GLA ORGANSHIRE.

CARDIFF is a seaport, market town, Parliamentary and Municipal Borough, and the capital of Glamorganshire. It is a polling place for the County,._ in the Hundred of Kibber, rural deanery of Llandaff. It is a station on the South Wales division of the Great \V estem­ Railway, and a terminus of the Taff Vale and Rhymney Railways. It is distant from London 16o miles, II2 from Bingham, 46 from Swansea, 24 from Merthyr, 28 from Chepstow, 13 from Newport, 40 from Bristol, I 2 from Pontypridd, and 56 from Glouc;ester. Cardiff Castle, one of the country seats of the Marquis of Bute, is entered by a gateway; it is a spacious and stately edifice, long the residence of princes, the seat of justice, and ·the scene of many important actions and events. The greater portion of the edifice was modernised by the late Marquis of Bute, wha converted it into a noble castellated mansion. The hi~h octagonal tower on the left of the entrance was rebuilt in I847; it is known by the name of "Robert's Tower;'' it is said the unfortunate Robert, Duke of Normandy, by order of his brother, Henry I., was confined in _its dungeon twenty-six years; on one occasion he made an attempt to escape, in consequence of which his eyes were cruelly put out; the prince died here, and was interred in Gloucester Cathedral, 1 13 2. The commercial history of Cardiff is scarcely beyond a hundred years. Prior to the opening of the Glamorganshire Canal only a few small vessels sailed up the Taff to wharves which extended from the west of the present Town Hall to the South Wales Railway, the chief articles exported being coal and iron. The coal was chiefly brought into the town on the backs of mules, and the iron in waggons. The great iron works of Cyfarthfa and Dowlais were in their infancy ; but as trade increased this mode of transit became both tedious and expensive, and a company was formed for the construction of the Glamorgan Canal, which extends from Cardiff to Merthyr The canal is 26 miles in length, and has a fall of more than 6oo feet between Merthyr and Cardiff. It has 40 locks, with sluices to carry off the waste water. It took three years in constructing, and cost about £5 s,ooo. It was opened in I 794· For the first thirty years of the present century this method of conveying iron ore up to Merthyr and bringing down iron, but as the demand for coal increased two projects were started one by the Marquis of Bute for the construction of a dock or ship canal on waste land to the south of the town, and the other by a company of gentlemen representing the coal owners and the iron masters of the district, which was to construct a railway from Cardiff to Merthyr to supersede the canal in bringing down coal and iron to Cardiff New Dock. The Act for the construction of the Bute West Dock was obtained in r83o, but the work was not completed till 1839· It has an acreage of 20 acres. Some tipping apparatus were fitted up on the west side, and. the work of shi12ping coal was carried on; but in r84o, a year after the Bute Dock was opened, the shipments of coal only reached qo,566 tons a quantity which is now shipped in from twelve to fourteen days. While the work was being carried on, it was seen that the dock at Cardiff would be useless unless a railway was constructed between Cardiff and Merthyr. The Taff Railway Act was obtained in June, 1836, and in 1841 the railway was npened, and in 1845 the quantity of coals shipped had increased to 447,ooo tons. The demand for coal soon became so great that the accom­ modation for ships in the West Dock was insufficient, and suggestions were made for the construction of another dock. In 1848 the Taff Vale Railway leased the east side of the West Dock, on which they laid out £ r oo,ooo in laying down the East Branch, and forming tips for loading vessels with coal. The trustees of the Marquis of Bute then commenced the construction of the East Dock a work of much greater magnitude, and designed for the accommodation of larger vessels. The area of this dock is 45 acres, and has a constant depth of water of 2 5 feet. This is fitted with a number of coal tips, and is capable of shipping a large quantity of coal; while its extensive area gives shelter to more than I so vessels at one time, and space for timber floats. This dock was not opened until r8ss, and was constructed with great engineering skill. As the Taff Vale Railway opened up the mineral n:sources of Taff Valley, the Rhymney Railway was formed to open up in the same way the resources of Rhymney Valley, and this railway was connected alone with the East Bute Dock. The impetus which these railways and docks gave to the coal trade may be judged from the state­ ment that in 185o the quantity of coal shipped amounted to 711,392 tons; in r86o the