The Danes have fettlements at Coromandel in Afia, on the coaft of Guinea and other places in Africa, and in Greenland in America. Greenland is divided into Eaft and Weft Greenland, a very exten five country, but thinly inhabited. Crantz reckons only 957 ftated, and 7000 wandering inhabitants in Weft Greenland. The Danes are the only nation who have fettlements in Weft Greenland; where, under their protection, the Moravian brethern have miffionaries, and very useful establishments.

Wealth and Commerce.] If the cold and barren kingdom of Norway did not require large fupplies of corn from Denmark, the latter could export a confiderable quantity of it. Slefwick, Jutland, Seeland, and Leland, are very rich corn countries, and abound in black catttle. The ehief produce of Norway is wood, timber, and a great variety of peltry. The mines of Norway are very valuable, as well as its fisheries. Only one fourteenth part of it is fit for agriculture. The balance of trade is in favour of Norway, and againft Denmark. The whole of the exports of Denmark and Holftein amounted, in 1768, to 1,382,681 rixdollars; the imports to 1,976,800. The exports of Norway, to 1,711,369, and the imports to 1,238,284 dollars. Manufactures do not thrive in Denmark.

Religion.] The fame as in Sweden.

Government.] Denmark is an hereditary kingdom, and governed in an abfolute manner; but the Danish kings are legal fovereigns, and perhaps the only legal fovereigns in the world; for the fenators, nobility clergy, and commons divested themselves of their right as well as power, in the year 1661, and made a formal furrender of their liberties to the then king Frederick III.

Hiftory.] Denmark, the ancient kingdom of the Goths, was littleknown till the year 714, when Gormo was king. Christian VII. is the prefent fovereign; he vifited England in 1768. His queen, the youngest fifter of George III. king of Great-Britain, was fuddenly feized, confined in a castle as a state prifoner, and afterwards banished the kingdom. The Counts Struenfee and Brandt (the first prime minister and the queen's physician) were feized at the fame time, January 1772, and be headed the fame year.

Bartholinus, celebrated for his knowledge of anatomy, and Tycho Brahe, the famous aftronomer, were natives of this country.

GREAT.

GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.

Lies between 49° and 58° 50' North Latitude, and 2° Eaft and 6° 20' Weft Longitude.

Divifions.

Sq. Mil. Population. Capital. Inhab.

ENGLAND and Wales 54,112 7,000,000 LONDON, 800,000

Scotland,

Ireland,

25,600 1,300,000 Edinburgh, 80,000 21,216 2,161,514 Dublin,

Counties.

160,000

32 in 4 provinces.

The English poffefs the fortrefs of Gibraltar, and valuable. fettlements. in Afia, Africa, and America Wealth and Commerce] The two divifions of Great Britain EngJand and Scotland, differ widely with refpect to their natural fertility, and to the wealth of their inhabitants. South Britain, or England, abounds with all the ufeful productions of thofe countries in Europe, which are in parrallel latitudes, wine, filk, and fome wild animals excepted. Agriculture, gardening, the cultivation of all thofe plants which are moft useful for feeding cattle, and breeding horfes and sheep, are carried on in England to an aftonishing height. Of about 42,000,000 acres, which England contains only 8,500,000 produce corn; the rest is either covered with wood, or laid out in meadows, gardens, parks, &c. and a confiderable part is ftill wafte land. Yet out of crops obtained from the fifth part of the lands, there have been exported, during the space of five years, from 1745 to 1750, quantities of corn to the value of £7,600,000 fterling. The nett produce of the English corn-land is eftimated at £9,000,000 fterling. The rents of pasture-ground, meadows, &c. at £7,000,000. The number of people engaged in, and maintained by farming, is fuppofed to be 2,800,000. England abounds i excellent cattle and fheep. In the beginning of the prefent century, there were fuppofed to be 12 millions of fheep, and their number has fince been increafing. In the years 1769, 1770 and 1771, the value of the woollens exported from England, including thofe of Yorkshire, amounted to L13,500,000 fterling.

Copper, tin, lead and iron are found in great abundance in Great-Britain, where there is made every year 50-60,000 tons of pig-iron, and 20-30,000 tons of bar-iron.

