trance to the Mediterranean. The fortifications occupy a craggy rock, rising to the height of 1439 feet. The town consists of one long street, passing along the foot of the rock. The whole forms a peninsula, washed on one side by the Mediterranean, and on the other side by a bay, 5 miles in width. The rock is steep in every part, and so strongly fortified as to be impregnable. It was captured by the English, in 1704, and has been retained by them ever since. It was besieged in 1782, by a French and Spanish army of 30,000 men, and bombarded by floating batteries, but without effect. The British regard it as one of their most important possessions. The town is a general mart for goods from every quarter, and has a population of 12,000, mostly English.

REPUBLIC OF ANDORRA.

THIS little republic, with a territory of hardly 200 square miles, and a population of about 15,000 souls, occupies a valley on the southern side of the Pyrenees, situated between the Maladetta and the Moncal, and lying between Foix in France and Urgel in Spain. Beside Andorra, the capital, a town of 2000 inhabitants, it contains five villages, which export iron and timber. It is governed by a syndic, who presides over the council of the valley, and by two viguiers, appointed, the one by the king of France, and the other by the bishop of Urgel.

PORTUGAL.

PORTUGAL has by political causes alone been separated from Spain. There is no physical peculiarity by which the two kingdoms are distinguished. On the contrary, all the grand natural features of Spain are prolonged into Portugal, and become Portuguese.

The boundaries of Portugal are the Atlantic Ocean on the west throughout its whole extent, and also on the south; on the north the Spanish kingdom of Galicia; and on the east those of Estremadura and Leon. The greatest dimension is from north to south, or from 37° to 42° 10′ north latitude, and it extends from 6° 15′ to 9° 30′ west longitude. Its surface is 38,800 square miles.

The mountains of Portugal may be considered as prolongations of those of Spain, chiefly of the chains of Guadarrama and Toledo, and those in the north of Galicia. Those ranges, seldom rising to the first magnitude, cover almost the whole country, leaving between them many picturesque and fertile valleys. There are only two extensive plains, one on the south of the Tagus, and the other between the Mondego and the Douro.

The rivers of Portugal consist chiefly of the spacious terminations of the greatest streams of Spain in their progress to the Ocean. The Douro forms the great maritime emporium of Oporto, and the Tagus that of Lisbon. The Guadiana, also, in its lower course, flows along the eastern frontier of Portugal. The Minho, a much smaller stream, comes down from Galicia; and the Mondego, alone, is entirely Portuguese, flowing nearly across the breadth of the kingdom. Portugal, after the downfall of the feudal system, and especially after her subjection to Philip II. became one of the most absolute of European governments. The Marquis of Pombal and one or two more enlightened men found their way into the ministry; but, in general, measures were as ill conducted as possible, and corruption prevailed in every department of the state. The course of justice was equally polluted; and, no adequate salaries being allowed to the judges, they were under an almost irresistible temptation to accept bribes. The pride of the nobles was nearly as great as in Spain, without being accompanied by the same lofty sentiments. They are divided into two branches, the titulados and the hidalgos, and have held the peasantry in a subjection little short of slavery.

The army of Portugal, prior to the revolution, though composed nominally of 30,000 men, was in a most inefficient state, not through want of physical courage or discipline in the men, but from the incapacity of the officers, and the general defects of the military system. When the French, however, had been driven out of Portugal, an army of 40,000 men was levied, and disciplined by British officers, under the superintendence of Lord Beresford; and thus prepared, the Portuguese acted, during the eventful war which followed, in a manner that would not have disgraced any troops in Europe. The army is still maintained; and though the new government will not brook British command, yet, under its influence, Portuguese officers of merit have been formed.

The navy, which was never considerable, was carried out with the royal family to Brazil, and has never been restored.

The industry and commerce of Portugal, which presented so brilliant an aspect during her era of prosperity, have sunk lower than those of almost any other European nation.

