GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



269 



that recently a nugget was found at Orsk, weigh- 

 ing 1,150 ounces. 



With regard to the gold fields of Japan, no par- 

 ticulars are officially given. 



We find information of two French nuggets 

 found near the Ardoche. A shepherd picked up 

 one to throw at some goats, and next day his 

 brother lound it, took it to a jeweler, and received 

 1,200 francs for it. One of 543 grammes was 

 turned up by a farmer's hoe about the year 1870. 

 Smaller nuggets are said by the village priest to 

 have been found frequently in the vicinity during 

 the past sixty years. 



See Famous Gold Nuggets of the World, by 

 Thomas Jefferson Hurley, of the American Insti- 

 tute of Mining Engineers (New York, printed pri- 

 vately, 1900), to which we are indebted for the 

 information in this article. 



GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, a 

 monarchy in western Europe, formed by the 

 union of the Kingdom of England and the Prin- 

 cipality of Wales with the Kingdom of Scotland, 

 constituting together the Kingdom of Great Brit- 

 ain, and of this with the Kingdom of Ireland, 

 the whole forming the United Kingdom of Great 

 Britain and Ireland, which holds supreme do- 

 minion over the Empire of India and colonies 

 and dependencies of various kinds self-governing 

 colonies, colonies governed and administered partly 

 or wholly by the Crown, and protectorates under 

 native laws and rulers constituting, with the 

 United Kingdom, the British Empire. The reign- 

 ing sovereign in 1900 was the Queen-Empress Vic- 

 toria, born May 24, 1819, died Jan. 22, 1901, the 

 daughter of Edward, Duke of Kent, the fourth son 

 of George III. The successor to the throne is Al- 

 bert Edward, Prince of Wales, born Nov. 9, 1841, 

 eldest son of Queen \ ictoria and the Prince Con- 

 sort Albert, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. George, 

 Duke of York, born June 3, 1865, the only living 

 son of the Prince of Wales and Princess Alexandra 

 of Denmark, is next in succession, and after him 

 his eldest son, Albert Edward, born June 23, 1894, 

 issue of his marriage with Victoria May, daughter 

 of the Duke of Teck. 



The power to legislate for the United Kingdom 

 and for all parts of the British Empire, except so 

 far as it is delegated to local legislative author- 

 ities, is vested in the British Parliament, con- 

 sisting of a House of Lords and a House of Com- 

 mons. Members of the House of Lords are princes 

 of the blood royal; spiritual lords, which are the 

 metropolitan bishops of ancient English sees: 

 hereditary peers of England, of Great Britain, and 

 of the United Kingdom; representative peers of 

 Scotland, elected by their fellows for the dura- 

 tion of Parliament, and of Ireland, elected for 

 life; and life peers and law lords, created by 

 the sovereign by advice of the Cabinet. The 

 number of peers on the roll in 1899 was 591. 

 The House of Commons contains 670 members, 

 of whom 253 represent the county constituen- 

 cies, 237 the boroughs, and 5 the universities 

 of England; 39 the county constituencies, 31 

 the boroughs, and 2 the universities of Scotland ; 

