AINSWORTH-AIR-BEDS. Researches in Assyria, etc. He has published also The Claims of the Christian Aborigines in the East, and Travels in the Track of the 10,000. He has edited Lares and Penates, or Cilicia and its Governors; On an Indo-European Telegraph by the Valley of the Tigris, a project which the Turkish government has since carried out; All Round the World; The Illustrated Universal Gazetteer, &c. He is a member of many foreign learned societies. He is (1874) editor of the New Monthly Magazine. that he first succeeded in overcoming the technical in Kurdistan. On his return (1841) he published difficulties in the execution of glass-painting. A separate institution was now established for the art; and A., as inspector, succeeded in raising it to a high degree of perfection. He is said to have first conceived the happy thought of laying coloured glass on coloured, instead of the process hitherto followed, of laying coloured glass on white; thus giving the command of above 100 variously coloured glasses, in all gradations of tint. He was also the first, in conjunction with Wehrstorfer, to execute pictures on glass, and thus revive the art of miniature glass-painting. Nor was it only technical improvements and inventions that he contributed to the new art; his artistic culture qualified him powerfully to aid the regeneration of taste that has accompanied it. The first work of the new institution was the restoration of the windows of the cathedral of Ratisbon (1826-1833), to which A. contributed the ornamentation, and painted several of the figures. He made a like contribution to the splendid windows of the church of Maria-Hilf (1833 -1838), in Munich. In the contribution of King Ludwig of Bavaria to the cathedral of Cologne, and the numerous other windows executed at Munich for all parts of the world-England among the rest-A. displayed the highest artistic faculty in giving to the figures a rich setting of architectural ornamentation, in such a way as to harmonise with the style of the building.-A. also acquired a great reputation as an architectural painter in oil. Among his pieces are St Mark's Church, in Venice; the interior of St Stephen's Church, Vienna; the interior of Windsor Chapel, of Westminster Abbey, and the Poets' Corner. He died December 1870. AINSWORTH, ROBERT, the author of a once extensively used Latin Dictionary, was born at Woodvale, near Manchester, in 1660. He was educated at Bolton, and taught a school there for some time, but afterwards went to London, where he was engaged for many years in educational pursuits. In 1714, he commenced his Dictionary (Latin-English and English-Latin), which, however, was not published until 1736. A. died near London on the 4th of April 1743. He wrote also some Latin poems, and a few treatises on various subjects; but nothing keeps his memory alive except the Dictionary, which itself is now fast passing away into oblivion. The labour expended on such a production was indeed highly honourable to the author, but the work has no claim to the character of an accurate or philosophical lexicon, and, in spite of the numerous emendations it has received, it remains essentially what it was at first. It has been superseded by Riddell's, and more recently by Smith's, Andrews's, and other Lexicons. AINSWORTH, WILLIAM HARRISON, a wellknown writer of fiction, was born Feb. 1805, at Manchester, where his father was a solicitor. His creative fancy began early to shew itself in ballads and tales, which appeared in the local newspapers, and in contributions to the London Magazine and other periodicals. Being destined to succeed his father, he entered a writer's office; but after a while he forsook law for literature, and at first began a publishing business in London, which, however, he soon gave up in disappointment. He had previously published his first novel, Sir John Chiverton (1825). After spending some time on the continent, he returned to England, and wrote Rookwood (1834), which was favourably received. It was followed by Crichton (1837) and Jack Sheppard (1839). A. edited for a time Bentley's Miscellany, and in 1842 began his own Ainsworth's Magazine. He published the Lancashire Witches in 1848; six years later, appeared the Star Chamber; in 1860, Ovingdean Grange; the Lord Mayor of London was published 1862, Cardinal Pole the following year, and John Law, the Projector, in 1864. His more recent works are the Spanish Match, the Constable de Bourbon, Old Court, Middleton Pomphret, Hilary St Ives, and Merrie England (1874). AIR, or ASBEN, a kingdom of Central Africa, extending from about 17° to 19° N. lat., and from 8 to 