It is impossible to consider Lord North a great statesman, but he was a most good-tempered and humorous member of the House of Commons. In a time of unexampled party feeling he won the esteem and almost the love of his most bitter opponents. Burke finely sums up his character in his Letter to a Noble Lord·. “ He was a man of admirable parts, of general knowledge, of a versatile understanding, fitted for every sort of business; of infinite wit and pleasantry, of a delightful temper, and with a mind most disinterested. But it would be only to degrade mvself,” he continues, “by a weak adulation, and not to honour the memory of a great man, to deny that he wanted something of the vigilance and spirit of command which the times required.”

For Lord North's administration, by far the best authority is The Correspondence of George III. with. Lord North, edited by W. Bodham Downe, 2 vols., 1867. The histories of the period may also be consulted, particularly Lord Mahon’s History of England from 1713 to 1783, Sir T. E. May’s Constitutional History of England from the reign of George III., and Lord Brougham’s admirable sketch in his Statesmen of the Reign of George III.

NORTH, Sir Dudley (1641-1691), political economist, was third son of Dudley, fourth Lord North, wdιo published, besides other things, Passages relating to the Long Parliament, of which he had himself been a member. He was born 16th May 1641. In his early years he was carried off by Gipsies and recovered with some difficulty by his family,—an incident curiously similar to that which befell Adam Smith in his infancy. He entered the mercantile profession, engaged in foreign trade, especially with Turkey, and spent a number of years at Constantinople and Smyrna. Some notices of the manners and customs of the East were printed from his papers by his brother. Having returned to London with a considerable fortune, he continued to prosecute trade with the Levant. His ability and knowledge of commerce attracted the attention of the Government, and he was further recommended by the influence of his brother Lord Guilford. During the Tory reaction under Charles II. he was a pliant instrument in the hands of the court, and was one of the sheriffs forced on the city of London with an express view to securing verdicts for the crown in the state trials of the period. He obtained the honour of knighthood, and was appointed a commissioner of customs, afterwards of the treasury, and again of the customs. Having been elected a member of parliament under James II., “he took,” says Roger North, “the place of manager for the crown in all matters of revenue.” After the Revolution he was called to account for his alleged unconstitutional proceedings in his office of sheriff, and did not show much highmindedness in his defence. He died 31st December 1691.

The work by which he has obtained an honourable place in the history of political economy is his Discourses upon Trade, principally directed to the cases of the interest, coinage, clipping and increase of money. This tract was published anonymously in 1691. It is supposed that for some unknown reason it was suppressed soon after its appearance; however this may be, it became very scarce, so that, in his brother’s words, “it hath been ever since utterly sunk, and a copy not to be had for money.” It does not seem to have been much noticed on its publication, or used by subsequent writers. A copy was purchased at the sale of the Rev. Rogers Ruding, author of a work on the coinage, and from this a gentleman of Edinburgh printed some copies for distribution. Other copies of the original impression were afterwards discovered, and from them J. R. M i Culloch edited the tract in the Select Collection of Early English Tracts on Commerce printed by the Political Economy Club of London in 1856. North is named by Roscher as one of that “great triumvirate” which in the 17th century raised the English school of economists to the foremost place in Europe, the other members of the group being Locke and Petty. His tract, Roscher further remarks, reads like a chapter of the Wealth of Nations. It does, indeed, in a very remarkable manner anticipate the doctrines of Adam Smith and the later free-trade school. Its author was quite free from the errors and prejudices of the mercantilism which was dominant in his day, and which had misled on some subjects even so able a writer as Child, against whom, though without naming him, North’s arguments on the legal limitation of the rate of interest appear to be in part directed. At the end of the preface to the Discourses are brought together a number of propositions, embodying the author’s views, which he announces as “paradoxes, no less strange to most men than true in themselves.” They are so remarkable for the time at which they appeared, more than eighty years before Smith’s great work, that they deserve to be quoted in full.

‘ * That the whole world as to trade is but as one nation or people, and therein nations are as persons. That the loss of a trade with one nation is not that only, separately considered, but so much of the trade of the world rescinded and lost, for all is combined together. That there can be no trade unprofitable to the public, for, if any prove so, men leave it off; and wherever the traders thrive, the public, of which they are a part, thrive also. That to force men to deal in any prescribed manner may profit such as happen to serve them; but the public gains not, because it is taking from one subject to give to another. That no laws can set prices in trade, the rates of which must and will make themselves; but, when such laws do happen to lay any hold, it is so much impediment to trade, and therefore prejudicial. That money is a merchandise, whereof there may be a glut as well as a scarcity, and that even to an inconvenience. That a people cannot want money to serve the ordinary dealing, and more than enough they will not have. That no man shall be the richer for the making much money, nor have any part of it, but as he buys it for an equivalent price. That the free coinage is a perpetual motion found out whereby to melt and coin without ceasing, and so to feed goldsmiths and coiners at the public charge. That debasing the coin is defrauding one another, and to the public there is no sort of advantage from it, for that admits no character, or value, but intrinsic. That the sinking money by alloy or weight is all one. That exchange and ready money are the same, nothing but carriage and re-carriage being saved. That money exported in trade is an increase to the wealth of the nation, but spent in war and payments abroad is so much impoverishment. In short, that all favour to one trade or interest against another is an abuse, and cuts so much of profit from the public.” The tract closes with these weighty words: “No people ever yet grew rich by policies; but it is peace, industry, and freedom that bring trade and wealth, and nothing else.”

NORTH, Roger (1650-1733), in writing his Examen of Rennet’s History of England, and the “Lives” of his brothers, Lord Keeper Guilford, Sir Dudley North, and John, master of Trinity College, Cambridge, became one of the original authorities for the political and social history of the reigns of Charles II. and James II. He was a weak man, a humble worshipper of his elder brothers, and especially of the lord keeper, by whose politic energy the family of North had been raised from a very decayed condition; but the simplicity of his prejudices and the laborious minuteness of his details, notwithstanding the forensic pedantry of his style, give his writings some value. Whatever his great brother did he thought both right and noteworthy; hence he is a useful contributor to the moral history of the period.

NORTH, Sir Thomas, son of Edward North, first Baron North of Kirtling, is memorable as the author of the English version of Plutarch’s Lives that supplied Shakespeare with materials for his classical plays. Materials for a biographical notice are extremely scanty; and neither the exact date of his birth nor that of his death is known. His literary career was long, for he was living in decayed old age in 1603 when a third edition of his Plutarch was published, with a supplement of other translated biographies. His first appearance in literature was in 1557, when Wayland published for him a translation of Guevara’s Diall of Princes, a compendium of moral counsels pleasantly interwoven with incidents in the life of Marcus Aurelius. The English of this work is one of the earliest specimens of the more ornate, copious, and pointed style for which educated young Englishmen had acquired a taste in their Continental travels and studies, and which such fashionable tutors as Ascham and Wilson inculcated by both precept and example. North translated from a French copy of Guevara. The first edition of his Plutarch, translated from the French of Amyot, appeared in 1579.

These two bounding chains are connected by many north and south cross-chains, of equal elevation with themselves, or greater, and separated by deep valleys. On one of these cross-chains, called the Black Mountains, is Mitchell’s Peak, the highest point east of the Mississippi, its altitude being 6688 feet (400 feet above Mount Washington in New Hampshire). The cross-valleys or river-basins have an altitude of from 2000 to 3000 feet, with smaller benches and marginal plateaus of from 3500 to 4000 feet. Seen from the east or Atlantic side, the Blue Ridge appears as a steep, ragged, and broken escarpment, springing suddenly 2000 to 3000 feet above the Piedmont plateau at its base. This plateau has along its western margin an altitude of 1200 to 1500 feet above sea-level, and is mountainous, with high and precipitous spurs projected eastward and southward from the Blue Ridge. A few of these extend in irregular straggling ranges all across the breadth of the Piedmont section, which is 60 to 75 miles wide, and carries an elevation of 1000 feet to its eastern margin.

