Colonies. Date of Capture, Cession, or Settlement. Whether having Legislative Assemblies, or governed by Orders in Council. Returns relative to the Population and Trade of the Colonies or Foreign Possessions of the British Crown. Table of Returns from each Colony or Foreign Possession of the British Crown, stating the Date at which each Colony or Possession was captured, ceded, or settled; the Number of the Population, distinguishing white from free coloured, and apprenticed Labourers at the latest Period; and whether having Legislative Assemblies, or governed by Orders of the King in Council; stating, also, the Value of Exports from, and Imports into, each of those Colonies in 1834. 1834. 1834. Ships. Tons. Ships. Tons. Capitulation, 18th Sept. 1759 Governor, Council, and Assembly 549,005 L. 989 290,881 986 288,180 220,418 519,061 613 177,129 456 134,870 1,980 33,432 Barbadoes Ditto, 1505 Ditto Ditto Ditto 14,959 5,146 82,807 35,412 446,746 102,912 648,446 159,288 67 15,202 391,761 Dominica Ceded by France, 1763 Ditto Ditto Ditto Grenada Ditto, 1763 Ditto Ditto Ditto 840 801 3,606 14,384 18,830 135,396 35,700 3,786 23,536 25,123 315,611 90,712 Jamaica Capitulation, 1655 Ditto Ditto Ditto No census taken. 311,692 311,692 3,346,359 2,193,316 Montserrat Nevis St. Kitts St. Lucia Settlement, 1632 Ditto Ditto Ditto 330 974 6,355 7,639 42,080 7,212 Ditto, 1628 Ditto Ditto Ditto 700 2,000 8,722 1,422 90,454 12,169 Ditto, 1623 Ditto Ditto Ditto 1,612 3,000 20,660 25,272 166,709 77,432 22 5,958 10 3,002 Capitulation, 22d June, 1803 Governor and Council, and Orders of the King in Council] 8811 3,919 13,348 15,118 110,816 33,034 14 3,003 12 2,747 St. Vincent Ceded by France, 1763 Governor, Council, and Assembly 1,301 2,824 22,997 27,122 331,467 110,509 36 10,509 40 11,523 Tobago -Ditto, 1763 Ditto Ditto Ditto 280 3,000 11,621 4,901 139,668 Tortola Settlement, 1666 Anguilla Ditto, 1666 Ditto Ditto Ditto 477 1,296 5,192 6,965 31,719 Ditto 365 327 2,388 3,050 Trinidad Capitulation, 18th Feb. 1797 Governor and Council, and Orders of the King in Council 4,201 18,724 22,359 45,254 625,897 328,435 Bahamas Settlement, 1629 Governor, Council, and Assembly 4,657 1,211 9,705 18,573 Bermudas Ditto, 1609 Ditto Ditto Ditto 4,264 4,456 8,720 67,736 6,710 81,577 87 20,012 80 18,845 27 4,515 Capitulation, 18th Sept. 1803 Governor and Council, and Orders of the King in Council 3,006 6,360 65,556 74,922 1,416,936 33,909 39 15 2,608 169 46,904 159 48,169 Essequibo Honduras Capitulation, 17th Sept. 1795 Governor and Council, and Orders of the King in Council Ditto Ditto 8,844 37,852 33,438 3,710 6,786 1,125,636 13,851 36,251 Aborigines not ascer. convicts Ditto Ditto Ditto 22,150 tained. Ditto 2.070 336,539 0,089 42 18,400 00, 29,567 Possessions omitted in the foregoing Return. N. B. The above return does not contain the population and trade of the following possessions; viz. in Europe. Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, Sark, and Isle of Man, under the control of the Secretary of State for Home Department. United States of the Ionian Islands, 1834. Population, 194,395. Imports, 207,3934. Exports, 214,2291. Ships, inwards, 62; ditto, outwards, 42. Tonnage, inwards, 8,469; ditto, outwards, 5,753. These islands are under the protection of Great Britain by treaty, 1814. Asia. The possessions of the East India Company. Africa. The Island of Ascension, under the control of the Lords of the Admiralty. America. The Settlement of the Hudson's Bay Company, 1834. Population unknown. Im. ports, 64,2251. Exports, 54,2684. Ships, inwards, 5; ditto, outwards, 3. Tonnage, inwards, 1551; ditto, outwards, 878. These settlements are under the control of the Hudson's Bay Company. Falkland Islands. Population and trade unknown. Australia. The settlement of South Australia formed during the present year. EXTENT AND POPULATION OF INDIA. - We copy the following table from the second edition of Mr. Hamilton's Indian Gazeteer. Some later accounts have been published as to the population of particular provinces; but we believe that this is the most accurate statement that has hitherto been framed, embracing the whole country. In 1805, according to the official returns, the total number of Britishborn subjects in Hindostan was 31,000. Of these 22,000 were in the army as officers and privates; the civil officers of government of all descriptions were about 2,000; the free merchants and mariners, who resided in India under covenant, about 5,000; the officers and practitioners in the courts of justice, 300; the remaining 1,700 consisted of adventurers, who had smuggled themselves out in various capacities. Since the date above mentioned, no detailed reports have been published; but there is reason to believe that, at present, the total number of British subjects in Hindostan does not much exceed 40,000; the removal of the restrictions on the commercial intercourse having, contrary to expectation, added very few to the previous number. That so small a number of individuals should be able to govern so vast a population, differing from them in language, religion, and habits, is amongst the most extraordinary phenomena to be met with in the history of mankind. Statement of the Nett Expenditure incurred by Great Britain, on account of her several Military and Maritime Stations, Colonies, and Plantations, during the Year 1833-34. —(Parl. Paper. No. 408. Sess. 1835.) Totals :} 28,199 16 7 11,061 16 1 3,500 0 0 128,167 17 3 1,005 0 0 5,371 18 1 19,082 3 4 92,321 3 2311,418 7 53 40,761 12 8 3,500 0 0 17,797 10 44 113,340 0 641 24,454 