 and 85 the county constituencies, 16 the boroughs, 

 and 2 the universities of Ireland. The franchise 

 is possessed by all male householders and lodgers 

 of full age, about 1 in 6 of the population; the 

 number of electors registered in 1899 was 6,600,283, 

 of whom 5,208,137 were in England, 671,128 in 

 Scotland, and 721,018 in Ireland. The duration 

 of Parliament, unless it is previously dissolved, 

 is seven years. The Committee of Ministers, called 

 the Cabinet, representing the majority for the 

 time being in the House of Commons, exercises 

 in fact the executive authority in the United 



Kingdom and the British Empire that is nomi- 

 nally vested in the Crown. The Prime Minister 

 chooses his colleagues and dispenses the patronage 

 of the Crown; he initiates the policy of the Gov- 

 ernment or approves the measures suggested by 

 the other ministers in their several departments, 

 and when his policy or his acts encounter the 

 displeasure of Parliament, manifested by an ad- 

 verse vote on a Cabinet question or by a direct 

 vote of censure, he either resigns forthwith, in 

 company with the rest of the Cabinet, or appeals 

 to the country by dissolving Parliament and or- 

 dering new elections. When a Cabinet resigns 

 the retiring Prime Minister advises the Queen as 

 to the selection of the statesman most competent 

 to form a new Government, usually the leader of 

 the Opposition in the House of Commons. The 

 Cabinet formed on June 25, 1895, by Lord Salis- 

 bury, consisted in the beginning of 1900 of the 

 following members: Prime Minister and Secretary 

 of State for Foreign Affairs, the Marquis of Salis- 

 bury; Lord President of the Council, the Duke of 

 Devonshire; Lord High Chancellor, the Earl of 

 Halsbury, formerly Sir Hardinge S. Giffard; Lord 

 Privy Seal, Viscount Cross, formerly Sir Richard 

 Cross ; Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Lord 

 James of Hereford, formerly Sir Henry James; 

 First Lord of the Treasury, Arthur J. Balfour; 

 Secretary of State for the Home Department, Sir 

 M. White Ridley; Chancellor of the Exchequer, 

 Sir Michael E. Hicks-Beach; Secretary of State 

 for the Colonies, Joseph Chamberlain; Secretary 

 of State for War, the Marquis of Lansdownc; 

 Secretary of State for India, Lord George Hamil- 

 ton ; First Lord of the Admiralty, G. J. Goschen ; 

 President of the Local Government Board, Henry 

 Chaplin; President of the Board of Trade, C. T. 

 Ritchie; Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Earl Cado- 

 gan ; Lord Chancellor of Ireland, Lord Ashbourne, 

 formerly Edward Gibson; Secretary for Scotland, 

 Lord Balfour of Burleigh; First Commissioner of 

 Works, A. Akers-Douglas; President of the Board 

 of Agriculture, W. H. Long. 



Area and Population. The area of the United 

 Kingdom is 120,979 square miles, England having 

 an area of 50,687, Wales 7,442, Scotland 29,785. 

 Ireland 32,583, the Isle of Man 227, and the Chan- 

 nel Islands 75 square miles. The estimated popu- 

 lation of England and Wales on June 30. 1899, 

 was 31,742,588; of Scotland, 4,281,850; of Ireland. 

 4,535,516; total United Kingdom, 40,559,954. Ttie 

 metropolis of London in 1899 was computed to have 

 6,528,434, of whom 4,546,752 lived in the inner ring 

 or registration London and 1,981,682 in the outer 

 ring. Of the large towns of England and Wales. 

 Liverpool contained an estimated population of 

 634,212 in the middle of 1899; Manchester, 543.902: 

 Birmingham, 514,956; Leeds, 423,889; Sheffield. 

 361,169; Bristol, 320,911; Nottingham, 239,384; 

 Bradford, 236,241; Kingston-upon-Hull, 234,270; 

 Newcastle, 228,625; Salford, 218,244; Leicester. 

 213,851; Portsmouth, 190,741; Cardiff, 185.826: 

 Bolton, 162,221; Oldham, 150,772. Glasgow, in 

 Scotland, had an estimated population of 733.903 ; 

 Edinburgh, 298,927; Dundee, 166,072. In Ireland 

 the population of Dublin within the metropolita7i 

 police district was 361,891 at the census of 1891 ; 

 of Belfast, 255.950. The number of marriages in 

 England in 1898 was 254,819; of births, 922.873; 

 of deaths, 552,040 ; excess of births, 370,833. The 

 number of marriages in Scotland was 32.096: of 

 births, 130,879; of deaths, 78,406; excess of births, 

 52,473. The number of marriages in Ireland was 

 22,580; of births, 105.457; of deaths, 82,404; excess 

 of births, 23,053. The number of emigrants, na- 

 tives and foreigners, that sailed from British ports 

 in 1899 was 241,105, of whom 159,201 Avent to the 