This middle region of the State is a country of hills and valleys and rolling uplands, its prominent topographical features being a succession of broad-backed swells with eastward or south-eastward trends, constituting the watersheds between a number of large rivers, which take their rise in the Piedmont or on the flanks of the Blue Ridge, and reach the Atlantic through a system of wide valleys, 300 to 500 feet below the intervening divides. The area of this region is about 20,000 square miles; its altitude, descending gradually from 1000 to about 200 feet, averages about 650 feet. Eastward, to the sea, lies a great champaign, 100 to 120 miles wide, and 20,000 square miles in area. The surface is generally quite level, but in places undulating and hilly towards the western border, especially near the larger rivers. Towards the coast it is diversified by numerous and extensive sounds, bays, rivers, lakes, marshes, swamps, and islands, the whole surface for 50 miles inland from Hatteras and the eastern shore being less than 20 feet above sea-level. The sea is walled off from this low-lying territory by a long linear chain of sandislands or dunes, ranging from 75 to 100 feet and upwards in height, and separated in half a score places by inlets which connect the sounds with the ocean.

Rivers and Drainage.— The features above described give the main outlines of the drainage system, the Blue Ridge being obviously the chief factor. The streams which rise east of that chain empty into the Atlantic, either directly through the territory of this State or by crossing also that of South Carolina; those which rise west of it seek the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico, partly by way of the Tennessee, many of whose chief affluents have cut their way in a north-westerly course across the mountain plateau and through the Smoky range, and partly by way of the Ohio, leaving the plateau in a north-easterly direction and reaching that river by the Kanawha through Virginia. Several of the most considerable rivers take their rise in the midland region. The numerous rivers of the eastern section, as they approach the sounds and the sea, broaden into bays of 2, 3, and 5 miles width, through which the movement of the tide is felt to a distance of 50 and 60 miles inland, and many of them are navigable for more than a hundred miles to the lower falls near the western border of the alluvial region.

Climate.— In climate North Carolina resembles France and Italy. The position of the eastern end on the Atlantic and its projection southward beyond the parallel of 34°, together with the near approach of the Gulf Stream, give this part of the State a sub-tropical climate, its isotherm (66°) being that of the southern half of the Gulf States and of Nicolosi in Sicily, while the great elevation and inland recession of the western section bring its climate to that of the cold temperate zone, the isotherm for the higher plateaus (51°) being that of New England and Upper Canada. The average annual mean temperature of the State is 59°; for the eastern region it is 61°, for the middle 58°, and for the mountainous region 52°. The summer temperature is, for the State 77°, and for the several regions respectively 79°, 77°, 70°; and the winter temperature, 43° for the State, and for the regions named 46°, 44°, 38°. During a recent winter of unusual severity the thermometer several times indicated 30° and 40° below zero in Michigan and New England, while in North Carolina 10° above zero was reached but once. The average of the minimum temperature for the State is 15°, for the middle region 13°, and for the west 8°; a record of 10° is rarely made east of the Blue Ridge, or of 0° west of it. The mean annual rainfall is nearly double that of England and France, the average for the State being 52 inches, and for the east, middle, and west respectively 60, 45, 58 inches. This precipitation is distributed nearly uniformly through the different seasons, with a slight preponderance in the amount of summer rain and a correspondingly less quantity in the autumn. Notwithstanding this large amount of rainfall, the tables of humidity show that the climate is as dry as that of France; and the cultivation of the vine, cotton, silk, <kc., furnishes the strongest practical proof of the fact. The prevalent winds are westerly, south-west winds being more common in the east, north-west winds in the middle, and west winds in the mountain region. The rain-bearing winds are mostly from the west and south-west, but the winter rains often come from the north-east. Situated westward of the track of the Atlantic cyclones, and sheltered by high mountains and by distance from the western tornado, the State enjoys almost complete immunity from these destructive visitations. The climate is favourable to human health, except in limited malarial tracts in the lowlands on some of the rivers. The death-rate for this State is less than the average for the United States, and one of the two areas where consumption is unknown is found here.

Geology.— The geological structure of the State is very simple; the formations are arranged quite regularly in zones parallel to the Appalachian axis and the Atlantic coast, and belong almost entirely to two horizons, the Archaean (or Azoic) and the Tertiary. The rocks of the several subdivisions of the former, the Laurentian, Montalban, Huronian, t fcc., occupy the western and middle regions and succeed each other in broad terranes, consisting of granites, gneisses, and schists, separated by narrow belts of quartzites, limestones, sandstones, and slates. The dip of these rocks is almost uniformly eastward and generally at a high angle. Across the middle of the State lies an extensive zone, 20 to 40 miles wide, of the Archaean slates, with a predominance of chlorite and felsite slates, schists, clay slates, and shales, with steep westerly dips. This is succeeded in the region of Raleigh by another terrane of gneisses and schists about 20 miles wide, inclined eastward at high angles and disappearing southward and eastward under the Tertiary formation, and giving place in turn, farther eastward, to an equal breadth of slates and felsites, (with occasional bosses of granite), which are only seen where they have been uncovered in the beds and bluffs of the larger rivers. The whole eastern region is mantled over with a thin covering of Tertiary rocks. These consist of sands, gravels, and clays, and of shingle beds and earths rudely stratified, towards the western border. The thickness of this formation ranges from a few feet to 25 and 50 feet, occasionally reaching 100 and 200 feet. Throughout the eastern and larger part of the division, in the ravines and in the beds and banks of the streams, are numerous outcrops of Middle Tertiary marls, Lower Tertiary shell-limestones, and coarse chalk beds. And in the southern half of this section, in the river beds and near the water-line of their banks, the Cretaceous formation appears in beds of half-compacted greensand, occasionally filled with shells. Overlying the Tertiary are sporadic patches of Quaternary clays, gravels, and shingle beds, the latter chiefly near the great channel ways of the rivers, where they sometimes reach a thickness of 30 and 50 feet. The Mesozoic formation is represented by two long narrow trough-like terranes of Triassic sandstones, conglomerates, clay slates, and shales, with bituminous coal. One of these, 5 to 6 miles wide with a south-easterly dip of 10° to 20°, enters the State from South Carolina a few miles west of the Pedee river and, passing within 10 miles (west) of Raleigh, disappears within 15 miles of the Virginia line; the other, about 40 miles long and 2 to 4 miles wide, lies along the valley of the Dan river, nearly east and west in direction and near the Virginia line. These beds have a north-westerly dip of 30° to 70°. The rocks of these two belts have a thickness of several thousand feet and are evidently the remnant fringes of a broad, flat anticlinal which has suffered extensive erosion. These two outcrops converge in the direction of the Richmond coal-beds, and were no doubt once continuous with them and with the Mesozoic of New Jersey and Connecticut. The former of these belts carries a 6-foot seam of bituminous, the other a 3-foot seam of semi-bituminous coal. Both are of good quality, but have been little worked. The Palaeozoic rocks are entirely wanting, and the Primordial cross the State line from Tennessee only in a few places along the Smoky Mountains.

