59° 24′ N. lat., and between 2° 22′ and 3° 25′ W. long. They are divided from the mainland of Great Britain by the Pentland Frith, which is 54 miles wide at its eastern entrance between Duncansby Head and Borough Point in the island of South Ronaldsha. The flux and reflux of the water during the run of the tides through this strait is broken by the Pentland Skerries, which lie a little more than 4 miles to the north-east of Duncansby Head, and 21 miles south of the island of South Ronaldsha; and farther westward by the islands of Swona and Stroma, the latter of which lies within 1 mile of the shore of Caithness. A strong current is thus produced running at the rate of from three to nine miles an hour in various parts of the Frith at one and the same time; a circumstance which causes so much sea in gales of wind as to render the strait very dangerous to deep-laden vessels. There are two lighthouses erected on the Great Pentland Skerry, and another on Dunnet Head, on the south side of the western entry to the Frith, with the assistance of which the strait may be navigated with comparative safety in moderate weather. The group consists of 67 islands and islets, 27 of which are inhabited; the remainder, called holmes, are only visited during the summer for the preparation of kelp or as pasture-grounds. The largest of these islands, called Pomona, or Mainland, extends from south-east to north-west, about 18 miles, and divides the group into two portions. The islands between Pomona and the mainland of Great Britain are called the South Isles, and those north of Pomona the North Isles. Eight of the South Islands and three Skerries and fifteen of the North Isles are permanently inhabited. They contained in 1831 a population of 28,847, viz.: λ 39 677 (328) 755 40 685 5 [729] 617 4 41 679 6 ORISSA. [HINDUSTAN.] ORISSAN LANGUAGE. 227.] [HINDUSTAN, vol. xii., p. Egilsha Enhallow Eda and Fara Some of the islands have rocky shores presenting abrupt precipices towards the west, and rise in low rounded hills covered with heath, and with a considerable depth of peatmould. Others are low and flat, with sandy shores. There few of small size in the neighbourhood of the town of are no trees on any of the islands, with the exception of a Kirkwall, although at some remote period they would appear to have been covered with wood, from the numerous remains found imbedded in the peat mosses. ORITHY'IA. (Crustacea.) [OXYSTOMES.] Orithyia, or Orythia, as it is incorrectly written, is also the name for a genus of Medusarian Pulmogrades. [PULMOGRADA.] ORIZONTE. The name of this artist was John Francis Von Bloemen, but the Bentvogel Society, consisting of Flemish painters resident at Rome, gave him the name of Orizonte, from the hot and vapoury air of his pictures, it being their custom to give to every new member, on his introduction, a name expressive either of any perfection or defect in his figure and countenance, or some peculiarity in his style, or singularity in his character. Orizonte was born in 1656, at Antwerp, but studied and always resided in Italy. The palaces of the pope and of the nobility at Rome possess abundance of his works, both in fresco and oil. The geological character of these islands is very simple; The composition of his landscapes and the character of his the whole group, with the exception of a small granitic distrees are almost always in the style of Poussin; but the trict near Stromness, consisting of rocks belonging to the general tone is a dark green with a cast of red. His selec-old red-sandstone formation. The prevailing rock is a spetion of subjects is always picturesque, and the pencilling cies of sandstone flag, much charged with argillaceous bold; but his pictures are not always equally finished. As he matter. It occurs in distinct strata, usually slightly inclined, advanced in age his style degenerated into mannerism, but his originality will always entitle him to a place in the forming hills of small elevation inland, which however often Arst rank of landscape painters. He died in 1740, at the present very magnificent cliffs round the coasts. The colour varies from pale greenish to blackish grey. Occasionally age of eighty-four. it contains bitumen, and it is the repository of remarkable fossil fishes. ORKNEY ISLANDS, THE, are a group of islands belonging to Great Britain. They are situated north of the north-eastern extremity of Scotland, between 58° 44′ and π1, π2, π3, π2, π3, and 6 of Bayer are q, π', r, π2, 2, and s n modern catalogues. So marked by Flamsteed, and denoted by it should have been 62. Connected with the sandstone flag are beds of common sandstone of a yellowish or tile-red colour. It forms the chief part of the mountains of Hoy, the highest point in Orkney, and also several headlands in Pomona and Eda Dykes of basalt and greenstone traverse these rocks in Hoy 228 921 20 756 Pomona, &c., and a bed of basalt was noticed by Dr. Traill | great extension of agriculture, and the rise of