of which the exports constituted a very small part. Formerly it carried on considerable foreign commerce, but the trade now is mostly coast-wise. Large quantities of coal are handled at its docks, and the city controls extensive wholesale and jobbing interests. The relative unimportance of Providence in foreign commerce is due to the lack of sufficient depth in the harbor for ocean steamships, and to inferior docking facilities. Otherwise the natural waterway through the Providence River and Narragansett Bay forms one of the best harbors on the New England coast. Providence is the first manufacturing city in Rhode Island, its products comprising nearly half of the total output of the State. The various establishments in the census year of 1900 represented an invested capital of $83,514,000, and had a production valued at $88,169,000. In the manufacture of jewelry Providence is among the leading cities of the United States; it is noted also for its extensive production of silverware, worsted and woolen goods, cotton goods, engines and boilers, machinery, including cotton milling machinery, fine tools, and files. Dyeing and finishing textiles, refining gold and silver, slaughtering and meat-packing, and the manufacture of rubber and elastic goods, oleomargarine, malt liquors, etc., are other important industries.
The municipal government is vested in a mayor, elected annually, a bicameral council, consisting of a board of aldermen and a common council, and in administrative officers, the majority of whom are elected by the council. The council elects three commissioners of sinking funds, the park commissioners, and the license and fire commissioners. The commissioner of public works is appointed by the mayor. The city treasurer, harbor master, overseer of the poor, and school committee are chosen by popular vote. Providence spends annually in maintenance and operation about $3,465,000, the principal items being: For schools, $740,000; for interest on debt, $640,000; for the police department, $370,000; for the fire department, $355,000; for street expenditures, $290,000; for municipal lighting, $290,000; for the water-works, $135,000. The total income for the fiscal year 1902 was $4,320,000. The water-works, which were constructed at a cost of $7,100,000, are owned and operated by the municipality. The system now comprises 330 miles of mains. There are 193 miles of sewers. Public bath-houses are maintained as a municipal activity. The bonded debt of the city in 1902 was $16,825,000, and the net debt $14,030,000; the assessed valuation of real and personal property was about $193,000,000.
The population of Providence in 1800 was 7614; in 1850, 41,513; in 1870, 68,904; in 1880, 104,857; in 1890, 132,146; in 1900, 175,597. The total in 1900 included 55,855 persons of foreign birth and 4817 of negro descent.
Providence was founded and named in 1636 by Roger Williams, who, having been expelled from Massachusetts, came here and bought a tract of land from the Narraganset sachems, Canonicus and Miantonomoh. Here a distinct separation was made between spiritual and temporal affairs, complete religious toleration being unequivocally guaranteed. The first Baptist church in America was organized in 1638 under the ministry of Roger Williams. Williams secured in 1644 a Parliamentary charter, under which Providence, Portsmouth, and Newport were united for governmental purposes as the “Providence Plantations in the Narragansett Bay in New England.” In 1676, during King Philip's War, Providence was attacked by Indians and 29 of its 75 houses burned. Near Providence occurred in 1772 one of the first overt acts of the Revolution, the burning of the British cruiser Gaspée. In September, 1815, a tremendous gale forced the water back into the harbor and river, flooded part of the town, and destroyed property valued at over $1,000,000. Providence was incorporated as a city in 1832. Consult: Greene, The Providence Plantations for Two Hundred and Fifty Years (Providence, 1886); Bayles, History of Providence County (New York, 1891); and a sketch in Powell, Historic Towns of New England (New York, 1898). The Early Records of the Town of Providence have been printed in 15 volumes (Providence, 1892-99).
PROVINCE (Lat. provincia, from pro, before, for + vincere, to conquer). A term used in geology to designate an area in which the deposition and succession of sediments are uniform. In paleontology it refers to a more or less well-marked district throughout which the animal or plant life was the same.
PROVINCE HOUSE. A brick mansion on Washington Street, Boston, built in 1679. It became the residence of the Governors of the Province in 1715, and after many changes was burned in 1864. It is described in Hawthorne's Twice-Told Tales.
PROV′INCETOWN. A town in Barnstable County, Mass., 54 miles by water and 120 miles by rail southeast of Boston; on Cape Cod Bay, and on a branch of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad (Map: Massachusetts, G 3). It is situated at the extremity of Cape Cod, and has a deep, spacious harbor. There is a public library with 8500 volumes. Provincetown has some reputation as a summer resort, but is best known for its fishing and whaling industries, the latter of which, however, in recent years has declined considerably. In the town are several wholesale fish establishments, also manufactories of various kinds of oil. Population, in 1890, 4642; in 1900, 4247. On November 21, 1620, the Pilgrims in the Mayflower arrived in Provincetown Harbor and remained anchored there for nearly a month. It was here that the celebrated compact was signed and the first Governor, John Carver, was chosen. Permanently settled about 1680, Provincetown formed a precinct of Truro from 1714 until 1727, when it was incorporated. Its growth was very slow and in 1776 it had a population of only 205. Here during the Civil War the Confederate commissioners, Mason and Slidell, were delivered to the British gunboat Rinaldo. Consult Freeman, The History of Cape Cod (Boston, 1860-69).
PROVING GROUND. An establishment maintained for the sighting and testing of ordnance and the testing of armor and projectiles. In the United States the army proving ground is on Sandy Hook, N. J., and the naval proving ground at Indian Head, on the Potomac River.
PROVINS, prō̇′väN′. The capital of an arrondissement in the Department of Seine-et-Marne, France, on the Voulzie, 59 miles by rail southeast of Paris (Map: France, K 3). Built at the base
