DUBLIN.

Numerous bodies of troops have been sent over from England to quell these disturbances, and enforce the collection of tithes. Much blood has been shed, and these efforts have been unsuc. cessful. The more considerate of the Roman Catholics claim, that after making reasonable provision for the present incumbents, tithes should be abolished, or that their avails should be applied to the support of the clergy to whom the payer is attached. A proposition so reasonable, addressing itself to the common sense and understanding of mankind, cannot fail to be approved: it has, however, to meet the whole force of the English hierarchy, and all opposers of reform. They apprehend with much reason, that the abolition of tithes in Ireland will be followed with a similar event in England, accompanied with a reformation in the Episcopal church, which will deprive the bishops and high dignitaries of their sinecures, and apportion the compensation of the clergy to their labors. After the emancipation of the Irish catholics from tithes, it is not to be expected that the 6,000,000 of dissenters in England, will consent to give a tenth of their earnings to the support of a clergy not of their choice.

Ireland is more densely populated than England, having 266 inhabitants to the square mile. The soil is fertile, producing great quantities of grain, butter, beef, and cattle for exportation. Until of late years the raising of flax, and manufacturing it into fine linen, was a great business in Ireland. Irish linen was in high estimation, and furnished the principal staple of the country. The cheapness of cotton fabrics, and their consequent introduction into common use, has reduced the price, and to a great extent, superseded the use of this article. The bogs of Ireland form a remarkable feature in the geography of the country. They are of different kinds, but are all an unproductive marsh, except that in some instances they afford a scanty pittance for cattle. By a report of commissioners recently appointed to examine into the nature and extent of these bogs, they are stated to cover about 3,000,000 of acres, most of which are capable of being drained, and brought into useful cultivation.

DUBLIN. Dublin is the principal city of Ireland, and the seat of its former government. It is situated on Dublin bay, in St. George's channel, in latitude 55° north, three hundred miles north-west of London. The bay is of a circular form, six miles in diameter, and receives at its head the river Liffey, which divides the city into nearly equal parts north and south. Its population is about 200,000.

This city, formerly the seat of the Irish government, has lost much of its importance by the union of the two kingdoms. It still has a considerable number of elegant public buildings, one of the most splendid of which is the Dublin post office. It has a

university of considerable eminence; the only literary institution deserving that name in Ireland. Very little attention is paid to the education of the common people. There is no public provision for schools for the poor, and in respect to the rudiments of education, they are much below the same class in England.

The public debt of Ireland in 1817, was $600,000,000, and its ordinary revenue $22,000,000. In that year the exchequer of Ireland was united with that of Great Britain, and the public debt and revenue of the two kingdoms consolidated.

The union of Ireland with Great Britain, owing to its unequal terms, is deprecated by a great portion of the minor kingdom,

and attended with violent struggles for its dissolution. Nothing more clearly illustrates the wisdom of the principle adopted by the American government, in taking new partners into the union, that of perfect equality, than a contrast of the feelings of the people of Ireland towards England. with those of the new states towards their associates. In the one is to be seen insurrection and rebellion, in their worst forms, and in the other a state of peace and harmony.

JERSEY AND GUERNSEY. The islands of Jersey and Guernsey on the coast of France, are the remnant of the English possessions in that kingdom. The inhabitants, amounting to 50,000, are French in their language and manners, and are suffered to enjoy their own laws. They are distant seventeen miles from the nearest French coast, and seventy-five from the English.

Nearest to the island of Great Britain, and the most unimportant of her colonial possessions, is the island of Heliogoland, in the German ocean. It was wrested from the Danes in 1807, and occupied until 1821 as a military station. It has a population of 2200. Great Britain collects no taxes, and interferes very little in the concerns of the inhabitants. The possession of this island serves but little other purpose than that of adding one to the number of her colonies.

GIBRALTAR. At the extreme south of western Europe is the town and fortress of Gibraltar, a rocky promontory at the southern extremity of the Spanish province of Andalusia, on a strait fifteen miles wide, at the entrance of the Mediterranean, in latitude 36° north. The promontory is 1200 feet above the level of the sea, seven miles in length from north to south, and half a mile in breadth; it is every where precipitous, and in some places perpendicular. Nature and art have conspired to render it impregnable. It was taken from Spain in 1704, and has ever since been retained by the English. Spain has made several unsuccessful attempts to regain it; the last was towards the close of the war of the American revolution, when Great Britain was assailed by the combined forces of France, Spain, Holland, and the United States. It was attacked, September, 1792, by 30,000 land forces, and numerous floating batteries; and was bravely and successfully defended by general Elliot, who succeeded in setting fire to the Spanish flotilla, and defeated the assailants with great loss. It was secured to Great Britain by the peace of the following year, and her possession has since remained undisturbed. The place is strongly garrisoned at an expense of $180,000 a year. The town of Gibraltar is built at the foot of the promontory, on its north-west side, and contains 12,000 inhabitants. It is the entrepot of British manufactures and merchandize for the Mediterranean market. The bay of Gibraltar, nine miles in length, and five in breadth, stretches

IONIAN ISLES.

before the town, and furnishes a safe and convenient harbor, and an important naval station.

