GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



283 



Wyman, William, Baltimore, Md., gift to 

 Johns Hopkins University, 00 acres of land in 

 Baltimore. 



Yale University, gifts from a friend to con- 

 struct a new building for the medical school, $100,- 

 000; from a friend for the erection of a Young 

 Men's Christian Association building, $50,000; 

 from the family of Robert Callender, class of '98, 

 of Providence, R. I., $6,000; and from the class of 

 '96, a memorial gateway in memory of Messrs. 

 Cheney and Ives. See also individual names. 



Young 1 , Edward F. C., Jersey City, N. J., 

 gift to the Children's Home in that city, $5,000. 



Young-, Georg-e L., Boston, bequests to the 

 Children's Hospital, Massachusetts General Hos- 

 pital, Boston Lying-in Hospital, Massachusetts 

 School for the Blind, and American Unitarian As- 

 sociation, each $5,000. 



GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, a 

 monarchy in western Europe formed by the King- 

 dom of England and the Principality of Wales 

 with the Kingdom of Scotland, forming together 

 the Kingdom of Great Britain, and this with 

 the Kingdom of Ireland, the whole constituting 

 the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, 

 which holds supreme dominion over the Empire of 

 India and of colonies and dependencies of various 

 kinds self-governing federations and colonies, 

 colonies governed partly by the Crown but having 

 representative institutions, Crown colonies, and 

 protectorates under native laws and rulers con- 

 stituting with the United Kingdom the British 

 Empire. The reigning sovereign is Edward VII, 

 eldest son of Victoria I and Prince Albert, Duke 

 of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, born Nov. 9, 1841, who 

 succeeded to the throne on the death of his 

 mother, Jan. 22, 1901. The heir apparent is 

 Prince George, Duke of York and Prince of Wales, 

 the only surviving son of the King and Queen. 



The power to legislate for the United Kingdom 

 and for all the members of the British Empire, ex- 

 cept in so far as the power has been delegated to 

 local legislative authorities, is vested in the Brit- 

 ish Parliament, consisting of a House of Lords 

 and a House of Commons. Members of the House 

 of Lords are the princes of the royal blood; 

 spiritual lords, who are the metropolitan bishops 

 of ancient English sees; hereditary peers of Eng- 

 land, of Great Britain, and of the United King- 

 dom; hereditary peers of Scotland, elected by 

 their fellow peers for the duration of Parliament, 

 and of Ireland, elected for life; and life peers and 

 law lords. The number of peers on the roll in 1900 

 was 593. The House of Commons contains 670 

 members, elected in boroughs and counties, and 

 in universities, by all male householders and 

 lodgers, by secret ballot. The number of regis- 

 tered electors in 1900 was 5,287,285 in England 

 and Wales, represented by 495 members 253 for 

 counties, 237 for boroughs, and 5 for universities; 

 681,132 in Scotland, represented by 72 members 

 39 for counties, 31 for boroughs, and 2 for uni- 

 versities: and 764,196 in Ireland, represented by 

 103 members 85 for counties, 16 for boroughs, and 

 2 for universities. The duration of Parliament is 

 seven years, unless it is previously dissolved. The 

 average life of a Parliament during the reign of 

 Queen Victoria was less than four years and five 

 months. The Committee of Ministers, called the 

 Cabinet, representing the majority for the time 

 being in the House of Commons, exercises in 

 reality the executive authority that is nominally 

 vested in the Crown. The Prime Minister chooses 

 his colleagues and dispenses the patronage of the 

 Crown ; he initiates the policy of the Government 

 or approves the measures suggested by the other 

 ministers in their several departments", and when 



his policy or acts encou: 

 Parliament, manifested hi 



on a 

 e, he 



:ounter ilie <| , -|>]e;i*ure of 

 - >y fin ad VIM <: 



Cabinet question or by a direct VOL of < 

 cither resigns with the rest of the ( nhinct. I'orl.h- 

 with, or appeals to the country by rli,-s< Par- 



liament and ordering new election . 

