Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/40

Rh 26 L O U L U The population, which in 1851 was 10,407, had increased in 1871 to 10,500, and in 1881 to 10,690. Louth is a corruption of Ludd, the ancient name of the river Lud. It received a charter of incorporation from Edward VI. In 1536 the town took part in the &quot; Pilgrimage of Grace,&quot; on which acconnt the vicar was executed at Tyburn. Alfred and Charles Tennyson were educated at the grammar school, and their little volume en- j titled Poems by Two Brothers was published by a Louth bookseller, whose shop still exists. LOUVAIN, a town of Belgium in the province of Brabant, 18 miles east of Brussels, on the Lie ge and Cologne Railway, and on the river Dyle. The population in 1880 was 34,700. Louvain possesses some fine specimens of Gothic art, the town-hall, which displays a wealth of decorative architecture almost unequalled on the Continent, and the collegiate church of St Pierre, with some fine sculptures and panels by Quentin Matsys. The general aspect of the town to the casual observer is dull and cheerless ; the newer portions, extending between the town-hall and station, consist of broad streets of monotonous regularity, while the old mediaeval quarter, despite its historic interest, is somewhat dingy and lifeless. Louvain has a market for corn and cattle as well as for cloth wares ; wood carving is also carried on ; but the chief industry of the locality is brewing, the Louvain beer, a lemon-coloured frothy beverage, being held in high repute in the country. In the world of science Louvain holds honourable rank, having a celebrated university, an academy of painting, a school of music, extensive bibliographic collections, a museum of natural history, and a botanical garden. The university, a stronghold of the Roman Catholic faith, was first instituted in 1425, and soon grew famous among the learned of all nations. In the 15th and 16th centuries not less than six thousand students flocked thither yearly, and it became the nursery of many illustrious men. Swept away for a time by the first French Revolution, it was re established in 1835 ; and, though less conspicuous than in bygone ages, and more generally confined to the instruction of the youth of Belgium, it is yet of considerable importance in the country as the only Catholic university, and one of the main supports of the Conservative party. Like Bruges and many other Flemish towns, Louvain was at one time a great and flourishing city, with a population of 200,000 souls, and one of the principal markets of the Continent. The turbulent spirit of the people, their frequent outbreaks against their rulers, and in particular the massacre of the patricians in 1378, were the chief causes of its decline. Duke &quot;Wenceslaus of Brabant, in a spirit of revenge after the last-mentioned rising, imposed so heavy taxes upon the people that they emigrated in large numbers. A hundred thousand weavers left the country, carrying abroad, mainly to Eng land, the secrets of their trade ; and from that period the material prosperity of Louvain has steadily diminished. LOUVIERS, capital of an arrondissement in the de partment of Eure, France, is pleasantly situated, in a green valley surrounded by wooded hills, on the Eure (here divided into many branches)/ 71 miles west-north-west from Paris, and some 13 miles from Rouen and Evreux. The old part of the town, built of wood, stands on the left bank of the river ; the more modern portions, in brick and hewn stone, on the right. There are several good squares, and the place is surrounded by boulevards. The Gothic church of Notre Dame has a fine square tower, recently restored, and a portal which ranks among the richest and most beautiful works of the kind produced in the 15th century ; it contains several interesting works of art. The chief industry of Louviers is the cloth and flannel manu facture. There are also nineteen wool-spinning mills, five falling mills, and important thread factories ; and paper- making, tanning, currying and tawing, dyeing, and bleach ing are also carried on. The town has a court of first instance, a tribunal of commerce, chambers of manufactures and agriculture, and a council of prudhommes. The population in 1876 was 10,973. Louviers was originally a villa of the dukes of Normandy ; its cloth-making industry first arose in the beginning of the 13th cen tury. It changed hands once and again during the Hundred Years &quot;War, and from Charles VII. it received extensive privileges, and the title of Louviers le Franc for the bravery of its inhabitants in driving the English from Pout de 1 Arche, Verneuil, and Harcourt. It passed through various troubles successively at the period of the &quot; ligue du bien public&quot; under Louis XL, in the religious wars (when the parliament of Rouen sat for a time at Louviers), and in the wars of the Fronde. Its industries nevertheless developed steadily ; before the Revolution its production of cloth amounted to 3000 pieces annually, in 1837 the number had risen to 15,000, and it is still greater now. LOUVOIS, FKAN^OIS MICHEL LE TELLIER, MARQUIS DE (1641-1691), the great war minister of Louis XtV., was born at Paris on January 18, 1641. His father, Michel le Tellier, sprung from a bourgeois family of Paris, but had attached himself to the parlement of Paris, and married the niece of the chancellor Aligre. He won the favour of De Bullion, the superintendent of finances, and through him obtained the intendancy of Piedmont, where he made the acquaintance of Mazarin. He was Mazarin s right hand through the troublous times of the Fronde, and was the medium of communication between him and the queen, when the cardinal was in nominal disgrace at Briihl. He had been made secretary of state in 1643, and on the death of Mazarin was continued in his office. Like Colbert and unlike Fouquet he recognized the fact that Louis intended to govern, and by humouring his master s passion for knowing every detail of personnel and administration he gained great favour with him. He married his son to a rich heiress, the Marquise de Courtenvaux, and soon began to instruct him in the management of state business. The young man speedily won the king s confidence, and in 1666 was made secretary of state for war in his father s room. His talents were perceived by the great Turenne in the instruction not so much in the art of war as in the art of providing armies. The peace of Aix-la-Chapelle signed, Louvois devoted himself to the great work of organizing the French army. The years between 1668 and 1672, says Camille Rousset, &quot; were years of preparation, when Lionne was labouring with all his might to find allies, Colbert to find money, and Louvois soldiers for Louis.&quot; Louvois s work was not the least important of the three, Till then armies were either bodies of free lances collected round a particular general and looking to him for pay, or a sort of armed militia, who looked on soldiering as an interlude, not a profession. Louvois understood the new condition of things, and organized a national standing army. In his organization, which lasted almost without a change till the period of the French Revolution, the leading points must be noted. First among them was the almost forcible enrolment of the nobility and gentry of France, i which St Simon so bitterly complains of, and in which Louvois carried out part of Louis s measures for curbing the spirit of independence by service in the army or at court. Then must be mentioned his elaborate hierarchy of officers, ! fected by Martinet. Besides the army itself, he organized for its support a system of payment and commissariat, and 1 a hospital system, which made it more like a machine, less dependent on the weather, and far superior to the old German system. Further, with the help of Vauban he formed a corps of engineers, and lastly, to provide the deserving with suitable reward, and encourage the daring, he reorganized the military orders of merit, and founded the Hotel des Invalides at Paris. The success of his measures is to be seen in the victories of the great war of 1672- 1678, in which his old instructor Turenne was killed. ! After the peace of Nimeguen in 1678, Louvois was high
 * short war of the Devolution (1667-68), who gave him
 * the grades of which with their respective duties he estab-
 * lished for the first time, and his new system of drill, per-