county of Wicklow, and at Mucross in Kerry One of the chief mineral productions of Ireland is iron, the mines of which were little known till the time of Elizabeth. The beds of coals, occurring in various regions of Ireland, have not yet been explored to their proper extent. That of Castlecomer, in the county of Kilkenny, is celebrated, among mineralogists, as the purest which has yet been traced in any quarter of the globe. One of the most beautiful marbles of Ireland, is found near Kilkenny, and others have been discovered in various parts of the island. Slate of various kinds, is also abundant.

Religion. The established religion and ecclesiastical discipline of Ireland is the same with that of England. Among the bulk of the people in the most uncultivated parts, popery, and that too of the most absurd, illiberal kind, is prevalent.

The religion established by law is under the government of four archbishops, and eighteen bishops; but Dissenters of various denominations are liberally tolerated.

1. The Archbishop of Armagh is styled, tropolitan of all Ireland.'

Primate and Me

2. The Archbishop of Dublin is styled, Primate of Ireland.' 3. The Archbishop of Cashel.

4. The Archbishop of Tuam.

1. Meath.

2. Clogher.

The Bishops are, those of

Aghadoe.

11. Waterford and Lismore. 12. Cork and Ross.

In the year 1172, Henry II. conquered this island, and assumed the title of Lord of Ireland,' as did his successors till the reign of Henry VIII. who assumed the title of King of Ireland.' Until lately it was governed by a Lord Lieutenant, with the functions of royalty. The legislative power resided in two houses of Parliament: but since January 1801, a union has been effected between Ireland and Great Britain; and the people of Ireland are now represented in the Imperial Parliament of the United Kingdom.

BOOKS ON GEOGRAPHY.

Crowther's Scripture Gazetteer, 8vo. Goldsmith's Easy Grammar of Geography, 12mo. and Geography for Young Persons, 8vo.

Walker's Elements

16.

3 A

of Geography, and of Natural and Civil History, 8vo. Pinkerton's Geography, 8vo. Walker's Gazetteer, 8vo. W. Adams' General Atlas, 4to. Butler on the Globes, 12mo. Malham's Gazetteer of England and Wales, 12mo. Cary's Atlasses and Maps may be depended on for accuracy and neatness.

PART X.-CHRONOLOGY.

CHRONOLOGY is a science which treats of time, the method of measuring its parts, and adapting them to past transactions for the illustration of history. It consists of two divisions: the first treats of the proper measurement of time, and the adjustment of its parts; the second of fixing the dates of the various events recorded in history, and ranging them according to the several divisions of time in the order in which they happened. By the assistance of chronology we can calculate the rise and fall of empires, the length of lives, and the dates of all remarkable occurrences in remoter periods. It includes æras and epochs: which signify the time when any memorable event takes place, as the Christian æra means the birth of Christ. Different nations have adopted different modes of computing time. The most ancient is that of Moses. In his description of the deluge, he calculates by years of 360 days: according to Herodotus, the Egyptians reckoned in the same manner, and from them probably Moses adopted this method.

The Greeks caculated by olympiads. An olympiad is a space of four years, after the expiration of which, that is in the fifth year, games in honour of Jupiter Olympias were celebrated with great pomp by the Greeks near Olympia a city in Peloponnesus. These were established Anno Mundi 3228, before Christ 776. This mode of computation appears to have ceased after the 364th which ended A. D. 440, as we have no farther mention of them in history.

The usual mode of Roman computation was from the years which had elapsed from the building of the city, anno urbis condita, thus expressed A. U. C. This event took place A. M. 3252, before Christ 752.

The ordinary mode of reckoning the years of the world is to take 4004 before Christ for the æra of the creation, which is adopted from the Scriptures. Christians compute from the æra of our Saviour's birth, which happened in that year and in the 27th of the reign of Augustus and of the 749th year of Rome.

The Turks compute their years from the flight of Mohammed from Mecca, called the hegira.

The Julian or old style is so called from Julius Cæsar, who regulated the Roman Calendar. He added a day after the 24th of February, called by the Romans the Calends of March; as it was thus reckoned twice. The year in which it was introduced was called Bissextile, or what we term leap year.

This calendar was reformed in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII. from whence rose the New Style, adopted throughout Europe, except Russia.

The greatest difficulty in chronology, has been to accommodate the two methods of computing time by the course of the moon and that of the sun, to each other; the nearest division of the year by months being twelve, and yet twelve lunar months falling short of a complete year by eleven days. This gave rise to many cycles among the ancients, the most perfect of which was called the Metonic, from Meton, an Athenian astronomer. It consisted of 15 years, in which seven months were intercalated. This brought the two methods so near to an agreement, that after the expiration of the period, not only do the new and full moons return on the same day of the year, but very nearly on the same hour. This cycle was adopted at the council of Nice, for the purpose of settling the time for keeping Easter, and other moveable feasts. This period, however, falling short of 19 years almost an hour and a half, it happens that the real new and full moons have anticipated those in the calendar of our books of common prayer four days and a half. These last, therefore, are called calendar new moons.

