La, a department in the N. of France, forming part of the old province of Normandy, and lying between N. Lat. 48° 35' and 49° 40', W. Long. 0° 43' and 1° 50'. It is bounded on the W., N., and N.E. by the Manche or English Channel, from which it derives its name; on the E. by the departments of Calvados and Orne; and on the S. by those of Ille-et-Vilaine and Mayenne. Length, 90 miles; average breadth, 27 miles; area, 2291 square miles. The department is traversed from S. to N. by a range of hills of small height called Cotentin, which branch off from the Armorican ridge, and slope gradually towards the sea on either side. The coast is in some parts rugged and precipitous; but in others there are large tracts of sandy beach. There are several pretty good harbours, of which Cherbourg, La Hougue, Granville, Regneville, Carteret, &c., are the chief. The coast is skirted with many islands, single and in groups, such as Mont St Michel, the Chaussey group, Pelee, Tatihou, and St Marcouf, most of which are fortified and garrisoned. The main island of the Chaussey group is remarkable for its granite quarries, and, except by the workmen in these, it is uninhabited. There are no large rivers in this district, the most considerable being the Vire, which enters La Manche in the S.E., and, after flowing in a northerly direction for about 50 miles, falls into the channel at the boundary between this department and that of Calvados. The greater part of the rocks here are of primary formation; but towards the E., near the banks of the Vire, there are to be found deposits of a more recent origin, such as lias, sandstone, limestone, and slate. The country is in general undulating, the soil rich, and the climate moist and mild. La Manche is very extensively cultivated, and the produce of grain is more than sufficient to supply the wants of the inhabitants. Potatoes, hemp, flax, and fruits, are also among its productions, and more than 22,000,000 gallons of cider are made every year. A considerable portion of the land is laid out in pasturage, which is excellent; and fine breeds of horses and cattle are reared, the former being much prized for military purposes. The quantity of live stock is estimated at 92,000 horses, 210,000 head of horned cattle, 320,000 sheep, and 85,000 pigs. Game and fish also abound. Mining operations are carried on to a large extent in iron, lead, and coal; and there are, besides, quarries of granite, marble, slate, limestone, &c., as well as extensive salt marshes along the coast, which are a source of much wealth. The principal manufacturing employments of this department are the working of iron, zinc, and copper, and the making of woollen and cotton stuffs, of cloth, lace, paper, glass, leather, &c. In many of the coast towns there is a good deal of ship-building; and the commerce with the channel is considerable in the agricultural produce of the country, as well as in the articles of manufacture. The department is divided into six arrondissements, and contains six tribunals of primary instance, and four of commerce; six colleges, one normal school, five superior, and 1225 elementary schools. It belongs to the sixteenth military division, and sends four members to the legislative body. The capital is St Lô. The population in 1851 of the various arrondissements was as follows:

| Arrondissement | Canton | Communes | Inhabitants | |----------------|--------|----------|-------------| | St Lô | 9 | 117 | 99,099 | | Coutances | 10 | 138 | 130,475 | | Valognes | 7 | 118 | 92,338 | | Cherbourg | 5 | 73 | 85,397 | | Avranches | 9 | 124 | 117,032 | | Mortain | 8 | 73 | 76,641 | | Total | 48 | 643 | 600,882 |

**MANCHESTER.**

The second town of the empire in point of population, and the most important on account of its manufactures, is situated almost at the south-eastern extremity of the county of Lancaster, and is distant 186 miles N.W. by N. from London. The site of the original town was early occupied by a fort, which the Celts, migrating from the Continent, and gradually spreading from the north, planted at Castle Field, upon the bank of the River Irwell. Whitaker, the learned historian of the ancient town, gives this station the name of "Mancennion, or the Place of Tents." Possession was taken of it by the Romans about a century after its formation (A.D. 72), and they continued masters of it during three centuries, until their final departure from the island. Several of the great Roman roads, traces of which still remain, centred at this point. The fort subsequently fell into the hands of the Pictish invaders, but after a lengthened struggle, was wrested from them by the Saxons, who repaired the damage to the "Aldport Town," brought the people into due subjection to the lord or thega, whose baronial hall covered the space of the existing Chetham's College, and built the churches of St Mary and St Michael. "Manicceaster," as Hollingworth styles the town, was occupied by the Danes about the year 870; and little is known of its succeeding history until, in the apportionment of territory made by the Norman conqueror, Manchester was assigned to William of Poictou, from whom the lordship of the manor has descended by marriage, hereditary succession, or purchase, through the families of Grelley, De la Warre, West, and De Lacey, to "Mossley of the Hough," whose successor, Sir Oswald Mosley, Bart., was the possessor of the manorial rights and property; but on corporate powers and privileges being obtained by Manchester in 1840, these rights, and much valuable property, were sold by him to the new corporation. The Grelleys, De la Warres, and Wests, sat as barons in Parliament; and Thomas de Grelley granted in 1301 a "great charter of Manchester," which, however, has no existing validity.

