annually raised and consumed is computed at between 15million and 16 million tons; giving employment, in all its branches, to not less than 160,000 persons. Of salt the annual produce of the various kinds is about 15,000,000 bushels; of which 10,000,000 are exported.

The colonies of Great Britain are found in every quarter of the globe. The most important are the East India possessions, which comprise above a million square miles of territory, and a population of upwards of 120 millions. These are under the sway of a mercantile association in London, called the English East India Company, which has existed for above two centuries. Their revenue exceeds that of any European State, except France and England. In 1829, it was estimated at 22,692,7117. The taxable population under the control of the company amounts to 83,000,000. They have 40,000,000 additional inhabitants at their command, under dependent native princes, with an army of 200,000 men. The general concerns of the company are subjected to the authority of a board of control, who are appointed by the crown, and are under the direction of the ministry: the local affairs, however, are directed by the company. The colonies belonging to Great Britain are-In Europe, Heligoland, Gibraltar, Malta, Gozzo and Comino, and the Ionian Islands;-Asia, Hindoostan, Ceylon, Prince of Wales Island, Sincapore, and the provinces in Birmah;-Africa, Sierra Leone, Gold Coast, Fernando Po, Cape of Good Hope, Isle of France, Seychelles, St. Helena, and Ascension;-Oceanica, Australia and Van Diemen's Land ;-America, New Britain, Canada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Cape Breton, Newfoundland, Prince Edward's Island, the Bermudas, the Bahamas, Jamaica, Tortola and Anguilla, St. Christopher, Nevis, Montserrat, Barbuda, Antigua, Dominica, St. Lucia, Barbadoes, St. Vincent, Grenada and the Grenadines, Tobago, Trinidad, Honduras, or the Balise Territory, and the Colonies in Guiana.

POFULATION OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE AND COLONIES.

ENGLAND is bounded on the south by the English Channel; on the east by the German Sea; on the north by Scotland, from which it is separated by the Tweed, the Cheviot hills, and the Frith of Solway; on the west by the Irish Sea and St. George's Channel: the promontory of the Land's-End, forming its south-western extremity, faces the vast expanse of the Atlantic.

The greatest dimension of England is from south to north, between the Lizard Point, 49° 58′ N., and Berwick on Tweed, 55° 45′ N.; four hundred miles in length. The points of extreme breadth are the Land's-End, in 5° 41′ W., and Lowestoffe, in 1° 44' E., forming a space of about 280 miles.

The general aspect of this country is varied and delightful. In some parts, verdant plains extend as far as the eye can reach, watered by copious streams. In other parts, are pleasing diversities of gently rising hills and bending vales, fertile in grain, waving with wood, and interspersed with meadows. Some tracts abound with prospects of the more romantic kind; embracing lofty mountains, craggy rocks, deep narrow dells, and tumbling torrents. There are also, here and there, black moors and wide uncultivated heaths. The general aspect of Wales is bold, romantic and mountainous. It consists of ranges of lofty eminences and impending crags, intersected by numerous and deep ravines, with extensive valleys, and affording endless views of wild mountain scenery.

The rivers of England, though deficient in magnitude, are numerous, commodious, and valuable; flowing through broad vales and wide-spreading plains. The largest is the Severn, which rises near Plinlimmon, a high mountain in Wales. Its embouchure forms a wide bay, called the Bristol Channel. It is 200 miles long, and is navigable in the latter part of its course. The tide rolls up this stream in waves three or four feet high.

The Thames rises near the Severn in the lower part of its course, and flows east into the German Ocean. It is 160 miles long, and is navigable for ships to London, 60 miles. This is the most important river of Great Britain for navigation. The Mersey is a small stream flowing south-west into the Irish Sea at Liverpool; it is navigable 35 miles. The Dee rises in Wales, and flows north-west into the Irish Sea near the mouth of the Mersey. The Trent and Ouse rise in the north, and by their junction form the Humber, which is a good navigable stream, and falls into the German Ocean.

The lakes are numerous and occur principally in the north-west portions of the kingdom, of which Windermere, the largest, only twelve miles long and one broad, has been raised to distinction by the taste of the age for picturesque beauty, rather than as a geographical feature of the country.