Agriculture did not, until very lately, experience any of the improvements which have become general in the rest of Europe. The chief object of attention is the vine, which, with the olive and other fruit trees, is cultivated with the utmost diligence in the valleys and on the sides of the hills, in the northern parts of the kingdom. Here is produced abundantly the port wine, which forms the main basis of Portuguese trade, and finds so copious a market in Britain. The entire produce is estimated at 80,000 pipes. Of white wine Portugal produces about 60,000 pipes; but this is of inferior quality, and chiefly consumed at home. Sheep are bred on the hills, to a pretty large extent; but not so abundantly as in Spain, neither is their wool so fine.

The manufactures of Portugal scarcely deserve to be named. Little is known beyond the working of their wool for domestic use by each family or neighbourhood; all their finer fabrics are imported. Ignorance, or at least an imperfect knowledge of the commonest arts, is conspicuous among the Portuguese. Their carpentry and carriages of all kinds, their agricultural implements, locks, keys, &c. are ludicrously bad. Working in gold and silver plate, forms almost the only exception; cambrics also are well made in some places; and a few other local objects might be enumerated. Of mines and fisheries, the former is not at all cultivated. Fish of the finest kinds, particularly tunny and sardinias, are caught in considerable quantity for immediate consumption; but the salt which the kingdom so abundantly produces is not used for preserving them; and a large import of salted fish is still necessary to meet the wants of a population so rigidly Catholic.

The commerce, which formed the greatness of Portugal, when her ports interchanged the products of the East and the West, is now a mere shadow. The loss of her Indian possessions, and the separation of Brazil, have reduced her to the common routine of export and import. The staple of the former is port wine, for which the market of England was secured first by favouring duties, and now seemingly by an established predilection. The wine is raised almost solely for the English market, and all of the best quality is bought up by English merchants residing at Oporto.

Another staple export of Portugal is salt, evaporated by the heat of the sun in the bay of St. Ubes, which seems as if expressly formed for that purpose. It is carried off chiefly by the English, to be employed in curing fish destined for the Portuguese market: the annual amount is estimated at 100,000 tons. There is also a considerable surplus of wool, of which 1,000,000 lbs. weight have been imported into England in one year. In return, Portugal takes grain, salt fish, and a variety of manufactures chiefly from Britain; but as her imports cannot much exceed the exports, she cannot afford a very copious market.

The established and exclusive religion is the Catholic, in its extreme and most degrading excess; and the body of the people are almost entirely under the thraldom of the priesthood. There were in Portugal about 550 religious houses, of which, 150 are nunneries, all of which were suppressed in 1834. Education is

in the lowest state. The task of teaching is imposed upon the monks, who are themselves grievously ignorant, and whose interest it is to keep others so.

Portugal has two universities. That of Coimbra, founded at Lisbon in 1290, was transferred to Coimbra in 1308. It enjoys some celebrity, is divided into eighteen colleges, and is still attended by several hundred students; but the course of study is of that obsolete description which prevailed during the middle ages. A smaller university was founded at Evora in 1578. The arts have hardly an existence in Portugal, and science and literature are much circumscribed. The literature consists chiefly in poetry, and excludes all philosophy. The very Latin partakes of the state of knowledge. That of the monks is unintelligible to the learned. Little has been done in Portugal for the mathematics, though something has been effected for geography, natural history, and botany. The music is simple and sweet, and it is chiefly confined to songs. All the best foreign works are prohibited, and everything published is subjected to a strict censorship. The literature of Portugal, during the period of its glory, was by no means contemptible. The genius and fate of Camoens spread his name throughout Europe, and entitled him to rank among the few modern epic poets.

No nation, as to character, owes less to the opinion of the world, than the Portuguese. They are described as indolent, dissembling, cowardly, destitute of public spirit, and at the same time fierce and deeply revengeful. In Spain it is said, strip a Spaniard of his virtues, and he becomes a good Portuguese. The peasantry, however, on repeated occasions during the late war, displayed energies not unworthy of their ancestors, in an age when their glory resounded throughout both hemispheres.

