1017 



BERLIN. 



nKKMtTDAS. 



IOH 



superstructure of iron, with twelve chapels or recesses beneath it, 

 which are dedicated to the memory of the Prussians who fell in the 

 twelve principal battle* fought in the campaigns of 1813, 1814, and 

 1815. It U supported on a substructure of stone raised on a terrace 

 80 feet in diameter, and commands a view of the country for more 

 than thirty miles round. The ' Friedens Denkmal,' standing in Belle 

 Alliance Plat*, a pillar of granite surmounted by Victory, the work 

 of Ranch, wits erected in 1840 to commemorate the peace which had 

 then lasted for a quarter of a century. 



In the various suburbs, or vorstiidto, of the Prussian metropolis 

 there are, besides many fine streets and spacious squares, numerous 

 important public buildings, including the House of Industry ; the 

 Royal Institute for the Blind ; the Asylum for 400 poor children, set 

 on foot by the late Professor Wadzeck in 1810, and bearing his name ; 

 the Alexandrina Asylum for 24 girls ; several other hospitals, asy- 

 lums, baths, schools, churches, and royal residences ; the Kouigs-atadt 

 Theatre, Ac. There are also manufactories of earthenware, chemicals, 

 and drugs, sugar refineries, and an extensive paper-milL Near the 

 Oranienburg Gate, and outside of the city walls, U the celebrated 

 Iron Foundry, which produces the beautiful trinkets and other small 

 articles in the composition called ' Berlin iron.' 



Berlin is the seat of civil and military government for the whole 

 kingdom, and as will be inferred from our description of its several 

 districts abounds in literary and scientific establishments, which, in 

 cases where such aid appears to be necessary, are liberally supported 

 by the government. The university, founded in 18.10, and designated 

 the University of Frederick William, after the late king, contains 

 above 160 professors and teachers, is attended by about 1200 

 students, and possesses a liBrary, commenced in 1830, which now 

 includes about 40,000 volumes. Berlin has also six royal gymnasia, 

 or high schools, taught by 165 professors and attended by 2410 

 pupils ; several public seminaries for scholars ; civic and rural 

 schools ; the Louise Foundation for the training of female teachers ; 

 a large number of private schools, academies of the arts, sciences, and 

 :chanical pursuits, schools of design, an academy of architecture, 

 ^ istrict schools for mechanics, superior civic schools, about thirty 

 public libraries, valuable collections of machines and models, societies 

 of natural history, geography, statistics, horticulture, medicine and 

 surgery, pharmacy, philomathics, experimental philosophy and medi- 

 cine, and the amelioration of prison discipline ; Bible societies, 

 missionary societies; a central association for the circulation of 

 religious books in the Prussian territories ; a ' Society of Friends of 

 the Arts ;' another for the education of deserted children who are 

 received into the House of Industry ; a society for cultivating the German 

 language ; an association for promoting Christianity among the Jews ; 

 the Frederick's Institute for educating 60 soldiers' children ; 

 several schools of industry for children ; many Sunday schools ; a 

 hank for savings ; and various associations for the relief of the poor. 

 There are a large number of hospitals and other benevolent asylums, 

 some of which are richly endowed ; asylums for widows and destitute 

 persons, orphan 'institutions, and numerous private charities of all 

 descriptions. 



Berlin in the year 1620 had only 10,000 inhabitants, and in 

 1688 not more than 18,000; and even 100 years ago the population 

 was not one-seventh of its present amount During the present 

 century the increase has been rapid: in 1811 the population was 

 157.6W; in 1831 it was 246,475; it rose in 1846 to 408,502; and in 

 May 1852 the population had increased to 441,981. This number 

 includes upwards of 8000 soldiers of the garrison, about 7000 Jews, 

 more than 6000 descendants of French Protestant refugees, and 

 about : holies. 



Berlin is one of the first manufacturing towns in the Prussian 

 dominions. Its chief productions are the celebrated Berlin china, 

 silks, silks and cottons mixed, woollens, cottons, stockings, and 

 riM.nn ; and next in order are gunpowder, cast-iron ware, silk hats, 

 paper, oils, refined sugars, and tobacco and snuff. It is a place of 

 extensive commercial dealings ; at the head of its public mercantile 

 ecUblishmenU are the Royal Bank, the Royal Company for Maritime 

 Commerce (See-handlung-gesellschaft), the Cash Association (Cassen- 

 verein), which was founded in 1 828, and several insurance companies. 

 There is a wool-market, the yearly sales in which amount to upwards 

 of a quarter of a million sterling. By canals which connect the 

 river Spree with the Oder on one hand and with the Kibe on the 

 other, Berlin has communication with the Baltic and with the German 

 Ocean. It has also railway communication in all directions by the 

 Potsdam, Magdeburg, and Hanover railway ; the Leipsic and Dresden 

 railway; the Hamburg railway; and by a line which runs to 

 Frankfurt on-thc-OiIer and to Brcsliui. 



There are several spots in the vicinity of Berlin to which the inhabi- 

 tant* resort for amusement The principal place of this kind is Char- 

 lottcnbnrg.a town about two miles and a half distant, where there is a 

 royal palace with extensive pleasure-grounds ; but the great attraction 

 of the place is the fine mausoleum of the late beautiful and unfortunate 

 Queen Ixmisn, to which numbers make their pilgrimage on the 19th of 

 July, the nnnivermry of her decease. Beyond the Halle Gate are tlin vil- 

 lages of Tempelhof, whore there are two fine gardens, and Gross-Beeren, 

 with a monument in commemoration of the celebrated battle fought 

 then between the Prnstians and French on the 23rd of August, 1813. 



