332 



GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



the United Kingdom and the 12th of the reign 

 of Queen Victoria. 



The executive power is exercised, in the 

 name of the sovereign, by the Cabinet. The 

 Prime Minister, who usually holds the office 

 of First Lord of the Treasury, is the repre- 

 sentative of the majority in the House of Com- 

 mons. He selects his colleagues and dispenses 

 all the patronage of the Government. 



The reigning sovereign is Queen Victoria I, 

 born May 24, 1819. The heir-apparent is Al- 

 bert Edward, Prince of Wales, born Nov. 9, 

 1841. His eldest son, Prince Albert Victor, 

 born Jan. 8, 1864, is next in the order of suc- 

 cession. 



The present Cabinet, constituted on Aug. 3, 

 1886, and reconstructed on Jan. 14, 1887, is 

 composed of the following ministers: Prime 

 Minister, the Marquis of Salisbury, born in 

 1830, who on Jan. 14, 1887, exchanged the 



Eost of First Lord of the Treasury for that of 

 ecretary of State for Foreign Affairs, which 

 he had held when Prime Minister before in 

 1885-'86; Lord High Chancellor and Keeper 

 of the Great Seal, Baron Halsbury, formerly 

 Sir Hardinge S. Gilford, who filled the same 

 post in Lord Salisbury's former Cabinet ; First 

 Lord of the Treasury, W. H. Smith, previously 

 Secretary for War, who received his present 

 appointment on Jan. 14, 1887; Lord President 

 of the Privy Council, Viscount Cranbrook, 

 formerly Gathorne Hardy, who was made a 

 peer in 1878, and was President of the Coun- 

 cil in the former Conservative Cabinet ; Chan- 

 cellor of the Exchequer, George Joachim Go- 

 schen, who was formerly affiliated with the 

 Liberal party, and more recently with the Lib- 

 eral Unionists, and who received his appoint- 

 ment on Jan. 14, 1887, succeeding Lord Ran- 

 dolph II. S. Churchill, who had withdrawn from 

 the Cabinet; Secretary of State for the Home 

 Department, Henry Matthews ; Secretary of 

 State for War, Edward Stanhope, who was 

 Colonial Secretary before the reconstruction of 

 the Cabinet ; Secretary of State for the Colo- 

 nies, Sir Henry Thurstan Holland, who was 

 transferred from the post of Vice-President of 

 the Council to a Cabinet office on Jan. 17, 1887 ; 

 Secretary of State for India, Viscount Cross, 

 who was Home Secretary in the last Conserva- 

 tive Cabinet, and was raised to the peerage in 

 1886, having been previously Sir Richard 

 Cross ; First Lord of the Admiralty, Lord 

 George Hamilton, who held the same appoint- 

 ment under Lord Salisbury before ; Lord Chan- 

 cellor of Ireland, Lord Ashbourne, formerly 

 Edward Gibson, member of Parliament for 

 Dublin University, who was Attorney-General 

 and Lord Chancellor of Ireland under previous 

 Conservative governments, and was created a 

 peer on resuming the latter office in 1886, and 

 given a seat in the Cabinet ; Chief Secretary 

 to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Arthur J. 

 Balfour, who received the appointment on the 

 resignation of the office by Sir Michael Hicks- 

 Beach, having previously had a seat in the 



Cabinet as Secretary of Stjite for Scotland ; 

 Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Lord 

 John Manners, who was Postmaster-General 

 in 1885; President of the Board of Trade, 

 Lord Stanley de Preston, formerly Sir Fred- 

 erick Stanley, who was Secretary for the Colo- 

 nies in 1885 ; President of the Local Govern- 

 ment Board, C. T. Ritchie, who was given a 

 seat in the Cabinet ; Minister without a port- 

 folio, Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, who retired 

 from the Irish secretaryship in March, on ac- 

 count of ill-health, but retained a seat in the 

 Cabinet. A. J. Balfour was succeeded as Sec- 

 retary for Scotland by the Marquis of Lothian, 

 who is not a member of the Cabinet. 



Area and Population. The British Empire 

 covers an area of 8,981,130 square miles, or 

 23,260,100 square kilometres, and has a popu- 

 lation, according to the most recent enumera- 

 tions, of 310,735,840 persons. 



The area of the United Kingdom is 120,832 

 square miles, exclusive of water areas, but in- 

 cluding the Isle of Man and the Norman Isl- 

 ands. The annual computation of the Regis- 

 trar-General for 1887 makes the population of 

 England 28,247,151, of Scotland, 3,991,499, 

 and of Ireland, 4,852,914. Including the popu- 

 lation of the adjacent islands and the soldiers 

 and seamen abroad, as returned in the census 

 of 1881, the total population of the United 

 Kingdom is 37,448,198. 



The vital statistics for England for the last 

 five years reported are as follow : 



The statistics for Scotland were as follow : 



The returns for Ireland give the following 

 results : 



The emigration from the United Kingdom to 

 the United States from 1815 to 1886 was 7,- 

 486,636; to the British provinces of North 

 America, 1,855,678; to Australia and New 

 Zealand, 1,567,931 ; to other countries, 433,- 

 834, making in all 11,344,079. In 1886 the 

 number of emigrants who left Great Britain, 

 including 94,370 foreigners and 3,531 of un- 