The Reformation was violently opposed in Manchester: Collyer, the warden of the "College of the Blessed Virgin," Bradford, and Pendlebury, were zealots in the religious controversies it excited; and Bradford died a martyr. In Elizabeth's reign, Persons and Campion, the noted Jesuits, plotted in these districts; and from Ancoats Lane, now a densely peopled quarter of the town, one of the Martin Marprelate presses sent forth its stirring missives. The clergy were said to be so hostile to the progress of the Reformation, that the "college" was dissolved in the reign of Edward VI.; in Elizabeth's reign a commissioner's court to promote the Reformation was established; and the most severe measures were taken against recusants, who swarmed in the dungeons of Manchester. In 1584 some were executed, one at Manchester, and their heads exposed on the "college." In the "great rebellion," Manchester took a very prominent part, the anti-monarchical party having the ascendancy. A brawl, which arose between the followers of Lord Strange (afterwards the ill-fated Earl of Derby) and the inhabitants, was magnified into a great battle, and proclaimed in the metropolis as "the beginning of civil warres in England, or terrible news from the north;" Lord Strange being impeached by the Lower House for his conduct in the affair. Subsequently the town was formally besieged by his lordship's forces, but they were driven off; and the troops which had been levied for the defence of the place were engaged in various expeditions, one of which was the noted attack on Lathom House. When the warfare had ceased in England, sequestrators were sent down, who alienated the revenues of the college; presbyteries were established throughout the whole of Lancashire; Manchester was the central point of one "classical division," and the provincial synod met there. In these troubled times the warden Heyrick, a man of eminent endowments, acted a distinguished part.

Passing over another long interval, the people of Manchester are found espousing the cause of the Chevalier St George, for their devotion to whom five of the inhabitants were executed in the town. In 1745 they again stood forth in favour of the young Prince Charles; one of the localities in which the plans for his invasion of the monarchy were concocted being in the immediate vicinity, at Jackson's Ferry, near Didsbury. In the summer previous to his public appearance in Scotland, the prince secretly visited Manchester, and was entertained for a considerable time at Ancoats Hall, the seat of Sir Oswald Mosley, the lord of the manor. The Pretender's forces entered the town on the 28th and 29th of November. They did not receive a very cordial welcome; and when they marched forward by Macclesfield towards Derby, the prince had en- listed from the inhabitants only about 300 followers, and these chiefly of the lower order. In his subsequent precipitate retreat through Manchester, his reception was less agreeable than before. The "Manchester regiment" were left to garrison Carlisle, which place speedily surrendered to the Duke of Cumberland, and they were made prisoners. Many were sent abroad; some of the leaders suffered decapitation, and their heads were exhibited on the top of the Manchester Exchange.

The later history of the inhabitants is of a more loyal character. They were very active in the American contest, the war of the French revolution, and the more recent struggle with Napoleon, raising many regiments of volunteers, and otherwise affording their aid very freely. The first Sir Robert Peel, then residing near Bury, but who was virtually a Manchester manufacturer, his establishment being in that town, contributed money, and raised a troop of volunteers; and in the year 1798, Peel and Yates subscribed L10,000 to the "voluntary contribution for the defence of the country." From this period to the close of the war in 1815, the people of Lancashire suffered from dear food, high taxes, and by the abstraction of able-bodied men who enlisted for soldiers; and when peace was restored, the corn laws, and the redundancy of labour consequent upon the disbanding of the army, led to a continuance of distress, as also of dissatisfaction. The distress thus engendered, and the political ferment of the times, gave rise, in August 1819, to the noted "Peterloo" affair, in which a countless mass of people, having assembled for the alleged object of petitioning the House of Commons for a reform of Parliament, and the repeal of the corn laws, was dispersed by the yeomanry and the troops of the line. The Radicalism of these times has since cooled down into a more mitigated species of Liberalism. In 1830-31 many very numerous meetings were held in favour of the Reform Bill; and when it became a law, the electors returned as their representatives to Parliament the Right Honourable C. Poulett Thomson, then vice-president of the Board of Trade, and Mark Philips, Esq., both gentlemen of liberal politics. Manchester had previously sent representatives in early times. In the year 1366 the Sheriff of Lancashire, being required to cause the return of burgesses to Parliament from boroughs of sufficient importance to require representation, reported there was no city or borough in the county willing to accept the burdensome honour, "by reason of their inability, low condition, or poverty." But in Cromwell's time, July 1654, Manchester sent Mr Charles Worsley, and in the next year Mr R. Ratcliffe, to represent her interests.