England poffeffes a great treafure in her inexhaustible coal-mines, which are worked chiefly in the northern counties, whence the coal is conveyed by fea, and by inland canals, to every part of the kingdom. The mines of Northumberland alone, fend every year upwards of 600,000

chaldrons of coals to London, and 1500 veffels are employed in carrying them along the eastern coaft of England.

S.OTLAND'S natural productions are greatly inferior to thofe of England, both with respect to plenty and variety. It produces chiefly, flax, hemp, coals, fome iron and much lead. The trade of this country con fifts chiefly in linen, thread and coals; they have lately begun to manufacture cloth, carpets, fugar, &c.

IRELAND is, in moft of its provinces, not inferior in fertility to England, but very far behind it in point of civilization and industry. This inferiority must be partly attributed to the idlenefs, ignorance, and oppreffion of its inhabitants; and partly to the commercial jealoufy of the British legiflation, from which Ireland has at length been emancipated. The chief articles of its produce are cattle, fheep, hogs and flax; large quantities of excellent falted pork, beef and butter, are annually exported. The Irish wool is very fine The principal manufacture of Ireland is that of linen, which, at present, is a very valuable article of exporta tion, Fifteen hundred perfons are employed in the filk manufactures at Dublin.

With the increase of liberty and industry, this kingdom will foon rife to the commercial confequence to which it is entitled by its fertility and fituation.

The total of the exports from Ireland to Great Britain, in 1779 and 1780, at an average, was £.2,300,000. The balance is greatly in fa vour of Ireland.

The manufactures of England are confeffedly, with very few exceptions, fuperior to thofe of other countries. For this fuperiority they are nearly equally indebted to national character, to the fituation of their country, and to their excellent constitution.

The English government, favourable to liberty, and to every exertion of genius, has provided, by wife and equitable laws, for the fecure enjoyment of property acquired by ingenuity and labour, and has removed obftacles to aduftry, by prohibiting the importation of fuch articles from abroad which could be manufactured at home ‡.

Scotland, from the time of its (a) union with England in 1707, has been gradually rifing in wealth, commerce and agriculture.

For one of the best books relating to Ireland, we cannot refrain from referring our readers to a volume in 8vo. of Historical Tracts, by Sir John Davies, Aitorney General, and speaker of the Houfe af Commons in Ireland. Confifting of, ift. A Difcovey of the true Caufe why Ireland was never brought under Obedience to the crown of England. 2d. A Letter to the Earl of Sclifbury on the State of Ireland in 1607. 3d. A Letter to the Earl of Salisbury in 1610, giving an Account of the Plantations in Ulfter. th: A Speech to the Lord Deputy in 1613, tracing the ancient Conftitution of Ireland. To which is prefixed, A new Life of the Author, from authentic Documents. By George Chalmers, Efq.

↑ See A Collection of Treaties between Great-Britain and other Powers. By George Chalmers. Efq.

(a) For this great national event, fee, The Hiftory of the Union between England and Scotland, by DanielDe Foe; with An Introduction to a fimilar Union with Ireland. By J.-L.De Lo!me.

The British islands, among other advantages for navigation, have coafts, the fea line of which, including both Great-Britain and Ireland, extends nearly 3,800 miles, whereas the fea-coaft of France has but 1000 miles. The commerce of Great-Britain is immenfe, and increafing. In the years 1783 and 1784, the fhips cleared outwards, amounting to 950,000 tons, exceeded the number of tons of the ships employed in 1760 (24 years before) by upwards of 400,000 tons. The value of the cargoes exported in 1784, amounted to upwards of £15,000,000; and the nett cultoms paid for them into the Exchequer were upwards of £3,000,000 fterling; and even this fum was exceeded the following year, 1785, by upwards of 1,000,000 fterling.-The balance of trade in favour of England is estimated at £3,000,000. The inland trade is valued at £.42,000,000 fterling. The fisheries of Great Bri tain are numerous and very productive. The privileged trading compa nies, of which the Eaft India Company, chartered in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, is the principal, carry on the most important foreign commerce.

