The following table shows the administrative divisions and the population (total, 205,158) according to the census of 1875. [table]

Next to the capital come Echternach with 3920, and Diekirch with 3130 inhabitants,—both worthy of note for their blast furnaces. At Echternach an annual procession is held in honour of St Willibrord, dating from 1374. Grevenmacher is the centre of a great wine district.

The Luxemburg territory as well as the country of Ardenne was included in Belgica Prima at the first division of Gaul by Angustus in 27 B.c.; during the Frankish period it formed part first of Austrasia, then of Lorraine, and then of Lower Lorraine. On the dismemberment of ancient Austrasia the countship of Ardenne fell to Ricuin; and, when after Ricuin’s death his children divided his possessions, Ardenne .proper was obtained by Count Sigfried (Sigefroi). The county of Luxemburg, as Ardenne came to be called after the chief town, was raised to be a duchy in 1354, and existed as an independent state till 1451, when it was seized by Philip, duke of Burgundy. The dynasty which he displaced had been ambitious and active, and had, in the person of Henry VII., attained the imperial dignity, and in that of John ascended the •throne of Bohemia. As a Burgundian possession Luxemburg came to the house of Austria, and, after forming part of the archduchy governed by Albert and Isabella, 1598-1632, followed the fate of the Spanish Netherlands till it was ceded by the treaty of Utrecht to the house of Hapsburg, It was deprived of Thionville, Moutmedy, Damvilliers, I voix, and Marville by the treaty of the Pyrenees (1659) in favour of France; and Louis XIV. occupied the town and great part of the province from 1684 till the treaty of Ryswick (1697). Seized by the French in 1793, it went in the main to form the department of Forêts. On the 16th March 1815 William I. declared himself king of the Netherlands and duke of Luxemburg, and his claims were sanctioned by the treaty of Vienna,—Luxemburg being considered compensation for the loss of the small principalities of Hadamar, Siegen, Dietz, and Nassau-Dillemburg, the surrender of which to Prussia had deprived William of his place in the Germanic confederation. The fortress was assigned, to the confederation itself, and was garrisoned by six' thousand men, of whom one-fourth belonged to the grand-duke and three-fourths to the confederation. From the recognition of Belgian independence in 1830 to the treaty of London in 1839, matters were still more complicated; there were two governments in Luxemburg—one at Luxemburg, acting for the grand-duke, and the other at Arion, acting for Belgium. By the treaty of London about 1218 square miles of the duchy with 149,571 inhabitants were transferred to Belgium, the German confederation and King William being compensated with parts of Limburg. On the dissolution of the confederation the duchy became free from its connexion with Germany, but the fortress remained in the hands of Prussia. A diplomatic contest for possession of the duchy took place between France and Prussia; and the matter became the object of a special conference of the plenipotentiaries of the great powers, Holland, Belgium, and Italy, in 1867. The result was that the neutrality of Luxemburg was guaranteed and the military importance of the town destroyed. The actual demolition of the fortifications evacuated by the Prussians in September 1867 did not take place till 1872.

See Beιtholet, Hist, du duché de Luxembourg, Luxemburg, 1741-43; Vander-nιaelen, Diet, géogr. du Luxembourg, Brussels, 1838; Schütter, Kι it. Erörterungen über die früh. Gesch. der Grafschaft Luxemburg, Luxemburg, 1859; Grövig, Luxemburg, Land und Volk, Luxemburg, 1867.

Luxemburg, the capital of the grand-duchy, lies 34 miles north of Metz and 25 south-west of Treves, in a position as remarkable for natural beauty as fot military strength. The main part of the town is built on a rocky table-land terminating precipitously towards the north-east and south; the modern portions, known as Pfaffenthal, Clausen, and Grund, lie 200 feet below, in the valley of the Alzetle. Till their demolition in terms of the treaty of 1867 the fortifications, on which the engineers of three centuries had expended their skill, were the great feature of the place; in point of strength they ranked, according to Carnot, second only to those of Gibraltar, and like them they were to a great extent hewn out of the solid rock. The site is now occupied partly by a fine public park, partly by new districts of handsome houses, which give the city more of the outward appearance of a capitaL Among the buildings of historical interest are the cathedral of Notre Dame, erected by the Jesuits in 1613;' the church of St Michel, dating from 1320; the Government-house, built in 1443, and still regularly occupied by the legislative assemblies; the town-house, built in 1830; the law courts, dating from 1565, but serving till 1795 as the residence of the governor of Luxemburg; and the athenaeum, built in 1594, and now (1882) attended by 500 to 600 pupils. The population of the city and suburbs, which was 15,930 in 1875, is now estimated at 19,000.

Luxemburg (formerly called Liitzelburg) appears in 738 as ae castle presented to the abbey at Treves by Charles Martel. Thetown grew up in the course of the 10th century, and soon began to surround itself with walls; but it was not till 1503 that a regular system of fortifications was commenced, and the principal features· of the modem fortress were due to Vauban, who accompanied Créqui in his capture of the place in 1664. Extensive additions were made to the works in 1728-34.

See Coster, Gcsch. der Festung Luxemburg, Luxemburg, 1869.

LUXEMBURG, a province of the kingdom of Belgium, lying at the south-eastern extremity of the country, and bounded N. and W. by the provinces of Liege and Namur, S. by France, and E. by Prussia and by the grand-duchy of Luxemburg, from which it was separated in 1839. It is the largest and most thinly populated of the Belgian provinces,—75 miles in length, 30 in breadth; the population is 204,000. The ground is high, averaging 1200 feet above sea-level, and rising in parts over 2000. The soil is dry and slaty, with occasional sand and limestone. The aspect of the country is a succession of broad tracts of table land or plateaus covered with wood or heather, and intersected by wide and deep valleys; these contain streams, half-dry during the summer, but quickly changed to sweeping torrents by rain or melting snow. Peat is found on the hills, and occasional morasses, known by the name of “hautes fanges,” are to be met with on the tops of the. highest mountains. The whole district is comprised within, the region of Ardennes. The agricultural produce is poor; the various breeds of horses, cattle, sheep, &c., are remarkably small, though they all possess individual qualities· of endurance or their flesh of flavour; the hams are renowned. The forests abound in game of all kinds; red deer are plentiful, and wild boars have of late become: so abundant as to be a serious nuisance. The mineral productions are worthy of note. Iron is found in the valley of the Ourthe, and also farther south near Arion; lead is extracted at Longwilly, manganese at Biham, zine at Longwilly and Bleid. Building stone is to be had throughout the province, and is generally employed, brick houses being the exception. There are quarries of grey and rose-coloured marble at Wellin, and extensive slate·, quarries on the banks of the Semois, the Sure, and the Salm. The trade in wood and bark is considerable, and there are some important tanneries, as well as iron works, paper-mills, and limekilns. The principal rivers are the Semois, the Lesse, and the Ourthe, affluents of the Meuse, and the Sure, which flows into the Rhine; of these the Ourthe alone is navigable for a few miles down from Barvaux. There are no canals in the province, so that Luxemburg is entirely dependent on railways for its traffic. The Brussels and Basel line runs through the whole province, with a station at Arion, the capital; and branch lines have been established to connect the principal markets, Marche, Durbuy, Bastogne, Virton, &c., with the main artery. The language spoken by the inhabitants is French, with an admixture of Walloon dialect and an inferior kind of German on the borders of the grand-duchy. The king of the Belgians and his brother the count of Flanders possess summer residences, with extensive forest lands, in the province of Luxemburg.