inland county of North Wales, having on the E. Shropshire, N. Denbighshire and Merionethshire, W. Cardiganshire and Merionethshire, and S. Radnorshire. It is of an irregular form, its greatest length from E. to W. being about 40 miles, and its greatest breadth from N. to S. 36 miles. Its area measures 755 square miles, and contains 385,290 statute acres. It is thus third in point of size of the Welsh counties.

This county, traversed as it is throughout its entire length by one of the largest of British rivers, the Severn, possesses scenery of the most varied and attractive character. It has few very lofty mountains; but the whole county is diversified with a succession of hill and dale and the most beautiful river scenery. Towards the English border there are extensive tracts of finely-cultivated land, and everywhere the surface is beautified by fine woods, chiefly of oak. The parks of Lord Powis, Lord Sudeley, and other large landed proprietors in this county, vie in beauty with any in the British Islands. The principal mountain range is that of Plymlimmon, 2463 feet in height, which gives birth to the rivers Severn and Wye. The Dovey, the Tanat, and the Vyrnwy are the other principal streams. There are but few lakes of importance.

The climate is for the most part mild; and agriculture has made greater progress in this than almost any of the other divisions of the principality. Many of the farms are of large size, and are cultivated in a spirited manner. Mr Naylor's model farm at Leighton Hall, near Welshpool, is one of the most complete establishments of the kind the British Islands can boast of. The cultivated crops consist of wheat, barley, oats, buckwheat, and rye; vetches, peas, beans, clover, and clover-seed; mangold, carrots, turnips, and potatoes; flax and rape. There are also extensive orchards. Montgomeryshire has long been famous for its breed of hardy horses and ponies, for which high prices are obtained. The cattle are chiefly of the Hereford breed, and the sheep the Shropshire Downs; but there is a breed of small sheep produced on the borders of this county known as "Chums," which are highly prized.

The lead mines of this county are very important, and are now (1857) yielding largely. At Llangynog the famous Llangynog Mine, in the hands of Sir Hugh Middleton, yielded for a long period more ore than all the other mines in Britain, furnishing those immense resources which brought the New River to London, and which greatly contributed to the wealth of the then lords of Powis. The ore was carried like stone in great open quarries. These mines afford the finest example of what is called a "gash" vein known in the world. The whole county rests upon the Upper and Lower Silurian group of rocks; but there are numerous outcrops of intercalated beds of trap, affording, when investigated by means of the mines, a curious and most interesting study to the geologist.

This county is connected with the Dee at Chester by the Chester and Ellesmere Canal. It has also lately completed a small railway from Newtown to Llanidloes, and has got acts for two others.

Besides Montgomery, the principal towns are,—Welshpool, Newtown, Llanidloes, Machynlleth, and Llanfyllin. Welshpool is the thriving, general business town of the county. Newtown and Llanidloes are chiefly devoted to the manufacture of Welsh flannels, of which they form the chief seat, and possess mills of great size, which are worked by the newest and most improved machinery. Montgomeryshire returns one member to Parliament, and has done so since 1556. It possessed 2986 registered electors in 1852; and the political influence is wholly in the hands of Sir W. W. Wynn and the Earl of Powis.

The population, by the last census, was 67,335, of which 33,634 were males, and 33,701 were females. The population was less in 1851 by 1300 persons than in 1841. In 1851 there were 13,350 inhabited houses, 716 uninhabited, and 25 building. These figures give 89 persons and 18 houses to a square mile, or 7·2 acres to each person and 36·2 acres to a house,—nearly the same proportions as Brecon possesses.

The amount of real property assessed for income-tax in 1851 was £1,340,192; amount of property rented to the poor, £280,833. It is computed that 16 per cent. of the population live by agriculture, and 10 per cent. by trade. About one-fourth are labourers, servants, &c.; 400 persons are in professions; and 1000 possess independent means.

The total number of churches in Montgomeryshire in 1851 was 346, with 62,886 sittings. Of the former, 66 belonged to the Church of England, 191 to the Methodists, 58 to the Independents, and 26 to the Baptists. According to the census of 1851, there were in Montgomeryshire 1272 day schools, with 6194 scholars (3857 males and 2957 females), of which 72 schools, with 4854 scholars, were public. Of the public schools, 3, with 136 scholars, were supported by general or local taxation; 18, with 1264 scholars, were supported by endowments; and 51 schools, with 3554 scholars, were supported by religious bodies. There were also 312 Sunday schools, with 23,001 scholars (11,612 males, and 11,389 females); and 6 evening schools, with 130 scholars. English is more spoken in this county than Welsh, owing probably to its manufacturing industry.