MALTA. Proceeding up the Mediterranean directly east from Giblarltar, we come to the island of Malta, another strong British fortress, sixty miles south of Sicily, and 200 north of the nearest point of the African coast. The island with its dependent Gozzo, comprizes 170 square miles, and contains 94,000 inhabitants. These islands had for several hundred years been in the possession of the knights of the order of St. John's of Jerusalem, consisting of an association of nobility or knights of various nations, whose primary object was to defend Jerusalem against the attacks of infidels, and to protect the commerce of the Mediterranean from pirates. In 1798, Bonaparte in his expedition to Egypt, took the island from these knights. In 1800, the French garrison capitulated to a British force, and in 1814, in the general arrangement at Paris, these islands were confirmed to Great Britain. The fortifications of Malta are said to be the strongest in the world. Besides five forts commanding the most important points, there are lines of great strength inclosing the various quarters, and forming works of such extent as to require 25.000 men fully to garrison them. The ditches are hewn out of the rock of which the island is principally composed, and in some places are ninety feet deep. The works are mount ed by a thousand pieces of cannon. Valette is the principal city, and contains one half the population of the island.

IONIAN ISLANDS. The most eastern possession of the British in the Mediterranean, is the republic of the seven Ionian islands. The group consists of seven principal islands with several small ones, at the entrance of the Adriatic sea, or gulf of Venice, between latitude 36° and 40° north and contain a population of 230.000. These islands have frequently changed masters, having at different times been subject to Austria, Venice, and Turkey. In November, 1515, it was agreed between Great Britain and Russia, and afterwards acceded to by Austria, that they should form a republic under the name of the United State of the Ionian Islands, under the exclusive protection of Great Britain. In 1817 a constitution was granted them, by which a high commissioner appointed by the British government resides at Corfu, the capital of the State. He appoints the governors of the several islands, commands the forces, convokes the legislative assembly, and regulates their commerce. Their productions consist of corn, wine, olives, cotton, currants, and honey. Their exports in these articles amount to about $700,000 annually. Their revenue, amounting to $660,000 in imposts and taxes collected of the people, is also under the control of the commissioner; and two thirds of it expended in maintaing a British garrison of 6000 men, including four regiments of natives. This

SIERRA LEONE.

little republic, not half as large as one of the United States, on an average, pays upwards of half a million of dollars annually, for the privilege of having its commerce controlled, its strong places occupied, and its governmnnt directed by a foreign power.

Possessed of these three commanding positions in the Mediterranean, the commerce of that sea is subject to the control of Great Britain; not a ship can sail, either in peace or war, but by her permission.

SIERRA LEONE. Returning out of the Mediterranean, and passing down the coast of Africa, the first British possession is Sierra Leone, in latitude 8° north. Previous to the year 1772, considerable numbers of English colonists from America had returned to reside in England, bringing with them some of their slaves; in consequence of a decision of the English judges, that slavery was inconsistent with the common law of England, and that a slave became free on setting his foot on English ground, a considerable number of these blacks left their masters, and became vagabonds. Their condition excited the compassion of Granville Sharp, and some other philanthropists, who formed the plan of transporting them to their native country, and sought out Sierra Leone for that purpose, and in 1817, a district of country having been purchased of an African prince, they were transported to that place. In 1792, 1200 negroes who had been seduced from their masters in the United States during the war of the revolution, and had remained a burden on the British government, were also sent to Sierra Leone, and several years after, the colony received an addition of five hundred negroes from Nova Scotia, of the same character. The colony continued under the direction of a private company until 1907, when it was surrendered to the government.

At this period, Great Britain had not only abandoned the slave trade herself, but had obtained permission from some other powers to treat as pirates such of their subjects as should be found engaged in the trade north of the equator. The negroes liberated by her cruisers are also placed at Sierra Leone. The whole number which have been planted in the colony, by virtue of these arrangements is about twenty thousand. A portion of land is assigned to each one, and a daily allowance of provision for the first six months, after which they are left to provide for themselves. The settlement, of late, is in a flourishing condition, and furnishes articles for considerable traffic.

Freetown, the principal place in the colony, has a good harbor on the Sierra Leone river, six miles from its mouth, and a population of six thousand. Sierra Leone is 160 miles north of the American colony of Liberia, with which a friendly intercourse is maintained. The British settlements on the Gold coast contain a population of about 10,000.