AIX LA CHAPELLE. 



hronze. On the spot where, in ancient times, a Ro- 

 man castle stood, the kings of the Franks built a 

 royal castle, in German Pfalz. This was destroyed, 

 A. D. 882, by the Normans, restored by the emperor 

 Otho III., 993, and used in the 14th century as the 

 town-house. This building contains many relics 

 of old German art, the liall where the emper- 

 ors were crowned, the bust of Napoleon and 

 his first empress, painted by David, a tower of 

 Roman origin, &c. The minster was erected 

 between the years 796 and 804, by the emperor 

 Charlemagne, and was ornamented with great splen 

 dour. In the middle rises the monument of Charle- 

 magne, with the simple inscription, Carolo Magtio. 

 Above it hangs, suspended by a chain, a colossal 

 crown of silver and gilt copper, a donation of Fre- 

 deric I., which serves as a chandelier for forty-eight 

 candles. Here is to be seen the chair of white mar- 

 ble, on which several emperors have sat at the time 

 of their coronation. It was formerly overlaid with 

 gold. The church of the Franciscans is distinguished 

 by a beautiful picture of Rubens, the Descent from 

 the Cross, which was carried to Paris, but has been 

 brought back. The inhabitants are for the most 

 part catholics, many of whom are actively engaged 

 in manufactures. The cloths of A. are famous on 

 the continent of Europe. A manufacture of needles, 

 established about the middle of the 16th century, by 

 Gauthier Wolmar, formerly employed more than 

 1 5,000 workmen, but in the year 1808 only 8000. A. 

 contains fifteen charitable institutions ; it has seven 

 mineral springs, six of them warm. The most 

 famous is the imperial spring, the vapour of which, if 

 confined, deposites sulphur. The rooms for bathing 

 are excellent, with baths from four to five feet deep, 

 in massive stone, after the old Roman fashion ; the 

 greater part have bed-chambers with chimneys. At 

 a distance of 500 paces from A. lies the village of 

 Burtscheid, which also contains hot springs. The 

 upper springs are in the village itself, the lower in 

 the valley, in the open air. The water is useful for 

 washing and dyeing cloths. The upper springs con- 

 tain no hepatic gas, and deposit no sulphur ; in this 

 respect they differ from the lower, and those of A. 

 There are also in Burtscheid manufactures of broad- 

 cloth, cassimere, and needles. The coal-mines and 

 pyrites in the surrounding country account for the 

 hot-wells of A. and B. The names of several 

 streets, Alexander, Francis, Wellington street, re- 

 mind us of the congress of A. in 1818. (See the fol- 

 lowing article.) The history and description of A. 

 with B. and Spa, by Aloys Schreiber, Heidelberg, 

 IS24, is the best guide book for travellers on the 

 Rhine. 



AIX LA CHAPELLE, congress at. In modern poli- 

 tics, the congress at A. in Oct. and Nov. 1818, is of 

 high importance. The principal measures determin- 

 ed on at this meeting of the great powers which had 

 conquered Napoleon, were the following: 1. The 

 nrmy of the allies, consisting of 150,000 British, 

 Russian, Austrian, Prussian, and other troops, which, 

 Slice the second peace at Paris, had remained in 

 France, to watch over its tranquillity, was withdrawn 

 after France had paid the contribution imposed at the 

 peace of 1815. The king of France was then ad- 

 mitted into the holy alliance. Thus the congress of 

 A. restored independence to France. 2. The five 

 Allies, the emperors of Austria and Russia, and the 

 kings of Great Britain, France, and Prussia, issued 

 at tnis time the famous declaration of Nov. 15, 1818, 

 :v document of very dangerous tendency, too inde- 

 finite to settle any of the important political questions 

 then pending, but full of the personal views and 

 feelings of the monarchs, and the legitimate offspring 

 af the holy a!lianc concluded Sept. 26, 1815, at 



Paris. The friends of absolute government in 

 Europe, who confound the idea of the reigning 

 family with that of the state and the government, ad- 

 mired the paternal professions of the sovereigns in 

 this instrument, which is principally of a religious 

 character ; but sagacious politicians and the friends 

 of justice foresaw all the evils which it afterwards 

 produced. Its vagueness admitted of a great lati- 

 tude of construction, and it was soon followed by a 

 breach of the law of nations in the invasion of Italy 

 and Spain under the newly-declared droit d' inter- 

 vention armee, promulgated at Laybach, a direct con- 

 sequence of the doctrines advanced at A. The holy 

 alliance, with all the declarations of the succeeding 

 congresses at Troppau, Laybach, and Verona, af- 

 fords the first instance of an avowedly personal 

 alliance between many monarchs to maintain certain 

 principles of government, and attack every nation 

 within their reach which adopts a different political 

 creed. After the termination of the struggle against 

 Napoleon, in which princes and people were firmly 

 united, the former anxiously separated their interests 

 from those of the latter, and at the congress at A. 

 they openly manifested the designs which every suc- 

 ceeding congress has developed more clearly. (See 

 Holy Alliance.) The king of France, at this con- 

 gress, became a member of the holy alliance only in 

 his personal character, not as the constitutional chief 

 of the French government, following the example of 

 George IV. then prince regent of Great Britain. 

 In fact, the accession of these two sovereigns was 

 only to avoid appearing directly opposed to the all i- 

 ance. 3. From the congress of A. are to be dated 

 all the decisive measures of the German governments 

 against the libe^l spirit which had spread among 

 their subjects since the wars of Napoleon. In A. it 

 was first seen how unwilling the king of Prussia was 

 to fulfil his promises of liberal institutions, and how 

 anxiously Austria desired to suppress whatever 

 tended to give force to public opinion, to secure the 

 rights of the people, or promote the cause of repre- 

 sentative government. At A. Mr Stourdza, a Rus- 

 sian subject, published his influential work, Memoirc 

 sur F Etat actuel de I' Allemagne. The congress at 

 Carlsbad (q. v.) was an immediate consequence of the 

 congress at A. It had reference, however, only to 

 Germany. History will point out the period of these 

 congresses as the era of violent political bigotry, 

 corresponding to the former ages of religious bigotry 

 in its principles as in its measures. (See M. de 

 Pradt's U Europe apres le Congres d' Aix la Chapelle, 

 8vo. Paris, 1819, and Mr Schoell's Histoire des 

 Truites de Paix, with his Archives Politiyues, 1818- 

 19.) For the congress at A. in 1748, see tneTol- 

 lowing article. 



AIX LA CHAPELLE, treaties of peace concluded at, 

 The first, May 2d, 1668, put an end to the war car- 

 ried on against Spain by Louis XIV., in 1667, after 

 the death of his father-in-law, Philip IV., in support 

 of his claims to a great part of the Spanish Nether- 

 lands, which he urged in the name of his queen, the 

 infanta Maria Theresa, pleading the jus devolutionis. 

 prevailing among private persons in Brabant and 

 Namur. Condc had already conquered Franche- 

 Comte, and Turenne had taken ten fortresses, when 

 the triple alliance, concluded by de-Witt and Sir 

 William Temple (see Witt and Temple), determined 

 France to make peace with Spain, on conditions 

 which were agreed upon at St Germain with the 

 allies, and ratified at A. Spain had the option to 

 surrender either the Fninche-Comte or the fortified 

 places in the Netherlands. She chose to give up 

 the latter. Thus France obtained a part of the 

 ancient Burgundy, the Spanish fortresses Lille, 

 Charleroi, Bind), Douai, Touniai, Oudenarde, and 



