province in the Netherlands. It is formed from the former French department of Jemmapes, with almost all of the ancient courtships of Hennegau and Tournay, and some few communes from Liege, from Namur, and from Brabant. The French department of the Ardennes bounds it on the south, south-west, and west sides; and it is otherwise enclosed by the other Netherland provinces. It extends over 1745 square miles. It is divided into three arrondissements, viz. Mons, Tournay, and Charleroy, and these are subdivided into 29 cantons and 423 communes, containing, in 1833, 604,957 inhabitants. In the northern and western parts the province is hilly and very woody. On the plains, and especially near Tournay, the soil is generally very fertile; and in the other parts, though stony, it may, by good cultivation, be highly productive. It produces so much corn as to spare three tenths of the crop for exportation. Like the rest of Flanders, it also yields great abundance of most excellent hemp, and possesses good wet and dry pastureage. It has some mines of iron, and several of coal, of which substance nearly two millions of chaldrons are extracted annually. The manufactures are extensive, consisting of carpets, cloths, cottons, printed calicoes, lace and lace-making thread, hosiery, glass, paper, ironmongery, and various smaller commodities. The inhabitants all adhere to the Roman Catholic church, and are under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Bishop of Tournay, whose diocese comprehends 348 parishes, with their respective churches.