GOSHEN-GOSPELS. and biding itself in some covert, will perch on a bough, and await its reappearance with wonderful patience for many hours. Its flight is very rapid. The G. builds in trees. Its nest is very large. The female, which is much larger than the male, is about two feet in entire length. Both sexes are of a dark grayish-brown colour, the upper surface of the tail-feathers barred with darker brown; there is a broad white streak above each eye; the under parts are also whitish, with brown bars and streaks. Other species are found in India, South Africa, Australia, &c. GOʻSHEN, the name of that part of ancient Egypt which Pharaoh made a present of to the kindred of Joseph when they came to sojourn in that country. It appears to have lain between the easte.n delta of the Nile and the frontier of Palestine, and to have been suited mainly for a pastoral people, which the Hebrews were. Rameses, the principal city, of the land, was the starting-point of the Exodus of the chosen people, who reached the Red Sea in three days. From this and other circumstances, it has been concluded that the Wade-t-Tumeylát (the valley through which formerly passed the canal of the Red Sea, and at the western extremity of which Rameses was situated) is probably the G. of the Old Testament. GOʻSLAR, a small but ancient and interesting town of Hanover, is situated on the border of Brunswick, on the Gose, from which the town derives its name, 26 miles south-east of Hildesheim. It was at one time a free imperial city, and the residence of the emperor. Of all the fortifications of which it once boasted, the walls and one tower --the Zwinger, the walls of which are 21 feet thick -alone remain. Of the venerable cathedral, the porch (Vorhalle, date 1150) is the sole relic; the corn-magazine is a portion of an old imperial palace; the Gothic church in the market-place dates from 1521; the hotel called the Kaiserworth has eight portraits of German emperors. G. was founded by Heinrich I. about 920; and under Otto I. the mines, for which G. has ever since been celebrated, were opened in 986. The manufactures of G. are unimportant; and the mines of gold, silver, copper, lead, and zinc are nearly exhausted. Pop. (1871) 8923. GOSPEL SIDE OF THE ALTAR, the right side of the altar or communion table, looking from it, at which, in the English Church service, the gospel appointed for the day is read. It is of higher distinction than the epistle side, and is occupied by the clergyman of highest ecclesiastical rank who happens to be present. In some cathedrals, one of the clergy has this special duty to perform, and is designated the Gospeller. GOSPELS. The expression is derived from the Anglo-Saxon, and means literally good news. The message of Christ, or the doctrine of Christianity, was called the Gospel (to euaggelion); and the inspired records by which this message or doctrine have been transmitted to the church in successive ages, have received the name of the Gospels (ta euaggelia). When this name was first distinctly applied to these records, is uncertain. The use of it in Justin Martyr, about the middle of the 2d c., is a subject of dispute. It appears to have been in common use in the course of the third century. 1. Genuineness.-The primary and most interesting inquiry concerning the Gospels is as to their genuineness. They profess to be the inspired records of our Lord's life-of his sayings and doings-proceeding in two cases from men who were his apostles and compaшons (Matthew and John); and in the two other cases from men who, although not themselves apostles, were apostolic in their position and character, the immediate companions and fellow-labourers of the apostles (Mark and Luke.) According to their profession, they were all composed during the latter half of the 1st c.; the three Synoptic Gospels, as they are called, probably during the decade preceding the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus (60-70), and the fourth Gospel of St John near the close of the century. The question as to their genuineness is in the main the question as to the fact of their existence at this early period; the special authorship of each Gospel is a comparatively less important question. It is obvious that the existence of the Gospels within the 1st c. is a point which can only be settled by the ordinary rules of historical evidence. What traces have we of their existence at this early period? As Paley illustrates the matter, we can tell of the existence of Lord Clarendon's History of the Rebellion at a period antecedent to Bishop Burnet's History of his Own Times, by the fact that Burnet quotes Clarendon. the Gospels existed in the 1st c., therefore, we shall expect to find similar evidences of their existence in the Christian writings of the 2d and 3d centuries. We do find such evidence in abundance If during the 3d century. In such writers as Origen and Cyprian, we not only find quotations from the Gospels, but we find the Gospels themselves mentioned by name as books of authority amongst Christians. From the writings of Origen alone, if they had survived, we might have collected, it has been caid, the whole text not only of the Gospels, but of the Old and New Testaments. At this point, then, there is no question. No one can dispute the existence of the Gospels in the age of Origen, or that immediately preceding-that is to say, in the beginning of the 3d century. But we can ascend the time of Irenæus, or the last quarter of the 20 with an almost equally clear light of evidence to century. The passage in which Irenæus speaks of the Gospels is so significant and important that it deserves to be extracted. 