553 



CONNOR. 



CONSTANTINOPLE. 



54 



to 143,693 dollars. The number of common school districts in 1852 

 was 1642; of children between the ages of 4 and 16 years, 96,382; 

 attending school in winter, 74,100 ; average attendance, 55,100. The 

 state has a Normal school at Hartford in which 200 pupils are in- 

 structed without charge; and schools or conventions for training 

 teachers have been established in each county. A State Reform school 

 for boys under 16 who have been convicted of offences punishable by 

 imprisonment has been established at Meriden, the grounds of which 

 cover an area of 161 acres. There are several colleges and superior 

 academical institutions in the state. Yale College is one of the oldest, 

 and next to Harvard University the most important and the most 

 numerously-attended institution of the kind in the United States. It 

 has a staff of 35 professors and tutors, and in 1850 had 555 students, 

 of whom 432 were students in the academical department, 38 in 

 theology, 26 in law, 38 in medicine, and 21 in philosophy and the 

 arts. The buildings cover a large area, and contain a library of 53,000 

 volumes ; the medical and theological libraries and schools ; the finest 

 geological and miueralcgical collection in the United States; the 

 Turnbull gallery of paintings; chapel, &c. Trinity College is an 

 Episcopal institution : it has 13 instructors and 79 students, and a 

 library of 15,000 volumes. The Wesleyan University at Middletown 

 has 7 instructors, 106 students, and a library of 12,000 volumes. The 

 Congregational Theological Institution at Hartford has 3 instructors, 

 j , and a library of 5000 volumes. In 1850 the Congre- 

 gationalists had 267 churches and 35,158 communicants ; the Baptists 

 111 churches and 16,230 communicants; the Episcopalians 9360 

 communicants ; the Episcopal Methodists 148 ministers. The total 

 number of newspapers and periodicals published in the state in 1850 

 was 51, of which 30 were political and 21 religious, scientific, &c. 



(Colton, Statistical Gazetteer of tke United Stales, 1853 ; American 

 Almanac, 1854 ; Darby; Haskel and Smith ; Lyell, &c.) 



VNOR, county Antrim, Ireland, a small village situated on 

 the Gleuwhirry River in the barony of Antrim. Some six or seven 

 centuries ago the village was a walled town or city, and gave its 

 name to the bishopric of Connor. It was a place of some note in 

 1315, at the time of the invasion of Edward Bruce, by whom it was 

 taken, after the defeat of the English under Richard, earl of Ulster, 

 before its walls. It is supposed to have gone to decay after the irrup- 

 tion of the expelled Irish in 1333. A large Presbyterian meeting- 

 house is now the chief object in the village. 



The bishopric of Connor was founded by Aengus, the son of Nissa, 

 usually known as Saint Macnish, who died in 514. In the 12th cen- 

 tury the diocese was known indifferently as Connor and Daluaraighe, 

 or Dalaradia. In 1442 one John, being bishop of this diocese, pre- 

 vailed on Pope Eugene IV. to unite the sees of Down and Connor. 

 By the 3rd and 4th William IV., c. 37, sec. 121, the united bishopric 

 of DOWN and Connor has become augmented by the diocese of Dro- 

 more. The income of the united diocese is 4204i. per annum. 

 CONQUES. [AUDE; AVEYBON.] 

 CONSTANCE. [COXSTANZ.] 

 CONSTANTIA. [CAPE OF Goon HOPE.] 



CONSTANTINA (the Qosthanthynak of the Arabs), the capital of 

 the French province of Constantina in Algiers, stands on a high rocky 

 peninsula formed by the Rummel in 36 22' N. lat., 6 37' E. long., 

 at a distance of 185 miles E. by S. from the city of Algiers, and 45 

 miles due S. from the Mediterranean. The peninsula is joined to the 

 adjacent country by an isthmus on the south-west side. Before the 

 French conquest of the town it is said to have had upwards of 40,000 

 inhabitants; the population in 1847 exclusive of the garrison was 

 about 21,000, of whom nearly 2000 were Europeans. The city is 

 surrounded by old walls and entered by four gates, the elegant struc- 

 ture and sculptured decorations of which prove them to be the work 

 of the Romans. The interior of the town has nothing remarkable. 

 The streets are narrow and ill laid out. The houses are generally 

 built of brick on stone foundations, low and without windows ; and 

 they have sloping roofs, a circumstance that denotes a colder climate 

 than that of the sea-coast where the houses have flat roofs, to which 

 the inhabitants ascend in the evening to enjoy the cool breeze. 

 There are a college, an hospital, ami a citadel in the town, which has 

 also manufactories of saddlery, harness, and other leather goods, and 

 trades in corn with Tunis, and in the products of Central Africa with 

 the tribes to the southward. 



Constantina occupies part of the site of the ancient Cirta, which 

 was the capital of Numidia, and the birthplace of the Numidian kings 

 Moninis&a 'and Jugurtha. Cirta was built by architects from Carthage, 

 and its name a a slight corruption of the Phoenician word for ' city.' 

 Cirta was the residence of the kings of the Massylii, who had a splendid 

 palace here. In the reign of Micipsa, who enlarged and beautified 

 the city, it could send forth an army of 10,000 cavalry and 20,000 

 infantry. Cirta was the strongest fortress in all Numidia; it is fre- 

 quently mentioned in the Punic, Jugurthan, and Civil wars. After 

 the defeat and death of Jugurtha the ancient town passed with the 

 rest of Numidia into the hands of the Romans, who sent out a colony 

 to Cirta, which then got the name of Cirta Sittianornm, from the 

 chief, Sittius, to whom it was granted by Julius Caesar. It continued 

 under this name to be the chief town of Numidia Propria till the 

 time of Constantine, from whom it wag called Constantina. In recent 

 times it was the residence of a Bey until its capture after a murderous 



assault by the French under General Danre'mont and the Duo de 

 Nemours, October 13, 1837. The city and its environs, especially 

 the plain on the south-west side, abound in ancient Roman remains. 

