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the relief of the poor. There is a large number of hospitals 

 and other benevolent asylums, such as the Royal Insti- 

 tution for providing for widows, the great Hospital for 

 Invalids, the Hospital of St. Dorothy, the new Royal Hos- 

 pital, that of the Holy Ghost and St. George, Frederick's 

 Hospital, the 'Charite' Hospital (with an income of 9500/1. 

 a year), twenty other establishments of a similar kind, asy- 

 lums for widows and destitute persons, and four orphan 

 institutions, besides private charities of all descriptions. 



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

 in 1688 not more than 1 8,000 ; and even one hundred years 

 ago the population was not one-fourth of its present num- 

 ber. In 1 72 1 the inhabitants amounted to 53,355, and in 

 1775 they had increased to 135,580. During the present 

 century the increase has been much more rapid ; from 

 157,696, in 1811, they rose to 178,811 in 1817; in 1828 to 

 236,850, and in 1831 to 246,475, including about 16,000 

 military and civilians attached to the military department. 

 At the close of last year (1834), their numbers were esti- 

 mated at about 252,000, among whom were 4700 Roman 

 Catholics, and 4500 Jews. At this date the number of pri- 

 vate houses was said to be about 7600. The births in 1834 

 amounted to 4907 males and 4651 females, in all 9558, and 

 the deaths were 9278 ; hence the increase of population 

 by birth seems to have been but 280 souls. In 1833, 

 the excess of births over deaths was 1401. The births 

 of illegitimate children amounted to 1491, namely, 736 

 males and 755 females, being nearly one-sixth of the 

 entire number of births ; and of these, 771, more than one- 

 half, died soon after they were born. The births of 1834 

 exceeded those of 1832 by 1051. The patients admitted 

 into the hospital La Charite, the largest in the Prussian do- 

 minions, amounted, in 1833, to 6697, including 728 who 

 were in it on the 31st December, 1832. The number of 

 offenders committed to the town prison (Stadtvogtei Ge- 

 fiinsniss) in 1833 was 9900 ; namely, 7470 males, and 

 2430 females, or about 1 in every 26 inhabitants. 



The members of the Lutheran persuasion possess fourteen 

 churches, those of the reformed Lutheran seven, of the 

 reformed French four, and of the Roman Catholic two. The 

 building of additional places of worship is rapidly advanc- 

 ing : one of them indeed has already been opened. The 

 Lutheran and reformed clergy are under the control of 

 four superintendents, of whom three are Lutheran, in- 

 cluding a bishop, and one reformed Lutheran. 



Berlin is one of the first manufacturing towns in the 

 Prussian dominions. Its chief productions are the cele- 

 brated Berlin china, silks, silks and cottons mixed, wool- 

 lens, cottons, stockings, and ribbons; and next in order 

 are gunpowder, cast-iron ware, silk hats, paper, oils, refined 

 sugars, and tobacco and snuff. In 1831 the number of me- 

 i '.:mics and manufacturing artists was 7782, besides 11,207 

 assistants and apprentices. Berlin at that time had thirty 

 printing houses and 1 10 presses, 5729 looms in activity, 

 2762 traders and dealers, 177 waggoners and 994 horses in 

 their employ, 102 hotels and taverns, and 913 masters of 

 c.iting and drinking houses. The amount of the tax on 

 tradesmen, mechanics, &c., of all classes (called the '/'- 

 irerhesteuer), was 135,607 dollars, or about 18,650^. Berlin 

 H a place of extensive commercial dealings ; at the head of 

 us public mercantile establishments are the Royal Bank, 

 the Royal Company for Maritime Commerce ( See-handlung- 

 KtHnchaft), the Cash Association (Cassenverein), which 

 \\;is t'oiinded in 1823, and issues notes of 1000, 500, &c., 

 dollars, an insurance company against hail-storms, and two 

 lire insurance companies. There is a wool market, the 

 yearly sales in which amount to near-ly 280,000^. sterling. 



