E D I 
S 51 
of the appointment of thofe of Edinburgh. There are 
a number of incorporations of artifans who have alfo a 
fhare in the municipal government. The adminiftration 
of the police is extremely vigilant, prudent, and enlight¬ 
ened. Street-robberies and murders are, in confideration 
of the numbers of the people, very rare. The morals 
are more commendable than in almoft any other metro¬ 
polis. Every virtue of prudent difcretion, every virtue 
of generous magnanimity, every good quality, the rc- 
fult.of enlarged intelligence, prevails among that part 
of the community who are efteemed. No atrocious 
depravity of difpofition and feeling is prominent even 
among the worft. Charity,and loyalty, are two public 
virtues universal among thefe people. The many cha¬ 
ritable inftitutions, the liberality with which the wants 
of the poor are conftantly fupplied, the great fums at 
different times fubfcribed for the orphan families of fol- 
diers and failors, the benevolent inftitution and admir¬ 
able regulation of its infirmary, and the late munificent 
eftablilhment of its'houfe of induftry, may be mentioned, 
out of innumerable inftances, to thevv how open the 
hearts of thefe people are to the fympathetic l'enfe of 
human woe. 
In drefs, the inhabitants of Edinburgh follow the fame 
fnfhions as thofe of London. In their victuals, they are 
perhaps lefs cleanly ; in their houfes, more fo. They 
are very convivial ; and perhaps more frankly and warmly 
fo than the people of England. The royal theatre, a 
concert, a circus for pantomimes and feats of horfeman- 
fhip, alfembly-rooms, and frequent affemblies for cards 
and dancing, are their chief public amufements. Tradef- 
men do not fquander much of their money in following 
thefe. The public amufements are conducted with great 
decorum, and under the'cenfure of a nicely difcriminating 
taile. Upon the whole, the inhabitants of Edinburgh 
are eminently diftinguiftied for information and propriety 
of behaviour ; which may be attributed to a variety of 
caufes. Learned and literary men, particularly thofe 
connected with the college, arc held in great eflimation, 
and are received with cordiality into the higheft circles. 
By far the moft numerous clafs of Use refpectable inhabi¬ 
tants are in the prcfefiions ; and commerce, which fome- 
tintes fuddenly raifes ill-educated men to affluence, has 
fcarcely any place in the Scotti(h capital, where educa¬ 
tion is fo much encouraged. Thefe circumftances cannot 
be without fome effect upon the minds of young men 
who go thither for the purpofe of improvement. Indeed, 
all orders of people here are in general virtuous and in- 
duftrious, fober, diligent, and of courteous manners, 
mollly bred up in fevere abltemioufnefs, and hence ad¬ 
dicted to the ftricteft rules of economy. Here too we are 
furniflied with a finking proof of the converfe of that ar¬ 
bitrary, not to fay inhuipan, doftrine, which has of late 
been propagated, “that univerfal education would ren¬ 
der 11 te lower clafs unfit for labour and fervitude for 
it may with truth be affirmed, that the lower orders of 
fociety in Edinburgh and other parts of Scotland, are the 
btjl educated, and at the fame time the molt diligent fer- 
vants in the world. 