'We,' he says (Contra Hæres. lib. iii. c. 1), 'have not received the knowledge of the way of our salvation by any others than those through whom the Gospel has come down to us; which Gospel they first preached, and afterwards, by the will of God, transmitted to us in writing, that it might be the foundation and pillar of our faith. For after our Lord had risen from the dead, and they (the apostles) were clothed with the power of the Holy Spirit descending upon them from on high, were filled with all gifts, and possessed perfect knowledge, they went forth to the ends of the earth, spreading the glad tidings of those blessings which God has conferred upon us. among the Hebrews published a Gospel in their own language; while Peter and Paul were preaching the Gospel at Rome and founding a church there. And after their departure (death), Mark the disciple and interpreter of Peter himself delivered in writing what Peter had preached; and Luke, the companion of Paul, recorded the Gospel preached by him. Afterwards, John, the disciple of the Lord, who leaned upon his breast, likewise published a Gospel while he dwelt at Ephesus in Asia.' These words are very explicit and to the point; and elsewhere, Irenæus speaks still more particularly of the several Gospels, and endeavours to characterise them in a somewhat fanciful way, which, if it does not prove his own judgment, at least proves the kind of veneration with which the Gospels were regarded in his time. It is equally beyond question, then, that the Gospels were in existence in the end of the 2d c., and that they were attributed to the authors Matthew GOSPELS. whose names they bear. It is allowed by those against such a supposition. The books of which who have reduced the genuine apostolic works to the narrowest limits, that, from the time of Irenæus, the New Testament was composed essentially of the same books as we receive at present; and that they were regarded with the same reverence as is now shewn to them.'-Westcott, History of Canon. The evidence upon which we accept as undoubtedly genuine the productions of many classic authors, is not to be compared in clearness and fulness to the evidence for the genuineness of the Gospels at this stage. Any difficulties that the subject involves begin at a point higher up than this. The age of Irenæus is the fifth generation from the beginning of the apostolic era the third from the termination of it. The ascending generations may be characterised as those (4) of Justin Martyr, and (3) of Ignatius and Papias; and (2) of St John, or the later apostolic age. It is within these three generations, and especially within the third and fourth, that the subject of the genuineness of the Gospels gives any cause for hesitation and discussion. Such writers as Justin Martyr and Ignatius nowhere quote the Gospels by name. In a fragment of Papias preserved by Eusebius, there is mention of Matthew and Mark having written accounts of the actions and discourses of our Lord; but with this exception, there is no mention of the Gospels, or of their authors by name, in these earlier Christian writers. Not only so, but Justin Martyr appeals constantly to sources of information which he styles not Gospels' of St Matthew, St Luke, or St John, but Memoirs of the Apostles (apomněmoneumata tōn apostolōn). The phrase a kaleitai euaggelia (which are called gospels), which follows the former in the common versions of Justin's text, is supposed by many to be an interpolation. This has given rise to a good deal of discussion as to the effect of Justin Martyr's evidence on this subject. The discussion has been of this nature. Were these Memoirs of the Apostles our Gospels, or were they some other books of information as to Christ's sayings and doings to which he had access? Many German critics have been confident they were not our Gospels; and Bishop Marsh has gone the length of saying, that Justin did not quote our Gospels. The question, therefore, as to whether Justin Martyr quotes our Gospels, may be said to be the turning-point in the evidence for their genuineness. Although not altogether free from difficulty, it appears to us that no reasonable doubt can be entertained that the Memoirs of the Apostles to which Justin constantly refers were no other than our Gospels. This appears conclusively established by the three following considerations: (1) The degree of coincidence which exists between the numerous passages which Justin quotes from his Memoirs, and the corresponding passages in the Gospels.