the herringin Hoy. fishery, which had been entirely neglected, into a branch of industry of great importance. Upwards of 700 boats, with six men each, and of the average value, with their nets, of 1307. or 1407., are now employed in this fishery, and the number is rapidly increasing. In favourable years from 30,000 to 50,000 barrels of herrings are exported, and from 20,000l. to 30,000l. are divided among the fishermen and their families. The cod-fishery also, which is prosecuted in the months of May and June, before the great shoals of herrings appear on the coast, is fast rising into importance, and already brings from 5000l. to 70007. annually into the country. The lobster-fishery is also carried on, but is of minor importance. The granite tract appears in the form of a chain of moderate hills, occupying a length of six miles, and a breadth of from one to half a mile, and ends at Stromness. It is everywhere in immediate contact with a coarse conglomerate, consisting of nodules of quartz, and fragments of granite and sandstone, imbedded in an arenaceous base. The granite, conglomerate, and sandstone flag, above noticed, strikingly resemble the corresponding rocks in Caithness and Sutherland. Fossil fishes occur rather plentifully in Pomona, in the lower beds of a quarry of sandstone flag. The fishes from Caithness and Orkney approach one another very nearly, but among the latter are several new species and even genera. Two of the most remarkable are named, by Agassiz, Cheiracanthus and Cheirolepis. (Traill and Agassiz, Reports of the British Association for 1834.) According to a rough estimate, the surface of the islands is 150,000 acres, of which less than one-third is cultivated and used as pasture; the remainder is a waste or covered with water. The island of Sanda, which is flat and low, is the most fertile, and accordingly is called the granary of the Orkneys. Wart Hill, on the island of Hoy, has an elevation of 1556 feet, and is considered the highest land in the islands; Wideford Hill on Pomona also rises to a considerable elevation. The coasts of Pomona and the South Isles are very irregular in their outline, and contain several secure and spacious harbours. The inhabitants are of Scotch and partly of Norwegian descent. While the islands belonged to Norway and Denmark, many Norwegians settled on them, and their language was exclusively in use. But since the islands have been annexed to Scotland, a great change has taken place, and the Norse language has been long extinct. A few relics of the Udal tenure, the universal tenure of land among the free nations of the north, may still be found; and there are instances of families who occupy small patches of ground which have descended from father to son from time immemorial. In character, manners, and lan. guage the inhabitants of these islands now differ little from the Scotch lowlanders. They are generally intelligent, educated, and moral. The competition between the United Seeeders, who constitute about a third part of the population, and the established church, has done much of late years to extend the means of education and diffuse a spirit of religious zeal. There are few parishes which have not at least two schools. The women find some occupation in strawplatting. A number of young men leave the country to enter the merchant navy, and often rise to be masters and mates of vessels, being in general sober, honest, and able to read and write. Formerly a considerable number went to America in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company, but since the junction of the Hudson's Bay Company with the North-West Company, Canadians have been exclusively employed. A few men also go every year with the whale-ships to Davis's Straits, but, owing to the rapid increase of the herring and cod fisheries of late years, the number who leave the islands in search of employment is considerably diminished. It appears that the Orkneys were early taken possession of by the Normans, and they remained subject to the kings of Norway and Denmark till the year 1468, but had their own kings or earls, who governed them as independent sovereigns. The Orkneys were the general rendezvous of the piratical fleets which so often devastated the coasts of Eng. land and France. Rollo, the conqueror of Normandy, and ancestor of William the Conqueror, was an earl of Orkney. In 1468 the islands were pawned to Scotland for 50,000 florins, and the pledge has never been redeemed. From the year 1471 the earls of the island became dependent on Scotland, and from that time were considered like other chieftains of the Scottish clans. As the Orkneys lie open to the wide expanse of the Atlantic, and are exposed to the western gales, which are the prevalent winds, the climate is rather wet than cold. Frost rarely continues for several days in succession, and the harbours are open all the year round. The winter is disagreeable on account of the frequent rains, sleet, and storms, and it