with Richelieu, increased the displeasure of his brother by | Gaston had no male issue; but he was the father, by his first marriage, with the heiress of Montpensier, of the princess who inherited that title, and who figured so conspicuously in those strange political scenes of her times, of which she has left her own memoirs. Louise de Montpensier, known among her contemporaries as La Grande Mademoiselle,' merited that designation as much by her aspiring character as her illustrious birth. She shone conspicuously in that galaxy of high-born French women who, more distinguished for their masculine spirit and wit than for the becoming virtues of their sex, ruled the ascendant throughout the political storms of the Fronde. While heroes and statesmen bartered their honour and policy for the smiles of beauty, while fortresses were surrendered to fair ladies' eyes, and treaties were made and broken with lovers' vows, these female warriors and politicians openly appeared in the camp and the council. Gaston of Orleans, in a style as much serious as burlesque, addressed a letter to 'Mesdames the countesses, maréchales-de-camp in the army of my daughter against Mazarin.' With more boldness than her father, the Grande Mademoiselle showed her prowess by turning the guns of the Bastile against the royal troops to cover the retreat of the forces of Condé. That discharge has killed her husband,' said Mazarin, in allusion to her wellknown anxiety to espouse her cousin, the young king Louis XIV., whose regard was for ever alienated from her by this outrage. After having aspired to be queen of France, and having refused the hand of several other sovereigns, Made moiselle de Montpensier finished, at the mature age of forty four years, by desiring to raise a private nobleman, the Count de Lauzun, to the rank of her husband and the title of duke of Montpensier. Louis XIV. first granted and then unkindly retracted his consent to the union; notwithstanding which it was privately concluded in 1670, an offence for which Lauzun suffered a ten years' imprisonment. After she had obtained his release, by the sacrifice of her finest domains to a natural son of the king, the princess found her marriage neither recognised at court nor happy in itself; and she closed, in 1693, a life of strong passions, embittered by the disappointment both of political ambition and personal affection. III. The progenitor of the third and existing House of Orleans was Philip, second son of Louis XIII. and Anne of Austria, who was born in 1640; received the title of duke of Orleans, on the death of his uncle Gaston, in 1660; and succeeded to the duchy of Montpensier, by the bequest of La Grande Mademoiselle, in 1693. His career was by no means distinguished: but he is said to have had some taste for letters; and he served with honour in several of the most glorious campaigns of the reign of Louis XIV. He was twice married; first, to his cousin Henrietta of England, daughter of Charles I., and, like himself, a grandchild of Henry IV.; and secondly, to Elizabeth of Bavaria, daughter of the Elector Palatine. The circumstances which attended the sudden death of his first wife, a princess celebrated for personal graces, in the flower of her age, cast upon him the horrid suspicion of having poisoned her: a charge however apparently as unfounded in itself, as the imputed crime was at variance with the whole tenor of his character, which, though he was too much addicted to the pleasures of sense, was mild and good natured. By the Princess Henrietta, Philip had two daughters, one of whom became the queen of Charles II. of Spain, and the other, through her marriage with Victor Amadeus II. of Savoy, transmitted to the House of Sardinia, after the extinction of the male line of Stuart, as much vain pretension to the inheritance of their crown as could be conveyed by mere descent in opposition to constitutional law. By his second marriage Philip had, besides a prince who died young, and a daughter, the son, of his own name, who, on his death in 1701, succeeded him in his titles. This was the celebrated Regent Orleans, of whom Voltaire has declared, that' famed for his courage, his wit, and his pleasures, he was born for society even more than for public affairs, and was one of the most amiable men that ever existed.' The severer judgment of history has branded the memory of Philip II., duke of Orleans, with the reproach of unbounded personal and political profligacy; and the fatal example both of his private life and public administration encouraged that corruption of morals in France, which, becoming aggravated throughout the licentious reign of Louis XV., unquestionably produced the worst excesses of the Revolution. Nature had endowed Philip II. of Orleans with great abilities; but his mind was early tainted by the lessons of his tutor, the able and infamous Dubois, who was afterwards, under his regency, a cardinal, his favourite, and prime-minister. Philip was a proficient in many sciences and accomplishments; in the mathematics, in poetry, music, sculpture, and painting. He had likewise in his youth displayed considerable talents for war, and some ambition to attain equal distinction in arts and arms. He was wounded on several occasions, signalised himself at the battles of Steinkerque and Neerwinden, commanded the French armies