-The verbal coincidence with the text of the Gospels is sometimes exact, and sometimes so nearly so as to appear exact in a translation. The want of entire verbal coincidence is just what might be expected in a writer like Justin, who quotes the Old Testament in the same general manner, and is the very same as we find in other writers both before and after him. Further, the account which he gives of the origin of the Memoirs corresponds with the origin of the Gospels -viz., that two were written by apostles, and two by companions of the apostles. (2) The extreme improbability that there could have been other books besides the Gospels of the same apparently authoritative character, all trace of which have disappeared, and of which, in fact, we find no indication save in Justin Martyr.-Everything seems Justin speaks were read in the assemblies of the Christians on Sundays; they were regarded with respect and veneration; they were evidently looked upon as authoritative. It is wholly inconceivable, that if there were such books other than the Gos pels, they should not have been mentioned by other writers as well as Justin; or that they should have utterly perished. (3) The certainty, from the statements of such writers as Irenæus in the generation immediately following him, that Justin must have known our Gospels. In this later generation we find the Gospels everywhere diffused: received and reverenced alike at Alexandria, Lyons, and Carthage; by Clemens Alexandrinus, Irenæus, and Tertullian. They could not all at once have attained this wide diffusion, or started into this position of authority. The manner in which Irenæus speaks of them can only be accounted for by the fact, that he had received them from his teachers; that they had been handed down to him as inspired authorities from the first ages. We must take the light of such a statement with us in ascending to the age of Justin Martyr; and in this light it is unintelligible that the Gospels should not have been known to Justin, and consulted by him. The mere fact of his calling his authorities by the peculiar name of Memoirs cannot be set against all this evidence. The name of Memoirs, indeed, rather than Gospels, was only a natural one for this writer to use, with his classical predilections and philosophical training, and considering that he was addressing a heathen emperor, and through him the Gentile world at large. When we ascend beyond the age of Justin to Ignatius and Papias, we find in a fragment of the latter, as has been already stated, mention of Matthew and Mark having written accounts of the life of the Lord; while in the letters of the former, as in the still earlier Epistle of Clemens Romanus and the so-called Epistle of Barnabas-both of which belong to the 1st c., and consequently reach the apostolic age itself-we find various quotations that seem to be made from the Gospels. The quotations from St Matthew are the most numerous. If these quotations stood by themselves, it might be doubtful how far they constituted evidence of the existence of the Gospels at this early period. They might possibly indicate merely a uniformity of oral tradition as to the sayings of our Lord; but when we regard them in connection with the position of the writers, and the whole train of thought and association in which they occur, they seem to bear out the widest conclusion we could wish to found on them. The existence and character of such men as Ignatius and Clemens are unintelligible save in the light of the Gospel history. In addition to this chain of direct Catholic evidence for the genuineness of the Gospels, the fragments which have been preserved of heretical writers furnish important, and in some respects singularly conclusive evidence. The Gnostic Basilides quotes the Gospels of St John and St Luke about the year 120. The heretics appealed to them as well as the Catholic writers, and in this fact there is a strong guarantee that no fictions or inventions could have been palmed off upon the church in the 2d c., as the most renowned German theory as to the origin of the Gospels virtually supposes. Upon a review of all the evidence from the apostolic Fathers down to the council of Laodicea, when the four Gospels are reckoned as part of the canon of Scripture, there can hardly be room for any candid person to doubt,' it has been said, 'that from the beginning the four Gospels were recognised as genuine and inspired-that a line of distinc tion was drawn between them and the so-called GOSPELS. statement of Irenæus the earliest sources in which we have any distinct mention of the Gospels-it is plainly asserted that Matthew wrote his Gospel in the Hebrew dialect. The fact is made a mark of distinction between his Gospel and the others. The same uniformity of tradition ascribes the Gospel of St Mark to the teaching of St Peter. The Gospel of St Mark is the most summary of the three, yet, in some respects, it is stamped with a special individuality and originality. It describes scenes and acts of our Lord and others with a minutely graphic detail, throwing in particulars omitted by others, and revealing throughout the observant eye-witness and independent historian. apocryphal Gospel' As a mere question of literary uniform. In the fragment of Papias, and in the history, the genuineness of the Gospels certainly rests cn far higher evidence than that on which we receive, without hesitation, many ancient writings. 2. Internal Character and Contrast.