K I D K I E 69
and dyeing are also carried on extensively, and there are iron foundries, tinplate works, breweries, malthouses, tanneries, flour-mills, and a paper-mill. The population of the municipal borough in 1871 was 19,473, and that of the parliamentary borough 20,814; in 1881 the corresponding numbers were 24,270 and 25,634.
The ancient name of Kidderminster was Chiderminster, that is, the minster or church on the brow of the hill. From the time of the Conquest until the time of Henry II. it was a royal manor. Among the private owners who subsequently held possession of it was the poet Waller. Kidderminster returned a member to parliament in the reign of Edward I., but the privilege was subsequently lost. In the 12th year of Charles I. it received a charter of incorporation, and by the Reform Act of 1832 it again obtained the privilege of returning a member to parliament. It is now governed according to the Municipal Act of 1835.
KIDNAPPING is defined by Blackstone as the forcible abduction or stealing away of a man, woman, or child from their own country and sending them into another. The term is, however, more commonly applied to the offence of taking away children from the possession of their parents. By 24 and 25 Vict. c. 100, "whosoever shall unlawfully, by force or fraud, lead or take away or decoy or entice away or detain any child under the age of fourteen years with intent to deprive any parent, guardian, or other person having the lawful care or charge of such child of the possession of such child, or with intent to steal any article upon or about the person of such child, to whomsoever such article may belong, and whosoever shall with any such intent receive or harbour any such child, &c.," shall be guilty of felony. The abduction or unlawfully taking away an unmarried girl under the age of sixteen years out of the possession and against the will of her father or mother, or any other person having the lawful care or charge of her, is a misdemeanour under the same Act. The term is used in much the same sense in the laws of the United States. Bishop states the more correct acceptation of the word to be false imprisonment aggravated by the intent to carry the person away to another place, but not necessarily to another country.
KIEFF, Kiyeff, or Kiev, a south-western government of European Russia, conterminous with those of Minsk, Poltava, Tchernigoff, Podolia, Kherson, and Volhyuia. The urea is estimated at 31,664 square miles. In the north we find a low-lying district characterized by marsh and woodland; in the east a series of hills keeps company with the Dnieper; and in the west are several outliers from the Carpathian system. The central region is a kind of steppe. It is only in a very few places that the altitude exceeds 900 feat. Granite with underlying syenite is the prevailing rock in the west and south-west of the government; in the east there are various Eocene formations. Iron-ore, fire clay, sandstone, and lignite are among the useful minerals. Towards the southern and the central parts the surface is covered by a deep rich "black earth." Nearly the whole of the government belongs to the basin of the Dnieper, that river forming part of its eastern boundary. In the south-west are a few small tributaries of the Bug. Besides the Dnieper the only navigable stream is its confluent the Pripyat, but two or three of the rest are available for rafts. About a fourth of the surface is occupied by woods, very unequally distributed throughout the territory. Rye is the commonest of the cereals; and next follow oats and wheat. In the growing of beetroot the government is the first in Russia, and its factories for the production of beetroot sugar are the largest in the empire. The whole industrial activity of the district has rapidly developed since about the middle of the century: in 1879 there were 602 establishments, with 35,306 workmen, and a production worth £10,000,000. In the 75 sugar factories large numbers of Tartars from Tamboff and Penza find employment; and next in importance are the flour-mills, leather works, and tobacco factories. The population of the government has increased from 2,017,262 in 1862 to 2,266,000 in 1875. Little Russians form 80 per cent. of the aggregate; Jews, 13 per cent.; Poles, 4 per cent.; White Russians, 2½ per cent.; and there are a few thousand Great Russians. There are twelve districts: Radomuisl, Kieff, Kaneff, Tcherkasui, Tchigirin, Vasilkoff, Berditcheff, Lipovets, Skvira, Tarashtcha, Uman, Zvenigorodka. Besides the government town the following have upwards of 5000 inhabitants Berditcheff, 52,560; Vasilkoff, 16,597; Uman, 15,393; Tcherkasui, 13,914; Tarashtcha, 11,420; Zvenigorodka, 11,375; Skvira, 10,061; Tchigirin, 9677; Kaneff, 7418; Lipovets, 6710; Radomuisl, 5905, to which may be added the large Jewish village of Zlatopol, 10,000. The exarchate or diocese of Kieff and Galitsch is the eldest in Russia, and comprises 1421 churches, 12 cathedrals, and 30 monasteries.
In 1708 a Kieff government was founded which included the whole eastern Ukraine and an extensive region in Central Russia containing thirty-six towns – Orel, Kursk, &c. The Kieff lieutenantship, founded in 1782, consisted of parts of the present governments of Kieff, Poltava, and Tchernigoff. In 1796 the present government was practically constituted, though several slight changes in regard to the district towns have since taken place.
KIEFF, capital of the above province, the "mother city" and Canterbury of Russia, is situated on the right or western bank of the Dnieper, in 50° 26′ N. lat. and 30° 37′ E. long., 800 miles from St Petersburg, and 566 miles from Moscow on the highway between Moscow and Odessa. By railway it is connected on the one hand with Kursk and on the other hand with Odessa. The site of the greater part of the town consists of a succession of hills or bluffs separated from each other by ravines and hollows, the elevation of the central portions being from 350 to 365 feet above the ordinary level of the Dnieper. On the opposite side of the river the country spreads out low and level like a sea. Having by this time received all its important tributaries, the Dnieper is a large and navigable stream; but as it approaches the town it breaks up into two currents and forms a low grassy island of considerable extent called Tukhanoff. During the spring floods there is a rise of 16 or even 20 feet, and not only the whole island but the country along the left bank and the lower grounds on the right bank are laid under water. The bed of the river is sandy and shifting, and it is only by costly engineering works that the main stream has been kept from returning to the more eastern channel which it formerly occupied. Opposite the southern part of the town, where the currents have again united, the river is crossed by a wrought-iron bar-chain suspension bridge, which at the time of its erection (1851) was the largest enterprise of the kind in Europe. It is about half a mile in length and 52½ feet in breadth, and the four principal spans are each 440 feet. The bridge was designed by Mr Vignoles, and the whole of the iron (3500 tons) employed in the construction was prepared in England. The cost was about £400,000.[1]
Owing to the natural character of the site, Kieff is broken up into several distinct portions; and from no point is it possible to get a view of the city as a whole. Up to 1837 the town proper consisted of the Old Town, Petchersk, and Podol; but in that year three districts were added, and in 1879 the limits were extended so as to include Kurenevka, Lukyanovka, Shulyavka, and Solomeuka, and the whole was divided into eight districts. The administrative area of the town, as thus defined, is about 12,404 acres, or 18 square miles; but these figures give a very exaggerated notion of the place, as there are extensive suburbs and large intervals of unoccupied ground. Wood is still the most
- ↑ Views of the bridge will be found in Official Catalogue of the Great Exhibition, 1851, vol. i. p. 321.
