portant, not only by its situation, but by the fortifications with which it is defended, and the use which the French make of it for naval purposes. La Rochelle, on the B. of Biscay, is another valuable sea-port, opposite the I. de Ré and the I. d'Oleron: we may likewise notice Bordeaux, at the mouth of the Garonne, the population of which amounts to 95,000 souls, and Bayonne, at the mouth of the Adour, near the Spanish frontiers, as very important maritime towns.

19. To the E. of La Rochelle, in Poitou, is Poitiers, celebrated for the battle fought there A. D. 1356, between the English and French, in which Edward the Black Prince, with an army of only 12,000 men, defeated John, King of France, with a force of 50,000, and took him prisoner. Orleans is about midway between Poitou and Paris, and stands on the banks of the R. Loire; it is celebrated as having always given the title of Duke to a prince of the Blood Royal. Rheims is situated in the Northern part of Champagne on one of the tributaries of the R. Seine; it is remarkable as the place where the French kings are crowned. The city of Lyons, at the confluence of the Rhone and the Saone, ranks as the second city in France, and in manufactures the first; it is especially noted for its fabrics of silks and rich stuffs.

20. The two principal French ports on the Mediterranean are Marseilles and Toulon, both lying Eastward from the mouths of the Rhone. Marseilles, the more Western of the two, is a place of great commerce, and the chief outlet for all the natural and artificial productions of the South of France. Toulon, which lies 25 miles to the E. of it, has long been one of the chief stations of the French navy, being on the Mediterranean what Brest is on the Atlantic; its new, or military port, is one of the finest in Europe, and is said to be capable of containing 200 sail of the line.

21. The I. of Corsica is, properly speaking, an Italian island, though it has been annexed to the crown of France since the year 1769. It is remarkable as having given birth to the plebeian emperor of France, so long the scourge of Europe, whose flag was, by the unwearied perseverence of Britain, repeatedly levelled with the dust, and finally trodden under foot at the ever-memorable battle of Waterloo.

22. The foreign possessions of France are neither important nor numerous. In Asia, they consist of Chandernagore in Bengal, Pondicherry and Karical on the coast of Coromandel, and Mahé on the coast of Malabar. In Africa, of the I. of Gorée, I. St. Louis, a few factories at the mouth of the Senegal, and I. Bourbon, in the Indian Ocean. In America, they consist of the two small islands, St. Pierre and Miquelon, near Newfoundland; Martinique, Guadaloupe, Mariagalante, Deseada, the Saints, and the Northern part of St. Martin, in the West Indies; and the colony of Cayenne, in Guyana, on the mainland of South America.

CHAPTER VI.

KINGDOM OF BELGIUM.

1. THIS new kingdom is bounded on the S. by the kingdom of France and the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg, on the E. by Rhine-Prussia, on the N. by the kingdom of Holland, and on the West by the North Sea. Subsequent to the year 1814 it formed the Southern part of the kingdom of the Netherlands, but it has lately been separated from Holland, and created a distinct kingdom. It contains 9,180 square miles, and its population in 1829 amounted to 3,776,168 souls. The names of Netherlands and the Low Countries, by which Belgium is often mentioned, have been derived from their relative situation with respect to High Germany, or as some say on account of much of its territory lying below the level of the sea.

2. The whole of Holland and Belgium was formerly divided into little principalities, after the manner of Germany; but at length, by conquests, treaties, and intermarriages, it fell under the dominion of the House of Burgundy. The male line in this family becoming extinct, Mary, the sole heiress, transferred her dominions to the House of Austria, A. D. 1477. Charles 5th, emperor of Germany, united the seventeen provinces into one state, and enacted that in future they should all be governed by the same sovereign. But the bigotry and tyranny of his son, Philip 2nd, to whom he bequeathed both the sovereignty of them and of Spain, caused the seven Dutch provinces to revolt, and to form the famous Union of Utrecht: after a violent struggle for liberty, they were declared a free and independent state, A. D. 1648, by the treaty of Munster. The other ten provinces continued subject to the Crown of Spain till the death of Charles 2nd, in the year 1700, when they were transferred to the German line of the Austrian family. From this time till the termination of the war in 1814, this unhappy country was the frequent scene of the most sanguinary hostilities; but at the end of that period all the provinces were erected into one independent state, and placed under the guardianship of one king. In the year 1830, however, fresh troubles broke out, which, after much confusion ended in Holland and Belgium being declared distinct kingdoms and governed by different sovereigns.

3. GREAT NATURAL FEATURES. There are no mountains in Belgium. Its principal river is the Maas

or Meuse, which has been already mentioned in the description of France; it enters Belgium to the S. of Namur, flows through the Eastern side of the kingdom, past Namur, Liege, and Maastricht, and after having partly formed its Northern boundary, enters the North Sea at the Brielle, below Rotterdam: its chief Belgic tributaries are the Sambre, the Ourthe, and the Dommel. The next greatest river is the Scheldt, or Escaut as it is likewise called, which rises in France near Cambray, and runs through the Western provinces of the country past Tournay, Ghent, Antwerp, and Bergen-op-Zooni, into the North Sea by two mouths called the East and West Scheldt, the former being to the N. and the latter to the S. of the Island of Walcheren. The chief tributaries of the Scheldt are the Scarpe, the Lys, the Dender, and the Rupel.