Problems in Chronology. 1. To find whether any given year be leap year.

Rule. Divide the given year by 4; if O remains, it is leap year; but if 1, 2, 3, remain, it is so many years after.

2. To find the dominical letter before 1800.

Rule. To the given year, add its fourth part, omitting fractions, divide the sum by 7; the remainder taken from 7 leaves the index of the letter in the reckoning of the common year.

But in leap years this letter and its preceding one (in the retrograde order which these letters take) are the dominical letters. The dominical letter is that which points out in the calendar the Sundays throughout the year; thence called the Sunday Jetter 3. To know on what day in the week any proposed day of the month will fall.

Rule. First find the dominical letter, then the day of the

week the first of the proposed month falls upon, which may be known by these lines:

At Dover Dwell George Brown Esquire,

Good Christopher Finch And David Fryer.

Where the first letter of each word answers to the letter belonging to the first day of the months in order from January to December.

4. To find the year of solar, lunar, or golden number, and indiction cycles.

Rule. To the year add 9 for the solar, 1 for the lunar, and 3 for the indiction: divide the sums by 28, 19, and 15, the remainder in each denotes the years of its respective cycle.

The solar cycle is a period of 28 years, in which time all the varieties of the dominical letters will have happened, and the 29th year of the cycle begins again, when the same order of the letters will return.

At the birth of Christ nine years had passed in this cycle.

The lunar cycle, or golden number, is a period of 19 years, containing all the variations of the days on which the new and full moons happen, after which time they fall on the same days again. But when a centesimal or hundredth year falls in the cycle, the new and full moon according to the new style, will fall a day later than otherwise. The birth of Christ happened in the 2d year of this cycle. The Roman indiction is a cycle of 15 years, which first began the third year before Christ.

5. To find the epact till A. D. 1900.

Rule. Multiply the golden number for the given year by 11; divide the sum by 30, and from the remainder take 11, which leaves the epact. If the remainder be less than 11, add 19 to it.

6. To find the moon's age.

Rule. To the epact add the number and day of the month; the sum if under 30 will be the moon's age; but if it exceeds 30, the excess in months of 31 days, or the excess above 29 in a month of 30 days, is the age. The moon's age taken from 30, leaves the day of the next new moon. When the solar and lunar cycles begin together, the moon's age on the first of each month, or the monthly epacts are called the numbers of the month, thus, Jan. Feb. Mar. April May June

7. To find when Easter-day will happen.

Rule. See on what day of March the new moon falls nearest the 21st in common years, or the 20th in leap years; then the Sunday next after the full, or 15th day of that new moon will be Easter-day. If the 15th fall on a Sunday, the next is Easter-day.

4004 The creation of the world, and of Adam and Eve.

4003 The birth of Cain.

3017 Enoch for his piety, translated to heaven.

2348 The old world destroyed by a deluge.

$65

2247 The tower of Babel built about this time, by Noah's posterity, upon which God causes the confusion of tongues.

2234 Celestial observations first made.

2181 The kingdom of Egypt founded.

2059 The kingdom of Assyria founded by Ninus.

1921 The covenant of God with Abram.

1897 Sodom and Gomorra destroyed for their wickedness. 1856 The kingdom of Argos and Greece begins under Inachus. 1822 Memnon, the Egyptian, invents letters.

1635 Joseph dies in Egypt; which concludes the book of Genesis. 1574 Aaron born in Egypt.

1571 Moses, brother to Aaron, born in Egypt, and adopted by Pharaoh's daughter, who educates him in all the learning of the Egyptians.

1556 Cecrops begins the kingdom of Athens, in Greece. 1546 The kingdom of Troy begun by Scamander.

1493 Cadmus carried the Phenician letters into Greece, built the citadel of Thebes, and is the first king.

1491 The Israelites delivered from Egypt after 430 years of sojourning.

1485 The first ship appeared in Greece.

1453 The Olympic games first celebrated at Olympia, in Greece. 1452 The Pentateuch, or first five books of Moses, written in the land of Moab;-the death of Moses.

1451 The Israelites led, under Joshua, into the land of Canaan. 1356 Eleusinian mysteries introduced at Athens.

1326 The Isthmian games introduced at Corinth.

1267 The Argonautic expedition undertaken.

1198 The rape of Helen by Paris; which, in 1193, gave rise to the Trojan war, and the ten years siege of Troy, by the Greeks, who took and burnt that city.