In every case the revelation of the divine will is dependent on the direct act of the god; he affects the soul of the pavτL<i when and where he pleases; he sends, when he chooses, the signs from which his intentions can be inferred. There was, however, a belief that at certain places the god gave revelations more frequently than at others. Such places were generally characterized by some marked physical feature. At these places there were established regular institutions, with a staff of priests and prophets, to which the neighbours resorted for counsel; the Latin term “oracle” (in Greek μαντεία, χρ^σττ/ρια) is the general name. With regard to these institutions we have to consider (1) their method of interpretation, in so far as this is not most naturally given under the articles treating of the particular localities, and (2) their rank and influence among the Greeks.

1. The methods of interpretation varied greatly. Even at the same oracle several methods were often practised side by side. In the most primitive the spirits of the dead appeared and conversed directly with the inquirer. This method was rare in Greece; but an undoubtedly good example is recorded (Herod., v. 92) in Thesprotia, where Periander sent to consult the shade of his wife Melissa; a Biblical instance is the apparition of the shade of Samuel to Saul. The visit of Odysseus to the lower world is obviously a mere poetical version of the consultation of a Boeotian oracle of Tiresias, where the hero spoke directly to his devotees. In the oracle of Trophonius at Lebadea in Boeotia the method of inquiry was certainly modelled after the idea of a descent to the infernal world. Beside the oracle were the two springs of Memory and Oblivion, which, according to the mystic teaching, were the two fountains of the lower world. The inquirer descended into an underground place, and, it is said, saw such sights that he never smiled again. This method belonged to a very primitive stage of Greek history; and it is certain that Greek religion in general, and many oracles in particular, had experienced a long development before the time which we know best. Probably this method was originally more widely practised than we can actually trace.

The common method of revelation in hero-oracles, and in the oracles of some gods, was through dreams. Herooracles were certainly in their earliest form simply oracles of the dead; the word iypωs is a generic term for a dead man. We can trace occasional survivals of the most primitive form of the hero-oracle. The person who seeks advice goes to sleep over the actual grave, and the dead man appears in a dream. A type of the usual method, which was called “incubation” or tγκoiμηστς, is the oracle of Amphiaraus near Oropus, beside the spring where the hero had risen from the earth to become a god. The inquirer, after abstaining from wine for three days and from all food for twenty-four hours, slept in the temple on the skin of a ram which he had sacrificed. The oracles of Gaea or Ge are closely connected with those of the dead and of heroes. The Earth is giver of responses, as being the home of the dead, who sleep in her womb, but who can be called forth to give counsel to their descendants living on earth. Earth-oracles also belong to a primitive stage of Hellenic religion, and had in historical times either given place to oracles of more developed Hellenic type or occupied a very secondary position. In Olympia it is probable that the oracle of Gaea was the oldest institution, and it is universally recognized in ancient and modern times that the Delphic oracle originally belonged to the same goddess. Probably the cleft in the earth in the Delphic adyton was originally conceived as the passage of communication between the dead under the earth and the living on its surface. A uniform tradition (Paus., x. 5, 3; Aesch., Cho., 1 sq.} recognizes one most important fact: in the progress of Greek history, as religious thought developed, there was a progressive development in the character of the Delphic oracle. Gaea was replaced by Themis, a more moralized conception of the Earth-goddess, as the incarnation of natural order and law; but Apollo, the highest creation of Hellenic religion, finally occupies Delphi as the prophet and counsellor of his people. The oracles of Apollo work through inspiration. In Delphi the seer was a woman, Pythia, who was thrown into a state of ecstatic frenzy by the influence of a vapour ascending from a cleft in the earth within the adyton, and while in this state uttered words and cries which contained the answer of Apollo. All the methods of interpretation by signs were practised at different oracles in Greece; even in Apolline oracles, such as the Delphic, the artificial method was employed along with that by inspiration.

