Air was called Asben by the native tribes until they were conquered by the Berbers. The present inhabitants are for the most part of a mixed race, combining the finer traits of the berbers with negro characteristics. The sultan of Air is to a great extent dependent on the chiefs of the Tuareg tribes inhabiting a vast tract of the Sahara to the north-west. A large part of his revenue is derived from tribute exacted from the salt caravans. Since 1890 Air has been included in the French sphere of influence in West Africa.

Agades, the capital of the country, which has a circuit of 3 1/2 m., is built on the edge of a plateau 2500 ft. high, and is supposed to have been founded by the Berbers to serve as a secure magazine for their extensive trade with the Songhoi empire. The language of the people is a dialect of Songhoi. In former times Agades was a place of great traffic, and had a population of about 50,000. Since the beginning of the 16th century the prosperity of the town has, however, gradually declined. F. Foureau, who visited Agades in 1899, stated that more than half the total area was deserted and ruinous. The houses, which are built of clay, are low and flat-roofed; and the only buildings of importance are the chief mosque, which is surmounted by a tower 95 ft. high, and the sultan's residence, a massive two-storied structure pierced with small windows. The chief trade is grain. The great salt caravans pass through it, as well as pilgrims on their way to Mecca.

AIR (from an Indo-European root meaning "breathe,'' "blow''), the atmosphere that surrounds the earth; aer, the lower thick air, being distinguished from aither, With the development of analytical and especially of pneumatic chemistry, the air was recognized not to be one homogeneous substance, as was long supposed, and different "airs,'' or gases, came to be distinguished. Thus oxygen gas, at the end of the 18th century, was known as dephlogisticated air, nitrogen or azote as phlogisticated air, hydrogen as inflammable air, carbonic acid gas as fixed air. The name is now ordinarily restricted to what is more accurately called atmospheric air—the air we breathe—the invisible elastic fluid which surrounds the earth (see ATMOSPHERE.) Probably the sense of atmosphere or environment led (though this is disputed by etymologists) to the further use of the word "air'' to mean "manner'' or "appearance''; and so to its employment (cf. Lat. modus) in music for "melody.'' (See ARIA.)

AIRAY, HENRY (1560?-1616), English Puritan divine, was born at Kentmere, Westmorland, but no record remains of the date of either birth or baptism. He was the son of William Airay, the favourite servant of Bernard Gilpin, "the apostle of the North,'' whose bounty showed itself in sending Henry and his brother Evan (or Ewan) to his own endowed school, where they were educated "in grammatical learning,'' and were in attendance at Oxford when Gilpin died. From Wood's Athenae we glean the details of Airay's college attendance. "He was sent to St Edmund's hall in 1579, aged nineteen or thereabouts. Soon after he was translated to Queen's College, where he became pauper puer serviens; that is, a poor serving child that waits on the fellows in the common hall at meals, and in their chambers, and does other servile work about the college.'' His transference to Queen's is perhaps explained by its having been Gilpin's college, and by his Westmorland origin giving him a claim on Eaglesfield's foundation. He graduated B.A. on the 19th of June 1583, M.A. on the 15th of June 1586, B.D. in 1504 and D.D. on the 17th of June 1600—all in Queen's College. "About the time he was master'' (1586) "he entered holy orders, and became a frequent and zealous preacher in the university.'' His Commentary on the Epistle to the Philippians (1618, reprinted 1864) is a specimen of his preaching before his college, and of his fiery denunciation of popery and his fearless enunciation of that Calvinism which Oxford in common with all England then prized. In 1598 he was chosen provost of his college, and in 1606 was vice-chancellor of the university. In the discharge of his vice-chancellor's duties he came into conflict with Laud, who even thus early was manifesting his antagonism to the prevailing Puritanism.

He was also rector of Otmore (or Otmoor), near Oxford, a living which involved him in a trying but successful litigation, whereof later incumbents reaped the benefit. He died on the 6th of October 1610. His character as a man, preacher, divine, and as an important ruler in the university, will be found portrayed in the Epistle by John Potter, prefixed to the Commentary. He must have been a fine specimen of the more cultured Puritans —possessed of a robust common-sense in admirable contrast with some of his contemporaries.

AIRD, THOMAS (1802-1876), Scottish poet, was born at Bowden, Roxburghshire, on the 28th of August 1802. He was educated at Edinburgh University, where he made the acquaintance of Carlyle and James Hogg, and he decided to devote himself to literary work. He published Martzoufie, a Tragedy, with other Poems (1826), a volume of essays, and a long narrative poem in several cantos, The Captive of Fez (1830). For a year he edited the Edinburgh Weekly Journal, and for twenty-eight years the Dumfriesshire and Galloway Herald. In 1848 he published a collected edition of his poems, which met with much favour. Carlyle said that he found in them "a healthy breath as of mountain breezes.'' Among Aird's other friends were De Quincey, Lockhart, Stanley (afterwards dean of Westminster) and Motherwell. He died at Dumfries on the 25th of April 1876.

AIRDRIE, a municipal and police burgh of Lanarkshire, Scotland. Pop. (1901) 22,228. It is situated 11 m. E. of Glasgow by the North British railway, and also communicates with Glasgow by the Monkland Canal (which passes within 1 m. of the town), as well as by the Caledonian railway via Coatbridge and Whiffiet. The canal was constructed between 1761 and 1790, and connects with the Forth and Clyde Canal near Maryhill. Airdrie was a market town in 1695, but owes its prosperity to the great coal and iron beds in its vicinity. Other industries include iron and brass foundries, engineering, manufactures of woollens and calicoes, silk-weaving, paper-making, oil and fireclay. The public buildings comprise the town hall, county buildings, mechanics' institute, academy, two fever hospitals and free library, the burgh having been the first town in Scotland to adopt the Free Library Act. Airdrie unites with Falkirk. Hamilton, Lanark and Linlithgow in sending one member to parliament. The parish of New Monkland, in which Airdrie lies, was formed (with Old Monkland)in 1640 out of the ancient barony of Monkland, so named from the fact that it was part of the lands granted by Malcolm IV. to the monks of Newbattle.

AIRE, a town of south-western France, in the department of Landes, on the left bank of the Adour, 22 m. S.E. of Mont-de-Marsan on the Southern railway between Morcenx and Tarbes. Pop. (1906) 2283. It is the seat of a bishopric, and has a cathedral of the 12th century and an episcopal palace of the 11th, 17th and 18th centuries. Both have undergone frequent restoration. They are surpassed in interest by the church of St Quitterie in Mas d'Aire, the suburb south-west of the town. The latter is a brick building of the 13th and 14th centuries, with a choir in the Romanesque style, and a fine western portal which has been much disfigured. The crypt contains several Gallo-Roman tombs and the sarcophagus (5th century) of St Quitterie. Aire has two ecclesiastical seminaries.

Aire (Atura, Vicus Julii) was the residence of the kings of the Visigoths, One of whom, Alaric II. (q.v.), there drew up his famous code. The bishopric dates from the 5th century.

AIRE, a town of northern France, on the river Lys, in the department of Pas-de-Calais, 12 m. S.S.E. of St Omer by rail. Pop. (1906) 4258. The town lies in a low and marshy situation at the junction of three canals. The chief buildings are the church of St Pierre (15th and 16th centuries), which has an imposing tower and rich interior decoration; a hotel de ville of the 18th century; and the Bailliage (16th century), a small building in the Renaissance style. Aire has flour-mills, leather and oil works, and nail manufactories, and trade in agricultural produce.

In the middle ages Aire belonged to the counts of Flanders, from whom in 1188 it received a charter, which is still extant. It was given to France by the peace of Utrecht 1713.

AIR-ENGINE, the name given to heat-engines which use air for their working substance, that is to say for the substance which is caused alternately to expand and contract by application and removal of heat, this process enabling a portion of the applied heat to be transformed into mechanical work. Just as the working substance which alternately takes in and gives out heat in the steam-engine is water (converted during a part of the action into steam), so in the air-engine it is air. The practical drawbacks to employing air as the working substance of a heat-engine are so great that its use has been very limited. Such attempts as have been made to design air-engines on a large scale have been practical failures, and are now interesting only as.steps in the historical development of applied thermodynamics. In the form of motors for producing very small amounts of power air-engines have been found convenient, and within a restricted field they are still met with. But even in this field the competition of the oil-engine and the gas-engine is too formidable to leave to the air-engine more than a very narrow chance of employment.

One of the chief practical objections to air-engines is the great bulk of the working substance in relation to the amount of heat that is utilized in the working of the engine. To some extent this objection may be reduced by using the air in a state of compression, and therefore of greater density, throughout its operation. Even then, however, the amount of operative heat is very small in comparison with that which passes through the steam-engine, per cubic foot swept through by the piston, for the change of state which water undergoes in its transformation into steam involves the taking in of much more heat than can be communicated to air in changing its temperature within such a range as is practicable. Another and not less serious objection is the practical difficulty of getting heat into the working air through the walls of the containing vessel. The air receives heat from an external furnace just as water does in the boiler of a steam-engine, by contact with a heated metallic surface, but it takes up heat from such a surface with much less readiness than does water. The waste of heat in the chimney gases is accordingly greater; and further, the metallic shell is liable to be quickly burned away as a result of its contact at a high temperature with free oxygen. The temperature of the shell is much higher than that of a steam boiler, for in order to secure that the working air will take up a fair amount of heat, the upper limit to which its temperature is raised greatly exceeds that of even high-pressure steam. This objection to the air-engine arises from the fact that the heat comes to it from external combustion; it disappears when internal combustion is resorted to; that is to say, when the heat is generated within the envelope containing the working air, by the combustion there of gaseous or other fuel. Gas-engines and oil-engines and other types of engine employing internal combustion may be regarded as closely related to the air-engine. They differ from it, however, in the fact that their working substance is not air, but a mixture of gases—a necessary consequence of internal combustion. It is to internal combustion that they owe their success, for it enables them to get all the heat of combustion into the working substance, to use a relatively very high temperature at the top of the range, and at the same time to escape entirely the drawbacks that arise in the air-engine proper through the need of conveying heat to the air through a metallic shell.