with courage and activity in Italy and Spain during the Succession War, and in the latter country established so much reputation and influence, that Louis XIV. is said to have suspected him of a design to supplant Philip V. on the throne of that kingdom. This and other causes of jealousy led Louis XIV., in anticipation of his great-grandson's minority, to meditate the exclusion of Philip of Orleans from the regency. But the death of the aged monarch prevented the completion of this plan: the duke quietly possessed himself of the government, and grievous as were the vices of his administration, he was guilty of no ambitious attempt to abuse the rights of the young king. His frame was worn out by debauchery before he had quite completed his fiftieth year; and a sudden death terminated his career in 1723. He had been married during the life of Louis XIV. to Françoise Marie de Bourbon, styled Mademoiselle de Blois, natural daughter of that monarch and Madame de Montespan by whom he had one son, born in 1703, and several daughters. Louis duke of Orleans seemed at first disposed to emulate the vices of his father, whose better tastes for letters and science he also inherited. But his marriage with a princess of Baden, to whom he became tenderly attached, weaned him from early habits of dissipation; and her premature death, in 1726, affected his mind so deeply, that he withdrew from the world to a monastery. In this retreat he divided the remainder of his life between works of charity, religious exercises, and literary studies; and here, in 1742, he closed an existence dignified with every virtue that could adorn a | recluse. Louis left a son and daughter, of whom the former, Louis Philippe, born in 1725, was his successor in the family honours. His life was remarkable only for his military service, in the early part of which he fought with gallantry at the battles of Dettingen and Fontenoy, and subsequently in some of the affairs of the Seven Years' War. He married a princess of the House of Conti, by whom he had a son and a daughter, and died in 1785. was administered under various titles by several of his descendants. · The distinguished individual however of the race was JAMES BUTLER, DUKE OF ORMOND, justly described by his biographer as one of the ablest statesmen, most accomplished courtiers, and worthiest persons of the age in which he flourished.' He was born in London in 1610; and, notwithstanding the splendour of family dignities which he was destined to augment, his youth was passed under circumstances sufficiently adverse to have obscured the career of a less energetic spirit. His grandfather, Walter, earl of Ormond, who had succeeded to the title only collaterally, was exposed to the tyranny of James I., and imprisoned for several years, because he refused to submit to an unjust award of that monarch in behalf of one of his Scottish favourites, Sir John Preston, created lord Dingwall, to whom the king had compelled the late earl to marry his daughter, and was now resolved to convey the family estates. The eldest son of Earl Walter married, against his consent, a daughter of Sir John Poyntz; and being drowned in crossing the Irish Channel, during his father's life, left without provision a large family, of which James Butler, the future duke, was the eldest son. When Earl Walter was thrown into prison, his grandson and heir, young James, now styled viscount Thurles, was arbitrarily seized in wardship by the crown, but, with some care for his instruction, committed to the tutelage of archbishop Abbot; the only benefit by which the king may have designed to mitigate his cruel oppression of the family. The archbishop is said to have neglected the general education of his charge; but he caused him to be well instructed in the Protestant faith, to which we have the testimony of Burnet, in other respects not his panegyrist, that he staunchly adhered throughout his life. Louis Philippe Joseph, the only son of the last duke, who was born in 1747, and known during his father's life as Duke de Chartres, became afterwards more unhappily distinguished as the Duke of Orleans of the National Assembly, the Louis Egalité of the Convention, the instrument and the victim of the French Revolution. Naturally gifted with a handsome person and superior talents, he had disfigured both mind and body by a youth of debauchery; and in maturer years his infamous reputation exposed him at the court of Louis XVI. to a contempt which he but too well repaid with deadly hatred to the person and family of that monarch. In the year 1778 he was present in the naval action between the squadron of Admiral Keppel and Count d'Orvilliers off Cape Ushant; and he was accused of having behaved in that engagement with such shameful On the death of James I., Earl Walter having recovered cowardice, that, instead of receiving the advancement to his own liberty and the guardianship of his heir, then in his which he aspired in the sea service, he was appointed sixteenth year, the young Lord Thurles began soon after to colonel-general of hussars, a post created for him by the figure at court, where he paid his addresses to his kinscourt with the intention, as it was said, of covering him woman, Lady Elizabeth Preston, and having engaged her with ridicule. Having, in 1785, succeeded to his father's affections, succeeded, not