by its size alone, although it has not in this respect the extraordinary importance of Europe. The continent has the Economic Development of the Continent.good fortune to lie chiefly in a temperate rather than a torrid zone, and in temperate latitudes to be much nearer to Europe than to Asia. Whatever may have been the first home of the aboriginal inhabitants, the dominating people of to-day are derived from the leading countries of the Old World. Not only so; temperate North America has become the most progressive part of the continent because of receiving its new population chiefly from the most advanced nations of middle western Europe—Great Britain, France and Germany; while the torrid islands and the narrowing southern mainland of North America have been settled chiefly from the less energetic peoples of southern Europe; and the inhospitable northern lands are hardly entered at all by newcomers, except in the recently discovered goldfields of the far north-west. From the plantation of colonies on the eastern coast, the movement inland has been governed to a remarkable degree by physiographic factors, such as form, climate and products. The cities of the Atlantic harbours and of the adjacent lowlands still take a leading part in industry and commerce, because of their longer establishment and of their relation to Europe. The uplands, ridges and mountains of the Appalachian system—the “Backwoods” of a century ago—remain rather thinly occupied except at certain centres where coal or other earth-product attracts an industrial population. Beyond the Appalachians the middle interior contains a very large proportion of habitable land. It was long ago recognized as a land of great promise, and it is to-day a land of great performance, covered with a network of railways, yielding an enormous product of grain, and developing industries of all kinds. Indeed, within and closely around an area marked by the St Lawrence system on the north, the Ohio on the south, and stretching from the Atlantic coast between the Gulf of St Lawrence and Chesapeake Bay inland to the middle prairies, there is a remarkable concentration of the population, industry, progress, wealth and power of North America—the focus of attention from all other parts of the continent. The regions of the far north and north-east, including the greater part of the Laurentian highland and the extreme northern stretch of the medial plains and the western highlands, remain and will long remain thinly populated. The furs of wild animals are their characteristic product. Timber is taken from their more accessible forests; but only in mining districts does the population notably increase, as in the iron region around Lake Superior and in the Klondike gold region.
In the south-eastern United States lies a belt of coastal lowlands skirting the Appalachians, still affected by negro slavery and its consequences. The descendants of the early French settlers of Canada stand in political rights as well as in loyalty to the Government on an equal footing with the British citizens of the Dominion. The Italians of the cities, the Hungarians of the mines, the Scandinavians of the northern prairies, the Irish and Germans everywhere are “Americanized” in the second or third generation, rapidly entering local and national politics, and hardly less rapidly attaining an honourable social standing as tested by intermarriage with English and other stocks. But the negro is set aside, even though he has adopted the language and the religion of his former masters: political and social rights are denied him, and intermarriage with whites is practically excluded, although illegitimate mulattos are numerous. Thus has slavery left upon a people, amongst whom political rights and social opportunities should be equal for all, the heavy burden that always retards progress where strongly contrasted races are brought together. Farther south still are the tropical islands and the narrowing mainland, rich in possible productiveness, but slowly developed because of a prevailing diversity and instability of government and lack of progressive spirit among the people. Here also there is a considerable proportion of negroes, but they live under less unhappy conditions than those now obtaining in the United States. In Mexico and Central America, the proportionate number of aborigines is much greater than farther north.
West of the Mississippi in middle latitudes the population rapidly decreases in density, and over a large extent of the semiarid plains it must long remain sparse. The settlements bordering the plains on the east for a long time marked the “Frontier” of civilization, for the vast stretch of dry country was a serious barrier to farther advance. But the plains are now crossed by many railways leading to the Cordilleran region—the “Far West”—in large part too rugged or too arid for occupation, but rich in minerals from one end to the other, the seat of many mining camps of unstable population, and containing numerous permanent settlements in the intermontane basins. Great irrigation enterprises, conducted under the National Reclamation Service of the United States, are employing all available water supplies for agriculture; but large areas must remain permanently desert. On nearing the farther ocean the climatic conditions improve, and the population is rapidly increasing in number and wealth; this district not being content to take its name with respect to the east, not considering itself as included in the “Far West,” but choosing the distinctive designation of the “Pacific Slope,” and, while maintaining an active intercourse all across the breadth of the continent, already opening relations with the distant Orient by a new approach. Among the earliest results of the latter movement was the arrival of Chinese labourers, a humble, industrious and orderly class of men, but one which stands apart in language, religion and race from the dominant population, lives largely without domestic ties, and gains neither political nor social standing in the New World.
Two centuries ago the aboriginal population of North America would have deserved description before the immigrant population. To-day the aborigines are displaced from nearly all the valuable parts of the continent. Never very numerous, they are now decreasing; many tribes are already extinct, many more are almost so. Those which remain less diminished are in the Far North or North-West where nature is rigorous; or in the tropical forests of Central America where nature is over bounteous; or in the more desert parts of the Middle West where nature is arid. The replacement of the native races by the foreign has too often been harsh, cruel and unjust; yet it has resulted in an advance of civilization. Many savage tribes, speaking many different languages, holding little intercourse with each other, and frequently engaged in intertribal wars, have given place in little more than two centuries to a great population of European origin, whose dominant parts speak one language, whose arts are highly advanced, whose home intercourse is most active, and whose foreign commerce had attained unexpected proportions at the opening of the 20th century. (W. M. D.)
NORTHAMPTON, EARLS AND MARQUESSES OF. The Northampton title has been held in various English families. About 1080 Simon de Senlis (d. 1109), a Norman noble, and the builder of Northampton Castle, was created earl of Northampton as well as earl of Huntingdon by William the Conqueror; his son Simon (d. 1153) was also recognized in the title about 1141, though his stepfather, David, king of Scotland (1084–1153), had meanwhile obtained the earldom in right of his wife. The second Simon died childless. In 1337 William de Bohun (c. 1310–1360), a distinguished soldier, son of Humphrey de Bohun, 4th earl of Hereford and 3rd earl of Essex, was created earl of Northampton; and his son Humphrey, who succeeded, fell heir in 1361 to the earldoms of Hereford and Essex, which thus became united under that of Hereford. The titles, however, became extinct at his death in 1372.
In 1547 William Parr (1513–1571), son of Sir Thomas Parr and brother of Catherine Parr, was created marquess of Northampton, and though attainted in 1553 was recreated marquess in 1559. He took part in suppressing the rising in the north of England in 1537, and after serving as member of parliament for Northamptonshire was made Baron Parr in 1539. In December 1543, just after his sister had married the king, he was created earl of Essex, a title formerly held by his father-in-law, Henry Bourchier, who had died in March 1540. Under Edward VI., who called him “his honest uncle,” Parr was equally prominent, being lord-lieutenant of five of the eastern counties, and being great chamberlain from 1550 to 1553. He favoured the claim of Lady Jane Grey to the English throne and consequently the accession of Queen Mary was quickly followed by his attainder. Although sentenced to death he was pardoned
