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Rh success in this struggle led to his being appointed chief of the Supreme Executive Commission which had been created in St Petersburg to deal with the revolutionary agitation in general. Here, as in the Caucasus, he showed a decided preference for the employment of ordinary legal methods rather than exceptional extra-legal measures, and an attempt on his own life soon after he assumed office did not shake his convictions. In his opinion the best policy was to strike at the root of the evil by removing the causes of popular discontent, and for this purpose he recommended to the emperor a large scheme of administrative and economic reforms. Alexander II., who was beginning to lose faith in the efficacy of the simple method of police repression hitherto employed, lent a willing ear to the suggestion; and when the Supreme Commission was dissolved in August 1880, he appointed Count Loris-Melikov Minister of the Interior with exceptional powers. The proposed scheme of reforms was at once taken in hand, but it was never carried out. On the very day in March 1881 that the emperor signed a ukaz creating several commissions, composed of officials and eminent private individuals, who should prepare reforms in various branches of the administration, he was assassinated by Nihilist conspirators; and his successor, Alexander III., at once adopted a strongly reactionary policy. Count Loris-Melikov immediately resigned, and lived in retirement until his death, which took place at Nice on the 22nd of December 1888.

 LORIUM, an ancient village of Etruria, Italy, on the Via Aurelia, 12 m. W. of Rome. Antoninus Pius, who was educated here, afterwards built a palace, in which he died. It was also a favourite haunt of Marcus Aurelius. Remains of ancient buildings exist in the neighbourhood of the road on each side (near the modern Castel di Guido) and remains of tombs, inscriptions, &c., were excavated in 1823–1824. Two or three miles farther west was probably the post-station of Bebiana, where inscriptions show that some sailors of the fleet were stationed—no doubt a detachment of those at Centumcellae, which was reached by this road.  LÖRRACH, a town in the grand-duchy of Baden, in the valley of the Wiese, 6 m. by rail N.E. of Basel. Pop. (1905) 10,794. It is the seat of considerable industry, its manufactures including calico, shawls, cloth, silk, chocolate, cotton, ribbons, hardware and furniture, and has a trade in wine, fruit and timber. There is a fine view from the neighbouring Schützenhaus, 1085 ft. high. In the neighbourhood also is the castle of Rötteln, formerly the residence of the counts of Hachberg and of the margraves of Baden; this was destroyed by the French in 1678, but was rebuilt in 1867. Lörrach received market rights in 1403, but did not obtain municipal privileges until 1682.

See Höchstetter, Die Stadt Lörrach (Lörrach, 1882).

 LORRAINE, one of the former provinces of France. The name has designated different districts in different periods. Lotharingia, or Lothringen, i.e. regnum Lotharii, is derived from the Lotharingi or Lotharienses (O.G. Lotheringen, Fr. Loherains, Lorrains), a term applied originally to the Frankish subjects of Lothair, but restricted at the end of the 9th century to those who dwelt north of the southern Vosges.

Lorraine in Medieval Times.—The original kingdom of Lorraine was the northern part of the territories allotted by the treaty of Verdun (August 843) to the emperor Lothair I., and in 855 formed the inheritance of his second son, King Lothair. This kingdom of Lorraine was situated between the realms of the East and the West Franks, and originally extended along the North Sea between the mouths of the Rhine and the Ems, including the whole or part of Frisia and the cities on the right bank of the Rhine. From Bonn the frontier followed the Rhine as far as its confluence with the Aar, which then became the boundary, receding from the left bank in the neighbourhood of Bingen so as to leave the cities of Worms and Spires to Germany, and embracing the duchy of Alsace. After crossing the Jura, the frontier joined the Saône a little south of its confluence with the Doubs, and followed the Saône for some distance, and finally the valleys of the Meuse and the Scheldt. Thus the kingdom roughly comprised the region watered by the Moselle and the Meuse, together with the dioceses of Cologne, Trier, Metz, Toul, Verdun, Liége and Cambrai, Basel, Strassburg and Besançon, and corresponded to what is now Holland and Belgium, parts of Rhenish Prussia, of Switzerland, and of the old province of Franche-Comté, and to the district known later as Upper Lorraine, or simply Lorraine. Though apparently of an absolutely artificial character, this kingdom corresponded essentially to the ancient Francia, the cradle of the Carolingian house, and long retained a certain unity. It was to the inhabitants of this region that the name of Lotharienses or Lotharingi was primitively applied, although the word Lotharingia, as the designation of the country, only appears in the middle of the 10th century.

The reign of (q.v.), which was continually disturbed by quarrels with his uncles, Charles the Bald and Louis the German, and by the difficulties caused by the divorce of his queen Teutberga, whom he had forsaken for a concubine called Waldrada, ended on the 8th of August 869. His inheritance was disputed by his uncles, and was divided by the treaty of Meersen (8th of August 870), by which Charles the Bald received part of the province of Besançon and some land between the Moselle and the Meuse. Then for a time the emperor Charles the Fat united under his authority the whole of the kingdom of Lorraine with the rest of the Carolingian empire. After the deposition of Charles in 888 Rudolph, king of Burgundy, got himself recognized in Lorraine. He was unable to maintain himself there, and succeeded in detaching definitively no more than the province of Besançon. Lorraine remained in the power of the emperor Arnulf, who in 895 constituted it a distinct kingdom in favour of his son Zwentibold. Zwentibold quickly became embroiled with the nobles and the bishops, and especially with Bishop Radbod of Trier. Among the lay lords the most important was Regnier (incorrectly called Long-neck), count of Hesbaye and Hainault, who is styled duke by the Lotharingian chronicler Reginon, though he does not appear ever to have borne the title. In 898 Zwentibold stripped Regnier of his fiefs, whereupon the latter appealed to the king of France, Charles the Simple, whose intervention, however, had no enduring effect. After the death of Arnulf in 899, the Lotharingians appealed to his successor, Louis the Child, to replace Zwentibold, who, on the 13th of August 900, was killed in battle. In spite of the dissensions which immediately arose between him and the Lotharingian lords, Louis retained the kingdom till his death. The Lotharingians, however, refused to recognize the new German king, Conrad I., and testified their attachment to the Carolingian house by electing as sovereign the king of the West Franks, Charles the Simple. Charles was at first supported by Giselbert, son and successor of Regnier, but was abandoned by his ally, who in 919 appealed to the German king, Henry I. The struggle ended in the treaty of Bonn (921), by which apparently the rights of Charles over Lorraine were recognized. The revolt of the Frankish lords in 922 and the captivity of Charles finally settled the question. After an unsuccessful attack by Rudolph or Raoul, king of France, Henry became master of Lorraine in 925, thanks to the support of Giselbert, whom he rewarded with the hand of his daughter Gerberga and the title of duke of Lorraine. Giselbert at first remained faithful to Henry’s son, Otto the Great, but in 938 he appears to have joined the revolt directed against Otto by Eberhard, duke of Franconia. In 939, in concert with Eberhard and Otto’s brother, Henry of Saxony, he declared open war against Otto and appealed to Louis d’Outremer, who penetrated into Lorraine and Alsace, but was soon called back to France by the revolt of the count of Vermandois. In the same year Giselbert and Eberhard were defeated and killed near Andernach, and Otto at once made himself recognized in the whole of Lorraine, securing it by a treaty with Louis d’Outremer, who married Giselbert’s widow Gerberga, and entrusting the government of it to Count Otto, son of Ricuin, until Giselbert’s son Henry should have attained his majority.

After the deaths of the young Henry and Count Otto in 944, Otto the Great gave Lorraine to Conrad the Red, duke of