Minerals.— In consequence of the wide distribution of the older rocks there is a notable abundance and variety of minerals. More than 180 species have been discovered, some of great rarity; and one of them has recently yielded to science two new metallic chemical elements. Nearly a score different species of gems have been found, including the diamond, ruby, sapphire, emerald, beryl, lazulite, amethyst, garnet, agate, and zircon. There occur also many minerals having special applications in the useful arts, viz., mica, corundum, asbestos, baryte, chromic iron, garnet, zircon, kaolin, black oxide of manganese, talc, pyrophyllite, &c. Mica is found in large veins or dykes in all the terranes of Montalban gneisses, but the most extensive and valuable mines are found in the mountain region, where workable veins are numerous and extensive and the sheets of mica of unusual size and excellence. Corundum is about as widely distributed as mica, and occurs in the same series of rocks, as well as in some of the slate belts. The chief sources of supply of both corundum and mica for the arts, in the United States and in Europe, are the deposits of the mountains of this State. In this region are also numerous beds of white and variously-coloured marbles. Building stones of every variety are found in nearly all the sections, and whetstone, millstone, and grindstone grits, as well as potter’s clay and fireclay; and in the seaboard section are immense beds of peat. Iron, copper, and gold ores are coextensive with the outcrops of the metamorphic rocks. Several parallel ranges of magnetic and haematite iron-ore beds cross the State in a north-east direction, in both the middle and the mountain regions. These ores are of a high grade and are in great demand at the Bessemer furnaces in Pennsylvania and elsewhere. Beds of limonite are numerous and extensive in all parts of the State. Blackband ore is associated with the coal, and spathic ore occurs as the gangue of several copper and gold mines in the middle region. Iron for domestic consumption has been manufactured for a hundred years in the middle region and half as long in the other sections. Gold occurs in both placers and veins from Halifax county on the upper margin of the eastern champaign, within 110 miles of the sea-coast, through all the intermediate sections to Cherokee county in the extreme south-west. The more extensive and productive deposits are found in the midland region in the southern half of the great slate belt, and in the central part of the Piedmont region among the foot hills and spurs of the mountains. These placers consist of coarse shingle in the beds of the streams and the bordering level bottoms; climbing the slopes and benches of the hills adjacent, they pass insensibly from half-stratified shingle, gravel, and sand beds into unstratified earths with mingled fragments of stone. These deposits cover several hundred square miles of territory, and are of Quaternary or more recent age. Compared with those of California, they are of very slight thickness, generally not above 5 or 10 to 20 feet, and only occasionally reaching 40 and 50 feet. The most important and valuable vein mines are also found in the midland region. One cf these, the Gold Hill mine near Salisbury, has been wrought to a depth of 750 feet, and its total produce exceeds two million dollars of bullion. In the same section are several noted silver mines,— Silver Hill, Silver Valley, and others. Many of the gold veins of the midland region carry also copper ores, and there are numerous copper veins in various parts of the middle and western regions. The more common ore is chalcopyrite, but there are also important lodes of grey copper.

Soils.— The soils of the eastern region are transported sands, gravels, and clays, of Tertiary and Quaternary origin, the assorted detritus of the abraded hills of the metamorphic rocks in the midland country to the westward. The upland soils of the region (the common characteristic cotton soils} are generally sands and loams of moderate fertility, with here and there considerable areas in long narrow ridges or oval patches called pine barrens, that are very sandy and sterile. Between these, on the benches and lower levels, stretch wide and fertile alluvial tracts, especially along the borders of the streams and the shores of the sounds and bays. On the flattish swells between the lower reaches of the great bay-like rivers and around the margins of the lakes, as well as along the borders of many of the creeks, are extensive tracts of swampy lands with a black peaty soil of great depth and inexhaustible fertility. These soils resemble those of the prairies of the north-western States, but contain a larger percentage of organic matter, and are more productive and more durable, producing 50 to 60 bushels of corn (maize) to the acre for a hundred years in succession without rotation and without manure. In the middle and western regions of the State the soils are of every variety of texture and composition and of every grade of fertility. They may be generally described as clayey, sandy, and gravelly loams; but there is a considerable proportion of clay soils, not only in the alluvions of the numerous creek and river bottoms, which are commonly of this description, but on the uplands as well; these are the more productive and durable. There are no prairie lands in the State, and the highest and ruggedest mountains are covered with soil and forests to their summits.

Forests. — The whole area of the State was originally forest-covered, and about two-thirds of it is still in the primitive condition, except that the woods are much denser in consequence of the cessation of the annual burnings by which the Indians kept down the brush and preserved them in an open park-like condition. The great variety of soils, together with the wide range of climate, gives rise to a remarkably rich and varied flora. While the higher mountains of the western section are covered with forests of spruces and firs and other trees common to Canada and the lake States, the seaboard section borrows from the Gulf States their live oak and long-leaf pine, their magnolias and palmettos. Of twenty-two species of oak found in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains, nineteen occur here; of eight pines, all are found in one section or another; of five maples, all; of nine hickories, six; of seven magnolias, all; of five birches, three; and so on. And nearly every one of the twenty kinds of timber used in New York shipyards is found here. There are three well-marked and broadly-distinguished forest regions in the State, corresponding to the three geographical divisions. Pines, chiefly the species australis and taeda, constitute the characteristic feature of the eastern forests, giving place in the lower swampy tracts, especially in the seaboard section, to the cypress and juniper. Oaks predominate in the middle and western regions, but the mountain forests contain oak, chestnut, hemlock, and white pine. The oaks, however, are also found in some of their species as a subordinate constituent of the forests throughout the eastern region, and several species of pine (chiefly P. mitis) are frequently mingled with the oaks to the western extremity of the State. The chestnut (Castanea vesca) is very abundant, and, reaching a diameter of 8 to 10 feet and a height of 80 and 100 feet, often constitutes extensive forests throughout the mountains. The poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera) is found in all the sections, but is most abundant in the western, where it equals the chestnut in dimensions. Hickories are distributed throughout the State wherever the soil is above average quality. This timber exceeds all the others in weight and strength. The total number of species of trees found in the State is 112, and there are just twice as many of shrubs, many of them 20 feet and upwards in height, which together give these forests everywhere an aspect of wonderful richness and variety, “comparingfavourably with almost any portion of the tropics.” Among the trees are many valuable and popular cabinet woods, such as the walnut, holly, cherry, ash, cedar, birds-eye-maple, sycamore, Ac. These forests are rapidly increasing in value as those of the northern States disappear and as the demand for timber increases.

Population.— In 1790, at the first United States census, the population was 390,000. In 1860, the year before the beginning of the Civil War, it had risen to 992,622, of whom 361,522 were coloured. In 1870 it was 1,071,361, an increase during this decade of less than 8 per cent. In 1880 it was 1,399,750 (531,277 coloured, and 1230 Indians). The foreign-born population numbered but 3742. The increase during the ten years 1870-80 was 30 , 6per cent.; the number of persons to the square mile was 29. The people of this State are among the most rural in the United States. The largest city does not contain 20,000 people, and only four exceed 4000, viz., Wilmington, 17,350; Raleigh, 9265; Charlotte, 7094; New-Berne, 6443.

Industries.— Agricultural pursuits engage three-fourths of the inhabitants, cotton and rice being staple products of the east, and hay, live stock, buckwheat, and other north-temperate zone products, of the mountain region; in one section or another may be found every agricultural product grown between the great lakes and the Gulf, except the orange. Indian corn occupies the largest...

