Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/214

Rh 204 M E U M E U History. Metz, the Gallic Divodurum, was the chief town of the Mediomatrici, and was also called by the Romans Mediomatrica, a name from which the present form has been derived by contraction. Caesar describes it as one of the oldest and most important towns in Gaul. The Romans, recognizing its strategical importance, fortified it and supplied it with water by an imposing aqueduct, the remains of which still exist. Under the Roman emperors Metz was connected by military roads with Toul, Langres, Lyons, Stras- burg, Verdun, Rheims, and Treves. Christianity was introduced in the 3d century of our era. In the middle of the 5th century the town was plundered by the Huns under Attila ; subsequently it came into the possession of the Franks ; and in 512 it was made the capital of Austrasia. On the partition of the Carolingian realms in 843 Metz fell to the share of the western kingdom as the capital of Lorraine. Its bishops, whose creation reaches back to the 4th century, now began to be very powerful. Metz acquired the privileges of a free imperial town in the 12th century, and attained great commercial prosperity. In 1552 it fell into the hands of the French through treachery, and was heroically and successfully defended against Charles V. by the young duke of Guise. It now sank to the level of a French provincial town, and its population dwindled from 60,000 to 22,000 (1698). At the peace of Westphalia Metz, with Toul and Verdun, was formally ceded to France, in whose possession it remained for upwards of two centuries. In August 1870 the successes of the German troops compelled Marshal Bazaine and the French army of the Rhine to seek shelter behind the fortifications of Metz, which was forth with subjected by the Germans to a rigorous blockade. After an investment of ten weeks, during which not a single shot was fired at the town, Bazaine capitulated, surrendering to the victors an army of nearly 180,000 men, several hundred cannon, and an immense quantity of military stores of all kinds. By the peace of Frankfort in 1871 Metz was again united to the German empire. Marshal Fabert and Generals Custine and Kellermann were natives of Metz. As a fortress Metz has always been of the highest importance, and it now ranks with Strasburg as one of the two great bulwarks of the west frontier of Germany. The original town-walls were replaced by ramparts in 1550, and the citadel was built in 1566. In 1674 the works were reconstructed by the celebrated military engineer Vauban. Under Napoleon III. the fortress was strength ened to meet the demands of modern warfare, and since 1871 the Germans have spared neither time nor money in completing and supplementing his plans. The present fortifications of Metz con sist of two lines an inner circle of bastions and ramparts enclosing the city itself, and an outer circle of large detached forts on the surrounding hills. The inner line is strengthened by two citadels, one of which is advanced as a tete-de-pont on the left bank of the Moselle. The outer circle consists of nine or ten large forts, con nected with each other by smaller fortifications and commanding all the approaches to the city. They form a large fortified camp with a circumference of 15 miles, within which are twelve villages and numerous country-houses and farms. The most distant of the outlying forts is about 3| miles from the cathedral. Their names and positions may be seen on the annexed plan. Previous to 1870 the fortress of Metz had never succumbed to an enemy. Sources of Information. Westphal, Getchichte der Stadt Afetz, 1875-78 ; Gcorg Lang, Mttz wid seine Umgebungen, 1883, and Statistisch-topographifches Hand- buch fiir Lothrinyen. The official German account of the blockade. of Mutz in 1870 will be found in the history of the Franco-German war issued by the general stuff at Berlin, 1872 sg. A succinct account is given by Georg Lang, Die Kriegs- operationcn urn Metz im Jahr 1870, 2d ed., Metz, 1880. MEULEN, ANTONY FRANCIS VAN DER (1634-1690), was called to Paris about 1666 by Colbert, at the instance of Le Brun, to fill the post of battle painter to Louis XIV. Born in 1634 at Brussels, he had at an early age eclipsed his master Peter Snayers, and the works executed by him for the king of France during the campaigns of Flanders (1667) so delighted Louis that from that date Van der Meulen was ordered to accompany him in all his expedi tions. In 1673 he was received into the French Academy, and attained the grade of councillor in 1681. Lodged in the Gobelins, richly pensioned, and loaded with honours, he died at Paris in 1690. Detached works from his hand are to be seen in various collections, but