2. The original purpose of the oracles was not to foretell the future, but to give counsel as to conduct in doubtful and difficult situations. In cases where human prudence and skill seemed to fail, recourse was had to the oracle, and the god gave advice to his people. Now it was the universal practice that the priests should take the answers, usually incoherent and unintelligible, of the seers and reduce them to form, often metrical; practically the oracles were worked by the priests, and it is obvious that their character depended entirely on the character of the priests and of the nation as a whole. The influence of the oracles could be good only so long as the priests were not only honest and of lofty intentions, but also in a more advanced intellectual position than the people. In the early age of Greek history, when there was no education except what was to be gained by wide intercourse, the priests of such an oracle as Delphi occupied a most advantageous position. To Delphi as the γ∙i}s <γc<∕>αλos, the central point of the civilized world, came embassies from every Greek city, and even from great non-Greek states such as Lydia and Phrygia. It was a knot where every strand in civilized life was united. In accordance with this we find that almost all the great lawgivers and sages of the 8th and 7th centuries B.c. were in close relation with the Delphic oracle. All questions of colonization were referred to the oracle, and it is due a good deal to this central guiding influence that the overflow of the teeming population of Greece was directed so systematically. It is instructive to compare the position of the oracles in Greece with those of the kindred races of Asia Minor. In the latter country the god is supreme over his people, the government is a pure theocracy, and the priests, as interpreters of the divine will, are absolute masters of the servants of the god. In Greece it is wholly different. In both cases the oracles are the creation of the national genius,—in Asia Minor Oriental and stationary, in Greece living and progressive. In the earliest time we can trace the influence of the oracles discouraging the relentless blood-feud, distinguishing classes of murder, and allowing purification and expiation in suitable cases. They make the sanctity of oaths between man and man a special duty; Apollo regards even hesitation to keep a pledge as already a sin (Herod., vi. 86; cf. i. 159). They are the centre of unions or amphictyonies which bind their members to observe certain duties and show mercy to their fellow-members; and Delphi, as the oracle of an amphictyony including great part of Greece, had an important share in promoting that ideal unity of the whole country which, though never realized, yet floated always before the Greek mind. The oracles did something towards uniting the efforts of Greeks against foreigners, and towards spreading Greek influence abroad in a systematic way.

As education became more general the qualification of superior knowledge necessary to the proper working of the oracles was more difficult to keep up. At the same time the growth of political life in the states intensified their mutual enmities, and made it impossible for the oracles to maintain an attitude of perfect justice, neutrality, and superiority. Though the custom continued till a late period in Greek history that each state should consult the oracle in difficulties, yet complaints of partiality become frequent. Concurrently with the degradation in this respect there grew a demoralization in the whole tone of the oracles: they were consulted by all in the most trivial matters. It became an object to the priests to facilitate the access of votaries who contributed to the wealth of the temple. Whereas originally the Delphic oracle spoke only once a year, the number of days on which it was open to inquirers was gradually increased; and other oracles in like manner turned their attention to the wants of every applicant. In Dodona a large number of leaden tablets have been discovered containing the questions addressed to the god by inquirers; they range in date from the end of the 5th century b.c. onwards, and do not give any very high idea of the kind of difficulties in which the god was asked to advise his worshipper.

See Carapanos, Dodone, also an important article in Fleckeisen’s Jahrbücher for 1883. The most complete work on oracles is Bouchy Leclerc’s Histoire de la divination dans Γ antiquité. (W. Μ. RA.)

