the name of two circles of the German empire, an electorate, and a duchy of the same. The lower circle is bounded to the south by the circle of Upper Saxony, and a part of that of the Upper Rhine; to the north, by the duchy of Sleswick, belonging to the king of Denmark, and the Baltic; to the west, by the circle of Westphalia and the North sea; and to the east by the circle of Upper Saxony. The states belonging to it are the dukes and princes of Magdeburg and Bremen, Zell, Grubenhagen, Calenburg, Wolfenbuttle, Halberstadt, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Mecklenburg-Güstrow, Holstein-Glückstadt, Holstein-Gottorf, Hildesheim, Saxe-Lauenburg; the archbishopric of Lubeck; the principalities of Schwerin, Ratzeburg, Blankenburg, Ranzau; the imperial cities of Lubeck, Gotzlar, Mühlhausen, Nordhausen, Hamburg, and Bremen. The dukes of Bremen and Magdeburg are alternately directors and summoning princes; but, ever since the year 1682, the diets which used generally to be held at Brunswick or Lunenburg have been discontinued. Towards the army of the empire, which, by a decree of the empire in 1681, was settled at 40,000 men, this circle was to furnish 1322 horsemen and 2707 foot; and of the 300,000 florins granted to the imperial chest in 1707, its quota was 31,271 florins; both which affections are the same with those of Upper Saxony, Burgundy, Swabia, and Westphalia. This circle at present nominates only two electors in the chamber-judicatory of the empire, of one of which the elector of Brunswick-Lunenburg has the nomination, who must be a Lutheran, and is the ninth in rank. The inhabitants of this circle are almost all Lutherans.

The circle of Upper Saxony is bounded by that of Franconia, the Upper Rhine, and Lower Saxony; and also by the Baltic sea, Prussia, Poland, Silesia, Lusatia, and Bohemia. It is of great extent, and contains the following states; viz., the electors of Saxony and Brandenburg, Saxe-Weimar, Saxe-Eisenach, Saxe-Cobourg, Saxe-Gotha, Saxe-Altenburg, Saxe-Querfurt, the Higher and Farther Pomerania, Camin, Anhalt, Quiltenburg, Gernrode, Walkenried, Schwarzburg, Sonderhausen, Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, Mansfeld, Stolberg, Barby, the counts of Reußen, and the counts of Schönberg. No diets have been held in this circle since the year 1683. The elector of Saxony has always been the sole summoning prince and director of it. Most of the inhabitants profess the Protestant religion. When the whole empire furnishes 40,000 men, the quota of this circle is 1322 horse and 2707 foot. Of the 300,000 florins granted by the empire in 1707, it contributed only 31,271 florins, 28 krutiziers, being rated no higher than those of Westphalia, Lower Saxony, Swabia, and Burgundy, though it is much larger. Agreeable to a resolution and regulation in 1654, this circle nominates now only two electors of the chamber-court.

The electorate consists of the duchy of Saxony, the greatest part of the margravate of Meissen, a part of Saxony, the Vogtland, and the northern half of the landgraviate of Thuringia. The Lusatias also, and a part of the country of Henneberg, belong to it, but are not part of this circle. The soil of the electoral dominions lying in this circle is in general exceeding rich and fruitful, yielding corn, fruits, and pulse in abundance, together with hops, flax, hemp, tobacco, aniseed, wild saffron, wood; and in some places woad, wine, coals, porcelain clay, terra sigillata, fullers-earth, fine fliver, various sorts of beautiful marble, serpentine stone, and almost all the different species of precious stones. Sulphur also, alum, vitriol, land, and free-stone, salt-springs, amber, turf, cinnamon, quicksilver, antimony, bismuth, arsenic, cobalt, and other minerals, are found it. This country, besides the above articles, contains likewise valuable mines of silver, copper, tin, lead, and iron; and abounds in many places with horned cattle, sheep, horses, and venison. The principal rivers by which it is watered are the Elbe, the Schwarze-Elster, the Mulde, the Saale, the Unstrut, the Weiße-Elster, and the Pleisse. These rivers, as well as the lakes and rivulets, abound in fish; and in the White-Elster are found beautiful pearls. This electorate is extremely well cultivated and inhabited, and is said to include about 250 great and small towns, upwards of 3000 villages, 106 royal manors, and near as many royal castles, besides private estates, and commanderies. The provincial diets here consist of three classes. The first is composed of the prelates, the counts, and lords, and the two universities of Leipzig and Wittenberg. To the second belong the nobility in general, immediate or mediate, that is, such as stand immediately under the fief-chancery or the aulic judicatories, and such as are immediately under the jurisdiction of the amman. The third class is formed of the towns in general. The general provincial diets are ordinarily held every five years; but there are others, called Selektion diets, which are convened commonly every two years. We would here observe, that not only these diets, but those in most of the other states of Germany, are at present extremely insignificant and unimportant, retaining little more than the shadow of their former power and privileges; for even the petty princes, though they depend upon their more potent neighbours, are almost as absolute in their respective territories as the grand seignior himself. As to religion, it was in this country that the reformation took its rise in the 16th century, to which it hath ever since adhered, according to the doctrines of Luther. The two late electors, when they embraced Popery in order to qualify themselves to be elected kings of Poland, gave the most solemn assurances to their people, that they would inviolably maintain the established religion and its professors in the full and free enjoyment of all their ecclesiastical rights, privileges, and prerogatives whatsoever, in regard to churches, worship, ceremonies, usages, universities, schools, benefices, incomes, profits, jurisdictions, and immunities. The electoral families still continue Roman Catholics, though they have lost the crown of Poland, for which they at first embraced Popery. With respect to ecclesiastical matters, the country is divided into parishes, and these again into spiritual inspections and consistories, all subordinate to the ecclesiastical council and upper consistory of Dresden, in which city and Leipzig the Calvinists and Roman man Catholics enjoy the free exercise of their religion.

