B E I. 



17.; 



B 1. I. 



equal. The post-office idso indicates the activity of the 



ereial body of Belfast : the annual amount of postage 

 1 nearly Ml.OUO/. There atv f"ur bank* in 



-t two ol them 'branches of the U'rcat metro) 

 establishments, and two in the hands !' private e.mi|- 

 There is also a Havings bank, in which on the 30th Novem- 

 ber. 1830, there wax lodged a sum of -10.67 '.'/. by -j i . 

 positon. The amount of stamps sold hero averages 25.000/. 

 per annum ; the number of stamps for newspapers lor the 



!.'. I was 335.000, and since then a considerable in- 

 crease has taken plan- : there arc now lour newspapers and 

 tiro small periodicals published in the town. 

 The increase of the population ot Belfast has been extremely 

 ; within the last half century. In 1782 the town eon- 



1 6132 males and 697-2 females, in all 13,105 inhabit- 

 ant*. In 1807 they were nearly doubled, being in all 

 83.095: in 18-21 they were 37,'277: and in 1831 their num- 

 bers in the town and suburbs btood thus males 2-1,559 ; fe- 



- 28,754, total 5:!,313 : of whom there are 14,597 per- 

 sons belonging: to the Established Church; 18,715 Presbyte- 



; 18,268 Roman Catholics; 1111 Protestant dissenters, 

 and G22 unclassed. This enumeration is exclusive of Bal- 

 lyinaearret, a portion of the borough which contains between 

 four nnd five thousand inhabitants. The population of the 

 borough itself by the last returns is 39,1-16, and its consti- 

 tuency 1 700 voters. 



Ik-lYast has long had the reputation of possessing a well- 

 educated community. In 1824 there were in the town and 

 parish sixty-three schools of all kinds, educating 2152 



and'lGGG females, exclusive of the Royal Aca- 

 demical Institution, which in 1825 had 462 males in its 

 vari. This great collegiate school was erected by 

 public subscription, and incorporated by act of parliament 

 in the year 1810. The original subscriptions amounted to 



<i>/., including 50007. received from India by the libe- 

 rality and exertions of the Marquisof Hastings. The object 

 of the undertaking was to procure a cheap home education 

 for those who formerly frequented the colleges of Scotland ; 

 and since the synod of Ulster receives the general certificate 

 of this institution as a qualification for ordination in their 

 ministry, it may now be looked on as the great seminary of the 

 Presbyterian church in Ireland. Its atlairs are directed by a 

 president, four vice-presidents, twenty managers, and eight 



rs, chosen by the proprietary ; and it enjoys an annual 

 grant from parliament of 1500/. The chairs in the collegiate 

 department arc eight, embracing professorships of divinity, 

 moral and natural philosophy, logic, mathematics, Greek, 

 Latin, Hebrew, and, within the lust year, a lectureship on 

 Irish. The schools afford ample moan's of instruction on all 

 subjects generally taught, and the faculty and managers 

 have succeeded in forming a very respectable library and 

 museum. There is no regularly endowed school here. The 

 Lancasterian and the Brown-street institutions may be 

 called free-schools : both have enjoyed the patronage of the 

 Kildare-street association, but the" Lancasterian school is 

 now under the national board; nearly 2000 poor children are 

 educated in these two establishments alone. Of the private 

 schools, the Donegal-street academy is the most respectable ; 

 it has upwards of 150 scholars. A number of literary and 

 scientific individuals in 1788 formed themselves into a body 

 and took the name of the Society for Promoting Know- 



: they publish their transactions, and have a good 

 library of upwards of 6000 volumes, together with a philoso- 



1 apparatus. A literary society more private, but com- 

 prising men of considerable eminence, was established in 



. In 1821 another literary and scientific body was 

 formed, called the Natural History Society; they have 

 lately built a handsome house for their meetings, where tliev 

 have n thriving library and a museum, which bids fair to be 

 the next in Ireland to that of the Royal Dublin Society. 