The North Sea lies between the parallels of 51° and 61° N. lat. and 2° 30' W. and 8° E. long., its greatest length being about 600 miles, its breadth (from St Abb’s Head to the shores of Denmark) 360 miles, and its area about 140,000 square miles. It may be said to be without islands if we except the Orkneys, the Shetlands, and those islands which are situated along the coasts. Its coasts present considerable variety in appearance and geological formation. Scandinavia, composed of ancient rocks, is elevated, deeply indented by fjords, and skirted with numerous islands. The coasts of Britain are bold and rocky in the north, while towards the south they present a succession of low rocky or chalky cliffs and sandy beaches. Denmark, Germany, Holland, and Belgium have low shores, composed of recent formations, and deeply indented. Many parts of Holland and Belgium are indeed below the level of the sea, and are protected from inundation by artificial dykes and extensive natural sand dunes. The sea has repeatedly broken through these artificial and natural barriers and submerged large tracts of country. The Dollart Zee and the Zuyder Zee were formed in this way in 1277 and 1282. Some of the most important rivers of Europe enter the North Sea, as the Elbe, Weser, Ems, Rhine, Scheldt, Thames, Humber, Tyne, Tweed, Forth, and Tay. If we include the Baltic, which enters into it, we may regard the North Sea as receiving the drainage of about one-fourth of the European continent.

Its greatest depth is in a deep gully following closely the trend of the southern portion of the Scandinavian peninsula, where soundings of 160, 200, 300, and 400 fathoms are common. It has been suggested that this deep gully, which extends into the Skagerrack, may have been the bed of a river at a time when the continent of Europe stood at a higher level, and that the Elbe and some of the other rivers now entering the Baltic and North Sea may have united and flowed into the Norwegian basin of the Atlantic through this depression. With the exception of this gully the depth of the North Sea is less than 100 fathoms. It is to be noticed, however, that the bottom of the whole basin is very irregular. The southern half is the shallower, and, generally speaking, the depths in this portion are greater on the eastern and western sides than in the centre, where the Dogger Bank is situated. On this bank the depth is from 8 to 16 fathoms, whereas in the “Silver Pit” immediately to the south there is a depth of 45 fathoms. Similar irregularities are met with in various other parts of this seabed, and are called by the fishermen “pits” and “banks,” with various distinguishing names. In the northern half the depth gradually increases towards the north, until a depth of 2000 fathoms is reached in the Norwegian Sea. It is probable that these irregularities met with in the bottom of the North Sea are chiefly due to the moraines and detrital matter left by the great glacier which filled it during the Glacial period. There are besides a great number of shoals and sandbanks lying along the coasts of Holland, Belgium, France, and Britain, which assume the form of ridges running in a direction nearly parallel to the shores, and consist of sand and detrital matter brought down by rivers and arranged apparently by tide streams. The deposits vary considerably in their composition. In the shallow parts a sand predominates, composed of fragments of quartz, felspars, micas, hornblende, augite, magnetite, and calcareous fragments consisting of triturated pieces of mollusc shells, Echinoderms, Polyzoa, Alcyonarian spicules, calcareous Algae, and many Foraminifera. In the deeper water we generally find a mud or clay composed of the above-mentioned mineral and organic fragments, with the addition of fine argillaceous matter, very minute mineral particles, and Diatom frustules. In some places we have stones and gravel, and indeed stones may be met with in all the varieties of deposit.

Fogs, mists, and rain occur at all seasons. The winds are variable, the moisture-laden winds from the south-west being the most prevalent, and storms are frequent. The currents depend chiefly upon the direction of the winds, and the navigation is most difficult. The great tidal wave from the Atlantic on reaching the British Islands breaks into two portions, one passing through the Straits of Dover and the other round the north of Scotland into the North Sea. These two portions meeting produce nodal lines, where they partially neutralize each other, for instance in the Straits of Dover, and less distinctly in lines stretching from the Wash and Moray Firth to the north of Denmark. The North·Sea lies between the January isotherms of 31° and 40°, and the July isotherms of 55° and 65° Fahr., so that the difference between the mean winter and summer temperature is about 24°. The temperature of the surface water ranges in January between 39° and 45° Fahr., and in July between 53° and 63°. Hence the contrast between the temperature of the water and that of the air is greater in winter than in summer, and indeed except during the warmest months the air is colder than the water. In the southern part of the North Sea, south of the Dogger Bank, where the sea is comparatively shallow, there is in summer only a difference of a degree or so between the surface and the bottom water, the bottom water being a little the colder. The difference is greatest in the hollows like the “Silver Pit,” where the depth reaches 45 fathoms. The temperature along the British coast appears to be in summer about 3° colder both at the surface and at the bottom than along the coast of Denmark. We have no very reliable information as to the temperature of the water at different depths during the winter months, but we know it takes a very long time before the cooling of the surface water affects the temperature at the depth of a few fathoms, therefore it is most probable that the water at the bottom in the southern part of the sea is much warmer than the surface or intermediate water, and this is likely to be the case especially in the “pits” where the depth is greatest. This is very probably the chief reason why such large catches of soles and other fish are made in these “pits” during very cold winters.

North of the Dogger Bank there is a very considerable difference of temperature between the surface and the bottom water in summer. Off Aberdeen there is a difference of • 11°, the surface temperature in summer being 56° Fahr.

and the bottom 45°, while in the Norwegian gully there is a difference of 17°. Farther north in the Norwegian Sea, at a depth of 300 or 400 fathoms, the water is below » 32° Fahr, all the year round. The specific gravity ranges between l ’ 0249 and 1Ό270, the saltest water being found at the bottom in the Norwegian gully. The lightest water is found in the Skagerrack where the Baltic water enters the North Sea, and in the southern half of the sea where the Continental rivers discharge their waters.

The North Sea has an abundant flora. Algae in great abundance and variety grow on all the shores and in all the shallower waters, while a few species are found at depths of even 50 and 100 fathoms. The surface and subsurface waters swarm with Diatoms, Peridinias, Coccospheres, and other minute Algae. It is a matter of observation that where there is a low specific gravity, indicating a mixture of fresh with salt water, there is usually a great abundance of Diatomaceae in the surface waters. This is the case in bays and estuaries, and in the arctic and antarctic regions, where melting ice lowers the specific gravity. The North Sea has all the characteristic features of a great bay, and has a great abundance of plant life. Its surface or intermediate waters are at times quite discoloured by the enormous abundance of Diatoms or Peridinias which are met -with in vast floating banks. The cause of the rapid and great development of these minute organisms at particular times and places appears to depend on physical conditions which are not at present understood. With such a vast food supply it is not surprising that a prolific fauna swarms in the North Sea. Everywhere on the bottom we find Foraminifera, Sponges, Coelenterates, Echinoderms, Worms, Polyzoa, Tunicata, Molluscs, Crustacea, and Fishes. At all depths in the intermediate water we find Protozoa, Medusae, Copepods, Amphipods, Schizopods, Sagitta, and various other pelagic animals, together with a great abundance of the larvae of animals living on the bottom. The invertebrates living on the bottom and in the water at various depths, in their adult as well as in their larval stages, supply food for those fishes which are so much desired for the table. Most valuable food fish, as the cod, haddock, herring, sprat, holibut, sole, coal-fish, and many others, frequent the North Sea, and are captured in great numbers by the fishermen of all the nations occupying the seaboard. There are also important fisheries for crustaceans such as lobsters, crabs, prawns, and shrimps, and for molluscs such as oysters, mussels, whelks, and periwinkles. Whales and porpoises are numerous, and sea-birds are found in vast numbers on the islands along the shores. The annual value of the North Sea fisheries of various kinds is enormous. In a recent lecture the duke of Edinburgh estimated that the labours of British fishermen supplied annually “fish food amounting to about 615,000 tons weight, which at £12 per ton represents a money value of £7,380,000.” By far the larger part of this comes from the North Sea. If we consider that these waters are also fished by Norwegians, Danes, Germans, Dutchmen, Belgians, and Frenchmen, we may form some idea of its fertility. It is very probable that the annual value of all the fisheries exceeds £25,000,000.

