Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/227

Rh E N G E N G 215 spies were placed to watch his movements, who reported, it is said falsely, that he was in the habit of making frequent secret journeys along with General Dumouriez. Bonaparte therefore thought it necessary to seize his papers, and on the 14th March 1804 caused his chateau to be surrounded by 400 gendarmes, who took the duke prisoner, and conducted him to Strasburg. After being brought to Paris on the 20th March, lie was conducted to Yincennes, where he was tried by court martial, and with out being found guilty of any definite charges, was on the morning of the 21st at four o clock condemned to death as a traitor. Half-an-hour afterwards he was led out to execution, and as soon as he was dead he was thrown into a grave, which, in anticipation of his sentence, had been prepared beforehand. Upon Napoleon s conduct in these arbitrary proceedings _ various interpretations have been put, but there are scarcely materials for forming a decisive judgment. It was in reference to the execution of the Due d Kughien that Fouche&quot; made the remark which has passed into a proverb : &quot; It was worse than a crime ; it was a blunder.&quot; After the Restoration the remains of the duke were removed to the chapel of the castle at Viuceunes. ENGINEERING the art of designing and construct ing works embraces a very wide range of subjects, and the different departments into which the profession is now divided do not admit of very strict definition ; but it may be mentioned that civil engineering includes the design and construction of canals, river navigations, harbours, docks, roads, bridges, railways, lighthouses, water supply, irrigation, sewerage, gas supply, telegraphs, &c.; mechanical engineering includes machinery, mill- work, steam-engines, iron shipbuilding, agricultural implements, &c. ; mining engineering includes the working and raising of coal, iron, lead, copper, &c., and other minerals; and military engin eering includes fortifications, gunnery, artillery, telegraphy, &c., as applied in warfare. PART L GEOGRAPHY AND STATISTICS. I. Situation. Suit and Climate. Political and Divisions. tua- t NGLAND, comprising, with Wales, the southern fj portion of the island of Great Britain, extends from 49 48 to 55 45 N. lat, and from 1 45 E. to 5 44 W. long., and covers an area of 58,320 square miles. It corresponds in latitude with Northern Germany and the Netherlands. In shape it is nearly triangular; and owing to its being surrounded by the sea on all sides, except for a distance of about seventy miles on the Scottish border, it has a most extensive coast-line. The seas which encircle it are the German Ocean or North Sea on the E., and the Atlantic Ocean on the W. and S., the latter receiving in some of its parts the names of the Irish or St George s Channel, and of the English Channel. The coast is much indented, more particularly on the Atlantic side, the total length, following the indentations, being estimated at over 2000 miles. liysical There are few countries more diversified in physical struc- ruc- ture, or in soil, climate, and natural scenery, than England. ire - As regards physical structure, it has been truly described to be in itself &quot; an epitome of the geology of almost the whole of Europe.&quot; Nearly all the formations of the earth s crust, from the Silurian upwards to the most recent, are to be found, in layers more or less thick, in different parts of England. The lowest geological formations, known in general as Primary or Palceozoic, are met with principally in the north and north-west of England, in the counties of Cumbarlund and Westmoreland, and in North Wales. The rocks of Cumberland and North Wales, belonging to the Lower Silurian formation, consist mainly of slaty and gritty strata, interbedded with various kinds of felspathic lava and volcanic ashes, accompanied by numerous bosses and dykes of greenstone, quartz-porphyry, and other igneous rocks. These latter contribute greatly to give rise to that peculiar mountainous aspect which distinguishes these dis tricts. The next geological formation, above that of the Silurian, is found in the Old Red Sandstone, and the so- called Devonian rocks, which occupy extensive tracts in Devonshire, Cornwall, South Wales, Herefordshire, and Worcestershire. Above these strata comes the Carboni ferous Limestone, composed entirely of sea-shells, encrinites, and other organic remains, which formation, stretching from South Wales through the south-west of England into Derby shire, attains in parts a thickness of 3000 feet and more. Next above the Carboniferous Limestone come the strata, all-important to England, known as the Coal Measures, a term originally used by the miners. The beds of coal, solid basis of England s modern supremacy in arts, manufactures, and, to some extent, political power, lie upon a peculiar stratum, which generally, but not always, is of the nature of fire-clay. Coal itself is well known to consist of mineralized vegetable matter, the intermingled shales and sandstones still showing the impressions of trunks of trees, ferns, and reed-like plants, and it is supposed that this fire-clay was the original soil upon which grew the priceless treasure. The Coal Measures are covered by the Permian rocks Geolo of England, which complete the geological formation to & ical which the name of Paleozoic or Primary strata has been given. &quot; During the time they were forming,&quot; says Professor Ramsay, &quot; this part of the world suffered many ups and downs, accompanied by large denudations ; but at the close of the Permian period, a disturbance of the strata on the greatest scale put an end to this great Palaeozoic epoch over all our area, and much more besides, and from the Permian beds downwards to the Cambrian strata a large part of what is now England was heaved up and formed dry land, to be a?;ain wasted and worn away by sea-waves and rivers, and all the common atmospheric agencies. This old land in great part consisted of what we now know as Wales, and the adjacent counties of Hereford shire, Monmouthshire, and Shropshire, of part of Devon and Cornwall, and probably the Pennine chain, and all the mountainous parts of Scotland. Around old Wales, on three sides of Cumberland, and probably all round and over great part of Devon and Cornwall, the New Red Sand stone was deposited. Part at least of this oldest of the Secondary rocks was formed of the waste of the older Palaeozoic strata that had then risen above the surface of the water.&quot; If, in the physical structure of England, the Primary Pre- strata form a highly important element as containing the 8 Coal Measures, the more immediate nature of the soil is determined by the Secondary and Tertiary formations. Among the Secondary strata, none are more interesting than the so-called &quot; Wealden series&quot; of southern England. Geologists are agreed upon the fact that the Wealden and Purbeck beds represent the delta of an immense river, equal in size to the modern Ganges or the Mississippi, the waters of which carried down to its mouth the bodies of huge reptiles and mammalia now extinct, or the semblance