On the conclusion of peace it became necessary to provide a foreign settlement for the merchants whose “factories” had been destroyed, and after some consultation it was determined to fill in and appropiate as the British settlement an extensive mud flat lying to the westward of the old factory site, and known as Sha-mien, or “The Sand Flats.” This site having been leased, it was converted into an artificial island by building a massive embankment of granite in an irregular oval form. Between the northern face of the site and the Chinese suburb, a canal of 100 feet in width was constructed, thus forming an island of about 2850 feet in length and 950 feet in greatest breadth. The expense of making this settlement was 325,000 Mexican dollars, four-fifths of which were defrayed by the British Government, and one-fifth by the French Government. The British portion of the new settlement was laid out in eighty-two lots; and so bright appeared the prospect of trade at the time of their sale that 9000 dollars and upwards was paid in more than one instance for a lot, with a river frontage, measuring 12,645 square feet. The depression in trade, however, which soon followed acted as a bar to building, and it was not until the British consulate was erected in 1865 that the merchants began to occupy the settlement in any numbers. The British consulate occupies six lots, with an area of 75,870 square feet in the centre of the site, overlooking the river, and is enclosed with a substantial wall. A ground-rent of 15,000 cash (about £3) per mow (a third of an acre) is annually paid by the owners of lots to the Chinese Government.
The Sha-mien settlement possesses many advantages. It is close to the western suburb of Canton, where reside all the wholesale dealers as well as the principal merchants and brokers; it faces the broad channel known as the Macao Passage, up which the cool breezes in summer are wafted almost uninterruptedly, and the river opposite to it affords a safe and commodious anchorage for steamers up to 1000 tons burden. Steamers only are allowed to come up to Canton, sailing vessels being restricted to the anchorage at Whampoa. See China.
CANTON, a city of the United States, in Stark county, Ohio, about 118 miles north-east of Columbus, on the Nimishillen Creek. It forms the centre of a large agricul tural district, and carries on a thriving trade. Coal and limestone are abundant in the neighbourhood, and the creek affords a good supply of water-power. There are several iron foundries and woollen factories in the town, as well as establishments for the manufacture of reaping-machines. Besides daily papers, two monthly periodicals are published. Population in 1870, 8660.
CANTON, John (1718-1772). an able natural philo sopher, was born at Stroud, Gloucestershire, in 1718. At the age of nineteen, he was articled for five years as clerk to the master of an academy in Spital Square, London, with whom at the end of that time he entered into partnership. In 1746 the science of electricity, which seems early to have engaged Canton s attention, gained a very im portant addition by the discovery of the principle of the Leyden jar. This event turned the thoughts of most of the philosophers of Europe to that branch of natural philosophy ; and Canton, who vas one of the first to repeat and pursue the experiment by which the discovery had been made, found his labour rewarded by manj valuable discoveries. In 1750 he read a paper before the Royal Society on a method of making artificial magnets, which procured him election as a member of the Society, and the award of its gold medal. The same year he was complimented with the degree of M.A. by the university of Aberdeen ; and in 1751 he was chosen one of the council of the Royal Society. Canton was the first in England to verify Franklin s hypothesis of the identity of lightning and electricity, having in 1752 succeeded in attracting the electric fire from the clouds during a thunderstorm. In consequence he prepared a paper, which was read the next year before the Royal Society, on Electrical Experiments, with an Attempt to Account fur their several Phenomena, in which, among other things, he mentions that he had dis covered that some clouds are in a positive and some in a negative state of electricity. About the same time Franklin made a similar discovery in America ; and these circumstances gave rise to a lasting friendship between the two philosophers. In 1762 and 1764 he published experi ments in refutation of the decision ot the Florentine academy, at that time generally accepted, that water is incom pressible. These and many other investigations were carried on without any intermission of his work as a schoolmaster, and his too sedentary life brought on dropsy, of which he died on March 22, 1772.
CANTU, or Canturio, a town of Italy, in the province of Como, about five miles south of the city of that name, in 45 44 24" N. lat. and 9 7 49" E. long. It is sur rounded with walls, and possesses a parish church with a very fine tower, a town hall, a hospital, and a theatre. In the neighbourhood are iron mines that were wrought in the 10th century. Population, 7429.
CANUSIUM. See Canosa.
CANUTE, or Cnut (about 995-1035), was the son of Sweyn or Swend, king of Denmark and England. Though only nineteen years of age at his father s death, he was elected by the Danish armament to the English throne (1014). But the English, only recently subdued by Sweyn, did not acquiesce in this disposal of the crown, recalled their old king Ethelred from Normandy, and obliged Canute to withdraw from the country. In the summer of 1015 Canute returned at the head of a vast Danish armament, and had compelled the submission of most of England when Ethelred died, and his son Edmund Ironside became the representa tive of the old English royal line. In the double election which ensued, Edmund was supported almost solely by London ; the Witan of the rest of England decided upon Canute, who had proved himself too formidable a candidate to be set aside. Nevertheless, in five pitched battles fought during the year 1016, Canute found in Edmund mure than an equal rival, a rival, too, that grew more dangerous, as he was recognized to be the champion of the pure English nationality. At length, in the sixth battle, at Assandun in the same year, the English army, weakened and disconcerted by the desertion of Edric, the traitorous earl of Mercia, was completely overthrown. A division of the kingdom was arranged between the two competitars, but Edmund dying soon after, not without suspicion of treachery, even on Canute s part, the latter became .sole ruler of England.
