Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 01.djvu/478

ALSACE-LOREAINE. of Alsace. Kolmar was incorporated with France in 1680 and Strassburg in 1681. The Treaty of Ryswick (1697) confirmed France in possession of Alsace.

Systematic attempts to assimilate the inhabitants, who were mainly of Germanic stock, with the French were made by the Government, but met with no success until the Revolution, when, in the general overthrow of feudalism, Germans and French were drawn together by the common ideal of democracy. The French spirit penetrated deeply into the upper and middle classes, and even the mass of the population was reconciled to French rule. When war, therefore, between France and Prussia broke out in 1870, those natives of Alsace who did not side zealously with France remained neutral. In Lorraine occurred some of the most decisive battles of the war, Gravelotte, and Vionville, and the siege of Metz. The surrender of Alsace and a part of Lorraine was made the principal condition of peace by Prince Bismarck, who acted in this as the exponent of a widespread spirit in Germany, which demanded the recovery of the ancient Germanic borderland. Alsace (with the exception of the district of Belfort), and the part of Lorraine where the French language had not supplanted the German, became a part of the newly founded empire, and were put under the direct control of the Emperor. The attempt to win back the people to German influences was greatly hampered by the vehement opposition of the Gallicized upper classes and the clergy, and the civil administration was brought almost to a standstill for a number of years by the refusal of the men elected to the district and provincial councils to take the oath of loyalty and perform their functions; the representatives to the Reichsrath were, for the most part, French irreconcilables. In 1872 the German government called upon the inhabitants to declare themselves either German citizens or French. More than one hundred and fifty thousand expressed their adherence to France, and of these nearly fifty thousand removed across the border. On the part of the German authorities a policy of severity approaching military rule was tried in alternation with one of mildness and concession, and for a long time both proved equally ineffective. The Germanization of the provinces has steadily been aimed at, however, in acts making the study of the German language compulsory in the public schools, and the use of it obligatory in the courts and legislative bodies; in the suppression of French radical newspapers, and in the establishment of higher schools of learning under German control. After 1890 the prospect of an ultimate reconciliation became brighter; a loyalist party appeared which wielded some influence in the elections. In proportion as the spirit of revanche grew weaker in France, and the permanent retention of the provinces by Germany became more assured, the opposition of French sympathizers in Alsace-Lorraine subsided.

Consult: H. Witte, Zur Geschichte des Deutschtums im Elsass und im Vogesengebiet (Strassburg, 1897); Handbuch für Elsass-Lothringen (Strassburg, 1898); H. Derichsweiler, Geschichte Lothringens (Wiesbaden, 1901).

ALSA'TIA. The popular name of Whitefriars, London, which served early in the seventeenth century as a refuge for criminals; but this immunity was abolished by Parliament in 1697. See the account in Scott's Fortunes of Nigel.

ALSEN, iil'seii (Dan. Als). An island in the Baltic belonging to the Prussian province of Schleswig-Holstein, and separated from the mainland by the Sound of Alsen (Map: Prussia, C 1). Its greatest length is nearly 20 miles, its greatest breadth about 12 miles. The island is very picturesque in appearance, with a fertile soil. Its lakes have fish, and it is famous for its apples, which constitute an important article of commerce. The chief towns are Sonderburg and Nordburg. the former well fortified and with an excellent harbor. Close to the harbor are the ruins of an old and famous castle, in which Christian II., of Denmark and Norway, was confined from 1532 to 1549. In the war of 1864 Alsen was taken by the Prussians from the Danes.

AL SIRAT. The bridge from this world to the Mohammedan paradise, as narrow as a razor's edge, on which the virtuous pass to paradise, while the wicked fall into hell: derived from the Zoroastrian idea of the Chinvat Bridge.

ALSOP, al'sop, (1761-1815). An American author, born in Middletown, Conn. Before he finished his course at Yale College, he went into business. His literary tastes caused him to join the "Hartford Wits," and later he became the principal contributor to the Echo, a satirical publication (1791-95). His works include a Monody on the Death of Washington, in heroic verse (1800); The Enchanted Lake of the Fairy Morgana (1808); a translation of a portion of Orlando Innamorato, and the Captivity and Adventures of J. R. Jewett Among the Savages of Nootka Sound (1815). Alsop was an accomplished linguist.

ALSTED, iil'stet, (1588-1638). A German Protestant divine and voluminous writer, professor of philosophy and divinity at Herborn. He was born in Ballersbach, near Herborn, and died at Weissenburg, Transylvania. Of his voluminous compilations may be mentioned his Cursus Philosophici Encyclopædia, which includes a treatise on the use and abuse of tobacco, particularly noteworthy from its date, Thesaurus Chronologiæ, and De Mille Annis. The latter was a prophecy that the thousand years, or millennium, during which the saints were to reign on the earth, would commence in 1694.

AL'STRŒME'RIA, or ALSTRÖMER'S LILY (Named after the Swedish botanist, Klas Alströmer). A genus of South American plants of the natural order Amaryllidaceæ, which is distinguished by tuberous roots and by often having the outer segments of the perianth different in form from the inner. The leaves are twisted, so that what should be the upper surface becomes the lower. The species number about 60, and are natives of the warmer parts of America. Some are sufficiently hardy to endure the open air in England, and as far north as Virginia in the United States, and are admired ornaments of flower-gardens. Some have climbing or twining stems. Among these is the Salsilla (Alstrœmeria salsilla), a plant of great beauty, with lanceolate leaves, a native of Peru, cultivated in the West Indies, the tubers of which are eaten like those of the potato. In Great Britain it requires the hothouse. Alstrœmeria ovata, also a beautiful plant, with a slender, twining stem and ovate leaves, is cultivated in Chile for its tubers, which are used as food.