is usually prolonged far into the spring, which season also is very damp. The summer is generally fine and pleasant, the heat being very moderate and the weather steady. The early part of the autumn is likewise agreeable, but in November the bad weather commences. The soil of some of the islands is of inferior quality, but that of others is excellent. Agriculture is limited to the raising of oats, and that kind of barley which in Scotland is called bear, or big, and to the cultivation of potatoes, turnips, and a few other vegetables. Owing to the proprietors having turned their attention for many years exclusively to the kelp manufacture, agriculture has been greatly neglected; but of late great improvements have taken place, and the opening of a regular steam communication with Aberdeen and Edinburgh has given a great stimulus to the raising of green crops and rearing of cattle, for which the islands are peculiarly adapted. Owing to the wetness of the climate and the lateness of the summer, wheat is not found to answer, but oats, barley, and big or bear, are exported in considerable quantities. Cattle are numerous, but small: on several of the larger farms the Angus and shorthorned breeds have been introduced with success. Horses are abundant, but small. Sea-fowl abound on most of the smaller islands. Many families subsist entirely on the produce of their fishing; cod, herrings, and lobsters abound along the coast, and seals are common. It has been conjectured that the islands derive their name from the seal, orc, in the language of the Northmen, signifying a seal. A few years ago the inhabitants derived a great profit from the preparation of kelp. But for the last five or six years the manufacture has been almost extinct, the article having been quite superseded in the soap and glass works by the carbonate of soda made from common salt. During the war the price of kelp has been so high as 207. a ton, and for many years it was never below 127. Latterly it has sold for about 31. or 4. a ton, which hardly pays the labour of making it and sending to market. The little kelp which is still made is used chiefly in the preparation of iodine. | Owing to the extinction of the kelp manufacture a complete change has taken place in these islands. Under the old system the mass of the population were, in all but name, serfs attached to the soil, being bound to labour at kelptaking for the landlord in exchange for a miserable cottage and little patch of land, and living from year to year without hope or prospect of bettering their condition. The Though there are several other good harbours, they are not failure of the market for kelp in fact emancipated them, as used, except by fishing-boats; the best in Orkney is Ingatheir labour ceasing to be valuable to the landlord, they were nes Bay for all classes of vessels. The principal stations for left at liberty to employ it in any occupation which they the herring-fishery are St. Margaret's Hope in South Rofound most advantageous. The consequence has been analdsha and Strenzic in Stronsa. On the island of Hoy there Kirkwall, situated on a bay on the north coast of Pomona, is the capital of the islands. The cathedral of St. Magnus at Kirkwall is one of the most remarkable specimens of middle age architecture in Scotland; it was built by Olave, king of Denmark. It is in good repair and still used as the parish church. Close to the cathedral are the ruins of the bishop's palace, and of the palace of Earl Patrick Stewart, the last feudal earl of Orkney, who was executed for high treason in the reign of James I. The town consists of one long narrow street, but contains several good houses and shops. It has been recently lighted with gas. The population in 1831 was 3721. It has ten schools and a considerable trade in the produce of the island. In 1835, 78 vessels, of 4238 tons, navigated by 326 seamen, belonged to this port. In 1834 the shipping which left the port amounted to 8248 tons, and 10,304 tons entered. The town has some distilleries. Stromness, situated towards the south-western extremity of Pomona, has also a good harbour. It contained in 1831 a population of 2521, and it has considerable trade: about 300 vessels annually enter the harbour. is an excellent and spacious harbour, called Long Hope. | divided into the departments of EURE ET LOIR, LOIR ET The stewartry of Orkney and Shetland, consisting of this CHER, and LOIRET. Small portions of it are comprehended group and the Shetland Isles, sends one member to par- in the departments of NIEVRE, SEINE ET ÕISE, and liament, and the town of Kirkwall, which is a royal borough, YONNE. It included the three bishoprics of Orléans, returns a member together with Wick, Dingwall, Tain, Chartres, and Blois, all of which still exist. The bishops are Cromarthy, and Dornoch. suffragans of the archbishop of Paris. (Peterkin's Notes on Orkney and Zetland; Neill's Tour in Orkney and Zetland; Stanley's Voyage to the Orkneys; Sheriff's