No systematic investigation of the North Sea has yet been undertaken, and in consequence our knowledge is in many respects very meagre. This is all the more astonishing when we remember the value of the fisheries and the enterprise of the nations engaging in them. The Admiralty employed a ship for several seasons to examine the currents and tides; the results are published in the North Sea pilot and admiralty tide tables. The German ship “Pom-merania” was engaged during the year 1872 in examining the North Sea. See Die Expedition zur j)hysi.calisch·chemischen und biologischen Untersιcchung der Nordsee im Sommer 1872 (Berlin, 1875).

The extreme north-western or Himâlayan region comprises the native state of Garhwâl, with the British districts of Dehra Dùn, Garhwâl, and Kumâun. The economic value of this mountainous tract is confined to the growth of tea in Kumâun and the export of forest produce. South of the Himâlayas, from which it is separated by valleys or dans, is the Siwâlik range, which slopes down to the fruitful plain of the Doâb (two waters), a large irregular hornshaped tongue of land enclosed between the Ganges and Jumna. The great boundary rivers flow through low-lying valleys fertilized by their overflow or percolation, while a high bank leads up to the central upland, which, though naturally dry and unproductive except where irrigated by wells, has been transformed into an almost unbroken sheet of cultivation by various canals and their distributaries. This favoured inter-fluvial region may be fitly regarded as the granary of upper India. North of the Ganges, and enclosed between that river and the Himâlayas and Oudh, lies the triangular plain of Rohilkhand. This tract presents the same general features as the Gangetic valley, varied by the damp and pestilential submontane region of the Tarâi on the north-east, at the foot of the Kumâun hills. South of the Jumna is the poor and backward region of Bundelkhand, comprising the districts of Jalâun, Jhânsi, Lâlitpur, Hamirpur, and Bânda, besides several petty native states under the administrative control of the Government of India. The soil is generally rocky and unfertile, and the population impoverished, scanty, and ignorant. The southernmost portion of Bundelkhand is much cut up by spurs of sandstone and granite hills, running down from the Vindhyân system; but the northern half near the Jumna has a somewhat richer soil, and conies nearer in character to the plain of the Doâb. Below the junction of the Ganges and the Jumna at Allahâbâd the country begins to assume the appearance of the Bengal plains, and also once more expands northwards to the foot of the Nepâl Himâlayas. This tract consists of three portions, separated by the Ganges and the Gogra. The division south of the Ganges comprises portions of Allahâbâd, Benares, and Ghâzipur, together with the whole of Mirzâpur, and in general features somewhat resembles Bundelkhand, but the lowlands along the river bank are more fertile. The triangular tract between the Ganges and the Gogra and the boundary of Oudh is the most fertile corner of the Gangetic plain, and contains the densest population. It comprises part of Allahâbâd, Jaunpur, parts of Benares and Ghâzipur, and the whole of Azamgarh. The trans-Gogra region, comprising Basti and Gorakhpur districts, presents a wilder, submontane appearance. But even here cultivation has widely extended, and the general aspect is that of a well-tilled and verdant plain.

Besides the three great rivers—the Ganges, Jumna, and Gogra—there are the following secondary streams, each with numerous minor tributaries :—the East and West Kâli and the Hindan flow through the Doâb; the Chambal intersects the trans-Jumna tract; in Bundelkhand the principal streams are the Betwâ and the Ken; the Râmgangâ, rising in Garhwâl, pursues a very tortuous course through Rohilkhand; the Gumti enters the Provinces from Oudh, and flows past Jaunpur to join the Ganges; the trans-Gogra region is divided into two nearly equal parts by the Râpti. All the drainage of the country falls directly or indirectly into the Ganges.

Climate, <L∙c.— The climate of the North-Western Provinces as a whole may be classed as hot and dry. The Himalayan districts are, of course, cool, and have a much greater rainfall than the plains. They are succeeded by a broad submontane belt, the Tarai, which is rendered moist by the mountain torrents, and is covered by forest from end to end. This region bears a singularly bad reputation as the most unhealthy in all India, and in many parts only the acclimatized aborigines can withstand its deadly malaria. The plain country is generally warm and dry, the heat becoming more oppressive as the general level of the country sinks towards Allahabad and Benares, or among the hills of Bundelkhand. The monthly temperature of twelve stations in 1881-82 was as follows :—maximum, 112° Fahr.; minimum, 40° T Fahr.; general mean, 77 o, 8 Fahr. The maximum was 82° at Chakrâta in Dehra Dun, 109° in Meerut, 114° in Allahabad, and 116° in Jhânsi; the minimum was 28° at Chakrata, 35° at Meerut, 41° at Allahâbâd, and 44° at Jhânsi. The general mean was 57° '7 at Chakrâta, 76° - 8 at Meerut, 78°'4 at Allahâbâd, 78°’8 at Benares, and 79°'1 at Jhânsi. The total rainfall during the same year amounted to 54’03 inches at Chakrâta, 97’49 at Dehra, 29’63 at Meerut, 35’43 at Bareli, 34 Ό1 at Allahâbâd, 33’77 at Benares, and 52’62 at Jhânsi. The chief disease is fever, to which a large proportion of deaths are due.

Population.— The North-Western Provinces contain a denser population than any country of Europe, excepting Belgium and England. The census of 1881 returned the population of the British districts at 32,720,128 (males 17,060,901, females 15,659,227), distributed among 81,274 villages and towns. Including the two attached native states of Garhwâl and Râmpur, the area amounted to 86,983 square miles, and the population to 33,461,878. The following table exhibits the area (in square miles) and population of each district and state separately (exclusive of Oudh). [table]

Mohammedans muster strongest in the northern divisions of Meerut and Rohilkhand, where they number 2,327,620. In Benares, Allahâbâd, Agra, and Kumâun divisions they form a percentage respectively of 10’7, 9’5, 8’7, and 8’4 of the population. Many of the descendants of converts forced to embrace Islâm at the sword’s point retain several Hindu customs and adhere to purely Hindu observances and ceremonies.

Most of the people are gathered into small villages. There are, however, no fewer than 238 towns with a population exceeding 5000, and containing an aggregate of 3,513,107 inhabitants. No other part of India contains so large a proportion of celebrated cities, though recent changes have made over Delhi, the most famous of all, to the adjacent province of the Punjab. Thirteen towns contained in 1872 a population exceeding 50,000—namely, (1) Benares, 199,700; (2) Agra, 160,203; (3) Cawnpur, 155,444; (4) Allahâbâd, 148,547; (5) Bareli (Bareilly), 113,417; (6) Meerut, 99,565; (7) Shâhjahânpur, 74,830; (8) Murâdâbâd, 67,387; (9) Farrukhâbâd, 62,437; (10) Koil (Aligarh), 61,730; (11) Sahâran-pιιr, 59,194; (12) Gorakhpur, 57,922; and (13) Mirzâpur, 56,378. Eighteen towns contain a population of between 20,000 and 50,000. The other places of interest in the provinces are—the hill sanataria of Nâini Tal, Masuri (Mussooree), and Lamlaur, the sacred town of Hardvvâr, the ruined sites of Kanauj and Hastinapur, the deserted Mughal capital of Fatehpur Sikri, and the ancient temples and fortresses of Mahoba and Kalinjar. Most of the great towns lie along the banks of the Ganges and the Jumna.