9° E. long. Agades (q.v.) is the capital, and residence of the sultan, but his power is in a large measure merely nominal. The country contains various towns and villages, and is principally inhabited by three large tribes the Kel-owi, the Kel-geres, and Itisan, each of which has numerous subdivisions. There are, besides, the Kel-n-Negarru, the Imghad, &c. The word kel means 'people,' but specially denotes settled people, in opposition to nomads. Thus, Kel-owi is people settled in the valley of Owi. Many of the tribes and families live not in fixed dwellings, but movable tents made of mats. The valleys of A. are naturally rich, but they are poorly cultivated. Food and clothing are both imported. The population, which is very considerable, could not be sustained, were it not for the salt-trade of Bilma, a town lying to the east of of A. are in the region of the tropics, the climate is A., in the Tebu country. Although the valleys comparatively temperate. See Barth's Travels in Central Africa, vol. i. AINSWORTH, WILLIAM FRANCIS, an English physician, geologist, and traveller, a relation of the foregoing, was born at Exeter, 1807. He studied medicine at Edinburgh, and, after receiving (1827) his medical diploma, he travelled in France, and AIR is the name given to that compound of gases prosecuted geological investigations in the Auvergne constituting the substance of our atmosphere. For and Pyrenean mountains. Returning to Edinburgh merly, all aëriform fluids were called airs,' but in in 1828, he conducted the publication of the Journal this sense the word gas is now used. The chief of Natural and Geographical Science, and delivered properties of air, and the phenomena they give lectures on geology. In 1835, he was attached as rise to, will be found treated under Atmosphere, physician and geologist to the Euphrates expedition Aerodynamics, Aërostatics, Air-pump, Barometer, under Colonel Chesney, at the recommendation of Balloon, &c. Colonel Sabine, and returned home in 1837 through Kurdistan, the Taurus, and Asia Minor. In the following year, he went again to Asia Minor, being sent with Rassam and Russell by the Geographical Society, and the Society for the Diffusion of Christian Knowledge. The objects were chiefly to explore the course of the Halys, and to visit the Christians AIR, in Music. See ARIA. AIR-BEDS and AIR-CUSHIONS. Air-beds were known as early as the beginning of the 18th c., but being made of leather, were expensive. It was only after the invention of air-tight or Macintosh cloth that it became possible to use air in this way at a moderate cost. An air-bed consists of a sack in AIR-BLADDER-AIR-GUN. the form of a mattress, divided into a number of compartments, each air-tight; a projection at one end forms a bolster. Each compartment has a valve, through which the air is blown in by a bellows. The advantages of such beds, in point of cleanness, coolness, lightness, and elasticity are obvious. They are specially valuable in many cases of sickness. The travelling-cushion is another contrivance of the same kind. Recently, vulcanised India-rubber, instead of cloth, has been used in the fabrication of such articles. The chief drawback to these contrivances is the liability to being spoiled by a rent or other injury. cells, or air-sacs, may be said to form the whole respiratory apparatus in some of the lower kinds of animals (see ANNELIDA), whilst in others, higher in the scale of organisation, particularly in insects, air-tubes arising from these ramify throughout the whole body. The air-tubes of insects are formed of a spiral fibre within a membranous coat, like the spiral vessels of plants, so that they possess great elasticity. AIR-CELLS in plants are cavities containing air in the stems or leaves. The orifices of the intercellular passages are closed up, so as to prevent the juices of the plant from entering them. They are AIR-BLADDER, or SWIMMING-BLADDER, very variable in size, figure, and arrangement, but in Fishes. An organ apparently intended to aid them are formed according to a uniform rule in each partiin ascending in deep water, and for the accommoda- cular species in which they are found. They are tion of their specific gravity to various depths. It is large and numerous in many aquatic plants, evimade to serve this purpose by the increase or dimi- dently serving the purpose of buoying them up in the nution of its volume, according to the degree of pres-water. Besides A. of regular form, there are irregular sure exerted upon it by the ribs. Its place is in the cavities, also called by the same name, which seem abdomen, under the spine; and it is very