Agricultural Report of the Orkneys; Various MS. Communications.) ORLAY, BERNARD VON, called Bernard of Brussels, was born in that city about the year 1490. He went to Rome when he was very young, where he had the good fortune to become a pupil of Raphael. On his return to Brussels he was appointed principal painter to the governess of the Netherlands, and was likewise employed for many years by the emperor Charles V. The style of his design was noble, and his tone of colouring very agreeable. He very frequently painted on a ground of leaf-gold, especially if he was engaged on a work of importance, a circumstance which is said to have preserved the freshness and lustre of his colours: in his hunting pieces, in which he introduced portraits of Charles V. and the nobles of his court, he usually took the scenery from the forest of Soignies, which afforded him ample variety. He was engaged by the Prince of Nassau to paint sixteen cartoons, as models for tapestry, intended for the decoration of his palace. Each cartoon contained only two figures, a knight, and a lady on horseback, representing some members of the Nassau family. These cartoons were designed in an elevated style worthy of a pupil of Raphael. The cartoons were afterwards copied in oil, by Jordaens, by the prince's order. The chapel of a monastery at Antwerp had a celebrated picture of the Last Judgment by this master: we are not certain whether it is still there, or has been lost or destroyed in the scenes of revolution and confusion of the last half-century. B. von Orlay died in 1560, aged seventy. | | Orléanais, properly so called, was conterminous with Beauce on the north, north-west, and west, Gatinois on the north-east and east, Sologne on the south, and Blésois on the south-west. It comprehended, besides Orléans, the towns of Beaugency, pop. 4883; Châteauneuf, pop. 3160; Meung, pop. 4630; and Pithiviers, pop. 3957. It is at present included in the department of Loiret, except a very small portion which is in the department of Eure et Loir. The district of Orléanais, in the wider application of the term, was for the most part included in the country of the Carnutes, and in the Roman province of Lugdunensis Quarta, or Senonia; a portion of it was included in the territory of the Senones, in the same province: both these were Celtic nations. It was one of those parts of Gaul which remained longest in the hands of the Romans; but after the defeat of Syagrius by Clovis, it fell into the hands of the Franks. The part south of the Loire was probably already in the hands of the Visigoths, from whom it was soon after taken by the Franks. It was probably included in the kingdom of Orléans under the sons of Clovis, and in that of Neustria under the later descendants of the same monarch. Part of it at least was included in the domains of Hugues Capet, before his accession to the throne of France, upon which event it became part of the domains of the crown. ORLEANS, a town in France, capital of the department of Loiret, situated on the right bank of the Loire, 65 miles in a direct line south by west of Paris, or 71 miles by the road through Montlhéry, Etampes, and Artenay; in 47° 55′ N. lat. and 1° 53′ E. long. Orléans is a town of considerable antiquity. We are of opinion, with D'Anville, that it was the Genabum of Cæsar, As this artist is, we believe, little known in England, we in opposition to the opinion of those who would fix Genabum subjoin a few brief notices from Dr. Waagen's Arts and at Gien. (See art. 'Genabum,' in the 'Index Geographicus,' Artists in England,' respecting pictures which he saw in subjoined to the edition of Cæsar in Lemaire's Bibliotheca English collections: In Devonshire-house, Neptune and Classica Latina, Paris, 1822.) This Genabum was a trading Amphitrite, and Cupid with the trident, a very carefully exe- town of the Carnutes, a Celtic people, and was the scene of cuted little picture, here ascribed to Luca Penni, but, beyond the outbreak of the great revolt of the Gauls against Cæsar, all doubt, a work of that Flemish scholar of Raphael.' 'At in the seventh year of his command. The Carnutes, under Chiswick: 1, a female portrait, very delicately painted, kept the command of two desperate leaders, Cotuatus and Coneunder glass, and, without any reason, said to be Petrarch's todunus, assembled in the town, massacred the Romans Laura; 2, a female figure in profile, called Cleopatra, on who for commercial purposes were residing there, among account of a serpent on the bosom; but the expression of whom was one of the officers of Cæsar's commissariat, and indifference in the fine and handsome face does not corre- despatched the intelligence with unexampled rapidity to the spond with the character.' In the Liverpool Institution: a surrounding states. In consequence of this outrage, Cæsar, Holy Family, admirably executed, after a composition by early in the ensuing campaign, attacked the town, which he Leonardo da Vinci. At Chatsworth: the