The American Universal Geography, or, a view of all the empires, kingdoms, states and republics in the known world, and of the United States of America in particular ... Third edition. The introduction revised and amended by J. Webber, etc

Front matter

PuWilhed 1-v Thomas Andrews, Boston. THE AMERICAN UNIVERSAL GEOGRAPHY; OR A VIEW OF THE PRESENT STATE OF ALL THE KINGDOMS, STATES, AND COLONIES IN THE KNOWN WORLD IN VIVO VOLUMES. THE FIRST VOLUME Contains a copious Introduction, adapted to the present improved state of Astronomical Science —a brief Geography of the Earth —a general Description of America — an Account of North-America, and its various Divisions, particularly of the United States —a general Account of the West- Indies, and of the four groupes of Islands hito which they are naturally divided, and a minute Account of the several Islands — a general Description ef South-America, and a particular Account of its various States and Provinces —and a brief Description of the remaining American Isl ands. THE SECOND VOLUME Contains a Geography ofthe Eastern Coi; tinent —a general Description of Europe, and a minute Account of its various King doms and States—a general Description of Asia, its Kingdoms, Provinces, aud Islands — an Account of the numerous Islands arranged by modern Geographers under the names of Austral Asia and Polynesia —a general Description of Africa, and a particular Account of its various States and Islands.

TO WHICH ARE ADDED AN ABRIDGEMENT OF THE LAST CENSUS OF THE UNITED STATES— A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF REMARKABLE EVENTS FROM THE CREATION TO THIS TIME AN IMPROVED LIST OF AN CIENT AND MODERN LEARNED AND EMINENT MEN— AND A COPIOUS INDEX TO THE WHOLE WORK. THEWHOLE COMPREHENDING A COMPLETE SYSTEM OF MODERN GEOGRAPHY. ACCOMPANIED BY A NEW AND ELEGANT General Atlas of the World, CONTAINING (IN A SEPARATE QUARTO VOLUME,) SIXTY THREE MAPS, Comprising, as far as they could be obtained, all the latest Discoveries to the present time BY JEDID1AH MORSE, D. D. F. A. A. S. H. S. Minister of the Congregational Church in Charlestown. SIXTH EDITION. Arranged on a new plan, and improved in every part by a laborious examination of most of the late respectable Voyages and Travels, in Europe and Asia, by a free- Use of the information in the Abridgement of Pinkerton's excellent Geography and by the late admirable Statistical Tables of Hassel.

VOLUME II. BOSTON : PUBLISHED EV THOMES Sc ANDREWS, AND SO LD, WHOLES ALE iKD 11EIAII(, AT THEIR BOOKSTORE, NO. 45, NEWBURY STREET — MAY, 1312. Greenough and Stebbins, priv.tes. DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS, to wil : Dists-ict Clerics OJk'e- KE IT REMEMBERED, that on the twenty third day of April, A. D. 1812, and in the thirty sixth year of the independence of the United States of America, Thomas and Andrews^ of the said district, have deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof they claim, as proprietors, in the words following, to wit : " The American Universal Geography, or a view ofthe present state of all thekingr doms, states, and colonies in the known world. In two volumes. The first volume cotir tains a copious introduction adapted to the present improved state of astronomical science—a brief geography ofthe earth — a general description of America. — an account of North- America, and its various divisions, particularly ofthe United States — a general ac count ofthe West-Indies, and ofthe four groupes of islands into which they are naturally divided, and a minute account of the several islands — a general description of South- America, and a particular account of its various states and provinces, and a brief descrip tion ofthe remaining American islands.