The population of Portugal, according to the more probable estimates, amounts to 3,530,000. Upon a surface of 38,800 square miles, this gives a density of about ninety-one to the square mile, which is remarkable, as exceeding that of Spain nearly in the proportion of three to two.

Portugal is divided into six provinces, several of which, like those of Spain in reference to events in their past history, are sometimes called kingdoms.

The foreign possessions of Portugal are the Azore, Madeira, and Cape Verde Islands; Congo, Angola, Benguela, and Mozambique, in Africa; Goa and Macao, in Asia; and Timor, in Malaysia. The population of these is estimated at 1,632,000: in Africa, 1,057,000; in Asia, 575,000: total of the Portuguese monarchy, 5,162,000.

Lisbon, the capital, stands on the north bank of the Tagus, 10 miles from its mouth. It rises gradually from the water, and makes a magnificent appearance from without. The harbour, formed by the expansion of the river, is nine miles wide, and is one of the finest havens in the world. The interior of the city disappoints the expectation created by the first view. It is ill-built, with dirty, narrow, and crooked streets, yet some parts of modern construction are not wanting in elegance. There are thirteen large squares, the finest of which is the Praça do Commercio; this is fronted by elegant buildings, and bordered toward the river by the handsomest quays in Europe. In the centre is an equestrian statue of Joseph I. The cathedral is magnificent, and remarkable for the boldness of its dome. The Royal Hospital is an excellent institution, and there is a large foundling hospital. Lisbon has also three observatories, many colleges and academies, 180 churches and chapels, 75 convents, and a royal library of 80,000 volumes. But the most remarkable edifice which it contains is the aqueduct of Bemfica. It is 10 miles in length; some of its arches are 200 feet high and 100 feet wide. Altogether this is one of the most magnificent structures that have been erected in modern times, and is not inferior to any ancient work of the same kind. There are three royal palaces in Lisbon and the neighbourhood, and around the city are between six and seven thousand quintas, or country-houses. Population, 260,000. Oporto, or Porto, the ancient capital, and still the second city of the kingdom, is situated near the mouth of the Douro, on the northern bank, though on the southern are two extensive suburbs, supposed to have constituted the ancient city. The modern town is well-built, especially when compared with most others in the peninsula.

THE Empire of Austria is not only the first power in Germany, but by its possessions, both within and without, has long ranked among the foremost States in the general system of Europe. Nearly one half of its territories are in Germany, the residue comprise Hungary, with its appendages, Galicia, formerly a part of Poland, and the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom in Italy, together with Dalmatia, once a part of the territory belonging to the Republic of Venice. The Austrian monarchy is bounded on the east by Turkey and Russia; on the north by Prussia and Saxony; on the west chiefly by Bavaria, Switzerland, and Sardinia; and on the south by Tuscany and the States of the Church. The whole territory amounts to 258,000 square miles. The face of the country is various: Styria, the Tyrol, and Illyria, are mountainous; Bohemia and Moravia are encompassed by mountains. The Carpathian range extends along the north-east of Hungary. A large portion of the soil is fertile, especially in Lombardy and Hungary.

The Danube runs, throughout its whole extent, mostly from east to west. The other principal rivers are the Dniester, Teisse, Save, Drave, Inn, Po, and Adige. The lakes are the Platten-see and Neusidler-see, in Hungary; Traun-see and Atter-see, in Austria Proper; Cirknitz, in Carinthia; and Garda and Como, in Lombardy.

The Austrian territories abound in various articles, both of necessity and luxury; corn, wine, saffron, cattle, horses, gold, mercury, copper, iron, lead, precious stones, &c., are among her exports. The manufactures consist of thread, cotton, linen, lace, silk-stuffs, stockings, spirituous liquors, wrought-iron, steel and brass; glass, porcelain, earthenware, &c. The imports consist mostly of raw materials, as wool, cotton, raw-silk, rice, oil, drugs, and spiceries; a great part of which come from the Levant. The foreign trade is, in a great measure, in the hands of Greek merchants.