Agriculture.—Of a total area of 81,858 square miles, 38,169 were returned as under cultivation in 1881-82. Eleven great canal irrigation works have been undertaken by Government :—(1) Ganges Canal, (2) Eastern Jumna Canal, (3) Agra Canal, (4) Dun Canals, (5) Rohilkhand Canals, (6) Bijnaur Canals, (7) Bundelkhand Lakes, (8) Lower Ganges Canal, (9) Bundelkhand survey, (10) Sardah Canal survey, and (11) Betwâ Canal. The total area irrigated in 1881-82 by Government works amounted to 1,395,217 acres. There are two principal harvests, in autumn and spring. The great agricultural staple is wheat. The chief commercial crops include indigo, cotton, sugar, oil-seeds, and opium. The cultivation of tea is confined to the submontane districts of Kumâun, Garhwâl, and Debra Dun. The produce is chiefly manufactured into green tea, which finds a ready sale across the frontier in Central Asia, and is also exported to England. Rice and sugar-cane grow chiefly in the river valleys or in irrigated fields; wheat is raised on the uplands by the aid of canals and wells; millets and cotton grow on the drier soils, while tobacco, vegetables, and other richer crops occupy manured plots in the neighbourhood of villages. The three principal recognized tenures are—(1) zaminddri, in which the whole land is held and managed in common, the rents and profits of the entire estate being thrown into a common stock and divided among the shareholders; (2) pattiddri, in which the lands are held severally by the different proprietors, all of whom are jointly responsible for the Government revenue; (3) bhdydchdra, in which portions of the soil are held severally, while other portions may be held in common, with joint responsibility for the Government demand. In the hill tracts the peasantry are well off and independent; in the more favoured plain districts they are in fairly comfortable circumstances; but in Bundelkhand they still suffer from the effects of former misrule and from the effects of recent famines.

Commerce and Trade; Communication, <L∙c.— The exports of the North-Western Provinces are principally confined to its raw agricultural produce—wheat, oil-seeds, cotton, indigo, sugar, molasses, timber and forest produce, dye-stuffs, ghi, opium, and tobacco. The imports consist mainly of Manchester piece-goods, metal-work, manufactured wares, salt, and European goods. The principal manufactures are sugar, indigo, and coarse cotton cloth. Ornamental metal-work is made at Benares. The only factories on the English model are the Elgin and Muir cotton mills at Cawnpur, the Shahjahânpur rum distillery, and breweries at Masuri and Nâini Tai. The largest and most valuable portion of the trade of the Provinces is now conducted by rail direct with Calcutta, but the great waterways of the Ganges and Jumna still carry a large part of the heavy traffic. The Gogra forms the main channel for the grain and cotton of Gorakhpur, Basti, and Azamgarh, and for the forest produce of Nepal. The lines of railway are the East Indian, which enters the North-Western Provinces from Bengal, and has its terminus at Delhi; the Sind, Punjab, and Delhi line; the Oudh and Rohilkhand Railway; and the R∣ijputana State Railway, connecting Agra with Bhartpur. The great trunk road traverses the heart of the Provinces.

Administration.— The North-Western Provinces are under the administrative charge of a lieutenant-governor, who resides at Allahabad. The total revenue (including that of Oudh) in 1881-82 amounted to £9,075,727, and the expenditure to £4,362,274. The chief item of receipt is the land-tax, which produced during the same year £5,751,104. Education is making steady progress throughout the central Gangetic plain, though still very backward in the Himalayan districts, in Bundelkhand, and in the remoter parts of Rohilkhand and the trans-Gogra tract. The total number of colleges and schools in the North-Western Provinces in 1881-82 was 5063, with a roll of 170,966 pupils, of whom 142,190 were Hindus and 24,437 Mohammedans. The principal institutions for higher English education are the Muir Central College at Allahabad, and the Government and Church Missionary Society’s Colleges at Agra. The Benares College gives high Sanskrit education, while Delhi College, just beyond the borders, gives instruction in Arabic and Persian. Primary education is afforded by a complete system of village schools, the Provinces being divided into three circles of inspection, and elementary instruction is now brought within easy reach of all who choose to avail themselves of it.

History.— The traditions of the Mahdbhdrata cluster round the city of Hastinapur in Meerut district, which, with Indraprastha, whose shapeless ruins are still to be seen near Delhi, formed the respective capitals of the Pandavas and Kauravas. The earliest empire in this part of India, however, of which any certain monuments remain was that of the Buddhist dynasty of Magadha, which attained its greatest development under Asoka (see vol. xii. p. 784 sq. ).

Continuous history begins with the Mohammedan invasion of Mahmιid of Ghazni, who sacked the sacred cities of Kanauj and Muttra in 1017 A.D. Mohammed Ghori, however, was the real founder of the Moslem power in Hindustan. In 1193 the seat of the Moslem empire was fixed at Delhi, where it remained, with few intermissions, till the British conquest.

The British first came into connexion with the North-Western Provinces as they advanced along the valley of the Ganges from Bengal. In 1763 the nawâb wazir of Oudh, with the phantom emperor Shah Alam, invaded Bengal. They received a crushing defeat at Baxar, and the emperor, with Balwant Sinh, râjâ of Benares, joined the British camp. In 1775 the nawâb of Oudh, Asaf-ud-daula, ceded Benares, Jaunpur, and Ghâzipur to the British, retaining Allahabad and Korah, which had been taken from the emperor in the previous year, when the British sold them to Oudh.

The nawâb wazir, having agreed to pay a subsidy for the English troops maintained for his aid, and being always in arrear, signed in 1801 the treaty of Lucknow, by which he made over to the British the whole of his Oudh dominions in the Doab, together with Rohilkhand. For Lord Lake’s campaign in 1803 against Sindhia, which brought the whole remaining portion of the North-Western Provinces under British rule, see vol. xii. p. 804. The Himalayan districts of Kumâun and Garhwâl were not acquired until after the Gurkha war of 1814-15, while the Delhi territory remained the personal apanage of the Mughal royal family until 1832, when it passed to the direct government of the East India Company.

The first half-century of the British occupation was a period of peaceful progress. The Doâb especially rose into a great agricultural and commercial tract, filled with new and growing cities, such as Cawnpur, Meerut, Aligarh, Rιirki (Roorkee), and Sahâranpur. This peaceful period, was interrupted by the mutiny of 1857, which first broke out in the North -Western Provinces, and produced more disastrous effects in this tract than in any other part of India. Since the repression of the rebellion the principal event of importance in the Provinces has been the rapid development of the railway system, which is revolutionizing the commercial condition of the country and throwing open fresh outlets for its agricultural wealth. The outlying chief-commissionership of Oudh was placed under the administration of the lieutenant-governor of the North-Western Provinces from January 1877.

Geology.— Lias forms the foundation of Northamptonshire, and above it rest the Oolite formations which crop to the surface throughout the greater part of the county. Lias prevails as the surface formation in the west and north-west. Its total thickness is about 800 feet, the Lower Lias clays which stretch in from Warwickshire having a thickness of 500 to 600 feet, the Middle Lias or marlstone of about 30 feet, and the Upper Lias clays, which form numerous outliers scattered over the marlstone plateau and also appear along the beds of several of the streams, a thickness of from 150 to 200 feet. Immediately above the lias come the inferior Oolite beds of Northamptonshire sand, which reach their greatest thickness in the neighbourhood of Northampton. The sandstone is strongly impregnated with oxide of iron, supposed to have been deposited by the percolations of water through the stone. Brown haematite iron is also found at Addington. The iron of Northamptonshire was made use of by the Romans, but the rise of the modern industry dates from about 1850. In 1881 iron was worked at thirty different places in the county, the total quantity obtained being 1,270,544 tons with an estimated value of ,£176,427. About one-fourth is smelted in the district, but the greater quantity is sent raw to Merthyr-Tydfil and Staffordshire. East and north-east of the county sandstone is largely quarried for building purposes, and is both easily worked and richly coloured. It is highly fossiliferous, containing many species not known in other districts. The upper division consists of a nearly white silicious sandstone frequently intercalated with clay. Above the sandstone rest beds of Lincolnshire limestone, and, where it is absent, a sandy clay. The slopes of the hills are frequently capped with cornbrash, sometimes overlaid with Oxford clay. Various isolated portions are covered with drift deposits. Where sandstone and limestone join the clay numerous springs occur, the proximity to which has in many cases determined the sites of villages and towns.