If Oran was not already occupied in the time of the Romans, its foundation must be ascribed to the Andalusian seamen who settled there in the beginning of the 10th century. Rapidly rising into importance, it was taken and retaken, pillaged and rebuilt, by the various conquerors of northern Africa. Almoravides, Almolιades, and Merinides succeeded each other, and in the space of half a century the town changed hands nine times. At length, in the latter half of the 15th century, it was subject to the sultans of Tlemcen, and reached the height of its prosperity. Active commerce was maintained with the Venetians, the Pisans, the Genoese, the Marseillese, and the Catalans, who imported the produce of their looms, glass-wares, tin-wares, and iron, and received in return ivory, ostrich feathers, gold-dust, tanned hides, grain, and negro slaves from the interior of Africa. Admirable woollen cloth and splendid arms were locally manufactured. The magnificence of its mosques and other public buildings, the number of its schools, and the extent of its warehouses shed lustre on the city; but wealth and luxury began to undermine its prosperity, and its ruin was hastened by the piracy to which the Moorish refugees from Spain betook themselves. Animated by the patriotic enthusiasm of Cardinal Ximenes, the Spaniards determined to put a stop to those expeditions which were carrying off their countrymen, destroying their commerce, and even ravaging their country. Mers al-Kebir fell into their hands on 23d October 1505, and Oran in May 1509. The latter victory, obtained with but trifling loss, was stained by the massacre of a third of the Mohammedan population. From 6000 to 8000 prisoners, 60 cannon, engines of war, and a considerable booty from the wealth accumulated by piracy fell into the hands of the conquerors. Cardinal Ximenes introduced the Catholic religion, with its churches, convents, Inquisition, &c., and also restored and extended the fortifications. Oran became the penal settlement of Spain, but neither the convicts nor the noblemen in disgrace who were also banished thither seem to have been under rigorous surveillance; fêtes, games, bull-fights, &c., were held. Meanwhile the Turks had become masters of Algeria, and expelled the Spaniards from all their possessions except Oran. The bey, finally settling at Mascara, watched his opportunity; and at length, in 1708, the weakness of Spain and the treason of the count of Vera Cruz obliged the city to capitulate. The Spaniards recovered possession in 1732, but found the maintenance of the place a burden rather than a benefit, all the neighbouring tribes having ceased to have dealings with the Christians. The earthquake of 1790 furnished an excuse for withdrawing their forces. Commencing by twenty-two separate shocks at brief intervals, the oscillations continued from 8th October to 22d November. Houses and fortifications were overthrown, and a third of the garrison and a great number of the inhabitants perished. Famine and sickness had begun to aggravate the situation when the bey of Mascara appeared before the town with 30,000 men. By prodigies of energy the Spanish commander held out till August 1791, when, having made terms with the dey of Algiers, he was allowed to set sail for Spain with his guns and ammunition. The bey Mohammed took possession of Oran in March 1792, and made it his residence instead of Mascara. On the fall of Algiers the bey placed himself under the protection of the conquerors. The French army entered the town 4th January 1831, and took formal possession on the 17th of August.

The bitter orange, by some made a sub-species (C. vulgaris'), is a rather small tree, rarely exceeding 30 feet in height. The green shoots are furnished with sharp axillary spines, and alternate evergreen oblong leaves, pointed at the extremity, and with the margins entire or very slightly serrated; they are of a bright glossy green tint, the stalks distinctly winged and, as in the other species, articulated with the leaf. The fragrant white or pale pinkish flowers appear in the summer months, and the fruit, usually round or spheroidal, does not perfectly ripen until the following spring, so that flowers and both green and mature fruit are often found on the plant at the same time. The bitter aromatic rind of the bigarade is rough, and dotted closely over with concave oil-cells; the pulp is acid and more or less bitter in flavour. The sweet orange generally has the shoots destitute of spines, the petioles less distinctly winged, and the leaves more ovate in shape, but chiefly differs in the fruit, the pulp of which is agreeably acidulous and sweet, the rind comparatively smooth, and the oil-cells convex. The ordinary round shape of the sweet orange fruit is varied greatly in certain varieties, in some being greatly elongated, in others much flattened; while several kinds have a conical protuberance at the apex, others are deeply ribbed or furrowed, and a few are distinctly “horned” or lobed, by the partial separation of the carpels. The two sub-species of orange are said by some authorities to reproduce themselves infallibly by seed; and, where hybridizing is prevented, the seedlings of the sweet and bitter orange appear to retain respectively the more distinctive features of the parent plant; but where growing wild for successive generations they show a tendency to degenerate, the progeny of the sweet orange being apt to assume the broadly-winged petioles and spiny shoots of the bigarade.