various in to be formed by the tearing of the cellular tissue in size and form in different kinds of fishes. It gene- the rapid growth of the plant, as in grasses and rally has an opening into the oesophagus, or into the umbelliferous plants. stomach, but apparently only for the ejection, and not for the admission of air. In some fishes, it has no opening. The air with which the A. is filled appears to be the result of secretion; and in freshwater fishes, consists in general almost entirely of nitrogen, but contains a larger proportion of oxygen in sea-fishes; the oxygen in deep-sea fishes having been found to amount to 87 per cent. The A. is in some fishes very small; in others, it is entirely wanting, particularly in fishes that are destined to live chiefly at the bottom of the water, as flat fishes, AIR-ENGINE. See CALORIC ENGINE. AIR-GUN, an instrument for firing bullets or other projectiles, by the force of compressed air instead of gunpowder. Various forms of construction have been adopted. The most usual plan is to insert a condensing syringe in the stock of the gun. The piston of this syringe is worked by an apparatus which passes through to the exterior of the gun; and this working causes a small body of air to be condensed into a chamber. The chamber has a valve opening into the barrel, just behind the place where the bullet is lodged. The gun is loaded from the muzzle, as ordinary muskets or fowling-pieces; and there is at that time just behind it a small body of highly compressed air, ready to rush out at any opening. This opportunity is afforded by a movement of the trigger, which opens the valve; the air rushes forth with such impetuosity as to propel the bullet. By a certain management of the trigger, two or three bullets, successively and separately introduced, can be fired off-if firing it can be called-by one mass of condensed air. Another form of A. contains several bullets in a receptacle or channel under the barrel; by the movement of a cock or lever, one of these bullets can readily be shifted into the barrel; and thus several successive discharges can be made after one loading on a principle somewhat analogous to that of the revolving pistol. Some varieties of A. have the condensing syringe detached, by which means a more powerful condensation of air may be produced; this done, the air-chamber is replaced in its proper position behind the bullet in the barrel. Those air-guns which present the external appear ance of stout walking-sticks, and are thence called air-canes, have a chamber within the handle for containing condensed air, which can be unscrewed, and subjected to the action of the condensing syringe. One inventor has devised a form of A. with two barrels-one of small bore for the reception of the bullets, and another of larger bore for the reservoir of condensed air; the condensing syringe being within the stock of the gun. An attempt has more recently been made to combine the action of elastic springs with that of compressed air, in an A.; springs of gutta-percha, or of vulcanised indiarubber, are employed in substitution of, or in cooperation with, a condensing syringe. No form of A. hitherto made has had power enough to propel a bullet to any considerable distance; and therefore the instrument is scarcely available in war; there are, however, circumstances in which AIR-PLANTS-AIRY. such an arm may be useful-seeing that there is no expense for gunpowder, no noise, no smoke, no unpleasant odour. The A. was known in France more than two centuries ago; but the ancients were acquainted with some kind of apparatus, by which air was made to act upon the shorter arm of a lever, while the larger arm impelled a bullet. AIR-PLANTS. See EPIPHYTES. AIR-PUMP, an instrument for removing the air from a vessel. The essential part is a hollow brass or glass cylinder, in which an air-tight piston is made to move up and down by a rod. From the bottom of the cylinder, a connecting tube leads to the space which is to be exhausted, which is usually formed by placing a bell-glass, called the receiver, with edges ground smooth, and smeared with lard, on a flat, smooth plate or table. When the piston is at the bottom of the barrel, and is then drawn up, it lifts out the air from the barrel, and Air-pump. a portion of the air under the receiver, by its own expansive force, passes through the connecting tube, and occupies the space below the piston, which would otherwise be a vacuum. The air in the receiver and barrel is thus rarefied. The piston is now forced down, and the effect of this is to close a valve placed at the mouth of the connecting tube, and opening