 Cabinet resigns the retiring Prime Mini (.,., .,,1- 

 vises the Sovereign as to the selection o 

 statesman most competent to form a new (/o\ i n- 

 ment, usually the leader of the Opposition in the 

 House of Commons. Formerly on the death of 

 the sovereign the ministers retired, but the law was 

 changed, so that at the demise of Queen Victoria 

 all officers of the Crown retained their commis- 

 sions. The Cabinet formed on Nov. 1, 1900, was 

 composed as follows: Prime Minister and Lord 

 Privy Seal, the Marquis of Salisbury; Lord Presi- 

 dent of the Council, the Duke of Devonshire; Lord 

 High Chancellor, the Earl of Halsbury; Secretary 

 of State for Foreign Affairs, the Marquis of Lans- 

 downe; Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, 

 Lord James of Hereford ; First Lord of the Treas- 

 ury, Arthur J. Balfour; Secretary of State for 

 the Home Department, C. T. Ritchie; Chancellor 

 of the Exchequer, Sir Michael E. Hicks-Beach; 

 Secretary of State for the Colonies, Joseph Cham- 

 berlain; Secretary of State for War, W. St. John 

 F. Brodrick; Secretary of State for India, Lord 

 George Hamilton; First Lord of the Admiralty, 

 the Earl of Selbourne: President of the Local 

 Government Board, W. H. Long; President of the 

 Board of Trade, Gerald Balfour; Lord Lieutenant 

 of Ireland, Earl Cadogan; Lord Chancellor of 

 Ireland, Lord Ashbourne; Secretary for Scotland, 

 Lord Balfour of Burleigh; First Commissioner of 

 Works, A. Akers-Douglas; President of the Board 

 of Agriculture, R. W. Hanbury; Postmaster-Gen- 

 eral, the Marquis of Londonderry. 



Area and Population. England has an area 

 of 50,867 square miles, Wales 7,442 square miles, 

 Scotland 29,785 square miles, Ireland 32,593 square 

 miles, the Isle of Man 227 square miles, and the 

 Channel Islands 75 square miles, making the total 

 area of the United Kingdom 120,979 square miles. 

 The population of England and Wales increased 

 from 17,927,609 in 1851 to 20,066,224 in 1861, 22,- 

 712,266 in 1871, 25,974,439 in 1881, and 29,002,525 

 in 1891. In Scotland the population increased from 

 2,888,742 in 1851 to 3,062,294 in 1861, 3,360,018 

 in 1871, 3,735,573 in 1881, and 4,025,647 in 1891. 

 In Ireland the population was 6,552,385 in 1851, 

 having decreased from 8,175,124 in 1841, and it has 

 since decreased to 5,798,564 in 1861, 5,412,377 in 

 1871, 5,174,836 in 1881, and 4,704,750 in 1891. 

 The islands in the British seas had 147,842 in- 

 habitants in 1891, of whom 55,608 inhabited the 

 Isle of Man, 54,518 Jersey, and 37,716 Guernsey 

 and Alderney. 



The preliminary returns of the census of April 

 1, 1901, make the population present in the 

 United Kingdom 41,454,578, an increase in ten 

 years of 3,721,656, exceeding by 873,582 the in- 

 crease between 1881 and 1891. England and 

 Wales had a population of 32,526,075, showing an 

 increase of 12.17 per cent., compared with 11.65 

 per cent, in the preceding decennium. The natu- 

 ral increase of population in the United Kingdom 

 since 1891 was 4,311,543, showing a net emigra- 

 tion of 589,887. The rate of increase in population 

 for the United Kingdom was 9.9 per cent., com- 

 pared with 8.2 between 1881 and 1891, and 10.8 

 between 1871 and 1881. There was a higher rate 

 of increase in Great Britain than in the preced- 

 ing decennium, and in Ireland a lower rate of 

 decrease. The excess of births over deaths in 

 England and Wales was 12.39 per cent., compared 

 with 13.97 between 1881 and 1891. The number 