without many difficulties, in obtitle, he eagerly entered upon a political career, of which it taining the royal assent to their union. This marriage, seems to have been the object, by acquiring popularity, to which took place in 1629, and seems to have been produced revenge his injuries upon the court and to raise himself as much by mutual attachment as policy, was however not into power. He proved himself however utterly destitute of the less fortunate in reconciling differences which had been the qualities of a revolutionary leader, and was soon over-fatal to both their families; and, in 1632, Lord Thurles whelmed in the political tempest which he endeavoured to succeeded, on his grandfather's death, to the earldom of direct. At the commencement of the Revolution he Ormond. arrayed himself on every occasion against the royal authority: during the progress of events which raised the Jacobin party into power, he became their associate and dupe; to render homage to their opinions as a member of the National Convention, he solicited and obtained permission to renounce the name of his family and assume that of Egalité; and finally, after having voted for the death of Louis XVI., he was himself dragged to the scaffold towards the close of the year 1793. He was married to Louise Marie de Bourbon-Penthievre, daughter of the duke de Penthièvre, grand-admiral of France, by whom he left one son, the present King of the French, and a daughter, styled Mademoiselle d'Orleans. (L'Art de vérifier les Dates; Sismondi, Histoire des Français; Mémoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier; Voltaire, Siècles de Louis XIV. et XV.; Thiers, Histoire de la Revolution Française, &c.) ORLOFF, G. [PETER III. OF Russia.] ORMOND, the name of a large territory in the Irish county of Tipperary; and from thence the title of a noble house, so antient and illustrious, that its origin has been, perhaps fancifully, ascribed to the ducal blood of Normandy, before the conquest of England. But it is certain that this family, having become established in Ireland, and distinguished by many services to the crown, as well as by several noble intermarriages, was recognised in that country, from the very beginning of the thirteenth century, as holding the hereditary office of royal cup-bearer or butler: from which, whether then or at an earlier period, their sirname appears to have been derived. Edmund le Botiller was raised by Edward II. to the earldom of Carrick; his son James, who espoused Eleanor Bohun, granddaughter of Edward I., was created by Edward III. earl of Ormond; and the issue of that marriage, a second James, called, from his royal descent, the noble earl,' filled the dignity of Lord Justice of Ireland. the government of which kingdom It was at this time that Lord Wentworth, more unhappily distinguished under his later title of Strafford, entered on the government of Ireland; and the spirited and honourable deportment of the young earl of Ormond soon attracted so much of his notice as to lead him to prophesy, with characteristic penetration, that that young nobleman would make the greatest man of his family.' In subsequent years, the upright and generous devotion of Ormond to the service of the crown and country won the respect even of the overbearing Strafford; and after his own ruin, one of his last requests to his royal master was, that his blue ribbon of the Garter might be bestowed upon his friend Lord Ormond. On the breaking out of the Irish Rebellion of 1640, Ormond was appointed by the lords-justices to the command of the royal troops; and throughout the disastrous period which followed, he continued, amidst the fury and jealousy of factions, embittered both by political and religious hatred, to pursue with unshaken integrity and moderation a course of true patriotism and fidelity to his duty. With very inadequate forces, he repeatedly defeated the rebels, near Dublin, at Drogheda, at Kilrush, and at Ross; but notwithstanding these services, in the course of which he was thanked by the Long Parliament, and raised to the dignity of marquis by the king, he was so ill supported on all sides, that he was unable longer to sustain the unequal conflict in which he had engaged. There were now no fewer than five parties in Ireland: the Protestants and Roman Catholics well affected to the king, but opposed to each other; the Protestants favourable to the parliamentary cause; the Papists under their priests wholly devoted to the court of Rome; and the Scotch Presbyterians of the north, who had their separate interests and feelings. The exertions of Ormond being paralysed by the dissensions which prevented the majority of these factions from uniting against the common enemy, he was compelled, in 1643, to conclude a treaty for a cessation of arms, which, on account of the previous barbarities committed by the Irish rebels, excited great dissatisfaction in England. Throughout the next four years, during which the civil war was raging in England, Ormond, who had been invested by Charles I. with the nominal dignity of lord-lieutenant of Ireland, contrived in some measure to hold that kingdom for his master, and even to detach forces to his aid. But when Charles had fallen into the hands of his enemies, the position of the lord-lieutenant in Ireland against the Roman Catholics having