A form of air-engine which was invented in 1816 by the Rev. R. Stirling is of special interest as embodying the earliest application of what is known as the "regenerative'' principle, the principle namely that heat may be deposited by a substance at one stage of its action and taken up again at another stage with but little loss, and with a great resulting change in the substance's temperature at each of the two stages in the operation. The principle has since found wide application in metallurgical and other operations. In any heat-engine it is essential that the working substance should be at a high temperature while it is taking in heat, and at a relatively low temperature when it is rejecting heat. The highest thermodynamic efficiency will be reached when the working substance is at the top of its temperature range while any heat is being received and at the bottom while any heat is being rejected—as is the case in the cycle of operations of the theoretically imagined engine of Carnot.

(See THERMODYNAMICS and STEAM-ENGINE.) In Carnot's cycle the substance takes in heat at its highest temperature, then passes by adiabatic expansion from the top to the bottom of its temperature range, then rejects heat at the bottom of the range, and is finally brought back by adiabatic compression to the highest temperature at which it again takes in heat, and so on. An air-engine working on this cycle would be intolerably bulky and mechanically inefficient. Stirling substituted for the two stages of adiabatic expansion and compression the passage of the air to and fro through a "regenerator,'' in which the air was alternately cooled by storing its heat in the material of the regenerator and reheated by picking the stored heat up again on the return journey. The essential parts of one form of Stirling's engine are shown in fig. 1. There A is the externally fired heating vessel, the lower part of which contains hot air which is taking in heat from the furnace beneath. A pipe from the top of A leads to the working cylinder (B). At the top of A is a cooler (C) consisting of pipes through which cold water is made to circulate. In A there is a displacer (D) which is connected (by parts not shown) with the piston in such a manner that it moves down when the piston has moved up. The air-pressure is practically the same above and below D, for these spaces are in free communication with one another through the regenerator (E), which is an annular space stacked loosely with wire-gauze. When D moves down, the hot air is driven up through the regenerator to the upper part of the containing vessel. It deposits its heat in the wire-gauze, becoming lowered in temperature and consequently reduced in pressure. The piston (B) descends, and the air, now in contact with the cooling pipes (C), gives up heat to them. Then the displacer (D) is raised. The air passes down through its regenerator, picking up the heat deposited there, and thereby having its temperature restored and its pressure raised. It then takes in heat from the furnace, expanding in volume and forcing the piston (B) to rise, which completes the cycle. The engine was double-acting, another heating vessel like A being connected with the upper end of the working cylinder at F. The stages at which heat is taken from the furnace and rejected to the cooler (C) are approximately isothermal at the upper and lower limits of temperature respectively, and the cycle accordingly is approximately "perfect'' in the thermodynamic sense. The theoretical indicator diagram is made up of two isothermal lines for the taking in and rejection of heat, and two lines of constant volume for the two passages through the regenerator. This engine was the subject of two patents (by R. and S. Stirling) in 1827 and 1840. A double-acting Stirling engine of 50 horse-power, using air which was maintained by a pump at a fairly high pressure throughout the operations, was used for some years in the Dundee Foundry, where it is oredited with having consumed only 1.7 lb. of coal per hour per indicated horse-power. The coal consumption per brake-horse-power was no doubt much greater. It was finally abandoned on account of the failure of the heating vessels.

The type survives in some small domestic motors, an example of which, manufactured under the patent of H. Robinson, is shown in fig. 2. In this there is no compressing pump, and the main pressure of the working air is simply that of the atmosphere. The whole range of pressure is so slight that no packing is required. Here A is the vessel in which the air is heated and within which the displacer works. It is heated by a small cokefire or by a gas flame in C. It communicates through a passage (D) with the working cylinder (B) . The displacer (E) which takes its motion through a rod (I) from a rocking lever (F) connected by a short link to the crank-pin, is itself the regenerator, its construction being such that the air passes up and down through it as in one of the original Stirling forms. The cooler is a water vessel (G) through which water circulates from a tank (H). Ylessrs. Hayward and Tyler's "Rider'' engine may be mentioned as another small hot-air motor which follows nearly the Stirling cycle of operations.

An attempt to develop a powerful air-engine was made in America about 1833 by John Ericsson, who applied it to marine propulsion in the ship "Caloric,'' but without permanent success. Like Stirling, Ericsson used a regenerator, but with this difference that the pressure instead of the volume of the air remained constant while it passed in each direction through the regenerator. Cold air was compressed by a. pump into a receiver, where it was kept cool during compression and from which it passed through a regenerator into the working cylinder. In so passing it took up heat and expanded. It was then allowed to expand further, taking in heat from a furnace under the cylinder and falling in pressure. This expansion was continued till the pressure of the working air fell nearly to that of the atmosphere. It was then discharged through the regenerator, depositing heat for the next charge of air in turn to take up. The indicator diagram approximated to a form made up of two isothermal lines and two lines of constant pressure.

In the transmission of power by compressed air (see POWER TRANSMISSION) the air-driven motors are for the most part machines resembling steam-engines in the general features of their pistons, cylinders, valves and so forth. Such machines are not properly described as air-engines since their function is not the conversion of heat into work. Incidentally, however, they do in some cases partially discharge that function, namely, when what is called a "preheater'' is used to warm up the compressed air before it enters in the motor cylinder. The object of this device is not, primarily, to produce work from heat, but to escape the inconveniences that would otherwise arise through extreme cooling of the air during its expansion. Without preheating the expanding air becomes so cold as to be liable to deposit snow from the moisture held in suspension, and thereby to clog the valves. With preheating this is avoided, and the amount of work done by a given quantity of air is increased by the conversion into work of a part of the supplementary energy which the preheater supplies in the form of heat. (J. A. E.)

AIREY, RICHARD AIREY, BARON (1803-1881), British general, was the son of Lieutenant-General Sir George Airey (1761-1833) and was born in 1803. He entered the army in 1821, became captain in 1825, and served on the staff of Sir Frederick Adam in the Ionian Islands (1827-1830) and on that of Lord Aylmer in North America (1830-1832). In 1838 Airey, then a lieutenant-colonel, went to the Horse Guards, where in 1852 he became military secretary to the commander-in-chief, Lord Hardinge. In 1854 he was given a brigade command in the army sent out to the East; from which, however, he was immediately transferred to the onerous and difficult post of quartermaster-general to Lord Raglan, in which capacity he served through the campaign in the Crimea. He was made a major-general in December 1854, and it was universally recognized in the army that he was the best soldier on Lord Raglan's staff. He was made a K.C.B., and was reported upon most favourably by his superiors, Lord Raglan and Sir J. Simpson. Airey was a quartermaster-general in the older sense of the word, i.e. a chief of the general staff, but a different view of the duties of the office was then becoming recognized. Public opinion held him and his department responsible for the failures and mismanagement of the commissariat. Airey demanded an inquiry on his return to England and cleared himself completely, but he never recovered from the effects of the unjust persecution of which he had been made the victim, though the popular view was not shared by his military superiors. He gave up his post at the front to become quartermaster-general to the forces at home. In 1862 he was promoted lieutenant-general, and from 1865 to 1870 he was governor of Gibraltar, receiving the G.C.B. in 1867. In 1870 he became adjutant-general at headquarters, and in 1871 attained the full rank of general. In 1876, on his retirement, he was created a peer, and in 1879-1880 he presided over the celebrated Airey commission on army reform. He died at the house of Lord Wolseley, at Leatherhead, on the 14th of September 1881.

AIR-GUN, a gun in which the force employed to propel the bullet is the elasticity of compressed atmospheric air. It has attached to it, or constructed in it, a reservoir of compressed air, a portion of which, liberated into the space behind the bullet when the trigger is pulled, propels the bullet from the barrel by its expansion. The common forms of air-gun, which are merely toys, are charged by compressing a spiral spring, one end of which forms a piston working in a cylinder; when released by a pull on the trigger, this spring expands, and the air forced out in front of it propels the bullet. Air-guns of this kind are sometimes made to resemble walking-sticks and are then known as air-canes.

AIRY, SIR GEORGE BIDDELL (1801-1892), British Astronomer Royal, was born at Alnwick on the 27th of July 1801. He came of a long line of Airys who traced their descent back to a family of the same name residing at Eentmere, in Westmorland, in the 14th century; but the branch to which he belonged, having suffered in the Civil wars, removed to Lincolnshire, where for several generations they lived as farmers. George Airy was educated first at elementary schools in Hereford, and afterwards at Colchester Grammar School. In 1819 he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, as a sizar. Here he had a brilliant career, and seems to have been almost immediately recognized as the leading man of his year. In 1822 he was elected scholar of Trinity, and in the following year he graduated as senior wrangler and obtained first Smith's prize. On the 1st of October 1824 he was elected fellow of Trinity, and in December 1826 was appointed Lucasian professor of mathematics in succession to Thomas Turton. This chair he held for little more than a year, being elected in February 1828 Plumian professor of astronomy and director of the new Cambridge observatory. Some idea of his activity as a writer on mathematical and physical subjects during these early years may be gathered from the fact that previous to this appointment he had contributed no less than three important memoirs to the Philisophical Transactions of the Royal Society, and eight to the Cambridge Philosophical Society. At the Cambridge observatory Airy soon gave evidence of his remarkable power of organization. The only telescope erected in the establishment when he took it in charge was the transit instrument, and to this he vigorously devoted himself. By the adoption of a regular system of work, and a careful plan of reduction, he was able to keep his observations reduced practically up to date, and published them annually with a degree of punctuality which astonished his contemporaries. Before long a mural circle was installed, and regular observations were instituted with it in 1833. In the same year the duke of Northumberland presented the Cambridge observatory with a fine object-glass of 12 in. aperture, which was mounted according to Airy's designs and under his superintendence, although the erection was not completed until after his removal to Greenwich in 1835. Airy's writings during this time are divided between mathematical physics and astronomy. The former are for the most part concerned with questions relating to the theory of light, arising out of his professorial lectures, among which may be specially mentioned his paper "On the Diffraction of an Object-Glass with Circular Aperture.'' In 1831 the Copley medal of the Royal Society was awarded to him for these researches. Of his astronomical writings during this period the most important are his investigation of the mass of Jupiter, his report to the British Association on the progress of astronomy during the 19th century, and his memoir On an Inequality of Long Period in the Motions of the Earth and Venus.

