a municipal and parliamentary borough and seaport in the county of Somerset, 29 miles S.S.W. of Bristol. It is pleasantly situated in a level and well wooded country, having on the east the Mendip range, and on the west the Quantock hills. The town, which is neat and well built, is situated on both sides of the Parret, here crossed by a handsome iron bridge. It has an ancient Gothic church with a spire 174 feet in height, a town-hall, jail, marketplace, savings-bank, infirmary, free grammar-school, other endowed schools, and some almshouses. The river is navigable for vessels of 700 tons up to the town. In 1849, 2838 vessels of 133,021 tons entered, and 1274 vessels of 56,959 tons cleared at the port; and at the end of that year, 127 vessels of 10,231 tons belonged to the port. The customs-duties were L10,500. Chief imports—grain, coals, wine, hemp, tallow, and timber; exports—agricultural produce and bath-bricks, which last constitute the staple trade of the town. Market-days, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. The town is governed by a mayor, six aldermen, and eighteen councillors, and returns two members to parliament. Pop.(1851) 10,317. Admiral Blake was born here in 1599.

Francis Egerton, Duke of, who has sometimes been styled "the Father of British Inland Navigation," was born in the year 1736. An account of his navigable canal, which (with the exception of the Sankey canal) was the first great undertaking of the kind executed in Great Britain in modern times, will be found in this work under the biographical notice of Brindley, the able engineer to whose skill its construction was committed. The untiring perseverance displayed by the Duke in surmounting the various difficulties that retarded the accomplishment of his project, together with the pecuniary restrictions he imposed on himself in order to supply the necessary capital, afford an instructive example of that energy and self-denial on which the success of great undertakings so essentially depends. His Grace, though a steady supporter of Mr Pitt's administration, never took any prominent part in politics. He died March 8, 1803.

BRIDGEWATER Treatises. The Right Hon. and Rev. Francis Henry, Earl of Bridgewater, who died in 1829, devised by will the sum of L8000, at the disposal of the president of the London Royal Society, to be paid to the author or authors selected by the president, to write and publish 1000 copies of a treatise "On the Power, Wisdom, and Goodness of God, as manifested in the Creation." Mr Davies Gilbert, who then filled the office, selected eight individuals, each to undertake a branch of this subject, and each to receive L1000 as his reward, together with any benefit that might accrue from the sale of his work, according to the will of the testator. These treatises were published as follows:—1. "The Adaptation of External Nature to the Moral and Intellectual Condition of Man;" by the Rev. Thomas Chalmers, D.D. 2. "The Adaptation of External Nature to the Physical Condition of Man;" by John Kidd, M.D. 3. "Astronomy and General Physics considered with reference to Natural Theology;" by the Rev. William Whewell, D.D. 4. "The Hand, its Mechanism and Vital Endowments as evincing Design;" by Sir Charles Bell. 5. "Animal and Vegetable Physiology considered with reference to Natural Theology;" by Peter Mark Roget. 6. "Geology and Mineralogy considered with reference to Natural Theology;" by the Rev. William Buckland, D.D. 7. "The Habits and Instincts of Animals with reference to Natural Theology;" by the Rev. William Kirby. 8. "Chemistry, Meteorology, and the Function of Digestion, considered with reference to Natural Theology;" by William Prout, M.D. All these are works of great though unequal merit, alike creditable to their authors, and to the intentions of the noble testator.