at the same time offers most mournful exhibitions on examining the various sections of its population. 1. Fetishism, or the superstitious veneration of those living and inanimate natural objects, in which good or evil properties are discerned beyond the comprehension of a rude and ignorant people, prevails among some of the Finnic tribes and Samoiedes of the north-east. 2. Lamaism, or the religious veneration of the Dalai-lama, the high-priest of Thibet, as the incarnation of a Buddhist divinity, is professed by the wandering Kalmucks of the eastern steppes. 3. Mohammedanism, or an adherence to the doctrines and rules of the Koran as of Divine authority, with an idolatrous reverence for its author, the Arabian impostor Mohammed, is dominant in Turkey, and professed by all the Turkish population of Russia. The European Mohammedans belong to the Soonite division: they are generally characterized by a rigid observance of ceremonies, a gross sensuality, and a spirit of fierce intolerance. 4. Judaism, an adherence to the Scriptures of the Old Testament, rejecting the authority of the New, and entertaining the expectation of a Messiah to come, is professed by the Jews, who are scattered through most of the European countries, chiefly reside in the cities and towns, and nowhere form an entire nation, according to "a sure word of prophecy." 5. Christianity, professedly founded upon the authority of the Holy Scriptures, or the writings contained in the Old and New Testaments, is held nominally by the vast majority of Europeans, and has shed a most benignant influence upon this quarter of the globe, notwithstanding the deplorable corruptions with which human invention has obscured its Divine features, and the imperfect practice or mere form adherence, mournfully common among those who confess it in its purity. European Christendom comprises three great sections:-1. The Greek or Eastern Church, embracing a large proportion of the population of the Ottoman. and Russian empires, of Greece and the Ionian Isles, and great numbers within the Austrian dominions; distinguished by a multitude of superstitious rites and rigorous fasts, and great ignorance of the Scriptures both among the priests and people, who attach importance chiefly to the mere ceremonies of worship, many of which are frivolous and unmeaning, while others have an idolatrous tendency. 2. The Latin or Western Church, commonly called the Roman Catholic, which includes within its pale the Italians, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Belgians, Poles, great part of the Irish, many Swiss and Germans, differing from the Greek church in acknowledging the chiefship of the pope of Rome, while both communions agree in attachment to insignificant forms and gross corruptions of Christian doctrine, both equally admitting a supreme human authority in matters of faith and observance,—the foundation of their errors. 3. Protestants, prevailing in Great Britain, Holland, Prussia, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, north Germany, Switzerland, various parts of France, and the valleys of Piedmont, who, in opposition to the two former sections, maintain the Holy Scriptures to be the only rule of religious belief and practice; and renouncing the papal supremacy, and all mere human interposition, profess to rely for pardon and justification before God on Christ only, through faith alone in him, wrought in the heart of the believer by the Holy Spirit. Protestants recommend and enjoin the reading and study of the Scriptures, which the papal authority interdicts; and have largely caused their translation into foreign languages, for the benefit of mankind. The various political changes taking place in European states, seem tending to the further breaking down of the papal authority and influence, and to remove obstacles to the extension of the simple and pure doctrines of the gospel of free salvation to all who truly repent and believe in Jesus Christ. GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 196. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, situated off the north-west coast of Europe, is bounded on the north, west, and south, by the Atlantic Ocean and the English Channel, and on the east by the German or North Sea. It lies between latitude 49° 57′ and 58° 40′ N,, or including the dependent islands, the latitude extends to 60° 49′ N.; and between the longitude of 13° E. and 101° w. The difference of longitude occasions a difference of upwards of three-quarters of an hour of time between the extreme eastern and western points; and owing to the difference of latitude, the sun at Midsummer is about two hours and forty minutes longer above the horizon, in the northern than the southern extremity,-the longest day in the south amounting to about 16h. 8m., and in the north to 18h. 48m. Excluding the Shetlands and Orkneys, the most northern point is Dunnet Head, in Caithness; the most southern, the Lizard promontory in Cornwall; the most western, Cape Sybil in Kerry; and the most eastern, the coast near Lowestoft in Suffolk. 