Page:LA2-NSRW-4-0557.jpg



UTICA

1996

UTRECHT

which mimic sea-battles were fought. Its water-supplies were stored in many immense cisterns, some of which are 136 feet long, 19 wide and 20 or 30 deep. Augustus made it a free city. The Vandals conquered it in 439, then the Byzantine emperors recovered and held it" till the 8th century, when the Arabs conquered and destroyed it.

Utica, N. Y., county-seat of Oneida County, on Mohawk River, 95 miles from Albany and 52 miles from Syracuse. The city is regularly and handsomely built, and rises from the south bank of the river to an elevation of 150 feet. One of the state hospitals for the insane is here, with a number of other benevolent and charitable institutions. The manufactures amount to several millions annually, and comprise a great variety of products. The annual cost of maintaining the public schools is $220,-ooo; the number of teachers employed is 300; and there are 12,000 pupils enrolled. At the Revolutionary War Utica was a frontier trading-post, and also was the site of Fort Schuyler, built to guard a settlement against the French and Indians. Population 74>4i9-

Uto'pia is the name given by Sir Thomas More to the imaginary island which he makes the scene of his work, entitled Utopia (from Greek words meaning nowhere), first published in Latin in 1516 and translated into English by Bishop Burnet, This island, which More represents as having been discovered by a companion of Amerigo Vespucci, is the abode of a happy society, free from all the cares, anxieties and miseries

of mankind. In this community all property belonged to the government, no private ownership being allowed; and the wants of all persons were supplied from the common stock. More's work, which is still published, attained a great popularity, and the epithet Utopian is still applied to all plans for the improvement of society that are deemed visionary and impracticable. A counterpart to More's work is found in a production of the present day, entitled Looking Backward, by the late Edward Bellamy. See COMMUNISM, MORE and SOCIALISM.

Utrecht (u'trekt), a city of the Netherlands, capital of the province of Utrecht, is beautifully situated in a district of rich, grassy meadows, extensive orchards, flower-gardens and cultivated fields. It is favorably situated for trade, being the point from which several railroads radiate and having excellent water-communication by way of the old Rhine and the Vecht. Utrecht is one of the oldest cities of the Netherlands, and probably was founded by the Romans. It was here that the union of the northern provinces for the defense of their political and religious freedom against the tyranny of Spain was formed on Jan. 23, 1579. It is the seat of an university. Population 118,386.

Utrecht, Treaty of. The treaty or treaties of peace concluded in 1713 between i^rance and the allied powers — England, Austria etc. — after the ten years' war relating to the Spanish succession. Consult Macaulay's essay reviewing Lord Marion's History of the War of the Succession in Spain.