The magistracy consists of twenty-ifive individuals, who 

 administer the local affairs of Berlin with the assistance of 

 the assembly of deputies. Among the various items of 

 which the town revenues consist, the tax on houses and 

 rents amounts to about 53.000/. The expenditure for the 

 year 1832 was 1,092,000 dollars, about 150.150/., of which 

 '238,288 dollars, about 32,765/., were applied to paying the 

 interest and redeeming the principal of the town debt, 

 which amounta to about 550,0001., and 297,000 dollars; 

 about 40,8401. were expended on the poor, partly in re- 

 lieving 3057 orphans and children, in the maintenance of 

 about 790 offenders in the house of correction, and the sup- 

 port of 278 aged persons in the new hospital : gratuitous 

 instruction was likewise provided for 8932 children; 1740 

 patients were sent to the La Charite hospital at the cost of 

 tlie town, and 23,7 7y s.ck persons were attended in their 



dwellings, while 4559 poor received regular allowances 

 and about as many casual relief. At the close of the year 

 there were about 600 prisoners in the town prison. 



Besides three theatres, concert-rooms, public gardens, &c., 

 there are several spots in the vicinity of Berlin to which the 

 inhabitants resort for amusement. The principal place of 

 this kind is Charlottenburg, 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 Queen Louisa, the late beautiful and un- 

 fortunate wife of the present sovereign, to which numbers 

 make their pilgrimage on the 1 9th of July, the anniversary 

 of her decease. About an hour's walk beyond Charlottenburg 

 lies the town and fortress of Spandau, at the confluence of 

 the Spree and Havel ; and about ten miles from Berlin, in 

 the same direction, is the islet of Pichelswerder, in the Havel, 

 which is laid out in walks. A forest in its neighbourhood is 

 ornamented with the Grunewald, a royal hunting seat. Be- 

 yond the Halle Gate are the villages of Tempelhof, where 

 there are two fine gardens, and Gross-Beeren, with a monu- 

 ment in commemoration of the celebrated battle fought there 

 between the Prussians and French on the 23rd of August, 

 1813. A variety of similar points of attraction exist in the 

 other outskirts of the city ; for, although it stands in the 

 midst of a sandy plain, there are few spots where the sterility 

 of the soil is not concealed by a high state of cultivation. 



The origin of Berlin is uncertain ; but it seems probable 

 that the two villages of Berlin and Cologne (Koln) became 

 towns in the times of Margrave Albr^cht II., between the 

 years 1206 and 1220. His successors surrounded these 

 towns with walls, and they seem to have attained a some- 

 what prosperous state about the period of the extinction of 

 the Anhalt line in 1319. But the disasters which befel 

 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 Fre- 

 deric II. about 1 448, was the site of the present royal 

 palace ; and Berlin became the residence of its princes 

 under John, who died in 1490. It rose rapidly into im- 

 portance during the long and brilliant career of Frederick 

 William, the great elector, between the years lG40and 1683. 

 This prince enriched it with several scientific establish- 

 ments 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 hand- 

 somest quarter of Berlin, and in 1709 conferred the de- 

 signation of Royal Residence Towns on its respective 

 districts. Even Frederick William I., in spite of his parsi- 

 monious habits, did much to embellish it, and also levelled 

 many of the walls and ramparts which obstructed his im- 

 provements. Far more, however, was done by Frederick II., 

 his son, from whom Berlin derived nearly the whole of its 

 present form. Both his successors, particularly the present 

 king, have largely contributed to render this city what all 

 must acknowledge it to be, one of the finest in Europe, 

 as well for the symmetry of its plan as the beauty of its con- 

 struction. 



BERME, in fortification, is a kind of terrace formed at 

 the foot of a parapet on the exterior side : it is generally in 

 a horizontal position, about the level of the natural ground, 

 and it separates the escarp, or that side of the ditch which 

 forms the face of the rampart, from the outward slope of 

 the parapet. 



The berme prevents the earth constituting the parapet, 

 when that work is damaged by rain or otherwise, from 

 falling into the ditch ; its breadth is usually from two to 

 three feet, and the ditch being at that distance from the 

 foot of the parapet, the pressure of the latter against the 

 escarp wall is in some measure diminished, a circumstance 

 of considerable importance when the soil has not much 

 tenacity. If the berme on the exterior of a bastion or rave- 

 lin is from ten to fifteen feet broad, it tikes the name of 

 chemin des rondes, and serves as a path for the officers 

 superintending the troops who are on duty in the opposite 

 covered-way. It may also be useful as a station for the 

 defenders, when they would oppose any attempt at an open 

 assault by preventing the enemy from planting his scaling- 

 ladders against the face of the escarp ; communications 

 being made to it from the interior of the work by passages 

 through the parapet. It should be protected on the exterior 

 by a hedge or a low wall, and the latter might be pierced with 

 (uop-/wles for the defence of the ditches and covered-way. 



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