Learning flourishes in this electorate; in which, besides the free-schools and gymnasia in most of the chief towns, are the two celebrated universities of Wittenberg and Leipzig, in the last of which are also societies for the liberal arts and the German language, with bookellers and printers of the greatest eminence. A great variety of manufactures are also carried on in this country. The principal are those of fine and coarse linen, thread, fine lace, paper, fine glazes and mirrors; porcelain, equal if not superior to that of China; iron, bras, and steel wares; manufactures of gold and silver, cotton, wool, and silk; gloves, caps, hats, and tapestry; in which, and the natural productions mentioned above, together with dyeing, an important foreign commerce is carried on. A great addition has been made since the year 1718 to the electoral territories, by the extinction of the collateral branches of Zeitz, Merleburg, and Weissenfels, whose dominions devolved to the elder electoral branch, descended from the margraves of Meissen. The first of these, who was elector of Saxony, was Frederick the Warlike, about the beginning of the 15th century.

This elector styles himself duke of Saxony, Juliers, Cleve, and Berg, as also of Engern and Westphalia, arch-marshals and elector of the Holy Roman empire, landgrave in Thuringia, margrave of Meissen, and of Upper and Lower Lusatia, burgrave of Magdeburg, princely count of Henneberg, count of La Mark, Ravenberg, Barby, and Hanau, and lord of Ravenstein. Among the electors he is reckoned the fifth, as great-marshal of the empire, of which he is also vicar, during an interregnum, in all places not subject to the vicariate of the count palatine of the Rhine. He is moreover sole director of the circle; and in the vacancy of the see of Mentz claims the directorium at the diet of the empire. His matricular affluence, on account of the electorate, is 1984 florins, besides what he pays for other districts and territories. To the chamber-courts he contributes, each term, the sum of 1545 rix-dollars, together with 83 rix-dollars and 62 kruitzers on account of the county of Mansfeld. In this electorate, subordinate to the privy council, are various colleges for the departments of war, foreign affairs, the finances, fees, mines, police, and ecclesiastical affairs, together with high tribunals and courts of justice, to which appeals lie from the inferior. The revenues of this electorate are as considerable as those of any prince in the empire, if we except those of the house of Austria. They arise from the ordinary and extraordinary subsidies of the states; his own demesnes, consisting of 72 bailiwicks; the impost on beer, and the fine porcelain of the country; tenths of corn, fruit, wine, &c.; his own silver mines, and the tenths of those that belong to particulars; all which, added together, bring in a yearly revenue of between 700,000l. and 800,000l. yet the electorate is at present deeply in debt. The regular troops commonly amount to 20,000 men, exclusive of the militia of the ban, the arriere-ban, and the body of miners and hunters, who are obliged in time of war to bear arms. The whole electorate is divided into circles.

The electoral circle, or the duchy of Saxony, is bounded by the circles of Meissen, Leipzig, and Thuringia, the principality of Anhalt, the marche of Brandenburg, and Lusatia. The principality of Anhalt lies across it, and divides it into two parts. Its greatest length and breadth is computed at about 40 miles; but though it is watered by the Elbe, the Black Elster, and the Mulde, it is not very fruitful, the soil for the most part consisting of sand. It contains 24 towns, three boroughs, between 400 and 500 villages, 164 noblemen's estates, 11 superintendencies, three inspections under one consistory, and 11 prefectures or districts. The present duchy of Saxony is not to be confounded with the old; for the latter was of a much greater extent, and contained in it those large tracts anciently called Eastphalia, Engern, and Westphalia, of which the electoral circle was no part, but was taken by Albert the Bear, margrave of Salzwedel, from the Veneti. His son Bernard obtaining the dignity of duke of Saxony from the emperor Frederic I. the name of duchy was given to this country; and the electoral dignity having been afterwards annexed to the duchy, it acquired thereby also the name of the electoral circle.