Chapter I. Historical Geography

NAMES, EXTENT, ORIGINAL POPULATION, HISTORICAL EPOCHS) ANTIQUITIES, RELIGION, GOVERNMENT, JUDICATURE AND LA WS, ARMY, NAVY, REVENUE, POLITICAL IMPORTANCE AND RELA- TIONS, MANNERS AND CUSTOMS, LANGUAGE, LITERATURE, ARTS* EDUCATION, BNIVERSITIES, CITIES, ROADS, INLAND NAVIGA TION, MANUFACTURES AND COMMERCE. Names.] THE Phenicians are generally supposed to have discovered Great Britain and Ireland at a very early period ; and some suppose that the name of Britain originates from a Phenicucn word; while others with more probability infer ENGLAND. 32 it to have been an indigenai term derived from the Brets, tribes of which appellation maybe traced in Gaul and Scythia. Among the first objects of the Phenician intercourse was tin, whence the Greek name of Cassiterides, or the islands of tin ; a name which, in its first acceptation, seems to have extended to Great Britain and Ireland, though afterwards confined to the isles of Scilly, where the metal does not appear to have been traced in modern times.

The name of Anglia or England is well known to have origin ated from the Angles, a nation of the Cimbric Chersonese or mod ern Jutland, who settled in the northern parts in the fifth century. The ecclesiastical history ofBeda, written in that part of the country which was possessed by the Angli, seems to have contributed greatly to the extension and general acceptation of the modern name. Extent.] The island of Great Britain extends from fifty to fifty-eight and a half degrees of north latitude, being of course 58S miles in length. Its greatest breadth, from the Land's End to the North Foreland in Kent, is 370 miles. Its extent in square miles is computed at 77,243. England is bounded on the east by the German Ocean ; on the south by the English Channel ; on the west by St. George's Chan nel ; on the north by the Cheviot Hills, by the river Tweed, and an ideal line falling southwest down to the Frith of Solway.

The extent of England and Wales in square miles is computed at 49,450 ; and the population being estimated at 8,400,000, the num ber of inhabitants to a square mile will of course be 169. Original Jiopulation.] The earliest inhabitants of England are supposed to have been the Gael or southern Celts, called Guidels by the Welch, who regard them as their predecessors. Those tribes seem to have arrived from the nearest shores of France and Flanders, and were followed by the Cymri or Cimbri from the same regions whence the Angles afterwards proceeded. But the Cimbri were northern Celts, the ancestors of the modern Welsh. The Scythians or Goths from Asia having seized on Germany and a great part of Gaul, gradually repelling the Celts towards the west, appear to have sent colonies into England three or four centuries before the Christian era ; for Cæsar found many tribes ofthe Belgae, a German or Gothic nation, established on the south and east of Britain.

Those Belgae may be justly regarded as the chief ancestors of the English nation ; for the Saxons, An gles, and other northern invaders, though of distinguished courage, were inconsiderable in numbers, and the English language bears more affinity to the Frisic and Dutch, than to the Jutlandic or Danish. Under the dominion of the Romans even the Belgic colonies, unaccustomed to the use of arms, had forgotten their former val or in the course of four centuries of subjection. Pressed by fe rocious invaders, they seem to have invited to their assistance dangerous allies from the continent. The Jutes arrived in the year 449, and founded the kingdom of Kent, about the year 460 ; they also took possession ofthe isle of Wight. In 477 the Sax- ENGLAND. 33 6ns first appear, and the kingdom ofthe South Saxons commences at that epoch.

The West Saxons arrived in the year 495. The sixth century was considerably advanced when those barbaric colonies were increased by the East Saxons in the year 527 ; but the first appearance of the great branch of the Angles, who were to perpetuate their name in the country at large, did not occur till the year 547, when the valiant Ida led his troops to Bernicia. The East Angles taking possession of Norfolk in the year 575, the southern and eastern coasts were almost wholly in the power ofthe invaders, who, soon extending their conquests into the interior of the country, founded, in the year 585, the kingdom of Mercia, the last of the Heptarchy. Bede pronounces Mercia to have been an Anglic kingdom ; and if so, their population might perhaps have equalled that of the Saxons themselves. Progressive Geog-ra/ihy^] The knowledge of the progressive geography of any country is indispensably necessary for the elucidation of its history.