1 5 S26,676 18 71 371,010 5 37,114 S 1 1,920,287 16 7 431,241 14 54 50,175 14 5 2,401,703 5 5 13,471 1694 50,865 15 5| 2,364,309 69 An Account of the Value of the Imports and Exports between Great Britain and CHAPTER IV. — ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. A GREAT portion of Europe was at a remote period inhabited by wandering tribes of Celts, whom we may suppose to have been as uncivilized as the savage tribes who now inhabit the interior of Africa. Their early progress in Britain and Ireland may in some measure be ascertained from the records of history: but the rudest nations, although they furnish materials for history, do not themselves produce historians; and, when all other memorials have utterly decayed, we are sometimes enabled, by the names which they have permanently affixed to some of the great objects of nature, to trace their progress with as much certainty as the hunter of the forest can trace the footsteps of his prey. When we find rivers, mountains, and promontories described by Celtic names, in a country or district where history has never mentioned the settlement of a Celtic horde, we are at no loss to account for such names: we are satisfied with the application of a single hypothesis, and instantly arrive at the conclusion that Celtic names must have been imposed by Celtic inhabitants. When the Romans invaded the south of Britain, they found the country possessed by people of this generic origin. The invasion took place about fifty-five years before the Christian era; and the invaders retained their ascendancy till the commencement of the fifth century. During this interval, the Romans imparted to the rude natives some tincture of their own intellectual refinement, but must have left the British language as they found it: the foreign settlers were not sufficiently numerous to produce any change in the speech of the original inhabitants. When the Roman empire was tottering to its fall, the Britons recovered their independence. They divided themselves into many petty states, and exercised many petty animosities, which impaired the national strength, and rendered them an easy prey to foreign invaders. The pirates of Saxony had long been accustomed to make occasional depredations on their coasts. The Picts and Scots, that is, the Goths and Celts of Scotland, infested them from the north; and at length the sense of common danger produced some degree of union in their councils and exertions. In this condition of their affairs, the Saxons obtained a permanent footing in the country. In the year 449, as the Saxon Chronicle informs us, "Hengest and Horsa, invited to his aid by Vortigern, King of the Britons, arrived in Britain in the place called Ipwinesfleet: they first came to the assistance of the Britons, but came. afterwards fought against them. The King directed them to fight against the Picts, and they did so, and were victorious wherever they They then sent to the Angles, and desired them to send more assistance, telling them of the worthlessness of the Britons, and the fruitfulness of the land. They then sent to them more assistance; then came men from three provinces of Germany, from the Old Saxons, from the Angles, from the Jutes."* The Saxons, like other Gothic tribes, derive their origin from a mighty horde which wandered from the east, and gradually overran the best portions of Europe. So early as the time of Ptolemy the geographer, this particular tribe had proceeded as far to the westward as the banks of the Elbe, and their primitive seat was between this river and the Eyder. Although at first they were not very formidable for their numbers, they gradually obtained a powerful ascendancy in Germany. Towards the middle of the third century, they entered into a league with the Franks for the purpose of opposing the Roman arms; and they afterwards enlarged their connections and increased their influence, till it predominated in a territory of great extent, reaching from the Eyder to the Rhine. This wide tract of country was not entirely peopled by Saxons: it included various nations, united by the ties of a kindred origin, and actuated by a sense of common interest or danger; but such was the ascendancy of the Saxons, that they communicated their name to the entire confederacy, which, among other nations, comprehended the Jutes, who inhabited the south of Jutland, and the Angles, who inhabited the adjacent district of Anglen. Hengest and Horsa, the leaders whom we have already mentioned, were not Saxons, but Jutes. The subsequent emigrants were for the most part Angles, and their descendants were long distinguished by the appellation of Anglo-Saxons. The first part of the name denotes the predominant tribe; the second denotes the original relation of that tribe to the Saxon confederacy. The new country which they acquired was denominated Engla-land, or the land of the Angles. These German invaders established themselves in the most fertile districts, and gradually displaced the Celtic inhabitants, till at length they were chiefly confined to the fastnesses of Wales, where the prevalence of the ancient language still indicates the continuance of their race. Eight new states were formed by the Anglo-Saxons, who maintained their independence till the year 1016, when they were subjected to the yoke of a Danish conqueror. Canute and his two sons, Harold * Saxon Chronicle, p. 14. Ingram's edit. Lond. 1823, 4to. See likewise Mr. Turner's History of the Anglo-Saxons, and Dr. Bosworth's Elements of Anglo-Saxon Grammar, p. 279. Lond. 1823, 8vo. |