become completely untenable, he resigned his authority by treaty into the hands of parliamentary commissioners, and proceeded to render a satisfactory account of his conduct to the king, then a prisoner at Hampton Court. From thence he retired to France; but still directing his attention to Ireland, and receiving encouragement from the portion of the Roman Catholics best affected to the crown, he again landed in that kingdom, and endeavoured to restore the royal authority. Notwithstanding every gallant effort however, he was defeated in an attempt to besiege the parliamentary forces under Colonel Jones in Dublin; and Cromwell himself soon after landing in Ireland with an overwhelming force, Ormond was finally obliged, at the end of the year 1650, to evacuate the island and withdraw to France. From this time until the death of Cromwell, during which interval he was frequently reduced to great straits for the common necessaries of life, Ormond was actively and variously employed in many important and dangerous missions for his exiled king, Charles II.; and, on the Restoration, he accompanied Charles to England, and was rewarded for his sufferings and services by his elevation to the ducal title and other honours. The remainder of the life of the duke of Ormond was passed, though not without some troubles and reverses, in the dignified enjoyment of a high rank and spotless reputation. These could not always protect him from the royal caprice and the base machinations of court intriguers; and during the reigns of Charles II. and James II., he was twice again possessed and deprived of the government of Ireland, which he administered for many years with admirable activity, wisdom, and justice. It was in the interval of his long tenure of this high office, that, in 1670, a singular and atrocious outrage was committed upon his person in the streets of London by that notorious ruffian Colonel Blood, who, with five accomplices, waylaid him as he was returning from a state dinner in the city, and dragged him from his coach, with the intention, as it was believed, if he had not been rescued, of hanging him at Tyburn. Blood, who had been engaged in a plot to seize the castle of Dublin during Ormond's government of Ireland, pretended that he was resolved to retaliate upon the duke's person for the execution of some of his associates on that occasion: but it was strongly suspected that the villain had been instigated to his audacious attempt by the profligate duke of Buckingham, the bitter enemy of Ormond; and so convinced was his gallant son, the earl of Ossory, of the guilt of Buckingham, that, soon after, at court, seeing that nobleman standing by the king, he said to him, 'My lord of Buckingham, I know well that you are at the bottom of this iate attempt of Blood's upon my father; and therefore I give you fair warning, that if my father comes to a violent end by sword or pistol, if he dies by the hand of a ruffian, or by the more secret way of poison, I shall not be at a loss to know the first author of it. I shall consider you as the assassin; I shall treat you as such; and wherever I meet you, I shall pistol you, though you should stand behind the king's chair. And I tell it you now in his Majesty's presence, that you may be sure I shall keep my word.' Ormond himself was remarkable for some pithy sayings. When he was ungratefully abandoned to the malice of his enen ies by Charles II. in his first government of Ireland after the Restoration, he contented himself with saying to the king, that though it would never trouble him to be un lone for his Majesty, yet it would be an insupportable affliction to be undone by him.' And when Blood had been made prisoner in his attempt to seize the regalia, and Charles, strangely infatuated, if not disgracefully intimidated, by the language of the ruffian, whom curiosity led him to visit in the Tower, sent to Ormond to desire that he would forgive Blood, for reasons which Lord Arlington should tell him, the duke drily replied to that nobleman, 'that if the king could forgive the offender for stealing the crown, he might easily forgive the attempt upon his life; P. C., No. 1042 and that if such was his Majesty's pleasure, that was for him a sufficient reason, and his lordship might spare the rest. Ormond lived unmolested for many years after this flagitious attempt, though he had the misfortune to survive the nobleminded Ossory; and he himself died, full of years and honour, in the year 1688. Of his numerous children, the eldest who grew to manhood was Thomas, earl of Ossory, the worthy son of such a father, and eulogised by Burnet as 'a man of great honour, generosity, and courage. He was also gifted with many intellectual accomplishments; was equally distinguished throughout the reign of Charles II. for his military services by sea and land; and would probably, if his life had been spared, have proved himself even a more perfect character than his parent: but he died of a violent fever in 1680, at the premature age of forty-six years. He was the father of James, second duke of Ormond, who inherited several of the generous and chivalric qualities of his house, and took a conspicuous share both in the military achievements and civil dissensions of the reigns of William III. and Queen Anne. But when driven from England, on the accession of George