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fifty-eight north-east of New London, seventy east of Hartford, 190 north-east of New York, 394 north-east of Washington; lon. 71° 26 W.; lat. 41° 51′ N.: population, in 1820, 11,767; in 1825, 15,941; in 1830, 16,832; in 1832, about 20,000. It is thus the second town in New England, in point of population. It is built on both sides of what is usually styled Providence river, which is only an arm of the bay reaching to the mouth of Mooshasuck river, at the upper part of the city, its two sections being connected by two bridges, one ninety feet in width. Vessels of nine hundred tons burthen can come to the wharves. The buildings are chiefly wood, uniformly painted white, though there are many of granite and brick. Some of the dwelling-houses are spacious and elegant, and those on the high ground on the eastern side of the town are remarkable for beauty of situation. The chief public buildings are the state-house, of brick; the arcade, of granite; fourteen houses of public worship; the halls of Brown university; the Dexter asylum; the Friends' boardingschool; five public school-houses, and several large manufacturing establishments. The arcade is the most splendid building of the kind in the Union; it has two fronts, of hammered granite, each seventy-two feet wide, presenting colonnades, of the pure Grecian Doric, of six columns each. The columns are twentyfive feet high, the shafts being twentytwo feet in length, each of a single block. The body of the building is of split stone, covered with cement, and extends from street to street, in length 222 feet. It was finished in 1828, and the whole cost was about 130,000 dollars. Of the churches, the first Baptist, the two Unitarian, and one of the Episcopal (St. John's), are handsome structures. Brown university (originally founded at Warren, in 1764, and removed to Providence in 1770) takes its name from Nicholas Brown, its most munificent benefactor. It has two halls, both of brick, viz. University hall, four stories high, 150 feet long, and forty-six feet wide, containing fifty-one rooms for officers and students, besides a chapel, library and philosophical room; and Hope college, built in 1822, four stories high, 120 feet long, forty wide, with forty-eight rooms for officers and students. They are placed on some of the highest ground in the city. The college library contains about 6000 volumes. Three other libraries within the walls, belonging to literary societies, present an aggregate of 6000 vol

umes, in addition. The government of the university is vested in a board of fellows, consisting of twelve members, eight of whom, including the president, must be Baptists; and a board of trustees, of thirty-six members, twenty-two of whom must be Baptists, five Friends, five Episcopalians, and four Congregationalists. The acting officers of instruction, at present, are the president, three professors, and two tutors. There are 114 students. The philosophical apparatus, which has recently been largely increased by private munificence, may be considered very extensive and complete. Annual commencement on the first Wednesday of September. There are three vacations; one, from commencement,four weeks; one, from the last Friday of December, six weeks; and one, from the second Friday of May, three weeks. Whole number of graduates to 1827, inclusive, 1119. The present condition of the institution is prosperous. The Dexter asylum for the poor of Providence, finished in 1828, is a brick edifice of three stories, 170 feet long and forty-five feet wide. The Friends' boarding school, established by, and belonging to the yearly meeting of New England, is also a spacious structure, of brick, with a basement of granite, under the care of a superintendent, five male and four female teachers. There are 117 male and 70 female pupils. It has a small library. The public schools were established in 1800, and now consist of five grammar schools, five primary schools, and one African school. They originated with the mechanics' and manufacturers' association. The Providence library contains about 1600 volumes; the mechanics' apprentices' library about 1000; and that of the athenæum (an institution just commenced), about 1500. Providence was early a place of much commercial enterprise. In the first half of the year 1791, the duties paid on imports and tonnage amounted to 59,766.14 dollars; in the year 1831, the whole amount collected was 227,000 dollars, notwithstanding the diminution of the rates of duties on many articles, which reduced the sum 36,000 dollars, at least. The imports in 1831 amounted to 457,717 dollars; the exports, domestic $199,193, foreign $130,441,,total $329,634. The amount of shipping registered is 12,362 tons; enrolled, 4788 tons. There are four insurance companies, with an aggregate capital of $360,000; and fifteen banks, with an aggregate capital of $4,502,800, besides a branch of the U. States bank, with a capital of $800,000, and the sav