One of the sections of his able and instructive report was devoted to "A Comparison of the Progress of Astronomy in England with that in other Countries,'' very much to the disadvantage of England. This reproach was subsequently to a great extent removed by his own labours.

Airy's discovery of a new inequality in the motions of Venus and the earth is in some respects his most remarkable achievement. In correcting the elements of Delambre's solar tables he had been led to suspect an inequality overlooked by their constructor. The cause of this he did not long seek in vain. Eight times the mean motion of Venus is so nearly equal to thirteen times that of the earth that the difference amounts to only the 1/240th of the earth's mean motion, and from the fact that the term depending on this difference, although very small in itself, receives in the integration of the differential equations a multiplier of about 2,200,000, Airy was led to infer the existence of a sensible inequality extending over 240 years (Phil. Trans. cxxii. 67). The investigation that brought about this result was probably the most laborious that had been made up to Airy's time in planetary theory, and represented the first specific improvement in the solar tables effected in England since the establishment of the theory of gravitation. In recognition of this work the medal of the Royal Astronomical Society was awarded to him in 1833.

In June 1835 Airy was appointed Astronomer Royal in succession to John Pond, and thus commenced that long career of wisely directed and vigorously sustained industry at the national observatory which, even more perhaps than his investigations in abstract science or theoretical astronomy, constitutes his chief title to fame. The condition of the observatory at the time of his appointment was such that Lord Auckland, the first lord of the Admiralty, considered that "it ought to be cleared out,'' while Airy admitted that "it was in a queer state.'' With his usual energy he set to work at once to reorganize the whole management. He remodelled the volumes of observations, put the library on a proper footing, mounted the new (Sheepshanks) equatorial and organized a new magnetic observatory. In 1847 an altazimuth was erected, designed by Airy to enable observations of the moon to be made not only on the meridian, but whenever she might be visible. In 1848 Airy invented the reflex zenith tube to replace the zenith sector previously employed. At the end of 1850 the great transit circle of 8 in. aperture and 11 ft. 6 in. focal length was erected, and is still the principal instrument of its class at the observatory. The mounting in 1859 of an equatorial of 13 in. aperture evoked the comment in his journal for that year, "There is not now a single person employed or instrument used in the observatory which was there in Mr Pond's time''; and the transformation was completed by the inauguration of spectroscopic work in 1868 and of the photographic registration of sun-spots in 1873.

The formidable undertaking of reducing the accumulated planetary observations made at Greenwich from 1750 to 1830 was already in progress under Airy's supervision when he became Astronomer Royal. Shortly afterwards he undertook the further laborious task of reducing the enormous mass of observations of the moon made at Greenwich during the same period under the direction, successively, of J. Bradley, N. Bliss, N. Maskelyne and John Pond, to defray the expense of which a large sum of money was allotted by the Treasury. As the result, no less than 8000 lunar observations were rescued from oblivion, and were, in 1846, placed at the disposal of astronomers in such a form that they could be used directly for comparison with the theory and for the improvement of the tables of the moon's motion. For this work Airy received in 1848 a testimonial from the Royal Astronomical Society, and it at once led to the discovery by P. A. Hansen of two new inequalities in the moon's motion. After completing these reductions, Airy made inquiries, before engaging in any theoretical investigation in connexion with them, whether any other mathematician was pursuing the subject, and learning that Hansen had taken it in hand under the patronage of the king of Denmark, but that, owing to the death of the king and the consequent lack of funds, there was danger of his being compelled to abandon it, he applied to the admiralty on Hansen's behalf for the necessary sum. His request was immediately granted, and thus it came about that Hansen's famous Tables de la Lune were dedicated to La Haute Amiraute de sa Majeste la Reine de la Grande Bretagne et d'Irlande. One of the most remarkable of Airy's researches was his determination of the mean density of the earth. In 1826 the idea occurred to him of attacking this problem by means of pendulum experiments at the top and bottom of a deep mine. His first attempt, made in the same year at the Dolcoath mine in Cornwall, failed in consequence of an accident to one of the pendulums; a second attempt in 1828 was defeated by a flooding of the mine, and many years elapsed before another opportunity presented itself. The experiments eventually took place at the Harton pit near South Shields in 1854. Their immediate result was to show that gravity at the bottom of the mine exceeded that at the top by 1/19286th of its amount, the depth being 1256 ft. From this he was led to the final value of 6.566 for the mean density of the earth as compared with that of water (Phil. Trans. cxlvi. 342). This value, although considerably in excess of that previously found by different methods, was held by Airy, from the care and completeness with which the observations were carried out and discussed, to be "entitled to compete with the others on, at least, equal terms.''

In 1872 Airy conceived the idea of treating the lunar theory in a new way, and at the age of seventy-one he embarked on the prodigious toil which this scheme entailed. A general description of his method will be found in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. xxxiv. No. 3. It consisted essentially in the adoption of Delauny's final numerical expressions for longitude, latitude and parallax, with a symbolic term attached to each number, the value of which was to be determined by substitution in the equations of motion. In this mode of treating the question the order of the terms is numerical, and though the amount of labour is such as might well have deterred a younger man, yet the details were easy, and a great part of it might be entrusted to a mere computer. The work was published in 1886, when its author was eighty-five years of age. For some little time previously he had been harassed by a suspicion that certain errors had crept into the computations, and accordingly he addressed himself to the task of revision. But his powers were no longer what they had been, and he was never able to examine sufficiently into the matter. In 1890 he tells us how a grievous error had been committed in one of the first steps, and pathetically adds, "My spirit in the work was broken, and I have never heartily proceeded with it since.'' In 1881 Sir George Airy resigned the office of Astronomer Royal and resided at the White House, Greenwich, not far from the Royal Observatory, until his death, which took place on the 2nd of January 1892.

A complete list of Airy's printed papers, numbering no less than 518, will be found in his Autobiography, edited in 1890 by his son, Wilfrid Airy, B. A., M. Inst. C.E. Amongst the most important of his works not already mentioned may be named the following:—Mathematical Tracts (1826) on the Lunar Theory, Figure of the Earth, Precession and Nutation, and Calculus of Variations, to which, in the second edition of 1828, were added tracts on the Planetary Theory and the Undulatory Theory of Light; Experiments on Iron-built Ships. instituted for the purpose of discovering a correction for the deviation of the compass produced by the Iron of the Ships (1839); On the Theoretical Explanation of an apparent new Polarity in Light (1840); Tides And Waves (1842). He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1836, its president in 1871, and received both the Cooley and Royal medals. He was five times president of the Royal Astronomical Society, was correspondent of the French Academy and belonged to many other foreign and American societies. He was D.C.L. of Oxford and LL.D. of Cambridge and Edinburgh. In 1872 he was made K.C.B. In the same year he was nominated a Grand Cross in the Imperial Order of the Rose of Brazil; he also held the Prussian Order "Pour le Merite,'' and belonged to the Legion of Honour of France and to the Order of the North Star of Sweden and Norway.

See also Proc. Roy. Society, li. 1 (E. J. Routh); Month. Notices Roy. Astr. Society, lii. 212; Observatory, xv. 74 (E. Dunkin); Nature, 31st of Oct. 1878 (A. Winnecke), 7th of Jan. 1892; The Times, 5th of Jan. 1892; R. Grant's Hist. of Phys. Astronomy; R. P. Graves's life of Sir W. Rowan Hamilton. (A. A. R.*)

AISLABIR, JOHN (1670-1742), English politician, was born at Goodramgate, York, on the 7th of December 1670. He was the fourth son of George Aislabie, principal registrar of the archiepiscopal court of York. In 1695 he was elected member of parliament for Ripon. In 1712 he was appointed one of the commissioners for executing the office of lord high admiral, and in 1714 became treasurer of the navy, being sworn in two years later as a member of the privy council. In March 1718 he became chancellor of the exchequer. The proposal of the South Sea Company to pay off the national debt was strenuously supported by Aislabie, and finally accepted in an amended form by the House of Commons. After the collapse of that company a secret committee of inquiry was appointed by the Commons, and Aislabie, who had in the meantime resigned the seals of his office, was declared guilty of having encouraged and promoted the South Sea scheme with a view to his own exorbitant profit, and was expelled the House. Though committed to the Tower he was soon released, and was allowed to retain the property he possessed before 1718, including his country estate, to which he retired to pass the rest of his days. He died in 1742.

AISLE (from Lat. ALA, a wing), a term which in its primary sense means the wing of a house, but is generally applied in architecture to the lateral divisions of a church or large building. The earliest example is that found in the basilica of Trajan, which had double aisles on either side of the central area; the same number existed in the original church of St Peter's at Rome, in the basilica at Bethlehem, and according to Eusebius in the church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem. The aisles are divided from the nave or central area by colonnades or arcades, and may flank also the transept or choir, being distinguished as nave-aisles, transept-aisles or choir-aisles. If the choir is semi-circular, and the aisles, carried round, give access to a series of chapels, the whole arrangement is known as the chevet. As a rule in Great Britain there is only one aisle on each side of the nave, the only exceptions being Chichester and Elgin cathedrals, where there are two. Many European cathedrals have two aisles on each side, as those of Paris, Bourges, Amiens, Troyes, St Sernin, Toulouse, Cologne, Milan, Seville, Toledo; and in those of Paris, Chartres, Amiens and Bourges, Seville and Toledo, double aisles flank the choir on each side. The cathedral at Antwerp has three aisles on each side. In some of the churches in Germany the aisles are of the same height as the nave. These churches are known as HALLENKIRCHEN, the principal examples being St Stephen's, Vienna, the Weissekirche at Soest. St Martin's, Landshut, Munich cathedral, and the Marienkirche at Danzig. (R. P. S.)

