

GETTYSBUEG. 



GREAT BRITAIN. 



455 



Denmark and Germany, and the year 1863 

 closed with the almost certain prospect of a 

 speedy war. (See SOHLESWIG-HOI.STEIN.) 



GETTYSBURG is the capital of Adams 

 county, Pennsylvania. It is situated on the 

 head waters of the Monocacy, about forty miles 

 north of Frederick in Maryland. It has a 

 beautiful location, surrounded with hills, val- 

 leys, and the dark outline of the Blue Ridge 

 on the west, and the billowy Catoctin range on 

 the south. A great battle was fought here on 

 the 1st, 2d, and 3d days of July. Subsequent- 

 ly the bodies of the slain of the Union Army 

 were gathered in a national cemetery located 

 on the battle field. This was dedicated with 

 much ceremony in November. 



GILBART, JAMES WILLIAM, Esq., born in 

 London, March 21, 1794, died at Brompton- 

 crescent, Middlesex, August 8, 1863. He be- 

 came a clerk in a London bank in 1813, and 

 while in that position took an active part in 

 the Athenian Debating Society, and was subse- 

 quently connected with the Union Society, of 

 which Mr. J. S. Mill and Lord Macaulay were 

 members. From 1825 to 1827 he was a cashier 

 in a Birmingham office, and during that time 

 delivered an interesting course of lectures on 

 the philosophy of history. Shortly after this 

 he was appointed manager of a branch of the 

 Provincial Bank of Ireland, but retired from 

 that post to take the general management of 

 the London and Westminster Bank, the duties 

 of which he discharged with much ability until 

 1859, and on his retirement from the office of 

 general manager he was elected a director of 

 the company. Mr. Gilbart was the author of 

 many works, among which may be mentioned 

 "A Practical Treatise on Banking," " The His- 

 tory and Principles of Banking," "A History 

 of Banking in Ireland," "The Logic of Bank- 

 ing," "Banking and the Currency," "History 

 of Banking in America," "Logic for the Mil- 

 lion," &c. He was a Fellow of the Royal So- 

 ciety, and in the International Statistical Con- 

 gress, held in July, 1860, he was appointed one 

 of the committee of the section of Commercial 

 Statistics. 



GRAND GULF, a village in Claiborne coun- 

 ty, Mississippi, on the Mississippi river, two 

 miles below the mouth of Big Black river. 

 It contained two or three churches, a market, 

 and several steam mills. Considerable cotton 

 was formerly shipped from the place. The 

 population was about 1,000. It was fortified 

 by the Confederates with batteries fronting on 

 the river, but evacuated on the approach of Gen. 

 Grant in the rear. (See AEMT OPERATIONS.) 



GREAT BRITAIN, OR THE UNITED KING- 

 DOM OF GREAT BRITAIN and IRELAND. Area, 

 112,406 square miles; population, 1861, 29,- 

 334,788. Capital, London. Government, a 

 Constitutional Monarchy. Parliament, two 

 Houses, Lords and Commons. Queen, Alex- 

 andrina, Victoria. Heir apparent, Albert Ed- 

 ward, Prince of Wales, eldest son of the Queen. 

 Cabinet: Viscount Palmerston, First Lord of 



the Treasury; Lord Westbury, Lord High 

 Chancellor; Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, 

 Chancellor of the Exchequer ; Earl Granville, 

 K. G., Lord President of the Council ; Duke of 

 Argyle, Lord Privy Seal ; Rt. Hon. Sir George 

 Grey, Baronet, Secretary of State for the Home 

 Department ; Earl Russell, Secretary of State 

 for Foreign Affairs; the Duke of Newcastle, 

 Secretary of State for the Colonies ; Earl De 

 Grey and Ripon, Secretary of War; Rt. Hon. 

 Sir Charles Wood, Baronet, Secretary of State 

 for India ; the Duke of Somerset, First Lord 

 of the Admiralty ; Rt. Hon. T. Milner Gibson, 

 President of the Board of Trade ; Lord Stanley 

 of Alderley, Postmaster General; Rt. Hon. Ed- 

 ward Cardwell, Chancellor of the Duchy of 

 Lancaster ; Rt. Hon. 0. Pelham Villiers, Presi- 

 dent of the Poor Law Board. 



There was nothing of special interest to the 

 United States in the events transpiring in Great 

 Britain previous to the opening of Parliament 

 on the 6th of February, 1863. In the royal 

 speech at the opening of the session, the ap- 

 proaching marriage of the Prince of Wales to 

 the Princess Alexandra of Denmark was an- 

 nounced; the offer of the Greek crown to 

 Prince Alfred and its declination were stated. 

 It was further declared that the protectorate of 

 the Ionian Isles would be resigned, in order 

 that they might be incorporated with the king- 

 dom of Greece whenever a stable government 

 was organized. The patient endurance exhib- 

 ited by the manufacturing population of the 

 cotton districts, under their severe privations 

 was eulogized. The neutral position hitherto 

 maintained between the contending parties in 

 the United States, it was announced, would still 

 be preserved. The speech closed with a refer- 

 ence to the beneficial results of the commer- 

 cial treaty with France, and the adjustment of 

 a similar treaty with Belgium, and the announce- 

 ment that papers relating to the recent trans- 

 actions in Japan would be laid before the two 

 Houses. The arrival of the Princess Alexan- 

 dra at Margate, on the 5th of March, her sub- 

 sequent progress through London, and her mar- 

 riage on the 1 Oth of that month occupied public 

 attention to the exclusion of other topics. The 

 relations of the British Government at this time 

 and for two months later with the United 

 States were of a very unsatisfactory character, 

 and the opinion was widely entertained in Eu- 

 rope that ere long the two nations would drift 

 into a war with each other. There was far less 

 apprehension of such a result on this side the 

 Atlantic than on the other, but there was for 

 some time real danger of a collision. The Gov- 

 ernment of the United States, annoyed by the 

 legal quibbles by which the escape of the Ala- 

 bama had been permitted, and the spirit of the 

 Foreign Enlistment Act violated, and fully ap- 

 prized that other armed vessels, some of them 

 of a formidable character, were in progress of 

 construction in English ports and destined soon 

 to add to the fleet of marauders on the high 

 seas, unless the British Government maintained 