Presentation of plundered and burnt. (Caesar, De Bello Gallico, lib. vii., the Virgin in the Temple, a very rich composition, ascribed c. 3, 11.) It seems to have recovered from this disaster, and to Jan van Eyck; but many parts of which, says D.Waagen, in the time of Strabo, who calls it rhvatov, was again the 'strongly remind me of the admirable Bernard von Orlay.' emporium or trading town of the Carnutes. At a subsequent At Keddleston Hall, the seat of Earl Scarsdale: the Virgin period it was made the capital of a separate district, and rewith the Infant Christ, who blesses St. John in the pre-ceived the name of Aureliani, as it is commonly supposed sence of Joseph and Elisabeth: the figures are three-quarters the size of life. Dr. W. says that next to the Pietà, in the museum at Brussels, this is the finest picture that he is acquainted with by this eminent master. At Lord Spencer's, at Althorpe: a bust of Anne of Cleves, very carefully painted. ORLE ANOIS, or ORLE'ANAIS, L', one of the provinces or military governments into which, before the Revolution, France was divided. It was bounded on the north and north-east by the government of L'Ile de France, on the east by Champagne and Bourgogne, on the south-east by Nivernois, on the south by Berri or Berry, on the southwest by Touraine, and on the north-west by Maine and a small part of Normandie. It took its name from Orléans, its capital [ORLEANS], and comprehended the subordinate districts of Orléanais, properly so called, chief town Orléans, pop. 40,161; Le Gatinois Orléanois [GATINOIS], chief town Montargis, pop. 6781; Le Blaisois or Blésois [BLESOIS and BLOIS], chief town Blois, pop. 13,138; La Sologne, chief town Romorantin, pop. 6985; and La Beauce or Beausse [BEAUSSE], which comprehended the three subordinate districts of Le Pays Chartrain [CHARTRAIN], chief town Chartres, pop. 14,439; Le Dunois [DUNOIS], chief town Châteaudun, pop. 6461; and Le Vendômois, chief town Vendôme, pop. 7771. The province of Orléanois is now from the emperor Aurelian, but this we think very doubtful. The modern name Orléans is obviously derived from Aureliani, or, as it was written in the middle ages indeclinably, Aurelianis. In the devastating invasion of Attila (A.D. 451) that barbarian penetrated as far as Orléans, which he besieged. The town had been strengthened with new fortifications, and was bravely defended by the townsmen and the garrison until it was relieved by the timely approach of the Romans and Visigoths under Aetius and Theodoric. Orléans subsequently passed into the hands of the Franks, and became the capital of one of the kingdoms into which their territories were so frequently divided. In subsequent centuries the town was the object of the hostility of the Saxons and Normans, the latter of whom twice captured it (A.D. 855 and 865). It was the capital of a county which was included in the territories of the dukes of France, and on the accession of Hugues Capet, who had inherited that duchy, became one of the most important places in the immediate dominion of the crown. It was at a later period (A.D. 1428) besieged by the English under the regent Bedford [BEDFORD, JOHN, DUKE OF], but the siege was the limit of their successes. They were obliged to raise it with disgrace, and never after recovered their superiority. [ARC, JEANNE D'.] At this time the town gave the title of duke to a branch of the house of Valois, which afterwards came to the throne in the person of Louis XII. In the religious wars of France in the sixteenth century, he prince of Condé, leader of the Huguenots, early in the struggle possessed himself of the town of Orléans (April, 1562). In less than a year (February, 1563) it was besieged by the duke of Guise at the head of the Catholics; but his assassination [GUISE or Guyse, DUKES OF] prevented the capture of the place. At the peace concluded soon after, it was restored to the king. In 1567 it was surprised on the renewal of hostilities by La Noue, a Huguenot captain. The captors did much injury to the cathedral and the other churches. It came afterwards again into the hands of the Catholics, and in the massacre of St. Bartholomew (A.D. 1572) a number of Huguenots, variously stated at from 800 to 1800, perished at Orléans. The town stands in a plain gently sloping down to the river: the circuit of the ramparts, now converted into a promenade, forms an arc of a circle about two miles and a half to three miles in extent. The side of the town along the bank of the Loire, representing the chord, is about a mile and a half, and the length of the principal line of street from the entrance of the Paris road into the town on the north side to the bridge over the Loire, nearly perpendicular to the chord, is about three-quarters of a mile. Orléans is surrounded by numerous country-houses, and has large suburbs, of which that of Olivet (not to be confounded with the little town of Olivet three miles off) is on the south side of the river. Some