AISNE, a frontier department in the north-east of France, formed in 1790 from portions of the old provinces of Ile-de-France and Picardy. Area 2866 sq. m. Pop. (1906) 534,495. It is bounded N. by the department of Nord and the kingdom of Belgium, E. by the department of Ardennes, S.E. by that of Marne, S. by that of Seine-et-Marne, and W. by those of Oise and Somme. The surface of the department consists of undulating and well-wooded plains, intersected by numerous valleys, and diversified in the north-east by hilly ground which forms a part of the mountain system of the Ardennes. Its general slope is from north-east, where the culminating point (930 ft.) is found, to south-west, though altitudes exceeding 750 ft. are also found in the south. The chief rivers are the Somme, the Escaut and the Sambre, which have their sources in the north of the department; the Oise, traversing the north-west, with its tributaries the Serre and the Aisne, the latter of which joins it beyond the limits of the department; and the Marne and the Ourcq in the south. The climate is in general cold and humid, especially in the north-east. Agriculture is highly developed; cereals, principally wheat and oats, and beetroot are the chief crops; potatoes, flax, hemp, rape and hops are also grown. Pasturage is good, particularly in the north-east, where dairy-farming flourishes. Wine of medium quality is grown on the banks of the Marne and the Aisne. Bee-farming is of some importance. Large tracts of the department are under wood; the chief forests are those of Nouvion and St Michel in the north, Coucy and St Gobain in the centre, and Villers-Cotterets in the south. The osiers grown in the vicinity of St Quentin supply an active basket-making industry.

Though destitute of metals Aisne furnishes abundance of freestone, gypsum and clay. There are numerous tile and brick works in the department. Its most important industrial establishments are the mirror manufactory of St Gobain and the chemical works at Chauny, and the workshops and foundries of Guise, the property of an association of workpeople organized on socialistic lines and producing iron goods of various kinds. The manufacture of sugar is very important; brewing, distilling, flour-milling, iron-founding, the weaving and spinning of cotton, wool and silk, and the manufacture of iron goods, especially agricultural implements, are actively carried on. Aisne imports coal, iron, cotton and other raw material and machinery; it exports cereals, live-stock and agricultural products generally, and manufactured goods. The department is served chiefly by the lines of the Northern railway; in addition, the main line of the Eastern railway to Strassburg traverses the extreme south. The Oise, Aisne and Marne are navigable, and canals furnish 170 m. of waterway. Aisne is divided into five arrondissements—St Quentin and Vervins in the north, Laon in the centre, and Soissons and Chateau-Thierry in the south-and contains 37 cantons and 841 communes. It forms part of the educational division (academie) of Douai and of the region of the second army corps, its military centre being at Amiens, where also is its court of appeal. Laon is the capital, and Soissons the seat of a bishopric of the province of Reims. Other important places are Chateau-Thierry, St Quentin and Coucy-le-Chateau. La Forte-Milon has remains of an imposing chateau of the 14th and 15th centuries with interesting fortifications. The ruined church at Longpont (13th century) is the relic of an important Cistercian abbey; Urcel and Mont-Notre-Dame have fine churches, the first entirely in the Romanesque style, the second dating from the 12th and 13th centuries, to which period the church at Braisne also belongs. At Premontre the buildings of the abbey, which was the cradle of the Premonstratensian order, are occupied by a lunatic asylum.

AISSE [a corruption of HAIDEE], MADEMOISELLE (c. 1694-1733), French letter-writer, was the daughter of a Circassian chief, and was born about 1694. Her father's palace was pillaged by the Turks, and as a child of four years old she was sold to the comte de Ferriol, the French ambassador at Constantinople. She was brought up in Paris by Ferriol's sister-in-law with her own sons, MM. d'Argental and Pont de Veyle. Her great beauty and romantic history made her the fashion, and she attracted the notice of the regent, Philip, duke of Orleans, whose offers she had the strength of mind to refuse. She formed a deep and lasting attachment to the Chevalier d'Aydie, by whom she had a daughter. She died in Paris on the 13th of March 1733. Her letters to her friend Madame Calandrini contain much interesting information with regard to contemporary celebrities, especially on Mme. du Deffand and Mme. de Tencin, but they are above all of interest in the picture they afford of the writer's own tenderness and fidelity. Her Lettres were edited by Voltaire (1787), by J. Ravenel, with a notice by Sainte-Beuve (1846) and by Eugene Asse (1873). Mlle. Aisse has been the subject of three plays: by A. de Lavergne and P. Woucher (1854), by Louis Bouilhet (1872) and by Dejoux (1898).

See also Courteault, Une Idylle au XVIIIe siecle, Mlle. Aisse et le Chevalier d'Aydie (Macon, 1900); and notices prefixed to the editions of 1846 and 1873. There is an interesting essay by E. Gosse in his French Profiles (1905).

AITON, WILLIAM (1731-1793), Scottish botanist, was born near Hamilton in 1731. Having been regularly trained to the profession of a gardener, he travelled to London in 1754, and became assistant to Philip Miller, then superintendent of the Physic Garden at Chelsea. In 1759 he was appointed director of the newly established botanical garden at Kew, where he remained until his death on the 2nd of February 1793. He effected many improvements at the gardens, and in 1789 he published Hortus Kewensis, a catalogue of the plants there cultivated. A second and enlarged edition of the Hortus was brought out in 1810-1813 by his eldest son, WILLIAM TOWNSEND AITON (1766-1849), who succeeded him at Kew and was commissioned by George IV. to lay out the gardens at the Pavilion, Brighton.

AITZEMA, LIEUWE (LEO) VAN (1600-1669), Dutch historian and statesman, was born at Doccum, in Friesland, on the 19th of November 1600. In 1617 he published a volume of Latin poems under the title of Poemata Juvenilia, of which a copy is preserved in the British Museum. He made a special study of politics and political science and was for thirty years resident for the towns of the Hanseatic League at the Hague, where he died on the 23rd of February 1669. His most important work was the Saken van Staet in Oorlogh in ende omtrent de Vereenigte Nederlanden (14 Vols. 4to, 1655-1671), embracing the period from 1621 to 1668. It contains a large number of state documents, and is an invaluable authority on one of the most eventful periods of Dutch history.

Four continuations of the history, by the poet and historian Lambert van den Bos, were published successively at Amsterdam in 1683, 1688, 1698 and 1699. The Derde Vervolg Zinde het vierde Stuck van het vervolgh op de historie, &c., brings the history down to 1697.

AIVALI (Gr. Kydonia), a prosperous town on the W. coast of Asia Minor, opposite the island of Mitylene. Pop. 21,000. It stands near the site of the Aeolian Heraclea, on rising ground at the end of a bay which is separated from the Gulf of Adramyttium, and protected from the prevailing winds by the Moschonisi Islands (Hecatonnesoi.) In 1821 it was burned to the ground during a fight between the Turks and the Greeks, and a large number of its Greek population killed or enslaved. It is one of the most thriving towns in the Levant, with a purely Greek population distinguished for its commercial, industrial and maritime enterprise. The exports are olive oil, grain and wood, and a fleet of fishing-boats supplies Constantinople and Smyrna with fish; the exports in 1902 were valued at L. 987,070, and the imports at

AIWAN, the reception-hall or throne-room of a Parthian or Sassanian palace.

AIX, a city of south-eastern France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Bouches-du-Rhone, 18 m. N. of Marseilles by rail. Pop. (1906) 19,433. It is situated in a plain overlooking the Arc, about a mile from the right bank of the river. The Cours Mirabeau, a wide thoroughfare, planted with double rows of plane-trees, bordered by fine houses and decorated by three fountains, divides the town into two portions. The new town extends to the south, the old town with its wide but irregular streets and its old mansions dating from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries lies to the north. Aix is an important educational centre, being the seat of the faculties of law and letters of the university of Aix-Marseille, and the north and east quarter of the town, where the schools and university buildings are situated, is comparable to the Latin Quarter of Paris. The cathedral of St Sauveur, which dates from the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries, is situated in this portion of Aix. It is preceded by a rich portal in the Gothic style with elaborately carved doors, and is flanked on the north by an uncompleted tower. The interior contains tapestry of the 16th century and other works of art. The archbishop's palace and a Romanesque cloister adjoin the cathedral on its south side. The church of St Jean de Malto, dating from the 13th century, contains some valuable pictures. The hotel de ville, a building in the classical style of the middle of the 17th century, looks on to a picturesque square. It contains some fine wood-work and a large library which includes many valuable MSS. At its side rises a handsome clock-tower erected in 1505. Aix possesses many beautiful fountains, one of which in the Cours Mirabeau is surmounted by a statue of Rene, count of Provence, who held a brilliant court at Aix in the 15th century. Aix has thermal springs, remarkable for their heat and containing lime and carbonic acid. The bathing establishment was built in 1705 near the site of the ancient baths of Sextius, of which vestiges still remain. The town, which is the seat of an archbishop and court of appeal, and the centre of an academie (educational circumscription), numbers among its public institutions a Court of assizes, tribunals of first instance and of commerce, and a chamber of arts and manufactures. It also has training-colleges, a lycee, a school of art and technics, museums of antiquities, natural history and painting, and several learned societies. The industries include flour-milling, the manufacture of confectionery, iron-ware and hats, and the distillation of olive-oil. Trade is in olive-oil, almonds and stone from the neighbouring quarries.

Aix (Aquae Sextiae) was founded in 123 B.C. by the Roman consul Sextius Calvinus, who gave his name to its springs. In 102 B.C. its neighbourhood was the scene of the defeat inflicted on the Cimbri and Teutones by Marius. In the 4th century it became the metropolis of Narbonensis Secunda. It was occupied by the Visigoths in 477, in the succeeding century was repeatedly plundered by the Franks and Lombards, and was occupied by the Saracens in 731. Aix, which during the middle ages was the capital of the county of Provence, did not reach its zenith until after the 12th century, when, under the houses of Aragon and Anjou, it became an artistic centre and seat of learning. With the rest of Provence, it passed to the crown of France in 1487, and in 1501 Louis XII. established there the parlement of Provence which existed till 1789. In the 17th and 18th centuries the town was the seat of the intendance of Provence.

