Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 09.djvu/524

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472
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HALIFAX. 472 HALIFAX. harbor. The harbor is one of the finest in the world. It is entered from the south, extends nortlnvard about six miles, terminates in a mag- nificent sheet of water called Bedford Basin, and ofl'ers at all times an easy access and safe anchor- age to vessels of any magnitude. It has two en- trances, made by M'Xab's Island, of which only the western is navigable for vessels of large ton- nage. Halifax is the chief naval station for British North America, with dockyards, a dry dock, and complementary establishments. The head oflices of the Nova Scotia Railway and the Nova Scotia Electric Telegraph Company are situated here. Halifax is also the eastern ter- minus of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and of the Inter-Colonial Railway of Canada. The port has nearly all the foreign trade of the colony. Its export trade in agricultural produce, lumber, fish, and furs is large. The industrial establishments comprise iron-foundries, machinery, agricultural implement, cotton, woolen, tobacco, paper, and soap manufactories, sugar-refineries, tanyards, distilleries, and breweries. The city is the seat of various foreign consuls, including a consul-gen- eral of the United States. It is an important military post, defended by eleven forts and bat- teries, one of which, the Citadel crowning the hill on which Halifax is built, is said to be, after Quebec, the strongest fortification in America. Halifa.x and Quebec are the only places in Canada where British troops are stationed. The extensive and handsome barracks overlook the harbor. The city, with its suburbs, extends along the slope of a hill, and covers an area three miles long by one mile wide. The streets are well laid out at right angles, and granite and freestone have replaced wood for building purposes. The principal edi- fices are the Dominion Building, containing the post-ofiice, customs department, and a museum, the Provincial Parliament building, C4overnment House, military hospital, admiralty house, lunatic and blind asylums, provincial peniten- tiary, court-house, exchange, theatre, and Y. M. C. A. building. Halifax is the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Nova Scotia and Prince Ed- ward Island, and of the Roman Catholic Arch- bishop of Halifax, with their cathedrals. It also has numerous churches. Among its educational institutions are Dalhousie College and University, unsectarian and well equipped with faculties of arts, sciences, law, and medicine ; 28 public schools, a ladies' college, a convent, and a Presby- terian theological college. The city is lighted by electricity, has street railways, public gardens where band concerts are given, attractive parks, a fine water-supply, and a modern system of sew- erage. It has liccome a favorite summer resort owing to the beauty of its surroundings, its sani- tary conditions, and the bracing climate. The city sends two representatives to the Dominion House of Commons, and three to the Provincial Legislature. Pounded in 1749, and named in honor of the Earl of Halifax, the contemporary president of the British Board of Trade, it sup- planted .4innapolis in 1750 as the seat of govern- ment. During the Revolutionary War it was one of the chief British bases of supply. Population, in 1891, 38.495; in 1901, 40.787. HALIFAX. A town and county borough in the West Riding of Yorkshire, Englaiid, on the Hebble, seven miles southwest of Bradford (Map: England, E 3). It has exceptional facilities for water and railway transportation, which con- tribute to the importance of its woolen and cot- ton industries. It also has iron, machine, and chemical works, and neighboring coal-mines and stone-quarries. There are numei'ous charitable institutions and public and private educational establishments, which include the Heath Gram- mar School, founded in 1585, and the Blue Coat School. The standard of municipal administra- tion is high. The town maintains free libraries, markets, slaughter-houses, a fire-briga.de station, and a cemetery; its owns its water, gas, and elec- tric works, tramways, bathing establishments, paving-stone quarry, and has a modern system of refuse and sewage disposal. Halifax sends two members to Parliament, ilcntioi-.ed in the twelfth century, it was an obscure hamlet until the fifteenth, when the settlement of Flemish artisan refugees inaugurated its growth and prosperity. It was long under manor rule, and did not receive its charter of incorporation until 1848. Population, in 1891, 97,700; in 1901, 105,000. HALIFAX. Charles JIoxt.vgu, Earl of (1061-1715). An English statesman and finan- cier. He was a grandson of Henry, first Earl of ilanchester, and was born probably at Horton, in Northamptonshire, April 10, 1661. He was edu- cated at Westminster School and Trinit.v College, Cambridge. A laudatory poem on Charles II. in 1685 first brougivt Montagu into public notice. Two years later appeared the parody on Dryden's Hind and Panther, entitled The Town and Couri- try Mouse, of which he was joint author with ilatthew Prior. He disappeared almost entirely from the field of literature after the appearance of his satire, save as the patron of Addison and other men of letters. He was elected to the Con- vention Parliament in 1689, where he voted for the declaration that James II. had abdicated, and that the throne was thereby vacant. He retained his seat in William III.'s first Parliament, and was appointed in 1692 a commissioner of the treasury. On December loth of the same year he proposed in the House of Commons to raise a million pounds sterling by way of loan, a measure which, adopted, made the beginning of the English national debt. In the spring of 1694 money was again wanted, and Montagu was ready to supply it. This time he did so by orig- inating a national bank, a scheme for which had been laid before the Government by William Paterson three years before. The capital was to be £1,200,000, and the shareholders were to be called the Governor and Company of the Bank of England. The bill for this was ultimately passed; the result was entirely successful, and Jlontagu became Chancellor of the Exchequer. His next work was the recoinage of 1695, which he carried out successfully, appointing Newton, of whom he was a lifelong friend and patron, warden of the mint, and raising a tax on windows to pay the expense, instead of the obnoxious impost called hearth-money. In 1697 he became First Lord of the Treasury, but soon, being unpopular on account of his arrogant manners, he was obliged to bestow upon himself the auditorship of the Exchequer and resign his higher offices. Harley insisted on his withdrawal from the Commons, and he became Baron Halifax. He was im- peached in 1701 before the House of Lords for breach of trust while Chancellor of the Ex- chequer, and again in 1703. but the proceedings fell to the ground. ' During the whole of Anne's