The country of Saxony is remarkable for being the mother of the present English nation; but concerning the Saxons themselves, previous to that period, we have very few particulars. The Saxons (says Mr Whitaker) have been derived by our historians from very different parts of the globe; India, the north of Asia, and the forests of Germany. And their appellation has been equally referred to very different causes; the name of their Indian progenitor, the plundering disposition of their Asiatic fathers, and the short hooked weapons of their warriors. But the real origin of the Saxons, and the genuine derivation of their name, seem clearly to be these.

In the earlier period of the Gallic history, the Celtæ of Gaul crossed the Rhine in considerable numbers, and planted various colonies in the regions beyond it. Thus the Voconii Teutofages settled on one side of the Hercynian forest and about the banks of the Neckar, the Helvetii upon another and about the Rhine and Maine, the Boii beyond both, and the Senones in the heart of Germany. Thus also we see the Treviri, the Nervii, the Suevi, and the Marcomanni, the Chatti, the Venedi, and others, in that country; all plainly betrayed to be Gallic nations by the Gallic appellations which they bear, and all together possesting the greatest part of it. And, even as late as the conclusion of the first century, we find one nation on the eastern side of this great continent actually speaking the language of Gaul, and another upon the northern using a dialect nearly related to the British. But as all the various tribes of the Germans are considered by Strabo to be γενος Ραλαδιου, or genuine Gauls in their origin; so those particularly that lived immediately beyond the Rhine, and are asserted by Tacitus to be indubitably native Germans, are expressly denominated Ραλαδιου, or Gauls, by Diodorus, and as expressly declared by Dio to have been distinguished by the equivalent appellation of Celtæ from the earliest period. And the broad line of nations, which extended along the ocean, and reached to the borders of Scythia, was all known to the learned in the days of Diodorus, by the same significant appellation of Ραλαδιου, or Gauls.

Of these, the most noted were the Si-Cambri and Cimbri; the former being seated near the channel of the Rhine, and the latter inhabiting the peninsula of Jutland. And the denominations of both declare their original; original; and show them to have been derived from the common stock of the Celtæ, and to be of the same Celtic kindred with the Cimbri of our own Somersetshire, and the Cymbri or Cambrians of our own Wales. The Cimbri are accordingly denominated Celtæ by Strabo and Appian. And they are equally asserted to be Gauls by Diodorus; to be the descendants of that nation which sacked the city of Rome, plundered the temple of Delphi, and subdued a great part of Europe and some of Asia.

Immediately to the south of these were the Saxons, extending from the isthmus of the Cherlonebus to the current of the Elbe. And they were equally Celtic in their origin as their neighbours. They were denominated Ambrones as well as Saxons; and, as such, are included by Tacitus under the general appellation of Cimbri, comprehended in Plutarch under the equal one of Celtio-Scythæ. And the name of Ambrones appears particularly to have been Gallic; being common to the Saxons beyond the Elbe, and the Ligurians in Cisalpine Gaul; as both found to their surprise, on the irruption of the former into Italy with the Cimbri. And, what is equally surprising, and has been equally unnoticed by the critics, the Welsh distinguish England by the name of Loegr or Liguria, even to the present moment. In that irruption these Saxons, Ambros, or Ligurians, composed a body of more than 30,000 men, and were principally concerned in cutting to pieces the large armies of Manlius and Capito. Nor is the appellation of Saxons less Celtic than the other. It was originally the same with the Belgic Sueftones of Gaul; the capital of that tribe being now intitled Sufiones by the French, and the name of the Saxons pronounced Saifon by the Welsh, Sufon by the Scotch, and Sufenach or Saxenach by the Irish. And the Sueftones or Saxones of Gaul derived their own appellation from the position of their metropolis on a river, the stream at Soissons being now denominated the Aisne, and formerly the Axon; Ueffon or Axon importing only waters or a river, and S-ueffon or S-ax-on on the waters or the river. The Sueftones, therefore, are actually denominated the Uffiones by Ptolemy; and the Saxones are actually intitled the Axones by Lucan.

These, with their brethren and allies the Cimbri, having been more formidable enemies to the Romans by land, than the Samnites, Carthaginians, Spaniards, Gauls, or Parthians, in the second century applied themselves to navigation, and became nearly as terrible by sea. They soon made themselves known to the inhabitants of the British isles by their piracies in the northern channels, and were denominated by them Lochlyn or Lochlynnach; luced-lyn signifying the people of the wave, and the d being quiescent in the pronunciation. They took possession of the Orkney islands, which were then merely large shoals of sand, uncovered with wood, and overgrown with rushes; and they landed in the north of Ireland, and ravaged the country. Before the middle of the third century they made a second descent upon the latter, disembarked a considerable body of men, and designed the absolute subjection of the island. Before the conclusion of it, they carried their naval operations to the south, infested the British channel with their little vessels, and made frequent descents upon the coasts. And in the fourth and fifth centuries, acting in conjunction with the Picts of Caledonia and the Scots of Ire-

land, they ravaged all the eastern and south-eastern shores of Britain, began the formal conquest of the country, and finally settled their victorious soldiery in Lancashire.