neighbouring coal-mines and stone quarries. The borough sends two members to parliament. The parish is the largest in Great Britain, embracing 79,200 acres. The population of the municipal and parliamentary borough in 1861 was 37,014, and in 1871 (with an extended area of 3704 acres) 65,510.
Two derivations are given for the name Halifax. According to Caiudon it means "holy hair," and he accounts for the origin of the name from the fact that the head of a virgin who had been murdered by a wicked clerk was suspended on a tree in the neigh bourhood, which came to be much resorted to by pilgrims. According to another account, the name means "holy face," and is derived from an image of St John once preserved in a neighbouring hermitage. The first mention of the town is in the 12th century, when its church was granted by William, earl of Warren, to the priory of Lewes in Sussex. When its manufactures commenced in the beginning of the 15th century the number of its houses was only 15, but they had increased in 1540 to 520. It is said to have received a considerable accession to its inhabitants and impulse tc its prosperity from the merchants who fled from the Netherlands to escape the persecution carried out under the auspices of the duke of Alva. In 1642 it was garrisoned by the forces of the parliament, and near it at a place still called the Bloody Field an engagement took place between them and the royalists. In the forest of Hardwick, then coextensive with the parish of Halifax, there at one time existed a custom called the "Gibbet Law," according to which any person suspected to be in the unlawful possession of goods to the value of 13
HALIFAX, a city and seaport of British North America, capital of Nova Scotia, is situated on the south-east coast of the province on the declivity of a hill about 250 feet in height, rising gradually from the south-west side of Chebncto Biy or Halifax harbour, a deep inlet of the sea. The hill is commanded by a citadel about a mile in circumference and of great strength, and the harbour is defended by several forts and batteries. Originally the houses were chiefly of wood plastered or stuccoed, but the frequent recurrence of fires has led to a more general use of stone or brick as building materials. Many of them have an imposing and elegant appearance ; and the streets are spacious and regularly laid out, crossing each other at right angles. Including its suburbs the city is from 2 to 3 miles long and about 1 mile broad. The principal build ings are the Government house, the official residence of the lieutenant-governor of Nova Scotia, a solid sombre-looking structure at the south of the town ; the provincial building, near the centre of the tosvn, 140 feet long by 70 feet broad, with a fine Ionic colonnade, and comprising the Government offices, the post-office, the city library and the provincial museum; the parliament building, the court house, the admiralty house, the exchange, the Roman Catholic cathedral of St Mary, the rooms of the young men s Christian association, the Wellington barracks, the military hospital, the lunatic asylum, the workhouse, the jail, and the penitentiary. The educational establishments include the Dalhousie college and university, the St Mary s Roman Catholic college, the Presbyterian theological college, the High School, the almshouse of industry for girls, two orphan asylums, a blind asylum, a lunatic asylum for tho Lower Provinces, two industrial schools, and nearly twenty public schools. A lighthouse has been erected on the west side of the entrance to the harbour on a small island off Sambro Cape. After passing Sambro the course for_ large vessels is to the west of M Nab s Island, on which a lighthouse has also been erected ; but there is also a passage sufficient for small vessels to the east of the island. Recently a lighthouse has been erected on the west side of St George s Island opposite the city. Halifax is the seat of a considerable fishery. Its principal trade is with Great Britain, the British colonies, and the United States. In 1878 the number of ships that entered was 887, with a tonnage of 347,336. The value of imports was $4,991,205, and of exports $4,102,335. The imports are chiefly manu factures from England, manufactures and produce from the United States, and sugar, molasses, rum, and other products from the West Indies ; the chief exports are dried and pickled fish, timber, cattle, agricultural and dairy pro duce, fur, and whale and seal oil. Halifax is now used instead of Portland in the State of Maine as the winter port (the St Lawrence being closed with ice) for the Dominion of Canada. The principal industries of Halifax are ironfounding, brewing, distilling, sugar-refining, and the manufacture of woollen and cotton goods, paper, leather, tobacco, gunpowder, agricultural and musical instruments, carriages, machinery, candles, and soap. On account of its fine air and the beautiful scenery of the neighbourhood, Halifax has a high reputation as a watering-place. An abundant supply of water for the city is obtained from two lakes 2 miles distant. The city is the seat of an Anglican bishop and a Roman Catholic archbishop. Nearly one- third of the population is Roman Catholic. It is named after the earl of Halifax, and was founded by Governor Corn- wallisin 1749. In 1790 it contained only 700 houses and 4000 inhabitants. It was declared a free port in 1817, at which time the number of houses was 1200. The popula tion in 1861 was 25,026, and in 1871, 29,582.
English statesman and poet, fourth son of the Honoura.ble George Montague, who was fifth son of the first earl of Manchester, was born at Horton, Northamptonshire, on the 16th April 1661. In his fourteenth year he was sent to Westminster school, where he was chosen king s scholar in 1677, and distinguished himself in the composition of ex tempore epigrams made according to custom upon theses appointed for king s scholars at the time of election. In 1682 he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, where he acquired a solid knowledge of the classics and surpassed all his contemporaries at the university in logic and ethics. Latterly, however, he preferred to the abstractions of Descartes the practical philosophy of Sir Isaac Newton ; and he was one of the small band of students who assisted Newton in forming the Philosophical Society of Cambridge. But it was his facility in verse-writing, and neither his scholarship nor his practical ability, that first opened up to him the way to fortune. His clever but absurdly panegyri cal poem on the death of Charles II., which was published in the Book of Condolence and Congratulation presented by the university to James II., secured for him the notice of the earl of Dorset, who invited him to town and introduced him to the principal wits of the time; and in 1687 his joint authorship with Prior of the Toivti and Country Mouse, a happy parody of Dryden s Hind and Panther, not only increased his literary reputation but directly helped him to political influence. In 1688, through the patronage of the earl of Dorset, he entered parliament as member for Maldon, and sat in the convention which resolved that William and Mary should be declared king and queen of England. About this time he married the countess-dowager of Manchester, and it would appear, according to Johnson, that it was still his intention to take orders ; but after the coronation he purchased a clerkship to the council. On being introduced by Earl Dorset to King William, after the publication of his poetical Epistle occasioned by his Majesty s Victory in Ireland, he was ordered to receive an immediate pension of .500 per annum, until an opportunity should present itself of "making a man of him." In 1691 lie" was chosen chairman of the committee of the House of Commons appointed to confer with a committee of the
Lords in regard to the Bill for regulating trials in cases of