Soil and Agriculture.— The climate of Northamptonshire is mild and genial, while the absence of lofty hills renders it much drier than many other inland districts. The prevailing soil is a rich brown but light and crumbling mould, sometimes with a rocky subsoil. The richest soil is the black mould of the fen district, which is specially suited for grass, as are all the heavier soils. Nearly all the land is capable of cultivation, although there is some stiff wet soil on the slopes of the hills. In 1883 there were 559,536 acres, or about 88 per cent, of the total area under cultivation, of which no fewer than 304,654 acres were under permanent pasture, many of the heavier soils having been laid down during the past few years. Leases are the exception, and on this account grass land is more in request than arable. The farms in general are not large. Isolated houses are rare, both farmers and labourers living for the most part in villages. The farm buildings are thus frequently inconveniently situated as well as badly constructed, although improvements in both respects are being introduced. The usual rotation of crops is fallow, wheat, beans, and oats on heavy soils; but on the lighter soils wheat, pease or barley, with clover and roots, on a four or five years’ rotation is the system generally adopted. Frequently the land is left three years in grass. Of the 158,445 acres under corn crops in 1883, 59,613 were under wheat, 50,866 under barley or here, 24,914 under oats, 16,770 beans, and 6121 pease. Green crops occupied only 38,143 acres, 23,923 of these being under turnips and swedes, 4894 under mangolds, and only 2520 under potatoes. Clover occupied 34,137 acres, and fallow 24,157. Horses in 1883 numbered 21,901, of which 16,209 were used solely for agricultural purposes. Cattle numbered 117,790, of which 26,036 were cows and heifers in milk or in calf, the fattening of cattle being the chief occupation of the Northamptonshire farmer. The favourite stock for breeding purposes is the shorthorn, which has now almost entirely superseded the longhorn; but the most common custom is to buy in Hereford, Scotch, Welsh, and Irish cattle in the spring and fatten them off the rich pasture with or without artificial food, a few being retained and fed up for the Christmas market. In autumn additional cattle are bought in to eat the coarse grass off the pastures, and these are usually retained during winter. Sheep in 1883 numbered 413,075, of which 255,737 were one year old and above. The most common breed on the rich pastures is the improved Leicester, which is preferred on account of its length of wool; but the Southdown, on account of its superior flesh, is also largely kept.

According to the latest returns the land was divided among 14,665 proprietors, possessing 592,771 acres, with a gross estimated rental of £1,637,370, an average of about £2 15s. 3d per acre. Of the owners 10,010, or about 79 per cent., possessed less than one acre each; 33 proprietors possessed between 2000 and 5000 acres, 11 between 5000 and 10,000, and the following over 10,000 each :— Hon. G. W. Fitzwilliam, 18,116; duke of Buccleuch, 17,965; Earl Spencer, 17,031; Lord Overstone, 15,046; and the marquis of Exeter, 13,546.

Manufactures. — The iron industry is of great importance, and, though only a small proportion of the metal is smelted in the county, the number of furnaces in blast is increasing. The staple and the only manufacture of importance is that of boots and shoes, which is chiefly carried on in Northampton and the towns and villages in the centre of the county and along the eastern border.

Raihcays.— The main lines of the London and North-Western, the Great Northern, and the Midland Railways pass through portions of the county, and branch lines traverse it in all directions.

Administration and Population.— In Domesday Northampton is mentioned as containing 30 hundreds, but it then included a considerable part of Rutlandshire. These divisions were first reduced to 28, and in the reign of Henry II. to 20, their present number. The county includes the municipal boroughs of Daventry (3859) and Northampton (51,881); the principal part (20,123) of the city of Peterborough, which was incorporated under the Municipal Act in 1874; part (1171) of the borough of Stamford, of which the greater part is in Lincolnshire; part (2412) of the borough of Banbury, the greater part of which is in Oxfordshire; the borough of Higham-Ferrers (1468); and the urban sanitary districts of Hardingstone (4866), Kettering (11,095), Oundle (11,196), and Wellingborough (13,794). Before the Reform Act of 1832 Northamptonshire sent nine members to parliament, two for the shire, two each for the city of Peterborough and the boroughs of Northampton and Brackley, and one for the borough of Higham-Ferrers. By that Act the number was fixed at eight, Brackley and Higham-Ferrers being disfranchised, while the county was formed into two divisions, a northern and a southern, each returning two members. There are two courts of quarter-sessions, one for the county and the other for the liberty or soke of Peterborough, and nine petty and special sessional divisions, exclusive of the liberty of Peterborough. The boroughs of Northampton and Stamford have commissions of the peace and separate courts of quarter-sessions. The boroughs of Daventry and Higham-Ferrers form parts of the petty and special sessional divisions of Daventry and Wellingborough, the county justices having concurrent jurisdiction. The county contains 344 civil parishes, with parts of four others. It is almost entirely in the diocese of Peterborough. The population of Northamptonshire in 1801 was 131,757, which in 1821 had increased to 162,483, in 1871 to 243,891, and in 1881 to 272,555 (135,662 males and 136,893 females). The number of inhabited houses in 1881 was 57,540, and the average number of persons to an acre 0'43.

History and Antiquities.— The Coritani, who at the time of the Roman invasion inhabited Northamptonshire, are supposed to have been dependent on the Iceni. Of this period the only remains are a few traces of camps and earthworks, the principal being those at Borough Hill near Daventry, where some rude pottery of supposed British origin has been discovered; at Λrbury Hill near Staverton; and at Rockingham, on the site of the present old castle. Under the Bomans Northamptonshire formed part of Flavia Caesariensis. It was crossed by two great Roman roads, the Waiting Street and the Ermine Street: the former entered the county near Stony Stratford and passed by Towcester and Weedon to Lilbourne, where it crossed the Avon; the latter crossed over from Castor near Peterborough into Lincolnshire. From the large number of remains discovered within its limits Northamptonshire would appear to have been very extensively occupied by the Romans. The principal Roman stations within its limits were Irchester, on the north side of the Nene, where numerous pieces of pottery, coins, and slabs with inscriptions have been found; Castor, the seat of a celebrated Roman pottery, the extent of which and the finish of whose workmanship are attested by the tesselated pavements and other relics, as well as by the kilns for bricks and earthenware, that have been dug up; Benaventa, supposed to be Borough Hill, where excavations have brought to light traces of very extensive buildings; Lactodurnm, supposed to be Towcester, where, however, very few Roman remains are now visible; Isannavatia, probably at Burnt Walls, a large field covered with remains of Roman buildings; and Tripontium, supposed to be Lilbourne, where there are traces of camps on both sides of the river. There were also encampments at Arbury Hill, Barrow Hill, Castle Dykes, Chesterton, Guilsborough, Hunsborough, Rains-borough, Sulgrave, and Wallow Bank, besides numerous small camps and posts at other places, especially along the valley of the Nene, which is thickly strewn with tesselated pavements and other remains.

Northampton formed part of Middle Anglia, and was included in the Saxon kingdom of Mercia. In the time of Tostig, and according to some at an earlier period, it was attached to Northumberland, ami formed no part of Mercia. When the Northumbrians in 1065 rebelled against Tostig and chose Morkere for their earl they marched southwards to Northampton, where they were met by Harold and received from him the confirmation of Morkere in the earldom; but the shires of Northampton and Huntingdon were detached from it, and bestowed on Siward’s young son Waltheof, who became earl of Northampton and Huntingdon. After the Conquest the district became, on account of its extensive forest, a favourite resort of the kings of England, who occupied the castles of Northampton and Rockingham. During the Civil War Northamptonshire was the scene of many skirmishes in addition to the great fight at Naseby, while the battle of Edgehill took place on its borders.

