LUC 



four churches and nine monaiteries, and pleafantly fituated 

 on an eminence in a plain, near the middle of the province, 

 "about 7J miles N.E. of Naples. The jurifdiftion of the 

 province is held here, and the manufadure is cloth. N. lat. 

 41*" 28'. E. long, ij^ 16'. — Alfo, a town of Naples, in 

 Calabria Citra ; 7 miles S. of Cofenza. 



LUCERIUS, in Mythology, a name given to Jupiter, as 

 Luceria was given to Juno, as the deities which gave light to 

 the world. 



LUCERN, inCeographyt a canton of Switzerland, bound- 

 ed on the W. and N. by Bern, en the E. by Zurich and 

 Schweitz, on the S. by Underwalden and Bern, lying in N. 

 lat. 47" 10' ; being from 30 to 50 miles from N. to S., and 

 from 25 to 30 in breadth, and containing 100,000 inhabitants, 

 who are chiefly employed in agriculture. The fouthern parts 

 of this canton are chiefly mountainous, and furnilh for ex- 

 portation cattle, hides, cheefe, and butter. The northern 

 diilriil is fruitful in corn, wliich, being more than fufficient 

 for the confumption of the canton, allows of a confl;ant 

 exportation from the weekly market held in the town, to 

 which the inhabitants of the fmall canton refort for the 

 purchafe of that and of other neceffaries. This commerce, 

 together witrh the paflage of the merchandize for Italy, is 

 the chief fupport of the town, and might be much improved 

 and augmented, confidcring its advantageous iituation ; for 

 the Reufs ifl'ues from the lake, pafles through the town, 

 and, having joined the Aar, falls into the Rhine. 



Lucern, originally fubjeft to the houfe of Auftria, was 

 QXpofed to the inroads of Uri, Schweitz, and Underwalden, 

 when thefe cantons had feized their independence. Her 

 commerce to Italy was interrupted ; her fairs unfrequented ; 

 and her citizens compelled to be continually under arms, 

 in order to prote£i their territory from inceflant depreda- 

 tions. Under thefe circumftances, the Auftrians loading 

 the citizens with exorbitant taxes, Lucern made her peace 

 with the confederate cantons ; and, expelling the Auftrian 

 party, entered into a perpetual alliance with Uri, Schweitz, 

 and Underwalden, and became a member of the Helvetic 

 union. The accefEon of Lucern gave additional credit and 

 power to the confederacy, and enabled it to refill all the 

 efforts of a great and implacable enemy. In 1386, Leopold, 

 duke of Auftria, invaded the canton with a numerous army ; 

 when the combined troops gained a bloody vidlory at Sem- 

 pach, in which Leopold loft his life. 



The government of Lucern was entirely ariftocratical, or 

 rather oligarchical. The fovereign power refided in the 

 council of 100, comprifing the fenate, or little council. The 

 great council w'a^ the nominal fovereign ; but the whole 

 power aftually relided in the fenate, confifting of 36 mem- 

 bers, who were formed into two divifions, exercifing the 

 ofSce by rotation. The adminiftration of the current af- 

 fairs, the care of the police, the management of the finances, 

 and the whole executive power, refided in the fenate, which 

 fat conftantly ; whereas the fovereign council was aflembled 

 only upon important occaiions. The fenate had cognizance 

 of criminal caufes ; but in cafe of capital condemnation the 

 fovereign council was convoked, in order to pronounce the 

 fentence. In civil caufes, an appeal lay from the fenate to 

 the fovereign council, which, in reality, was a matter of mere 

 foFra, as it was an appeal from the fenators in one court, to 

 the fame fenators in another. The influence of the fenute 

 over the fovereign council was abfolute ; for they conftituted 

 above a third of that body, chofe their own members, con- 

 ferred the principal charges of government, and nominated 

 to the ecclefiatlical benefices, which are confiderable ; nearly 

 two-thirds of the revenue of the canton belonging to the 

 clergy. From a view of this conftitution, it appears, that 



LUC 



when the fpirit of the conftitution is oligarchical, all lawi 

 enacted for the purpofe of counteraAing the power of the 

 nobles are mere cyphers. However, m fome inftanres, 

 the authority of the nobles is controuled ; for, in declaring 

 war and peace, forming new alliances, or impofing taxes, 

 the citizens were to be affemblc-d, and to give their confent. 