 Among these are the bridge across the Rummel, which is adorned 

 with bas-reliefs, and still in good repair ; the four gates above men- 

 tioned ; several sepulchral monuments ; and numerous remains of 

 cisterns, aqueducts, columns, and altars. The finest of the ancient 

 remains, a triumphal arch, has been removed to Paris. The extent of 

 surface over which these remains are spread proves the ancient city 

 to have been much larger than the modern one. All the Roman 

 roads in Numidia converged upon Cirta. Below the bridge the 

 Rummel turns northward, and flows for about a quarter of a mile in 

 a subterranean bed, issuing from which it forms a large cascade. 

 From the height above this point criminals and infidels were precipi- 

 tated into the river during the sway of the Arabs. The neighbourhood 

 of Constantina is very fertile and well cultivated. 



(Sullustius, Sell. Jug.; Shaw, Travels in Barbanj ; Balbi, Gto- 

 grapkit.) 



CONSTANTINOPLE (Stamboul), the capital of the Ottoman 

 empire, is situated in 41 0' N. lat., 28" 59' E. long., on the European 

 shore of the Sea of Marmara, and at the southern extremity of the 

 Bosporus, which connects the Sea of Marmara with the Black Sea. 

 [BOSPORUS.] The population is variously estimated, for there is no 

 official census : some make the inhabitants number only about 600,000 

 (which may perhaps be the population of the city exclusive of the 

 suburbs) ; others estimate them at a million, composed of about 

 200 different tribes and races. The following numbers are taken 

 from notes of travellers who visited Constantinople in 1852 and 

 1853 : About 500,000 are Turks, 200,000 Armenians 60,000 Jews, 

 30,000 Greeks, and about 20,000 Franks. 



The ground on which Constantinople stands is fitted by nature for 

 the site of a great commercial city, the connecting link between 

 Europe and Asia. A gently-sloping promontory secured by narrow 

 fieas stretches out in a triangular form towards the Asiatic continent, 

 from which its extreme point is separated by so narrow a strait (the 

 Bosporus) that ina quarter of an hour a boat may row from one 

 continent to the other. Indeed Scutari, on the Asiatic coast imme- 

 diately opposite, is always considered as a suburb of the European 

 capital. Just before the Bosporus enters the Sea of Marmara it makes a 

 deep elbow or inlet on the European shore, flowing between the triangle 

 of Constantinople proper and its European suburbs of Galata, Pera, &c., 

 and forming the magnificent port of the Golden Horn. [BYZANTIUM.] 

 The triangle which, allowing for many vacant spaces within the walls, 

 is entirely covered by Constantinople is thus washed on the north by 

 the deep waters of the port, and on the south-east by the Sea of Mar- 

 mara. The base of the triangle, or the ground immediately beyond 

 the walls, which attaches it to the European continent is an open 

 elevated flat, with some slight inequalities. The area of the triangle 

 is occupied by gentle hills, which are highest towards the land side 

 and suburb of Eyub, and gradually decline to the Seraglio point, the 

 apex of the triangle, shelving off on each side to the Sea of Marmara 

 and the port. As Rome was built on seven hills eo the founders of 

 Constantinople called these the Seven Hills, though if the principal 

 chain only were counted there would be less ; and if the minor hills 

 or spaces were included there would be more than seven. The ridge 

 of the first or most eastern hill is occupied by the buildings and grounds 

 of the Seraglio, behind which a little on the reverse of the hill the dome 

 of Santa Sophia shows itself. The second hill is crowned by the bold 

 and lofty dome of the Osmanieh mosque. The still loftier mosque of 

 Solyman the Magnificent towers on th'e third hill ; whilst the aque- 

 duct of the emperor Valens, the arches of which are of a considerable 

 span, unites the summits of the third and fourth hills. On a fifth 

 point, the most elevated of the little chain within the triangle, there 

 is a slender lofty tower, built in 1828, in which a guard is constantly 

 kept to watch the breaking out of fires, which are very frequent and 

 destructive in a city where all the private habitations are built almost 

 entirely of wood. The situation of Constantinople upon hills is the 

 main cause, not only of its picturesque beautiful appearance, but of 

 its general salubrity. (Malignant fevers prevail it is true during the 

 heat of summer, but chiefly among people who expose themselves to 

 the noonday sun.) It receives all the breezes from the Bosporus, the 

 Sea of Marmara, and the adjoining plains of Thrace ; and the dirt, for 

 which its streets are proverbial, partially at least descends the hill- 

 sides to the port or the open sea, in both of which it is carried off by 

 a strong current. The lower edge of the city, adjacent to the port, 

 and the suburb of Galata (the Wapping of the Turkish capital) on the 

 opposite side of the port are filthy places. 



The form of the triangle is somewhat irregular, the side on the Sea 

 of Marmara, from the old state prison called the Seven Towers to the 

 Seraglio point, being considerably the longest ; its length cannot be 

 much short of 5 miles. On this side the old walls and towers are in 

 a very ruinous state, and on the side towards the port they have 

 almost entirely disappeared. But on the land side Constantinople 

 presents a double line of strong and lofty stone walls (built in 447 

 during the reign of Thcodosius II.), which might be easily put in a 

 state of complete repair, and which in their more dilapidated parts 

 present such magnificent and picturesque specimens of mvral ruins 

 as probably no other city can boast of. The length of this latter line 