The fituation of Edinburgh, with refpeft to the fur¬ 
rounding country, is highly deferving of our notice. Its 
profpecl toward the north-eaft and the fouth-eaft is into 
the frith of Forth, and to the German Ocean. To the 
north and north-well, a wide view opens acrofs the Forth, 
at its greateft expanlion, and over the fection of a valt 
amphitheatre, to where the horizon is bounded by the 
Grampian mountains. Immediately to the welt and the 
fouth-weft, the adjacent country rifes into hills of confi- 
derable, though not alionilhing, elevation, which confine 
the range of the eye within narrow bounds. Southward 
extends a beautiful territory, of an irregular but rich and 
cultivated furface, alternately rifing and fubliding towards 
the banks of the Elk, the ruins of Rodin, the town of 
Dalkeith, and the fine maritime village of Inverefit, Ar- 
E D 1 
thur-Seat, Salifbnry-Craggs, and Caltonhill, protect the 
town, to the esft, from thofe chilling winds' from the 
fea, to which it is, by its fituation, exceedingly expofed ; 
and prefent, in their columnar firatification, their volca¬ 
nic afpedf, their infulated height, and their-air of defolate 
barrennefs ; a firiking contrail to the refinement, art, and 
cultivation, which are eminently confpicuous all around 
them. The Caftle-hill, and feveral other contiguous 
heights are of a fimilar afpedt and firatification. The 
furface of the whole territory is varied and unequal to a 
degree, fuch as is rarely to be feen even in other parts of 
this ide. The climate would be mild and genial in pro¬ 
portion to the latitude, were it not for the winds from the 
ealt and north-eaft, which, in fpring and fumnier, perpe¬ 
tually. blaft vegetation, and to an almoft inconceivable 
degree afflidt the human health. The fame ealtern ex- 
polure renders Edinburgh and its neighbourhood alfo 
iubject to fttdden and molt fevere dorms in winter. It 
is too much excluded by the interior hills, at all times 
Of the year, from the foft and cheering breezes of the 
weft. Its vicinity to the fea, the (helving inequalities of 
the furface, the lightnefs of the foil, on a bottom of lime- 
ftone, granite, and trapp or bafalt, render the town and 
the furrounding territory fubjedt, in fumnier, often to 
an intenfity of heat that is fufficient to ripen, in the open 
air, the fruits of much more fouthern latitudes ; and that 
would be fcarcely tolerable in the thin brick buildings of 
London, or, indeed, in any others than the cool and fome- 
what gloomy (tone edifices which we here inhabit. It 
is confelfed by all travellers who have (kill in the beauty 
and grandeur of landfcapes, that fcarce another fpot in 
Europe afferds, within not more than an equal range of 
horizon, fo great a diver'll ty of views, and thofe fo admi¬ 
rable in the three different dalles of the fublime, the 
pichirefque, and the beautiful. 
ED'INBURGIISHIRE, or Mid-Lothian, a county 
of Scotland, which takes its name from the above metro¬ 
polis; bounded on the north by the Frith of Forth, on 
the eaft by Haddingtonlhire, Berwickfltire, and Roxburg- 
lhire ; on the fouth by Selkirkfhire, Peeblefhire, and La- 
nerkfhire ; and on the weft by Linlithgowfliire. Its form, 
is nearly the fegment of a circle, about twenty-feven 
miles from ea'ft to weft, and fixteen from north to fouth ; 
but in fome places not above fix. The foil is fertile, aiid 
produces corn of all forts with plenty of grafs for cattle ; 
it contains mines of coal, copper, lime-ftone, and black 
marble. The principal towns, befides Edinburgh, are Dal¬ 
keith, Leith, and Muffelburg ; the principal rivers are the 
Elk, the Leith, the Almond, and the Galla. It fends 
one member to the imperial parliament. 
E'DINGDON, or Edington, [ofeaS, Sax. eafy, and 
dun, a hill.] A town in Wales, memorable for king Al¬ 
fred’s fignal vidlory over the Danes. 
EDIS'TO, an ifland of North America, about twenty 
miles in circumference, near the coaft of South Carolina. 
Lat. 32. 33. N. Ion. 80. 20. W. Greenwich. 
EDIS'TO, or Ponpon, a navigable river of North 
America, in South Carolina, which rifes in two branches 
from a remarkable ridge in the interior part of the (late. 
Thefe branches unite below Orangeburgh, which (funds 
on the north fork, and form Edifto river, which, having 
paffed Jackfonburg, leaving it on the fouth, branches and 
embraces Edifto, and feveral fmaller illes. 
E'DIT, a town of Sweden, in the province of Weft 
Gothland : twenty-five miles north of Gothenburg. 
E'DITIT, [of eab, Sax. profperous, and y cSian, to re¬ 
dound, q. d. one who overflowed with profperity. ] The 
wife of Edward the Confeffor. A proper name of women. 
EDI'TION,y. \_editio, Lat.] Publication of any thing, 
particularly of a book.—This Englilh edition is not fo 
properly a tranflation, as a new compofition on the fame 
ground. Burnet. —Republication; generally with fome re- 
vifal or correcting.—Thefe are of the fecond edition. Shake - 
fpcarc. —The bulinefs of our redemption is to rub over 
the 
