RELICS, in the Romish church, are the remains of saints and holy men, or of their garments, &e., which are enjoined to be held in veneration, and are consid ered, in many instances, to be endued with miraculous powers. They are pre served in the churches, to which they are often the means of attracting pilgrimages, and in very ignorant times and places have been actually made objects of ado ration. The virtues which arc attributed to them are defended by such instances from Scripture as that of the miracles that were wrought by the bones of Elisha. RELIEF', (RELIEVO,) in sculpture, that spebies of sculpture in which the figures are engaged on or rise from a ground. There are three sorts of relieve —basso-relieve, in which the figures or other objects have but small projection from the ground on which they are sculp tured; mezzo-relieve, in which the figures stand out about half their natural pro portions, the other half appearing im mersed in the ground ; and lastly, alto relie•o, in which the figures stand com pletely out from the ground, being attached to it only in a few places, and in others worked entirely round like single statues; such are the metoptc of the Elgin marbles in the ltritish Museum, which marbles also, in the Panat(henaie procession, exhibit some exquisite ex amples of basso-reliero.—Pelief in or
ehiteetu•e, the projection of a figure or ornament from the ground or plane on which it is sculpturod.—In painting, the appearance of projection, or the degree of boldness which s figure exhibits to the eye at a distance,—In fondil Inw, a fine or composition which the heir of a tenant, holding by knight's service or other tenure, paid to the lord at Ibe death of the ancestor, for the privilege of taking up the estate which, on strict feudul principles, had lapsed or Gallen to the lord on the death of the tenant. This relief consisted of horses, arms, money, and the like, the amount of which was originally arbitrary, but after ward fixed at a certain rate by law. It is not payable, unless the heir at the death of his ancestor had attained to the age of twenty-one years.