inwards into the barrel. The air in the barrel is thus cut off from returning into the receiver, and, as it becomes condensed, forces up a valve in the piston, which opens outwards, and thus escapes into the atmosphere. When the piston reaches the bottom, and begins to ascend again, this valve closes; and the same process is repeated as at the first ascent. Each stroke thus diminishes the quantity of air in the receiver; but from the nature of the process, it is evident that the exhaustion can never be complete. Even theoretically, there must always be a portion left, though that portion may be rendered less than any assignable quantity; and practically the process is limited by the elastic force of the remaining air being no longer sufficient to open the valves. The degree of rarefaction is indicated by a gauge on the principle of the barometer. By means of the partial vacuum formed by the A., a great many interesting experiments can be performed, illustrating the effects of atmospheric pressure, and other mechanical properties of gases. -The A. was invented by Otto Guericke (q. v.), 1654; and though many improvements and varieties of structure have been since devised, the principle of all is the same. Two barrels are generally used, so as to double the effect of one stroke. In some airpumps, stop-cocks turned by the hand take the place of valves; and in others, the entrance of the connecting tube into the cylinder is so contrived that the valve through the piston is not required. AIRD, THOMAS, a poet of considerable genius, born at Bowden, in Roxburghshire, in 1802. He received the rudiments of education at schools in his native county, from which he passed to the university of Edinburgh. While in the metropolis, he made the friendship of many distinguished men, especially Professor John Wilson, who was accustomed to speak of him in the highest terms. In 1835, he became editor of The Dumfries Herald, a new journal, started on Conservative principles. His genius is of a purely literary character, and not calculated to be effective in the discussion of political questions. His works are not so well known as they deserve to be, from their intrinsic merit. In spite of very warm eulogy from some of the greatest names in popular criticism, and in spite of many elaborate and discriminating reviews to secure a large measure of public approbation. in various important magazines, they have failed The Devil's Dream is perhaps an exception to the rest, for it is both well known and admired. Competent judges have asserted that there is something almost Dantesque in the stern, intense, and sublime literalness of the conception. This power of realisation in painting objects is the grand characteristic of Mr A.'s mind. Whether the scenes are colossal, as in The Devil's Dream, or minute, as in The Summer's Day, there is the same clear, vigorous, and picturesque word-painting. Herein lies Mr A.'s chief originality, for his thought and sentiment, though always pure and fine, are not strikingly novel. In 1827, he published Religious Characteristics, a piece of exalted prosepoetry; in 1845, The Old Bachelor, a volume of tales and sketches; in 1848, a collected edition of his poems-a second edition of which appeared in 1856; and in 1852, he edited the select poems of David Macbeth Moir (the 'Delta' of Blackwood), prefixing a memoir for the benefit of Dr Moir's family. AIRDRIE, a town recently separated from the parish of New Monkland, and erected into a quoad sacra parish, Lanarkshire, 11 miles E. of Glasgow. The high-road between Edinburgh and Glasgow risen rapidly, and is now one of the most flourishing intersecting it, forms its principal street. It has inland towns in Scotland. Little more than a century ago, it consisted of a solitary farmhouse or two; but the abundance of iron and coal in the vicinity has given its progress an impetus like that of an American city (see GARTSHERRIE). The Monkland Canal and the Caledonian Railway receive the produce of the coal-pits and iron mines. The town has some neat buildings, is well paved, and lighted with gas. The weaving of cotton goods for the Glasgow manufacturers is carried on to a considerable extent, as is also the distillation of spirits, silk-weaving, and paper-making. Pop. in 1871, 15,671. AIRY, GEORGE BIDDELL, D.C.L., M.A., Astronomer Royal, was born at Alnwick in 1801. He was educated principally at Colchester, from which he passed in 1819 to the university of Cambridge. In 1822, he was elected Scholar; in 1823, he took the degree of B.A., with the honour of Senior Wrangler; and in 1826, that of M.A. In the same year, he was