ings bank, capital $100,000. The Blackstone canal. extending from Providence to the town of Worcester (Mass.), was finished in 1828; whole cost about $700,000. It is navigated by thirty boats, from twenty-five to thirty tons each. There are ten newspapers published in Providence, two of which are daily. Providence is most distinguished for its manufactures. There are in Providence four cotton factories, two moved by steam and two by water power, employing a gross capital of $327,489. They contain 11,194 spindles, and 244 looms. They give employment to 352 persons directly, besides 739 others, dependent, more or less, on them, with an aggregate annual amount of $45,801 wages. They consume annually 434,971 pounds of cotton; spin 382,875 pounds of yarn, and weave 1,458,000 yards of cloth, mostly of the finest and most valuable quality, to the estimated value of $247,860. There are also two extensive bleacheries, in which very large quantities of cotton cloth, from many of the factories in Rhode Island and other states, are bleached, calendered and beetled; and a third one is erecting. The two in operation employ a capital of $175,000, and 195 persons, whose annual wages amount to $49,000; and the annual quantity of cloth bleached and finished at these establishments is 3,300,000 pounds, or 13,200,000 yards. There are also four dye-houses, and a factory for making candle and lamp wick, and cotton webbing. There are four iron founderies and seven machine shops, employed principally in building cotton machinery, and estimated to constitute one third of the whole amount of this business carried on in the state. These employ a capital of $250,000, and 414 persons. They work up annually about 1390 tons of iron and steel, manufacturing machinery to the value of 309,000 dollars. There are, besides, one file factory, and one of steam engines, one of steam boilers, and three brass founderies, all on a considerable scale. There are seven principal establishments for working in tin, sheet-iron, copper, brass, &c., in two of which the manufacture of stoves, pipes, and grates for anthracite coal, is carried on very extensively; one comb factory, which annually consumes $4000 worth of stock, and manufactures combs to the value of $9500; twenty-seven jewellers' and goldsmiths' shops, employing a capital of $100,200, 282 persons, and manufacturing goods to the value of $228,253; also one factory for hat bodies of wool, very extensively operating on a most use

ful patented invention; one of sperin and one of linseed oil; one mill for cutting and grinding dye-stuffs. A large glasshouse, for the manufacture and cutting of flint-glass, has been in operation about a year, employing a capital of $36,000, fiftyeight men and fourteen boys, whose wages amount to $21,000 per annum, and turning out manufactured goods to the value of $1400 per week, or about $70,000 per annum. Besides the above, there is an extensive manufacture of leather, boots and shoes, soap and candles, cabinet furniture, hats, &c., and pickers, and sundry articles used in other departments of the manufacturing business. The capitalists of Providence have, besides, an amount equal to $2,000,000 invested in cotton, woollen, and other factories, m other towns of Rhode Island and the adjoining states, agencies of which are established within the city. For the consumption of the town and its vicinity, including, as this does, many manufacturing villages, there were imported, in the year 1830, 45,166 bales of cotton, and, in the year 1831, 55,707; and of bread-stuffs, i 1830, 68,473 barrels of flour, 358.li bushels of corn, and 16,967 of rye: i 1831, 71,369 barrels of flour, 216, bushels of corn, and 7772 of rye.-Tus town was founded by Roger Williams who was born in Wales, and educated Oxford. He removed to America 1631, and, after preaching at Salem and Plymouth, was settled at the latter place. as pastor of the congregational church. 1634. He there preached against the king's patent to the Plymouth coloniss on the ground that the king had no thority to grant and dispose of the lar of the natives, without their consent. Fe this course, together with his peculiar ligious tenets, and particularly his op and fearless declaration of the principes not of toleration merely, but of entire unrestricted religious freedom, and E. avowal that the civil magistrate had t right" to deal in matters of conscien and religion," he was banished, and order ed to depart the Plymouth jurisdict within six weeks. This sentence passed in the autumn of 1635; but 2 was afterwards informed that pers sion was granted him to remain until t ensuing spring. So great, however, w the fear of his influence, that an officer w sent to apprehend and carry him on boar vessel at Nantasket, in order that he nur be conveyed to England. Before the ar val of the officer, Williams, having int tion of this design, had departed for E

hoboth. Being there informed by governor Winslow that he was still within the bounds of the Plymouth patent, he crossed the Seekonk river, in the spring of 1636, and commenced a new settlement in the wilderness, near the mouth of the small river Mooshasuck, giving it, in acknowledgment of the divine protection, the name of Providence. The first settlement of the town was thus made on the point of land between the Seekonk or Blackstone river on the east, and the arm of the Narraganset bay on the west. The latter was afterwards gradually contracted by the extension of the land in the present westerly part of the town, until the two parts were, at length, connected by Weybossett bridge, now nearly in the centre of the town. The sheet of water remaining north of this bridge was thus formed into a beautiful cove, which, at its northern extremity, receives the Mooshasuck river, and forms the basin of the Blackstone canal. In 1676, during the war which was made, at the instigation of king Philip, for the extermination of the New England colonists, an attack was made on Providence by the Indians, and about forty houses burned and destroyed. In 1801, it suffered severely from an extensive fire. In 1807, a violent storm and flood destroyed nearly all the bridges, and a great number of buildings, in the town and its vicinity. In the great storm of September, 1815, about 500 buildings were destroyed by the wind and the water of the bay. The loss of property on that occasion was then estimated at more than $1,000,000; but that eventually proved of much benefit to the place, by removing a great number of old and comparatively useless buildings, whereby an opportunity was afforded for new and commodious streets in those sections which are devoted to commercial business. In October, 1831, Providence was incorporated as a city, divided into six wards. Its municipal government is vested in a mayor, a board of six aldermen, and a common council of twentyfour members.

