R11ITAIN. 



chilling an allowance of 10,029 for the lloyal Mili- 

 tary College, and 24,155 fortlio Royal Miliuiry Asy- 

 lum. The only means employed in raising regular 

 troops is tliat of voluntary recruiting. No British 

 citizen is obliged to bear amis, except for the defence 

 of his country ; but all able-bixlied men, from eigh- 

 teen to forty-live, ;ire liable to militia service. The 

 militia troops arc rai>ed, when required, liy ballot. 



Navy. The derided superiority of Britain in mari- 

 time affairs, arises from its extensive commerce, which 

 always affords a great number of experience*! seamen. 

 Other nations might, perhaps, accumulate a great 

 number of vessels ; but without seamen a fleet is a 

 useless burden ; and without commerce seamen can 

 never be procured. While, therefore. Britain con- 

 tinues to be the chief trading nation of the world, it 

 necessarily follows that she must be the most powerful 

 maritime nation. The marine force of Great Britain 

 during the war included more than 1,000 vessels of 

 all sizes, manned by 184,000 seamen. This force has 

 also been reduced to a number proportionate to the 

 wants of the nation. The following is a statement of 

 the number of vessels of which the British fleet has 

 consisted at different periods : 



Under James II. vessels of all size*, . . 173 



William III. . . . .273 



Anne . . ' . 284 



George I. 1721, . . . 2tw 



George II. 1734, ... 203 



17411, . . . 27 <i 



1755, . . 211 



George 111. I7C2, . . .343 



1793, ships of the line, . 135 



frigates, &c. ( . 133 



268 



Under George III. 1901, ships of the line, 105 



fifties, - 27 



frigates, 2*1 



sloops, &.c. 314 



T87 



1812, ships of the line, 261 



titty gun ships, 36 



frigates, 204 



sloops and bombs, 191 

 brigs, cutters, and 



schooners, . 232 



Total number in commission, in ordinary, 



and refitting, ... 984 



According to Moreau's work on the royal ai:d com- 

 mercial navy of this country, the royal navy, on the 

 1st of January, 1827, stood as follows : 



There are six great marine arsenals for the supply 

 of the royal navy : Deptford, Woolwich, Chatham, 

 Sheerness, Portsmouth, and Plymouth. The exterior 

 ports, as they are called, are Deal, Harwich, and 

 Leith. The principal foreign stations are those of 

 Gibraltar, Malta, Halifax, Quebec, the Bermudas, 

 Jamaica, Antigua, St Helena, the Cape of Good 

 Hope, Trincomalee, and Bombay. The expenses of 

 the navy for the year ending 5th January, 1828, were 



6,414,727, nnd the estimated expenses for 1829, 

 5,878,794. The number of men employed in the 

 royal navy in the last mentioned year was 30,000, in- 

 cluding 9,000 marines. 



Religion. In South Britain the church is episcopal, 

 but in the northern part of the island the foundation 

 is presbyterianism. The fullest toleration exists in 

 iicli. The ecclesiastical establishment in North Bri- 

 tain is founded upon an equality of rank among all 

 the presbyters or pastors. Scotland, like England, is 

 divided into parishes, and a number of these contigu- 

 ous divisions, when united together under the super- 

 intendence of the ministers, and a chosen number of 

 the ruling elders, form a presbytery, and a union of 

 presbyteries constitutes a synod. These manage the 

 ecclesiastical affairs of their respective districts with a 

 regular appeal from the lower bodies to the higher, 

 and from these last to the general assembly, which 

 consists of 361 members, chosen by the universities, 

 presbyteries, and royal burghs, and is the highest ec- 

 clesiastical authority in Scotland. All the transac- 

 tions of the inferior courts are subject to the revision 

 of this assembly, which has also the power of mak- 

 ing laws for the government and discipline of the 

 church. 



Extent of Empire. Besides the island of Great 

 Britain, the European dominions of the empire in- 

 clude Ireland, the Isle of Man, and the other smaller 

 islands contiguous to the coasts of these, with the 

 islands of Jersey and Guernsey, and the adjacent isles, 

 in the British seas, nearer the coast of France, The 

 fortress of Gibraltar, and the isle of Malta, with the 

 small dependent island of Gozo in the Mediterranean. 

 In Asia, Britain possesses Hindostan ; Ceylon, and 

 various other islands in the Indian ocean, and the 

 Oriental Archipelago; comprising a vast extent of 

 territory, and a population several times greater than 

 that of her native dominions. In Africa, she holds 

 the Cape of Good Hope, Sierra Leone, and several 

 other settlements on the western coast, with St Helena 

 and other islands in the Atlantic ocean. In the New 

 World, she rules over Canada, and the regions round 

 Hudson's Bay, with Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, 

 the islands of Newfoundland, St John, and Cape Bre- 

 ton. To these must be added the numerous colonies 

 in the West Indies, and on the coast of South Ame- 

 rica ; which though now diminished by the restora- 

 tion of many of the late conquests, are still extensive 

 and important to her commerce. The possession of 

 New Holland and the adjacent islands gives her im 

 mense tracts in Australia ; while many of the Poly 

 nesian isles, spread over the vast Pacific ocean, con - 

 sider themselves under the protection of Great Britain. 

 Thus her authority extends over two-thirds of the 

 globe in reference to longitude ; and it may therefore, 

 without hyperbole, be said, that the sun never se f s 

 upon her possessions ; for, within this vast range, va- 

 rious places have noon and midnight at the same mo- 

 ment. Stretching also, with the exception of a few 

 intermediate spaces, from the arctic circle to the 

 thirty-third degree of south latitude, the four seasons 

 are experienced within her dominions at the same 

 time. The colonies of Britain, therefore, spread 

 themselves through every climate, and yield every 

 variety of natural product. 



