977 



BELFAST. 



BELGIUM. 



978 



1792 ship-building was first commenced here : there are now five 

 large ship-yards and a patent slip. In 1825 the income of the port 

 was SOOOl. ; in 1851 it waa 30,7591. In 1783 the gross amount of 

 customs, including excise, was 32,9001. ; in 1851 the amount of the 

 customs was 369,415?. ; that of excise duties for the Belfast district 

 was 222,357/. In 1835 the imports were 3,695,438t ; and the exports 

 were 4,341,794?. : the imports for 1850 were estimated to amount to 

 6,938,2382. ; the exports to 4,633,062^. 



In the year ending December 31, 1852, the number of vessels 

 registered as belonging to the port of Belfast was : under 50 tons, 

 147, tonnage 4872; above 50 tons, 308, tonnage 72,209; with 2 

 steamers of 28 tons, and 7 steamers of 1264 tons aggregate burden. 

 The number of vessels that entered and cleared coastwise in 1852 

 waa : inwards 4153, tonnage 280,526 ; outwards 548, tonnage 32,720 : 

 steam-vessels, inwards 1313, tonnage 358, 659; outwards 1255, tonnage 

 353,634. During 1852 'the number of vessels entered and cleared 

 from and to the colonies was : inwards 78, tonnage 23,338 ; outwards 

 46, tonnage 13,568. The number that entered and cleared to and 

 from foreign ports was : inwards, British 148, tonnage 22,568 ; 

 foreign 121, tonnage 21,749 ; outwards, British 85, tonnage 18,953; 

 foreign 117, tonnage 22,488. The cross-channel trade is very 

 extensive, employing besides sailing vessels about 40 steam-vessels 

 regularly. 



The manufacture of linens, damasks, and diapers is carried on in 

 all ita branches *ith great activity. The cotton manufacture is 

 also extensively pursued. The principal articles manufactured are 

 velvets, fustians, jeans, ticking, ginghams, quillings, and calico muslins. 

 In the flax spinning manufactures about 500,000 spindles are employed 

 in and near Belfast. The quantity of flax exported from Belfast in 

 1851 waa about 6000 tons. In the town and vicinity are numerous 

 dye-works, bleach-fields and print-works; also chemical works, oil- 

 mills, alabaster and barilla-mills, saw-mills, breweries, distilleries, tan- 

 yards, and several extensive foundries and machine-making establish- 

 ments, where all kinds of steam-engines and mill machinery are made. 

 Rope and sail-making are carried on. There are flax steeping works, 

 and a manufactory for patent felt. There is an extensive trade in 

 cured provisions. The weekly market is held in Belfast on Friday ; 

 there is also a daily market ; fairs are held on the first Wednesday of 

 each month. Of late many females have found employment in sewing 

 muslin-work for Glasgow manufacturers, and in making shirts for 

 the London wholesale houses. 



The several railways in connection with Belfast are the Ulster ; 

 terminus, New Dublin Road, near College Square, open to Armagh, 

 35 j miles : the Belfast and Ballymena ; terminus, York Street, open 

 to Ballymena, 33 miles, with a branch to Carrickfergus, 9 4 miles : 

 and the Belfast and County Down railway ; terminus at Ballymacarret, 

 open to Newtownards, 12J- miles, and with a branch to Holywood, a 

 bathing village on the eastern shore of Belfast Lough, 4 i miles. The 

 Ulster railway joins the Dublin and Belfast Junction railway at Porta- 

 down. The Lagan navigation connects Belfast with Lough Neagh and 

 the Ulster Canal and Newry Canal by a line of water carriage of 28 J 

 miles. 



