(Ed. M.)
ARS-AN-DER-MOSEL, a town of Germany, in the imperial province Alsace-Lorraine, 5 m. S. of Metz on the railway to Novéant. It has a handsome Roman Catholic church and extensive foundries. In the vicinity are the remains of a Roman aqueduct, which formerly spanned the valley. Pop. 5000.
ARSCHOT, PHILIPPE DE CROY, DUKE OF (1526-1595), governor-general of Flanders, was born at Valenciennes, and inherited the estates of the ancient and wealthy family of Croy. Becoming a soldier, he was made a knight of the order of the Golden Fleece by Philip II., king of Spain, and was afterwards employed in diplomatic work. He took part in the troubles in the Netherlands, and in 1563 refused to join William the Silent and others in their efforts to remove Cardinal Granvella from his post. This attitude, together with Arschot’s devotion to the Roman Catholic Church, which he expressed by showing his delight at the massacre of St Bartholomew, led Philip of Spain to regard him with still greater favour, which, however, was withdrawn in consequence of Arschot’s ambiguous conduct when welcoming the new governor, Don John of Austria, to the Netherlands in 1576. In spite, however, of his being generally distrusted by the inhabitants of the Netherlands, he was appointed governor of the citadel of Antwerp when the Spanish troops withdrew in 1577. After a period of vacillation he deserted Don John towards the end of that year. Jealous of the prince of Orange, he was then the head of the party which induced the archduke Matthias (afterwards emperor) to undertake the sovereignty of the Netherlands, and soon afterwards was appointed governor of Flanders by the state council. A strong party, including the burghers of Ghent, distrusted the new governor; and Arschot, who was taken prisoner during a riot at Ghent, was only released on promising to resign his office. He then sought to regain the favour of Philip of Spain, and having been pardoned by the king in 1580 again shared in the government of the Netherlands; but he refused to serve under the count of Fuentes when he became governor-general in 1594, and retired to Venice, where he died on the 11th of December 1595.
See J.L. Motley, The Rise of the Dutch Republic.
ARSENAL, an establishment for the construction, repair, receipt, storage and issue of warlike stores; details as to matériel will be found under [Ammunition], [Ordnance], &c. The word “arsenal” appears in various forms in Romanic languages (from which it has been adopted into Teutonic), i.e. Italian arzanale, Spanish arsenal, &c.; Italian also has arzana and darsena, and Spanish a longer form atarazanal. The word is of Arabic origin, being a corruption of daraṣ-ṣinā‘ah, house of trade or manufacture, dar, house, al, the, and ṣina‘ah, trade, manufacture, ṣana’a, to make. Such guesses as arx navalis, naval citadel, arx senatus (i.e. of Venice, &c.), are now entirely rejected.
A first-class arsenal, which can renew the matériel and equipment of a large army, embraces a gun factory, carriage factory, laboratory and small-arms ammunition factory, small-arms factory, harness, saddlery and tent factories, and a powder factory; in addition it must possess great store-houses. In a second-class arsenal the factories would be replaced by workshops. The situation of an arsenal should be governed by strategical considerations. If of the first class, it should be situated at the base of operations and supply, secure from attack, not too near a frontier, and placed so as to draw in readily the resources of the country. The importance of a large arsenal is such that its defences would be on the scale of those of a large fortress. The usual subdivision of branches in a great arsenal is into A, Storekeeping; B, Construction; C, Administration. Under A we should have the following departments and stores:—Departments of issue and receipt, pattern room, armoury department, ordnance or park, harness, saddlery and accoutrements, camp equipment, tools and instruments, engineer store, magazines, raw material store, timber yard, breaking-up store, unserviceable store. Under B—Gun factory, carriage factory, laboratory, small-arms factory, harness and tent factory, powder factory, &c. In a second-class arsenal there would be workshops instead of these factories. C—Under the head of administration would be classed the chief director of the arsenal, officials military and civil, non-commissioned officers and military artificers, civilian foremen, workmen and labourers, with the clerks and writers necessary for the office work of the establishments. In the manufacturing branches are required skill, and efficient and economical work, both executive and administrative; in the storekeeping part, good arrangement, great care, thorough knowledge of all warlike stores, both in their active and passive state, and scrupulous exactness in the custody, issue and receipt of stores. For fuller details the reader is referred to papers by Sir E. Collen, R.A., in vol. viii., and Lieut. C.E. Grover, R.E., in vol. vi. Proceedings of R. Artillery Institution. In England the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, manufactures and stores the requirements of the army and navy (see [Woolwich]).