parts of the town are well laid out, with wide and clean streets and well-built houses. The line of street from the Paris road to the bridge is on the whole the finest, especially that part which lies between La Place du Martroy (the principal square in Orléans, adorned with a coarsely executed pedestrian statue of Jeanne d'Arc) and the bridge. But the parts to the right and left of this line of street are ill laid out, ill built, and ill paved; and the buildings in the eastern part of the city are the most wretched possible. The bridge over the Loire is above 1000 feet long, and consists of nine arches, of which the centre has above 100 feet span. There is a tolerably handsome quay near the bridge; and between the bridge and the suburb of Olivet is a public walk. This suburb abounds with country-houses and with nurserygrounds. The cathedral of Sainte Croix is one of the finest in France. It was rebuilt after its being ruined by the Huguenots. The rebuilding was commenced by Henri IV., but the edifice has only been finished (if indeed it be yet complete) since the restoration of the Bourbons. The architecture has excited much admiration, especially that of the principal entrance; and the two towers of the front are said to surpass in elegance and lightness the finest specimens of Gothic architecture. The church of St. Agnan, the finest except the cathedral, is a beautiful Gothic building, but is imperfect. The nave was destroyed by the Huguenots, and the steeple was demolished not long since. The church of St. Pierre le Puellier, the oldest in the town, is remarkable only for its antiquity. There are a town-hall; a court-house (Palais de Justice), a handsome modern building; a building in which is deposited the public library of above 20,000 volumes; and a plain theatre. The botanic garden is little more than a public walk. The population of Orléans in 1831 was 40,161; in 1836, it was 40,272. The commercial prosperity of Orléans is not equal to what it was formerly. Its refining-houses for sugar were more busily engaged before the rise of this branch of industry in Paris; and the manufacture of hosiery for exportation to the Levant has also declined. The preparation of vinegar, the bleaching of wax, are still actively carried on; and blankets and cotton counterpanes are manufactured. To these articles of manufacture may be added cotton and woollen yarn, fine woollen cloths, flannels, hats, files, rasps, and other tools, glue, chamois and other leather, tin, and earthenware. There are breweries and dyehouses; and round the town are numerous nursery-grounds. The neighbourhood produces some excellent wine. Trade is carried on in the above articles, and in brandy, corn, flour, wool, saffron, fire-wood, timber, planks, coals, groceries, and spices. The navigation of the Loire, and the communication with the Seine and its branches by means of the canals of Orléans and the Loing, contribute much to the trade of the place. There are a Cour Royale and several other judicial and fiscal government offices; an exchange, a chamber of com. merce, and other institutions connected with trade; an Académie Universitaire; a society of sciences, belles-lettres, and arts; a royal college or high school; free schools for drawing, architecture, geometry, and mechanical science as applied to the arts; courses of instruction in medicine; a museum of natural history, and two large libraries. Orléans is the seat of a bishopric, the bishop of which is a suffragan of the archbishop of Paris his diocese consists of the department of Loiret. The arrondissement of Orléans comprehends an area of 929 square miles, and includes 106 communes: it is divided into fourteen cantons, or districts, each under a justice of the peace. The population in 1831 was 137,820; in 1836, it was 141,637. ORLEANS NEW, the capital of the state of Louisiana, is situated on the eastern bank of the Mississippi, 104 miles from its mouth following the course of the river, and about 90 miles in a direct line from the Gulf of Mexico; in 29° 58′ N. lat. and 90° 9' W. long. The city is in the most favourable situation for the prosecution of the trade of one of the most important parts of the North American Union, being near the mouth of the great outlet to the valley of the Mississippi. It is already the emporium of the vast region which is drained by that river, the Missouri, the Red River, and their tributaries, and in future years, when settlements shall have extended through that fertile region, New Orleans may become the greatest commercial city of the West; there is no place in Europe or America which has equal natural facilities of internal navigation. The rapidity with which the population and commerce of the city have increased during the last 30 years, and especially since the introduction of steam-vessels upon the great western rivers, has been most remarkable; and this notwithstanding the disadvantages of the place being unhealthy. The population of New Orleans, which