AIX-LA-CHAPELLE (Ger. Aachen, Dutch Aken), a city and spa of Germany, in the kingdom of Prussia, situated in a pleasant valley, 44 m. W. of Cologne and contiguous to the Belgian and Dutch frontiers, to which its municipal boundaries extend. Pop. (1885) 95,725; (1905) including Burtscheid, 143,906. Its position, at the centre of direct railway communications with Cologne and Dusseldorf respectively on the E. and Liege-Brussels and Maestricht-Antwerp on the W., has favoured its rise to one of the most prosperous commerical towns of Germany. The city consists of the old inner town, the former ramparts of which have been converted into promenades, and the newer outer town and suburbs. Of the ancient gates but two remain, the Ponttor on the N.W. and the Marschiertor on the S. Its general appearance is that rather of a spacious modern, than of a medieval city full of historical associations.

Of the cluster of buildings in the centre, which are conspicuous from afar, the town hall (Rathaus) and the cathedral are specially noteworthy. The former, standing on the south side of the market square, is a Gothic structure, erected in 1353-1370 on the ruins of Charlemagne's palace. It contains the magnificent coronation hall of the emperors (143 ft. by 61 ft.), in which thirty-five German kings and eleven queens have banqueted after the coronation ceremony in the cathedral. The two ancient towers, the Granusturm to the W. and the Glockenturm to the E., both of which to a large extent had formed part of the Carolingian palace, were all but destroyed in the fire by which the Rathaus was seriously damaged in 1883. Their restoration was completed in 1902. Behind the Rathaus is the Grashaus, in which Richard of Cornwall, king of the Romans, is said to have held his court. It was restored in 1889 to accommodate the municipal archives. The cathedral is of great historic and architectural interest. Apart from the spire, which was rebuilt in 1884, it consists of two parts of different styles and date. The older portion, the capella in palatio, an octagonal building surmounted by a dome, was designed on the model of San Vitale at Ravenna by Udo of Metz, was begun under Charlemagne's auspices in 796 and consecrated by Pope Leo III. in 805. After being almost entirely wrecked by Norman raiders it was rebuilt, on the original lines, in 983, by the emperor Otto III. It is surrounded on the first story by a sixteen-sided gallery (the Hochmunster) adorned by antique marble and granite columns, of various sizes, brought by Charlemagne's orders from Rome, Ravenna and Trier. These were removed by Napoleon to Paris, but restored to their original positions after the peace of 1815. The mosaic representing Christ surrounded by "the four-and-twenty elders,'' which originally lined the cupola, had almost entirely perished by the 19th century, but was re-stored in 1882 from a copy made in the 17th century. Interesting too are the magnificent west doors, cast in bronze by native workmen in 804. Underneath the dome, according to tradition, was the tomb of Charlemagne, which, on being opened by Otto III. in 1000, disclosed the body of the emperor, vested in white coronation robes and seated on a marble chair. This chair, now placed in the gallery referred to, was used for centuries in the imperial coronation ceremonies. The site of the tomb is marked by a stone slab, with the inscription Carlo Magno; and above it hangs the famous bronze chandelier presented by the emperor Frederick I. (Barbarossa) in 1168. Charlemagne's bones are preserved in an ornate shrine in the Hungarian Chapel, lying to the north of the octagon. The casket was opened in 1906, at the instance of the emperor William II., and the draperies enclosing the body were temporarily removed to Berlin, with a view to the reproduction of similar cloth. The Gothic choir, forming the more modern portion of the cathedral, was added during the latter half of the 14th and the beginning of the 15th century, and contains the tomb of the emperor Otto III. The cathedral possesses many relics, the more sacred of which are exhibited only once every seven years, when they attract large crowds of worshippers.

Of the other thirty-three churches in the city those of St Foillan (founded in the 12th century, but twice rebuilt, in the 15th and 17th centuries, and restored in 1883) and St Paul, with its beautiful stained-glass windows, are remarkable. In addition to those already mentioned, Aix-la-Chapelle possesses several fine secular buildings: the Suermondt museum, containing besides other miscellaneous exhibits the fine collection of pictures by early German, Dutch and Flemish masters, presented to the town by Bartholomaus Suermondt (d. 1887); the public library; the theatre; the post-office; and the fine new central railway station. Among the schools may be mentioned the magnificently equipped Rhenish-Westphalian Polytechnic School (built 1865-1870) and the school of mining and electricity, founded in 1897.

There are many fine streets and squares and some handsome public monuments, notably among the last the fountain on the market square surmounted by a statue of Charlemagne, the bronze equestrian statue of the emperor William I. facing the theatre, the Kriegerdenkmal (a memorial to those who fell in the war of 1870) and the Kongress-Denkmal, a marble hall in antique style erected in 1844 on the Adalberts-Steinweg to commemorate the famous congress of 1818 (see below). Of the squares, the principal is the Friedrich-Wilhelmplatz, on which lies the Elisenbrunnen with its colonnade and garden, the chief resort of visitors taking the baths and waters.

The hot sulphur springs of Aix-la-Chapelle were known to the Romans and have been celebrated for centuries as specific in the cure of rheumatism, gout and scrofulous disorders. There are six in all, of which the Kaiserquelle, with a temperature of 136 deg. F., is the chief. In the neighbouring Burtscheid (incorporated in 1897 with Aix-la-Chapelle) are also springs of far higher temperature, and this suburb, which has also a Kurgarten, is largely frequented during the season.

In respect of trade and industry Aixda-Chapelle occupies a high place. Its cloth and silk manufactures are important, and owing to the opening up of extensive coalfields in the district almost every branch of iron industry is carried on. It has some large breweries and manufactories of chemicals, and does a considerable trade in cereals, leather, timber and wine. It is also an important banking centre and has several insurance societies of reputation.

The country immediately surrounding Aix-la-Chapelle presents many attractive features. From the Lousberg and the Salvatorberg to the north, the latter crowned by a chapel, magnificent views of the city are obtained; while covering the hills 2 m. west stretches the Stadtwald, a forest with charming walks and drives.

History.—-Aix-la-Chapelle is the Aquisgranum of the Romans, named after Apollo Granus, who was worshipped in connexion with hot springs. As early as A.D. 765 King Pippin had a "palace'' here, in which it is probable that Charlemagne was born. The greatness of Aix was due to the latter, who between 777 and 786 built a magnificent palace on the site of that of his father, raised the place to the rank of the second city of the empire, and made it for a while the centre of Western culture and learning. From the coronation of Louis the Pious in 813 until that of Ferdinand I. in 1531 the sacring of the German kings took place at Aix, and as many as thirty-two emperors and kings were here crowned. In 851, and again in 882, the place was ravaged by the Northmen in their raids up the Rhine. It was not, however, till late in the 12th century (1172-1176) that the city was surrounded with walls by order of the emperor Frederick I., to whom (in 1166) and to his grandson Frederick II. (in 1215) it owed its first important civic rights. These were still further extended in 1250 by the anti-Caesar William of Holland, who had made himself master of the place and of the imperial regalia, after a long siege, in 1248. The liberties of the burghers were, however, still restrained by the presence of a royal advocatus (Vogt) and bailiff. In 1300 the outer ring of walls was completed, the earlier circumvallation being marked by the limit of the Altstadt (old city). In the 14th century Aix, now a free city of the Holy Roman Empire, played a conspicuous part, especially in the league which, between 1351 and 1387, kept the peace between the Meuse and the Rhine. In 1450 an insurrection led to the admission of the gilds to a share in the municipal government. In the 16th century Aix began to decline in importance and prosperity. It lay too near the French frontier to be safe. and too remote from the centre of Germany to be convenient, as a capital; and in 1562 the election and coronation of Maximilian II. took place at Frankfort-on-Main, a precedent followed till the extinction of the Empire. The Reformation, too, brought its troubles. In 1580 Protestantism got the upper hand; the ban of the empire followed and was executed by Ernest of Bavaria, archbishop-elector of Cologne in 1598. A relapse of the city led to a new ban of the emperor Matthias in 1613, and in the following year Spinola's Spanish troops brought back the recalcitrant city to the Catholic fold. In 1656 a great fire completed the ruin wrought by the religious wars. By the treaty of Luneville (1801) Aix was incorporated with France as chief town of the department of the Roer. By the congress of Vienna it was given to Prussia. The contrast between the new regime and the ancient tradition of the city was curiously illustrated in 1818 by a scene described in Metternich's Memoirs, when, before the opening of the congress, Francis I., emperor of Austria, regarded by all Germany as the successor of the Holy Roman emperors, knelt at the tomb of Charlemagne amid a worshipping crowd, while the Protestant Frederick William III. of Prussia, the new sovereign of the place, stood in the midst, "looking very uncomfortable.''

See Quix, Geschichte der Stadt Aachen (1841): Pick, Aus Aachens Vergangenheit (Aachen, 1895); Bock, Karls des grossen Pfalzkapelle (Cologne, 1867); and Beissel, Aachen als Kurort (1889).

AIX-LA-CHAPELLE, CONGRESSES OF. Three congresses have been held at Aix-la-Chapelle: the first in 1668, the second in 1748, the third in 1818.

1. The treaty of the 2nd of May 1668, which put an end to the War of Devolution, was the outcome of that of St Germain signed on the 15th of April by France and the representatives of the powers of the Triple Alliance. The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle left to France all the conquests made in Flanders during the campaign of 1667, with all their " appartenances, dependances et annexes.'' a vague provision of which, after the peace of Nijmwegen (1680), Louis XIV. took advantage to occupy a number of villages and towns adjudged to him by his Chambres de reunion as dependencies of the cities and territories acquired in 1668. On the other hand, France restored to Spain the cities of Cambrai, Aire and Saint-Omer, as well as the province of Franche Comte. The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle was placed under the guarantee of Great Britain, Sweden and Holland, by a convention signed at the Hague on the 7th of May 1669, to which Spain acceded.