When the Romans invaded Britain, the chief states, in what is now England and Wales, were the Cantii, inhabiting Kent ; Trinobantes, Middlesex ; Belgae, or Regni, Hampshire, Wiltshire, and Somersetshire ; Durotriges, Dorsetshire ; Damnonii, Devonshire and Cornwall ; Atrebates, Berkshire ; Silures, South Wales ; Ordovices, North Wales ; Icenij Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, &c. Brigantes, Yorkshire. In the Roman period England was divided into the following large provinces. Britannia Prima, the whole southern part as far as the mouths ofthe Severn and the Thames. Britannia Secunda, Modern Wales. Flavia Cæsariensis, from the Thames to the Humber. Maxima Cæsariensis, from the Humber to the Tyne, from the Mersey to the Solway. A more detailed account of the Roman divisions of England properly belongs to ancient geography, alld the curious reader may be referred to the works of Horsley and Roy, authors of de served estimation.

Ofthe Saxon geography an idea may be derived from the following table. 1. Kent comprehended the county of Kent. 2. Sussex or the South C Sussex. Saxons, £ Surrey. s Norfolk. 3. East Angles, -j Suffolk. with the isle of Ely I Devonshire. Dorset. Saxons, i somerset, Wilts. Hants. VOL. II. ENGLAND. 34 'Lancashire. Yorkshire. Durham. 5. Northumberland, < Cumberland. Westmoreland. Northumberland, and the parts of Scotland to the Frith of Edinburgh. Essex 6. Essex, or the East J Middlesex. Saxons, (_ Hertfordshire in part. 'Gloucester. Hereford. Warwick. Worcester. Leicester. Rutland. Northampton. Lincoln. 7. Mercia, *J Huntingdon. Bedford. Buckingham. Oxford. Stafford. Derby. Salop. Nottingham. The rest of Hertfordshire. The division into shires is said to have been instituted by the great Alfred.

These departments are also styled counties, as having been each governed by a Count, in the Saxon times styled Ealdorman, and, after the Danish conquest, called Earl, from the Danish lari, implying a great man. The dignity and title becom ing hereditary, the government of the county devolved upon thc Earl's deputy the Shire-reeve, sheriff or manager of the shire. Yorkshire being very extensive, it was divided into three parts called in Saxon trithings, as a farthing is a fourth part, and now corruptly called Ridings. England proper is divided into forty counties, and the principality of Wales into twelve, thus making the whole number of counties in South Britain fifty-two ; of which the following is a list, together with their respective number of inhabitants, and chief towns. Number of Inhabitants according to the late Chief Towns enumeration.

(1801.) s Northumberland 157,101 Newcastle Cumberland 117,230 Carlisle Six northern ) Durham 160,361 Durham counties 1 Yorkshire 563,953 York j Westmoreland 41,617 Appleby 672,731 Lancaster ENGLAND. 35 Number of Inhabitants according to the bite Chief Towns. enumeration.

(1801.) 'Cheshire IS}, 751 Chester Four bordering J Shropshire 1 67,639 Shrewsbury on Wales [Herefordshire 89,191 Hereford Monmouthshire 45,582 Monmouth 'Nottinghamshire 140,350 Nottingham Derbyshire 161,142 Derby Staffordshire 239,153 Stafford Leicestershire 130,081 Leicester Rutlandshire 16,356 Okeham _ . ... , Northamptonshire 131,757 Northampton Twelve midland -j WarwickPshire 208,190 Warwic/ Worcestershire 139,533 Worcester Gloucestershire 250,809 Gloucester Oxfordshire 109,620 Oxford Buckinghamshire 107,444 Aylesbury 63,393 Bedford "Lincolnshire 208,557 Lincoln Huntingdonshire 37,568 Huntingdon Cambridgeshire 89,346 Cambridge r. , J Norfolk 273,371 Norwich Eight eastern Suffolk 210>43l Ipswich Essex 226,437 Chelmsford Hertfordshire 97,577 Hertford Middlesex 535,329* London _,, ., s Surrey 269,043 Guilford Three south- J Ken(. 307)624 Maidstone eastern . 159,311 Lewes sBerkshire 109,215 Reading -_, , j Wiltshire 185,107 Salisbury Four southern 219,656 Winchester 115,319 Dorchester ("Somersetshire 273,750 Taunton Three south- J Devonshire 343,001 Exeter western 188,269 Launceston "Flintshire 39,622 Flint Denbighshire 60,352 Denbigh -vt tit J Caernarvonshire 41,521 Caernarvon Six, North Wales < Anglesey 33;805 Beaumaris Merionethshire 29,506 Bala shire 47,978 Montgomery "Radnorshire 19,050 Presteign Cardiganshire 42,956 Cardigan <_■• <_. _.. txr t Pembrokeshire 56,280 Pembroke Six, South Wales < r, ., ,. ,_»_,,» n „ i Caermarthenslnre 67,317 Caermarthen Brecknockshire 33,633 Brecknock .Glamorganshire 71,525 Caerdiff * Exclusive of the tapital.

