GREAT EASTERN
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GREAT POWERS, THE
Islands, in 1901 was about 42,000,000; in 1911 it was 45,365,599- In 1910 there were 23,387 miles of railway in operation, besides 4,673 miles of canals and 53,765 miles of telegraph lines tinder the postal system.
The British Empire includes, besides the United Kingdom, the colonies directly or indirectly under its government. These colonies cover more than ninety times its own area (121,391 square miles); and include one-sixth of the land surface of the globe, with a total population of 400 millions. The total area of the British Empire is 11,447,954 square miles, with a gross population of 419,401,371 souls. Among the larger and more important colonies are British India, the Straits Settlements, Ceylon, Mauritius, Hong-Kong, five colonies in Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, Fiji, Natal, Cape Colony, Transvaal, Orange River Colony, Bechuanaland, Rhodesia, Cyprus, Ascension, Barbados, British Honduras, Grenada, Zanzibar, Gold Coast, Sierra Leone, Canada, Newfoundland, Bermuda, Bahamas, Jamaica, the Windward and Leeward Islands, British Guiana, Gibraltar, Aden, St. Helena and Malta.
Great East'ern. This immense vessel, once the largest ever built, was planned in 1852 for the Eastern Steam Navigation company; a vessel being wanted to sail to Australia round the Cape of Good Hope, which could carry coal enough for the voyage — out and home — and have space besides for passengers and cargo. The idea was to accommodate 1,000 passengers, 5,-ooo tons of cargo and 15,000 tons of coal. Her eight engines were estimated to work up to 11,000 horse-power. She carried six masts, five of them of iron. The vast, wall-sided compartments of the ship, it was designed, could be changed into cabins for 800 saloon passengers, 2,000 second-class; 1,200 third-class; and 400 officers and crew; or 5,000 could be carried, if all emigrants or troops. The plans for this mighty vessel were never fully carried out in all their details, owing to numerous refit tings and alterations. The directors decided on a trial trip across the Atlantic. It was a disaster. The Great Eastern left the Thames on Sept. 8,1859. An explosion of steampipes took place off Hastings, seven persons were killed and several wounded, and the voyage came to an end at Portland. She started again, June 17, 1860, from Southampton, and crossed to New York in eleven days. She made many trips, losing money, as the expenses and repairs came to more than the receipts. She "paid out" the Atlantic cable, and successfully laid some others of the most important ones across the Atlantic, in the Mediterranean, Red Sea, etc. She was used as a coal-hulk at Gibraltar in 1884. At last, after being utilized as a "show," she was sold by auction in Liverpool to be broken up.
Great Expectations, one of the works of Dickens which appears to have been suggested in part by scenes from his own childhood, was published in 1861. The hero, a boy called Pip, allows himself to form great visions of a noble and wealthy estate to which he is to be called, on no better basis than a mysterious allowance which is paid to him, he knows not whence. Great is the conflict within his soul when his benefactor is found to be an escaped convict, whom Pip had accidentally befriended; and who in the end is recaptured, only to die in prison.
Great Falls, Mont., the capital of Cascade County, on the Missouri River, in western-central Montana, 75 miles northeast of Helena. The Great Northern Railroad runs through it, as does the Great Falls line which connects it with the Canadian town of Lethbridge in Alberta. In the region are rich mines of copper, lead, iron, coal and building-stone, together with silver and gold. The town's motive power is derived from an immense dam at Black Eagle Falls. Its chief manufactures are flour, furniture, mining and agricultural implements, carriages and woolen goods. It possesses most of the adjuncts of an enterprising modern city. Population 13,948.
Great Kanawha (ka-nafwa) River, a tributary of the Ohio, rises in the Blue Ridge of North Carolina, and is called New River for part of its course. It is navigable for about 100 miles from its mouth, and is 450 miles in length.
Great Pedee' River is formed in North ' Carolina by the union of the Rocky and Yadkin Rivers. It flows southeast into South Carolina and empties into Winyah Bav. Its main branch is the Little Pedee. It is navigable for 150 miles from its mouth to the falls at Cheraw.
Great Powers of Europe, The. This term properly dates from the Congress of Vienna, which met September, 1814, was interrupted by Napoleon's return and his last campaign, and was finally dissolved on June 9, 1815, before that campaign ended in the battle of Waterloo. The Great Powers were Austria, France, Great Britain, Prussia and Russia. Prior to this, the combinations of the Powers were in the form of coalitions against the great force of France, but thenceforward France entered the circle on equal terms with the rest. The Congress of Vienna reestablished the monarchies of Prussia and Austria which Napoleon had. overthrown, and otherwise settled the affairs of European nations. The monarchs of these Great Powers then formed the Holy Alliance, England alone abstaining, which for many years was successful in preventing the growth of republican institutions in Europe, and was in large measure the unwilling cause of the
