yards; and in the south, it produces olives, figs, oranges, and the mulberry tree, which is so important to their silk manufactures.

PRODUCTIONS.-The principal productions are brandy, wines, grain, oil, fruit, madder, tobacco, hemp, flax, and beet-root, which is extensively used for making sugar.

AGRICULTURE.-France is essentially an agricultural country; and about three-fifths of the entire population are engaged in pursuits connected with it.

MANUFACTURES.--Its principal manufactures are silks, woollens, cottons, linens, laces, porcelain, jewellery, watches and clocks, coloured glass, artificial flowers, articles of fashion, ribbons, gloves, perfumery, fire-arms, and cutlery.

The most important and characteristic manufacture of France is that of silk fabrics, which surpass those of any other country in richness of material, brilliancy of colour, and elegance of design. The silk manufactures are chiefly in the south and south-east; and the woollen, cotton, and lace, in the north and north-east. Lyons, Nîmes, Avignon, Tours, St. Etienne, and Paris are the chief seats of the silk manufacture-particularly Lyons. Sedan, Louviers, Rouen, Elbeuf, Abbeville, and Amiens are the chief seats of the woollen manufacture. Rouen is also noted for its extensive cotton and linen manufactures. Also Lille, Cambray, Valenciennes, &c. The two latter, with Dieppe and Alençon, are also noted for the manufacture of lace.

COMMERCE. The commerce of France is very extensive, but greatly inferior to that of the British Empire. The principal ports are Marseilles, Havre, Bordeaux, Nantes, La Rochelle, Dunkerque, Boulogne, Dieppe, St. Malo, Bayonne, and Cette.

NAVAL PORTS.-Cherbourg (fortified in the strongest possible manner), Brest, L'Orient, Rochefort, and Toulon."

a Its vineyards cover about 5 millions of acres; and the woods and forests, which supply most of the fuel used in France, occupy about 17 millions.

The wines of France, particularly those of Burgundy, Champagne, and the claret of Bordeaux, are the most esteemed of any in Europe.

The standing army of France, in the zenith of Napoleon's power, amounted to 1,200,000 men; and its fleet to 73 ships of the line, 67 frigates, and a large number of smaller vessels. The naval power of France was, however, almost annihilated by Britain. From the commencement of the Revolutionary war to the Peace of Paris in 1814, we took or destroyed 97 of their line-of-battle ships, 219 frigates, and large numbers of smaller vessels.

The French army, in 1873, amounted to 454,000 men, and the navy to 62 ironclads, 326 steamers, and 113 sailing vessels, carrying in all 3,045 guns.

RELIGION. The established religion is Roman Catholic, but all others have full toleration; and Protestant clergymen are paid by the state.

GOVERNMENT.-The government is at present Republican.

In LITERATURE and SCIENCE France has long held a distinguished rank, but till the reign of Louis Philippe the education of the great body of the people was almost entirely neglected. Since that period, an organized and extensive system of popular education has been in operation under the control of the government.

The French are a brave, lively, intelligent, and ingenious people, and are noted for their politeness and attention to strangers.

HISTORICAL SKETCH.

France was originally peopled by the ancient Celts, whom the Romans called Gauls. It was conquered by Julius Cæsar about 60 years B.C.; and it continued to form a part of the Roman empire till it was subdued by the Franks, under Clovis, who gave it its present name. Clovis was the first king of France, and under him Christianity became the religion of the state. In the year 800, the celebrated Charlemagne or Charles the Great, was crowned Emperor of the West. His conquests extended over Spain, Germany, and the greater part of Italy. But soon after his death, the German empire was separated from France. The Normans, or Northmen, under Rollo the ganger, ancestor of William of Normandy, first landed in Neustria in 911 A.D., and having subdued and settled in that part of France, gave to it its present name of Normandy. It was the descendants of the same people who, in 1066, achieved the conquest of England, under William Duke of Normandy, surnamed the Conqueror. In 987, Hugh Capet, Duke of France, assumed the crown, and became the founder of the third race of French kings. Among the succeeding events in French history may be mentioned the wars with Edward III. and Henry V. of England, which proved most disastrous to France. In the former wars, John, the French monarch, was made prisoner; and the result of the latter was, that Henry was declared heir to the crown of France (1420), and on his death, his son, Henry VI., was proclaimed king. In a few years after, the French, headed by the celebrated Joan of Arc, gained several battles over the English; who, though they were again victorious, were obliged soon after to retire from the country (1450). In 1597, Henry IV., King of Navarre, the first of the house of Bourbon, ascended the throne of France. This great and good prince was assassinated in 1610. Louis XIV. began to reign in 1643, at the age of five years. During his long and prosperous reign, France made great advances in science and literature, and attained a high rank among the nations of Europe. In 1789 the ancient government was overturned by one of the most sanguinary revolutions on record. The king, Louis XVI., was beheaded in 1793, and a republic established, which was in its turn subverted, and General Bonaparte, a Corsican, became the supreme ruler of the nation, with the title of First Consul (1799), and five years later (1804) he became Emperor.

