DUNKIRK, or DUNKERQUE, the most northerly seaport and fortified t. of France, stands on the eastern shore of the strait of Dover, in the department of Nord, its dis tance from Paris being in a direct line about 155 m. n., and from Lille about 43 in. n.w. The town, which is connected by railway and canal with the principal manufacturing centers of Belgium and France, is surrounded by ramparts and ditches, and is defended by a citadel. It is well built, the streets spacious and well paved, the houses chiefly of brick. Its quay and pier, its church of St. Eloi—a Gothic structure, having a handsome though rather incongruous frontispiece in its Corinthian portico—its town-hall, barracks, col lege, and theater, are the principal architectural features. The harbor of D. is shallow, and the entrance difficult, hut the roadstead is large and safe. D. has manufactures of soap; starch, beer, beet-root sugar, cordage, and leather; also metal foundries, distilleries, salt refineries, and ship-building yards. Forming is as it does the outlet for the great man ufacturing department of Nord, its trade by sea s very considerable. Since becomnig
a free port, it has also carried on a good trade in wine and liquors. Its cod and herring fisheries are actively prosecuted. The immediate vicinity of D. has a dreary and unin teresting appearance. Pop. '76, 35,012.
D. is a place of considerable historic interest. It owes its origin, it is said, to the church built by St. Eloi in the 7th c., in the midst of a waste of sand-hills or dunes, and hence its name, " Church of the Dunes." D. was burned by the English in 1388, taken by them under Oliver Cromwell in 1658, but sold to Louis XIV. by Charles II. for a sum of money in 1662. By the treaty of Utrecht in 1715, the French were compelled to destroy the fortifications of D., which were again restored, however, in 1783. In 1793, the allies under the duke of York laid siege to D., but were compelled by the French to retire, after having suffered severely. D. was made a free port iu 1826.