England has an atmosphere of fogs, rain, and perpetual change; yet the climate is mild. The rigours of winter and the heats of summer are less felt than on the continent under the same parallel. The winds from the sea temper the extremes of heat and cold; the changes, however, are sudden. Westerly and southwesterly winds are most prevalent, and also the most violent. Next are the north and north-east. The perpetual moisture of the air is sometimes unfavourable to the crops, but its general effect is to cover the whole island with the deepest verdure. The meadows and fields are usually green throughout the winter: and the transient snows that occasionally fall upon them are insufficient to deprive them of their brilliancy. Many kinds of kitchen vegetables, as cabbages, cauliflowers, broccoli, and celery, often remain uninjured in the gardens through the winter. Mines form one of the most copious sources of the wealth of England. The useful metals and minerals, those which afford the instruments of manufacture and are subservient to the daily purposes of life, are now drawn from the earth more copiously there than in any other country. Her most valuable metals are iron, copper, and tin; her principal minerals are coal and salt. Notwithstanding the general inferiority of the soil, England is under such excellent cultivation, that the country may be considered as one great garden. Farming is, in many parts, conducted on a great scale, by men of intelligence, enterprise and capital; and the science as well as practice of agriculture is carried to a high degree of perfection. In the northern counties, the farms are large, and are leased generally for 21 years. In the southern counties, the farms are smaller, and the tenants are often proprietors.

The commerce of England is unrivalled by that of any other nation in the world. Every quarter of the globe seems tributary to the enterprise and perseverance of this great commercial people. The manufactures of this kingdom far surpass in amount and variety, those of any other nation that has ever existed; and form the most astonishing display of the fruits of human industry and skill. The vast numbers of people employed in them, give no adequate idea of their immense extent, as the great perfection to which labour-saving machinery is carried in England, enables one man to do the work of 150. The cotton manufacture would have required, half a century ago, 50,000,000 men, and the power now employed in it alone in Great Britain exceeds the manufacturing industry of all the rest of Europe collectively. The other most important branches are woollen, silk, linen, and hardware.

In the northern counties of England are great manufactures of broadcloth and every other kind of woollen goods, principally in the West Riding of Yorkshire, at Leeds, Wakefield, Bradford, Halifax, and Huddersfield. Sheffield has manufactures of cutlery and plated goods. Manchester, and its neighbourhood, is the great seat of the cotton manufacture.

In the midland counties, are the Cheshire manufactures of silk, cotton, linen,

iron, and china ware: the stocking manufactures of Nottingham; the woollen of Leicestershire; the pottery of Staffordshire; the hardware of Birmingham; the ribands of Coventry; the carpeting of Kidderminster; the broadcloth of Stroud. Flannels are the chief article of Welsh manufacture. In the southern counties are the cotton, paper, and blankets of Berkshire; the flannels of Salisbury; the cordage of Dorsetshire; the woollens of every sort in Devonshire; and every kind of goods, particularly the finer articles of upholstery, jewelry and every material of luxury, are manufactured in and about London.

The interior navigation of England is justly regarded as one of the prime sources of her prosperity. Till the middle of last century, the making of canals did not enter into the system of English economy. In 1755, was formed the Sankey canal, a line of twelve miles, to supply Liverpool with coal from the pits at St. Helen's. The example then set by the Duke of Bridgewater gave a general impulse to the nation. Since that time, upwards of 30,000,000l. sterling have been expended in this object. Twenty-one canals have been carried across the central chain of hills, by processes in which no cost has been spared; all the resources of art and genius have been employed; every obstacle, however formidable, which nature could present, has been vanquished. By locks, and by inclined planes, the vessels are conveyed up and down the most rugged steeps; they are even carried across navigable rivers by bridges. When other means fail, the engineer has cut through the heart of rocks and hills a subterraneous passage. Of these tunnels, as they are called, there are said to be forty-eight, the entire length of which is at least forty miles.