was 17,242 in 1817, was 27,146 in 1820, and in 1830 amounted to 46,310. The number of French inhabitants is about equal to that of the Americans, but the French predominate in the old town, where many of the storekeepers are unable to speak English. There are many Spaniards, about 12,000 slaves, 5000 free persons of colour, and 14,000 strangers from all parts of the world. In 1803, when the territory was bought by the United States from France [JEFFERSON], the number of inhabitants did not exceed 10,000. New Orleans was founded by the French in 1717; it was ceded to Spain in 1763, with the rest of Louisiana; but was restored to France in 1801, and purchased by the United States in 1803. The French language is perhaps as much spoken as the English. The principal theatre is French; it is in the old town, is large, and well attended. The American theatre is in the suburbs. Billiard-rooms, gambling-houses, and lottery-offices are in great numbers, especially in the old town. Some of the newspapers are in English, some in French, and some are half in English and half in French. New Orleans is built in the form of a parallelogram, consisting of six complete squares, with suburbs, called faubourgs. The streets in the old city are about 40 feet wide; many of them are unpaved, but have wide and convenient footpaths. The houses near the river are of brick, but in the rear of the town many are built of wood. During the hottest months of the year the city is exceedingly unhealthy, and many of the wealthier inhabitants leave it at that season; of those who remain, a large proportion are carried off yearly by yellow fever. The climate is however more fatal to Europeans who are new comers than to natives; and perhaps in addition to the insalubrity of the place, we must take into account the dissolute mode of life of many of the inhabitants as one cause of the great annual mortality. The disease is most probably caused by the marshy nature of the soil in which the town stands, and the exhalations with which the air is consequently loaded. This disadvantage is hardly susceptible of remedy, because the city stands a few feet below the level of the Mississippi, the waters of which are kept in their channel by an artificial mound, or levée, which extends for nearly 100 miles along the bank. The sickly season extends through the months of July, August, and September. The musquitos are in vast numbers. Every bed in every respectable house is provided with a musquitocurtain. The cathedral is the only public building at all imposing; it has four towers, and massive walls ornamented with figures of saints in the niches. There is a large 'Charity Hospital,' which provides liberally such articles as are needed by the sick poor, and relieves every year from 8000 to 9000 patients. There are also three orphan asylums for supporting, educating, and putting out in the world destitute orphans: two of these institutions are well endowed, and the whole are well supported by the richer inhabit ants. In the environs there are large plantations of sugar, cotton, indigo, and rice, which are cultivated in a very perfect manner. There are pomegranates, magnolias, myrtles, and the fragrance of the orange groves, when the trees are in blossom, is delicious. A canal, opened in 1837, connects New Orleans with Lake Pontchartrain. It is 4 miles long, and cost nearly a million of dollars. Another canal, called the Carondelet canal, connects the Mississippi with Lake Pontchartrain through the river Saint John. La Fourche Canal extends from near New Orleans to Berwick's Bay, the length, including the natural navigation, is 85 miles. A railroad, 4 miles long, connects New Orleans with Lake Pontchartrain. This work is perfectly straight, and with a difference in the level of only 16 inches throughout: it has cost half a million of dollars, and produces an adequate return. At the terminus of this line on Lake Pontchartrain, an artificial harbour and breakwater have been constructed. The Carrolton railroad connects the city with Carrolton, 6 miles distant, and with Lafayette, 2 miles distant. The entire length of the main-line and branches is 11 miles: this work has been very profitable to the projectors. A third railroad, 14 miles long, connects New Orleans with the Bayou St. John. Several other lines of railroad are in progress. New Orleans is supplied with water by a public company, which has laid down 12 miles of pipes. The water is pumped from the river to a reservoir 30 feet high, where it is allowed to settle, and is thence distributed through the city. The city water-works is another establishment, used in the hot season only to pump water from the river and to convey it in open channels through the streets. A draining company has erected two steam-engines for draining the swamps between the city and Lake Pontchartrain, by which means an extent of about 35 square miles of land is reclaimed with great advantage to the adventurers, and benefit to the