A Brighter Day Begins with His Word.

John McClintock & James Strong • SECTION 1270

Section 1270

← McClintock & Strong Cyclopaedia — Volume 3

Grease (2r?n, che'leb, Psa. cxix, 70, fat [q. v.], as elsewhere rendered).

Great Britain and Ireland, the United King- dom OF, is, since the union of Ireland, the full official designation of the country more generalh' known as Great Britain, Britain, or the United Kingdom. It includes the two large islands of Great Britain (Eng- land and Scotland) and Ireland, and the adjacent small- er islands, together with the Channel Islands and the Isle of !Man. The island of Great Britain — so called to distinguish it from Britannia Minor, or Little Britain [see Bretagne], in France — lies between lat. 49° 57' 80" and 58° 40' 24" N., and between long. 1° 46' E. and G° 13' W., and is the largest island in Europe. It is bounded on the N. by the Atlantic, on the E. by the North Sen, on the S. by the English Channel, and on the W. by the Atlantic, the Irish Sea, and St. George's Channel. The most northerly point is Dunnet Head, in Caithness; the most southerly, Lizard Point, in Cornwall ; the most easterly, Lowestoft Ness, in Nor- folk; and the most westerly, Ardnamurchan Point, in Argj'leshire. Its greatest length is aljout 608 miles, and its greatest breadth (from Land's End to the east coast of Kent) aliout 320 miles, while its surface con- tains about 89,600 square miles. In addition to the home territories composing the kingdom. Great Brit- ain possesses a multitude of dependencies, some of them of vast extent, scattered over evorj- part of the globe, and constituting " an empire over which the sun never sets." According to the official census held in 1861 in the United Kingdom, and nearly all the colonies ex- cept British India, the extent and population of all the British dominions were in that year as follows :

Sq. Miles.

Inhabitants.

United Kingdom (inclusive of soldiers

121,115

3,364,722

933,722

122

512,193

106,449

130,756

7,647

2.5,485

2,582,070

29,321,288

9,264,243

135,571,3.51 16.5,317 3,3:!3.507 1,114,.50S 1,004,.595 7,426 2,363,767 1,322,937

Colonies and possessions (exclusive of

Bi-itisli India (exclusive of British armv, 62,8;i3 men)

West Indian I'lw.-e^sions

Islan<ls in tlie South Atlantic Ocean. .

I'oHSessions in tlie Indian Ocean

Australia and New Zealand

Total

4,419,559

174,156,882

Not included in this enumeration is the vast territory in North America which heretofore belonged to the Hudson's Bay Conqian}-, which in 1869 ceded its right of sovereignty. Added to the above total of square miles, this territory would increase the total extent of the British dominions to about seven millions of square miles, and make it, in point of extent, the first empire of the worhL The total population was estimated in 1809 at 200,000,000; and in this respect the liritish empire was the second of the'Avorld, being exceeded only liy the Chinese empire.

In England and Wales the Anglican Church is rec ognised as the state Church [see England, Chcrch of], and the sovereign must lielong to it. In Ireland the Anglican Church was also the established Church until 1869, when, after a long and violent struggle be- tween the Conservative and Liberal parties, it was disestablished. See Ireland. In Scotland the es- tablished Church is Presbyterian. See Scotland. According to the census returns of 1851 (in the census returns of 1861 religious statistics were not included), the number of places of worship, together with the sit- tings provided in England and Wales, and the estima- ted number of attendants on a particular daj-, were as follows :

Places

of Wor- eliip.

Sittings Provided.

Estimated Number of Attend- ants.

Establislied (Jliurcli

Wesleyan Metliodists (compris- ing seven distinct sects)

Independents or Congregation-

14,077

11,207

3,244

2,789

937

101

539

570

371

229

222

6

53

132

32

50

32

10

5,317,915

2,194,298

1,067,760

751,343

2.50,678

80.812

104,481

180,111

91,599

68,554

30,783

950

8,438

18,529

9,305

12,107

7,437

4,457

3,773,474

1,385,382

793,142

5''7,978

18(t,725

60,131

03,572

305,.393

18,172

37,156

18,800

587

4,150

10,414

7,364

7,082

4,908

2,612

Baptists (comprising six distinct sects)

Calvinistic Methodists

Scottish and Irish Presbyterians

Latter-day Saints, or Mormons. .

Foreign Protestant, Catholic, and

14,077j 5,317,915 3,773,474 20,390, 4,894,720 3,487,558

Total

34,467 10,212,035 7,261,032

SCOTLAND.

Places

of Wor- ship.

Sittings Provided.

Estimated Number of Attend- ants.

1183

889

465

39

36

134

192

23

119

S2

6

5

117 5

61 1 1

20 3

7C7,(K8 tTAf.RT]

495,335

288.100 10,<'09 16,424 40,022

70,342

10,319

20,0-^0

22,441

1,008

710

2.1.52

52,766

2,437

11,402

200

67

3,182

675

438,363

273,554

1.5,055

1.5,781

35,769

70,851

10,F89

24,330

21,768

S90

630

2,163

48,771

2,438

9,401

•J 00

07

3,177

675

United Presbyteiians

Reformed Presbyterians

Scotch ICpiscopalians

Independents or Congregation- alists

Glasites or Sandemanians

Unitarians

1183 2212

707,088 1 713,567 1,067,717 1 97.5,482

Total

3395 1 1.S34.S05 11. 089.0491

^ 1

" In England the chief institutions for education are the ancient national universities of Oxford and Cam- bridge ; the more recent institutions of London, Dur- ham, and Lampeter in Wales; the classical schools of Eton, Westminster, Winchester, Harrow, Charter- house, and Rugby; the various military schools; the colleges of the dissenting denominations; the middle- class schools, either started l)y individual teachers, and hence called ' adventure' schools, or by associated Ijod- ies, acting as directors, to whom the teachers are re- sponsible; the schools of design, and the various ele- mentary schools and training-colleges in connection with the different religious denominations. The num- ber of day-schools in England and Wales in 1851 was 46,042, of which 15,518 were public — i. e. schools deriv- ing a portion of their income from some source besides

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