-After the genuineness of the Gospels, the next point of importance regarding them is the relation which they bear to one another in respect of their contents and arrangement-the coincidences and discrepancies with one another which they present. The most obvious distinction among the Gospels as a whole is between the Gospel of St John and the three Synoptical Gospels, as they are called. Matthew, Mark, and Luke, in narrating the ministry, discourses, and miracles of our Lord, confine themselves exclusively to what took place in Galilee until the last journey to Jerusalem. We should not know from them of the successive journeys that our Lord made to Jerusalem. John, on the contrary, brings into view prominently his relation to Judea; and of the discourses delivered in Galilee, he only records one, that, namely, in the 6th chapter. It is obvious, on a superficial glance, that John had a special object in writing his Gospel, an object in some respects more dogmatical than historical; and it is probable that, having seen the preceding Gospels, he purposely abstained from writing what they had already recorded, and sought to supply such deficiencies as appeared to exist in their records. When we have no knowledge of the subject, this at least seems as probable a supposition as any other. A comparison of the three Synoptical Gospels reveals some interesting results. If we suppose them respectively divided into 100 sections, we shall find that they coincide in about 53 of them; that Matthew and Luke further coincide in 21; Matthew and Mark in 20; and Mark and Luke in 6. This, of course, applies to the substantial coincidence of fact and narrative in each case. The relative verbal coincidence is by no means so marked; it is, however, very considerable, and presents some interesting features, which Professor Andrew Norton has set forth clearly in his admirable work on the Genuineness of the Gospels. It is not desirable to go into further details in this place; but the result of the extremely critical and minute scrutiny to which the text of the Gospels has been subjected may be stated as follows. There is a singular coincidence in substance in the three Synoptic Gospels. Substantial unity with circumstantial variety,' is a saying strictly true of them-more true of them than of any authors professing to narrate the same circumstances. The coincidence is greatly more apparent in the discourses than in the narrative parts of the Gospels, most of all apparent in the spoken words of our Lord. At the same time, there are certain portions of narrative of great importance, that shew in the several evangelists almost a verbal coincidence, as in the call of the first four disciples and the accounts of the Transfiguration. The agreement in the narrative portions of the Gospels begins with the baptism of John, and reaches its highest point in the accourt of the passion of our Lord, and the facts that preceded it; so that a direct ratio might be laid between the amount of agreement and the nearness of the facts related to the Passion. After this event, in the account of his burial and resurrection, the coincidences are few.' There are no parts that furnish more difficulty in the way of formal harmony than the narratives of the Resurrection. The language of all the Gospels is well known to be Greek with Hebrew idioms, or what has been called Hellenistic Greek. The tradition, however, of a Hebrew original of St. Matthew's gospel is 3. Origin of the Gospels.-This is a separate inquiry from their genuineness, although intimately connected with it, and springs immediately out of those facts as to the internal agreement and disagreement of the Gospels of which we have been speaking. The inquiry has been treated in an extremely technical manner by many critics, and it would not suit our purpose to enumerate and examine the various theories which have been propounded on the subject. We may only state generally, that the object of these theories has been to find a common original for the Gospels. Some profess to find such an original in one of the three Gospels, from which the others have been more or less copied, and each of them in turn has been taken as the basis of the other two. The more elaborate theories of Eichhorn and Bishop Marsh, however, presume an original document, differing from any of the existing Gospels, and which is supposed to pass through various modifications, into the threefold form which it now bears in them. It appeared to Eichhorn that the portions which are common to all the three Gospels were contained in a certain common document from which they all drew. It had been already assumed that copies of such a document had got into circulation, and had been altered and annotated by different hands. But Eichhorn works out an elaborate hypothesis on such a presumption. He requires for his purpose no fewer than five supposititious documents. The conditions of the problem cannot be met otherwise. These are in order: 1. An original document; 2. An altered copy which St Matthew used; 3. An altered copy which St Luke used; 4. A third copy made from the two preceding, used by St Mark; 5. A fourth altered copy used by St Matthew and St Luke in common. Bishop Marsh, in following out the same process of construction, finds it necessary to increase the supposititious documents to eight, which we need not describe. There is