Page:1902 Encyclopædia Britannica - Volume 25 - A-AUS.pdf/297

 ALBUQUERQ U E —A L C O C K great credit for the resolution with which, at the battle of Novara, he held his ground against the superior forces of the enemy. From 1851 to 1860 he commanded the forces in Hungary, a post of great political difficulty. In 1859 and 1864 he was sent on important military and diplomatic missions to Berlin. When war became imminent in 1866 the archduke, who had now been made field-marshal, was placed in command of the Austrian army in Italy. With an army of about 130,000 he had to keep in check the Italian forces of nearly double the number. In the short campaign which followed he displayed the highest military qualities; leaving only a small force to watch the army which was advancing from the Po, with 75,000 men he attacked 130,000 Italians, who under the command of the king had crossed the Mincio, and at the battle of Custozza (23rd June) defeated them with the loss of 8000 men and fourteen cannon. The result of this battle was that both the Italian armies had to retreat, and the archduke was able to send 50,000 men to reinforce the northern army, when, after being defeated by the Prussians, it fell back on Vienna. The Italians, moreover, had to give up the hope of obtaining from Austria any territory except Venetia. On 10th July the archduke was summoned to Vienna to take command of the combined forces which were being collected to defend the capital, but peace was made before further hostilities took place. From this time he was chiefly occupied with the reform and reorganization of the Austrian army; he was made inspector-general of the forces in 1868. In 1870 he conducted the military negotiations preparatory to an alliance with France, which, however, was not concluded. He married, in 1844, Hildegarde, daughter of Ludwig, first king of Bavaria, who died in 1864. He died himself 18th February 1895, leaving two daughters. His only son died in childhood, and his nephew, Archduke Frederick (born 1856), inherited his great possessions. (j. w. He.) Albuquerque, a city of New Mexico, U.S.A., the capital of Bernalillo county, situated in the central part of the territory, on the east bank of the Bio Grande, in 35° 05' N. lat. and 106° 38' W. long., at an altitude of 4950 feet. The streets extend in a regular plan over a plain sloping gently to the. river. It is the connecting point of two main lines of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe railway system. The old Mexican town of Albuquerque, which antedates American jurisdiction over the region, lies about two miles north-west of the modern town, with which it is connected by a street railway. The population of the new town in 1890 was 3785, and in 1900 it was 6238; of the old Mexican town, 1733 in 1890, and 1191 in 1900. AS bury, a town in Australia, New South Wales, in the county of Goulburn; it stands on the border of Victoria and on the right bank of the Murray river, here spanned by two bridges, one carrying the roadway, the other the double railway; 386 miles by rail from Sydney. The Murray is navigable for small steamers from this town to its mouth, a distance of 1800 miles. Altitude 572 feet. Mean rainfall (23 years) 26‘39 inches. Population (1881), 5715; (1891), 5447; (1901), 5820. Alcala de Henares, a city of Spain, 17 miles E.N.E. of Madrid. Population, 8745. After the transfer of the university to Madrid the Government turned most of the principal buildings erected by Cardinal Cisneros in the 16th century into a depot for the archives of various state departments. Here, too, are kept very complete and curious documents of the Inquisition, showing all its workings from the 15th to the 19 th century.

253

Alcala de Los Gazules, a town of Spain, province of Cadiz, 32 miles E. by S. of Cadiz. It has a splendid climate, and the soil in the surrounding districts is very fertile. There is a prosperous cork industry. It was originally a Moorish town, as its name indicates. Population (1897), 10,027. A lea mo, a town of Sicily, Italy, in the province of Trapani, 24 miles S.W. from Palermo. It stands 837 feet above sea-level, and produces wine. It was originally a Saracenic town, and was made Christian by the Emperor Frederick II. in 1233. Population (1881), 37,697 ; (1901), 51,811. AI COSter, a market-town and railway station, under a rural district council, in the south-western parliamentary division of Warwickshire, England, on the Alne, 15 miles W.S.W. of Warwick. A Boman Catholic school chapel, a hospital for infectious diseases, and a reading room have been erected. The manufacture of needles has declined ; in the town there are implement works, cycle works, and a brewery. Area, 1626 acres. Population of rural district (1901), 11,392. Alcester, Frederick Beauchamp Paget Seymour, Baron (1821-1895), British admiral, son of Colonel Sir Horace Beauchamp Seymour, and cousin of Francis George Hugh Seymour, 5th Marquis of Hertford, was born on 12th April 1821. Entering the navy in 1834, he served in the Mediterranean and the Pacific, was for three years flag-lieutenant to his uncle Sir George Seymour, and was promoted to be commander in 1847. He served in Burma as a volunteer in 1852; was made a captain in 1854 ; took the Meteor ironclad battery out to the Black Sea and home again in 1856; was captain of the Pelorus on the Australian station from 1857 to 1863, and commanded the naval brigade in New Zealand during the Maori war, 1860-61, for which he was made a C.B. He became a rear-admiral in 1870; in 1871-72 he commanded the flying squadron; was a lord of the Admiralty in 1872-74, and commanded the Channel fleet, 1874-76. On 31st December 1876 he was made a vice-admiral; a K.C.B. on 2nd June 1877. In 1880-83 he was commanderin-chief of the fleet in the Mediterranean, and in 1880 had also the chief command of the European squadron sent to the coast of Albania as a demonstration to compel the Porte to cede Dulcigno to Montenegro. On 24th May 1881 he was made a G.C.B., and on 6th May 1882 was promoted to the rank of admiral. In July 1882 he commanded at the bombardment of Alexandria and in the subsequent operations on the coast of Egypt, for which service he was raised to the peerage as Baron Alcester of Alcester in the county of Warwick, received a parliamentary grant of .£25,000, the freedom of the city of London, and a sword of honour. On his return from the Mediterranean he was for a couple of years again at the Admiralty, and in 1886 he was placed on the retired list. For the next nine years he lived chiefly in London, but latterly his health was much broken, and he died on 30th March 1895. He was unmarried, and the peerage became extinct. (j. k. l.) Alcock, Sir Rutherford (1809-1897), British consul and diplomatist, was the son of Dr Thomas Alcock, who practised at Ealing, near London, and himself followed the medical profession. In 1836 he became a surgeon in the marine brigade which took part in the Carlist war, and gaining distinction by his services was made deputy inspector-general of hospitals. He retired from this service in 1837, and seven years later was appointed consul at Foochow in China, where, after a short official stay at Amoy, he performed the functions, as he himself expressed

•