Though now cultivated widely in most of the warmer parts of the world, and apparently in many completely naturalized, the diffusion of the orange has taken place in comparatively recent historical periods. To ancient Mediterranean agriculture it was unknown; and, though the later Greeks and Romans were familiar with the citron as an exotic fruit, their “Median Apple” appears to have been the only form of the citrine genus with which they were acquainted. The careful researches of Gallesio have proved that India was the country from which the orange spread to western Asia and eventually to Europe. Oranges are at present found wild in the jungles along the lower mountain slopes of Sylhet, Kumaon, Sikkim, and other parts of northern India, and, according to Boyle, even in the Nilgiri Hills; the plants are generally thorny, and present the other characters of the bitter variety, but occasionally wild oranges occur with sweet fruit; it is, however, doubtful whether either sub-species is really indigenous to Hindustan, and De Candolle is probably correct in regarding the Burmese peninsula and southern China as the original home of the orange. Cultivated from a remote period in Hindustan, it was carried to southwestern Asia by the Arabs, probably before the 9th century, towards the close of which the bitter orange seems to have been well known to that people; though, according to Mas'ùdi, it was not cultivated in Arabia itself until the beginning of the 10th century, when it was first planted in Omàn, and afterwards carried to Mesopotamia and Syria. It spread ultimately, through the agency of the same race, to Africa and Spain, and perhaps to Sicily, following everywhere the tide of Mohammedan conquest and civilization. In the 12th century the bigarade was abundantly cultivated in all the Levant countries, and the returning soldiers of the Cross brought it from Palestine to Italy and Provence. An orange tree of this variety is said to have been planted by St Dominic in the year 1200, though the identity of the one still standing in the garden of the monastery of St Sabina at Rome, and now attributed to the energetic friar, may be somewhat doubtful. No allusion to the sweet orange occurs in contemporary literature at this early date, and its introduction to Europe took place at a considerably later period, though the exact time is unknown. It was commonly cultivated in Italy early in the 16th century, and seems to have been known there previously to the expedition of Da Gama (1497), as a Florentine narrator of that voyage appears to have been familiar with the fruit. The importation of this tree into Europe, though often attributed to the Portuguese, is with more probability referred to the enterprise of the Genoese merchants of the 15th century, who must have found it growing abundantly then in the Levant. The prevailing European name of the orange is sufficient evidence of its origin and of the line taken in its migration westward. The Sanskrit designation nagrungo, becoming narungee in Hindustani, and corrupted by the Arabs into ndran i j (Spanish naranja), passed by easy transitions into the Italian aranda (Latinized aurantium), the Romance arangi, and the later Provençal orange. The true Chinese variety, however, was undoubtedly brought by the Portuguese navigators direct from the East both to their own country and to the Azores, where now luxuriant groyes of the golden-fruited tree give a modern realization to the old myth of the gardens of the Hesperides. Throughout China and in Japan the orange has been grown from very ancient times, and it was found diffused widely when the Indian Archipelago was first visited by Europeans. In more recent days its cultivation has extended over most of the warmer regions of the globe, the tree growing freely and producing fruit abundantly wherever heat is sufficient and enough moisture can be supplied to the roots; where night-frosts occur in winter or spring the culture becomes more difficult and the crop precarious.