See Jean du Mont, baron de Carlscroon, Corps universel diplomatique (Amst., 1726-1731).

2. On the 24th of April 1748 a congress assembled at Aix-la-Chapelle for the purpose of bringing to a conclusion the struggle known as the War of Austrian Succession. Between the 30th of April and the 21st of May the preliminaries were agreed to between Great Britain, France and Holland, and to these Maria Theresa, queen of Bohemia and Hungary, the kings of Sardinia and Spain, the duke of Modena, and the republic of Genoa successively gave their adhesion. The definitive treaty was signed on the 18th of October, Sardinia alone refusing to accede, because the treaty of Worms was not guaranteed. Of the provisions of the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle the most important were those stipulating for (1) a general restitution of conquests, including Cape Breton to France, Madras to England and the barrier towns to the Dutch; (2) the assignment to Don Philip of the duchies of Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla; (3) the restoration of the duke of Modena and the republic of Genoa to their former positions; (4) the renewal in favour of Great Britain of the Asiento contract of the 16th of March 1713, and of the right to send an annual vessel to the Spanish colonies; (5) the renewal of the article of the treaty of 1718 recognizing the Protestant succession in the English throne; (6) the recognition of the emperor Francis and the confirmation of the pragmatic sanction, i.e. of the right of Maria Theresa to the Habsburg succession; (7) the guarantee to Prussia of the duchy of Silesia and the county of Glatz.

Spain having raised objections to the Asiento clauses, the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle was supplemented by that of Madrid (5th of October 1750), by which Great Britain surrendered her claims under those clauses in return for a sum of L. 100,000. II.See A. J. H. de Clercq, Recueil des traites de la France; F. A. Wenk, Corpus juris gentium recentissimi, 1735-1772, vol. ii. (Leipzig, 1786), p. 337; Comte G. de Garden, Hist. des traites de paix, 1848-1887, iii p. 373.

3. The congress or conference of Aix-la-Chapelle, held in the autumn of 1818, was primarily a meeting of the four allied powers—Great Britain, Austria, Prussia and Russia—to decide the question of the withdrawal of the army of occupation from France and the nature of the modifications to be introduced in consequence into the relations of the four powers towards each other, and collectively towards France. The congress, of which the first session was held on the 1st of October, was attended by the emperor Alexander I. of Russia, the emperor Francis I. of Austria, and Frederick William III. of Prussia, in person. Great Britain was represented by Lord Castlereagh and the duke of Wellington, Austria by Prince Metternich, Russia by Counts Capo d'Istria and Nesselrode, Prussia by Prince Hardenberg and Count Bernstorff. The duc de Richelieu, by favour of the allies, was present on behalf of France. The evacuation of France was agreed to in principle at the first session, the consequent treaty being signed on the 9th of October. The immediate object of the conference being thus readily disposed of, the time of the congress was mainly occupied in discussing the form to be taken by the European alliance, and the "military measures,'' if any, to be adopted as a precaution against a fresh outburst on the part of France. The proposal of the emperor Alexander I. to establish a "universal union of guarantee'' on the broad basis of the Holy Alliance, after much debate, broke down on the uncompromising opposition of Great Britain; and the main outcome of the congress was the signature, on the 15th of November, of two instruments: (1) a secret protocol confirming and renewing the quadruple alliance established by the treaties of Chaumont and Paris (of the 20th of November 1815) against France; (2) a public "declaration'' of the intention of the powers to maintain their intimate union. "strengthened by the ties of Christian brotherhood,'' of which the object was the preservation of peace on the basis of respect for treaties. The secret protocol was communicated in confidence to Richelieu; to the declaration France was invited publicly to adhere.

Besides these questions of general policy, the congress concerned itself with a number of subjects left unsettled in the hurried winding up of the congress of Vienna, or which had arisen since. Of these the most important were the questions as to the methods to be adopted for the suppression of the slave trade and the Barbary pirates. In neither case was any decision arrived at, owing (1) to the refusal of the other powers to agree with the British proposal for a reciprocal right of search on the high seas; (2) to the objection of Creat Britain to international action which would have involved the presence of a Russian squadron in the Mediterranean. In matters of less importance the congress was more unanimous. Thus, on the urgent appeal of the king of Denmark, the king of Sweden (Bernadotte) received a peremptory summons to carry out the terms of the treaty of Kiel; the petition of the elector of Hesse to be recognized as king was unanimously rejected; and measures were taken to redress the grievances of the German mediatized princes. The more important outstanding questions in Germany, e.g. the Baden succession, were after consideration reserved for a further conference to be called at Frankfort. In addition to these a great variety of questions were considered, from that of the treatment of Napoleon at St Helena, to the grievances of the people of Monaco against their prince and the position of the Jews in Austria and Prussia. An attempt made to introduce the subject of the Spanish colonies was defeated by the opposition of Great Britain. Lastly, certain vexatious questions of diplomatic etiquette were settled once for all (see DIPLOMACY.) The congress, which broke up at the end of November, is of historical importance mainly as marking the highest point reached in the attempt to govern Europe by an international committee of the powers. The detailed study of its proceedings is highly instructive in revealing the almost insurmountable obstacles to any really effective international system.

AUTHORITIES.—- F.O. Records (the volumes marked Continent, Aix-la-Chapelle, To and from Viscount Castlereagh): State Papers: (3) F.. de Martens, Nouveau recueil de traites, &c. (Gottingen, 1817-1842); F. de Martens, Recueil des traites conclus par la Russie, &c. 1874 in progr.); F. von Gentz, Deleches inedites, &c., ed. Baron Prokesch-Osten, 3 vols. (1876-1877); Metternich, Memoirs; Wellington, Suppl. Despatches; Castlereagh, Correspondence, &c.

AIX-LES-BAINS, a town of France, in the department of Savoie, near the Lac du Bourget, and 9 m. by rail N. of Chambery. Pop. (1901) 4741. It is 846 ft. above the level of the sea. It was a celebrated bathing-place, under the name of Aquae Gratianae, in the time of the Romans, and possesses numerous ancient remains. The hot springs, which are of sulphureous quality, and have a temperature of from 109 deg. to 113 deg. F., are still much frequented, attracting annually many thousands of visitors. They are used for drinking as well as for bathing purposes.

AIYAR, SIR SHESHADRI (1845-1901), native statesman of Mysore, India, was the son of a Brahman of Palghat in the district of Malabar. He was educated at the provincial school at Calicut and the presidency college in Madras, and entered the government service as a translator. In 1868 he was transferred to Mysore under Runga Charlu, and for thirteen years filled various offices in that state; but when Mysore was restored to native rule in 1881, he became personal assistant to Runga Charlu, whom he succeeded as diwan in 1885 . For the next seventeen years he laboured assiduously to promote the economic and industrial development of the state, and proved an able assistant to the Maharaja Chamarajendra. By means of railway, irrigation and mining works, he added greatly to the wealth of the state, and put it on a sound financial footing. He retired in 1900, was made K.C.S.I. in 1893 and died on the 13th of September 1901.

AIYAR, SIR TIRUVARUR MUTUSWAMY (1832-1895), native Indian judge of the high court of Madras, was born of poor parents in the village of Vuchuwadi, near Tanjore, on the 28th of January 1832. His widowed mother was forced by poverty to remove with Mutuswamy and his brother to Tiruvarar, where the former learnt Tamil, and soon set to work under the village accountant at a monthly salary of one rupee. About this time he lost his mother, whose memory he cherished with reverence and affection to the last. His duty took him to the court-house of the tehsildar, Mr Naiken, who soon remarked his extraordinary intelligence and industry. There was an English school at Tiruvarar, where Mutuswamy managed to pick up an elementary knowledge of the English language. Mr Naiken then sent him to Sir Henry Montgomery's school at Madras, as a companion to his nephew, and there he won prizes and scholarships year after year. In 1854 he won a prize of 500 rupees offered to the students of the Madras presidency by the council of education for the best English essay. This success brought him to the notice of Sir Alexander Arbuthnot and Mr Justice Holloway. He was offered help to proceed to England and compete for the civil service, but being a Brahman and married, he declined to cross the ocean. Instead he entered the subordinate government service, and was employed in such various posts as school-teacher, record-keeper in Tanjore, and in 1856 deputy-inspector of schools. At this time the Madras authorities instituted the examination for the office of pleaders, and Mutuswamy came out first in the first examination, even beating Sir T. Madhavarao, his senior by many years. Mutuswamy was then appointed in succession district munsiff at Tranquebar, deputy-collector in Tanjore in 1859, sub-judge of south Kanara in 1865, and a magistrate of police at Madras in 1868. While serving in the last post he passed the examination for the degree of bachelor of laws of the local university. He was next employed as a judge of the Madras small causes court, until in 1878 he was raised to the bench of the high court, which office he occupied with ability and distinction for over fifteen years, sometimes acting as the chief justice. He attended by invitation of the viceroy the imperial assemblage at Delhi in 1877. In 1878 he received the honour of C.I.E. and in 1893 the K.C.I.E. was conferred on him. But he did not live long to enjoy this dignity, dying suddenly in 1895. Mutuswamy was too devoted to his official work to give much time to other pursuits. Still he took his full share in the affairs of the Madras university, of which he was nominated a fellow in 1872 and a syndic in 1877, and was well acquainted with English law, literature and philosophy. He was through life a staunch Brahman, devout and amiable in character, with a taste for the ancient music of India and the study of the Vedas and other departments of Sanskrit literature.