PROVIDENCE, Or NEW PROVIDENCE; the second island, in point of size, among the Bahamas, being thirty miles in length and eight in breadth; lat. 25° 2 N.; lon. 77° 20 W. A part of it is very fertile; but its principal business arises from the misfortunes of those ships which are compelled to seek it for a harbor. The port is called Nassau, and is situated on the north part of the island. Its harbor is rather shallow; but it is the capital, and VOL. X. 33

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far the most commercial town of the Bahamas. The population of the island is supposed to be about 8000, the greater part of whom are slaves. (See Bahamas.) PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS. (See New England, and Providence.)

PROVINCE (provincia), among the Romans; a district of conquered country, governed by a proconsul or propretor (see Proconsul), and called therefore provincia consularis, or prætoria. But this name was only applied to lands lying beyond the boundaries of Italy. In the time of Augustus, they were divided into the provincia senatoria, or populares (the people's provinces), and the provincia imperatoria (the emperor's provinces). The latter comprised those which were most exposed to hostile inroads, and the administration of which was left entirely to the emperor, under the pretence of sparing the senate and people the trouble of managing them, but in reality to keep the army in his own hands. They were different according to circumstances. In modern times, the term has been applied to colonies,or to dependent countries, at a distance from the metropolis, or to the different divisions of the kingdom itself. Thus the Low Countries belonging to Austria and Spain were styled provinces (see Netherlands); and the same term is applied to some of the English colonies. The different governments into which France was divided, previous to the revolution, were also called provinces. The name has sometimes been retained by independent states. Thus the republic of Holland, after it had thrown off the Spanish yoke, was called the United Provinces; and the Argentine republic has assumed the name of United Provinces of the Plata. In England, the jurisdictions of the two archbishops are styled provinces.—Provincial is a monastic officer who has the superintendence of the monasteries of his order within a certain province or district, and is himself subordinate to the general of his order.

PROVOST (from præpositus); in some of the Scotch cities, the title of the chief municipal officer. (See Prévot.) The heads of several of the colleges in the universities of Oxford and Cambridge are also styled provosts.

Provost marshal of an army is an officer appointed to arrest and secure deserters and other criminals, to hinder the soldiers from pillaging, to indict offenders, and to see sentence passed upon them and executed. He also regulates weights and measures.

PRUDHON, Pierre Paul; a French paint

er, born in 1760, at Cluny, where he was educated by the monks of the celebrated abbey of the place. The sight of the pictures here awakened his taste for painting, which being observed by the monks, the bishop of Macon had him instructed in drawing at Dijon. After having studied in Rome, whither he was sent by the Burgundian estates, Prudhon returned to France in 1789, and lived some time in obscurity in Paris, but finally gained reputation by his celebrated allegorical picture, Crime pursued by Divine Justice. He died in 1823. His principal productions are Psyche borne away by the Zephyrs, Zephyr sporting over the Water, an Assumption, and a Dying Christ. Some have censured his design, and the sameness of his heads; but his brilliant coloring, and the fine expression and grace of his pencil, are generally admired.

PRUNES. (See Plums.)

PRUSSIA; the smallest of the (so called) great powers of Europe; a country in several respects singular, being composed of very heterogeneous parts, several of them not connected by any common feeling or common interest, not even by geographical situation, but merely by artificial political system; and yet it holds an influential station among the European powers. Another very striking feature of this monarchy is the care which it bestows on science and education. The sciences are no where fostered with more care, and there are few countries in which common schools are more widely diffused. Notwithstanding the effect which this must have in enlightening the people, and notwithstanding the attention which has been paid, for several generations, to the administration of justice, there is an almost incomprehensible backwardness in every thing which belongs to a civic spirit, chiefly, it is probable, from three reasons: 1. that the greatness of Prussia proceeded from, and has been supported by, military power, the power of standing armies, and the whole system of government has been carried on with something of a military spirit by numerous officers in regular gradations, who execute the orders received from their superiors. 2. That many of the various parts composing the monarchy have no national interest, as Prussians, in each other; so that the noblest germs of civil virtue remain undeveloped in the breasts of the people, whose interests are diverse. We may add here, by the way, that Prussia, of late, has neglected the most important means of giving coherency to her population, namely, the