The orange flourishes in any moderately fertile soil, if it is well drained and sufficiently moist; but a rather stiff loam or calcareous marl, intermingled with some vegetable humus, is most favourable to its growth. Grafting or budding on stocks raised from the seed of some vigorous variety is the plan usually adopted by the cultivator. The seeds, carefully selected, are sown in well-prepared ground, and the seedlings removed to a nursery-bed in the fourth or fifth year, and, sometimes after a second transplantation, grafted in the seventh or eighth year with the desired variety. When the grafts have acquired sufficient vigour, the trees are placed in rows in the permanent orangery. Propagation by layers is occasionally adopted; cuttings do not readily root, and multiplication directly by seed is always doubtful in result, though recommended by some authorities. The distance left between the trees in the permanent plantation or grove varies according to the size of the plants and subsequent culture adopted. In France, when the trunks are from 5 to 6⅜ feet in height, a space of from 16 to 26 feet is left between; but the dwarfer trees admit of much closer planting. In the West Indies and Azores an interval of 24 or even of 30 feet is often allowed. The ground is kept well stirred between the trunks, and the roots manured with well-rotted dung, guano, or other highly nitrogenous matter; shallow pits are sometimes formed above the roots for the reception of liquid or other manures; in dry climates water must be abundantly and frequently supplied. The trees require regular and careful pruning, the heads being trained as nearly as possible to a spherical form. Between the rows melons, pumpkins, and other annual vegetables are frequently raised. In garden culture the orange is often trained as an espalier, and with careful attention yields fruit in great profusion when thus grown. In favourable seasons the oranges are produced in great abundance, from 400 to 1000 being commonly borne on a single plant in full bearing, while on large trees the latter number is often vastly exceeded. The trees will continue to bear abundantly from fifty to eighty years, or even more; and some old orange trees, whose age must be reckoned by centuries, still produce their golden crop; these very ancient trees are, however, generally of the bitter variety. Oranges intended for export to colder climates are gathered long before the deep tint that indicates maturity is attained, the fruit ripening rapidly after picking; but the delicious taste of the mature China orange is never thus acquired, and those who have not eaten the fruit in a perfectly ripe state have little idea of its flavour when in that condition. Carefully gathered, the oranges are packed in boxes, each orange being wrapped in paper, or with dry maize husks or leaves placed between them. The immense quantities of this valuable fruit imported into Britain are derived from various sources, but those kinds in most esteem are the produce of the Azores, whence, in 1878, 410,101 boxes, each holding 400 “St Michael’s” oranges, are said to have been sent to Great Britain alone. Large numbers are also exported to England from Sicily, Portugal, and Spain, and a considerable amount from other Mediterranean countries. North America is largely supplied from Jamaica and the Bahamas; but the extensive and rapidly increasing cultivation of the tree in Florida will probably in a few years supersede the foreign importation. In that State the bitter orange has grown, from an unknown period, in a wild condition, and some of the earlier botanical explorers regarded it as an indigenous tree; but it was undoubtedly brought by the Spanish colonists to the West India Islands, and was probably soon afterwards transplanted to Florida by them or their buccaneering enemies. The climate of Florida seems remarkably adapted for orange culture, and orangeries are becoming yearly more numerous and extensive,—the wild stocks, or those raised from wild seed, being generally employed by the grafter. In the other Gulf States this branch of agricultural industry is pursued to some extent; and in California the orange groves are productive and increasing.

Orange cultivation has been attempted with success in several parts of Australia, especially in New South Wales, where the orange groves near Paramatta yield an abundant colonial supply. The orangeries of Queensland and South Australia are likewise producing well, though, as yet, Australian fruit is chiefly consumed at home. In many of the Pacific Islands the plant has been long established: Tahiti exports oranges largely to San Francisco, and in Fiji the culture promises to become of considerable importance.

Certain varieties of orange deserve mention, from the peculiar character of their fruit. The Mandarin orange of China, sometimes made a distinct species, C. nobilis, is remarkable for its very flat spheroidal fruit, the rind of which readily separates with the slightest pressure; the pulp has a peculiarly luscious flavour when ripe. The small Tangerine oranges, valued for their fine fragrance, are derived from the Mandarin. “Maltese” or “Blood” oranges, much grown in southern Italy, are distinguished by the deep-red tint of the pulp. The Bergamot has been already described (see vol. iii. p. 587). Orange plantations in Europe suffer much at times from a disease called by the French charbon, caused by a fungus (Demathium monophyllιιm), which rapidly spreads over stems, leaves, and green fruit Several insect enemies attack the plant, of which the scale-like Coccus citri is the most injurious in Europe; in the Azores C. Hesperidis takes its place. Cold weather in winter has sometimes proved destructive in Provence, and many plantations were destroyed by the hard frosts of 1789 and 1820.

