GLYCERINE GODWIN. 



495 



but the markets of Bisley, Blakeney, and Leonard 

 Stanley are disused. 



Previous to the passing of the Reform bill the 

 county returned ten members to parliament, namely, 

 two each for the cities of Gloucester and Bristol, 

 two each for Cirencester and Tewkesbury, and 

 two for the shire, which latter, by the provisions 

 of the new act, now returns four ; and the elec- 

 tive franchise having been conferred upon Chelten- 

 ham, with the privilege of electing one burgess, 

 and upon Stroud, which sends two, the number of 

 representatives is thereby increased from ten to 

 fifteen. The county is divided into two represen- 

 tative districts, called the eastern division and the 

 western division : the return of members for the 

 former is made from Gloucester, and for the latter 

 from Dursley. 



The canals that pass through Gloucestershire 

 are distinguished by the names of the Thames and 

 Severn, the Stroudwater, the Berkeley, and the 

 Hereford and Gloucester. The Stroudwater be- 

 gins at the town of Stroud, and entering the Se- 

 vern at Framilode. Its width is 42 feet, its length 

 nearly 8 miles, and its rise above the Severn 102 

 feet. It was constructed in 1775. The Thames 

 and Severn canal begins at Walbridge, where the 

 Stroud navigation ends, and joins the Thames at 

 Lechlade. Its general breadth is 40 feet, its length 

 28 miles, and its fall to the Thames 130 feet. It 

 is carried through Sapperton-hill by a tunnel two 

 miles and three furlongs in length, and was opened 

 in 1789. Tie Hereford and Gloucester canal be- 

 gins at Hertford, and joins the Severn opposite 

 Gloucester. Its length is thirty-five miles. The 

 Berkeley canal, intended to open a safer and shorter 

 passage for vessels of large burden between Glou- 

 cester and the wider part of the Severn, was be- 

 gun in 1794 and finished in 1827, at an expense of 

 half a million of money. It extends about eighteen 

 miles in length, is from seventy to ninety feet 

 (vide, and eighteen feet deep. It runs on a dead 

 level the whole way. 



The railways are the Bristol and Exeter, which 

 may be considered a continuation of the Great 

 Western railway, commences at the former city, and 

 taking the route of Bridgwater, runs near the towns 

 of Taunton and Wellington, through Cullompton to 

 Exeter. The western union proceeds from Glouces- 

 ter, and, passing a short distance to the west of 

 Cirencester, joins the Great Western railway near 

 Swindon, in Wiltshire. The projected Bristol 

 and Gloucester will form a communication between 

 the two cities ; and above the town of Stroud will 

 join the western union. The Birmingham and 

 Gloucester railway, in its route from Gloucester, 

 visits Cheltenham, and runs a little to the east of 

 Tewkesbury ; then, leaving Worcester about four 

 miles to the left or west, passes near Droitwich 

 and Bromsgrove to Birmingham from whence 

 proceeds the Grand Junction to Manchester and 

 Liverpool, and the Birmingham and London to the 

 metropolis. 



Gloucestershire contains a large population. In 

 1841 it amounted to 431,383, being 205,543 males, 

 and 225,840 females. 



GLYCERINE; the sweet principle of oils. 

 When oil is converted into soap by the action of 

 an alkali, the glycerine is separated, and dissolved 

 in the water on which the soap floats. It has 

 lately been shown by Chevreul, Liebeg, and Pe- 

 louze, that all saponifiable oils and fats are com- 

 pounds of fatty acids with glycerine. In saponi- 



fication, the former combine with the alkali while 

 the latter is set free. It forms, when pure, a 

 syrup, which does not crystallize. 



GODWIN-SANDS; a range of sandbanks in 

 the sea, extending about three leagues along the 

 coast of Kent, in the neighbourhood of Deal. 

 They were formed by an eruption of the sea in the 

 year 1100, which swallowed the lands of Earl God- 

 win, extending to upwards of four thousand acres. 

 They are extremely dangerous, especially to ves- 

 sels riding in the downs, which are often driven 

 upon them by violent winds, though by breaking 

 the waves that would otherwise roll in upon the 

 shore with immense impetuosity they contribute 

 greatly to the safety of that famous roadstead. 

 They are divided by a very narrow channel into 

 two parts, and are in many places dry at low 

 water. Their position, however, is often shifted 

 by the force of the tides aided by violent storms. 

 Floating lights are placed off them, and in hazy 

 weather a bell is kept constantly ringing to warn 

 the approaching mariner of his danger. 



GODWIN, WILLIAM, a celebrated novelist and 

 political writer, was born at Wisbeach, in Cam- 

 bridgeshire, the 3d of March, 1756. His father 

 was a clergyman. In 1760 the father removed 

 with his family to a village about sixteen miles 

 north of Norwich, where he presided over a con- 

 gregation. In 1767 William was placed with a 

 private tutor at Norwich, for the purposes of clas- 

 sical education, and in 1773 he entered a college 

 for dissenters at Hoxton, for the purpose of being 

 educated for the church. Dr Kippis and Dr Rees 

 were two of the principal professors at this college; 

 and the tenets in vogue there inclined to Unitari- 

 anism. Mr Godwin had been bred a Calvinist, and 

 was the farthest in the world from that temper of 

 mind which is blown about by every new wind of 

 opinion. Opposition made him more tenaciously 

 cling to his own turn of thinking, and adhere to 

 the persuasion in which he had been brought up. 

 In the year 1778 he became minister to a congrega- 

 tion not far from the metropolis. He continued in 

 the exercise of the duties of a clergyman for five 

 years ; after which he gave it up, in the year 1783, 

 and came to reside in London ; where he became 

 soon distinguished as an author among his contem- 

 poraries, and frequented the society of many of the 

 political leaders of the day, among whom Fox and 

 Sheridan held the first rank. The French revolu- 

 tion, which broke out in 1789, when he was al- 

 ready engaged in his career as an author, turned his 

 attention still more definitely to political subjects. 

 The result of his meditations and his labours was 

 " Political Justice," published early in the year 

 1793. At once the book and its author rose to a 

 place of eminence in the public eye. Early in the 

 following year he published " Caleb Williams " a 

 novel which, in despite of the brilliant works of 

 the same species which have since adorned our li- 

 terature, still holds its place. In 1797 he pub- 

 lished " The Enquirer," a work consisting of essays, 

 developing, under various aspects, the tenets of his 

 greater work. In the beginning of the same year 

 he married the celebrated Mary Wollstonecraft, 

 (see Godwin, Mary, in body of work,) but was not 

 allowed long to enjoy the happiness he reaped from 

 this union. She died the 10th of September 1797, 

 having given birth to a daughter, the present Mrs 

 Shelley. 



The next work of Mr Godwin was the romance 

 of " St Leon," published in 1799. The domestic 