I., by the persecution of his political antagonists, he embraced the cause of the Pretender; and being consequently attainted, he sullied his fame by engaging in the service of the national enemies of his country, and accepting from the king of Spain the command of an abortive expedition for the invasion of Great Britain. (Carte's Life of the Duke of Ormond; Burnet's History of his own Time; Biographia Britannica, art. Butler.') ORMSKIRK. [LANCASHIRE.] ORMUS, or more properly HORMUZ, is an island at the entrance of the Persian Gulf, near 27° N. lat. and 56° 30′ E. long. It is about ten miles from the Persian coast, and about twelve miles in circumference. Its form is nearly circular, and its appearance from the sea is broken and rugged. It is a mere barren rock, without vegetation. The surface, which is entirely without soil, exhibits the singular stratification of the island; the conical shape and isolated position of the numerous small hills of which the island consists, lead the spectator to attribute its origin to volcanic agency. The rugged hills which line the eastern shores of the island are covered for a considerable distance from their base with an incrustation of salt, which in some places is as transparent as ice. In other places the surface is covered with a thin layer of dusky red-coloured earth, which owes its colour to the oxide of iron, with which the whole surface of the island is impregnated. Even the sand on the seashore is composed of the finest particles of iron, pulverised by the waves. As the island contains no fresh-water springs, the inhabitants use the rain-water collected in several tanks, which were constructed perhaps some 300 years ago. There is excellent anchorage on the north-eastern shore, opposite the town, where a vessel may be sheltered from all winds within half a mile of the shore. The fortress is situated about 300 yards from the shore, on a projecting point of land, which is separated from the island by a moat. On the plain which stretches from it to the hills, and is about two miles wide, are the ruins of the once famous town of Hormuz. The Imam of Muskat has now possession of the island; he farms it from the king of Persia, and has a garrison of 100 men in the fortress. He derives a revenue from the salt, which is exported in large quantities. In 1827, the number of inhabitants was estimated at 300, all of whom were employed in collecting salt or in fishing. The name of Harmozia occurs in Arrian's 'Indica, where however it does not denote the island, but a town situated opposite to it on the continent of Persia, on the river Anamis, now called Minaw. The name was afterwards transferred to the island, which, according to Ouseley, was previously called Jerún. In antient times it seems only to have served as a place of retreat to the inhabitants of the adjacent shores in times of invasion or civil commotion. Albuquerque took possession of the island in 1507, and of the town, which was then on it, with the view of preventing the Arabs who inhabited the shores of the Gulf from sending aid to the petty sovereigns on the coast of Malabar, with whom they carried on a lucrative commerce. The consequences of this event were much more favourable to the Portuguese than Albuquerque had imagined. The inhabitants of the shores of the Persian Gulf finding that their commerce with Hindustan was entirely cut off, the Portuguese made Ormuz the deposit of all kinds of Indian goods, and managed their affairs so well, that in a short VOL. XVII.-E time Ormuz became a populous and rich commercial town. The buildings covered a space three miles in length along the sea-shore, and two miles in width. The town contained 4000 houses and 40,000 inhabitants, and its commercial relations extended over all Persia and Mesopotamia to Bokhara and Samarkand in Turkistan. The loss of Ormuz was one of the first signs of the decline of the Portuguese power in India. In 1622, Shah Abbás the Great took it from them, in which enterprise he was assisted by the English with a squadron of nine sail of the line. He expelled the Portuguese, demolished the town, and transferred its commerce to Gombroon, or Bunder Abbas, on the mainland of Persia, nearly opposite to Ormus. Gombroon continued to be the principal commercial town on the Gulf of Persia until the middle of the last century, when Aboushehr took its place. (Ouseley's Travels in various Countries in the East, &c.; Kinneir's Geographical Memoir; Kempthorne On the Eastern Shores of the Persian Gulf,' in London Geographical Journal, vol. v.; and Whitelock On the Islands and Coast at the Entrance of the Gulf of Persia,' in London Geographical Journal, vol. viii.) ORNE, a department in the northern part of France, bounded on the north by the department of Calvados, on the north-east by that of Eure, on the east and south-east by that of Eure et Loir, on the south by those of Sarthe and Mayenne, and on the west by that of Manche. The department has an irregular oblong figure; the greatest dimension is from east to west, from the neighbourhood of Longny to that of Passais near Domfront, 84 miles; the greatest breadth from north to south is from near La Ferté Frenel to the contact of the three departments of Orne, Sarthe, and Eure et Loir, 50 miles. It is comprehended between 48° 10′ and 48° 57' N. lat., and 0° 59′ E. and 0° 