Besides the widespread use of the fruit as an agreeable and wholesome article of diet, that of the sweet orange, abounding in citric acid, possesses in a high degree the antiscorbutic properties that render the lemon and lime so valuable in medicine; and the free consumption of this fruit in the large towns of England during the winter months has doubtless a very beneficial effect on the health of the people. The juice is sometimes employed as a cooling drink in fevers, as well as for making a pleasant beverage in hot weather; it is likewise an essential ingredient in “orange wine.”

The bitter orange is chiefly cultivated for the aromatic and tonic qualities of the rind, which render it a valuable stomachic. Planted long ago in Andalusia by the Moorish conquerors, it is still extensively grown in southern Spain,—deriving its common English name of “Seville” orange from the abundant groves that still exist around that city, though the plant is now largely cultivated elsewhere. The fruit is imported into Great Britain and the United States in considerable quantities for the manufacture of the favourite confection known as orange marmalade, which is prepared from the pulp and rind, usually more or less mingled with the pulp of the China orange. In medicine the dried peel is largely employed as an aromatic tonic, and often, in tincture and infusion, as a mere vehicle to disguise the flavour of more nauseous remedies. The essential oil of the rind is collected for the use of the perfumer, being obtained either by the pressure of the fresh peel against a piece of sponge, or by the process known as écuclle, in which the skin of the ripe fruit is scraped against a series of points or ridges arranged upon the surface of a peculiarly-shaped dish or broad funnel, when the oil flows freely from the broken cells. Another fragrant oil, called in France essence de petit grain, is procured by the distillation of the leaves, from which also an aromatic water is prepared. The flowers of both sweet and bitter orange yield, when distilled with water, the “oil of Neroli” of the druggist and perfumer, and likewise the fragrant liquid known as “orange - flower water.” The candied peel is much in request by cook and confectioner; the favourite liqueur sold as “curaçoa” derives its aromatic flavour from the rind of the bigarade. The minute immature oranges that drop from the trees are manufactured into “issuepeas”; from those of the sweet orange in a fresh state a sweetmeat is sometimes prepared in France. Orange trees occasionally acquire a considerable diameter; the trunk of one near Nice, still standing in 1789, was so large that two men could scarcely embrace it; the tree was killed by the intense cold of the winter of that year. The wood of the orange is of a fine yellow tint, and, being hard and close-grained, is valued by the turner and cabinetmaker for the manufacture of small articles; it takes a good polish.

Although the bitter “Poma de Orenge” were brought in small quantities from Spain to England as early as the year 1290, no attempt appears to have been made to cultivate the tree in Britain until about 1595, when some plants were introduced by the Carews of Beddington in Surrey, and placed in their garden, where, trained against a wall, and sheltered in winter, they remained until destroyed by the great frost of 1739-40. In the last century the tree became a favourite object of conservatory growth; in the open air, planted against a wall, and covered with mats in winter, it has often stood the cold of many seasons in the southern counties, in such situations the trees occasionally bearing abundant fruit; but in Great Britain the orange can only be regarded as an object of ornamental culture. The trees are usually imported from Italy, where, especially near Nervi, such plants are raised in great numbers for exportation; they are generally budded on the stocks of some free-growing variety, often on the lemon or citron.

For details of orange varieties, cultivation, &c., see Risso and Poiteau, Histoire et culture des Orangers (edited by A. Du Breuil, Paris, 1872); for early history and diffusion, G. Gallesio, Traité du Citrus, Paris, 1811.

