a small principality of Germany, bounded on the north-east by the duchy of Magdeburg, on the south by the principality of Anhalt, on the west by the diocese of Hildesheim, on the east by part of the electorate of Saxony, and on the north by Brunswick Wolfenbuttle. It is near 40 miles in length and 30 in breadth. The soil in general is fertile in corn and flax; and there are some woods, though in general fuel is scarce. There are three large towns in it which send representatives to the diet, together with 10 small ones, and 91 county-towns and villages. The number of the inhabitants is computed at about 200,000: the greatest part of them are Lutherans; but there are also Calvinists, Jews, and Roman Catholics. The manufactures are chiefly woollen (for the country produces a great number of sheep); the exports are grain; and a kind of beer called brahan. The annual revenue arising from this principality, and the incorporated counties and lordships, is said to amount to 500,000 rix-dollars. Till the treaty of Westphalia in 1648 this country was a diocese, but was then transferred to the electoral house of Brandenburg as a temporal principality. It is intitled to a vote both in a diet of the empire and that of the circle. The principal places are Halberstadt, Groningen, Oschersleben, Osterwick, &c.

a city of Germany, in the circle of Lower Saxony, seated near the river Hothein. It is a neat uniform place; and has some good churches and other handsome buildings, of which the cathedral is the chief. There is an inn in this place, which is looked upon to be the largest and to have the best accommodations of any in Europe. Before the Reformation it was a bishop's see. Inhabitants above 12,000. E. Long. 11. 12. N. Lat. 51. 54.