The rise of Belfast aa a town may be said to date from 1604, 

 when Sir Arthur Chichester obtained from King James I. the grant 

 of this part of the escheated territory of the O'Neils. The Earl of 

 Essex and Sir John Perrot had already taken notice of the favourable 

 situation of the place for trade, and had advised the construction of 

 a dock -yard there. Sir Arthur proceeded to rebuild the old castle 

 which had probably been erected for the protection of the adjacent 

 ford on the Lagan ; and in a few years a town sprung up under his 

 protection. In 1611 the place was considerable enough to obtain a 

 charter of incorporation, erecting it into a municipal and parlia- 

 mentary borough having the privilege of sending two members to 

 the Irish Parliament. Its vicinity to the woods afforded facilities for 

 carrying on various branches of trade and manufacture requiring 

 large supplies of fuel, which were not available at Carrickfergus ; and 

 in 1637 the port monopolies of the latter town being abolished, and 

 the custom-house being transferred to Belfast, the latter became the 

 principal commercial entrepot of the New Plantation. The rising 

 t<iwn was much impeded by the ensuing civil wars, in which the 

 inhabitants adhered at first to the parliamentarian, but afterwards to 

 the royalist side. In the war of the revolution, Belfast supported the 

 cause of King \Villium III. In reward for their services on this 

 occasion, the Presbyterian ministers of Ulster received from the state 

 a grant of 1200J. a year, the foundation of the ' regium donum ' fund. 

 In 1672 Charles II. appropriated 6001. of the 'secret service money' 

 to the Presbyterian ministers, but the grant was afterwards discon- 

 tinued, and it was not renewed till after the revolution as mentioned 

 above. In 1704 one of the first editions of the Bible printed in 

 Ireland was printed here. In 1737 the first newspaper published in 

 Ulster, the ' Belfast Newsletter, 1 was commenced. There are now 

 nine newspapers published in Belfast, of which the ' Newsletter ' 

 is one. 



Belfast is the head-quarters of the northern military district of 

 Ireland ; the head of the custom, excise, and constabulary districts of 

 Belfast. The quarter sessions for the county are held hero in rotation 

 with Ballymena, Ballymoney, Antrim, and Carrickfergus. 



(I)ubourdieu's ftatatical Smney of the Ovunly of Antrim; Historical 



OEOO. DIV. VOL. I. 



Collections relative to the Town of Belfast, Belfast, 1817 ; Belfast and 

 its Environs, Dublin, 1842 ; Lewis's Topographical Dictionary; Govern- 

 ment Official Tablet; Ordnance Survey Map of Antrim; Thorn's 

 Irish Almanac for 1853; Communications from Belfast.) 



BELFAST COUNTY. [VICTORIA.] 



BELFORD, Northumberland, a market-town and the seat of a 

 Poor-Law Union, in the parish of Belford and northern division of 

 Bamborough Ward, is situated in 55 35' N. lat., 1 49' W. long., 48J 

 miles N. by W. from Newcastle, 322 miles N.N.W. from London by 

 road, and 330 miles by the Great Northern and York Newcastle and 

 Berwick railways. The entire parish comprehends 9380 acres, and 

 extends into Islandshire, a detached portion of Durham : the popu- 

 lation of the township of Belford in 1851 was 1226, of the entire 

 parish 1857. The living is a perpetual curacy in the archdeaconry of 

 Lindisfarne and diocese of Durham. Belford Poor-Law Union con- 

 tains 34 parishes and townships, with an area of 37,278 acres, and a 

 population in 1851 of 6861. 



The town stands on a gradual slope about two miles from the sea. 

 It has two principal streets and some smaller ones ; the houses are in 

 general neat and well built ; and the town is lighted with gas. The 

 church is an irregular building capable of containing 600 or 700 per- 

 sons ; there are three places of worship for Presbyterians, a National 

 school, and a subscription library. About a fourth of the inhabitants 

 are agricultural ; a little weaving is done ; and several of the towns- 

 men are employed in stone-quarries and coal-pits near the town. 

 There is a market on Tuesday, at which a considerable quantity of 

 corn is sold for exportation, and there are two small cattle-fairs in the 

 year. A county court is held at Belford. Several mineral springs are 

 in the vicinity. 