 In lv.!.'> a mechanics' institute was erected, and a scientific 

 school for artisans opened, where lectures arc delivered on 

 mechanics and chemistry. A botanical garden has been 



'd within the last four years, which is highly orna- 

 il to the vicinity of the town, and already rich in a 



i assortment of plants. A patriotic institution, called 

 the Irish Harp Society, for the cultivation of national music, 

 has been long supported by voluntary subscription. The 

 town expenses are levied by twelve commissioners and 

 a committee of police, by virtue of an act passed in 1810. 

 The paving, lighting, and cleansing of the streets, and ge- 

 neral piihc'- "f the town, are under their management. The 

 amount of the police -tax for the first year of their superin- 



tendence was 30*77. 18*.; in Ivil it amounted to s. 



2*. Id. The sovereign hai : .it the markets, th 



regulation of the n 1 weights, and i- < \ olli- 



rate of the county of Antrim. 



ti>\\ n-clerk, and seneschal of the manor are the utht-r chief 

 olliccrs of the corporation. Since tiie year 177.">, npwaids nf 

 I00,uoii7. have been expended on a < this 



port with Li-burn and \joc\\ Neagh, whiih i-> now il :i 

 perty of the Lagan Navigation Compaq. A plan for a rail- 

 road from the lime-quarries on the ( ave -hill to tin- 

 docks is now being carried into ell'ect : it is the pro|>erly of 

 private individuals, as well as a new bridge acr- t ' 

 about a quarter of a mile above the old long hn l| 

 was built in 1G82, and is now in a ruinous and i. 

 dition. A lunatic asylum, capable of accommodating 

 patients, has been built by government in the vicinity of the 

 town, at an expense of above 50,0007. : it is intended for the 

 two counties of Down and Antrim. (See Spenser's I / 

 Cox's History of Ireland; Dubourdicn's Statist, -al SUIT, y 

 of the County (if Antrim ; Historical Collections njative to 

 the Town of Htljaxt, Belfast, Isl7 : Reid's Hittory nf the 

 I'rfsliyterian Church in Ireland; Hardy's Northern liish 

 Tourist; Inglis's Ireland in 1834; Gocernment Official 

 Tnhlfs ; Appendix to -2nd Itepnrt of CommuttoHtn of K<ln- 

 ciitinn in Ird'inil, unit 4th Ilrport, ditto; Onhni 

 Mtiji of Antrim ; Culrinlar <>f Inquisitions for Ulster, #<-. 

 Communication from In-lnnd.) 



BKLFRY, thai part of a church-tower or steeple in 

 which the bells are hung. The term is applied not only to 

 that part of the tower, but als.> to the framing on which the 

 are suspended. Belfiy i< probably derived from Bc-1- 

 fredus, a low Latin term of the middle ages, a compound of 

 bell, a Teutonic word, and frfiil (j 



Gloss.) The old French word is brlfroit. (Johnson's Diet. 

 by Toild.) Ducange gives also the forms Beaufroy and 

 BeUefroy. Belfry is synonymous with Campani'f [seeCAM- 

 I-ANII.K], which, with the terms rloairiu and tristi'gnm, was 

 used by the writers of the middle ages to express tin 

 thing. According to some, the name Belfredus, whie ; 

 applied to a wooden tower used in attacking fortified place-, 

 was afterwards given to any elevated tower in which a bell 

 was hung. This statement, if correct, might lead us to infer 

 that the Latin word belliim (war) was the first part of the 

 compound Belfredus, and the second part possibly derived 

 from the Latin, fi.'ro, to bear or carry away. The forms 

 Berfredus and Verfrediu also occur as the names of old 

 military engines, and seem to lead to a different etymology. 



.f thi- MfrjrofSI. Paul'i. 

 A niul II, lines of section* j a, a, b*sm. 



In this plan nnd sections of the belfry of St. Paul's church 

 arc -cen the construction of the timbers, shotting their 

 ings independent of the masonry, that is, not fixed into the 

 masonry. This cpn~in.ni.in may be taken as a good ex- 

 ample of the method of hanging heavy bells in a belfry. In 