Although Northamptonshire was rich in monastic foundations, remains, except of the abbey-church of Peterborough, afterwards the cathedral, are of small importance, the principal being the foundation and parts of the walls of St James’s Abbey at Duston near Northampton, part of the church of the Cistercian abbey of Pipewell near Daventry and of the Cluniae priory at Daventry, and the priory church at Ashby. At Geddington, and also at Northampton, there is an Eleanor cross in good preservation. For the architecture of its churches Northampton holds a place scarcely inferior to any other English county. To the Saxon period belong the tower of Earls Barton church, which stands on an eminence, probably the mound of an old English strong-house; the tower and other portions of Brigstock; the ground plan and other portions of Wittering; the remarkable tower of Barnack; and Brixworth church, constructed in part of Roman materials, and supposed to include part of a Roman basilica. Of Norman, besides the cathedral of Peterborough, the finest examples are St Peter’s and St Sepulchre’s, Northampton, and the tower of Castor. Higham-Ferrers, formerly a collegiate church, Early English and Decorated, is one of the most remarkable churches in the county, both on account of the beauty of its architecture and the number of monuments and brasses it contains. Of the other churches, most of them representing more than one style of architecture, Early English, Decorated, and Perpendicular, the standard of excellence is generally so high that it is impossible to select a few for special notice’ in preference to others.

The last surviving fragments of the enclosing wall of Northampton Castle were only demolished in 1878. A gateway at Rockingham, and earthworks at Higham-Ferrers and Brackley are worthy of mention. Some castellated ruins remain of Fotheringhay Castle, which was founded soon after the Conquest by Simon de St Liz, was rebuilt by Edmund, son of Edward III., and for many years was a favourite residence of the princes of the house of York. To it Mary Queen of Scots was removed in September 1586, and it was the scene of her trial in the Octobeι - following, and of her execution, 8th February 1587. The current statement that the castle was razed by James I. after his accession to the English throne is a mistake, but it was allowed to go to decay, and its materials were gradually used for other buildings. Barnwell Castle, founded by William the Conqueror, and an interesting example of the defensive construction of the period, is still a fine ruin, which includes four of the round towers and an imposing gateway. Holdenby Manor House, where Sir Christopher Hatton was born, and where Charles I. was staying when he was carried away by Cornet Joyce, has been demolished. Among the ancient mansion-houses are Castle Ashby, the seat of the Comptons, the oldest portion belonging to the reign of Henry VIII.; Althorp, the seat of the Spencers, of various dates; Drayton House, of the time of Henry VI.; the vast pile of Burghley House, founded by Lord Burghley, but more than once altered and enlarged; and Kirby Hall, built by Sir Christopher Hatton.

There are histories of Northamptonshire by Norden (written 1610, pub. 1720), Bridges (1746, 1791), Baker (vol. i. 1822, 2 parts of vol. ii. 1841), and Whellan (1849, 2d edition 1874). See also Sternberg, The Dialect and Folklore of Northamptonshire (1851); Architectural Notices of the Churches in the Archdeaconry of Northampton (1848-49); Hudson, Brasses of Northamptonshire (1853); and North, Church Bells of Northamptonshire (1878).

Northampton, a municipal and parliamentary borough, and the county town of Northamptonshire, is situated on the slope and summit of an eminence rising above the river Nene, on the main line of the London and NorthWestern Company, on several branch railway lines, and on a branch canal connecting it with the Grand Junction Canal, 65 miles north-north-west from London. It is divided into four nearly equal parts by two main streets, each about a mile in length, running north and south and east and west, and crossing each other at right angles. In the centre of the town there is a very spacious market square, with a fine drinking fountain, erected in 1860 on the site of the old cross, destroyed by the fire of 1675 which levelled a great part of the town. The older houses are substantially built of stone, the newer ones of brick with stone facings. Formerly there were seven parish churches, but of these only four now remain, All Saints, St Giles’s, St Peter’s, and St Sepulchre’s. All Saints was rebuilt after the fire of 1675, but retains its old Decorated Gothic embattled tower, which scarcely harmonizes with the style of the modern building, the principal feature of which is the fine Ionic portico. The church of St Giles’s was originally a cruciform structure of the beginning of the 12th century, but has been greatly changed, and, besides a fine Norman doorway, contains specimens of Early English, Decorated, and Perpendicular. St Peter’s, near the ancient castle, is supposed to be of the same date with it, and its interior is a fine specimen of Norman architecture. St Sepulchre’s, one of the four round churches still remaining in England, is supposed to have been built by the Knights Templars at the close of the 11 th century. The Roman Catholic cathedral, in the Gothic style, was founded in 1844, and greatly enlarged in 1863. Among the educational establishments are a free grammar school (1552), a Government school of art (1871), and a bluecoat school, in addition to charity, church, and school-board schools. The charitable foundations comprise St John’s Hospital, founded in the 12th century; St Thomas Hospital, founded 1450, in honour of Thomas Becket; the general infirmary (1747), the general lunatic asylum (1837), the union workhouse (1837), and the Royal Victoria Dispensary (1844). Among the public buildings are the town-hall in the Gothic style (1864), the county-hall in the Grecian, the corn exchange buildings in the Italian, the county jail, the borough jail, the barracks, and the theatre. There is a fine public promenade, and a racecourse with an area of 117 acres. A new cattle market was opened in 1873. Northampton is unrivalled in England for the manufacture of boots and shoes. There are also currying works, breweries, maltings, iron-foundries, flour and paper mills, and brick and tile works. The population of the municipal borough (area 1342 acres) in 1801 was 7020, which in 1831 had increased to 15,357, in 1851 to 26,658, in 1871 to 41,168, and in 1881 to 51,881, of whom 25,249 were males and 26,632 females. The parliamentary borough was enlarged in 1868 to 2046 acres, and the population in 1871 was 45,080, which in 1881 had increased to 57,544.

There is a tradition that Northampton was founded by Belinus, a British king, while according to some it is of Roman origin. Neither of these suppositions is supported by any tangible evidence. In the Saxon Chronicle it is called Hamptune. From 917 to 921 it was in possession of the Danes, and in 1010 was nearly wholly destroyed by Sweyn. After the Norman Conquest it was defended by embattled walls, bastion towers, and a strong fortress. Northampton has been more than once the scene of a parliament. The priory of St Andrew, founded before the Norman Conquest, was rebuilt by Simon de St Liz, and was of very great extent. During the Civil War the town was fortified for the Parliament. The borough received its charter of incorporation from Henry II., which was subsequently extended by the 36 of George III., and this continued to be the governing charter until the passing of the Municipal Act of 1835, when the government was vested in a mayor, six aidermen, and eighteen councillors, the town being divided into three wards. Northampton has returned two members to parliament since the time of Edward I.

NORTHAMPTON, a city of the...

His works possess a certain dignity, and they tell their story clearly; but they are marred by defective drawing and dull colouring, and by the gross anachronisms and inconsistencies in costume common to the historical painters of the period. Northcote was emulous of fame as an author, and his first essays in literature were contributions to The Artist, edited by Mr Prince Hoare. In 1813 he embodied his recollections of his old master in a Life of Reynolds. His Fables— the first series published in 1828, the second posthumously in 1833—were illustrated with woodcuts by Harvey from Northcote’s own designs. In the production of his Life of Titian, his last work, which appeared in 1830, he was assisted by William Hazlitt, who previously, in 1826, had given to the public in the New Monthly Magazine his recollections of Northcote’s pungent and cynical “conversations,” the bitter personalities of which caused much trouble to the painter and his friends.