-that of granting a 5 per cent. impost to the congress-he maintained with great ability and eventual success, against the powerful opposition of Gov. Sullivan and others, the indispensableness of granting this aid for the common safety and the efficiency of the confederation. In 1784 he was chosen by the legislature of Massachusetts a delegate to the continental congress, then sitting at Trenton. He took his seat in December, and in March, 1785, moved a resolution: "That there be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in any of the states described in the resolution of congress of April, 1784, otherwise than in punishment of crime whereof the party shall have been personally guilty; and that this regulation shall be made an article of

compact and remain a fundamental principle of the constitution between the original states and each of the states named in said resolves." This resolution was, by the vote of 7 states (New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland), against 4 (Virginia, both Carolinas, and Georgia), referred to a committee of the whole, where for the time it slept. The ordinance offered by Thomas Jefferson in the previous year (April, 1784) proposed the prospective prohibition of slavery in the territories of the United States after the year 1800; Mr. King's proposition was for its immediate, absolute, and irrevocable prohibition. When, two years afterward, the famous ordinance of freedom and government for the N. W. territory was reported by Nathan Dane of Massachussetts (July 11, 1787), Mr. King, who was a member of that congress (then sitting in New York), and a colleague of Mr. Dane, had gone to Philadelphia to take the seat to which he had been elected by Massachusetts as a member of the convention for framing a constitution for the United States. But his colleague embodied in the draft of his ordinance the provision, almost word for word, which Mr. King had laid before congress in March, 1785. While occupied with his duties as member of congress, Mr. King was designated by his state as one of the commissioners to determine the boundary between New York and Massachussets, and was empowered with his colleague to convey to the United States the large tract of lands beyond the Alleghanies belonging to Massachussetts. On Aug. 14, 1786, Rufus King and James Monroe were appointed a committee on behalf of the congress to wait upon the legislature of Pennsylvania and explain to them the embarrassments of the finances of the United States, and to urge the prompt repeal by that state of the embarrassing condition upon which it had voted its contingent of the 5 per cent. impost levied by the congress on all the states. The speech of Mr. King on this occasion, though no notes of it remain, is commemorated as most effective and brilliant. On May 25, 1787, Mr. King took his seat in the federal convention, which, though called to meet on the 14th of that month, did not form a quorum till the 25th. He had renounced his practice at the bar, and gave himself wholly to the public service. While a member of congress he had married in 1786, in New York, Mary, daughter of John Alsop. The journals of the convention and the fragments of its debates which have come down to us attest the active participation of Mr. King in the important business before them; and the selection of him, one of the youngest members of that body, as one of the committee of five to which it was finally referred to "revise the style of, and arrange the articles" agreed on for the new constitution, affords the best proof of the estimation in which he was held by his colleagues. Having signed the constitution as agreed upon, Mr. King went back

to Massachusetts, and was immediately chosen by his old constituents of Newburyport one of their delegates to the state convention which was to pass upon its acceptance or rejection. Fierce opposition was made in that convention to this instrument, Mr. King leading the array in defence. He was successful, and the ratification was carried by 187 to 168. Mr. King took up his permanent residence in New York in 1788, and in the following year he was elected a representative of that city in the assembly of the state. In the summer of the same year he was chosen by the legislature the first senator from the state of New York under the new constitution, having for his colleague Gen: Schuyler. In this body Mr. King took rank among the leaders of the federal party. The political difficulties of the period were very great; the points, foreign and domestic, to be arranged, complex; and the finances of the country in deplorable confusion. But the public men of the day were equal to its exigencies, and the treaty negotiated by John Jay on behalf of the United States with Great Britain was ratified by the senate and vindicated against the fiercest opposition. In this conflict Mr. King was conspicuous both in the senate and as the joint author with Alexander Hamilton of a series of essays, through the newspapers, under the signature of Camillus. In 1795 he was reelected to the senate, and while serving his second term was nominated by Washington minister plenipotentiary to Great Britain, having previously declined the office of secretary of state, made vacant by the resignation of Edmund Randolph. He embarked with his family at New York in July, 1796, and for 8 years fulfilled most ably and acceptably the duties of the office. No foreign minister probably was more sagacious in ascertaining or divining the views and policy of nations, or more careful in keeping his own government well informed on all the public questions of the day. His diplomatic correspondence may be referred to confidently as a model both in style and in topics. The federal party having lost its ascendency in the public councils, Mr. King, shortly after Mr. Jefferson's accession, asked to be recalled. He was however urged by the president to remain, as he had in hand important negotiations. The recurrence of war in Europe, consequent upon the rupture of the peace of Amiens, leaving little hope of success on the point to which his efforts had been chiefly directed, that of securing our seamen against impressment, he renewed his request to be relieved; and accordingly a successor was appointed, and Mr. King returned to his country in 1804, and withdrew to a farm at Jamaica, L. I., where he passed his time in study, in the pleasures of a liberal hospitality, keeping up his interest in all public concerns, in correspondence with friends in both hemispheres, and in improving and adorning his grounds. This philosophical retirement was broken in upon by the war of 1812, and he was called in 1813 to take his seat for the third

