LORIS-MELIKOV, MICHAEL TARIELOVICH, Count (1825?-1888), Russian statesman, son of an Armenian merchant, was born at Tiflis in 1825 or 1826, and educated in St Petersburg, first in the Lazarev School of Oriental Languages, and afterwards in the Guards’ Cadet Institute. He joined a hussar regiment, and four years afterwards (1847) he was sent to the Caucasus, where he remained for more than twenty years, and made for himself during troublous times the reputation of a distinguished cavalry officer and an able administrator. In the latter capacity, though a keen soldier, he aimed always at preparing the warlike and turbulent population committed to his charge for the transition from military to normal civil administration, and in this work his favourite instrument was the schoolmaster. In the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78 he commanded a separate corps d’armée on the Turkish frontier in Asia Minor. After taking the fortress of Ardahan, he was repulsed by Mukhtar Pasha at Zevin, but subsequently defeated his opponent at Aladja Dagh, took Kars by storm, and laid siege to Erzerum. For these services he received the title of Count. In the following year he was appointed temporary governor-general of the region of the Lower Volga, to combat an outbreak of the plague. The measures he adopted proved so effectual that he was transferred to the provinces of Central Russia to combat the Nihilists and Anarchists, who had adopted a policy of terrorism, and had succeeded in assassinating the governor of Kharkov. His success in this struggle led to his being appointed chief of the Supreme Executive Commission which had been created in St Petersburg to deal with the revolutionary agitation in general. Here, as in the Caucasus, he showed a decided preference for the employment of ordinary legal methods rather than exceptional extra-legal measures, and an attempt on his own life soon after he assumed office did not shake his convictions. In his opinion the best policy was to strike at the root of the evil by removing the causes of popular discontent, and for this purpose he recommended to the emperor a large scheme of administrative and economic reforms. Alexander II., who was beginning to lose faith in the efficacy of the simple method of police repression hitherto employed, lent a willing ear to the suggestion; and when the Supreme Commission was dissolved in August 1880, he appointed Count Loris-Melikov Minister of the Interior with exceptional powers. The proposed scheme of reforms was at once taken in hand, but it was never carried out. On the very day in March 1881 that the emperor signed a ukaz creating several commissions, composed of officials and eminent private individuals, who should prepare reforms in various branches of the administration, he was assassinated by Nihilist conspirators; and his successor, Alexander III., at once adopted a strongly reactionary policy. Count Loris-Melikov immediately resigned, and lived in retirement until his death, which took place at Nice on the 22nd of December 1888.
(D. M. W.)
LORIUM, an ancient village of Etruria, Italy, on the Via Aurelia, 12 m. W. of Rome. Antoninus Pius, who was educated here, afterwards built a palace, in which he died. It was also a favourite haunt of Marcus Aurelius. Remains of ancient buildings exist in the neighbourhood of the road on each side (near the modern Castel di Guido) and remains of tombs, inscriptions, &c., were excavated in 1823-1824. Two or three miles farther west was probably the post-station of Bebiana, where inscriptions show that some sailors of the fleet were stationed—no doubt a detachment of those at Centumcellae, which was reached by this road.
LÖRRACH, a town in the grand-duchy of Baden, in the valley of the Wiese, 6 m. by rail N.E. of Basel. Pop. (1905) 10,794. It is the seat of considerable industry, its manufactures including calico, shawls, cloth, silk, chocolate, cotton, ribbons, hardware and furniture, and has a trade in wine, fruit and timber. There is a fine view from the neighbouring Schützenhaus, 1085 ft. high. In the neighbourhood also is the castle of Rötteln, formerly the residence of the counts of Hachberg and of the margraves of Baden; this was destroyed by the French in 1678, but was rebuilt in 1867. Lörrach received market rights in 1403, but did not obtain municipal privileges until 1682.
See Höchstetter, Die Stadt Lörrach (Lörrach, 1882).
LORRAINE, one of the former provinces of France. The name has designated different districts in different periods. Lotharingia, or Lothringen, i.e. regnum Lotharii, is derived from the Lotharingi or Lotharienses (O.G. Lotheringen, Fr. Loherains, Lorrains), a term applied originally to the Frankish subjects of Lothair, but restricted at the end of the 9th century to those who dwelt north of the southern Vosges.
Lorraine in Medieval Times.—The original kingdom of Lorraine was the northern part of the territories allotted by the treaty of Verdun (August 843) to the emperor Lothair I., and in 855 formed the inheritance of his second son, King Lothair. This kingdom of Lorraine was situated between the realms of the East and the West Franks, and originally extended along the North Sea between the mouths of the Rhine and the Ems, including the whole or part of Frisia and the cities on the right bank of the Rhine. From Bonn the frontier followed the Rhine as far as its confluence with the Aar, which then became the boundary, receding from the left bank in the neighbourhood of Bingen so as to leave the cities of Worms and Spires to Germany, and embracing the duchy of Alsace. After crossing the Jura, the frontier joined the Saône a little south of its confluence with the Doubs, and followed the Saône for some distance, and finally the valleys of the Meuse and the Scheldt. Thus the kingdom roughly comprised the region watered by the Moselle and the Meuse, together with the dioceses of Cologne, Trier, Metz, Toul, Verdun, Liége and Cambrai, Basel, Strassburg and Besançon, and corresponded to what is now Holland and Belgium, parts of Rhenish Prussia, of Switzerland, and of the old province of Franche-Comté, and to the district known later as Upper Lorraine, or simply Lorraine. Though apparently of an absolutely artificial character, this kingdom corresponded essentially to the ancient Francia, the cradle of the Carolingian house, and long retained a certain unity. It was to the inhabitants of this region that the name of Lotharienses or Lotharingi was primitively applied, although the word Lotharingia, as the designation of the country, only appears in the middle of the 10th century.