ORANGE, a city of France, the chief town of an arrondissement in the department of Vaucluse, is situated 18 miles north of Avignon on the railway from Lyons to Marseilles at some distance from the left bank of the Rhone, in the midst of meadows, orchards, and mulberry plantations, watered by a stream called the Meyne, and overlooked by the majestic summit of Mount Ventose, which lies 22 miles to the east. The district is highly fertile, and the city deals largely in silks, woollens, and fruits, and also till quite recently in wines and madder. The population of the city numbers 6860. Orange is interesting mainly from its Roman remains. The triumphal arch is not only far finer than any other in France, but ranks third in size and importance among those still extant in Europe. Measuring 72 feet in height, 69 feet in width, and 26 feet in depth, it is composed of three arches supported by four Corinthian columns. On three sides it is well preserved, and displays remarkable variety and elegance in its sculptured decorations. To judge from a partly decipherable inscription, the arch seems to have been erected in the reign of Tiberius. It suffered from being used as a fortification in the Middle Ages. Another most imposing structure is the theatre, built against the hill commanding the town. The façade, which is 118 feet high, 340 feet long, and 13 feet thick, is pierced by three square gates surmounted by a range of blind arches and a double row of far-projecting corbels. Of the seats occupied by the spectators—to the number, it might be, of 7000—only the lower ranges remain. By many this theatre is regarded as the most beautiful, or at least the most imposing, of the Roman monuments of France. The princes of Orange made it an outwork of the castle which they erected on the hill, and which was demolished by De Grignan after he had taken the town for Louis XIV. Up to the beginning of the present century it was filled with hovels and stables; these are now quite swept away, and the preservation of the building assured. In the neighbourhood of the theatre traces have been found of a hippodrome capable of containing 20,000 persons; and statues, bas-reliefs, and ruins of an aqueduct also serve to show the importance of the Roman town. Several of the churches at Orange are very old. Notre Dame, the old cathedral, originally erected by the prefect of Gaul, was ruined by the Barbarians, rebuilt in the 11th century, and damaged by the Protestants. A statue of Rambaud II. count of Orange and that of Gasparin the celebrated agriculturist may also be mentioned.

Orange (Arausio), capital of the Cavari, became after Caesar an important Roman colony. Its ramparts and fine buildings were partly destroyed by the Alemanni and Visigoths, and partly ruined by the erections of the Middle Ages. Orange was included in the kingdom of Austrasia, fell into the hands of the Saracens, and was recovered by Charlemagne. It became an independent countship in the 11th century; and Count Bertrand de Baux (d. 1181) received from Frederick I. the title of prince of Orange. On the death of Philibert of Chalons in 1530 the inheritance fell to his sister’s son, René (Renatus) of Nassau Dillenburg, stadholder of the Netherlands, who, dying childless, chose (1544) as his successor his cousin William, afterwards William I. Though Francis I., king of France, whose predecessors had long claimed to be suzerains of the principality, caused it to be declared part of the domain of Provence, Henry II. recognized William’s lights in the treaty of Cateau Cambresis, and “prince of Orange” remained the title of the stadholders from Maurice to William III. In 1672 Louis XIV. seized the principality and handed it over to the count of Auvergne in compensation for his loss of the marquisate of Bergen-op-Zoom confiscated by William; but the claims of the house of Nassau were acknowledged by the peace of Ryswick. On William’s death there were two claimants, John William Friso of Nassau-Dietz, designated heir by William’s will, and Frederick I. king of Prussia, who held that he was nearer of kin and had been appointed by the will of Frederick Henry. Thereupon Louis XIV. declared the principality forfeited to the French crown and bestowed it on the prince of Conti, who also had pretensions. The parlement of Paris decided that this prince should have the dominium utile ; and its finding was confirmed by the treaty of Utrecht, which, however, left the title and coat of arms to the king of Prussia, who is still styled prince of Orange (Prinz von Oranien). John William Friso, however, also took the title, and his descendants, the stadholders and kings of the Netherlands, have all been designated princes of Orange-Nassau.

ORANGE, a city of the United States, in Essex county, New Jersey, 16 miles west of New York by two lines of railway, and connected by tramway with Newark, 3⅜ miles distant. Beautifully situated on rolling ground about 190 feet above the sea, Orange has become a favourite place of residence for New York business men. To the west lies Llewelyn Park, an area of 750 acres, studded with villas and laid out in common; and the summit of Orange Mountain (650 feet), a little farther west, is also occupied with villas. Hat-making is largely carried on in the city. The population was 9348 in 1870 and 13,207 in 1880. In 1860 the township of Orange received a town charter; and in 1872 the town, diminished by East Orange and parts of South and West Orange, was raised to the rank of a city.