elevated to the chair of Science founded by Lucas, which he rescued from the reproach of being a sinecure, by delivering a course of public lectures on experimental philosophy. In 1828, he was made Plumian professor, and had the management of the newly erected Cambridge Observatory intrusted to him. On account of his severe and unintermitting labours in connection with this office, his income was augmented from the funds of the university. He published his observations (Astronomical Observations: Cambridge, 1829-1838, 9 vols.), arranged in a clear and simple manner; and they have served as a model ever since for those of Greenwich and other observatories. In 1835, the office of Astronomer 95 AISLE AIX-LA-CHAPELLE. Royal becoming vacant, A. was appointed to it by reckons nearly 100,000 vols., and 1100 MSS. The baptistery of the cathedral is believed to have been originally a temple of Apollo. The numerous public fountains give a cheerful air to the place. One of them has a sculpture of the Good King Réné, executed by David. There is also an old clock-tower, the machinery of which, when the clock strikes, sets various quaint-looking figures in motion. The industry of this again flourishing town consists chiefly in the cultivation of the olive, in cottonspinning, leather-dressing, and trade in oil, wine, almonds, &c. The warm springs are slightly sulphureous, with a temperature from 90° to 100° F., clear and transparent as the purest well-water, almost free from smell, yet with a slightly bitter taste. They have the reputation of improving the beauty of the skin, and are on this account especially frequented by the fair sex. The field on which Marius defeated the Teutones lies in the plain between A. and Arles. In the middle ages, under the Counts of Provence (see RENÉ), A. was long the literary capital of Southern Europe. The population of the municipality of Aix in 1872 was 18,905. AIX (Aqua Gratiana, Allobrogum), a small town of Savoy, pop. 2-3000, in a delightful valley near Lake Bourget, seven miles north from Chambery. It was a much frequented bathing-place in the times of the Roman empire, and among its numerous remains of ancient times, are the arch of Pomponius, the ruins of a temple and of a vaporarium. The king of Sardinia has a palace here. The hot springs, two in number, are of sulphurous quality, and of a temperature above 100° F. They are used both for drinking and as baths, and attract annually above 2000 visitors. AISLE (from Lat. ala, a wing) means any lateral division of any part of a church, whether nave, choir, or transept. The number of aisles varies in the churches of different countries. In England, there is only one on each side of the nave or choir; in most foreign countries, there are generally two, and AIX-LA-CHAPELLE (Ger. Aachen) is the at Cologne there are even capital of a district in Rhenish Prussia. It is situated three. The continental in a fertile hollow, surrounded by heights, and edifices, it would seem, watered by the Wurm; N. lat. 50° 47', E. long. 6° have antiquity in their 5'; pop. (1871) 74,238, of whom a very small proporfavour for this arrange- tion are Protestants. A. is the centre of numerous ment (see BASILICA). The thriving manufactories, especially for spinning and word is often incorrectly weaving woollen fabrics, and for needle and pinapplied to the open making. There are also immense manufactures of space in the nave of machinery, bells, glass-buttons, chemicals, cigars, &c. churches between the seats of the congregation. As a principal station on the Belgian-Rhenish railAISNE, a tributary of the Oise, in France, rises in the department of Meuse, and flows north-west through the departments of Marne and Ardennes, and then west through that of Aisne and part of Oise, where it falls into the river Oise, above Compiègne. Its course extends to 150 miles, of which 70 are navigable. Aisle (Melrose Abbey). AISNE, a department in the north of France, formed of a part of ancient Picardy and the Isle of France. It belongs to the basin of the Seine, and is intersected by the river A., and by other navigable streams and canals. The soil is fertile; the chief culture is wheat, and other grain. Its rich meadows supply Paris with hay. The area is 2830 square miles, with a population of (1872) 552,439. It is the seat of considerable cotton and other manufactures, the centre of which is St Quentin (q. v.), and at St Gobin is the famous manufactory of mirrors. The department is divided into 5 arrondissements and 37 cantons. The chief town is Laon (q. v.). AIX, a town in France, formerly the capital of Provence, now the chief town of an