4. There are no lakes in Belgium, but there is an extensive morass, called De Peel, in the North Eastern extremity of the kingdom. Its forests are numerous, and some of them are extensive: amongst them may be mentioned that of Soigné, situated to the S. of Brussels, in front of which was fought the famous battle of Waterloo. The only portion of Belgium touching upon the sea is the coast of West Flanders, which extends from near Dunkirk in France towards Walcheren in Holland for a distance of 35 miles: in its central part is the harbour of Ostend.

5. RELIGION AND GOVERNMENT. The religion of Belgium is the Roman Catholic, but all forms and sects. are tolerated. The government of the country is a limited hereditary monarchy, resembling in most things that of Great Britain. Its Parliament is composed of two Houses, the members of the Upper House being elected for life by the king, and those of the Lower House being chosen every three years by the people. Belgium is divided into 9 provinces: 3 in the South, viz. West Flanders, Hainault, and Namur; 3 in the centre, viz. East Flanders, South Brabant, and Liege; and 3 in the North, viz. Antwerp, Limburg, and North Brabant.

6. The population and chief towns of these provinces may be seen in the following table:

7. The metropolis of the kingdom of the Netherlands is Brussels, situated near the banks of the little river Senne, which is a tributary of the Scheldt: it is the seat of government and the residence of the king, who has a palace near it at Laeken. It is one of the neatest and best built cities in Europe, but though possessed of many advantages, it is much inferior both in extent and population to its rival Amsterdam in Holland. About seven miles to the S. of Brussels, upon the edge of the Forest of Soigné, stands the little village of Waterloo, where the Duke of Wellington defeated Napoleon Bonaparte, A. D. 1815, and put an end to the war which had grown out of the French revolution, and which had convulsed all Europe for more than 20 years.

8. There are three well known universities in Belgium, viz. Louvain, Ghent, and Liege. But for the sake of those to whom distance and expense might render it inconvenient to attend these universities for the completion of their education, there are other great seminaries established, called Athenæa, where nearly the same instruction is given, but where no degrees can be conferred; the two chief ones are at Brussels and Breda. The language in general used throughout the Belgic provinces is the Flemish, which is a dialect of the Low Dutch. The inhabitants of Flanders are alone, properly speaking, called Flemings, but the name is not unfrequently applied to the inhabitants of all the Belgic provinces.

9. The manufactures of Belgium have been long celebrated: the towns most remarkable for them are Brussels, Malines, Antwerp, Ghent, Bruges, Mons, Namur, and Liege. The only sea-port of any consequence is Ostend on the shores of the province of West Flanders. Most of the great towns are fortified, and some of them are exceedingly strong, but they have not

been able to protect the country from the many sanguinary struggles into which it has been so frequently plunged.

KINGDOM OF HOLLAND.

10. Holland is bounded on the North and West by the North Sea; on the South by the kingdom of Belgium; and on the East by the kingdom of Hanover and the Rhenish Dominions of the King of Prussia. It contains 8,000 square miles, and its population in 1829 amounted to 2,130,880 souls, excluding the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg, which is attached to it, and contains 1,820 square miles and 298,952 inhabitants. Subsequent to the year 1814 the king of Holland was made Sovereign of Belgium and Holland under the title of the King of the Netherlands, but the two countries, as we have seen above, are now distinct kingdoms.

11. The union of the Seven Dutch provinces at Utrecht, A. D. 1579, against the tyranny of Philip the 2nd. of Spain, was denominated the Repub lic of the Seven United Provinces or the Republic of Holland, the supreme magistrate being called the Stadtholder, i. e. the Defender of the State. One of these provinces has since been divided into two, so that Holland now contains eight provinces.

12. GREAT NATURAL FEATURES. There are no mountains in Holland; the only land which is in any way elevated being on the South Eastern shores of the Zuyder Zee. The principal river is the Rhine, already described, which enters Holland near Nymegen, where it becomes divided into two arms. One of these arms, called the Whaal, joins the Maas near Gorinchem; the true Rhine, on the other hand, continues its course Northward past Arnhem, below which it is likewise divided into two branches, the upper one, called the Old Rhine, running past Utrecht and Leyden into the sea at the Katwick Sluice, the lower one past Rotterdam, where it joins the Mouth of the Maas, and so enters the sea at the Brielle.

13. Amongst the other chief rivers may be mentioned the Issel, which rises in Westphalia (in Rhine-Prussia) and runs into the Zuyder Zee near Kampen: there is likewise a branch of it called the New Issel, which joins the Rhine at Arnhem. Farther N. is the R. Vechte, which rises not far from the Issel and likewise enters the Zuyder Zee.