CUMBERLAND, DR. RICHARD, bishop of Peterborough, born in London, educated at Cambridge, wrote several works, the chief “An Inquiry into the Laws of Nature,” in reply to Hobbes, in which he elevates the tendency to produce happiness into something like a moral principle; wrought hard, lived to a great age, and is credited with the saying, “Better wear out than rust out” (1631-1718).

CUMBERLAND, RICHARD, dramatist, great-grandson of the preceding; was a prolific writer for the stage; the play “The West Indian,” which established his reputation, was his best (1732-1811).

CUMBERLAND, WILLIAM AUGUSTUS, DUKE OF, second son of George II., was defeated at Fontenoy by the French in 1745; defeated the Pretender next year at Culloden; earned the title of “The Butcher” by his cruelties afterwards; was beaten in all his battles except this one (1721-1765).

CUMBRIA, a country of the Northern Britons which, in the 6th century, extended from the Clyde to the Dee, in Cheshire.

CUMMING, GORDON, the African lion-hunter, of Celtic origin; served for a time in the army; wrote an account of his hunting exploits in his “Five Years of a Hunter’s Life” (1820-1866).

CUMMING, JOHN, a Scotch clergyman, popular in London, born at Fintray, in Aberdeenshire; of a highly combative turn, and rather foolhardy in his interpretations of prophecy (1807-1881).

CUNARD, SIR SAMUEL, founder of Cunard Line of Steamships, born in Halifax, Nova Scotia (1787-1865).

CUNAXA, a town in Babylonia, on the Euphrates, 60 m.  N. of Babylon.

CUNCTATOR, a name given to Fabius Maximus on account of the tantalising tactics he adopted to wear out his adversary Hannibal.

CUNE`IFORM, an epithet applied to the wedge-shaped characters in which the Assyrian and other ancient monumental inscriptions are written.

CUNNINGHAM, ALLAN, poet and man of letters, born in the parish of Keir, Dumfriesshire; bred to the mason craft, but devoted his leisure hours to study and the composition of Scottish ballads, which, when published, gained him the notice of Sir Walter Scott; in 1810 he went to London, where he wrote for periodicals, and obtained employment as assistant to Chantrey the sculptor, in which post he found leisure to cultivate his literary proclivities, collating and editing tales and songs, editing Burns with a Life, and writing the Lives of famous artists, and died in London; “a pliant, Naturmensch,” Carlyle found him to be, “with no principles or creed that he could see, but excellent old habits of character” (1784-1842).

CUNNINGHAM, PETER, son of the preceding, author of the “Life of Drummond of Hawthornden,” “Handbook of London,” &c. (1816-1867).

CUNNINGHAM, WILLIAM, a Scotch divine, born in Hamilton, well read in the Reformation and Puritan theology, a vigorous defender of Scottish orthodoxy, and a stanch upholder of the independence of the Church of State control; was a powerful debater, and a host in any controversy in which he embarked (1805-1861).