assembling of representatives from all the various provinces in one legislative body Nothing would have united the pe more strongly than thus awakening: national feeling for a common 10tution. 3. That, since the time of Fre eric the Great, Prussia has felt obliged seek a strong ally in Russia to strength herself against Austria-an alliance whi has much retarded her civil advanceme We shall now proceed to the Statist and Geography of Prussia. The Pruss monarchy, which contained 3,000,000 of inhabitants, on 46,428 square miles, w an army of 76,000 men, when Freder the Great ascended the throne, contain in 1804, without reckoning Neufcha 9,977,497 inhabitants, upon 120,395 square miles (with 38,000,000 of Prussian do income, about 32,000,000 Spanish), and at the end of 1828, 12,726,823 inhabitars upon 106,852 square miles, with 3,3164buildings, to which is to be added Nec chatel, with 51,580 inhabitants, upon 24 square miles; and, at the close of 15%. the number of the inhabitants w 12,939,877. The whole increase of the population in 14 years has been 2,247,02 In 1826, the population stood thus:

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18,525 three governments, of which the smallest 6,880,612 in point of population contains 148,948 4,537,200 inhabitants, and the largest in this respect, 1,236,900 that of Breslau, contains 942,307 inhabit13,347,262 ants. A government is under the control 408,262 of a president and a number of counsel426,070 lors and assessors, who have the charge of every thing except the administration The army cost, in 1829, $15,692,562. of justice. Each province has a highThe number of students at the universi- president. The ten provinces are as folties stood thus in the following years:Founded. Year. Students. 1810 1829 1706

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Inhabitants in 1828. 1,539,602 877,555 2,396,551

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The peace of 1815 did not give compactness to the irregular territory of Prussia. It consists (Neufchatel not included) of an eastern and a western part: the former, which is much the larger, is bounded by Russia, Austria, the kingdom of Saxony, the small states in Thuringia, the electorate of Hesse, Hanover, Brunswick, Mecklenburg, and on the north by the Baltic. The latter is separated from the former by the electorate of Hesse, Hanover and Brunswick, and is bounded by the Netherlands, France, Bavaria, Lippe-Detmold, Nassau, Waldeck, and other small territories. The country is mostly level, with small elevations. The island of Rugen, with its promontory Stubbenkammer, is the highest point in the lands on the Baltic. The principal chains of mountains are the Sudetes, with the Riesengebirge (the Schneekoppe, 4950 feet high); the Hartz (q. v.), with the Brocken; the Thuringian forest; the Westerwald, with the Siebengebirge; the Hundsrück, with the Hochwald; and the Eifel, a continuation of the Ardennes. The rivers are mentioned below. The climate is, on the whole, variable, and severe rather than mild and warm; yet, in the valleys of the Nahe, Moselle, Saar and the Rhine, it is very fine. Since 1815, the monarchy has been divided into ten provinces and seven military districts. The provinces are subdivided into two or

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Neufchatel has 51,580. Though the geographical character and financial resources of Prussia were much improved by the of Paris, the first still gives rise to peace many inconveniences. Prussia has an unguarded frontier from Seidenberg, in Upper Lusatia, to Wittichenau; an open frontier towards Russia (as a Russian army may, at any time, come within three days' march of Breslau, and to fortify the Prosna would cost millions), and her Rhenish provinces compel her to keep up always a strong military force in the direction of France-all which shows, if we may use the phrase, the artificial existence of Prussia, her unnatural position. Prussia can only partially overcome these disadvantages by immense expense; and nothing but the establishment of a general government for the whole of Germany can afford an adequate barrier against the threatening power of Russia. Prussia, which has but a third part of the population of France, has yet 712 miles more of frontier. At one extremity she touches the gates of the French fortress Thionville on the Moselle, while the other is watered by the Memel and the Niemen, and we seek in vain for a body to unite the two arms, which are connected only by the double military road running through Hanover. There are, properly speaking, three Prussias, one in Poland, one in Germany, one between the Meuse and the Rhine. The kingdom has three vulnerable parts, towards Russia, Austria, and France; hence its situation is dependent. The commerce is various, yet would be much greater if those countries which

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