ENGLAND. 36 It is also generally believed that Alfred founded the subdivisions of counties called Hundreds and Tythings, now seldom mentioned, except in legal proceedings and in topographical de scriptions. The Hundred probably contained one hundred farms, while the Tything was restricted to ten. In the Norman period of English history few alterations of con sequence appear in the geography. Cumberland and Westmore land were wrested from the Scots ; and the provinces north ofthe Humber, which had maintained a kind of independence after the extinction of the Danish kingdom of Northumbria, were com pletely incorporated with the monarchy. On the west, Henry I. about the year 1 1 20, having conquered a part of Wales, invited and established a Flemish colony in Pembrokeshire, and one or two others of the most southern counties, which afterwards became remarkable for industry.

The subsequent conquest of Wales by Edward I. and its gradual association with England, are suf ficiently known. Historical epochs.] 1. The population of England by the Celts. 2. The Belgic colonies, who introduced agriculture. 3. The Roman conquest. Britain was only seen by Julius Cæ sar. The Roman conquest began in the reign of Claudius, and in that of Domitan the Roman Eagle had been dispayed as far as the Grampian mountains. 4. The arrival ofthe Saxons and Angles in the fifth century. 5. The Danish conquest A. D. 1016. The Danish monarchs of England were Canute, Harold, and Hardicanute ; but the sceptre returned to the Saxon line A. D. 1042. 6. The Norman conquest, A. D. 1066. 7. The great charter granted by John at Runymede. 8. Not to mention the conquest of Wales and the temporary sub jugation of Scotland, the civil wars between the houses of York and Lancaster may be regarded as the next memorable epoch. 9.

The reformation introduced by Edward VI. and Elizabeth. 10. The civil wars under Charles I. 11. The Revolution. 12. The war with the American colonies forms not only an epoch of singular novelty, but of the most important consequences. Antiquities.] The ancient monuments of a country are intimately connected with the chief epochs of its history, and particu larly with the revolutions it has undergone by foreign conquest or new population. The English antiquities fall of course into six divisions. 1. Those belonging to the primitive Celtic inhabitants, 2. Those of the Belgic colonies. 3. Those of the Romans. 4, Those of the Saxons. 5. Reliques of the Danes. 6. Norman monuments. Few of those remains, it must be confessed, throw much light upon history ; but many of them being interesting and curious in themselves, they deserve the attention of the traveller and geographer.

Those of the first Celtic inhabitants were probably, as usual among savage nations, constructed of wood, and of course there can be no remains. Some rude barrows and heaps of stones may ENGLAND. z: perhaps belong to the Druidic tribes, but Stonehenge, the large Barrows or tumuli, Sec. &c. more probably belong to the Belgic colonies. Stonehenge is situated near the capital of the ancient Belgae, and there is a similar monument, but said to be of far greater extent, near Vannes, a town on the French coast, which was possessed by the Belgae. Similar monuments also occur in Denmark and Sweden, and in Iceland even the date of erection is sometimes ascertained, these circles being familiarly known by the name of Domh-ringr, that is literally Doom-ring or Circle of Judgment, being the solemn places where courts were held.