not the slightest external evidence of the existence of such documents; and theories of this kind, which, in order to explain difficulties, call into existence at every stage an imaginary solution, do not require serious refutation. Another and more probable supposition is, that the Gospels sprang out of a common oral tradition. The preaching of the apostles was necessarily, to a great extent, a preaching of facts; and so zealously did they give themselves to the task of promulgating the wondrous life and death of Christ, that they early divested themselves of the labour of ministering to any of the lower wants of the congregations of disciples that they gradually gathered round them. It is obvious that, in the course of their active ministry of the word,' the facts of our Lord's life and death, of which they had been eye-witnesses, would gradually assume a regular outline. What the reading of the Gospels is to us, the preaching of the apostles would be very much to the early Christians. The sermon of GOSPORT-GOSSAMER. Peter at Cesarea (Acts x. 34) may give some the Tübingen explanation of the rise of Christianity! imperfect idea of the character of this preaching. It may be surely said that there never was a more The facts thus briefly indicated would expand inadequate explanation of a wonderful historical in frequent communication to something of the phenomenon; for how was the Jewish mind, in its more detached and living form which they exhibit feebleness and decay, capable of conceiving such an in the Gospels, or rather in what we may suppose ideal as the life and character of Christ? Their to have been the common substratum or ground- inspired origin in the 1st c., and as the records work of the Gospels. It is to be remembered that of a life and death witnessed by the apostles, is the apostles were promised that the Holy Spirit -whatever difficulties it may present-the concluwould bring all things to their remembrance, sion alike sanctioned by orthodoxy, and approved whatsoever the Lord had said unto them.' And by impartial historical inquiry.-The reader who this constant guidance and superintendence of the desires further information on the subject may Divine Spirit would sufficiently account for the consult Professor Norton's work on the Genuineness uniformity and consistency of their oral instruc- of the Gospels, and Westcott's Introduction to the tion, even although not reduced to writing for a Study of the Gospels. considerable number of years. Allowing for the widest space of years it may be necessary to assume before the writing of the first Gospel, the chief apostles themselves are yet living at the end of this space. It is not a mere tradition of their teaching that survives, but it is their own living witness that is circulated from church to church, as they pass to and fro in their evangelistic labours. It is impossible to say whether this hypothesis of the origin of the Gospels be really the correct one or not, all we need to say is, that it seems to possess more probability in itself than any hypothesis of a common written source, from which they were respectively borrowed, and which has disappeared. It fits, moreover, into the facts of the case.-Westcott, Introduction to the Study of the Gospels, p. 189. According to this view of the origin of the Gospels, that of St Mark, if not the oldest in composition, is yet probably the most direct and primitive in form. In its lifelike simplicity and comparative unconsciousness of aim, it represents most immediately the apostolic preaching; it is the testimony delivered by St Peter, possibly with little adaptation. Historical evidence, as we have already said, is uniform as to the association of Mark and Peter: Mark is everywhere interpres Petri. The Gospels of St Matthew and St Luke, again, represent the two great types of recension to which it may be supposed that the simple narrative was subjected. St Luke represents the Hellenic, and St Matthew the later Hebraic form of the tradition, and in its present shape the latter seems to give the last authentic record of the primitive Gospel.' A common oral Gospel seems also to present the most natural explanation of the accordances and variations of the three Synoptic Gospels. The words of the Lord, which present in all such a marked uniformity, would necessarily assume a more fixed character in such an oral tradition, while the narrative surrounding them would remain comparatively free. Single phrases of a peculiar and important character would be closely retained; there would be, exactly as we find, a uniform strain of hallowed language mingling with variations in detail-a unity of tone, and even of speech, with variety of modulation and emphasis. This theory of a common oral origin of the Gospels is of course widely separated from the wellknown Tübingen theory, which carries the period of tradition down to the middle of the 2d c., and supposes the Gospels to have been then called forth by the influence of opposing teachers. The facts of the case, as well as the evidence for their genuineness, which we have already quoted, are wholly opposed to such a supposition, for in this case the representation of the Gospels would be wholly ideal. There might be a ground of fact in the