The established religion is the Roman Catholic, but general toleration is granted; and members of the Protestant and Greek churches are numerous in Hungary, Transylvania, and Sclavonia, where they enjoy considerable privileges.

103 smaller vessels, 17 steam vessels, numerous armed transports, &c. The French navy is now in a high state of efficiency, and is rapidly increasing.

Until the revolution of 1830, the Roman Catholic was the established religion, but no one sect has now any advantage over another. There are 5 cardinals, all of whom have 30,000 francs a year, except the Archbishop of Paris, who has 100,000; 14 archbishops, who receive (except those who are cardinals) 25,000 francs a year; and also 66 bishops, with salaries of 15,000 francs each; beside a vast number of ecclesiastics of various grades, amounting in number to 36,649. There are 1983 religious establishments, which contain 19,340 women. The Catholic church costs the government annually 40,000,000 francs; and the Protestant, 676,000 francs. The Protestants in France amount to 2,000,000, and in Paris to 30,000. They have 96 consistories, 438 churches, and 305 pastors.

Before the revolution there were 23 universities in France; in that grand convulsion education was suspended, but its establishments have since been reinstated in a different form. The lycées, now called royal colleges, are 36 in number. The name of university is now confined to Paris; but the provincial establishments, bearing the name of academies, are constituted like the universities of other countries. The Protestants have two seminaries for studying divinity at Strasburg and Montauban. In 1833, the number of schools of different kinds amounted to 34,828, attended by 2,799,000 pupils between the ages of 2 and 15 years, out of 7,731,785, the whole number in France between those ages; all these establishments are under the patronage and control of government, which grants annually about 5,000,000 francs for their support.

The French excel in chemistry, mathematics, astronomy, and belles lettres. Literary associations are very numerous, at the head of which stands the Institute in Paris, the most celebrated scientific body in the world. Every provincial town of consequence has its public library, a museum, and in general a society for promoting literature and the arts. There are 273 such libraries in France; of which 193 contain 3,345,287 volumes; of these 1,125,347 are in Paris.

The French language is derived from the Latin. It is esteemed of all languages the most polished, the best adapted to conversation, and the most generally diffused among the nations of Europe. The people of France are active, brave, and ingenious; they are polished and gay in their deportment and manners; and politeness and urbanity may be traced through all classes of society, from the highest to the lowest; those in the upper ranks are very attentive to the graceful accomplishments, and excel in dancing, fencing, &c., and their example is followed as much as possible by their inferiors. The women take an active part in all the concerns and business of life at court they are politicians; in the city they are merchants, accountants, and shopkeepers; and in the country they labour on the farms with the men. The local divisions of France, prior to the revolution, were provinces, 32 in number, most of which had formed independent States, and even little kingdoms, when they merged into the mass of the French monarchy. The National Assembly, however, superseded this division by one into departments, much more minute, the number of which, including Corsica, is 86; this arrangement has been retained by the Bourbons, and is the basis of all administrative operations. The population of France, in 1780, was estimated at 24,800,000; in 1817, 29,000,000; and at the present time about 32,500,000.

The colonies of France are, in North America, the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon; in the West Indies, Guadalupe, Martinico, Marie, Galante, Les Saints, La Desirade, and St. Martins; in South America, Cayenne; in Africa, Algiers, Senegal, Goree, Albreda, and the Isle of Bourbon; in Asia, Pondicherry and Karikal on the Coromandel coast; Chandernagore, in Bengal; and Mahe, on the Malabar coast. The population of the colonies is estimated at 2,285,000, which, added to the population of France, makes a total for the subjects of the French monarchy of 34,785,000.