Yet Stonehenge will be found, on inspection, to fall short of the ridicu lous exaggerations of antiquaries, impressing eve-y traveller, after the perusal of such accounts, with disappointed ideas of smallness and want of importance. Such ideas arc however unjust, as it is a noble and curious monument of early times. There appear to be three principal circles of stones, the outer connected together by an uniform pavement as it were at the top, to which the chiefs might ascend and speak to the surrounding crowd. A second circle consists of detached upright stones about five feet in height, while the highest are eighteen. Within this is a grand oval, originally consisting of five trilithons of two huge stones crossed by another at the top and inclosing smaller stones, which seem to have been seats, and a large flat stone commonly called the altar, but which seems to have been the throne or seat of judgment.

There is besides a very high stone towards the northeast or rising sun, and near this a large flat stone encompassed with a mound, which is probably the real altar on which human victims were sometimes sacrificed. There are also two other stones at a con siderable distance to the E. and W. and the whole seems to be in the midst of a very extensive circle, marked by an earthen em bankment almost effaced by the lapse of years, and affording sufficient space for all the males ofthe tribe or nation. The largest stones are of silicious sand-stone, but the altar, or rather throne, is calcareous sand-stone.* The smaller stones are of grunstein, or homblend mixed with felspar. On its first erection the appearance must have been striking, the large stones being of pure white and the smaller black. After the establishment of Christianity the circles of judgment, which had been polluted with human sacrifices and other pagan rites, were abandoned, and the great courts were held on what were called Moot hills or hills of meeting, many of which still ex ist in the British dominions and in the Netherlands.

The Roman antiquities of England have been repeatedly illus trated. The greatest number of Roman inscriptions, altars, &c. has been found in the north along the great frontier wall which extended from the western sea to the estuary of Tyne. The Ro man roads were also striking monuments of their power. A grand trunk, as it may be called, to anticipate the language of our inland navigations, passed from the south to the north, and another to the * Tovvn*m's Tracts, 228. ENGLAND. 38 west, with branches in almost every direction that general con venience and expedition could require. What is called the Wat ling-street led from Richborough in Kent, the ancient Rutupiae, N. W. through London to Chester. The Ermin-street passed from London to Lincoln, thence to Carlisle and into Scotland, the name being supposed to be corrupted from Herman, which means warrior, as the chief wars lay in the north.

The Fosse way is supposed to have led from Bath and the western regions N. E. till it joined the Ermin-street. The last celebrated road was the Ilke nild, or Ikneld, supposed to have extended from near Norwich S. Winto Dorsetshire.* The Saxon antiquities in England are chiefly edifices, sacred or secular ; many churches remain which were altogether or for the most part constructed in the Saxon period, and some are extant of the tenth or perhaps the ninth century. The vaults erected by Grimbald at Oxford in the reign of Alfred, are justly esteemed curious relics of Saxon architecture. Mr. King has ably illustrated the remains of the Saxon castles. The oldest seem to con sist of one solitary tower, square or hexagonal : one of the rudest specimens is Coningsburg Castle in Yorkshire ; but as that region was subject to the Danes till the middle of the tenth century it is probably Danish.

Among the smaller remains of Saxon art may be mentioned the shrines for preserving relics, which some suppose to present the diminutive rudiments of what is styled the Gothic architecture ; and the illuminated manuscripts, which often afford curious memorials of the state of manners and knowledge. The Danish power in England, though of considerable duration in the north, was in the south brief and transitory. The camps of that nation were circular like those of the Belgae and Saxons, while those of Roman armies are known by the square form ; and it is believed that the only distinct relics of the Danes are some castles to the north ol the Humber and a few stones with Runic inscriptions. The monuments styled Norman, rather to distinguish their epoch, than from any information that Norman architects were employed, are reputed to commence after the conquest, and to extend to the fourteenth century ; when what is called the rich Gothic began to appear, which in the sixteenth century was supplanted by the mixed ; and this in its turn yielded to the Grecian.

