Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/819

Rh Paris, 1856, to investigate the stats of things in the Danubian principalities, with a view to their definitive reorganization. Finally, as the crowning incident in his diplomatic career, he was installed, from May 1858 to August 1865, as the immediate successor, after the close of the Crimean war, of the &quot; Great Eltchi,&quot; Viscount Strat ford de Redcliffe, as ambassador extraordinary to the Otto man Porte at Constantinople. In that capacity he fully sustained the high reputation he had acquired as a diplo matist. When in the winter of 1865 Sir Henry Bulwer returned home from the Bosphorus it was to retire upon his pension to the lettered ease he had so well earned, and to revive for a brief space in the evening of his life the recollection of his earlier successes as an advanced liberal reformer in the House of Commons. He was elected member for Tarn worth on the 17th November 1868, and retained his seat until gazetted as a peer of the realm on the 21st March 1871, under the title of Baron Balling and Bulwer of Wood Balling in the county of Norfolk. Upon the eve of his return to his old haunts as a debater and a politician he had asserted his claim to literary distinction by giving to the world in two volumes his four masterly sketches of typical men, entitled Historical Characters. This work, dedicated to his brother Edward, in testimony of the writer s fraternal affection and friendship, portrayed in luminous outline Talleyrand the Politic Man, Cobbett the Contentious Man, Canning the Brilliant Man, and Mackintosh the Man of Promise. Two other kindred sketches, those of Sir Robert Peel and Viscount Melbourne, having been selected from among their author s papers, have since been published posthumously. Another work of ampler outline and larger pretension was begun and partially issued from the press during Lord Balling s life time. The luxury of completing it, however, was denied to the hand of its author. This was the elaborately planned and vigorously opened Life of Viscount Palmerston, the first two volumes of which were published in 1870. A third volume appeared four years afterwards. Even then it left the story of the English statesman broken off so abruptly that the work remained at the last the merest fragment. Within little more than one year from the date of his elevation to the peerage Lord Balling, on the 23d May 1872, breathed his last quite unexpectedly at Naples, whither he had gone to all appearance on a mere holiday excursion. Although he had been for some time a confirmed valetudinarian, his death occurred so suddenly that it came at last almost as a surprise. Yet he had by that time entered upon his seventy-second year, more than half his life having been passed in the service of his country. In his public career he enjoyed a three-fold success as ambassador, as politician, and as man of letters. Winning his way in each character with a seemingly careless ease, he still improved the gifts of nature and fortune by personal effort, and bore his honours with an air of distinction expressive half of fatigue, half of indifference. His popularity in society was at all times remarkable, mainly no doubt from his mastery of all the subtler arts of a skilled conversationalist. The apparent languor with which he related an anecdote, flung off a Ion mot, or indulged in a momentary stroke of irony imparted interest to the narrative, wings to the wit, and point to the sarcasm in a manner peculiarly his own. If as envoy he helped to mould the events of his time, he left among those who came within the range of his social influence the memory of one of the most gifted and charming of companions.  DALMATIA, a crownland of the Austrian empire, stretching in a narrow strip along the eastern shores of the Adriatic from Austrian Croatia on the N. to Albania in the S., end bounded towards the interior by Turkish Croatia, Herzegovina, and Montenegro. It has an area 01 4937 square miles, and its population in 1869 was 456,961. The boundary towards Austrian Croatia is marked by the Velebitch Mountains, which trend to the east and reach a height of 5350 feet in Vizeruna and 5774 in Sveto-Brdo, or the Holy Mountain ; and the Turkish frontier coincides with the line of the Binarian Alps, which run parallel with the Adriatic and attain an elevation of 5940 feet in Mount Binara. The highest mountain in the country is Orjen, in the district of Cattaro, 6225 feet. The coast is for the most part steep and rocky, and fronted by a large number of islands. Towards the north, opposite the Croatian coast, are Pago and Arbe, of which the former rises to a height of 885 feet and the latter to 1338 ; next come Isola Grossa, Ugliana, Isola Incoronata, and others of less importance ; then to the south of the promontory of Osorich, Brazza, with Monte St Vito, 2574 feet high; Lesina, with Monte St Nicola, 2078 ; and Curzola, with a maximum elevation of 1879, forming a prolongation of the promontory of Sabioncello. To tile south of Curzola lies Lagosta, and to the south of Sabioncello, Meleda. The chief natural harbours are Tajer, Zara, Sebenico, Lesina, Lissa, Curzola, Sabioncello, Meleda, Gravosa, and Cattaro, Dalmatia is not well supplied with water. The lakes are for the most part temporary rain-pools, and the only streams of importance are the Kerka (Titius) and the Cettina (Tilurus), which rise in the Binara mountains. The former constitutes the boundary between Croatia and Balmatia, and is interesting for its falls and the wildness of its scenery. The Narenta (Naro), which belongs mainly to Herzegovina, disembogues between the peninsula of Sabioncello and the mainland, and forms an extensive marsh. The climate is warm and healthy, the mean temperature at Zara being 57 Fahr., at Lesina 62, and at Ragusa 63, The prevailing wind is the sirocco, or S.E. ; but the terrible Bora, or N.E., may blow at any season of the year. The average annual rainfall is about 28 inches, but a dry and a wet year usually alternate. The greater proportion of the surface is devoted to pasture, only 18 per cent, being under the plough, 5^ per cent, in vineyards, and 22 per cent, iu forest. Barley, wheat, maize, oats, rye, millet, beet-root, hemp, and potatoes are all grown, but in small quantities. Asses are largely used as beasts of burden ; goats are strikingly numerous ; and sheep are reared for the sake of their mutton, which is almost the only animal food freely consumed in the country. Asphalt, lignite, and bay-salt from Bernis and Sign are now the only mineral products of commercial importance ; and there is no manufacturing industry except the distillation of liqueurs, oil-pressing, and tile-burning. The peasant still grinds his corn with his owu hands, weaves his own cloth, and prepares his own furniture. The principal exports are olive-oil, wine, salt, and rosoglio. Dalmatia is sparsely peopled, the neighbourhoods of Cattaro and of Ragusa being the areas of maximum density. About 89 per cent, of the inhabitants are the so-called Morlacks, or Balmatians proper, who belong to the Servian race, and speak a Slavonic dialect usually distinguished as the Illyric; about 10 per cent, are of Italian origin; and the remainder consist mainly of Albanians and Jews. The pre vailing religion is Roman Catholicism, to which no fewer than 82 per cent, of the population are attached ; and the Greek Church comprises almost all the rest. The Roman Catholic archbishop has his seat at Zara; and Spalato, Ragusa, Sebeuico, Lesina, and Cattaro are bishoprics. Education is still in a backward state, but has made considerable ad vances since 1862. The political constitution is based on the law of the 26th February 1861. The diet is composed of 43 members, including the Roman Catholic archbishop, the Greek bishop of Zara, and representatives of the chief 