The armies of France now overran Europe, and many of its kingdoms were bestowed by Napoleon on members of his own family. The fortunes of the Emperor received their first check in Spain, where Wellington gained the decisive battles of Salamanca (1812), and Vittoria (1813). In 1812 the grand army was marched into Russia; the battle of Borodino won; and Moscow occupied. But the French, exposed, owing to the burning of Moscow, to the rigours of a northern winter, were forced to commence a retreat, the miseries of which culminated at the passage of the frozen Beresina. Napoleon hurried to Paris in order to raise fresh levies. With these he met his enemies at Leipsic (1813), where he suffered a signal defeat. The Allies now poured into France, and occupied Paris (1814). Napoleon abdicated on the 11th April, and soon after went into captivity in the island of Elba. The Bourbons were now restored in the person of Louis XVIII. In the beginning of 1815, Napoleon eluded his guard, landed in France, and the Bourbons were exiled once more. The great reverse of Waterloo on the 18th of June led to the second abdication of Napoleon. The period from the 20th March to the 22nd of June, 1815, is known in history as the "Hundred Days." Louis XVIII. was again restored and reigned until 1824, when he was succeeded by his brother, Charles X. A revolution broke out in July, 1830, which led to the expulsion of the elder branch of the house of Bourbon, and the accession to the crown of the younger branch in the person of LouisPhilippe, son of Philip Egalité, Duke of Orleans. 1848 witnessed another revolution, the exile of the Orleanists, and the establishment of a republic. In 1851 Louis Napoleon, son of Louis King of Holland (brother of Napoleon I.) and of Queen Hortense, daughter of the Empress Josephine by her first husband, Viscount Beauharnais, was elected President of the Assembly for ten years. In 1852 the empire was established, Louis Napoleon being proclaimed Emperor, as Napoleon III. In 1859 the French took up the cause of Italy and defeated Austria at Magenta and Solferino. The recompense France received for this assistance was Nice and the province of Savoy. Napoleon III. commenced a war with Germany in 1870, which cost him his throne, and ended in the loss to France of Alsacea and part of Lorraine, and the establishment of a republican government in France.

RUSSIAN EMPIRE.

THE Russian Empire is the largest in the world, with the exception of the British Empire, which it nearly approaches in size, but its population is only about one-third of the latter. In fact this huge empire extends over more than a seventh of the whole

a This province was acquired by corquest after the victory of Rheinfeld in 1638, during the Thirty Years' War. Strasbourg, its chief town, was taken possession of by Louis XIV. in 1681.

b Lorraine, the ancient Lotharingia, so called from Lothaire I., to whose lot it fell on the partition of the dominions of Louis le Débonnaire, in 843, was long coveted by France, who finally obtained possession of it at the death of Stanislaus, the dethroned King of Poland (1766).

land on the surface of the globe, but by far the greatest portion of it is uninhabited-and it might be added, uninhabitable; for the greatest part of it seems destined to perpetual sterility. Its estimated area and population (1879) are:

Russia in Europe,

Russia in Asia:a

Trans-Caucasia,

Siberia,

Central Asia,

Total,.

Area in English

square miles.

Population.

RUSSIA IN EUROPE.

BOUNDARIES.-On the north, the Arctic Ocean; on the west, Norwegian and Swedish Lapland, Prussia, Austria, and Turkey; on the south, Turkey, the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov, and the Caucasian Mountains; and on the east, the Caspian Sea, the Ural River, and the Ural Mountains.

Russia extends from 40° 21′ to 70° N. L., and from about 189 to 68° E. L. Its length from the southern extremity of the Crimea to the Arctic Ocean is 1,700 miles; and its breadth from the Ural Mountains to the Baltic is 1,500 miles.

Russia occupies about three-fifths of the whole continent of Europe. It comprises the greater part of the ancient kingdom of Poland, Finland, East Bothnia, part of Lapland, the Crimea or Taurida, Bessarabia, part of Moldavia, and Cis-Caucasus.

European Russia may be divided into eight great divisions; and these are subdivided into 64 provinces or governments.

In the following table the names of the great divisions of Russia, with the number of provinces in each, and their principal towns, are given :-

The Baltic provinces and those in the north and north-west of Great Russia are the most important.

Great Russia comprises the central and northern provinces, containing the ancient capital (Moscow) and the original nucleus of the empire. Little Russia is south of Great Russia. West Russia consists of provinces which formerly belonged to the kingdom of Poland. The territory still called Poland lies between West Russia and Austrian and Prussian Poland. It contains the city of Warsaw, its ancient capital.

South Russia comprises the provinces along the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, the most of which formerly belonged to Turkey. The country occupied by the Don-Cossacks is included in this division.

East Russia embraces the provinces lying along the Volga and Kama, from the Ural Mountains to the Caucasus, including the ancient Tartar kingdom of Kasan and Astrakhan, the inhabitants of which are still more than half Asiatic in their costumes, manners, &c. Cis-Caucasia (which includes Circassia) is in East Russia; Stavropol is its capital. Trans-Caucasia, the region south of the range of Mount Caucasus, is included in Asiatic Russia. See page 350.

PRINCIPAL TOWNS.-St. Petersburg, the capital, founded by Peter the Great (1703), is one of the finest and most commercial cities in Europe. It is divided into two parts by the Neva, which connects the Lake of Ladoga with the Gulf of Finland. Population, 876,000. Cronstadt is its port, and it is also the principal station of the Russian navy. It is built on a small island 18 miles W. of St. Petersburg, the passage to which it commands. It is strongly fortified. Population, 48,000. Riga, on the gulf of the same name, has a fine harbour, and is strongly fortified. It ranks next to St. Petersburg in commerce. Population, 169,000. Revel, on the Gulf of Finland, is also a strongly fortified and important commercial town. Novgorod (the great), on the river Volkov, Lake Ilmen, 120 miles S.E. of St. Petersburg, was the centre of the trade of Europe with the East, from the twelfth to the fifteenth century; and from Novgorod the goods of the East were forwarded to Wisby, in the island of Gothland, in the Baltic. The discoveries of Marco Polo diverted the trade with the East from the