Monti, Vincenzo, an eminent Italian poet, was born in the Romagna on the 19th of February 1754. He received his elementary education at the seminary of Faenza, where he acquired an extensive knowledge of the Latin language, and became passionately attached to the Roman poets. By his father he was destined to follow the profession of agriculture; but as he continued to evince a predilection for literature, the elder Monti sent the youthful poet to the university of Ferrara to study law or medicine. Young Monti ultimately resigned himself wholly to the cultivation of literature and poetry. His first Italian poem was entitled, *The Prophecy of Jacob*; and although an unequal production, it contains some vigorous, and even sublime passages. About this time the perusal of Dante opened up to him new and splendid views of the grand old style of his native land, and henceforth the bard of the *Divina Commedia* became his model and his master. His admiration of Dante bordered on idolatry, and catching a portion of the inspiration of that great poet, he wrote the *Vision of Ezekiel*, in which he displayed that grandeur of imagery and fluent command of language which distinguish his compositions. Monti was at this time scarcely eighteen years of age. His genius attracted the notice of Cardinal Borghese, who conducted him to Rome. Here he extended his knowledge of the classics, and his acquaintance with the learned; but it was not until 1780 that public attention was directed to him. The compositions which he recited on the occasion of the celebration of the quinquennali of Pius VI. drew forth such general applause, that Don Luigi Braschi, the Pope's nephew, made him his private secretary. His next composition of any importance was his tragedy of *Aristodemo*, written, it is said, to rival the *Virginia* of Alferi, which he had heard the poet read before a literary club. The very great success of his *Aristodemo* induced Monti to write another drama, entitled *Galeotto Manfredi*, which proved an entire failure. His genius was not dramatic, but lyrical; and highly-wrought imaginative rhapsodies were more in accordance with the natural bias of his mind, than the concatenation of plots and the delineation of human passion.

Monti being attached to the papal court when the revolutionary Basseeville was stabbed in the streets of Rome, laid hold of this circumstance, and celebrated at once the repentance of Basseeville and the decapitation of Louis XVI. in a poem entitled the *Basvillian*. This production is entirely supernatural in its construction. The soul of the murdered man, like the body of Moses, is contended for by the angel of God and the enemy of mankind; and although the former is triumphant, yet the disembodied spirit of the republican is doomed for a certain period to hover about the banks of the Seine, and to witness all the atrocities which are there perpetrated. The subject is treated with great power, and the imagery with which the poem is adorned is in the highest degree original and majestic. As a whole, it approached more nearly to the grandeur and sublime daring of Dante than anything which had been produced for centuries; and the fame of Monti rose above all rivalry. But the tide of French republicanism having now set in upon Italy, entirely changed the aspect of affairs in that country, and brought Monti into close contact with some of Napoleon's generals. To this circumstance we must attribute the admiration which the poet began to entertain for the French hero, and the lively anticipations of good to be derived by his country from the new order of things which were awakened in his mind. The enthusiasm of Monti hurried him away with the general current in which so many ardent young hearts were borne along.

In a mythological poem entitled *Musogonia*, he paid court to Napoleon; and in a still finer production, *Prometeo*, he enthusiastically celebrates the triumphs of the Gallic chief, at the same time pouring out the vials of his wrath upon England. On the decay of the Napoleonic influence in Italy, Monti was compelled to seek refuge beyond the Alps, where he fell into a state of the most deplorable destitution. The return of Napoleon, however, and his new victories in Italy, afforded Monti an opportunity of partially retrieving his fortunes. He returned to Milan, and there published his poem, the *Mascheroniana*, the chief object of which is to bind new wreaths of victory around the brow of Napoleon. Shortly afterwards, Monti produced a third tragedy, entitled *Catius Gracchus*; and in 1802, an ode, in which he calls upon his military idol to place himself at the head of the Italian people, which Bonaparte did not long hesitate to do. The rewards of the poet were, first, a professorship at Pavia, and, a few years subsequently, a number of offices and honours at Milan. In 1805, when Napoleon was crowned king of Italy, the event was celebrated by Monti in a poem called *Il Benificio*. Indeed, every fresh victory and new conquest of the Emperor of France afforded a theme for the courtly muse of the Italian poet. The triumph of Jena resounded in his ode entitled the *Spada di Federico*; the attempted usurpation of the Spanish throne was sung in the *Pelagene*; and various other conquests were celebrated in numerous odes and hymns. Besides these works, he finished, in less than two years, a translation of the *Iliad*, which, without possessing much spirit, is considered elegant and faithful.

The overthrow of Napoleon in 1814 deprived Monti of all his public employments; and after this period, although he composed an occasional poem, his labours were chiefly confined to prose. The principal of these are, considerations on the difficulty of properly translating the poetry of the *Iliad*, and several dialogues on the Italian language, full of wit and acute criticism. By an order of government to reform the national dictionary, his attention was for a time engrossed with the subject of language. He undertook a crusade against the Della Cruscan, attacking their decisions with the utmost vigour and no common success. He continued to reside at Milan; and in 1823 he once more turned his thoughts to poetry. He restored the true reading of the *Comedia* of Dante, wrote an idyl on the nuptials of Cadmus, and then contemplated the completion of the *Feronia*, a poem which he had begun many years before. He had nearly accomplished his design when death put a final period to his labours on the 13th October 1828, in the seventy-fourth year of his age.