52′ W. long. The area of the department is estimated at 2364 square miles, being very little less than the average area of the French departments, and rather exceeding the conjoint areas of the lish counties of Kent and Surrey. The population, in 1831, was 441,881; in 1836 it was 443,688, howing an increase in five years of 1807, or less than half per cent., and giving 183 or 184 inhabitants to a square mile. In amount of population it is inferior to either of the above-mentioned English counties, and in density of population very far below them. Alençon, the capital, is 105 miles in a direct line west-south-west of Paris, or 115 miles by the road through Versailles, Dreux, and Mortagne. The department is traversed in the direction of its length by the mountains which form the prolongation of the Armorican chain, and which separate the basin of the Loire from the basins of the Seine and the various small rivers that flow into the English Channel. The western side of the department is occupied by the primitive and other rocks which underlie the coal-measures. Coal is not found, at least not worked. The valleys of the Sarthe and Orne are chiefly occupied by the formations which intervene between the chalk and the new red-sandstone; and the eastern side of the department is overspread by the chalk which encircles the Paris basin. Mines of iron and manganese are worked in several places: gold was once found, but the working of the mine has been long given up. Granite of a fine grain, limestone, freestone, white and grey marl, kaolin for porcelain and clay for earthenware, sand of various kinds suited for glass-works, and the crystals of quartz known as the Alençon diamonds, are dug. There are several medicinal springs, the most important of which are those of Bagnoles near Juvigny, in the arrondissement of Domfront. There are twelve iron-works in the department, in which are ten furnaces for smelting pig-iron, and thirty forges for producing wrought-iron. Charcoal is almost exclusively employed as fuel in these works. There are no navigable rivers in the department. The Mavenne has its source and some part of its course just within the southern border; and the Vée, the Varenne (with its feeder the Egrame), and the Sarthe, tributaries of the Mayenne, also rise in the department, in or upon the border of which the Sarthe has the first 35 miles of its course. The Huine, a tributary of the Sarthe, and the Commeauche and the Meme, feeders of the Huine, rise in this department, and water its eastern part. The Mayenne and its tributaries belong to the system of the Loire. The Eure, the Iton, the Rille, the Charentonne, and the Gruil, all which belong to the system of the Seine, rise on the eastern side of the department. The Orne rises near Séez. and flows nearly 40 miles before it quits the department: its tributaries, the Thouane, the Ure, the Cance, the Udon, the Rouvre, and the Noireau, and the Vere, a feeder of the Noireau, belong to this department. The Dives and the Toucques, with its feeder the Vie, rise in the department. The Orne, the Dives, and the Toucques flow into the English Channel. There are no navigable canals, and the dopartment is entirely destitute of internal navigation. There are eight Routes Royales, or government roads, having an aggregate length of 204 miles, viz. 85 in good repair, 113 out of repair, and 6 unfinished. The principal road is that from Paris to Rennes and Brest, which enters the department on the east side, and passes through Tourouvre, Mortagne, Le Mêle, and Alençon, about 12 miles beyond which it quits the department. Roads lead from Alençon in one direction to Le Mans, in the department of Sarthe; in another, by Séez and Gacé to Rouen, in the department of Seine Inférieure, with a branch from it at Séez by Argentan to Falaise and Caen, in the department of Calvados. A road from Caen to Mayenne and Laval (Mayenne) passes through Fiers and Domfront, in the western side of the department; and a road from Paris to Alençon by Chartres and Nogent-le-Rotrou (Eure et Loir) passes through Bellême in the south-eastern corner. The Routes Départementales, or departmental roads, have an aggregate length of 294 miles, viz. 183 in repair, 6 out of repair, and 105 unfinished. The bye-roads and paths have an aggregate length of above 4500 miles. The climate is temperate: westerly winds are predominant, and bring with them mists and rain. Agriculture is in a backward condition, the cultivators clinging to old usages with considerable tenacity. The whole surface of the department is estimated at more than 1,500,000 acres, of which about 800,000 acres, or above half, are under the plough. The principal grain cultivated is oats, the produce of which exceeds the average produce of France in the proportion of 4 to 1. In wheat and barley the produce is below the average of France, in rye and maslin, or mixed corn, considerably below, and in potatoes stil! more so; but in buckwheat the preponderance is proportionately almost as great as in oats. About 25,000 acres are occupied as orchards and gardens: the growth of apples for cider is very great, though perhaps not equal to what it was before the Revolution. As no wine is grown, cider is the common drink, and in abundant years a portion of it is distilled into brandy. Pulse, hemp, and flax are raised; plums are