GREEN, NATHANAEL, a celebrated American general, born at Warwick, Rhode Island; though the son of a Quaker, he promptly took up arms on the outbreak of hostilities with the mother-country, and in 1775, as brigadier-general, headed the force in Rhode Island; his gallant conduct at the battles of Princeton and Brandywine won him promotion, and in 1780 he was advanced to the command of the army of the south; after a temporary reverse from Cornwallis at Guildford Court, he conducted his operations with so much success that, with the crowning victory at Eutaw Springs (1781), he cleared the British from the States; his last days were spent on his estate in Georgia, a gift from government in recognition of his services; next to Washington he was the great hero of the war (1742-1788).

GREEN, THOMAS HILL, philosopher, born in Yorkshire; studied at Balliol College, Oxford; was elected a Fellow and became eventually Whyte’s professor of Moral Philosophy; his philosophy had a Kantian root, developed to a certain extent on the lines of Hegel, which, however, he applied less in speculative than a spiritual interest, though he was not slow, on the ground of it, to assail the evolution theory of Herbert Spencer and G. H. Lewes; he was a great moral force in Oxford, and that apart from his philosophical speculations, though there can be little doubt that the philosophy which he had embraced was a potent element in his moral character and his influence; his views on the purely spiritual nature and derivation of the Christian religion have, since his death, attracted attention, and are regarded with some anxiety by those whose faith requires a historical basis (1838-1882).

GREENBACKS, a name given to the inconvertible paper currency issued in the United States during the Civil War, so called from the colour of the notes, bonds, &c.; the name has since been popularly applied to the paper money of the States; the notes were made convertible in 1879.

GREENLAND (11), an extensive but imperfectly defined territory lying mostly within the Arctic circle to the NE. of North America, from which it is separated by Davis Strait and Baffin Bay; the area is variously estimated from 512,000 to 320,000 sq. m.; the land lies submerged beneath a vast plain of ice, pierced here and there by mountain tops, but it is conjectured to consist of one large island-continent engirt by groups of smaller islands; only on the S. coast, during the meagre summer, is there any appearance of vegetation; there is a great variety of birds, and the animals include the wolf, fox, bear, reindeer, musk ox, and Arctic hare, while whales, seals, and many kinds of fish are found; the inhabitants are chiefly Esquimaux, but there are some Danish settlements, begun in 1721, and the trade is a Danish monopoly; the country was known in early times to the Scandinavians (of whose settlements there are interesting remains), and was rediscovered by John Davis in 1585.