(Hutehinson's Northumberland ; Historical and Descriptive View of 

 J\'nrf Cumberland.) 



BELFORT, or BE'FORT. [RniN, HAUT.] 



BELGJS, the general name given by Caesar to the different tribes 

 inhabiting the north of Gaul, between the sea on the west, the rivers 

 Matrona (Marne) and Sequana (Seine) on the south, and the Rhenus 

 (Rhine) on the east. But it is not well determined how far this name 

 may be extended to the east. The Belgse were, according to Caesar's 

 testimony, of German origin, though perhaps somewhat mingled with 

 the Celtic inhabitants of Gaul, and distinguished by their warlike 

 character, which Caesar attributes partly to their origin and partly 

 to their being strangers to luxury and refinement. The Bellovaci 

 [BEAUVAIS] were the most warlike and numerous Belgic trib? in the 

 time of Caesar. (' De Bell. Gall.' ii. 4.) The Remi, whose capital was 

 Durocortorum (Rheims), were the nearest Belgic tribe to the Galli on 

 that side. The rest of the tribes are mentioned by Caesar (ii. 4) ; 

 among them we find one name, the Atrebates, the same as that of a 

 tribe in Britain. The Belgaj may be described generally as occu- 

 pying in the time of Caesar the French departments of Nord, Pas de 

 Calais, Somme, Seine Infe"rieure, Oise, and Aisne, with a part of 

 modern Belgium. 



When Caesar invaded South Britain he found that part of the 

 island occupied by Belga;, that is, by tribes of German origin, who 

 had passed over from the opposite shores of Gaul and obliged the 

 original inhabitants to retreat into the interior of the country. (' De 

 Bell. Gall.' v. 12.) But as he had no intercourse with the original 

 inhabitants, it is impossible to say how far the Belgsc had penetrated 

 inland ; and later historians have given us no account of this circum- 

 stance. We learn only that the whole southern coast from Suffolk to 

 Devonshire was occupied by Belgic tribes. The Cantii were settled 

 in Kent, the Trinobantes to the north of the Thames, the Regni in 

 Sussex, and the Atrebatii in Berkshire. To the west of them the 

 Belgae, properly so called, occupied Hampshire and Wiltshire, and 

 extended through Somersetshire to the Bristol Channel ; their capital 

 was Venta Belgarum (Winchester). Farther to the west the Duro- 

 triges were found in Dorsetshire, and their neighbours, the Damuouii, 

 in Devonshire. 



The Belga; in Britain, conformably to the character of their 

 brethren in Gaul, made a stout resistance to Caesar. But about a 

 century afterwards they were compelled to submit to the yoke which 

 the Romans had already in the time of Caesar imposed on their kins- 

 men in Gaul. The name Belgica occurs as the name of a division of 

 Gaul as late as Diocletian's time. Under the emperors it was governed 

 by an officer with the title of Procurator or Legatus. 



BELGIUM. The origin of this kingdom as a separate state dates 

 from the year 1830. In the month of August of that year the revo- 

 lution began at Brussels which severed the Belgian provinces from 

 the crown of Holland. On the 4th of October following the provisional 

 government at Brussels proclaimed the independence of Belgium ; and 

 on the 26th of December it was announced to the congress assembled 

 in that city that the allied powers of Europe had recognised the per- 

 manent separation of the Belgian provinces from the kingdom of the 



NKTI[KKI,ANDS. 



In February 1831 the congress elected the Duke of Nemours to 

 the throne of the new kingdom ; but hia father, Louis Philippe, king 

 of the French, having refused the crown on the part of his son, a new 

 election became necessary, and the choice of the national representa- 

 tives then fell upon Prince Leopold of Saxe Cobourg, widower of tho 

 Princess Charlotte of England. This prince having accepted the crown, 



3 K 