grown in considerable quantity; and some beet-root for the manufacture of sugar. There are about 300,000 acres of meadow land, and heaths and open pasture-grounds to the extent of 45,000 acres. The meadows, especially in the valleys of the Toucques and the Vie, produce abundance of grass, and furnish food for the horses and horned cattle, in the number of which this department is pre-eminent. The horses are of the best Norman breed, and the horned cattle are generally of good breed. The butter and cheese, except the cheese of Vimoutiers, which is in good repute, are of inferior quality. The oxen for fattening are brought from the departments of La Vendée, Deux Sèvres, and Mayenne: the finest beasts are sent to Poissy (Seine et Oise) for the supply of Paris. The number of sheep rather exceeds the average of France, but the breed and management have been very much neglected: folding them is little practised. The introduction of the Merinos and the crossing of the breed with them have led to some improvements. Swine are numerous, and are almost entirely destined for the supply of Paris. In the arrondissement of Argentan, poultry, especially geese, are much attended to, and their flesh and their quills and feathers form important articles of produce. Bees are kept. There are about 180,000 acres of woodland. Small game are tolerably abundant; the partridges of Domfront are in high repute. The rivers abound with fish. The department is divided into four arrondissements as follows: There are thirty-six cantons or districts, each under a justice of the peace. The arrondissement of Alençon contains the towns of Alençon (population, in 1831, 13,448 for the town itself, or 14,019 for the whole commune; in 1836, 13,934 for the commune (ALENÇON] and Le Mêle, on the Sarthe; Séez (population 3675 for the town, 5049 for the whole commune), on the Orne; Carrouges, on the Udon, a feeder of the Orne; and Essey, between Le Mêle and Séez. Séez, probably the capital of the Saii, an antient Celtic people, was of more importance in the ninth century (when it was destroyed by the Normans) than it is at present. In the subsequent centuries it suffered severely in the wars of France with the dukes of Normandie and the English. Its principal edifice is the cathedral, a Gothic building of the twelfth century, adorned with sculptures and paintings. The townsmen are engaged in the manufacture of embroidered muslin and other cotton goods. There are a college and an agricultural society. Charlotte Corday was born at Séez. Le Mêle is a tolerably handsome town of one street along the road from Paris to Alençon and Rennes. The inhabitants amount to about 1500. At Carrouges the manufacture of an embroidered muslin is carried on. In the arrondissement of Argentan are-Argentan (population, in 1831, 562 for the town, or 6147 for the whole commune; in 1836, 5772 for the commune) [ARGENTAN] and Ecouche, on the Orne; Grand Mortrée, on the Thouane, a feeder of the Orne; Briouze, near the Rouvre, another feeder of the Orne; Ranes, between the Thouane and the Rouvre; Exmes, Chambois, and Trun, on the Dives; Vimoutiers, on the Vie; Merlerault, Gacé, and Le Sap, on or near the Toucques; and Echauffou, St. Evroult, and La Ferté Frenel, on or near the Charentonne. Vimoutiers is the centre of a district in which 20,000 persons are engaged in the manufacture of stout bleached linens. There are several tanyards in the town, which has a population of about 3700. The village of Sainte Honorine de Guillaume, west of Argentan, has a population of 2000, who are engaged in quarrying and working granite; and at Le Pin, near Argentan, is an extensive establishment for improving the breed of horses. Before the Revolution, this establishment was maintained in great extent and completeness, and persons resorted to it from all parts of France, and from England, Spain, Germany, and Italy, to purchase saddle-horses or hunters. It was suppressed in the early period of the Revolution, but its suppression led to a great degeneracy in the horses of Normandie, and it was re-established during the consular government. In the arrondissement of Domfront are-Domfront (population, in 1831, 1511 for the town, or 1873 for the whole commune; in 1836, 2417 for the commune) and St. Gervais, on the Varenne; Zonlay, on the Egrame; Flers (population 1646 town, 4368 whole commune), on a branch of the Vere; Tinchebray (population 3264 town, 3413 whole commune), on the Noireau; La Corneille, near the Rouvre; Courtene and Juvigny-sous-Andaine, on or near the Mayenne, and La Ferte Mace (population 2122 town, 4613 whole commune), on a branch of the same river. Domfront is situated on the summit of a steep rock, through a cleft in which, 200 feet deep, the river Varenne flows. The townsmen manufacture coarse linens and other woven fabrics. At Flers and La Ferté Macé cotton goods are woven, and at the latter box-wood snuff-boxes are made. There are iron-works and paper-mills at Tinchebray, which has some historical interest as the scene of the battle which transferred the duchy of Normandie from Robert, eldest son of William the Conqueror, to his younger brother and competitor Henry I. of England. In the arrondissement of Mortagne are-Mortagne (population, in 1831, 4748 town, 5158 whole commune; in 1836, 5692 commune), near the head of the Commeauche; Tourouvre, near