Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/652

This page needs to be proofread.

646 LOTBINI^RE LOTTERY LOTBIMERE, a S. county of Quebec, Can- ada, bounded N. W. by the St. Lawrence river above Quebec ; area, 720 m. ; pop. in 1871, 20,606, of whom 17,340 were of French and 2,872 of Irish origin or descent. It is wa- tered by the Du Ch6ne and Beaurivage rivers, and is traversed by the Grand Drunk railway. Capital, Lotbiniere. LOT-ET-GAROME, a S. W. department of France, in Guienne, taking its name from its two principal rivers, bordering on Dordogne, Lot, Tarn-et- Garonne, Gers, Landes, and Gi- ronde; area, 2,067 sq. m. ; pop. in 1872, 319,- 289. The surface is an elevated and undulating plain, furrowed with valleys, each occupied by a stream, while the whole department is trav- ersed in a N. W. direction by the Garonne. The soil is generally fertile, but there are ster- ile sandy districts, or landes, in the west, and marshes. Wheat, maize, rye, tobacco, hemp, and fruit are the principal productions. The banks of the streams are generally clothed with vines. Much of the wine is made into brandy. The cork tree is extensively grown, and supplies material for a very important em- ployment, cork cutting. It is divided into the arrondissements of Agen, Marmande, N6rac, and Villeneuve. Capital, Agen. LOTHAIRE I., emperor of the West, born about 796, died at Prum, Sept. 29, 855. 'When in 817 his father Louis le D6bonnaire shared the empire with his three sons, Lothaire, Pepin, and Louis, the first received the largest portion, and the right of suzerainty over his brothers. In 822 he was crowned king of Italy by the bishop of Milan, and on April 5, 823, he received the imperial crown from Pope Paschal. After the birth of Charles the Bald, and the bestow- ment upon him of a domain at the expense of his elder brothers, Lothaire excited Pepin and Louis to revolt, and twice dethroned his father, in 830 and 833. He became emperor on the death of his father in 840, but was involved in disputes with his brothers Louis and Charles, and was defeated by them in the battle of Fon- tenay, June 25, 841. By the treaty of Ver- dun in 843, he received Italy, Burgundy, and a district in the east of France, which was afterward (from his son Lothaire, its first king) called Lotharingia or Lorraine. During the wars of Lothaire the Normans plundered the coasts of the North sea, the Saracens dev- astated his Italian provinces, and the clergy and barons greatly extended their power. Af- ter dividing his states among his three sons, the emperor became a monk in the convent of Prum, in the Ardennes highlands, and died six days after being received. LOTHAIRE II. or III., a German emperor, surnamed the Saxon, born near Celle in 1075, died at Bretten, near Trent, Dec. 3, 1137. His father, Gebhard of Arnsberg, fell fighting against the emperor Henry IV., and Lothaire fought on the same side when 14 years of age. He married Richenza, daughter of the duke of Saxony, and soon became actual ruler of the duchy, though he did not receive the title until the accession of Henry V. He was reconciled for a time to Henry IV., but afterward opposed him again. He aided the accession of Henry V., rebelled against him in 1112, made a hum- ble submission in 1114, but revolted again the same year, and took part in the defeat of Henry at Welfesholz, Feb. 13, 1115. A third rebellion in 1123 was followed by a recon- ciliation in 1124; and Henry shortly after- ward dying, Lothaire was elected to succeed him in 1125, and crowned king of Germany at Aix-la-Chapelle, Sept. 13. The dukes of Swabia and Franconia refused to acknowl- edge him, but Lothaire made alliance with Pope Innocent II., whose recognition he pro- cured from the assembly at Wtirzburg in 1130, defeated the duke of Swabia in 1132, and was crowned emperor of the Romans by Innocent in Rome, June 4, 1133. He subse- quently drove the antipope Anacletus out of Italy, but on his homeward journey from this expedition he was seized with sickness and died. His reign was marked by the session of the diet of Magdeburg (1135), at which the first regulations of the German empire were framed. LOTHARINGIA. See LORRAINE. LOTTERY (Ital. lotteria, a game in which the lot, lotto, decides), a sort of gaming con- tract, by which, for a valuable consideration, one may by favor of the lot obtain a prize of a value superior to the amount or value of that which he risks. In its best and most frequent application, the word describes those sdhemes of this nature which are conducted under the supervision and guaranty of government, and the proceeds of which are devoted to public objects. Almost all modern states have, at some period of their history, employed lotte- ries as a means of revenue. But though they supply a ready mode of replenishing the public treasury, they have always been found to exert a mischievous influence upon the people. The poor are invited by them rather than the rich, and are diverted from persistent labor and patient thrift by the hope of sudden and splen- did gains; and as it is the professed princi- ple of these schemes to withhold a large part of their receipts, a necessary loss falls upon a class which of all in the community can least afford to bear it. Between the years 1816 and 1828 the French government derived from lot- teries an annual income of 14,000,000 francs. A few years later the government suppressed them, and in the following January 525,000 francs more were found to be in the savings banks of Paris alone than in the same month of the preceding year. In other European states government lotteries are still maintained, and they are defended by the argument that as the passion for play is irrepressible among the people, and their money would otherwise be invested in foreign or in secret and less fairly managed schemes, the state may well assume the conduct of lotteries at home ; that under its supervision the evils attendant upon them