SELBY SLAVERY. 



797 



different galleries of which he may command a 

 panoramic view of the matchless landscape com- 

 binations of the Scottish metropolis. 



SELBY; a town in the West Riding of York- 

 shire, 178 miles from London. It is situated on 

 the banks of the river Ouse, over which is here a 

 bridge, so constructed as to open and shut for the 

 admission of vessels. Steam packets ply regularly 

 from Selby to Hull. Flax spinning used to be 

 carried on here to some extent, but the trade has 

 declined. There is some business done in ship- 

 building. In the year 1069, William the Con- 

 queror founded an abbey at Selby for Benedictine 

 friars, which he visited in the following year for 

 the purposes of endowment, and being accompanied 

 by his queen Matilda, she was here delivered of a 

 son, who ascended the throne under the title of 

 Henry I. ; the remains of the abbey church show 

 it to have been a noble structure, erected at vari- 

 ous periods and in different styles of architecture. 

 Here are places of public worship for the Society 

 of Friends, Independents, Calvinistic and Wesleyan 

 Methodists, Unitarians, and Roman Catholics ; and 

 a grammar-school, founded by Edward VI., which 

 has received several endowments at different periods. 

 Population in 1841, 5376. 



SHERBORNE; a town in Dorsetshire, 117 

 miles W.S.W. from London. It is divided by the 

 river Ivel into two parts, called Sherborne and 

 Castleton. The town was anciently a bishopric, 

 but in the year 1075, the see being removed to 

 Salisbury, the cathedral was converted into an 

 abbey ; it was originally a noble structure, but 

 great part of it was burnt in the reign of Henry 

 VI. ; at the dissolution of monasteries it was made 

 parochial, and is now one of the finest churches in 

 the west of England. The inhabitants are chiefly 

 employed in the silk and linen, haberdashery, and 

 button manufactures; the woollen trade, which 

 formerly flourished here, has fallen to decay. The 

 old castle of Sherborne was first erected in Saxon 

 times ; but soon after the conquest it was annexed 

 to the bishopric of Salisbury. We hear nothing 

 further of it until the times of the civil wars in 

 King Charles's reign, when, after having stood out 

 for a long time in favour of the royalists, it was at 

 length taken, after a siege of sixteen days, by 

 Cromwell and Fairfax. A great quantity of am- 

 munition, provisions, plate, &c., was found here, 

 and many distinguished prisoners were taken. The 

 parliament soon after ordered the castle to be de- 

 molished, which was immediately done, and but 

 few vestiges of it now exist. With a portion of 

 the materials, the mansion now called Sherborne 

 Castle, or Lodge, the seat of the earl of Digby, 

 was erected. It is a singular edifice, built in the 

 form of the letter H, and it stands in a beautiful 

 and extensive park. Population in 1841, 3768. 



SHERBURN; a town in the West Riding of 

 the county of York, situated on the great road 

 from Doncaster to York, 185 miles from London. 

 It is a place of great antiquity, and is celebrated 

 for its cherry orchards, and for a peculiar kind of 

 plum. The church is an ancient Saxon structure, 

 built in a style equally rare and magnificent. 

 Population of town in 1841, 1328 ; of parish, 3757. 



SILURIAN SYSTEM. Those geological strata 

 which have long gone under the general, though 

 somewhat vague, term, transition series, have been 

 lately minutely explained in the Welsh and Eng- 

 lish districts, by Mr Murchusin ; and he has im- 

 posed on them the name of Silurian System from 



the ancient title Silures, given to the people inha- 

 biting the district, by the Romans. The Silurian 

 strata are found rising from below the old red 

 sandstone in Herefordshire, Shropshire, Radnor- 

 shire, Brecknockshire, Monmouthshire, and Caer- 

 marthanshire, and they rest on the older slates, 

 some pf\vhich are of the true gray-wack character, 

 comprising the upper part of a series termed the 

 Cambrian system. The silurian system is divided 

 into upper and lower, thus : 



Upper 

 Silurian. 



Ludlow strata, upper and lower, with a 

 ral gem of limestone. 



{1. Ludlow 

 centr 

 2. Winlocl 



k (Dudley) limestone and shale. 



Lower (3. Caradock sandstone. 

 Silurian. (.4. Llaucilo flags. 



About 350 fossil remains have been discovered 

 in these strata of different character from those 

 found in the superincumbent old red sandstone ; 

 the depth of strata in some places amounts to 2000 

 or 3000 feet. Equivalents to the Silurian rocks 

 have been discovered in Belgium. 



SLAVERY, (a.) In the body of the work, 

 under Slavery, we noticed the act passed by the 

 Whig administration for the total abolition of Sla- 

 very throughout the British colonies, and expressed 

 a hope that we would be enabled to record, in the 

 Supplement, the final liberation of the slave. This 

 hope has been fulfilled by the memorable act, 

 which was passed by parliament in 1833. The slaves 

 were, on the 1st of August, 1834, made apprenticed 

 labourers, to continue such, a part of them, till the 

 1st of August, 1840, when they were all to become 

 completely free. To indemnify the owners of the 

 slaves, parliament voted them the sum of 

 20,000,000 as a compensation, payable in certain 

 fixed proportions, according as each colony should 

 be ascertained to have complied with the terms of 

 the act. 



Soon after the passing of this act, the slaves 

 in the islands of Antigua and the Bermudas were 

 made free by the colonial governments ; and acts 

 were afterwards passed by the legislatures of Bar- 

 badoes, Jamaica, Nevis, Montserrat, St Christo- 

 pher's, St Vincent, and Tortola, liberating all the 

 slaves, or apprenticed labourers, in those islands, 

 on the 1st of August, 1838. Movements of a 

 similar nature took place in the other islands ; and 

 there is now not a slave left in any British colony. 

 The following table of the Distribution of Slave 

 Compensation money is curious. 



Table, showing the average value of a Slave in each Colony; 

 the Number of Slaves in each, by the last Registration; 

 the total value of the Slaves; ana the Proportion of the 

 20,000,000 to which each Colony was entitled, according to 

 the statement of the Commissioner*. 