The Bank of England was incorporated in 1694. This company, by the fanction of parliament, deals in bills of exchange-it buys and fells bullion, and manages government annuities paid at its office, Its credit is the most extensive of any in Europe. It is one of the principal creditors of the nation, and the value of the fhares in its stock runs very high.

Government.] The government of Great-Britain may be called a limited monarchy. It is a happy combination of a monarchia 1 and popular government. The king has only the executive power; the legislative is fhared by him and the parliament, or more properly by the people. The crown is hereditary; both male and female defcendants are capable of fucceffion. The king muft profefs the Proteftant religion.

Religion.] The estabished religion in that part of Great-Britain, called England, is the Epifcopal Church of England, of which the king, without any fpiritual power, is the head. The revenues of the Church of England are fuppofed to be about £.3,000,000 sterling. All other denominations of chriftians, called Diffenters, and jews, are tolerated. Four-fifths of the people of Ireland are Roman Catholics, and are confequently excluded from all places of truft and profit. Their clergy are numerous.-The Scotch are Prefbyterians, and are ftrictly Calvinifts in doctrine and form of ecclefiaftical government. The other most confiderable religious fects in England are Unitarians, Babtifts, Quakeis (60,000) Methodifts, Roman Catholics (60000) 12,000 families of Jews-and French and German Lutherans and Calvinists.

Hiftory.] Britain was firft inhabited by a tribe of Gauls. Fifty-two years before the birth of Chrift, Julius Cæfar fubjected them to the Roman empire. The Romans remained masters of Britain 500 years, till they were called home in defence of their native country against the invafions of the Goths and Vandals. The Pics, Scots and Saxons then took poffeffion of the ifland. In 1066, William duke of Normandy obtained a complete victory over Harold king of England, which is called the Norman conqueft. Magna Charta was figned by John 1216: This is called the bulwark of English liberty. In 1485, the houses of York and Lancaster were united in Henry VII. after a long and bloody contest. The ufurpation of Cromwell took place in 1647. The revolution fo

W

lled on account of James the fecond's abdicating the throne, to hom William and Mary fucceeded) happened 1688. Queen Anne fucceeded William and Mary in 1702, in whom ended the Proteftant line of Charles 1. and George the first of the houfe of Hanover, afcen ded the throne in 1714, and the fucceffion has been regular in this line. George the Third is the prefent king.

ISLANDS, SEAS, MOUNTAINS, &c.
OF EUROPE.

THE principal islands of Europe, are Great Britain and Ireland in the north. In the Mediterranean fea, are, Yvica, Majorca, and Minorca, fubject to Spain. Corfica, fubject to the French. Sardinia is fubject to its own king and Sicily is governed by a viceroy under the king of Naples, to whom the island belongs. The islands of the Baltic, the Adriatic and Ionian feas are not worthy of notice.

The principal feas, gulphs, and bays in Europe, are the Adriatic Sea, between Italy and Turkey; the Baltic Sea, between Denmark, Poland, and Sweden; the Bay of Biscay, between France and Spain the English Channel, between England and France; the Euxine or Black Sea, between Europe and Afta; the German Ocean, between Germany and Britain; and the Mediterranean Sea, between Europe and Africa.

The chief mountains in Europe, are the Alps, between France and Italy; the Apennine Hills in Italy; the Pyrencan Hills, that divide France from Spain; the Carpathian Mountains, in the fouth of Poland; the Peak in Derbyshire; the Plinlimmon in Wales: besides the terrible Volcanos, or Burning Mountains, of Vefuvius and Stromboli, in Naples; Etna, in Sicily, and Ecla, in the cold ifland of Iceland.

Τ

ASIA.

HIS immenfe tract of country, ftretches into all climates, from the frozen wilds of Siberia, where the hardy inhabitants, clothed in fur, are drawn in fledges over the fnow; to the fultry regions of India and Siani, where, feated on the huge elephants, the people shelter themfelves from the scorching fun by the fpreading umbrella.

This is the principal quarter of the globe; for in Afia the All Wife Creator planted the garden of Eden, in which Adam and Eve were formed, from whom the whole human race have derived their existence. Afia became again the nurfery of the world after the deluge, whence the decendants of Noah difper fed their various colonies into all the other parts

of