GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



305 



The reigning sovereign is Edward VII, King of the 

 United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland 

 and of the British dominions beyond the seas and 

 Emperor of India, eldest son of Victoria I and 

 Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, born Nov. 

 9, 1841, who succeeded to the throne on the death 

 of his mother, Jan. 22, 1901. The heir apparent 

 is George, Prince of Wales, son of King Edward 

 and Alexandra, daughter of King Christian IX 

 of Denmark, born June 3, 1865, married on July 

 6, 1893, to Victoria, daughter of the Duke of 

 Teck. 



The power to legislate for the United King- 

 dom and, except in so far as the power has been 

 delegated to local legislative authorities, for all 

 the members of the British Empire is vested in 

 the British Parliament, consisting of a House of 

 Lords and a House of Commons. Members of the 

 House of Lords are the princes of the royal 

 blood; spiritual lords, who are the metropolitan 

 bishops of ancient English sees; hereditary peers 

 of England, of Great Britain, and of the United 

 Kingdom; representative peers of Scotland, elect- 

 ed by their fellow peers for the duration of Par- 

 liament; representative peers of Ireland, elected 

 for life; and life peers and law lords. The num- 

 ber of peers on the roll of Parliament in 1901 

 was 592. The House of Commons contains 670 

 members, elected in boroughs, counties, and uni- 

 versities by the votes of all male householders 

 and lodgers, by secret ballot. England, with 

 5,389,865 electors in 1901, is represented by 495 

 members, of whom 253 are elected by 3,046,900 

 county electors, 237 by 2,325,263 borough electors, 

 and 5 by 17,702 university electors; Scotland, 

 with 696,869 electors, by 72 members, of whom 

 39 are elected by 382,629 county electors, 31 by 

 294,643 borough electors, and 2 by 19,597 uni- 

 versity electors; Ireland, having a total of 735,- 

 851 electors, by 103 members, of whom 85 are 

 elected by 622,465 county electors, 16 by 108,667 

 borough electors, and 2 by 4,719 university elect- 

 ars. The Committee of Ministers, called the 

 Cabinet, representing the majority for the time 

 sing in the House of Commons, exercises in 

 eality the executive authority that is nominally 

 nested in the Crown. The Prime Minister chooses 

 his colleagues and dispenses the patronage of 

 the Crown; he initiates the policy of the Govern- 

 lent or approves the measures suggested in their 

 several departments by the other ministers, and 

 en his policy or acts encounter the displeasure 

 Parliament, manifested by an adverse vote on 

 a Cabinet question or by a direct vote of want of 

 confidence, he either resigns with the rest of the 

 Cabinet forthwith or he appeals to the country 

 by dissolving Parliament and ordering new elec- 

 tions. When a Cabinet resigns the retiring Prime 

 inister advises the sovereign as to the selection 

 >f the statesman most competent to*form a new 

 overnment, usually the leader of the Opposi- 

 tion in the House of Commons. The Cabinet 

 formed on Nov. 1, 1900, and continued in office 

 an the accession of Edward VII, was composed 

 in the beginning of 1902 as follows: Prime Min- 

 ister and Lord Privy Seal, the Marquis .of Salis- 

 bury; Lord President of the Council, the Duke of 

 Devonshire; Lord High Chancellor, the Earl of 

 Halsbury; Secretary of State for Foreign Af- 

 fairs, the Marquis of Lansdowne; Chancellor of 

 the Duchy of Lancaster, Lord James of Hereford ; 

 First Lord of the Treasury, Arthur J. Balfour; 

 Secretary of State for the Home Department, C. 

 T. Ritchie; Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir 

 Michael E. Hicks-Beach; Secretary of State for 

 the Colonies, Joseph Chamberlain; Secretary of 

 "State for War, W. St. John F. Brodrick; Secre- 

 VOL. XLII. 20 A 



tary of State for India, Lord George Hamilton; 

 First Lord of the Admiralty, the Earl of Sel- 

 borne; President of the Local Government 

 Board, W. H. Long; President of the Board of 

 Trade, Gerald Balfour; Lord Lieutenant of Ire- 

 land, Earl Cadogan; Lord Chancellor of Ireland, 

 Lord Ashbourne; Secretary for Scotland, Lord 

 Balfour, of Burleigh; First Commissioner of 

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

 Board of Agriculture, R. W. Hanbury; Postmas- 

 ter-General, the Marquis of Londonderry. 



Area and Population. The area of the divi- 

 sions of the United Kingdom and their popula- 

 tion at the census of April 1, 1901, are given in 

 the following table: 



The annual rate of increase between 1891 and 

 1901 was 1.21 per cent, in England, 1.33 per cent, 

 in Wales, 1.11 per cent, in Scotland, and 0.19 per 

 cent, in the Channel Islands, while the popula- 

 tion of Ireland decreased at the average rate of 

 0.53 per cent, per annum. The population in 

 England and Wales consisted of 15,721,728 males 

 and 16,804,347 females; in Scotland, 2,173.755 

 males and 2,298,348 females; in Ireland, 2,197,739 

 males and 2,258,807 females; in the Isle of Man, 

 25,486 males and 29,272 females; in the Channel 

 Islands, 45,205 males and 50,636 females. Of the 

 total population of the United Kingdom in 1900 

 England contained 74.1 per cent., Wales 4.1 per 

 cent., Scotland 10.8 per cent., Ireland 10.7 per 

 cent., the Isle of Man 0.1 per cent., the Chan- 

 nel Islands 0.2 per cent. In 1851 England 

 contained 61 per cent, of the total popula- 

 tion, Wales 3.6 per cent., Scotland 10.4 per 

 cent., Ireland 23.7 per cent., the Isle of Man 0.2 

 per cent., the Channel Islands 0.3 per cent. Of 

 the total population of England and Wales 24 

 per cent, in 1901 lived in 9 towns which had 250,- 

 000 inhabitants and upward. London had 

 4,536,541 inhabitants within the registration 

 area, 6,580,616 including the outer ring. The 

 population of the metropolis has increased nearly 

 fivefold in a century, but for the last half-century 

 the rate of increase has declined, except in the 

 suburban districts of greater London, which have 

 grown rapidly. The population of the other 

 towns was: Liverpool, 684,947; Manchester, 543,- 

 969; Birmingham, 522,182; Leeds, 428,953; Shef- 

 field, 380,717; Bristol, 328,842; Bradford, 279,809; 

 West Ham, 267,308. Towns having from 100,000 

 to 250,000 contained 10 per cent, of the popula- 

 tion. Kingston-upon-Hull had 240,618 inhabit- 

 ants ; Nottingham, 239,753 ; Salford, 220.956 ; 

 Newcastle, 214,803 ; Leicester, 211,574; Ports- 

 mouth, 189.160; Bolton, 168,205; Cardiff, 164,420; 

 Sunderland, 146,565; Oldham, 137,238; Croydon, 

 133,885; Blackburn, 127.527: Brighton. 123,478; 

 Preston, 112,982; Norwich, 111,728; Birkenhead, 

 110,926; Gateshead, 109,926; Plymouth, 107,509; 

 Derby, 105,785; Halifax, 104,933; Southampton. 

 104,911. The urban population of England and 

 Wales was 77 per cent, of the total population, 

 the rural population 23 per cent. In Scotland 75.3 

 per cent, of the population lived in town dis- 

 tricts, 22 per cent, in rural districts on the main- 

 land, and 2.7 per cent, on the islands. The town 

 districts increased 15.12 per cent, in ten years, 