arrondissement in the department of the Bouches-duRhone. It is believed to have been built by the Roman consul, C. Sextius (120 B. C.), on account of the mineral springs in the neighbourhood, and thence called Aqua Sextiæ. A. is the seat of a court of appeal; and possesses an academy for theology and law, and a public library which ways, A. is an important staple place of Prussian trade. The city is rich in historical associations. It emerges from historical obscurity about the time of Pepin, and Charlemagne founded its world-wide celebrity. Whether it was the birthplace of Charlemagne, is doubtful, but it became his grave 814 A.D. In 796 A. D., Charlemagne caused the already existing palace, called the Imperial Palace, to be entirely rebuilt, as well as the chapel, in which Pepin had celebrated Christmas in 765 A.D. The two buildings were connected by a colonnade, which fell into ruins a short time before the emperor's death, probably from the effects of an earthquake. The present town-house has been built on the ruins of the palace; the chapel, after being destroyed by the Normans, was rebuilt on the ancient plan by Otho III., in 983, and forms the nucleus of the present cathedral. This ancient cathedral is in the form of an octagon, which, with various additions round it, forms, on the outside, a sixteen-sided figure. In the middle of the octagon, a stone, with the inscription 'CAROLO MAGNO,' marks the grave of Charlemagne. Otto III. opened the vault in the year 997 A.D. The body of the emperor was found in a wonderful state of preservation, seated upon a marble chair, dressed in his robes, his sceptre in his hand, the Gospel on his knee, a piece of the holy cross on his head, and a pilgrim's scrip attached to his girdle. Otto caused the tomb to be built up again, after repairing the injuries of the arch. In AIX-LA-CHAPELLE. 1165 A. D., when the emperor Frederick I. caused the vault to be re-opened, the bones of the great emperor were enshrined in a casket of gold and silver, and a large and beautifully wrought chandelier was hung up over the tomb as a memorial. In 1215 A. D., Frederick II. caused the remains of the emperor to be enclosed in a costly chest, in which they are yet kept in the sacristy. The marble chair was, in later times, overlaid with gold plates, and used till 1558 A.D. at the imperial coronations, as a throne for the newly crowned emperor. The imperial insignia were removed to Vienna in 1795.--In the 14th c., a choir in the Gothic style was added to the east side of the octagon, which had been built in the Byzantine style; while on the west side, a square belfry was joined to it, as well as two small round towers, with winding stairs leading to the treasury. Here are kept the so-called great relics,' which, once in seven years, are still shewn to the people, in the month of July, from the gallery of the tower. This spectacle attracts many thousands of strangers to A. Much has of late years been done to restore this venerable pile. The columns brought by Charlemagne from the palace of the Exarch at Ravenna, to decorate the interior of the octagon, had been carried off by the French; and although part of them had been restored at the peace of Paris, they were not replaced in the building till recently. to Ferdinand I. (813-1531 A.D.). 17 imperial diets and 11 provincial councils were held within its walls. The removal of the coronations to Frankfort, the religious contests of the 16th and 17th centuries, a great fire which in 1656 A.D. consumed about 4000 houses in the city, combined with other causes to bring into decay this once flourishing community. In January 1793, and again in 1794, A. was occupied by the French. By the treaties concluded at Campo Formio and Lunéville, it was formally ceded to France, and became the capital of the department of Roer; at length, in 1815, the city fell to Prussia. See Quix, Geschichte der Stadt A. (History of A.), 2 vols., A., 1841. The MINERAL SPRINGS of A., of which six are hot, and two cold, were known in the time of Charlemagne, and were much frequented as early as 1170. The hot springs are strongly sulphurous, and contain also hydrochlorates. The temperature varies from 111°136° F. They chiefly act on the liver, and on the mucous surfaces and skin, and are therefore efficacious in cases of gout, rheumatism, cutaneous diseases, &c. The most remarkable is the 'Emperor's Spring,' which rises in the middle of the Hotel Kaiserbad. The baths themselves are from 4 to 5 feet deep, and are built quite in the old Roman style. The cold springs are chalybeate, and not so copious. The new Eisenquelle' (iron spring), first discovered in 1829, is provided with an elegant bath-house. The well-proved medicinal virtues of the mineral springs of A. bring yearly to the city many thousands of strangers. TREATIES OF PEACE, and CONGRESS OF A.