miles in length, and to have been about eighty miles in breadth about the middle, and ten or fifteen, more or less, where it widens or contracts.

By the Abrahamic covenant, the original grant of the Promised Land to the Israelites was from the "river of Egypt unto the river Euphrates." Its precise "boundaries," declared to Moses by the God of Israel, are described in Gen. xv. 18, with all the accuracy of an eye-witness. Of this region, however, the Israelites were not put into immediate possession. It was not until the reign of Solomon that the covenant was realised to its full extent. On the conquest of Canaan by the children of Israel, JOSHUA DIVIDED IT INTO TWELVE PARTS, which the twelve tribes drew by lot, according to their families. In this division of the land into twelve portions, the posterity of Ephraim and Manasseh (the two sons of Joseph) had their portions as distinct tribes, in consequence of Jacob's having adopted them. The "northern" parts of the country were allotted to the tribes of Asher, Napthali, Zebulon, and Issachar-the "middle" parts to that of Ephraim, and one half of the tribe of Manasseh the "southern" parts to those of Judah, Benjamin, Dan. and Simeon; and the

country beyond Jordan" (which was first conquered by the Israelites before the subjugation of the whole land of Canaan) was allotted to the tribe of Reuben, Gad, and the other half tribe of Manasseh. The tribe of Reuben obtained the southern parts, the tribe of Gad the centre, and the half tribe of Manasseh the northern part. The tribe of Levi indeed (which formed in effect a thirteenth tribe) possessed no lands. By divine command there were assigned to the Levites, who were appointed to minister in holy things, without any secular incumbrance, the tenths and first-fruits of the estates of their brethren.

The next remarkable division was made by King SOLOMON, who divided the kingdom he had received from his father David into twelve provinces or districts, each under a peculiar officer. The Euphrates was the "eastern" boundary of his dominions, the Philistines were "westward" on the Mediterranean sea, and Egypt was on the "south." He had therefore, for his tributaries, the kingdoms of Syria, Damascus, Moab, and Ammon; and thus he appears to have possessed all the land which God covenanted with Abraham to give to his posterity. But this

was only "a splendid parenthesis" in the historic page of the Israelites. After the death of Solomon, ten tribes revolted from his son Rehoboam, and erected themselves into a separate kingdom under Jeroboam, called the KINGDOM OF ISRAEL. The two other tribes of Benjamin and Judah, continuing faithful to Rehoboam, formed the KINGDOM OF JUDAH. This kingdom comprised all the southern parts of the land, consisting of the allotments of these two tribes, together with so much of the territories of Dan and Simeon as were intermixed with that of Judah. Its royal city or metropolis was Jerusalem, in the tribe of Benjamin. The kingdom of Israel included all the northern and middle parts of the land, occupied by the other ten tribes, and its capital was Samaria, in the tribe of Ephraim. But this division ceased, on the subversion of the kingdom of Israel by Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, after it had subsisted two hundred and fifty-four years.

The Holy Land fell successively into the hands of the Syrian Kings, the Greeks and Romans. IN THE TIME OF JESUS CHRIST it was divided into five separate provinces, viz. Galilee, Samaria, Judæa, Peræa, and Idumæa.

GALILEE comprised the country formerly inhabited by the tribes of Issachar, Napthali, and Asher, and by part of the tribe of Dan, and was divided into Upper and Lower.

SAMARIA included the tract of country which was originally occupied by the two tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh within Jordan, lying exactly in the middle between Judæa and Galilee.

JUDEA comprised the territories which formerly belonged to the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, Simeon, and to part of the tribe of Dan, being nearly co-extensive with the ancient kingdom of Judah.

The district of PEREA Comprised the six cantons of Abilene, Trachonitis, Ituræa, Gaulonitis, Batanæa, and Peræa, strictly so called, to which some geographers have added Decapolis.

The province of IDUMEA was added by the Romans on their conquest of Palestine. It comprised the extreme southern part of Judæa, together with some part of Arabia.

UNDER THE ROMANS, Palestine was dependent on the government of Syria, and, about the commencement of the fifth century, was divided into three parts; viz:

1. Palæstina Prima comprised the ancient regions of Judæa and Samaria.

2. Palæstina Secunda included the ancient districts

of Galilee and Trachonitis.

3. Palæstina Tertia, or Salutaris, comprised the ancient Peræa and Idumæa.

In the modern DIVISIONS of this part of the Turkish government, Palestine has not formed a distinct country, but has always been included in Sham or Syria. This latter province has hitherto been divided into pachalics or governments, bearing the names of Acre, Tripoli, Aleppo, and Damascus-but as their extent usually increased or diminished, according to the degree of influence of the individuals to whom they were respectively entrusted, their limits have never been defined with accuracy*.

Since the occupation of this territory by the Egyptian troops (1833) it has been divided into moudirliks or governments, and confided to generals of division: but their boundaries being so far, only provisional, it is not deemed necessary to insert them here.