AJACCIO, the capital of Corsica, on the west coast of the island, 210 m. S.E. of Marseilles. Pop. (1906) 19,021. Ajaccio occupies a sheltered position at the foot of wooded hills on the northern shore of the Gulf of Ajaccio. The harbour, lying to the east of the town, is protected on the south by a peninsula which carries the citadel and terminates in the Citadel jetty; to the south-west of this peninsula lies the Place Bonaparte, a quarter frequented chiefly by winter visitors attracted by the mild climate of the town. Apart from one or two fine thoroughfares converging to the Place Bonaparte, the streets are mean and narrow and the town has a deserted appearance. The house in which Napoleon I, was born in 1769 is preserved, and his associations with the town are everywhere emphasized by street-names and statues. The other buildings, including the cathedral of the 16th century, are of little interest. The town is the seat of a bishopric dating at least from the 7th century and of a prefect. It has tribunals of first instance and of commerce, training colleges, a communal college, a museum and a library; the three latter are established in the Palais Fesch. founded by Cardinal Fesch, who was born at Ajaccio in 1763. Ajaccio has small manufactures of cigars and macaroni and similar products, and carries on shipbuilding, sardine-fishing and coral-fishing. Its exports include timber, citrons, skins, chestnuts and gallic acid. The port is accessible by the largest ships, but its accommodation is indifferent. In 1904 there entered 603 vessels with a tonnage of 202,980, and cleared 608 vessels with a tonnage of 202,502. The present town of Ajaccio lies about two miles to the south of its original site, from which it was transferred by the Genoese in 1492. Occupied from 1553 to 1559 by the French, it again fell to the Genoese after the treaty of Cateau Cambresis in the latter year. The town finally passed to the French in 1768. Since 1810 it has been capital of the . department of Corsica.

AJAIGARH, or ADJYGURH, a native state of India, in Bundelkhand, under the Central India agency. It has an area of 771 sq. m., and a population in 1901 of 78,236. The chief. who is a Bundela Rajput, bears the title of sawai maharaja. He has an estimated revenue of about L. 15,000, and pays a tribute of L. 460. He resides at the town of Naushahr, at the foot of the hill-fortress of Ajaigarh, from which the state takes its name. This fort is situated on a very steep hill, more than 800 ft. above the town of the same name; and contains the ruins of temples adorned with elaborately carved sculptures. It was captured by the British in 1809. The town is subject to malaria. The state suffered severely from famine in 1868-1869, and again in 1896-1897.

AJANTA (more properly AJUJNTHI), a village in the dominions of the Nizam of Hyderabad in India (N. lat. 20 deg. 32' by E. long. 75 deg. 48'), celebrated for its cave hermitages and halls. The caves are in a wooded and rugged ravine about 3 1/2 m. from the village. Along the bottom of the ravine runs the river Wagura, a mountain stream, which forces its way into the valley over a bluff on the east, and forms in its descent a beautiful waterfall, or rather series of waterfalls, 200 ft. high, the sound of which must have been constantly audible to the dwellers in the caves. These are about thirty in number, excavated in the south side of the precipitous bank of the ravine, and vary from 35 to 110 ft. in elevation above the bed of the torrent. The caves are of two kinds—-dwelling-halls and meeting-halls. The former, as one enters from the pathway along the sides of the cliff, have a broad verandah, its roof supported by pillars, and giving towards the interior on to a hall averaging in size about 35 ft. by 20 ft. To left and right, and at the back, dormitories are excavated opening on to this hall, and in the centre of the back, facing the entrance, an image of the Buddha usually stands in a niche. The number of dormitories varies according to the size of the hall, and in the larger ones pillars support the roof on all three sides, forming a sort of cloister running round the hall. The meeting-halls go back into the rock about twice as far as the dwelling-halls; the largest of them being 94 1/2 ft. from the verandah to the back, and 41 1/4 ft. across, including the . cloister. They were used as chapter-houses for the meetings of the Buddhist Order. The caves are in three groups, the oldest group being of various dates from 200 B.C. to A.D. 200, the second group belonging, approximately, to the 6th, and the third group to the 7th century A.D. Most of the interior walls of the caves were covered with fresco paintings, of a considerable degree of merit, and somewhat in the style of the early Italian painters. When first discovered, in 1817, these frescoes were in a fair state of preservation, but they have since been allowed to go hopelessly to ruin. Fortunately, the school of art in Bombay, especially under the supervision of J. Griffiths, had copied in colours a number of them before the last vestiges had disappeared, and other copies of certain of the paintings have also been made. These copies are invaluable as being the only evidence we now have of pictorial art in India before the rise of Hinduism. The expression "Cave Temples'' used by Anglo-Indians of such halls is inaccurate. Ajanta was a kind of college monastery. Hsuan Tsang informs us that Dinnaga, the celebrated Buddhist philosopher and controversialist, author of well-known books on logic, resided there. In its prime the settlement must have afforded accommodation for several hundreds, teachers and pupils combined. Very few of the frescoes have been identified, but two are illustrations of stones in Arya Sura's Jataka Mala, as appears from verses in Buddhist Sanskrit painted beneath them.

See J. Burgess and Bhagwanlal lndraji, Inscriptions from the Cave Temples of Western India (Bombay, 1881); J. Fergusson and L. Burgess, Cave Temples of India (London, 1880); J. Griffiths, Paintings in the Buddhist Cave Temples of Ajanta (London, 2 vols., 1896—1897). (T. W. R. D.)

AJAX (Gr. Aias), a Greek hero, son of Oileus, king of Locris, called the "lesser'' or Locrian Ajax, to distinguish him from Ajax, son of Telamon. In spite of his small stature, he held his own amongst the other heroes before Troy; he was brave, next to Achilles in swiftness of foot and famous for throwing the spear. But he was boastful, arrogant and quarrelsome; like the Telamonian Ajax, he was the enemy of Odysseus, and in the end the victim of the vengeance of Athene, who wrecked his ship on his homeward voyage (Odyssey, iv. 499). A later story gives a more definite account of the offence of which he was guilty. It is said that, after the fall of Troy, he dragged Cassandra away by force from the statue of the goddess at which she had taken refuge as a suppliant, and even violated her (Lycophron, 360, Quintus Smyrnaeus xiii. 422). For this, his ship was wrecked in a storm on the coast of Euboea, and he himself was struck by lightning (Virgil, Aen. i. 40). He was said to have lived after his death in the island of Leuke. He was worshipped as a national hero by the Opuntian Locrians (on whose coins he appears), who always left a vacant place for him in the ranks of their army when drawn up in battle array. He was the subject of a lost tragedy by Sophocles. The rape of Cassandra by Ajax was frequently represented in Greek works of art, for instance on the chest of Cypselus described by Pausanias (v. 17) and in extant works.

AJAX, son Of Telamon, king of Cyprus, a legendary hero of ancient Greece. To distinguish him from Ajax, son of Oileus, he was called the "great'' or Telamonian Ajax. In Homer's Iliad he is described as of great stature and colossal frame, second only to Achilles in strength and bravery, and the "bulwark of the Achaeans.', He engaged Hector in single combat and, with the aid of Athene, rescued the body of Achilles from the hands of the Trojans. In the competition between him and Odysseus for the armour of Achilles, Agamemnon, at the instigation of Athene, awarded the prize to Odysseus. This so enraged AJax that it caused his death (Odyssey, xi. 541). According to a later and more definite story, his disappointment drove him mad; he rushed out of his tent and fell upon the flocks of sheep in the camp under the impression that they were the enemy on coming to his senses, he slew himself with the sword which he had received as a present from Hector. This is the account of his death given in the Ajax of Sophocles (Pindar, Nemea, 7; Ovid, Met. xiii. 1). From his blood sprang a red flower, as at the death of Hyacinthus, which bore on its leaves the initial letters of his name AI, also expressive of lament (Pausanias i. 35. 4). His ashes were deposited in a golden urn on the Rhoetean promontory at the entrance of the Hellespont. Like Achilles; he is represented as living after his death in the island of Leuke at the mouth of the Danube (Pausanias iii. 19. 11). Ajax, who in the post-Homeric legend is described as the grandson of Aeacus and the great-grandson of Zeus, was the tutelary hero of the island of.Salamis, where he had a temple and an image, and where a festival called Aianteia was celebrated in his honour (Pausanias i. 35). At this festival a couch was set up, On which the panoply of the hero was placed, a practice which recalls the Roman lectisternium. The identification of Ajax with the family of Aeacus was chiefly a matter which concerned the Athenians, after Salamis had come into their possession, on which occasion Solon is said to have inserted a line in the Iliad (ii. 557 or 558), for the purpose of supporting the Athenian claim to the island. Ajax then became an Attic hero; he was worshipped at Athens, where he had a statue in the market-place, and the tribe Aiantis was called after his name.

Many illustrious Athenians—-Cimon, Miltiades, Alcibiades, the historian Thucydides—-traced their descent from Ajax.

See D. Bassi, La Leggenda di Aiace Telamonio (1890); P. Girard, "Ajax, fils de Telamon,'' 1905, in Revue des etudes grecques, tome 18; J. Vurtheim, De Ajacie Origine, Cultu, Patria (Leiden, 1907), accord. ing to whom he and Ajax Oileus, as depicted in epos, were originally one, a Locrian daemon somewhat resembling the giants. When this spirit put on human form and became known at the Saronic Gulf, he developed into the "greater'' Ajax, while among the Locrians he remained the "lesser.'' In the article GREEK ART fig. 13 (from a black-figured Corinthian vase) represents the suicide of Ajax.

AJMERE, or AJMER, a city of British India in Ra)putana. which gives its name to a district and also,to a petty province called Ajmere-Meirwara. It is situated in 26 deg. 27, N. lat. and 74 deg. 44, E. long., on the lower slopes of Taragarh hill, in the Aravalli mountains. To the north of the city is a large artificial lake called the Anasagar, whence the water supply of the place is derived.