In general the Norman style far exceeds the Saxon in the size of the edifices and the decoration of the parts. The churches be come more extensive and lofty, and though the windows retain the circular arch they are larger and more diversified ; the circu lar doors are festooned with more freedom and elegance, and un couth animals begin to yield to wreaths of leaves and flowers. The solitary keep or tower of the Saxon castle is surrounded with a double wall, inclosing courts or dwellings of large extent, de fended by turrets and double ditches, with a separate watch-tower called the Barbican. Among others the cathedrals of Durham * Gough's Brit. Topog. I. 10. ENGLAND. 39 and Winchester may be mentioned, as venerable monuments of Anglo-Norman architecture, and the castles are numerous and well known.

What is called the Gothic or pointed arch is generally supposed to have first appeared in the thirteenth century, and in the next it became universal in religious edifices. The windows diffused to great breadth and loftiness, and divided into branching interstices, enriched with painted glass, the clustering pillars of excessive height spreading into various fret-work on the roof, constitute, with decorations of smaller note, what is called the rich Gothic style, visible in the chapel of King's College, Cam bridge, and many other grand specimens in this kingdom. The spire corresponds with the interior, and begins about the thirteenth century to rise boldly from the ancient tower, and diminish from the sight in a gradation of pinnacles and ornaments. Religion.] The church of England is the only reformed church, which has retained the episcopal form in its ancient splendor ; for though bishops may also be found in Denmark, Sweden, Nor way, &c. they are rather inspectors of the conduct of the clergy and of the modes of education, than prelates endowed with sena torial rank and dignity.

In England, on the contrary, the bishops are peers of parliament, and have the style and importance of no bility. Yet the creed of the English church is rather Calvinistic than Lutheran. But the special tenets of the English church are sufficiently explained in the thirty -nine articles ; and a brief idea of its government will be more pertinent to the present purpose. Upon his dispute with the pontiff', Henry VIII. assumed the title ot supreme head ofthe national church. Next in dignity and power are the archbishops of Canterbury and York ; the first being styled Primate of all England; and the second Primate of England. The archbishop of Canterbury precedes all persons, except the royal family ; he has the power of probate of all testa ments within his province, and of granting several dispensations concerning benefices ; he has also four courts of judicature, that of Arches, of Audience, of Prerogative, and of Peculiars.

In ether respects the archiepiscopal office is rather a dignity than a jurisdiction, and the primates rarely interfere in any dioceses ex cept their own. They are appointed by the king in the same manner as the bishops, by what is called a Conge d'Elire, or leave to elect Upon any vacancy in an episcopal see, the dean and chapter apply to the king, who returns a Conge d'Elire naming the person to be chosen. A chapter of the prebendaries is then summoned by the dean, and they are constrained, under the penalty of <\prœ munire, to elect the person nominated. The solemnity is com. pleted by the royal assent under the great seal, and by the confir mation and consecration performed by the metropolitan or in his name. The prelate afterwards pays homage to the king for his temporalities, or the baronies connected with the see; and com pounds for the first fruits, that is, the revenue of the first year, which is paid to the corporation for increasing the benefices of the poor clergy.

The omission of consecration fs the only difference ENGLAND. 40 when a bishop is translated to another see ; and when an arch bishop is nominated, the king appoints four or more bishops to officiate at the confirmation. The bishop alone may ordain deacons and priests, dedicate churches and burial grounds, and administer confirmation. In. former times episcopal jurisdiction extended to the licensing of physicians, surgeons, and schoolmasters, and to the conjunction of small parishes. At present it chiefly embraces questions of births, marriages, deaths, and testaments, and any delinquencies ofthe clergy ; to which body indeed their attention is now chiefly confined, and they rarely, except in parliament, interfere in secular subjects. The bishop of Sodor and Man has no place in par liament.