mere existence of Jesus of Nazareth, but the picture of His life and death would be merely the imaginative dream of men intoxicated by religious enthusiasm. And this is GO'SPORT (God's port'), a market-town and seaport of England, in the county of Hants, stands on the western shore of Portsmouth Harbour, and directly opposite Portsmouth, with which it is south-east of Southampton, and 89 miles south-west connected by a floating bridge. It is 14 miles of London by the London and South-Western Railway. It is enclosed within ramparts, which seem a portion of those which also surround Portsmouth and Portsea. connected with the town, is used for hauling up and The Haslar Gun-boat Ship-yard, keeping in repair all the gun-boats belonging to this port. An extensive iron foundry for the manufacture of anchors and chain-cables, and conmain feature of G., however, is the Royal Clarence siderable coasting-trade are here carried on. Victualling Yard, which contains a brewery, a biscuit-baking establishment worked entirely by steam, and numerous storehouses. The bakery can turn out ten tons of biscuit in one hour. In the immediate vicinity is Haslar Hospital, erected in 1762, the chief establishment in Great Britain for invalid sailors, of whom 2000 can be accommo dated and supplied with medical attendance. Pop. including Alverstoke (1871) 22,638. The GO'SSAMER, a light filamentous substance, which often fills the atmosphere to a remarkable degree during fine weather in the latter part of autumn, or is spread over the whole face of the ground, stretching from leaf to leaf, and from plant to plant, loaded with entangled dew-drops, which glisten and sparkle in the sunshine. Various opinions were formerly entertained concerning the nature and origin of gossamer, but it is now suffi ciently ascertained to be produced by small spiders, not, however, by any single species, but by several, not improbably many species; whilst it is also said to be produced by young, and not by mature spiders, a circumstance which, if placed beyond doubt, would help to account for its appearance at a particular season of the year. The production of gossamer by spiders was first demonstrated by the observations of Dr Hulse and Dr Lister in the 17th c., but these observations did not for a long time meet with due regard and credit, particularly amongst the natur alists of continental Europe. It is not yet well known if the gossamer spread over the surface of the earth is produced by the same species of spider which produce that seen floating in the air, or falling as if from the clouds. Why gossamer threads or webs are produced by the spiders at all, is also a question not very easily answered. That they are meant merely for entangling insect prey, does not seem probable; the extreme eagerness which some of the small spiders known to produce them shew for water to drink, has led to the supposition, that the dew-drops which collect on them may be one of the objects of the formation of those on the surface of the ground, whilst it has been also supposed that they may afford a more rapid and convenient mode GOSSYPIUM-GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. of transit from place to place than the employment of the legs of the animal. As to the gossamers in the air, conjecture is still more at a loss. They are certainly not accidentally wafted up from the ground, as might be supposed; the spiders which produce them are wafted up along with them; but whether for the mere enjoyment of an aërial excursion, or in order to find insect prey in the air, is not clear, although the latter supposition is, on the whole, the most probable. The threads of gossamer are so delicate that a single one cannot be seen unless the sun shines on it; but being driven about by the wind, they often become beaten together into thicker threads and flakes. They are often to be felt on the face when they are scarcely visible. The spiders which produce these threads shoot them out from their spinnerets, a viscid fluid being ejected with great force, which presently becomes a thread; sometimes several such threads are produced at one in a radiating form, and these being caught by the ascending current of heated air, are borne up, and the spider along with them. It would seem that the spider has even some power of guiding in the air the web by which it is wafted up. GOSSYPIUM. See COTTON. GOTHA, a town of Germany, capital of the duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, is situated on an elevation in a beautiful district on the right bank of the Leine, 18 miles west of Erfurt, by the Thuringian Railway. It is a handsome, well-built town, is quadrilateral in form, and was formerly surrounded by walls, which, however, have been thrown down, and public walks laid out in their place. The principal public building is the large ducal palace of Friedenstein, with two large side-wings, and two towers of 144 feet in height. This palace contains a picture-gallery, in which Cranach, V. Eyck, Holbein, Rubens, and Rembrandt are represented; a cabinet of engravings (a very valuable collection); a library (founded by Ernst the Pious in 1640)| of 150,000 volumes and 6000 manuscripts, among which are 2000 Arabic, and from 300 to 400 Persian and