The chief object of interest is the darga, or tomb of a famous Mahommedan saint named Mayud-uddin. It is situated at the foot of the Taragarh mountain, and consists of a block of white marble buildings without much pretension to architectural beauty. To this place the emperor Akbar, with his empress, performed a pilgrimage on foot from Agra in accordance with the terms of a vow he had made when praying for a son. The large pillars erected at intervals of two miles the whole way, to mark the daily halting-place of the imperial pilgrim, are still extant. An ancient Jain temple, now converted into a Mahommedan mosque, is situated on the lower slope of the Taragarh hill. With the exception of that part used as a mosque, nearly the whole of the ancient temple has fallen into ruins, but the relics are not excelled in beauty of architecture and sculpture by any remains of Hindu art. Forty columns support the r00f, but no two are alike, and great fertility of invention is manifested in the execution Of the ornaments. The summit of Taragarh hill, overhanging Ajmere, is crowned by a foot, the lofty thick battlements of which run along its brow and enclose the table-land. The walls are 2 m. in circumference, and the fort can only be approached by steep and very roughly paved planes, commanded by the fort and the outworks, and by the hill to the west. On coming into the hands of the English, the fort Was dismantled by order of Lord William Bentinck, and is now converted into a sanatorium for the troops at Xasirabad. Ajmere was founded about the year 145 A.p. by AJi, a Chauhan, who established the dynasty which continued to rule the country (with many vicissitudes of fortune) while the repeated waves of Mahommedan invasion swept over India, until it eventually became an appanage of the crown Of Delhi in 1193. Its internal government, however, was handed over to its ancient rulers upon the payment of a heavy tribute to the conquerors. It then remained feudatory to Delhi till 1365, when it was captured by the ruler of Mewar. In 1509 the place became a source of Contention between the chiefs of Mewar and Marwar, and was ultimately Conquered in 1532 by the latter prince, who in his turn in 1559 had to give way before the emperor Akbar. It continued in the hands of the Moguls, with occasional revolts, till 1770, when it was ceded to the Mahrattas, from which time up to 1818 the unhappy district was the scene of a continual struggle, being seized at different times by the Mewar and Marwar rajas, from whom it was as often retaken by the Mahrattas. In 1818 the latter ceded it to the British in return for a payment of 50,000 rupees. Since then the country has enjoyed unbroken peace and a stable government.

The modern city is an important station on the Rajputana railway, 615 m. from BOmbay and 275 m. from Delhi, with a branch running due south to the Great Indian Peninsula main line. The city is well laid out with wide streets and handsome houses. The city trade chiefly consists of salt and opium. The former is inlported in large quantities from the Sambar lake and Ramsur. Oil-making is also a profitable branch of trade. Cotton cloths are manufactured to some extent, for the dyeing Of which the city has attained a high reputation2 The educational institutions include the Majo Rajkumar college, opened in 1875, for training the sons of the nobles of Rajputana, on the lines of an English public school. Population (1901) 73,839, showing an increase of 10% in the decade.

The DISTRICT OF AJMERE, which forms the largest part of the province of Ajmere-Merwara, has an area of 2069 sq. m. The eastern portion of the district is generally flat, broken only by gentle undulations, but the western parts, from north-west to south-west, are intersected by the great Aravalli range. Many of the valleys in this region are mere sandy deserts, with an occasional oasis of cultivation, but there are also some very fertile tracts; among these is the plain on which lies the town of Ajmere. This valley, however, is not only fortunate in possessing a noble artificial lake, but is protected by the massive walls of the Nagpathar range or Serpent rock, which forms a harrier against the sand. The only hills in the district are the Aravalli range and its offshoots. Ajmere is almost totally devoid of rivers, the Banas being the only stream which can be dignified with that name, and it only touches the south-eastern boundary of the district so as to irrigate the pargana of Samur. Four small streams —-the Sagarmati, Saraswati, Khari and Dai-also intersect the district. In the dry weather they are little more than brooks. The population in 1901 was 7453, showing a decrease of 13% in the decade. Besides the city of Ajmere, the district contains the military station of Nasirabad, with a population of 22,494.

AJMERE-MERWARA, a division or petty province of British India, in Rajputana, consisting of the two districts of Ajmere and Merwara, separated from each other and isolated amid native states. The administration is in the hands of a commissioner, subordinate to the governor-general's agent for Rajputana. The capital is Ajmere city. The area is 2710 sq. m. The plateau, on whose centre stands the town of Ajmere, may be considered as the highest point in the plains of Hindustan; from the circle of hills which hem it in, the country slopes away on every side—-towards river valleys on the east, south, west and towards the desert region on the north. The Aravalli range is the distinguishing feature of the district. The range of hills which runs between Ajmere and Nasirabad marks the watershed of the continent of India. The rain which falls on one side drains into the Chambal, and so into the Bay of Bengal; that which falls on the other side into the Luni, which discharges itself into the Runn of Cutch. The province is on the border of what may be called the arid "zone''; it is the debatable land between the north-eastern and south-western monsoons, and beyond the influence of either. The south-west monsoon sweeps up the Nerbudda valley from Bombay and crossing the tableland at Neemuch gives copious supplies to Malwa, Jhalawar and Kotah and the countries which lie in the course of the Chambal river. The clouds which strike Kathiawar and Cutch are deprived of a great deal of their moisture by the hills in those countries, and the greater part of the remainder is deposited on Mount Abu and the higher slopes of the Aravalli mountains, leaving but little for Merwara, where the hills are lower, and still less for Ajmere. It is only when the monsoon is in considerable force that Merwara gets a plentiful supply from it. The north-eastern monsoon sweeps up the valley of the Ganges from the Bay of Bengal and waters the northern part of Rajputana, but hardly penetrates farther west than the longitude of Ajmere. On the varying strength of these two monsoons the rainfall of the district depends. The agriculturist in Ajmere-Merwara can never rely upon two good harvests in succession. A province subject to such conditions can hardly be free from famine or scarcity for any length of time; accordingly it was visited by two famines, one of unprecedented severity, and one scarcity, in the decade 1891-1901. In June 1900 the number of persons in receipt of relief was 143,000, being more than one fourth of the total population.

In 1901 the population was 476,912, showing a decrease of 12% in the decade, due to the results of famine. Among Hindus, the Rajputs are land-holders, and the Jats and Gujars are cultivators. The Jains are traders and money-lenders. The aboriginal tribe of Mers are divided between Hindus and Mahommedans. The chief crops are millet, wheat, cotton and oil-seeds. There are several factories for spinning and pressing cotton, the chief trading centres being Beawar and Kekri.

AJODHYA, an ancient city of India, the prehistoric capital of Oudh, in the Fyzabad district of the United Provinces. It is situated on the right bank of the Gogra. In the present day the old city has almost entirely disappeared, and its site is marked only by a heap of ruins; but in remote antiquity Ajodhya was one of the largest and most magnificent of Indian cities. It is said to have covered an area of 96 m., and was the capital of the kingdom of Kosala, the court of the great king Dasaratha, the fifty-sixth monarch of the Solar line in descent from Raja Manu. The opening chapters of the Ramayana recount the magnificence of the city, the glories of the monarch and the virtues, wealth and loyalty of his people. Dasaratha was the father of Rama Chandra, the hero of the epic. A period of Buddhist supremacy followed the death of the last king of the Solar dynasty. On the revival of Brahmanism Ajodhya was restored by King Vikramaditya (c. 57 B.C..) Kosala is also famous as the early home of Buddhism, and of the kindred religion of Jainism, and claims to be the birthplace of the founders of both these faiths. The Chinese traveller, Hsuan Tsang, in the 7th century, found 20 Buddhist temples with 3000 monks at Ajodhya among a large Brahmanical population. The modern town of Ajodhya contains 96 Hindu temples and 36 Mussulman mosques. Little local trade is carried on, but the great fair of Ramnami held every year is attended by about 500,000 people.

AKABA, GULF OF, the Sinus Aelaniticus of antiquity, the eastern of the two divisions into which the Red Sea bifurcates near its northern extremity. It penetrates into Arabia Petraea in a N.N.E. direction, from 28 deg. to 29 deg. 32' N., a distance of 100 m., and its breadth varies from 12 to 17 m. The entrance is contracted by Tiran and other islands, so that the passage is rendered somewhat difficult; and its navigation is dangerous on account of the numerous coral reefs, and the sudden squalls which sweep down from the adjacent mountains, many of which rise perpendicularly to a height of 2000 ft. The gulf is a continuation southward of the Jordan-'Araba depression. Raised beaches on the coast show that there has been a considerable elevation of the sea-bed. The only well-sheltered harbour is that of Dahab (the Golden Port) on its western shore, about 33 m. from the entrance and 29 m. E. of Mount Sinai. Near the head of the gulf is Jeziret Faraun (medieval Graye), a rocky islet with the ruins of a castle built by Baldwin I. (c. 1115).

About 2 1/2 m. from the head of the gulf and on its eastern side is the TOMN OF AKABA, with a picturesque medieval castle, built for the protection of pilgrims on there way from Egypt to Mecca. In the neighbourhood are extensive groves of date palms, and there is an ample supply of good water. Akaba is of considerable historical interest and of great antiquity, being the Elath or Eloth of the Bible, and one of the ports whence Solomon's fleet sailed to Ophir. By the Romans, who made it a military post, it was called Aelana. It continued to be the seat of great commercial activity under the early Moslem caliphs, who corrupted the name to Haila or Ailat. In the 10th century an Arab geographer described it as the great port of Palestine and the emporium of the Hejaz. In the 12th century the town suffered at the hands of Saladin and thereafter fell into decay. In 1841 the town was recognized by Turkey, together with the Sinai peninsula, as part of Egypt. At that time Egyptian pilgrims frequented Akaba in large numbers. In 1892, on the accession of the khedive Abbas II., Turkey resumed possession of Akaba, the Egyptian pilgrims having deserted the land route to Mecca in favour of a sea passage. In 1906 the construction was begun of a branch line joining Akaba to the Mecca railway and thus giving through communication with Beirut. Early in the same year the Turks occupied Taba, a village at the mouth of a small stream g m. by land W. by S. of Akaba, near which is the site, not identified, of the Ezion-Geber of Scripture, another of the ports whence the argosies of the Israelites saileffi. Taba being on the Egyptian side of the frontier, Great Britain intervened on behalf of Egypt, and in May 1906 secured the withdrawal of the Turks.