he is best repre sented by the series of twenty-three paintings, mostly executed for Louis XIV., now in the Louvre. They show that he always retained his Flemish predilections in point of colour, although in other respects his style was modified by that of the French school. See Mtm. inidit. Acad. de Peinture, 1854 ; Descamps, Vies des Peintrcs Flamands. MEURTHE-ET-MOSELLE, a department in the north east of France, formed in 1871 out of those parts of the old departments of Meurthe and Moselle which continued French, and deriving its name from the two principal rivers which water it. Prior to 1790 it belonged to ancient Lorraine, or to one or other of the bishoprics of Toul, Metz, and Verdun. It lies between 5 25 and 7 5 E. long, and 48 25 and 49 5 N. lat., and is bounded on the E. by Alsace-Lorraine, on the N. by Belgium and the grand- duchy of Luxemburg, on the W. by the department of Meuse, and on the S. by that of Vosges. The superficial area is 2020 square miles. Geologically Meurthe-et- Moselle has five well-marked regions following each other in regular succession from east to north-west. On the frontier of Alsace are the Vosges mountains, of Trias sandstone (gres Vosgiens), with a maximum elevation of 3000 feet. A narrow band of variegated sandstone divides the Vosges from the second region, formed of shelly limestone, which extends as far as the Meurthe on the north and the Moselle on the west. The third region is formed by the variegated marls which cover the rich saline strata of the neighbour hood of Nancy. The Jura limestones of the Lias and Oolite, to the north-west and west of the department, form the last two regions. Here there is a maximum elevation of 1400 feet, and the plateau of Briey stretches out towards that of the Ardennes. Between the Vosges and the Ardennes the valley of the Moselle runs from south to north, forming the main artery of the department ; the lowest level (570 feet) occurs where the river leaves it. Only a small part of the drainage of Meurthe-et-Moselle flows into the Meuse. The Moselle runs north-west from its entrance into the department as far as Toul ; north-east from Toul to Frouard, where it receives its principal affluent, the Meurthe, and becomes navigable ; north from Frouard to Pagny-sur-Moselle, passing to Pont a Mousson. The principal affluents of the Moselle are the Madon and the Orne on the left, and on the right, besides the Meurthe, the Seille, which in one part of its course forms the boundary of Alsace-Lorraine. The Meurthe, which flows to the north-west from Kaon 1 Etape to Frouard, passes on to Baccarat, Lune ville, St Nicholas, and Nancy, and is swelled on the right by the Vezouse and the Sanon, and on the left by the Mortagne. The principal tributary of the Meuse within the department is the Chiers, which takes its course by Longwy and Longuyon. Climatologically Meurthe-et-Moselle belongs to the Vosgian region. Its mean annual temperature is 52 Fahr., being 2 Fahr. lower than that of Paris (which has the same latitude). The thermometer in severe winters falls to 13 Fahr., while in summer it reaches 100 Fahr. This is to be accounted for by the general elevation of the department, the proximity of the mountains, the arrangement of the valleys (which lie open towards the north), and the dis tance from the sea. More than half of the department consists of culturable land, one- fourth of forests, and one-tenth of meadow land. In 1878 there were 54,346 horses, more than 100,000 sheep, 85,000 pigs, 74,000 cattle, 15,000 goats, 21,000 dogs, and 17,000 hives of bees. The crops for the same year amounted to 454,192 quarters of wheat, 37,500 quarters of barley, 35,078 quarters of rye, 570,884 quarters of oats, 9, 079, 125 bushels of potatoes, and 76,868 tons of beet-root. Hops, tobacco, colza, hemp, and flax also occupy a considerable area. The annual yield of the vineyards (56 square miles in extent) exceeds 900,000; the wines of Toul are the best. The most common fruit trees are the pear, the apple, the walnut, the cherry, and the plum. Of forest trees the oak and the wych-elm are most frequent in the west of the department, the beech and the fir in the Vosges. The French school of forestry has its seat at Nancy. The metallurgic industry is highly developed, and has made very rapid progress within the last few years. Even in 1872 there was a consumption of 350,000 tons of coal, four-fifths of which came from Saarbruck, and the remaining fifth from Belgium. In 1877 the iron ore obtained amounted to 1,000,000 tons, of which two-thirds came from the beds near Nancy, the remainder from the neighbourhood of Longwy. In 1880 the department produced a third of the pig-iron made in France (more than 500,000 tons).