-The first Peace of A. ended the war carried on between France and Spain for the possession of the Spanish Netherlands. On the death of Philip IV., Louis XIV. laid claim to a large portion of those territories in the name of his wife, Maria Theresa, the daughter of Philip, urging the law of succession prevailing in Brabant and Namur respecting private property. The victorious progress of Louis was checked by the triple alliance between England, Holland, and Sweden; and a treaty of peace was concluded at A. in 1668, by which France retained possession of the fortresses of Charleroi, Lille, &c., which she had already taken. The town-house-which encloses the remains of the Imperial Palace-adorns the market-place, having the Bell or Market Tower on the left, and on the right the Granus Tower, a memorial of old Roman times. The coronation-hall, 162 feet long, by 60 feet wide, in the interior of the town-house, was, in the last century, divided in the middle by a wooden partition. This noble hall, in which thirty-seven German emperors and eleven empresses have been crowned, has been restored to its original form, and the walls are in process of being decorated with large fresco-paintings of scenes from the life of Charlemagne, by Rethel. Before the town-house stands a beautiful fountain, with a bronze statue of Charlemagne. In the church of the Franciscans, are to be seen a fine picture of the Taking Down of Christ from the Cross, by Vandyck, and two other pictures representing the Crucifixion, by A. Diepenbeeck. At a short distance from A., and surrounded The second Peace of A. concluded the war respectby the river, stands Frankenburg, once the favourite ing the succession of Maria Theresa to the empire. abode of Charlemagne and of Fastrada, and still See SUCCESSION, WARS OF. After the war had been rich in legends. It has been rebuilt from its romantic carried on with various success for eight years, ruins. As a town, A. has recently been much im- peace was concluded in 1748. In general, the proved. It now possesses many fine buildings, possessions of the several states remained as among which are several large and splendid hotels. before the war. Austria ceded Parma and Placentia From being a quiet old city of historical interest, to the Spanish infanta, Philip; and the possesit has become a busy centre of manufacturing sion of Silesia was guaranteed to Prussia. industry. In 1870, a new Polytechnic School was privilege of the Assiento Treaty (q. v.) was anew erected. A. was formerly noted for its gambling- confirmed to England for four years, and the pretables; but these are now disallowed. tender was expelled from France. Owing chiefly to the exertions of her minister, Kaunitz, Austria came off with but small sacrifice, while England, notwithstanding her splendid victories, derived little solid advantage, and was left with a debt raised to 80 millions. The name of Aix or Aachen is evidently derived from the springs, for which the place has been always famous. (See AA.) The name Aquis Granum, which it received about the 3d c., may possibly be derived from Granus, one of the names of Apollo, who was worshipped by the Romans near springs. The French name, A., refers to the Chapel of the Palace. Charlemagne granted extraordinary privileges to this city. The citizens were exempted, in all parts of the empire, from personal and military service, from imprisonment, and from all taxes. The city also possessed the right of sanctuary: 'the air of A. made all free, even outlaws.' In the middle ages, this free imperial city (then included in the circle of Westphalia) contained more than 100,000 inhabitants; and held an important place among the confederated cities of the Rhine. The emperors were crowned in A. from Louis the Pious The The Congress of A. was held in 1818, for regulating the affairs of Europe after the war. It began on the 30th September, and ended on the 21st November. Its principal object was the withdrawal from France of the army of occupation, 150,000 strong, as well as the receiving of France again into the alliance of the great powers. The emperors of Russia and Austria, and the king of Prussia, were personally present. The plenipotentiaries were-Metternich, Castlereagh, and Wellington, Hardenberg and Bernstorff, Nesselrode and Capo d'Istrias, with Richelieu on the part of France. France having engaged to complete the payment of the stipulated sums of |