The canals, in total length, amount to more than 2600 miles. The longest extends from Liverpool on the Mersey, to Leeds on the Humber, 130 miles, affording a navigation for vessels of 30 tons completely across the island. It has 2 tunnels and many locks. The Grand Junction Canal extends from the neighbourhood of London, to the Oxford Canal; it is 93 miles long, and has 2 tunnels; one above a mile, and the other nearly 2 miles in length; it has 101 locks. The Grand Trunk is a part of the same communication; it is 93 miles in length, and has 4 tunnels, amounting to 2 miles. The Ashby de la Zouch Canal is 40 miles long, extending from the Coventry Canal to an iron railway. It has 2 tunnels, 2 aqueduct bridges, and an iron railway branching from it. The Bridgewater Canal is 40 miles in length, and extending from the Mersey, divides into 2 branches, one terminating at Manchester, and the other at Pennington. This, with the Trent and Mersey Canal, forms a communication of 70 miles; 16 miles of this canal are under ground among the mountains. Our limits will not permit us to give further details. The canals of England communicate with one another, and afford immense facilities for internal commerce.

Railways form another contrivance, by which the conveyance of goods is wonderfully facilitated, by causing the wheels to roll over a smooth surface of iron. Railways were at first used only on a small scale, chiefly in the coal-mines round Newcastle, for conveying the mineral from the interior to the surface, and thence to the place of shipping; and it is reckoned that round that city there is an extent of about three hundred miles of these railways. They were gradually employed on a greater scale, particularly in Wales, where the county of Glamorgan has one twenty-five miles long, and in all two hundred miles of railway. The railway between Manchester and Liverpool extends thirty-one miles, and is carried over sixty-three bridges, thirty of which pass over the turnpike road, and one over the river Irwell. The entire cost was about 820,000l.; but the intercourse has been so extensive as to afford an ample remuneration. The Cromford and High Peak railway is carried over the high mountainous district of Derbyshire, connecting the two canals which bear these names. Its length is thirty-three miles, carried over fifty bridges, and rising to a level of 992 feet above the Cromford Canal. The entire expense has not exceeded 180,0007.

The population of England in former times was imperfectly known, being calculated only from very vague surveys and estimates. In 1377 the results of a polltax were given as 2,300,000; but from the many evasions to which such a census would give rise, that number was probably below the truth. In the reign of Eliza

beth, during the alarm of a menaced Spanish invasion in 1575, a pretty careful survey was made, the result of which gave 4,500,000. At the time of the Revolution, the increase appeared to be about a million. From the commencement of the present century decennial enumerations have been made, of which the following are the results:

The national character of the English exhibits some very bold and marked features. Of these the most conspicuous is that love of liberty which pervades all classes. The liberty for which the English have successfully contended, includes the right of thinking, saying, writing, and doing most things which opinion may dictate, and inclination prompt. The knowledge that the highest offices and dignities in the state are accessible to all, redoubles their activity, and encourages them to perseverance. It is but little more than a century since they began to be distinguished as a manufacturing and commercial people, yet they have already outstripped other European nations in mechanical ingenuity, in industry, and in mercantile enterprise. The enormous increase of capital, and the substitution of machinery for human labour in most of their manufactures, seem likely at no distant period to produce a total change in the condition of British society.

The English are the most provident people in the world. More than a million of individuals are members of friendly societies, and the deposits in savings banks exceed 13,000,000l. The great extension of life insurances affords another proof of this laudable disposition. The English also deserve to be called a humane people, zealous, both from feeling and from principle, for the promotion of everything that tends to the welfare of their fellow-creatures. Crime in England has undergone a considerable change. Highway robbery, so prevalent towards the beginning and middle of last century, is now nearly unknown, and all sorts of crimes and violence have been materially lessened. On the other hand, there has been a very rapid increase, particularly within the last twenty years, of crimes against property. A material change has recently been effected in the criminal law of England, by the abolition of an immense number of capital punishments.

The institutions for public education in England are extensive and splendidly endowed. The two Universities of Oxford and Cambridge are not only the wealthiest, but the most ancient in Europe. The London University and King's College have been recently instituted. The schools of Eton, Westminster, St. Paul's, Winchester, Harrow, and Rugby, are nearly on the same scale as our colleges. There are multitudes of other schools, public and private, and in them all a long-continued, systematic, and thorough course of instruction is given. Though education at any of these institutions is expensive, yet so general is the conviction of its superior importance, that the children of all persons in tolerable circumstances are well educated. The children of the poorer classes, by means of Sunday schools and the efforts of their parents, are generally taught to read and write. Immense numbers of volumes, consisting of the works of the best English authors, are circulated in every part of the kingdom, in the form of weekly or monthly pamphlets, at a very cheap rate. Even the poorest mechanics and labourers are in the habit of spending a considerable part of their leisure in the perusal of these publications.