health of the inhabitants. The shipping, registered and enrolled, that belonged to the port of New Orleans, in 1836, were of the burthen of 81,710 tons. The vessels that entered and cleared in that year were as follows: Cleared. ORLEANS, HOUSE OF, the title of a branch of the royal family of France, which has three times originated in the younger son of a king, and has twice obtained possession of the crown. I. The first House of Orleans sprang from Louis, second surviving son of Charles V., the earliest prince who ap pears to have borne the title of Duke of Orleans, and who, after playing a conspicuous and not very creditable part in the troubles which agitated the reign of his imbecile brother Charles VI., was assassinated at Paris, in 1407, by his cousin and rival John, surnamed Sans Peur, duke of Bourgogne. The results of this crime were most disastrous to France, which was filled with violence and bloodshed by the conflict of the two factions of the Bourguignons and Armagnacs: the Orleans party being distinguished by the latter title, from their leader, the count of Armagnac, who, as father-in-law of the young duke of Orleans, undertook to protect his cause, and avenge the murder of his father. The history of the first duke of Orleans is also memorable for his marriage with Valentina Visconti, daughter of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, duke of Milan, which eventually gave the house of Orleans pretensions to that duchy, and produced the Italian wars of Louis XII. and his successors for its possession. The life of Charles, second duke of Orleans, was remarkable chiefly for his having been taken prisoner by the English at the battle of Azincourt, in consequence of which he suffered a long captivity, together with his younger brother John, count of Angoulême. Dunois, the famous Bastard of Orleans,' and progenitor of the house of Longueville, was his illegitimate brother. Louis, son of Charles, and third duke of Orleans, was exposed, during the reign of Louis XI., to the splenetic jealousy of that gloomy tyrant, whose deformed daughter Jane he was compelled to marry: but on the death of Charles VIII., and the failure of the direct line of Valois, in 1498, the duke of Orleans succeeded to the crown by the title of Louis XII. On his own death, without male issue, in 1515 [Louis XII.], his cousin Francis, count of Angoulême, to whom he had given his daughter Claude in marriage, ascended the throne, under the title of Francis I. ; and the royal succession thus devolved upon the second branch of the House of Valois-Orleans-or line of ValoisAngoulême, as it has been called-which contributed five sovereigns to France, viz. Francis I., Henry II., Francis II., Charles IX., and Henry III. The following table will show the descent of the first house of Orleans. CHARLES V. LE SAGE+1380. The import and export trade of the state of Louisiana, CHARLES VII.+1461. Charles, Duke of John, Count of nearly the whole of which centres at New Orleans, was as follows, in the year ending 30th September, 1838: Orleans.+1465. Angoulême.+1467. 30,077,534 1,424,714 Total 31,502,248 The greater part of the domestic produce exported consisted of cotton. New Orleans is distinguished for the courageous and successful defence which it made against the English in January, 1815. The English were commanded by Sir Edward Pakenham; the American defence was conducted by General Jackson. A breastwork was raised in front of the city, and strengthened by bales of cotton, which were brought in great quantities. Behind these cotton-bags General Jackson placed picked riflemen, each of whom had one, two, or three men behind him to load his rifles. The English were first exposed to a terrible fire of artillery within half cannon shot, and afterwards to the rifles and smallarms of the Americans. The British are understood to have had between 10,000 and 12,000 men in this engagement, and the Americans between 3000 and 4000. The British lost between 3000 and 4000 men; the Americans had only six or seven wounded. Sir Edward Pakenham was killed." II. The only prince of the second House of Orleans was Jean Baptiste Gaston, the younger of the two sons of Henry IV. and Maria de' Medici, who was born in 1608, created duke of Orleans in 1626, and died in 1660. Of a vain and unquiet, weak and heartless character, his life was a series of troubles and disgraces, which were caused principally by his own misconduct. During the reign of his brother Louis XIII, he was continually engaging in intrigues and conspiracies against Cardinal Richelieu; and, on their failure, purchased safety by his own humiliation and the base sacrifice of his unhappy accomplices. In 1626 he countenanced a plot against the life of the cardinal; and, on its detection, abandoned the Count de Chalais, one of the principal officers of his household, to the vengeance of the minister, who had his head struck off. Five years later, Gaston retired from court on some new quarrel |