matter, forms the manure ; and the district has long been famous for the manufacture of cheese. The fisheries are valuable and extensive, and the oysters taken off the coast are highly prized for their size and flavour. At Duncrue, about a mile and a half from the town, on the property of the marquis of Downshire, rock-salt of remarkable purity
and in large quantity is found in the Triassic sandstone.According to ecclesiastical arrangement, this burgal county forms a single rectory in the diocese of Connor. The population numbered 8520 persons in 1851, and 9397 in 1871, 4280 males and 5117 females. The borough returns one member to parliament.
The town of Carrickfergus, from which the county and adjoining bay take their name, is 9 miles north-east of Belfast by rail. It stretches along the shore of Belfast Lough, is about one mile in length, and consists of the old or walled town in the centre, the Irish quarter on the west, and the Scotch quarter on the east, the last being chiefly inhabited by fishermen, descendants from a colony driven by religious persecution from Galloway and Ayr shire about the year 1665. The town is irregularly built, and deficient in neatness. The principal building is the old castle, standing on a projecting rock, from which the town derives the name Carrick ; it was formerly a place of much strength, and is still maintained as an arsenal, and mounted with heavy guns. The ancient donjon or keep, 90 feet in height, is still in good preservation. The parish church, an antiquated cruciform structure, was originally a chapel or oratory dependent on a Franciscan monastery. The entrance to a subterranean passage between the two establishments is still visible under the communion-table of the church. The jail, built on the site of the above- mentioned monastery, was formerly the county of Antrim prison. The court-house, which adjoins the jail, is a neat modern building. When Carrickfergus was the county town of Antrim (which it ceased to be in 1850), the assizes were held there. The town has some trade in domestic produce and in linen manufactures, there being several flax spinning-mills and a bleach-work in the immediate neighbourhood. Distilling is carried on in the town. Vessels of 100 tons burden can discharge at the pier, and there is a patent slip on the shore. The population of the municipal town was 3543 in 1851, and 4212 in 1871, with an excess at the latter date of 528 females. In 1871 567 were Catholics and 3645 Protestants, and of the latter 2056 were Presbyterians.
ln the reign of Queen Elizabeth the town obtained a charter, an<l this was confirmed by James I., who added the privilege of sending two burgesses to the Irish parliament. The corporation, however, was superseded, under the provisions of the Municipal Reform Act of 1840, by a board of municipal commissioners. In 1182, John de Courcy, to whom Henry II. had granted all the parts of Ulster he could obtain possession of by the sword, fixed a colony in this district. De Courcy built the castle which afterwards came into possession of the De Lacy family, who, being ejected, in vited Edward Bruce to besiege it (1315). After a desperate resist ance the garrison surrendered. In 1386, the town was burned by the Scots, and in 1400 was destroyed by the combined Scots and Irish. Subsequently, it suffered much by famine and the occa sional assaults of the neighbouring Irish chieftains, whose favour the townsmen were at length necessitated to secure by the payment of an annual tribute. In the reign of Charles I. many Scotch Covenanters settled in the neighbourhood to avoid the persecution directed against them. In the civil wars, from 1641, Carrickfergus was one of the chief places of refuge for the Protestants of the county of Antrim; and on July 10, 1642, the first Presbytery held in Ireland met there. In that year the garrison was commanded by General Munroe, who having afterwards relinquished the cause of the English Parliament, was, in 1648, surprised and taken prisoner by Sir Robert Adair. At a later period Carrickfergus was held by the partisans of James II., but surrendered in 1689 to the forces under King William s general Schomberg ; and in 1690 it was visited by King AVilliam, who landed here on his expedition to Ireland. In 1760 it was surprised by a French squadron under Commodore Thcurot, who landed with about 1000 men, and, after holding the place for a few days, evacuated it on the approach of the English troops. Eighteen years later Paul Jones, in his ship the " Ranger," succeeded in capturing the "Drake," a British slocp- of-war, in the neighbouring bay ; but he left without molesting the town.
CARRICK-ON-SUIR, a town of Ireland in the south riding of the county of Tipperary, province of Munster, is situated on the Suir, 14 miles east of Clonmel, with a station on the Waterford and Limerick railway. It was formerly a walled town, and contains son?e very ancient buildings, such as the parish church and the castle, erected in 1309, which belongs to the Butler family. On the other side of the river, but connected by a bridge of the 14th century, stands the suburb of Carrickbeg, with an abbey founded in 1336. The woollen manufactures for which the town was formerly famous still give employment to about 400 people ; and upwards of 1000 are at work in the linen and flax factories. A thriving export trade is carried on in agricultural produce, and slate is extensively quarried in the neighbourhood. Carrick-on-Suir became a place of importance soon after the English conquest of Ireland, and it still gives the title of earl to a branch of the Butler family. Population in 1871, 7792.
CARRIER, in its general acceptation, is a person who conveys the goods of another for hire. In its mere colloquial use it was applied to the class of men, now rendered comparatively obsolete by the railway system, who conveyed goods in carts or waggons on the public roads. In jurisprudence, however, the term is collectively applied to all conveyers of property, whether by land or water ; and in this sense the late changes and enlargements of the system of transit throughout the world have given additional importance to the subject. The law by which carriers, both by land and sea, are made responsible for the goods intrusted to them, is founded on the praitorian edict of the civil law, to which the ninth title of the fourth book of the Pandect is devoted. The edict itself is contained in these few words, " nautce, caupones, stabularii, quod cujusque salvum fore receperint, nisi restituent, in eos indicium dabo." The beautiful simplicity of the rule so announced has had a most beneficial influence on the commerce of the world. Throughout the great civilized region which took its law directly from the Roman fountain, and through the other less civilized countries which followed the same commercial code, it laid a foundation for the prin ciple that the carrier s engagement to the public is a con tract of indemnity. It bound him, in the general case, to deliver what he had been entrusted with, or its value, thus sweeping away all secondary questions or discussions as to the conditions of more or less culpability on his part under which loss or damage may have occurred ; and it left any limitations of this general responsibility to be separately adjusted by special contract.
common and a private carrier. The former is one who holds himself out to the public as ready to carry for hire from place to place the goods of such persons as choose to employ him. The owner of a stage coach, a railway company, the master of a general ship, a wharfinger carrying goods on his own lighters are common carriers ; and it makes no difference that one of the termini of the journey is out of England. It has been held, however, that a person who carries only passengers is not a common carrier ; nor of course is a person who merely engages to carry the goods of particular individuals. If a man undertakes to carry goods safely, although he is not a common carrier, and is to have nothing for the carriage, he is responsible for damage sustained by his negligence, A common carrier is subject at law to peculiar liabilities. He is bound to carry the goods of any person who offers to
pay his hire, unless there is a good reason to the contrary,