 Lucern, being the firft in rank and power among the Ca- 

 tholic cantons, was the refidence of the pope's nuncio, and 

 all affairs relating to religion were difcufiVd in the annual 

 diet, which aflembled in the town, and which was compofed 

 of the deputies ofthofe cantons. 



Lucern, though an oligarchical ftate, manifefted, at the 

 time of the French revolution, an averfion from all innovation. 

 The people appeared to be fatisfied with their goverr.ment, 

 and refifted all attempts to effeft a change. During th« 

 progrefs of the revolution, Lucern afted with great fpirit, 

 and was inclined to join in defence of her own iiidependence, 

 as well as in fupport of the Helvetic union. Even after the 

 furrender of Bern and the dcfertion of Zurich, a numerous 

 body of peafants demanded the re-eftablilhment of the an- 

 cient government, and joined the troops of the fmall cantons 

 to refift the entrance of the French ; and the whole 

 canton did not acquiefce without much oppofition and blood- 

 flied. At length a corps of Frendi, after a Ihort in- 

 veftment, entered the town of Lucern, a-nd reduced the 

 people to unconditional fubmiflion. Soon after this event, 

 Lucern became the feat of the new Helvetic government. 

 According to the conftitution of the 29th of May, 1801, 

 Lucern was one of the 17 departments, or cantons, into 

 which Switzerland was divided : it retained its former extent 

 and deputed five reprefentatives to the diet. Near the 

 town of Lucern is mount " Pilate," formerly called Mons 

 Pikatus, from the Latin word pilea, becaufe its top is 

 generally covered with a cloud or cap. This word has 

 been corrupted into " Pilatus," whence fome have ridi- 

 culoufly contended that Pontius Pilate, after having con- 

 demned our Saviour to death, was feized with remorfe, 

 m^de an excurfion into Sviitzerland, and drowned himfe'f 

 in a lake at the top of the mountain. At the elevation of 

 5000 feet, and in the moft perpendicular part of this moun- 

 tain, near the pafture of Brunlen, is obferved, jn the middle 

 of a cavern hollowed in a black rock, a coloflal ftatiie, 

 which appears to be of white ftone. It is the figure of a 

 man in drapery, leaning one elbow on a pedeftal, with orx 

 leg crofled over the other, and fo regularly formed, that it 

 can fcarcely be a lufus naturae. This ftatue is called " Do- 

 minic" by the peafants, who frequently accoft it from the 

 only place in which it can be feen, and when their voices arc 

 re-echoed from the cavern, they fay, in the fimplicity of 

 their hearts, " Dominic has anfwered us." It is difficult 

 to imagine by whom, or in what manner, this itatue could 

 be placed in a fituation which has hitherto proved inaccef- 

 fible to all who have endeavoured to approach it. This is, 

 perhaps, one of the highell mountains in Switzerland, if 

 eftimated from its bafe, and not from the level of the fca ; 

 its elevation abos-e the lake being more than 6000 feet. 

 Soon after the French took poflefiion of Lucern, general 

 Brune erefted, with great fuleranity, the ftandard of hberty 

 on the top of mount Pilate ; thus, as Coxe fays, conferring 

 on the Swifs the (hadow, while he deprived them of the 

 fubftance of freedom. Coxe's Switzerland, vol. i. 



Lucern, the capital of the abovc-delcribed canton, a 

 fmall, tolerably built, walled, trading town, containing about 

 3300 inhabitants, and agreeably fitu:ited on a plain almoil 

 environed by hills, at the efflux of the Reufs from the lake 

 of Lucern, and at the N.W. extrpmiry of the lake ; 30 

 miles S.W. of Zurich, and 40 E. of Bern. The cathedral 

 4A 2 and 



