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EDESSA—EDINBURGH 651 Edessa, now called Urea, one of the most import- and also part of Cramond parish, in which is contained ant towns of Northern Mesopotamia. It stands at a height the village and harbour of Granton. The total area of of 1700 feet above sea-level, on the right bank of the Scirtus the city is now 10,597^ acres. (Syrian, Daizon), a winter torrent which discharges into the Population and Wealth.—The number of inhabitants, Belikh, a tributary of the Euphrates. Urfa is the capital of set down at 212,729 in 1877, increased to 234,402 in a sanjak of the same name, in the Aleppo vilayet, seat of a 1881, to 261,225 in 1891, and to 316,479 in 1901. In governor and of an Armenian bishbp, situated on the border 1900 the birth-rate was 26'90 per thousand of population, of a fertile plain noted for its wheat and fine pasture, on 7 '8 per cent, of the births being illegitimate; the deaththe great caravan road from Aleppo to Mosul, about 46 rate, 19’40 per thousand of population, and the marriagemiles east of Birejik. It stands partly on the plain and rate 10 per thousand. Of the total number of deaths 29 partly on two rocky hills, between which runs a small per cent, were those of children under five years, compared stream. There are remains of the old walls, with their with 3 9’8 per cent, in Glasgow. The increase in wealth rock-hewn ditch, and of the citadel. The streets are may best be measured by the rise in the assessed valunarrow and winding, with well-built stone houses. Be- ation of the town. The city rental was £1,727,740 in neath the citadel are two springs, which supply tanks one 1880, £2,106,395 in 1890, and £2,807,122 in 1900the Birket Ibrahim, with sacred fish, now under the 1901. protection of Abraham, as they formerly were under Municipal Government and Finance.—There have been that of Atergatis. About one mile from the town is a corresponding growth and change in the municipal and spring connected by tradition with the healing of Abgar’s political organization of Edinburgh. By the Redistribuleprosy by Thaddeus. The climate is healthy, but not in tion Act of 1885 the number of the city’s representatives summer : the “ Aleppo button ” is common. The princi- was doubled, and it was divided, for electoral purposes, pal manufactures are fine cotton stuffs and yellow leather. into East, West, Central, and South Edinburgh, each The population numbers 20,000 (Moslems 8500, Armen- returning a single member the parliamentary and muniians 7500, Syrians, Greeks, Protestants, and Jews 4000). cipal boundaries have been made almost coterminous. On the 28th and 29th December 1895 there was a bar- The parliamentary constituency in 1901 numbered 42,375 barous massacre, between 3000 and 4000 Gregorian, registered electors, of whom 11,025 were in the East, Roman Catholic, and Protestant Armenians perishing. 8926 in the. West, 7630 in the Central, and 14,794 in the Authorities. — Gutschmid. “ Untersuchimgen iiber die South divisions. The municipal constituency is 59,339. Geschichte des Konigreich Osroene” in Memoires da VAcademia The Town Council has been increased to fifty members, and Imperiale. St Petersburg, 1887.—Fitzmaurice. Report dated consists of a Lord Provost, 7 bailies, a dean of guild, treasurer, March 16th, 1896, in Turkey No. 5, 1896. (c w w ^ and convener of trades, 7 judges of police, and 32 ordinary Edinburgh, a city, county, and parliamentary councillors. Among the important new public duties burgh, and the capital of Scotland, situated on the and functions undertaken by the Corporation and its south shore of the Firth of Forth, and surrounded by the dependent bodies may be mentioned the acquisition of the county of Midlothian, 396 miles by rail north of London, with which it is connected by the Great Northern, Midland, and London and North-Western Railways. Its progress since 1880, if not so rapid as that of some other towns more dependent for their prosperity on trade and manufactures, has been steady and great. Area.—Its area has been enlarged by successive extensions of its municipal boundaries, especially towards the west and south, the directions in which growth has been most marked. An important accession of territory was obtained in 1896, when portions of the parishes of Liberton and Duddingston and the police burgh of Portobello were incorporated in the city. The attempt then made to secure the amalgamation of the contiguous burgh of Leith to the Scottish capital did not prove successful. Under the Edinburgh Corporation Act, 1900, a further addition of nearly 1800 acres was made to the city area. This embraces portions of South Leith gas-works, and of the horse and cable tramways the parish (landward) and of Duddingston parish, including electric lighting of the streets; the bringing in of an addithe village of Restalrig and the ground lying on both tional water supply from the Moorfoots, to be supplesides of the main road from Edinburgh to Portobello; mented by the Talla Water scheme; and the purchase of