The origin of Berlin is uncertain ; but it seems probable that the 

 two villages of Berlin and Cologne (Koln) became towns in the time* 

 of Margrave Albrecht II., between the years 1206 and 1220. liis 

 successors surrounded these towns with walls, and they seemed to 

 have attained a somewhat prosperous state about the period of the 

 extinction of the Anhalt line in 1319. But the disasters which 

 them during the succeeding hundred years again reduced them to 

 insignificance. They revived however upon the accession of the 

 house of Hohenzollern to the Brandenburg dominions in 1417. The 

 Burg, built by the elector Frederick II. about 1448, was the site of 

 the present Itoyal Palace ; and Berlin became the residence of its 

 princes under John, who died in 1490. It rose r.ipi'lly into importance 

 during the long and brilliant career of Frederick William, the great 

 elector, between the years 1640 and 1688. This prince enriched it 

 with several scientific establishments and collections, and his successor, 

 Frederick III., who afterwards assumed the kingly title, trod in his 

 steps ; he was the founder of Frederick's Town, the handsomest quarter 

 of Berlin, and in 1709 conferred the designation of Royal Residence 

 Towns on its respective districts. Even Frederick William I., in 

 spite of his parsimonious habits, did much to embellish it, and also 

 levelled many of the walls and ramparts which obstructed his 

 improvements. Far more however was done by Frederick II., his 

 son, from whom Berlin derived nearly the whole of its present form. 

 His successors, particularly tin- late king, have largely contri- 

 buted to render this city one of the finest in Europe, as well for 

 the symmetry of its plan as the beauty of its construction. In 1760 

 Berlin was occupied by a combined Austrian and Russian force from 

 the 9th to the 13th of October; a heavy contribution was exacted 

 from the city, and considerable excesses were, as usual in such can*, 

 committed by the Imperialist soldiery. The French had possession 

 of the city in 1806. Bonaparte entered Berlin on the 21st of October 

 in that year, and till the disastrous result of the French expedition 

 to Moscow in 1812, Prussia was obliged to acknowledge the supremacy 

 of France. 



BKRMEO. [BASQUE PROVINCES.] 



BKUMONDSEY. [SURREY.] 



BERMUDAS, TIIK, or SUMMERS' ISLANDS, arc situated in 

 the North Atlantic Ocean, 530 miles E. by S. (S. from Cape Hatteras 

 in North America, the nearest point of land, and 645 miles N.E. 

 from Atwood's Keys, the nearest of the West India Islands. Wreck 

 Hill, the western point of the group on the largest of the ialanHa, 

 is in 82 15' N. lat, 64" 50' W. long. In 1593 there was wrecked on 

 the islands a French ship, on board of which was one Henry May, 

 who appears to have published the first account of the Bermudas in 

 English. In 1609 Sir George Summers or Scunners was driven on 

 the islands, in the course of a voyage to Virginia, niul from him the 

 name of Sommers' Islands was derived. The Virginia Company 

 claimed the islands as the first discoverers, and sold their right to a 

 company of 120 persons, who having obtained from King James in 

 1612 a charter for their settlement, sent out 60 settlers with a 

 governor. The new colony was formed on St George's Island which 

 was hud out and fortified, and in the same year the town of St. 

 George was commenced. In 1G19 the islands having become cele- 

 brated for their beauty, richness, and salubrity, many of the nobility 

 purchased plantations and their cultivation was much encouraged ; 

 the number of white inhabitants at the time amounted to about 

 1000. On the 1st of August 1620, in accordance with instructions 

 from the company in England, the General Assembly was institute.! 

 to meet at the town of tit George. The islands prospered for many 

 years. During the civil wars many persons of diameter and opulence 

 took refuge in the Bermudas, among others the poet Waller, who 

 celebrated their beauty in an elegant poem, entitled ' the Battle of 

 the Summer Islands. At that time the number of the white 

 inhabitants is supposed to have been about 10,000. 



The Bermudas have always remained in the possession of the 

 British, though towards the close of the first American war General 

 Washington had on eye to their capture, with the view of occupying 

 them as a station for vessels of war for the annoyance of our West 

 India trade, as the islands lie directly in the homeward-bound track. 



Including the small islands the number in all is about 300, but 

 the large islands may bo reduced to five, namely, St George's, St 

 David's, Long Island (or Bermuda), Somerset, and Ireland. They 

 lie in a north-east and south-west direction, including a space about 

 20 miles in length, and more than 6 miles in the greatest breadth ; 

 they are all low, the highest point <v,ll, ,1 Tibb's Hill, at the southern 

 extreme of the large island, being only about 180 feet above the sea- 

 level. There are no springs or fresh-water streams in the island. 

 There are a few wells, but the water obtained is brackish. Each 

 bouse has a tank in which to collect rain-water, and on the island of 

 81 George are large tanks for the supply of water to the shipping. 

 Most varieties of rock found on the island are composed of corals 

 and shells of different sizes, more or less consolidated by a calcareous 

 cement, from which it has been conjectured that the Bermudas owe 

 their existence to the accumulation of such materials on a coral reef. 

 The Bermudas rise from a shoal 23 miles long and 13 miles broad, 

 around which is the deep water of the ocean. The surnninding seas 

 abound with various kinds of fish and turtle, anil the Bcrmn.imiH 

 are among the most dexterous of fishermen, more particularly with 