time as a U. S. senator. Yielding no blind support to the administration, and offering to it no partisan opposition, he yet was ever ready to strengthen its hands against the common enemy. When the capitol at Washington was burned by the British forces, he resisted the proposal to remove the seat of government to the interior, and rallied the nation to defend the country and avenge the outrage. His speech on this occasion in the senate was one of those that marked him as a great orator. At the close of the war he applied himself with like diligence to maturing the policy which should efface as speedily as possible the evils of war and build up permanent prosperity. To a bill, however, for a U. S. bank with capital of $50,000,000, he made earnest opposition in the senate. The claim of Great Britain to exclude us from the commerce of the West India islands he in like manner resisted; and to his intelligent exposition of the laws of navigation and of the mercantile interests and rights of the United States we are indebted for the law of 1818. He likewise early discerned the danger of the sales on credit of the public lands, and by his bill substituting cash payments and a fixed but reduced price for these lands, and stipulating a remission of interest and of a portion of the principal of the debt then due therefor, he averted a great political peril, and gave order and security to the receipts from the sale of those lands. In 1819 he was reelected, as in the previous instance by a legislature of adverse politics to his own, to the U. S. senate. Soon after the close of the war, and while at his post in the senate in the winter of 1816, he was, without his knowledge or consent, named as the candidate of the federal party for governor of the state of New York. His wish and purpose were at once to decline this nomination, for the sphere of duty of a senator was that in which he felt himself more fitted to be useful. But his political friends asked it of him as a debt to his party, and he yielded his own preference. He was not elected, and thus was left at liberty to pursue his senatorial career. Shortly afterward the Missouri question, as it has been called, began to agitate the nation. Mr. King was pledged against the extension of slavery; and when therefore Missouri presented herself for admission as a state with a constitution authorizing the holding of slaves, he was inexorably opposed to it. The state of New York, by an almost unanimous vote of its legislature, instructed him to resist the admission of Missouri as a slave state; and the argument made by Mr. King in the senate, though but partially reported, has been the repertory for almost all subsequent arguments against the extension of slavery. He was in like manner opposed to the compromise introduced by Mr. Clay, which partially yielded the principle, and voted to the last against it. His 4th term in the senate expired in March, 1825, when he took leave of that body, and as he hoped of public life, in which for 40 years he had been engaged. One of his latest acts was to present a

resolution, Feb. 16, 1825: "That as soon as the portion of the existing funded debt of the United States for the payment of which the public land of the United States is pledged, shall have been paid off, then and thenceforth the whole of the public land of the United States, with the net proceeds of all future sales thereof, shall constitute and form a fund which is hereby appropriated, and the faith of the United States is pledged that the said fund shall be inviolably applied, to aid the emancipation of such slaves within any of the United States, and to aid the removal of such slaves and the removal of such free persons of color in any of the said states, as by the laws of the states respectively may be allowed to be emancipated or removed to any territory or country without the limits of the United States of America." The resolution was read, and, on motion of Mr. Benton of Missouri, ordered to be printed. John Q. Adams, now become president, urged Mr. King to accept the embassy to England, with which country unadjusted questions of moment were pending, and which the president believed Mr. King, from his familiarity with those questions and his former experience as minister in England, was specially qualified to manage. He reluctantly accepted the mission; but his health gave way, and after a few months spent in England, where he was warmly welcomed, he resigned and came home to die.

KING, SUSAN (PETIGRU), an American authoress, born in Charleston, S. C. The daughter of James L. Petigru, an eminent lawyer of South Carolina, she was highly educated, and was married to Henry C. King, son of Judge Mitchell King. She is the author of several stories of fashionable life, as the "Busy Moments of an Idle Woman," a collection of social sketches; "Lily" and "Sylvia's World," a series of short tales illustrative of flirtations, slander, coquetry, jilting, and similar fashionable vices. Their animation, clear and easy style, and piquant satire have attracted for them much attention; and these merits, together with local allusions, have given them remarkable popularity in South Carolina. Mrs. King is distinguished in society by her conversational talent, and especially by a frequent epigrammatic felicity of repartee and retort. She has been a contributor to several periodicals.

KING, THOMAS STARR, an American clergyman, born in New York, Dec. 16, 1824. He is the eldest son of the Rev. Thomas Farrington King, who in 1834 was settled as the minister of the first Universalist church in Charlestown, Mass. He was preparing to enter Harvard college when the sudden death of his father left the family in a measure dependent upon his services for a support. From the age of 12 to 20 he was employed either as a clerk or schoolmaster, devoting his leisure hours to theological studies, and in Sept. 1845, preached for the first time in the town of Woburn. In the succeeding year he was settled over his father's former parish in Charlestown, whence he was called in