YORK, the Capital of Yorkshire, is situated at the junction of the rivers Ouse and Foss, the three ridings of the county meeting at the same place, and is nearly equidis tant from London and Edinburgh. It is the seat of an archbishopric, a county in itself, and is municipal and parliamentary borough. The government is vested in 12 aldermen and 36 councilors, of whom one, as in the case of London, is lord mayor. It returns two members to parliament. The population in '71 was 43,706, being an increase from '61 of 3,363 persons, and 904 inhabited houses. In the registration district of which York is the center, there are 83 parishes, with an area of 82,545 statute acres, and it population in '71 of 04,009.
York is among the most ancient of British cities. Before the Roman invasion it was the chief towns of the Brigantes, the most numerous and powerful of the British tribes. It was constituted a Roman station, under the name of Eloracum, by Agricola about 79 A.D., and was very soon the principal seat of Roman power in the n., perhaps in Britain. While the Roman dominion existed in the island York was a city of the first importance. 'Here Hadrian lived and Severus died. Here, too, died Constan tine Cldorus, the father of Constantine the great, and here, as many believe, his greater sou was born. When the emperors visited the province York was their chosen resi dence. and it was the abode of the imperial legates when the emperors were absent. Lit tle is known of the city for a century after the departure of the Romans, about 400 A.D., but it certainly suffered much during the long conflict between the Britons and the Picts, against whose incursions York was a material defense. It afterward became the capital of Northumbria. The first metropolitan church in England was built here by Edwin, the Northumbrian king whom Paulinus baptized; and here also Edgar, the first sole monarch of England, held, in the year 960, the witenagemot. William the conqueror was long unable to overcome this stronghold of the n., notwithstanding his coronation by its archbishop, Aldred. One Norman garrison, numbering 3,000 men, was put to the sword in 1009, but William exacted a terrible vengeance in the following year, when he laid waste the whole country between York and Durham.
The first English parliament was held at York in 1100 by Henry II., and for 500 years afterward parliaments continued to be summoned occasionally to the ancient city.
Henry III., the courts of king's bench and exchequer sat at York for seven years; and for a few months Richard II. removed thither the courts of king's bench and chancery. During the insurrections consequent upon the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII., York was seized by the insurgents of the " pilgrimage of grace;" and in its immediate neighborhood, Fairfax, in 1644, conquered prince Rupert cu 3Iarston Moor. Typical of a very different time and order of things is the fact that the British association for the advancement of science was first organized at York in 1831.
A city so ancient necessarily presents many interesting memorials of antiquity. There are remains or memorials of Roman towers and temples, and of the earliest British churches. One of the most magnificent of the Anglo-Saxon churches was erected at York in the 8th c., and this, destroyed by fire, rebuilt, enlarged, and changed from time to time, is now known as York minster. A portion of the original church w.ni disinterred during the excavations which followed the latest burning of the minster, in 1829. The present structure takes rank with the finest specimens of Gothic architec ture in the world. It was mainly built in the 13th and 14th centuries. Its length, front base to base of the buttresses, is 524 ft., and its extreme breadth 250 ft., being 24 fr. longer than St. Paul's cathedral, and 149 ft. longer than Westminster abbey. The mag nificent east window is 75 ft. high and 32 ft. broad, and contains about 200 compart ments, each a yard square, representing scriptural subjects. War and fire have con spired to deform or destroy this splendid cathedral. Twice it has been burned down, once in 1009, and again in 1137, each time to rise more beautiful than before. During the times of the commonwealth much damage was done by war and wantonness, and several of its older monuments were mutilated or broken up. In 1829 it was set on fire by Jonathan Martin, a maniac; and the roof of the choir, 222 ft. long, with all the wood-work on each side, was destroyed. While this disaster was being repaired. a workman's candle was carelessly left burning, one night in 1840, and again a terrible fire broke out, destroying the south-western tower, with its splendid peal of bells, and the roof of the nave. The cost of the repairs exceeded £100,000.