ENGLAND and WALES, that part of the British empire, which forms the larger and southern part of the island of Great Britain, is situated between 50° and 55° 45' N. Lat. and I' 50' East and 5° 40' West Long. The sea bounds it on three sides; and on the north it is bounded by Scotland : The sea which lies to the east of it is called the German Ocean; that which washes its southern side is called the English Channel ; and on the west it is bounded by St George's Channel.
Its general figure is triangular: one point of the tri angle stretches to the north-east; another to the east, with a little inclination to the north ; and the third stretch es to the south-west. The base of the triangle is formed by a line drawn from the South Foreland in the county of Kent, to the Land's End in the county of Cornwall; the eastern side of the triangle may be conceived as form ed by a line drawn from Berwick in the north-east, to the South Foreland ; the western side, by a line drawn from Berwick to the Land's End.
Geographers, and writers on political arithmetic, have differed considerably respecting the extent of the area of England and Wales ; their statements varying from 28,000,000 statute acres, to 46,916,000. The most an cient and traditional opinion states the area of South Bri tain at 29,000,000 statute acres. On what data or calcu lations this statement is founded, or at what period it was formed, is not known; but it is probably very ancient, and derived from tolerably accurate data, as it very nearly agrees with the extent of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom, and, in the opinion of some authors, may indeed be traced back to that time. Although at this period trigonome trical and geographical knowledge was not sufficiently accurate, or so far advanced as to have enabled our an cestors to form their calculations of the area of South Britain, on the principles and according to the results given by those sciences, yet from other sources they might be enabled to approach the truth on this subject. The mode of levying the revenue of the Anglo-Saxon kings, led to a more minute and accurate investigation of the extent and cultivation of their territory, than has since been undertaken or attempted : this is evident from the minuteness and accuracy with which Domesday Book is compiled, which continually refers to a more ancient register of the same kind.
This traditional opinion respecting the area of South Britain, seems to have been coincided in till the year 1636, when Gerard Malincs published his Lex Illercato ria, a work of wonderful acuteness and information on the subject of political economy. In the sixth chapter of this
work, he professes to give a geometrical description of the world, especially of Europe, measured by millions of acres of ground upon the map. According to him, Eng land contains 29,568,000 acres, forming the 1000th part of the whole globe, or the 22d part of the earth inhabit ed, or the 330th part of the whole earth: of this area he supposes there are 5,568,000 acres of wild and waste grounds, and high-ways.
Although an admeasurement of the maps of England and \Vales, even inaccurately constructed as they were at this period, might have been sufficient to prove that the areas assigned by tradition and by Malines, were far below the truth ; yet Sir William Petty, in his calcula tion of the extent of South Britain, reduces the num ber of acres, considering them as amounting only to 28,000,000. But Sir William Petty in this, as in too many other instances of political arithmetic, was satis fied with vague and loose conjecture, where he might at least have gained a near approach to truth and accu racy. It may, indeed, have happened, that Sir William Petty calculated by 60 miles to a degree of latitude ; in which case, the number of acres that he assigns to South Britain will agree very nearly with Morden's map, which was the best that had been published when he wrote.
Gregory King, Lancaster herald, who published " Na tural and political observations and conclusions upon the state and condition of England, 1696," which work is praised and garbled by Davenant, and has been lately republished entire by Mr George Chalmers,—calcu lates that England and \Vales contain 39,000,000 acres ; of which 12,000,000 consisted of heaths, moors, moun tains, barren lands, rivers, lakes, meres, and ponds;• roads, ways, and waste lands; or were occupied by houses, homesteads, gardens, orchards, churches, and churchyards. The same author calculates, that Eng land and Wales are in proportion to the globe of the earth and seas, as one to 3,300 ;—to the known habita ble world, as one to 600 ;—to Europe (including Musco vy) as one to 43 France, as one to three and a quar Holland, as nine to two; and to France and Hol land, as one to three and a half.