All the other bishops are barons and peers ofthe realm by three different claims ; in right of the baronies attached to their sees, as barons summoned by writ, and as barons by patent, a form -which accompanies their consecration. Their privileges approach the regal ; they are sole judges in their own courts, and issue writs in their own names, not in the royal style used by other courts. They can depute their authority, which no other judge can ; and their episcopal power of conferring orders, he, may be exerted in any Christian country, while lay peers are only acknowledged in the country where they derive their dignities. To pass other more minute privileges, the bishop of London, as presiding over the capital, has the precedence of all the others. The see of Durham constitutes a county palatine, with great powers and prerogatives : the authority and patronage of the bishop are of course very extensive, and even the king's judges only sit in his diocese by his permission.

The bishop of Win chester is the third in dignity, but esteemed the first in opulence, as the large civil list of Durham, while it adds power, diminishes revenue. These three bishops precede all "the rest, who take place according to the seniority of consecration. To every cathedral in England belong several prebendaries as canons, and a dean, so styled, as is said ( Decanus) because he an ciently presided over ten canons. In the old quaint language he was called one of the bishop's eyes, while the archdeacon who had charge of the deacons was reputed the other. The dean and chapter of prebendaries assist the bishop in ecclesiastic affairs. The prebendaries are so styled from the prebend or pass prxben da, a portion of land or income allotted to them ; and, with the dean, form a body, college, or corporation : and they have several privileges superior to the common or minor canons.

At the re formation their salaries were mostly converted into money, but those of Durham preferred the ancient portions of land ; which having prodigiously increased in value, they are now styled golden prebends, being worth from 800/. to 1200/. a year, while the bishop out of 9000/. a year has to support a great and unavoidable ex penditure. The next order is that of the arch-deacons, amounting in all to about sixty ; their office is to inspect the moveables of the church es, to reform slight abuses, and to induct into benefices. Arch- ENGLAND. 41 priests, who on the Continent share the labours of the arch-deacon on a smaller scale, being superintendants over a few parishes, were in England also styled rural deans, but are now unknown. Subdivisions of government are so much controlled by the very nature of human affairs, that the power of the arch-priest almost correspond with the Scotish presbytery, while the provincial sy nods are similar to bishoprics.

Of the clergy in general, the lowest order is that of deacons, whose office formerly was to superintend the poor ; the ancient donations to the church being always assigned in three divisions, one to the poor, another for repairs, and the last for the clergy. At present the deacon's office is restricted to baptism, to reading in the church, and assisting the priest at the communion by hand ing the cup only. Deacon's orders cannot be canonically received before the age of twenty-three years, those of a priest require twenty-sour, and a bishop must be thirty. The curate is a clergy man appointed to officiate for another, and is so named from his having the care of souls ; hence the French rather apply the term to the rector. If the predial or great tythes of the parish be im propriated, or converted into secular hands, the priest is termed a vicar, a name originally implying that they were the vicarii, or deputies of the rector ; but if the tythes be entire, the priest is styled rector.

The church wardens superintend the repairs and decorations of the church, and the requisites for divine service, and collect the alms of the parishioners ; they are annually elect ed at Easter, and have sometimes sidesmen, a kind of assistants. The sacristan, corruptly called sexton, originally had the care of the furniture and plate of the church ; and by a still greater corruption the appellation is now applied to the grave-digger, when it ought to have been conferred on the parish-clerk. The clergy in general enjoy some peculiar privileges. Their goods are free from tolls in fairs and markets : they cannot be com pelled to any office civil or military : they are only amerced according to their temporal estate : nor are they assessed for a robbery com miitted in the hundred, or for watching, warding, highways, &c. &c. Ecclesiastical courts still retain considerable power : the con vocation, consisting of the archbishops and bishops, with a lower house of 150 members, only meets for the sake of form ; but have not been allowed to deliberate since the reign of Anne.