Turkish; a collection of about 80,000 coins and 13,000 medals, one of the finest collections in Europe; and a Japanese and Chinese museum. G. has also an arsenal, a new and old town-hall, and numerous educational and benevolent institutions. The principal manufactures are muslins, cottons, porcelain, coloured paper, cloth, linen, tobacco, musical and surgical instruments, &c. Gotha sausages have a widespread celebrity. Several hundreds of designers, engravers, printers, and colourers of maps are employed here in Justus Perthes's large geographical establishment. Pop. 1871, 20,591. representative and attaché of Europe and America, The pay of officers of governments, national expenditures and debts, with the interest, the number of representatives, under representative governments and their proportion to the population, are carefully given. As a work of such an extent cannot be brought down to the end of the year, the date of publication is stated, and in some instances a date has been given to each page, as completed, to shew that the editor is not answerable for subsequent changes. When the Almanach de G. was commenced, there was but one republic in existencethat of Switzerland. It was then little more than a register of the crowned heads and royal families of Europe. It has been slow to recognise political changes, and for years after the French Revolution, continued to print under the head of 'France,' Louis XVII. as the reigning monarch. It was not until Napoleon became emperor that his name found a place in its pages, and then his whole family was given, as with the other royal houses. It was at this period that the language was changed to French, which, being the recognised language of courts, is found the most convenient, and has been ever since retained. During the Empire, Napoleon I. considered this little publication so important, that he exercised over it a rigid supervision, and in 1808, an entire edition, which had just been worked off, was seized by a body of French gendarmes. The editor hurried to Paris, and found that his error was in his alphabetical arrangement, by which Anhalt, of the Ernestinian line of Saxon princes, took precedence of Napoleon, who claimed the right to be placed at the head of the nobility of the Rhine. To secure this re-arrangement of the alphabet, the edition of that year was printed at Paris. It is probable that a similar supervision of the press kept out of the historic pages the successes of the allies against the Empire in the succeeding numbers, in which there was no mention of the campaigns of the Peninsula and the victory of Trafalgar. Or the restoration of the Bourbons, however, these events were recorded in a resumé, which made up for the previous omissions. GOTHA, DUCHY OF. See SAXE-COBURG-GOTHA. GOTHARD, ST, a mountain group in the Helvetian Alps, reaches in its highest peaks the height of 12,000 feet. See ALPS. St G., however, is chiefly famous for the pass over the Alps, which at its summit rises to the height of 6800 feet. By means of this pass, the high-road from Fluelen, on Lake Lucerne, is carried without interruption in a south-south-east direction to Lago Maggiore, in the north of Italy. The construction of the road was commenced in 1820, and opened in 1832 In GOTHA, ALMANACH DE, a universal political 1834, nearly one-third of the road, with numerous register, is published annually at Gotha (q. v.). The bridges and terraces, was swept away by the violence publication of this almanac commenced in 1764, in the of a most terrific storm which burst on the summit German language, in which it was continued until of the pass; and in 1839 a similar occurrence took Napoleon L. became emperor, when it was changed to place. Since that time, however, the road has been the French language, in which it has been continued in a good state of repair. It is one of the best and most convenient of the Alpine carriage-ways, is to the present time. The almanac is a small pocket volume, containing at present more than one thousand free from snow for four or five months of the year, pages of small type, and recording the sovereigns beginning with June, and is equal, if not superior, and royal families of every civilised country, with to any other in the interest and grandeur of its the civil, diplomatic, military, and naval officers, a great amount of statistical information, a compact summary of historical events, obituary notices of the most distinguished persons, and other matters of political interest. No book ever printed contains so much political and statistical information in so small a compass. The boundaries of states are given according to the latest treaties, with their extent, population, and revenues. The annuaire diplomatique contains the name of every diplomatic scenery. GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. Under this title are comprised the various styles of architecture which prevailed in Western Europe from the middle of the 12th c. to the revival of classic architecture in the 16th century. The term Gothic was at first bestowed by the Renaissance architects on the medieval styles as a term of reproach. This epithet they applied to every kind of medieval art which had existed from the decline of the classic styles |