197. Great Britain, the largest island of Europe, is separated from it by little more than twenty miles at the south-east angle; but from thence the shores gradually recede from each other in a westerly and northerly direction, so that from Cornwall to the French coast the distance is upwards of 100 miles, while Scotland and Norway are much further apart. The island consists of two principal divisions, the southern, comprising England and Wales; the northern, Scotland; each of which is subdivided into counties. Its general shape is rudely triangular, Dunnet Head forming the apex, and the coast from the Land's End in Cornwall to the North Foreland in Kent, the base. The length of the western side of the triangle, measured in a straight line from Dunnet Head to the Land's End, is about 600 miles; of the eastern side from the same point to the North Foreland lighthouse, about 540 miles; and of the base 320 miles. Considerable indentations of the land occur on the east and south coasts, but the west, especially the north portion, has a remarkably irregular configuration, consisting of a series of deep narrow inlets. The opposite seas make a near approach to each other by means of these inlets, the closest approximations being at the following points : Entrance of the Avon into the British channel, and the head of the estuary of the Thames near London, distance about Miles N. E. extremity of Cardigan. Bay, near Harlech, and Fossdyke Wash in the 116 170 Liverpool on the estuary of the Mersey, and Hull on that of the Humber... Estuary of the Kent, at the head of Morecambe Bay, and Saltholme on the estuary of the Tees..... 112 70 Head of Solway Firth, and the outlets of the Blyth and Wansbeck in 62 Dumbarton on the Clyde, and Alloa on the Forth 33 Fort William, at the head of Loch Linnhe, and Inverness, near the outlet of Loch Ness into Murray Firth 55 Head of Loch Broom, and Kincardine on the Firth of Dornoch 24 18 The circuit of the island, following the course of the estuaries and inlets as far as the salt water penetrates, has not been ascertained; but proceeding no further up the Thames than the Nore Light, and adopting the same mode of measurement generally, the length of the coast-line has been computed to be 3,112 miles, a very moderate calculation, exceeding the coast-line of the United States from Texas to Canada. Great Britain includes an area certainly not less than 83,000 square miles, but by some authorities stated at 87,000. The greatest breadth of the southern division, measured along a parallel of latitude without cutting the sea, is about 280 miles, between St. David's Head in Pembrokeshire and the Naze in Essex; of the northern division, somewhat more than 150 miles from Point Rownamoan in Ross-shire to Buchan Ness in Aberdeenshire. Owing to the general direction of the island from the south coast inclining considerably towards the north-west, no longitudinal line can be drawn through its whole extent. The meridian of 2° w., which nearly divides England into two equal parts, scarcely touches Scotland at all. 198. England and Wales.-South Britain lies between 49° 57', and 55° 50′ N. latitude, and between 13° E. long. and 5° 40′ w. It forms a peninsula surrounded on three sides by the sea, separated from Scotland by a line stretching from the Solway Firth, along the Cheviot hills, to a little to the north of Tweed mouth. Its greatest extent, in a direct line north and south, is 362 miles from Berwick to the Dorset coast; east and west, 280 miles from the coast of Essex to that of Pembrokeshire; but the longest line that can be drawn without cutting the sea, extends from the Land's End north-east to the coast of Norfolk, a distance of 367 miles. The principal indentations of the coast are on the east, the estuaries of the Tees and Humber, the Wash, the Stour, Blackwater, and Thames; on the south, Southampton Water, Poole Harbour, Portland Roads, Torbay, Start Bay, Plymouth Sound, Falmouth Harbour, and Mount's Bay; on the west, Barnstaple Bay, the Bristol Channel, Swansea, Caermarthen, St. Bride's, Cardigan, and Caernarvon Bays, the estuaries of the Dee, Mersey, and Ribble, Morecambe Bay, and Solway Firth. The chief projections of the shores are* Flamborough Head, * Spurn *The asterisks denote the sites of lighthouses. Point, the Naze, *N. Foreland, * s. Foreland, * Dungeness, *Beachy Head, Selsey Bill, * Hurst Point, St. Alban's Head, *Portland Bill, Start Point, * the Lizard, Land's End, Hartland Point, Mort Point, St. David's Head, Great Orme's Head, *Point of Air, and * St. Bee's Head.-The dependent isles of any importance from their size or situation are:Holy Island, Farn and Staple groups, Coquet Island, off the coast of Northumberland; Isle of Sheppey, at the mouth of the Thames; Isle of Wight, off the coast of Hampshire, extending 22 miles by 13, intersected by a range of chalk hills, the south-east point, Dunnose Head, rising about 800 feet; Scilly Islands, a group of upwards of a hundred rocks, 30 miles w.s.w. of the Land's End, of which only six are inhabited, St. Mary's being the largest, and St. Agnes the most southern, the site of a lighthouse; Lundy Island, at the entrance of the Bristol Channel, about nine miles from the nearest point of Devonshire; Anglesea and Holyhead, forming one of the Welsh counties; Isle of Man, in the Irish Sea, 30 miles long by 12 broad, rising in Sneafell, the culminating point, to the height of 2,004 feet; the Norman or Channel Islands, consisting of Jersey, the largest, Guernsey, Alderney, and Sark, with other islets and rocks, geographically belonging to France, but subject to the English crown since the eleventh century. 199. The surface, though generally diversified, exhibits only inconsiderable hills through the greater part of its extent; but on the western side, from the frontiers of Scotland to Cornwall, conspicuous ranges occur. 1. The Pennine chain extends, with a few interruptions, from the Cheviot Hills, through the northern counties, the west of Yorkshire, into Derbyshire, terminating on the western borders of the county : 1,981 Ingleborough ditto, 30 miles round the base...................... Cross Fell, Cumberland, highest point..... The Huddersfield turnpike-road crosses the Pennine chain |