the bank of the same river, and Longny on one of its feeders; Mauves and Rémalard or Regmalard, on the Huine; Bellême (population 3264 town, 3413 whole commune), on the Même, a feeder of the Huine; Moulinsla-Marche, near the head of the Sarthe; and L'Aigle (population 4712 town, 5412 whole commune), on the Rille. Mortagne is on the summit and the eastern slope of a hill, the height of which has been estimated (but probably with exaggeration) at 1000 feet. It is walled, and entered by five gates, adjacent to which are as many suburbs. The principal street is of considerable length and of a good width; it runs along the road from Paris to Brest, and near its western end is the parade, the principal open space in the town Mortagne is the residence of many genteel families, and abounds with mansions and good houses, which, together with the length and width of its principal street, lead travellers to think it of greater extent and importance than it really is. The numerous shops are well furnished, and with articles of luxury or convenience not commonly kept in towns of the same size; with these articles it supplies places larger than itself. The great want of the town is of water. It is supplied from fountains at the foot of the hill, from whence the water is carried and sold to the inhabitants. The principal church is in a commanding situation: it is of Gothic architecture, and its massive tower, surmounted with 'a quadrangular dome,' forms a striking object at a distance. There is an hospital or almshouse, with a pleasant garden attached; but has not (unless lately established) either a theatre or public walk. There are some linen and cotton manufactures; the linens are suited for exportation to the colonies. There are two weekly markets, and several yearly fairs, two of them considerable horse-fairs. Mortagne was antiently the capital of the province of Le Perche, and a place of strength: it suffered much in several wars, and in the war of the League was pillaged by one party or the other twenty-two times in less than four years. A few miles from Mortagne is a Trappist convent, re-established with additional austerities since the restoration of the Bourbons. At Tourouvre, which has about 1500 to 2000 inhabitants, are iron and glass works: at Longny, which has about 2500 to 3000 inhabitants, there are iron-works, and trade is carried on in cattle and horses. Rémalard or Regmalard, with about 1700 inhabitants, is pleasantly situated, and is the seat of a small trade in hemp and hides. Bellême is on a hill: it consists of one principal street along the road from Chartres and Nogent to Alençon. It was formerly a place of strength, and sustained several sieges. The inhabitants manufacture some table and other linens, cotton goods, and paper; and trade in agricultural produce, and in wood obtained from the forest of Bellême, one of the best in France for the fine trees which it produces, though not of great extent. At Moulins-la-Marche fire-arms are manufactured. L'Aigle is pleasantly situated on the slope of two hills, and is surrounded by walls and a ditch. It is probably the busiest manufacturing town in the department. The pins and knitting and sewing needles made here are known all over France; and a great quantity of curtain-rings, iron, steel, steel and copper wire, wires for pianos, and other small hardwares are made. Stockings, hats, laces, tapes, woollen and linen fabrics, leather, and paper are also manufactured. There are five yearly fairs. The population of the towns, when accurately given, is from the census of 1831; and, when not otherwise specified, is that of the whole commune; when given approximately, it is from Dulaure's Environs de Paris (A.D. 1828), or Vaysse de Villiers's Itineraire Descriptif (1821-1822). The principal manufactures in the department are those of iron and hardwares in the arrondissements of Mortagne and Argentan; lace, linens, and cottons in those of Alençon and Domfront; haircloth, pottery, glass, paper, and leather. Many of the inhabitants resort every year to the neighbouring departments to follow their business as stone-cutters, hemp-combers, gardeners, hawkers of haircloth, &c. This custom of migration has diminished since the Revolution. The department constitutes the diocese of Séez, the bishop of which is a suffragan of the archbishop of Rouen. It is in the jurisdiction of the Cour Royale and the Académie Universitaire of Caen; and in the fourteenth military division, of which Rouen is the head-quarters. It returns seven members to the Chamber of Deputies. In respect of education it is above the average of France; of the young men enrolled in the military census of 1828-29, 45 in every 100 could read and write. At the time of the Roman conquest this part of France was included chiefly in the territory of the Saii (who were probably the Essui of Cæsar), but portions of it appear to have been included in the respective territories of the Baiocasses, the Viducasses, the Lexovii, the Aulerci-Eburovices, the Carnutes, the Aulerci-Cenomani, and the Diablintes. These were all Celtic nations, and were comprehended in the Roman province of Lugdunensis Secunda, except the last three, who were included, the Aulerci-Cenomani and the Diablentes in Lugdunensis Tertia, and the Carnutes in Lugdunensis Quarta. The only antient town known to |