144 A N T A N T Castle) ; Sir Richard Wallace (Antrim Castle); Macnaughten of Dundarave; Adair of Loughanmore, &c. The assizes, formerly held at Carrickfergus, are now held at Belfast, the county town. Quarter-sessions are held at Antrim, Ballymena, Ballymoney, and Belfast. The principal towns are Belfast, population (1871), 174,394; Carrickfergus, 9452; Lisburn, 7794; Ballymena, 7628; and Lame, 3343. Antrim, Ballycastle, Ballymena, Ballymoney, Belfast, Bushmills, Carrickfergus, Crumlin, Larne, Lisburn, Portglenone, and Randalstown are market- towns, and fairs are held at forty-eight places in the county. Antrim is one of the most decidedly Protestant counties in Ireland, and of the Protestants a very great proportion are Presbyterians. The greater part of these are in con nection with the General Synod of Ulster, and the others are Remonstrants, who separated from the synod in 1829, or United Presbyterians. By the returns of 1871 there were 108,835 Roman Catholics, 88,934 Episcopalians, and 184,144 Presbyterians. The number of children attending school in 1871 was 142,297, of whom 34,G37 were Roman Catholics. In 181 3 there were in the county 42,25 8 dwelling-houses and 231,548 inhabitants. The returns since that year have shown a gradual increase, notwithstanding extensive emigration, and in 1871 the population was 404,015, in habiting 71,327 houses. See for geology, Proceedings of Royal Irish Academy, vol. x., article, with map, by John Kelly, C.E., and article by R. Tate, in the 21st vol. of the Quarterly Journal of Geol. Soc. of London, 1868; and for archaeology, The Ulster Journal of Archaeology, vols. iii. and iv., and Keane s Towers and Temples of Ireland. ANTRIM, a town of Ireland, in the county noticed above, half a mile from Lough Neagh, on the banks of the Six- mile Water, in a fertile and beautiful valley, 1 3 miles north west of Belfast, and 106 north of Dublin. It gives the title of earl to the family of MacDonnell, and prior to the Union returned two members to parliament by virtue of letters patent, granted to the inhabitants in 16G6 by Charles II. There is nothing in the town particularly worthy of notice ; but the environs, including Shane s Castle and the grounds of Massareene Castle, possess con siderable interest. About a mile from the town is one of the most perfect of the round towers of Ireland, 95 feet high, and 49 in circumference at the base. Markets are held each Tuesday and Thursday, and fairs on January 1, May 12, and November 12. In 1871 the town contained 427 dwelling-houses, and 2020 inhabitants. The receipts by the town commissioners were 120 in 1872, and their expenditure 127. The manufacture of paper has been carried on here on a small scale for many years, and linen and woollen cloth is also produced in moderate quantity. The Belfast and Northern Counties Railway passes a short distance to the north of the town. A battle was fought near Antrim, between the English and Irish, in the reign of Edward III. ; and on June 7, 1798, there was a smart action in the town between the king s troops and a large body of rebels, in which the latter were defeated, and Lord O Neill mortally wounded. ANTWERP (Dutch, Antwerpen ; French, Anvers ; Spanish, Amberes ; Old German, Antorff ; from "aent werf," "on the wharf "), a province of Belgium, bounded by the Dutch province of North Brabant on the N., and by the Belgian provinces of Limbourg on the E., South Brabant on the S., and East Flanders on the W. The greater part of the province, which consists of an exten sive plain of 1096 square miles, scarcely diversified by a single elevation, is sandy but fertile, producing grain, flax, hemp, fruit, and tobacco, as well as cattle, sheep, and horses ; on the north and north-east, however, there are considerable tracts of morass and heath. The principal rivers, the Scheldt and its tributaries, the Rupel, the Nethe, and the Dyle, are navigable to a large extent, while railways intersect the country in various directions, and there are also several canals. The chief towns are Ant werp, Mechlin (Malines), Turnhout, Lierre, and Boom. Population in 1870, 492,482. ANTWERP, the capital of the province of the same name, is situated about 50 miles from the open sea, and Plan of Antwerp and Environs. 25 north of Brussels, in a level tract on the right bank of the Scheldt, which is there about 2200 feet broad, and has a depth at ebb-tide of from 30 to 40 feet, with a rise at spring-tides of 12 or 14. Antwerp seems to have been founded by people of Saxon race some time before the 8th century, when the Antwerpians or Ganerbians, as they began to be called, were converted to Christianity by St Willebrod and some Irish monks. A certain Rohingus of that period styles himself prince of Antwerp ; and men tion is made of a market-toll in force in 726. In 837 the town fell into the hands of the Northmen, who kept pos session of it for about sixty years. It was erected into a marquisate of the Holy Roman empire by Henry II. in 1008, and, as such, was bestowed by Henry IV., in 107G, on Godfrey of Bouillon. About the beginning of the 12th century it had considerable commercial prosperity; and in the 13th, its municipal institutions took definite shape. It is worthy of notice that the law of 1290 contained provisions identical with those of the Habeas Corpus Act in England, maintaining the inviolability of the citizen s dwelling, and acknowledging the right of every man to be judged by his peers, and to have a voice in the imposition of taxes. As the result of such security and freedom, the commerce of the city rapidly increased. The English wools for the great manufactories at Louvain, Brussels, Tirlemont, Diest, and Leau, were imported through Antwerp ; and the English merchants, who formed a "factory" there in 1296, received special pro
tection by charters (1305, 1341, 1346, 1349) from the