The Episcopal Protestant religion is that established by law, and the king is the head of the church. There are two archbishops, and twenty-four bishops, all of whom, except the Bishop of Sodor and Man, are pecrs of the realm, and have seats in the House of Lords. The Archbishop of Canterbury is called the Primate of all England, and his rank is that next below the royal family. The Archbishop of York is called the Primate of England. The bishops have some temporal authority, and the ecclesiastical jurisdiction extends to all questions of births, mar

riages, deaths, probate of wills, and delinquencies of the inferior clergy. Under the bishops, are the deans, prebendaries, archdeacons, rectors, priests, curates, and deacons. The churchwardens overlook the alms for the poor. The clergy of the established church are a learned and pious body, though many individuals there are in it, who have neither learning nor piety. The dissenters are a numerous body, and have many ministers of great learning and purity of mind. The dissenters are chiefly Methodists, Baptists, and Quakers. The Catholics are numerous, and have several colleges and convents.

England is divided into 40 counties.

The small islands attached to England are unimportant. Man, thirty miles in length by twelve in breadth, is nearly equidistant from each of the three kingdoms. It comprises a considerable extent of level territory; but rises in the interior into high mountains, among which Snowfell, nearly 2000 feet high, stands conspicuous. Man ranked long as an independent sovereignty, held by the Earls of Derby, and is celebrated for the gallant defence made by the countess of that name for Charles I. It descended afterwards to the Duke of Athol, from whom the sovereignty was purchased, in 1765, by the British government, with a view to the prevention of smuggling, and to the establishment of a free trade. The natives are a Celtic race. Castletown, the capital, is the neatest town in the island; and in its centre, Castle Ruthven, the ancient palace of the kings of Man, rears its gloomy and majestic brow. Douglas, however, as being the spot in which the whole trade circulates, is now of superior importance, and has attracted a great number of English settlers. The Scilly Isles, situated at some distance from the western extremity of Cornwall, are tenanted by 2000 poor inhabitants, who raise a little grain, but depend chiefly upon fishing, pilotage, and the making of kelp.

Jersey, Guernsey, and Alderney, with Sark, form a group naturally French, and originally part of the patrimony of the Norman kings, which the naval superiority of England has enabled her to retain. The climate is mild and agreeable, and the soil generally fertile. Jersey, the finest of the group, is so abundant in orchards, that cider forms the chief object of exportation. St. Helier, the capital of Jersey, is a handsome town.

London is the metropolis of the United Kingdom, the seat of legislation, of jurisprudence, and of government; it is the principal residence of the sovereign, at which affairs of state are transacted, and regulations maintained with foreign courts. It is the centre of all important operations, whether of commerce or finance, and of correspondence with every quarter of the globe. The City lies on both sides of the river Thames. It is seven miles long, five miles wide, and contains an area of about thirty square miles. More particularly it is considered under three divisions; the City proper, in the east; Westminster, in the west, and Southwark, on the south side of the river. The buildings are generally of brick. The streets in some parts are wide, and few are so narrow as not to admit two carriages abreast. At the west end, they are mostly straight, and sufficiently broad for five or six carriages. Here are the residences of the nobility and the rich. Regent street, in this quarter, is probably the most magnificent street in the world. In the City, or the central and oldest part, the streets are narrow and crooked, but here the great business of London is transacted. The east end is occupied by shops, victualling-houses, and people connected with commerce. Here are immense timber-yards, docks, and magazines.

London contains a great number of squares: the handsomest is Grosvenor Square, an area of six acres, and containing an equestrian statue of George II. The buildings around it are the most superb in London. The largest square is that called Lincoln's Inn Fields, which occupies a space just equal to that covered by the great pyramid of Egypt. The finest public walks are at the west end; Green Park, Hyde Park, St. James's Park, and Regent's Park, are beautiful fields and gardens, ornamented with trees; these are the resort of thousands who walk for exercise or pleasure. These parks are very extensive. Hyde Park contains 394 acres, and in the afternoon of Sunday is thronged by crowds of fashionable people who pour along the promenades, like the ebbing and flowing tide. In Regent's Park is an immense edifice called the Coliseum, in which may be seen